PMID- 28552592
TI  - Concurrent anticipation of two object dimensions during grasping in 10-month-old
      infants: A quantitative analysis.
AB  - The anticipation of more than one object dimension while grasping for objects has
      been rarely investigated in infancy. The few existing studies by Newell et al.
      and Schum et al. have revealed mixed results probably mainly due to
      methodological limitations. Therefore, the present experiments tested concurrent
      anticipatory grasping for two object dimensions, namely, object size and object
      orientation using a quantitative motion capture system (Vicon), in 10-month-old
      infants and adults. We presented objects varying in size (small vs. large) and
      orientation (horizontally vs. vertically) and analyzed participants' anticipatory
      hand configurations. As with adults, we observed that infants rotated their
      wrists, thumbs, and index fingers as a function of object orientation and
      adjusted their maximum grip apertures and their grip apertures shortly before
      they touched the objects as a function of object size. Analyses on an individual
      level showed that infants like adults anticipated both dimensions when the
      maximal values of aperture and angle were used but not when the measures shortly
      before touch were considered. Thus, the ability to anticipate more than one
      object dimension can already be observed at 10 months of age but seems to improve
      considerably over the first year of life.

PMID- 28552593
TI  - Tyrphostin A9 improves blastocyst development in porcine embryos through
      induction of dynamin-related protein 1-dependent mitochondrial fission.
AB  - Mitochondrial dynamics are associated with the development of porcine embryos.
      However, little is known about the effects of mitochondrial dynamics-related
      genes (Drp1 and pDrp1-Ser616) on early porcine embryo development. Here, we
      investigated the effect of Drp1-dependent mitochondrial fission signaling on the
      development of porcine embryos using the mitochondrial fission inducer,
      tyrphostin A9 (TA9). We determined that TA9 (1MUM) treated embryos were increased
      the mitochondrial functions, blastocyst development rate and quality, as well as
      decreased mitochondria-specific superoxide and mitochondrial apoptosis. Thus, TA9
      induced appropriate mitochondrial fission improved the developmental competence
      via maintenance of a balance in mitochondrial dynamics in porcine embryo.

PMID- 28552595
TI  - Both non-covalent and covalent interactions were involved in the mechanism of
      detoxifying effects of persimmon tannin on Chinese cobra PLA2.
AB  - Persimmon tannin (PT) has been shown to inhibit snake venom activities and
      toxicities both in vitro and in vivo. To clarify the detoxifying mechanism of PT
      on snake venom, the interaction of characteristic structural elements of PT
      (EGCG, ECG, EGCG dimer and ECG dimer) and Chinese cobra phospholipase A2 (PLA2)
      was studied. The results revealed that except non-covalent bonds like hydrogen
      bonds, hydrophobic bonds and iron bonds were formed between PT and PLA2, covalent
      interaction was also occurred. PT could bind with the key active residues of
      PLA2, such as lysine, histidine, tryptophan and tyrosine, restraining their
      activity and disturbing the structure of PLA2, thus showing detoxifying effects
      on snake venom.

PMID- 28552594
TI  - Plasma concentration and cardiovascular effects of intramuscular medetomidine
      combined with three doses of the peripheral alpha2-antagonist MK-467 in dogs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the plasma concentrations and cardiovascular effects
      of intramuscularly (IM) administered medetomidine, administered alone or with
      three different doses of MK-467. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, open,
      crossover trial. ANIMALS: Eight purpose-bred healthy Beagle dogs. METHODS: Each
      dog was administered four treatments: medetomidine 20 MUg kg-1 IM alone or mixed
      in the same syringe with MK-467 (200 MUg kg-1, 400 MUg kg-1 or 600 MUg kg-1).
      Instrumentation was performed under standardized anaesthesia. The dogs were
      allowed to recover before measurement of baseline values. Composite sedation
      scores, cardiovascular variables, i.e., heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO),
      mean arterial and central venous blood pressures (MAP and CVP) and arterial blood
      gases were recorded at baseline and for 60 minutes after treatment. Drug
      concentrations in venous plasma were analysed. Generalized linear mixed models
      for repeated measures with post hoc Bonferroni correction were used with
      statistical significance level set at alpha=0.05. RESULTS: All treatments
      initially demonstrated the effects of medetomidine: HR and CO decreased and CVP
      increased. MAP transiently increased and then significantly decreased from
      baseline with the two highest MK-467 doses. The cardiovascular effects of
      medetomidine disappeared more rapidly with MK-467 than with medetomidine alone.
      With medetomidine alone, sedation scores remained high until the end of the 60
      minute follow-up. Maximum concentrations of medetomidine were more rapidly
      achieved and were higher with MK-467. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Initial
      haemodynamic effects of medetomidine were not prevented by MK-467, but these
      effects were attenuated and their duration shortened by MK-467, independently of
      dose. Absorption of medetomidine was accelerated by MK-467, when administered
      concomitantly IM, resulting in faster sedation; addition of MK-467 shortened the
      sedative effect of medetomidine.

PMID- 28552596
TI  - Gram-scale purification of aconitine and identification of lappaconitine in
      Aconitum karacolicum.
AB  - Aconitum karacolicum from northern Kyrgyzstan (Alatau area) contains about 0.8-1%
      aconitine as well as other aconite derivatives that have already been identified.
      In this paper, we compare several methods for the further purification of an
      Aconitum karacolicum extract initially containing 80% of aconitine. Reverse-phase
      flash chromatography, reverse-phase semi-preparative HPLC, centrifugal partition
      chromatography (CPC) and recrystallization techniques were evaluated regarding
      first their efficiency to get the highest purity of aconitine (over 96%) and
      secondly their applicability in a semi-industrial scale purification process (in
      our case, 150g of plant extract). Even if the CPC technique shows the highest
      purification yield (63%), the recrystallization remains the method of choice to
      purify a large amount of aconitine as i) it can be easily carried out in safe
      conditions; ii) an aprotic solvent is used, avoiding aconitine degradation.
      Moreover, this study led us to the identification of lappaconitine in Aconitum
      karacolicum, a well-known alkaloid never found in this Aconitum species.

PMID- 28552597
TI  - Vasodilation effect of volatile oil from Allium macrostemon Bunge are mediated by
      PKA/NO pathway and its constituent dimethyl disulfide in isolated rat pulmonary
      arterials.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the vasodilation effects of Allium
      macrostemon Bunge (AMB) on isolated rat pulmonary arterials (PAs) and to assess
      the underling mechanisms. The volatile oil was extracted by steam distillation
      from the bulbs of AMB. Then the volatile oil from AMB was studied on isolated rat
      PA, removal of endothelium, or pretreatment with nitro oxide (NO) synthase (NOS)
      inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), or with protein kinase A
      (PKA) inhibitor PKI but not cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin significantly
      blocked the AMB induced relaxation on PE-contracted PA rings. AMB increased the
      phosphorylation level of NOS in a dose and time-dependent manner, which was
      through PKA activation. AMB dose-dependently increased the [Ca2+]i through Ca2+
      influx in cultured pulmonary artery endothelial cells. A total of 18 components
      from the volatile oil of AMB were identified. The principle constituents of AMB,
      Dimethyl Disulfide (DMDS) but not Dimethyltrisulfide displayed dilation effects
      in PAs. Our results suggest that AMB induces relaxation in rat PAs via an
      endothelium-dependent mechanism involving Ca2+ entry, PKA dependent NOS
      phosphorylation and NO signaling. The vasodilator activities of AMB may through
      its constituent DMDS. The present study indicates therapeutic potentials of AMB
      on pulmonary hypertension.

PMID- 28552598
TI  - Synthesis and in vitro antiproliferative evaluation of PEGylated triterpene
      acids.
AB  - A set of PEGylated derivatives of oleanolic and maslinic acids has been semi
      synthesised, attaching ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol or
      tetraethylene glycol to the C-28 carboxyl group of these natural triterpenes and
      some derivatives. Another set of PEGylated derivatives has been semi-synthesised
      by connecting the same four ethylene glycols to the hydroxyl groups of the A ring
      of these triterpenic acids, through a carbonate linker, by reaction with
      trichloromethyl chloroformate. The aqueous solubility of some of these PEGylated
      derivatives has been compared with that of maslinic acid. The cytotoxic effects
      of 28 triterpenic PEGylated derivatives in three cancer-cell lines (B16-F10,
      HT29, and Hep G2) have been assayed. The best results have been achieved with the
      HT29 cell line, and specifically with the oleanolic acid derivatives having
      ethylene glycol or tetraethylene glycol attached to the C-28 carboxyl group,
      which are approximately 27-fold more effective than their natural precursor.
      Eight PEGylated derivatives have been selected to compare the cytotoxicity
      results in the HT29 cancer-cell line with those of a non-tumour cell line of the
      same tissue (IEC-18), four of which were less cytotoxic in the non-tumour cell
      line. These compounds showed apoptotic effects on treated cells, with percentages
      of total apoptosis between 20% and 53%, relative to control, at 72h and IC50
      concentration, and between 29% to 62%, relative to control, for the same time and
      IC80 concentration. We have also found that with the treatment of these compounds
      in HT29 cancer cells, cell-cycle arrest occurred in the G0/G1 phase. Finally, we
      have also studied changes in mitochondrial membrane potential during apoptosis of
      HT29 cancer cells, and the results suggest an activation of the extrinsic
      apoptotic pathway for these compounds.

PMID- 28552599
TI  - Spectral and temporal properties of calls reveal deficits in ultrasonic
      vocalizations of adult Fmr1 knockout mice.
AB  - The Fmr1 knockout (KO) mouse has commonly been used to investigate communication
      impairments, one of the key diagnostic symptoms observed in Fragile X syndrome
      (FXS) and Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many studies have found alterations in
      ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in neonatal Fmr1 KO mice, however, there is
      limited research investigating whether these deficits continue into adulthood. In
      the present study, we examine differences in female urine-induced ultrasonic
      vocalizations, scent marking behavior, odor discrimination, and open field
      activity in adult male Fmr1 KO and wildtype (WT) mice. Overall, we found
      extensive alterations between genotypes in both spectral and temporal properties
      of ultrasonic vocalizations. There was no difference in the average number of
      calls emitted by both genotypes, however, Fmr1 KO mice emitted calls of a higher
      frequency, decreased amplitude, and shorter duration than WT mice. Spectrographic
      analyses revealed statistically significant differences between genotypes in the
      types of calls emitted. Contrastingly, we found no differences in scent marking
      behavior, a form of social communication, or in odor discrimination and activity
      levels of the mice. The results corroborate previous studies emphasizing the
      importance of qualitative differences observed in vocalization behavior of Fmr1
      KO mice, rather than quantitative measurements such as number of calls emitted.
      Overall, the study confirms the presence of abnormalities in vocalization
      behavior in adult Fmr1 KO mice that we believe are consistent with communication
      deficits seen in the syndrome.

PMID- 28552600
TI  - Altered reward sensitivity in female offspring of cocaine-exposed fathers.
AB  - Recent rodent studies have demonstrated that parental cocaine exposure can
      influence offspring behavior, supporting the idea that environmental insults can
      impact subsequent generations. However, studies on the effects of paternal
      cocaine exposure are limited and multiple inconsistencies exist. In the current
      study, we behaviorally characterize the effects of paternal cocaine exposure in a
      C57BL/6J intergenerational mouse model. Male sires were administered cocaine
      hydrochloride (20mg/kg) or saline (0.01mL/g) once a day for 75days, and bred with
      drug naive females twenty-four hours after the final injection. Offspring,
      separated by sex, were tested in a battery of behaviors. We found that paternal
      cocaine exposure altered sensitivity to the rewarding and stimulant effects of
      psychostimulants and natural reward (sucrose) in female offspring; female cocaine
      sired offspring showed blunted cocaine preference using cocaine conditioned place
      preference (CPP) at a low dose (5mg/kg), but displayed similar preference at a
      higher dose (10mg/kg) compared to saline-sired controls. Additionally, cocaine
      sired female offspring exhibited higher psychomotor sensitivity to cocaine
      (10mg/kg) and amphetamine (2mg/kg) and consumed more sucrose. Cocaine-sired males
      exhibited increased psychomotor effects of cocaine and amphetamine. Male
      offspring also displayed an anxiety-like phenotype. No effect of paternal cocaine
      exposure was observed on depressive-like, learning and memory or social behavior
      in male or female offspring. Collectively, our findings show that paternal,
      chronic cocaine exposure induces intergenerational behavioral effects in male and
      female offspring with greatest impact on sensitivity to psychostimulants and
      sucrose in females.

PMID- 28552601
TI  - Habenula and interpeduncular nucleus differentially modulate predator odor
      induced innate fear behavior in rats.
AB  - Fear is an important behavioral system helping humans and animals to survive
      potentially dangerous situations. Fear can be innate or learned. Whereas the
      neural circuits underlying learned fear are already well investigated, the
      knowledge about the circuits mediating innate fear is still limited. We here used
      a novel, unbiased approach to image in vivo the spatial patterns of neural
      activity in odor-induced innate fear behavior in rats. We intravenously injected
      awake unrestrained rats with a 99m-technetium labeled blood flow tracer (99mTc
      HMPAO) during ongoing exposure to fox urine or water as control, and mapped the
      brain distribution of the trapped tracer using single-photon emission computed
      tomography (SPECT). Upon fox urine exposure blood flow increased in a number of
      brain regions previously associated with odor-induced innate fear such as the
      amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus and dorsolateral periaqueductal grey, but,
      unexpectedly, decreased at higher significance levels in the interpeduncular
      nucleus (IPN). Significant flow changes were found in regions monosynaptically
      connected to the IPN. Flow decreased in the dorsal tegmentum and entorhinal
      cortex. Flow increased in the habenula (Hb) and correlated with odor effects on
      behavioral defensive strategy. Hb lesions reduced avoidance of but increased
      approach to the fox urine while IPN lesions only reduced avoidance behavior
      without approach behavior. Our study identifies a new component, the IPN, of the
      neural circuit mediating odor-induced innate fear behavior in mammals and
      suggests that the evolutionarily conserved Hb-IPN system, which has recently been
      implicated in cued fear, also forms an integral part of the innate fear
      circuitry.

PMID- 28552602
TI  - Classification and Functional Characterization of Vasa Vasorum-Associated
      Perivascular Progenitor Cells in Human Aorta.
AB  - In the microcirculation, pericytes are believed to function as mesenchymal
      stromal cells (MSCs). We hypothesized that the vasa vasorum harbor progenitor
      cells within the adventitia of human aorta. Pericytes, endothelial progenitor
      cells, and other cell subpopulations were detected among freshly isolated
      adventitial cells using flow cytometry. Purified cultured pericytes were enriched
      for the MSC markers CD105 and CD73 and depleted of the endothelial markers von
      Willebrand factor and CD31. Cultured pericytes were capable of smooth muscle
      lineage progression including inducible expression of smooth muscle myosin heavy
      chain, calponin, and alpha-smooth muscle actin, and adopted a spindle shape.
      Pericytes formed spheroids when cultured on Matrigel substrates and peripherally
      localized with branching endothelial cells in vitro. Our results indicate that
      the vasa vasorum form a progenitor cell niche distinct from other previously
      described progenitor populations in human adventitia. These findings could have
      important implications for understanding the complex pathophysiology of human
      aortic disease.

PMID- 28552603
TI  - Inhibition of KLF4 by Statins Reverses Adriamycin-Induced Metastasis and Cancer
      Stemness in Osteosarcoma Cells.
AB  - Adriamycin-based combination chemotherapy is the standard first-line treatment
      for osteosarcoma, but tumor recurrence and metastasis occurs in most cases.
      Recent evidence suggests that microenvironmental stress such as chemotherapy can
      lead to the enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs), which result in cancer
      metastasis, recurrence, and drug resistance. However, the exact mechanisms
      underlying this phenomenon and how to target CSCs are still open questions.
      Herein, we report that Adriamycin treatment induces a stem-like phenotype and
      promotes metastatic potential in osteosarcoma cells through upregulating KLF4.
      KLF4 knockdown blocks Adriamycin-induced stemness phenotype and metastasis
      capacity. We further screen that statins remarkably reverse Adriamycin-induced
      CSC properties and metastasis by downregulating KLF4. Most strikingly,
      simvastatin severely impaired Adriamycin-enhanced tumorigenesis of KHOS/NP cells
      in vivo. These data suggest that Adriamycin-based chemotherapeutics may simulate
      CSCs through activation of KLF4 signaling and that selective inhibition of KLF4
      with statins should be considered in the development of osteosarcoma
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28552604
TI  - Evidence of In Vitro Preservation of Human Nephrogenesis at the Single-Cell
      Level.
AB  - During nephrogenesis, stem/progenitor cells differentiate and give rise to early
      nephron structures that segment to proximal and distal nephron cell types.
      Previously, we prospectively isolated progenitors from human fetal kidney (hFK)
      utilizing a combination of surface markers. However, upon culture nephron
      progenitors differentiated and could not be robustly maintained in vitro. Here,
      by culturing hFK in a modified medium used for in vitro growth of mouse nephron
      progenitors, and by dissection of NCAM+/CD133- progenitor cells according to
      EpCAM expression (NCAM+/CD133-/EpCAM-, NCAM+/CD133-/EpCAMdim, NCAM+/CD133
      /EpCAMbright), we show at single-cell resolution a preservation of uninduced and
      induced cap mesenchyme as well as a transitioning mesenchymal-epithelial state.
      Concomitantly, differentiating and differentiated epithelial lineages are also
      maintained. In vitro expansion of discrete stages of early human nephrogenesis in
      nephron stem cell cultures may be used for drug screening on a full repertoire of
      developing kidney cells and for prospective isolation of mesenchymal or
      epithelial renal lineages for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28552605
TI  - Defined and Scalable Differentiation of Human Oligodendrocyte Precursors from
      Pluripotent Stem Cells in a 3D Culture System.
AB  - Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) offer considerable potential for the
      treatment of demyelinating diseases and injuries of the CNS. However, generating
      large quantities of high-quality OPCs remains a substantial challenge that
      impedes their therapeutic application. Here, we show that OPCs can be generated
      from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in a three-dimensional (3D), scalable,
      and fully defined thermoresponsive biomaterial system. We used CRISPR/Cas9 to
      create a NKX2.2-EGFP human embryonic stem cell reporter line that enabled fine
      tuning of early OPC specification and identification of conditions that markedly
      increased the number of OLIG2+ and NKX2.2+ cells generated from hPSCs.
      Transplantation of 50-day-old OPCs into the brains of NOD/SCID mice revealed that
      progenitors generated in 3D without cell selection or purification subsequently
      engrafted, migrated, and matured into myelinating oligodendrocytes in vivo. These
      results demonstrate the potential of harnessing lineage reporter lines to develop
      3D platforms for rapid and large-scale production of OPCs.

PMID- 28552606
TI  - Differentiation and Transplantation of Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cone
      Photoreceptors into a Mouse Model of End-Stage Retinal Degeneration.
AB  - The loss of cone photoreceptors that mediate daylight vision represents a leading
      cause of blindness, for which cell replacement by transplantation offers a
      promising treatment strategy. Here, we characterize cone differentiation in
      retinas derived from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). Similar to in vivo
      development, a temporal pattern of progenitor marker expression is followed by
      the differentiation of early thyroid hormone receptor beta2-positive precursors
      and, subsequently, photoreceptors exhibiting cone-specific phototransduction
      related proteins. We establish that stage-specific inhibition of the Notch
      pathway increases cone cell differentiation, while retinoic acid signaling
      regulates cone maturation, comparable with their actions in vivo. MESC-derived
      cones can be isolated in large numbers and transplanted into adult mouse eyes,
      showing capacity to survive and mature in the subretinal space of Aipl1-/- mice,
      a model of end-stage retinal degeneration. Together, this work identifies a
      robust, renewable cell source for cone replacement by purified cell suspension
      transplantation.

PMID- 28552607
TI  - cFOS-SOX9 Axis Reprograms Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells into
      Chondroblastic Osteosarcoma.
AB  - Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are proposed as the cells of
      origin of several subtypes of osteosarcoma (OS). However, signals that direct
      BMSCs to form different subtypes of OS are unclear. Here we show that the default
      tumor type from spontaneously transformed p53 knockout (p53_KO) BMSCs is
      osteoblastic OS. The development of this default tumor type caused by p53 loss
      can be overridden by various oncogenic signals: RAS reprograms p53_KO BMSCs into
      undifferentiated sarcoma, AKT enhances osteoblastic OS, while cFOS promotes
      chondroblastic OS formation. We focus on studying the mechanism of cFOS-induced
      chondroblastic OS formation. Integrated genome-wide studies reveal a regulatory
      mechanism whereby cFOS binds to the promoter of a key chondroblastic
      transcription factor, Sox9, and induces its transcription in BMSCs. Importantly,
      SOX9 mediates cFOS-induced cartilage formation in chondroblastic OS. In summary,
      oncogenes determine tumor types derived from BMSCs, and the cFOS-SOX9 axis is
      critical for chondroblastic OS formation.

PMID- 28552608
TI  - Reply to letter to the Editor 'Changes in biochemical markers following spinal
      manipulation - A systematic review and meta-analysis'.

PMID- 28552609
TI  - Retention systems for extraoral maxillofacial prosthetic implants: a critical
      review.
AB  - We describe the techniques available for retention of implant-supported
      prostheses: bar-clips, O-rings, and magnets. We present reported preferences and,
      although this is limited by the heterogeneity of methods used and patients
      studied, we hope we have identified the best retention systems for maxillofacial
      prosthetic implants. If practitioners know the advantages and disadvantages of
      each system, they can choose the most natural and comfortable prosthesis. We
      searched the PubMed and Scopus databases, and restricted our search to papers
      published 2001-13. MeSH terms used were Maxillofacial prosthesis and Craniofacial
      prosthesis OR Craniofacial prostheses. We found a total of 2630 papers, and after
      duplicates had been removed we analysed the rest and found 25 papers for review.
      Of these, 12 were excluded because they were case reports or non-systematic
      reviews. Of the remaining 13, 10 described group analyses and seemed appropriate
      to find practitioner's choices, as cited in the abstract (n=1611 prostheses).
      Three papers did not mention the type of prosthetic connection used, so were
      excluded. The most popular choices for different conditions were analysed, though
      the sites and retention systems were not specified in all 10 papers. The bar-clip
      system was the most used in auricular (6/10 papers) and nasal prostheses (4/10).
      For the orbital region, 6/10 favoured magnets. Non-osseointegrated mechanical or
      adhesive retention techniques are the least expensive and have no
      contraindications. When osseointegrated implants are possible, each facial region
      has a favoured system. The choice of system is influenced by two factors:
      standard practice and the abilities of the maxillofacial surgeon and
      maxillofacial prosthetist.

PMID- 28552610
TI  - Virtual planning of a composite model of bone and teeth to facilitate the
      adjustment of a hybrid distractor for the transport of alveolar bone.

PMID- 28552611
TI  - Care of long-term survivors of head and neck cancer after treatment with oral or
      facial prostheses, or both.
AB  - The current evidence of good practice in the delivery of long-term supportive
      care to patients who have been treated for head and neck cancer is sparse. We
      recruited 10 survivors so that we could follow their experience after their acute
      treatment was over. There were six men (mean (range) age 72 (54-86) years) and
      four women (mean (range) age 69 (67-73) years). After ethics committee approval
      had been given, we used structured interviews and questionnaires to investigate
      the impact of the resection and reconstruction, the patients' perceived needs,
      and their use of supportive care services. Their experiences were in line with
      current treatment of head and neck cancer. Whether they would survive the cancer
      was an initial fear (up to a year postoperatively), and some subjects reported
      problems more than five years after treatment, particularly with swallowing,
      quality of saliva, and intelligible speech. This small group of survivors of head
      and neck cancer maintained a good quality of life physically, socially, and
      emotionally. Limitations were put down to their age rather than their diagnosis
      of cancer or their rehabilitation. Analysis of their perceived needs showed that
      supportive care services were readily available and were valued by the patients,
      and that all their needs were met.

PMID- 28552612
TI  - Efficacy and safety of incretin-based drugs in patients with type 1 diabetes
      mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: In patients with type 2 diabetes, incretin-based therapies can improve
      glucose control without increased weight gain or hypoglycemia. Incretin-based
      drugs added to insulin therapy in type 1 diabetes (T1DM) have also been tried in
      many studies. However, the results were controversial. We thus performed a meta
      analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of incretin-based therapies in
      patients with T1DM. METHODS: We systematically searched Medline, EMBASE, and
      Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for relevant studies published
      before August 25, 2016. Data was extracted by two independent reviewers. The main
      outcomes included glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin dose, weight,
      hypoglycemia, ketosis and ketoacidosis. All pooled data were assessed using
      random-effects model. RESULTS: Twelve randomized controlled trials with a total
      of 2903 individuals were finally included into the meta-analysis. Incretin-based
      drugs could significantly reduce HbA1c (MD -0.20, 95% CI -0.30 to -0.10), weight
      (MD -2.83, 95% CI -4.00 to -1.65) and insulin dose (MD -4.55, 95% CI -6.15 to 
      2.94). Furthermore, incretin-based drugs did not increase relative risk of severe
      hypoglycemia (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.06), ketosis (RR 1.37, 95% CI 0.95 to
      1.97) and ketoacidosis (RR 2.62, 95% CI 0.31 to 21.99). CONCLUSIONS: Incretin
      based treatment in patients with T1DM may improve glycemic control and reduce
      insulin dose and weight without increasing the risk of serious adverse event,
      such as severe hypoglycemia, ketosis or ketoacidosis. The current evidence for
      the aforementioned adverse effects, however, is weak. A rigorous monitoring of
      these adverse events should be implemented in well-designed observational
      studies.

PMID- 28552613
TI  - Corrigendum re: "Urinary Incontinence and Erectile Dysfunction After Robotic
      Versus Open Radical Prostatectomy: A Prospective, Controlled, Nonrandomised
      Trial" [Eur Urol 2015;68:216-25].

PMID- 28552614
TI  - Local Therapy for Disseminated Prostate Cancer: Improved Outcomes or Biased
      Confounders?

PMID- 28552615
TI  - SUMO-Targeted DNA Translocase Rrp2 Protects the Genome from Top2-Induced DNA
      Damage.
AB  - The action of DNA topoisomerase II (Top2) creates transient DNA breaks that are
      normally concealed inside Top2-DNA covalent complexes. Top2 poisons, including
      ubiquitously present natural compounds and clinically used anti-cancer drugs,
      trap Top2-DNA complexes. Here, we show that cells actively prevent Top2
      degradation to avoid the exposure of concealed DNA breaks. A genome-wide screen
      revealed that fission yeast cells lacking Rrp2, an Snf2-family DNA translocase,
      are strongly sensitive to Top2 poisons. Loss of Rrp2 enhances SUMOylation
      dependent ubiquitination and degradation of Top2, which in turn increases DNA
      damage at sites where Top2-DNA complexes are trapped. Rrp2 possesses SUMO-binding
      ability and prevents excessive Top2 degradation by competing against the SUMO
      targeted ubiquitin ligase (STUbL) for SUMO chain binding and by displacing
      SUMOylated Top2 from DNA. The budding yeast homolog of Rrp2, Uls1, plays a
      similar role, indicating that this genome protection mechanism is widely
      employed, a finding with implications for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28552617
TI  - Extending the Host Range of Bacteriophage Particles for DNA Transduction.
AB  - A major limitation in using bacteriophage-based applications is their narrow host
      range. Approaches for extending the host range have focused primarily on lytic
      phages in hosts supporting their propagation rather than approaches for extending
      the ability of DNA transduction into phage-restrictive hosts. To extend the host
      range of T7 phage for DNA transduction, we have designed hybrid particles
      displaying various phage tail/tail fiber proteins. These modular particles were
      programmed to package and transduce DNA into hosts that restrict T7 phage
      propagation. We have also developed an innovative generalizable platform that
      considerably enhances DNA transfer into new hosts by artificially selecting tails
      that efficiently transduce DNA. In addition, we have demonstrated that the hybrid
      particles transduce desired DNA into desired hosts. This study thus critically
      extends and improves the ability of the particles to transduce DNA into novel
      phage-restrictive hosts, providing a platform for myriad applications that
      require this ability.

PMID- 28552618
TI  - Expression, purification, and characterization of a novel acidic Lipoxygenase
      from Myxococcus xanthus.
AB  - The gene encoding a novel acidic lipoxygenase from Myxococcus xanthus DK1622
      (accession: WP_011551853.1) was cloned into vector pET-28a and expressed in
      Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The recombinant enzyme (rMxLOX), with a molecular
      weight of approximately 80 kDa, was purified to homogeneity using one-step nickel
      affinity chromatography and showed an activity of 5.6 * 104 U/mg. The optimum pH
      and temperature for rMxLOX activity were found to be 3.0 and 30  degrees C,
      respectively. Purified rMxLOX exhibited activity towards linoleic acid and
      arachidonic acid as substrates, with linoleic acid being the better substrate (Km
      and kcat values of 0.048 mM and 13.3/s, respectively). The synthetic dye aniline
      blue was decolorized 69.7 +/- 3.5%, following incubation with rMxLOX for 35 min.
      These results reveal the potential for the use of rMxLOX in the pulp, textile,
      and wastewater treatment industries.

PMID- 28552616
TI  - Nucleus-Translocated ACSS2 Promotes Gene Transcription for Lysosomal Biogenesis
      and Autophagy.
AB  - Overcoming metabolic stress is a critical step in tumor growth. Acetyl coenzyme A
      (acetyl-CoA) generated from glucose and acetate uptake is important for histone
      acetylation and gene expression. However, how acetyl-CoA is produced under
      nutritional stress is unclear. We demonstrate here that glucose deprivation
      results in AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-mediated acetyl-CoA synthetase 2
      (ACSS2) phosphorylation at S659, which exposed the nuclear localization signal of
      ACSS2 for importin alpha5 binding and nuclear translocation. In the nucleus,
      ACSS2 binds to transcription factor EB and translocates to lysosomal and
      autophagy gene promoter regions, where ACSS2 incorporates acetate generated from
      histone acetylation turnover to locally produce acetyl-CoA for histone H3
      acetylation in these regions and promote lysosomal biogenesis, autophagy, cell
      survival, and brain tumorigenesis. In addition, ACSS2 S659 phosphorylation
      positively correlates with AMPK activity in glioma specimens and grades of glioma
      malignancy. These results underscore the significance of nuclear ACSS2-mediated
      histone acetylation in maintaining cell homeostasis and tumor development.

PMID- 28552619
TI  - Differentiation of subsequent memory effects between retrieval practice and
      elaborative study.
AB  - Retrieval practice enhances memory retention more than re-studying. The
      underlying mechanisms of this retrieval practice effect have remained widely
      unclear. According to the elaborative retrieval hypothesis, activation of
      elaborative information occurs to a larger extent during testing than re
      studying. In contrast, the episodic context account has suggested that
      recollecting prior episodic information (especially the temporal context)
      contributes to memory retention. To adjudicate the distinction between these two
      accounts, the present study used the classical retrieval practice effect paradigm
      to compare retrieval practice and elaborative study. In an initial behavioral
      experiment, retrieval practice produced greater retention than elaboration and re
      studying in a one-week delayed test. In a subsequent event-related potential
      (ERP) experiment, retrieval practice resulted in reliably superior accuracy in
      the delayed test compared to elaborative study. In the ERPs, a frontally
      distributed subsequent memory effect (SME), starting at 300ms, occurred in the
      elaborative study condition, but not in the retrieval practice condition. A
      parietal SME emerged in the retrieval practice condition from 500 to 700ms, but
      was absent in the elaborative study condition. After 700ms, a late SME was
      present in the retrieval practice condition, but not in the elaborative study
      condition. Moreover, SMEs lasted longer in retrieval practice than in
      elaboration. The frontal SME in the elaborative study condition might be related
      to semantic processing or working memory-based elaboration, whereas the parietal
      and widespread SME in the retrieval practice condition might be associated with
      episodic recollection processes. These findings contradict the elaborative
      retrieval theory, and suggest that contextual recollection rather than activation
      of semantic information contributes to the retrieval practice effect, supporting
      the episodic context account.

PMID- 28552620
TI  - In Vivo Imaging Reveals Existence of Crypt Fission and Fusion in Adult Mouse
      Intestine.
AB  - The intestinal epithelium is a repetitive sheet of crypt and villus units with
      stem cells at the bottom of the crypts. During postnatal development, crypts
      multiply via fission, generating 2 daughter crypts from 1 parental crypt. In the
      adult intestine, crypt fission is observed at a low frequency. Using intravital
      microscopy in Lgr5EGFP-Ires-CreERT2 mice, we monitored individual crypt dynamics
      over multiple days with single-cell resolution. We discovered the existence of
      crypt fusion, an almost exact reverse phenomenon of crypt fission, in which 2
      crypts fuse into 1 daughter crypt. Examining 819 crypts in 4 mice, we found that
      3.5% +/- 0.6% of all crypts were in the process of fission, whereas 4.1 +/- 0.9%
      of all crypts were undergoing crypt fusion. As counteracting processes, crypt
      fission and fusion could regulate crypt numbers during the lifetime of a mouse.
      Identifying the mechanisms that regulate rates of crypt fission and fusion could
      provide insights into intestinal adaptation to altered environmental conditions
      and disease pathogenesis.

PMID- 28552621
TI  - Intestinal Epithelial Sirtuin 1 Regulates Intestinal Inflammation During Aging in
      Mice by Altering the Intestinal Microbiota.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Intestinal epithelial homeostasis is maintained by complex
      interactions among epithelial cells, commensal gut microorganisms, and immune
      cells. Disruption of this homeostasis is associated with disorders such as
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the mechanisms of this process are not
      clear. We investigated how Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a conserved mammalian NAD+
      dependent protein deacetylase, senses environmental stress to alter intestinal
      integrity. METHODS: We performed studies of mice with disruption of Sirt1
      specifically in the intestinal epithelium (SIRT1 iKO, villin-Cre+, Sirt1flox/flox
      mice) and control mice (villin-Cre-, Sirt1flox/flox) on a C57BL/6 background.
      Acute colitis was induced in some mice by addition of 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate
      to drinking water for 5-9 consecutive days. Some mice were given antibiotics via
      their drinking water for 4 weeks to deplete their microbiota. Some mice were fed
      with a cholestyramine-containing diet for 7 days to sequester their bile acids.
      Feces were collected and proportions of microbiota were analyzed by 16S rRNA
      amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR. Intestines were collected from mice and
      gene expression profiles were compared by microarray and quantitative PCR
      analyses. We compared levels of specific mRNAs between colon tissues from age
      matched patients with ulcerative colitis (n=10) vs without IBD (n=8, controls).
      RESULTS: Mice with intestinal deletion of SIRT1 (SIRT1 iKO) had abnormal
      activation of Paneth cells starting at the age of 5-8 months, with increased
      activation of NF-kappaB, stress pathways, and spontaneous inflammation at 22-24
      months of age, compared with control mice. SIRT1 iKO mice also had altered fecal
      microbiota starting at 4-6 months of age compared with control mice, in part
      because of altered bile acid metabolism. Moreover, SIRT1 iKO mice with defective
      gut microbiota developed more severe colitis than control mice. Intestinal
      tissues from patients with ulcerative colitis expressed significantly lower
      levels of SIRT1 mRNA than controls. Intestinal tissues from SIRT1 iKO mice given
      antibiotics, however, did not have signs of inflammation at 22-24 months of age,
      and did not develop more severe colitis than control mice at 4-6 months.
      CONCLUSIONS: In analyses of intestinal tissues, colitis induction, and gut
      microbiota in mice with intestinal epithelial disruption of SIRT1, we found this
      protein to prevent intestinal inflammation by regulating the gut microbiota.
      SIRT1 might therefore be an important mediator of host-microbiome interactions.
      Agents designed to activate SIRT1 might be developed as treatments for IBDs.

PMID- 28552622
TI  - Minilaparotomy Versus Laparoscopic Myomectomy After Cessation of Power
      Morcellation: Rate of Wound Complications.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: After the US Food and Drug Administration statement warning
      against electronic morcellation devices, gynecologic surgeons are performing
      laparoscopic and robotic myomectomies with minilaparotomy incisions for tissue
      morcellation and removal. No data exist that focus on the superficial wound
      complications as a result of these larger incisions. The objective of this study
      is to compare the rate of wound complications for myomectomy via minilaparotomy
      versus laparoscopic or robotic myomectomy. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study
      (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). SETTING: Kaiser Permanente Northern
      California, a large integrated healthcare delivery system. PATIENTS: Women > 18
      years of age who underwent a myomectomy from either complete laparoscopic or
      robotic approach (LR) were compared with minilaparotomy myomectomy (MM),
      comprising complete minilaparotomy (ML) and laparoscopic or robotic assisted by a
      minilaparotomy for morcellation purposes only (LRM) from January 2011 through
      December 2014. INTERVENTION: Myomectomy via LR, complete ML, and LRM.
      MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Medical records were reviewed for outcomes of
      interest, including superficial wound complications and surgical and demographic
      data. After exclusion criteria were met, 405 cases were included in the study;
      270 cases were classified as MM, which included ML (n = 224), or LRM (n = 46).
      One hundred thirty-five cases were classified as LR. Parametric and nonparametric
      analyses were used to compare the 2 groups. There was no significant difference
      between the groups insofar as patient morbidity, including the primary outcome of
      wound complications and other postoperative complications; emergency visits; or
      readmissions. There were 2 (1.5%) wound complications in the LR group and 7
      (2.6%) in the MM group (p = .72). Similarly, there were no significant
      differences in the subcategories of wound complications, including cellulitis,
      seroma, hematoma, skin separation, wound infection, or postprocedure wound
      complication. The distribution of estimated blood loss was significantly
      different between LR and MM groups with an interquartile range of 50 to 150 mL in
      the LR group versus 50 to 300 mL in the MM group (p < .01). The MM group
      experienced a shorter procedure time with a median procedure time of 125 minutes
      compared with 169.5 minutes in LR surgeries (p < .01). The LR group demonstrated
      a significantly shorter median length of hospital stay (LR 5.0 hours vs MM 23
      hours; p < .01). CONCLUSION: Compared with MM, LR is associated with a shorter
      length of hospital stay and longer operating time but no reduction in wound
      complication or other patient morbidity.

PMID- 28552623
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Two Studies With Random Effects?

PMID- 28552624
TI  - Is the prognosis of occult N2 disease similar to that of positive positron
      emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) scan single-station N2 disease
      in patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated by surgical resection?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A retrospective study, using a prospective database, was conducted on
      patients treated with surgery in order to analyze the prognosis between two
      groups: NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) patients with occult N2 disease and
      patients with single station N2 disease observed on pre-operative integrated
      PET/CT scan. METHODS: A total of 772 patients underwent surgical treatment for
      lung cancer from January 2007 to December 2014. All of them had an integrated
      PET/CT scan in the pre-operative work-up and a pulmonary resection plus
      mediastinal lymphadenectomy were performed in all cases. In the selected cases,
      no one received induction treatment. All patients from both groups had N2 disease
      after examination of the histopathology specimen. Clinical and pathological
      characteristics, disease free survival, and overall survival, were analyzed in
      both groups. RESULTS: A total of 34 cases presented occult N2 disease, whereas 11
      cases showed single station N2 disease on pre-operative PET/CT scan. Mean disease
      free survival and mean overall survival for occult N2 disease compared to single
      station N2 disease on PET/CT scan was 36.0 months (95% CI: 24.9-47.1) and 38.9
      months (95% CI: 20.6-57.1), p=.586; and 52.3 months (95% CI: 38.9-65.7) and 38.2
      months (95% CI: 21.9-54.5), p=.349, respectively. CONCLUSION: The prognosis of
      patients with single-station N2 disease on PET/CT scan treated by surgical
      resection and mediastinal lymphadenectomy as first line treatment was similar to
      those with occult N2 disease. More studies are needed to support our findings.

PMID- 28552625
TI  - The current status and unmet needs in the management of psoriatic arthritis:
      Viewpoint from physicians in Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: To analyze the real-world clinical practice for the treatment
      of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and to assess physicians' prescription, difficulties
      in diagnosis, therapeutic strategy, rationales for biologic therapies and unmet
      needs in Taiwan. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional observational
      study by face-to-face in depth interviews with 50 rheumatologists and 30
      dermatologists who took care of patients with PsA. RESULTS: The major procedures
      for recognizing PsA included joint, skin and nail examinations, radiographic
      imaging, and medical history. More dermatologists established the diagnosis when
      psoriatic patients with arthritis didn't present with rheumatoid factors (p <
      0.05). For milder arthritis, physicians tended to prescribe etanercept in
      combination with conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The
      efficacy, safety, retention rate, and non-parenteral administration are the major
      concerns of physicians which are also the primary unmet needs in the current
      management of PsA. CONCLUSION: This survey showed the status quo in Taiwan of the
      clinical management for PsA including diagnostic difficulties, therapeutic
      consideration, rationales for biologic DMARDs selection and unmet needs in
      treatment. It has indicated that interdisciplinary collaboration may further
      improve the quality for PsA care. These results may help establish new strategy
      to develop next generation biologics.

PMID- 28552626
TI  - Hereditary angioedema and Graves' disease: The first case report.

PMID- 28552627
TI  - Perioperative statin use is associated with decreased incidence of primary graft
      dysfunction after lung transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a major cause of early morbidity
      and mortality after lung transplantation. Statins reduce the risk of chronic
      rejection after lung transplantation, but their effects on PGD are unknown. We
      hypothesized that perioperative statin therapy decreases the risk for PGD after
      lung transplantation. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed records of all
      patients undergoing lung transplantation between January 1999 and December 2014
      at the University of Virginia Health System. The primary outcome was PGD (grades
      1-3). Secondary outcomes included grade 3 PGD, length of intensive care unit and
      hospital stay, and mortality. RESULTS: Of 266 patients who met final inclusion
      criteria, 138 (52%) were diagnosed with PGD. In-hospital mortality among patients
      with PGD was 6.5%. There were no deaths in patients without PGD (p < 0.001). PGD
      was diagnosed in 24 patients taking statins (34.8%) and in 114 patients (57.9%)
      who did not take statins (p = 0.001). After propensity score adjustments,
      perioperative statin use was independently associated with a reduced risk for PGD
      (odds ratio [OR] 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.20-0.84, p = 0.015) and
      reduced risk to develop grade 3 PGD (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.18-0.94, p = 0.036). Other
      risk factors associated with PGD included intraoperative use of cardiopulmonary
      bypass (OR 3.74, 95% CI 1.75-8.02, p = 0.001) and positive donor smoking status
      (OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.18-4.35, p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that
      perioperative use of statins is independently associated with reduced risk for
      PGD after lung transplantation.

PMID- 28552628
TI  - Effects of PCB-126 on aryl hydrocarbon receptor, ubiquitin and p53 expression
      levels in Sparus aurata.
AB  - The aim of the present study is to determine if Ahr ligands as PCB-126, a dioxin
      like, might contribute to inhibition of the tumor suppressor p53 by promoting its
      degradation through proteasome-ubiquitin system (UPS). The findings show, in the
      presence of PCB-126, a significant increase of p53 immunoreactivity in fish
      compared to the control. Subsequently, there is a decrease of p53
      immunoreactivity at 24h which is maintained even at 72h. At the same time there
      is a slight decrease of ubiquitin immunoreactivity to 12h compared to the control
      and a marked decrease to 24 and 72h. The induction of ubiquitin expression is
      resulted very marked in the control and preserved at 12h. It's very important to
      underline as in our study we demonstrate a marked decrease of ubiquitin and p53
      immunoreactivity at 24h and 72h. AHR activation, by ligands as PCB-126, increases
      p53 ubiquitation inhibiting its expression, in addition it decreases the free
      ubiquitin promoting disruption of Ub homeostasis; this is the first report that
      establishes a relationship between AhR, increases p53 ubiquitation, and reduction
      of free ubiquitin. Our result emphasize the need to deeply the role of this
      receptor in UPS regulation as potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28552629
TI  - Clinical and pathological analysis of 19 cases of medullary thyroid carcinoma
      without an increase in calcitonin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), defined as a malignant tumour with
      C-cell differentiation, is of neuroendocrine origin and is characterized by the
      synthesis and secretion of calcitonin (CT). MTC without CT secretion has been
      reported on rare occasions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular pathologic features as well as
      the clinical significance of non-secretory MTC (NCR-MTC). METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis of patients with NCR-MTC was performed. The clinical
      features of NCR-MTC, including age, gender, tumour size and number, clinical
      signs of hypocalcaemia and diarrhoea, and the presence of lymph node metastasis,
      as well as the pathologic features of the disease, including tumour morphology,
      presence of neuroendocrine structures, capsular invasion, and immunohistochemical
      expression and presence of mutations in the RET gene, were evaluated. RESULTS:
      Nineteen patients with NCR-MTC were identified among 158 patients with MTC,
      resulting in a prevalence rate of 12.02%. Patients with NCR-MTC typically had
      masses less than 1cm in size (73.7%, 14/19). Hypocalcaemia was not present in
      94.7% (18/19) of patients. While 42.1% (8/19) of patients with NCR-MTC did not
      have amyloid deposits, only 18% (25/139) of patients with secretory MTC did not
      have such deposits. While 95.7% (133/139) of the control group of patients with
      secretory MTC had neuroendocrine tumour structure, only 84.2% (16/19) of the
      patients with NCR-MTC had this type of tumour structure. Patients with NCR-MTC
      were also less likely to have vascular tumour thrombus, lymph node metastasis or
      thyroid capsular invasion. With regard to immunohistochemistry, CT expression was
      mostly negative, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) expression was positive in
      21.1% (4/19) of patients with NCR-MTC, while only 5.8% (8/139) of patients in the
      control group had positive CEA expression. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of NCR-MTC
      was low (12.02%). This type of tumour was smaller in size and more
      differentiated. Compared with the control group, relatively few patients had
      obvious symptoms, hypocalcaemia, lymph node metastasis, thyroid capsular or
      vascular invasion, or tumours with amyloid or neuroendocrine tumour structure.

PMID- 28552630
TI  - Protective effects of melatonin on long-term administration of fluoxetine in
      rats.
AB  - The degree and consequence of tissue injury are highly regarded during long-term
      exposure to selective antidepressant fluoxetine. Melatonin has been shown to
      palliate different lesions by scavenging free radicals, but its role in the
      reduction of the fluoxetine-induced injuries has been little known. Thirty-six
      mature male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into control and experimental
      groups. The experimental rats were included as following; 24mg/kg/bw fluoxetine
      for 4 weeks; 1mg/kg/bw melatonin for 4 weeks; fluoxetine+1-week melatonin,
      fluoxetine+2-week melatonin and fluoxetine+4-week melatonin. In the current
      experiment, we investigated weight gain, hematological and biochemical
      parameters, pathological injuries and oxidative status. We noted the positive
      effect of melatonin in weight loss of fluoxetine-treated rats (p<0.05). The
      significant reduction of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase
      activities in blood, liver, and kidneys and changes in serum total antioxidant
      capacity caused by fluoxetine were reversed by melatonin (p<0.05). Melatonin
      reduced the increased lipid peroxidation and transaminase activity in rats
      received fluoxetine (p<0.05). We also showed the potency of fluoxetine in
      inducing leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and hypochromic and macrocytic anemia which
      was blunted by melatonin. Both RBCs and platelets indices were also corrected.
      Rats received melatonin in combination with fluoxetine showed a reduction in the
      severity of degeneration and inflammatory changes in different tissues, brain,
      heart, liver, lungs, testes and kidneys as compared to the fluoxetine group.
      Therefore, melatonin fundamentally reversed the side effects of fluoxetine in the
      rat model which is comparable to human medicine.

PMID- 28552631
TI  - Ferroptosis: Role of lipid peroxidation, iron and ferritinophagy.
AB  - Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is dependent on iron and
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is characterized by lipid peroxidation. It is
      morphologically and biochemically distinct and disparate from other processes of
      cell death. As ferroptosis is induced by inhibition of cysteine uptake or
      inactivation of the lipid repair enzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), the
      process is favored by chemical or mutational inhibition of the cystine/glutamate
      antiporter and culminates in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in
      the form of lipid hydroperoxides. Excessive lipid peroxidation leads to death by
      ferroptosis and the phenotype is accentuated respectively by the repletion and
      depletion of iron and glutathione in cells. Furthermore, oxidized
      phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) harbouring arachidonoyl (AA) and adrenoyl moieties
      (AdA) have been shown as proximate executioners of ferroptosis. Induction of
      ferroptosis due to cysteine depletion leads to the degradation of ferritin (i.e.
      ferritinophagy), which releases iron via the NCOA4-mediated autophagy pathway.
      Evidence of the manifestation of ferroptosis in vivo in iron overload mice
      mutants is emerging. Thus, a concerted synchronization of iron availability, ROS
      generation, glutamate excess and cysteine deficit leads to ferroptosis. A number
      of questions on the molecular mechanisms of some features of ferroptosis are
      highlighted as subjects for future investigations.

PMID- 28552632
TI  - Structural basis for the magnesium-dependent activation of transketolase from
      Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In photosynthetic organisms, transketolase (TK) is involved in the
      Calvin-Benson cycle and participates to the regeneration of ribulose-5-phosphate.
      Previous studies demonstrated that TK catalysis is strictly dependent on thiamine
      pyrophosphate (TPP) and divalent ions such as Mg2+. METHODS: TK from the
      unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (CrTK) was recombinantly
      produced and purified to homogeneity. Biochemical properties of the CrTK enzyme
      were delineated by activity assays and its structural features determined by CD
      analysis and X-ray crystallography. RESULTS: CrTK is homodimeric and its
      catalysis depends on the reconstitution of the holo-enzyme in the presence of
      both TPP and Mg2+. Activity measurements and CD analysis revealed that the
      formation of fully active holo-CrTK is Mg2+-dependent and proceeds with a slow
      kinetics. The 3D-structure of CrTK without cofactors (CrTKapo) shows that two
      portions of the active site are flexible and disordered while they adopt an
      ordered conformation in the holo-form. Oxidative treatments revealed that Mg2+
      participates in the redox control of CrTK by changing its propensity to be
      inactivated by oxidation. Indeed, the activity of holo-form is unaffected by
      oxidation whereas CrTK in the apo-form or reconstituted with the sole TPP show a
      strong sensitivity to oxidative inactivation. CONCLUSION: These evidences
      indicate that Mg2+ is fundamental to allow gradual conformational arrangements
      suited for optimal catalysis. Moreover, Mg2+ is involved in the control of redox
      sensitivity of CrTK. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The importance of Mg2+ in the
      functionality and redox sensitivity of CrTK is correlated to light-dependent
      fluctuations of Mg2+ in chloroplasts.

PMID- 28552633
TI  - Early and late gene expression profiles of the ovine mucosa in response to
      Haemonchus contortus infection employing Illumina RNA-seq technology.
AB  - We conducted herein transcriptome sequencing of the ovine abomasal tissues using
      the Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform to segregate early and late H. contortus
      infected sheep (7 and 50days post-infected groups, respectively) from the control
      naive ones. A total of 548, 357 and 7 were substantially induced genes in 7days
      post-infection versus uninfected-control group, 50days post-infection versus
      7days post-infection (7dpi), and 50days post-infection (50dpi) versus uninfected
      control group, respectively. However, a total of 301, 355 and 11 were
      significantly repressed genes between 7dpi versus uninfected-control group, 50dpi
      versus 7dpi, and 50dpi versus uninfected-control group, correspondingly. This
      indicates that H. contortus infection induced a more potent activation of
      abomasal gene expression in the early stage of infection as compared to the late
      stage. Seven pathways were annotated by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes, and Genomes
      pathway analysis accounted for the significant percentage in early H. contortus
      infection. This study shows for the first time that both galectin-11 and
      matricellular protein osteopontin are up-regulated in abomasal tissue after
      chronic H. contortus infection, while galectin-4 is specifically down-regulated
      in the early infection. Additionally, our results showed that the induction or
      repression of these molecules is likely to determine the infection progression.

PMID- 28552634
TI  - iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis reveals Bai-Hu-Tang enhances
      phagocytosis and cross-presentation against LPS fever in rabbit.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Bai-Hu-Tang (BHT), a classical anti-febrile
      Chinese formula comprising of liquorice, anemarrhena rhizome, gypsum and rice,
      has been traditionally used to anti-febrile treatment and promote the production
      of body fluid to relieve thirst. In this paper, we aim to explore anti-febrile
      mechanism of BHT at protein level through analyzing alteration of differentially
      expressed proteins (DEPs) both lipopolysaccharide (LPS) fever syndrome and that
      was treated with BHT in rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Febrile model was induced
      by LPS injection (i.v.) in rabbits, and BHT (750mg dry extract/kg body weight)
      was gavaged to another group of LPS fever rabbits. After sacrifice of animals,
      total protein of liver tissue was isolated, and two-dimensional liquid
      chromatography (LC) - tandem mass spectrometry (MS) coupled with isobaric tags
      for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) labeling analysis was employed
      to quantitatively identify differentially expressed proteins in two group
      animals, which were compared with control group. Then bioinformatic analysis of
      DEPs was conducted through hierarchical Clustering, Venn analysis, gene ontology
      (GO) annotation enrichment, and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG)
      pathways enrichment. RESULT: The results demonstrated there were 63 and 109 DEPs
      in LPS fever group and BHT-treated group, respectively. Enrichment analysis of GO
      annotations indicated that BHT mainly regulated expression of some extracellular
      structural proteins for response to stimulus and stress. KEGG analysis showed
      that ribosome and phagosome were the most significant pathways. Thereinto,
      several proteins in phagosome pathway were significantly up-regulated by BHT,
      including F-actin, coronin, Rac, and major histocompatibility complex class I
      (MHC I), which work in phagocytosis and cross-presentation CONCLUSION: BHT may
      contribute to pyrogen clearance by boosting antigenic phagocytosis, degradation,
      and cross presentation in the liver.

PMID- 28552635
TI  - The in vitro and in vivo protective effects of tannin derivatives against
      Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium infection.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the protective effects of tannin-derived
      components, gallic acid (GA) and tannic acid (TA), in vitro and in vivo against
      Salmonella infection in mice. Both GA and TA showed antibacterial effects against
      Salmonella (S.) Typhimurium as well as inhibitory effects on the adherence,
      invasion, and intracellular growth of the pathogens in macrophages. Following a
      lethal dose of Salmonella infection in mice, reduced virulence in both GA- and TA
      treated groups was observed based on reduced mortality rates. In the non-infected
      groups, the average weights of the spleens and livers of GA- or TA-treated mice
      were not significantly different with the control group. In addition, the average
      weights of these organs in all of the Salmonella-infected groups were not
      significantly different but the numbers of bacteria in the spleens and livers in
      both GA- and TA-treated mice were significantly reduced. The levels of cytokine
      production in non-infected mice revealed that GA-treated and TA-treated mice
      elicited an increased level of IFN-gamma, and both IFN-gamma and MCP-1,
      respectively, as compared with the PBS-treated group. These findings highlight
      the potential of GA and TA as alternatives for the treatment of salmonellosis and
      as supplements to conventional antimicrobial food additives.

PMID- 28552636
TI  - Expression of CXCR1 (IL-8 receptor A) in splenic, peritoneal macrophages and
      resident bone marrow cells after acute live or heat killed Staphylococcus aureus
      stimulation in mice.
AB  - Literature reveals that interaction with live Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
      or heat killed S. aureus (HKSA) promotes secretion of CXCL-8 or interleukin-8 (IL
      8) from leukocytes, however, the expressions of CXCR1 in murine splenic (SPM),
      peritoneal macrophages (PM) and resident fresh bone marrow cells (FBMC) have not
      been identified. Currently, very few studies are available on the functional
      characterization of CXCR1 in mouse macrophage subtypes and its modulation in
      relation to acute S. aureus infection. SPM, PM and FBMCs were infected with
      viable S. aureus or stimulated with HKSA in presence and absence of anti-CXCR1
      antibody in this study. We reported here that CXCR1 was not constitutively
      expressed by macrophage subtypes and the receptor was induced only after S.
      aureus stimulation. The CXCR1 band was found specific as we compared with human
      polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) as a positive control (data not shown).
      Although, we did not show that secreted IL-8 from S. aureus-infected macrophages
      promotes migration of PMNs. Blocking of cell surface CXCR1 decreases the
      macrophage's ability to clear staphylococcal infection, attenuates
      proinflammatory cytokine production and the increased catalase and decreased
      superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes of the bacteria might indicate their role in
      scavenging macrophage derived hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The decreased levels of
      cytokines due to CXCR1 blockade before S. aureus infection appear to regulate the
      killing of bacteria by destroying H2O2 and nitric oxide (NO). Moreover,
      functional importance of macrophage subpopulation heterogeneity might be
      important in designing new effective approaches to limit S. aureus infection
      induced inflammation and cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28552637
TI  - Variance in infra-patellar fat pad volume: Does the body mass index matter?-Data
      from osteoarthritis initiative participants without symptoms or signs of knee
      disease.
AB  - The infra-patellar fat pad (IPFP) has been proposed to represent an endocrine
      link between obesity and knee osteoarthritis (OA). The purpose of the current
      study has been to explore the extent to which IPFP volume is related to body mass
      index (BMI). A total of 152 participants (age 56+/-7 years) without knee OA were
      studied. These consisted of 19 men and 19 women of normal weight (BMI 18.5-25),
      19/19 pre-obese (BMI 25-30), 19/19 obese class I (BMI 30-35) and 19/19 obese
      class II (BMI 35-40), who were matched 1:1 for age and height. The IPFP volume
      was manually segmented from sagittal fat-suppressed magnetic resonance images
      (MRI). An ANOVA of repeated measures was used to assess whether IPFP volume was
      related to BMI. The IPFP volume differed significantly between the BMI strata
      (ANOVA: p=0.001): It was 27.1+/-6.7cm3 (mean+/-SD) in normal weight, 29.3+/
      6.9cm3 in pre-obese, 31.0+/-6.9cm3 in obese class I, and 30.4+/-6.6cm3 in obese
      class II participants; the difference in IPFP volume (and body weight) relative
      to normal weight subjects was 10% (18%) in pre-obese, 17% (39%) in obese class I,
      and 15% (59%) in obese class II participants. Stratification by sex showed
      similar results. In conclusion, IPFP volume is shown to be related to BMI, albeit
      the relative increase (compared with normal weight) does not appear to be
      proportional to that in body weight. Nonetheless, these findings support the
      hypothesis that the IPFP may represent a potential endocrine link between obesity
      and OA, with more intra-articular adipose tissue potentially releasing greater
      amounts of adipokines.

PMID- 28552638
TI  - Interprofessional education in pediatrics-Child protection and family services as
      a teaching example.
AB  - Interprofessional collaboration between different professional groups in the
      health care system is essential to efficient and effective patient care.
      Especially in pediatrics, in the field of child protection, and family services
      it is mandatory to involve experts from different health-care professions to
      optimize support for children and their families. Interprofessional education in
      medical schools and specifically in pediatrics is rare in Germany, but is called
      for by the German National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for
      Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM). We developed an interprofessional course
      aimed at bringing medical students together with students of psychology, social
      work, clinical education, and educational science to learn from, about and with
      each other in the context of child protection and family services. This offers
      opportunities for all participants to understand profession-specific
      competencies, roles, attitudes, and limits of their professional roles. The
      course is led by an interprofessional teaching tandem (social scientist &
      physician); further input is provided by other health and social care
      professionals. After the students get a brief overview about the requirements for
      a successful interprofessional cooperation they solve case studies in
      interprofessional teams with online support by the teaching tandem. We assess the
      feasibility and acceptability of this interprofessional course and describe
      challenges encountered when conducting this kind of learning concept for health
      care professions. All conducted courses over five consecutive terms were
      evaluated with an arithmetic mean of AM=1.32 on a 6-point scale (1="excellent",
      6="insufficient"), the teaching tandem was evaluated with AM=1.1. All
      participants (N=85 complete evaluations) voted for the course to be continued in
      the following terms. Especially the opportunity to discuss cases with students
      from different degree programs was highly valued as were interprofessional
      discussions and more in-depth understanding of other professions' competencies
      and roles.

PMID- 28552639
TI  - Neuroprotective effects of food restriction on autonomic innervation of the
      lacrimal gland in the rat.
AB  - Inflammatory mechanisms and oxidative stress play important roles in age-related
      lacrimal gland (LG) degeneration as well as neural degeneration. Research
      suggests that caloric restriction can prevent age-related LG dysfunction and
      increase the life span of neurons. In the present study, we hypothesized that
      caloric restriction prevents age-related LG dysfunction by ameliorating the
      influence of inflammatory/oxidative stress on autonomic neurons controlling
      lacrimal function. We evaluated the effects of food restriction (FR) on
      inflammatory/oxidative status and on autonomic neural/neuroglial cell populations
      in LGs from aging rats. A total of 45 female albino rats were divided into young
      adult, aged, and aged-FR groups. The FR group was subjected to a 50% reduction in
      food from 14 to 20 months of age. LG samples were collected for each group and
      subjected to biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical studies. LGs from
      aged-FR rats, rather than those from aged rats, showed preservation of their
      cellular structures, organelles, and Schwan cell units. LG preservation was
      associated with a marked decrease in inflammatory markers, an increase in
      cellular antioxidants, and the up-regulation of choline acetyltransverase,
      tyrosine hydroxylase, neuron-specific enolase and S100. These findings strongly
      suggest that in aged rats, both oxidative and inflammatory stressors directly
      contribute to LG dysfunction by mediating the degeneration of autonomic neurons,
      and that FR can protect against these effects.

PMID- 28552640
TI  - Platelet-released growth factors induce psoriasin in keratinocytes: Implications
      for the cutaneous barrier.
AB  - Millions of patients around the world suffer minor or major extremity amputation
      due to progressive wound healing complications of chronic or infected wounds, the
      therapy of which remains a challenge. One emerging therapeutic option for the
      treatment of these complicated wounds is the local application of an autologous
      thrombocytes concentrate lysate (e.g. platelet-released growth factors ((PRGF))
      or Vivostat PRF(r)) that contains a multitude of chemokines, cytokines and growth
      factors and is therefore supposed to stimulate the complex wound healing process.
      Although PRGF and Vivostat PRF(r) are already used successfully to support
      healing of chronic, hard-to-heal and infected wounds the underlying molecular
      mechanisms are not well understood. Psoriasin, also termed S100A7, is a
      multifunctional antimicrobial protein expressed in keratinocytes and is involved
      in various processes such as wound-healing, angiogenesis, innate immunity and
      immune-modulation. In this study, we investigated the influence of PRGF on
      psoriasin expression in human primary keratinocytes in vitro and the influence of
      Vivostat PRF(r) on psoriasin expression in experimentally generated skin wounds
      in vivo. PRGF treatment of primary keratinocytes caused a significant
      concentration- and time-dependent increase of psoriasin gene and protein
      expression in vitro that were partially mediated by the epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) and the interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R). In accordance with these
      cell culture data, Vivostat PRF(r) induced a significant psoriasin gene and
      protein expression when applied to artificially generated skin wounds in vivo.
      The observed psoriasin induction in keratinocytes may contribute to the wound
      healing-promoting effects of therapeutically used thrombocyte concentrate
      lysates.

PMID- 28552641
TI  - pCramoll and rCramoll lectins induce cell death in human prostate adenocarcinoma
      (PC-3) cells by impairment of mitochondrial homeostasis.
AB  - Lectins from Cratylia mollis seed have shown potential in vivo antitumor actions,
      however the mechanism have not yet been addressed. Here we evaluated the
      antitumor effects of native (pCramoll) and recombinant (rCramoll) lectins from C.
      mollis against human prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3) cells. The viability of PC-3
      cells was analyzed with the MTT assay and ANNEXIN V/propidium iodide staining.
      The actions of pCramoll or rCramoll on mitochondrial superoxide production, free
      cytosolic calcium concentration and mitochondrial membrane potential were
      evaluated using fluorescent probes (MitoSox Red, Fura 2-AM and safranin O,
      respectively). pCramoll and rCramoll reduced the viability of PC-3 cells in a
      dose-dependent manner. Both lectins increased the generation of mitochondrial
      superoxide as well as the concentration of cytosolic calcium. These changes led
      to a decrease in oxidative phosphorylation, which impaired the formation of ATP.
      The resulting cell death was not blocked by MPT (mitochondrial permeability
      transition) inhibitors (Debio 025 or bongkrekic acid). Thus pCramoll and rCramoll
      promote PC-3 cell death through calcium signaling, leading to mitochondrial
      collapse. This work provides more insights into the action of pCramoll and
      rCramoll against cancer cells. These lectins represent valuable tools for
      biomedical research.

PMID- 28552642
TI  - Functionalised collagen spheres reduce H2O2 mediated apoptosis by scavenging
      overexpressed ROS.
AB  - Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in numerous diseases
      including cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Overexpression
      of ROS can lead to oxidative stress and subsequently to H2O2-mediated cell
      apoptosis. In this study, it was demonstrated that biodegradable PLGA
      microspheres coated with collagen type I and decorated with MnO2 nanoparticles
      acted as ROS scavengers controlling the H2O2-mediated apoptosis of cells
      undergoing oxidative stress. The results showed that the functionalized collagen
      spheres can protect cells even under very harsh conditions of oxidative stress.

PMID- 28552643
TI  - Formation of graphene oxide-hybridized nanogels for combinative anticancer
      therapy.
AB  - The low efficacy and high toxicity of chemotherapy have been driving increasing
      attention on development of combined anticancer therapy technique. In the current
      work, graphene oxide (GO)-hybridized nanogels (AGD) were developed for delivery
      of an anticancer drug (doxorubicin (DOX)), which simultaneously presented
      photothermal therapeutic effects against cancer cells. AGD nanogels were
      fabricated by in situ incorporating GO nanoplatelets into a biodegradable polymer
      (alginate) via a double emulsion approach using a disulfide molecule as
      crosslinker, followed by DOX encapsulation via electrostatic interactions. The
      nanogels released DOX drug in an accelerated way under both acidic and reducible
      conditions mimicking extracellular tumor microenvironments and intracellular
      compartments. The stimulative release controllability of the nanogels improved
      the DOX internalization and long-term drug accumulation inside A549 cells (an
      adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial cell line), which, together with
      their photothermal effect, resulted in a good anticancer cytotoxicity, indicating
      their promising potential for combinative anticancer therapy.

PMID- 28552644
TI  - Recent advances in bioactive 1D and 2D carbon nanomaterials for biomedical
      applications.
AB  - One-dimensional (1D) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the two-dimensional (2D)
      graphene represent the most widely studied allotropes of carbon. Due to their
      unique structural, electrical, mechanical and optical properties, 1D and 2D
      carbon nanostructures are considered to be leading candidates for numerous
      applications in biomedical fields, including tissue engineering, drug delivery,
      bioimaging and biosensors. The biocompatibility and toxicity issues associated
      with these nanostructures have been a critical impediment for their use in
      biomedical applications. In this review, we present an overview of the various
      materials types, properties, functionalization strategies and characterization
      methods of 1D and 2D carbon nanomaterials and their derivatives in terms of their
      biomedical applications. In addition, we discuss various factors and mechanisms
      affecting their toxicity and biocompatibility.

PMID- 28552645
TI  - Sculpting neurotransmission during synaptic development by 2D nanostructured
      interfaces.
AB  - Carbon nanotube-based biomaterials critically contribute to the design of many
      prosthetic devices, with a particular impact in the development of bioelectronics
      components for novel neural interfaces. These nanomaterials combine excellent
      physical and chemical properties with peculiar nanostructured topography, thought
      to be crucial to their integration with neural tissue as long-term implants. The
      junction between carbon nanotubes and neural tissue can be particularly worthy of
      scientific attention and has been reported to significantly impact synapse
      construction in cultured neuronal networks. In this framework, the interaction of
      2D carbon nanotube platforms with biological membranes is of paramount
      importance. Here we study carbon nanotube ability to interfere with lipid
      membrane structure and dynamics in cultured hippocampal neurons. While excluding
      that carbon nanotubes alter the homeostasis of neuronal membrane lipids, in
      particular cholesterol, we document in aged cultures an unprecedented functional
      integration between carbon nanotubes and the physiological maturation of the
      synaptic circuits.

PMID- 28552646
TI  - Ultrasound-activated piezoelectric P(VDF-TrFE)/boron nitride nanotube composite
      films promote differentiation of human SaOS-2 osteoblast-like cells.
AB  - Piezoelectric films of poly(vinylidenedifluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE))
      and of P(VDF-TrFE)/boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) were prepared by cast
      annealing and used for SaOS-2 osteoblast-like cell culture. Films were
      characterized in terms of surface and bulk features, and composite films
      demonstrated enhanced piezoresponse compared to plain polymeric films (d31
      increased by ~80%). Osteogenic differentiation was evaluated in terms of calcium
      deposition, collagen I secretion, and transcriptional levels of marker genes
      (Alpl, Col1a1, Ibsp, and Sparc) in cells either exposed or not to ultrasounds
      (US); finally, a numerical model suggested that the induced voltage (~20-60 mV)
      is suitable for cell stimulation. Although preliminary, our results are extremely
      promising and encourage the use of piezoelectric P(VDF-TrFE)/BNNT films in bone
      tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28552648
TI  - Ultrasmall graphene oxide based T1 MRI contrast agent for in vitro and in vivo
      labeling of human mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Herein, we report on development of a two-dimensional nanomaterial graphene oxide
      (GO)-based T1 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent (CA) for in vitro
      and in vivo labeling of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The CA was
      synthesized by PEGylation of ultrasmall GO, followed by conjugation with a
      chelating agent DOTA and then gadolinium(III) to form GO-DOTA-Gd complexes. Thus
      prepared GO-DOTA-Gd complexes exhibited significantly improved T1 relaxivity, and
      the r1 value was 14.2 mM-1s-1 at 11.7 T, approximately three times higher than
      Magnevist, a commercially available CA. hMSCs can be effectively labeled by GO
      DOTA-Gd, leading to remarkably enhanced cellular MRI effect without obvious
      adverse effects on proliferation and differentiation of hMSCs. More importantly,
      in vivo experiment revealed that intracranial detection of 5*105 hMSCs labeled
      with GO-DOTA-Gd is achieved. The current work demonstrates the feasibility of the
      GO-based T1 MRI CA for stem cell labeling, which may find potential applications
      in regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28552647
TI  - Current approaches for modulation of the nanoscale interface in the regulation of
      cell behavior.
AB  - Regulation of cell behavior in response to nanoscale features has been the focus
      of much research in recent years and the successful generation of nanoscale
      features capable of mimicking the natural nanoscale interface has been of great
      interest in the field of biomaterials research. In this review, we discuss
      relevant nanofabrication techniques and how they are combined with bioengineering
      applications to mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and create valuable
      nanoscale interfaces.

PMID- 28552649
TI  - Laponite(r): A key nanoplatform for biomedical applications?
AB  - Laponite(r) is a synthetic smectite clay that already has many important
      technological applications, which go beyond the conventional uses of clays in
      pharmaceutics and cosmetics. In biomedical applications, particularly in
      nanomedicine, this material holds great potential. Laponite(r) is a 2-dimensional
      (2D) nanomaterial composed of disk-shaped nanoscale crystals that have a high
      aspect ratio. These disks can strongly interact with many types of chemical
      entities (from small molecules or ions, to natural or synthetic polymers, to
      different inorganic nanoparticles) and are also easily functionalized and readily
      degraded in the physiological environment giving rise to non-toxic and even
      bioactive products. This review will highlight the potential of Laponite(r) as a
      nanomaterial in the fields of drug delivery, bioimaging, tissue engineering and
      regenerative medicine. New concepts, as well as novel innovative materials that
      stand out from the usual ones due to the unique properties of Laponite(r), will
      also be presented and discussed.

PMID- 28552650
TI  - Enhanced neural stem cell functions in conductive annealed carbon nanofibrous
      scaffolds with electrical stimulation.
AB  - Carbon-based nanomaterials have shown great promise in regenerative medicine
      because of their unique electrical, mechanical, and biological properties;
      however, it is still difficult to engineer 2D pure carbon nanomaterials into a 3D
      scaffold while maintaining its structural integrity. In the present study, we
      developed novel carbon nanofibrous scaffolds by annealing electrospun mats at
      elevated temperature. The resultant scaffold showed a cohesive structure and
      excellent mechanical flexibility. The graphitic structure generated by annealing
      renders superior electrical conductivity to the carbon nanofibrous scaffold. By
      integrating the conductive scaffold with biphasic electrical stimulation, neural
      stem cell proliferation was promoted associating with upregulated neuronal gene
      expression level and increased microtubule-associated protein 2
      immunofluorescence, demonstrating an improved neuronal differentiation and
      maturation. The findings suggest that the integration of the conducting carbon
      nanofibrous scaffold and electrical stimulation may pave a new avenue for neural
      tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28552651
TI  - The Gut Microbiota as a Mediator of Metabolic Benefits after Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - Bariatric surgery is based on major anatomic rearrangements in the
      gastrointestinal tract that coincide with functional and taxonomic changes in gut
      microbial communities. These alterations in gut anatomy and in the microbiota are
      associated with early resolution of obesity-related impairment of glycemic
      control and are marked weight loss in the long term. Moreover, altered bile acid
      metabolism has been implicated in the control of energy homeostasis, emerging as
      a pivotal orchestrator in the gut microbiota-mediated effects of bariatric
      surgery. In this review, we summarize the growing body of evidence linking
      changes in the gut microbiota to the metabolic benefits of bariatric surgery and
      discuss the potential mechanisms involved.

PMID- 28552652
TI  - Blood Pressure Management in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: Insights From the
      Diabetes Mellitus Status in Canada (DM-SCAN) Survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Optimal treatment of blood pressure (BP) and other cardiovascular
      risk factors, including hyperglycemia, is integral to diabetes management. There
      are limited data from the primary care setting concerning the contemporary and
      comprehensive management of type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors
      in relation to guideline-recommended BP target achievement. METHODS: The Diabetes
      Mellitus Status in Canada (DM-SCAN) survey included 5172 ambulatory patients with
      type 2 diabetes. Data were collected on patient demographics, medical histories,
      medication usage, BP levels and laboratory investigations. We stratified the
      study population based on their attainment of the BP target recommended by the
      Canadian Diabetes Association 2013 Clinical Practice Guidelines for the
      Prevention and Management of Diabetes in Canada and the Canadian Hypertension
      Education Program (<130/80 mmHg) and compared patient clinical characteristics
      and treatments. RESULTS: Of the 5145 patients with available BP data, 36%
      achieved the BP target. Prevalence of smoking, known coronary artery disease,
      retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy were similar in the groups with BP 130/80
      mmHg or higher and BP 130/80 mmHg or lower. Patients with BP 130/80 mmHg or
      higher were taking more antihypertensive agents and were more likely to be taking
      angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers,
      diuretics and calcium channel blockers. They also had significantly higher
      glycated hemoglobin and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels. Overall,
      these patients were also less likely to achieve guideline-recommended glycemic
      and lipid targets. CONCLUSIONS: Only about one-third of patients with diabetes
      achieved the target BP of below 130/80 mmHg. Patients with BP 130/80 mmHg or
      higher were also less likely to achieve optimal guideline-recommended glycated
      hemoglobin and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol targets. Improved
      comprehensive management of all risk factors in patients with diabetes is
      warranted.

PMID- 28552653
TI  - High-throughput metaproteomics data analysis with Unipept: A tutorial.
AB  - In recent years, shotgun metaproteomics has established itself as an important
      tool to study the composition of complex ecosystems and microbial communities.
      Two key steps in metaproteomics data analysis are the inference of proteins from
      the identified peptides, and the determination of the taxonomic origin and
      function of these proteins. This tutorial therefore introduces the Unipept
      command line interface (http://unipept.ugent.be/clidocs) as a platform
      independent tool for such metaproteomics data analyses. First, a detailed
      overview is given of the available Unipept commands and their functions. Next,
      the power of the Unipept command line interface is illustrated using two case
      studies that analyze a single tryptic peptide, and a set of peptides retrieved
      from a shotgun metaproteomics experiment, respectively. Finally, the analysis
      results obtained using these command line tools are compared with the interactive
      taxonomic analysis that is available on the Unipept website.

PMID- 28552654
TI  - MicroRNA hsa-miR-370-3p suppresses the expression and induction of CYP2D6 by
      facilitating mRNA degradation.
AB  - Cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) participates in the metabolism of approximately 20
      25% of prescribed drugs. Genetic polymorphisms influence the expression and/or
      activity of CYP2D6, and inter-individual differences in drug activation and
      elimination caused by CYP2D6 genetic variants were reported. However, little is
      known about the potential modulation of CYP2D6 expression by microRNAs (miRNAs).
      In the current study, by using in silico prediction of the stabilities of
      miRNA/mRNA complexes, we screened 38 miRNA candidates that may interact with the
      transcript of CYP2D6. An inverse correlation between the expression of miRNA hsa
      miR-370-3p and the expression of CYP2D6 was observed in human liver tissue
      samples. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays confirmed that hsa-miR-370-3p was
      able to directly bind to its cognate target within the coding region of the
      CYP2D6 transcript. The transfection of hsa-miR-370-3p mimics into the HepG2CYP2D6
      cell line, a genetically modified cell line that overexpresses exogenous CYP2D6,
      was able to suppress the expression of CYP2D6 significantly at both mRNA and
      protein levels. The transfection of hsa-miR-370-3p mimics was also able to
      inhibit endogenous mRNA expression and/or protein production of CYP2D6 in HepaRG
      cells. Furthermore, in HepaRG, HepG2, and Huh7 cells, dexamethasone-induced
      expression of CYP2D6 was inhibited by hsa-miR-370-3p mimics. To investigate
      whether the miRNA mediated suppression is caused by inhibiting protein
      translation or promoting mRNA degradation, an actinomycin D assay was used to
      measure the stability of CYP2D6 transcripts. The results indicated that hsa-miR
      370-3p mimics facilitated significantly the degradation of CYP2D6 mRNA. In
      addition, proteomics analyses of proteins isolated from the miRNA/mRNA/protein
      complex suggested that a group of multifunctional proteins facilitated the
      interaction between hsa-miR-370-3p and CYP2D6, thereby promoting mRNA
      degradation.

PMID- 28552655
TI  - Uterine-Sparing Laparoscopic Pelvic Plexus Ablation, Uterine Artery Occlusion,
      and Partial Adenomyomectomy for Adenomyosis.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate safety, feasibility, and long-term clinical effects
      of adding laparoscopic pelvic plexus ablation to uterine-sparing procedures
      (uterine artery occlusion and partial adenomyomectomy) for adenomyosis. DESIGN: A
      prospective controlled study (Canadian Task Force classification II-1). SETTING:
      A teaching hospital. PATIENTS: A total of 112 patients with symptomatic
      adenomyosis were eligible for uterine-sparing laparoscopy. INTERVENTIONS:
      Laparoscopic pelvic plexus ablation, uterine artery occlusion, and partial
      adenomyomectomy. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: After the exclusion of patients
      with malignant tumors or those lost to follow-up, 102 women underwent
      laparoscopic uterine artery occlusion and partial adenomyomectomy; 50 of these
      patients also had laparoscopic uterine pelvic plexus ablation (group A) with the
      remaining 52 patients serving as the control group (group B). Other than
      operative time (107.0 +/- 15.4 vs 98.9 +/- 20.2 minutes, p = .02), there were no
      statistical differences regarding other operative parameters between groups A and
      B. Relief of severe dysmenorrhea (Visual Analogue Scale score >= 7) at 36 months
      was higher in group A than in group B (100% vs 76.9%, p < .01). No patient
      suffered constipation or uroschesis in either group. CONCLUSION: Adding
      laparoscopic uterine pelvic plexus ablation to laparoscopic uterine artery
      occlusion and partial adenomyomectomy was more effective in relieving
      dysmenorrhea.

PMID- 28552656
TI  - Prevalence, natural history, and time-dependent outcomes of a multi-center North
      American cohort of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest extracorporeal CPR candidates.
AB  - AIM: Estimate prevalence of ECPR-eligible subjects in a large, North American,
      multi-center cohort, describe natural history with conventional resuscitation,
      and predict optimal timing of transition to ECPR. METHODS: Secondary analysis of
      clinical trial enrolling adults with non-traumatic OHCA. Primary outcome was
      survival to discharge with favorable outcome (mRS 0-3). Subjects were
      additionally classified as survival with unfavorable outcome (mRS 4-5), ROSC
      without survival (mRS 6), or without ROSC. We plotted subject accrual as a
      function of resuscitation duration (CPR onset to return of spontaneous
      circulation (ROSC) or termination of resuscitation), and estimated time-dependent
      probabilities of ROSC and mRS 0-3 at discharge. Adjusted logistic regression
      models tested the association between resuscitation duration and survival with
      mRS 0-3. RESULTS: Of 11,368 subjects, 1237 (10.9%; 95%CI 10.3-11.5%) were
      eligible for ECPR, Of these, 778 (63%) achieved ROSC, 466 (38%) survived to
      discharge, and 377 (30%) had mRS 0-3 at discharge. Half with eventual mRS 0-3
      achieved ROSC within 8.8min (95%CI 8.3-9.2min) of resuscitation, and 90% within
      21.0min (95%CI 19.1-23.7min). Time-dependent probabilities of ROSC and mRS 0-3
      declined over elapsed resuscitation, and the likelihood of additional cases with
      mRS 0-3 beyond 20min was 8.4% (95%CI 5.9-11.0%). Resuscitation duration was
      independently associated with survival to discharge with mRS 0-3 (OR 0.95; 95%CI
      0.92-0.97). CONCLUSION: Approximately 11% of subjects were eligible for ECPR.
      Only one-third survived to discharge with favorable outcome. Performing 9-21min
      of conventional resuscitation captured most ECPR-eligible subjects with eventual
      mRS 0-3 at hospital discharge.

PMID- 28552657
TI  - Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during exercise among urban inhabitants in Japan:
      Insights from a population-based registry of Osaka City.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The patient characteristics, pre-hospital interventions, and outcomes
      of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occurring during exercise, have not
      been sufficiently investigated among the general population. METHODS: OHCA data
      from 2009 to 2015 were obtained from the population-based OHCA registry in Osaka
      City, Japan. Patients who suffered OHCA, which occurred during exercise before
      the arrival of emergency medical service personnel, were included. The primary
      endpoint was one-month survival with a favourable neurological outcome after
      OHCA, defined using the Glasgow-Pittsburgh cerebral performance category scale 1
      or 2. RESULTS: During the 7-year study period, 16,278 OHCAs were observed, and 52
      (0.3%) occurred during exercise (male, n=41 [79%]; median age, 62 years). These
      incidents occurred mainly during running activities (n=14), followed by swimming
      (n=8), dance/social dance (n=6), tennis (n=4), and weight training (n=3). Within
      these exercise-related OHCAs, 47 (90%) were of cardiac origin, 45 (87%) were
      bystander-witnessed cardiac arrests, 49 (94%) received bystander-initiated
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and 30 (57%) received public-access defibrillation
      (PAD). Overall, 56% (29/52) had one-month survival with a favourable neurological
      outcome after OHCA, which was significantly higher among OHCAs of cardiac origin
      with PAD (77%, 23/30) than among those of cardiac origin without PAD (35%, 6/17)
      and among those of non-cardiac origin (0%, 0/5) (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: In Osaka,
      OHCAs during exercise represented a small subset of the overall OHCA burden, but
      occurred during a wide variety of exercise activities. Patients with OHCA of
      cardiac origin had a good prognosis, and PAD played an important role in
      improving patient outcomes.

PMID- 28552658
TI  - Epinephrine dosing interval and survival outcomes during pediatric in-hospital
      cardiac arrest.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current guidelines recommend epinephrine every 3-5min during
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation. For adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA),
      longer dosing intervals are associated with improved survival to discharge. This
      study investigates whether longer epinephrine dosing intervals were associated
      with improved survival to discharge during pediatric IHCA. METHODS: Retrospective
      review of AHA Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry identified 1630
      pediatric IHCAs that met inclusion criteria. Average epinephrine dosing interval
      was defined by dividing duration of resuscitation after first dose of epinephrine
      by total doses. Average dosing intervals were categorized as 1-5min, >5 to <8min,
      and 8 to <10min/dose. Primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge.
      Multivariable logistic regression models controlled for age, gender, illness
      category, location of arrest, arrest duration, time of day, and time to first
      epinephrine dose. Secondary analysis separated patients on vasoactive infusion at
      the time of arrest from those without an infusion in place. RESULTS: Odds ratios
      (OR) calculated using 1-5min/dose interval as reference. For the total cohort,
      adjusted OR for survival to hospital discharge for >5 to <8min was 1.81 (95% CI
      1.26-2.59), and 8 to <10min 2.64 (95% CI 1.53-4.55). For patients not receiving
      vasoactive infusion, adjusted OR for survival to discharge for >5 to <8min was
      1.99 (95% CI 1.29-3.06) and 8 to <10min 2.67 (95% CI 1.14-5.04). CONCLUSIONS:
      Longer average dosing intervals than currently recommended for epinephrine
      administration during pediatric IHCA were associated with improved survival to
      hospital discharge.

PMID- 28552659
TI  - Antimicrobial activity evaluation and comparison of methods of susceptibility for
      Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Enterobacter spp. isolates.
AB  - The production of KPC (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase) is the major
      mechanism of resistance to carbapenem agents in enterobacterias. In this context,
      forty KPC-producing Enterobacter spp. clinical isolates were studied. It was
      evaluated the activity of antimicrobial agents: polymyxin B, tigecycline,
      ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem, and was performed a comparison of the
      methodologies used to determine the susceptibility: broth microdilution, Etest(r)
      (bioMerieux), Vitek 2(r) automated system (bioMerieux) and disc diffusion. It was
      calculated the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for each antimicrobial and
      polymyxin B showed the lowest concentrations for broth microdilution. Errors also
      were calculated among the techniques, tigecycline and ertapenem were the
      antibiotics with the largest and the lower number of discrepancies, respectively.
      Moreover, Vitek 2(r) automated system was the method most similar compared to the
      broth microdilution. Therefore, is important to evaluate the performance of new
      methods in comparison to the reference method, broth microdilution.

PMID- 28552660
TI  - Technology and safety assessment for lactic acid bacteria isolated from
      traditional Bulgarian fermented meat product "lukanka".
AB  - The present work discusses the technological and new selection criteria that
      should be included for selecting lactic acid bacteria for production of fermented
      meat. Lactic acid bacteria isolated from Bulgarian traditional fermented
      "lulanka" salami was studied regarding some positive technological parameters
      (growth at different temperature, pH, and proteolytic activity). The presence of
      genes related to the virulence factors, production of biogenic amines, and
      vancomycin resistance were presented in low frequency in the studied lactic acid
      bacteria. On the other hand, production of antimicrobial peptides and high spread
      of bacteriocin genes were broadly presented. Very strong activity against L.
      monocytogenes was detected in some of the studied lactic acid bacteria. In
      addition, the studied strains did not present any antimicrobial activity against
      tested closely related bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp., Lactococcus spp.,
      Enterococcus spp. or Pediococcus spp. To our knowledge this is the first study on
      the safety and antimicrobial properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from
      Bulgarian lukanka obtained by spontaneous fermentation.

PMID- 28552661
TI  - 30years of DXA technology innovations.
AB  - As the successor of Dual Photon Absorptiometry (DPA), Dual X-ray Absorptiometry
      (DXA) has seen 30years of continuous technological innovations. Implementation of
      measures for standardization and quality assurance made DXA a reliable and
      clinically useful approach. Its use in clinical multicenter drug studies in
      osteoporosis lead to general acceptance as the standard technique of bone
      densitometry. The limitations of DXA are well established. As a measure of areal
      bone mineral density (aBMD) it depends on bone size and is biased by overlaying
      soft tissue and calcified structures. To some extent these errors can be reduced
      by estimation of bone depth and/or lateral imaging. DXA based aBMD can be
      supplemented by additional information obtainable from DXA scans: geometric
      indices such as hip axis length or complex models like 2-D finite element
      analysis have been developed and tested. Given the drastic improvement in image
      quality current DXA scans can be used for Vertebral Fracture Analysis (VFA) or
      grading of Abdominal Aortic Calcifications. A textural measure, Trabecular Bone
      Score (TBS) provides independent information on fracture risk. DXA devices can
      also be used for assessments beyond bone density. Periprosthetic aBMD changes can
      be monitored to study the mechanical fitting of bone implants. Total body
      composition measurements are increasingly being used in studies on nutrition,
      obesity, and sarcopenia. 30years after its inception DXA is the undisputed
      standard imaging technique for the assessment of osteoporotic fracture risk with
      new applications beyond bone densitometry adding to its value.

PMID- 28552662
TI  - Misdiagnosis of vertebral fractures: Unresolved but resolvable problem.

PMID- 28552663
TI  - Sex differences in the neuroendocrine control of metabolism and the implication
      of astrocytes.
AB  - Males and females have distinct propensities to develop obesity and its related
      comorbidities, partially due to gonadal steroids. There are sex differences in
      hypothalamic neuronal circuits, as well as in astrocytes, that participate in
      metabolic control and the development of obesity-associated complications.
      Astrocytes are involved in nutrient transport and metabolism, glucose sensing,
      synaptic remodeling and modulation of neuronal signaling. They express receptors
      for metabolic hormones and mediate effects of these metabolic signals on neurons,
      with astrogliosis occurring in response to high fat diet and excess weight gain.
      However, most studies of obesity have focused on males. Recent reports indicate
      that male and female astrocytes respond differently to metabolic signals and this
      could be involved in the differential response to high fat diet and the onset of
      obesity-associated pathologies. Here we focus on the sex differences in response
      to obesogenic paradigms and the possible role of hypothalamic astrocytes in this
      phenomenon.

PMID- 28552664
TI  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells lacking Pex3 contain membrane vesicles that harbor
      a subset of peroxisomal membrane proteins.
AB  - Pex3 has been proposed to be important for the exit of peroxisomal membrane
      proteins (PMPs) from the ER, based on the observation that PMPs accumulate at the
      ER in Saccharomyces cerevisiae pex3 mutant cells. Using a combination of
      microscopy and biochemical approaches, we show that a subset of the PMPs,
      including the receptor docking protein Pex14, localizes to membrane vesicles in
      S. cerevisiae pex3 cells. These vesicles are morphologically distinct from the ER
      and do not co-sediment with ER markers in cell fractionation experiments. At the
      vesicles, Pex14 assembles with other peroxins (Pex13, Pex17, and Pex5) to form a
      complex with a composition similar to the PTS1 import pore in wild-type cells.
      Fluorescence microscopy studies revealed that also the PTS2 receptor Pex7, the
      importomer organizing peroxin Pex8, the ubiquitin conjugating enzyme Pex4 with
      its recruiting PMP Pex22, as well as Pex15 and Pex25 co-localize with Pex14.
      Other peroxins (including the RING finger complex and Pex27) did not accumulate
      at these structures, of which Pex11 localized to mitochondria. In line with these
      observations, proteomic analysis showed that in addition to the docking proteins
      and Pex5, also Pex7, Pex4/Pex22 and Pex25 were present in Pex14 complexes
      isolated from pex3 cells. However, formation of the entire importomer was not
      observed, most likely because Pex8 and the RING proteins were absent in the Pex14
      protein complexes. Our data suggest that peroxisomal membrane vesicles can form
      in the absence of Pex3 and that several PMPs can insert in these vesicles in a
      Pex3 independent manner.

PMID- 28552665
TI  - Functional morphology of comminuting feeding structures of Trichodactylus
      borellianus (Brachyura, Decapoda, Trichodactylidae), an omnivorous freshwater
      crab.
AB  - Crustaceans exhibit great diversity of feeding structures with morphological
      traits that are useful to infer the general trophic habits of species. In this
      study, we analyzed the functional morphology of comminuting feeding structures
      (mandibles, chelipeds, gastric mill) of the freshwater crab Trichodactylus
      borellianus directly related with the food fragmentation. The heterochely and
      mechanical advantage (MA) of the chelae were also studied. In both analyses, we
      considered the relationship between morphology and the natural diet. We expected
      to find a consistent relation between feeding habits and morphological traits. In
      general, we found simple structures armed with uniform setal systems and feeding
      appendages without pronounced teeth or spines. Mandibles have primarily cutting
      functions, helping with the food anchoring and fragmentation with mandibular
      palps armed with pappose setae. Chelipeds were covered with spines and simple
      setae. Adult males exhibited right-handedness with high MA of the major chelae.
      The ingested, relatively large pieces of food are finally chewed by a gastric
      mill equipped with sharp cusps characteristic of decapods with low ingestion of
      crude fiber material. The morphology of the feeding apparatus revealed that it is
      well adapted to an omnivorous diet, being able to cope with dietary changes.

PMID- 28552666
TI  - Effects of force detecting sense organs on muscle synergies are correlated with
      their response properties.
AB  - Sense organs that monitor forces in legs can contribute to activation of muscles
      as synergist groups. Previous studies in cockroaches and stick insects showed
      that campaniform sensilla, receptors that encode forces via exoskeletal strains,
      enhance muscle synergies in substrate grip. However synergist activation was
      mediated by different groups of receptors in cockroaches (trochanteral sensilla)
      and stick insects (femoral sensilla). The factors underlying the differential
      effects are unclear as the responses of femoral campaniform sensilla have not
      previously been characterized. The present study characterized the structure and
      response properties (via extracellular recording) of the femoral sensilla in both
      insects. The cockroach trochantero-femoral (TrF) joint is mobile and the joint
      membrane acts as an elastic antagonist to the reductor muscle. Cockroach femoral
      campaniform sensilla show weak discharges to forces in the coxo-trochanteral
      (CTr) joint plane (in which forces are generated by coxal muscles) but instead
      encode forces directed posteriorly (TrF joint plane). In stick insects, the TrF
      joint is fused and femoral campaniform sensilla discharge both to forces directed
      posteriorly and forces in the CTr joint plane. These findings support the idea
      that receptors that enhance synergies encode forces in the plane of action of leg
      muscles used in support and propulsion.

PMID- 28552667
TI  - Lenalidomide acts as an adjuvant for HCV DNA vaccine.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne pathogen which has chronically infected
      people worldwide. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to design prophylactic
      and therapeutic vaccine in order to control HCV infection. To date, several
      researchers have attempted to improve the efficiency of HCV vaccine by using
      different adjuvants. However, a few studies have focused on the synthetic
      immunomodulatory drugs as adjuvants for HCV vaccine. Recently, researchers have
      shown that lenalidomide, which is used to treat the patients with multiple
      myeloma, is capable of improving the immune system factors. In this paper, two
      doses of lenalidomide along with pcDNA3.1+NS3 as HCV DNA vaccine were
      administrated in mice models and the percentage of regulatory T cells (Treg
      cells) and the cells with PD-1+ expression in spleen of mice model were
      investigated by flow cytometry method. Additionally, activities of CTL cells and
      NK cells were evaluated in spleen of prophylactic and therapeutic mice models via
      LDH method. Results of the Treg and PD-1 analysis showed that low dose of
      lenalidomide along with pcDNA3.1+NS3 can noticeably decrease the percentage of
      Treg cells and the cells with PD-1+ expression, while lenalidomide can
      significantly increase the CTL and NK activity in mice models. Also, results of
      the therapeutic mice model, in which SP2/0 cells- challenged mice were treated
      with 5mg/kg lenalidomide in combination with pcDNA3.1+NS3, reasonably agreed with
      those of the prophylactic model. Finally, it was found that lenalidomide can
      reduce the level of Treg cells which results in lower the cells with PD-1+
      expression and subsequently higher CTL and NK cell activities. This study
      concluded that lenalidomide possess the characteristics of an ideal adjuvant
      candidate for use in combination with HCV DNA vaccine in order to promote the
      immune response and vaccine efficiency.

PMID- 28552669
TI  - Psychometric properties of the Kids' Child Feeding Questionnaire-Restriction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research exploring parental restrictive feeding is mixed and shows
      that it both negatively and positively affects children's dietary intake. One
      hypothesis for these inconsistent findings is the use of parent-report vs. youth
      report measures of parental restrictive feeding, but there are limited
      psychometrically-sound youth-report measures of this construct. Therefore, the
      current study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of a measure of parent
      restrictive feeding practices, the Kids' Child Feeding Questionnaire-Restriction
      (KCFQ-R), from the youth perspective. METHODS: The 7-item, youth-report KCFQ-R is
      composed of the restriction subscale from the Kids' Child Feeding Questionnaire.
      This measure was completed by 225 youth attending a primary care appointment.
      RESULTS: Initial exploratory factor analysis and communalities yielded a single
      factor solution explaining 39.93% of the variability in the data. Internal
      consistency using the seven items was .73. The KCFQ-R demonstrated external
      validity through its significant relationship with parent concern about child
      overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide preliminary support that the KCFQ-R is a
      psychometrically sound and reliable measure of youth-reported parental
      restrictive feeding practices. Given the mixed research on the effects of parent
      reported parental feeding restriction on various child outcomes, this youth
      report measure may help clarify these relationships. Future research should
      examine youth-report measures of other parent feeding domains.

PMID- 28552668
TI  - beta1-Integrin Accumulates in Cystic Fibrosis Luminal Airway Epithelial Membranes
      and Decreases Sphingosine, Promoting Bacterial Infections.
AB  - Chronic pulmonary colonization with bacterial pathogens, particularly Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa, is the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with
      cystic fibrosis (CF). We observed that beta1-integrins accumulate on the luminal
      membrane of upper-airway epithelial cells from mice and humans with CF. beta1
      integrin accumulation is due to increased ceramide and the formation of ceramide
      platforms that trap beta1-integrins on the luminal pole of bronchial epithelial
      cells. beta1-integrins downregulate acid ceramidase expression, resulting in
      further accumulation of ceramide and consequent reduction of surface sphingosine,
      a lipid that kills bacteria. Interrupting this vicious cycle by triggering
      surface beta1-integrin internalization via anti-beta1-integrin antibodies or the
      RGD peptide ligand-or by genetic or pharmacological correction of ceramide levels
      normalizes beta1-integrin distribution and sphingosine levels in CF epithelial
      cells and prevents P. aeruginosa infection in CF mice. These findings suggest a
      therapeutic avenue to ameliorate CF-associated bacterial infections.

PMID- 28552670
TI  - Altered brain correlates of response inhibition and error processing in females
      with obesity and sweet food addiction: A functional magnetic imaging study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impulsivity and
      brain correlates of response inhibition and error processing among females with
      obesity and sweet food addiction (O & SFA). METHODS: We evaluated the response
      inhibition and error processing by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      in subjects with O & SFA and controls. Twenty females with O & SFA and 20
      controls were recruited. All subjects performed the event-related designed Go/No
      go task under fMRI and completed questionnaires related to food craving and
      impulsivity. RESULTS: The O & SFA group exhibited a higher score for impulsivity
      than did the control group. The O & SFA also exhibited lower brain activation
      when processing response inhibition over the right rolandic operculum and
      thalamus than controls. Both O & SFA and control groups exhibited activation of
      the insula and caudate during error processing. The activation over the left
      insula, precuneus, and bilateral putamen were higher in the subjects with O & SFA
      than for those in the control group. CONCLUSION: Our results support the fact
      that the fronto-striatal network is involved in response inhibition, and the
      caudate and insula contributes to error processing. Furthermore, women with O &
      SFA have impaired rolandic operculum when processing response inhibition and have
      greater insular and putamen activation in maintain their error processing
      function.

PMID- 28552671
TI  - Morbid obesity and psoriasis: Disease remission after laparoscopic sleeve
      gastrectomy.
AB  - Psoriasis is more frequent and severe in populations with obesity, and both have
      been associated with a higher cardiovascular risk. Recent studies suggest that
      weight loss may improve psoriasis and metabolic comorbidities in individuals with
      obesity. We present a case of a female patient affected by psoriasis, morbid
      obesity and other metabolic comorbidities, who experienced dramatic improvement
      in skin and joint symptoms and metabolic parameters after weight loss surgery
      with sleeve gastrectomy.

PMID- 28552672
TI  - Possible involvement of CREB/BDNF signaling pathway in neuroprotective effects of
      topiramate against methylphenidate induced apoptosis, oxidative stress and
      inflammation in isolated hippocampus of rats: Molecular, biochemical and
      histological evidences.
AB  - Chronic abuse of methylphenidate (MPH) can cause serious neurotoxicity. The
      neuroprotective effects of topiramate (TPM) were approved, but its putative
      mechanism remains unclear. In current study the role of CREB/BDNF signaling
      pathway in TPM protection against methylphenidate-induced neurotoxicity in rat
      hippocampus was evaluated. 60 adult male rats were divided randomly into six
      groups. Groups received MPH (10mg/kg) only and concurrently with TPM (50mg/kg and
      100mg/kg) and TPM (50 and 100mg/kg) only for 14 days. Open field test (OFT) was
      used to investigate motor activity. Some biomarkers of apoptotic, anti-apoptotic,
      oxidative, antioxidant and inflammatory factors were also measured in
      hippocampus. Expression of total (inactive) and phosphorylated (active) CREB and
      BDNF were also measured in gene and protein levels in dentate gyrus (DG) and CA1
      areas of hippocampus. MPH caused significant decreases in motor activity in OFT
      while TPM (50 and 100mg/kg) inhibited MPH-induced decreases in motor activity. On
      the other hand, MPH caused remarkable increases in Bax protein level, lipid
      peroxidation, catalase activity, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha levels in hippocampal
      tissue. MPH also caused significant decreases of superoxide dismutase, activity
      and also decreased CREB, in both forms, BDNF and Bcl-2 protein levels. TPM, by
      the mentioned doses, attenuated these effects and increased superoxide dismutase,
      glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase activities and also increased
      CREB, in both forms, BDNF and Bcl-2 protein levels and inhibited MPH induced
      increase in Bax protein level, lipid peroxidation, catalase activity, IL-1beta
      and TNF-alpha levels. TPM also inhibited MPH induced decreases in cell number and
      changes in cell shapes in DG and CA1 areas. TPM can probably act as a
      neuroprotective agent against MPH induced neurotoxicity and this might have been
      mediated by CREB/BDNF signaling pathway.

PMID- 28552673
TI  - Neuroprotective effects of sulfiredoxin-1 during cerebral ischemia/reperfusion
      oxidative stress injury in rats.
AB  - As an endogenous antioxidant protein, Sulfiredoxin1 (Srxn1) can prevent cell
      oxidative stress damage. However, its role in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)
      injury and the underlying signaling mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we
      explored effects of Srxn1 knockdown on oxidative stress using in vitro and in
      vivo I/R models and investigated related neuroprotective mechanisms. For in vitro
      studies, primary cortical neuronal cultures were transfected with an interfering
      lentivirus targeting Srxn1. Oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) was conducted after
      Srxn1 knockdown. MTS and lactate dehydrogenase assays indicated that knockdown of
      Srxn1 increased cell death and reduced cell viability. Similarly, superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) and reduced glutathionekits assays showed that knockdown of Srxn1
      worsened oxidative stress injury. For in vivo studies, siRNA for Srxn1 or
      negative control siRNA was injected intracerebroventricularly 24h before middle
      cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Data shows silencing Srxn1 resulted in a
      significant increase in cerebral infarction, neurological deficits, histological
      injury, and oxidative stress injury 24h after ischemic stroke. Moreover,
      immunoblot analysis assessed the relationship between Srxn1 levels and Prdx1-4 as
      well as Prdx-SO3 activity both in vitro and in vivo models. We found that
      decreased Srxn1 reduced Prdx1-4 and enhanced Prdx-SO3 protein levels. In
      addition, knockdown of Nrf2 was performed; immunoblot analysis was used to
      measure Srxn1 and NQO1 protein levels. We further found that interference of Nrf2
      reduced Srxn1 and NQO1 protein levels. In summary, Srxn1 can protect neurons from
      I/R oxidative stress injury and the mechanism involves Prdx activity. Srxn1,
      which might be downstream of Nrf2, can prevent cerebral ischemia reperfusion by
      reversing overoxidized Prdx and restoring antioxidant activity of Prdx.

PMID- 28552675
TI  - The era of 3Rs implementation in developmental and reproductive toxicity (DART)
      testing: Current overview and future perspectives.
AB  - Since adoption of the first globally implemented guidelines for developmental and
      reproductive toxicity (DART) testing for pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals
      and agrochemicals, many years passed without major updates. However in recent
      years, significant changes in these guidelines have been made or are being
      implemented. These changes have been guided by the ethical drive to reduce,
      refine and replace (3R) animal testing, as well as the addition of endocrine
      disruptor relevant endpoints. Recent applied improvements have focused on
      reduction and refinement. Ongoing scientific and technical innovations will
      provide the means for replacement of animal testing in the future and will
      improve predictivity in humans. The aim of this review is to provide an overview
      of ongoing global DART endeavors in respect to the 3Rs, with an outlook towards
      future advances in DART testing aspiring to reduce animal testing to a minimum
      and the supreme ambition towards animal-free hazard and risk assessment.

PMID- 28552674
TI  - Enrichment increases hippocampal neurogenesis independent of blood monocyte
      derived microglia presence following high-dose total body irradiation.
AB  - Birth of new neurons in the hippocampus persists in the brain of adult mammals
      and critically underpins optimal learning and memory. The process of adult
      neurogenesis is significantly reduced following brain irradiation and this
      correlates with impaired cognitive function. In this study, we aimed to compare
      the long-term effects of two environmental paradigms (i.e. enriched environment
      and exercise) on adult neurogenesis following high-dose (10Gy) total body
      irradiation. When housed in standard (sedentary) conditions, irradiated mice
      revealed a long-lasting (up to 4 months) deficit in neurogenesis in the granule
      cell layer of the dentate gyrus, the region that harbors the neurogenic niche.
      This depressive effect of total body irradiation on adult neurogenesis was
      partially alleviated by exposure to enriched environment but not voluntary
      exercise, where mice were single-housed with unlimited access to a running wheel.
      Exposure to voluntary exercise, but not enriched environment, did lead to
      significant increases in microglia density in the granule cell layer of the
      hippocampus; our study shows that these changes result from local microglia
      proliferation rather than recruitment and infiltration of circulating Cx3cr1+/gfp
      blood monocytes that subsequently differentiate into microglia-like cells. In
      summary, latent neural precursor cells remain present in the neurogenic niche of
      the adult hippocampus up to 8 weeks following high-dose total body irradiation.
      Environmental enrichment can partially restore the adult neurogenic process in
      this part of the brain following high-dose irradiation, and this was found to be
      independent of blood monocyte-derived microglia presence.

PMID- 28552676
TI  - Common allergies do not influence the prevalence of cutaneous hypersensitivity
      reactions to antiepileptic drugs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to establish whether the presence of common
      allergies increases the risk of drug-related hypersensitivity reactions among
      patients with epilepsy treated with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). METHODS: We
      studied 753 patients with epilepsy seen in tertiary outpatient epilepsy clinic.
      We obtained data related to epilepsy type, past and ongoing treatment with AEDs,
      occurrence of maculopapular exanthema or more serious cutaneous adverse reactions
      (Stevens-Johnson syndrome - SJS) and their characteristics. We noted an
      occurrence of allergic reactions unrelated to treatment with AED, including rash
      unrelated to AED, bronchial asthma, persistent or seasonal allergic rhinitis,
      atopic dermatitis, rash after specific food and other allergic reactions.
      RESULTS: There were 61 cases of AED-related cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction
      (including 3 cases of SJS) noted in association with 2319 exposures to AEDs
      (2.63%) among 55 out of 753 patients (7.3%). Cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction
      to AED was most commonly noted after lamotrigine (12.1%), carbamazepine (5.4%)
      and oxcarbazepine (4.1%). Prevalence of allergic reactions unrelated to AED was
      similar between patients with and without AED-related cutaneous hypersensitivity
      reaction (rash unrelated to AED: 16.4% vs. 10.2%; bronchial asthma: 1.8% vs.
      0.1%; persistent allergic rhinitis: 7.3% vs. 10.2%; seasonal allergic rhinitis:
      7.3% vs. 11.7%; atopic dermatitis: 0 vs. 0.7%; rash after specific food: 5.4% vs.
      6.4%; other allergic reactions: 5.4% vs. 5.2%, respectively; P>0.1 for each
      difference). CONCLUSIONS: Presence of common allergies is not a significant risk
      factor for AED-related cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction among patients with
      epilepsy.

PMID- 28552677
TI  - A long term follow-up study of the development of hip disease in
      Mucopolysaccharidosis type VI.
AB  - Hip problems in Mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI) lead to severe disability.
      Lack of data on the course of hip disease in MPS VI make decisions regarding
      necessity, timing and type of surgical intervention difficult. We therefore
      studied the development of hip pathology in MPS VI patients over time. Data were
      collected as part of a prospective follow-up study. Standardized supine AP pelvis
      and frog leg lateral radiographs of both hips were performed yearly or every
      2years. Image assessment was performed quantitatively (angle measurements) and
      qualitatively (hip morphology). Clinical burden of hip disease was evaluated by
      physical examination, six minute walking test (6MWT) and a questionnaire
      assessing pain, wheelchair-dependency and walking distance. A total of 157 pelvic
      radiographs of 14 ERT treated MPS VI patients were evaluated. Age at first image
      ranged from 2.0 to 21.1years. Median follow up duration was 6.8years. In all
      patients, even in the youngest, the acetabulum and os ilium were dysplastic.
      Coverage of the femoral head by the acetabulum improved over time, but remained
      insufficient. While the femoral head appeared normal in the radiographs at young
      age, the ossification pattern became abnormal in all patients over time. In all
      patients the distance covered in the 6MWT was reduced (median Z scores -3.3).
      Twelve patients had a waddling gait. Four patients were partially wheelchair
      dependent and ten patients had limitations in their maximum walking distance. In
      conclusion, clinically significant hip abnormalities develop in all MPS VI
      patients from very early in life, starting with deformities of the os ilium and
      acetabulum. Femoral head abnormalities occur later, most likely due to altered
      mechanical forces in combination with epiphyseal abnormalities due to
      glycosaminoglycan storage. The final shape and angle of the femoral head differs
      significantly between individual MPS VI patients and is difficult to predict.

PMID- 28552678
TI  - Detection of 6-demethoxyubiquinone in CoQ10 deficiency disorders: Insights into
      enzyme interactions and identification of potential therapeutics.
AB  - Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an essential cofactor of the mitochondrial oxidative
      phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system and its deficiency has important implications for
      several inherited metabolic disorders of childhood. The biosynthesis of CoQ10 is
      a complicated process, which involves at least 12 different enzymes. One of the
      metabolic intermediates that are formed during CoQ10 biosynthesis is the molecule
      6-demethoxyubiquinone (6-DMQ). This CoQ precursor is processed at the level of
      COQ7 and COQ9. We selected this metabolite as a marker substance for metabolic
      analysis of cell lines with inherited genetic defects (COQ2, COQ4, COQ7 and COQ9)
      or siRNA knockdown in CoQ biosynthesis enzymes using ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). In COQ4, COQ7
      and COQ9 deficient cell lines, we detected significantly elevated levels of 6
      DMQ. This suggests a functional interplay of these proteins. However, additional
      siRNA studies demonstrated that elevated 6-DMQ levels are not an exclusive marker
      of the COQ7/COQ9 enzymatic step of CoQ10 biosynthesis but constitute a more
      general phenomenon that occurs in disorders impairing the function or stability
      of the CoQ-synthome. To further investigate the interdependence of CoQ10
      biosynthesis enzyme expression, we performed immunoblotting in various cell lines
      with CoQ10 deficiency, indicating that COQ4, COQ7 and COQ9 protein expression
      levels are highly regulated depending on the underlying defect. Supplementation
      of cell lines with synthetic CoQ precursor compounds demonstrated beneficial
      effects of 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid in COQ7 and COQ9 deficiency. Moreover,
      vanillic acid selectively stimulated CoQ10 biosynthesis and improved cell
      viability in COQ9 deficiency. However, compounds tested in this study failed to
      rescue COQ4 deficiency.

PMID- 28552679
TI  - Informational needs and recall of in-hospital medication changes of recently
      discharged patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The need for information for patients and caregivers at the point of
      hospital discharge is paramount and potentially extensive. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective of this study was to assess patients' informational needs at hospital
      discharge, patients' recall of medication changes implemented in the hospital and
      patients' medication related problems experienced one week after hospital
      discharge. METHODS: The study was conducted in a teaching hospital where patients
      received structured discharge counseling. Patients were interviewed at hospital
      discharge regarding their informational needs. One week post-discharge, patients
      were interviewed by phone to assess any changes in informational needs, their
      recall regarding in-hospital medication changes and the medication related
      problems. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were used to address study
      objectives. RESULTS: The 124 patients in the study regarded the following topics
      as most relevant for counseling: what the medicine is for (57%), side effects
      (52%), drug-drug interactions (45%), action of the drug (37%) and reimbursement
      (31%). In 9% of patients the informational needs changed post-discharge, e.g. the
      topic side effects increased in importance. Forty-nine percent could recall
      whether and which medication was changed during hospitalization. Medication
      related problems and side effects were reported by respectively 27% and 15% of
      patients, whereas only 7% contacted their doctor or pharmacist. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients' informational needs are very individual and can change post-discharge.
      Despite structured counseling, only half of the patients were able to recall the
      medication changes implemented in the hospital. Furthermore, patients reported
      several problems for which they did not consult a healthcare provider. This
      insight could help in smoothing the transition from hospital to the primary care
      setting.

PMID- 28552680
TI  - Community pharmacy modifications to non-prescription medication requests: A
      simulated patient study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-care, and hence self-medication, is becoming an increasingly
      popular practice worldwide. Community pharmacies are an important destination for
      those seeking non-prescription medicines, and pharmacists and their staff are in
      a prime position to facilitate appropriate and safe self-medication. PURPOSE: To
      determine what modifications (for example, a change in brand, change in drug, or
      non-supply) pharmacy staff make when presented with a request for a non
      prescription medicine, and to determine what factors influence whether a
      modification is made. METHODS: Sixty-one third year Bachelor of Pharmacy students
      from The University of Sydney were trained as mystery shoppers to make 9 visits
      once a week to 36 community pharmacies in the metropolitan region of Sydney,
      Australia from March-October 2015. Students presented to a different, pre
      allocated pharmacy once a week with a direct product request for a non
      prescription medicine relating to a common ailment (e.g. asthma, insomnia,
      allergic rhinitis) for 9 weeks. Student mystery shoppers audio-recorded each
      visit and collected the details of the interaction and product sold. Descriptive
      statistics, chi-squared analyses, and binary logistic regression were performed
      to find factors influencing modifications made by pharmacy staff to the simulated
      patient initial request. RESULTS: Of 540 completed visits, 497 were eligible for
      analysis. Modification (change in brand, intra/interclass change, companion sale,
      or no product supplied) occurred in 49% (n = 245) of visits. Whether the product
      requested was deemed "not appropriate" given the scenario outline was the only
      significant predictor of whether a modification to the request occurred (42%
      modification, "appropriate" scenarios vs. 57% modification, "not appropriate"
      scenarios; chi2 = 8.90; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Modification from the original
      non-prescription medicine request occurred in approximately half the reported
      requests. A request for a product that was considered "not appropriate" was more
      likely to elicit a modification than a request for an "appropriate" non
      prescription medicine.

PMID- 28552681
TI  - Evaluation of quality indicator instruments for pharmaceutical care services: A
      systematic review and psychometric properties analysis.

PMID- 28552682
TI  - Quantitative proteomic analysis revealed changes in protein synthesis and
      mitochondrial functions after acute DNA damage in mouse neural stem cells.
AB  - Considering the accumulation of DNA damages are frequently associated with
      neurodevelopmental disease, neurodegeneration, and brain tumors, exploration of
      the molecular mechanisms in mouse neural stem cells (NSCs) after DNA damage would
      be paramount useful for understanding the pathogenesis of these diseases. In
      present study, we utilized hydroxyurea (HU) treatment to cultured mouse NSCs to
      induce acute DNA damages. After HU treatment, mouse NSCs displayed elevated
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and compromised DNA repair in HR and NHEJ
      pathways. Furthermore, we performed quantitative proteomic analysis to unravel
      the protein variations. GO analysis and IPA suggested proteins participated in
      protein synthesis, mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation were
      under great changes after acute DNA damage. Overall, these data provide valuable
      insight into the molecular and biological changes in NSCs in the circumstance of
      acute DNA damage, and will help to discover the connections between DNA damage
      and potential diseases in brain.

PMID- 28552683
TI  - [Paralysis of the abdominal muscles after herpes zoster. Case series].

PMID- 28552684
TI  - [Primary care in Italy].
AB  - Italy is not a country where Spanish doctors emigrate, as there is an over-supply
      of health care professionals. The Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale has some
      differences compared to the Spanish National Health System. The Servizio
      Sanitario Nazionale is financed by national and regional taxes and co-payments.
      There are taxes earmarked for health, and Primary Care receives 50% of the total
      funds. Italian citizens and residents in Italy have the right to free health
      cover. However, there are co-payments for laboratory and imaging tests,
      pharmaceuticals, specialist ambulatory services, and emergencies. Co-payments
      vary in the different regions. The provision of services is regional, and thus
      fragmentation and major inequities are the norm. Doctors in Primary Care are self
      employed and from 2000 onwards, there are incentives to work in multidisciplinary
      teams. Salary is regulated by a national contract and it is the sum of per-capita
      payments and extra resources for specific activities. Responsibilities are
      similar to those of Spanish professionals. However, medical care is more
      personal. Relationships between Primary Care and specialised care depend on the
      doctors' relationships. Primary Care doctors are gatekeepers for specialised
      care, except for gynaecology, obstetrics and paediatrics. Specialised training is
      compulsory in order to work as general practitioner. The Italian Health Care
      System is a national health system like the Spanish one. However, health care
      professionals are self-employed, and there are co-payments. In spite of co
      payments, Italians have one of the highest average life expectancy, and they
      support a universal and publicly funded health-care system.

PMID- 28552685
TI  - [Comment on the Letter to the Editor on "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
      (NSAIDs) and fertility"].

PMID- 28552686
TI  - [Eosinophilic panniculitis associated with low complement and a
      paraproteinaemia].

PMID- 28552687
TI  - [Self-assessment of opinions, habits and oral health status by pregnant women in
      the south of Galicia, Spain].
AB  - An association has been found between oral health problems and obstetric
      complications during pregnancy. The main aim of this study was to assess the
      perception by pregnant women on their oral health and related habits and beliefs.
      A questionnaire was designed in order to obtain information from 96 pregnant
      women attending the Valdeorras Local Hospital and the primary health dental
      practice in the Valle Inclan Health Center. It was found that many pregnant women
      perceived they were suffering from some kind of problem affecting their mouth. It
      was shown that pregnant women had adequate habits regarding oral health, but they
      believed that their pregnancy would implicitly cause them to have mouth problems.
      Pregnant women are able to understand the impact of their oral health on their
      general well-being and the health of their unborn child. It has been detected
      that a series of habits and beliefs would ideally need to be acted upon in order
      to reduce health problems.

PMID- 28552688
TI  - [Isolated haemoptysis in a non-smoker patient].

PMID- 28552689
TI  - IL-10 gene polymorphism c.-592C>A increases HPV infection susceptibility and
      influences IL-10 levels in HPV infected women.
AB  - Interleukin-10 (IL-10) influences HPV infection and viral persistence, favoring
      cervical immunosuppression and cervical carcinogenesis. IL-10 levels may be
      influenced by HPV itself and by IL-10 polymorphisms, including rs1800872 (c.
      592C>A). Therefore, we evaluated the influence of IL-10 c.-592C>A polymorphism in
      HPV infection and in IL-10 plasmatic/cervical levels in HPV infected and non
      infected women. The study included 174 infected and 186 non-infected patients.
      Cervical epithelial scrapings were obtained to determine HPV DNA presence PCR.
      Peripheral blood samples were obtained to determine IL-10 polymorphism by PCR
      RFLP, while IL-10 levels were assessed by ELISA. HPV was more prevalent among
      allele A carriers (p<0.001), with IL-10 c.-592C>A polymorphism being associated
      with HPV infection. As demonstrated by binary logistic regression analysis,
      heterozygotes [ORadj=2.081 95% CI (1.222-3.544), p=0.007] and homozygotes
      [ORadj=3.745 95% CI (1.695-8.271), p=0.001] showed approximately 2 and 4 time's
      greater odds, respectively, of presenting HPV when compared to CC patients.
      Moreover, HPV infected patients carrying polymorphic allele A showed higher IL-10
      cervical levels (p=0.039). Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that
      IL-10 cervical levels were not independently associated to CA+AA genotypes
      (p=0.162), neither to HPV's presence (p=0.061), thus IL-10 cervical levels are
      possibly increased because of both HPV and allele A presence. Taken together,
      these findings suggest that IL-10 c.-592C>A polymorphism is independently
      associated with HPV infection susceptibility exerting influence on IL-10 cervical
      levels in HPV infected women, thus contributing to cervical carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28552690
TI  - Coloaded Nanoparticles of Paclitaxel and Piperlongumine for Enhancing Synergistic
      Antitumor Activities and Reducing Toxicity.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop a nanocarrier system for codelivery of
      paclitaxel (PTX) and piperlongumine (PL) and investigate the therapeutic
      potential of improving efficacy and reducing toxicity. PTX and PL were formulated
      into poly lactic-co-glycolic acid and D-alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol
      succinate via organic solvent evaporation method. The average diameter was 117.1
      +/- 1.9 nm, and the zeta potential was -43.25 +/- 2.76 mV. PL facilitated the
      cellular uptake of PTX, and the increased cytotoxicity was similarly displayed.
      The formulation with the PTX/PL concentration ratio at 1:200 showed the best
      antitumor activity, the IC50 of PTX were 5.10 +/- 0.08 nM in HepG2 cells, and
      3.79 +/- 1.01 nM in Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 cells. Correspondingly, the
      combination index was 0.79 and 0.76. Furthermore, intracellular uptake of PTX
      toward HepG2 cells in coencapsulated nanoparticles was significantly more than
      free solution. In addition, the antitumor effect of PTX/PL-PTNPs in the HepG2
      xenograft tumor model suggested that the nanoparticles showed a higher antitumor
      efficacy with reduced toxicity to other tissues compared with free PTX. In
      summary, the results indicated that PTX/PL-PTNPs processed well characteristics
      and enhanced its therapeutic efficacy; thus, this delivery system could be
      clinically effective for treatment of cancers.

PMID- 28552691
TI  - Identification of Bile Acids Responsible for Inhibiting the Bile Salt Export
      Pump, Leading to Bile Acid Accumulation and Cell Toxicity in Rat Hepatocytes.
AB  - Inhibition of bile salt export pump (BSEP) causes hepatic accumulation of toxic
      bile acid (BA), leading to hepatocyte death. We reported a sandwich-cultured
      hepatocyte (SCH)-based model that can estimate potential cholestatic compounds by
      assessing their ability to induce hepatotoxicity in combination with a titrated
      amount of human 12 BA species. However, there is little information about the
      specific BAs responsible for hepatotoxicity, when BSEP is inhibited. This study
      measured the accumulation of each BA in rat SCHs in the presence of 10 MUM
      cyclosporine A (CsA), which only inhibits BSEP, and 50 MUM CsA, which further
      inhibits basolateral BA efflux transporters. The accumulation of all BAs (not
      significant for deoxycholic acid [DCA]) was observed in the presence of 10 MUM
      CsA. In particular, 3 BAs (chenodeoxycholic acid [CDCA], DCA, and glyco-DCA
      [GDCA]) showed increased toxicity in the presence of 10 MUM CsA, whereas the
      other BAs did not. In addition to these BAs, taurolithocholic acid, glyco-CDCA,
      and glycocholic acid showed increased toxicity in the presence of 50 MUM CsA, but
      additional accumulation of these BAs could not be observed. These results
      indicate the inhibiting BSEP results in the accumulation of CDCA, GDCA, and
      partially DCA, thereby resulting in hepatotoxicity.

PMID- 28552692
TI  - A Combinatorial Statistical Design Approach to Optimize the Nanostructured
      Cubosomal Carrier System for Oral Delivery of Ubidecarenone for Management of
      Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity: In Vitro-In Vivo Investigations.
AB  - Present work aims to optimize and characterize orally administered, ubidecarenone
      (UDC)-loaded glycerylmonooleate-based cubosome (GCBMs) and phytantriol based
      cubosomes (PCBMs) for effective management of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity
      and to enhance bioavailability of UDC. Formulations optimized using statistical
      hybrid-design approach exhibited particle size of 152.0 +/- 1.78 and 248.8 +/-
      1.83 nm, polydispersity index of 0.183 +/- 0.021 and 0.225 +/- 0.018 with zeta
      potential of -26.8 +/- 0.76 and -23.3 +/- 0.22 mV and percentage entrapment
      efficiency (% EE) of 92.3 +/- 4.99% and 94.7 +/- 5.67%, for GCBMs and PCBMs,
      respectively. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed agreement
      with the particle size and shows the discrete cubic geometry of particles, while
      small-angle X-ray scattering analysis confirmed the primitive (Im3m) and diamond
      (Pn3m) type crystalline cubic self-assemble structure of the particles. The
      comparative bioavailability profiles of UDC from GCBMs and PCBMs (AUC0->infinity
      = 19,546.8 +/- 512.88 ng.h/L for GCBMs and 27,961.99 +/- 602.46 ng.h/L for PCBMs)
      were approximately 6.5- and 7.0-fold higher than that of UDC suspension (AUC0
      >infinity = 3132.806 +/- 405.44 ng.h/L). Cardioprotective assessment showed a
      significant increase in superoxide dismutase and beta-glutathione peroxidase
      levels, while a decrease in the level of catalase, creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme,
      lactate dehydrogenase, and lipid peroxidation was observed in animals pre-treated
      with developed CBMs. Histopathology studies revealed no significant damage,
      infiltrated cells, and signs of fibrosis in the CBM-treated groups.

PMID- 28552693
TI  - Preface to the Special Issue on 4-Hydroxynonenal and Related Lipid Oxidation
      Products.

PMID- 28552694
TI  - Mesna (2-mercaptoethane sodium sulfonate) functions as a regulator of
      myeloperoxidase.
AB  - Myeloperoxidase (MPO), an abundant protein in neutrophils, monocytes, and
      macrophages, is thought to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of various
      disorders ranging from cardiovascular diseases to cancer. We show that mesna (2
      mercaptoethanesulfonic acid sodium salt), a detoxifying agent, which inhibits
      side effects of oxazaphosphorine chemotherapy, functions as a potent inhibitor of
      MPO; modulating its catalytic activity and function. Using rapid kinetic methods,
      we examined the interactions of mesna with MPO compounds I and II and ferric
      forms in the presence and absence of chloride (Cl-), the preferred substrate of
      MPO. Our results suggest that low mesna concentrations dramatically influenced
      the build-up, duration, and decay of steady-state levels of Compound I and
      Compound II, which is the rate-limiting intermediate in the classic peroxidase
      cycle. Whereas, higher mesna concentrations facilitate the porphyrin-to-adjacent
      amino acid electron transfer allowing the formation of an unstable transient
      intermediate, Compound I*, that displays a characteristic spectrum similar to
      Compound I. In the absence of plasma level of chloride, mesna not only
      accelerated the formation and decay of Compound II but also reduced its stability
      in a dose depend manner. Mesna competes with Cl-, inhibiting MPO's chlorinating
      activity with an IC50 of 5uM, and switches the reaction from a 2e- to a 1e-
      pathway allowing the enzyme to function only with catalase-like activity. A
      kinetic model which shows the dual regulation through which mesna interacts with
      MPO and regulates its downstream inflammatory pathways is presented further
      validating the repurposing of mesna as an anti-inflammatory drug.

PMID- 28552695
TI  - Identification of novel human renin inhibitors through a combined approach of
      pharmacophore modelling, molecular DFT analysis and in silico screening.
AB  - Renin is an aspartyl protease of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and the first
      enzyme of the biochemical pathway for the generation of angiotensin II - a potent
      vasoconstrictor involved in the maintenance of cardiovascular homeostasis and the
      regulation of blood pressure. High enzymatic specificity of renin and its
      involvement in the catalysis of the rate-limiting step of the RAS hormone system
      qualify it as a good target for inhibition of hypertension and other associated
      diseases. Ligand-based pharmacophore model (Hypo1) was generated from a training
      set of 24 compounds with renin inhibitory activity. The best hypothesis consisted
      of one Hydrogen Bond Acceptor (HBA), three Hydrophobic Aliphatic (HY-Al) and one
      Ring Aromatic (AR) features. This well-validated pharmacophore hypothesis
      (correlation coefficient 0.95) was further utilized as a 3D query to screen
      database compounds, which included structures from two natural product
      repositories. These screened compounds were further analyzed for drug-likeness
      and ADMET studies. The compounds which satisfied the qualifying criteria were
      then subjected to molecular docking and Density Functional Theory (DFT) analysis
      in order to discern their atomic level interactions at the active site of the 3D
      structure of rennin. The pharmacophore-based modelling that has been used to
      generate the novel findings of the present study would be an avant-garde approach
      towards the development of potent inhibitors of renin.

PMID- 28552696
TI  - A Novel Tool for Deformity Surgery Planning: Determining the Magnitude of
      Lordotic Correction Required to Achieve a Desired Sagittal Vertical Axis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We sought to create a model capable of predicting the magnitude of
      pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) correction necessary to achieve a
      desired change in sagittal vertical axis (SVA). METHODS: A retrospective review
      was conducted of a prospectively maintained multicenter adult spinal deformity
      database collected by the International Spine Study Group between 2009 and 2014.
      The independent variable of interest was the degree of correction achieved in the
      PI-LL mismatch 6 weeks after surgery. Primary outcome was the change in global
      sagittal alignment 6 weeks and 1 year after surgery. We used a linear mixed
      effects model to determine the extent to which corrections in the PI-LL
      relationship affected postoperative changes in SVA. RESULTS: A total of 1053
      adult patients were identified. Of these patients, 590 were managed surgically.
      Eighty-seven surgically managed patients were excluded because of incomplete or
      missing PI-LL measurements on follow-up; the remaining 503 patients were selected
      for inclusion. For each degree of improvement in the PI-LL mismatch at 6 weeks,
      the SVA decreased by 2.18 mm (95% confidence interval, -2.56, -1.79; P < 0.01)
      and 1.67 mm (95% confidence interval, -2.07, -1.27; P < 0.01) at 6 weeks and 12
      months, respectively. A high SVA measurement (>50 mm) 1 year after surgery was
      negatively associated with health-related quality of life as measured by the
      Scoliosis Research Society 22 outcomes assessment. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a
      novel model that shows how surgical correction of the PI-LL relationship affects
      postoperative changes in SVA. This model may enable surgeons to determine
      preoperatively the amount of LL necessary to achieve a desired change in SVA.

PMID- 28552697
TI  - A New Sling Technique in Cervical Radiculopathy Caused by Vertebral Artery Loop
      Compression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A 52-year-old woman had a 20-month history of progressive radiating
      pain in the left arm and numbness on C7 dermatome. CASE DESCRIPTION: On physical
      examination, left head rotation aggravated the radiculopathic pain. For an
      anatomic diagnosis of the vertebral artery and nerve root, magnetic resonance
      angiography was performed (computed tomography angiography was not possible
      because of her dye allergy history). Magnetic resonance angiography showed a left
      vertebral artery loop entering at the C6-7 intervertebral foramen. Surgical
      microvascular decompression was performed by an anterior cervical approach and
      the loop of the artery was fixed using a sling technique. Postoperative computed
      tomography angiography showed that the left vertebral artery was retracted
      anteriorly and the C7 nerve root was decompressed in the intervertebral foramen
      at the left C6-7 level. CONCLUSIONS: The patient's radiculopathic symptoms were
      improved and especially the aggravated pain by left head rotation subsided
      dramatically.

PMID- 28552698
TI  - A Novel Approach for Percutaneous Vertebroplasty Based on Preoperative Computed
      Tomography-Based Three-Dimensional Model Design.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe a new technique for the efficient use of preoperative
      planning based on preoperative computed tomography-based three-dimensional (3D)
      model design for percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) in a patient with osteoporotic
      vertebral compression fracture. METHODS: A 76-year-old woman with acute
      osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (L1 level) accepted a novel precise
      PVP. A 3D model of thoracolumbar vertebrae (T12-L2) based on preoperative
      computed tomography scanning data and a simulative PVP (via a bilateral
      transpedicular approach) were built in MIMICS (Materialise Interactive Medical
      Image Control System) software. With the help of 3 radiopaque markers located at
      the skin of the back and preoperative digital design by MIMICS, bilateral skin
      entry points, needles direction including abduction angle and head inclination
      angle, and needle insertion depth were established. RESULTS: During surgery, only
      1 shot of fluoroscopy was required to confirm the skin entry points. The
      operation took only about 23 minutes and total patient exposure dose was 4.5 mSv.
      The intraoperative radiologic results showed that the cement distribution in the
      L1 vertebra was good without any puncture-related complications. The patient's
      visual analog scale score improved from 9 points preoperatively to 2 points
      postoperatively. The patient's preoperative Oswestry Disability Index score was
      80 points, which improved to 57.8 points postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: The novel
      precise PVP based on preoperative 3D model design allows 1) visualization of the
      morphology of the fractured vertebral body, 2) increased precision of puncture
      with decreasing incidence of puncture-related complications and reduced radiation
      exposure, and 3) less operation time, decreasing the learning curve of beginners
      with limited experience.

PMID- 28552699
TI  - The Impact of Kidney Disease on Acute Tubular Necrosis and Surgical Site
      Infection After Lumbar Fusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kidney disease in spine surgery can be associated with serious
      complications. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the rate of acute tubular necrosis (ATN)
      and surgical site infection (SSI) after lumbar fusion in patients with kidney
      disease. METHODS: A review of the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2002 to
      2011 was performed to identify patients who underwent lumbar fusion for
      degenerative spine disease or disk herniation. Four groups were established: no
      kidney disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and
      posttransplant. A multivariate analysis was performed to control for age, sex,
      and comorbidities. RESULTS: A total of 268,158 patients met the criteria; 263,757
      with no kidney disease (98.4%), 3576 with CKD (1.3%), 586 with ESRD (0.2%), and
      239 posttransplant (0.1%). Rates of ATN were 0.1%, 2.9%, 3.6%, and 0.0% for the 4
      groups, respectively (P < 0.001). Rates of SSI were 0.3%, 0.4%, 1.0%, and 0.0%,
      respectively (P = 0.002). After controlling for patient age, sex, and medical
      comorbidities, patients with CKD (odds ratio [OR], 5.42; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 4.14-7.09; P < 0.001) and ESRD (OR, 6.32; 95% CI, 3.89-10.33; P < 0.001)
      were significantly more likely to develop ATN compared with patients without
      kidney disease. However, CKD (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.20-3.12; P = 0.754) or ESRD
      (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 0.38-10.00; P = 0.415) did not increase the risk for SSI on
      multivariate analysis. DISCUSSION: The rate of ATN significantly increases based
      on severity of kidney disease. However, patients with transplants have ATN and
      SSI rates comparable with patients without kidney disease.

PMID- 28552700
TI  - Analysis of Factors Related to Hypopituitarism in Patients with Nonsellar
      Intracranial Tumor.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have suggested that postoperative hypopituitarism in
      patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors is caused by traumatic surgery.
      However, with development of minimally invasive and precise neurosurgical
      techniques, the degree of injury to brain tissue has been reduced significantly,
      especially for parenchymal tumors. Therefore, understanding preexisting
      hypopituitarism and related risk factors can improve perioperative management for
      patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors. METHODS: Chart data were collected
      retrospectively from 83 patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors admitted to
      our hospital from May 2014 to April 2015. Pituitary function of each subject was
      determined based on results of preoperative serum pituitary hormone analysis.
      Univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods were used to analyze
      relationships between preoperative hypopituitarism and factors including age,
      sex, history of hypertension and secondary epilepsy, course of disease, tumor
      mass effect, site of tumor, intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebrospinal fluid
      content, and pituitary morphology. RESULTS: A total of 30 patients (36.14%)
      presented with preoperative hypopituitarism in either 1 axis or multiple axes; 23
      (27.71%) were affected in 1 axis, and 7 (8.43%) were affected in multiple axes.
      Univariate analysis showed that risk factors for preoperative hypopituitarism in
      patients with a nonsellar intracranial tumor include an acute or subacute course
      (<=3 months), intracranial hypertension (ICP >200 mm H2O), and mass effect (P <
      0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that mass effect is an
      independent risk factor for preoperative hypopituitarism in patients with
      nonsellar intracranial tumors (P < 0.05; odds ratio, 3.197). CONCLUSIONS:
      Prevalence of hypopituitarism is high in patients with nonsellar intracranial
      tumors. The occurrence of hypopituitarism is correlated with factors including an
      acute or subacute course (<=3 months), intracranial hypertension (ICP >200 mm
      H2O), and mass effect (P < 0.05). Mass effect is an independent risk factor for
      hypopituitarism.

PMID- 28552701
TI  - Formulation of a Three-Tier Cisternal Grade as a Predictor of In-Hospital Outcome
      from a Prospective Study of Patients with Traumatic Intracranial Hematoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Outcome prediction is of paramount importance in traumatic brain
      injury. Our objective of conducting this prospective study was to identify the
      predictors needed to formulate a prognostic score. METHODS: Clinical and
      radiologic characteristics of 100 patients with traumatic intracranial hematoma
      were analyzed. Key measurements were taken in the midbrain and pontine regions
      and the status of each of the 9 basal cisterns was noted, by giving a score of 1
      if they were visible and 0 if not. All the predictors were analyzed for outcome.
      RESULTS: Total cisternal score was found to be an independent predictor of
      outcome. A grade was formulated by dividing the score into 3 levels. CONCLUSIONS:
      The model based on cisternal status described in the study is technically simple
      and conveys the information regarding the outcome to the treating neurosurgeon.
      Because the score obtained seems to have low interobserver variation, we believe
      that it can be a useful tool not only in recording data in case files and
      interphysician communication but also in research into traumatic brain injury.

PMID- 28552702
TI  - Struggling to maintain individuality - Describing the experience of food in
      nursing homes for people with dementia.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To describe the food and dining experience of people with
      cognitive impairment and their family members in nursing homes. DESIGN AND
      METHODS: Interviews and focus groups with people with cognitive impairment and
      their family members (n=19). Thematic analysis was undertaken using NVivo10 data
      analysis software package to determine key themes. RESULTS: The main themes
      identified tracked a journey for people with cognitive impairment in nursing
      homes, where they initially sought to have their individual needs and preferences
      recognised and heard, expressed frustration as they perceived growing barriers to
      receiving dietary care which met their preferences, and ultimately described a
      deterioration of the amount of control and choice available to the individual
      with loss of self-feeding ability and dysphagia. IMPLICATIONS: Further
      consideration of how to incorporate individualised dietary care is needed to
      fully implement person-centred care and support the quality of life of those
      receiving nursing home care.

PMID- 28552703
TI  - Phenotype of a leaf beetle larva depends on host plant quality and previous test
      experience.
AB  - Phenotypic expressions of insects are strongly dependent on various external and
      internal factors, like diet or density and age or sex. However, environmental
      effects on the behavioural phenotype and repeatability are rather unexplored for
      holometabolous insects in their larval stage. We examined the effects of the food
      environment (young versus old cabbage leaves) and previous test experience on
      growth and behaviour of Phaedon cochleariae larvae. A more nutritious diet, i.e.,
      young leaves, had beneficial consequences on larval growth. Contrary to findings
      on adults, the behaviour of larvae was neither consistent over time nor across
      contexts, thus larvae did not show personality. Furthermore, larval behaviour was
      shaped independent of the diet, pointing to a stage-dependent receptivity towards
      diet conditions in this species. Besides, larval activity was significantly
      influenced by former test experience, with naive larvae being more active than
      previously tested larvae. In general, in insects memories in an olfactory or
      sexual behaviour context can lead to behavioural responses later in life.
      Mechanisms of memory-learning should be further explored in different contexts in
      insects. Overall, the present study reveals that growth-related traits are diet
      dependent and that the activity of a holometabolous larva is shaped in dependence
      of its previous test experience.

PMID- 28552705
TI  - Metabolic costs of the mechanical components of the apparent specific dynamic
      action in the Dungeness crab, Cancer magister.
AB  - The specific dynamic action (SDA) describes the postprandial increase in
      metabolism. It is a composite of mechanical and chemical digestion, nutrient
      transport and protein synthesis. How these individual events contribute to the
      overall SDA has not been worked out fully for any organism. The mechanical events
      associated with the SDA were investigated in Dungeness crabs, Cancer magister.
      Following consumption of a meal, oxygen consumption (MO2) remained elevated for
      several hours. When the crabs were presented with fish scent there was a 2 fold
      increase in MO2, which rapidly decreased once the stimulus was removed. Crabs
      were then offered fish in a perforated tube. There was a rapid increase in MO2
      associated with handling which returned to pre-treatment levels within an hour of
      removal of the tube. Finally the crabs were fed a piece of foam that had been
      soaked in fish water to determine the costs of mechanical digestion. The
      mechanical breakdown of the meal accounted for 29.9+/-3.3% of the overall SDA.
      Since food handling produced a large increase in MO2, it was reinvestigated using
      crabs that had one or both claws removed. Although there were no statistically
      significant differences as a function of claw removal there was a consistent
      trend in the data. The maximum MO2, scope, duration and SDA increased from
      animals with 0 claws through 1 claw to 2 claws. The results showed that the
      mechanical portion of the SDA can account for a significant portion of the
      overall budget in decapod crustaceans.

PMID- 28552704
TI  - Amylin receptor activation in the ventral tegmental area reduces motivated
      ingestive behavior.
AB  - Amylin is produced in the pancreas and the brain, and acts centrally to reduce
      feeding and body weight. Recent data show that amylin can act in the ventral
      tegmental area (VTA) to reduce palatable food intake and promote negative energy
      balance, but the behavioral mechanisms by which these effects occur are not fully
      understood. The ability of VTA amylin signaling to reduce intake of specific
      palatable macronutrients (fat or carbohydrate) was tested in rats in several
      paradigms, including one-bottle acceptance tests, two-bottle choice tests, and a
      free-choice diet. Data show that VTA amylin receptor activation with the amylin
      receptor agonist salmon calcitonin (sCT) preferentially and potently reduces
      intake of fat, with more variable suppression of sucrose intake. Intake of a non
      nutritive sweetener is also decreased by intra-VTA administration of sCT. As
      several feeding-related signals that act in the mesolimbic system also impact
      motivated behaviors besides feeding, we tested the hypothesis that the
      suppressive effects of amylin signaling in the VTA extend to other motivationally
      relevant stimuli. Results show that intra-VTA sCT reduces water intake in
      response to central administration of the dipsogenic peptide angiotensin II, but
      has no effect on ad libitum water intake in the absence of food. Importantly,
      open field and social interaction studies show that VTA amylin signaling does not
      produce anxiety-like behaviors. Collectively, these findings reveal a novel
      ability of VTA amylin receptor activation to alter palatable macronutrient
      intake, and also demonstrate a broader role of VTA amylin signaling for the
      control of motivated ingestive behaviors beyond feeding.

PMID- 28552706
TI  - Mother-young recognition in goitered gazelle during hiding period.
AB  - The mother-young recognition process is crucial for the growth and survival of
      progeny. In "follower" ungulate species, vocal and visual cues have been found to
      play a leading role in the mother-young identification process from the first
      days postpartum, with olfactory cues also important in establishing the initial
      selective mother-young bond immediately after birth. In "hider" species, however,
      much less has been documented of mother-young recognition behaviors, especially
      in their natural habitat. In this paper, we investigated this process in goitered
      gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), a typical hider species, in its native
      environment in Kazakhstan. Over the course of our study period, we investigated
      the behaviors of 257 females with twins and 158 females with singles through
      visual observations. We found that within the first month after birth, when
      females spend only a short time with their young, mothers recognized their fawns
      using mostly olfactory cues, while vision was used to locate their hiding
      offspring. Fawns vocalized very rarely, producing only distress calls that did
      not seem intended for individual identification. Licking of young by their
      mothers was observed frequently, not only during the first week after birth, when
      this action was very important for fawn stimulation for a number of physiological
      functions, but for several weeks after (until one month of age), when licking
      lost its physiological importance and likely became more of a recognition
      procedure. Fawns did not recognize their mothers at all, either through vision or
      vocalizations, since during their first weeks after birth, they responded to any
      gazelle that approached their hiding area. By a month after birth, when mothers
      and fawns began to stay together for longer periods of time, their recognition
      process became more enhanced, and in addition to olfactory cues, the mother and
      her young began to use more and more visual cues for longer distance
      identification, as well as vocalizations for shorter distances. Similar dynamics
      are likely typical for most hiding species, although information for wild
      ungulates is still very limited, especially for those with strong hider
      behaviors.

PMID- 28552707
TI  - Flexibility in the social behavior of captive female capybaras (Mammalia,
      Rodentia).
AB  - Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) lives in stable groups composed of adult
      males and females with their young. The species shows flexibility in social
      organization in response to short-term environmental changes, but apparently does
      not show flexibility in social behavior. To gain insights into mechanisms
      underlying changes in social relationships, we analyzed the social dominance
      hierarchy of five captive capybara groups, composed of four to 13 adult females
      kept in outdoor paddocks ranging from 400 to 4500m2. In addition, we evaluated
      the effects of group size and space allowance on two complementary properties of
      social structure: linearity and steepness. Captive female capybaras exhibit a
      linear social dominance hierarchy. There was also more predictability in the
      dominance success- hierarchical steepness - in the dominance hierarchy with a
      decrease in the space per individual. This variability in response to changing
      circumstances shows flexibility in capybara's social behavior.

PMID- 28552708
TI  - Recent Changes in Prostate Cancer Screening Practices and Epidemiology.
AB  - PURPOSE: Prostate specific antigen based screening for prostate cancer has had a
      significant impact on the epidemiology of the disease. Its use has been
      associated with a significant decrease in prostate cancer mortality but has also
      resulted in the over diagnosis and overtreatment of indolent prostate cancer,
      exposing many men to the harms of treatment without benefit. The USPSTF (U.S.
      Preventive Services Task Force) in 2008 issued a recommendation against screening
      men older than 75 years, and in 2012 against routine screening for all men,
      indicating that in its interpretation the harms of screening outweigh the
      benefits. We review changes in the use of prostate specific antigen testing,
      performance of prostate biopsy, incidence of prostate cancer and stage of disease
      at presentation since 2012. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An English language literature
      search was performed for terms that included "prostate specific antigen,"
      "screening" and "United States Preventive Services Task Force" in various
      combinations. A total of 26 original studies had been published on the effects of
      the USPSTF recommendations on prostate specific antigen based screening or
      prostate cancer incidence in the United States as of December 1, 2016. RESULTS:
      Review of the literature from 2012 through the end of 2016 indicates that there
      has been a decrease in prostate specific antigen testing and prostate biopsy. As
      a result, there has been a decline in the incidence of localized prostate cancer,
      including low, intermediate and high risk disease. The data regarding stage at
      presentation have yet to mature but there are some early signs of a shift toward
      higher burden of disease at presentation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings raise
      concern about a reversal of the observed improvement in prostate cancer specific
      mortality during preceding decades. Alternative screening strategies would 1)
      incorporate patient preferences by allowing shared decision-making, 2) preserve
      the survival benefits associated with screening, 3) improve the specificity of
      screening to reduce unnecessary biopsies and detection of low risk disease, and
      4) promote the use of active surveillance for low risk cancers if they are
      detected.

PMID- 28552709
TI  - Morbidity and Mortality of Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer: A Population Based
      Analysis Comparing Radical Prostatectomy versus External Beam Radiation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The management of locally advanced prostate cancer remains
      controversial. We compared the effect of primary external beam radiation therapy
      vs radical prostatectomy for locally advanced prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 2,935 elderly men 65 years
      old or older in the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results)-Medicare
      linked database who underwent external beam radiation therapy or radical
      prostatectomy for locally advanced prostate cancer. Propensity adjusted Cox
      proportional hazard and regression models were fit to examine urinary and
      gastrointestinal toxicities, the use of androgen deprivation therapy, and overall
      and prostate cancer specific mortality. RESULTS: A total of 1,429 men (48.69%)
      underwent radical prostatectomy and had a median followup of 11.47 years (IQR
      6.17-17.17) years. A total of 1,506 men (51.31%) received external beam radiation
      therapy and had a median followup of 7.04 years (IQR 4.11-10.51, p <0.001).
      Patients treated with radical prostatectomy were at significantly higher risk for
      urinary and sexual toxicities (HR 1.93, 95% CI 1.66-2.24 and HR 5.50, 95% CI 3.59
      8.42, respectively). However, they were at lower risk for gastrointestinal
      toxicities (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.65-0.86) than those treated with external beam
      radiation therapy. Radical prostatectomy was associated with lower odds of
      androgen deprivation therapy 5 years after primary treatment (OR 0.53, 95% CI
      0.41-0.69, p <0.001). External beam radiation therapy was associated with higher
      overall and prostate specific mortality (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.82 and HR 2.35,
      95% CI 1.85-2.98, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: We found significant toxicity and
      survival differences in elderly men who underwent primary external beam radiation
      therapy vs radical prostatectomy for locally advanced prostate cancer. While our
      findings must be interpreted within the limitations of studies that rely on
      administrative claims, they may yet help tailor individual therapies for elderly
      men who present with locally advanced prostate cancer.

PMID- 28552710
TI  - Clinical Outcomes and Testosterone Levels Following Continuous Androgen
      Deprivation in Patients with Relapsing or Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer: A
      Post Hoc Analysis of the ICELAND Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Lower serum testosterone levels correlate with improved cause specific
      survival and longer time to progression in year 1 of continuous androgen
      deprivation in men with prostate cancer. ICELAND was a large European study
      demonstrating the efficacy of leuprorelin (Eligard(r)) during continuous androgen
      deprivation. In this post hoc analysis we investigated serum testosterone levels
      within year 1 of continuous androgen deprivation to determine survival and time
      to progression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In ICELAND (ClinicalTrials.gov
      NCT00378690) patients with locally advanced or relapsing nonmetastatic prostate
      cancer and with prostate specific antigen 1 ng/ml or less following 6-month
      induction with leuprorelin 3-month depot 22.5 mg (plus bicalutamide 50 mg per day
      for 1 month) were randomized 1:1 to continuous androgen deprivation (361) or
      intermittent androgen deprivation (340) with leuprorelin for 36 months. Patients
      receiving continuous androgen deprivation were stratified by minimum, median and
      maximum testosterone levels during year 1 of therapy into 20 or less, greater
      than 20 to 50 and greater than 50 ng/dl subgroups. Cause specific survival and
      time to prostate specific antigen (castrate resistant prostate cancer)
      progression were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 90.1%, 83.5% and 74.5% of patients
      receiving continuous androgen deprivation achieved minimum, median and maximum
      serum testosterone levels of 20 ng/dl or less, respectively. Cause specific
      survival rates and time to prostate specific antigen progression did not differ
      among the testosterone subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: In patients receiving continuous
      androgen deprivation cause specific survival and time to prostate specific
      antigen progression did not differ according to testosterone levels in year 1 of
      therapy. This finding may in part be due to the induction period and the
      effectiveness of leuprorelin in lowering testosterone.

PMID- 28552711
TI  - ALA16VAL-MnSOD gene polymorphism and stroke: Association with dyslipidemia and
      glucose levels.
AB  - Stroke risk has been associated to the progression of carotid plaques due to high
      glucose levels and lipid accumulation, which are greatly associated to cerebral
      injury, brain oxidative stress, and apoptosis. The ALA16VAL-MnSOD gene single
      nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has shown to modulate risk factors of several
      metabolic and vascular diseases, such as blood glucose (GLU) and lipid levels.
      However, the association of these factors in stroke patients has not been studied
      to date. Thus, we evaluated the influence of the Ala16Val-MnSOD SNP on lipid
      profile, GLU levels, oxidative and DNA damage of 44 patients in a late phase of
      stroke (>6months). The statistical analysis showed a greater proportion of VV
      carries in stroke patients. The results also indicated that stroke patients had
      higher cholesterol (CHO) and GLU levels when compared to healthy counterparts.
      Interestingly, V allele carriers with stroke showed higher levels of CHO and GLU
      when compared to AA stroke and healthy counterparts. Our findings suggest that
      oxidative stress markers are still increased even after 6 months of cerebral
      injury. Furthermore, we propose that the Ala16Val-MnSOD SNPs may contribute to
      hypercholesterolemia and higher GLU levels, increasing the risk to neurovascular
      events that may lead to stroke.

PMID- 28552712
TI  - Identification of the conserved and novel microRNAs by deep sequencing and
      prediction of their targets in Topmouth culter.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding small RNAs that play important roles
      in regulation of almost all biological processes in organisms. Topmouth culter is
      an economically important fish species in the Chinese freshwater polyculture
      system for its delicacy and high economic value. However, to date, no miRNAs have
      been reported in Topmouth culter species. In this study, the liver, muscle,
      spleen and kidney of Topmouth culter are sampled and used for construction of a
      small RNA library for deep sequencing. A total of 273 conserved miRNAs/miRNAs
      star and 8 novel miRNAs/miRNAs-star were discovered, these miRNAs belong to 86
      different miRNA families. There is a strong base bias on miRNA nucleotide
      compositions at certain positions. U is the dominant nucleotide, particularly at
      the beginning, middle, and end of conserved miRNAs. The expression of all 8 novel
      identified miRNAs in Topmouth culter was validated by using stem-loop qRT-PCR.
      Furthermore, the potential targets were predicted for these miRNAs, which were
      found to be involved in diverse biological processes. Our study is the first
      significantly enriches the Topmouth culter miRNA repertoire and provides a
      reference for further elucidation of complex miRNA-mediated regulatory networks
      for gene expression in the growth and developmental progression of Topmouth
      culter.

PMID- 28552713
TI  - Mass spectrometric detection combined with bioinformatic analysis identified
      possible protein markers and key pathways associated with bladder cancer.
AB  - We aimed to find possible protein markers and key pathways related to bladder
      cancer. In total, we extracted three bladder cancer tissues and three
      paracancerous tissues from Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital Urology
      Department, and performed mass spectrometric detection with Q Exactive.
      Subsequently, we screened the differentially expressed proteins in the disease
      group and the normal group using the LIMMA package, and performed functional
      enrichment analyses using DAVID. Further, we constructed protein-protein
      interaction (PPI) networks with Cytoscape software, and analyzed modules with
      ClusterONE. In total, 165 differentially expressed proteins including 19
      upregulated and 146 downregulated ones were obtained. ACTA2 (Actin, Alpha 2,
      Smooth Muscle, Aorta), ACTN1 (Actinin, Alpha 1), and VCL (Vinculin) were
      significant nodes with higher degrees in the PPI network. These three nodes were
      also hub nodes in module 2. Besides, functional enrichment analysis suggested
      that ECM-receptor interaction and focal adhesion were significant pathways, and
      these two pathways were also enriched in three network modules. In addition,
      ACTN1 and VCL were enriched in the focal adhesion pathway in module 2. Thus,
      ACTA2, ACTN1, and VCL may play important roles in bladder cancer progression and
      may be protein markers for this disease. The ECM-receptor interaction pathway and
      the focal adhesion pathway may be involved in the progression of bladder cancer.
      Furthermore, ACTN1 and VCL may play roles in bladder cancer development, partly
      via the focal adhesion pathway.

PMID- 28552714
TI  - Genetic and environmental-genetic interaction rules for the myopia based on a
      family exposed to risk from a myopic environment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively assess the role of heredity and environmental
      factors in myopia based on the family with enough exposed to risk from myopic
      environment for establishment of environmental and genetic index (EGI). METHODS:
      A pedigree analysis unit was defined as one child (university student), father,
      and mother. Information pertaining to visual acuity, experience in participating
      in the college entrance examination in mainland of China (regarded as a strong
      environmental risk for myopia), and occupation for pedigree analysis units were
      obtained. The difference between effect of both genetic and environmental factors
      (myopia prevalence in children with two myopic parents) and environmental factors
      (myopia prevalence in children of whom neither parent was myopic) was defined as
      the EGI. Multiple regression analysis was performed for 114 pedigree using
      diopters of father, mother, average diopters in parents, maximum and minimum
      diopters in father and mother as variables. A total of 353 farmers and 162 farmer
      families were used as a control group. RESULTS: A distinct difference in myopia
      rate (96.2% versus 57.7%) was observed for children from parents with myopia and
      parents without myopia (EGI=0.385). The maximum diopter was included to
      regression equation which was statistically significant. The prevalence of myopia
      was 9.9% in the farmer. The prevalence in children is similar between the farmer
      and other families. CONCLUSION: A new genetic rule that myopia in children was
      directly related with maximum diopters in father and mother may be suggested.
      Environmental factors may play a leading role in the formation of myopia.

PMID- 28552715
TI  - Influence of SCARB1 gene SNPs on serum lipid levels and susceptibility to
      coronary heart disease and cerebral infarction in a Chinese population.
AB  - The SCARB1 gene encodes human scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), the
      primary receptor for high-density lipoprotein (HDL)- cholesteryl ester uptake,
      and polymorphisms in this gene may influence SR-BI protein expression and serum
      lipid levels, modulating susceptibility to coronary heart disease (CHD) and
      cerebral infarction (CI). Therefore, we investigated the association between
      singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SCARB1 gene and serum lipid levels
      as well as risk of CHD and CI in the Chinese Han population. Genotypes in 295 CHD
      patients, 302 CI patients and 312 healthy controls matched for age and gender
      were determined by high-resolution melting (HRM). Among the 5 SNPs investigated
      in this study, rs10846744 and rs2278986 were significantly associated with CHD
      risk. The frequency of the C allele for rs10846744 and that of the T allele for
      rs2278986 appeared to be significantly increased in the CHD group (OR: 1.416,
      95%CI: 1.128-1.778, P=0.0058 and OR: 1.681, 95%CI: 1.327-2.130, P<0.0001,
      respectively). CHD patients with genotypes CC and CG for rs10846744 had a higher
      HDL-c level than those with genotype GG, and CHD patients with genotypes CC and
      CT for the rs2278986 SNP had a higher HDL-c level compared to those with the TT
      allele. The other 3 SNPs, rs5888, rs10744182 and rs838893, showed no significant
      association with serum lipid levels and CHD or CI risk in the Chinese population.
      The CCCTT and CCTTC haplotypes of rs5888, rs10846744, rs10744182, rs2278986 and
      rs838893 appear to significantly increase CHD risk, whereas the CGTTC, CCTCT and
      TGCTC haplotypes appear to significantly reduce risk. Overall, the CCTTC and
      TGTTC haplotypes acted as a significant risk for CI, with the CGCTC and CCCCT
      haplotypes conferring significantly reduced risk. These results suggest that
      SCARB1 gene polymorphisms may contribute to genetic susceptibility to CHD; in
      particular, the C allele of rs10846744 and the C allele of rs2278986 may serve as
      risk and protective factors for CHD, respectively.

PMID- 28552716
TI  - Nrf2 activation by tauroursodeoxycholic acid in experimental models of
      Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder, mainly
      characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars
      compacta. Although the cause of PD remains elusive, mitochondrial dysfunction and
      severe oxidative stress are strongly implicated in the cell death that
      characterizes the disease. Under oxidative stress, the master regulator of
      cellular redox status, nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), is
      responsible for activating the transcription of several cytoprotective enzymes,
      namely glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Nrf2 is a
      promising target to limit reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated damage in PD.
      Here, we show that tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) prevents both 1-methyl-4
      phenylpyridinium (MPP+)- and alpha-synuclein-induced oxidative stress, through
      Nrf2 activation, in SH-SY5Y cells. Additionally, we used C57BL/6 male mice
      treated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) to elucidate the
      effect of TUDCA in this in vivo model of PD. In vivo, TUDCA treatment increases
      the expression of Nrf2, Nrf2 stabilizer DJ-1, and Nrf2 downstream target
      antioxidant enzymes HO-1 and GPx. Moreover, we found that TUDCA enhances GPx
      activity in the brain. Altogether, our results suggest that TUDCA is a promising
      agent to limit ROS-mediated damage, in different models of PD acting, at least in
      part, through modulation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway. Therefore, TUDCA should
      be considered a promising therapeutic agent to be implemented in PD.

PMID- 28552717
TI  - Exploring acute-to-chronic neuropathic pain in rats after contusion spinal cord
      injury.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes chronic pain in 65% of individuals.
      Unfortunately, current pain management is inadequate for many SCI patients.
      Rodent models could help identify how SCI pain develops, explore new treatment
      strategies, and reveal whether acute post-SCI morphine worsens chronic pain.
      However, few studies explore or compare SCI-elicited neuropathic pain in rats.
      Here, we sought to determine how different clinically relevant contusion SCIs in
      male and female rats affect neuropathic pain, and whether acute morphine worsens
      later chronic SCI pain. First, female rats received sham surgery, or 150kDyn or
      200kDyn midline T9 contusion SCI. These rats displayed modest mechanical
      allodynia and long-lasting thermal hyperalgesia. Next, a 150kDyn (1s dwell)
      midline contusion SCI was performed in male and female rats. Interestingly,
      males, but not females showed SCI-elicited mechanical allodynia; rats of both
      sexes had thermal hyperalgesia. In this model, acute morphine treatment had no
      significant effect on chronic neuropathic pain symptoms. Unilateral SCIs can also
      elicit neuropathic pain that could be exacerbated by morphine, so male rats
      received unilateral T13 contusion SCI (100kDyn). These rats exhibited
      significant, transient mechanical allodynia, but not thermal hyperalgesia. Acute
      morphine did not exacerbate chronic pain. Our data show that specific rat
      contusion SCI models cause neuropathic pain. Further, chronic neuropathic pain
      elicited by these contusion SCIs was not amplified by our course of early post
      trauma morphine. Using clinically relevant rat models of SCI could help identify
      novel pain management strategies.

PMID- 28552718
TI  - Perampanel in the general population and in people with intellectual disability:
      Differing responses.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is a shortfall of suitably powered studies to provide evidence for
      safe prescribing of AEDs to people with Intellectual Disability (ID). We report
      clinically useful information on differences in response to Perampanel (PER)
      adjunctive treatment for refractory epilepsy between ID sub-groups and general
      population from the UK Ep-ID Research Register. METHOD: Pooled retrospective case
      notes data of consented people with epilepsy (PWE) prescribed PER from 6 UK
      centres was classified as per WHO guidance into groups of moderate -profound ID,
      mild ID and General population. Demographics, concomitant AEDs, starting and
      maximum dosage, exposure length, adverse effects, dropout rates, seizure type and
      frequency were collected. Group differences were reported as odds ratios
      estimated from univariable logistic regression models. RESULTS: Of the 144 PWE
      (General population 71, Mild ID 48, Moderate to profound ID 48) examined the
      association between withdrawal and ID type was marginally statistically
      significant (p=0.07). Moderate to profound ID PWE were less likely to come off
      PER compared to mild ID (OR=0.19, CI=0.04-0.92, p=0.04). Differences in mental
      health side effects by groups was marginally statistically significant (p=0.06).
      Over 50% seizure improvement was seen in 11% of General population, 24% mild ID
      and 26% Moderate to profound ID. CONCLUSIONS: PER seems safe in PWE with ID. It
      is better tolerated by PWE with Moderate to profound ID than PWE with higher
      functioning. Caution is advised when history of mental health problems is
      present. The standardised approach of the Ep-ID register UK used confirms that
      responses to AEDs by different ID groups vary between themselves and General
      population.

PMID- 28552719
TI  - Regulation of longevity by FGF21: Interaction between energy metabolism and
      stress responses.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a hormone-like member of FGF family which
      controls metabolic multiorgan crosstalk enhancing energy expenditure through
      glucose and lipid metabolism. In addition, FGF21 acts as a stress hormone induced
      by endoplasmic reticulum stress and dysfunctions of mitochondria and autophagy in
      several tissues. FGF21 also controls stress responses and metabolism by
      modulating the functions of somatotropic axis and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
      (HPA) pathway. FGF21 is a potent longevity factor coordinating interactions
      between energy metabolism and stress responses. Recent studies have revealed that
      FGF21 treatment can alleviate many age-related metabolic disorders, e.g.
      atherosclerosis, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some cardiovascular diseases. In
      addition, transgenic mice overexpressing FGF21 have an extended lifespan.
      However, chronic metabolic and stress-related disorders involving inflammatory
      responses can provoke FGF21 resistance and thus disturb healthy aging process.
      First, we will describe the role of FGF21 in interorgan energy metabolism and
      explain how its functions as a stress hormone can improve healthspan. Next, we
      will examine both the induction of FGF21 expression via the integrated stress
      response and the molecular mechanism through which FGF21 enhances healthy aging.
      Finally, we postulate that FGF21 resistance, similarly to insulin resistance,
      jeopardizes human healthspan and accelerates the aging process.

PMID- 28552720
TI  - Remote tissue conditioning - An emerging approach for inducing body-wide
      protection against diseases of ageing.
AB  - We have long accepted that exercise is 'good for us'; that - put more rigorously 
      moderate exercise is associated with not just aerobic fitness but also reduced
      morbidity and reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease and even
      malignancies. Caloric restriction (moderate hunger) and our exposure to dietary
      phytochemicals are also emerging as stresses which are 'good for us' in the same
      sense. This review focuses on an important extension of this concept: that stress
      localized within the body (e.g. in a limb) can induce resilience in tissues
      throughout the body. We describe evidence for the efficacy of two 'remote'
      protective interventions - remote ischemic conditioning and remote
      photobiomodulation - and discuss the mechanisms underlying their protective
      actions. While the biological phenomenon of remote tissue conditioning is only
      partially understood, it holds promise for protecting critical-to-life tissues
      while mitigating risks and practical barriers to direct conditioning of these
      tissues.

PMID- 28552722
TI  - A novel immuno-gold labeling protocol for nanobody-based detection of HER2 in
      breast cancer cells using immuno-electron microscopy.
AB  - Immuno-electron microscopy is commonly performed with the use of antibodies. In
      the last decade the antibody fragment indicated as nanobody (VHH or single domain
      antibody) has found its way to different applications previously done with
      conventional antibodies. Nanobodies can be selected to bind with high affinity
      and specificity to different antigens. They are small (molecular weight ca.
      15kDa) and are usually easy to produce in microorganisms. Here we have evaluated
      the feasibility of a nanobody binding to HER2 for application in immuno-electron
      microscopy. To obtain highest labeling efficiency combined with optimal
      specificity, different labeling conditions were analysed, which included nanobody
      concentration, fixation and blocking conditions. The obtained optimal protocol
      was applied for post-embedment labeling of Tokuyasu cryosections and for pre
      embedment labeling of HER2 for fluorescence microscopy and both transmission and
      scanning electron microscopy. We show that formaldehyde fixation after incubation
      with the anti-HER2 nanobody, improves labeling intensity. Among all tested
      blocking agents the best results were obtained with a mixture of cold water fish
      gelatine and acetylated bovine serum albumin, which prevented a-specific
      interactions causing background labeling while preserving specific interactions
      at the same time. In conclusion, we have developed a nanobody-based protocol for
      immuno-gold labeling of HER2 for Tokuyasu cryosections in TEM as well as for pre
      embedment gold labeling of cells for both TEM and SEM.

PMID- 28552721
TI  - Improved metrics for comparing structures of macromolecular assemblies determined
      by 3D electron-microscopy.
AB  - Recent developments in 3-dimensional electron microcopy (3D-EM) techniques and a
      concomitant drive to look at complex molecular structures, have led to a rapid
      increase in the amount of volume data available for biomolecules. This creates a
      demand for better methods to analyse the data, including improved scores for
      comparison, classification and integration of data at different resolutions. To
      this end, we developed and evaluated a set of scoring functions that compare 3D
      EM volumes. To test our scores we used a benchmark set of volume alignments
      derived from the Electron Microscopy Data Bank. We find that the performance of
      different scores vary with the map-type, resolution and the extent of overlap
      between volumes. Importantly, adding the overlap information to the local scoring
      functions can significantly improve their precision and accuracy in a range of
      resolutions. A combined score involving the local mutual information and overlap
      (LMI_OV) performs best overall, irrespective of the map category, resolution or
      the extent of overlap, and we recommend this score for general use. The local
      mutual information score itself is found to be more discriminatory than cross
      correlation coefficient for intermediate-to-low resolution maps or when the map
      size and density distribution differ significantly. For comparing map surfaces,
      we implemented two filters to detect the surface points, including one based on
      the 'extent of surface exposure'. We show that scores that compare surfaces are
      useful at low resolutions and for maps with evident surface features. All the
      scores discussed are implemented in TEMPy (http://tempy.ismb.lon.ac.uk/).

PMID- 28552723
TI  - Enhanced effect of folated pluronic F87-PLA/TPGS mixed micelles on targeted
      delivery of paclitaxel.
AB  - Targeted drug delivery systems have great potential to overcome the side effect
      and improve the bioavailability of conventional anticancer drugs. In order to
      further improve the antitumor efficacy of paclitaxel (PTX) loaded in folated
      Pluronic F87/poly(lactic acid) (FA-F87-PLA) micelles, D-alpha-tocopheryl
      poly(ethylene glycol) 1000 succinate (TPGS or Vitamin E TPGS) were added into FA
      F87-PLA to form FA-F87-PLA/TPGS mixed micelles. The LE of PTX-loaded mixed
      micelles (13.5%) was highest in the mass ratio 5 to 3 of FA-F87-PLA to TPGS. The
      in vitro cytotoxicity assays indicated that the IC50 values for free PTX
      injections, PTX-loaded FA-F87-PLA micelles and PTX-loaded FA-F87-PLA/TPGS mixed
      micelles after 72h of incubation were 1.52, 0.42 and 0.037mg/L, respectively. The
      quantitative cellular uptake of coumarin 6-loaded FA-F87-PLA/TPGS and FA-F87-PLA
      micelles showed that the cellular uptake efficiency of mixed micelles was higher
      for 2 and 4h incubation, respectively. In vivo pharmacokinetic studies found that
      the AUC of PTX-loaded FA-F87-PLA/TPGS mixed micelles is almost 1.4 times of that
      of PTX-loaded FA-F87-PLA micelles. The decreased particle size and inhibition of
      P-glycoprotein effect induced by the addition of TPGS could result in enhancing
      the cellular uptake and improving the antitumor efficiency of PTX-loaded FA-F87
      PLA/TPGS mixed micelles.

PMID- 28552724
TI  - Nano-liposomal entrapment of bioactive peptidic fraction from fish gelatin
      hydrolysate.
AB  - This study guided the potential of nanoliposomal vesicles for the encapsulation
      of an active peptidic fraction from the fish skin gelatin by enzymatic hydrolysis
      using alcalase. The average particle size of peptide-loaded nanoliposomes was
      found to be in the range 134-621nm, with a zeta-potential of 0.06-8.65mV and a
      polydispersity index of 0.27-0.49, when the initial peptide content was 0
      10mg/ml. The FTIR analysis showed that there was an effective hydrophobic
      interaction as well as hydrogen bonding between phosphatidylcholine and peptidic
      fraction. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) was remarkably influenced by peptide
      concentration and the maximum EE (84.5%) was achieved with 1mg/ml peptide
      concentration. A prolonged release of peptide from nanoliposomes was also
      observed as compared to free peptidic fraction. The results showed that the
      encapsulation of gelatin peptidic fraction using liposomal nanocarrier could
      represent a useful approach to overcome the issues associated with direct
      application of these antioxidant peptides in foodstuffs.

PMID- 28552725
TI  - The inhibitory effect of anti- tumor polysaccharide from Punica granatum on
      metastasis.
AB  - Galactomannan (PSP001) isolated from the fruit rind of Punica granatum was
      demonstrated as an excellent antioxidant, immunomodulatory and anticancer agent
      both in vitro and in vivo models. Since the most lethal and debilitating
      attribute of cancer cells is their ability to evolve to a state of malignancy,
      with key features like increased angiogenesis, invasion, migration, colony
      formation, and metastasis, the present study focused on evaluating the effects of
      the galactomannan on tumor and malignancy. PSP001 effectively reduced the
      neovascularization in chick embryos highlighting its potential as an angiogenic
      inhibitor. Furthermore, the invasion, migration and clonogenic capacity of human
      and murine cancer cells were dramatically inhibited by PSP001. Evaluation of the
      molecular mechanism of its unique potential revealed the down regulation of key
      players including VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 with marked elevation of TIMP-1 and TIMP
      2. The anti-metastatic potential of PSP001 tested in pulmonary metastasis C57BL/6
      mice model deciphered the combinatorial administration with vincristine
      deliberated better survival rates and decreased metastatic index. The angiogenic
      inhibition potential of PSP001 was further proved with peritoneal angiogenesis
      assay in BALB/c mice ascitic tumor model. The outcomes of the current
      investigation highlight the mode of action of antitumor galactomannan in the
      reduction of tumor malignancy.

PMID- 28552726
TI  - A new cold-adapted serine peptidase from Antarctic Lysobacter sp. A03: Insights
      about enzyme activity at low temperatures.
AB  - Currently, there is a great interest for customized biocatalysts that can supply
      the ongoing demand of industrial processes, but also deal with the growing
      concern about the environment. In this scenario, cold-adapted enzymes have
      features that make them very attractive for industrial and biotechnological
      purposes. Here, we describe A03Pep1, a new cold-adapted serine peptidase isolated
      from Lysobacter sp. A03 by screening a genomic library. The enzyme is synthesized
      as a large inactive prepropeptidase that, after intramolecular processing, gives
      rise to the active form, of 35kDa. The heterologous expression of A03Pep1 was
      carried out in E. coli cells harboring the vector pGEX-4T-2-a0301. Its activity
      was optimal at pH 9.0 and 40 degrees C, in the presence of 25mM Ca2+, which may
      contribute to the thermal stability of the enzyme. The 3D structure modelling
      predicted a less deep and more open binding pocket in A03Pep1 than that observed
      in the crystal structure of its mesophilic homologous AprV2, presumably as a way
      to enhance the probability of substrate binding at low temperatures. These
      results provide possible approaches in developing new biotechnologically relevant
      peptidases active at low to moderate temperatures.

PMID- 28552727
TI  - Disseminated intravascular coagulation caused by moojenactivase, a procoagulant
      snake venom metalloprotease.
AB  - Snake venom toxins that activate coagulation factors are key players in the
      process of venom-induced coagulopathy, and account for severe clinical
      manifestations. The present study applies a variety of biochemical,
      hematological, and histopathological approaches to broadly investigate the
      intravascular and systemic effects of moojenactivase (MooA), the first described
      PIIId subclass metalloprotease isolated from Bothrops sp. venom that activates
      coagulation factors. MooA induced consumption coagulopathy with high toxic
      potency, characterized by prolongation of prothrombin and activated partial
      thromboplastin time, consumption of fibrinogen and the plasma coagulation factors
      X and II, and thrombocytopenia. MooA promoted leukocytosis and expression of the
      proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha,
      accompanied by tissue factor-dependent procoagulant activity in peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells. This metalloprotease also caused intravascular hemolysis,
      elevated plasma levels of creatine kinase-MB, aspartate transaminase, and
      urea/creatinine, and induced morphopathological alterations in erythrocytes,
      heart, kidney, and lungs associated with thrombosis and hemorrhage. Diagnosis of
      MooA-induced disseminated intravascular coagulation represents an important
      approach to better understand the pathophysiology of Bothrops envenomation and
      develop novel therapeutic strategies targeting hemostatic disturbances.

PMID- 28552728
TI  - Can natural polymers assist in delivering insulin orally?
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is one of the most grave and lethal non communicable diseases.
      Insulin is normally used to medicate diabetes. Due to bioavailability issues, the
      most regular route of administration is through injection, which may pose
      compliance problems to treatment. The oral administration thus appears as a
      suitable alternative, but with several important problems. Low stability of
      insulin in the gastrointestinal tract and low intestinal permeation are some of
      the issues. Encapsulation of insulin into polymer-based particles emerges as a
      plausible strategy. Different encapsulation approaches and polymers have been
      used in this regard. Polymers with different characteristics from natural or
      synthetic origin have been assessed to attain this goal, with natural polymers
      being preferable. Natural polymers studied so far include chitosan, alginate,
      carrageenan, starch, pectin, casein, tragacanth, dextran, carrageenan, gelatine
      and cyclodextrin. While some promising knowledge and results have been gained, a
      polymeric-based particle system to deliver insulin orally has not been introduced
      onto the market yet. In this review, effectiveness of different natural polymer
      materials developed so far along with fabrication techniques are evaluated.

PMID- 28552729
TI  - Effect of blueberry agro-industrial waste addition to corn starch-based films for
      the production of a pH-indicator film.
AB  - Intelligent packaging is an emerging area of food technology that can provide
      better preservation and be of further convenience for consumers. It is
      recommended that biodegradable materials be used to develop low-impact designs
      for better packaging, which could benefit the environment by simply expanding
      their use to new areas. In this work, corn starch, glycerol and blueberry powder
      (with and without prior fruit bleaching) were used to produce films by casting.
      Blueberry powder, a co-product from juice processing, which is rich in
      anthocyanins, was added in the films to evaluate its potential as a colorimetric
      indicator, due to the ability of anthocyanin to change color when placed in an
      acidic or basic environment. After the films were immersed in different buffer
      solutions, visual color changes were observed, where the films became reddish at
      acidic pH and bluish at basic pH. The DeltaE* values were greater than 3,
      suggesting a visually perceptible change to the human eye. The samples with fruit
      bleaching (CB) were visually darker (lower luminance values), while the samples
      without bleaching (SB) had a lighter color and higher brightness, represented by
      larger L* values. These results indicate the potential of blueberry powder as a
      pH indicator for intelligent food packaging or even for sensing food
      deterioration.

PMID- 28552730
TI  - Searching for behavior relating to grey matter volume in a-priori defined right
      dorsal premotor regions: Lessons learned.
AB  - Recently, we showed that the functional heterogeneity of the right dorsal
      premotor (PMd) cortex could be better understood by dividing it into five
      subregions that showed different behavioral associations according to task-based
      activations studies. The present study investigated whether the revealed
      behavioral profile could be corroborated and complemented by a structural brain
      behavior correlation approach in two healthy adults cohorts. Grey matter volume
      within the five volumes of interest (VOI-GM) was computed using voxel-based
      morphometry. Associations between the inter-individual differences in VOI-GM and
      performance across a range of neuropsychological tests were assessed in the two
      cohorts with and without correction for demographical variables. Additional
      analyses were performed in random smaller subsamples drawn from each of the two
      cohorts. In both cohorts, correlation coefficients were low; only few were
      significant and a considerable number of correlations were counterintuitive in
      their directions (i.e., higher performance related to lower grey matter volume).
      Furthermore, correlation patterns were inconsistent between the two cohorts.
      Subsampling revealed that correlation patterns could vary widely across small
      samples and that negative correlations were as likely as positive correlations.
      Thus, the structural brain-behavior approach did not corroborate the functional
      profiles of the PMd subregions inferred from activation studies, suggesting that
      local recruitment by fMRI studies does not necessarily imply covariance of local
      structure with behavioral performance in healthy adults. We discuss the
      limitations of such studies and related recommendations for future studies.

PMID- 28552731
TI  - Safety issues associated with the use of nanoparticles in human body.
AB  - Nanotechnology has transformed the world by the introduction of a distinctive
      class of materials and products in a wide array of fields. It has contributed to
      the production of innovative materials and devices. Having unique advantages and
      domestic along with industrial applications, however, has raised the issue of
      safety for consumers, producers and environment. Having a comparative smaller
      dimension and other exclusive properties, nanoparticles have the ability to harm
      human body by interacting through various mechanisms. Here, we endeavoured to
      review and discuss the characteristics of nanoparticles relevant to their
      toxicity, conceivable exposure routes of nanoparticles to human body like skin
      contact, inhalation, and ingestion, and the basic approaches which can aid to
      control human exposures to toxic nanoparticles have been discussed.

PMID- 28552732
TI  - Integrating genome-wide association study and expression quantitative trait loci
      data identifies multiple genes and gene set associated with neuroticism.
AB  - Neuroticism is a fundamental personality trait with significant genetic
      determinant. To identify novel susceptibility genes for neuroticism, we conducted
      an integrative analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data of genome wide
      association study (GWAS) and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) study.
      GWAS summary data was driven from published studies of neuroticism, totally
      involving 170,906 subjects. eQTL dataset containing 927,753 eQTLs were obtained
      from an eQTL meta-analysis of 5311 samples. Integrative analysis of GWAS and eQTL
      data was conducted by summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR) analysis
      software. To identify neuroticism associated gene sets, the SMR analysis results
      were further subjected to gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The gene set
      annotation dataset (containing 13,311 annotated gene sets) of GSEA Molecular
      Signatures Database was used. SMR single gene analysis identified 6 significant
      genes for neuroticism, including MSRA (p value=2.27*10-10), MGC57346 (p
      value=6.92*10-7), BLK (p value=1.01*10-6), XKR6 (p value=1.11*10-6), C17ORF69 (p
      value=1.12*10-6) and KIAA1267 (p value=4.00*10-6). Gene set enrichment analysis
      observed significant association for Chr8p23 gene set (false discovery
      rate=0.033). Our results provide novel clues for the genetic mechanism studies of
      neuroticism.

PMID- 28552734
TI  - Melanocortin-4 receptor regulation of pain.
AB  - An increasingly high occurrence of chronic pain in patients highlights the
      importance of fundamental research. The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) regulation
      of pain has attracted much attention in recent years due to its high expression
      in the mammalian brain regions related to nociception and pain. This review is
      devoted to anatomic distribution of MC4R in the brain and interaction between
      MC4R and other pathways for pain modulation. The experimental evidence available
      at present had expanded our understanding of melanocortin-4 receptor regulation
      of pain. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Melanocortin Receptors
      - edited by Ya-Xiong Tao.

PMID- 28552733
TI  - FLT3 ligand regulates thymic precursor cells and hematopoietic stem cells through
      interactions with CXCR4 and the marrow niche.
AB  - Impaired immune reconstitution after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (HSCT) is attributed in part to impaired thymopoiesis. Recent data suggest that
      precursor input may be a point of regulation for the thymus. We hypothesized that
      administration of FLT3 ligand (FLT3L) would enhance thymopoiesis after adoptive
      transfer of aged, FLT3L-treated bone marrow (BM) to aged, Lupron-treated hosts by
      increasing murine HSC (Lin[minus]Sca1+c-Kit+ [LSK] cells) trafficking and
      survival. In murine models of aged and young hosts, we show that FLT3L enhances
      thymopoiesis in aged, Lupron-treated hosts through increased survival and export
      of LSK cells via CXCR4 regulation. In addition, we elucidate an underlying
      mechanism of FLT3L action on BM LSK cells-FLT3L drives LSK cells into the stromal
      niche using Hoescht (Ho) dye perimortem. In summary, we show that FLT3L
      administration leads to: (1) increased LSK cells and early thymocyte progenitor
      precursors that can enhance thymopoiesis after transplantation and androgen
      withdrawal, (2) mobilization of LSK cells through downregulation of CXCR4, (3)
      enhanced BM stem cell survival associated with Bcl-2 upregulation, and (4) BM
      stem cell enrichment through increased trafficking to the BM niche. Therefore, we
      show a mechanism by which FLT3L activity on hematopoeitic and thymic progenitor
      cells may contribute to thymic recovery. These data have potential clinical
      relevance to enhance thymic reconstitution after cytoreductive therapy.

PMID- 28552735
TI  - N-cadherin regulates signaling mechanisms required for lens fiber cell elongation
      and lens morphogenesis.
AB  - Tissue development and regeneration involve high-ordered morphogenetic processes
      that are governed by elements of the cytoskeleton in conjunction with cell
      adhesion molecules. Such processes are particularly important in the lens whose
      structure dictates its function. Studies of our lens-specific N-cadherin
      conditional knockout mouse (N-cadcKO) revealed an essential role for N-cadherin
      in the migration of the apical tips of differentiating lens fiber cells along the
      apical surfaces of the epithelium, a region termed the Epithelial Fiber Interface
      (EFI), that is necessary for normal fiber cell elongation and the morphogenesis.
      Studies of the N-cadcKO lens suggest that N-cadherin function in fiber cell
      morphogenesis is linked to the activation of Rac1 and myosin II, both signaling
      pathways central to the regulation of cell motility including determining the
      directionality of cellular movement. The absence of N-cadherin did not disrupt
      lateral contacts between fiber cells during development, and the maintenance of
      Aquaporin-0 and increased expression of EphA2 at cell-cell interfaces suggests
      that these molecules may function in this role. E-cadherin was maintained in
      newly differentiating fiber cells without interfering with expression of lens
      specific differentiation proteins but was not able to replace N-cadherin function
      in these cells. The dependence of migration of the fiber cell apical domains
      along the EFI for lens morphogenesis on N-cadherin provides new insight into the
      process of tissue development.

PMID- 28552736
TI  - Analysis of Prognostic Factors, Survival Rates, and Treatment in Anaplastic
      Hemangiopericytoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to identify prognostic factors in anaplastic
      hemangiopericytoma (AHPC) and clinical behaviors that differentiate primary and
      secondary AHPC. METHODS: The clinical data associated with 52 cases of AHPC that
      were surgically treated between 2008 and 2015 were reviewed. The patients were
      classified into the following 2 groups: primary AHPC (AHPC diagnosed at the first
      surgery) and secondary AHPC (malignant transformation from a lower-grade tumor).
      RESULTS: The study included 27 men and 25 women. The participants had a mean age
      of 43 years old. The 3- and 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were
      63.4% and 53.5%, respectively, and the corresponding overall survival rates were
      78.7% and 70.9%, respectively. At the final follow-up, there were 22 (42.3%)
      recurrences, 4 (7.7%) extracranial metastases, and 11 (21.2%) deaths. On the
      basis of multivariate analysis, primary AHPC (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.293, 95% CI
      0.122-0.705) and postoperative radiotherapy (PRT) (HR = 0.372, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.148-0.932; P = 0.035) were significantly associated with
      increased PFS, and gross total resection (HR = 3.512, 95% CI 1.060-11.634; P =
      0.040) and PRT (HR = 0.165, 95% CI 0.035-0.771; P = 0.022) were independent
      favorable factors for overall survival. CONCLUSION: Gross total resection and PRT
      following surgery are recommended in AHPC. Identifying clinical behaviors that
      differentiate primary and secondary AHPC improved our understanding of this type
      of tumor and guided treatment strategies.

PMID- 28552737
TI  - Association of Different Stenting Procedures with Symptomatic Thromboembolic
      Complications in Stent-Assisted Coiling of Ruptured Wide-Necked Intracranial
      Aneurysms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the association of different stenting
      procedures with the procedure-related complications in stent-assisted coiling
      (SAC) of ruptured wide-necked aneurysms. METHODS: Consecutive patients undergoing
      SAC of ruptured wide-necked aneurysms were retrospectively reviewed between
      December 2011 and June 2016. They received 1 of the 3 stenting procedures during
      SAC: 1) the coiling microcatheter was "jailed" outside of the stent and the coil
      embolization proceeded above the stent; 2) initial stent deployment followed by
      the coils through the stent's strut technique; or 3) the coil-then-stent
      technique. The effect of different stenting procedures on clinical complications
      and outcomes was estimated by logistic regression models. RESULTS: Of the 93
      patients enrolled in this study, 11 of them (11.8%) suffered from symptomatic
      thromboembolic events and 10 of them (10.8%) had hemorrhagic complications. SAC
      with different stenting procedures (odds ratio [OR] = 4.10, 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 1.20-13.97, P = 0.024) was the only independent risk factor for
      symptomatic thromboembolic events. The coil-then-stent technique had a higher
      ischemic complications rate than the other 2 stenting procedures (P = 0.023).
      Serum glucose (OR = 1.48, P = 0.014) and systolic blood pressure on admission (OR
      = 0.97, P = 0.046) were independent predictors of hemorrhagic complications
      during SAC. However, different stenting procedures and stent types were
      correlated with neither aneurysm occlusion at the end of procedure (P = 0.498 and
      0.176, respectively) nor favorable outcome at discharge (P = 0.710 and 0.928,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: Different stenting procedures were associated with
      thromboembolic but not hemorrhagic complications in SAC of ruptured wide-necked
      aneurysms.

PMID- 28552738
TI  - Dumbbell-Shape Hydatid Cyst of Meckel Cave Extending to Cerebellopontine Angle
      and Middle Fossa; Surgical Technique and Outcome of Rare Case.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral hydatid cyst is among the rare presentations of
      echinococcosis. Almost all the reported cases of intracranial hydatid cysts are
      in the cortical regions (parietal lobe in the territory of the middle cerebral
      artery), and all have been removed surgically using the water jet dissection
      technique. However, in locations in which there are several neuronal structures,
      such as the cerebellopontine angle, this method might not be applicable. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: A 62-year-old lady presented to our outpatient clinic with left
      sided facial deviation, inability to close the eyes, and diplopia since a month
      before. She was diagnosed with having a dumbbell-shape lesion in the Meckel cave
      extending to the left cerebellopontine angle and middle fossa just lateral to the
      cavernous sinus. As it was adherent to the surrounding structures, we evacuated
      the contents using a fine needle and then dissected the cyst totally. The
      patient's symptoms alleviated after the surgery, and there was no residue. After
      the 2-year follow-up, our patient does not have recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The
      Meckel cave and cerebellopontine angle are rare locations for hydatid cysts, and
      the surgical technique is different due to adhesion of the cyst to several
      neuronal structures (lower cranial nerve, brainstem, and cerebellum). Needle
      aspiration along with dissection of the cyst microsurgically is recommended in
      similar cases.

PMID- 28552739
TI  - A left thoracoabdominal approach for transdiaphragmatic fistulas following
      bariatric surgery.

PMID- 28552740
TI  - Hepatic encephalopathy after sleeve gastrectomy: a hypothesis of its development.

PMID- 28552741
TI  - Comment on: Bariatric surgery in young adults: a multicenter study into weight
      loss, dietary adherence and quality of life.

PMID- 28552742
TI  - Oxalobacter formigenes colonization normalizes oxalate excretion in a gastric
      bypass model of hyperoxaluria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperoxaluria and oxalate kidney stones frequently develop after Roux
      en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). Oxalobacter formigenes can degrade ingested oxalate.
      OBJECTIVES: Examine the effect of O. formigenes wild rat strain (OXWR)
      colonization on urinary oxalate excretion and intestinal oxalate transport in a
      hyperoxaluric RYGB model. SETTING: Basic Science Laboratory, United States.
      METHODS: At 21 weeks of age, 28 obese male Sprague-Dawley rats survived Sham (n =
      10) or RYGB (n = 18) surgery and were maintained on a 1.5% potassium oxalate, 40%
      fat diet. At 12 weeks postoperatively, half the animals in each group were
      gavaged with OXWR. At 16 weeks, percent dietary fat content was lowered to 10%.
      Urine and stool were collected weekly to determine oxalate and colonization
      status, respectively. At week 20, [14 C]-oxalate fluxes and electrical parameters
      were measured in vitro across isolated distal colon and jejunal (Roux limb)
      tissue mounted in Ussing Chambers. RESULTS: RYGB animals lost 22% total weight
      while Shams gained 5%. On a moderate oxalate diet, urinary oxalate excretion was
      4-fold higher in RYGB than Sham controls. OXWR colonization, obtained in all
      gavaged animals, reduced urinary oxalate excretion 74% in RYGB and 39% in Sham
      and was further augmented by lowering the percentage of dietary fat. Finally,
      OXWR colonization significantly enhanced basal net colonic oxalate secretion in
      both groups. CONCLUSIONS: In our model, OXWR lowered urinary oxalate by luminal
      oxalate degradation in concert with promotion of enteric oxalate elimination.
      Trials of O. formigenes colonization and low-fat diet are warranted in calcium
      oxalate stone formers with gastric bypass and resistant hyperoxaluria.

PMID- 28552743
TI  - "Candy cane syndrome:" an underappreciated cause of abdominal pain and nausea
      after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: "Candy cane" syndrome (a blind afferent Roux limb at the
      gastrojejunostomy) has been implicated as a cause of abdominal pain, nausea, and
      emesis after Roux-n-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) but remains poorly described.
      OBJECTIVES: To report that "candy cane" syndrome is real and can be treated
      effectively with revisional bariatric surgery SETTING: All patients underwent
      "candy cane" resection at University Hospitals of Cleveland. METHODS: All
      patients who underwent resection of the "candy cane" between January 2011 and
      July 2015 were included. All had preoperative workup to identify "candy cane"
      syndrome. Demographic data; pre-, peri-, and postoperative symptoms; data
      regarding hospitalization; and postoperative weight loss were assessed through
      retrospective chart review. Data were analyzed using Student's t test and chi2
      analysis where appropriate. RESULTS: Nineteen patients had resection of the
      "candy cane" (94% female, mean age 50+/-11 yr), within 3 to 11 years after
      initial RYGB. Primary presenting symptoms were epigastric abdominal pain (68%)
      and nausea/vomiting (32%), particularly with fibrous foods and meats. On upper
      gastrointestinal study and endoscopy, the afferent blind limb was the most direct
      outlet from the gastrojejunostomy. Only patients with these preoperative findings
      were deemed to have "candy cane" syndrome. Eighteen (94%) cases were completed
      laparoscopically. Length of the "candy cane" ranged from 3 to 22 cm. Median
      length of stay was 1 day. After resection, 18 (94%) patients had complete
      resolution of their symptoms (P<.001). Mean body mass index decreased from 33.9+/
      6.1 kg/m2 preoperatively to 31.7+/-5.6 kg/m2 at 6 months (17.4% excess weight
      loss) and 30.5+/-6.9 kg/m2 at 1 year (25.7% excess weight loss). The average
      length of latest follow-up was 20.7 months. CONCLUSION: "Candy cane" syndrome is
      a real phenomenon that can be managed safely with excellent outcomes with
      resection of the blind afferent limb. A thorough diagnostic workup is paramount
      to proper identification of this syndrome. Surgeons should minimize the size of
      the blind afferent loop left at the time of initial RYGB.

PMID- 28552744
TI  - Reduction in serum fibroblast growth factor-21 after gastric bypass is related to
      changes in hepatic fat content.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is elevated in obesity.
      OBJECTIVES: We investigated the circulating level of FGF21 and the expression of
      FGF21, beta-klotho (KLB), and FGF receptor 1 (FGFR1) in adipose tissue in
      relation to weight, fat distribution, and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB)-induced
      weight loss. SETTING: The Department of Endocrinology at Aarhus University
      Hospital. METHODS: Thirty-one obese patients were enrolled. Visceral adipose
      tissue volume measured by magnetic resonance imaging, hepatic fat content
      measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and body composition measured by
      dual-energy x-ray absorbtiometry were determined at baseline and 12 months after
      RYGB. Fasting blood samples and subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue samples
      were obtained. Moreover, 25 lean controls were enrolled. RESULTS: FGF21 was
      significantly elevated in obese patients compared with lean patients (281+/-151
      pg/mL versus 149+/-99 pg/mL, P<.05). RYGB-induced weight loss resulted in a
      smaller reduction in FGF21 (P = .08). However, a significant reduction was seen
      in obese patients with initially high FGF21 levels (42% reduction, P<.001). A
      significant association was found between FGF21 and hepatic fat content at
      baseline (r = 0.40, P<.05). Moreover, DeltaFGF21 was significantly associated
      with Deltahepatic fat content after RYGB (r = 0.39, P<.05). FGF21 mRNA was not
      detectable in AT from either lean or obese patients. KLB and FGFR1 were
      upregulated in AT in relation to obesity, and both were further increased 12
      months after RYGB. CONCLUSIONS: FGF21 is reduced in relation to weight loss in
      patients with initial high levels of FGF21 and this reduction is significantly
      associated with a reduction in hepatic fat content. Thus, changes in FGF21 after
      RYGB-induced weight loss are closely related to changes in liver fat content.

PMID- 28552745
TI  - A critical role for cystathionine-beta-synthase in hydrogen sulfide-mediated
      hypoxic relaxation of the coronary artery.
AB  - Hypoxia-induced coronary artery vasodilatation protects the heart by increasing
      blood flow under ischemic conditions, however its mechanism is not fully
      elucidated. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is reported to be an oxygen sensor/transducer
      in the vasculature. The present study aimed to identify and characterise the role
      of H2S in the hypoxic response of the coronary artery, and to define the H2S
      synthetic enzymes involved. Immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry showed
      expression of all three H2S-producing enzymes, cystathionine-beta-synthase (CBS),
      cystathionine-gamma-lyase (CSE) and 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MPST),
      in porcine coronary artery. Artery segments were mounted for isometric tension
      recording; hypoxia caused a transient endothelium-dependent contraction followed
      by prolonged endothelium-independent relaxation. The CBS inhibitor amino
      oxyacetate (AOAA) reduced both phases of the hypoxic response. The CSE inhibitor
      dl-propargylglycine (PPG) and aspartate (limits MPST) had no effect alone, but
      when applied together with AOAA the hypoxic relaxation response was further
      reduced. Exogenous H2S (Na2S and NaHS) produced concentration-dependent
      contraction followed by prolonged relaxation. Responses to both hypoxia and
      exogenous H2S were dependent on the endothelium, NO, cGMP, K+ channels and Cl
      /HCO3- exchange. H2S production in coronary arteries was blocked by CBS
      inhibition (AOAA), but not by CSE inhibition (PPG). These data show that H2S is
      an endogenous mediator of the hypoxic response in coronary arteries. Of the three
      H2S-producing enzymes, CBS, expressed in the vascular smooth muscle, appears to
      be the most important for H2S generated during hypoxic relaxation of the coronary
      artery. A contribution from other H2S-producing enzymes only becomes apparent
      when CBS activity is inhibited.

PMID- 28552746
TI  - Chronic administration of sodium nitrite prevents hypertension and protects
      arterial endothelial function by reducing oxidative stress in angiotensin II
      infused mice.
AB  - AIM: Endothelial dysfunction accompanied by an increase in oxidative stress is a
      key event leading to hypertension. As dietary nitrite has been reported to exert
      antihypertensive effect, the present study investigated whether chronic oral
      administration of sodium nitrite improves vascular function in conduit and
      resistance arteries of hypertensive animals with elevated oxidative stress.
      METHODS: Sodium nitrite (50mg/L) was given to angiotensin II-infused hypertensive
      C57BL/6J (eight to ten weeks old) mice for two weeks in the drinking water.
      Arterial systolic blood pressure was measured using the tail-cuff method.
      Vascular responsiveness of isolated aortae and renal arteries was studied in wire
      myographs. The level of nitrite in the plasma and the cyclic guanosine
      monophosphate (cGMP) content in the arterial wall were determined using
      commercially available kits. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
      the presence of proteins (nitrotyrosine, NOx-2 and NOx-4) involved in ROS
      generation were evaluated with dihydroethidium (DHE) fluorescence and by Western
      blotting, respectively. RESULTS: Chronic administration of sodium nitrite for two
      weeks to mice with angiotensin II-induced hypertension decreased systolic
      arterial blood pressure, reversed endothelial dysfunction, increased plasma
      nitrite level as well as vascular cGMP content. In addition, sodium nitrite
      treatment also decreased the elevated nitrotyrosine and NOx-4 protein level in
      angiotensin II-infused hypertensive mice. CONCLUSIONS: The present study
      demonstrates that chronic treatment of hypertensive mice with sodium nitrite
      improves impaired endothelium function in conduit and resistance vessels in
      addition to its antihypertensive effect, partly through inhibition of ROS
      production.

PMID- 28552747
TI  - The oxidative TCA cycle operates during methanotrophic growth of the Type I
      methanotroph Methylomicrobium buryatense 5GB1.
AB  - Methanotrophs are a group of bacteria that use methane as sole carbon and energy
      source. Type I methanotrophs are gamma-proteobacterial methanotrophs using the
      ribulose monophosphate cycle (RuMP) cycle for methane assimilation. In order to
      facilitate metabolic engineering in the industrially promising Type I
      methanotroph Methylomicrobium buryatense 5GB1, flux analysis of cellular
      metabolism is needed and 13C tracer analysis is a foundational tool for such
      work. This biological system has a single-carbon input and a special network
      topology that together pose challenges to the current well-established
      methodology for 13C tracer analysis using a multi-carbon input such as glucose,
      and to date, no 13C tracer analysis of flux in a Type I methanotroph has been
      reported. In this study, we showed that by monitoring labeling patterns of
      several key intermediate metabolites in core metabolism, it is possible to
      quantitate the relative flux ratios for important branch points, such as the
      malate node. In addition, it is possible to assess the operation of the TCA
      cycle, which has been thought to be incomplete in Type I methanotrophs.
      Surprisingly, our analysis provides direct evidence of a complete, oxidative TCA
      cycle operating in M. buryatense 5GB1 using methane as sole carbon and energy
      substrate, contributing about 45% of the total flux for de novo malate
      production. Combined with mutant analysis, this method was able to identify fumA
      (METBUDRAFT_1453/MBURv2__60244) as the primary fumarase involved in the oxidative
      TCA cycle, among 2 predicted fumarases, supported by 13C tracer analysis on both
      fumA and fumC single knockouts. Interrupting the oxidative TCA cycle leads to a
      severe growth defect, suggesting that the oxidative TCA cycle functions to not
      only provide precursors for de novo biomass synthesis, but also to provide
      reducing power to the system. This information provides new opportunities for
      metabolic engineering of M. buryatense for the production of industrially
      relevant products.

PMID- 28552748
TI  - Characterization of a previously unrecognized clinical phenomenon: Delayed shock
      after cardiac implantable electronic device extraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transvenous lead extraction remains a challenging procedure with
      inherent risk and associated complications. OBJECTIVE: We sought to characterize
      and evaluate predictors of delayed shock after transvenous lead extraction with
      no intraprocedural complications. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data of
      217 consecutive patients who underwent extraction between 2010 and 2015. The
      primary end point was sudden onset of shock more than 4 hours after the
      completion of the procedure. Shock was defined as at least 30 minutes of
      persistent hypotension, necessitating vasopressors. Patients with mechanical or
      hemorrhagic shock were excluded. RESULTS: Seventeen patients (9%) developed
      delayed shock during the first 24 hours. Reasons for shock were sepsis (47%) or
      no apparent cause (53%). In multivariate analysis, patients with delayed shock
      had significantly lower glomerular filtration rate (median estimated glomerular
      filtration rate 53 mL/min vs 73 mL/min; P = .001), had more signs of systemic
      infection before extraction (fever, bacteremia, and leukocytosis; P < .05), and
      had more lead/tip remnants (29% vs 3%; P < .001). Patients presenting with
      delayed shock had significantly higher mortality rates at 1-year follow-up (10
      [59%] vs 40 [23%], respectively; P < .01). Multivariate analysis adjusted for 1
      year mortality risk was 114% higher (hazard ratio 2.14; 95% confidence interval
      1.02-4.47; P < .05) in patients presenting with delayed shock. CONCLUSION: We
      describe a previously unrecognized clinical phenomenon of delayed shock
      developing after extraction. Patients with predictors of this condition at
      baseline should be identified and followed up closely. Even with prompt
      treatment, long-term mortality rates remain high.

PMID- 28552749
TI  - The Tpeak - Tend interval as an electrocardiographic risk marker of arrhythmic
      and mortality outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Tpeak - Tend interval (the interval from the peak to the end of
      the T wave), an electrocardiographic marker reflecting transmural dispersion of
      repolarization, has been used to predict ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation
      (VT/VF) and sudden cardiac death in different clinical settings. OBJECTIVE: This
      systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the significance of the Tpeak -
      Tend interval in predicting arrhythmic and/or mortality end points. METHODS:
      PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL Plus databases were searched through
      November 30, 2016. RESULTS: Of the 854 studies identified initially, 33
      observational studies involving 155,856 patients were included in our meta
      analysis. Tpeak - Tend interval prolongation (mean cutoff value 103.3 +/- 17.4
      ms) was a significant predictor of the arrhythmic or mortality outcomes (odds
      ratio [OR] 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-1.17; P < .001). When
      different end points were analyzed, the ORs were as follows: VT/VF, 1.10 (95% CI
      1.06-1.13; P < .0001); sudden cardiac death, 1.27 (95% CI 1.17-1.39; P < .0001);
      cardiovascular death, 1.40 (95% CI 1.19-1.64; P < .0001); and all-cause
      mortality, 4.56 (95% CI 0.62-33.68; P < .0001). Subgroup analysis for each
      disease revealed that the risk of VT/VF or death was highest for Brugada syndrome
      (OR 5.68; 95% CI 1.57-20.53; P < .01), followed by hypertension (OR 1.52; 95% CI
      1.26-1.85; P < .0001), heart failure (OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.04-1.11; P < .0001), and
      ischemic heart disease (OR 1.06; 95% CI 1.02-1.10; P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The
      Tpeak - Tend interval is a useful risk stratification tool in different diseases
      and in the general population.

PMID- 28552750
TI  - [Does customized weight curves improve prenatal diagnosis of fetuses small for
      gestational age in a high-risk population?]
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the accuracy of customized growth charts for the ultrasound
      antenatal diagnostic of fetus small for gestational age in a high-risk population
      of preterm. METHODS: All premature infants born in a French university maternity
      center for a year and classified as small for gestational age at birth by using
      customized growth charts developed by Ego et al. were included in this
      retrospective study. At the ultrasound performed closest to the term, customized
      growth charts and population growth curves were compared for the antenatal
      diagnosis of a premature infants group classified small for gestational age in
      post-natal by customized growth charts and more at risk of perinatal
      complications. RESULTS: Sixty-seven newborns were included in the study. Fifty
      one (76.1%) were secondarily classified as small for gestational age although
      they were eutrophic on the basis of population growth curves and 16 (23.9%) were
      small for gestational age on both curves. The average time between the last
      ultrasound and birth was 2.2 weeks. On the threshold of the tenth percentile, the
      sensitivities of customized growth charts and curves in population were not
      significantly different (29.85% versus 41.79% P=0.05) for antenatal detection of
      fetus small for gestational age. CONCLUSION: In our study, the use of customized
      growth charts does not improve the antenatal detection of most at-risk children.

PMID- 28552751
TI  - [Ultrasound of the fetal urinary system during the first trimester of pregnancy].
AB  - The detection of abnormalities of the fetal urinary system in the first trimester
      of pregnancy is constantly improving, namely owing to the improved resolution of
      the image, the use of the endovaginal approach and thanks to sonographers'
      constant training. The pathological aspects, usually detected in the second
      trimester of pregnancy, can be suspected early in the first trimester and range
      from kidneys' cavity dilation to bilateral renal agenesis, polycystic kidney
      disease, multi-cystic dysplasia and bladder megavessia or bladder exstrophy. A
      poly-malformative syndrome is to be found out. The detection of an abnormality of
      the urinary tract requires a close ultrasound check. Very often, the pathological
      aspects tend to disappear spontaneously. In particular, the non-visualization of
      the bladder requires repeated examinations during the same session or even a
      little later in the pregnancy. We will carry out a review of the literature by
      pointing out the usual and unusual aspects of the fetal urinary system visible in
      the first trimester and we will as well propose an algorithm describing how to
      deal with abnormalities of the urinary tract that can be found out at first
      trimester ultrasound.

PMID- 28552752
TI  - [Original management of small cell carcinoma of the endometrium].

PMID- 28552753
TI  - [Premature rupture of membranes>=37 weeks of gestation: Predictive factors for
      labour onset within 24hours].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify predictive criteria for a positive expectation in the
      context of rupture of membranes after 37 WG. METHODS: Single-center retrospective
      study including ROM>=37 WG. The primary outcome was labour onset within 24hours.
      We compared predictive factors for occurrence of spontaneous labour and described
      obstetrical and neonatal outcomes according to initial Bishop score<6 or >=6.
      RESULTS: From January 2013 to December 2014, 520 patients were included. The
      predictive factors in case of unfavorable cervix were clinical leakage (P<0.001)
      and a cervical dilatation>=2cm (P<0.001) according to multivariate analysis. When
      the expectancy failed, there was a higher rate of cesarean section (24.3% vs.
      9.6% P<0.001) but no more proven maternal-fetal infection. In case of Bishop>=6,
      we identified no predictive factor for labour onset but Apgar<7 at 5minutes
      (18.7% vs. 3.2% P=0.01) and admission to neonatal unit (18.8% vs. 3.2% P=0.04)
      were more frequent without majoration of maternal-fetal infection. CONCLUSION:
      The favorable expectation was the outcome for 70.8% of ROM at term. Clinical
      leakage and dilated cervix appeared as the main predictors in case of Bishop<6.
      Majoration of low Apgar score and admission to neonatal unit could be increased
      when no labour onset occurred despite Bishop>=6.

PMID- 28552754
TI  - [Interstitial, angular and cornual pregnancies: Diagnosis, treatment and
      subsequent fertility].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Interstitial, angular and corneal pregnancies are not very frequent
      and often mistaken, each with its own definition and prognosis. The objective of
      this work is to relate 10 years experience of ectopic pregnancies at the UH in
      Dijon, based on the latest data from the literature in term of diagnosis,
      management and subsequent fertility. METHOD: This is a retrospective study
      carried out at the UH of Dijon from 01/01/2005 to 01/01/2015. From the medical
      records of each patient who presented a corneal, interstitial or angular
      pregnancy, we identified the risk factors for ectopic pregnancy (EG), the
      diagnostic and therapeutic means used, and the subsequent obstetrical events.
      RESULTS: In 10 years, 532 EG were managed including 10 interstitials, one angular
      and nine cornual. The main risk factors were previous EG (50%), salpingectomy
      (55%), curettage (45%) and smoking (40%). The localization of the EG was done in
      75% by the endo-vaginal sonography, in 25% in peroperative. Thirty-five percent
      were treated with methotrexate, 20% had surgery and 40% had both. Seventy-five
      percent of patients had at least one ulterior pregnancy. In the case of caesarean
      section, no dehiscence of the corneal scar was identified. CONCLUSION: This study
      shows the presence of medical antecedents which are risk factors of the tubular
      EG. A methotrexate protocol should be proposed first. Even after corneal surgery,
      vaginal delivery may remain possible.

PMID- 28552755
TI  - [Morbidity and functional long-term follow-up of patients with surgical treatment
      of urinary tract endometriosis].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess postoperative complications, improvement of pain symptoms
      and residual urinary functional symptoms after surgery for deep infiltrative
      endometriosis affecting ureter or bladder. METHODS: Retrospective study of
      complications (Clavien-Dindo classification), pain (visual analog scale [VAS])
      and urinary functional symptoms (Urinary Symptom Profile questionnaire [USP]) of
      patients surgically treated between 2007 and 2015 in University Hospitals of
      Lyon. RESULTS: Among 31 patients with endometriosis involving the bladder, 83.9%
      had a partial cystectomy and 16.1% an extra-mucosal resection. Among patients
      (n=20) with ureteral involvement, 85% had ureterectomy with ureterocystoneostomy
      and 15% had only ureterolysis. Grade III postoperative complications occurred in
      6% and 0% of patients with bladder or ureteral surgery, respectively and no grade
      IV or V complications were reported. Mean bladder VAS dropped from 5.3+/-4.2 to
      0.3+/-0.9 after a follow-up of 42 months (P<0.0001). In patients with ureteral
      involvement, mean flank VAS dropped from 3.6 to 0.9 after a follow-up of 33
      months (P<0.0005). Mean postoperative USP score for dysuria and detrusor
      overactivity were 1.35/9 and 2.48/21 in case of bladder involvement, and 1.10/9
      and 2.15/21 in case of ureteral involvement. CONCLUSION: Multidisciplinary
      surgical management of deep infiltrative endometriosis affecting urinary tract
      was associated to a low risk of severe postoperative complications and to a long
      term significant improvement of pain symptoms without significant residual
      functional urinary symptoms.

PMID- 28552756
TI  - Dopamine modified hyperbranched TiO2 arrays based ultrasensitive
      photoelectrochemical immunosensor for detecting neuron specific enolase.
AB  - In this work, three-dimensional (3D) hyperbranched TiO2 nanorod arrays were
      synthesized and used to fabricate dopamine sensitized photoelectrochemical (PEC)
      biosensor. To increase the lifetime of charge carriers and enhance the
      photocurrent responses signal, a delicate signal amplification strategy by
      introducing dopamine (DA) as sensitizer was developed. The dopamine sensitized
      TiO2 can shorten the carrier diffusion distance, improve light harvesting
      efficiency and charge collection efficiency, which results in performance
      improvement of the as-obtained PEC sensor. This proposed biosensor for
      determination of neuron specific enolase (NSE) demonstrated a good linear
      relationship range from 0.1 ng mL-1 to 1000 ng mL-1 with a detection limit of
      0.05 ngmL-1 (S/N = 3). In addition, the as-prepared immunosensor exhibits
      excellent selectivity, stability and reproducibility, which could be extended to
      other label-free sensing fields. Therefore, this proposed method may also provide
      potential applications for the clinical examination.

PMID- 28552757
TI  - Selective fluorescence detection method for selenide and selenol using
      monochlorobimane.
AB  - The low redox potential of selenide and selenol is physiologically important, as
      it confers efficient catalytic abilities to selenoproteins. Quantitative
      determination of selenol and selenide provide important clues for understanding
      the metabolism and physiological function of selenium. However, selective
      detection of selenol and selenide is extremely difficult because of their
      chemical similarity to thiol and sulfide. In this study, we established a highly
      sensitive, selective, quantitative, and simple method for detection of selenol
      and selenide, using a reaction with monochlorobimane (MCB), followed by ethyl
      acetate extraction of the product syn-(methyl,methyl)bimane. We analyzed selenide
      production from selenite, catalyzed by human glutathione reductase, and also
      determined selenide and selenol concentrations in Hepa1-6 cells using the MCB
      method, to demonstrate its practical applications. This study provides a new tool
      for selenium detection in biology.

PMID- 28552758
TI  - Fluorescence polarization-based competition binding assay for c-Jun N-terminal
      kinases 1 and 2.
AB  - In order to evaluate the isoform selectivity of novel inhibitors within the c-Jun
      N-terminal kinase (JNK) family, a fluorescence polarization-based competition
      binding assay, previously developed for JNK3, was extended to the other isoforms
      JNK1 and JNK2. The assay is based on the displacement of a versatile fluorescent
      pyridinylimidazole-based probe and was validated by testing the precursor of the
      probe as well as standard JNK inhibitors.

PMID- 28552759
TI  - Generation of SMURF2 knockout human cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
AB  - The HECT domain E3 ubiquitin ligase SMURF2 regulates stability of several key
      protein targets involved in tumorigenesis, cell proliferation, migration,
      differentiation, and senescence. While altered levels and aberrant cellular
      distribution of SMURF2 were reported in different types of cancer, its role in
      tumorigenesis is far from understood. To elucidate the role of SMURF2 in cancer,
      appropriate human cancer cell models are needed. Here, we describe approaches
      that can be used to generate human normal and cancer cell strains knocked-out for
      SMURF2 using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats
      (CRISPR/Cas9) gene-editing technology.

PMID- 28552760
TI  - Denervation of the wrist with two surgical incisions. Is it effective? A review
      of 33 patients with an average of 41months' follow-up.
AB  - : The goal of wrist denervation is to decrease pain at the wrist, whether caused
      by an intra- or extra-articular problem or even when the reason for the pain is
      unknown. It is an alternative to partial or total arthrodesis and proximal row
      carpectomy. Our hypothesis was that wrist denervation with a two-incision
      technique was a reliable and efficient way to treat painful degenerative wrists.
      Thirty-three patients, 48years old on average, were included in this study.
      Indications were scapholunate advanced collapse (SLAC) in 18 cases, scaphoid
      nonunion advanced collapse (SNAC) in 10, distal radius fracture sequelae with
      advanced radiocarpal osteoarthritis in 4, and post-traumatic ulnocarpal
      impingement in 1 case. At 41 months' follow-up (12-161), there was a 75%
      reduction in pain levels, decreasing from 7.1 to 1.8 on a visual analog scale
      (VAS). There were no modifications related to wrist range of motion or grip
      strength. The QuickDASH averaged 23 points (5 to 70). Radiographic evaluation
      showed progression of intracarpal degeneration in 6 patients. All but 2 patients
      returned to their previous work. Persistent dysesthesia was observed in 7
      patients; it resolved in 3 cases and persisted in 4. One patient developed
      complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). A midcarpal arthrodesis with
      scaphoidectomy was performed in one patient because of disabling pain 5months
      after surgery. Wrist denervation with a two-incision technique for post-traumatic
      osteoarthritis led to satisfactory results in 75% of cases with reduction in
      pain, preservation of range of motion and grip strength. However, this technique
      does not stop the progression of osteoarthritis. It can be discussed as a
      therapeutic alternative to proximal row carpectomy or intracarpal arthrodesis to
      treat degenerative painful wrists. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic
      IV.

PMID- 28552761
TI  - Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for RelB deficiency.

PMID- 28552762
TI  - ImmunoCAP assays: Pros and cons in allergology.
AB  - Allergen-specific IgE measurements and the clinical history are the cornerstones
      of allergy diagnosis. During the past decades, both characterization and
      standardization of allergen extracts and assay technology have improved. Here we
      discuss the uses, advantages, misinterpretations, and limitations of ImmunoCAP
      IgE assays (Thermo Fisher Scientific/Phadia, Uppsala, Sweden) in the field of
      allergology. They can be performed as singleplex (ImmunoCAP) and, for the last
      decade, as multiplex (Immuno Solid-phase Allergen Chip [ISAC]). The major benefit
      of ImmunoCAP is the obtained quantified allergen-specific IgE antibody level and
      the lack of interference from allergen-specific IgG antibodies. However,
      ImmunoCAP allergen extracts are limited to the composition of the extract. The
      introduction of allergen molecules has had a major effect on analytic specificity
      and allergy diagnosis. They are used in both singleplex ImmunoCAP and multiplex
      ImmunoCAP ISAC assays. The major advantage of ISAC is the comprehensive IgE
      pattern obtained with a minute amount of serum. The shortcomings are its
      semiquantitative measurements, lower linear range, and cost per assay. With
      respect to assay performance, ImmunoCAP allergen extracts are good screening
      tools, but allergen molecules dissect the IgE response on a molecular level and
      put allergy research on the map of precision medicine.

PMID- 28552763
TI  - Prevention of food allergy development and suppression of established food
      allergy by neutralization of thymic stromal lymphopoietin, IL-25, and IL-33.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food allergy (FA) is an increasing problem that has no approved
      treatment. The pro-TH2 cytokines IL-25, IL-33, and thymic stromal lymphopoietin
      (TSLP) are associated with FA, and mAbs to these cytokines are reported to
      suppress murine FA development. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether anti
      pro-TH2 cytokine mAbs can block both FA maintenance and induction. METHODS: IgE
      mediated FA was induced in BALB/c mice by oral gavage with medium-chain
      triglycerides (MCTs) plus egg white (EW) and was characterized by increased
      numbers of lamina propria TH2 cells, mast cells, and eosinophils, shock
      (hypothermia), mast cell degranulation (increased serum mouse mast cell protease
      1), increased serum IgG1 anti-EW and IgE levels, and increased IL-4 and IL-13
      secretion after MCT/EW challenge. Mice were injected with anti-IL-25, IL-33
      receptor, and/or TSLP mAbs before initial oral gavage with MCT/EW to suppress FA
      development; treatment with the same mAbs was initiated after FA development to
      suppress established FA. RESULTS: Injection of an mAb to IL-25, IL-33 receptor,
      or TSLP strongly inhibited FA development. No single mAb to a pro-TH2 cytokine
      could suppress established FA, and optimal FA suppression required treatment with
      a cocktail of all 3 anti-pro-TH2 mAbs. Treatment with the 3-mAb cocktail during
      initial MCT/EW immunization induced EW tolerance. CONCLUSION: All of the pro-TH2
      cytokines are required to induce our model of FA, whereas any pro-TH2 cytokine
      can maintain established FA. Pro-TH2 cytokines prevent oral tolerance. Combined
      treatment with antagonists to all 3 pro-TH2 cytokines or with an inhibitor of pro
      TH2 cytokine production might be able to suppress established human FA.

PMID- 28552764
TI  - Metalware-associated orthopaedic infections caused by Staphylococcus lugdunensis:
      An emerging pathogen.

PMID- 28552765
TI  - Comprehensive Analysis of the Discordance of EGFR Mutation Status between Tumor
      Tissues and Matched Circulating Tumor DNA in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to address the underlying reasons for and clinical
      significance of the discordant EGFR mutation (EGFRm) status between tumor tissue
      (TT) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). METHODS: Three groups of EGFR tyrosine
      kinase inhibitor (EGFR TKI)-treated patients whose EGFRm status was determined by
      the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) were included (group A, TT
      positive/ctDNA-positive EGFRm status; group B, TT-negative/ctDNA-positive EGFRm
      status; and group C, TT-positive/ctDNA-negative EGFRm status). Patients with
      discordant EGFRm status were reevaluated by droplet digital polymerase chain
      reaction (ddPCR) and next-generation sequencing. Meanwhile, surgical tumor
      specimens were microdissected for EGFRm detection by ddPCR. RESULTS: Of the 2463
      patients with matched TT and ctDNA specimens, 1017 patients carried EGFRm in TT
      and/or ctDNA by the ARMS. Of these 1017 patients, 472 received EGFR TKIs,
      including 264, 28, and 180 in groups A, B, and C, respectively. The median
      progression-free survivals of those receiving EGFR TKIs across the three groups
      were similar (p = 0.062). Through ddPCR and next-generation sequencing of biopsy
      specimens (n = 22) and microdissected surgical specimens (n = 5), 27 patients in
      group B were identified as harboring EGFRm. After reevaluation by ddPCR, 64
      patients in group C tested positive for EGFRm in their ctDNA. ctDNA as a screen
      for EGFRm then tissues as supplement (ctDNA->TT pattern) had similar detection
      efficiency and saved about 30% of TT compared with TT for initial EGFRm detection
      followed by ctDNA (TT->ctDNA pattern). CONCLUSIONS: Intratumor heterogeneity and
      the relatively low sensitivity of the ARMS contributed to discordant EGFRm status
      between TT specimens and ctDNA. The ctDNA->TT pattern might be a rational
      clinical procedure for EGFRm determination.

PMID- 28552767
TI  - Parenteral nanoemulsions of risperidone for enhanced brain delivery in acute
      psychosis: Physicochemical and in vivo performances.
AB  - This work aimed to deepen the lately acquired knowledge about parenteral
      nanoemulsions as carriers for brain delivery of risperidone, a poorly water
      soluble antipsychotic drug, through establishing the prospective relationship
      between their physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, biodistribution, and behavioral
      performances. For this purpose, two optimized risperidone-loaded nanoemulsions,
      stabilized by lecithin or lecithin/polysorbate 80 mixture, and costabilized by
      sodium oleate, were produced by high-pressure homogenization. The
      characterization revealed the favorable droplet size, narrow size distribution,
      high surface charge, with proven stability to autoclaving and long-term stability
      for at least one year at 25+/-2 degrees C. Pharmacokinetic and tissue
      distribution results demonstrated improved plasma, liver, and brain
      pharmacokinetic parameters, resulting in 1.2-1.5-fold increased relative
      bioavailability, 1.1-1.8-fold decreased liver distribution, and about 1.3-fold
      improved brain uptake of risperidone active moiety following intraperitoneal
      administration of nanoemulsions relative to solution in rats. In behavioral
      study, investigated nanoemulsions showed pronounced reduction in basal and, more
      pertinently, amphetamine-induced locomotor activity in rats, with an early onset
      of antipsychotic action, and this effect lasted at least 90min after drug
      injection. Together, these findings corroborate the applicability of parenteral
      nanoemulsions as carriers for enhanced brain delivery of risperidone, further
      suggesting their promise in acute psychosis treatment or other emergency
      situations.

PMID- 28552766
TI  - The Influence of Body Mass Index on Overall Survival Following Surgical Resection
      of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Population studies suggest that high body mass index (BMI) correlates
      with a reduced risk for death from lung cancer. The aim of our study was to
      evaluate definitively the influence of BMI on long-term overall survival (OS) in
      surgical patients with NSCLC. METHODS: The study population consisted of 1935
      patients who underwent surgical resection for lung cancer at M. D. Anderson
      Cancer Center (2000-2014). Study variables included both patient- and treatment
      related characteristics. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were
      performed to identify variables associated with OS. RESULTS: On univariate
      analysis, significant predictors of improved survival were higher BMI, pathologic
      tumor stage (stage I versus stage II, III, or IV), type of surgical procedure
      (lobectomy/pneumonectomy versus wedge resection/segmentectomy), younger age,
      female sex, and adenocarcinoma histologic subtype (versus squamous) (all p <
      0.05). Morbidly obese patients (BMI >= 35) demonstrated a trend toward better
      outcomes than those classified as obese (BMI >=30 and <35 kg/m2) (p = 0.05),
      overweight (BMI >= 25 and <30 kg/m2) (p = 0.13), or healthy weight (BMI <25
      kg/m2) (p = 0.37) (hazard ratio = 0.727, 0.848, 0.926, and 1, respectively). On
      multivariate analysis, BMI remained an independent predictor of survival (p =
      0.02). Propensity matching analysis demonstrated significantly better OS (p =
      0.003) in patients with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or higher as compared with a BMI of 25
      kg/m2. CONCLUSIONS: In this large, retrospective, single-center series, after
      control for disease stage and other variables, higher BMI was associated with
      improved OS after surgical resection of NSCLC. Further studies are necessary to
      elucidate the precise relationship between BMI and treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28552768
TI  - Supramolecular polypseudorotaxane gels for controlled delivery of rAAV vectors in
      human mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative medicine.
AB  - The aim of this work was to investigate, for the first time, the possibility of
      using supramolecular polypseudorotaxane gels as scaffolds that can durably
      deliver rAAV vectors for applications in cartilage regeneration. Dispersions of
      Pluronic(r) F68 (PF68) or Tetronic(r) 908 (T908) containing either hyaluronic
      acid (HA) or chondroitin sulfate (CS) were prepared in PBS. Then, alpha
      cyclodextrin (alphaCD) was added to some dispersions to form polypseudorotaxane
      gels. Polysaccharides and alphaCD reinforced the viscoelasticity of the gels,
      which could withstand autoclaving without changes. In vitro release of rAAV
      vectors and subsequent transduction of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) by
      rAAV vectors from the release medium and from gels in direct contact with the
      cells were investigated. Compared with free vectors, the gels provided higher
      levels of transgene expression. CS (or HA)/PF68/alphaCD gels rapidly released
      rAAV vectors while CS (or HA)/T908/alphaCD gels provided sustained release
      probably due to different interactions with the viral vectors. Incorporation of
      alphaCD into CS (or HA)/PF68 gels resulted on higher rAAV concentrations and
      sustained levels of transgene expression over time. HA increased the bioactivity
      and cytocompatibility of the gels, especially those based on T908. Overall,
      combining rAAV gene transfer with polypseudorotaxane gels may provide new,
      promising tools for human tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
      strategies.

PMID- 28552769
TI  - An investigation into the ability of alendronate ion pairs to increase oral
      absorption.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to increase oral absorption of the highly charged
      drug alendronate using an ion pair strategy. Ion pairing is a formulation
      approach in drug delivery that is performed to improve the lipophilicity of
      ionized drugs. Cationic counter ions, such as arginine, phenazopyridine, hyoscine
      and pyridostigmine, were selected to enhance the lipophilicity and permeability
      of alendronate. Data obtained from quasi-equilibrium analysis were used to
      calculate the binding constant and intrinsic partition coefficient of ion pairs
      in an octanol/water system. The results of the partitioning study in an
      octanol/water system were confirmed using in vitro transport models with PAMPA
      and Caco-2 monolayer assays. Two counter ions, phenazopyridine and arginine,
      substantially increased the partition coefficient of alendronate by up to 1.15
      and 0.73 units, respectively, in the octanol/water system. Binding constants of
      117M-1 for alendronate-arginine and 90M-1 for alendronate-phenazopyridine ion
      pairs were obtained using quasi equilibrium analysis. Arginine and
      phenazopyridine enhanced the apparent permeability of alendronate by 14- and 26
      fold in the PAMPA model and 6.5- and 4.4-fold across caco-2 cell monolayers,
      respectively. Based on this study, the lipophilicity and permeability of
      alendronate across lipophilic membranes was increased by suitable counter ions
      and could be used to establish a new formulation to increase the oral absorption
      of alendronate.

PMID- 28552770
TI  - Synbiotic loaded chitosan-Ca-alginate microparticles reduces inflammation in the
      TNBS model of rat colitis.
AB  - New therapeutic strategies against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) consider the
      usage of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics as beneficial for the intestinal
      microbial balance. Limitations of such an approach are addressed into difference
      in survival, persistence, colonization and variable effects among different
      probiotic strains, lack in understanding of probiotic mechanisms of action, as
      well the complex etiology of IBD. The anti-inflammatory activity of Lactobacillus
      casei 01 (L. casei 01) was assessed in trinitrobenzenesulphonic (TNBS) acid model
      of rat colitis when the probiotic was used alone and/or in combination with
      oligofructose-enriched inulin (Synergy 1), and as synbiotic (L. casei 01+Synergy
      1) loaded chitosan-Ca-alginate microparticles; all suspended in ayran. The
      results from the probiotic/synbiotic treatments (8.5-8.9log CFU g-1L. casei 01
      and 1.5% Synergy 1) have shown reduction in the colonic damage and increased
      lactobacilli counts in feces. Lactobacilli translocation to sterile extra
      intestinal organs demonstrated acceptable safety of the probiotic strain used.
      The best effect at reducing inflammation and lesions associated with a
      significant decline in myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was observed in rats that
      received synbiotic microparticles. This finding suggests colon targeted delivery
      of the probiotics/synbiotics, as an advantageous approach in prevention and
      treatment of IBD.

PMID- 28552771
TI  - Dose-dependent effect and pharmacokinetics of fexinidazole and its metabolites in
      a mouse model of human African trypanosomiasis.
AB  - Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a neglected tropical disease, with a
      population of 70 million at risk. Current treatment options are limited. In the
      search for new therapeutics, the repurposing of the broad-spectrum antiprotozoal
      drug fexinidazole has completed Phase III trials with the anticipation that it
      will be the first oral treatment for HAT. This study used the recently validated
      bioluminescence imaging model to assess the dose and rate of kill effect of
      fexinidazole in infected mice, and the dose-dependent effect of fexinidazole on
      trypanosome infection. Pharmacokinetics of fexinidazole in plasma and central
      nervous system (CNS) compartments were similar in both infected and uninfected
      mice. Drug distribution within the CNS was further examined by microdialysis,
      showing similar levels in the cortex and hippocampus. However, high variability
      in drug distribution and exposure was found between mice.

PMID- 28552772
TI  - PCB 28 metabolites elimination kinetics in human plasma on a real case scenario:
      Study of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyl (OH-PCB) metabolites of PCB 28 in
      a highly exposed German Cohort.
AB  - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are suspected of carcinogenic, neurotoxic and
      immunotoxic effects in animals and humans. Although background levels of PCBs
      have been slowly decreased after their ban, they are still among the most
      persistent and ubiquitous pollutants in the environment, remaining the subject of
      great concern. PCB 28 is a trichlorinated PCB found in high concentrations not
      only in human plasma but also in indoor air in Europe, yet little is known about
      its metabolic pathway and potential metabolites in humans. The present study aims
      to elucidate the kinetics of metabolite formation and elimination by analyzing
      four hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs) in human plasma as potential metabolites of the
      PCB 28 congener. For this purpose, the study was conducted in plasma samples of
      highly PCB-exposed individuals (N=268), collected from 2010 to 2014 as a
      representation of a real case scenario with longitudinal data. OH-PCBs have been
      predicted, synthesized in the course of this study and further identified and
      quantitated in human plasma. This is the first time that previously unknown PCB
      28 metabolites have been measured in human plasma and half-lives have been
      estimated for PCB metabolites, which could then provide further understanding in
      the toxicological consequences of exposure to PCBs in humans.

PMID- 28552773
TI  - Voltage gated ion channels blockade is the underlying mechanism of BIMU8 induced
      cardiotoxicity.
AB  - BIMU8 is a 5-HT4a receptor agonist and used as an experimental drug to counteract
      opioid induced respiratory depression. In preliminary experiments serious
      disturbances in ECG were observed in anesthetized rabbits which prompted us to
      explore the underlying cause of BIMU8 induced abnormal changes in ECG recordings.
      Electrophysiological experiments were performed on HEK-293 cells expressing hERG,
      CaV1.2 and NaV1.5 ion channels. In whole-cell recordings BIMU8 effectively
      blocked these three channels, with IC50 values of 0.06+/-0.05, 1.46+/-0.26 and
      4.66+/-0.58MUM for hERG, NaV1.5 and CaV1.2, respectively. Additionally it also
      produced a hyperpolarizing shift of 3.27mV in half maximal activation and 12.87mV
      in fast inactivation of NaV1.5 channel. These experimental findings indicate that
      BIMU8 is a potent blocker of hERG, NaV1.5 and CaV1.2 cardiac ion channels thus
      revealing its proarrhythmic potential.

PMID- 28552774
TI  - Uptake of perfluorooctanoic acid by Caco-2 cells: Involvement of organic anion
      transporting polypeptides.
AB  - The mechanism underlying the intestinal absorption of perfluorooctanoic acid
      (PFOA) was investigated using Caco-2 cells. The uptake of PFOA from the apical
      membrane of Caco-2 cells was fast, and pH, temperature, and concentration
      dependent, but Na+ independent. Coincubation with sulfobromophthalein (BSP),
      glibenclamide, estron-3-sulfate, cyclosporine A or rifamycin SV, which are
      typical substrates or inhibitors of organic anion transporting polypeptides
      (OATPs), significantly decreased the uptake of PFOA. However, coincubation with
      probenecid or p-aminohippuric acid, typical substrates of organic anion
      transporters, did not decrease the uptake of PFOA. Furthermore, coincubation with
      l-lactic acid or benzoic acid, substrates of monocarboxylic acid transporters,
      did not decrease PFOA uptake. The relationship between the initial uptake of PFOA
      and its concentration was saturable, suggesting the involvement of a carrier
      mediated process. The calculated Km and uptake clearance (Vmax/Km) values for
      PFOA were 8.3MUM and 55.0MUL/mg protein/min, respectively. This clearance value
      was about 3-fold greater than that of the non-saturable uptake clearance (Kd:
      18.1MUL/mg protein/min). Lineweaver-Burk plots revealed that BSP competitively
      inhibits the uptake of PFOA, with a Ki value of 23.1MUM. These results suggest
      that the uptake of PFOA from the apical membranes of Caco-2 cells could be, at
      least in part, mediated by OATPs along with BSP.

PMID- 28552775
TI  - Evaluation of in-line Raman data for end-point determination of a coating
      process: Comparison of Science-Based Calibration, PLS-regression and univariate
      data analysis.
AB  - A multivariate analysis method, Science-Based Calibration (SBC), was used for the
      first time for endpoint determination of a tablet coating process using Raman
      data. Two types of tablet cores, placebo and caffeine cores, received a coating
      suspension comprising a polyvinyl alcohol-polyethylene glycol graft-copolymer and
      titanium dioxide to a maximum coating thickness of 80um. Raman spectroscopy was
      used as in-line PAT tool. The spectra were acquired every minute and correlated
      to the amount of applied aqueous coating suspension. SBC was compared to another
      well-known multivariate analysis method, Partial Least Squares-regression (PLS)
      and a simpler approach, Univariate Data Analysis (UVDA). All developed
      calibration models had coefficient of determination values (R2) higher than 0.99.
      The coating endpoints could be predicted with root mean square errors (RMSEP)
      less than 3.1% of the applied coating suspensions. Compared to PLS and UVDA, SBC
      proved to be an alternative multivariate calibration method with high predictive
      power.

PMID- 28552776
TI  - Differential sensitivities of cellular XPA and PARP-1 to arsenite inhibition and
      zinc rescue.
AB  - Arsenite directly binds to the zinc finger domains of the DNA repair protein poly
      (ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP)-1, and inhibits PARP-1 activity in the base
      excision repair (BER) pathway. PARP inhibition by arsenite enhances ultraviolet
      radiation (UVR)-induced DNA damage in keratinocytes, and the increase in DNA
      damage is reduced by zinc supplementation. However, little is known about the
      effects of arsenite and zinc on the zinc finger nucleotide excision repair (NER)
      protein xeroderma pigmentosum group A (XPA). In this study, we investigated the
      difference in response to arsenite exposure between XPA and PARP-1, and the
      differential effectiveness of zinc supplementation in restoring protein DNA
      binding and DNA damage repair. Arsenite targeted both XPA and PARP-1 in human
      keratinocytes, resulting in zinc loss from each protein and a pronounced decrease
      in XPA and PARP-1 binding to chromatin as demonstrated by Chip-on-Western assays.
      Zinc effectively restored DNA binding of PARP-1 and XPA to chromatin when zinc
      concentrations were equal to those of arsenite. In contrast, zinc was more
      effective in rescuing arsenite-augmented direct UVR-induced DNA damage than
      oxidative DNA damage. Taken together, our findings indicate that arsenite
      interferes with PARP-1 and XPA binding to chromatin, and that zinc
      supplementation fully restores DNA binding activity to both proteins in the
      cellular context. Interestingly, rescue of arsenite-inhibited DNA damage repair
      by supplemental zinc was more sensitive for DNA damage repaired by the XPA
      associated NER pathway than for the PARP-1-dependent BER pathway. This study
      expands our understanding of arsenite's role in DNA repair inhibition and co
      carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28552777
TI  - Comparison of the toxicity of sintered and unsintered indium-tin oxide particles
      in murine macrophage and epidermal cells.
AB  - Indium-tin oxide (ITO) is used to produce flat panel displays and several other
      technology products. Composed of 90% indium oxide (In2O3) and 10% tin oxide
      (SnO2) by weight, ITO is synthesized under conditions of high heat via a process
      known as sintering. Indium lung disease, a recently recognized occupational
      illness, is characterized by pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, fibrosis, and
      emphysema. Murine macrophage (RAW 264.7) and epidermal (JB6) cells stably
      transfected with AP-1 to study tumor promoting potential, were used to
      differentiate between the toxicological profiles of sintered ITO (SITO) and
      unsintered mixture (UITO). We hypothesized that sintering would play a key role
      in free radical generation and cytotoxicity. Exposure of cells to both UITO and
      SITO caused a time and dose dependent decrease of the viability of cells.
      Intracellular ROS generation was inversely related to the dose of both UITO and
      SITO, a direct reflection of the decreased number of viable RAW 264.7 and JB6/AP
      1 cells observed at higher concentrations. Electron spin resonance showed
      significantly increased hydroxyl radical (OH) generation in cells exposed to UITO
      compared to SITO. This is different from LDH release, which showed that SITO
      caused significantly increased damage to the cell membrane compared to UITO.
      Lastly, the JB6/AP-1 cell line did not show activation of the AP-1 pathway. Our
      results highlight both the differences in the mechanisms of cytotoxicity and the
      consistent adverse effects associated with UITO and SITO exposure.

PMID- 28552778
TI  - The impact of Zearalenone on the meiotic progression and primordial follicle
      assembly during early oogenesis.
AB  - Zearalenone (ZEA) is a mycotoxin produced by fusarium graminearum. It can cause
      abnormal reproductive function by acting as an environmental estrogen. Research
      has traditionally focused on acute and chronic injury on mammalian reproductive
      capacity after ZEA treatment. Little research has been done studying the effects
      of ZEA exposure on early oogenesis. In this study, we investigate the effects of
      ZEA exposure on meiotic entry, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and primordial
      follicle assembly during murine early oogenesis. The results show that ZEA
      exposure significantly decreased the percentage of diplotene stage germ cells,
      and made more germ cells remain at zygotene or pachytene stages. Moreover, the
      mRNA expression level of meiosis-related genes was significantly reduced after
      ZEA treatment. ZEA exposure significantly increased DNA-DSBs at the diplotene
      stage. Meanwhile, DNA damage repair genes such as RAD51 and BRCA1 were activated.
      Furthermore, maternal exposure to ZEA significantly decreased the number of
      primordial follicles in newborn mouse ovaries. In conclusion, ZEA exposure
      impairs mouse female germ cell meiotic progression, DNA-DSBs, and primordial
      follicle assembly.

PMID- 28552779
TI  - Nickel-induced HIF-1alpha promotes growth arrest and senescence in normal human
      cells but lacks toxic effects in transformed cells.
AB  - Nickel is a human carcinogen that acts as a hypoxia mimic by activating the
      transcription factor HIF-1alpha and hypoxia-like transcriptomic responses.
      Hypoxia and elevated HIF-1alpha are typically associated with drug resistance in
      cancer cells, which is caused by increased drug efflux and other mechanisms. Here
      we examined the role of HIF-1alpha in uptake of soluble Ni(II) and Ni(II)-induced
      cell fate outcomes using si/shRNA knockdowns and gene deletion models. We found
      that HIF-1alpha had no effect on accumulation of Ni(II) in two transformed (H460,
      A549) and two normal human cell lines (IMR90, WI38). The loss of HIF-1alpha also
      produced no significant impact on p53-dependent and p53-independent apoptotic
      responses or clonogenic survival of Ni(II)-treated transformed cells. In normal
      human cells, HIF-1alpha enhanced the ability of Ni(II) to inhibit cell
      proliferation and cause a permanent growth arrest (senescence). Consistent with
      its growth-suppressive effects, HIF-1alpha was important for upregulation of the
      cell cycle inhibitors p21 (CDKN1A) and p27 (CDKN1B). Irrespective of HIF-1alpha
      status, Ni(II) strongly increased levels of MYC protein but did not change
      protein expression of the cell cycle-promoting phosphatase CDC25A or the CDK
      inhibitor p16. Our findings indicate that HIF-1alpha limits propagation of Ni(II)
      damaged normal cells, suggesting that it may act in a tumor suppressor-like
      manner during early stages of Ni(II) carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28552781
TI  - Dissociated neural basis of two behavioral hallmarks of holistic face processing:
      The whole-part effect and composite-face effect.
AB  - It has been long proposed that our extraordinary face recognition ability stems
      from holistic face processing. Two widely-used behavioral hallmarks of holistic
      face processing are the whole-part effect (WPE) and composite-face effect (CFE).
      However, it remains unknown whether these two effects reflect similar or
      different aspects of holistic face processing. Here we investigated this question
      by examining whether the WPE and CFE involved shared or distinct neural
      substrates in a large sample of participants (N=200). We found that the WPE and
      CFE showed hemispheric dissociation in the fusiform face area (FFA), that is, the
      WPE was correlated with face selectivity in the left FFA, while the CFE was
      correlated with face selectivity in the right FFA. Further, the correlation
      between the WPE and face selectivity was largely driven by the FFA response to
      faces, whereas the association between the CFE and face selectivity resulted from
      suppressed response to objects in the right FFA. Finally, we also observed
      dissociated correlation patterns of the WPE and CFE in other face-selective
      regions and across the whole brain. These results suggest that the WPE and CFE
      may reflect different aspects of holistic face processing, which shed new light
      on the behavioral dissociations of these two effects demonstrated in literature.

PMID- 28552780
TI  - The Genome of Medicinal Plant Macleaya cordata Provides New Insights into
      Benzylisoquinoline Alkaloids Metabolism.
AB  - The overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture and medicine has caused a series
      of potential threats to public health. Macleaya cordata is a medicinal plant
      species from the Papaveraceae family, providing a safe resource for the
      manufacture of antimicrobial feed additive for livestock. The active constituents
      from M. cordata are known to include benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) such as
      sanguinarine (SAN) and chelerythrine (CHE), but their metabolic pathways have yet
      to be studied in this non-model plant. The active biosynthesis of SAN and CHE in
      M. cordata was first examined and confirmed by feeding 13C-labeled tyrosine. To
      gain further insights, we de novo sequenced the whole genome of M. cordata, the
      first to be sequenced from the Papaveraceae family. The M. cordata genome
      covering 378 Mb encodes 22,328 predicted protein-coding genes with 43.5% being
      transposable elements. As a member of basal eudicot, M. cordata genome lacks the
      paleohexaploidy event that occurred in almost all eudicots. From the genomics
      data, a complete set of 16 metabolic genes for SAN and CHE biosynthesis was
      retrieved, and 14 of their biochemical activities were validated. These genomics
      and metabolic data show the conserved BIA metabolic pathways in M. cordata and
      provide the knowledge foundation for future productions of SAN and CHE by crop
      improvement or microbial pathway reconstruction.

PMID- 28552782
TI  - A fast and implicit measure of semantic categorisation using steady state visual
      evoked potentials.
AB  - There is a great need for objective measures of perception and cognition that are
      reliable at the level of the individual subject. Although traditional
      electroencephalography (EEG) techniques can act as valid bio-markers of
      cognition, they typically involve long recording times and the computation of
      group averages. To overcome these well-known limitations of EEG, vision
      scientists have recently introduced a steady state method known as fast periodic
      visual stimulation (FPVS). This method allows them to study visual discrimination
      at the individual level. Inspired by their work, we examined whether FPVS could
      be used equally effectively to capture abstract conceptual processes. Twenty
      subjects (20.9 (+/-2.1) yrs, 6 male) were asked to complete a FPVS-oddball
      paradigm that assessed their spontaneous ability to differentiate between rapidly
      presented images on the basis of semantic, rather than perceptual, properties. At
      the group level, this approach returned a reliable oddball detection response
      after only 50s of stimulus presentation time. Moreover, a stable oddball response
      was found for each participating individual within 100s. As such, the FPVS
      oddball paradigm returned an objective, non-verbal marker of semantic
      categorisation in single subjects in under two minutes. This finding establishes
      the FPVS-oddball paradigm as a powerful new tool in cognitive neuroscience.

PMID- 28552784
TI  - Misdiagnosis of vertebral fractures on plain films: Are radiologists really
      working so bad?

PMID- 28552783
TI  - Cognitive persistence: Development and validation of a novel measure from the
      Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.
AB  - The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) has long been used as a neuropsychological
      assessment of executive function abilities, in particular, cognitive flexibility
      or "set-shifting". Recent advances in scoring the task have helped to isolate
      specific WCST performance metrics that index set-shifting abilities and have
      improved our understanding of how prefrontal and parietal cortex contribute to
      set-shifting. We present evidence that the ability to overcome task difficulty to
      achieve a goal, or "cognitive persistence", is another important prefrontal
      function that is characterized by the WCST and that can be differentiated from
      efficient set-shifting. This novel measure of cognitive persistence was developed
      using the WCST-64 in an adult lifespan sample of 230 participants. The measure
      was validated using individual variation in cingulo-opercular cortex function in
      a sub-sample of older adults who had completed a challenging speech recognition
      in noise fMRI task. Specifically, older adults with higher cognitive persistence
      were more likely to demonstrate word recognition benefit from cingulo-opercular
      activity. The WCST-derived cognitive persistence measure can be used to
      disentangle neural processes involved in set-shifting from those involved in
      persistence.

PMID- 28552785
TI  - Co-occurrence of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in dried fruits in Iran: Dietary
      exposure risk assessment.
AB  - In this study, the contamination levels of aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxin A
      (OTA) in 88 collected samples from Iran's market including dried mulberry, date,
      fig, and apricot were evaluated. The margin of exposure (MOE) was estimated to
      assess the risk of dietary intake of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and OTA. The incidence
      of AFB1 in dried mulberry, date, fig and apricot samples was 45.5, 40.9, 59.1,
      and 81.8%, respectively. Although the mean total AFs content in contaminated
      samples of date (2.61 MUg/kg), fig (3.43 MUg/kg) and apricot (2.91 MUg/kg) was
      lower than the maximum limit set in the European Union (EU) (4 MUg/kg), dried
      mulberry samples showed a higher contamination level (4.12 MUg/kg). The co
      occurrence of OTA and AFs were noted in 4 (18.9%), 2 (9.1%), 4 (18.2%), and 10
      (45.5%) in the dried mulberry, date, fig and apricot samples, respectively. Based
      on the calculated MOE, the dietary exposure to AFs through the consumption of
      dried fruit in Iran poses a potential risk to consumer health. OTA was detected
      in 45.45%, 22.72%, 45.45%, and 50% of mulberry, date, fig and apricot samples,
      respectively. However, OTA levels in all types of dried fruit were below
      recommended level in EU regulation (10 MUg/kg) and MOE >10000, representing no
      toxicological concerns for consumers.

PMID- 28552786
TI  - Metabolism and pharmacokinetics of zearalenone following oral and intravenous
      administration in juvenile female pigs.
AB  - Zearalenone (ZEN) is a well-studied mycotoxin whose potent estrogenic properties
      have been used by international regulatory bodies to set health-based guidance
      values for ZEN exposure in grain-based foods from changes in hormonally
      responsive tissues of juvenile female pigs. The role of metabolism in determining
      estrogenic responses in vivo is a major uncertainty in inter-species
      extrapolation to humans and in assessing the potential for added susceptibility
      in sensitive subpopulations. This study evaluated the metabolism of ZEN and
      pharmacokinetics in ~2 month-old female pigs using oral and intravenous dosing.
      The absolute bioavailability (AUCoral/AUCIV) of receptor-active ZEN aglycone was
      1.8 +/- 0.80%, consistent with extensive pre-systemic Phase II conjugation.
      Reductive metabolism to alpha-zearalenol (alpha-ZEL) was extensive, with smaller
      amounts of beta-ZEL. When combined with its higher binding affinity, relative to
      ZEN and beta-ZEL, alpha-ZEL was the predominant contributor to total estrogen
      receptor ligand activity (~90%) after oral dosing with ZEN. The apparent
      similarities of reductive and Phase II conjugation metabolism of ZEN between pigs
      and humans support the use of juvenile female pigs as a sensitive model for risk
      assessments of estrogenic effects from dietary ZEN.

PMID- 28552787
TI  - Assessment of antioxidant, antitumor and pro-apoptotic effects of Salvia
      fruticosa Mill. subsp. thomasii (Lacaita) Brullo, Guglielmo, Pavone & Terrasi
      (Lamiaceae).
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro antioxidant and
      antitumor effects of Salvia fruticosa Mill subsp. thomasii (Lacaita) Brullo,
      Guglielmo, Pavone & Terrasi (Lamiaceae). The aerial parts were extracted by
      maceration with methanol. This extract was partitioned with methanol and n
      hexane. Luteolin, luteolin 7-O-glucoside, rutin and salvigenin were isolated from
      the methanol-soluble fraction. n-Hexane fraction showed viridiflorol, beta
      pinene, 1,8-cineole, as main components. The methanol-soluble fraction exerted
      antitumor activity against human breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and human
      colorectal carcinoma (RKO and Caco-2) cells. TUNEL test revealed that S.
      fruticosa subsp. thomasii leads to cells death by apoptosis, with low cytotoxic
      effects on non-tumoral 3T3-L1 cells. Moreover, it exerted the highest protection
      of lipid peroxidation and reduced the oxidative stress induced by menadione
      treatment in 3T3-L1 murine fibroblasts. S. fruticosa subsp. thomasii bioactivity
      could promote its use not only as food but also in nutraceutical/pharmaceutical
      industries.

PMID- 28552788
TI  - Solasodine-3-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside kills Candida albicans by disrupting the
      intracellular vacuole.
AB  - The increasing incidence of fungal infections and emergence of drug resistance
      underlie the constant search for new antifungal agents and exploration of their
      modes of action. The present study aimed to investigate the antifungal mechanisms
      of solasodine-3-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside (SG) isolated from the medicinal plant
      Solanum nigrum L. In vitro, SG displayed potent fungicidal activity against both
      azole-sensitive and azole-resistant Candida albicans strains in Spider medium
      with its MICs of 32 MUg/ml. Analysis of structure and bioactivity revealed that
      both the glucosyl residue and NH group were required for SG activity. Quantum dot
      (QD) assays demonstrated that the glucosyl moiety was critical for SG uptake into
      Candida cells, as further confirmed by glucose rescue experiments. Measurement of
      the fluorescence intensity of 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCFHDA) by flow
      cytometry indicated that SG even at 64 MUg/ml just caused a moderate increase of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by 58% in C. albicans cells. Observation
      of vacuole staining by confocal microscopy demonstrated that SG alkalized the
      intracellular vacuole of C. albicans and caused hyper-permeability of the vacuole
      membrane, resulting in cell death. These results support the potential
      application of SG in fighting fungal infections and reveal a novel fungicidal
      mechanism.

PMID- 28552789
TI  - Dynamic ventilatory responses of females and males to acute isocapnic and
      poikilocapnic hypoxia.
AB  - The human ventilatory response during acute hypoxia appears to be biphasic
      (growth and decay), but the effect of sex on the size and timing of this response
      is not known. We studied the effects of 15min of poikilocapnic and isocapnic
      hypoxia (FiO2~0.10) on ventilation (Vi) in 14 healthy female and 13 healthy male
      subjects. Parameters (amplitudes, time delays, time constants) describing
      individual Vi responses were estimated using a biexponential function. There were
      no significant effects of sex on any of these parameters. CO2 regulation
      significantly altered the amplitudes of growth and decay phases and the onset of
      the latter phase in females and males. These human data suggest that sex does not
      affect the biphasic response of ventilation during hypoxia. However, additional
      evidence in this study suggests that sex influences the breathing frequency
      response during hypoxia and that this effect depends on the control of CO2.

PMID- 28552790
TI  - Short-term expiratory muscle strength training attenuates sleep apnea and
      improves sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of 5 weeks of expiratory muscle strength
      training (EMST) on sleep apnea, sleep quality, and respiratory muscle strength in
      patients with different levels of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Twenty-five
      outpatients who received a diagnosis of OSA participated in the study and were
      assigned to either the EMST group (n=13) or control group (CTRL, n=12). The
      training intensity for the EMST group was 75% of the maximum static expiratory
      (PEmax) score (5days/week). The PEmax, apnea-hypoapnea index (AHI), Epworth
      Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores were
      evaluated before and after the treatment. EMST improved the scores for AHI (
      40%), PEmax (+68%), and PSQI (-28%) and reduced the PSQI scores of the moderate
      OSA subgroup but not the mild OSA subgroup. The percent changes (Delta%) in the
      AHI and PEmax scores of participants with OSA were negatively correlated. We
      demonstrated that EMST effectively improved sleep apnea, sleep quality, and
      expiratory muscle strength in participants with OSA. Participants with moderate
      OSA exhibited greater improvement than did those with mild OSA, and the
      improvement in PEmax scores was correlated with a decrease in sleep apnea.

PMID- 28552791
TI  - Three-dimensional printing: technologies, applications, and limitations in
      neurosurgery.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) printers are a developing technology penetrating a variety
      of markets, including the medical sector. Since its introduction to the medical
      field in the late 1980s, 3D printers have constructed a range of devices, such as
      dentures, hearing aids, and prosthetics. With the ultimate goals of decreasing
      healthcare costs and improving patient care and outcomes, neurosurgeons are
      utilizing this dynamic technology, as well. Digital Imaging and Communication in
      Medicine (DICOM) can be translated into Stereolithography (STL) files, which are
      then read and methodically built by 3D Printers. Vessels, tumors, and skulls are
      just a few of the anatomical structures created in a variety of materials, which
      enable surgeons to conduct research, educate surgeons in training, and improve
      pre-operative planning without risk to patients. Due to the infancy of the field
      and a wide range of technologies with varying advantages and disadvantages, there
      is currently no standard 3D printing process for patient care and medical
      research. In an effort to enable clinicians to optimize the use of additive
      manufacturing (AM) technologies, we outline the most suitable 3D printing models
      and computer-aided design (CAD) software for 3D printing in neurosurgery, their
      applications, and the limitations that need to be overcome if 3D printers are to
      become common practice in the neurosurgical field.

PMID- 28552792
TI  - Plasmodium glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase: A potential malaria
      diagnostic target.
AB  - Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are immunochromatographic tests detecting
      Plasmodial histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and
      aldolase. HRP2 is only expressed by Plasmodium falciparum parasites and the
      protein is not expressed in several geographic isolates. LDH-based tests lack
      sensitivity compared to HRP2 tests. This study explored the potential of the
      Plasmodial glycolytic enzyme, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH),
      as a new malaria diagnostic biomarker. The P. falciparum and P. yoelii proteins
      were recombinantly expressed in BL21(DE3) Escherischia coli host cells and
      affinity purified. Two epitopes (CADGFLLIGEKKVSVFA and CAEKDPSQIPWGKCQV) specific
      to P. falciparum GAPDH and one common to all mammalian malaria species
      (CKDDTPIYVMGINH) were identified. Antibodies were raised in chickens against the
      two recombinant proteins and the three epitopes and affinity purified. The
      antibodies detected the native protein in parasite lysates as a 38 kDa protein
      and immunofluorescence verified a parasite cytosolic localization for the native
      protein. The antibodies suggested a 4-6 fold higher concentration of native
      PfGAPDH compared to PfLDH in immunoprecipitation and ELISA formats, consistent
      with published proteomic data. PfGAPDH shows interesting potential as a malaria
      diagnostic biomarker.

PMID- 28552793
TI  - Artichoke leaf extract protects liver of Schistosoma mansoni infected mice
      through modulation of hepatic stellate cells recruitment.
AB  - Schistosomiasis is the second most common human parasitic disease worldwide. It
      is responsible for 300000 deaths per year. Liver fibrosis is the main pathology
      of schistosomiasis and its complications are the major cause of death in infected
      cases. Unfortunately, the therapeutic dose of praziquantel (PZQ) - the main drug
      treatment - doesn't markedly affect fibrosis. In the present study, antiparasitic
      and hepatoprotective properties of artichoke leaf extract (ALE) were tested on
      mice experimentally infected with Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) and were
      compared to PZQ. Four mice groups were infected with S. mansoni. The first three
      groups received ALE, ALE + PZQ and PZQ respectively. The 4th was the positive
      control and the 5th was the negative control group. Worm load, egg count,
      granuloma numbers and diameters were measured to assess ALE anti-schistoaomal
      properties. Masson's trichrome staining of fibrosis, immune staining of hepatic
      stellate cells (HSCs) and estimation of liver enzymes were done to assess its
      hepato-protective action. Although it had no significant effects on worm or
      tissue egg load and granuloma number, ALE caused significant reduction of
      granuloma diameter, improvement of liver functions and liver fibrosis. ALE caused
      statistically significant changes in HSCs distribution. It reduced granuloma size
      by increasing HSCs recruitment inside granuloma and limited liver fibrosis by
      their inhibition in the peri- and inter-granuloma liver tissue. It was concluded
      that despite failure of ALE to treat S. mansoni infection, it can limit liver
      damage caused by this parasite by modulating HSCs recruitment.

PMID- 28552794
TI  - Front-line glioblastoma chemotherapeutic temozolomide is toxic to Trypanosoma
      brucei and potently enhances melarsoprol and eflornithine.
AB  - Sleeping sickness is an infectious disease that is caused by the protozoan
      parasite Trypanosoma brucei. The second stage of the disease is characterised by
      the parasites entering the brain. It is therefore important that sleeping
      sickness therapies are able to cross the blood-brain barrier. At present, only
      three medications for chemotherapy of the second stage of the disease are
      available. As these trypanocides have serious side effects and are difficult to
      administer, new and safe anti-trypanosomal brain-penetrating drugs are needed.
      For these reasons, the anti-glioblastoma drug temozolomide was tested in vitro
      for activity against bloodstream forms of T. brucei. The concentration of the
      drug required to reduce the growth rate of the parasites by 50% was 29.1 MUM and
      to kill all trypanosomes was 125 MUM. Importantly, temozolomide did not affect
      the growth of human HL-60 cells up to a concentration of 300 MUM. Cell cycle
      analysis revealed that temozolomide induced DNA damage and subsequent cell cycle
      arrest in trypanosomes exposed to the compound. As drug combination regimes often
      achieve greater therapeutic efficacy than monotherapies, the interactions of
      temozolomide with the trypanocides eflornithine and melarsoprol, respectively,
      was determined. Both combinations were found to produce an additive effect. In
      conclusion, these results together with well-established pharmacokinetic data
      provide the basis for in vivo studies and potentially for clinical trials of
      temozolomide in the treatment of T. brucei infections and a rationale for its use
      in combination therapy, particularly with eflornithine or melarsoprol.

PMID- 28552795
TI  - rHuKGF ameliorates protease/anti-protease imbalance in emphysematous mice.
AB  - We attempted to elucidate the beneficial role of rHuKGF supplementation in the
      amelioration of protease/antiprotease imbalance and TGF-beta1 signaling pathway
      leading to alveolar tissue maintenance in elastase induced emphysematous mice.
      Thirty two male C57BL mice were divided into four groups i.e. control, emphysema,
      therapy and rHuKGF only and were oropharyngeally instilled with saline/porcine
      pancreatic elastase/rHuKGF. Subsequently, lungs from mice were collected for
      histopathology and molecular biology studies. rHuKGF supplementation
      significantly ameliorated the mRNA expressions of CRP, TNF-alpha, MMP-2, MMP-7,
      MMP-8, MMP-9, MMP-12, A1AT, TIMP1, TIMP2, PCNA, Ki67, SPB, SPC and PdPn. MMP-2
      and TIMP-1 enzyme activity was resolved due to rHuKGF. Likewise, due to rHuKGF
      supplementation the protein expressions of CRP, MMP2, MMP7, MMP8 & CTSE,
      SERPINE1, SERPINA1, TIMP4, GSTA1, HDAC3, PCNA, CDH1, SP-B & SP-C were
      ameliorated. Moreover, the mRNA expressions of overall TGFbeta-1 pathway was also
      significantly ameliorated due to rHuKGF supplementation. Lung histopathology
      represents recovery of lost alveolar septa due to rHuKGF supplementation.
      Moreover, positive DAB staining of PCNA, SP-B & SP-C was observed due to rHuKGF
      supplementation at tissue level. rHuKGF is therapeutically potent in maintaining
      pulmonary tissue integrity by amelioration of protease/antiprotease imbalance and
      TGFbeta-1 pathway in emphysema.

PMID- 28552796
TI  - Epigenetic modifications in poorly differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancer.
AB  - Well-differentiated thyroid cancer accounts for the majority of endocrine
      malignancies and, in general, has an excellent prognosis. In contrast, the less
      common poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC) and anaplastic thyroid
      carcinoma (ATC) are two of the most aggressive human malignancies. Recently,
      there has been an increased focus on the epigenetic alterations underlying
      thyroid carcinogenesis, including those that drive PDTC and ATC. Dysregulated
      epigenetic candidates identified include the Aurora group, KMT2D, PTEN, RASSF1A,
      multiple non-coding RNAs (ncRNA), and the SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex. A
      deeper understanding of the signaling pathways affected by epigenetic
      dysregulation may improve prognostic testing and support the advancement of
      thyroid-specific epigenetic therapies. This review outlines the current
      understanding of epigenetic alterations observed in PDTC and ATC and explores the
      potential for exploiting this understanding in developing novel therapeutic
      strategies.

PMID- 28552797
TI  - Hospital organizational factors affect the use of immediate breast reconstruction
      after mastectomy for breast cancer in the Netherlands.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Significant hospital variation in the use of immediate breast
      reconstruction (IBR) after mastectomy exists in the Netherlands. Aims of this
      study were to identify hospital organizational factors affecting the use of IBR
      after mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or invasive breast cancer
      (BC) and to analyze whether these factors explain the variation. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Patients with DCIS or primary invasive BC treated with mastectomy
      between 2011 and 2013 were selected from the national NABON Breast Cancer Audit.
      Hospital and organizational factors were collected with an online web-based
      survey. Regression analyses were performed to determine whether these factors
      accounted for the hospital variation. RESULTS: In total, 78% (n = 72) of all
      Dutch hospitals participated in the survey. In these hospitals 16,471 female
      patients underwent a mastectomy for DCIS (n = 1,980) or invasive BC (n = 14,491)
      between 2011 and 2014. IBR was performed in 41% of patients with DCIS (hospital
      range 0-80%) and in 17% of patients with invasive BC (hospital range 0-62%).
      Hospital type, number of plastic surgeons available and attendance of a plastic
      surgeon at the MDT meeting increased IBR rates. For invasive BC, higher
      percentage of mastectomies and more weekly MDT meetings also significantly
      increased IBR rates. Adjusted data demonstrated decreased IBR rates for DCIS
      (average 35%, hospital range 0-49%) and invasive BC (average 15%, hospital range
      0-18%). CONCLUSION: Hospital organizational factors affect the use of IBR in the
      Netherlands. Although only partly explaining hospital variation, optimization of
      these factors could lead to less variation in IBR rates.

PMID- 28552798
TI  - Efficacy assessment of self-assembled PLGA-PEG-PLGA nanoparticles: Correlation of
      nano-bio interface interactions, biodistribution, internalization and gene
      expression studies.
AB  - The aim of our study was to develop and compare the biological performance of two
      types of biodegradable SN-38 loaded nanoparticles (NPs) with various surface
      properties, composed of low and high Mw triblock PLGA-PEG-PLGA copolymers,
      applying rational quality and safety by design approach. Therefore, along with
      the optimization of crucial physico-chemical properties and in order to evaluate
      the therapeutical potential and biocompatibility of prepared polymeric
      nanoparticles, analysis of nano-bio interactions, cell internalization, gene
      expression and biodistribution studies were performed. The optimized
      formulations, one of low Mw and one composed of high Mw PLGA-PEG-PLGA copolymer,
      exhibited different characteristics in terms of surface properties, particle
      size, zeta potential, drug loading, protein adsorption and biodistribution, which
      may be attributed to the variations in nano-bio interface interactions due to
      different NP building blocks length and Mw. On the contrary to protein adsorption
      and biodistribution studies, both types of NPs exhibited similar results during
      cell internalization and gene expression studies performed in cell culture medium
      containing serum proteins. This pool of useful data for internalization and
      efficacy as well as the notable advance in the circulation time of low Mw NPs may
      be further employed for shaping the potential of the designed nanocarriers.

PMID- 28552799
TI  - An explorative analysis of process and formulation variables affecting comilling
      in a vibrational mill: The case of praziquantel.
AB  - Praziquantel, a BCS II class anthelmintic drug used for the treatment of
      schistosome infections, was coground in a vibrational mill with different
      polymers (linear and crosslinked povidone, copovidone and sodium starch
      glycolate). An explorative analysis of formulation variables (drug-polymer wt
      ratio and polymer type) and process parameters (type of grinding media, grinding
      time and frequency) was carried out with the help of an experimental screening
      design. The influence of the above mentioned factors on three PZQ characteristics
      (residual crystallinity, water solubility enhancement and drug recovery) was
      studied. The variation of carrier amount proved to be by far the most important
      variable affecting all the experimental responses. A lower impact and, in some
      cases, rather null effect, had the variation of the process variables. All
      coground systems were characterized by a high amorphous degree and a solubility
      significantly higher than the API. A very promising product was obtained by
      processing at 20Hz for 4h, using 3 spheres of 15mm as grinding media, i.e. a
      coground having a 50% API content, showing a 4.6-fold greater solubility at 20
      degrees C than pure praziquantel. This product maintained the same
      antischistosomal activity of pure API and was both physically and chemically
      stable for at least 6 months.

PMID- 28552800
TI  - 3D printed orodispersible films with Aripiprazole.
AB  - Three dimensional printing technology is gaining in importance because of its
      increasing availability and wide applications. One of the three dimensional
      printing techniques is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) which works on the basis
      of hot melt extrusion-well known in the pharmaceutical technology. Combination of
      fused deposition modelling with preparation of the orodispersible film with
      poorly water soluble substance such as aripiprazole seems to be extra
      advantageous in terms of dissolution rate. 3D printed as well as casted films
      were compared in terms of physicochemical and mechanical properties. Moreover,
      drug-free films were prepared to evaluate the impact of the extrusion process and
      aripiprazole presence on the film properties. X-ray diffractometry and thermal
      analyses confirmed transition of aripiprazole into amorphous state during film
      preparation using 3D printing technique. Amorphization of the aripiprazole and
      porous structure of printed film led to increased dissolution rate in comparison
      to casted films, which, however have slightly better mechanical properties due to
      their continuous structure. It can be concluded that fused deposition modelling
      is suitable technique and polyvinyl alcohol is applicable polymer for
      orodispersible films preparation.

PMID- 28552801
TI  - Interferon-Free Regimens in Hepatitis B Surface Antigen/Anti-Hepatitis C Virus
      Positive Patients: The Need to Control Hepatitis B Virus Replication to Avoid
      Hepatitis B Virus Reactivation.

PMID- 28552802
TI  - No Association Between Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment and Outcomes of
      Patients With Cirrhosis and Infections.

PMID- 28552803
TI  - High Resolution Manometry in Scleroderma Patients.

PMID- 28552804
TI  - Features and Treatment of Dapsone-Induced Hepatitis, Based on Analysis of 44
      Cases and Literature Review.

PMID- 28552805
TI  - Novel RAG1 mutation and the occurrence of mycobacterial and Chromobacterium
      violaceum infections in a case of leaky SCID.
AB  - Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is a potentially fatal primary
      immunodeficiency (PID) that is caused by mutations in genes such as IL2RG, JAK3,
      IL7RA, RAG1, RAG2, and ADA. The products of these genes are involved in the
      development of several immune cells such as T, B and natural killer (NK) cells.
      Most of the SCID forms are autosomal recessive with the exception of IL2RG
      defects that cause an X-linked SCID. Among the different SCID types, there is a
      rare SCID form called leaky SCID, which is less severe when compared to the other
      classical SCID phenotypes. Leaky SCID can be caused by hypomorphic mutations in
      RAG1 and RAG2 that result in only partial loss of enzymatic function of the
      proteins respectively encoded by these genes. Here we report a novel missense
      mutation (c. 307C > T/p.H103Y) in the RAG1 gene in a patient with leaky SCID. In
      addition, we characterize the clinical and immunological features of this patient
      that developed along with other severe and recurrent infections such as
      mycobacterial diseases (BCGitis and pulmonary tuberculosis), the first occurrence
      of Chromobacterium violaceum in a patient with SCID. Understanding the increased
      susceptibility to mycobacteria presented by the patient, in which a functional
      investigation of IL-12/IFN-gamma axis was performed, which demonstrated reduced
      production of IFN-gamma in the supernatans of peripheral blood mononuclear cell
      cultures from the patient compared with those from healthy subjects. In
      conclusion, our data expands the molecular and clinical spectrum associated with
      the leaky SCID phenotype.

PMID- 28552806
TI  - Effects of anti-Helicobacter pylori concomitant therapy and probiotic
      supplementation on the throat and gut microbiota in humans.
AB  - The microbiota within humans maintains homeostasis and plays important roles in
      human health. However, some situations such as the use of antibiotics may disrupt
      the microbiota balance and result in a series of adverse effects. This study
      aimed to investigate the effects of a commonly used anti-Helicobacter pylori
      concomitant therapy on the composition of the gut and throat microbiota and any
      antibiotic resistance that may develop. In addition to the standard regimen, two
      different supplementary probiotic regimens that both used Saccharomyces boulardii
      were included. Microbiological culture-based techniques were used to analyse the
      microbiota composition and antibiotic resistance. Our results showed marked
      quantitative and qualitative alterations in both the gut and throat microbiota
      after treatment with not only the standard concomitant therapy but also with
      either supplementary probiotic regimen. Nevertheless, most of the changes in the
      gut microbiota (except for yeast and Bacteroides spp. counts) reverted by Day 71,
      whereas the alterations in the throat microbiota appeared to persist. Patients
      treated with the eradication therapy in the absence of probiotic supplementation
      experienced the most pronounced disturbances in the throat microbiota, whereas
      changes in the throat microbiota appeared to stabilize in the groups that
      received probiotic supplementation. We also detected higher antibiotic resistance
      rates for Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus spp. and Bacteroides spp. after
      treatment with the eradication therapy. Co-administration of probiotics is likely
      to be more effective than post-antibiotic supplementation, and although some
      beneficial effects were observed, the probiotic combination did not exert
      significant effects on the unbalanced commensal gut and throat microbiota
      composition.

PMID- 28552807
TI  - Glycyrrhizin inhibits LPS-induced inflammatory mediator production in endometrial
      epithelial cells.
AB  - Endometriosis is a continuous inflammation of uterine endometrium that usually
      affects women of reproductive age. Glycyrrhizin, a triterpene isolated from the
      roots and rhizomes of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), has been known to have anti
      inflammatory effect. The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti
      inflammatory effect of glycyrrhizin on LPS-stimulated mouse endometrial
      epithelial cells (MEEC). The levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and PGE2 were
      measured by ELISA. The expression of COX-2, iNOS, TLR4, and NF-KB were detected
      by western blot analysis. The results showed that glycyrrhizin significantly
      suppressed LPS-induced TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, NO, and PGE2 production. Also, LPS
      induced iNOS and COX-2 expression were attenuated by glycyrrhizin. Furthermore,
      glycyrrhizin significantly attenuated TLR4 expression and NF-kappaB activation
      induced by LPS in MEEC. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that
      glycyrrhizin inhibited LPS-induced inflammatory response by inhibiting TLR4
      signaling pathway in MEEC. Glycyrrhizin may be used as a potential agent for the
      treatment of endometriosis.

PMID- 28552808
TI  - Phytochemical composition, anti-biofilm and anti-quorum sensing potential of
      fruit, stem and leaves of Salvadora persica L. methanolic extracts.
AB  - Emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria encourages us to
      search for new molecules as an alternative treatment. The aim of this study was
      to evaluate the antiquorum sensing (anti-QS) and antibiofilm potential of
      Salvadora persica L. methanolic extracts to prevent the infections due to
      Staphylococcus as an alternate to antibiotics. The methanolic extracts of S.
      persica L. fruit, leaves and stems was assessed for their activity in inhibiting
      QS-depedent phenomenon such as violacein pigment production in Chromobacterium
      violaceum, swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and biofilm formation
      in oral Staphylococcus strains on polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA). Methanolic fruit
      extract of S. persica L. showed a high degree of anti-biofilm formation on PMMA
      and on violacein inhibition with a percentage of reduction equal to 90% when MIC
      value (20 mg/ml) was used. 100 MUg/ml of S. persica L. leaves exhibited
      inhibition in swarming motility of PAO1 at 29.17%. Because the methanolic
      extracts of S. persica L. demonstrated anti-QS and antibiofilm activity at very
      low concentrations, it could be further exploited for novel molecules to treat
      oral Staphylococcus infections.

PMID- 28552809
TI  - 17beta-Estradiol inhibits estrogen binding protein-mediated hypha formation in
      Candida albicans.
AB  - Candida albicans is one of the most prevalent and clinically important fungal
      pathogens. The ability to change form depending on environmental stress is an
      important microbial virulence factor. A survey of compounds that inhibit this
      morphological change identified various steroids, including 17beta-estradiol.
      Interestingly, C. albicans has proteins capable of binding to steroids, including
      estrogen binding protein (Ebp1). Estrogens regulate cell differentiation and
      proliferation in humans through estrogen receptor proteins. To determine whether
      EBP1 regulates a virulence factor, we investigated the effect of 17beta-estradiol
      on the morphological transition of C. albicans using an ebp1 deletion mutant.
      Treatment with 10 MUg/mL of 17beta-estradiol inhibited hypha formation, whereas
      its effect on the ebp1 deletion mutant was decreased compared to that on the wild
      type and revertant strains. These data suggest a new pathway for the yeast-to
      hypha transition via EBP1 in C. albicans.

PMID- 28552810
TI  - Frideswide - An artificial intelligence deep learning algorithm for audits and
      quality improvement in the neurosurgical practice.

PMID- 28552811
TI  - Periumbilical vs transumbilical laparoscopic incision: A patients' satisfaction
      centered randomised trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While studies suggested that transumbilical incisions (TUI) incur
      better postoperative cosmetic satisfaction scores (CSS) and shorter operative
      time (OT) than periumbilical incisions (PUI) during general surgery laparoscopic
      interventions, others did not. Concerns have been raised toward the potential
      negative impact of TUI on the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) but this
      issue is under documented. METHODS: A controlled trial was conducted between
      August 2014 and August 2015 in our hospital. Individuals aged 18-70 undergoing a
      laparoscopic rectopexy, cholecystectomy, appendectomy or proctocolectomy were
      considered. Patients were randomized in two groups (PUI or TUI) following a 1:1
      allocation ratio. Participants with a body mass index >40, with a history of
      abdominal surgery, undergoing co-operations, requesting a specific incision or
      converted to open surgery were excluded. RESULTS: Among the 56 randomized
      patients, 50 (27 PUI vs 23 PUI) produced analyzable data. There were no
      significant difference between the characteristics of both groups. CSS evolution
      (pre-op vs 1 month post-op), SSI incidence and OT were also comparable. Only 28%
      of participants valued the appearance of their umbilicus prior to intervention.
      Those who did had a significantly worst CSS evolution (OR -1.7; IC95-2.6/-0.72, p
      = 0.001). Higher preoperative CSS was also a predictor of postoperative CSS
      decline (OR -0.4; IC95-0.6/-0.2, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: SUI and TUI were
      similar for all tested outcomes. Among the participants, the minority of patients
      who valued the appearance of their umbilicus and those with a high preoperative
      CSS were particularly prone to postoperative CSS decline.

PMID- 28552812
TI  - Retroinfundibular laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus standard laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy in difficult cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy becomes the gold standard surgical
      procedure for treating gallstones. Standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SLC)
      requires proper dissection of Calot's triangle to achieve the critical view of
      safety. This may be difficult in certain conditions, resulting in higher
      incidence of bile duct injury and conversion to open. We aimed to compare the
      outcomes of laparoscopic cholecystectomy by retroinfundibular (RI) approach to
      that of SLC, in difficult cases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study is prospective
      cohort study, in which 60 patients were operated by SLC and 65 patients by
      laparoscopic cholecystectomy by RI approach. RESULTS: From the total 125 cases,
      95 (76%) patients were male and 30 (24%) were female. The mean age was 59.5 +/-
      5.5 years. The mean operative time in SLC group was 128 +/- 17 min VS. 114 +/- 10
      min in RI group. Conversion to open occurred in 10% in SLC group VS. 1.5% in RI
      group. Biliary injury occurred in 3.3% in SLC group VS. 0% in RI group. The mean
      hospital stay in SLC was 3.7 +/- 5.3 days VS. 2.1 +/- 0.3 days in RI group.
      CONCLUSION: In difficult cholecystectomy, RI approach is feasible and safe
      alternative to SLC.

PMID- 28552813
TI  - The Established Acute Surgical Unit: A reduction in nighttime appendicectomy
      without increased morbidity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nighttime surgery for non-life threatening disease has been
      associated with poorer outcomes, but delaying surgery for acute appendicitis may
      also be detrimental. The aim was to assess the effect of the Acute Surgical Unit
      [ASU] model on nighttime surgery rates and outcomes for patients undergoing
      appendicectomy. METHOD: A retrospective review of medical records of patients
      having an appendicectomy. Primary outcomes were nighttime surgery rate, time from
      presentation to surgery, perforation rate, complication rate and length of stay.
      RESULTS: There was a large increase in workload: Pre ASU 278, Early ASU 553 and
      Est. ASU 923. There was a significant decrease in nighttime surgery rates: Pre
      ASU 46.9%, Early ASU 30.2% and Established ASU 28.3% (Pre vs. Early p < 0.001;
      Pre vs. Est. p < 0.001; Early vs. Est p = 0.004). When comparing the Pre ASU and
      Established ASU groups there was an increase in mean time from presentation to
      surgery (Pre 14.43 Hrs, Est. 18.65 Hrs; p = 0.001), an increase in perforation
      rate that was not significant (Pre 9.8%, Est. 14.2%; p = 0.05) and similar
      complication rates (Pre 8.66%, Est. 7.04%; p = 0.37). There was a significant
      decrease in length of stay between the Early and Established ASU groups (Pre 3.1
      D, Est. 2.8D, p = 0.01). At our institution there was no statistically
      significant increase in complications for patients undergoing nighttime
      appendicectomy (Night 10.0%, Day 8.2%; p = 0.16). CONCLUSION: There was a
      significant decrease in nighttime surgery, without any difference in morbidity or
      length of stay for patients treated within the Established ASU (compared to Pre
      ASU group). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IIb.

PMID- 28552814
TI  - Guiding recombinant antivenom development by omics technologies.
AB  - In this review, the different approaches that have been employed with the aim of
      developing novel antivenoms against animal envenomings are presented and
      discussed. Reported efforts have focused on the use of innovative immunization
      strategies, small molecule inhibitors against enzymatic toxins, endogenous animal
      proteins with toxin-neutralizing capabilities, and recombinant monoclonal
      antibodies. Harnessing either of these approaches, antivenom development may
      benefit from an in-depth understanding of venom compositions and the medical
      importance of individual venom toxins. Focus is thus also directed towards the
      different omics technologies (particularly venomics, antivenomics, and
      toxicovenomics) that are being used to uncover novel animal toxins, shed light on
      venom complexity, and provide directions for how to determine the medical
      relevance of individual toxins within whole venoms. Finally, techniques for
      assessing antivenom specificity and cross-reactivity are reviewed, with special
      focus on antivenomics and high-density peptide microarray technology.

PMID- 28552816
TI  - Spanish strategy on bioeconomy: Towards a knowledge based sustainable innovation.
AB  - Spain launched its own strategy on bioeconomy in January 2016 aiming at boosting
      a bioeconomy based on the sustainable and efficient production and use of
      biological resources. It highlights global societal challenges related with
      agricultural and biotechnological sciences in Spain and the great dynamism of the
      private sectors involved, particularly the agri-food, biotech and biomass
      sectors. The targeted sectors are food, agriculture and forestry, conditioned by
      water availability. It also includes the production of those industrial
      bioproducts and bioenergy obtained from the use and valorisation of wastes and
      residues and other non-conventional sources of biomass, in a circular economy.
      The strategy also puts a focus on rural and coastal development through several
      uses and services linked to ecosystems. The capacity to generate know-how in this
      area and the promotion of public and private collaboration are important pillars
      in order to enhance existing value chains and to create new ones. The strategy is
      led by R&I and Agriculture, Food and Environment policy managers and largely
      supported at regional level too. The strategic objective is the maintenance of
      the bioeconomy as an essential part of Spanish economy to contribute to the
      economic growth by creating new jobs and fostering investments.

PMID- 28552817
TI  - How to capture the bioeconomy's industrial and regional potential through
      professional cluster management.
AB  - The bioeconomy transforms the fossil-based economy by forming new value chains
      and linking until now distinct industrial sectors. It provides an opportunity for
      rural as well as industrialized regions. The transformation process can be
      accelerated by building bioeconomy clusters comprising industries, academia and
      investors. Using the model of the German cluster CLIB2021 the role of cluster
      organisations and professional cluster management in moderating the
      transformation process and gaining a competetive advantage is discussed. In
      addition examples of how cluster management supports the formation of an
      industrial consortium and the analysis of regional options are presented.

PMID- 28552815
TI  - Leisure-time physical activity and leukocyte telomere length among older women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shortened leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a purported marker of
      cellular aging, is associated with morbidity and mortality. However, the
      association of physical activity, a modifiable lifestyle behavior, with LTL has
      not been adequately studied among older adults. METHODS: In this cross-sectional
      study, we examined associations of various intensity levels of leisure-time
      physical activity with LTL among 1476 older white and African American women from
      the Women's Health Initiative Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular
      Health study. Self-reported physical activity was assessed by questionnaire, and
      LTL was measured by Southern blot. The association between physical activity and
      LTL was evaluated using multiple linear regression models adjusted for
      demographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and health-related variables.
      RESULTS: Women were on average aged 79.2 (standard deviation 6.7) years old. In
      the final model adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status,
      smoking, alcohol, body mass index, a history of chronic diseases, and hormone
      therapy use, LTL was on average 110 (95% confidence interval, 20-190) base pairs
      longer among women in the highest (>=17.00MET-hours/week) compared with the
      lowest (<1.25MET-hours/week) level of total leisure-time physical activity (P for
      trend=0.02). Higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (P for
      trend=0.04) and faster walking speed (P for trend=0.03) were also associated with
      longer LTL in the fully-adjusted models. CONCLUSION: Older women participating in
      greater amounts of total leisure-time physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous
      physical activity had longer LTL.

PMID- 28552818
TI  - Natural History of Low-stage Urethral Strictures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the natural history and rate of progression of incidental
      wide-caliber, anterior urethral strictures (USs) in men using a validated
      stricture staging system. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Men with incidental findings of
      anterior US on cystoscopy performed for urologic conditions other than US were
      retrospectively reviewed from 2001 through 2016. Diagnosis of US on cystoscopy
      was made according to a validated staging system: stage 0 = no stricture; stage 1
      = wide-caliber stricture; stage 2 = requires gentle dilation with a flexible
      cystoscope; stage 3 = impassable stricture with a visible lumen; and stage 4 = no
      visible lumen. Using this staging system, this study assessed the change over
      time of US in patients found to have a stage 1 stricture. The primary outcome was
      the US grade at time of follow-up. Secondary outcomes include the need for
      further intervention. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients with 42 separate strictures
      were evaluated. Median length of follow-up between first cystoscopy and ultimate
      cystoscopy was 23 months, with a median of 4 cystoscopies per patient. Of the 42
      strictures, 15 regressed to a stage 0 (36%), 22 remained as stage 1 (52%), and 5
      (12%) progressed to stage 2. None of the patients required additional
      intervention. CONCLUSION: The majority of low-stage USs does not progress. This
      supports the notion that strictures are a graded phenomenon, and not all require
      surgical intervention.

PMID- 28552819
TI  - Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 Score Does Not Predict for Adverse Pathologic Features
      at Radical Prostatectomy or for Progression-free Survival in Clinically
      Localized, Intermediate- and High-risk Prostate Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether preoperative urinary prostate cancer antigen 3
      (PCA3) scores predict for adverse pathologic features (APFs) or progression-free
      survival (PFS) in men with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer (PCa)
      undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred nine
      men with intermediate- (n = 52) or high-risk (n = 57) PCa who underwent RP were
      retrospectively identified. Logistic regression analysis was performed to
      evaluate the association of PCA3 score with various APFs (eg, extracapsular
      extension, seminal vesicle invasion, etc.). Among 78 men with >=1 year of follow
      up, the association between PCA3 score and PFS was assessed using Cox regression
      analysis. RESULTS: At RP, 52% of patients had at least 1 APF, and with median
      follow-up of 2.3 years, overall 3-year PFS was 70%. PCA3 was not a significant
      predictor of any APF on multivariate analysis (MVA), whereas canonical predictors
      (eg, biopsy Gleason score and initial prostate-specific antigen) remained
      predictive of various APFs. No significant predictors for PFS were found on MVA,
      although certain canonical predictors (eg, National Comprehensive Cancer Network
      risk group) were significant predictors of PFS on univariate analysis (UVA). PCA3
      score was not a significant predictor of PFS on either UVA or MVA. CONCLUSION:
      Unlike in lower risk cohorts, increasing PCA3 score was not associated with any
      APF in this higher risk cohort, despite enrichment for APFs, nor was it
      associated with PFS. Notably, multiple known preoperative predictors for APFs
      were significant on MVA, and multiple predictors were associated with PFS on UVA.
      Therefore, PCA3 may not be a useful adjunct predictive marker in men with
      intermediate- or high-risk PCa.

PMID- 28552820
TI  - Avidin-conjugated calcium phosphate nanoparticles as a modular targeting system
      for the attachment of biotinylated molecules in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - : Avidin was covalently conjugated to the surface of calcium phosphate
      nanoparticles, coated with a thin silica shell and terminated by sulfhydryl
      groups (diameter of the solid core about 50nm), with a bifunctional crosslinker
      connecting the amino groups of avidin to the sulfhydryl group on the nanoparticle
      surface. This led to a versatile nanoparticle system where all kinds of
      biotinylated (bio-)molecules can be easily attached to the surface by the non
      covalent avidin-biotin-complex formation. It also permits the attachment of
      different biomolecules on the same nanoparticle (heteroavidity), creating a
      modular system for specific applications in medicine and biology. The variability
      of the binding to the nanoparticle surface of the was demonstrated with various
      biotinylated molecules, i.e. fluorescent dyes and antibodies. The accessibility
      of the conjugated avidin was demonstrated by a fluorescence-quenching assay.
      About 2.6 binding sites for biotin were accessible on each avidin tetramer.
      Together with a number of about 240 avidin tetramer units per nanoparticle, this
      offers about 600 binding sites for biotin on each nanoparticle. The uptake of
      fluorescently labelled avidin-conjugated calcium phosphate nanoparticles by HeLa
      cells showed the co-localization of fluorescent avidin and fluorescent biotin,
      indicating the stability of the complex under cell culture conditions. CD11c
      antibody functionalized nanoparticles specifically targeted antigen-presenting
      immune cells (dendritic cells; DCs) in vitro and in vivo (mice) with high
      efficiency. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Calcium phosphate nanoparticles have
      turned out to be very useful transporters for biomolecules into cells, both in
      vitro and in vivo. However, their covalent surface functionalization with
      antibodies, fluorescent dyes, or proteins requires a separate chemical synthesis
      for each kind of surface molecule. We have therefore developed avidin-terminated
      calcium phosphate nanoparticles to which all kinds of biotinylated molecules can
      be easily attached, also as a mixture of two or more molecules. This non-covalent
      bond is stable both in cell culture and after injection into mice in vivo. Thus,
      we have created a highly versatile system for many applications, from the
      delivery of biomolecules over the targeting of cells and tissue to in vivo
      imaging.

PMID- 28552821
TI  - Utilization of isolated marine mussel cells as an in vitro model to assess
      xenobiotics induced genotoxicity.
AB  - Freshly isolated cells are used as an ideal experimental model in in vitro
      toxicology analysis, especially the detection of diverse xenobiotics induced
      genotoxic effects. In present study, heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb) and PCBs were
      selected as representative xenobiotics to verify the ability of in vitro model in
      assessing genotoxic effects in cells of marine mussels (Mytilus
      galloprovincialis). DNA damage and chromosome aberration were assessed in freshly
      isolated cells from haemolymph, gill and digestive gland by single cell gel
      electrophoresis and micronucleus assay respectively. Gill cells showed more
      sensitive to Zn exposure among three types of cells, indicating tissue-specific
      genotoxicity. Significantly higher DNA aberrations were induced by Cu in
      haemocytes compared to Cd and Pb, indicating chemical-specific genotoxicity. An
      additive effect was detected after combined heavy metals and PCBs exposure,
      suggesting the interaction of selected xenobiotics. To our knowledge, this is the
      first attempt to study the complex effects of organic and/or inorganic
      contaminants using freshly isolated cells from marine mussels. Genetic responses
      are proved to occur and maintained in vitro in relation to short-term xenobiotics
      induced stresses. The utilization of the in vitro model could provide a rapid
      tool to investigate the comprehensive toxic effects in marine invertebrates and
      monitor environmental health.

PMID- 28552823
TI  - High failure rate of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with bimeniscal
      repair: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bimeniscal lesions are common in patients with anterior cruciate
      ligament (ACL) tears. However, bimeniscal repair is rarely performed during ACL
      reconstruction. OBJECTIVE: To assess outcomes after ACL reconstruction with
      bimeniscal repair. HYPOTHESIS: Bimeniscal lesions, even when repaired, are
      associated with poorer outcomes of ACL reconstruction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      retrospective case-control design was used. The cases were 15 patients who
      underwent ACL reconstruction, without procedures on any other ligaments, combined
      with bimeniscal repair, between May 2009 and May 2013 (3.2% of all ACL
      reconstructions during the study period). This group (2-Mc group) was matched on
      age, gender, body mass index, and time to surgery to 30 patients who underwent
      ACL reconstruction and had no meniscal lesions (0-Mc group) and to 30 patients
      who underwent ACL reconstruction and repair of the medial meniscus (1-Mc group).
      After a mean follow-up of 3.6 years, clinical outcomes were assessed based on the
      KOOS, Lysholm, and IKDC scores and knee laxity based on TELOS and GNRB
      measurements. The primary outcome measure was the rate of ACL re-rupture.
      Secondary outcome measures were functional outcomes and rate of delayed
      meniscectomy. RESULTS: The ACL re-rupture rate was significantly higher in the 2
      Mc group than in the 0-Mc and 1-Mc groups pooled (20%, vs. 1.7%; P=0.02). The
      functional scores showed no significant differences across groups. Post-operative
      differential laxity was significantly greater in the 2-Mc group (3.3mm by TELOS,
      P=0.02; and 2.5mm by GNRB, P=0.03) than in the 0-Mc and 1-Mc groups pooled.
      Delayed meniscectomy was performed in none of the 2-Mc group patients and in 2 of
      the 1-Mc group patients. CONCLUSION: ACL reconstruction combined with bimeniscal
      repair is a rarely performed procedure. It is associated with a high ACL re
      rupture rate and greater differential laxity. Meniscal outcomes of bimeniscal
      repair, in contrast, are good. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III, matched case-control
      study.

PMID- 28552822
TI  - Changes in DNA methylation of erythroid-specific genes in K562 cells exposed to
      catechol in long term.
AB  - Catechol is one of phenolic metabolites of benzene that is a general occupational
      hazard and a ubiquitous environmental air pollutant. Catechol also occurs
      naturally in fruits, vegetables and cigarettes. Previous studies have revealed
      that 72h exposure to catechol improved hemin-induced erythroid differentiation of
      K562 cells accompanied with elevated methylation in erythroid specific genes. In
      present study, K562 cells were treated with 0, 10 or 20MUM catechol for 1-4weeks,
      hemin-induced hemoglobin synthesis increased in a concentration- and time
      dependent manner and the enhanced hemoglobin synthesis was relatively stable. The
      mRNA expression of alpha-, beta- and gamma-globin genes, erythroid heme synthesis
      enzymes PBGD and ALAS2, transcription factor GATA-1 and NF-E2 showed a
      significant increase in K562 cells exposed to 20MUM catechol for 3w, and catechol
      enhanced hemin-induced mRNA expression of these genes. Quantitative MassARRAY
      methylation analysis also confirmed that the exposure to catechol changed DNA
      methylation levels at several CpG sites in several erythroid-specific genes and
      their far upstream of regulatory elements. These results demonstrated that long
      term exposure to low concentration of catechol enhanced the hemin-induced
      erythroid differentiation of K562 cells, in which DNA methylation played a role
      by up-regulating erythroid specific genes.

PMID- 28552824
TI  - Functional recovery following early mobilization after middle third clavicle
      osteosynthesis for acute fractures or nonunion: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Good outcomes have been reported after surgical treatment for acute
      or nonunion of displaced midshaft clavicle fractures. However, the postoperative
      rehabilitation and timeline for a complete functional recovery are poorly
      documented. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of an
      immediate motion protocol following plate fixation of a midshaft clavicle
      fracture and to compare functional recovery between acute and nonunion cases.
      METHODS: Between October 2011 and July 2015, all patients above the age of 18,
      having either an acute or a nonunion of the midshaft clavicle fracture, were
      considered as potentially eligible for inclusion in this prospective case-control
      study. Postoperatively, no immobilization was recommended and patients were to
      undergo rehabilitation protocol consisting of hourly stretching. RESULTS: Forty
      two patients were included (31 with acute and 11 with delayed fixation) at a mean
      follow-up of 33months (range, 12 to 78months). Surgical complications consisted
      of one transient frozen shoulder, one delayed union, and two superficial
      infections. All patients returned to work, retrieved full shoulder range of
      motion (ROM), and returned to heavy sports and activities. Function returned
      faster in the acute group compared to the nonunion group based on the SANE score
      at 2weeks (73+/-21 vs. 45+/-26 respectively, P=0.01), SANE score at 6weeks (89+/
      15 vs. 66+/-23 respectively, P=0.01), SANE score at 3months (96+/-10 vs. 85+/-14
      respectively, P=0.03), and based on return of full ROM (17+/-25 vs. 44+/-31 days
      respectively, P=0.01). A trend was observed for nonunion cases needing more time
      to return to work and sports activities. CONCLUSION: Functional outcome is
      excellent following the treatment of both acute and non-united clavicle
      fractures, but recovery occurs earlier following acute treatment. An early
      mobilization rehab protocol can be safely recommended for both types of
      conditions and may result in substantial healthcare cost-savings, without
      increasing complication rate and decreasing patient satisfaction. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Level III; case-control study; treatment study.

PMID- 28552826
TI  - Diagnostic utility of IDH1/2 mutations to distinguish dedifferentiated
      chondrosarcoma from undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma of bone.
AB  - Histologically, it is nearly impossible to distinguish the dedifferentiated
      component of dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma from undifferentiated pleomorphic
      sarcoma (UPS) of bone when the low-grade cartilaginous component is absent.
      Previous studies have revealed that isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and IDH2
      mutations are present in a significant number of cartilaginous tumors including
      most conventional chondrosarcomas and dedifferentiated chondrosarcomas. These
      mutations have not been studied in UPSs of bone. We sought to investigate whether
      an IDH1 or IDH2 mutation signature could be used as a clinically diagnostic
      marker for the distinction of dedifferentiated component of chondrosarcoma from
      UPS of bone. Sixty-eight bone tumor cases, including 31 conventional
      chondrosarcomas, 23 dedifferentiated chondrosarcomas, and 14 UPSs of bone, were
      collected for IDH1/2 mutation analysis either using the Qiagen IDH1/2 RGQ PCR Kit
      or using whole-exome sequencing. IDH1/2 mutations were detected in 87% (20/23) of
      dedifferentiated chondrosarcomas and 30% (6/20) of conventional chondrosarcomas.
      No mutations were detected in the IDH1/2 codon 132 or codon 172 among 14 UPSs of
      bone. Identification of IDH1 or IDH2 mutations supports the diagnosis of
      dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma rather than UPS of bone while also providing some
      insight into the pathogenesis of these 2 lesions.

PMID- 28552825
TI  - Viral strategies for targeting cortical circuits that control cocaine-taking and
      cocaine-seeking in rodents.
AB  - Addiction to cocaine is a chronic disease characterized by persistent drug-taking
      and drug-seeking behaviors, and a high likelihood of relapse. The prefrontal
      cortex (PFC) has long been implicated in the development of cocaine addiction,
      and relapse. However, the PFC is a heterogeneous structure, and understanding the
      role of PFC subdivisions, cell types and afferent/efferent connections is
      critical for gaining a comprehensive picture of the contribution of the PFC in
      addiction-related behaviors. Here we provide an update on the role of the PFC in
      cocaine addiction from recent work that used viral-mediated optogenetic and
      chemogenetic tools to study the role of the PFC in drug-taking and drug-seeking
      behavior in rodents. Following overviews of rodent PFC neuroanatomy and of viral
      mediated optogenetic and chemogenetic techniques, we review studies of
      manipulations within the PFC, followed by a review of work that utilized targeted
      manipulations to PFC inputs and outputs.

PMID- 28552827
TI  - Metastatic thyroid carcinoma without identifiable primary tumor within the
      thyroid gland: a retrospective study of a rare phenomenon.
AB  - Metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) without an identifiable primary
      tumor despite extensive microscopic examination of the thyroid gland is a rare
      but true phenomenon.We retrieved 7 of such cases and described in detail the
      clinical and pathologic features of these tumors. BRAF V600E immunohistochemistry
      and Sequenom molecular profile were conducted in selected cases. All patients
      harbored metastatic disease in the central (n=3), lateral (n=3), or both neck
      compartments (n=1). The histotype of the metastatic disease was PTC (n=5), poorly
      differentiated thyroid carcinoma in association with a PTC columnar variant
      (n=1), and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma in association with a PTC tall cell
      variant (n=1). Fibrosis was present in the thyroid of 5 patients. All patients
      with PTC were alive without evidence of recurrence. The 76-year-old patient with
      poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma did not recur and died of unknown causes.
      Finally, the patient with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma was alive with distant
      metastasis at last follow-up. The median follow-up for this cohort was 2.2years
      (range, 0.8-17). BRAF V600E was detected in 4 of 6 cases by immunohistochemistry.
      In conclusion, metastatic nodal disease without identifiable thyroid primary is a
      rare but real phenomenon of unknown mechanisms. Although most tumors are low
      grade and well differentiated, aggressive behavior due to poorly differentiated
      or anaplastic carcinoma can happen. Most cases are BRAFV600E-positive thyroid
      tumors. A papillary carcinoma phenotype is found in all reported cases.

PMID- 28552828
TI  - Down-regulation of polycystin in lymphatic malformations: possible role in the
      proliferation of lymphatic endothelial cells.
AB  - Lymphatic malformations (LMs) are composed of aberrant lymphatic vessels and
      regarded as benign growths of the lymphatic system. Recent studies have
      demonstrated that the mutant embryos of PKD1 and PKD2, encoding polycystin-1 (PC
      1) and polycystin-2 (PC-2), respectively, result in aberrant lymphatic vessels
      similar to those observed in LMs. In this study, for the first time, we
      investigated PC-1 and PC-2 expression and assessed their roles in the development
      of LMs. Our results demonstrated that PC-1 and PC-2 gene and protein expressions
      were obviously decreased in LMs compared with normal skin tissues. In addition,
      the expression of phosphorylated ERK but not total ERK was up-regulated in LMs
      and negatively correlated with the expression of PC-1 and PC-2. Moreover, up
      regulation of Ki67 was detected in LMs and positively correlated with ERK
      phosphorylation levels. Furthermore, cluster analysis better reflected close
      correlation between these signals. All of the above results provided strong
      evidence suggesting that the hyperactivation of the ERK pathway may be caused by
      down-regulation of PC-1 and PC-2 in LMs, contributing to increased proliferation
      of lymphatic endothelial cells in LMs. Our present study sheds light on novel
      potential mechanisms involved in LMs and may help to explore novel treatments for
      LMs.

PMID- 28552829
TI  - Identification of male-specific AFLP and SCAR markers in the dioecious plant
      Humulus scandens.
AB  - In this study, 17 male-specific amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)
      markers were identified between male and female Humulus scandens plants. BLAST
      analysis revealed that 7 of the 17 sex-linked sequences were highly similar to
      retrotransposons. Two stable male-specific sequence-characterized amplified
      regions (SCAR) markers were developed. These AFLP and SCAR markers are novel
      molecular probes that can be used efficiently to identify the genetic gender of
      H. scandens and may provide a basis for further investigations on the evolution
      of sex chromosomes.

PMID- 28552831
TI  - Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from healthy
      humans in Mexico, including subclone ST131-B2-O25:H4-H30-Rx.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The resistance mechanisms, molecular type and plasmid content of
      cefotaxime-resistant Escherichia coli isolated from faecal samples of healthy
      volunteers in Puebla, Mexico, were characterised. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cefotaxime
      resistant E. coli were recovered from 11 (18%) of 60 healthy volunteers. The
      isolates (one per sample) were characterised as multidrug-resistant and
      phenotypically extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains. Genes
      encoding resistance to beta-lactams (blaCTX-M-15, blaCTX-M-14a, blaCTX-M-14b,
      blaOXA-1, blaTEM-1b), quinolones [aac(6')-Ib-cr, qnrB19], aminoglycosides
      [aac(3')-II] and tetracycline [tet(A), tet(B)] were detected among the 11 ESBL
      producing E. coli by PCR and sequencing, as well as gene cassette arrays in class
      1 (dfrA17-aadA5) and class 2 (dfrA1-sat2-aadA1) integrons. Seven pulsotypes were
      identified by XbaI PFGE and the strains were distributed into phylogroups (number
      of isolates) A (2), B2 (4) and D (5). Seven sequence types were identified, four
      of them novel (ST5060, ST5079, ST5080 and ST5081), associated with phylogroups A
      D. Transfer of a 140-kb IncFIA plasmid carrying the blaCTX-M-15 gene was
      evidenced in the ST5060 strain. Four CTX-M-15-producing E. coli strains of
      phylogroup B2 belonged to the ST131 complex, and IncFIB plasmids of 130kb and
      155kb were detected in two of them. Multiple plasmid addiction systems were also
      found. Serotyping and fimH subtyping of ST131-B2 strains identified the ST131-B2
      O25:H4-H30-Rx subclone. Additionally, this subclone and CTX-M-14-producing
      isolates were detected among residents living in the same household, suggesting
      clonal dissemination. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the detection of E. coli
      ST131-B2-O25:H4-H30-Rx subclone in healthy humans in Mexico, highlighting its
      dissemination in the community setting.

PMID- 28552830
TI  - Understanding Response Rates to Surveys About Family Members' Psychological
      Symptoms After Patients' Critical Illness.
AB  - CONTEXT: Achieving adequate response rates from family members of critically ill
      patients can be challenging, especially when assessing psychological symptoms.
      OBJECTIVES: To identify factors associated with completion of surveys about
      psychological symptoms among family members of critically ill patients. METHODS:
      Using data from a randomized trial of an intervention to improve communication
      between clinicians and families of critically ill patients, we examined patient
      level and family-level predictors of the return of usable surveys at baseline,
      three months, and six months (n = 181, 171, and 155, respectively). Family-level
      predictors included baseline symptoms of psychological distress, decisional
      independence preference, and attachment style. We hypothesized that family with
      fewer symptoms of psychological distress, a preference for less decisional
      independence, and secure attachment style would be more likely to return
      questionnaires. RESULTS: We identified several predictors of the return of usable
      questionnaires. Better self-assessed family member health status was associated
      with a higher likelihood and stronger agreement with a support-seeking attachment
      style with a lower likelihood, of obtaining usable baseline surveys. At three
      months, family-level predictors of return of usable surveys included having
      usable baseline surveys, status as the patient's legal next of kin, and stronger
      agreement with a secure attachment style. The only predictor of receipt of
      surveys at six months was the presence of usable surveys at three months.
      CONCLUSION: We identified several predictors of the receipt of surveys assessing
      psychological symptoms in family of critically ill patients, including family
      member health status and attachment style. Using these characteristics to inform
      follow-up mailings and reminders may enhance response rates.

PMID- 28552832
TI  - Decrease of ceftriaxone susceptibility in Klebsiella pneumoniae according to
      biofilm maturation.

PMID- 28552833
TI  - Wheat glutenin: the "tail" of the 1By protein subunits.
AB  - Gluten-forming storage proteins play a major role in the viscoelastic properties
      of wheat dough through the formation of a continuous proteinaceous network. The
      high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits represent a functionally important
      subgroup of gluten proteins by promoting the formation of large glutenin polymers
      through interchain disulphide bonds between glutenin subunits. Here, we present
      evidences that y-type glutenin subunits encoded at the Glu-B1 locus are prone to
      proteolytic processing at the C-terminus tail, leading to the loss of the unique
      cysteine residue present at the C-terminal domain. Results obtained by intact
      mass measurement and immunochemistry for each proteoform indicate that the
      proteolytic cleavage appears to occur at the carboxyl-side of two conserved
      asparagine residues at the C-terminal domain start. Hence, we hypothesize that
      the responsible enzymes are a class of cysteine endopeptidases - asparaginyl
      endopeptidases - described in post-translational processing of other storage
      proteins in wheat. Biological significance The reported study provides new
      insights into wheat storage protein maturation. In view of the importance of
      gluten proteins on dough viscoelastic properties and end-product quality, the
      reported C-terminal domain cleavage of high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits is
      of particular interest, since this domain possesses a unique conserved cysteine
      residue which is assumed to participate in gluten polymerization.

PMID- 28552834
TI  - High-impact sport after hip resurfacing: The Ironman triathlon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Returning to high-impact sport is an increasingly frequent functional
      demand following hip replacement. The literature, however, is sparse on the
      subject and nonexistent regarding triathlon. We therefore conducted a
      retrospective study of hip resurfacing in triathlon players, to determine: (1)
      whether it is possible to return to this kind of sport; (2) if so, whether it is
      possible to return to the same level; and (3) how a resurfaced hip behaves under
      these conditions. HYPOTHESIS: Hip resurfacing allows return to competition level
      in long-distance triathlon. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A single-center single-operator
      retrospective study included patients undergoing hip resurfacing with the
      Conserve Plus implant inserted through a posterolateral approach, who had ceased
      long-distance triathlon practice due to osteoarthritis of the hip. Fifty-one of
      the 1688 patients undergoing resurfacing during the inclusion period were long
      distance triathlon players. RESULTS: The series comprised 48 patients: 51
      implants; 43 male, 5 female; mean age, 44.8 years (range, 28.2-58.9 years). At a
      mean 4.7 years' follow-up (range, 2.2-7.6 years), all clinical scores showed
      significant improvement; Merle d'Aubigne and Harris scores rose respectively from
      12.3 (5-16) and 42 (37-56) preoperatively to 17.5 (13-18) and 93.2 (73-100)
      (P<0.001). There were no cases of dislocation or implant revision. Forty-five
      patients returned to sport (94%). Rates of return to swimming, cycling and
      running were respectively 38/48 (79%), 41/48 (85%) and 33/48 (69%).
      Preoperatively, all patients had taken part in at least 1 competition: 29 with
      distance=70.3km and 19 with distance=140.6km. At follow-up, 28 patients had taken
      part in an Ironman competition: 21 with distance=70.3km and 7 with
      distance=140.6km. Mean competition performance did not differ between pre and
      postoperative periods. DISCUSSION: Return-to-sport rates were good following hip
      resurfacing. Non-impact sports (swimming, cycling) predominated postoperatively,
      whereas the rate of impact sport (running) diminished. Return to competition
      level sport (extreme triathlon) was possible for 28/48 patients (58%). Implant
      survival seemed unaffected by this high-impact sports activity at a mean 4.7
      years' follow-up. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, retrospective, non-controlled.

PMID- 28552835
TI  - Effect of Propionibacterium acnes (PA) injection on intervertebral disc
      degeneration in a rat model: Does it mimic modic changes?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multiple reports of bacterial isolates in human disc tissue have
      suggested a role of low-grade infection on intervertebral disc degeneration and
      modic changes (MC) generation. Animal models have been extensively used to study
      IDD; however, until recently, no consideration had been given to eventual
      infectious processes. To reproduce the phenomena by inoculating an infecting
      agent would support the infectious hypothesis. Therefore, we studied the effect
      of Propionibacterium acnes (PA) inoculation on rat-tails and determined whether
      it would produce MCs on the adjacent endplates. HYPOTHESIS: Disc infection with
      PA would accelerate IDD compared with the standard model and would also lead to
      MCs on the adjacent endplates. METHODS: Twelve Sprague-Dawley rats were
      randomized to receive a needle puncture in a caudal tail disc with either saline
      (control) or an inoculum of 5*107 CFU of strain 1a PA. Twelve weeks later, the
      rats were euthanized and the tails were analyzed. The main assessment criteria
      were obtained from the post-mortem MRI: T2 values of punctured discs and adjacent
      endplates, as well as disc volumes. A histological grading score for IDD was also
      used, measuring the morphology and cellularity of the nucleus and annulus, as
      well as endplate disruption. RESULTS: The median T2 value and disc volume were
      smaller in PA-punctured discs [T2 value: 30ms (23-44) vs. 61ms (38-132),
      respectively, P=0.01; 0.01mm3 (0.01-0.05) vs. 0.5mm3 (0.01-5.35), respectively;
      P=0.049]. There was no change in the adjacent endplates. There was no significant
      difference in histological grading between the test and control [13 (10-14) vs.
      10.5 (6-13); P=0.05]. DISCUSSION: Inoculation of caudal discs with PA generated
      increased degeneration; however, no MCs were observed on the adjacent endplates.
      A better understanding of low-grade disc infections is still needed. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: V (animal study).

PMID- 28552836
TI  - An original fibular shortening osteotomy technique in tibiotalar arthrodesis.
AB  - Tibiotalar arthrodesis (TTA) is the gold-standard treatment for advanced ankle
      osteoarthritis. We describe an original fibular shortening osteotomy (FSO)
      performed during TTA, to allow complete talar ascension and reduce the nonunion
      rate. Forty-two FSOs were associated to TTA (19 fixed by cross-screwing and 23 by
      anatomic plates) and assessed clinically and radiographically. At 24.7 months'
      follow-up, fusion rates were 97.6% for TTA and 100% for FSO, with mean fusion
      time of 5.2 months. One infection and 1 nonunion (4.7%) required further surgery,
      with complete resolution. Radiological and clinical outcome in TTA, lack of
      specific complications of FSO and ease of implementation encourage us to publish
      the technique.

PMID- 28552837
TI  - The effect of vitamin D levels on pain in carpal tunnel syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and vitamin D deficiency are two
      discrete common clinical pictures that can cause chronic pain. In this study, we
      aimed to evaluate the association of 25 (OH) D deficiency with
      electrophysiological findings and severity of pain in patients with mild CTS.
      METHOD: The consecutive patients admitted to our laboratory with the symptoms of
      CTS between May 2016 and August 2016 were enrolled in this study. According to
      their electrophysiological examination results, only the patients with normal
      conduction results and ones with mild grade CTS were included. Demographic data,
      the results of the electrophysiological studies, vitamin D levels (our laboratory
      normal is>20ng/mL), duration of pain and pain intensity due to CTS, which was
      assessed with visual analog scale, were collected. RESULTS: Totally, 76 patients
      (36 patients with mild CTS and 40 without CTS) were included. In the mild CTS
      patients, vitamin D levels were significantly lower than those
      electrophysiologically normal patients (P=0.003). The relationship between
      gender, duration of pain and vitamin D levels were evaluated in the normal and
      mild CTS group. There was no significant relationship between the pain and
      vitamin D levels in the normal group, while vitamin D level was significantly
      lower in the mild CTS group (P=0.730 and P=0.002; respectively). DISCUSSION:
      Vitamin D deficiency increases the pain intensity in patients with CTS. Treatment
      of vitamin D deficiency in these patients may play a role in pain relief. Further
      studies involving analyses of post-vitamin D replacement therapy are warranted to
      confirm the association between vitamin D deficiency and pain due to CTS.

PMID- 28552838
TI  - Medicine in Balkans during the Roman Period.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate the archaeological finds to enlighten the
      medical methods of treatments and operations applied in Balkans during Roman
      Period. Some independent local and regional find groups, taken from existing
      publications will be grouped together and a holistic point-of-view will be taken
      against medicine in Balkan Geography during Roman Period. Due to basic
      differences it contained, the data before Roman Period are excluded. Most of
      Greece and Aegean Islands are also excluded since the topic selected is "Medicine
      of Roman Period." Greece and Aegean Islands should be evaluated in another study
      in connection with West Anatolia which is closer than the Balkan Geography in
      terms of social relations. The spread of medical tools in Balkans during Roman
      Period is concentrated around military garrisons, and in settlements built around
      military pathways, and in settlements containing an amphitheater associated with
      gladiators. This spread is verified by the studies on Bulgaria in general. The
      data is also compatible with the assertion suggesting that the amount of
      application of pharmaceutical treatment increases when one moves away from the
      military centres.

PMID- 28552839
TI  - Endocrinological Evaluations of a Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Cohort: Is it
      Necessary to Evaluate Autoimmune Thyroiditis in Neurofibromatosis Type 1?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurofibromatosis type 1 is an autosomal dominant neurocutaneous
      disorder in which the coexistence of autoimmune thyroiditis and thyroid gland
      tumours has been reported previously. AIMS: To determine the thyroid function and
      autoimmune thyroid diseases in neurofibromatosis type 1 patients in order to
      identify the possible association between neurofibromatosis type 1 and thyroid
      diseases. STUDY DESIGN: Case-control study. METHODS: The study includes 78
      consecutive patients diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 1 between June 2010
      and June 2014 and 50 healthy controls. Baseline demographic data were generated
      from patient examination record forms, including age, sex, height, and weight, as
      well as levels of free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, thyroid-stimulating
      hormone, anti-thyroid peroxidase and anti-thyroglobulin levels. RESULTS: Mean
      age, sex, and body mass index were similar in both groups (p>0.05). The mean
      levels of free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone
      were not statistically different between the neurofibromatosis type 1 and control
      groups. Similarly, no statistically significant difference was observed between
      the neurofibromatosis type 1 and control groups for anti-thyroid peroxidase and
      anti-thyroglobulin positivity (2.5% vs 0%, p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Screening for
      autoimmune thyroid disease and thyroid function seems to be unnecessary in
      patients with neurofibromatosis type 1.

PMID- 28552840
TI  - Shrinkage of Nasal Mucosa and Cartilage During Formalin Fixation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After resection, specimens are subjected to formalin fixation during
      histological processing. This procedure can result in tissue shrinkage, with the
      amount of shrinkage related to tissue composition and tissue type. AIMS: To
      evaluate the shrinkage of nasal mucosa and cartilage tissue and compare
      differences in shrinkage after resection, after formalin fixation, and during
      microscopic examination to understand differences in the rate of shrinkage of
      different tissue types. STUDY DESIGN: Animal experimentation. METHODS: Fresh
      nasal septa were excised from sheep (10 mm diameter in 40 sheep and 20 mm
      diameter in 40 sheep). The mucosa was separated from one side of the cartilage,
      with the contralateral mucosa remaining attached to the cartilage. Specimen
      diameters were measured in situ, after resection, after fixation for 6 or 24
      hours (10% formalin), and during microscopic examination. RESULTS: There were no
      differences between the in situ and after resection diameters of any tissue
      components (free mucosa, mucosa attached to cartilage, and cartilage) of all
      nasal specimens (10- or 20-mm diameter and 6- or 24-hour fixation). However,
      significant shrinkage occurred between resection and after-fixation. Regarding
      tissue specimens that were fixed for different durations (6 or 24 hours), we
      observed a significantly smaller mean tissue diameter in specimens fixed for 24
      hours versus those fixed for 6 hours for mucosa attached to cartilage (in the 10
      mm diameter after-fixation samples), free mucosa (in the 20-mm diameter after
      fixation samples), mucosa attached to cartilage (in the 20-mm diameter after
      fixation and microscopic measurement samples), and cartilage (in the 20-mm
      diameter after-fixation samples). Tissue shrinkage was greatest in free mucosal
      tissue and least in cartilage. CONCLUSION: These results should be considered
      when evaluating patients undergoing surgical procedures for nasal cavity and
      paranasal sinus malignancies. Surgical margins should be measured before fixation
      or evaluated if possible before fixation and shrinkage.

PMID- 28552841
TI  - Comparison of the T2-star Values of Placentas Obtained from Pre-eclamptic
      Patients with Those of a Control Group: an Ex-vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endotel dysfunction, vasoconstriction, and oxidative stress are
      described in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia, but its aetiology has not been
      revealed clearly. AIMS: To examine whether there is a difference between the
      placentas of pre-eclamptic pregnant women and those of a control group in terms
      of their T2 star values. STUDY DESIGN: Case-control study. METHODS: Twenty
      patients diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and 22 healthy controls were included in
      this study. The placentas obtained after births performed via Caesarean section
      were taken into the magnetic resonance imaging area in plastic bags within the
      first postnatal hour, and imaging was performed via modified DIXON-Quant
      sequence. Average values were obtained by performing T2 star measurements from
      four localisations on the placentas. RESULTS: T2 star values measured in the
      placentas of the control group were found to be significantly lower than those in
      the pre-eclampsia group (p<0.01). While the mean T2 star value in the pre
      eclamptic group was found to be 37.48 ms (standard deviation +/- 11.3), this
      value was 28.74 (standard deviation +/- 8.08) in the control group. The cut-off
      value for the T2 star value, maximising the accuracy of diagnosis, was 28.59 ms
      (area under curve: 0.741; 95% confidence interval: 0.592-0.890); sensitivity and
      specificity were 70% and 63.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study, the T2 star
      value, which is an indicator of iron amount, was found to be significantly lower
      in the control group than in the pre-eclampsia group. This may be related to the
      reduction in blood flow to the placenta due to endothelial dysfunction and
      vasoconstriction, which are important in pre-eclampsia pathophysiology.

PMID- 28552842
TI  - Beyond Urticaria: Schnitzler Syndrome.

PMID- 28552851
TI  - [Stem Cell System. The intestinal stem cell system.]
AB  - The intestinal epithelium harbors stem cells at the bottom of crypts. Intestinal
      stem cells(ISCs)differentiate toward two alternative lineages of secretory or
      absorptive cells in a unidirectional manner. Studies have revealed factors that
      are indispensable for maintaining proliferation and differentiation of ISCs,
      which are provided from the surrounding environment. Additionally, several back
      up systems compensating the sudden and massive loss of the ISC pool has been
      reported. Recent development of the three-dimensional culture system of ISCs in
      vitro has greatly contributed to elucidate these functional analyses of ISCs.

PMID- 28552843
TI  - Cost of elective percutaneous coronary intervention in Malaysia: a multicentre
      cross-sectional costing study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Limitations in the quality and access of cost data from low-income
      and middle-income countries constrain the implementation of economic evaluations.
      With the increasing prevalence of coronary artery disease in Malaysia, cost
      information is vital for cardiac service expansion. We aim to calculate the
      hospitalisation cost of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), using a data
      collection method customised to local setting of limited data availability.
      DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional costing study from the perspective of
      healthcare providers, using top-down approach, from January to June 2014. Cost
      items under each unit of analysis involved in the provision of PCI service were
      identified, valuated and calculated to produce unit cost estimates. SETTING: Five
      public cardiac centres participated. All the centres provide full-fledged
      cardiology services. They are also the tertiary referral centres of their
      respective regions. PARTICIPANTS: The cost was calculated for elective PCI
      procedure in each centre. PCI conducted for urgent/emergent indication or for
      patients with shock and haemodynamic instability were excluded. PRIMARY AND
      SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome measures of interest were the unit costs
      at the two units of analysis, namely cardiac ward admission and cardiac
      catheterisation utilisation, which made up the total hospitalisation cost.
      RESULTS: The average hospitalisation cost ranged between RM11 471 (US$3186) and
      RM14 465 (US$4018). PCI consumables were the dominant cost item at all centres.
      The centre with daycare establishment recorded the lowest admission cost and
      total hospitalisation cost. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive results from all centres
      enable comparison at the levels of cost items, unit of analysis and total costs.
      This generates important information on cost variations between centres, thus
      providing valuable guidance for service planning. Alternative procurement
      practices for PCI consumables may deliver cost reduction. For countries with
      limited data availability, costing method tailored based on country setting can
      be used for the purpose of economic evaluations. REGISTRATION: Malaysian MOH
      Medical Research and Ethics Committee (ID: NMRR-13-1403-18234 IIR).

PMID- 28552852
TI  - The Effect of n-3 PUFA on the Development of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

PMID- 28552859
TI  - Radiobiological Implications of Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Personalized
      Medical Approach.
AB  - On March 11, 2011, a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused serious
      damage to areas of the Pacific coast in Fukushima prefecture and prompted fears
      among the residents about a possible meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
      Power Plant reactors. As of 2017, over six years have passed since the Fukushima
      nuclear crisis and yet the full ramifications of the biological exposures to this
      accidental release of radioactive substances remain unclear. Furthermore,
      although several genetic studies have determined that the variation in radiation
      sensitivity among different individuals is wider than expected, personalized
      medical approaches for Fukushima victims have seemed to be insufficient. In this
      commentary, we discuss radiobiological issues arising from low-dose radiation
      exposure, from the cell-based to the population level. We also introduce the
      scientific utility of the Integrative Japanese Genome Variation Database (iJGVD),
      an online database released by the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku
      University that covered the whole genome sequences of 2,049 healthy individuals
      in the northeastern part of Japan in 2016. Here we propose a personalized
      radiation risk assessment and medical approach, which considers the genetic
      variation of radiation sensitivity among individuals, for next-step developments
      in radiological protection.

PMID- 28552860
TI  - Sequence analysis of the hypervariable region in hmtp210 of Avibacterium
      paragallinarum.
AB  - The hmtp210 gene of Avibacterium paragallinarum, the causative agent of
      infectious coryza, encodes an outer-membrane hemagglutinin (HA) that plays an
      essential role in pathogenicity. A hypervariable region within this HA, which is
      highly antigenic, is proposed as a candidate for recombinant vaccine production.
      Nonetheless, little is known about its genetic variability. We performed
      sequencing analysis of the hmtp210 hypervariable region in 16 clinical isolates
      from Costa Rica and compared them with 4 vaccine strains and the hmtp210
      sequences available in public databases. Except for isolate ApCR12, all isolates
      showed high identity with reference vaccine strains 0083 and H18. Better genetic
      characterization of the hypervariable region of hmtp210 is necessary to develop
      better immunogenic strategies and improved molecular typing methods.

PMID- 28552861
TI  - Effects of pentosan polysulfate and polysulfated glycosaminoglycan on
      chondrogenesis of canine bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in alginate
      and micromass culture.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are a potential alternative source of differentiated
      chondrocytes for cartilage tissue regeneration and repair of osteoarthritic (OA)
      joints. We investigated the effects of pentosan polysulfate (PPS) and
      polysulfated glycosaminoglycan (PSGAG) on chondrogenesis of canine bone marrow
      derived mesenchymal stem cells (cBMSC) in alginate and micromass cultures (MMC).
      Chondrogenic differentiation medium (CDM) was supplemented with PPS or PSGAG at
      concentrations of 0 (positive control; PC), 1, 3 and 5 ug/ml. 10% DMEM was used
      as negative control. Chondrocyte phenotype was analyzed by quantitative real-time
      PCR (qPCR) for alginate cultures and Alcian blue staining for proteoglycan (PG)
      synthesis for MMC. In alginate culture, PPS and PSGAG showed no significant
      effect on type II collagen, aggrecan and HIF-2alpha mRNA expression. PPS had no
      significant effect on type I collagen whereas PSGAG significantly upregulated
      (P<0.05) it at all concentrations relative to other treatments. PPS demonstrated
      a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on type X collagen mRNA with significant
      inhibition observed at 5 ug/ml compared to the NC. PSGAG showed an inverse effect
      on type X collagen with 1 ug/ml significantly inhibiting its expression while
      increase in the concentration correspondingly increased type X collagen
      expression. In MMC, PPS significantly enhanced chondrogenesis and PG deposition
      whereas PSGAG inhibited chondrogenesis and promoted a fibrocartilage-like
      phenotype with reduced PG deposition. While PPS enhances chondrogenesis of cBMSC
      in MMC, the response of MSC to chondroinductive factors is culture system
      dependent and varies significantly between alginate and MMC.

PMID- 28552862
TI  - Imbalanced Angiogenesis in Peripartum Cardiomyopathy - Diagnostic Value of
      Placenta Growth Factor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Concentrations of the anti-angiogenic factor soluble fms-like
      tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) are altered in peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM). In
      this study we investigated changes in the angiogenesis balance in PPCM.Methods
      and Results:Plasma concentrations of sFlt-1 and the pro-angiogenic placenta
      growth factor (PlGF) were determined in patients with PPCM during the post-partum
      phase (n=83), in healthy women at delivery (n=30), and in patients with acute
      heart failure (AHF; n=65). Women with cardiac failure prepartum or associated
      with any form of hypertension, including pre-eclampsia, were excluded. Compared
      with non-pregnant women, in women with AHF and PPCM, median PlGF concentrations
      were greater (19 [IQR 16-22] and 98 [IQR 78-126] ng/mL, respectively; P<0.001)
      and the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio was lower (9.8 [6.6-11.3] and 1.2 [0.9-2.8],
      respectively; P<0.001). The sFlt-1/PlGF ratio was lower in PPCM than in normal
      deliveries (1.2 [0.9-2.8] vs. 94.8 [68.8-194.1], respectively; P<0.0001). The
      area under the curve for PlGF (cut-off value: 50ng/mL) and/or the sFlt-1/PlGF
      ratio (cut-off value: 4) to distinguish PPCM from either normal delivery or AHF
      was >0.94. Median plasma concentrations of the anti-angiogenic factor relaxin-2
      were lower in PPCM and AHF (0.3 [IQR 0.3-1.7] and 0.3 [IQR 0.3-1] ng/mL,
      respectively) compared with normal deliveries (1,807 [IQR 1,101-4,050] ng/mL;
      P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Plasma of PPCM patients shows imbalanced angiogenesis.
      High PlGF and/or low sFlt-1/PlGF may be used to diagnose PPCM.

PMID- 28552863
TI  - Atrial Natriuretic Peptide - Old But New Therapeutic in Cardiovascular Diseases.
AB  - With the discovery of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), the heart as an endocrine
      organ was established. Basic science revealed that ANP, through the particulate
      guanylyl cyclase A receptor and cGMP, plays a fundamental role in cardiorenal
      biology. This work has led to the development of ANP as a therapeutic, especially
      in heart failure (HF). Human genomics has strengthened our understanding of ANP,
      revealing specific ANP gene variants that may be associated with biological
      dysfunction, but also may mediate protective properties, including in metabolic
      syndrome. Advances in understanding the processing and degradation of ANP
      molecular forms have resulted in therapeutic breakthroughs, especially inhibition
      of ANP degradation by neprilysin inhibitors. Although ANP is administered
      intravenously for acute HF, a novel therapeutic strategy is its chronic delivery
      by subcutaneous injection. An innovative therapeutic development is engineering
      to develop ANP-based peptides for chronic use. These interconnected topics of ANP
      biology and therapeutics will be reviewed in detail.

PMID- 28552864
TI  - Development-related changes in the expression of the ovarian Kiss1 and Kiss1r
      genes and their sensitivity to human chorionic gonadotropin in prepubertal female
      rats.
AB  - Kisspeptin, which is encoded by the Kiss1 gene, and its receptor, the G protein
      coupled receptor 54 (Kiss1r), play important roles in the regulation of
      reproductive functions in mammals. Several studies have shown that the Kiss1 and
      Kiss1r genes are expressed in the rat, primate, and human ovaries, and that the
      ovarian kisspeptin system plays a pivotal role in ovulation at the proestrous
      stage in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate development-related
      changes in the expression of ovarian Kiss1 and Kiss1r genes and in kisspeptin
      levels, and to identify the regulatory factors for these genes during the
      prepubertal period. The serum kisspeptin level was also measured to examine
      whether ovarian kisspeptin affects serum kisspeptin levels. Variations in the
      ovarian Kiss1 and Kiss1r mRNA levels were observed during the prepubertal period
      in female rats, with levels peaking around postnatal days 20 and 15,
      respectively. Nevertheless, the ovarian kisspeptin content per total protein
      level was stably maintained. Serum kisspeptin levels at postnatal days 30 and 35
      were higher than those at earlier postnatal days. The pattern of the ovarian
      Kiss1 mRNA levels was similar to that of the serum luteinizing hormone (LH)
      levels, and the ovarian Kiss1 mRNA level increased after injection with human
      chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) on postnatal day 20, but not on postnatal days 10
      and 30. These data indicate that ovarian Kiss1 and Kiss1r mRNA levels are
      increased on postnatal days 20 and 15, respectively, and that changes in the
      serum LH level and the ovarian sensitivity to LH may be involved in the
      alteration of ovarian Kiss1 mRNA levels.

PMID- 28552865
TI  - New development of diagnosis and treatment for Parkinson's disease.
AB  - New methods for the diagnosis and new treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD)
      were explained. As imaging tools, neuromelanin imaging using brain MRI, meta
      iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) cardiac scintigraphy, dopamine transporter
      scintigraphy, and transcranial sonography were introduced. Olfactory dysfunction
      and REM sleep behavior disorders (RBD), which are important non-motor symptoms,
      and the new Clinical Criteria for PD launched by Movement Disorder Society (MDS)
      were also described. Investigative new medications and new anti-PD medications,
      which recently became available in Japan, were introduced. I explained the
      rationale of early treatment, strategy of initial treatment, the significance of
      continuous dopaminergic stimulation, strategy of treatment for advanced PD, and
      deep brain stimulation as a surgical treatment together with promising new
      treatments including gene therapy and cell transplantation.

PMID- 28552866
TI  - Meningeal plasma cell granuloma in the early stage of relapsing polychondritis.
AB  - A 77-year-old man showed an asymptomatic meningeal lesion beneath the dura matter
      in the left fronto-parietal region on MRI during an examination for recurrent
      hoarsness. The lesion showed no gadolinium enhancement, and extended to neither
      the sulci nor skull. Neurological examinations revealed hoarseness, cochlear and
      vestibular dysfunction of the right ear, and mildly decreased Achilles tendon
      reflexes bilaterally. Laboratory findings showed marked inflammatory responses,
      but no abnormalities for LDH, IgG4, angiotensin-converting enzyme, or soluble IL
      2 receptor. There was no serum monoclonal protein. Autoantibody panels in the
      serum were unremarkable except for an elevation of anti-type II collagen
      antibodies to a borderline value. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis disclosed an
      elevated protein concentration (152 mg/dl) and IgG index (1.41) with normal cell
      counts, negative results for bacterial/tubercular infection, and a normal
      cytology. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography showed increased
      uptake in the left frontal region (Max SUV: 7.54). Swelling of the vocal cord,
      arytenoid cartilage, false vocal cord, and vocal cord palsy on the right side
      were seen on laryngoscopy, all of which were ameliorated by dexamethasone
      administration. A meningeal biopsy contained the dura matter and arachnoid, in
      which a granulation composed of massive mature plasma cells with many Russel
      bodies, accompanied by occasional lymphocytes and histiocytes were observed.
      Three months after the biopsy, he developed bilateral auricular chondritis and
      conjunctivitis. Based on these findings, we diagnosed him with relapsing
      polychondritis (RP). Prednisolone administration (40 mg/day) improved the
      chondritis and meningeal lesion. Central nervous system involvement is rare in
      patients with RP, and meningeal complications, such as aseptic meningitis or
      pachymeningitis, are mostly observed after the diagnosis of RP. However, due to
      its rarity, it still remains to be clarified whether a similar pathogenesis of
      meningeal complications underlies RP. The present case is indicative in that
      predominant meningeal granuloma arose during chondritis of several portions that
      had gradually developed, which suggests that meningeal complications could be
      derived from RP.

PMID- 28552867
TI  - An unusual case of sodium channel myotonia with transient weakness upon
      initiating movements which is characteristic in Becker disease.
AB  - We reported a 32-year-old man who was a sporadic case of myotonic syndrome with
      muscle stiffness or transient weakness of limbs upon initiating movements after
      rest. On examination, he showed painless myotonia with warm-up phenomenon,
      Hercules-like hypertrophic musculature and myotonic discharges in EMG. The
      clinical findings resembled to those of Becker disease rather than Thomsen
      disease. But electrodiagnosis suggested sodium channel myotonia instead of
      chloride channelopathy. Genetic testing detected a novel missense mutation
      (p.V1166A) in the SCN4A gene but not in the CLCN1 gene. Transient weakness upon
      initiating movements is usually observed in Becker disease but rare in Thomsen
      disease, which is not reported in sodium channel myotonia so far. He was probably
      the first case of sodium channel myotonia with transient weakness upon initiating
      movements, which was confirmed by 10 Hz repetitive nerve stimulation test as
      depolarization block.

PMID- 28552868
TI  - Delays in clinical development of neurological drugs in Japan.
AB  - The delays in the approval and development of neurological drugs between Japan
      and other countries have been a major issue for patients with neurological
      diseases. The objective of this study was to analyze factors contributing to the
      delay in the launching of neurological drugs in Japan. We analyzed data from
      Japan and the US for the approval of 42 neurological drugs, all of which were
      approved earlier in the US than in Japan, and examined the potential factors that
      may cause the delay of their launch. Introductions of the 42 drugs in Japan
      occurred at a median of 87 months after introductions in the US. The mean review
      time of new drug applications for the 20 drugs introduced in Japan in January
      2011 or later (15 months) was significantly shorter than that for the other 22
      drugs introduced in Japan in December 2010 or earlier (24 months). The lag in the
      Japan's review time behind the US could not explain the approval delays. In the
      31 of the 42 drugs, the application data package included overseas data. The mean
      review time of these 31 drugs (17 months) was significantly shorter than that of
      the other 11 drugs without overseas data (26 months). The mean approval lag
      behind the US of the 31 drugs (78 months) was also significantly shorter than
      that of the other 11 drugs (134 months). These results show that several
      important reforms in the Japanese drug development and approval system (e.g.,
      inclusion of global clinical trial data) have reduced the delays in the clinical
      development of neurological drugs.

PMID- 28552869
TI  - Foreign accent syndrome caused by the left precentral infarction-a case report.
AB  - A 57-year-old right-handed man was admitted to our hospital because of right
      facial paresis and acute-onset dysarthria. He presented with non-fluent aphasia.
      His aphasia gradually improved, but he started speaking with a strange accent and
      intonation from the fifth hospital day. He was diagnosed with foreign accent
      syndrome (FAS), which lasted for 2 months. MRI revealed ischemic infarction with
      edema in the superior, middle, and inferior parts of the left precentral gyrus.
      One year later, MRI revealed old, small infarct lesions in the left precentral
      gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and postcentral gyrus. We suspected that FAS
      developed because of disturbance of prosody in the speaking network on improving
      his aphasia. His meticulous character was probably influenced on developing FAS.
      The responsible lesions possibly were those in the reversible parts of the left
      precentral gyrus with edema on acute stage.

PMID- 28552870
TI  - Adult-onset neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease presented transient global
      amnesia-a case report.
AB  - A 65-year-old man had a transient amnesia for about 3 hours. Similar symptoms
      appeared three years ago. He did not manifest dementia, cerebellar ataxia and
      involuntary movements. Peripheral neuropathy was observed by the
      neurophysiological examinations. Diffusion weighted image showed high intensity
      signal in the area of the corticomedullary junction of the frontal to parietal
      lobes and immunohistochemical studies of biopsied skin revealed many intranuclear
      inclusion bodies. Adult-onset neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease was
      diagnosed. As there was no similar member in his family, he was a sporadic case.
      Clinical characteristics of his amnesia was fulfilled with the criteria of
      transient global amnesia (TGA). The transient disturbance of limbic system was
      suspected.

PMID- 28552871
TI  - A case of stiff-person syndrome due to secondary adrenal insufficiency.
AB  - We report a case of flexion contractures in a patient's legs secondary to
      postpartum hypopituitarism. A 56-year-old woman presented with a 3-year history
      of worsening flexion contractures of the hips and knees. On admission, her hips
      and knees could not be extended, and she had muscle stiffness and tenderness to
      palpation of the lower extremities. We first suspected stiff-person syndrome or
      Isaacs' syndrome because of her muscle stiffness. However, multiple hormones did
      not respond to stimulation tests, and an MRI of the brain showed atrophy of the
      pituitary gland with an empty sella. A subsequent interview revealed that she had
      suffered a severe hemorrhage while delivering her third child. She was diagnosed
      with panhypopituitarism and started on cortisol replacement therapy. After 1 week
      of treatment with hydrocortisone (10 mg/day), her symptoms quickly improved. We
      then added 75 MUg/day of thyroid hormone. During the course of her treatment,
      autoantibodies against VGKC complex were found to be weakly positive. However, we
      considered the antibodies to be unrelated to her disease, because her symptoms
      improved markedly with low-dose steroid treatment. There are a few reports
      describing flexion contractures of the legs in patients with primary and
      secondary adrenal insufficiency. As these symptoms are similar to those seen in
      stiff-person syndrome, adrenal and pituitary insufficiency should be taken into
      account to achieve the correct diagnosis and treatment in patients with flexion
      contractures and muscle stiffness.

PMID- 28552872
TI  - Mononeuritis multiplex in a patient with cutaneous arteritis diagnosed by skin
      biopsy.
AB  - A 55-year-old man was admitted with paralysis of the left lower leg. He had
      purpura in the left lower extremity for three years, left calf pain for two
      years, and dysesthesia in the left plantar region and first toe for one year. A
      physical examination revealed livedo reticularis on the left leg and mononeuritis
      multiplex was diagnosed in the bilateral tibial and left peroneal nerve area.
      Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody was negative. A nerve conduction study
      showed decreased amplitude of compound muscle-action potential in the bilateral
      tibial and the left peroneal nerve, sensory nerve action potential in the
      bilateral sural nerve. A skin biopsy revealed inflammatory cells on blood vessel
      walls and cutaneous arteritis was diagnosed. Cyclophosphamide pulse therapy with
      steroid and anti-coagulation improved the neurological symptoms. A skin biopsy
      should be considered when patients present with mononeuritis multiplex in the
      lower extremities and cutaneous findings such as livedo reticularis in the
      symptomatic area.

PMID- 28552873
TI  - The therapeutic efficacy of allyl isothiocyanate in cows with bovine digital
      dermatitis.
AB  - Bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) is the most prevalent infectious cause of
      lameness in cattle. Because Treponema infection is a major etiology of BDD, the
      most common treatment of BDD is an antibiotic. Nonetheless, dairy cows require a
      withdrawal period after antibiotic treatment before their milk can be marketed.
      To address the problem, in this study, we tested whether 3 nonantibiotic agents
      (used separately)-allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), sodium alginate, and calcium
      hydroxide-alleviate BDD lesions in dairy cows. The AITC treatment improved the
      BDD lesions, whereas the sodium alginate and calcium hydroxide treatments did
      not. Therapeutic efficacy of AITC was similar to that of lincomycin, a topical
      antibiotic prescribed for BDD. These results suggest that AITC is a promising
      nonantibiotic agent for BDD treatment in dairy cows.

PMID- 28552874
TI  - Intake of Diet Including 1% Ovomucoid for 4 Weeks Induces Oral Desensitization in
      Ovomucoid-Specific Allergic Mouse Model.
AB  - We propose a new oral immunotherapy (OIT) method that includes a small amount of
      a food allergen in the diet. However, it is not clear whether this method will
      induce oral desensitization and immune tolerance. Therefore, we investigated the
      therapeutic effectiveness using a 1% food allergen diet in an allergic mouse
      model. C3H/HeJ mice were sensitized to ovomucoid (OM) in alum four times at 12-d
      intervals. Sensitized mice were divided into two groups: the OIT group (19%
      casein diet with 1% OM) and the non-treated group (20% casein diet without OM).
      The non-sensitized mice served as the non-allergy group. The OIT treatment was
      performed for 4 wk. To assess desensitization and immune tolerance, we performed
      oral and intraperitoneal OM challenges, assessed vascular permeability of the
      dorsal skin, and measured allergic biomarkers. The OIT group exhibited
      significantly lower oral symptom scores and vascular permeability than the non
      treated group, but the two groups did not differ in intraperitoneal allergy
      symptom scores. Furthermore, the OIT group had significantly higher OM-specific
      IgA levels in their plasma than the non-treated group. However, the plasma levels
      of OM-specific IgE, IgG1, and IgG2a were not significantly different between the
      OIT and the non-treated groups. These results suggest that the proposed OIT using
      an OM-supplemented diet may induce desensitization, but not immune tolerance, in
      an OM allergic mouse model.

PMID- 28552875
TI  - Egg White Hydrolysate Can Be a Low-Allergenic Food Material to Suppress Ectopic
      Fat Accumulation in Rats Fed an Equicaloric Diet.
AB  - Egg white (EW) is known as a nutritional protein but can induce allergic
      reactions in humans. We investigated the dietary effects of EW and its
      hydrolysate (EWH), which contains less allergen, on body fat accumulation in
      Wistar rats fed an equicaloric high-fat and high-sucrose diet for 8 wk (Exp A).
      The pair-feeding of EW and equicaloric-feeding of EWH increased fecal fat
      excretion and suppressed lipid accumulation in the liver and muscles but not in
      the abdominal adipose tissues, carcass, or total body. Dietary EWH also
      suppressed the serum glucose level and alkaline phosphatase activity. Further, we
      showed a higher dispersibility of EW and EWH in physicochemical assay (Exp B).
      Next, we investigated the suppressive effects of a single administration of EW
      and EWH on lipid-induced hypertriglyceridemia and small intestinal meal transit
      in ddY mice (Exp C). However, a single administration of EW or EWH did not
      suppress the lipid-induced hypertriglyceridemia nor did it delay the rate of
      small intestinal transit. These findings indicated that dietary EW and EWH reduce
      hepatic and muscular (ectopic) fat accumulation mainly by suppressing fat
      absorption and supplying fat to the liver and muscles. Therefore, the low
      allergenic EWH can be effective for the prevention of high-fat-diet-induced
      obesity.

PMID- 28552876
TI  - Effects of Eggshell Calcium Supplementation on Bone Mass in Postmenopausal
      Vietnamese Women.
AB  - Bone mass decreases along with aging, especially for women after menopause
      because of lower estrogen secretion together with low calcium intake. This study
      was conducted to study the effect of eggshell calcium supplementation on bone
      mass in 54 postmenopausal Vietnamese women living in a farming area about 60 km
      from Hanoi, Vietnam. Sets of 3 subjects matched by age, bone mass, BMI and
      calcium intake were divided randomly into 3 groups with 18 subjects in each
      group. The eggshell calcium group was administered 300 mg/d calcium from
      eggshell, the calcium carbonate group 300 mg/d calcium from calcium carbonate and
      the placebo group received no calcium supplementation. Bone mass (Speed of Sound
      (SOS)) was measured at the beginning (the baseline), the middle (6th month) and
      the end of the study (12th month) by the single blind method. SOS of the eggshell
      group increased significantly at 12 mo (p<0.05) and was significantly higher than
      that of the placebo and calcium carbonate groups at 12 mo (p<0.05). The SOS of
      the calcium carbonate group tended to be higher than that of the placebo group
      but without a significant difference (p>0.05). In conclusion, eggshell calcium
      was more effective in increasing bone mass than calcium carbonate in
      postmenopausal Vietnamese women.

PMID- 28552877
TI  - Gluten-Free Flours from Different Raw Materials as the Source of Vitamin B1, B2,
      B3 and B6.
AB  - Gluten-free (GF) products are those with a natural absence or acceptable level
      (<20 mg/kg) of gluten. They should be a part of a diet for people with gluten
      related disorders, like celiac disease. Recently the popularity of a gluten-free
      diet (GFD) has risen extremely, because a lot of healthy individuals exclude
      gluten from their menus. According to the literature data on nutritional
      deficiencies in the GFD, this trend seems to be risky. This paper describes the
      nutritional value of 14 flours from different GF raw materials from the aspect of
      B-group vitamin content (B1, B2, B3, B6). Vitamins were determined using high
      performance liquid chromatography after enzymatic and acid hydrolysis of the
      samples. The vitamin contents significantly differed in the analysed flours. The
      content (in 100 g of the product) of vitamin B1 ranged from 0.01 mg (amaranth
      flour) to 0.60 mg (teff flour), vitamin B2 from 0.03 mg (GF flour with oats) to
      0.22 mg (buckwheat flour), vitamin B3 from below 0.01 mg (amaranth flour) to 6.02
      mg (millet flour), and vitamin B6 from 0.03 mg (acorn flour) to 0.69 mg (amaranth
      flour). The content of vitamins in the analysed GF flours was also compared to
      gluten-containing flours. Obtained results indicate that flours from teff,
      millet, chestnut, buckwheat, and amaranth are better sources of certain B-group
      vitamins than flours from corn, rice, and some flours with gluten.

PMID- 28552878
TI  - Medium-Chain Triglycerides in Combination with Leucine and Vitamin D Benefit
      Cognition in Frail Elderly Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - The combined supplementation of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), L-leucine-rich
      amino acids, and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) increase muscle strength and
      function in frail elderly individuals. However, their effects on cognition are
      unknown. We enrolled 38 elderly nursing home residents (mean age+/-SD, 86.6+/-4.8
      y) in a 3-mo randomized, controlled, parallel group trial. The participants were
      randomly allocated to 3 groups: the first group received a L-leucine (1.2 g)- and
      cholecalciferol (20 MUg)-enriched supplement with 6 g of MCT (LD+MCT); the second
      group received the same supplement with 6 g of long-chain triglycerides (LD+LCT);
      and the third group did not receive any supplements (control). Cognition was
      assessed at baseline and after the 3-mo intervention. The difference in changes
      among the groups was assessed with ANCOVA, adjusting for age and the baseline
      value as covariates. After 3 mo, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score
      in the LD+MCT group increased by 10.6% (from 16.6 to 18.4 points, p<0.05). After
      3 mo, the Nishimura geriatric rating scale for mental status (NM scale) score in
      the LD+MCT group increased by 30.6% (from 24.6 to 32.2 points, p<0.001), whereas
      that in the LD+LCT and control groups decreased by 11.2% (from 31.2 to 27.7
      points, p<0.05) and 26.1% (from 27.2 to 20.1 points, p<0.001), respectively. The
      combined supplementation of MCTs (6 g), L-leucine-rich amino acids, and
      cholecalciferol may improve cognitive function in frail elderly individuals.

PMID- 28552879
TI  - Energy Requirement Assessment and Water Turnover in Japanese College Wrestlers
      Using the Doubly Labeled Water Method.
AB  - Estimated energy requirements (EERs) are important for sports based on body
      weight classifications to aid in weight management. The basis for establishing
      EERs varies and includes self-reported energy intake (EI), predicted energy
      expenditure, and measured daily energy expenditure. Currently, however, no
      studies have been performed with male wrestlers using the highly accurate and
      precise doubly labeled water (DLW) method to estimate energy and fluid
      requirement. The primary aim of this study was to compare total energy
      expenditure (TEE), self-reported EI, and the difference in collegiate wrestlers
      during a normal training period using the DLW method. The secondary aims were to
      measure the water turnover and the physical activity level (PAL) of the athletes,
      and to examine the accuracy of two currently used equations to predict EER. Ten
      healthy males (age, 20.4+/-0.5 y) belonging to the East-Japan college league
      participated in this study. TEE was measured using the DLW method, and EI was
      assessed with self-reported dietary records for ~1 wk. There was a significant
      difference between TEE (17.9+/-2.5 MJ*d-1 [4,283+/-590 kcal*d-1]) and self
      reported EI (14.4+/-3.3 MJ*d-1 [3,446+/-799 kcal*d-1]), a difference of 19%. The
      water turnover was 4.61+/-0.73 L*d-1. The measured PAL (2.6+/-0.3) was higher
      than two predicted values during the training season and thus the two EER
      prediction equations produced underestimated values relative to DLW. We found
      that previous EERs were underestimating requirements in collegiate wrestlers and
      that those estimates should be revised.

PMID- 28552880
TI  - Genotyping Analysis of Bitter-Taste Receptor Genes TAS2R38 and TAS2R46 in
      Japanese Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers.
AB  - Type-2 bitter-taste receptors (TAS2Rs) are important for the evaluation of food
      quality and the nutritional control in animals. Mutations in some TAS2Rs
      including TAS2R38 are known to increase susceptibility to various diseases.
      However, the involvement of TAS2Rs in cancers has not been well understood. We
      conducted a pilot study by genotyping two TAS2R genes, TAS2R38 and TAS2R46, in
      Japanese cancer patients diagnosed with the following types of cancer: biliary
      tract cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer and
      gastric cancer. We selected the two TAS2Rs because they carry virtually non
      functional alleles in human populations. We found that cancer risk is not
      associated with any TAS2R46 genotypes since there were no significant differences
      in genotype frequencies between cancer patients and controls. On the other hand,
      we confirmed that phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) non-tasters homozygous (AVI/AVI) for
      TAS2R38 were more frequent among Japanese cancer patients than those among
      controls as suggested in a previous study. The AVI/AVI genotype was therefore
      considered to increases cancer risk. In contrast, we also found that homozygous
      (PAV/PAV) PTC tasters are less frequent among cancer patients, suggesting that
      the PAV/PAV is a cancer resistant genotype that decreases cancer risk. Genotype
      frequencies for heterozygous AVI/PAV genotype were not significantly different
      between the two groups. It is suggested that the risk and resistance of cancers
      is antagonistically controlled by the two TAS2R38 alleles, PAV and AVI, rather
      than by the AVI allele alone.

PMID- 28552881
TI  - Vitamin D Deficiency and Associated Factors in Patients with Mental Disorders
      Treated in Routine Practice.
AB  - This research aimed to investigate factors associated with vitamin D deficiency
      and to provide data about its prevalence in patients suffering from different
      psychiatric illnesses. The study had a cross-sectional design and it included 220
      patients of both genders, aged from 19-81 y, with a wide range of mental
      disorders (F00-F89), and treated in routine ambulatory and hospital practice. The
      researchers collected data from three sources: medical records, a study
      questionnaire and biochemical analysis of patients' serum samples (concentration
      of vitamin D measured as 25(OH)D, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium and
      potassium). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, methods for
      hypothesis testing and binary logistic regression, at the p<=0.05 level. A total
      of 140 patients (64%) had a deficiency of vitamin D (<12 ng/mL), and 45 (20%) had
      inadequate vitamin D serum levels (12-20 ng/mL), while 35 (16%) had sufficient
      vitamin D serum concentrations (>20 ng/mL). Among variables related to
      demographics, life style habits, mental illness, comorbid disorders and drugs,
      two of them, female gender (odds ratio (OR)=2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.3
      4.9, p=0.006) and using clozapine (OR=15.6, 95% CI 1.7-144.7, p=0.02), were
      significantly associated with vitamin D deficiency. Physical activity (OR= 0.4,
      95% CI 0.2-0.9, p=0.02), exercising (OR=0.2, 95% CI <0.1-0.7, p=0.02) and offal
      in the diet (OR=0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.9, p=0.03) significantly aggregated in the
      patients who had a 25(OH)D serum concentration above the deficiency cut-off
      level. Patients with mental disorders are at high risk for vitamin D deficiency,
      particularly females and clozapine users as well as those having no adequate
      physical activity or dietary habits.

PMID- 28552882
TI  - The Impact of Supplementation with Folic Acid on Homocysteine Concentration and
      Selected Lipoprotein Parameters in Patients with Primary Hypertension.
AB  - The aim of the study was the assessment of the impact of supplementation with
      folic acid on the concentration of homocysteine, total cholesterol (TC), HDL- and
      LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), apoprotein AI (apoAI) and apoprotein B
      (apoB) in patients suffering from primary hypertension. The examined group
      comprised 42 patients suffering from primary hypertension. All examined patients
      underwent laboratory tests as follows: concentration of homocysteine, folic acid,
      TC, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, TG, apoAI and apoB. All patients were
      orally administered with 15 mg of folic acid per day for 45 d. After this period,
      all laboratory tests were repeated. Homocysteine concentration was measured by
      the FPIA method, concentrations of apoAI and apoB were measured by the
      nephelometric method, and other parameters with routine methods. After
      administration of 15 mg of folic acid to patients with primary hypertension, a
      considerable decrease in the concentration of homocysteine was observed in
      parallel with a substantive growth of HDL-cholesterol, as well as apoprotein AI
      concentrations and a reduction of the apoprotein B concentration. Results of
      statistical analysis indicated a significant correlation between the decline in
      homocysteine concentration and the increase in HDL-cholesterol concentration, as
      well as between the increase of folic acid concentration and the increase in
      apoAI concentration in patients following the intake of folic acid. The drop in
      homocysteine concentration through the supplementation with folic acid can cause
      quantitative changes in the lipid and lipoprotein parameters which, in
      consequence, may lead to the mitigation of risk concerning the development of
      atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28552883
TI  - SEL1L-dependent Substrates Require Derlin2/3 and Herp1/2 for Endoplasmic
      Reticulum-associated Degradation.
AB  - Accumulation of unfolded/misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      activates the unfolded protein response (UPR). The ATF6 pathway is one of the
      three major pathways in vertebrates. Although ATF6, a transmembrane-type
      glycoprotein in the ER, functions as a UPR sensor/transducer, it is an unstable
      protein with a half-life of approximately 2 h and is constitutively subjected to
      the ER-associated degradation system with the location of the misfolded part in
      the ER lumen (ERAD-L). ERAD-L substrates are delivered to the cytosol through the
      retrotranslocon, which likely contains HRD1 (E3), gp78 (E3), SEL1L (a partner of
      HRD1), Derlin1/2/3 and Herp1/2. We previously showed that ATF6 represents a novel
      transmembrane-type ERAD-L substrate requiring both EDEM1/2/3-mediated mannose
      trimming and SEL1L. Here, by constructing and analyzing chicken DT40 cells
      deficient in various components of the retrotranslocon, we show that degradation
      of ATF6 requires Derlin2 or Derlin3 and that Derlin2 and Derlin3 are redundant
      for ERAD-L of ATF6. We further show that degradation of ATF6 requires Herp1 or
      Herp2 and that Herp1 and Herp2 are redundant for ERAD-L of ATF6. Furthermore, by
      investigating five more ERAD-L substrates, we show that SEL1L-dependent
      substrates require Derlin2/3 and Herp1/2 regardless of their soluble or
      transmembrane nature. Our results suggest that ERAD-L substrates take several
      routes to the cytosol. The HRD1-engaged route 1 requires SEL1L, Derlin2 or
      Derlin3, and Herp1 or Herp2, whereas the HRD1-engaged route 2 does not require
      them functionally. It remains to be determined whether the latter requires
      Derlin1 and whether these two routes are compositionally distinct.Key words:
      endoplasmic reticulum, proteasome, protein degradation, protein misfolding,
      ubiquitin.

PMID- 28552884
TI  - Ranolazine Facilitates Termination of Ventricular Tachyarrhythmia Associated With
      Acute Myocardial Ischemia Through Suppression of Late INa-Mediated Focal
      Activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) associated with acute
      myocardial ischemia is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death, but its
      underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. It is hypothesized that late
      Na+current (INa) contributes to arrhythmogenic activity in ischemic
      myocardium.Methods and Results:Langendorff-perfused rabbit hearts with regional
      ischemia in ventricles were optically mapped. Perfusion with ranolazine (10
      MUmol/L), a selective inhibitor of lateINa, significantly reduced excitation
      frequency and facilitated termination of VT/VF induced after occlusion of the
      left main coronary trunk. The activation pattern during ischemic VT/VF was
      characterized by breakthrough-type excitations (BEs) from multiple origins,
      predominantly in the ischemic border zone (BZ) and occasional short-lived rotors.
      Ranolazine perfusion significantly reduced the incidence of BEs in the BZ. Rotors
      tended to decrease with progression of ischemia and disappeared after ranolazine
      perfusion. During constant pacing, ranolazine attenuated ischemia-induced
      shortening of action potentials in the BZ without affecting conduction velocity,
      probably due toIKrinhibition. In intact hearts without coronary occlusion,
      ranolazine (10 MUmol/L) terminated aconitine-induced VT by inhibiting focal
      arrhythmogenic activity in the injection site. CONCLUSIONS: LateINa-mediated
      focal arrhythmogenic activity plays important roles in the maintenance of
      ischemic VT/VF in isolated rabbit hearts. Suppression of lateINaby ranolazine may
      be a promising therapeutic strategy to reduce arrhythmic death during the acute
      phase of myocardial infarction.

PMID- 28552885
TI  - Novel Strategies for the Management of Nocturnal Hypertension.

PMID- 28552886
TI  - Administration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist on Day 5 increases
      luteal blood flow and improves pregnancy prediction accuracy on Day 14 in
      recipient Holstein cows.
AB  - This study assessed the effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)
      treatment on Day 5 (Day 0 = estrus) on luteal blood flow and accuracy of
      pregnancy prediction in recipient cows. On Day 5, 120 lactating Holstein cows
      were randomly assigned to a control group (n = 63) or GnRH group treated with 100
      MUg of GnRH agonist (n = 57). On Days 3, 5, 7, and 14, each cow underwent
      ultrasound examination to measure the blood flow area (BFA) and time-averaged
      maximum velocity (TAMV) at the spiral arteries at the base of the corpus luteum
      using color Doppler ultrasonography. Cows with a corpus luteum diameter >= 20 mm
      (n = 120) received embryo transfers on Day 7. The BFA values in the GnRH group
      were significantly higher than those in the control group on Days 7 and 14. TAMV
      did not differ between these groups. According to receiver operating
      characteristic analyses to predict pregnancy, a BFA cutoff of 0.52 cm2 yielded
      the highest sensitivity (83.3%) and specificity (90.5%) on Day 7, and BFA and
      TAMV values of 0.94 cm2 and 44.93 cm/s, respectively, yielded the highest
      sensitivity (97.1%) and specificity (100%) on Day 14 in the GnRH group. The areas
      under the curve for the paired BFA and TAMV in the GnRH group were 0.058 higher
      than those in the control group (0.996 and 0.938, respectively; P < 0.05). In
      conclusion, GnRH treatment on Day 5 increased the luteal BFA in recipient cows on
      Days 7 and 14, and improved the accuracy of pregnancy prediction on Day 14.

PMID- 28552887
TI  - Selection of viable in vitro-fertilized bovine embryos using time-lapse
      monitoring in microwell culture dishes.
AB  - Conventionally, in vitro-fertilized (IVF) bovine embryos for transfer are
      morphologically evaluated at day 7-8 of embryo culture. This method is, however,
      subjective and results in unreliable selection. We previously described a novel
      selection system for IVF bovine blastocysts for transfer that traces the
      development of individual embryos with time-lapse monitoring in our specially
      developed microwell culture dishes (LinKID micro25). The system can noninvasively
      identify prognostic factors that reflect viability after transfer. By assessing a
      combination of identified prognostic factors -timing of the first cleavage;
      number of blastomeres at the end of the first cleavage; and number of blastomeres
      at the onset of lag-phase, which results in temporary developmental arrest during
      the fourth or fifth cell cycle- the pregnancy rate was improved over using
      conventional morphological evaluation. Time-lapse monitoring with LinKID micro25
      could facilitate objective and reliable selection of healthy IVF bovine embryos.
      Here, we review the novel bovine embryo selection system that allows for
      prediction of viability after transfer.

PMID- 28552888
TI  - Cylindrical Inversion Pulse for the Reduction of Cardiac Motion Artifacts in
      Contrast-enhanced Breast MRI.
AB  - We proposed a simple technique for reduction of cardiac-related motion artifacts
      on contrast-enhanced images in the breast by using cylindrical regional
      suppression technique (CREST) that can directly suppress the heart signals. The
      purpose of this study was to select the optimal scan parameters and to evaluate
      the feasibility in the breast. We demonstrated that the optimized CREST could
      dramatically reduce the cardiac-related flow artifacts without any penalty to the
      acquisition time, signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-enhanced lesion-to
      parenchyma contrast.

PMID- 28552889
TI  - Present Situation of Opisthorchiasis in Vientiane Capital, Lao Peoples'
      Democratic Republic.
AB  - Opisthorchiasis is the commonest liver disease caused by Opisthorchis viverrini
      in Thailand, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) and Cambodia, which will be a
      major cause of future human cholangiocarcinoma in these regions. In this short
      review, we describe the epidemic aspects of this parasite infection and the
      outline of results of our recent surveys of the fluke in humans and its
      intermediate hosts in Vientiane Capital, where information on the opisthorchiasis
      epidemic is insufficient. We examined the stool from a total of 296 persons
      living in the Phailom village (population, 1545, 1999) from 2011 to 2012. As a
      result, the intestinal parasitism rate was very high from 54 to 59%. Among
      intestinal infections, O. viverrini infection was observed at highest rates from
      51 to 53%. On the other hand, the rate of infection by nematodes was very low. We
      also conducted intermediate-host investigations in the river and damp areas at 3
      villages in the Vientiane capital and 2 villages in Vientiane Province in 2012.
      As shown by these results, no Opisthorchis species was detected in 147 samples of
      the host genus Bythinia. However, metacercariae were detected in 3 samples of
      Cyclocheilichthys sp. and in a Hampala sp. in 303 cyprinid fishes collected from
      the Haikham village area of Vientiane Capital.

PMID- 28552891
TI  - Collaborative Research with Chinese, Indian, Filipino and North European Research
      Organizations on Infectious Disease Epidemics.
AB  - In this report, we present a short review of applications of time series
      analysis, which consists of spectral analysis based on the maximum entropy method
      in the frequency domain and the least squares method in the time domain, to the
      incidence data of infectious diseases. This report consists of three parts.
      First, we present our results obtained by collaborative research on infectious
      disease epidemics with Chinese, Indian, Filipino and North European research
      organizations. Second, we present the results obtained with the Japanese
      infectious disease surveillance data and the time series numerically generated
      from a mathematical model, called the susceptible/exposed/infectious/recovered
      (SEIR) model. Third, we present an application of the time series analysis to
      pathologic tissues to examine the usefulness of time series analysis for
      investigating the spatial pattern of pathologic tissue. It is anticipated that
      time series analysis will become a useful tool for investigating not only
      infectious disease surveillance data but also immunological and genetic tests.

PMID- 28552890
TI  - Collaborative Research on Puerperal Infections in Bangladesh.
AB  - Bangladesh is considered as a high-risk country for emerging infectious diseases
      because of its high population density, poverty, and unhygienic conditions.
      Although control efforts have primarily been focused on major infectious diseases
      such as diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV infection, the
      prevalence and impact of many local or minor infectious diseases are still
      unclarified in this country. In this review, we present our recent experience and
      outcomes of collaborative research on puerperal infection (PI), which is a poorly
      defined infectious disease in Bangladesh. PI is the most common complication
      during the perinatal period in developing countries. We investigated the
      incidence of individual species of aerobic bacteria causing PIs and their drug
      resistance, and the genetic traits of isolates during the two-year period (2010
      2012). The common species of isolates from patients with PIs were Escherichia
      coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Proteus mirabilis,
      Staphylococcus aureus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. A remarkable finding was the
      high rates of resistance to cephalosporins among Gram-negative bacteria harboring
      extended-spectrum beta-lactamase genes, which were associated with carbapenem
      resistance in a few isolates. This study defined the importance of control of
      antimicrobial resistance in Bangladesh, and provided suggestions for the future
      direction of collaborative research on infectious diseases in Bangladesh.

PMID- 28552892
TI  - Analysis of Distribution of Vector-Borne Diseases Using Geographic Information
      Systems.
AB  - The distribution of vector-borne diseases is changing on a global scale owing to
      issues involving natural environments, socioeconomic conditions and border
      disputes among others. Geographic information systems (GIS) provide an important
      method of establishing a prompt and precise understanding of local data on
      disease outbreaks, from which disease eradication programs can be established.
      Having first defined GIS as a combination of GPS, RS and GIS, we showed the
      processes through which these technologies were being introduced into our
      research. GIS-derived geographical information attributes were interpreted in
      terms of point, area, line, spatial epidemiology, risk and development for
      generating the vector dynamic models associated with the spread of the disease.
      The need for interdisciplinary scientific and administrative collaboration in the
      use of GIS to control infectious diseases is highly warranted.

PMID- 28552893
TI  - Participant Characteristics in the Kumamoto University Regional Center of Japan
      Environment and Children's Study (JECS): Association of Pregnancy Outcomes with
      Pregestational Maternal Body Mass Index and Maternal Weight Gain during
      Pregnancy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify participant characteristics in
      the Kumamoto University Regional Center of the Japan Environment and Children's
      Study (K-JECS) and to investigate the association of pregnancy outcomes with
      pregestational maternal body mass index (BMI) and maternal weight gain during
      pregnancy (MWG). METHODS: The subjects were women with singleton birth, who had
      been recruited by the K-JECS, and were registered in the data systems for the
      first and second questionnaires and transcripts of medical records. The subjects
      were categorized by BMI with further classification by MWG. The chi-squared test
      and one-way analysis of variance were performed to determine the correlations of
      BMI and MWG with perinatal outcomes. Logistic regression analysis was performed
      to examine perinatal outcome risks. RESULTS: The subject characteristics were
      similar to the trends observed in the Japanese general population. The odds ratio
      for natural delivery was low in the overweight groups (OW) and normal weight
      groups (NW) with excessive weight gain. On the other hand, the risk of cesarean
      section was high in the OW, and risk of induced or accelerated delivery was high
      in the NW with excessive weight gain. The risks of preterm birth and LBW were
      high in the insufficient weight gain groups regardless of BMI. The risks of
      pregnancy-induced hypertension and gestational diabetes were high in the OW.

PMID- 28552894
TI  - To the memory of the late Dr. Takeo Yamamoto.

PMID- 28552895
TI  - Editor's Note.

PMID- 28552896
TI  - Detection of Salmonella in That Luang Marsh, Vientiane, Lao PDR: Improvement of
      the Accuracy of Salmonella Detection Using Visualization of Hydrogen Sulfate
      Production by Salmonella.
AB  - In this study, Salmonella is used as the standard bacterium for evaluation of
      pollution of water environments. The author continued to improve Salmonella
      detection by visualization of hydrogen sulfide production, which is
      characteristic of Salmonella. At the same time, the positivity rate of Salmonella
      in rural Lao was investigated. According to the survey conducted so far, it has
      been found that the Salmonella positivity rate in residents of Laos is markedly
      higher than that in Japan. It is conceivable that the level by contamination of
      Salmonella in sewage drained from each house in Laos will be higher than that in
      Japan. There is no sewage treatment facility in Laos even in the capital
      Vientiane. In the city, a vast wetland named That Luang Marsh functions as sewage
      reception. In the case of contamination that exceeds the purification capacity of
      the wetland, detection of Salmonella in the water of the Mekong River will
      indicate the deterioration of water quality.

PMID- 28552898
TI  - Sustained release vancomycin-coated titanium alloy using a novel electrostatic
      dry powder coating technique may be a potential strategy to reduce implant
      related infection.
AB  - In order to tackle the implant-related infection, a novel way was developed in
      this study to coat vancomycin particles mixed with controlled release coating
      materials onto the surface of titanium alloy by using an electrostatic dry powder
      coating technique. To characterize this sustained release antibacterial coating,
      surface morphology, in vitro and in vivo drug release were sequentially
      evaluated. In vitro cytotoxicity was tested by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay
      and cytological changes were observed by inverted microscope. The antibacterial
      properties against MRSA, including a bacterial growth inhibition assay and a
      colony-counting test by spread plate method were performed. Results indicated
      that the vancomycin-coated sample was biocompatible for Human osteoblast cell
      line MG-63 and displayed effective antibacterial ability against MRSA. The
      coating film was revealed uniform by scanning electron microscopy. Both the in
      vitro and in vivo drug release kinetics showed an initially high release rate,
      followed by an extended period of sustained drug release over 7 days. These
      results suggest that with good biocompatibility and antibacterial ability, the
      sustained release antibacterial coating of titanium alloy using our novel
      electrostatic dry powder coating process may provide a promising candidate for
      the treatment of orthopedic implant-related infection.

PMID- 28552899
TI  - The impacts of computer adaptive testing from a variety of perspectives.
AB  - Computer adaptive testing (CAT) is a kind of tailored testing, in that it is a
      form of computer-based testing that is adaptive to each test-taker's ability
      level. In this review, the impacts of CAT are discussed from different
      perspectives in order to illustrate crucial points to keep in mind during the
      development and implementation of CAT. Test developers and psychometricians often
      emphasize the efficiency and accuracy of CAT in comparison to traditional linear
      tests. However, many test-takers report feeling discouraged after taking CATs,
      and this feeling can reduce learning self-efficacy and motivation. A trade-off
      must be made between the psychological experiences of test-takers and measurement
      efficiency. From the perspective of educators and subject matter experts,
      nonstatistical specifications, such as content coverage, content balance, and
      form length are major concerns. Thus, accreditation bodies may be faced with a
      discrepancy between the perspectives of psychometricians and those of subject
      matter experts. In order to improve test-takers' impressions of CAT, the author
      proposes increasing the target probability of answering correctly in the item
      selection algorithm even if doing so consequently decreases measurement
      efficiency. Two different methods, CAT with a shadow test approach and
      computerized multistage testing, have been developed in order to ensure the
      satisfaction of subject matter experts. In the shadow test approach, a full
      length test is assembled that meets the constraints and provides maximum
      information at the current ability estimate, while computerized multistage
      testing gives subject matter experts an opportunity to review all test forms
      prior to administration.

PMID- 28552897
TI  - Are Short Chain Fatty Acids in Gut Microbiota Defensive Players for Inflammation
      and Atherosclerosis?
AB  - Intestinal flora (microbiota) have recently attracted attention among lipid and
      carbohydrate metabolism researchers. Microbiota metabolize resistant starches and
      dietary fibers through fermentation and decomposition, and provide short chain
      fatty acids (SCFAs) to the host. The major SCFAs acetates, propionate and
      butyrate, have different production ratios and physiological activities. Several
      receptors for SCFAs have been identified as the G-protein coupled receptor
      41/free fatty acid receptor 3 (GPR41/FFAR3), GPR43/FFAR2, GPR109A, and olfactory
      receptor 78, which are present in intestinal epithelial cells, immune cells, and
      adipocytes, despite their expression levels differing between tissues and cell
      types. Many studies have indicated that SCFAs exhibit a wide range of functions
      from immune regulation to metabolism in a variety of tissues and organs, and
      therefore have both a direct and indirect influence on our bodies. This review
      will focus on SCFAs, especially butyrate, and their effects on various
      inflammatory mechanisms including atherosclerosis. In the future, SCFAs may
      provide new insights into understanding the pathophysiology of chronic
      inflammation, metabolic disorders, and atherosclerosis, and we can expect the
      development of novel therapeutic strategies for these diseases.

PMID- 28552900
TI  - Establishment of a dental license regulation authority is required in Korea:
      results of the Delphi technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: In addition to dental education, a system for the evaluation and
      management of dental licensing and certification is required to meet the growing
      societal demand for more competent dentists. In this study, the Delphi technique
      was used to gather opinions from a variety of professionals on the problems of
      and remedies for the dental license management system in Korea. METHODS: Delphi
      surveys were conducted from April 2016 to October 2016 in South Korea. A variety
      of dental professionals were included and categorized into 3 groups according to
      their expertise as follows: the basic dentistry group, the clinical dentistry
      group, and the policy group. The Delphi technique was conducted in 3 rounds of e
      mail surveys, each with different questions that probed with increasing depth on
      the dental license management system. In each successive round, the responses
      were categorized, scored on a Likert scale, and statistically analyzed. RESULTS:
      After categorizing the results of the first survey and ranking the results of the
      second survey using the Delphi technique, regulation by a licensing authority was
      found to be the most critical issue. This was followed by the license renewal
      system, continuing education, a tiered licensure system, improvement of foreign
      license approval, and utilization of retirees, in decreasing order of importance.
      The third Delphi survey showed a similar ranking, with regulation by a licensing
      authority being the major concern. Opinions regarding the dental license
      management system were provided as open-ended responses. The responses of the 3
      groups showed statistically significant differences in the scores for the issue
      of regulation by a licensing authority. After re-grouping into the dentistry
      group and the policy group, the issue received a significantly higher score in
      the dentistry group. CONCLUSION: The quality of dental treatment should be
      managed to protect patients and dental professionals. For this purpose, the
      establishment of an independent license regulation authority along with
      legislative changes is required.

PMID- 28552901
TI  - The Impact of Obesity on the Clinical Course of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND Obesity has been linked with a pro-inflammatory state and the
      development of inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
      However, there is some controversy regarding whether obesity is associated with
      an adverse clinical course in patients with IBD. The aim of this meta-analysis
      was to assess the association between obesity and clinical outcomes in IBD
      patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS Electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane
      Library, and Web of Science) were systematically searched for studies
      investigating the association between obesity and clinical outcomes in patients
      with IBD. A meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager software. RESULTS
      Among the 4,798 articles identified, seven met the inclusion criteria for our
      meta-analysis. The pooled data revealed that obese patients were significantly
      less likely to undergo IBD-related surgery, receive hormone therapy, and
      experience hospitalization compared with non-obese patients. However, no
      statistically significant difference was observed in perianal disease, anti-TNF
      use, and immunomodulator use between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Our meta
      analysis indicated that clinical outcomes were significantly different in obese
      versus non-obese patients with IBD. We found that obesity was associated with a
      less severe disease course of IBD. Future prospective studies are needed to
      confirm the relationship between obesity and the clinical course of IBD.

PMID- 28552902
TI  - IgG4-Related Disease Manifesting as Interstitial Nephritis Accompanied by
      Hypophysitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND IgG4-related disease is a systemic disease with marked infiltration of
      IgG4-positive plasma cells into affected organs and elevated serum IgG4. On
      clinical examination, swelling, nodules, and hypertrophic lesions might appear
      simultaneously or metachronously in different organs. CASE REPORT An 85-year-old
      man with sudden-onset polydipsia and polyuria insipidus was transported to our
      hospital because of hypothermia and general malaise. Laboratory tests revealed
      renal failure and central diabetes insipidus. According to his serum IgG4 level,
      the patient was diagnosed with possible IgG4-related kidney disease accompanied
      by IgG4-related hypophysitis. Abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography,
      hypophysis magnetic resonance imaging, and histological examination of the kidney
      were performed. Glucocorticoid therapy was administered and his renal function
      improved gradually. However, his central diabetes insipidus did not improve.
      CONCLUSIONS Glucocorticoid therapy showed different therapeutic effects on the
      kidney and posterior lobe of the hypophysis. It is possible that glucocorticoid
      therapy needs to be supported by other immunomodulatory therapies to have an
      effect on all affected organs.

PMID- 28552903
TI  - THEMIS, the new kid on the block for T-cell development.

PMID- 28552904
TI  - Crystal structure of HLA-B*5801 with a TW10 HIV Gag epitope reveals a novel mode
      of peptide presentation.

PMID- 28552905
TI  - Harnessing class II histone deacetylases in macrophages to combat breast cancer.

PMID- 28552906
TI  - Novel PDGFRB fusions in childhood B- and T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PMID- 28552907
TI  - A versatile nanoplatform for synergistic combination therapy to treat human
      esophageal cancer.
AB  - One of the major goals of precision oncology is to promote combination therapy to
      improve efficacy and reduce side effects of anti-cancer drugs based on their
      molecular mechanisms. In this study, we aimed to develop and validate new
      nanoformulations of docetaxel (DTX) and bortezomib (BTZ) for targeted combination
      therapy to treat human esophageal cancer. By leveraging our versatile disulfide
      cross-linked micelles (DCMs) platform, we developed nanoformulations of DTX and
      BTZ (named DTX-DCMs and BTZ-DCMs). Their physical properties were characterized;
      their anti-cancer efficacies and mechanisms of action were investigated in a
      human esophageal cancer cell line in vitro. Furthermore, the in vitro anti-tumor
      activities of combination therapies (concurrent drug treatment, sequential drug
      treatment, and treatment using different ratios of the drugs) were examined in
      comparison with the single drug treatment and free drug strategies. These drug
      loaded nanoparticles were spherical in shape and relatively small in size of
      approximately 20-22 nm. The entrapment efficiencies of DTX and BTZ into
      nanoparticles were 82.4% and 84.1%, respectively. The drug release rates of DTX
      DCMs and BTZ-DCMs were sustained, and greatly increased in the presence of GSH.
      These nanodrugs were effectively internalized by KYSE30 esophageal cancer cells,
      and dose-dependently induced cell apoptosis. We further revealed a strong
      synergistic effect between DTX-DCMs and BTZ-DCMs against KYSE30 esophageal cancer
      cells. Sequential combination therapy with DTX-DCMs followed by BTZ-DCMs
      exhibited the best anti-tumor efficacy in vitro. This study demonstrates that DTX
      and BTZ could be successfully nanoformulated into disulfide cross-linked
      micelles. The nanoformulations of DTX and BTZ demonstrate an immense potential
      for synergistic combination therapy to treat human esophageal cancer.

PMID- 28552908
TI  - Xyloketal B alleviates cerebral infarction and neurologic deficits in a mouse
      stroke model by suppressing the ROS/TLR4/NF-kappaB inflammatory signaling
      pathway.
AB  - Xyloketal B (Xyl-B) is a novel marine compound isolated from mangrove fungus
      Xylaria sp. We previously demonstrated that pretreatment with Xyl-B exerted
      neuroprotective effects and attenuated hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in neonatal
      mice. In the present study we investigated the neuroprotective effects of pre-
      and post-treatment with Xyl-B in adult mice using a transient middle cerebral
      artery occlusion (tMCAO) model, and explored the underlying mechanisms. Adult
      male C57 mice were subjected to tMCAO surgery. For the pre-treatment, Xyl-B was
      given via multiple injections (12.5, 25, and 50 mg.kg-1.d-1, ip) 48 h, 24 h and
      30 min before ischemia. For the post-treatment, a single dose of Xyl-B (50 mg/kg,
      ip) was injected at 0, 1 or 2 h after the onset of ischemia. The regional
      cerebral perfusion was monitored using a laser-Doppler flowmeter. TTC staining
      was performed to determine the brain infarction volume. We found that both pre
      treatment with Xyl-B (50 mg/kg) and post-treatment with Xyl-B (50 mg/kg)
      significantly reduced the infarct volume, but had no significant hemodynamic
      effects. Treatment with Xyl-B also significantly alleviated the neurological
      deficits in tMCAO mice. Furthermore, treatment with Xyl-B significantly
      attenuated ROS overproduction in brain tissues; increased the MnSOD protein
      levels, suppressed TLR4, NF-kappaB and iNOS protein levels; and downregulated the
      mRNA levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6 and
      IFN-gamma. Moreover, Xyl-B also protected blood-brain barrier integrity in tMCAO
      mice. In conclusion, Xyl-B administered within 2 h after the onset of stroke
      effectively protects against focal cerebral ischemia; the underlying mechanism
      may be related to suppressing the ROS/TLR4/NF-kappaB inflammatory signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28552909
TI  - Enhanced intracellular delivery and controlled drug release of magnetic PLGA
      nanoparticles modified with transferrin.
AB  - Owing to the presence of multidrug resistance in tumor cells, conventional
      chemotherapy remains clinically intractable. To enhance the therapeutic efficacy
      of chemotherapeutic agents, targeting strategies based on magnetic polymeric
      nanoparticles modified with targeting ligands have gained significant attention
      in cancer therapy. In this study, we synthesized transferrin (Tf)-modified
      poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA NPs) loaded with paclitaxel
      (PTX) and superparamagnetic nanoparticle (MNP) using a solid-in-oil-in-water
      solvent evaporation method, followed by Tf adsorption on the surface of NPs. The
      Tf-modified magnetic PLGA NPs were characterized in terms of particle morphology
      and size, magnetic properties, encapsulation efficiency and drug release.
      Furthermore, the cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of the drug-loaded magnetic
      PLGA NPs were evaluated in both MCF-7 breast cancer and U-87 glioma cells in
      vitro. We found that Tf-modified PTX-MNP-PLGA NPs showed the highest cytotoxicity
      effect and cellular uptake efficiency under Tf receptor mediation in both MCF-7
      and U-87 cells compared to unmodified PLGA NPs and free PTX. The cellular uptake
      efficiency of Tf-modified magnetic PLGA NPs appeared to be facilitated by the
      applied magnetic field, but the difference did not reach statistical
      significance. This study illustrates that this proposed formulation can be used
      as one new alternative treatment for patients bearing inaccessible tumors.

PMID- 28552910
TI  - Conjugated polymer nanomaterials for theranostics.
AB  - Conjugated polymer nanomaterials (CPNs), as optically and electronically active
      materials, hold promise for biomedical imaging and drug delivery applications.
      This review highlights the recent advances in the utilization of CPNs in
      theranostics. Specifically, CPN-based in vivo imaging techniques, including near
      infrared (NIR) imaging, two-photon (TP) imaging, photoacoustic (PA) imaging, and
      multimodal (MM) imaging, are introduced. Then, CPN-based photodynamic therapy
      (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are surveyed. A variety of stimuli
      responsive CPN systems for drug delivery are also summarized, and the promising
      trends and translational challenges are discussed.

PMID- 28552911
TI  - Plumbagin suppresses chronic periodontitis in rats via down-regulation of TNF
      alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6 expression.
AB  - Chronic periodontitis (CP) is one of the most common oral diseases, which causes
      alveolar bone absorption and tooth loss in adults. In this study we aimed to
      investigate the potential of plumbagin (PL), a widely-investigated active
      compound extracted from the traditional Chinese herb Plumbago zeylanica L in
      treating CP. Human periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) were used for in
      vitro studies, whereas an animal model of CP was established in SD rats by
      ligation+Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) stimulation. The rats were injected with
      PL (2, 4, and 6 mg.kg-1.d-1, ip) for 4 weeks. Treatment of PDLSCs with TNF-alpha
      (10 ng/mL) markedly stimulated the expression of the proinflammatory cytokines
      TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6, as well as the chemokines CCL-2 and CCL-5, which
      were dose-dependently suppressed by co-treatment with PL (1.25-5 MUmol/L).
      Furthermore, PL (3.75 MUmol/L) markedly suppressed TNF-alpha-induced activation
      of the MAPK, NF-kappaB and JAK/STAT signaling pathways in PDLSCs. In consistence
      with the in vitro studies, PL administration significantly decreased the
      expression of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6 in gingiva of the rat with CP, with
      the dosage 4 mg.kg-1.d-1 showing the best anti-inflammatory effect. Moreover, PL
      administration decelerated bone destruction in the rat with CP, evidenced by the
      aveolar bone loss (ABL) and H&E staining results. In conclusion, PL suppresses CP
      progression in rats by downregulating the expressions of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and
      IL-6 and inhibiting the MAPK, NF-kappaB and JAK/STAT signaling pathways.

PMID- 28552912
TI  - Pterostilbene suppresses human endometrial cancer cells in vitro by down
      regulating miR-663b.
AB  - Resveratrol has long been known as an antioxidant and a chemopreventive agent.
      Similar to resveratrol, pterostilbene (PT) is also a phenolic compound extracted
      from the Vitis species. However, there are few studies on the antitumor effect of
      PT. Thus, we investigated the effects of PT on the endometrial cancer (EC) cells
      in vitro and the related molecular mechanisms. Treatment of EC cell lines HTB-111
      and Ishikawa with PT (25-100 MUmol/L) dose-dependently suppressed the cell
      viability and induced apoptosis. Using miR microarrays, we examined the miR
      expression profile in Ishikawa cells with or without PT, and revealed that miR
      663b was the most decreased in PT-treated Ishikawa cells. Furthermore, we
      predicted and verified that the pro-apoptosis factor BCL2L14 is the direct target
      of miR-663b. Over-expression of miR-663b and knock-down of BCL2L14 counteracted
      the suppressing effects of PT on HTB-111 and Ishikawa cells. In addition, we
      evaluated the miR-663b levels in EC tissues of 51 patients using an in situ
      hybridization technique. With the median of the score of miR-663b as a cut-off
      value, these EC patients were divided into two groups, and the patients with high
      miR-663b expression had significantly poor prognosis.

PMID- 28552913
TI  - Population pharmacokinetic analysis of tacrolimus in Chinese myasthenia gravis
      patients.
AB  - The importance of tacrolimus in the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) as a
      substitute for corticosteroid-dependent immunosuppressive therapy is increasing.
      Thus far, however, no population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) analysis of tacrolimus
      in treating MG patients has been published. This article aimed to construct a
      PopPK model of tacrolimus for Chinese MG patients with the goal of improving its
      performance in MG treatment. A total of 253 trough concentration records were
      obtained from 83 Chinese MG patients. The effects of demographics, lifestyle and
      health status, biochemical test data, disease progression and treatment-related
      information (including co-administered medications) as covariates on the various
      parameters were investigated. The covariate selection was based on biological
      plausibility, clinical significance, statistical significance and reduction in
      inter-individual variability (IIV). Bootstrap and normalized prediction
      distribution error (NPDE) analysis were performed to validate the final model. A
      one-compartment PopPK model with first-order elimination and a fixed absorption
      phase was constructed. The estimated apparent oral clearance (CL/F) and apparent
      oral volume of distribution (V/F) were 3.6 L/h and 1700 L, respectively, in the
      MG patients. Hematocrit and blood urea nitrogen were identified as two covariates
      that significantly influenced the CL/F. Immunoglobulin treatment (PRO) also had
      the potential to influence V/F, which was consistent with the clinical
      observations and the high protein-binding property of tacrolimus. Other
      covariates including age, weight, gender and co-administered medications had no
      obvious influence on CL/F or V/F. The first PopPK model of tacrolimus in MG
      patients was established. The identified covariates were of biological
      plausibility and clinical importance to help individualize the dosing schedule in
      MG patients.

PMID- 28552914
TI  - Claudin 4-targeted nanographene phototherapy using a Clostridium perfringens
      enterotoxin peptide-photosensitizer conjugate.
AB  - In this study we designed a claudin 4-directed dual photodynamic and photothermal
      system, in which a 30-amino acid claudin 4-binding peptide, Clostridium
      perfringens enterotoxin (CPE), was linked to a photodynamic agent chlorin e6
      (Ce6) through a polyethylene glycol spacer (CPC) and anchored onto reduced
      graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets to form CPC/rGO nanosheets. For comparison, a
      conjugate of polyethylene glycol and Ce6 (PC) was anchored onto the rGO
      nanosheets to generate PC/rGO. Both PC and CPC generated reactive oxygen species
      upon irradiation at 660 nm. Application of CPC/rGO to claudin 4-overexpressing
      U87 glioblastoma cells in vitro resulted in a significantly higher cellular
      uptake compared to application of PC/rGO. Upon irradiation at 660 and 808 nm, the
      CPC/rGO-treated U87 cells generated significantly higher reactive oxygen species
      and caused significantly higher temperature increase, and showed most potent
      anticancer effect compared to the other groups. Taken together, these results
      suggest that CPC/rGO is potentially useful as a tumor-specific combined
      phototherapy.

PMID- 28552916
TI  - Magneto-therapy of human joint cartilage.
AB  - PURPOSE: The topic of the present paper concerns the human joint cartilage
      therapy performed by the magnetic induction field. There is proved the thesis
      that the applied magnetic field for concrete cartilage illness should depend on
      the proper relative and concrete values of applied magnetic induction, intensity
      as well the time of treatment duration. Additionally, very important are
      frequencies and amplitudes of magnetic field as well as magnetic permeability of
      the synovial fluid. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research methods used in this paper
      include: magnetic induction field produced by a new Polish and German magneto
      electronic devices for the therapy of human joint cartilage diseases, stationary
      and movable magnetic applicators, magnetic bandage, ferrofluid injections,
      author's experience gained in Germany research institutes and practical results
      after measurements and information from patients. RESULTS: The results of this
      paper concern concrete parameters of time dependent electro-magnetic field
      administration during the joint cartilage therapy duration and additionally
      concern the corollaries which are implied from reading values gained on the
      magnetic induction devices. CONCLUSIONS: The main conclusions obtained in this
      paper are as follows: Time dependent magnetic induction field increases the
      dynamic viscosity of movable synovial fluid and decreases symptoms of cartilage
      illness for concrete intensity of magnetic field and concrete field line
      architecture. The ferrofluid therapy and phospholipids bilayer simultaneously
      with the administrated external electromagnetic field, increases the dynamic
      viscosity of movable synovial fluid.

PMID- 28552915
TI  - The regioselective glucuronidation of morphine by dimerized human UGT2B7, 1A1,
      1A9 and their allelic variants.
AB  - Uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 2B7 is expressed mostly in the
      human liver, lung and kidney and can transfer endogenous glucuronide group into
      its substrate and impact the pharmacological effects of several drugs such as
      estriol, AZT and morphine. UGT2B7 and its allelic variants can dimerize with the
      homologous enzymes UGT1A1 and UGT1A9, as well as their allelic variants, and then
      change their enzymatic activities in the process of substrate catalysis. The
      current study was designed to identify this mechanism using morphine as the
      substrate of UGT2B7. Single-recombinant allozymes, including UGT2B7*1 (wild
      type), UGT2B7*71S (A71S, 211G>T), UGT2B7*2 (H268Y, 802C>T), UGT2B7*5 (D398N,
      1192G>A), and double-recombinant allozymes formed by the dimerization of UGT1A9*1
      (wild type), UGT1A9*2 (C3Y, 8G>A), UGT1A9*3 (M33T, 98T>C), UGT1A9*5 (D256N,
      766G>A), UGT1A1 (wild type) with its splice variant UGT1A1b were established and
      incubated with morphine in vitro. Each sample was analyzed with HPLC-MS/MS. All
      enzyme kinetic parameters were then measured and analyzed. From the results, the
      production ratio of its aberrant metabolism and subsequent metabolites, morphine
      3-glucuronide (M3G) and morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G), changes regioselectively.
      Double-recombinant allozymes exhibit stronger enzymatic activity catalyzing
      morphine than the single-recombinant alloyzymes. Compared to UGT2B7*1, UGT2B7*2
      singles or doubles have lower Km values for M3G and M6G, whereas UGT2B7*5
      allozymes perform opposite effects. The double allozymes of UGT1A9*2 or UGT1A9*5
      with UGT2B7 tend to produce M6G. Interestingly, the majority of single or double
      allozymes significantly reduce the ratio of M3G to M6G. The UGT1A9*2-UGT2B7*1
      double enzyme has the lowest M3G:M6G ratio, reflecting that more M6G would form
      in morphine glucuronide metabolism. This study demonstrates that UGT2B7 common
      SNPs and their dimers with UGT1A1 and UGT1A9 and their allelic variants can
      regioselectively affect the generation of two metabolites of morphine via
      altering the CLint ratios of M3G to M6G. These results may predict the
      effectiveness of morphine antinociception in individualized opioid treatment.

PMID- 28552917
TI  - The evaluation of resorbable haemostatic wound dressings in contact with blood in
      vitro.
AB  - PURPOSE: For many years research has been conducted on the development of
      resorbable, polymer, haemostatic materials designed to provide first aid and
      preliminary protection of injuries. The biological properties in vitro of a
      dressing in powder form called Hemoguard are expected to provide the ability to
      instantaneously stem bleeding with safe conditions of use. The aim of the study
      was to evaluate the haemostatic properties of a model of dressing based on micro-
      and nanofibrids of the chitosan, sodium/calcium alginate and/or
      carboxymethylcellulose complex. Dressings were prepared by spray-drying and
      freeze-drying. METHODS: Human whole blood was subjected to timed contact with the
      haemostatic dressing model. Haemolytic action was determined by assaying the
      degree of haemolysis and evaluating blood cell morphology. Haemostatic action was
      determined on the basis of selected parameters of plasmatic clotting systems.
      RESULTS: Dressings prepared by freeze-drying activated the coagulation system.
      The haemolytic index, plasma haemoglobin concentration values and blood cell
      morphological shapes were normal. Dressings prepared by spray-drying
      significantly activated coagulation. Activation of the coagulation process was
      evidenced by shorter clotting time of the plasma coagulation system and a longer
      process of clot formation. The dressing was associated with an increased
      haemolytic index and higher plasma haemoglobin concentration. The morphological
      shape of blood cells changed. CONCLUSIONS: The model of multi-resorbable wound
      dressings has haemostatic properties. The materials activate the clotting process
      more quickly than a single-dressing model. Increased activity was found for
      dressings prepared by spray-drying.

PMID- 28552918
TI  - DMA analysis of the structure of crosslinked poly(methyl methacrylate)s.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper presents the study aimed at the development of crosslinked
      poly(methyl methacrylate)s (X-PMMA) of varied crosslink density and the
      investigation of the relationships between the polymer network structure and
      dynamic mechanical properties. METHODS: A series of model X-PMMA networks were
      crosslinked by the introduction of: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20% of triethylene glycol
      dimethacrylate (TEGDMA). The copolymerizations led to various glass-rubber
      relaxation properties of the polymer networks, as revealed by dynamic-mechanical
      analysis (DMA). Glass temperature (Tg) and storage modulus above the Tg
      (Er?ubbery ) were a sensitive function of network architecture. DMA data were
      used for calculating the network parameter (Mc), crosslink density (q) and its
      alternative measure - the degree of crosslinking (DX). RESULTS: The viscoelastic
      properties as well as structural parameters calculated from those showed
      correlation with the amount of the crosslinker. The increase in TEGDMA content
      resulted in the Tg, q and DX increases, whereas Mc decrease. The possible
      incomplete conversion of double bonds was detected in the DMA analysis, which was
      confirmed by the degree of conversion (DC), measured by FTIR spectroscopy.
      Additionally, some amount of sol fraction was found by 1H NMR experiments.
      CONCLUSIONS: The structure-property relationships developed for the system
      presented in this work could be useful in tissue engineering, where X-PMMA is
      applied. The direct measure of storage modulus values before and above glass
      transition may serve as a simple and fast indicator of the X-PMMA crosslink
      density.

PMID- 28552919
TI  - Methods for acquiring data on terrain geomorphology, course geometry and
      kinematics of competitors' runs in alpine skiing: a historical review.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper aims at the description and comparison of methods of
      topographic analysis of racing courses at all disciplines of alpine skiing sports
      for the purposes of obtaining: terrain geomorphology (snowless and with snow),
      course geometry, and competitors' runs. METHODS: The review presents specific
      methods and instruments according to the order of their historical appearance as
      follows: (1) azimuth method with the use of a compass, tape and goniometer
      instruments; (2) optical method with geodetic theodolite, laser and photocells;
      (3) triangulation method with the aid of a tape and goniometer; (4) image method
      with the use of video cameras; (5) differential global positioning system and
      carrier phase global positioning system methods. RESULTS: Described methods were
      used at homologation procedure, at training sessions, during competitions of
      local level and during International Ski Federation World Championships or World
      Cups. Some methods were used together. CONCLUSIONS: In order to provide detailed
      data on course setting and skiers' running it is recommended to analyse course
      geometry and kinematics data of competitors' running for all important
      competitions.

PMID- 28552920
TI  - An alternative 3D numerical method to study the biomechanical behaviour of the
      human inner ear semicircular canal.
AB  - PURPOSE: The vestibular system is the part of the inner ear responsible for
      balance. Vertigo and dizziness are generally caused by vestibular disorders and
      are very common symptoms in people over 60 years old. One of the most efficient
      treatments at the moment is vestibular rehabilitation, permitting to improve the
      symptoms. However, this rehabilitation therapy is a highly empirical process,
      which needs to be enhanced and better understood. METHODS: This work studies the
      vestibular system using an alternative computational approach. Thus, part of the
      vestibular system is simulated with a three dimensional numerical model. Then,
      for the first time using a combination of two discretization techniques (the
      finite element method and the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method), it is
      possible to simulate the transient behavior of the fluid inside one of the canals
      of the vestibular system. RESULTS: The obtained numerical results are presented
      and compared with the available literature. The fluid/solid interaction in the
      model occurs as expected with the methods applied. The results obtained with the
      semicircular canal model, with the same boundary conditions, are similar to the
      solutions obtained by other authors. CONCLUSIONS: The numerical technique
      presented here represents a step forward in the biomechanical study of the
      vestibular system, which in the future will allow the existing rehabilitation
      techniques to be improved.

PMID- 28552921
TI  - The influence of landing mat composition on ankle injury risk during a gymnastic
      landing: a biomechanical quantification.
AB  - PURPOSE: About 70% injury of gymnasts happened during landing - an interaction
      between gymnast and landing mat. The most injured joint is the ankle. The current
      study examined the effect of mechanical properties of landing mat on ankle
      loading with aims to identify means of decreasing the risk of ankle injury.
      METHOD: Gymnastic skill - salto backward stretched with 3/2 twist was captured by
      two high-speed camcorders and digitized by using SIMI-Motion software. A subject
      specific, 14-segment rigid-body model and a mechanical landing-mat model were
      built using BRG.LifeMODTM. The landings were simulated with varied landing-mat
      mechanical properties (i.e., stiffness, dampness and friction coefficients).
      RESULT: Real landing performance could be accurately reproduced by the model. The
      simulations revealed that the ankle angle was relatively sensitive to stiffness
      and dampness of the landing mat, the ankle loading rate increased 26% when the
      stiffness was increased by 30%, and the changing of dampness had notable effect
      on horizontal ground reaction force and foot velocity. Further, the peak joint
      reaction force and joint torque were more sensitive to friction than to stiffness
      and dampness of landing mat. Finally, ankle muscles would dissipate about twice
      energy (189%) when the friction was increased by 30%. CONCLUSION: Loads to ankles
      during landing would increase as the stiffness and dampness of the landing mat
      increase. Yet, increasing friction would cause a substantial rise of the ankle
      internal loads. As such, the friction should be a key factor influencing the risk
      of injury. Unfortunately, this key factor has rarely attracted attention in
      practice.

PMID- 28552922
TI  - Influence of size and CCD-angle of a short stem hip arthroplasty on strain
      patterns of the proximal femur - an experimental study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The number of primary total hip arthroplasties (THA) is steadily
      increasing. Over the last decade numerous so-called short stem hip arthroplasties
      were introduced on the market. The aim of these implants with a predominantly
      metaphyseal anchorage is to reduce stress shielding and thereby the risk of
      aseptic loosening. One of the short stem arthroplasties with predominant
      metaphyseal fixation is the METHA(r) short stem (Aesculap, Tuttlingen, Germany).
      In order to reconstruct the biomechanics the METHA stem is available in different
      sizes with different centrum-collum-diaphysis-angles (CCD-angle). In this study,
      we want to address the research question of how the size of the implant and
      different CCD-angles influence the strain patterns of the proximal femur.
      METHODS: Three different stem sizes (size 2, 3 and 4 - CCD-angle 130 degrees )
      and three stems with different CCD-angles (size 3 - 120 degrees , 130 degrees 
      and 135 degrees  CCD-angle) were successively implanted in a synthetic femur.
      Eight strain gauges monitored the corresponding strain patterns of the proximal
      femur. RESULTS: Independent of stem size and CCD-angle only small changes in the
      strains were recorded around the distal part of the METHA stem when compared to
      the intact femur. However, all stems increased the strains in the region of the
      calcar. This was most pronounced by smaller CCD-angles and major sizes.
      CONCLUSION: The stem size and CCD-angle primarily influence the region of the
      calcar. Greater sizes and smaller CCD-angles lead to increased strains at the
      calcar. The other regions are hardly influenced by the stem size and CCDangle of
      the femoral component.

PMID- 28552923
TI  - The influence of aging on the isometric torque sharing patterns among the plantar
      flexor muscles.
AB  - PURPOSE: Physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) reduction of the triceps surae
      (TS) muscles during aging suggests a proportional loss of torque among its
      components: soleus, medial and lateral gastrocnemii. However, direct measurements
      of muscle forces in vivo are not feasible. The purpose of this paper was to
      compare, between older and young women, isometric ankle joint torque sharing
      patterns among TS muscles and tibialis anterior (TA). METHODS: An EMG-driven
      model was used for estimating individual muscle torque contributions to the total
      plantar flexor torque, during sustained contractions of 10% and 40% of maximum
      voluntary contraction (MVC). RESULTS: Relative individual muscle contributions to
      the total plantar flexion torque were similar between older and young women
      groups, for both intensities, increasing from LG, MG to SOL. Muscle strength
      (muscle torque/body mass) was significantly greater for all TS components in 40%
      MVC contractions. Increased TA activation was observed in 10% of MVC for older
      people. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the reduced maximum isometric torque and muscle
      strength, the results suggest small variations of ankle muscle synergies during
      the aging process.

PMID- 28552924
TI  - Drilling resistance: A method to investigate bone quality.
AB  - PURPOSE: Bone drilling is a major part of orthopaedic surgery performed during
      the internal fixation of fractured bones. At present, information related to
      drilling force, drilling torque, rate of drill-bit penetration and drill-bit
      rotational speed is not available to orthopaedic surgeons, clinicians and
      researchers as bone drilling is performed manually. METHODS: This study
      demonstrates that bone drilling force data if recorded in-vivo, during the repair
      of bone fractures, can provide information about the quality of the bone. To
      understand the variability and anisotropic behaviour of cortical bone tissue,
      specimens cut from three anatomic positions of pig and bovine were investigated
      at the same drilling speed and feed rate. RESULTS: The experimental results
      showed that the drilling force does not only vary from one animal bone to
      another, but also vary within the same bone due to its changing microstructure.
      Drilling force does not give a direct indication of bone quality; therefore it
      has been correlated with screw pull-out force to provide a realistic estimation
      of the bone quality. A significantly high value of correlation (r2 = 0.93 for pig
      bones and r2 = 0.88 for bovine bones) between maximum drilling force and
      normalised screw pull-out strength was found. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that
      drilling data can be used to indicate bone quality during orthopaedic surgery.

PMID- 28552925
TI  - Gait features analysis using artificial neural networks - testing the footwear
      effect.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this paper is to provide the methods for automatic detection
      of the difference in gait features depending on a footwear. METHODS: Artificial
      neural networks were applied in the study. The gait data were recorded during the
      walk with different footwear for testing and validation of the proposed method.
      The gait properties were analyzed considering EMG (electromyography) signals and
      using two types of artificial neural networks: the learning vector quantization
      (LVQ) classifying network, and the clustering competitive network. RESULTS:
      Obtained classification and clustering results were discussed. For comparative
      studies, velocities of the leg joint trajectories, and accelerations were used.
      The features indicated by neural networks were compared with the conclusions
      formulated analyzing the above mentioned trajectories for ankle and knee joints.
      CONCLUSIONS: The matching between experimentally recorded joint trajectories and
      the results given by neural networks was studied. It was indicated what muscles
      are most influenced by the footwear, the relation between the footwear type and
      the muscles work was concluded.

PMID- 28552926
TI  - Modelling and structural analysis of skull/cranial implant: beyond mid-line
      deformities.
AB  - PURPOSE: This computational study explores modelling and finite element study of
      the implant under Intracranial pressure (ICP) conditions with normal ICP range (7
      mm Hg to 15 mm Hg) or increased ICP (>I5 mm Hg). The implant fixation points
      allow implant behaviour with respect to intracranial pressure conditions.
      However, increased fixation points lead to variation in deformation and
      equivalent stress. Finite element analysis is providing a valuable insight to
      know the deformation and equivalent stress. METHODS: The patient CT data
      (Computed Tomography) is processed in Mimics software to get the mesh model. The
      implant is modelled by using modified reverse engineering technique with the help
      of Rhinoceros software. This modelling method is applicable for all types of
      defects including those beyond the middle line and multiple ones. It is designed
      with eight fixation points and ten fixation points to fix an implant.
      Consequently, the mechanical deformation and equivalent stress (von Mises) are
      calculated in ANSYS 15 software with distinctive material properties such as
      Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V), Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyether-ether
      ketone (PEEK). RESULTS: The deformation and equivalent stress results are
      obtained through ANSYS 15 software. It is observed that Ti6Al4V material shows
      low deformation and PEEK material shows less equivalent stress. Among all
      materials PEEK shows noticeably good result. CONCLUSIONS: Hence, a concept was
      established and more clinically relevant results can be expected with
      implementation of realistic 3D printed model in the future. This will allow
      physicians to gain knowledge and decrease surgery time with proper planning.

PMID- 28552927
TI  - Fixation of distal fibular fractures: A biomechanical study of plate fixation
      techniques.
AB  - Ankle fractures are complex injuries with variable prognoses that depend upon
      many factors. The aim of the treatment is to restore the ankle joint
      biomechanical stability with maximum range of motion. Most ankle fractures are
      fibular fractures, which have a typical oblique fracture line in the distal
      fibula located in the area of the tibiofibular syndesmosis. The aim of this study
      was to simulate numerically several fixation techniques of the distal fibular
      fractures, evaluate their stability, determine their impact on surrounding tissue
      load, and correlate the results to clinical treatment experience. The following
      three models of fibular fracture fixation were used: (a) plate fixation with
      three screws attached above/below and lag screws, (b) plate fixation with two
      screws attached above/below and lag screws, and (c) three lag screws only. All
      three fracture fixation models were analyzed according to their use in both
      healthy physiological bone and osteoporotic bone tissue. Based on the results of
      Finite Element Analysis for these simulations, we found that the most appropriate
      fixation method for Weber-B1 fibular fractures was an unlocked plate fixation
      using six screws and lag screws, both in patients with physiological and
      osteoporotic bone tissue. Conversely, the least appropriate fixation method was
      an unlocked plate fixation with four screws and lag screws. Although this
      fixation method reduces the stress on patients during surgery, it greatly
      increased loading on the bone and, thus, the risk of fixation failure. The final
      fixation model with three lag screws only was found to be appropriate only for
      very limited indications.

PMID- 28552928
TI  - Can concurrent teaching promote equal biomechanical adaptations at front crawl
      and backstroke swimming?
AB  - PURPOSE: The biomechanical adaptations in front crawl and backstroke swimming, as
      influenced by the implementation of a concurrent teaching programme were
      analysed. METHODS: Sixteen participants (19.75 +/- 1.13 years) underwent a 30
      weeks intervention characterized by an increasing complexity to accomplish motor
      skills in the following order: (i) lower limbs propulsion; (ii) lower limbs
      propulsion synchronized with breathing cycle; (iii) lower limbs propulsion
      synchronized with one upper limb action; (iv) lower limbs propulsion synchronized
      with both breathing cycle and one upper limb action; (v) full swimming stroke;
      (vi) motor trajectory of the arms stroke. Performance and biomechanics were
      measured at front crawl and backstroke during three time points throughout the
      programme. RESULTS: There were improvements in performance over time at front
      crawl (21.49 s to 19.99 s, p<0.01) and backstroke (27.15 s to 24.60 s, p = 0.01).
      Significant improvements were found for velocity at front crawl (1.13 m/s to 1.22
      m/s, p<0.01) and backstroke (0.92 m/s to 1.00 m/s, p<0.01). Stroke frequency
      increased at backstroke (0.64 to 0.73 Hz, p = 0.01), while the intra-cyclic
      variation of the velocity decreased at front crawl (0.13 to 0.12%, p = 0.02).
      There was also a moderate-high inter-subject variability in response to the
      programme. CONCLUSIONS: These findings prove that a programme of 30 weeks
      teaching concurrently front crawl and backstroke is effective to promote similar
      biomechanical adaptations in low-tier swimmers. However, each subject shows an
      individual response to better adapt the biomechanical actions and to reach a
      higher level of expertise.

PMID- 28552929
TI  - Correlations between somatic features, anteroposterior spinal curvatures and
      trunk muscle strength in schoolchildren.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluation of body posture and strength of spinal muscles in children
      during their progressive ontogenesis is significant for the evaluation of their
      physical health condition and physical fitness. It is also a reference point in a
      process of control and medical care. PURPOSE: The aim if this study was to
      evaluate correlation between the selected features of somatic body structure,
      shape of anteroposterior spinal curves and force-velocity (FV) parameters of
      trunk muscles in school children. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The sample involved
      104 children aged 10-11 years, 60 females (10.74 +/-0.7) and 44 males (10.50 +/
      0.9). Body posture was assessed using the Moire photogrammetry while trunk
      muscles (flexors and extensors) strength was measured isokinetically. RESULTS:
      The results of the research revealed the existence of many average and strong
      correlations observed between the analysed somatic characteristics and
      forcevelocity (FV) parameters of trunk muscles. Correlation between the volume of
      the spinal curvatures in the sagittal plane and forcevelocity parameters of trunk
      extensors and flexors were average or weak for both groups of children.
      CONCLUSION: Somatic features indicated stronger correlation with trunk muscles'
      strength than with the size of the anteroposterior spinal curves.

PMID- 28552930
TI  - A comparison of impact force reduction by polymer materials used for mouthguard
      fabrication.
AB  - PURPOSE: The essential function of mouthguards is protection against the effects
      of injuries sustained during sports activities. This purpose will be successfully
      achieved if appropriate materials ensuring sufficient reduction of the injury
      force are used for mouthguard fabrication. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study
      was to investigate the force reduction capability of selected materials as well
      as to identify which material reduces the impact force to the highest degree.
      METHODS: The material for the study were samples of polymers (6 samples in
      total), obtained during the process of deep pressing (2 samples), flasking (3
      samples) and thermal injection (1 sample), which were tested for impact force
      damping using an impact device - Charpy impact hammer. The control group
      comprised of the ceramic material samples subjected to the hammer impact. The
      statistical analysis applied in this study were one-way Welch ANOVA with post-hoc
      Games-Howell pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: The test materials reduced the impact
      force of the impact hammer to varying degrees. The greatest damping capability
      was demonstrated for the following materials: Impak with 1:1 powder-to-liquid
      weight ratio polymerized with the conventional flasking technique, and Corflex
      Orthodontic used in the thermal injection technique of mouthguard fabrication.
      CONCLUSIONS: Impak with 1:1 weight ratio and Corflex Orthodontic should be
      recommended for the fabrication of mouthguards since they demonstrated the most
      advantageous damping properties.

PMID- 28552931
TI  - The follow-up posturography in rehabilitation after total hip arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: Presentation of the results of clinical study on new supplementary
      method applied in the physical rehabilitation of patients who underwent total hip
      arthroplasty. The standard rehabilitation program was supplemented with the lower
      limb loading symmetry training based on the follow-up posturography with an
      adaptively modified visual biofeedback, performed on a double plate
      posturographic platform. METHODS: The research involved 60 randomly selected
      patients included in prospective and comparative clinical study in the scheme of
      the parallel groups. The subjects were divided into two groups comprised of 30
      patients each. In both groups a conventional 21-day rehabilitation was carried
      out. Additionally, in experimental group the limb loading symmetry restoration
      training based on the follow-up posturography with an adaptively modified
      biofeedback was implemented. The biofeedback coefficient reflected the
      distribution of loading exerted on a given patient's legs and was evaluated
      during the static posturography examinations carried out before each symmetry
      training session. RESULTS: The eyes-open static posturography examinations
      indicated significant improvement in the lower limb loading symmetry in 29 (97%)
      patients from the experimental group ( p = 0.000003). In the control group, such
      an improvement was observed in 20 (67%) patients ( p = 0.034796). In the eyes
      closed examinations correction in the limb loading symmetry was evident in 23
      (77%) patients from the experimental group ( p = 0.000247) and 18 (60%) patients
      from the control group ( p = 0.043327). CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvement in
      the lower limb loading symmetry was observed in patients who underwent
      rehabilitation supplemented with the herein discussed training method.

PMID- 28552932
TI  - Biomechanical properties of alternative suture technique for flexor tendon
      repair.
AB  - PURPOSE: Flexor injuries are most common in the hand and require special
      attention and experience from the surgeon. Both quality and technique affect the
      stability of the suture. The selection of the optimum method will influence the
      process of rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to compare three different
      suture techniques based on the strength, depending on the method of breakage,
      i.e., axial or pulley load. METHODS: The study was divided into six sessions. The
      research material was dissected deep flexor porcine tendons. Three types of
      stitches were used: the modified Kessler suture with an additional running
      suture, the cruciate four-strand suture with an additional running suture and the
      multistrand running suture. We obtained 120 sutures, 40 for each technique.
      Breaking strength was assessed using a tensile machine in two ways, i.e., axial
      or pulley load, with 20 sutures per group. RESULTS: The strongest suture for both
      axial and pulley load was the cruciate four-strand suture. Between the
      multistrand running suture and the modified Kessler suture, there was no
      statistically significant difference in the strength of breaking for both axial
      and pulley load. Comparing the two ways of breaking, there was no statistically
      significant difference in the strength of the suture. CONCLUSIONS: The
      multistrand running locking suture is a good alternative to widely used core
      sutures. It not only provides the same strength as other techniques examined by
      us but also reduces the procedure time and trauma to the tips of the tendon.

PMID- 28552933
TI  - The evaluation of the effect of carbon dioxide laser radiation on dentine tissue.
AB  - : of this study was to analyze the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) laser light on
      the structure and elemental composition of dentine. METHODS: The evaluation was
      conducted on samples from extracted teeth. The surface of the dentine was exposed
      to the radiation from a CTL 1401 CO2 laser (Centre of Laser Technology, Poland).
      The radiation and frequency parameters were as follows: group I with 5 W and 1
      Hz, group II with 10 W and 1 Hz, group III with 5 W and 5 Hz, and group IV with
      10 W and 5 Hz. The altered dentine structure was macroscopically and
      microscopically evaluated using a Nova NanoSEM 200 Scanning Electron Microscope
      (FEI Europe) with integrated microanalysis X-ray system for elemental analysis in
      points. RESULTS: There were significant differences between groups in the macro-
      and microstructure of laser defects. CONCLUSIONS: CO2 laser radiation causes
      irreversible, destructive changes in dentine. The structural dentine lesions
      developed under the influence of the CO2 laser radiation may hinder proper
      adhesion of bonding systems with the damaged tissue. Laser defects in the
      structure should be treated like defects of noncarious origin requiring
      preparation and filling with composite materials in accordance with the
      procedures.

PMID- 28552934
TI  - Corrosion resistance of PLGA-coated biomaterials.
AB  - The aim of the study was to determine the influence of PLGA bioresorbable polymer
      coating on corrosion resistance of metal biomaterial. Polymer coating deposited
      by immersion method was applied. Corrosion resistance of metal biomaterials
      (stainless steel, Ti6Al4V, Ti6Al7Nb) coated with PLGA polymer, after 90 days
      exposure to Ringer's solution was tested. The amount of metal ions released to
      the solution was also investigated (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission
      spectrometry (ICP-AES) method). The surface of the samples was observed using
      atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Degradation
      of PLGA was monitored with the use of the 1H NMR spectroscopy and GPC (Gel
      Permeation Chromatography). The studies were carried out for non-sterilized (NS)
      and sterilized (S) samples. Application of the polymer coating causes a reduction
      of release of metal ions to the solution. Depending on metal substrate different
      course of destruction of polymer layer was observed. After 90 days of incubation
      in Ringer's solution polymer layer was highly degraded, however, the composition
      of copolymer (ratio of the comonomeric units in the chain) remained unchanged
      during the whole process, which suggests even degradation. The polymer layer
      reduced degradation kinetics of the metal substrate. Moreover, degradation
      process did not change surface morphology of metal substrate and did not disturb
      its integrity. The results obtained indicate that the applied polymer layer
      improves corrosion resistance of the alloys being investigated. Thus, the
      developed implants with bioresorbable coatings could be advantageous for medical
      applications.

PMID- 28552935
TI  - Optimal strategy in chemotherapy for Malthusian model of cancer growth.
AB  - PURPOSE: The problem of optimal strategy in cancer chemotherapy is reconsidered.
      Two incompatible goals should be completed: the number of cancer cells in the
      patient's body should be reduced and the toxic effect of the therapy should be
      minimized. Such problem may be formulated in optimal control. The control
      function is the amount of the drug administered in the time unit. METHODS: The
      Malthusian model of cell population growth is employed where the rate of increase
      of the number of cancer cells is proportional to the number of cells in
      population and an intrinsic rate that usually is assumed to be constant. The
      performance index is the amount of the drug cumulated in the patient's body and
      it is minimized. A non-standard method of optimal control is used - method of
      Miele. RESULTS: The optimal solutions are obtained for three cases: constant
      intrinsic rate, monotonically increasing/decreasing intrinsic rate and for
      periodic intrinsic rate. The optimal control is ununique for the first case - the
      result is irrespective of the strategy. Such result has been known earlier. The
      optimal control is unique for other cases and it is of bang-bang type.
      CONCLUSIONS: The ununique solution for constant intrinsic rate is surprising,
      therefore a mechanical analogy is given. The optimal strategy is in accordance
      with clinical experience for decreasing intrinsic rate. The optimal control is a
      periodic function of time for the intrinsic rate of sin/cos type - the drug
      should be administered, as its value is relatively high.

PMID- 28552937
TI  - Philanthro-metrics: Mining multi-million-dollar gifts.
AB  - The Million Dollar List (MDL, online at http://www.milliondollarlist.org) is a
      compilation of publicly announced charitable donations of $1 million or more from
      across the United States since 2000; as of December 2016, the database contains
      close to 80,000 gifts made by U.S. individuals, corporations, foundations, and
      other grant-making nonprofit organizations. This paper discusses the unique value
      of the Million Dollar List and provides unique insights to key questions such as:
      How does distance affect giving? How do networks impact million-dollar-plus
      gifts? Understanding the geospatial and temporal dimensions of philanthropy can
      assist researchers and policymakers to better understand the role of private
      funding in innovation and discovery. Moreover, the results from the paper
      emphasize the importance of philanthropy for fueling research and development in
      science, the arts, environment, and health. The paper also includes the
      limitations of the presented analyses and promising future work.

PMID- 28552936
TI  - Tau secretion is correlated to an increase of Golgi dynamics.
AB  - Tau protein can be released by neurons, an event linked to the propagation of Tau
      pathology in Alzheimer'disease (AD). Neuronal hyperexcitability was shown to
      significantly increase Tau release by neurons. We confirmed this in the present
      study. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that hyperexcitability induces
      Golgi apparatus dynamics resulting in its fragmentation. Our present results
      revealed that the increase of Tau secretion upon hyperexcitability could be
      significantly reduced by preventing Golgi dynamics through the inactivation of
      cdk5. We then verified whether a Golgi fragmentation not induced by
      hyperexcitability could also increase Tau secretion. The suppression of Rab1A,
      Rab GTPase associated with the Golgi membranes, known to induce a Golgi
      fragmentation increased Tau secretion by both neurons and HeLa cells. Although it
      remains to be demonstrated whether the Golgi is directly involved in Tau
      secretion, the present results demonstrate that its dynamics are correlated to a
      modulation of Tau secretion.

PMID- 28552938
TI  - Interactions between temperature and drought in global and regional crop yield
      variability during 1961-2014.
AB  - Inter-annual crop yield variation is driven in large parts by climate
      variability, wherein the climate components of temperature and precipitation
      often play the biggest role. Nonlinear effects of temperature on yield as well as
      interactions among the climate variables have to be considered. Links between
      climate and crop yield variability have been previously studied, both globally
      and at regional scales, but typically with additive models with no interactions,
      or when interactions were included, with implications not fully explained. In
      this study yearly country level yields of maize, rice, soybeans, and wheat of the
      top producing countries were combined with growing season temperature and SPEI
      (standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index) to determine interaction
      and intensification effects of climate variability on crop yield variability
      during 1961-2014. For maize, soybeans, and wheat, heat and dryness significantly
      reduced yields globally, while global effects for rice were not significant. But
      because of interactions, heat was more damaging in dry than in normal conditions
      for maize and wheat, and temperature effects were not significant in wet
      conditions for maize, soybeans, and wheat. Country yield responses to climate
      variability naturally differed between the top producing countries, but an
      accurate description of interaction effects at the country scale required sub
      national data (shown only for the USA). Climate intensification, that is
      consecutive dry or warm years, reduced yields additionally in some cases,
      however, this might be linked to spillover effects of multiple growing seasons.
      Consequently, the effect of temperature on yields might be underestimated in dry
      conditions: While there were no significant global effects of temperature for
      maize and soybeans yields for average SPEI, the combined effects of high
      temperatures and drought significantly decreased yields of maize, soybeans, and
      wheat by 11.6, 12.4, and 9.2%, respectively.

PMID- 28552939
TI  - Genome-wide survey of B-box proteins in potato (Solanum tuberosum)
      Identification, characterization and expression patterns during diurnal cycle,
      etiolation and de-etiolation.
AB  - Plant B-box domain proteins (BBX) mediate many light-influenced developmental
      processes including seedling photomorphogenesis, seed germination, shade
      avoidance and photoperiodic regulation of flowering. Despite the wide range of
      potential functions, the current knowledge regarding BBX proteins in major crop
      plants is scarce. In this study, we identify and characterize the StBBX gene
      family in potato, which is composed of 30 members, with regard to structural
      properties and expression profiles under diurnal cycle, etiolation and de
      etiolations. Based on domain organization and phylogenetic relationships, StBBX
      genes have been classified into five groups. Using real-time quantitative PCR, we
      found that expression of most of them oscillates following a 24-h rhythm;
      however, large differences in expression profiles were observed between the genes
      regarding amplitude and position of the maximal and minimal expression levels in
      the day/night cycle. On the basis of the time-of-day/time-of-night, we
      distinguished three expression groups specifically expressed during the light and
      two during the dark phase. In addition, we showed that the expression of several
      StBBX genes is under the control of the circadian clock and that some others are
      specifically associated with the etiolation and de-etiolation conditions. Thus,
      we concluded that StBBX proteins are likely key players involved in the complex
      diurnal and circadian networks regulating plant development as a function of
      light conditions and day duration.

PMID- 28552940
TI  - Sequence statistics of tertiary structural motifs reflect protein stability.
AB  - The Protein Data Bank (PDB) has been a key resource for learning general rules of
      sequence-structure relationships in proteins. Quantitative insights have been
      gained by defining geometric descriptors of structure (e.g., distances, dihedral
      angles, solvent exposure, etc.) and observing their distributions and sequence
      preferences. Here we argue that as the PDB continues to grow, it may become
      unnecessary to reduce structure into a set of elementary descriptors. Instead, it
      could be possible to deduce quantitative sequence-structure relationships in the
      context of precisely-defined complex structural motifs by mining the PDB for
      closely matching backbone geometries. To validate this idea, we turned to the the
      task of predicting changes in protein stability upon amino-acid substitution-a
      difficult problem of broad significance. We defined non-contiguous tertiary
      motifs (TERMs) around a protein site of interest and extracted sequence
      preferences from ensembles of closely-matching substructures in the PDB to
      predict mutational stability changes at the site, DeltaDeltaGm. We demonstrate
      that these ensemble statistics predict DeltaDeltaGm on par with state-of-the-art
      statistical and machine-learning methods on large thermodynamic datasets, and
      outperform these, along with a leading structure-based modeling approach, when
      tested in the context of unbiased diverse mutations. Further, we show that the
      performance of the TERM-based method is directly related to the amount of
      available relevant structural data, automatically improving with the growing PDB.
      This enables a means of estimating prediction accuracy. Our results clearly
      demonstrate that: 1) statistics of non-contiguous structural motifs in the PDB
      encode fundamental sequence-structure relationships related to protein
      thermodynamic stability, and 2) the PDB is now large enough that such statistics
      are already useful in practice, with their accuracy expected to continue
      increasing as the database grows. These observations suggest new ways of using
      structural data towards addressing problems of computational structural biology.

PMID- 28552941
TI  - CCL20 secreted from IgA1-stimulated human mesangial cells recruits inflammatory
      Th17 cells in IgA nephropathy.
AB  - IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common primary glomerulonephritis
      characterized by human mesangial cells (HMC) proliferation and extracellular
      matrix expansion associated with immune deposits consisting of galactose
      deficient IgA1. However, how IgA1 contributes to IgAN has yet to be completely
      elucidated. In this study, the expression profile of chemokines was more altered
      in IgA1-treated HMC than in the control group. CCL20 was significantly higher
      either in the serum of IgAN patients or in IgA1-treated HMC. Further experiments
      demonstrated that CCR6, the only receptor of CCL20, was highly expressed in
      activated T cells. Intracellular staining assay and cytokine expression profile
      implied that CCR6+ T cells produced high IL-17 levels. Transwell experiment
      immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence experiments extensively demonstrated
      that CCL20 could recruit inflammatory Th17 cells to the kidneys. These phenomena
      caused a series of immune inflammatory responses and further damaged the kidneys.
      Therefore, HMC stimulated by IgA1 could produce CCL20 and consequently recruit
      inflammatory Th17 cells to the kidneys to induce further lesion in IgA
      nephropathy.

PMID- 28552943
TI  - If you want to save, focus on the forest rather than on trees. The effects of
      shifts in levels of construal on saving decisions.
AB  - Although financial decisions are expected to be rational, there is a growing body
      of experimental research indicating that small psychological changes in one's
      mind-set in the actual decision-making moment might affect saving ratios. In this
      article, another type of change in one's mind-set, which can influence saving
      decisions, is explored, namely the level of construal. Construal level is a key
      descriptor of people's cognitive representations of targets, and is a way of
      characterising the mental mind-sets people use. Building on recent advances in
      the link between construal levels and intertemporal choices, the present research
      evaluates the effect of shifts in levels of construal in the very moment of
      decision making on people's propensity to save money. It is suggested that
      triggering a high-level construal mind-set would influence individuals' financial
      decisions and result in greater willingness to save than triggering a low-level
      construal mind-set. This assumption is supported by the findings: across three
      experiments, those with an abstract mind-set showed an increased willingness to
      save when compared to those with a concrete mind-set. The first experiment
      demonstrated that people in an abstract mind-set are more willing to delay
      financial gratification than those in a concrete mind-set. In the second and
      third experiments, those with an abstract mind-set showed an increased
      willingness to save when compared to those with a concrete mind-set. The research
      provides further evidence that mental states, which can be evoked by previous,
      unrelated tasks, such as level of cognitive abstraction, can influence everyday
      financial decisions. It, thus, highlights the role of situational factors that
      consumers may be not aware of, which still affect their savings decisions.

PMID- 28552942
TI  - Measuring cannabis consumption: Psychometric properties of the Daily Sessions,
      Frequency, Age of Onset, and Quantity of Cannabis Use Inventory (DFAQ-CU).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We created the Daily Sessions, Frequency, Age of Onset, and Quantity
      of Cannabis Use Inventory (DFAQ-CU) because the current lack of psychometrically
      sound inventories for measuring these dimensions of cannabis use has impeded
      research on the effects of cannabis in humans. METHOD: A sample of 2,062 cannabis
      users completed the DFAQ-CU and was used to assess the DFAQ-CU's factor structure
      and reliability. To assess validity, a subsample of 645 participants completed
      additional measures of cannabis dependence and problems (Marijuana Smoking
      History Questionnaire [MSHQ], Timeline Followback [TLFB], Cannabis Abuse
      Screening Test [CAST], Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test Revised [CUDIT
      R], Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test [CUPIT], and Alcohol Use Disorder
      Identification Test [AUDIT]). RESULTS: A six-factor structure was revealed, with
      factors measuring: daily sessions, frequency, age of onset, marijuana quantity,
      cannabis concentrate quantity, and edibles quantity. The factors were reliable,
      with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from .69 (daily sessions) to .95
      (frequency). Results further provided evidence for the factors' convergent (MSHQ,
      TLFB), predictive (CAST, CUDIT-R, CUPIT), and discriminant validity (AUDIT).
      CONCLUSIONS: The DFAQ-CU is the first psychometrically sound inventory for
      measuring frequency, age of onset, and quantity of cannabis use. It contains
      pictures of marijuana to facilitate the measurement of quantity of marijuana
      used, as well as questions to assess the use of different forms of cannabis
      (e.g., concentrates, edibles), methods of administering cannabis (e.g., joints,
      hand pipes, vaporizers), and typical THC levels. As such, the DFAQ-CU should help
      facilitate research on frequency, quantity, and age of onset of cannabis use.

PMID- 28552944
TI  - Intraoperative tranexamic acid is associated with postoperative stroke in
      patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a devastating and potentially preventable complication of
      cardiac surgery. Tranexamic acid (TXA) is a commonly antifibrinolytic agent in
      cardiac surgeries with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), however, there is concern
      that it might increase incidence of stroke after cardiac surgery. In this
      retrospective study, we investigated whether TXA usage could increase
      postoperative stroke in cardiac surgery. METHODS: A retrospective study was
      conducted from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2015, in 2,016 patients
      undergoing cardiac surgery, 664 patients received intravenous TXA infusion and
      1,352 patients did not receive any antifibrinolytic agent. Univariate and
      propensity-weighted multivariate regression analysis were applied for data
      analysis. RESULTS: Intraoperative TXA administration was associated with
      postoperative stroke (1.7% vs. 0.5%; adjusted OR, 4.11; 95% CI, 1.33 to 12.71; p
      = 0.014) and coma (adjusted OR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.06 to 7.26; p = 0.038) in cardiac
      surgery. As subtype analysis was performed, TXA administration was still
      associated with postoperative stroke (1.7% vs. 0.3%; adjusted OR, 5.78; 95% CI,
      1.34 to 27.89; p = 0.018) in patients undergoing valve surgery or multi-valve
      surgery only, but was not associated with postoperative stroke (1.7% vs. 1.3%;
      adjusted OR, 5.21; 95% CI, 0.27 to 101.17; p = 0.276) in patients undergoing CABG
      surgery only. However, TXA administration was not associated with postoperative
      mortality (adjusted OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 0.56 to 3.71; p = 0.451), seizure (adjusted
      OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.42 to 3.04; p = 0.816), continuous renal replacement therapy
      (adjusted OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.56 to 3.28; p = 0.495) and resternotomy for
      postoperative bleeding (adjusted OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.55 to 4.30; p = 0.405). No
      difference was found in postoperative ventilation time (adjusted B, -1.45; SE,
      2.33; p = 0.535), length of intensive care unit stay (adjusted B, -0.12; SE,
      0.25; p = 0.633) and length of hospital stay (adjusted B, 0.48; SE, 0.58; p =
      0.408). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the 5-year experience of TXA administration in
      cardiac surgery with CPB, we found that postoperative stroke was associated with
      intraoperative TXA administration in patients undergoing cardiac surgery,
      especially in those undergoing valve surgeries only. This study may suggest that
      TXA should be administrated according to clear indications after evaluating the
      bleeding risk in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, especially in those with
      high stroke risk.

PMID- 28552945
TI  - Does nitrogen fertilization history affects short-term microbial responses and
      chemical properties of soils submitted to different glyphosate concentrations?
AB  - The use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and glyphosate-based herbicides is increasing
      worldwide, with agriculture holding the largest market share. The agronomic and
      socioeconomic utilities of glyphosate are well established; however, our
      knowledge of the potential effects of glyphosate applied in the presence or
      absence of long-term N fertilization on microbial functional activities and the
      availability of soil nutrients remains limited. Using an ex situ approach with
      soils that did (N+) or did not (N0) receive synthetic N fertilization for 6
      years, we assessed the impact of different rates (no glyphosate, CK; field rate,
      FR; 100 * field rate, 100FR) of glyphosate application on biological and chemical
      parameters. We observed that, after immediate application (1 day), the highest
      dose of glyphosate (100FR) negatively affected the alkaline phosphatase (AlP)
      activity in soils without N fertilization history and decreased the cation
      exchange capacity (CEC) in N0 compared to CK and FR treatments with N+.
      Conversely, the 100FR application increased nitrate (NO3-) and available
      phosphorus (PO43-) regardless of N fertilization history. Then, after 8 and 15
      days, the N+?100FR and N+?FR treatments exhibited the lowest values for
      dehydrogenase (DH) and AlP activities, respectively, while urease (URE) activity
      was mainly affected by N fertilization. After 15 days and irrespective of N
      fertilization history, the FR glyphosate application negatively affected the
      degradation of carbon substrates by microbial communities (expressed as the
      average well color development, AWCD). By contrast, the 100FR treatment
      positively affected AWCD, increasing PO43- by 5 and 16% and NO3- by 126 and 119%
      in the N+ and N0 treatments, respectively. In addition, the 100FR treatment
      resulted in an increase in the average net nitrification rate. Principal
      component analysis revealed that the 100FR glyphosate treatment selected
      microbial communities that were able to metabolize amine substrates. Overall, the
      lack of N fertilization in the 6 past years combined with the highest glyphosate
      application rate (100FR) induced the highest values of AWCD, functional
      diversity, NO3-, PO43- and nitrification. We concluded that the intensive use of
      N fertilization for 6 years may change the non-target effects of glyphosate
      application on enzyme activities. The functional activities, nitrification and
      nutrient contents were increased by glyphosate only when applied at 100 times the
      field application rate.

PMID- 28552946
TI  - Partial sequencing analysis of the NS5B region confirmed the predominance of
      hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and its progression are major health
      problems that many countries including Saudi Arabia are facing. Determination of
      HCV genotypes and subgenotypes is critical for epidemiological and clinical
      analysis and aids in the determination of the ideal treatment strategy that needs
      to be followed and the expected therapy response. Although HCV infection has been
      identified as the second most predominant type of hepatitis in Saudi Arabia,
      little is known about the molecular epidemiology and genetic variability of HCV
      circulating in the Jeddah province of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study was to
      determine the dominance of various HCV genotypes and subgenotypes circulating in
      Jeddah using partial sequencing of the NS5B region. To the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first study of its kind in Saudi Arabia. To characterize HCV
      genotypes and subgenotypes, serum samples from 56 patients with chronic HCV
      infection were collected and subjected to partial NS5B gene amplification and
      sequence analysis. Phylogenetic analysis of the NS5B partial sequences revealed
      that HCV/1 was the predominant genotype (73%), followed by HCV/4 (24.49%) and
      HCV/3 (2.04%). Moreover, pairwise analysis also confirmed these results based on
      the average specific nucleotide distance identity: +/-0.112, +/-0.112, and +/
      0.179 for HCV/1, HCV/4, and HCV/3, respectively, without any interference between
      genotypes. Notably, the phylogenetic tree of the HCV/1 subgenotypes revealed that
      all the isolates (100%) from the present study belonged to the HCV/1a
      subgenotype. Our findings also revealed similarities in the nucleotide sequences
      between HCV circulating in Saudi Arabia and those circulating in countries such
      as Morocco, Egypt, Canada, India, Pakistan, and France. These results indicated
      that determination of HCV genotypes and subgenotypes based on partial sequence
      analysis of the NS5B region is accurate and reliable for HCV subtype
      determination.

PMID- 28552947
TI  - Relationship of mechanical impact magnitude to neurologic dysfunction severity in
      a rat traumatic brain injury model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major brain injury type commonly
      caused by traffic accidents, falls, violence, or sports injuries. To obtain
      mechanistic insights about TBI, experimental animal models such as weight-drop
      induced TBI in rats have been developed to mimic closed-head injury in humans.
      However, the relationship between the mechanical impact level and neurological
      severity following weight-drop-induced TBI remains uncertain. In this study, we
      comprehensively investigated the relationship between physical impact and graded
      severity at various weight-drop heights. APPROACH: The acceleration, impact
      force, and displacement during the impact were accurately measured using an
      accelerometer, a pressure sensor, and a high-speed camera, respectively. In
      addition, the longitudinal changes in neurological deficits and balance function
      were investigated at 1, 4, and 7 days post TBI lesion. The inflammatory
      expression markers tested by Western blot analysis, including glial fibrillary
      acidic protein, beta-amyloid precursor protein, and bone marrow tyrosine kinase
      gene in chromosome X, in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, and corpus callosum
      were investigated at 1 and 7 days post-lesion. RESULTS: Gradations in impact
      pressure produced progressive degrees of injury severity in the neurological
      score and balance function. Western blot analysis demonstrated that all
      inflammatory expression markers were increased at 1 and 7 days post-impact injury
      when compared to the sham control rats. The severity of neurologic dysfunction
      and induction in inflammatory markers strongly correlated with the graded
      mechanical impact levels. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the weight-drop-induced
      TBI model can produce graded brain injury and induction of neurobehavioral
      deficits and may have translational relevance to developing therapeutic
      strategies for TBI.

PMID- 28552949
TI  - Retraction: Have We Substantially Underestimated the Impact of Improved
      Sanitation Coverage on Child Health? A Generalized Additive Model Panel Analysis
      of Global Data on Child Mortality and Malnutrition.

PMID- 28552950
TI  - Genomic profile of human meningioma cell lines.
AB  - Meningiomas, derived from arachnoid cap cells, are the most common intracranial
      tumor. High-grade meningiomas, as well as those located at the skull base or near
      venous sinuses, frequently recur and are challenging to manage. Next-generation
      sequencing is identifying novel pharmacologic targets in meningiomas to
      complement surgery and radiation. However, due to the lack of in vitro models,
      the importance and implications of these genetic variants in meningioma
      pathogenesis and therapy remain unclear. We performed whole exome sequencing to
      assess single nucleotide variants and somatic copy number variants in four human
      meningioma cell lines, including two benign lines (HBL-52 and Ben-Men-1) and two
      malignant lines (IOMM-Lee and CH157-MN). The two malignant cell lines harbored an
      elevated rate of mutations and copy number alterations compared to the benign
      lines, consistent with the genetic profiles of high-grade meningiomas. In
      addition, these cell lines also harbored known meningioma driver mutations in
      neurofibromin 2 (NF2) and TNF receptor-associated factor 7 (TRAF7). These
      findings demonstrate the relevance of meningioma cell lines as a model system,
      especially as tools to investigate the signaling pathways of, and subsequent
      resistance to, therapeutics currently in clinical trials.

PMID- 28552948
TI  - Association of gain-of-function EPHX2 polymorphism Lys55Arg with acute kidney
      injury following cardiac surgery.
AB  - Twenty to thirty percent of patients undergoing cardiac surgery develop acute
      kidney injury (AKI). In mice, inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH)
      attenuates renal injury following ischemia-reperfusion. We tested the hypothesis
      that functional variants of EPHX2, encoding sEH, are associated with AKI after
      cardiac surgery. We genotyped patients in two independent cardiac surgery cohorts
      for functional EPHX2 polymorphisms, Lys55Arg and Arg287Gln, and determined AKI
      using Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria. The 287Gln variant was not associated
      with AKI. In the discovery cohort, the gain-of-function 55Arg variant was
      associated with an increased incidence of AKI in univariate (p = 0.03) and
      multivariable (p = 0.04) analyses. In white patients without chronic kidney
      disease (CKD), the 55Arg variant was independently associated with AKI with an OR
      of 2.04 (95% CI 0.95-4.42) for 55Arg heterozygotes and 31.53 (1.57-633.19) for
      homozygotes (p = 0.02), after controlling for age, sex, body mass index, baseline
      estimated glomerular filtration rate, and use of cardiopulmonary bypass. These
      findings were replicated in the second cardiac surgery cohort. 12,13- and total-
      dihydroxyoctadecanoic acids (DiHOME): epoxyoctadecanoic acids (EpOME) ratios were
      increased in EPHX2 55Arg variant carriers, consistent with increased hydrolase
      activity. The EPHX2 Lys55Arg polymorphism is associated with AKI following
      cardiac surgery in patients without preexisting CKD. Pharmacological strategies
      to decrease sEH activity might decrease postoperative AKI.

PMID- 28552951
TI  - Common variants near IKZF1 are associated with primary Sjogren's syndrome in Han
      Chinese.
AB  - Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is a systematic autoimmune disease with evidence
      of genetic predisposition. The IKZF1 (IKAROS family zinc finger 1 (Ikaros)) gene
      is located at 7p12.2, encodes a transcription factor related to chromatin
      remodeling, regulates lymphocyte differentiation, and has been reported to be
      associated with some autoimmune diseases. However, there have been no reports of
      an association between IKZF1 and pSS. To investigate the possibility of an
      association between the IKZF1 locus and pSS, we selected two single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IKZF1 locus, rs4917129 and rs4917014, based on a
      detailed analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data and performed
      genotyping in 665 Han Chinese pSS patients and 863 healthy controls. The results
      of an association test showed significant association signals (rs4917129: P-value
      = 5.5e-4, OR (odds ratio) = 0.72, 95% CI (confidence interval) = 0.60-0.87;
      rs4917014: P-value = 1.2e-3, OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.64-0.89). A meta-analysis that
      combined the above results with data from previous GWAS, further confirmed these
      associations (rs4917129: Pmeta = 4.24e-8, ORmeta = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.61-0.79;
      rs4917014: Pmeta = 6.0e-8, ORmeta = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.64-0.81). A bioinformatics
      analysis indicated that both SNPs were located in a putative enhancer area in
      immune-related cell lines and tissues. A protein-protein interaction analysis
      found that IKZF1, together with GTF2I (an SS susceptibility gene newly identified
      through GWAS), could interact with histone deacetylase family proteins. In
      summary, this is the first study to report an association between IKZF1 and SS in
      Han Chinese.

PMID- 28552952
TI  - Asymmetric regulation of quorum-sensing receptors drives autoinducer-specific
      gene expression programs in Vibrio cholerae.
AB  - Quorum sensing (QS) is a mechanism of chemical communication that bacteria use to
      monitor cell-population density and coordinate group behaviors. QS relies on the
      production, detection, and group-wide response to extracellular signal molecules
      called autoinducers. Vibrio cholerae employs parallel QS circuits that converge
      into a shared signaling pathway. At high cell density, the CqsS and LuxPQ QS
      receptors detect the intra-genus and inter-species autoinducers CAI-1 and AI-2,
      respectively, to repress virulence factor production and biofilm formation. We
      show that positive feedback, mediated by the QS pathway, increases CqsS but not
      LuxQ levels during the transition into QS-mode, which amplifies the CAI-1 input
      into the pathway relative to the AI-2 input. Asymmetric feedback on CqsS enables
      responses exclusively to the CAI-1 autoinducer. Because CqsS exhibits the
      dominant QS signaling role in V. cholerae, agonism of CqsS with synthetic
      compounds could be used to control pathogenicity and host dispersal. We identify
      nine compounds that share no structural similarity to CAI-1, yet potently agonize
      CqsS via inhibition of CqsS autokinase activity.

PMID- 28552954
TI  - Scaling relationships of twig biomass allocation in Pinus hwangshanensis along an
      altitudinal gradient.
AB  - Understanding the response of biomass allocation in twigs (the terminal branches
      of current-year shoots) to environmental change is crucial for elucidating forest
      ecosystem carbon storage, carbon cycling, and plant life history strategies under
      a changing climate. On the basis of interspecies investigations of broad-leaved
      plants, previous studies have demonstrated that plants respond to environmental
      factors by allocating biomass in an allometric manner between support tissues
      (i.e., stems) and the leaf biomass of twigs, where the scaling exponent (i.e.,
      slope of a log-log linear relationship, alpha) is constant, and the scaling
      constant (i.e., intercept of a log-log linear relationship, log beta) varies with
      respect to environmental factors. However, little is known about whether the
      isometric scaling exponents of such biomass allocations remain invariant for
      single species, particularly conifers, at different altitudes and in different
      growing periods. In this study, we investigated how twig biomass allocation
      varies with elevation and period among Pinus hwangshanensis Hsia trees growing in
      the mountains of Southeast China. Specifically, we explored how twig stem mass,
      needle mass, and needle area varied throughout the growing period (early, mid-,
      late) and at three elevations in the Wuyi Mountains. Standardized major axis
      analysis was used to compare the scaling exponents and scaling constants between
      the biomass allocations of within-twig components. Scaling relationships between
      these traits differed with growing period and altitude gradient. During the
      different growing periods, there was an isometric scaling relationship, with a
      common slope of 1.0 (i.e., alpha ~ 1.0), between needle mass and twig mass (the
      sum of the total needle mass and the stem mass), whereas there were allometric
      scaling relationships between the stem mass and twig mass and between the needle
      mass and stem mass of P. hwangshanensis. The scaling constants (log beta) for
      needle mass vs. twig mass and for needle mass vs. stem mass increased
      progressively across the growing stages, whereas the scaling constants of stem
      mass vs. twig mass showed the opposite pattern. The scaling exponents (alpha) of
      needle area with respect to needle biomass increased significantly with growing
      period, changing from an allometric relationship (i.e., alpha < 1.0) during the
      early growing period to a nearly isometric relationship (i.e., alpha ~ 1.0)
      during the late growing period. This change possibly reflects the functional
      adaptation of twigs in different growing periods to meet their specific
      reproductive or survival needs. At different points along the altitudinal
      gradient, the relationships among needle mass, twig mass, and stem mass were all
      isometric (i.e., alpha ~ 1.0). Moreover, significant differences were found in
      scaling constants (log beta) along the altitudinal gradient, such that species
      had a smaller stem biomass but a relatively larger needle mass at low altitude.
      In addition, the scaling exponents remained numerically invariant among all three
      altitudes, with a common slope of 0.8, suggesting that needle area failed to keep
      pace with the increasing needle mass at different altitudes. Our results
      indicated that the twig biomass allocation pattern was significantly influenced
      by altitude and growing period, which reflects the functional adaptation of twigs
      to meet their specific survival needs under different climatic conditions.

PMID- 28552953
TI  - A unique profilin-actin interface is important for malaria parasite motility.
AB  - Profilin is an actin monomer binding protein that provides ATP-actin for
      incorporation into actin filaments. In contrast to higher eukaryotic cells with
      their large filamentous actin structures, apicomplexan parasites typically
      contain only short and highly dynamic microfilaments. In apicomplexans, profilin
      appears to be the main monomer-sequestering protein. Compared to classical
      profilins, apicomplexan profilins contain an additional arm-like beta-hairpin
      motif, which we show here to be critically involved in actin binding. Through
      comparative analysis using two profilin mutants, we reveal this motif to be
      implicated in gliding motility of Plasmodium berghei sporozoites, the rapidly
      migrating forms of a rodent malaria parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. Force
      measurements on migrating sporozoites and molecular dynamics simulations indicate
      that the interaction between actin and profilin fine-tunes gliding motility. Our
      data suggest that evolutionary pressure to achieve efficient high-speed gliding
      has resulted in a unique profilin-actin interface in these parasites.

PMID- 28552955
TI  - Stem carbohydrate dynamics and expression of genes involved in fructan
      accumulation and remobilization during grain growth in wheat (Triticum aestivum
      L.) genotypes with contrasting tolerance to water stress.
AB  - The genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between
      water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and water stress tolerance are scarcely known.
      This study aimed to evaluate the main WSC in stems, and the expression of genes
      involved in fructan metabolism in wheat genotypes growing in a glasshouse with
      water stress (WS; 50% field capacity from heading) and full irrigation (FI; 100%
      field capacity). Eight wheat genotypes (five tolerant and three susceptible to
      water stress) were evaluated initially (experiment 1) and the two most
      contrasting genotypes in terms of WSC accumulation were evaluated in a subsequent
      experiment (experiment 2). Maximum accumulation of WSC occurred 10-20 days after
      anthesis. Under WS, the stress-tolerant genotype exhibited higher concentrations
      of WSC, glucose, fructose and fructan in the stems, compared to FI. In addition,
      the stress-tolerant genotype exhibited higher up-regulation of the fructan 1
      fructosyltransferase B (1-FFTB) and fructan 1-exohydrolase w2 (1-FEHw2) genes,
      whereas the susceptible cultivar presented an up-regulation of the fructan 6
      fructosyltransferase (6-SFT) and fructan 1-exohydrolase w3 (1-FEHw3) genes. Our
      results indicated clear differences in the pattern of WSC accumulation and the
      expression of genes regulating fructan metabolism between the tolerant and
      susceptible genotypes under WS.

PMID- 28552956
TI  - Sex-specific effect of CPB2 Ala147Thr but not Thr325Ile variants on the risk of
      venous thrombosis: A comprehensive meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI), encoded by the
      Carboxypeptidase B2 gene (CPB2), is an inhibitor of fibrinolysis and plays a role
      in the pathogenesis of venous thrombosis. Experimental findings support a
      functional role of genetic variants in CPB2, while epidemiological studies have
      been unable to confirm associations with risk of venous thrombosis. Sex-specific
      effects could underlie the observed inconsistent associations between CPB2
      genetic variants and venous thrombosis. METHODS: A comprehensive literature
      search was conducted for associations between Ala147Thr and Thr325Ile variants
      with venous thrombosis. Authors were contacted to provide sex-specific genotype
      counts from their studies. Combined and sex-specific random effects meta-analyses
      were used to estimate a pooled effect estimate for primary and secondary genetic
      models. RESULTS: A total of 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. A sex-specific
      meta-analysis applying a dominant model supported a protective effect of
      Ala147Thr on venous thrombosis in females (OR = 0.81, 95%CI: 0.68,0.97; p =
      0.018), but not in males (OR = 1.06, 95%CI:0.96-1.16; p = 0.263). The Thr325Ile
      did not show a sex-specific effect but showed variation in allele frequencies by
      geographic region. A subgroup analysis of studies in European countries showed
      decreased risk, with a recessive model (OR = 0.83, 95%CI:0.71-0.97, p = 0.021)
      for venous thrombosis. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive literature review, including
      unpublished data, provided greater statistical power for the analyses and
      decreased the likelihood of publication bias influencing the results. Sex
      specific analyses explained apparent discrepancies across genetic studies of
      Ala147Thr and venous thrombosis. While, careful selection of genetic models based
      on population genetics, evolutionary and biological knowledge can increase power
      by decreasing the need to adjust for testing multiple models.

PMID- 28552957
TI  - Safety and EEG data quality of concurrent high-density EEG and high-speed fMRI at
      3 Tesla.
AB  - PURPOSE: Concurrent EEG and fMRI is increasingly used to characterize the spatial
      temporal dynamics of brain activity. However, most studies to date have been
      limited to conventional echo-planar imaging (EPI). There is considerable interest
      in integrating recently developed high-speed fMRI methods with high-density EEG
      to increase temporal resolution and sensitivity for task-based and resting state
      fMRI, and for detecting interictal spikes in epilepsy. In the present study using
      concurrent high-density EEG and recently developed high-speed fMRI methods, we
      investigate safety of radiofrequency (RF) related heating, the effect of EEG on
      cortical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in fMRI, and assess EEG data quality.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study compared EPI, multi-echo EPI, multi-band EPI and
      multi-slab echo-volumar imaging pulse sequences, using clinical 3 Tesla MR
      scanners from two different vendors that were equipped with 64- and 256-channel
      MR-compatible EEG systems, respectively, and receive only array head coils. Data
      were collected in 11 healthy controls (3 males, age range 18-70 years) and 13
      patients with epilepsy (8 males, age range 21-67 years). Three of the healthy
      controls were scanned with the 256-channel EEG system, the other subjects were
      scanned with the 64-channel EEG system. Scalp surface temperature, SNR in
      occipital cortex and head movement were measured with and without the EEG cap.
      The degree of artifacts and the ability to identify background activity was
      assessed by visual analysis by a trained expert in the 64 channel EEG data (7
      healthy controls, 13 patients). RESULTS: RF induced heating at the surface of the
      EEG electrodes during a 30-minute scan period with stable temperature prior to
      scanning did not exceed 1.0 degrees  C with either EEG system and any of the
      pulse sequences used in this study. There was no significant decrease in cortical
      SNR due to the presence of the EEG cap (p > 0.05). No significant differences in
      the visually analyzed EEG data quality were found between EEG recorded during
      high-speed fMRI and during conventional EPI (p = 0.78). Residual
      ballistocardiographic artifacts resulted in 58% of EEG data being rated as poor
      quality. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that high-density EEG can be safely
      implemented in conjunction with high-speed fMRI and that high-speed fMRI does not
      adversely affect EEG data quality. However, the deterioration of the EEG quality
      due to residual ballistocardiographic artifacts remains a significant constraint
      for routine clinical applications of concurrent EEG-fMRI.

PMID- 28552959
TI  - Multiparametric quantification of thermal heterogeneity within aqueous materials
      by water 1H NMR spectroscopy: Paradigms and algorithms.
AB  - Processes involving heat generation and dissipation play an important role in the
      performance of numerous materials. The behavior of (semi-)aqueous materials such
      as hydrogels during production and application, but also properties of biological
      tissue in disease and therapy (e.g., hyperthermia) critically depend on heat
      regulation. However, currently available thermometry methods do not provide
      quantitative parameters characterizing the overall temperature distribution
      within a volume of soft matter. To this end, we present here a new paradigm
      enabling accurate, contactless quantification of thermal heterogeneity based on
      the line shape of a water proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectrum.
      First, the 1H NMR resonance from water serving as a "temperature probe" is
      transformed into a temperature curve. Then, the digital points of this
      temperature profile are used to construct a histogram by way of specifically
      developed algorithms. We demonstrate that from this histogram, at least eight
      quantitative parameters describing the underlying statistical temperature
      distribution can be computed: weighted median, weighted mean, standard deviation,
      range, mode(s), kurtosis, skewness, and entropy. All mathematical transformations
      and calculations are performed using specifically programmed EXCEL spreadsheets.
      Our new paradigm is helpful in detailed investigations of thermal heterogeneity,
      including dynamic characteristics of heat exchange at sub-second temporal
      resolution.

PMID- 28552958
TI  - Characterization of basal and lipopolysaccharide-induced microRNA expression in
      equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells using Next-Generation Sequencing.
AB  - The innate immune response to lipopolysaccharide contributes substantially to the
      morbidity and mortality of gram-negative sepsis. Horses and humans share an
      exquisite sensitivity to lipopolysaccharide and thus the horse may provide
      valuable comparative insights into this aspect of the inflammatory response.
      MicroRNAs, small non-coding RNA molecules acting as post-transcriptional
      regulators of gene expression, have key roles in toll-like receptor signaling
      regulation but have not been studied in this context in horses. The central
      hypothesis of this study was that lipopolysaccharide induces differential
      microRNA expression in equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells in a manner
      comparable to humans. Illumina Next Generation Sequencing was used to
      characterize the basal microRNA transcriptome in isolated peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells from healthy adult horses, and to evaluate LPS-induced changes
      in microRNA expression in cells cultured for up to four hours. Selected
      expression changes were validated using quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR.
      Only miR-155 was significantly upregulated by LPS, changing in parallel with
      supernatant tumor necrosis factor-alpha concentration. Eight additional
      microRNAs, including miR-146a and miR-146b, showed significant expression change
      with time in culture without a clear LPS effect. Target predictions indicated a
      number of potential immunity-associated targets for miR-155 in the horse,
      including SOCS1, TAB2 and elements of the PI3K signaling pathway, suggesting that
      it is likely to influence the acute inflammatory response to LPS. Gene alignment
      showed extensive conservation of the miR-155 precursor gene and associated
      promoter regions between horses and humans. The basal and LPS-stimulated microRNA
      expression pattern characterized here were similar to those described in human
      leukocytes. As well as providing a resource for further research into the roles
      of microRNAs in immune responses in horses, this will facilitate inter-species
      comparative study of the role of microRNAs in the inflammatory cascade during
      endotoxemia and sepsis.

PMID- 28552960
TI  - Electrostatic forces govern the binding mechanism of intrinsically disordered
      histone chaperones.
AB  - A unified picture to understand the protein recognition and function must include
      the native binding complex structure ensembles and the underlying binding
      mechanisms involved in specific biological processes. However, quantifications of
      both binding complex structures and dynamical mechanisms are still challenging
      for IDP. In this study, we have investigated the underlying molecular mechanism
      of the chaperone Chz1 and histone H2A.Z-H2B association by equilibrium and
      kinetic stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy. The dependence of free energy and
      kinetic rate constant on electrolyte mean activity coefficient and urea
      concentration are uncovered. Our results indicate a previous unseen binding
      kinetic intermediate. An initial conformation selection step of Chz1 is also
      revealed before the formation of this intermediate state. Based on these
      observations, a mixed mechanism of three steps including both conformation
      selection and induced fit is proposed. By combination of the ion- and denaturant
      induced experiments, we demonstrate that electrostatic forces play a dominant
      role in the recognition of bipolar charged intrinsically disordered protein Chz1
      to its preferred partner H2A.Z-H2B. Both the intra-chain and inter-chain
      electrostatic interactions have direct impacts on the native collapsed structure
      and binding mechanism.

PMID- 28552961
TI  - Optimising cluster survey design for planning schistosomiasis preventive
      chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cornerstone of current schistosomiasis control programmes is
      delivery of praziquantel to at-risk populations. Such preventive chemotherapy
      requires accurate information on the geographic distribution of infection, yet
      the performance of alternative survey designs for estimating prevalence and
      converting this into treatment decisions has not been thoroughly evaluated.
      METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used baseline schistosomiasis mapping surveys
      from three countries (Malawi, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia) to generate spatially
      realistic gold standard datasets, against which we tested alternative two-stage
      cluster survey designs. We assessed how sampling different numbers of schools per
      district (2-20) and children per school (10-50) influences the accuracy of
      prevalence estimates and treatment class assignment, and we compared survey cost
      efficiency using data from Malawi. Due to the focal nature of schistosomiasis, up
      to 53% simulated surveys involving 2-5 schools per district failed to detect
      schistosomiasis in low endemicity areas (1-10% prevalence). Increasing the number
      of schools surveyed per district improved treatment class assignment far more
      than increasing the number of children sampled per school. For Malawi, surveys of
      15 schools per district and 20-30 children per school reliably detected endemic
      schistosomiasis and maximised cost-efficiency. In sensitivity analyses where
      treatment costs and the country considered were varied, optimal survey size was
      remarkably consistent, with cost-efficiency maximised at 15-20 schools per
      district. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Among two-stage cluster surveys for
      schistosomiasis, our simulations indicated that surveying 15-20 schools per
      district and 20-30 children per school optimised cost-efficiency and minimised
      the risk of under-treatment, with surveys involving more schools of greater cost
      efficiency as treatment costs rose.

PMID- 28552962
TI  - Retinoic acid receptor gamma impacts cellular adhesion, Alpha5Beta1 integrin
      expression and proliferation in K562 cells.
AB  - The interplay between cellular adhesion and proliferation is complex; however,
      integrins, particularly the alpha5beta1 subset, play a pivotal role in
      orchestrating critical cellular signals that culminate in cellular adhesion and
      growth. Retinoids modify the expression of a variety of adhesive/proliferative
      signaling proteins including alpha5beta1 integrins; however, the role of specific
      retinoic acid receptors involved in these processes has not been elucidated. In
      this study, the effect of all-trans-retinoic acid receptor (RAR) agonists on K562
      cellular adhesion, proliferation, and alpha5beta1 integrin cell surface
      expression was investigated. RARgamma agonist exposure increased K562 cellular
      adhesion to RGD containing extracellular matrix proteins fibronectin and FN-120
      in a time- and concentration dependent manner, while RARalpha or RARbeta agonist
      treatment had no effect on cellular adhesion. Due to the novel RARgamma-
      dependent cellular adhesion response exhibited by K562 cells, we examined alpha5
      and beta1 integrin subunit expression when K562 cells were exposed to retinoid
      agonists or vehicle for 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours. Our data demonstrates no
      differences in K562 cell surface expression of the alpha5 integrin subunit when
      cells were exposed to RARalpha, RARbeta, or RARgamma agonists for all time points
      tested. In contrast, RARgamma agonist exposure resulted in an increase in cell
      surface beta1 integrin subunit expression within 48 hours that was sustained at
      72 and 96 hours. Finally, we demonstrate that while exposure to RARalpha or
      RARbeta agonists have no effect on K562 cellular proliferation, the RARgamma
      agonist significantly dampens K562 cellular proliferation levels in a time- and
      concentration- dependent manner. Our study is the first to report that treatment
      with a RARgamma specific agonist augments cellular adhesion to alpha5beta1
      integrin substrates, increases cell surface levels of the beta1 integrin subunit,
      and dampens cellular proliferation in a time and concentration dependent manner
      in a human erythroleukemia cell line.

PMID- 28552963
TI  - Bim expression in endothelial cells and pericytes is essential for regression of
      the fetal ocular vasculature.
AB  - Apoptosis plays a central role in developmental and pathological angiogenesis and
      vessel regression. Bim is a pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member that plays a
      prominent role in both developmental and pathological ocular vessel regression,
      and neovascularization. Endothelial cells (EC) and pericytes (PC) each play
      unique roles during vascular development, maintenance and regression. We recently
      showed that germline deletion of Bim results in persistent hyaloid vasculature,
      increased retinal vascular density and prevents retinal vessel regression in
      response to hyperoxia. To determine whether retinal vascular regression is
      attributable to Bim expression in EC or PC we generated mice carrying a
      conditional Bim allele (BimFlox/Flox) and VE-cadherin-cre (BimEC mice) or Pdgfrb
      cre (BimPC mice). BimEC and BimPC mice demonstrated attenuated hyaloid vessel
      regression and postnatal retinal vascular remodeling. We also observed decreased
      retinal vascular apoptosis and proliferation. Unlike global Bim -/- mice, mice
      conditionally lacking Bim in EC or PC underwent hyperoxia-mediated vessel
      obliteration and subsequent retinal neovascularization during oxygen-induced
      ischemic retinopathy similar to control littermates. Thus, understanding the cell
      autonomous role Bim plays in the retinal vascular homeostasis will give us new
      insight into how to modulate pathological retinal neovascularization and vessel
      regression to preserve vision.

PMID- 28552964
TI  - Criticality meets learning: Criticality signatures in a self-organizing recurrent
      neural network.
AB  - Many experiments have suggested that the brain operates close to a critical
      state, based on signatures of criticality such as power-law distributed neuronal
      avalanches. In neural network models, criticality is a dynamical state that
      maximizes information processing capacities, e.g. sensitivity to input, dynamical
      range and storage capacity, which makes it a favorable candidate state for brain
      function. Although models that self-organize towards a critical state have been
      proposed, the relation between criticality signatures and learning is still
      unclear. Here, we investigate signatures of criticality in a self-organizing
      recurrent neural network (SORN). Investigating criticality in the SORN is of
      particular interest because it has not been developed to show criticality.
      Instead, the SORN has been shown to exhibit spatio-temporal pattern learning
      through a combination of neural plasticity mechanisms and it reproduces a number
      of biological findings on neural variability and the statistics and fluctuations
      of synaptic efficacies. We show that, after a transient, the SORN spontaneously
      self-organizes into a dynamical state that shows criticality signatures
      comparable to those found in experiments. The plasticity mechanisms are necessary
      to attain that dynamical state, but not to maintain it. Furthermore, onset of
      external input transiently changes the slope of the avalanche distributions -
      matching recent experimental findings. Interestingly, the membrane noise level
      necessary for the occurrence of the criticality signatures reduces the model's
      performance in simple learning tasks. Overall, our work shows that the
      biologically inspired plasticity and homeostasis mechanisms responsible for the
      SORN's spatio-temporal learning abilities can give rise to criticality signatures
      in its activity when driven by random input, but these break down under the
      structured input of short repeating sequences.

PMID- 28552965
TI  - Does salt stress affect the interspecific interaction between regionally dominant
      Suaeda salsa and Scirpus planiculumis?
AB  - Plant-plant interactions that change along environmental gradients can be
      affected by different combinations of environmental characteristics, such as the
      species and planting density ratios. Suaeda salsa and Scirpus planiculumis are
      regionally dominant species in the Shuangtai estuarine wetland. Compared with non
      clonal S. salsa, clonal S. planiculumis has competitive advantages because of its
      morphological plasticity. However, salt-tolerant S. salsa may grow faster than S.
      planiculumis in saline-alkali estuary soil. Whether the interactions between
      these two species along salinity gradients are affected by the level of salt
      stress and mixed planting density ratio remains unclear. Thus, to test the
      effects of salt stress and planting density ratios on the interactions between S.
      planiculumis and S. salsa in the late growing season, we conducted a greenhouse
      experiment consisting of 3 salinity levels (0, 8 and 15ppt) and 5 planting
      density ratios. Our results showed that the promotion of S. salsa growth and
      inhibition of S. planiculumis growth at low salinity levels (8 ppt) did not alter
      the interactions between the two species. Facilitation of S. salsa occurred at
      high salinity levels, and the magnitude of this net outcome decreased with
      increases in the proportion of S. salsa. These results suggest that competition
      and facilitation processes not only depend on the combinations of different life
      history characteristics of species but also on the planting density ratio. These
      findings may contribute to the understanding of the responses of estuarine
      wetland plant-plant interactions to human modifications of estuarine salinity.

PMID- 28552966
TI  - Even- and odd-chain saturated fatty acids in serum phospholipids are
      differentially associated with adipokines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Saturated fatty acids are generally thought to have detrimental
      effects on health. However, a recent study showed that even- and odd-chain
      saturated fatty acids had opposite associations with type 2 diabetes. Limited
      studies of Western populations examined the associations of circulating saturated
      fatty acids with adipokines, an important role in glucose metabolism. OBJECTIVE:
      We examined the associations of saturated fatty acids in serum phospholipids with
      circulating levels of adipokines among a Japanese population. DESIGN: A cross
      sectional study was conducted among 484 Japanese employees (284 men and 200
      women) aged 20-65 years. The serum fatty acid composition in the phospholipid
      fraction was measured by gas-chromatography. Serum leptin, adiponectin,
      plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), resistin, and visfatin were measured
      using a Luminex suspension bead-based multiplexed array. Multiple linear
      regression analysis was performed to assess the association between saturated
      fatty acids and adipokines, with adjustment for potential confounding variables.
      RESULTS: Even- and odd-chain saturated fatty acids were differentially associated
      with adipokines. Higher levels of even-chain saturated fatty acids (14:0
      myristic, 16:0 palmitic, and 18:0 stearic acids) were associated with higher
      levels of resistin (P for trend = 0.048) and lower levels of adiponectin (P for
      trend = 0.003). By contrast, odd-chain saturated fatty acids (15:0 pentadecanoic
      and 17:0 heptadecanoic acids) showed inverse associations with leptin and PAI-1
      (P for trend = 0.048 and 0.02, respectively). Visfatin was positively associated
      with both even- and odd-chain saturated fatty acids. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      suggest that even- and odd-chain saturated fatty acids are differentially
      associated with adipokine profile.

PMID- 28552967
TI  - Automated analysis of co-localized protein expression in histologic sections of
      prostate cancer.
AB  - An automated approach based on routinely-processed, whole-slide
      immunohistochemistry (IHC) was implemented to study co-localized protein
      expression in tissue samples. Expression of two markers was chosen to represent
      stromal (CD31) and epithelial (Ki-67) compartments in prostate cancer. IHC was
      performed on whole-slide sections representing low-, intermediate-, and high
      grade disease from 15 patients. The automated workflow was developed using a
      training set of regions-of-interest in sequential tissue sections. Protein
      expression was studied on digital representations of IHC images across entire
      slides representing formalin-fixed paraffin embedded blocks. Using the training
      set, the known association between Ki-67 and Gleason grade was confirmed. CD31
      expression was more heterogeneous across samples and remained invariant with
      grade in this cohort. Interestingly, the Ki-67/CD31 ratio was significantly
      increased in high (Gleason >= 8) versus low/intermediate (Gleason <=7) samples
      when assessed in the training-set and the whole-tissue block images. Further, the
      feasibility of the automated approach to process Tissue Microarray (TMA) samples
      in high throughput was evaluated. This work establishes an initial framework for
      automated analysis of co-localized protein expression and distribution in high
      resolution digital microscopy images based on standard IHC techniques. Applied to
      a larger sample population, the approach may help to elucidate the biologic basis
      for the Gleason grade, which is the strongest, single factor distinguishing
      clinically aggressive from indolent prostate cancer.

PMID- 28552968
TI  - Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic integration and modelling of florfenicol for the
      pig pneumonia pathogens Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella
      multocida.
AB  - Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) integration and modelling were used to
      predict dosage schedules for florfenicol for two pig pneumonia pathogens,
      Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida. Pharmacokinetic data
      were pooled for two bioequivalent products, pioneer and generic formulations,
      administered intramuscularly to pigs at a dose rate of 15 mg/kg. Antibacterial
      potency was determined in vitro as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and
      Mutant Prevention Concentration in broth and pig serum, for six isolates of each
      organism. For both organisms and for both serum and broth MICs, average
      concentration:MIC ratios over 48 h were similar and exceeded 2.5:1 and times
      greater than MIC exceeded 35 h. From in vitro time-kill curves, PK/PD modelling
      established serum breakpoint values for the index AUC24h/MIC for three levels of
      inhibition of growth, bacteriostasis and 3 and 4log10 reductions in bacterial
      count; means were 25.7, 40.2 and 47.0 h, respectively, for P. multocida and 24.6,
      43.8 and 58.6 h for A. pleuropneumoniae. Using these PK and PD data, together
      with literature MIC distributions, doses for each pathogen were predicted for:
      (1) bacteriostatic and bactericidal levels of kill; (2) for 50 and 90% target
      attainment rates (TAR); and (3) for single dosing and daily dosing at steady
      state. Monte Carlo simulations for 90% TAR predicted single doses to achieve
      bacteriostatic and bactericidal actions over 48 h of 14.4 and 22.2 mg/kg (P.
      multocida) and 44.7 and 86.6 mg/kg (A. pleuropneumoniae). For daily doses at
      steady state, and 90% TAR bacteriostatic and bactericidal actions, dosages of 6.2
      and 9.6 mg/kg (P. multocida) and 18.2 and 35.2 mg/kg (A. pleuropneumoniae) were
      required. PK/PD integration and modelling approaches to dose determination
      indicate the possibility of tailoring dose to a range of end-points.

PMID- 28552969
TI  - Automatic adventitious respiratory sound analysis: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Automatic detection or classification of adventitious sounds is
      useful to assist physicians in diagnosing or monitoring diseases such as asthma,
      Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and pneumonia. While computerised
      respiratory sound analysis, specifically for the detection or classification of
      adventitious sounds, has recently been the focus of an increasing number of
      studies, a standardised approach and comparison has not been well established.
      OBJECTIVE: To provide a review of existing algorithms for the detection or
      classification of adventitious respiratory sounds. This systematic review
      provides a complete summary of methods used in the literature to give a baseline
      for future works. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of English articles published
      between 1938 and 2016, searched using the Scopus (1938-2016) and IEEExplore (1984
      2016) databases. Additional articles were further obtained by references listed
      in the articles found. Search terms included adventitious sound detection,
      adventitious sound classification, abnormal respiratory sound detection, abnormal
      respiratory sound classification, wheeze detection, wheeze classification,
      crackle detection, crackle classification, rhonchi detection, rhonchi
      classification, stridor detection, stridor classification, pleural rub detection,
      pleural rub classification, squawk detection, and squawk classification. STUDY
      SELECTION: Only articles were included that focused on adventitious sound
      detection or classification, based on respiratory sounds, with performance
      reported and sufficient information provided to be approximately repeated. DATA
      EXTRACTION: Investigators extracted data about the adventitious sound type
      analysed, approach and level of analysis, instrumentation or data source,
      location of sensor, amount of data obtained, data management, features, methods,
      and performance achieved. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 77 reports from the
      literature were included in this review. 55 (71.43%) of the studies focused on
      wheeze, 40 (51.95%) on crackle, 9 (11.69%) on stridor, 9 (11.69%) on rhonchi, and
      18 (23.38%) on other sounds such as pleural rub, squawk, as well as the
      pathology. Instrumentation used to collect data included microphones,
      stethoscopes, and accelerometers. Several references obtained data from online
      repositories or book audio CD companions. Detection or classification methods
      used varied from empirically determined thresholds to more complex machine
      learning techniques. Performance reported in the surveyed works were converted to
      accuracy measures for data synthesis. LIMITATIONS: Direct comparison of the
      performance of surveyed works cannot be performed as the input data used by each
      was different. A standard validation method has not been established, resulting
      in different works using different methods and performance measure definitions.
      CONCLUSION: A review of the literature was performed to summarise different
      analysis approaches, features, and methods used for the analysis. The performance
      of recent studies showed a high agreement with conventional non-automatic
      identification. This suggests that automated adventitious sound detection or
      classification is a promising solution to overcome the limitations of
      conventional auscultation and to assist in the monitoring of relevant diseases.

PMID- 28552970
TI  - Genetic structuring, dispersal and taxonomy of the high-alpine populations of the
      Geranium arabicum/kilimandscharicum complex in tropical eastern Africa.
AB  - The scattered eastern African high mountains harbor a renowned and highly endemic
      flora, but the taxonomy and phylogeographic history of many plant groups are
      still insufficiently known. The high-alpine populations of the Geranium
      arabicum/kilimandscharicum complex present intricate morphological variation and
      have recently been suggested to comprise two new endemic taxa. Here we aim to
      contribute to a clarification of the taxonomy of these populations by analyzing
      genetic (AFLP) variation in range-wide high-alpine samples, and we address
      whether hybridization has contributed to taxonomic problems. We identified only
      two genetic groups. One corresponded to G. kilimandscharicum, which has been
      reported as exclusively high-alpine and confined to the eastern Rift mountains in
      East Africa. The other corresponded to G. arabicum, reported from lower altitudes
      on the same mountains as well as from a wide altitudinal span in Ethiopia and on
      the western Rift mountains in East Africa. The four populations analyzed of a
      recently described species from the Bale Mts in Ethiopia were admixed, indicating
      that they result from recent long-distance dispersal of G. kilimandscharicum from
      East Africa followed by hybridization with local G. arabicum in naturally
      disturbed habitats. Some admixture between the two genetic groups was also
      inferred on other mountains, supporting earlier suggestions of introgression
      based on morphology. We did not find support for recognition of the recently
      suggested new subspecies of G. arabicum in Ethiopia. Interestingly, the high
      alpine G. kilimandscharicum lacked clear geographic structuring, suggesting a
      recent history of colonization of the different mountains or extensive
      intermountain gene flow.

PMID- 28552971
TI  - Qualitative analysis of how patients decide that they want risk-reducing
      mastectomy, and the implications for surgeons in responding to emotionally
      motivated patient requests.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Contemporary approaches to medical decision-making advise that
      clinicians should respect patients' decisions. However, patients' decisions are
      often shaped by heuristics, such as being guided by emotion, rather than by
      objective risk and benefit. Risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) decisions focus this
      dilemma sharply. RRM reduces breast cancer (BC) risk, but is invasive and can
      have iatrogenic consequences. Previous evidence suggests that emotion guides
      patients' decision-making about RRM. We interviewed patients to better understand
      how they made decisions about RRM, using findings to consider how clinicians
      could ethically respond to their decisions. METHODS: Qualitative face-to-face
      interviews with 34 patients listed for RRM surgery and two who had decided
      against RRM. RESULTS: Patients generally did not use objective risk estimates or,
      indeed, consider risks and benefits of RRM. Instead emotions guided their
      decisions: they chose RRM because they feared BC and wanted to do 'all they
      could' to prevent it. Most therefore perceived RRM to be the 'obvious' option and
      made the decision easily. However, many recounted extensive post-decisional
      deliberation, generally directed towards justifying the original decision. A few
      patients deliberated before the decision because fears of surgery counterbalanced
      those of BC. CONCLUSION: Patients seeking RRM were motivated by fear of BC, and
      the need to avoid potential regret for not doing all they could to prevent it. We
      suggest that choices such as that for RRM, which are made emotionally, can be
      respected as autonomous decisions, provided patients have considered risks and
      benefits. Drawing on psychological theory about how people do make decisions, as
      well as normative views of how they should, we propose that practitioners can
      guide consideration of risks and benefits even, where necessary, after patients
      have opted for surgery. This model of practice could be extended to other medical
      decisions that are influenced by patients' emotions.

PMID- 28552972
TI  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa urinary tract infections in hospitalized patients:
      Mortality and prognostic factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the mortality and predictors of
      30-day mortality among hospitalized patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa urinary
      tract infection (PAUTI) and the impact of antibiotic treatment on survival.
      METHODS: Patients admitted to our hospital with PAUTI or those diagnosed of PAUTI
      during hospitalization for other disease between September 2012 and September
      2014 were included. Repeated episodes from the same patient were excluded.
      Database with demographic, clinical and laboratory items was created. Empirical
      and definitive antibiotic therapy, antimicrobial resistance and all-cause
      mortality at 30 and 90 days were included. RESULTS: 62 patients were included,
      with a mean age of 75 years. 51% were male. Mortality was 17.7% at 30 days and
      33.9% at 90 days. Factors associated with reduced survival at 30 days were
      chronic liver disease with portal hypertension (P<0,01), diabetes mellitus (P =
      0,04) chronic renal failure (P = 0,02), severe sepsis or septic shock (P<0,01),
      Charlson index > 3 (P = 0.02) and inadequated definitive antibiotic treatment
      (P<0,01). Independent risk factors for mortality in multivariate analysis were
      advanced chronic liver disease (HR 77,4; P<0,01), diabetes mellitus (HR 3,6; P =
      0,04), chronic renal failure (HR 4,1; P = 0,03) and inadequated definitive
      antimicrobial treatment (HR 6,8; P = 0,01). CONCLUSIONS: PAUTI are associated
      with high mortality in hospitalized patients, which increases significantly in
      those with severe comorbidity such as chronic renal failure, advanced liver
      disease or diabetes mellitus. Inadequated antibiotic treatment is associated with
      poor outcome, which remarks the importance of adjusting empirical antibiotic
      treatment based on the microbiological susceptibility results.

PMID- 28552973
TI  - Identification of foot and mouth disease risk areas using a multi-criteria
      analysis approach.
AB  - Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly infectious disease that affects cloven
      hoofed livestock and wildlife. FMD has been a problem for decades, which has led
      to various measures to control, eradicate and prevent FMD by National Veterinary
      Services worldwide. Currently, the identification of areas that are at risk of
      FMD virus incursion and spread is a priority for FMD target surveillance after
      FMD is eradicated from a given country or region. In our study, a knowledge
      driven spatial model was built to identify risk areas for FMD occurrence and to
      evaluate FMD surveillance performance in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. For
      this purpose, multi-criteria decision analysis was used as a tool to seek
      multiple and conflicting criteria to determine a preferred course of action.
      Thirteen South American experts analyzed 18 variables associated with FMD
      introduction and dissemination pathways in Rio Grande do Sul. As a result, FMD
      higher risk areas were identified at international borders and in the central
      region of the state. The final model was expressed as a raster surface. The
      predictive ability of the model assessed by comparing, for each cell of the
      raster surface, the computed model risk scores with a binary variable
      representing the presence or absence of an FMD outbreak in that cell during the
      period 1985 to 2015. Current FMD surveillance performance was assessed, and
      recommendations were made to improve surveillance activities in critical areas.

PMID- 28552974
TI  - Correction: Immorally obtained principal increases investors' risk preference.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175181.].

PMID- 28552975
TI  - Long-term genetic monitoring of a riverine dragonfly, Orthetrum coerulescens
      (Odonata: Libellulidae]: Direct anthropogenic impact versus climate change
      effects.
AB  - Modern conservationists call for long term genetic monitoring datasets to
      evaluate and understand the impact of human activities on natural ecosystems and
      species on a global but also local scale. However, long-term monitoring datasets
      are still rare but in high demand to correctly identify, evaluate and respond to
      environmental changes. In the presented study, a population of the riverine
      dragonfly, Orthetrum coerulescens (Odonata: Libellulidae), was monitored over a
      time period from 1989 to 2013. Study site was an artificial irrigation ditch in
      one of the last European stone steppes and "nature heritage", the Crau in
      Southern France. This artificial riverine habitat has an unusual high diversity
      of odonate species, prominent indicators for evaluating freshwater habitats. A
      clearing of the canal and destruction of the bank vegetation in 1996 was assumed
      to have great negative impact on the odonate larval and adult populations. Two
      mitochondrial markers (CO1 & ND1) and a panel of nuclear microsatellite loci were
      used to assess the genetic diversity. Over time they revealed a dramatic decline
      in diversity parameters between the years 2004 and 2007, however not between 1996
      and 1997. From 2007 onwards the population shows a stabilizing trend but has not
      reached the amount of genetic variation found at the beginning of this survey.
      This decline cannot be referred to the clearing of the canal or any other direct
      anthropogenic impact. Instead, it is most likely that the populations' decay was
      due to by extreme weather conditions during the specific years. A severe drought
      was recorded for the summer months of these years, leading to reduced water
      levels in the canal causing also other water parameters to change, and therefore
      impacting temperature sensitive riverine habitat specialists like the O.
      coerulescens in a significant way. The data provide important insights into
      population genetic dynamics and metrics not always congruent with traditional
      monitoring data (e.g. abundance); a fact that should be regarded with caution
      when management plans for developed landscapes are designed.

PMID- 28552976
TI  - Aged dissolved organic carbon exported from rivers of the Tibetan Plateau.
AB  - The role played by river networks in regional and global carbon cycle is
      receiving increasing attention. Despite the potential of radiocarbon measurements
      (14C) to elucidate sources and cycling of different riverine carbon pools, there
      remain large regions such as the climate-sensitive Tibetan Plateau for which no
      data are available. Here we provide new 14C data on dissolved organic carbon
      (DOC) from three large Asian rivers (the Yellow, Yangtze and Yarlung Tsangpo
      Rivers) running on the Tibetan Plateau and present the carbon transportation
      pattern in rivers of the plateau versus other river system in the world. Despite
      higher discharge rates during the high flow season, the DOC yield of Tibetan
      Plateau rivers (0.41 gC m-2 yr-1) was lower than most other rivers due to lower
      concentrations. Radiocarbon ages of the DOC were older/more depleted (511+/-294
      years before present, yr BP) in the Tibetan rivers than those in Arctic and
      tropical rivers. A positive correlation between radiocarbon age and permafrost
      watershed coverage was observed, indicating that 14C-deplted/old carbon is
      exported from permafrost regions of the Tibetan Plateau during periods of high
      flow. This is in sharp contrast to permafrost regions of the Arctic which export
      14C-enriched carbon during high discharge periods.

PMID- 28552977
TI  - Validity and responsiveness of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ)
      in assessing physical activity during pregnancy.
AB  - The physiological and biomechanical changes that occur during pregnancy make
      accurate measurement of physical activity (PA) a challenge during this unique
      period. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) has been used
      extensively in low-to-middle income countries, but has never been validated in a
      pregnant population. In this longitudinal study, 95 pregnant women (mean age:
      29.5+/-5.7 years; BMI: 26.9+/-5.0 kg/m2) completed the GPAQ and were asked to
      wear an accelerometer for 7 days at two time points during pregnancy (14-18 and
      29-33 weeks gestation). There was a significant difference between accelerometry
      and GPAQ when measuring moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at 29-33
      weeks gestation (16.6 vs 21.4 min/day; p = 0.02) as well as sedentary behaviour
      (SB) at both 14-18 weeks (457.0 vs 300 min/day; p < 0.01) and 29-33 weeks
      gestation (431.5 vs 300 min/day; p < 0.01). There was poor agreement between the
      GPAQ and accelerometry for both PA and SB at both time points (ICC: -0.05-0.08).
      Bland Altman plots indicated that the GPAQ overestimates PA by 14.8 min/day at 14
      18 weeks and by 15.8 min/day at 29-33 weeks gestation. It underestimates SB by
      127.5 min/day at 14-18 weeks and by 89.2 min/day at 29-33 weeks gestation. When
      compared to accelerometry, the GPAQ shows poor agreement and appears to
      overestimate PA and underestimate SB during pregnancy.

PMID- 28552978
TI  - Highly dynamic temporal changes of TSPY gene copy number in aging bulls.
AB  - The Y-chromosomal TSPY gene is one of the highest copy number mammalian protein
      coding gene and represents a unique biological model to study various aspects of
      genomic copy number variations. This study investigated the age-related copy
      number variability of the bovine TSPY gene, a new and unstudied aspect of the
      biology of TSPY that has been shown to vary among cattle breeds, individual bulls
      and somatic tissues. The subjects of this prospective 30-month long study were 25
      Holstein bulls, sampled every six months. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to
      determine the relative TSPY copy number (rTSPY CN) and telomere length in the DNA
      samples extracted from blood. Twenty bulls showed an altered rTSPY CN after 30
      months, although only 9 bulls showed a significant change (4 significant increase
      while 5 significant decrease, P<0.01). The sequential sampling provided the flow
      of rTSPY CN over six observations in 30 months and wide-spread variation of rTSPY
      CN was detected. Although a clear trend of the direction of change was not
      identifiable, the highly dynamic changes of individual rTSPY CN in aging bulls
      were observed here for the first time. In summary we have observed a highly
      variable rTSPY CN in bulls over a short period of time. Our results suggest the
      importance of further long term studies of the dynamics of rTSPY CN variablility.

PMID- 28552979
TI  - Correction: Bleeding Efficiency, Microbiological Quality and Oxidative Stability
      of Meat from Goats Subjected to Slaughter without Stunning in Comparison with
      Different Methods of Pre-Slaughter Electrical Stunning.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152661.].

PMID- 28552981
TI  - Tetracycline does not directly inhibit the function of bacterial elongation
      factor Tu.
AB  - Understanding the molecular mechanism of antibiotics that are currently in use is
      important for the development of new antimicrobials. The tetracyclines,
      discovered in the 1940s, are a well-established class of antibiotics that still
      have a role in treating microbial infections in humans. It is generally accepted
      that the main target of their action is the ribosome. The estimated affinity for
      tetracycline binding to the ribosome is relatively low compared to the actual
      potency of the drug in vivo. Therefore, additional inhibitory effects of
      tetracycline on the translation machinery have been discussed. Structural
      evidence suggests that tetracycline inhibits the function of the essential
      bacterial GTPase Elongation Factor (EF)-Tu through interaction with the bound
      nucleotide. Based on this, tetracycline has been predicted to impede the
      nucleotide-binding properties of EF-Tu. However, detailed kinetic studies
      addressing the effect of tetracycline on nucleotide binding have been prevented
      by the fluorescence properties of the antibiotic. Here, we report a fluorescence
      based kinetic assay that minimizes the effect of tetracycline autofluorescence,
      enabling the detailed kinetic analysis of the nucleotide-binding properties of
      Escherichia coli EF-Tu. Furthermore, using physiologically relevant conditions,
      we demonstrate that tetracycline does not affect EF-Tu's intrinsic or ribosome
      stimulated GTPase activity, nor the stability of the EF-Tu*GTP*Phe-tRNAPhe
      complex. We therefore provide clear evidence that tetracycline does not directly
      impede the function of EF-Tu.

PMID- 28552980
TI  - Salt stress responsiveness of a wild cotton species (Gossypium klotzschianum)
      based on transcriptomic analysis.
AB  - Cotton is a pioneer of saline land crop, while salt stress still causes its
      growth inhibition and fiber production decrease. Phenotype identification showed
      better salt tolerance of a wild diploid cotton species Gossypium klotzschianum.
      To elucidate the salt-tolerant mechanisms in G. klotzschianum, we firstly
      detected the changes in hormones, H2O2 and glutathione (GSSH and GSH), then
      investigated the gene expression pattern of roots and leaves treated with 300 mM
      NaCl for 0, 3, 12, 48 h, and each time control by RNA-seq on the Illumina-Solexa
      platform. Physiological determination proved that the significant increase in
      hormone ABA at 48 h, while that in H2O2 was at 12 h, likewise, the GSH content
      decrease at 48 h and the GSSH content increase at 48 h, under salt stress. In
      total, 37,278 unigenes were identified from the transcriptome data, 8,312 and
      6,732 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were discovered to be involved in
      salt stress tolerance in roots and leaves, respectively. Gene function annotation
      and expression analysis elucidated hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction,
      reactive oxygen species (ROS), and salt overly sensitive (SOS) signal
      transduction related genes revealed the important roles of them in signal
      transmission, oxidation balance and ion homeostasis in response to salinity
      stress. This is a report which focuses on primary response to highly salty stress
      (upto 300 mM NaCl) in cotton using a wild diploid Gossypium species, broadening
      our understanding of the salt tolerance mechanism in cotton and laying a solid
      foundation of salt resistant for the genetic improvement of upland cotton with
      the resistance to salt stress.

PMID- 28552982
TI  - Decreased health-related quality of life in angiodysplasia patients: A cross
      sectional cohort.
AB  - Gastrointestinal angiodysplasias may cause anemia. Quality of life (QoL) is a
      valid patient reported outcome and improvement of QoL represents an important
      treatment goal. There is a paucity of data on the effect of angiodysplasias on
      QoL. Therefore, we aim to evaluate QoL and fatigue in angiodysplasia patients. We
      performed a cross-sectional patient-reported outcome study. We included patients
      with endoscopy proven angiodysplasias and measured QoL with Short Form-36 and
      level of fatigue using Multi Fatigue Inventory-20. We distinguished three
      subgroups of patients according to disease severity: 1) with treatment for
      angiodysplasias, 2) without treatment for angiodysplasias and 3) without recent
      hospital visits. The primary outcome was the physical component summary (PCS)
      score on the SF-36. Multivariate regression analysis were performed to correct
      for differences at baseline. A total of 144 patients completed the questionnaires
      (response rate = 62%; mean age 68 years; 65% men). Angiodysplasia patients have a
      significant lower PCS compared to the age-matched general population
      (respectively 41.0 vs. 43.3, p = 0.01). Disease severity is independently
      associated with a negative outcome on QoL (beta -4.6, 95% CI -7.8--1.3).
      Similarly patients score lower on multiple QoL subdomains, i.e. role limitations
      due to physical health problems (40.8 vs. 44.0, p<0.01), general health (39.7 vs.
      47.3, p<0.01). Angiodysplasia patients are more fatigued compared to the general
      population (male 56.1 vs. 48.5, p<0.01, female 59.2 vs. 51.5, p = 0.01). In
      conclusion, angiodysplasias are independently associated with clinically
      significant impairments in multiple domains of health-related QoL, especially in
      measures of functional limitation.

PMID- 28552983
TI  - Recombinant human G6PD for quality control and quality assurance of novel point
      of-care diagnostics for G6PD deficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A large gap for the support of point-of-care testing is the
      availability of reagents to support quality control (QC) of diagnostic assays
      along the supply chain from the manufacturer to the end user. While reagents and
      systems exist to support QC of laboratory screening tests for glucose-6-phosphate
      dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, they are not configured appropriately to support
      point-of-care testing. The feasibility of using lyophilized recombinant human
      G6PD as a QC reagent in novel point-of-care tests for G6PD deficiency is
      demonstrated. METHODS: Human recombinant G6PD (r-G6PD) was expressed in
      Escherichia coli and purified. Aliquots were stored at -80 degrees C. Prior to
      lyophilization, aliquots were thawed, and three concentrations of r-G6PD
      (representing normal, intermediate, and deficient clinical G6PD levels) were
      prepared and mixed with a protective formulation, which protects the enzyme
      activity against degradation from denaturation during the lyophilization process.
      Following lyophilization, individual single-use tubes of lyophilized r-G6PD were
      placed in individual packs with desiccants and stored at five temperatures for
      one year. An enzyme assay for G6PD activity was used to ascertain the stability
      of r-G6PD activity while stored at different temperatures. RESULTS: Lyophilized r
      G6PD is stable and can be used as a control indicator. Results presented here
      show that G6PD activity is stable for at least 365 days when stored at -80
      degrees C, 4 degrees C, 30 degrees C, and 45 degrees C. When stored at 55 degrees
      C, enzyme activity was found to be stable only through day 28. CONCLUSIONS:
      Lyophilized r-G6PD enzyme is stable and can be used as a control for point-of
      care tests for G6PD deficiency.

PMID- 28552984
TI  - Methodological approach to the ex vivo expansion and detection of T. cruzi
      specific T cells from chronic Chagas disease patients.
AB  - The discovery of T cell epitopes is essential not only for gaining knowledge
      about host response to infectious disease but also for the development of immune
      intervention strategies. In Chagas disease, given the size and complexity of the
      Trypanosoma cruzi proteome and its interaction with the host's immune system, the
      fine specificity of T cells has not been extensively studied yet, and this is
      particularly true for the CD4+ T cell compartment. The aim of the present work
      was to optimize a protocol for the generation of parasite-specific memory T cell
      lines, representative of their in vivo precursor populations and capable of
      responding to parasite antigens after long-term culture. Accordingly, peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from both chronic asymptomatic and cardiac
      patients, and from non-infected individuals, underwent different in vitro culture
      and stimulation conditions. Subsequently, cells were tested for their capacity to
      respond against T. cruzi lysate by measuring [3H]-thymidine incorporation and
      interferon-gamma and GM-CSF secretion. Results allowed us to adjust initial T.
      cruzi lysate incubation time as well as the number of expansions with
      phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and irradiated allogeneic PBMC prior to specificity
      evaluation. Moreover, our data demonstrated that parasite specific T cells
      displayed a clear and strong activation by using T. cruzi lysate pulsed, Epstein
      Barr virus (EBV)-transformed human B lymphocytes (B-LCL), as autologous antigen
      presenting cells. Under these culture conditions, we generated a clone from an
      asymptomatic patient's memory CD4+ T cells which responded against epimastigote
      and trypomastigote protein lysate. Our results describe a culture method for
      isolating T. cruzi specific T cell clones from patients with Chagas disease,
      which enable the acquisition of information on functionality and specificity of
      individual T cells.

PMID- 28552985
TI  - Pathways from problems in adolescent family relationships to midlife mental
      health via early adulthood disadvantages - a 26-year longitudinal study.
AB  - Poor childhood family conditions have a long-term effect on adult mental health,
      but the mechanisms behind this association are unclear. Our aim was to study the
      pathways from problematic family relationships in adolescence to midlife
      psychological distress via disadvantages in early adulthood. Participants of a
      Finnish cohort study at the age of 16 years old in 1983 were followed up at ages
      22, 32 and 42 years old (N = 1334). Problems in family relationships were
      measured with poor relationship with mother and father, lack of parental support
      in adolescent's individuation process and poor home atmosphere, and mental health
      was assessed using Kessler's Psychological Distress Scale (K10). We analyzed the
      indirect effects of adolescent family relations on mental health at age 42 years
      old via various disadvantages (somatic and psychological symptoms,
      relationship/marital status, low education/unemployment and heavy drinking) at
      ages 22 and 32 years old. Problematic adolescent family relationships were
      associated with midlife psychological distress in women (0.19; 95% CI 0.11, 0.26)
      and men (0.13; 95% CI 0.04, 0.21). However, after adjustment for adolescent
      psychological symptoms, the association was only significant for women (0.12; 95%
      CI 0.04, 0.20). Poor family relationships were associated with various
      disadvantages in early adulthood. The association from poor family relationships
      (16 years old) to psychological distress (42 years old) was in part mediated via
      psychological symptoms in women (0.03; 95% CI 0.01, 0.04) and men (0.02; 95% CI
      0.00, 0.04) and in women also via heavy drinking in early adulthood (0.02; 95% CI
      0.00, 0.03). Adolescent family relationships have a role in determining adult
      mental health. Targeted support addressing psychological well-being and hazardous
      drinking for adolescents with problematic family relationships might prevent
      disadvantages in early adulthood, and further prevent poor midlife mental health.

PMID- 28552986
TI  - Nutrient addition shifts plant community composition towards earlier flowering
      species in some prairie ecoregions in the U.S. Central Plains.
AB  - The distribution of flowering across the growing season is governed by each
      species' evolutionary history and climatic variability. However, global change
      factors, such as eutrophication and invasion, can alter plant community
      composition and thus change the distribution of flowering across the growing
      season. We examined three ecoregions (tall-, mixed, and short-grass prairie)
      across the U.S. Central Plains to determine how nutrient (nitrogen (N),
      phosphorus, and potassium (+micronutrient)) addition alters the temporal patterns
      of plant flowering traits. We calculated total community flowering potential (FP)
      by distributing peak-season plant cover values across the growing season,
      allocating each species' cover to only those months in which it typically
      flowers. We also generated separate FP profiles for exotic and native species and
      functional group. We compared the ability of the added nutrients to shift the
      distribution of these FP profiles (total and sub-groups) across the growing
      season. In all ecoregions, N increased the relative cover of both exotic species
      and C3 graminoids that flower in May through August. The cover of C4 graminoids
      decreased with added N, but the response varied by ecoregion and month. However,
      these functional changes only aggregated to shift the entire community's FP
      profile in the tall-grass prairie, where the relative cover of plants expected to
      flower in May and June increased and those that flower in September and October
      decreased with added N. The relatively low native cover in May and June may leave
      this ecoregion vulnerable to disturbance-induced invasion by exotic species that
      occupy this temporal niche. There was no change in the FP profile of the mixed
      and short-grass prairies with N addition as increased abundance of exotic species
      and C3 graminoids replaced other species that flower at the same time. In these
      communities a disturbance other than nutrient addition may be required to disrupt
      phenological patterns.

PMID- 28552988
TI  - Introducing a novel mushroom from mycophagy community with emphasis on biomedical
      potency.
AB  - Mushrooms have been prized by humankind as medicine and culinary wonder since
      antiquity. Though several species are ethnically valued; many prospective species
      are still being discovered. One such wild macrofungus has recently been
      discovered during subsequent field surveys in West Bengal, India which in turn
      exposed as a traditionally consumed popular myco-food. The collected taxon was
      found to be unique with regard to its morphological as well as genetical
      features. After detailed characterizations, the fungus was identified as a novel
      taxon belonging to the genus Russula (Russulaceae, Basidiomycota). Besides, the
      investigation was further extended in search of new functional ingredients and in
      this context, a water soluble crude polysaccharide rich extract (Rusalan) was
      isolated from dried basidiocarps. Accumulating evidences from GC-MS, HPTLC, FT-IR
      along with several spectrophotometric methods postulated that the fraction
      consisted mainly of carbohydrate in triple helical conformation, where glucose
      was the major monosaccharide mostly with beta-type glycosidic linkage.
      Conversely, Rusalan showed pronounced antioxidant activity in six in vitro assay
      systems with EC50 value ranging from 190-1328 MUg/ml concentration. The crude
      polysaccharide was also evaluated against six bacterial strains using
      microdilution method and the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus
      subtilis were found to be inhibited effectively. In addition, immune-stimulatory
      assays demonstrated that Rusalan could evidently promote proliferation, induce
      phagocytosis, release NO, produce intracellular ROS and upregulate mRNA
      expression of iNOS, TNF-alpha, COX-2, as well as IL-6 genes in in mouse
      macrophage cells. Therefore, aim of the present study was not only to describe a
      new taxon to the world mycoflora but also to introduce a potent therapeutic agent
      that could be explored for food and pharmaceutical purposes. However, isolation
      of active component and in vivo studies need to be designed further.

PMID- 28552987
TI  - Contribution of systemic and somatic factors to clinical response and resistance
      to PD-L1 blockade in urothelial cancer: An exploratory multi-omic analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhibition of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) with atezolizumab can
      induce durable clinical benefit (DCB) in patients with metastatic urothelial
      cancers, including complete remissions in patients with chemotherapy refractory
      disease. Although mutation load and PD-L1 immune cell (IC) staining have been
      associated with response, they lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity for
      clinical use. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the peripheral blood immune
      environment and to conduct detailed analyses of mutation load, predicted
      neoantigens, and immune cellular infiltration in tumors to enhance our
      understanding of the biologic underpinnings of response and resistance. METHODS
      AND FINDINGS: The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the association of
      mutation load and predicted neoantigen load with therapeutic benefit and (2)
      determine whether intratumoral and peripheral blood T cell receptor (TCR)
      clonality inform clinical outcomes in urothelial carcinoma treated with
      atezolizumab. We hypothesized that an elevated mutation load in combination with
      T cell clonal dominance among intratumoral lymphocytes prior to treatment or
      among peripheral T cells after treatment would be associated with effective tumor
      control upon treatment with anti-PD-L1 therapy. We performed whole exome
      sequencing (WES), RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), and T cell receptor sequencing (TCR
      seq) of pretreatment tumor samples as well as TCR-seq of matched, serially
      collected peripheral blood, collected before and after treatment with
      atezolizumab. These parameters were assessed for correlation with DCB (defined as
      progression-free survival [PFS] >6 months), PFS, and overall survival (OS), both
      alone and in the context of clinical and intratumoral parameters known to be
      predictive of survival in this disease state. Patients with DCB displayed a
      higher proportion of tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TIL) (n = 24, Mann-Whitney
      p = 0.047). Pretreatment peripheral blood TCR clonality below the median was
      associated with improved PFS (n = 29, log-rank p = 0.048) and OS (n = 29, log
      rank p = 0.011). Patients with DCB also demonstrated more substantial expansion
      of tumor-associated TCR clones in the peripheral blood 3 weeks after starting
      treatment (n = 22, Mann-Whitney p = 0.022). The combination of high pretreatment
      peripheral blood TCR clonality with elevated PD-L1 IC staining in tumor tissue
      was strongly associated with poor clinical outcomes (n = 10, hazard ratio (HR)
      (mean) = 89.88, HR (median) = 23.41, 95% CI [2.43, 506.94], p(HR > 1) = 0.0014).
      Marked variations in mutation loads were seen with different somatic variant
      calling methodologies, which, in turn, impacted associations with clinical
      outcomes. Missense mutation load, predicted neoantigen load, and expressed
      neoantigen load did not demonstrate significant association with DCB (n = 25,
      Mann-Whitney p = 0.22, n = 25, Mann-Whitney p = 0.55, and n = 25, Mann-Whitney p
      = 0.29, respectively). Instead, we found evidence of time-varying effects of
      somatic mutation load on PFS in this cohort (n = 25, p = 0.044). A limitation of
      our study is its small sample size (n = 29), a subset of the patients treated on
      IMvigor 210 (NCT02108652). Given the number of exploratory analyses performed, we
      intend for these results to be hypothesis-generating. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      demonstrate the complex nature of immune response to checkpoint blockade and the
      compelling need for greater interrogation and data integration of both host and
      tumor factors. Incorporating these variables in prospective studies will
      facilitate identification and treatment of resistant patients.

PMID- 28552990
TI  - Correction: Pre-breeding food restriction promotes the optimization of parental
      investment in house mice, Mus musculus.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173985.].

PMID- 28552989
TI  - Structure of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) diversity in West Africa covaries
      with a climatic gradient.
AB  - Sub-Saharan agriculture has been identified as vulnerable to ongoing climate
      change. Adaptation of agriculture has been suggested as a way to maintain
      productivity. Better knowledge of intra-specific diversity of varieties is
      prerequisites for the successful management of such adaptation. Among crops, root
      and tubers play important roles in food security and economic growth for the most
      vulnerable populations in Africa. Here, we focus on the sweet potato. The Sweet
      potato (Ipomoea batatas) was domesticated in Central and South America and was
      later introduced into Africa and is now cultivated throughout tropical Africa. We
      evaluated its diversity in West Africa by sampling a region extending from the
      coastal area of Togo to the northern Sahelian region of Senegal that represents a
      range of climatic conditions. Using 12 microsatellite markers, we evaluated 132
      varieties along this gradient. Phenotypic data from field trials conducted in
      three seasons was also obtained. Genetic diversity in West Africa was found to be
      18% lower than in America. Genetic diversity in West Africa is structured into
      five groups, with some groups found in very specific climatic areas, e.g. under a
      tropical humid climate, or under a Sahelian climate. We also observed genetic
      groups that occur in a wider range of climates. The genetic groups were also
      associated with morphological differentiation, mainly the shape of the leaves and
      the color of the stem or root. This particular structure of diversity along a
      climatic gradient with association to phenotypic variability can be used for
      conservation strategies. If such structure is proved to be associated with
      specific climatic adaptation, it will also allow developing strategies to adapt
      agriculture to ongoing climate variation in West Africa.

PMID- 28552992
TI  - MicroRNA-200b is downregulated in colon cancer budding cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The microRNA-200 (miR-200) family acts as a major suppressor of
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Impaired miR-200 expression may lead to
      EMT initiation and eventually cancer dissemination. The presence of tumor budding
      cells (TBC) is associated with metastasis and poor prognosis, and molecular
      similarities to EMT indicate that these cells may reflect ongoing EMT. The aim of
      this study was to investigate the expression of miR-200b in budding cells of
      colon cancer and the relationship with the EMT-markers E-cadherin, beta-catenin
      and laminin-5gamma2. MATERIAL & METHODS: MiR-200b was investigated by in situ
      hybridization in 58 cases of stage II (n = 36) and III colon (n = 22) cancers
      with tumor budding. Expression of E-cadherin, beta-catenin and laminin-5gamma2
      was examined by immunohistochemistry. A multiplex fluorescence assay combining
      miR-200b with cytokeratin and laminin-5gamma2 was employed on a subset of 16
      samples. RESULTS: MiR-200b was downregulated in the TBC at the invasive front of
      41 out of 58 (71%) cases. The decline was present in both mismatch satellite
      stable and instable adenocarcinomas. The majority of cases also showed loss of
      membranous E-cadherin and increased nuclear beta-catenin in the TBC, while
      laminin-5gamma2 expression was upregulated at the invasive front and in the tumor
      buds of approximately half the adenocarcinomas. However, the miR-200b decline was
      not statistically associated with the expression of any of the EMT-markers. The
      miR-200b decline was also documented by multiplex fluorescence. Fourteen out of
      fifteen cases showed a decrease in miR-200b expression in the majority of the
      TBC, but no obvious relationship between miR-200b and laminin-5gamma2 expression
      was observed. Conclusion: The findings support the assumption of a miR-200b
      related downregulation in colon cancer budding cells. Whether miR-200b expression
      may be of clinical significance awaits further studies.

PMID- 28552991
TI  - Exploring the molecular basis of adaptive evolution in hydrothermal vent crab
      Austinograea alayseae by transcriptome analysis.
AB  - Elucidating the genetic mechanisms of adaptation to the hydrothermal vent in
      organisms at genomic level is significant for understanding the adaptive
      evolution process in the extreme environment. We performed RNA-seq on four
      different tissues of a vent crab species, Austinograea alayseae, producing
      725,461 unigenes and 134,489 annotated genes. Genes related to sensory, circadian
      rhythm, hormone, hypoxia stress, metal detoxification and immunity were
      identified. It was noted that in the degenerated eyestalk, transcription of
      phototransduction related genes which are important for retinal function was
      greatly reduced; three crucial neuropeptide hormones, one molt-inhibiting and two
      crustacean hyperglycemic hormone precursors were characterized with conserved
      domains; hypoxia-inducible factor 1 and two novel isoforms of metallothioneins in
      the vent crabs were discovered. An analysis of 6,932 orthologs among three crabs
      A. alayseae, Portunus trituberculutus and Eriocheir sinensis revealed 19 positive
      selected genes (PSGs). Most of the PSGs were involved in immune responses, such
      as crustins and anti-lipopolysaccharide factor, suggesting their function in the
      adaptation to environment. The characterization of the first vent crab
      transcriptome provides abundant resources for genetic and evolutionary studies of
      this species, and paves the way for further investigation of vent adaptation
      process in crabs.

PMID- 28552993
TI  - Rhinovirus infection results in stronger and more persistent genomic
      dysregulation: Evidence for altered innate immune response in asthmatics at
      baseline, early in infection, and during convalescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rhinovirus (HRV) is associated with the large majority of virus
      induced asthma exacerbations in children and young adults, but the mechanisms
      remain poorly defined. METHODS: Asthmatics and non-asthmatic controls were
      inoculated with HRV-A16, and nasal epithelial samples were obtained 7 days
      before, 36 hours after, and 7 days after viral inoculation. RNA was extracted and
      subjected to RNA-seq analysis. RESULTS: At baseline, 57 genes were differentially
      expressed between asthmatics and controls, and the asthmatics had decreased
      expression of viral replication inhibitors and increased expression of genes
      involved in inflammation. At 36 hours (before the emergence of peak symptoms),
      1329 genes were significantly altered from baseline in the asthmatics compared to
      62 genes in the controls. At this time point, asthmatics lacked an increase in IL
      10 signaling observed in the controls. At 7 days following HRV inoculation, 222
      genes were significantly dysregulated in the asthmatics, whereas only 4 genes
      were dysregulated among controls. At this time point, the controls but not
      asthmatics demonstrated upregulation of SPINK5. CONCLUSIONS: As judged by the
      magnitude and persistence of dysregulated genes, asthmatics have a substantially
      different host response to HRV-A16 infection compared with non-asthmatic
      controls. Gene expression differences illuminate biologically plausible
      mechanisms that contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of HRV
      induced asthma exacerbations.

PMID- 28552994
TI  - A versatile cell-penetrating peptide-adaptor system for efficient delivery of
      molecular cargos to subcellular destinations.
AB  - Cell penetrating peptides have long held great potential for delivery of
      biomolecular cargos for research, therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. They allow
      rapid, relatively nontoxic passage of a wide variety of biomolecules through the
      plasma membranes of living cells. However, CPP-based research tools and
      therapeutics have been stymied by poor efficiency in release from endosomes and a
      great deal of effort has been made to solve this 'endosomal escape problem.'
      Previously, we showed that use of a reversible, noncovalent coupling between CPP
      and cargo using calmodulin and a calmodulin binding motif allowed efficient
      delivery of cargo proteins to the cytoplasm in baby hamster kidney and other
      mammalian cell lines. The present report demonstrates the efficacy of our CPP
      adaptor scheme for efficient delivery of model cargos to the cytoplasm using a
      variety of CPPs and adaptors. Effective overcoming of the endosomal escape
      problem is further demonstrated by the delivery of cargo to the nucleus,
      endoplasmic reticulum and peroxisomes by addition of appropriate subcellular
      localization signals to the cargos. CPP-adaptors were also used to deliver cargo
      to myotubes, demonstrating the feasibility of the system as an alternative to
      transfection for the manipulation of hard-to-transfect cells.

PMID- 28552995
TI  - Is American Health Care Uniquely Inefficient? Evidence from Prescription Drugs.

PMID- 28552996
TI  - Recurrent Interstitial Pregnancy: a Review of the Literature.
AB  - Interstitial pregnancies account for 2-4 % of all ectopic pregnancies. Despite
      its rarity, various treatment options exist. However, no gold standard has yet
      been defined and data regarding recurrence of interstitial pregnancies in
      subsequent pregnancies after different treatments are sparse. This makes it very
      difficult to provide adequate patient counselling for treatment options with
      regards to the treatment-related risk of recurrence. The present literature
      review demonstrates that recurrent interstitial pregnancy is a rare condition and
      more likely when additional anatomy-related risk factors for ectopic pregnancies
      are present, such as hydrosalpinges, blocked tubes, endometriosis, fibroids or
      prior tubal ectopic pregnancies. Therefore, at first appearance and in absence of
      additional anatomy-related risk factors, methotrexate intravenously,
      intramuscularly or into the amnion may be the first choice. In case of anatomical
      risk factors, cornual wedge resection seems to be first choice. In case of
      recurrence, cornual wedge resection is particularly justified in patients with
      anatomical alterations of the salpinges. The role of conservative surgical
      treatments in recurrence as cornuotomy, salpingectomy, endoloop ligation and
      resection and curettage under laparoscopic guidance remains unclear due to sparse
      data.

PMID- 28552997
TI  - Implementation of the Recommendation to Vaccinate Pregnant Women against Seasonal
      Influenza - Vaccination Rates and Acceptance.
AB  - Introduction In Germany vaccination recommendations are revised annually and
      published by the Standing Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute
      (STIKO). In 2010 the vaccination recommendations were amended to include the
      proposal that pregnant women in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy and pregnant women
      with additional underlying disease in the 1st trimester of pregnancy should be
      vaccinated against seasonal influenza. This paper reports on vaccination rates
      and the factors influencing them. Method A cross-sectional study was carried out
      in two level 1 perinatal centers in two different German federal states (Saarland
      and Rhineland-Palatinate) during the influenza seasons of 2012/2013 and
      2013/2014. A total of 253 pregnant women were included in the study. Pregnant
      women were interviewed using a standardized, pre-tested questionnaire and asked
      whether they were aware of the recommendation to vaccinate against seasonal
      influenza and about possible factors which might influence their decision to be
      vaccinated. In addition, data from their vaccination certificates and pregnancy
      passports were evaluated. Results Overall, the records of only 19.5 % of the
      pregnant women showed that they had been vaccinated against influenza in
      pregnancy. Among the group of pregnant women who had a previous history of
      vaccinations against influenza the willingness to be vaccinated was high (43.3 %)
      and this figure was statistically significant. The vaccination rate was even
      higher (49.9 %) and even more statistically significant among pregnant women
      whose gynecologist or family physician had recommended that they should be
      vaccinated. In contrast, only 3.3 % of pregnant women who had not been given the
      recommendation to vaccinate by their physicians were vaccinated against
      influenza. Discussion The failure to recommend that pregnant women be vaccinated
      against influenza and women's lack of any previous experience of influenza
      vaccination were the main reasons for the inadequate influenza vaccination
      coverage in pregnancy. Conclusion One of the key points to increase the influenza
      vaccination rate is to intensify the counselling of the pregnant women through
      the gynecologist.

PMID- 28552998
TI  - Termination of Pregnancy for Medical Indications under Sec. 218a Para. 2 of the
      German Criminal Code - Real-life Data from the "Giebetaen Model".
AB  - Background Following the legal provisions on the termination of pregnancies in
      Art. 13 of the SFHG (Law on the Assistance for Pregnant Women and Families,
      passed on 27.07.1992, BGBl. I, p. 1398) the so-called embryopathic indication for
      termination was abandoned. Since then, sec. 218a para. 2 of the German Criminal
      Code (StGB) states that for late terminations, i.e., terminations after the 12th
      week of gestation post conception, the pregnant woman must be in exceptional
      distress "according to medical opinion". Method Between 01.05.2012 and
      25.07.2016, a total of 160 pregnancy terminations were carried out in Giebetaen
      University Hospital under sec. 218a para. 2 StGB. The following data were
      obtained from the patients' files: age of the pregnant woman, number of
      pregnancies, type of fetal disease or malformation, time of diagnosis, medical
      and psychosocial counseling given to the pregnant woman, time of termination or
      delivery, type of termination, fetal gender. Results 160 pregnant women (mean
      age: 31.6 years) underwent termination of pregnancy between the 13th - 37th week
      of gestation. Chromosomal anomalies were diagnosed prenatally in 60 cases, and
      anomalies were diagnosed on ultrasonography in 100 cases, with the preponderance
      of cases presenting with developmental disorders of the central nervous system
      and cardiovascular system. Conclusion In addition to recording intrauterine fetal
      disorders, when pregnancies are terminated under sec. 218a para. 2 StGB, treating
      physicians are expected to give plausible reasons why "according to medical
      opinion" the pregnancy represents a danger to the life of the pregnant woman or
      of grave injury to her physical or mental health and enter these reasons in the
      patient's medical records.

PMID- 28552999
TI  - Development and Validation of a Questionnaire for the Assessment of Pelvic Floor
      Disorders and Their Risk Factors During Pregnancy and Post Partum.
AB  - Introduction The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire
      for the assessment of pelvic floor disorders, their symptoms and risk factors in
      pregnancy and after birth including symptom course, severity and impact on
      quality of life. Methods The validated German pelvic floor questionnaire was
      modified and a new risk factor domain developed. The questionnaire was initially
      completed by 233 nulliparous women in the third trimester of pregnancy and at six
      weeks (n = 148) and one year (n = 120) post partum. Full pyschometric testing was
      performed. The clinical course of symptoms and the influence of risk factors were
      analysed. Results Study participants had a median age of 31 (19-46) years. 63 %
      had spontaneous vaginal deliveries, 15 % operative vaginal deliveries and 22 %
      were delivered by caesarean section. Content validity: Missing answers never
      exceeded 4 %. Construct validity: The questionnaire distinguished significantly
      between women who reported bothersome symptoms and those who did not.
      Reliability: Cronbach's alpha values exceeded 0.7 for bladder, bowel and support
      function, and 0.65 for sexual function. The test-retest analysis showed moderate
      to almost complete concordance. The intraclass coefficients for domain scores
      (between 0.732 and 0.818) were in acceptable to optimal range. Reactivity: The
      questionnaire was able to track changes significantly with good effect size for
      each domain. Risk factors for pelvic floor symptoms included familial
      predisposition, maternal age over 35 years, BMI above 25, nicotine abuse,
      subjective inability to voluntarily contract the pelvic floor musculature and
      postpartum wound pain. Conclusion This pelvic floor questionnaire proved to be
      valid, reliable and reactive for the assessment of pelvic floor disorders, their
      risk factors, incidence and impact on quality of life during pregnancy and post
      partum. The questionnaire can be utilised to assess the course of symptoms and
      treatment effects using a scoring system.

PMID- 28553000
TI  - Psychosocial Stress, Course of Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes in the Context of
      the Provision of Sexual Services.
AB  - Introduction There has been very little medical research into pregnancies which
      occur in the context of prostitution, even though the associated health risks for
      mother and child, e.g. violence or maternal drug abuse, are well known. The aim
      of this study was to compile and summarize what is known (inter-)nationally about
      this topic and identify key points of support as part of a uniform standard of
      healthcare in pregnancy. Material and Methods A selective search of the
      literature was done in Pubmed and Livivo/Medpilot and in the databases NIH,
      Cochrane, DARE, NHSEED and HTA on the factors influencing preterm delivery.
      Results There are no systematic studies on pregnancy risks in the context of
      sexual services. But there is data available on specific risk factors, for
      example the increased risk of prematurity associated with sexual/physical
      violence (OR = 1.28-4.7). The Prostitute Protection Act provides only limited
      protection for affected women, and statutory maternity protection regulations
      also have little impact as they require a formal contract of employment which
      rarely exists even in the context of legal prostitution. Conclusion Approximately
      400 000 women are currently working as prostitutes in the Federal Republic of
      Germany. The number of unreported cases is high. Nevertheless, there is little
      concrete data available on the probable health risks if these women become
      pregnant. The existing laws that should offer protection fall short of the mark.
      There is a need for more research into the future implementation of the
      Prostitute Protection Act which should focus on health counselling, health
      promotion and additional protective legislation. Low-threshold healthcare
      services offered in the context of prenatal care could be an opportunity to
      improve care.

PMID- 28553001
TI  - Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia: Breastfeeding Complications Due to Impaired
      Breast Development.
AB  - Background X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED), the most common
      form of ectodermal dysplasia, is caused by mutations in the gene EDA. While only
      affected men develop the full-blown clinical picture, females who are
      heterozygous for an EDA mutation often also show symptoms such as hypodontia,
      hypotrichosis and hypohidrosis. These women may also suffer from malformations of
      the mammary gland which represent not just a cosmetic problem but can limit their
      breastfeeding capability. This paper summarizes the findings of the first
      systematic study on the impact of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia on
      breastfeeding. Patients Thirty-eight adult female members of the German-Swiss
      Austrian ectodermal dysplasia patient support group participated in a structured
      interview; most of them also agreed to a photodocumentation of their mammary
      region. Thirty-one women carried mutations in EDA (Group A) and seven were
      affected by other forms of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (Group B). Results
      39 % of the women of Group A reported that their breasts were of different size
      or entirely absent on one side. In Group B, 86 % of the women reported
      differently sized or even absent breasts; two of these women lacked both breasts
      entirely. Most women described their nipples as exceptionally flat. 10 % of the
      women of Group A had more than two nipples. The high percentage of deviations
      from the norm was confirmed in the photodocumentation. Both groups had few or no
      sebaceous glands of Montgomery in the areolar region. Around 80 % of interviewed
      women had children and had attempted to breastfeed their first child. 67 % of the
      mothers in Group A had had difficulty in breastfeeding their infants and
      generally attributed this difficulty to their flat nipples. All of the mothers in
      Group B reported difficulties in breastfeeding; 60 % had not been able to
      breastfeed their first child. Conclusion Mothers with hypohidrotic ectodermal
      dysplasia very often have difficulty in breastfeeding because of their impaired
      breast development. This causal relationship needs to be taken into account in
      lactation counseling.

PMID- 28553002
TI  - Full Characterization of Multiphase, Multimorphological Kinetics in Flow-Induced
      Crystallization of IPP at Elevated Pressure.
AB  - Understanding the complex crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene
      (iPP) in conditions comparable to those found in polymer processing, where the
      polymer melt experiences a combination of high shear rates and elevated
      pressures, is key for modeling and therefore predicting the final structure and
      properties of iPP products. Coupling a unique experimental setup, capable to
      apply wall shear rates similar to those experienced during processing and
      carefully control the pressure before and after flow is imposed, with in situ X
      ray scattering and diffraction techniques (SAXS and WAXD) at fast acquisition
      rates (up to 30 Hz), a well-defined series of short-term flow experiments are
      carried out using 16 different combinations of wall shear rates (ranging from 110
      to 440 s-1) and pressures (100-400 bar). A complete overview on the kinetics of
      structure development during and after flow is presented. Information about shish
      formation and growth of alpha-phase parents lamellae from the shish backbones is
      extracted from SAXS; the overall apparent crystallinity evolution, amounts of
      different phases (alpha, beta, and gamma), and morphologies developing in the
      shear layer (parent and daughter lamellae both in alpha and gamma phase) are
      fully quantified from the analysis of WAXD data. Both flow rate and pressure were
      found to have a significant influence on the nucleation and the growth process of
      oriented and isotropic structures. Flow affects shish formation and the growth of
      alpha-parents; pressure acts on relaxation times, enhancing the effect of flow,
      and (mainly) on the growth rate of gamma-phase. The remarkably high amount of
      gamma-lamellae found in the oriented layer strongly indicates the nucleation of
      gamma directly from the shish backbone. All the observations were conceptually in
      agreement with the flow-induced crystallization model framework developed in our
      group and represent a unique and valuable data set that will be used to further
      validate and implement our numerical modeling, filling the gap for quantitatively
      modeling crystallization during complicated processing operations like injection
      molding.

PMID- 28553003
TI  - Skeletal and Appendage Diversity as Design Elements in the Synthesis of a
      Discovery Library of Nonaromatic Polycyclic 5-Iminooxazolidin-2-ones, Hydantoins,
      and Acylureas.
AB  - Amino acid-derived cross-conjugated trienes were used as a starting point for the
      synthesis of a discovery library of over 200 polycyclic 5-iminooxazolidin-2-ones,
      hydantoins, and acylureas. The main feature of this library synthesis is a triple
      branching strategy which provides efficient access to five skeletally diverse
      scaffolds. In addition, four sets of building blocks were applied in both a front
      end and a back end diversification strategy. Multiple fused rings were obtained
      by cyclization of diamides with phosgene and stereoselective Diels-Alder
      reactions with maleimides. The 5-iminooxazolidin-2-one scaffold was rearranged
      into the isomeric hydantoin scaffold through a sequence of ring opening and ring
      closing reactions.

PMID- 28553004
TI  - Relationships Among Caregiving, Income, Gender, and Health: A Cross-Sectional
      Examination of a Representative Sample of Older Americans.
AB  - Although there is substantial evidence to support the impact of burden on
      caregivers, few studies have compared caregivers to their non-caregiving
      counterparts on the basis of health and wellbeing outcomes. This study examines
      the relationship between caregiving and health, and whether other factors may
      have stronger influence on well-being measures. Using a nationally representative
      sample of older adults in the United States (N=3,005), this study examines
      relationships between caregiving status, gender, and income, and nine outcomes
      (self-rated physical and mental health, time since seeing a doctor, time since
      most recent pap smear or prostate-specific antigen [PSA] test, depression,
      loneliness, stress, anxiety), using logistic and linear regression models.
      Results support that paradoxically, caregiving was associated with increased
      likelihood of PSA test in male caregivers, although data also indicated higher
      levels of anxiety and stress, as might be expected. Income was associated with
      eight of nine outcomes, and gender predicted depression, anxiety, stress, and
      self-rated mental health. The study highlighted the importance of psychosocial
      stressors, such as income and gender on the health outcomes of older adults who
      may be caregiving. Considering complexity of unique experience is necessary to
      accurately assess vulnerability to poor mental health or health related outcomes.

PMID- 28553005
TI  - Phosphonium ionic liquids as extractants for recovery of ruthenium(III) from
      acidic aqueous solutions.
AB  - The aim of this work is to investigate extraction of ruthenium(III) from acidic
      aqueous solutions with phosphonium ionic liquids such as
      trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride (Cyphos IL 101),
      trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphinate (Cyphos IL
      104) and tributyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride (Cyphos IL 167) as extractants.
      The influence of HCl content in the feed solutions on extraction of Ru(III) was
      investigated. The research was performed for model solutions containing Ru(III)
      and a mixture of waste solutions containing Ru(III) and Rh(III). In addition,
      investigation of the type of extractant and its concentration in the organic
      phase on extraction of Ru(III) was carried out. Co-extraction of protons to the
      organic phase was determined. To the best of our knowledge, the extraction of
      Ru(III) with Cyphos IL 167 (tributyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride) as an
      extractant has not yet been described in the scientific literature.

PMID- 28553006
TI  - Determination of mycotoxins, alkaloids, phytochemicals, antioxidants and
      cytotoxicity in Asiatic ginseng (Ashwagandha, Dong quai, Panax ginseng).
AB  - Mycotoxins and selected hazardous alkaloids in the medicinal plants (Panax
      ginseng, Angelica sinensis, and Withania somnifera) and dietary supplements were
      determined. Purine alkaloids were found in majority of samples; however,
      isoquinoline alkaloids were less abundant than indole. The predominant alkaloids
      appear to be caffeine (purine group), harman (indole group) and berberine
      (isoquinoline). Examined medicinal plants and dietary supplements were
      contaminated by mycotoxins (especially ochratoxin A 1.72-5.83 ug kg-1), and many
      species of mold (e.g. Cladosporium, Eurotium, Aspergillus, Rhizopus,
      Penicillium). MTT cytotoxicity tests revealed that plant and supplements extracts
      exhibited medium or high cytotoxicity (only Dong quai-low). Moreover, antioxidant
      activity, total phenolics content and selected phytochemicals were analyzed by
      spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods. Quercetin and rutin were
      predominant flavonols (1.94-9.51 and 2.20-7.28 mg 100 g-1, respectively).
      Analysis of phenolic acids revealed-gallic acid, as the most abundant, except
      Panax ginseng, where ferulic acid was prevailing. The results were analyzed by
      chemometric methods (cluster analysis, ANOVA).

PMID- 28553007
TI  - Histology and ultrastructure of the integumental chromatophores in tokay gecko
      (Gekko gecko) (Linnaeus, 1758) skin.
AB  - This paper describes the relationship between the arrangement of dermal
      chromatophores in tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) skin and the formation of wild-type
      colouration, with emphasis on the ultrastructure of chromatophores. The samples
      of the tokay gecko skin were collected from wild-type colouration adult
      specimens. Morphology and distribution of chromatophores was determined by using
      light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The present study revealed
      that orange/red coloured skin of G. gecko contained erythrophores, which were
      located under basement membrane, and usually comprised deeper situated
      iridophores and melanophores which were form single layer with iridophores or
      were occupying the deepest region of dermis. In orange/red coloured skin,
      erythrophores were the predominant chromatophores. However in blue areas these
      cells occurred in small numbers or were not noticed at all. In blue pigmented
      areas predominated iridophores and melanophores. Iridophores were found just
      under basement membrane, but this superficial location of iridophores occured
      only in areas without erythrophores. Distribution of erythrophores, melanophores,
      and iridophores determines the characteristic blue colour of the tokay gecko skin
      with orange/red dots on the whole body.

PMID- 28553008
TI  - Song duration mediates responses of territory owner in a songbird species with a
      small song repertoire.
AB  - Song is a sexually selected trait that is involved in mate attraction and
      territory defence in birds. Songs may convey information about different male
      quality components. They are flexible in terms of frequency, amplitude, and
      duration. Although changes in song duration are common, the function of this
      behaviour has been studied less strongly. It is known that song duration changes
      within a singing bout and may provide information about aggressive motivation. We
      tested whether the elongation and shortening of songs affects the responses of
      territorial ortolan bunting males to neighbour song playback. If changing song
      duration signals level of aggressiveness, then songs differing solely in duration
      may elicit behavioural responses of different strength. We performed two tests
      with different males assigned to two experimental groups and measured approaching
      and vocal response. In Experiment 1, we tested 18 males, which responded to the
      playbacks of elongated and normal (control) neighbour songs. In Experiment 2, we
      tested 17 males, which responded to the playbacks of shortened and normal
      (control) neighbour songs. Males responded significantly stronger to longer songs
      in both experiments as measured by the approach variable. Vocal response was not
      affected by treatment, but it was affected by the order of playback presentation.
      Our results indicate that song duration might be used for signalling current
      aggressive motivation during close interactions with rivals.

PMID- 28553009
TI  - A novel strategy to escape a poor habitat: red-necked grebes transfer flightless
      young to other ponds.
AB  - Animals confronted with the threat of the death of their offspring may exhibit
      unusual and risk-prone behaviours. Grebes (Podicipediformes) are water birds
      which cannot effectively walk, thus unfledged young are assumed to be unable to
      depart from their natal ponds by land. We provide evidence that red-necked grebes
      Podiceps grisegena, breeding on ponds with scarce food resources, transferred
      their flightless young (2-4 weeks old) to other, unconnected ponds by land or
      air. Although a large proportion of breeding grebes in the study area nested on
      food-poor fish ponds acting as ecological traps, where they suffered significant
      brood losses, brood movements to new ponds accounted for only 3.3% of such
      breeding attempts. The infrequency of this strategy may be explained by the lack
      of suitable territories in close proximity and the high risk of predation or
      fatal injury. The means of chick transfer remains unclear; the chicks may have
      followed or been carried by parents shuffling across the pond levees;
      alternatively, parents may have carried the young on their backs in flight. Our
      findings indicate that red-necked grebes assess the current level of resources
      available for chicks and may adopt novel and risky strategies to escape total
      brood failure.

PMID- 28553010
TI  - Parent Management of Organization, Time Management, and Planning Deficits among
      Adolescents with ADHD.
AB  - Organization, Time Management, and Planning (OTP) problems are a key mechanism of
      academic failure for adolescents with ADHD. Parents may be well positioned to
      promote remediation of these deficits; yet, almost nothing is known about OTP
      management behaviors among parents of middle and high school students with ADHD.
      In a sample of 299 well-diagnosed adolescents with ADHD, a measure of parental
      OTP management was psychometrically validated. Latent Class Analysis was
      conducted to detect distinct patterns of parental OTP management and yielded four
      unique classes: Parental Control (18.7 %), Parent-Teen Collaboration (20.4 %),
      Homework Assistance (20.4 %), and Uninvolved (40.5 %). Logistic Regression
      analyses indicated that maladaptive parental OTP strategies were related to
      higher levels of parent and adolescent psychopathology. Parental OTP management
      did not relate to current adolescent OTP skills or GPA, indicating that parents
      did not select OTP management strategies in immediate response to adolescent
      functioning. Implications for parent-directed intervention are discussed.

PMID- 28553011
TI  - Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Method (CFD-DEM) Study of Mass
      Transfer Mechanisms in Riser Flow.
AB  - We report a computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM)
      simulation study on the interplay between mass transfer and a heterogeneous
      catalyzed chemical reaction in cocurrent gas-particle flows as encountered in
      risers. Slip velocity, axial gas dispersion, gas bypassing, and particle mixing
      phenomena have been evaluated under riser flow conditions to study the complex
      system behavior in detail. The most important factors are found to be directly
      related to particle cluster formation. Low air-to-solids flux ratios lead to more
      heterogeneous systems, where the cluster formation is more pronounced and mass
      transfer more influenced. Falling clusters can be partially circumvented by the
      gas phase, which therefore does not fully interact with the cluster particles,
      leading to poor gas-solid contact efficiencies. Cluster gas-solid contact
      efficiencies are quantified at several gas superficial velocities, reaction
      rates, and dilution factors in order to gain more insight regarding the influence
      of clustering phenomena on the performance of riser reactors.

PMID- 28553012
TI  - Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking?
AB  - Many experiments have found that participants take more investment risk if they
      see returns less frequently, see portfolio-level returns (rather than each
      individual asset's returns), or see long-horizon (rather than one-year)
      historical return distributions. In contrast, we find that such information
      aggregation treatments do not affect total equity investment when we make the
      investment environment more realistic than in prior experiments. Previously
      documented aggregation effects are not robust to changes in the risky asset's
      return distribution or the introduction of a multi-day delay between portfolio
      choice and return realizations.

PMID- 28553013
TI  - The Effect of Having Aggressive Friends on Aggressive Behavior in Childhood:
      Using Propensity Scores to Strengthen Causal Inference.
AB  - This study uses propensity scores to statistically approximate the causal effect
      of having aggressive friends on aggressive behavior in childhood. Participants
      were 1,355 children (53% girls; 31% minority) in 97 third and fifth grade
      classrooms enrolled in the Classroom Peer Ecologies Project. Propensity scores
      were calculated to control for the impact of 21 relevant confounder variables
      related to having aggressive friendships and aggressive behavior. The 21
      variables included demographic, social, and behavioral characteristics measured
      at the beginning of the school year. Presence/absence of aggressive friends was
      measured in the middle of the school year, and aggressive behavior was measured
      at the end of the school year. Results indicate a significant effect of having
      one or more aggressive friends on children's aggressive behavior above and beyond
      the effects of the 21 demographic, social, and behavioral variables. The
      propensity score model is compared to two other models of peer influence. The
      strengths and practical challenges of using propensity score analysis to study
      peer influence are discussed.

PMID- 28553015
TI  - Interluekin-35 in Asthma and Its Potential as an Effective Therapeutic Agent.
AB  - Interleukin- (IL-) 35 is a member of the IL-12 cytokine family and a
      heterodimeric protein formed by Epstein-Barr-induced gene 3 (EBI3) and IL-12p35.
      Emerging evidence shows that IL-35 is a key player in the regulation of cellular
      communication, differentiation, and inflammation. Altered IL-35 expression has
      been found in disease conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and, more
      recently, asthma. In cancer, IL-35 is involved in the regulation of
      tumorigenesis, cancer progression, and metastasis. In rheumatoid arthritis, IL-35
      acts as a negative regulator of inflammation. Similarly, IL-35 also appears to
      suppress allergic inflammation in asthma. In an in vivo murine model of asthma,
      transfer of adenovirus-mediated IL-35 markedly reduced the degree of airway
      hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and inflammatory cell infiltration. Many studies have
      shown the involvement of IL-35 in a number of aspects of allergic inflammation,
      such as eosinophil and neutrophil recruitment as well as inhibition of
      inflammatory mediators of the Th2 subtype. However, the exact molecular
      mechanisms underlying the role of IL-35 in human asthma have yet to be fully
      elucidated. This review describes the current evidence regarding the role of IL
      35 in the pathophysiology of asthma and evaluates the potential of IL-35 as a
      biomarker for airway inflammation and a therapeutic target for the treatment of
      asthma.

PMID- 28553014
TI  - Paracoccidioides Spp.: Virulence Factors and Immune-Evasion Strategies.
AB  - Paracoccidioides spp. are dimorphic fungal pathogens responsible for one of the
      most relevant systemic mycoses in Latin America, paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM).
      Their exact ecological niche remains unknown; however, they have been isolated
      from soil samples and armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus), which have been proposed
      as animal reservoir for these fungi. Human infection occurs by inhalation of
      conidia or mycelia fragments and is mostly associated with immunocompetent hosts
      inhabiting and/or working in endemic rural areas. In this review focusing on the
      pathogen perspective, we will discuss some of the microbial attributes and
      molecular mechanisms that enable Paracoccidioides spp. to tolerate, adapt, and
      ultimately avoid the host immune response, establishing infection.

PMID- 28553016
TI  - Urinary Levels of IL-1beta and GDNF in Preterm Neonates as Potential Biomarkers
      of Motor Development: A Prospective Study.
AB  - Objectives. To evaluate the association between inflammatory biomarkers,
      neurotrophic factors, birth conditions, and the presence of motor development
      abnormalities in preterm neonates. Methods. Plasma and urinary levels of
      cytokines (IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-10, TNF, and IL-12p70), chemokines (CXCL8/IL-8,
      CCL2/MCP-1, CCL5/RANTES, CXCL10/IP-10, and CXCL9/MIG), and neurotrophic factors
      (BDNF and GDNF) were evaluated in 40 preterm neonates born between 28 and 32
      incomplete weeks of gestation, at four distinct time points: at birth (umbilical
      cord blood) (T0), at 48 (T1), at 72 hours (T2), and at 3 weeks after birth (T3).
      Biomarkers levels were compared between different time points and then associated
      with Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP) percentiles. Results. Maternal age,
      plasma, and urinary concentrations of inflammatory molecules and neurotrophic
      factors were significantly different between groups with normal versus lower than
      expected motor development. Higher levels of GDNF were found in the group with
      lower than expected motor development, while IL-1beta and CXCL8/IL-8 values were
      higher in the group with typical motor development. Conclusion. Measurements of
      cytokines and neurotrophic factors in spot urine may be useful in the follow-up
      of motor development in preterm neonates.

PMID- 28553018
TI  - 'Civilising' Deaf people in Tibet and Inner Mongolia: governing linguistic,
      ethnic and bodily difference in China.
AB  - The People's Republic of China is home to over 20 million d/Deaf and hard-of
      hearing people, many among them belonging to ethnic minorities. Drawing on
      ethnographic fieldwork in two minority regions, the Tibet Autonomous Region and
      the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, this article comparatively discusses
      findings on sign language use, education and state welfare policies. The
      situation in these domains is analysed through the framework of the 'civilising
      project', coined by Harrell, and its impacts on the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing
      among ethnic minorities are shown. For instance, through the promotion of Chinese
      and Chinese Sign Language over and above the use of local sign and written
      languages as well as through education and the medicalisation of disabilities.

PMID- 28553019
TI  - Challenging Times for Public Health Towards Attaining Sustainable Development
      Goals.

PMID- 28553017
TI  - Capsular Polysaccharide is a Main Component of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in the
      Pathogen-Induced Toll-Like Receptor-Mediated Inflammatory Responses in Sheep
      Airway Epithelial Cells.
AB  - Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae) is characterized as an etiological
      agent of primary atypical pneumonia that specifically infects sheep and goat. In
      an attempt to better understand the pathogen-host interaction between the
      invading M. ovipneumoniae and airway epithelial cells, we investigated the host
      inflammatory responses against capsular polysaccharide (designated as CPS) of M.
      ovipneumoniae using sheep bronchial epithelial cells cultured in an air-liquid
      interface (ALI) model. Results showed that CPS derived from M. ovipneumoniae
      could activate toll-like receptor- (TLR-) mediated inflammatory responses, along
      with an elevated expression of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB), activator
      protein-1 (AP-1), and interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) as well as various
      inflammatory-associated mediators, representatively including proinflammatory
      cytokines, such as IL1beta, TNFalpha, and IL8, and anti-inflammatory cytokines
      such as IL10 and TGFbeta of TLR signaling cascade. Mechanistically, the CPS
      induced inflammation was TLR initiated and was mediated by activations of both
      MyD88-dependent and MyD88-independent signaling pathways. Of importance, a
      blockage of CPS with specific antibody led a significant reduction of M.
      ovipneumoniae-induced inflammatory responses in sheep bronchial epithelial cells.
      These results suggested that CPS is a key virulent component of M. ovipneumoniae,
      which may play a crucial role in the inflammatory response induced by M.
      ovipneumoniae infections.

PMID- 28553020
TI  - Zika Virus: Can India Win the Fight?
AB  - Zika virus is an emerging arbovirus of public health importance transmitted by
      Aedes mosquito which also transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The
      disease has been spreading at an alarming rate in Africa, Pacific Islands, and
      the Americas. Given the expansion of environments where mosquitoes can live and
      breed, facilitated by urbanization and globalization, there is potential for
      major urban epidemics of Zika virus disease to occur globally. World Health
      Organization (WHO) has declared Zika virus disease to be a Public Health
      Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Our failed attempts to control dengue
      epidemics in the past call for concern and we need to be to prepared to fight
      Zika virus before it arrives at our doors.

PMID- 28553021
TI  - Improving Access to Institutional Delivery through Janani Shishu Suraksha
      Karyakram: Evidence from Rural Haryana, North India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In India, Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) was launched in
      the year 2011 to assure cashless institutional delivery to pregnant women,
      including free transport and diet. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of JSSK on
      institutional delivery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A record review was done at the
      primary health care facility in Faridabad district of Haryana from August 2010 to
      March 2013. Focus group discussion/ informal interviews were carried out to get
      an insight about various factors determining use / non-use of health facilities
      for delivery. RESULTS: Institutional delivery increased by almost 2.7 times (197
      Vs 537) after launch of JSSK (p < 0.001). For institutional deliveries, the most
      important facilitator as well as barrier was identified as ambulance service
      under JSSK and pressure by elders in the family respectively. CONCLUSIONS: JSSK
      scheme had a positive impact on institutional deliveries. It should be supported
      with targeted intervention designed to facilitate appropriate decision-making at
      family level in order to address barriers to institutional delivery.

PMID- 28553022
TI  - From Policy to Practice: Lessons from Karnataka about Implementation of Tobacco
      Control Laws.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tobacco use accounts for eight to nine lakh adult deaths annually in
      India. India enacted a national legislation "Cigarettes and Other Tobacco
      Products Act, 2003" (COTPA) to protect health of non-smokers and reduce tobacco
      consumption. However, even a decade after enacting this law, its implementation
      remains suboptimal and variable across the Indian states. Karnataka has shown
      leadership on this front by enacting a state law and implementing COTPA at (sub-)
      district levels. We, therefore, aim to analyze COTPA implementation processes in
      Karnataka to understand how COTPA can be effectively implemented. METHODS: We
      developed a case study of COTPA implementation in Karnataka using reports from
      health, police, education, and transport departments as well as government orders
      and media reports related to COTPA. We analyzed these data to map and understand
      the role played by the government agencies in COTPA implementation. We used the
      proportion of the districts reporting COTPA violations, the number of COTPA
      violations cases reported, and the proportion of schools reporting compliance
      with COTPA as proxy measures for COTPA implementation. RESULTS: We found that
      five government agencies (police, education, health, transport, and urban
      development) played a major role in COTPA implementation. All the police
      districts reported COTPA violations with 59,594 cases in a year (April 2013-March
      2014). Three of the district anti-tobacco cells and two of the transport
      divisions reported 1130 and 14,543 cases of COTPA violations, respectively, in
      the same year. In addition, 84.7% of schools complied with signage requirements
      of COTPA. COTPA reporting was made part of the reporting systems within health,
      police, and education departments. The health department created awareness on
      tobacco harms and COTPA. CONCLUSIONS: COTPA implementation in Karnataka was made
      possible through integrating COTPA implementation within structure/functions of
      five government agencies.

PMID- 28553023
TI  - Process Evaluation of Communitisation Programme in Public Sector Health
      Facilities, Mokokchung District, Nagaland, 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Public sector health facilities were poorly managed due to a history
      of conflict in Nagaland, India. Government of Nagaland introduced "Nagaland
      Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act" in 2002. Main objectives
      of the evaluation were to review the functioning of Health Center Managing
      Committees (HCMCs), deliver health services in the institutions managed by HCMC,
      identify strengths as well as challenges perceived by HCMC members in the rural
      areas of Mokokchung district, Nagaland. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The evaluation was
      made using input, process and output indicators. A doctor, the HCMC Chairman and
      one member from each of the three community health centers (CHC) and four primary
      health centers (PHC) were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire and an
      in-depth interview guide. Proportions for quantitative data were computed and key
      themes from the same were identified. RESULTS: Overall; the infrastructure,
      equipment and outpatient/inpatient service availability was satisfactory. There
      was a lack of funds and shortage of doctors, drugs as well as laboratory
      facilities. HCMCs were in place and carried out administrative activities. HCMCs
      felt ownership, mobilized community contributions and managed human resources.
      HCMC members had inadequate funds for their transport and training. They faced
      challenges in service delivery due to political interference and lack of adequate
      human, material, financial resources. CONCLUSIONS: Communitisation program was
      operational in the district. HCMC members felt the ownership of health
      facilities. Administrative, political support and adequate funds from the
      government are needed for effective functioning of HCMCs and optimal service
      delivery in public sector facilities.

PMID- 28553024
TI  - Nutritional Status of Preschool Children in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Food
      Insecurity, Food Groups, and Nutrient Consumption among Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Childhood undernutrition is a public health concern in India. But on
      such a serious issue, there are no data available from the Union Territory of
      Andaman and Nicobar (A and N) Islands. OBJECTIVES: Present study was designed to
      know the prevalence of food insecurity, to estimate food group and nutrient
      intake among the community, and undernutrition and clinical signs of
      micronutrient deficiency among the preschool children of A and N islands.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multistage random sampling was followed to select the
      households containing children aged 6-59 months. In the selected households'
      sociodemographic particulars, Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS),
      among preschoolers the weight and height were recorded along with the
      documentation of clinical signs of micronutrient deficiency, morbidities suffered
      over previous fortnight, and measurement of hemoglobin. Diet survey was carried
      out in every fourth household. RESULTS: A total of 1259 preschoolers residing in
      1082 households were examined, HFIAS was measured in 710 households in Andaman
      group of islands and diet survey was conducted in 290 households. The prevalence
      of undernutrition was around 27%, stunting was 36%, and anemia was around 81%.
      Undernutrition and anemia prevalence were significantly low among Nicobarese
      children. After adjusting for all the determinants, tribal in domicile had
      favorable outcome [odds ratio (OR): 0.28 (0.18, 0.43)], while below poverty line
      family had adverse outcome on undernutrition [OR: 1.72 (1.20, 2.46)]. CONCLUSION:
      Though the prevalence of undernutrition is relatively low in the islands, but
      high prevalence of anemia needs to be addressed. Nicobarese children fare better
      in almost all indicators of nutritional well-being except for stunting. KEY
      MESSAGES: The prevalence of undernutrition is relatively low in Andaman and
      Nicobar Islands. Nicobarese children fare better in almost all indicators of
      nutritional well-being. However high prevalence of stunting among Nicobarese
      children needs further research with appropriate methodology. High prevalence of
      anemia in the islands needs to be addressed. A socially and culturally specific
      intervention strategy needs to be envisaged.

PMID- 28553025
TI  - Depression, Anxiety and Stress Among Higher Secondary School Students of Imphal,
      Manipur.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adolescence is a stressful period due to physical, psychological,
      sexual changes, and the presence of psychiatric disorders such as depression,
      anxiety, and stress at this stage of life is a matter of concern. OBJECTIVES: The
      objectives of the study were to determine the prevalences of depression, anxiety,
      and stress among higher secondary school students of Imphal and to determine the
      association between depression, anxiety, and stress and selected variables such
      as gender, standard, and religion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From September 2014 to
      October 2014, a cross-sectional study was conducted among higher secondary school
      students of Imphal. The sample size was calculated to be 750. Seven schools were
      randomly selected, and all the students in that school were enrolled in the
      study. The study tool used was a questionnaire containing DASS (Depression
      Anxiety Stress Scale) and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: The
      prevalences of depression, anxiety, and stress among 830 valid respondents were
      19.5%, 24.4%, and 21.1%, respectively. In total, 81.6% of the respondents had at
      least one of the studied disorders and 34.7% of the respondents had all the three
      negative states. The prevalences of depression, anxiety, and stress were high
      among females and were significant for anxiety (P = 0.00) and stress (P = 0.04).
      The prevalences of depression and stress were significantly higher among 12th
      standard students with P-values of 0.00 and 0.02. CONCLUSION: The prevalences of
      depression, anxiety, and stress were high with anxiety and stress significantly
      higher among females, whereas prevalences of depression and stress were
      significantly higher among 12th standard students. More studies are recommended
      to determine the factors leading to these mental disorders.

PMID- 28553026
TI  - A Score-based Performance Assessment of Maternal and Child Health Services
      Provided by USHA of Rajkot City.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Urban Social Health Activists (USHAs) are the grass root health care
      workers of urban areas. There are 290 USHAs distributed in various Urban Health
      Centers (UHCs) of Rajkot city. OBJECTIVES: To compare the (i) effectiveness of
      the training received by the USHAs on their knowledge and counseling skills (ii)
      knowledge and counseling skills of USHAs on the awareness and utilization of
      Maternal and Child Health (MCH) care services by their beneficiaries. METHODS:
      This cross-sectional study involved 32 USHAs and 416 beneficiaries served by the
      same USHAs. 32 USHAs serving in the same field practice area for more than two
      years were randomly selected. The beneficiaries were those mothers who had a
      child between 1-2 years age, and who had availed their antenatal and postnatal
      services in the same area. A scoring system was used to assess the knowledge and
      counseling skills of the USHAs and the knowledge and utilization of services by
      their beneficiaries. RESULTS: The utilization of health services was
      significantly more in the beneficiaries who were serviced by USHAs having
      comparatively better knowledge (72.7% vs. 35.3%) and counseling skills (62.2% vs.
      30.6%). The median score for knowledge (41 vs. 30) and counseling skills (20 vs.
      16) of the USHAs was found to be more (P < 0.05) in those who had undertaken
      induction training. CONCLUSIONS: Induction training helped the USHAs to improve
      their knowledge and counseling skills. Utilization of MCH services was more in
      those areas served by USHAs having better knowledge and counseling skills.

PMID- 28553027
TI  - A Ten Year Audit of Maternal Mortality: Millennium Development Still a Distant
      Goal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess various causes of maternal mortality over a ten year period.
      DESIGN: Retrospective audit of hospital case records. SETTING: Tertiary care
      hospital. POPULATION: Pregnant women who expired in the premises of GTB Hospital.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective audit of case records of maternal deaths
      was conducted for a ten year period (January 2005 to December 2014). RESULTS:
      There were a total of 647 maternal deaths out of 1,16,641 live births. Sixty
      eight percent (n = 445) of women were aged 21-30 years, while 10.5% (n = 68) were
      <20 years of age. The most common direct causes of maternal mortality were
      preeclampsia/eclampsia in 24.4% (n = 158), obstetric hemorrhage in 19.1% (n =
      124) and puerperal sepsis in 14.5% (n = 94). With regards to indirect causes,
      anemia accounted for 15.3% (n = 99) mortality. There was only 1 (0.1%) mortality
      because of HIV/AIDS. Other notable causes of maternal mortality were infective
      hepatitis in 7.1% (n = 46). Tuberculosis, that is a disease of tropical
      countries, accounted for 3.0% (n = 20) of the total deaths. CONCLUSION: High
      maternal mortality in GTB hospital can be due to it being a tertiary hospital
      with referrals from all neighbouring states. Accessible antenatal care can help
      prevent these maternal deaths. Female education can be of immense help in dealing
      with the problem and improving the utilization of public health facilities. KEY
      MESSAGE: Preeclampsia/eclampsia and obstetric hemorrhage have been the main
      causes of maternal mortality for ages. Regular antenatal visits and the judicious
      training of grassroot level workers to pick-up complications early on in the
      pregnancy can be an effective way to deal the morbidity and mortality associated
      with these problems. The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Janani Shishu Suraksha
      Karyakaram (JSSK) in India are pioneer steps in this direction.

PMID- 28553028
TI  - Role of Community in Swachh Bharat Mission. Their Knowledge, Attitude and
      Practices of Sanitary Latrine Usage in Rural Areas, Tamil Nadu.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In most developing countries, open defecation is the 'way of life'.
      This practice is considered as the most serious health and environmental hazard.
      Prime Minister of India launched the "Swachh Bharat Mission" to accelerate the
      efforts for achieving universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on
      sanitation. OBJECTIVE: To find the knowledge, attitude and practices of sanitary
      latrines usage in rural area, Tamil Nadu. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional study conducted among rural population in Kuthambakkam village, Tamil
      Nadu. There were a total of 1175 households in Kuthambakkam village. These
      households were serially numbered and of these a sample of 275 households were
      selected for the study using simple random sampling technique by lottery method.
      A structured questionnaire was used to collect information regarding the
      background characteristics, their knowledge, attitude and practices towards
      sanitary latrines usage. Descriptive statistics were calculated for background
      variables, the prevalence of sanitary latrines usage and open air defecation.
      Association between factors responsible for open air defecation was found by
      using chi square test. RESULTS: The prevalence of usage of household sanitary
      latrine and community latrines was 62.5% and 4.3% respectively. The prevalence of
      open air defecation among the study participants was 33.1%.Significant
      association was found between low standard of living and open air defecation
      practice. CONCLUSIONS: To solve the problem of underutilization of sanitary
      latrines, planning and conducting Information Education Communication activities
      is very essential. Effective political and administrative support is needed to
      scale up the sanitation program.

PMID- 28553029
TI  - Summer Temperature and Spatial Variability of all-Cause Mortality in Surat City,
      India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ample information is available on extreme heat associated mortality
      for few Indian cities, but scant literature is available on effect of temperature
      on spatial variability of all-cause mortality for coastal cities. OBJECTIVE: To
      assess the effect of daily maximum temperature, relative humidity and heat index
      on spatial variability of all-cause mortality for summer months (March to May)
      from 2014 to 2015 for the urban population of Surat (coastal) city. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the all-cause mortality data with temperature
      and humidity was performed on a total of 9,237 deaths for 184 summer days (2014
      2015). Climatic and all-cause mortality data were obtained through Tutiempo
      website and Surat Municipal Corporation respectively. Bivariate analysis
      performed through SPSS. OBSERVATIONS: Mean daily mortality was estimated at 50.2
      +/- 8.5 for the study period with a rise of 20% all-cause mortality at
      temperature >= 40 degrees C and rise of 10% deaths per day during extreme danger
      level (HI: > 54 degrees C) days. Spatial (Zone wise) analysis revealed rise of
      61% all-cause mortality for Southeast and 30% for East zones at temperature >= 40
      degrees C. CONCLUSIONS: All-cause mortality increased on high summer temperature
      days. Presence of spatial variation in all-cause mortality provided the evidence
      for high risk zones. Findings may be helpful in designing the interventions at
      micro level.

PMID- 28553030
TI  - Improving Perinatal Health: Are Indian Health Policies Progressing In The Right
      Direction?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strategic investments and policy directives of the Indian Government
      has demonstrated highest degree of political commitment for maternal and child
      health care. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of the rise in institutional
      deliveries in India on perinatal mortality. METHODS: Hospital delivery rate and
      perinatal mortality rate (PNMR), reported by Sample Registration System,
      Registrar General of India, on a representative sample was used. The correlation
      between relative change in hospital deliveries and PNMR was examined. RESULTS: In
      rural areas of India, hospital deliveries have increased during 2005-2013 from
      24.4 to 69.7% and PNMR has declined from 40 to 28 per 1000 births. At the state
      level, there was significant correlation between the rise in hospital delivery
      rate and decline in PNMR (r 0.4, p 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Decline in perinatal rates
      can be attributed to India's strategic initiatives in health policy and planning
      for increasing deliveries in hospitals.

PMID- 28553031
TI  - Leprosy: An Urgent Need to Step Up Surveillance.

PMID- 28553032
TI  - Stroke in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease...: How do we Approach and Manage
      it?
AB  - Renal failure is a potent risk factor for stroke, which is a leading cause of
      morbidity and mortality worldwide. The risk of stroke is 5-30 times higher in
      patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), especially on dialysis. Case fatality
      rates are also higher reaching almost 90%. It is therefore important to
      understand the factors that predispose to stroke in this vulnerable population to
      better apply preventive strategies. The heightened risk of stroke in CKD
      represents the interplay of the vascular co-morbidities that occur with renal
      impairment and factors specific to renal failure such as malnutrition
      inflammation-atherosclerosis complex, the effect of uremic toxins, dialysis
      techniques, vascular access, and the use of anticoagulants to maintain flow in
      the extracorporeal circuit. Old age, hypertension, diabetes, and previous
      cerebrovascular disease are all risk factors for stroke with the period of
      dialysis initiation constituting the highest risk period for developing new
      stroke. Patients with CKD-stage 3-5 have worse survival and diminished functional
      outcomes following stroke. Thrombolytic therapy for stroke in CKD has shown an
      increased risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage or serious systemic
      hemorrhage, and the therapeutic effects may be attenuated. Benefit of statin
      therapy in dialysis patient as preventive therapy has not been shown to be
      beneficial. Control of hypertension and the judicious use of antiplatelet agents
      form the mainstay of stroke prevention. The benefit of antiplatelet therapies and
      oral anticoagulants has to be balanced against the real and increased risk of
      bleeding that is most evident in dialysis cohorts. An increased risk of vascular
      calcification particularly intracerebral vascular calcification has been seen in
      patientsreceiving warfarin as prophylaxis in atrial fibrillation. Newer
      anticoagulants have not been tested in patients with glomerular filtration rate
      <30 ml/min and hence have to be used with caution. This article is a review of
      stroke in patients with CKD and approach to managing it.

PMID- 28553033
TI  - Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring - Kids Need it Too?

PMID- 28553034
TI  - Hemodialysis Vascular Access: The Perils and Potentials.

PMID- 28553035
TI  - Brachiocephalic Arteriovenous Fistula for Hemodialysis through the Median
      Antecubital Vein.
AB  - In patients unsuitable for radiocephalic fistula creation, the next option is
      brachiocephalic fistula. In such patients, we exploited the venous
      interconnections in the cubital fossa for median cubital vein-Brachiocephalic
      arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation. In this article, we describe our experience
      in the creation of such technical variant of the brachiocephalic fistula AVF, its
      success and associated complications. A retrospective review of such AVF created
      between September 2014 and August 2015 was done. The data collected included
      demographics, co-morbidities, basic disease, operative details, patency,
      complications, and mortality. A total of 68 vascular access surgeries were done
      which included 26 (38.2%) brachiocephalic AVF using the median antecubital vein.
      The mean cephalic vein diameter and mean flow rate were 7.18 mm and 1415 ml/min,
      respectively 2 months after fistula creation. The primary and secondary failure
      rates were 3.87% and 7.69% respectively. Complications included aneurysm (7.69%),
      edema (19.23%), hematoma (11.53%), and wound infection (3.8%). Using reverse flow
      in the median antecubital vein is a safe and simple way to perform
      brachiocephalic AVF before brachiobasilic AVF and grafts.

PMID- 28553036
TI  - Postpartum Acute Kidney Injury: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center.
AB  - Pregnancy-related-acute kidney injury (PR-AKI) had decreased from 40% to 20% in
      1960 to <10% in recent series, mostly due to meticulous antenatal management.
      Postpartum-AKI (PP-AKI) resulting from late obstetric complications has become
      more apparent after improvement in antenatal care and legalization of medical
      termination of pregnancy. Women with renal injury in peripartum period admitted
      to our hospital over a period of 2 years (April 2013 to May 2015) were studied.
      Of 713 patients of AKI admitted, 61 had PR-AKI with an incidence of 4.27%. Out of
      the 61 patients, 28 had PP-AKI with an incidence of 1.96%. The mean age of
      patients with PP-AKI was 26.10 +/- 4.3 years. Sepsis was the most common cause
      accounting for 11 (39.28%) cases followed by postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) in 7
      (25%) cases. Renal biopsy was done in nine patients, out of whom four were having
      cortical necrosis. Patients having diffuse cortical necrosis remained dialysis
      dependent. High contribution of sepsis and PPH to PP-AKI in our setting makes it
      an ideal target for rectification. Protocolized peripartum monitoring and
      standard clinical practices of asepsis will go long way in decreasing the
      incidence of PP-AKI and maternal morbidity in our valley.

PMID- 28553037
TI  - A Comparison of Practice Pattern and Outcome of Twice-weekly and Thrice-weekly
      Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - Renal replacement therapy (RRT) options and practice varies in countries
      worldwide and is influenced by patients' choice, nephrologists' practice
      patterns, health system, payer practice, public policy, and socioeconomic
      factors. In India, hemodialysis (HD) remains the dominant RRT modality, and the
      practice is largely influenced by socioeconomics of the region of practice since
      third party payer is limited. Resource stretch to maximize outcome benefit is
      essential and HD session twice weekly is an improvized and cost-effective
      clinical practice. However, within the country, the patient characteristics,
      practice patterns, and outcomes of twice-weekly HD compared against patients
      dialyzed thrice weekly remain unclear. We did a retrospective analysis of
      patients who underwent twice- and thrice-weekly HD in a single center under
      similar settings. The patients on thrice a week dialysis were older and with a
      higher proportion of diabetics and were insured by private payers. Weight gain,
      ultrafiltration rates, blood pressures, and hemoglobin remained more favorable in
      the thrice-weekly patients. There was no significant difference in the
      hospitalization rates or mortality rates in the two groups. Patients who undergo
      twice-weekly HD have poorer intermediate measures of the outcome; although,
      morbidity and survival were not different in a small study population with short
      follow-up. The small sample size and the short duration of follow-up may limit
      the scope of findings of our study.

PMID- 28553038
TI  - The Relationship between Metabolic Acidosis and Nutritional Parameters in
      Patients on Hemodialysis.
AB  - The progressive loss of kidney function is accompanied by metabolic acidosis. The
      relationship between metabolic acidosis, nutritional status, and oral bicarbonate
      supplementation has not been assessed in the Indian chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      population who are on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). This is a single-center
      prospective study conducted in the Western part of India. Thirty-five patients,
      who were receiving MHD were assessed for metabolic acidosis along with various
      nutritional parameters at the baseline and at the follow-up after 3 months,
      postcorrection of acidosis with oral sodium bicarbonate supplements. The
      relationship between the correction of metabolic acidosis with oral bicarbonate
      supplements and changes in dietary and various nutritional parameters were
      evaluated. Metabolic acidosis at the baseline evaluation was found in 62.86%
      cases of the cohort with a mean serum bicarbonate value of 20.18 +/- 4.93 mmol/L.
      The correction of acidosis with increment in the mean dosage of oral sodium
      bicarbonate supplements from 0.69 +/- 0.410 mmol/kg/day at baseline to 1.04 +/-
      0.612 mmol/kg/day, significantly reduced the prevalence of metabolic acidosis to
      23.33% cases at the follow-up. Improvement in serum bicarbonate level showed
      significant dietary, anthropometric, and nutritional improvements in these
      patients. Hence, we conclude that correction of metabolic acidosis with optimal
      oral bicarbonate supplementation plays a pivotal role in the treatment of
      malnourished CKD patients on MHD.

PMID- 28553039
TI  - Baseline Anti-blood Group Antibody Titers and their Response to Desensitization
      and Kidney Transplantation.
AB  - In recent years, immunological barriers historically considered as absolute
      contraindications to transplantation are being reevaluated. One such barrier is
      the ABO blood group incompatibility. With better understanding of immunological
      mechanisms and effective various regimens for controlling it, ABO-incompatible
      (ABO-I) kidney transplantation is now being performed with increasing frequency.
      For good outcome, most important is to achieve and maintain low anti-blood group
      antibody titers (ABGATs). Twenty-two patients with ABO-I donors have been
      studied. The anti-A and anti-B antibody titers (IgG and IgM) were estimated by
      column agglutination technology using Automated Ortho BioVue System. For
      desensitization, pretransplant plasmapheresis and/or immunoadsorption and
      rituximab were used. ABGAT was determined before transplant and periodically
      after transplant. It was observed that one-third of the patients have low
      baseline ABGAT. In these cases with low ABGAT, transplant can be performed
      without any desensitization. In those with titers <1:256, rituximab (two doses of
      200 mg weekly) and 3-6 sessions of plasmapheresis can bring down titers to <1:32.
      In those with titers >1:256, immunoadsorption may be used from the beginning to
      reduce ABGAT. After transplant, the titers drop to <1:8 in majority. Rise in
      titers to >1:64 require close observation and biopsy. If there is evidence of
      antibody-mediated rejection, treatment should be promptly started. Rise in titers
      4-6 weeks after transplant is not associated with any graft dysfunction, and
      hence not of any clinical significance.

PMID- 28553040
TI  - Prosthetic Hemodialysis Access-induced Distal Hand Ischemia and its Contributors
      in Diabetics.
AB  - Avoidance of hand ischemia in the construction of prosthetic access for
      hemodialysis in diabetics that have no suitable vein for arteriovenous fistula is
      appreciated. Taper type may be an appropriately matched conduit to prevent its
      occurrence. This is a prospective controlled trial of 38 selected diabetics
      requiring hemodialysis, who were referred to our clinic during a period of 6
      months. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of tapered grafts in
      preventing distal hand hypoperfusion and determining its most likely
      contributors. In 18 intervening cases, taper 4 mm * 7 mm and in twenty cases
      (control group), standard 6 mm polytetrafluoroethylene as straight Brachial
      Axillary access was used. Graft flow rates, artery and vein diameters, and mean
      arterial pressure were included for evaluation. Within the control group, 11
      patients (55%) (7 cases Grade 1, 3 Grade 2, 1 Grade 3) and in intervening group,
      2 cases (11%) (Grade 1, Grade 3) developed Steal syndrome. There was no
      significant difference in the mean flow rates (P = 0.82). Increased risk of
      distal hypoperfusion was observed in the control group when flow rates were more
      than 1000 ml/min. Arterial diameters (P = 0.011) and mean arterial pressure (P =
      0.05) were found to be important contributing factors. Taper grafts causes
      reduced incidence of distal hand hypoperfusion. When artery diameter was <6 mm
      and mean arterial pressure lower than 100 mmHg and the index (brachial artery
      diameter * mean arterial pressure) was under 500, distal hand ischemia occurred
      in standard and tapper type. We therefore recommend selective usage of taper
      grafts in diabetics with diminished distal hand pulses, considering the
      contributing factors when fistula first is not feasible.

PMID- 28553041
TI  - A Single-center Experience of Kidney Transplantation from Donation after
      Circulatory Death: Challenges and Scope in India.
AB  - Donation after circulatory death (DCD) has never been attempted in India because
      of legal constraints and lack of guidelines for the withdrawal of life support in
      end-of-life situations. The present report describes the initial experience of
      transplantation of organs from DCD donors in a tertiary care center in India.
      Between 2011 and 2015, five donors had kidneys retrieved after cardiac arrest.
      These patients were declared dead after waiting for 5 min with no
      electrocardiographic signal on monitor following cardiopulmonary resuscitation
      (CPR), which was restarted in three patients till organ retrieval. All donors
      received heparin and underwent rapid cannulation of aorta, infusion of
      preservative cold solution, and immediate surface cooling of organs during
      retrieval surgery. 9/10 kidneys were utilized. Mean donor age was 29.6 +/- 16.3
      years, M:F 4:1 and mean age of recipients was 38.7 +/- 10.8 years, M:F 7:2. Seven
      patients required dialysis in postoperative period. Mean postoperative day 0
      urine output was 1.9 +/- 2.6 L. Baseline creatinine achieved was 1.38 +/- 0.35
      mg/dl after a mean duration of 26.12 +/- 15.4 days. Kidneys from donors where CPR
      was continued after the declaration of death (n = 3) had better recovery of renal
      function (time to reach baseline creatinine 21.2 +/- 7.2 vs. 34.3 +/- 23.7 days,
      baseline creatinine 1.36 +/- 0.25 vs. 1.52 +/- 0.45 mg%). In donors without CPR,
      one kidney never functioned and others had patchy cortical necrosis on protocol
      biopsy, which was not seen in the kidneys from donors with CPR. Kidneys from DCD
      donors can serve as a useful adjunct in deceased donor program. Continuing CPR
      after the declaration of death seems to help in improving outcomes.

PMID- 28553042
TI  - Successful Renal Transplantation Across HLA Barrier: Report from India.
AB  - Organ donors are sometimes found "unsuitable" due to the presence of donor
      specific anti-HLA antibodies in the recipient. In recent years, improved
      desensitization protocols have successfully helped to overcome HLA
      incompatibility hurdle. We present three cases where optimum desensitization was
      achieved in patients with the donor-specific anti-HLA antibody (DSA) leading to
      successful renal transplantation. All patient-donor pair underwent HLA typing,
      complement dependent cytotoxicity crossmatch (CDC-XM), flow cytometry XM (FC-XM),
      and panel reactive antibody. If any of the three tests was positive, single
      antigen bead assay was performed to determine the specificity of the anti-HLA
      antibody (s). Patients with DSA were offered organ-swap or anti-HLA antibody
      desensitization followed by transplantation. Desensitization protocol consisted
      of single dose rituximab and cascade plasmapheresis (CP) along with standard
      triple immunosuppression. The target DSA mean fluorescence index (MFI) was <500,
      along with negative CDC-XM and FC-XM for both T- and B-cells. Three patients with
      anti-HLA DSA, who did not find a suitable match in organ swap program, consented
      to anti-HLA antibody desensitization, followed by transplantation. Mean pre
      desensitization antibody MFI was 1740 (1422-2280). Mean number of CP required to
      achieve the target MFI was 2.3 (2-3). All the three patients are on regular
      follow-up and have normal renal function test at a mean follow-up of 8 months.
      This report underlines successful application of desensitization protocol leading
      to successful HLA-antibody incompatible renal transplants and their continued
      normal renal functions.

PMID- 28553043
TI  - Unusual Case of Acute Lung Injury in a Renal Allograft Recipient.
AB  - A renal allograft recipient developed cough with hemoptysis on the 1st
      postoperative day. A chest X-ray was performed which was suggestive of fluid
      overload. His fluid was restricted and diuretics were added. On the same day, his
      pulmonary infiltrates worsened and a computed tomography (CT) of the chest was
      carried out, which was suggestive of the right lower lobe consolidation and left
      pleural effusion. He underwent a bronchoscopy and the lavage was sent for
      cultures, which did not grow any infective organism. Besides routine antibiotics,
      treatment for possible cytomegalovirus, fungal infections, and pneumocystis
      infection was instituted. Noninvasive ventilation was started on day 8. A repeat
      CT of the chest on the postoperative day 8 showed further worsening of the
      pulmonary infiltrates. As all the initial cultures and serology were negative, a
      possibility of interstitial pneumonitis was considered. Mycophenolate sodium was
      considered as a possible cause of the lung infiltrates and was withdrawn. The
      patient showed progressive improvement. His antibiotics were withdrawn. He was
      discharged on day 14. A repeat CT 4 weeks post transplant showed significant
      improvement in his pulmonary pathology. The acute lung injury was considered to
      be a drug reaction secondary to mycophenolate sodium. In a renal allograft
      recipient with persistent pulmonary infiltrates, interstitial involvement
      secondary to drugs should be considered if the patient does not improve with the
      standard treatment measures.

PMID- 28553044
TI  - Postrenal Transplant Metastatic Colonic Neoplasm: Posttransplant
      Lymphoproliferative Disorder or Adenocarcinoma?
AB  - Transplant recipients are vulnerable to a horde of infections and neoplastic
      conditions due to immunosuppression. Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder
      (PTLD) is a condition unique to the transplant recipient occurring due to
      monoclonal lymphocytic proliferation. It may affect any organ system with
      reportedly highest incidence in the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of
      adenocarcinoma of the colon, however, has not been shown to be uniformly higher
      in transplant recipients. We report here an unusual case of adenocarcinoma of the
      ascending colon presenting with liver, lymph node and skin metastasis in a
      transplant recipient, which simulated PTLD both clinically and radiologically.
      For any gastrointestinal lesion in transplant recipient, the possibility of
      carcinoma must be considered. However, a high index of suspicion for PTLD
      facilitates early diagnosis since the treatment of the two conditions is starkly
      different.

PMID- 28553045
TI  - Clinical and Genetic Profile of Indian Children with Primary Hyperoxaluria.
AB  - Primary hyperoxaluria (PH) has heterogeneous renal manifestations in infants and
      children. This often leads to delay in diagnosis. In the past 3 years, genetic
      samples were sent for seven children with a clinical diagnosis of PH. Their
      medical records were reviewed for clinical presentation and outcomes. Of the
      seven children, three were males. The median age of presentation was 4.9 years
      with the youngest presenting at 3 months of age. Nephrolithiasis, the most common
      presentation was associated with renal dysfunction in two children. Two children
      with no significant history presented in end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The
      sibling of one of the children in ESRD, with a history of consanguinity in
      parents, was screened for asymptomatic nephrolithiasis. Bilateral multiple renal
      calculi were found in majority of children followed by echogenic kidneys on
      ultrasound examination. Genetic analysis suggested PH Type 1 in five children and
      type 2 in two children. The mutations detected in our cohort were different from
      the previously reported common mutations. There was no obvious genotype-phenotype
      correlation noticed. Three children in ESRD are on maintenance dialysis.
      Nephrolithiasis being a common presentation of PH needs prompt evaluation.
      Mutations are generally population specific, and whole gene sequence analysis is
      critical in diagnosis.

PMID- 28553046
TI  - Amelogenesis Imperfecta with Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis: A Novel Syndrome?
AB  - Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) is a heterogeneous group of inherited dental enamel
      defects. It has rarely been reported in association with multiorgan syndromes and
      metabolic disorders. The metabolic disorders that have been reported in
      association with AI include hypocalciuria, impaired urinary concentrating
      ability, and Bartter-like syndrome. In literature, only three cases of AI and
      distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) have been described: two cases in adults and
      a solitary case in the pediatric age group. Here, we report a child with AI
      presenting with dRTA; to the best of our knowledge, our reported case is the only
      second such case in pediatric age group. Our case highlights the importance of
      recognizing the possibility of renal abnormalities in patients with AI as it will
      affect the long-term prognosis.

PMID- 28553047
TI  - De Novo Collapsing Glomerulopathy in Renal Allograft in Association with BK Virus
      Nephropathy in a Child and Stabilization of Renal Function by Elimination of
      Viremia.
AB  - Well-recognized association between HIV 1 infection and collapsing glomerulopathy
      (CG) raises the possibility that intrarenal infection by other viruses may also
      contribute to the development of this lesion in native or post-transplant
      kidneys. There is evidence in literature about association of these lesions with
      cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis C virus, and parvovirus B19
      infections. Here, we present a case report of post-transplant BK virus
      nephropathy in a male child who was found to have CG in subsequent biopsy 2
      months later. His renal function and proteinuria were stabilized on elimination
      of viremia.

PMID- 28553048
TI  - Acute Ciprofloxacin-Induced Crystal Nephropathy with Granulomatous Interstitial
      Nephritis.
AB  - Crystal-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is caused by the intratubular
      precipitation of crystals, which results in obstruction and kidney injury.
      Ciprofloxacin, a commonly used antibiotic, causes AKI secondary to immune
      mediated interstitial injury. Rare mechanisms of ciprofloxacin-induced renal
      injury include crystalluria, rhabdomyolysis, and granulomatous interstitial
      nephritis. Clinical and experimental studies have suggested that crystalluria and
      crystal nephropathy due to ciprofloxacin occur in alkaline urine. Preexisting
      kidney function impairment, high dose of the medication, and advanced age
      predispose to this complication. We report a case of ciprofloxacin-induced
      crystal nephropathy and granulomatous interstitial nephritis in a young patient
      with no other predisposing factors. The patient responded to conservative
      treatment without the need for glucocorticoids.

PMID- 28553049
TI  - A Case of Chylothorax in a Hemodialysis Patient with Left Innominate Venous
      Stenosis.
AB  - Chylothorax is defined as accumulation of chyle-containing lymphatic fluid within
      the pleural space. Chylothorax is very rarely seen in hemodialysis patients. We
      report a case of a patient on hemodialysis who developed chylothorax secondary to
      left innominate vein stenosis, with other features of venous hypertension such as
      arm edema successfully treated with angioplasty and pigtail drainage.

PMID- 28553050
TI  - Successful Treatment of Multiple Angiomyolipomas with Sirolimus in a Child.
AB  - Tuberous sclerosis complex frequently results in the formation of renal
      angiomyolipomas (AMLs). Sirolimus (SIR) or everolimus can be used to treat large
      AMLs, although this treatment has rarely been described in children, particularly
      for multiple renal AMLs. A 15-year-old girl presented with bilateral severe
      chronic flank pain coinciding with increased renal size and hundreds of renal
      AMLs. We opted to treat her with SIR over the course of 3.5 years. Following her
      treatment, her renal size had substantially decreased and the AMLs had shrunk.
      The patient's pain subsided as well. Our case, which has never been described in
      published literature, demonstrates that a child with multiple renal AMLs can be
      treated with SIR, and suggests that this treatment may be a viable option for
      preventing the development of secondary morbidities such as chronic pain.

PMID- 28553051
TI  - Lumps All Over: A Case of Chronic Tophaceous Gout (Harrison Syndrome).

PMID- 28553052
TI  - Reusing Immunoadsorption Column - Making the ABO Incompatible Renal Transplant
      Affordable.

PMID- 28553053
TI  - Nephrotoxicity in a Patient Treated with Pemetrexed.

PMID- 28553054
TI  - Cardiogenic Shock: The Main Cause of Mortality in Acute Aluminum Phosphide
      Poisoning.

PMID- 28553055
TI  - A new S-type upper bound for the largest singular value of nonnegative
      rectangular tensors.
AB  - By breaking [Formula: see text] into disjoint subsets S and its complement, a new
      S-type upper bound for the largest singular value of nonnegative rectangular
      tensors is given and proved to be better than some existing ones. Numerical
      examples are given to verify the theoretical results.

PMID- 28553056
TI  - Monotonicity rule for the quotient of two functions and its application.
AB  - In the article, we provide a monotonicity rule for the function [Formula: see
      text], where [Formula: see text] is a positive differentiable and decreasing
      function defined on [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]), and [Formula: see
      text] and [Formula: see text] are two real power series converging on [Formula:
      see text] such that the sequence [Formula: see text] is increasing (decreasing)
      with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text]. As
      applications, we present new bounds for the complete elliptic integral [Formula:
      see text] ([Formula: see text]) of the second kind.

PMID- 28553057
TI  - Abstract generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problems in noncompact Hadamard
      manifolds.
AB  - This paper deals with the abstract generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problem
      in noncompact Hadamard manifolds. We prove the existence of solutions to the
      abstract generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problem under suitable conditions
      and provide applications to an abstract vector quasi-equilibrium problem, a
      generalized scalar equilibrium problem, a scalar equilibrium problem, and a
      perturbed saddle point problem. Finally, as an application of the existence of
      solutions to the generalized scalar equilibrium problem, we obtain a weakly mixed
      variational inequality and two mixed variational inequalities. The results
      presented in this paper unify and generalize many known results in the
      literature.

PMID- 28553058
TI  - New generalizations of Popoviciu-type inequalities via new Green's functions and
      Montgomery identity.
AB  - The inequality of Popoviciu, which was improved by Vasic and Stankovic (Math.
      Balk. 6:281-288, 1976), is generalized by using new identities involving new
      Green's functions. New generalizations of an improved Popoviciu inequality are
      obtained by using generalized Montgomery identity along with new Green's
      functions. As an application, we formulate the monotonicity of linear functionals
      constructed from the generalized identities, utilizing the recent theory of
      inequalities for n-convex functions at a point. New upper bounds of Gruss and
      Ostrowski type are also computed.

PMID- 28553059
TI  - A mathematical model for three-phase-lag dipolar thermoelastic bodies.
AB  - In this study we approach a mixed initial-boundary value problem to modeling a
      three-phase-lag dipolar thermoelastic body. The constitutive laws in this context
      are given. We establish a uniqueness result and prove a reciprocal theorem. The
      variational principle obtained in this context is a generalization of the known
      Gurtin's principle for classical elasticity.

PMID- 28553060
TI  - Fast convergence of generalized DeTemple sequences and the relation to the
      Riemann zeta function.
AB  - In this paper, we introduce new sequences, which generalize the celebrated
      DeTemple sequence, having enhanced speed of convergence. We also give a new
      representation for Euler's constant in terms of the Riemann zeta function
      evaluated at positive odd integers.

PMID- 28553061
TI  - Some results on random smoothness.
AB  - Based on the analysis of stratification structure on random normed modules, we
      first present the notion of random smoothness in random normed modules. Then, we
      establish the relations between random smoothness and random strict convexity.
      Finally, a type of Gateaux differentiability is defined for random norms, and its
      relation to random smoothness is given. The results are helpful in the further
      study of geometry of random normed modules.

PMID- 28553062
TI  - Dedicated Followers of Fashion? Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Socio-Economic
      Status, Inequality, and Health in Urban Children from the Industrial Revolution
      (18th-19th C), England.
AB  - The 18th and 19th centuries in England were characterised by a period of
      increasing industrialisation of its urban centres. It was also one of widening
      social and health inequalities between the rich and the poor. Childhood is well
      documented as being a stage in the life course during which the body is
      particularly sensitive to adverse socio-economic environments. This study
      therefore aims to examine the relationship between health and wealth through a
      comprehensive skeletal analysis of a sample of 403 children (0-17 years), of
      varying socio-economic status, from four cemetery sites in London (c.1712-1854).
      Measurements of long bone diaphyseal length, cortical thickness, vertebral neural
      canal size, and the prevalence of a range of pathological indicators of health
      stress were recorded from the Chelsea Old Church (high status), St Benet Sherehog
      (middle status), Bow Baptist (middle status), and Cross Bones (low status)
      skeletal collections. Children from the low status Cross Bones site demonstrated
      deficient growth values, as expected. However, those from the high status site of
      Chelsea Old Church also demonstrated poor growth values during infancy.
      Fashionable child-care practices (e.g. the use of artificial infant feeds and
      keeping children indoors) may have contributed to poor infant health amongst high
      status groups. However, differing health risks in the lower status group revealed
      the existence of substantial health inequality in London at this time.

PMID- 28553063
TI  - Preserving Neighborhood Opportunity: Where Federal Housing Subsidies Expire.
AB  - Rent burdens are increasing in U.S. metropolitan areas while subsidies on
      privately owned, publicly subsidized rental units are expiring. As a result, some
      of the few remaining affordable units in opportunity neighborhoods are at risk of
      being converted to market rate. Policy makers face a decision about whether to
      devote their efforts and scarce resources toward developing new affordable
      housing, recapitalizing existing subsidized housing, and/or preserving properties
      with expiring subsidies. There are several reasons to preserve these subsidies,
      one being that properties may be located in neighborhoods with greater
      opportunity. In this article, we use several sources of data at the census tract
      level to learn how subsidy expirations affect neighborhood opportunity for low
      income households. Our analysis presents several key findings. First, we find
      that units that left the project-based Section 8 program were - on average - in
      lower opportunity neighborhoods, but these neighborhoods were improving. In
      addition, properties due to expiry from the Section 8 program between 2011 and
      2020 are in higher opportunity neighborhoods than any other subsidy program. On
      the contrary, new Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units were developed in
      tracts similar to those where LIHTC units are currently active, which tend to be
      lower opportunity neighborhoods.

PMID- 28553064
TI  - Degeneration pattern in somatic embryos of Pinus sylvestris L.
AB  - Somatic embryos can be used for propagating forest trees vegetatively, which is
      of great importance for capturing the genetic gain in breeding programs. However,
      many economically important Pinus species are difficult or impossible to
      propagate via somatic embryogenesis. In order to get a better understanding of
      the difficulties to propagate Pinus species via somatic embryogenesis, we are
      studying the developmental pathway of somatic embryos in different cell lines. In
      a previous study, we showed that the morphology of early somatic embryos in Scots
      pine (Pinus sylvestris) differs between cell lines giving rise to normal or
      abnormal cotyledonary embryos. In this study, we have compared the proliferation
      and degeneration pattern of early and late embryos in a normal and abnormal cell
      line. In both cell lines, a high frequency of the embryos degenerated. Among the
      degenerating embryos, two main degeneration patterns could be distinguished. In
      the normal cell line, the embryos degenerated similar to how the subordinate
      embryos are degraded in the seed. In the abnormal cell line, the degeneration of
      the embryos resulted in a continuous loop of embryo degeneration and
      differentiation of new embryos. We observed a similar degeneration pattern when
      embryogenic tissue was initiated from megagametophytes containing zygotic embryos
      at the stage of cleavage polyembryony. Based on our results, we suggest that the
      degeneration pattern in abnormal cell lines starts during initiation of
      embryogenic cultures.

PMID- 28553065
TI  - Enhanced production of hyoscyamine and scopolamine from genetically transformed
      root culture of Hyoscyamus reticulatus L. elicited by iron oxide nanoparticles.
AB  - The medicinal plant Hyoscyamus reticulatus L. is a rich source of hyoscyamine and
      scopolamine, the tropane alkaloids. The use of hairy root cultures has focused
      significant attention on production of important metabolites such as stable
      tropane alkaloid production. Elicitation is an effective approach to induce
      secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways. Hairy roots were derived from
      cotyledon explants inoculated with Agrobacterium rhizogenes and elicited by iron
      oxide nanoparticles (FeNPs) at different concentrations (0, 450, 900, 1800, and
      3600 mg L-1) for different exposure times (24, 48, and 72 h). The highest hairy
      root fresh and dry weights were found in the medium supplemented with 900 mg L-1
      FeNPs. Antioxidant enzyme activity was significantly increased in induced hairy
      roots compared to non-transgenic roots. The highest hyoscyamine and scopolamine
      production (about fivefold increase over the control) was achieved with 900 and
      450 mg L-1 FeNPs at 24 and 48 h of exposure time, respectively. This is the first
      report of the effect of FeNP elicitor on hairy root cultures of a medicinal
      plant. We suggest that FeNPs could be an effective elicitor in hairy root
      cultures in order to increase tropane alkaloid production.

PMID- 28553066
TI  - Usefulness of the CRAFFT to Diagnose Alcohol or Cannabis Use Disorders in a
      Sample of Emerging Adults with Past-Month Alcohol or Cannabis Use.

PMID- 28553067
TI  - Diversifying the STEM pipeline.
AB  - PURPOSE: The current paper focuses on the description and evaluation of a two
      year STEM intervention targeting underserved middle schools students from
      minority and low SES backgrounds. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Middle school
      students from low-income and minority backgrounds (n = 166) were targeted to
      participate in a two-year, intensive, hands-on science and technology
      intervention to increase their interest in biomedical and health sciences.
      Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from TRY-IT! Students as well as
      a control group that did not participate in the intervention, teachers, and
      parents to assess changes in attitudes and knowledge with respect to a variety of
      STEM-related topics. FINDINGS: Quantitative analyses did not reveal significant
      long-lasting differences between the TRY-IT! and the control group, thus
      providing a mixed assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention. However,
      qualitative student responses collected during the second year of participation
      revealed positive attitudes toward the program experience and benefits of their
      exposure to science. In light of these findings, insights drawn from reflecting
      on successes and challenges experienced during the course of planning and
      implementing the study are provided to guide future programs and research.
      ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The intervention was developed in response to the continued
      under representation of minority and lower SES individuals in STEM careers. An
      effort to boost positive attitudes toward science and math, as well as confidence
      in the accessibility of STEM careers among this population is important given the
      promising outlook of this career field compared to others for future generations.

PMID- 28553068
TI  - Comparison of retina specialist preferences regarding spectral-domain and swept
      source optical coherence tomography angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare physician preferences regarding the
      commercially available spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography
      angiography (OCTA) and swept-source (SS) OCTA prototype device. DESIGN:
      Comparative analysis of diagnostic instruments was performed. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Subjects at the University of Washington Eye Institute and Harborview
      Medical Center were prospectively recruited and imaged with the Zeiss SD OCTA (HD
      5000, Angioplex) and Zeiss SS OCTA (Plex Elite, Everest) devices on the same day.
      The study included 10 eyes from 10 subjects diagnosed with a retinal/choroidal
      disease. Deidentified images were compiled into a survey and sent to retina
      specialists in various countries. The survey presented masked SD and SS images of
      each eye for each retinal sublayer side by side. Respondents were asked about
      their image preference and impact on clinical management. A priori and post hoc
      preferences for SD vs SS were collected. RESULTS: Fifty-four retina specialists
      responded to the survey. Median years in practice was 3.00 (interquartile range
      [IQR] 1.50-17.00). At baseline, 23 (48%) physicians owned an OCTA machine. The
      majority of physician responses showed a preference for the SS over SD OCTA,
      independent of the retinal pathology shown (n=454 overall responses, 74%).
      Nevertheless, the majority indicated that both SD and SS would be equally
      valuable in informing clinical decisions (n=374 overall responses, 61%).
      CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that the majority of retina specialists
      surveyed prefer SS over SD OCTA based on image quality, regardless of the retinal
      pathology shown. Regarding the clinical utility of each modality, the majority of
      physicians perceive SD and SS as equally effective.

PMID- 28553069
TI  - The use of WaveLight(r) Contoura to create a uniform cornea: the LYRA Protocol.
      Part 1: the effect of higher-order corneal aberrations on refractive astigmatism.
AB  - PURPOSE: To demonstrate how higher-order corneal aberrations can cancel out,
      modify, or induce lower-order corneal astigmatism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six
      representative eyes are presented that show different scenarios in which higher
      order aberrations interacting with corneal astigmatism can affect the manifest
      refraction. WaveLight(r) Contoura ablation maps showing the higher-order
      aberrations are shown, as are results of correction with full measured correction
      using the LYRA (Layer Yolked Reduction of Astigmatism) Protocol. RESULTS: Higher
      order corneal aberrations such as trefoil, quadrafoil, and coma can create
      ovalization of the central cornea, which can interact with the ovalization caused
      by lower-order astigmatism to either induce, cancel out, or modify the manifest
      refraction. Contoura processing successfully determines the linkage of these
      interactions resulting in full astigmatism removal. Purely lenticular astigmatism
      appears to be rare, but a case is also demonstrated. The author theorizes that
      all aberrations require cerebral compensatory processing and can be removed,
      supported by the facts that full removal of aberrations and its linkage with
      lower-order astigmatism with the LYRA Protocol has not resulted in worse or
      unacceptable vision for any patients. CONCLUSION: Higher-order aberrations
      interacting with lower-order astigmatism is the main reason for the differences
      between manifest refraction and Contoura measured astigmatism, and the linkage
      between these interactions can be successfully treated using Contoura and the
      LYRA Protocol. Lenticular astigmatism is relatively rare.

PMID- 28553070
TI  - The use of WaveLight(r) Contoura to create a uniform cornea: the LYRA Protocol.
      Part 2: the consequences of treating astigmatism on an incorrect axis via excimer
      laser.
AB  - PURPOSE: To show how an incorrect manifest astigmatism axis can cause an abnormal
      induced astigmatism on a new axis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four eyes of three
      patients were treated primarily with WaveLight(r) EX500 wavefront optimized (WFO)
      treatments for astigmatism. All four eyes needed enhancements and were analyzed
      retrospectively via WaveLight(r) Contoura to determine the reason for the
      incorrect astigmatism treatment. Two of the eyes were retreated with topographic
      guided ablation, and two were treated with WFO correction. RESULTS: The eyes that
      had an incorrect manifest axis resulted in a new abnormal induced astigmatism on
      a wholly new axis. Treatment with topographic-guided ablation completely
      eliminated the newly induced astigmatism. Treatment with WFO of an abnormal
      induced astigmatism corrected the refraction but still left topographic evidence
      of the abnormal astigmatism behind. One eye was incorrectly treated for
      astigmatism due to coma affecting refraction when the patient was dilated. This
      eye had a normal induced astigmatism on a perpendicular axis and was corrected
      using WFO. The use of manifest refraction with WaveLight(r) Contoura topographic
      guided ablation will lead to incorrect astigmatism correction when the manifest
      astigmatism and axis differ from the WaveLight(r) Contoura measured. CONCLUSION:
      Correction of an incorrect manifest refraction astigmatic axis does not simply
      create undercorrection of the astigmatism but induces an entirely new abnormal
      astigmatism on a different axis. Manifest refraction is less accurate and can
      lead to abnormal astigmatism when laser ablation is performed.

PMID- 28553071
TI  - The use of WaveLight(r) Contoura to create a uniform cornea: the LYRA Protocol.
      Part 3: the results of 50 treated eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To demonstrate how using the Wavelight Contoura measured astigmatism and
      axis eliminates corneal astigmatism and creates uniformly shaped corneas.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted of the first 50 eyes
      to have bilateral full WaveLight(r) Contoura LASIK correction of measured
      astigmatism and axis (vs conventional manifest refraction), using the Layer
      Yolked Reduction of Astigmatism Protocol in all cases. All patients had
      astigmatism corrected, and had at least 1 week of follow-up. Accuracy to desired
      refractive goal was assessed by postoperative refraction, aberration reduction
      via calculation of polynomials, and postoperative visions were analyzed as a
      secondary goal. RESULTS: The average difference of astigmatic power from manifest
      to measured was 0.5462D (with a range of 0-1.69D), and the average difference of
      axis was 14.94 degrees  (with a range of 0 degrees -89 degrees ). Forty-seven of
      50 eyes had a goal of plano, 3 had a monovision goal. Astigmatism was fully
      eliminated from all but 2 eyes, and 1 eye had regression with astigmatism. Of the
      eyes with plano as the goal, 80.85% were 20/15 or better, and 100% were 20/20 or
      better. Polynomial analysis postoperatively showed that at 6.5 mm, the average C3
      was reduced by 86.5% and the average C5 by 85.14%. CONCLUSIONS: Using
      WaveLight(r) Contoura measured astigmatism and axis removes higher order
      aberrations and allows for the creation of a more uniform cornea with accurate
      removal of astigmatism, and reduction of aberration polynomials. WaveLight(r)
      Contoura successfully links the refractive correction layer and aberration repair
      layer using the Layer Yolked Reduction of Astigmatism Protocol to demonstrate how
      aberration removal can affect refractive correction.

PMID- 28553072
TI  - Preoperative measurement vs intraoperative aberrometry for the selection of
      intraocular lens sphere power in normal eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the value of intraoperative aberrometry (IA)
      in determining the intraocular lens (IOL) sphere power in eyes with no previous
      ocular surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of
      patients who underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery where standard preoperative
      (Preop) measurements and IA were performed. Calculated IOL sphere powers and
      postoperative refractions, both actual and theoretical, were compared based on
      the measurement method and lens type; lens types included multifocal, toric and
      aspheric single-vision non-toric IOLs. RESULTS: A total of 160 eyes of 112
      patients were analyzed. The Preop lens power calculated was the same as the IA
      lens power 46% of the time, though this percentage was lower for multifocal IOLs.
      Across all lens types, there was a statistically significant bias (chi-square
      test, P<0.01) toward the IA method suggesting a lower powered lens. Actual
      postoperative refractive errors were not statistically significantly different
      when categorized by measurement method. Calculated errors by measurement method
      showed no statistically significant differences in expected outcomes. There were
      63 cases where the Preop calculation and the intraoperative aberrometer
      calculation differed by 0.5 D. In 56% (35/63) of these cases, the IA result was a
      better option, and in 44% (28/63) of cases, the Preop calculation was better;
      this was not statistically significantly different from random expectation
      (50/50, P=0.53). In the three cases where calculated powers differed by 1.5 D,
      there appeared to be a positive effect of adjusting the Preop power toward the IA
      power. CONCLUSION: The use of IA for the determination of sphere power in eyes
      with no previous ocular surgery does not appear to improve overall expected
      clinical outcomes, but it may be helpful in cases where the difference between IA
      and Preop calculations is high.

PMID- 28553073
TI  - Involvement of NF-kappaB and HSP70 signaling pathways in the apoptosis of MDA-MB
      231 cells induced by a prenylated xanthone compound, alpha-mangostin, from
      Cratoxylum arborescens [Retraction].
AB  - [This retracts the article on p. 1629 in vol. 8.].

PMID- 28553074
TI  - Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel EF24 and EF31 analogs as
      potential IkappaB kinase beta inhibitors for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
AB  - Given the important role that inhibitory kappa B (IkappaB) kinase beta (IKKbeta)
      plays in pancreatic cancer (PC) development and progression, inhibitors targeting
      IKKbeta are believed to be increasingly popular as novel anti-PC therapies. Two
      synthetic molecules, named EF24 and EF31, exhibited favorable potential in terms
      of inhibition of both IKKbeta activity and PC cell proliferation. Aiming to
      enhance their cellular efficacy and to analyze their structure-activity
      relationship, four series of EF24 and EF31 analogs were designed and synthesized.
      Through kinase activity and vitality screening of cancer cells, D6 displayed
      excellent inhibition of both IKKbeta activity and PC cell proliferation.
      Additionally, multiple biological evaluations showed that D6 was directly bound
      to IKKbeta and significantly suppressed the activation of the IKKbeta/nuclear
      factor kappaB pathway induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha, as well as
      effectively inducing cancer cell apoptosis. Moreover, molecular docking and
      molecular dynamics simulation analysis indicated that the dominant force between
      D6 and IKKbeta comprised hydrophobic interactions. In conclusion, D6 may be a
      promising therapeutic agent for PC treatment and it also provides a structural
      lead for the design of novel IKKbeta inhibitors.

PMID- 28553075
TI  - Fabrication, characterization and in vitro evaluation of silibinin nanoparticles:
      an attempt to enhance its oral bioavailability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Silibinin has gained in importance in the past few decades as a
      hepatoprotector and is used widely as oral therapy for toxic liver damage, liver
      cirrhosis, and chronic inflammatory liver diseases, as well as for the treatment
      of different types of cancers. Unfortunately, it has low aqueous solubility and
      inadequate dissolution, which results in low oral bioavailability. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this study, nanoparticles (NPs) of silibinin, which is a hydrophobic
      drug, were manufactured using two cost-effective methods. Antisolvent
      precipitation with a syringe pump (APSP) and evaporative precipitation of
      nanosuspension (EPN) were used. The prepared NPs were characterized using
      different analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry
      (DSC), and X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD) and were sifted for their
      bioavailability through in vitro dissolution and solubility studies. Moreover,
      the prepared NPs were evaluated for antimicrobial activity against a battery of
      bacteria and yeast. RESULTS: DSC and XRD studies indicated that the prepared NPs
      were amorphous in nature, with more solubility and dissolution compared to the
      crystalline form of this drug. NPs prepared through the EPN method had better
      results than those prepared using the APSP method. Antimicrobial activities of
      the NPs were improved compared to the unprocessed drugs, while having comparable
      activities to standard antimicrobial drugs. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that the
      NPs have significantly increased solubility, dissolution rate, and antimicrobial
      activities due to the conversion of crystalline structure into amorphous form.

PMID- 28553076
TI  - Higher dose of palonosetron versus lower dose of palonosetron plus droperidol to
      prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting after eye enucleation and orbital
      hydroxyapatite implant surgery: a randomized, double-blind trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is commonly observed after
      eye enucleation and orbital hydroxyapatite implant surgery. This prospective,
      randomized, double-blind trial was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that
      compared with monotherapy using a higher dose of palonosetron, using a lower dose
      of palonosetron in combination with droperidol could reduce the incidence of PONV
      and achieve similar prophylaxis against PONV after the aforementioned surgery.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 129 patients who were in the American Society of
      Anesthesiologists Classes I and II, aged between 18 and 70 years, and scheduled
      for eye enucleation and orbital hydroxyapatite implant surgery, were enrolled in
      this study. They were randomized into three groups: Group P2.5 (2.5 MUg/kg
      palonosetron), Group P7.5 (7.5 MUg/kg palonosetron), and Group P+D (2.5 MUg/kg
      palonosetron and 15 MUg/kg droperidol). Patients received the different
      antiemetic regimens intravenously 5 min before surgery. The severity of nausea
      and vomiting and the complete response (CR) rate during a 72-h postoperative
      period were assessed. RESULTS: All patients completed the trial. The nausea score
      of Group P2.5 was significantly higher than those of the other two groups at 0-4
      h and 24-48 h (P<0.05). Vomiting scores among all groups were similar during all
      intervals (P>0.05). Compared with Group P2.5, the CR rate was significantly
      improved at all intervals in Group P+D, except at 4-72 h, and was also elevated
      at 24-72 h in Group P7.5 (P<0.05). Fewer patients in Group P2.5 did not
      experience any nausea or vomiting throughout the study (49%) compared with those
      in Group P7.5 (67%) and Group P+D (81%; P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Combining low-dose
      palonosetron with droperidol potentiated prophylaxis for PONV and achieved a
      similar prophylactic effect as that with a higher dose of palonosetron.

PMID- 28553077
TI  - Spotlight on dupilumab in the treatment of atopic dermatitis: design,
      development, and potential place in therapy.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is among the most common inflammatory skin diseases in
      children and adults in industrialized countries. Up to one-third of adults
      (probably a smaller proportion in childhood) suffer from moderate-to-severe AD,
      whose recommended treatment is usually based on systemic therapies. The currently
      available therapeutics are limited, and AD management becomes challenging in most
      cases. Over the last few years, new advances in the understanding of AD
      pathogenic mechanisms and inflammatory pathways have led to the identification of
      specific therapeutic targets and new molecules have been tested. Dupilumab is a
      fully human monoclonal antibody directed against the IL-4 receptor alpha subunit
      that is able to block the signaling of both IL-4 and IL-13 and achieve rapid and
      significant improvements in adults with moderate-to-severe AD. Dupilumab is ready
      to inaugurate a long and promising biological target treatment option for Th2
      cell-mediated atopic immune response that characterizes AD.

PMID- 28553078
TI  - Effects of metformin extended release compared to immediate release formula on
      glycemic control and glycemic variability in patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate, in a randomized clinical
      trial, the effects of metformin immediate release (IR) compared with metformin
      extended release (XR) on the gastrointestinal tolerability and glycemic control.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 253 Caucasian patients with type 2 diabetes
      not well controlled by diet (glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c] >7.0% and <8.5%).
      Patients were randomized to metformin IR or metformin XR for a period of 6 months
      at the maximum tolerated dose. The average dose of metformin IR used was 2,000+/
      1,000 mg/day, while that of metformin XR was 1,000+/-500 mg/day. We evaluated
      body weight, HbA1c, fasting and postprandial glucose, fasting plasma insulin
      (FPI) and homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), lipid
      profile, and levels of some adipocytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNF-alpha), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), visfatin, and vaspin.
      Moreover, at the baseline and after 6 months, we administered patients some
      validated questionnaires to assess patients' satisfaction toward treatments.
      RESULTS: After 6 months, both formulations gave a similar reduction in body
      weight and body mass index (BMI); however, metformin XR gave a greater
      improvement in glycemic control, FPI, and HOMA-IR, compared with both baseline
      and metformin IR. A reduction in total cholesterol (TC) and low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was observed with metformin XR compared with IR.
      Levels of TNF-alpha, hs-CRP, and vaspin were reduced by metformin XR but not by
      the IR formulation. Metformin XR also raised the levels of visfatin. CONCLUSION:
      Metformin XR formulation seems to be more effective than metformin IR in
      improving glyco-metabolic control, lipid profile, and levels of some
      adipocytokines in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28553079
TI  - Ten years' clinical experience with biosimilar human growth hormone: a review of
      efficacy data.
AB  - In 2006, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved Omnitrope(r) as a
      biosimilar recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), on the basis of comparable
      quality, safety, and efficacy to the reference medicine (Genotropin(r), Pfizer).
      Data continue to be collected on the long-term efficacy of biosimilar rhGH from
      several on-going postapproval studies. Particular topics of interest include
      efficacy in indications granted on the basis of extrapolation, and whether
      efficacy of growth hormone treatment is affected when patients are changed to
      biosimilar rhGH from other rhGH products. Data from clinical development studies
      and 10 years of postapproval experience affirm the clinical efficacy and
      effectiveness of biosimilar rhGH across all approved indications. In addition,
      the decade of experience with biosimilar rhGH since it was approved in Europe
      confirms the scientific validity of the biosimilar pathway and the approval
      process. Concerns about clinical effect in extrapolated indications, and also
      about the impact of changing from other rhGH preparations, have been alleviated.
      Biosimilar rhGH is an effective treatment option for children who require therapy
      with rhGH.

PMID- 28553080
TI  - Ten years of clinical experience with biosimilar human growth hormone: a review
      of safety data.
AB  - Safety concerns for recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) treatments include
      impact on cancer risk, impact on glucose homeostasis, and the formation of
      antibodies to endogenous/exogenous GH. Omnitrope(r) (biosimilar rhGH) was
      approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2006, with approval granted on the
      basis of comparable quality, safety, and efficacy to the reference medicine
      (Genotropin(r)). Additional concerns that may exist in relation to biosimilar
      rhGH include safety in indications granted on the basis of extrapolation and the
      impact of changing to biosimilar rhGH from other rhGH treatments. A substantial
      data set is available to fully understand the safety profile of biosimilar rhGH,
      which includes data from its clinical development studies and 10 years of post
      approval experience. As of June 2016, 106,941,419 patient days (292,790 patient
      years) experience has been gathered for biosimilar rhGH. Based on the available
      data, there have been no unexpected or unique adverse events related to
      biosimilar rhGH treatment. There is no increased risk of cancer, adverse glucose
      homeostasis, or immunogenic response with biosimilar rhGH compared with the
      reference medicine and other rhGH products. The immunogenicity of biosimilar rhGH
      is also similar to that of the reference and other rhGH products. Physicians
      should be reassured that rhGH products have a good safety record when used for
      approved indications and at recommended doses, and that the safety profile of
      biosimilar rhGH is in keeping with that of other rhGH products.

PMID- 28553081
TI  - Ten years of biosimilar recombinant human growth hormone in Europe.
AB  - Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been in clinical use for more than 30
      years. With the expiration of patent exclusivity for the first wave of rhGH
      products and other biopharmaceuticals, the opportunity emerged for the
      development of biosimilar medicines. A biosimilar is defined by the European
      Medicines Agency (EMA) as a biological medicine that is similar to another
      biological medicine that has already been authorized for use. The EMA led the way
      (well ahead of the Food and Drug Administration in the US) in developing the
      biosimilar concept, and the type of science-based regulatory framework required
      to ensure high-quality, safe, and effective biosimilar medicines; the provisions
      for approval of biosimilars have been in place in Europe since 2005. Under these
      provisions, Omnitrope(r) was approved by the EMA in 2006 as the world's first
      biosimilar medicine; 2016 therefore marks the 10th anniversary of its approval in
      Europe. A substantial data set, based on clinical development studies and 10
      years of postapproval use, has now accumulated for biosimilar rhGH; this data set
      shows that the product is an effective treatment option for children who require
      rhGH treatment, and has a safety profile that is consistent with the rhGH class.
      The decade since the EMA approved biosimilar rhGH has seen the successful
      approval and clinical use of 20 biosimilar medicines, confirming the integrity of
      the scientific basis for the biosimilar concept, as well as the quality of
      regulatory decision-making.

PMID- 28553082
TI  - Ten years of biosimilars in Europe: development and evolution of the regulatory
      pathways.
AB  - A biosimilar is defined by the European Medicines Agency as a biological medicine
      that is similar to another biological medicine that has already been authorized
      for use. A science-based regulatory framework to ensure high-quality biosimilars
      has been established in Europe since 2005 and is monitored and updated on an
      ongoing basis. The guiding principle of a biosimilar development program is to
      establish similarity between the biosimilar and the reference medicine by the
      best possible means, ensuring that the previously proven safety and efficacy of
      the reference medicinal product also applies to the biosimilar. Development of a
      biosimilar is underpinned by state-of-the-art analytical techniques to
      characterize both reference medicines and biosimilars. The extent and nature of
      the nonclinical in vivo studies and clinical studies to be performed depend on
      the level of evidence obtained in the previous step(s), including the robustness
      of the physicochemical, biological, and nonclinical in vitro data. Extrapolation
      is an important element of the biosimilarity concept. When biosimilar
      comparability has been demonstrated in one indication, extrapolation of the data
      package to other indications of the reference medicine could be acceptable, but
      needs to be scientifically justified and considered in light of the demonstrated
      level of sameness by all analytical, nonclinical, and clinical data. The
      credibility of the scientific basis behind the biosimilar concept, and quality of
      regulatory decision-making, is demonstrated by the successful approval and
      clinical use of 20 biosimilar medicines since 2006 when Omnitrope(r) was the
      first biosimilar to be approved. The regulatory environment for biosimilars
      continues to evolve, both in recognition of advances in technology/analytical
      methods and the availability of new targets for biosimilar development.

PMID- 28553083
TI  - Cisplatin induces protective autophagy through activation of BECN1 in human
      bladder cancer cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is the first line treatment for several
      cancers including bladder cancer (BC). Autophagy induction has been implied to
      contribute to cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer; and a high basal level of
      autophagy has been demonstrated in human bladder tumors. Therefore, it is
      reasonable to speculate that autophagy may account for the failure of cisplatin
      single treatment in BC. This study investigated whether cisplatin induces
      autophagy and the mechanism involved using human BC cell lines. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Human BC cells (5637 and T24) were used in this study. Cell viability
      was detected using water soluble tetrazolium-8 reagents. Autophagy induction was
      detected by monitoring the levels of light chain 3 (LC3)-II and p62 by Western
      blot, LC3-positive puncta formation by immunofluorescence, and direct observation
      of the autophagolysosome (AL) formation by transmission electron microscopy.
      Inhibitors including bafilomycin A1 (Baf A1), chloroquine (CQ), and shRNA-based
      lentivirus against autophagy-related genes (ATG7 and ATG12) were utilized.
      Apoptosis level was detected by caspase 3/7 activity and DNA fragmentation.
      RESULTS: Cisplatin decreased cell viability and induced apoptosis of 5637 and T24
      cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. The increased LC3-II accumulation, p62
      clearance, the number of LC3-positive puncta, and ALs in cisplatin-treated cells
      suggested that cisplatin indeed induces autophagy. Inhibition of cisplatin
      induced autophagy using Baf A1, CQ, or ATG7/ATG12 shRNAs significantly enhanced
      cytotoxicity of cisplatin toward BC cells. These results indicated that cisplatin
      induced protective autophagy which may contribute to the development of cisplatin
      resistance and resulted in treatment failure. Mechanistically, upregulation of
      beclin-1 (BECN1) was detected in cisplatin-treated cells, and knockdown of BECN1
      using shRNA attenuated cisplatin-induced autophagy and subsequently enhanced
      cisplatin-induced apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Collectively, the study results
      indicated that cisplatin-induced autophagy is mediated by BECN1 in BC cells.
      Therefore, combinative treatment using cisplatin and autophagy inhibitors could
      potentially overcome cisplatin resistance related to autophagy induction.

PMID- 28553084
TI  - Engagement-focused care during transitions from inpatient and emergency
      psychiatric facilities.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: As many as 40% of those with serious mental illness (SMI) do not
      attend any outpatient visits in the 30 days following discharge. We examined
      engagement-focused care (EFC) versus treatment as usual in a university-based
      transitional care clinic (TCC) with a 90-day program serving individuals with SMI
      discharged from hospitals and emergency rooms. EFC included a unique group intake
      process (access group) designed to get individuals into care rapidly and a shared
      decision-making coach. METHODS: Assessments of quality of life, symptomatology,
      and shared decision-making preferences were conducted at baseline, at 3 months
      corresponding to the end of TCC treatment and 6 months after TCC discharge.
      Communication among the patients and providers was assessed at each visit as was
      service utilization during and after TCC. RESULTS: Subjective quality of life
      improved in EFC. Prescribers and patients saw communication more similarly as
      time went on. Ninety-one percent of patients wanted at least some say in
      decisions about their treatment. CONCLUSIONS: SDM coaching and improved access
      improve quality of life. Most people want a say in treatment decisions.

PMID- 28553085
TI  - Psychometric properties of the Ruminative Response Scale-short form in a clinical
      sample of patients with major depressive disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Ruminative Response Scale (RRS)-short form is one of the most
      widely used measures of rumination, comprising ten items and two components:
      reflection and brooding. The aim of this study was to investigate RRS validity
      and reliability in a clinical sample of French patients with major depressive
      disorder (MDD). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Outpatients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of
      MDD were recruited from a public academic hospital in France. Depressive symptoms
      were evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory, anxiety by the State-Trait
      Anxiety Inventory - state scale, and quality of life by the 36-Item Short Form
      Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses, item-dimension
      correlations, Cronbach's alpha-coefficients, Rasch statistics, and external
      validity were tested. Differential item functioning analyses were performed for
      sex. RESULTS: A total of 109 patients participated. The final reflection-brooding
      two-factor model of the RRS showed a good fit (root-mean-square error of
      approximation 0.041, comparative fit index 0.987, standardized root-mean-square
      residual 0.048) after removing one item (daily diary writing). Internal item
      consistency and reliability were satisfactory for the two dimensions. External
      validity testing confirmed that RRS scores were correlated with Beck Depression
      Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and SF-36 scores. There was no
      differential item functioning across sexes. CONCLUSION: These results
      demonstrated good scale reliability and validity for assessing rumination in
      patients with MDD.

PMID- 28553086
TI  - Adherence to systemic therapies for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases in
      Lebanon: a physicians' survey from three medical specialties.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are chronic conditions
      that may cause tissue damage and disability, reduced quality of life and
      increased mortality. Various treatments have been developed for IMIDs, including
      immune modulators and targeted biologic agents. However, adherence remains
      suboptimal. METHODS: An adherence survey was used to evaluate physicians' beliefs
      about adherence to medication in IMID and to evaluate if and how they manage
      adherence. The survey was distributed to 100 randomly selected physicians from
      three different specialties. Results were analyzed by four academic experts
      commissioned to develop an action plan to address practical and perceptual
      barriers to adherence, integrating it into treatment goals to maximize outcomes
      in IMID, thereby elevating local standards of care. RESULTS: Eighty-two
      physicians participated in this study and completed the questionnaire. Most
      defined adherence as compliance with prescribed treatment. Although the majority
      of surveyed physicians (74%) did not systematically measure adherence in their
      practice, 54% identified adherence as a treatment goal of equal or greater
      importance to therapeutic endpoints. Lack of time and specialized nursing support
      was reported as an important barrier to measuring adherence. The expert panel
      identified four key areas for action: 360 degrees  education (patient-nurse
      physician), patient-physician communication, patient perception and concerns, and
      market access/cost. An action plan was developed centered on education and
      awareness, enhanced benefit-risk communication, development of adherence
      assessment tools and promotion of patient support programs. CONCLUSION:
      Nonadherence to medication is a commonly underestimated problem with important
      consequences. A customized target-based strategy to address the root causes of
      non-adherence is essential in the management of chronic immune-mediated diseases.

PMID- 28553087
TI  - Association of dry eye disease with psychiatric or neurological disorders in
      elderly patients.
AB  - Dry eye disease (DED) is a common disease that can impair quality of life
      significantly. Its prevalence increases with advancing age, and the economic
      burden of the disease on both a patient and the society is increasing with
      elongation of life expectancy. The diagnosis and treatment of DED are often
      difficult due to the discordance between symptoms and signs of the disease.
      Recent studies have suggested the role of neurological or psychological factors
      in the development of dry eye symptoms and discrepancy of the symptoms and signs,
      particularly in elderly patients. In this review, the authors discuss the
      association of DED with various psychiatric and neurological disorders. In
      addition to psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, stress,
      posttraumatic stress disorder and sleep disorders, medications for the
      psychiatric disorders have association with DED. Neurological disorders, such as
      neuropathic pain, chronic pain syndrome, peripheral neuropathy and several
      central nervous system disorders, are related to DED. Treatment of DED, combined
      with psychiatric or neurological disorders, is also discussed. Attention should
      be paid to the DED patients with discordant symptoms and signs, and
      unsatisfactory response to conventional treatment for associated psychiatric or
      neurological disorders, as well as an integrated treatment approach, could be
      helpful for these patients.

PMID- 28553089
TI  - Effect of frailty syndrome on treatment compliance in older hypertensive
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty syndrome (FS) is an important problem in older persons. It
      may develop concomitantly to many aging-related diseases, including arterial
      hypertension, and exerts detrimental effects on both their outcomes and treatment
      compliance. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of FS on treatment compliance in
      older hypertensive patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study of 300
      hypertensive patients (167 women and 133 men) aged between 65 and 91 years (mean
      71.75+/-7.79 years) was based on the analysis of medical documentation and survey
      with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) and Hill-Bone High Blood Pressure
      Compliance Scale. RESULTS: Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure values of
      the study subjects were 141.97 and 85.16 mm Hg, respectively. Mean time elapsed
      since the diagnosis of arterial hypertension was 13.74 years. FS was diagnosed in
      65.67% of the study subjects. Mean global score of the Hill-Bone High Blood
      Pressure Compliance Scale was 20.75 points. TFI scores correlated significantly
      with the global score of the Hill-Bone High Blood Pressure Compliance Scale
      (R=0.509, P<0.001) and the values of its 2 subscales: Appointment Keeping
      (R=0.34, P<0.001) and Medication Taking (R=0.537, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: FS exerts
      a significant effect on treatment compliance of older hypertensive patients.
      Treatment compliance is modulated by patients' sex (worse compliance in men),
      education (better compliance in subjects with higher education), and TFI scores
      (worse compliance in patients with FS).

PMID- 28553088
TI  - Blood pressure reactivity to mental stress is attenuated following resistance
      exercise in older hypertensive women.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of resistance exercise (RE)
      on autonomic control and blood pressure (BP) reactivity during mental stress (MS)
      in treated older hypertensive women. METHODS: Ten older hypertensive women (age
      =71.1+/-5.5 years; body mass index =24.2+/-3.9; mean BP [MBP] =85.4+/-3.5)
      underwent a protocol consisting of BP and heart rate variability (HRV) output
      assessments at baseline and during MS, and these measurements were taken before
      and 60 minutes after two bouts of RE (traditional and circuit). MS was induced
      through a computerized 3-minute Stroop color-word test before and 1 hour after
      each exercise session; BP was measured every minute during MS, and HRV was
      monitored as a measure of cardiac autonomic control. RESULTS: A significant
      effect of time on systolic BP (Deltapre =17.4+/-12.8 versus Deltapost =12.5+/
      9.6; P=0.01), diastolic BP (Deltapre =13.7+/-7.1 versus Deltapost =8.8+/-4.5;
      P=0.01), and MBP (Deltapre =14.0+/-7.7 versus Deltapost =9.3+/-5.4; P<0.01) after
      RE was observed, with no differences between the two sessions. In addition, a
      significant effect of time on log-normalized low-frequency component of HRV (ms2;
      5.3+/-0.8 pre-exercise MS versus 4.8+/-1.0 baseline value; P=0.023) was also
      observed, showing a significant change from baseline to MS before RE, but not
      after RE sessions. These results may be related to a lessened RE-mediated cardiac
      sympathetic activity during MS. CONCLUSION: RE is an effective tool to reduce BP
      reactivity to MS, which could therefore be associated with an acute reduction in
      cardiovascular risk. This result presents relevant clinical implications,
      combining previous evidence that recommends this exercise modality as an
      important component of an exercise program designed for the older and
      hypertensive subjects.

PMID- 28553090
TI  - Anti-amyloid aggregation activity of novel carotenoids: implications for
      Alzheimer's drug discovery.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, affecting
      approximately 33.5 million people worldwide. Aging is the main risk factor
      associated with AD. Drug discovery based on nutraceutical molecules for
      prevention and treatment of AD is a growing topic. In this sense, carotenoids are
      phytochemicals present mainly in fruits and vegetables with reported benefits for
      human health. In this research, the anti-amyloidogenic activity of three
      carotenoids, cryptocapsin, cryptocapsin-5,6-epoxide, and zeaxanthin, was
      assessed. Cryptocapsin showed the highest bioactivity, while cryptocapsin-5,6
      epoxide and zeaxanthin exhibited similar activity on anti-aggregation assays.
      Molecular modeling analysis revealed that the evaluated carotenoids might follow
      two mechanisms for inhibiting Abeta aggregation: by preventing the formation of
      the fibril and through disruption of the Abeta aggregates. Our studies provided
      evidence that cryptocapsin, cryptocapsin-5,6-epoxide, and zeaxanthin have anti
      amyloidogenic potential and could be used for prevention and treatment of AD.

PMID- 28553091
TI  - Improving the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis using a senior-friendly
      peer-led community education and mentoring model: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated a 6-month peer-led
      community education and mentorship program to improve the diagnosis and
      management of osteoporosis. METHODS: Ten seniors (74-90 years of age) were
      trained to become peer educators and mentors and deliver the intervention. In the
      subsequent RCT, 105 seniors (mean age =80.5+/-6.9; 89% female) were randomly
      assigned to the peer-led education and mentorship program (n=53) or control group
      (n=52). Knowledge was assessed at baseline and 6 months. Success was defined as
      discussing osteoporosis risk with their family physician, obtaining a bone
      mineral density assessment, and returning to review their risk profile and
      receive advice and/or treatment. RESULTS: Knowledge of osteoporosis did not
      change significantly. There was no difference in knowledge change between the two
      groups (mean difference =1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] of difference -0.76 to
      3.36). More participants in the intervention group achieved a successful outcome
      (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.42, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Peer-led education and
      mentorship can promote positive health behavior in seniors. This model was
      effective for improving osteoporosis risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment in
      a community setting.

PMID- 28553092
TI  - Relationship between sarcopenia and physical activity in older people: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Physical activity (PA) has been identified as beneficial for many diseases and
      health disorders, including sarcopenia. The positive influence of PA
      interventions on sarcopenia has been described previously on many occasions.
      Current reviews on the topic include studies with varied PA interventions for
      sarcopenia; nevertheless, no systematic review exploring the effects of PA in
      general on sarcopenia has been published. The main aim of this study was to
      explore the relationship between PA and sarcopenia in older people on the basis
      of cross-sectional and cohort studies. We searched PubMed, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and
      ScienceDirect for articles addressing the relationship between PA and sarcopenia.
      Twenty-five articles were ultimately included in the qualitative and quantitative
      syntheses. A statistically significant association between PA and sarcopenia was
      documented in most of the studies, as well as the protective role of PA against
      sarcopenia development. Furthermore, the meta-analysis indicated that PA reduces
      the odds of acquiring sarcopenia in later life (odds ratio [OR] =0.45; 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 0.37-0.55). The results of this systematic review and
      meta-analysis confirm the beneficial influence of PA in general for the
      prevention of sarcopenia.

PMID- 28553093
TI  - Applications of direct-to-consumer hearing devices for adults with hearing loss:
      a review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This systematic literature review is aimed at investigating
      applications of direct-to-consumer hearing devices for adults with hearing loss.
      This review discusses three categories of direct-to-consumer hearing devices: 1)
      personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), 2) direct-mail hearing aids, and
      3) over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. METHOD: A literature review was conducted
      using EBSCOhost and included the databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. After
      applying prior agreed inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 reports were included
      in the review. RESULTS: Included studies fell into three domains: 1)
      electroacoustic characteristics, 2) consumer surveys, and 3) outcome evaluations.
      Electroacoustic characteristics of these devices vary significantly with some
      meeting the stringent acoustic criteria used for hearing aids, while others
      producing dangerous output levels (ie, over 120-dB sound pressure level). Low-end
      (or low-cost) devices were typically poor in acoustic quality and did not meet
      gain levels necessary for most adult and elderly hearing loss patterns (eg,
      presbycusis), especially in high frequencies. Despite direct-mail hearing aids
      and PSAPs being associated with lower satisfaction when compared to hearing aids
      purchased through hearing health care professionals, consumer surveys suggest
      that 5%-19% of people with hearing loss purchase hearing aids through direct-mail
      or online. Studies on outcome evaluation suggest positive outcomes of OTC devices
      in the elderly population. Of note, OTC outcomes appear better when a hearing
      health care professional supports these users. CONCLUSION: While some direct-to
      consumer hearing devices have the capability to produce adverse effects due to
      production of dangerously high sound levels and internal noise, the existing
      literature suggests that there are potential benefits of these devices. Research
      of direct-to-consumer hearing devices is limited, and current published studies
      are of weak quality. Much effort is needed to understand the benefits and
      limitations of such devices on people with hearing loss.

PMID- 28553094
TI  - Effects of a simple prototype respiratory muscle trainer on respiratory muscle
      strength, quality of life and dyspnea, and oxidative stress in COPD patients: a
      preliminary study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of a simple
      prototype device for training respiratory muscles in lung function, respiratory
      muscle strength, walking capacity, quality of life (QOL), dyspnea, and oxidative
      stress in patients with COPD. METHODS: Thirty COPD patients with moderate
      severity of the disease were randomized into three groups: control (n=10, 6 males
      and 4 females), standard training (n=10, 4 males and 6 females), and prototype
      device (n=10, 5 males and 5 females). Respiratory muscle strength (maximal
      inspiratory pressure [PImax] and maximal expiratory pressure [PEmax]), lung
      function (forced vital capacity [FVC], percentage of FVC, forced expiratory
      volume in 1 second [FEV1], percentage of FEV1 [FEV1%], and FEV1/FVC), 6-minute
      walking distance (6MWD), QOL, and oxidative stress markers (total antioxidant
      capacity [TAC]), glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO)
      were evaluated before and after 6 weeks of training. Moreover, dyspnea scores
      were assessed before; during week 2, 4, and 6 of training; and at rest after
      training. RESULTS: All parameters between the groups had no statistical
      difference before training, and no statistical change in the control group after
      week 6. FVC, FEV1/FVC, PImax, PEmax, QOL, MDA, and NO showed significant changes
      after 6 weeks of training with either the standard or prototype device, compared
      to pre-training. FEV1, FEV1%, 6MWD, TAC, and GSH data did not change
      statistically. Furthermore, the results of significant changes in all parameters
      were not statistically different between training groups using the standard and
      prototype device. The peak dyspnea scores increased significantly in week 4 and 6
      when applying the standard or prototype device, and then lowered significantly at
      rest after 6 weeks of training, compared to pre-training. CONCLUSION: This study
      proposes that a simple prototype device can be used clinically in COPD patients
      as a standard device to train respiratory muscles, improving lung function and
      QOL, as well as involving MDA and NO levels.

PMID- 28553095
TI  - Deterioration of quality of life is associated with the exacerbation frequency in
      individuals with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency - analysis from the German
      Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a rare hereditary disease
      that is associated with a higher risk to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease and liver cirrhosis. Previous cross-sectional studies on AATD individuals
      have shown a relationship between worse St George's Respiratory Questionnaire
      (SGRQ) scores and elevated exacerbation rate or high cigarette consumption. There
      is a lack of longitudinal data on the relationship between the exacerbation rate
      and worsening of SGRQ during disease. The aim of this study was to provide not
      only cross-sectional data but also information about the deterioration in quality
      of life over a follow-up period up to 7 years (median follow-up period of 3.33
      years). METHODS: We investigated questionnaire-based data of the German AATD
      registry concerning the relationship between SGRQ and exacerbation frequency,
      smoking history, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and carbon monoxide
      diffusion capacity (DLCO) first in cross-sectional analysis and later in
      longitudinal analysis. RESULTS: Eight hundred sixty-eight individuals with
      protease inhibitor ZZ (PiZZ) genotype with an average age of 52.6+/-12.8 years
      had an SGRQ score of 45.7+/-20.6. SGRQ significantly correlated with the
      exacerbation frequency within the last 2 years (r=0.464; P<0.001), smoking
      history (r=0.233; P<0.001), FEV1 (r=-0.436; P<0.001), DLCO (r=-0.333; P<0.001),
      and patients' age (r=0.292; P<0.001). Individuals with occupational dust exposure
      had significantly worse quality of life (P<0.001). Mean annual deterioration of
      SGRQ in all patients with available follow-up data (n=286) was 1.21+/-4.45 points
      per year. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed a significant relationship
      between worsening of SGRQ/year and exacerbation frequency in the follow-up period
      (r=0.144; P=0.015). CONCLUSION: Worsening of SGRQ is associated with the
      exacerbation frequency in individuals with PiZZ AATD.

PMID- 28553096
TI  - Pulmonary artery to aorta ratio is associated with cardiac structure and
      functional changes in mild-to-moderate COPD.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ratio of the diameter of the pulmonary artery (PA) to the
      diameter of the aorta (PA:A) on computed tomography (CT) imaging is associated
      with both COPD exacerbation and pulmonary hypertension. The mechanisms of PA
      enlargement in COPD are poorly understood. METHODS: In this retrospective, single
      center study we evaluated pulmonary function, CT scans, right heart
      catheterizations, and echocardiography in 88 subjects with mild-to-moderately
      severe COPD. A sensitivity analysis was performed in 43 subjects in whom CT scan
      and echocardiogram were performed within 50 days of each other. To evaluate the
      association between PA:A ratio and echocardiographic parameters and hemodynamics,
      we performed simple correlations and multivariable linear regression analysis
      adjusting for lung function, age, sex, race, and diastolic function. RESULTS: All
      subjects had preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic function (LV ejection
      fraction 62.7%+/-5.5%). Among them, 56.8% had evidence of diastolic dysfunction.
      There was no association between PA:A ratio and the presence of diastolic
      dysfunction. In a multivariable model, PA:A ratio was associated with right
      ventricular (RV) chamber size (beta=0.015; P<0.003), RV wall thickness
      (beta=0.56; P<0.002), and RV function (-0.49; P=0.05). In the subgroup of
      subjects with testing within 50 days, the association with RV chamber size
      persisted (beta=0.017; P=0.04), as did the lack of association with diastolic
      function. PA:A ratio was also associated with elevated PA systolic pressures
      (r=0.62; P=0.006) and pulmonary vascular resistance (r=0.46; P=0.05), but not
      pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (r=0.17; P=0.5) in a subset of patients
      undergoing right heart catheterization. CONCLUSION: In patients with mild-to
      moderately severe COPD and preserved LV function, increased PA:A ratio occurs
      independent of LV diastolic dysfunction. Furthermore, the PA:A ratio is
      associated with right heart structure and function changes, as well as pulmonary
      hemodynamics. These findings indicate that PA:A ratio is a marker of intrinsic
      pulmonary vascular changes rather than impaired LV filling.

PMID- 28553097
TI  - Two CHRN susceptibility variants for COPD are genetic determinants of emphysema
      and chest computed tomography manifestations in Chinese patients.
AB  - Quantitative computed tomography (CT) measures of emphysema have been shown to be
      associated with increased mortality in humans, but genetic variants affecting the
      quantitative parameters of chest CT that measure degree of emphysema have not yet
      been examined. In this study, using available chest CT data from a total of 344
      emphysema patients, we assessed the correlations between five chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) susceptibility variants in the cholinergic receptor
      nicotinic (CHRN) genes and the degree of emphysema and chest CT manifestations.
      We verified that most of the parameters were significantly correlated with the
      degree of emphysema. Compared to rs76071148AA and TT genotype carriers, the
      rs76071148AT genotype carriers exhibited a decreased probability of having severe
      emphysema (odds ratio [OR] =0.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.40-0.99),
      whereas the variant rs8040868C allele was negatively correlated with the
      emphysema index (P=0.002). Interestingly, further stratification analysis grouped
      by spirometry-diagnosed COPD status revealed that the variant rs8040868C (CT +
      CC) genotypes exerted a protective effect against severe emphysema with
      borderline significance (OR =0.41, 95% CI =0.16-1.05) and affected the mean lung
      density, emphysema index, ratio of airway wall thickness to airway dimensions
      (AWT/AD), and AWT grade in spirometry-diagnosed non-COPD subjects. The rs76071148
      variant was also significantly associated with AWT/AD and AWT grade in those
      individuals. In summary, we determined that rs8040868 and rs76071148 are
      promising indicators of the degree of emphysema and chest CT manifestations,
      especially in spirometry-diagnosed non-COPD subjects.

PMID- 28553098
TI  - The effect of COPD severity and study duration on exacerbation outcome in
      randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When discontinuation in COPD randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is
      unevenly distributed between treatments (differential dropout), the capacity to
      demonstrate treatment effects may be reduced. We investigated the impact of the
      time of differential dropout on exacerbation outcomes in RCTs, in relation to
      study duration and COPD severity. METHODS: A post hoc analysis of 2,345 patients
      from three RCTs of 6- and 12-month duration was performed to compare
      budesonide/formoterol and formoterol in moderate, severe, and very severe COPD.
      Outcomes were exacerbation rate, time-to-first exacerbation, or discontinuation;
      patients were stratified by disease severity. Outcomes were studied by censoring
      data monthly from 1 to 12 months. RESULTS: In patients treated with
      budesonide/formoterol, annualized exacerbation rates (AERs) were comparable for
      each study duration (rate ratio [RR] =0.6). With formoterol, the AER decreased
      with study duration (RR =1.20 at 1 month to RR =0.86 at 12 months). There was a
      treatment-related difference in exacerbation rates of 45%-48% for shorter study
      durations (<=4 months) and 27% for 12-month duration. This treatment-related
      difference in exacerbation rates was comparable for the three disease severities
      in studies <=4 months (range: 39%-51%), but this difference decreased with longer
      study durations, especially in more severe groups (22% and 29% at 12 months).
      There were fewer discontinuations with budesonide/formoterol; the treatment
      related difference in time-to-first discontinuation decreased by study duration
      (35%, 30%, 26%, and 22% at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively). Numbers of
      differential dropouts increased with increasing disease severity, being greatest
      during second, third, and fourth months. CONCLUSIONS: COPD severity and study
      duration impact exacerbation as an outcome in double-blind RCTs. This effect is
      most obvious in patients with severe/very severe COPD and in studies that are
      longer than 4 months. Early differential dropout particularly impacts study
      outcome, producing a "healthy survivor effect," which reduces estimations of
      treatment impact on exacerbations.

PMID- 28553099
TI  - Development of a self-scored persistent airflow obstruction screening
      questionnaire in a general Japanese population: the Hisayama study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of a simple screening questionnaire to detect persistent
      airflow obstruction (AO) in COPD may facilitate the early, accurate diagnosis of
      COPD in general practice settings. OBJECTIVE: This study developed an original
      persistent AO questionnaire for screening individuals with COPD in a general
      Japanese population. METHODS: A working group was established to generate initial
      draft questionnaire items about COPD. Eligible subjects aged 40 and older living
      in Japan were solicited to participate in a health checkup from 2014 to 2015. In
      study I, 2,338 subjects who fully completed the initial draft questionnaire and
      who had valid spirometry measurements were statistically analyzed to determine
      the final questionnaire items as a COPD screening questionnaire (COPD-Q).
      Persistent AO was defined as a post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC <0.70. In study II,
      the working group analyzed the weighted scores for individual items and
      established a cutoff point for the COPD-Q based on the data of 2,066 subjects in
      the Hisayama study. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to
      examine the ability of the COPD-Q to discriminate between subjects with and
      without AO. RESULTS: The five-item COPD-Q was established based on 19 initial
      draft items in study I and the weighted scores of individual items. The overall
      area under the ROC curve for the COPD-Q was 0.796 (95% confidence interval, 0.707
      0.788). A cutoff of 4 points resulted in a sensitivity of 71.0% and a specificity
      of 70.1%. The positive predictive value was 10.8%, and the negative predictive
      value was 97.9%. The crude odds ratio of the COPD-Q for AO was 5.8. CONCLUSION:
      The five-item COPD-Q is a useful questionnaire for diagnosing persistent AO in a
      general Japanese population and is expected to be an effective first-stage
      screening tool for detecting COPD.

PMID- 28553100
TI  - Relationships between heart rate target determined in different exercise testing
      in COPD patients to prescribed with individualized exercise training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been scientifically proven that pulmonary rehabilitation
      improves exercise tolerance and facilitates the carrying out of daily physical
      activities. To optimize the physical and physiological benefits, it is necessary
      to individualize the training intensity for each patient. The aim of this study
      is to compare the heart rate (HR) responses to three exercise modalities
      measuring aerobic fitness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, in
      order to easily prescribe individual target HRs for endurance training. PATIENTS
      AND METHOD: Fifty COPD patients (mean age: 60.1+/-8.5 years) were included in the
      study. Each patient carried out a cardiopulmonary exercise test, a 6-minute walk
      test (6MWT) and a 6-minute stepper test (6MST). During these tests, HR was
      recorded continuously. After the cardiopulmonary exercise test, the HR was noted
      at the ventilatory threshold (VT) and at the end of the two exercise field tests
      (6MWTpeak and 6MSTpeak). The values of the HR during the last 3 minutes of both
      field tests were averaged (6MWT456 and 6MST456). Finally, the HR at 60% of the HR
      reserve was calculated with the values of the HR measured during 6MWT and 6MST
      (HRr60%walk, HRr60%step). RESULTS: The HRs measured during the 6MST were
      significantly higher than those measured during the 6MWT. The HRr60%step was not
      significantly different from 6MWT456 and 6MWTpeak HR (P=0.51; P=0.48). A
      significant correlation was observed between 6MWT456 and 6MWTpeak (r=0.58). The
      6MWT456 and 6MWTpeak HR were correlated with HRr60%step (r=0.68 and r=0.62). The
      VT could be determined in 28 patients. The HRVT was not different from 6MWT456,
      6MWTpeak, and HRr60%step (P=0.57, P=0.41 and P=0.88) and was correlated to
      6MWT456, 6MWTpeak, and HRr60%step (r=0.45, r=0.40, r=0.48). CONCLUSION: An
      individualized target HR for endurance training can be prescribed from the HR
      measured during routine tests, such as 6MWT or 6MST.

PMID- 28553101
TI  - The PLATINO study: description of the distribution, stability, and mortality
      according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease
      classification from 2007 to 2017.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD)
      report provides a framework for classifying COPD reflecting the impacts of
      disease on patients and for targeting treatment recommendations. The GOLD 2017
      introduced a new classification with 16 subgroups based on a composite of
      spirometry and symptoms/exacerbations. METHODS: Data from the population-based
      PLATINO study, collected at baseline and at follow-up, in three sites in Latin
      America were analyzed to compare the following: 1) the distribution of COPD
      patients according to GOLD 2007, 2013, and 2017; 2) the stability of the 2007 and
      2013 classifications; and 3) the mortality rate over time stratified by GOLD
      2007, 2013, and 2017. RESULTS: Of the 524 COPD patients evaluated, most of them
      were classified as Grade I or II (GOLD 2007) and Group A or B (GOLD 2013), with
      ~70% of those classified as Group A in GOLD 2013 also classified as Grade I in
      GOLD 2007 and the highest percentage (41%) in Group D (2013) classified as Grade
      III (2007). According to GOLD 2017, among patients with Grade I airflow
      limitation, 69% of them were categorized into Group A, whereas Grade IV patients
      were more evenly distributed among Groups A-D. Most of the patients classified by
      GOLD 2007 remained in the same airflow limitation group at the follow-up; a
      greater temporal variability was observed with GOLD 2013 classification.
      Incidence-mortality rate in patients classified by GOLD 2007 was positively
      associated with increasing severity of airflow obstruction; for GOLD 2013 and
      GOLD 2017 (Groups A-D), highest mortality rates were observed in Groups C and D.
      No clear pattern was observed for mortality across the GOLD 2017 subgroups.
      CONCLUSION: The PLATINO study data suggest that GOLD 2007 classification shows
      more stability over time compared with GOLD 2013. No clear patterns with respect
      to the distribution of patients or incidence-mortality rates were observed
      according to GOLD 2013/2017 classification.

PMID- 28553102
TI  - Two-dimensional collagen-graphene as colloidal templates for biocompatible
      inorganic nanomaterial synthesis.
AB  - In this study, natural graphite was first converted to collagen-graphene
      composites and then used as templates for the synthesis of nanoparticles of
      silver, iron oxide, and hydroxyapatite. X-ray diffraction did not show any
      diffraction peaks of graphene in the composites after inorganic nucleation,
      compared to the naked composite which showed (002) and (004) peaks. Scanning
      electron micrographs showed lateral gluing/docking of these composites, possibly
      driven by an electrostatic attraction between the positive layers of one stack
      and negative layers of another, which became distorted after inorganic
      nucleation. Docking resulted in single layer-like characteristics in certain
      places, as seen under transmission electron microscopy, but sp2/sp3 ratios from
      Raman analysis inferred three-layer composite formation. Strain-induced folding
      of these layers into uniform clusters at the point of critical nucleation,
      revealed beautiful microstructures under scanning electron microscopy. Lastly,
      cell viability studies using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium
      bromide assays showed the highest cell viability for the collagen-graphene
      hydroxyapatite composites. In this manner, this study provided - to the field of
      nanomedicine - a new process for the synthesis of several nanoparticles (with low
      toxicity) of high interest for numerous medical applications.

PMID- 28553103
TI  - The metal nanoparticle-induced inflammatory response is regulated by SIRT1
      through NF-kappaB deacetylation in aseptic loosening.
AB  - Aseptic loosening is the most common cause of total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      failure, and osteolysis induced by wear particles plays a major role in aseptic
      loosening. Various pathways in multiple cell types contribute to the pathogenesis
      of osteolysis, but the role of Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), which can regulate inflammatory
      responses through its deacetylation, has never been investigated. We hypothesized
      that the downregulation of SIRT1 in macrophages induced by metal nanoparticles
      was one of the reasons for osteolysis in THA failure. In this study, the
      expression of SIRT1 was examined in macrophages stimulated with metal
      nanoparticles from materials used in prosthetics and in specimens from patients
      suffering from aseptic loosening. To address whether SIRT1 downregulation
      triggers these inflammatory responses, the effects of the SIRT1 activator
      resveratrol on the expression of inflammatory cytokines in metal nanoparticle
      stimulated macrophages were tested. The results demonstrated that SIRT1
      expression was significantly downregulated in metal nanoparticle-stimulated
      macrophages and clinical specimens of prosthesis loosening. Pharmacological
      activation of SIRT1 dramatically reduced the particle-induced expression of
      inflammatory cytokines in vitro and osteolysis in vivo. Furthermore, SIRT1
      regulated particle-induced inflammatory responses through nuclear factor kappa B
      (NF-kappaB) acetylation. Thus, the results of this study suggest that SIRT1 plays
      a key role in metal nanoparticle-induced inflammatory responses and that
      targeting the SIRT1 pathway may lead to novel therapeutic approaches for the
      treatment of aseptic prosthesis loosening.

PMID- 28553104
TI  - Nanoporosity improved water absorption, in vitro degradability, mineralization,
      osteoblast responses and drug release of poly(butylene succinate)-based composite
      scaffolds containing nanoporous magnesium silicate compared with magnesium
      silicate.
AB  - Bioactive composite macroporous scaffold containing nanoporosity was prepared by
      incorporation of nanoporous magnesium silicate (NMS) into poly(butylene
      succinate) (PBSu) using solvent casting-particulate leaching method. The results
      showed that the water absorption and in vitro degradability of NMS/PBSu composite
      (NMPC) scaffold significantly improved compared with magnesium silicate (MS)/PBSu
      composite (MPC) scaffold. In addition, the NMPC scaffold showed improved apatite
      mineralization ability, indicating better bioactivity, as the NMPC containing
      nanoporosity could induce more apatite and homogeneous apatite layer on the
      surfaces than MPC scaffold. The attachment and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells on
      NMPC scaffold increased significantly compared with MPC scaffold, and the
      alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of the cells on NMPC scaffold was expressed
      at considerably higher levels compared with MPC scaffold. Moreover, NMPC scaffold
      with nanoporosity not only had large drug loading (vancomycin) but also exhibited
      drug sustained release. The results suggested that the incorporation of NMS into
      PBSu could produce bioactive composite scaffold with nanoporosity, which could
      enhance water absorption, degradability, apatite mineralization and drug
      sustained release and promote cell responses.

PMID- 28553105
TI  - Preparation of a dual cored hepatoma-specific star glycopolymer nanogel via arm
      first ATRP approach.
AB  - A reductase-cleavable and thermo-responsive star-shaped polymer nanogel was
      prepared via an "arm-first" atom transfer radical polymerization approach. The
      nanogel consists of a thermo- and redox-sensitive core and a zwitterionic
      copolymer block. The dual sensitive core is composed of poly(N
      isopropylacrylamide) that is formed by disulfide crosslinking of N
      isopropylacrylamide. The zwitterionic copolymer block contains a
      poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) component, a known anti-adsorptive moiety that
      extends blood circulation time, and a lactose motif of poly(2-lactobionamidoethyl
      methacrylamide) that specifically targets the asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGP
      Rs) of hepatoma. Doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated into the cross-linked
      nanogels via solvent extraction/evaporation method and dialysis; average diameter
      of both blank and DOX-loaded nanogels was ~120 nm. The multi-responsiveness of
      nanogel drug release in different temperatures and redox conditions was assessed.
      After 24 h, DOX release was only ~20% at 30 degrees C with 0 mM glutathione
      (GSH), whereas over 90% DOX release was observed at 40 degrees C and 10 mM GSH,
      evidence of dual responsiveness to temperature and reductase GSH. The IC50 value
      of DOX-loaded nanogels was much lower in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells compared to
      non-hepatic HeLa cells. Remarkably, DOX uptake of HepG2 cells differed
      substantially in the presence and absence of galactose (0.31 vs 1.42 ug/mL after
      48 h of incubation). The difference was non-detectable in HeLa cells (1.21 vs
      1.57 ug/mL after 48 h of incubation), indicating that the overexpression of ASGP
      Rs leads to the DOX-loaded lactosylated nanogels actively targeting hepatoma. Our
      data indicate that the lactose-decorated star-shaped nanogels are dual responsive
      and hepatoma targeted, and could be employed as hepatoma-specific anti-cancer
      drug delivery vehicle for cancer chemotherapy.

PMID- 28553106
TI  - A green single-step procedure to synthesize Ag-containing nanocomposite coatings
      with low cytotoxicity and efficient antibacterial properties.
AB  - Implant-associated infections still pose a serious threat leading to several
      complications. This study reported an environmentally benign Ag-containing
      nanocomposite coating with efficient antibacterial property fabricated on the
      metal implant via electrophoretic deposition (EPD). In such coatings, Ag2O/AgCl
      mixed with chitosan/gelatin (CS/G) polymers work together to exert the
      antibacterial property which could act as an alternative to traditional Ag
      nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy images showed the shuttle fiber-like
      morphology distributed lamellarly and some nanoparticles carved uniformly into
      the cross section. Transmission electron microscopy results revealed a core-shell
      like structure of the released nanoparticles in experimental groups. The Ag
      containing coatings exhibited strong antibacterial properties against
      Staphylococcus aureus strains and Escherichia coli strains. Meanwhile, the CCK-8
      tests showed that after assembling with chitosan and gelatin polymers, the
      cytotoxicity of Ag was largely decreased. In addition, such coatings also
      exhibited strong bond strength with metal substrates and good degradable
      properties. Therefore, such Ag-containing CS/G coatings fabricated via EPD may be
      a promising candidate to be administrated in controlling the implant-associated
      infections.

PMID- 28553107
TI  - 10-Hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) nanosuspensions stabilized by mPEG1000-HCPT
      conjugate: high stabilizing efficiency and improved antitumor efficacy.
AB  - In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated 10-hydroxycamptothecin (mPEG1000
      HCPT) was synthesized and used as a stabilizer to prepare 10-hydroxycamptothecin
      (HCPT) nanosuspensions for their in vitro and in vivo antitumor investigation.
      The resultant HCPT nanosuspensions (HCPT-NSps) had a very high drug payload of
      94.90% (w/w) and a mean particle size of 92.90+/-0.20 nm with narrow size
      distribution (polydispersity index of 0.16+/-0.01). HCPT-NSps could be
      lyophilized without the need of the addition of any cryoprotectant and then be
      reconstituted into nanosuspensions of a similar size by direct resuspension in
      water. HCPT was in crystalline form in HCPT-NSps. Using mPEG1000-HCPT as
      stabilizer, insoluble camptothecin and 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin could also
      be easily made into nanosuspensions with similar features such as high drug
      payload, small particle size, and cryoprotectant-free freeze drying. The 3-[4,5
      dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay indicated that the
      HCPT-NSps had a significantly higher cytotoxicity than HCPT injections, with 3.77
      times lower IC50 value against HepG2 cells and 14.1 times lower IC50 value
      against MCF-7 cells. An in vivo study in H22 tumor-bearing mice after intravenous
      injection of HCPT-NSps demonstrated that HCPT-NSps significantly improved the
      antitumor efficacy compared to the commercially available HCPT injections (86.38%
      vs 34.97%) at the same dose of 5 mg/kg. Even at 1/4 of the dose, HCPT-NSps could
      also achieve a similar antitumor efficacy to that of HCPT injections. mPEG1000
      HCPT may be a highly efficient stabilizer able to provide camptothecin-based
      drugs, and probably other antitumor agents containing aromatic structure, with
      unique nanosuspensions or nanocrystals for improved in vivo therapeutic efficacy.

PMID- 28553108
TI  - Platinum covalent shell cross-linked micelles designed to deliver doxorubicin for
      synergistic combination cancer therapy.
AB  - The preparation of polymer therapeutics capable of controlled release of multiple
      chemotherapeutic drugs has remained a tough problem in synergistic combination
      cancer therapy. Herein, a novel dual-drug co-delivery system carrying doxorubicin
      (DOX) and platinum(IV) (Pt[IV]) was developed. An amphiphilic diblock copolymer,
      PCL-b-P(OEGMA-co-AzPMA), was synthesized and used as a nanoscale drug carrier in
      which DOX and Pt(IV) could be packaged together. The copolymers were shell cross
      linked by Pt(IV) prodrug via a click reaction. Studies on the in vitro drug
      release and cellular uptake of the dual-drug co-delivery system showed that the
      micelles were effectively taken up by the cells and simultaneously released drugs
      in the cells. Futhermore, the co-delivery polymer nanoparticles caused much
      higher cell death in HeLa and A357 tumor cells than either the free drugs or
      single-drug-loaded micelles at the same dosage, exhibiting a synergistic
      combination of DOX and Pt(IV). The results obtained with the shell cross-linked
      micelles based on an anticancer drug used as a cross-linking linkage suggested a
      promising application of the micelles for multidrug delivery in combination
      cancer therapy.

PMID- 28553109
TI  - Bitistatin-functionalized fluorescent nanodiamond particles specifically bind to
      purified human platelet integrin receptor alphaIIbbeta3 and activated platelets.
AB  - Thromboembolic events (TEE) underwrite key causes of death in developed
      countries. While advanced imaging technologies such as computed tomography scans
      serve to diagnose blood clots during acute cardiovascular events, no such
      technology is available in routine primary care for TEE risk assessment. Here, we
      describe an imaging platform technology based on bioengineered fluorescent
      nanodiamond particles (F-NDPs) functionalized with bitistatin (Bit), a
      disintegrin that specifically binds to the alphaIIbbeta3 integrin, platelet
      fibrinogen receptor (PFR) on activated platelets. Covalent linkage of purified
      Bit to F-NDP was concentration-dependent and saturable, as validated by enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay using specific anti-Bit antibodies. F-NDP-Bit
      interacted with purified PFR, either in immobilized or soluble form. Lotrafiban,
      a nonpeptide, alphaIIbbeta3 receptor antagonist, specifically blocked F-NDP-Bit
      PFR complex formation. Moreover, F-NDP-Bit specifically binds to activated
      platelets incorporated into a clot generated by thrombin-activated rat platelet
      rich plasma (PRP). Our results suggest that engineered F-NDP-Bit particles could
      serve as noninvasive, "real-time" optical diagnostics for clots present in blood
      vessels.

PMID- 28553110
TI  - Cisplatin-resistant lung cancer cell-derived exosomes increase cisplatin
      resistance of recipient cells in exosomal miR-100-5p-dependent manner.
AB  - Exosomes derived from lung cancer cells confer cisplatin (DDP) resistance to
      other cancer cells. However, the underlying mechanism is still unknown. A549
      resistance to DDP (A549/DDP) was established. Microarray was used to analyze
      microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles of A549 cells, A549/DDP cells, A549
      exosomes, and A549/DDP exosomes. There was a strong correlation of miRNA profiles
      between exosomes and their maternal cells. A total of 11 miRNAs were
      significantly upregulated both in A549/DDP cells compared with A549 cells and in
      exosomes derived from A549/DDP cells in contrast to exosomes from A549 cells. A
      total of 31 downregulated miRNAs were also observed. miR-100-5p was the most
      prominent decreased miRNA in DDP-resistant exosomes compared with the
      corresponding sensitive ones. Downregulated miR-100-5p was proved to be involved
      in DDP resistance in A549 cells, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)
      expression was reverse regulated by miR-100-5p. Exosomes confer recipient cells'
      resistance to DDP in an exosomal miR-100-5p-dependent manner with mTOR as its
      potential target both in vitro and in vivo. Exosomes from DDP-resistant lung
      cancer cells A549 can alter other lung cancer cells' sensitivity to DDP in
      exosomal miR-100-5p-dependent manner. Our study provides new insights into the
      molecular mechanism of DDP resistance in lung cancer.

PMID- 28553111
TI  - Liposomal formulation of a methotrexate lipophilic prodrug: assessment in tumor
      cells and mouse T-cell leukemic lymphoma.
AB  - In a previous study, a formulation of methotrexate (MTX) incorporated in the
      lipid bilayer of 100-nm liposomes in the form of diglyceride ester (MTX-DG,
      lipophilic prodrug) was developed. In this study, first, the interactions of MTX
      DG liposomes with various human and mouse tumor cell lines were studied using
      fluorescence techniques. The liposomes composed of egg phosphatidylcholine
      (PC)/yeast phosphatidylinositol/MTX-DG, 8:1:1 by mol, were labeled with
      fluorescent analogs of PC and MTX-DG. Carcinoma cells accumulated 5 times more
      MTX-DG liposomes than the empty liposomes. Studies on inhibitors of liposome
      uptake and processing by cells demonstrated that the formulation used multiple
      mechanisms to deliver the prodrug inside the cell. According to the data from the
      present study, undamaged liposomes fuse with the cell membrane only 1.5-2 hours
      after binding to the cell surface, and then, the components of liposomal bilayer
      enter the cell separately. The study on the time course of plasma concentration
      in mice showed that the area under the curve of MTX generated upon intravenous
      injection of MTX-DG liposomes exceeded that of intact MTX 2.5-fold. These data
      suggested the advantage of using liposomal formulation to treat systemic
      manifestation of hematological malignancies. Indeed, the administration of MTX-DG
      liposomes to recipient mice bearing T-cell leukemic lymphoma using a dose-sparing
      regimen resulted in lower toxicity and retarded lymphoma growth rate as compared
      with MTX.

PMID- 28553112
TI  - IONP-doped nanoparticles for highly effective NIR-controlled drug release and
      combination tumor therapy.
AB  - Despite advances in controlled drug delivery, drug delivery systems (DDSs) with
      controlled activated drug release and high spatial and temporal resolution are
      still required. Theranostic nanomedicine is capable of diagnosis, therapy, and
      monitoring the delivery and distribution of drug molecules and has received
      growing interest. In this study, a near-infrared light-controlled "off-on" DDS
      with magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic targeting properties was developed
      using a hybrid nanoplatform (carbon nanotubes [CNTs]-iron oxide nanoparticle).
      Doxorubicin (DOX) and distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-PEG were
      adsorbed onto CNTs-iron oxide nanoparticle, and then to avoid the unexpected drug
      release during circulation, 1-myristyl alcohol was used to encapsulate the CNTs
      drug complex. Herein, multifunctional DOX-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) with "off
      on" state were developed. DOX-NPs showed an obvious "off-on" effect (temperature
      increase, drug release) controlled by near-infrared light in vitro and in vivo.
      In the in vivo and in vitro studies, DOX-NPs exhibited excellent magnetic
      resonance imaging ability, magnetic targeting property, high biosafety, and high
      antitumor combined therapeutic efficacy (hyperthermia combined with
      chemotherapy). These results highlight the great potential of DOX-NPs in the
      treatment of cancer.

PMID- 28553113
TI  - Methotrexate carried in lipid core nanoparticles reduces myocardial infarction
      size and improves cardiac function in rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is accompanied by myocardial
      inflammation, fibrosis, and ventricular remodeling that, when excessive or not
      properly regulated, may lead to heart failure. Previously, lipid core
      nanoparticles (LDE) used as carriers of the anti-inflammatory drug methotrexate
      (MTX) produced an 80-fold increase in the cell uptake of MTX. LDE-MTX treatment
      reduced vessel inflammation and atheromatous lesions induced in rabbits by
      cholesterol feeding. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of LDE
      MTX on rats with MI, compared with commercial MTX treatment. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Thirty-eight Wistar rats underwent left coronary artery ligation and
      were treated with LDE-MTX, or with MTX (1 mg/kg intraperitoneally, once/week,
      starting 24 hours after surgery) or with LDE without drug (MI-controls). A sham
      surgery group (n=12) was also included. Echocardiography was performed 24 hours
      and 6 weeks after surgery. The animals were euthanized and their hearts were
      analyzed for morphometry, protein expression, and confocal microscopy. RESULTS:
      LDE-MTX treatment achieved a 40% improvement in left ventricular (LV) systolic
      function and reduced cardiac dilation and LV mass, as shown by echocardiography.
      LDE-MTX reduced the infarction size, myocyte hypertrophy and necrosis, number of
      inflammatory cells, and myocardial fibrosis, as shown by morphometric analysis.
      LDE-MTX increased antioxidant enzymes; decreased apoptosis, macrophages, reactive
      oxygen species production; and tissue hypoxia in non-infarcted myocardium. LDE
      MTX increased adenosine bioavailability in the LV by increasing adenosine
      receptors and modulating adenosine catabolic enzymes. LDE-MTX increased the
      expression of myocardial vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF) associated
      with adenosine release; this correlated not only with an increase in
      angiogenesis, but also with other parameters improved by LDE-MTX, suggesting that
      VEGF increase played an important role in the beneficial effects of LDE-MTX.
      Overall effects of commercial MTX were minor, and did not improve LV function or
      infarction size. Both treatments did not induce any toxicity. CONCLUSION: The
      remarkable improvement in heart function and reduction in infarction size
      achieved by LDE-MTX supports future clinical trials.

PMID- 28553114
TI  - Ravuconazole self-emulsifying delivery system: in vitro activity against
      Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes and in vivo toxicity.
AB  - Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDSs) are lipid-based anhydrous
      formulations composed of an isotropic mixture of oil, surfactant, and
      cosurfactants usually presented in gelatin capsules. Ravuconazole
      (Biopharmaceutics Classification System [BCS] Class II) is a poorly water-soluble
      drug, and a SEDDS type IIIA was designed to deliver it in a predissolved state,
      improving dissolution in gastrointestinal fluids. After emulsification, the
      droplets had mean hydrodynamic diameters <250 nm, zeta potential values in the
      range of -45 mV to -57 mV, and showed no signs of ravuconazole precipitation.
      Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation with dynamic and multiangle laser light
      scattering was used to characterize these formulations in terms of size
      distribution and homogeneity. The fractograms obtained at 37 degrees C showed a
      polydisperse profile for all blank and ravuconazole-SEDDS formulations but no
      large aggregates. SEDDS increased ravuconazole in vitro dissolution extent and
      rate (20%) compared to free drug (3%) in 6 h. The in vivo toxicity of blank SEDDS
      comprising Labrasol(r) surfactant in different concentrations and preliminary
      safety tests in repeated-dose oral administration (20 days) showed a dose
      dependent Labrasol toxicity in healthy mice. Ravuconazole-SEDDS at low surfactant
      content (10%, v/v) in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice was safe during the 20-day
      treatment. The anti-T. cruzi activity of free ravuconazole, ravuconazole-SEDDS
      and each excipient were evaluated in vitro at equivalent ravuconazole
      concentrations needed to inhibit 50% or 90% (IC50 and IC90), respectively of the
      intracellular amastigote form of the parasite in a cardiomyocyte cell line. The
      results showed a clear improvement of the ravuconazole anti-T. cruzi activity
      when associated with SEDDS. Based on our results, the repurposing of ravuconazole
      in SEDDS dosage form is a strategy that deserves further in vivo investigation in
      preclinical studies for the treatment of human T. cruzi infections.

PMID- 28553115
TI  - PMMA denture base material enhancement: a review of fiber, filler, and nanofiller
      addition.
AB  - This paper reviews acrylic denture base resin enhancement during the past few
      decades. Specific attention is given to the effect of fiber, filler, and
      nanofiller addition on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) properties. The review is
      based on scientific reviews, papers, and abstracts, as well as studies concerning
      the effect of additives, fibers, fillers, and reinforcement materials on PMMA,
      published between 1974 and 2016. Many studies have reported improvement of PMMA
      denture base material with the addition of fillers, fibers, nanofiller, and
      hybrid reinforcement. However, most of the studies were limited to in vitro
      investigations without bioactivity and clinical implications. Considering the
      findings of the review, there is no ideal denture base material, but the
      properties of PMMA could be improved with some modifications, especially with
      silanized nanoparticle addition and a hybrid reinforcement system.

PMID- 28553116
TI  - Comparative efficacy and safety of antipsychotics in the treatment of
      schizophrenia: a network meta-analysis in a Japanese population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relative efficacy and tolerability of antipsychotics for
      schizophrenia are considerably well studied. This study aimed to examine whether
      previous findings could be replicated in a genetically distinct and homogenous
      group (ie, Japanese patients with schizophrenia) and whether previous findings
      could be extended to a broader range of antipsychotics with previously unclear
      relative efficacy and tolerability. METHODS: Bayesian network meta-analysis was
      performed in which randomized trials comparing any of the following interventions
      were included: second-generation antipsychotics, haloperidol, or placebo. The
      primary outcomes for efficacy and acceptability were the response rate and all
      cause discontinuation. The secondary outcomes included the improvement of
      Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores, discontinuation because of adverse
      events, and individual adverse events. RESULTS: Eighteen relevant studies were
      identified (total n=3,446; aripiprazole =267, blonanserin =285, clozapine =47,
      clocapramine =295, haloperidol =857, mosapramine =493, olanzapine =179,
      paliperidone =136, perospirone =146, placebo =138, quetiapine =212, and
      risperidone =338; mean study duration =8.33+/-1.41 weeks). In primary outcomes,
      olanzapine and paliperidone showed efficacy than placebo, and olanzapine and
      paliperidone showed superior acceptability compared with placebo. There were
      differences in the incidences of individual adverse events (the best
      antipsychotic: extrapyramidal symptoms = olanzapine, hyperprolactinemia- related
      symptoms = quetiapine, sedation = paliperidone, and weight change = blonanserin)
      among antipsychotics. CONCLUSION: Although the current analysis exclusively
      included Japanese patients with schizophrenia, no remarkable differences were
      observed in efficacy and safety compared with previous meta-analyses. Diverse
      hierarchies in safety outcomes also support the implication that individual risk
      expectations for adverse events can guide clinical decisions. However, the sample
      size was relatively limited. Additional efficacy and safety data are required to
      fully obtain a conclusive understanding.

PMID- 28553117
TI  - Robot-assisted gait training for stroke patients: current state of the art and
      perspectives of robotics.
AB  - In this review, we give a brief outline of robot-mediated gait training for
      stroke patients, as an important emerging field in rehabilitation. Technological
      innovations are allowing rehabilitation to move toward more integrated processes,
      with improved efficiency and less long-term impairments. In particular, robot
      mediated neurorehabilitation is a rapidly advancing field, which uses robotic
      systems to define new methods for treating neurological injuries, especially
      stroke. The use of robots in gait training can enhance rehabilitation, but it
      needs to be used according to well-defined neuroscientific principles. The field
      of robot-mediated neurorehabilitation brings challenges to both bioengineering
      and clinical practice. This article reviews the state of the art (including
      commercially available systems) and perspectives of robotics in poststroke
      rehabilitation for walking recovery. A critical revision, including the problems
      at stake regarding robotic clinical use, is also presented.

PMID- 28553119
TI  - Potential role of pre- and postnatal testosterone levels in attention
      deficit/hyperactivity disorder: is there a sex difference?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Both prenatal testosterone (T) exposure and postnatal T levels have
      been associated with developing neural circuitry and behavioral systems. This
      study examined the potential correlation between pre- and postnatal T levels and
      behavioral and neurocognitive profiles of children with attention
      deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Two hundred ADHD patients with a
      mean age of 8.7+/-2.0 years (158 boys and 42 girls) were recruited. The ratio of
      the length of the right index finger (2D) to that of the right ring finger (4D)
      (2D/4D ratio) served as a surrogate of prenatal T exposure, and postnatal T was
      determined using salivary T concentration. Behavioral symptoms were evaluated
      using the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham - Version IV Scale for ADHD (SNAP-IV).
      Neurocognitive function was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
      Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and Conners' Continuous Performance Test
      (CPT). RESULTS: Lower 2D/4D ratios were associated with comorbid disruptive
      behavior disorders (t=2.15, P=0.033) in all participants. Among the boys with
      ADHD, neither 2D/4D ratios nor salivary T levels were associated with behavioral
      symptoms or neurocognitive function. Among the girls with ADHD, the salivary T
      level was positively correlated with the Perceptual Reasoning Index of the WISC
      IV (r=0.48, P=0.001) and the Confidence Index (r=0.37, P=0.017) and Omission
      Errors of the CPT (r=0.62, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that a higher
      prenatal T exposure is associated with a greater risk of developing disruptive
      behavior disorders, and T may exert differential neurocognitive effects between
      boys and girls with ADHD. However, the neurobiological mechanisms of T involved
      in the pathogenesis of ADHD warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28553120
TI  - Productivity and deadweight losses due to relapses of schizophrenia in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No study has examined the financial impact of relapses on
      schizophrenia from the perspective of Japanese society. This study aimed to
      estimate the societal costs in Japan caused by the relapses of schizophrenia.
      METHODS: The societal costs in Japan in 2013 due to relapses of schizophrenia
      were estimated by summing the productivity loss and deadweight loss caused by
      schizophrenia relapses in 2013. Deterministic sensitivity analysis was conducted
      for deadweight loss rate, relapse rate, and patient income. RESULTS: Japan
      incurred JPY 55,039 million societal costs because of relapses in 2013. This
      consists of JPY 3,990 million for productivity loss and JPY 51,049 million for
      deadweight loss. Rate of deadweight loss is the most significant cost driver in
      the sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION: Relapses of schizophrenia could generate
      huge amount of societal costs by reducing labor productivity and economic
      efficiency. To curb these costs, relapse prevention is desired in treating
      schizophrenia.

PMID- 28553121
TI  - Iatrogenic visual aura: a case report and a brief review of the literature.
AB  - Iatrogenic migraine aura following transseptal catheterization has only rarely
      been reported in the literature. We report the case of a 60-year-old female who
      presented with new onset of migraine with visual aura 1 day after transseptal
      cryoballoon catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. The patient had a 5-year
      history of typical migraine without aura and had never experienced visual aura
      before the cardiac intervention. The neurological examination, fundoscopy, and
      blood tests were normal. The magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed small
      vessel ischemia without evidence of vessel ischemic changes in the occipital
      lobes and large blood vessel disease. A change in the characteristics of existing
      migraine could occur following an iatrogenic episode, which in this case was
      catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. A new onset of aura is considered an
      indication for a brain scan as it may signify underlying new pathology.

PMID- 28553118
TI  - Psychosis in parkinsonism: an unorthodox approach.
AB  - Psychosis in Parkinson's disease (PD) is currently considered as the occurrence
      of hallucinations and delusions. The historical meaning of the term psychosis
      was, however, broader, encompassing a disorganization of both consciousness and
      personality, including behavior abnormalities, such as impulsive overactivity and
      catatonia, in complete definitions by the International Classification of
      Diseases-10 (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
      Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Our review is aimed at reminding that complex
      psychotic symptoms, including impulsive overactivity and somatoform disorders
      (the last being a recent controversial entity in PD), were carefully described in
      postencephalitic parkinsonism (PEP), many decades before dopaminergic treatment
      era, and are now described in other parkinsonisms than PD. Eminent
      neuropsychiatrists of the past century speculated that studying psychosis in PEP
      might highlight its mechanisms in other conditions. Yet, functional assessments
      were unavailable at the time. Therefore, the second part of our article reviews
      the studies of neural correlates of psychosis in parkinsonisms, by taking into
      account both theories on the narrative functions of the default mode network
      (DMN) and hypotheses on DMN modulation.

PMID- 28553122
TI  - Peripheral venous blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts survival in
      patients with advanced gastric cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate and useful predictors of gastric carcinoma treated with
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy are lacking at present. We aim to explore the potential
      prognostic significance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in advanced
      gastric cancer receiving S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) or oxaliplatin and
      capecitabine (XELOX) regimen. METHODS: We enrolled 91 patients with advanced
      gastric cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy from August 2008 to
      September 2015. The peripheral venous blood samples were collected before
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The NLR was divided into two groups: low NLR <2.17
      group and high NLR >=2.17 group. Univariate analysis on disease-free survival
      (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were generated using the Kaplan-Meier method and
      compared using the log-rank test. Prognostic factors were assessed by univariate
      analyses, and the independent prognostic factors were evaluated using
      multivariate analysis (Cox's proportional-hazards regression model). RESULTS: The
      univariate analysis showed that median DFS and median OS were worse for high NLR
      values than low NLR values before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (median DFS: 19.97 and
      26.87 months, respectively, P=0.299; median OS: 25.83 and 29.73 months,
      respectively, P=0.405). Multivariate analysis showed that the NLR before
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy was not an independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS.
      However, median DFS and median OS were worse for high neutrophil values than for
      low neutrophil values (median DFS: 21.03 and 26.87 months, respectively, P=0.396;
      median OS: 24.43 and 29.37 months, respectively, P=0.534); for low lymphocyte
      values than for high lymphocyte values before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (median
      DFS: 22.33 and 26.87 months, respectively, P=0.624; median OS: 26.37 and 27.93
      months, respectively, P=0.584). Nevertheless, patients with low NLR had better 1
      year, 3-year, and 5-year DFS and OS rates. CONCLUSION: NLR may serve as a cheap
      and convenient prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma patients receiving SOX
      or XELOX neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Low NLR may help the doctors to take efficient
      treatment measures for gastric cancer.

PMID- 28553123
TI  - The HIV protease inhibitor, nelfinavir, as a novel therapeutic approach for the
      treatment of refractory pediatric leukemia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Refractory pediatric leukemia remains one of the leading causes of death
      in children. Intensification of current chemotherapy regimens to improve the
      outcome in these children is often limited by the effects of drug resistance and
      cumulative toxicity. Hence, the search for newer agents and novel therapeutic
      approaches are urgently needed to formulate the next-generation early-phase
      clinical trials for these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive
      library of antimicrobials, including eight HIV protease inhibitors (nelfinavir
      [NFV], saquinavir, indinavir, ritonavir, amprenavir, atazanavir, lopinavir, and
      darunavir), was tested against a panel of pediatric leukemia cells by in vitro
      growth inhibition studies. Detailed target modulation studies were carried out by
      Western blot analyses. In addition, drug synergy experiments with conventional
      and novel antitumor agents were completed to identify effective treatment
      regimens for future clinical trials. RESULTS: Several of the HIV protease
      inhibitors showed cytotoxicity at physiologically relevant concentrations (half
      maximal inhibitory concentration values ranging from 1-24 uM). In particular, NFV
      was found to exhibit the most potent antileukemic properties across all cell
      lines tested. Mechanistic studies show that NFV leads to the induction of
      autophagy and apoptosis possibly through the induction of endoplasmic reticulum
      stress. Furthermore, interference with cell signaling pathways, including Akt and
      mTOR, was also noted. Finally, drug combination studies have identified agents
      with potential for synergy with NFV in its antileukemic activity. These include
      JQ1 (BET inhibitor), AT101 (Bcl-2 family inhibitor), and sunitinib (TK
      inhibitor). CONCLUSION: Here, we show data demonstrating the potential of a
      previously unexplored group of drugs to address an unmet therapeutic need in
      pediatric oncology. The data presented provide preclinical supportive evidence
      and rationale for future studies of these agents for refractory leukemia in
      children.

PMID- 28553124
TI  - Efficacy and safety of pemetrexed on recurrent primary central nervous system
      lymphomas in China: a prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pemetrexed, a new and novel agent for primary central nervous system
      lymphomas (PCNSLs), has shown to be efficient as a savage therapy for recurrent
      PCNSLs. However, more studies are needed. A prospective study was performed on 17
      recurrent PCNSL patients with pemetrexed at Shandong Tumor Hospital in China to
      assess the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed for recurrent PCNSL patients.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records and imaging data on all the cases of
      recurrent PCNSL patients with pemetrexed in our study were collected during
      August 2012 and April 2015. Folic acid, B12, and dexamethasone were used to
      induce toxicities related to pemetrexed. Patients were treated with pemetrexed at
      a dose of 900 mg/m2 intravenously every 3 weeks, and one cycle consists of 6
      weeks. RESULTS: A total of 17 cases of recurrent PCNSL patients were enrolled in
      our study, including 10 males and 7 females with a median age of 66.2 years
      (ranging from 35 to 81). After the treatment, five cases had complete remission,
      with partial remission in five cases, stable disease in four cases, and
      progressive disease in three cases. Consequently, the overall response rate was
      58.8%, and the disease control rate was 82.4%. The median overall survival was
      7.8 months (95% confidence interval: 5.9-9.6 months) in the study of recurrent
      PCNSL patients. CONCLUSION: This study has been the first clinical trial that
      applied pemetrexed to treat recurrent PCNSL patients in China, and results
      indicated that chemotherapy using large pemetrexed may become an effective
      treatment for PCNSL recurrence with modest toxicity.

PMID- 28553125
TI  - Holliday junction-recognizing protein promotes cell proliferation and correlates
      with unfavorable clinical outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of Holliday junction
      recognizing protein (HJURP) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: In this
      study, we detected the expression of HJURP protein in samples of 164 patients
      with HCC, and based on this, we divided the patients into two cohorts: high
      expression of HJURP and low expression of HJURP. We analyzed the correlation
      between HJURP expression and the clinicopathological factors using chi-square
      test. Survival significance of HJURP was defined by Kaplan-Meier method and log
      rank test, and the independent prognostic factors were identified by Cox
      regression model. Using function assays of HCC cell lines, we investigated the
      influence of HJURP on the proliferation of HCC cells. RESULTS: In our study, the
      proportion of patients with high HJURP expression was 25.6%, which was
      significantly associated with the tumor size and Barcelona clinic liver cancer
      stage. Univariate analysis confirmed that high HJURP expression was remarkably
      associated with poorer overall survival rates (P=0.003), as well as tumor number
      (P=0.016), tumor differentiation (P=0.047), TNM stage (P=0.005), and Barcelona
      clinic liver cancer stage (P=0.004). Multivariate analysis confirmed that high
      HJURP expression (P<0.001) acted as an independent prognostic risk factor of
      unfavorable prognosis. Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that
      the expression of HJURP was significantly higher in HCC tissues than that in the
      corresponding normal liver tissues. Moreover, we demonstrated that HJURP
      overexpression could accelerate HCC cell line proliferation, whereas HJURP
      knockdown could attenuate the proliferation. CONCLUSION: High HJURP expression
      was an independent prognostic biomarker of HCC, predicting poorer prognosis.
      HJURP also played an important role in HCC cell proliferation.

PMID- 28553126
TI  - RNA-binding protein HuR promotes bladder cancer progression by competitively
      binding to the long noncoding HOTAIR with miR-1.
AB  - The elevated expressions of RNA-binding protein HuR and long noncoding HOX
      transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) are observed in numerous cancers. And HuR often
      exerts its promotive effects on tumorigenesis via binding to AU-rich elements in
      target transcripts and thus regulating the expression of target transcripts.
      However, the roles and related mechanisms of HuR/HOTAIR in bladder cancer
      progression have never been formally tested. Here, we found that the expression
      level of HuR was higher in clinical bladder cancer samples than in normal
      adjacent samples, mirroring that of HOTAIR, and their expression showed strong
      correlation. Knockdown of HuR/HOTAIR in bladder cancer inhibited cell
      proliferation, migration, invasion, and promoted cell apoptosis. Notably, HuR
      interacted and stabilized HOTAIR mRNA and knockdown of HuR decreased HOTAIR
      expression. Additionally, HOTAIR was identified as a potential target of miR-1 in
      bladder cancer cells. Interestingly, overexpression of HOTAIR enhanced HuR
      expression and increased cytoplasmic accumulation of HuR, thus enhancing HOTAIR
      expression in turn. But mutation of miR-1 binding site in HOTAIR canceled the
      effects of HOTAIR on HuR expression. Overall, we identified a regulatory loop
      between HOTAIR and HuR during the progression of bladder cancer, which could be
      exploited to curb bladder cancer progression.

PMID- 28553127
TI  - Real-world health care utilization in asthma patients using albuterol sulfate
      inhalation aerosol (ProAir (r) HFA) with and without integrated dose counters.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate tracking of the administered dose of asthma rescue inhalers
      is critical for optimal disease management and is related to reductions in rates
      of unscheduled health care utilization in asthma patients. There are few
      published data on the real-world impact of rescue inhalers with integrated dose
      counters (IDCs) on health care resource utilization (HRU) for asthma patients.
      This study evaluates HRU among users of ProAir(r) hydrofluoroalkane (HFA)
      (albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol), with IDC versus without IDC, in asthma
      patients. METHODS: This was a retrospective administrative claims study of asthma
      patients receiving a new prescription for albuterol inhalation aerosol without
      IDC during 2 years (January 2011-December 2012) or with IDC during the first full
      year after IDC implementation in the USA (July 2013-July 2014). Six months of
      continuous enrollment with medical and prescription drug benefits were required
      before and after the first prescription during the study period. Data on
      respiratory-related hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits were
      collected during the follow-up period. RESULTS: A total of 135,305 (32%) patients
      used albuterol inhalation aerosol with IDC, and 287,243 (68%) patients received
      albuterol inhalation aerosol without IDC. After adjusting for baseline
      confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for experiencing a respiratory-related
      hospitalization (OR=0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.88-0.96) or ED visit
      (OR=0.92; 95% CI 0.90-0.94) was significantly lower among patients using
      albuterol inhalation aerosol with IDC versus without IDC. CONCLUSION: In a real
      world setting, asthma patients using ProAir HFA with IDC experienced
      significantly fewer hospitalizations and ED visits compared with patients using
      ProAir HFA without IDC. Dosage information provided by IDCs may allow providers
      to better understand patients' disease severity and aid in titrating controller
      medications and also decrease the likelihood that the canister will be empty when
      needed, thereby enhancing disease management and reducing HRU.

PMID- 28553128
TI  - A retrospective analysis of delays in the diagnosis of lung cancer and associated
      costs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Diagnosis of lung cancer at advanced stages can result in missed
      treatment opportunities, worse outcomes, and higher health care costs. This study
      evaluated the wait time to diagnose non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the
      cost of diagnosis and treatment based on the stage at diagnosis. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Adult patients diagnosed with NSCLC between January 2007 and September
      2011 were identified from a proprietary oncology registry and linked to health
      insurance claims from a large US health insurance company. Continuous enrollment
      in the health plan was required for at least 12 months prediagnosis (baseline)
      and at least 3 months postdiagnosis (follow-up). Use of diagnostic tests and time
      to diagnosis were examined. The rates of health care utilization and per-patient
      per-month (PPPM) health care costs were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 1,210
      patients with NSCLC were included in the analysis. Most patients (93.6%) had
      evidence of diagnostic tests beginning 5 to 6 months prior to diagnosis, and most
      were diagnosed at an advanced stage (23% Stage IIIb and 46% Stage IV). The PPPM
      total health care costs in USD pre- and postdiagnosis were $2,407+/-$3,364
      (mean+/-standard deviation) and $16,577+/-$33,550, respectively. PPPM total
      health care costs and utilization after lung cancer diagnosis were significantly
      higher among patients diagnosed at Stage IV disease and lowest among patients
      diagnosed at Stage I disease ($7,239 Stage I, $9,484 Stage II, $11,193 Stage
      IIIa, $17,415 Stage IIIb, and $21,441 Stage IV). CONCLUSION: This study showed
      that most patients experienced long periods of delay between their first
      diagnostic test for lung cancer and a definitive diagnosis, and the majority were
      diagnosed at advanced stages of disease. Costs associated with the management of
      lung cancer increased substantially with higher stages at diagnosis. Procedures
      that diagnose lung cancer at earlier stages may allow for less resource use and
      costs among patients with lung cancer.

PMID- 28553129
TI  - Medical resource utilization in dermatomyositis/polymyositis patients treated
      with repository corticotropin injection, intravenous immunoglobulin, and/or
      rituximab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dermatomyositis and polymyositis (DM/PM) are rare, incurable
      inflammatory diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness and can be
      associated with increased medical resource use (MRU). When corticosteroid
      treatment is unsuccessful, patients may receive intravenous immunoglobulin
      (IVIg), rituximab, or repository corticotropin injection (RCI). This study
      compared real-world, non-medication MRU between patients treated with RCI and
      those treated with IVIg and/or rituximab for DM/PM. METHODS: Claims of DM/PM
      patients were analyzed from the combination of three commercial health insurance
      databases in the United States from July 2009 to June 2014. Patients treated with
      RCI were propensity score matched to those treated with IVIg, rituximab, and both
      (IVIg+rituximab) based on demographics, prior clinical characteristics, and prior
      MRU. Per-patient per-month (PPPM) MRU and costs were compared using Poisson
      regression and generalized linear modeling, respectively. RESULTS: One-hundred
      thirty-two RCI, 1,150 IVIg, and 562 rituximab patients had an average age of
      52.6, 46.6, and 51.7 years, respectively, and roughly two-thirds were female.
      After matching, there were no significant differences in demographics or prior
      clinical characteristics. RCI patients had fewer PPPM hospitalizations (0.09 vs
      0.17; P=0.049), shorter length of stay (LOS; 3.24 days vs 4.55 days; P=0.004),
      PPPM hospital outpatient department (HOPD) visits (0.60 vs 1.39; P<0.001), and
      PPPM physician office visits (2.01 vs 2.33; P=0.035) than IVIg. RCI had fewer
      PPPM HOPD visits (0.56 vs 0.92; P<0.001) than rituximab. Patients treated with
      RCI had shorter LOS (2.18 days vs 5.15; P<0.001) and less PPPM HOPD visits (0.53
      vs 1.26; P<0.001) than IVIg+rituximab. Total non-medication PPPM costs were 23%
      75% lower for RCI compared to IVIg ($2,126 vs $3,964; P<0.001), rituximab ($2,008
      vs $2,607; P=0.018), and IVIg+rituximab ($1,234 vs $4,858; P<0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Patients treated with RCI had less PPPM non-medication MRU and costs than those
      treated with IVIg and/or rituximab, particularly in the hospital setting where
      significant costs are incurred.

PMID- 28553130
TI  - Patient satisfaction and reported outcomes on the management of actinic
      keratosis.
AB  - Actinic keratosis (AK) is a common dermatologic condition in which hyperplastic
      epidermal lesions develop in response to excessive and chronic exposure to
      ultraviolet (UV) radiation. If left untreated, AK can progress to squamous cell
      carcinomas of the skin. Incidence is rising worldwide as a result of the
      progressive aging of populations and an increase in lifetime cumulative exposure
      to UV radiation. Currently, various treatment options exist, which range from
      topical medications to light-based therapies and procedural modalities. In this
      article, we will review the treatment options for AK with a focus on assessments
      of patient satisfaction with treatment.

PMID- 28553131
TI  - Antipollution skin protection - a new paradigm and its demonstration on two
      active compounds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Urban pollution is a major source of concern for human health and is
      a complex of many environmental factors. The topical exposure to pollution
      activates cutaneous stress. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we tested the antipollution
      protection of two active components: Dead Sea minerals (Dead Sea mineral-rich
      water [DSW]) and anionic polysaccharide (PolluStop(r) [PS]). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Two representative pollution models were studied using reconstructed
      epidermis: 1) mixture of pollutants (MOP) containing heavy metals and atmospheric
      particulate matter and 2) ozone exposure. DSW and PS were topically applied alone
      or in combination, and their protection against pollution was assessed by testing
      the levels of the inflammation markers interleukin 1alpha (IL-1alpha) and
      prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). RESULTS: MOP exposure induced IL-1alpha release, which
      was attenuated following pre-application with DSW and PS alone or in combination.
      Ozone exposure induced IL-1alpha and PGE2 release. Pre-application with DSW or PS
      alone did not inhibit IL-1alpha and PGE2 overproduction. Only when DSW and PS
      were mixed together, inhibition of these inflammatory markers was observed.
      CONCLUSION: The observations reveal the potential use of active agents in
      combination for a selective mode of protection from urban pollution. This is
      because many active materials cannot solely provide a broad protection against
      different types of pollutants. This strategy might be beneficial for future
      antipollution regimen formulated in both pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

PMID- 28553132
TI  - CYP2C19*2 status in patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal
      necrolysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Genetic polymorphisms have been linked to an increased predisposition to
      developing certain diseases. For example, patients of Han-Chinese descent
      carrying the HLA-B*1502 allele are at an increased risk of developing Stevens
      Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) if given carbamazepine.
      Given the complexity of in vivo drug metabolism, it is plausible that the
      activity of enzyme systems unrelated to specific drug metabolism may be
      important. Although multiple biomarkers have been identified in unique ethnic
      groups, there has yet to be a study investigating the presence of the slow
      metabolizing allele of CYP2C19, denoted CYP2C19*2, in diverse groups and the risk
      of developing SJS/TEN. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study looked into the carrier
      status of CYP2C19*2, a poor metabolizing variant of CYP2C19, in patients
      diagnosed with SJS/TEN. We looked at its status in our series as a whole and when
      patients were divided by ethnicity. Genomic DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed
      paraffin-embedded tissue of patients with biopsy-proven SJS/TEN and real-time
      polymerase chain reaction was used to assess for the presence of CYP2C19*2.
      RESULTS: CYP2C19*2 status was determined in 47 patients. Twenty-nine of these 47
      patients had a single medication implicated as causing their disease, and eight
      of these patients were heterozygous or homozygous for CYP2C19*2. There was
      insufficient evidence to conclude that the presence of CYP2C19*2 is an
      independent predictor of risk for developing SJS/TEN in our series as a whole.
      This analysis also confirmed that the frequency of the CYP2C19*2 polymorphism
      within the different ethnicities in our series did not vary statistically from
      reported ethnic rates. CONCLUSION: Our study was unable to show a relationship
      between CYP2C19*2 status and predisposition toward SJS/TEN. We had a
      heterogeneous population, making it difficult to control for possible confounding
      factors.

PMID- 28553133
TI  - Inter-instrumental comparison for the measurement of electrolytes in patients
      admitted to the intensive care unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether benchtop auto-analyzers (AAs) and arterial
      blood gas (ABG) analyzers, for measuring electrolyte levels of patients admitted
      to intensive care units (ICU), are equal and whether they can be used
      interchangeably. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This study was conducted on 98 patients
      admitted to the ICU of the Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, Nepal between 15
      October and 15 December 2016. The sample for AA was collected from the peripheral
      vein through venipuncture, and that for ABG analyzer was collected from radial
      artery simultaneously. Electrolyte levels were measured with ABG analyzer in the
      ICU itself, and with benchtop AA in the central clinical biochemistry laboratory.
      RESULTS: The mean value for sodium by AA was 144.6 (standard deviation [SD] 7.63)
      and by ABG analyzer 140.1 (SD 7.58), which was significant (p-value <0.001). The
      mean value for potassium by AA was 3.6 (SD 0.52) and by ABG analyzer 3.58 (SD
      0.66). The Bland-Altman analysis with the 95% limit of agreement between methods
      were -4.45 to 13.11 mmol/L for sodium and the mean difference was 4.3 mmol/L and 
      1.15 to 1.24 mmol/L for potassium and the mean difference was 0.04 mmol/L. The
      United States Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments accepts a 0.5 mmol/L
      difference in measured potassium levels and a 4 mmol/L difference in measured
      sodium levels, in the gold standard measure of the standard calibration solution.
      The passing and Bablok regression with 95% confidence interval has an intercept
      of zero and slope one for both sodium and potassium, and the 95% of random
      difference is -6.32 to 6.32 for sodium and -0.84 to 0.84 for potassium, showing
      no significant deviation from linearity. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that AA
      and ABG analyzers may be used interchangeably for measurement of potassium in the
      Institute of Medicine, while the same cannot be concluded for the measurement of
      sodium, because of the significant difference in sodium measurement by the two
      instruments.

PMID- 28553134
TI  - Validation of the Norwegian Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is a large variation in people's reactions to
      painful stimuli. Although some conditions are more painful, the variation between
      people is larger than the reaction to pain across conditions. Induced
      experimental pain is one way to assess some aspects of these differences in pain
      perception. Experimental nociceptive testing is time consuming and not always
      feasible in a clinical setting. In order to overcome the obstacles of assessing
      pain sensitivity using experimental stimulation, the Pain Sensitivity
      Questionnaire (PSQ) was developed. The purpose of this study is to validate the
      Norwegian version of the PSQ. METHODS: Construct validity was examined through an
      exploratory principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation. Internal
      consistency was measured by Cronbach's alpha reliability for subscales and the
      total PSQ. As confounding variables such as age and gender may contribute to the
      experience of pain, a regression analysis was performed with demographic
      variables and PSQ scores as independent variables and the experimental measures
      of pain as the dependent variable. RESULTS: The factor analysis yielded at two
      factor solution, with an eigenvalue greater than one, explain 58% of the
      variance. Cronbach's alpha for the PSQ was 0.92. In the regression analysis, only
      PSQ scores contributed to explain the experimental pain intensity and tolerance.
      Gender only influenced the experimental pain threshold, as men had statistically
      significant higher heat pain threshold than women. CONCLUSION: This study shows
      that PSQ is a valid and reliable questionnaire and might be a promising
      instrument for assessing pain sensitivity in Norwegian clinical settings. Further
      studies are needed to examine whether the PSQ can be used in clinical settings to
      predict postoperative pain and the development of chronic pain.

PMID- 28553135
TI  - Impact of different analgesic depths and abdominal trauma of different severities
      on stress and recovery of rats undergoing total intravenous anesthesia.
AB  - A number of animal models have been developed to examine the pathophysiological
      consequences of surgical procedures, but anesthetic methods, monitoring, and
      management measures in these models are very different from those used in humans.
      This study was designed to create a rat model of abdominal surgery using
      anesthetic methods and perioperative treatment similar to those used in the
      clinic and to investigate the effects of different injury severities and depths
      of anesthesia and analgesia on surgical stress and postoperative recovery.
      Abdominal skin/muscle incision was compared with exploratory laparotomy in rats
      under propofol intravenous anesthesia, accompanied by perioperative measures such
      as oxygen inhalation, fluid infusion, warmth, blood gas analysis, and infection
      prevention. Stress indices (mean arterial pressure, heart rate, blood glucose,
      and plasma corticosterone) were monitored during anesthesia and surgery, and
      recovery indicators (body weight, food consumption, and pain) were measured after
      surgery. In addition, animals undergoing laparotomy were subjected to low and
      high dosages of propofol and sufentanil, in order to examine the relationship
      between anesthetic and analgesic depth and stress on recovery. Exploratory
      laparotomy induced a greater stress response and caused slower postoperative
      recovery as measured than somatic injury. High-dose sufentanil downregulated
      plasma corticosterone and improved postoperative recovery more effectively than
      high-dose propofol (P<0.05). Taken together, a rat model of abdominal surgery
      using anesthetic methods and perioperative treatment similar to those used in the
      clinic was successfully developed. It showed a positive correlation between
      severity of surgical trauma and stress response and postoperative recovery and a
      significant role of adequate analgesia in reducing surgical stress and improving
      postoperative recovery.

PMID- 28553136
TI  - Chronic stress moderates the impact of social exclusion on pain tolerance: an
      experimental investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Experiences of social pain due to social exclusion may be processed
      in similar neural systems that process experiences of physical pain. The present
      study aimed to extend the findings on social exclusion and pain by examining the
      impact of social exclusion on an affective (ie, heat pain tolerance) and a
      sensory component of pain (ie, heat pain intensity). Whether a potential effect
      may be moderated by chronic life stress, social status, or social sup-port was
      further examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community-based sample of 59 women was
      studied. Social exclusion and inclusion were experimentally manipulated by using
      a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball in which participants were randomly
      assigned to either being excluded or being included by two other virtual players.
      Heat pain tolerance and intensity were assessed before and after the game.
      Potential psychosocial moderators were assessed via a questionnaire. RESULTS: The
      main finding of this study is that chronic stress moderates the impact of social
      exclusion on pain tolerance (p<0.05). When chronic stress was high, socially
      excluded participants showed a lower heat pain tolerance than participants who
      were socially included. Contrary to the authors' hypothesis, pain sensitivity was
      increased in socially included participants compared with socially excluded
      participants after the game (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Higher levels of chronic stress
      may enhance the vulnerability of affective pain processing to acute social
      exclusion.

PMID- 28553137
TI  - Post-sternotomy pain syndrome following cardiac surgery: case report.
AB  - Over 2 million people undergo sternotomy worldwide for heart surgery each year,
      and many develop post-sternotomy pain syndrome (PSPS) which persists in the
      anterior thorax. In some patients, PSPS lasts for many years or suddenly
      reappears a long time after the sternotomy. The exact etiology of PSPS is
      unknown. This article presents a case report of a patient with a diagnosis of
      PSPS (after cardiac surgery 4 years prior) for whom an osteopathic approach was
      used, which successfully eliminated the pain. In a previous study, we
      demonstrated that this osteopathic procedure could reduce sternal pain associated
      with a recent surgical wound. Further efforts are needed to understand the
      reasons for PSPS. In light of new scientific data, these osteopathic techniques
      could contribute to a multidisciplinary approach to solve the problem.

PMID- 28553138
TI  - Children's and adolescents' relationship to pain during cancer treatment: a
      preliminary validation of the Pain Flexibility Scale for Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Children with cancer often suffer from pain. Pain is associated with
      psychological distress, which may amplify the pain experience. In chronic pain,
      it has been shown that psychological acceptance is helpful for both adults and
      children. For experimentally induced pain, interventions fostering psychological
      acceptance have been shown to predict increases in pain tolerance and reductions
      in pain intensity and discomfort of pain. A single subject study aiming to
      nurture psychological acceptance for children with cancer experiencing pain has
      shown promising results. No instruments measuring psychological acceptance in
      acute pain are yet available. The aim of the current study was to develop and
      preliminarily evaluate an instrument to measure psychological acceptance in
      children experiencing pain during cancer treatment. METHODS: A test version of
      the Pain Flexibility Scale for Children was sent to all children aged 7-18 years
      undergoing cancer treatment in Sweden at the time of the study. Exploratory
      factor analysis was used. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and
      convergent validity were examined. RESULTS: Sixty-one children participated in
      the study. A two-factor solution with Promax rotation was found to best represent
      the data. Internal consistency was good to excellent (a =0.87-0.91). The total
      scale and the subscales demonstrated temporal stability (Intraclass correlation
      coefficient =0.56-0.61) and satisfactory convergent validity (r=-0.27 to -0.68).
      DISCUSSION: The Pain Flexibility Scale for Children measuring psychological
      acceptance in children with cancer experiencing pain is now available for use.
      This enables the evaluation of acceptance as a mediator for treatment change in
      the context of acute pain in children with cancer, which in turn is a step
      forward in the development of psychological treatments to help children cope with
      the pain during these difficult circumstances. The scale shows good psychometric
      properties but needs further validation, particularly considering the small
      sample size.

PMID- 28553139
TI  - Periarticular dextrose prolotherapy instead of intra-articular injection for pain
      and functional improvement in knee osteoarthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that can lead to
      painful and dysfunctional joints. Prolotherapy involves using injections to
      produce functional restoration of the soft tissues of the joint. Intra-articular
      injections are controversial because of the introduction of needles into the
      articular capsule. OBJECTIVES: To compare the effect of periarticular versus
      intra-articular prolotherapy on pain and disability in patients with knee OA.
      STUDY DESIGN: Randomized double-blind controlled clinical trial. SETTING: Single
      center, university hospital (Imam Hossein Hospital, Tehran, Iran). METHODS: A
      total of 104 patients with chronic knee OA were enrolled. In the intra-articular
      group, 8 mL of 10% dextrose and 2 mL of 2% lidocaine were injected. Injections
      were repeated at 1 and 2 weeks after the first injection. In the periarticular
      group, 5 mL of 20% dextrose and 5 mL of 1% lidocaine were injected subcutaneously
      at 4 points in the periarticular area. Pain and disability, as assessed using the
      Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), were
      recorded at each follow-up visit at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 months post-injection.
      RESULTS: The visual analog scale score was significantly lower in the
      periarticular compared with the intra-articular group at the 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5
      month visits but not at 1 month. Morning stiffness and difficulty in rising from
      sitting were improved in both groups and were not signifi-cantly different in the
      peri- and intra-articular groups. Pain, joint locking, and limitation scores were
      all improved in both groups. Difficulty in walking on flat surfaces or climbing
      stairs, and sitting and standing pain, were all improved in both groups from 1 to
      5 months after treatment. LIMITATIONS: WOMAC scores are subjective and could be a
      limitation of the study. CONCLUSION: Periarticular prolotherapy has comparable
      effects on pain and disability due to knee OA to intra-articular injections,
      while avoiding risks of complications.

PMID- 28553140
TI  - Current perspectives on CHEK2 mutations in breast cancer.
AB  - Checkpoint kinase 2 (CHEK2) is a serine/threonine kinase which is activated upon
      DNA damage and is implicated in pathways that govern DNA repair, cell cycle
      arrest or apoptosis in response to the initial damage. Loss of kinase function
      has been correlated with different types of cancer, mainly breast cancer. CHEK2
      functionality is affected by different missense or deleterious mutations.
      CHEK2*1100delC and I157T are most studied in populations all over the world.
      Although these variants have been identified in patients with breast cancer,
      their frequency raises doubts about their importance as risk factors. The present
      article reviews the recent advances in research on CHEK2 mutations, focusing on
      breast cancer, based on the latest experimental data.

PMID- 28553141
TI  - Invasive lobular carcinoma of the male breast - a systematic review with an
      illustrative case study.
AB  - Male breast cancer is rare, comprising only 1% of all mammary cancers; invasive
      ductal carcinoma is by far the commonest subtype in both men and women. Though
      lobular breast cancer is the second most common subtype seen in women, such
      cancers are extremely uncommon in men, and this is likely related to the lack of
      lobular development in the male breast. Thus, due to the rarity of this subtype
      among breast cancers, compounded by the overall rarity of breast cancer in men,
      current understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease and its management is
      largely derived from case series and extrapolation of information from the larger
      cohort of female patients. This paper provides a systematic review on invasive
      lobular carcinoma of the male breast in the context of an illustrative case
      study. A comprehensive analysis of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance,
      Epidemiology, and End Results Data 1973-2013 leading to an exploration of the
      pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, tumor
      characteristics, and management of lobular breast carcinoma in men is also
      discussed. Lobular subtype of breast cancer remains an enigmatic elusive disease
      that needs additional research to unravel its overall pathogenesis and molecular
      profile to provide insight for improved therapeutic management options.

PMID- 28553142
TI  - Considering renal risk while managing cancer.
AB  - Renal function is an important consideration in the management of patients with
      advanced cancer. There is a reciprocal relationship between cancer and the
      kidney: chronic kidney disease can increase the risk of developing cancer, and
      patients with cancer often experience renal impairment owing to age, disease
      related factors and nephrotoxic treatments. As therapies for cancer continue to
      improve, patients are living longer with their disease, potentially extending the
      period over which they are susceptible to long-term complications. Furthermore,
      secondary symptoms, such as bone metastases or infections, may arise that will
      require treatment. Certain treatments, including chemotherapy, antibiotics and
      some bone-targeted agents, are nephrotoxic and may require dose modifications or
      interruptions to prevent renal injury. Nephrologists should play a key role in
      the identification and management of renal impairment in patients with cancer.
      Furthermore, they may be able to provide advice on protecting the kidneys in
      instances where nephrotoxic agents require dose reductions or interruptions, and
      when novel therapies or combinations are used. Collaboration between oncologists
      and nephrologists is important to optimal patient management. This article
      reviews the relationship between cancer and kidney disease and examines the
      treatments that may impact kidney function. Considerations for monitoring renal
      function are also discussed.

PMID- 28553143
TI  - Simvastatin modulates gingival cytokine and MMP production in a rat model of
      ligature-induced periodontitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of simvastatin on the
      synthesis of cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-10 and metalloproteinase (MMPs) 2 and 9
      in a rat model of ligature-induced periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty
      Wistar rats were used, and a cotton ligature was place in a subgingival position
      encircling the entire cervix of the first molar of the left (ipsilateral) side of
      the mandible. The right (contralateral) side of the mandible had no ligature
      placed and was used as control. After the ligature placement, animals were
      randomly assigned to two experimental groups (n=10): 1) rats with ligature +
      vehicle (saline; 10 mL/kg; orally) and 2) rats with ligature + simvastatin (25
      mg/kg; orally). After 14 days of treatment, the animals were euthanized by
      anesthetic overdose and the gingival tissue was removed and homogenized in
      appropriate buffer. MMP-2 and -9 release as well as the IL-10 and TNF-alpha
      levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Statistical comparison
      was performed by unpaired Student's t-test, with p<0.05 representing
      significance. RESULTS: No differences were observed for TNF-alpha production
      between the groups (p>0.05). However, IL-10 was upregulated in simvastatin
      treated animals (1.8-fold increase) in comparison with the vehicle-treated group
      (p<0.05). Simvastatin reduced the gingival levels of MMP-9 (64.3%) in comparison
      with vehicle-treated samples (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Oral treatment with
      simvastatin increased the release of IL-10 and reduced the MMP-9 in ligature
      induced periodontitis model in rats.

PMID- 28553144
TI  - Transdermal delivery of combined hormonal contraception: a review of the current
      literature.
AB  - The transdermal patch provides an effective and convenient option for hormonal
      contraception. The patch currently on the US market contains 150 ug
      norelgestromin and 35 ug ethinylestradiol (EE). The 20 cm2 patch is applied once
      weekly for 3 weeks, followed by a patch-free week, for a 21-7 cycle. Typical
      failure rates are similar to that of combined oral contraceptives (COCs).
      Transdermal delivery results in less peaks and troughs of estrogen, but a higher
      total estrogen exposure compared with COCs. Though studies show mixed results,
      the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) is about twice as high with
      the patch as with COCs; however, the absolute risk of VTE remains low. The side
      effect profile is similar to that of COCs, with slightly higher rates of breast
      tenderness plus a unique adverse effect of application site reactions. Two new
      patches have been developed, one containing gestodene and EE in Europe and
      another containing levonorgestrel and EE. Overall, the patch provides an
      alternative to COCs for women who want autonomy and the benefit of not needing to
      take a pill daily, with similar efficacy and tolerability.

PMID- 28553145
TI  - Anxiety and depression in patients with endometriosis: impact and management
      challenges.
AB  - Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases and affects ~10%
      of women in reproductive age. The most common clinical signs of endometriosis are
      menstrual irregularities, chronic pelvic pain (CPP), dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia
      and infertility. Symptoms of endometriosis often affect psychological and social
      functioning of patients. For this reason, endometriosis is considered as a
      disabling condition that may significantly compromise social relationships,
      sexuality and mental health. Considering this point, the aim of this narrative
      review is to elucidate the impact of anxiety and depression in the management of
      women with endometriosis. Psychological factors have an important role in
      determining the severity of symptoms, and women who suffer from endometriosis
      report high levels of anxiety, depression and other psychiatric disorders. In
      addition, endometriosis is one of the most important causes of CPP; women with
      endometriosis suffer from a wide range of pelvic pain such as dysmenorrhea,
      dyspareunia, nonmenstrual (chronic) pelvic pain, pain at ovulation, dyschezia and
      dysuria. Several studies have underlined the influence of CPP on quality of life
      and psychological well-being of women with endometriosis. Data suggest that the
      experience of pelvic pain is an important component of endometriosis and may
      significantly affect emotive functioning of affected women. It has been
      demonstrated that high levels of anxiety and depression can amplify the severity
      of pain. Further studies are needed to better understand the relationship between
      psychological factors and perception of pain. Treatment of endometriosis may be
      hormonal or surgical. Surgery is the primary treatment for more severe forms of
      endometriosis. There are few data in the literature about the influence of
      psychological factors and psychiatric comorbidities on the effectiveness of
      treatments. It is important to evaluate the presence of previous psychiatric
      diseases in order to select the most appropriate treatment for the patient.

PMID- 28553147
TI  - Inappropriate gestational weight gain among teenage pregnancies: prevalence and
      pregnancy outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence and pregnancy outcomes of inappropriate
      gestational weight gain (GWG) among teenage pregnant women. METHODS: A
      retrospective descriptive study was conducted on 2,165 teenage pregnant women who
      attended our antenatal clinic between January 2007 and August 2015. Adverse
      pregnancy outcomes, including maternal and neonatal outcomes of women with
      inappropriate GWG, including underweight and overweight, were studied and
      compared with those of women with appropriate GWG. RESULTS: Complete data of
      1,943 women were obtained. Among these women, the mean age was 17.4+/-1.4 years
      and mean body mass index at first visit was 19.1+/-3.0 kg/m2. The prevalence of
      inappropriate GWG was 61.7%. Underweight women were more likely to experience
      anemia and preterm delivery, whereas overweight women required more cesarean
      sections because of cephalopelvic disproportion and preeclampsia, compared to
      women with appropriate weight gain (all P<0.001). The rates of gestational
      diabetes mellitus among women who were underweight, overweight, or appropriate
      weight were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: More than 60% of teenage
      pregnancies showed inappropriate GWG. GWG had a significant impact on pregnancy
      outcomes.

PMID- 28553148
TI  - Severe preeclampsia and eclampsia: incidence, complications, and perinatal
      outcomes at a low-resource setting, Mpilo Central Hospital, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe preeclampsia is a disorder of pregnancy characterized by high
      blood pressure and significant proteinuria after 20 weeks gestation. Severe
      preeclampsia and eclampsia have considerable adverse impacts on maternal, fetal,
      and neonatal health especially in low-resource countries. Hypertensive disorders
      of pregnancy are the third leading cause of maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan
      Africa. Significant avoidable maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality may
      result. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed 1) to determine the incidence of severe
      preeclampsia/eclampsia in a low-resource setting; 2) to determine the maternal
      complications of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia in a low-resource setting; 3) to
      determine the perinatal outcomes of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia in a low
      resource setting. METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive cohort study
      carried out at Mpilo Central Hospital, a tertiary teaching referral government
      hospital in a low-resource setting in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Data were obtained from
      the birth registers in labor ward, intensive care unit, and neonatal intensive
      care unit of patients who had a diagnosis of severe preeclampsia or eclampsia for
      the period January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016. The case notes were retrieved
      and the demographic, clinical, and outcome data were gathered. RESULTS: There
      were 9,086 deliveries at the institution during the period January 1, 2016, to
      December 31, 2016. There were 121 cases of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia. The
      incidence of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia was 1.3% at Mpilo Central Hospital.
      The most common major complication was HELLP syndrome (9.1%). Maternal mortality
      was 1.7%. There were 127 babies born with six sets of twins, 49.6% of the babies
      were lost through stillbirths and early neonatal deaths. CONCLUSION: The
      incidence of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia at Mpilo Central Hospital was 1.3%.
      The most common maternal complication was hemolysis elevated liver enzymes low
      platelet syndrome. Maternal mortality was 1.7% due to acute renal failure. Nearly
      half (49.6%) of the babies born were lost to stillbirths and early neonatal
      deaths.

PMID- 28553146
TI  - Recurrent pregnancy loss: current perspectives.
AB  - Recurrent pregnancy loss is an important reproductive health issue, affecting 2%
      5% of couples. Common established causes include uterine anomalies,
      antiphospholipid syndrome, hormonal and metabolic disorders, and cytogenetic
      abnormalities. Other etiologies have been proposed but are still considered
      controversial, such as chronic endometritis, inherited thrombophilias, luteal
      phase deficiency, and high sperm DNA fragmentation levels. Over the years,
      evidence-based treatments such as surgical correction of uterine anomalies or
      aspirin and heparin for antiphospholipid syndrome have improved the outcomes for
      couples with recurrent pregnancy loss. However, almost half of the cases remain
      unexplained and are empirically treated using progesterone supplementation,
      anticoagulation, and/or immunomodulatory treatments. Regardless of the cause, the
      long-term prognosis of couples with recurrent pregnancy loss is good, and most
      eventually achieve a healthy live birth. However, multiple pregnancy losses can
      have a significant psychological toll on affected couples, and many efforts are
      being made to improve treatments and decrease the time needed to achieve a
      successful pregnancy. This article reviews the established and controversial
      etiologies, and the recommended therapeutic strategies, with a special focus on
      unexplained recurrent pregnancy losses and the empiric treatments used nowadays.
      It also discusses the current role of preimplantation genetic testing in the
      management of recurrent pregnancy loss.

PMID- 28553149
TI  - A multicenter prospective study of patients undergoing open ventral hernia repair
      with intraperitoneal positioning using the monofilament polyester composite
      ventral patch: interim results of the PANACEA study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study assessed the recurrence rate and other safety and efficacy
      parameters following ventral hernia repair with a polyester composite prosthesis
      (ParietexTM Composite Ventral Patch [PCO-VP]). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A single
      arm, multicenter prospective study of 126 patients undergoing open ventral hernia
      repair with the PCO-VP was performed. Patient outcomes were assessed at discharge
      and at 10 days, 1, 6, 12, and 24 months postoperative. RESULTS: All patients had
      hernioplasty for umbilical (n = 110, 87.3%) or epigastric hernia (n = 16, 12.7%).
      Mean hernia diameter was 1.8 +/- 0.8 cm. Mean operative time was 36.2 +/-15.6
      minutes, with a mean mesh positioning time of 8.1 +/- 3.4 minutes. Surgeons
      reported satisfaction with mesh ease of use in 95% of surgeries. The cumulative
      hernia recurrence rate at 1 year was 2.8% (3/106). Numeric Rating Scale (NRS)
      pain scores showed improvement from 2.1 +/- 2.0 at preoperative baseline to 0.5
      +/- 0.7 at 1 month postoperative (P < 0.001), and this low pain level was
      maintained at 12 months postsurgery (P < 0.001). The mean global Carolina's
      Comfort Scale(r) (CCS) score improved postoperatively from 3.8 +/- 6.2 at 1 month
      to 1.6 +/- 3.5 at 6 months (P < 0.001). One patient was unsatisfied with the
      procedure. CONCLUSION: This 1-year interim analysis using PCO-VP for primary
      umbilical and epigastric defects shows promising results in terms of mesh ease of
      use, postoperative pain, and patient satisfaction. Recurrence rate is low, but,
      as laparoscopic evaluation shows a need for patch repositioning in some cases, an
      accurate surgical technique remains of utmost importance.

PMID- 28553150
TI  - Hepatitis C infection in Egypt: prevalence, impact and management strategies.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health burden in Egypt, where
      it bears the highest prevalence rate in the world. Estimates for prevalence are
      based upon data reported from the 2008 and 2015 Egypt Demographic Health Surveys.
      In this review, we demonstrate the prevalence results of both surveys and analyze
      the difference in the results. The overall HCV prevalence is estimated to be
      declining. However, the clinical impact of chronic HCV infection is expected to
      grow considerably. A mathematical model shows that by increasing the rate of
      treatment, the expected number of patients will decline significantly in 2030.
      The current and expected future burden of chronic HCV infection to the Egyptian
      economy, including direct and indirect costs due to disability and loss of lives,
      has been estimated and discussed in this review. The economic burden will
      continue to grow, but a model shows that the introduction of highly effective
      therapies will result in a significant reduction in the cumulative total economic
      burden of HCV by 2030. In recognition of the HCV tremendous health and economic
      burden, the Egyptian government established the National Committee for Control of
      Viral Hepatitis to implement an integrated nationwide strategy to provide patient
      care and ensure global treatment access. This review illustrates the
      epidemiological and disease burden aspects of HCV in Egypt in addition to
      introducing the national plan and program for managing HCV, which has been
      successful so far in treating a large number of patients, with the aim of
      achieving disease control and eventual elimination in Egypt.

PMID- 28553151
TI  - Infant sleep and its relation with cognition and growth: a narrative review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Infant sleep development is a highly dynamic process occurring in
      parallel to and in interaction with cognitive and physical growth. This narrative
      review aims to summarize and discuss recent literature and provide an overview of
      the relation between infant sleep and cognitive development as well as physical
      growth. METHODS: We conducted online literature search using MEDLINE, Embase, and
      Cochrane Library databases. We considered original research on humans published
      in the English language from January 2005 to December 2015. Search terms included
      "sleep" AND "infant" AND "cognition" OR "memory" OR "executive functioning", OR
      "growth" OR "obesity" OR "growth hormone" OR "stunting", and combinations
      thereof. RESULTS: Ten studies on infant sleep and cognition were included in this
      review. Overall, findings indicated a positive association between sleep, memory,
      language, executive function, and overall cognitive development in typically
      developing infants and young children. An additional 20 studies support the
      positive role of infant sleep in physical growth, with the current literature
      focusing largely on weight gain and obesity rather than healthy growth. Existing
      evidence in both the domains is mainly based on cross-sectional designs, on
      association studies, and on parental reports. In contrast, there were limited
      studies on longitudinal sleep trajectories and intervention effects, or studies
      have not used more objective sleep measures such as actigraphy and
      polysomnography. CONCLUSION: The reviewed studies support a critical and positive
      role of infant sleep in cognition and physical growth. Future studies should
      consider key environmental and parental confounders, include a combination of
      more objective (actigraphy) and subjective measures (sleep diaries and
      questionnaires), and move towards longitudinal trajectory designs of infant sleep
      and development.

PMID- 28553153
TI  - Interprofessional education development: not for the faint of heart.
AB  - Interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to improve communication,
      collaboration and coordination of care, leading to improved health care outcomes.
      Promoting IPE has become an aim for many professional schools. However, there are
      challenges to implementing meaningful curricula that involve multiple health care
      professional schools. In this study, we outline 12 lessons learned when designing
      and implementing an Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience (ILCE) for
      247 students from a School of Nursing, Medicine and Physician Associate Program
      in New England. Lessons learned over 4 years include pilot, evaluate and refine
      projects; create a formal interprofessional organizational structure; involve
      faculty who are passionate ambassadors for IPE; procure and maintain financial
      support; recognize power struggles and bias; overcome logistical conundrums to
      realize common goals, secure clinical sites and prepare IPE coaches; expect there
      will always be another hurdle; do not go it alone; recruit experts; recognize
      role differentiation and similarities; be aware of fragility of students and
      faculty and collect data to assess, evaluate, improve and gain buy-in. We were
      able to successfully implement a large program for students from three different
      health care professional schools that takes place in the clinical setting with
      faculty coaches, patients and their families. We hope that the lessons learned
      can be instructive to those considering a similar effort.

PMID- 28553152
TI  - Exhaled breath analysis for the early detection of lung cancer: recent
      developments and future prospects.
AB  - In lung cancer, the prognosis and treatment options depend directly on tumor size
      and its spread at the time of diagnosis. There is therefore a constant search for
      methods that will allow early detection of cancerous lung nodules. With advancing
      imaging technology and implantation of screening routines in high-risk
      populations by low-dose computerized tomography, a significant increase in the
      number of diagnosed small peripheral lesions can be expected. While early
      detection of small cancerous lesions carries the benefit of wider treatment
      options and better prognosis, the process of obtaining a biopsy to confirm a
      cancerous tissue is not free of complications and bears inconveniences and stress
      to the patient. This review discusses the potential use of exhaled breath
      analysis as a simple, noninvasive tool for early detection of lung cancer and
      characterization of suspicious lung nodules.

PMID- 28553154
TI  - Long-term treatment-related morbidity in differentiated thyroid cancer: a
      systematic review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) occurs in relatively young
      patients and is associated with a good prognosis and long survival. The
      management of this disease involves thyroidectomy, radioiodine therapy, and long
      term thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression therapy (THST). The long-term
      effects of the treatment and the interaction between subclinical hyperthyroidism
      and long-term hypoparathyroidism are poorly understood. This review sought to
      examine the available evidence. METHODS: A PubMed search was carried out using
      the search terms "Thyroid Neoplasms" AND ("Thyroxine" OR "Hypocalcemia" OR
      "Thyrotropin"). Original English language articles published in the last 30 years
      studying the morbidity from thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression and
      hypoparathyroidism following a surgery for DTC were retrieved and reviewed by 2
      authors. RESULTS: Of the 3,000 results, 66 papers including 4,517 patients were
      selected for the present study. Studies reported on a range of skeletal (included
      in 34 studies, 1,647 patients), cardiovascular (17 studies, 957 patients),
      psychological (10 studies, 663 patients), and other outcomes (10 studies, 1,348
      patients). Nine of 26 studies on patients who underwent THST showed a reduction
      in bone density, and 13 of 23 studies showed an increase in bone turnover
      markers. Skeletal effects were more marked in postmenopausal women. There was no
      evidence of increased fracture risk, and only little data were available on
      hypoparathyroidism. Four of five studies showed an increased left ventricular
      mass index on echocardiography, and one study showed a higher prevalence of
      atrial fibrillation (AF). There was little difference in basic physiological
      parameters and limited literature regarding symptoms or significant events. Six
      studies showed associations between long-term TSH suppression and impaired
      quality of life. Impaired glucose metabolism and prothrombotic states were also
      found in DTC patients. CONCLUSION: There is limited literature regarding long
      term DTC treatment-related morbidity, particularly regarding the effects of long
      term hypocalcemia. Most studies have focused on surrogate markers and not on
      clinical outcomes. A large prospective study on defined clinical outcomes would
      help characterize the morbidity of treatment and stimulate research on tailoring
      treatment strategies.

PMID- 28553155
TI  - Global multi-layer network of human mobility.
AB  - Recent availability of geo-localized data capturing individual human activity
      together with the statistical data on international migration opened up
      unprecedented opportunities for a study on global mobility. In this paper, we
      consider it from the perspective of a multi-layer complex network, built using a
      combination of three datasets: Twitter, Flickr and official migration data. Those
      datasets provide different, but equally important insights on the global mobility
      - while the first two highlight short-term visits of people from one country to
      another, the last one - migration - shows the long-term mobility perspective,
      when people relocate for good. The main purpose of the paper is to emphasize
      importance of this multi-layer approach capturing both aspects of human mobility
      at the same time. On the one hand, we show that although the general properties
      of different layers of the global mobility network are similar, there are
      important quantitative differences among them. On the other hand, we demonstrate
      that consideration of mobility from a multi-layer perspective can reveal
      important global spatial patterns in a way more consistent with those observed in
      other available relevant sources of international connections, in comparison to
      the spatial structure inferred from each network layer taken separately.

PMID- 28553157
TI  - Promises and lies: can observers detect deception in written messages.
AB  - We design a laboratory experiment to examine predictions of trustworthiness in a
      novel three-person trust game. We investigate whether and why observers of the
      game can predict the trustworthiness of hand-written communications. Observers
      report their perception of the trustworthiness of messages, and make predictions
      about the senders' behavior. Using observers' decisions, we are able to classify
      messages as "promises" or "empty talk." Drawing from substantial previous
      research, we hypothesize that certain factors influence whether a sender is
      likely to honor a message and/or whether an observer perceives the message as
      likely to behonored: the mention of money; the use of encompassing words; and
      message length. We find that observers have more trust in longer messages and
      "promises"; promises that mention money are significantly more likely to be
      broken; and observers trust equally in promises that do and do not mention money.
      Overall, observers perform slightly better than chance at predicting whether a
      message will be honored. We attribute this result to observers' ability to
      distinguish promises from empty talk, and to trust promises more than empty talk.
      However, within each of these two categories, observers are unable to discern
      between messages that senders will honor from those that they will not.

PMID- 28553156
TI  - Isoflavones, their Glycosides and Glycoconjugates. Synthesis and Biological
      Activity.
AB  - Glycosylation of small biologically active molecules, either of natural or
      synthetic origin, has a profound impact on their solubility, stability, and
      bioactivity, making glycoconjugates attractive compounds as therapeutic agents or
      nutraceuticals. A large proportion of secondary metabolites, including
      flavonoids, occur in plants as glycosides, which adds to the molecular diversity
      that is much valued in medicinal chemistry studies. The subsequent growing market
      demand for glycosidic natural products has fueled the development of various
      chemical and biotechnological methods of glycosides preparation. The review gives
      an extensive overview of the processes of the synthesis of isoflavones and
      discusses recently developed major routes towards isoflavone-sugar formation
      processes. Special attention is given to the derivatives of genistein, the main
      isoflavone recognized as a useful lead in several therapeutic categories, with
      particular focus on anticancer drug design. The utility of chemical
      glycosylations as well as glycoconjugates preparation is discussed in some
      theoretical as well as practical aspects. Since novel approaches to chemical
      glycosylations and glycoconjugations are abundant and many of them proved
      suitable for derivatization of polyphenols a new body of evidence has emerged,
      indicating that sugar moiety can play a much more significant role, when attached
      to a pharmacophore, then being a mere "solubilizer". In many cases, it has been
      demonstrated that semisynthetic glycoconjugates are much more potent cytostatic
      and cytotoxic agents than reference isoflavones. Moreover, the newly designed
      glycosides or glycoside mimics can act through different mechanisms than the
      parent active molecule.

PMID- 28553158
TI  - The impact of stress on tournament entry.
AB  - Individual willingness to enter competitive environments predicts career choices
      and labor market outcomes. Meanwhile, many people experience competitive contexts
      as stressful. We use two laboratory experiments to investigate whether factors
      related to stress can help explain individual differences in tournament entry.
      Experiment 1 studies whether stress responses (measured as salivary cortisol) to
      taking part in a mandatory tournament predict individual willingness to
      participate in a voluntary tournament. We find that competing increases stress
      levels. This cortisol response does not predict tournament entry for men but is
      positively and significantly correlated with choosing to enter the tournament for
      women. In Experiment 2, we exogenously induce physiological stress using the cold
      pressor task. We find a positive causal effect of stress on tournament entry for
      women but no effect for men. Finally, we show that although the effect of stress
      on tournament entry differs between the genders, stress reactions cannot explain
      the well-documented gender difference in willingness to compete.

PMID- 28553159
TI  - Safety assessment of nanomaterials using an advanced decision-making framework,
      the DF4nanoGrouping.
AB  - As presented at the 2016 TechConnect World Innovation Conference on 22-25 May
      2016 in Washington DC, USA, the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology
      of Chemicals (ECETOC) 'Nano Task Force' proposes a Decision-making framework for
      the grouping and testing of nanomaterials (DF4nanoGrouping) consisting of three
      tiers to assign nanomaterials to four main groups with possible further
      subgrouping to refine specific information needs. The DF4nanoGrouping covers all
      relevant aspects of a nanomaterial's life cycle and biological pathways:
      intrinsic material properties and system-dependent properties (that depend upon
      the nanomaterial's respective surroundings), biopersistence, uptake and
      biodistribution, and cellular and apical toxic effects. Use, release, and
      exposure route may be applied as 'qualifiers' to determine if, e.g.,
      nanomaterials cannot be released from products, which may justify waiving of
      testing. The four main groups encompass (1) soluble, (2) biopersistent high
      aspect ratio, (3) passive, and (4) active nanomaterials. The DF4nanoGrouping
      foresees a stepwise evaluation of nanomaterial properties and effects with
      increasing biological complexity. In case studies covering carbonaceous
      nanomaterials, metal oxide, and metal sulfate nanomaterials, amorphous silica and
      organic pigments (all nanomaterials having primary particle sizes below 100 nm),
      the usefulness of the DF4nanoGrouping for nanomaterial hazard assessment was
      confirmed. The DF4nanoGrouping facilitates grouping and targeted testing of
      nanomaterials. It ensures that sufficient data for the risk assessment of a
      nanomaterial are available, and it fosters the use of non-animal methods. No
      studies are performed that do not provide crucial data. Thereby, the
      DF4nanoGrouping serves to save both animals and resources.

PMID- 28553160
TI  - Safety assessments of subcutaneous doses of aragonite calcium carbonate
      nanocrystals in rats.
AB  - Calcium carbonate nanoparticles have shown promising potentials in the delivery
      of drugs and metabolites. There is however, a paucity of information on the
      safety of their intentional or accidental over exposures to biological systems
      and general health safety. To this end, this study aims at documenting
      information on the safety of subcutaneous doses of biogenic nanocrystals of
      aragonite polymorph of calcium carbonate derived from cockle shells (ANC) in
      Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. ANC was synthesized using the top-down method,
      characterized using the transmission electron microscopy and field emission
      scanning electron microscope and its acute and repeated dose 28-day trial
      toxicities were evaluated in SD rats. The results showed that the homogenous 30
      +/- 5 nm-sized spherical pure aragonite nanocrystals were not associated with
      mortality in the rats. Severe clinical signs and gross and histopathological
      lesions, indicating organ toxicities, were recorded in the acute toxicity (29,500
      mg/m2) group and the high dose (5900 mg/m2) group of the repeated dose 28-day
      trial. However, the medium- (590 mg/m2 body weight) and low (59 mg/m2)-dose
      groups showed moderate to mild lesions. The relatively mild lesions observed in
      the low toxicity dosage group marked the safety margin of ANC in SD rats. It was
      concluded from this study that the toxicity of CaCO3 was dependent on the
      particulate size (30 +/- 5 nm) and concentration and the route of administration
      used.

PMID- 28553161
TI  - Presentation of a method at the Exploration Stage according to IDEAL:
      Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) under local infiltrative anesthesia is a
      feasible and effective method - retrospective analysis of 439 patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study addresses minimally invasive anesthesiologic and
      analgetic approaches for stone surgery in the upper urinary tract. Aim of this
      retrospective analysis is to compare feasibility, safety and complication rates
      of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) under local infiltration anesthesia alone
      (Group I) and additive intravenous analgetics and/or sedative medications (Group
      II). MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a single center study. A total of 439 patients
      have been included from November 2003 until March 2012. A total of 226 patients
      were assigned to Group I receiving local infiltration anesthesia alone, whereas
      213 patients were assigned to Group II receiving additive intravenous analgetics
      and/or sedative medications. Demographic characteristics and stone
      characteristics have been evaluated to determine feasibility, complication rates
      for safety, and stone-free rates for effectiveness. The study and the reported
      technique have then been retrospectively analysed according to the IDEAL stages
      of surgical innovation. RESULTS: All included patients who accepted local
      infiltration anesthesia underwent PCNL successfully. The mean American Society of
      Anesthesiologists score (ASA) of the included patients was 2.15 +/-0.37 (range, 1
      4). PCNL was indicated in 138 patients due to pelvic calculi, in 171 patients due
      to renal calculi, in 66 patients due to partial staghorn, in 48 patients due to
      complete staghorn and in 16 patients due to upper ureteral stones. The total
      stone free rate in our patients was 78.4% over all stone localizations. Compared
      to the possibility of using additive intravenous analgetics and/or sedative
      medications we could show differences in the median age (p=0.005) suggesting that
      older patients did better tolerate the infiltration anesthesia than patients at
      younger ages. We did also remark not statistically significant differences in
      Group I and Group II as for number of tracts, operation duration, hemoglobin
      drop, fever, transfusion rate, and stone free rate, but not for severe
      complications such as perirenal hematoma, colon perforation, pleura perforation,
      AV fistula, skin fistula, and mortality rate. CONCLUSION: PCNL performed under
      local infiltration anesthesia is a feasible method. It provides satisfactory
      positive clinical outcomes. Younger age seems to predispose to conversion to
      extended anesthesiologic procedures. When retrospectively applying the IDEAL
      criteria, the method can be assigned to the E level or stage 2b.

PMID- 28553162
TI  - Bladder Reconstruction with Human Amniotic Membrane in a Xenograft Rat Model: A
      Preclinical Study.
AB  - Background: Human amniotic membranes (HAMs) are assumed to have a number of
      unique characteristics including durability, hypoallergenic and anti-inflammatory
      properties. Materials and Methods: Multilayer HAMs from caesarian sections were
      applied to repair defined bladder defects in male Sprague-Dawley rats. The
      animals were sacrificed at 7, 21 and 42 days after implantation. Bladder volume
      capacity after grafting was measured. Histological analyses were performed to
      asses a number of parameters including HAM degradation, inflammatory reaction,
      graft rejection and smooth muscle ingrowth. Results: One rat died from sepsis in
      the treated group. No severe complications or signs of leakage were observed.
      Bladder capacity did not change over time. The initially increased inflammation
      in the HAM group diminished significantly over time (p<0.05). No signs of HAM
      degradation were observed and smooth muscle staining increased over time.
      Conclusions: HAMs appear to be durable and hypoallergenic grafts. The assumed
      suitability for the reconstruction of urinary tract justifies further research on
      detailed immunological process in larger grafts.

PMID- 28553163
TI  - Parkinson's disease might increase the risk of cerebral ischemic lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative
      disease in the elderly. Cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral ischemic lesion
      (CIL) also commonly occur in elderly adults. However, previous studies on the
      relationship between PD and cerebrovascular disease have not found consistent
      results. Therefore, we conducted this study to evaluate whether or not PD is
      related to an increased prevalence of ischemic cerebrovascular lesions. METHODS:
      This study recruited 241 patients with PD and 112 healthy controls (HCs). All
      subjects underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and general
      neuropsychological tests. The motor severity of PD was evaluated according to the
      Hoehn and Yahr stage (HY stage), and the severity of CIL in all subjects was
      classified according to Fazekas grade. The PD patients were classified into two
      subgroups according to HY stage (Group 1 - HY 1, 2; Group 2 - HY 3 to 5).
      RESULTS: Among all PD patients, 76% had small vessel disease, while 44% of all
      HCs had small vessel disease (p<0.001). Regarding the difference between the two
      subgroups according to motor severity, group 2 showed significantly higher
      Fazekas scale score and more severe CIL, indicating a higher prevalence of small
      vessel disease compared to group 1. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that PD
      patients have a significantly higher prevalence of CIL compared to HCs.
      Therefore, although the present study is not a large-scale study, we cautiously
      suggest that PD can play an important role as a risk factor in the occurrence of
      ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

PMID- 28553164
TI  - TBX20 loss-of-function mutation responsible for familial tetralogy of Fallot or
      sporadic persistent truncus arteriosus.
AB  - Congenital heart disease (CHD), the most common form of developmental abnormality
      in humans, remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates.
      Genetic defects have been recognized as the predominant causes of CHD.
      Nevertheless, CHD is of substantial genetic heterogeneity and the genetic defects
      underlying CHD in most cases remain unclear. In the current study, the coding
      regions and splicing junction sites of the TBX20 gene, which encodes a T-box
      transcription factor key to cardiovascular morphogenesis, were sequenced in 175
      unrelated patients with CHD, and a novel heterozygous TBX20 mutation, p.K274X,
      was identified in an index patient with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Genetic
      analysis of the proband's available family members showed that his father, elder
      brother and son had also TOF. In addition, his father and elder brother had also
      atrial septal defect, and his niece had persistent truncus arteriosus and
      ventricular septal defect. Analysis of the pedigree revealed that the mutation co
      segregated with CHD transmitted in an autosomal dominant fashion, with complete
      penetrance. The nonsense mutation, which was absent in the 800 control
      chromosomes, was predicted to produce a truncated protein with only the amino
      terminus and partial T-box domain left. Functional analyses by using a dual
      luciferase reporter assay system showed that the mutant TBX20 lost the ability to
      transactivate the target gene ANF. Furthermore, the mutation reduced the
      synergistic activation between TBX20 and NKX2.5 as well as GATA4, two other
      transcriptional factors previously associated with various CHD, encompassing TOF.
      This study firstly links TBX20 loss-of-function mutation to familial TOF or
      sporadic persistent truncus arteriosus, providing novel insight into the
      molecular pathogenesis of CHD.

PMID- 28553165
TI  - GSK-3beta as a target for protection against transient cerebral ischemia.
AB  - Stroke remains the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. This fact
      highlights the need to search for potential drug targets that can reduce stroke
      related brain damage. We showed recently that a glycogen synthase kinase-3beta
      (GSK-3beta) inhibitor attenuates tissue plasminogen activator-induced hemorrhagic
      transformation after permanent focal cerebral ischemia. Here, we examined whether
      GSK-3beta inhibition mitigates early ischemia-reperfusion stroke injury and
      investigated its potential mechanism of action. We used the rat middle cerebral
      artery occlusion (MCAO) model to mimic transient cerebral ischemia. At 3.5 h
      after MCAO, cerebral blood flow was restored, and rats were administered DMSO
      (vehicle, 1% in saline) or GSK-3beta inhibitor TWS119 (30 mg/kg) by
      intraperitoneal injection. Animals were sacrificed 24 h after MCAO. TWS119
      treatment reduced neurologic deficits, brain edema, infarct volume, and blood
      brain barrier permeability compared with those in the vehicle group. TWS119
      treatment also increased the protein expression of beta-catenin and zonula
      occludens-1 but decreased beta-catenin phosphorylation while suppressing the
      expression of GSK-3beta. These results indicate that GSK-3beta inhibition
      protects the blood-brain barrier and attenuates early ischemia-reperfusion stroke
      injury. This protection may be related to early activation of the Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28553166
TI  - Recombinant AAV8-mediated intrastriatal gene delivery of CDNF protects rats
      against methamphetamine neurotoxicity.
AB  - Methamphetamine (METH) exerts significant neurotoxicity in experimental animals
      and humans when taken at high doses or abused chronically. Long-term abusers have
      decreased dopamine levels, and they are more likely to develop Parkinson's
      disease (PD). To date, few medications are available to treat the METH-induced
      damage of neurons. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has been
      previously shown to reduce the dopamine-depleting effects of neurotoxic doses of
      METH. However, the effect of cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF), which
      has been reported to be more specific and efficient than GDNF in protecting
      dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA toxicity, in attenuating METH neurotoxicity
      has not been determined. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the
      neuroprotective effect of CDNF against METH-induced damage to the dopaminergic
      system in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, CDNF protein increased the survival rate
      and reduced the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) loss of METH-treated PC12 cells. In
      vivo, METH was administered to rats following human CDNF overexpression mediated
      by the recombinant adeno-associated virus. Results demonstrated that CDNF
      overexpression in the brain could attenuate the METH-induced dopamine and TH loss
      in the striatum but could not lower METH-induced hyperthermia.

PMID- 28553167
TI  - Maternal Active Mastication during Prenatal Stress Ameliorates Prenatal Stress
      Induced Lower Bone Mass in Adult Mouse Offspring.
AB  - Chronic psychological stress is a risk factor for osteoporosis. Maternal active
      mastication during prenatal stress attenuates stress response. The aim of this
      study is to test the hypothesis that maternal active mastication influences the
      effect of prenatal stress on bone mass and bone microstructure in adult
      offspring. Pregnant ddY mice were randomly divided into control, stress, and
      stress/chewing groups. Mice in the stress and stress/chewing groups were placed
      in a ventilated restraint tube for 45 minutes, 3 times a day, and was initiated
      on day 12 of gestation and continued until delivery. Mice in the stress/chewing
      group were allowed to chew a wooden stick during the restraint stress period. The
      bone response of 5-month-old male offspring was evaluated using quantitative
      micro-CT, bone histomorphometry, and biochemical markers. Prenatal stress
      resulted in significant decrease of trabecular bone mass in both vertebra and
      distal femur of the offspring. Maternal active mastication during prenatal stress
      attenuated the reduced bone formation and increased bone resorption, improved the
      lower trabecular bone volume and bone microstructural deterioration induced by
      prenatal stress in the offspring. These findings indicate that maternal active
      mastication during prenatal stress can ameliorate prenatal stress-induced lower
      bone mass of the vertebra and femur in adult offspring. Active mastication during
      prenatal stress in dams could be an effective coping strategy to prevent lower
      bone mass in their offspring.

PMID- 28553168
TI  - The Effects and Mechanism of YK-4-279 in Combination with Docetaxel on Prostate
      Cancer.
AB  - Background: Docetaxel is the first-line treatment for castration-resistant
      prostate cancer (CRPC). The limited survival benefit associated with the quick
      emergence of resistance and systemic toxicity diminishes its efficacy in high
      dose monotherapy. YK-4-279 is a small molecule inhibitor of ETV1 that plays an
      important role in the progression of prostate cancer. The aim of this study was
      to evaluate the hypothesis that the combination of docetaxel and YK-4-279 will
      have a synergistic effect on inhibiting growth and accelerating apoptosis in
      human prostate cancer cells. Methods: Cell growth assessed using CCK-8 and trypan
      blue exclusion assays. Cell apoptosis was determined by morphological assessment
      in cells stained with propidium iodide. Standard scratch migration and Matrigel
      coated transwell invasion assays were used to assess cell migration and invasion,
      respectively. Western blotting was used to investigate the levels of ETV1, AR,
      PSA, p-STAT3, survivin, Bcl-2, and p-Akt in prostate cancer cells. Results: The
      combination of low-dose docetaxel and YK-4-279 synergistically inhibited growth
      and induced apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells. The combination also more
      efficiently suppressed the migration and invasion of LNCaP and PC-3 cells. The
      combination of low-dose docetaxel and YK-4-279 caused a stronger decrease in the
      levels of ETV1, AR, PSA, p-STAT3, survivin, Bcl-2, and p-Akt in LNCaP cells and
      of p-Akt, Bcl-2, and p-STAT3 in PC-3 cells compared with either drug alone.
      Conclusions: These data suggest that the combination of docetaxel and YK-4-279
      may be an effective approach for inhibiting the growth and metastasis of prostate
      cancer. This could permit a decrease in the docetaxel dose necessary for patients
      with CRPC and thereby lower its systemic toxicity.

PMID- 28553169
TI  - In vivo application of Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-stimulating Factor enhances
      postoperative qualitative monocytic function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) can be used
      as a potent stimulator for immune suppressed patients as defined by a decrease of
      human leukocyte antigen-D related expression on monocytes (mHLA-DR) after
      surgery. However, the exact role of GM-CSF on monocytic and T cell function is
      unclear. METHODS: In this retrospective randomized controlled trial (RCT)
      subgroup analysis, monocytic respectively T cell function and T cell subspecies
      of 20 immune suppressed (i.e. mHLA-DR levels below 10,000 monoclonal antibodies
      (mAb) per cell at the first day after surgery) patients after esophageal or
      pancreatic resection were analyzed. Each 10 patients received either GM-CSF (250
      MUg/m2/d) or placebo for a maximum of three consecutive days if mHLA-DR levels
      remained below 10,000 mAb per cell. mHLA-DR and further parameters of immune
      function were measured preoperatively (od) until day 5 after surgery (pod5).
      Statistical analyses were performed using nonparametric statistical procedures.
      RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, mHLA-DR significantly differed between the
      groups (p < 0.001). mHLA-DR was increased on pod2 (p < 0.001) and pod3 (p =
      0.002) after GM-CSF application. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) release
      of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated monocytes multivariately significantly
      differed between the groups (p < 0.008) and was increased in the GM-CSF group on
      pod2 (p < 0.001) and pod3 (p = 0.046). Th17/regulatory T (Treg) cell ratio was
      higher after GM-CSF treatment on pod2 (p = 0.041). No differences were seen in
      lymphocytes and T helper cell (Th)1/Th2 specific cytokine production after T cell
      stimulation with Concanavalin (Con) A between the groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Postoperative application of GM-CSF significantly enhanced qualitative monocytic
      function by increased mHLA-DR and TNF-alpha release after LPS stimulation and
      apparently enhanced Th17/Treg ratio. Clinical trial registered with
      www.controlled-trials.com (ISRCTN27114642) 05 December 2008.

PMID- 28553170
TI  - New Optimal Needle Entry Angle for Cervical Transforaminal Epidural Steroid
      Injections: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - Objective: A cervical epidural steroid injection is one of the most commonly
      performed interventions to manage chronic neck pain and cervical radiculopathy.
      Despite its many severe complications, cervical transforaminal epidural steroid
      injection (CTFESI) is a clinically necessary modality for managing neck pain and
      cervical radiculopathy. We aimed in this study to find a safer optimal needle
      entry angle to decrease the chance of an accidental vertebral artery (VA)
      puncture even with a proper needle entry angle and to visualize the target of the
      needle tip. Methods: This retrospective study included 312 patients with neck
      pain or cervical radiculopathy who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging scans
      for diagnosis and treatment. The first line was drawn from the midpoint of the
      two articular pillars and passed through the exact midline of the spinous
      process. The second line was drawn parallel to the ventral lamina line
      (conventional transforaminal approach line, CTAL). The third line was drawn
      parallel to the ventral margin at the midpoint of the superior articular
      process's ventral border (new transforaminal approach line, NTAL). The angle of
      intersection between the midline and CTAL versus with NTAL were measured from
      both sides (right and left) at C5-6, C6-7, and C7-T1 levels. Also, the distance
      of CTAL and NTAL from VA were measured from both sides at each level. We examined
      whether the CTAL and NTAL would penetrate the ipsilateral VA, internal carotid
      artery (ICA), and internal jugular vein (IJV). Results: There were significant
      differences between CTAL and NTAL angles at all levels (P < 0.001). There were
      significant differences between the distance of CTAL and NTAL from VA at all
      levels (P < 0.001). There were also significant differences between the observed
      frequency of CTAL and NTAL that would penetrate the major ipsilateral vessel (VA,
      ICA, and IJV) on all levels and sides (P < 0.001~0.030). Conclusion: The angle of
      NTAL (approximately 70 degrees ) is safer than the angle of CTAL (approximately
      50 degrees ) when considering vascular injuries to vessels, such as the VA, ICA,
      and IJV.

PMID- 28553171
TI  - TGF-beta Stimulates Endochondral Differentiation after Denervation.
AB  - Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is a multifunctional protein that
      induces gene expression of cartilage-specific molecules, but its exact role in
      the process of chondrogenesis is unclear. Because recent studies suggest that TGF
      beta can facilitate chondrogenic precursor cells differentiating into
      chondrocytes, we sought to determine whether TGF-beta prevents denervation
      induced reduction of endochondral bone formation in an experimental model. Mice
      were treated daily with recombinant human TGF-beta1 (rhTGF-beta1) for 3 weeks. We
      found that rhTGF-beta1 not only prevented denervation-induced reduction of gene
      expression of type II collagen, type X collagen, aggrecan, Indian hedgehog, and
      parathyroid hormone-related peptide, but also synergized endochondral
      differentiation. These results demonstrate that short-term systemic
      administration of TGF-beta substantially prevents denervation-induced reduction
      of endochondral bone formation via stimulating endochondral differentiation.
      Potential therapeutic applications will be pursued in further studies that
      address the molecular biological mechanism of TGF-beta on endochodral bone
      formation after denervation in animal models.

PMID- 28553173
TI  - Effective Radiological Imaging for the Good of Patients: Weighing Benefits and
      Risks.

PMID- 28553172
TI  - Current status of the treatment of blood blister-like aneurysms of the
      supraclinoid internal carotid artery: A review.
AB  - Currently, the treatment of blood blister-like aneurysms (BBAs) of the
      supraclinoid internal carotid artery (ICA) is challenging and utilizes many
      therapeutic methods, including direct clipping and suturing, clipping after
      wrapping, clipping after suturing, coil embolization, stent-assisted coil
      embolization, multiple overlapping stents, flow-diverting stents, covered stents,
      and trapping with or without bypass. In these therapeutic approaches, the optimal
      treatment method for BBAs has not yet been defined based on the current
      understanding of BBAs of the supraclinoid ICA. Therefore, in this study, we aimed
      to review the literature from PubMed to discuss and analyze the pros and cons of
      the above approaches while adding our own viewpoints to the discussion. Among the
      surgical methods, direct clipping was the easiest method if the compensation of
      the collateral circulation of the intracranial distal ICA was sufficient or
      direct clipping did not induce stenosis in the parent artery. In addition, the
      clipping after wrapping technique should be chosen as the optimal surgical
      modality to prevent rebleeding from these lesions. Among the endovascular
      methods, multiple overlapping stents (>=3) with coils may be a feasible
      alternative for the treatment of ruptured BBAs. In addition, flow-diverting
      stents appear to have a higher rate of complete occlusion and a lower rate of
      retreatment and are a promising treatment method. Finally, when all treatments
      failed or the compensation of the collateral circulation of the intracranial
      distal ICA was insufficient, the extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) arterial
      bypass associated with surgical or endovascular trapping, a complex and highly
      dangerous method, was used as the treatment of last resort.

PMID- 28553175
TI  - Cadmium Telluride Semiconductor Detector for Improved Spatial and Energy
      Resolution Radioisotopic Imaging.
AB  - The detector in single-photon emission computed tomography has played a key role
      in the quality of the images. Over the past few decades, developments in
      semiconductor detector technology provided an appropriate substitution for
      scintillation detectors in terms of high sensitivity, better energy resolution,
      and also high spatial resolution. One of the considered detectors is cadmium
      telluride (CdTe). The purpose of this paper is to review the CdTe semiconductor
      detector used in preclinical studies, small organ and small animal imaging, also
      research in nuclear medicine and other medical imaging modalities by a complete
      inspect on the material characteristics, irradiation principles, applications,
      and epitaxial growth method.

PMID- 28553176
TI  - Metabolic Activity Value in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex Using F-18
      Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Brain to Predict the Severity of
      Alzheimer's.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a type of dementia which is known as one of a major
      problem in elderly. Clinicians commonly use mini-mental state examination (MMSE)
      score to determine the severity of cognitive decline, but MMSE has some
      limitations such as more subjective, influenced by age, educational degree, and
      local culture. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (F-18 FDG
      PET) can be used to assess the process of glucose metabolism in posterior
      cingulate cortex (PCC) area which endures a central role in supporting cognitive
      function directly. The purpose of this study is to observe a correlation between
      metabolic activity value of PCC and MMSE score in predicting the severity of AD.
      A cross-sectional study was done to 30 subjects suspect AD disease with aged 60
      years and older. Characteristic data including gender, age, and education, MMSE
      scoring by psychiatrist, and imaging of F-18 FDG PET were established. The
      results of correlation test between the value of FDG metabolic activity and MMSE
      score shows that the value of metabolic activity in the PCC area tends to
      increase along with the increase of MMSE score (rs = 0.411, P = 0.024). While
      from the results of multiple regression test with predictor variable consisting
      of F-18 FDG metabolic activity in the PCC, gender, age, education level, and the
      interaction between the metabolic activity of F-18 FDG at PCC and gender, a
      regression model was obtained. There is a significant correlation observed
      between the captured of F-18 FDG radioactivity with MMSE score in PCC area which
      can be used as a tool to predict the severity of AD.

PMID- 28553174
TI  - Technetium-99m Methylene Diphosphonate Single-photon Emission Computed
      Tomography/Computed Tomography of the Foot and Ankle.
AB  - The complex anatomy and function of the foot and ankle can make it difficult to
      determine the cause of symptoms in patients with foot and ankle pathology.
      Following initial clinical and radiographic assessment, additional imaging with
      magnetic resonance imaging may be required, which is often seen as the modality
      of choice. Although sensitive to pathological changes in bone metabolism and
      vascularity, technetium-99m (Tc-99m) bone scintigraphy often lacks the
      specificity and resolution required to evaluate the structures of the foot and
      ankle. Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate single-photon emission computed
      tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) combines this sensitivity with the
      superior anatomical detail of CT, enabling better localization of pathological
      uptake and evaluation of associated structural changes. As a result, SPECT/CT has
      been growing in popularity for the assessment of patients with foot and ankle
      pathology where it can provide additional information that may change the initial
      diagnosis and subsequent management plan. Studies have reported modification of
      the surgical approach and site of intra-articular local anesthetic injections
      following SPECT/CT with good results. Interpretation of SPECT/CT studies requires
      an understanding of the pathological changes that result in increased tracer
      accumulation in addition to the CT changes that may be seen. This review aims to
      highlight the advantages of SPECT/CT, potential applications and explain the
      imaging appearances of common pathologies that may be observed.

PMID- 28553177
TI  - Specific Absorbed Fractions of Internal Photon and Electron Emitters in a Human
      Voxel-based Phantom: A Monte Carlo Study.
AB  - The specific absorbed fraction (SAF) of energy is an essential element of
      internal dose assessment. Here reported a set of SAFs calculated for selected
      organs of a human voxel-based phantom. The Monte Carlo transport code GATE
      version 6.1 was used to simulate monoenergetic photons and electrons with
      energies ranging from 10 keV to 2 MeV. The particles were emitted from three
      source organs: kidneys, liver, and spleen. SAFs were calculated for three target
      regions in the body (kidneys, liver, and spleen) and compared with the results
      obtained using the MCNP4B and GATE/GEANT4 Monte Carlo codes. For most photon
      energies, the self-irradiation is higher, and the cross-irradiation is lower in
      the GATE results compared to the MCNP4B. The results show generally good
      agreement for photons and high-energy electrons with discrepancies within - 2% +/
      3%. Nevertheless, significant differences were found for cross-irradiation of
      photons of lower energy and electrons of higher energy due to statistical
      uncertainties larger than 10%. The comparisons of the SAF values for the human
      voxel phantom do not show significant differences, and the results also
      demonstrated the usefulness and applicability of GATE Monte Carlo package for
      voxel level dose calculations in nonuniform media. The present SAFs calculation
      for the Zubal voxel phantom is validated by the intercomparison of the results
      obtained by other Monte Carlo codes.

PMID- 28553178
TI  - Number of Foci of Functioning Thyroid Tissue Remaining after Thyroidectomy for
      Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: Institutional Experience.
AB  - Radioiodine imaging of the neck with a pinhole collimator (PinC) is frequently
      performed in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients for visualizing
      individual, and a total number of foci (NOF) of functioning residual thyroid
      tissue (FRTT) within the thyroid bed in postthyroidectomy patients. The objective
      of this study was to determine our experience regarding the NOF of FRTT
      visualized on pretherapy radioiodine PinC images. We performed a retrospective
      review of radioiodine PinC images of the neck of patients with very low-risk DTC
      and who had thyroidectomy performed by selected surgeons at MedStar Washington
      Hospital Center. For each patient's image, the NOF of FRTT was determined by two
      blind readers. Statistical analysis was performed. One hundred and twenty-six
      patients met the criteria. Surgeon (S1, S2, S3, and S4) performed 17, 10, 86, and
      13 thyroidectomies, respectively. The analysis (mean, range, and standard
      deviation) of NOF of FRTT was: S1: (2.2, 0-5, 1.3); S2: (1.6, 1-3, 0.8); S3:
      (2.6, 0-7, 1.5); S4: (3.3, 1-5, 1.3). The percentages of < 2, <=3, <=4, and <5
      foci remaining were 4.9%, 21.5%, 77.0%, and 91.3%, respectively. For the selected
      surgeons, the NOF of FRTT in the thyroid bed or neck in postthyroidectomy
      patients never exceeded 7, rarely exceeded 5 (2.4%), and infrequently exceeded 4
      (8.7%). Based on these data, our thresholds of the NOF for which we perform
      further workup for possible locoregional disease are >=5. Each facility is
      encouraged to establish their own criteria for their facility and preferably for
      each of their surgeons.

PMID- 28553179
TI  - Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy with 177Lu-DOTATATE for Metastatic
      Neuroendocrine Tumor Occurring in Association with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia
      Type 1 and Cushing's Syndrome.
AB  - Neuroendocrine tumor (NET) occurring in association with other endocrine
      syndromes forms a distinct entity. The aim was to assess the therapy response
      profile of the routine peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) in this
      relatively uncommon but clinically challenging subgroup of patients. A
      retrospective analysis was undertaken from the case records from those who were
      treated with 177Lu-DOTATATE for metastatic NET. In addition to assessing the
      therapeutic efficacy, emphasis was also given to study lesional sites and scan
      pattern. A total of 5 cases were found: In this series of five cases, four
      belonged to multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome; in these four
      MEN1 syndrome patients, the primary site of NET was thymic region (n = 1),
      duodenum (n = 1), and pancreas (n = 2). The fifth case was of Cushing's syndrome
      with the primary site of NET in the thymus. A good symptomatic response was
      observed in all MEN1 syndrome cases (100%) and progression of symptoms in the
      patient with Cushing's syndrome. The biochemical response (assessed by
      measurement of tumor marker serum chromogranin A) demonstrated very good partial
      response (defined by more than 75% reduction of tumor marker) in 2 MEN1 cases and
      Cushing's syndrome, good partial response (25-75% reduction of tumor marker) in
      the remaining 2 MEN1 cases. Scan wise (assessed by technetium [99mTc]
      hydrazinonicotinamide [HYNIC]-tektrotyd [TOC]/68Ga-DOTA-NOC/TATE positron
      emission tomography-computed tomography [PET-CT] and fluorodeoxyglucose [FDG] PET
      CT) partial response was observed in 3 MEN1 cases, stable disease was noted in
      one MEN1 case and disease progression was noted in the patient with Cushing's
      syndrome. The change in FDG uptake was found to be an important sensitive scan
      parameter in the treatment evaluation of NETs compared to somatostatin receptor
      based imaging in the cases with low MiB1 index. In our series, good palliative
      response to 177Lu-DOTA-octreotate (DOTATATE) PRRT was observed in most NET
      patients associated with MEN1 syndrome without any major hematological or renal
      toxicity.

PMID- 28553180
TI  - Can 18F-Fluoroestradiol Positron Emission Tomography Become a New Imaging
      Standard in the Estrogen Receptor-positive Breast Cancer Patient: A Prospective
      Comparative Study with 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography?
AB  - Correct staging is the most crucial for the treatment outcome in cancer
      management. Molecular imaging with 18F-fluoroestradiol (FES) positron emission
      tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) targets estrogen receptor (ER) and may
      have a higher incremental value in diagnosis by aiding specificity. We enrolled
      12 female breast cancer patients prospectively and did 18F-FES PET-CT and 18F
      fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET-CT within 1 week interval time. Lesion detection
      sensitivity was compared for a total number of lesions and for nonhepatic lesions
      only by McNemar test. 18F-FES PET-CT was taken as reference in case of
      indeterminate lesions. The incremental value reported by identifying 18F-FES
      exclusive lesions and by characterization of 18F-FDG indeterminate lesions.
      Spearman rank test was used to correlate ER expression and maximum standardized
      uptake value (SUVmax). Two ER-negative patients with no 18F-FES uptake were
      excluded. Ten ER-positive patients with 154 disease lesions were finally
      analyzed. 18F-FDG picked-up 142 lesions (sensitivity 92.21%), whereas 18F-FES
      picked-up 116 lesions (sensitivity 75.32%) and this difference was statistically
      significant. For nonhepatic lesions (n = 136) detectability, 18F-FDG picked-up
      124 (sensitivity 91.18%), whereas 18F-FES picked-up 116 (sensitivity 85.29%)
      lesions and this difference was not statistically significant. Beside 12
      exclusive lesions, 18F-FES characterized 41 (27.5%) 18F-FDG indeterminate
      lesions. Overall 18F-FES impacted 20% patient management. The positive trend was
      also seen with 18F-FES SUVmax with ER expression and negative with 18F-FDG
      SUVmax. We conclude, 18F-FDG has overall better sensitivity than 18F-FES PET-CT,
      however for nonhepatic metastasis difference was not significant. 18F-FES PET-CT
      better-characterized lesions and impacted 20% patient management. Therefore, 18F
      FES PET-CT should be used with 18F-FDG PET-CT in strongly ER expressing patients
      for better specificity.

PMID- 28553181
TI  - Initial Clinical Experience with 68Ga-DOTA-NOC Prepared Using 68Ga from Nanoceria
      polyacrylonitrile Composite Sorbent-based 68Ge/68Ga Generator and Freeze-dried
      DOTA-NOC Kits.
AB  - Somatostatin receptor positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT)
      with 68Ga-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA)
      peptides have become an indispensable part of disease assessment in patients with
      neuroendocrine tumors and forms the basis of personalized therapy with peptide
      receptor-based radionuclide therapy. With growing utilization of PET/CT in
      developing countries, availability of the indigenous GMP-certified 68Ge/68Ga
      generators is expected to further promote cost-effective molecular imaging
      service to the cancer patients. We present our initial clinical experience in 32
      patients injected with 68Ga-DOTA-NOC prepared using 68Ga eluted from Bhabha
      Atomic Research Centre nanoceria-polyacrylonitrile sorbent-based 68Ge/68Ga
      generator and freeze-dried DOTA-NOC cold kits.

PMID- 28553183
TI  - An Evaluation of Deviation from the International Atomic Energy Agency
      International Commission on Radiological Protection Proposed Equation for
      Calculation of Radiation Dose Rate Emanating from the Patients with
      Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Undergoing Radioiodine (I-131) Therapy.
AB  - The main purpose of this study was to investigate dose rate emanating from
      patients treated with 131I to evaluate which of the theoretical formulas, inverse
      square law (ISL) and International Atomic Energy Agency-International Commission
      on Radiological Protection (IAEA-ICRP) suggested equation, can provide a
      sufficiently close approximation of the measured dose rate. Measurements were
      performed based on the IAEA safety report No. 63 method at 0, 12, 24, and 48 h
      after administration of radioiodine at a distance of 1 m for 69 patients and for
      the rest of 67 patients, dose rate was measured at 2, 4, 24, and 48 h at a
      distance of 2 m. Results revealed that the ISL formula gained better
      approximation of measured dose rates than the IAEA-ICRP equation with the lesser
      error. The ISL formula is still more reliable than the novel method of dose
      calculation in the vicinity of patients. This finding reminded us the prime
      importance of distance as a radiation protection principle.

PMID- 28553182
TI  - Ultrastructure of Hyperfunctioning Parathyroid Glands: Does it Explain Various
      Patterns of 99mTc-sestamibi Uptake.
AB  - The aim of this study was to correlate the uptake of 99mTc-methoxy-isobutyl
      isonitrile (MIBI) with ultra-structural features of parathyroid adenomas. Twenty
      patients with proven primary hyperparathyroidism were evaluated prospectively.
      Preoperative double-phase 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy was performed in all patients
      and the degree of tracer uptake by the parathyroid lesions was assessed visually
      and semi-quantitatively. The excised glands were examined histologically and
      ultrastructurally, and their features were correlated with the degree of the
      radiotracer uptake. At surgery, 21 parathyroid adenomas were removed (double
      adenoma in one patient and a solitary adenoma in each of the remaining 19
      patients). 99mTc-MIBI scan detected 18 of the 21 adenomas. There was positive
      correlation between the degree of 99mTc-MIBI uptake and the mitochondrial
      contents of the parathyroid adenoma cells. Four adenomas with intense uptake had
      high content of mitochondria in the cells. The three false-negative scans had low
      to-moderate mitochondrial content. 99mTc-MIBI uptake is related to the
      mitochondrial content of the parathyroid adenoma cells.

PMID- 28553184
TI  - Initial Experience in the Use of Technetium-99 Metastable Hydroxymethylene
      Diphosphonate as an Alternative Ventilation Agent During Periods of Interim
      Shortage.
AB  - Sporadic supply interruptions of select radiopharmaceuticals on the global market
      require consideration of alternative agents to support continuity of essential
      nuclear medicine examinations. During an acute shortage of Xenon-133 and
      technetium-99 metastable (Tc-99m) diethylene-triamine-pentaacetate (DTPA), our
      institution used aerosolized Tc-99m hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (HDP), a
      radiopharmaceutical traditionally used in bone scintigraphy, in lieu of
      traditional ventilation agents, for two cases of suspected pulmonary embolism.
      Similar to Tc-99m-DTPA, Tc-99m-HDP was readily available and easily compounded in
      our pharmacy, and tolerated well by patients. Identical delivery equipment was
      used for administration of Tc-99m-HDP as that used in Tc-99m-DTPA, and thus,
      there was no requirement for a negative pressure room. Similar to Tc-99m-DTPA and
      unlike Xenon-133, Tc-99m-HDP allowed direct comparison of all 8 ventilation
      perfusion images. In addition, the cost per dose of Tc-99m-HDP proved to be less
      than Tc-99m-DTPA. Despite these favorable characteristics of Tc-99m-HDP, our
      experience identified an important challenge in obtaining an optimal flux
      override ratio of > 3 in a reasonable time frame while obtaining ventilation and
      perfusion images sequentially despite reversing the imaging order in an attempt
      to overcome this limitation. Although our experience with Tc-99m-HDP in these two
      cases was favorable, more clinical experience and investigation are warranted
      before Tc-99m-HDP can be incorporated as a standard alternative ventilation
      agent.

PMID- 28553185
TI  - Acute Hematogenous Osteomyelitis Presenting as a "Cold" Rib in a Child.
AB  - A "cold" defect or an area of decreased radiotracer deposition is the less common
      appearance of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis (AHO) on a Tc99 m-methylene
      disphosphonate (Tc99 m-MDP) bone scan. Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus
      (GABHS) is a significantly less common cause of AHO than Staphylococcus aureus,
      particularly when the infection involves the pelvis or flat bones such as the
      ribs. Here, we present a case report of isolated acute "cold" hematogenous
      osteomyelitis in a rib of a child with GABHS bacteremia that was detected on 99Tc
      MDP bone scan, with magnetic resonance imaging correlation, and pathologic
      confirmation after rib resection.

PMID- 28553186
TI  - Liver Metastasis of Lung Cancer Detected with Similar Uptake Pattern on Bone
      Scintigraphy and Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission
      Tomography/Computed Tomography: What's the Pathophysiologic Mechanism?
AB  - Bone scintigraphy with 99mTc diphosphonates may exhibit extraosseous lesions in
      addition to metastatic lesions. Multiple factors can affect extraosseous 99mTc
      methylene diphosphonate (MDP) uptake. Similar uptake pattern of 99mTc MDP and
      fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F FDG) in hepatic metastasis was not already
      notified. In our case, initial tumor necrosis and subsequent intracellular
      calcification resulted in similar 99mTc MDP and 18F FDG accumulation in the
      metastatic area.

PMID- 28553187
TI  - False Negative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed
      Tomography in Primary B-cell Lymphoma of the Bone.
AB  - We present a case of a 15-year-old male with primary bone lymphoma who was
      initially referred for suspicion of chronic osteomyelitis of the mandible. A bone
      scan and gallium scan demonstrated congruent uptake in the mandible, suggestive
      of chronic osteomyelitis. A biopsy subsequently showed B-cell lymphoma of the
      bone with low Ki-67. A fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)
      scan performed before therapy for staging revealed no increased uptake in the
      mandible. This case shows an atypical presentation of a rare disorder and is
      presented to emphasize the importance of baseline FDG-PET.

PMID- 28553188
TI  - Incidental Detection of Synchronous Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma with Bilateral
      Adrenal Pheochromocytoma on Iodine-123 Metaiodobenzylguanidine Scintigraphy,
      Leading to Diagnosis of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia 2A.
AB  - We report a case of a 29-year-old female with the family history of medullary
      thyroid carcinoma (MTC) presenting with hematuria and tachycardia, who was found
      to have bilateral adrenal masses on abdominal computed tomography and biochemical
      testing compatible with pheochromocytoma. Iodine-123 (I-123)
      metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scintigraphy for preoperative planning prior to
      planned adrenalectomy revealed incidental synchronous unifocal MTC, along with
      expected bilateral adrenal pheochromocytomas. Pathology confirmed these findings,
      and subsequent genetic testing confirmed a rearranged during transfection proto
      oncogene mutation on exon 11, confirming the clinical diagnosis of multiple
      endocrine neoplasia 2A (MEN 2A). The unexpected incidental finding of synchronous
      MTC highlights the importance of considering MEN in the differential diagnosis
      when encountered with newly diagnosed pheochromocytoma and highlights the utility
      of I-123 MIBG scintigraphy in diagnostic workup of newly diagnosed
      pheochromocytoma.

PMID- 28553189
TI  - The Role of Bone Scintigraphy with Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography
      computed Tomography in the Diagnosis and Evaluation of Calciphylaxis.
AB  - Calciphylaxis, also known as calcific uremic arteriolopathy, is an uncommon
      disease, typically found in patients with the end-stage renal disease.
      Pathophysiological features include small vessel vasculopathy with mural
      calcification, fibrosis, and thrombosis. The clinical presentation varies but
      often consists of the necrosis of skin and subcutaneous tissues, with or without
      visceral organ involvement due to small vessel vasculopathy. This condition has a
      significant morbidity and mortality, making accurate diagnosis imperative. We
      present a case of calciphylaxis investigated using planar bone scintigraphy and
      single-photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography (SPECT-CT). This
      case stresses the value of SPECT-CT to accurately localize the abnormal uptake in
      subcutaneous soft tissue microcalcifications and confirms the exact location and
      extent of pathology.

PMID- 28553190
TI  - FINANCIAL LITERACY AROUND THE WORLD: AN OVERVIEW.
AB  - In an increasingly risky and globalized marketplace, people must be able to make
      well-informed financial decisions. Yet new international research demonstrates
      that financial illiteracy is widespread when financial markets are well developed
      as in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, and the United
      States, or when they are changing rapidly as in Russia. Further, across these
      countries, we show that the older population believes itself well informed, even
      though it is actually less well informed than average. Other common patterns are
      also evident: women are less financially literate than men and are aware of this
      shortfall. More educated people are more informed, yet education is far from a
      perfect proxy for literacy. There are also ethnic/racial and regional
      differences: city-dwellers in Russia are better informed than their rural
      counterparts, while in the U.S., African Americans and Hispanics are relatively
      less financially literate than others. Moreover, the more financially
      knowledgeable are also those most likely to plan for retirement. In fact,
      answering one additional financial question correctly is associated with a 3-4
      percentage point higher chance of planning for retirement in countries as diverse
      as Germany, the U.S., Japan, and Sweden; in the Netherlands, it boosts planning
      by 10 percentage points. Finally, using instrumental variables, we show that
      these estimates probably underestimate the effects of financial literacy on
      retirement planning. In sum, around the world, financial literacy is critical to
      retirement security.

PMID- 28553191
TI  - Financial Literacy and Financial Sophistication in the Older Population.
AB  - Using a special-purpose module implemented in the Health and Retirement Study, we
      evaluate financial sophistication in the American population over the age of 50.
      We combine several financial literacy questions into an overall index to
      highlight which questions best capture financial sophistication and examine the
      sensitivity of financial literacy responses to framing effects. Results show that
      many older respondents are not financially sophisticated: they fail to grasp
      essential aspects of risk diversification, asset valuation, portfolio choice, and
      investment fees. Subgroups with notable deficits include women, the least
      educated, non-Whites, and those over age 75. In view of the fact that retirees
      increasingly must take on responsibility for their own retirement security, such
      meager levels of knowledge have potentially serious and negative implications.

PMID- 28553192
TI  - Patient Satisfaction With Videoconferencing-based Treatment for Alcohol Use
      Disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study are (1) to compare the satisfaction
      between patients who have received treatment as usual face-to-face (TAU group)
      and patients who have received optional videoconferencing-based treatment for
      alcohol use disorders (TAU+I group); and (2) to elaborate on the TAU+I group's
      satisfaction with the treatment in general and the technical equipment. METHODS:
      The design consisted of mixed methods: a survey and a qualitative study. Data
      consisted of self-reported data from questionnaires filled out by both groups and
      semistructured interviews with the TAU+I group. Data from the questionnaires were
      analyzed statistically using Stata. The semistructured interviews were analyzed
      using a general inductive approach. RESULTS: The survey indicated that the TAU+I
      group and TAU group were equally satisfied with the elements in the treatment.
      The interview indicated that the TAU+I group seemed to have a high satisfaction
      with most elements in the treatment. Patients who used videoconferencing were
      satisfied with establishing the videoconferencing connection and with the picture
      quality but less satisfied with the sound quality. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the
      patients were satisfied with the treatment. We saw a nonsignificant tendency that
      the TAU+I group were more satisfied with the treatment in general, compared with
      the TAU group. It is a possibility that patients in this group felt more
      satisfied with the treatment as they had the opportunity to choose
      videoconferencing. Offering videoconferencing-based treatment may be a positive
      feature in the treatment and lead to improved outcomes of the treatment courses.
      The technical equipment and routine using it should be improved in future studies
      or during implementation.

PMID- 28553193
TI  - Peer Effects in Pro-Social Behavior: Social Norms or Social Preferences?
AB  - We compare social preference and social norm based explanations for peer effects
      in a three-person gift-exchange experiment. In the experiment a principal pays a
      wage to each of two agents, who then make effort choices sequentially. In our
      baseline treatment we observe that the second agent's effort is influenced by the
      effort choice of the first agent, even though there are no material spillovers
      between agents. This peer effect is predicted by the Fehr-Schmidt (1999) model of
      social preferences. As we show from a norms-elicitation experiment, it is also
      consistent with social norms compliance. A conditional logit investigation of the
      explanatory power of payoff inequality and elicited norms finds that the second
      agent's effort is best explained by the social preferences model. In further
      experiments we find that the peer effects change as predicted by the social
      preferences model. Again, a conditional logit analysis favors an explanation
      based on social preferences, rather than social norms. Our results suggest that,
      in our context, the social preferences model provides a parsimonious explanation
      for the observed peer effect.

PMID- 28553194
TI  - The Cyanation of Prochiral Aldehydes with Chiral Copper Complexes of R-(+)/S-(-) 
      alpha-Ethylphenyl Amine in Methanol.
AB  - Interesting and unexpected results on the cyanation of prochiral aldehydes
      catalyzed by chiral copper complexes of R-(+)/(S)-(-) alpha-ethylphenyl amine
      (I/II) in anhydrous methanol are presented. The cyanation reaction with chiral
      copper complexes of R-(+)/S-(-) alpha-ethylphenyl amines, acetols in methanol
      perform to afford a series of chiral products such as amines and acetonitriles
      (compounds 4-6, 8, 10 and 11). The obtained products are fully characterized by
      NMR, IR and X-ray analysis. The proposed mechanism for the formation of a series
      of chiral products can be concluded that methanol firstly promotes the
      decomposition of the copper complexes bearing R-(+)/S-(-) alpha-ethylphenyl
      amines to the ligand R-(+)/ S-(-)-alpha-ethylphenyl amine, which then conjugated
      with the initial TMS ether of the cyanohydrin or cyanohydrin to afford the chiral
      compounds 4-6, 8, 10 and 11.

PMID- 28553195
TI  - Characterization of the Cultivable Gut Microflora in Wild-Caught ?Mediterranean
      Fish Species.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microflora of the gastrointestinal tract plays important roles in
      food digestion, nutrient absorption and in host defense against ingested
      pathogens. Several studies have focused on the microflora of farmed fishes, but
      the gut flora of wild fishes remains poorly characterized. The aim of this work
      was to provide an overview of the bacteria colonizing the gut of wild-caught
      fishes and to determine whether some bacterial species can be pathogenic.
      RESULTS: We isolated cultivable bacteria from fifteen wild-caught Mediterranean
      fish species corresponding to different habitat, diet and origin. Bacterial
      species identity was determined by 16s rRNA gene sequencing for the 61 isolates.
      The potential pathogenicity of isolated bacteria was investigated using fruit fly
      (Drosophila melanogaster) and zebrafish (Danio rerio) as model organisms. Two
      bacterial strains (Serratia sp. and Aeromonas salmonicida) were lethal when
      microinjected to Drosophila, while zebrafish did not develop any disease when
      exposed to any of 34 isolated bacterial strains. However, it was interesting to
      note that two bacterial strains (Shewanella and Arthrobacter) isolated from
      marine fishes were able to colonize the guts of freshwater zebrafish. CONCLUSION:
      The results of this study give an overview of the bacterial species found in the
      guts of wild fishes living off Beirut seashore. It shows that some parameters
      believed to be limiting factors to host-gut colonization by bacteria can be
      overcome by some species. This pilot study could be extended by sampling a larger
      number of fish species with several specimens per fish species, and by
      identifying uncultivable bacteria that reside in the fish guts. Our results may
      have implications for the utilization of certain bacterial species in fish
      farming or their use as bio-indicators for water and/or food quality.

PMID- 28553196
TI  - Diagnostic Imaging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma - A Pictorial Essay.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer, which
      develops mostly in the setting of chronic liver disease. European Association for
      the Study of the Liver (EASL) and European Organization for Research and
      Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) prepared guidelines for screening, follow-up and
      diagnosis of HCC to facilitate decision making and optimize both diagnostic and
      therapeutic protocols. The review briefly describes etiology, epidemiology and
      histopathology of HCC and presents EASL-EORTC guidelines for surveillance and
      diagnosis of HCC. Target population and screening algorithm is presented in the
      surveillance section. Ultrasound imaging of HCC and the role of contrast enhanced
      ultrasound are described as well as the value of laboratory tests in screening.
      Further, radiological features of HCC in multiphase CT and dynamic contrast
      enhanced MRI and diagnostic criteria are presented. Additionally, the advantages
      of advanced techniques in MRI such as diffusion weighed imaging and the use of
      hepatocyte-specific contrast agents are discussed. Lastly, the EASL-EORTC
      guidelines are compared with the guidelines of the American Association for the
      Study of Liver Diseases and the Japan Society of Hepatology. Also LI-RADS and the
      Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer classification are mentioned. In the near future,
      due to the ongoing advances in imaging a revision of the guidelines may be
      expected.

PMID- 28553197
TI  - Effects of DARPP-32 Genetic Variation on Prefrontal Cortex Volume and Episodic
      Memory Performance.
AB  - Despite evidence of a fundamental role of DARPP-32 in integrating dopamine and
      glutamate signaling, studies examining gene coding for DARPP-32 in relation to
      neural and behavioral correlates in humans are scarce. Post mortem findings
      suggest genotype specific expressions of DARPP-32 in the dorsal frontal lobes.
      Therefore, we investigated the effects of genomic variation in DARPP-32 coding on
      frontal lobe volumes and episodic memory. Volumetric data from the dorsolateral
      (DLPFC), and visual cortices (VC) were obtained from 61 younger and older adults
      (?54%). The major homozygote G, T, or A genotypes in single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs: rs879606; rs907094; rs3764352, the two latter in complete
      linkage disequilibrium), at the DARPP-32 regulating PPP1R1B gene, influenced
      frontal gray matter volume and episodic memory (EM). Homozygous carriers of
      allelic variants with lower DARPP-32 expression had an overall larger prefrontal
      volume in addition to greater EM recall accuracy after accounting for the
      influence of age. The SNPs did not influence VC volume. The genetic effects on
      DLPFC were greater in young adults and selective to this group for EM. Our
      findings suggest that genomic variation maps onto individual differences in
      frontal brain volumes and cognitive functions. Larger DLPFC volumes were also
      related to better EM performance, suggesting that gene-related differences in
      frontal gray matter may contribute to individual differences in EM. These results
      need further replication from experimental and longitudinal reports to determine
      directions of causality.

PMID- 28553198
TI  - A Resilient, Non-neuronal Source of the Spatiotemporal Lag Structure Detected by
      BOLD Signal-Based Blood Flow Tracking.
AB  - Recent evidence has suggested that blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)
      signals convey information about brain circulation via low frequency oscillation
      of systemic origin (sLFO) that travels through the vascular structure ("lag
      mapping"). Prompted by its promising application in both physiology and
      pathology, we examined this signal component using multiple approaches. A total
      of 30 healthy volunteers were recruited to perform two reproducibility
      experiments at 3 Tesla using multiband echo planar imaging. The first experiment
      investigated the effect of denoising and the second was designed to study the
      effect of subject behavior on lag mapping. The lag map's intersession test-retest
      reproducibility and image contrast were both diminished by removal of either the
      neuronal or the non-neuronal (e.g., cardiac, respiratory) components by
      independent component analysis-based denoising, suggesting that the neurovascular
      coupling also comprises a part of the BOLD lag structure. The lag maps were, at
      the same time, robust against local perfusion increases due to visuomotor task
      and global changes in perfusion induced by breath-holding at the same level as
      the intrasession reliability. The lag structure was preserved after time-locked
      averaging to the visuomotor task and breath-holding events, while any preceding
      signal changes were canceled out for the visuomotor task, consistent with the
      passive effect of neurovascular coupling in the venous side of the vasculature.
      These findings support the current assumption that lag mapping primarily reflects
      vascular structure despite the presence of sLFO perturbation of neuronal or non
      neuronal origin and, thus, emphasize the vascular origin of the lag map,
      encouraging application of BOLD-based blood flow tracking.

PMID- 28553200
TI  - Phase-II Clinical Validation of a Powered Exoskeleton for the Treatment of Elbow
      Spasticity.
AB  - Introduction: Spasticity is a typical motor disorder in patients affected by
      stroke. Typically post-stroke rehabilitation consists of repetition of
      mobilization exercises on impaired limbs, aimed to reduce muscle hypertonia and
      mitigate spastic reflexes. It is currently strongly debated if the treatment's
      effectiveness improves with the timeliness of its adoption; in particular,
      starting intensive rehabilitation as close as possible to the stroke event may
      counteract the growth and postpone the onset of spasticity. In this paper we
      present a phase-II clinical validation of a robotic exoskeleton in treating
      subacute post-stroke patients. Methods: Seventeen post-stroke patients
      participated in 10 daily rehabilitation sessions using the NEUROExos Elbow Module
      exoskeleton, each one lasting 45 min: the exercises consisted of isokinetic
      passive mobilization of the elbow, with torque threshold to detect excessive
      user's resistance to the movement. We investigated the safety by reporting
      possible adverse events, such as mechanical, electrical or software failures of
      the device or injuries or pain experienced by the patient. As regards the
      efficacy, the Modified Ashworth Scale, was identified as primary outcome measure
      and the NEEM metrics describing elbow joint resistance to passive extension
      (i.e., maximum extension torque and zero-torque angle) as secondary outcomes.
      Results: During the entire duration of the treatments no failures or adverse
      events for the patients were reported. No statistically significant differences
      were found in the Modified Ashworth Scale scores, between pre-treatment and post
      treatment and between post-treatment and follow-up sessions, indicating the
      absence of spasticity increase throughout (14 days) and after (3-4 months follow
      up) the treatment. Exoskeleton metrics confirmed the absence of significant
      difference in between pre- and post-treatment data, whereas intra-session data
      highlighted significant differences in the secondary outcomes, toward a decrease
      of the subject's joint resistance. Conclusions: The results show that our robotic
      exoskeleton can be safely used for prolonged sessions in post-stroke and suggest
      that intensive early rehabilitation treatment may prevent the occurrence of
      spasticity at a later stage. Moreover, the NEEM metrics were found to be reliable
      compared to the Modified Ashworth Scale and sensitive to revealing intra-session
      changes of elbow resistance to passive extension, in agreement with clinical
      evidences.

PMID- 28553199
TI  - Aberrant Functional Connectivity Architecture in Participants with Chronic
      Insomnia Disorder Accompanying Cognitive Dysfunction: A Whole-Brain, Data-Driven
      Analysis.
AB  - Objectives: Although it is widely observed that chronic insomnia disorder (CID)
      is associated with cognitive impairment, the neurobiological mechanisms
      underlying this remain unclear. Prior neuroimaging studies have confirmed that a
      close correlation exists between functional connectivity and cognitive
      impairment. Based on this observation, in this study we used resting-state
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to study the relationship between
      whole brain functional connectivity and cognitive function in CID. Methods: We
      included 39 patients with CID and 28 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy
      controls (HC). Abnormalities in functional connectivity were identified by
      comparing the correlation coefficients for each pair of 116 brain regions between
      CID and HC. Results: Cognitive impairment was associated with reduced subjective
      insomnia scores after controlling for age, gender, and educational effects.
      Compared with HC, patients with CID had larger negative correlations within the
      task-negative network [medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), precuneus, inferior
      temporal gyrus, cerebellum, and superior parietal gyrus], and between two
      intrinsic anti-correlation networks (mPFC and middle temporal gyrus;
      supplementary motor area and cerebellum). Patients with CID also had decreased
      positive correlations within the default mode network (DMN), and between the
      cerebellum and DMN, which mainly comprises the mPFC and posterior cingulated
      cortex. There were positive correlations of decreased positive connectivity with
      subjective sleep scores and MMSE scores, and increased negative correlations
      between the task-negative-network and MMSE scores in CID. Conclusions: Using rs
      fMRI, our results support previous observations of cortical disconnection in CID
      in the prefrontal and DMN networks. Moreover, abnormal correlations within the
      task-negative network, and between two intrinsically anti-correlation networks,
      might be important neurobiological indicators of CID and associated cognitive
      impairment.

PMID- 28553201
TI  - Fe65-PTB2 Dimerization Mimics Fe65-APP Interaction.
AB  - Physiological function and pathology of the Alzheimer's disease causing amyloid
      precursor protein (APP) are correlated with its cytosolic adaptor Fe65
      encompassing a WW and two phosphotyrosine-binding domains (PTBs). The C-terminal
      Fe65-PTB2 binds a large portion of the APP intracellular domain (AICD) including
      the GYENPTY internalization sequence fingerprint. AICD binding to Fe65-PTB2 opens
      an intra-molecular interaction causing a structural change and altering Fe65
      activity. Here we show that in the absence of the AICD, Fe65-PTB2 forms a
      homodimer in solution and determine its crystal structure at 2.6 A resolution.
      Dimerization involves the unwinding of a C-terminal alpha-helix that mimics
      binding of the AICD internalization sequence, thus shielding the hydrophobic
      binding pocket. Specific dimer formation is validated by nuclear magnetic
      resonance (NMR) techniques and cell-based analyses reveal that Fe65-PTB2 together
      with the WW domain are necessary and sufficient for dimerization. Together, our
      data demonstrate that Fe65 dimerizes via its APP interaction site, suggesting
      that besides intra- also intermolecular interactions between Fe65 molecules
      contribute to homeostatic regulation of APP mediated signaling.

PMID- 28553202
TI  - A Systematic RNAi Screen Reveals a Novel Role of a Spindle Assembly Checkpoint
      Protein BuGZ in Synaptic Transmission in C. elegans.
AB  - Synaptic vesicles (SV) store various neurotransmitters that are released at the
      synapse. The molecular mechanisms of biogenesis, exocytosis, and endocytosis for
      SV, however, remain largely elusive. In this study, using Complex Object
      Parametric Analysis and Sorter (COPAS) to monitor the fluorescence of synapto
      pHluorin (SpH), we performed a whole-genome RNAi screen in C. elegans to identify
      novel genetic modulators in SV cycling. One hundred seventy six genes that up
      regulating SpH fluorescence and 96 genes that down-regulating SpH fluorescence
      were identified after multi-round screen. Among these genes, B0035.1 (bugz-1)
      encodes ortholog of mammalian C2H2 zinc-finger protein BuGZ/ZNF207, which is a
      spindle assembly checkpoint protein essential for mitosis in human cells.
      Combining electrophysiology, imaging and behavioral assays, we reveal that
      depletion of BuGZ-1 results in defects in locomotion. We further demonstrate that
      BuGZ-1 promotes SV recycling by regulating the expression levels of endocytosis
      related genes such as rab11.1. Therefore, we have identified a bunch of potential
      genetic modulators in SV cycling, and revealed an unexpected role of BuGZ-1 in
      regulating synaptic transmission.

PMID- 28553204
TI  - Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2) Stimulates IL-1beta-Mediated Inflammatory
      Signaling through Phosphorylation of RCAN1.
AB  - Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) is a Ser/Thr kinase having mixed lineage
      kinase-like and GTPase domains, controlling neurite outgrowth and neuronal cell
      death. Evidence suggests that LRRK2 is involved in innate immune response
      signaling, but the underlying mechanism is yet unknown. A novel protein inhibitor
      of phosphatase 3B, RCAN1, is known to positively regulate inflammatory signaling
      through modulation of several intracellular targets of interleukins in immune
      cells. In the present study, we report that LRRK2 phosphorylates RCAN1 (RCAN1-1S)
      and is markedly up-regulated during interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) treatment.
      During IL-1beta treatment, LRRK2-mediated phosphorylation of RCAN1 promoted the
      formation of protein complexes, including that between Tollip and RCAN1. LRRK2
      decreased binding between Tollip and IRAK1, which was accompanied by increased
      formation of the IRAK1-TRAF6 complex. TAK1 activity was significantly enhanced by
      LRRK2. Furthermore, LRRK2 enhanced transcriptional activity of NF-kappaB and
      cytokine IL-8 production. These findings suggest that LRRK2 might be important in
      positively modulating IL-1beta-mediated signaling through selective
      phosphorylation of RCAN1.

PMID- 28553205
TI  - Dopamine and Serotonin-Induced Modulation of GABAergic and Glutamatergic
      Transmission in the Striatum and Basal Forebrain.
AB  - Catecholamine receptor-mediated modulation of glutamatergic or GABAergic
      transmission in the striatum as well as basal forebrain (BF) has been intensively
      studied during these two decades. In the striatum, activation of dopamine (DA) D2
      receptors in GABAergic terminals inhibits GABA release onto cholinergic
      interneurons by selective blockade of N-type calcium channels. In the BF,
      glutamatergic transmission onto cholinergic projection neurons is inhibited via
      DA D1-like receptors by selective blockade of P/Q-type calcium channels. On the
      other hand, presynaptic inhibition of the GABA release onto cholinergic neurons
      mediated by D1-like receptors or 5-HT1B receptors is independent of calcium
      influx. In addition, the DA receptor-mediated calcium influx dependent
      presynaptic inhibition mentioned above decreases with postnatal development, with
      selective coupling between DA receptors and each subtype of calcium channels
      being unchanged. Furthermore, the precise origin of these GABAergic or
      glutamatergic inputs to postsynaptic neurons can be identified by recent
      optogenetic approaches. Thus, modulatory mechanisms in specific synaptic
      connections between certain types of neurons in the striatum and BF are being
      identified.

PMID- 28553206
TI  - A Toolbox for Optophysiological Experiments in Freely Moving Rats.
AB  - Simultaneous recordings and manipulations of neural circuits that control the
      behavior of animals is one of the key techniques in modern neuroscience. Rapid
      advances in optogenetics have led to a variety of probes combining multichannel
      readout and optogenetic write in. Given the complexity of the brain, it comes as
      no surprise that the choice of the device is constrained by several factors such
      as the animal model, the structure and location of the brain area of interest, as
      well as the behavioral read out. Here we provide an overview of available devices
      for chronic simultaneous neural recordings and optogenetic manipulation in awake
      behaving rats. We focus on two fixed arrays and two moveable drives. For both
      options, we present data from one custom-made (in house) and one commercially
      available device. Here we provide evidence that simultaneous neural recordings
      and optogenetic manipulations are feasible with all four tested devices. Further
      we give detailed information about the recording quality, and also contrast the
      different features of the probes. As we provide detailed information about
      equipment and building procedures for combined chronic multichannel readout and
      optogenetic control with maximum performance at minimized costs, this overview
      might help especially researchers who want to enter the field of in vivo
      optophysiology.

PMID- 28553203
TI  - Autophagy as an Emerging Common Pathomechanism in Inherited Peripheral
      Neuropathies.
AB  - The inherited peripheral neuropathies (IPNs) comprise a growing list of
      genetically heterogeneous diseases. With mutations in more than 80 genes being
      reported to cause IPNs, a wide spectrum of functional consequences is expected to
      follow this genotypic diversity. Hence, the search for a common pathomechanism
      among the different phenotypes has become the holy grail of functional research
      into IPNs. During the last decade, studies on several affected genes have shown a
      direct and/or indirect correlation with autophagy. Autophagy, a cellular
      homeostatic process, is required for the removal of cell aggregates, long-lived
      proteins and dead organelles from the cell in double-membraned vesicles destined
      for the lysosomes. As an evolutionarily highly conserved process, autophagy is
      essential for the survival and proper functioning of the cell. Recently, neuronal
      cells have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to disruption of the
      autophagic pathway. Furthermore, autophagy has been shown to be affected in
      various common neurodegenerative diseases of both the central and the peripheral
      nervous system including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases. In
      this review we provide an overview of the genes involved in hereditary
      neuropathies which are linked to autophagy and we propose the disruption of the
      autophagic flux as an emerging common pathomechanism. We also shed light on the
      different steps of the autophagy pathway linked to these genes. Finally, we
      review the concept of autophagy being a therapeutic target in IPNs, and the
      possibilities and challenges of this pathway-specific targeting.

PMID- 28553207
TI  - Dm5-HT2B: Pharmacological Characterization of the Fifth Serotonin Receptor
      Subtype of Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is an important regulator of physiological
      and behavioral processes in both protostomes (e.g., insects) and deuterostomes
      (e.g., mammals). In insects, serotonin has been found to modulate the heart rate
      and to control secretory processes, development, circadian rhythms, aggressive
      behavior, as well as to contribute to learning and memory. Serotonin exerts its
      activity by binding to and activating specific membrane receptors. The clear
      majority of these receptors belong to the superfamily of G-protein-coupled
      receptors. In Drosophila melanogaster, a total of five genes have been identified
      coding for 5-HT receptors. From this family of proteins, four have been
      pharmacologically examined in greater detail, so far. While Dm5-HT1A, Dm5-HT1B,
      and Dm5-HT7 couple to cAMP signaling cascades, the Dm5-HT2A receptor leads to
      Ca2+ signaling in an inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate-dependent manner. Based on
      sequence similarity to homologous genes in other insects, a fifth D. melanogaster
      gene was uncovered coding for a Dm5-HT2B receptor. Knowledge about this
      receptor's pharmacological properties is very limited. This is quite surprising
      because Dm5-HT2B has been attributed to distinct physiological functions based on
      genetic interference with its gene expression. Mutations were described reducing
      the response of the larval heart to 5-HT, and specific knockdown of Dm5-HT2B mRNA
      in hemocytes resulted in a higher susceptibility of the flies to bacterial
      infection. To gain deeper understanding of Dm5-HT2B's pharmacology, we evaluated
      the receptor's response to a series of established 5-HT receptor agonists and
      antagonists in a functional cell-based assay. Metoclopramide and mianserin were
      identified as two potent antagonists that may allow pharmacological interference
      with Dm5-HT2B signaling in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28553208
TI  - Childhood Trauma and Functional Connectivity between Amygdala and Medial
      Prefrontal Cortex: A Dynamic Functional Connectivity and Large-Scale Network
      Perspective.
AB  - Altered functional connectivity (FC) between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
      and amygdala is widely implicated as a neural mechanism explaining risk for
      psychopathology among those exposed to early life trauma. Nonetheless,
      contemporary neuroimaging research has shifted toward large-scale network models
      of brain function, and it is not clear how this common bi-nodal finding fits into
      larger-scale network models. Here, using dynamic functional connectivity (DFC)
      approaches combined with large-scale network analyses, the larger role of bi
      nodal FC between mPFC and amygdala among a sample of adolescent girls is
      investigated. The sample was comprised of 30 healthy control girls and 26 girls
      exposed to either physical or sexual assault who underwent a resting-state scan
      during 3T MRI. DFC using a sliding window approach was used to create weighted,
      undirected, graphs from the resting-state data following parcellation with a 215
      regions-of-interest (ROI) atlas. Using a priori ROI, the predicted finding of
      lessor FC between mPFC and amygdala as a function of early life trauma was
      replicated in this sample. By contrast, early life trauma was associated with
      greater large-scale network modularity. Using a dynamic FC approach, it is also
      demonstrated that within-subject variability in this bi-nodal FC closely tracks
      within-subject fluctuations in large-scale network patterns, including
      connectivity between a limbic and default mode network (in which the amygdala and
      mPFC nodes belong, respectively) as well as overall modular organization. These
      results suggest that bi-nodal FC, such as amygdala-mPFC FC, may generally reflect
      larger-scale network patterns. Future research is necessary to understand whether
      these associations between nodal FC and large-scale network organization better
      reflect top-down processes (larger-scale network organization drives bi-nodal FC)
      or bottom-up processes (bi-nodal FC drives larger-scale network organization) and
      the related impact of early life trauma.

PMID- 28553210
TI  - Evidence for a Priori Existence of Attentional Bias Subgroups in Emotional
      Processing of Aversive Stimuli.
AB  - Little is known regarding inter-individual differences in attentional biases for
      pain-related information; more knowledge is crucial, since these biases have been
      associated with differences in pain processing as well as in predicting the risk
      of postoperative pain. The present study investigated EEG correlates of
      attentional bias patterns for pain-related information, with specific focus on
      avoidance- and vigilance-like behavior. Forty-one participants performed a dot
      probe task, where neutral and pain-related words were used to create neutral,
      congruent, incongruent, and double (two pain-related words) trials. EEG was
      recorded, which was used to generate ERP's of the word-processing phase and the
      post-dot phase. Participants were placed in two subgroups based on the direction
      of their attentional bias (either positive; toward the pain-related words, or
      negative; away from pain-related words). Using t-profiles, four latency windows
      were identified on which the two subgroups differed significantly. These latency
      windows yield areas which correspond with the P1-N1 domain and the P3b for the
      word-processing phase, while the post-dot phase latency windows cover the areas
      of the P200 and the P3b. The two subgroups show differences on congruent,
      incongruent, and the double trials, but interestingly also on the neutral trials.
      Most notably, the area in the word-phase associated with the P3b is diminished in
      the subgroup showing a negative bias. The deflections associated with both early
      and late attentional components, including the P3B, as well as a positive
      deflection in the timeframe of proposed response evaluation processes differ
      significantly between subgroups. In this study we demonstrated that different
      attentional biases exist in the healthy population, by showing differences in
      ERP's. We also show differences in processing neutral trials, which suggests
      there are fundamental differences between these groups in processing words in
      general.

PMID- 28553211
TI  - Kinoscope: An Open-Source Computer Program for Behavioral Pharmacologists.
AB  - Behavioral analysis in preclinical neuropsychopharmacology relies on the accurate
      measurement of animal behavior. Several excellent solutions for computer-assisted
      behavioral analysis are available for specialized behavioral laboratories wishing
      to invest significant resources. Herein, we present an open source
      straightforward software solution aiming at the rapid and easy introduction to an
      experimental workflow, and at the improvement of training staff members in a
      better and more reproducible manual scoring of behavioral experiments with the
      use of visual aids-maps. Currently the program readily supports the Forced Swim
      Test, Novel Object Recognition test and the Elevated Plus maze test, but with
      minor modifications can be used for scoring virtually any behavioral test.
      Additional modules, with predefined templates and scoring parameters, are
      continuously added. Importantly, the prominent use of visual maps has been shown
      to improve, in a student-engaging manner, the training and auditing of scoring in
      behavioral rodent experiments.

PMID- 28553212
TI  - Evidence for Ancestral Programming of Resilience in a Two-Hit Stress Model.
AB  - In a continuously stressful environment, the effects of recurrent prenatal stress
      (PS) may accumulate across generations and alter stress vulnerability and
      resilience. Here, we report in female rats that a family history of recurrent
      ancestral PS facilitates certain aspects of movement performance, and that these
      benefits are abolished by the experience of a second hit, induced by a silent
      ischemia during adulthood. Female F4-generation rats with and without a family
      history of cumulative multigenerational PS (MPS) were tested for skilled motor
      function before and after the induction of a minor ischemic insult by endothelin
      1 infusion into the primary motor cortex. MPS resulted in improved skilled motor
      abilities and blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function compared
      to non-stressed rats. Deep sequencing revealed downregulation of miR-708 in MPS
      rats along with upregulation of its predicted target genes Mapk10 and Rasd2.
      Through miR-708 stress may regulate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)
      pathway activity. Hair trace elemental analysis revealed an increased Na/K ratio,
      which suggests a chronic shift in adrenal gland function. The ischemic lesion
      activated the HPA axis in MPS rats only; the lesion, however, abolished the
      advantage of MPS in skilled reaching. The findings indicate that MPS generates
      adaptive flexibility in movement, which is challenged by a second stressor, such
      as a neuropathological condition. Thus, a second "hit" by a stressor may limit
      behavioral flexibility and neural plasticity associated with ancestral stress.

PMID- 28553214
TI  - From Thirst to Satiety: The Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex and Right Posterior
      Insula Indicate Dynamic Changes in Incentive Value.
AB  - The cingulate cortex and insula are among the neural structures whose activations
      have been modulated in functional imaging studies examining discrete states of
      thirst and drinking to satiation. Building upon these findings, the present study
      aimed to identify neural structures that change their pattern of activation
      elicited by water held in the mouth in relation to the internal body state, i.e.,
      proportional to continuous water consumption. Accordingly, participants in a
      thirsty state were scanned while receiving increments of water until satiety was
      reached. As expected, fluid ingestion led to a clear decrease in self-reported
      thirst and the pleasantness ratings of the water ingested. Furthermore, linear
      decreases in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response to water
      ingestion were observed in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) and right
      posterior insula as participants shifted towards the non-thirsty state. In
      addition, regions in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), supplementary motor area
      (SMA), superior parietal lobule (SPL), precuneus and calcarine sulcus also showed
      a linear decrease with increasing fluid consumption. Further analyses related
      single trial BOLD responses of associated regions to trial-by-trial ratings of
      thirst and pleasantness. Overall, the aMCC and posterior insula may be key sites
      of a neural network representing the motivation for drinking based on the dynamic
      integration of internal state and external stimuli.

PMID- 28553213
TI  - Fast Brain Plasticity during Word Learning in Musically-Trained Children.
AB  - Children learn new words every day and this ability requires auditory perception,
      phoneme discrimination, attention, associative learning and semantic memory.
      Based on previous results showing that some of these functions are enhanced by
      music training, we investigated learning of novel words through picture-word
      associations in musically-trained and control children (8-12 year-old) to
      determine whether music training would positively influence word learning.
      Results showed that musically-trained children outperformed controls in a
      learning paradigm that included picture-sound matching and semantic associations.
      Moreover, the differences between unexpected and expected learned words, as
      reflected by the N200 and N400 effects, were larger in children with music
      training compared to controls after only 3 min of learning the meaning of novel
      words. In line with previous results in adults, these findings clearly
      demonstrate a correlation between music training and better word learning. It is
      argued that these benefits reflect both bottom-up and top-down influences. The
      present learning paradigm might provide a useful dynamic diagnostic tool to
      determine which perceptive and cognitive functions are impaired in children with
      learning difficulties.

PMID- 28553209
TI  - Mystic Acetaldehyde: The Never-Ending Story on Alcoholism.
AB  - After decades of uncertainties and drawbacks, the study on the role and
      significance of acetaldehyde in the effects of ethanol seemed to have found its
      main paths. Accordingly, the effects of acetaldehyde, after its systemic or
      central administration and as obtained following ethanol metabolism, looked as
      they were extensively characterized. However, almost 5 years after this research
      appeared at its highest momentum, the investigations on this topic have been
      revitalized on at least three main directions: (1) the role and the behavioral
      significance of acetaldehyde in different phases of ethanol self-administration
      and in voluntary ethanol consumption; (2) the distinction, in the central effects
      of ethanol, between those arising from its non-metabolized fraction and those
      attributable to ethanol-derived acetaldehyde; and (3) the role of the
      acetaldehyde-dopamine condensation product, salsolinol. The present review
      article aims at presenting and discussing prospectively the most recent data
      accumulated following these three research pathways on this never-ending story in
      order to offer the most up-to-date synoptic critical view on such still
      unresolved and exciting topic.

PMID- 28553215
TI  - EEG Cortical Connectivity Analysis of Working Memory Reveals Topological
      Reorganization in Theta and Alpha Bands.
AB  - Numerous studies have revealed various working memory (WM)-related brain
      activities that originate from various cortical regions and oscillate at
      different frequencies. However, multi-frequency band analysis of the brain
      network in WM in the cortical space remains largely unexplored. In this study, we
      employed a graph theoretical framework to characterize the topological properties
      of the brain functional network in the theta and alpha frequency bands during WM
      tasks. Twenty-eight subjects performed visual n-back tasks at two difficulty
      levels, i.e., 0-back (control task) and 2-back (WM task). After preprocessing,
      Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were projected into the source space and 80
      cortical brain regions were selected for further analysis. Subsequently, the
      theta- and alpha-band networks were constructed by calculating the Pearson
      correlation coefficients between the power series (obtained by concatenating the
      power values of all epochs in each session) of all pairs of brain regions. Graph
      theoretical approaches were then employed to estimate the topological properties
      of the brain networks at different WM tasks. We found higher functional
      integration in the theta band and lower functional segregation in the alpha band
      in the WM task compared with the control task. Moreover, compared to the 0-back
      task, altered regional centrality was revealed in the 2-back task in various
      brain regions that mainly resided in the frontal, temporal and occipital lobes,
      with distinct presentations in the theta and alpha bands. In addition,
      significant negative correlations were found between the reaction time with the
      average path length of the theta-band network and the local clustering of the
      alpha-band network, which demonstrates the potential for using the brain network
      metrics as biomarkers for predicting the task performance during WM tasks.

PMID- 28553216
TI  - Autistic Children Show a Surprising Relationship between Global Visual
      Perception, Non-Verbal Intelligence and Visual Parvocellular Function, Not Seen
      in Typically Developing Children.
AB  - Despite much current research into the visual processing style of individuals
      with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), understanding of the neural mechanisms is
      lagging, especially with respect to the contributions of the overlapping
      dichotomies of magnocellular/parvocellular (afferent neural pathways),
      global/local (perception) and dorsal/ventral (cortical streams). Here, we
      addressed this deficiency by measuring inspection times (ITs) for novel
      global/local stimuli as well as recording nonlinear visually evoked potentials
      (VEPs), in particular, magnocellular and parvocellular temporal efficiencies. The
      study was conducted on a group of male ASD children and a typically developing
      (TD) group matched for mean age and mean non-verbal intelligence, as measured by
      the Raven's Progressive Matrices. The IT results did not differ between groups,
      however a negative correlation between global IT and Raven's score was found in
      the ASD group, that was not evident in the TD group. Nonlinear VEP showed the ASD
      group had smaller amplitude parvocellular-generated second order responses
      compared to the TD group. This is a sign of improved temporal responsiveness in
      ASD vs. TD groups. Principal Component Analysis linked global IT, non-verbal
      intelligence scores and VEP parvocellular efficiency in a single factor for the
      ASD but not the TD group. The results are suggestive of a constraint on pathways
      available for cognitive response in the ASD group, with temporal processing for
      those with ASD becoming more reliant on the parvocellular pathway.

PMID- 28553220
TI  - The Influence of Volume Conduction on DTF Estimate and the Problem of Its
      Mitigation.

PMID- 28553219
TI  - A Bayesian Reformulation of the Extended Drift-Diffusion Model in Perceptual
      Decision Making.
AB  - Perceptual decision making can be described as a process of accumulating evidence
      to a bound which has been formalized within drift-diffusion models (DDMs).
      Recently, an equivalent Bayesian model has been proposed. In contrast to standard
      DDMs, this Bayesian model directly links information in the stimulus to the
      decision process. Here, we extend this Bayesian model further and allow inter
      trial variability of two parameters following the extended version of the DDM. We
      derive parameter distributions for the Bayesian model and show that they lead to
      predictions that are qualitatively equivalent to those made by the extended drift
      diffusion model (eDDM). Further, we demonstrate the usefulness of the extended
      Bayesian model (eBM) for the analysis of concrete behavioral data. Specifically,
      using Bayesian model selection, we find evidence that including additional inter
      trial parameter variability provides for a better model, when the model is
      constrained by trial-wise stimulus features. This result is remarkable because it
      was derived using just 200 trials per condition, which is typically thought to be
      insufficient for identifying variability parameters in DDMs. In sum, we present a
      Bayesian analysis, which provides for a novel and promising analysis of
      perceptual decision making experiments.

PMID- 28553218
TI  - The Effects of Mirror Feedback during Target Directed Movements on Ipsilateral
      Corticospinal Excitability.
AB  - Mirror visual feedback (MVF) training is a promising technique to promote
      activation in the lesioned hemisphere following stroke, and aid recovery.
      However, current outcomes of MVF training are mixed, in part, due to variability
      in the task undertaken during MVF. The present study investigated the hypothesis
      that movements directed toward visual targets may enhance MVF modulation of motor
      cortex (M1) excitability ipsilateral to the trained hand compared to movements
      without visual targets. Ten healthy subjects participated in a 2 * 2 factorial
      design in which feedback (veridical, mirror) and presence of a visual target
      (target present, target absent) for a right index-finger flexion task were
      systematically manipulated in a virtual environment. To measure M1 excitability,
      transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the hemisphere ipsilateral
      to the trained hand to elicit motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the untrained
      first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscles at rest
      prior to and following each of four 2-min blocks of 30 movements (B1-B4).
      Targeted movement kinematics without visual feedback was measured before and
      after training to assess learning and transfer. FDI MEPs were decreased in B1 and
      B2 when movements were made with veridical feedback and visual targets were
      absent. FDI MEPs were decreased in B2 and B3 when movements were made with mirror
      feedback and visual targets were absent. FDI MEPs were increased in B3 when
      movements were made with mirror feedback and visual targets were present.
      Significant MEP changes were not present for the uninvolved ADM, suggesting a
      task-specific effect. Analysis of kinematics revealed learning occurred in visual
      target-directed conditions, but transfer was not sensitive to mirror feedback.
      Results are discussed with respect to current theoretical mechanisms underlying
      MVF-induced changes in ipsilateral excitability.

PMID- 28553217
TI  - Electrocorticography of Spatial Shifting and Attentional Selection in Human
      Superior Parietal Cortex.
AB  - Spatial-attentional reorienting and selection between competing stimuli are two
      distinct attentional processes of clinical and fundamental relevance. In the
      past, reorienting has been mainly associated with inferior parietal cortex. In a
      patient with a subdural grid covering the upper and lower bank of the left
      anterior and middle intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the superior parietal lobule
      (SPL), we examined the involvement of superior parietal cortex using a hybrid
      spatial cueing paradigm identical to that previously applied in stroke and in
      healthy controls. In SPL, as early as 164 ms following target onset, an invalidly
      compared to a validly cued target elicited a positive event-related potential
      (ERP) and an increase in intertrial coherence (ITC) in the theta band, regardless
      of the direction of attention. From around 400-650 ms, functional connectivity
      [weighted phase lag index (wPLI) analysis] between SPL and IPS briefly inverted
      such that SPL activity was driving IPS activity. In contrast, the presence of a
      competing distracter elicited a robust change mainly in IPS from 300 to 600 ms.
      Within superior parietal cortex reorienting of attention is associated with a
      distinct and early electrophysiological response in SPL while attentional
      selection is indexed by a relatively late electrophysiological response in the
      IPS. The long latency suggests a role of IPS in working memory or cognitive
      control rather than early selection.

PMID- 28553221
TI  - Tumors Presenting as Multiple Cranial Nerve Palsies.
AB  - Cranial nerve palsy could be one of the presenting features of underlying benign
      or malignant tumors of the head and neck. The tumor can involve the cranial
      nerves by local compression, direct infiltration or by paraneoplastic process.
      Cranial nerve involvement depends on the anatomical course of the cranial nerve
      and the site of the tumor. Patients may present with single or multiple cranial
      nerve palsies. Multiple cranial nerve involvement could be sequential or
      discrete, unilateral or bilateral, painless or painful. The presentation could be
      acute, subacute or recurrent. Anatomic localization is the first step in the
      evaluation of these patients. The lesion could be in the brain stem, meninges,
      base of skull, extracranial or systemic disease itself. We present 3 cases of
      underlying neoplasms presenting as cranial nerve palsies: a case of glomus tumor
      presenting as cochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus and hypoglossal nerve palsies,
      clivus tumor presenting as abducens nerve palsy, and diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma presenting as oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal and abducens nerve
      palsies due to paraneoplastic involvement. History and physical examination,
      imaging, autoantibodies and biopsy if feasible are useful for the diagnosis.
      Management outcomes depend on the treatment of the underlying tumor.

PMID- 28553222
TI  - Dynamic Arc SUMOylation and Selective Interaction with F-Actin-Binding Protein
      Drebrin A in LTP Consolidation In Vivo.
AB  - Activity-regulatedcytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) protein is implicated as
      a master regulator of long-term forms of synaptic plasticity and memory
      formation, but the mechanisms controlling Arc protein function are little known.
      Post-translation modification by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins
      has emerged as a major mechanism for regulating protein-protein interactions and
      function. We first show in cell lines that ectopically expressed Arc undergoes
      mono-SUMOylation. The covalent addition of a single SUMO1 protein was confirmed
      by in vitro SUMOylation of immunoprecipitated Arc. To explore regulation of
      endogenous Arc during synaptic plasticity, we induced long-term potentiation
      (LTP) in the dentate gyrus of live anesthetized rats. Using coimmunoprecipitation
      of native proteins, we show that Arc synthesized during the maintenance phase of
      LTP undergoes dynamic mono-SUMO1-ylation. Levels of unmodified Arc increase in
      multiple subcellular fractions (cytosol, membrane, nuclear and cytoskeletal),
      whereas enhanced Arc SUMOylation was specific to the synaptoneurosomal and the
      cytoskeletal fractions. Dentate gyrus LTP consolidation requires a period of
      sustained Arc synthesis driven by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
      signaling. Local infusion of the BDNF scavenger, TrkB-Fc, during LTP maintenance
      resulted in rapid reversion of LTP, inhibition of Arc synthesis and loss of
      enhanced Arc SUMO1ylation. Furthermore, coimmunoprecipitation analysis showed
      that SUMO1-ylated Arc forms a complex with the F-actin-binding protein drebrin A,
      a major regulator of cytoskeletal dynamics in dendritic spines. Although Arc also
      interacted with dynamin 2, calcium/calmodulindependentprotein kinase II-beta
      (CaMKIIbeta), and postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95), these complexes
      lacked SUMOylated Arc. The results support a model in which newly synthesized Arc
      is SUMOylated and targeted for actin cytoskeletal regulation during in vivo LTP.

PMID- 28553223
TI  - Chronic Monoarthritis Pain Accelerates the Processes of Cognitive Impairment and
      Increases the NMDAR Subunits NR2B in CA3 of Hippocampus from 5-month-old
      Transgenic APP/PS1 Mice.
AB  - Many factors impact cognitive impairment; however, the effects of chronic pain
      and the mechanisms underlying these effects on cognitive impairment are currently
      unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis that chronic pain accelerates the
      transition from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in 5-month
      old transgenic APP/PS1 mice, an animal model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and
      that neurotoxicity induced by N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) subunits
      may be involved in this process. Chronic monoarthritis pain was induced in
      transgenic APP/PS1 mice and 5-month-old wild-type (WT) mice by intra- and pre
      articular injections of Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) into one knee joint.
      Pain behavior, learning and memory function, and the distribution and quantity of
      NMDAR subunits (NR1, NR2A and NR2B) in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions were
      assessed. Our results showed that although persistent and robust monoarthritis
      pain was induced by the FCA injections, only the transgenic APP/PS1 mice with
      chronic monoarthritis pain exhibited marked learning and memory impairments. This
      result suggested that chronic monoarthritis pain accelerated the cognitive
      impairment process. Furthermore, only transgenic APP/PS1 mice with chronic
      monoarthritis pain exhibited an overexpression of NR2B and an increased NR2B/NR2A
      ratio in the hippocampus CA3. These findings suggest that chronic pain is a risk
      factor for cognitive impairment and that increased neurotoxicity associated with
      NMDAR subunit activation may underpin the impairment. Thus, NMDARs may be a
      therapeutic target for the prevention of chronic pain-induced cognitive
      impairment.

PMID- 28553224
TI  - Docking Studies and Biological Evaluation of a Potential beta-Secretase Inhibitor
      of 3-Hydroxyhericenone F from Hericium erinaceus.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting
      approximately more than 5% of the population worldwide over the age 65, annually.
      The incidence of AD is expected to be higher in the next 10 years. AD patients
      experience poor prognosis and as a consequence new drugs and therapeutic
      strategies are required in order to improve the clinical responses and outcomes
      of AD. The purpose of the present study was to screen a certain number of
      potential compounds from herbal sources and investigate their corresponding mode
      of action. In the present study, the learning and memory effects of ethanol:water
      (8:2) extracts from Hericium erinaceus were evaluated on a dementia rat model.
      The model was established by intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg/kg/d D-galactose
      in rats. The results indicated that the extracts can significantly ameliorate the
      learning and memory abilities. Specific active ingredients were screened in vivo
      assays and the results were combined with molecular docking studies. Potential
      receptor-ligand interactions on the BACE1-inhibitor namely, 3-Hydroxyhericenone F
      (3HF) were investigated. The isolation of a limited amount of 3HF from the fruit
      body of H. erinaceus by chemical separation was conducted, and the mode of action
      of this compound was verified in NaN3-induced PC12 cells. The cell-based assays
      demonstrated that 3HF can significantly down-regulate the expression of BACE1 (p
      < 0.01), while additional AD intracellular markers namely, p-Tau and Abeta1-42
      were further down-regulated (p < 0.05). The data further indicate that 3HF can
      ameliorate certain mitochondrial dysfunction conditions by the reversal of the
      decreasing level of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes, the calcium ion
      levels ([Ca2+]), the inhibiton in the production of ROS, the increase in the
      mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels, and the regulation of the
      expression levels of the genes encoding for the p21, COX I, COX II, PARP1, and NF
      kappaB proteins. The observations suggest the use of H. erinaceus in traditional
      medicine for the treatment of various neurological diseases and render 3HF as a
      promising naturally occurring chemical constituent for the treatment of AD via
      the inhibition of the beta-secretase enzyme.

PMID- 28553225
TI  - Cardioprotective Action of Ginkgo biloba Extract against Sustained beta
      Adrenergic Stimulation Occurs via Activation of M2/NO Pathway.
AB  - Ginkgo biloba is the most popular phytotherapic agent used worldwide for
      treatment of several human disorders. However, the mechanisms involved in the
      protective actions of Ginkgo biloba on cardiovascular diseases remain poorly
      elucidated. Taking into account recent studies showing beneficial actions of
      cholinergic signaling in the heart and the cholinergic hypothesis of Ginkgo
      biloba-mediated neuroprotection, we aimed to investigate whether Ginkgo biloba
      extract (GBE) promotes cardioprotection via activation of cholinergic signaling
      in a model of isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Here, we show that GBE
      treatment (100 mg/kg/day for 8 days, v.o.) reestablished the autonomic imbalance
      and baroreflex dysfunction caused by chronic beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation
      (beta-AR, 4.5 mg/kg/day for 8 days, i.p.). Moreover, GBE prevented the
      upregulation of muscarinic receptors (M2) and downregulation of beta1-AR in
      isoproterenol treated-hearts. Additionally, we demonstrated that GBE prevents the
      impaired endothelial nitric oxide synthase activity in the heart. GBE also
      prevented the pathological cardiac remodeling, electrocardiographic changes and
      impaired left ventricular contractility that are typical of cardiac hypertrophy.
      To further investigate the mechanisms involved in GBE cardioprotection in vivo,
      we performed in vitro studies. By using neonatal cardiomyocyte culture we
      demonstrated that the antihypertrophic action of GBE was fully abolished by
      muscarinic receptor antagonist or NOS inhibition. Altogether, our data support
      the notion that antihypertrophic effect of GBE occurs via activation of M2/NO
      pathway uncovering a new mechanism involved in the cardioprotective action of
      Ginkgo biloba.

PMID- 28553226
TI  - beta-Sitosterol Reduces the Expression of Chemotactic Cytokine Genes in Cystic
      Fibrosis Bronchial Epithelial Cells.
AB  - Extracts from Nigella arvensis L. seeds, which are widely used as anti
      inflammatory remedies in traditional medicine of Northern Africa, were able to
      inhibit the expression of the pro-inflammatory neutrophil chemokine Interleukin
      (IL)-8 in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) bronchial epithelial IB3-1 cells exposed to the
      Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The chemical composition of the
      extracts led to the identification of three major components, beta-sitosterol,
      stigmasterol, and campesterol, which are the most abundant phytosterols,
      cholesterol-like molecules, usually found in plants. beta-sitosterol (BSS) was
      the only compound that significantly reproduced the inhibition of the P.
      aeruginosa-dependent expression of IL-8 at nanomolar concentrations. BSS was
      tested in CF airway epithelial CuFi-1 cells infected with P. aeruginosa. BSS (100
      nM), showed a significant and consistent inhibitory activity on expression of the
      P. aeruginosa-stimulated expression chemokines IL-8, GRO-alpha GRO-beta, which
      play a pivotal role in the recruitment of neutrophils in CF inflamed lungs.
      Preliminary mechanistic analysis showed that BSS partially inhibits the P.
      aeruginosa-dependent activation of Protein Kinase C isoform alpha, which is known
      to be involved in the transmembrane signaling activating IL-8 gene expression in
      bronchial epithelial cells. These data indicate BSS as a promising molecule to
      control excessive lung inflammation in CF patients.

PMID- 28553227
TI  - SRT1720 Alleviates ANIT-Induced Cholestasis in a Mouse Model.
AB  - Intrahepatic cholestasis is a kind of clinical syndrome along with hepatotoxicity
      which caused by intrahepatic and systemic accumulations of bile acid. There are
      several crucial generating factors of the pathogenesis of cholestasis, such as
      inflammation, dysregulation of bile acid transporters and oxidative stress. SIRT1
      is regarded as a class III histone deacetylase (HDAC). According to a set of
      researches, SIRT1 is one of the most important factors which can regulate the
      hepatic bile acid metabolism. SRT1720 is a kind of activator of SIRT1 which is
      1000 times more potent than resveratrol, and this paper is aimed to study its
      protective influence on hepatotoxicity and cholestasis induced by alpha
      naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT) in mice. The findings revealed that SRT1720
      treatment increased FXR and Nrf2 gene expressions to shield against
      hepatotoxicity and cholestasis induced by ANIT. The mRNA levels of hepatic bile
      acid transporters were also altered by SRT1720. Furthermore, SRT1720 enhanced the
      antioxidative system by increasing Nrf2, SOD, GCLc, GCLm, Nqo1, and HO-1 gene
      expressions. In conclusion, a protective influence could be provided by SRT1720
      to cure ANIT-induced hepatotoxicity and cholestasis, which was partly through FXR
      and Nrf2 activations. These results indicated that SIRT1 could be regarded as a
      therapeutic target to cure the cholestasis.

PMID- 28553228
TI  - How General Practitioners and Their Patients Adhere to Osteoporosis Management: A
      Follow-Up Survey among Czech General Practitioners.
AB  - Introduction: General practitioners (GPs) are key participants in osteoporosis
      (OP) management. The aim was to evaluate their adherence to lege artis management
      of the disease, potential barriers, and to discuss differences observed in
      comparison with the baseline survey carried out in 2007; the focus was on
      secondary prevention. Methods: On behalf of two professional associations, 2
      round postal survey among randomly selected GPs (>1/4 of all Czech GPs) was
      performed in 2014. The questionnaire covered areas concerning GP's role in the
      fight against OP, knowledge about OP, management of OP-related fractures,
      barriers to the management of OP, system- and patient-related in particular, and
      availability and use of information sources. Results: The overall questionnaire
      return rate was 37% (551 respondents); mean age of the respondents was 53 year
      (37% men). The GP's role in the treatment of OP was rated as essential in 28 and
      37% of men and women, respectively (P = 0.012). The guideline for diagnosis and
      treatment of OP for GPs was considered accessible by 92% of respondents. As much
      as 60% of the respondents were adherent to the guideline, i.e., used it
      repeatedly. The knowledge of several risk factors was very good, however,
      recommended daily intake of calcium was stated correctly by only 41% of
      respondents, and daily intake of vitamin D by only 40%. Three quarters reported
      active steps after a fracture: referral to a specialist, life-style
      recommendations, prescription of calcium/vitamin D supplements. Half of the
      respondents focus on fall prevention. System-related barriers, such as lack of
      possibility to prescribe selected drugs (61%) and financial limits set by health
      insurance company (44%) were most frequently reported. Patient-related barriers
      were also common, patient's non-adherence (reported by 29%) and patient's
      reluctance to go to a specialist (18%). Conclusion: GPs adhered to OP management
      more than in 2007. Knowledge of risk factors and involvement in post-fracture
      care was relatively high. Compared to baseline survey, patient-related barriers,
      patient non-adherence in particular, were more common. Prescribing conditions are
      still an important issue. Among GPs, education should be focused on calcium and
      vitamin D intake, doses, sources, and supplements.

PMID- 28553229
TI  - Inverted U-Shaped Dose-Response Curve of the Anxiolytic Effect of Cannabidiol
      during Public Speaking in Real Life.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the anxiolytic effect of
      cannabidiol (CBD) in humans follows the same pattern of an inverted U-shaped dose
      effect curve observed in many animal studies. Sixty healthy subjects of both
      sexes aged between 18 and 35 years were randomly assigned to five groups that
      received placebo, clonazepam (1 mg), and CBD (100, 300, and 900 mg). The subjects
      were underwent a test of public speaking in a real situation (TPSRS) where each
      subject had to speak in front of a group formed by the remaining participants.
      Each subject completed the anxiety and sedation factors of the Visual Analog Mood
      Scale and had their blood pressure and heart rate recorded. These measures were
      obtained in five experimental sessions with 12 volunteers each. Each session had
      four steps at the following times (minutes) after administration of the
      drug/placebo, as time 0: -5 (baseline), 80 (pre-test), 153 (speech), and 216
      (post-speech). Repeated-measures analyses of variance showed that the TPSRS
      increased the subjective measures of anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure.
      Student-Newman-Keuls test comparisons among the groups in each phase showed
      significant attenuation in anxiety scores relative to the placebo group in the
      group treated with clonazepam during the speech phase, and in the clonazepam and
      CBD 300 mg groups in the post-speech phase. Clonazepam was more sedative than CBD
      300 and 900 mg and induced a smaller increase in systolic and diastolic blood
      pressure than CBD 300 mg. The results confirmed that the acute administration of
      CBD induced anxiolytic effects with a dose-dependent inverted U-shaped curve in
      healthy subjects, since the subjective anxiety measures were reduced with CBD 300
      mg, but not with CBD 100 and 900 mg, in the post-speech phase.

PMID- 28553230
TI  - The LRRC8A Mediated "Swell Activated" Chloride Conductance Is Dispensable for
      Vacuolar Homeostasis in Neutrophils.
AB  - The dialysis of human and mouse neutrophils in patch clamp experiments in the
      conventional whole-cell mode induces the emergence of a chloride (Cl-) current
      that appeared to be primarily regulated by cytoplasmic ionic strength. The
      characteristics of this current resembled that of the classical, and ubiquitous
      volume-sensitive outwardly rectifying Cl- current: strong outward rectification,
      selectivity sequence of the Eisenman1 type, insensitivity to external pH and
      strong inhibition by tamoxifen, DCPIB and WW781. We show that this current is
      essentially supported by the leucine rich repeat containing 8 A (LRRC8A); the
      naturally occurring LRRC8A truncation mutant in ebo/ebo mice drastically reduced
      Cl- conductance in neutrophils. Remarkably, the residual component presents a
      distinct pharmacology, but appears equally potentiated by reduced ionic strength.
      We have investigated the role of the LRRC8A-supported current in the ionic
      homeostasis of the phagosomal compartment. The vacuolar pH, measured using SNARF
      1 labeled Candida albicans, normally rises because of NADPH oxidase activity, and
      this elevation is blocked by certain Cl- channel inhibitors. However, the pH rise
      remains intact in neutrophils from the ebo/ebo mice which also demonstrate
      preserved phagocytic and respiratory burst capacities and normal-sized vacuoles.
      Thus, the LRRC8A-dependent conductance of neutrophils largely accounts for their
      "swell activated" Cl- current, but is not required for homeostasis of the
      phagosomal killing compartment.

PMID- 28553231
TI  - Hydroxysafflor Yellow A Suppresses MRC-5 Cell Activation Induced by TGF-beta1 by
      Blocking TGF-beta1 Binding to TbetaRII.
AB  - Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) is an active ingredient of Carthamus tinctorius
      L.. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of HSYA on transforming growth
      factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1)-induced changes in proliferation, migration,
      differentiation, and extracellular matrix accumulation and degradation in human
      fetal lung fibroblasts (MRC-5), to explore the mechanisms whereby HSYA may
      alleviate pulmonary fibrosis. MRC-5 cells were incubated with various doses of
      HSYA and/or the TGF-beta receptor type I kinase inhibitor SB431542 and then
      stimulated with TGF-beta1. Cell proliferation was measured by 3-(4,5
      dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfo-phenyl)-2H
      tetrazolium inner salt assay. Cell migration was detected by wound-healing assay.
      Protein levels of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), collagen I alpha 1
      (COL1A1), and fibronectin (FN) were measured by immunofluorescence. Protein
      levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2, tissue inhibitor of matrix
      metalloproteinase-1, tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-2, TGF-beta
      type II receptor (TbetaRII), and TGF-beta type I receptor were detected by
      western blotting. TbetaRII knockdown with siRNA interfered with the inhibitory
      effect of HSYA on alpha-SMA, COL1A1, and FN expression, and TGF-beta1-induced Sma
      and Mad protein (Smad), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen
      activated protein kinase signaling pathway activation. The antagonistic effect of
      HSYA on the binding of fluorescein isothiocyanate-TGF-beta1 to MRC-5 cell
      cytoplasmic receptors was measured by flow cytometry. HSYA significantly
      suppressed TGF-beta1-induced cell proliferation and migration. HSYA could
      antagonize the binding of FITC-TGF-beta1 to MRC-5 cell cytoplasmic receptors.
      Also HSYA inhibited TGF-beta1-activated cell expression of alpha-SMA, COL1A1, and
      FN and phosphorylation level of Smad2, Smad3, and ERK by targeting TbetaRII in
      MRC-5 cells. These findings suggest that TbetaRII might be the target responsible
      for the inhibitory effects of HSYA on TGF-beta1-induced pathological changes in
      pulmonary fibrosis.

PMID- 28553232
TI  - Integrated Analysis of DNA Methylation and mRNA Expression Profiles to Identify
      Key Genes in Severe Oligozoospermia.
AB  - Severe oligozoospermia (SO) is a complex disorder, whose etiology is the combined
      effect of genetic factors and epigenetic conditions. In this study, we examined
      DNA methylation and mRNA expression status in a set of testicular tissues of SO
      patients (n = 3), and compared methylated data with those derived from
      obstructive azoospermia (OA) patients (n = 3) with normal spermatogenesis
      phenotype. We identified 1,960 differentially methylated CpG sites showing
      significant alterations in SO vs. OA using the Illumina Infinium
      HumanMethylation450 bead array. By integrating above DNA methylation data and
      mRNA expression results, we totally identified 72 methylated CpG sites located in
      65 genes with anti-correlation between DNA methylation and mRNA expression.
      Integrated pathways analysis indicates that these genes are involved in response
      to hormone stimulus, activation of protein kinase activity, and apoptotic
      process, among others. We also observed some genes with inversely correlated
      difference is novel in male infertility field, including PTPRN2, EPHX1, SERPINB9,
      SLIT3, etc. Our results lay a groundwork for further biological study of SO.
      Moreover, we generated a workflow for integrated analysis of DNA methylation and
      mRNA expression, which is expandable to other study types.

PMID- 28553233
TI  - Coherent Multimodal Sensory Information Allows Switching between Gravitoinertial
      Contexts.
AB  - Whether the central nervous system is capable to switch between contexts
      critically depends on experimental details. Motor control studies regularly adopt
      robotic devices to perturb the dynamics of a certain task. Other approaches
      investigate motor control by altering the gravitoinertial context itself as in
      parabolic flights and human centrifuges. In contrast to conventional robotic
      experiments, where only the hand is perturbed, these gravitoinertial or immersive
      settings coherently plunge participants into new environments. However, radically
      different they are, perfect adaptation of motor responses are commonly reported.
      In object manipulation tasks, this translates into a good matching of the
      grasping force or grip force to the destabilizing load force. One possible bias
      in these protocols is the predictability of the forthcoming dynamics. Here we
      test whether the successful switching and adaptation processes observed in
      immersive environments are a consequence of the fact that participants can
      predict the perturbation schedule. We used a short arm human centrifuge to
      decouple the effects of space and time on the dynamics of an object manipulation
      task by adding an unnatural explicit position-dependent force. We created
      different dynamical contexts by asking 20 participants to move the object at
      three different paces. These contextual sessions were interleaved such that we
      could simulate concurrent learning. We assessed adaptation by measuring how grip
      force was adjusted to this unnatural load force. We found that the motor system
      can switch between new unusual dynamical contexts, as reported by surprisingly
      well-adjusted grip forces, and that this capacity is not a mere consequence of
      the ability to predict the time course of the upcoming dynamics. We posit that a
      coherent flow of multimodal sensory information born in a homogeneous milieu
      allows switching between dynamical contexts.

PMID- 28553234
TI  - Starvation Promotes Autophagy-Associated Maturation of the Ovary in the Giant
      Freshwater Prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii.
AB  - Limitation of food availability (starvation) is known to influence the
      reproductive ability of animals. Autophagy is a lysosomal driven degradation
      process that protects the cell under metabolic stress conditions, such as during
      nutrient shortage. Whether, and how starvation-induced autophagy impacts on the
      maturation and function of reproductive organs in animals are still open
      questions. In this study, we have investigated the effects of starvation on
      histological and cellular changes that may be associated with autophagy in the
      ovary of the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobachium rosenbergii. To this end, the
      female prawns were daily fed (controls) or unfed (starvation condition) for up to
      12 days, and the ovary tissue was analyzed at different time-points. Starvation
      triggered ovarian maturation, and concomitantly increased the expression of
      autophagy markers in vitellogenic oocytes. The immunoreactivities for autophagy
      markers, including Beclin1, LC3-II, and Lamp1, were enhanced in the late oocytes
      within the mature ovaries, especially at the vitellogenic stages. These markers
      co-localized with vitellin in the yolk granules within the oocytes, suggesting
      that autophagy induced by starvation could drive vitellin utilization, thus
      promoting ovarian maturation.

PMID- 28553235
TI  - 4-phenylbutyrate Mitigates Fluoride-Induced Cytotoxicity in ALC Cells.
AB  - Chronic fluoride over-exposure during pre-eruptive enamel development can cause
      dental fluorosis. Severe dental fluorosis is characterized by porous, soft enamel
      that is vulnerable to erosion and decay. The prevalence of dental fluorosis among
      the population in the USA, India and China is increasing. Other than avoiding
      excessive intake, treatments to prevent dental fluorosis remain unknown. We
      previously reported that high-dose fluoride induces endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress and oxidative stress in ameloblasts. Cell stress induces gene repression,
      mitochondrial damage and apoptosis. An aromatic fatty acid, 4-phenylbutyrate
      (4PBA) is a chemical chaperone that interacts with misfolded proteins to prevent
      ER stress. We hypothesized that 4PBA ameliorates fluoride-induced ER stress in
      ameloblasts. To determine whether 4PBA protects ameloblasts from fluoride
      toxicity, we analyzed gene expression of Tgf-beta1, Bcl2/Bax ratio and cytochrome
      c release in vitro. In vivo, we measured fluorosis levels, enamel hardness and
      fluoride concentration. Fluoride treated Ameloblast-lineage cells (ALC) had
      decreased Tgf-beta1 expression and this was reversed by 4PBA treatment. The anti
      apoptotic Blc2/Bax ratio was significantly increased in ALC cells treated with
      fluoride/4PBA compared to fluoride treatment alone. Fluoride treatment induced
      cytochrome-c release from mitochondria into the cytosol and this was inhibited by
      4PBA treatment. These results suggest that 4PBA mitigates fluoride-induced gene
      suppression, apoptosis and mitochondrial damage in vitro. In vivo, C57BL/6J mice
      were provided fluoridated water for six weeks with either fluoride free control
      chow or 4PBA-containing chow (7 g/kg 4PBA). With few exceptions, enamel
      microhardness, fluorosis levels, and fluoride concentrations of bone and urine
      did not differ significantly between fluoride treated animals fed with control
      chow or 4PBA-chow. Although 4PBA mitigated high-dose fluoride toxicity in vitro,
      a diet rich in 4PBA did not attenuate dental fluorosis in rodents. Perhaps, not
      enough intact 4PBA reaches the rodent ameloblasts necessary to reverse the
      effects of fluoride toxicity. Further studies will be required to optimize
      protocols for 4PBA administration in vivo in order to evaluate the effect of 4PBA
      on dental fluorosis.

PMID- 28553236
TI  - Standardization of a Continuous Assay for Glycosidases and Its Use for Screening
      Insect Gut Samples at Individual and Populational Levels.
AB  - Glycoside Hydrolases (GHs) are enzymes able to recognize and cleave glycosidic
      bonds. Insect GHs play decisive roles in digestion, in plant-herbivore, and host
      pathogen interactions. GH activity is normally measured by the detection of a
      release from the substrate of products as sugars units, colored, or fluorescent
      groups. In most cases, the conditions for product release and detection differ,
      resulting in discontinuous assays. The current protocols result in using large
      amounts of reaction mixtures for the obtainment of time points in each
      experimental replica. These procedures restrain the analysis of biological
      materials with limited amounts of protein and, in the case of studies regarding
      small insects, implies in the pooling of samples from several individuals. In
      this respect, most studies do not assess the variability of GH activities across
      the population of individuals from the same species. The aim of this work is to
      approach this technical problem and have a deeper understanding of the variation
      of GH activities in insect populations, using as models the disease vectors
      Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera: Triatominae) and Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera:
      Phlebotominae). Here we standardized continuous assays using 4-methylumbelliferyl
      derived substrates for the detection of alpha-Glucosidase, beta-Glucosidase,
      alpha-Mannosidase, N-acetyl-hexosaminidase, beta-Galactosidase, and alpha
      Fucosidase in the midgut of R. prolixus and L. longipalpis with results similar
      to the traditional discontinuous protocol. The continuous assays allowed us to
      measure GH activities using minimal sample amounts with a higher number of
      measurements, resulting in data that are more reliable and less time and reagent
      consumption. The continuous assay also allows the high-throughput screening of GH
      activities in small insect samples, which would be not applicable to the previous
      discontinuous protocol. We applied continuous GH measurements to 90 individual
      samples of R. prolixus anterior midgut homogenates using a high-throughput
      protocol. alpha-Glucosidase and alpha-Mannosidase activities showed the normal
      distribution in the population. beta-Glucosidase, beta-Galactosidase, N-acetyl
      hexosaminidase, and alpha-Fucosidase activities showed non-normal distributions.
      These results indicate that GHs fluorescent-based high-throughput assays apply to
      insect samples and that the frequency distribution of digestive activities should
      be considered in data analysis, especially if a small number of samples is used.

PMID- 28553237
TI  - A Longitudinal Study of Relationships between Identity Continuity and Anxiety
      Following Brain Injury.
AB  - Objective: Anxiety is of particular importance following acquired brain injury
      (ABI), because anxiety has been identified as a significant predictor of
      functional outcomes. Continuity of self has been linked to post ABI adjustment
      and research has linked self-discrepancy to anxiety. This longitudinal study
      investigates the impact of affiliative and 'self as doer' self-categorisations
      anxiety. Materials and Methods: Data was collected at two time points. Fifty
      three adult ABI survivors participating in post-acute community neuro
      rehabilitation participated at time one and 32 of these participated at time two.
      Participants completed a 28-item identity questionnaire based on Leach et al.'s
      (2008) multicomponent model of ingroup identification which measured the strength
      of affiliative and self as doer identities. Anxiety was measured using the
      Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results: Analysis indicates a significant
      mediated relationship between affiliative identification and anxiety via self as
      doer identification. Contrary to initial prediction, this relationship was
      significant for those with consistency in affiliative self-categorisation and
      inconsistency in 'self as doer' self-categorisation. Conclusion: These findings
      can be interpreted as evidencing the importance of identity continuity and
      multiplicity following ABI and contribute to the understanding of these through
      the use of a social identity approach.

PMID- 28553238
TI  - A Meta-Analysis of Odor Thresholds and Odor Identification in Autism Spectrum
      Disorders.
AB  - Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are often accompanied by atypical visual,
      auditory, and tactile sensory behavior. Evidence also suggests alterations of the
      olfactory system, but the pattern of findings appears mixed. To quantify this
      pattern systematically, we conducted a meta-analysis. Studies were included if
      they examined olfactory function (i.e., odor threshold, or odor identification)
      in ASD compared with healthy age-matched control groups. We also coded for the
      potential moderators gender, age, and IQ. Articles were identified through
      computerized literature search using Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus
      databases. A total of 11 articles compared odor threshold and/or odor
      identification between cases and controls (for threshold, n = 143 ASD and 148
      controls; and for identification, n = 132 ASD and 139 controls). Effects sizes
      showed a substantial heterogeneity. As a result, the 95% prediction intervals
      were wide and ranged between a large negative and a large positive effect size
      for odor threshold, [-1.86, 2.05], and for odor identification, [-1.51, 2.52].
      Exploratory analyses suggested that age and IQ may be potential moderators. To
      conclude, the large heterogeneity is consistent with the notion of both
      hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity in individuals with ASD. However, future
      research needs to predict and test the specific direction of the effect to
      provide convincing evidence for atypical olfactory functions in ASD.

PMID- 28553239
TI  - The Daily Relation between Parental Rejection and Emotional Eating in Youngsters:
      A Diary Study.
AB  - KEY POINTS  Cross-sectional survey studies have demonstrated significant
      associations between parental rejection and peer rejection on the one hand and
      disturbed eating in youngsters, like emotional eating, on the other hand. In this
      study, we wanted to expand our knowledge on these relationships by investigating
      the daily fluctuations in these variables. Youngsters completed a 7-day diary to
      assess daily parental rejection, peer rejection and emotional eating. Using
      multilevel analyses, our results showed that daily variations in parental
      rejection were related to daily variations in emotional eating of the youngsters.
      This highlights the importance of addressing the parent-child relationship in
      interventions for emotional eating in youngsters. Background: This study
      investigated the daily relation between parental rejection and peer rejection on
      the one hand and emotional eating in youngsters on the other hand. Methods:
      Participants (N = 55) between the ages of 11 and 15 years completed a 7-day
      diary. A multilevel design was used to examine day-to-day within-person
      relationships between parental and peer rejection (measured by CHS) and emotional
      eating (measured by DEBQ-C) of youngsters. Results: The results showed that daily
      variations in parental rejection were related to daily variations in emotional
      eating of the youngsters. Daily peer rejection was only marginally significantly
      related to the emotional eating of the youngsters. Conclusions: These results
      indicate that especially parental rejection, and to a lesser extent peer
      rejection, are associated with the emotional eating of youngsters. The findings
      highlight the importance of addressing the parent-child relationship in
      interventions for emotional eating in youngsters.

PMID- 28553240
TI  - The Role of the Human Mirror Neuron System in Supporting Communication in a
      Digital World.
AB  - Humans use both verbal and non-verbal communication to interact with others and
      their environment and increasingly these interactions are occurring in a digital
      medium. Whether live or digital, learning to communicate requires overcoming the
      correspondence problem: There is no direct mapping, or correspondence between
      perceived and self-produced signals. Reconciliation of the differences between
      perceived and produced actions, including linguistic actions, is difficult and
      requires integration across multiple modalities and neuro-cognitive networks.
      Recent work on the neural substrates of social learning suggests that there may
      be a common mechanism underlying the perception-production cycle for verbal and
      non-verbal communication. The purpose of this paper is to review evidence
      supporting the link between verbal and non-verbal communications, and to extend
      the hMNS literature by proposing that recent advances in communication
      technology, which at times have had deleterious effects on behavioral and
      perceptual performance, may disrupt the success of the hMNS in supporting social
      interactions because these technologies are virtual and spatiotemporal
      distributed nature.

PMID- 28553241
TI  - Assessing Dispositions Toward Ridicule and Laughter in the Workplace: Adapting
      and Validating the PhoPhiKat-9 Questionnaire.
AB  - The current paper addresses the measurement of three dispositions toward ridicule
      and laughter; i.e., gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia
      (the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at
      others). These traits explain inter-individual differences in responses to humor,
      laughter, and social situations related to humorous encounters. First, an ultra
      short form of the PhoPhiKat-45 (Ruch and Proyer, 2009) was adapted in two
      independent samples (Construction Sample N = 157; Replication Sample N = 1,774).
      Second, we tested the validity of the PhoPhiKat-9 in two further independent
      samples. Results showed that the psychometric properties of the ultra-short form
      were acceptable and the proposed factor structure could be replicated. In
      Validation Sample 1 (N = 246), we investigated the relation of the three traits
      to responses in a ridicule and teasing scenario questionnaire. The results
      replicated findings from earlier studies by showing that gelotophobes assigned
      the same emotions to friendly teasing and malicious ridicule (predominantly low
      joy, high fear, and shame). Gelotophilia was mainly predicted by relating joy to
      both, teasing and ridicule scenarios, while katagelasticism was predicted by
      assigning joy and contempt to ridicule scenarios. In Validation Sample 2 (N =
      1,248), we investigated whether the fear of being laughed at is a vulnerability
      at the workplace: If friendly teasing and laughter of co-workers, superiors, or
      customers are misperceived as being malicious, individuals may feel less
      satisfied and more stressed. The results from a representative sample of Swiss
      employees showed that individuals with a fear of being laughed at are generally
      less satisfied with life and work and experience more work stress. Moreover,
      gelotophilia went along with positive evaluations of one's life and work, while
      katagelasticism was negatively related to work satisfaction and positively
      related to work stress. In order to establish good work practices and build
      procedures against workplace bullying, one needs to consider that individual
      differences impact on a person's perception of being bullied and assessing the
      three dispositions may give important insights into team processes.

PMID- 28553242
TI  - Comparison of Different LGM-Based Methods with MAR and MNAR Dropout Data.
AB  - The missing not at random (MNAR) mechanism may bias parameter estimates and even
      distort study results. This study compared the maximum likelihood (ML) selection
      model based on missing at random (MAR) mechanism and the Diggle-Kenward selection
      model based on MNAR mechanism for handling missing data through a Monte Carlo
      simulation study. Four factors were considered, including the missingness
      mechanism, the dropout rate, the distribution shape (i.e., skewness and
      kurtosis), and the sample size. The results indicated that: (1) Under the MAR
      mechanism, the Diggle-Kenward selection model yielded similar estimation results
      with the ML approach; Under the MNAR mechanism, the results of ML approach were
      underestimated, especially for the intercept mean and intercept slope (MU i and
      MU s ). (2) Under the MAR mechanism, the 95% CP of the Diggle-Kenward selection
      model was lower than that of the ML method; Under the MNAR mechanism, the 95% CP
      for the two methods were both under the desired level of 95%, but the Diggle
      Kenward selection model yielded much higher coverage probabilities than the ML
      method. (3) The Diggle-Kenward selection model was easier to be influenced by the
      non-normal degree of target variable's distribution than the ML approach. The
      level of dropout rate was the major factor affecting the parameter estimation
      precision, and the dropout rate-induced difference of two methods can be ignored
      only when the dropout rate falls below 10%.

PMID- 28553243
TI  - From Research to Clinical Settings: Validation of the Affect in Play Scale -
      Preschool Brief Version in a Sample of Preschool and School Aged Italian
      Children.
AB  - Affect in Play Scale-Preschool (APS-P) is one of the few standardized tools to
      measure pretend play. APS-P is an effective measure of symbolic play, able to
      detect both cognitive and affective dimensions which classically designated play
      in children, but often are evaluated separately and are scarcely integrated. The
      scale uses 5 min standardized play task with a set of toys. Recently the scale
      was extended from 6 to 10 years old and validated in Italy preschool and school
      aged children. Some of the main limitations of this measure are that it requires
      videotaping, verbatim transcripts, and an extensive scoring training, which could
      compromise its clinical utility. For these reasons, a Brief version of the
      measure was developed by the original authors. This paper will focus on an APS-P
      Brief Version and its Extended Version through ages (6-10 years), which consists
      "in vivo" coding. This study aimed to evaluate construct and external validity of
      this APS-P Brief Version and its Extended Version in a sample of 538 Italian
      children aged 4-to-10 years. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a two
      correlated factor structure including an affective and a cognitive factor. APS-P
      BR and its Extended Version factor scores strongly related to APS-P Extended
      Version factor scores. Significant relationships were found with a divergent
      thinking task. Results suggest that the APS-P-BR and its Extended Version is an
      encouraging brief measure assessing pretend play using toys. It would easily
      substitute the APS-P and its Extended Version in clinical and research settings,
      reducing time and difficulties in scoring procedures and maintaining the same
      strengths.

PMID- 28553244
TI  - Can Leader-Member Exchange Contribute to Safety Performance in An Italian
      Warehouse?
AB  - Introduction: The research considers safety climate in a warehouse and wants to
      analyze the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) role in respect to safety performance.
      Griffin and Neal's safety model was adopted and Leader-Member Exchange was
      inserted as moderator in the relationships between safety climate and proximal
      antecedents (motivation and knowledge) of safety performance constructs
      (compliance and participation). Materials and Methods: Survey data were collected
      from a sample of 133 full-time employees in an Italian warehouse. The statistical
      framework of Hayes (2013) was adopted for moderated mediation analysis. Results:
      Proximal antecedents partially mediated the relationship between Safety climate
      and safety participation, but not safety compliance. Moreover, the results from
      the moderation analysis showed that the Leader-Member Exchange moderated the
      influence of safety climate on proximal antecedents and the mediation exist only
      at the higher level of LMX. Conclusion: The study shows that the different
      aspects of leadership processes interact in explaining individual proficiency in
      safety practices. Practical Implications: Organizations as warehouses should
      improve the quality of the relationship between a leader and a subordinate based
      upon the dimensions of respect, trust, and obligation for high level of safety
      performance.

PMID- 28553245
TI  - Mastery in Goal Scoring, T-Pattern Detection, and Polar Coordinate Analysis of
      Motor Skills Used by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
AB  - Research in soccer has traditionally given more weight to players' technical and
      tactical skills, but few studies have analyzed the motor skills that underpin
      specific motor actions. The objective of this study was to investigate the style
      of play of the world's top soccer players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi,
      and how they use their motor skills in attacking actions that result in a goal.
      We used and improved the easy-to-use observation instrument (OSMOS-soccer player)
      with 9 criteria, each one expanded to build 50 categories. Associations between
      these categories were investigated by T-pattern detection and polar coordinate
      analysis. T-pattern analysis detects temporal structures of complex behavioral
      sequences composed of simpler or directly distinguishable events within specified
      observation periods (time point series). Polar coordinate analysis involves the
      application of a complex procedure to provide a vector map of interrelated
      behaviors obtained from prospective and retrospective sequential analysis. The T
      patterns showed that for both players the combined criteria were mainly between
      the different aspects of motor skills, namely the use of lower limbs, contact
      with the ball using the outside of the foot, locomotion, body orientation with
      respect to the opponent goal line, and the criteria of technical actions and the
      right midfield. Polar coordinate analysis detected significant associations
      between the same criteria included in the T-patterns as well as the criteria of
      turning the body, numerical equality with no pressure, and relative numerical
      superiority.

PMID- 28553246
TI  - Role of Two Types of Syntactic Embedding in Belief Attribution in Adults with or
      without Asperger Syndrome.
AB  - The role of syntax in belief attribution (BA) is not completely understood in
      healthy adults and understudied in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Embedded
      syntax could be useful either for the development of Theory of Mind (ToM)
      (Emergence account) or more generally over the lifespan (Reasoning account). Two
      hypotheses have been explored, one suggesting that embedding itself (Relatives
      and Complement sentences and Metarepresentation account) is important for ToM and
      another one considering that the embedding of a false proposition into a true one
      (Complement sentences and Misrepresentation account) is important. The goals of
      this study were to evaluate (1) the role of syntax in ToM (Emergence vs.
      Reasoning account), (2) the type of syntax implied in ToM (Metarepresentation vs.
      Misrepresentation account), and (3) the verbally mediated strategies which
      compensate for ToM deficits in adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Fifty
      NeuroTypical (NT) adults and 22 adults with AS were involved in a forced-choice
      task including +/-ToM tasks (BA and a control task, physical causation, PC) under
      four Interference conditions (silence, syllable repetition, relative sentences
      repetition, and complement sentences repetition). The non-significant +/-ToM *
      Interference interaction effect in the NT group did not support the Reasoning
      account and thus suggests that syntax is useful only for ToM development (i.e.,
      Emergence account). Results also indicated that repeating complement clauses put
      NT participants in a dual task whereas repeating relative clauses did not,
      suggesting that repeating relatives is easier for NT than repeating complements.
      This could be an argument in favor of the Misrepresentation account. However,
      this result should be interpreted with caution because our results did not
      support the Reasoning account. Moreover, AS participants (but not NT
      participants) were more disrupted by +/-ToM tasks when asked to repeat complement
      sentences compared to relative clause sentences. This result is in favor of the
      Misrepresentation account and indirectly suggests verbally mediated strategies
      for ToM in AS. To summarize, our results are in favor of the Emergence account in
      NT and of Reasoning and Misrepresentation accounts in adults with AS. Overall,
      this suggests that adults with AS use complement syntax to compensate for ToM
      deficits.

PMID- 28553247
TI  - Education and Decision-Making: An Experimental Study on the Framing Effect in
      China.
AB  - China's higher education expansion policy has been in effect for almost two
      decades. Under this policy, a growing number of youths have gained access to
      higher education, which aims to train students to be more rational. This study
      examines human rationality at a Chinese college through an experiment based on
      the risky-choice framing effect. The basic results show no classical framing
      effect with regard to individual decisions for the entire sample in a benchmark
      setting. However, when the participants' roles were manipulated and subsamples
      were investigated, a significant framing effect was found that appeared to be
      role-related and that varied by sex. These results help to elucidate evaluations
      of the effects of China's higher education policy and may assist in guiding
      further policy reforms.

PMID- 28553248
TI  - Comparing Indirect Effects in Different Groups in Single-Group and Multi-Group
      Structural Equation Models.
AB  - In this article, we evaluated the performance of statistical methods in single
      group and multi-group analysis approaches for testing group difference in
      indirect effects and for testing simple indirect effects in each group. We also
      investigated whether the performance of the methods in the single-group approach
      was affected when the assumption of equal variance was not satisfied. The
      assumption was critical for the performance of the two methods in the single
      group analysis: the method using a product term for testing the group difference
      in a single path coefficient, and the Wald test for testing the group difference
      in the indirect effect. Bootstrap confidence intervals in the single-group
      approach and all methods in the multi-group approach were not affected by the
      violation of the assumption. We compared the performance of the methods and
      provided recommendations.

PMID- 28553249
TI  - Yoga Poses Increase Subjective Energy and State Self-Esteem in Comparison to
      'Power Poses'.
AB  - Research on beneficial consequences of yoga focuses on the effects of yogic
      breathing and meditation. Less is known about the psychological effects of
      performing yoga postures. The present study investigated the effects of yoga
      poses on subjective sense of energy and self-esteem. The effects of yoga postures
      were compared to the effects of 'power poses,' which arguably increase the sense
      of power and self-confidence due to their association with interpersonal
      dominance (Carney et al., 2010). The study tested the novel prediction that yoga
      poses, which are not associated with interpersonal dominance but increase bodily
      energy, would increase the subjective feeling of energy and therefore increase
      self-esteem compared to 'high power' and 'low power' poses. A two factorial,
      between participants design was employed. Participants performed either two
      standing yoga poses with open front of the body (n = 19), two standing yoga poses
      with covered front of the body (n = 22), two expansive, high power poses (n =
      21), or two constrictive, low power poses (n = 20) for 1-min each. The results
      showed that yoga poses in comparison to 'power poses' increased self-esteem. This
      effect was mediated by an increased subjective sense of energy and was observed
      when baseline trait self-esteem was controlled for. These results suggest that
      the effects of performing open, expansive body postures may be driven by
      processes other than the poses' association with interpersonal power and
      dominance. This study demonstrates that positive effects of yoga practice can
      occur after performing yoga poses for only 2 min.

PMID- 28553250
TI  - Yes: The Symptoms of OCD and Depression Are Discrete and Not Exclusively Negative
      Affectivity.
AB  - Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Depression are classified as
      separate disorders, the high incidence of co-morbidity and the strong
      correlations between measures of each has led to debate about the nature of their
      relationship. Some authors have proposed that OCD is in fact a mood disorder
      while others have suggested that the two disorders are grounded in negative
      affectivity. A third proposition is that depression is an essential part of OCD
      but that OCD is a separate disorder from depression. The aim in this study was to
      investigate these diverse propositions in a non-clinical sample and also to
      determine whether factors implicated in each, that is anxious and depressive
      cognitions, hopelessness, and self-criticism, would demonstrate commonality as
      predictors of the symptoms of OCD and of depression. Two hundred participants
      (59% female) (M age = 34 years, SD = 16) completed the Padua Inventory, Carroll
      Rating Scale, Cognitions Checklist, Self-Criticism Scale, Beck Hopelessness
      Scale, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory-Revised and a Negative Affectivity
      Schedule. Results indicated a strong correlation between OCD and depression,
      depression, and negative affectivity but a weaker relationship between OCD and
      negative affectivity. Path analyses revealed that both anxious and depressive
      cognitions, as well as hostility predicted both disorders but the Beta-weights
      were stronger on OCD. Self-criticism predicted only depression while hopelessness
      failed to predict either disorder but was itself predicted by depressive
      cognitions. Depression was a stronger indicator of negative affect than OCD and
      while OCD positively predicted depression, depression was a negative indicator of
      OCD. These results support the hypothesis that OCD and depression are discrete
      disorders and indicate that while depression is implicated in OCD, the reverse
      does not hold. While both disorders are related to negative affectivity, this
      relationship is much stronger for depression thus failing to confirm that both
      are subsumed by a common factor, in this case, negative affectivity. The
      proposition that depression is part of OCD but that OCD is not necessarily
      implicated in depression and is, in fact, a separate disorder, is supported by
      the current model. Further research is required to support the utility of the
      model in clinical samples.

PMID- 28553251
TI  - No Difference in Mood and Quality of Life in DHEA-S Deficient Adults with
      Addison's Disease vs. Type 2 Diabetes Patients with Normal DHEA-S Levels:
      Implications for Management of These Conditions.
AB  - Patients with Addison's disease have relatively high rates of depression and
      anxiety symptoms compared with population-based reference samples. Addison's
      disease results in deficiency of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA-sulfate
      (DHEA-S). There is considerable debate about the specific effects of DHEA
      deficiency on energy level and mood. We measured emotional well-being in 16
      patients with Addison's disease and a group of 16 hospital attendees with type 2
      diabetes. Participants completed the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28),
      the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the World Health Organization's
      quality of life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) and the Holmes-Rahe life event scale.
      DHEA-S was low in Addison's patients (Addison's men: 0.5 +/- 0.1 MUmol/l [normal
      range: 2.1-10.8] compared with diabetes men: 3.2 +/- 1.2 MUmol/l; Addison's
      women: 0.4 +/- 0.01 MUmol/l [normal range: 1.0-11.5] compared with diabetes
      women: 2.2 +/- 0.71 MUmol/l). Testosterone levels were similar in both groups
      studied. There were no differences in emotional well-being and quality of life
      (QOL) between patients with Addison's disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as
      measured by GHQ-28 (Addison's: 22.4 +/- 2.6, Diabetes: 19.6 +/- 2.7), HADS
      Depression (Addison's: 5.4 +/- 0.9, Diabetes: 4.5 +/- 1.4), HADS Anxiety and
      WHOQOL-BREF. There were no gender differences in affective symptomatology within
      the Addison's group. Life event scores were above average in both groups
      (Addison's: 195 +/- 39.6, Diabetes: 131 +/- 43.8), but not significant for
      difference between groups as was GHQ-28 total score. Both groups scored highly on
      the GHQ-28 and the life event scale, indicative of poorer health perceptions than
      the general population. This could be due to the chronicity of both disorders. We
      have not identified any specific effects of DHEA-S deficiency on mood or QOL.

PMID- 28553252
TI  - Validating the Italian Version of the Disgust and Propensity Scale-Revised.
AB  - The aim of this work is to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric
      properties of the Italian version of the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale
      Revised (DPSS-R, 16 items) in two samples taken from the general population. In
      the first study, 285 participants completed the DPSS-R questionnaire through a
      web-based survey. Exploratory factor analysis for ordinal Likert-type data
      supported the existence of four underlying factors, reflecting self-focused
      disgust, disgust propensity, somatic anxiety and disgust sensitivity. In the
      second study, an independent sample of 293 participants was enrolled as a test
      set to validate the factor structure obtained in the exploratory phase. The
      factor solution was confirmed, but showed quite highly correlated latent factors.
      We fitted the model and tested whether or not the bifactor structure was better
      than the previous one (four correlated factors). Actually, we had evidence
      supporting the presence of a general factor, providing a measure of disgust
      susceptibility, along with the four specific factors previously defined. This
      result could be useful also from the clinical perspective since the DPSS-R
      questionnaire will be used in clinical context, where underlying factors may be
      related to different and specific psychopathological profiles. Finally, we
      examined and visualized the interrelationships among the four DPSS-R factors and
      the external scales (Anxiety Sensitivity, Disgust Scale and Padua) using a
      graphical model approach.

PMID- 28553253
TI  - Resting-State fMRI Associated with Stop-Signal Task Performance in Healthy Middle
      Aged and Elderly People.
AB  - Several brain regions and connectivity networks may be altered as aging occurs.
      We are interested in investigating if resting-state functional magnetic resonance
      imaging (RS-fMRI) can also be valid as an indicator of individual differences in
      association with inhibition performance among aged (including middle-aged)
      people. Seventy-two healthy adults (40-77 years of age) were recruited. Their RS
      fMRI images were acquired and analyzed via two cluster-analysis methods: local
      synchronization of spontaneous brain activity measured by regional homogeneity
      (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) of blood
      oxygenation level-dependent signals. After the RS-fMRI acquisition, participants
      were instructed to perform a stop-signal task, in which the stop signal reaction
      time (SSRT) was calculated based on the horse-race model. Among participants, the
      ReHo/fALFF and SSRT were correlated with and without partialling-out the effect
      of age. The results of this study showed that, although aging may alter brain
      networks, the spontaneous activity of the age-related brain networks can still
      serve as an effective indicator of individual differences in association with
      inhibitory performance in healthy middle-aged and elderly people. This is the
      first study to use both ReHo and fALFF on the same dataset for conjunction
      analyses showing the relationship between stopping performance and RS-fMRI in the
      elderly population. The relationship may have practical clinical applications.
      Based on the overall results, the current study demonstrated that the bilateral
      inferior frontal gyrus and parts of the default mode network activation were
      negatively correlated with SSRT, suggesting that they have crucial roles in
      inhibitory function. However, the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and SMA
      played only a small role during the resting state in association with stopping
      performance.

PMID- 28553254
TI  - A First Step toward the Understanding of Implicit Learning of Hazard Anticipation
      in Inexperienced Road Users Through a Moped-Riding Simulator.
AB  - Hazard perception is considered one of the most important abilities in road
      safety. Several efforts have been devoted to investigating how it improves with
      experience and can be trained. Recently, research has focused on the implicit
      aspects of hazard detection, reaction, and anticipation. In the present study, we
      attempted to understand how the ability to anticipate hazards develops during
      training with a moped-riding simulator: the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT). Several
      studies have already validated the HRT as a tool to enhance adolescents' hazard
      perception and riding abilities. In the present study, as an index of hazard
      anticipation, we used skin conductance response (SCR), which has been
      demonstrated to be linked to affective/implicit appraisal of risk. We
      administered to a group of inexperienced road users five road courses two times a
      week apart. In each course, participants had to deal with eight hazard scenes
      (except one course that included only seven hazard scenes). Participants had to
      ride along the HRT courses, facing the potentially hazardous situations,
      following traffic rules, and trying to avoid accidents. During the task, we
      measured SCR and monitored driving performance. The main results show that
      learning to ride the simulator leads to both a reduction in the number of
      accidents and anticipation of the somatic response related to hazard detection,
      as proven by the reduction of SCR onset recorded in the second session. The
      finding that the SCR signaling the impending hazard appears earlier when the
      already encountered hazard situations are faced anew suggests that training with
      the simulator acts on the somatic activation associated with the experience of
      risky situations, improving its effectiveness in detecting hazards in advance so
      as to avoid accidents. This represents the starting point for future
      investigations into the process of generalization of learning acquired in new
      virtual situations and in real-road situations.

PMID- 28553255
TI  - Development of the Korean Facial Emotion Stimuli: Korea University Facial
      Expression Collection 2nd Edition.
AB  - Background: Developing valid emotional facial stimuli for specific ethnicities
      creates ample opportunities to investigate both the nature of emotional facial
      information processing in general and clinical populations as well as the
      underlying mechanisms of facial emotion processing within and across cultures.
      Given that most entries in emotional facial stimuli databases were developed with
      western samples, and given that very few of the eastern emotional facial stimuli
      sets were based strictly on the Ekman's Facial Action Coding System, developing
      valid emotional facial stimuli of eastern samples remains a high priority. Aims:
      To develop and examine the psychometric properties of six basic emotional facial
      stimuli recruiting professional Korean actors and actresses based on the Ekman's
      Facial Action Coding System for the Korea University Facial Expression Collection
      Second Edition (KUFEC-II). Materials And Methods: Stimulus selection was done in
      two phases. First, researchers evaluated the clarity and intensity of each
      stimulus developed based on the Facial Action Coding System. Second, researchers
      selected a total of 399 stimuli from a total of 57 actors and actresses, which
      were then rated on accuracy, intensity, valence, and arousal by 75 independent
      raters. Conclusion: The hit rates between the targeted and rated expressions of
      the KUFEC-II were all above 80%, except for fear (50%) and disgust (63%). The
      KUFEC-II appears to be a valid emotional facial stimuli database, providing the
      largest set of emotional facial stimuli. The mean intensity score was 5.63 (out
      of 7), suggesting that the stimuli delivered the targeted emotions with great
      intensity. All positive expressions were rated as having a high positive valence,
      whereas all negative expressions were rated as having a high negative valence.
      The KUFEC II is expected to be widely used in various psychological studies on
      emotional facial expression. KUFEC-II stimuli can be obtained through contacting
      the corresponding authors.

PMID- 28553256
TI  - The Mediating Roles of Upward Social Comparison and Self-esteem and the
      Moderating Role of Social Comparison Orientation in the Association between
      Social Networking Site Usage and Subjective Well-Being.
AB  - The increased pervasiveness of social media use has raised questions about
      potential effects on users' subjective well-being, with studies reaching
      contrasting conclusions. To reconcile these discrepancies and shed new light on
      this phenomenon, the current study examined: (1) whether upward social comparison
      and self-esteem mediate the association between social networking site (SNS)
      usage and users' subjective well-being, and (2) whether the association between
      SNS usage and upward social comparison is moderated by users' social comparison
      orientation. Data from 696 participants were collected. Structural equation
      modeling revealed that upward social comparison and self-esteem mediated the
      relationship between SNS usage and users' subjective well-being. We found that
      social comparison orientation moderated the association between passive SNS usage
      and users' upward social comparison. Specifically, social comparison orientation
      strengthened the association between passive SNS usage and upward social
      comparison. The results might suggest a process through which passive SNS usage
      is related to subjective well-being, and identify a context under which these
      associations may differ.

PMID- 28553257
TI  - An Overview of Interrater Agreement on Likert Scales for Researchers and
      Practitioners.
AB  - Applications of interrater agreement (IRA) statistics for Likert scales are
      plentiful in research and practice. IRA may be implicated in job analysis,
      performance appraisal, panel interviews, and any other approach to gathering
      systematic observations. Any rating system involving subject-matter experts can
      also benefit from IRA as a measure of consensus. Further, IRA is fundamental to
      aggregation in multilevel research, which is becoming increasingly common in
      order to address nesting. Although, several technical descriptions of a few
      specific IRA statistics exist, this paper aims to provide a tractable orientation
      to common IRA indices to support application. The introductory overview is
      written with the intent of facilitating contrasts among IRA statistics by
      critically reviewing equations, interpretations, strengths, and weaknesses.
      Statistics considered include rwg, [Formula: see text], r'wg, rwg(p), average
      deviation (AD), awg, standard deviation (Swg), and the coefficient of variation
      (CVwg). Equations support quick calculation and contrasting of different
      agreement indices. The article also includes a "quick reference" table and three
      figures in order to help readers identify how IRA statistics differ and how
      interpretations of IRA will depend strongly on the statistic employed. A brief
      consideration of recommended practices involving statistical and practical cutoff
      standards is presented, and conclusions are offered in light of the current
      literature.

PMID- 28553258
TI  - An Overview of Monthly Rhythms and Clocks.
AB  - Organisms have evolved to cope with geophysical cycles of different period
      lengths. In this review, we focus on the adaptations of animals to the lunar
      cycle, specifically, on the occurrence of biological rhythms with monthly
      (circalunar) or semi-monthly (circasemilunar) period lengths. Systematic
      experimental investigation, starting in the early twentieth century, has allowed
      scientists to distinguish between mythological belief and scientific facts
      concerning the influence of the lunar cycle on animals. These studies revealed
      that marine animals of various taxa exhibit circalunar or circasemilunar
      reproductive rhythms. Some of these rely on endogenous oscillators (circalunar or
      circasemilunar clocks), whereas others are directly driven by external cues, such
      as the changes in nocturnal illuminance. We review current insight in the
      molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in circalunar rhythms, focusing on
      recent work in corals, annelid worms, midges, and fishes. In several of these
      model systems, the transcript levels of some core circadian clock genes are
      affected by both light and endogenous circalunar oscillations. How these and
      other molecular changes relate to the changes in physiology or behavior over the
      lunar cycle remains to be determined. We further review the possible relevance of
      circalunar rhythms for terrestrial species, with a particular focus on mammalian
      reproduction. Studies on circalunar rhythms of conception or birth rates extend
      to humans, where the lunar cycle was suggested to also affect sleep and mental
      health. While these reports remain controversial, factors like the increase in
      "light pollution" by artificial light might contribute to discrepancies between
      studies. We finally discuss the existence of circalunar oscillations in mammalian
      physiology. We speculate that these oscillations could be the remnant of ancient
      circalunar oscillators that were secondarily uncoupled from a natural entrainment
      mechanism, but still maintained relevance for structuring the timing of
      reproduction or physiology. The analysis and comparison of circalunar rhythms and
      clocks are currently challenging due to the heterogeneity of samples concerning
      species diversity, environmental conditions, and chronobiological conditions. We
      suggest that future research will benefit from the development of standardized
      experimental paradigms, and common principles for recording and reporting
      environmental conditions, especially light spectra and intensities.

PMID- 28553259
TI  - A Retrospective Study of Progression-Free and Overall Survival in Pediatric
      Medulloblastoma Based on Molecular Subgroup Classification: A Single-Institution
      Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma (MB) has been classified into four core subgroups
      according to the transcriptional profile in recent years. However, some
      disagreement among researchers remains regarding the prognoses and most effective
      treatments of the different subgroups with different age distributions.
      OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze MB prognosis in children
      population based on the classification of four molecular subgroups. METHODS: From
      January 2011 to January 2013, 84 consecutive MB patients aged underwent tumor
      removal at Beijing Tiantan Hospital. A total of 55 patients who ranged in age
      from 4 to 18 years underwent detailed follow-up. Molecular subgrouping was
      performed using RT-PCR. RESULTS: The 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) and
      overall survival (OS) rates for the entire cohort were 76.2 +/- 5.8 and 81.8 +/-
      5.2%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that the Group 4 patients had a
      better survival (2-year OS, 90.6 +/- 5.2%) than the SHH subgroup (P = 0.002) and
      Group 3 patients (P = 0.008). Only two of the 23 non-metastasized Group 4
      patients relapsed, and chemotherapy did significantly affect these patients (PFS,
      P = 0.685). One out of five WNT patients had tumor relapse and died at last.
      Large cell/anaplastic (LC/A) histology and chemotherapy were independent risk
      factors in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: In our study, the non-metastasized
      Group 4 patients had an excellent prognosis. The SHH subgroup and Group 3
      patients had worst prognoses. LC/A histology had a dismal prognosis in our
      cohorts, which warrants intensive treatment.

PMID- 28553260
TI  - Vale Colin Ward-A Leader in Receptor Structural Biology.

PMID- 28553261
TI  - Editorial: Perspectives for the Next Generation of Virus Research: Spearheading
      the Use of Innovative Technologies and Methodologies.

PMID- 28553262
TI  - Differing Complex Microbiota Alter Disease Severity of the IL-10-/- Mouse Model
      of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - It is estimated that 1.4 million people in the United States suffer from
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), with an overall annual health care cost of more
      than $1.7 billion. Although the exact etiology of this disease remains unknown,
      research suggests that it is a multifactorial disease associated with aberrant
      gastrointestinal microbial populations (dysbiosis). The C57BL/6 and C3H/HeJBir
      mouse strains with targeted mutations in the IL-10 gene are commonly used models
      to study IBD. However, anecdotally, disease phenotype can vary in severity from
      lab to lab. Moreover, studies using germfree and monocolonized mice have
      suggested that gut microbiota (GM) are critical to disease induction in these
      models. With recent studies suggesting variation in naturally occurring GM
      composition and complexity among mouse producers, we hypothesized that
      differences in these naturally occurring complex GM profiles may modulate disease
      severity in the IL-10-/- mouse model. To test this hypothesis, we use a technique
      referred to as complex microbiota targeted rederivation (CMTR) to transfer
      genetically identical C57BL/6 IL-10-/- and C3H/HeJBir IL-10-/- embryos into
      surrogate CD-1 or C57BL/6 dams from different commercial producers with varying
      microbiota complexity and composition. We found that disease severity
      significantly and reproducibly differed among mice in both IL-10-/- strains,
      dependent on differing maternally inherited GM. Furthermore, disease severity was
      associated with alterations in relative abundance of several physiologically
      relevant bacterial species. These findings suggest that the composition of the
      resident GM is a primary determinant of disease severity in IBD and provide proof
      of-concept that CMTR can be used to investigate the contribution of contemporary
      complex GM on disease phenotype and reproducibility.

PMID- 28553263
TI  - Spatial Structure of the Mormon Cricket Gut Microbiome and its Predicted
      Contribution to Nutrition and Immune Function.
AB  - The gut microbiome of insects plays an important role in their ecology and
      evolution, participating in nutrient acquisition, immunity, and behavior.
      Microbial community structure within the gut is heavily influenced by differences
      among gut regions in morphology and physiology, which determine the niches
      available for microbes to colonize. We present a high-resolution analysis of the
      structure of the gut microbiome in the Mormon cricket Anabrus simplex, an insect
      known for its periodic outbreaks in the western United States and nutrition
      dependent mating system. The Mormon cricket microbiome was dominated by 11 taxa
      from the Lactobacillaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, and Streptococcaceae. While most
      of these were represented in all gut regions, there were marked differences in
      their relative abundance, with lactic-acid bacteria (Lactobacillaceae) more
      common in the foregut and midgut and enteric (Enterobacteriaceae) bacteria more
      common in the hindgut. Differences in community structure were driven by
      variation in the relative prevalence of three groups: a Lactobacillus in the
      foregut, Pediococcus lactic-acid bacteria in the midgut, and Pantoea agglomerans,
      an enteric bacterium, in the hindgut. These taxa have been shown to have
      beneficial effects on their hosts in insects and other animals by improving
      nutrition, increasing resistance to pathogens, and modulating social behavior.
      Using PICRUSt to predict gene content from our 16S rRNA sequences, we found
      enzymes that participate in carbohydrate metabolism and pathogen defense in other
      orthopterans. These were predominately represented in the hindgut and midgut, the
      most important sites for nutrition and pathogen defense. Phylogenetic analysis of
      16S rRNA sequences from cultured isolates indicated low levels of divergence from
      sequences derived from plants and other insects, suggesting that these bacteria
      are likely to be exchanged between Mormon crickets and the environment. Our study
      shows strong spatial variation in microbiome community structure, which
      influences predicted gene content and thus the potential of the microbiome to
      influence host function.

PMID- 28553265
TI  - Adaptive Laboratory Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance Using Different Selection
      Regimes Lead to Similar Phenotypes and Genotypes.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance is a global threat to human health, wherefore it is crucial
      to study the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance as well as its emergence and
      dissemination. One way to analyze the acquisition of de novo mutations conferring
      antibiotic resistance is adaptive laboratory evolution. However, various
      evolution methods exist that utilize different population sizes, selection
      strengths, and bottlenecks. While evolution in increasing drug gradients
      guarantees high-level antibiotic resistance promising to identify the most potent
      resistance conferring mutations, other selection regimes are simpler to implement
      and therefore allow higher throughput. The specific regimen of adaptive evolution
      may have a profound impact on the adapted cell state. Indeed, substantial effects
      of the selection regime on the resulting geno- and phenotypes have been reported
      in the literature. In this study we compare the geno- and phenotypes of
      Escherichia coli after evolution to Amikacin, Piperacillin, and Tetracycline
      under four different selection regimes. Interestingly, key mutations that confer
      antibiotic resistance as well as phenotypic changes like collateral sensitivity
      and cross-resistance emerge independently of the selection regime. Yet, lineages
      that underwent evolution under mild selection displayed a growth advantage
      independently of the acquired level of antibiotic resistance compared to lineages
      adapted under maximal selection in a drug gradient. Our data suggests that even
      though different selection regimens result in subtle genotypic and phenotypic
      differences key adaptations appear independently of the selection regime.

PMID- 28553266
TI  - The Grapevine and Wine Microbiome: Insights from High-Throughput Amplicon
      Sequencing.
AB  - From the time when microbial activity in wine fermentation was first
      demonstrated, the microbial ecology of the vineyard, grape, and wine has been
      extensively investigated using culture-based methods. However, the last 2 decades
      have been characterized by an important change in the approaches used for
      microbial examination, due to the introduction of DNA-based community
      fingerprinting methods such as DGGE, SSCP, T-RFLP, and ARISA. These approaches
      allowed for the exploration of microbial community structures without the need to
      cultivate, and have been extensively applied to decipher the microbial
      populations associated with the grapevine as well as the microbial dynamics
      throughout grape berry ripening and wine fermentation. These techniques are well
      established for the rapid more sensitive profiling of microbial communities;
      however, they often do not provide direct taxonomic information and possess
      limited ability to detect the presence of rare taxa and taxa with low abundance.
      Consequently, the past 5 years have seen an upsurge in the application of high
      throughput sequencing methods for the in-depth assessment of the grapevine and
      wine microbiome. Although a relatively new approach in wine sciences, these
      methods reveal a considerably greater diversity than previously reported, and
      identified several species that had not yet been reported. The aim of the current
      review is to highlight the contribution of high-throughput next generation
      sequencing and metagenomics approaches to vineyard microbial ecology especially
      unraveling the influence of vineyard management practices on microbial diversity.

PMID- 28553267
TI  - Effect of Feed Additives on Productivity and Campylobacter spp. Loads in Broilers
      Reared under Free Range Conditions.
AB  - The poultry reservoir, especially broiler meat, is generally recognized as one of
      the most-important sources for human Campylobacteriosis. The measures to control
      Campylobacter targeted essentially the primary production level. The aim of this
      work was to evaluate the effectiveness of different treatments against natural
      Campylobacter colonization in a French experimental farm of free-range broilers
      during the whole rearing period. Five commercial products and a combination of
      two of them were tested and all the products were added to feed or to water at
      the dose recommended by the suppliers. Campylobacter loads in caeca and on
      carcasses of broilers at the slaughter were determined by culture methods.
      Natural contamination of the flock occurred at the end of the indoor rearing
      period between day 35 and day 42. At day 42, the multispecies probiotic added to
      the feed reduced the contamination of 0.55 log10 CFU/g (p = 0.02) but was not
      significant (p > 0.05) at the end of rearing at day 78. However, another
      treatment, a combination of a cation exchange clay-based product in feed and an
      organic acid mixture (formic acid, sodium formate, lactic acid, propionic acid)
      in water, led to a slight but significant reduction of 0.82 +/- 0.25 log10 CFU/g
      (p = 0.02) compared to the control group at day 78. Testing this combination in
      field conditions in several flocks is needed to determine if it is biologically
      relevant and if it could be a valuable measure to reduce Campylobacter in broiler
      flocks.

PMID- 28553264
TI  - The Hologenome Across Environments and the Implications of a Host-Associated
      Microbial Repertoire.
AB  - Our understanding of the diverse interactions between hosts and microbes has
      grown profoundly over the past two decades and, as a product, has revolutionized
      our knowledge of the life sciences. Through primarily laboratory experiments, the
      current framework for holobionts and their respective hologenomes aims to
      decipher the underpinnings and implications of symbioses between host and
      microbiome. However, the laboratory setting restricts the full spectrum of host
      associated symbionts as compared to those found in nature; thus, limiting the
      potential for a holistic interpretation of the functional roles the microbiome
      plays in host biology. When holobionts are studied in nature, associated
      microbial communities vary considerably between conditions, resulting in more
      microbial associates as part of the "hologenome" across environments than in
      either environment alone. We review and synthesize empirical evidence suggesting
      that hosts may associate with a larger microbial network that, in part,
      corresponds to experiencing diverse environmental conditions. To conceptualize
      the interactions between host and microbiome in an ecological context, we suggest
      the "host-associated microbial repertoire," which is the sum of microbial species
      a host may associate with over the course of its life-history under all
      encountered environmental circumstances. Furthermore, using examples from both
      terrestrial and marine ecosystems, we discuss how this concept may be used as a
      framework to compare the ability of the holobiont to acclimate and adapt to
      environmental variation, and propose three "signatures" of the concept.

PMID- 28553269
TI  - Editorial: Petroleum Microbial Biotechnology: Challenges and Prospects.

PMID- 28553271
TI  - Molecular Epidemiology and Antibiotic Resistance Profiles of Methicillin
      Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains in a Tertiary Hospital in China.
AB  - Analysis of the genotypic characteristics and antimicrobial susceptibility
      patterns of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is essential for
      the control and treatment of diseases caused by this important pathogen. In this
      study, MRSA isolates obtained from a tertiary caret hospital in China were
      subjected to spa typing, SCCmec typing, multiple locus sequence typing (MLST),
      and PCR targeting of the genes encoding Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). The
      disk diffusion method was used to test the antimicrobial susceptibility of the
      isolates to 10 non-beta-lactam antibiotics. Among the 120 MRSA isolates studied,
      18 spa types and 15 ST types were identified. The spa t311 type was the most
      common (a total of 60 isolates; 50%) among the study strains, and nearly all the
      t311 strains belonged to ST5, which is the most common ST type that was
      previously reported from China among the t002 isolates. ST5-II/t311 was the major
      prevalent clone (55, 45.8%), which was followed by ST5-II/t002 (12, 10.0%) and
      ST59-IV/t437 (11, 9.2%). PVL-encoding genes were found in 6.7% of the isolates.
      Although the ST5-II/t311 and ST5-II/t002 clones are different spa types, they
      shared the same resistance profile (clindamycin, erythromycin, and
      ciprofloxacin). Most isolates of the ST239-III/t037 clone were resistant to
      clindamycin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, tetracycline, and
      trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. By contrast, the MRSA isolates of the ST239
      III/t030 clone were more resistant to rifampin, but they were susceptible to
      trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Our data emphasize the need for ongoing
      epidemiologic surveillance.

PMID- 28553270
TI  - Time-Resolved Transcriptomics and Constraint-Based Modeling Identify System-Level
      Metabolic Features and Overexpression Targets to Increase Spiramycin Production
      in Streptomyces ambofaciens.
AB  - In this study we have applied an integrated system biology approach to
      characterize the metabolic landscape of Streptomyces ambofaciens and to identify
      a list of potential metabolic engineering targets for the overproduction of the
      secondary metabolites in this microorganism. We focused on an often overlooked
      growth period (i.e., post-first rapid growth phase) and, by integrating
      constraint-based metabolic modeling with time resolved RNA-seq data, we depicted
      the main effects of changes in gene expression on the overall metabolic
      reprogramming occurring in S. ambofaciens. Moreover, through metabolic modeling,
      we unraveled a set of candidate overexpression gene targets hypothetically
      leading to spiramycin overproduction. Model predictions were experimentally
      validated by genetic manipulation of the recently described ethylmalonyl-CoA
      metabolic node, providing evidence that spiramycin productivity may be increased
      by enhancing the carbon flow through this pathway. The goal was achieved by over
      expressing the ccr paralog srm4 in an ad hoc engineered plasmid. This work embeds
      the first metabolic reconstruction of S. ambofaciens and the successful
      experimental validation of model predictions and demonstrates the validity and
      the importance of in silico modeling tools for the overproduction of molecules
      with a biotechnological interest. Finally, the proposed metabolic reconstruction,
      which includes manually refined pathways for several secondary metabolites with
      antimicrobial activity, represents a solid platform for the future exploitation
      of S. ambofaciens biotechnological potential.

PMID- 28553268
TI  - Global Gene-expression Analysis of the Response of Salmonella Enteritidis to Egg
      White Exposure Reveals Multiple Egg White-imposed Stress Responses.
AB  - Chicken egg white protects the embryo from bacterial invaders by presenting an
      assortment of antagonistic activities that combine together to both kill and
      inhibit growth. The key features of the egg white anti-bacterial system are iron
      restriction, high pH, antibacterial peptides and proteins, and viscosity.
      Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis is the major pathogen responsible for egg
      borne infection in humans, which is partly explained by its exceptional capacity
      for survival under the harsh conditions encountered within egg white. However, at
      temperatures up to 42 degrees C, egg white exerts a much stronger bactericidal
      effect on S. Enteritidis than at lower temperatures, although the mechanism of
      egg white-induced killing is only partly understood. Here, for the first time,
      the impact of exposure of S. Enteritidis to egg white under bactericidal
      conditions (45 degrees C) is explored by global-expression analysis. A large
      scale (18.7% of genome) shift in transcription is revealed suggesting major
      changes in specific aspects of S. Enteritidis physiology: induction of egg white
      related stress-responses (envelope damage, exposure to heat and alkalinity, and
      translation shutdown); shift in energy metabolism from respiration to
      fermentation; and enhanced micronutrient provision (due to iron and biotin
      restriction). Little evidence of DNA damage or redox stress was obtained.
      Instead, data are consistent with envelope damage resulting in cell death by
      lysis. A surprise was the high degree of induction of hexonate/hexuronate
      utilization genes, despite no evidence indicating the presence of these
      substrates in egg white.

PMID- 28553272
TI  - RpoN Promotes Pseudomonas aeruginosa Survival in the Presence of Tobramycin.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa has developed diverse strategies to respond and adapt to
      antibiotic stress. Among the factors that modulate survival in the presence of
      antibiotics, alternative sigma factors play an important role. Here, we
      demonstrate that the alternative sigma factor RpoN (sigma54) promotes survival in
      the presence of tobramycin. The tobramycin-sensitive phenotype of logarithmic
      phase DeltarpoN mutant cells is suppressed by the loss of the alternative sigma
      factor RpoS. Transcriptional analysis indicated that RpoN positively regulates
      the expression of RsmA, an RNA-binding protein, in the P. aeruginosa stationary
      growth phase in a nutrient-rich medium. The loss of RpoS led to the upregulation
      of gacA expression in the nutrient-limited medium-grown stationary phase cells.
      Conversely, in the logarithmic growth phase, the DeltarpoS mutant demonstrated
      lower expression of gacA, underscoring a regulatory role of RpoS for GacA.
      Supplementation of tobramycin to stationary phase DeltarpoN mutant cells grown in
      nutrient-rich medium resulted in decreased expression of gacA, relA, and rpoS
      without altering the expression of rsmA relative to wild-type PAO1. The observed
      downregulation of gacA and relA in the DeltarpoN mutant in the presence of
      tobramycin could be reversed through the mutation of rpoS in the DeltarpoN mutant
      background. The tobramycin-tolerant phenotype of the DeltarpoNDeltarpoS mutant
      logarithmic phase cells may be associated with the expression of relA, which
      remained unresponsive upon addition of tobramycin. The logarithmic phase
      DeltarpoS and DeltarpoNDeltarpoS mutant cells demonstrated increased expression
      of gacA in response to tobramycin. Together, these results suggest that a complex
      regulatory interaction between RpoN, RpoS, the Gac/Rsm pathway, and RelA
      modulates the P. aeruginosa response to tobramycin.

PMID- 28553273
TI  - Direct Binding of the pH-Regulated Protein 1 (Pra1) from Candida albicans
      Inhibits Cytokine Secretion by Mouse CD4+ T Cells.
AB  - Opportunistic infections with the saprophytic yeast Candida albicans are a major
      cause of morbidity in immunocompromised patients. While the interaction of cells
      and molecules of innate immunity with C. albicans has been studied to great
      depth, comparatively little is known about the modulation of adaptive immunity by
      C. albicans. In particular, direct interaction of proteins secreted by C.
      albicans with CD4+ T cells has not been studied in detail. In a first screening
      approach, we identified the pH-regulated antigen 1 (Pra1) as a molecule capable
      of directly binding to mouse CD4+ T cells in vitro. Binding of Pra1 to the T cell
      surface was enhanced by extracellular Zn2+ ions which Pra1 is known to scavenge
      from the host in order to supply the fungus with Zn2+. In vitro stimulation
      assays using highly purified mouse CD4+ T cells showed that Pra1 increased
      proliferation of CD4+ T cells in the presence of plate-bound anti-CD3 monoclonal
      antibody. In contrast, secretion of effector cytokines such as IFNgamma and TNF
      by CD4+ T cells upon anti-CD3/ anti-CD28 mAb as well as cognate antigen
      stimulation was reduced in the presence of Pra1. By secreting Pra1 C. albicans,
      thus, directly modulates and partially controls CD4+ T cell responses as shown in
      our in vitro assays.

PMID- 28553275
TI  - Host Immune Selection of Rumen Bacteria through Salivary Secretory IgA.
AB  - The rumen microbiome is integral to efficient production in cattle and shows
      strong host specificity, yet little is known about what host factors shape rumen
      microbial composition. Secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) is produced in large
      amounts in the saliva, can coat both commensal and pathogenic microbes within the
      gut, and presents a plausible mechanism of host specificity. However, the role
      salivary SIgA plays in commensal bacteria selection in ruminants remains elusive.
      The main objectives of this study were to develop an immuno-affinity benchtop
      method to isolate SIgA-tagged microbiota and to determine if salivary SIgA
      preferentially binds selected bacteria. We hypothesized that SIgA-tagged bacteria
      would differ from total bacteria, thus supporting a potential host-derived
      mechanism in commensal bacterial selection. Whole rumen (n = 9) and oral
      secretion samples (n = 10) were incubated with magnetic beads conjugated with
      anti-secretory IgA antibodies to enrich SIgA-tagged microbiota. Microbial DNA
      from the oral secretion, whole rumen, SIgA-tagged oral secretion, and SIgA-tagged
      rumen was isolated for amplicon sequencing of V1-V3 region of 16S rDNA genes.
      Whole rumen and oral secretion had distinctive (P < 0.05) bacterial compositions
      indicated by the non-parametric multidimensional scaling plot using Euclidean
      distance metrics. The SIgA-tagged microbiota from rumen and oral secretion had
      similar abundance of Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Fibrobacter, candidate phyla
      TM7, and Tenericutes and are clustered tightly. Composition of SIgA-tagged oral
      secretion microbiota was more similar to whole rumen microbiota than whole oral
      secretion due to enrichment of rumen bacteria (Lachnospiraceae) and depletion of
      oral taxa (Streptococcus, Rothia, Neisseriaceae, and Lactobacillales). In
      conclusion, SIgA-tagged oral secretion microbiota had an increased resemblance to
      whole rumen microbiota, suggesting salivary SIgA-coating may be one host-derived
      mechanism impacting commensal colonization. Further studies, to explore the
      variations in antibody affinity between different animals as a driver of
      microbial composition are warranted.

PMID- 28553274
TI  - Association between Yogurt Consumption and Intestinal Microbiota in Healthy Young
      Adults Differs by Host Gender.
AB  - Human intestinal microbiota are influenced by various factors viz. diet,
      environment, age, gender, geographical, and socioeconomic situation, etc. among
      which diet has the most profound impact. However, studies investigating this
      impact have mostly included subjects from diverse geographic/socioeconomic
      backgrounds and hence the precise effects of dietary factors on gut microbiota
      composition remain largely confounded. Herein, with an aim to evaluate the
      association between dietary habits, specifically yogurt consumption, and the gut
      microbiota in healthy young adults sharing similar age, lifestyle routine,
      geographical setting, etc., we conducted a cross-sectional study wherein 293
      collegiate freshmen answered a questionnaire about their frequency of yogurt
      consumption over the last 2 months and provided stool specimens for microbiota
      analysis. Fecal microbiota were analyzed by highly sensitive reverse
      transcription-quantitative-PCR assays targeting bacterial 16S rRNA molecules.
      Fecal organic acids were measured by HPLC. Overall, the gut microbiota were
      predominated (97.1 +/- 8.6%) by Clostridium coccoides group, Clostridium leptum
      subgroup, Bacteroides fragilis group, Bifidobacterium and Atopobium cluster.
      Interestingly, after adjusting the data for yogurt consumption, females were
      found to have higher total bacterial (P = 0.013) and Bifidobacterium (P = 0.046)
      count and fecal pH (P = 0.007) and lower fecal concentration of total organic
      acids (P = 0.030), succinic acid (P = 0.007) and formic acid (P = 0.046) as
      compared to males. Altogether, yogurt consumption showed positive linear
      association with Lactobacillus and Lactobacillus gasseri subgroup in both male
      and female subjects; however, several gender-specific disparities were also
      detected in this yogurt-microbiota association. Yogurt consumption demonstrated a
      negative association with L. sakei subgroup, Enterobacteriaceae and
      Staphylococcus in males but shared a positive association with L. casei subgroup
      and succinic acid in female subjects. The study manifests the association between
      yogurt consumption and gut microbiota in a healthy homogeneous cohort and show
      how this association can differ by host gender. The findings should be helpful
      for prospective studies investigating the diet-microbiome interaction in human
      health and disease.

PMID- 28553276
TI  - Tobamovirus 3'-Terminal Gene Overlap May be a Mechanism for within-Host Fitness
      Improvement.
AB  - Overlapping genes (OGs) are a universal phenomenon in all kingdoms, and viruses
      display a high content of OGs combined with a high rate of evolution. It is
      believed that the mechanism of gene overlap is based on overprinting of an
      existing gene. OGs help virus genes compress a maximum amount of information into
      short sequences, conferring viral proteins with novel features and thereby
      increasing their within-host fitness. Analysis of tobamovirus 3'-terminal genes
      reveals at least two modes of OG organization and mechanisms of interaction with
      the host. Originally isolated from Solanaceae species, viruses (referred to as
      Solanaceae-infecting) such as tobacco mosaic virus do not show 3'-terminal
      overlap between movement protein (MP) and coat protein (CP) genes but do contain
      open reading frame 6 (ORF6), which overlaps with both genes. Conversely,
      tobamoviruses, originally isolated from Brassicaceae species (referred to as
      Brassicaceae-infecting) and also able to infect Solanaceae plants, have no ORF6
      but are characterized by overlapping MP and CP genes. Our analysis showed that
      the MP/CP overlap of Brassicaceae-infecting tobamoviruses results in the
      following: (i) genome compression and strengthening of subgenomic promoters; (ii)
      CP gene early expression directly from genomic and dicistronic MP subgenomic mRNA
      using an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and a stable hairpin structure in
      the overlapping region; (iii) loss of ORF6, which influences the symptomatology
      of Solanaceae-infecting tobamoviruses; and (iv) acquisition of an IRES polypurine
      rich region encoding an MP nuclear localization signal. We believe that MP/CP
      gene overlap may constitute a mechanism for host range expansion and virus
      adjustment to Brassicaceae plants.

PMID- 28553277
TI  - Structural Analysis of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Non
      structural Protein 7alpha (NSP7alpha) and Identification of Its Interaction with
      NSP9.
AB  - Non-structural protein 7 (NSP7), which can be further cleaved into NSP7alpha and
      NSP7beta, is one of the most conserved proteins of porcine reproductive and
      respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). NSP7 plays a role in provoking the humoral
      immune system in PRRSV-infected swine, but its structure and function are still
      not fully understood. Here, we analyzed the expression of NSP7, NSP7alpha, and
      NSP7beta in PRRSV-infected MARC-145 cells. The solution structure of NSP7alpha
      was determined by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Although the structure
      provided little clue to its function, based on the structure of NSP7alpha, we
      predicted and further identified some key amino acids on NSP7alpha for the
      interaction of NSP7alpha with NSP9, the RNA dependent RNA polymerase of PRRSV.
      This study provided some new insights into the structure and function of PRRSV
      NSP7.

PMID- 28553278
TI  - A Thiazole Orange Derivative Targeting the Bacterial Protein FtsZ Shows Potent
      Antibacterial Activity.
AB  - The prevalence of multidrug resistance among clinically significant bacteria
      calls for the urgent development of new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of
      action. In this study, a new small molecule exhibiting excellent inhibition of
      bacterial cell division with potent antibacterial activity was discovered through
      cell-based screening. The compound exhibits a broad spectrum of bactericidal
      activity, including the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin
      resistant Enterococcus and NDM-1 Escherichia coli. The in vitro and in vivo
      results suggested that this compound disrupts the dynamic assembly of FtsZ
      protein and Z-ring formation through stimulating FtsZ polymerization. Moreover,
      this compound exhibits no activity on mammalian tubulin polymerization and shows
      low cytotoxicity on mammalian cells. Taken together, these findings could provide
      a new chemotype for development of antibacterials with FtsZ as the target.

PMID- 28553279
TI  - Vaccination of Mice with Virulence-Associated Protein G (VapG) Antigen Confers
      Partial Protection against Rhodococcus equi Infection through Induced Humoral
      Immunity.
AB  - Rhodococcus equi is a facultative intracellular bacterium causing severe
      pyogranulomatous pneumonia, ulcerative enterocolitis, and mesenteric
      lymphadenopathy in foals aged less than 6 months. Less frequently, this pathogen
      affects various other species, such as pigs, cattle, cats, and even humans.
      Although rhodococcosis is treated with a combination of antimicrobial agents,
      resistance is developed in some cases, and thus, antimicrobial susceptibility
      must be monitored and managed. Considering these limitations of the current
      therapy and unavailability of a vaccine to prevent the disease, research is
      particularly focused on the development of an effective vaccine against
      rhodococcosis. Most vaccines undergoing development utilize the virulence
      associated protein (Vap) A antigen, which was identified previously as a key
      virulence factor of R. equi. Nevertheless, other proteins, such as VapG, present
      in most virulent R. equi strains, are also encoded by vap genes located on the R.
      equi bacterial virulence plasmid. In the present study, we evaluated the effect
      of VapG immunization on the survival of R. equi-challenged mice. We used
      attenuated Salmonella as a carrier for VapG (Salmonella-vapG+), a procedure
      previously adopted to develop a VapA-based vaccine. We observed that vaccination
      with Salmonella-vapG+ induced both an increased IFN-gamma, IL-12, and TNF-alpha
      production, and a decreased bacterial burden in organs of the R. equi-challenged
      mice. Nevertheless, Salmonella-vapG+ vaccination protected only 50% of the mice
      challenged with a lethal dose of R. equi. Interestingly, we observed an increased
      frequency of B cells in the spleen of Salmonella-vapG+-vaccinated mice and showed
      that Salmonella-vapG+-vaccinated R. equi-challenged B-cell-knockout mice did not
      reduce the bacterial burden. Given these results, we discussed the potential role
      of the humoral immune response induced by Salmonella-vapG+ vaccination in
      conferring protection against R. equi infection, as well as the employment of
      VapG antigen for obtaining hyperimmune plasma to prevent rhodoccocosis in young
      foals.

PMID- 28553280
TI  - Atypical Porcine Pestivirus as a Novel Type of Pestivirus in Pigs in China.
AB  - Pestiviruses are highly variable RNA viruses. A growing number of novel
      pestiviruses has been discovered in domestic and wild species in the last two
      decades. Recently, a novel atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) linked with the
      development of congenital tremor (CT) in neonatal pigs was described in Europe
      and the Americas. Here, the first Asian APPV complete polyprotein coding sequence
      was assembled from serum samples from newborn piglets affected with CT in
      Southern China, and termed APPV_GD. 14 organ samples from affected piglets were
      analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) to investigate the tissue tropism of
      APPV, and 135 serum samples from pigs from 10 farms were used for identifying
      APPV in adult pigs. The highest genome loads were found in submaxillary lymph
      nodes, and PCR-based detection showed that APPV genomes were present in seven
      samples from five farms. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the full
      length genomes of the pestiviruses, and APPV_GD appeared on a new branch with
      another newly discovered APPV. Nucleotide identity analysis demonstrated that
      APPV_GD shared the highest nucleotide sequence identity with a German APPV.
      Bayesian inference was performed using 25 partial sequences of the APPV NS5B gene
      (528 bp) isolated from four countries in recent years. According to this
      analysis, the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of the current APPV strains
      might have emerged in Germany and then diversified and spread to Asia, the
      Americas, and other countries in Europe. However, the result of bayesian
      inference could change when more APPV strains are isolated in the future. The
      present study is the first to report APPV in China and infers the origin and
      dissemination of the current strains of the virus.

PMID- 28553281
TI  - Evasion Mechanisms Used by Pathogens to Escape the Lectin Complement Pathway.
AB  - The complement system is a crucial defensive network that protects the host
      against invading pathogens. It is part of the innate immune system and can be
      initiated via three pathways: the lectin, classical and alternative activation
      pathway. Overall the network compiles a group of recognition molecules that bind
      specific patterns on microbial surfaces, a group of associated proteases that
      initiates the complement cascade, and a group of proteins that interact in
      proteolytic complexes or the terminal pore-forming complex. In addition, various
      regulatory proteins are important for controlling the level of activity. The
      result is a pro-inflammatory response meant to combat foreign microbes. Microbial
      elimination is, however, not a straight forward procedure; pathogens have adapted
      to their environment by evolving a collection of evasion mechanisms that
      circumvent the human complement system. Complement evasion strategies features
      different ways of exploiting human complement proteins and moreover features
      different pathogen-derived proteins that interfere with the normal processes.
      Accumulated, these mechanisms target all three complement activation pathways as
      well as the final common part of the cascade. This review will cover the
      currently known lectin pathway evasion mechanisms and give examples of pathogens
      that operate these to increase their chance of invasion, survival and
      dissemination.

PMID- 28553282
TI  - Co-Inflammatory Roles of TGFbeta1 in the Presence of TNFalpha Drive a Pro
      inflammatory Fate in Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - High plasticity is a hallmark of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and as such,
      their differentiation and activities may be shaped by factors of their
      microenvironment. Bones, tumors, and cardiomyopathy are examples of niches and
      conditions that contain MSCs and are enriched with tumor necrosis factor alpha
      (TNFalpha) and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1). These two cytokines
      are generally considered as having opposing roles in regulating immunity and
      inflammation (pro- and anti-inflammatory, respectively). Here, we performed
      global gene expression analysis of human bone marrow-derived MSCs and identified
      overlap in half of the transcriptional programs that were modified by TNFalpha
      and TGFbeta1. The two cytokines elevated the mRNA expression of soluble factors,
      including mRNAs of pro-inflammatory mediators. Accordingly, the typical pro
      inflammatory factor TNFalpha prominently induced the protein expression levels of
      the pro-inflammatory mediators CCL2, CXCL8 (IL-8), and cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2)
      in MSCs, through the NF-kappaB/p65 pathway. In parallel, TGFbeta1 did not elevate
      CXCL8 protein levels and induced the protein expression of CCL2 at much lower
      levels than TNFalpha; yet, TGFbeta1 readily induced Cox-2 and acted predominantly
      via the Smad3 pathway. Interestingly, combined stimulation of MSCs by TNFalpha +
      TGFbeta1 led to a cooperative induction of all three inflammatory mediators,
      indicating that TGFbeta1 functioned as a co-inflammatory cytokine in the presence
      of TNFalpha. The cooperative activities of TNFalpha + TGFbeta1 that have led to
      CCL2 and CXCL8 induction were almost exclusively dependent on p65 activation and
      were not regulated by Smad3 or by the upstream regulator TGFbeta-activated kinase
      1 (TAK1). In contrast, the TNFalpha + TGFbeta1-induced cooperative elevation in
      Cox-2 was mostly dependent on Smad3 (demonstrating cooperativity with activated
      NF-kappaB) and was partly regulated by TAK1. Studies with MSCs activated by
      TNFalpha + TGFbeta1 revealed that they release factors that can affect other
      cells in their microenvironment and induce breast tumor cell elongation,
      migration, and scattering out of spheroid tumor masses. Thus, our findings
      demonstrate a TNFalpha + TGFbeta1-driven pro-inflammatory fate in MSCs, identify
      specific molecular mechanisms involved, and propose that TNFalpha + TGFbeta1
      stimulated MSCs influence the tumor niche. These observations suggest key roles
      for the microenvironment in regulating MSC functions, which in turn may affect
      different health-related conditions.

PMID- 28553283
TI  - The Recombinant Sea Urchin Immune Effector Protein, rSpTransformer-E1, Binds to
      Phosphatidic Acid and Deforms Membranes.
AB  - The purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, possesses a sophisticated
      innate immune system that functions without adaptive capabilities and responds to
      pathogens effectively by expressing the highly diverse SpTransformer gene family
      (formerly the Sp185/333 gene family). The swift gene expression response and the
      sequence diversity of SpTransformer cDNAs suggest that the encoded proteins have
      immune functions. Individual sea urchins can express up to 260 distinct
      SpTransformer proteins, and their diversity suggests that different versions may
      have different functions. Although the deduced proteins are diverse, they share
      an overall structure of a hydrophobic leader, a glycine-rich N-terminal region, a
      histidine-rich region, and a C-terminal region. Circular dichroism analysis of a
      recombinant SpTransformer protein, rSpTransformer-E1 (rSpTrf-E1) demonstrates
      that it is intrinsically disordered and transforms to alpha helical in the
      presence of buffer additives and binding targets. Although native SpTrf proteins
      are associated with the membranes of perinuclear vesicles in the phagocyte class
      of coelomocytes and are present on the surface of small phagocytes, they have no
      predicted transmembrane region or conserved site for glycophosphatidylinositol
      linkage. To determine whether native SpTrf proteins associate with phagocyte
      membranes through interactions with lipids, when rSpTrf-E1 is incubated with
      lipid-embedded nylon strips, it binds to phosphatidic acid (PA) through both the
      glycine-rich region and the histidine-rich region. Synthetic liposomes composed
      of PA and phosphatidylcholine show binding between rSpTrf-E1 and PA by
      fluorescence resonance energy transfer, which is associated with leakage of
      luminal contents suggesting changes in lipid organization and perhaps liposome
      lysis. Interactions with liposomes also change membrane curvature leading to
      liposome budding, fusion, and invagination, which is associated with PA
      clustering induced by rSpTrf-E1 binding. Longer incubations result in the
      extraction of PA from the liposomes, which form disorganized clusters. CD shows
      that when rSpTrf-E1 binds to PA, it changes its secondary structure from
      disordered to alpha helical. These results provide evidence for how SpTransformer
      proteins may associate with molecules that have exposed phosphates including PA
      on cell membranes and how the characteristic of protein multimerization may drive
      changes in the organization of membrane lipids.

PMID- 28553285
TI  - Antitumor Activity of a Mesenchymal Stem Cell Line Stably Secreting a Tumor
      Targeted TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand Fusion Protein.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are currently exploited as gene delivery systems
      for transient in situ expression of cancer therapeutics. As an alternative to the
      prevailing viral expression, we here describe a murine MSC line stably expressing
      a therapeutic protein for up to 42 passages, yet fully maintaining MSC features.
      Because of superior antitumoral activity of hexavalent TNF-related apoptosis
      inducing ligand (TRAIL) formats and the advantage of a tumor-targeted action, we
      choose expression of a dimeric EGFR-specific diabody single-chain TRAIL (Db
      scTRAIL) as a model. The bioactivity of Db-scTRAIL produced from an isolated
      clone (MSC.TRAIL) was revealed from cell death induction in Colo205 cells treated
      with either culture supernatants from or cocultured with MSC.TRAIL. In vivo,
      therapeutic activity of MSC.TRAIL was shown upon peritumoral injection in a
      Colo205 xenograft tumor model. Best antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo was
      observed upon combined treatment of MSC.TRAIL with bortezomib. Importantly, in
      vivo combination treatment did not cause apparent hepatotoxicity, weight loss, or
      behavioral changes. The development of well characterized stocks of stable drug
      producing human MSC lines has the potential to establish standardized protocols
      of cell-based therapy broadly applicable in cancer treatment.

PMID- 28553286
TI  - Assessment of Spanish Panel Reactive Antibody Calculator and Potential
      Usefulness.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The calculated panel reactive of antibodies (cPRAs)
      necessary for kidney donor-pair exchange and highly sensitized programs are
      estimated using different panel reactive antibody (PRA) calculators based on big
      enough samples in Eurotransplant (EUTR), United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS),
      and Canadian Transplant Registry (CTR) websites. However, those calculators can
      vary depending on the ethnic they are applied. Here, we develop a PRA calculator
      used in the Spanish Program of Transplant Access for Highly Sensitized patients
      (PATHI) and validate it with EUTR, UNOS, and CTR calculators. METHODS: The anti
      human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibody profile of 42 sensitized patients on
      waiting list was defined, and cPRA was calculated with different PRA calculators.
      RESULTS: Despite different allelic frequencies derived from population
      differences in donor panel from each calculator, no differences in cPRA between
      the four calculators were observed. The PATHI calculator includes anti-DQA1
      antibody profiles in cPRA calculation; however, no improvement in total cPRA
      calculation of highly sensitized patients was demonstrated. INTERPRETATION AND
      CONCLUSION: The PATHI calculator provides cPRA results comparable with those from
      EUTR, UNOS, and CTR calculators and serves as a tool to develop valid calculators
      in geographical and ethnic areas different from Europe, USA, and Canada.

PMID- 28553284
TI  - Divergent Expression of CXCR5 and CCR5 on CD4+ T Cells and the Paradoxical
      Accumulation of T Follicular Helper Cells during HIV Infection.
AB  - Viral infection sets in motion a cascade of immune responses, including both
      CXCR5+CD4+ T follicular helper (Tfh) cells that regulate humoral immunity and
      CCR5+CD4+ T cells that mediate cell-mediated immunity. In peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells, the majority of memory CD4+ T cells appear to fall into either
      of these two lineages, CCR5-CXCR5+ or CCR5+CXCR5-. Very high titers of anti-HIV
      IgG antibodies are a hallmark of infection, strongly suggesting that there is
      significant HIV-specific CD4+ T cell help to HIV-specific B cells. We now know
      that characteristic increases in germinal centers (GC) in lymphoid tissue (LT)
      during SIV and HIV-1 infections are associated with an increase in CXCR5+PD-1high
      Tfh, which expand to a large proportion of memory CD4+ T cells in LT, and are
      presumably specific for SIV or HIV epitopes. Macaque Tfh normally express very
      little CCR5, yet are infected by CCR5-using SIV, which may occur mainly through
      infection of a subset of PD-1intermediateCCR5+Bcl-6+ pre-Tfh cells. In contrast,
      in human LT, a subset of PD-1high Tfh appears to express low levels of CCR5, as
      measured by flow cytometry, and this may also contribute to the high rate of
      infection of Tfh. Also, we have found, by assessing fine-needle biopsies of LT,
      that increases in Tfh and GC B cells in HIV infection are not completely
      normalized by antiretroviral therapy (ART), suggesting a possible long-lasting
      reservoir of infected Tfh. In contrast to the increase of CXCR5+ Tfh, there is no
      accumulation of proliferating CCR5+ CD4 T HIV Gag-specific cells in peripheral
      blood that make IFN-gamma. Altogether, CXCR5+CCR5- CD4 T cells that regulate
      humoral immunity are allowed greater freedom to operate and expand during HIV-1
      infection, but at the same time can contain HIV DNA at levels at least as high as
      in other CD4 subsets. We argue that early ART including a CCR5 blocker may
      directly reduce the infected Tfh reservoir in LT and also interrupt cycles of
      antibody pressure driving virus mutation and additional GC responses to resulting
      neoantigens.

PMID- 28553287
TI  - Hypoxia Modulates the Response of Mast Cells to Staphylococcus aureus Infection.
AB  - To study the antimicrobial function of immune cells ex vivo, cells are commonly
      cultivated under atmospheric oxygen concentrations (20-21%; normoxia), although
      the physiological oxygen conditions in vivo are significantly lower in most
      tissues. Especially during an acute infection, oxygen concentration locally
      decreases to hypoxic levels around or below 1%. The goal of this study was to
      investigate the effect of hypoxia on the activity of mast cells (MCs). MCs were
      cultivated for 3 or 24 h at 1% O2 in a hypoxia glove box and co-incubated with
      heat-inactivated Staphylococcus aureus. When incubating the cells for 24 h under
      hypoxia, the transcriptional regulator hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (HIF
      1alpha) was stabilized and resulted in increased extracellular trap formation and
      decreased phagocytosis. Interestingly, while phagocytosis of fluorescent S.
      aureus bioparticles as well as the release of extracellular traps remained
      unaffected at 3 h hypoxia, the secretion of the prestored mediator histamine was
      increased under hypoxia alone. In contrast, the release of TNF-alpha was
      generally reduced at 3 h hypoxia. Microarray transcriptome analysis revealed 13
      genes that were significantly downregulated in MCs comparing 3 h hypoxia versus
      normoxia. One interesting candidate is sec24, a member of the pre-budding complex
      of coat protein complex II (COPII), which is responsible for the anterograde
      transport of proteins from the ER to the Golgi apparatus. These data lead to the
      suggestion that de novo synthesized proteins including crucial factors, which are
      involved in the response to an acute infection like TNF-alpha, may eventually be
      retained in the ER under hypoxia. Importantly, the expression of HIF-1alpha was
      not altered at 3 h. Thus, our data exhibit a HIF-1alpha-independent reaction of
      MCs to short-term hypoxia. We hypothesize that MCs respond to short-term low
      oxygen levels in a HIF-1alpha-independent manner by downregulating the release of
      proinflammatory cytokines like TNF-alpha, thereby avoiding uncontrolled
      degranulation, which could lead to excessive inflammation and severe tissue
      damage.

PMID- 28553289
TI  - Major CD4 T-Cell Depletion and Immune Senescence in a Patient with Chronic
      Granulomatous Disease.
AB  - Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) results from primary defects in phagocytic
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. T-cell evaluation is usually neglected
      during patients' follow-up, although T-cell depletion has been reported in CGD
      through unknown mechanisms. We describe here a 36-year-old patient with X-linked
      CGD with severe CD4 T-cell depletion <200 CD4 T-cells/MUl, providing insights
      into the mechanisms that underlie T-cell loss in the context of oxidative burst
      defects. In addition to the typical infections, the patient featured a
      progressive T-cell loss associated with persistent lymphocyte activation,
      expansion of interleukin (IL)-17-producing CD4 T-cells, and impaired thymic
      activity, leading to a reduced replenishment of the T-cell pool. A relative CD4
      depletion was also found at the gut mucosal level, although no bias to IL-17
      production was documented. This immunological pattern of exhaustion of immune
      resources favors prompt, potentially curative, therapeutic interventions in CGD
      patients, namely, stem-cell transplantation or gene therapy. Moreover, this
      clinical case raises new research questions on the interplay of ROS production
      and T-cell homeostasis and immune senescence.

PMID- 28553288
TI  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis Induction of Heme Oxygenase-1 Expression Is Dependent
      on Oxidative Stress and Reflects Treatment Outcomes.
AB  - The antioxidant enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is implicated in the pathogenesis
      of tuberculosis (TB) and has been proposed as a biomarker of active disease.
      Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) induces HO
      1 as well as how its expression is affected by HIV-1 coinfection and successful
      antitubercular therapy (ATT) are poorly understood. We found that HO-1 expression
      is markedly increased in rabbits, mice, and non-human primates during
      experimental Mtb infection and gradually decreased during ATT. In addition, we
      examined circulating concentrations of HO-1 in a cohort of 130 HIV-1 coinfected
      and uninfected pulmonary TB patients undergoing ATT to investigate changes in
      expression of this biomarker in relation to HIV-1 status, radiological disease
      severity, and treatment outcome. We found that plasma levels of HO-1 were
      elevated in untreated HIV-1 coinfected TB patients and correlated positively with
      HIV-1 viral load and negatively with CD4+ T cell count. In both HIV-1 coinfected
      and Mtb monoinfected patients, HO-1 levels were substantially reduced during
      successful TB treatment but not in those who experienced treatment failure or
      subsequently relapsed. To further delineate the molecular mechanisms involved in
      induction of HO-1 by Mtb, we performed a series of in vitro experiments using
      mouse and human macrophages. We found that Mtb-induced HO-1 expression requires
      NADPH oxidase-dependent reactive oxygen species production induced by the early
      secreted antigen ESAT-6, which in turn triggers nuclear translocation of the
      transcription factor NRF-2. These observations provide further insight into the
      utility of HO-1 as a biomarker of both disease and successful therapy in TB
      monoinfected and HIV-TB coinfected patients and reveal a previously undocumented
      pathway linking expression of the enzyme with oxidative stress.

PMID- 28553290
TI  - Fifth Percentile Cutoff Values for Antipneumococcal Polysaccharide and Anti
      Salmonella typhi Vi IgG Describe a Normal Polysaccharide Response.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serotype-specific antibody responses to unconjugated pneumococcal
      polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) evaluated by a World Health Organization (WHO)
      standardized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are the gold standard for
      diagnosis of specific polysaccharide antibody deficiency (SAD). The American
      Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) has proposed guidelines to
      interpret the PPV response measured by ELISA, but these are based on limited
      evidence. Additionally, ELISA is costly and labor-intensive. Measurement of
      antibody response to Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) Vi vaccine and serum
      allohemagglutinins (AHA) have been suggested as alternatives. However, there are
      no large cohort studies and cutoff values are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To establish
      cutoff values for antipneumococcal polysaccharide antibody response, anti-S.
      typhi Vi antibody, and AHA. METHODS: One hundred healthy subjects (10-55 years)
      were vaccinated with PPV and S. typhi Vi vaccine. Blood samples were obtained
      prior to and 3-4 weeks after vaccination. Polysaccharide responses to 3 serotypes
      were measured by WHO ELISA and to 12 serotypes by an in-house bead-based
      multiplex assay. Anti-S. typhi Vi IgG were measured with a commercial ELISA kit.
      AHA were measured by agglutination method. RESULTS: Applying AAAAI criteria, 30%
      of healthy subjects had a SAD. Using serotype-specific fifth percentile (p5)
      cutoff values for postvaccination IgG and fold increase pre- over
      postvaccination, only 4% of subjects had SAD. One-sided 95% prediction intervals
      for anti-S. typhi Vi postvaccination IgG (>=11.2 U/ml) and fold increase (>=2)
      were established. Eight percent had a response to S. typhi Vi vaccine below these
      cutoffs. AHA titer p5 cutoffs were 1/2 for anti-B and 1/4 for anti-A. CONCLUSION:
      We establish reference cutoff values for interpretation of PPV response measured
      by bead-based assay, cutoff values for S. typhi Vi vaccine responses, and normal
      values for AHA. For the first time, the intraindividual consistency of all three
      methods is studied in a large cohort.

PMID- 28553291
TI  - Detrimental Impact of Microbiota-Accessible Carbohydrate-Deprived Diet on Gut and
      Immune Homeostasis: An Overview.
AB  - Dietary fibers are non-digestible polysaccharides functionally known as
      microbiota-accessible carbohydrates (MACs), present in inadequate amounts in the
      Western diet. MACs are a main source of energy for gut bacteria so the abundance
      and variety of MACs can modulate gut microbial composition and function. This, in
      turn, impacts host immunity and health. In preclinical studies, MAC-deprived diet
      and disruption of gut homeostasis aggravate the development of inflammatory
      diseases, such as allergies, infections, and autoimmune diseases. The present
      review provides a synopsis on the impact of a low-MAC diet on gut homeostasis or,
      more specifically, on gut microbiota, gut epithelium, and immune cells.

PMID- 28553292
TI  - ASCT2 (SLC1A5)-Deficient Mice Have Normal B-Cell Development, Proliferation, and
      Antibody Production.
AB  - SLC1A5 (solute carrier family 1, member 5) is a small neutral amino acid
      exchanger that is upregulated in rapidly proliferating lymphocytes but also in
      many primary human cancers. Furthermore, cancer cell lines have been shown to
      require SLC1A5 for their survival in vitro. One of SLC1A5's primary substrates is
      the immunomodulatory amino acid glutamine, which plays an important role in
      multiple key processes, such as energy supply, macromolecular synthesis,
      nucleotide biosynthesis, redox homeostasis, and resistance against oxidative
      stress. These processes are also essential to immune cells, including
      neutrophils, macrophages, B and T lymphocytes. We show here that mice with a stop
      codon in Slc1a5 have reduced glutamine uptake in activated lymphocytes and
      primary fibroblasts. B and T cell populations and maturation in resting mice were
      not affected by absence of SLC1A5. Antibody production in resting and immunized
      mice and the germinal center response to immunization were also found to be
      normal. SLC1A5 has been recently described as a novel target for the treatment of
      a variety of cancers, and our results indicate that inhibition of SLC1A5 in
      cancer therapy may be tolerated well by the immune system of cancer patients.

PMID- 28553294
TI  - In Vivo and In Vitro Study on the Efficacy of Terpinen-4-ol in Dextran Sulfate
      Sodium-Induced Mice Experimental Colitis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of Terpinen-4
      ol (TER) on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced experimental colitis and clarify
      the possible mechanisms. In vivo, an acute colitis model was used to confirm the
      anti-inflammatory activity and the possible mechanisms of TER in C57BL/6 and
      NLRP3-/- mice. In vitro, we performed further study, using RAW264.7 cells and
      Caco-2 cells, to confirm the molecular mechanisms of TER on inflammatory
      response. In C57BL/6 mice, TER alleviated DSS-induced disease activity index
      (DAI), colon length shortening, colonic pathological damage, and myeloperoxidase
      (MPO) activities. The production of pro-inflammatory mediators was significantly
      decreased by TER. Furthermore, TER inhibited NF-kappaB and NLRP3 inflammasome
      activation. Surprisingly, TER reduced the plasmatic lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      concentration and re-balanced Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Lactobacillus
      levels. In addition, TER prevented the impairment of colon epithelium barrier by
      regulating the expression of zonula occludens-1 and occludin. In vitro, the
      results showed that TER significantly suppressed NLRP3 inflammasome activation in
      LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, as indicated by decreased expression of NLRP3 and
      caspase-1, and lowered interleukin-1beta secretion. In contrast, mice deficient
      for NLRP3 were less sensitive to DSS-induced acute colitis, and TER treatment
      exerted little protective effect on DSS-induced intestinal inflammation in NLRP3
      /- mice. The protective effect of TER may be largely attributed to its inhibition
      of NLRP3 inflammasome activation in colon. Taken together, our findings showed
      that TER might be a potential agent for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

PMID- 28553295
TI  - Developing an Integrated, Brief Biobehavioral HIV Prevention Intervention for
      High-Risk Drug Users in Treatment: The Process and Outcome of Formative Research.
AB  - To date, HIV prevention efforts have largely relied on singular strategies (e.g.,
      behavioral or biomedical approaches alone) with modest HIV risk-reduction
      outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD), many of whom experience a wide range of
      neurocognitive impairments (NCI). We report on the process and outcome of our
      formative research aimed at developing an integrated biobehavioral approach that
      incorporates innovative strategies to address the HIV prevention and cognitive
      needs of high-risk PWUD in drug treatment. Our formative work involved first
      adapting an evidence-based behavioral intervention-guided by the Assessment
      Decision-Administration-Production-Topical experts-Integration-Training-Testing
      model-and then combining the behavioral intervention with an evidence-based
      biomedical intervention for implementation among the target population. This
      process involved eliciting data through structured focus groups (FGs) with key
      stakeholders-members of the target population (n = 20) and treatment providers (n
      = 10). Analysis of FG data followed a thematic analysis approach utilizing
      several qualitative data analysis techniques, including inductive analysis and
      cross-case analysis. Based on all information, we integrated the adapted
      community-friendly health recovery program-a brief evidence-based HIV prevention
      behavioral intervention-with the evidence-based biomedical component [i.e.,
      preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP)], an approach that incorporates innovative
      strategies to accommodate individuals with NCI. This combination approach-now
      called the biobehavioral community-friendly health recovery program-is designed
      to address HIV-related risk behaviors and PrEP uptake and adherence as
      experienced by many PWUD in treatment. This study provides a complete example of
      the process of selecting, adapting, and integrating the evidence-based
      interventions-taking into account both empirical evidence and input from target
      population members and target organization stakeholders. The resultant brief
      evidence-based biobehavioral approach could significantly advance primary
      prevention science by cost-effectively optimizing PrEP adherence and HIV risk
      reduction within common drug treatment settings.

PMID- 28553297
TI  - Agronomic Trait Variations and Ploidy Differentiation of Kiwiberries in Northwest
      China: Implication for Breeding.
AB  - Polyploid plants often have higher biomass and superior crop qualities. Breeders
      therefore search for crop germplasm with higher ploidy levels; however, whether
      higher ploidy levels are associated with better performance remains unclear.
      Actinidia arguta and related species, whose commercialized fruit are referred to
      as kiwiberries, harbor a series of ploidy races in nature, offering an
      opportunity to determine the link between ploidy levels and agronomic traits. In
      the present study, we determined the ploidy levels of A. arguta var. arguta, A.
      arguta var. giraldii, and A. melanandra in 16 natural populations using flow
      cytometry, and examined 31 trait variations in fruits, leaves and flowers by
      field observations, microscopic examination and laboratory analyses. Our results
      showed that octaploid and decaploid A. arguta var. giraldii had larger dimension
      of leaves than tetraploid A. arguta var. arguta and A. melanandra, but their
      fruits were significantly smaller. In addition, A. arguta var. giraldii (8x and
      10x) had higher contents of nutrients such as ascorbic acid and amino acids;
      however, some important agronomic traits, including the content of total sugar
      and total acid, were significantly lower in the octaploids and decaploids.
      Moreover, octaploids and decaploids did not result in greater ecological
      adaptability for the challenging environments and climates. In conclusion, the
      differentiation of ecological adaptability and traits among natural kiwiberries'
      cytotypes suggested that higher ploidy levels are not inevitably advantageous in
      plants. The findings of A. arguta and related taxa in geographical distribution
      and agronomic trait variations will facilitate their germplasm domestication.

PMID- 28553293
TI  - A Role for Neutrophils in Viral Respiratory Disease.
AB  - Neutrophils are immune cells that are well known to be present during many types
      of lung diseases associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and
      may contribute to acute lung injury. Neutrophils are poorly studied with respect
      to viral infection, and specifically to respiratory viral disease. Influenza A
      virus (IAV) infection is the cause of a respiratory disease that poses a
      significant global public health concern. Influenza disease presents as a
      relatively mild and self-limiting although highly pathogenic forms exist.
      Neutrophils increase in the respiratory tract during infection with mild seasonal
      IAV, moderate and severe epidemic IAV infection, and emerging highly pathogenic
      avian influenza (HPAI). During severe influenza pneumonia and HPAI infection, the
      number of neutrophils in the lower respiratory tract is correlated with disease
      severity. Thus, comparative analyses of the relationship between IAV infection
      and neutrophils provide insights into the relative contribution of host and viral
      factors that contribute to disease severity. Herein, we review the contribution
      of neutrophils to IAV disease pathogenesis and to other respiratory virus
      infections.

PMID- 28553299
TI  - Screening of Proximal and Interacting Proteins in Rice Protoplasts by Proximity
      Dependent Biotinylation.
AB  - Proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID), which detects physiologically
      relevant proteins based on the proximity-dependent biotinylation process, has
      been successfully used in different organisms. In this report, we established the
      BioID system in rice protoplasts. Biotin ligase BirAG was obtained by removing a
      cryptic intron site in the BirA* gene when expressed in rice protoplasts. We
      found that protein biotinylation in rice protoplasts increased with increased
      expression levels of BirAG. The biotinylation effects can also be achieved by
      exogenous supplementation of high concentrations of biotin and long incubation
      time with protoplasts. By using this system, multiple proteins were identified
      that associated with and/or were proximate to OsFD2 in vivo. Our results suggest
      that BioID is a useful and generally applicable method to screen for both
      interacting and neighboring proteins in their native cellular environment in
      plant cell.

PMID- 28553298
TI  - Vegetable Grafting: The Implications of a Growing Agronomic Imperative for
      Vegetable Fruit Quality and Nutritive Value.
AB  - Grafting has become an imperative for intensive vegetable production since
      chlorofluorocarbon-based soil fumigants were banned from use on grounds of
      environmental protection. Compelled by this development, research into rootstock
      scion interaction has broadened the potential applications of grafting in the
      vegetable industry beyond aspects of soil phytopathology. Grafting has been
      increasingly tapped for cultivation under adverse environs posing abiotic and
      biotic stresses to vegetable crops, thus enabling expansion of commercial
      production onto otherwise under-exploited land. Vigorous rootstocks have been
      employed not only in the open field but also under protected cultivation where
      increase in productivity improves distribution of infrastructural and energy
      costs. Applications of grafting have expanded mainly in two families: the
      Cucurbitaceae and the Solanaceae, both of which comprise major vegetable crops.
      As the main drives behind the expansion of vegetable grafting have been the
      resistance to soilborne pathogens, tolerance to abiotic stresses and increase in
      yields, rootstock selection and breeding have accordingly conformed to the
      prevailing demand for improving productivity, arguably at the expense of fruit
      quality. It is, however, compelling to assess the qualitative implications of
      this growing agronomic practice for human nutrition. Problems of impaired
      vegetable fruit quality have not infrequently been associated with the practice
      of grafting. Accordingly, the aim of the current review is to reassess how the
      practice of grafting and the prevalence of particular types of commercial
      rootstocks influence vegetable fruit quality and, partly, storability. Physical,
      sensorial and bioactive aspects of quality are examined with respect to grafting
      for watermelon, melon, cucumber, tomato, eggplant, and pepper. The physiological
      mechanisms at play which mediate rootstock effects on scion performance are
      discussed in interpreting the implications of grafting for the configuration of
      vegetable fruit physicochemical quality and nutritive value.

PMID- 28553296
TI  - Use of Natural Diversity and Biotechnology to Increase the Quality and
      Nutritional Content of Tomato and Grape.
AB  - Improving fruit quality has become a major goal in plant breeding. Direct
      approaches to tackling fruit quality traits specifically linked to consumer
      preferences and environmental friendliness, such as improved flavor,
      nutraceutical compounds, and sustainability, have slowly been added to a breeder
      priority list that already includes traits like productivity, efficiency, and,
      especially, pest and disease control. Breeders already use molecular genetic
      tools to improve fruit quality although most advances have been made in producer
      and industrial quality standards. Furthermore, progress has largely been limited
      to simple agronomic traits easy-to-observe, whereas the vast majority of quality
      attributes, specifically those relating to flavor and nutrition, are complex and
      have mostly been neglected. Fortunately, wild germplasm, which is used for
      resistance against/tolerance of environmental stresses (including pathogens), is
      still available and harbors significant genetic variation for taste and health
      promoting traits. Similarly, heirloom/traditional varieties could be used to
      identify which genes contribute to flavor and health quality and, at the same
      time, serve as a good source of the best alleles for organoleptic quality
      improvement. Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)
      produce fleshy, berry-type fruits, among the most consumed in the world. Both
      have undergone important domestication and selection processes, that have
      dramatically reduced their genetic variability, and strongly standardized fruit
      traits. Moreover, more and more consumers are asking for sustainable production,
      incompatible with the wide range of chemical inputs. In the present paper, we
      review the genetic resources available to tomato/grape breeders, and the recent
      technological progresses that facilitate the identification of genes/alleles of
      interest within the natural or generated variability gene pool. These
      technologies include omics, high-throughput phenotyping/phenomics, and biotech
      approaches. Our review also covers a range of technologies used to transfer to
      tomato and grape those alleles considered of interest for fruit quality. These
      include traditional breeding, TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in
      Genomes), genetic engineering, or NPBT (New Plant Breeding Technologies).
      Altogether, the combined exploitation of genetic variability and innovative
      biotechnological tools may facilitate breeders to improve fruit quality tacking
      more into account the consumer standards and the needs to move forward into more
      sustainable farming practices.

PMID- 28553300
TI  - RUN1 and REN1 Pyramiding in Grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Crimson Seedless)
      Displays an Improved Defense Response Leading to Enhanced Resistance to Powdery
      Mildew (Erysiphe necator).
AB  - Fungal pathogens are the cause of the most common diseases in grapevine and among
      them powdery mildew represents a major focus for disease management. Different
      strategies for introgression of resistance in grapevine are currently undertaken
      in breeding programs. For example, introgression of several resistance genes (R)
      from different sources for making it more durable and also strengthening the
      plant defense response. Taking this into account, we cross-pollinated P09-105/34,
      a grapevine plant carrying both RUN1 and REN1 pyramided loci of resistance to
      Erysiphe necator inherited from a pseudo-backcrossing scheme with Muscadinia
      rotundifolia and Vitis vinifera 'Dzhandzhal Kara,' respectively, with the
      susceptible commercial table grape cv. 'Crimson Seedless.' We developed RUN1REN1
      resistant genotypes through conventional breeding and identified them by marker
      assisted selection. The characterization of defense response showed a highly
      effective defense mechanism against powdery mildew in these plants. Our results
      reveal that RUN1REN1 grapevine plants display a robust defense response against
      E. necator, leading to unsuccessful fungal establishment with low penetration
      rate and poor hypha development. This resistance mechanism includes reactive
      oxygen species production, callose accumulation, programmed cell death induction
      and mainly VvSTS36 and VvPEN1 gene activation. RUN1REN1 plants have a great
      potential as new table grape cultivars with durable complete resistance to E.
      necator, and are valuable germplasm to be included in grape breeding programs to
      continue pyramiding with other sources of resistance to grapevine diseases.

PMID- 28553301
TI  - Ralstonia solanacearum and R. pseudosolanacearum on Eucalyptus: Opportunists or
      Primary Pathogens?
AB  - Ralstonia solanacearum and R. pseudosolanacearum are well known primary pathogens
      of herbaceous crops. Reports of wilt caused by these pathogens in tree species
      are limited other than on Eucalyptus species. Despite the widespread occurrence
      of so-called bacterial wilt on eucalypts in tropical and sub-tropical parts of
      Africa, Asia, and the Americas, there remain many contradictions relating to the
      disease. Our field observations over many years in most regions where the disease
      occurs on Eucalyptus show that it is always associated with trees that have been
      subjected to severe stress. The disease is typically diagnosed by immersing cut
      stems in water and observing bacterial streaming, but the identity of the
      bacteria within this suspension is seldom considered. To add to the confusion,
      pathogenicity tests on susceptible species or clones are rarely successful. When
      they do work, they are on small plants in greenhouse trials. It has become all to
      easy to attribute Eucalyptus death exclusively to Ralstonia infection. Our data
      strongly suggest that Ralstonia species and probably other bacteria are latent
      colonists commonly occurring in healthy and particularly clonally propagated
      eucalypts. The onset of stress factors provide the bacteria with an opportunity
      to develop. We believe that the resulting stress weakens the defense systems of
      the trees allowing Ralstonia and bacterial endophytes to proliferate. Overall our
      research suggests that R. solanacearum and R. pseudosolanacearum are not primary
      pathogens of Eucalyptus. Short of clear evidence that they are primary pathogens
      of Eucalyptus it is inappropriate to attribute this disease solely to infection
      by Ralstonia species.

PMID- 28553302
TI  - Transcriptome Analysis of Floral Buds Deciphered an Irregular Course of Meiosis
      in Polyploid Brassica rapa.
AB  - Polyploidy is a fundamental process in plant evolution. Understanding the
      polyploidy-associated effects on plant reproduction is essential for polyploid
      breeding program. In the present study, our cytological analysis firstly
      demonstrated that an overall course of meiosis was apparently distorted in the
      synthetic polyploid Brassica rapa in comparison with its diploid progenitor. To
      elucidate genetic basis of this irregular meiosis at a molecular level, the
      comparative RNA-seq analysis was further used to investigate differential genetic
      regulation of developing floral buds identified at meiosis between autotetraploid
      and diploid B. rapa. In total, compared to its diploid counterparts, among all
      40,927 expressed genes revealed, 4,601 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were
      identified in the floral buds of autotetraploid B. rapa, among which 288 DEGs
      annotated were involved in meiosis. Notably, DMC1 identified as one previously
      known meiosis-specific gene involved in inter-homologous chromosome dependent
      repair of DNA double stranded breaks (DSBs), was significantly down-regulated in
      autotetraploid B. rapa, which presumably contributed to abnormal progression
      during meiosis I. Although certain DEGs associated with RNA helicase, cell
      cycling, and somatic DNA repair were up-regulated after genome duplication, genes
      associated with meiotic DSB repair were significantly down-regulated.
      Furthermore, the expression of randomly selected DEGs by RNA-seq analysis was
      confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR analysis in both B. rapa and Arabidopsis
      thaliana. Our results firstly account for adverse effects of polyploidy on an
      entire course of meiosis at both cytological and transcriptomic levels, and allow
      for a comprehensive understanding of the uniformity and differences in the
      transcriptome of floral buds at meiosis between diploid and polyploid B. rapa as
      well.

PMID- 28553303
TI  - Phenylpyruvate Contributes to the Synthesis of Fragrant Benzenoid
      Phenylpropanoids in Petunia * hybrida Flowers.
AB  - Phenylalanine (Phe) is a precursor for a large group of plant specialized
      metabolites, including the fragrant volatile benzenoid-phenylpropanoids (BPs). In
      plants, the main pathway leading to production of Phe is via arogenate, while the
      pathway via phenylpyruvate (PPY) is considered merely an alternative route.
      Unlike plants, in most microorganisms the only pathway leading to the synthesis
      of Phe is via PPY. Here we studied the effect of increased PPY production in
      petunia on the formation of BPs volatiles and other specialized metabolites
      originating from Phe both in flowers and leaves. Stimulation of the pathway via
      PPY was achieved by transforming petunia with PheA* , a gene encoding a bacterial
      feedback insensitive bi-functional chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydratase
      enzyme. PheA* overexpression caused dramatic increase in the levels of flower BP
      volatiles such as phenylacetaldehyde, benzaldehyde, benzyl acetate, vanillin, and
      eugenol. All three BP pathways characterized in petunia flowers were stimulated
      in PheA* flowers. In contrast, PheA* overexpression had only a minor effect on
      the levels of amino acids and non-volatile metabolites both in the leaves and
      flowers. The one exception is a dramatic increase in the level of rosmarinate, a
      conjugate between Phe-derived caffeate and Tyr-derived 3,4
      dihydroxyphenylacetate, in PheA* leaves. PheA* petunia flowers may serve as an
      excellent system for revealing the role of PPY in the production of BPs,
      including possible routes directly converting PPY to the fragrant volatiles. This
      study emphasizes the potential of the PPY route in achieving fragrance
      enhancement in flowering plants.

PMID- 28553304
TI  - Reference Gene Selection for qRT-PCR Normalization Analysis in kenaf (Hibiscus
      cannabinus L.) under Abiotic Stress and Hormonal Stimuli.
AB  - Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.), an environmental friendly and economic fiber
      crop, has a certain tolerance to abiotic stresses. Identification of reliable
      reference genes for transcript normalization of stress responsive genes
      expression by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is important for exploring the
      molecular mechanisms of plants response to abiotic stresses. In this study, nine
      candidate reference genes were cloned, and their expression stabilities were
      assessed in 132 abiotic stress and hormonal stimuli samples of kenaf using
      geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper algorithms. Results revealed that HcPP2A
      (Protein phosphatase 2A) and HcACT7 (Actin 7) were the optimum reference genes
      across all samples; HcUBC (Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme like protein) was the
      worst reference gene for transcript normalization. The reliability of the
      selected reference genes was further confirmed by evaluating the expression
      profile of HcWRKY28 gene at different stress durations. This work will benefit
      future studies on discovery of stress-tolerance genes and stress-signaling
      pathways in this important fiber crop.

PMID- 28553305
TI  - A Dominant Negative OsKAT2 Mutant Delays Light-Induced Stomatal Opening and
      Improves Drought Tolerance without Yield Penalty in Rice.
AB  - Stomata are the main gateways for water and air transport between leaves and the
      environment. Inward-rectifying potassium channels regulate photo-induced stomatal
      opening. Rice contains three inward rectifying shaker-like potassium channel
      proteins, OsKAT1, OsKAT2, and OsKAT3. Among these, only OsKAT2 is specifically
      expressed in guard cells. Here, we investigated the functions of OsKAT2 in
      stomatal regulation using three dominant negative mutant proteins, OsKAT2(T235R),
      OsKAT2(T285A) and OsKAT2(T285D), which are altered in amino acids in the channel
      pore and at a phosphorylation site. Yeast complementation and patch clamp assays
      showed that all three mutant proteins lost channel activity. However, among
      plants overexpressing these mutant proteins, only plants overexpressing
      OsKAT2(T235R) showed significantly less water loss than the control. Moreover,
      overexpression of this mutant protein led to delayed photo-induced stomatal
      opening and increased drought tolerance. Our results indicate that OsKAT2 is an
      inward- rectifying shaker-like potassium channel that mainly functions in
      stomatal opening. Interestingly, overexpression of OsKAT2(T235R) did not cause
      serious defects in growth or yield in rice, suggesting that OsKAT2 is a potential
      target for engineering plants with improved drought tolerance without yield
      penalty.

PMID- 28553306
TI  - Novel Sources of Stripe Rust Resistance Identified by Genome-Wide Association
      Mapping in Ethiopian Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum).
AB  - Stripe rust of wheat, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a
      global concern for wheat production, and has been increasingly destructive in
      Ethiopia, as well as in the United States and in many other countries. As
      Ethiopia has a long history of stripe rust epidemics, its native wheat germplasm
      harbors potentially valuable resistance loci. Moreover, the Ethiopian germplasm
      has been historically underutilized in breeding of modern wheat worldwide and
      thus the resistance alleles from the Ethiopian germplasm represent potentially
      novel sources. The objective of this study was to identify loci conferring
      resistance to predominant Pst races in Ethiopia and the United States. Using a
      high-density 90 K wheat single nucleotide polymorphism array, a genome-wide
      association analysis (GWAS) was conducted on 182 durum wheat landrace accessions
      and contemporary varieties originating from Ethiopia. Landraces were detected to
      be more resistant at the seedling stage while cultivars were more resistant at
      the adult-plant stages. GWAS identified 68 loci associated with seedling
      resistance to one or more races. Six loci on chromosome arms 1AS, 1BS, 3AS, 4BL,
      and 5BL were associated with resistance against at least two races at the
      seedling stage, and five loci were previously undocumented. GWAS analysis of
      field resistance reactions identified 12 loci associated with resistance on
      chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2BS, 3BL, 4AL, 4B and 5AL, which were detected in at least
      two of six field screening nurseries at the adult-plant stage. Comparison with
      previously mapped resistance loci indicates that six of the 12 resistance loci
      are newly documented. This study reports effective sources of resistance to
      contemporary races in Ethiopia and the United States and reveals that Ethiopian
      durum wheat landraces are abundant in novel Pst resistance loci that may be
      transferred into adapted cultivars to provide resistance against Pst.

PMID- 28553308
TI  - Identification of Putative Genes Involved in Limonoids Biosynthesis in Citrus by
      Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis.
AB  - Limonoids produced by citrus are a group of highly bioactive secondary
      metabolites which provide health benefits for humans. Currently there is a lack
      of information derived from research on the genetic mechanisms controlling the
      biosynthesis of limonoids, which has limited the improvement of citrus for high
      production of limonoids. In this study, the transcriptome sequences of leaves,
      phloems and seeds of pummelo (Citrus grandis (L.) Osbeck) at different
      development stages with variances in limonoids contents were used for digital
      gene expression profiling analysis in order to identify the genes corresponding
      to the biosynthesis of limonoids. Pair-wise comparison of transcriptional
      profiles between different tissues identified 924 differentially expressed genes
      commonly shared between them. Expression pattern analysis suggested that 382
      genes from three conjunctive groups of K-means clustering could be possibly
      related to the biosynthesis of limonoids. Correlation analysis with the samples
      from different genotypes, and different developing tissues of the citrus revealed
      that the expression of 15 candidate genes were highly correlated with the
      contents of limonoids. Among them, the cytochrome P450s (CYP450s) and
      transcriptional factor MYB demonstrated significantly high correlation
      coefficients, which indicated the importance of those genes on the biosynthesis
      of limonoids. CiOSC gene encoding the critical enzyme oxidosqualene cyclase (OSC)
      for biosynthesis of the precursor of triterpene scaffolds was found positively
      corresponding to the accumulation of limonoids during the development of seeds.
      Suppressing the expression of CiOSC with VIGS (Virus-induced gene silencing)
      demonstrated that the level of gene silencing was significantly correlated to the
      reduction of limonoids contents. The results indicated that the CiOSC gene plays
      a pivotal role in biosynthesis of limonoids.

PMID- 28553307
TI  - GmWRKY31 and GmHDL56 Enhances Resistance to Phytophthora sojae by Regulating
      Defense-Related Gene Expression in Soybean.
AB  - Phytophthora root and stem rot of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] caused by the
      oomycete Phytophthora sojae, is a destructive disease worldwide. The molecular
      mechanism of the soybean response to P. sojae is largely unclear. We report a
      novel WRKY transcription factor (TF) in soybean, GmWRKY31, in the host response
      to P. sojae. Overexpression and RNA interference analysis demonstrated that
      GmWRKY31 enhanced resistance to P. sojae in transgenic soybean plants. GmWRKY31
      was targeted to the nucleus, where it bound to the W-box and acted as an
      activator of gene transcription. Moreover, we determined that GmWRKY31 physically
      interacted with GmHDL56, which improved resistance to P. sojae in transgenic
      soybean roots. GmWRKY31 and GmHDL56 shared a common target GmNPR1 which was
      induced by P. sojae. Overexpression and RNA interference analysis demonstrated
      that GmNPR1 enhanced resistance to P. sojae in transgenic soybean plants. Several
      pathogenesis-related (PR) genes were constitutively activated, including GmPR1a,
      GmPR2, GmPR3, GmPR4, GmPR5a, and GmPR10, in soybean plants overexpressing GmNPR1
      transcripts. By contrast, the induction of PR genes was compromised in transgenic
      GmNPR1-RNAi lines. Taken together, these findings suggested that the interaction
      between GmWRKY31 and GmHDL56 enhances resistance to P. sojae by regulating
      defense-related gene expression in soybean.

PMID- 28553309
TI  - The TOR Pathway Is Involved in Adventitious Root Formation in Arabidopsis and
      Potato.
AB  - In the agriculture industry, adventitious root formation is a core issue of
      plants asexual propagation. However, the underlying molecular mechanism of
      adventitious root formation is far beyond understanding. In present study we
      found that target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling plays a key role in adventitious
      root formation in potato and Arabidopsis. The core components of TOR complex
      including TOR, RAPTOR, and LST8 are highly conserved in potato, but the seedlings
      of potato are insensitive to rapamycin, implying FK506 Binding Protein 12 KD
      (FKBP12) lost the function to bridge the interaction of rapamycin and TOR in
      potato. To dissect TOR signaling in potato, the rapamycin hypersensitive potato
      plants (BP12-OE) were engineered by introducing yeast FKBP12 (ScFKBP12) into
      potato. We found that rapamycin can significantly attenuate the capability of
      adventitious root formation in BP12-OE potatoes. KU63794 (KU, an active-site TOR
      inhibitor) combined with rapamycin can more significantly suppress adventitious
      root formation of BP12-OE potato than the single treatments, such as KU63794 or
      rapamycin, indicating its synergistic inhibitory effects on potato adventitious
      root formation. Furthermore, RNA-seq data showed that many genes associated with
      auxin signaling pathway were altered when BP12-OE potato seedlings were treated
      with rapamycin + KU, suggesting that TOR may play a major role in adventitious
      root formation via auxin signaling. The auxin receptor mutant tir1 was sensitive
      to TOR inhibitors and the double and quadruple mutants including tir1afb2,
      tir1afb3, and tir1afb1afb2afb3 displayed more sensitive to asTORis than single
      mutant tir1. Consistently, overexpression of AtTIR1 in Arabidopsis and potato can
      partially overcome the inhibitory effect of asTORis and promote adventitious root
      formation under asTORis treatments. These observations suggest that TOR signaling
      regulates adventitious root formation by mediating auxin signaling in Arabidopsis
      and potato.

PMID- 28553310
TI  - Effects of Melatonin on Anti-oxidative Systems and Photosystem II in Cold
      Stressed Rice Seedlings.
AB  - Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) plays important role in multiple plant
      developmental processes and stress responses. We investigated the possible
      mediatory role of melatonin in growth, photosynthesis, and the response to cold
      stress in rice by using three different experiments: soaking seed; immersing
      roots, and spraying to leaves with 0, 20, or 100 MUM melatonin. After 6 days of
      cold stress, the growth of rice seedlings was significantly inhibited, but this
      inhibition was alleviated by exogenous melatonin. Furthermore, exogenous
      melatonin pretreatment alleviated the accumulation of reactive oxygen species,
      malondialdehyde and cell death induced by cold stress. Melatonin pretreatment
      also relieved the stress-induced inhibitions to photosynthesis and photosystem II
      activities. Further investigations showed that, antioxidant enzyme activities and
      non-enzymatic antioxidant levels were increased by melatonin pretreatments. The
      treatment methods of seed soaking and root immersion were more effective in
      improving cold stress resistance than the spraying method. The results also
      indicated the dose-dependent response of melatonin on rice physiological,
      biochemical, and photosynthetic parameters.

PMID- 28553311
TI  - Corrigendum: New Insights on Leucine-Rich Repeats Receptor-Like Kinase
      Orthologous Relationships in Angiosperms.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 381 in vol. 8, PMID: 28424707.].

PMID- 28553312
TI  - Gender Differences in Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory Tasks in Patients
      with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: To date, there are few studies on gender differences in patients
      with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD). In the present
      study, the existence of differences between sexes in verbal and visuospatial
      working memory tasks in the evolution of cognitive and pathological aging was
      examined. METHOD: Ninety participants took part in this study: 30 AD, 30 MCI, and
      30 healthy elderly participants (50% men and 50% women). RESULTS: There were no
      significant differences between men and women with AD in visuospatial tasks,
      whereas these differences were found within the MCI group, with the average of
      men achieving significantly higher results than women. In verbal tasks, there
      were no differences between sexes for any of the groups. CONCLUSION: Execution in
      visuospatial tasks tends to depend on gender, whereas this does not occur for
      verbal tasks.

PMID- 28553314
TI  - Effect of the Sonas Programme on Communication in People with Dementia: A
      Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strategies to improve communication in people with dementia are
      warranted. We examined the effect of the Sonas programme on communication ability
      in persons with moderate to severe dementia. METHODS: A 24-week 3-armed (Sonas,
      reading, and control group) randomized controlled trial including 120 nursing
      home residents with dementia was conducted; 105 completed the follow-up
      assessments. The main outcome was change in communication abilities measured by
      the Holden Communication Scale (HCS). RESULTS: We found no overall significant
      effect of the Sonas programme with regard to communication ability as measured by
      the HCS. However, an effect between the Sonas group and the reading group and
      between the Sonas group and the control group from T0 to T1 and T2 was found, as
      well as a significant improvement in communication in the Sonas group. Among
      people with severe dementia, the Sonas group scored significantly better on the
      HCS compared to the reading group after 12 weeks, but not after 24 weeks.
      CONCLUSION: This study failed to document an overall effect of the Sonas
      programme on communication; however, the findings indicate that the Sonas
      programme has a significant effect on communication among those with severe
      dementia.

PMID- 28553313
TI  - Associations between Pain and Quality of Life in Severe Dementia: A Norwegian
      Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Many variables influence the quality of life in older adults
      with dementia. We aim to quantify how the relationship between pain and quality
      of life in nursing home residents with severe dementia can be explained by
      neuropsychiatric symptoms, depressive symptoms, and activities of daily living.
      METHODS: This article presents cross-sectional baseline data from a cluster
      randomised controlled trial. RESULTS: The total and direct effects of pain on
      quality of life were statistically significant. Both neuropsychiatric and
      depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between pain and quality
      of life. Activities of daily living acted as a mediator only when modelled
      together with depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: Pain, neuropsychiatric symptoms,
      and depressive symptoms appear to be important factors that influence the quality
      of life for nursing home residents with severe dementia. Therefore,
      multidimensional interventions may be beneficial for maintaining or improving
      quality of life in this population.

PMID- 28553315
TI  - Improving CKD Diagnosis and Blood Pressure Control in Primary Care: A Tailored
      Multifaceted Quality Improvement Programme.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health issue. From
      2009 to 2014, the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for
      Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Greater Manchester (NIHR CLAHRC
      GM) in England ran 4 phased, 12-month quality improvement (QI) projects with 49
      primary care practices in GM. Two measureable aims were set - halve undiagnosed
      CKD in participating practices using modelled estimates of prevalence; and
      optimise blood pressure (BP) control (<140/90 mm Hg in CKD patients without
      proteinuria; <130/80 mm Hg in CKD patients with proteinuria) for 75% of recorded
      cases of CKD. The 4 projects ran as follows: P1 = Project 1 with 19 practices
      (September 2009 to September 2010), P2 = Project 2 with 11 practices (March 2011
      to March 2012), P3 = Project 3 with 12 practices (September 2012 to October
      2013), and P4 = Project 4 with 7 practices (April 2013 to March 2014). METHODS:
      Multifaceted intervention approaches were tailored based on a contextual analysis
      of practice support needs. Data were collected from practices by facilitators at
      baseline and again at project close, with self-reported data regularly requested
      from practices throughout the projects. RESULTS: Halving undiagnosed CKD as per
      aim was exceeded in 3 of the 4 projects. The optimising BP aim was met in 2
      projects. Total CKD cases after the programme increased by 2,347 (27%) from
      baseline to 10,968 in a total adult population (aged >=18 years) of 231,568. The
      percentage of patients who managed to appropriate BP targets increased from 34 to
      74% (P1), from 60 to 83% (P2), from 68 to 71% (P3), and from 63 to 76% (P4). In
      nonproteinuric CKD patients, 88, 90, 89, and 91%, respectively, achieved a target
      BP of <140/90 mm Hg. In proteinuric CKD patients, 69, 46, 48, and 45%,
      respectively, achieved a tighter target of <130/80 mm Hg. Analysis of national
      data over similar timeframes indicated that practices participating in the
      programme achieved higher CKD detection rates. CONCLUSIONS: Participating
      practices identified large numbers of "missing" CKD patients with comparator data
      showing they outperformed non-QI practices locally and nationally over similar
      timeframes. Improved BP control also occurred through this intervention, but
      overall achievement of the tighter BP target in proteinuric patients was notably
      less.

PMID- 28553316
TI  - MicroRNA-155 and Anti-Mullerian Hormone: New Potential Markers of Subfertility in
      Men with Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Men with terminal renal failure are often infertile. Anti
      mullerian hormone (AMH), a marker of Sertoli cell function, is decreased among
      men with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recently, a microRNA, miR-155, has been
      shown to be a potential marker for subfertility. We studied miR-155 and semen
      parameters in patients with CKD who were not yet on dialysis. We also aimed to
      study possible associations between AMH, miR-155, and semen parameters to
      evaluate them as markers of fertility. METHODS: Thirty male patients with CKD 1-4
      as well as 18 healthy controls were enrolled. RESULTS: Serum levels of miR-155
      were significantly higher among men with CKD stages 1-2 (4.51 +/- 3.81 [p =
      0.01]) and stages 3-4 (2.75 +/- 1.77 [p = 0.006]) than in controls (1.09 +/-
      0.44). Sperm concentration was significantly lower among men with CKD 3-4 (42 +/-
      29) *106/mL compared to controls (88 +/- 42) *106/mL (p = 0.011). High levels of
      miR-155 were associated with a relatively low sperm concentration (p = 0.02) and
      with a low total sperm number (p = 0.005). Low AMH levels were associated with a
      decreased percentage of motile sperm cells (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude
      that men with stage 3-4 CKD had lower sperm concentrations than healthy fertile
      men and that increased serum miR-155 in men with stage 1-4 CKD was associated
      with semen parameters that indicate subfertility. Low AMH levels were associated
      with a low percentage of the total number of motile sperm cells. miR-155 and AMH
      may be potential markers of subfertility in men with CKD.

PMID- 28553317
TI  - Meta Analysis of Human AlzGene Database: Benefits and Limitations of Using C.
      elegans for the Study of Alzheimer's Disease and Co-morbid Conditions.
AB  - Human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and linkage studies have identified
      695 genes associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the vast majority of which
      are associated with late-onset AD. Although orthologs of these AD genes have been
      studied in several model species, orthologs in the nematode, Caenorhabditis
      elegans, remain incompletely identified, with orthologs to only 17 AD-related
      genes identified in the C. elegans database, WormBase. Therefore, we performed a
      comprehensive search for additional C. elegans orthologs of AD genes using well
      established programs, including OrthoList, which utilizes four ontology
      prediction programs. We also validated 680 of the AD genes as a unique gene from
      the AlzGene database, including 431 genes (63%) that are predicted to have
      orthologs in C. elegans. Another 178 human AD genes (26%) were associated with
      one or more other neurological diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
      multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia. Of these, there were
      105 genes (59%) with orthologs in C. elegans. Interestingly, three AD genes (ACE,
      TNF, and MTHFR) were associated with all four of the other neurological diseases.
      The human AD genes were enriched in three major ontology pathway groups,
      including lipoprotein metabolism, hemostasis, and extracellular matrix
      organizations, as well as in pathways that are amyloid related (NOTCH signaling)
      and associated with neural (neurotransmitter clearance) and immune (advanced
      glycation end-product receptor signaling and TRAF6-NF-kappaB) systems. Thus, the
      results from this study provide a potentially useful system for assessing
      comorbidities that may be associated with late-onset AD and other neurological
      conditions. The technical advantages and limitations of the ortholog searches are
      further discussed.

PMID- 28553318
TI  - Non-coding RNAs in the Ovarian Follicle.
AB  - The mammalian ovarian follicle is the complex reproductive unit comprising germ
      cell, somatic cells (Cumulus and Granulosa cells), and follicular fluid (FF):
      paracrine communication among the different cell types through FF ensures the
      development of a mature oocyte ready for fertilization. This paper is focused on
      non-coding RNAs in ovarian follicles and their predicted role in the pathways
      involved in oocyte growth and maturation. We determined the expression profiles
      of microRNAs in human oocytes and FF by high-throughput analysis and identified
      267 microRNAs in FF and 176 in oocytes. Most of these were FF microRNAs, while 9
      were oocyte specific. By bioinformatic analysis, independently performed on FF
      and oocyte microRNAs, we identified the most significant Biological Processes and
      the pathways regulated by their validated targets. We found many pathways shared
      between the two compartments and some specific for oocyte microRNAs. Moreover, we
      found 41 long non-coding RNAs able to interact with oocyte microRNAs and
      potentially involved in the regulation of folliculogenesis. These data are
      important in basic reproductive research and could also be useful for clinical
      applications. In fact, the characterization of non-coding RNAs in ovarian
      follicles could improve reproductive disease diagnosis, provide biomarkers of
      oocyte quality in Assisted Reproductive Treatment, and allow the development of
      therapies for infertility disorders.

PMID- 28553319
TI  - Heterogeneous populations of neural stem cells contribute to myelin repair.
AB  - As ingenious as nature's invention of myelin sheaths within the mammalian nervous
      system is, as fatal can be damage to this specialized lipid structure. Long-term
      loss of electrical insulation and of further supportive functions myelin provides
      to axons, as seen in demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS),
      leads to neurodegeneration and results in progressive disabilities. Multiple
      lines of evidence have demonstrated the increasing inability of oligodendrocyte
      precursor cells (OPCs) to replace lost oligodendrocytes (OLs) in order to restore
      lost myelin. Much research has been dedicated to reveal potential reasons for
      this regeneration deficit but despite promising approaches no remyelination
      promoting drugs have successfully been developed yet. In addition to OPCs neural
      stem cells of the adult central nervous system also hold a high potential to
      generate myelinating OLs. There are at least two neural stem cell niches in the
      brain, the subventricular zone lining the lateral ventricles and the subgranular
      zone of the dentate gyrus, and an additional source of neural stem cells has been
      located in the central canal of the spinal cord. While a substantial body of
      literature has described their neurogenic capacity, still little is known about
      the oligodendrogenic potential of these cells, even if some animal studies have
      provided proof of their contribution to remyelination. In this review, we
      summarize and discuss these studies, taking into account the different niches,
      the heterogeneity within and between stem cell niches and present current
      strategies of how to promote stem cell-mediated myelin repair.

PMID- 28553321
TI  - RhoA as a target to promote neuronal survival and axon regeneration.
AB  - Paralysis following spinal cord injury (SCI) is due to failure of axonal
      regeneration. It is believed that the capacities of neurons to regrow their axons
      are due partly to their intrinsic characteristics, which in turn are greatly
      influenced by several types of inhibitory molecules that are present, or even
      increased in the extracellular environment of the injured spinal cord. Many of
      these inhibitory molecules have been studied extensively in recent years. It has
      been suggested that the small GTPase RhoA is an intracellular convergence point
      for signaling by these extracellular inhibitory molecules, but due to the
      complexity of the central nervous system (CNS) in mammals, and the limitation of
      pharmacological tools, the specific roles of RhoA are unclear. By exploiting the
      anatomical and technical advantages of the lamprey CNS, we recently demonstrated
      that RhoA knockdown promotes true axon regeneration through the lesion site after
      SCI. In addition, we found that RhoA knockdown protects the large, identified
      reticulospinal neurons from apoptosis after their axons were axotomized in spinal
      cord. Therefore, manipulation of the RhoA signaling pathway may be an important
      approach in the development of treatments that are both neuroprotective and axon
      regeneration-promoting, to enhance functional recovery after SCI.

PMID- 28553320
TI  - Axon degeneration: make the Schwann cell great again.
AB  - Axonal degeneration is a pivotal feature of many neurodegenerative conditions and
      substantially accounts for neurological morbidity. A widely used experimental
      model to study the mechanisms of axonal degeneration is Wallerian degeneration
      (WD), which occurs after acute axonal injury. In the peripheral nervous system
      (PNS), WD is characterized by swift dismantling and clearance of injured axons
      with their myelin sheaths. This is a prerequisite for successful axonal
      regeneration. In the central nervous system (CNS), WD is much slower, which
      significantly contributes to failed axonal regeneration. Although it is well
      documented that Schwann cells (SCs) have a critical role in the regenerative
      potential of the PNS, to date we have only scarce knowledge as to how SCs 'sense'
      axonal injury and immediately respond to it. In this regard, it remains unknown
      as to whether SCs play the role of a passive bystander or an active director
      during the execution of the highly orchestrated disintegration program of axons.
      Older reports, together with more recent studies, suggest that SCs mount dynamic
      injury responses minutes after axonal injury, long before axonal breakdown
      occurs. The swift SC response to axonal injury could play either a pro
      degenerative role, or alternatively a supportive role, to the integrity of
      distressed axons that have not yet committed to degenerate. Indeed, supporting
      the latter concept, recent findings in a chronic PNS neurodegeneration model
      indicate that deactivation of a key molecule promoting SC injury responses
      exacerbates axonal loss. If this holds true in a broader spectrum of conditions,
      it may provide the grounds for the development of new glia-centric therapeutic
      approaches to counteract axonal loss.

PMID- 28553323
TI  - Phosphatidylserine improves axonal transport by inhibition of HDAC and has
      potential in treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
AB  - Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a rare children neurodegenerative disease caused
      due to a point mutation in the IKBKAP gene that results in decreased IKK complex
      associated protein (IKAP) protein production. The disease affects mostly the
      dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and the sympathetic ganglion. Recently, we found that
      the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in FD patients are defects
      in axonal transport of nerve growth factors and microtubule stability in the DRG.
      Neurons are highly polarized cells with very long axons. In order to survive and
      maintain proper function, neurons depend on transport of proteins and other
      cellular components from the neuronal body along the axons. We further
      demonstrated that IKAP is necessary for axon maintenance and showed that
      phosphatidylserine acts as an HDAC6 inhibitor to rescue neuronal function in FD
      cells. In this review, we will highlight our latest research findings.

PMID- 28553322
TI  - The reasons for end-to-side coaptation: how does lateral axon sprouting work?
AB  - Nerve fibers are attracted by sutureless end-to-side nerve coaptation into the
      recipient nerve. Opening a window in the epineurium enhances axon attraction and
      myelination. The authors analyze the features of nerve repair by end-to-side
      coaptation. They highlight the known mechanisms of axon sprouting and different
      hypotheses of start up signals (presence or absence of an epineurial window, role
      of Schwann cells, signaling from the distal trunk). The clinical literature is
      also presented and differences between experimental and clinical applications are
      pointed out. The authors propose their point of view and perspectives deriving
      from recent experimental and clinical experiences.

PMID- 28553326
TI  - Endothelial progenitor cells as a therapeutic option in intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the most severe cerebrovascular disease, which
      represents a leading cause of death and disability in developed countries.
      However, therapeutic options are limited, so is mandatory to investigate
      repairing processes after stroke in order to develop new therapeutic strategies
      able to promote brain repair processes. Therapeutic angiogenesis and
      vasculogenesis hold promise to improve outcome of ICH patients. In this regard,
      circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have recently been suggested to
      be a marker of vascular risk and endothelial function. Moreover, EPC levels have
      been associated with good neurological and functional outcome as well as reduced
      residual hematoma volume in ICH patients. Finally, experimental and clinical
      studies indicate that EPC might mediate endothelial cell regeneration and
      neovascularization. Therefore, EPC-based therapy could be an excellent
      therapeutic option in ICH. In this mini-review, we discuss the present status of
      knowledge about the possible therapeutic role of EPCs in ICH, molecular
      mechanisms, and the future perspectives and strategies for their use in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28553324
TI  - The complexities underlying age-related macular degeneration: could amyloid beta
      play an important role?
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes irreversible loss of central vision
      for which there is no effective treatment. Incipient pathology is thought to
      occur in the retina for many years before AMD manifests from midlife onwards to
      affect a large proportion of the elderly. Although genetic as well as non
      genetic/environmental risks are recognized, its complex aetiology makes it
      difficult to identify susceptibility, or indeed what type of AMD develops or how
      quickly it progresses in different individuals. Here we summarize the literature
      describing how the Alzheimer's-linked amyloid beta (Abeta) group of misfolding
      proteins accumulate in the retina. The discovery of this key driver of
      Alzheimer's disease in the senescent retina was unexpected and surprising,
      enabling an altogether different perspective of AMD. We argue that Abeta
      fundamentally differs from other substances which accumulate in the ageing
      retina, and discuss our latest findings from a mouse model in which physiological
      amounts of Abeta were subretinally-injected to recapitulate salient features of
      early AMD within a short period. Our discoveries as well as those of others
      suggest the pattern of Abeta accumulation and pathology in donor aged/AMD tissues
      are closely reproduced in mice, including late-stage AMD phenotypes, which makes
      them highly attractive to study dynamic aspects of Abeta-mediated retinopathy.
      Furthermore, we discuss our findings revealing how Abeta behaves at single-cell
      resolution, and consider the long-term implications for neuroretinal function. We
      propose Abeta as a key element in switching to a diseased retinal phenotype,
      which is now being used as a biomarker for late-stage AMD.

PMID- 28553327
TI  - A tale of motor neurons and CD4+ T cells: moving forward by looking back.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal progressive disorder characterized
      by the selective degeneration of motor neurons (MN). The impact of peripheral
      immune status on disease progression and MN survival is becoming increasingly
      recognized in the ALS research field. In this review, we briefly discuss findings
      from mouse models of peripheral nerve injury and immunodeficiency to understand
      how the immune system regulates MN survival. We extend these observations to
      similar studies in the widely used superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) mouse model of
      ALS. Last, we present future hypotheses to identify potential causative factors
      that lead to immune dysregulation in ALS. The lessons from preceding work in this
      area offer new exciting directions to bridge the gap in our current understanding
      of immune-mediated neuroprotection in ALS.

PMID- 28553328
TI  - Analyzing the role of extracellular matrix during nervous system development to
      advance new regenerative strategies.

PMID- 28553325
TI  - Neurotrophic factors in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases: implications for
      pathogenesis and therapy.
AB  - Neurotrophic factors comprise essential secreted proteins that have several
      functions in neural and non-neural tissues, mediating the development, survival
      and maintenance of peripheral and central nervous system. Therefore, neurotrophic
      factor issue has been extensively investigated into the context of
      neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease show
      changes in the regulation of specific neurotrophic factors and their receptors,
      which appear to be critical for neuronal degeneration. Indeed, neurotrophic
      factors prevent cell death in degenerative processes and can enhance the growth
      and function of affected neurons in these disorders. Based on recent reports,
      this review discusses the main findings related to the neurotrophic factor
      support - mainly brain-derived neurotrophic factor and glial cell line-derived
      neurotrophic factor - in the survival, proliferation and maturation of affected
      neurons in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease as well as their putative
      application as new therapeutic approach for these diseases management.

PMID- 28553329
TI  - Nerves and hydrogen peroxide: how old enemies become new friends.

PMID- 28553330
TI  - Ghosts in the shell: identification of microglia in the human central nervous
      system by P2Y12 receptor.

PMID- 28553331
TI  - RhoA/ROCK activation in major pelvic ganglion mediates caspase-3 dependent
      nitrergic neuronal apoptosis following cavernous nerve injury.

PMID- 28553332
TI  - Why and how does light therapy offer neuroprotection in Parkinson's disease?

PMID- 28553333
TI  - Delivery of therapeutics to posterior eye segment: cell-encapsulating systems.

PMID- 28553334
TI  - Role of the STRIPAK complex and the Hippo pathway in synaptic terminal formation.

PMID- 28553335
TI  - Regulatory role of microRNA on inflammatory responses of diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28553336
TI  - Food, polyphenols and neuroprotection.

PMID- 28553337
TI  - Recent advances and future directions for the pharmacogenetic basis of anti-VEGF
      treatment response in neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

PMID- 28553338
TI  - Translational research in early neuroscience careers of high school students.

PMID- 28553339
TI  - Tibolone modulates neuronal plasticity through regulating Tau, GSK3beta/Akt/PI3K
      pathway and CDK5 p35/p25 complexes in the hippocampus of aged male mice.
AB  - Aging is a key risk factor for cognitive decline and age-related
      neurodegenerative disorders. Also, an age-related decrease in sex steroid
      hormones may have a negative impact on the formation of neurofibrillary tangles
      (NFTs); these hormones can regulate Tau phosphorylation and the principal kinase
      GSK3beta involved in this process. Hormone replacement therapy decreases NFTs,
      but it increases the risk of some types of cancer. However, other synthetic
      hormones such as tibolone (TIB) have been used for hormone replacement therapy.
      The aim of this work was to evaluate the long-term effects of TIB (0.01 mg/kg and
      1 mg/kg, intragastrically for 12 weeks) on the content of total and
      hyperphosphorylated Tau (PHF-1) proteins and the regulation of GSK3beta/Akt/PI3K
      pathway and CDK5/p35/p25 complexes in the hippocampus of aged male mice. We
      observed that the content of PHF-1 decreased with TIB administration. In
      contrast, no changes were observed in the active form of GSK3beta or PI3K. TIB
      decreased the expression of the total and phosphorylated form of Akt while
      increased that of p110 and p85. The content of CDK5 was differentially modified
      with TIB: it was increased at low doses and decreased at high doses. When we
      analyzed the content of CDK5 activators, an increase was found on p35; however,
      the content of p25 decreased with administration of low dose of TIB. Our results
      suggest a possible mechanism of action of TIB in the hippocampus of aged male
      mice. Through the regulation of Tau and GSK3beta/Akt/PI3K pathway, and
      CDK5/p35/p25 complexes, TIB may modulate neuronal plasticity and regulate
      learning and memory processes.

PMID- 28553341
TI  - Diffusion tensor imaging assesses white matter injury in neonates with hypoxic
      ischemic encephalopathy.
AB  - With improvements in care of at-risk neonates, more and more children survive.
      This makes it increasingly important to assess, soon after birth, the prognosis
      of children with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Computed tomography,
      ultrasound, and conventional magnetic resonance imaging are helpful to diagnose
      brain injury, but cannot quantify white matter damage. In this study, ten full
      term infants without brain injury and twenty-two full-term neonates with hypoxic
      ischemic encephalopathy (14 moderate cases and 8 severe cases) underwent
      diffusion tensor imaging to assess its feasibility in evaluating white matter
      damage in this condition. Results demonstrated that fractional anisotropy, voxel
      volume, and number of fiber bundles were different in some brain areas between
      infants with brain injury and those without brain injury. The correlation between
      fractional anisotropy values and neonatal behavioral neurological assessment
      scores was closest in the posterior limbs of the internal capsule. We conclude
      that diffusion tensor imaging can quantify white matter injury in neonates with
      hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

PMID- 28553340
TI  - Aerobic exercise combined with huwentoxin-I mitigates chronic cerebral ischemia
      injury.
AB  - Ca2+ channel blockers have been shown to protect neurons from ischemia, and
      aerobic exercise has significant protective effects on a variety of chronic
      diseases. The present study injected huwentoxin-I (HWTX-I), a spider peptide
      toxin that blocks Ca2+ channels, into the caudal vein of a chronic cerebral
      ischemia mouse model, once every 2 days, for a total of 15 injections. During
      this time, a subgroup of mice was subjected to treadmill exercise for 5 weeks.
      Results showed amelioration of cortical injury and improved neurological function
      in mice with chronic cerebral ischemia in the HWTX-I + aerobic exercise group.
      The combined effects of HWTX-I and exercise were superior to HWTX-I or aerobic
      exercise alone. HWTX-I effectively activated the Notch signal transduction
      pathway in brain tissue. Aerobic exercise up-regulated synaptophysin mRNA
      expression. These results demonstrated that aerobic exercise, in combination with
      HWTX-I, effectively relieved neuronal injury induced by chronic cerebral ischemia
      via the Notch signaling pathway and promoting synaptic regeneration.

PMID- 28553342
TI  - Low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation improves motor
      dysfunction after cerebral infarction.
AB  - Low frequency (<= 1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can
      affect the excitability of the cerebral cortex and synaptic plasticity. Although
      this is a common method for clinical treatment of cerebral infarction, whether it
      promotes the recovery of motor function remains controversial. Twenty patients
      with cerebral infarction combined with hemiparalysis were equally and randomly
      divided into a low frequency rTMS group and a control group. The patients in the
      low frequency rTMS group were given 1-Hz rTMS to the contralateral primary motor
      cortex with a stimulus intensity of 90% motor threshold, 30 minutes/day. The
      patients in the control group were given sham stimulation. After 14 days of
      treatment, clinical function scores (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale,
      Barthel Index, and Fugl-Meyer Assessment) improved significantly in the low
      frequency rTMS group, and the effects were better than that in the control group.
      We conclude that low frequency (1 Hz) rTMS for 14 days can help improve motor
      function after cerebral infarction.

PMID- 28553343
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging-three-dimensional printing technology fabricates
      customized scaffolds for brain tissue engineering.
AB  - Conventional fabrication methods lack the ability to control both macro- and
      micro-structures of generated scaffolds. Three-dimensional printing is a solid
      free-form fabrication method that provides novel ways to create customized
      scaffolds with high precision and accuracy. In this study, an electrically
      controlled cortical impactor was used to induce randomized brain tissue defects.
      The overall shape of scaffolds was designed using rat-specific anatomical data
      obtained from magnetic resonance imaging, and the internal structure was created
      by computer-aided design. As the result of limitations arising from insufficient
      resolution of the manufacturing process, we magnified the size of the cavity
      model prototype five-fold to successfully fabricate customized collagen-chitosan
      scaffolds using three-dimensional printing. Results demonstrated that scaffolds
      have three-dimensional porous structures, high porosity, highly specific surface
      areas, pore connectivity and good internal characteristics. Neural stem cells co
      cultured with scaffolds showed good viability, indicating good biocompatibility
      and biodegradability. This technique may be a promising new strategy for
      regenerating complex damaged brain tissues, and helps pave the way toward
      personalized medicine.

PMID- 28553344
TI  - Ca2+ involvement in activation of extracellular-signal-regulated-kinase 1/2 and m
      calpain after axotomy of the sciatic nerve.
AB  - Detailed mechanisms behind regeneration after nerve injury, in particular signal
      transduction and the fate of Schwann cells (SCs), are poorly understood. Here, we
      investigated axotomy-induced activation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase
      1/2 (ERK1/2; important for proliferation) and m-calpain in vitro, and the
      relation to Ca2+ deletion and Schwann cell proliferation and death after rat
      sciatic nerve axotomy. Nerve segments were cultured for up to 72 hours with and
      without ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N, N, N', N'-tetraacetic acid
      (EGTA). In some experiments, 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was added during the
      last 24 hours to detect proliferating cells and propidium iodide (PI) was added
      at the last hour to detect dead and/or dying cells. Immunohistochemistry of
      sections of the cultured nerve segments was performed to label m-calpain and the
      phosphorylated and activated form of ERK1/2. The experiments revealed that
      immunoreactivity for p-ERK1/2 increased with time in organotypically cultured
      SCs. p-ERK1/2 and m-calpain were also observed in axons. A significant increase
      in the number of dead or dying SCs was observed in nerve segments cultured for 24
      hours. When deprived of Ca2+, activation of axonal m-calpain was reduced, whereas
      p-ERK1/2 was increased in SCs. Ca2+ deprivation also significantly reduced the
      number of proliferating SCs, and instead increased the number of dead or dying
      SCs. Ca2+ seems to play an important role in activation of ERK1/2 in SCs and in
      SC survival and proliferation. In addition, extracellular Ca2+ levels are also
      required for m-calpain activation and up-regulation in axons. Thus, regulation of
      Ca2+ levels is likely to be a useful method to promote SC proliferation.

PMID- 28553345
TI  - Recombinant human fibroblast growth factor-2 promotes nerve regeneration and
      functional recovery after mental nerve crush injury.
AB  - Several studies have shown that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) can directly
      affect axon regeneration after peripheral nerve damage. In this study, we
      performed sensory tests and histological analyses to study the effect of
      recombinant human FGF-2 (rhFGF2) treatment on damaged mental nerves. The mental
      nerves of 6-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were crush-injured for 1 minute and
      then treated with 10 or 50 MUg/mL rhFGF2 or PBS in crush injury area with a mini
      Osmotic pump. Sensory test using von Frey filaments at 1 week revealed the
      presence of sensory degeneration based on decreased gap score and increased
      difference score. However, at 2 weeks, the gap score and difference score were
      significantly rebounded in the mental nerve crush group treated with 10 MUg/mL
      rhFGF2. Interestingly, treatment with 10 MUg/mL rhFGF had a more obviously
      positive effect on the gap score than treatment with 50 MUg/mL rhFGF2. In
      addition, retrograde neuronal tracing with Dil revealed a significant increase in
      nerve regeneration in the trigeminal ganglion at 2 and 4 weeks in the rhFGF2
      groups (10 MUg/mL and 50 MUg/mL) than in the PBS group. The 10 MUg/mL rhFGF2
      group also showed an obviously robust regeneration in axon density in the mental
      nerve at 4 weeks. Our results demonstrate that 10 MUg/mL rhFGF induces mental
      nerve regeneration and sensory recovery after mental nerve crush injury.

PMID- 28553346
TI  - Exenatide promotes regeneration of injured rat sciatic nerve.
AB  - Damage to peripheral nerves results in partial or complete dysfunction. After
      peripheral nerve injuries, a full functional recovery usually cannot be achieved
      despite the standard surgical repairs. Neurotrophic factors and growth factors
      stimulate axonal growth and support the viability of nerve cells. The objective
      of this study is to investigate the neurotrophic effect of exenatide (glucagon
      like peptide-1 analog) in a rat sciatic nerve neurotmesis model. We injected 10
      MUg/d exenatide for 12 weeks in the experimental group (n = 12) and 0.1 mL/d
      saline for 12 weeks in the control group (n = 12). We evaluated nerve
      regeneration by conducting electrophysiological and motor functional tests.
      Histological changes were evaluated at weeks 1, 3, 6, and 9. Nerve regeneration
      was monitored using stereomicroscopy. The electrophysiological and motor
      functions in rats treated with exenatide were improved at 12 weeks after surgery.
      Histological examination revealed a significant increase in the number of axons
      in injured sciatic nerve following exenatide treatment confirmed by
      stereomicroscopy. In an experimentally induced neurotmesis model in rats,
      exenatide had a positive effect on nerve regeneration evidenced by
      electromyography, functional motor tests, histological and stereomicroscopic
      findings.

PMID- 28553347
TI  - Mitomycin C induces apoptosis in human epidural scar fibroblasts after surgical
      decompression for spinal cord injury.
AB  - Numerous studies have shown that topical application of mitomycin C after
      surgical decompression effectively reduces scar adhesion. However, the underlying
      mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the effect of mitomycin
      C on the proliferation and apoptosis of human epidural scar fibroblasts. Human
      epidural scar fibroblasts were treated with various concentrations of mitomycin C
      (1, 5, 10, 20, 40 MUg/mL) for 12, 24 and 48 hours. Mitomycin C suppressed the
      growth of these cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Mitomycin C
      upregulated the expression levels of Fas, DR4, DR5, cleaved caspase-8/9, Bax, Bim
      and cleaved caspase-3 proteins, and it downregulated Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL expression.
      In addition, inhibitors of caspase-8 and caspase-9 (Z-IETD-FMK and Z-LEHD-FMK,
      respectively) did not fully inhibit mitomycin C-induced apoptosis. Furthermore,
      mitomycin C induced endoplasmic reticulum stress by increasing the expression of
      glucose-regulated protein 78, CAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein
      (CHOP) and caspase-4 in a dose-dependent manner. Salubrinal significantly
      inhibited the mitomycin C-induced cell viability loss and apoptosis, and these
      effects were accompanied by a reduction in CHOP expression. Our results support
      the hypothesis that mitomycin C induces human epidural scar fibroblast apoptosis,
      at least in part, via the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway.

PMID- 28553348
TI  - Neuroprotective mechanism of Kai Xin San: upregulation of hippocampal insulin
      degrading enzyme protein expression and acceleration of amyloid-beta degradation.
AB  - Kai Xin San is a Chinese herbal formula composed of Radix Ginseng, Poria, Radix
      Polygalae and Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome. It has been used in China for many
      years for treating amnesia. Kai Xin San ameliorates amyloid-beta (Abeta)-induced
      cognitive dysfunction and is neuroprotective in vivo, but its precise mechanism
      remains unclear. Expression of insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE), which degrades
      Abeta, is strongly correlated with cognitive function. Here, we injected rats
      with exogenous Abeta42 (200 MUM, 5 MUL) into the hippocampus and subsequently
      administered Kai Xin San (0.54 or 1.08 g/kg/d) intragastrically for 21
      consecutive days. Hematoxylin-eosin and Nissl staining revealed that Kai Xin San
      protected neurons against Abeta-induced damage. Furthermore, enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay, western blot and polymerase chain reaction results showed
      that Kai Xin San decreased Abeta42 protein levels and increased expression of IDE
      protein, but not mRNA, in the hippocampus. Our findings reveal that Kai Xin San
      facilitates hippocampal Abeta degradation and increases IDE expression, which
      leads, at least in part, to the alleviation of hippocampal neuron injury in rats.

PMID- 28553350
TI  - Recovery of multiply injured ascending reticular activating systems in a stroke
      patient.

PMID- 28553351
TI  - Fast Recall for Complex-Valued Hopfield Neural Networks with Projection Rules.
AB  - Many models of neural networks have been extended to complex-valued neural
      networks. A complex-valued Hopfield neural network (CHNN) is a complex-valued
      version of a Hopfield neural network. Complex-valued neurons can represent
      multistates, and CHNNs are available for the storage of multilevel data, such as
      gray-scale images. The CHNNs are often trapped into the local minima, and their
      noise tolerance is low. Lee improved the noise tolerance of the CHNNs by
      detecting and exiting the local minima. In the present work, we propose a new
      recall algorithm that eliminates the local minima. We show that our proposed
      recall algorithm not only accelerated the recall but also improved the noise
      tolerance through computer simulations.

PMID- 28553349
TI  - Effects of medicinal plants on Alzheimer's disease and memory deficits.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by
      memory deficits. Various studies have been carried out to find therapeutic
      approaches for Alzheimer's disease. However, the proper treatment option is still
      not available. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, but symptomatic
      treatment may improve the memory and other dementia related problems. Traditional
      medicine is practiced worldwide as memory enhancer since ancient times. Natural
      therapy including herbs and medicinal plants has been used in the treatment of
      memory deficits such as dementia, amnesia, as well as Alzheimer's disease since a
      long time. Medicinal plants have been used in different systems of medicine,
      particularly Unani system of medicines and exhibited their powerful roles in the
      management and cure of memory disorders. Most of herbs and plants have been
      chemically evaluated and their efficacy has also been proven in clinical trials.
      However, the underlying mechanisms of actions are still on the way. In this
      paper, we have reviewed the role of different medicinal plants that play an
      important role in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and memory deficits using
      conventional herbal therapy.

PMID- 28553352
TI  - Hepatitis C Virus and Nonliver Solid Cancers: Is There an Association between HCV
      and Cancers of the Pancreas, Thyroid, Kidney, Oral Cavity, Breast, Lung, and
      Gastrointestinal Tract?
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known for its oncogenic potential and has been found
      to be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It
      has also been postulated that HCV may play a role in the development of other
      extrahepatic solid tumors of other organs of the body since it has been isolated
      from the vessel wall, kidney, and oral mucosa. In this article, we have reviewed
      epidemiological studies that have been done to look into the relationship of HCV
      with nonliver solid cancers of the pancreas, thyroid, renal, oral cavity, breast,
      and lung and nonpancreatic gastrointestinal cancers. Based on this review, HCV
      might be associated with an increased risk of renal cell and lung cancers.

PMID- 28553353
TI  - New Modified UPLC/Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method for Determination of
      Risperidone and Its Active Metabolite 9-Hydroxyrisperidone in Plasma: Application
      to Dose-Dependent Pharmacokinetic Study in Sprague-Dawley Rats.
AB  - Sensitive and specific liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC
      MS/MS) assay has been developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of
      risperidone (RIS) and its active metabolite 9-hydroxyrisperidone (9-OH-RIS) in
      rat plasma using olanzapine (OLA) as internal standard (IS). Pharmacokinetics of
      risperidone and its active metabolite 9-hydroxyrisperidone was compared across
      different doses (0.3, 1.0, and 6.0 mg/kg). Serial blood sample was collected over
      a time of 48 hours and analyzed for risperidone and its active metabolite 9
      hydroxyrisperidone. The pharmacokinetics parameters including Cmax, tmax, and AUC
      were determined for risperidone and its active ingredient. The method was linear
      in the concentration range of 0.2-500 ng/mL for risperidone and 9-OH-risperidone,
      with coefficients of determination greater than 0.998 and lower limit of
      quantitation of 0.2 ng/mL. Blood levels of risperidone and its active metabolite
      were roughly dose-proportional. The method developed herein is simple and rapid
      and was successfully applied for dose-dependent pharmacokinetic study.

PMID- 28553354
TI  - Construct, Face, and Content Validation on Voxel-Man(r) Simulator for Otologic
      Surgical Training.
AB  - Objective. To assess the face, content, and construct validity of the Voxel-Man
      TempoSurg Virtual Reality simulator. Participants and Methods. 74 ear, nose, and
      throat (ENT) surgeons participated. They were assigned to one of two groups
      according to their level of expertise: the expert group (n = 16) and the novice
      group (n = 58). The participants performed four temporal bone dissection tasks on
      the simulator. Performances were assessed by a global score and then compared to
      assess the construct validity of the simulator. Finally, the expert group
      assessed the face and content validity by means of a five-point Likert-type
      scale. Results. experienced surgeons performed better (p < .01) and faster (p <
      .001) than the novices. However, the groups did not differ in terms of bone
      volume removed (p = .11) or number of injuries (p = .37). 93.7% of experienced
      surgeons stated they would recommend this simulator for anatomical learning. Most
      (87.5%) also thought that it could be integrated into surgical training.
      Conclusion. The Voxel-Man TempoSurg Virtual Reality simulator constitutes an
      interesting complementary tool to traditional teaching methods for training in
      otologic surgery.

PMID- 28553355
TI  - Innovative 3D Model of the Human Middle Ear in High Resolution with a
      Histological Microgrinding Method: A Feasibility Study and Comparison with MUCT.
AB  - Conclusion. The development of a histological 3D model of the tympanic cavity
      visualizes the exact microanatomy of the sound conduction organ and is therefore
      essential for finite elements simulations and surgical training. Objectives. So
      far, no accurate histological 3D model of the sound conduction system existed in
      literature. For 3D reconstruction of the very fine structures inside and outside
      the auditory ossicles, a method based on histological slices allows a more
      differential analysis of both hard and soft tissues and could thus be superior to
      MUCT. Method. A complete temporal bone was embedded in epoxy resin and
      microground in distances of about 34 MUm. After photodocumentation of every
      plane, a 3D reconstruction was performed by using the Computer Aided Design (CAD)
      program Rhinoceros 5(r). For comparison, a MUCT of the same specimen resulted in
      a 3D model of the calcified structures in the middle ear. Results. The
      histological 3D model gives an excellent overview to all anatomical soft and bony
      tissues of the human auditory ossicles. Specifically the fine blood vessel system
      and the exact dimension of cartilage areas inside the ossicles can be illustrated
      much more precisely than with MUCT data. The present technique also allows the
      evaluation of the fine connecting ligaments inside the tympanic cavity.

PMID- 28553356
TI  - Asymptomatic Brain Edema after Hemodialysis Initiation in a Patient with Severe
      Uremia.
AB  - A 66-year-old man with severe renal insufficiency presented with mild confusion
      associated with uremia. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed no
      remarkable changes. The patient was placed on short-duration hemodialysis (2
      hours) with smaller surface area and low blood flow (100 mL/min) to avoid
      dialysis disequilibrium syndrome (DDS). His consciousness gradually improved and
      he did not develop apparent DDS symptoms. However, T2-weighted FLAIR MRI showed
      increased signal intensities bilaterally in the cortical and subcortical areas of
      the occipital lobe on day 15. In other words, cranial MRI showed cerebral edema,
      indicating asymptomatic DDS. On day 29, cranial MRI showed a return to findings
      on admission. In this case, because the patient did not have apparent DDS
      symptoms despite MRI changes, we diagnosed asymptomatic cerebral edema. The
      patient was discharged on regular intermittent HD without any neurological
      deficits. No further neurological disturbances were noted during 1-year follow
      up. MRI findings in ESKD patients without DDS symptoms help to clarify the
      diagnosis of cerebral edema. In this case, the patient did not have apparent DDS
      symptoms and was therefore diagnosed with asymptomatic cerebral edema.

PMID- 28553357
TI  - Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Exhibit Enhanced Proliferative Capacity and
      Retain Multipotency Longer than Donor-Matched Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells
      during Expansion In Vitro.
AB  - Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and adipose-derived
      multipotent/mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) have been proposed as the ideal cell
      types for a range of musculoskeletal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
      therapies. However, extensive in vitro expansion is required to generate
      sufficient cells for clinical application and previous studies have demonstrated
      differences in the proliferative capacity and the impact of expansion on
      differentiation capacity of both MSCs and ASCs. Significantly, these studies
      routinely use cells from different donors, making direct comparisons difficult.
      Importantly, this study directly compared the proliferative capacity and
      multipotency of human MSCs and ASCs from the same donors to determine how each
      cell type was affected by in vitro expansion. The study identified that ASCs were
      able to proliferate faster and undergo greater population doublings than donor
      matched MSCs and that senescence was primarily driven via telomere shortening and
      upregulation of p16ink4a. Both donor-matched MSCs and ASCs were capable of
      trilineage differentiation early in cultures; however, while differentiation
      capacity diminished with time in culture, ASCs retained enhanced capacity
      compared to MSCs. These findings suggest that ASCs may be the most appropriate
      cell type for musculoskeletal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
      therapies due to their enhanced in vitro expansion capacity and limited loss of
      differentiation potential.

PMID- 28553358
TI  - Inhibition of Lysyl Oxidases Impairs Migration and Angiogenic Properties of Tumor
      Associated Pericytes.
AB  - Pericytes are important cellular components of the tumor microenviroment with
      established roles in angiogenesis and metastasis. These two cancer hallmarks are
      modulated by enzymes of the LOX family, but thus far, information about LOX
      relevance in tumor-associated pericytes is lacking. Here, we performed a
      comparative characterization of normal and tumoral pericytes and report for the
      first time the modulatory effects of LOX enzymes on activated pericyte
      properties. Tumoral pericytes isolated from childhood ependymoma and
      neuroblastoma specimens displayed angiogenic properties in vitro and expressed
      typical markers, including CD146, NG2, and PDGFRbeta. Expression of all LOX
      family members could be detected in both normal and tumor-associated pericytes.
      In most pericyte samples, LOXL3 was the family member displaying the highest
      transcript levels. Inhibition of LOX/LOXL activity with the inhibitor beta
      aminopropionitrile (betaAPN) significantly reduced migration of pericytes, while
      proliferation rates were kept unaltered. Formation of tube-like structures in
      vitro by pericytes was also significantly impaired upon inhibition of LOX/LOXL
      activity with betaAPN, which induced more prominent effects in tumor-associated
      pericytes. These findings reveal a novel involvement of the LOX family of enzymes
      in migration and angiogenic properties of pericytes, with implications in tumor
      development and in therapeutic targeting tumor microenvironment constituents.

PMID- 28553359
TI  - Bone Regeneration Induced by Bone Porcine Block with Bone Marrow Stromal Stem
      Cells in a Minipig Model of Mandibular "Critical Size" Defect.
AB  - Introduction. Adding stem cells to biodegradable scaffolds to enhance bone
      regeneration is a valuable option. Different kinds of stem cells with
      osteoblastic activity were tested, such as bone marrow stromal stem cells
      (BMSSCs). Aim. To assess a correct protocol for osteogenic stem cell
      differentiation, so BMSSCs were seeded on a bone porcine block (BPB). Materials
      and Methods. Bone marrow from six minipigs was extracted from tibiae and humeri
      and treated to isolate BMSSCs. After seeding on BPB, critical-size defects were
      created on each mandible of the minipigs and implanted with BPB and BPB/BMSSCs.
      After three months, histomorphometric analysis was performed. Results.
      Histomorphometric analysis provided percentages of the three groups. Tissues
      present in control defects were 23 +/- 2% lamellar bone, 28 +/- 1% woven bone,
      and 56 +/- 4% marrow spaces; in BPB defects were 20 +/- 5% BPB, 32 +/- 2%
      lamellar bone, 24 +/- 1% woven bone, and 28 +/- 2% marrow spaces; in BPB/BMSSCs
      defects were 17 +/- 4% BPB/BMSSCs, 42 +/- 2% lamellar bone, 12 +/- 1% woven bone,
      and 22 +/- 3% marrow spaces. Conclusion. BPB used as a scaffold to induce bone
      regeneration may benefit from the addition of BDPSCs in the tissue-engineered
      constructs.

PMID- 28553360
TI  - In Vivo Immunogenic Response to Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the Role of
      Preactivated Mesenchymal Stem Cells Cotransplanted with Allogeneic Islets.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells capable of differentiating
      into cells from the mesenchymal lineage. The hypoimmunogenic characteristic of
      MSCs has encouraged studies using allogeneic MSCs for the treatment of autoimmune
      diseases and inflammatory conditions. Promising preclinical results and the
      safety of allogeneic MSC transplantation have created the possibility of "off-the
      shelf" clinical application of allogeneic cells. This study has aimed to evaluate
      the survival of untreated and IFN-gamma- and TNF-alpha-treated (preactivated)
      allogeneic MSCs transplanted under the kidney capsule of immunocompetent mice
      together with the role of preactivated MSCs after cotransplantation with
      allogeneic islets. The preactivation of MSCs upregulated the gene expression of
      anti-inflammatory molecules and also enhanced their immunomodulatory capacity in
      vitro. In vivo, allogeneic MSCs provoked an immunogenic response, with the
      infiltration of inflammatory cells at the transplant site and full graft
      rejection in both the untreated and preactivated groups. Allogeneic islets
      cotransplanted with preactivated MSCs prolonged graft survival for about 6 days,
      compared with islet alone. The present results corroborate the hypothesis that
      allogeneic MSCs are not immune-privileged and that after playing their
      therapeutic role they are rejected. Strategies that reduce allogeneic MSC
      immunogenicity can potentially prolong their in vivo persistence and improve the
      therapeutic effects.

PMID- 28553361
TI  - Charting Availability of Processed and Unprocessed Foods in School Neighbourhood
      Nutrition Environments in an Urban Australian Setting.
AB  - School Neighbourhood Nutrition Environments (SNNEs) can facilitate or impede
      healthy eating. This study describes the SNNEs surrounding 6 Good Start Program
      (GSP) schools in 5 suburbs in Logan, Queensland. Relative density of healthy and
      unhealthy food outlets was calculated for SNNEs surrounding GSP (6) and non-GSP
      (10) schools within the 5 suburbs. Relative accessibility of minimally processed
      and highly processed food and drink in SNNEs of the 6 GSP schools was determined
      using shelf measurements of snack foods. Unhealthy outlets greatly outnumber
      healthy outlets (mean relative density 15.6%, median 19.1%). The majority of
      outlets stock predominantly highly processed food and drink. Study areas are
      dominated by unhealthy food outlets and highly processed food.

PMID- 28553363
TI  - Pancake bouncing on superhydrophobic surfaces.
AB  - Engineering surfaces that promote rapid drop detachment1,2 is of importance to a
      wide range of applications including anti-icing3-5, dropwise condensation6, and
      self-cleaning7-9. Here we show how superhydrophobic surfaces patterned with
      lattices of submillimetre-scale posts decorated with nano-textures can generate a
      counter-intuitive bouncing regime: drops spread on impact and then leave the
      surface in a flattened, pancake shape without retracting. This allows for a four
      fold reduction in contact time compared to conventional complete rebound1,10-13.
      We demonstrate that the pancake bouncing results from the rectification of
      capillary energy stored in the penetrated liquid into upward motion adequate to
      lift the drop. Moreover, the timescales for lateral drop spreading over the
      surface and for vertical motion must be comparable. In particular, by designing
      surfaces with tapered micro/nanotextures which behave as harmonic springs, the
      timescales become independent of the impact velocity, allowing the occurrence of
      pancake bouncing and rapid drop detachment over a wide range of impact
      velocities.

PMID- 28553362
TI  - Modified Suanzaorentang Had the Treatment Effect for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
      for the First 4 Weeks of Paroxetine Medication: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled
      Study.
AB  - Background. Paroxetine does not show satisfactory therapeutic effect for
      generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients for the first 2-4 weeks of
      medication. Diazepam is always concurrently used although it has some
      shortcomings such as physical dependence and withdrawal reactions. In this study,
      we aimed to identify whether modified Suanzaorentang (MSZRT), a combined Chinese
      formula including Suanzaorentang (SZRT) and Zhizichitang (ZZCT), could control
      the anxiety of GAD for the first 4 weeks of paroxetine medication. Methods. 156
      GAD patients were randomized to the treatment of paroxetine, paroxetine-diazepam,
      or paroxetine-MSZRT for 4 weeks. Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) Test and Self
      Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) Test were determined each week as the evaluation of
      clinical efficacy. Adverse events (AEs) were also closely observed by performing
      the Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale (TESS) Test. Results. Both paroxetine-MSZRT
      and paroxetine-diazepam decreased more HAMA and SAS total scores than paroxetine
      from weeks 1 to 3. Paroxetine-MSZRT as well as paroxetine-diazepam had an
      obviously higher onset rate than paroxetine in each week. After 4 weeks'
      treatment, the overall effectiveness rate in the paroxetine-MSZRT group (90.00%)
      was obviously higher than those of the paroxetine group (74.42%) but did not
      significantly differ from the paroxetine-diazepam group (93.88%). Conclusion.
      MSZRT had the treatment effect for GAD when paroxetine was used for the first 4
      weeks.

PMID- 28553364
TI  - Crystal Structure of the Superconducting Phase of Sulfur Hydride.
AB  - A superconducting critical temperature above 200 K has recently been discovered
      in H2S (or D2S) under high hydrostatic pressure1, 2. These measurements were
      interpreted in terms of a decomposition of these materials into elemental sulfur
      and a hydrogen-rich hydride that is responsible for the superconductivity,
      although direct experimental evidence for this mechanism has so far been lacking.
      Here we report the crystal structure of the superconducting phase of hydrogen
      sulfide (and deuterium sulfide) in the normal and superconducting states obtained
      by means of synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements, combined with electrical
      resistance measurements at both room and low temperatures. We find that the
      superconducting phase is mostly in good agreement with theoretically predicted
      body-centered cubic (bcc) structure for H3S (Ref.3). The presence of elemental
      sulfur is also manifest in the X-ray diffraction patterns, thus proving the
      decomposition mechanism of H2S to H3S + S under pressure4-6.

PMID- 28553365
TI  - Mini Electrodes on Ablation Catheters: Valuable Addition or Redundant
      Information?-Insights from a Computational Study.
AB  - Radiofrequency ablation has become a first-line approach for curative therapy of
      many cardiac arrhythmias. Various existing catheter designs provide high spatial
      resolution to identify the best spot for performing ablation and to assess lesion
      formation. However, creation of transmural and nonconducting ablation lesions
      requires usage of catheters with larger electrodes and improved thermal
      conductivity, leading to reduced spatial sensitivity. As trade-off, an ablation
      catheter with integrated mini electrodes was introduced. The additional
      diagnostic benefit of this catheter is still not clear. In order to solve this
      issue, we implemented a computational setup with different ablation scenarios.
      Our in silico results show that peak-to-peak amplitudes of unipolar electrograms
      from mini electrodes are more suitable to differentiate ablated and nonablated
      tissue compared to electrograms from the distal ablation electrode. However, in
      orthogonal mapping position, no significant difference was observed between
      distal electrode and mini electrodes electrograms in the ablation scenarios. In
      conclusion, catheters with mini electrodes bring about additional benefit to
      distinguish ablated tissue from nonablated tissue in parallel position with high
      spatial resolution. It is feasible to detect conduction gaps in linear lesions
      with this catheter by evaluating electrogram data from mini electrodes.

PMID- 28553366
TI  - Dysphonic Voice Pattern Analysis of Patients in Parkinson's Disease Using Minimum
      Interclass Probability Risk Feature Selection and Bagging Ensemble Learning
      Methods.
AB  - Analysis of quantified voice patterns is useful in the detection and assessment
      of dysphonia and related phonation disorders. In this paper, we first study the
      linear correlations between 22 voice parameters of fundamental frequency
      variability, amplitude variations, and nonlinear measures. The highly correlated
      vocal parameters are combined by using the linear discriminant analysis method.
      Based on the probability density functions estimated by the Parzen-window
      technique, we propose an interclass probability risk (ICPR) method to select the
      vocal parameters with small ICPR values as dominant features and compare with the
      modified Kullback-Leibler divergence (MKLD) feature selection approach. The
      experimental results show that the generalized logistic regression analysis
      (GLRA), support vector machine (SVM), and Bagging ensemble algorithm input with
      the ICPR features can provide better classification results than the same
      classifiers with the MKLD selected features. The SVM is much better at
      distinguishing normal vocal patterns with a specificity of 0.8542. Among the
      three classification methods, the Bagging ensemble algorithm with ICPR features
      can identify 90.77% vocal patterns, with the highest sensitivity of 0.9796 and
      largest area value of 0.9558 under the receiver operating characteristic curve.
      The classification results demonstrate the effectiveness of our feature selection
      and pattern analysis methods for dysphonic voice detection and measurement.

PMID- 28553367
TI  - A Novel Remote Rehabilitation System with the Fusion of Noninvasive Wearable
      Device and Motion Sensing for Pulmonary Patients.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a type of lung disease caused by
      chronically poor airflow that makes breathing difficult. As a chronic illness, it
      typically worsens over time. Therefore, pulmonary rehabilitation exercises and
      patient management for extensive periods of time are required. This paper
      presents a remote rehabilitation system for a multimodal sensors-based
      application for patients who have chronic breathing difficulties. The process
      involves the fusion of sensory data-captured motion data by stereo-camera and
      photoplethysmogram signal by a wearable PPG sensor-that are the input variables
      of a detection and evaluation framework. In addition, we incorporated a set of
      rehabilitation exercises specific for pulmonary patients into the system by
      fusing sensory data. Simultaneously, the system also features medical functions
      that accommodate the needs of medical professionals and those which ease the use
      of the application for patients, including exercises for tracking progress,
      patient performance, exercise assignments, and exercise guidance. Finally, the
      results indicate the accurate determination of pulmonary exercises from the
      fusion of sensory data. This remote rehabilitation system provides a comfortable
      and cost-effective option in the healthcare rehabilitation system.

PMID- 28553368
TI  - Detection of X-ray photons by solution-processed organic-inorganic perovskites.
AB  - The evolution of real-time medical diagnostic tools such as angiography and
      computer tomography from radiography based on photographic plates was enabled by
      the development of integrated solid-state X-ray photon detectors, based on
      conventional solid-state semiconductors. Recently, for optoelectronic devices
      operating in the visible and near infrared spectral regions, solution-processed
      organic and inorganic semiconductors have also attracted immense attention. Here
      we demonstrate a possibility to use such inexpensive semiconductors for sensitive
      detection of X-ray photons by direct photon-to-current conversion. In particular,
      methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) offers a compelling
      combination of fast photoresponse and a high absorption cross-section for X-rays,
      owing to the heavy Pb and I atoms. Solution processed photodiodes as well as
      photoconductors are presented, exhibiting high values of X-ray sensitivity (up to
      25 uC mGyair-1 cm-3) and responsivity (1.9*104 carriers/photon), which are
      commensurate with those obtained by the current solid-state technology.

PMID- 28553369
TI  - Efficacy comparison of lyophilised black raspberries and combination of celecoxib
      and PBIT in prevention of carcinogen-induced oesophageal cancer in rats.
AB  - The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and mechanism of
      lyophilized black raspberries (BRB) versus the combination of celecoxib, a
      selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, and S,S'-1,4-phenylene-bis(1,2
      ethanediyl)bis-isothiourea (PBIT), a selective inducible nitric oxide synthase
      (iNOS) inhibitor in inhibition of carcinogen-induced esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma in rats. Our data indicated that tumor multiplicity and histologic
      grade of esophageal precancerous lesions were reduced in animals fed BRB compared
      to those fed celecoxib + PBIT. The mechanistic studies showed that BRB and its
      major anthocyanin suppressed cell proliferation and oncogenic signaling. Our
      findings demonstrated that dietary BRB is superior to the combination of two
      pharmaceutical drugs in esophageal cancer prevention. These observations suggest
      the potential value of translational studies using BRB food products for
      esophageal cancer prevention in humans, particularly those with high-risk
      premalignant lesions.

PMID- 28553370
TI  - Neonatal Hypoxic-ischemic Encephalopathy: A Radiological Review.
AB  - Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a devastating condition that
      may result in death or severe neurologic deficits in children. Neuroimaging with
      cranial ultrasound (US), computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are
      valuable tools in the workup of patients with HIE. The pattern of brain injury
      depends on the severity and duration of hypoxia and degree of brain maturation.
      Mild to moderate HI injury results in periventricular leukomalacia and germinal
      matrix bleed in preterm neonates, and parasagittal watershed infarcts in full
      term neonates. Severe HI injury involves deep gray matter in both term and
      preterm infants. Treatment of HIE is largely supportive. The current article
      reviews the etiopathophysiology and clinical manifestations of HIE, role of
      imaging in the evaluation of the condition, patterns of brain injury in term and
      preterm neonates, the treatment and the prognosis.

PMID- 28553371
TI  - Effect of Nimodipine on Morphine-related Withdrawal Syndrome in Rat Model: An
      Observational Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of L-type calcium channel blocker like
      nimodipine on morphine's withdrawal when it was administered continuously along
      with morphine versus a single bolus dose of nimodipine, which was administered at
      the end of the experiment before the precipitation of withdrawal reaction in
      morphine-dependent rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four groups of adult male Wistar
      rats were rendered morphine dependent by subcutaneous injections of morphine at a
      dose of 10 mg/kg for 10 days. Nimodipine 10 mg/kg intraperitoneally (ip)
      administered to one group once daily before morphine administration in the entire
      experimental period, and another group received nimodipine only once at the end
      of the experiment as a single bolus dose 2 mg/kg before the administration of
      naloxone. Naloxone 3 mg/kg was administered ip to all the groups to precipitate
      withdrawal reactions. The withdrawal reactions were evaluated and scored as per
      the Gellert and Holtzman global withdrawal rating scale. RESULTS: Nimodipine when
      administered as a single bolus dose before naloxone administration in morphine
      dependant rats reduced the features of withdrawal reactions more effectively than
      continuous administration of nimodipine along with morphine throughout the
      experimental period. CONCLUSION: We discovered that nimodipine helps in
      attenuating the severity of morphine withdrawal having potential role encountered
      during pharmacotherapy with morphine management of opioid dependence, well
      memory, impairement, cell signaling and phosphorylation of neuron.

PMID- 28553372
TI  - Clinical Spectrum, Comorbidities, and Risk Factor Profile of Cerebral Palsy
      Children: A Prospective Study.
AB  - AIM AND OBJECTIVE: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in
      childhood. This study aimed to describe clinical spectrum, comorbidities, and
      risk factors associated with CP children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This hospital
      based observational study was conducted in tertiary level hospital in Jaipur
      including 180 CP children aged 1-12 years, attending the Paediatric Neurology
      Outdoor and Child Development Centre. A detailed history of antenatal, natal, and
      postnatal events taken and thorough examination was performed to stratify
      children in proper topographical and physiological classification. RESULTS:
      Mothers of 47.7% CP children were primigravida and 17.7% mothers had anemia
      during pregnancy. Among natal factors, asphyxia contributed to maximum cases
      (52.2%). Seizure in postnatal life was the second most common risk factor for CP
      after asphyxia. Spastic CP (84.4%) was the most common physiological type, and
      quadriplegia (56.6%) was the most common topographical type observed in this
      study. Intellectual disability (47.7%) followed by epilepsy (41.6%) was the most
      common comorbidity. CONCLUSION: Even with the advancement of health-care system,
      asphyxia is the most common risk factor, and spastic quadriplegia is the most
      common type of CP. There is still a need of improving the health facilities to
      overcome this costly and common neuromotor disability. Widespread knowledge of
      common risk factors that can predispose to CP can prevent the CP development to
      some extent and knowledge of clinical spectrum, and comorbidities can improve
      their targeted treatment which can improve their growth and social participation.

PMID- 28553373
TI  - Resection of Pediatric Brain Tumors: Intraoperative Ultrasound Revisited.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extent of resection is a very important prognostic marker in most
      pediatric brain tumors. Intraoperative imaging facilitates resection control.
      Intraoperative ultrasound (IOUS) is a cost-effective alternative to
      intraoperative magnetic resonance, but scant literature addresses its utility in
      this context. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all pediatric brain tumors
      operated at our center using navigated three-dimensional ultrasound (US). The
      utility of the US in resection control was recorded and extent of resection
      evaluated. RESULTS: IOUS was used in 20 cases (3 for frameless biopsy and 17 for
      tumor resection control). It was 100% accurate in localizing all tumors and
      yielded 100% diagnosis in the biopsy cases. Technical limitations precluded its
      use in 2 of the 17 cases of tumor resection. In the remaining 15, it correctly
      predicted the residual tumor status in 13 cases (87%). A gross total resection
      was achieved overall in 12 cases (80%) with postoperative morbidity in only one
      case. CONCLUSIONS: IOUS is a useful tool to localize intracranial tumors and
      guide the resection reliably. Widespread use can improve its applicability and
      make it an effective intraoperative imaging tool in pediatric brain tumors.

PMID- 28553374
TI  - Levetiracetam in Neonatal Seizures as First-line Treatment: A Prospective Study.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of
      levetiracetam (LEV) as first-line treatment of neonatal seizures. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This study was conducted in patients of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of
      Santo Bambino Hospital, University of Catania, Italy, from January to August
      2016. A total of 16 neonates with convulsions not associated with major
      syndromes, which required anticonvulsant therapy, were included and underwent IV
      LEV at standard doses. RESULTS: All patients responded to treatment, with a
      variety range of seizure resolution period (from 24 h to 15 days; mean hours: 96
      +/- 110.95). No patient required a second anticonvulsant therapy. Regarding
      safety of LEV, no major side-effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS: To our
      knowledge, it is one of the few studies confirming the efficiency of LEV as first
      line treatment in seizures of this age group. LEV was effective in resolving
      seizures and was safely administered in the current study.

PMID- 28553375
TI  - Neurenteric Cyst: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in an Adolescent.
AB  - Intracranial neurenteric cysts are uncommon congenital space-occupying lesions
      that may be misinterpreted for other more frequent nonneoplastic cysts and cystic
      tumors. We discuss the imaging findings of this lesion in a 16-year-old female
      who presented with chronic headaches.

PMID- 28553376
TI  - Two Cases of Craniospinal Rachischisis Totalis: Role of Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging in Diagnosis and Review of Neural Tube Defects in the Indian Context with
      Implications for Folate Fortification.
AB  - Craniospinal rachischisis is a rare and severe form of neural tube defects
      (NTDs), which is always fatal. It is characterized by anencephaly accompanied by
      a bony defect of the spine and exposure of neural tissue. We describe the two
      patients with ultrasonographic and magnetic resonance imaging appearance of
      craniospinal rachischisis totalis, detected antenatally at 22 and 25 weeks of
      gestation, and confirmed after termination of pregnancy. The multifactorial
      etiology of NTDs, with specific reference to folate deficiency, is discussed with
      possible role of folate fortification in the Indian context.

PMID- 28553377
TI  - Sporadic Hyperekplexia Plus Syndrome.
AB  - A disorder of infants and children with pathological startle response, features
      of other system involvement, falls, and stiffness with retained consciousness. It
      should be differentiated from conditions such as myoclonic epilepsy, psychogenic
      movement disorder, Isaac syndrome, Schwartz-Jampel syndrome, Gilles de la
      Tourette, and culture-specific startle syndromes such as jumping Frenchman of
      Maine. A 5-year-old child symptomatic with repeated falls spontaneously as well
      as by sound and activities since neonatal period. He was having hyperalert
      facies, intelligent, cooperative with mild dysmorphism. His investigations were
      noncontributory except giant somatosensory evoked potentials and skeletal
      abnormalities. He showed excellent response to clonazepam and no complications on
      withdrawing the antiepileptic drugs. Proper diagnosis is of great therapeutic
      relevance and is based on high degree of suspicion.

PMID- 28553379
TI  - Noncontiguous Double Spinal Lipoma with Tethered Cord and Polydactyly: Two
      Different Embryological Events in One Patient.
AB  - Lumbosacral lipoma is reported to occur in 4-8 of 100,000 patients. Sixty-six
      percent of lipomyelomeningocele in young patients have accompanied by
      hypertrophic filum terminale. It is rare to find two isolated spinal lipomas
      simultaneously. Embryological origin of dorsal and filar lipomas is different
      from each other and hence rarer to find them together. Radical resection is now
      being preferred for better long-term progression-free survival. We report an
      interesting case of spinal dysraphism in a 4-month-old female child with
      protruding, nontender, soft, subcutaneous 5 cm * 7 cm mass of the lumbosacral
      area that had been present since birth. Other anomalies included polydactyly of
      left hand. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated two isolated spinal lipomas, a
      transitional type and a terminal type filum lipoma with an interval of normal
      filum between the two. The findings were confirmed at surgery and detethering
      done along the white plane with neural placode reconstruction as described by
      Dachling Pang. The child had an uneventful postoperative recovery.

PMID- 28553378
TI  - Dermoid of the Posterior Fossa in Chiari II Malformation: The First Reported
      Case.
AB  - Dermoid cysts are rare lesions, particularly in children. Chiari II malformations
      are seen in patients with myelomeningocele. Here, we present a child with Chiari
      II malformation who, during a Chiari II decompression, was found to have a
      dermoid cyst. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such case ever
      reported.

PMID- 28553380
TI  - Giant Occipital Meningoencephalocele in a Neonate: A Therapeutic Challenge.
AB  - Encephalocele is a rare lesion, being an embryological mesodermal anomaly which
      results in a defect in the cranium and dura, associated with herniation of
      meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, or brain tissues through a defect usually covered
      by scalp. Surgical management of children with giant occipital encephalocele
      requires careful attention to pediatric anesthetic and surgical principles. We
      present a case of a giant occipital encephalocele highlighting the problems
      encountered in its management.

PMID- 28553381
TI  - Unusual Presentation of Intrasacral Meningocele: A Case Report and Overview.
AB  - Intrasacral meningocele is an unusual congenital lesion. It is an intrathecal
      cystic formation arising as a protrusion of the arachnoid through a congenitally
      weak place in the dura mater. We report a case of a 12-year-old child with
      chronic pain with an intrasacral meningocele identified on magnetic resonance
      imaging.

PMID- 28553382
TI  - Klippel-Feil Syndrome Associated with Sacral Agenesis, Low Lying Cord,
      Lipomyelomeningocele and Split Cord Malformation Presenting with Tethered Cord
      Syndrome: Pentads Neural Tube Defects Spread along Whole Spinal Axis.
AB  - Neural tube defects are congenital development anomaly of the central nervous
      system and usually have relatively more predilection to affect at anterior and
      posterior neuropore embryological development sites, so usually one or two
      defects are commonly encountered. However, occurrence of simultaneous multiple
      neural tube defects is very rare, presence of constellation of five neural
      defects is extremely rare, and all defects add up together to produce gross
      neurological deficit. We present an interesting case of a 23-year-old male who
      presented with history of lower backache and noticed wasting and weakness of
      lower limbs associated with difficulty in walking for the last 2 years but had no
      associated sphincter disturbances. He was operated for lumbosacral
      lipomeningocoele repair at the age of 1 year. He was asymptomatic, following the
      first surgical intervention. At the current admission, he underwent re
      exploration of surgical wound with surgical repair although suffered mild
      temporary neurological worsening in the immediate postoperative period. Imaging
      feature and management of such rare constellation of five embryological anomalies
      and its significance and brief literature are discussed.

PMID- 28553384
TI  - An Unusual Complication following Ventriculoperitoneal Shunting.
AB  - We present the case of a ten-year old boy diagnosed with a rare syndrome as a
      complication of a commonly performed Neurosurgical procedure. To our knowledge
      this association has not been described in the literature and we discuss the
      plausible aetiology.

PMID- 28553385
TI  - Ossified Cephalhematoma: An Unusual Cause of Calvarial Mass in Infancy.
AB  - Cephalhematomas occurring in newborn usually resolve within a month. Rarely, they
      tend to ossify and present as hard scalp swelling. Unless one is aware of this
      possibility, this condition may be misinterpreted as bony tumor and cause
      needless apprehension to parents as well as the treating physician. A suspicion
      that ossified cephalhematoma (OC) could present in such a manner supported by
      careful history taking and relevant imaging (X-ray/computed tomography) would
      help in appropriate evaluation of this benign condition. The management of OC is
      controversial. Occasionally, they undergo spontaneous remodeling. Those with
      secondary craniosynostosis and/or disfigurement are treated surgically. Simple
      ossified lesions with no significant cosmetic issues may be conservatively
      tackled. We report such a case in a 3-month-old child. The other management
      options are briefly discussed.

PMID- 28553383
TI  - Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis: A Diagnostic Conundrum.
AB  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a syndrome of excessive immune
      activation causing widespread inflammation and tissue destruction leading to
      multi-organ dysfunction and failure. Making the diagnosis of HLH could be quite
      challenging due to the broad range of presenting symptoms and their lack of
      specificity. After ruling out considerations for differential diagnoses,
      recognizing the most common presenting signs and symptoms of HLH, including
      neurologic dysfunction, and having a high clinical suspicion for HLH in the
      setting of inflammatory/demyelinating diseases are important for prompt diagnosis
      and treatment.

PMID- 28553386
TI  - Solitary Plasmacytoma of Bone Involving Spine in a 12-year-old Boy: Report of a
      Rare Case and Review of Literature.
AB  - Solitary plasmacytoma of the bone (SPB) is a rare plasma cell neoplasm
      representing only about 5% of plasma cell neoplasia. It usually presents as a
      lytic lesion mainly localized within the axial skeleton. SPB is exceedingly rare
      in young individuals, and only few cases have been reported so far in patients
      younger than 20 years of age. In view of rarity of disease, definitive treatment
      guidelines have not been established. We hereby report a case of SPB involving of
      lumbar vertebra (L5) in a 12-year-old boy. He was initially treated with
      antilymphoma therapy and curative radiotherapy considering as primary bone
      lymphoma. However, he had local recurrence with paraparesis after 9 months which
      was diagnosed as solitary bone plasmacytoma for which he was treated with
      decompressive laminectomy and chemotherapy (bortezomib, lenalidomide, and
      dexamethasone). The purpose of this article is to report a rare case of SPB in a
      pediatric patient and to review the available literature and treatment options.
      SPB should be considered in the differential diagnosis of osteolytic bone lesions
      even in young patients.

PMID- 28553387
TI  - Case of Atlantoaxial Dislocation with Assimilated C1, Absent Posterior C2,
      Butterfly C3, and Fused Subaxial Cervical Spine: Management Dilemma with Multiple
      Segmentation and Formation Defects.
AB  - Segmentation defects are often seen with congenital atlantoaxial dislocation
      (AAD) though an associated absence of posterior arch of C2 and butterfly C3 is
      rare. Apart from rarity, the combination of formation and segmentation defects
      adds to the management dilemma. We report a case of AAD with assimilated atlas,
      absent C2 posterior arch, C3 butterfly vertebra with floating posterior elements,
      and fused C4-C6. The child was managed by C1-C2 fusion alone with immediate
      symptomatic improvement. The presence of formation defects such as adjacent
      butterfly vertebra and absent posterior elements does not alter the management of
      AAD. Fusing the C1-C2 joints appears to be a balanced approach.

PMID- 28553388
TI  - Penetrating Vertebral and Spinal Trauma Complicated by Meningitis in a 2-year-old
      Child: A Rare Clinical Case.
AB  - The selection of a treatment approach for a 2-year-old child with penetrating
      vertebral and spinal trauma, complicated by meningitis, is presented here. This
      pathology occurs rather rarely, which complicates the development of a uniform
      approach for the management of such patients. After surgical treatment of the
      wound in the lumbar region at L5-S1 level due to trauma, the leakage of a
      transparent discharge had been observed, the nature of which was unclear; it was
      considered at this treatment stage to be injury to the right ureter. The
      secondary surgical treatment of the wound was performed with local flap grafting,
      external lumbar drainage, and antibacterial therapy. The described treatment
      approach led to the involution of the main symptoms, and normalization of
      cerebrospinal fluid indicators resulting in an improvement in the child's
      condition. The represented supervision certifies that the penetrating wound does
      not always require laminotomy.

PMID- 28553389
TI  - Sandhoff Disease without Hepatosplenomegaly Due to Hexosaminidase B Gene
      Mutation.
AB  - Sandhoff disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused due to deficiency of
      hexosaminidase (HEX) A and B. A 1-year-old male child presented with regression
      of milestones, exaggerated startle response, decreased vision, and seizures from
      6 months of age. The child had coarse facies without hepatosplenomegaly. Serum
      levels of beta hexosaminidase total (A + B) were low. Genetic testing for
      Sandhoff disease revealed a homozygous missense variant on HEXB gene. The case is
      presented to highlight that the absence of hepatosplenomegaly should not restrain
      in suspecting Sandhoff disease.

PMID- 28553390
TI  - A Neonate with X-linked Lissencephaly with Ambiguous Genitalia.
AB  - X-linked lissencephaly with ambiguous genitalia is a rare and recently described
      syndrome. We report a neonate presenting with the classical features of the
      syndrome which includes lissencephaly, agenesis of the corpus callosum,
      intractable epilepsy of neonatal onset, acquired microcephaly, and male genotype
      with ambiguous genitalia. The baby was managed aggressively with antiepileptics.
      Early clinical suspicion of the syndrome can prevent future such occurrences in
      the family through genetic counseling.

PMID- 28553391
TI  - Aspergillus Growth within Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Tube.
AB  - Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt failure is commonly associated with infection or
      mechanical obstruction of the shunt system. A 4-year-old male child who had
      undergone multiple shunt revisions at another hospital for congenital
      hydrocephalus and later for shunt obstruction, presented with exposed shunt at
      the supraclavicular region. Shunt revision was performed. The CSF culture showed
      no growth; however, the histopathological examination of shunt tube showed
      Aspergillus growth inside the lumen of silicone tube well away from the tip of
      ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The skin biopsy from the exposed site revealed
      foreign body giant cell granulomatous reaction. The patient was discharged on
      postoperative day 6 without any complications. At 3 months follow-up, the patient
      is doing well. A growth of Aspergillus within the shunt tube prompted us to think
      of how the hardware can get infected and may remain a source of constant
      infection.

PMID- 28553392
TI  - Glutaric Aciduria Type I: A Rare Metabolic Disorder Mimicking as Choreoathetoid
      Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - Glutaric aciduria type I (GA I) is an autosomal recessive inborn error of
      metabolism caused by a deficiency of the enzyme glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase. This
      disorder is characterized by progressive dystonia, choreoathetosis, and
      dyskinesia. It is often misdiagnosed as athetoid cerebral palsy. Laboratory
      evaluation usually demonstrates increased urinary excretion of gluataric acid and
      3-hydroxyglutaric acid. We report a case of a 7-year-old boy presenting with
      choreoathetosis and dystonia, mimicking as choreoathetoid cerebral palsy. The
      presence of characteristic neuroimaging and biochemical studies led to the
      diagnosis of GA I.

PMID- 28553393
TI  - Osteoblastoma Mimicking an Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Syndrome.
AB  - Osteoblastomas are rare, benign bone tumors mainly arising from the long bones
      and the posterior vertebral arches. Skull localizations account for approximately
      15% of cases. A total amount of thirty cases involving the temporal bone are
      reported in the literature. Clinical presentation of temporal osteoblastomas
      often includes local pain and swelling, while 7th and 8th cranial nerve
      impairment is rare. We report the novel finding of increase intracranial pressure
      syndrome secondary to dominant transverse-sigmoid sinus junction compression
      caused by a small temporal bone osteoblastoma. Excision of the tumor with the
      restoration of venous flow in the sigmoid sinus was followed by a prompt clinical
      improvement. In the management of patients with a venous sinus compression,
      restoration of venous drainage should be a priority.

PMID- 28553394
TI  - Parainfectious Ocular Flutter and Truncal Ataxia in Association with Dengue
      Fever.
AB  - Ocular flutter is an eye movement disorder characterized by purely horizontal
      rapid saccadic oscillations lasting for a few minutes which stops spontaneously.
      Postinfectious ocular flutter and truncal ataxia are a rare entity. There are
      reported cases of opsoclonus myoclonus ataxia in association with dengue virus
      infection. However, there are no reported cases of parainfectious ocular flutter
      and truncal ataxia in association with dengue virus infection. Hereby, we report
      a child with dengue fever who had ocular flutter and truncal ataxia.

PMID- 28553395
TI  - Retrograde Partial Migration of Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt with Chamber: Review
      of Causative Factors and Its Prevention.
AB  - Distal migration of shunt is a very common occurrence. Proximal migration of
      shunt is rare and possible pathophysiological mechanisms to explain this unusual
      complication is rarely attempted. A 5-month-old child shunted for posttraumatic
      hydrocephalus presented 1.5 years later with raised intracranial pressure and
      seizures. Imaging showed subdural hygroma, partial intracranial migration of
      shunt/chamber. On endoscopy, choroid plexus was adherent to shunt tip and some
      pericranial tissue was found in the anchoring suture (intraventricularly
      displaced). Shunt was retrieved endoscopically and diversion established by
      endoscopic third ventriculostomy with symptoms free follow-up. Host-related and
      surgical factors have been postulated. Tug-of-war effect on the anchoring suture
      and collapsing cortex are the possible mechanisms that explain proximal migration
      in our case. Three-point fixation of the chamber to pericranium, small burr hole
      with a smaller durotomy, can prevent shunt migration. Proximal shunt migrations
      should be dealt with endoscopy so as to avoid complications.

PMID- 28553396
TI  - A Rare Case of Repeated Migration and Transurethral Extrusion of
      Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt.
AB  - Bladder migration and transurethral extrusion is an extremely rare complication
      of ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt. Only eight cases have been reported in the
      English literature since 1995. We report a case of a 4-year-old boy with cerebral
      palsy, hydrocephalus, and VP shunted on both sides who presented with a protruded
      distal VP shunt from his urethral orifice. The patient was reported for having
      previous shunt extrusion through the anus. The patient was treated on by a
      multidisciplinary approach, involving a neurosurgeon and urologist. Shunt removal
      with simple procedure was smoothly achieved without morbidities. He was
      discharged home in satisfactory condition.

PMID- 28553397
TI  - Solitary Intramedullary Cervical Cysticercosis without Neurological Deficit: A
      Rare Case Report.
AB  - Neurocysticercosis is commonly seen intracranially and its incidence in the
      spinal cord is very low. Among spine dorsal region is more common due to more
      blood flow in this region and it is usually associated with lesion at other
      sites. The intramedullary location is rarer than extramedullary. Hence, solitary
      intramedullary cervical spine cysticercosis (ICC) is extremely rare entity. Only
      a handful numbers of cases are reported in the literature. All reported cases are
      presented with the neurological deficit as spinal canal diameter is very low and
      any space occupying lesion is not tolerated. We are presenting a 6-year-old girl
      having solitary ICC with intact neurology, diagnosed by an appreciation of scolex
      on magnetic resonance imaging and were treated successfully with albendazole.
      Follow-up was performed by the estimation of Ag-ELISA which was negative after 2
      months of completion of treatment and patient was asymptomatic at 2 years of
      follow-up.

PMID- 28553398
TI  - Partial Encephalocraniocutaneous Lipomatosis Syndrome.
AB  - Encephalocranial lipomatosis is a rare disorder that characteristically involves
      ectomesodermal tissues such as skin, eye, and the central nervous system. Here,
      we report a 3-year-old girl presented with developmental delay, seizures, limbal
      dermoid, and weakness of right lower limb. Imaging revealed hemiatrophy,
      arachnoid cyst, and polymicrogyria. The constellation of clinical finding and
      imaging leads to the diagnosis.

PMID- 28553399
TI  - The Gut-brain Axis: A New Pathogenic View of Neurologic Symptoms - Description of
      a Pediatric Case.
AB  - Recent literature data have given emphasis to the relationship between
      gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and neurologic diseases, underlying a new
      pathogenic pathway: The so-called "gut-brain axis." Herein, authors report a case
      of a 10-month-old male infant, admitted for drug-resistant epilepsy, associated
      with irritable behavior and GI discomfort, secondary to cow's milk protein
      allergy. Seizures were described by parents as upward eye movements that were
      mostly deviated to the right and were associated with slight extension of his
      neck. They were infrequent at first, but had increased gradually during the
      course of 3 days (up to 15-20 times/day). No anticonvulsant therapy was
      effective. Only a cow's milk protein-free diet, accidentally started during a
      gastroenteritis episode, was effective in stopping seizures. Our case underlines
      the peculiar vulnerability of the blood-brain barrier under 1 year of age, for
      which children of this age group experience neurologic manifestations during
      episodes of systemic inflammation.

PMID- 28553400
TI  - Proteus Syndrome with Neurological Manifestations: A Rare Presentation.
AB  - Proteus syndrome (PS) is an extremely rare and complex disorder. Approximately
      200 cases have been reported, and it seems to affect people of all ethnic and
      racial groups. PS is characterized by segmental overgrowth of multiple tissues
      and organs including vascular malformations, lipomatous overgrowth,
      hyperpigmentation, and various types of nevi. We hereby present a 7-year-old boy
      who presented with seizures and overgrowth of one-half of the body. Although
      classical physical features have been described, epilepsy and other neurological
      manifestations are rarely reported features of PS. Early detection of association
      of epilepsy and hemimegalencephaly with PS can prevent/minimize the neurological
      complications, disability, morbidity, and mortality.

PMID- 28553401
TI  - Hippocampal Sclerosis in a Child with Multiple Neurocysticercosis.

PMID- 28553402
TI  - Proline-rich Transmembrane Protein 2 Gene Mutation in a Sporadic Paroxysmal
      Kinesigenic Dyskinesia.

PMID- 28553403
TI  - Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Troubles with the Diagnostic and Statistical
      Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition.

PMID- 28553404
TI  - Mucolipidosis Type II Secondary to GNPTAB Gene Deletion from India.

PMID- 28553405
TI  - CDKL-5 Encephalopathy in an Indian Girl: Partial Response to the Modified Atkins
      Diet.

PMID- 28553406
TI  - A Rare Cause of Pleural Effusion; Cerebrospinal Fluid Leakage.

PMID- 28553407
TI  - Sleep Disturbance During Smoking Cessation: Withdrawal or Side Effect of
      Treatment?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The nicotine-metabolite ratio (NMR) predicts treatment response and
      is related to treatment side effect severity. Sleep disturbance may be one
      important side effect, but understanding sleep disturbance effects on smoking
      cessation is complicated by the fact that nicotine withdrawal also produces sleep
      disturbance. AIMS: To evaluate the effects of withdrawal and treatment side
      effects on sleep disturbance. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of data from
      a clinical trial (Lerman et al., 2015) of 1,136 smokers randomised to placebo (n
      = 363), transdermal nicotine (TN; n = 381), or varenicline (n = 392) and
      stratified based on NMR (559 slow metabolisers; 577 normal metabolisers). Sleep
      disturbance was assessed at baseline and at 1-week following the target quit date
      (TQD). We also examined whether sleep disturbance predicted 7-day point
      prevalence abstinence at end-of-treatment (EOT). RESULTS: The varenicline and TN
      groups exhibited greater increases in sleep disturbance (vs. placebo; treatment *
      time interaction; p = 0.005), particularly among those who quit smoking at 1-week
      post-TQD. There was a main effect of NMR (p = 0.04), but no interactions with
      treatment. TN and varenicline attenuated withdrawal symptoms unrelated to sleep
      (vs. placebo). Greater baseline sleep disturbance predicted relapse at EOT (p =
      0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Existing treatments may not mitigate withdrawal-related
      sleep disturbance and adjunctive treatments that target sleep disturbance may
      improve abstinence rates.

PMID- 28553408
TI  - Identification of Cysteine Ubiquitylation Sites on the Sec23A Protein of the
      COPII Complex Required for Vesicle Formation from the ER.
AB  - BACKGROUND: COPII is a multiprotein complex that surrounds carrier vesicles
      budding from the Endoplasmic Reticulum and allows the recruitment of secretory
      proteins. The Sec23a protein plays a crucial role in the regulation of the
      dynamics of COPII formation ensuring the proper function of the secretory
      pathway. OBJECTIVE: Since few evidences suggest that ubiquitylation could have a
      role in the COPII regulation, the present study was aimed to establish whether
      the Sec23a component of the vesicular envelope COPII could be ubiquitylated.
      METHOD: Sec23a ubiquitylation was revealed by co-immunoprecipitation experiments.
      Recombinant Sec23a was gel-purified and analyzed by mass spectrometry subjected
      to trypsin proteolysis. Signature peptides were identified by the presence of Gly
      Gly remnants from the C-terminus of the ubiquitin attached to the amino acid
      residues of the substrate. Recombinant Sec23a proteins bearing mutations in the
      ubiquitylation sites were used to evaluate the effect of ubiquitylation in the
      formation of COPII. RESULTS: We identified two cysteine ubiquitylation sites
      showed at position 432 and 449 of the Sec23a protein sequence. Interestingly, we
      revealed that the amino acid residues of Sec23a joined to ubiquitin were cysteine
      instead of the conventional lysine residues. This unconventional ubiquitylation
      consists of the addition of one single ubiquitin moiety that is not required for
      Sec23a degradation. Immunofluorescence results showed that Sec23a ubiquitylation
      might influence COPII formation by modulating Sec23a interaction with the ER
      membrane. Presumably, this regulation could occur throughout continual
      ubiquitylation/de-ubiquityliation cycles. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a novel
      regulatory mechanism for the Sec23a function that could be crucial in several
      pathophysiological events known to alter COPII recycling.

PMID- 28553409
TI  - Synthesis of Oxadiazolyl, Pyrazolyl and Thiazolyl Derivatives of Thiophene-2
      Carboxamide as Antimicrobial and Anti-HCV Agents.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Three series of pyrazole, thiazole and 1,3,4-oxadiazole,
      derivatives were synthesized starting from 5-amino-4-(hydrazinocarbonyl)-3
      methylthiophene-2-carboxamide (2). METHODS: All compounds were investigated for
      their preliminary antimicrobial activity. They were proved to exhibit remarkable
      antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa with insignificant activity
      towards Gram positive bacterial strains and fungi. RESULTS: In-vitro testing of
      the new compounds on hepatitis-C virus (HCV) replication in hepatocellular
      carcinoma cell line HepG2 infected with the virus utilizing the reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction technique (RT-PCR) generally showed
      inhibition of the replication of HCV RNA (-) strands at low concentration, while,
      eight compounds; 3a, 6, 7a, 7b, 9a, 9b, 10a and 11b proved to inhibit the
      replication of HCV RNA (+) and (-) strands at very low concentration range 0.08
      0.36 MUg/mL. CONCLUSION: Compounds 7b and 11b displayed the highest anti-HCV and
      antimicrobial activities in this study.

PMID- 28553410
TI  - Socioeconomic Factors and Severity of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients
      Undergoing Coronary Angiography: A Multicentre Study of Arabian Gulf States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of death
      worldwide. The association of socioeconomic status with CAD is supported by
      numerous epidemiological studies. Whether such factors also impact the number of
      diseased coronary vessels and its severity is not well established. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We conducted a prospective multicentre, multi-ethnic, cross sectional
      observational study of consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG)
      at 5 hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
      Baseline demographics, socioeconomic, and clinical variables were collected for
      all patients. Significant CAD was defined as >=70% luminal stenosis in a major
      epicardial vessel. Left main disease (LMD) was defined as >=50% stenosis in the
      left main coronary artery. Multi-vessel disease (MVD) was defined as having >1
      significant CAD. RESULTS: Of 1,068 patients (age 59 +/- 13, female 28%, diabetes
      56%, hypertension 60%, history of CAD 43%), 792 (74%) were from urban and
      remainder (26%) from rural communities. Patients from rural centres were older
      (61 +/- 12 vs 58 +/- 13), and more likely to have a history of diabetes (63 vs
      54%), hypertension (74 vs 55%), dyslipidaemia (78 vs 59%), CAD (50 vs 41%) and
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (27 vs 21%). The two groups differed
      significantly in terms of income level, employment status and indication for
      angiography. After adjusting for baseline differences, patients living in a rural
      area were more likely to have significant CAD (adjusted OR 2.40 [1.47, 3.97]),
      MVD (adjusted OR 1.76 [1.18, 2.63]) and LMD (adjusted OR 1.71 [1.04, 2.82]).
      Higher income was also associated with a higher risk for significant CAD
      (adjusted OR 6.97 [2.30, 21.09]) and MVD (adjusted OR 2.49 [1.11, 5.56]), while
      unemployment was associated with a higher risk of significant CAD (adjusted OR
      2.21, [1.27, 3.85]). CONCLUSION: Communal and socioeconomic factors are
      associated with higher odds of significant CAD and MVD in the group of patients
      referred for CAG. The underpinnings of these associations (e.g. pathophysiologic
      factors, access to care, and system-wide determinants of quality) require further
      study.

PMID- 28553411
TI  - Knowledge About Chronic Orofacial Pain Among General Dentists of Kermanshah,
      Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Diagnosis and treatment of chronic orofacial pain are
      one of the most challenging issues in dentistry. The purpose of this study was to
      assess the knowledge of general dentists regarding orofacial pain in Kermanshah,
      Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 including general
      dentists of Kermanshah city. A researcher-designed questionnaire was administered
      to collect demographic data as well as measuring knowledge of the dentists in
      four sections including etiology, clinical presentations, physical examination,
      and treatment of chronic orofacial pain. The questionnaire had acceptable
      validity (content validity > 0.9) and reliability (intraclass correlation
      coefficient= 0.857 for test re-test; Cronbach's alpha= 0.72 for internal
      consistency). The data were analyzed by the SPSS software (ver. 18.0) using
      Spearman's correlation coefficient (P < 0.05). RESULTS: There were 121 male
      (72.9%) and 45 female (27.1%) dentists with mean (SD) age of 40.55 (8.03) years
      and mean (SD) practice history of 13.28 (8.43) years. Mean (SD) knowledge score
      was 10.54 (2.36) (maximum possible score= 15). 48.2% of dentists had good
      knowledge in overall. 48.2% about etiology, 45.2% about clinical presentations,
      36.1% about physical examination, and 7.8% about treatment had good knowledge.
      Knowledge had direct and significant relationship with age (r = 0.179; P = 0.022)
      and practice history (r = 0.18; P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: The results showed that
      the studied dentists did not have enough knowledge about chronic orofacial pain
      especially in the treatment field. Therefore, it is recommended to implement
      educational programs to improve their knowledge.

PMID- 28553412
TI  - Dental and Oral Problem Patterns and Treatment Seeking Behavior of Geriatric
      Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The manifestations of oral changes and disorders affecting the
      geriatric population are different from the rest of the population.
      Inaccessibility to dental care is a compelling impediment to avail oral health
      services. OBJECTIVE: The aims were to assess the dental and oral problems and to
      find out the determinants of oral health seeking behaviour among elderly
      population of Al-Jouf province, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The present cross
      sectional study included geriatric patients of 60 years and above, who visited
      the College of Dentistry, Al-Jouf University. A simple pre-structured
      questionnaire was filled by the patients, which comprised of demographic details
      and the different oral complaints of elderly and the type of health care utilized
      for those complaints. RESULTS: Out of total 892 elderly persons included, 51.79%
      were males and 48.21 were females. The most common oral problem was missing tooth
      (78.69%) followed by gum problems (74.21%). 39.5% males and 28.0% females visited
      general dental practitioners for oral health care. Majority of the participants
      (32.8%) suggested accessibility as a basic factor in determining the health care
      source. The difference in the distribution of male and females or association
      between the type of care and gender and distribution for choosing a health care
      source was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Inaccessibility to dental care emerged as an important barrier to avail oral
      health services. Adequate access to medical and dental care can reduce premature
      morbidity and mortality, preserve function, and enhance overall quality of life.

PMID- 28553413
TI  - Dentofacial Deformity Caused by Bulky Osteochondroma: Report of an Unusual Case
      and the Importance of Cone Beam Computed Tomography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Osteochondroma of mandibular condyle is a rare benign tumor. CASE
      REPORT: This case report described clinical, radiographic features, differential
      diagnosis, histopathologic correlation and treatment of condylar osteochondroma.
      CONCLUSION: Conebeam computed tomography (CBCT) is an alternative modality to CT
      or MRI that should be performed in all cases of suspected osteochondroma of the
      mandibular condyle.

PMID- 28553415
TI  - Use of Proviral DNA to Investigate Virus Resistance Mutations in HIV-infected
      Zimbabweans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) to suppress HIV replication has reduced
      morbidity and mortality yet effectiveness of current HIV drugs is threatened by
      HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) mutations. OBJECTIVE: To determine HIVDR mutations
      using proviral DNA from specimens of patients presenting to an HIV treatment
      clinic. METHODS: DNA from 103 patients, 86 treatment-experienced, 17 treatment
      naive, were genotyped for the HIV-1C reverse transcriptase gene (RT; codons 21
      304) using Sanger sequencing and sequences analyzed using Sequencher software.
      Resistance mutations were interpreted using Stanford HIVDR reference database.
      RESULTS: Median age was 39 (IQR, 33-46) years and 80% of patients were female.
      Six-percent (n=6) had at least one HIVDR mutation, comprising NRTI-associated
      mutations, (M184V, T69D, T69N and V75I); NNRTI-associated mutations (G190A,
      K103N, V106M, Y181C) and thymidine analogue associated mutations (D67N, K70R,
      K219Q, L210W, M41L, T215Y). Of the six participants, with at least one HIVDR
      mutation, all were treatment experienced, five were on tenofovir, lamivudine and
      nevirapine and one was on tenofovir, lamivudine and atazanavir. There was no
      difference in median CD4 count and viral loads when patients were compared by
      presence of HIVDR mutations. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated the use of proviral DNA
      in HIVDR testing in adult patients and present that all the patients with various
      kinds of HIVDR mutations were treatment experienced, pointing to the role of drug
      regimens in driving viral mutations. Thus, the use of proviral DNA has potential
      to help provide surveillance on risk of HIVDR in HIV-infected individuals who are
      on treatment, which may assist in corrective treatment.

PMID- 28553414
TI  - ESBL Production Among E. coli and Klebsiella spp. Causing Urinary Tract
      Infection: A Hospital Based Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increase in extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) producing
      microbes in recent years has led to limitations of treatment options. This study
      aimed to assess the prevalence of ESBL producing E. coli and Klebsiella spp. at a
      tertiary hospital in Nepal. METHODS: A total of 2209 non-repetitive mid-stream
      urine (MSU) samples were collected during the study period (March to September
      2014). Identification of the isolates was done by Gram's staining followed by
      biochemical tests. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done by modified Kirby
      Bauer disc diffusion method and interpretation was done following Clinical and
      Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines, 2013. ESBL screening among E.
      coli and Klebsiella spp. isolates were done using ceftriaxone, cefotaxime,
      ceftazidime and cefpodoxime. The confirmation was done by phenotypic disc
      diffusion test (combined disc method) using ceftazidime (30ug) and ceftazidime
      plus clavulanic acid (30/10ug), and cefotaxime (30ug) and cefotaxime plus
      clavulanic acid (30/10ug) disc as per CLSI guidelines. RESULTS: A total of 451
      samples showed significant bacteriuria with 365 (80.9%) E. coli, 17 (3.8%)
      Klebsiella pneumoniae and 3 (0.7%) Klebsiella oxytoca. Of 451 isolates, 236
      (52.3%) were found MDR strains. By combined disk test, 33 (91.7%) E. coli and 3
      (8.3%) Klebsiella spp. were found ESBL producers. CONCLUSION: Higher prevalence
      of ESBL producing E. coli and Klebsiella spp. was observed warranting prompt need
      of surveillance for effective management of such MDR strains.

PMID- 28553416
TI  - Understanding the Mechanism of Bacterial Biofilms Resistance to Antimicrobial
      Agents.
AB  - A biofilm is a group of microorganisms, that causes health problems for the
      patients with indwelling medical devices via attachment of cells to the surface
      matrix. It increases the resistance of a microorganism for antimicrobial agents
      and developed the human infection. Current strategies are removed or prevent the
      microbial colonies from the medical devices, which are attached to the surfaces.
      This will improve the clinical outcomes in favor of the patients suffering from
      serious infectious diseases. Moreover, the identification and inhibition of
      genes, which have the major role in biofilm formation, could be the effective
      approach for health care systems. In a current review article, we are
      highlighting the biofilm matrix and molecular mechanism of antimicrobial
      resistance in bacterial biofilms.

PMID- 28553417
TI  - Synergistic Effect of Colistin and Rifampin Against Multidrug Resistant
      Acinetobacter baumannii: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - The existence of infections caused by multidrug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter
      baumannii is a growing problem because of the difficulty to treat them. We
      examined the published literature and focused our analysis on the investigation
      of the synergism of colistin and rifampin against MDR A. baumannii isolates via
      systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic literature search was performed
      using the following 4 databases (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE and ISI Web of Sciences).
      The related articles were evaluated during the period from December 2014 to
      January 2015. Information based on resistance and sensitivity to antibiotics, the
      minimum inhibitory concentration and the effects of two antibiotics on each other
      including synergism, antagonism, relative synergism and additive antagonism were
      extracted. A meta-analysis of 17 studies including 448 samples was brought into
      process and 2% (95% CI 0-4%) and 72% (95% CI 56-89%) resistance to colistin and
      rifampin were observed, respectively. 42% of all isolates showed MIC = 4 ug/ml
      (95% CI 14-69%) to rifampin and 30% MIC= 2 ug/ml to colistin (95% CI 3.8-78%).
      MIC50 and MIC90 for both rifampin and colistin were 2 ug/ml and 4 ug/ml,
      respectively. 63% of the strains demonstrated synergy (95% CI 37-90%), 7% were
      highlighted as relative synergism (95% CI 0.0- 13%), 3% showed an additive effect
      (95% CI -0.0-7%) and 14% were indifferent (95% CI 6-23%). The antagonistic effect
      was not observed in this combination. Synergy rates of time-kill assay in
      rifampin and colistin combinations were generally higher than those of check
      bored microdilution and E-test method. The results demonstrated that the
      combination therapy could be more useful when compared to monotherapy and that
      this strategy might reduce the resistance rate to rifampin in MDR A. baumannii
      isolates.

PMID- 28553419
TI  - The Use of patient Reported Outcome Measures for Rheumatoid Arthritis in Japan: A
      Systematic Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) obtained through routine medical care
      may identify patients' day-to-day burden and help tackle the disease from the
      patients' perspective. However, there is a paucity of information regarding the
      availability of PRO data and PRO tools for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Japan.
      OBJECTIVE: We reviewed the literature on PRO data availability and to identify
      PRO measures implemented in Japan for RA patients. METHOD: We conducted a
      systematic literature review using ICHUSHI and the PubMed databases on PRO
      measures for RA published from January 2011 to August 2015 in Japan. RESULTS:
      After removing duplicates, 2423 manuscripts were found. From these, 100
      manuscripts were included for review and analysis. We found 29 PRO tools that
      were used to assess various domains of health such as general well-being, pain,
      functionality, and fatigue. More than 90% of the studies utilized PRO tools for
      research purpose. Only one study reported PRO tool implementation in the routine
      medical care. CONCLUSION: The importance of PROs is recognized in Japan. PRO
      tools varied significantly and were mostly used for research purposes, while
      reports on the use of PRO measures in routine medical care were limited. Despite
      the awareness of PROs in the research community, unmet needs remain among RA
      patients in Japan. Further work is needed to investigate ways in which PROs can
      better reflect these unmet needs and be utilized in routine medical care.

PMID- 28553418
TI  - Analysis of the Literature on Chronic Cough in Children.
AB  - Throughout childhood, various developmental phenomena influence the cough reflex.
      Among these are the modifications in the anatomy and functions of the respiratory
      tract and the central and peripheral nervous systems. Moreover, after birth, the
      immunological response undergoes progressive transformations with the acquisition
      of immune memory processes. These conditions make infections and airway
      abnormalities the overwhelming cause of chronic cough in children and infants. In
      children, chronic cough should be treated on the basis of etiology. The aim of
      this article is to provide thorough research and analysis of the medical
      literature published up to 2014 on chronic cough in children as a disease entity,
      including the epidemiologic, etiologic, diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic
      aspects. Our results demonstrate differences in the definition of chronic cough,
      the characteristics of diagnostic procedures, study settings, and prevalence of
      the main causes. However, few studies regarding epidemiology and the quality of
      life have been reported. Many therapeutic approaches that are considered
      effective in adults with chronic cough seem to be less efficient in children.
      Regardless of the setting, whether pediatric or non-pediatric, children with
      chronic cough should be carefully evaluated using child-specific protocols and
      algorithms. Awareness of the various pathophysiological conditions associated
      with chronic cough is vital for making a correct diagnosis and providing
      appropriate treatment. The prevalence of the different causes of chronic cough
      depends on various issues. Among these are the population under consideration and
      its age range, infectious disease control and prevention, the diagnostic
      procedures employed, disease definition criteria, and the local health system.
      Clinical guidelines for the management of children with chronic cough should take
      these components into consideration. Further clinical and basic research studies
      are still needed for better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of chronic cough
      in children.

PMID- 28553420
TI  - A New Reconstructive Technique of the Anterolateral Ligament with Iliotibial Band
      Strip.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a well-established
      surgical procedure for the correction of ACL ruptures. However, the incidence of
      instability following ACL reconstruction is substantial. Recent studies have led
      to greater insight into the anatomy and the radiographic characteristics of the
      native anterolateral ligament (ALL), along with its possible role in residual
      instability after ACL reconstruction. METHOD: The current paper describes a
      lateral extra-articular tenodesis to reconstruct the ALL during ACL procedures,
      using a short iliotibial band strip. The distal insertion of this strip is left
      intact on the anterolateral side of the proximal tibia, and the proximal part is
      fixed at the anatomic femoral insertion of the ALL. RESULTS: Our technique avoids
      the sacrifice of one of the hamstring tendons for the ALL reconstruction.
      Additionally, there is no interference with the anatomical location or function
      of the LCL. CONCLUSION: Our technique offers a minimally invasive and nearly
      complete anatomical reconstruction of the ALL with minimal additional operative
      time.

PMID- 28553421
TI  - Irreducible Anterior Shoulder Dislocation with Interposition of the Long Head of
      the Biceps and Greater Tuberosity Fracture: A Case Report and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Failure of closed manipulative reduction of an acute anterior
      shoulder dislocation is seldom reported in the literature and is usually due to
      structural blocks such as soft tissue entrapment (biceps, subscapularis, labrum),
      bony fragments (glenoid, greater tuberosity) and severe head impaction (Hill
      Sachs lesion). CASE REPORT: We present a case of an irreducible anterior shoulder
      dislocation in a 57-year-old male patient after a road-traffic accident. He had
      severe impaction of the head underneath glenoid rim and associated fracture of
      the greater tuberosity. Closed reduction performed in the emergency room under
      sedation and later at the theatre under general anaesthesia was unsuccessful.
      Open reduction using the dectopectoral approach revealed that the reason for
      obstruction was the posterolateral entrapment of the biceps tendon between the
      humeral head and the tuberosity fragment. Reduction was achieved after
      subscapularis tenotomy and opening of the joint; the tuberosity fragment was
      fixed with transosseous sutures and the long head of the biceps tendon was
      tenodesized. The patient had an uneventful postoperative recovery and at his last
      follow up, 12 months postoperatively, he had a stable joint, full range of motion
      and a Constant score of 90. CONCLUSION: A comprehensive literature review
      revealed 22 similar reports affecting a total of 30 patients. Interposition of
      the LHBT alone or in combination with greater tuberosity fracture was the most
      common obstacle to reduction, followed by subscapularis tendon interposition and
      other less common reasons. Early surgical intervention with open reduction and
      confrontation of associated injuries is mandatory for a successful outcome.

PMID- 28553422
TI  - Current Concepts in Pediatric Orthopedics.

PMID- 28553424
TI  - Bilateral Idiopathic Sclerochoroidal Calcifications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sclerochoroidal calcification (SCC) is a rare and benign condition
      found mostly in middle-aged and elderly Caucasian men, characterized by multiple
      yellow-white lesions seen most commonly in the temporal regions of the fundus.
      While they may be concerning for benign tumors, primary neoplasias or metastases,
      SCCs most commonly present as asymptomatic findings during routine ophthalmologic
      testing and have a very good prognosis as they rarely cause visual deficits.
      OBJECTIVE: To report and describe the findings in a case of bilateral idiopathic
      sclerochoroidal calcifications. METHODS: A retrospective case report. RESULTS:
      Repeated ophthalmological exams, including fundoscopic examination,
      ultrasonography, optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography, were
      all consistent bilateral idiopathic sclerochoroidal calcifications. CONCLUSION:
      While most cases of idiopathic sclerochoroidal calcifications represent a benign
      ophthalmological condition, there are known associations with other systemic
      conditions, such as hyperthyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, Bartter's syndrome and
      Gitelman's syndrome. It is for this reason that these patients warrant a full
      systemic work-up in addition to careful ophthalmological monitoring.

PMID- 28553425
TI  - Treatment of Symptomatic Vitreomacular Adhesion with Expansile Sulfur
      Hexafluoride (SF6) Gas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate intravitreal injection of expansile sulfur hexafluoride
      (SF6) as a low cost and effective treatment for symptomatic vitreomacular
      adhesion (sVMA). METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all patients with sVMA
      treated with pneumatic vitreolysis using SF6 gas presenting to a clinical
      practice from January 2005 and June 2013. RESULTS: Six cases were included in the
      study. Five patients (83%) experienced complete resolution of the vitreomacular
      adhesion. One patient had a partial release of the vitreomacular adhesion. Four
      patients (67%) had a one line improvement in best corrected visual acuity.
      CONCLUSION: Due to its low cost, wide availability, and apparent efficacy,
      intravitreal injection of expansile SF6 should be investigated further as a
      possible treatment modality for sVMA.

PMID- 28553423
TI  - Corneal Refractive Procedures for the Treatment of Presbyopia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Refractive surgery has been in use for a long time and is evolving at a
      fast pace with several new corneal procedures being used for the correction of
      presbyopia. The purpose of this article is to give a comprehensive review of the
      literature to evaluate the outcome and success of different corneal refractive
      surgical procedures in presbyopic patients. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive
      search on PubMed to identify published reports of the various procedures utilized
      in the past and present to correct presbyopia. The outcomes of these procedures
      were recorded. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We found that varying rates of success
      have been reported with these procedures. The results of our exhaustive search
      are presented in this report for review.

PMID- 28553426
TI  - Characteristics of Anterior Lens Opacities in Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anterior lens opacities (ALO) are found in 3-14% of pediatric
      patients with cataracts. No clear guidelines exist in the management and
      treatment of these cataracts. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate pediatric patients with
      anterior lens opacities and assess rate of amblyopia and need for surgery over
      time. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed on patients with
      unilateral and bilateral anterior lens opacities (ALOs) seen between January 2008
      and December 2014. Size, location, and type of ALO were noted. Refractive error,
      necessity for treatment of amblyopia, and interventions were recorded. RESULTS: A
      total of 31 patients were included in the study. 17 patients had unilateral ALOs
      and 14 had bilateral ALOs. The majority of the cataracts (90.3%) were centrally
      located. The most common type of cataract was the polar type of cataract and the
      vast majority (48.4%) was < 1mm in size. 38.7% of patients had concurrent ocular
      conditions and 9.7% had systemic associations. 28.6% of patients with bilateral
      cataracts and 35.3% of the patients with unilateral cataracts were treated for
      amblyopia. Three patients required cataract surgery. CONCLUSION: About half of
      anterior lens opacities are less than 1mm in size and the majority are of the
      polar type. Risk of amblyopia in these patients is higher than in the general
      population. Anisometropia is the most common cause of amblyopia. Ocular
      associations are seen at a relatively high frequency and systemic associations
      can occur but are uncommon. The need for surgical intervention is infrequent;
      however, growth of ALOs and associated cortical changes may be risk factors for
      surgery.

PMID- 28553428
TI  - Clinical Improvement by Switching to an Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitor in
      Hemophiliac Patients with HIV: The Japan Cohort Study of HIV Patients Infected
      through Blood Products.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine improvement in HIV RNA levels and the
      CD4 cell count by switching to an antiretroviral regimen with an integrase strand
      transfer inhibitor (INSTI) in patients with HIV. METHOD: This study was conducted
      on Japanese patients with HIV who were infected by blood products in the 1980s.
      Data were collected between 2007 and 2014. Data of 564 male hemophiliac patients
      with HIV from the Japan Cohort Study of HIV Patients Infected through Blood
      Products were available. Changes in antiretroviral regimen use, HIV RNA levels,
      and the CD4 cell count between 2007 and 2014 were examined. RESULTS: From 2007 to
      2014, the proportion of use of a regimen with an INSTI increased from 0.0% to
      41.0%. For patients with HIV who used a regimen, including an INSTI, the
      proportion of HIV RNA levels <50 copies/mL significantly increased from 58.3% in
      2007 to 90.6% in 2014. Additionally, the median CD4 cell count significantly
      increased from 380/MUL to 438/MUL. CONCLUSION: There is a large effect of
      switching to an antiretroviral regimen with an INSTI for Japanese patients with
      HIV who are infected by blood products. This suggests that performing this switch
      in clinical practice will lead to favorable effects.

PMID- 28553427
TI  - Functional Evaluation of Awareness in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious State.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess differences in brain activation in
      a large sample of Vegetative State (VS) and Minimally Conscious State (MCS)
      patients, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS: We studied
      50 patients four to seven months after brain injury. By using international
      clinical criteria and validated behavioural scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale
      and the Clinical Unawareness Assessment Scale, the patients were grouped into VS
      (n=23) and MCS (n=27). All patients underwent to fMRI examination. After 6
      months, the patients were reassessed using Glasgow Outcome Scale and Revised Coma
      Recovery Scale. RESULTS: fMRI showed significant (p<0.01, cluster-corrected)
      brain activation in the primary auditory cortex bilaterally during the acoustic
      stimuli in patients with both VS and MCS. However, ten patients clinically
      classified as VS, showed a pattern of brain activation very similar to that of
      MCS patients. Six months later, these ten VS patients had significant clinical
      improvement, evolving into MCS, whereas the other VS patients and patients with
      MCS remained clinically stable. CONCLUSION: Brain activity could help in
      discerning whether the status of wakefulness in VS is also accompanied by partial
      awareness, as occurs in MCS. This may have very important prognostic
      implications.

PMID- 28553429
TI  - Plasma IP-10 Concentrations Correlate Positively with Viraemia and Inversely with
      CD4 Counts in Untreated HIV Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic immune activation is a feature of HIV infection associated
      with accelerated HIV disease progression. There is conflicting data on the
      association of biomarkers of immune activation with traditional markers of HIV
      disease progression; CD4 counts and viral load (VL). OBJECTIVE: The study aimed
      to determine the association of biomarkers of immune activation; interferon (IFN)
      gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10) and soluble cluster of differentiation 14
      (sCD14) in chronic HIV infection with traditional markers of HIV disease
      progression. METHODS: We collected demographic data, enumerated CD4 counts and
      quantified VL in 183 antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive adults with chronic HIV
      infection. Plasma concentrations of IP-10 and sCD14 were quantified in the ART
      naive adults with chronic HIV infection and 75 HIV-uninfected controls. RESULTS:
      IP-10 concentrations were significantly higher in the HIV-infected group (median;
      257.40pg/ml, IQR; 174.08-376.32) than in the HIV-uninfected (median; 86.19pg/ml,
      IQR; 67.70-116.39) (P<0.001). Similarly, sCD14 concentrations were significantly
      higher in the HIV-infected (median; 1.45ug/ml, IQR; 1.02-2.16) group than in the
      controls (median; 0.89u/ml, IQR; 0.74-1.18) (P<0.001). High log10 IP-10
      concentrations were positively correlated with high log10 viral loads (Spearman's
      correlation coefficient [R]=0.21, P=0.003) and inversely correlated with low CD4
      counts (R= -0.19, P=0.011). In contrast, log10 sCD14 was not significantly
      associated with either log10 viral loads (R=0.03, P=0.707) nor CD4 count (R=
      0.04, P=0.568). CONCLUSION: We conclude that plasma sCD14 and IP-10 were elevated
      in the HIV-infected patients compared to HIV-uninfected individuals possibly due
      to on-going immune activation. In addition, plasma high concentrations of IP-10
      but not sCD14 concentrations are associated with high VL and low CD4 count.

PMID- 28553430
TI  - Plasma Level of Soluble ST2 in Chronically Infected HIV-1 Patients with
      Suppressed Viremia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a cell damage-induced alarmin. The plasma
      concentration of suppression of tumorogenicity (sST2), a surrogate marker of IL
      33 production, is a prognostic marker of cardiovascular disease. OBSERVATION:
      Recently, we reported that sST2 plasma levels were elevated in early HIV-1
      infection and linked to markers of microbial translocation and of T cell
      activation. RESULTS: Here we show that it is not the case in patients with
      suppressed viremia. Thus, IL-33 plays its alarmin role only during the early
      phase of the infection.

PMID- 28553431
TI  - Quantitative Analysis of Electron Beam Damage in Organic Thin Films.
AB  - In transmission electron microscopy (TEM) the interaction of an electron beam
      with polymers such as P3HT:PCBM photovoltaic nanocomposites results in electron
      beam damage, which is the most important factor limiting acquisition of
      structural or chemical data at high spatial resolution. Beam effects can vary
      depending on parameters such as electron dose rate, temperature during imaging,
      and the presence of water and oxygen in the sample. Furthermore, beam damage will
      occur at different length scales. To assess beam damage at the angstrom scale, we
      followed the intensity of P3HT and PCBM diffraction rings as a function of
      accumulated electron dose by acquiring dose series and varying the electron dose
      rate, sample preparation, and the temperature during acquisition. From this, we
      calculated a critical dose for diffraction experiments. In imaging mode, thin
      film deformation was assessed using the normalized cross-correlation coefficient,
      while mass loss was determined via changes in average intensity and standard
      deviation, also varying electron dose rate, sample preparation, and temperature
      during acquisition. The understanding of beam damage and the determination of
      critical electron doses provides a framework for future experiments to maximize
      the information content during the acquisition of images and diffraction patterns
      with (cryogenic) transmission electron microscopy.

PMID- 28553432
TI  - HIV-1 Transactivator Protein Induces ZO-1 and Neprilysin Dysfunction in Brain
      Endothelial Cells via the Ras Signaling Pathway.
AB  - Amyloid beta (Abeta) deposition is increased in human immunodeficiency virus-1-
      (HIV-1-) infected brain, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. The aim of
      the present study was to evaluate the role of Ras signaling in HIV-1
      transactivator protein- (Tat-) induced Abeta accumulation in human cerebral
      microvascular endothelial cells (HBEC-5i). Cell viability assay showed that 1
      MUg/mL Tat and 20 MUmol/L of the Ras inhibitor farnesylthiosalicylic acid (FTS)
      had no significant effect on HBEC-5i cell viability after 24 h exposure. Exposure
      to Tat decreased protein and mRNA levels of zonula occludens- (ZO-) 1 and Abeta
      degrading enzyme neprilysin (NEP) in HBEC-5i cells as determined by western
      blotting and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Exposure to Tat
      also increased transendothelial transfer of Abeta and intracellular reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) levels; however, these effects were attenuated by FTS.
      Collectively, these results suggest that the Ras signaling pathway is involved in
      HIV-1 Tat-induced changes in ZO-1 and NEP, as well as Abeta deposition in HBEC-5i
      cells. FTS partially protects blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and inhibits
      Abeta accumulation.

PMID- 28553433
TI  - Application of Numerical Analysis of the Shape of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance
      Spectra for Determination of the Number of Different Groups of Radicals in the
      Burn Wounds.
AB  - Background. The evidence exists that radicals are crucial agents necessary for
      the wound regeneration helping to enhance the repair process. Materials and
      methods. The lineshape of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of
      the burn wounds measured with the low microwave power (2.2 mW) was numerically
      analyzed. The experimental spectra were fitted by the sum of two and three lines.
      Results. The number of the lines in the EPR spectrum corresponded to the number
      of different groups of radicals in the natural samples after thermal treatment.
      The component lines were described by Gaussian and Lorentzian functions. The
      spectra of the burn wounds were superposition of three lines different in shape
      and in linewidths. The best fitting was obtained for the sum of broad Gaussian,
      broad Lorentzian, and narrow Lorentzian lines. Dipolar interactions between the
      unpaired electrons widened the broad Gaussian and broad Lorentzian lines.
      Radicals with the narrow Lorentzian lines existed mainly in the tested samples.
      Conclusions. The spectral shape analysis may be proposed as a useful method for
      determining the number of different groups of radicals in the burn wounds.

PMID- 28553434
TI  - Protective Effects of Methane-Rich Saline on Rats with Lipopolysaccharide-Induced
      Acute Lung Injury.
AB  - Objective. The aim of this research is to evaluate the protective effects of
      methane-rich saline (MS) on lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced acute lung injury
      (ALI) and investigate its potential antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and
      antiapoptotic activities. Methods. LPS-induced (20 mg/kg) ALI rats were injected
      with MS (2 ml/kg and 20 ml/kg) before the initiation of LPS induction. Survival
      rate was determined until 96 h after LPS was induced. Lung injury was assayed by
      oxygenation index, lung permeability index (LPI), wet-to-dry weight (W/D), and
      histology. The cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were counted.
      Oxidative stress was examined by the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and
      superoxide dismutase (SOD). Inflammatory factors including tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in BALF
      were determined by ELISA. Lung tissue apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining
      and western blotting of caspase-3. Results. It was found that methane
      significantly prolonged the rat survival, decreased the lung W/D ratio and the
      content of the inflammatory factors, and reduced the amount of caspase-3 and
      apoptotic index. In addition, MS increased the level of SOD and decreased the
      level of MDA significantly. Conclusions. MS protects the LPS-challenged ALI via
      antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic effect, which may prove to be
      a novel therapy for the clinical management of ALI.

PMID- 28553435
TI  - Therapeutic Hypothermia Reduces Oxidative Damage and Alters Antioxidant Defenses
      after Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - After cardiac arrest, organ damage consequent to ischemia-reperfusion has been
      attributed to oxidative stress. Mild therapeutic hypothermia has been applied to
      reduce this damage, and it may reduce oxidative damage as well. This study aimed
      to compare oxidative damage and antioxidant defenses in patients treated with
      controlled normothermia versus mild therapeutic hypothermia during postcardiac
      arrest syndrome. The sample consisted of 31 patients under controlled
      normothermia (36 degrees C) and 11 patients treated with 24 h mild therapeutic
      hypothermia (33 degrees C), victims of in- or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
      Parameters were assessed at 6, 12, 36, and 72 h after cardiac arrest in the
      central venous blood samples. Hypothermic and normothermic patients had similar
      S100B levels, a biomarker of brain injury. Xanthine oxidase activity is similar
      between hypothermic and normothermic patients; however, it decreases
      posthypothermia treatment. Xanthine oxidase activity is positively correlated
      with lactate and S100B and inversely correlated with pH, calcium, and sodium
      levels. Hypothermia reduces malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl levels, markers
      of oxidative damage. Concomitantly, hypothermia increases the activity of
      erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and
      glutathione S-transferase while decreasing the activity of serum paraoxonase-1.
      These findings suggest that mild therapeutic hypothermia reduces oxidative damage
      and alters antioxidant defenses in postcardiac arrest patients.

PMID- 28553438
TI  - Common Mistakes in Manuscripts Submitted for Publication.

PMID- 28553437
TI  - Healthcare Costs Associated With Chronic Opioid Use and Fibromayalgia Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia (FM) is an idiopathic, functional syndrome characterized
      by chronic, widespread pain and diffuse tenderness. This disorder affects more
      than 6 million patients in the United States and is associated with significant
      clinical and economic burdens. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to:
      1) estimate the costs associated with a FM diagnosis; and 2) estimate the impact
      of chronic opioid use on the costs of FM patients. RESEARCH DESIGN: Case-control
      study. METHODS: Subjects were identified in a large nationally representative
      database of commercially insured patients. Propensity score-matched analyses
      included 445,912 FM-control pairs in the first analysis, while the second
      analysis included 48,333 chronic opioid users with the FM-control pairs. Primary
      outcomes of interest were the medical and prescription costs compared between
      matched pairs, based on propensity for being a case as evidenced by coefficients
      obtained from a first-stage logistic regression. Patient characteristics
      considered include: state of residence, diagnosing provider type, comorbid
      conditions, and concurrent medication use. RESULTS: When controlling for
      propensity to receive a FM diagnosis, the actual diagnosis has a small effect on
      medical (-$83.54 [95% CI, -152.55 to -16.53]) and prescription ($120.31 [95% CI,
      109.98-130.62]) costs. However, the effect of chronic opioid use in FM patients
      on medical ($9094.05 [95% CI, 8924.79-9263.31]) and prescription ($3391.81 [95%
      CI, 3368.84-3414.79]) costs is much more substantial. CONCLUSIONS: While the
      differences seen in FM patients and controls are marginal, those attributed to
      chronic opioid use in these patients are significantly higher. Chronic opioid
      therapy to treat FM is a practice based not on evidence available to
      practitioners, but on other variables.

PMID- 28553436
TI  - Cytoprotective Mechanisms Mediated by Polyphenols from Chilean Native Berries
      against Free Radical-Induced Damage on AGS Cells.
AB  - The prevalence of cytoprotective mechanisms induced by polyphenols such as
      activation of intracellular antioxidant responses (ICM) and direct free radical
      scavenging was investigated in native Chilean species of strawberries,
      raspberries, and currants. Human gastric epithelial cells were co- and
      preincubated with polyphenolic-enriched extracts (PEEs) from Chilean raspberries
      (Rubus geoides), strawberries (Fragaria chiloensis ssp. chiloensis f.
      chiloensis), and currants (Ribes magellanicum) and challenged with peroxyl and
      hydroxyl radicals. Cellular protection was determined in terms of cell viability,
      glyoxalase I and glutathione s-transferases activities, and carboxymethyl lysine
      (CML) and malondialdehyde levels. Our results indicate that cytoprotection
      induced by ICM was the prevalent mechanism for Rubus geoides and F. chiloensis.
      This agreed with increased levels of glyoxalase I and glutathione S-transferase
      activities in cells preincubated with PEEs. ORAC index indicated that F.
      chiloensis was the most efficient peroxyl radical scavenger. Moreover, ICM
      mediated by F. chiloensis was effective in protecting cells from CML accumulation
      in contrast to the protective effects induced by free radical scavenging. Our
      results indicate that although both polyphenol-mediated mechanisms can exert
      protective effects, ICM was the most prevalent in AGS cells. These results
      suggest a potential use of these native berries as functional food.

PMID- 28553439
TI  - Check-Rein Technique for Management of Neglected Locked Posterior Shoulder
      Dislocations: Evaluation of Mid-term Outcome of a Novel Technique.
AB  - Introduction: Neglected locked posterior shoulder dislocations, although rare,
      are quiet perplexing to manage. Various treatment methods have been explained for
      their management, but a consensus is still lacking. Besides describing a novel
      technique for the management of these lesions, this study aims to evaluate the
      mid-term outcome of this technique. Method: This prospective study involved seven
      consecutive patients with locked posterior dislocation of the shoulder with
      humeral defect between 25% and 50%. All patients underwent open reduction of the
      locked posterior dislocation with the current technique. The final outcome was
      assessed at a mean follow up of 3.5 years (range 2-5 years) using the DASH score.
      Result: The mean age of the patients was 32 years (range 21-44) and all were men.
      The mean time to presentation from initial injury was 2.4 years (range 2-4
      years). The patient related outcome as measured by DASH score improved from a
      preoperative mean of 59.1 to mean value of 8.6 at the time of final follow up.
      There were no cases of graft pull out, nonunion at the graft site or infection.
      Conclusion: This technique results in pain-free range of motion with a stable
      shoulder though a larger sample population with a longer follow up is required to
      further support our observations.

PMID- 28553440
TI  - Prospective Study to compare Intra-articular versus Intravenous Tranexemic Acid
      in reducing Post-operative Blood Loss in staged bilateral Total Knee
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - The number of total knee arthroplasties (TKA) performed is around two million
      annually worldwide and this number is expected to increase fivefold by 2025. The
      most common indication is osteoarthritis of the knee. Blood loss is significant
      during the post-operative period and blood transfusion when necessary has its own
      drawbacks. The use of intravenous tranexamic acid has significantly reduced blood
      loss. We analysed 35 patients who underwent staged bilateral TKA between August
      2013 and February 2016 and had administered intra-articular tranexamic acid for
      one knee and intravenous tranexamic acid for the other knee. The results were
      analysed based on post-operative blood loss, change in haemoglobin (Hb) level and
      haematocrit (PCV) and the need for blood transfusion. The average postoperative
      blood loss was 129.57 ml and 277.71 ml for intra articular group and intravenous
      group respectively. A control group (no drug or placebo group) with age matched
      patients (n= 21) was chosen from medical records. The average blood loss in the
      control group was 493.81 ml. The fall in Hb level and PCV was 0.72 gm/dl and 2.62
      % (Intra-articular Group), 1.36 gm/dl and 4.34 % (Intravenous Group) and 2.62
      gm/dl and 5.52 % (Control). The number of transfusions were two (Intra-articular
      Group), five (Intravenous Group) and nine (Control). We conclude that when
      compared with intravenous route, intra-articular administration has significantly
      reduced blood loss, Hb level and PCV fall and the rate of blood transfusion.

PMID- 28553441
TI  - Prospective Case Study of Outcome of Tibial Plateau Fractures Treated with
      Locking Condylar Plate.
AB  - Introduction: Tibial plateau injury involves the articular surface of the
      proximal tibia with diverse group of fractures that represent a wide spectrum of
      severity that challenge even the most experienced surgeons, but with the invent
      of modern diagnostic technology and the advent of locking plates, results appear
      to be improving over time. Method: The study was conducted on thirty patients
      admitted in the department of orthopaedics with diagnoses of tibial plateau
      fractures treated with Locking Condylar Plate. The patients were followed up for
      a minimum period of six months and clinico-radiological progression of fracture
      union with the functional outcome was studied using 100 point rating system
      devised by Delamarter et al. Result: Twenty-two patients showed excellent results
      while eight patients had good to fair and none with poor result. The average time
      for radiological union was 17.5 weeks. Conclusion: The results of the study
      concluded that while locking condylar plate seems to show excellent results in
      low energy tibial plateau fractures, it can probably be used to successfully
      treat patients with high energy fracture patterns without the need for additional
      medial stabilization.

PMID- 28553442
TI  - Physical and Clinical Evaluation of Hip Spica Cast applied with Three-slab
      Technique using Fibreglass Material.
AB  - Introduction: Hip spica casting is an important component of treatment for
      developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and popular treatment method for femur
      fractures in children. Breakage at the hip region is a relatively common problem
      of this cast. We have developed a three-slab technique of hip spica application
      using fibreglass as the cast material. The purpose of this review was to evaluate
      the physical durability of the spica cast and skin complications with its use.
      Methodology: A retrospective review of children with various conditions requiring
      hip spica immobilisation which was applied using our method. Study duration was
      from 1st of January 2014 until 31st December 2015. Our main outcomes were cast
      breakage and skin complications. For children with hip instability, the first
      cast would be changed after one month, and the second cast about two months
      later. Results: Twenty-one children were included, with an average age of 2.2
      years. The most common indication for spica immobilisation was developmental
      dysplasia of the hip. One child had skin irritation after spica application. No
      spica breakage was noted. Conclusion: This study showed that the three-slab
      method of hip spica cast application using fibreglass material was durable and
      safe with low risk of skin complications.

PMID- 28553443
TI  - Pattern of Presentation and Outcome of Short-term Treatment for Idiopathic
      Clubfoot / CTEV with Ponseti Method.
AB  - Introduction: Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (CTEV) is a common congenital foot
      deformity that is associated with long term disability. Treatment with Ponseti
      method has been successful especially for children who present early. We
      conducted this study to investigate the age of presentation of children and
      report the early outcome. Materials: This is a retrospective study from a single
      institution. We included 31 patients with 45 idiopathic clubfeet and investigated
      problems and success rate at the end of serial casting. Results: Mean age at
      presentation was 4.9 months. The mean number of casting was 6 and mean duration
      of casting was 2.7 months. The initial success rate of 91.1%, with four feet
      (8.8%) diagnosed as resistant clubfoot and eventually required soft tissue
      surgery. With mean follow up of 14.1 months, four other feet (8.8%) developed
      relapse but were treated with repeat Ponseti method. Conclusion: Many CTEV
      patients present late for treatment. However, the Ponseti method remained
      effective with high initial success rate of 91.1%. Relapsed CTEV can still be
      treated successfully with repeat casting using the Ponseti method.

PMID- 28553444
TI  - Role of Local Infiltration of Tranexamic Acid in Reducing Blood Loss in
      Peritrochanteric Fracture Surgery in the Elderly Population.
AB  - Introduction: Peritrochanteric fractures are common injuries occurring in elderly
      patients. Surgeries for these fractures are associated with significant blood
      loss. Intravenous tranexamic acid has a proven track record in many orthopaedic
      surgeries including trauma, arthroplasty and spine surgeries. Objective: To study
      the effect of local subfascial and intramuscular infiltration of tranexamic acid
      in reducing blood loss and the requirement for blood transfusion in
      intertrochanteric fracture surgery. Study Design: Single centre prospective
      analytical study. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty seven patients
      above 65 years of age were included in the study, divided into two groups: the
      intervention group received subfascial and intramuscular infiltration of 2g
      tranexamic acid before wound closure and the control group of alternate patients
      did not receive any tranexamic acid infiltration. The postoperative drain output
      was recorded, as well as the haemoglobin level and the patients needing blood
      transfusion. Results and Conclusions: The preoperative and postoperative
      haemoglobin values were recorded. The mean preoperative haemoglobin was 10.9% and
      10.8% (p=0.79) in the trial and control groups respectively. The mean
      postoperative haemoglobin was 9.5gm% and 9.2gm% (p=0.36) in the two groups. The
      total postoperative blood loss in the tranexamic acid group and the control group
      was 190.3ml and 204.3ml respectively (p=0.25). Ten patients (14.9%) in the
      intervention group and 12 patients (17.1%) in the control group required blood
      transfusion. We conclude that tranexamic acid does not play a significant role in
      reducing postoperative blood loss and blood transfusion when used locally in
      peritochanteric fracture surgery. However a larger double blinded study comparing
      various modalities of use of tranexamic acid is needed to conclusively establish
      its role.

PMID- 28553446
TI  - Brachial Artery Injury in a Child following Closed Elbow Dislocation: Case Report
      of a Rare Injury.
AB  - Elbow dislocation, though a common orthopaedic emergency is rare with brachial
      artery injury and is even more uncommon in the paediatric age group. We present
      the case of a child who sustained trauma resulting in closed elbow dislocation
      with brachial artery injury. Elbow dislocation with brachial artery injury can
      present with palpable distal pulses and good capillary refill because of rich
      collaterals at the elbow. But this patient presented with signs of frank ischemia
      distally, and was managed with ipsilateral reverse cephalic vein graft. He had
      good volume pulses at one year follow-up. Patients with such presentation should
      have careful clinical and radiological assessment to exclude complicated elbow
      dislocation.

PMID- 28553445
TI  - A Cross-sectional Analysis of Glove Perforation in Primary and Revision Total Hip
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - The number of total hip arthroplasties is ever increasing. Literature about glove
      perforation rates in arthroplasties in India is very scarce. The purpose of our
      study was to determine the incidence of glove perforation and increasing the
      awareness of possible glove perforations to decrease the risk of infection. We
      performed a prospective study in which we tested gloves worn by all scrubbed
      personnel. A total of 1408 gloves were collected from 42 primary total hip and 13
      revision total hip arthroplasties. Incidence of glove perforation was found to be
      more in revision total hip arthroplasty. We found a greater outer glove
      perforation rate of about 38.33% as compared to 25 % inner glove perforation
      rate. Outer glove perforation was recognized 100% of time intraoperatively but
      inner glove perforation was noted only 17% of time. First assistant recorded
      highest rate of glove perforation.

PMID- 28553447
TI  - Benign Subcutaneous Emphysema of the Upper Limb: A Case Report.
AB  - Subcutaneous emphysema is the presence of gas or air in the subcutaneous tissue
      plane. The term is generally used to describe any soft tissue emphysema of the
      body wall or limbs, it can result from benign causes, most commonly secondary to
      trauma or from a life-threatening infection by gas gangrene or necrotising
      fasciitis. A case of subcutaneous emphysema involving the upper limb resulting
      from a trivial laceration to the elbow is reported and the importance of
      distinguishing between the two causes of subcutaneous emphysema is highlighted.

PMID- 28553448
TI  - Multicentric Disappearing Bone Disease treated with Arthroplasty.
AB  - Multicentric disappearing bone disease, or Gorham disease, is a rare entity. A
      middle age woman, presented to us with left sided antalgic gait and severe bony
      deformity of her left knee. Radiograph revealed massive bone defect of the medial
      condyle of the left tibia with subluxation of the knee joint. She was scheduled
      for knee replacement in six months. However, she developed another lesion over
      the right hip that typically mimicked the disease progression of disappearing
      bone disease. The right femoral head vanished progressively within three months
      without significant history of infection or trauma. Subsequent bone biopsy of the
      right femoral head and left tibia condyle confirmed the diagnosis. Total knee
      replacement was carried out for her left knee. She remained pain free on her left
      knee. A year later, after confirming by sequential radiographs that the
      osteolysis had stopped, total right hip replacement was performed. Five years
      later, she remained pain free and both the arthroplasties were stable.

PMID- 28553449
TI  - Post-operative Hypertension following Correction of Flexion Deformity of the
      Knees in a Spastic Diplegic Child: A Case Report.
AB  - An adolescent boy with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy presented with crouch
      gait. He had bilateral severe flexion deformities of knees and hips. He was
      treated with single event multilevel surgery for the correction of deformities.
      Surgical procedures included bilateral adductor release, iliopsoas lengthening,
      bilateral femoral shortening and patella plication. Persistent hypertension was
      noted in the post-operative period. All causes of secondary hypertension were
      ruled out. Having persistent hypertension following the femoral shortening
      procedure is unusual. Antihypertensive medication controlled his blood pressure
      15 months after surgery. Hypertension following correction of knee flexion
      deformity and limb lengthening is well known. Hypertension has not been described
      with the shortening osteotomy of the femur. Hypertension is a rare complication
      following the corrective surgery for the treatment of crouch gait. Blood pressure
      should be monitored during the post-operative period to detect such a rare
      complication.

PMID- 28553450
TI  - Calf Compartment Syndrome associated with the Use of an Intra-osseous Line in an
      Adult Patient: A Case Report.
AB  - We present a case of a lower limb compartment syndrome associated with the use of
      an intra-osseous line inserted into the proximal tibia in an adult patient. An
      unconscious 59-year old male with multiple injuries presented to our Emergency
      Department after a road traffic accident. Bilateral proximal tibial intra osseous
      lines were inserted due to poor venous access. After resuscitation his left leg
      was noted to be tense and swollen with absent pulses. Acute compartment syndrome
      was diagnosed both clinically and with compartment pressure measurement. Two
      incision fasciotomy on his left lower leg was performed. Intra osseous-lines in
      the proximal tibia are increasingly used in adult patients in the pre-hospital
      setting by paramedics and emergency physicians. Their use, along with the
      possible complications of these devices, such as the development of compartment
      syndrome or osteomyelitis leading to amputation, is well reported in the
      paediatric literature. To the best of our knowledge, there have not been any
      previous reports of complications in the adult patient. We present a case of
      lower leg compartment syndrome developing from the use of an intra-osseous line
      in the proximal tibia in an adult patient. With the increasing use of intra
      osseous lines in adult patients, clinicians should be aware of the possibility of
      developing compartment syndrome which may lead to disability or amputation in
      severe cases.

PMID- 28553451
TI  - The Use of Dual Reconstruction Plates for Failed Fixation of Patellar Fracture
      after Total Knee Replacement: A Case Report.
AB  - Patellar fracture after total knee replacement (TKR) is one of the challenging
      problems in periprosthetic fracture. Open reduction with internal fixation
      (ORIF), as tension band wiring (TBW), usually required in cases with extensor
      mechanism disruption. However, many studies reported a high failure rate after
      using this technique. In this report, we presented an interesting case of
      periprosthetic patellar fracture after TKR with TBW failure that was successfully
      treated with double non-locking reconstruction plates fixation and TBW
      augmentation.

PMID- 28553452
TI  - Open Reduction of Neglected Knee Dislocation: Case Report of a Rare Injury.
AB  - Old neglected dislocation of knee joint is a rare injury. Any orthopaedic surgeon
      would have faced only a few cases of unreduced neglected dislocation in his life
      time practice. We report the case of a 30-year old male patient with one month
      old unreduced knee dislocation which was managed with open reduction and
      stabilization with two intra-articular crossed Steinman pins for six weeks,
      followed by removal of the pins and gradual weight bearing in hinged knee brace.
      At the end of one year, range of movement of knee joint was 0 to 50 degree with
      minimal knee pain on walking.

PMID- 28553453
TI  - Tophaceous Gout simulating infected Ankle Implants.
AB  - Gout is a well known metabolic disorder characterized by the formation of urate
      crystals in joints resulting in recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis
      following which tophi can occur in joints or subcutaneous tissues. We report a
      rare localization of gouty tophi in a 52 years old male. The tophi had formed
      over the stainless steel implant used for the fixation of a lateral malleolus
      fracture 20 years ago.

PMID- 28553454
TI  - A Case of undiagnosed Pseudoaneurysm caused by an open tibial fracture.

PMID- 28553455
TI  - Tincture of Benzoin to Prevent Cast Slippage in Clubfoot.

PMID- 28553456
TI  - Macrocycles: lessons from the distant past, recent developments, and future
      directions.
AB  - A noticeable increase in molecular complexity of drug targets has created an
      unmet need in the therapeutic agents that are larger than traditional small
      molecules. Macrocycles, which are cyclic compounds comprising 12 atoms or more,
      are now recognized as molecules that "are up to the task" to interrogate extended
      protein interfaces. However, because macrocycles (particularly the ones based on
      peptides) are equipped with large polar surface areas, achieving cellular
      permeability and bioavailability is anything but straightforward. While one might
      consider this to be the Achilles' heel of this class of compounds, the synthetic
      community continues to develop creative approaches toward the synthesis of
      macrocycles and their site-selective modification. This perspective provides an
      overview of both mechanistic and structural issues that bear on macrocycles as a
      unique class of molecules. The reader is offered a historical foray into some of
      the classic studies that have resulted in the current renaissance of macrocycles.
      In addition, an attempt is made to overview the more recent developments that
      give hope that macrocycles might indeed turn into a useful therapeutic modality.

PMID- 28553458
TI  - Charge-tagged ligands: useful tools for immobilising complexes and detecting
      reaction species during catalysis.
AB  - In recent years, charge-tagged ligands (CTLs) have become valuable tools in
      organometallic catalysis. Insertion of an ionic side chain into the molecular
      skeleton of a known ligand has become a useful protocol for anchoring ligands,
      and consequently catalysts, in polar and ionic liquid phases. In addition, the
      insertion of a cationic moiety into a ligand is a powerful tool that can be used
      to detect reaction intermediates in organometallic catalysis through electrospray
      ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) experiments. The insertion of an ionic tag
      ensures the charge in the intermediates independently of the ESI-MS. For this
      reason, these ligands have been used as ionic probes in mechanistic studies for
      several catalytic reactions. Here, we summarise selected examples on the use of
      CTLs as immobilising agents in organometallic catalysis and as probes for
      studying mechanisms through ESI-MS.

PMID- 28553460
TI  - A strategy based on nucleotide specificity leads to a subfamily-selective and
      cell-active inhibitor of N6-methyladenosine demethylase FTO.
AB  - The AlkB family of nucleic acid demethylases are of intense biological and
      medical interest because of their roles in nucleic acid repair and epigenetic
      modification. However their functional and molecular mechanisms are unclear,
      hence, there is strong interest in developing selective inhibitors for them. Here
      we report the identification of key residues within the nucleotide-binding sites
      of the AlkB subfamilies that likely determine their substrate specificity. We
      further provide proof of principle that a strategy exploiting these inherent
      structural differences can enable selective and potent inhibition of the AlkB
      subfamilies. This is demonstrated by the first report of a subfamily-selective
      and cell-active FTO inhibitor 12. The distinct selectivity of 12 for FTO against
      other AlkB subfamilies and 2OG oxygenases shall be of considerable interest with
      regards to its potential use as a functional probe. The strategy outlined here is
      likely applicable to other AlkB subfamilies, and, more widely, to other 2OG
      oxygenases.

PMID- 28553457
TI  - Designing logical codon reassignment - Expanding the chemistry in biology.
AB  - Over the last decade, the ability to genetically encode unnatural amino acids
      (UAAs) has evolved rapidly. The programmed incorporation of UAAs into recombinant
      proteins relies on the reassignment or suppression of canonical codons with an
      amino-acyl tRNA synthetase/tRNA (aaRS/tRNA) pair, selective for the UAA of
      choice. In order to achieve selective incorporation, the aaRS should be selective
      for the designed tRNA and UAA over the endogenous amino acids and tRNAs. Enhanced
      selectivity has been achieved by transferring an aaRS/tRNA pair from another
      kingdom to the organism of interest, and subsequent aaRS evolution to acquire
      enhanced selectivity for the desired UAA. Today, over 150 non-canonical amino
      acids have been incorporated using such methods. This enables the introduction of
      a large variety of structures into proteins, in organisms ranging from
      prokaryote, yeast and mammalian cells lines to whole animals, enabling the study
      of protein function at a level that could not previously be achieved. While most
      research to date has focused on the suppression of 'non-sense' codons, recent
      developments are beginning to open up the possibility of quadruplet codon
      decoding and the more selective reassignment of sense codons, offering a
      potentially powerful tool for incorporating multiple amino acids. Here, we aim to
      provide a focused review of methods for UAA incorporation with an emphasis in
      particular on the different tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairs exploited or developed,
      focusing upon the different UAA structures that have been incorporated and the
      logic behind the design and future creation of such systems. Our hope is that
      this will help rationalize the design of systems for incorporation of unexplored
      unnatural amino acids, as well as novel applications for those already known.

PMID- 28553459
TI  - Thin metal nanostructures: synthesis, properties and applications.
AB  - Two-dimensional nanomaterials, especially graphene and single- or few-layer
      transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheets, have attracted great research
      interest in recent years due to their distinctive physical, chemical and
      electronic properties as well as their great potentials for a broad range of
      applications. Recently, great efforts have also been devoted to the controlled
      synthesis of thin nanostructures of metals, one of the most studied traditional
      materials, for various applications. In this minireview, we review the recent
      progress in the synthesis and applications of thin metal nanostructures with a
      focus on metal nanoplates and nanosheets. First of all, various methods for the
      synthesis of metal nanoplates and nanosheets are summarized. After a brief
      introduction of their properties, some applications of metal nanoplates and
      nanosheets, such as catalysis, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), sensing
      and near-infrared photothermal therapy are described.

PMID- 28553462
TI  - Selecting reactions and reactants using a switchable rotaxane organocatalyst with
      two different active sites.
AB  - The activation mode of a rotaxane-based organocatalyst with both secondary amine
      and squaramide catalytic units can be switched with acid or base. The macrocycle
      blocks whichever of the catalytic sites it is positioned over. The switchable
      rotaxane catalyst generates different products from a mixture of three building
      blocks according to the location of the macrocyclic ring in the rotaxane.

PMID- 28553461
TI  - A comparative study of the coordination behavior of cyclo-P5 and cyclo-As5 ligand
      complexes towards the trinuclear Lewis acid complex (perfluoro-ortho
      phenylene)mercury.
AB  - Reactions of the cyclo-E5 sandwich complexes [Cp*Fe(eta5-P5)] (1) and [Cp*Fe(eta5
      As5)] (2) with the planar Lewis acid trimeric (perfluoro-ortho-phenylene)mercury
      [(o-C6F4Hg)3] (3) afford compounds that show distinctly different assemblies in
      the solid state. The phosphorus containing ligand 1 forms dimeric coordination
      units with two molecules of 3, with one P atom of each cyclo-P5 ligand positioned
      in close proximity to the center of a molecule of 3. In contrast to the
      coordination behavior of 1, the arsenic analog 2 shows simultaneous interaction
      of three As atoms with the Hg atoms of 3. A DFT study and subsequent AIM analyses
      of the products suggest that electrostatic forces are prevalent over donor
      acceptor interactions in these adducts, and may play a role in the differences in
      the observed coordination behavior. Subsequently, a series of [CpRFe(eta5-P5)]
      (CpR = C5H5-ntBu n , n = 1-3, 6a-c) sandwich complexes was prepared and also
      reacted with [(o-C6F4Hg)3]. In the solid state the obtained products 7a-c with
      increasing steric demand of the CpR ligands show no significant change in their
      assembly compared to the Cp* analog 4. All of the products were characterized by
      single crystal X-ray structure analysis, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis
      as well as NMR spectroscopy and IR spectrometry.

PMID- 28553463
TI  - Applications of dynamic combinatorial chemistry for the determination of
      effective molarity.
AB  - A new strategy for determining thermodynamic effective molarities (EM) for
      macrocylisation reactions using dynamic combinatorial chemistry under dilute
      conditions is presented. At low concentrations, below the critical value, Dynamic
      Libraries (DLs) of bifunctional building blocks contain only cyclic species, so
      it is not possible to quantify the equilibria between linear and cyclic species.
      However, addition of a monofunctional chain stopper can be used to promote the
      formation of linear oligomers allowing measurement of EM for all cyclic species
      present in the DL. The effectiveness of this approach was demonstrated for DLs
      generated from mixtures of 1,3-diimine calix[4]arenes, linear diaminoalkanes and
      monoaminoalkanes. For macrocycles deriving from one bifunctional calixarene and
      one diamine, there is an alternating pattern of EM values with the number of
      methylene units in the diamine: odd numbers give significantly higher EMs than
      even numbers. For odd numbers of methylene units, the alkyl chain can adopt an
      extended all anti conformation, whereas for even numbers of methylene units,
      gauche conformations are required for cyclisation, and the associated strain
      reduces EM. The value of EM for the five-carbon linker indicates that this
      macrocycle is a strainless ring.

PMID- 28553465
TI  - From TcVII to TcI; facile syntheses of bis-arene complexes [99(m)Tc(arene)2]+
      from pertechnetate.
AB  - Bis-arene complexes of technetium represent a fundamental class of organometallic
      compounds. Due to complex synthetic routes, no detailed insights into their
      properties have been reported so far. Reacting [99TcO4]- with arenes in the
      exclusive presence of AlCl3 gives highly stable [99Tc(arene)2]+ in good yields.
      These complexes have extraordinarily high stabilities, where oxidation is found
      to occur at potentials higher than +1.3 V and reduction at potentials below -2 V
      vs. Fc/Fc+. The 99mTc analogues are similarly synthesised by applying a novel
      ionic liquid extraction pathway. Complexes of 99mTc with suitably functionalized
      arenes will represent new building blocks for bioorganometallic pharmaceuticals
      in molecular imaging.

PMID- 28553464
TI  - Extremely strong tubular stacking of aromatic oligoamide macrocycles.
AB  - As the third-generation rigid macrocycles evolved from progenitor 1, cyclic
      aromatic oligoamides 3, with a backbone of reduced constraint, exhibit extremely
      strong stacking with an astoundingly high affinity (estimated lower limit of
      Kdimer > 1013 M-1 in CHCl3), which leads to dispersed tubular stacks that undergo
      further assembly in solution. Computational study reveals a very large binding
      energy (-49.77 kcal mol-1) and indicates highly cooperative local dipole
      interactions that account for the observed strength and directionality for the
      stacking of 3. In the solid-state, X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms that the
      aggregation of 3 results in well-aligned tubular stacks. The persistent tubular
      assemblies of 3, with their non-deformable sub-nm pore, are expected to possess
      many interesting functions. One such function, transmembrane ion transport, is
      observed for 3.

PMID- 28553466
TI  - Ultrafast delocalization of excitation in synthetic light-harvesting nanorings.
AB  - Rings of chlorophyll molecules harvest sunlight remarkably efficiently during
      photosynthesis in purple bacteria. The key to their efficiency lies in their
      highly delocalized excited states that allow for ultrafast energy migration. Here
      we show that a family of synthetic nanorings mimic the ultrafast energy transfer
      and delocalization observed in nature. pi-Conjugated nanorings with diameters of
      up to 10 nm, consisting of up to 24 porphyrin units, are found to exhibit
      excitation delocalization within the first 200 fs of light absorption.
      Transitions from the first singlet excited state of the circular nanorings are
      dipole-forbidden as a result of symmetry constraints, but these selection rules
      can be lifted through static and dynamic distortions of the rings. The increase
      in the radiative emission rate in the larger nanorings correlates with an
      increase in static disorder expected from Monte Carlo simulations. For highly
      symmetric rings, the radiative rate is found to increase with increasing
      temperature. Although this type of thermally activated superradiance has been
      theoretically predicted in circular chromophore arrays, it has not previously
      been observed in any natural or synthetic systems. As expected, the activation
      energy for emission increases when a nanoring is fixed in a circular conformation
      by coordination to a radial template. These nanorings offer extended chromophores
      with high excitation delocalization that is remarkably stable against thermally
      induced disorder. Such findings open new opportunities for exploring coherence
      effects in nanometer molecular rings and for implementing these biomimetic light
      harvesters in man-made devices.

PMID- 28553467
TI  - Oxygen evolution on well-characterized mass-selected Ru and RuO2 nanoparticles.
AB  - Oxygen evolution was investigated on model, mass-selected RuO2 nanoparticles in
      acid, prepared by magnetron sputtering. Our investigations include
      electrochemical measurements, electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy
      and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We show that the stability and activity of
      nanoparticulate RuO2 is highly sensitive to its surface pretreatment. At 0.25 V
      overpotential, the catalysts show a mass activity of up to 0.6 A mg-1 and a
      turnover frequency of 0.65 s-1, one order of magnitude higher than the current
      state-of-the-art.

PMID- 28553468
TI  - Biphen[n]arenes.
AB  - To design and exploit novel macrocyclic synthetic receptors is a permanent and
      challenging topic in supramolecular chemistry. Here we describe the one-pot
      synthesis, unique geometries and intriguing host-guest properties of a new class
      of supramolecular macrocycles - biphen[n]arenes (n = 3, 4), which are made up of
      4,4'-biphenol or 4,4'-biphenol ether units linked by methylene bridges at the 3-
      and 3'- positions. The biphenarene macrocycles are conveniently
      accessible/modifiable and extremely guest-friendly. Particularly, biphen[4]arene
      is capable of forming inclusion complexes with not only organic cationic guests
      but also neutral pi-electron deficient molecules. Compared with calixarenes,
      resorcinarenes, cyclotriveratrylenes and pillararenes with substituted mono
      benzene units, the biphen[n]arenes reported here possess significantly different
      characteristics in both their topologic structures and their recognition
      properties, and thus can find broad applications in supramolecular chemistry and
      other areas.

PMID- 28553469
TI  - Organic/inorganic double-layered shells for multiple cytoprotection of individual
      living cells.
AB  - The cytoprotection of individual living cells under in vitro and daily-life
      conditions is a prerequisite for various cell-based applications including cell
      therapy, cell-based sensors, regenerative medicine, and even the food industry.
      In this work, we use a cytocompatible two-step process to encapsulate
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a highly uniform nanometric (<100 nm) shell composed
      of organic poly(norepinephrine) and inorganic silica layers. The resulting cell
      in-shell structure acquires multiple resistance against lytic enzyme,
      desiccation, and UV-C irradiation. In addition to the UV-C filtering effect of
      the double-layered shell, the biochemical responses of the encapsulated yeast are
      suggested to contribute to the observed UV-C tolerance. This work offers a
      chemical tool for cytoprotecting individual living cells under multiple stresses
      and also for studying biochemical behavior at the cellular level.

PMID- 28553470
TI  - Regulating signal enhancement with coordination-coupled deprotonation of a
      hydrazone switch.
AB  - Proton relay plays an important role in many biocatalytic pathways. In order to
      mimic such processes in the context of molecular switches, we developed
      coordination-coupled deprotonation (CCD) driven signaling and signal enhancement
      sequences. This was accomplished by using the zinc(ii)-initiated CCD of a
      hydrazone switch to instigate an acid catalyzed imine bond hydrolysis that
      separates a quencher from a fluorophore thus leading to emission amplification.
      Because CCD is a reversible process, we were able to show that the catalysis can
      be regulated and turned "on" and "off" using a metalation/demetalation cycle.

PMID- 28553471
TI  - An organometallic structure-activity relationship study reveals the essential
      role of a Re(CO)3 moiety in the activity against gram-positive pathogens
      including MRSA.
AB  - The worrying appearance of microbial resistance to antibiotics is a worldwide
      problem which needs to be tackled urgently. Microbial resistance to the common
      classes of antibiotics involving purely organic compounds unfortunately develops
      very rapidly and in most cases, resistance was detected soon after or even before
      release of the antibiotic to the market. Therefore, novel concepts for
      antibiotics must be investigated, and metal-containing compounds hold particular
      promise in that area. Taking a trimetallic complex (1a) which contains a
      ferrocenyl (Fc), a CpMn(CO)3 (cymantrene) and a [(dpa)Re(CO)3] residue as the
      lead structure, a systematic structure-activity relationship (SAR) study against
      various gram-positive pathogenic bacteria including methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains was performed. The [(dpa)Re(CO)3] moiety was
      discovered to be the essential unit for the observed antibacterial activity of
      1a. The ferrocenyl and CpMn(CO)3 units can be replaced one by one or both
      together by organic moieties such as a phenyl ring without loss of antibacterial
      activity. The most potent mono-metallic complex (9c') has an antibacterial
      activity comparable to the well-established organic drugs amoxicillin and
      norfloxacin and importantly, only moderate cytotoxicity against mammalian cells.
      Microbiological studies on membrane potential, membrane permeabilization, and
      cell wall integrity revealed that 9c' targets the bacterial membrane and disturbs
      cell wall integrity, but shows more efficient membrane permeabilization than the
      lead structure 1a.

PMID- 28553472
TI  - Chelate-free metal ion binding and heat-induced radiolabeling of iron oxide
      nanoparticles.
AB  - A novel reaction for chelate-free, heat-induced metal ion binding and
      radiolabeling of ultra-small paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIOs) has
      been established. Radiochemical and non-radioactive labeling studies demonstrated
      that the reaction has a wide chemical scope and is applicable to p-, d- and f
      block metal ions with varying ionic sizes and formal oxidation states from 2+ to
      4+. Radiolabeling studies found that 89Zr-Feraheme (89Zr-FH or 89Zr-ferumoxytol)
      can be isolated in 93 +/- 3% radiochemical yield (RCY) and >98% radiochemical
      purity using size-exclusion chromatography. 89Zr-FH was found to be
      thermodynamically and kinetically stable in vitro using a series of ligand
      challenge and plasma stability tests, and in vivo using PET/CT imaging and
      biodistribution studies in mice. Remarkably, ICP-MS and radiochemistry
      experiments showed that the same reaction conditions used to produce 89Zr-FH can
      be employed with different radionuclides to yield 64Cu-FH (66 +/- 6% RCY) and
      111In-FH (91 +/- 2% RCY). Electron magnetic resonance studies support a mechanism
      of binding involving metal ion association with the surface of the magnetite
      crystal core. Collectively, these data suggest that chelate-free labeling methods
      can be employed to facilitate clinical translation of a new class of
      multimodality PET/MRI radiotracers derived from metal-based nanoparticles.
      Further, this discovery is likely to have broader implications in drug delivery,
      metal separation science, ecotoxicology of nanoparticles and beyond.

PMID- 28553473
TI  - Reversible assembly of enantiomeric helical polymers: from fibers to gels.
AB  - A novel class of stereocomplexes is described by the interaction of helically
      complementary poly(phenylacetylene)s (PPAs) carrying an alpha-methoxy-alpha
      trifluoromethylphenylacetamide pendant group. The formation of the stereocomplex
      requires the presence of cis amide bonds on the external crest of the polymer to
      provide efficient cooperative supramolecular hydrogen bonding between matching
      enantiomeric helical structures. The interlocking of the chains gives rise to
      supramolecular fiber-like aggregates that, at higher concentrations, result in
      gels. The modification of the cis-trans amide conformation at the pendant groups
      allows the controlled formation and cleavage of the stereocomplex due to a
      dramatic change between the intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bond
      interactions.

PMID- 28553474
TI  - Impact and oxidation of single silver nanoparticles at electrode surfaces: one
      shot versus multiple events.
AB  - Single nanoparticle (NP) electrochemical impacts is a rapidly expanding field of
      fundamental electrochemistry, with applications from electrocatalysis to
      electroanalysis. These studies, which involve monitoring the electrochemical
      (usually current-time, I-t) response when a NP from solution impacts with a
      collector electrode, have the scope to provide considerable information on the
      properties of individual NPs. Taking the widely studied oxidative dissolution of
      individual silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) as an important example, we present
      measurements with unprecedented noise (< 5 pA) and time resolution (time constant
      100 MUs) that are highly revealing of Ag NP dissolution dynamics. Whereas Ag NPs
      of diameter, d = 10 nm are mostly dissolved in a single event (on the timescale
      of the measurements), a wide variety of complex processes operate for NPs of
      larger diameter (d >= 20 nm). Detailed quantitative analysis of the I-t features,
      consumed charge, event duration and impact frequency leads to a major conclusion:
      Ag NPs undergo sequential partial stripping (oxidative dissolution) events, where
      a fraction of a NP is electrochemically oxidized, followed by the NP drifting
      away and back to the tunnelling region before the next partial stripping event.
      As a consequence, analysis of the charge consumed by single events (so-called
      "impact coulometry") cannot be used as a general method to determine the size of
      colloidal NPs. However, a proper analysis of the I-t responses provides highly
      valuable information on the transient physicochemical interactions between NPs
      and polarized surfaces.

PMID- 28553475
TI  - Tracking motion trajectories of individual nanoparticles using time-resolved
      current traces.
AB  - Single nanoparticle (NP) electrochemical measurements are widely described, both
      theoretically and experimentally, as they enable visualization of the
      electrochemical signal of a single NP that is masked in ensemble measurements.
      However, investigating the behavior of individual NPs using electrochemical
      signals remains a significant challenge. Here we report experiments and
      simulations demonstrating that multiple distinct motion trajectories could be
      discerned from time-resolved current traces by dynamic Monte Carlo simulations.
      We show that continuous monitoring and quantification of electrochemical
      oxidation of individual AgNPs using a low-noise electrochemical measurement
      platform produce significantly distinguished current traces due to the size
      dependent motions of AgNPs. Our findings offer a view of the electrochemical
      signals of individual NPs that are largely different from that in the literature,
      and underscore the significance of motion behaviors in single NP
      electrochemistry.

PMID- 28553476
TI  - Neutral chiral cyclopentadienyl Ru(ii)Cl catalysts enable enantioselective [2+2]
      cycloadditions.
AB  - Cyclopentadienyl ruthenium(ii) complexes with a large number of available
      coordination sites are frequently used catalysts for a broad range of
      transformations. To be able to render these transformations enantioselective, we
      have designed a chiral neutral CpxRu(ii)Cl complex basing on an atropchiral
      cyclopentadienyl (Cpx) ligand which is accessed in a streamlined C-H
      functionalisation approach. The catalyst displays excellent levels of reactivity
      and enantioselectivity for enantioselective [2+2]-cycloadditions leading to
      strained chiral cyclobutenes, allowing for catalyst loadings as low as 1 mol%. A
      very strong counterion effect of a bound chloride anion transforms the
      corresponding unselective cationic complex into a highly enantioselective neutral
      version. Moreover, by adding norbornadiene at the end of the reaction the
      catalyst can be recovered and subsequently reused.

PMID- 28553477
TI  - The influence of acceptor nucleophilicity on the glycosylation reaction
      mechanism.
AB  - A set of model nucleophiles of gradually changing nucleophilicity is used to
      probe the glycosylation reaction mechanism. Glycosylations of ethanol-based
      acceptors, bearing varying amounts of fluorine atoms, report on the dependency of
      the stereochemistry in condensation reactions on the nucleophilicity of the
      acceptor. Three different glycosylation systems were scrutinized, that differ in
      the reaction mechanism, that - putatively - prevails during the coupling
      reaction. It is revealed that the stereoselectivity in glycosylations of
      benzylidene protected glucose donors are very susceptible to acceptor
      nucleophilicity whereas condensations of benzylidene mannose and mannuronic acid
      donors represent more robust glycosylation systems in terms of
      diastereoselectivity. The change in stereoselectivity with decreasing acceptor
      nucleophilicity is related to a change in reaction mechanism shifting from the
      SN2 side to the SN1 side of the reactivity spectrum. Carbohydrate acceptors are
      examined and the reactivity-selectivity profile of these nucleophiles mirrored
      those of the model acceptors studied. The set of model ethanol acceptors thus
      provides a simple and effective "toolbox" to investigate glycosylation reaction
      mechanisms and report on the robustness of glycosylation protocols.

PMID- 28553478
TI  - Nature's hydrides: rapid reduction of halocarbons by folate model compounds.
AB  - Halocarbons R-X are reduced to hydrocarbons R-H by folate model compounds under
      biomimetic conditions. The reactions correspond to a halide-hydride exchange with
      the methylenetetrahydrofolate (MTHF) models acting as hydride donors. The MTHF
      models are also functional equivalents of dehalohydrogenases but, unlike these
      enzymes, do not require a metal cofactor. The reactions suggest that halocarbons
      have the potential to act as endocrinological disruptors of biochemical pathways
      involving MTHF. As a case in point, we observe the rapid reaction of the MTHF
      models with the inhalation anaesthetic halothane. The ready synthetic
      accessibility of the MTHF models as well as their dehalogenation activity in the
      presence of air and moisture allow for the remediation of toxic, halogenated
      hydrocarbons.

PMID- 28553479
TI  - A DNA-based parity generator/checker for error detection through data
      transmission with visual readout and an output-correction function.
AB  - During any type of binary data transmission, the occurrence of bit errors is an
      inevitable and frequent problem suffered. These errors, which have fatal effects
      on the correct logic computation, especially in sophisticated logic circuits, can
      be checked through insertion of a parity generator (pG) at the transmitting end
      and a parity checker (pC) at the receiving end. Herein, taking even pG/pC as a
      model device, we constructed the first DNA-based molecular parity
      generator/checker (pG/pC) for error detection through data transmission, on a
      universal single-strand platform according to solely DNA hybridization. Compared
      with previous pG/pC systems, the distinct advantage of this one is that it can
      present not only fluorescence signals but also visual outputs, which can be
      directly recognized by the naked eye, using DNA inputs modulated split-G
      quadruplex and its DNAzyme as signal reporters, thus greatly extending its
      potential practical applications. More importantly, an "Output-Correction"
      function was introduced into the pC for the first time, in which all of the
      erroneous outputs can be adequately corrected to their normal states,
      guaranteeing the regular operation of subsequent logic devices. Furthermore,
      through negative logic conversion towards the constructed even pG/pC, the odd
      pG/pC with equal functions was obtained. Furthermore, this system can also
      execute multi-input triggered concatenated logic computations with dual output
      modes, which largely fulfilled the requirements of complicated computing.

PMID- 28553480
TI  - Selective anomeric acetylation of unprotected sugars in water.
AB  - High yielding selective acetylation of only the anomeric hydroxyl of unprotected
      sugars is possible in aqueous solution using 2-chloro-1,3-dimethylimidazolinium
      chloride (DMC), thioacetic acid, and a suitable base. The reaction, which may be
      performed on a multi-gram scale, is stereoselective for sugars that possess a
      hydroxyl group at position-2, exclusively yielding the 1,2-trans products. The
      use of an iterative reagent addition procedure allows the use of sodium carbonate
      as the base, avoiding the formation of triethylammonium salts, which may hamper
      product purification. The glycosyl acetate products may be used as donor
      substrates for glycosidase-catalysed synthesis. The crude aqueous acetylation
      reaction mixture may also be used for this purpose.

PMID- 28553481
TI  - White-light emission from a single heavy atom-free molecule with room temperature
      phosphorescence, mechanochromism and thermochromism.
AB  - Two heavy atom-free luminophores (SHB2t and SDB2t) with simple molecular
      structures have been synthesized via Suzuki coupling reactions in which both
      display white-light emission with prompt fluorescence and room temperature
      phosphorescence (RTP) in the solid state. The impressive RTP of the luminophores
      is produced by a synergistic effect of the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding
      in addition to the spin-orbit coupling of the sulfonyl oxygen atoms and the
      moderate singlet-triplet energy gaps (DeltaEST). These factors facilitate the
      intersystem crossing (ISC) process to generate triplet excitons in which the
      molecular conformations become immobilized to effectively suppress radiationless
      decay. Under the stimuli of mechanical force and solvent vapor, the RTP of SHB2t
      and SDB2t can be simply turned off and on by breaking and reforming the robust
      hydrogen bonding, which leads to remarkable and reversible mechanochromism
      between white and deep-blue emission. Moreover, two different thermochromic
      processes have been observed for the pristine and ground samples of SDB2t, in
      which a tricolor switching system between white, deep-blue and blue emission has
      been successfully achieved through the sequential control of grinding, heating
      and fuming. From detailed studies we have determined that the mechanism for the
      thermochromism of SDB2t is correlated with the rearrangement of the white-light
      emitting molecules to a new packing mode without RTP emission.

PMID- 28553482
TI  - Sensing telomerase: From in vitro detection to in vivo imaging.
AB  - Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that is responsible for
      maintaining the telomere length in cells. Telomerase overexpresses in almost all
      malignant tumor cells, and it has become a promising biomarker and a potential
      therapy target for cancers. Consequently, accurate and efficient quantification
      of the telomerase is highly essential to medical diagnostics and therapeutics.
      Recently, a series of novel telomerase detection methods with excellent
      performance have been developed, but a overview of in vivo telomerase detection
      methods is lacking. In this Minireview, we summarize the emerging strategies for
      telomerase assays in the last five years, including both in vitro assays and in
      vivo imaging methods, and discuss their future directions as well.

PMID- 28553483
TI  - Fully conjugated ladder polymers.
AB  - Fully conjugated ladder polymers (cLPs), in which all the backbone units on the
      polymer main-chain are pi-conjugated and fused, have attracted great interest
      owing to their intriguing properties, remarkable chemical and thermal stability,
      and potential suitability as functional organic materials. The synthesis of cLPs
      can be, in general, achieved by two main strategies: single-step ladderization
      and post-polymerization ladderization. Although a variety of synthetic methods
      have been developed, the chemistry of cLPs must contend with structural defects
      and low solubility that prevents complete control over synthesis and structural
      characterization. Despite these challenges, cLPs have been used for a wide range
      of applications such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic field
      effect transistors (OFETs), paralleling developments in processing methods. In
      this perspective, we discuss the background of historical syntheses including the
      most recent synthetic approaches, challenges related to the synthesis and
      structural characterization of well-defined cLPs with minimum levels of
      structural defects, cLPs' unique properties, and wide range of applications. In
      addition, we propose outlooks to overcome the challenges limiting the synthesis,
      analysis, and processing of cLPs in order to fully unlock the potential of this
      intriguing class of organic materials.

PMID- 28553484
TI  - Metal halide perovskite nanomaterials: synthesis and applications.
AB  - Nanomaterials refer to those with at least one dimension being at the nanoscale
      (i.e. <100 nm) such as quantum dots, nanowires, and nanoplatelets. These types of
      materials normally exhibit optical and electrical properties distinct from their
      bulk counterparts due to quantum confinement or strong anisotropy. In this
      perspective, we will focus on a particular material family: metal halide
      perovskites, which have received tremendous interest recently in photovoltaics
      and diverse photonic and optoelectronic applications. The different synthesis
      approaches and growth mechanisms will be discussed along with their novel
      characteristics and applications. Taking perovskite quantum dots as an example,
      the quantum confinement effect and high external quantum efficiency are among
      these novel properties and their excellent performance in applications, such as
      single photon emitters and LEDs, will be discussed. Understanding the mechanism
      behind the formation of these nanomaterial forms of perovskite will help
      researchers to come up with effective strategies to combat the emerging
      challenges of this family of materials, such as stability under ambient
      conditions and toxicity, towards next generation applications in photovoltaics
      and optoelectronics.

PMID- 28553485
TI  - Visualization of drug delivery processes using AIEgens.
AB  - Drug delivery systems (DDSs) have been extensively studied as carriers to deliver
      small molecule chemo-drugs to tumors for cancer therapy. The therapeutic
      efficiency of chemo-drugs is crucially dependent on the effective drug
      concentrations in tumors and cancer cells. Novel DDSs that can simultaneously
      unveil drug distribution, drug release/activation behaviors and offer early
      evaluation of their therapeutic responses are highly desirable. Traditional
      fluorescent dye-labeled DDSs may suffer from notorious aggregation-caused
      quenching (ACQ) with limited sensitivity for bioimaging; in addition, the
      intrinsic fluorescence of these dyes requires careful selection of energy
      acceptor or quencher moieties for a light-up probe design, which complicates the
      development of self-reporting DDSs, especially the ones for reporting multiple
      processes. The recently emerged fluorogens with aggregation-induced emission
      characteristics (AIEgens) offer a straightforward solution to tackle this
      challenge. Thanks to the unique properties of AIEgens, new theranostic DDSs have
      been developed for simultaneous drug delivery and bioimaging with high signal to
      background ratio and multiple signal reporting capabilities. In this mini-review,
      we summarize the recent development of theranostic DDSs based on AIEgens for
      monitoring the drug distribution, drug activation and prediction of the
      therapeutic responses. Through illustration of their design principles and
      application examples, we hope to stimulate the interest in the design of more
      advanced theranostic DDSs for biomedical research.

PMID- 28553486
TI  - Artificial disulfide-rich peptide scaffolds with precisely defined disulfide
      patterns and a minimized number of isomers.
AB  - Disulfide-rich peptides are emerging as potential templates for drug design
      applications. However, the synthesis and reengineering of disulfide-rich peptides
      are challenging, owing to the complexity of the oxidative folding process
      involving a number of diverse isomeric structures. Novel disulfide-rich peptide
      scaffolds that are not besieged by their disulfide isomers are still greatly
      desired. In this work, we report the design and synthesis of a novel class of
      artificial disulfide-rich peptide scaffolds with precisely defined disulfide
      patterns and a minimized number of isomers. In theory, natural peptides with
      three disulfide bonds have 15 possible isomers. By rationally engineering the
      thiol-framework of a peptide containing six cysteines with penicillamines and a
      dithiol amino acid, we demonstrated, for the first time, that the total number of
      isomers formed after oxidative folding can be decreased to a minimum of two
      (i.e., from 15 to 2). As fewer isomeric folds are involved in the oxidative
      folding, the pathway of the folding becomes more concise and the yield of the
      artificial scaffolds is substantially increased compared to that of its six
      cysteine-containing analogue, which makes the artificial disulfide-rich scaffolds
      (with only 2 predefined isomeric folds) extremely promising for being exploited
      as structurally complex templates for the design of peptide therapeutics and
      ligands.

PMID- 28553487
TI  - Reduction chemistry of neptunium cyclopentadienide complexes: from structure to
      understanding.
AB  - Neptunium complexes in the formal oxidation states II, III, and IV supported by
      cyclopentadienyl ligands are explored, and significant differences between Np and
      U highlighted as a result. A series of neptunium(iii) cyclopentadienyl (Cp)
      complexes [Np(Cp)3], its bis-acetonitrile adduct [Np(Cp)3(NCMe)2], and its KCp
      adduct K[Np(Cp)4] and [Np(Cp')3] (Cp' = C5H4SiMe3) have been made and
      characterised providing the first single crystal X-ray analyses of NpIII Cp
      complexes. In all NpCp3 derivatives there are three Cp rings in eta5-coordination
      around the NpIII centre; additionally in [Np(Cp)3] and K[Np(Cp)4] one Cp ring
      establishes a MU-eta1-interaction to one C atom of a neighbouring Np(Cp)3 unit.
      The solid state structure of K[Np(Cp)4] is unique in containing two different
      types of metal-Cp coordination geometries in the same crystal. NpIII(Cp)4 units
      are found exhibiting four units of eta5-coordinated Cp rings like in the known
      complex [NpIV(Cp)4], the structure of which is now reported. A detailed
      comparison of the structures gives evidence for the change of ionic radii of ca. 
      8 pm associated with change in oxidation state between NpIII and NpIV. The rich
      redox chemistry associated with the syntheses is augmented by the reduction of
      [Np(Cp')3] by KC8 in the presence of 2.2.2-cryptand to afford a neptunium(ii)
      complex that is thermally unstable above -10  degrees C like the UII and ThII
      complexes K(2.2.2-cryptand)[Th/U(Cp')3]. Together, these spontaneous and
      controlled redox reactions of organo-neptunium complexes, along with information
      from structural characterisation, show the relevance of organometallic Np
      chemistry to understanding fundamental structure and bonding in the minor
      actinides.

PMID- 28553488
TI  - Radically promoted formation of a molecular lasso.
AB  - Two potential viologen-based molecular lasso precursors-both composed of a 4,4'
      bipyridinium (BIPY2+) unit as part of a rope appended to a cyclobis(paraquat-p
      phenylene) (CBPQT4+) loop-that have been designed to mimic the
      threading/unthreading motion of lasso peptides, have been synthesised and
      characterised. Solution and solid-state experiments reveal that, when the BIPY2+
      unit in the rope and the CBPQT4+ loop are connected by a bulky linker, no lasso
      like conformational transformation is observed between the different redox states
      on account of steric effects. In sharp contrast, when the linker size is small,
      the molecule can be switched between (i) a free rope-like conformation in its
      fully oxidised state and (ii) a self-entangled lasso-like conformation under
      reducing conditions employing either chemical or electrochemical stimuli: the
      BIPY+ unit in the rope resides inside the cavity of the CBPQT2(+) loop, forming a
      pseudo[1]rotaxane. The switching process is reversible and stereochemically
      unambiguous. This research shows how tiny structural differences can induce
      significantly different self-complexing properties and sheds light on designing
      functional artificial actuators.

PMID- 28553489
TI  - Electrochemical promotion of catalysis over Pd nanoparticles for CO2 reduction.
AB  - Electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC) has been shown to accelerate the
      rate of many heterogeneous catalytic reactions; however, it has rarely been
      reported in low-temperature aqueous electrochemical reactions. Herein, we report
      a significant EPOC effect for the CO2 reduction to generate formate over Pd
      nanoparticles (NPs) in a 1 M KHCO3 aqueous solution. By applying a negative
      potential over differently-sized Pd NPs, the rate of formate production is
      greatly improved as compared to that at an open-circuit voltage, with a rate
      enhancement ratio ranging from 10 to 143. The thermocatalytic and
      electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 compete with each other and are promoted by the
      applied negative potential and H2 in the feeds, respectively. Inspired by the
      EPOC effect, a composite electrode containing Pd/C and Pt/C catalysts on
      different sides of a carbon paper was constructed for catalyzing the CO2
      reduction without adding H2 to the feeds. Water electrolysis over Pt NPs
      generates H2, which then effectively promotes formate production over Pd NPs.

PMID- 28553490
TI  - Visible light-induced water splitting in an aqueous suspension of a plasmonic
      Au/TiO2 photocatalyst with metal co-catalysts.
AB  - We found that plasmonic Au particles on titanium(iv) oxide (TiO2) act as a
      visible-light-driven photocatalyst for overall water splitting free from any
      additives. This is the first report showing that surface plasmon resonance (SPR)
      in a suspension system effectively induces overall water splitting. Modification
      with various types of metal nanoparticles as co-catalysts enhanced the evolution
      of H2 and O2. Among these, Ni-modified Au/TiO2 exhibited 5-times higher rates of
      H2 and O2 evolution than those of Ni-free Au/TiO2. We succeeded in designing a
      novel solar energy conversion system including three elemental technologies,
      charge separation with light harvest and an active site for O2 evolution
      (plasmonic Au particles), charge transfer from Au to the active site for H2
      production (TiO2), and an active site for H2 production (Ni cocatalyst), by
      taking advantage of a technique for fabricating size-controlled Au and Ni
      nanoparticles. Water splitting occurred in aqueous suspensions of Ni-modified
      Au/TiO2 even under irradiation of light through an R-62 filter.

PMID- 28553491
TI  - The tetrahedral structure and luminescence properties of Bi-metallic
      Pt1Ag28(SR)18(PPh3)4 nanocluster.
AB  - The atomic-structure characterization of alloy nanoclusters (NCs) remains
      challenging but is crucial in order to understand the synergism and develop new
      applications based upon the distinct properties of alloy NCs. Herein, we report
      the synthesis and X-ray crystal structure of the Pt1Ag28(S-Adm)18(PPh3)4
      nanocluster with a tetrahedral shape. Pt1Ag28 was synthesized by reacting
      Pt1Ag24(SPhMe2)18 simultaneously with Adm-SH (1-adamantanethiol) and PPh3
      ligands. A tetrahedral structure is found in the metal framework of Pt1Ag28 NC
      and an overall surface shell (Ag16S18P4), as well as discrete Ag4S6P1 motifs. The
      Pt1Ag12 kernel adopts a face-centered cubic (FCC) arrangement, which is observed
      for the first time in alloy nanoclusters in contrast to the commonly observed
      icosahedral structure of homogold and homosilver NCs. The Pt1Ag28 nanocluster
      exhibits largely enhanced photoluminescence (quantum yield QY = 4.9%, emission
      centered at ~672 nm), whereas the starting material (Pt1Ag24 NC) is only weakly
      luminescent (QY = 0.1%). Insights into the nearly 50-fold enhancement of
      luminescence were obtained via the analysis of electronic dynamics. This study
      demonstrates the atomic-level tailoring of the alloy nanocluster properties by
      controlling the structure.

PMID- 28553492
TI  - Cobalt-catalysed C-H carbonylative cyclisation of aliphatic amides.
AB  - A cobalt-catalysed C-H carbonylation of aliphatic carboxamide derivatives is
      described, employing commercially available Co(ii)-salts in the presence of a
      silver oxidant. This operationally simple process utilises an atmospheric
      pressure of CO and generates a range of substituted succinimide products bearing
      diverse functional groups that can be successfully accessed via this methodology.

PMID- 28553493
TI  - Anion exchange coupled with the reduction and dimerisation of a copper(ii)
      nitrate complex of tripyridyl dithioether via a single-crystal-to-single-crystal
      transformation.
AB  - It is a challenge to develop methodologies involving multiple transformations for
      preparing new materials that cannot be obtained via direct synthesis. Herein, we
      report an anion exchange process accompanying cation reduction and dimerisation
      via a single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation. First, a direct reaction
      of the flexible tripyridyl dithioether ligand L with CuI afforded a mixture of
      four bis(ligand) complexes (1a-1d). To avoid the formation of undesired mixed
      products, a copper(ii) nitrate complex-mediated approach involving anion exchange
      and cation reduction was employed to generate a monomeric complex,
      [CuII(L)NO3]NO3.toluene (2). When the dark blue crystals of 2 were immersed in an
      aqueous NaI solution, the crystals were transformed to a pale yellow dimeric
      copper(i) iodide complex, [(MU-CuI2I2)(L)2] (3). The observed anion exchange
      promotes the reduction of copper(ii) to copper(i) at the expense of I-/I3-
      oxidation as well as dimerisation via the formation of a Cu2I2 cluster. This
      result corresponds to the synthesis of a compound that otherwise was not able to
      be prepared via a direct synthetic procedure.

PMID- 28553494
TI  - Molecular dynamics and charge transport in organic semiconductors: a classical
      approach to modeling electron transfer.
AB  - Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are a promising carbon-neutral energy conversion
      technology, with recent improvements pushing power conversion efficiencies over
      10%. A major factor limiting OPV performance is inefficiency of charge transport
      in organic semiconducting materials (OSCs). Due to strong coupling with lattice
      degrees of freedom, the charges form polarons, localized quasi-particles
      comprised of charges dressed with phonons. These polarons can be conceptualized
      as pseudo-atoms with a greater effective mass than a bare charge. We propose that
      due to this increased mass, polarons can be modeled with Langevin molecular
      dynamics (LMD), a classical approach with a computational cost much lower than
      most quantum mechanical methods. Here we present LMD simulations of charge
      transfer between a pair of fullerene molecules, which commonly serve as electron
      acceptors in OSCs. We find transfer rates consistent with experimental
      measurements of charge mobility, suggesting that this method may provide
      quantitative predictions of efficiency when used to simulate materials on the
      device scale. Our approach also offers information that is not captured in the
      overall transfer rate or mobility: in the simulation data, we observe exactly
      when and why intermolecular transfer events occur. In addition, we demonstrate
      that these simulations can shed light on the properties of polarons in OSCs. Much
      remains to be learned about these quasi-particles, and there are no widely
      accepted methods for calculating properties such as effective mass and friction.
      Our model offers a promising approach to exploring mass and friction as well as
      providing insight into the details of polaron transport in OSCs.

PMID- 28553496
TI  - Highly selective one-step dehydration, decarboxylation and hydrogenation of
      citric acid to methylsuccinic acid.
AB  - The one-step dehydration, decarboxylation and hydrogenation of the bio-based and
      widely available citric acid is presented. This reaction sequence yields
      methylsuccinic acid with yields of up to 89%. Optimal balances between the
      reaction rates of the different steps were found by varying the hydrogenation
      catalyst and the reaction parameters (H2 pressure, pH, temperature, time and
      catalyst-to-substrate ratio).

PMID- 28553495
TI  - Dual gold and photoredox catalysis: visible light-mediated intermolecular atom
      transfer thiosulfonylation of alkenes.
AB  - Regioselective difunctionalization of alkenes has attracted significant attention
      from synthetic chemists and has the advantage of introducing diverse functional
      groups into vicinal carbons of common alkene moieties in a single operation.
      Herein, we report an unprecedented intermolecular atom transfer thiosulfonylation
      reaction of alkenes by combining gold catalysis and visible-light photoredox
      catalysis. A trifluoromethylthio group (SCF3) and other functionalized thio
      groups together with a sulfonyl group were regioselectively introduced into
      alkenes in the most atom economical manner. A detailed mechanism study indicated
      that a synergistic combination of gold catalysis and photoredox catalysis is
      crucial for this reaction.

PMID- 28553497
TI  - Mapping a protein recognition centre with chiral photoactive ligands. An
      integrated approach combining photophysics, reactivity, proteomics and molecular
      dynamics simulation studies.
AB  - A multidisciplinary strategy to obtain structural information on the intraprotein
      region is described here. As probe ligands, (S)- and (R)-CPFMe (the methyl esters
      of the chiral drug carprofen) have been selected, while bovine alpha1-acid
      glycoprotein (BAAG) has been chosen as a biological host. The procedure involves
      the separate irradiation of the BAAG/(S)-CPFMe and BAAG/(R)-CPFMe complexes,
      coupled with fluorescence spectroscopy, laser flash photolysis, proteomic
      analysis, docking and molecular dynamics simulations. Thus, irradiation of the
      BAAG/CPFMe complexes at lambda = 320 nm was followed by fluorescence
      spectroscopy. The intensity of the emission band obtained after irradiation
      indicated photodehalogenation, whereas its structureless shape suggested covalent
      binding of the resulting radical CBZMe to the biopolymer. After gel filtration
      chromatography, the spectra still displayed emission, in agreement with covalent
      attachment of CBZMe to BAAG. Stereodifferentiation was observed in this process.
      After trypsin digestion and ESI-MS/MS, the incorporation of CBZMe was detected at
      Phe68. Docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies, which were carried out
      using a homology model of BAAG, reveal that the closer proximity of the aromatic
      moiety of the (S)-enantiomer to the phenyl group of Phe68 would be responsible
      for the experimentally observed, more effective chemical modification of the
      protein. The proposed tridimensional structure of BAAG covalently modified by the
      two enantiomers is also provided. In principle, this approach can be extended to
      a variety of protein/ligand complexes.

PMID- 28553498
TI  - Aggregation-induced emission: mechanistic study of the clusteroluminescence of
      tetrathienylethene.
AB  - In this work we have investigated the aggregation-induced emission (AIE)
      behaviour of 1,1,2,2-tetra(thiophen-2-yl)ethene (tetrathienylethene, TTE). The
      semi-locked and fully-locked derivatives (sl-TTE and fl-TTE) have been
      synthesized to better understand the mechanism behind the solid state
      photoluminescence of TTE. TTE is a typical AIEgen and its luminescence can be
      explained through the mechanistic understanding of the restriction of
      intramolecular motions (RIM). The emissive behaviour of TTE in the THF/water
      aggregates and crystal state have also been studied, revealing a remarkable red
      shift of 35 nm. A similar red-shift emission of 37 nm from the THF/water
      aggregates to the crystal state is also observed for (E)-1,2-di(thiophen-2
      yl)ethene (trans-dithienylethene, DTE). Crystal analysis has revealed that the
      emission red-shifts are ascribable to the presence of strong sulfur-sulfur
      (S...S) intra- and intermolecular interactions that are as close as 3.669 A for
      TTE and 3.679 A for DTE. These heteroatom interactions could help explain the
      photoluminescence of non-conventional luminophores as well as the luminescence of
      non-conjugated biomacromolecules.

PMID- 28553499
TI  - Understanding gas capacity, guest selectivity, and diffusion in porous liquids.
AB  - Porous liquids are a new class of material that could have applications in areas
      such as gas separation and homogeneous catalysis. Here we use a combination of
      measurement techniques, molecular simulations, and control experiments to advance
      the quantitative understanding of these liquids. In particular, we show that the
      cage cavities remain unoccupied in the absence of a suitable guest, and that the
      liquids can adsorb large quantities of gas, with gas occupancy in the cages as
      high as 72% and 74% for Xe and SF6, respectively. Gases can be reversibly loaded
      and released by using non-chemical triggers such as sonication, suggesting
      potential for gas separation schemes. Diffusion NMR experiments show that gases
      are in dynamic equilibrium between a bound and unbound state in the cage
      cavities, in agreement with recent simulations for related porous liquids.
      Comparison with gas adsorption in porous organic cage solids suggests that porous
      liquids have similar gas binding affinities, and that the physical properties of
      the cage molecule are translated into the liquid state. By contrast, some
      physical properties are different: for example, solid homochiral porous cages
      show enantioselectivity for chiral aromatic alcohols, whereas the equivalent
      homochiral porous liquids do not. This can be attributed to a loss of
      supramolecular organisation in the isotropic porous liquid.

PMID- 28553500
TI  - Zwitterionic near infrared fluorescent agents for noninvasive real-time
      transcutaneous assessment of kidney function.
AB  - We developed novel zwitterionic near infrared (NIR) fluorescent agents (ABZWCY
      HPbetaCD and AAZWCY-HPbetaCD), which exhibit favorable hydrophilicity, low plasma
      protein binding, high stability and non-toxicity. These attractive
      characteristics ensure that they are excreted rapidly, without any skin
      accumulation or metabolism in vivo. More importantly, zwitterionic HPbetaCD based
      agents can be efficiently filtrated by the glomerulus and completely excreted
      through the kidneys into urine without reabsorption or secretion in the kidney
      proximal tubule. Relying on these novel zwitterionic NIR agents and a
      transcutaneous device, we demonstrate a rapid, robust and biocompatible approach
      for assessing kidney function in rat models of both healthy rats and those with
      kidney disease, without the need for time-consuming blood/urine sample
      preparation. Our work provides a promising tool for in vivo real-time non
      invasive kidney function assessment in preclinical applications.

PMID- 28553501
TI  - Silica-supported isolated gallium sites as highly active, selective and stable
      propane dehydrogenation catalysts.
AB  - Single-site gallium centers on the surface of silica are prepared via grafting of
      [Ga(OSi(OtBu)3)3(THF)] on SiO2-700 followed by a thermolysis step. The resulting
      surface species corresponds to well-defined tetra-coordinate gallium single
      sites, [( 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000
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      SiO)3Ga(XOSi)] (X = -H or Si) according to IR, X-ray absorption near-edge
      structure and extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. These gallium
      sites show high activity, selectivity and stability for propane dehydrogenation
      with an initial turnover frequency of 20 per h per gallium center, propylene
      selectivity of >=93% and remarkable stability over 20 h. The stability of the
      catalyst probably results from site-isolation of the active site on a non
      reducible support such as silica, diminishing facile reduction typical of Ga2O3
      based catalysts.

PMID- 28553502
TI  - Spectroscopic observation of two-center three-electron bonded (hemi-bonded)
      structures of (H2S) n+ clusters in the gas phase.
AB  - A two-center three-electron 2c-3e bond (hemi-bond) is a non-classical chemical
      bond, and its existence has been supposed in radical cation clusters with lone
      pairs. Though the nature of the hemi-bond and its role in the reactivity of
      radical cations have attracted great interest, spectroscopic observations of hemi
      bonded structures have been very scarce. In the present study, the presence of a
      stable hemi-bonded core (H2S?SH2)+ in (H2S) n+ (n = 3-6) in the gas phase is
      demonstrated by infrared spectroscopy combined with quantum chemical
      calculations. The spectral features of the free SH stretch of the ion core show
      that the hemi-bond motif of the ion core is maintained up to the completion of
      the first H-bonded solvation shell. All of the observed spectra are well
      reproduced by the minimum energy hemi-bonded isomers, and no sign of the proton
      transferred ion core type H3S+-SH, which is estimated to have a much higher
      energy, is found. Spin density calculations show that the excess charge is almost
      equally delocalized over the two H2S molecules in the cluster for n = 3 to 6.
      This also indicates the hemi-bond nature of the (H2S?SH2)+ ion core and the small
      impact of the formation of a solvation shell on the ion core.

PMID- 28553504
TI  - Thermally activated delayed fluorescent phenothiazine-dibenzo[a,j]phenazine
      phenothiazine triads exhibiting tricolor-changing mechanochromic luminescence.
AB  - Novel U-shaped donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) pi-conjugated multi-functional
      molecules comprising dibenzo[a,j]phenazine (DBPHZ) as an acceptor and
      phenothiazines (PTZ) as donors have been developed. Most importantly, the D-A-D
      compounds exhibit not only distinct tricolor-changeable mechanochromic
      luminescence (MCL) properties but also efficient thermally activated delayed
      fluorescence (TADF). Quantum chemical calculations, X-ray diffraction analysis,
      and systematic studies on the photophysical properties indicated that the "two
      conformation-switchable" PTZ units play a highly important role in achieving
      multi-color-changing MCL. Time-resolved photophysical measurements revealed that
      the developed D-A-D compounds also exhibit efficient orange-TADF. Furthermore,
      organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices fabricated with the new TADF emitters
      have achieved high external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) up to 16.8%, which
      significantly exceeds the theoretical maximum (~5%) of conventional fluorescent
      emitters.

PMID- 28553503
TI  - Heterogeneous catalase-like activity of gold(i)-cobalt(iii) metallosupramolecular
      ionic crystals.
AB  - Unique heterogeneous catalase-like activity was observed for
      metallosupramolecular ionic crystals [AuI4CoIII2(dppe)2(d-pen)4]X n ([1]X n ;
      dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane; d-pen = d-penicillaminate; X n = (Cl-)2,
      (ClO4-)2, (NO3-)2 or SO42-) consisting of AuI4CoIII2 complex cations, [1]2+, and
      inorganic anions, X- or X2-. Treatment of the ionic crystals with an aqueous H2O2
      solution led to considerable O2 evolution with a high turnover frequency of 1.4 *
      105 h-1 for the heterogeneous cobalt complexes, which was dependent on their size
      and shape as well as the arrangement of cationic and anionic species. These
      dependencies were rationalized by the presence of cobalt(ii) centers on the
      crystal surface and their efficient exposure on the (111) plane rather than the
      (100) plane based on morphological and theoretical studies.

PMID- 28553505
TI  - Discovery of a small molecule targeting ULK1-modulated cell death of triple
      negative breast cancer in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - UNC-51-like kinase 1 (ULK1) is well-known to initiate autophagy, and the
      downregulation of ULK1 has been found in most breast cancer tissues. Thus, the
      activation of ULK1-modulated autophagy could be a promising strategy for breast
      cancer therapy. In this study, we found that ULK1 was remarkably downregulated in
      breast cancer tissue samples by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) analysis and
      tissue microarray (TMA) analysis, especially in triple negative breast cancer
      (TNBC). To design a ULK1 agonist, we integrated in silico screening and chemical
      synthesis to acquire a series of small molecule candidates. After rounds of
      kinase and anti-proliferative activity screening, we discovered the small
      molecule, LYN-1604, to be the best candidate for a ULK1 agonist. Additionally, we
      identified that three amino acid residues (LYS50, LEU53, and TYR89) were key to
      the activation site of LYN-1604 and ULK1 by site-directed mutagenesis and
      biochemical assays. Subsequently, we demonstrated that LYN-1604 could induce cell
      death, associated with autophagy by the ULK complex (ULK1-mATG13-FIP200-ATG101)
      in MDA-MB-231 cells. To further explore LYN-1604-induced autophagic mechanisms,
      we found some potential ULK1 interactors, such as ATF3, RAD21, and caspase3, by
      performing comparative microarray analysis. Intriguingly, we found that LYN-1604
      induced cell death involved in ATF3, RAD21, and caspase3, accompanied by
      autophagy and apoptosis. Moreover, we demonstrated that LYN-1604 has potential
      for good therapeutic effects on TNBC by targeting ULK1-modulated cell death in
      vivo; thus making this ULK1 agonist a novel potential small-molecule drug
      candidate for future TNBC therapy.

PMID- 28553506
TI  - Selective N-terminal functionalization of native peptides and proteins.
AB  - We report an efficient, highly selective modification on the N-terminal amines of
      peptides and proteins using aldehyde derivatives via reductive alkylation. After
      modification of a library of unprotected peptides XYSKEASAL (X varies over 20
      natural amino acids) by benzaldehyde at room temperature, pH 6.1 resulted in
      excellent N-terminal selectivity (alpha-amino/epsilon-amino: >99 : 1) and high
      reaction conversion for 19 out of the 20 peptides. Under similar conditions,
      highly selective N-terminal modifications were achieved with a variety of
      aldehydes. Furthermore, N-termini of native peptides and proteins could be
      selectively modified under the same conditions to introduce bioorthogonal
      functional groups. Using human insulin as an example, we further demonstrated
      that preserving the positive charge in the N-terminus using reductive alkylation
      instead of acylation leads to a 5-fold increase in bioactivity. In summary, our
      reported method provides a universal strategy for site-selective N-terminal
      functionalization in native peptides and proteins.

PMID- 28553507
TI  - Light-up probe based on AIEgens: dual signal turn-on for caspase cascade
      activation monitoring.
AB  - Direct monitoring of multiple enzyme activities in a given biological process is
      extremely important for disease diagnosis. Herein, we report a single fluorescent
      probe that targets two caspase activities in living cells. The probe consists of
      three parts that includes two AIE fluorogens with distinctive green and red
      emission colors excitable at a single wavelength, and a hydrophilic peptide as
      the substrate of the apoptosis initiator caspase-8 and the effector caspase-3.
      The probe is non-fluorescent in aqueous media. The green and red fluorescence can
      be sequentially turned on when the peptide substrate is cleaved by the cascade
      activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3 in early apoptotic HeLa cells induced by
      hydrogen peroxide. This sequential fluorescence turn-on allows real-time
      monitoring of the caspase cascade activation during the apoptotic process, which
      was further explored for evaluating the therapeutic efficiency of anticancer
      drugs. The probe design strategy developed in this study also proved to be
      general, which opens a new avenue for real-time, multiplexed imaging of cellular
      enzyme activity in a biological process.

PMID- 28553508
TI  - Template-directed synthesis of linear porphyrin oligomers: classical, Vernier and
      mutual Vernier.
AB  - Three different types of template-directed syntheses of linear porphyrin
      oligomers are presented. In the classical approach the product has the same
      number of binding sites as the template, whereas in Vernier reactions the product
      has the lowest common multiple of the numbers of binding sites in the template
      and the building block. Mutual Vernier templating is like Vernier templating
      except that both strands of the Vernier complex undergo coupling simultaneously,
      so that it becomes impossible to say which is the 'template' and which is the
      'building block'. The template-directed synthesis of monodisperse linear
      oligomers is more difficult than that of cyclic oligomers, because the products
      of linear templating have reactive ends. All three types of templating are
      demonstrated here, and used to prepare a nickel(ii) porphyrin dodecamer with 4
      pyridyl substituents on all twelve porphyrin units. The stabilities and
      cooperativities of the double-strand complexes involved in these reactions were
      investigated by UV-vis-NIR titration. The four-rung ladder duplex has a stability
      constant of about 2 * 1018 M-1 in dichloromethane at 298 K.

PMID- 28553509
TI  - Generalized-active-space pair-density functional theory: an efficient method to
      study large, strongly correlated, conjugated systems.
AB  - Predicting ground- and excited-state properties of open-shell organic molecules
      by electronic structure theory can be challenging because an accurate treatment
      has to correctly describe both static and dynamic electron correlation. Strongly
      correlated systems, i.e., systems with near-degeneracy correlation effects, are
      particularly troublesome. Multiconfigurational wave function methods based on an
      active space are adequate in principle, but it is impractical to capture most of
      the dynamic correlation in these methods for systems characterized by many active
      electrons. We recently developed a new method called multiconfiguration pair
      density functional theory (MC-PDFT), that combines the advantages of wave
      function theory and density functional theory to provide a more practical
      treatment of strongly correlated systems. Here we present calculations of the
      singlet-triplet gaps in oligoacenes ranging from naphthalene to dodecacene.
      Calculations were performed for unprecedently large orbitally optimized active
      spaces of 50 electrons in 50 orbitals, and we test a range of active spaces and
      active space partitions, including four kinds of frontier orbital partitions. We
      show that MC-PDFT can predict the singlet-triplet splittings for oligoacenes
      consistent with the best available and much more expensive methods, and indeed MC
      PDFT may constitute the benchmark against which those other models should be
      compared, given the absence of experimental data.

PMID- 28553510
TI  - Model-free extraction of spin label position distributions from pseudocontact
      shift data.
AB  - A significant problem with paramagnetic tags attached to proteins and nucleic
      acids is their conformational mobility. Each tag is statistically distributed
      within a volume between 5 and 10 Angstroms across; structural biology conclusions
      from NMR and EPR work are necessarily diluted by this uncertainty. The problem is
      solved in electron spin resonance, but remains open in the other major branch of
      paramagnetic resonance - pseudocontact shift (PCS) NMR spectroscopy, where
      structural biologists have so far been reluctantly using the point paramagnetic
      centre approximation. Here we describe a new method for extracting probability
      densities of lanthanide tags from PCS data. The method relies on Tikhonov
      regularised 3D reconstruction and opens a new window into biomolecular structure
      and dynamics because it explores a very different range of conditions from those
      accessible to double electron resonance work on paramagnetic tags: a room
      temperature solution rather than a glass at cryogenic temperatures. The method is
      illustrated using four different Tm3+ DOTA-M8 tagged mutants of human carbonic
      anhydrase II; the results are in good agreement with rotamer library and DEER
      data. The wealth of high-quality pseudocontact shift data accumulated by the
      biological magnetic resonance community over the last 30 years, and so far only
      processed using point models, could now become a major source of useful
      information on conformational distributions of paramagnetic tags in biomolecules.

PMID- 28553511
TI  - Piezochromism and hydrochromism through electron transfer: new stories for
      viologen materials.
AB  - While viologen derivatives have long been known for electrochromism and
      photochromism, here we demonstrated that a viologen-carboxylate zwitterionic
      molecule in the crystalline state exhibits piezochromic and hydrochromic
      behaviors. The yellow crystal undergoes a reversible color change to red under
      high pressure, to green after decompression, and finally back to yellow upon
      standing at ambient pressure. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance X-ray diffraction and
      DFT calculations suggested that the piezochromism is due to the formation of
      radicals via pressure-induced electron transfer from carboxylate to pyridinium,
      without a crystallographic phase transition. It was proposed that electron
      transfer is induced by pressure-forced reduction of intermolecular donor-acceptor
      contacts. The electron transfer can also be induced by dehydration, which gives a
      stable green anhydrous radical phase. The color change is reversible upon
      reabsorption of water, which triggers reverse electron transfer. The compound not
      only demonstrates new chromic phenomena for viologen compounds, but also
      represents the first example of organic mechanochromism and hydrochromism
      associated with radical formation via electron transfer.

PMID- 28553512
TI  - Sub-1.1 nm ultrathin porous CoP nanosheets with dominant reactive {200} facets: a
      high mass activity and efficient electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution
      reaction.
AB  - The exploration of a facile strategy to synthesize porous ultrathin nanosheets of
      non-layered materials, especially with exposed reactive facets, as highly
      efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), remains
      challenging. Herein we demonstrate a chemical transformation strategy to
      synthesize porous CoP ultrathin nanosheets with sub-1.1 nm thickness and exposed
      {200} facets via phosphidation of Co3O4 precursors. The resultant samples exhibit
      outstanding electrochemical HER performance: a low overpotential (only 56 and 131
      mV are required for current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively), a
      small Tafel slope of 44 mV per decade, a good stability of over 20 h, and a high
      mass activity of 151 A g-1 at an overpotential of 100 mV. The latter is about 80
      times higher than that of CoP nanoparticles. Experimental data and density
      functional theory calculations reveal that a high proportion of reactive {200}
      facets, high utilization efficiency of active sites, metallic nature, appropriate
      structural disorder, facile electron/mass transfer and rich active sites
      benefiting from the unique ultrathin and porous structure are the key factors for
      the greatly improved activity. Additionally, this facile chemical conversion
      strategy can be developed to a generalized method for preparing porous ultrathin
      nanosheets of CoSe2 and CoS that cannot be obtained using other methods.

PMID- 28553514
TI  - Long wavelength excitable near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles with
      aggregation-induced emission characteristics for image-guided tumor resection.
AB  - Near infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging (700-900 nm) is a promising technology
      in preclinical and clinical tumor diagnosis and therapy. The availability of
      excellent NIR fluorescent contrast agents is still the main barrier to
      implementing this technology. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of two
      series of NIR fluorescent molecules with long wavelength excitation and
      aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics by fine-tuning their molecular
      structures and substituents. Further self-assembly between an amphiphilic block
      co-polymer and the obtained AIE molecules leads to AIE nanoparticles (AIE NPs),
      which have absorption maxima at 635 nm and emission maxima between 800 and 815 nm
      with quantum yields of up to 4.8% in aggregated states. In vitro and in vivo
      toxicity results demonstrate that the synthesized AIE NPs are biocompatible.
      Finally, the synthesized AIE NPs have been successfully used for image-guided
      tumor resection with a high tumor-to-normal tissue signal ratio of 7.2.

PMID- 28553515
TI  - Molecular catalysis at polarized interfaces created by ferroelectric BaTiO3.
AB  - The local environment at polarized solid-liquid interfaces provides a unique
      medium for chemical reactions that could be exploited to control the selectivity
      of non-faradaic reactions. Polarized interfaces are commonly prepared by applying
      a voltage to an electrode in an electrolyte solution, but it is challenging to
      achieve high surface charge densities while suppressing faradaic reactions.
      Ferroelectric materials have permanent surface charge densities that arise from
      the dipole moments of ferroelectric domains and can be used to create polarized
      solid-liquid interfaces without applying a voltage. We studied the effects of
      ferroelectric oxides on the selectivity of a Rh porphyrin-catalyzed carbene
      rearrangement. The addition of ferroelectric BaTiO3 nanoparticles to the reaction
      solution changed the product ratio in the same direction and by a similar
      magnitude as performing the reaction at an electrode-electrolyte interface
      polarized by a voltage. The results demonstrate that colloidal suspensions of
      BaTiO3 nanoparticles act as a dispersible polarized interface that can influence
      the selectivity of non-faradaic reactions.

PMID- 28553513
TI  - A new H2S-specific near-infrared fluorescence-enhanced probe that can visualize
      the H2S level in colorectal cancer cells in mice.
AB  - Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence-based sensors capable of selective detection of
      H2S in vivo would be useful tools to understand the mechanisms of diseases. A new
      NIR fluorescence probe 1 was developed for the detection of endogenous H2S in
      colorectal cancer cells in mice. 1 displayed an 87-fold fluorescence enhancement
      at 796 nm (with excitation at 730 nm) when reacted with H2S in a buffer (pH 7.4).
      1 was water-soluble, cell-membrane-permeable, had low cytotoxicity and high
      selectivity and sensitivity for H2S. The properties of 1 enable its use in
      monitoring endogenous H2S in living cells, tissues, and mice. The bioimaging
      results indicated that (1) d-Cys could induce endogenous H2S production in living
      cells and stimulate angiogenesis; (2) tail intravenous injection of 1 into mice
      generated strong fluorescence in the liver while intraperitoneal injection of d
      Cys could further enhance fluorescence in the liver in vivo; (3) importantly,
      endogenous H2S in colorectal cancer cells (HCT116, HT29) in vitro and in murine
      tumor models could be quickly and selectively detected by intratumoral injection
      of 1. These results indicated that our new probe could serve as an efficient tool
      for the detection of cellular H2S in living animals and even for cancer
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28553517
TI  - The protecting-group free selective 3'-functionalization of nucleosides.
AB  - The direct and chemoselective 3'-phosphoramidation, phosphorylation and acylation
      of nucleosides are described. Upon the discovery of a novel 3'
      phosphorylamidation of therapeutic nucleoside analogues with DBU, we explored the
      mechanism of this rare selectivity through a combination of NMR spectroscopy and
      computational studies. The NMR and computational findings allowed us to develop a
      predictive computational model that accurately assesses the potential for 3'
      functionalization for a broad range of nucleosides and nucleoside mimetics. The
      synthetic utility of this model was exemplified by demonstration on a broad scope
      of nucleosides and electrophiles yielding targets that were previously only
      accessible via a protection/deprotection sequence or an enzymatic approach.

PMID- 28553516
TI  - A practical strategy to design and develop an isoform-specific fluorescent probe
      for a target enzyme: CYP1A1 as a case study.
AB  - The development of isoform-specific probe(s) for a target enzyme with multiple
      homologs is always challenging. Herein, a practical strategy was used to design
      and develop an isoform-specific probe for CYP1A1, a key cytochrome P450 isoenzyme
      involved in xenobiotic metabolism and bioactivation. On the basis of the subtle
      differences in 3D structure and substrate preference between CYP1A1 and its
      homolog CYP1A2, we proposed that it was possible to design a CYP1A1-specific
      probe via local modification of the reaction site on known CYP1A substrates. To
      validate this hypothesis, 4-hydroxy-1,8-naphthalimide (HN) was selected as the
      basic fluorophore due to its excellent optical properties, while a series of O
      alkylated HN derivatives were prepared to evaluate their specificity towards
      CYP1A1. Our results revealed that the introduction of a chloroethyl to HN could
      get the best isoform selectivity towards CYP1A1 over other CYPs including CYP1A2.
      The newly developed probe NBCeN exhibited excellent specificity, high
      sensitivity, and a ratiometric fluorescence response following CYP1A1-catalyzed O
      dechloroethylation. NBCeN was successfully used to real-time monitor the activity
      of CYP1A1 in complex biological samples and to rapidly screen CYP1A1 modulators
      in living systems. NBCeN could also be used for two-photon imaging of
      intracellular CYP1A1 in living cells and tissues with high ratiometric imaging
      resolution and deep tissue penetration. All these findings demonstrated that
      local modification of non-specific substrates was a practical strategy to develop
      an isoform-specific probe for a target isoenzyme, while NBCeN could serve as a
      specific imaging tool to explore the biological functions of CYP1A1 in complex
      biological systems.

PMID- 28553518
TI  - Enantioselective [2 + 2] cycloaddition of N-allenamides with cyclic N
      sulfonylketimines: access to polysubstituted azetidines bearing quaternary
      stereocenters.
AB  - A Ni(ClO4)2-catalyzed enantioselective [2 + 2] cycloaddition of N-allenamides
      with cyclic N-sulfonylketimines was developed, which regioselectively occurred at
      the proximal CC bonds of the N-allenamides. Broad substrate scope of N
      allenamides and cyclic N-sulfonylketimines was observed. A range of fused
      polysubstituted azetidines bearing quaternary stereocenters were afforded in good
      yields and with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99%).

PMID- 28553519
TI  - Nuclear-targeted siRNA delivery for long-term gene silencing.
AB  - Developing effective nonviral siRNA delivery systems for long-term gene silencing
      remains a great challenge. Here we present a nuclear-targeted siRNA delivery
      system that can induce long-term gene silencing in cancer cells. The nanocarrier
      consists of gold nanoparticles modified with a dense shell of synthetic siRNAs
      and nuclear localization signal (NLS) peptides. The NLS peptide could translocate
      the nanocarrier into the nucleus and the siRNA was designed to target the
      promoter of thymidine kinase 1 and trigger the RNA-directed DNA methylation,
      thereby enabling the nuclear-targeted gene silencing. Compared with traditional
      gene silencing in cytoplasm, long-lasting gene knockdown could be achieved for
      the nuclear-targeted nanocarrier, which lasts for more than 30 days. The long
      term gene silencing induced by nuclear-targeted siRNA delivery could effectively
      inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells and prevent the formation of a tumor in
      a mouse model.

PMID- 28553520
TI  - Watasemycin biosynthesis in Streptomyces venezuelae: thiazoline C-methylation by
      a type B radical-SAM methylase homologue.
AB  - 2-Hydroxyphenylthiazolines are a family of iron-chelating nonribosomal peptide
      natural products that function as virulence-conferring siderophores in various
      Gram-negative bacteria. They have also been reported as metabolites of Gram
      positive Streptomyces species. Transcriptional analyses of Streptomyces
      venezuelae ATCC 10712 revealed that its genome contains a putative 2
      hydroxyphenylthiazoline biosynthetic gene cluster. Heterologous expression of the
      gene cluster in Streptomyces coelicolor M1152 showed that the mono- and
      dimethylated derivatives, thiazostatin and watasemycin, respectively, of the 2
      hydroxyphenylthiazoline enantiopyochelin are two of its metabolic products. In
      addition, isopyochelin, a novel isomer of pyochelin containing a C-methylated
      thiazolidine, was identified as a third metabolic product of the cluster.
      Metabolites with molecular formulae corresponding to aerugine and pulicatins A/B
      were also detected. The structure and stereochemistry of isopyochelin were
      confirmed by comparison with synthetic standards. The role of two genes in the
      cluster encoding homologues of PchK, which is proposed to catalyse thiazoline
      reduction in the biosynthesis of enantiopyochelin in Pseudomonas protegens, was
      investigated. One was required for the production of all the metabolic products
      of the cluster, whereas the other appears not to be involved in the biosynthesis
      of any of them. Deletion of a gene in the cluster encoding a type B radical-SAM
      methylase homologue abolished the production of watasemycin, but not thiazostatin
      or isopyochelin. Feeding of thiazostatin to the mutant lacking the functional
      PchK homologue resulted in complete conversion to watasemycin, demonstrating that
      thiazoline C-methylation by the type B radical-SAM methylase homologue is the
      final step in watasemycin biosynthesis.

PMID- 28553521
TI  - A smart ZnO@polydopamine-nucleic acid nanosystem for ultrasensitive live cell
      mRNA imaging by the target-triggered intracellular self-assembly of active
      DNAzyme nanostructures.
AB  - Efficient strategies for the ultrasensitive imaging of gene expression in living
      cells are essential in chemistry and cell biology. Here, we report a novel and
      efficient enzyme-free dual signal amplification strategy for live cell mRNA
      imaging by using a smart nucleic acid hairpin-based nanosystem. This nanosystem
      consists of a ZnO nanoparticle core, an interlayer of polydopamine and an outer
      layer of four hairpin DNA (hpDNA) probes. Such a core-shell nanosystem
      facilitates the cellular uptake of molecular hairpin payloads, protects them from
      nuclease digestion, and delivers them into the cytoplasm by the acid-triggered
      dissolution of the ZnO core. In the presence of target mRNA, the released hpDNA
      probes self-assemble via HCR into wire-shaped active DNAzymes that catalyze the
      generation of a fluorescence signal. The target-initiated HCR events and DNAzyme
      cascades offer efficient dual amplification and enable the ultrasensitive
      detection of mRNA with a femtomolar detection limit. Live cell assays show an
      intense fluorescence response from a tumor-related biomarker survivin mRNA only
      in tumor cells untreated with a survivin expression repressor YM155, but not in
      normal cells. The developed nanosystem provides a potential platform for the
      amplified imaging of low-abundance disease-related biomarkers in live cells.

PMID- 28553523
TI  - Intramolecular water-splitting reaction in single collisions of water ions with
      surfaces.
AB  - We report the direct formation of H2 and O pair ions through single collisions of
      water ions with metal surfaces at hyperthermal energies. This unusual
      intramolecular reaction proceeds also for heavy and semi-heavy water, producing
      molecular D2 and HD ions. The selectivity of this water splitting channel is
      estimated at being between 9 and 13% versus complete dissociation. The collision
      kinematics support the hypothesis of a water molecule colliding with a single
      surface atom, thereby forming an excited precursor (Rydberg?) state, which
      dissociates subsequently to form the molecular hydrogen ion with high kinetic
      energy. Inelastic energy loss considerations yield an estimate for the energy of
      the excited precursor state of ~7 eV and ~11 eV at low and high incidence
      energies. These energies are close to the A state (1B1, 7.5 eV) and B state (1A1,
      9.7 eV) of excited water (Rydberg states).

PMID- 28553522
TI  - A rational pre-catalyst design for bis-phosphine mono-oxide palladium catalyzed
      reactions.
AB  - Significant catalyst loading reduction and increased reaction robustness have
      been achieved for a Pd-catalyzed asymmetric intramolecular C-N coupling through
      comprehensive mechanistic studies. Detailed kinetic, spectroscopic, and
      crystallographic analyses revealed that the mono-oxidation of the bis-phosphine
      ligand is critical for a successful transformation. 31P NMR studies provided an
      understanding of the inefficient activation of the Pd(OAc)2/(R,R)-QuinoxP* pre
      catalyst to form the active bis-phosphine mono-oxide-Pd(0) catalyst with
      competitive formation of a less active (R,R)-QuinoxP*.PdBr2 complex. Based on
      these detailed mechanistic studies, a new series of bis-phosphine mono-oxides
      (BPMO)-ligated Pd(ii) pre-catalysts have been rationally developed that allow for
      reliable and complete catalyst activation which should have general utility in
      academic and industrial settings.

PMID- 28553524
TI  - High temperature ferromagnetism in pi-conjugated two-dimensional metal-organic
      frameworks.
AB  - We use first-principles calculations to show that the square symmetry of two
      dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) made from octaamino-substituted
      phthalocyanines and square planar Ni2+ ions, which enable strong conjugation of
      pi electrons, has a critical impact on the magnetic properties of the lattice. In
      particular, we predict the unexpected emergence of a rare high-temperature
      ferromagnetic half-metallic ground state in one case. Among charge neutral MOFs
      made from (2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24)-octaiminophthalocyanine (OIPc) metallated with
      divalent first-row transition metal ions (M-OIPc; M = Cr2+, Mn2+, Fe2+, Co2+,
      Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+) and connected through square planar Ni-bisphenylenediimine
      moieties, NiMn-OIPc exhibits a half-metallic and ferromagnetic ground state with
      a large exchange energy resulting from the unique strong hybridization between
      the d/pi orbitals of Mn, the Pc ring, and the Ni-bisphenylenediimine nodes.
      Notably, we show that for NiMn-OIPc there is a considerable difference between
      the ferromagnetic ordering temperature (Tc) predicted by a 2D Ising model, which
      exceeds 600 K, and a Tc of 170 K predicted by our more realistic Monte Carlo
      simulation that includes magnetic anisotropy. Critically, our simulations adopt
      two spin models that incorporate magnetic anisotropy in the form of exchange
      anisotropy and single-ion anisotropy. We further show that in the bulk, 2D layers
      of NiMn-OIPc adopt a slipped-parallel stacking configuration, and exhibit
      interlayer magnetic coupling that is sensitive to the relative in-plane
      displacement between adjacent layers. These results highlight the critical role
      of magnetic anisotropy in modeling the properties of 2D magnetic systems. More
      generally, it demonstrates that strong hybridization between open-shell ions and
      delocalized aromatic pi systems with appropriate symmetry, combined with large
      magnetic anisotropy, will be an effective design strategy to realize
      ferromagnetic 2D MOFs with high Tc.

PMID- 28553526
TI  - Synthesis and stabilities of peptide-based [1]rotaxanes: molecular grafting onto
      lasso peptide scaffolds.
AB  - The chemical synthesis of peptide-based [1]rotaxanes (lasso peptides) was
      achieved by [2]rotaxane formation followed by two chemoselective ligation
      reactions. Our approach enabled incorporation of various peptide sequences into a
      common rotaxane structure. The synthetic lasso peptides were characterized by
      NMR, chromatography, and partial degradation by proteases. A linear peptide
      epitope grafted onto the rotaxane scaffold showed significantly improved
      proteolytic stability.

PMID- 28553525
TI  - The effects of thioamide backbone substitution on protein stability: a study in
      alpha-helical, beta-sheet, and polyproline II helical contexts.
AB  - Thioamides are single atom substitutions of the peptide bond that serve as
      versatile probes of protein structure. Effective use of thioamides requires a
      robust understanding of the impact that the substitution has on a protein of
      interest. However, the thermodynamic effects of thioamide incorporation have only
      been studied in small structural motifs, and their influence on secondary
      structure in the context of full-length proteins is not known. Here we describe a
      comprehensive survey of thioamide substitutions in three benchmark protein
      systems (calmodulin, the B1 domain of protein G, and collagen) featuring the most
      prevalent secondary structure motifs: alpha-helix, beta-sheet, and polyproline
      type II helix. We find that in most cases, effects on thermostability can be
      understood in terms of the positioning and local environment of the thioamide
      relative to proximal structural elements and hydrogen bonding networks. These
      observations set the stage for the rational design of thioamide substituted
      proteins with predictable stabilities.

PMID- 28553527
TI  - Dual gold and photoredox catalysed C-H activation of arenes for aryl-aryl cross
      couplings.
AB  - A mild and fully catalytic aryl-aryl cross coupling via gold-catalysed C-H
      activation has been achieved by merging gold and photoredox catalysis. The
      procedure is free of stoichiometric oxidants and additives, which were previously
      required in gold-catalysed C-H activation reactions. Exploiting dual gold and
      photoredox catalysis confers regioselectivity via the crucial gold-catalysed C-H
      activation step, which is not present in the unselective photocatalysis-only
      counterpart.

PMID- 28553528
TI  - Copper(i)-catalyzed sulfonylative Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling.
AB  - Using a simple copper(i) catalyst has allowed a high yielding sulfonylative
      Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction to be developed. The process provides a
      single step route to diaryl sulfones from the direct combination of aryl boronic
      acids, sulfur dioxide and aryl iodides, and represents the first sulfonylative
      variant of a classic cross-coupling reaction. Sulfur dioxide is delivered from
      the surrogate reagent, DABSO. Variation of the reaction conditions allowed
      interruption of the sulfonylative-Suzuki coupling, resulting in the formation of
      a presumed Cu-sulfinate intermediate. These sulfinates could be trapped as their
      sodium salts and treated with electrophiles to allow access to arylalkyl
      sulfones, beta-hydroxyl sulfones, sulfonamides and sulfonyl fluorides.

PMID- 28553529
TI  - Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of CF3-substituted tertiary propargylic alcohols
      via direct aldol reaction of alpha-N3 amide.
AB  - Organofluorine compounds are found in several important classes of chemicals,
      such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional materials. Chemists have
      been immensely interested in the development of methodologies for expeditious
      access to fluorine containing building blocks. In this study, we report a new
      method for the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of CF3-substituted tertiary
      propargylic alcohols with two contiguous stereogenic centers via the direct aldol
      reaction of an alpha-N3 amide to trifluoromethyl ketones. The key to the success
      of this method is the identification of a catalyst comprising Cu(ii)/chiral
      hydroxamic acid to promote the desired aldol reaction, constructing a
      tetrasubstituted carbon in a highly stereoselective fashion. Despite substantial
      prior advances in asymmetric catalysis, this class of catalysts has not been
      utilized for the formation of carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions. Our
      mechanistic study sheds light on the unique profile of this catalytic system,
      where the Cu(ii) complex plays a bifunctional role of serving as a Lewis acid and
      a Bronsted base. Furthermore, the densely functionalized aldol adducts undergo
      chemoselective transformations, affording a series of fluorine containing chiral
      building blocks with widespread application.

PMID- 28553530
TI  - Quantifying the efficiency of CO2 capture by Lewis pairs.
AB  - A microfluidic strategy has been used for the time- and labour-efficient
      evaluation of the relative efficiency and thermodynamic parameters of CO2 binding
      by three Lewis acid/base combinations, where efficiency is based on the amount of
      CO2 taken up per binding unit in solution. Neither tBu3P nor B(C6F5)3 were
      independently effective at CO2 capture, and the combination of the imidazolin-2
      ylidenamino-substituted phosphine (NIiPr)3P and B(C6F5)3 was equally ineffective.
      Nonetheless, an archetypal frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) comprised of tBu3P and
      B(C6F5)3 was shown to bind CO2 more efficiently than either the FLP derived from
      tetramethylpiperidine (TMP) and B(C6F5)3 or the highly basic phosphine (NIiPr)3P.
      Moreover, the proposed microfluidic platform was used to elucidate the
      thermodynamic parameters for these reactions.

PMID- 28553531
TI  - Cellular and cell-free studies of catalytic DNA cleavage by ruthenium polypyridyl
      complexes containing redox-active intercalating ligands.
AB  - The ruthenium(ii) polypyridyl complexes (RPCs), [(phen)2Ru(tatpp)]2+ (32+ ) and
      [(phen)2Ru(tatpp)Ru(phen)2]4+ (44+ ) are shown to cleave DNA in cell-free studies
      in the presence of a mild reducing agent, i.e. glutathione (GSH), in a manner
      that is enhanced upon lowering the [O2]. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are
      involved in the cleavage process as hydroxy radical scavengers attenuate the
      cleavage activity. Cleavage experiments in the presence of superoxide dismutase
      (SOD) and catalase reveal a central role for H2O2 as the immediate precursor for
      hydroxy radicals. A mechanism is proposed which explains the inverse [O2]
      dependence and ROS data and involves redox cycling between three DNA-bound redox
      isomers of 32+ or 44+ . Cultured non-small cell lung cancer cells (H358) are
      sensitive to 32+ and 44+ with IC50 values of 13 and 15 MUM, respectively, and
      xenograft H358 tumors in nude mice show substantial (~80%) regression relative to
      untreated tumors when the mice are treated with enantiopure versions of 32+ and
      44+ (Yadav et al. Mol Cancer Res, 2013, 12, 643). Fluorescence microscopy of H358
      cells treated with 15 MUM 44+ reveals enhanced intracellular ROS production in as
      little as 2 h post treatment. Detection of phosphorylated ATM via
      immunofluorescence within 2 h of treatment with 44+ reveals initiation of the DNA
      damage repair machinery due to the ROS insult and DNA double strand breaks (DSBs)
      in the nuclei of H358 cells and is confirmed using the gammaH2AX assay. The cell
      data for 32+ is less clear but DNA damage occurs. Notably, cells treated with
      [Ru(diphenylphen)3]2+ (IC50 1.7 MUM) show no extra ROS production and no DNA
      damage by either the pATM or gammaH2AX even after 22 h. The enhanced DNA cleavage
      under low [O2] (4 MUM) seen in cell-free cleavage assays of 32+ and 44+ is only
      partially reflected in the cytotoxicity of 32+ and 44+ in H358, HCC2998, HOP-62
      and Hs766t under hypoxia (1.1% O2) relative to normoxia (18% O2). Cells treated
      with RPC 32+ show up to a two-fold enhancement in the IC50 under hypoxia whereas
      cells treated with RPC 44+ gave the same IC50 whether under hypoxia or normoxia.

PMID- 28553532
TI  - Optimizing side chains for crystal growth from water: a case study of aromatic
      amide foldamers.
AB  - The growth of crystals of aromatic compounds from water much depends on the
      nature of the water solubilizing functions that they carry. Rationalizing
      crystallization from water, and structure elucidation, of aromatic molecular and
      supramolecular systems is of general value across various fields of chemistry.
      Taking helical aromatic foldamers as a test case, we have validated several short
      polar side chains as efficient substituents to provide both solubility in, and
      crystal growth ability from, water. New 8-amino-2-quinolinecarboxylic acids
      bearing charged or neutral aminomethyl, carboxymethyl, sulfonic acid, or
      bis(hydroxymethyl)-methoxy side chains in position 4 or 5, were prepared on a
      multi gram scale. Fmoc protection of the main chain amine and suitable
      protections of the side chains ensured compatibility with solid phase synthesis.
      One tetrameric and five octameric oligoamides displaying these side chains were
      synthesized and shown to be soluble in water. In all cases but one, crystals were
      obtained using the hanging drop method, thus validating the initial design
      principle to combine polarity and rigidity. The only case that resisted
      crystallization appeared to be due to exceedingly high water solubility endowed
      by eight sulfonic acid functions. The neutral side chain did provide crystal
      growth ability from water but contributed poorly to solubility.

PMID- 28553533
TI  - The marriage of AIE and interface engineering: convenient synthesis and enhanced
      photovoltaic performance.
AB  - As a promising option out of all of the well-recognized candidates that have been
      developed to solve the coming energy crisis, polymer solar cells (PSCs) are a
      kind of competitive clean energy source. However, as a convenient and efficient
      method to improve the efficiency of PSCs, the inherent mechanism of the
      interfacial modification was still not so clear, and interfacial materials
      constructed with new units were limited to a large degree. Here we present a new
      kind of interfacial material consisting of AIE units for the first time, with an
      efficiency of 8.94% being achieved by inserting TPE-2 as a cathode interlayer.
      This is a relatively high PCE for PC71BM:PTB7-based conventional PSCs with a
      single-junction structure. Different measurements, including TEM, AFM, SEM,
      GIXRD, UPS, SKPM, and SCLC, were conducted to investigate the properties in
      detail. All of the obtained experimental results confirmed the advantages of the
      utilization of new interfacial materials with AIE characteristics in polymer
      solar cells, thus providing an additional choice to develop new organic cathode
      interfacial layers with high performances.

PMID- 28553534
TI  - Two-dimensional crystal engineering using halogen and hydrogen bonds: towards
      structural landscapes.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) crystallization on solid surfaces is governed by a subtle
      balance of supramolecular and interfacial interactions. However, these subtle
      interactions often make the prediction of supramolecular structure from the
      molecular structure impossible. As a consequence, surface-based 2D
      crystallization has often been studied on a case-by-case basis, which hinders the
      identification of structure-determining relationships between different self
      assembling systems. Here we begin the discussion on such structure-determining
      relationships by comparing the 2D crystallization of two identical building
      blocks based on a 1,3,5-tris(pyridine-4-ylethynyl)benzene unit at the solution
      solid interface. The concepts of supramolecular synthons and structural
      landscapes are introduced in the context of 2D crystallization on surfaces to
      identify common structural elements. The systems are characterized using scanning
      tunneling microscopy (STM). This strategy involves carrying out minor structural
      modifications on the parent compound to access supramolecular patterns that are
      otherwise not obtained. We demonstrate that this chemical perturbation strategy
      translates equally well for 2D co-crystallization experiments with halogen bond
      donors yielding porous bi-component networks. The holistic approach described
      here represents a stepping stone towards gaining predictive power over the 2D
      crystallization of molecules on solid surfaces.

PMID- 28553535
TI  - Dopamine-modified TiO2 monolith-assisted LDI MS imaging for simultaneous
      localization of small metabolites and lipids in mouse brain tissue with enhanced
      detection selectivity and sensitivity.
AB  - Localization of metabolites using multiplexed mass spectrometry imaging (MSI)
      provides important chemical information for biological research. In contrast to
      matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), TiO2-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization (LDI) for MSI improves detection of low molecular mass
      metabolites (<500 Da) by reducing matrix background. However, the low UV
      absorption of TiO2 nanoparticles and their ester hydrolysis catalytic activity
      hinder the detection of phospholipids and many low-abundance molecules. To
      address these challenges, we evaluated and optimized the material morphology and
      composition of TiO2. Dopamine (DA) was found to be an efficient ligand for TiO2,
      resulting in increased UV light absorption, higher surface pH, and formation of
      monolithic TiO2-DA structures. The sub-micron scale and higher surface pH of the
      TiO2 particle sizes led to improved detection of phospholipid signals. Compared
      to unmodified TiO2 sub-micron particles, the DA-modified TiO2 monolith led to 10-
      to 30-fold increases in the signal-to-noise ratios of a number of compound peaks.
      The TiO2-DA monolith-assisted LDI MSI approach has higher selectivity and
      sensitivity for Lewis basic compounds, such as fatty acids, cholesterols,
      ceramides, diacylglycerols, and phosphatidylethanolamine, when analyzed in
      positive mode, than traditional MALDI MS. Using this new method, over 100
      molecules, including amino acids, alkaloids, free fatty acids, peptides, and
      lipids, were localized in mouse brain sections. By comparing the presence and
      localization of those molecules in young and old mouse brains, the approach
      demonstrated good performance in the determination of aging-related neurochemical
      changes in the brain.

PMID- 28553537
TI  - Solvent modified spin crossover in an iron(iii) complex: phase changes and an
      exceptionally wide hysteresis.
AB  - Solvent effects in a series of Fe(iii) spin crossover (SCO) complexes [Fe(qsal
      I)2]OTf.sol (sol = MeOH 1, EtOH 2, n-PrOH 3, i-PrOH 4, acetone 5 and MeCN 6) are
      explored. SCO is abrupt in 1 (following MeOH loss) and 2, gradual for 3 (T1/2 =
      199 K) and 4 (T1/2 = 251 K) and incomplete, even up to 350 K, for 5 and 6. In
      [Fe(qsal-I)2]OTf SCO occurs at T1/2? = 225 K and T1/2? = 234 K (DeltaT = 9 K),
      while aged samples of 2 exhibit an exceptionally wide hysteresis of 80 K (T1/2? =
      139 K and T1/2? = 219 K). In contrast, fresh samples of 2 exhibit stepped SCO
      with hysteresis varying from 2 to 42 K. VT-PXRD (variable temperature powder X
      ray diffraction) studies indicate a new phase, 2b, is formed upon cooling below
      180 K along with a minor LS phase 2c. Phase 2c and the HS phase 2a undergo a spin
      transition at T1/2? = 180 K and T1/2? = 215 K with phase 2b exhibiting two-step
      SCO. Structural studies in both spin states, except 6, show the cations are
      linked through extensive pi-pi interactions to form 1D chains. A combination of
      P4AE (parallel fourfold aryl embrace) and I...X (X = I, O, pi) interactions
      create tightly packed 3D supramolecular networks. This study emphasizes that
      while solvent may result in only small structural changes SCO characteristics can
      be impacted dramatically.

PMID- 28553536
TI  - Gel-based morphological design of zirconium metal-organic frameworks.
AB  - The ability of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to gelate under specific synthetic
      conditions opens up new opportunities in the preparation and shaping of
      hierarchically porous MOF monoliths, which could be directly implemented for
      catalytic and adsorptive applications. In this work, we present the first
      examples of xero- or aerogel monoliths consisting solely of nanoparticles of
      several prototypical Zr4+-based MOFs: UiO-66-X (X = H, NH2, NO2, (OH)2), UiO-67,
      MOF-801, MOF-808 and NU-1000. High reactant and water concentrations during
      synthesis were observed to induce the formation of gels, which were converted to
      monolithic materials by drying in air or supercritical CO2. Electron microscopy,
      combined with N2 physisorption experiments, was used to show that irregular
      nanoparticle packing leads to pure MOF monoliths with hierarchical pore systems,
      featuring both intraparticle micropores and interparticle mesopores. Finally, UiO
      66 gels were shaped into monolithic spheres of 600 MUm diameter using an oil-drop
      method, creating promising candidates for packed-bed catalytic or adsorptive
      applications, where hierarchical pore systems can greatly mitigate mass transfer
      limitations.

PMID- 28553538
TI  - Site selective reading of epigenetic markers by a dual-mode synthetic receptor
      array.
AB  - Variably functionalized self-folding deep cavitands form an arrayed, fluorescent
      indicator displacement assay system for the detection of post-translationally
      modified (PTM) histone peptides. The hosts bind trimethyllysine (KMe3) groups,
      and use secondary upper rim interactions to provide more sensitive discrimination
      between targets with identical KMe3 binding handles. The sensor array uses
      multiple different recognition modes to distinguish between miniscule differences
      in target, such as identical lysine modifications at different sites of histone
      peptides. In addition, the sensor is affected by global changes in structure, so
      it is capable of discriminating between identical PTMs, at identical positions on
      amino acid fragments that vary only in peptide backbone length, and can be
      applied to detect non-methylation modifications such as acetylation and
      phosphorylations located multiple residues away from the targeted binding site.
      The synergistic application of multiple variables allows dual-mode deep cavitands
      to approach levels of recognition selectivity usually only seen with antibodies.

PMID- 28553539
TI  - Determination of a complex crystal structure in the absence of single crystals:
      analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data, guided by solid-state NMR and periodic
      DFT calculations, reveals a new 2'-deoxyguanosine structural motif.
AB  - Derivatives of guanine exhibit diverse supramolecular chemistry, with a variety
      of distinct hydrogen-bonding motifs reported in the solid state, including
      ribbons and quartets, which resemble the G-quadruplex found in nucleic acids with
      sequences rich in guanine. Reflecting this diversity, the solid-state structural
      properties of 3',5'-bis-O-decanoyl-2'-deoxyguanosine, reported in this paper,
      reveal a hydrogen-bonded guanine ribbon motif that has not been observed
      previously for 2'-deoxyguanosine derivatives. In this case, structure
      determination was carried out directly from powder XRD data, representing one of
      the most challenging organic molecular structures (a 90-atom molecule) that has
      been solved to date by this technique. While specific challenges were encountered
      in the structure determination process, a successful outcome was achieved by
      augmenting the powder XRD analysis with information derived from solid-state NMR
      data and with dispersion-corrected periodic DFT calculations for structure
      optimization. The synergy of experimental and computational methodologies
      demonstrated in the present work is likely to be an essential feature of
      strategies to further expand the application of powder XRD as a technique for
      structure determination of organic molecular materials of even greater complexity
      in the future.

PMID- 28553542
TI  - Regio- and stereospecific rhodium-catalyzed allylic alkylation with an acyl anion
      equivalent: an approach to acyclic alpha-ternary beta,gamma-unsaturated aryl
      ketones.
AB  - The regio- and stereospecific rhodium-catalyzed allylic alkylation of secondary
      allylic carbonates with cyanohydrin pronucleophiles facilitates the direct
      construction of acyclic alpha-ternary beta,gamma-unsaturated aryl ketones.
      Interestingly, this study illustrates the impact of deaggregating agents on
      regiocontrol and the electronic nature of the aryl component to suppress olefin
      isomerization. In addition, we demonstrate that the dimethylamino substituent,
      which modulates the pKa of the alpha-ternary beta,gamma-unsaturated aryl ketone,
      provides a useful synthetic handle for further functionalization via Kumada cross
      coupling of the aryl trimethylammonium salt. Finally, the stereospecific
      alkylation of a chiral nonracemic secondary allylic carbonate affords the
      enantioenriched alpha-ternary aryl ketone, which was employed in a formal
      synthesis of trichostatic acid to illustrate that the allylic alkylation proceeds
      with net retention of configuration.

PMID- 28553541
TI  - Adsorption and molecular siting of CO2, water, and other gases in the
      superhydrophobic, flexible pores of FMOF-1 from experiment and simulation.
AB  - FMOF-1 is a flexible, superhydrophobic metal-organic framework with a network of
      channels and side pockets decorated with -CF3 groups. CO2 adsorption isotherms
      measured between 278 and 313 K and up to 55 bar reveal a maximum uptake of ca.
      6.16 mol kg-1 (11.0 mol L-1) and unusual isotherm shapes at the higher
      temperatures, suggesting framework expansion. We used neutron diffraction and
      molecular simulations to investigate the framework expansion behaviour and the
      accessibility of the small pockets to N2, O2, and CO2. Neutron diffraction in
      situ experiments on the crystalline powder show that CO2 molecules are favourably
      adsorbed at three distinct adsorption sites in the large channels of FMOF-1 and
      cannot access the small pockets in FMOF-1 at 290 K and oversaturated pressure at
      61 bar. Stepped adsorption isotherms for N2 and O2 at 77 K can be explained by
      combining Monte Carlo simulations in several different crystal structures of FMOF
      1 obtained from neutron and X-ray diffraction under different conditions. A
      similar analysis is successful for CO2 adsorption at 278 and 283 K up to ca. 30
      bar; however, at 298 K and pressures above 30 bar, the results suggest even more
      substantial expansion of the FMOF-1 framework. The measured contact angle for
      water on an FMOF-1 pellet is 158 degrees , demonstrating superhydrophobicity.
      Simulations and adsorption measurements also show that FMOF-1 is hydrophobic and
      water is not adsorbed in FMOF-1 at room temperature. Simulated mixture isotherms
      of CO2 in the presence of 80% relative humidity predict that water does not
      influence the CO2 adsorption in FMOF-1, suggesting that hydrophobic MOFs could
      hold promise for CO2 capture from humid gas streams.

PMID- 28553540
TI  - Stimuli-responsive multifunctional glyconanoparticle platforms for targeted drug
      delivery and cancer cell imaging.
AB  - Targeted bioimaging or chemotherapeutic drug delivery to achieve the desired
      therapeutic effects while minimizing side effects has attracted considerable
      research attention and remains a clinical challenge. Presented herein is a multi
      component delivery system based on carbohydrate-functionalized gold nanoparticles
      conjugated with a fluorophore or prodrug. The system leverages active targeting
      based on carbohydrate-lectin interactions and release of the payload by
      biological thiols. Cell-type specific delivery of the activatable fluorophore was
      examined by confocal imaging on HepG2 cells, and displays distinct selectivity
      towards HepG2 cells over HeLa and NIH3T3 cells. The system was further developed
      into a drug delivery vehicle with camptothecin (CPT) as a model drug. It was
      demonstrated that the complex exhibits similar cytotoxicity to that of free CPT
      towards HepG2 cells, and is significantly less cytotoxic to normal HDF and NIH3T3
      cells, indicating excellent specificity. The delivery vehicle itself exhibits
      excellent biocompatibility and offers an attractive strategy for cell-type
      specific delivery depending on the carbohydrates conjugated in the system.

PMID- 28553543
TI  - Evaluation of MMP substrate concentration and specificity for neovascularization
      of hydrogel scaffolds.
AB  - Controlled vascular response in scaffolds following implantation remains a
      significant clinical challenge. A critical biomaterial design criterion is the
      synchronization of the rates of scaffold degradation and vascularized tissue
      formation. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are key enzymes that regulate
      neovascularization and extracellular matrix remodelling. Synthetic protease
      sensitive hydrogels offer controllable environments for investigating the role of
      matrix degradation on neovascularization. In this study, PEG hydrogels containing
      MMP-sensitive peptides with increased catalytic activity for MMPs expressed
      during neovascularization were investigated. Scaffolds were functionalized with
      MMP-2-, MMP-14- or general collagenase-sensitive peptides and with varying
      peptide concentration using crosslinkers containing one (SSite) or multiple
      (TSite) repeats of each protease-sensitive sequence. Increasing peptide
      concentration enhanced the degradation kinetics of scaffolds functionalized with
      MMP-specific sequences while 80% of the collagenase-sensitive scaffolds remained
      upon exposure to MMP-2 and MMP-14. In vitro neovascularization was consistent
      with in vivo tissue invasion with significantly increased invasion occurring
      within SSite MMP-specific as compared to collagenase-sensitive hydrogels and with
      further invasion in TSite as compared to SSite hydrogels regardless of peptide
      specificity. All scaffolds supported in vivo neovascularization; however, this
      was not dependent on peptide specificity. These findings demonstrate that peptide
      concentration and specificity regulate in vivo scaffold degradation,
      neovascularization and matrix remodelling.

PMID- 28553544
TI  - Development of novel approach to diagnostic imaging of lung cancer with 18F
      Nifene PET/CT using A/J mice treated with NNK.
AB  - Development of novel methods of early diagnosis of lung cancer is one of the
      major tasks of contemporary clinical and experimental oncology. In this study, we
      utilized the tobacco nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone
      (NNK)-induced lung cancer in A/J mice as an animal model for development of a new
      imaging technique for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Lung cancer cells in A/J
      mice overexpress nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Longitudinal CT scans were
      carried out over a period of 8 months after NNK treatment, followed by PET/CT
      scans with 18F-Nifene that binds to alpha4-made nicotinic receptors with high
      affinity. PET/CT scans of lungs were also obtained ex vivo. CT revealed the
      presence of lung nodules in 8-month NNK-treated mice, while control mice had no
      tumors. Imaging of live animals prior to necropsy allowed correlation of results
      of tumor load via PET/CT and histopathological findings. Significant amount of
      18F-Nifene was seen in the lungs of NNK-treated mice, whereas lungs of control
      mice showed only minor uptake of 18F-Nifene. Quantitative analysis of the extent
      and amount of 18F-Nifene binding in lung in vivo and ex vivo demonstrated a
      higher tumor/nontumor ratio due to selective labeling of tumor nodules expressing
      abundant alpha4 nicotinic receptor subunits. For comparison, we performed PET/CT
      studies with 18F-FDG, which is used for the imaging diagnosis of lung cancer. The
      tumor/nontumor ratios for 18F-FDG were lower than for 18F-Nifene. Thus, we have
      developed a novel diagnostic imaging approach to early diagnosis of lung cancer
      using 18F-Nifene PET/CT. This technique allows quantitative assessment of lung
      tumors in live mice, which is critical for establishing tumor size and location,
      and also has salient clinical implications.

PMID- 28553546
TI  - Effect of a Clinical and Translational Science Award institute on grant funding
      in a major research university.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have examined the impact of Clinical and
      Translational Science Awards programs on other outcomes, but not on grant
      seeking. The authors examined the effects on grant seeking of the Michigan
      Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR), a Clinical and Translational
      Science Awards institute at the University of Michigan. METHODS: We assessed over
      63,000 grant proposals submitted at the University of Michigan in the years 2002
      2012 using data from the university and MICHR's Tracking Metrics and Reporting
      System. We used a retrospective, observational study of the dynamics of grant
      seeking success and award funding. Heckman selection models were run to assess
      MICHR's relationship with a proposal's success (selection), and subsequently the
      award's size (outcome). Models were run for all proposals and for clinical and
      translational research (CTR) proposals alone. Other covariates included proposal
      classification, type of grant award, academic unit, and year. RESULTS: MICHR had
      a positive and statistically significant relationship with success for both
      proposal types. For all grants, MICHR was associated with a 29.6% increase in
      award size. For CTR grants, MICHR had a statistically nonsignificant relationship
      with award size. CONCLUSIONS: MICHR's infrastructure, created to enable and
      enhance CTR, has also created positive spillovers for a broader spectrum of
      research and grant seeking.

PMID- 28553545
TI  - Rheumatic autoimmune diseases in women and midlife health.
AB  - Autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA), and systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) preferentially affect women,
      and are characterized by systemic inflammation leading to target organ
      dysfunction. The public health burden of autoimmune diseases, which collectively
      represent a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women throughout
      adulthood, is substantial. While some features of these diseases have been
      observed to improve over the menopausal transition, such as disease flare rate in
      SLE and skin softening and thinning in scleroderma, others, such as swollen and
      tender joints and radiographically confirmed damage in RA may worsen. The general
      trends, however, are not consistent or conclusive for all disease-related
      manifestations. Of great importance is the recognition that comorbid diseases,
      including osteoporosis and accelerated cardiovascular disease, contribute excess
      morbidity and mortality that becomes increasingly apparent as women with
      autoimmune diseases undergo the menopausal transition.

PMID- 28553548
TI  - Potential Utility of a 4K Consumer Camera for Surgical Education in
      Ophthalmology.
AB  - Purpose. We evaluated the potential utility of a cost-effective 4K consumer video
      system for surgical education in ophthalmology. Setting. Tokai University
      Hachioji Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. Design. Experimental study. Methods. The eyes
      that underwent cataract surgery, glaucoma surgery, vitreoretinal surgery, or
      oculoplastic surgery between February 2016 and April 2016 were recorded with 17.2
      million pixels using a high-definition digital video camera (LUMIX DMC-GH4,
      Panasonic, Japan) and with 0.41 million pixels using a conventional analog video
      camera (MKC-501, Ikegami, Japan). Motion pictures of two cases for each surgery
      type were evaluated and classified as having poor, normal, or excellent
      visibility. Results. The 4K video system was easily installed by reading the
      instructions without technical expertise. The details of the surgical picture in
      the 4K system were highly improved over those of the conventional pictures, and
      the visual effects for surgical education were significantly improved. Motion
      pictures were stored for approximately 11 h with 512 GB SD memory. The total
      price of this system was USD 8000, which is a very low price compared with a
      commercial system. Conclusion. This 4K consumer camera was able to record and
      play back with high-definition surgical field visibility on the 4K monitor and is
      a low-cost, high-performing alternative for surgical facilities.

PMID- 28553547
TI  - Changes in Anterior, Posterior, and Total Corneal Astigmatism after Descemet
      Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty.
AB  - Purpose. To evaluate changes in anterior, posterior, and total corneal
      astigmatism in patients after Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK).
      Methods. We retrospectively included 29 eyes of 23 patients (age 67.6 +/- 9.8
      years, 13 female, 10 male) after DMEK surgery. The magnitude and axis orientation
      of anterior, posterior, and total corneal astigmatism before and after DMEK were
      determined using a rotating Scheimpflug system (Pentacam HR, Oculus). Results.
      The magnitude of anterior, posterior, and total corneal astigmatism in the
      central cornea did not change significantly after surgery. Before surgery, we
      found a significant correlation between the magnitudes of anterior and posterior
      corneal astigmatism (Spearman's correlation coefficient (rS) = 0.526, P = 0.003),
      while after surgery this correlation was no longer significant (rS = 0.038, P =
      0.843). There was a significant correlation between the vector difference between
      preoperative and postoperative posterior astigmatism and the change in corneal
      pachymetry (rP = 0.47, P = 0.010). Conclusions. Posterior corneal astigmatism
      (especially the orientation) and therefore the relationship between anterior and
      total corneal astigmatism may change after DMEK. This should be considered to
      improve the accuracy of toric IOL power calculations following phakic DMEK or in
      combined procedures.

PMID- 28553549
TI  - Twenty-Four-Hour Variation of Intraocular Pressure in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma
      Treated with Triple Eye Drops.
AB  - Objectives. To evaluate 24-hour intraocular pressure (IOP) variation in patients
      with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) treated with triple eye drops. Subjects
      and Methods. The IOP was measured in 74 eyes in 74 POAG patients (seated) on
      triple therapy (PG analogue, beta-blocker, carbonic anhydrase inhibitor) at about
      every 3 hours. Results. The peak IOP was 13.5 +/- 3.1 at 1:00, and the trough IOP
      was at 12.6 +/- 2.4 mmHg at 7:00. The IOP at 7:00 was significantly lower than
      that at 10:00, 1:00, and 3:00 (p < 0.05). Based on the time of the peak IOP, we
      classified the patients into two groups: diurnal (28 eyes) and nocturnal types
      (37 eyes). There was significant difference at the spherical equivalent between
      diurnal and nocturnal types (p = 0.014). To assess the influence of reflective
      error, we conducted subanalysis for two groups: high myopic (26 eyes, <=-6D) and
      low/nonmyopic (24 eyes, >=-2D) groups. In the low/nonmyopia group, the IOP was
      significantly higher at 1:00 and 3:00 than at 13:00, 16:00, and 7: 00 (p < 0.05).
      Conclusion. The mean of IOP elevated outside of clinic hour in the POAG patients
      on triple therapy. The low/nonmyopia patient should be carefully treated because
      the IOP of the patients at night elevated significantly.

PMID- 28553550
TI  - Intraoperative Macula Protection by Perfluorocarbon Liquid for the Metallic
      Intraocular Foreign Body Removal during 23-Gauge Vitrectomy.
AB  - Purpose. To evaluate visual and safety outcomes of 23-gauge (G) pars plana
      vitrectomy (PPV) with application of perfluorocarbon liquid (PFCL) for
      intraoperative protection of the macula during intraocular foreign body (IOFB)
      removal. Methods. Retrospective study of 42 patients who underwent 23 G PPV for
      IOFB removal from posterior segment with intraoperative PFCL application for the
      macula shielding. Collected data included corrected distance visual acuity
      (CDVA), size of IOFB, and complication rate. The mean follow-up period was 12
      months. Results. The mean preoperative CDVA was 0.54 logMAR (SD 0.46), and the
      final mean CDVA was 0.68 logMAR (SD 0.66). All IOFBs were metallic with mean
      dimensions of 4.6 mm * 2.1 mm. Twenty-two IOFBs were removed through the corneal
      tunnel and 20 IOFBs through the sclerotomy. No intraoperative iatrogenic lesion
      of the macula was observed. As a tamponade, silicon oil was applied in 31 eyes,
      SF6 gas in 5 eyes, air in 4 eyes, and 2 eyes required no tamponade. Secondary
      retinal detachment was observed in 17% of cases, but at the end of the follow-up,
      all the retinas were attached. Conclusion. PFCL application during PPV is a safe
      method of protecting the macula from unexpected falling of the metallic IOFB
      during its removal.

PMID- 28553551
TI  - Glaucomatous Optic Nerve Changes and Thyroid Dysfunction in an Urban South Korean
      Population.
AB  - Purpose. This study was performed to evaluate the relationship between
      intraocular pressure (IOP) and glaucomatous optic nerve change and thyroid
      factors in Korean population. Materials and Methods. The study included subjects
      who underwent health screening in Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. Detailed history
      taking and systemic and ocular examination including fundus photography were
      performed for all participants. All fundus photographs were divided into two
      groups based on disc and RNFL appearance: nonglaucoma and glaucoma group.
      Subjects were also divided into quartiles of each thyroid function parameter, and
      the relationship with IOP and glaucoma were analysed. Results. In univariate
      analysis, free T4, T3, and TSH in normal subjects and T3 in thyroid disease group
      were associated with the IOP. After adjusting for age and sex, the IOP tended to
      slightly decrease according to the level of the quartile of free T4 and T3 in
      normal subjects. In terms of glaucoma, on multivariate analysis, it did not show
      a significant correlation with any thyroid function tests. Conclusions. In normal
      subjects, the IOP tended to be decreased according to the level of free T4 and T3
      but the amounts were clinically insignificant. Thyroid factors are not an
      independent risk factor for the development of glaucoma.

PMID- 28553552
TI  - A Case of Urinary Tract Infection and Severe Sepsis Caused by Kluyvera ascorbata
      in a 73-Year-Old Female with a Brief Literature Review.
AB  - Infections that are caused by Kluyvera bacteria have been previously reported in
      the medical literature; however, they seem to be less common. Herein, we report a
      case of urinary tract infection and severe sepsis caused by Kluyvera ascorbata in
      a 73-year-old female. We also did a brief literature review of infections caused
      by this organism in adults.

PMID- 28553553
TI  - Use of Chlorothiazide in the Management of Central Diabetes Insipidus in Early
      Infancy.
AB  - Management of central diabetes insipidus in infancy is challenging. The various
      forms of desmopressin, oral, subcutaneous, and intranasal, have variability in
      the duration of action. Infants consume most of their calories as liquids which
      with desmopressin puts them at risk for hyponatremia and seizures. There are few
      cases reporting chlorothiazide as a temporizing measure for central diabetes
      insipidus in infancy. A male infant presented on day of life 30 with
      holoprosencephaly, cleft lip and palate, and poor weight gain to endocrine
      clinic. Biochemical tests and urine output were consistent with central diabetes
      insipidus. The patient required approximately 2.5 times the normal fluid intake
      to keep up with the urine output. Patient was started on low renal solute load
      formula and oral chlorothiazide. There were normalization of serum sodium,
      decrease in fluid intake close to 1.3 times the normal, and improved urine
      output. There were no episodes of hyponatremia/hypernatremia inpatient. The
      patient had 2 episodes of hypernatremia in the first year of life resolving with
      few hours of hydration. Oral chlorothiazide is a potential bridging agent for
      treatment of central DI along with low renal solute load formula in early
      infancy. It can help achieve adequate control of DI without wide serum sodium
      fluctuations.

PMID- 28553554
TI  - A Case of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Presenting as Conversion Disorder.
AB  - Background. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare disorder of the central nervous
      system. Its initial diagnosis may be obscured by its variable presentation. This
      case report illustrates the complexity of diagnosing this disease early in the
      clinical course, especially when the initial symptoms may be psychiatric. It
      offers a brief review of the literature and reinforces a role for consultation
      psychiatry services. Methods. PUBMED/MEDLINE was searched using the terms
      "Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease", "psychiatric symptoms", "conversion disorder",
      "somatic symptom disorder", "functional movement disorder", and "functional
      neurologic disorder". Case. The patient was a 64-year-old woman with no prior
      psychiatric history who was initially diagnosed with conversion disorder and
      unspecified anxiety disorder but soon thereafter was discovered to have
      Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Discussion. This case highlights the central role of
      psychiatric symptoms in early presentations of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Still,
      few other cases in the literature report functional neurological symptoms as an
      initial sign. The consultation psychiatrist must remain alert to changing
      clinical symptoms, especially with uncharacteristic disease presentations.

PMID- 28553555
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery for the Treatment of
      Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids.
AB  - Uterine fibroids, the most common benign tumor in women of childbearing age, may
      cause symptoms including pelvic pain, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, pressure,
      urinary symptoms, and infertility. Various approaches are available to treat
      symptomatic uterine fibroids. Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound
      Surgery (MRgFUS) represents a recently introduced noninvasive safe and effective
      technique that can be performed without general anesthesia, in an outpatient
      setting. We review the principles of MRgFUS, describing patient selection
      criteria for the treatments performed at our center and we present a series of
      five selected patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids treated with this not
      yet widely known technique, showing its efficacy in symptom improvement and
      fibroid volume reduction.

PMID- 28553557
TI  - Factors Affecting Herd Status for Bovine Tuberculosis in Dairy Cattle in Northern
      Thailand.
AB  - The objective of this case-control study was to identify farm-level risk factors
      associated with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in dairy cows in northern Thailand.
      Spatial analysis was performed to identify geographical clustering of case-farms
      located in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces in northern Thailand. To identify
      management factors affecting bTB status, a matched case-control study was
      conducted with 20 case-farms and 38 control-farms. Case-farms were dairy farms
      with at least single intradermal tuberculin test- (SIT-) reactor(s) in the farms
      during 2011 to 2015. Control-farms were dairy farms with no SIT-reactors in the
      same period and located within 5 km from case-farms. Questionnaires were
      administered for data collection with questions based on epidemiological
      plausibility and characteristics of the local livestock industry. Data were
      analyzed using multiple logistic regressions. A significant geographic cluster
      was identified only in Chiang Mai province (p < 0.05). The risk factor associated
      with presence of SIT-reactors in dairy herds located in this region was
      purchasing dairy cows from dealers (OR = 5.85, 95% CI = 1.66-20.58, and p =
      0.006). From this study, it was concluded that geographic clustering was
      identified for dairy farms with SIT-reactors in these provinces, and the cattle
      movements through cattle dealers increased the risks for SIT-reactor farm status.

PMID- 28553556
TI  - The Role of Toll-Like Receptors in Autoimmune Diseases through Failure of the
      Self-Recognition Mechanism.
AB  - Toll-like receptors (TLRs), part of the innate immune system that recognises
      molecular signatures, are important in the recognition of pathogenic components.
      However, when specific cellular contexts develop in which TLRs are
      inappropriately activated by self-components, this may lead to sterile
      inflammation and result in the occurrence of autoimmunity. This review analyses
      the available data regarding TLR biochemistry, the specific mechanisms which are
      brought about by TLR activation, and the importance of these mechanisms in the
      light of any existing and potential therapies in the field of autoimmunity.

PMID- 28553558
TI  - Phosphorylation of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in drug addiction and
      translational research.
AB  - Protein phosphorylation is an important posttranslational modification of group I
      metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR1 and mGluR5 subtypes) which are widely
      distributed throughout the mammalian brain. Several common protein kinases are
      involved in this type of modification, including protein kinase A, protein kinase
      C, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase. Through constitutive and activity
      dependent phosphorylation of mGluR1/5 at specific residues, protein kinases
      regulate trafficking, subcellular/subsynaptic distribution, and function of
      modified receptors. Increasing evidence demonstrates that mGluR1/5
      phosphorylation in the mesolimbic reward circuitry is sensitive to chronic
      psychostimulant exposure and undergoes adaptive changes in its abundance and
      activity. These changes contribute to long-term excitatory synaptic plasticity
      related to the addictive property of drugs of abuse. The rapid progress in
      uncovering the neurochemical basis of addiction has fostered bench-to-bed
      translational research by targeting mGluR1/5 for developing effective
      pharmacotherapies for treating addiction in humans. This review summarizes recent
      data from the studies analyzing mGluR1/5 phosphorylation. Phosphorylation
      dependent mechanisms in stimulant-induced mGluR1/5 and behavioral plasticity are
      also discussed in association with increasing interest in mGluR1/5 in
      translational medicine.

PMID- 28553559
TI  - Next Generation PERG Method: Expanding the Response Dynamic Range and Capturing
      Response Adaptation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare a new method for steady-state pattern electroretinogram
      (PERGx) with a validated method (PERGLA) in normal controls and in patients with
      optic neuropathy. METHODS: PERGx and PERGLA were recorded in a mixed population
      (n = 33, 66 eyes) of younger controls (C1; n = 10, age 38 +/- 8.3 years), older
      controls (C2; n = 11, 57.9 +/- 8.09 years), patients with early manifest glaucoma
      (G; n = 7, 65.7 +/-11.6 years), and patients with nonarteritic ischemic optic
      neuropathy (N; n = 5, mean age 59.4 +/- 8.6 years). The PERGx stimulus was a
      black-white horizontal grating generated on a 14 * 14 cm LED display (1.6
      cycles/deg, 15.63 reversals/s, 98% contrast, 800 cd/m2 mean luminance, 25 degrees
      field). PERGx signal and noise were averaged over 1024 epochs (~2 minutes) and
      Fourier analyzed to retrieve amplitude and phase. Partial averages (16 successive
      samples of 64 epochs each) were also analyzed to quantify progressive changes
      over recording time (adaptation). RESULTS: PERGLA and PERGx amplitudes and
      latencies were correlated (Amplitude R2 = 0.59, Latency R2 = 0.39, both P <
      0.0001) and were similarly altered in disease. Compared to PERGLA, however, PERGx
      had shorter (16 ms) latency, higher (1.39*) amplitude, lower (0.37*) noise, and
      higher (4.2*) signal-to-noise ratio. PERGx displayed marked amplitude adaptation
      in C1 and C2 groups and no significant adaptation in G and N groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      The PERGx high signal-to-noise ratio may allow meaningful recording in advanced
      stages of optic nerve disorders. In addition, it quantifies response adaptation,
      which may be selectively altered in glaucoma and optic neuropathy. TRANSLATIONAL
      RELEVANCE: A new PERG method with increased dynamic range allows recording of
      retinal ganglion cell function in advanced stages of optic nerve disorders. It
      also quantifies the response decline during the test, an autoregulatory
      adaptation to metabolic challenge that decreases with age and presence of
      disease.

PMID- 28553560
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomography Reveals Changes to Corneal Reflectivity and
      Thickness in Individuals with Tear Hyperosmolarity.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate whether tear hyperosmolarity, a feature of dry eye
      disease (DED), affects central corneal thickness (CCT), corneal light
      reflectivity, and/or tear film reflectivity. METHODS: This prospective, cross
      sectional study involved 48 participants (38 with hyperosmolar tears and 10
      controls with normo-osmolar tears). Symptoms and signs of DED (tear osmolarity,
      sodium fluorescein tear break-up time, ocular surface staining, Schirmer test)
      were assessed. CCT, and the reflectivity of the cornea and the tear-epithelial
      interface were quantified relative to background noise using Fourier-domain
      optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT). RESULTS: CCT of eyes with severe tear
      hyperosmolarity, defined as eyes in the upper quartile of the hyperosmolar group,
      was less than control eyes (539.1 +/- 7.4 vs. 583.1 +/- 15.0 MUm, P = 0.02) and
      eyes with less severe tear hyperosmolarity, defined as hyperosmolar eyes in the
      lower quartile (622.7 +/- 5.8 MUm, P < 0.0001). CCT showed a negative linear
      relationship with tear osmolarity for values above 316 mOsmol/L (R2 = 0.17, P =
      0.01). Central corneal reflectivity was lower in hyperosmolar eyes than normo
      osmolar eyes (45.1 +/- 0.3 vs. 48.1 +/- 0.6 pixels, P = 0.02); the greatest
      relative difference was in the anterior stroma, where corneal reflectivity was
      4.7 +/- 1.9% less in hyperosmolar eyes (P < 0.01). Peak reflectivity of the tear
      epithelial interface was 4.8% +/- 3.5% higher in the hyperosmolar group than the
      normo-osmolar tear group (P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Individuals with significant
      tear hyperosmolarity and clinical signs of symptoms of DED show reduced CCT and
      altered corneal reflectivity. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: Anterior segment FD-OCT
      provides novel insight into corneal microstructural differences in individuals
      with DED.

PMID- 28553561
TI  - Diagnostic Ability and Repeatability of a New Supra-Threshold Glaucoma Screening
      Program in Standard Automated Perimetry.
AB  - PURPOSE: We assess the diagnostic ability and repeatability of a new
      suprathreshold glaucoma screening test (GST) comprising 28 test points and a 1-of
      3 sampling strategy at 95% of the normal limit for standard automated perimetry
      (SAP) in early to advanced glaucoma. METHODS: This prospective cross-sectional
      study included 96 eyes of patients with early, moderate, or advanced glaucoma and
      37 eyes of normal controls. Participants were evaluated by the G-Dynamic
      threshold test once and the GST twice, in random order, using the Octopus 600
      perimeter. The diagnostic ability of GST was assessed by comparison with the G
      Dynamic threshold obtained by receiver operating characteristic analysis.
      Repeatability was assessed by kappa statistics for agreement on glaucoma
      diagnosis and each test point. RESULTS: Although the G-Dynamic test exhibited
      significantly higher areas under the curve (AUC) than the GST1st (P = 0.009) in
      early glaucoma, there were no significant differences in any other AUCs between
      the two methods. The kappa values for repeatability of glaucoma diagnosis and
      each test point were 0.747 to 1.0 and 0.537 to 1.0, respectively. The duration of
      the GST in the control and early glaucoma groups was less than a minute, while
      that in the moderate and advanced glaucoma groups was within 1.5 minutes.
      CONCLUSION: The diagnostic ability of the new suprathreshold GST for early to
      advanced glaucoma was high, with moderate to strong repeatability and short test
      duration. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: There currently are no prominent
      suprathreshold screening strategies using SAP. The GST would be an effective
      clinical method for glaucoma screening.

PMID- 28553562
TI  - The Association of Glaucomatous Visual Field Loss and Balance.
AB  - PURPOSE: To relate balance measures to visual field (VF) damage from glaucoma.
      METHODS: The OPAL kinematic system measured balance, as root mean square (RMS)
      sway, on 236 patients with suspect/diagnosed glaucoma. Balance was measured with
      feet shoulder width apart while standing on a firm/foam surface with eyes
      opened/closed (Instrumental Clinical Test of Sensory Integration and Balance
      [ICTSIB] conditions), and eyes open on a firm surface under feet together, semi
      tandem, or tandem positions (standing balance conditions). Integrated VF (IVF)
      sensitivities were calculated by merging right and left eye 24-2 VF data.
      RESULTS: Mean age was 71 years (range, 57-93) and mean IVF sensitivity was 27.1
      dB (normal = 31 dB). Lower IVF sensitivity was associated with greater RMS sway
      during eyes-open foam-surface testing (beta = 0.23 z-score units/5 dB IVF
      sensitivity decrement, P = 0.001), but not during other ICTSIB conditions. Lower
      IVF sensitivity also was associated with greater RMS sway during feet together
      standing balance testing (0.10 z-score units/5 dB IVF sensitivity decrement, P =
      0.049), but not during other standing balance conditions. Visual dependence of
      balance was lower in patients with worse IVF sensitivity (beta = -21%/5 dB IVF
      sensitivity decrement, P < 0.001). Neither superior nor inferior IVF sensitivity
      consistently predicted balance measures better than measures of overall VF
      sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: Balance was worse in glaucoma patients with greater VF
      damage under foam surface testing (designed to inhibit proprioceptive
      contributions to balance) as well as feet-together firm-surface conditions when
      somatosensory inputs were available. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: Good balance is
      essential to avoid unnecessary falls and patients with VF loss from glaucoma may
      be at higher risk of falls because of poor balance.

PMID- 28553563
TI  - Targeted Delivery of FLT-Morpholino Using Cyclic RGD Peptide.
AB  - PURPOSE: We previously showed that intravitreal injection of the sFLT morpholino
      oligomer (FLT-MO) suppresses laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in
      mice by decreasing the membrane bound form of Flt-1 while increasing the soluble
      form of Flt-1 via alternative splicing shift. In this study, we examined whether
      cyclic RGD peptide (cRGD) can promote morpholino-oligomer accumulation in CNV
      following tail vein injection, and whether systemic cRGD conjugated FLT-MO (cRGD
      FLT-MO) suppresses CNV growth. METHODS: cRGD conjugated fluorescent morpholino
      oligomer (cRGD-F-MO) was injected via tail vein into mice with previous retinal
      laser photocoagulation and examined for cRGD-F-MO accumulation in CNV. To examine
      whether cRGD-FLT-MO suppresses CNV growth, mice were tail-vein injected with cRGD
      FLT-MO, cRGD conjugated standard morpholino-oligomer (cRGD-STD-MO), or Dulbecco's
      Phosphate-Buffered Saline (DPBS) 1 and 4 days postlaser photocoagulation. Seven
      days postlaser photocoagulation, eyes were harvested and laser CNV was stained
      with isolectin GS-IB4, allowing quantification of CNV size by confocal
      microscopy. RESULTS: cRGD-F-MO accumulation in CNV commenced immediately after
      tail vein injection and could be observed even 1 day after injection. cRGD-FLT-MO
      tail vein injection significantly suppressed CNV size (2.7 * 105 +/- 0.3 * 105
      MUm3, P < 0.05 by Student's t-test) compared with controls (DPBS: 5.1 * 105 +/-
      0.6 * 105 MUm3 and cRGD-STD-MO: 5.5 * 105 +/- 0.8 * 105 MUm3). CONCLUSIONS: cRGD
      peptide facilitates morpholino-oligomer accumulation in CNV following systemic
      delivery. cRGD-FLT-MO suppressed CNV growth after tail-vein injection,
      demonstrating the potential utility of cRGD peptide for morpholino-oligomer
      delivery to CNV. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: Current therapy for neovascular age
      related macular degeneration involves intravitreal injection of anti-vascular
      endothelial growth factor drugs. Our results indicate that CNV can be treated
      systemically, thus eliminating risks and hazards associated with intravitreal
      injection.

PMID- 28553565
TI  - Overview of FDA's Expanded Access Program for Investigational Drugs.
AB  - Expanded access, also called "compassionate use," provides a pathway for patients
      to gain access to investigational drugs, biologics, and medical devices used to
      diagnose, monitor, or treat patients with serious diseases or conditions for
      which there are no comparable or satisfactory therapy options available outside
      of clinical trials. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) facilitates the
      expanded access process; however, access to investigational treatments requires
      not only FDA's review and authorization but also the active involvement and
      cooperation of other parties, including drug companies and health care providers,
      in order to be successful.

PMID- 28553564
TI  - Affect systems, changes in body mass index, disordered eating and stress: an 18
      month longitudinal study in women.
AB  - Background: Evidence suggests that stress plays a role in changes in body weight
      and disordered eating. The present study examined the effect of mood, affect
      systems (attachment and social rank) and affect regulatory processes (self
      criticism, self-reassurance) on the stress process and how this impacts on
      changes in weight and disordered eating. Methods: A large sample of women
      participated in a community-based prospective, longitudinal online study in which
      measures of body mass index (BMI), disordered eating, perceived stress,
      attachment, social rank, mood and self-criticism/reassurance were measured at 6
      monthly intervals over an 18-month period. Results: Latent Growth Curve Modelling
      showed that BMI increased over 18 months while stress and disordered eating
      decreased and that these changes were predicted by high baseline levels of these
      constructs. Independently of this, however, increases in stress predicted a
      reduction in BMI which was, itself, predicted by baseline levels of self-hatred
      and unfavourable social comparison. Conclusions: This study adds support to the
      evidence that stress is important in weight change. In addition, this is the
      first study to show in a longitudinal design, that social rank and self-criticism
      (as opposed to self-reassurance) at times of difficulty predict increases in
      stress and, thus, suggests a role for these constructs in weight regulation.

PMID- 28553566
TI  - Ten-Year Experience for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Part 2:
      FDA's Role in Ensuring Patient Safety.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to describe the role of the US Food and
      Drug Administration (FDA) in ensuring the safety of patients receiving
      investigational drugs under expanded access. METHODS: To better define FDA's role
      in the review of requests for expanded access, multiple queries of FDA's Center
      for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) document tracking system were performed.
      The queries identified reasons for, and outcomes of, expanded access requests for
      investigational drugs that were either not allowed to proceed or denied over a 10
      year time period. An in-depth review of a random sample of single-patient, non
      emergency investigational new drug (IND) applications that were allowed to
      proceed was also conducted. RESULTS: Overall, 99.3% of the applications for
      almost 9000 expanded access of an investigational drug were allowed to proceed.
      There were 62 requests that were either denied (38 emergency INDs) or not allowed
      to proceed (24 non-emergency INDs). The most common reasons for denying emergency
      INDs was that the patient was stable on current therapy and that it was not
      deemed an emergency. The most common reasons for not allowing non-emergency
      expanded access INDs to proceed were incomplete application, unsafe dosing,
      demonstrated lack of efficacy for intended use, availability of adequate
      alternative therapies, and inadequate information provided in the application on
      which to base a decision. A review of a random sample of 150 single-patient, non
      emergency INDs revealed that FDA recommended changes to dosing, safety
      monitoring, or informed consent in 11%. CONCLUSIONS: FDA plays a significant role
      in the protection of patients who receive investigational drugs under expanded
      access. An extremely small percentage of applications received are not allowed to
      proceed; however, FDA provides significant input based on information that may
      not be available to treating physicians in order to ensure patient safety under
      the applications that do proceed.

PMID- 28553567
TI  - Improvised Neutral Zone Technique in a Completely Edentulous Patient with an
      Atrophic Mandibular Ridge and Neuromuscular Incoordination: A Clinical Tip.
AB  - Resorption of mandibular ridges is a multifactorial and biomechanical disease
      that is chronic, progressive, irreversible, and cumulative leading to loss of
      sulcular depth, vertical dimension loss, and decreased lower facial height. Some
      common neurological, hormonal, and metabolic disorders affect the adaptability of
      dentures, and this can be diagnosed by a trained prosthodontist with proper
      history-taking and clinical examination.The denture becomes passive due to
      complex neuromuscular control and causes difficulties in impression-making,
      mastication, and swallowing, which in turn leads to loss of retention and
      stability in complete dentures. Hence, residual ridge resorption becomes a
      challenging scenario for a clinician during fabrication of complete dentures. The
      neutral zone concept plays a significant role in overcoming these challenges. The
      neutral zone is the area where the outward forces from the tongue are neutralized
      or nullified by the forces of the lips and cheeks acting inward during functional
      movements.The neutral zone technique is an alternative approach for the
      construction of lower complete dentures. It is most effective for dentures where
      there is a highly atrophic ridge and history of denture instability. The
      technique aims to construct a denture that is shaped by muscle function and is in
      harmony with the surrounding oral structures. The technique is by no means new,
      but it is a valuable one. It is rarely used because of the extra clinical step
      involved and its complexity. Complete and partial denture failures are often
      related to non-compliance with neutral zone factors. Thus, the evaluation of the
      neutral zone is an important factor. Increased retention and stability with
      reduced chairside time are the salient features of this new approach to any
      clinically challenging situation in complete dentures.This clinical report
      describes a modification of the conventional neutral zone technique using
      improvised procedures to minimize chairside visits for a patient with an atrophic
      mandibular ridge and neuromuscular incoordination.

PMID- 28553568
TI  - Colorectal Cancer Presenting with Constipation During Pregnancy.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is a rare occurrence during pregnancy and can present with
      symptoms that are common during pregnancy such as constipation.This can make the
      diagnosis of colorectal cancer during pregnancy difficult. Management of
      colorectal cancer during pregnancy is similar to the treatment of non-pregnant
      patients, but with fetal safety in mind. This case report describes a 33-year-old
      female gravida two para one (G2P1) at 29 weeks gestation who presented with a
      complete bowel obstruction. Colonoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and
      later resection showed an obstructing malignancy which was then resected through
      an exploratory laparotomy with left hemicolectomy. Postoperatively, there was a
      concern for sepsis, so labor was induced and the baby was delivered vaginally.
      The patient then continued with chemotherapy with hematology-oncology. High
      clinical suspicion is needed to diagnose colorectal cancer during pregnancy. Once
      diagnosed, surgery can be considered if resectable, taking into account
      gestational age. Fetal safety is a major consideration during treatment.

PMID- 28553569
TI  - A Case Of Awake Percutaneous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation For High-risk
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - With significant improvements in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)
      technology, complex high risk PCI is increasingly offered to patients with
      limited revascularization options. Percutaneous mechanical circulatory support
      devices are often utilized for hemodynamic support during these complex
      procedures. Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) allows full
      hemodynamic support and provides systemic oxygenation. We describe a case of left
      main bifurcation stenting performed at our center with ECMO support in an awake
      patient without general anesthesia.

PMID- 28553570
TI  - Radiation Oncology Physician Practice in the Modern Era: A Statewide Analysis of
      Medicare Reimbursement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In recent years, major changes in health care policy have affected
      oncology practice dramatically. In this context, we examined the effect of
      practice structure on volume and payments for radiation oncology services using
      the 2013 Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Physician and Other
      Supplier Public Use File (POSPUF) for New York State radiation oncologists.
      METHODS: The Medicare POSPUF data was queried, and individual physicians were
      classified into freestanding office-based and hospital-based practices.
      Freestanding practices were further subdivided into urology, hematology-oncology,
      and other ownership structures. Additional variables analyzed included gender,
      year of medical school graduation, and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI).
      Statistical analyses were performed to assess the impact of the above-mentioned
      variables on reimbursements. RESULTS: There were 236 New York State radiation
      oncologists identified in the 2013 Medicare POSPUF dataset, with a total
      reimbursement of $91,525,855. Among freestanding centers, the mean global
      Medicare reimbursement was $832,974. Global Medicare reimbursement was $1,328,743
      for urology practices, compared to $754,567 for hematology-oncology practices and
      $691,821 for other ownership structures (p < 0.05). The mean volume of on
      treatment visits (OTVs) was 240.5 per year, varying by practice structure. The
      mean annual OTV volumes for urology practices, hematology-oncology practices,
      other freestanding practices, and hospital-based programs were 424.6, 311.5,
      247.5, and 209.3, respectively. After correcting for gender, physician
      experience, and HHI, practice structure was predictive of freestanding
      reimbursement and on treatment visit volume. CONCLUSION: Higher Medicare payment
      was significantly predicted by the type of practice structure, with urology-based
      and hematology-oncology practices accounting for the highest total reimbursement
      and OTV volume.

PMID- 28553571
TI  - Pancreatitis in the Setting of Vaso-occlusive Sickle Cell Crisis: A Rare
      Encounter.
AB  - Acute pancreatitis is a common cause of acute abdominal pain. Gallstones and
      alcohol abuse account for the majority of the cases. Pancreatic ischemia is an
      uncommon but established cause of pancreatitis associated with connective tissue
      diseases, vasculitis, and shock. Our case highlights a rare case of vaso
      occlusive crisis (VOC) in a patient with sickle cell (SC) disease leading to
      pancreatitis. Treatment remains largely conservative but exchange transfusion may
      be the therapy of choice in severely hypoxic patients or in patients with high
      pre-treatment hemoglobin S levels.

PMID- 28553572
TI  - Think Before Chopping a Diabetic Foot: Insight to Vascular Intervention.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is a most commonly occurring chronic disease around the world,
      resulting in damage to multiple organs. One of the consequences of poorly
      controlled diabetes is vascular damage resulting in peripheral artery disease,
      leading to inadequate perfusion of the foot and eventually gangrene and
      amputation. Research over the past decade or so has provided us with the
      statistics that vascular intervention has better clinical outcomes including
      patient mortality, morbidity, quality of life, and patient satisfaction. This
      editorial advocates the importance of pursuing a vascular plan prior to a limb
      salvaging procedure. We highlight some important aspects of saving a diabetic
      foot and encourage the importance of giving a vascular trial.

PMID- 28553573
TI  - Psychometric Properties and Performance of the Patient Reported Outcomes
      Measurement Information System(r) (PROMIS(r)) Depression Short Forms in
      Ethnically Diverse Groups.
AB  - : Short form measures from the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information
      System(r) (PROMIS(r)) are used widely. The present study was among the first to
      examine differential item functioning (DIF) in the PROMIS Depression short form
      scales in a sample of over 5000 racially/ethnically diverse patients with cancer.
      DIF analyses were conducted across different racial/ethnic, educational, age,
      gender and language groups. METHODS: DIF hypotheses, generated by content
      experts, informed the evaluation of the DIF analyses. The graded item response
      theory (IRT) model was used to evaluate the five-level ordinal items. The primary
      tests of DIF were Wald tests; sensitivity analyses were conducted using the IRT
      ordinal logistic regression procedure. Magnitude was evaluated using expected
      item score functions, and the non-compensatory differential item functioning
      (NCDIF) and T1 indexes, both based on group differences in the item curves.
      Aggregate impact was evaluated with expected scale score (test) response
      functions; individual impact was assessed through examination of differences in
      DIF adjusted and unadjusted depression estimates. RESULTS: Many items evidenced
      DIF; however, only a few had slightly elevated magnitude. No items evidenced
      salient DIF with respect to NCDIF and the scale-level impact was minimal for all
      group comparisons. The following short form items might be targeted for further
      study because they were also hypothesized to evidence DIF. One item showed
      slightly higher magnitude of DIF for age: nothing to look forward to; conditional
      on depression, this item was more likely to be endorsed in the depressed
      direction by individuals in older groups as contrasted with the cohort aged 21 to
      49. This item was also hypothesized to show age DIF. Only one item (failure)
      showed DIF of slightly higher magnitude (just above threshold) for Whites vs.
      Asians/Pacific Islanders in the direction of higher likelihood of endorsement for
      Asians/Pacific Islanders. This item was also hypothesized to show DIF for
      minority groups. The impact of DIF was negligible. Conditional on depression, the
      items, worthless and hopeless were more likely to be endorsed in the depressed
      direction by respondents with less than high school education vs. those with a
      graduate degree; the magnitude of DIF was slightly above the T1 threshold, but
      not that of NCDIF. These items were also hypothesized to show DIF in the
      direction of more feelings of worthlessness by groups with lower education. While
      the magnitude and aggregate impact of DIF was small, in a few instances,
      individual impact was observed. Information provided was relatively high,
      particularly in the middle upper (depressed) tail of the distribution.
      Reliability estimates were high (> 0.90) across all studied groups, regardless of
      estimation method. CONCLUSIONS: This was the first study to evaluate measurement
      equivalence of the PROMIS Depression short forms across large samples of
      ethnically diverse groups. There were few items with DIF, and none of high
      magnitude, thus supporting the use of PROMIS Depression short form measures
      across such groups. These results could be informative for those using the short
      forms in minority populations or clinicians evaluating individuals with the
      depression short forms.

PMID- 28553575
TI  - Effects of Eleutherococcus senticosus Cortex on Recovery from the Forced Swimming
      Test and Fatty Acid beta-Oxidation in the Liver and Skeletal Muscle of mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The root and stem barks of Eleutherococcus senticosus have been used
      to treat emotional and physical fatigue in China, Russia, Korea, and Japan. The
      effects of E. senticosus on recovery from physical fatigue and the expenditure of
      energy currently remain unclear. We herein examined the effects of E. senticosus
      extract on recovery from physical fatigue after the forced swimming test as well
      as fatty acid beta-oxidation in the liver and skeletal muscle of mice. METHODS:
      1) Physical fatigue; E. senticosus extract (500 and 1000 mg/kg, twice daily) was
      administered orally to ICR male mice for 7 consecutive days. After swimming had
      been performed for 15 min, each mouse was placed on the cover of a 100-mm culture
      plate, and the time for each mouse to move away from the cover was measured. 2)
      Fatty acid beta-oxidation in the liver and skeletal muscle; E. senticosus extract
      (500 and 1000 mg/kg) was administered orally twice daily to C57BL/6J male mice
      for 21 consecutive days. The initial and final body and liver weight were
      measured, and then fatty acid beta-oxidation activity in the liver and skeletal
      muscle was measured by methods using [1-14C] palmitic acid. KEY FINDINGS:
      Recovery times after forced swimming were shorter in E. senticosus extract (500
      and 1000 mg/kg)-treated mice than in vehicle-treated mice. The body and liver
      weight had no effect by the oral administration of E. senticosus extract, vitamin
      mixture and L-carnitine. Fatty acid beta-oxidation activity in skeletal muscle
      was increased by E. senticosus extract (500 and 1000 mg/kg). CONCLUSION: E.
      senticosus may enhance recovery from physical fatigue induced by forced swimming
      by accelerating energy changes through fatty acid beta-oxidation in skeletal
      muscle.

PMID- 28553574
TI  - Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (dCBT) for Insomnia: a State-of-the-Science
      Review.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Over the past decade, digital solutions have been developed to
      support the dissemination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). In this paper,
      we review the evidence for and implications of digital CBT (dCBT) for insomnia.
      RECENT FINDINGS: We propose three categories of dCBT, which differ in the amount
      of clinician time needed, level of automatization, costs, and scalability: dCBT
      as support, guided dCBT, and fully automated dCBT. Consistent evidence has been
      published on the effectiveness of dCBT to address insomnia disorder, in a variety
      of populations, with effects extending into well-being. Important gaps in the
      literature are identified around moderators and mediators of dCBT, cost
      effectiveness, and the implementation of dCBT. SUMMARY: The evidence base for
      dCBT is rapidly developing and already suggests that dCBT for insomnia is
      effective. However, further science and digital innovation is required to realize
      the full potential of dCBT and address important clinical questions.

PMID- 28553576
TI  - Characterization of an Eukaryotic PL-7 Alginate Lyase in the Marine Red Alga
      Pyropia yezoensis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alginate lyases belonging to polysaccharide lyase family-7 (PL-7) are
      the most well studied on their structures and functions among whole alginate
      lyases. However, all characterized PL-7 alginate lyases are from prokaryotic
      bacteria cells. Here we report the first identification of eukaryotic PL-7
      alginate lyase from marine red alga Pyropia yezoensis. METHODS: The cDNA encoding
      an alginate lyase PyAly was cloned and was used for the construction of
      recombinant PyAly (rPyAly) expression system in Escherichia coli. Purified rPyAly
      was assayed to identify its enzymatic properties. Its expression pattern in P.
      yessoensis was also investigated. RESULTS: PyAly is likely a secreted protein
      consisting of an N-terminal signal peptide of 25 residues and a catalytic domain
      of 216 residues. The amino-acid sequence of the catalytic domain showed 19-29%
      identities to those of bacterial characterized alginate lyases classified into
      family PL-7. Recombinant PyAly protein, rPyAly, which was produced with E. coli
      BL21(DE3) by cold-inducible expression system, drastically decreased the
      viscosity of alginate solution in the early stage of reaction. The most
      preferable substrate for rPyAly was the poly(M) of alginate with an optimal
      temperature and pH at 35oC and 8.0, respectively. After reaction, unsaturated tri
      and tetra-saccharides were produced from poly(M) as major end products. These
      enzymatic properties indicated that PyAly is an endolytic alginate lyase
      belonging to PL-7. Moreover, we found that the PyAly gene is split into 4 exons
      with 3 introns. PyAly was also specifically expressed in the gametophytic
      haplopid stage. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that PyAly in marine red alga
      P. yezoensis is a novel PL-7 alginate lyase with an endolytic manner. PyAly is a
      gametophyte-specifically expressed protein and its structural gene is composed of
      four exons and three introns. Thus, PyAly is the first enzymatically
      characterized eukaryotic PL-7 alginate lyase.

PMID- 28553577
TI  - Recent Major Advances of Biotechnology and Sustainable Aquaculture in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Global aquaculture production has increased continuously over the
      last five decades, and particularly in China. Its aquaculture has become the
      fastest growing and most efficient agri-sector, with production accounting for
      more than 70% of the world's aquaculture output. In the new century, with serious
      challenges regarding population, resources and the environment, China has been
      working to develop high-quality, effective, healthy, and sustainable blue
      agriculture through the application of modern biotechnology. Sound knowledge
      related to the biology and ecology of aquatic organisms has laid a solid
      foundation and provided the innovation and technology for rapid development of
      the aquaculture industry. Marine biotechnology, which is enabling solutions for
      ocean productivity and sustainability, has been promoted since the last decades
      of the 20th Century in China. OBJECTIVE: In this article, priority areas of
      research, mainly genetic breeding, omics studies, novel production systems,
      biosecurity, bioprocesses and biorefinery, as well as the major progress of
      marine biotechnology R&D in China are reviewed. CONCLUSION: Current innovative
      achievements in China are not enough and the level and frequency of academic
      advancements must be improved. International cooperation and assistance remain
      crucial for the success of marine biotechnology.

PMID- 28553578
TI  - A Comprehensive Study of Retinal Vessel Classification Methods in Fundus Images.
AB  - Nowadays, it is obvious that there is a relationship between changes in the
      retinal vessel structure and diseases such as diabetic, hypertension, stroke, and
      the other cardiovascular diseases in adults as well as retinopathy of prematurity
      in infants. Retinal fundus images provide non-invasive visualization of the
      retinal vessel structure. Applying image processing techniques in the study of
      digital color fundus photographs and analyzing their vasculature is a reliable
      approach for early diagnosis of the aforementioned diseases. Reduction in the
      arteriolar-venular ratio of retina is one of the primary signs of hypertension,
      diabetic, and cardiovascular diseases which can be calculated by analyzing the
      fundus images. To achieve a precise measuring of this parameter and meaningful
      diagnostic results, accurate classification of arteries and veins is necessary.
      Classification of vessels in fundus images faces with some challenges that make
      it difficult. In this paper, a comprehensive study of the proposed methods for
      classification of arteries and veins in fundus images is presented. Considering
      that these methods are evaluated on different datasets and use different
      evaluation criteria, it is not possible to conduct a fair comparison of their
      performance. Therefore, we evaluate the classification methods from modeling
      perspective. This analysis reveals that most of the proposed approaches have
      focused on statistics, and geometric models in spatial domain and transform
      domain models have received less attention. This could suggest the possibility of
      using transform models, especially data adaptive ones, for modeling of the fundus
      images in future classification approaches.

PMID- 28553580
TI  - Fast and Efficient Four-class Motor Imagery Electroencephalography Signal
      Analysis Using Common Spatial Pattern-Ridge Regression Algorithm for the Purpose
      of Brain-Computer Interface.
AB  - Brain-computer interfaces enable users to control devices with
      electroencephalographic (EEG) activity from the scalp or with single-neuron
      activity from within the brain. One of the most challenging issues in this regard
      is the balance between the accuracy of brain signals from patients and the speed
      of interpreting them into machine language. The main objective of this paper is
      to analyze different approaches to achieve the balance more quickly and in a
      better way. To reduce the ocular artifacts, the symmetric prewhitening
      independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm has been evaluated, which has the
      lowest runtime and lowest signal-to-interference (SIR) index, without destroying
      the original signal. After quick elimination of all undesirable signals, two
      successful feature extractors - the log-band power algorithm and common spatial
      patterns (CSPs) - are used to extract features. The emphasis is on identifying
      discriminative properties of the feature sets representing EEG trials recorded
      during the imagination of the tongue, feet, and left-right-hand movement.
      Finally, three well-known classifiers are evaluated, where the ridge regression
      classifier and CSPs as feature extractor have the highest accuracy classification
      rate about 83.06% with a standard deviation of 1.22%, counterposing the recent
      studies.

PMID- 28553579
TI  - Optogenetics, Tools and Applications in Neurobiology.
AB  - Comprehension of the brain function can be helpful for therapy of
      neurodegenerative diseases. The brain consists of various types of neuron sets,
      which organize in three-dimensional complex networks and form neural circuits
      underlying different behaviors. The circuits act based on the patterns that
      encode the brain functions. Recognition of the neural patterns requires methods
      to manipulate the neurons. Electrical stimulation may be the most common method.
      However, it has significant drawbacks including failure to identify specific
      neurons in experiments. As an alternative, optical stimulation is a new method
      that acts in combination with genetic approaches. The novel, optogenetic
      technology makes it feasible to manipulate either the specific cell types or the
      neural circuits. This is associated with minimum tissue damages as well as side
      effects. In this study, a new technology has been introduced, and then its
      optical and genetical tools have been investigated.

PMID- 28553581
TI  - Speckle Noise Reduction in Optical Coherence Tomography Using Two-dimensional
      Curvelet-based Dictionary Learning.
AB  - The process of interpretation of high-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT)
      images is restricted due to the large speckle noise. To address this problem,
      this paper proposes a new method using two-dimensional (2D) curvelet-based K-SVD
      algorithm for speckle noise reduction and contrast enhancement of intra-retinal
      layers of 2D spectral-domain OCT images. For this purpose, we take curvelet
      transform of the noisy image. In the next step, noisy sub-bands of different
      scales and rotations are separately thresholded with an adaptive data-driven
      thresholding method, then, each thresholded sub-band is denoised based on K-SVD
      dictionary learning with a variable size initial dictionary dependent on the size
      of curvelet coefficients' matrix in each sub-band. We also modify each
      coefficient matrix to enhance intra-retinal layers, with noise suppression at the
      same time. We demonstrate the ability of the proposed algorithm in speckle noise
      reduction of 100 publically available OCT B-scans with and without non
      neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and improvement of contrast
      to-noise ratio from 1.27 to 5.12 and mean-to-standard deviation ratio from 3.20
      to 14.41 are obtained.

PMID- 28553582
TI  - Segmentation of White Blood Cells From Microscopic Images Using a Novel
      Combination of K-Means Clustering and Modified Watershed Algorithm.
AB  - Recognition of white blood cells (WBCs) is the first step to diagnose some
      particular diseases such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, leukemia, and
      other blood-related diseases that are usually done by pathologists using an
      optical microscope. This process is time-consuming, extremely tedious, and
      expensive and needs experienced experts in this field. Thus, a computer-aided
      diagnosis system that assists pathologists in the diagnostic process can be so
      effective. Segmentation of WBCs is usually a first step in developing a computer
      aided diagnosis system. The main purpose of this paper is to segment WBCs from
      microscopic images. For this purpose, we present a novel combination of
      thresholding, k-means clustering, and modified watershed algorithms in three
      stages including (1) segmentation of WBCs from a microscopic image, (2)
      extraction of nuclei from cell's image, and (3) separation of overlapping cells
      and nuclei. The evaluation results of the proposed method show that similarity
      measures, precision, and sensitivity respectively were 92.07, 96.07, and 94.30%
      for nucleus segmentation and 92.93, 97.41, and 93.78% for cell segmentation. In
      addition, statistical analysis presents high similarity between manual
      segmentation and the results obtained by the proposed method.

PMID- 28553583
TI  - Assessment and Comparison of Homogeneity and Conformity Indexes in Step-and-Shoot
      and Compensator-Based Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and Three
      Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D CRT) in Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and three-dimensional conformal
      radiation therapy (3D CRT) are two treatment modalities in prostate cancer, which
      provide acceptable dose distribution in tumor region with sparing the surrounding
      normal tissues. IMRT is based on inverse planning optimization; in which,
      intensity of beams is modified by using multileaf collimators and also
      compensators with optimum shapes in step and shoot (SAS) and compensator-based
      method, respectively. In the recent study, some important parameters were
      compared in two IMRT and 3D CRT methods. Prescribed dose was 80 Gy for both IMRT
      procedures and 70 Gy for 3D CRT. Treatment plans of 15 prostate cancer candidates
      were compared to target the minimum dose, maximum dose, V 76 Gy (for IMRT plans)
      V 66.5 Gy (for 3D CRT), mean dose, conformity index (CI), and homogeneity index
      (HI). Dose conformity in compensators-based IMRT was better than SAS and 3D CRT.
      The same outcome was also achieved for homogeneity index. The target coverage was
      achieved 95% of prescribed dose to 95% of planning target volume (PTV) in 3D CRT
      and 95% of prescribed dose to 98% of PTV in IMRT methods. IMRT increases maximum
      dose of tumor region, improves CI and HI of target volume, and also reduces dose
      of organs at risks.

PMID- 28553584
TI  - An Approach in Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning: A Fast, GPU-Based Monte
      Carlo Method.
AB  - An accurate and fast radiation dose calculation is essential for successful
      radiation radiotherapy. The aim of this study was to implement a new graphic
      processing unit (GPU) based radiation therapy treatment planning for accurate and
      fast dose calculation in radiotherapy centers. A program was written for parallel
      running based on GPU. The code validation was performed by EGSnrc/DOSXYZnrc.
      Moreover, a semi-automatic, rotary, asymmetric phantom was designed and produced
      using a bone, the lung, and the soft tissue equivalent materials. All
      measurements were performed using a Mapcheck dosimeter. The accuracy of the code
      was validated using the experimental data, which was obtained from the
      anthropomorphic phantom as the gold standard. The findings showed that, compared
      with those of DOSXYZnrc in the virtual phantom and for most of the voxels (>95%),
      <3% dose-difference or 3 mm distance-to-agreement (DTA) was found. Moreover,
      considering the anthropomorphic phantom, compared to the Mapcheck dose
      measurements, <5% dose-difference or 5 mm DTA was observed. Fast calculation
      speed and high accuracy of GPU-based Monte Carlo method in dose calculation may
      be useful in routine radiation therapy centers as the core and main component of
      a treatment planning verification system.

PMID- 28553585
TI  - Dosimetric and Radiobiological Evaluation of Multiparametric MRI-Guided Dose
      Painting in Radiotherapy of Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Radiotherapy is one of the treatment options for locally advanced prostate
      cancer; however, with standard radiation doses, it is not always very effective.
      One of the strategies to improve the efficiency of radiotherapy is increasing the
      dose. In this study, to increase tumor local control rates, a new radiotherapy
      method, known as dose painting (DP), was investigated. To compare 3-dimensional
      conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans
      with DP for prostate cancer. Twenty-four consecutive patients with locally
      advanced prostate cancer who underwent an multiparametric-magnetic resonance
      imaging (MP-MRI) (T2w, diffusion weighted image, dynamic contrast enhancement,
      and MRS) scan before a diagnostic biopsy from September 2015 to April 2016 were
      invited to take part in this study. The tumor local control probability (TCP)
      values for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and DP techniques were 45, 56, and 77%, respectively.
      The DP technique had a 37.5 and 71% higher TCP than IMRT and 3D-CRT, and these
      differences were statistically significant (P = 0.001). The mean normal tissue
      complication probability (NTCP) values of the organ at risks for 3D-CRT, IMRT,
      and DP showed that there were statistically significant differences among them in
      three plans (P = 0.01). DP by contours using MP-MRI is technically feasible. This
      study evaluated biological modeling based on both MP-MRI defined subvolumes and
      pathologically defined subvolumes. The MP-MRI-guided DP results in better
      TCP/NTCP than 3D-CRT and IMRT.

PMID- 28553586
TI  - Responsible Patient-centered Care.

PMID- 28553587
TI  - Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypovitaminosis D: Recommendations from India and
      Brazil.

PMID- 28553588
TI  - Does Time of Sampling or Food Intake Alter Thyroid Function Test?
AB  - CONTEXT: A common question from most patients or laboratories is whether blood
      sample for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free T4 (fT4) needs to be
      collected in a fasting state and whether time of the day when sample is collected
      matters. AIMS: The aim of the study was to study the impact of the time of day
      and food intake on levels of TSH and fT4. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      prospective data collection. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We prospectively collected
      data from 52 volunteers who were not known to have any thyroid disorder and were
      not on any thyroid-related medication. Blood samples for TSH and fT4 were
      collected on day 1 at 8 am and 10 am with the patient remaining in the fasting
      state till the collection of the second sample at 10 am. On day 2, samples were
      collected at 8 am (fasting state) and at 10 am (2 h postprandial state). In 22
      volunteers from the group, the tests were performed in three common assay
      techniques including chemiluminescent assays (chemiluminescent immunoassay [CLIA]
      and chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay [CMIA]) and enzyme-linked
      fluorescence assay. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation) and median
      (interquartile range) TSH during the extended fast on day 1 were 2.26 +/- 1.23
      and 2.19 (1.21-3.18), which was significantly lower than the fasting TSH
      performed on day 1 (P < 0.001). Similarly, the values of TSH 2 h postmeal on day
      2 of the testing (mean 1.93 +/- 1.12; median 1.64 [1.06-2.86]) were significantly
      lower than TSH performed in the fasting state on day 2 (P < 0.001). The mean fT4
      value was 1.01 +/- 0.15 with median of 0.99 (0.91-1.11) in the fasting state and
      there was no significant difference between the fT4 values performed during
      fasting, extended fasting, and postmeal state. Among the volunteers in whom the
      test was performed in the three different assay techniques, the TSH was not
      statistically different either in the fasting (P = 0.801), extended fasting (P =
      0.955), and postprandial samples (P = 0.989). The fT4 values did not vary
      significantly when done by the same assay method. However, the fT4 levels varied
      significantly (P < 0.001) when done by another assay method. CONCLUSIONS: We
      conclude stating that the timing of the test affects TSH values and this should
      be factored in making decisions in diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28553589
TI  - Primary Healthcare-based Diabetes Registry in Puducherry: Design and Methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes registries monitor the population prevalence and incidence
      of diabetes, monitor diabetes control program, provide information of quality of
      care to health service providers, and provide a sampling frame for interventional
      studies. This study documents the process of establishing a prospective diabetes
      registry in a primary health-care setting in Puducherry. METHODS: This is a
      facility-based prospective registry conducted in six randomly selected urban
      health centers in Puducherry, with enrollment of all known patients with diabetes
      attending chronic disease clinics. Administrative approvals were obtained from
      Government Health Services. Manuals for training of medical officers, health-care
      workers, and case report forms were developed. Diabetes registry was prepared
      using Epi Info software. RESULTS: In the first phase, demographic
      characteristics, risk factors, complications, coexisting chronic conditions,
      lifestyle and medical management, and clinical outcomes were recorded. Around
      2177 patients with diabetes have been registered in six Primary Health Centres
      out of a total of 2948 participants seeking care from chronic disease clinic.
      Registration coverage ranges from 61% to 105% in these centers. CONCLUSION: This
      study has documented methodological details, and learning experiences gained
      while developing a diabetes registry at the primary health care level and the
      scope for upscaling to a Management Information System for Diabetes and a State
      wide Registry. Improvement in patient care through needs assessment and quality
      assurance in service delivery is an important theme envisioned by this registry.

PMID- 28553590
TI  - Growth Hormone Treatment in Turner's Syndrome: A Real World Experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Short stature is a universal clinical feature of Turner's syndrome
      (TS). Growth failure begins in fetal life, and adults with TS are on an average
      20 cm shorter than the normal female population. Since there is a paucity of data
      from India regarding the effect of growth hormone (GH) on TS patients, we
      retrospectively analyzed the data of TS patients who are on GH treatment.
      METHODS: This hospital-based observational retrospective study was conducted in a
      tertiary care hospital of Hyderabad. The data such as height, weight, and bone
      age of 16 patients who are diagnosed with TS on GH therapy for at least 6 months
      were included in the study. All the patients were treated with human recombinant
      GH at the dose of 0.3 mg/kg/week administered as daily subcutaneous injections.
      RESULTS: The mean age at diagnosis was 12.7 years. The mean height at the start
      of GH therapy was 1.26 m, and mean height standard deviation score (HSDS) was
      0.61 when compared to Turner's specific reference data. With a mean duration of
      GH therapy of 25 months, the mean height at the end of therapy was 1.37 m and the
      mean height as per HSDS was + 0.37 resulting in a mean height gain of + 0.99
      HSDS. CONCLUSION: Our observation shows that girls with TS benefit from early
      diagnosis and initiation of treatment with GH.

PMID- 28553591
TI  - Impact of Self-monitoring of Blood Glucose Log Reliability on Long-term Glycemic
      Outcomes in Children with Type 1 Diabetes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Logbooks of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) are useful in
      the modulation of insulin regimens, which aid in achieving glycemic control in
      type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, discrepancies in SMBG charting may
      impede its utility. This study aimed to assess the accuracy of log entries and
      its impact on long-term glycemic control. METHODS: SMBG in logbooks was compared
      with readings in glucometer memory and discrepancies between the two were
      evaluated in 101 children with T1DM. The relationship between these discrepancies
      and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) over 44 months was assessed. RESULTS: Errors in
      glucose charting were observed in 32.67% children. The most common observed error
      was omission (42.42%), followed by fabrication (27.27%), erroneous (18.18%), and
      others (12.12%). Age was not significantly different among children having
      accurate versus inaccurate SMBG logs. During follow-up of 44 months, children
      with accurate SMBG logs consistently had lower HbA1c as compared to children
      having inaccurate logs, which was statistically significant at 4, 16, 20, and 28
      months' follow-up. The same was reflected in the proportion of children achieving
      HbA1c <7% and 7%-9%. Of the 14 children who had omissions, 9 had omission of high
      values only, 3 patients had omission of low values only, 1 had omission of both
      high and low values, and 1 had omission of normal values. Among logs with
      fabrication, parents were responsible in 2 of 9 incidents. In the remaining 7, it
      was the child himself/herself. Children with fabrication consistently had the
      highest HbA1c values among the different types of inaccurate blood glucose
      chartings, which was statistically significant at 32 and 36 months of follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: Reliability of SMBG logs is a significant problem among children
      with T1DM at our center. Children with accurate logs of SMBG readings were more
      likely to have better glycemic control on long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28553592
TI  - Study of Neutrophil-lymphocyte Ratio as Novel Marker for Diabetic Nephropathy in
      Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a microvascular complication of
      diabetes. DN is clinically manifested as an increase in urine albumin excretion.
      Total white blood cell count is a crude but sensitive indicator of inflammation
      and studied in many cardiac and noncardiac diseases as an inflammatory marker
      such as acute myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure. In this study,
      the association of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with DN is studied. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: It is an observational cross-sectional study. Totally 115 diagnosed
      type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were registered in this study. NLR was
      calculated by analyzing differential leukocyte count in complete blood picture.
      Albuminuria was tested by MICRAL-II TEST strips by dipstick method. RESULTS:
      Totally 115 diabetic patients were registered. About 56 patients had DN and 59
      had normal urine albumin. Mean NLR for a normal group is 1.94 +/- 0.65 and in DN
      group is 2.83 +/- 0.85 which was highly significant (P < 0.001). Estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (P = 0.047) and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase
      (P < 0.001) were also significant. CONCLUSION: The results of our study show that
      there was a significant relation between NLR and DN. Therefore, NLR may be
      considered as a novel surrogate marker of DN in early stages.

PMID- 28553593
TI  - Randomized Control Trial Assessing Impact of Increased Sunlight Exposure versus
      Vitamin D Supplementation on Lipid Profile in Indian Vitamin D Deficient Men.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite abundance of sunshine in India, Vitamin D deficiency is
      common and therefore there is an increasing trend toward taking Vitamin D
      supplements either as prescription medicine or as a nutritional supplement.
      Studies have suggested that duration of sun exposure may influence serum lipid
      profile. OBJECTIVES: To study the effect of increased sunlight exposure versus
      Vitamin D supplementation on Vitamin D status and lipid profile in individuals
      with Vitamin D deficiency (25-hydroxyvitamin-D [25OHD] <50 nmol/L). DESIGN: A
      prospective, randomized open-label trial was carried out in apparently healthy
      Indian men (40-60 years). Based on 25OHD concentrations, individuals were divided
      into control (>50 nmol/L, n = 50) and intervention (<50 nmol/L, n = 100) groups.
      Individuals from intervention group were randomly allocated to two groups; either
      "increased sunlight exposure group" (n = 50, received at least 20 min sunlight
      exposure to forearms and face between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. over and above their
      current exposure) or "cholecalciferol supplement group" (n = 50, received oral
      cholecalciferol 1000 IU/day). RESULTS: Significant increase in 25OHD
      concentrations was seen in both intervention groups (P < 0.01). Significant
      decrease in total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C),
      and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) was seen in individuals with
      increased sunlight exposure (P < 0.05). Cholecalciferol supplement group showed a
      significant increase in TC and HDL-C (P < 0.05) and insignificant increase in LDL
      C. CONCLUSIONS: Increase in Vitamin D concentrations through sunlight exposure
      significantly reduced TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C concentrations, and cholecalciferol
      supplementation increased TC and HDL-C concentrations.

PMID- 28553594
TI  - Comparison of 18F-Fluorocholine Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography
      and Four-dimensional Computed Tomography in the Preoperative Localization of
      Parathyroid Adenomas-initial Results.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-Fluorocholine (FCH)
      positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and four-dimensional
      (4D)- CT in detection and localization of eutopic and ectopic parathyroid adenoma
      (PA) in patients with hyperparathyroidism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five patients
      with primary hyperparathyroidism underwent FCH-PET/CT after 60 min of 185 MBq of
      intravenous 18F-FCH administration. Images were acquired from head to mediastinum
      at 3 min per bed position. No intravenous contrast was used. All patients
      underwent 4D-CT within 2 weeks of the FCH-PET/CT, with a precontrast, post
      contrast arterial, and venous phase with 75 ml intravenous Iohexol 350 followed
      by 25 ml saline chase. Histopathology was considered as the gold standard.
      RESULTS: Both modalities showed 100% concordance in the detection of parathyroid
      lesions. Both FCH-PET/CT and 4D-CT detected 7 lesions in 5 patients, with 4
      patients having a single lesion, and 1 patient having three lesions. Of the 7
      reported lesions, 4 were eutopic and 3 were ectopic. No additional lesions were
      detected by either modality in comparison to the other. All 7 specimens were
      resected and histopathology showed PA/hyperplasia. CONCLUSION: FCH-PET/CT and 4D
      CT are equally efficacious in detection and localization of eutopic and ectopic
      PA. This may open up the possibility of using FCH-PET/CT in patients with
      negative conventional imaging who cannot undergo contrast studies.

PMID- 28553595
TI  - Does One Size Fit Everyone? Replacement Dose of Levothyroxine in Long-standing
      Primary Hypothyroidism in Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The recommended starting dose of levothyroxine (LT4) in primary
      hypothyroidism is 1.6 MUg/kg body weight and is based on presumption of minimal
      residual thyroid function in autoimmune hypothyroidism. This study aimed at
      finding the range and determining factors for LT4 dose in long-standing
      hypothyroidism. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of individuals with primary
      autoimmune hypothyroidism on LT4 replacement was done between March 2015 and
      January 2016. Individuals enrolled were euthyroid based on recent serum thyroid
      stimulating hormone. The inclusion criteria included LT4 intake in the morning
      empty stomach, maintenance of at least 1-h food gap, not on medications known to
      hamper LT4 absorption within 4 h of dosing, diagnosis of hypothyroidism at least
      for 1 year, and on a minimum 25 MUg LT4. P < 0.05 was considered statistically
      significant. RESULTS: A total of 346 individuals (290 women and 56 men; 214
      premenopausal and 76 postmenopausal women) were enrolled. The mean duration of
      hypothyroidism and age were 5.7 years and 42.1 years, respectively. The range and
      mean of absolute LT4 daily dose (ADD), LT4 dose based on body weight (D/W), and
      LT4 dose based on ideal body weight (D/IBW) were 25-200 MUg daily and 77.1 MUg,
      0.3-2.82 MUg/kg and 1.21 MUg/kg, and 0.42-3.5 MUg/kg and 1.58 MUg/kg,
      respectively. Duration of hypothyroidism was significant predictors of ADD, D/W,
      and D/IBW. Gender-based difference in ADD and D/IBW was explained by gender
      difference in anthropometry. CONCLUSION: Long-standing primary autoimmune
      hypothyroidism has variable dose requirement of LT4 for achieving euthyroidism
      and may be dependent on the degree of residual functional thyroid. Duration of
      hypothyroidism was significant positive predictor for either ADD, D/W, or D/IBW.

PMID- 28553596
TI  - Glycosylation Gap in Patients with Diabetes with Chronic Kidney Disease and
      Healthy Participants: A Comparative Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study it to determine the level of glycosylation gap in
      patients with type 2 diabetes and its relation with kidney dysfunction. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: In this study, 150 individuals were enrolled (aged 20-75 year) and
      divided into three groups. Group 1 included 50 nondiabetic individuals who served
      as control. Group 2 included 50 patients with type 2 diabetes without chronic
      kidney disease (CKD), and in Group 3, there were 50 patients with type 2 diabetes
      with CKD. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fructosamine (FA) were measured in all
      groups to determine the glycosylation gap (GG), predicted HbA1c, and mean blood
      glucose (MBG). GG is defined as the difference between measured HbA1c and HbA1c
      predicted from FA based on the population regression of HbA1c on FA. The
      variables were compared by correlation analysis. RESULTS: Serum creatinine level
      was significantly high in patients with CKD (1.93 +/- 0.99) as compared to
      patients with diabetes and control (0.891 +/- 0.16; 0.912 +/- 0.1), respectively.
      The study demonstrated a significant elevation in serum FA, measured HbA1c and
      predicted HbA1c, MBG in patients with diabetes with CKD as compared with those of
      without CKD, and controls. GG was found in healthy control (0.51 +/- 0.78),
      patients with type 2 diabetes without CKD (0.62 +/- 0.45), and patients with
      diabetes with CKD (1.0 +/- 0.91), respectively. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that
      GG may be a useful clinical research tool for evaluating pathological source of
      variation in diabetes complications such as kidney disease.

PMID- 28553597
TI  - Efficacy of Teriparatide in Patients with Hypoparathyroidism: A Prospective, Open
      label Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Conventional treatment of hypoparathyroidism with calcium, Vitamin D
      analogs, and thiazide diuretics is often suboptimal, and these patients have poor
      quality of life. Teriparatide (parathyroid hormone 1-34 [PTH (1-34)]), an amide
      of PTH, is widely available for the use in osteoporosis; however, its use in
      hypoparathyroidism is limited. AIMS: The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      efficacy of PTH (1-34) in the treatment of patients with hypoparathyroidism.
      SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a prospective, open-label interventional study in a
      tertiary care hospital of Indian Armed Forces. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: All patients
      with hypoparathyroidism presented to the endocrinology outpatient department were
      included and were exhibited injection PTH (1-34) 20 MUg twice daily that was
      gradually reduced to 10 MUg twice daily along with calcium, active Vitamin D
      (alfacalcidol), and hydrochlorothiazide. Oral calcium and alfacalcidol doses were
      also reduced to maintain serum calcium within normal range. The quality of life
      (QOL) score was calculated using RAND 36 QOL questionnaire at baseline and
      termination of the study. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Paired t-test was used to
      calculate pre- and post-treatment variables. RESULTS: Eight patients (two males)
      were included in this study having mean age of 35.8 years. PTH (1-34) treatment
      led to the improvement in serum calcium (6.81-8.84 mg/dl), phosphorous (5.8-4.2
      mg/dl), and 24 h urinary calcium excretion (416-203.6 mg). Parameters of QOL
      showed the improvement in overall QOL, physical performance, energy, and fatigue
      scores. No major adverse events were noted. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of
      hypoparathyroidism with PTH (1-34) leads to improvement in calcium profile,
      reduction in hypercalciuria, and improvement in QOL, whereas it is safe and well
      tolerated.

PMID- 28553598
TI  - Visual Evoked Potentials in Overt Hypothyroid Patients before and after
      Achievement of Euthyroidism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Visual evoked potential (VEP) measures the time taken for visual
      stimulus to travel from the eye to the occipital cortex. Hypothyroidism affects
      the central nervous system (CNS) through its role in gene expression, myelin
      production, axonal transportation, and neurotransmitters. Delay in the conduction
      of impulses results in abnormal VEP. OBJECTIVE: Correlate the
      electrophysiological findings of VEP in newly diagnosed treatment-naive
      hypothyroid patients before and after 3 months of treatment and to find the
      correlation with serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: VEP was measured using Recorders and Medicare Systems Electromyograph
      Evoked Potential Mark II machine in 30 patients (serum TSH >=10 mIU/L) between 18
      and 50 years of age who were followed up after 3 months of treatment. RESULTS:
      The mean age (+/-standard deviation) of the patients was 31.8 (+/-8.3) years.
      There was prolongation of VEP latencies which tends to decrease following hormone
      replacement therapy. It was found to be most significant for P100 (ms) waveform
      (P < 0.001). The amplitude (P100-N75 mV) which was decreased in hypothyroid
      patients showed improvement following achievement of euthyroidism. Significant
      positive correlation was found between P100, N75 latency and pretreatment serum
      TSH levels. CONCLUSION: Hypothyroid patients may have changes in the latencies
      and the amplitude of VEP which are reversible to a great extent with thyroxine
      replacement therapy. VEP thus acts as a dependable marker for CNS affection in
      thyroid diseases to detect subtle early changes and to assess the response to
      treatment in correlation with the clinical improvement.

PMID- 28553599
TI  - Serum Vitamin B12 Levels in Type 2 Diabetes Patients on Metformin Compared to
      those Never on Metformin: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: There are limited data about the effect of metformin use on serum
      Vitamin B12 levels in type 2 diabetes patients from India. AIMS: We studied serum
      Vitamin B12 levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were receiving
      metformin and compared them to those never treated with metformin. SUBJECTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 183 patients ("metformin" group 121, "no metformin" group 63)
      of type 2 diabetes from the endocrinology clinic of a tertiary care center in
      North India were studied. Serum Vitamin B12 levels were measured in all patients.
      Diabetic neuropathy symptom score (DNS) and diabetic neuropathy examination score
      (DNE) were used to assess peripheral neuropathy while hemoglobin and mean
      corpuscular volume (MCV) were used to assess anemia. RESULTS: The serum Vitamin
      B12 levels were 267.7 +/- 194.4 pmol/l in metformin group and 275.1 +/- 197.2
      pmol/l in the no metformin group (P = 0.78). When adjusted for duration of
      diabetes, metformin use was associated with a 87.7 +/- 37.7 pmol/l (95%
      confidence interval [CI], -162.1--3.3, P = 0.02) lower serum Vitamin B12 levels.
      No significant increase in the prevalence of neuropathy (DNS and DNE scores),
      anemia, or MCV was found in the Vitamin B12 deficient patients (levels <150
      pmol/l) as compared to patients with normal Vitamin B12. However, serum Vitamin
      B12 levels for the entire cohort were higher by 12.2 +/- 3.0 pmol/l (95% CI 6.4
      18.0, P < 0.001) for every 1 year increase in the duration of diabetes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Metformin use was associated with a lower serum Vitamin B12 levels
      when adjusted for duration of diabetes. Increasing duration of diabetes was
      associated with higher serum Vitamin B12 levels.

PMID- 28553600
TI  - Knowledge, Awareness, Practices and Adherence to Treatment of Patients with
      Primary Hypothyroidism in Delhi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data on knowledge, awareness, and practices
      (KAP) of patients with hypothyroidism in India. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study the
      KAP and adherence to treatment of participants with primary hypothyroidism.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in
      Endocrinology Outpatient Department of Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Punjabi Bagh,
      New Delhi. Two-fifty consecutive primary hypothyroidism participants, aged >=18
      years, who were on treatment for at least 3 months responded to a structured
      questionnaire, to assess their KAP about the disease and adherence to treatment.
      RESULTS: A total of 250 patients completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the
      participants was 43.24 +/- 10.80 years; with majority being females (85.6%). The
      median duration of hypothyroidism was 8 years (range: 3-10). Most were well
      educated, with 53.6% being graduates/postgraduates. Knowledge and awareness
      related to hypothyroidism was poor in majority of participants. Only 35.2% and
      51.2% knew correct meaning of the terms "thyroid" and "hypothyroidism"
      respectively. Only 25.6% participants knew correctly that thyroxine (T4) is used
      to replace and normalize blood levels of thyroid hormone. Forty percent had false
      dietary beliefs in the context of hypothyroidism. Ten percent participants felt
      T4 can be stopped once laboratory reports return to normal. Only 36.4%
      participants knew correctly that T4 need to be continued during pregnancy. Many
      participants (30.4%) believed hypothyroidism can lead to weight gain in excess of
      10 kg. Regarding adherence, 90.4% participants were adherent to T4, 2.4% were
      moderately adherent, and remaining 7.2% participants were nonadherent to T4.
      CONCLUSION: A large number of patients with primary hypothyroidism lack basic
      knowledge about disease and have dietary and treatment-related prejudices and
      poor treatment adherence. Public health measures are required to improve KAP in
      patients with primary hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28553601
TI  - Pubertal Onset in Apparently Healthy Indian Boys and Impact of Obesity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Primary - to determine the age of pubertal onset in Indian boys.
      Secondary - (a) to assess the impact of obesity on pubertal timing, (b) to assess
      the relationship between gonadotropins and puberty. DESIGN: Cross-sectional.
      SETTING: General community-seven schools across New Delhi. PARTICIPANTS: Random
      sample of 1306 school boys, aged 6-17 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Anthropometric measurement for weight and height and pubertal staging was
      performed for all subjects. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated to define
      overweight/obesity. Serum luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone,
      and serum testosterone were measured in every sixth subject. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE: Age at pubertal onset-testicular volume >=4 mL (gonadarche) and pubic
      hair Stage II. RESULTS: Median age of attaining gonadarche and pubarche was 10.41
      years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.2-10.6 years) and 13.60 (95% CI: 13.3
      14.0 years), respectively. No significant difference in the age of attainment of
      gonadarche was observed in boys with normal or raised BMI, though pubarche
      occurred 8 months earlier in the latter group. Serum gonadotropins and
      testosterone increased with increasing stages of puberty but were unaffected by
      BMI. Serum LH level of 1.02 mIU/mL and testosterone level of >0.14 ng/mL showed
      the best prediction for pubertal onset. CONCLUSION: The study establishes a
      secular trend of the age of onset of puberty in Indian boys. Pubarche occurred
      earlier in overweight/obese boys. The cutoff levels of serum LH and testosterone
      for prediction of pubertal onset have been established.

PMID- 28553602
TI  - Patterns and Correlates of Serum Magnesium Levels in Subsets of Type 2 Diabetes
      Mellitus Patients in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Magnesium (Mg) is the 4th most common mineral and the 2nd most
      abundant intracellular cation in the body. It plays major roles in various
      physiological activities and has been implicated in many disease states. AIM: The
      aim of this study was to study the patterns and correlates of serum Mg in cohorts
      of type 2 diabetic patients in Nigeria. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred and
      twenty-five patients comprising 63 with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) alone and
      62 with diabetes and hypertension (HT) were compared with fifty controls matched
      for sex and age. Basic data, HbA1c, and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were obtained
      while serum Mg was measured by colorimeter. Relationship between serum Mg and
      glucose control was considered while serum Mg < 1.6 mg/dl was considered as
      hypomagnesemia. RESULTS: The mean serum Mg of all patients was 2.06 +/- 0.49
      mg/dl, not statistically different from controls at 2.22 +/- 0.48 mg/dl. About
      1/4 (23.2%) of the patients had hypomagnesemia which was significantly more than
      12% of controls. Although the patients with diabetes and HT were older and more
      of females than those with DM alone, the mean serum Mg was comparable (2.03 +/-
      0.49 vs. 2.09 + 0.50 mg/dl). Twenty-seven percent (27%) of patients who had DM
      alone was more than 19.3% with HT and diabetes combined. Whereas the FBG was
      comparable in patients with hypomagnesemia and normal serum Mg, HbA1c was
      significantly higher in the hypomagnesemia group (8.39 +/- 0.98 vs. 6.75 +/-
      1.22%, P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: Hypomagnesemia is common in T2DM outpatients
      occurring approximately one in four patients. It is associated with poor long
      term control.

PMID- 28553603
TI  - An Audit of Insulin Usage and Insulin Injection Practices in a Large Indian
      Cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Insulin remains the cornerstone of therapy in a substantial number
      of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Inadequate knowledge regarding
      insulin usage is likely to influence its acceptance and adherence, and outcome of
      therapy, underscoring great need to investigate knowledge, attitude, and practice
      of insulin usage in patients with T2DM. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional registry
      based retrospective study analyzed data collected from 748 respondents (male:
      466, female: 282), mostly from high or middle economic status, who were enrolled
      as outpatient in a referral clinic during last 10 years (2006-2016), to assess
      the general characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes and their baseline
      knowledge, attitude, and practice of insulin usage and injection practices.
      RESULTS: Mean +/- standard deviation (SD) of duration of diabetes was 12.24 +/-
      7.60 years and mean +/- SD duration of insulin therapy was 3.42 +/- 4.18 years,
      which was initiated after a mean +/- SD diabetes duration of 8.80 +/- 6.42 years.
      Mean insulin dose per kilogram of body weight/day was 0.51 +/- 0.27 units. Total
      daily dose of insulin was 33.36 +/- 18.44 units and number of injections/day
      (mean +/- SD) was 2.06 +/- 0.73. Among the respondents, 58.96% were on human
      insulin and 35.70% were on analog insulin. Pen devices were used by 66.08% of the
      population whereas 31.76% used insulin syringes. The prevalence of
      lipohypertrophy (LH) was 12.57%, which was significantly (P < 0.001) associated
      with wrong technique with regard to injection angle (10.45% vs. 23.02%), site of
      injection (7.00% vs. 30.51%), rotation of site of injection (0.88% vs. 17.66%),
      and reuse of needle (5.77% vs. 15.19%). LH was also significantly (P < 0.05)
      associated with the use of human (14.74%) compared to analog insulin (8.24%).
      CONCLUSION: The current study highlights the unique patterns of insulin usage and
      associated high prevalence of LH among insulin users in India.

PMID- 28553604
TI  - Diabetes Care: Inspiration from Sikhism.
AB  - Religion has been proposed as a means of enhancing patient and community
      acceptance of diabetes and cultural specific motivational strategies to improve
      diabetes care. Sikhism is a young and vibrant religion, spread across the world
      and the Holy Scripture Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) is regarded as the living
      Guru by all Sikhs. The three key pillars of Sikhism are Kirat Karni (honest
      living), Vand Chakna (sharing with others) and Naam Japna (focus on God). They
      can help encourage the diabetes care provider, patient and community to engage in
      lifestyle modification, shared responsibility, positive thinking and stress
      management. The verses (Sabads) from the SGGS, with their timeless relevance,
      span the entire spectrum of diabetes care, from primordial and primary, to
      secondary and tertiary prevention. They can provide us with guidance towards a
      holistic approach towards health and lifestyle related diseases as diabetes. The
      SGGS suggests that good actions are based on one's body and highlights the
      relevance of mind-body interactions and entraining the mind to cultivate healthy
      living habits. The ethics of sharing, community and inclusiveness all lay
      emphasis on the need for global and unified efforts to manage and reduce the
      burden of the diabetes pandemic.

PMID- 28553605
TI  - Management of Glycemia in Acute Febrile Illness.
AB  - With increasing the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes across the globe, a
      large number of patients with acute febrile illness (AFI) are likely to have
      concomitant diabetes or stress hyperglycemia. Management of associated
      hyperglycemia in patients with AFI is of utmost importance for early recovery and
      to prevent complications. There is no published literature, detailing the
      strategies and targets for glycemic control in AFI specifically; however,
      guidelines do exist for the management of hyperglycemia in hospitalized or
      outpatients in general. This review attempts to provide pragmatic and practical
      suggestions to facilitate effective and safe management of hyperglycemia in
      patients with AFI.

PMID- 28553606
TI  - Endocrine Glands and Hearing: Auditory Manifestations of Various Endocrine and
      Metabolic Conditions.
AB  - The aetiology of hearing loss in humans is multifactorial. Besides genetic,
      environmental and infectious causes, several endocrine and metabolic
      abnormalities are associated with varying degrees of hearing impairment. The
      pattern of hearing loss may be conductive, sensori-neural or mixed. The
      neurophysiology of hearing as well as the anatomical structure of the auditory
      system may be influenced by changes in the hormonal and metabolic milieu. Optimal
      management of these conditions requires the integrated efforts of the
      otolaryngologist and the endocrinologist. The presence of hearing loss especially
      in the young age group should prompt the clinician to explore the possibility of
      an associated endocrine or metabolic disorder for timely referral and early
      initiation of treatment.

PMID- 28553607
TI  - Characteristics of Pediatric Pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma.
AB  - The "rule of 10" used to describe pheochromocytoma/paragangliomas (PCC/PGLs) has
      been challenged. However, recent studies suggested that pediatric PCC/PGLs may
      follow a pattern. Hence, we reviewed the available literature to verify the same.
      We searched PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and Google Scholar for studies describing
      the genotype and/or phenotype characteristics of pediatric PCC/PGL cohorts
      published after 2000 in English language and those with sample size more than 35
      were included in this review. Pediatric PCC/PGLs were malignant in 10%,
      synchronous bilateral in 20%, extra-adrenal in 30%, among which, 30% were extra
      abdominal and familial in 40%. PCC/PGL diagnosed during pediatric age recurs in
      50% by 30 years of follow-up and 60% cases occur in boys. Seventy percent of
      children with PCC/PGL are likely to have sustained hypertension. Germline
      mutations could be identified in 80% of children with PCC/PGL and 90% are
      secretory. The review concludes that pediatric PCC/PGLs follow a pattern, which
      we call "10%-90% rule." This new rule will help easily remember the
      characteristics of pediatric PCC/PGLs.

PMID- 28553608
TI  - Patient-centered Management of Hypothyroidism.
AB  - This communication from the National Indian Patient-centered Thyroid management
      group (InPACT) deals with a novel, yet essential, aspect of hypothyroidism
      management. The authors describe the role and scope of patient-centered care in
      this condition. They focus on the relevance of a patient-centered clinical
      approach, which will help decide appropriate targets, as well as techniques to
      achieve those targets. Means of helping persons with hypothyroidism live a
      healthy life, such as education about precaution in concomitant food and
      medications intake, as well as sick day management, are discussed.

PMID- 28553610
TI  - Diabetes Destiny in our Hands: Achieving Metabolic Karma.
AB  - Karma is the ancient Indian philosophy of cause and effect, which implies that an
      individual's intentions, and actions, both have consequences. None can escape the
      consequences of one's actions. Applying the principle of karma to medicine and
      healthcare, the significance of optimal and timely interventions at various
      stages of disease, may be realized. A holistic approach to metabolic control in
      diabetes translates into improved clinical outcomes, as evident from the result
      of STENO-2, EMPA-REG OUTCOME, or LEADER trials. The principle of karma in the
      management of diabetes may have implications at the transgenerational level
      during pregnancy and nursing, at the individual patient-level based on phenotype,
      and at the community level in preventive medicine. The concept of metabolic karma
      can be used as an effective motivational tool to encourage better health care
      seeking behavior and adherence to prescribed interventions.

PMID- 28553609
TI  - Choice of Insulin in Type 2 Diabetes: A Southeast Asian Perspective.
AB  - Southeast Asia faces a diabetes epidemic, which has created significant
      challenges for health care. The unique Asian diabetes phenotype, coupled with
      peculiar lifestyle, diet, and healthcare-seeking behavior, makes it imperative to
      develop clinical pathways and guidelines which address local needs and
      requirements. From an insulin-centric viewpoint, the preparations prescribed in
      such pathways should be effective, safe, well tolerated, nonintrusive, and
      suitable for the use in multiple clinical situations including initiation and
      intensification. This brief communication describes the utility of premixed or
      dual action insulin in such clinical pathways and guidelines.

PMID- 28553611
TI  - Gestational Pituitary Apoplexy.

PMID- 28553612
TI  - Prevalence of Islet Autoantibodies in Type 1 Diabetes.

PMID- 28553613
TI  - Indian and American Guidance on Psychosocial Care of Persons with Diabetes.

PMID- 28553615
TI  - A Single-Institution Analysis of 126 Patients Treated with Stereotactic
      Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to report our institutional
      experience with Gamma Knife(r) Radiosurgery (GKRS) in the treatment of patients
      with brain metastases. METHODS: Retrospectively collected demographic and
      clinical data on 126 patients with intracranial metastases were reviewed. The
      patients in our study underwent GKRS at Vidant Medical Center between 2009 and
      2014. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to compare survival based on clinical
      characteristics for univariate analysis, and a Cox proportional hazards model was
      used for multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The median age of the patient population
      was 62 years. Medicare patients constituted 51% of our patient cohort and
      Medicaid patients 15%. The most common tumor histologies were non-small cell lung
      cancer (50%), breast cancer (12.7%), and melanoma (11.9%). The median overall
      survival time for all patients was 5.8 months. Patients with breast cancer had
      the longest median survival time of 9.15 months, while patients with melanoma had
      the shortest median survival time of 2.86 months. On univariate analysis, the
      following factors were predictors for improved overall survival, ECOG score 0 or
      1 vs. 2 or greater (17.0 vs. 1.8 months, p < 0.001), controlled extracranial
      disease vs. progressive extracranial disease (17.4 vs. 4.6 months, p = 0.0001),
      recursive partitioning analysis Stage I vs. II-III (18.2 vs. 6.2 months, p <
      0.007), multiple GKRS treatments (p = 0.002), prior brain metastasectomy (p =
      0.012), and prior chemotherapy (p = 0.021). Age, ethnicity, gender, previous
      external beam radiation therapy, number of brain metastases, and hemorrhagic vs.
      non-hemorrhagic tumors were not predictors of longer median survival time. Number
      of metastatic brain lesions of 1-3 vs. >=4 (p = 0.051) and insurance status of
      Medicare/Medicaid vs. commercial insurance approached significance (13.7 vs. 6.8
      months, p = 0.08). On multivariate analysis, ECOG performance status 0-1 (p <
      0.001), multiple GKRS treatments (p = 0.003), and control of extracranial disease
      (p = 0.001) remained significant predictors of survival. CONCLUSION: ECOG score,
      control of extracranial disease, and multiple GKRS treatments are predictors of
      longer median survival following GKRS in our patient population. GKRS is an
      effective treatment for brain metastases, but these factors may be considered in
      patient selection for GKRS.

PMID- 28553614
TI  - Emerging Role of the Pentose Phosphate Pathway in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in metabolic changes of
      cancer cells as it has been noticed that malignant transformation and metabolic
      reprogramming are closely intertwined. The pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) is one
      of the fundamental components of cellular metabolism crucial for cancer cells.
      This review will discuss recent findings regarding the involvement of PPP enzymes
      in several types of cancer, with a focus on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We
      will pay considerable attention to the involvement of glucose-6-phosphate
      dehydrogenase, the rate-limiting enzyme of the PPP. Subsequently, we discuss the
      inhibition of the PPP as a potential therapeutic strategy against cancer, in
      particular, HCC.

PMID- 28553616
TI  - The Oncolytic Virotherapy Era in Cancer Management: Prospects of Applying H-1
      Parvovirus to Treat Blood and Solid Cancers.
AB  - Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and leukemia are among the most common cancers
      worldwide. While the treatment of NHL/leukemia of B-cell origin has much
      progressed with the introduction of targeted therapies, few treatment standards
      have been established for T-NHL/leukemia. As presentation in both B- and T
      NHL/leukemia patients is often aggressive and as prognosis for relapsed disease
      is especially dismal, this cancer entity poses major challenges and requires
      innovative therapeutic approaches. In clinical trials, oncolytic viruses (OVs)
      have been used against refractory multiple myeloma (MM). In preclinical settings,
      a number of OVs have demonstrated a remarkable ability to suppress various types
      of hematological cancers. Most studies dealing with this approach have used MM or
      B- or myeloid-cell-derived malignancies as models. Only a few describe
      susceptibility of T-cell lymphoma/leukemia to OV infection and killing. The rat H
      1 parvovirus (H-1PV) is an OV with considerable promise as a novel therapeutic
      agent against both solid tumors (pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma) and
      hematological malignancies. The present perspective article builds on previous
      reports of H-1PV-driven regression of Burkitt's lymphoma xenografts and on
      unpublished observations demonstrating effective killing by H-1PV of cells from
      CHOP-resistant diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and T
      cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. On the basis of these studies, H-1PV is
      proposed for use as an adjuvant to (chemo)therapeutic regimens. Furthermore, in
      the light of a recently completed first parvovirus clinical trial in glioblastoma
      patients, the advantages of H-1PV for systemic application are discussed.

PMID- 28553617
TI  - Bioluminescence Imaging to Track Bacteroides fragilis Inhibition of Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus Infection in Mice.
AB  - Bacteroides fragilis is an anaerobic, Gram-negative, commensal bacterium of the
      human gut. It plays an important role in promoting the maturation of the immune
      system, as well as suppressing abnormal inflammation. Many recent studies have
      focused on the relationship between B. fragilis and human immunity, and indicate
      that B. fragilis has many useful probiotic effects. As inhibition of intestinal
      pathogens is an important characteristic of probiotic strains, this study
      examined whether B. fragilis could inhibit pathogenic bacteria. Results showed
      that Vibrio parahaemolyticus was inhibited by B. fragilis in vitro, and that B.
      fragilis could protect both RAW 264.7 and LoVo cells from damage caused by V.
      parahaemolyticus. Using in vivo imaging, we constructed a light-emitting V.
      parahaemolyticus strain and showed that B. fragilis might shorten the
      colonization time and reduce the number of lux-expressing bacteria in a mouse
      model. These results provide useful information for developing B. fragilis into a
      probiotic product, and also indicate that this commensal bacterium might aid in
      the clinical treatment of gastroenteritis caused by V. parahaemolyticus.

PMID- 28553618
TI  - Effective Protection Induced by a Monovalent DNA Vaccine against Dengue Virus
      (DV) Serotype 1 and a Bivalent DNA Vaccine against DV1 and DV2 in Mice.
AB  - Dengue virus (DV) is the causal pathogen of dengue fever, which is one of the
      most rapidly spread mosquito-borne disease worldwide and has become a severe
      public health problem. Currently, there is no specific treatment for dengue;
      thus, a vaccine would be an effective countermeasure to reduce the morbidity and
      mortality. Although, the chimeric Yellow fever dengue tetravalent vaccine has
      been approved in some countries, it is still necessary to develop safer, more
      effective, and less costly vaccines. In this study, a DNA vaccine candidate pVAX1
      D1ME expressing the prME protein of DV1 was inoculated in BALB/c mice via
      intramuscular injection or electroporation, and the immunogenicity and protection
      were evaluated. Compared with traditional intramuscular injection, administration
      with 50 MUg pVAX1-D1ME via electroporation with three immunizations induced
      persistent humoral and cellular immune responses and effectively protected mice
      against lethal DV1 challenge. In addition, immunization with a bivalent vaccine
      consisting of pVAX1-D1ME and pVAX1-D2ME via electroporation generated a balanced
      IgG response and neutralizing antibodies against DV1 and DV2 and could protect
      mice from lethal challenge with DV1 and DV2. This study sheds new light on
      developing a dengue tetravalent DNA vaccine.

PMID- 28553619
TI  - Human Neutrophils Produce CCL23 in Response to Various TLR-Agonists and TNFalpha.
AB  - CCL23, also known as myeloid progenitor inhibitory factor (MPIF)-1, macrophage
      inflammatory protein (MIP)-3, or CKbeta8, is a member of the CC chemokine
      subfamily exerting its effects via CCR1 binding. By doing so, CCL23 selectively
      recruits resting T lymphocytes and monocytes, inhibits proliferation of myeloid
      progenitor cells and promotes angiogenesis. Previously, we and other groups have
      reported that human neutrophils are able to produce chemokines upon appropriate
      activation, including CCR1-binding CCL2, CCL3, and CCL4. Herein, we demonstrate
      that human neutrophils display the capacity to also express and release CCL23
      when stimulated by R848 and, to a lesser extent, by other pro-inflammatory
      agonists, including LPS, Pam3CSK4, and TNFalpha. Notably, we show that, on a per
      cell basis, R848-activated neutrophils produce higher levels of CCL23 than
      autologous CD14+-monocytes activated under similar experimental conditions. By
      contrast, we found that, unlike CD14+-monocytes, neutrophils do not produce CCL23
      in response to IL-4, thus indicating that they express CCL23 in a stimulus
      specific fashion. Finally, we show that the production of CCL23 by R848
      stimulated neutrophils is negatively modulated by IFNalpha, which instead
      enhances that of CCL2. Together, data extend our knowledge on the chemokines
      potentially produced by neutrophils. The ability of human neutrophils to produce
      CCL23 further supports the notion on the neutrophil capacity of orchestrating the
      recruitment of different cell types to the inflamed sites, in turn contributing
      to the control of the immune response.

PMID- 28553620
TI  - Comparative Genomics of Mycoplasma bovis Strains Reveals That Decreased Virulence
      with Increasing Passages Might Correlate with Potential Virulence-Related
      Factors.
AB  - Mycoplasma bovis is an important cause of bovine respiratory disease worldwide.
      To understand its virulence mechanisms, we sequenced three attenuated M. bovis
      strains, P115, P150, and P180, which were passaged in vitro 115, 150, and 180
      times, respectively, and exhibited progressively decreasing virulence.
      Comparative genomics was performed among the wild-type M. bovis HB0801 (P1)
      strain and the P115, P150, and P180 strains, and one 14.2-kb deleted region
      covering 14 genes was detected in the passaged strains. Additionally, 46 non
      sense single-nucleotide polymorphisms and indels were detected, which confirmed
      that more passages result in more mutations. A subsequent collective
      bioinformatics analysis of paralogs, metabolic pathways, protein-protein
      interactions, secretory proteins, functionally conserved domains, and virulence
      related factors identified 11 genes that likely contributed to the increased
      attenuation in the passaged strains. These genes encode ascorbate-specific
      phosphotransferase system enzyme IIB and IIA components, enolase, L-lactate
      dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase, glycerol, and multiple sugar ATP-binding cassette
      transporters, ATP binding proteins, NADH dehydrogenase, phosphate
      acetyltransferase, transketolase, and a variable surface protein. Fifteen genes
      were shown to be enriched in 15 metabolic pathways, and they included the
      aforementioned genes encoding pyruvate kinase, transketolase, enolase, and L
      lactate dehydrogenase. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production in M. bovis strains
      representing seven passages from P1 to P180 decreased progressively with
      increasing numbers of passages and increased attenuation. However, eight mutants
      specific to eight individual genes within the 14.2-kb deleted region did not
      exhibit altered H2O2 production. These results enrich the M. bovis genomics
      database, and they increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying M.
      bovis virulence.

PMID- 28553621
TI  - Ehrlichia chaffeensis Tandem Repeat Effector Targets Differentially Influence
      Infection.
AB  - Ehrlichia chaffeensis infects mononuclear phagocytes and survives intracellularly
      by exploiting host cell processes to evade host defenses. The mechanisms involved
      are not fully defined, but appear to rely largely on a subset of tandem repeat
      proteins (TRP) effectors. E. chaffeensis TRPs are type 1 secreted effectors that
      interact with a functionally diverse group of host cell targets associated with
      various biological processes. In this study, we investigated the influence of TRP
      host target proteins on ehrlichial infection by RNA interference. In total, 138
      TRP-interacting host proteins identified by yeast two-hybrid were targeted by
      siRNA and the infection level determined by real-time qPCR. Knockdown of 124
      (89%) TRP target proteins had significant influence on infection either by
      inhibiting (85%) or promoting (15%) ehrlichial infection. Notably, knockdown of
      18 host proteins which interacted with TRP120 promoted the infection, suggesting
      that these targets may be degraded to promote infection. Host proteins that
      interact with TRPs are involved in cellular processes, including cell signaling,
      vesicle trafficking and intracellular transport, transcriptional regulation,
      metabolism, protein posttranslational modification, and apoptosis. Selected host
      targets were examined by immunofluorescent microscopy during infection and were
      found to localize with the morulae, or in the host cell cytoplasm adjacent to
      morulae. This study confirms that the majority of host proteins known to interact
      with TRP effectors influence infection and further extends the current knowledge
      that E. chaffeensis TRPs participate in a complex array of host protein
      interactions in order to reprogram the host cell and promote intracellular
      survival.

PMID- 28553622
TI  - Commentary: The Role of Neutrophils in the Induction of Specific Th1 and Th17
      during Vaccination against Tuberculosis.

PMID- 28553624
TI  - Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma: patient selection and perspectives.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops on the background of liver cirrhosis
      often from multiple, simultaneous factors. The diagnosis of a single small HCC
      comes with good prognosis and provides a potential for cure. In contrast, the
      diagnosis of multifocal, large HCC has high mortality and poor prognosis.
      Unfortunately, the majority of HCC is diagnosed at such late stages. A
      surveillance program endorsed by regional liver societies involves six-monthly
      ultrasound surveillance of at-risk patients. This had been in action for the last
      two decades. It has led to marked increase in the proportion of patients
      presenting with small unifocal nodules found on surveillance. The development of
      tools to enhance our ability in optimizing available surveillance is likely to
      improve the prognosis of patients with HCC. In this review, we discuss the
      difficulties in utilizing HCC surveillance and possible means of improvement.

PMID- 28553625
TI  - The Comparison Effects of Two Methods of (Adaptive Support Ventilation Minute
      Ventilation: 110% and Adaptive Support Ventilation Minute Ventilation: 120%) on
      Mechanical Ventilation and Hemodynamic Changes and Length of Being in Recovery in
      Intensive Care Units.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The conventional method for ventilation is supported by accommodative
      or adaptive support ventilation (ASV) that the latter method is done with two
      methods: ASV minute ventilation (mv): 110% and ASV mv: 120%. Regarding these
      methods this study compared the differences in duration of mechanical ventilation
      and hemodynamic changes during recovery and length of stay in Intensive Care
      Units (ICU). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a clinical trial study, forty patients
      candidate for ventilation were selected and randomly divided into two groups of A
      and B. All patients were ventilated by Rafael ventilator. Ventilator parameters
      were set on ASV mv: 110% or ASV mv: 120% and patients were monitored on pulse
      oximetry, electrocardiography monitoring, central vein pressure and arterial
      pressure. Finally, the data entered to computer and analyzed by SPSS software.
      RESULTS: The time average of connection to ventilator in two groups in modes of
      ASV mv: 110% and 120% was 12.3 +/- 3.66 and 10.8 +/- 2.07 days respectively, and
      according to t-test, there was no significant difference between two groups (P =
      0.11). The average of length of stay in ICU in two groups of 110% and 120% was
      16.35 +/- 3.51 and 15.5 +/- 2.62 days respectively, and according to t-test,
      there found to be no significant difference between two groups (P = 0.41).
      CONCLUSION: Using ASV mv: 120% can decrease extubation time compared with ASV mv:
      110%. Furthermore, there is not a considerable side effect on hemodynamic of
      patients.

PMID- 28553623
TI  - Productive and Penicillin-Stressed Chlamydia pecorum Infection Induces Nuclear
      Factor Kappa B Activation and Interleukin-6 Secretion In Vitro.
AB  - Nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) is an inflammatory transcription factor that
      plays an important role in the host immune response to infection. The potential
      for chlamydiae to activate NFkappaB has been an area of interest, however most
      work has focused on chlamydiae impacting human health. Given that inflammation
      characteristic of chlamydial infection may be associated with severe disease
      outcomes or contribute to poor overall fitness in farmed animals, we evaluated
      the ability of porcine chlamydiae to induce NFkappaB activation in vitro. C.
      pecorum infection induced both NFkappaB nuclear translocation and activation at 2
      hours post infection (hpi), an effect strongly enhanced by suppression of host de
      novo protein synthesis. C. suis and C. trachomatis showed less capacity for
      NFkappaB activation compared to C. pecorum, suggesting a species-specific
      variation in NFkappaB activation. At 24 hpi, C. pecorum induced significant
      NFkappaB activation, an effect not abolished by penicillin (beta lactam)-induced
      chlamydial stress. C. pecorum-dependent secretion of interleukin 6 was also
      detected in the culture supernatant of infected cells at 24 hpi, and this effect,
      too, was unchanged by penicillin-induced chlamydial stress. Taken together, these
      results suggest that NFkappaB participates in the early inflammatory response to
      C. pecorum and that stressed chlamydiae can promote inflammation.

PMID- 28553626
TI  - Insecticide Activity of Ageratina jahnii and Ageratina pichinchensis (Asteraceae)
      against Lutzomyia migonei (Diptera: Psychodidae).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insects are mostly pathogens transmitters, thus the necessity of
      finding effective bioinsecticides to combat them. In the present investigation,
      the insecticide activity of Ageratina jahnii and Ageratina pichinchensis
      (Asteraceae) essential oils, methanol, and aqueous extracts was evaluated against
      Lutzomyia migonei (Diptera: Psychodidae) females, Leishmania transmitters, a wide
      distributed parasitosis in Latin America. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All extracts
      were prepared by maceration at room temperature, and essential oils were obtained
      by hydrodistillation process. Females of L. migonei were used in the bioassays
      using the adulticide test in pots. RESULTS: Essential oils from both assayed
      plant species showed 100% of L. migonei mortality at 48 h of exposure at the
      concentration of 10 mg/ml. A. jahnii essential oil exhibited the following
      values, LD50 = 0.39 mg/ml, LD90 = 1.57 mg/ml, LD95 = 2.31 mg/ml, and LD99 = 4.80
      mg/ml while for A. pichinchensis essential oil values were LD50 = 0.31 mg/ml,
      LD90 = 0.99 mg/ml, LD95 = 1.38 mg/ml, and LD99 = 2.55 mg/ml. CONCLUSION: Higher
      toxicity was observed with A. pichinchensis essential oil against L. migonei,
      comparing to A. jahnii oil. Two new plant species are being reported, showing
      bioactive properties against common tropical disease vectors such as L. migonei,
      hence, opening possibilities to a more environmental friendly control.

PMID- 28553627
TI  - Nosocomial Infections in Intensive Care Unit: Pattern of Antibiotic-resistance in
      Iranian Community.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacterial infections are responsible for great number of mortality in
      Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Knowledge about prevalence of bacterial infections and
      their antibiotic-resistance pattern would be a great step for their treatment and
      management. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data about nosocomial infections in ICUs of
      Alzahra Hospital (referral hospital in Isfahan, center of Iran) were gathered
      during the years 2007-2010. A questionnaire was fulfilled for any specific
      patient with nosocomial infection containing demographic data of patient and also
      characteristics of the infection. RESULTS: Out of all patients, 707 individuals
      (65.6%) were male and 370 (34.4%) were female. Our data revealed that Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa (13.9%), Klebsiella (11%), and Escherichia coli (6.4%) were the most
      prevalent bacterial infections. The most common sites of nosocomial infections in
      the ICU were respiratory system (399 cases, 37%), urinary system (230 cases,
      21.4%), and blood (102 cases, 9.5%). The antibiotic-resistance of each bacteria
      in ICU ward was assessed and data were categorized in a table. There were less
      documentary about bacterial cultures in the year 2007 when compared with the next
      years. CONCLUSION: We found some differences (such as bacterial prevalence in ICU
      wards which caused nosocomial infections) in our local prevalence of nosocomial
      infections and also in their resistance pattern compared to other centers.
      Knowing about our data will help physicians to administer the most suitable
      antibiotics for treatment of nosocomial infections in our area.

PMID- 28553629
TI  - EPCAM Expression in Colon Adenocarcinoma and its Relationship with TNM Staging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since epithelial cell adhesion molecule glycoprotein (EPCAM) is
      associated with the development and metastasis of colon adenocarcinoma, it can be
      helpful in predicting the tumor stage before surgery. In this study, we
      investigated EPCAM glycoprotein expression in colon adenocarcinoma and its
      relationship with tumor staging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was done on
      formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues of 71 patients diagnosed with colon
      adenocarcinoma, together with normal tissues around them, which were available at
      the archive of pathology lab of Al-Zahra hospital, Isfahan. Hematoxylin and eosin
      (HandE) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining methods for EPCAM marker were
      performed on paraffin-embedded blocks. RESULTS: The percentage of staining of
      EPCAM glycoprotein in the tumoral and normal tissues of 71 patients with colon
      adenocarcinoma was studied and compared. In normal tissue, 84.5% showed strong
      staining, 15.5% showed moderate to strong, and none of the patients showed
      moderate, weak, or no staining at all. In the tumoral tissue, 25.4% had strong,
      25.4% had moderate to strong, 26.8% showed moderate, 16.9% showed weak and 5.6%
      had no staining at all. EPCAM expression was significantly less in tumoral tissue
      than in normal. CONCLUSION: There was an inverse relationship between tumor
      staging and the percentage of staining in EPCAM glycoprotein so this marker can
      be used for predicting the tumor stage.

PMID- 28553628
TI  - The Comparison between Effects of 12 weeks Combined Training and Vitamin D
      Supplement on Improvement of Sensory-motor Neuropathy in type 2 Diabetic Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral neuropathy is a common complaint of diabetes. This study
      aimed to determine the effects of 12 weeks combined training with Vitamin D
      supplement on improvement of sensory-motor neuropathy in women with diabetic
      neuropathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This clinical trial study conducted on 90
      patients were selected and randomly divided into two groups. Finally, 81 adult
      females with diabetes type II (20-55 years old) were interred in this study. The
      control group had no training, but received Vitamin D. The experimental group
      received Vitamin D and 12 weeks training program (3 days a week, 60 min/session)
      including aerobic exercises, strength, and flexibility. Aerobic exercise
      intensity was set at 60-70% maximum heart rate and resistance training intensity
      was determined by 10 R.M. Michigan neuropathy questionnaire, reflex hammer and
      tuning fork 128 Hz used to screening tense of neuropathy (Michigan Neuropathy
      Screening Instrument) that were used for pretest and posttest. RESULTS: Following
      3 months combined training and supplementation with Vitamin D, had observed a
      significant reduction in numbness (P = 0.001), pain (0.002), tingling (P =
      0.001), and weakness (P = 0.002) in the lower limb and also increases in sense of
      touch intervention (P = 0.005), detects the position of the fingers (P = 0.001)
      and vibration perception (P = 0.001) in tissues. Knee reflexes (P = 0.77) and
      ankles reflexes (P = 0.47) did not significantly change after interventions.
      CONCLUSION: It seems that taking part in combined training and supplementation
      with Vitamin D can improve the symptoms of sensory-motor neuropathy.

PMID- 28553630
TI  - Choice of Allograft in Patients Requiring Intestinal Transplantation: A Critical
      Review.
AB  - Intestinal transplantation (ITx) is indicated in patients with irreversible
      intestinal failure (IF) and life-threatening complications related to total
      parenteral nutrition (TPN). ITx can be classified into three main types. Isolated
      intestinal transplantation (IITx), that is, transplantation of the jejunoileum,
      is indicated in patients with preserved liver function. Combined liver-intestine
      transplantation (L-ITx), that is, transplantation of the liver and the
      jejunoileum, is indicated in patients with liver failure related to TPN. Thus,
      patients with cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis should receive a combined allograft,
      while patients with lower grades of liver fibrosis can usually safely undergo
      ITx. Reflecting their degree of sickness, the waitlist mortality rate and the
      early posttransplant outcomes of patients receiving L-ITx are worse than IITx.
      However, L-ITx is associated with better long-term graft and patient survival.
      Multivisceral transplantation (MVTx), that is, transplantation of the organs
      dependent on the celiac axis and superior mesenteric artery, can be classified
      into full MVTx if it includes the liver and modified MVTx if it does not. The
      most common indications for MVTx are extensive portomesenteric thrombosis and
      diffuse gastrointestinal pathology such as motility disorders and polyposis
      syndrome. Every patient with IF should undergo a multidisciplinary evaluation by
      an experienced ITx team.

PMID- 28553632
TI  - Hydroquinone; A Novel Bioactive Compound from Plant-Derived Smoke Can Cue Seed
      Germination of Lettuce.
AB  - Plant-derived smoke has been known to play an important role in distribution and
      growth of vegetation. Using a proficiently designed furnace, we extracted smoke
      from the leaves of four plant viz. Helianthus annuus,Aloe vera,Ginkgo biloba, and
      Cymbopogon jwarancusa. Smoke dilutions obtained from these plants were obtained
      in different concentrations to identify potential lettuce growth promoting smoke
      solution. Results revealed that smoke obtained from G. biloba significantly
      enhanced the lettuce seed germination. This solution was then partitioned into
      ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, n-hexane, chloroform and ether fractions. Ethyl
      acetate fraction was found to be potent to enhance seed germination. This
      fraction was subjected to column chromatography and spectroscopic techniques to
      obtain compound 1. This compound was identified as hydroquinone using 1D and 2D
      NMR techniques. At low concentrations (5, 10, and 20 ppm), compound 1 enhanced
      the lettuce seed germination; however, higher concentrations inhibited its growth
      as compared to control.

PMID- 28553631
TI  - Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Pediatric Hypertension: A Mini Review.
AB  - Adults with arterial hypertension (HTN) have stroke, myocardial infarction, end
      stage renal disease (ESRD), or die at higher rates than those without. In
      children, HTN leads to target organ damage, which includes kidney, brain, eye,
      blood vessels, and heart, which precedes "hard outcomes" observed in adults. Left
      ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) or an anatomic and pathologic increase in left
      ventricular mass (LVM) in response to the HTN is a pediatric surrogate marker for
      HTN-induced morbidity and mortality in adults. This mini review discusses current
      definitions, clinically relevant methods of LVM measurements and normalization
      methods, its epidemiology, management, and issue of reversibility in children
      with HTN. Pediatric definition of LVH and abnormal LVM is not uniformed. With
      multiple definitions, prevalence of pediatric HTN-induced LVH is difficult to
      ascertain. In addition while in adults cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is
      considered "the gold standard" for LVM and LVH determination, pediatric data are
      limited to "special populations": ESRD, transplant, and obese children. We
      summarize available data on pediatric LVH treatment and reversibility and offer
      future directions in addressing LVH in children with HTN.

PMID- 28553633
TI  - Emerging applications of porphyrins in photomedicine.
AB  - Biomedical applications of porphyrins and related molecules have been extensively
      pursued in the context of photodynamic therapy. Recent advances in nanoscale
      engineering have opened the door for new ways that porphyrins stand to
      potentially benefit human health. Metalloporphyrins are inherently suitable for
      many types of medical imaging and therapy. Traditional nanocarriers such as
      liposomes, dendrimers and silica nanoparticles have been explored for
      photosensitizer delivery. Concurrently, entirely new classes of porphyrin
      nanostructures are being developed, such as smart materials that are activated by
      specific biochemicals encountered at disease sites. Techniques have been
      developed that improve treatments by combining biomaterials with photosensitizers
      and functional moieties such as peptides, DNA and antibodies. Compared to simpler
      structures, these more complex and functional designs can potentially decrease
      side effects and lead to safer and more efficient phototherapies. This review
      examines recent research on porphyrin-derived materials in multimodal imaging,
      drug delivery, bio-sensing, phototherapy and probe design, demonstrating their
      bright future for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28553635
TI  - Alcoholic Fractions F5 and F6 from Withania somnifera Leaves Show a Potent
      Antileishmanial and Immunomodulatory Activities to Control Experimental Visceral
      Leishmaniasis.
AB  - Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) causes fatal life-threatening disease, if left
      untreated. The current drugs have various limitations; hence, natural products
      from medicinal plants are being focused in search of new drugs to treat
      leishmaniasis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antileishmanial
      and immunomodulatory activities of F5 and F6 alcoholic fractions from Withania
      somnifera leaves and purified withaferin-A in Leishmania donovani-infected
      peritoneal macrophages and BALB/c mice. We observed that F5 (15 ug/mL), F6 (10
      ug/mL), and withaferin-A (1.5 uM) reduce amastigote count in peritoneal
      macrophages and induce reactive oxygen species and significant decrease in IL-10
      mRNA expression compared to control upon treatment. Subsequently, in vivo study
      mice were treated with F5 (25 and 50 mg/kg b.wt.), F6 (25 and 50 mg/kg b.wt.)
      orally, and withaferin-A (2 mg/kg b.wt.) intraperitoneally for 10 consecutive
      days and a drastic reduction in parasite burden in both spleen and liver were
      observed. The treatment resulted in the reduction in IL-10, IL-4, and TGF-beta
      mRNA expression and a significant increase in IFN-gamma/IL-10 expression ratio in
      the treated group compared to control. The humoral response of these alcoholic
      fractions and withaferin-A shows increased IgG2a levels when compared with IgG1
      in treated mice. Taken together, our result concludes that withanolides in
      alcoholic fractions demonstrate a potent antileishmanial and immunomodulatory
      activities in experimental VL.

PMID- 28553636
TI  - Non-Conscious Effect of Food Odors on Children's Food Choices Varies by Weight
      Status.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Food cues are omnipresent in the daily environment and may influence
      eating behavior even non-consciously. An increased reactivity to food cues, such
      as food odors, has been shown to be correlated with obesity in children. The
      objective of this study is to investigate whether the non-conscious influence of
      food odors on children's food choices varies by their weight status. METHODS:
      Seventy-four children, of whom 29 were obese, took part in this study. The
      children performed a food choice intention task presented as a computer game in
      which 30 pairs of food images (a fatty-sweet food picture vs. a fruit picture)
      successively appeared on the screen. The children had to choose the item "they
      most wanted to eat at the present moment" for each pair. While performing this
      task, the children wore a headset in which the microphone foam was odorized with
      a fruity odor, a fatty-sweet odor or no odor. They performed the intention task
      three times, one time for each olfactory condition. The odors were non
      attentively perceived, i.e., none of the children were aware of the odorization
      of the microphone foams. The modeled probability is the probability to choose a
      fruit. RESULTS: In children with obesity, the fruity odor increased the
      likelihood of a fruit to be chosen compared to the no-odor condition [OR (95% CL)
      = 1.42 (1.13-1.78), P = 0.0028], while the fatty-sweet odor had no effect on food
      choice [OR (95% CL) = 1.07 (0.85-1.36), P = 0.55]. In children without obesity,
      both the fruity and the fatty-sweet odors decreased the likelihood to choose a
      fruit compared to the no-odor condition [OR (95% CL) = 0.76 (0.64-0.90), P =
      0.0015, for the fruity odor and OR (95% CL) = 0.79 (0.66-0.93), P = 0.0062, for
      the fatty-sweet odor]. CONCLUSION: The different patterns of results obtained in
      both groups of children suggest differences in the mental representations
      activated by non-attentively perceived olfactory cues based on weight status.

PMID- 28553637
TI  - Anthropometric and Laboratory Variables Related to Weight Loss-Comparison of
      Heart Failure Patients with Tumor Patients and Control Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Body weight loss is an important feature of heart failure (HF) and
      tumors. It is related to both reduced survival and adverse reactions to therapy
      in both of these conditions. The mechanisms of body weight loss in patients with
      HF and tumors are considered to be similar. Yet, studies comparing those two
      populations are generally lacking. The aim of this study was to compare
      anthropometric and laboratory data, related to weight loss, between patients with
      chronic HF and patients with different tumors as well as control population.
      METHODS: Laboratory and anthropometric data on 143 consecutive patients with
      chronic HF and malignant diseases as well as data for 20 controls were collected.
      RESULTS: Patients with HF had lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and
      albumin compared to controls. Anthropometric measurements revealed lower body
      mass index (BMI), muscle strength, mid-arm circumference, and waist circumference
      in patients with HF compared to controls. Measurements of biceps, triceps,
      subscapular, and suprailiac skinfolds were also lower in HF group. Compared to
      solid tumor group, HF patients had lower levels of CRP and higher levels of
      hemoglobin. Solid tumor patients had lower values of BMI and subscapular skinfold
      thickness, as well as higher muscle strength compared to HF group. Finally,
      compared to patients with solid hematological tumors, HF group had lower levels
      of albumin, lower muscle strength, as well as lower mid-arm circumference.
      CONCLUSION: We found differences in anthropometric and laboratory features,
      related to weight loss, in patients with HF compared to control population that
      were expected. On the other hand, observed differences in HF group compared to
      patients with various tumors could imply different pathophysiological mechanisms
      of weight loss between those groups. Such data could serve as a cornerstone for
      studies with larger numbers of patients and deeper pathophysiological insight.

PMID- 28553638
TI  - Torsin ATPases: Harnessing Dynamic Instability for Function.
AB  - Torsins are essential, disease-relevant AAA+ (ATPases associated with various
      cellular activities) proteins residing in the endoplasmic reticulum and
      perinuclear space, where they are implicated in a variety of cellular functions.
      Recently, new structural and functional details about Torsins have emerged that
      will have a profound influence on unraveling the precise mechanistic details of
      their yet-unknown mode of action in the cell. While Torsins are phylogenetically
      related to Clp/HSP100 proteins, they exhibit comparatively weak ATPase
      activities, which are tightly controlled by virtue of an active site
      complementation through accessory cofactors. This control mechanism is offset by
      a TorsinA mutation implicated in the severe movement disorder DYT1 dystonia,
      suggesting a critical role for the functional Torsin-cofactor interplay in vivo.
      Notably, TorsinA lacks aromatic pore loops that are both conserved and critical
      for the processive unfolding activity of Clp/HSP100 proteins. Based on these
      distinctive yet defining features, we discuss how the apparent dynamic nature of
      the Torsin-cofactor system can inform emerging models and hypotheses for Torsin
      complex formation and function. Specifically, we propose that the dynamic
      assembly and disassembly of the Torsin/cofactor system is a critical property
      that is required for Torsins' functional roles in nuclear trafficking and nuclear
      pore complex assembly or homeostasis that merit further exploration. Insights
      obtained from these future studies will be a valuable addition to our
      understanding of disease etiology of DYT1 dystonia.

PMID- 28553640
TI  - Resource Estimations in Contingency Planning for Foot-and-Mouth Disease.
AB  - Preparedness planning for a veterinary crisis is important to be fast and
      effective in the eradication of disease. For countries with a large export of
      animals and animal products, each extra day in an epidemic will cost millions of
      Euros due to the closure of export markets. This is important for the Danish
      husbandry industry, especially the swine industry, which had an export of ?4.4
      billion in 2012. The purposes of this project were to (1) develop an iterative
      tool with the aim of estimating the resources needed during an outbreak of foot
      and-mouth disease (FMD) in Denmark, (2) identify areas, which can delay the
      control of the disease. The tool developed should easily be updated, when
      knowledge is gained from other veterinary crises or during an outbreak of FMD.
      The stochastic simulation model DTU-DADS was used to simulate spread of FMD in
      Denmark. For each task occurring during an epidemic of FMD, the time and
      personnel needed per herd was estimated by a working group with expertise in
      contingency and crisis management. By combining this information, an iterative
      model was created to calculate the needed personnel on a daily basis during the
      epidemic. The needed personnel was predicted to peak within the first week with a
      requirement of approximately 123 (65-175) veterinarians, 33 (23-64) technicians,
      and 36 (26-49) administrative staff on day 2, while the personnel needed in the
      Danish Emergency Management Agency (responsible for the hygiene barrier and
      initial cleaning and disinfection of the farm) was predicted to be 174 (58-464),
      mostly recruits. The time needed for surveillance visits was predicted to be the
      most influential factor in the calculations. Based on results from a stochastic
      simulation model, it was possible to create an iterative model to estimate the
      requirements for personnel during an FMD outbreak in Denmark. The model can
      easily be adjusted, when new information on resources appears from management of
      other crisis or from new model runs.

PMID- 28553634
TI  - Neural Stem Cell Plasticity: Advantages in Therapy for the Injured Central
      Nervous System.
AB  - The physiological and pathological properties of the neural germinal stem cell
      niche have been well-studied in the past 30 years, mainly in animals and within
      given limits in humans, and knowledge is available for the cyto-architectonic
      structure, the cellular components, the timing of development and the energetic
      maintenance of the niche, as well as for the therapeutic potential and the cross
      talk between neural and immune cells. In recent years we have gained detailed
      understanding of the potentiality of neural stem cells (NSCs), although we are
      only beginning to understand their molecular, metabolic, and epigenetic profile
      in physiopathology and, further, more can be invested to measure quantitatively
      the activity of those cells, to model in vitro their therapeutic responses or to
      predict interactions in silico. Information in this direction has been put
      forward for other organs but is still limited in the complex and very less
      accessible context of the brain. A comprehensive understanding of the behavior of
      endogenous NSCs will help to tune or model them toward a desired response in
      order to treat complex neurodegenerative diseases. NSCs have the ability to
      modulate multiple cellular functions and exploiting their plasticity might make
      them into potent and versatile cellular drugs.

PMID- 28553641
TI  - Use of Temperature, Humidity, and Slaughter Condemnation Data to Predict
      Increases in Transport Losses in Three Classes of Swine and Resulting Foregone
      Revenue.
AB  - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health
      Inspection Service (APHIS) conducts weekly surveillance of slaughter condemnation
      rates to provide early warning for emerging diseases and to monitor health trends
      in swine. Swine deaths in-transit are an animal welfare concern and represent
      lost revenue for the swine industry. This retrospective observational study used
      ambient temperature and humidity data from weather stations near United States
      slaughter plants collected from 2010 to 2015 to predict the incidence and risk of
      death among swine in-transit and just prior to slaughter. The risk of death for
      market swine at a heat index (HI), which combines the effects of temperature and
      humidity, indicating moderately hot weather conditions between 85 and 92 degrees
      F was 1.37 times greater than that of the baseline temperature range of 54-79
      degrees F. The risk of death for cull sows at an HI between 85 and 92 degrees F
      was 1.93 times greater than that of average temperatures ranging from 54 to 79
      degrees F. Roaster swine (weigh < 220 lbs and often used for whole carcass
      roasting), however, had 0.80 times the risk when the HI was 85-92 degrees F
      compared to a baseline temperature of 54-79 degrees F. The risk of death for
      roaster swine at a minimum temperature between 40 and 50 degrees F was 1.21 times
      greater than that of average temperatures ranging from 54 to 79 degrees F. The
      risk of death for market swine at a minimum temperature range of 40-50 degrees F
      was 0.97 times that of average temperatures ranging from 54 to 79 degrees F. And
      for cull sows, the risk of death at a minimum temperature range of 40-50 degrees
      F was 0.81 times the risk at the average temperature ranging from 54 to 79
      degrees F. Across the study period, cumulative foregone revenue, or revenue not
      realized due to swine condemnations, for all swine was $18.6 million and $4.3
      million for cold temperatures and high HI ranges above the baseline,
      respectively. Marginal foregone revenue per hog in hotter months is higher due to
      seasonal peaks in swine prices. As a result of this study, the USDA-APHIS swine
      condemnation surveillance can incorporate weekly estimated HI values and ambient
      temperature data for slaughter establishments to provide additional information
      for analysts investigating signals (noteworthy increases above baseline) for
      "dead" condemnations. This study suggests that current mitigation measures are
      often not sufficient to prevent swine deaths due to ambient temperature extremes.

PMID- 28553639
TI  - Role of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, Autophagy, and Inflammation in
      Cardiovascular Disease.
AB  - Cardiovascular diseases are a class of heart or blood vessels diseases, which are
      now considered to be the leading cause of death globally. A number of recent
      studies have reported key roles for inflammation in the progression of diseased
      vessels and systematic heart failure. In particular, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress, which is mechanistically implicated in inflammation and autophagy, has
      now been associated with pathophysiological states in the cardiovascular system.
      Autophagy has also been identified as an important process in the progression of
      multiple cardiovascular diseases such as in atherosclerosis plaque progression
      and ischemia and/or reperfusion. In light of the above, it has been proposed that
      a link between inflammation, autophagy, and ER stress may exist that contribute
      to diseases of the heart and its supporting vessels. This review highlights
      current knowledge on the cross talk between these three biological processes, and
      the potential of targeting this pathway as a therapeutic approach for
      cardiovascular disorders and its related diseases.

PMID- 28553643
TI  - Comparative Transcriptome Analyses of Resistant and Susceptible Near-Isogenic
      Wheat Lines following Inoculation with Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici.
AB  - Powdery mildew is one of the most important diseases of wheat. In this study, the
      leaf RNA samples of wheat NILs carrying powdery mildew resistant and susceptible
      Pm2 alleles (L031 and Chancellor) and its F1 hybrid at two time points (16 h and
      96 h postinoculation) were used for RNA-seq analysis. We carry comparison between
      similar materials at different times and between different materials at same
      times. The overlapping DEGs between the dominant phenotypes (L031 and F1 hybrid)
      and the recessive phenotype (Chancellor) were 1028 and 2214 DEGs, which were
      clearly lower than those between the dominant and recessive parents and thus
      could provide relatively accurate and valuable information. GO and KEGG
      enrichment analysis of DEGs revealed that other than the expected defense-related
      genes, differential up- and downregulation of genes from many other signaling
      networks were also involved. Comparative transcriptome analysis also revealed
      that early-stage postinoculation is important and suitable time points to study
      expression profiles and signaling pathways of resistance-related genes following
      fungal inoculation. qRT-PCR analyses showed highly consistent expression patterns
      of genes with RNA-seq data. The results will aid in the identification of genes
      and signaling pathways involved in powdery mildew response in wheat.

PMID- 28553642
TI  - An Update on Drugs Used for Lumbosacral Epidural Anesthesia and Analgesia in
      Dogs.
AB  - This review aims to report an update on drugs administered into the epidural
      space for anesthesia and analgesia in dogs, describing their potential advantages
      and disadvantages in the clinical setting. Databases searched include Pubmed,
      Google scholar, and CAB abstracts. Benefits of administering local anesthetics,
      opioids, and alpha2 agonists into the epidural space include the use of lower
      doses of general anesthetics (anesthetic "sparing" effect), perioperative
      analgesia, and reduced side effects associated with systemic administration of
      drugs. However, the potential for cardiorespiratory compromise, neurotoxicity,
      and other adverse effects should be considered when using the epidural route of
      administration. When these variables are considered, the epidural technique is
      useful as a complementary method of anesthesia for preventive and postoperative
      analgesia and/or as part of a balanced anesthesia technique.

PMID- 28553644
TI  - Biochemical and Molecular Analysis of the Hb Lepore Boston Washington in a Syrian
      Homozygous Child.
AB  - Hemoglobin (Hb) Lepore is composed of two normal alpha chains and two deltabeta
      fusion globins that arise from unequal crossover events between the delta- and
      beta-globin genes. The Hb Lepore is widespread all over the world and in many
      ethnic groups. It includes some of the few clinically significant Hb variants
      that are associated with a beta-thalassemia phenotype. Here, we describe the
      first occurrence of Hb Lepore Boston Washington in a Syrian individual. The
      patient, a 10-year-old child, shows severe anemia with a Hb level of 6.85 g/dL
      and typical thalassemic red cell indices. The diagnostic procedure implies
      hematological, biochemical, and molecular analysis, including multiplex ligation
      dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assay, GAP-PCR, and DNA sequencing. This
      latter allowed us to define the correct structure of the hybrid deltabeta-globin
      gene. The knowledge of the spectrum of mutations associated with different
      geographical areas is the prerequisite to set up large-scale screening programs
      and be able to offer genetic counseling to couples at risk.

PMID- 28553645
TI  - Minimally Invasive Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy versus Retrograde Intrarenal
      Surgery for Upper Urinary Stones: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) and retrograde
      intrarenal surgery (RIRS) are both alternatives for PCNL to treat renal calculi.
      This study is aimed at comparing the stone-free rate (SFR) and other surgery
      parameters of two approaches for treating upper urinary calculi. We performed
      this meta-analysis in September 2016 by searching studies about mini-PCNL and
      RIRS for treating upper urinary calculi in various databases, and RevMan v.5.3
      was applied. Three randomized controlled trials and ten nonrandomized trials were
      included, involving a total of 1317 patients. Meta-analysis showed that mini-PCNL
      group led to a higher SFR [odds ratio: 1.96; 95% confidence interval: 1.46-2.64;
      P < 0.00001] but brought a larger postoperative decrease in hemoglobin levels
      compared with RIRS. RIRS provided a shorter hospital time. There was no
      significant difference in operation time. Higher postoperative complications were
      detected in the mini-PCNL, but the difference was not significant. Grade I and
      III complications did not vary between two procedures, but grade II complications
      were of lower incidence in RIRS group. In the light of these results, compared
      with RIRS, mini-PCNL provided significantly higher SFR and efficiency quotient
      for managing calculi; however, it resulted in higher incidence of postoperative
      complications, larger hemoglobin drops, and longer hospital stay.

PMID- 28553646
TI  - Protection against Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury by Increase in Brain
      Volume.
AB  - Blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is a leading cause of injuries in
      recent military conflicts and it is responsible for an increased number of
      civilian casualties by terrorist attacks. bTBI includes a variety of
      neuropathological changes depending on the intensity of blast overpressure (BOP)
      such as brain edema, neuronal degeneration, diffuse axonal damage, and vascular
      dysfunction with neurological manifestations of psychological and cognitive
      abnormalities. Internal jugular vein (IJV) compression is known to reduce
      intracranial compliance by causing an increase in brain volume and was shown to
      reduce brain damage during closed impact-induced TBI. We investigated whether IJV
      compression can attenuate signs of TBI in rats after exposure to BOP. Animals
      were exposed to three 110 +/- 5 kPa BOPs separated by 30 min intervals. Exposure
      to BOP resulted in a significant decrease of neuronal nuclei (NeuN) together with
      upregulation of aquaporin-4 (AQP-4), 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), and endothelin 1
      receptor A (ETRA) expression in frontal cortex and hippocampus one day following
      exposures. IJV compression attenuated this BOP-induced increase in 3-NT in cortex
      and ameliorated the upregulation of AQP-4 in hippocampus. These results suggest
      that elevated intracranial pressure and intracerebral volume have neuroprotective
      potential in blast-induced TBI.

PMID- 28553648
TI  - Serum Vaspin Concentration in Elderly Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with
      Differing Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - Aims. This study was to evaluate the association of serum vaspin concentrations
      with body mass index (BMI) among elderly patients (>60 years old). Methods. A
      total of 227 elderly individuals included 76 healthy with normal glucose
      tolerance, which divided into normal weight control (BMI < 25, n = 38) and
      overweight or obese control (BMI >= 25, n = 38) subgroups, and 150 T2DM patients,
      which divided into normal weight diabetes (BMI < 25, n = 55), overweight diabetes
      (30 > BMI >= 25, n = 52), and obese diabetes (BMI >= 30, n = 43) subgroups.
      Relevant parameters were matched for age and gender ratio. Serum vaspin
      concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. Serum
      vaspin concentration was significantly higher in the T2DM than the healthy (451.9
      +/- 32.6 versus 284.2 +/- 21.7, P < 0.01). In the diabetic patients, the vaspin
      concentration was significantly higher in the obese group than the normal weight
      group (498.2 +/- 17.1 versus 382.1 +/- 21.3, P < 0.05). In addition, the
      concentration of vaspin in normal weight T2DM was higher than in healthy control
      group with normal weight (382.1 +/- 21.3 versus 192.5 +/- 45.2, P < 0.05).
      Multiple regression analysis revealed that BMI was independent factors
      influencing the serum vaspin concentration in all participants. Conclusion.
      Vaspin may play an important compensatory role in obesity and insulin resistance
      in elderly people. The clinical trial registration number is ChiCTR-OPC-14005698.

PMID- 28553647
TI  - Association of Irisin Plasma Levels with Anthropometric Parameters in Children
      with Underweight, Normal Weight, Overweight, and Obesity.
AB  - The correlations between irisin levels, physical activity, and anthropometric
      measurements have been extensively described in adults with considerable
      controversy, but little evidence about these relationships has been found in
      children. The objective of this study is to correlate the plasma levels of irisin
      in underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese children with anthropometric
      parameters and physical activity levels. A cross-sample of 40 children was
      divided into the following groups on the basis of body mass index (BMI)
      percentile. The correlations of plasma irisin levels with physical activity,
      anthropometric, and metabolic measurements were determined. Plasma irisin levels
      (ng/mL) were lower for the underweight group (164.2 +/- 5.95) than for the normal
      weight and obese groups (182.8 +/- 5.58; p < 0.05). Irisin levels correlated
      positively with BMI percentile (0.387), waist circumference (0.373), and fat-free
      mass (0.353; p < 0.05), but not with body muscle mass (-0.027). After a multiple
      linear regression analysis, only BMI percentile (0.564; p < 0.008) showed a
      positive correlation with irisin. Our results indicated no association with
      metabolic parameters. A negative correlation with physical activity was observed.
      Interrelationships among body components might influence irisin levels in
      children.

PMID- 28553649
TI  - Myocardial Perfusion in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Associations with
      Traditional Risk Factors and Novel Biomarkers.
AB  - Introduction. Cardiovascular (CV) diseases are a major cause of death in
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Novel biomarkers [B-type natriuretic peptide
      (BNP); osteoprotegerin (OPG)/receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand
      (RANKL) ratio; and dickkopf-1 (DKK-1)] have been used in CV risk assessment. We
      analysed, in established RA patients, the presence of silent myocardial ischemia
      and its association with clinical variables, BNP, and bone and atheroma
      biomarkers. Methods. From a single-center tertiary referral hospital, RA patients
      asymptomatic for CV disease were submitted to myocardial perfusion scintigraphy
      (MPS) under adenosine stress and biomarkers measurements. Logistic regression was
      used to estimate crude odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
      Results. In 189 patients, perfusion defects were frequent (25%) and associated
      with BNP >= 100 pg/mL (OR = 5.68; 95% CI: 2.038-15.830), fourth log OPG/RANKL
      ratio quartile (OR = 2.88; 95% CI: 1.091-7.622), and DKK-1 >= 133 pmol/L (OR =
      2.69; 95% CI: 1.058-6.840). Similar associations were confirmed in those with C
      reactive protein > or <= 3 mg/L. No relationship was found with the majority of
      traditional CV factors nor with disease variables. Conclusions. Our results
      corroborated the hypothesis that MPS could reveal subclinical CV dysfunction,
      supported the utility of BNP measurements as a screening tool, and put in
      perspective the potential usefulness of complementary approaches in CV risk
      assessment in RA patients.

PMID- 28553650
TI  - Recent Treatment Advances and New Trials in Adult Nephrotic Syndrome.
AB  - The etiology of nephrotic syndrome is complex and ranges from primary
      glomerulonephritis to secondary forms. Patients with nephrotic syndrome often
      need immunosuppressive treatment with its side effects and may progress to end
      stage renal disease. This review focuses on recent advances in the treatment of
      primary causes of nephrotic syndrome (idiopathic membranous nephropathy (iMN),
      minimal change disease (MCD), and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS))
      since the publication of the KDIGO guidelines in 2012. Current treatment
      recommendations are mostly based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in
      children, small RCTs, or case series in adults. Recently, only a few new RCTs
      have been published, such as the Gemritux trial evaluating rituximab treatment
      versus supportive antiproteinuric and antihypertensive therapy in iMN. Many RCTs
      are ongoing for iMN, MCD, and FSGS that will provide further information on the
      effectiveness of different treatment options for the causative disease. In
      addition to reviewing recent clinical studies, we provide insight into potential
      new targets for the treatment of nephrotic syndrome from recent basic science
      publications.

PMID- 28553651
TI  - A Review on Recent Computational Methods for Predicting Noncoding RNAs.
AB  - Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play important roles in various cellular activities and
      diseases. In this paper, we presented a comprehensive review on computational
      methods for ncRNA prediction, which are generally grouped into four categories:
      (1) homology-based methods, that is, comparative methods involving evolutionarily
      conserved RNA sequences and structures, (2) de novo methods using RNA sequence
      and structure features, (3) transcriptional sequencing and assembling based
      methods, that is, methods designed for single and pair-ended reads generated from
      next-generation RNA sequencing, and (4) RNA family specific methods, for example,
      methods specific for microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs. In the end, we summarized
      the advantages and limitations of these methods and pointed out a few possible
      future directions for ncRNA prediction. In conclusion, many computational methods
      have been demonstrated to be effective in predicting ncRNAs for further
      experimental validation. They are critical in reducing the huge number of
      potential ncRNAs and pointing the community to high confidence candidates. In the
      future, high efficient mapping technology and more intrinsic sequence features
      (e.g., motif and k-mer frequencies) and structure features (e.g., minimum free
      energy, conserved stem-loop, or graph structures) are suggested to be combined
      with the next- and third-generation sequencing platforms to improve ncRNA
      prediction.

PMID- 28553652
TI  - Serum Sclerostin Levels in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid
      Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Objective. Current studies of serum sclerostin levels in AS and RA patients are
      inconsistent. This meta-analysis was performed to identify the association of
      serum sclerostin level with AS and RA patients. Methods. Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE,
      and Cochrane Library databases (up to 25 January 2017) were used to collect all
      relevant published articles. Studies were pooled and standard mean difference
      (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. All data analyses were
      performed using RevMan 5.3. Results. Totally eight studies of AS including 420 AS
      patients and 317 healthy controls (HC) and three studies of RA including 145 RA
      patients and 127 HC were finally included in this meta-analysis. The results
      revealed that the serum sclerostin levels in both AS patients (SMD = -0.14; 95%
      CI = [-0.39,0.11]; P = 0.28) and RA patients (SMD = -0.10; 95% CI = [-0.34,0.15];
      P = 0.43) were not significantly different from those in HC. Conclusion. The
      difference of serum sclerostin levels in AS and RA patients was not significantly
      different from HC, indicating that the sclerostin may not associate with the
      development of AS and RA.

PMID- 28553653
TI  - Not Only Glycaemic But Also Other Metabolic Factors Affect T Regulatory Cell
      Counts and Proinflammatory Cytokine Levels in Women with Type 1 Diabetes.
AB  - Type 1 diabetic (T1D) patients suffer from insulinopenia and hyperglycaemia.
      Studies have shown that if a patient's hyperglycaemic environment is not
      compensated, it leads to complex immune dysfunctions. Similarly, T1D mothers with
      poor glycaemic control exert a negative impact on the immune responses of their
      newborns. However, questions concerning the impact of other metabolic
      disturbances on the immune system of T1D mothers (and their newborns) have been
      raised. To address these questions, we examined 28 T1D women in reproductive age
      for the relationship between various metabolic, clinical, and immune parameters.
      Our study revealed several unexpected correlations which are indicative of a much
      more complex relationship between glucose and lipid factors (namely, glycosylated
      haemoglobin Hb1Ac, the presence of one but not multiple chronic diabetic
      complications, and atherogenic indexes) and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1alpha
      and TNF-alpha). Regulatory T cell counts correlated with HbA1c, diabetic
      neuropathy, lipid spectra parameters, and IL-6 levels. Total T-helper cell count
      was interconnected with BMI and glycaemia variability correlated with lipid
      spectra parameters, insulin dose, and vitamin D levels. These and other
      correlations revealed in this study provide broader insight into the association
      of various metabolic abnormalities with immune parameters that may impact T1D
      mothers or their developing child.

PMID- 28553655
TI  - Financial Literacy and Economic Outcomes: Evidence and Policy Implications.
AB  - This paper reviews what we have learned over the past decade about financial
      literacy and its relationship to financial decision-making around the world.
      Using three questions, we have surveyed people in several countries to determine
      whether they have the fundamental knowledge of economics and finance needed to
      function as effective decision-makers. We find that levels of financial literacy
      are low not only in the United States. but also in many other countries including
      those with well-developed financial markets. Moreover, financial illiteracy is
      particularly acute for some demographic groups, especially women and the less
      educated. These findings are important since financial literacy is linked to
      borrowing, saving, and spending patterns. We also offer new evidence on financial
      literacy among high school students drawing on the 2012 Programme for
      International Student Assessment implemented in 18 countries. Last, we discuss
      the implications of this research for policy.

PMID- 28553656
TI  - Effect of filling rate on cystometric parameters in young and middle aged mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of changing the bladder filling rate during
      cystometry in younger (2-3 months) and older (13-14 months) C57BL/6J male mice.
      METHODS: Cystometry was performed on mice under anesthesia. Voiding cycles were
      established in each mouse at a pump delivery rate of 17 MUl/min. After 30 min,
      the rate was increased sequentially to 25, 33, 41 and 49 MUl/min. Each rate was
      maintained for 30 min. The following cystometric parameters were quantified: peak
      pressure amplitude, intercontractile interval (ICI), compliance, micturition
      pressure threshold and voiding efficiency. RESULTS: Bladder weights were
      significantly greater in older mice (42 mg vs. 27 mg, P < 0.01), but functional
      capacities were not different. The pressure amplitudes did not change as filling
      rate increased, nor did they differ between the 4-month and 13-month-old males.
      ICIs were not significantly different between young and mature mice. However,
      both groups exhibited a non-linear reduction in ICI with increasing filling rate,
      best described by a power curve (R2 > 0.93). Compliance was higher in the older
      mice at low filling rates (17 and 25 MUl/min) but this difference diminished at
      higher rates. Compliance decreased with increasing flow rate in a non-linear
      manner, again with greater effects at low filling rates. Micturition pressure
      thresholds increased with increasing flow rate in a linear manner and older mice
      began voiding at higher pressures than younger. Both young and old mice exhibited
      voiding efficiencies of ~70%. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of volume delivery has
      complex effects on the timing of voiding and compliance. These findings argue for
      greater standardization of cystometry protocols and further investigation into
      afferent signaling to higher centers at different filling rates.

PMID- 28553654
TI  - The CNDP1 (CTG)5 Polymorphism Is Associated with Biopsy-Proven Diabetic
      Nephropathy, Time on Hemodialysis, and Diabetes Duration.
AB  - Considering that the homozygous CNDP1 (CTG)5 genotype affords protection against
      diabetic nephropathy (DN) in female patients with type 2 diabetes, this study
      assessed if this association remains gender-specific when applying clinical
      inclusion criteria (CIC-DN) or biopsy proof (BP-DN). Additionally, it assessed if
      the prevalence of the protective genotype changes with diabetes duration and time
      on hemodialysis and if this occurs in association with serum carnosinase (CN-1)
      activity. Whereas the distribution of the (CTG)5 homozygous genotype in the no-DN
      and CIC-DN patients was comparable, a lower frequency was found in the BP-DN
      patients, particularly in females. We observed a significant trend towards high
      frequencies of the (CTG)5 homozygous genotype with increased time on dialysis.
      This was also observed for diabetes duration but only reached significance when
      both (CTG)5 homo- and heterozygous patients were included. CN-1 activity
      negatively correlated with time on hemodialysis and was lower in (CTG)5
      homozygous patients. The latter remained significant in female subjects after
      gender stratification. We confirm the association between the CNDP1 genotype and
      DN to be likely gender-specific. Although our data also suggest that (CTG)5
      homozygous patients may have a survival advantage on dialysis and in diabetes,
      this hypothesis needs to be confirmed in a prospective cohort study.

PMID- 28553658
TI  - A Consistent Definition of Phase Resetting Using Hilbert Transform.
AB  - A phase resetting curve (PRC) measures the transient change in the phase of a
      neural oscillator subject to an external perturbation. The PRC encapsulates the
      dynamical response of a neural oscillator and, as a result, it is often used for
      predicting phase-locked modes in neural networks. While phase is a fundamental
      concept, it has multiple definitions that may lead to contradictory results. We
      used the Hilbert Transform (HT) to define the phase of the membrane potential
      oscillations and HT amplitude to estimate the PRC of a single neural oscillator.
      We found that HT's amplitude and its corresponding instantaneous frequency are
      very sensitive to membrane potential perturbations. We also found that the phase
      shift of HT amplitude between the pre- and poststimulus cycles gives an accurate
      estimate of the PRC. Moreover, HT phase does not suffer from the shortcomings of
      voltage threshold or isochrone methods and, as a result, gives accurate and
      reliable estimations of phase resetting.

PMID- 28553659
TI  - A NOVEL MUTATION CAUSING COMPLETE THYROID BINDING GLOBULIN DEFICIENCY (TBG-CD
      MIA) IN A MALE WITH COEXISTING GRAVES DISEASE.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An asymptomatic male was found on screening to have a low serum TSH
      and total T4. The diagnosis of Graves' disease was made with positive thyroid
      stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) and elevated free T4 in the presence of complete
      TBG deficiency (TBG-CD). Genetic testing of the patient and family members
      revealed a novel frameshift mutation in the TBG (SERPINA7) gene resulting in a
      complete deficiency of the protein. METHODS: The laboratory testing included
      total T4, free T4 by analog method and direct dialysis and TBG measurements.
      Sequencing of genomic DNA was performed from peripheral blood. RESULTS: A 35-year
      old East Indian male was referred to endocrinology because of abnormal thyroid
      function tests (TFTs): TSH 0.01 mIU/L (0.4-3.6), total T4 3.0 ug/dl (5.5-10.5)
      done as part of a "routine office visit". Upon further testing, the serum free T4
      2.0 ng/dl (0.8-1.8) and TSI 355% (<140% baseline) were elevated and the diagnosis
      of Graves' disease was made. TBG deficiency was suspected because the total T4
      concentration was inconsistent with hyperthyroidism and further testing confirmed
      TBG was undetectable. Sequencing of the TBG gene revealed a novel hemizygous
      frameshift mutation: p.Ala64ProfsTer106, TBG-CD Mia (numbering excludes 20 a.a.
      signal peptide) associated with the complete deficiency of TBG in a patient with
      Graves' disease. CONCLUSION: Patients with Graves' disease harboring a TBG
      mutation have conflicting TFTs. If a clinically hyperthyroid patient presents
      with normal or low total T4, serum TBG should be measured to identify an
      abnormality and prevent unnecessary testing.

PMID- 28553657
TI  - Cancer Is to Embryology as Mutation Is to Genetics: Hypothesis of the Cancer as
      Embryological Phenomenon.
AB  - Despite numerous advances in cell biology, genetics, and developmental biology,
      cancer origin has been attributed to genetic mechanisms primarily involving
      mutations. Embryologists have expressed timidly cancer embryological origin with
      little success in leveraging the discussion that cancer could involve a set of
      conventional cellular processes used to build the embryo during morphogenesis.
      Thus, this "cancer process" allows the harmonious and coherent construction of
      the embryo structural base, and its implementation as the embryonic process
      involves joint regulation of differentiation, proliferation, cell invasion, and
      migration, enabling the human being recreation of every generation. On the other
      hand, "cancer disease" is the representation of an abnormal state of the cell
      that might happen in the stem cells of an adult person, in which the mechanism
      for joint gene regulating of differentiation, proliferation, cell invasion, and
      migration could be reactivated in an entirely inappropriate context.

PMID- 28553660
TI  - MRI-Guided Stereotactic Biopsy of Murine GBM for Spatiotemporal Molecular Genomic
      Assessment.
AB  - Brain tumor biopsies that are routinely performed in clinical settings
      significantly aid in diagnosis and staging. The aim of this study is to develop
      and evaluate a methodological image-guided approach that would allow for routine
      sampling of glioma tissue from orthotopic mouse brain tumor models. A magnetic
      resonance imaging-guided biopsy method is presented to allow for spatially
      precise stereotaxic sampling of a murine glioma coupled with genome-scale
      technology to provide unbiased characterization of intra- and intertumoral clonal
      heterogeneity. Longitudinal and multiregional sampling of intracranial tumors
      allows for successful collection of tumor biopsy samples, thus allowing for a
      pathway-enrichment analysis and a transcriptional profiling of RNA sequencing
      data. Spatiotemporal gene expression pattern variations revealing genomic
      heterogeneity were found.

PMID- 28553661
TI  - Maternal Beliefs Surrounding Infant Feeding, but Not Maternal BMI or Hospital
      Experience, Predict Breastfeeding Exclusivity and Behavior.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Overweight/Obese (OW/Ob) women are at risk for breastfeeding failure.
      How maternal BMI affects lactation support received in-hospital, or maternal
      attitudes and beliefs surrounding infant feeding remains poorly understood. We
      investigated 1) the impact of in-hospital lactation support and maternal
      attitudes and behaviors regarding infant feeding on breastfeeding exclusivity,
      and 2) whether these potentially modifiable attitudes and behaviors differed
      between normal weights (NW) versus OW/Ob women. METHODS: NW (n=18) and OW/Ob
      (n=20) women and their infants were followed from birth to 4-months postpartum.
      In-hospital experiences, problems and help received regarding breastfeeding were
      documented. Six maternal attitudes and behaviors surrounding infant feeding were
      assessed at 2-weeks and 4-months. These factors were compared between NW and
      OW/OB women, and in relation to breastfeeding exclusivity. RESULTS: In-hospital
      experiences, assistance received regarding breastfeeding difficulties, and infant
      breastfeeding exposure did not differ between NW and OW/Ob women. At 4-months
      OW/Ob women were more likely to feed their infant on a schedule (p<0.03); this
      was the only difference in attitudes/behaviors between BMI-groups. Feeding the
      infant on a schedule was predictive of lower total breastfeeding exposure
      (p<0.05). Maternal concern about infant under-eating/becoming underweight was
      associated with several negative feeding behaviors, including reduced
      breastfeeding exposure (p<0.02), pressuring feeding style (p<0.01), and feeding
      to calm fussiness (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: This hospital setting provided equitable
      breastfeeding support to OW/Ob and NW women. Maternal concern over infant under
      eating/under-gaining and encouragement to feed on-demand are prime interventional
      targets to improve breastfeeding outcomes; the latter may be especially relevant
      to OW/Ob mothers.

PMID- 28553662
TI  - Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies.
AB  - Social learning is a fundamental element of human cognition. Learning from others
      facilitates the transmission of information that helps individuals and groups
      rapidly adjust to new environments and underlies adaptive cultural evolution1-6.
      While basic human propensities for social learning are traditionally assumed to
      be species-universal1,7, recent empirical studies show that they vary between
      individuals and populations8-13. Yet the causes of this variation remain poorly
      understood9. Here we show that interdependence in everyday social and economic
      activities can strongly amplify social learning. With an experimental decision
      making task we examine individual versus social learning in three recently
      diverged populations of a single-ethnic group, whose subsistence styles require
      varying degrees of interdependence. Interdependent pastoralists and urban
      dwellers have markedly higher propensities for social learning than independent
      horticulturalists, who predominantly rely on individual payoff information. These
      results indicate that everyday social and economic practices can mould human
      social learning strategies and they highlight the flexibility of human cognition
      to change with local ecology. Our study further suggests that shifts in
      subsistence styles - which can occur when humans inhabit new habitats or cultural
      niches2 - can alter reliance on social learning and may therefore impact the
      ability of human societies to adapt to novel circumstances.

PMID- 28553663
TI  - Does the Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Benefit Vary With the Estimated
      Proportional Risk of Sudden Death in Heart Failure Patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prediction of which heart failure patients are most likely to die of
      sudden death vs. non-sudden death is an important factor in determining who will
      benefit the most from an ICD. OBJECTIVE: We developed the Seattle Proportional
      Risk Model (SPRM) to estimate the proportion of total mortality due to sudden
      death. We prospectively validated the model in HF-ACTION and tested whether the
      ICD benefit varied with the SPRM. METHODS: Among 2331 patients enrolled, 1947
      patients were retained for analysis over a median follow-up of 2.5 years. The
      SPRM was calculated using age, gender, diabetes, BMI, SBP, EF, NYHA, sodium,
      creatinine, and digoxin use. RESULTS: ICD use (ICD or CRT-D) was present prior to
      death in 1204 patients (62%). SPRM was predictive of sudden death vs. non-sudden
      death in those without an ICD (P=0.002). The hazard ratio representing ICD versus
      no ICD was 0.63 for all-cause mortality (P=0.0002). The ICD benefit varied with
      the SPRM for all-cause mortality (P=0.001), with a greater benefit in those with
      a higher conditional probability of sudden death. CONCLUSIONS: In an ambulatory
      NYHA II-IV HF population and EF <=35%, the SPRM was predictive of the
      proportional risk of sudden vs. non-sudden death. ICDs were associated with a
      decreased risk of all-cause mortality by 37% and the ICD benefit varied with the
      SPRM. The SPRM may have utility in risk stratifying patients for a primary
      prevention ICD.

PMID- 28553664
TI  - Diagnosis and Control of Hypertension in the Elderly Populations of Japan and the
      United States.
AB  - The Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the world while the United
      States (U.S.) has relatively low life expectancy. Furthermore, the Americans have
      relatively poorer health compared to the Japanese. Examination of the treatment
      of specific conditions such as hypertension in these two countries may provide
      insights into how the health care system contributes to the relative health in
      these two countries. In this study, we focus on the treatment of hypertension, as
      this is the most common condition requiring therapeutic interventions in seniors.
      This study examines hypertension diagnoses and controls in nationally
      representative samples of the older populations (68 years-or-older) of Japan and
      the U.S. Data come from two nationally representative samples: the Nihon
      University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA) (n=2,309) and the U.S.
      Health and Retirement (HRS) Study (n=3,517). The overall prevalence of
      hypertension is higher in Japan than the U.S. Undiagnosed hypertension is about
      four times higher in Japan than in the U.S., while the control of blood pressure
      is more than four times higher in the U.S. than in Japan. Thus, the use of
      antihypertensive medication is much more frequent and more effective in the U.S.
      The medical care system seems to be more effective in controlling hypertension in
      the U.S. than in Japan. This may be due to the more aggressive diagnosis and
      treatment of hypertension in the U.S.

PMID- 28553665
TI  - Urinary Arsenic Speciation in Children and Pregnant Women from Spain.
AB  - Inorganic arsenic (i-As) is a non-threshold human carcinogen that has been
      associated with several adverse health outcomes. Exposure to i-As is of
      particular concern among pregnant women, infants and children, as they are
      specifically vulnerable to the adverse health effects of i-As, and in utero and
      early-life exposure, even low to moderate levels of i-As, may have a marked
      effect throughout the lifespan. Ion chromatography-mass spectrometry detection
      (IC-ICP-MS) was used to analyse urinary arsenic speciation, as an exposure
      biomarker, in samples of 4-year-old children with relatively low-level arsenic
      exposure living in different regions in Spain including Asturias, Gipuzkoa,
      Sabadell and Valencia. The profile of arsenic metabolites in urine was also
      determined in samples taken during pregnancy (1st trimester) and in the children
      from Valencia of 7 years old. The median of the main arsenic species found in the
      4-year-old children was 9.71 MUg/l (arsenobetaine-AsB), 3.97 MUg/l
      (dimethylarsinic acid-DMA), 0.44 MUg/l (monomethylarsonic acid-MMA) and 0.35
      MUg/l (i-As). Statistically significant differences were found in urinary AsB,
      MMA and i-As according to the study regions in the 4-year-old, and also in DMA
      among pregnant women and their children. Spearman's correlation coefficient among
      urinary arsenic metabolites was calculated, and, in general, a strong methylation
      capacity to methylate i-As to MMA was observed.

PMID- 28553666
TI  - Elevated Arsenic and Uranium Concentrations in Unregulated Water Sources on the
      Navajo Nation, USA.
AB  - Regional water pollution and use of unregulated water sources can be an important
      mixed metals exposure pathway for rural populations located in areas with limited
      water infrastructure and an extensive mining history. Using censored data
      analysis and mapping techniques we analyzed the joint geospatial distribution of
      arsenic and uranium in unregulated water sources throughout the Navajo Nation,
      where over 500 abandoned uranium mine sites are located in the rural southwestern
      United States. Results indicated that arsenic and uranium concentrations exceeded
      national drinking water standards in 15.1 % (arsenic) and 12.8 % (uranium) of
      tested water sources. Unregulated sources in close proximity (i.e., within 6 km)
      to abandoned uranium mines yielded significantly higher concentrations of arsenic
      or uranium than more distant sources. The demonstrated regional trends for
      potential co-exposure to these chemicals have implications for public policy and
      future research. Specifically, to generate solutions that reduce human exposure
      to water pollution from unregulated sources in rural areas, the potential for co
      exposure to arsenic and uranium requires expanded documentation and examination.
      Recommendations for prioritizing policy and research decisions related to the
      documentation of existing health exposures and risk reduction strategies are also
      provided.

PMID- 28553667
TI  - Translation of Cardiac Myosin Activation with 2-deoxy-ATP to Treat Heart Failure
      via an Experimental Ribonucleotide Reductase-Based Gene Therapy.
AB  - Despite recent advances, chronic heart failure remains a significant and growing
      unmet medical need, reaching epidemic proportions carrying substantial morbidity,
      mortality, and costs. A safe and convenient therapeutic agent that produces
      sustained inotropic effects could ameliorate symptoms, and improve functional
      capacity and quality of life. We discovered small amounts of 2-deoxy-ATP (dATP)
      activate cardiac myosin leading to enhanced contractility in normal and failing
      heart muscle. Cardiac myosin activation triggers faster myosin crossbridge
      cycling with greater force generation during each contraction. We describe the
      rationale and results of a translational medicine effort to increase dATP levels
      using a gene therapy strategy that upregulates ribonucleotide reductase, the rate
      limiting enzyme for dATP synthesis, selectively in cardiomyocytes. In small and
      large animal models of heart failure, a single dose of this gene therapy has led
      to sustained inotropic effects with no toxicity or safety concerns identified to
      date. Further animal studies are being conducted with the goal of testing this
      agent in patients with heart failure.

PMID- 28553668
TI  - The clinical spectrum of Erdheim-Chester disease: an observational cohort study.
AB  - Erdheim-Chester Disease (ECD) is a rare, potentially fatal, multi-organ myeloid
      neoplasm occurring mainly in adults. The diagnosis is established by clinical,
      radiologic, and histologic findings; ECD tumors contain foamy macrophages that
      are CD68+, CD163+, CD1a-, and frequently S100-. The purpose of this report is to
      describe the clinical and molecular variability of ECD. Sixty consecutive ECD
      patients (45 males, 15 females) were prospectively evaluated at the NIH Clinical
      Center between 2011 and 2015. Comprehensive imaging and laboratory studies were
      performed, and tissues were examined for BRAF V600E and MAPK pathway mutations.
      Mean age at first manifestations of ECD was 46 years; a diagnosis was
      established, on average, 4.2 years after initial presentation. Bone was the most
      common tissue affected, with osteosclerosis in 95% of patients. Other
      manifestations observed in one-third to two-thirds of patients include cardiac
      mass and periaortic involvement, diabetes insipidus, retro-orbital infiltration,
      retroperitoneal, lung, CNS, skin and xanthelasma, usually in combination. Methods
      of detection included imaging studies of various modalities. Mutation in BRAF
      V600E was detected in 51% of 57 biopsies. One patient had an ARAF D228V mutation,
      and one had an activating ALK fusion. Treatments included interferon alpha,
      imatinib, anakinra, cladribine, vemurafenib and dabrafenib with trametinib;
      eleven patients received no therapy. The diagnosis of ECD is elusive because of
      the rarity and varied presentations of the disorder. Identification of BRAF and
      other MAPK pathway mutations in biopsies improves ECD diagnosis, allows for
      development of targeted treatments, and demonstrates that ECD is a neoplastic
      disorder.

PMID- 28553670
TI  - VISAGE: Interactive Visual Graph Querying.
AB  - Extracting useful patterns from large network datasets has become a fundamental
      challenge in many domains. We present VISAGE, an interactive visual graph
      querying approach that empowers users to construct expressive queries, without
      writing complex code (e.g., finding money laundering rings of bankers and
      business owners). Our contributions are as follows: (1) we introduce graph
      autocomplete, an interactive approach that guides users to construct and refine
      queries, preventing over-specification; (2) VISAGE guides the construction of
      graph queries using a data-driven approach, enabling users to specify queries
      with varying levels of specificity, from concrete and detailed (e.g., query by
      example), to abstract (e.g., with "wildcard" nodes of any types), to purely
      structural matching; (3) a twelve-participant, within-subject user study
      demonstrates VISAGE's ease of use and the ability to construct graph queries
      significantly faster than using a conventional query language; (4) VISAGE works
      on real graphs with over 468K edges, achieving sub-second response times for
      common queries.

PMID- 28553669
TI  - Simultaneous dexamethasone intravitreal implant and anti-VEGF therapy for
      neovascular age-related macular degeneration resistant to anti-VEGF monotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of a dexamethasone intravitreal implant in
      combination with intravitreal anti-VEGF agents for treatment resistant
      neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD). METHODS: This study was
      designed as a single-center, retrospective interventional case series.
      Consecutive patients with treatment-resistant nvAMD underwent simultaneous
      combined injection of anti-VEGF agent and dexamethasone intravitreal implant.
      Eighteen patients with mean age of 81.5 years were included. Patients received
      average of 26.3 anti-VEGF injections before dual therapy, with mean follow up of
      8.2 months after dual therapy. RESULTS: Dual therapy produced a significant mean
      decrease in CFT (126.3 MUm), compared to a mean increase of 29.9 MUm when treated
      with anti-VEGF monotherapy (p=0.0017). Patients also had mean decrease in MCV of 
      0.85 mm3 with dual therapy compared with anti-VEGF monotherapy (p=0.0014). There
      was a moderate correlation between the number of prior anti-VEGF injections and
      the magnitude of anatomic response, suggesting that shorter disease duration may
      positively influence response to combined treatment. Although there was a slight
      trend towards improved mean visual acuity after dual therapy, these differences
      did not reach statistical significance. Nevertheless, with combination treatment,
      33% of patients gained one or more lines of vision. Dual therapy resulted in a
      significantly lower number of required anti-VEGF injections (4.25 vs 5.33) and an
      increase of the anti-VEGF injection-free interval to 1.41 months from 1.12 months
      during the 6 months following dual therapy compared to the same interval before
      dual therapy. Dual therapy was well tolerated; two eyes developed mild IOP
      elevation effectively managed with topical therapy and one patient developed
      worsening cataract. CONCLUSIONS: Combined treatment of anti-VEGF with the
      dexamethasone intravitreal implant is a viable alternative for treatment
      resistant nvAMD, and may reduce treatment burden. Earlier treatment with dual
      therapy may be beneficial to maximize anatomic and visual outcomes in these
      patients.

PMID- 28553671
TI  - Psychological Wellbeing in the Face of Adversity among American Indians:
      Preliminary Evidence of a New Population Health Paradox?
AB  - Our objective was to determine self-reported psychological wellbeing of American
      Indians (AIs). Data are from two surveys, a) 218 adults from the 2011 - 2012 Mino
      Giizhigad study including Ojibwe adults in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and b) 146 AI
      women aged 15 - 35 years from the 2011 Sacred Journey study residing in the
      Pacific Northwest. Reports of AI mental wellness/positive mental health were on
      par with or higher than found in previous studies with non-AI samples despite
      simultaneously disparate rates of AI anxiety, depressive symptoms, and
      differential exposure to sociohistorical stressors. Results are a paradoxical
      mismatch between mental wellness and mental stressors consistent across two
      separate, diverse samples of AI adults.

PMID- 28553672
TI  - Neighborhood Influences on Seasonal Influenza Vaccination among Older African
      Americans in Atlanta, Georgia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Influenza vaccination coverage in the US is lower than the
      recommended Healthy People 2020 threshold, especially among older African
      Americans. This analysis explores the complex relationship among neighborhood
      level factors, socio behavioral influences, and influenza vaccination outcomes
      among older African Americans. METHODS: We analyzed data from 221 Black/African
      American participants' age >=50 years living in Atlanta, Georgia. Generalized
      Estimating Equations for linear and logistic models assessed associations among
      socio demographic factors, census-tract neighborhood characteristics, and
      reported 2012-2013 seasonal influenza vaccination receipt, controlling for
      correlations among individuals within the same census tracts. Evaluated
      environmental factors included neighborhood deprivation indicators such as vacant
      housing percentage, vehicle availability, area violent crimes, and racial/ethnic
      composition. RESULTS: Reported greater influenza immunization uptake was
      significantly associated with older age >=65 years [OR=1.05, p=0.04], positive
      vaccination attitudes [OR=5.30, p<0.01], having health insurance [OR=14.37,
      p=0.03], lower perceived neighborhood security [OR=0.51, p=0.02], and lower
      neighborhood vehicle ownership [OR=1.07, p=0.04], a proxy for neighborhood
      affluence and transportation ease. Having a post-secondary education was
      significantly associated with both positive perceived neighborhood security
      [beta=0.28, p=0.02] and positive vaccination attitudes [beta=0.27, p=0.02].
      CONCLUSION: The findings provide evidence for distal neighborhood-level
      influences on influenza vaccination uptake among older African Americans. Lower
      vehicle ownership and lower perceived neighborhood security influenced seasonal
      influenza immunizations. Those who perceived personal risk, based on reported
      neighborhood security, displayed intent to obtain the seasonal influenza vaccine.
      Further investigation of multilevel, socio geographic factors is therefore
      warranted to more effectively address suboptimal influenza vaccine coverage among
      this population.

PMID- 28553674
TI  - Analytic quantification of bias and variance of coil sensitivity profile
      estimators for improved image reconstruction in MRI.
AB  - Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides a unique in-vivo capability of
      visualizing tissue in the human brain non-invasively, which has tremendously
      improved patient care over the past decades. However, there are still prominent
      artifacts, such as intensity inhomogeneities due to the use of an array of
      receiving coils (RC) to measure the MR signal or noise amplification due to
      accelerated imaging strategies. It is critical to mitigate these artifacts for
      both visual inspection and quantitative analysis. The cornerstone to address this
      issue pertains to the knowledge of coil sensitivity profiles (CSP) of the RCs,
      which describe how the measured complex signal decays with the distance to the
      RC. Existing methods for CSP estimation share a number of limitations: (i) they
      primarily focus on CSP magnitude, while it is known that the solution to the MR
      image reconstruction problem involves complex CSPs and (ii) they only provide
      point estimates of the CSPs, which makes the task of optimizing the parameters
      and acquisition protocol for their estimation difficult. In this paper, we
      propose a novel statistical framework for estimating complex-valued CSPs. We
      define a CSP estimator that uses spatial smoothing and additional body coil data
      for phase normalization. The main contribution is to provide detailed information
      on the statistical distribution of the CSP estimator, which yields automatic
      determination of the optimal degree of smoothing for ensuring minimal bias and
      provides guidelines to the optimal acquisition strategy.

PMID- 28553673
TI  - Fractal Regulation in Temporal Activity Fluctuations: A Biomarker for Circadian
      Control and Beyond.
AB  - Motor activity in humans and other animals possesses fractal temporal
      fluctuations that co-exists with circadian or daily activity rhythms. The
      perturbations in fractal activity patterns are often accompanied by altered
      circadian/daily rhythms. The goal of this study is to test whether fractal
      regulation in motor activity provides physiological information independent from
      24-h/circadian rhythmicity. To achieve the goal, we studied locomotor activity
      recordings of rats with the lesion of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that are
      known to have diminished circadian/daily activity rhythms and perturbed fractal
      regulation. By restricting feeding time (i.e., food was only availability in the
      dark period of the 12h: 12h light-dark cycles), we found that mean activity
      levels in these animals displayed significant 24-h rhythms. In contrast, the
      restricted feeding had no influences on the perturbed fractal regulation in these
      SCN-lesioned animals, i.e., activity fluctuations in these animals remained
      random over a wide range of time scales from 2-20h. Our results indicate that 24
      h rhythm of food availability can restore/improve circadian/daily rhythms in the
      SCN-lesioned animals but not necessarily improve the disrupted fractal activity
      regulation in these animals. This study provides clear and direct evidence that
      fractal activity patterns offer complementary information about motor activity
      regulation at multiple time scales that is beyond 24-h rhythm control.

PMID- 28553675
TI  - ActivityAware: An App for Real-Time Daily Activity Level Monitoring on the Amulet
      Wrist-Worn Device.
AB  - Physical activity helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension
      and obesity. The ability to monitor a person's daily activity level can inform
      self-management of physical activity and related interventions. For older adults
      with obesity, the importance of regular, physical activity is critical to reduce
      the risk of long-term disability. In this work, we present ActivityAware, an
      application on the Amulet wrist-worn device that measures daily activity levels
      (sedentary, moderate and vigorous) of individuals, continuously and in real-time.
      The app implements an activity-level detection model, continuously collects
      acceleration data on the Amulet, classifies the current activity level, updates
      the day's accumulated time spent at that activity level, logs the data for later
      analysis, and displays the results on the screen. We developed an activity-level
      detection model using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). We trained our classifiers
      using data from a user study, where subjects performed the following physical
      activities: sit, stand, lay down, walk and run. With 10-fold cross validation and
      leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) cross validation, we obtained preliminary results
      that suggest accuracies up to 98%, for n=14 subjects. Testing the ActivityAware
      app revealed a projected battery life of up to 4 weeks before needing to
      recharge. The results are promising, indicating that the app may be used for
      activity-level monitoring, and eventually for the development of interventions
      that could improve the health of individuals.

PMID- 28553677
TI  - Low to moderate relationships between gait and postural responses in Parkinson
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between spatiotemporal parameters of
      forward and backward gait and quality of compensatory stepping responses in
      forward and backward directions in people with Parkinson's disease with and
      without freezing of gait. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis. SUBJECTS: A total of
      111 individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease. METHODS: Forward and
      backward gait velocity and step length were evaluated using a GAITRite walkway.
      Forward and backward postural responses were evaluated using items from the Mini
      Balance Evaluation Systems Test and the Movement Disorders Society Unified
      Parkinson Disease Rating Scale motor subsection. Relationships between gait and
      postural responses were examined for the full sample and for sub-groups with and
      without freezing of gait. RESULTS: There were significant (p < 0.05) low to
      moderate correlations between postural responses and gait overall. Correlations
      were similar in the freezer and non-freezer sub-groups. Freezers performed worse
      than non-freezers on all gait parameters and backward postural response items (p
      < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Low to moderate relationships between gait and postural
      responses indicate the complexity of postural control and the potential
      involvement of different neural circuitry across these tasks. Better
      understanding of the relationships between gait and postural deficits in
      Parkinson's disease may inform the future development of targeted interventions
      to address these impairments.

PMID- 28553678
TI  - Population Study Confirms Serum Proteins' Change and Reveals Diagnostic Values in
      Congenital Ventricular Septal Defect.
AB  - This study was designed to validate thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1), vascular
      endothelial-cadherin complex (VE-cad), insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2), and
      amyloid precursor protein (APP) and assess their diagnostic value in ventricular
      septal defect (VSD). We investigated the serum levels of TSP-1, VE-cad, IGF-2,
      and APP by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a hospital-based case-control
      study that included 40 VSD children and 40 healthy controls. Logistic regression
      analysis was applied to evaluate the relationship of the proteins and VSD, and
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the diagnostic
      value of the significant proteins. The serum levels of TSP-1, VE-cad, and IGF-2
      were significantly higher in VSD patients than those in healthy controls (p <
      0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that high levels of
      TSP-1, VE-cad, and IGF-2 were significantly associated with an increased risk of
      VSD [TSP-1 (OR 26.91, 95% CI 6.60-72.66, p < 0.001), VE-cad (OR 11.91, 95% CI
      3.90-36.36, p < 0.001), IGF-2 (OR 3.25, 95% CI 1.25-8.43, p = 0.015)]. Areas
      under the ROC curve for TSP-1, VE-cad, and IGF-2 were 0.985, 0.838, and 0.658,
      respectively. These data demonstrated that TSP-1, VE-cad, and IGF-2 were
      significantly associated with risk of VSD and manifested diagnostic values, which
      may provide new evidence for understanding the etiology and promote the early
      diagnosis and prevention of VSD.

PMID- 28553679
TI  - Computational modelling of wounded tissue subject to negative pressure wound
      therapy following trans-femoral amputation.
AB  - Proof-of-concept computational models were developed and applied as tools to gain
      insights into biomechanical interactions and variations of oxygen gradients of
      wounded tissue subject to negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), following trans
      femoral amputation. A macro-scale finite-element model of a lower limb was first
      developed based on computed tomography data, and distributions of maximum and
      minimum principal stress values we calculated for a region of interest (ROI).
      Then, the obtained results were applied iteratively as new sets of boundary
      conditions for a specific spatial position in a capillary sub-model. Data from
      coupled capillary stress and mass- diffusion sub-models were transferred to the
      macro-scale model to map the spatial changes of tissue oxygen gradients in the
      ROI. The -70 mmHg NPWT resulted in a dramatic change of a wound surface area and
      the greatest relative contraction was observed at -150 mmHg. Tissue lateral to
      the depth of the wound cavity revealed homogenous patterns of decrease in
      oxygenation area and the extent of such decrease was dependent on the distance
      from the wound surface. However, tissue lateral to the width of the wound
      demonstrated heterogeneous patterns of change, as evidenced by both gradual
      increase and decrease in the oxygenation area. The multiscale models developed in
      the current study showed a significant influence of NPWT on both macro
      deformations and changes of tissue oxygenation. The patterns of changes depended
      on the depth of the tissue, the geometry of the wound, and also the location of
      tissue plane.

PMID- 28553680
TI  - The choice of comorbidity scoring system in Chinese peritoneal dialysis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several comorbidity scoring systems have been developed and
      validated, mostly in western hemodialysis patients with a high risk of
      cardiovascular disease. The performance of comorbidity scoring, however, depends
      on the patient population. In this study, we determine the optimal comorbidity
      scoring system for predicting survival of incident Chinese PD patients. METHODS:
      We studied 461 incident PD patients. The performance of Charlson Comorbidity
      Index (CCI), Hemmelgarn score, and Liu score as the survival predictor was
      compared. RESULTS: The mean age was 57.7 +/- 13.7 years. The median CCI,
      Hemmelgarn, and Liu scores were 4 [inter-quartile range (IQR) 2-5], 1 (IQR 0-2),
      and 4 (IQR 2-5), respectively. Patients were followed for 45.5 +/- 33.0 months.
      All 3 comorbidity scores were predictors of patient survival by univariate
      analysis. After adjusting for confounding factors, CCI was the best predictor of
      patient survival among the 3 indices, with each point increase in CCI conferring
      31% excess in mortality risk [95% confidence interval (CI) 21-41%, p < 0.001]. In
      contrast, each point increase in Liu score confers 20% excess in mortality risk
      (95% CI 13-27%, p < 0.001). Although the Hemmelgarn score is an independent
      predictor of patient survival, over 70% of patients score 0 or 1 by this system,
      limiting its role as a prognostic marker. CONCLUSION: CCI should be the preferred
      method for quantifying comorbidity load in incident Chinese PD patients, and it
      is a good predictor of survival in this group of patients.

PMID- 28553681
TI  - Effect of different levels of intermittent hypoxia on autophagy of hippocampal
      neurons.
AB  - PURPOSE: The current study was carried out to assess the effects of different
      levels of intermittent hypoxia (IH) on autophagy in hippocampal neurons, and
      explore the extent, frequency and duration of IH for researching on autophagy in
      hippocampal neurons. METHODS: Hippocampal neurons were exposed to different
      levels of IH. To analyze the oxygen level of neuronal exposure environment, we
      detected the oxygen concentration in the chamber by O2 analyzer, and monitored
      the oxygen partial pressure (PO2), carbon dioxide partial pressure (PCO2), and pH
      in the culture media by blood gas analyzer. After 4-, 8-, and 12-h IH, the
      morphology and quantity of neurons, as well as the expression of light chain 3
      (LC3)-II positive dots were observed by immunofluorescence. The expression of
      apoptosis marker protein cleaved caspase-3 and autophagy marker protein LC3 were
      examined by western blotting. RESULTS: The oxygen level in the chamber and the
      neuronal culture media both reached to the values set previously in three models.
      The level of cleaved caspase-3 and LC3 had no significant changes in IH-1 group.
      The morphology and quantity had no significant changes, while the levels of
      cleaved caspase-3 and LC3 were both increased in IH-2 group. The quantity of
      neurons was reduced significantly, and the chromatin condensed and nuclei
      fragmented in IH-3 group. CONCLUSIONS: The effects of varying degrees of IH on
      autophagy in hippocampal neurons are different. The IH model, hypoxia phase (1.5%
      O2, 5% CO2, and balance N2) for 5 min and reoxygenation phase (21% O2, 5% CO2,
      and balance N2) for 10 min, may be the best condition for researching on
      autophagy in hippocampal neurons.

PMID- 28553682
TI  - Glycated hemoglobin and sleep apnea syndrome in children: beyond the apnea
      hypopnea index.
AB  - PURPOSE: Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) are frequent
      conditions in pediatrics. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) is a useful homeostatic
      biomarker of glycemia and may reflect alterations deriving from sleep breathing
      disorders. The aim of this study was to relate the severity of OSA with blood
      HbA1C levels in children. METHODS: A descriptive observational study in snoring
      patients was performed. All patients underwent a sleep study and classified
      either as simple snorers (apnea-hypopnea index; AHI <= 1 episodies/h) or as OSA
      patients (AHI > 1 episodes/h). In the following morning, a blood glycemic profile
      (fasting glucose, insulin, HbA1C, and the HOMA index) was performed to every
      individual. RESULTS: A total of 48 patients were included. HbA1C levels were
      shown to be increased in the moderate OSA (AHI > 5 episodes/h) group (5.05 +/-
      0.25 vs. 5.24 +/- 0.29%; p = 0.019). Significant correlations were found between
      HbA1C values and AHI (r = 0.345; p = 0.016) and also with oxygen desaturation
      index (r = 0.40; p = 0.005). Correlations remained significant after adjusting by
      age and body mass index. The AHI-associated change in HbA1C was 13.4% (p =
      0.011). CONCLUSIONS: In the pediatric population, HbA1C is a biomarker associated
      with OSA severity, and this relationship is age- and obesity-independent. The
      fact that this association was observed in snoring patients could help the
      physician in the distinction between those patients affected with OSA and those
      with simple snoring. Therefore, HbA1C measurement could play a major role in the
      diagnosis and the management of the syndrome.

PMID- 28553683
TI  - Primary tumor location predicts the site of local relapse after nipple-areola
      complex (NAC) sparing mastectomy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the oncological safety of nipple-areola complex (NAC) sparing
      mastectomy in breast cancer patients. METHODS: From 2010 to 2015, 518 breast
      cancer patients were submitted to NAC sparing mastectomy. Breast MRI and
      intraoperative assessment of the subareolar (SD) and proximal (ND) nipple ducts
      were performed to predict NAC involvement. Significant associations between pre-
      and postoperative variables with SD/ND involvement and with the risk of local
      recurrence were retrospectively investigated. RESULTS: SD/ND were involved in
      26.1% of the cases. Final pathology of SD/ND was predicted by tumor-NAC distance
      at MRI and intraoperative pathology with 75 and 93% accuracy, respectively. NAC
      involvement was more frequent in case of positive ND than positive SD (68.3 vs.
      38.3%; p = 0.003). Fourteen (2.7%) local relapses developed over a mean follow-up
      of 33 months. Ki-67 >=25% (p = 0.002) and high tumor grade (p = 0.027) correlated
      with local recurrence. Most relapses developed in the subcutaneous tissue of the
      quadrant where the primary tumor was located (12/14; 85.7%). No local relapses
      occurred in patients who received post-mastectomy radiotherapy as compared to
      patients who did not, although they had a higher rate of positive surgical
      margins (40.5 vs. 16.2%; p = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: NAC involvement can be
      predicted by MRI and intraoperative pathology of ND/SD. Local recurrences after
      NAC sparing mastectomy almost invariably develop in the same quadrant where the
      primary tumor was located and in highly proliferative tumors.

PMID- 28553685
TI  - Erratum to: an update on addressing important peripheral nerve problems:
      challenges and potential solutions.

PMID- 28553684
TI  - Predictors of distress in female breast cancer survivors: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Unmanaged distress has been shown to adversely affect survival and
      quality of life in breast cancer survivors. Fortunately, distress can be managed
      and even prevented with appropriate evidence-based interventions. Therefore, the
      objective of this systematic review was to synthesize the published literature
      around predictors of distress in female breast cancer survivors to help guide
      targeted intervention to prevent distress. METHODS: Relevant studies were located
      by searching MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases. Significance and
      directionality of associations for commonly assessed candidate predictors (n >=
      5) and predictors shown to be significant (p <= 0.05) by at least two studies
      were summarized descriptively. Predictors were evaluated based on the proportion
      of studies that showed a significant and positive association with the presence
      of distress. RESULTS: Forty-two studies met the target criteria and were included
      in the review. Breast cancer and treatment-related predictors were more advanced
      cancer at diagnosis, treatment with chemotherapy, longer primary treatment
      duration, more recent transition into survivorship, and breast cancer recurrence.
      Manageable treatment-related symptoms associated with distress included
      menopausal/vasomotor symptoms, pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance.
      Sociodemographic characteristics that increased the risk of distress were younger
      age, non-Caucasian ethnicity, being unmarried, and lower socioeconomic status.
      Comorbidities, history of mental health problems, and perceived functioning
      limitations were also associated. Modifiable predictors of distress were lower
      physical activity, lower social support, and cigarette smoking. CONCLUSIONS: This
      review established a set of evidence-based predictors that can be used to help
      identify women at higher risk of experiencing distress following completion of
      primary breast cancer treatment.

PMID- 28553686
TI  - Legal hurdles for gastroenterologists in India.
AB  - Litigation and compensation claims have started occurring with increasing
      frequency against gastroenterologists in India. A study of few such cases decided
      by Indian Courts shows that commonest reason for allegations of negligence being
      upheld by Indian Courts is an improper consent being taken. Professional
      organisations need to focus on these issues more aggressively than has been done
      in the past. Judgments which do not appear to be in conformity with standard
      medical practices need to be challenged in higher courts, failing in which they
      would become precedents for future similar judgments.

PMID- 28553687
TI  - Malignant mediastinal lymphadenopathy detected by endoscopic ultrasound and
      guided fine needle aspiration in patients with resectable pancreaticobiliary
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Resection surgery for pancreaticobiliary malignancies carries
      significant morbidity and mortality. Hence, preoperative assessment to exclude
      unresectable disease is mandatory. CT abdomen is the primary modality for staging
      of pancreaticobiliary cancers. However, some patients have malignant mediastinal
      lymphadenopathy (MML), which may be detected on endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) but
      not on CT scan. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated 75 consecutive patients
      (median age 54 years: 44 men) with a diagnosis of resectable pancreaticobiliary
      cancer (carcinoma gallbladder, carcinoma pancreas, cholangiocarcinoma, or
      periampullary carcinoma) for the presence of MML using EUS by an experienced
      endosonographer. If a lymph node had one or more features suggestive of
      malignancy, i.e. size exceeding 1 cm, hypoechoic appearance, a round shape, and
      regular margins, it was subjected to EUS-FNA. RESULTS: In seven (9.3%; 95%
      confidence intervals: 3.8% to 18.2%) of the 75 patients, EUS revealed enlarged
      mediastinal lymph nodes. The location of these lymph nodes was subcarinal in
      three, paraesophageal in two, and paratracheal in one patient; another patient
      had lymph nodes at two sites, i.e. the subcarinal and aortopulmonary window. In
      four of these seven patients, FNA documented the presence of MML. The overall
      rate of pathologically proven MML was 4/75 (5.3%; 95% CI [1.4% to 13%]).
      CONCLUSION: EUS-FNA diagnosed MML in 5.3% of patients with pancreaticobiliary
      cancer. It may be useful to consider EUS assessment in patients with otherwise
      resectable pancreaticobiliary malignancy.

PMID- 28553688
TI  - Clinical Features in Patients with Microdeletion at 6q14.1-q15.

PMID- 28553689
TI  - Management of Neurogenic Bladder.
AB  - This article provides a comprehensive summary of the clinical approach,
      investigative modalities and management of a child with neurogenic bladder
      disease due to myelodysplasia. It is aimed at pediatric physicians and surgeons
      working in developing nations. The methodologies suggested are simple and can be
      practised even in resource poor regions. The goal of management is avoidance of
      Chronic kidney disease and for this, meticulous bladder management is the key.

PMID- 28553690
TI  - Neonatal Rotaviral Encephalitis.

PMID- 28553691
TI  - Molecular and immune response characterizations of a novel Bax inhibitor-1 gene
      in pufferfish, Takifugu obscurus.
AB  - Apoptosis plays a crucial role in many biological processes, including
      development, cellular homeostasis, and immune responses. Bax inhibitor-1 (BI-1)
      is an anti-apoptotic protein that protects cells from endoplasmic reticulum
      stress-induced apoptosis. In this study, a BI-1 gene from the pufferfish Takifugu
      obscurus (Pf-BI-1) was identified and characterized. The full length of Pf-BI-1
      cDNA was 1387 bp, including a 5'-UTR of 82 bp, a 3'-UTR of 591 bp containing a
      poly-(A) tail, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 714 bp that encodes a
      polypeptide of 237 amino acids. Pf-BI-1 was ubiquitously expressed in various
      tissues, with the highest expression levels in the blood, brain, and gill. The
      expression of Pf-BI-1 was up-regulated in a time-dependent manner after heat
      shock stress, ammonia stress, and bacterial challenge. Intracellular localization
      revealed that Pf-BI-1 was primarily localized in the cell cytoplasm. Furthermore,
      over-expression of Pf-BI-1 could active NF-kB reporter genes in HeLa cells. These
      results indicated that Pf-BI-1 may be involved in the apoptosis and immunity
      process against ambient stressors in pufferfish.

PMID- 28553692
TI  - Preventing traumatic childbirth experiences: 2192 women's perceptions and views.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to explore and quantify perceptions and experiences
      of women with a traumatic childbirth experience in order to identify areas for
      prevention and to help midwives and obstetricians improve woman-centered care. A
      retrospective survey was conducted online among 2192 women with a self-reported
      traumatic childbirth experience. Women were recruited in March 2016 through
      social media, including specific parent support groups. They filled out a 35-item
      questionnaire of which the most important items were (1) self-reported
      attributions of the trauma and how they believe the traumatic experience could
      have been prevented (2) by the caregivers or (3) by themselves. The responses
      most frequently given were (1) Lack and/or loss of control (54.6%), Fear for
      baby's health/life (49.9%), and High intensity of pain/physical discomfort
      (47.4%); (2) Communicate/explain (39.1%), Listen to me (more) (36.9%), and
      Support me (more/better) emotionally/practically (29.8%); and (3) Nothing
      (37.0%), Ask for (26.9%), or Refuse (16.5%) certain interventions. Primiparous
      participants chose High intensity of pain/physical discomfort, Long duration of
      delivery, and Discrepancy between expectations and reality more often and Fear
      for own health/life, A bad outcome, and Delivery went too fast less often than
      multiparous participants. Women attribute their traumatic childbirth experience
      primarily to lack and/or loss of control, issues of communication, and
      practical/emotional support. They believe that in many cases, their trauma could
      have been reduced or prevented by better communication and support by their
      caregiver or if they themselves had asked for or refused interventions.

PMID- 28553693
TI  - Assessment of right ventricular longitudinal strain by 2D speckle tracking
      imaging compared with RV function and hemodynamics in pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - The right ventricular longitudinal strain (RVLS) of pulmonary hypertension (PH)
      patients and its relationship with RV function parameters measured by
      echocardiography and hemodynamic parameters measured by right heart
      catheterization was investigated. According to the WHO functional class (FC), 66
      PH patients were divided into FC I/II (group 1) and III/IV (group 2). RV function
      parameters were measured by echocardiographic examinations. Hemodynamic
      parameters were obtained by right heart catheterization. Patients in group 2 had
      higher systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP; P < 0.05) than patients in group
      (1) significant between-group differences were observed in global RVLS
      (RVLSglobal), free wall RVLS (RVLSFW; P < 0.01), and RV conventional function
      parameters (all P < 0.05). Moreover, mPAP and PVR increased remarkably and CI
      decreased significantly in group (2) RVLSglobal had a positive correlation with 6
      min walking distance (6MWD; r = 0.492, P < 0.001) and N-terminal pro-brain
      natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP; r = 0.632, P < 0.001), while RVLSFW had a
      positive correlation with 6MWD (r = 0.483, P < 0.001) and NT-proBNP (r = 0.627, P
      < 0.001). Hemodynamics analysis revealed that RVLSglobal had a positive
      correlation with mPAP (r = 0.594, P < 0.001), PVR (r = 0.573, P < 0.001) and CI
      (r = 0.366, P = 0.003), while RVLSFW had a positive correlation with mPAP (r =
      0.597, P < 0.001), PVR (r = 0.577, P < 0.001) and CI (r = 0.369, P = 0.002).
      According to receiver operating characteristic curves, the optimal cut-off values
      of RVLSglobal (-15.0%) and RVLSFW (-15.3%) for prognosis detection with good
      sensitivity and specificity. Evidence has shown that RVLS measurement can provide
      the much-needed and reliable information on RV function and hemodynamics.
      Therefore, this qualifies as a patient-friendly approach for the clinical
      management of PH patients.

PMID- 28553694
TI  - Investigation of different classifiers and channel configurations of a mobile
      P300-based brain-computer interface.
AB  - Innovative methods and new technologies have significantly improved the quality
      of our daily life. However, disabled people, for example those that cannot use
      their arms and legs anymore, often cannot benefit from these developments, since
      they cannot use their hands to interact with traditional interaction methods
      (such as mouse or keyboard) to communicate with a computer system. A brain
      computer interface (BCI) system allows such a disabled person to control an
      external device via brain waves. Past research mostly dealt with static
      interfaces, which limit users to a stationary location. However, since we are
      living in a world that is highly mobile, this paper evaluates a speller interface
      on a mobile phone used in a moving condition. The spelling experiments were
      conducted with 14 able-bodied subjects using visual flashes as the stimulus to
      spell 47 alphanumeric characters (38 letters and 9 numbers). This data was then
      used for the classification experiments. In par- ticular, two research directions
      are pursued. The first investigates the impact of different classification
      algorithms, and the second direction looks at the channel configuration, i.e.,
      which channels are most beneficial in terms of achieving the highest
      classification accuracy. The evaluation results indicate that the Bayesian Linear
      Discriminant Analysis algorithm achieves the best accuracy. Also, the findings of
      the investigation on the channel configuration, which can potentially reduce the
      amount of data processing on a mobile device with limited computing capacity, is
      especially useful in mobile BCIs.

PMID- 28553695
TI  - Metal speciation in sediment and bioaccumulation in Meretrix lyrata in the Tien
      Estuary in Vietnam.
AB  - The concentrations of seven toxic metals (cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), chromium
      (Cr), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn)) were determined in
      sediments and the soft tissues of a bivalve species (Meretrix lyrata) collected
      from the Tien Estuary in Tien Giang Province, South Vietnam. The total metal
      concentrations in sediments (mg/kg dry weight) increased as Cd (0.06) < Cu (5.0)
      < Pb (13.9) < As (16.3) < Ni (24) < Cr (50) < Zn (62). Speciation analysis
      revealed that these metals existed mainly in the residual fraction (43-94%),
      followed by the Fe-Mn oxide-bound (5-35%) and organic/sulfide-bound (0.6-9.2%)
      fractions. The metal concentrations in M. lyrata (mg/kg dry weight) were in the
      ranges of 1.3-1.9 (Cd), 1.5-2.8 (Ni), 1.8-3.4 (Cr), 11-16 (As), 0.3-0.6 (Pb), 6.9
      8.7 (Cu), and 95-128 (Zn), which are safe for human consumption. The order of the
      mean biota-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) of the metals in the non-residual
      fractions of the sediment for M. lyrata was Cd > Cu > As > Zn > Cr > Ni > Pb. The
      Risk Assessment Codes (RACs) suggest that the highest mobility of Cd (with RAC =
      37%) poses greater environmental risk to aquatic biota. Correlation analysis
      results show that M. lyrata can be used as a biomonitor of Cd and Cu pollution in
      the exchangeable, acid-soluble, and non-residual sediment fractions.

PMID- 28553696
TI  - Acidovorax lacteus sp. nov., isolated from a culture of a bloom-forming
      cyanobacterium (Microcystis sp.).
AB  - A novel Gram-negative, rod-shaped and motile bacterial strain, designated strain
      M36T, was isolated from a culture of a bloom-forming cyanobacterium, Microcystis
      sp., collected from a eutrophic lake in Korea. Its taxonomic position was
      investigated by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The isolate was found to
      grow aerobically at 15-42  degrees C (optimum 25  degrees C), pH 7.0-11.0
      (optimum pH 8.0) and in the presence of 0-1.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0% NaCl) on
      R2A medium. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed
      that the strain M36T is closely related to Acidovorax anthurii DSM 16745T
      (98.1%), Acidovorax konjaci DSM 7481T (97.7%) and Acidovorax avenae DSM 7227T
      (97.0%) and also formed a clear phylogenetic lineage with other Acidovorax
      species. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain M36T and the closely related species
      of the genus Acidovorax was <30%. The major fatty acid components identified
      included summed feature 3 (C16:1 omega7c and/or C16:1 omega6c), C16:0 and summed
      feature 8 (C18:0 omega7c and/or C18:0 omega6c). The DNA G+C content of strain
      M36T was determined to be 66.8 mol%. Based on above polyphasic evidence, strain
      M36T is concluded to represent a new species of genus Acidovorax, for which the
      name Acidovorax lacteus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M36T (=KCTC
      52220T = JCM 31890T).

PMID- 28553697
TI  - Fungal decomposers of leaf litter from an invaded and native mountain forest of
      NW Argentina.
AB  - The impact of plant species invasions on the abundance, composition and activity
      of fungal decomposers of leaf litter is poorly understood. In this study, we
      isolated and compared the relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi of leaf
      litter mixtures from a native forest and a forest invaded by Ligustrum lucidum in
      a lower mountain forest of Tucuman, Argentina. In addition, we evaluated the
      relationship between the relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi and
      properties of the soil of both forest types. Finally, we identified lignin
      degrading fungi and characterized their polyphenol oxidase activities. The
      relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi was higher in leaf litter
      mixtures from the native forest. The abundance of cellulolytic fungi was
      negatively related with soil pH while the abundance of ligninolytic fungi was
      positively related with soil humidity. We identified fifteen genera of
      ligninolytic fungi; four strains were isolated from both forest types, six
      strains only from the invaded forest and five strains were isolated only from the
      native forest. The results found in this study suggest that L. Lucidum invasion
      could alter the abundance and composition of fungal decomposers. Long-term
      studies that include an analysis of the nutritional quality of litter are needed,
      for a more complete overview of the influence of L. Lucidum invasion on fungal
      decomposers and on leaf litter decomposition.

PMID- 28553698
TI  - Megadenus atrae n. sp., an endoparasitic eulimid gastropod (Mollusca) from the
      black sea cucumber Holothuria atra Jaeger (Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae) in the
      Indo-West Pacific.
AB  - An eulimid gastropod, Megadenus atrae n. sp., endoparasitic in the cloacal
      chamber of the black sea cucumber Holothuria atra Jaeger is described from
      Okinawa, Japan, as the fifth species of the genus. Conspecific specimens have
      also been found from southeast India, northeast Australia and New Caledonia. The
      generic assignment is justified by the presence of (i) a thick, long proboscis
      that bears a large fold (pseudopallium) near the base and a collar-like structure
      at the middle, (ii) a thin, globose shell that is covered by the pseudopallium,
      and (iii) sexual dimorphism with the female generally larger than the male. The
      new species is distinguishable from the four previously described congeners by
      its cauldron-shaped pseudopallium, moderately-developed collar of the proboscis
      and rounded basal lip of the shell. The comparisons of the size and sex of
      solitary and paired individuals support a previous hypothesis that the species of
      Megadenus Rosen, 1910 are protandrous with environmental sex determination. The
      present species occurs mostly as monogamous pairs despite its very low population
      density, implying that the presence of a conspecific individual acts as a cue for
      larval settlement. Both mechanisms would increase individual reproductive success
      in such permanent parasites with low prevalence and abundance as the species of
      Megadenus.

PMID- 28553699
TI  - Generation of CMAHKO/GTKO/shTNFRI-Fc/HO-1 quadruple gene modified pigs.
AB  - As an alternative source of organs for transplantation into humans, attention has
      been directed to pigs due to their similarities in biological features and organ
      size. However, severe immune rejection has prevented successful
      xenotransplantation using pig organs and tissues. To overcome immune rejection,
      recently developed genetic engineering systems such as TALEN coupled with somatic
      cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to make embryos could be used to produce pigs
      compatible with xenotransplantation. We used the TALEN system to target the non
      Gal antigen cytidine monophosphate-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH)
      gene in pigs that is naturally deleted in humans. Gal-deleted cells expressing
      both soluble human tumor necrosis factor receptor I IgG1-Fc (shTNFRI-Fc) and
      human hemagglutinin -tagged-human heme oxygenase-1 (hHO-1) were transfected with
      a TALEN target for CMAH. Cells lacking CMAH were negatively selected using N
      glyconeuraminic acid (Neu5Gc)/magnetic beads and the level of Neu5Gc expression
      of isolated cells were analyzed by FACS and DNA sequencing. Cloned embryos using
      3 different genetically modified cell clones were respectively transferred into 3
      recipients, with 55.6% (5/9) becoming pregnant and three cloned pigs were
      produced. Successful genetic disruption of the CMAH gene was confirmed by
      sequencing, showing lack of expression of CMAH in tail-derived fibroblasts of the
      cloned piglets. Besides decreased expression of Neu5Gc in piglets produced by
      SCNT, antibody-mediated complement-dependent cytotoxicity assays and natural
      antibody binding for examining immuno-reactivity of the quadruple gene modified
      pigs derived from endothelial cells and fibroblasts were reduced significantly
      compared to those of wild type animals. We conclude that by combining the TALEN
      system and transgenic cells, targeting of multiple genes could be useful for
      generating organs for xenotransplantation. We produced miniature pigs with
      quadruple modified genes CMAHKO/GTKO/shTNFRI-Fc/hHO-1 that will be suitable for
      xenotransplantation by overcoming hyperacute, acute and anti-inflammatory
      rejection.

PMID- 28553700
TI  - Minimally invasive radioguided parathyroid surgery using low-dose Tc-99m-MIBI -
      comparison with standard high dose.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Surgery remains the most effective treatment for primary
      hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). Minimally invasive radioguided parathyroidectomy
      (MIRP) is a common technique for detecting and excising abnormal parathyroid
      glands. The aim of this study was to compare injections of low-dose and high-dose
      (99m) Tc methoxy isobutyl isonitrile (MIBI) for intraoperative localisation of
      parathyroid adenomas by means of a gamma probe in patients with primary
      hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty patients with PHPT and a
      preoperative diagnosis of parathyroid adenoma were enrolled between 2010 and
      2012. They were considered as Group B and underwent MIRP using 5 mCi Tc-99m MIBI,
      and their perioperative data were compared with twenty patients treated with
      conventional 20 mCi Tc-99m MIBI previously (Group A). RESULTS: Group A was made
      up of 20 patients (mean age, 41.55 years; 14 women and 6 men), and group B
      included 30 patients (mean age, 40.43 years; 19 women and 11 men). The mean serum
      parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcium values were recorded pre- and
      postoperatively. The mean follow-up period for the patients in the two groups was
      18.4 and 16.5 months, respectively. Pre-operative evaluation demonstrated that
      the groups were statistically similar. Intraoperative data and success rate of
      surgery showed no difference between the two groups. No significant complication
      was detected after surgeries and no recurrence happened in either of the two
      groups during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: A new protocol of MIRP using low
      doses of Tc-99m-MIBI resulted in an excellent success rate. Comparing results of
      the study, we conclude that low-dose Tc-99m-MIBI may be preferred for
      identification of parathyroid adenomas intraoperatively by means of a gamma probe
      in PHPT patients because it appears to be as effective as high-dose Tc-99m-MIBI.

PMID- 28553701
TI  - Opioid antagonists with minimal sedation for opioid withdrawal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Managed withdrawal is a necessary step prior to drug-free treatment
      or as the endpoint of long-term substitution treatment. OBJECTIVES: To assess the
      effects of opioid antagonists plus minimal sedation for opioid withdrawal.
      Comparators were placebo as well as more established approaches to
      detoxification, such as tapered doses of methadone, adrenergic agonists,
      buprenorphine and symptomatic medications. SEARCH METHODS: We updated our
      searches of the following databases to December 2016: CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase,
      PsycINFO and Web of Science. We also searched two trials registers and checked
      the reference lists of included studies for further references to relevant
      studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised and quasi-randomised
      controlled clinical trials along with prospective controlled cohort studies
      comparing opioid antagonists plus minimal sedation versus other approaches or
      different opioid antagonist regimens for withdrawal in opioid-dependent
      participants. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard methodological
      procedures expected by Cochrane. MAIN RESULTS: Ten studies (6 randomised
      controlled trials and 4 prospective cohort studies, involving 955 participants)
      met the inclusion criteria for the review. We considered 7 of the 10 studies to
      be at high risk of bias in at least one of the domains we assessed.Nine studies
      compared an opioid antagonist-adrenergic agonist combination versus a treatment
      regimen based primarily on an alpha2-adrenergic agonist (clonidine or
      lofexidine). Other comparisons (placebo, tapered doses of methadone,
      buprenorphine) made by included studies were too diverse for any meaningful
      analysis. This review therefore focuses on the nine studies comparing an opioid
      antagonist (naltrexone or naloxone) plus clonidine or lofexidine versus treatment
      primarily based on clonidine or lofexidine.Five studies took place in an
      inpatient setting, two studies were in outpatients with day care, two used day
      care only for the first day of opioid antagonist administration, and one study
      described the setting as outpatient without indicating the level of care
      provided.The included studies were heterogeneous in terms of the type of opioid
      antagonist treatment regimen, the comparator, the outcome measures assessed, and
      the means of assessing outcomes. As a result, the validity of any estimates of
      overall effect is doubtful, therefore we did not calculate pooled results for any
      of the analyses.The quality of the evidence for treatment with an opioid
      antagonist-adrenergic agonist combination versus an alpha2-adrenergic agonist is
      very low. Two studies reported data on peak withdrawal severity, and four studies
      reported data on the average severity over the period of withdrawal. Peak
      withdrawal induced by opioid antagonists in combination with an adrenergic
      agonist appears to be more severe than withdrawal managed with clonidine or
      lofexidine alone, but the average severity over the withdrawal period is less. In
      some situations antagonist-induced withdrawal may be associated with
      significantly higher rates of treatment completion compared to withdrawal managed
      with adrenergic agonists. However, this result was not consistent across studies,
      and the extent of any benefit is highly uncertain.We could not extract any data
      on the occurrence of adverse events, but two studies reported delirium or
      confusion following the first dose of naltrexone. Delirium may be more likely
      with higher initial doses and with naltrexone rather than naloxone (which has a
      shorter half-life), but we could not confirm this from the available
      evidence.Insufficient data were available to make any conclusions on the best
      duration of treatment. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Using opioid antagonists plus alpha2
      adrenergic agonists is a feasible approach for managing opioid withdrawal.
      However, it is unclear whether this approach reduces the duration of withdrawal
      or facilitates transfer to naltrexone treatment to a greater extent than
      withdrawal managed primarily with an adrenergic agonist.A high level of
      monitoring and support is desirable for several hours following administration of
      opioid antagonists because of the possibility of vomiting, diarrhoea and
      delirium.Using opioid antagonists to induce and accelerate opioid withdrawal is
      not currently an active area of research or clinical practice, and the research
      community should give greater priority to investigating approaches, such as those
      based on buprenorphine, that facilitate the transition to sustained-release
      preparations of naltrexone.

PMID- 28553702
TI  - Music therapy for people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Music therapy is a therapeutic approach that uses musical interaction
      as a means of communication and expression. Within the area of serious mental
      disorders, the aim of the therapy is to help people improve their emotional and
      relational competencies, and address issues they may not be able to using words
      alone. OBJECTIVES: To review the effects of music therapy, or music therapy added
      to standard care, compared with placebo therapy, standard care or no treatment
      for people with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia. SEARCH METHODS:
      We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Trials Study-Based Register
      (December 2010 and 15 January, 2015) and supplemented this by contacting relevant
      study authors, handsearching of music therapy journals and manual searches of
      reference lists. SELECTION CRITERIA: All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that
      compared music therapy with standard care, placebo therapy, or no treatment. DATA
      COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Review authors independently selected, quality assessed
      and data extracted studies. We excluded data where more than 30% of participants
      in any group were lost to follow-up. We synthesised non-skewed continuous
      endpoint data from valid scales using a standardised mean difference (SMD). We
      employed a fixed-effect model for all analyses. If statistical heterogeneity was
      found, we examined treatment dosage (i.e. number of therapy sessions) and
      treatment approach as possible sources of heterogeneity. MAIN RESULTS: Ten new
      studies have been added to this update; 18 studies with a total 1215 participants
      are now included. These examined effects of music therapy over the short, medium,
      and long-term, with treatment dosage varying from seven to 240 sessions. Overall,
      most information is from studies at low or unclear risk of biasA positive effect
      on global state was found for music therapy compared to standard care (medium
      term, 2 RCTs, n = 133, RR 0.38 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24 to 0.59, low
      quality evidence, number needed to treat for an additional beneficial outcome
      NNTB 2, 95% CI 2 to 4). No binary data were available for other outcomes. Medium
      term continuous data identified good effects for music therapy on negative
      symptoms using the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (3 RCTs, n =
      177, SMD - 0.55 95% CI -0.87 to -0.24, low-quality evidence). General mental
      state endpoint scores on the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale were better for
      music therapy (2 RCTs, n = 159, SMD -0.97 95% CI -1.31 to -0.63, low-quality
      evidence), as were average endpoint scores on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
      (1 RCT, n = 70, SMD -1.25 95% CI -1.77 to -0.73, moderate-quality evidence).
      Medium-term average endpoint scores using the Global Assessment of Functioning
      showed no effect for music therapy on general functioning (2 RCTs, n = 118, SMD 
      0.19 CI -0.56 to 0.18, moderate-quality evidence). However, positive effects for
      music therapy were found for both social functioning (Social Disability Screening
      Schedule scores; 2 RCTs, n = 160, SMD -0.72 95% CI -1.04 to -0.40), and quality
      of life (General Well-Being Schedule scores: 1 RCT, n = 72, SMD 1.82 95% CI 1.27
      to 2.38, moderate-quality evidence). There were no data available for adverse
      effects, service use, engagement with services, or cost. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:
      Moderate- to low-quality evidence suggests that music therapy as an addition to
      standard care improves the global state, mental state (including negative and
      general symptoms), social functioning, and quality of life of people with
      schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like disorders. However, effects were inconsistent
      across studies and depended on the number of music therapy sessions as well as
      the quality of the music therapy provided. Further research should especially
      address the long-term effects of music therapy, dose-response relationships, as
      well as the relevance of outcome measures in relation to music therapy.

PMID- 28553703
TI  - Photothermal Conversion Triggered Precisely Targeted Healing of Epoxy Resin Based
      on Thermoreversible Diels-Alder Network and Amino-Functionalized Carbon
      Nanotubes.
AB  - In the present work, we demonstrated the recyclability and precisely targeted
      reparability of amino functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes-epoxy resin based
      on dynamic covalent Diels-Alder (DA) network (NH2-MWCNTs/DA-epoxy) by exploring
      the photothermal conversion of CNTs to trigger the reactions of dynamic chemical
      bonds. The covalent cross-linked networks of NH2-MWCNTs/DA-epoxy resin change
      their topology to linear polymer by thermally activated reverse Diels-Alder (r
      DA) reactions at high temperatures, which endues the resin with almost 100%
      recyclability. The self-healing property of the epoxy resin was confirmed by the
      complete elimination of cracks after the reconstruction of DA network induced by
      heating or near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. For heat-triggered self-healing
      process, heat energy may also act on those uninjured parts of the resin and cause
      the dissociation of the whole DA network. Therefore, redundant r-DA and DA
      reactions, which have no contribution to self-healing, are also triggered during
      thermal treatment, resulting in not only a waste of energy but also the
      deformation of the sample under external force. Meanwhile, for the NIR-triggered
      self-healing process, the samples can maintain well their original shape without
      observable deformation after irradiation. The NIR-triggered healing process,
      which uses MWCNTs as the photothermal convertor, have very good regional
      controllability by simply tuning the MWCNTs content, the distance from NIR laser
      source to sample, and the laser power. The injured samples can be locally
      repaired with high precision and efficiency without an obvious influence on those
      uninjured parts.

PMID- 28553704
TI  - One-Step Solvent Evaporation-Assisted 3D Printing of Piezoelectric PVDF
      Nanocomposite Structures.
AB  - Development of a 3D printable material system possessing inherent piezoelectric
      properties to fabricate integrable sensors in a single-step printing process
      without poling is of importance to the creation of a wide variety of smart
      structures. Here, we study the effect of addition of barium titanate
      nanoparticles in nucleating piezoelectric beta-polymorph in 3D printable
      polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and fabrication of the layer-by-layer and self
      supporting piezoelectric structures on a micro- to millimeter scale by solvent
      evaporation-assisted 3D printing at room temperature. The nanocomposite
      formulation obtained after a comprehensive investigation of composition and
      processing techniques possesses a piezoelectric coefficient, d31, of 18 pC N-1,
      which is comparable to that of typical poled and stretched commercial PVDF film
      sensors. A 3D contact sensor that generates up to 4 V upon gentle finger taps
      demonstrates the efficacy of the fabrication technique. Our one-step 3D printing
      of piezoelectric nanocomposites can form ready-to-use, complex-shaped, flexible,
      and lightweight piezoelectric devices. When combined with other 3D printable
      materials, they could serve as stand-alone or embedded sensors in aerospace,
      biomedicine, and robotic applications.

PMID- 28553705
TI  - Origin of Open-Circuit Voltage Loss in Polymer Solar Cells and Perovskite Solar
      Cells.
AB  - Herein, the open-circuit voltage (VOC) loss in both polymer solar cells and
      perovskite solar cells is quantitatively analyzed by measuring the temperature
      dependence of VOC to discuss the difference in the primary loss mechanism of VOC
      between them. As a result, the photon energy loss for polymer solar cells is in
      the range of about 0.7-1.4 eV, which is ascribed to temperature-independent and 
      dependent loss mechanisms, while that for perovskite solar cells is as small as
      about 0.5 eV, which is ascribed to a temperature-dependent loss mechanism. This
      difference is attributed to the different charge generation and recombination
      mechanisms between the two devices. The potential strategies for the improvement
      of VOC in both solar cells are further discussed on the basis of the experimental
      data.

PMID- 28553706
TI  - Direct Imaging of Protein Stability and Folding Kinetics in Hydrogels.
AB  - We apply fast relaxation imaging (FReI) as a novel technique for investigating
      the folding stability and dynamics of proteins within polyacrylamide hydrogels,
      which have diverse and widespread uses in biotechnology. FReI detects protein
      unfolding in situ by imaging changes in fluorescence resonance energy transfer
      (FRET) after temperature jump perturbations. Unlike bulk measurements,
      diffraction-limited epifluorescence imaging combined with fast temperature
      perturbations reveals the impact of local environment effects on protein
      biomaterial compatibility. Our experiments investigated a crowding sensor protein
      (CrH2) and phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK), which undergoes cooperative unfolding.
      The crowding sensor quantifies the confinement effect of the cross-linked
      hydrogel: the 4% polyacrylamide hydrogel is similar to aqueous solution (no
      confinement), while the 10% hydrogel is strongly confining. FRAP measurements and
      protein concentration gradients in the 4% and 10% hydrogels further support this
      observation. PGK reveals that noncovalent interactions of the protein with the
      polymer surface are more important than confinement for determining protein
      properties in the gel: the mere presence of hydrogel increases protein stability,
      speeds up folding relaxation, and promotes irreversible binding to the polymer
      even at the solution-gel interface, whereas the difference between the 4% and the
      10% hydrogels is negligible despite their large difference in confinement. The
      imaging capabilities of FReI, demonstrated to be diffraction limited, further
      revealed spatially homogeneous protein unfolding across the hydrogels at 500 nm
      length scales and revealed differences in protein properties at the gel-solution
      boundary.

PMID- 28553708
TI  - High-Performance Zinc Tin Oxide Semiconductor Grown by Atmospheric-Pressure Mist
      CVD and the Associated Thin-Film Transistor Properties.
AB  - Zinc tin oxide (Zn-Sn-O, or ZTO) semiconductor layers were synthesized based on
      solution processes, of which one type involves the conventional spin coating
      method and the other is grown by mist chemical vapor deposition (mist-CVD).
      Liquid precursor solutions are used in each case, with tin chloride and zinc
      chloride (1:1) as solutes in solvent mixtures of acetone and deionized water.
      Mist-CVD ZTO films are mostly polycrystalline, while those synthesized by spin
      coating are amorphous. Thin-film transistors based on mist-CVD ZTO active layers
      exhibit excellent electron transport properties with a saturation mobility of
      14.6 cm2/(V s), which is superior to that of their spin-coated counterparts (6.88
      cm2/(V s)). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses suggest that the mist
      CVD ZTO films contain relatively small amounts of oxygen vacancies and, hence,
      lower free-carrier concentrations. The enhanced electron mobility of mist-CVD ZTO
      is therefore anticipated to be associated with the electronic band structure,
      which is examined by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analyses,
      rather than the density of electron carriers.

PMID- 28553707
TI  - Wafer-Scale Synthesized MoS2/Porous Silicon Nanostructures for Efficient and
      Selective Ethanol Sensing at Room Temperature.
AB  - This paper presents the performance of a highly selective ethanol sensor based on
      MoS2-functionalized porous silicon (PSi). The uniqueness of the sensor includes
      its method of fabrication, wafer scalability, affinity for ethanol, and high
      sensitivity. MoS2 nanoflakes (NFs) were synthesized by sulfurization of oxidized
      radio-frequency (RF)-sputtered Mo thin films. The MoS2 NFs synthesis technique is
      superior in comparison to other methods, because it is chip-scalable and low in
      cost. Interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were used to record resistive measurements
      from MoS2/PSi sensors in the presence of volatile organic compound (VOC) and
      moisture at room temperature. With the effect of MoS2 on PSi, an enhancement in
      sensitivity and a selective response for ethanol were observed, with a minimum
      detection limit of 1 ppm. The ethanol sensitivity was found to increase by a
      factor of 5, in comparison to the single-layer counterpart levels. This
      impressive response is explained on the basis of an analytical resistive model,
      the band gap of MoS2/PSi/Si, the interface formed between MoS2 and PSi, and the
      chemical interaction of the vapor molecules and the surface. This two-dimensional
      (2D) composite material with PSi paves the way for efficient, highly responsive,
      and stable sensors.

PMID- 28553709
TI  - Self-Assembled Graphene Film as Low Friction Solid Lubricant in Macroscale
      Contact.
AB  - Promoted by the demand for solid lubricants, graphene has been proved to be a
      promising material for potential applications in reducing friction and wear.
      Here, a novel lubricating system where graphene sliding against graphene is
      developed to achieve low friction in macroscale contact. And the large area
      graphene film used here were prepared by a unique self-assembly technique based
      on Marangoni effect. Low friction coefficient of about 0.05 is obtained, and it
      is demonstrated that the film thickness, applied normal load and annealing
      process all have important influences on the tribological properties of graphene.
      The expedient fabrication procedure of large-area graphene film with excellent
      transferability and high-performance friction-reducing behaviors of the developed
      lubricating system both have a promising perspective in engineering applications.

PMID- 28553710
TI  - Black Phosphorus Quantum Dot Induced Oxidative Stress and Toxicity in Living
      Cells and Mice.
AB  - Black phosphorus (BP), as an emerging successor to layered two-dimensional
      materials, has attracted extensive interest in cancer therapy. Toxicological
      studies on BP are of great importance for potential biomedical applications, yet
      not systemically explored. Herein, toxicity and oxidative stress of BP quantum
      dots (BPQDs) at cellular, tissue, and whole-body levels are evaluated by
      performing the systemic in vivo and in vitro experiments. In vitro investigations
      show that BPQDs at high concentration (200 MUg/mL) exhibit significant apoptotic
      effects on HeLa cells. In vivo investigations indicate that oxidative stress,
      including lipid peroxidation, reduction of catalase activity, DNA breaks, and
      bone marrow nucleated cells (BMNC) damage, can be induced by BPQDs transiently
      but recovered gradually to healthy levels. No apparent pathological damages are
      observed in all organs, especially in the spleen and kidneys, during the 30-day
      period. This work clearly shows that BPQDs can cause acute toxicities by
      oxidative stress responses, but the inflammatory reactions can be recovered
      gradually with time for up to 30 days. Thus, BPQDs do not give rise to long-term
      appreciable toxicological responses.

PMID- 28553711
TI  - The Hydration Effect and Selectivity of Alkali Metal Ions on Poly(ethylene
      glycol) Models in Cyclic and Linear Topology.
AB  - The effects of hydration and alkali metal ion (K+, Na+, Li+) bonding to two
      structural variants of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), viz., a cyclic (18-crown-6)
      configuration and a linear chain model with two different lengths, are studied by
      ab initio density functional theory calculations. A total of 24 structural models
      are constructed, with different conformations of the PEG chain and its molecular
      environment. Detailed comparisons of the results enable us to obtain conclusive
      evidence on the effects of the different components of the solution environment
      on the PEG structural variants in terms of the binding energy, partial charge
      distribution, solvation effect, interfacial hydrogen bonding, and cohesion
      between different structural units in the system composed of PEG, alkali metal
      ions, and water. On the basis of these comprehensive and precise comparisons, we
      conclude that the ion-PEG interaction is strongly influenced by the presence of
      solvent and that the charge transfer in the PEG complex depends crucially on its
      topology, the type of alkali metal ion, and the solvent. The interaction between
      alkali metal ions in the two PEG models does not always scale with the ion size
      but depends on their local environment.

PMID- 28553712
TI  - Shape Memory Polymers Based on Supramolecular Interactions.
AB  - Shape memory polymers (SMPs), with the capability to change from one or more
      temporary shapes to predetermined shapes in response to an external stimulus,
      have attracted much interest from both academia and industries. When introducing
      supramolecular interactions that have been featured as dynamic and reversible
      into the design of novel SMPs, intriguing and unique functionalities have been
      engendered and thereby broaden the potential applications of the SMPs to new
      territories. In this review, we summarize recent progress made in SMPs based on
      supramolecular interactions, provide insight into the material design and shape
      memory mechanism, elucidate and evaluate their properties and performance, and
      point out opportunities and applications of SMPs.

PMID- 28553713
TI  - Enzymatic Modification of Corn Starch Influences Human Fecal Fermentation
      Profiles.
AB  - Enzymatically modified starches have been widely used in food applications to
      develop new products, but information regarding digestion and fecal fermentation
      of these products is sparse. The objective of this study was to determine the
      fermentation properties of corn starch modified with alpha-amylase,
      amyloglucosidase, or cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase and the possible role of
      hydrolysis products. Samples differed in their digestibility and availability to
      be fermented by the microbiota, resulting in differences in microbial metabolites
      produced during in vitro fermentation. The presence or absence of hydrolysis
      products and gelatinization affected starch composition and subsequent metabolite
      production by the microbiota. Amyloglucosidase-treated starch led to the greatest
      production of short- and branched-chain fatty acid production by the microbiota.
      Results from this study could be taken into consideration to confirm the possible
      nutritional claims and potential health benefits of these starches as raw
      ingredients for food development.

PMID- 28553714
TI  - Detection of microRNA: A Point-of-Care Testing Method Based on a pH-Responsive
      and Highly Efficient Isothermal Amplification.
AB  - Laborious and costly detection of miRNAs has brought challenges to its practical
      applications, especially for home health care, rigorous military medicine, and
      the third world. In this work, we present a pH-responsive miRNA amplification
      method, which allows the detection of miRNA just using a pH test paper. The
      operation is easy and no other costly instrument is involved, making the method
      very friendly. In our strategy, a highly efficient isothermal amplification of
      miRNA is achieved using an improved netlike rolling circle amplification (NRCA)
      technique. Large amounts of H+ can be produced as a byproduct during the
      amplification to induce significant changes of pH, which can be monitored
      directly using a pH test paper or pH-sensitive indicators. The degree of color
      changes depends on the amount of miRNA, making it possible for quantitative
      analysis. As an example, the method is successfully applied to quantify a miRNA
      (miR-21) in cancer cells. The results agree well with that from the prevalent qRT
      PCR analysis. It is the first time that a paper-based point-of-care testing
      (POCT) is developed for the detection of miRNAs, which might promote the
      popularization of miRNAs working as biomarkers for diagnostic purposes.

PMID- 28553715
TI  - Novel Approach for Characterizing pH-Dependent Uptake of Ionizable Chemicals in
      Aquatic Organisms.
AB  - Here, we present and evaluate a combined experimental and modeling approach for
      characterizing the uptake of ionizable chemicals from water and sediments into
      aquatic organisms under different pH conditions. We illustrate and evaluate the
      approach for two pharmaceuticals (diclofenac and fluoxetine) and one personal
      care product ingredient (triclosan) for the oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus.
      Initially, experimental data on the uptake of the three chemicals at two pH
      values were fitted using a toxicokinetic model to derive uptake and depuration
      constants for the neutral and ionized species of each molecule. The derived
      constants were then used to predict uptake from water and sediment for other pH
      conditions. Evaluation of predictions against corresponding experimental data
      showed good predictions of uptake for all test chemicals from water for different
      pH conditions and reasonable predictions of uptake of fluoxetine and diclofenac
      from a sediment. Predictions demonstrated that the level of uptake of the study
      chemicals, across pH ranges in European streams, could differ by up to a factor
      of 3035. Overall, the approach could be extremely useful for assessing internal
      exposure of aquatic organisms across landscapes with differing pH. This could
      help support better characterization of the risks of ionizable chemicals in the
      aquatic environment.

PMID- 28553716
TI  - Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Lysosomal pH Measurement and Imaging in Living
      Cells Using Single-Wavelength Excitation.
AB  - A novel lysosome-targeting ratiometric fluorescent probe (CQ-Lyso) based on the
      chromenoquinoline chromorphore has been developed for the selective and sensitive
      detection of intracellular pH in living cells. In acidic media, the protonation
      of the quinoline ring of CQ-Lyso induces an enhanced intramolecular charge
      transfer (ICT) process, which results in large red-shifts in both the absorption
      (104 nm) and emission (53 nm) spectra which forms the basis of a new ratiometric
      fluorescence pH sensor. This probe efficiently stains lysosomes with high
      Pearson's colocalization coefficients using LysoTrackerDeep Red (0.97) and
      LysoTrackerBlue DND-22 (0.95) as references. Importantly, we show that CQ-Lyso
      quantitatively measures and images lysosomal pH values in a ratiometric manner
      using single-wavelength excitation.

PMID- 28553717
TI  - Structural Instabilities Related to Highly Anharmonic Phonons in Halide
      Perovskites.
AB  - Hybrid perovskites have emerged over the past five years as absorber layers for
      novel high-efficiency low-cost solar cells combining the advantages of organic
      and inorganic semiconductors. Unfortunately, electrical transport in these
      materials is still poorly understood. Employing the linear response approach of
      density functional theory, we reveal strong anharmonic effects and a double-well
      phonon instability at the center of the Brillouin zone for both cubic and
      orthorhombic phases of inorganic CsPbI3. Previously reported soft phonon modes
      are stabilized at the actual lower-symmetry equilibrium structure, which occurs
      in a very flat energy landscape, highlighting the strong competition between the
      different phases of CsPbI3. Factoring these low-energy phonons into electron
      phonon interactions and band gap calculations could help better understand the
      electrical transport properties in these materials. Furthermore, the perovskite
      oscillations through the corresponding energy barrier could explain the
      underlying ferroelectricity and the dynamical Rashba effect predicted in halide
      perovskites for photovoltaics.

PMID- 28553718
TI  - Engineering Silver Nanowire Networks: From Transparent Electrodes to Resistive
      Switching Devices.
AB  - Metal nanowires (NWs) networks with high conductance have shown potential
      applications in modern electronic components, especially the transparent
      electrodes over the past decade. In metal NW networks, the electrical
      connectivity of nanoscale NW junction can be modulated for various applications.
      In this work, silver nanowire (Ag NW) networks were selected to achieve the
      desired functions. The Ag NWs were first synthesized by a classic polyol process,
      and spin-coated on glass to fabricate transparent electrodes. The as-fabricated
      electrode showed a sheet resistance of 7.158 Omega ?-1 with an optical
      transmittance of 79.19% at 550 nm, indicating a comparable figure of merit (FOM,
      or PhiTC) (13.55 * 10-3 Omega-1). Then, two different post-treatments were
      designed to tune the Ag NWs for not only transparent electrode but also for
      threshold resistive switching (RS) application. On the one hand, the Ag NW film
      was mechanically pressed to significantly improve the conductance by reducing the
      junction resistance. On the other hand, an Ag@AgOx core-shell structure was
      deliberately designed by partial oxidation of Ag NWs through simple ultraviolet
      (UV)-ozone treatment. The Ag core can act as metallic interconnect and the
      insulating AgOx shell acts as a switching medium to provide a conductive pathway
      for Ag filament migration. By fabricating Ag/Ag@AgOx/Ag planar structure, a
      volatile threshold switching characteristic was observed and an on/off ratio of
      ~100 was achieved. This work showed that through different post-treatments, Ag NW
      network can be engineered for diverse functions, transforming from transparent
      electrodes to RS devices.

PMID- 28553719
TI  - Quality indicators in digestive endoscopy: introduction to structure, process,
      and outcome common indicators.
AB  - The general goal of the project wherein this paper is framed is the proposal of
      useful quality and safety procedures and indicators to facilitate quality
      improvement in digestive endoscopy units. This initial offspring sets forth
      procedures and indicators common to all digestive endoscopy procedures. First, a
      diagram of pre- and post-digestive endoscopy steps was developed. A group of
      health care quality and/or endoscopy experts under the auspices of the Sociedad
      Espanola de Patologia Digestiva (Spanish Society of Digestive Diseases) carried
      out a qualitative review of the literature regarding the search for quality
      indicators in endoscopic procedures. Then, a paired analysis was used for the
      selection of literature references and their subsequent review. Twenty indicators
      were identified, including seven for structure, eleven for process (five pre
      procedure, three intra-procedure, three post-procedure), and two for outcome.
      Quality of evidence was analyzed for each indicator using the Grading of
      Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) classification.

PMID- 28553721
TI  - Hatred-a public health issue.

PMID- 28553720
TI  - Cognitive impairment and clinical characteristics in patients with chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - We aimed to investigate (1) the relationship between cognitive impairment (CI)
      and disease severity and (2) the potential differences in exercise performance,
      daily activities, health status, and psychological well-being between patients
      with and without CI. Clinically stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) patients, referred for pulmonary rehabilitation, underwent a
      neuropsychological examination. Functional exercise capacity (6-minute walk test
      [6MWT]), daily activities (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure [COPM]),
      health status (COPD Assessment Test [CAT]) and St George's Respiratory
      Questionnaire-COPD specific [SGRQ-C]), and psychological well-being (Hospital
      Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS], Beck Depression Inventory [BDI], and Symptom
      Checklist 90 [SCL-90]) were compared between patients with and without CI. Of 183
      COPD patients (mean age 63.6 (9.4) years, FEV1 54.8 (23.0%) predicted), 76
      (41.5%) patients had CI. The prevalence was comparable across Global Initiative
      for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) grades 1-4 (44.8%, 40.0%, 41.0%,
      43.5%, respectively, p = 0.97) and GOLD groups A-D (50.0%, 44.7%, 33.3%, 40.2%,
      respectively, p = 0.91). Patients with and without CI were comparable for
      demographics, smoking status, FEV1% predicted, mMRC, 6MWT, COPM, CAT, HADS, BDI,
      and SCL-90 scores. Clinical characteristics of COPD patients with and without CI
      are comparable. Assessment of CI in COPD, thus, requires an active case-finding
      approach.

PMID- 28553722
TI  - Uncertainty propagation of phase contrast-MRI derived inlet boundary conditions
      in computational hemodynamics models of thoracic aorta.
AB  - This study investigates the impact that uncertainty in phase contrast-MRI derived
      inlet boundary conditions has on patient-specific computational hemodynamics
      models of the healthy human thoracic aorta. By means of Monte Carlo simulations,
      we provide advice on where, when and how, it is important to account for this
      source of uncertainty. The study shows that the uncertainty propagates not only
      to the intravascular flow, but also to the shear stress distribution at the
      vessel wall. More specifically, the results show an increase in the uncertainty
      of the predicted output variables, with respect to the input uncertainty, more
      marked for blood pressure and wall shear stress. The methodological approach
      proposed here can be easily extended to study uncertainty propagation in both
      healthy and pathological computational hemodynamic models.

PMID- 28553723
TI  - Two antidiabetic constituents from Roylea cinerea (D.Don) Baill.
AB  - Two antidiabetic compounds named 4-methoxybenzo[b]azet-2(1H)-one (1) and 3beta
      hydroxy-35-(cyclohexyl-5'-propan-7'-one)-33-ethyl-34-methyl-bacteriohop-16-ene
      (2) together with stigmasterol and beta-sitosterol were isolated from the aerial
      part of Roylea cinerea (D.Don) Baill. The structures of these compounds were
      elucidated by advanced spectroscopic methods, including two-dimensional NMR and
      MS techniques. These compounds were evaluated for their antidiabetic efficacy
      using in vitro and in vivo methods. Both compounds (1 and 2) showed a significant
      decline in blood glucose level of alloxan-induced diabetic rats at 10 mg/kg, p.o.
      when compared with glibenclamide at a similar dose. The in vitro studies revealed
      that compound 1 reduced alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase by 83.0 and 78.5%,
      respectively, whereas compound 2 reduced the same by 58.2 and 58.4%,
      respectively, at 100 MUM. The present study supports the role of R. cinerea in
      Ayurvedic medicine for diabetes.

PMID- 28553724
TI  - A new formula for predicting the position of severe arterial stenosis.
AB  - Noninvasive location of an occlusion or a severe stenosis in the arterial system
      is of a great interest for surgical interventions. Here, we present a new method
      to determine the location of arterial 99% stenosis in the arterial (sub) system.
      The method requires a measurement of propagation constant and the instantaneous
      flow rate or velocity at two sites of an arterial tree. The method was
      successfully tested using Womersley's oscillatory flow theory and the data
      obtained by a simulation of Fluid structure interaction (FSI). The effect of
      noise has been investigated to simulate experimental conditions. The results
      demonstrate that location of 99% severe stenosis could be accurately obtained.
      The spatial resolution was approximately a few centimeters and the differences
      between exact and computed values didn't exceed 13%. However, the identifications
      of stenotic sites decreased with the distance. Further investigation of the
      developed method in vivo and in vitro is required.

PMID- 28553725
TI  - Biotransformation of ursolic acid by Alternaria longipes AS3.2875.
AB  - Microbial transformation of ursolic acid (1) was carried out by Alternaria
      longipes AS 3.2875. Six transformed products (2-7) from 1 were isolated and their
      structures were identified as 3-carbonyl ursolic acid 28-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl
      ester (2), ursolic acid 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), ursolic acid 28-O-beta-D
      glucopyranosyl ester (4), 2alpha, 3beta-dihydroxy ursolic acid 28-O-beta-D
      glucopyranosyl ester (5), 3beta, 21beta dihydroxy ursolic acid 28-O-beta-D
      glucopyranosyl ester (6), and 3-O-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)- ursolic acid 28-O
      (beta-D-glucopyranosyl) ester (7) based on the analysis of 1D NMR, 2DNMR and MS
      data. The product 2 was a new compound among them and showed stronger
      antibacterial activity against S. aureu, MRSA and MRCA than substrate. In this
      study, we modified structure of ursolic acid through biotransformation to enhance
      its activities and preliminarily discussed the transformation way of the
      products.

PMID- 28553726
TI  - Randomized Controlled Trial of a Clinic-Based Intervention to Promote Healthy
      Beverage Consumption Among Latino Children.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate an educational module for Latino
      parents about the health effects of sweet beverages. Latino parents were
      randomized to receive the beverage module or a control module. Child beverage
      consumption was assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 2 months, and 3 months via a
      beverage recall survey. At 2-week follow-up, children of intervention
      participants had a mean reduction in 7-day total sugar-sweetened beverage and
      100% fruit juice consumption of 16 ounces while controls had a mean increase of 4
      ounces ( P = .01). At 2-month and 3-month follow-up, there was a reduction in
      mean total sugar-sweetened beverage and 100% fruit juice consumption among both
      intervention and control children. An educational module on beverages for Latino
      parents reduced child consumption of sweet beverages at 2-week follow-up.
      However, study participation appears to have also reduced controls' beverage
      consumption suggesting that frequent intensive surveys of beverage intake may be
      an intervention unto itself.

PMID- 28553728
TI  - Phenanthrenes from Arundina graminifolia and in vitro evaluation of their
      antibacterial and anti-haemolytic properties.
AB  - Chemical investigation and activity test of Arundina graminifolia led to the
      isolation of six phenanthrenes: blestriarene A (1), shancidin (2), densiflorol B
      (3), ephemeranthoquinone (4), coelonin (5) and lusianthridin (6). The isolated
      compounds demonstrated antibacterial and anti-haemolytic activities. It was found
      that compounds 1 and 2 had medium antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus
      aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, with MICs of 20-40 MUg/mL and
      MBCs of 40-320 MUg/mL. Bactericidal mechanisms were explored. Rupture of cell
      wall and membrane and leakage of nuclear mass were observed by transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM). Moreover, compounds 1-3 attenuated the erythrocyte
      damage. Compounds 1 and 2 showed significant anti-haemolytic activity with
      inhibition rate about 50% at 16 MUg/mL.

PMID- 28553727
TI  - Tobacco smoking: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite reductions in prevalence in recent years,
      tobacco smoking remains one of the main preventable causes of ill-health and
      premature death worldwide. This paper reviews the extent and nature of harms
      caused by smoking, the benefits of stopping, patterns of smoking, psychological,
      pharmacological and social factors that contribute to uptake and maintenance of
      smoking, the effectiveness of population and individual level interventions aimed
      at combatting tobacco smoking, and the effectiveness of methods used to reduce
      the harm caused by continued use of tobacco or nicotine in some form. RESULTS AND
      CONCLUSIONS: Smoking behaviour is maintained primarily by the positive and
      negative reinforcing properties of nicotine delivered rapidly in a way that is
      affordable and palatable, with the negative health consequences mostly being
      sufficiently uncertain and distant in time not to create sufficient immediate
      concern to deter the behaviour. Raising immediate concerns about smoking by tax
      increases, social marketing and brief advice from health professionals can
      increase the rate at which smokers try to stop. Providing behavioural and
      pharmacological support can improve the rate at which those quit attempts
      succeed. Implementing national programmes containing these components are
      effective in reducing tobacco smoking prevalence and reducing smoking-related
      death and disease.

PMID- 28553729
TI  - Chronic Achilles Tendon Ruptures.

PMID- 28553730
TI  - Bilateral hydronephrosis following uterine balloon tamponade in a case of massive
      post-partum haemorrhage with coagulopathy.

PMID- 28553731
TI  - MGF E peptide pretreatment improves collagen synthesis and cell proliferation of
      injured human ACL fibroblasts via MEK-ERK1/2 signaling pathway.
AB  - Injured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is hard to heal due to the poor
      proliferative potential of ACL fibroblasts. To verify whether mechano-growth
      factor (MGF) E peptide can restore the cell proliferation of injured ACL
      fibroblasts, ACL fibroblasts pretreated with MGF E peptide were subjected to
      injurious stretch and the outcomes were evaluated at 0 and 24 h. After injured,
      the type III collagen synthesis was increased at 0 h while inhibited at 24 h. The
      matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) activity/expression was up-regulated, but the
      cell proliferation was inhibited. Fortunately, exogenous MGF E peptide decreased
      the type I/III collagen synthesis at 0 h but improved the type III collagen
      synthesis at 24 h. It decreased the MMP-2 activity/expression of injured ACL
      fibroblasts. Besides, MGF E peptide accelerated the cell proliferation via MEK
      ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Our results implied that MGF E peptide pretreatment
      could provide a new efficient approach for ACL regeneration.

PMID- 28553732
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha: a promising therapeutic target for autoimmune
      diseases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) plays a crucial role
      in both innate and adaptive immunity. Emerging evidence indicates that HIF-1alpha
      is associated with the inflammation and pathologic activities of autoimmune
      diseases. Areas covered: Considering that the types of autoimmune diseases are
      complicated and various, this review aims to cover the typical kinds of
      autoimmune diseases, discuss the molecular mechanisms, biological functions and
      expression of HIF-1alpha in these diseases, and further explore its therapeutic
      potential. Expert opinion: Inflammation and hypoxia are interdependent. HIF
      1alpha as a key regulator of hypoxia, exerts a crucial role in the balance
      between Th17 and Treg, and involves in the inflammation and pathologic activities
      of autoimmune diseases. Although there are many challenges remaining to be
      overcome, targeting HIF-1alpha could be a promising strategy for autoimmune
      diseases therapies.

PMID- 28553733
TI  - Tg.rasH2 Mice and not CByB6F1 Mice Should Be Used for 28-Day Dose Range Finding
      Studies Prior to 26-Week Tg.rasH2 Carcinogenicity Studies.
AB  - Our recent retrospective analysis of data, collected from 29 Tg.rasH2 mouse
      carcinogenicity studies, determined how successful the strategy of choosing the
      high dose for the 26-week studies was based on the estimated maximum tolerated
      dose (EMTD) derived from earlier 28-day dose range finding (DRF) studies
      conducted in CByB6F1 mice. Our analysis demonstrated that the high doses applied
      at EMTD in the 26-week Tg.rasH2 studies failed to detect carcinogenic effects. To
      investigate why the dose selection process failed in the 26-week carcinogenicity
      studies, the initial body weights, terminal body weights, body weight gains, food
      consumption, and mortality from the first 4 weeks of 26-week studies with
      Tg.rasH2 mice were compared with 28-day DRF studies conducted with CByB6F1 mice.
      Both the 26-week and the earlier respective 28-day studies were conducted with
      the exact same vehicle, test article, and similar dose levels. The analysis of
      our results further emphasizes that the EMTD and subsequent lower doses,
      determined on the basis of the 28-day studies in CByB6F1 mice, may not be an
      accurate strategy for selecting appropriate dose levels for the 26-week
      carcinogenicity studies in Tg.rasH2 mice. Based on the analysis presented in this
      article, we propose that the Tg.rasH2 mice and not the CByB6F1 mice should be
      used in future DRF studies. The Tg.rasH2 mice demonstrate more toxicity than the
      CByB6F1 mice, possibly because of their smaller size compared to CByB6F1 mice.
      Also, the Tg.rasH2 males appear to be more sensitive than the female Tg.rasH2
      mice.

PMID- 28553734
TI  - Characteristics of abnormal oral glucose tolerance test in GDM diagnosis and
      clinical correlation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics of abnormal oral glucose tolerance
      test (OGTT) values at gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis and their
      associations with clinical characteristics, and to evaluate the effect on GDM
      diagnosis if any OGTT value was omitted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional
      study was conducted in 415 women diagnosed with GDM. The OGTT results were
      recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 415 included women, mean gestational age
      at GDM diagnosis was 19.2 weeks and 57.6% were diagnosed before 20 weeks. The
      highest proportions of abnormal values were found at the 1st and 2nd hour (85.3%
      and 96.6%, respectively). If the 3rd hour OGTT value was omitted, 16.7% of GDM
      cases would be missed. Number of abnormal OGTT values and abnormal FPG were
      significantly associated with obesity. Only pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity
      independently associated with insulin requirement (adjusted OR: 2.28, 95%CI: 1.02
      5.06; p = .044; and adjusted OR: 6.29, 95%CI: 2.67-14.85; p < .001,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Over half of the GDM women had three or four abnormal
      OGTT values. Omission of the 3rd hour OGTT value would result in 16.7% of
      patients not being diagnosed with GDM. Number of abnormal OGTT values and
      abnormal FPG were associated with obesity, and insulin requirement was associated
      with pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity.

PMID- 28553735
TI  - Group observed structured encounter (GOSCE) for third-year medical students
      improves self-assessment of clinical communication.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study assesses the effectiveness of a GOSCE in teaching medical
      students clinical communication, as well as group collaboration and peer
      feedback. METHODS: The GOSCE was administered during the Internal Medicine
      clerkship. Groups consisted of 4-6 students and one faculty member. Students
      completed pre- and post-GOSCE surveys to assess confidence in clinical
      communication and a GOSCE evaluation to rate the overall experience. Pre- and
      post-GOSCE program survey scores were compared, and the mean score and standard
      deviation of the GOSCE evaluation was calculated. RESULTS: Students perceived
      improvement in their general (Mean 4.49-4.57, p < .0001), case-specific (3.61
      3.84, p < .0001) and group clinical communication (3.75-4.09, p < .0001) skills.
      Students agreed or strongly agreed that the GOSCE taught them something new
      (91.20%), made them more comfortable in giving (64.31%) and receiving (66.57%)
      feedback and working with a group (64.22%). Students found the GOSCE to be as
      effective as an OSCE (70.97%). CONCLUSIONS: A GOSCE is a valuable resource for
      use in formative assessment of clinical communication, and it offers the benefit
      of group collaboration and peer feedback. These findings support the broader use
      of GOSCEs in undergraduate medical education.

PMID- 28553736
TI  - Amended Safety Assessment of Isethionate Salts as Used in Cosmetics.
AB  - The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel (Panel) rereviewed the safety
      of 12 isethionate salts as used in cosmetics and concluded that these ingredients
      are safe in the present practices of use and concentration, when formulated to be
      nonirritating. These isethionate salts are reported to function mostly as
      surfactants and cleansing agents in cosmetic products. The Panel reviewed the
      available animal and clinical data as well as information from previous CIR
      reports. Although there are data gaps, the shared chemical core structure,
      expected similarities in physicochemical properties, and similar functions and
      concentrations in cosmetics enabled grouping these ingredients and reading across
      the available toxicological data to support the safety assessment of each
      ingredient.

PMID- 28553737
TI  - Safety Assessment of Anthemis nobilis-Derived Ingredients as Used in Cosmetics.
AB  - Anthemis nobilis (Roman chamomile) flower extract, anthemis nobilis flower oil,
      anthemis nobilis flower powder, and anthemis nobilis flower water are ingredients
      that function as fragrance ingredients and skin-conditioning agents in cosmetic
      products. These ingredients are being used at concentrations up to 10% (anthemis
      nobilis flower water) in cosmetic products. The available data indicate that
      these 4 ingredients are not irritating or sensitizing. Chemical composition data
      and the low use concentrations suggest that systemic toxicity would not be likely
      if percutaneous absorption of constituents were to occur. Formulations may
      contain more than 1 botanical ingredient; each may contribute to the final
      concentration of a single component. Manufacturers were cautioned to avoid
      reaching levels of plant constituents that may cause sensitization or other
      adverse effects. Industry should continue to use good manufacturing practices to
      limit impurities in the ingredient before blending into cosmetic formulations.
      The Expert Panel concluded that these ingredients are safe in the present
      practices of use and concentration in cosmetics, when formulated to be
      nonsensitizing.

PMID- 28553738
TI  - Safety Assessment of Amino Acid Alkyl Amides as Used in Cosmetics.
AB  - The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel (Panel) reviewed the product use,
      formulation, and safety data of 115 amino acid alkyl amides, which function as
      skin and hair conditioning agents and as surfactants-cleansing agents in personal
      care products. Safety test data on dermal irritation and sensitization for the
      ingredients with the highest use concentrations, lauroyl lysine and sodium
      lauroyl glutamate, were reviewed and determined to adequately support the safe
      use of the ingredients in this report. The Panel concluded that amino acid alkyl
      amides are safe in the present practices of use and concentration in cosmetics,
      when formulated to be nonirritating.

PMID- 28553739
TI  - Anatomical and Behavioral Investigation of C1ql3 in the Mouse Suprachiasmatic
      Nucleus.
AB  - Many biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes such as glucose
      metabolism, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycles show regular daily rhythms.
      These circadian rhythms are adjusted to the environmental light-dark cycle by a
      central pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in order for the
      processes to occur at appropriate times of day. Here, we investigated the
      expression and function of a synaptic organizing protein, C1QL3, in the SCN. We
      found that C1ql3 is robustly expressed in the SCN. C1ql3 knockout mice have a
      reduced density of excitatory synapses in the SCN. In addition, these mice
      exhibited less consolidated activity to the active portions of the day and period
      lengthening following a 15-minute phase-delaying light pulse. These data identify
      C1QL3 as a signaling molecule that is highly expressed in SCN neurons, where it
      contributes to the formation and/or maintenance of glutamatergic synapses and
      plays a role in circadian behaviors, which may include circadian aftereffects.

PMID- 28553741
TI  - Use of two test methods to ensure accurate surface firmness and stability
      measurements for accessibility.
AB  - PURPOSE: The firmness and stability of indoor and outdoor surfacing are critical
      to the accessibility and safety of all environments for people with mobility
      impairments and/or who use mobility devices. ASTM F1951 laboratory test
      procedures include pass/fail criteria for determining playground surface
      accessibility by comparing the work to propel up a 1:14 (7.1%) grade ramp to that
      of the test surface in a wheelchair. A portable instrumented surface indenter
      (ISI) was developed to validate that accessibility results obtained in the
      laboratory are maintained in the field where the surface is installed and used.
      METHODS: Accessibility measurements have been made on indoor and outdoor surfaces
      tested in the laboratory using both the ASTM F1951 and the ISI over 13 years.
      Correlations between these two methods were calculated. RESULTS: A strong
      correlation has been demonstrated for the sum of the ISI firmness and stability
      results compared to the sum of the ASTM F1951 straight propulsion and turning
      results (R2=0.9006). CONCLUSIONS: The portable ISI can be used to verify that the
      firmness and stability of an installed surface in the field correlates to the
      accessibility results of the surface tested in the laboratory concurrently
      according to ASTM F1951 and the ISI. Implications for Rehabilitation The
      Instrumented Surface Indenter (ISI) allows for surfaces in all environments to be
      tested for firmness and stability, which is critical for wheelchair user safety,
      especially during rehabilitation when learning to use a wheelchair. The ISI
      allows for surfaces in all environments to be tested for firmness and stability,
      which increases access to all indoor and outdoor surfaces, thereby improving the
      quality of life for people who have mobility impairments and/or use mobility
      devices, such as canes, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs. Using the ISI to test
      the firmness and stability of installed playground surfaces increases access to
      playgrounds for children with mobility impairments, facilitating developmentally
      critical peer-play opportunities for children who use mobility devices. Using the
      ISI to test the firmness and stability of installed playground surfaces increases
      access to playgrounds for people with mobility impairments, allowing adults who
      use a mobility device to supervise and play with children in their lives.

PMID- 28553740
TI  - Extragastrointestinal stromal tumor of the abdominal subcutaneous tissue: Report
      of a very rare case at an unusual site.
AB  - Extragastrointestinal stromal tumors (EGISTs) are rare tumors that arise outside
      the digestive tract. We report a case of an EGIST arising in the subcutaneous
      tissue of the abdominal wall, which at this site can often be misdiagnosed as
      dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. The tumor was surgically resected from a 72-year
      old male Chinese Han patient, and pathological examination revealed spindle
      shaped tumor cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm and an oval nucleus.
      Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells showed strong cytoplasmic positivity for
      CD34, c-KIT (CD117), and DOG1. Tests for activating mutations of GISTs showed
      that the tumor cells carried an in-frame deletion
      (NP_000213.1:p.Lys550_Gln556del) in exon 11 of c-KIT (CD117). Thus, an EGIST
      should be considered in patients with abdominal subcutaneous tumors with an
      epithelioid, spindle-shaped, or mixed morphology. Immunohistochemistry of c-KIT
      (CD117) and DOG1 and genetic testing for activating mutations are recommended to
      aid in the differential diagnosis of subcutaneous tumors. In short, although
      EGISTs are rare in the abdominal subcutaneous tissue, pathologists must be aware
      of their possibility.

PMID- 28553742
TI  - Antiribonuclease H2 antibodies are an immune biomarker for systemic lupus
      erythematosus.
AB  - We previously reported that autoantibodies against the proliferating cell nuclear
      antigen protein (PCNA)-binding protein chromatin assembly factor-1 (CAF-1) are
      specifically found in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). PCNA and
      its complex constituents elicit autoimmune responses in patients with SLE,
      suggesting that autoantibody diversification likely occurs owing to epitope
      spreading. Therefore, we sought to clarify whether patients with SLE exhibit an
      autoimmune response to Ribonuclease H2 (RNase H2), another PCNA-binding protein
      that regulates cell division. As results, RNase H2 autoantibodies were detected
      in the sera of 33.9% (19/56) of SLE patients, which was significantly higher than
      that observed in sera from other patients with systemic autoimmune diseases
      (polymyositis/dermatomyositis, systemic sclerosis, Sjogren's syndrome, mixed
      connective tissue disease and rheumatoid arthritis) and healthy controls.
      Regression analysis also showed that serum anti-RNase H2 levels were strongly
      correlated to that of CAF-1 in SLE patients. Our data support the use of RNase H2
      autoantibodies as a serum biomarker for SLE diagnosis. Moreover, the strong
      correlation observed between RNase H2 and CAF-1 suggests that intermolecular
      epitope spreading may play a critical role in autoantibody production and
      diversification in SLE.

PMID- 28553743
TI  - Two cases of endometrial cancer arising from adenomyosis during aromatase
      inhibitors therapy after mastectomy.

PMID- 28553744
TI  - Relationship between dietary quality, tinnitus and hearing level: data from the
      national health and nutrition examination survey, 1999-2002.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between the healthy eating index (HEI), a
      measure of dietary quality based on United States Department of Agriculture
      recommendations and report of tinnitus. DESIGN: This cross-sectional analysis was
      based on HEI data and report of tinnitus. STUDY SAMPLE: Data for adults between
      20 and 69 years of age were drawn from the National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2002. The NHANES is a programme of studies, to
      assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United
      States. Two thousand one hundred and seventy-six participants were included in
      the analytic sample. RESULTS: Of the sample, 21.1% reported tinnitus within the
      past year and 11.7% reported persistent tinnitus, defined as tinnitus experienced
      at least monthly or greater. Controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, diabetes,
      noise exposure and smoking status, we found that with healthier diet (poorer vs.
      better HEI) there was decreased odds of reported persistent tinnitus [odds ratio
      (OR); 0.67; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.98; p = 0.03]. CONCLUSIONS: The
      current findings support a possible relationship between healthier diet quality
      and reported persistent tinnitus.

PMID- 28553745
TI  - How do you choose and how well does it work?: the selection and effectiveness of
      emotion regulation strategies and their relationship with borderline personality
      disorder feature severity.
AB  - There is little research examining whether the selection of emotion regulation
      strategies is compromised among individuals characterised by emotion
      dysregulation. In a sample of 149 undergraduates, we examined the selection and
      effectiveness of 2 emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal or distraction) in
      response to emotionally evocative stimuli, and their relationship with emotion
      dysregulation, measured by borderline personality disorder (BPD) feature
      severity. Stimulus intensity and self-reported negative emotional intensity were
      also compared as predictors of strategy selection. Results indicated that self
      reported negative emotional intensity was a stronger predictor of strategy
      selection than stimulus intensity, and participants generally selected
      reappraisal over distraction. However, increases in self-reported negative
      emotional intensity was associated with an increased likelihood of choosing
      distraction, particularly among individuals higher in BPD features. In general,
      distraction exhibited less effectiveness than reappraisal, and higher BPD
      features did not differentially impact such effectiveness. Our findings indicate
      that individuals higher in emotion dysregulation prefer to use distraction as
      self-reported negative emotional intensity increases, a strategy which, overall,
      may not be as effective as reappraisal. Selection, rather than effectiveness of
      emotion regulation strategy might be a key feature of individuals characterised
      by emotion dysregulation.

PMID- 28553746
TI  - Can false memories prime alternative solutions to ambiguous problems?
AB  - Research has demonstrated that false memories are capable of priming and
      facilitating insight-based problem-solving tasks by increasing solution rates and
      decreasing solution times. The present research extended this finding by
      investigating whether false memories could be used to bias ambiguous insight
      based problem-solving tasks in a similar manner. Compound remote associate task
      (CRAT) problems with two possible correct answers, a dominant and a non-dominant
      solution, were created and normed (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, participants
      were asked to solve these CRAT problems after they were given Deese/Roediger
      McDermott lists whose critical lures were also the non-dominant solution to half
      of the corresponding CRATs. As predicted, when false memories served as primes,
      solution rates were higher and solution times were faster for non-dominant than
      dominant CRAT solutions. This biasing effect was only found when participants
      falsely recalled the critical lure, and was not found when participants did not
      falsely recall the critical lure, or when they were not primed. Results are
      discussed with regard to spreading activation models of solution competition in
      problem-solving tasks and current theories of false memory priming effects.

PMID- 28553747
TI  - Metacognition in argument generation: the misperceived relationship between
      emotional investment and argument quality.
AB  - Overestimation of one's ability to argue their position on socio-political issues
      may partially underlie the current climate of political extremism in the U.S. Yet
      very little is known about what factors influence overestimation in argumentation
      of socio-political issues. Across three experiments, emotional investment
      substantially increased participants' overestimation. Potential confounding
      factors like topic complexity and familiarity were ruled out as alternative
      explanations (Experiments 1-3). Belief-based cues were established as a mechanism
      underlying the relationship between emotional investment and overestimation in a
      measurement-of-mediation (Experiment 2) and manipulation-of-mediator (Experiment
      3) design. Representing a new bias blind spot, participants believed emotional
      investment helps them argue better than it helps others (Experiments 2 and 3);
      where in reality emotional investment harmed or had no effect on argument
      quality. These studies highlight misguided beliefs about emotional investment as
      a factor underlying metacognitive miscalibration in the context of socio
      political issues.

PMID- 28553748
TI  - Mini-Review: Toxic Tendinopathy.
AB  - Toxic tendinopathy is a rare but reproducible complication in humans, given
      agents of four drug classes: aromatase inhibitors, fluoroquinolone antibiotics,
      glucocorticoids (long-term regimens), and statins. Toxic tendinopathy in humans
      has been linked less consistently to treatment with anabolic steroids,
      antiretroviral agents (mainly protease inhibitors), metalloproteinase inhibitors
      (MMPI), and isotretinoin. Classic drug-induced tendinopathies appear as
      "tendinosis" (i.e., progressive tendon degeneration without inflammation),
      although cases associated with aromatase inhibitors exhibit mainly tenosynovitis.
      Any tendon may be affected, but fluoroquinolones, glucocorticoids, and statins
      most frequently affect large load-bearing tendons in the lower limb, especially
      the calcaneal ("Achilles") tendon-which ruptures in approximately 30 to 40% of
      cases. The time to symptom onset ranges from days (fluoroquinolones) to weeks,
      months, or even years. The pathogenesis is incompletely understood, but proposed
      mechanisms include apoptosis of tenoblasts and tenocytes, deficient tenocyte
      function (leading to abnormal extracellular matrix maintenance and repair as well
      as disrupted intercellular signaling), and structural disintegration (via a
      combination of increased expression of lytic enzymes, lessened cholesterol
      content in cell membranes, and neoangiogenesis within highly ordered tendon
      tissue). Nonclinical safety assessment of therapeutic candidates in these drug
      classes should incorporate tendon routinely as a protocol-specified tissue for
      pathology evaluation.

PMID- 28553749
TI  - Mandibular angle fractures treated with a single miniplate without postoperative
      maxillomandibular fixation: A retrospective evaluation of 50 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study evaluated the use of a single miniplate for
      the treatment of mandibular angle fractures (MAF). METHODS: Fifty patients with
      53 MAF were treated by open reduction and internal fixation with the use of a
      single miniplate and were analyzed in this study. RESULTS: Five patients with MAF
      had postoperative complications that required additional procedures. Three
      patients had postoperative infection, one patient complained of malocclusion in
      the first postoperative week, and one patient had miniplate exposure three months
      after surgery. Every additional procedure was performed in the office under local
      anesthesia without disruption of the initial fracture treatment. Postoperative
      maxillomandibular fixation (MMF) was performed in four patients. Treatment of MAF
      using a single miniplate was effective, with low morbidity and with low rates of
      postoperative complications. MAF can be treated without MMF, and stability is
      improved when long miniplates are used. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a single
      miniplate is therefore encouraged. However, postoperative MMF should be
      considered with the presence of little contact between bone segments,
      malocclusion, or extensive tooth loss.

PMID- 28553750
TI  - Development of a Theoretically Grounded, Web-Based Intervention to Reduce
      Adolescent Driver Inattention.
AB  - Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of adolescent death. Inattention to
      the roadway contributes to crash risk and often results from distractions, such
      as cell phone calls, texting, and peer passengers. We report on the development
      of a web-based intervention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior that aims to
      reduce adolescent driver inattention ( Let's Choose Ourselves). In Phase I, we
      collected qualitative and quantitative data on adolescents' attitudes, perceived
      behavioral control, and subjective norms about driver inattention through focus
      groups with newly licensed adolescent drivers. In Phase II, we developed the
      content in an e-learning delivery system, performed beta- and pilot testing, and
      made refinements. In Phase III, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to
      evaluate feasibility. The development of Let's Choose Ourselves provides
      information for school nurses regarding intervention development strategies as
      well as promotion of safe adolescent driving by reducing driver inattention.

PMID- 28553751
TI  - Patient-Centered Care in Small Primary Care Practices in New York City:
      Recognition Versus Reality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Primary Care Information Project (PCIP) is a program administered
      by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to help primary care
      providers adopt a fully functional electronic health record (EHR) and focus on
      population health. PCIP also offers practices assistance with the National
      Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) patient-centered medical home (PCMH)
      recognition application. The objectives of this study were to assess the presence
      of key dimensions of PCMH among PCIP practices with 5 or fewer providers and to
      determine whether and to what extent NCQA recognition was related to the presence
      of these dimensions. METHODS: Analyses relied on data collected from a
      comprehensive practice assessment survey of PCIP practices administered in summer
      2012. The survey was developed to assess discrete dimensions of the PCMH model
      and other practice characteristics. The study population includes practices for
      which survey results were available among PCIP practices with 5 or fewer
      providers (63% response rate; n = 83). RESULTS: At the time of survey, 57% of
      practices had received some level of NCQA recognition (n = 47). Practices with
      recognition scored significantly higher on several dimensions, including whole
      person orientation, team-based care, care coordination and integration, and
      quality and safety. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that very small urban practices
      in New York City are implementing many key features of PCMH. In general,
      practices with NCQA recognition scored higher on PCMH constructs and domains
      relative to practices without recognition; however, there is room for improvement
      on construct and domain scores in both groups.

PMID- 28553752
TI  - Quantitative Muscle Ultrasonography Using Textural Analysis in Amyotrophic
      Lateral Sclerosis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to analyze differences in gray-level co-occurrence
      matrix (GLCM) parameters, as assessed by muscle ultrasound (MUS), between
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and healthy controls, and to compare
      the diagnostic accuracy of these GLCM parameters with first-order MUS parameters
      (echointensity [EI], echovariation [EV], and muscle thickness [MTh]) in different
      muscle groups. Twenty-six patients with ALS and 26 healthy subjects underwent
      bilateral and transverse ultrasound of the biceps/brachialis, forearm flexor,
      quadriceps femoris, and tibialis anterior muscle groups. MTh was measured with
      electronic calipers, and EI, EV, and GLCM were obtained using Image J (v.1.48)
      software. Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and area under the curve
      (AUC) were performed by logistic regression models and receiver operating
      characteristic curves. GLCM parameters showed reduced granularity in the muscles
      of ALS patients compared with the controls. Regarding the discrimination
      capacity, the best single diagnostic parameter in forearm flexors and quadriceps
      was GLCM and in biceps brachialis and tibialis anterior was EV. The respective
      combination of these two parameters with MTh resulted in the best AUC (over 90%
      in all muscle groups and close to the maximum combination model). The use of new
      textural parameters (EV and GLCM) combined with usual quantitative MUS variables
      is a promising biomarker in ALS.

PMID- 28553753
TI  - The ambiguity of altruism in nursing: A qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For a long time, altruism was the basis for caring. Today, when
      society is more individualized, it is of interest to explore the meaning of
      altruism in nursing. METHODS: In all, 13 nurses from a Swedish acute care setting
      participated in two focus group interviews performed as Socratic dialogues. Data
      were analyzed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method. Ethical
      considerations: Ethical issues were considered throughout the process according
      to established ethical principles. Informed consent was obtained from all
      participants, confidentiality regarding the data was guaranteed and quotations
      anonymized. FINDINGS: Altruism created a sense of ambivalence and ambiguity,
      described as a rise of sovereign expressions of life caused by "the other's"
      need, but also unwillingness to take unconditional responsibility for "the
      other." CONCLUSION: Society's expectations of altruism and nurses' perception of
      their work as a salaried job collide in modern healthcare. Nurses are not willing
      to fully respond to the ethical demand of the patients. In case of a disaster,
      when nurses personal safety, life and health may be at risk, there might be
      reasons to question whether the healthcare organization would be able to fulfill
      its obligations of providing healthcare to an entire population.

PMID- 28553754
TI  - Commentary: Next-Generation Drug-Coated Balloons: A New Era for Endovascular
      Therapy of the Femoropopliteal Arteries?

PMID- 28553756
TI  - Experimental and modelling studies on a laboratory scale anaerobic bioreactor
      treating mechanically biologically treated municipal solid waste.
AB  - The performance of an anaerobic bioreactor in treating mechanically biologically
      treated municipal solid waste was investigated using experimental and modelling
      techniques. The key parameters measured during the experimental test period
      included the gas yield, leachate generation and settlement under applied load.
      Modelling of the anaerobic bioreactor was carried out using the University of
      Southampton landfill degradation and transport model. The model was used to
      simulate the actual gas production and settlement. A sensitivity analysis showed
      that the most influential model parameters are the monod growth rate and
      moisture. In this case, pH had no effect on the total gas production and waste
      settlement, and only a small variation in the gas production was observed when
      the heat transfer coefficient of waste was varied from 20 to 100 kJ/(m d K)-1.
      The anaerobic bioreactor contained 1.9 kg (dry) of mechanically biologically
      treated waste producing 10 L of landfill gas over 125 days.

PMID- 28553755
TI  - Cardiac rehabilitation in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction: can its failure be predicted?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prognosis in patients after acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is
      significantly burdened by coexisting anaemia, leukocytosis and low glomerular
      filtration rate (GFR). Hyperglycaemia in the early stages of ACS is a strong
      predictor of death and heart failure in non-diabetic subjects. This study aimed
      to evaluate the effect of hyperglycaemia, anaemia, leukocytosis,
      thrombocytopaenia and decreased GFR on the risk of the failure of cardiac
      rehabilitation (phase II at the hospital) in post-ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI) patients. METHODS: The study included 136 post-STEMI patients,
      96 men and 40 women, aged 60.1 +/- 11.8 years, admitted for cardiac
      rehabilitation (phase II) to the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiac
      Rehabilitation, WAM University Hospital in Lodz, Poland. On admission fasting
      blood cell count was performed and serum glucose and creatinine level was
      determined (GFR assessment). The following results were considered abnormal:
      glucose ? 100 mg/dl, GFR < 60 ml/min/1, 73 m2, red blood cells (RBCs) < 4 *
      106/MUl, white blood cells (WBCs) > 10 * 103/MUl; platelets (PLTs) < 150 *
      103/ml. In all patients an exercise test was performed twice, before and after
      the completion of the second stage of rehabilitation, to assess its effects.
      RESULTS: Based on logistic regression analysis and the results of an individual
      odds ratio (OR) of the tested parameters, their prognostic impact was determined
      on the risk of failure of cardiac rehabilitation. This risk has been defined on
      the basis of the patient's inability to tolerate workload increment >5 Watt in
      spite of the applied program of cardiac rehabilitation. As a result of building a
      logistic regression model, the most statistically significant risk factors were
      selected, on the basis of which cardiac rehabilitation failure index was
      determined. leukocytosis and reduced GFR determined most significantly the risk
      of failure of cardiac rehabilitation (respectively OR = 6.42 and OR = 3.29, p =
      0.007). These parameters were subsequently utilized to construct a rehabilitation
      failure index. CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral blood cell count and GFR are important in
      assessing the prognosis of cardiac rehabilitation effects. leukocytosis and
      decreased GFR determine to the highest degree the risk of cardiac rehabilitation
      failure. Cardiac rehabilitation failure index may be useful in classifying
      patients into an appropriate model of rehabilitation. These findings support our
      earlier reports.

PMID- 28553757
TI  - Motor Disturbances in Elderly Medical Inpatients and Their Relationship to
      Delirium.
AB  - Motor disturbances in delirious patients are common, but their relationship to
      cognition and severity of illness has not been studied. We examined motor
      subtypes in an older age inpatient population, their relationship to clinical
      variables including delirium, and their association with 1-year mortality in a
      prospective study, using the Confusion Assessment Method, Acute Physiology and
      Chronic Health Evaluation II, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Barthel
      Index, and Delirium Rating Scale-Revised 98 (DRS-R98). Motor subtypes were
      evaluated using 2 items of DRS-R98. Mortality rates were investigated 1 year
      later. Two hundred participated (mean age 81.1 [6.5]; 50% female). Thirty-four
      (17%) were identified with delirium. Motor subtypes were none: 119 (59.5%),
      hypoactive: 37 (18.5%), hyperactive: 29 (14.5%), and mixed: 15 (7.5%). Hypoactive
      and mixed subtypes were significantly more frequent in delirious patients.
      Regression analysis showed that hypoactive subtype was significantly associated
      with lower MoCA. No relationship between motor subtypes and mortality was found.
      Motor disturbances are not unique to delirium, with hypoactivity particularly
      associated with impaired cognition.

PMID- 28553758
TI  - HPV vaccine acceptance among African-American mothers and their daughters: an
      inquiry grounded in culture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Much of the research on African-Americans' HPV vaccine acceptance has
      largely focused on racial/ethnic differences related to cognitive, socio
      economical, and structural factors that contribute to differences in HPV vaccine
      acceptance and completion. A growing body of literature suggest that cultural
      factors, such as mistrust of healthcare providers (HCPs) and the healthcare
      system, religion, and social norms related to appropriate sexual behaviors, also
      plays a prominent role in their HPV vaccine acceptance. However, these studies
      were limited in their use of theoretical approaches necessary to conceptualize
      and operationalize culture. OBJECTIVE: To explore the influence of culture on
      African-American mothers' and daughters' HPV vaccine acceptance using the PEN-3,
      a culturally-centered conceptual framework. METHODS: Grounded theory techniques
      were used to explore cultural factors that influenced the acceptance of the HPV
      vaccine among African-American mothers (n = 28) and their daughters (n = 34).
      RESULTS: Positive attitudes towards vaccination stemmed from beliefs that the HPV
      vaccine has cancer prevention benefits and that vaccinations in general protected
      against infectious diseases. Negative attitudes stemmed from beliefs that the HPV
      vaccine was too new, not effective, daughters were too young, and that vaccines
      were not a one-size-fits-all intervention. Majority of mothers and daughters
      indicated that their religious doctrine did not impede their HPV vaccination
      decisions. For a few mothers, religious beliefs could not be separated from their
      HPV vaccination decisions and ultimately deterred HPV vaccine acceptance. HCP
      recommendations were valued however mothers were often dissatisfied with the
      detail of information communicated. Support networks provided both positive and
      negative types of social support to mothers and daughters. The media highlighted
      the cancer prevention benefits of the HPV vaccine and unintentionally
      communicated negative information of the HPV vaccine, which deterred HPV vaccine
      acceptance. CONCLUSION: Study findings can inform the development of culturally
      appropriate interventions that advances the evidence on cervical cancer
      prevention.

PMID- 28553759
TI  - Access to fertility services in Canada for HIV-positive individuals and couples:
      a comparison between 2007 and 2014.
AB  - In the modern era of HIV care, a multitude of clinical needs have emerged; one
      such need is the growing sub-specialty of HIV and reproductive health. In 2007, a
      study surveying Canadian fertility clinics found limited access to fertility
      services for HIV-positive patients. Given the extensive efforts made to address
      this lack of services, a follow-up assessment was warranted. This study aimed to
      compare the access to Canadian fertility clinics and services for HIV-positive
      individuals and couples in 2014 and 2007. Surveys were sent to medical or
      laboratory directors of assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinics in 2014
      and results were compared to those sent in 2007. Main outcome measures included:
      the proportion of fertility clinics willing to provide ART to people with HIV,
      the specific services offered, and whether the 2012 Canadian HIV Pregnancy
      Planning Guidelines were implemented to inform practice. Across Canadian
      provinces, 20/34 (59%) clinics completed the survey. Ninety-five percent (19/20)
      of clinics accepted HIV-positive patients for consultation. Only 50% (10/20) of
      clinics in four provinces offered a full range of ART (defined as including in
      vitro fertilization [IVF]). Ten clinics (50%) in five provinces were aware that
      guidelines exist; half (n = 5) having read them and four reporting implementation
      of all the guidelines' recommendations in their practice. Compared to 2007, more
      clinics had implemented separate facilities (p = 0.028) to treat HIV-positive
      individuals, offered IVF (p = 0.013) for HIV-positive female partners, sperm
      washing (p = 0.033) for HIV-positive male partners, and risk reduction techniques
      to couples with HIV-positive men and women (p = 0.006). Access to fertility
      clinics for people with HIV has improved over time but is still regionally
      dependent and access to full ART remains limited. These findings suggest the need
      for advocacy targeted towards geographical-specific areas and optimizing access
      to comprehensive services.

PMID- 28553760
TI  - Comparison of different conservative treatments for idiopathic clubfoot:
      Ponseti's versus non-Ponseti's methods.
AB  - Objective Various methods are applied in the clinical treatment of idiopathic
      clubfoot. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of
      different conservative treatments. Methods Studies were pooled and odds ratio
      (ORs) with corresponding confidence intervals were calculated for evaluation of
      the results, relapses, and requirement for major surgery. Results A final
      analysis of 1435 patients from 9 eligible studies was performed. The combined OR
      indicated that significantly more fair and poor results were achieved and that
      major surgery was required significantly more often when using non-Ponseti's
      methods (OR = 3.33 and OR = 7.32, respectively), but no significant difference
      was detected in the occurrence of relapse (OR = 1.34). Pooled OR evaluation
      showed a significantly higher rate of fair and poor results, relapse, and
      requirement for major surgery when using Kite's method than when using Ponseti's
      method (OR = 3.93, OR = 2.53, and OR = 3.19, respectively), but no significant
      difference was detected between the French method and Ponseti's method (OR =
      3.01, OR = 0.72, and OR = 1.26, respectively). Conclusions This meta-analysis
      indicates that Ponseti's method is safe and efficient for conservative treatment
      of clubfoot and decreases the number of surgical interventions required. It is
      recommended as the first-choice conservative treatment for idiopathic clubfoot.

PMID- 28553761
TI  - Innominate artery aneurysm, how to solve it?
AB  - We herein describe our *These authors contributed equally to this work.
      experience with a congenital innominate artery aneurysm (IAA) that was managed
      with a simple surgical procedure. A 44-year-old woman was admitted for chest
      distress. Computed tomography angiography showed a 3.6-cm IAA arising from the
      aortic arch and compressing the trachea. A median sternotomy was performed with
      the patient under general anesthesia, and the IAA was found to involve the origin
      of the innominate artery and the bifurcation of the right subclavian artery and
      common carotid artery; however, the aorta was intact. An 8-mm Dacron graft was
      anastomosed to the ascending aorta and distal end of the IAA without
      cardiopulmonary bypass. The postoperative course was uneventful, and repeat
      computed tomography angiography revealed no evidence of recurrence 6 months
      postoperatively. We also herein present a literature review of this rare clinical
      condition.

PMID- 28553762
TI  - Evaluation of serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in predicting
      acute kidney injury in critically ill patients.
AB  - Objective This investigation evaluated the real-time point-of-care testing (RT
      POCT) of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) for detecting acute
      kidney injury (AKI) and prognosis of critically ill patients. Methods A total of
      249 critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED), who were diagnosed
      with acute decompensated heart failure, sepsis or diabetic ketoacidosis were
      enrolled in this study. All enrolled patients were followed up for 28 days or to
      death and the mortalities were recorded. Serum creatinine (sCr) and NGAL were
      measured. Results 40.6% enrolled patients deteriorated to AKI during the
      observation period. The NGAL level was significantly higher in the AKI versus non
      AKI group. The NGAL levels in the non-survivors group at 7-day and 28-day were
      significantly higher than in the survivors group. NGAL was detected as an
      independent risk factor of AKI, and 7-day and 28-day morality. The receiver
      operating characteristic curve of NGAL was calculated for diagnosing AKI; the
      area under the curve (AUC) was significantly higher than that of 1-day eGFR.
      Conclusions NGAL is an independent predictor of AKI, and 7-day and 28-day
      mortality in critically ill ED patients, and can be an early alert for AKI and
      useful for determining prognosis.

PMID- 28553763
TI  - Clinical characteristics of patients with diabetes mellitus and fatty liver
      diagnosed by liver/spleen Hounsfield units on CT scan.
AB  - Objective The leading cause of liver injuries in diabetes mellitus may be
      associated with fatty liver. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between fatty
      liver and diabetes characteristics. Methods Retrospectively, 970 patients with
      diabetes were analysed. Fatty liver was diagnosed when the liver/spleen
      Hounsfield unit ratio by computed tomography was below 0.9. Clinical diabetes
      characteristics were compared between patients with and without fatty liver.
      Results Of 970 patients (717 male and 253 female; mean age 64.4 years), 175 males
      (24.4%) and 60 females (23.7%) had fatty liver. None of the 28 patients with type
      1 diabetes had fatty liver. In male patients with type 2 diabetes, age, visceral
      adipose tissue (VAT), albumin, alanine amino-transferase (ALT), and triglycerides
      were independently associated with fatty liver. In females, age and bilirubin
      were associated with fatty liver. Conclusions Fatty liver is associated with type
      2 diabetes characteristics, including younger age and elevated VAT, albumin, ALT,
      and triglycerides in males and younger age and elevated bilirubin levels in
      females.

PMID- 28553764
TI  - Somatosensory tinnitus: Current evidence and future perspectives.
AB  - In some individuals, tinnitus can be modulated by specific maneuvers of the
      temporomandibular joint, head and neck, eyes, and limbs. Neuroplasticity seems to
      play a central role in this capacity for modulation, suggesting that abnormal
      interactions between the sensory modalities, sensorimotor systems, and
      neurocognitive and neuroemotional networks may contribute to the development of
      somatosensory tinnitus. Current evidence supports a link between somatic
      disorders and higher modulation of tinnitus, especially in patients with a normal
      hearing threshold. Patients with tinnitus who have somatic disorders seems to
      have a higher chance of modulating their tinnitus with somatic maneuvers;
      consistent improvements in tinnitus symptoms have been observed in patients with
      temporomandibular joint disease following targeted therapy for temporomandibular
      disorders. Somatosensory tinnitus is often overlooked by otolaryngologists and
      not fully investigated during the diagnostic process. Somatic disorders, when
      identified and treated, can be a valid therapeutic target for tinnitus; however,
      somatic screening of subjects for somatosensory tinnitus is imperative for
      correct selection of patients who would benefit from a multidisciplinary somatic
      approach.

PMID- 28553765
TI  - Short-interval postconditioning protects the bowel against ischaemia-reperfusion
      injury in rats.
AB  - Objective Acute mesenteric ischaemia leads to intestinal damage. Restoration of
      blood flow results in further damage to tissue, which is called reperfusion
      injury. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of short-interval
      postconditioning and to determine the optimal interval for reperfusion in an
      experimental rat model of intestinal ischaemia. Methods Forty adult male Wistar
      rats were grouped as follows: sham (Sh), ischaemia + reperfusion (IR), ischaemia
      + postconditioning for 5 seconds (PC5), ischaemia + postconditioning for 10
      seconds (PC10), and ischaemia + postconditioning for 20 seconds (PC20). For
      postconditioning, 10 cycles of reperfusion (5, 10, or 20 seconds) interspersed by
      10 cycles of 10 seconds of ischaemia were performed. Blood glutathione reductase
      (GR) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) levels were measured. Intestinal tissue
      damage was assessed histopathologically. Results GR levels were significantly
      higher in the PC5 group than in the IR group (37.7 +/- 9.0 vs. 18.5 +/- 2.0 min/g
      Hb). GPx levels were significantly higher in the PC10 group than in the IR group
      (43.2 +/- 9.2 vs. 15.9 +/- 4.6 U/g Hb). The histopathological score was
      significantly lower in the PC5 group (1.1 +/- 0.1) than in the IR group (2.1 +/-
      0.2). Conclusion Short-interval postconditioning reduces reperfusion injury in
      the ischaemic bowel and the optimal interval for reperfusion is 5 seconds. The
      long-term effects of short-interval postconditioning and the optimal reperfusion
      interval in intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion in rats need to be investigated.

PMID- 28553766
TI  - Intravenous dexmedetomidine during spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section: A
      meta-analysis of randomized trials.
AB  - Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of spinal anaesthesia using
      dexmedetomidine for caesarean section. Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, and
      CNKI were searched for relevant literature. Results The incidence of nausea and
      vomiting in the dexmedetomidine group was significantly lower than that in the
      control group (OR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.12-0.35, P < 0.00001). No difference was
      found in the incidence of pruritus between the two groups (OR = 1.21, 95% CI:
      0.36-4.09, P = 0.76).The dexmedetomidine group had a higher incidence of
      bradycardia than did the control group (OR = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.02-4.77, P = 0.05).
      The incidence of shivering in the dexmedetomidine group was significantly lower
      than that in the control group (OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.13-0.32, P < 0.00001). The
      incidence of hypotension was not different between the two groups (OR = 0.88, 95%
      CI: 0.49-1.56, P = 0.65). Conclusion Dexmedetomidine can decrease the incidence
      of nausea, vomiting, bradycardia, and shivering with spinal anaesthesia during
      caesarean section.

PMID- 28553768
TI  - Improving Our Understanding of Atopic Dermatitis Will Require Research Beyond
      Immunology and Dermatology.

PMID- 28553767
TI  - Assessment of aflatoxin B1 myocardial toxicity in rats: mitochondrial damage and
      cellular apoptosis in cardiomyocytes induced by aflatoxin B1.
AB  - Objective The number of deaths from heart disease is increasing worldwide.
      Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a toxin produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and
      Aspergillus parasiticus, is frequently detected in improperly processed/stored
      human food products. While AFB1 hepatotoxicity and carcinogenic properties have
      been well addressed, its myocardial toxicity is poorly documented. This study
      aimed to investigate myocardial toxic activity of AFB1. Methods Ten rats were fed
      with AFB1 at a dose that did not result in acute toxic reactions for 30 days and
      10 vehicle-fed rats served as controls. Transmission electron microscopy was used
      to assess mitochondrial damage in cardiomyocytes. The terminal deoxynucleotidyl
      transferase-mediated UTP nick-end labelling assay was performed to detect
      apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. Western blotting was performed to measure apoptotic
      proteins (i.e., active caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2) in heart tissue. Results AFB1
      treatment resulted in mitochondrial membrane disruption and disorganization of
      cristae, which are indicators of mitochondrial damage. Myocardial cell apoptosis
      was significantly higher after AFB1 treatment (22.07% +/- 3.29%) compared with
      controls (6.27% +/- 2.78%, P < 0.05). AFB1 treatment enhanced expression of
      active caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2 in cardiac tissue. Conclusion Various adverse
      effects are exerted by AFB1 on the heart, indicating AFB1 myocardial toxicity.

PMID- 28553769
TI  - Editor's Note.

PMID- 28553770
TI  - Involvement of Reactive Metabolites of Diclofenac in Cytotoxicity in Sandwich
      Cultured Rat Hepatocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Diclofenac (DIC) is metabolized to reactive
      metabolites such as diclofenac acyl-beta-d-glucuronide (DIC-AG). It is possible
      that such reactive metabolites could cause tissue damage by formation of covalent
      protein adducts and other modification of cellular proteins or by induction of
      immune responses against its covalent protein adducts. However, the detailed
      mechanisms of idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) have been unclear.
      The objective is to clarify the involvement of DIC-AG and 4'hydroxydiclofenac
      (4'OH-DIC) in acute DILI. METHODS: We examined the effects of inhibiting DIC-AG
      and 4'OH-DIC production on covalent protein adduct formation and lactate
      dehydrogenase leakage using sandwich-cultured rat hepatocytes (SCRHs). RESULTS:
      After pretreatment of SCRH with (-)-borneol (BOR, a uridine diphosphate (UDP)
      glucuronosyltransferase inhibitor) or sulfaphenazole (SUL, a cytochrome P450 2C9
      inhibitor) for 30 minutes, intracellular concentrations of DIC, DIC-AG, and 4'OH
      DIC were determined after further treating cells with 300 MUM DIC for 3 hours.
      The decreased levels of reactive metabolites caused by BOR or SUL pretreatment
      resulted in decreased lactate dehydrogenase leakage from SCRH, although the
      formation of covalent protein adducts was not affected. CONCLUSION: These results
      suggested that both DIC-AG and 4'OH-DIC may be involved in acute cytotoxicity by
      DIC.

PMID- 28553772
TI  - Prenatal ultrasound parameters in single-suture craniosynostosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although single-suture craniosynostosis is diagnosed sporadically
      during pregnancy, timely referral is critical for its treatment. Additionally,
      craniosynostosis leads to increased maternofetal trauma during birth. In the
      Netherlands, 95% of pregnant women receive a standard ultrasound at around 20
      weeks of gestation, potentially an ideal setting for detecting craniosynostosis
      prenatally. To enhance the prenatal detection of the metopic and the sagittal
      suture synostosis, we wished to identify new screening parameters. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data of the 20-week anomaly scan in
      trigonocephaly patients (n = 41), scaphocephaly patients (n = 41), and matched
      controls (n = 82). We measured six different cranial dimensions, including head
      circumference, biparietal diameter, and occipito-frontal diameter, defining the
      cephalic index as the ratio between biparietal and occipito-frontal diameter.
      RESULTS: Prenatal biometric measurements did not differ significantly between
      trigonocephaly patients and controls. Although significantly lower in
      scaphocephaly patients (0.76 versus 0.79; p = .000), the cephalic index by itself
      is not appropriate for screening at 20 weeks of gestation. Longitudinal analysis
      suggests that a deflection in BPD curve is found in scaphocephaly patients,
      starting at 20 weeks of gestation. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal biometric measurements
      do not differ significantly between trigonocephaly patients and controls. The CI
      is lower in scaphocephaly patients. A deflection in BPD curve should be followed
      by 3 D imaging of the cranial sutures.

PMID- 28553771
TI  - The first trimester combined test for aneuploidies - a single center experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: We present the results of the systematic application of the first
      trimester combined test for aneuploidies, in a Romanian center. METHODS: Since
      October 2009, in Filantropia Hospital in Bucharest, we have systematically been
      using the FMF (Fetal Medicine Foundation) combined first trimester test to screen
      for common aneuploidies at 11 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation. We assessed the crown
      to rump length (CRL), nuchal translucency, fetal heart rate as well as PAPP-A,
      and free beta-hCG in maternal serum. We evaluated additional first trimester
      ultrasound markers in most of the cases. The individual risk for aneuploidies was
      calculated using the FMF algorithm. RESULTS: Pregnancy outcome is known for 6030
      euploid fetuses and 42 aneuploid fetuses from our screening population. The
      detection rate for trisomy 21 of the combined test was 87.5% for a screen
      positive rate of 1.96%. All of the trisomy 18 and trisomy 13 cases were detected
      prenatally. Some of the trisomy 18 cases proved not to be symptomatic in the
      first trimester. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are similar to those of the main
      studies on the FMF method of first trimester screening for aneuploidies. Our
      numbers are small because of limited availability of the very specialized
      resources involved.

PMID- 28553773
TI  - Evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions from waste management approaches in the
      islands.
AB  - Concerns about waste generation and climate change have attracted worldwide
      attention. Small islands, which account for more than one-sixth of the global
      land area, are facing problems caused by global climate change. This study
      evaluated the greenhouse gas emissions from five small islands surrounding
      Taiwan. These islands - Penghu County, Liuqui Island, Kinmen County, Matsu Island
      and Green Island - have their own waste management approaches that can serve as a
      guideline for waste management with greenhouse gas mitigation. The findings
      indicate that the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of the islands ranged
      from 292.1 to 29,096.2 [metric] tonne CO2-equivalent. The loading waste volumes
      and shipping distances were positively related to greenhouse gas emissions from
      transportation. The greenhouse gas emissions from waste-to-energy plants, mainly
      carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, can be offset by energy recovery (approximately
      38.6% of greenhouse gas emissions from incineration). In addition, about 34% and
      11% of waste generated on the islands was successfully recycled and composted,
      respectively. This study provides valuable insights into the applicability of a
      policy framework for waste management approaches for greenhouse gas mitigation.

PMID- 28553774
TI  - Observation of a Pharmacist-Conducted Group A Streptococcal Pharyngitis Point-of
      Care Test: A Time and Motion Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute pharyngitis is among the most common infectious diseases
      encountered in the United States, resulting in 13 million patient visits
      annually, with group A streptococcus (GAS) being a common causative pathogen. It
      is estimated that annual expenditures for the treatment of adult pharyngitis will
      exceed US$1.2 billion annually. This substantial projection reinforces the need
      to evaluate diagnosis and treatment of adult pharyngitis in nontraditional
      settings. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to quantify the amount of
      pharmacist time required to complete a point-of-care (POC) test for a patient
      presenting with pharyngitis symptoms. METHODS: A standardized patient with
      pharyngitis symptoms visited 11 pharmacies for POC testing services for a total
      of 33 patient encounters. An observer was present at each encounter and recorded
      the total encounter time, divided into 9 categories. Pharmacists conducted POC
      testing in 1 of 2 ways: sequence 1-pharmacists performed all service-related
      tasks; sequence 2-both pharmacists and pharmacist interns performed service
      related tasks. RESULTS: The average time for completion of a POC test for GAS
      pharyngitis was 25.3 +/- 4.8 minutes. The average pharmacist participation time
      per encounter was 12.7 +/- 3.0 minutes (sequence 1), which decreased to 2.6 +/-
      1.1 minutes when pharmacist interns were involved in the testing (sequence 2).
      CONCLUSION: Although additional studies are required to further assess service
      feasibility, this study indicates that a GAS POC testing service could be
      implemented in a community pharmacy with limited disruption or change to workflow
      and staff.

PMID- 28553775
TI  - Electricity production from municipal solid waste in Brazil.
AB  - Brazil has an increasing production of municipal solid waste that, allied to the
      current waste management system, makes the search for alternatives of energy
      recovery essential. Thus, this work aims to study the incineration of municipal
      solid waste and the electricity production through steam cycles evaluating the
      influence of municipal solid waste composition. Several scenarios were studied,
      in which it was assumed that some fractions of municipal solid waste were removed
      previously. The municipal solid waste generated in Santo Andre city, Sao Paulo
      State, Brazil, was adopted for this study. Simulation results showed that the
      removal of organic matter and inert components impacts advantageously on the
      cycle performance, improving their parameters in some cases; in addition, there
      is the possibility of reusing the separated fractions. The separation of some
      recyclables, as plastic material, showed disadvantages by the reduction in the
      electricity generation potential owing to the high calorific value of plastics.
      Despite the high energy content of them, there are other possible considerations
      on this subject, because some plastics have a better recovery potential by
      recycling.

PMID- 28553776
TI  - Impact of New-Onset Left Ventricular Dysfunction on Outcomes in Mechanically
      Ventilated Patients With Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND:: Left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and LV diastolic
      dysfunction (LVDD) are commonly seen in severe sepsis and septic shock; however,
      their role in patients with concurrent invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) is
      less well defined. METHODS:: This was a prospective observational study on all
      patients admitted to all the intensive care units (ICUs) at Mayo Clinic,
      Rochester from August 2007 to January 2009. All adult patients with severe sepsis
      and septic shock and concurrent IMV without prior heart failure underwent
      transthoracic echocardiography within 24 hours. Patients with active pregnancy,
      prior congenital or valvular heart disease, and prosthetic cardiac valves were
      excluded. Left ventricular systolic dysfunction was defined as LV ejection
      fraction (LVEF) <50% and LVDD as E/e' >15. Primary outcome was hospital
      mortality, and secondary outcomes included IMV duration, ICU length of stay
      (LOS), and total LOS. Two-tailed P value of <.05 was considered statistically
      significant. RESULTS:: In a total of 106 patients, 58 (54.7%) met our inclusion
      criteria, with 17 (29.3%), 11 (19.0%), and 5 (8.6%) having LVSD, LVDD, and both,
      respectively. The cohorts with and without LVSD and LVDD did not differ
      significantly in their baseline characteristics and laboratory and ventilatory
      parameters. Compared to those without LVSD, patients with LVSD had higher LV end
      systolic diameters but were not different in their left atrial diameters or E/e'
      ratio. Patients with LVDD had a higher E velocity and E/e' ratio compared to
      those without LVDD. Hospital mortality was not different in patients with and
      without LVSD (8 [47%] vs 21 [51%], P = 1.00) and LVDD (8 [73%] vs 21 [45%], P =
      .18). Secondary outcomes were not different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION::
      Left ventricular systolic or diastolic dysfunction did not influence in-hospital
      outcomes in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock and concurrent IMV.

PMID- 28553777
TI  - Avoiding key missteps on the road to publication: a view from 10,000 feet.

PMID- 28553778
TI  - Pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure due to severe hypernatremic
      dehydration.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neonates are at risk of developing hypernatremic dehydration and
      its associated complications, such as stroke, dural sinus thrombosis and renal
      vein thrombosis. Pulmonary hypertension has not been described as a complication
      of hypernatremia. CASE REPORT: We report a case of a seven-day-old neonate with
      severe hypernatremic dehydration who went on to develop pulmonary hypertension
      and right heart failure needing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
      DISCUSSION: Normal or high anion gap metabolic acidosis commonly accompanies
      hypernatremic dehydration. The presence of acidosis and/or hypoxia can delay the
      normal drop in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) after birth, causing pulmonary
      hypertension and right ventricular failure. CONCLUSION: A high index of suspicion
      is paramount to diagnose pulmonary hypertension and aggressive correction of the
      acidosis and hypoxia is needed. In the presence of severe right ventricular
      failure, ECMO can be used as a bridge to recovery while underlying metabolic
      derangements are being corrected.

PMID- 28553779
TI  - Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury: the role of adaptor proteins Crk.
AB  - Recent studies have reported that the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) myocardium may
      act as an immune system where an exaggerated inflammatory reaction initiates.
      With activation of the immune system, damage-associated molecular patterns
      migrate and adhere into the I/R region and, consequently, induce myocardial
      injury. Emerging data have indicated that the adaptor proteins Crk are thought to
      play essential roles in signaling during apoptosis and cell adhesion and
      migration. Accumulated data highlight that Crk proteins are potential
      immunotherapeutic targets in immune diseases. However, very few studies have
      determined the roles of Crk on myocardial I/R injury. This mini review will focus
      on the emerging roles of Crk adaptors during myocardial I/R injury.

PMID- 28553780
TI  - A comparison between minimized extracorporeal circuits and conventional
      extracorporeal circuits in patients undergoing aortic valve surgery: is
      'minimally invasive extracorporeal circulation' just low prime or closed loop
      perfusion ?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Even though results have been encouraging, an unequivocal
      conclusion on the beneficial effect of minimally invasive extracorporeal
      circulation (MiECC) in patients undergoing aortic valve surgery cannot be derived
      from previous publications. Long-term outcomes are rarely reported and a
      significant decrease in operative mortality has not been shown. Most studies have
      a limited number of patients and are underpowered. They merely report on short
      term results of a heterogeneous intraoperative group using different types of ECC
      system in aortic valve surgery. The aim of the present study was to determine
      whether MiECC systems are more beneficial than conventional extracorporeal
      systems (CECC) with regard to mortality, hospital stay and inflammation and with
      only haemodilution and blood-air interface as differences. METHODS: We
      retrospectively analysed data regarding mortality, hospital stay and inflammation
      in patients undergoing isolated aortic valve surgery. Forty patients were divided
      into two groups based on the type of extracorporeal system used; conventional
      (n=20) or MiECC (n=20). RESULTS: Perioperative blood product requirements were
      significantly lower in the MiECC group (MiECC: 0.2+/-0.5 units vs CECC: 0.9+/-1.2
      units, p=0.004). No differences were seen postoperatively regarding mortality (5%
      vs 5%, p=0.99), total length of hospital stay (10.6+/-7.2 days (MiECC) vs 12.1+/
      5.9 days (CECC), p=0.39) or inflammation markers (CRP: MiECC: 7.09+/-13.62 mg/L
      vs CECC: 3.4+/-3.2 mg/L, p=0.89). CONCLUSION: MiECC provides circulatory support
      that is equally safe and feasible as conventional extracorporeal circuits. No
      differences in mortality, hospital stay or inflammation markers were observed.

PMID- 28553781
TI  - Modified drug-eluting balloon angioplasty to treat high-risk carotid in-stent
      restenosis.
AB  - Carotid artery stenting is commonly used to treat carotid artery stenosis.
      However, carotid in-stent restenosis remains a challenging problem. Herein, we
      report a difficult case of recurrent severe carotid in-stent restenosis with
      total contralateral internal carotid artery occlusion treated with repeat drug
      eluting balloon inflations. The outcome after one year of follow-up showed a good
      result.

PMID- 28553782
TI  - Coenzyme Q10 protects skeletal muscle from ischemia-reperfusion through the NF
      kappa B pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.
      The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of CoQ10 on the inhibition
      of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) activation during ischemia-reperfusion
      (I/R) of skeletal muscle. METHODS: For ischemia induction, the animals were
      anesthetized and the external iliac vessels blocked for three hours. CoQ10 or
      vehicle was given intraperitoneally during ischemia, just before reperfusion.
      Four groups received 3,7,14 and 28 days' reperfusion, respectively, after the
      intraperitoneal injection of CoQ10 and four corresponding groups received vehicle
      only. After reperfusion, the gastrocnemius muscles were removed, fixed and
      stained for the analysis of edema and mast cell infiltration. RESULTS: Immuno
      histochemistry staining was performed for the detection of tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNF-alpha) and NF-kappaB. CoQ10-treated groups showed a significant
      decrease of mast cell infiltration in the gastrocnemius muscle and edema as
      compared with the corresponding non-treated groups. Also, CoQ10-treated groups
      showed a significant TNF-alpha and NF-kappaB expression decrease when compared to
      the corresponding non-treated controls. The results of this study showed CoQ10
      administration with ischemia decreased interstitial edema, degeneration of muscle
      fibers and infiltration of mast cells. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that CoQ10 has
      inhibitory effects on NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha activation.

PMID- 28553783
TI  - A retrospective cohort analysis of percutaneous versus side-graft perfusion
      techniques for veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in patients with
      refractory cardiogenic shock.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to compare vascular complications and the
      outcomes of ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous cannulation with distal perfusion
      catheter (PC-DP) and arterial side-graft perfusion (SGP) techniques in patients
      who require veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) support
      for refractory cardiogenic shock (RCS). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective,
      observational cohort study of consequtive patients with RCS treated with VA-ECMO
      at a single transplant center from March 2010 until August 2015. Overall, 148
      patients underwent VA-ECMO for RCS (99 men, aged 56.6 +/- 12.0 years; BSA, 1.85
      +/- 0.19). Patients were categorized based on VA-ECMO perfusion technique into PC
      DP via femoral artery and SGP via axillary/femoral artery groups. RESULTS: The
      median duration of VA-ECMO support was 5 days (range, 8 hours-80 days). Hospital
      mortality (PC-DP group, 54.7%; SGP group, 64.4%; p=0.23) and overall ECMO
      survival (PC-DP group, 36.9%; SGP group, 32.2%; p=0.47) was similar between the
      groups. There were no significant between-group differences in the rate of acute
      limb ischemia (PC-DP group, 4/75, 5.3%; SGP group, 2/73, 2.7%; p=0.68). However,
      the rate of surgical/cannulation site bleeding (PC-DP, 9/75 (12%) vs SGP, 18/73
      (24.7%), p=0.05) and hyperperfusion syndrome (PC-DP, 2/75 (2.7%) vs SGP, 22/73
      (30.1%),p=0.001) were higher in the SGP group than in the PC-DP group.
      CONCLUSIONS: We observed no significant difference in major vascular
      complications or survival between patients who underwent the PC-DP technique and
      those who underwent arterial SGP.

PMID- 28553784
TI  - The Association Between Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Gait Parameters in
      Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Findings From the Obu Study of
      Health Promotion for the Elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between excessive daytime
      sleepiness (EDS) and gait characteristics (e.g., speed, variability) in community
      dwelling older adults. METHOD: This cross-sectional study included 3,901
      individuals aged >=65 years. Participants answered questions about EDS, sleep
      duration, and other sleep-related symptoms. Gait speed, stride length, and the
      variability in stride length were assessed by using a stopwatch and a WalkWay
      device. RESULTS: EDS was significantly associated with slower gait speed among
      younger subjects (<75 years, p = .021) and with both slower gait speed ( p =
      .045) and greater variability in stride length among older subjects (>=75 years,
      p = .048) in a multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, body mass index,
      medication, number of comorbidities, and education. DISCUSSION: EDS associates
      with gait ability, particularly in older old adults. Further prospective studies
      are needed to determine the causal association between gait ability and sleep
      disturbances, including EDS.

PMID- 28553785
TI  - Social Isolation, Depression, and Psychological Distress Among Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of objective and subjective social isolation
      from extended family members and friends on depressive symptoms and psychological
      distress among a national sample of older adults. METHOD: Data for older adults
      (55 years and above) from the National Survey of American Life ( N = 1,439) were
      used to assess level of objective social isolation and subjective social
      isolation and to test regression models examining their impact on depressive
      symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression [CES-D] Scale) and
      psychological distress (Kessler 6 [K6] Scale). RESULTS: The majority of
      respondents were not socially isolated from family or friends; 5% were
      objectively isolated from family and friends, and less than 1% were subjectively
      isolated from family and friends. Regression analyses using both social isolation
      measures indicated that objective social isolation was unrelated to depressive
      symptoms and psychological distress. However, subjective social isolation from
      both family and friends and from friends only was associated with more depressive
      symptoms, and subjective social isolation from friends only was associated with
      higher levels of psychological distress. DISCUSSION: Assessments of social
      isolation among older populations should account for both subjective and
      objective dimensions, as well as both family and friend social networks. Social
      isolation from friends is an important, but understudied, issue that has
      significant consequences for older adult mental health.

PMID- 28553786
TI  - Do Worries About Cognitive Functioning and Concerns About Developing Alzheimer's
      Disease Affect Psychological Well-Being?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to determine if cognitive worries
      affect psychological well-being, if these effects are long-term, and if such
      concerns affect well-being more so among persons with a parent having Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). METHOD: We used structural equation models with three waves of data
      collected from persons ages 40 to 60 at T1. We created summative scores on five
      indicators of concerns about cognitive functioning and worries about dementia.
      Well-being measures included depression, life satisfaction, stress, and mastery.
      RESULTS: We found (a) cognitive worries at Waves 1, 2, and 3 were generally
      associated with lower levels of psychological well-being at each of these waves;
      (b) there was no evidence of long-term, lagged effects, and (c) these
      relationships were statistically similar across groups of adult children and
      controls. DISCUSSION: Because concerns about cognitive functioning and developing
      AD are pervasive among middle-aged and older persons, practitioners should be
      aware of their potentially deleterious effect on psychological well-being.

PMID- 28553787
TI  - Quality of Life Trajectories Predict Mortality in Older Men: The Manitoba Follow
      Up Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe quality of life trajectories of older men over a 10-year
      time frame in mental and physical health domains, and to determine if these
      trajectories predict death over a subsequent 9-year period. METHOD: A cohort
      study of Royal Canadian Air Force aircrew veterans. We used Short Form-36 (SF-36)
      measures of mental and physical functioning collected prospectively at six time
      points between 1996 to 2006 (734 men with a mean age of 85.5 [ SD 3.0] years in
      2006) to determine trajectories. Continued contact with the cohort from 2006 to
      2015 determined subsequent mortality. RESULTS: Men were more likely to maintain
      high levels of mental functioning than physical functioning. Thirty-seven percent
      of participants maintained a high level of both mental and physical functioning.
      Declining function in either mental or physical function was associated with
      lower survival. CONCLUSION: Men who maintain physical and mental functioning have
      a lower mortality rate.

PMID- 28553788
TI  - Reliability of a Novel Social Activity Questionnaire: Perceived Social Support
      and Verbal Interaction in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Social activity is associated with healthy aging and preserved
      cognition. Such activity includes a confluence of social support and verbal
      interaction, each influencing cognition through rarely parsed, mechanistically
      distinct pathways. We created a novel verbal interaction measure for the
      Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP) and assessed reliability of
      resultant data, a first step toward mechanism-driven examination of social
      activity as a modifiable predictor of cognitive health. METHOD: Two WRAP
      subsamples completed a test-retest study to determine 8-week stability ( n = 107)
      and 2-year stability ( n = 136) of verbal interaction, and 2-year stability of
      perceived social support. Reliability was determined using quadratic-weighted
      kappa, percent agreement, or correlation coefficients. RESULTS: Reliability was
      fair to almost perfect. The association between social support and interaction
      quantity decreased with age. DISCUSSION: Social activity data demonstrate
      moderate to excellent temporal stability. Moreover, in older individuals, social
      support and verbal interaction represent two distinct dimensions of social
      activity.

PMID- 28553789
TI  - Aging Audiences: Association of Live Performance Attendance and Cognitive Decline
      in a Biracial Sample.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine if attendance in live performances was associated with
      change in cognition among African Americans (AAs) and European Americans (EAs).
      METHOD: The study consisted of 5,567 older adults with at least follow-up
      interview and analyzed using a linear mixed effects regression model adjusting
      for demographic and health variables. RESULTS: We found that frequent performance
      attendance was associated with slower decline in composite cognitive function
      among older AAs and EAs. Attending 10 or more performances per year was
      associated with 23% slower cognitive decline among AAs and 31% slower cognitive
      decline among EAs compared with those who never attend any performance. However,
      this difference was not significant ( p = .56). Attending live performances was
      also associated with slower decline in individual tests of perceptual speed,
      episodic memory, and mini-mental state exam (MMSE). DISCUSSION: Our findings
      suggest that live performances form a valuable component of arts engagement and
      should be encouraged for potential cognitive benefits.

PMID- 28553790
TI  - Loneliness and Depression Among Older Adults in Urban Subsidized Housing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Depression is particularly prevalent in low-income and disabled older
      adults, and minority populations face a greater risk of poverty and earlier
      disability onset. Yet, little is known about the mental health of older
      subsidized housing residents, a population which is disproportionately composed
      of persons of color. The study's aim was therefore to explore the prevalence and
      correlates of depression in this target population, with a particular focus on
      the role of loneliness. METHOD: Data are from interviews with 216 older
      subsidized housing residents, of which 50% identified as Black and 45% self
      identified as Latino. RESULTS: About 26% of participants met the criterion for
      depression. The hierarchical regression supported our hypothesis; after
      controlling for demographic, health, and stress variables, loneliness explained
      almost half of the total 49% of variance in depression. DISCUSSION: Care models
      addressing social risk factors are needed to meet the aging-in-place challenges
      of subsidized housing residents.

PMID- 28553792
TI  - Adherence to Guidelines for Screening and Medication Use: Mortality and Onset of
      Major Macrovascular Complications in Elderly Persons With Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate relationships between
      adherence to recommended screening and medication use and severe macrovascular
      complications and all-cause mortality among persons aged above 68 years with
      diabetes mellitus (DM). METHOD: Data came from a 5% Medicare claims sample of
      beneficiaries initially diagnosed with DM during 2006-2008; follow-up was up to 7
      years. RESULTS: Adherence to screening guidelines led to reduced mortality-hazard
      ratio (HR) = 0.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.56, 0.58]; congestive heart
      failure [CHF], HR = 0.89, CI = [0.87, 0.91]; acute myocardial infarction [AMI],
      HR = 0.90, CI = [0.85, 0.95]; and stroke/transient ischemic attack [Stroke/TIA],
      HR = 0.92, CI = [0.87, 0.97]-during follow-up. Recommended medication use led to
      lower mortality: HR = 0.72, CI = [0.70, 0.73]; CHF, HR = 0.67, CI = [0.66, 0.69];
      AMI, HR = 0.68, CI = [0.65, 0.71]; and Stroke/TIA, HR = 0.79, CI = [0.76, 0.83].
      DISCUSSION: Elderly persons newly diagnosed with diabetes who adhered to
      recommended care experienced reduced risk of mortality and severe macrovascular
      complications.

PMID- 28553791
TI  - The Impact of Three Cognitive Training Interventions on Older Adults' Physical
      Functioning Across 5 Years.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Physical functioning is closely associated with cognition. The current
      study assessed the impact of three cognitive training programs on objective
      measures of physical functioning across 5 years. METHOD: Older adults randomized
      to a processing speed ( n = 702), reasoning ( n = 694), or memory ( n = 703)
      training intervention were compared with those randomized to a no-contact control
      condition ( n = 698). Intention-to-treat (ITT) and treatment-received/dosage
      (time-varying number of training sessions) analyses were conducted. RESULTS:
      There were no transfer effects in the ITT analyses. Treatment-received models
      demonstrated that training sessions (i.e., higher dosage) across all intervention
      arms transferred to better maintained Digit Symbol Copy and Turn 360 performance
      relative to the control group. More reasoning training transferred to better grip
      strength. DISCUSSION: This is the first study to demonstrate differential
      longitudinal cognitive training transfer effects to three performance-based
      physical functioning measures. Future research should investigate mechanisms of
      far-transfer effects.

PMID- 28553794
TI  - The Utilization of Health Services and Self-Care by Older Women With Sleeping
      Problems: Results From a Nationally Representative Sample of 9,110 Women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This research aims to investigate the health service use-including
      complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)-and self-care by women aged 62 to 67
      with sleeping problems. METHOD: In total, 9,110 participants (99.6%) responded to
      questions about sleeping problems, health service utilization and self-care
      (e.g., herbal medicines and vitamins), demographics, and chronic illnesses.
      RESULTS: In all, 48.2% ( n = 4,394) women indicated that they had a sleeping
      problem. Women with sleeping problems consulted a general practitioner (GP) more
      frequently (odds ratio [OR] = 1.72; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.36, 2.17];
      p < .005) and were more likely to be using herbal medicines (OR = 1.24; 95% CI =
      [1.13, 1.36]; p < .005) than women without sleeping problems. DISCUSSION: Health
      professionals, particularly GPs, may need to actively inquire with older patients
      in their care with sleeping problems about the use of herbal medicines, to ensure
      their sleeping problems are being directly and effectively treated, particularly
      in light of increased risks associated with sleeping problems for this age
      cohort.

PMID- 28553793
TI  - Modeling Exposure to Multiple Childhood Social Risk Factors and Physical
      Capability and Common Affective Symptoms in Later Life.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study presents three approaches, that is, cumulative risk, factor
      analysis, and latent class analysis, to summarize exposure to multiple childhood
      social risk factors and to compare their utility when examining associations with
      physical capability and common affective symptoms in adults aged 60 to 64 years.
      METHODS: Data came from the U.K. Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey
      of Health and Development, with prospective childhood social risk factor data
      collected in 1950 to 1957 and retrospectively in 1989. Physical capability and
      common affective symptom data were collected in 2006 to 2011. RESULTS: The
      cumulative risk approach and factor analysis provided evidence that children who
      were exposed to multiple social risk factors had lower levels of physical
      capability and more symptoms of common affective symptoms in later life.
      DISCUSSION: The cumulative social risk approach and the use of factor analysis to
      identify contexts of social risk, may offer viable methods for linking multiple
      childhood social risk exposure to aging outcomes.

PMID- 28553795
TI  - Disentangling Loneliness: Differential Effects of Subjective Loneliness, Network
      Quality, Network Size, and Living Alone on Physical, Mental, and Cognitive
      Health.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine whether different measures of social disconnectedness
      subjective loneliness, network quality, network size, living alone-have
      differential effects on the health of older adults. METHODS: We used a
      longitudinal sample of the German Aging Survey ( N = 4,184) and analyzed seven
      measures of health (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect,
      depression, cognitive performance, physical functioning, and pulmonary function)
      via regression analyses. RESULTS: We found that subjective loneliness and network
      quality best predicted mental health; contrarily, network size and living alone
      best predicted physical and cognitive health. DISCUSSION: Different measures of
      social disconnectedness have differential effects on health. Therefore, using
      only global measures or one aspect of social disconnectedness might obfuscate
      potential health hazards. Researchers and practitioners should be mindful of
      differences between these measures and should include multiple aspects of social
      disconnectedness in their research and practice. Future studies should explore
      the causes why these measures and their effects differ.

PMID- 28553796
TI  - Association Between Depression and Elder Abuse and the Mediation of Social
      Support: A Cross-Sectional Study of Elder Females in Mexico City.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We assessed the association between depression and elder abuse, and
      the mediation effect of social support among elder women in Mexico City. METHOD:
      A total of 526 noninstitutionalized elder women, residing in Mexico City and
      attending public community centers were selected. Logistic regressions and
      structural equation models (SEM) were estimated. RESULTS: One fifth of the
      elderly women were at risk of depression, one third suffered some type of abuse
      in the past 12 months, and 82% reported low social support. Logistic models
      confirmed that depression was statistically associated with elder abuse and vice
      versa (odds ratio [OR] = 1.97 and 1.96, respectively). In both models, social
      support significantly reduced the association between these variables leading to
      study these associations through SEM. This approach highlighted that social
      support buffers the association between depression and elder abuse. DISCUSSION:
      Findings underline the relevance of programs and strategies targeted at
      increasing social support among urban older adults.

PMID- 28553797
TI  - Informal Care Networks in the Context of Multimorbidity: Size, Composition, and
      Associations With Recipient Psychological Well-Being.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We evaluate how the size and composition of care networks change with
      increasing morbidity count (i.e., multimorbidity) and how larger care networks
      relate to recipient psychological well-being. METHOD: Using the National Health
      and Aging Trends study (NHATS; N = 7,026), we conduct multivariate regressions to
      analyze size and compositional differences in care networks by morbidity count
      and recipient gender, and to examine differences in recipient psychological well
      being linked to care network size. RESULTS: Women report larger and more diverse
      care networks than men. These gender differences strengthen with increasing
      morbidity count. Larger care networks are associated with diminished
      psychological well-being among care recipients, especially as morbidity
      increases. DISCUSSION: These findings reveal how increasing morbidity translates
      differently to care network size and diversity for men and women. They also
      suggest that having multiple caregivers may undermine the psychological well
      being of care recipients who face complex health challenges.

PMID- 28553798
TI  - Race Differences in ADL Disability Decline 1984-2004: Evidence From the National
      Long-Term Care Survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Disability declined in lower levels of impairment during the late 20th
      century. However, it is unclear whether ADL disability also declined, or whether
      it did so across race. In this study, we examine cohorts entering later life
      between 1984 and 1999, by race, to understand changing ADL disability. METHOD: We
      used latent class methods to model trajectories of ADL disability and subsequent
      mortality in the National Long-Term Care Survey among cohorts entering older
      adulthood (ages 65-69) between 1984 and 1999. We examined patterns by race,
      focusing on chronic condition profiles. RESULTS: White cohorts experienced
      consistent declines in ADL disability but Blacks saw little improvement with some
      evidence for increased disability. Stroke, diabetes, and heart attack were
      predominant in predicting disability among Blacks. DISCUSSION: Declining
      disability trends were only observed consistently among Whites, suggesting
      previous and future disability trends and their underlying causes should be
      examined by race.

PMID- 28553799
TI  - Promoting Functional Activity Among Nursing Home Residents: A Cross-Sectional
      Study on Barriers Experienced by Nursing Staff.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To obtain insight into (a) the prevalence of nursing staff-experienced
      barriers regarding the promotion of functional activity among nursing home
      residents, and (b) the association between these barriers and nursing staff
      perceived promotion of functional activity. METHOD: Barriers experienced by 368
      nurses from 41 nursing homes in the Netherlands were measured with the MAastrIcht
      Nurses Activity INventory (MAINtAIN)-barriers; perceived promotion of functional
      activities was measured with the MAINtAIN-behaviors. Descriptive statistics and
      hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Most often
      experienced barriers were staffing levels, capabilities of residents, and
      availability of resources. Barriers that were most strongly associated with the
      promotion of functional activity were communication within the team, (a lack of)
      referral to responsibilities, and care routines. DISCUSSION: Barriers that are
      most often experienced among nursing staff are not necessarily the barriers that
      are most strongly associated with nursing staff-perceived promotion of functional
      activity.

PMID- 28553800
TI  - Predictors of Continued Smoking and Interest in Cessation Among Older Female
      Smokers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Older female smokers are highly vulnerable, yet little is known about
      their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding smoking cessation. METHODS:
      Southeast region Women's Health Initiative participants identified as smokers on
      at least one prior assessment were surveyed in 2012 regarding current tobacco
      use. RESULTS: Most of these current and former smokers ( N = 409, 63% response)
      were non-Hispanic White (81.7%) and had some college (80%), with mean age of 75.1
      years. Current smoking was confirmed by 56%, and while 61% of these reported a
      past-year quit attempt, less than half used quit aids. Of current smokers, 57.5%
      intended to quit within 6 months (26.6% within 30 days), and 68% were interested
      in joining a cessation study. CONCLUSIONS: Older female smokers were highly
      motivated to quit, yet profoundly underutilized proven quit aids. Results support
      high acceptability of cessation interventions for this undertreated population.

PMID- 28553802
TI  - Circumstances of Falls With Fractured Femur in Residents of Australian Nursing
      Homes: An Analysis of Falls Reports.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the circumstances and characteristics of
      falls with fractured femur reported in nursing homes. METHOD: Mixed methods were
      used. There were reports on 401 eligible falls from 88 residential care
      facilities in the Hunter region of Australia. A falls report form was developed
      for the study and was completed by nursing staff. Information was collected about
      the circumstances of falls with fractured femur and resident data. Descriptive
      and qualitative analyses were used. RESULTS: Falls with fractured neck of femur
      were associated with being ambulant, having dementia, increasing age, and a high
      falls risk assessment. Themes from the falls report data were resident-related
      factors, organizational or environmental issues, and activities at the time of
      the fall. DISCUSSION: Falls in residential care settings are very complex and
      difficult to prevent. Attention should be given to the needs of recently admitted
      residents and management of the facility environment.

PMID- 28553801
TI  - The Association Between Lipoproteins, Disability, and Physical Function Among
      Older Costa Rican Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between total cholesterol (TC),
      triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) with
      disability and physical performance. METHOD: Wave 1 data were from Costa Rican
      Longevity and Healthy Aging Study ( n = 2,827). Lipoprotein profiles were
      measured using blood samples. Disability and physical functioning were measured
      with activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living
      (ADLs/IADLs) and objective assessment of physical performance. RESULTS: Lower HDL
      C was associated with greater ADL disability, and lower TC with longer time to
      pick-a-pencil and Time-Up-Go (TUG) test. Age interacted between (a) TG and lung
      function, chair stands, and pick-a-pencil, and (b) HDL-C and TUG. Stratification
      showed lower TG and longer time picking up a pencil only for those above 84
      years. Based on significant interactions with sex, lower TC was associated with
      slower chair stand time in women and higher HDL-C with slower chair stand time in
      men. DISCUSSION: Lower levels of lipoproteins may suggest worse physical
      function, but the association may differ by sex.

PMID- 28553803
TI  - Death Following Recent Admission Into Nursing Home From Community Living: A
      Systematic Review Into the Transition Process.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines the impact of the transition process on the
      mortality of elderly individuals following their first admission to nursing home
      from the community at 1, 3, and 6 months postadmission, and causes and risk
      factors for death. METHOD: A systematic review of relevant studies published
      between 2000 and 2015 was conducted using key search terms: first admission,
      death, and nursing homes. RESULTS: Eleven cohort studies met the inclusion
      criteria. Mortality within the first 6 month postadmission varied from 0% to 34%
      (median = 20.2). Causes of deaths were not reported. Heightened mortality was not
      wholly explained by intrinsic resident factors. Only two studies investigated the
      influence of facility factors, and found an increased risk in facilities with
      high antipsychotics use. DISCUSSION: Mortality in the immediate period following
      admission may not simply be due to an individual's health status. Transition
      processes and facility characteristics are potentially independent and modifiable
      risk factors.

PMID- 28553804
TI  - Resilience in the Disabling Effect of Gait Speed Among Older Turkish and Moroccan
      Immigrants and Native Dutch.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factors that inhibit the disabling effect of
      impairments among citizens who have migrated from Turkey and Morocco and native
      Dutch according to a resilience perspective. METHOD: Using data from the
      Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam with 928 native Dutch, 255 Turks, and 199
      Moroccans aged 55 to 65, linear regression analysis assessed whether country of
      origin, mastery, income, and contact frequency modified the relationship between
      gait speed and activity limitations. RESULTS: Turks, but not Moroccans,
      demonstrated stronger associations between gait speed and activity limitations
      than the Dutch. Mastery modified the association among the Dutch and the Turks.
      Income modified the association only among the Dutch. Effect modification by
      contact frequency was not observed. DISCUSSION: Moroccans and Dutch appeared to
      be more resilient against impairments than Turks. As none of the resilience
      factors buffered in all three populations, we conclude that resilience mechanisms
      are not universal across populations.

PMID- 28553805
TI  - Prayer, Attachment to God, and Changes in Psychological Well-Being in Later Life.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prayer and
      attachment to God on psychological well-being (PWB) in later life. METHOD: Using
      data from two waves of the nationwide Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, we
      estimate the associations between frequency of prayer and attachment to God at
      baseline with cross-wave changes in three measures of PWB: self-esteem, optimism,
      and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Prayer does not have a main effect on PWB. Secure
      attachment to God is associated with improvements in optimism but not self-esteem
      or life satisfaction. The relationship between prayer and PWB is moderated by
      attachment to God; prayer is associated with improvements in PWB among securely
      attached individuals but not those who are insecurely attached to God.
      DISCUSSION: These findings shed light on the complex relationship between prayer
      and PWB by showing that the effects of prayer are contingent upon one's perceived
      relationship with God.

PMID- 28553806
TI  - Perspectives of Patients, Clinicians, and Health System Leaders on Changes Needed
      to Improve the Health Care and Outcomes of Older Adults With Multiple Chronic
      Conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To ascertain perspectives of multiple stakeholders on contributors to
      inappropriate care for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. METHOD:
      Perspectives of 36 purposively sampled patients, clinicians, health systems, and
      payers were elicited. Data analysis followed a constant comparative method.
      RESULTS: Structural factors triggering burden and fragmentation include disease
      based quality metrics and need to interact with multiple clinicians. The key
      cultural barrier identified is the assumption that "physicians know best."
      Inappropriate decision making may result from inattention to trade-offs and
      adherence to multiple disease guidelines. Stakeholders recommended changes in
      culture, structure, and decision making. Care options and quality metrics should
      reflect a focus on patients' priorities. Clinician-patient partnerships should
      reflect patients knowing their health goals and clinicians knowing how to achieve
      them. Access to specialty expertise should not require visits. DISCUSSION:
      Stakeholders' recommendations suggest health care redesigns that incorporate
      patients' health priorities into care decisions and realign relationships across
      patients and clinicians.

PMID- 28553807
TI  - Outcomes of a Digital Health Program With Human Coaching for Diabetes Risk
      Reduction in a Medicare Population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the outcomes of a Medicare population who participated in a
      program combining digital health with human coaching for diabetes risk reduction.
      METHOD: People at risk for diabetes enrolled in a program combining digital
      health with human coaching. Participation and health outcomes were examined at 16
      weeks and 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: A total of 501 participants enrolled; 92%
      completed at least nine of 16 core lessons. Participants averaged 19 of 31
      possible opportunities for weekly program engagement. At 12 months, participants
      lost 7.5% ( SD = 7.8%) of initial body weight; among participants with clinical
      data, glucose control improved (glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c] change = -0.14%,
      p = .001) and total cholesterol decreased (-7.08 mg/dL, p = .008). Self-reported
      well-being, depression, and self-care improved ( p < .0001). DISCUSSION: This
      Medicare population demonstrated sustained program engagement and improved
      weight, health, and well-being. The findings support digital programs with human
      coaching for reducing chronic disease risk among older adults.

PMID- 28553808
TI  - Medicalization of Sleep Problems in an Aging Population: A Longitudinal Cross
      National Study of Medication Use for Sleep Problems in Older European Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The association between age and sleep problems is considered to be
      positive, and medication use is a common health care intervention among older
      individuals. Because daytime consequences are often stated as a reason to seek
      care, we study to what extent the medicalization of sleep problems is found in an
      aging European population, with a focus on daily activities. METHOD: Data from
      the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe are used in three-level,
      generalized linear mixed models. Medicalization is operationalized as the use of
      medication for sleep problems at least once per week. RESULTS: Men are more
      likely than women to use medication for sleep problems, and the process of aging
      is associated with a decrease in medicalization. DISCUSSION: Sleep problems seem
      to be medicalized particularly when they prevent aging individuals from engaging
      in work-related responsibilities, as medication is especially used by employed
      individuals with sleep problems.

PMID- 28553809
TI  - Public Perspectives Toward the Sexual Behavior of an Individual With Dementia
      Residing in Long-Term Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines public perspectives toward sexual behavior within
      a heterosexually married couple in which one individual has dementia and resides
      in a long-term care facility. METHOD: Respondents included 318 adults in the
      Southern United States. Paired sample t tests were used to understand how the
      diagnosis of dementia statistically influenced participants' responses, and a
      logistic regression model was used to understand how a vignette character's sex
      and respondent characteristics influenced attitudes. RESULTS: Fifty-eight percent
      of respondents believed that a sexual relationship should be permitted for an
      adult with dementia, and t tests revealed that dementia had a statistical effect
      on participants' responses. Sex of the vignette character was not a predictor of
      attitudes. Participant's qualitative rationales are offered for additional
      insight. DISCUSSION: Respondents who felt that a couple should not engage in a
      sexual relationship commonly cited consent-related issues as their primary
      concern. Implications for policy development are discussed.

PMID- 28553812
TI  - Does Oral Health Predict Functional Status in Late Life? Findings From a National
      Sample.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the association between oral health and the
      decline in functional status among middle-aged and older adults in the United
      States. METHOD: Generalized estimation equation (GEE) Poisson regression models
      with robust standard errors were used to analyze the longitudinal panel data
      (2008-2014) from the Health and Retirement Study ( N = 1,243). Oral health was
      evaluated using self-rated oral health, poor mouth condition, and tooth loss.
      Decline in functional status was assessed by disabilities in activities of daily
      living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). RESULTS:
      Respondents with poor oral health were more likely to experience decline in
      ADLs/IADLs. Adjusting for sociodemographics and comorbidities attenuated the
      effects of oral health. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that oral health might be
      one of the important predictors of functioning decline in late life, after
      adjusting sociodemographics and comorbidities.

PMID- 28553811
TI  - White-Black Differences in Cancer Incidence, Stage at Diagnosis, and Survival
      Among Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify potential White-Black differences in cancer incidence
      rates, stage at diagnosis, and relative survival probabilities among older adults
      using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data. METHOD:
      Differences in cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis, and 5-year relative survival
      probability were examined for cases diagnosed within the most recent 5-year
      period and over time for cases diagnosed from 1973 to 2013 (incidence only) for
      older White and Black adults. RESULTS: Among adults aged 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and
      85 years and older, Black adults had higher cancer incidence rates per 100,000
      than White males from 1973 to 2013, respectively. Late stage and unstaged cancers
      were more common among Black adults in each of the three age groups compared with
      Whites. Five-year relative survival probability for all invasive cancers combined
      was higher for Whites than Blacks in each of the three age groups. DISCUSSION:
      Continued efforts are needed to reduce racial disparities in cancer incidence and
      mortality among older adults.

PMID- 28553810
TI  - The Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Functioning in Older
      Hispanic/Latino Adults Enrolled in an Exercise Intervention: Results From the
      "!Caminemos!" Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive
      functioning in older Hispanics/Latinos enrolled in an exercise intervention.
      METHOD: We analyzed baseline, 1-year, and 2-year in-person interview data
      collected from Hispanics/Latinos aged >=60 years participating in an exercise
      intervention across 27 senior centers ( N = 572). RESULTS: Mean age was 73.13
      years; 77% female. At baseline, older adults screening positive for depression
      were 1.58 times more likely to experience cognitive impairment ( p = .04);
      controlling for demographics and comorbid chronic conditions. Compared to peers
      with little to no depressive symptoms, lower cognitive functioning scores were
      evident at each follow-up assessment point where elevated depressive symptoms
      were present, but baseline depression was not associated with cognitive function
      in longitudinal analyses. DISCUSSION: In older Hispanics/Latinos enrolled in an
      exercise intervention, though baseline depression did not predict cognitive
      function over time, elevated symptoms of depression were associated with greater
      cognitive impairment at every point in this study.

PMID- 28553813
TI  - Social Relationships and Inflammatory Markers in the MIDUS Cohort: The Role of
      Age and Gender Differences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To better understand age and gender differences in associations of
      social relationships with chronic inflammation. METHOD: Using a sample of middle
      aged and older adults ( N = 963) from the Midlife Development in the United
      States (MIDUS) biomarker project, we examined interactions of age and gender with
      structural and functional social network measures in predicting interleukin-6 (IL
      6) and C-reactive protein (CRP). RESULTS: Significant interactions involving age
      and gender showed that social support was associated with lower IL-6 in older
      women, whereas perceived positive relationships and social integration were
      related to lower IL-6 in both men and women of advanced age. Functional measures
      were associated with higher CRP in both men and women after adjustment for health
      conditions and behaviors, with some further variation by age. DISCUSSION: Greater
      social support may be related to lower IL-6 in older women. Further research is
      needed to understand observed associations of social support with higher CRP.

PMID- 28553814
TI  - Psychosocial and Mental Health Problems of Older People in Postearthquake Nepal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify community perceptions on psychosocial and mental health
      problems of older people in postearthquake situation in Nepal. METHOD: A
      qualitative methodology was adopted to explore the experience and opinions of
      older people, social workers, school teachers, health workers, and
      nongovernmental organization workers on the psychosocial and mental health
      problems of older people in Nepal, using key informant interviews. RESULTS: Major
      local vocabulary for older peoples' psychosocial and mental health problems were
      "bichalan" (variation in mood and feeling), "ekohoro" (becoming single minded),
      "athmabiswasko kami" (low self-esteem), and "bina karan rune" (crying without any
      reason). The major causes attributed to older people's problems were physical
      injury, disability, family conflict, and economic problems. Forgetfulness,
      tiredness, loss of concentration, restlessness, and isolation were observed in
      older people since the 2015 earthquake. DISCUSSION: The findings suggest that
      earthquake had negative impact on older people's psychosocial well-being;
      however, little support or treatment options have been made available to these
      individuals. The tailor-made community-based psychosocial and mental health
      programs for older people are needed.

PMID- 28553815
TI  - Cognition and Context: Rural-Urban Differences in Cognitive Aging Among Older
      Mexican Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe differences in cognitive functioning across rural and
      urban areas among older Mexican adults. METHOD: We include respondents aged 50+
      in the 2012 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). Cognitive functioning by
      domain is regressed as a function of community size. The role of educational
      attainment in explaining rural/urban differences in cognitive functioning is
      examined. RESULTS: Respondents residing in more rural areas performed worse
      across five cognitive domains. The majority, but not all, of the association
      between community size and cognitive functioning was explained by lower education
      in rural areas. DISCUSSION: Respondents residing in more rural areas were
      disadvantaged in terms of cognitive functioning compared with those residing in
      more urban areas. Poorer cognitive functioning in late life may be the result of
      historical educational disadvantage in rural areas or selection through migration
      from rural to urban regions for employment.

PMID- 28553816
TI  - Heterogeneous Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in Late Middle Age: Critical
      Period, Accumulation, and Social Mobility Life Course Perspectives.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated patterns of depressive symptoms and whether
      socioeconomic status (SES) across the life course affects these trajectories
      using the critical period, accumulation, and social mobility models. METHOD: This
      study uses data from 8,532 adults, age 51 to 64, collected over 12 years from the
      Health and Retirement Study (observations = 25,887). A latent class analysis was
      performed to examine distinct depressive symptom trajectories; life course models
      were studied with multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Four heterogeneous
      latent classes were identified for depression: Declining, Low, Increasing, and
      High and Increasing. The High and Increasing group was associated with a
      disadvantaged childhood SES, accumulated exposure to socioeconomic risks, and
      persistent SES disadvantage supporting the three life course models. DISCUSSION:
      There was evidence of distinct profiles of depressive symptoms in late middle age
      and of interrelated life course mechanisms underlying the influences of childhood
      SES on later life depression.

PMID- 28553817
TI  - The Complex Association Between Fear of Falling and Mobility Limitation in
      Relation to Late-Life Falls: A SHARE-Based Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines fear of falling (FOF) in relation to falls in
      light of mobility limitation. METHOD: Data on community-dwelling older Europeans,
      aged 65+, were drawn from two consecutive waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing
      and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The analysis regressed fall status in 2013 on
      reported FOF 2 to 3 years earlier, controlling for previous falls. RESULTS: FOF
      predicted subsequent falls when mobility limitation was low to moderate. However,
      the effect of FOF on fall probability was reversed when mobility limitation was
      high. DISCUSSION: The analysis underscores a complex association between FOF and
      mobility limitation in relation to late-life falls. People who are worried about
      falling tend to fall more. Those having high mobility limitation but lacking FOF
      are also more likely to fall. In cases of considerable mobility limitation, FOF
      may act as a protective buffer. The less worried in this group, however, may be
      subject to greater falling, and thus require greater attention.

PMID- 28553818
TI  - Mastery and Depressive Symptoms: How Does Mastery Influence the Impact of
      Stressors From Midlife to Old Age?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to study depressive symptoms (DS)
      among adults aged 40 to 79 years and examine how mastery influences the impact of
      sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and health factors on DS. METHOD: We used a
      sample of the Norwegian Life Course, Generation, and Gender (LOGG) study ( N =
      6,879) and analyzed how mastery influences the independent variables on DS via
      regression analyses. RESULTS: Mastery affected DS directly and influenced the
      effects of sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and health factors on DS. There was a
      stronger relationship between stressors and DS among respondents with low than
      high mastery. DS were most prevalent among people aged 70 to 79 years. When
      mastery was also controlled for, the oldest group (70-79 years) had significantly
      fewer DS than those aged 40 to 49 years. DISCUSSION: The influence of mastery and
      stressors on DS seems to vary along the life span. The result that mastery was a
      relatively stronger buffer against DS in midlife than in old age is discussed.

PMID- 28553819
TI  - Educational Differences in Health Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Brazil
      and Mexico.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines educational differences in health conditions among
      middle-aged and older adults in Brazil and Mexico. METHOD: Cross-sectional data
      from the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey and the 2012 Mexican National
      Health and Nutrition Survey were used in the analyses. We used multivariate
      Poisson regressions to examine the relationship between educational level and
      prevalence of common health conditions (obesity, abdominal obesity, diabetes,
      hypertension, heart disease, and hearing and visual impairments). RESULTS:
      Socioeconomic and sex inequalities persist in both countries. In general, low
      levels of education were associated with higher risk for having health
      conditions. However, men of lower education had a smaller risk of abdominal
      obesity and hypertension. DISCUSSION: Brazil and Mexico have expanded public
      health actions aimed at improving health behaviors, diagnosis, and access to
      treatment of chronic conditions. However, important social disparities remain.
      Improving lifestyle behaviors, such as physical activity and dietary habits,
      could benefit both countries.

PMID- 28553820
TI  - Health Behaviors and Chronic Conditions Mediate the Protective Effects of
      Masculinity for Physical Performance in Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We estimated the 2-year incidence of poor physical performance
      according to gender roles and examined mediating pathways related to health
      behaviors and chronic conditions. METHOD: Data are from the International
      Mobility in Aging Study ( n = 1,676). The Bem Sex Role Inventory was used to
      classify participants into four gender roles as "masculine," "feminine,"
      "androgynous," and "undifferentiated." RESULTS: We found a higher incidence of
      poor physical performance among participants endorsing the feminine (adjusted
      incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 2.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [1.55, 3.60])
      or the undifferentiated role (adjusted IRR = 2.19, 95% CI = [1.45, 3.30])
      compared with the androgynous role. Smoking, physical activity, the number of
      chronic conditions, high body mass index, and depression were mediators of this
      association but not alcohol consumption. DISCUSSION: This study provides evidence
      that gender roles are independently associated with physical performance. Health
      behaviors and chronic conditions are mediators of the relationship between gender
      roles and lower extremity physical function.

PMID- 28553821
TI  - Relationships Between Neighborhood Social Capital and The Occurrence of Outdoor
      Falls in Canadian Older Adults: A Multilevel Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine whether neighborhood-level social
      capital is a risk factor for falls outside of the home in older adults. METHODS:
      Health questionnaires were completed by community-dwelling Canadians aged +65
      years living in Kingston (Ontario) and St-Hyacinthe (Quebec), supplemented by
      neighborhood-level census data. Multilevel logistic regression models with random
      intercepts were fit. Variations in the occurrence of falls across neighborhoods
      were quantified by median odds ratio and 80% interval odds ratio. RESULTS:
      Between-neighborhood differences explained 7% of the variance in the occurrence
      of falls; this variance decreased to 2% after adjustment for neighborhood-level
      variables. In the fully adjusted models, higher levels of social capital
      increased the odds of falls by almost 2 times: (odds ratio [OR] = 2.10, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] = [1.19, 3.71]). DISCUSSION: Living in neighborhoods
      with higher levels of social capital was associated with higher risk of falling
      in older adults, possibly through more involvement in social activities.

PMID- 28553822
TI  - Functional Status and Adaptation: Measuring Activities of Daily Living and Device
      Use in the National Health and Aging Trends Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the functional status and
      adaptation of older Americans and discover the factors that contribute to device
      use. METHOD: Using the community participants' portion of the first round of
      National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), we demonstrate the prevalence of
      device use and reduction in activities, creating a multilevel measure of
      activities of daily living (ADL) functionality as compared with Katz's
      dichotomous measure. In determining whether adaptation is universal irrespective
      of age, sex, race, living arrangement, and income, or dependent on these
      variables, we create a measure of device use, performing a path analysis of the
      device use measure and sociodemographic variables, with disability score as an
      intervening measure. RESULTS: ADL functionality becomes more nuanced between the
      Katz-ADL and NHATS-ADL. Age, sex, and living arrangement were predictors of
      device use; income was indirectly, whereas race was not. DISCUSSION: When
      assessors design service plans, consideration should be given to older adults'
      ability, capacity, and resources to adapt.

PMID- 28553823
TI  - The Nature and Extent of Physical Restraint-Related Deaths in Nursing Homes: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the
      published research to examine the extent, nature, and risk factors of mortality
      due to physical restraint use. METHOD: In accordance with the Preferred Reporting
      Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement, this review
      examined all peer-reviewed studies published in English describing mortality due
      to physical restraint in nursing home residents. RESULTS: The combined searches
      yielded 2,016 records of which eight articles were eligible for inclusion. There
      were 174 deaths due to physical restraint in nursing home residents across the
      eight studies. Neck compression ( n = 8) was the most common mechanism of harm
      resulting in death due to mechanical asphyxia. CONCLUSIONS: Physical restraint is
      associated with deaths in nursing home residents. Further research is needed to
      investigate alternative interventions to restraint use.

PMID- 28553824
TI  - The Relation of Hypertension to Performance in Immediate and Delayed Cued Recall
      and Working Memory in Old Age: The Role of Cognitive Reserve.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relation of hypertension to cognitive performance
      and its interplay with key markers of cognitive reserve in a large sample of
      older adults. METHOD: We assessed tests of immediate and delayed cued recall and
      working memory in 701 older adults. We measured systolic blood pressure and
      interviewed individuals on their education, past occupation, and cognitive
      leisure activity. RESULTS: Hypertension (>=140 mmHg) was related to lower
      performance in all three cognitive measures. Moderation analyses suggested that
      these relations were reduced in individuals with greater engaging in cognitive
      leisure activity. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that hypertension was
      not related to any of the three investigated cognitive performance measures when
      education, cognitive level of job, and cognitive leisure activity were
      simultaneously taken into account. DISCUSSION: The detrimental influences of
      hypertension on cognitive functioning in old age may be reduced in individuals
      with greater cognitive reserve accumulated during the life course.

PMID- 28553825
TI  - Neighborhood Context, Dementia Severity, and Mexican American Caregiver Well
      Being.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The current study extends research on Latino caregiving to describe
      the role of neighborhood-level factors and dementia severity for caregiver well
      being. METHOD: Data are drawn from the Hispanic Established Population for the
      Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (HEPESE 2010/2011, N = 343). We present
      regression analyses that describe the relationship between dementia severity in
      the older care recipient and neighborhood-level structural factors for caregiver
      mental health. RESULTS: Mexican Americans providing care in neighborhoods
      characterized by a higher percent Latino report fewer depressive symptoms and
      greater life satisfaction. Percent Latino and percent Spanish speaking residing
      in the neighborhood are especially protective of caregiver depressive symptoms
      when care recipients display more severe dementia-related neuropsychiatric
      symptoms. DISCUSSION: Neighborhood characteristics play an important role in the
      Latino caregiver well-being processes. Targeting neighborhoods, especially in
      regard to culturally competent dementia care education and services, should be
      the focus of intervention strategies for Mexican-origin caregivers.

PMID- 28553826
TI  - The Association Between Depression and Traumatic Brain Injury in Older Adults: A
      Nested Matched Case Control Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Determine association between depression and traumatic brain injury
      (TBI) in the older adult home care population of Ontario, Canada (2003-2013).
      METHOD: A nested matched case control study was used, and data were retrieved for
      service users 65 years or older who received home care between 2003 and 2013.
      Incident TBI cases were matched to four controls by sex, age, and assessment
      date. Odds ratios and multivariable conditional logistic regression were
      completed. RESULTS: 554,313 service users were included of which 5,215 (0.9%) had
      a TBI and 39,048 (7.0%) had depression. Fall history was an effect modifier. The
      association between depression and TBI was 1.10 (95% confidence interval [CI] =
      [0.93, 1.31]) for those without a history of falling, while for those with a
      history of falling it was 1.24 (95% CI = [1.03, 1.48]) after adjusting for
      education and Alzheimer's disease. DISCUSSION: Depression is associated with
      sustaining a TBI in those with a history of falling.

PMID- 28553827
TI  - Influence of Type II Diabetes and High Depressive Symptoms on the Likelihood for
      Developing Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Disability and Mortality in Older
      Puerto Ricans.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the development of activities of daily living (ADL)
      disability and mortality according to diabetes and high depressive symptoms among
      Puerto Rican adults aged 60 and older. METHOD: Data came from Wave I and Wave II
      of the Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions Study ( n = 3,419). Logistic
      regression was used. Using insulin and receiving psychiatric treatment were proxy
      measures of disease severity for diabetes and depressive symptoms, respectively.
      RESULTS: High depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with developing ADL
      disability (OR = 2.21; 95% CI = [1.68, 2.91]). Diabetes at baseline was
      associated with mortality at follow-up (OR = 1.72; 95% CI = [1.34, 2.19]).
      Baseline diabetes was associated with developing ADL disability but only for
      those who reported using insulin (OR = 1.69; 95% CI = [1.08, 2.61]). Participants
      with comorbid diabetes and high depressive symptoms had the highest odds for
      developing ADL disability and mortality. DISCUSSION: Diabetes and high depressive
      symptoms are risk factors of developing ADL disability and mortality for older
      Puerto Ricans.

PMID- 28553828
TI  - Macron's vision for the French health system.

PMID- 28553829
TI  - Increasing racially and ethnically underrepresented women in medical school
      through an innovative program.

PMID- 28553830
TI  - Student directed learning in medical neuroscience curricula.

PMID- 28553831
TI  - Depression, anxiety and stress in dental students.
AB  - Objectives: To measure the occurrence and levels of depression, anxiety and
      stress in undergraduate dental students using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress
      Scale (DASS-21). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in November
      and December of 2014. A total of 289 dental students were invited to participate,
      and 277 responded, resulting in a response rate of 96%. The final sample included
      247 participants. Eligible participants were surveyed via a self-reported
      questionnaire that included the validated DASS-21 scale as the assessment tool
      and questions about demographic characteristics and methods for managing stress.
      Results: Abnormal levels of depression, anxiety and stress were identified in
      55.9%, 66.8% and 54.7% of the study participants, respectively. A multiple linear
      regression analysis revealed multiple predictors: gender (for anxiety b=-3.589,
      p=.016 and stress b=-4.099, p=.008), satisfaction with faculty relationships (for
      depression b=-2.318, p=.007; anxiety b=-2.213, p=.004; and stress b=-2.854,
      p<.001), satisfaction with peer relationships (for depression b=-3.527, p<.001;
      anxiety b=-2.213, p=.004; and stress b=-2.854, p<.001), and dentistry as the
      first choice for field of study (for stress b=-2.648, p=.045). The standardized
      coefficients demonstrated the relationship and strength of the predictors for
      each subscale. To cope with stress, students engaged in various activities such
      as reading, watching television and seeking emotional support from others.
      Conclusions: The high occurrence of depression, anxiety and stress among dental
      students highlights the importance of providing support programs and implementing
      preventive measures to help students, particularly those who are most susceptible
      to higher levels of these psychological conditions.

PMID- 28553832
TI  - Preoperative Phenacetin Metabolism Test in the Prediction of Postoperative Liver
      Dysfunction of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND The risk of postoperative liver dysfunction (PLD) in patients with
      injured livers, such as in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is still not
      negligible. Phenacetin metabolism test can reflect hepatic functional reserve in
      patients with chronic hepatic damage. The aim of this study was to assess the
      ability of phenacetin metabolism test to predict PLD in patients with HCC
      receiving partial hepatectomy. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-nine patients with HCC
      undergoing partial hepatectomy between 2014 and 2016 were included at Huashan
      Hospital, Fudan University. The phenacetin metabolism test was used to assess the
      hepatic functional reserve. The ratio of total plasma paracetamol to phenacetin
      was collected in patients at 2 h after oral administration of 1.0 g phenacetin,
      recorded 5 days prior to surgery and on the fifth postoperative day. Phenacetin
      metabolism test, Child-Pugh classification, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease
      (MELD) score were correlated with PLD. RESULTS Of 49 patients with HCC, 13
      patients (26.5%) had PLD. The association between the ratio of total plasma
      paracetamol to phenacetin and PLD was statistically significant (p=0.0061) and
      the correlation coefficient was -0.647 (p=0.0082). The phenacetin metabolism test
      showed a larger area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
      value (0.735) than Child-Pugh's classification (0.472) and MELD score (0.419).
      Using the calculated cutoff of 0.6, the lower ratio of total plasma paracetamol
      to phenacetin preoperatively was chosen to specifically identify patients with
      PLD. The sensitivity and specificity were 0.657 and 0.892, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS Phenacetin metabolism test could be preoperatively used in predicting
      PLD in HCC patients receiving partial hepatectomy. It potentially provides better
      prediction than Child-Pugh classification and MELD score.

PMID- 28553833
TI  - Longitudinal Changes in Brain Metabolic Activity after Withdrawal from Escalation
      of Cocaine Self-Administration.
AB  - The chronic and relapsing nature of addiction suggests that drugs produce
      persistent adaptations in the brain that make individuals with drug addiction
      particularly sensitive to drug-related cues and stress and incapable of
      controlling drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior. In animal models, several long
      lasting neuroadaptations have been described. However, few studies have used
      brain-imaging techniques to provide a complete picture of brain functioning in
      the course of withdrawal from cocaine. In this study, we allowed rats to self
      administer cocaine under short-access (1-h/day) or long-access (6-h/day)
      conditions and used 2-deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-d-glucose (18FDG) positron emission
      tomography scanning to investigate the longitudinal changes in metabolic activity
      1 and 4 weeks after discontinuation of cocaine self-administration. We found that
      compared to naive rats, both long-access and short-access rats showed significant
      disruptions in basal brain metabolic activity. However, compared to short-access,
      long-access rats showed more intense, and long-lasting neuroadaptations in a
      network of brain areas. In particular, abstinence from extended access to cocaine
      was associated with decreased metabolic activity in the anterior cingulate
      cortex, the insular cortex, and the dorsolateral striatum, and increased
      metabolic activity in the mesencephalon, amygdala, and hippocampus. This pattern
      is strikingly similar to that described in humans that has led to the proposal of
      the Impaired Response Inhibition and Salience Attribution model of addiction.
      These results demonstrate that extended access to cocaine leads to persistent
      neuroadaptations in brain regions involved in motivation, salience attribution,
      memory, stress, and inhibitory control that may underlie increased risks of
      relapse.

PMID- 28553834
TI  - Evidence for a Long-Lasting Compulsive Alcohol Seeking Phenotype in Rats.
AB  - Excessive drinking to intoxication is the major behavioral characteristic of
      those addicted to alcohol but it is not the only one. Indeed, individuals
      addicted to alcohol also crave alcoholic beverages and spend time and put much
      effort into compulsively seeking alcohol, before eventually drinking large
      amounts. Unlike this excessive drinking, for which treatments exist, compulsive
      alcohol seeking is therefore another key feature of the persistence of alcohol
      addiction since it leads to relapse and for which there are few effective
      treatments. Here we provide novel evidence for the existence in rats of an
      individual vulnerability to switch from controlled to compulsive, punishment
      resistant alcohol seeking. Alcohol-preferring rats given access to alcohol under
      an intermittent 2-bottle choice procedure to establish their alcohol-preferring
      phenotype were subsequently trained instrumentally to seek and take alcohol on a
      chained schedule of reinforcement. When stable seeking-taking performance had
      been established, completion of cycles of seeking responses resulted
      unpredictably either in punishment (0.45 mA foot-shock) or the opportunity to
      make a taking response for access to alcohol. Compulsive alcohol seeking,
      maintained in the face of the risk of punishment, emerged in only a subset of
      rats with a predisposition to prefer and drink alcohol, and was maintained for
      almost a year. We show further that a selective and potent MU-opioid receptor
      antagonist (GSK1521498) reduced both alcohol seeking and alcohol intake in
      compulsive and non-compulsive rats, indicating its therapeutic potential to
      promote abstinence and prevent relapse in individuals addicted to alcohol.

PMID- 28553836
TI  - A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Sequential Parallel Comparison
      Design Trial of Adjunctive Riluzole for Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive
      Disorder.
AB  - Riluzole is a glutamate-modulating agent with neuroprotective properties approved
      for use in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The efficacy and safety of riluzole vs
      placebo as an adjunct to antidepressant medication in outpatients with major
      depressive disorder (MDD) was examined in a 3-site, 8-week, randomized, double
      blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose trial using a sequential parallel
      comparison design comprised of two phases of 4 weeks. Patients with MDD in a
      current major depressive episode (N=104) with an inadequate response to either a
      prospective or a historical trial of an antidepressant medication were randomized
      in a 2 : 3 : 3 ratio to the treatment sequences of riluzole/riluzole,
      placebo/placebo, and placebo/riluzole, respectively. The primary outcome was
      change in depression severity, as assessed by the Montgomery-Asberg Depression
      Rating Scale (MADRS). Secondary efficacy outcomes included the response rate,
      defined as at least a 50% improvement in MADRS, Clinical Global Impressions
      severity and improvement subscales, and patient-reported measures of depression
      and cognitive function. Eighty-five patients completed the randomized treatment
      phases. Treatment groups did not differ in mean change in MADRS scores, response
      rate, or in any secondary efficacy outcomes. Riluzole was generally well
      tolerated, with a side effect profile consistent with its clinical use. In
      conclusion, a fixed dose of riluzole (100 mg/day) did not show adjunctive
      antidepressant efficacy compared to placebo. The trial was adequately powered to
      detect a moderate riluzole effect, and the risk for exaggerated placebo responses
      was mitigated. The lack of efficacy suggests that mechanisms underlying
      riluzole's neuroprotective effects are insufficient for clinical response in
      treatment-resistant depression.

PMID- 28553838
TI  - More Than Just Chillin': Interactive Effects of Menthol and Nicotine in Drug
      Reward.

PMID- 28553835
TI  - Pharmacological Manipulation of Cortical Inhibition in the Dorsolateral
      Prefrontal Cortex.
AB  - Cortical inhibition (CI) occurs largely through GABA receptor-mediated inhibitory
      neurotransmission, which can be modulated by cholinergic, dopaminergic, and
      glutamatergic inputs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to
      index CI through a paradigm known as long-interval CI (LICI). When TMS is
      combined with electroencephalography (EEG), LICI can index GABA receptor-mediated
      inhibitory neurotransmission in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We
      conducted a hypothesis-driven pharmacological study to assess the role of
      cholinergic, dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission on LICI
      from the DLPFC using TMS-EEG. In this randomized controlled, double-blind
      crossover within-subject study, 12 healthy participants received five sessions of
      LICI to the DLPFC in a random order, each preceded by the administration of
      placebo or one of the four active drugs. LICI was assessed after each drug
      administration and compared to LICI after placebo. Relative to placebo, baclofen
      resulted in a significant increase in LICI, while rivastigmine resulted in a
      significant decrease in LICI. Dextromethorphan and L-DOPA did not result in a
      significant change in LICI relative to placebo. Our study confirms that LICI in
      the DLPFC is largely mediated by GABAB receptor-mediated inhibitory
      neurotransmission and also suggests that cholinergic modulation decreases LICI in
      the DLPFC. Such findings may help guide future work examining the
      neurophysiological impact of these neurotransmitters in healthy and diseased
      states.

PMID- 28553840
TI  - [2015 ESC Guidelines for the management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias
      and the prevention of sudden cardiac death].

PMID- 28553839
TI  - A Primer on Foraging and the Explore/Exploit Trade-Off for Psychiatry Research.
AB  - Foraging is a fundamental behavior, and many types of animals appear to have
      solved foraging problems using a shared set of mechanisms. Perhaps the most
      common foraging problem is the choice between exploiting a familiar option for a
      known reward and exploring unfamiliar options for unknown rewards-the so-called
      explore/exploit trade-off. This trade-off has been studied extensively in
      behavioral ecology and computational neuroscience, but is relatively new to the
      field of psychiatry. Explore/exploit paradigms can offer psychiatry research a
      new approach to studying motivation, outcome valuation, and effort-related
      processes, which are disrupted in many mental and emotional disorders. In
      addition, the explore/exploit trade-off encompasses elements of risk-taking and
      impulsivity-common behaviors in psychiatric disorders-and provides a novel
      framework for understanding these behaviors within an ecological context. Here we
      explain relevant concepts and some common paradigms used to measure
      explore/exploit decisions in the laboratory, review clinically relevant research
      on the neurobiology and neuroanatomy of explore/exploit decision making, and
      discuss how computational psychiatry can benefit from foraging theory.

PMID- 28553837
TI  - Inflexible Functional Connectivity of the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex in
      Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests that anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) maturation during
      adolescence contributes to or underlies the development of major depressive
      disorder (MDD) during this sensitive period. The ACC is a structure that sits at
      the intersection of several task-positive networks (eg, central executive
      network, CEN), which are still developing during adolescence. While recent work
      using seed-based approaches indicate that depressed adolescents show limited task
      evoked vs resting-state connectivity (termed 'inflexibility') between the ACC and
      task-negative networks, no study has used network-based approaches to investigate
      inflexibility of the ACC in task-positive networks to understand adolescent MDD.
      Here, we used graph theory to compare flexibility of network-level topology in
      eight subregions of the ACC (spanning three task-positive networks) in 42
      unmedicated adolescents with MDD and 53 well-matched healthy controls. All
      participants underwent fMRI scanning during resting state and a response
      inhibition task that robustly engages task-positive networks. Relative to
      controls, depressed adolescents were characterized by inflexibility in local
      efficiency of a key ACC node in the CEN: right dorsal anterior cingulate
      cortex/medial frontal gyrus (R dACC/MFG). Furthermore, individual differences in
      flexibility of local efficiency of R dACC/MFG significantly predicted inhibition
      performance, consistent with current literature demonstrating that flexible
      network organization affords successful cognitive control. Finally, reduced local
      efficiency of dACC/MFG during the task was significantly associated with an
      earlier age of depression onset, consistent with prior work suggesting that MDD
      may alter functional network development. Our results support a
      neurodevelopmental hypothesis of MDD wherein dysfunctional self-regulation is
      potentially reflected by altered ACC maturation.

PMID- 28553845
TI  - Risk assessment in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction treated with
      primary percutaneous coronary angioplasty. Does reduced duration of hospital stay
      affect the prognosis?

PMID- 28553846
TI  - The effects of CD4 nadirs on vessel stiffness in HIV patients undergoing
      antiretroviral therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are many factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus
      (HIV) patients having a greater risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). HIV
      damages vessel endothelium through chronic inflammation, which, combined with dys
      lipidaemia, arterial hypertension, and antiretroviral therapy leads to the
      progression of atherosclerotic changes. AIM: Our goal was to determine if a CD4
      nadir along with immunological, inflammatory, biochemical, and metabolic mark-ers
      can be associated with higher vessel stiffness and therefore an increased risk of
      CVD in patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy for HIV. METHODS: Endothelial
      damage was evaluated in 20 patients (including four female) during successful
      antiretroviral therapy. We assessed the endothelial stiffness by recording the
      reactive hyperaemia of peripheral arteries using an Endo-PAT2000 (ITAMAR(r))
      device. This device allowed us to measure the arterial tonometry and to determine
      the augmentation index for a pulse rate of 75/min (AI@75). We set the normal
      value for vessel stiffness at reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) > 1.67, as
      recommended by the manufacturer. Additionally, we recorded the length of
      antiretroviral therapy, number of CD4 lymphocytes, CD4 nadir, HIV viremia, and
      biochemical and immunologic results. Finally, we compared patients with normal
      and dysfunctional endothelium. RESULTS: The only parameter significantly
      differentiating between the group with and group without endothelium dysfunction
      was platelet count (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: We were not able to confirm the
      significance of a CD4 nadir in the progression of endothelial stiffness in HIV
      patients. However, platelet values could be an important complementary marker for
      assessing the risk for CVD amongst HIV patients undergoing antiretroviral
      treatment.

PMID- 28553847
TI  - The short-term effect of atorvastatin plus ezetimibe therapy versus atorvastatin
      monotherapy on clinical outcome in acute coronary syndrome patients by gender.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atorvastatin reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
      levels and the risk of cardiovascular events, but whether the addition of
      ezetimibe (EZE), a non-statin drug that reduces intestinal cholesterol
      absorption, can reduce the rate of cardiovascular events further, and if there
      any sex differences, is not known. AIM: To evaluate the effects of atorvastatin
      and EZE combination in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients on the incidence of
      composite endpoint in short-term follow-up and to assess differences according
      their gender. METHODS: We conducted a 16-week, single-centre, prospective,
      randomised, open-label clinical trial involving 323 patients who had been
      hospitalised for an ACS within the preceding 14 days. They received atorvastatin
      20 mg for 28 days, and after that 292 patients who had LDL-C levels >= 1.81
      mmol/L were randomised to EZE 10 mg/day co-administered with atorvastatin therapy
      (EZE + statin) or double their current atorvastatin dose. The primary endpoint
      was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable
      angina requiring rehospitalisation, coronary revascularisation (>= 30 days after
      randomisation), or nonfatal stroke. RESULTS: The Kaplan-Meier event-free survival
      rate at 16 weeks was 88.1% in the EZE + statin group patients and 77.0% in the
      atorvastatin monotherapy group (absolute risk reduction: 11.1 percentage points;
      hazard ratio: 2.099; 95% confidence interval: 1.165-3.781; p = 0.014). The log
      rank test indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference
      between male and female survival rates in both treatment groups (p = 0.897).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study demonstrated that when added to statin
      therapy, EZE resulted in improved cardiovascular outcomes, and the response to
      atorvastatin and EZE combination was similar for both men and women.

PMID- 28553848
TI  - Implementation of targeted temperature management after cardiac arrest in Polish
      intensive care units. What has changed in the last five years?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies conducted up to 2010 indicate the underuse of targeted
      temperature management (TTM) in Poland. AIM: This study evaluated the current
      degree of TTM implementation in Polish intensive care units (ICUs) and analysed
      the implementation process since 2010. METHODS: A telephone survey, conducted
      from December 2014 to July 2015, was carried out to determine the number of ICUs
      using TTM in patients after cardiac arrest. We collected data on the details and
      prevalence of TTM, and the impact of organisational and financial issues and
      recently published papers on its use. RESULTS: We obtained data from 271 of 396
      ICUs (68.4%). In total, 79 (29.2%) ICUs indicated TTM use and 27 (34.2%) used
      dedicated TTM equipment. Overall, 62% of the ICUs used TTM regardless of the
      cardiac arrest rhythm. Target temperatures of 32-34 degrees C and 34.1-36 degrees
      C were reached by 44.3% and 43.0% of ICUs, respectively. The duration of TTM was
      12-24 h in 58.2% of the ICUs. The most common barriers to TTM implementation were
      a lack of dedicated devices (36.3%) and organ-isational and logistical issues
      (31.2%). Any influence of recently published data on TTM practice modifications
      was reported by only 23.4% of the ICUs. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted temperature
      management is underused in Polish ICUs. There is a need for additional
      educational and implementation efforts supporting the translation of knowledge
      into clinical practice at the regional and national levels.

PMID- 28553849
TI  - Effect of subchronic intake of Green Tea Extract on liver of albino rat
      Histomorphometric, ultrastructural and biochemical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are conflicting reports on the effect of Green tea extract
      (GTE) on the liver of animals. Some studies failed to show any adverse hepatic
      effects following administration of GTE to mice, rats, and dogs. Others reported
      severe hepatic necrosis, resulting in death; in female Swiss-Webster mice
      following its administration. The aim of the study was to study the subchronic
      toxicity of GTE on the liver of the adult male albino rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      40 male adult Wistar albino rats were used in the study. The rats were divided
      into four groups; group I (control), group II (Low-dose Green Tea), group III
      (Medium- dose Green Tea) and group IV (High- dose Green Tea). Histological,
      biochemical and histomorphometric analysis were done. RESULTS: Mild hepatic
      affections were observed in group II. The affections were severe in groups III
      and IV. The central veins and hepatic sinusoids were congested. The hepatocytes
      were degenerated. Hypertrophy of the hepatic arteries, dilation of the bile ducts
      and cellular infiltration were clearly observed in the last two groups. Mild
      degenerative changes were observed in the hepatocytes in rat's group II; the
      cytoplasm was rarefied and vacuolated. Some mitochondria were ruptured. The blood
      sinusoids were congested. The rough endoplasmic retinaculum was fragmented in
      group III. More degenerative changes were observed in group IV; the hepatic
      architectures were lost with disruption of cell membranes. Most of the cell
      organelles were degenerated and most of mitochondria were ballooned. As compared
      to that of the control groups: the total serum protein values in groups II, III
      and IV showed a statistically significant decrease (12%, 20 % and 21 %
      respectively), the mean area percent of collagen fibers in groups III and IV
      increased five and seven folds. CONCLUSIONS: subchronic administration of GTE
      resulted in structural and functional affection of the rats' liver. The dose of
      250 mg/Kg/day seemed to be safe, while the doses of 500 mg and1000 mg/Kg/day had
      deleterious effect being more evident in the latter dose.

PMID- 28553851
TI  - Morphometric parameters of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) pocket
      walls observed on device replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The final stage of a conventional de-novo cardiac implantable
      electronic device (CIED) implantation procedure with transvenous lead insertion
      involves the formation of a pocket by tissue separation superficial to the
      pectoralis major muscle in the right or left infraclavicular region, where the
      device is subsequently placed. Over time, a scar "capsule" forms around the CIED
      as a result of normal biological remodeling. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The purpose
      of this study was to analyze the structure and present the variations of CIED
      capsules observed during device replacement. The nature and extent of this local
      tissue remodeling, which had occurred from the time of device implantation to its
      replacement in 2016 (10 +/-3.1 years), was analyzed in 100 patients (mean age
      77.1+/-14.5 years), including 45 women and 55 men. RESULTS: The largest type of
      "capsules" (70% of cases) were those with similar thickness of both walls or a
      slightly thicker posterior (<1.0mm) than anterior wall (<0.5mm). The second most
      common capsule type (23% of cases) was characterized by a significantly thicker
      posterior wall of scar tissue (?1.0mm). The third group of capsules was
      characterized by various degrees of wall calcification (7% of cases).
      CONCLUSIONS: The extent and nature of scar tissue structure in the CIED pocket
      walls seems to correlate with the relative position of cardiac lead loops with
      respect to the device itself; where the more extensive scarring likely resulting
      from pocket wall irritation in the capsule formation phase due to lead movements
      underneath the device. The group of cases with calcified capsules was
      characterized by "old" device pockets (? 13 years) and the oldest population
      (patients in their 80s and 90s).

PMID- 28553850
TI  - How the three arches of the foot intercorrelate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The foot is composed of medial, lateral and transverse arches which,
      particularly the medial arch, provide it with the ability to function both as a
      flexible and rigid structure for proper locomotion. Arches of the foot, as well
      as their effect on lower extremity function, have been studied. However,
      quantitative data on the relationship between these arches still remain scanty.
      The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine how the three arches of the
      foot intercorrelate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 76 participants (58 males, 18
      females) were recruited to participate in the study. Bilateral weight-bearing
      lateral radiographs of the right foot were taken from each participant. Navicular
      heights (NH), medial cuneiform height (MCH), calcaneal inclination angle (CIA)
      and calcaneal-first metatarsal angle (C1MA) were measured to represent the medial
      arch. The lateral arch was represented by cuboid height (CH) and calcaneal-fifth
      metatarsal angle (C5MA) whereas; MCH and CH represented the transverse arch. Mean
      difference of variables between males and females was compared using independent
      t-test while the correlation between the variables was determined using Pearson
      correlation. RESULTS: All the variables were not significantly related to gender.
      Significant moderate to excellent linear correlations were observed between the
      variables. CIA showed the strongest correlation with C1MA (r = -0.90) and C5MA (r
      = -0.84) whereas, CH had the least correlation with other variables. CONCLUSIONS:
      The moderate to excellent correlations between the variables indicate that
      deformation or elevation of the medial arch may consequently result in similar
      movements of the lateral and transverse arches and vice versa.

PMID- 28553852
TI  - An anatomical study of additional radial wrist extensors including a unique
      extensor carpi radialis accessorius.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, 82 forearms from 41 cadavers were dissected to
      establish the incidence of variant additional radial wrist extensors. Three
      variants have been described in the literature: extensor carpi radialis
      intermedius (ECRI), extensor carpi radialis accessorius (ECRA) and extensor carpi
      radialis tertius (ECRT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of the 41 cadavers studied, 5/41
      (12%) had an additional radial wrist extensor. Of these 5 individuals, 2 had
      bilateral additional muscles and 3 were unilateral. Of the 82 forearms, 7/82 (9%)
      had additional radial wrist extensors. RESULTS: We found 4 examples of ECRI and 3
      examples of ECRA. We did not find any examples of ECRT. One specimen of ECRA had
      an atypical, previously undescribed, course. CONCLUSIONS: These accessory muscles
      are of clinical relevance, as they may be a contributing factor in tennis elbow
      and nerve entrapment, or cause diagnostic confusion, especially in ultrasound
      scans. However, they may also be used for tendon transfer. Of the 7 muscles found
      in the current study, 3 would have been suitable for such procedures.

PMID- 28553853
TI  - Immunolocalisation of nitric oxide synthase isoforms in the ductuli efferentes
      and epididym.
AB  - The present research used immunohistochemistry to analyse the detection and
      localisation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms in the ductuli efferentes
      and epididymis of prepubertal and adult alpaca. In the ductuli efferentes and
      epididymis of prepubertal and adult animals, nNOS and eNOS were similarly
      expressed in epithelial lining cells, conversely differences were observed in the
      immunopresence of iNOS. Our data provide evidence that NOS isoforms may have
      roles in reproductive functions and in the developmental processes of the
      excurrent duct system in the alpaca.

PMID- 28553854
TI  - Characteristics of yak platelet derived growth factors-alpha gene and its
      expression in brain tissues.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Platelet derived growth factors (PDGFs) are key components of
      autocrine and paracrine signalling, both of which play important roles in
      mammalian developmental processes. PDGF expression levels also relate to oxygen
      levels. The characteristics of yak PDGFs, which are indigenous to hypoxic
      environments, have not been clearly described until the current study. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We amplified the open reading frame encoding yak (Bos grunniens)
      platelet derived growth factor-alpha (PDGFA) from a yak skin tissue cDNA library
      by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers
      and Sanger dideoxy sequencing. Expression of PDGFA mRNA in different portions of
      yak brain tissue (cerebrum, cerebellum, hippocampus, and spinal cord) was
      detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). PDGFA protein expression levels
      and its location in different portions of the yak brain were evaluated by western
      blot and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: We obtained a yak PDGFA 755 bp cDNA gene
      fragment containing a 636 bp open reading frame, encoding 211 amino acids
      (GenBank: KU851801). Phylogenetic analysis shows yak PDGFA to be well conserved,
      having 98.1% DNA sequence identity to homologous Bubalus bubalus and Bos taurus
      PDGFA genes. However, 8 nucleotides in the yak DNA sequence and 4 amino acids in
      the yak protein sequence differ from the other two species. PDGFA is widely
      expressed in yak brain tissue, and furthermore, PDGFA expression in the cerebrum
      and cerebellum are higher than in the hippocampus and spinal cord (p > 0.05).
      PDGFA was observed by immunohistochemistry in glial cells of the cerebrum,
      cerebellum, and hippocampus, as well as in pyramidal cells of the cerebrum, and
      Purkinje cell bodies of the hippocampus, but not in glial cells of the spinal
      cord. CONCLUSIONS: The PDGFA gene is well conserved in the animal kingdom;
      however, the yak PDGFA gene has unique characteristics and brain expression
      patterns specific to this high elevation species.

PMID- 28553855
TI  - Histomorphometric study of the effect of methionine on small intestine parameters
      in rat: an applied histologic study.
AB  - Assessment of morphological changes has more often been used in the diagnosis and
      assessment of intestinal pathology and development. Since methionine is widely
      used in nutritional and sports supplements and also there is not enough
      information about the effect of this amino acid on the gastrointestinal
      histomorphometry, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of methionine on
      the small intestine histomorphometry. Thirty male Wistar rats were randomly
      divided to 3 equal groups. Two treatment groups received 100 and 200 mg/kg L
      methionine solution respectively via intraperitoneal injection while the control
      group received normal saline. On day 21, all rats were euthanized and segments
      from three parts of small intestine were taken to histomorphometrical study.
      Paraffin sections were stained with haematoxylin & eosin, Alcian blue (AB) and
      periodic acid Schiff (PAS) methods separately. In order to analyze
      histomorphometric features of each segment, villus height, width, area, crypt
      depth, villus height to crypt depth ratio, goblet cell number, and muscle layer
      thickness were measured. Obtained results revealed that methionine may change the
      histomorphometric parameters of small intestine.

PMID- 28553856
TI  - Anatomic study of the morphology of the right and left coronary arteries.
AB  - Arising from the aorta, the right (RCA) and left (LCA) coronary arteries provide
      the arterial supply to both the atria and the ventricles of the heart. An
      extensive literature review revealed that most studies have either evaluated the
      morphology of the RCA or the LCA independently. This study aimed to document the
      relationship between the morphology of the RCA and LCA using coronary angiograms.
      In addition, variations such as split or double RCA and an absent LCA was
      documented. A review of 500 coronary angiograms was conducted and the RCA and LCA
      were classified according to their branching patterns and arterial dominance. The
      most prevalent branching pattern of the LCA was bifurcation [in 65.8% (329/500)],
      while trifurcation and quadrifurcation occurred in 20.4% (102/500) and 1.6%
      (8/500), respectively. The LCA was absent in 11.8% (59/500) of cases with the
      bifurcation and trifurcation of its branches in 10.8% (54/500) and 1.4% (7/500),
      respectively. The splitting of the RCA occurred in 4.2% (21/500) of the
      angiograms. A split RCA with concomitant absent LCA was documented in 1.2%
      (6/500) of the angiograms. The RCA and LCA were dominant in 77.2% (386/500) and
      9.8% (49/500) of cases respectively, whereas co-dominance occurred in 13%
      (65/500) of the sample examined. In most cases where a split RCA was present, the
      RCA was found to be non-dominant. With the advent of coronary arteriography, a
      comprehensive understanding of coronary arterial anatomy and their anomalies has
      become essential.

PMID- 28553857
TI  - The position of the mental foramen in dentate and edentulous mandibles: clinical
      and surgical relevance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The knowledge of the exact location of the mental foramen (MF) in
      dentate and edentulous mandibles is clinically important when constructing
      complete dentures, performing anaesthetic block of the lower-anterior teeth area
      and intervening in the MF nearby area. In edentulous mandibles, the bone
      resorption after teeth loss makes the mental nerve (MN) prone to damage due to
      the extreme location of the MF very close to the alveolar crest (AC). Chronic
      compression on the MN may result in pain in the area of MN distribution
      (ipsilateral face and cheek area) and numbness at the lower lip. The purpose of
      the current study is to evaluate the exact position of the MF, calculating the
      distances MF- superior border of the AC and MF- inferior border of the mandible
      (IBM) in dentate and edentulous mandibles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and
      two (36 edentulous and 66 dentate) adult dry Greek mandibles were studied.
      RESULTS: In 9 out of 36 edentulous mandibles (25%), the MF was found nearby the
      AC, while in 27 edentulous mandibles (75%), the MF was located at an average
      distance 6.4 mm from the AC and 12.6 mm from the IBM. In 38 out of 66 dentate
      mandibles (57.6%), the MF was located at an average distance 13.6mm from the ALC
      and 15.2 mm from the IBM. The dental status significantly affected (p=0.001) the
      distances MF- AC and MF-IBM. Side symmetry was observed for both dentate and
      edentulous mandibles (p=0.39 and p=0.45). CONCLUSIONS: The MF is an important
      landmark and its location needs to be considered prior to dental implants
      placement in order to avoid the MN injury and related complications. The position
      of MF is altered in edentulous mandibles compared with the dentate ones. The MF
      is a symmetric structure in Greeks.

PMID- 28553858
TI  - Adrenergic and cholinergic innervation of the atrioventricular valves in
      chinchilla (Chinchilla laniger).
AB  - The arrangement of autonomic fibres was studied in the cardiac atrioventricular
      valves of small chinchillas. The dissected valves were stained entirely using the
      modified histochemical acetylcholine esterase technique (AChE) and the SPG-De la
      Torre method. Double immunocytochemical staining was also used for the expression
      of vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) and dopamine beta hydroxylase
      (DBH). The study showed the presence of both cholinergic and adrenergic fibres,
      forming a kind of network on all cusps of both valves. The adrenergic network is
      always more strongly represented than the cholinergic network. The cholinergic
      nerve network of the "parietal" part formed mainly the parallel arrangement. As
      we move towards the free parts of the cusps, the arrangement becomes netted and
      radiant. The adrenergic fibres formed only the netted arrangement, which was the
      most dense in the peripheral (parietal) part of the cusps. Some of the fibres in
      the vicinity of tendinous cords extended as far as the papillary muscles. Double
      immunocytochemical tests confirmed the presence and distribution of DBH- and
      VAChT-positive fibres. Some fibres (especially within the tendinous cords) show
      VAChT and DBH colocalisation.

PMID- 28553859
TI  - The relationship between selected parameters of a cephalometric analysis
      determining the vertical morphology of facial skeleton and bite force.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are few studies devoted to an assessment of the relation
      between bite force and detailed results of cephalometric analysis that determine
      craniofacial structure. The purpose of the study was to assess the correlation
      between the selected criteria determining the craniofacial structure and bite
      force in patients with normal and increased vertical relation of the bases of
      jaws and skull. METHODS: The study material included 120 patients, aged between 7
      and 17 years, who presented for examination and possible orthodontic treatment.
      The patients were divided into a study group and a control group. The basis of
      this division were ML-NL and ML-NSL angles, according to Segner's and Hasund's
      analysis standards, respectively: above 27 degrees  and above 30 degrees  in the
      study group, and 20.0+/-7.0 degrees  and 28.0+/-5.0 degrees  in the control
      group. Bite force was tested using a digital dynamometer calibrated in Newtons.
      The measurement was performed at the level of the first permanent molars.
      Vertical relations were assessed using the following cephalometric measurements:
      ML-NSL, ML-NL, NL-NSL, N-Me, Sp-Me, SpMe:NMe, ms-NL, SGo:NMe. RESULTS: Bite force
      was not found to be dependent on the lower anterior face height (Sp-Me), the
      ratio of anterior lower to total anterior face height (SpMe:NMe), and NL-NSL
      angle both in patients with abnormal and normal relations of bases of jaws and
      skull. Although statistically non-significant, the average mean and maximum bite
      force values were found to be lower in patients with high-angle relation of bases
      of jaws and skull than in subjects with normal relation of bases of jaws and
      skull. CONCLUSIONS: Among the selected parameters determining the vertical
      craniofacial structure, the rear height of the alveolar process (ms-NL) exerts
      the greatest influence on bite force in both patients with increased and normal
      vertical relation of bases of jaws and skull, and with an increase in the value
      of ms-NL, bite force is reduced.

PMID- 28553860
TI  - Frontal aslant tract projections to the inferior frontal gyrus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frontal aslant tract (FAT) is a white matter bundle connecting the
      pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and the supplementary motor area (SMA)
      with the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). The purpose of the present study was to
      evaluate the anatomical variability of FAT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total number
      of fibres and the lateralisation index (LI) were calculated. We attempted to find
      factors contributing to the diversity of FAT regarding IFG terminations to the
      pars opercularis (IFG-Op) and to the pars triangularis (IFG-Tr). Magnetic
      resonance imaging of adult patients with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with
      total number of 98 hemispheres composed a cohort. V-shaped operculum was the most
      common (60.5%). RESULTS: Total number of FAT fibres had widespread and unimodal
      distribution (6 to 1765; median: 160). Left lateralisation was noted in 64.3% of
      cases and was positively correlated with total number of FAT fibres and the
      bundle projecting to IFG-Op (p < 0.01). LI correlated with total number of FAT
      fibres (r = 0.43, p < 0.01). FAT projected predominantly to IFG-Op (88.9%; 88 of
      99). Only in 3 (3.1%) cases more fibres terminated in IFG-Tr than in IFG-Op.
      Total number of FAT fibres and number of fibres terminating at IFG-Op did not
      correlate with the ratio of fibre numbers: FAT/IFG-Op, FAT/IFG-Tr and IFG-Op/IFG
      Tr (p > 0.05). The greater total number of fibres to IFG-Tr was, the higher were
      the ratios of IFG-Tr/ /FAT (r = 0.57, p < 0.01) and IFG-Tr/IFG-Op (r = 0.32, p =
      0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Among the IFG, the major termination of FAT is IFG-Op.
      Whereas the IFG-Tr projection seems to be related to the expansion of the entire
      FAT bundle regardless of side, domination and handedness. Nevertheless, FAT
      features a significant anatomical variability which cannot be explained in terms
      of DTI findings.

PMID- 28553861
TI  - Endothelial progenitor cells populate the stromal stem niche of tympanum.
AB  - The tympanic membrane (TM) integrity is of utmost integrity for the sense of
      hearing. Therefore, the intrinsic potential of the TM to regenerate and repair
      deserves complete characterization. Existing studies brought evidence on the
      epithelial stem niche of the TM. However, the stromal compartment was not
      evaluated for harbouring a distinctive stem, or progenitor, niche. We aimed doing
      this in transmission electron microscopy. We used TMs dissected out from 3 male
      Oryctolagus cuniculus rabbits. Evidence of stromal quiescent stem cells with was
      gathered. Moreover, endothelial progenitor cells were found in the TM, being
      accurately identified by two specific ultrastructural markers of the endothelial
      lineage: the Weibel-Palade bodies and the stomatal diaphragms of the
      subplasmalemmal caveolae. The stromal stem niche of the TM appears so as a
      distinctive contributor during physiologial and pathological processes of the TM,
      such as is the cholesteatoma formation, at least as a biological support for
      processes of vasculogenesis. However, further characterization of the molecular
      pattern of the stromal stem niche of the TM is mandatory.

PMID- 28553862
TI  - The possible protective effect of L-arginine against 5-fluorouracil-induced
      nephrotoxicity in male albino rats.
AB  - 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a potent antineoplastic agent used for the treatment of
      various malignancies. The L-arginine nitric oxide (NO) pathway involved in the
      pathogenesis of chemotherapy induced kidney damage. This work investigated the
      beneficial mechanism of L-arginine supplementation in 5-FU induced nephropathy.
      Eighty male Wistar rats were divided into four equal groups: control group; L
      arginine group (378 mg/rat/day for 4 weeks); 5-FU group (189 mg/rat/week for 4
      weeks) and L-arginine for 1 week before and 4 weeks concomitant with 5-FU group.
      At the end of experiment, the kidney functions were assessed and kidneys
      specimens were processed for paraffin sections and stained with haematoxylin and
      eosin (H&E), Masson's trichome (MT) and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stains. Other
      sections were processed for immunohistochemical demonstration of caspase-3 and
      inducible NO synthase (iNOS). Image analyser was used to analyse the results
      morphometrically and statistically. L-arginine administration to 5-FU treated
      animals elicited significant reduction in serum urea and creatinine levels, urine
      volume, urinary protein excretion and kidney/body weight ratio in comparison to
      fluorouracil treated group. L-arginine improved glomeruloscelerosis, degeneration
      of convoluted tubules and interstitial fibrosis in 5-FU treated animals. L
      arginine attenuated effectively some biochemical and histological changes in 5-FU
      nephrotoxicity.

PMID- 28553870
TI  - Changing the strategy of balloon pulmonary angioplasty resulted in a reduced
      complication rate in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
      A single-centre European experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: To assess the safety and efficacy of a refined balloon
      pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) strategy in patients with chronic thromboembolic
      pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). METHODS: There were 157 BPA sessions performed in
      56 CTEPH patients (47 non-operable, nine after pulmonary endarterectomy; aged
      58.6 +/- 17.9 years; 28 females) with severely impaired pulmonary haemodynamics
      (mean pulmonary artery pressure [mPAP]: 51.3 +/- 12.2 mm Hg, pulmonary vascular
      resistance [PVR]: 10.1 +/- 3.9 Wood Units). The first 50 sessions aimed to
      recanalise chronic occlusions and prevent reocclusion with aggressive
      anticoagulation. The next 107 sessions aimed to relieve "web" and "ring" lesions
      using reduced tip load guidewires and less intensive anticoagulation. RESULTS:
      There was significant reduction in haemoptysis (22% vs. 7%, p = 0.01), vessel
      injury (30% vs. 13%, p = 0.01), and reperfusion pulmonary injuries (22% vs. 4%, p
      = 0.01) after changing the BPA strategy. Mortality at 14 days was also reduced
      (6% vs. 0%; p = 0.05). The cumulative survival rate was 94.6% at 24 months after
      the first BPA, which was more favourable than medically treated historic
      controls. In the 31 patients with > 3 BPA sessions, there was significant
      reduction of PVR (10.3 +/- 3.7 vs. 5.9 +/- 2.8 Wood Units; p = 0.01), mPAP (50.7
      +/- 10.8 vs. 35.6 +/- 9.3 mm Hg; p = 0.01) and improvement in World Health
      Organisation functional class (3.19 +/- 0.48 vs. 1.97 +/- 0.80; p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Balloon pulmonary angioplasty improves haemodynamics and outcome but
      requires refined strategy to limit early complication rate.

PMID- 28553871
TI  - In-hospital and long-term outcomes of coronary artery bypass graft surgery in
      patients <= 45 years of age and older (from the KROK registry).
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data concerning the clinical characteristics,
      management, and outcomes of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) in
      patients <= 45 years old. AIM: We aimed to compare the clinical characteristics,
      and in-hospital and long-term outcomes of patients <= 45 years and > 45 years
      old, who underwent isolated CABG. METHODS: We identified consecutive patients who
      had isolated CABG in the Department of Cardiac Surgery and Transplantology in the
      Silesian Centre for Heart Diseases in Zabrze between January 2006 and December
      2011 and were enrolled in the Polish National Registry of Cardiac Surgery
      Procedures (KROK registry). A total of 8196 patients were identified and split
      into two groups, age <= 45 years old (young group; n = 130) and > 45 years old
      (old group; n = 8066). RESULTS: Patients <= 45 years old were less often females
      (18.5% vs. 27.6%, p < 0.027), more often smokers (84.6% vs. 66.9%, p < 0.0001),
      and had a higher incidence of previous myocardial infarction (MI) (40.8% vs.
      29.6%, p = 0.008). Patients <= 45 years old more often received only one graft
      (27.7% vs. 15.0%, p < 0.0001), were operated on with minimally invasive direct
      coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) technique (12.3% vs. 3.9%, p < 0.0001), and had
      complete arterial revascularisation (55.4% vs. 18.1%, p < 0.0001). There were no
      significant differences between the groups regarding in-hospital mortality (0.8%
      vs. 1.4%, p = 0.808). Long-term outcomes revealed that young patients, compared
      with the older patients, showed no significant differences in the number of MI
      (4.6% vs. 5.6%), unstable angina (8.5% vs. 9.9%), coronary angioplasty (12.3% vs.
      15.1%), reCABG (0.8% vs. 0.1%), and strokes (2.3% vs. 4.3%) during the follow-up
      period; long-term mortality occurred less often in the young patients (4.6% vs.
      15.0%, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that patients <= 45 years old
      requiring CABG differ from their older counterparts in clinical and surgical
      characteristics. We noted no significant differences in the in-hospital
      mortality; however, patients <= 45 years old had a lower mortality rate in the
      long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28553872
TI  - Prognostic factors in heart failure - are they all equally important?

PMID- 28553873
TI  - Does fluid resuscitation with balanced solutions induce electrolyte and metabolic
      abnormalities? An in vitro assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Popular intravenous fluids in clinical use may have an impact on
      electrolyte concentration and metabolic balance and should be considered as
      powerful pharmacological agents. There is a growing body of evidence that fluid
      therapy should be more individualised and preferably based on balanced solutions.
      AIM: We sought to investigate the impact of three commonly used balanced fluids
      on electrolytes and metabolic equilibrium in an in vitro setting. METHODS: Study
      group comprised 32 healthy male volunteers (without history of any acute/chronic
      disorder or known metabolic abnormality), aged 21-35 (29 +/- 4) years, weight 59
      103 (81.2 +/- 9.8) kg, from whom blood samples were withdrawn. The whole blood
      was diluted in 4:1 ratio with the study solutions to make an end-concentration of
      20 vol.% of each solution. The test solutions included balanced crystalloid
      (Plasmalyte(r), Baxter, Poland [PL]), succinylated gelatin (Geloplasma(r),
      Fresenius Kabi, Poland [GEL]) and 6% HES 130/0.4 (Volulyte(r), Fresenius Kabi,
      Poland [HES]). RESULTS: All fluids caused comparable degree of haemodilution. PL
      and GEL decreased (104 mmol/L, interquartile range [IQR] 103-105; and 106 mmol/L,
      IQR 105-107.5, respectively), whereas HES increased the concentration of Cl- to
      109 (IQR 108-110) mmol/L. PL and HES decreased (136, IQR 136-137 mmol/L; and 138
      mmol/L, IQR 137-139, respectively), whereas GEL increased the Na+ level to 140.5
      (IQR 140-141) mmol/L. PL and HES decreased osmolality (277.2 mOsm/kg, IQR 275.7
      278.4; and 280.9 mOsm/kg, IQR 279.3-282.0, respectively). GEL increased it to
      285.7 (IQR 283.7-286.8) mOsm/kg. All test solutions caused a similar
      statistically significant (p < 0.05) drop in base excess and bicarbonate
      concentration, and these fell outside the reference values. Due to its
      composition, GEL caused a significant increase in lactate concentration. HES and
      GEL caused a statistically significant drop in strong ion difference value. Due
      to high lactate level, the effect of GEL was most pronounced. CONCLUSIONS:
      Balanced intravenous solutions should be safe in terms of their impact on human
      plasma electrolyte and meta-bolic equilibrium when administered to replace up to
      20% of blood volume. In metabolic acidosis, balanced succinylated gelatin should
      be used with caution. Therefore, arterial blood gas analysis should be performed
      in patients in whom significant amounts of fluid are administrated, preferably
      with assessment of Cl-, Na+, lactate concentrations as well as pH, osmolality,
      and strong ion difference.

PMID- 28553874
TI  - Clinical significance and determinants of prompt recruitment collaterals during
      primary percutaneous coronary intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to ischaemic time delays from the chest pain occurrence in acute
      ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), prompt recruitment collaterals
      (PRCCs) to infarct-related artery (IRA) are the major protective structures
      during this period. AIM: We aimed to investigate the clinical significance and
      determinants of PRCCs in acute STEMI patients. METHODS: A total of 1375
      consecutive acute STEMI patients were prospectively enrolled in the study. The
      patients were divided into two groups, according to PRCCs to IRA; Rentrop <= 1
      were defined as inadequate collateral development (ICD) group and Rentrop >= 2
      defined as adequate collateral development (ACD) group. RESULTS: Patients in the
      ICD group had higher incidence of baseline risk characteristics, including older
      age, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus; however, pre-infarct angina incidence
      was lower than in the ACD group (p < 0.05 for all). In addition, the ICD group
      had worse haemodynamic status on admission and 30-day mortality. Compared to the
      ACD group, the non-IRA chronic total occlusion (CTO), peak troponin-T, N-terminal
      pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and high sensitivity C-reactive
      protein (hs-CRP) levels were higher in the ICD group. On multivariate logistic
      regression analysis, non-IRA CTO (b = 3.114, 95% CI 1.382-7.017, p < 0.006) with
      pre-infarction angina together with higher values of peak troponin-T, NT-proBNP,
      and hs-CRP were associated with PRCCs in acute STEMI. CONCLUSIONS: Taking into
      account that the main message of the study is that if patients have higher
      cardiac biomarkers and adverse clinical findings (which, of note, may show the
      extent of myocardial infarction) and have non-IRA CTO, there is a higher chance
      that they will have inadequate collateralisation.

PMID- 28553875
TI  - AssesSment of the left atrial appendage morphoLogy in patients aAfter ischaeMic
      Stroke - the ASSAM study protocol.
AB  - Stroke remains the most dangerous and frightening complication of atrial
      fibrillation (AF). A causal relationship between ischaemic stroke and atrial
      arrhythmias such as AF or atrial flutter has been well established. Numerous
      factors predisposing to peripheral embolism in patients with AF have been well
      established and included in the CHA2DS2-VASc score. Although proper
      anticoagulation minimises the risk attributable to "known" risk factors, stroke
      may still occur. Thus, "unknown" risk factors may play an important role in
      stroke risk stratification in patients with AF. We assume that one of the
      important "unknown" risk factor is the left atrial appendage morphology. The
      ASSAM study is planned to include 100 patients after ischaemic stroke or
      transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and known status of anticoagulation at the time
      of stroke. The control group will consist of 100 patients scheduled for AF
      ablation without a history of stroke or TIA.

PMID- 28553876
TI  - Cu2+-Loaded Polydopamine Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided pH-
      and Near-Infrared-Light-Stimulated Thermochemotherapy.
AB  - Cancer multimodal treatment by combining the effects of different theranostics
      agents can efficiently improve treatment efficacy and reduce side effects. In
      this work, we demonstrate the theranostics nanodevices on the basis of Cu2+
      loaded polydopamine nanoparticles (CuPDA NPs), which are able to offer magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI)-guided thermochemotherapy (TCT). Systematical studies
      reveal that after Cu2+ ions loading, the molar extinction coefficient of PDA NPs
      is greatly enhanced by 4 times, thus improving the performance in photothermal
      therapy. Despite Cu2+ ions being toxic, the release of Cu2+ is mainly stimulated
      in acidic environment. Once the NPs deposit in the slightly acidic tumor
      microenvironment (pH ~ 6.5-6.8), the release rate boosts ~30%, which effectively
      avoids the systematic toxicity during chemotherapy. Meanwhile, due to the
      increment of the electron-proton dipole-dipole interaction correlation time tauC,
      the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) for PDA NPs is found to be shortened by
      Cu2+ loading, which boosts the longitudinal relaxivity (r1). Hence, CuPDA NPs can
      be used as T1-weighted contrast agent in MRI. In addition, due to the naturally
      existing DA in the human body with stealth effect, CuPDA NPs have an outstanding
      tumor retention rate as high as 8.2% ID/g. Further in vitro and in vivo tests
      indicate that CuPDA NPs possess long blood circulation time, good photothermal
      and physiological stability, and biocompatibility, which are potential
      nanodevices for MRI-guided TCT with minimal side effects.

PMID- 28553879
TI  - The relationship between lower body stiffness and injury incidence in female
      netballers.
AB  - The aim of this study was to provide contemporary information on injury rates in
      an elite and sub-elite netball population and to explore the relationship between
      lower body stiffness and lower body injuries. One elite and two sub-elite teams
      of female netballers (n = 29) performed the vertical hop test to assess active
      lower body stiffness (Kvert) and myometry to assess quasi-static stiffness. Lower
      body injuries were monitored via self-reporting and liaison with
      physiotherapists. Twelve lower body non-contact injuries were sustained by 10
      players, equating to 11.29 lower body injuries per 1,000 exposure hours. The most
      commonly injured sites were the calf (33%) and ankle (25%). No significant
      differences between Kvert of injured and non-injured players were reported,
      however, injured elite players recorded significantly higher season mean quasi
      static stiffness in the soleus (p = 0.037) and Achilles (p = 0.004) than non
      injured elite players. Elite and sub-elite netball players recorded a higher
      injury incidence than previous reports of injuries in recreational netballers.
      Within the constraints of the study, relatively high stiffness of the soleus and
      Achilles appears to be related to lower body non-contact injury incidence in
      female netballers, particularly at the elite level. These results provide a basis
      for development of injury prevention strategies.

PMID- 28553878
TI  - Building conditions and the risk of nosocomial infection from microbial
      contamination of hospital appliances in a health care facility.
AB  - Nosocomial infections (NIs) remain a global health burden with higher incidence
      in Africa. We assessed building conditions and risk of NIs from microbial
      contamination of appliances and surfaces in a Specialist hospital in Southwest
      Nigeria. The study sampled 120 surfaces in 12 wards during normal occupational
      activities. Moulds on ceilings and dusty surfaces were observed in the wards.
      Microbial burden (1038.0 * 105 cfu) peaked in the ICU but was lowest (446.9 * 105
      cfu) in the male ward. Bacteria counts ( * 105 cfu) of 234.7, 199.7 and 67.0 were
      measured on ICU tap, doorknob and ECG, respectively. Theatre diatomy machine,
      anaesthetic machine and operating lamp had bacteria counts ( * 105 cfu) of 40.0,
      85.0 and 109.0, respectively. Highest total fungal count (58.2 * 105 cfu) was
      recorded on ICU trolley handle, switch and suturing tube. Our study established
      surfaces as major environmental routes for NI transmission in this health care
      facility.

PMID- 28553880
TI  - Dementia behaviour management programme at home: impact of a palliative care
      approach on care managers and professional caregivers of home care services.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Care managers and professional caregivers of home care services are
      sometimes unaware of the psychosocial approaches to the challenging behaviour of
      dementia. Therefore, we developed a Behaviour Analytics & Support Enhancement
      (BASE) programme. We investigated the effects of the programme on the attitudes
      towards dementia care among professionals. METHOD: Forty-six participants in
      Japan received training in August 2016. The ongoing monitoring and assessment
      system was introduced to the participants for repeated measures of challenging
      behaviour. A 1-day follow-up meeting for debriefing was also performed after two
      months. A baseline and follow-up questionnaire survey was administered to the
      participating caregivers using a Japanese version of the Approaches to Dementia
      Questionnaire (ADQ) and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). RESULTS: A significant
      improvement was observed in the total ADQ score among the participating
      caregivers from baseline to follow-up assessment. There was no significant
      difference between the baseline and follow-up assessment in the ZBI scores. In
      the follow-up meeting, several participants reported challenges and suggested
      solutions in facilitating a discussion on an action plan among professionals from
      various organizations. CONCLUSION: The implementation of the programme resulted
      in enhanced attitudes towards dementia care among the participants without an
      increased burden of care. Future studies should examine the programme's
      effectiveness on the challenging behaviour of persons with dementia.

PMID- 28553881
TI  - The relationship between levels of plasma-soluble urokinase plasminogen activator
      receptor (suPAR) and presence of migraine attack and aura.
AB  - Migraine is one of the most common types of pain associated with sterile
      inflammatory conditions. Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR)
      is a potential novel inflammatory marker. We aim to determine the association
      between serum values of suPAR, procalcitonin, fibrinogen, and high-sensitivity C
      reactive protein (hs-CRP) and migraine disease characteristics. The study
      involved a total of 60 migraine patients (33 patients in the interictal period,
      27 patients in the attack period) and 30 healthy individuals. The serum values of
      suPAR were found to be significantly higher in migraine patients in the attack
      period than in migraine patients in the interictal period, and in healthy
      individuals (p < .01 for both). In addition, levels of suPAR were determined to
      be higher in migraine with aura patients than in migraine without aura patients.
      When we subdivided migraine patients according to frequency of attack
      (attacks/month), significant differences were found between the suPAR and
      procalcitonin levels (measured during the attack period) of those in the frequent
      attack group (4-5 or more) versus those in the less frequent attack group (less
      than 4). Serum levels of procalcitonin were shown to be significantly higher in
      migraine patients during the attack period compared with migraine patients in the
      interictal period and in control subjects (p = .001 for both). Significant
      differences were found between plasma levels of fibrinogen in migraine patients
      versus control subjects (p < .01). No statistically significant difference was
      found between levels of hs-CRP in migraine patients versus the control group.
      These findings may show that presenting a high level of suPAR in migraine
      patients with attack and aura results to predisposition to occurring on the
      symptoms and that high levels of suPAR, procalcitonin and fibrinogen in patients
      with migraine result in neurogenic inflammation during migraine headaches.

PMID- 28553882
TI  - Functional brain connectivity of remembered fatigue or happiness in healthy
      adults: Use of arterial spin labeling.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic fatiguing illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis,
      chronic fatigue syndrome, or depression are frequently associated with
      comorbidities including depression, pain, and insomnia, making the study of their
      neural correlates challenging. To study fatigue without such comorbidities,
      functional connectivity (FC) analyses were used in healthy individuals to study
      brain activity during recall of a fatiguing event inside the MRI scanner. A
      positive mood induction served as control condition. METHOD: Using SPM8 and the
      CONN toolbox, FC was tested using seed- and independent component- based (ICA)
      analyses. Differences in the FC correlations between seed-to-voxel and ICA
      clusters between conditions were assessed with permutation testing. RESULTS: 17
      participants (59% women) achieved mean (SD) in-scanner fatigue VAS ratings of
      31.85 (20.61). Positive mood induction resulted in happiness ratings of 46.07
      (18.99) VAS. Brain regions where alterations in FC correlated with fatigue
      included the globus pallidum, left lateral occipital cortex, and cuneus. FC of
      happiness involved the parahippocampal gyrus, both supplemental motor areas, as
      well as right superior frontal gyrus. Using data-driven ICA, we identified an
      intra-cerebellar network where several regions were significantly associated with
      fatigue, but not happiness ratings. Results of permutation testing provided
      evidence that the detected clusters correlated differentially with self-reported
      fatigue and happiness. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that functional
      interactions between globus pallidum and occipital structures contribute to
      experimental fatigue in healthy individuals. They also highlight the important
      role of cortico-cerebellar interactions in producing feelings of fatigue. FC of
      occipital structures contributed to both experimental fatigue and happiness
      ratings.

PMID- 28553883
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553885
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553884
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553887
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553886
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553888
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553889
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553890
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553891
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553892
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553893
TI  - Descriptions of depression and depression treatment in older Hispanic immigrants
      in a geriatric collaborative care program.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore experiences with depression and depression treatment among
      older Hispanic immigrants participating in a collaborative care program of
      psychotherapy and antidepressant medication. METHOD: Semi-structured, in-depth
      interviews were conducted with 14 older Spanish-speaking Hispanic immigrants with
      major depression who participated in a collaborative care program within a public
      sector specialty geriatric clinic in Los Angeles, CA. RESULTS: Findings revealed
      that participants used various idioms to describe their experiences with
      depression, and that depression had a strong impact on functioning. Other
      findings indicated that depression was caused by various psychosocial problems,
      antidepressants were helpful in reducing depression, and that bilingual
      psychotherapists provided a welcoming and safe environment to express emotions
      and find solutions to problems. CONCLUSION: Results revealed participants'
      experiences with depression and the impact of participating in a collaborative
      care intervention for depression. Findings from this project should be used to
      inform future geriatric interventions for older Hispanic immigrants in the USA.

PMID- 28553894
TI  - Virtual versus Light Microscopy for Teaching Histology.

PMID- 28553895
TI  - DEAN is a Four-Letter Word.

PMID- 28553896
TI  - A Plea to Discontinue Acknowledging "Face Validity" as a Legitimate Type of
      Validity Evidence.

PMID- 28553898
TI  - Influence of Psychiatric Symptoms on Decisional Capacity in Treatment Refusal.
AB  - How psychiatric symptoms affect patients' decision making in practice can inform
      how we think-theoretically and conceptually-about what it means for those
      patients to have decision-making capacity. Assessment of a patient's decisional
      capacity allows those with adequate capacity to make choices regarding treatment
      and protects those who lack capacity from potential harm caused by impaired
      decision making. In analyzing a case in which a patient with stage II breast
      cancer refuses further treatment, we review the conceptual model of informed
      consent and approaches to assessing decision-making capacity that are in
      accordance with the American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics as well
      as tools to assess decisional capacity.

PMID- 28553897
TI  - Diagnostic score for the detection of cardiac amyloidosis in patients with left
      ventricular hypertrophy and impact on prognosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among diagnosis associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH),
      cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is a progressive disease with poor prognosis. Early
      noninvasive identification is of growing clinical importance. The objective of
      our study was to integrate clinical, biologic, electrocardiographic and
      echocardiographic parameters to build a diagnostic score in patients with LVH.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen patients with LVH underwent a
      cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and a 99mTc-hydroxymethylene-diphosphonate
      scintigraphy (99mTc-HMDP) allowing to discriminate three groups of diagnoses: CA
      (n = 50 including 31, 18 and 1 ATTR, AL and AA amyloidosis), hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy (n = 19) and unspecific cardiomyopathy (n = 45). Seven continuous
      variables associated with CA (systolic arterial pressure <130 mmHg; PR duration
      >200 ms; Sokolow index <12 mV; diastolic left ventricular posterior thickness >13
      mm; E/Ea ratio >10; global longitudinal strain > -12% and sum of basal
      longitudinal strain > -47%) were selected and dichotomized according to the best
      cutoff value to build the diagnostic score, which was validated in an independent
      cohort of 34 patients with LVH from aortic stenosis. The area under the ROC curve
      for the diagnosis of CA using the score was 0.933 (95%CI 0.889-0.978). The best
      cut off value for the score was 3 leading to a sensitivity of 90% and specificity
      of 81%. Area under the ROC curve for the score was 0.932 in the validation
      cohort. A diagnostic score >3 was associated with a poorest prognosis.
      CONCLUSION: An integrated evaluation of 6 diagnostic factors including arterial
      blood pressure, ECG and echocardiographic parameters to build a diagnostic score
      is a simple and easily method to discriminate the 3 main CA in patients with LVH.

PMID- 28553899
TI  - Do Pediatric Patients Have a Right to Know?
AB  - In Western medicine, a central component of respecting a person's ability to make
      decisions governing what happens to herself is ensuring that she is provided with
      sufficient relevant information to make a rational choice. For patients who lack
      the cognitive capacity to do so because of either inborn or acquired deficits or
      because of youth, the extent to which they can participate in medical decisions
      is variable. Minors present a unique challenge, as their ability to understand
      and process information usually increases with age. The case presented here poses
      special problems because of the parents' desire to shield their child from
      certain information deemed important by his physicians. I consider whether
      minors, particularly older ones, have a right to know that supersedes their
      parents' wishes.

PMID- 28553900
TI  - How Should Clinicians Respond to Transference Reactions with Cancer Patients?
AB  - Patients with cancer can feel particularly vulnerable and need special attention
      and support, so clinicians' attention to transference reactions-theirs and their
      patients-is especially important. Mismanaged transference reactions can undermine
      the therapeutic alliance in the patient-clinician relationship and negatively
      influence treatment outcomes. In oncology settings, real and perceived needs of
      patients in serious distress can occasion modification of usual outpatient
      protocols, particularly when flexible scheduling or home or hospital visits are
      warranted. Here, we comment on a case in which transference reactions of a young
      woman with cancer prompt her to terminate treatment. We discuss the importance of
      clinicians' recognizing and managing transference and countertransference,
      maintaining boundaries, and responding with empathy and integrity to cancer
      patients' concerns.

PMID- 28553901
TI  - Ethical Management of Patients with Cancer and Mental Illness.
AB  - Patients with co-existing cancer and mental illness must be given special
      attention due to the vulnerability that is created by their compromised
      psychological ability to comprehend the meaning of their cancer diagnosis,
      treatment, and prognosis. They are at increased risk for mortality due to many
      factors arising from their mental illness. To provide them with care that is just
      and compassionate, clinicians must be empathic and imaginative. Using a case and
      brief application of theories of justice involving vulnerable populations, we
      explore practical and ethical issues surrounding the care of patients with mental
      illness and cancer, arguing that society must provide the resources needed to
      provide comparable cancer care to those who are more vulnerable.

PMID- 28553902
TI  - How Situational Diagnosis Helps Disentangle Ethical and Psychological Features of
      Complex Cases.
AB  - We review Marguerite S. Lederberg's 1999 Acta Oncologica article entitled
      "Disentangling Ethical and Psychological Issues: A Guide for Oncologists," in
      which she introduces a method of analysis that facilitates clarification of
      ethical and psychological aspects of complex cases. Based on her understanding of
      the dynamics at play in patients', family members', and physicians' experiences,
      Lederberg formulated what she calls "situational diagnosis," a guide on how to
      distinguish ethical from psychological issues at the bedside or when an ethics
      consultation is requested. Here, we apply situational diagnosis to a case and
      consider whether and how Lederberg's guidance relates to current literature on
      how clinicians communicate with patients about serious illnesses.

PMID- 28553903
TI  - Assessing Psychological Toxicity and Patient-Reported Distress as the Sixth Vital
      Sign in Cancer Care and Clinical Trials.
AB  - As the number of available cancer therapies continues to grow, there is
      increasing interest in their impact on cancer patients' lived experiences.
      Screening for distress is one way to measure psychological dimensions of cancer
      patients' experiences, and doing so is increasingly part of standard operations
      at major cancer centers across the US. To date, however, most clinical trials
      have not adequately captured patients' experiences as part of their outcome
      assessments, so clinicians lack data needed to guide their responses to
      psychological features of patients' illness experiences. As distress becomes the
      "sixth vital sign" in routine cancer care, we argue that clinical trials should
      assess patients' experiences in the same way that they robustly screen for
      adverse events and toxicities. New interventions are needed to address distress.

PMID- 28553904
TI  - When and Why Should Mental Health Professionals Offer Traditional Psychodynamic
      Therapy to Cancer Patients?
AB  - Given the recent studies promoting time-limited manualized therapies in the
      oncology setting, clinicians may be reluctant to offer traditional psychodynamic
      therapy to cancer patients. However, there are no studies directly comparing
      psychodynamic therapy and other therapy modalities in this patient population and
      no data suggesting harm from psychodynamic approaches. Therefore, it is
      inappropriate to draw the conclusion that psychodynamic therapy is inferior to
      manualized therapy from existing evidence. Manualized treatment, such as
      cognitive behavioral therapy, is generally short term and therefore may reduce
      the practitioner's own anxiety stemming from exposure to patients facing grave
      disability and death. However, manualized treatment is not fully effective in
      specific clinical scenarios. We present a case reflecting these limitations and
      advocate for a flexible treatment approach incorporating elements of
      psychodynamic therapy.

PMID- 28553906
TI  - Prioritizing Mental Health Research in Cancer Patients and Survivors.
AB  - The United States spends billions of dollars annually on cancer research.
      Historically, compared to other areas of cancer research, very little funding has
      been dedicated to mental health research in cancer patients and survivors.
      Previous studies have indicated that psychological disorders are common in
      patients with cancer and might have significant influence on overall morbidity
      and mortality. However, adequate data are lacking to better assess this influence
      and the potential benefits of interventions. As the number of cancer survivors is
      projected to grow dramatically in the coming years, we review the importance of
      dedicating additional funding to mental health research in cancer patients and
      survivors.

PMID- 28553905
TI  - Decreasing Smoking but Increasing Stigma? Anti-tobacco Campaigns, Public Health,
      and Cancer Care.
AB  - Public health researchers, mental health clinicians, philosophers, and medical
      ethicists have questioned whether the public health benefits of large-scale anti
      tobacco campaigns are justified in light of the potential for exacerbating stigma
      toward patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Although there is strong evidence for
      the public health benefits of anti-tobacco campaigns, there is a growing
      appreciation for the need to better attend to the unintended consequence of lung
      cancer stigma. We argue that there is an ethical burden for creators of public
      health campaigns to consider lung cancer stigma in the development and
      dissemination of hard-hitting anti-tobacco campaigns. We also contend that health
      care professionals have an ethical responsibility to try to mitigate stigmatizing
      messages of public health campaigns with empathic patient-clinician communication
      during clinical encounters.

PMID- 28553907
TI  - Should Clinicians Intervene If They Suspect That a Caregiver Whose Child Has
      Cancer Is at Risk of Psychological Harm?
AB  - Compelling arguments suggest that pediatric oncologists who have concerns about
      the mental health and well-being of a child's caregiver have a duty to intervene.
      These arguments are rooted in fundamental principles of beneficence,
      nonmaleficence, and justice. Not only do patients benefit when their parents and
      others caregivers are happy and healthy, but when the psychological distress of a
      caregiver is a consequence of the experience of illness and treatment, some of
      the responsibility for mitigating the harm falls to those who have an active role
      in directing treatment-the clinicians. However, systems to support clinicians in
      meeting this obligation are inadequate.

PMID- 28553908
TI  - From Silence into Language: Questioning the Power of Physician Illness
      Narratives.
AB  - Physicians' narratives of their own experiences of illness can be a kind of
      empathic bridge across the divide between a professional healer and a sick
      patient. This essay considers ways in which physicians' narratives of their own
      and family members' experiences of cancer shape encounters with patients and
      patients' experiences of illness. It analyzes ethical dimensions of physicians'
      narratives (such as those by Atul Gawande, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Paul
      Kalanithi) and of reflective writing in medical education. It also compares
      illness narratives written by physicians-turned-patients to those written by
      patients without medical training in order to explore questions of who ultimately
      benefits from these narratives and whether these narratives can engender greater
      empathy between clinicians and patients.

PMID- 28553910
TI  - [Galdestensileus en komplikation efter kronisk kolecystolitiasis].

PMID- 28553909
TI  - They Are People First, Then Patients.

PMID- 28553911
TI  - [Effect of using an interpreter in psychotherapy].
AB  - An evaluation of the effect of using an interpreter in psychotherapy is quite
      complex. In the few existing studies on the use of interpreters in psychotherapy
      no significant difference was found in treatment outcome related to whether an
      interpreter was used or not. On the other hand, the inclusion of an interpreter
      affects the therapeutic alliance and the relationships between the parties. The
      role of the interpreter in psychotherapy is characterized by diversity, and the
      included studies indicate the need for training to improve the cooperation
      between the interpreter and the therapist.

PMID- 28553912
TI  - [Blunt kidney trauma in children].
AB  - Lesion of the kidney is found in 10% of children with a blunt abdominal trauma.
      Conservative treatment regimens are generally accepted for mild traumatic renal
      injury. No consensus exists regarding treatment of more severe traumatic renal
      lesion in children. Strategy for imaging and follow-up has also been unclear.
      Recent studies suggest successful conservative treatment of severe renal injury
      without complications. We present existing knowledge on treatment and follow-up
      in children with renal trauma.

PMID- 28553913
TI  - [Blood pressure measurement as performed in outpatient clinics is inexpedient].
AB  - Traditional office blood pressure (OBP) measurement as performed in busy
      outpatient clinics agrees poorly with awake ambulatory BP, and generally BP is
      severely overestimated. Especially elderly patients may be overtreated with the
      risk of symptomatic hypotension and fall injuries. Furthermore, truly high OBP
      measurements are often ignored as white coat hypertension, which leads to
      undertreatment of hypertension in high-risk individuals. Traditional OBP is thus
      of limited use and may even be harmful. Better methods are available and should
      be implemented.

PMID- 28553914
TI  - [Displacement of endobronchial tube in a neonate in spite of using recommended
      methods].
AB  - Placement of nasogastric tubes are common procedures in neonatal departments, but
      there is a risk of severe complications although it is considered an innocuous
      procedure. This case report describes accidental endobronchial tube displacement
      in a mature neonate despite using clinically recommended methods of verification.
      It illustrates how symptoms of tube displacement can be disregarded, especially
      in critically ill neonates. Radiologic examination is the recommended method to
      ensure tube position but it cannot be used as daily practice. Commonly used
      methods of bedside verification are discussed.

PMID- 28553915
TI  - [Oesophageal vascular ectasia in a patient with anaemia].
AB  - This case report describes the findings of oesophageal vascular ectasia (OVE) in
      a patient with known gastric antral vascular ectasia, who presented with anaemia.
      OVE is a very rare endoscopic finding and therefore a diagnostic challenge. An 85
      year-old male was admitted due to anaemia. He went through a gastroscopic
      examination where severe OVE changes were seen, along with newfound oesophageal
      varices. There was no need for treating the OVE, but the findings coupled with
      the knowledge of the varices led to the diagnosis of portal thrombosis.

PMID- 28553916
TI  - [Pudendal neuralgia diagnosed by electrophysiological examination].
AB  - A 62-year-old man with suspected pudendal neuralgia was admitted to a department
      of clinical neurophysiology for examination. The patient had experienced
      increasingly altered sensations in the groin, particularly in form of pain in a
      sitting position. The neurophysiological studies substantiated the suspicion.
      Pudendal neuralgia is a painful neuropathic condition. The most frequent cause is
      entrapment of the pudendal nerve in the pelvis. The diagnosis is made clinically
      by using Nantes criteria, and neurophysiological studies of the perineum are
      important supplements when pudendal nerve entrapment is suspected.

PMID- 28553917
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553918
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553920
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553919
TI  - ?

PMID- 28553921
TI  - [Spontan pacemakererosion].

PMID- 28553922
TI  - [Schwannoma can be a rare cause of abdominal pain].
AB  - This case report describes a 43-year-old female with persisting abdominal pain.
      She was examined on several occasions, but no obvious reason for the pains was
      found. Due to recurring of the symptoms, a computed tomography was performed, and
      a tumour in the thoracic wall by the lower left region of the lung could be seen.
      Biopsy revealed a schwannoma, and an operation was conducted successfully. After
      radical resection, the patient's pains declined.

PMID- 28553923
TI  - [Gluten-free diet is for some a necessity, for others a lifestyle].
AB  - This review provides a brief overview of the gluten-related conditions coeliac
      disease (CD), wheat allergy (WA), and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). NCGS
      is a new entity which includes individuals who report symptoms when exposed to
      gluten and benefit from gluten-free diet, but do not have CD or WA. The concept
      NCGS is still controversial and a subject of considerable overdiagnosis, and
      consensus regarding diagnostic criteria is lacking. Furthermore, the overlap with
      irritable bowel syndrome is unsettled.

PMID- 28553924
TI  - [Surgical treatment of mid- and low rectal cancer].
AB  - Total mesorectal excision (TME) is standard treatment of mid- and low rectal
      cancer and has evolved with minimally invasive surgery. Laparoscopic TME has
      proven to be technically challenging, and recent randomized controlled studies
      fail to prove it oncologically superior to open TME. Robotic-assisted TME may
      overcome the technical difficulties and shows comparable oncological results, yet
      it is associated with significant additional costs. Transanal TME is a promising
      method which seems to overcome the technical and financial issues of the other
      techniques, without compromising the short-term oncological results.

PMID- 28553925
TI  - [Adnexal torsion in a six-year-old girl].
AB  - Adnexal torsion is a rare condition but should be considered in any female
      patient with acute-onset lower abdominal pain regardless of age. In this case
      report a six-year-old girl presented with four days of lower abdominal pain. On
      suspicion of acute appendicitis a diagnostic laparoscopy was performed and showed
      left-sided adnexal torsion. The ovary was detorsed, and one third of the ovary
      was resected. A transabdominal ultrasound three months after surgery showed no
      signs of pathology.

PMID- 28553926
TI  - Methylated cis-regulatory elements mediate KLF4-dependent gene transactivation
      and cell migration.
AB  - Altered DNA methylation status is associated with human diseases and cancer;
      however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. We previously
      identified many human transcription factors, including Kruppel-like factor 4
      (KLF4), as sequence-specific DNA methylation readers that preferentially
      recognize methylated CpG (mCpG), here we report the biological function of mCpG
      dependent gene regulation by KLF4 in glioblastoma cells. We show that KLF4
      promotes cell adhesion, migration, and morphological changes, all of which are
      abolished by R458A mutation. Surprisingly, 116 genes are directly activated via
      mCpG-dependent KLF4 binding activity. In-depth mechanistic studies reveal that
      recruitment of KLF4 to the methylated cis-regulatory elements of these genes
      result in chromatin remodeling and transcription activation. Our study
      demonstrates a new paradigm of DNA methylation-mediated gene activation and
      chromatin remodeling, and provides a general framework to dissect the biological
      functions of DNA methylation readers and effectors.

PMID- 28553928
TI  - Synergistic effects of deleting multiple nonessential elements in nonreplicative
      HSV-1 BAC genomic vectors play a critical role in their viability.
AB  - Nonreplicative Herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) genomic vectors have already
      entered into clinical trials for neurological gene therapy thanks to their
      scalable growth in permissive cells. However, the small transgene capacity of
      this type of HSV-1 vectors currently used in the clinic represents an important
      limiting factor as a gene delivery system. To develop high-capacity
      nonreplicative genomic HSV-1 vectors, in this study we have characterized a
      series of multiply deleted mutants which we have constructed in bacterial
      artificial chromosomes (BACs), removing up to 24 kb of unstable or dispensable
      genomic sequences to allow insertion of transgenes up to this size. We show that
      synergistic effects of deletions of: the HSV-1 replication origins oriS and oriL,
      the HSV-1 internal repeat region, the remaining ICP4 gene copy and the genes
      encoding for ICP27, UL56, UL55, can severely reduce the growth of these HSV-1
      vectors. Given that several of these elements have been characterized as 'non
      essential' for viral growth in cell culture by single-deletion experiments of
      wild-type HSV-1, our study highlights the need to re-evaluate their functional
      contribution in the context of multiply deleted nonreplicative HSV-1 genomic
      vectors. Our BAC mutants described here can serve as useful starting platforms to
      accelerate HSV-1 vector development.

PMID- 28553927
TI  - Erythropoietin signaling regulates heme biosynthesis.
AB  - Heme is required for survival of all cells, and in most eukaryotes, is produced
      through a series of eight enzymatic reactions. Although heme production is
      critical for many cellular processes, how it is coupled to cellular
      differentiation is unknown. Here, using zebrafish, murine, and human models, we
      show that erythropoietin (EPO) signaling, together with the GATA1 transcriptional
      target, AKAP10, regulates heme biosynthesis during erythropoiesis at the outer
      mitochondrial membrane. This integrated pathway culminates with the direct
      phosphorylation of the crucial heme biosynthetic enzyme, ferrochelatase (FECH) by
      protein kinase A (PKA). Biochemical, pharmacological, and genetic inhibition of
      this signaling pathway result in a block in hemoglobin production and concomitant
      intracellular accumulation of protoporphyrin intermediates. Broadly, our results
      implicate aberrant PKA signaling in the pathogenesis of hematologic diseases. We
      propose a unifying model in which the erythroid transcriptional program works in
      concert with post-translational mechanisms to regulate heme metabolism during
      normal development.

PMID- 28553929
TI  - Silencing of HIV-1 by AgoshRNA molecules.
AB  - RNA interference (RNAi) is a sequence-specific gene silencing mechanism that is
      triggered by the expression of a short hairpin RNA (shRNA). shRNA molecules enter
      the RNAi pathway at the Dicer processing step. Recent studies indicated that the
      cellular microRNA miR-451 is not recognized by Dicer, but that it is processed
      instead by the Argonaute 2 (Ago2) protein. Subsequently, Dicer-independent shRNAs
      were described that rely on Ago2 for processing, as well as the subsequent
      silencing step. We called these AgoshRNA molecules because they depend on Ago2
      both for maturation and activation. Processing of an AgoshRNA yields only a
      single active RNA strand, thus reducing the chance of adverse off-target effects
      induced by the passenger strand of regular shRNAs. In this study, we converted
      several anti-HIV-1 shRNAs into AgoshRNAs. Seven of the 21 designed AgoshRNAs were
      potent anti-HIV molecules, although their RNAi activity is generally somewhat
      reduced compared with the matching shRNAs. The AgoshRNA candidates revealed no
      cellular toxicity. This may relate to the absence of passenger strand expression,
      which was verified for these AgoshRNA candidates. Furthermore, we demonstrate
      that a toxic shRNA can be converted into a non-toxic AgoshRNA.

PMID- 28553930
TI  - alpha2,6-Sialylation mediates hepatocellular carcinoma growth in vitro and in
      vivo by targeting the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway.
AB  - Abnormal sialylation due to overexpression of sialyltransferases has been
      associated with tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Although ST6Gal-I influences
      cancer persistence and progression by affecting various receptors, the underlying
      mechanisms and mediators remain largely obscure, especially in hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC). We found that ST6Gal-I expression was markedly upregulated in
      HCC tissues and cells, high levels being associated with aggressive phenotype and
      poor prognosis. Furthermore, we examined the roles and mechanisms of ST6Gal-I in
      HCC tumorigenesis and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. ST6Gal-I overexpression
      promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of Huh-7 cells, whereas its
      knockdown restricted these abilities in MHCC97-H cells. Additionally, in a mouse
      xenograft model, ST6Gal-I-knockdown MHCC97-H cells formed significantly smaller
      tumors, implying that ST6Gal-I overexpression can induce HCC cell malignant
      transformation. Importantly, enhanced HCC tumorigenesis and metastasis by ST6Gal
      I may be associated with Wnt/beta-catenin signaling promotion, including beta
      catenin nuclear transition and upregulation of downstream molecules. Together,
      our results suggest a role for ST6Gal-I in promoting the growth and invasion of
      HCC cells through the modulation of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling molecules, and
      that ST6Gal-I might be a promising marker for prognosis and therapy of HCC.

PMID- 28553931
TI  - The immunosuppressive cytokine interleukin-4 increases the clonogenic potential
      of prostate stem-like cells by activation of STAT6 signalling.
AB  - Interleukin-4 plays a critical role in the regulation of immune responses and has
      been detected at high levels in the tumour microenvironment of cancer patients,
      where concentrations correlate with the grade of malignancy. In prostate cancer,
      interleukin-4 has been associated with activation of the androgen receptor,
      increased proliferation and activation of survival pathways such as Akt and NF
      kappaB. However, its role in therapy resistance has not yet been determined. Here
      we investigate the influence of interleukin-4 on primary epithelial cells from
      prostate cancer patients. Our data demonstrate an increase in the clonogenic
      potential of these cells when cultured in the presence of interleukin-4. In
      addition, a Phospho-Kinase Array revealed that in contrast to previously
      published work, signal transducer and activator of transcription6 (STAT6) is the
      only signalling molecule activated after interleukin-4 treatment. Using the STAT6
      specific inhibitor AS1517499 we could confirm the role of STAT6 in increasing
      colony-forming frequency. However, clonogenic recovery assays revealed that
      interleukin-4 does not rescue the effects of either irradiation or docetaxel
      treatment. We therefore propose that although the interleukin-4/STAT6 axis does
      not appear to be involved in therapy resistance, it does play a crucial role in
      the colony-forming abilities of the basal cell population in prostate cancer. IL
      4 may therefore contribute to disease relapse by providing a niche that is
      favourable for the clonogenic growth of prostate cancer stem cells.

PMID- 28553932
TI  - Combined mutation in Vhl, Trp53 and Rb1 causes clear cell renal cell carcinoma in
      mice.
AB  - Clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) frequently exhibit inactivation of the
      von Hippel-Lindau tumor-suppressor gene, VHL, and often harbor multiple copy
      number alterations in genes that regulate cell cycle progression. We show here
      that modeling these genetic alterations by combined deletion of Vhl, Trp53 and
      Rb1 specifically in renal epithelial cells in mice caused ccRCC. These tumors
      arose from proximal tubule epithelial cells and shared molecular markers and mRNA
      expression profiles with human ccRCC. Exome sequencing revealed that mouse and
      human ccRCCs exhibit recurrent mutations in genes associated with the primary
      cilium, uncovering a mutational convergence on this organelle and implicating a
      subset of ccRCCs as genetic ciliopathies. Different mouse tumors responded
      differently to standard therapies for advanced human ccRCC, mimicking the range
      of clinical behaviors in the human disease. Inhibition of hypoxia-inducible
      factor (HIF)-alpha transcription factors with acriflavine as third-line therapy
      had therapeutic effects in some tumors, providing preclinical evidence for
      further investigation of HIF-alpha inhibition as a ccRCC treatment. This
      autochthonous mouse ccRCC model represents a tool to investigate the biology of
      ccRCC and to identify new treatment strategies.

PMID- 28553933
TI  - Novel assay reveals a large, inducible, replication-competent HIV-1 reservoir in
      resting CD4+ T cells.
AB  - Although antiretroviral therapy can suppress HIV-1 infection to undetectable
      levels of plasma viremia, integrated latent HIV-1 genomes that encode replication
      competent virus persist in resting CD4+ T cells. This latent HIV-1 reservoir
      represents a major barrier to a cure. Currently, there are substantial efforts to
      identify therapeutic approaches that will eliminate or reduce the size of this
      latent HIV-1 reservoir. In this regard, a sensitive assay that can accurately and
      rapidly quantify inducible, replication-competent latent HIV-1 from resting CD4+
      T cells is essential for HIV-1 eradication studies. Here we describe a reporter
      cell-based assay to quantify inducible, replication-competent latent HIV-1. This
      assay has several advantages over existing technology in that it (i) is
      sensitive; (ii) requires only a small blood volume; (iii) is faster, less labor
      intensive, and less expensive; and (iv) can be readily adapted into a high
      throughput format. Using this assay, we show that the size of the inducible
      latent HIV-1 reservoir in aviremic participants on therapy is approximately 70
      fold larger than previous estimates.

PMID- 28553934
TI  - Phenotypic screening identifies Axl kinase as a negative regulator of an alveolar
      epithelial cell phenotype.
AB  - Loss of epithelial barrier integrity is implicated in a number of human lung
      diseases. However, the molecular pathways underlying this process are poorly
      understood. In a phenotypic screen, we identified Axl kinase as a negative
      regulator of epithelial phenotype and function. Furthermore, suppression of Axl
      activity by a small molecule kinase inhibitor or downregulation of Axl expression
      by small interfering RNA led to: (1) the increase in epithelial surfactant
      protein expression; (2) a cell morphology transition from front-rear polarity to
      cuboidal shape; (3) the cytoskeletal re-organization resulting in decreased cell
      mobility; and (4) the acquisition of epithelial junctions. Loss of Axl activity
      reduced activation of the Axl canonical pathway members, Akt and extracellular
      signal-regulated kinase-1/2 and resulted in the loss of gene expression of a
      unique profile of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition transcription factors
      including SNAI2, HOXA5, TBX2 or TBX3. Finally, we observed that Axl was activated
      in hyperplasia of epithelial cells in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis where
      epithelial barrier integrity was lost. These results suggest that the Axl kinase
      signaling pathway is associated with the loss integrity of alveolar epithelium in
      pathological remodeling of human lung diseases.

PMID- 28553935
TI  - Multiplexed ion beam imaging analysis for quantitation of protein expression in
      cancer tissue sections.
AB  - Part of developing therapeutics is the need to identify patients who will respond
      to treatment. For HER2-targeted therapies, such as trastuzumab, the expression
      level of HER2 is used to identify patients likely to receive benefit from
      therapy. Currently, chromogenic immunohistochemistry on patient tumor tissue is
      one of the methodologies used to assess the expression level of HER2 to determine
      eligibility for trastuzumab. However, chromogenic staining is fraught with
      serious drawbacks that influence scoring, which is additionally flawed due to the
      subjective nature of human/pathologist bias. Thus, to advance drug development
      and precision medicine, there is a need to develop technologies that are more
      objective and quantitative through the collection and integration of larger data
      sets. In proof of concept experiments, we show multiplexed ion beam imaging
      (MIBI), a novel imaging technology, can quantitate HER2 expression on breast
      carcinoma tissue with known HER2 status and those values correlate with
      pathologist-determined IHC scores. The same type of quantitative analysis using
      the mean pixel value of five individual cells and total pixel count of the entire
      image was extended to a blinded study of breast carcinoma samples of unknown HER2
      scores. Here, a strong correlation between quantitation of HER2 by MIBI analysis
      and pathologist-derived HER2 IHC score was identified. In addition, a comparison
      between MIBI analysis and immunofluorescence-based automated quantitative
      analysis (AQUA) technology, an industry-accepted quantitation system, showed
      strong correlation in the same blind study. Further comparison of the two systems
      determined MIBI was comparable to AQUA analysis when evaluated against
      pathologist-determined scores. Using HER2 as a model, these data show MIBI
      analysis can quantitate protein expression with greater sensitivity and
      objectivity compared to standard pathologist interpretation, demonstrating its
      potential as a technology capable of advancing cancer and patient diagnostics.

PMID- 28553936
TI  - Microfluidics for rapid cytokeratin immunohistochemical staining in frozen
      sections.
AB  - Frozen sections (FS) of tumor samples represent a cornerstone of pathological
      intraoperative consultation and have an important role in the microscopic
      analysis of specimens during surgery. So far, immunohistochemical (IHC) stainings
      on FS have been demonstrated for a few markers using manual methods. Microfluidic
      technologies have proven to bring substantial improvement in many fields of
      diagnostics, though only a few microfluidic devices have been designed to improve
      the performance of IHC assays. In this work, we show optimization of a complete
      pan-cytokeratin chromogenic immunostaining protocol on FS using a microfluidic
      tissue processor into a protocol taking <12 min. Our results showed specificity
      and low levels of background. The dimensions of the microfluidic prototype device
      are compatible with the space constraints of an intraoperative pathology
      laboratory. We therefore anticipate that the adoption of microfluidic
      technologies in the field of surgical pathology can significantly improve the way
      FSs influence surgical procedures.

PMID- 28553938
TI  - The MBNL3 splicing factor promotes hepatocellular carcinoma by increasing PXN
      expression through the alternative splicing of lncRNA-PXN-AS1.
AB  - Understanding the roles of splicing factors and splicing events during
      tumorigenesis would open new avenues for targeted therapies. Here we identify an
      oncofetal splicing factor, MBNL3, which promotes tumorigenesis and indicates poor
      prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients. MBNL3 knockdown almost completely
      abolishes hepatocellular carcinoma tumorigenesis. Transcriptomic analysis
      revealed that MBNL3 induces lncRNA-PXN-AS1 exon 4 inclusion. The transcript
      lacking exon 4 binds to coding sequences of PXN mRNA, causes dissociation of
      translation elongation factors from PXN mRNA, and thereby inhibits PXN mRNA
      translation. In contrast, the transcript containing exon 4 preferentially binds
      to the 3' untranslated region of PXN mRNA, protects PXN mRNA from microRNA-24
      AGO2 complex-induced degradation, and thereby increases PXN expression. Through
      inducing exon 4 inclusion, MBNL3 upregulates PXN, which mediates the pro
      tumorigenic roles of MBNL3. Collectively, these data demonstrate detailed
      mechanistic links between an oncofetal splicing factor, a splicing event and
      tumorigenesis, and establish splicing factors and splicing events as potential
      therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28553937
TI  - Stem cell plasticity enables hair regeneration following Lgr5+ cell loss.
AB  - Under injury conditions, dedicated stem cell populations govern tissue
      regeneration. However, the molecular mechanisms that induce stem cell
      regeneration and enable plasticity are poorly understood. Here, we investigate
      stem cell recovery in the context of the hair follicle to understand how two
      molecularly distinct stem cell populations are integrated. Utilizing diphtheria
      toxin-mediated cell ablation of Lgr5+ (leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein
      coupled receptor 5) stem cells, we show that killing of Lgr5+ cells in mice
      abrogates hair regeneration but this is reversible. During recovery, CD34+ (CD34
      antigen) stem cells activate inflammatory response programs and start dividing.
      Pharmacological attenuation of inflammation inhibits CD34+ cell proliferation.
      Subsequently, the Wnt pathway controls the recovery of Lgr5+ cells and inhibition
      of Wnt signalling prevents Lgr5+ cell and hair germ recovery. Thus, our study
      uncovers a compensatory relationship between two stem cell populations and the
      underlying molecular mechanisms that enable hair follicle regeneration.

PMID- 28553939
TI  - Linking E-cadherin mechanotransduction to cell metabolism through force-mediated
      activation of AMPK.
AB  - The response of cells to mechanical force is a major determinant of cell
      behaviour and is an energetically costly event. How cells derive energy to resist
      mechanical force is unknown. Here, we show that application of force to E
      cadherin stimulates liver kinase B1 (LKB1) to activate AMP-activated protein
      kinase (AMPK), a master regulator of energy homeostasis. LKB1 recruits AMPK to
      the E-cadherin mechanotransduction complex, thereby stimulating actomyosin
      contractility, glucose uptake and ATP production. The increase in ATP provides
      energy to reinforce the adhesion complex and actin cytoskeleton so that the cell
      can resist physiological forces. Together, these findings reveal a paradigm for
      how mechanotransduction and metabolism are linked and provide a framework for
      understanding how diseases involving contractile and metabolic disturbances
      arise.

PMID- 28553940
TI  - Single-cell genome sequencing at ultra-high-throughput with microfluidic droplet
      barcoding.
AB  - The application of single-cell genome sequencing to large cell populations has
      been hindered by technical challenges in isolating single cells during genome
      preparation. Here we present single-cell genomic sequencing (SiC-seq), which uses
      droplet microfluidics to isolate, fragment, and barcode the genomes of single
      cells, followed by Illumina sequencing of pooled DNA. We demonstrate ultra-high
      throughput sequencing of >50,000 cells per run in a synthetic community of Gram
      negative and Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. The sequenced genomes can be
      sorted in silico based on characteristic sequences. We use this approach to
      analyze the distributions of antibiotic-resistance genes, virulence factors, and
      phage sequences in microbial communities from an environmental sample. The
      ability to routinely sequence large populations of single cells will enable the
      de-convolution of genetic heterogeneity in diverse cell populations.

PMID- 28553941
TI  - Engineered bacteria can function in the mammalian gut long-term as live
      diagnostics of inflammation.
AB  - Bacteria can be engineered to function as diagnostics or therapeutics in the
      mammalian gut but commercial translation of technologies to accomplish this has
      been hindered by the susceptibility of synthetic genetic circuits to mutation and
      unpredictable function during extended gut colonization. Here, we report stable,
      engineered bacterial strains that maintain their function for 6 months in the
      mouse gut. We engineered a commensal murine Escherichia coli strain to detect
      tetrathionate, which is produced during inflammation. Using our engineered
      diagnostic strain, which retains memory of exposure in the gut for analysis by
      fecal testing, we detected tetrathionate in both infection-induced and genetic
      mouse models of inflammation over 6 months. The synthetic genetic circuits in the
      engineered strain were genetically stable and functioned as intended over time.
      The durable performance of these strains confirms the potential of engineered
      bacteria as living diagnostics.

PMID- 28553942
TI  - Digital-to-biological converter for on-demand production of biologics.
AB  - Manufacturing processes for biological molecules in the research laboratory have
      failed to keep pace with the rapid advances in automization and parellelization.
      We report the development of a digital-to-biological converter for fully
      automated, versatile and demand-based production of functional biologics starting
      from DNA sequence information. Specifically, DNA templates, RNA molecules,
      proteins and viral particles were produced in an automated fashion from digitally
      transmitted DNA sequences without human intervention.

PMID- 28553943
TI  - Attention-related changes in correlated neuronal activity arise from
      normalization mechanisms.
AB  - Attention is believed to enhance perception by altering the activity-level
      correlations between pairs of neurons. How attention changes neuronal activity
      correlations is unknown. Using multielectrodes in monkey visual cortex, we
      measured spike-count correlations when single or multiple stimuli were presented
      and when stimuli were attended or unattended. When stimuli were unattended,
      adding a suppressive, nonpreferred stimulus beside a preferred stimulus increased
      spike-count correlations between pairs of similarly tuned neurons but decreased
      spike-count correlations between pairs of oppositely tuned neurons. A stochastic
      normalization model containing populations of oppositely tuned, mutually
      suppressive neurons explains these changes and also explains why attention
      decreased or increased correlations: as an indirect consequence of attention
      related changes in the inputs to normalization mechanisms. Our findings link
      normalization mechanisms to correlated neuronal activity and attention, showing
      that normalization mechanisms shape response correlations and that these
      correlations change when attention biases normalization mechanisms.

PMID- 28553944
TI  - The cellular mechanism for water detection in the mammalian taste system.
AB  - Initiation of drinking behavior relies on both internal state and peripheral
      water detection. While central neural circuits regulating thirst have been well
      studied, it is still unclear how mammals recognize external water. Here we show
      that acid-sensing taste receptor cells (TRCs) that were previously suggested as
      the sour taste sensors also mediate taste responses to water. Genetic silencing
      of these TRCs abolished water-evoked responses in taste nerves. Optogenetic self
      stimulation of acid-sensing TRCs in thirsty animals induced robust drinking
      responses toward light even without water. This behavior was only observed when
      animals were water-deprived but not under food- or salt-depleted conditions,
      indicating that the hedonic value of water-evoked responses is highly internal
      state dependent. Conversely, thirsty animals lacking functional acid-sensing TRCs
      showed compromised discrimination between water and nonaqueous fluids. Taken
      together, this study revealed a function of mammalian acid-sensing TRCs that
      provide a cue for external water.

PMID- 28553945
TI  - Targeting S-adenosylmethionine biosynthesis with a novel allosteric inhibitor of
      Mat2A.
AB  - S-Adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) is an enzyme cofactor used in methyl transfer
      reactions and polyamine biosynthesis. The biosynthesis of SAM from ATP and L
      methionine is performed by the methionine adenosyltransferase enzyme family (Mat;
      EC 2.5.1.6). Human methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (Mat2A), the extrahepatic
      isoform, is often deregulated in cancer. We identified a Mat2A inhibitor, PF
      9366, that binds an allosteric site on Mat2A that overlaps with the binding site
      for the Mat2A regulator, Mat2B. Studies exploiting PF-9366 suggested a general
      mode of Mat2A allosteric regulation. Allosteric binding of PF-9366 or Mat2B
      altered the Mat2A active site, resulting in increased substrate affinity and
      decreased enzyme turnover. These data support a model whereby Mat2B functions as
      an inhibitor of Mat2A activity when methionine or SAM levels are high, yet
      functions as an activator of Mat2A when methionine or SAM levels are low. The
      ramification of Mat2A activity modulation in cancer cells is also described.

PMID- 28553946
TI  - Structural and functional characterization of the hydrogenase-maturation HydF
      protein.
AB  - [FeFe] hydrogenase (HydA) catalyzes interconversion between 2H+ and H2 at an
      active site composed of a [4Fe-4S] cluster linked to a 2Fe subcluster that
      harbors CO, CN- and azapropanedithiolate (adt2-) ligands. HydE, HydG and HydF are
      the maturases specifically involved in the biosynthesis of the 2Fe subcluster.
      Using ligands synthesized by HydE and HydG, HydF assembles a di-iron precursor of
      the 2Fe subcluster and transfers it to HydA for maturation. Here we report the
      first X-ray structure of HydF with its [4Fe-4S] cluster. The cluster is chelated
      by three cysteines and an exchangeable glutamate, which allows the binding of
      synthetic mimics of the 2Fe subcluster. [Fe2(adt)(CO)4(CN)2]2- is proposed to be
      the true di-iron precursor because, when bound to HydF, it matures HydA and
      displays features in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra that are similar
      to those of the native HydF active intermediate. A new route toward the
      generation of artificial hydrogenases, as combinations of HydF and such
      biomimetic complexes, is proposed on the basis of the observed hydrogenase
      activity of chemically modified HydF.

PMID- 28553947
TI  - Structural basis for high-affinity fluorophore binding and activation by RNA
      Mango.
AB  - Genetically encoded fluorescent protein tags have revolutionized proteome
      studies, whereas the lack of intrinsically fluorescent RNAs has hindered
      transcriptome exploration. Among several RNA-fluorophore complexes that
      potentially address this problem, RNA Mango has an exceptionally high affinity
      for its thiazole orange (TO)-derived fluorophore, TO1-Biotin (Kd ~3 nM), and, in
      complex with related ligands, it is one of the most redshifted fluorescent
      macromolecular tags known. To elucidate how this small aptamer exhibits such
      properties, which make it well suited for studying low-copy cellular RNAs, we
      determined its 1.7-A-resolution co-crystal structure. Unexpectedly, the entire
      ligand, including TO, biotin and the linker connecting them, abuts one of the
      near-planar faces of the three-tiered G-quadruplex. The two heterocycles of TO
      are held in place by two loop adenines and form a 45 degrees  angle with respect
      to each other. Minimizing this angle would increase quantum yield and further
      improve this tool for in vivo RNA visualization.

PMID- 28553948
TI  - Lipid II overproduction allows direct assay of transpeptidase inhibition by beta
      lactams.
AB  - Peptidoglycan is an essential crosslinked polymer that surrounds bacteria and
      protects them from osmotic lysis. beta-lactam antibiotics target the final stages
      of peptidoglycan biosynthesis by inhibiting the transpeptidases that crosslink
      glycan strands to complete cell wall assembly. Characterization of
      transpeptidases and their inhibition by beta-lactams have been hampered by lack
      of access to a suitable substrate. We describe a general approach to accumulate
      Lipid II in bacteria and to obtain large quantities of this cell wall precursor.
      We demonstrate the utility of this strategy by isolating Staphylococcus aureus
      Lipid II and reconstituting the synthesis of crosslinked peptidoglycan by the
      essential penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2), which catalyzes both glycan
      polymerization and transpeptidation. We also show that we can compare the
      potencies of different beta-lactams by directly monitoring transpeptidase
      inhibition. The methods reported here will enable a better understanding of cell
      wall biosynthesis and facilitate studies of next-generation transpeptidase
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28553950
TI  - Atypical chemokine receptor 1 on nucleated erythroid cells regulates
      hematopoiesis.
AB  - Healthy individuals of African ancestry have neutropenia that has been linked
      with the variant rs2814778(G) of the gene encoding atypical chemokine receptor 1
      (ACKR1). This polymorphism selectively abolishes the expression of ACKR1 in
      erythroid cells, causing a Duffy-negative phenotype. Here we describe an
      unexpected fundamental role for ACKR1 in hematopoiesis and provide the mechanism
      that links its absence with neutropenia. Nucleated erythroid cells had high
      expression of ACKR1, which facilitated their direct contact with hematopoietic
      stem cells. The absence of erythroid ACKR1 altered mouse hematopoiesis including
      stem and progenitor cells, which ultimately gave rise to phenotypically distinct
      neutrophils that readily left the circulation, causing neutropenia. Individuals
      with a Duffy-negative phenotype developed a distinct profile of neutrophil
      effector molecules that closely reflected the one observed in the ACKR1-deficient
      mice. Thus, alternative physiological patterns of hematopoiesis and bone marrow
      cell outputs depend on the expression of ACKR1 in the erythroid lineage, findings
      with major implications for the selection advantages that have resulted in the
      paramount fixation of the ACKR1 rs2814778(G) polymorphism in Africa.

PMID- 28553949
TI  - Functional selectivity of GPCR-directed drug action through location bias.
AB  - G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are increasingly recognized to operate from
      intracellular membranes as well as the plasma membrane. The beta2-adrenergic GPCR
      can activate Gs-linked cyclic AMP (Gs-cAMP) signaling from endosomes. We show
      here that the homologous human beta1-adrenergic receptor initiates an internal Gs
      cAMP signal from the Golgi apparatus. By developing a chemical method to acutely
      squelch G-protein coupling at defined membrane locations, we demonstrate that
      Golgi activation contributes significantly to the overall cellular cAMP response.
      Golgi signaling utilizes a preexisting receptor pool rather than receptors
      delivered from the cell surface, requiring separate access of extracellular
      ligands. Epinephrine, a hydrophilic endogenous ligand, accesses the Golgi
      localized receptor pool by facilitated transport requiring the organic cation
      transporter 3 (OCT3), whereas drugs can access the Golgi pool by passive
      diffusion according to hydrophobicity. We demonstrate marked differences, among
      both agonist and antagonist drugs, in Golgi-localized receptor access and show
      that beta-blocker drugs currently used in the clinic differ markedly in ability
      to antagonize the Golgi signal. We propose 'location bias' as a new principle for
      achieving functional selectivity of GPCR-directed drug action.

PMID- 28553951
TI  - Post-translational control of T cell development by the ESCRT protein CHMP5.
AB  - The acquisition of a protective vertebrate immune system hinges on the efficient
      generation of a diverse but self-tolerant repertoire of T cells by the thymus
      through mechanisms that remain incompletely resolved. Here we identified the
      endosomal-sorting-complex-required-for-transport (ESCRT) protein CHMP5, known to
      be required for the formation of multivesicular bodies, as a key sensor of
      thresholds for signaling via the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) that was essential
      for T cell development. CHMP5 enabled positive selection by promoting post
      selection thymocyte survival in part through stabilization of the pro-survival
      protein Bcl-2. Accordingly, loss of CHMP5 in thymocyte precursor cells abolished
      T cell development, a phenotype that was 'rescued' by genetic deletion of the pro
      apoptotic protein Bim or transgenic expression of Bcl-2. Mechanistically,
      positive selection resulted in the stabilization of CHMP5 by inducing its
      interaction with the deubiquitinase USP8. Our results thus identify CHMP5 as an
      essential component of the post-translational machinery required for T cell
      development.

PMID- 28553952
TI  - The A946T variant of the RNA sensor IFIH1 mediates an interferon program that
      limits viral infection but increases the risk for autoimmunity.
AB  - The single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1990760 in the gene encoding the cytosolic
      viral sensor IFIH1 results in an amino-acid change (A946T; IFIH1T946) that is
      associated with multiple autoimmune diseases. The effect of this polymorphism on
      both viral sensing and autoimmune pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Here we
      found that human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and cell lines
      expressing the risk variant IFIH1T946 exhibited heightened basal and ligand
      triggered production of type I interferons. Consistent with those findings, mice
      with a knock-in mutation encoding IFIH1T946 displayed enhanced basal expression
      of type I interferons, survived a lethal viral challenge and exhibited increased
      penetrance in autoimmune models, including a combinatorial effect with other risk
      variants. Furthermore, IFIH1T946 mice manifested an embryonic survival defect
      consistent with enhanced responsiveness to RNA self ligands. Together our data
      support a model wherein the production of type I interferons driven by an
      autoimmune risk variant and triggered by ligand functions to protect against
      viral challenge, which probably accounts for its selection within human
      populations but provides this advantage at the cost of modestly promoting the
      risk of autoimmunity.

PMID- 28553954
TI  - E-cadherin expression is correlated with focal adhesion kinase inhibitor
      resistance in Merlin-negative malignant mesothelioma cells.
AB  - Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive tumor commonly caused by asbestos
      exposure after a long latency. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitors inhibit the
      cell growth of Merlin-deficient MM cells; however, their clinical efficacy has
      not been clearly determined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the growth
      inhibitory effect of the FAK inhibitor VS-4718 on MM cell lines and identify
      biomarkers for its efficacy. Although most Merlin-deficient cell lines were
      sensitive to VS-4718 compared with control MeT-5A cells, a subset of these cell
      lines exhibited resistance to this drug. Microarray and qRT-PCR analyses using
      RNA isolated from Merlin-deficient MM cell lines revealed a significant
      correlation between E-cadherin mRNA levels and VS-4718 resistance. Merlin- and E
      cadherin-negative Y-MESO-22 cells underwent apoptosis upon treatment with a low
      concentration of VS-4718, whereas Merlin-negative, E-cadherin-positive Y-MESO-9
      cells did not undergo VS-4718-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, E-cadherin
      knockdown in Merlin-negative MM cells significantly sensitized cells to VS-4718
      and induced apoptotic cell death upon VS-4718 treatment. Together, our results
      suggest that E-cadherin serves as a predictive biomarker for molecular target
      therapy with FAK inhibitors for patients with mesothelioma and that its
      expression endows MM cells with resistance to FAK inhibitors.

PMID- 28553953
TI  - ATF4 promotes angiogenesis and neuronal cell death and confers ferroptosis in a
      xCT-dependent manner.
AB  - Activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) is a critical mediator of metabolic and
      oxidative homeostasis and cell survival. ATF4 is elevated in response to diverse
      microenvironmental stresses, including starvation, ER stress damages and exposure
      to toxic factors. Here we show that ATF4 expression fosters the malignancy of
      primary brain tumors (WHO grade III and IV gliomas) and increases proliferation
      and tumor angiogenesis. Hence, ATF4 expression promotes cell migration and
      anchorage-independent cell growth, whereas siRNA-mediated knockdown of ATF4
      attenuates these features of malignancy in human gliomas. Further experiments
      revealed that ATF4-dependent tumor promoting effects are mediated by
      transcriptional targeting the glutamate antiporter xCT/SCL7A11 (also known as
      system Xc-). Thus, xCT is elevated as a consequence of ATF4 activation. We
      further found evidence that ATF4-induced proliferation can be attenuated by
      pharmacological or genetic xCT inhibition and ferroptosis inducers such as
      sorafenib, erastin and GPx4 inhibitor RSL3. Further, fostered xCT expression
      promotes cell survival and growth in ATF4 knockdown cells. Moreover, increased
      xCT levels ameliorate sorafenib and erastin-induced ferroptosis. Conversely, ATF4
      knockdown renders cells susceptible for erastin, sorafenib and RSL3-induced
      ferroptosis. We further identified that ATF4 promotes tumor-mediated neuronal
      cell death which can be alleviated by xCT inhibition. Moreover, elevated ATF4
      expression in gliomas promotes tumor angiogenesis. Noteworthy, ATF4-induced
      angiogenesis could be diminished by ferroptosis inducers erastin and by GPx4
      inhibitor RSL3. Our data provide proof-of-principle evidence that ATF4 fosters
      proliferation and induces a toxic microenvironmental niche. Furthermore, ATF4
      increases tumor angiogenesis and shapes the vascular architecture in a xCT
      dependent manner. Thus, inhibition of ATF4 is a valid target for diminishing
      tumor growth and vasculature via sensitizing tumor cells for ferroptosis.

PMID- 28553955
TI  - Deletion of ADAM-9 in HGF/CDK4 mice impairs melanoma development and metastasis.
AB  - ADAM-9 is a metalloproteinase expressed in peritumoral areas by invading melanoma
      cells and by adjacent peritumoral stromal cells; however, its function in stromal
      and melanoma cells is not fully understood. To address this question in vivo in a
      spontaneous melanoma model, we deleted ADAM-9 in mice carrying the hepatocyte
      growth factor (Hgf) transgene and knock-in mutation Cdk4R24C/R24C, demonstrated
      to spontaneously develop melanoma. Spontaneous melanoma arose less frequently in
      ADAM-9-deleted mice than in controls. Similarly reduced tumor numbers (although
      with faster growth kinetics) were detected upon induction of melanoma with 7,12
      dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA). However, more lesions were induced at early
      time points in the absence of ADAM-9. Increased initial and decreased late tumor
      numbers were paralleled by altered tumor cell proliferation, but not apoptosis or
      inflammation. Importantly, significantly reduced lung metastases were detected
      upon ADAM-9 deletion. Using in vitro assays to address this effect
      mechanistically, we detected reduced adhesion and transmigration of ADAM-9
      silenced melanoma cells to/through the endothelium. This implies that ADAM-9
      functionally and cell autonomously mediates extravasation of melanoma cells. In
      vitro and in vivo we demonstrated that the basement membrane (BM) component
      laminin beta3-chain is a direct substrate of ADAM-9, thus contributing to
      destabilization and disruption of the BM barrier during invasion. In in vitro
      invasion assays using human melanoma cells and skin equivalents, depletion of
      ADAM-9 resulted in decreased invasion of the BM, which remained almost completely
      intact, as shown by continuous staining for laminin beta3-chain. Importantly,
      supplying soluble ADAM-9 to the system reversed this effect. Taken together, our
      data show that melanoma derived ADAM-9 autonomously contributes to melanoma
      progression by modulating cell adhesion to the endothelium and altering BM
      integrity by proteolytically processing the laminin-beta3 chain. This newly
      described process and ADAM-9 itself may represent potential targets for anti
      tumor therapies.

PMID- 28553956
TI  - Autocrine WNT2 signaling in fibroblasts promotes colorectal cancer progression.
AB  - The canonical WNT signaling pathway is crucial for intestinal stem cell renewal
      and aberrant WNT signaling is an early event in colorectal cancer (CRC)
      development. Here, we show for the first time that WNT2 is one of the most
      significantly induced genes in CRC stroma as compared to normal stroma. The
      impact of stromal WNT2 on carcinoma formation or progression was not addressed so
      far. Canonical WNT/beta-catenin signaling was assessed using a 7TGP-reporter
      construct. Furthermore, effects of WNT2 on fibroblast migration and invasion were
      determined using siRNA-mediated gene silencing. Tumor cell invasion was studied
      using organotypic raft cultures and in vivo significance was assessed via a
      xenograft mouse model. We identified cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) as the
      main source of WNT2. CAF-derived WNT2 activated canonical signaling in
      adenomatous polyposis coli/beta-catenin wild-type colon cancer cells in a
      paracrine fashion, whereas no hyperactivation was detectable in cell lines
      harboring mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli/beta-catenin pathway.
      Furthermore, WNT2 activated autocrine canonical WNT signaling in primary
      fibroblasts, which was associated with a pro-migratory and pro-invasive
      phenotype. We identified FZD8 as the putative WNT2 receptor in CAFs. Three
      dimensional organotypic co-culture assays revealed that WNT2-mediated fibroblast
      motility and extracellular matrix remodeling enhanced cancer cell invasion of
      cell lines even harboring mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli/beta
      catenin pathway. Thus, suggesting a tumor-promoting influence on a broad range of
      CRC. In line, WNT2 also promotes tumor growth, invasion and metastasis in vivo.
      Moreover, high WNT2 expression is associated with poor prognosis in human CRC.
      The identification of the pro-malignant function of stromal derived WNT2 in CRC
      classifies WNT2 and its receptor as promising stromal targets to confine cancer
      progression in combination with conventional or targeted therapies.

PMID- 28553960
TI  - Cast aluminium single crystals cross the threshold from bulk to size-dependent
      stochastic plasticity.
AB  - Metals are known to exhibit mechanical behaviour at the nanoscale different to
      bulk samples. This transition typically initiates at the micrometre scale, yet
      existing techniques to produce micrometre-sized samples often introduce artefacts
      that can influence deformation mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate the casting of
      micrometre-scale aluminium single-crystal wires by infiltration of a salt mould.
      Samples have millimetre lengths, smooth surfaces, a range of crystallographic
      orientations, and a diameter D as small as 6 MUm. The wires deform in bursts, at
      a stress that increases with decreasing D. Bursts greater than 200 nm account for
      roughly 50% of wire deformation and have exponentially distributed intensities.
      Dislocation dynamics simulations show that single-arm sources that produce large
      displacement bursts halted by stochastic cross-slip and lock formation explain
      microcast wire behaviour. This microcasting technique may be extended to several
      other metals or alloys and offers the possibility of exploring mechanical
      behaviour spanning the micrometre scale.

PMID- 28553959
TI  - Biallelic TRIP13 mutations predispose to Wilms tumor and chromosome
      missegregation.
AB  - Through exome sequencing, we identified six individuals with biallelic loss-of
      function mutations in TRIP13. All six developed Wilms tumor. Constitutional
      mosaic aneuploidies, microcephaly, developmental delay and seizures, which are
      features of mosaic variegated aneuploidy (MVA) syndrome, were more variably
      present. Through functional studies, we show that TRIP13-mutant patient cells
      have no detectable TRIP13 and have substantial impairment of the spindle assembly
      checkpoint (SAC), leading to a high rate of chromosome missegregation. Accurate
      segregation, as well as SAC proficiency, is rescued by restoring TRIP13 function.
      Individuals with biallelic TRIP13 or BUB1B mutations have a high risk of
      embryonal tumors, and here we show that their cells display severe SAC
      impairment. MVA due to biallelic CEP57 mutations, or of unknown cause, is not
      associated with embryonal tumors and cells from these individuals show minimal
      SAC deficiency. These data provide insights into the complex relationships
      between aneuploidy and carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28553958
TI  - Polygenic burdens on cell-specific pathways underlie the risk of rheumatoid
      arthritis.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests that a substantial portion of complex disease risk
      alleles modify gene expression in a cell-specific manner. To identify candidate
      causal genes and biological pathways of immune-related complex diseases, we
      conducted expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis on five subsets of
      immune cells (CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells and
      monocytes) and unfractionated peripheral blood from 105 healthy Japanese
      volunteers. We developed a three-step analytical pipeline comprising (i)
      prediction of individual gene expression using our eQTL database and public
      epigenomic data, (ii) gene-level association analysis and (iii) prediction of
      cell-specific pathway activity by integrating the direction of eQTL effects. By
      applying this pipeline to rheumatoid arthritis data sets, we identified candidate
      causal genes and a cytokine pathway (upregulation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)
      in CD4+ T cells). Our approach is an efficient way to characterize the polygenic
      contributions and potential biological mechanisms of complex diseases.

PMID- 28553962
TI  - Size effect and scaling power-law for superelasticity in shape-memory alloys at
      the nanoscale.
AB  - Shape-memory alloys capable of a superelastic stress-induced phase transformation
      and a high displacement actuation have promise for applications in micro
      electromechanical systems for wearable healthcare and flexible electronic
      technologies. However, some of the fundamental aspects of their nanoscale
      behaviour remain unclear, including the question of whether the critical stress
      for the stress-induced martensitic transformation exhibits a size effect similar
      to that observed in confined plasticity. Here we provide evidence of a strong
      size effect on the critical stress that induces such a transformation with a
      threefold increase in the trigger stress in pillars milled on [001] L21 single
      crystals from a Cu-Al-Ni shape-memory alloy from 2 MUm to 260 nm in diameter. A
      power-law size dependence of n = -2 is observed for the nanoscale
      superelasticity. Our observation is supported by the atomic lattice shearing and
      an elastic model for homogeneous martensite nucleation.

PMID- 28553963
TI  - Frequency-dependent stability of CNT Joule heaters in ionizable media and
      desalination processes.
AB  - Water shortages and brine waste management are increasing challenges for coastal
      and inland regions, with high-salinity brines presenting a particularly
      challenging problem. These high-salinity waters require the use of thermally
      driven treatment processes, such as membrane distillation, which suffer from high
      complexity and cost. Here, we demonstrate how controlling the frequency of an
      applied alternating current at high potentials (20 Vpp) to a porous thin-film
      carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composite Joule heating element can prevent CNT
      degradation in ionizable environments such as high-salinity brines. By operating
      at sufficiently high frequencies, these porous thin-films can be directly
      immersed in highly ionizable environments and used as flow-through heating
      elements. We demonstrate that porous CNT/polymer composites can be used as self
      heating membranes to directly heat high-salinity brines at the water/vapour
      interface of the membrane distillation element, achieving high single-pass
      recoveries that approach 100%, far exceeding standard membrane distillation
      recovery limits.

PMID- 28553961
TI  - Structural analysis of MDM2 RING separates degradation from regulation of p53
      transcription activity.
AB  - MDM2-MDMX complexes bind the p53 tumor-suppressor protein, inhibiting p53's
      transcriptional activity and targeting p53 for proteasomal degradation.
      Inhibitors that disrupt binding between p53 and MDM2 efficiently activate a p53
      response, but their use in the treatment of cancers that retain wild-type p53 may
      be limited by on-target toxicities due to p53 activation in normal tissue. Guided
      by a novel crystal structure of the MDM2-MDMX-E2(UbcH5B)-ubiquitin complex, we
      designed MDM2 mutants that prevent E2-ubiquitin binding without altering the RING
      domain structure. These mutants lack MDM2's E3 activity but retain the ability to
      limit p53's transcriptional activity and allow cell proliferation. Cells
      expressing these mutants respond more quickly to cellular stress than cells
      expressing wild-type MDM2, but basal p53 control is maintained. Targeting the
      MDM2 E3-ligase activity could therefore widen the therapeutic window of p53
      activation in tumors.

PMID- 28553964
TI  - Thermal desalination membranes: Carbon nanotubes keep up the heat.

PMID- 28553965
TI  - Fast high-resolution miniature two-photon microscopy for brain imaging in freely
      behaving mice.
AB  - Developments in miniaturized microscopes have enabled visualization of brain
      activities and structural dynamics in animals engaging in self-determined
      behaviors. However, it remains a challenge to resolve activity at single
      dendritic spines in freely behaving animals. Here, we report the design and
      application of a fast high-resolution, miniaturized two-photon microscope (FHIRM
      TPM) that accomplishes this goal. With a headpiece weighing 2.15 g and a hollow
      core photonic crystal fiber delivering 920-nm femtosecond laser pulses, the FHIRM
      TPM is capable of imaging commonly used biosensors (GFP and GCaMP6) at high
      spatiotemporal resolution (0.64 MUm laterally and 3.35 MUm axially, 40 Hz at 256
      * 256 pixels for raster scanning and 10,000 Hz for free-line scanning). We
      demonstrate the microscope's robustness with hour-long recordings of neuronal
      activities at the level of spines in mice experiencing vigorous body movements.

PMID- 28553979
TI  - Mechanistic Investigation of Visible-Light-Induced Intermolecular [2 + 2]
      Photocycloaddition Catalyzed with Chiral Thioxanthone.
AB  - The recent thioxanthone-sensitizer-catalyzed intermolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition
      induced by visible-light irradiation set the stage for the future development of
      feasible photocycloadditions. Nonetheless, the mechanism of this reaction still
      remains under debate, especially on the activation mode of the thioxanthone
      photosensitizer (energy transfer, bielectron exchange, and hydrogen transfer are
      all possible mechanisms). To settle this issue, systematic density functional
      theory calculations have been carried out. The results indicate that the energy
      transfer pathway is more favorable than the bielectron-exchange and the hydrogen
      transfer pathways. Meanwhile, the overall transformations involve the
      complexation and excitation of photosensitizer, the first C-C bond formation, the
      dissociation of the sensitizer, the triplet-to-singlet electronic state crossing,
      and the second C-C bond formation. The first C-C bond formation is the rate- and
      selectivity-determining step, and synergistic energy and electron transfer from
      photosensitizer to substrate moieties takes place along this process. On this
      basis, the effect of olefin substrates (ethyl vinyl ketone vs vinyl acetate) on
      the stereoselectivity was finally analyzed.

PMID- 28553966
TI  - Biosynthesis and genetic encoding of phosphothreonine through parallel selection
      and deep sequencing.
AB  - The phosphorylation of threonine residues in proteins regulates diverse processes
      in eukaryotic cells, and thousands of threonine phosphorylations have been
      identified. An understanding of how threonine phosphorylation regulates
      biological function will be accelerated by general methods to biosynthesize
      defined phosphoproteins. Here we describe a rapid approach for directly
      discovering aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-tRNA pairs that selectively incorporate non
      natural amino acids into proteins; our method uses parallel positive selections
      combined with deep sequencing and statistical analysis and enables the direct,
      scalable discovery of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-tRNA pairs with mutually
      orthogonal substrate specificity. By combining a method to biosynthesize
      phosphothreonine in cells with this selection approach, we discover a
      phosphothreonyl-tRNA synthetase-tRNACUA pair and create an entirely biosynthetic
      route to incorporating phosphothreonine in proteins. We biosynthesize several
      phosphoproteins and demonstrate phosphoprotein structure determination and
      synthetic protein kinase activation.

PMID- 28553980
TI  - Cu-Catalyzed Cascade Annulation of Alkynols with 2-Azidobenzaldehydes: Access to
      6H-Isochromeno[4,3-c]quinoline.
AB  - A copper-catalyzed cascade reaction of alkynols and 2-azidobenzaldehydes has been
      achieved, giving 6H-isochromeno[4,3-c]quinoline in yields of 40-81%. This
      reaction provides a novel, concise strategy for rapidly constructing compounds
      with fused N- and O-containing heterocycles. In contrast to previously reported
      reactions of alkynols in which the first step is intramolecular
      cycloisomerization, the first step in this novel reaction of alkynols is
      entropically unfavorable intermolecular addition. The resulting hemiacetal
      intermediate then undergoes intramolecular cyclization and aromatization to
      afford the product.

PMID- 28553981
TI  - Initiation in Photoredox C-H Functionalization Reactions. Is Dimsyl Anion a Key
      Ingredient?
AB  - Previous studies have reported the arylation of unactivated arenes with ArX, base
      (KOtBu or NaOtBu), and an organic additive at high temperatures. Recently, we
      showed that this reaction proceeds in the absence of additives at rt but employs
      UV-vis light. However, details of mechanisms that can use a photoinduced base
      promoted homolytic aromatic substitution reaction (photo-BHAS) have remained
      elusive until now. This work examines different mechanistic routes of the
      essential electron-transfer step (ET) of this reaction in order to identify a
      possible path for the formation of 1-adamantyl radicals from 1-haloadamantanes
      (initiation step). On the basis of photochemical and photophysical experiments
      and computational studies, we propose an unprecedented initiation step that could
      also be applied to other ET reactions performed in DMSO. For the first time, it
      is reported that dimsyl anion, formed from a strong base and DMSO (solvent), is
      responsible for inducing the initiation by a photo-BHAS process on alkyl halides.

PMID- 28553982
TI  - Direct Observation of Asphaltene Nanoparticles on Model Mineral Substrates.
AB  - The propensity for adherence to solid surfaces of asphaltenes, a complex
      solubility class of heteropolycyclic aromatic compounds from the heavy fraction
      of crude oil, has long been the root cause of scale deposition and remains an
      intractable problem in the petroleum industry. Although the adhesion is essential
      to understanding the process of asphaltene deposition, the relationship between
      the conformation of asphaltene molecules on mineral substrates and its impact on
      adhesion and mechanical properties of the deposits is not completely understood.
      To rationalize the primary processes in the process of organic scale deposition,
      here we use atomic force microscopy (AFM) to visualize the morphology of
      petroleum asphaltenes deposited on model mineral substrates. High imaging
      contrast was achieved by the differential adhesion of the tip between asphaltenes
      and the mineral substrate. While asphaltenes form smooth continuous films on all
      substrates at higher concentrations, they deposit as individual nanoparticles at
      lower concentrations. The size, shape, and spatial distribution of the
      nanoaggregates are strongly affected by the nature of the substrate; while
      uniformly distributed spherical particles are formed on highly polar and
      hydrophilic substrates (mica), irregular islands and thicker patches are observed
      with substrates of lower polarity (silica and calcite). Asphaltene nanoparticles
      flatten when adsorbed on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite due to pi-pi
      interactions with the polycyclic core. Force-distance profiles provide direct
      evidence of the conformational changes of asphaltene molecules on
      hydrophilic/hydrophobic substrates that result in dramatic changes in adhesion
      and mechanical properties of asphaltene deposits. Such an understanding of the
      nature of adhesion and mechanical properties tuned by surface properties, on the
      level of asphaltene nanoaggregates, would contribute to the design of efficient
      asphaltene inhibitors for preventing asphaltene fouling on targeted surfaces.
      Unlike flat surfaces, the AFM phase contrast images of defected calcite surfaces
      show that asphaltenes form continuous deposits to fill the recesses, and this
      process could trigger the onset for asphaltene deposition.

PMID- 28553984
TI  - Modulation of Coiled-Coil Dimer Stability through Surface Residues while
      Preserving Pairing Specificity.
AB  - The coiled-coil dimer is a widespread protein structural motif and, due to its
      designability, represents an attractive building block for assembling modular
      nanostructures. The specificity of coiled-coil dimer pairing is mainly based on
      hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between residues at positions a, d, e,
      and g of the heptad repeat. Binding affinity, on the other hand, can also be
      affected by surface residues that face away from the dimerization interface. Here
      we show how design of the local helical propensity of interacting peptides can be
      used to tune the stabilities of coiled-coil dimers over a wide range. By
      designing intramolecular charge pairs, regions of high local helical propensity
      can be engineered to form trigger sequences, and dimer stability is adjusted
      without changing the peptide length or any of the directly interacting residues.
      This general principle is demonstrated by a change in thermal stability by more
      than 30  degrees C as a result of only two mutations outside the binding
      interface. The same approach was successfully used to modulate the stabilities in
      an orthogonal set of coiled-coils without affecting their binding preferences.
      The stability effects of local helical propensity and peptide charge are well
      described by a simple linear model, which should help improve current coiled-coil
      stability prediction algorithms. Our findings enable tuning the stabilities of
      coiled-coil-based building modules match a diverse range of applications in
      synthetic biology and nanomaterials.

PMID- 28553983
TI  - Acceleration of Linear Finite-Difference Poisson-Boltzmann Methods on Graphics
      Processing Units.
AB  - Electrostatic interactions play crucial roles in biophysical processes such as
      protein folding and molecular recognition. Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PBE)-based
      models have emerged as widely used in modeling these important processes. Though
      great efforts have been put into developing efficient PBE numerical models,
      challenges still remain due to the high dimensionality of typical biomolecular
      systems. In this study, we implemented and analyzed commonly used linear PBE
      solvers for the ever-improving graphics processing units (GPU) for biomolecular
      simulations, including both standard and preconditioned conjugate gradient (CG)
      solvers with several alternative preconditioners. Our implementation utilizes the
      standard Nvidia CUDA libraries cuSPARSE, cuBLAS, and CUSP. Extensive tests show
      that good numerical accuracy can be achieved given that the single precision is
      often used for numerical applications on GPU platforms. The optimal GPU
      performance was observed with the Jacobi-preconditioned CG solver, with a
      significant speedup over standard CG solver on CPU in our diversified test cases.
      Our analysis further shows that different matrix storage formats also
      considerably affect the efficiency of different linear PBE solvers on GPU, with
      the diagonal format best suited for our standard finite-difference linear
      systems. Further efficiency may be possible with matrix-free operations and
      integrated grid stencil setup specifically tailored for the banded matrices in
      PBE-specific linear systems.

PMID- 28553985
TI  - Peridental bone changes after orthodontic tooth movement with fixed appliances: A
      cone-beam computed tomographic study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To quantify treatment-related changes in peridental bone height and
      thickness in orthodontic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cone-beam computed
      tomographs (CBCTs) of 43 patients (24 female, 19 male; mean age: 25 years, 5
      months) who underwent orthodontic treatment with multibracket appliances for at
      least 1 year were chosen for retrospective evaluation. Dehiscence depth and
      changes in bone width and tooth inclination were determined for 954 teeth.
      RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in peridental bone height (dehiscence; 
      0.82 +/- 1.47 mm) and bone thickness (-0.56 +/- 0.7 and -0.69 +/- 0.9 mm at 5 mm
      and 10 mm apical to the CEJ, respectively) during treatment (P < .001). A
      significantly greater dehiscence depth with increased vertical bone loss occurred
      in patients older than 30 years. In patients <30 years old, approximately 20% of
      the teeth showed defect depths >2 mm before treatment. In 90% of these patients,
      at least one tooth was affected. The maxillary canines and all mandibular teeth
      showed a higher risk for vestibular bone loss. Treatment changes in tooth
      inclination were correlated with horizontal bone loss. CONCLUSIONS: Based on
      these results, it seems reasonable to recommend that peridental bone in
      orthodontic patients older than 30 be evaluated on a routine basis due to the
      risk of increased vertical bone loss. Ninety percent of patients younger than 30
      showed reduced bone height (dehiscence) of the periodontium of at least one
      tooth.

PMID- 28553957
TI  - Genetic association study of exfoliation syndrome identifies a protective rare
      variant at LOXL1 and five new susceptibility loci.
AB  - Exfoliation syndrome (XFS) is the most common known risk factor for secondary
      glaucoma and a major cause of blindness worldwide. Variants in two genes, LOXL1
      and CACNA1A, have previously been associated with XFS. To further elucidate the
      genetic basis of XFS, we collected a global sample of XFS cases to refine the
      association at LOXL1, which previously showed inconsistent results across
      populations, and to identify new variants associated with XFS. We identified a
      rare protective allele at LOXL1 (p.Phe407, odds ratio (OR) = 25, P = 2.9 * 10-14)
      through deep resequencing of XFS cases and controls from nine countries. A genome
      wide association study (GWAS) of XFS cases and controls from 24 countries
      followed by replication in 18 countries identified seven genome-wide significant
      loci (P < 5 * 10-8). We identified association signals at 13q12 (POMP), 11q23.3
      (TMEM136), 6p21 (AGPAT1), 3p24 (RBMS3) and 5q23 (near SEMA6A). These findings
      provide biological insights into the pathology of XFS and highlight a potential
      role for naturally occurring rare LOXL1 variants in disease biology.

PMID- 28553986
TI  - Epigenetics, nutrition and mental health. Is there a relationship?
AB  - Many aspects of human development and disease are influenced by the interaction
      between genetic and environmental factors. Understanding how our genes respond to
      the environment is central to managing health and disease, and is one of the
      major contemporary challenges in human genetics. Various epigenetic processes
      affect chromosome structure and accessibility of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to
      the enzymatic machinery that leads to expression of genes. One important
      epigenetic mechanism that appears to underlie the interaction between
      environmental factors, including diet, and our genome, is chemical modification
      of the DNA. The best understood of these modifications is methylation of cytosine
      residues in DNA. It is now recognized that the pattern of methylated cytosines
      throughout our genomes (the 'methylome') can change during development and in
      response to environmental cues, often with profound effects on gene expression.
      Many dietary constituents may indirectly influence genomic pathways that
      methylate DNA, and there is evidence for biochemical links between nutritional
      quality and mental health. Deficiency of both macro- and micronutrients has been
      associated with increased behavioural problems, and nutritional supplementation
      has proven efficacious in treatment of certain neuropsychiatric disorders. In
      this review we examine evidence from the fields of nutrition, developmental
      biology, and mental health that supports dietary impacts on epigenetic processes,
      particularly DNA methylation. We then consider whether such processes could
      underlie the demonstrated efficacy of dietary supplementation in treatment of
      mental disorders, and whether targeted manipulation of DNA methylation patterns
      using controlled dietary supplementation may be of wider clinical value.

PMID- 28553987
TI  - Glycated Hemoglobin is Independently Associated with Albuminuria in Young
      Nondiabetic People with Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore the association between glycated
      hemoglobin (HbA1c) level and albuminuria in young nondiabetic people with
      obesity. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 537 young nondiabetic people with
      obesity were enrolled in this cross-sectional study, which was approved by the
      Rui-jin Hospital Ethics Committee. Albuminuria was defined as a urinary albumin
      to-creatinine ratio (ACR) >=30 mg/g. Multivariate logistic regression was used to
      analyze the association between HbA1c level and albuminuria. RESULTS Urinary ACR
      progressively increased across the tertiles of HbA1c level (P for trend <0.05).
      HbA1c levels were positively associated with the risk of albuminuria in the
      logistic regression analysis after adjustment for confounding factors. The
      adjusted odds ratio (OR) for albuminuria was 3.72 (95% confidence interval [CI],
      1.25-11.00; P=0.017) when comparing between the highest (>=5.7%) and lowest
      tertiles of HbA1c level (<=5.3%). Moreover, an increment of 1 SD in HbA1c level
      increased the risk of albuminuria in a fully adjusted model (OR, 1.73; 95% CI,
      1.25-2.46). CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that HbA1c level was independently
      associated with albuminuria in young nondiabetic people with obesity.

PMID- 28553988
TI  - Exposure to acetaminophen and all its metabolites upon 10, 15, and 20 mg/kg
      intravenous acetaminophen in very-preterm infants.
AB  - BackgroundExposure to acetaminophen and its metabolites in very-preterm infants
      is partly unknown. We investigated the exposure to acetaminophen and its
      metabolites upon 10, 15, or 20 mg/kg intravenous acetaminophen in preterm
      infants.MethodsIn a randomized trial, 59 preterm infants (24-32 weeks'
      gestational age, postnatal age <1 week) received 10, 15, or 20 mg/kg
      acetaminophen intravenously. Plasma concentrations of acetaminophen and its
      metabolites (glucuronide, sulfate, cysteine, mercapturate, and glutathione) were
      determined in 293 blood samples. Area under the plasma concentration-time curves
      (AUC0-500 min) was related to dose and gestational age.ResultsBetween 10 and 20
      mg/kg dose, median AUCs of acetaminophen, glucuronide, sulfate, and cysteine
      increased significantly resulting in unchanged ratios of AUC of metabolite to
      acetaminophen. The AUC ratio of glucuronide to acetaminophen increased with
      gestational age, that of sulfate decreased, and the ratio of cysteine and
      mercapturate remained unchanged.ConclusionWe found a gestational-age-dependent
      increase in glucuronidation but no evidence for saturation of a specific pathway
      as there was a proportional increase in exposure of acetaminophen and all
      metabolites. Compared with adults, very low exposure to glucuronide but higher
      exposure to sulfate, cysteine, and mercapturate metabolites was found, of which
      the relevance is not yet known.

PMID- 28553990
TI  - Investigating the effects of cerebrospinal fluid removal on cerebral blood flow
      and oxidative metabolism in infants with post-hemorrhagic ventricular dilatation.
AB  - BackgroundPost-hemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) is predictive of
      mortality and morbidity among very-low-birth-weight preterm infants. Impaired
      cerebral blood flow (CBF) due to elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) is believed
      to be a contributing factor.MethodsA hyperspectral near-infrared spectroscopy
      (NIRS) method of measuring CBF and the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2)
      was used to investigate perfusion and metabolism changes in patients receiving a
      ventricular tap (VT) based on clinical management. To improve measurement
      accuracy, the spectral analysis was modified to account for compression of the
      cortical mantle caused by PHVD and the possible presence of blood breakdown
      products.ResultsFrom nine patients (27 VTs), a significant CBF increase was
      measured (15.6%) following VT (14.6+/-4.2 to 16.9+/-6.6 ml/100 g/min), but with
      no corresponding change in CMRO2 (1.02+/-0.41 ml O2/100 g/min). Post-VT CBF was
      in good agreement with a control group of 13 patients with patent ductus
      arteriosus but no major cerebral pathology (16.5+/-7.7 ml/100 g/min), whereas
      tissue oxygen saturation (StO2) was significantly lower (58.9+/-12.1% vs. 70.5+/
      9.1% for controls).ConclusionCBF was impeded in PHVD infants requiring a clinical
      intervention, but the effect is not large enough to alter CMRO2.

PMID- 28553991
TI  - Early career investigator-August issue.

PMID- 28553989
TI  - Neuroimaging in former preterm children who received erythropoiesis stimulating
      agents.
AB  - BackgroundIn premature children, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) may
      improve developmental outcome. It is not clear which of the several potential
      mechanisms are responsible for this improvement. High-resolution MRI and
      diffusion tensor imaging characterize brain structure and white matter
      organization, offering possible insight into the long-term effect of ESAs on
      brain development.MethodsMRI scans were performed at 3.5-4 years of age on former
      preterm infants treated with ESAs or placebo, and on healthy term controls. Mean
      cortical thickness, surface area, and fractional anisotropy (FA) were compared
      across study groups, and were correlated with general IQ
      measures.ResultsUnivariate analysis found no significant effect of ESAs on
      cortical thickness (P=0.366), surface area (P=0.940), or FA (P=0.150); however,
      there was a greater increase in FA among ESA-treated girls. Group analysis found
      significant correlations between FA and Full-Scale IQ (P=0.044) and Verbal IQ
      (P=0.036), although there was no significant relationship between Full-Scale IQ
      and FA among just the preterm children.ConclusionESA treatment may have a
      preferential effect on white matter development in girls, although factors other
      than just whole-brain FA are involved in mediating cognitive outcome.

PMID- 28553992
TI  - Does age modify the association between psychosocial factors at work and
      deterioration of self-rated health?
AB  - Objectives Few epidemiological studies have examined whether associations of
      psychosocial working conditions with risk of poor health differ by age. Based on
      results from mostly cross-sectional studies, we test whether (i) psychosocial
      relational factors (social support) are more strongly associated with declining
      health of older than younger employees and (ii) psychosocial job factors
      (workpace, influence, possibilities for development) are more strongly associated
      with declining health of younger than older employees. Methods We extracted two
      cohorts from the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study (DWECS): the 2000-2005 and
      2005-2010 cohorts. The participating 5281 employees with good self-rated health
      (SRH) at baseline were observed in 6585 5-year time windows. Using log-binomial
      regression analyses, we analysed whether psychosocial factors at work predicted 5
      year deterioration of SRH. Effect modification by age was estimated by
      calculating relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). Results High workpace
      among men, low influence at work as well as low social support from colleagues
      among women, and low possibilities for development and low social support from
      supervisors among both genders predicted 5-year decline in SRH. Of the 20
      interaction analyses, only 1 was statistically significant and in the opposite
      direction of what was hypothesized (higher risk for declining SRH among middle
      aged men with low possibilities for development compared to the young men with
      high possibilities for development). Conclusions Psychosocial working conditions
      predicted decline in SRH in this 5-year follow-up study. The model did not
      support our hypotheses about modifying effects by age.

PMID- 28553993
TI  - Multi-Phase Solvation Model for Biological Membranes: Molecular Action Mechanism
      of Amphotericin B.
AB  - Amphotericin B (AmB) is still the most effective drug for the treatment of
      systemic fungal infections in humans. Despite significant theoretical and
      experimental efforts trying to understand its molecular mechanism of action, the
      answer has remained elusive. In this work, we present a computational methodology
      to test the current membrane related hypotheses, namely, transmembrane ion
      channel, adsorption, and sterol sponge. We use a thermodynamic approach in which
      we represent the membrane by a multiphase solvation model with atomic detail
      (MMPSM) and calculate the free energy of transferring the drug between phases
      with different dielectric properties. Furthermore, we compare AmB to a chemical
      analogue with increased safety, an l-histidine methyl ester of AmB. Our findings
      reveal that both drugs dimerize in all solvents studied here. Also, it is
      energetically unfavorable for the drugs to penetrate into the hydrophobic core of
      the membrane, unless their concentration is high. Finally, it is
      thermodynamically possible that the sterols migrate from the membrane into a drug
      droplet adsorbed at the surface of the bilayer. In light of our results, several
      effects could take place in the complex antibiotic process. We suggest a
      molecular mechanism that connects all three hypotheses through a drug
      concentration dependence and propose that the drug promotes the formation of
      membrane toroidal pores. Because MMPSM is of general interest, we made it
      available at http://tripplab.com/tools/mmpsm .

PMID- 28553995
TI  - Mapping regulatory models for medicinal cannabis: a matrix of options.
AB  - Objective The aim of the present study was to develop a framework for assessing
      regulatory options for medicinal cannabis in Australia.Methods International
      regulatory regimes for medicinal cannabis were reviewed with a qualitative policy
      analysis approach and key policy features were synthesised, leading to a
      conceptual framework that facilitates decision making across multiple
      dimensions.Results Two central organising dimensions of medicinal cannabis
      regulation were identified: cannabis supply and patient authorisation (including
      patient access). A number of the different supply options can be matched with a
      number of different patient authorisation options, leading to a matrix of
      possible regulatory regimes.Conclusions The regulatory options, as used
      internationally, involve different forms of cannabis (synthetic and plant-based
      pharmaceutical preparations or herbal cannabis) and the varying extent to which
      patient authorisation policies and procedures are stringently or more loosely
      defined. The optimal combination of supply and patient authorisation options in
      any jurisdiction that chooses to make medicinal cannabis accessible will depend
      on policy goals.What is known about the topic? Internationally, regulation of
      medicinal cannabis has developed idiosyncratically, depending on formulations
      that were made available and local context. There has been no attempt to date in
      the scientific literature to systematically document the variety of regulatory
      possibilities for medicinal cannabis.What does this paper add? This paper
      presents a new conceptual schema for considering options for the regulation of
      medicinal cannabis, across both supply and patient authorisation aspects.What are
      the implications for practitioners? The design of regulatory systems in
      Australia, whether for pharmaceutical or herbal products, is a vital issue for
      policy makers right now as federal and state and territory governments grapple
      with the complexities of medicinal cannabis regulation. The conceptual schema
      presented herein provides a tool for more systematic thinking about the options.

PMID- 28553996
TI  - Gender dysphoria and the controversy over the Safe Schools program.
AB  - The Safe Schools program has attracted great controversy. On one end of the
      spectrum, it is defended as an anti-bullying program for young people who
      identify themselves as gay or lesbian, or have issues concerning their gender
      identity. On the other end of the spectrum, it is regarded as social engineering.
      This article seeks to promote a discussion of the way in which gender identity
      issues are addressed in the Safe Schools program. It is argued that the
      information in this program to Principals, teachers and young people is
      inaccurate and misleading. The program, as presently designed, may actually cause
      harm to children and young people who experience gender identity issues because
      it promotes gender transitioning without expert medical advice. The Safe Schools
      materials do not acknowledge that the great majority of children resolve gender
      dysphoria issues around the time of puberty. It may be much more difficult for a
      child to accept his or her gender at puberty if he or she has already changed
      name and gender identity in primary school. These deficits need to be addressed
      if the program is to continue.

PMID- 28553994
TI  - The repeated bout effect of traditional resistance exercises on running
      performance across 3 bouts.
AB  - This study investigated the repeated bout effect of 3 typical lower body
      resistance-training sessions on maximal and submaximal effort running
      performance. Twelve resistance-untrained men (age, 24 +/- 4 years; height, 1.81
      +/- 0.10 m; body mass, 79.3 +/- 10.9 kg; peak oxygen uptake, 48.2 +/- 6.5 mL.kg
      1.min-1; 6-repetition maximum squat, 71.7 +/- 12.2 kg) undertook 3 bouts of
      resistance-training sessions at 6-repetitions maximum. Countermovement jump
      (CMJ), lower-body range of motion (ROM), muscle soreness, and creatine kinase
      (CK) were examined prior to and immediately, 24 h (T24), and 48 h (T48) after
      each resistance-training bout. Submaximal (i.e., below anaerobic threshold (AT))
      and maximal (i.e., above AT) running performances were also conducted at T24 and
      T48. Most indirect muscle damage markers (i.e., CMJ, ROM, and muscle soreness)
      and submaximal running performance were significantly improved (P < 0.05; 1.9%)
      following the third resistance-training bout compared with the second bout.
      Whilst maximal running performance was also improved following the third bout (P
      < 0.05; 9.8%) compared with other bouts, the measures were still reduced by 12%
      20% versus baseline. However, the increase in CK was attenuated following the
      second bout (P < 0.05) with no further protection following the third bout (P >
      0.05). In conclusion, the initial bout induced the greatest change in CK;
      however, at least 2 bouts were required to produce protective effects on other
      indirect muscle damage markers and submaximal running performance measures. This
      suggests that submaximal running sessions should be avoided for at least 48 h
      after resistance training until the third bout, although a greater recovery
      period may be required for maximal running sessions.

PMID- 28553997
TI  - Partnership agreements less likely among young gay and bisexual men in Australia 
      data from a national online survey of gay and bisexual men's relationships.
AB  - BACKGROUND: How gay and bisexual men (GBM) establish partnership agreements may
      be affected by several factors, including age. The ability to communicate with a
      partner about sexual agreements has important sexual health implications for GBM.
      OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in partnership agreements among GBM. METHODS: We
      surveyed GBM about their partnerships using a national, anonymous online survey
      in 2013-14. We compared men who had monogamous partnerships with men who had non
      monogamous partnerships, according to age and other factors. RESULTS: Regarding
      the nature of their partnership with their primary regular partner (PRP), younger
      men were less likely to have an agreement of any sort and were less likely to
      have discussed it. Younger men were more likely to report having a monogamous
      partnership, but they were also less likely to report condomless anal intercourse
      with their PRP. In multivariate analysis of partnership arrangements, having a
      non-monogamous partnership with their PRP was associated with being older
      (adjusted odds ratio=1.03; 95% confidence interval=1.02-1.04; P<0.001). Nearly
      two-thirds (62.9%) of men with monogamous partnerships had a clear spoken
      agreement with their PRP about whether they could have sex with other men,
      largely regardless of age. Although slightly fewer than half the men with self
      described open partnerships (46.0%) actually described it as a 'relationship',
      younger men were particularly less likely to do so. CONCLUSIONS: Due to less
      communication with partners about sexual agreements, when young GBM engage in
      sexual risk behaviour they may be at an increased risk of HIV and other sexually
      transmissible infections.

PMID- 28553998
TI  - Splicing-related single nucleotide polymorphism of RAB, member of RAS oncogene
      family like 2B (RABL2B) jeopardises semen quality in Chinese Holstein bulls.
AB  - RAB, member of RAS oncogene family like 2B (RABL2B) is a member of a poorly
      characterised clade of the RAS GTPase superfamily, which plays an essential role
      in male fertility, sperm intraflagellar transport and tail assembly. In the
      present study, we identified a novel RABL2B splice variant in bovine testis and
      spermatozoa. This splice variant, designated RABL2B-TV, is characterised by exon
      2 skipping. Moreover, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), namely c.125G>A,
      was found within the exonic splicing enhancer (ESE) motif, indicating that the
      SNP caused the production of the RABL2B-TV aberrant splice variant. This was
      demonstrated by constructing a pSPL3 exon capturing vector with different
      genotypes and transfecting these vectors into murine Leydig tumour cell line
      (MLTC-1) cells. Expression of the RABL2B-TV transcript was lower in semen from
      high- versus low-performance bulls. Association analysis showed that sperm
      deformity rate was significantly lower in Chinese Holstein bulls with the GG or
      GA genotype than in bulls with the AA genotype (P<0.05). In addition, initial
      sperm motility was significantly higher in individuals with the GG or GA genotype
      than in individuals with the AA genotype (P<0.05). The findings of the present
      study suggest that the difference in semen quality in bulls with different RABL2B
      genotypes is generated via an alternative splicing mechanism caused by a
      functional SNP within the ESE motif.

PMID- 28553999
TI  - Projecting demands for renal replacement therapy in the Northern Territory: a
      stochastic Markov model.
AB  - Objective The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential effects of
      different health intervention strategies on demand for renal replacement therapy
      (RRT) services in the Northern Territory (NT).Methods A Markov chain simulation
      model was developed to estimate demand for haemodialysis (HD) and kidney
      transplantation (Tx) over the next 10 years, based on RRT registry data between
      2002 and 2013. Four policy-relevant scenarios were evaluated: (1) increased Tx;
      (2) increased self-care dialysis; (3) reduced incidence of end-stage kidney
      disease (ESKD); and (4) reduced mortality.Results There were 957 new cases of
      ESKD during the study period, with most patients being Indigenous people (85%).
      The median age was 50 years at onset and 57 years at death, 12 and 13 years
      younger respectively than Australian medians. The prevalence of RRT increased
      5.6% annually, 20% higher than the national rate (4.7%). If current trends
      continue (baseline scenario), the demand for facility-based HD (FHD) would
      approach 100000 treatments (95% confidence interval 75000-121000) in 2023, a 5%
      annual increase. Increasing Tx (0.3%), increasing self-care (5%) and reducing
      incidence (5%) each attenuate demand for FHD to ~70000 annually by
      2023.Conclusions The present study demonstrates the effects of changing service
      patterns to increase Tx, self-care and prevention, all of which will
      substantially attenuate the growth in FHD requirements in the NT.What is known
      about the topic? The burden of ESKD is projected to increase in the NT, with
      demand for FHD doubling every 15 years. Little is known about the potential
      effect of changes in health policy and clinical practice on demand.What does this
      paper add? This study assessed the usefulness of a stochastic Markov model to
      evaluate the effects of potential policy changes on FHD demand.What are the
      implications for practitioners? The scenarios simulated by the stochastic Markov
      models suggest that changes in current ESKD management practices would have a
      large effect on future demand for FHD.

PMID- 28554000
TI  - Health professionals.
AB  - Objective Globally, the degree of patient harm occurring in healthcare was first
      publicised in the 1990s. Although many factors affect patient safety, in the US
      the Institute of Medicine identified hospital organisational culture as one
      factor contributing to a reduction in errors. This led to the development of many
      tools for measuring the safety culture of hospital staff. The aim of the present
      study was to review the literature on patient safety culture in acute hospitals
      to identify: (1) how patient safety is viewed by health professionals; (2)
      whether patient safety culture is perceived differently at the hospital versus
      ward level; and (3) whether clinicians and managers place the same importance on
      patient safety.Methods Following a search of electronic databases using OneSearch
      and a manual search of grey literature, an integrative review method identified
      11 articles as being suitable to meet the review's aims. The search terms of
      patient safety culture, patient safety and safety climate were used. To ensure
      relevancy to current practice, the search was restricted to the period 2010
      15.Results Hospital patient safety culture is not a shared vision, because health
      professional groups have different views. In the present study, 67% of articles
      examined found doctors to have a poorer perception of the patient safety culture
      than nurses and allied health professionals. All health professional groups
      reported a more positive view of their ward safety culture than that of the
      hospital safety culture. Furthermore, managers of the health professionals
      reported more positively on patient safety culture than bedside
      clinicians.Conclusion This review provides an international understanding of
      health professionals' views of patient safety. From an Australian context, the
      review highlights the need for further investigation, because there is a lack of
      recent Australian literature in the acute hospital setting relating to patient
      safety culture.What is known about the topic? Globally, many research papers have
      reported upon the correlation between a positive patient safety culture and a
      reduction in healthcare errors.What does this paper add? The present integrative
      review highlights that regardless of the country of origin, there are differences
      in the way that a hospital patient safety culture is perceived among different
      health professional groups, particularly between managers and bedside
      clinicians.What are the implications for practitioners? Individual health
      professional groups, and managers and clinicians, have different views on the
      patient safety culture; therefore, training needs to involve everyone to create a
      shared vision for patient safety.

PMID- 28554001
TI  - Corrigendum to "Multimodality scoring of chondral injuries in the equine fetlock
      joint ex vivo" [Osteoarthritis Cartilage 25 (5) (2017 May) 790-798].

PMID- 28554002
TI  - Retrospective analysis of hepatitis B virus chronic infection in 247 patients:
      clinical stages, response to treatment and poor prognostic factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis B is a major cause of cirrhosis, and the natural
      history of the disease has several clinical stages that should be thoroughly
      understood for the implementation of proper treatment. Nonetheless, curing the
      disease with antiviral treatment remains a challenge. AIMS: To describe the
      clinical course, response to treatment, and poor prognostic factors in 247
      hepatitis B virus chronic infection patients treated in a tertiary hospital in
      Brazil. METHODS: This was a retrospective and observational study, by analyzing
      the medical records of HBV infected patients between January 2000 and January
      2015. RESULTS: Most patients were male (67.2%) and 74.1% were HBeAg negative.
      Approximately 41% had cirrhosis and 8.5% were hepatitis C virus coinfected. The
      viral load was negative after two years on lamivudine, entecavir and tenofovir in
      86%, 90.6%, and 92.9% of the patients, respectively. The five-year resistance
      rates for lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir, and tenofovir were 57.5%, 51.8%, 1.9%,
      and 0%, respectively. The overall seroconversion rates were 31.2% for HBeAg and
      9.4% for HBsAg. Hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed in 9.7% of patients, liver
      transplantation was performed in 9.7%, and overall mortality was 10.5%.
      Elevations of serum alanine aminotransferase (p=0.0059) and viral load (p<0.0001)
      were associated with progression to liver cirrhosis. High viral load was
      associated with progression to hepatocellular carcinoma (p<0.0001). Significant
      risk factors associated with death were elevated alanine aminotransferase
      (p=0.0039), liver cirrhosis (p<0.0001), high viral load (p=0.007), and
      hepatocellular carcinoma (p=0.0008). HBeAg positive status was not associated
      with worse outcomes, and treatment may have been largely responsible.
      CONCLUSIONS: Elevations of viral load and serum alanine aminotransferase may
      select patients with worse prognosis, especially progression to cirrhosis and
      hepatocellular carcinoma, which were strongly association with death.

PMID- 28554004
TI  - Traffic noise and hypertension - results from a large case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Environmental traffic noise is a potential cause of hypertension. We
      aimed to study the association between hypertension as recorded in health
      insurance claims data and the exposure to three sources of traffic noise
      (aircraft, road and rail). METHODS: This large case-control study was conducted
      among persons aged 40 and above in 2010 and living in the region around Frankfurt
      airport in Germany. Individual residential noise exposure for the index year 2005
      was assessed using standard noise algorithms. Cases were all newly diagnosed
      cases of hypertension recorded in three large health insurances databases in the
      period 2006-2010. Controls had no hypertension diagnosis. Categorical and
      continuous analyses were conducted with binary logistic regression models
      adjusted for sex, age and residential area-based socioeconomic information.
      RESULTS: The main analysis included 137,577 cases and 355,591 controls. There
      were no associations with any of the traffic noise sources. Odds ratios (OR) per
      10dB noise increase were 0.99 (95% confidence interval: 0.98;1.01) for aircraft
      noise, and 1.00 (0.99;1.01) both for road and railway noise. Similarly, nighttime
      noise levels showed no associations with hypertension. Odds ratios were increased
      for the subgroup of newly diagnosed hypertension cases with a subsequent
      diagnosis of hypertensive heart disease: per 10dB aircraft noise there was a
      13.9% OR increase (6.0% for road traffic, 5.4% for rail traffic). Increases were
      also noted when we analyzed cases with a longer exposure-outcome time window.
      CONCLUSION: Our results are suggestive of an association of noise exposure with
      clinically more severe hypertension diagnoses, but not with uncomplicated
      hypertension. The absence of individual confounder data, however, adds to the
      risk of bias. The results contribute to evidence on traffic noise as a
      cardiovascular risk factor.

PMID- 28554005
TI  - Contaminants and energy expenditure in an Arctic seabird: Organochlorine
      pesticides and perfluoroalkyl substances are associated with metabolic rate in a
      contrasted manner.
AB  - Basal metabolic rate (BMR), the minimal energetic cost of living in endotherms,
      is known to be influenced by thyroid hormones (THs) which are known to stimulate
      in vitro oxygen consumption of tissues in birds and mammals. Several
      environmental contaminants may act on energy expenditure through their thyroid
      hormone-disrupting properties. However, the effect of contaminants on BMR is
      still poorly documented for wildlife. Here, we investigated the relationships
      between three groups of contaminants (organochlorines (OCs), perfluoroalkyl
      substances (PFASs), and mercury) with metabolic rate (MR), considered here as a
      proxy of BMR and also with circulating total THs (thyroxine (TT4) and
      triiodothyronine (TT3)) in Arctic breeding adult black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa
      tridactyla) from Svalbard, during the chick rearing period. Our results indicate
      a negative relationship between the sum of all detected chlordanes (?CHLs) and MR
      in both sexes whereas perfluorotridecanoate (PFTrA) and MR were positively
      related in females only. MR was not associated with mercury. Additionally, levels
      of TT3 were negatively related to ?CHLs but not to PFTrA. The findings from the
      present study indicate that some OCs (in both sexes) and some PFASs (only in
      females) could disrupt fine adjustment of BMR during reproduction in adult
      kittiwakes. Importantly, highly lipophilic OCs and highly proteinophilic PFASs
      appear, at least in females, to have the ability to disrupt the metabolic rate in
      an opposite way. Therefore, our study highlights the need for ecotoxicological
      studies to include a large variety of contaminants which can act in an
      antagonistic manner.

PMID- 28554003
TI  - Opioids and opioid receptors orchestrate wound repair.
AB  - We have previously shown that topical opioids including morphine and its
      congeners promote healing of full thickness ischemic wounds in rats. We examined
      the contribution of mu opioid receptor (MOPr)-mediated healing of full thickness
      ischemic wounds using MOPr and delta or kappa opioid receptor knockout (KO) mice.
      Wound closure in the early (day 5) as well as later phases was delayed in topical
      morphine or PBS-treated MOPr-KO mice compared with reciprocal treatments of
      wounds in wild-type (WT) mice. MOPr expression was significantly upregulated at
      30 min in the wound margins and colocalized with wound margins and vasculature in
      the epidermal and dermal layers of the skin. We next examined whether
      neuropeptide expression was involved in the mechanism of MOPr-mediated wound
      closure. Substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity
      (ir) was significantly increased in the skin of MOPr-KO mice as compared with WT
      mice. Neuropeptide-ir was increased significantly in PBS-treated wounds of MOPr
      and WT mice, but morphine treatment reduced neuropeptide immunoreactivity in both
      as compared with PBS. Wounding of keratinocytes led to the release of opioid
      peptide beta-endorphin (beta-END) in conditioned medium, which stimulated the
      proliferation of endothelial cells. MOPr-selective (D-Phe-Cys-Tyr-D-Trp-Orn-Thr
      Pen-Thr-NH2, CTOP) and nonselective OPr antagonist naloxone-inhibited endothelial
      proliferation induced by wounded keratinocyte-conditioned medium. In addition,
      accelerated wound area closure in vitro by morphine was suppressed by
      methylnaltrexone, a nonselective OPr antagonist with high affinity for MOPr.
      Morphine and its congeners stimulated the proliferation of endothelial cells from
      WT mice but not those from MOPr-KO mice. Furthermore, morphine-induced mitogen
      activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation in
      endothelial cells was significantly decreased in MOPr-KO mice as compared with WT
      mice. Collectively, these data suggest that MOPr plays a critical role in the
      proliferation phase with the formation of granulation tissue during wound
      healing.

PMID- 28554007
TI  - Combined influence of biophysical and biochemical cues on maintenance and
      proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells.
AB  - Homeostasis of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) is controlled by a
      combination of biochemical and biophysical environmental cues in the bone marrow
      (BM) niche, where a tight balance of quiescence and proliferation of HSPC is
      maintained. Specifically, alongside soluble factors and extracellular matrix
      (ECM) proteins, spatial confinement and ECM stiffness have been recognized to be
      critical for regulation of HSPC fate. Here we employ a modular, glycosaminoglycan
      (GAG)-based biohybrid hydrogel system to balance proliferation of human HSPC and
      maintenance of quiescent hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) through simultaneous
      regulation of exogenous biochemical and biophysical cues. Our results demonstrate
      that HSPC respond to increased spatial confinement with lowered proliferation and
      cell cycling, which results in higher frequency of quiescent LTC-IC (long-term
      culture initiating cells), while GAG-rich 3D environments further support
      maintenance of the cells.

PMID- 28554006
TI  - Chronic arsenic exposure and risk of carotid artery disease: The Strong Heart
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inorganic arsenic exposure from naturally contaminated groundwater is
      related to vascular disease. No prospective studies have evaluated the
      association between arsenic and carotid atherosclerosis at low-moderate levels.
      We examined the association of long-term, low-moderate inorganic arsenic exposure
      with carotid arterial disease. METHODS: American Indians, 45-74 years old, in
      Arizona, Oklahoma, and North and South Dakota had arsenic concentrations (sum of
      inorganic and methylated species, MUg/g urine creatinine) measured from baseline
      urine samples (1989-1991). Carotid artery ultrasound was performed in 1998-1999.
      Vascular disease was assessed by the carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), the
      presence of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid, and by the number of segments
      containing plaque (plaque score). RESULTS: 2402 participants (mean age 55.3
      years, 63.1% female, mean body mass index 31.0kg/m2, diabetes 45.7%, hypertension
      34.2%) had a median (interquintile range) urine arsenic concentration of 9.2
      (5.00, 17.06) ug/g creatinine. The mean CIMT was 0.75mm. 64.7% had carotid artery
      plaque (3% with >50% stenosis). In fully adjusted models comparing participants
      in the 80th vs. 20th percentile in arsenic concentrations, the mean difference in
      CIMT was 0.01 (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.00, 0.02) mm, the relative risk
      of plaque presence was 1.04 (95%CI: 0.99, 1.09), and the geometric mean ratio of
      plaque score was 1.05 (95%CI: 1.01, 1.09). CONCLUSIONS: Urine arsenic was
      positively associated with CIMT and increased plaque score later in life although
      the association was small. The relationship between urinary arsenic and the
      presence of plaque was not statistically significant when adjusted for other risk
      factors. Arsenic exposure may play a role in increasing the severity of carotid
      vascular disease.

PMID- 28554008
TI  - A bioorthogonal nanosystem for imaging and in vivo tumor inhibition.
AB  - Bioorthogonal bond-cleavage reactions have emerged as promising tools for
      manipulating biological processes, still the therapeutic effect of these
      reactions in vivo needs to be explored. Herein a bioorthogonal-activated prodrug
      has been developed for bioimaging and therapy, which is composed of a Pd-mediated
      cleavable propargyl, a coumarin fluorophore and a potent anticancer drug. In
      vitro investigations show that, the presence of a Pd complex induces the cleavage
      of propargyl and subsequently trigger the cascade of reactions, thereby
      activating the coumarin fluorophore for imaging and releasing the anticancer drug
      for therapy. Both the prodrug and Pd complex were then separately encapsulated
      into phospholipid liposomes to form a two-component bioorthogonal nanosystem. The
      lyposomal nanosystem can be readily internalized by HeLa cells and displays
      strong intracellular fluorescence under one- or two-photon excitation, indicating
      the release of the active drug in cells as a result of the Pd-mediated
      bioorthogonal bond-cleavage reaction. More importantly, the nanosystem shows
      considerable high activity and exerts efficient inhibition towards tumor growth
      in a mouse model. This work demonstrates that, if properly formulated, a
      bioorthogonal system can perform well in vivo. This strategy may offer a new
      approach for designing bioorthogonal prodrugs with imaging and therapeutic
      capability.

PMID- 28554009
TI  - High purity microfluidic sorting and in situ inactivation of circulating tumor
      cells based on multifunctional magnetic composites.
AB  - Detection and isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a pivotal role in
      the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, while the high capture efficiency and
      purity of CTCs are difficult to achieve simultaneously among the various
      isolation methods. In this work, we designed an inverted microchip integrating
      silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and multifunctional magnetic nanocomposites
      (Fe3O4@C6/Ce6@silane, Coumarin 6 (C6), Chlorin e6 (Ce6)) for enhanced capture
      efficiency and purity of CTCs. The Fe3O4@C6/Ce6@silane conjugated with antibody
      can label the CTCs and pull them to the upside SiNWs capture surface by the
      upward magnetic field with high purity. This inverted structure was also featured
      with real-time detection and photodynamic therapy (PDT) of CTCs with the confocal
      laser scanning microscope (CLSM). The results indicate the important role of the
      composites labels and the magnetic field, which greatly improves the capture
      purity of the CTCs to 90%. Meanwhile, capture efficiency of CTCs achieve to 90.3%
      in culture medium and 82% in blood with 2 mL/h flow rate, respectively. Based on
      the structure of the device and composites, the captured CTCs could be directly
      inactivated by the in situ photodynamic therapy in the capture process which
      holds positive impact to block cancer spread.

PMID- 28554010
TI  - A bilaminated decellularized scaffold for islet transplantation: Structure,
      properties and functions in diabetic mice.
AB  - Ectopic transplantation of islets provides a beta cell-replacement approach that
      may allow the recovery of physiological regulation of the blood sugar level in
      patients with Type I diabetes (T1D). In development of new extrahepatic islet
      transplantation protocols in support of the islet engraftment, it is pivotal to
      develop scaffold materials with multifaceted functions to provide beneficial
      microenvironment, mediate host response in favor of vascularization/islet
      integration and maintain long-term islet function at the transplantation site. In
      this study, a new composite bilaminar decellularized scaffold (CDS) was
      fabricated with differential structural, degradation and mechanical properties by
      the combination of a fast-degrading porous collagen matrix and a mechanically
      supportive porcine pericardium. When investigated in the epididymal fat pad in
      syngeneic mouse models, it was shown that CDS could serve as superior scaffolds
      to promote islet adhesion and viability, and islet-CDS constructs also allowed
      rapid reversal of the hyperglycemic condition in the host. The engraftment and
      effects of islets were achieved at low islet numbers, accompanied by minimal
      adverse tissue reactions and optimal islet integration with the surrounding fat
      tissue. The bioactive surface, mechanical/chemical durability and
      biocompatibility of the CDS may all have played important roles in facilitating
      the engraftment of islets. Our study provided new insights into scaffold's
      function in the interplay of cells, materials and host tissue and the
      extracellular matrix-based scaffolds have potential for clinical translation in
      the beta cell-replacement therapy to treat T1D.

PMID- 28554011
TI  - Physical chitosan microhydrogels as scaffolds for spinal cord injury restoration
      and axon regeneration.
AB  - Recovery from traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) usually fails due to a cascade
      of cellular and molecular events that compromise neural tissue reconstitution by
      giving rise to glial scarring and cavity formation. We designed a scaffold
      material for SCI treatment containing only chitosan and water as fragmented
      physical hydrogel suspension (Chitosan-FPHS), with defined degree of acetylation
      (DA), polymer concentration, and mean fragment size. Implantation of Chitosan
      FPHS alone into rat spinal cord immediately after a bilateral dorsal hemisection
      promoted reconstitution of spinal tissue and vasculature, and diminished fibrous
      glial scarring: with astrocyte processes primarily oriented towards the lesion,
      the border between lesion site and intact tissue became permissive for regrowth
      of numerous axons into, and for some even beyond the lesion site. Growing axons
      were myelinated or ensheathed by endogenous Schwann cells that migrated into the
      lesion site and whose survival was prolonged. Interestingly, Chitosan-FPHS also
      modulated the inflammatory response, and we suggest that this might contribute to
      tissue repair. Finally, this structural remodeling was associated with
      significant, long-lasting gain in locomotor function recovery. Because it
      effectively induces neural tissue repair, Chitosan-FPHS biomaterial may be a
      promising new approach to treat SCI, and a suitable substrate to combine with
      other strategies.

PMID- 28554012
TI  - Hydrophobicity of carbohydrates and related hydroxy compounds.
AB  - The hydrophobic interaction of carbohydrates and other hydroxy compounds with a
      C18-modified silica gel column was measured with pure water as eluent, thereby
      expanding the range of measurements already published. The interaction is
      augmented by structure strengthening salts and decreasing temperature. Although
      the interaction of the solute with the hydrophobic interface is expected to only
      imperfectly reflect its state in aqueous bulk solution, the retention can be
      correlated to hydration numbers calculated from molecular mechanics studies given
      in the literature. No correlation can be established towards published hydration
      numbers obtained by physical methods (isentropic compressibility, O-17 NMR
      relaxation, terahertz spectroscopy, and viscosity). The hydrophobicity is
      discussed with respect to the chemical structure. It increases with the fraction
      and size of hydrophobic molecular surface regions.

PMID- 28554013
TI  - Conformational studies of N-(alpha-d-glucofuranurono-6,3-lactone)- and N-(methyl
      beta-d-glucopyranuronate)-p-nitroanilines.
AB  - N-(alpha-d-Glucofuranurono-6,3-lactone)-p-nitroaniline and N-(methyl beta-d
      glucopyranuronate)-p-nitroaniline were obtained as crystalline solids. The single
      crystal X-ray diffraction, NMR data and DFT calculations for N-(alpha-d
      glucofuranurono-6,3-lactone)-p-nitroaniline indicate that this N-furanoside
      adopts a 3T2/3E-like conformation in the crystal lattice, solution and gas phase.
      Thus, the structure of recorded for N-furanoside 1H NMR spectrum is indicative of
      the 3T2/3E region of the pseudorotational itinerary for furanose derivatives with
      alpha-d-gluco, beta-L-ido and alpha-d-xylo configurations. Moreover, it is
      concluded that the 1T2/E2/3T2/3E region of the pseudorotational itinerary for
      furanose derivatives with d-gluco, L-ido and d-xylo configurations should be
      characterised by the lack of coupling between H2 and H3 protons, irrespective of
      the anomeric configuration. Such a lack of vicinal coupling is characteristic for
      some of the trans-oriented furanose ring protons. The single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction and NMR data for N-(methyl beta-d-glucopyranuronate)-p-nitroaniline
      indicate that this N-glucuronide adopts the 4C1 conformation, both in the crystal
      lattice and solution. The occurrence of anomeric effects in the presented N
      glycosides is discussed. The crystal structure analysis of both N-glycosides
      gives evidence that the amine group in p-nitroaniline is planar due to the
      nitrogen sp2 hybridisation.

PMID- 28554014
TI  - Investigation of debranching pattern of a thermostable isoamylase and its
      application for the production of resistant starch.
AB  - Debranching enzymes contribute to the enzymatic production of resistant starch
      (RS) by reducing substrate molecular weight and increasing amylose yield. In the
      present study, the action pattern of a thermostable isoamylase-type debranching
      enzyme on different types of starch was investigated. The molecular weight
      distribution, glycosidic bond composition and contents of oligosaccharides
      released were monitored by various liquid chromatography techniques and nuclear
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). These analyses showed that the isoamylase
      could specifically and efficiently attack alpha-1,6-glucosidic linkages at branch
      points, leaving the amylose favored by other amylolytic enzymes. Its ability to
      attack side chains composed of 1-3 glucose residues differentiates it from other
      isoamylases, a property which is also ideal for the RS preparation process. The
      enzyme was used as an auxiliary enzyme in the hydrolytic stage. The highest RS
      yield (53.8%) was achieved under the optimized conditions of 70  degrees C and pH
      5.0, using 7 U isoamylase per g starch and 2 NU amylase per g starch. These data
      also help us better understand the application of isoamylase for preparation of
      other products from highly branched starch materials.

PMID- 28554016
TI  - Papua New Guinea midwives perspectives of the effect of a targeted village birth
      attendant education program.

PMID- 28554015
TI  - The association of lipoprotein(a) with incident heart failure hospitalization:
      Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a proatherogenic lipoprotein
      associated with coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and more recently aortic
      stenosis and heart failure (HF). We examined the association of Lp(a) levels with
      incident HF hospitalization in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC)
      study. We also assessed the relationship between Lp(a) levels and arterial
      stiffness as a potential mechanism for development of HF. METHODS: Lp(a) was
      measured in 14,154 ARIC participants without prevalent HF at ARIC visit 1 (1987
      1989). The association of Lp(a) quintiles with incident HF hospitalization was
      assessed using Cox proportional-hazards models. Arterial stiffness parameters
      were stratified based on Lp(a) quintiles, and p-trend was calculated across
      ordered groups. RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 23.4 years, there were 2605
      incident HF hospitalizations. Lp(a) levels were directly associated with incident
      HF hospitalization in models adjusted for age, race, gender, systolic blood
      pressure, history of hypertension, diabetes, smoking status, body mass index,
      heart rate, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (quintile 5 vs. quintile 1:
      hazard ratio [HR] 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.41; p-trend across
      increasing quintiles <0.01), but not after excluding prevalent and incident
      myocardial infarction cases (HR 1.07, 95% CI 0.91-1.27; p-trend = 0.70). When
      adjusted for age, gender, and race, Lp(a) quintiles were not significantly
      associated with arterial stiffness parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Increased Lp(a)
      levels were associated with increased risk of incident HF hospitalization. After
      excluding prevalent and incident myocardial infarction, the association was no
      longer significant. Lp(a) levels were not associated with arterial stiffness
      parameters.

PMID- 28554017
TI  - Oxidative stress biomarkers in the Mediterranean pond turtle (Mauremys leprosa)
      reveal contrasted aquatic environments in Southern France.
AB  - Increasing anthropogenic activities, like agricultural practices, constitute the
      main causes of the loss of water quality and disruption of freshwater ecosystems.
      High concentrations of pesticides, as shown under experimental conditions, can
      indeed impact freshwater animals. In Southern France, especially in the Pyrenees
      Orientales department, because agricultural activities are mainly based on fruit
      crops and vineyards, glyphosate and AMPA were detected in some watercourses.
      Thereby we investigated the effects of degraded waters on the physiology of the
      endemic endangered freshwater species, namely the Mediterranean pond turtle
      Mauremys leprosa, in contrasted environments along the same rivers on the one
      hand and between different rivers on the other. We measured the activity and gene
      expression of two enzymes involved in the oxidative detoxification processes,
      namely the Catalase and the Superoxide dismutase. We showed significant
      variations in the Catalase gene expression and activity within turtles of the
      Fosseille River depending of their location, i.e. upstream or downstream of the
      wastewater treatment plants (WTP). Because agricultural environments are similar
      all along this river, they can no be longer considered as the unique source of
      turtle stress. The processed waters discharged by the WTP, which contribute to
      watercourses degradation, could therefore considerably impact the biodiversity of
      the freshwater environments.

PMID- 28554018
TI  - In vitro evaluation of the cytotoxic and bactericidal mechanism of the commonly
      used pesticide triphenyltin hydroxide.
AB  - Triphenyltin hydroxide (TPTH) is a widely used pesticide that is highly toxic to
      a variety of organisms including humans and a potential contender for the
      environmental pollutant. In the present study, the cytotoxic mechanism of TPTH on
      mammalian cells was analyzed using HeLa cells and the antibacterial activity was
      analyzed using B. subtilis and E. coli cells. TPTH inhibited the growth of HeLa
      cells with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 0.25 MUM and induced
      mitotic arrest. Immunofluorescence microscopy analysis showed that TPTH caused
      strong depolymerization of interphase microtubules and spindle abnormality with
      the appearance of colchicine type mitosis and condensed chromosome. TPTH
      exhibited high affinity for tubulin with a dissociation constant of 2.3 MUM and
      inhibited the in vitro microtubule assembly in the presence of glutamate as well
      as microtubule-associated proteins. Results from the molecular docking and in
      vitro experiments implied that TPTH may have an overlapping binding site with
      colchicine on tubulin with a distance of about 11 A between them. TPTH also binds
      to DNA at the A-T rich region of the minor groove. The data presented in the
      study revealed that the toxicity of TPTH in mammalian cells is mediated through
      its interactions with DNA and its strong depolymerizing activity on tubulin.
      However, its antibacterial activity was not through FtsZ, the prokaryotic homolog
      of tubulin but perhaps through its interactions with DNA.

PMID- 28554019
TI  - Assessment of tris (1, 3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate toxicology in PC12 cells by
      using digital gene expression profiling.
AB  - Tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP), one of the most universally used
      organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), is an environmental pollutant. However,
      limited information is available regarding its toxicity and environmental health
      risk. In the present study, PC12 cells provided a useful model for the evaluation
      of the toxic effects of TDCIPP. Exposure to 7.5, 15, 30, or 60 MUM TDCIPP for 72
      h inhibited cell viability, and enhanced cellular apoptosis and oxidative stress.
      To further explore the underlying mechanisms, digital gene expression (DGE)
      technology was used to identify early transcriptional changes following TDCIPP
      exposure. Expression of the transcripts of 161 genes was significantly altered
      upon treatment with TDCIPP. Functional and pathway analysis of the
      transcriptional profile demonstrated that genes showing significant TDCIPP
      associated changes in expression were involved in the phosphatidylinositol 3
      kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathway, extracellular matrix
      receptor interactions, protein digestion and absorption, and microRNAs in cancer.
      Using quantitative real-time PCR, we validated the differential expression of
      selected genes. These results showed that the expression profiles of cells
      exposed to 60 MUM TDCIPP were consistent with the DGE data. Furthermore, western
      blotting showed that treatment with TDCIPP reduced the Bcl-2/Bax ratio and
      attenuated PI3K/Akt/Myc signaling. Taken together, these data suggest that TDCIPP
      exposure can reduce cell viability and induce apoptosis in PC12 cells by
      inhibiting activation of the PI3K/Akt/Myc signaling pathway. These observations
      provide valuable preliminary information regarding the mechanisms of TDCIPP
      induced toxicity in PC12 cells and indicate that further study of the toxicity of
      other environmental OPFRs is warranted.

PMID- 28554020
TI  - Mechanism of removal and retention of heavy metals from the acid mine drainage to
      coastal wetland in the Patagonian marsh.
AB  - The attenuation of the acid mine drainage is one of the most important
      environmental challenges facing the mining industry worldwide. Mining waste
      deposits from an ancient metallurgical extraction of heavy metals were found near
      to the San Antonio marsh in Patagonia. The aim of this work was to determinate
      which mechanisms regulate the mobilization and retention of metals by acid
      drainage. A geological and geomorphological survey was carried out and samples
      from the mining waste deposits and the marsh were collected to determine soil
      texture, Eh pH, organic matter, Cu, Pb, Zn and Fe content, and soil mineralogical
      composition. Metals in marsh plants were determined in above- and below-ground
      structures. In the mining waste deposits polymetallic sulphides were recognized
      where the oxidation and formation of oxy-hydroxides and sulphates of Fe, Cu, Pb
      and Zn occurs. Then, by the alteration of those minerals, the metals enter in
      solution and are mobilized with the surface drainage towards the marsh where
      adsorption in the soils fine fraction and organic matter and/or by plants occurs.
      Locally, in the mining waste deposits, the precipitation/dissolution of Cu, Pb,
      and Zn sulphates take place in small centripetal drainage basins. In
      topographically lower portions of the marsh desorption and removal of metals by
      tidal flow could also be happen. The results allow to concluding that the marsh
      adjacent to the mining waste deposits is a geochemically active environment that
      naturally mitigates the contamination caused by acid drainage.

PMID- 28554021
TI  - The effectiveness and efficiency of phytoremediation of a multicontaminated
      industrial site: Porto Marghera (Venice Lagoon, Italy).
AB  - The Venice Lagoon is worldwide considered as a typical example of the human
      impact on the surrounding ecosystem. The development of the industrial zone of
      Porto Marghera begun in 1917 as an extension of the Venice Port, in order to
      sustain activities related to oil and coal, as well as to exploit the railway
      system. Despite the recent decrease in the number of employees, Porto Marghera is
      still one of the most important chemical districts in Italy. This study reports
      early results from the ongoing in-situ phytoextraction of potentially toxic
      elements (Cd, Hg, Zn) within the industrial area of Porto Marghera. Two agronomic
      plant species with high annual biomass yield (Helianthus annuus L., Brassica
      juncea (L.) Czern.) were used. This paper also reports the microcosms and
      mesocosms tests to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments to be applied to the
      in-situ phytoextraction process of the polluted site. The combined use of EDTA
      and Ammonium Thiosulfate during phytoextraction increases the efficiency of Cd,
      Hg, Zn removal from contaminated soil.

PMID- 28554022
TI  - Lipophilic marine toxins discovered in the Bohai Sea using high performance
      liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Some dinoflagellates can produce lipophilic marine toxins, which pose potent
      threats to seafood consumers. In the Bohai Sea, an important semi-closed inland
      sea with intensive mariculture industry in China, there is little knowledge
      concerning lipophilic marine toxins and their potential threats. In this study,
      net-concentrated phytoplankton samples were periodically collected from 5 typical
      mariculture zones around the Bohai Sea, including Laishan (LS), Laizhou (LZ),
      Hangu (HG), Qinhuangdao (QHD) and Huludao (HLD) in 2013 and 2014, and a method
      using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with a Q-Trap mass
      spectrometer was applied to analyze seven representative lipophilic marine
      toxins, including okadaic acid (OA), dinophysistoxin-1 (DTX1), pectenotoxin-2
      (PTX2), yessotoxin (YTX), azaspiracid-1 (AZA1), gymnodimine (GYM), and 13
      desmethyl spirolide C (desMeC). The method had high sensitivity and
      repeatability, and exhibited satisfactory recoveries for most of the lipophilic
      marine toxins (92.1-108%) except for AZA1 (65.8-68.9%). Nearly all the lipophilic
      marine toxins could be detected in phytoplankton samples from the Bohai Sea. OA,
      DTX1 and PTX2 were predominant components and present in most of the
      phytoplankton samples. The maximum content of lipophilic marine toxin in
      phytoplankton samples concentrated from seawater (OA 464 pg L-1; DTX1 783 pg L-1;
      YTX 86.6 pg L-1; desMeC 15.6 pg L-1; PTX2 1.11 * 103 pg L-1) appeared in June
      2014. Based on toxins present in phytoplankton samples, it is implied that
      seafood in the Bohai Sea is more likely to be contaminated by OA group and PTX
      group toxins, and spring is the high-risk season for toxin contamination.

PMID- 28554024
TI  - Dispersion and solubility of In, Tl, Ta and Nb in the aquatic environment and
      intertidal sediments of the Scheldt estuary (Flanders, Belgium).
AB  - Certain specialty elements are indispensable in modern technologies for their
      particular properties. Yet, potential risks associated to the release of these
      elements at any stage, remains unknown. Therefore, the dispersion of indium (In),
      thallium (Tl), tantalum (Ta) and niobium (Nb) in the aquatic environment of the
      Scheldt estuary (Flanders, Belgium) was studied. Maximum concentrations in
      intertidal sediments of 101 +/- 15 MUg kg-1 for In, 481 +/- 37 MUg kg-1 for Tl,
      88 +/- 19 MUg kg-1 for Ta and 1162 +/- 4 MUg kg-1 for Nb appeared on the sampling
      location closest to the river mouth, i.e. 57.5 km upstream. Their distribution in
      the intertidal sediments depends on the physicochemical sediment characteristics
      along the flow of the river Scheldt. The same was the case for most other metals
      and aluminum as their occurrence also correlated (p < 0.05) with the occurrence
      of In, Tl and Nb. While in general, studied elements correlate to the OM content
      and sulfur and phosphorus herein included, a relative enrichment of In, Tl and Nb
      was seen at Rupelmonde (92.0 km from the river mouth). Mainly the intertidal
      sediment silt fraction is capable of retaining the elements by exchanging with
      other ions in the mineral interlayer. Increasing salinity towards the river mouth
      can furthermore induce the formation of insoluble chloride species. Overall, the
      solubility of In, Tl, Ta and Nb appeared extremely low upon extraction of pore
      water from intertidal sediments saturated to 100% field capacity.

PMID- 28554023
TI  - Uptake, biotransformation and elimination of selected pharmaceuticals in a
      freshwater invertebrate measured using liquid chromatography tandem mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - Methods were developed to assess uptake and elimination kinetics in Gammarus
      pulex of nine pharmaceuticals (sulfamethazine, carbamazepine, diazepam,
      temazepam, trimethoprim, warfarin, metoprolol, nifedipine and propranolol) using
      targeted LC-MS/MS to determine bioconcentration factors (BCFs) using a 96 h
      toxicokinetic exposure and depuration period. The derived BCFs for these
      pharmaceuticals did not trigger any regulatory thresholds and ranged from 0 to 73
      L kg-1 (sulfamethazine showed no bioconcentration). Metabolism of chemicals can
      affect accurate BCF determination through parameterisation of the kinetic models.
      The added selectivity of LC-MS/MS allowed us to develop confirmatory methods to
      monitor the biotransformation of propranolol, carbamazepine and diazepam in G.
      pulex. Varying concentrations of the biotransformed products; 4
      hydroxypropranolol sulphate, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, nordiazepam, oxazepam
      and temazepam were measured following exposure of the precursor compounds. For
      diazepam, the biotransformation product nordiazepam was present at higher
      concentrations than the parent compound at 94 ng g-1 dw. Overall, the results
      indicate that pharmaceutical accumulation is low in these freshwater amphipods,
      which can potentially be explained by the rapid biotransformation and excretion.

PMID- 28554025
TI  - Assessing the toxicity of ionic liquids - Application of the critical membrane
      concentration approach.
AB  - Charged organic chemicals are a prevailing challenge for toxicity modelling. In
      this contribution we strive to recapitulate the lessons learned from the well
      known modelling of narcosis (or baseline toxicity) of neutral chemicals and apply
      the concept to charged chemicals. First we reevaluate the organism- and chemical
      independent critical membrane concentration causing 50% mortality,.cmemtox, based
      on a critical revision of a previously published toxicity dataset for neutral
      chemicals. In accordance to values reported in the literature we find a mean
      value for cmemtox of roughly 100 mmol/kg (membrane lipid) for a broad variety of
      42 aquatic organisms (333 different chemicals), albeit with a considerable
      scatter. Then we apply this concept to permanently charged ionic liquids (ILs).
      Using COSMOmic, a quantum mechanically based mechanistic model that makes use of
      the COSMO-RS theory, we predict membrane-water partition coefficients (Kmem/w) of
      the anionic and cationic IL components. Doing so, cmemtox(total) for permanently
      charged ILs can be estimated assuming independent, concentration additive
      contributions of the cationic and its respective anionic species. The resulting
      values for some of the toxicity data for ionic liquids are consistent with the
      expected range for baseline toxicity for neutral chemicals while other values are
      consistently greater or smaller. Based on the calculation of toxic ratios we
      identify ILs that exert a specific mode of toxic action. Limitations of the
      modelling approach especially but not exclusively due to the use of nominal
      concentrations instead of freely-dissolved concentrations in the published
      literature are critically discussed.

PMID- 28554026
TI  - Ecotoxicity of two organic UV-filters to the freshwater caddisfly Sericostoma
      vittatum.
AB  - Organic ultraviolet filters (UV-filters) used for protection against radiation in
      personal care products and other materials (e.g. textiles, plastic products) are
      considered emerging contaminants of aquatic ecosystem. Benzophenone-3 (BP3) and 3
      (4-methylbenzylidene)camphor (4-MBC) are the most commonly used organic UV
      filters and have been reported in freshwater environments due to contamination
      through discharges from wastewater treatment plants and swimming pools or by
      direct contamination from recreational activities. Our aim was to evaluate the
      ecotoxicological effects of these UV-filters using the freshwater caddisfly
      Sericostoma vittatum' biochemical biomarkers and energy processing related
      endpoints (feeding behaviour, energy reserves and cellular metabolism). In
      laboratory trials, both compounds induced feeding inhibition of S. vittatum at
      3.55 mg/kg of BP3 and at concentrations >=2.57 mg/kg of 4-MBC, decreased
      carbohydrates content at 3.55 and 6.95 mg/kg of BP3 and 4-MBC respectively, and
      increased total glutathione levels at concentrations >=1.45 and 1.35 mg/kg of BP3
      and 4-MBC respectively. No significant effects were observed on endpoints
      associated with oxidative stress, antioxidant defences, phase II
      biotransformation or neurotoxicity after exposure to the two UV-filters. Our
      results show that environmental relevant concentrations of BP3 and 4-MBC, can
      negatively impact freshwater insects and demonstrate the importance of monitoring
      the ecological effects of organic UV-filters using non-model invertebrate
      species.

PMID- 28554027
TI  - Membrane partitioning of ionic liquid cations, anions and ion pairs - Estimating
      the bioconcentration potential of organic ions.
AB  - Recent efforts have been directed towards better understanding the persistency
      and toxicity of ionic liquids (ILs) in the context of the "benign-by-design"
      approach, but the assessment of their bioaccumulation potential remains
      neglected. This paper reports the experimental membrane partitioning of IL
      cations (imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, phosphonium), anions ([C(CN)3]-,
      [B(CN)4]-, [FSO2)2N]-, [(C2F5)3PF3]-, [(CF3SO2)2N]-) and their combinations as a
      measure for estimating the bioconcentration factor (BCF). Both cations and anions
      can have a strong affinity for phosphatidylcholine bilayers, which is mainly
      driven by the hydrophobicity of the ions. This affinity is often reflected in the
      ecotoxicological impact. Our data revealed that the bioconcentration potential of
      IL cations and anions is much higher than expected from octanol-water
      partitioning based estimations that have recently been presented. For some ILs,
      the membrane-water partition coefficient reached levels corresponding to BCFs
      that might become relevant in terms of the "B" (bioaccumulation potential)
      classification under REACH. However, this preliminary estimation need to be
      confirmed by in vivo bioconcentration studies.

PMID- 28554028
TI  - The effects of low-level ionizing radiation and copper exposure on the incidence
      of antibiotic resistance in lentic biofilm bacteria.
AB  - Environmental reservoirs of antibiotic resistant bacteria are poorly understood.
      Understanding how the environment selects for resistance traits in the absence of
      antibiotics is critical in developing strategies to mitigate this growing menace.
      Indirect or co-selection of resistance by environmental pollution has been shown
      to increase antibiotic resistance. However no attention has been given to the
      effects of low-level ionizing radiation or the interactions between radiation and
      heavy metals on the maintenance or selection for antibiotic resistance (AR)
      traits. Here we explore the effect of radiation and copper on antibiotic
      resistance. Bacteria were collected from biofilms in two ponds - one impacted by
      low-level radiocesium and the other an abandoned farm pond. Through laboratory
      controlled experiments we examined the effects of increasing concentrations of
      copper on the incidence of antibiotic resistance. Differences were detected in
      the resistance profiles of the controls from each pond. Low levels (0.01 mM) of
      copper sulfate increased resistance but 0.5 mM concentrations of copper sulfate
      depressed the AR response in both ponds. A similar pattern was observed for
      levels of multiple antibiotic resistance per isolate. The first principal
      component response of isolate exposure to multiple antibiotics showed significant
      differences among the six isolate treatment combinations. These differences were
      clearly visualized through a discriminant function analysis, which showed
      distinct antibiotic resistance response patterns based on the six treatment
      groups.

PMID- 28554029
TI  - Ingestion of micro- and nanoplastics in Daphnia magna - Quantification of body
      burdens and assessment of feeding rates and reproduction.
AB  - Evidence is increasing that micro- and nanoplastic particles can have adverse
      effects on aquatic organisms. Exposure studies have so far mainly been
      qualitative since quantitative measurements of particle ingestion are
      analytically challenging. The aim of this study was therefore to use a
      quantitative approach for determining ingestion and egestion of micro- and
      nanoplastics in Daphnia magna and to analyze the influence of particle size,
      exposure duration and the presence of food. One week old animals were exposed to
      2 MUm and 100 nm fluorescent polystyrene beads (1 mg/l) for 24 h, followed by a
      24 h egestion period in clean medium. During both phases body burdens of
      particles were determined by measuring the fluorescence intensity in dissolved
      tissues. Ingestion and egestion were investigated in the absence and presence of
      food (6.7.105 cells of Raphidocelis subcapitata per ml). Furthermore, feeding
      rates of daphnids in response to particle exposure were measured as well as
      effects on reproduction during a 21 days exposure (at 1 mg/l, 0.5 mg/l and 0.1
      mg/l) to investigate potential impairments of physiology. Both particle sizes
      were readily ingested, but the ingested mass of particles was five times higher
      for the 2 MUm particles than for the 100 nm particles. Complete egestion did not
      occur within 24 h but generally higher amounts of the 2 MUm particles were
      egested. Animal body burdens of particles were strongly reduced in the presence
      of food. Daphnid feeding rates decreased by 21% in the presence of 100 nm
      particles, but no effect on reproduction was found despite high body burdens of
      particles at the end of 21 days exposure. The lower egestion and decreased
      feeding rates, caused by the 100 nm particles, could indicate that particles in
      the nanometer size range are potentially more hazardous to D. magna compared to
      larger particle sizes.

PMID- 28554030
TI  - Ambient sulfur dioxide levels associated with reduced risk of initial outpatient
      visits for tuberculosis: A population based time series analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent biochemical studies suggest that exogenous sulfur dioxide
      (SO2) at low concentrations may have been beneficial in inhibiting mycobacteria
      tuberculosis (TB) growth. However, there is a dearth of population-based studies.
      OBJECTIVES: To examine the association of ambient SO2 levels and initial TB
      outpatient visits. METHODS: In Ningbo, China, we collected all daily initial
      outpatient visits for TB and routinely air pollution monitoring data between
      January 2009 and December 2013. A time-series study was conducted by using
      generalized additive regression (GAM) with log-linear Poisson models to estimate
      the associations between daily initial TB outpatient visits and daily average
      concentration of SO2. Other traffic-related co-pollutants were adjusted.
      Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine the relationship when 1% extreme
      SO2 concentrations excluded or if related to the early onsets of TB symptoms.
      RESULTS: SO2 concentrations in Ningbo were low with a daily average of 25 MUg/m3
      (i.e. 0.0089 ppm). Negative associations were identified between ambient SO2
      concentrations and daily initial TB outpatient visits. A 10 MUg/m3 increase in
      SO2 at lag3 and lag0-3 days were associated with -2.0% (95%CI, -3.2, -0.8) and 
      4.6% (95%CI, -6.8, -2.4) changes, respectively, in initial TB outpatient visits
      according to single-pollutant models. The negative association became stronger
      when nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less
      than 10 MUm (PM10) was adjusted in two-pollutant models. This association was
      higher in males vs. females and in middle-aged adults vs. the elderly. We found a
      stronger negative association between SO2 concentration and the initial symptom
      occurrence. CONCLUSION: Short-term exposure to ambient SO2 was associated with
      reduced risk of initial TB outpatient visits, suggesting acute protective effects
      of low-level ambient SO2 exposure on bacteria-induced pulmonary infections.

PMID- 28554032
TI  - Effect of soil organic matter on antimony bioavailability after the remediation
      process.
AB  - We evaluated the long-term (18 year) and short-term (4 weeks) changes of Sb in
      contaminated soil with SOM increase under remediation process. In the Aznalcollar
      mine accident (1998) contaminated area, the remediation measurement implemented
      the Guadiamar Green Corridor, where residual pollution is still detected. Soils
      of the re-vegetated area (O2) with high pH and high SOM content, moderately re
      vegetated area (O1) and unvegetated area (C) were sampled. Soil pH, CEC, SOM
      amount and soil Sb forms were evaluated. Soil Sb was measured as total, soluble,
      exchangeable, EDTA extractable, acid oxalate extractable, and pyro-phosphate
      extractable fractions. Further, the short-term effect of artificial organic
      matter addition was also evaluated with incubation study by adding compost to the
      sampled soil from C, O1 and O2 areas. After 4 weeks of incubation, soil chemical
      properties and Sb forms were evaluated. In re-vegetated area (O2), soil total Sb
      was two times lower than in unvegetated area (C); however, soluble, exchangeable,
      and EDTA extractable Sb were 2-8 times higher. The mobile/bioavailable Sb
      increase was also observed after 4 weeks of incubation with the addition of
      compost. Soluble, exchangeable, and EDTA extractable Sb was increased 2-4 times
      by compost addition. By the linear regression analysis, the significantly related
      factors for soluble, exchangeable, and EDTA extractable Sb values were pH, CEC,
      and SOM, respectively. Soluble Sb increase was mainly related to pH rise.
      Exchangeable Sb should be bound by SOM-metal complex and increased with CEC. EDTA
      extractable fraction should be increased with increase of SOM as SOM-Fe
      associated Sb complex. From these results, it was shown that increase of SOM
      under natural conditions or application of organic amendment under remediation
      process should increase availability of Sb to plants.

PMID- 28554031
TI  - Through the sands of time: Beach litter trends from nine cleaned north cornish
      beaches.
AB  - Marine litter and its accumulation on beaches is an issue of major current
      concern due to its significant environmental and economic impacts. Yet our
      understanding of spatio-temporal trends in beach litter and the drivers of these
      trends are currently limited by the availability of robust long term data sets.
      Here we present a unique data set collected systematically once a month, every
      month over a six year period for nine beaches along the North Coast of Cornwall,
      U.K. to investigate the key drivers of beach litter in the Bude, Padstow and
      Porthcothan areas. Overall, an average of 0.02 litter items m-2 per month were
      collected during the six year study, with Bude beaches (Summerleaze, Crooklets
      and Widemouth) the most impacted (0.03 +/- 0.004 litter items m-2 per month). The
      amount of litter collected each month decreased by 18% and 71% respectively for
      Padstow (Polzeath, Trevone and Harlyn) and Bude areas over the 6 years, possibly
      related to the regular cleaning, however litter increased by 120% despite this
      monthly cleaning effort on the Padstow area beaches. Importantly, at all nine
      beaches the litter was dominated by small, fragmented plastic pieces and rope
      fibres, which account for 32% and 17% of all litter items collected,
      respectively. The weathered nature of these plastics indicates they have been in
      the marine environment for an extended period of time. So, whilst classifying the
      original source of these plastics is not possible, it can be concluded they are
      not the result of recent public littering. This data highlights both the extent
      of the marine litter problem and that current efforts to reduce littering by
      beach users will only tackle a fraction of this litter. Such information is vital
      for developing effective management strategies for beach and marine litter at
      both regional and global levels.

PMID- 28554033
TI  - Beyond face-to-face individual counseling: A systematic review on alternative
      modes of motivational interviewing in substance abuse treatment and prevention.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to synthesize the evidence on the
      effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI), delivered in modes other than
      face-to-face individual counseling, in preventing and treating substance abuse
      related behaviors. METHODS: Four databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ISI Web of
      Science and Cochrane Library) were searched for randomised clinical trials (RCTs)
      that evaluated the effectiveness of alternative modes of MI (other than face-to
      face individual counseling) in preventing and treating substance abuse. Eligible
      studies were rated on methodological quality and their findings were
      qualitatively synthesized. RESULTS: A total of 25 articles (on 22 RCTs) were
      eligible for this review. Beyond face-to-face counseling, telephone was the most
      frequently used medium for delivering MI (11 studies), followed by Internet
      communication (4 studies) and short message service (SMS) (2 studies). Mail was
      incorporated as a supplement in one of the studies for telephone MI. In contrast
      to one-to-one individual counseling, group MI was adopted in 5 studies. The
      effectiveness of telephone MI in treating substance abuse was supported by all of
      the published RCTs we located. Internet-based MI was effective in preventing and
      treating alcoholism, but its outcome appeared to be inconsistent for smoking
      cessation and poor for abstinence from illicit drugs. SMS-based MI appeared to be
      useful for controlling tobacco and drinking. Group MI was attempted for quitting
      alcohol and drugs, with mixed findings on its outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:
      Collectively, the studies reviewed indicate that telephone MI is a promising mode
      of intervention in treating and preventing substance abuse. The effectiveness of
      other alternative modes (SMS-based MI, Internet-based MI and group MI) remains
      inconclusive given the controversial findings and a limited number of studies. By
      synthesizing the currently available evidence, this systematic review suggested
      that telephone MI might be considered as an alternative to face-to-face MI for
      treating and preventing substance abuse. Further research is needed to
      investigate the effectiveness of SMS-based MI, Internet MI, group MI and other
      alternative modes. Studies with methodological rigor and incorporating MI
      fidelity measures have great potential to advance the understanding in this
      field.

PMID- 28554034
TI  - Psychosocial interventions for addiction-affected families in Low and Middle
      Income Countries: A systematic review.
AB  - AIM: To review the literature on psychosocial interventions for addiction
      affected family members in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). METHODS: A
      systematic review with a detailed search strategy focussing on psychosocial
      interventions directed towards people affected by addiction without any gender,
      year or language specifications was conducted. Identified titles and abstracts
      were screened; where needed full papers retrieved, and then independently
      reviewed. Data was extracted based on the aims of the study, to describe the
      modalities, acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of the interventions.
      RESULTS: Four papers met our selection criteria. They were published between 2003
      and 2014; the total sample size was 137 participants, and two studies were from
      Mexico and one each from Vietnam and Malaysia. The predominantly female
      participants comprised of parents, spouses and siblings. The common components of
      all the interventions included providing information regarding addiction,
      teaching coping skills, and providing support. Though preliminary these small
      studies suggests a positive effect on affected family members (AFM). There was
      lowering of psychological and physical distress, along with a better
      understanding of addictive behaviour. The interventions led to better coping;
      with improvements in self-esteem and assertive behaviour. The interventions,
      mostly delivered in group settings, were largely acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: The
      limited evidence does suggest positive benefits to AFMs. The scope of research
      needs to be extended to other addictions, and family members other than spouse
      and female relatives. Indigenous and locally adapted interventions are needed to
      address this issue keeping in mind the limited resources of LMIC. This is a field
      indeed in its infancy and this under recognised and under-served group needs
      urgent attention of researchers and policy makers.

PMID- 28554035
TI  - Isolation of eudesmanes from Pluchea odorata and evaluation of their effects on
      cancer cell growth and tumor invasiveness in vitro.
AB  - The traditionally used Central American medicinal plant Pluchea odorata, known as
      an anti-inflammatory and cancer cell growth-inhibiting remedy, was subjected to
      bioassay-guided isolation. Structure elucidation by 1D- and 2D-NMR and MS
      techniques supported by ECD and UV spectroscopic data revealed seven structurally
      previously undescribed and eight known eudesmane-type sesquiterpenes.
      Furthermore, one previously undescribed and one known phytol-like alcohol were
      identified. All compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity in cancer cells and
      for their anti-invasive effects. Among the eudesmanes, 3alpha-(2',3'-epoxy-2'
      methylbutyryloxy)-4alpha-hydroxy-11-hydroperoxy-eudesm-6-en-8-one exhibited the
      most potent cytotoxic activity with an IC50 value of 8.8 MUM (after 48 h). Also
      in an in vitro model measuring the tumor-triggered breaching of the adjacent
      lymph endothelial cell barrier (3S*,4R*,5S*,10S*,2'R*,3'R*)-3-(2',3'-epoxy-2'
      methylbutyryloxy)-4,7-dihydroxy-eudesm-11-en-8-one (IC75 = 47 MUM) and
      (3S*,4R*,5R*,10S*,2'R*,3'R*)-3-(2',3'-epoxy-2'-methylbutyryloxy)-4-acetyloxy-6
      methoxy-11-hydroxy-eudesm-6-en-8-one (IC75 = 73 MUM) showed inhibitory
      activities. Furthermore, preliminary structure-activity relationships (SARs) of
      the eudesmanes were developed.

PMID- 28554036
TI  - Taxonomy of prickly juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus group): A phytochemical
      morphometric combined approach at the contact zone of two cryptospecies.
AB  - Based on different essential oil composition paralleling different genotypes,
      Juniperus deltoides was recently segregated from Juniperus oxycedrus. Despite a
      clear phytochemical and molecular differentiation, J. deltoides resulted not
      clearly morphologically discernible from J. oxycedrus, so that it was defined as
      a cryptospecies. Italy represents the contact zone of their distribution, but the
      ranges of the two species are not sufficiently known, due to unsatisfactory
      morphological characterisation. To further complicate the picture, a third
      closely related species (ecotype), J. macrocarpa, occurs all across the
      Mediterranean coasts. After a preliminary phytochemical analysis to ascertain the
      (chemo-)identities of the studied populations, we performed a morphometric
      investigation to test the degree of morphological distinctiveness among the taxa.
      According to our analysis, some character (e.g. leaf mucro length, leaf width,
      seed-cone size and seed size) resulted useful to discriminate these cryptic taxa.
      Finally, based on these characters, an extensive revision of herbarium specimens
      allowed us to redefine the distribution pattern of the investigated species in
      the Central Mediterranean area.

PMID- 28554037
TI  - Fluid-structure interaction simulation of a cerebral aneurysm: Effects of
      endovascular coiling treatment and aneurysm wall thickening.
AB  - In the present study, we investigate the effect of the hemodynamic factors of the
      blood flow on the cerebral aneurysms. To this end, a hypothetical geometry of the
      aneurysm in the circle of Willis, located in the bifurcation point of the
      anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and anterior communicating artery (ACoA) is
      modeled in a three-dimensional manner. Three cases are chosen in the current
      study: an untreated thin wall (first case), untreated thick wall (second case),
      and a treated aneurysm (third case). The effect of increasing the aneurysm wall
      thickness on the deformation and stress distribution of the walls are studied.
      The obtained results showed that in the second case, a reduction in the
      deformations of the walls was observed. It was also shown that the Von Mises
      stress has a 10% reduction in the untreated thick wall aneurysm compared to the
      untreated thin wall aneurysm. Thus, increasing the thickness of the aneurysm wall
      can be proposed as temporary remedial action. In the third case, an aneurysm that
      has been treated by endovascular coiling is investigated. The deformation and Von
      Mises stress in this case was decreased more than 43% and 87% compared to the
      first case, respectively. The wall shear stress distribution due to the fluid
      flow in the first and second cases showed small amounts of shear stress on the
      aneurysm sac. In these two cases, the oscillatory shear index was measured to
      have an approximate value of 0.47 in the aneurysm region, though, this value was
      measured to be about 0.1 for the third case. The hybrid effect of the wall shear
      stress and the oscillatory shear index on the relative residence time (RRT) was
      also studied. When this parameter reaches its maximum, the aneurysm rupture may
      occur. It was shown that by treating the aneurysm (the third case), RRT parameter
      can be decreased ~200 times relative to the first and second cases, which
      suggests an appropriate treatment of the aneurysm by choosing the coiling method.

PMID- 28554038
TI  - Polymerization kinetics of a mixture of Lipiodol and Glubran 2 cyanoacrylate glue
      upon contact with a proteinaceous solution.
AB  - The Glubran 2 cyanoacrylate glue is a liquid embolic agent used to block blood
      vessels endovascularly. Typically mixed with an iodized oil (Lipiodol) for
      visualization under X-ray, it polymerizes when in contact with blood and tissues
      owing to the presence of ions and proteins. The objective of the study is to
      determine the influence of plasma proteins in the polymerization reaction. A
      triggering solution containing bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the main blood ions
      is used as a model of plasma. The polymerization kinetics of Glubran 2-Lipiodol
      mixtures is measured upon aspiration in a capillary tube and contact with the
      proteinaceous solution. Having varied the glue and protein concentrations, we
      show that glue-Lipiodol mixtures with concentrations larger or equal to 25%
      polymerize when put in contact with an ionic solution containing at least 4% of
      BSA. The reaction is decomposed into two phases: a fast zwitterionic
      polymerization induced by the BSA molecules followed by a slower polymerization
      phase. The reaction speed and extent of the solidification region mostly depend
      on the glue concentration. The time for the glue solution to polymerize over a
      1mm thickness varies from 5s for pure glue to about 1min for a 50% glue
      concentration, and 10min for a 25% glue mixture. It is the first time that the
      kinetics of the two polymerization reactions is quantified for Glubran 2, which
      will provide the information needed by interventional radiologists to optimize
      the planning of endovascular glue injection.

PMID- 28554039
TI  - Mechanistic insights into how CMG helicase facilitates replication past DNA
      roadblocks.
AB  - Before leaving the house, it is a good idea to check for road closures that may
      affect the morning commute. Otherwise, one may encounter significant delays
      arriving at the destination. While this is commonly true, motorists may be able
      to consult a live interactive traffic map and pick an alternate route or detour
      to avoid being late. However, this is not the case if one needs to catch the
      train which follows a single track to the terminus; if something blocks the
      track, there is a delay. Such is the case for the DNA replisome responsible for
      copying the genetic information that provides the recipe of life. When the
      replication machinery encounters a DNA roadblock, the outcome can be devastating
      if the obstacle is not overcome in an efficient manner. Fortunately, the cell's
      DNA synthesis apparatus can bypass certain DNA obstructions, but the mechanism(s)
      are still poorly understood. Very recently, two papers from the O'Donnell lab,
      one structural (Georgescu et al., 2017 [1]) and the other biochemical (Langston
      and O'Donnell, 2017 [2]), have challenged the conventional thinking of how the
      replicative CMG helicase is arranged on DNA, unwinds double-stranded DNA, and
      handles barricades in its path. These new findings raise important questions in
      the search for mechanistic insights into how DNA is copied, particularly when the
      replication machinery encounters a roadblock.

PMID- 28554040
TI  - Facile fabrication of novel PdRu nanoflowers as highly active catalysts for the
      electrooxidation of methanol.
AB  - The shape-controlled synthesis of binary Pd-based nanocrystals bounded with
      abundant surface active areas and tunable atomic ratio have been of great
      significance in the fabrication and modification of outstandingly excellent
      electrocatalysts. To embody the superiority of high surface area in enhancing
      electrocatalysis well, the superior electrocatalyst should be supposed to combine
      both the morphology advantages and the synergistic effect between metals. We
      herein report our significant advances in engineering the unique binary PdRu
      nanoflowers with highly exposed active sites and tunable compositions. Owing to
      the bifuntional effect and electronic effect between Pd and Ru, as well as the
      unique flower-like structure, such special PdRu nanoflower exhibit outstandingly
      excellent catalytic activity towards methanol electrooxidation with the mass
      activity of 1280mAmg-1, 7.01 and 4.92-fold enhancement than that of pure Pd and
      commercial Pd/C. Our efforts in this work may open a new way for enhancing the
      catalytic activity by constructing the catalysts with desirable shape and
      maximizing the active surface areas.

PMID- 28554041
TI  - Rapid fabrication of support-free trimetallic Pt53Ru39Ni8 nanosponges with
      enhanced electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution and hydrazine oxidation
      reactions.
AB  - Herein, a rapid and straightforward coreduction aqueous approach was developed
      for preparation of support-free trimetallic Pt53Ru39Ni8 nanosponges with clean
      surface. Plenty of hydrogen bubbles were in situ formed via the oxidation and
      hydrolysis of the reductant (sodium borohydride), which served as the dynamic
      template in the fabrication of the porous sponge-like structures. The shape,
      size, crystal structure, and composition of the products were characterized by a
      set of characterization techniques. The obtained Pt53Ru39Ni8 nanosponges
      displayed dramatically highly electrocatalytic performances for hydrogen
      evolution reaction (HER) and hydrazine oxidation reaction (HOR) outperformed home
      made PtNi nanoparticles (PtNi NPs), RuNi NPs and commercial PtRu black (50wt.%).
      The present route provides new insights for facile synthesis of other bi-, tri-
      and even multi-metallic nanocatalysts for potential applications in catalysis,
      energy conversion and storage.

PMID- 28554042
TI  - Cobalt disulfide nanoparticles/graphene/carbon nanotubes aerogels with superior
      performance for lithium and sodium storage.
AB  - A robust and interconnected three-dimensional (3D) aerogel consisting of CoS2
      nanoparticles, graphene nanosheets (GNs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is
      synthesized as an anode material (CoS2/GCAs) for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and
      sodium ion batteries (SIBs). With the introduction of CNTs, the isolated CoS2
      nanoparticles as well as GNs are jointed closely and cross-linked to construct a
      3D conductive network. Benefited from the advantages of the positive synergistic
      effects of the individual components, CoS2/GCAs composite exhibits excellent
      electrochemical performances. When used as an anode for LIBs, it possesses a high
      reversible capacity of 975mAhg-1 after 100 cycles at 0.25Ag-1. Apart from that,
      it also manifests a superior cycling stability with capacity of 258mAhg-1 after
      100 cycles at 0.05Ag-1 for SIBs. As a result of the enhanced electrochemical
      performance, CoS2/GCAs composite with an interconnected architecture could be
      regarded as a promising candidate for LIBs/SIBs.

PMID- 28554043
TI  - Salt induced polystyrene latex flocs investigated by neutron scattering.
AB  - Studies with a model system consisting of polystyrene latex particles showed that
      the protein from seeds of Moringa trees adsorbs to the surface and causes
      flocculation as unusually dense aggregates. In this study, electrolytes sodium
      chloride (NaCl), ferric chloride (FeCl3) and aluminium sulfate (Al2(SO4)3) have
      been used to aggregate model polystyrene particles. The study augments previous
      work using neutron scattering on the flocculation of polystyrene latex with
      protein from seeds of Moringa trees that had indicated higher floc dimension, df,
      values as the concentration of particles increased. The measurements were made
      using ultra small-angle neutron scattering. Generally the fractal dimension, and
      thus the floc density, increased with particle concentration and salt
      concentration. Flocculation was apparent at much lower concentrations of FeCl3
      and Al2(SO4)3 than of NaCl. The values of df were found not to simply scale with
      ionic strength for the three electrolytes studied with FeCl3 being the most
      effective flocculating agent.

PMID- 28554044
TI  - In-droplet cell concentration using dielectrophoresis.
AB  - Concentrating cells or adjusting the concentration of cells are one of the most
      fundamental steps in cell biology experiments, and are typically achieved through
      centrifugation. However this step is challenging to implement in droplet
      microfluidics. Here we present an in-droplet cell concentrator that operates by
      first gradually focusing cells inside a droplet to one side of the droplet using
      negative dielectrophoresis (nDEP), followed by asymmetric droplet splitting using
      a Y-shaped junction, resulting in two daughter droplets, one of which containing
      all or most of the cells. The developed platform was first characterized using
      droplets containing different number of polystyrene (PS) particles and by varying
      the applied voltages, flow rates, and the width ratios of the droplet splitting
      microchannels. Using this platform, the volume of one daughter droplet could be
      reduced up to 84% compared to that of the mother droplet, which resulted in the
      PS particle concentration to increase by 5.6-fold, with an average recovery rate
      of 90%. When testing with cells (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), recovery rates as
      high as 98% could be achieved while increasing the cell concentration by 5-fold.
      This technology adds a new capability to droplet microfluidics operation, and can
      be used for adjusting concentrations of cells in droplets, exchanging solutions
      in which cells are suspended in droplets (including cell washing steps), and
      separating cells of different dielectric properties inside droplets, all of which
      are common steps in conventional cell assays but have been so far difficult to
      achieve in droplet format.

PMID- 28554045
TI  - Transparent, mediator- and membrane-free enzymatic fuel cell based on
      nanostructured chemically modified indium tin oxide electrodes.
AB  - We detail a mediator- and membrane-free enzymatic glucose/oxygen biofuel cell
      based on transparent and nanostructured conducting supports. Chemically modified
      indium tin oxide nanoparticle modified electrodes were used to substantially
      increase the active surface area without significantly compromising transparency.
      Two different procedures for surface nanostructuring were employed, viz. spray
      coating and drop-coating. The spray-coated biodevice showed superior
      characteristics as compared to the drop-coated enzymatic fuel cell, as a result
      of the higher nanostructured surface area as confirmed by electrochemical
      characterisation, as well as scanning electron and atomic force microscopy.
      Subsequent chemical modification with silanes, followed by the immobilisation of
      either cellobiose dehydrogenase from Corynascus thermophiles or bilirubin oxidase
      from Myrothecium verrucaria, were performed to obtain the bioanodes and
      biocathodes, respectively. The optimised biodevice exhibited an OCV of 0.67V and
      power output of up to 1.4uW/cm2 at an operating voltage of 0.35V. This is
      considered a significant step forward in the field of glucose/oxygen membrane-
      and mediator-free, transparent enzymatic fuel cells.

PMID- 28554046
TI  - Non-invasive, electro-orientation-based viability assay using optically
      transparent electrodes for individual fission yeast cells.
AB  - A non-invasive assay of cylindrical yeast cell viability based on electro
      orientation (EO) in an alternating electric field was developed, in which cell
      viability can be determined by each cell's EO direction without the need for
      reagents. A cell suspension of a few microliters was sandwiched between a pair of
      optically transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) plate electrodes. Observation under
      a light microscope enabled easy identification of EO based on cell shape, e.g.,
      cells were standing upright and appeared perfectly circular when oriented
      parallel to the electric field direction (standing position), and they were lying
      flat and had an elongated shape when oriented perpendicular to the field (lain
      down position). The alternative EO positions of living or dead cells were
      dependent on the applied frequency: opposite EO positions were obtained by
      applying an AC voltage of 1.5V at 10MHz; at which point, only living cells
      rapidly attained a standing position, whereas dead cells were lain-down within
      10s. All the cell's EO positions agreed well with a viability assay by
      florescence staining. Therefore, at the single-cell level and fluorescently label
      free, it was possible to simply and accurately determine whether individual cells
      were alive or dead based on their shape.

PMID- 28554047
TI  - Ultrasensitive detection of aflatoxin B1 by SERS aptasensor based on exonuclease
      assisted recycling amplification.
AB  - Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is one of the most abundant and carcinogenic food
      contaminating mycotoxins around the world. In this study, we proposed a surface
      enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing strategy for the determination of AFB1.
      An aptamer for AFB1 partially hybridized with complementary-DNA, which was
      released after the recognition of AFB1 and immediately hybridized with hairpin
      DNA on the surface of sputtering Au film. Exonuclease III hydrolyzed the double
      stranded DNA, leaving short single-stranded DNA on the Au surface and releasing
      complementary-DNA for next ring opening and digestion. SERS tag was captured on
      Au surface by DNA hybridization. Agarose gel electrophoresis and dynamic light
      scattering showed that SERS tag was successfully prepared. The detection
      principle was validated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and SERS at
      each step. High sensitivity and good selectivity for AFB1 detection were
      observed. The results showed that there was a good linear relation when the AFB1
      concentration was from 1*10-6 to 1ng/mL, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.4
      fg/mL. This sensor was also applied for quantifying AFB1 levels in spiked peanuts
      samples, the recoveries was in the range of 89-121%.

PMID- 28554048
TI  - Ascorbic acid-mediated enhanced cardiomyocyte differentiation of mouse ES-cells
      involves interplay of DNA methylation and multiple-signals.
AB  - Embryonic stem cells (ES-cells) provide a good model system to study lineage
      specific differentiation. Though, the differentiation of ES-cells to
      cardiomyocytes is documented, a clear understanding of the molecular mechanism of
      differentiation and improved functional-differentiation efficiency are yet to be
      achieved. In this regard, ascorbic acid (Aa) is shown to be one of the effective
      cardiac inducers in ES-cells. But, its mechanism is poorly understood. We
      therefore, investigated the mechanism of Aa-mediated cardiomyocyte
      differentiation of ES-cells. Here, we describe the potential involvement of
      epigenetic (DNA methylation) as well as integrin- and Erk- signaling systems
      during cardiomyocyte differentiation. Transgenic GS-2 ES-cells and wild-type D3
      ES-cells were differentiated to cardiomyocytes, in the presence or absence of Aa
      and with or without inhibitors of Erk-, collagen- and integrin- pathways. At
      specific time points, differentiated states of ES-cells were scored by gene
      expression analyses and the proportion of functional cTnI+ cardiomyocytes. DNA
      methylation changes of Isl-1, BMP-2, GATA-4 and alpha-MHC in cardiogenic cells,
      following stimulation with Aa, were analyzed by using methylation specific PCR
      (MSP). We observed that Aa, when applied in initial phase of ES-cell
      differentiation, consistently enhanced cardiac differentiation (99%) over that
      observed during spontaneous differentiation (70%). This was associated with
      enhanced expressions of cardiogenesis-associated genes. A two-fold increase in
      cTnI+ cells was observed, with appropriate myofibril arrangement. The observed
      effect of Aa was due to enhanced collagen and integrin signaling, coupled with a
      high p-ERK1/2 expression, downstream. Besides, the involvement of DNA methylation
      in regulating the expression of cardiac genes i.e., Isl-1 and alpha-MHC was also
      observed. Overall, this study, for the first time, demonstrates that Aa-mediated
      cardiac enhancement is brought about, mechanistically, through the interplay of
      epigenetic changes in DNA methylation of cardiac genes (Isl-1 and alpha-MHC) and
      integrin signaling system.

PMID- 28554050
TI  - Xanthogranulomatous pancreatitis: A review of the imaging characteristics of this
      rare and often misdiagnosed lesion of the pancreas.
AB  - Xanthogranulomatous pancreatitis (XGP) is an extremely rare cause of a cystic
      pancreatic mass. The pathophysiology of this process is not entirely clear but
      likely results from a combination of duct obstruction, infection, and repeated
      hemorrhage. It is difficult to differentiate this inflammatory lesion from a
      cystic neoplasm and, therefore, in the majority of cases XGP is misdiagnosed as a
      neoplasm on preoperative imaging. In this report, we describe a case of XGP, the
      imaging characteristics of XGP, and a differential diagnosis for a cystic
      pancreatic lesion.

PMID- 28554049
TI  - Increased susceptibility of IDH2-deficient mice to dextran sodium sulfate-induced
      colitis.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of chronic, relapsing, immunological,
      inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract including ulcerative colitis
      (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). It has been reported that UC, which is studied
      using a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis model, is associated with
      the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the apoptosis of intestine
      epithelial cells (IEC). Mitochondrial NADP+-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase
      (IDH2) has been reported as an essential enzyme in the mitochondrial antioxidant
      system via generation of NADPH. Therefore, we evaluated the role of IDH2 in DSS
      induced colitis using IDH2-deficient (IDH2-/-) mice. We observed that DSS-induced
      colitis in IDH2-/- mice was more severe than that in wild-type IDH2+/+ mice. Our
      results also suggest that IDH2 deficiency exacerbates PUMA-mediated apoptosis,
      resulting from NF-kappaB activation regulated by histone deacetylase (HDAC)
      activity. In addition, DSS-induced colitis is ameliorated by an antioxidant N
      acetylcysteine (NAC) through attenuation of oxidative stress, resulting from
      deficiency of the IDH2 gene. In conclusion, deficiency of IDH2 leads to increased
      mitochondrial ROS levels, which inhibits HDAC activity, and the activation of NF
      kappaB via acetylation is enhanced by attenuated HDAC activity, which causes PUMA
      mediated apoptosis of IEC in DSS-induced colitis. The present study supported the
      rationale for targeting IDH2 as an important cancer chemoprevention strategy,
      particularly in the prevention of colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28554051
TI  - Selenium accumulation and metabolism in algae.
AB  - Selenium (Se) is an intriguing element because it is metabolically required by a
      variety of organisms, but it may induce toxicity at high doses. Algae primarily
      absorb selenium in the form of selenate or selenite using mechanisms similar to
      those reported in plants. However, while Se is needed by several species of
      microalgae, the essentiality of this element for plants has not been established
      yet. The study of Se uptake and accumulation strategies in micro- and macro-algae
      is of pivotal importance, as they represent potential vectors for Se movement in
      aquatic environments and Se at high levels may affect their growth causing a
      reduction in primary production. Some microalgae exhibit the capacity of
      efficiently converting Se to less harmful volatile compounds as a strategy to
      cope with Se toxicity. Therefore, they play a crucial role in Se-cycling through
      the ecosystem. On the other side, micro- or macro-algae enriched in Se may be
      used in Se biofortification programs aimed to improve Se content in human diet
      via supplementation of valuable food. Indeed, some organic forms of selenium
      (selenomethionine and methylselenocysteine) are known to act as anticarcinogenic
      compounds and exert a broad spectrum of beneficial effects in humans and other
      mammals. Here, we want to give an overview of the developments in the current
      understanding of Se uptake, accumulation and metabolism in algae, discussing
      potential ecotoxicological implications and nutritional aspects.

PMID- 28554052
TI  - Acute effects of spinal bracing on scapular kinematics in adolescent idiopathic
      scoliosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bracing is the most common nonsurgical treatment for adolescent
      idiopathic scoliosis. Spinal braces affect glenohumeral and scapulothoracic
      motion because they restrict trunk movements. However, the potential spinal
      bracing effects on scapular kinematics are unknown. The present study aimed to
      investigate the acute effects of spinal bracing on scapular kinematics in
      adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. METHODS: Scapular kinematics, including scapular
      internal/external rotation, posterior/anterior tilting, and downward/upward
      rotation during scapular plane elevation, were evaluated in 27 in-brace and out
      of-brace adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients with a three-dimensional
      electromagnetic tracking system. Data on the position and orientation of the
      scapula at 30 degrees , 60 degrees , 90 degrees , and 120 degrees  humerothoracic
      elevation were used for statistical comparisons. The paired t-test was used to
      assess the differences between the mean values of in-brace and out-of-brace
      conditions. FINDINGS: The in-brace condition showed significantly increased
      (P<0.05) scapular anterior tilting and decreased internal rotation in the resting
      position on the convex and concave sides; increased scapular downward rotation at
      120 degrees  humerothoracic elevation on the convex side and at 30 degrees , 60
      degrees , 90 degrees , and 120 degrees  humerothoracic elevation on the concave
      side; increased scapular anterior tilt at 30 degrees , 60 degrees , 90 degrees ,
      and 120 degrees  humerothoracic elevation on the convex and concave sides; and
      decreased (P<0.05) maximal humerothoracic elevation of the arm. INTERPRETATION:
      Spinal bracing affects scapular kinematics. Observed changes in scapular
      kinematics with brace may also affect upper extremity function for adolescents
      with idiopathic scoliosis. Therefore, clinicians should include assessments of
      the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic joints when designing rehabilitation
      protocols for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

PMID- 28554053
TI  - Radiographic evaluation of acute distal radius fracture stability: A comparative
      cadaveric study between a thermo-formable bracing system and traditional
      fiberglass casting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distal radius fractures are common musculoskeletal injuries and many
      can be treated non-operatively with cast immobilization. A thermo-formable brace
      has been developed for management of such fractures, but no data exist regarding
      its comparative stabilizing efficacy to fiberglass casting. METHODS: A worst-case
      distal radius fracture was created in 6 cadaveric forearms. A radiolucent loading
      fixture was created to apply cantilever bending/compression loads ranging from
      4.5N to 66.7N across the simulated fracture in the: (1) non-stabilized, (2)
      braced; and (3) casted forearms, each forearm serving as its own control.
      Fracture fragment translations and rotations were measured radiographically using
      orthogonal radiographs and a 2D-3D, CT-based transformation methodology.
      FINDINGS: Under 4.5N of load in the non-stabilized condition, average sagittal
      plane rotation and 3D center of mass translation of the fracture fragment were
      12.3 degrees  and 5.3mm, respectively. At the 4.5N load step, fragment rotation
      with the brace (avg. 0.0 degrees ) and cast (0.1 degrees ) reduced sagittal plane
      rotation compared to the non-stabilized forearm (P<0.001). There were no
      significant differences in measured sagittal plane fracture fragment rotations or
      3D fragment translations between the brace or cast at any of the four load steps
      (4.5N, 22.2N, 44.5N, and 66.7N, P>=0.138). INTERPRETATION: In this in vitro
      radiographic study utilizing 6 cadaveric forearms with simulated severe-case,
      unstable and comminuted distal radius fractures, the thermo-formable brace
      stabilized the fracture in a manner that was not radiographically or
      biomechanically different from traditional fiberglass casting. Study results
      support the use of the thermo-formable brace clinically.

PMID- 28554054
TI  - Military personnel with self-reported ankle injuries do not demonstrate deficits
      in dynamic postural stability or landing kinematics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The odds of sustaining non-contact musculoskeletal injuries are
      higher in Special Operations Forces operators than in infantry soldiers. The
      ankle is one of the most commonly injured joints, and once injured can put
      individuals at risk for reinjury. The purpose of this study was to determine if
      any differences in postural stability and landing kinematics exist between
      operators with a self-reported ankle injury in the past one year and uninjured
      controls. METHODS: A total of 55 Special Operations Forces operators were
      included in this analysis. Comparisons were made between operators with a self
      reported ankle injury within one-year of their test date (n=11) and healthy
      matched controls (n=44). Comparisons were also made between injured and uninjured
      limbs within the injured group. Dynamic postural stability and landing kinematics
      at the ankle, knee, and hip were assessed during a single-leg jump-landing task.
      Comparisons were made between groups with independent t-tests and within the
      injured group between limbs using paired t-tests. FINDINGS: There were no
      significant differences in dynamic postural stability index or landing kinematics
      between the injured and uninjured groups. Anterior-posterior stability index was
      significantly higher on the uninjured limb compared to the injured limb within
      the injured group (P=0.02). INTERPRETATION: Single ankle injuries sustained by
      operators may not lead to deficits in dynamic postural stability. Dynamic
      postural stability index and landing kinematics within one year after injury were
      either not affected by the injuries reported, or injured operators were trained
      back to baseline measures through rehabilitation and daily activity.

PMID- 28554055
TI  - Graphene oxide as an efficient antimicrobial nanomaterial for eradicating multi
      drug resistant bacteria in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Graphene is a novel two-dimensional nanomaterial with a growing number of
      practical applications across numerous fields. In this work, we explored
      potential biomedical applications of graphene oxide (GO) by systematically
      studying antibacterial capacity of GO in both macrophages and animal models.
      Three types of bacteria, including Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp), Escherichia coli
      (E. coli) and P. aeruginosa (Pa) were used for in vitro study. Kp was also
      selected as a representative multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterium for in vivo
      study. In in vitro study, GO effectively eradicated Kp in agar dishes and thus
      protected alveolar macrophages (AM) from Kp infection in the culture. In the in
      vivo evaluation, GO were introduced intranasally into mouse lungs followed by
      testing organ tissue damage including lung, liver, spleen, and kidneys,
      polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) penetration, bacterial dissemination, and
      mortality in Kp-infected mice. We found that GO can prohibit the growth and
      spread of Kp both in vitro and in vivo, resulting in significantly increased cell
      survival rate, less tissue injury, subdued inflammatory response, and prolonged
      mice survival. These findings indicate that GO could be a promising biomaterial
      for effectively controlling MDR pathogens.

PMID- 28554056
TI  - Structure and antibacterial activity relationships of native and amyloid fibril
      lysozyme loaded on layered double hydroxide.
AB  - Lysozyme from hen egg white is composed by a unique linear chain of 129 amino
      acids. It is known to inhibit Gram positive bacteria and to form amyloid fibrils
      at low pH, under 75 degrees C. This work investigates the effect of the
      fibrillation and/or adsorption onto a layered double hydroxide material on the
      antibacterial properties of lysozyme. The kinetics of adsorption follows a
      behavior of pseudo second order model. The X-ray diffraction and the Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy highlight that adsorption occurs only on the
      external surface of the material. Interestingly, the amyloid fibrils of lysozyme
      retain their antibacterial properties when they are adsorbed on the layered
      double hydroxide; even if their activity is lowered, the active site of the
      enzyme is not fully denatured and is still accessible. This is confirmed by the
      study of the tryptophan using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.

PMID- 28554057
TI  - The immune regulation in cancer by the amino acid metabolizing enzymes ARG and
      IDO.
AB  - Some enzymes degrading amino acids have evolved in mammals to dampen immune
      responses and maintain peripheral tolerance. The enzymes metabolizing l-arginine
      and l-tryptophan are particularly powerful, contributing to restrain immunity
      towards fetal tissues and establish neonatal tolerance. Solid tumors can hijack
      these formidable pathways to construct a microenvironment highly unfavorable to
      anti-tumor T lymphocytes able to recognize them, one of mechanisms for their
      immune evasion. In this review, we analyze emerging concepts in the cross-talk
      between cells expressing these enzymes, their immune regulatory functions and
      pharmacological approaches that can target them to enhance cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28554059
TI  - Residues F103 and M106 within the influenza A virus NS1 CPSF4-binding region
      regulate interferon-stimulated gene translation initiation.
AB  - Influenza A virus (IAV) non-structural protein 1 (NS1) suppresses host innate
      immune responses by inhibiting type I interferon (IFN) production. We provide
      evidence that residues F103 and M106 in the CPSF4-binding domain of A/HK/1/68
      [H3N2] NS1 contribute to post-transcriptional inhibition of antiviral IFN
      stimulated genes (ISGs), thereby suppressing an antiviral type I IFN response.
      Recombinant (r) IAVs encoding F103L and M106I mutations in NS1 replicate to
      significantly lower viral titers in human A549 lung epithelial cells and primary
      type II alveolar cells. In A549 cells, rIAVs encoding these mutant NS1s induce
      higher levels of IFN-beta production and are more sensitive to the antiviral
      effects of IFN-beta treatment. qPCR characterization of polysomal mRNA, in the
      presence or absence of IFN-beta treatment, identified a greater proportion of
      heavy polysome-associated ISGs including EIF2AK2, OAS1, and MxA in A549 cells
      infected with rIAVs encoding these CPSF4-binding mutant NS1s, in contrast to rIAV
      encoding wildtype NS1.

PMID- 28554058
TI  - Stockpiled pre-pandemic H5N1 influenza virus vaccines with AS03 adjuvant provide
      cross-protection from H5N2 clade 2.3.4.4 virus challenge in ferrets.
AB  - Avian influenza viruses, notably H5 subtype viruses, pose a continuous threat to
      public health due to their pandemic potential. In recent years, influenza virus
      H5 subtype split vaccines with novel oil-in-water emulsion based adjuvants (e.g.
      AS03, MF59) have been shown to be safe, immunogenic, and able to induce broad
      immune responses in clinical trials, providing strong scientific support for
      vaccine stockpiling. However, whether such vaccines can provide protection from
      infection with emerging, antigenically distinct clades of H5 viruses has not been
      adequately addressed. Here, we selected two AS03-adjuvanted H5N1 vaccines from
      the US national pre-pandemic influenza vaccine stockpile and assessed whether the
      2004-05 vaccines could provide protection against a 2014 highly pathogenic avian
      influenza (HPAI) H5N2 virus (A/northern pintail/Washington/40964/2014), a clade
      2.3.4.4 virus responsible for mass culling of poultry in North America. Ferrets
      received two doses of adjuvanted vaccine containing 7.5ug of hemagglutinin (HA)
      from A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) or A/Anhui/1/2005 (clade 2.3.4) virus either
      in a homologous or heterologous prime-boost vaccination regime. We found that
      both vaccination regimens elicited robust antibody responses against the 2004-05
      vaccine viruses and could reduce virus-induced morbidity and viral replication in
      the lower respiratory tract upon heterologous challenge despite the low level of
      cross-reactive antibody titers to the challenge H5N2 virus. This study supports
      the value of existing stockpiled 2004-05 influenza H5N1 vaccines, combined with
      AS03-adjuvant for early use in the event of an emerging pandemic with H5N2-like
      clade 2.3.4.4 viruses.

PMID- 28554060
TI  - Using two detectors concurrently to monitor ambient dose equivalent rates in
      vehicle surveys of radiocesium contaminated land.
AB  - In response to the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Dai-ichi
      Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), vehicle-borne monitoring was used to map radiation
      levels for radiological protection of the public. By convention measurements from
      vehicle-borne surveys are converted to the ambient dose equivalent rate at 1 m
      height in the absence of the vehicle. This allows for comparison with results
      from other types of survey, including surveys with hand-held or airborne
      instruments. To improve the accuracy of the converted results from vehicle-borne
      surveys, we investigated combining measurements from two detectors mounted on the
      vehicle at different heights above the ground. A dual-detector setup was added to
      a JAEA monitoring car and compared against hand-held survey meter measurements in
      Fukushima Prefecture. The results obtained by combining measurements from two
      detectors were within +/-20% of the hand-held reference measurements. The mean
      absolute percentage deviation from the reference measurements was 7.2%. The
      combined results from the two detectors were more accurate than those from either
      the roof-mounted detector, or the detector inside the vehicle, taken alone. One
      issue with vehicle-borne surveys is that ambient dose equivalent rates above
      roads are not necessarily representative of adjacent areas. This is because
      radiocesium is often deficient on asphalt surfaces, as it is easily scrubbed off
      by rain, wind and vehicle tires. To tackle this issue, we investigated mounting
      heights for vehicle-borne detectors using Monte Carlo gamma-ray simulations. When
      radiocesium is deficient on a road compared to the adjacent land, mounting
      detectors high on vehicles yields results closer to the values adjacent to the
      road. The ratio of ambient dose equivalent rates reported by detectors mounted at
      different heights in a dual-detector setup indicates whether radiocesium is
      deficient on the road compared to the adjacent land.

PMID- 28554061
TI  - Comparative pharmacokinetic study of baicalin and its metabolites after oral
      administration of baicalin and Chaiqin Qingning capsule in normal and febrile
      rats.
AB  - An accurate, precise, selective, and sensitive high performance liquid
      chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was
      developed for the simultaneous determination of baicalin and its metabolite,
      baicalein 6-O-glucopyranuronoside, in normal and febrile rats plasma. Two
      analytes, along with hesperidin as an internal standard, were determined by
      multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) operated in the positive electrospray
      ionization (ESI) mode. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent
      ZORBAX Extend-C18 column (100mm*2.10mm, 3.5MUm) with a mobile phase of 0.1%
      formic acid solution and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.6mL/min. The
      calibration curves showed good linearity (r>=0.9974) with the concentration
      ranges of 2.000-2000ngmL-1 for baicalin and baicalein 6-O-glucopyranuronoside.
      The inter- and intra-day accuracies (relative error, RE%) were between -6.62% and
      6.75%, and the precisions (relative standard deviation, RSD%) were less than
      9.09% for quality control samples (QCs). The method also possessed good
      selectivity, recovery and stability, and was successfully applied to a
      comparative pharmacokinetic study of baicalin and baicalein 6-O
      glucopyranuronoside in normal and febrile rats after oral administration of
      baicalin and Chaiqin Qingning capsule.

PMID- 28554062
TI  - An isotope-dilution UPLC-MS/MS technique for the human biomonitoring of the
      internal exposure to glycidol via a valine adduct at the N-terminus of
      hemoglobin.
AB  - Fatty acid esters of glycidol (glycidyl esters) are processing contaminants
      generated as a byproduct of the industrial deodorization of vegetable oils and
      fats. Oral intake of glycidyl esters leads to the release of glycidol in the
      gastrointestinal tract. Glycidol is carcinogenic, genotoxic and teratogenic in
      rodents. It is rated as probably carcinogenic to humans (IARC group 2A). The
      determination of internal exposure of glycidol may support the assessment of the
      possible human health risks related to glycidyl ester intake. For this purpose,
      hemoglobin adducts of glycidol may be suitable biomarkers reflecting the
      cumulative exposure of up to four months. We applied a modified Edman degradation
      to assess the glycidol adduct at the N-terminal valine, N-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)
      valine (2,3-diHOPr-Val), of hemoglobin. The modified valine was cleaved with
      fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC), resulting in the formation of N-(2,3
      dihydroxypropyl)-valine fluorescein thiohydantoin (DHP-Val-FTH). An isotope
      dilution technique was developed for the quantification of the thiohydantoin
      analyte by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC
      MS/MS) and DHP-Val-d7-FTH as reference standard. The limit of detection was 4
      fmol DHP-Val-FTH per injection corresponding to 0.7pmol 2,3-diHOPr-Val/g
      hemoglobin. The adduct levels in blood samples of 12 non-smoking participants
      were in the range of 2.2-4.9pmol 2,3-diHOPr-Val/g hemoglobin. The current work
      presents the first isotope-dilution technique using UPLC-MS/MS for the
      quantification of 2,3-diHOPr-Val at the N-terminus of hemoglobin as a sensitive
      and convenient alternative to earlier GC-MS methods.

PMID- 28554063
TI  - A meta-analysis of in-vehicle and nomadic voice-recognition system interaction
      and driving performance.
AB  - Driver distraction is a growing and pervasive issue that requires multiple
      solutions. Voice-recognition (V-R) systems may decrease the visual-manual (V-M)
      demands of a wide range of in-vehicle system and smartphone interactions.
      However, the degree that V-R systems integrated into vehicles or available in
      mobile phone applications affect driver distraction is incompletely understood. A
      comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental studies was conducted to address this
      knowledge gap. To meet study inclusion criteria, drivers had to interact with a V
      R system while driving and doing everyday V-R tasks such as dialing, initiating a
      call, texting, emailing, destination entry or music selection. Coded dependent
      variables included detection, reaction time, lateral position, speed and headway.
      Comparisons of V-R systems with baseline driving and/or a V-M condition were also
      coded. Of 817 identified citations, 43 studies involving 2000 drivers and 183
      effect sizes (r) were analyzed in the meta-analysis. Compared to baseline,
      driving while interacting with a V-R system is associated with increases in
      reaction time and lane positioning, and decreases in detection. When V-M systems
      were compared to V-R systems, drivers had slightly better performance with the
      latter system on reaction time, lane positioning and headway. Although V-R
      systems have some driving performance advantages over V-M systems, they have a
      distraction cost relative to driving without any system at all. The pattern of
      results indicates that V-R systems impose moderate distraction costs on driving.
      In addition, drivers minimally engage in compensatory performance adjustments
      such as reducing speed and increasing headway while using V-R systems.
      Implications of the results for theory, design guidelines and future research are
      discussed.

PMID- 28554064
TI  - Driving under the influence of drugs: Perceptions and attitudes of New Zealand
      drivers.
AB  - This study explored the patterns of drug driving in New Zealand by investigating
      1) drivers' perceptions about impairment caused by legal and illegal drugs 2)
      countermeasures employed by drivers when under the influence of drugs (e.g.,
      decisions not to drive) 3) drivers' attitudes about police enforcement of drug
      driving and 4) the factors that predict the likelihood of engaging in drug
      driving. Participants (n=434) were licensed drivers who completed an online
      questionnaire. Results of the questionnaire indicated that drivers rated
      hallucinogens and opiates as being the illegal drugs producing the highest level
      of driving impairment and cannabis the lowest. For legal drugs, sedatives were
      rated as having the highest driving impairment and anti-nausea and anti
      depressants the lowest. Respondents' drug use history had an effect on their
      ratings of impairment for anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressants, kava, sedatives,
      cannabis and hallucinogens such that drug users reported higher impairment
      ratings than Non-user. Making a decision not to drive after taking drugs was
      reported by users of alcohol (73.6%), cannabis (57.0%), strong painkillers
      (42.5%), and anti-depressants (10.0%). Respondents who reported drink driving
      were 3.26 times more likely to report drug driving than those reporting no drink
      driving. Respondents also showed greater acceptance towards driving under the
      influence of legal drugs (43.5%) compared to illegal drugs (10.3%). Those who did
      not have favourable attitudes about drug driving were less likely to report
      having driven under the influence of drugs. Drivers in this sample were less
      aware of the potential negative effects of legal drugs on driving compared to
      illegal drugs. More than half the respondents from this study acknowledged drug
      driving as a road safety issue which needs more resources dedicated to it.

PMID- 28554065
TI  - High-throughput metataxonomic characterization of the raw milk microbiota
      identifies changes reflecting lactation stage and storage conditions.
AB  - Low temperature is used to control the growth of bacteria in milk, both pre- and
      post-pasteurization. As the duration of refrigerated storage extends,
      psychrotrophs dominate the milk microbiota, that can produce heat stable lipases
      which negatively impact the organoleptic qualities of milk. Here we examine the
      influence that refrigeration temperature (2 degrees C, 4 degrees C and 6 degrees
      C) and storage duration (96h) have on the microbiota composition (16S profiling)
      of raw bulk tank milk (BTM). To reflect a proposed change to current farming
      practices, raw milk was blended after each milking (8 milkings) and stored for
      five consecutive days in each temperature-specific tank. Here 16S rRNA-based
      microbiota compositional analysis was performed after milk was collected on day 1
      and again after the final addition of milk at day 5. In addition to assessing the
      impact of the duration and temperature of storage, the influence of lactation
      stage, i.e. mid- versus late-lactation, on the microbiota of the blended BTM was
      also examined. Overall, both temperature and length of storage had surprisingly
      little influence on the raw milk microbiota, other than an increase in
      proportions of Gammaproteobacteria in the blended milk samples collected after
      pooling on day 5, and in samples stored at 6 degrees C. However, lactation stage
      had a considerable influence on microbiota composition, with milk from mid
      lactation containing higher proportions of Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium,
      Campylobacter and Rhodanobacter, and late-lactation milk containing higher
      proportions of Actinobacteria. Overall, the study demonstrates that current
      temperature and storage duration practises impact the microbiota of raw milk, but
      these impacts are modest relative to the more considerable differences between
      mid and late-lactation milk.

PMID- 28554066
TI  - The neural basis of deficient response inhibition in children with
      neurofibromatosis type 1: Evidence from a functional MRI study.
AB  - Impaired response inhibition is a predominant feature of several neuropsychiatric
      disorders; in general the underlying aetiology of these disorders and associated
      impairments is unknown. The common occurrence of impaired response inhibition in
      a single gene disorder such as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), provides a
      valuable opportunity to explore its mechanistic basis through the study of gene
      brain-behaviour interactions. We used functional brain imaging with a Go/No-Go
      task to examine the neural substrates of response inhibition in children with NF1
      and age and gender matched typically developing subjects. Children with NF1 were
      found to have abnormal activation patterns in several cortical regions, with
      significantly reduced activation in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), the
      fusiform gyrus/posterior cerebellum (FG/PC), the pre-supplementary motor area
      (pre-SMA) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Importantly, activation in the
      right IFG was associated with faster task reaction times and impairment in
      sustained attention in subjects with NF1. Our study supports the hypothesis that
      a network of regions typically associated with response inhibition is
      dysfunctional in children with NF1 and suggests this dysfunction is linked to
      cognitive impairment in this disorder.

PMID- 28554067
TI  - Merging contemporary learning theory with mental health promotion to produce an
      effective schools-based program.
AB  - Approximately three quarters of all major mental disorders begin in adolescence.
      Finding ways to buffer against stress, access social support and connection and
      flexibly draw upon a range of coping mechanisms are vital strategies that young
      people can use to promote mental health and wellbeing and to navigate this
      turbulent life transition successfully. Within Australia, like other parts of the
      world such as the UK and the USA, it is a sad reality that when young people do
      become distressed they are not self-caring or supporting others effectively, and
      not seeking or receiving appropriate help. In order to respond proactively to
      this issue, a nurse-initiated mental health promotion program was developed. It
      is termed, iCARE, which stands for Creating Awareness, Resilience and Enhanced
      Mental Health. The aim of this paper is to discuss the underpinning educational
      theory that assists in developing in young people a sense of belonging, empathy,
      self-care and resilience, and why the strategies chosen to engage young people
      are likely to be effective.

PMID- 28554068
TI  - The Supportive Hospice and Aged Residential Exchange (SHARE) programme in New
      Zealand.
AB  - Research indicates that staff in aged residential care may be unprepared for
      their role in palliative care provision. In collaboration with a local hospice,
      the project piloted an innovative problem-based experiential learning
      intervention Supportive Hospice and Aged Residential Exchange (SHARE) to enhance
      aged residential care staff palliative care skills. The aim was to explore the
      impact of SHARE for staff. SHARE was implemented in two aged residential care
      facilities in one urban centre for six months. Measurement of the impact of the
      intervention consisted of 1) pre-test-post-test questionnaires (n = 27) to assess
      changes in staff confidence in palliative care delivery 2) Eleven post
      intervention interviews to describe staff perceptions of SHARE. Results from the
      SHARE pilot indicate that the intervention overall is seen as a success,
      especially in relation to advanced care planning documentation. Relationships
      between hospice and facility staff, and consequently facility staff and residents
      are seen as the key to the success of the project. Staff survey results indicated
      increased confidence in palliative care delivery and decreased depression. Key
      lessons learnt from for the development of any palliative care intervention
      within aged residential care include the importance of reciprocal learning, as
      well as the necessity of a strong partnership with key stakeholders.

PMID- 28554069
TI  - Where does prepotency come from on developmental tests of inhibitory control?
AB  - Understanding the processes that make responses prepotent is central to
      understanding the role of inhibitory control in cognitive development. The
      question of what makes responses prepotent was investigated using the two most
      widely studied measures of preschoolers' inhibitory control. Across two
      experiments, 80 children were tested either on a series of stimulus-response
      compatibility (SRC) tasks or on a series of Go/No-go tasks. Results indicated
      that high levels of prepotency on SRC tasks (such as the Day/Night task) occur
      only under specific conditions; making a verbal response can be highly prepotent
      if the stimulus and response are associated with each other (e.g., saying "cup"
      to a cup) but is less prepotent when they are unassociated (e.g., saying "cup" to
      a doorstop). Action responses (e.g., lifting a cup to your mouth) show little
      prepotency irrespective of whether the stimulus and response are associated. In
      contrast, with Go/No-go tasks, a much wider variety of behaviors are highly
      prepotent regardless of whether the stimulus and response are associated. These
      data suggest that prepotency arises in very different ways, depending on the type
      of task used. Although both Go/No-go tasks and SRC tasks can make inhibitory
      demands, they do so for fundamentally different reasons.

PMID- 28554070
TI  - Honored papers 2016.

PMID- 28554071
TI  - Comparative study of an osazone based ligand and its palladium(II) complex with
      human serum albumin: A spectroscopic, thermodynamic and molecular docking
      approach.
AB  - An osazone based ligand, hexane-3,4-dione-bis(2'-phenylhydrazone) (LH2), was
      synthesized by 1:2M Schiff base condensation of 3,4-hexanedione and
      phenylhydrazine in dehydrated methanol. Its palladium(II) complex (1) has also
      been synthesized. LH2 and 1 have thoroughly been characterized by several
      spectroscopic and analytical means. DFT optimized structure of 1 shows that it is
      a monomeric Pd(II) complex having 'N2Cl2' coordination chromophore. Our BVS
      analysis also satisfactorily reproduces the oxidation number of the palladium
      center. 1 shows irreversible Pd(II)/Pd(I) reduction in its CV in methanol. 1 is
      three-fold more emissive than LH2. This enhanced emission has also been supported
      by time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) measurements at room
      temperature. Human serum albumin (HSA) binding aspects of both LH2 and 1 have
      been investigated through various biophysical techniques. The binding constants
      as determined from Benesi-Hilderbrand plot using the absorbance spectral analyses
      were found respectively to be 1.18*105 and 4.38*104M-1 for LH2 and 1. The
      experimental findings confirm that both are good HSA binders. The thermodynamic
      parameters (?G degrees , ?H degrees  and ?S degrees ) have also been evaluated by
      isothermal titration calorimetric (ITC) experiments. These parameters indicate
      that the binding processes are spontaneous both for LH2 and 1. Molecular docking
      analyses reveal that both LH2 and 1 reside in domain-I of HSA.

PMID- 28554072
TI  - Polymer-lipid-PEG hybrid nanoparticles as photosensitizer carrier for
      photodynamic therapy.
AB  - Polymer-lipid-PEG hybrid nanoparticles were investigated as carriers for the
      photosensitizer (PS), 5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(4-hydroxy-phenyl)-21H,23H-porphine
      (pTHPP) for use in photodynamic therapy (PDT). A self-assembled nanoprecipitation
      technique was used for preparing two types of core polymers poly(d,l-lactide-co
      glycolide) (PLGA) and poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) with lipid
      PEG as stabilizer. The resulting nanoparticles had an average particle size of
      88.5+/-3.4nm for PLGA and 215.0+/-6.3nm for PHBV. Both nanoparticles exhibited a
      core-shell structure under TEM with high zeta potential and loading efficiency. X
      ray powder diffraction analysis showed that the encapsulated pTHPP molecules in
      polymeric nanoparticles no longer had peaks of free pTHPP in the crystalline
      state. The pTHPP molecules encapsulated inside the polymeric core demonstrated
      improved photophysical properties in terms of singlet oxygen generation and
      cellular uptake rate in a FTC-133 human thyroid carcinoma cell line, compared to
      non-encapsulated pTHPP. The pTHPP-loaded polymer-lipid-PEG nanoparticles showed
      better in vitro phototoxicity compared to free pTHPP, in both time- and
      concentration-dependent manners. Overall, this study provides detailed analysis
      of the photophysical properties of pTHPP molecules when entrapped within either
      PLGA or PHBV nanoparticle cores, and demonstrates the effectiveness of these
      systems for delivery of photosensitizers. The two polymeric systems may have
      different potential benefits, when used with cancer cells. For instance, the
      pTHPP-loaded PLGA system requires only a short time to show a PDT effect and may
      be suitable for topical PDT, while the delayed photo-induced cytotoxic effect of
      the pTHPP-loaded PHBV system may be more suitable for cancer solid tumors. Hence,
      both pTHPP-encapsulated polymer-lipid-PEG nanoparticles can be considered
      promising delivery systems for PDT cancer treatment.

PMID- 28554073
TI  - Facile synthesis of heterostructured cerium oxide/yttrium oxide nanocomposite in
      UV light induced photocatalytic degradation and catalytic reduction: Synergistic
      effect of antimicrobial studies.
AB  - Ceria (CeO2) is an exciting alternative noble metal catalyst, because it has
      ability to release and absorb oxygen in the redox system, and function as an
      oxygen buffer. In this study, heterostructured catalysts consisting of CeO2/Y2O3
      nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method in the
      presence of sodium hydroxide as a reducing agent from cerium nitrate and yttrium
      nitrate as a precursor which was then evaluated for its photocatalytic activity
      in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) synthetic dye. Scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM) imparts the surface morphology and size of the prepared sample.
      Elemental compositions and the purity of the nanoparticles are proved by energy
      dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). CeO2/Y2O3 nanoparticles were made up of CeO
      and YO bonds which are confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      (FTIR). Synthesis temperature and pressure, during hydrothermal reactions, plays
      a critical role in controlling the shape, size, oxygen vacancy concentration, and
      low temperature reducibility in CeO2 based nanocomposites. The lattice constants
      and oxygen vacancy concentrations of ceria nanoparticles also depend upon the
      concentration of hydroxide ion which leads to better morphology at low
      temperature and pressure. Hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol with a
      reducing agent is conveniently carried out in aqueous medium by using this binary
      metal oxide catalyst. Further, the photocatalytic performance of the synthesized
      nanoparticles was monitored by photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B
      synthetic dye under UV light irradiation. To get maximum photocatalytic
      degradation (PCD) efficiency, we have used H2O2 for the generation of excess
      reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, the antibacterial activity of
      nanoparticles against bacteria was also examined. The observed antibacterial
      activity results are comparable with the results obtained using the standard
      antibiotic.

PMID- 28554074
TI  - Photochemistry and mechanism of designed pyrenyl probe towards promoted cleavage
      of proteins.
AB  - A new photochemical reagent, succinic acid-1(1-pyrene)methylamide (PMA-SUC), was
      developed to recognize the specific binding sites on model proteins, egg-white
      lysozyme and avidin. The interaction of the photochemical reagent with the
      proteins was studied by UV-Vis, fluorescence spectroscopic methods and docking
      description. PMA-SUC was found to bind to lysozyme and avidin with binding
      constants (Kb) of 2.4*105 and 6.7*105 (M-1), respectively. The fluorescence
      intensity of PMA-SUC decreased with increasing concentration of both proteins.
      Quenching of PMA-SUC fluorescence, in the absence and presence of the protein by
      an electron acceptor (Hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride, Co(NH3)6Cl3) showed no
      significant changes in the Ksv values (Stern-Volmer quenching constant),
      indicating that PMA-SUC bound to the hydrophilic sites or near the surface of the
      proteins. Irradiation of protein-PMA-SUC mixture, at 342nm for a period of time,
      in the presence of Co(NH3)6Cl3 as an electron acceptor, resulted in the cleavage
      of both proteins with high specificity. Binding mechanisms were studied using
      Molecular docking method. Molecular docking study indicated the position of PMA
      SUC upon binding to the proteins by hydrogen bonding interaction with donor
      acceptor within the distance of less than 5A in the minimum of binding free
      energy. The docking results have supported the results obtained from the
      spectroscopic methods and cleavage studies.

PMID- 28554075
TI  - Association of TP53 codon 72 and CDH1 genetic polymorphisms with colorectal
      cancer risk in Bangladeshi population.
AB  - Till now no pharmacogenetic study of TP53 codon 72 (Arg72Pro) and CDH1 rs16260 (
      160C<A) genes has been reported on Bangladeshi population relating those with
      colorectal cancer. So the aim of the study is to determine whether there is an
      elevated risk of colorectal cancer development with TP53 codon 72 and CDH1
      rs16260 genetic polymorphism in Bangladeshi population for the first time. To
      investigate the association of these two SNPs, we conducted a case-control study
      with 288 colorectal cancer patients and 295 healthy volunteers by using
      polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP)
      method. We found an increased risk of association between Arg/Pro heterozygosity
      (adjusted OR=2.58, 95% CI=1.77-3.77, p<0.05) and Pro/Pro mutant homozygosity
      (adjusted OR=2.92, 95% CI=1.78-4.78, p<0.05) along with the combined genotype
      (Arg/Pro+Pro/Pro) (adjusted OR=2.70, 95% CI=1.90-3.82, p<0.05) and colorectal
      cancer predisposition. In case of CDH1 rs16260 polymorphism, C/A heterozygous and
      A/A mutant homozygous are significantly (p<0.05) found to be associated with
      colorectal cancer risk with adjusted OR of 1.94 and 2.63, respectively. The
      combined genotype of C/A and A/A was also found to be strongly associated with
      colorectal cancer risk compared to C/C genotype (adjusted OR=2.02, 95% CI=1.42
      2.87, p<0.05). In conclusion, heterozygosity and mutant homozygosity as well as
      the combination of both TP53 Arg72Pro and CDH1 rs16260 polymorphisms are
      responsible to increase the risk of colorectal cancer development in Bangladeshi
      population.

PMID- 28554076
TI  - The influence of father involvement in adolescents' overall development in
      Taiwan.
AB  - Western Studies show that father involvement is predictive of adolescent
      development; however, there are few studies that demonstrate this relationship in
      Chinese cultures, including Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to examine the
      impact of father involvement on adolescents' development in areas of academic
      achievement, self-esteem, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors in Taiwan.
      This study utilized dyadic data of 1043 10th graders from wave 5 of a
      longitudinal study on adolescent development in Taiwan. The study utilized
      student reports of father involvement, child academic achievement, externalizing
      behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and self-esteem. Structural equation modeling
      results indicate father involvement significantly predicts child academic
      achievement, externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and self-esteem.
      Gender analysis shows that male adolescents exhibited more externalizing
      behaviors, whereas female adolescents exhibited more internalizing behaviors. The
      findings of this study provide evidence that father involvement is important for
      the overall wellbeing of adolescents in Chinese cultures.

PMID- 28554077
TI  - The mediating role of social skills and sensation seeking in the relationship
      between trait emotional intelligence and school adjustment in adolescents.
AB  - Drawing upon a sample of 400 female high school students in Tehran, Iran, the
      present study examines the mediating role of social skills and sensation seeking
      in the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and school adjustment in
      adolescent girls. Statistical analysis revealed positive correlations between
      trait emotional intelligence and school adjustment; trait emotional intelligence
      and social skills; and social skills and school adjustment. The study also
      revealed a negative correlation between trait emotional intelligence and
      sensation seeking, as well as sensation seeking and school adjustment. In
      addition, the data provided a good fit to the hypothesized model of the mediating
      role of social skills and sensation seeking in the relationship between trait
      emotional intelligence and school adjustment.

PMID- 28554078
TI  - A simple and robust method for the automatic scoring of EEG arousals in
      polysomnographic recordings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical diagnosis of sleep disorders relies on the polysomnographic
      test to examine the neurophysiological markers of the sleep process. In this
      test, the recording of the electroencephalographic activity and the submental
      electromyogram is the source of the analysis for the detection of
      electroencephalographic arousals. The identification of these events is important
      for the evaluation of the sleep continuity because they cause the fragmentation
      of the normal sleep process. This work proposes a new technique for the automatic
      detection of arousals in polysomnographic recordings, presenting a non
      computationally complex method with the idea of providing an easy integration
      with other algorithms. METHODS: The proposed algorithm combines different well
      known signal analysis solutions to identify relevant arousal patterns with
      special emphasis on robustness and artifacts tolerance. It is a multistage method
      that after obtaining an initial set of events, improves the detection finding
      common EEG arousal patterns. Finally, false positives are discarded after
      examining each candidate within the context of clinical definitions. RESULTS: 22
      polysomnographic recordings from real patients were used to validate the method.
      The results obtained were encouraging, achieving a precision value of 0.86 and a
      F1 score value of 0.79. When compared with the gold standard, the method achieves
      a substantial agreement (Kappa coefficient of 0.78), with an almost perfect
      agreement with ten recordings. CONCLUSIONS: The algorithm designed achieved
      encouraging results and shows robust behavior in presence of signal artifacts.
      Its low-coupled design allows its implementation on different development
      platforms, and an easy combination with other methods.

PMID- 28554079
TI  - Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional
      vulnerability.
AB  - Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique
      which has garnered recent interest in the potential treatment for emotion-based
      psychopathology. While accumulating evidence suggests that tDCS may attenuate
      emotional vulnerability, critically, little is known about underlying mechanisms
      of this effect. The present study sought to clarify this by examining the
      possibility that tDCS may affect emotional vulnerability via its capacity to
      modulate attentional bias towards threatening information. Fifty healthy
      participants were randomly assigned to receive either anodal tDCS (2 mA/min)
      stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), or sham.
      Participants were then eye tracked during a dual-video stressor task designed to
      elicit emotional reactivity, while providing a concurrent in-vivo measure of
      attentional bias. Greater attentional bias towards threatening information was
      associated with greater emotional reactivity to the stressor task. Furthermore,
      the active tDCS group showed reduced attentional bias to threat, compared to the
      sham group. Importantly, attentional bias was found to statistically mediate the
      effect of tDCS on emotional reactivity, while no direct effect of tDCS on
      emotional reactivity was observed. The findings are consistent with the notion
      that the effect of tDCS on emotional vulnerability may be mediated by changes in
      attentional bias, holding implications for the application of tDCS in emotion
      based psychopathology. The findings also highlight the utility of in-vivo eye
      tracking measures in the examination of the mechanisms associated with DLPFC
      neuromodulation in emotional vulnerability.

PMID- 28554080
TI  - Manipulating time and space: Collision prediction in peripersonal and
      extrapersonal space.
AB  - Being able to predict potential collisions is a necessary survival prerequisite
      for all moving species. Temporal and spatial information is fundamental for this
      purpose. However, it is not clear yet if the peripersonal (i.e. near) and
      extrapersonal (i.e. far) distance between our body and the moving objects affects
      the way in which we can predict possible collisions. In order to assess this, we
      manipulated independently velocity and path of two balls moving one towards the
      other in such a way as to collide or not in peripersonal and extrapersonal space.
      In two experiments, participants had to judge if these balls were to collide or
      not. The results consistently showed a lower discrimination capacity and a more
      liberal tendency to predict collisions when the moving balls were in peripersonal
      space and their velocity was different rather than equal. This did not happen in
      extrapersonal space. Therefore, peripersonal space was particularly affected by
      temporal information. The possible link between the motor and anticipatory
      adaptive function of peripersonal space and collision prediction mechanisms is
      discussed.

PMID- 28554081
TI  - Cooperative tool-use reveals peripersonal and interpersonal spaces are
      dissociable.
AB  - The space surrounding people is often termed Interpersonal (IPS) in social
      psychology and Peripersonal (PPS) in neuroscience. In the current debate about
      their origin, the prevalent opinion is they share common functional
      characteristics. Bucking the trend, here we report a dissociation between PPS,
      operationalized as reachable space, and IPS, operationalized as comfort space. To
      probe their plasticity we introduced a novel type of cooperative long-tool-use
      that would modify both spaces. Results showed the estimated IPS referred to
      another individual was reduced, as expected following a positive social
      interaction. In sharp contrast, the estimated PPS toward the very same
      cooperative person was actually extended after use of the same long-tool. Control
      short-tool-use selectively reduced IPS, but not PPS, when performed in the same
      cooperative set or had no effect on either space estimation, when performed in a
      neutral set where the other person is not interacting cooperatively, but simply
      observing. The use of tools to perform actions in social settings allows us to
      report the first strong evidence that PPS and IPS underlie dissociable plastic
      representations: the former representation is sensitive to long-tool-dependent
      plasticity, whereas the latter representation, independently of use of a short or
      long tool, is sensitive to cooperation-dependent plasticity.

PMID- 28554082
TI  - Discriminating relational and perceptual judgments: Evidence from human toddlers.
AB  - The ability to represent same-different relations is an important condition for
      abstract thought. However, there is mixed evidence for when this ability
      develops, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically. Apparent success in
      relational reasoning may be evidence for genuine conceptual understanding or may
      be the result of low-level, perceptual strategies. We introduce a method to
      discriminate these possibilities by pitting two conditions that are perceptually
      matched but conceptually different: in a "fused" condition, same and different
      objects are joined, creating single objects that have the same perceptual
      features as the two object pairs in the "relational" condition. However, the
      "fused" objects do not provide evidence for the relation 'same.' Using this
      method with human toddlers in a causal relational reasoning task provides
      evidence for genuine conceptual understanding. This novel technique offers a
      simple manipulation that may be applied to a variety of existing match-to-sample
      procedures used to assess same-different reasoning to include in future research
      with non-human animals across species, as well as human infants.

PMID- 28554083
TI  - Children's difficulty with true belief tasks: Competence deficit or performance
      problem?
AB  - According to the standard picture of explicit theory of mind (ToM) development,
      children begin to (explicitly) ascribe beliefs to others and themselves from
      around age 4. The empirical basis of this picture comes from numerous studies
      consistently showing that children master verbal false belief (FB) tasks from
      around age 4 while children much younger have no difficulty in mastering
      structurally analogous true belief (TB) tasks. The standard picture, though, has
      come under serious attack from recent studies using TB tasks with wider age
      ranges. These studies have found that, paradoxically, children begin to fail TB
      tasks once they master FB tasks. Such findings cast doubt on the standard picture
      and suggest, instead, that FB tasks may be solved by much simpler strategies than
      proper belief reasoning. In the present study, we tested for the development of
      FB and TB performance in comprehensive and systematic ways. In particular, we
      tested the competing predictions of competence accounts (according to which TB
      failure reflects lack of conceptual competence) versus performance limitation
      accounts (according to which the standard picture is true yet children from
      around age 4 fail TB tasks due to performance factors). Studies 1 and 2 showed
      that performance in a variety of novel TB tasks showed a clear U-shaped curve,
      with children until age 3 and from age 10 performing competently and children in
      between failing, with strong negative correlations between TB and FB. Crucially,
      these patterns were found for various kinds of TB tasks, including those for
      which existing competence limitation accounts would not even predict any
      difficulty. Study 3, therefore, directly tested performance limitation accounts
      in terms of pragmatic and related factors and found that these patterns (failure
      in TB and negative TB-FB correlations) disappear once the relevant performance
      factors have been removed from the TB tasks. Taken together, these findings
      suggest that previous TB findings constitute false negatives, clearly speak for
      performance limitation accounts and thus corroborate the standard picture of the
      development of explicit theory of mind.

PMID- 28554084
TI  - General object recognition is specific: Evidence from novel and familiar objects.
AB  - In tests of object recognition, individual differences typically correlate
      modestly but nontrivially across familiar categories (e.g. cars, faces, shoes,
      birds, mushrooms). In theory, these correlations could reflect either global, non
      specific mechanisms, such as general intelligence (IQ), or more specific
      mechanisms. Here, we introduce two separate methods for effectively capturing
      category-general performance variation, one that uses novel objects and one that
      uses familiar objects. In each case, we show that category-general performance
      variance is unrelated to IQ, thereby implicating more specific mechanisms. The
      first approach examines three newly developed novel object memory tests (NOMTs).
      We predicted that NOMTs would exhibit more shared, category-general variance than
      familiar object memory tests (FOMTs) because novel objects, unlike familiar
      objects, lack category-specific environmental influences (e.g. exposure to car
      magazines or botany classes). This prediction held, and remarkably, virtually
      none of the substantial shared variance among NOMTs was explained by IQ. Also,
      while NOMTs correlated nontrivially with two FOMTs (faces, cars), these
      correlations were smaller than among NOMTs and no larger than between the face
      and car tests themselves, suggesting that the category-general variance captured
      by NOMTs is specific not only relative to IQ, but also, to some degree, relative
      to both face and car recognition. The second approach averaged performance across
      multiple FOMTs, which we predicted would increase category-general variance by
      averaging out category-specific factors. This prediction held, and as with NOMTs,
      virtually none of the shared variance among FOMTs was explained by IQ. Overall,
      these results support the existence of object recognition mechanisms that, though
      category-general, are specific relative to IQ and substantially separable from
      face and car recognition. They also add sensitive, well-normed NOMTs to the tools
      available to study object recognition.

PMID- 28554085
TI  - Developmental changes in the critical information used for facial expression
      processing.
AB  - Facial expression recognition skills are known to improve across childhood and
      adolescence, but the mechanisms driving the development of these important social
      abilities remain unclear. This study investigates directly whether there are
      qualitative differences in child and adult processing strategies for these
      emotional stimuli. With a novel adaptation of the Bubbles reverse-correlation
      paradigm (Gosselin & Schyns, 2001), we added noise to expressive face stimuli and
      presented sub-sets of randomly sampled information from each image at different
      locations and spatial frequency bands across experimental trials. Results from
      our large developmental sample: 71 young children (6 -9years), 69 older children
      (10-13years) and 54 adults, uniquely reveal profiles of strategic information-use
      for categorisations of fear, sadness, happiness and anger at all ages. All three
      groups relied upon a distinct set of key facial features for each of these
      expressions, with fine-tuning of this diagnostic information (features and
      spatial frequency) observed across developmental time. Reported variability in
      the developmental trajectories for different emotional expressions is consistent
      with the notion of functional links between the refinement of information-use and
      processing ability.

PMID- 28554086
TI  - Exposure to multiple accents supports infants' understanding of novel accents.
AB  - Accented speech poses a challenge for listeners, particularly those with limited
      knowledge of their language. In a series of studies, we explored the possibility
      that experience with variability, specifically the variability provided by
      multiple accents, would facilitate infants' comprehension of speech produced with
      an unfamiliar accent. 15- and 18-month-old American-English learning infants were
      exposed to brief passages of multi-talker speech and subsequently tested on their
      ability to distinguish between real, familiar words and nonsense words, produced
      in either their native accent or an unfamiliar (British) accent. Exposure
      passages were produced in a familiar (American) accent, a single unfamiliar
      (British) accent or a variety of novel accents (Australian, Southern, Indian).
      While 15-month-olds successfully recognized real words spoken in a familiar
      accent, they never demonstrated comprehension of English words produced in the
      unfamiliar accent. 18-month-olds also failed to recognize English words spoken in
      the unfamiliar accent after exposure to the familiar or single unfamiliar accent.
      However, they succeeded after exposure to multiple unfamiliar accents, suggesting
      that as they get older, infants are better able to exploit the cues provided by
      variable speech. Increased variability across multiple dimensions can be
      advantageous for young listeners.

PMID- 28554087
TI  - Negative emotion enhances mnemonic precision and subjective feelings of
      remembering in visual long-term memory.
AB  - Negative emotion sometimes enhances memory (higher accuracy and/or vividness,
      e.g., flashbulb memories). The present study investigates whether it is the
      qualitative (precision) or quantitative (the probability of successful retrieval)
      aspect of memory that drives these effects. In a visual long-term memory task,
      observers memorized colors (Experiment 1a) or orientations (Experiment 1b) of
      sequentially presented everyday objects under negative, neutral, or positive
      emotions induced with International Affective Picture System images. In a
      subsequent test phase, observers reconstructed objects' colors or orientations
      using the method of adjustment. We found that mnemonic precision was enhanced
      under the negative condition relative to the neutral and positive conditions. In
      contrast, the probability of successful retrieval was comparable across the
      emotion conditions. Furthermore, the boost in memory precision was associated
      with elevated subjective feelings of remembering (vividness and confidence) and
      metacognitive sensitivity in Experiment 2. Altogether, these findings suggest a
      novel precision-based account for emotional memories.

PMID- 28554088
TI  - Vowels in infant-directed speech: More breathy and more variable, but not
      clearer.
AB  - Infant-directed speech (IDS) is known to differ from adult-directed speech (ADS)
      in a number of ways, and it has often been argued that some of these IDS
      properties facilitate infants' acquisition of language. An influential study in
      support of this view is Kuhl et al. (1997), which found that vowels in IDS are
      produced with expanded first and second formants (F1/F2) on average, indicating
      that the vowels are acoustically further apart in IDS than in ADS. These results
      have been interpreted to mean that the way vowels are produced in IDS makes
      infants' task of learning vowel categories easier. The present paper revisits
      this interpretation by means of a thorough analysis of IDS vowels using a large
      scale corpus of Japanese natural utterances. We will show that the expansion of
      F1/F2 values does occur in spontaneous IDS even when the vowels' prosodic
      position, lexical pitch accent, and lexical bias are accounted for. When IDS
      vowels are compared to carefully read speech (CS) by the same mothers, however,
      larger variability among IDS vowel tokens means that the acoustic distances among
      vowels are farther apart only in CS, but not in IDS when compared to ADS.
      Finally, we will show that IDS vowels are significantly more breathy than ADS or
      CS vowels. Taken together, our results demonstrate that even though expansion of
      formant values occurs in spontaneous IDS, this expansion cannot be interpreted as
      an indication that the acoustic distances among vowels are farther apart, as is
      the case in CS. Instead, we found that IDS vowels are characterized by breathy
      voice, which has been associated with the communication of emotional affect.

PMID- 28554089
TI  - Having a task partner affects lexical retrieval: Spoken word production in shared
      task settings.
AB  - Acting jointly with a partner is different from acting alone. In this study we
      investigate whether speaking with a partner is different from speaking alone.
      Drawing upon a well-established effect in language production we investigate the
      degree of cumulative semantic interference experienced when naming a sequence of
      pictures together with a partner. Pictures of semantically related objects were
      named either by participants only, or by taking turns with their partner. Naming
      latencies increased with each additional category member, confirming cumulative
      semantic interference. Crucially, naming latencies increased more sharply when
      inprevious trials within-category pictures were named by the partner
      (vs.presented only visually but named by noone). This effect is not simply due to
      hearing additional pictures being named (Experiment 1). Even when participants
      merely believe their remotely located partner is naming the picture (Experiment
      2), and when participants cannot hear their co-present partner naming the picture
      (Experiment 3), lexical processes appear to be triggered that subsequently
      interfere with participants' own lexical retrieval. Our results speak for a
      profound and lasting effect of having a partner on the language production
      system.

PMID- 28554090
TI  - Should women be "All About That Bass?": Diverse body-ideal messages and women's
      body image.
AB  - While most body image research emphasizes the thin ideal, a wider variety of body
      ideal messages pervade U.S. popular culture today, including those promoting
      athleticism or curves. Two studies assessed women's reactions to messages
      conveying thin, athletic, and curvy ideals, compared to a control message that
      emphasized accepting all body types. Study 1 (N=192) surveyed women's responses
      to these messages and found they perceived body-acceptance and athletic messages
      most favorably, curvy messages more negatively, and thin messages most
      negatively. Further, greatest liking within each message category came from women
      who identified with that body type. Study 2 (N=189) experimentally manipulated
      exposure to these messages, then measured self-objectification and body
      satisfaction. Messages promoting a body-ideal caused more self-objectification
      than body-acceptance messages. Also, athletic messages caused more body
      dissatisfaction than thin messages. Together, these findings reveal the
      complexity of women's responses to diverse messages they receive about ideal
      bodies.

PMID- 28554091
TI  - Design and synthesis of potent HIV-1 protease inhibitors with (S)-tetrahydrofuran
      tertiary amine-acetamide as P2-ligand: Structure-activity studies and biological
      evaluation.
AB  - The design, synthesis, and SAR study of a new series of HIV-1 protease inhibitors
      incorporating stereochemically defined tetrahydrofuran-tertiary amine-acetamide
      P2-ligand are described. Various substituent effects on the tertiary amine P2
      ligand and phenylsulfonamide P2'-ligand were investigated to maximize the ligand
      binding site interactions in the protease active site. Most of inhibitors
      displayed low nanomolar to subnanomolar inhibitory potency. Inhibitor 20e
      containing N-(S-tetrahydrofuran)-N-(2-methoxyethyl)acetamide as P2-ligand along
      with 4-methoxylphenylsulfonamide as P2'-ligand displayed the most potent enzyme
      inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.35 nM) and remarkably low cytotoxicity (CC50 = 305
      MUM).

PMID- 28554092
TI  - Design, synthesis, and evaluation of benzofuran derivatives as novel anti
      pancreatic carcinoma agents via interfering the hypoxia environment by targeting
      HIF-1alpha pathway.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most common type of
      pancreatic cancer, and has still been the medicinal mystery. New drugs and
      treatment strategies are urgently needed. In this study, 32 benzofuran
      derivatives are designed, synthesized and evaluated as potential agents against
      the pancreatic cancer. Among them, compound 9o with the best physicochemical and
      pharmacokinetic properties exhibited excellent cytotoxicity against many tumor
      cell lines. In vivo study showed that compound 9o dramatically suppressed the
      tumor growth of nude mice. Furthermore, compound 9o could affect the hypoxia
      environment through Hif-1alpha/VEGF pathway, resulting in the anti-angiogenic
      activity. These studies indicated that compound 9o was a promising candidate for
      the treatment of PDAC, deserving further studies.

PMID- 28554093
TI  - New bicyclic brominated furanones as potent autoinducer-2 quorum-sensing
      inhibitors against bacterial biofilm formation.
AB  - Bacterial behaviors such as virulence factor secretion and biofilm formation are
      critical for survival, and are effectively regulated through quorum sensing, a
      mechanism of intra- and interspecies communication in response to changes in cell
      density and species complexity. Many bacterial species colonize host tissues and
      form a defensive structure called a biofilm, which can be the basis of
      inflammatory diseases. Periodontitis, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting
      the periodontium, is caused by subgingival biofilms related to
      periodontopathogens. In particular, Fusobacterium nucleatum is a major co
      aggregation bridge organism in the formation and growth of subgingival biofilms,
      linking the early and late colonizers in periodontal biofilms. According to our
      previous study, the intergeneric quorum-sensing signal molecule autoinducer-2 (AI
      2) of F. nucleatum plays a key role in intra- and interspecies interactions of
      periodontopathogens, and may be a good target for periodontal biofilm inhibition.
      Recently, brominated furanones produced by the macroalga Delisea pulchra were
      shown to inhibit biofilm formation via AI-2, and have been investigated toward
      the goal of increasing the inhibition effect. In this study, we describe the
      synthesis of new bromofuranone analogs, i.e., 3-(dibromomethylene)isobenzofuran
      1(3H)-one derivatives, and demonstrate their inhibitory activities against
      biofilm formation by periodontopathogens, including F. nucleatum, Porphyromonas
      gingivalis, and Tannerella forsythia.

PMID- 28554095
TI  - The association between red cell distribution width and poor outcomes in
      hospitalized patients with influenza.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine an association between red blood cell distribution width
      (RDW) and the prognosis of influenza patients. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized with influenza during 2012-2015
      in the internal medicine wards of one medical center. RDW measurements during
      hospitalization were analyzed. Primary outcome was complicated hospitalization
      (defined as at least one of: length of stay >=7days, need for mechanical
      ventilation, septic shock, transfer to intensive-care, or 30-day mortality).
      Secondary outcome was 30-day mortality. RESULTS: 153 patients were included, mean
      age: 62.5+/-1, 82 (54%) male; 84 (55%) had a high RDW value (>14.5%) during
      hospitalization. Patients with high and low RDW (<=14.5%) had similar age and
      comorbidity profiles, but those with high RDW had lower hemoglobin and higher
      creatinine levels. Patients with high RDW had a higher rate of complicated
      hospitalization (32.5% vs. 10.3%, p<0.01) and a trend for increased 30-day
      mortality. In a multivariate regression model, high RDW was a predictor of
      complicated hospitalization (OR 5.03, 95% CI 1.81-13.93, p<0.01). Each 1-point
      increase in RDW was associated with a 29% increase in the risk for the primary
      outcome. CONCLUSION: RDW>14.5% was a predictor of severe hospital complications
      in patients with influenza.

PMID- 28554094
TI  - Serum lactate dehydrogenase is predictive of persistent organ failure in acute
      pancreatitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) has been reported in a
      serious of clinical diseases. However, the relationship between LDH and the
      incidence of persistent organ failure (POF) in acute pancreatitis (AP) has not
      been characterized. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 105 patients with AP who
      presented within 72h from symptom onset between 2014 and 2015 were included in
      this retrospective study. Demographic parameters and laboratory data on admission
      were compared between patients with and without POF. Multivariable logistic
      regression analyses were utilized to evaluate the prognostic value of LDH for
      predicting POF. RESULTS: 21 patients were diagnosed with POF. Compared to non
      POF, patients with POF showed a significantly higher value of serum LDH on
      admission (741.57+/-331.72 vs. 296.08+/-135.73U/L, P<0.001). After multivariate
      logistic analysis, LDH remained an independent risk factor for POF (Hazard ratio
      4.38, 95%CI: 1.42-13.47; P=0.010). A LDH value of 647U/L predicted POF with an
      area under the curve (AUC) of 0.876, a sensitivity with 76.2% and specificity
      with 98.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that serum LDH on
      admission is independently associated with POF in AP and may serve as a potential
      prognostic factor.

PMID- 28554096
TI  - Phthalates and thyroid function in preschool age children: Sex specific
      associations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research relating either prenatal or concurrent measures of phthalate
      exposure to thyroid function in preschool children is inconclusive. METHODS: In a
      study of inner-city mothers and their children, metabolites of di-n-butyl
      phthalate, butylbenzyl phthalate, di-isobutyl phthalate, di(2-ethylhexyl)
      phthalate, and diethyl phthalate were measured in a spot urine sample collected
      from women in late pregnancy and from their children at age 3years. We measured
      children's serum free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) at
      age 3. Linear regression models were used to investigate the associations between
      phthalate metabolites, measured in maternal urine during late pregnancy and
      measured in child urine at age 3 and thyroid function measured at age 3. RESULTS:
      Mean concentrations (ranges) were 1.42ng/dL (1.02-2.24) for FT4, and 2.62uIU/mL
      (0.61-11.67) for TSH. In the children at age 3, among girls, FT4 decreased with
      increasing loge mono-n-butyl phthalate [estimated b=-0.06; 95% CI: (-0.09, 
      0.02)], loge mono-isobutyl phthalate [b=-0.05; 95% CI: (-0.09, -0.01)], loge
      monoethyl phthalate [b=-0.04; 95% CI: (-0.07, -0.01)], and loge mono(2-ethyl-5
      hydroxyhexyl) phthalate [b=-0.04; 95% CI: (-0.07, -0.003)] and loge mono(2-ethyl
      5-oxy-hexyl) phthalate [b=-0.04; 95% CI: (-0.07, -0.004)]. In contrast, among
      boys, we observed no associations between FT4 and child phthalate metabolites at
      age 3. On the other hand, in late gestation, FT4 increased with increasing loge
      mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate [estimated b=0.04; 95% CI: (0.02, 0.06)] and no sex
      difference was observed. We found no associations between phthalate biomarkers
      measured in either the child or prenatal samples and TSH at age 3. CONCLUSIONS:
      The data show inverse and sex specific associations between specific phthalate
      metabolites measured in children at age 3 and thyroid function in preschool
      children. These results may provide evidence for the hypothesis that reductions
      in thyroid hormones mediate associations between early life phthalate exposure
      and child cognitive outcomes.

PMID- 28554098
TI  - The ward as emotional ecology: Adolescent experiences of managing mental health
      and distress in psychiatric inpatient settings.
AB  - Previous research on young people's satisfaction of inpatient services has often
      relied on the responses of carers and relevant practitioners. It is difficult to
      ascertain to what extent such reporting accurately represents the satisfaction
      levels of young people, with emerging research suggesting wide discrepancies. As
      part of a wider study evaluating the effectiveness of a Supported Discharge
      Service (SDS) operating within South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, this
      paper examines how young people experience inpatient services, on a social and
      emotional level. Twenty young people, (10 SDS and 10 TAU) participated in a semi
      structured visual-interview study to examine their experiences of admission, ward
      life and treatment. A thematic decomposition analysis was conducted on the data
      and specific themes relevant to satisfaction and engagement with inpatient
      services was examined in-depth. These include a) Behavioural surveillance as care
      surrogate and b) Managing the delicate emotional ecology of the ward: openness,
      triggering, sterility and relational engagements. Finally, we explore some of the
      implications of these inpatient experiences for supported discharge services.

PMID- 28554097
TI  - The effect of high temperature on cause-specific mortality: A multi-county
      analysis in China.
AB  - Although existing studies have linked high temperature to mortality in a small
      number of regions, less evidence is available on the variation in the
      associations between high temperature exposure and cause-specific mortality of
      multiple regions in China. Our study focused on the use of time series analysis
      to quantify the association between high temperature and different cause-specific
      mortalities for susceptible populations for 43 counties in China. Two-stage
      analyses adopting a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) and a meta-analysis
      allowed us to obtain county-specific estimates and national-scale pooled
      estimates of the nonlinear temperature-mortality relationship. We also considered
      different populations stratified by age and sex, causes of death, absolute and
      relative temperature patterns, and potential confounding from air pollutants. All
      of the observed cause-specific mortalities are significantly associated with
      higher temperature. The estimated effects of high temperature on mortality varied
      by spatial distribution and temperature patterns. Compared with the 90th
      percentile temperature, the overall relative risk (RR) at the 99th percentile
      temperature for non-accidental mortality is 1.105 (95%CI: 1.089, 1.122), for
      circulatory disease is 1.107 (95%CI: 1.081, 1.133), for respiratory disease is
      1.095 (95%CI: 1.050, 1.142), for coronary heart disease is 1.073 (95%CI: 1.047,
      1.099), for acute myocardial infarction is 1.072 (95%CI: 1.042, 1.104), and for
      stroke is 1.095 (95%CI: 1.052, 1.138). Based on our findings, we believe that
      heat-related health effect in China is a significant issue that requires more
      attention and allocation of existing resources.

PMID- 28554099
TI  - Evaluation of ADMA, carbonyl groups, CAT and NKA in depressed patients with and
      without posttraumatic stress disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been shown that asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), carbonyl
      groups, catalase (CAT) and neurokinin A (NKA) are actively involved in neuronal
      processes such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of
      their roles is to protect the body from oxidative damage. This is done by
      affecting neuronal growth, development and plasticity. The study aimed at
      assessing the concentrations of ADMA, carbonyl groups, CAT and NKA in patients
      with varying levels of depression severity, PTSD, and depression concurrent with
      PTSD. METHODS: The study covered 460 people. Out of them, 120 suffered from
      different types of depression. The study groups comprised: 60 subjects with mild
      depression (MD), 60 subjects with moderate depression (MOD), 60 subjects with
      severe depression (SeD), 60 subjects with MD and PTSD (MD+PTSD), 60 subjects with
      MOD and PTSD (MOD+PTSD), 60 subjects with SeD and PTSD (SeD+PTSD), and 60
      subjects with PTSD alone. Each group of 60 participants included 30 males and 30
      females. The concentrations of all blood parameters were determined at 7 a.m.
      using the ELISA method. RESULTS: Depressive episodes became more severe as the
      concentration levels of studied markers increased. CONCLUSIONS: ADMA, carbonyl
      groups, CAT and NKA can be useful markers of chronic stress in both males and
      females with depression, PTSD, and depression concurrent with PTSD. They can be
      utilized when making an initial diagnosis and evaluating the severity of disease.
      Changes in their concentration levels may show a biological response to oxidative
      stress characteristic of depression.

PMID- 28554100
TI  - Fast pyrolysis kinetics of alkali lignin: Evaluation of apparent rate parameters
      and product time evolution.
AB  - In this study, the apparent kinetics of fast pyrolysis of alkali lignin was
      evaluated by obtaining isothermal mass loss data in the timescale of 2-30s at 400
      700 degrees C in an analytical pyrolyzer. The data were analyzed using different
      reaction models to determine the rate constants and apparent rate parameters.
      First order and one dimensional diffusion models resulted in good fits with
      experimental data with apparent activation energy of 23kJmol-1. Kinetic
      compensation effect was established using a large number of kinetic parameters
      reported in the literature for pyrolysis of different lignins. The time evolution
      of the major functional groups in the pyrolysate was analyzed using in situ
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Maximum production of the volatiles
      occurred around 10-12s. A clear transformation of guaiacols to phenol, catechol
      and their derivatives, and aromatic hydrocarbons was observed with increasing
      temperature. The plausible reaction steps involved in various transformations are
      discussed.

PMID- 28554101
TI  - Mono- and co-substrate utilization kinetics using mono- and co-culture of
      Clostridium beijerinckii and Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum.
AB  - The effect of co-culturing C. beijerinckii and C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum for
      H2 production using mono- and co-substrates of glucose, starch, and cellulose was
      assessed. Monod kinetic parameters (K, maximum specific substrate utilization
      rate; and Ks, half-saturation constant) of the C. beijerinckii, C.
      saccharoperbutylacetonicum, and the co-culture were determined. Co-cultures
      utilizing glucose competed for the substrate, but showed enhancement for
      utilizing starch. The maximum values for K on glucose and starch were 0.48g
      substrate/gVSS.h achieved by C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum mono-culture and 0.39g
      substrate/gVSS.h achieved by the co-culture, respectively. The average Ks for all
      mono- and co-culture experiments was 0.93+/-0.03g/L. Acetate, butyrate, and
      propionate were the main fermentation products for all experiments. Maximum H2
      production yields on glucose (2.69mol/molglucose) and starch (1.07mol/molhexose)
      were achieved by C. beijerinckii and C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum mono-cultures,
      respectively; however, neither culture was able to degrade cellulose as a mono
      substrate.

PMID- 28554102
TI  - Effects of trace metal deficiency and supplementation on a submerged anaerobic
      membrane bioreactor.
AB  - This study examined the effects of a deficiency in trace metals (TMs) on the
      performance of a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAMBR). When trace
      metals were excluded from the feed to the SAMBR, COD removal and methane yield
      reduced while VFAs in the effluent increased. A reduction of up to 37.48% in the
      total metal content in the reactor was observed, while the less bioavailable
      fractions increased up to 13.29%. Pulse addition of trace metals for 7 days at 5
      times the daily metal loading was effective in improving the performance of the
      SAMBR by increasing the amount of trace metals in the bioavailable fractions from
      2.12% to 11.92%, with up to 87.7% of added metals retained in the reactor within
      24h. However, the second and third pulse at 5 and 10-times daily metal loading
      did not result in similar changes in metal speciation and might have inhibited
      the methanogens.

PMID- 28554103
TI  - Bioelectrochemical enhancement of direct interspecies electron transfer in upflow
      anaerobic reactor with effluent recirculation for acidic distillery wastewater.
AB  - Methane production in the upflow anaerobic bioelectrochemical reactor (UABE)
      treating acidic distillery wastewater was compared to the upflow anaerobic sludge
      blanket reactor (UASB), and the electron transfer pathways for methane production
      were also evaluated in the effluent recirculation. The methane productions from
      reactors were influenced by the low pH of influent wastewater. However, the
      methane production rate and yield of the UABE were 2.08L/L.d and 320mL/g CODr,
      which were higher than the UASB. The effluent recirculation containing alkalinity
      neutralized the acidic influent and increased the upflow velocity in both
      reactors, and improved the direct interspecies electron transfer more in the
      UABE. When the effluent recirculation ratio was 3.0 in the UABE, the methane
      production rate and yield were reached up to 3.88L/L.d and 501.0mL/g CODr,
      respectively. The UABE requires electrode installation and electrical energy for
      operation, but the benefits from increased methane production are much higher.

PMID- 28554104
TI  - Capitellar fracture with bony avulsion of the lateral collateral ligament in a
      child: Case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Isolated capitellar fracture is a rare injury accounting for 1% of
      all elbow fractures Bryan and Morrey (1985) and Poynton et al. (1998). In
      children, a fall on an outstretched hand, before the fusion of the epiphysis,
      usually leads to lateral condyle physeal fractures. Very few cases of capitellar
      fractures in the paediatric population have been reported. PRESENTATION OF CASE:
      Our patient, a 9-year-old girl presented with a capitellar fracture and lateral
      collateral ligament (LCL) avulsion of her left elbow. A type IV capitellar
      fracture, indicated by the double arc sign on the radiogram, was confirmed with 3
      dimensional computed tomography. The patient underwent open reduction through a
      lateral approach and fixation with 2 Herbert's screws. The lateral collateral
      ligament (LCL) avulsion was repaired with 2 suture anchors. Early mobilization
      and rehabilitation were started soon after the surgery. Follow-up radiography
      showed union of the fracture with no signs of osteonecrosis. DISCUSSION:
      Capitellum fracture in children is easily overlooked due to its rarity. And
      hereby, meticulous history, clinical examination and proper radiological views
      with high index of suspicion is crucial in order diagnose these injuries. Our
      patient had type IV capitellar fracture with lateral collateral ligament
      avulsion. Principles of management of these intra articular fractures include
      accurate reduction, stable fixation and early mobilization. We used an extensile
      lateral approach to expose, reduce and fix the fracture. LCL avulsion was fixed
      with 2 suture anchors. CONCLUSION: Capitellum fractures are rare injuries in
      children. Careful evaluation and proper stable fixation are the cornerstones of
      good functional results.

PMID- 28554105
TI  - Comment on: "A case report of a complete degloving injury of the penile skin".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We recently published an article in the International Journal of
      Surgical Case Reports titled: "Scrotal dartos-fascio-myo-cutaneous flap for penis
      elongation after catastrophic iatrogenic skin shaft sub-amputation: A case of
      recovery using an extremely adaptable flap". PRESENTATION OF CASE: We propose a
      comment on a recent article titled "A case report of a complete degloving injury
      of the penile skin" by Helena Aineskog and Frederik Huss that we read with great
      interest. DISCUSSION: Genitalia are linked to self-esteem and male sexual
      identity, especially among young men, who sometimes require a surgical procedure
      to acquire more confidence. Various techniques are available for pe-nile skin
      covering, such as skin grafts or cutaneous flaps. The skin of the scrotum seems
      to be the most suitable tissue to be used to reconstruct the skin covering of the
      shaft as it is the most similar. CONCLUSION: Scrotal flap is a single stage
      procedure that is easy and safe to perform.

PMID- 28554106
TI  - Chest wall reconstruction following axillary breast augmentation and desmoid
      tumor resection using capsular flaps and a form-stable silicone implant: A case
      report, diagnosis and surgical technique.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chest desmoid tumors (CDT) are rare lesions characterized by
      fibroblastic proliferation from the connective tissue. Although CDT have been
      studied previously, no cases following subfascial transaxillary breast
      augmentation (TBA) have been described. PRESENTATION OF CASE: The authors
      describe a case of CDT in a 28-year-old woman one year after TBA, which presented
      as a painful and progressive mass in the lower-inner right breast quadrant. MRI
      showed a soft-tissue tumor (6*3*4cm) that affected the region of the right
      anterior costal margin, without signs of structural costal invasion. Patient was
      treated surgically, exposing the right costal-sternal region through an
      inframammary approach and resecting the CDT. The remaining capsular flap was
      mobilized into the defect and a form-stable silicone implant was utilized to
      cover the chest wall defect and achieve an adequate breast contour. The patient
      is currently in 5th year after chest reconstruction, with satisfactory results.
      Neither the tumor or the symptoms recurred. DISCUSSION: CDT is an uncommon
      evolution following TBA. Although it is a rare disease, thoracic and plastic
      surgeons must be alert to avoid misdiagnosis. Defect reconstruction is necessary,
      mobilizing the capsular flaps and replacing the implants in order to obtain a
      satisfactory outcome. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of this rare post-operative evolution
      is crucial, and early surgical intervention is warranted in order to avoid more
      aggressive treatment. This case report provides general knowledge of CDT, and may
      be used as guidance for early diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28554107
TI  - Manual laparoscopy-assisted intraoperative reduction for adult ileocolic
      intussusception with ileal adenoma: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adult intussusception is a rare condition with a pathological lead
      point. Intraoperative reduction of adult intussusception can eliminate the need
      for extensive or invasive resection. We safely performed a manual laparoscopy
      assisted intraoperative reduction that allowed functional preservation of tissue.
      PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 70-year-old woman with dull right lumbar pain at regular
      intervals and right lower quadrant abdominal tenderness was admitted to our
      hospital. The ileum exhibited enhanced wall thickening and invagination into the
      ascending colon on computed tomography. Emergency laparoscopic surgery was chosen
      to treat the ileocolic intussusception. First, the right colon was mobilized.
      Second, the ileocecal region was pulled through a 4-cm right pararectus incision.
      Third, the edge of the intussusceptum was gently manipulated back upstream
      without tearing. After reduction, a soft mass was recognized on palpation at the
      lead point, located 10cm proximal to the ileocecal valve. Ileocecal resection was
      performed, and a laterally spreading tumor was observed in the resected specimen.
      The histological diagnosis was high-grade tubular adenoma. The postoperative
      course was uneventful. DISCUSSION: Adult intussusception has a pathological lead
      point, and curative treatment generally includes resection of the lesion.
      Complete or partial intraoperative reduction can avoid or shorten bowel resection
      and allow functional preservation of the tissue. CONCLUSION: Manual laparoscopy
      assisted intraoperative reduction with a minilaparotomy was safely performed,
      which eliminated the need for extensive or invasive resection.

PMID- 28554108
TI  - Indirect comparison between pembrolizumab and nivolumab for the treatment of non
      small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and adverse
      effects of nivolumab and pembrolizumab for the treatment of advanced non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by meta-analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This meta
      analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed after searching
      PubMed, EMBASE, and American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting abstracts,
      clinicaltrial gov, and Cochrane library databases. Two reviewers independently
      assessed the quality of the trials. Outcomes analysis was overall response rates
      (ORR), overall survival (OS), progression- free survival (PFS) and major adverse
      effects with odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals
      (CI). RESULTS: Results reported from three RCTs involving 1,887 patients are
      included in this analysis. Indirect comparison between pembrolizumab and
      nivolumab in advanced NSCLC shows no statistically significant difference in ORR
      (OR: 1.14, 95% CI, 0.60-2.01), OS (HR: 0.98, 95% CI, 0.35-2.74) and PFS (HR:
      1.12, 95% CI, 0.70-1.77). The incidence of grades>=3 adverse effects is higher
      with pembrolizumab as compared with nivolumab (OR: 3.44, 95% CI, 1.87-6.32).
      There are no significant statistical differences between severe adverse effects,
      such as pneumonitis and hypothyroidism, of the two drugs. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      has demonstrated that pembrolizumab and nivolumab have similar survival outcomes
      in patients with advanced NSCLC, but pembrolizumab has a higher incidence of
      grades>=3 adverse effects than nivolumab.

PMID- 28554109
TI  - Glucocorticoid receptor number and affinity differ between peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells and granulocytes in domestic pigs.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to characterize the number and affinity of
      glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and
      granulocytes of domestic pigs because glucocorticoid signaling is considered
      important for animal health and welfare. To investigate GR binding
      characteristics in intact porcine immune cells, blood samples of 6 castrated male
      pigs were collected via indwelling vein catheters. Porcine PBMC and granulocytes
      were isolated using two-layer density gradients, followed by radioligand binding
      assays to determine the number of GR sites per cell and the dissociation constant
      Kd as a measure for GR binding affinity. The present study revealed a greater
      number of GR sites per cell (P = 0.039) in PBMC (mean +/- SEM: 1,953 +/- 207
      sites/cell) compared to granulocytes (1,561 +/- 159 sites/cell) in domestic pigs.
      Furthermore, porcine PBMC had a higher GR binding affinity than porcine
      granulocytes (P = 0.003) as the dissociation constant Kd of PBMC (1.8 +/- 0.2 nM)
      was lower than that of granulocytes (3.5 +/- 0.4 nM). Our results point to
      differences in underlying mechanisms of glucocorticoid signaling in different
      porcine leukocyte populations.

PMID- 28554110
TI  - Evaluation of the detoxification efficiencies of coking wastewater treated by
      combined anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O) and advanced oxidation process.
AB  - Coking wastewater contains many types of toxic and hazardous pollutants that have
      serious toxic effects on human beings as well as aquatic organisms. However, few
      studies have evaluated the detoxification efficiencies of the treatment processes
      that are extensively performed in operational coking wastewater treatment plants
      (WWTPs). This study investigates the detoxification efficiencies of a combined
      anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O)-ozonation and A2O-Fenton oxidation process in two
      coking WWTPs using an acute immobilization test for Daphnia magna, acute toxicity
      test for adult zebrafish, embryo toxicity test for zebrafish and the comet assay.
      The raw coking wastewaters displayed high acute daphnia and fish toxicity,
      zebrafish embryo toxicity and genotoxicity. The A2O processing unit effectively
      removed acute and embryo toxicity, but not genotoxicity. In addition, the A2O
      effluent quality did not meet the integrated wastewater discharge standard in
      China (GB18918-2002). The ozonation and Fenton oxidation units used as post
      treatments in these two plants not only treated the coking wastewater to the
      discharge standard but also reduced the genotoxicity. However, the final
      effluents still showed potential genotoxicity after high dilution. The results
      suggest that the discharge of treated coking wastewater probably poses potential
      risks to human health and the environment even if it met regulatory standards.

PMID- 28554111
TI  - Retrieval of Au, Ag, Cu precious metals coupled with electric energy production
      via an unconventional coupled redox fuel cell reactor.
AB  - The recovery of heavy metals from aqueous solutions or e-wastes is of upmost
      importance. Retrieval of Au, Ag, and Cu with electricity generation through
      building an ethanol-metal coupled redox fuel cells (CRFCs) is demonstrated. The
      cell was uniquely assembled on PdNi/C anode the electro-oxidation of ethanol
      takes place to give electrons and then go through the external circuit reducing
      metal ions to metallic on the cathode, metals are recovered. Taking an example of
      removal of 100mgL-1 gold in 0.5M HAc-NaAc buffer solution as the catholyte, 2.0M
      ethanol in 1.0M alkaline solution as the anolyte, an open circuit voltage of
      1.4V, more than 96% of gold removal efficiency in 20h, and equivalent energy
      production of 2.0kWhkg-1 of gold can be readily achieved in this system. When
      gold and copper ions coexist, it was confirmed that metallic Cu is formed on the
      cathodic electrode later than metallic Au formation by XPS analysis. Thus, this
      system can achieve step by step electrodeposition of gold and copper while the
      two metal ions coexisting. This work develops a new approach to retrieve valuable
      metals from aqueous solution or e-wastes.

PMID- 28554112
TI  - Wastewater-based epidemiology to assess pan-European pesticide exposure.
AB  - Human biomonitoring, i.e. the determination of chemicals and/or their metabolites
      in human specimens, is the most common and potent tool for assessing human
      exposure to pesticides, but it suffers from limitations such as high costs and
      biases in sampling. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an innovative approach
      based on the chemical analysis of specific human metabolic excretion products
      (biomarkers) in wastewater, and provides objective and real-time information on
      xenobiotics directly or indirectly ingested by a population. This study applied
      the WBE approach for the first time to evaluate human exposure to pesticides in
      eight cities across Europe. 24 h-composite wastewater samples were collected from
      the main wastewater treatment plants and analyzed for urinary metabolites of
      three classes of pesticides, namely triazines, organophosphates and pyrethroids,
      by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The mass loads (mg/day/1000
      inhabitants) were highest for organophosphates and lowest for triazines.
      Different patterns were observed among the cities and for the various classes of
      pesticides. Population weighted loads of specific biomarkers indicated higher
      exposure in Castellon, Milan, Copenhagen and Bristol for pyrethroids, and in
      Castellon, Bristol and Zurich for organophosphates. The lowest mass loads
      (mg/day/1000 inhabitants) were found in Utrecht and Oslo. These results were in
      agreement with several national statistics related to pesticides exposure such as
      pesticides sales. The daily intake of pyrethroids was estimated in each city and
      it was found to exceed the acceptable daily intake (ADI) only in one city
      (Castellon, Spain). This was the first large-scale application of WBE to monitor
      population exposure to pesticides. The results indicated that WBE can give new
      information about the "average exposure" of the population to pesticides, and is
      a useful complementary biomonitoring tool to study population-wide exposure to
      pesticides.

PMID- 28554113
TI  - No significant interactions between nitrogen stimulation and ozone inhibition of
      isoprene emission in Cathay poplar.
AB  - Isoprene emission from plants subject to a combination of ozone (O3) and nitrogen
      (N) has never been investigated. Cathay poplar (Populus cathayana) saplings were
      exposed to O3 (CF, charcoal-filtered air, NF, non-filtered ambient air and E-O3,
      non-filtered air +40ppb) and N treatments (N0, 0kgNha-1year-1, N50, 50kgNha-1year
      1 and N100, 100kgNha-1year-1) for 96days. Increasing O3 exposure decreased
      isoprene emission (11.5% in NF and 57.9% in E-O3), as well as light-saturated
      photosynthetic rate (Asat) and chlorophyll content, while N load increased
      isoprene emission (19.6% in N50 and 33.4% in N100) as well as Asat and
      chlorophyll content. Although O3 and N interacted significantly in Asat, N did
      not mitigate the negative effects of O3 on isoprene emission, i.e. the combined
      effects were additive and did not interact. These results warrant more research
      on the combined effects of co-existing global change factors on future isoprene
      emission and atmospheric chemical processes.

PMID- 28554114
TI  - Quantifying the contribution of dyes to the mutagenicity of waters under the
      influence of textile activities.
AB  - The combination of chemical analyses and bioassays allows the identification of
      potentially mutagenic compounds in different types of samples. Dyes can be
      considered as emergent contaminants and were detected in waters, under the
      influence of textile activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the
      contribution of 9 azo dyes to the mutagenicity of representative environmental
      samples. Samples were collected along one year in the largest conglomerate of
      textile industries of Brazil. We analyzed water samples from an important water
      body, Piracicaba River, upstream and downstream two main discharges, the effluent
      of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the tributary Quilombo River, which
      receives untreated effluent from local industries. Samples were analyzed using a
      LC-MS/MS and tested for mutagenicity in the Salmonella/microsome microsuspension
      assay with TA98 and YG1041. Six dyes were detected in the collected samples,
      Disperse Blue 291, Disperse Blue 373, Disperse Orange 30, Disperse Red 1,
      Disperse Violet 93, and Disperse Yellow 3. The most sensitive condition for the
      detection of the mutagenicity was the strain YG1041 with S9. The concentration of
      dyes and mutagenicity levels varied along time and the dry season represented the
      worst condition. Disperse Blue 373 and Disperse Violet 93 were the major
      contributors to the mutagenicity. We conclude that dyes are contributing for the
      mutagenicity of Piracicaba River water; and both discharges, WWTP effluent and
      Quilombo River, increase the mutagenicity of Piracicaba River waters in about 10
      fold. The combination of chemical analysis and bioassays were key in the
      identification the main drivers of the water mutagenicity and allows the
      selection of priority compounds to be included in monitoring programs as well for
      the enforcing actions required to protect the water quality for multiple uses.

PMID- 28554115
TI  - Blubber-depth distribution and bioaccumulation of PCBs and organochlorine
      pesticides in Arctic-invading killer whales.
AB  - Sightings of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Greenland have increased in recent
      years, coincident with sea ice loss. These killer whales are likely from fish
      feeding North Atlantic populations, but may have access to marine mammal prey in
      Greenlandic waters, which could lead to increased exposures to biomagnifying
      contaminants. Most studies on polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and organochlorine
      (OC) contaminants in killer whales have used biopsies which may not be
      representative of contaminant concentrations through the entire blubber depth.
      Here, we measured PCB and OC concentrations in 10 equal-length blubber sections
      of 18 killer whales harvested in southeast Greenland (2012-2014), and 3 stranded
      in the Faroe Islands (2008) and Denmark (2005). Overall, very high concentrations
      of SigmaPCB, Sigmachlordanes (SigmaCHL), and Sigmadichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
      (SigmaDDT) were found in the southeast Greenland and Denmark individuals (means
      of ~40 to 70mgkg-1 lipid weight). These concentrations were higher than in the
      Faroe Island individuals (means of ~2 to 5mgkg-1 lipid weight) and above those
      previously reported for other fish-feeding killer whales in the North Atlantic,
      likely in part due to additional feeding on marine mammals. On a wet weight
      basis, concentrations of all contaminants were significantly lower in the
      outermost blubber layer (0.15-0.65cm) compared to all other layers (p<0.01),
      except for Sigmahexachlorocyclohexanes. However, after lipid correction, no
      variation was found for SigmaCHL and Sigmachlorobenzene concentrations, while the
      outermost layer(s) still showed significantly lower SigmaPCB, SigmaDDT,
      Sigmamirex, Sigmaendosulfan, and dieldrin concentrations than one or more of the
      inner layers. Yet, the magnitude of these differences was low (up to 2-fold)
      suggesting that a typical biopsy may be a reasonable representation of the PCB
      and OC concentrations reported in killer whales, at least on a lipid weight
      basis.

PMID- 28554116
TI  - Riparian vegetation in the alpine connectome: Terrestrial-aquatic and terrestrial
      terrestrial interactions.
AB  - Alpine regions are under increased attention worldwide for their critical role in
      early biogeochemical cycles, their high sensitivity to environmental change, and
      as repositories of natural resources of high quality. Their riparian ecosystems,
      at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial environments, play important
      geochemical functions in the watershed and are biodiversity hotspots, despite a
      harsh climate and topographic setting. With climate change rapidly affecting the
      alpine biome, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the extent of
      interactions between riparian surface, lake and catchment environments. A total
      of 189 glacial - origin lakes were surveyed in the Central Pyrenees to test how
      key elements of the lake and terrestrial environments interact at different
      scales to shape riparian plant composition. Secondly, we evaluated how underlying
      ecotope features drive the formation of natural communities potentially sensitive
      to environmental change and assessed their habitat distribution. At the
      macroscale, vegetation composition responded to pan-climatic gradients altitude
      and latitude, which captured in a narrow geographic area the transition between
      large European climatic zones. Hydrodynamics was the main catchment-scale factor
      connecting riparian vegetation with major water fluxes, followed by topography
      and geomorphology. Lake sediment Mg and Pb, and water Mn and Fe contents
      reflected local influences from mafic bedrock and soil water saturation.
      Community analysis identified four keystone ecosystems: (i) damp ecotone, (ii)
      snow bed-silicate bedrock, (iii) wet heath, and (iv) calcareous substrate. These
      communities and their connections with ecotope elements could be at risk from a
      number of environmental change factors including warmer seasons, snow line and
      lowland species advancement, increased nutrient/metal input and water level
      fluctuations. The results imply important natural terrestrial-aquatic linkages in
      the riparian environment at a wide range of scales, which could help better
      address further biomic impacts of environmental change.

PMID- 28554117
TI  - A simplified method for determining potential heavy metal loads washed-off by
      stormwater runoff from road-deposited sediments.
AB  - A simplified method is proposed for determining the potential load of heavy
      metals (HMs) derived from the wash-off caused by surface runoff on road-deposited
      sediment (RDS). The method consists of three phases: (i) characterization of RDS
      load wash-off, (ii) assessment of HM load in dry weather, and (iii) application
      of a wash-off equation. Two processes were included in the wash-off equation: HM
      transport (solid fraction) and HM leaching (dissolved fraction). The average wash
      off of HMs ranges from 16.6 to 46.3%, relative to the total mass of HMs
      associated with dry-weather RDS (Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Cd, Fe, Mn, Co, and Ba). Cd,
      Mn, and Zn presented the highest wash-off in the areas studied. The size fraction
      below 250MUm contributed an average of 86.7% of potential HM load washed-off from
      RDS. Based on the phenomena included in the wash-off equation, it was observed
      the following order of precedence: transport of RDS<250MUm, leaching of
      RDS<250MUm, and leaching of RDS>=250MUm. Solid and dissolved fractions
      contributed 70.7 and 29.3% of the potential HM load washed-off by runoff from
      RDS, respectively. The proposed method serves as a management tool for road HM
      pollution during rain.

PMID- 28554118
TI  - Corrigendum to "Panic and comorbid depression and their associations with stress
      reactivity, interoceptive awareness and interoceptive accuracy of various
      bioparameters" [J. Affect. Disord. 185 (2015) 170-179].

PMID- 28554120
TI  - Genome-wide predicting disease-related protein complexes by walking on the
      heterogeneous network based on data integration and laplacian normalization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Associating protein complexes to human inherited diseases is critical
      for better understanding of biological processes and functional mechanisms of the
      disease. Many protein complexes have been identified and functionally annotated
      by computational and purification methods so far, however, the particular roles
      they were playing in causing disease have not yet been well determined. RESULTS:
      In this study, we present a novel method to identify associations between protein
      complexes and diseases. First, we construct a disease-protein heterogeneous
      network based on data integration and laplacian normalization. Second, we apply a
      random walk with restart on heterogeneous network (RWRH) algorithm on this
      network to quantify the strength of the association between proteins and the
      query disease. Third, we sum over the scores of member proteins to obtain a
      summary score for each candidate protein complex, and then rank all candidate
      protein complexes according to their scores. With a series of leave-one-out cross
      validation experiments, we found that our method not only possesses high
      performance but also demonstrates robustness regarding the parameters and the
      network structure. We test our approach with breast cancer and select top 20
      highly ranked protein complexes, 17 of the selected protein complexes are
      evidenced to be connected with breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed method is
      effective in identifying disease-related protein complexes based on data
      integration and laplacian normalization.

PMID- 28554119
TI  - Effectiveness and safety of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir+/-ribavirin in the treatment of
      HCV infection: The real-world HARVEST study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir
      (LDV/SOF)+/-ribavirin (RBV) regimen in a real-world setting. METHODS: Patients
      received a fixed-dose combination tablet containing LDV and SOF with or without
      RBV, for 8, 12 or 24 weeks. Patients were assessed at baseline, end of treatment,
      and 12 weeks after the end of treatment. The primary effectiveness endpoint was
      sustained virologic response 12 weeks after the end of treatment (SVR12).
      RESULTS: Of the 86 patients, aged 20-80 years, 82.6% were HCV genotype 1b
      infected and 50.0% were cirrhotic. More than half (52.3%) had previously followed
      pegylated interferon-containing (PEG-IFN) treatment regimens, and 38.5% were null
      responders. SVR12 was achieved by 94.2% of patients. All non-responders were
      cirrhotic: two demonstrated virologic breakthrough and the remaining three
      relapsed. All patients treated with an 8-week regimen achieved SVR12 despite
      having high viral load at baseline (HCV RNA of >1 million IU/mL in 8/10 patients,
      including one with a viral load of >6 million IU/mL). Adverse events were
      generally mild and transient. Most frequently, fatigue (22.1%), headache (15.1%),
      and arthralgia (7.0%) were observed. Laboratory abnormalities included anemia and
      hyperbilirubinemia. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with LDV/SOF+/-RBV is an effective and
      safe option for patients with HCV, including those with advanced liver disease or
      a history of non-response to PEG-IFN-based therapy.

PMID- 28554121
TI  - Facial decoding in schizophrenia is underpinned by basic visual processing
      impairments.
AB  - Schizophrenia is associated with a strong deficit in the decoding of emotional
      facial expression (EFE). Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether this deficit
      is specific for emotions or due to a more general impairment for any type of
      facial processing. This study was designed to clarify this issue. Thirty patients
      suffering from schizophrenia and 30 matched healthy controls performed several
      tasks evaluating the recognition of both changeable (i.e. eyes orientation and
      emotions) and stable (i.e. gender, age) facial characteristics. Accuracy and
      reaction times were recorded. Schizophrenic patients presented a performance
      deficit (accuracy and reaction times) in the perception of both changeable and
      stable aspects of faces, without any specific deficit for emotional decoding. Our
      results demonstrate a generalized face recognition deficit in schizophrenic
      patients, probably caused by a perceptual deficit in basic visual processing. It
      seems that the deficit in the decoding of emotional facial expression (EFE) is
      not a specific deficit of emotion processing, but is at least partly related to a
      generalized perceptual deficit in lower-level perceptual processing, occurring
      before the stage of emotion processing, and underlying more complex cognitive
      dysfunctions. These findings should encourage future investigations to explore
      the neurophysiologic background of these generalized perceptual deficits, and
      stimulate a clinical approach focusing on more basic visual processing.

PMID- 28554122
TI  - Structural studies of the O-specific polysaccharide from detergent degrading
      bacteria Pseudomonas putida TSh-18.
AB  - An O-specific polysaccharide was obtained by mild acid degradation of the
      lipopolysaccharide of bacteria Pseudomonas putida TSh-18, capable of degrading
      non-ionogenic technical detergents. The polysaccharide was found to contain a
      rarely occurring sugar derivative 4,6-dideoxy-4-[(R)-3-hydroxybutanoylamino]-d
      galactose [d-Fucp4N(RHb)]. Sugar and methylation analyses, Smith degradation,
      solvolysis with CF3CO2H, and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy enabled elucidation of
      the following structure of the branched trisaccharide repeating units of the
      polysaccharide.

PMID- 28554123
TI  - Stereospecific synthesis of methyl 2-amino-2-deoxy-(6S)-deuterio-alpha,beta-d
      glucopyranoside and methyl 2,6-diamino-2,6-dideoxy-(6R)-deuterio-alpha,beta-d
      glucopyranoside: Side chain conformations of the 2-amino-2-deoxy and 2,6-diamino
      2,6-dideoxyglucopyranosides.
AB  - The stereospecifically labeled 6-monodeuterio methyl 2,6-diamino-2,6-dideoxy
      alpha- and beta- d-glucopyranosides were synthesized with a view to determining
      their side chain conformations. NMR studies in D2O at pH 5 and pH 11 reveal both
      anomers to adopt very predominantly the gt conformation consistent with the
      gauche conformation of 2-aminoethanol and its acetate salt. In contrast, as also
      revealed with the help of stereospecifically-labelled monodeuterio isotopomers,
      the methyl 2-amino-2-deoxy-alpha- and beta- d-glucopyranosides are an
      approximately 1:1 mixture of gg and gt conformers as is found in glucopyranose
      itself.

PMID- 28554124
TI  - Synthesis of oligo-fructopyranoside with difructopyranosyl N
      phenyltrifluoroacetimidate donor.
AB  - The hexa-fructopyranoside was synthesized with N-phenyltrifluoroacetimidate
      glycosylation. The synthesis was achieved by regioselective glycosylation on the
      1-OH of fructopyranosyl acceptor. Fructosyl oligosaccharides were elongated with
      beta-(2 -> 1)-difructopyranosyl unit in every two steps, without any further
      protection/deprotection step. This work proved N-phenyltrifluoroacetimidate
      glycosylation a practical method for oligo-fructopyranoside synthesis.

PMID- 28554125
TI  - The inclusion of biodiversity in environmental impact assessment: Policy-related
      progress limited by gaps and semantic confusion.
AB  - Natural habitat loss and fragmentation, as a result of development projects, are
      major causes of biodiversity erosion. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is
      the most commonly used site-specific planning tool that takes into account the
      effects of development projects on biodiversity by integrating potential impacts
      into the mitigation hierarchy of avoidance, reduction, and offset measures.
      However, the extent to which EIA fully address the identification of impacts and
      conservation stakes associated with biodiversity loss has been criticized in
      recent work. In this paper we examine the extent to which biodiversity criteria
      have been integrated into 42 EIA from 2006 to 2016 for small development projects
      in the Montpellier Metropolitan territory in southern France. This study system
      allowed us to question how EIA integrates biodiversity impacts on a scale
      relevant to land-use planning. We examine how biodiversity inclusion has changed
      over time in relation to new policy for EIA and how the mitigation hierarchy is
      implemented in practice and in comparison with national guidelines. We
      demonstrate that the inclusion of biodiversity features into EIA has increased
      significantly in relation to policy change. Several weaknesses nevertheless
      persist, including the continued absence of substitution solution assessment, a
      correct analysis of cumulative impacts, the evaluation of impacts on common
      species, the inclusion of an ecological network scale, and the lack of monitoring
      and evaluation measures. We also show that measures for mitigation hierarchy are
      primarily associated with the reduction of impacts rather than their avoidance,
      and avoidance and offset measures are often misleadingly proposed in EIA. There
      is in fact marked semantic confusion between avoidance, reduction and offset
      measures that may impair stakeholders' understanding. All in all, reconsideration
      of stakeholders routine practices associated with a more strategic approach
      towards impact anticipation and avoidance at a land-use planning scale is now
      necessary for the mitigation hierarchy to become a clear and practical hierarchy
      for "no net loss" objectives based on conservation priorities.

PMID- 28554126
TI  - Clean up fly ash from coal burning plants by new isolated fungi Fusarium
      oxysporum and Penicillium glabrum.
AB  - In Turkey approximately 45 million tons of coals are burned in a year and 19.3
      million tons of fly ash have emerged. The bioremediation of heavy metals or
      different elements from fly ash makes them bio-available. However, in previous
      studies, requiring of long operational time and failing to show tolerance to high
      pulp densities of fly ash of selected fungal species makes them impractical. In
      this work, bioremediation of fly ash by new isolated fungi Fusarium oxysporum and
      Penicillium glabrum were investigated in one step and two step bioremediation
      process. Ca, Si, Fe and S were found to be considerable amount in studied fly
      ashes by ED-XRF element analysis. The bioremediation yields of Mo (100%), S
      (64.36%) Ni (50%) and Cu (33.33%) by F. oxysporum were high. The remediated
      elements by P. glabrum in fly ash were Mo (100%), S (57.43%), Ni (25%), Si
      (24.66%), V (12.5%), Ti (5%) and Sr (3.2%). The isolation of high fly ash
      resistant fungi and reduction of the bioremediation time will allow the practical
      applications of the bioremediation technology when it is scaled up.

PMID- 28554127
TI  - Chemometrics and chromatographic fingerprints to classify plant food supplements
      according to the content of regulated plants.
AB  - Plant food supplements are gaining popularity, resulting in a broader spectrum of
      available products and an increased consumption. Next to the problem of
      adulteration of these products with synthetic drugs the presence of regulated or
      toxic plants is an important issue, especially when the products are purchased
      from irregular sources. This paper focusses on this problem by using specific
      chromatographic fingerprints for five targeted plants and chemometric
      classification techniques in order to extract the important information from the
      fingerprints and determine the presence of the targeted plants in plant food
      supplements in an objective way. Two approaches were followed: (1) a multiclass
      model, (2) 2-class model for each of the targeted plants separately. For both
      approaches good classification models were obtained, especially when using SIMCA
      and PLS-DA. For each model, misclassification rates for the external test set of
      maximum one sample could be obtained. The models were applied to five real
      samples resulting in the identification of the correct plants, confirmed by mass
      spectrometry. Therefore chromatographic fingerprinting combined with chemometric
      modelling can be considered interesting to make a more objective decision on
      whether a regulated plant is present in a plant food supplement or not,
      especially when no mass spectrometry equipment is available. The results suggest
      also that the use of a battery of 2-class models to screen for several plants is
      the approach to be preferred.

PMID- 28554128
TI  - Mechanistic insights into the effects of quercetin and/or GLP-1 analogue
      liraglutide on high-fat diet/streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetes in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The development of complementary treatment strategies that focuses on
      achieving a balance between adaptive and apoptotic unfolded protein response
      (UPR), enhancing endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis, and thus preserving beta
      cell mass and function is particularly warranted. AIM: This study was designed to
      investigate the effectiveness of the combined treatment by Quercetin (QUE) and
      Liraglutide (LIRA) in modulating hyperglycemia, insulin-insensitivity, UPR/ER
      stress markers, apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation using a high-fat
      diet/streptozotocin -induced type 2 diabetic rat model. METHODS: Sixty male
      albino rats were allocated into five equal groups: normal control, diabetic
      control, LIRA treated diabetic; QUE treated diabetic and combined treatment
      diabetic groups. Fasting glucose, insulin, CHOP, macrophage inflammatory protein 
      1 alpha (MIP-1alpha) and Bax, Bcl2 levels were estimated by ELISA; mRNA
      expression levels of the spliced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) were estimated
      using quantitative real-time RT-PCR, while MDA, advanced oxidation protein
      products, reduced glutathione levels and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI)
      activity were evaluated spectrophotometrically. Pancreatic tissues were also
      subjected to histopathological examination. RESULTS: The combined treatment with
      both LIRA and QUE causes significant improvements in all the studied parameters;
      including XBP1 splicing, CHOP, MIP-1alpha, Bax/Bcl2 ratio, PDI activity, as well
      as oxidative stress markers as compared to either treatment alone. It also
      attenuated pancreatic histopathological damage. IN CONCLUSION: Our study
      nominates this combination to be used in T2DM to achieve adequate glycaemic
      control and to preserve optimal beta cell function.

PMID- 28554129
TI  - Nimbolide suppresses non-small cell lung cancer cell invasion and migration via
      manipulation of DUSP4 expression and ERK1/2 signaling.
AB  - Nimbolide plays an important role in treating human diseases. In these years, the
      anticancer property of nimbolide has been paid more and more attention. However,
      the role of nimbolide in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. In
      this study, we found that nimbolide treatment suppressed the invasion and
      migration of NSCLC cells, in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, nimbolide
      treatment dose-dependently inhibited ERK1/2 activation, decreased Snail and MMP-3
      expression, and increased E-cadherin expression. Further, we found that nimbolide
      treatment upregulated DUSP4 expression. DUSP4 knockdown attenuated nimbolide
      mediated inhibition of cell invasion, migration and ERK1/2 activation. We also
      found that DUSP4 knockdown suppressed the effect of nimbolide on MMP-3, Snail and
      E-cadherin expression. Taken together, our study demonstrates that nimbolide
      treatment can upregulate the expression of DUSP4, thus inhibiting ERK1/2
      activation. Inhibition of ERK1/2 pathway by nimbolide decreases MMP-3 and Snail
      expression, and increases E-cadherin expression, which finally inhibits NSCLC
      cell invasion and migration. Therefore, nimbolide may act as a novel drug to
      inhibit NSCLC invasion and metastasis through manipulation of ERK1/2 signaling
      and DUSP4 expression.

PMID- 28554130
TI  - Betulinic acid derivative B10 inhibits glioma cell proliferation through
      suppression of SIRT1, acetylation of FOXO3a and upregulation of Bim/PUMA.
AB  - Glioma is the most common primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system.
      B10 is a new glycosylated derivative of betulinic acid with enhanced cytotoxic
      activity. The present study was designed to explore the molecular mechanism
      underlying the anticancer effect of B10 in glioma cells. 25-50MUM B10 resulted in
      a significant decrease of cell viability and BrdU incorporation. 25-50mg/kg B10
      significantly reduced the implanted tumor weight and volume in nude mice.
      Activation of apoptosis was found in glioma cells when the cells were exposed to
      B10, as evidenced by increased number of TUNEL-stained cells, increased caspase 3
      and 9 activities, and Bax and cleaved PARP expression. B10 caused a significant
      decrease in mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate, mitochondrial complex I, II,
      III, IV, and V activities, and ATP level, and increase of mitochondrial ROS
      production, indicating the induction of mitochondrial dysfunction. B10 reduced
      the expression of sirtuin (SIRT) 1 and resulted in an increase in forkhead box O
      (FOXO) 3a expression and acetylation. Activation of SIRT1 by SRT-1720 and
      downregualtion of FOXO3a using shRNA significantly inhibited B10-induced
      cytotoxicity. B10 markedly increased the expression of Bim and PUMA.
      Downregualtion of FOXO3a or activation of SIRT1 significantly inhibited B10
      induced increase of Bim and PUMA expression. Downregualtion of Bim or PUMA could
      suppress B10-induced increase of Bax expression. Moreover, B10-induced
      cytotoxicity was significantly suppressed by downregulation of Bim or PUMA. In
      summary, we identified B10 as a potent therapeutic candidate for glioma treatment
      and SIRT1-FOXO3a-Bim/PUMA axis as a novel therapeutic target.

PMID- 28554131
TI  - Protective role of the novel hybrid 3,5-dipalmitoyl-nifedipine in a
      cardiomyoblast culture subjected to simulated ischemia/reperfusion.
AB  - This work investigated the acute effects of the calcium channel blocker
      nifedipine and its new fatty hybrid derived from palmitic acid, 3,5-dipalmitoyl
      nifedipine, compared to endocannabinoid anandamide during the process of inducing
      ischemia and reperfusion in cardiomyoblast H9c2 heart cells. The cardiomyoblasts
      were treated in 24 or 96-well plates (according to the test being performed) and
      maintaining the treatment until the end of hypoxia induction. The molecules were
      tested at concentrations of 10 and 100MUM, cells were treated 24h after
      assembling the experimental plates and immediately before the I/R. Cell
      viability, apoptosis and necrosis, and generation of reactive oxygen species were
      evaluated. Nifedipine and 3,5-dipalmitoyl-nifedipine were used to assess radical
      scavenging potential and metal chelation. All tested molecules managed to reduce
      the levels of reactive oxygen species compared to the starvation+vehicle group.
      In in vitro assays, 3,5-dipalmitoyl-nifedipine showed more antioxidant activity
      than nifedipine. These results indicate the ability of this molecule to act as a
      powerful ROS scavenger. Cell viability was highest when cells were induced to I/R
      by both concentrations of anandamide and the higher concentration of DPN. These
      treatments also reduced cell death. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the
      process of hybridization of nifedipine with two palmitic acid chains assigns a
      greater cardioprotective effect to this molecule, thereby reducing the damage
      caused by hypoxia and reoxygenation in cardiomyoblast cultures.

PMID- 28554132
TI  - The human RNA surveillance factor Up-frameshift 1 inhibits hepatic cancer
      progression by targeting MRP2/ABCC2.
AB  - Although the roles of Up-frameshift 1 (UPF1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      have been partly revealed, the detailed mechanisms remain poorly understood.
      Here, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry assays
      indicated that UPF1 expression was decreased in HCC tissues compared to the
      corresponding adjacent tissues, and was negatively correlated with MRP2/ABCC2
      expression. Cell viability and apoptosis analyses showed that overexpression of
      UPF1 enhanced HCC cell sensitivity to sorafenib treatment, while knockdown of
      UPF1 decreased the sensitivity. Additionally, ectopic expression of UPF1
      suppressed the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process and the generation
      of cells with stem cell properties. Mechanistically, UPF1 directly bound with
      ABCC2, increased nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) efficiency and thus led to
      downregualtion of ABCC2. Collectively, UPF1 functions as a tumor suppressor by
      preventing cancer stem cell (CSC)-like characteristics, inhibiting EMT process
      and enhancing chemotherapeutic sensitivity via inhibiting ABCC2 expression in HCC
      cells. These findings establish UPF1 as a potential therapeutic target for HCC
      patients.

PMID- 28554133
TI  - Melatonin attenuates behavioural deficits and reduces brain oxidative stress in a
      rodent model of schizophrenia.
AB  - Melatonin is a neurohormone that is linked to the aetiopathogenesis of
      schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to assess the potentials of oral
      melatonin supplement in the management of induced schizophrenia-like behavioural
      and brain oxidative status changes, using an animal model. The relative degrees
      of modulation of ketamine-induced behaviours by haloperidol, olanzapine or
      melatonin were assessed in the open-field, Y-maze, elevated plus maze and the
      social interaction tests. 12-week old, male mice were assigned to six groups of
      ten each (n=10). They were pretreated with daily intraperitoneal ketamine at
      15mg/kg (except vehicle) for 10days, before commencement of 14day treatment with
      standard drug (haloperidol or olanzapine) or melatonin. Ketamine injection also
      continued alongside melatonin or standard drugs administration for the duration
      of treatment. Melatonin, haloperidol and olanzapine were administered by gavage.
      Treatments were given daily, and behaviours assessed on days 11 and 24. On day
      24, animals were sacrificed and whole brain homogenates used for the estimation
      of glutathione, nitric oxide and malondialdehyde levels. Ketamine injection
      increased open-field behaviours; while it decreased working-memory, social
      interaction and glutathione activity. Nitric oxide and malondialdehyde levels
      also increased after ketamine injection. Administration of melatonin was
      associated with variable degrees of reversal of these effects. In conclusion,
      melatonin may have the potential of a possible therapeutic agent and/or adjunct
      in the management of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28554134
TI  - Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 7469 exopolysaccharides synergizes with low level
      ionizing radiation to modulate signaling molecular targets in colorectal
      carcinogenesis in rats.
AB  - Combination therapy that targets cellular signaling pathway represents an
      alternative therapy for the treatment of colon cancer (CRC). The present study
      was therefore aimed to investigate the probable interaction of Lactobacillus
      rhamnosus ATCC 7469 exopolysaccharides (EPS) with low level ionizing gamma
      radiation (gamma-R) exposure against dimethylhydrazine (DMH)- induced colorectal
      carcinogenesis in rats. Colon cancer was induced with 20mg DMH/kg BW. Rats
      received daily by gastric gavage 100mg EPS/Kg BW concomitant with 1Gy gamma-R
      over two months. Colonic oxidative and inflammatory stresses were assessed. The
      change in the expression of p-p38 MAPK, p-STAT3, beta-catenin, NF-kB, COX-2 and
      iNOS was evaluated by western blotting and q-PCR. It was found that DMH treatment
      significantly induced colon oxidative injury accompanied by inflammatory
      disturbance along with increased protein expression of the targeted signaling
      factors p-p38 MAPK, p-STAT3 and beta-catenin. The mRNA gene expression of NF-kB,
      COX-2 and iNOS was significantly higher in DMH-treated animals. It's worthy to
      note that colon tissues with DMH treatment showed significant dysplasia and
      anaplasia of the glandular mucosal lining epithelium with loses of goblet cells
      formation, pleomorphism in the cells and hyperchromachia in nuclei.
      Interestingly, EPS treatment with gamma-R exposure showed statistically
      significant amelioration of the oxidative and inflammatory biomarkers with
      modulated signaling molecular factors accompanied by improved histological
      structure against DMH-induced CRC. In conclusion, our findings showed that
      Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 7469 EPS with low level gamma-R in synergistic
      interaction are efficacious control against CRC progression throughout the
      modulation of key signaling growth factors associated with inflammation via
      antioxidant mediated anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative activities.

PMID- 28554135
TI  - Anatomic evaluation of the retromolar canal by histologic and radiologic
      analyses.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify the detailed anatomic
      morphology of the retromolar canal using histologic sections and cone-beam
      computed tomography (CBCT) images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two sides of the
      mandible obtained from cadavers and CBCT images of 72 patients (144 sides) were
      analyzed. All mandibles were prepared using conventional methods of tissue
      processing, stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and measured to elucidate the
      composition and dimensions of the retromolar canal with the aid of a light
      microscope. In addition, the prevalence, course, opening position, and distance
      of the retromolar canal from the second molar were measured on CBCT images.
      RESULTS: The retromolar neurovascular bundle in the retromolar canal originated
      from the inferior alveolar neurovascular bundle, and the mean areas of the
      neurovascular bundle and each artery and nerve contained within it were 0.59,
      0.07, and 0.05mm2, respectively. The mean horizontal and vertical diameters of
      the neurovascular bundle were 0.82 and 0.90mm, respectively. The retromolar canal
      was detected more often on CBCT images (43.1%, 31 out of 72 patients). It mainly
      arose vertically (71.0%) from the mandibular canal and opened in the middle
      portion (57.9%) of the retromolar triangle at a mean distance of 13.13mm from the
      second molar. CONCLUSIONS: The retromolar canal is a normal anatomic structure
      that is relatively common and contains both a relatively large artery and a
      nerve. Clinicians need to pay closer attention to vascular problems as well as
      nerve damage when they are performing surgical procedures in the retromolar area.

PMID- 28554136
TI  - Differences between the chewing and non-chewing sides of the mandibular first
      molars and condyles in the closing phase during chewing in normal subjects.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess differences between the closing paths of
      the chewing and non-chewing sides of mandibular first molars and condyles during
      natural mastication, using standardized model food in healthy subjects. DESIGN:
      Thirty-two healthy young adults (age: 19-25 years; 22 men, 10 women) with normal
      occlusion and function chewed on standardized gummy jelly. Using an optoelectric
      jaw-tracking system with six degrees of freedom, we recorded the path of the
      mandibular first molars and condyles on both sides for 10 strokes during
      unilateral chewing. Variables were compared between the chewing side and the non
      chewing side of first molars and condyles on frontal, sagittal, and horizontal
      views during the early-, middle- and late-closing phases. RESULTS: On
      superior/inferior displacements, the chewing side first molar and condyle were
      positioned superior to those on the non-chewing side during the early- and middle
      closing phases. Conversely, the first molar and condyle on the non-chewing side
      were positioned significantly superior to those on the chewing side during the
      late-closing phase. On anterior/posterior displacements, the chewing side
      mandibular first molar and condyle were positioned significantly posterior to
      those on the non-chewing side throughout all closing phases. CONCLUSION: Our
      results showed the differences between the mandibular first molars and condyles
      on both sides with respect to masticatory path during natural chewing of a model
      food. These differences can be useful for informing initial diagnostic tests for
      impaired masticatory function in the clinical environment.

PMID- 28554137
TI  - Evaluating the non-lethal effects of organophosphorous and carbamate insecticides
      on the yabby (Cherax destructor) using cholinesterase (AChE, BChE), Glutathione S
      Transferase and ATPase as biomarkers.
AB  - The toxicity of two organophosphorus insecticides, chlorpyrifos (CPF), malathion
      (MAL), and one carbamate insecticide, methomyl (METH), to the yabby (Cherax
      destructor) was assessed by measuring cholinesterase (AChE, BChE), Glutathione S
      Transferase (GST) and Na+/K+ATPase activity after 96h of exposure. Yabbies
      exposed to all three insecticides at 2 and 5ugL-1 exhibited significant AChE,
      BChE, GST and Na+/K+ATPase inhibition. Based on these enzyme inhibition tests,
      the toxicity of the three insecticides to C. destructor was CPF > MAL > METH.
      After 14 days of recovery the yabbies enzymatic activities of AChE, BChE, GST and
      Na+/K+ATPase was measured. Recovery of The enzyme activity recovery was faster
      after the exposure to METH than for the yabbies exposed to CPF and MAL. Slow
      recovery of enzyme activity could affect the physical activities of organisms and
      produce indirect effects on populations if such crayfish are less able to elude
      predators or search for food.

PMID- 28554138
TI  - PEGylation on mixed monolayer gold nanoparticles: Effect of grafting density,
      chain length, and surface curvature.
AB  - PEGylation on nanoparticles (NPs) is widely used to prevent aggregation and to
      mask NPs from the fast clearance system in the body. Understanding the molecular
      details of the PEG layer could facilitate rational design of PEGylated NPs that
      maximize their solubility and stealth ability without significantly compromising
      the targeting efficiency and cellular uptake. Here, we use molecular dynamics
      (MD) simulation to understand the structural and dynamic the PEG coating of mixed
      monolayer gold NPs. Specifically, we modeled gold NPs with PEG grafting densities
      ranging from 0-2.76chain/nm2, chain length with 0-10 PEG monomers, NP core
      diameter from 5nm to 500nm. It is found that the area accessed by individual PEG
      chains gradually transits from a "mushroom" to a "brush" conformation as NP
      surface curvature become flatter, whereas such a transition is not evident on
      small NPs when grafting density increases. It is shown that moderate grafting
      density (~1.0chain/nm2) and short chain length are sufficient enough to prevent
      NPs from aggregating in an aqueous medium. The effect of grafting density on
      solubility is also validated by dynamic light scattering measurements of
      PEGylated 5nm gold NPs. With respect to the shielding ability, simulations
      predict that increase either grafting density, chain length, or NP diameter will
      reduce the accessibility of the protected content to a certain size molecule.
      Interestingly, reducing NP surface curvature is estimated to be most effective in
      promoting shielding ability. For shielding against small molecules, increasing
      PEG grafting density is more effective than increasing chain length. A simple
      model that includes these three investigated parameters is developed based on the
      simulations to roughly estimate the shielding ability of the PEG layer with
      respect to molecules of different sizes. The findings can help expand our current
      understanding of the PEG layer and guide rational design of PEGylated gold NPs
      for a particular application by tuning the PEG grafting density, chain length,
      and particle size.

PMID- 28554139
TI  - Recent 210Pb, 137Cs and 241Am accumulation in an ombrotrophic peatland from
      Amsterdam Island (Southern Indian Ocean).
AB  - Over the past 50 years, 210Pb, 137Cs and 241Am have been abundantly used in
      reconstructing recent sediment and peat chronologies. The study of global aerosol
      climate interaction is also partially depending on our understanding of 222Rn
      210Pb cycling, as radionuclides are useful aerosol tracers. However, in
      comparison with the Northern Hemisphere, few data are available for these
      radionuclides in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in the South Indian Ocean. A
      peat core was collected in an ombrotrophic peatland from the remote Amsterdam
      Island (AMS) and was analyzed for 210Pb, 137Cs and 241Am radionuclides using an
      underground ultra-low background gamma spectrometer. The 210Pb Constant Rate of
      Supply (CRS) model of peat accumulations is validated by peaks of artificial
      radionuclides (137Cs and 241Am) that are related to nuclear weapon tests. We
      compared the AMS 210Pb data with an updated 210Pb deposition database. The 210Pb
      flux of 98 +/- 6 Bq.m-2.y-1 derived from the AMS core agrees with data from
      Madagascar and South Africa. The elevated flux observed at such a remote location
      may result from the enhanced 222Rn activity and frequent rainfall in AMS. This
      enhanced 222Rn activity itself may be explained by continental air masses passing
      over southern Africa and/or Madagascar. The 210Pb flux at AMS is higher than
      those derived from cores collected in coastal areas in Argentina and Chile, which
      are areas dominated by marine westerly winds with low 222Rn activities. We report
      a 137Cs inventory at AMS of 144 +/- 13 Bq.m-2 (corrected to 1969). Our data thus
      contribute to the under-represented data coverage in the mid-latitudes of the
      Southern Hemisphere.

PMID- 28554140
TI  - Health-related quality-of-life implications of cardiovascular events in
      individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A subanalysis from the Saxagliptin
      Assessment of Vascular Outcomes Recorded in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus
      (SAVOR)-TIMI 53 trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of cardiovascular complications on health-related quality
      of-life (HRQoL) in type 2 diabetes mellitus has not been clearly established.
      Using EQ5D utility data from SAVOR-TIMI 53, a large phase IV trial of saxagliptin
      versus placebo, we quantified the impact of cardiovascular and other major events
      on HRQoL. METHODS: EQ5D utilities were recorded annually and following myocardial
      infarction (MI) or stroke. Utilities among patients experiencing major
      cardiovascular events were analyzed using linear mixed-effects regression,
      adjusting for baseline characteristics (including EQ5D utility), and compared to
      those not experiencing major cardiovascular events. Mean utility decrements with
      standard errors (SE) were estimated as the difference in utility before and after
      the event. FINDINGS: The mean EQ5D utility of the sample was 0.776 at all time
      points, and did not differ by treatment. However, mean baseline and month 12
      utilities among those with a major cardiovascular event were 0.751 and 0.714.
      Mean utilities were 0.691 within 3months of, 0.691 3-6months after, and 0.714 6
      12months after, a major cardiovascular event. Cardiovascular event-specific
      utility decrements were 0.05 (0.007) for major cardiovascular events over the
      same time periods. Decrements of 0.051 (0.012; myocardial infarction), 0.111
      (0.022; stroke), 0.065 (0.014; hospitalization for heart failure) 0.019 (0.024;
      hospitalization for hypoglycemia) were estimated; all coefficients were
      statistically significant. INTERPRETATION: Consistent with clinical outcomes
      reported elsewhere, saxagliptin did not improve HRQoL. Cardiovascular
      complications were associated with significantly decreased HRQoL, most
      substantial earlier after the event. FUNDING: BMS/AZ.

PMID- 28554141
TI  - Effect of re-coaching on self-injection of insulin in older diabetic patients -
      Impact of cognitive impairment.
AB  - AIMS: We investigated the effect of re-coaching on self-injection of insulin and
      impact of cognitive function in 100 older diabetic patients. METHODS: We examined
      patients on a variety of skills and knowledge regarding self-injection of insulin
      and evaluated the effect of re-coaching the patients after 3months and 4years. We
      also investigated the influence of cognitive impairment (CI) on coaching.
      RESULTS: Skills scores for self-injection of insulin and HbA1c improved
      significantly 3months after re-coaching. In 51 patients followed-up for 4years,
      skills scores were maintained during the 4years, while knowledge scores improved
      after 3months but then returned to the baseline level. In the group of patients
      with CI as determined by the Mini-Mental Status Examination, skills scores were
      similar to those in the group without CI, while knowledge scores were
      significantly lower as compared with those in the group without CI at any time
      point. Skills scores were maintained during the 4years regardless of CI.
      CONCLUSION: The present study showed that re-coaching in skills for self
      injection of insulin was effective in improving and maintaining insulin treatment
      in older diabetic patients, even if patients had CI.

PMID- 28554142
TI  - Diabetes mellitus and risk of ovarian cancer. A systematic review and meta
      analysis of 15 cohort studies.
AB  - AIM: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is hypothesized to be associated with an increased
      risk of ovarian cancer (OC), but current evidences are inconsistent. We aimed to
      further study this association. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and
      Scopus were searched for eligible articles. After descriptive summary of the
      data, a random-effects model was applied in quantitative synthesis. Subgroup
      analysis was performed by study locales and settings, and sensitivity analysis
      was conducted based on restrictive selection criteria. Funnel plots and the
      Egger's test were used to assess publication bias. Statistical heterogeneity in
      meta-analysis was assessed by the P value derived from the Cochrane Q statistic
      and I-squared value. RESULTS: Fourteen articles involving data of 15 cohort
      studies were included for our research. Overall, 17 risk ratios (RRs) were
      synthesized and yielded a pooled RR of 1.32 (95%CI: 1.14-1.52, PCochrane<0.001,
      I2=79.8%). Thirteen RRs were synthesized for type 2DM, and the pooled RR was 1.24
      (95%CI: 1.06-1.44, PCochrane<0.001, I2=81.8%). Four RRs were synthesized for type
      1DM, and the result was significant (RR: 1.83, 95%CI: 1.21-2.78, PCochrane=0.080,
      I2=55.7%). Results of sensitivity analysis suggested the robustness of a positive
      association between DM and OC risk, and subgroup analysis demonstrated that the
      association between DM and OC was much more substantial among Asia population. No
      publication bias was identified in meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests
      there is a moderate relative increase in the risk of OC among DM patients. Future
      studies should investigate the effect of duration of DM and anti-diabetes
      intervention to OC risk.

PMID- 28554143
TI  - Comparison of gene expression of Toll-like receptors and cytokines between Piau
      and Commercial line (Landrace*Large White crossbred) pigs vaccinated against
      Pasteurella multocida type D.
AB  - We aimed to compare Toll-like receptors (TLR) and cytokines expression in local
      Piau breed and a Commercial line (Landrace*Large White crossbred) pigs in
      response to vaccination against Pasteurella multocida type D. Seronegative gilts
      for Pasteurella multocida type D and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae were used, from
      which peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected in four time
      points (T0, T1, T2 and T3; before and after each vaccination dose). For
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells (BALF), we set groups of vaccinated and
      unvaccinated animals for both genetic groups. Gene expression was evaluated on
      PBMC and BALF. In PBMC, when we analyzed time points within breeds, significant
      differences in expression for TLRs and cytokines, except TGFbeta, were observed
      for Commercial animals. For the Piau pigs, only TGFbeta showed differential
      expression. Comparing the expression among genetic groups, the Commercial pigs
      showed higher expression for TLRs after first vaccination dose, while for IL2,
      IL6, IL12 and IL13, higher expression was also observed in T3 and IL8 and IL10,
      in T1 and T3. Still comparing the breeds, the crossbred animals showed higher
      expression for TNFalpha in T1 and T2, while for TGFbeta only in T2. For gene
      expression in BALF, vaccinated Commercial pigs showed higher expression of TLR6,
      TLR10, IL6, IL8, IL10, TNFalpha and TGFbeta genes than vaccinated Piau pigs. The
      Commercial line pigs showed higher sensitivity to vaccination, while in local
      Piau breed lower responsiveness, which may partly explain genetic variability in
      immune response and will let us better understand the tolerance/susceptibility
      for pasteurellosis.

PMID- 28554144
TI  - Muscle-specific deletion of SOCS3 does not reduce the anabolic response to
      leucine in a mouse model of acute inflammation.
AB  - Excessive inflammation reduces skeletal muscle protein synthesis leading to
      wasting and weakness. The janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of
      transcription-3 (JAK/STAT3) pathway is important for the regulation of
      inflammatory signaling. As such, suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS3), the
      negative regulator of JAK/STAT signaling, is thought to be important in the
      control of muscle homeostasis. We hypothesized that muscle-specific deletion of
      SOCS3 would impair the anabolic response to leucine during an inflammatory
      insult. Twelve week old (n=8 per group) SOCS3 muscle-specific knockout mice
      (SOCS3-MKO) and littermate controls (WT) were injected with lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS, 1mg/kg) or saline and were studied during fasted conditions or after
      receiving 0.5g/kg leucine 3h after the injection of LPS. Markers of inflammation,
      anabolic signaling, and protein synthesis were measured 4h after LPS injection.
      LPS injection robustly increased mRNA expression of inflammatory molecules
      (Socs3, Socs1, Il-6, Ccl2, Tnfalpha and Cd68). In muscles from SOCS3-MKO mice,
      the Socs3 mRNA response to LPS was significantly blunted (~6-fold) while STAT3
      Tyr705 phosphorylation was exacerbated (18-fold). Leucine administration
      increased protein synthesis in both WT (~1.6-fold) and SOCS3-MKO mice (~1.5-fold)
      compared to basal levels. LPS administration blunted this effect, but there were
      no differences between WT and SOCS3-MKO mice. Muscle-specific SOCS3 deletion did
      not alter the response of AKT, mTOR, S6 or 4EBP1 under any treatment conditions.
      Therefore, SOCS3 does not appear to mediate the early inflammatory or leucine
      induced changes in protein synthesis in skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28554145
TI  - Physiological and biochemical perspectives of non-salt tolerant plants during
      bacterial interaction against soil salinity.
AB  - Climatic changes on earth affect the soil quality of agricultural lands,
      especially by increasing salt deposition in soil, which results in soil salinity.
      Soil salinity is a major challenge to growth and reproduction among glycophytes
      (including all crop plants). Soil bacteria present in the rhizosphere and/or
      roots naturally protect plants from the adverse effects of soil salinity by
      reprogramming the stress-induced physiological changes in plants. Bacteria can
      enrich the soil with major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) in a
      form easily available to plants and prevent the transport of excess sodium to
      roots (exopolysaccharides secreted by bacteria bind with sodium ions) for
      maintaining ionic balance and water potential in cells. Salinity also affects
      plant growth regulators and suppresses seed germination and root and shoot
      growth. Bacterial secretion of indole-3-acetic acid and gibberellins compensates
      for the salt-induced hormonal decrease in plants, and bacterial 1
      aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase synthesis decreases ethylene
      production to stimulate plant growth. Furthermore, bacteria modulate the redox
      state of salinity-affected plants by enhancing antioxidants and polyamines, which
      leads to increased photosynthetic efficiency. Bacteria-induced accumulation of
      compatible solutes in stressed plants regulates plant cellular activities and
      prevents salt stress damage. Plant-bacterial interaction reprograms the
      expression of salt stress-responsive genes and proteins in salinity-affected
      plants, resulting in a precise stress mitigation metabolism as a defense
      mechanism. Soil bacteria increase the fertility of soil and regulate the plant
      functions to prevent the salinity effects in glycophytes. This review explains
      the current understanding about the physiological changes induced in glycophytes
      during bacterial interaction to alleviate the adverse effects of soil salinity
      stress.

PMID- 28554146
TI  - Improved quinoa growth, physiological response, and seed nutritional quality in
      three soils having different stresses by the application of acidified biochar and
      compost.
AB  - Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a traditional Andean agronomical resilient
      seed crop having immense significance in terms of high nutritional qualities and
      its tolerance against various abiotic stresses. However, finite work has been
      executed to evaluate the growth, physiological, chemical, biochemical,
      antioxidant properties, and mineral nutrients bioavailability of quinoa under
      abiotic stresses. Depending on the consistency in the stability of pH, intended
      rate of S was selected from four rates (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5% S) for the
      acidification of biochar and compost in the presence of Thiobacillus thiooxidans
      by pH value of 4. All three soils were amended with 1% (w/w) acidified biochar
      (BCA) and compost (COA). Results revealed that selective plant growth, yield,
      physiological, chemical and biochemical improved significantly by the application
      of BCA in all stressed soils. Antioxidants in quinoa fresh leaves increased in
      the order of control > COA > BCA, while reactive oxygen species decreased in the
      order of control < COA < BCA. A significant reduction in anti-nutrients (phytate
      and polyphenols) was observed in all stressed soils with the application of BCA.
      Moreover, incorporation of COA and BCA reduced the pH of rhizosphere soil by 0.4
      1.6 units in all stressed soils, while only BCA in bulk soil decreased pH
      significantly by 0.3 units. These results demonstrate that BCA was more effective
      than COA to enhance the bioavailability, translocation of essential nutrients
      from the soil to plant and their enhanced bioavailability in the seed.

PMID- 28554148
TI  - Social media in epilepsy: A quantitative and qualitative analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the social burden of epilepsy has been extensively studied, an
      evaluation of social media related to epilepsy may provide novel insight into
      disease perception, patient needs and access to treatments. The objective of this
      study is to assess patterns in social media and online communication usage
      related to epilepsy and its associated topics. METHODS: We searched two major
      social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) for public accounts dedicated to
      epilepsy. Results were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
      The former involved thematic and word count analysis for online posts and tweets
      on these platforms, while the latter employed descriptive statistics and non
      parametric tests. RESULTS: Facebook had a higher number of pages (840 accounts)
      and users (3 million) compared to Twitter (137 accounts and 274,663 users).
      Foundation and support groups comprised most of the accounts and users on both
      Facebook and Twitter. The number of accounts increased by 100% from 2012 to 2016.
      Among the 403 posts and tweets analyzed, "providing information" on medications
      or correcting common misconceptions in epilepsy was the most common theme (48%).
      Surgical interventions for epilepsy were only mentioned in 1% of all posts and
      tweets. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides a comprehensive reference on the
      usage of social media in epilepsy. The number of online users interested in
      epilepsy is likely the highest among all neurological conditions. Surgery, as a
      method of treating refractory epilepsy, however, could be underrepresented on
      social media.

PMID- 28554149
TI  - Domestic violence among persons with epilepsy and their caregivers.

PMID- 28554147
TI  - Seizure prediction in patients with focal hippocampal epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the performance of our previously developed seizure
      prediction approach on thirty eight seizures from ten patients with focal
      hippocampal epilepsy. METHODS: The seizure prediction system was developed based
      on the extraction of correlation dimension, correlation entropy, noise level,
      Lempel-Ziv complexity, largest Lyapunov exponent, and nonlinear interdependence
      from segments of intracranial EEG. RESULTS: Our results showed an average
      sensitivity of 86.7% and 92.9%, an average false prediction rate of 0.126 and
      0.096/h, and an average minimum prediction time of 14.3 and 33.3min,
      respectively, using seizure occurrence periods of 30 and 50min and a seizure
      prediction horizon of 10s. Two-third of the analyzed seizures showed
      significantly increased complexity in periods prior to the seizures in comparison
      with baseline. In four patients, strong bidirectional connectivities between
      epileptic contacts and the surrounding areas were observed. However, in five
      patients, unidirectional functional connectivities in preictal periods were
      observed from remote areas to epileptogenic zones. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, preictal
      periods in patients with focal hippocampal epilepsy were characterized with
      patient-specific changes in univariate and bivariate nonlinear measures.
      SIGNIFICANCE: The spatio-temporal characterization of preictal periods may help
      to better understand the mechanism underlying seizure generation in patients with
      focal hippocampal epilepsy.

PMID- 28554150
TI  - Effect of valgus knee alignment on gait biomechanics in healthy women.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to compare lower extremity kinematics and kinetics
      between women with greater or lesser degrees of valgus knee alignment during
      gait. Nine women with greater valgus knee alignment (11.9+/-1.6 degrees ) were
      compared to nine women with lesser valgus knee alignment (6.6+/-2.4 degrees ).
      Participants completed a biomechanical assessment of overground walking for the
      right limb. Dependent variables included sagittal and frontal plane joint angles
      and moments for the hip, knee, and ankle at peak vertical ground reaction force,
      along with knee abduction angular impulse. Sagittal and frontal plane excursions
      for the hip, knee, and ankle were calculated from heel strike to the peak angle
      for each variable. The greater valgus alignment group demonstrated lower knee
      abduction moment (p=0.007), lower knee adduction angle (p<0.001), and greater
      ankle inversion moment (p=0.034) at peak vertical ground reaction force, as well
      as lower knee abduction angular impulse (p=0.007), and knee adduction ROM
      (p=0.026). No other group differences were identified for any kinematic or
      kinetic variables (p>0.05). Less knee adduction angle and excursion coupled with
      lower knee abduction moment and angular impulse in women with greater knee valgus
      indicates these individuals may be experiencing biomechanics which promote
      lateral tibiofemoral joint loading.

PMID- 28554151
TI  - Executive functions in alcohol-dependence: A theoretically grounded and
      integrative exploration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol-dependence is related to large-scale cognitive impairments,
      particularly for executive functions (EF). These deficits persist even after long
      term abstinence and have a major impact on patients' everyday life and relapse
      risk. Earlier studies, based on multi-determined tasks, mostly focused on
      inhibition and did not offer a theoretically-grounded and exhaustive view of the
      differential deficit across EF. The present paper proposes a model-based
      exploration of EF in alcohol-dependent individuals (ALC), to precisely compare
      the specific deficit related to each executive subcomponent. METHODS: Forty-seven
      recently detoxified ALC were compared to 47 matched healthy participants on a
      nine-tasks validated neuropsychological battery, simultaneously exploring and
      comparing the three main executive subcomponents (shifting, updating, and
      inhibition). Psychopathological comorbidities were also controlled for. RESULTS:
      Reaction time indexes revealed a global slowing down among ALC, whatever the EF
      explored. Accuracy indexes revealed a moderate deficit for inhibition tasks but a
      massive impairment for shifting and updating ones. Complementary analyses
      indicated that the executive deficits observed were centrally related to alcohol
      dependence, while comorbid depressive symptoms appeared to intensify the deficits
      observed. CONCLUSIONS: By offering a direct comparison between the three major
      EF, these results showed that alcohol-related executive deficits extend beyond
      the classically described inhibition impairment. This impairment encompasses each
      EF subcomponent, as ALC actually presented stronger deficits for updating and
      shifting abilities. This first observation of a multifaceted EF deficit stresses
      the need for an individualized evaluation and rehabilitation of EF during and/or
      after the detoxification process.

PMID- 28554152
TI  - Aviisotricha hoazini n. gen., n. sp., the Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of
      an Anaerobic Ciliate from the Crop of the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin), the Cow
      Among the Birds.
AB  - The hoatzin is the only known avian species that has evolved a foregut
      fermentation system similar to that of ruminant animals. Due to the closeness of
      the bird's fermentation chamber, the crop, to the bird's beak it exudes an
      unpleasant odour; therefore, the hoatzin is called the "cow among the birds". In
      addition to Eubacteria and Archaea, responsible for digestion of the vegetation
      they consume, the bird's crop contains a holotrich ciliate, described here for
      the first time in detail. Cytological staining of this isotrichid-like ciliate
      with the Chatton-Lwoff and Protargol staining procedures, as well as SEM and TEM,
      justified the establishment of the new genus Aviisotricha n. gen. with its new
      type species Aviisotricha hoazini n. gen., n. sp.. Phylogenetic analyses of a
      portion of the small subunit rRNA gene supported the taxonomic placement of this
      new genus and species in the family Isotrichidae. Aviisotricha is compared with
      Balantidium, Dasytricha and Isotricha with special reference to their dorsal
      brushes, which show similarity to the paralabial organelle of the
      Entodiniomorphida. The possible phylogenetic origin of Aviisotricha is discussed
      and a taxonomic revision of the family Isotrichidae is given.

PMID- 28554153
TI  - How Far do Ciliate Flagships Sail? A Proposed Gondawanaland Endemic Species at
      Anchor in Idaho Soils.
AB  - In terms of protist biogeography, "flagship species" (Foissner 2005) have been
      defined as those so remarkable or "showy" that they are unlikely to be overlooked
      when present in a given habitat. On this basis, flagship species have been
      suggested as an ideal or ultimate test for the existence of protist endemism. One
      example of a flagship ciliate is the terrestrial lepidosome-bearing
      trachelophyllid, Luporinophrys micelae, previously thought to be a Gondwanan
      endemic. This report comprises a morphologic description of two populations of L.
      micelae from Laurentian soils (Idaho, Northwest USA). The flagship concept is
      briefly reviewed and ciliate biogeography is discussed in light of these
      findings.

PMID- 28554154
TI  - Admixture analysis of age of onset in generalized anxiety disorder.
AB  - Age of onset is a marker of clinically relevant subtypes in various medical and
      psychiatric disorders. Past research has also reported that age of onset in
      generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is clinically significant; but, in research to
      date, arbitrary cut-off ages have been used. In the present study, admixture
      analysis was used to determine the best fitting model for age of onset
      distribution in GAD. Data were derived from 459 adults with a diagnosis of GAD
      who took part in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA).
      Associations between age of onset subtypes, identified by admixture analysis, and
      sociodemographic, clinical, and vulnerability factors were examined using
      univariate tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Two age of onset
      distributions were identified: an early-onset group (24 years of age and younger)
      and a late-onset group (greater than 24 years of age). Multivariate analysis
      revealed that early-onset GAD was associated with female gender (OR 2.1 (95%CI
      1.4-3.2)), higher education (OR 1.1 (95%CI 1.0-1.2)), and higher neuroticism (OR
      1.4 (95%CI 1.1-1.7)), while late-onset GAD was associated with physical illnesses
      (OR 1.3 (95%CI 1.1-1.7)). Study limitations include the possibility of recall
      bias given that age of onset was assessed retrospectively, and an inability to
      detect a possible very-late-onset GAD subtype. Collectively, the results of the
      study indicate that GAD is characterized by a bimodal age of onset distribution
      with an objectively determined early cut-off at 24 years of age. Early-onset GAD
      is associated with unique factors that may contribute to its aetiology; but, it
      does not constitute a more severe subtype compared to late-onset GAD. Future
      research should use 24 years of age as the cut-off for early-onset GAD to when
      examining the clinical relevance of age of onset for treatment efficacy and
      illness course.

PMID- 28554155
TI  - Salivary secretion and disgust: A pilot study.
AB  - Although a direct link has been established between self-experienced disgust and
      salivary secretion, it is unclear whether this physiological index is modulated
      by the social experience of disgust (i.e., exposure to the facial expression of
      disgust). We tested this issue in a pilot study by collecting salivary samples in
      a group of 20 healthy humans watching pictures of faces expressing disgust.
      Moreover, we tried to replicate previous evidence by testing saliva secretion in
      response to pictures of unpalatable (i.e., rotten) food and non-gustatory
      disgusting stimuli (i.e., disgusting insects). Overall, our analysis shows a
      general reduction of saliva secretion in response to disgust stimuli, compared to
      their positive counterparts, although further analyses for specific stimulus
      categories indicated that this difference was statistically significant only for
      food pictures. The non-significance of the face and insect categories might be
      due to insufficient power of our small sample. Overall, a general reduction of
      saliva secretion for different disgust-related stimuli suggests a shared
      mechanism of encoding, in line with theories of neural reuse.

PMID- 28554156
TI  - Face inversion increases attractiveness.
AB  - Assessing facial attractiveness is a ubiquitous, inherent, and hard-wired
      phenomenon in everyday interactions. As such, it has highly adapted to the
      default way that faces are typically processed: viewing faces in upright
      orientation. By inverting faces, we can disrupt this default mode, and study how
      facial attractiveness is assessed. Faces, rotated at 90 (tilting to either side)
      and 180 degrees , were rated on attractiveness and distinctiveness scales. For
      both orientations, we found that faces were rated more attractive and less
      distinctive than upright faces. Importantly, these effects were more pronounced
      for faces rated low in upright orientation, and smaller for highly attractive
      faces. In other words, the less attractive a face was, the more it gained in
      attractiveness by inversion or rotation. Based on these findings, we argue that
      facial attractiveness assessments might not rely on the presence of attractive
      facial characteristics, but on the absence of distinctive, unattractive
      characteristics. These unattractive characteristics are potentially weighed
      against an individual, attractive prototype in assessing facial attractiveness.

PMID- 28554157
TI  - Does neighbourhood deprivation affect the genetic influence on body mass?
AB  - Most research into the role of gene-environment interactions in the etiology of
      obesity has taken environment to mean behaviours such as exercise and diet. While
      interesting, this is somewhat at odds with research into the social determinants
      of obesity, in which the focus has shifted away from individuals and behaviours
      to the types of wider obesogenic environments in which individuals live, which
      influence and produce these behaviours. This study combines these two strands of
      research by investigating how the genetic influence on body mass index (BMI),
      used as a proxy for obesity, changes across different neighbourhood environments
      measured by levels of deprivation. Genetics are incorporated using a classical
      twin design with data from Twins UK, a longitudinal study of UK twins running
      since 1992. A multilevel modelling approach is taken to decompose variation
      between individuals into genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared
      environmental components. Neighbourhood deprivation is found to be a
      statistically significant predictor of BMI after conditioning on individual
      characteristics, and a heritability of 0.75 is estimated for the entire sample.
      This heritability estimate is shown, however, to be higher in more deprived
      neighbourhoods and lower in less deprived ones, and this relationship is
      statistically significant. While this research cannot say anything directly about
      the mechanisms behind the relationship, it does highlight how the relative
      importance of genetic factors can vary across different social environments, and
      therefore the value of considering both genetic and social determinants of health
      simultaneously.

PMID- 28554158
TI  - Effect of interrupting free healthcare for children: Drawing lessons at the
      critical moment of national scale-up in Burkina Faso.
AB  - With solid evidence that free healthcare increases the utilization of health
      services, Burkina Faso recently exempted all children under five and pregnant
      women from direct payment at health facilities. However, there is little insight
      into the capacity to maintain the gains attributable to free healthcare under
      routine conditions of implementation at the national scale. In particular, the
      repercussions of its interruption are unknown. The objective is to assess the
      effects of a sequence of natural interventions including the introduction,
      interruption and reintroduction of free healthcare on health-seeking practices
      and utilization of healthcare facilities by children under five. This is an
      embedded mixed methods study conducted in Kaya district, Burkina Faso. The
      quantitative component is based on a reversal longitudinal design. Pooled
      interrupted time-series analysis was performed to assess changes in the monthly
      number of visits from January 2005 to March 2015. Qualitative data were collected
      through in-depth interviews with health personnel and mothers to better
      understand the quantitative results. The results show that visits to health
      centres dropped immediately and significantly when free healthcare was
      interrupted (-146, CI95% [-255; -37]). They increased again when free healthcare
      was reintroduced (+89, CI95% [-11; 187]). Both urban and rural centres were
      affected. Self-medication and visits to traditional healers were reported more
      frequently during the withdrawal of free healthcare, and tensions between the
      population and health personnel increased. Implementation problems other than
      insufficient funding limited the coverage or intensity of free healthcare. While
      removing user fees could potentially improve mothers and children's health in
      Burkina Faso, this study shows that demand for healthcare remains highly
      sensitive to price changes. Gains in utilization attributable to free healthcare
      may vanish rapidly if user fees are reintroduced. It is essential to support an
      effective and sustainable implementation of this ambitious initiative.

PMID- 28554160
TI  - Applying economic incentives to increase effectiveness of an outpatient weight
      loss program (TRIO) - A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - The prevalence of overweight and obesity has more than doubled in the past three
      decades, leading to rising rates of non-communicable diseases. This study tests
      whether adding a payment/rewards (term reward) program to an existing evidence
      based weight loss program can increase weight loss and weight loss maintenance.
      We conducted a parallel-group randomized controlled trial from October 2012 to
      October 2015 with 161 overweight or obese individuals randomized to either
      control or reward arm in a 1:2 ratio. Control and reward arm participants
      received a four month weight loss program at the LIFE (Lifestyle Improvement and
      Fitness Enhancement) Centre at Singapore General Hospital. Those in the reward
      arm paid a fee of S$165.00 (1US$ = 1.35S$) to access a program that provided
      rewards of up to S$660 for meeting weight loss and physical activity goals.
      Participants could choose to receive rewards as guaranteed cash payments or a
      lottery ticket with a 1 in 10 chance of winning but with the same expected value.
      The primary outcome was weight loss at months 4, 8, and 12. 161 participants were
      randomized to control (n = 54) or reward (n = 107) arms. Average weight loss was
      more than twice as great in the reward arm compared to the control arm at month 4
      when the program concluded (3.4 kg vs 1.4 kg, p < 0.01), month 8 when rewards
      concluded (3.3 kg vs 1.8 kg, p < 0.05), and at month 12 (2.3 kg vs 0.8 kg, p <
      0.05). These results reveal that a payment/rewards program can be used to improve
      weight loss and weight loss maintenance when combined with an evidence-based
      weight loss program. Future efforts should attempt to replicate this approach and
      identify how to cost effectively expand these programs to maximize their reach.
      This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT01533454).

PMID- 28554159
TI  - Health system responsiveness and chronic disease care - What is the role of
      disease management programs? An analysis based on cross-sectional survey and
      administrative claims data.
AB  - Health system responsiveness is an important aspect of health systems
      performance. The concept of responsiveness relates to the interpersonal and
      contextual aspects of health care. While disease management programs (DMPs) aim
      to improve the quality of health care (e.g. by improving the coordination of
      care), it has not been analyzed yet whether these programs improve the perceived
      health system responsiveness. Our study aims to close this gap by analyzing the
      differences in the perceived health system responsiveness between DMP
      participants and non-participants. We used linked survey- and administrative
      claims data from 7037 patients with coronary heart disease in Germany. Of those,
      5082 were enrolled and 1955 were not enrolled in the DMP. Responsiveness was
      assessed with an adapted version of the WHO responsiveness questionnaire in a
      postal survey in 2013. The survey covered 9 dimensions of responsiveness and
      included 17 items for each, GP and specialist care. Each item had five answer
      categories (very good - very bad). We handled missing values in the covariates by
      multiple imputation and applied propensity score matching (PSM) to control for
      differences between the two groups (DMP/non-DMP). We used Wilcoxon-signed-rank
      and McNemar test to analyze differences regarding the reported responsiveness.
      The PSM led to a matched and well balanced sample of 1921 pairs. Overall, DMP
      participants rated the responsiveness of care more positive. The main difference
      was found for the coordination of care at the GP, with 62.0% of 1703 non
      participants reporting a "good" or "very good" experience, compared to 69.1% of
      1703 participants (p < 0.001). The results of our study indicate an overall high
      responsiveness for CHD-care, as well for DMP-participants as for non
      participants. Yet, the results also clearly indicate that there is still a need
      to improve the coordination of care.

PMID- 28554161
TI  - Asian Americans and disproportionate exposure to carcinogenic hazardous air
      pollutants: A national study.
AB  - Studies have demonstrated disparate exposures to carcinogenic hazardous air
      pollutants (HAPs) in neighborhoods with high densities of Black and Hispanic
      residents in the US. Asians are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the
      US, yet they have been underemphasized in previous studies of environmental
      health and injustice. This cross-sectional study investigated possible
      disparities in residential exposure to carcinogenic HAPs among Asian Americans,
      including Asian American subgroups in the US (including all 50 states and the
      District of Columbia, n = 71,208 US census tracts) using National Air Toxics
      Assessment and US Census data. In an unadjusted analysis, Chinese and Korean
      Americans experience the highest mean cancer risks from HAPs, followed by Blacks.
      The aggregated Asian category ranks just below Blacks and above Hispanics, in
      terms of carcinogenic HAP risk. Multivariate models adjusting for socioeconomic
      status, population density, urban location, and geographic clustering show that
      an increase in proportion of Asian residents in census tracts is associated with
      significantly greater cancer risk from HAPs. Neighborhoods with higher
      proportions (as opposed to lower proportions) of Chinese, Korean, and South Asian
      residents have significantly greater cancer risk burdens relative to Whites.
      Tracts with higher concentrations of Asians speaking a non-English language and
      Asians that are US-born have significantly greater cancer risk burdens. Asian
      Americans experience substantial residential exposure to carcinogenic HAPs in US
      census tracts and in the US more generally.

PMID- 28554163
TI  - The influence of temperature on adult zebrafish sensitivity to
      pentylenetetrazole.
AB  - Pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) is one of the most valuable drugs used to induce seizure
      like state in zebrafish especially considering the pharmacological screening for
      anticonvulsants and the study of basic mechanisms of epilepsy. Here, the effect
      of gender, weight and changes in temperature on latency to adult zebrafish reach
      classical seizure states induced by PTZ (10mM) was evaluated. Gender and weight
      (200-250mg versus 400-500mg) did not affect the profile of response to PTZ. When
      water temperature was changed from 22 to 30 degrees C the lower temperature
      increased the latency time to reach seizure states and the higher temperature
      significantly decreased it, in comparison to the control group maintained at 26
      degrees C. The blockage of kainate receptors by DNQX (10MUM) were unable to
      prevent the increased susceptibility of adult zebrafish exposed to hyperthermia
      and PTZ-induced seizures. The NMDA block by MK-801 (2.5MUM) prevented the
      additive effect of hyperthermia on PTZ effects in adult zebrafish. This report
      emphasize that PTZ model in adult zebrafish exhibits no confounder factors from
      gender and weight, but water temperature is able to directly affect the response
      to PTZ, especially through a mechanism related to NMDA receptors.

PMID- 28554162
TI  - Social causation and neighborhood selection underlie associations of neighborhood
      factors with illicit drug-using social networks and illicit drug use among adults
      relocated from public housing.
AB  - Theories of social causation and social influence, which posit that neighborhood
      and social network characteristics are distal causes of substance use, are
      frequently used to interpret associations among neighborhood characteristics,
      social network characteristics and substance use. These associations are also
      hypothesized to result from selection processes, in which substance use
      determines where people live and who they interact with. The potential for these
      competing selection mechanisms to co-occur has been underexplored among adults.
      This study utilizes path analysis to determine the paths that relate census tract
      characteristics (e.g., economic deprivation), social network characteristics
      (i.e., having >= 1 illicit drug-using network member) and illicit drug use, among
      172 African American adults relocated from public housing in Atlanta, Georgia and
      followed from 2009 to 2014 (7 waves). Individual and network-level
      characteristics were captured using surveys. Census tract characteristics were
      created using administrative data. Waves 1 (pre-relocation), 2 (1st wave post
      relocation), and 7 were analyzed. When controlling for individual-level
      sociodemographic factors, residing in census tracts with prior economic
      disadvantage was significantly associated with illicit drug use at wave 1;
      illicit drug use at wave 1 was significantly associated with living in
      economically-disadvantaged census tracts at wave 2; and violent crime at wave 2
      was associated with illicit drug-using social network members at wave 7. Findings
      from this study support theories that describe social causation and neighborhood
      selection processes as explaining relationships of neighborhood characteristics
      with illicit drug use and illicit drug-using social networks. Policies that
      improve local economic and social conditions of neighborhoods may discourage
      substance use. Future studies should further identify the barriers that prevent
      substance users from obtaining housing in less disadvantaged neighborhoods.

PMID- 28554164
TI  - Association between obesity phenotypes and incident hypertension among Chinese
      adults: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the association between obesity phenotype and the risk of
      hypertension among Chinese adults. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective cohort study.
      METHODS: Two waves of data were collected in 2009 and 2011 by the China Health
      Nutrition Survey. According to International Diabetes Federation and Chinese
      obesity criteria, participants were divided into four groups: metabolically
      healthy non-overweight/obesity (MHNO), metabolically healthy overweight/obesity
      (MHO), metabolically abnormal non-overweight/obesity (MANO), and metabolically
      abnormal overweight/obesity (MAO). Logistic regression model was performed to
      estimate the risk of hypertension with obesity phenotype. RESULTS: Among a total
      of 4604 adults aged 18-65 years at baseline, 467 developed hypertension during
      the 2-year follow-up period. After adjusting for several potential confounders,
      significantly increased risks for hypertension were found for participants in MHO
      (odd ratio [OR]: 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39-2.27), MANO (OR: 1.71,
      95% CI: 1.02-2.86), and MAO (OR: 3.35, 95% CI: 2.54-4.42) group compared with the
      MHNO group. CONCLUSION: Metabolically abnormal individuals, regardless of their
      body weight status, showed significantly higher risks for hypertension compared
      with healthy non-overweight/obese group. Furthermore, MHO individuals had
      significantly increased risk of incident hypertension.

PMID- 28554165
TI  - Network modeling of resting state connectivity points towards the bottom up
      theories of schizophrenia.
AB  - The dysconnectivity theory of schizophrenia proposes that schizophrenia symptoms
      arise from abnormalities in neuronal synchrony. Resting-state Functional
      Connectivity (FC) techniques allow us to highlight synchronization of large-scale
      networks, the Resting-state Networks (RNs). A large body of work suggests that
      disruption of RN synchronization could give rise to specific schizophrenia
      symptoms. The present study aimed to explore within- and between-network FC
      strength of 34 RNs in 29 patients suffering from schizophrenia, and their
      relationships with schizophrenia symptoms. Resting-state data were analyzed using
      independent component analysis and dual-regression techniques. Our results showed
      that both within-RN and between-RN FC were disrupted in patients with
      schizophrenia, with a global trend toward weaker FC. This decrease affected more
      particularly visual, auditory and crossmodal binding networks. These alterations
      were correlated with negative symptoms, positive symptoms and hallucinations,
      indicating abnormalities in visual processing and crossmodal binding in
      schizophrenia. Moreover, we stressed an anomalous synchronization between a
      visual network and a network thought to be engaged in mental imaging processes,
      correlated with delusions and hallucinations. Altogether, our results supported
      the assumption that some schizophrenia symptoms may be related to low-order
      sensory alterations impacting higher-order cognitive processes, i.e. the "bottom
      up" hypothesis of schizophrenia symptoms.

PMID- 28554166
TI  - Oxytocin facilitation of acceptance of social advice is dependent upon the
      perceived trustworthiness of individual advisors.
AB  - The neuropeptide oxytocin may increase social cohesion by making us more willing
      to trust others and/or to conform to their opinions. Here we investigated whether
      intranasal oxytocin can influence acceptance of advice given on solving everyday
      social problems by either individual expert (psychologist) or non-expert advisors
      with or without influencing their perceived likeability or trustworthiness. In a
      double-blind, between-subject, placebo-control design study in 160 male and
      female subjects, intranasal oxytocin (24IU) only significantly enhanced
      acceptance of advice given by female psychologists who were rated as the most
      trustworthy advisors. However, oxytocin itself did not alter either
      trustworthiness or likeability ratings. The oxytocin effect on acceptance of the
      female psychologist's advice was not maintained after a week, with subjects
      mainly reverting to their original solutions. These findings suggest that while
      oxytocin can transiently increase acceptance of advice from the most trustworthy
      individuals this is because it makes subjects more likely to conform to their
      opinions rather than enhancing their perceived trustworthiness or likeability.
      Thus in every day contexts oxytocin may primarily promote social cohesion by
      facilitating conformity towards the opinions of the most trusted individuals.

PMID- 28554167
TI  - Elevated paternal glucocorticoid exposure modifies memory retention in female
      offspring.
AB  - Recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral traits are subject to
      transgenerational modification by paternal environmental factors. We previously
      reported on the transgenerational influences of increased paternal stress hormone
      levels on offspring anxiety and depression-related behaviors. Here, we
      investigated whether offspring sociability and cognition are also influenced by
      paternal stress. Adult C57BL/6J male mice were treated with corticosterone (CORT;
      25mg/L) for four weeks prior to paired-matings to generate F1 offspring. Paternal
      CORT treatment was associated with decreased body weights of female offspring and
      a marked reduction of the male offspring. There were no differences in social
      behavior of adult F1 offspring in the three-chamber social interaction test.
      Despite male offspring of CORT-treated fathers displaying hyperactivity in the Y
      maze, there was no observable difference in short-term spatial working memory.
      Spatial learning and memory testing in the Morris water maze revealed that
      female, but not male, F1 offspring of CORT-treated fathers had impaired memory
      retention. We used our recently developed methodology to analyze the spatial
      search strategy of the mice during the learning trials and determined that the
      impairment could not be attributed to underlying differences in search strategy.
      These results provide evidence for the impact of paternal corticosterone
      administration on offspring cognition and complement the cumulative knowledge of
      transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of acquired traits in rodents and
      humans.

PMID- 28554168
TI  - Juan Jorge Heinrich, MD, PhD, 1937-2016.

PMID- 28554170
TI  - How Do We Improve the Quality of Life of Haemodialysis Patients? Now That's a
      Good Question.

PMID- 28554169
TI  - Neohesperidin Exerts Lipid-Regulating Effects in vitro and in vivo via Fibroblast
      Growth Factor 21 and AMP-Activated Protein Kinase/Sirtuin Type 1/Peroxisome
      Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1alpha Signaling Axis.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to prove the lipid-regulating effects of
      neohesperidin (NHP) and explore the potential mechanisms related to fibroblast
      growth factor 21 (FGF21) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Free fatty
      acids (FFAs)-induced lipid-accumulated HepG2 cells, acutely egg yolk-induced
      dyslipidemia and chronically diet-induced obese (DIO) model mice were treated
      with NHP. Biochemical analyses were carried out to determine the lipid profiles.
      Western blotting and real-time PCR were employed to analyze FGF21, AMPK and the
      related proteins or mRNA expressions. Body weight and food intake were measured
      in DIO mice. siRNA or inhibitors of FGF21 or AMPK were utilized in further study.
      NHP showed potent hypolipidemic effect in HepG2 cells loaded with FFAs and
      reversed the pathological changes of lipid in the acute or chronic dyslipidemia
      mouse model. It obviously improved the lipid profiles in plasma, liver and
      gastrocnemius muscles in DIO mice, and led to a significant body weight loss.
      Simultaneously, FGF21 protein expression or secretion, and AMPK/sirtuin type 1
      (SIRT1)/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC
      1alpha) axis or related molecules, was improved by NHP in HepG2 cells and/or DIO
      mice. Furthermore, the siRNA or inhibitor targeting FGF21 or AMPK rejected the
      triglyceride-lowering effect of NHP. In conclusion, NHP regulates lipid
      metabolism in vivo and in vitro via FGF21 and AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1alpha signaling
      axis.

PMID- 28554171
TI  - Clearance of Sclerostin, Osteocalcin, Fibroblast Growth Factor 23, and
      Osteoprotegerin by Dialysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fibroblast growth factor (FGF23), sclerostin, osteocalcin, and
      osteoprotegerin are important factors that control mineral bone metabolism. End
      stage renal disease is associated with the pronounced dysregulation of mineral
      bone metabolism; however, the impact and clearance of mineral bone metabolism
      factors during dialysis remain largely undescribed. METHODS: In a cross-sectional
      study, 10 chronic hemodialysis patients were treated with hemodialysis for 8 h
      using a high-flux filter and a dialysate bath of 50% calculated total body water
      continuously recycled at a rate of 500 mL/min. Plasma and dialysate
      concentrations of FGF23, sclerostin, osteoprotegerin, and osteocalcin were
      measured at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h permitting the estimation of dialysis clearance.
      RESULTS: Clearance of FGF23 was 7.7 mL/min, of sclerostin was 7.6 mL/min, of
      osteoprotegerin was 1.2 mL/min, and of osteocalcin was 19.7 mL/min. Clearance of
      FGF23 was correlated to sclerostin and osteoprotegerin clearance and also to the
      ultrafiltration rate. Although, osteocalcin blood concentrations decreased during
      dialysis, they rebounded within 6 h. Overall, no significant changes in blood
      concentrations of the measure mineral bone metabolism factors were observed.
      CONCLUSIONS: The intradialytic clearance of osteocalcin, FGF23, sclerostin, and
      osteoprotegerin occurs; however, only clearance of FGF23 is directly correlated
      with the ultrafiltration rate. The effects of dialytic clearance on mineral bone
      metabolism are, however, uncertain and intradialytic plasma concentrations of the
      studied substrates remained largely unchanged.

PMID- 28554172
TI  - The Circulating MicroRNA-206 Level Predicts the Severity of Pulmonary
      Hypertension in Patients with Left Heart Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-206 (miR-206), a muscle-specific miRNA, regulates the growth
      of cardiac myocytes and pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. However, it remains
      unknown whether miR-206 is involved in pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to left
      heart diseases (PH-LHD). This study was designed to investigate the correlation
      between miR-206 and PH in patients with LHD. METHODS: In 82 consecutively
      enrolled LHD patients, we examined the serum levels of miR-206 and analyzed its
      correlations with pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and cardiac function.
      Another 36 age- and sex-matched subjects served as healthy controls. RESULTS: The
      patients were divided into the LHD group (n=47, PASP<50 mmHg) and the PH-LHD
      group (n=35, PASP>=50 mmHg). The level of miR-206 was significantly decreased in
      the PH-LHD group compared with that of the LHD and healthy control groups. In
      addition, the miR-206 level was correlated with PASP (r=-0.305, p<0.001) but not
      with systemic blood pressure. Univariate analyses showed that miR-206, brain
      natriuretic peptide (BNP), left ventricular ejection fraction and left atrial
      longitudinal diameter (LAD) were significantly related to PASP. Multivariate
      regression analysis identified miR-206 as an independent predictive factor for
      PH. MiR-206 alone (cut-off <0.66) demonstrated a sensitivity of 68.60% and a
      specificity of 65.80% in predicting PH. Moreover, the combination of miR-206, BNP
      and LAD (cut-off 0.21) showed a sensitivity of 97.10% and a specificity of 80.30%
      in predicting PH in LHD patients. CONCLUSION: A decreased circulating miR-206
      level was associated with increased PASP in LHD patients. Thus, the level of miR
      206, especially combined with BNP and LAD, might be helpful in the detection of
      PH in LHD patients.

PMID- 28554173
TI  - Everolimus in Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Gastrointestinal Tract and Unknown
      Primary.
AB  - PURPOSE: The RADIANT-4 randomized phase 3 study demonstrated significant
      prolongation of median progression-free survival (PFS) with everolimus compared
      to placebo (11.0 [95% CI 9.2-13.3] vs. 3.9 [95% CI 3.6-7.4] months) in patients
      with advanced, progressive, nonfunctional gastrointestinal (GI) and lung
      neuroendocrine tumors (NET). This analysis specifically evaluated NET patients
      with GI and unknown primary origin. METHODS: Patients in the RADIANT-4 trial were
      randomized 2:1 to everolimus 10 mg/day or placebo. The effect of everolimus on
      PFS was evaluated in patients with NET of the GI tract or unknown primary site.
      RESULTS: Of the 302 patients enrolled, 175 had GI NET (everolimus, 118; placebo,
      57) and 36 had unknown primary (everolimus, 23; placebo, 13). In the GI subset,
      the median PFS by central review was 13.1 months (95% CI 9.2-17.3) in the
      everolimus arm versus 5.4 months (95% CI 3.6-9.3) in the placebo arm; the hazard
      ratio (HR) was 0.56 (95% CI 0.37-0.84). In the unknown primary patients, the
      median PFS was 13.6 months (95% CI 4.1-not evaluable) for everolimus versus 7.5
      months (95% CI 1.9-18.5) for placebo; the HR was 0.60 (95% CI 0.24-1.51).
      Everolimus efficacy was also demonstrated in both midgut and non-midgut
      populations; a 40-46% reduction in the risk of progression or death was reported
      for patients in the combined GI and unknown primary subgroup. Everolimus had a
      benefit regardless of prior somatostatin analog therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Everolimus
      showed a clinically meaningful PFS benefit in patients with advanced progressive
      nonfunctional NET of GI and unknown primary, consistent with the overall RADIANT
      4 results, providing an effective new standard treatment option in this patient
      population and filling an unmet treatment need for these patients.

PMID- 28554175
TI  - Modification of Potassium-Mortality Relationship by Ethnicity and Race: Solving
      the Puzzle.

PMID- 28554174
TI  - Postoperative Recovery of Light Sensitivity in Eyes with Rhegmatogenous Retinal
      Detachment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate whether postoperative light sensitivity recovers
      completely to the level prior to the development of rhegmatogenous retinal
      detachment (RRD) after successful surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 44
      eyes of 44 patients with RRD who were successfully operated and who underwent
      Humphrey central 30-2 perimetry postoperatively. The averaged total deviation in
      Humphrey perimetry in the reattached retina was compared with that of the
      horizontal or vertical counterpart in the preoperatively non-detached retina.
      RESULTS: The averaged total deviation in the reattached retina was significantly
      lower than in its counterpart (p < 0.0001). The averaged residual loss of light
      sensitivity did not correlate with postoperative visual acuity (p = 0.8047) or
      with its change (p = 0.1242). CONCLUSIONS: Light sensitivity in the detached
      retina in eyes with RRD does not completely recover after successful surgery.

PMID- 28554176
TI  - Fine-Needle Aspiration of Metastatic Central Type Primitive Neuroectodermal
      Tumors in Patients with a Germ Cell Tumor.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Central type primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) are some of the
      most frequent somatic type tumors derived from germ cell tumors and can
      metastasize. We studied the cytomorphological features of metastatic central type
      PNET by fine-needle aspiration (FNA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A computerized
      search of our laboratory information system was performed for the 9-year period
      from 2005 through 2014 to identify all cytology cases in which a diagnosis of
      metastatic central type PNET had been rendered. A total of 5 FNA cases were
      collected and direct smears were reexamined. RESULTS: All patients had a history
      of testicular or ovarian germ cell tumors. Direct smears displayed single and
      clusters of atypical round to oval cells with scant to moderate cytoplasm.
      Abundant naked nuclei were present in Diff-Quik-stained smears with mild to
      marked crushed artifacts and nuclear molding. Tumor cells showed fine granular
      chromatin, nuclear size variation (up to 1:3), and one or more small nucleoli.
      Pseudorosettes (Homer Wright-like rosette) were noticed in 1 case. Tumor cells
      were commonly positive for synaptophysin. CONCLUSION: Metastatic PNET can be
      reliably diagnosed by FNA. Differential diagnoses include Ewing
      sarcoma/peripheral PNET, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, etc. It is
      important to be familiar with this entity to avoid diagnostic pitfalls.

PMID- 28554177
TI  - High Prestroke Physical Activity Is Associated with Reduced Infarct Growth in
      Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Treated with Intravenous tPA and Randomized to
      Remote Ischemic Perconditioning.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A high prestroke physical activity (PA) level is associated with
      reduced stroke rate, stroke mortality, better functional outcome, and possible
      neuroprotective abilities. The aim of the present study was to examine the
      possible neuroprotective effect of prestroke PA on 24-h cerebral infarct growth
      in a cohort of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous tPA and
      randomized to remote ischemic perconditioning. METHODS: In this predefined
      subanalysis, data from a randomized clinical trial investigating the effect of
      remote ischemic perconditioning (RIPerC) on AIS was used. Prestroke (7 days
      before admission) PA was quantified using the PA Scale for the Elderly (PASE)
      questionnaire at baseline. Infarct growth was evaluated using MRI (acute, 24-h,
      and 1-month). RESULTS: PASE scores were obtained from 102 of 153 (67%) patients
      with a median (interquartile range) age of 66 (58-73) years. A high prestroke PA
      level correlated significantly with reduced acute infarct growth (24 h) in the
      linear regression model (4th quartile prestroke PA level compared with the 1st
      quartile), beta4th quartile = -0.82 (95% CI -1.54 to -0.10). However, the effect
      of prestroke PA was present mainly in patients randomized to RIPerC, beta4th
      quartile = -1.14 (95% CI -2.04 to -0.25). In patients randomized to RIPerC,
      prestroke PA was a predictor of final infarct size (1-month infarct volume),
      beta4th quartile = -1.78 (95% CI -3.15 to -0.41). CONCLUSION: In AIS patients
      treated with RIPerC, as add-on to intravenous thrombolysis, the level of PA the
      week before the stroke was associated with decreased 24-h infarct growth and
      final infarct size. These results are highly encouraging and stress the need for
      further exploration of the potentially protective effects of both PA and remote
      ischemic conditioning.

PMID- 28554179
TI  - Skin-Dominant Phenotype in a Patient with H Syndrome: Identification of a Novel
      Mutation in the SLC29A3 Gene.
AB  - H syndrome (OMIM 602782) is a very rare autosomal recessive genodermatosis with
      multisystem involvement. Hallmarks of this disorder are juvenile onset and
      progressive, hyperpigmented, hypertrichotic lesions with histiocytic
      infiltration. Associated systemic manifestations form a long list, and there is
      high variability between patients. In some patients, dysmorphic and other
      systemic features may be so subtle that the disorder may readily be mistaken as
      an acquired skin disease and treated as such. Herein, we report a novel
      homozygous c.1339G>A (p.Glu447Lys) mutation in the SLC29A3 gene in a patient with
      skin-dominant presentation of H syndrome. Additionally, due to the present case,
      double superior vena cava can be added to the list of possible cardiovascular
      manifestations of H syndrome.

PMID- 28554180
TI  - Higher Ultrafiltration Rate Is Associated with Longer Dialysis Recovery Time in
      Patients Undergoing Conventional Hemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased mortality and morbidity are reported in association with
      high ultrafiltration rate (UFR) and with long dialysis recovery time (DRT). We
      studied the association between UFR and DRT. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional,
      observational study was conducted. Patients on thrice-weekly hemodialysis (HD)
      with self-reported DRT between August and December 2014 were included. We
      examined the association of 30-day average UFR with recovery time. RESULTS: The
      total number of patients included in this study was 2,689. DRT in categories of
      immediate recovery, >0-<=2, >2-<=6, >6-<=12, and >12 h, were reported in 27, 28,
      17, 9, and 20% of the patients respectively. In multivariable analysis, longer
      DRT was associated with female gender, non-black race, higher body weight, lower
      serum albumin, chronic heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, missed dialysis
      sessions, higher pre-dialysis systolic blood pressure, and larger UF volume.
      Compared to UFR of <10, UFR >=13 mL/kg/h was associated with longer DRT, OR of
      1.16 (95% CI 0.99-1.36), and 1.28 (95% CI 1.06-1.54) in the unadjusted and the
      adjusted analyses respectively. Intradialytic hypotension was also associated
      with longer DRT in the unadjusted (per 10% higher frequency, OR 1.04 [95% CI 1.01
      1.07]) and adjusted analyses (OR 1.03 [95% CI 1.00-1.07]). CONCLUSION: Long
      recovery time is common after HD. Rapid fluid removal is associated with longer
      DRT.

PMID- 28554178
TI  - Vitamin D and Albuminuria in Youth with and without Type 1 Diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: In adults, lower vitamin D has been associated with increased
      albuminuria. This association has not been extensively studied in youth with or
      without type 1 diabetes. METHODS: We examined the cross-sectional association
      between vitamin D and albuminuria (urine albumin to creatinine ratio >=30 mg/g)
      in 8,789 participants of the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2001-2006
      (NHANES), who were 6-19 years old. Further, we examined the association between
      vitamin D and albuminuria in 938 participants from the SEARCH Nutritional
      Ancillary Study (SNAS), a longitudinal cohort of youth with type 1 diabetes.
      RESULTS: Of the NHANES participants, 5.3, 19.5, and 53.7% had vitamin D levels
      <30, 50 and 80 nmol/L, respectively. Albuminuria was present in 12.8% and was
      more common in younger children, females, non-Hispanic whites, non-obese
      children, and children with hypertension. After adjustments, there was no
      association between vitamin D and albuminuria. Among the SNAS participants with
      type 1 diabetes, we also found no association between baseline vitamin D and
      subsequent albuminuria in unadjusted or adjusted analyses. CONCLUSION: We did not
      find an association between serum vitamin D and albuminuria in either non
      diabetic youth or those with type 1 diabetes. Further research is needed to more
      fully understand this relationship.

PMID- 28554181
TI  - Cytosolic Cl- Affects the Anticancer Activity of Paclitaxel in the Gastric Cancer
      Cell Line, MKN28 Cell.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Our previous study revealed that cytosolic Cl- affected neurite
      elongation promoted via assembly of microtubule in rat pheochromocytoma PC12D
      cells and Cl--induced blockade of intrinsic GTPase enhanced tubulin
      polymerization in vitro. Paclitaxel (PTX) is a microtubule-targeted
      chemotherapeutic drug and stabilizes microtubules resulting in mainly blockade of
      mitosis at the metaphase-anaphase transition and induction of apoptosis. In the
      present study, we tried to clarify whether the cytosolic Cl- affected PTX ability
      to inhibit cell growth in the gastric cancer cell line, MKN28. METHODS: To
      clarify the cytosolic Cl- action on PTX-induced cell death and metaphase-anaphase
      transition in the gastric cancer cell line, MKN28 cell, and PTX-induced tubulin
      polymerization, we performed cell proliferation assay, cytosolic Cl-
      concentration measurement, immunofluorescence microscopy, and in vitro tubulin
      polymerization assay. RESULTS: The decline of cytosolic Cl- weakened the
      cytotoxic effect of PTX on cell proliferation of MKN28 cells, which could pass
      through the metaphase-anaphase transition. Moreover, in vitro PTX-induced tubulin
      polymerization was diminished under the low Cl- condition. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results strongly suggest that the upregulation of cytosolic Cl- concentration
      would enhance the antitumor effect of PTX, and that the cytosolic Cl- would be
      one of the key targets for anti-cancer therapy.

PMID- 28554182
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Fragmented QRS in Patients with Hypertrophic
      Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The relationship between a fragmented QRS (fQRS) and clinical
      outcomes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) remains unclear. This
      study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of fQRS in patients with
      HCM. METHODS: Between 2000 and 2012, 326 unrelated patients with HCM (72% male
      with a mean age of 52 years) were included and were divided into 2 groups: those
      with fQRS and those without fQRS. RESULTS: A total of 105/326(32.2%) patients
      with HCM presented with fQRS at enrollment. During a follow-up of 5.3 +/- 2.4
      years, 33 patients died, 30 of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cox regression
      analysis revealed that fQRS predicted a higher risk of all-cause mortality
      (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 2.24; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-4.64; p =
      0.030) and CVD mortality (adjusted HR 2.68; 95% CI 1.22-5.91; p = 0.014). Our
      study also showed that fQRS increased the risk of heart failure-related death
      (adjusted HR 3.75; 95% CI 1.24-11.30; p = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      indicate that fQRS is associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with
      HCM.

PMID- 28554184
TI  - Vertebral Artery Dissection in a Bouncy Castle Injury: Case Report and Literature
      Review.
AB  - There is an increased rate of injuries associated with activities on bouncy
      castles. The purpose of this article was to describe the case of a 6-year-old boy
      who sustained a brain infarct as a consequence of a left posterior inferior
      cerebellar artery dissection due to improper landing in a bouncy castle and who
      required a suboccipital craniotomy. The second goal was to outline the literature
      review regarding cervical trauma related to trampoline or bouncy castle accidents
      in pediatric populations. Based on the described case and reviewed studies,
      bouncy castle or any other activity resulting in hyperflexion or hyperextension
      of the neck should be carefully evaluated for cervical spine fractures and
      vascular injuries.

PMID- 28554183
TI  - A Pilot Trial of S-1 and Paclitaxel in Unresectable or Postoperative Recurrent
      Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Pretreated by Fluorouracil, Cisplatin, and
      Docetaxel Chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study documents the clinical efficacy and toxicity of S-1
      and paclitaxel (S1/PTX) in patients with unresectable or postoperative recurrent
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who had been previously treated with
      fluorouracil (5FU), cisplatin, and docetaxel. METHODS: Twenty-eight ESCC patients
      treated using S1/PTX at our institute since 2010 were enrolled in this study. S1
      was administered orally at a dose of 80 mg/m2/day from days 1 to 14, and PTX was
      administered intravenously on days 1 and 8 at a dose of 80-100 mg/m2. RESULTS: A
      total of 106 cycles (median 2.5 cycles, range 1-12 cycles) were administered. The
      response rate was 14.8%, including 3 complete responses. The median progression
      free survival time was 137 days, and the median overall survival time was 306
      days. Severe neutropenia occurred in 13 patients, and 3 showed febrile
      neutropenia. All non-hematological toxicities were mild, and peripheral nerve
      paralysis was observed in 2 patients. CONCLUSION: S1/PTX was found to have
      tolerable clinical efficacy in terms of the response rate, survival and toxicity
      in patients with unresectable or postoperative recurrent ESCC who had previously
      been treated with 5FU, cisplatin, and docetaxel.

PMID- 28554185
TI  - Clinical Challenges in Upper Gastrointestinal Malignancies after Bariatric
      Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The incidence of morbid obesity has exponentially increased over
      the last decades. Bariatric surgery (BS) has been proven effective in inducing
      weight loss and resolving comorbidities associated with morbid obesity. However,
      BS can also lead to major diagnostic and treatment challenges in patients who
      develop upper gastrointestinal malignancies. It is important to create awareness
      of this rising problem. METHODS: Relevant literature was searched in PubMed.
      RESULTS: (Formerly) obese patients are more prone to develop upper
      gastrointestinal malignancies, mainly adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus,
      since obesity induces a chronic pro-inflammatory state due to endocrinological
      changes. When an upper gastrointestinal malignancy develops after BS, diagnosis
      is often delayed and challenging due to a different presentation of complaints
      and the altered anatomy following the earlier surgery. Also, a potentially
      curative resection is often more complex and reconstruction of the
      gastrointestinal continuity can be seriously hampered. CONCLUSION: Due to the
      growing incidence of obesity and the increasing number of bariatric surgical
      procedures that are performed each year, it is expected that over the years to
      come, more post-BS patients will be diagnosed with upper gastrointestinal
      malignancies, providing great diagnostic and treatment challenges. Clinicians
      should be aware of this rising problem.

PMID- 28554186
TI  - Exposure to Cadmium Impairs Sperm Functions by Reducing CatSper in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cadmium (Cd), a common environmental heavy metal and endocrine
      disruptor, is known to exert toxic effects on the testes. However, the mechanisms
      accounting for its toxicity in mature spermatozoa remain unclear. METHODS: Adult
      male C57BL/6 mice were orally administered with CdCl2 for 5 weeks at 3 mg.kg
      1.day-1. Additionally, mouse spermatozoa were incubated in vitro with different
      doses of CdCl2 (0, 10, 50, 250 uM). Several sperm functions including the sperm
      motility, viability and acrosome reaction (AR) ratio were then examined.
      Furthermore, the current and expression levels of both the sperm-specific Ca2+
      channel (CatSper) and the sperm-specific K+ channel (KSper) were evaluated by
      patch-clamping and western blotting, respectively. RESULTS: Our data showed that
      the motility, viability and AR of sperm exposed to cadmium significantly
      decreased in vivo and in vitro. Interestingly, these changes were correlated with
      changes in CatSper but not KSper. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate sperm
      dysfunction during both chronic and acute cadmium exposure as well as a specific
      role for CatSper in the reproductive toxicity of cadmium.

PMID- 28554187
TI  - Embryonic Stem Cells for Tissue Biocompatibility, Angiogenesis, and Inflammation
      Testing.
AB  - AIM: To introduce embryoid bodies derived from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells,
      which differentiate blood vessel-like structures and leukocytes, as a novel in
      vitro model system for biocompatibility, inflammation, and angiogenesis studies.
      METHODOLOGY/RESULTS: Punched spherical discs of bioabsorbable polymers (epsilon
      caprolactone and L-lactide in different compositions) with a diameter of 2 mm and
      a thickness of 0.2 mm were inoculated with embryoid bodies for cocultivation. As
      reference material for biocompatible, nonbioabsorbable, and bioincompatible
      materials, polymer punched discs of petriPERM (PP) membrane
      (polytetrafluoroethylene) as well as polyvinylchloride (PVC) were used. Tissue
      outgrowth on the polymer discs decreased and cell toxicity increased upon
      confrontation on bioabsorbable biomaterials and PVC. Bioabsorbable polymers as
      well as PVC decreased the branching points and total tube length of CD31-positive
      vascular structures in embryoid bodies. With the exception of PP, all applied
      materials increased the differentiation of CD68-positive macrophages and the
      generation of reactive oxygen species, which is indicative of proinflammatory
      processes upon contact of tissue with biomaterials. Consequently, cocultivation
      with polymers increased secretion of the cytokines interleukin-6, monocyte
      chemotactic protein-1, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. CONCLUSION: Three
      dimensional tissues cultivated from ES cells are well-suited for testing the
      biocompatibility, the vascular response, and the inflammatory reaction towards
      bioabsorbable and nonbioabsorbable polymers.

PMID- 28554188
TI  - Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and risk of injuries: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study systematically reviewed the literature in order to
      determine the effect of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on
      injuries and assessed the magnitude of the potential association. METHODS: A
      systematic review of the studies examining the association of ADHD and injuries
      was carried out across multiple databases. Odds ratios and standardized mean
      differences were pooled. RESULTS: A total of 35 studies were selected for
      quantitative analysis. The association of ADHD and injuries was confirmed over
      the meta-analysis of eligible studies. The odds ratio pooled over all comparative
      studies was 1.96(95% CI: 1.6-2.4) using random effects model. Pooled odds ratio
      of 2.1 and 2.17 were calculated respectively when cohort and case-control studies
      or just cohort studies were included. The pooled odds ratio reduced to
      1.8(CI:1.45-2.3) when studies on specific injuries were removed. For studies
      comparing scores of rating scales, the pooled standardized mean difference was
      0.61(95% CI: 0.03-1.2). CONCLUSIONS: Those with ADHD are nearly two times more
      likely to be injured.

PMID- 28554190
TI  - 23andMe Paves the Way for Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Health Risk Tests of Limited
      Clinical Utility.

PMID- 28554191
TI  - Toward Patient-Centered Hospital Design: What Can Airports Teach Us?

PMID- 28554193
TI  - Improvement at Any Cost? The Art and Science of Choosing Treatment Strategies for
      Rheumatoid Arthritis.

PMID- 28554194
TI  - New Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Guidelines on Pain
      Management With Opioids: Comment and Concern.

PMID- 28554189
TI  - Structure of the human multidrug transporter ABCG2.
AB  - ABCG2 is a constitutively expressed ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter that
      protects many tissues against xenobiotic molecules. Its activity affects the
      pharmacokinetics of commonly used drugs and limits the delivery of therapeutics
      into tumour cells, thus contributing to multidrug resistance. Here we present the
      structure of human ABCG2 determined by cryo-electron microscopy, providing the
      first high-resolution insight into a human multidrug transporter. We visualize
      ABCG2 in complex with two antigen-binding fragments of the human-specific,
      inhibitory antibody 5D3 that recognizes extracellular loops of the transporter.
      We observe two cholesterol molecules bound in the multidrug-binding pocket that
      is located in a central, hydrophobic, inward-facing translocation pathway between
      the transmembrane domains. Combined with functional in vitro analyses, our
      results suggest a multidrug recognition and transport mechanism of ABCG2,
      rationalize disease-causing single nucleotide polymorphisms and the allosteric
      inhibition by the 5D3 antibody, and provide the structural basis of cholesterol
      recognition by other G-subfamily ABC transporters.

PMID- 28554192
TI  - Triple Therapy Versus Biologic Therapy for Active Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cost
      Effectiveness Analysis.
AB  - Background: The RACAT (Rheumatoid Arthritis Comparison of Active Therapies) trial
      found triple therapy to be noninferior to etanercept-methotrexate in patients
      with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objective: To determine the cost
      effectiveness of etanercept-methotrexate versus triple therapy as a first-line
      strategy. Design: A within-trial analysis based on the 353 participants in the
      RACAT trial and a lifetime analysis that extrapolated costs and outcomes by using
      a decision analytic cohort model. Data Sources: The RACAT trial and sources from
      the literature. Target Population: Patients with active RA despite at least 12
      weeks of methotrexate therapy. Time Horizon: 24 weeks and lifetime. Perspective:
      Societal and Medicare. Intervention: Etanercept-methotrexate first versus triple
      therapy first. Outcome Measures: Incremental costs, quality-adjusted life-years
      (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). Results of Base-Case
      Analysis: The within-trial analysis found that etanercept-methotrexate as first
      line therapy provided marginally more QALYs but accumulated substantially higher
      drug costs. Differences in other costs between strategies were negligible. The
      ICERs for first-line etanercept-methotrexate and triple therapy were $2.7 million
      per QALY and $0.98 million per QALY over 24 and 48 weeks, respectively. The
      lifetime analysis suggested that first-line etanercept-methotrexate would result
      in 0.15 additional lifetime QALY, but this gain would cost an incremental $77
      290, leading to an ICER of $521 520 per QALY per patient. Results of Sensitivity
      Analysis: Considering a long-term perspective, an initial strategy of etanercept
      methotrexate and biologics with similar cost and efficacy is unlikely to be cost
      effective compared with using triple therapy first, even under optimistic
      assumptions. Limitation: Data on the long-term benefit of triple therapy are
      uncertain. Conclusion: Initiating biologic therapy without trying triple therapy
      first increases costs while providing minimal incremental benefit. Primary
      Funding Source: The Cooperative Studies Program, Department of Veterans Affairs
      Office of Research and Development, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and
      an interagency agreement with the National Institutes of Health-American Recovery
      and Reinvestment Act.

PMID- 28554195
TI  - Sitagliptin and Angioedema.

PMID- 28554197
TI  - A New Neolignan Derivative, Balanophonin Isolated from Firmiana simplex Delays
      the Progress of Neuronal Cell Death by Inhibiting Microglial Activation.
AB  - Excessive activation of microglia causes the continuous production of neurotoxic
      mediators, which further causes neuron degeneration. Therefore, inhibition of
      microglial activation is a possible target for the treatment of neurodegenerative
      disorders. Balanophonin, a natural neolignoid from Firmiana simplex, has been
      reported to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. In this study, we
      aimed to evaluate the anti-neuroinflammatory effects and mechanism of
      balanophonin in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated BV2 microglia cells. BV2
      microglia cells were stimulated with LPS in the presence or absence of
      balanophonin. The results indicated that balanophonin reduced not only the LPS
      mediated TLR4 activation but also the production of inflammatory mediators, such
      as nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), in BV2 cells. Balanophonin also
      inhibited LPS-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase
      2 (COX2) protein expression and mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs),
      including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase
      (JNK), and p38 MAPK. Interestingly, it also inhibited neuronal cell death
      resulting from LPS-activated microglia by regulating cleaved caspase-3 and poly
      ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage in N2a cells. In conclusion, our data
      indicated that balanophonin may delay the progression of neuronal cell death by
      inhibiting microglial activation.

PMID- 28554198
TI  - Role of TAZ in Lysophosphatidic Acid-Induced Migration and Proliferation of Human
      Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - Transcriptional co-activator with a PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) is an important
      factor in lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)-induced promotion of migration and
      proliferation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The expression of TAZ
      significantly increased at 6 h after LPA treatment, and TAZ knockdown inhibited
      the LPA-induced migration and proliferation of MSCs. In addition, embryonic
      fibroblasts from TAZ knockout mice exhibited the reduction in LPA-induced
      migration and proliferation. The LPA1 receptor inhibitor Ki16425 blocked LPA
      responses in MSCs. Although TAZ knockdown or knockout did not reduce LPA-induced
      phosphorylation of ERK and AKT, the MEK inhibitor U0126 or the ROCK inhibitor
      Y27632 blocked LPA-induced TAZ expression along with the reduction in the
      proliferation and migration of MSCs. Our data suggest that TAZ is an important
      mediator of LPA signaling in MSCs in the downstream of MEK and ROCK signaling.

PMID- 28554196
TI  - Production of Recombinant Anti-Cancer Vaccines in Plants.
AB  - Plant expression systems have been developed to produce anti-cancer vaccines.
      Plants have several advantages as bioreactors for the production of subunit
      vaccines: they are considered safe, and may be used to produce recombinant
      proteins at low production cost. However, several technical issues hinder large
      scale production of anti-cancer vaccines in plants. The present review covers
      design strategies to enhance the immunogenicity and therapeutic potency of anti
      cancer vaccines, methods to increase vaccine-expressing plant biomass, and
      challenges facing the production of anti-cancer vaccines in plants. Specifically,
      the issues such as low expression levels and plant-specific glycosylation are
      described, along with their potential solutions.

PMID- 28554199
TI  - Recombinant Human Thioredoxin-1 Protects Macrophages from Oxidized Low-Density
      Lipoprotein-Induced Foam Cell Formation and Cell Apoptosis.
AB  - Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced macrophage foam cell formation
      and apoptosis play critical roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
      Thioredoxin-1 (Trx) is an antioxidant that potently protects various cells from
      oxidative stress-induced cell death. However, the protective effect of Trx on ox
      LDL-induced macrophage foam cell formation and apoptosis has not been studied.
      This study aims to investigate the effect of recombinant human Trx (rhTrx) on ox
      LDL-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages and elucidate the possible mechanisms. RhTrx
      significantly inhibited ox-LDL-induced cholesterol accumulation and apoptosis in
      RAW264.7 macrophages. RhTrx also suppressed the ox-LDL-induced overproduction of
      lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor (LOX-1), Bax and activated caspase-3, but it
      increased the expression of Bcl-2. In addition, rhTrx markedly inhibited the ox
      LDL-induced production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
      phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK). Furthermore,
      anisomycin (a p38 MAPK activator) abolished the protective effect of rhTrx on ox
      LDL-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, and SB203580 (a p38 MAPK inhibitor) exerted a
      similar effect as rhTrx. Collectively, these findings indicate that rhTrx
      suppresses ox-LDL-stimulated foam cell formation and macrophage apoptosis by
      inhibiting ROS generation, p38 MAPK activation and LOX-1 expression. Therefore,
      we propose that rhTrx has therapeutic potential in the prevention and treatment
      of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28554200
TI  - The Memory-Enhancing Effects of Liquiritigenin by Activation of NMDA Receptors
      and the CREB Signaling Pathway in Mice.
AB  - Liquiritigenin (LQ) is a flavonoid that can be isolated from Glycyrrhiza radix.
      It is frequently used as a tranditional oriental medicine herbal treatment for
      swelling and injury and for detoxification. However, the effects of LQ on
      cognitive function have not been fully explored. In this study, we evaluated the
      memory-enhancing effects of LQ and the underlying mechanisms with a focus on the
      N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) in mice. Learning and memory ability
      were evaluated with the Y-maze and passive avoidance tests following
      administration of LQ. In addition, the expression of NMDAR subunits 1, 2A, and
      2B; postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95); phosphorylation of Ca2+/calmodulin
      dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII); phosphorylation of extracellular signal
      regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK 1/2); and phosphorylation of cAMP response element
      binding (CREB) proteins were examined by Western blot. In vivo, we found that
      treatment with LQ significantly improved memory performance in both behavioral
      tests. In vitro, LQ significantly increased NMDARs in the hippocampus.
      Furthermore, LQ significantly increased PSD-95 expression as well as CaMKII, ERK,
      and CREB phosphorylation in the hippocampus. Taken together, our results suggest
      that LQ has cognition enhancing activities and that these effects are mediated,
      in part, by activation of the NMDAR and CREB signaling pathways.

PMID- 28554201
TI  - A Benzylideneacetophenone Derivative Induces Apoptosis of Radiation-Resistant
      Human Breast Cancer Cells via Oxidative Stress.
AB  - Benzylideneacetophenone derivative (1E)-1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) hept-1-en-3
      one (JC3) elicited cytotoxic effects on MDA-MB 231 human breast cancer cells
      radiation resistant cells (MDA-MB 231-RR), in a dose-dependent manner, with an
      IC50 value of 6 uM JC3. JC3-mediated apoptosis was confirmed by increase in sub
      G1 cell population. JC3 disrupted the mitochondrial membrane potential, and
      reduced expression of anti-apoptotic B cell lymphoma-2 protein, whereas it
      increased expression of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2-associated X protein, leading to the
      cleavage of caspase-9, caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase. In addition,
      JC3 activated mitogen-activated protein kinases, and specific inhibitors of these
      kinases abrogated the JC3-induced increase in apoptotic bodies. JC3 increased the
      level of intracellular reactive oxygen species and enhanced oxidative
      macromolecular damage via lipid peroxidation, protein carbonylation, and DNA
      strand breakage. Considering these findings, JC3 is an effective therapy against
      radiation-resistant human breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28554202
TI  - Imperatorin is Transported through Blood-Brain Barrier by Carrier-Mediated
      Transporters.
AB  - Imperatorin, a major bioactive furanocoumarin with multifunctions, can be used
      for treating neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we investigated the
      characteristics of imperatorin transport in the brain. Experiments of the present
      study were designed to study imperatorin transport across the blood-brain barrier
      both in vivo and in vitro. In vivo study was performed in rats using single
      intravenous injection and in situ carotid artery perfusion technique.
      Conditionally immortalized rat brain capillary endothelial cells were as an in
      vitro model of blood-brain barrier to examine the transport mechanism of
      imperatorin. Brain distribution volume of imperatorin was about 6 fold greater
      than that of sucrose, suggesting that the transport of imperatorin was through
      the blood-brain barrier in physiological state. Both in vivo and in vitro
      imperatorin transport studies demonstrated that imperatorin could be transported
      in a concentration-dependent manner with high affinity. Imperatorin uptake was
      dependent on proton gradient in an opposite direction. It was significantly
      reduced by pretreatment with sodium azide. However, its uptake was not inhibited
      by replacing extracellular sodium with potassium or N-methylglucamine. The uptake
      of imperatorin was inhibited by various cationic compounds, but not inhibited by
      TEA, choline and organic anion substances. Transfection of plasma membrane
      monoamine transporter, organic cation transporter 2 and organic cation/carnitine
      transporter 2/1 siRNA failed to alter imperatorin transport in brain capillary
      endothelial cells. Especially, tramadol, clonidine and pyrilamine inhibited the
      uptake of [3H]imperatorin competitively. Therefore, imperatorin is actively
      transported from blood to brain across the blood-brain barrier by passive and
      carrier-mediated transporter.

PMID- 28554204
TI  - Enhanced Superhydrophobic Performance of BN-MoS2 Heterostructure Prepared via a
      Rapid, One-Pot Supercritical Fluid Processing.
AB  - Fabrication of highly crystalline BN-MoS2 heterostructure with >95% yield was
      demonstrated using one-pot supercritical fluid processing within 30 min. The
      existence of 20-50 layers of BN-MoS2 in the prepared heterostructure was
      confirmed by AFM analysis. The HR-TEM imaging and mapping analysis revealed the
      well-melded BN and MoS2 nanosheets in the heterostructure. The drastic reduction
      in XRD line intensities corresponding to the (002) plane and broadening of the
      peaks for the BN system over MoS2 indicated the effective exfoliation and lateral
      size reduction in BN nanosheets during SCF processing. Also, the exfoliated MoS2
      nanosheets are preferentially exposed rather than BN nanosheets; consequently,
      the MoS2 nanosheets sturdily covered BN nanosheets in the heterostructure. The
      exfoliated BN and MoS2 nanosheets with nanoscale roughness make the surface
      highly hydrophobic in nature. As a result, the BN-MoS2 heterostructure showed
      superior superhydrophobic performance with high water contact angle of 165.9
      degrees , which is much higher than the value reported in the literature.

PMID- 28554205
TI  - The relationship between adherence and total spending among Medicare
      beneficiaries with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between medication adherence,
      cost sharing measured as out-of-pocket spending, and total annual spending in
      Medicare beneficiaries with type 2 diabetes (T2D) to evaluate whether pharmacy
      cost-sharing programs have the potential to decrease adherence. These programs
      may unintentionally increase the risk of medical complications and may result in
      higher spending overall. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective study used 2006 to 2009
      Medicare claims data. The sample included patients 65 years or older with T2D (at
      least 1 claim with International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision,
      Clinical Modification codes 250.x0 and 250.x2 and at least 1 antidiabetes drug
      claim). METHODS: Medication adherence was measured as proportion of days covered
      over the first 12 months of observation. Spending and adherence outcomes were
      defined in deciles. RESULTS: The sample included 12,305 patient-year
      observations. Pharmacy spending for patients in the most adherent (10th) decile
      was 59% higher than that for patients in the least adherent (1st) decile ($4839
      vs $3046). Yet, patients in the 10th decile had 49% lower total ($12,531 vs
      $24,468) and 64% lower medical spending ($7692 vs $21,421) than patients in the
      1st decile. Greater out-of-pocket spending was correlated with lower adherence
      and higher total and medical spending. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes a
      widespread variation in medication adherence, pharmacy cost sharing, and medical
      spending in a sample of Medicare beneficiaries with T2D. We found that lower
      adherence was correlated with higher cost sharing in the Medicare population,
      perhaps because of unobserved confounding factors. However, the existing
      literature on patients with employer-sponsored insurance suggests some of this
      correlation may be indicative of causal relationships.

PMID- 28554203
TI  - The Expanding Significance of Inositol Polyphosphate Multikinase as a Signaling
      Hub.
AB  - The inositol polyphosphates are a group of multifunctional signaling metabolites
      whose synthesis is catalyzed by a family of inositol kinases that are
      evolutionarily conserved from yeast to humans. Inositol polyphosphate multikinase
      (IPMK) was first identified as a subunit of the arginine-responsive transcription
      complex in budding yeast. In addition to its role in the production of inositol
      tetrakis- and pentakisphosphates (IP4 and IP5), IPMK also exhibits
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) activity. Through its PI3-kinase
      activity, IPMK activates Akt/PKB and its downstream signaling pathways. IPMK also
      regulates several protein targets non-catalytically via protein-protein
      interactions. These non-catalytic targets include cytosolic signaling factors and
      transcription factors in the nucleus. In this review, we highlight the many known
      functions of mammalian IPMK in controlling cellular signaling networks and
      discuss future challenges related to clarifying the unknown roles IPMK plays in
      physiology and disease.

PMID- 28554206
TI  - Concentration of high-cost patients in hospitals and markets.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Although we know that healthcare costs are concentrated among a small
      number of patients, we know much less about the concentration of these costs
      among providers or markets. This is important because it could help us to
      understand why some patients are higher-cost compared with others and enable us
      to develop interventions to reduce costs for these patients. STUDY DESIGN:
      Observational study. METHODS: We used a 20% sample of Medicare fee-for-service
      claims data from 2011 and 2012, and defined high-cost patients as those in the
      top 10% of standardized costs. We then characterized high-concentration hospitals
      as those with the highest proportion of high-cost patient claims, and high
      concentration markets as the Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs) with the highest
      proportion of high-cost patients. We compared the characteristics and outcomes of
      each. RESULTS: High-concentration hospitals had 69% of their inpatient Medicare
      claims from high-cost Medicare beneficiaries compared with 51% for the remaining
      90% of hospitals. These hospitals were more likely to be for-profit and major
      teaching hospitals, located in urban settings, and have higher readmission rates.
      High-concentration HRRs had 13% high-cost patients compared with 9.5% for the
      remaining 90% of HRRs. These HRRs had a smaller supply of total physicians, a
      greater supply of cardiologists, higher rates of emergency department visits, and
      significantly higher expenditures on care in the last 6 months of life.
      CONCLUSIONS: High-cost beneficiaries are only modestly concentrated in specific
      hospitals and healthcare markets.

PMID- 28554207
TI  - Provider type and management of common visits in primary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Debate continues on whether nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician
      assistants (PAs) are more likely to order ancillary services, or order more
      costly services among alternatives, than primary care physicians (PCPs). We
      compared prescription medication and diagnostic service orders associated with
      NP/PA versus PCP visits for management of neck or back (N/B) pain or acute
      respiratory infection (ARI). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study of
      visits from January 2006 through March 2008 in the adult primary care practice of
      Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, Georgia. METHODS: Data were obtained from
      electronic health records. NP/PA and PCP visits for N/B pain or ARI were
      propensity score matched on patient age, gender, and comorbidities. RESULTS: On
      propensity score-matched N/B pain visits (n = 6724), NP/PAs were less likely than
      PCPs to order a computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance image (MRI) scan
      (2.1% vs 3.3%, respectively) or narcotic analgesic (26.9% vs 28.5%) and more
      likely to order a nonnarcotic analgesic (13.5% vs 8.5%) or muscle relaxant (45.8%
      vs 42.5%) (all P <=.05). On propensity score-matched ARI visits (n = 24,190),
      NP/PAs were more likely than PCPs to order any antibiotic medication (73.7% vs
      65.8%), but less likely to order an x-ray (6.3% vs 8.6%), broad-spectrum
      antibiotic (41.5% vs 42.5%), or rapid strep test (6.3% vs 9.7%) (all P <=.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: In the multidisciplinary primary care practice of this health
      maintenance organization, NP/PAs attending visits for N/B pain or ARI were less
      likely than PCPs to order advanced diagnostic radiology imaging services, to
      prescribe narcotic analgesics, and/or to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics.

PMID- 28554209
TI  - Real-world evidence and the behavioral economics of physician prescribing.
AB  - The projections for the rising cost of healthcare have spurred robust dialogue,
      and among the many targets for cost control are specialty drugs. An important
      question thus becomes: Are behavioral economic factors driving physician
      prescribing? This article presents a review of leading behavioral economic
      theories and their application to the results of an Oncology Medical Home pilot
      that reversed incentives from drug administration to patient care. A host of
      these theories may explain the irrational economic actors in regard to physician
      prescribing, including heuristics, framing, and defaults. Ultimately, the complex
      interplay of behavioral economics may result in reimbursement methodology
      alternatives to the prevailing fee-for-service payment system having less impact
      on prescribing behavior than has been conjectured.

PMID- 28554208
TI  - Physician variation in lung cancer treatment at the end of life.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a treating oncologist's characteristics are
      associated with variation in use of chemotherapy for patients with advanced non
      small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) at the end of life. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective
      cohort. METHODS: Using the 2009 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results
      Medicare database, we studied chemotherapy receipt within 30 days of death among
      Medicare enrollees who were diagnosed with aNSCLC between 1999 and 2006, received
      chemotherapy, and died within 3 years of diagnosis. A multilevel model was
      constructed to assess the contribution of patient and physician characteristics
      and geography to receiving chemotherapy within 30 days of death. RESULTS: Among
      21,894 patients meeting eligibility criteria, 43.1% received chemotherapy within
      30 days of death. In unadjusted bivariate analyses, female sex, Asian or black
      race, older age, and a greater number of comorbid diagnoses predicted lower
      likelihood of receiving chemotherapy at the end of life (P <=.038 for all
      comparisons). Adjusting for patient and physician characteristics, physicians in
      small independent practices were substantially more likely than those employed in
      other practice models, particularly academic practices or nongovernment
      hospitals, to order chemotherapy for a patient in the last 30 days of life (P
      <.001 for all comparisons); female physicians were less likely than males to
      prescribe such treatment (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Patients receiving care for
      aNSCLC in small independent oncology practices are more likely to receive
      chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life.

PMID- 28554210
TI  - Can primary care physicians accurately predict the likelihood of hospitalization
      in their patients?

PMID- 28554211
TI  - The Breathmobile improves the asthma medication ratio and decreases emergency
      department utilization.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: An Asthma Medication Ratio (AMR) of >=0.50 has gained recognition as
      a metric related to improved asthma outcomes. The goals of this study were to
      evaluate asthma outcomes in relation to this threshold in Hispanic children with
      high-risk asthma and to compare the effectiveness of the Breathmobile (BM)
      program with usual care (UC), utilizing the AMR-related emergency department
      utilization (ED) rate. STUDY DESIGN: Healthcare utilization and prescription
      claims recorded January 1, 2011, to June 23, 2014, were evaluated pre- versus
      post year in 164 Medicaid-enrolled children, aged 2 to 18 years, with high-risk
      persistent asthma (BM group: n = 72; UC group: n = 92). METHODS: High risk was
      defined by >=2 oral corticosteroid fills, or >=2 ED visits (International
      Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM]
      codes 493.0-493.9) or >=1 IP stay (ICD-9-CM codes 493.0-493.9) in the pre-year.
      Poisson regression was utilized to compare asthma outcomes pre- versus post year
      in BM and UC groups and to describe the average number of ED days per 100
      patients treated in relation to AMR. RESULTS: An AMR of >=0.50 versus <0.50 was
      related to 49% fewer ED visits (P <.05). BM proved to be more effective than UC
      in increasing the percent who achieved an AMR >=0.50 from a baseline of 47.2% to
      80.6% versus 50.0% to 65.2% post year, respectively. This difference was
      reflected in the significant 52% reduction in average number of ED visits post
      year for the BM cohort versus 13% for the UC cohort. CONCLUSIONS: View
      achievement of the AMR >=0.50 as an informative metric in program evaluation and
      for healthcare organizations to measure the quality of care provided to high-risk
      patients with asthma.

PMID- 28554212
TI  - Patients' preferences for receiving laboratory test results.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The laboratory, as a diagnostic department in the hospital, plays an
      important role in the treatment and prevention of diseases. Paying attention to
      patients' preferences for communication of test results may provide a better and
      more responsive system for delivering these results. This study aimed to identify
      patient preferences regarding receiving their laboratory test results
      electronically and to identify the reasons behind their choice. STUDY DESIGN:
      Descriptive-analytical study. METHODS: This study was carried out in 2015 with
      200 patients who had access to the internet and had been referred at least once
      previously to the hospital laboratory department to receive their test results.
      Data were collected through an expert-validated questionnaire, and its
      reliability was confirmed by test-retest (P = .8). Data were analyzed using chi2
      and marginal independence SPSS and R software. RESULTS: Ninety-eight percent of
      participants preferred to be notified by short message service when their test
      results were ready. All participants preferred to receive their test results
      online, and 82.5% (n = 165) preferred to receive both normal and abnormal test
      results this way. The main reason for receiving results online was time savings,
      which was reported by 77% of participants, followed by lowering the chance of
      missing the results (31%). About 40% of participants thought e-mail notification
      was more secure than accessing the results through a hospital website.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings showed that although patients wanted to benefit from online
      services for receiving their test results, they were concerned about
      confidentiality and security. Before using online technologies, security measures
      necessary to protect patient privacy and to gain the trust of patients should be
      defined.

PMID- 28554213
TI  - Medication burden in patients with acute coronary syndromes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cardioprotective medications improve outcomes following acute
      coronary syndromes (ACS) but add to medication complexity. We set out to describe
      the use of these medications and quantify medication changes in patients admitted
      and discharged for ACS. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Using
      archived data from the electronic health record (EHR), we evaluated patients with
      ACS admitted to 1 of 2 hospitals between January 2008 and December 2012. Patients
      aged 18 to 89 years who were discharged with a principal diagnosis of ACS were
      included in the study. Descriptive statistics were compiled and medication use
      was compared at 3 time points: admission, discharge, and within 90 days post
      discharge. RESULTS: This study included 4767 patients. The mean number of total
      medications increased from 8.6 +/- 6.5 to 11.4 +/- 5.4 from admission to
      discharge, dropping slightly within 90 days post discharge (11.1 +/- 5.2).
      Patients taking medications at least twice daily increased from 6.4 of 10 at
      admission to 9 of 10 at discharge. Cardioprotective medication use increased by a
      relative 76% for aspirin, 72% for statins, 85% for beta-blockers, and 29% for
      angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers from
      admission to discharge, whereas P2Y12 receptor inhibitor use increased 4-fold.
      CONCLUSIONS: Medication complexity among patients with ACS are high, with notable
      changes from admission to discharge. Awareness of the extent of medication burden
      provides clinicians and policy makers with insight to help address medication use
      during the ACS peri-hospitalization period.

PMID- 28554214
TI  - Battling the chargemaster: a simple remedy to balance billing for unavoidable out
      of-network care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop an effective legal mechanism to combat chargemaster abuses
      and to facilitate price transparency. STUDY DESIGN: Applying legal doctrines to
      out-of-network (OON) billing disputes. METHODS: We reviewed rudimentary contract
      law and examined the law's handling of contracts where prices have not been
      specified in advance. These cases are the controlling authority to guide courts,
      handling of surprise and OON billing problems. We then compared legal remedies
      that correct OON billing abuses to prevailing legislative and regulatory
      approaches. RESULTS: Our analysis suggests that providers have no legal authority
      to collect chargemaster rates from surprise and OON billing abuses. A proper
      application of contract law can end such abuses and would facilitate superior
      pricing incentives to other strategies designed to end balance billing disputes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Chargemaster rates on uninsured and OON patients impose significant
      financial burdens on the vulnerable, distort medical prices, and inflate
      healthcare costs. Applying rudimentary contract law to these practices offers a
      solution that is simpler and more effective than other administrative and
      legislative schemes recently adopted in several states. It will prevent providers
      from hiding behind a convoluted hospital pricing system, encourage the
      development of attractive narrow-network insurance products, and shield urgently
      sick individuals from the dread of medical predation. Patients and payers should
      know that they are under no obligation to pay surprise bills containing
      chargemaster rates, and state attorneys general can use the law to prevent
      providers from pursuing chargemaster-related collection efforts against patients.

PMID- 28554215
TI  - Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator for the Primary Prevention of Sudden
      Cardiac Death in Patients With Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The benefit of implanting patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy
      (NICMP) with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) for primary
      prevention has not been demonstrated in any randomized controlled trial. This
      also holds true for the most recent study on the subject. This systematic review
      and meta-analysis aims to examine the effectiveness of primary prevention using
      an ICD in the NICMP population. METHODS: We searched the literature for
      randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of ICD in reducing all
      cause mortality in patients with NICMP. The primary outcome of our analysis was
      all-cause mortality. A fixed-effects model was used for the primary analysis.
      RESULTS: A total of 5 randomized controlled trials focused on primary prevention
      of sudden cardiac death for patients with NICMP that met our inclusion and
      exclusion criteria. They have individually failed to consistently show a benefit
      for the use of an ICD in this population. However, the cumulative effect of ICD
      implantation in patients with NICMP demonstrated a 21% relative risk reduction in
      mortality (Relative risk [RR]: 0.79; confidence interval: 0.66-0.95). CONCLUSION:
      There is a decrease in mortality with the use of ICD for primary prevention in
      patients with NICMP having left ventricular ejection fraction <35%.

PMID- 28554216
TI  - Nanoparticulation improves bioavailability of Erlotinib.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Nanoparticulation using fat and supercritical fluid (NUFSTM) is a
      drug delivery platform technology enabling efficient and effective formulation of
      poorly soluble drugs. We performed experiments to examine whether NUFSTM could
      improve poor bioavailability and reduce fed-fasted bioavailability variances of
      erlotinib (Ert). METHODS: NUFS-Ert was prepared using NUFSTM technology; its
      physical properties were characterized, and drug release was measured.
      Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo efficacy tests and pharmacokinetic analysis
      were performed. RESULTS: NUFS-Ert nanoparticles had an average size of 250 nm and
      were stable for 2 months at 40  degrees C, 4  degrees C, and room temperature.
      The dissolution rate of NUFS-Ert increased in bio-relevant dissolution media.
      NUFS-Ert was more potent in inhibiting EGF signaling and in suppressing the
      proliferation of A549, a human non-small cell lung cancer cell line. Furthermore,
      A549 xenografts in BALB/c nude mice treated with NUFS-Ert regressed more
      efficiently than those in the mice treated with vehicle or Tarceva(r). In
      addition, experimental lung metastasis was more efficiently inhibited by NUFS-Ert
      than by Tarceva(r). The relative bioavailability of NUFS-Ert compared with that
      of Tarceva(r) was 550% and the ratio of the area under the concentration-time
      curve (AUC) of fed state to the AUC of fasted state was 1.8 for NUFS-Ert and 5.8
      for Tarceva(r). CONCLUSIONS: NUFS-Ert could improve poor bioavailability and
      reduce fed-fasted bioavailability variances of Ert. NUFS-Ert was more efficacious
      than Tarceva(r).

PMID- 28554217
TI  - Oxidative Stress Markers and Metal Ions are Correlated With Cognitive Function in
      Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - We investigated oxidative stress markers and metal ions in patients with
      Alzheimer's disease (AD). The serum levels of ceruloplasmin (CER), C-reactive
      protein (CRP), uric acid (UA), homocysteine (Hcy), copper, iron, and zinc were
      determined in 125 patients with AD (mild, n = 2 8; moderate, n = 42; and severe,
      n = 55) and 40 healthy control (HC) participants. Compared to HC, CER and UA
      levels were significantly lower in moderate and severe AD groups, whereas CRP and
      Hcy levels were significantly higher in the severe AD group. Copper level was
      significantly higher in moderate and severe AD groups than the other groups.
      Compared to HC, iron level was significantly higher in patients with AD, whereas
      zinc level was significantly lower in patients with AD. In patients with AD, the
      severity of cognitive impairment was positively correlated with CER, UA, and zinc
      levels, whereas it was negatively correlated with copper level. Taken together,
      our findings provide a novel approach to assess AD progression.

PMID- 28554218
TI  - Implications of sulfotransferase activity in interindividual variability in drug
      response: clinical perspective on current knowledge.
AB  - The interindividual variability in drug response is a major issue in clinical
      practice and in drug development. Sulfoconjugation is an important Phase II
      reaction catalyzed by cytosolic sulfotransferases (SULTs), playing a major role
      in homeostatic functions, xenobiotic detoxification, and carcinogen
      bioactivation. SULT display wide interindividual variability, explained only
      partially by genetic variation, suggesting that other non-genetic, epigenetic,
      and environmental influences could be major determinants of variability in SULT
      activity. This review focuses on the factors known to influence SULT variability
      in expression and activity and the available evidence regarding the impact of
      SULT variability on drug response.

PMID- 28554219
TI  - Differential diagnosis of a rare papillary tumor and mucinous adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Ciliated muconodular papillary tumors are characterized as rare papillary tumors
      of the peripheral lung, and involve ciliated, goblet, and basal cell
      proliferation with mucin secretion. We report the case of a 76-year-old woman who
      had an irregular solid nodule in the lung on chest computed tomography during a
      health screening. A wedge resection was performed. Although the intraoperative
      cytological diagnosis was mucinous adenocarcinoma, the final histological
      diagnosis was ciliated muconodular papillary tumor. The postoperative course was
      uneventful, with no recurrence at 24 months after surgery. Cytological diagnosis
      of ciliated muconodular papillary tumor can be difficult because of its
      similarity to mucinous adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28554220
TI  - Experiences of hospital-based multidisciplinary team meetings in oncology: An
      interview study among participating general practitioners.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer care has become complex, requiring healthcare professionals to
      collaborate to provide high-quality care. Multidisciplinary oncological team
      (MDT) meetings in the hospital have been implemented to coordinate individual
      cancer patients' care. General practitioners (GPs) are invited to join, but their
      participation is minimal. OBJECTIVES: Aim of this study is to explore
      participating GPs' perceptions of their current role and to understand their
      preferences towards effective role execution during MDT meetings. METHODS: In May
      to June 2014, semi-structured interviews (n = 16) were conducted involving GPs
      with MDT experience in Belgium. The analysis was done according to qualitative
      content analysis principles. RESULTS: Attendance of an MDT meeting is perceived
      as part of the GP's work, especially for complex patient care situations.
      Interprofessional collaborative relationships and the GP's perceived benefit to
      the MDT meeting discussions are important motivators to participate. Enhanced
      continuity of information flow and optimized organizational time management were
      practical aspects triggering the GP's intention to participate. GPs valued the
      communication with the patient before and after the meeting as an integral part
      of the MDT dynamics. CONCLUSION: GPs perceive attendance of the MDT meeting as an
      integral part of their job. Suggestions are made to enhance the efficiency of the
      meetings.

PMID- 28554221
TI  - A Review of Prognostic Tools in Heart Failure.
AB  - A minority of patients with end-stage disease are referred to palliative medicine
      for consultation in advanced heart failure. Educating stakeholders, including
      primary care, cardiology, and critical care of the benefits of hospice and
      palliative medicine for patients with poor prognosis, may increase appropriately
      timed referrals and improve quality of life for these patients. This article
      reviews multiple tools useful in prognostication in the setting of advanced heart
      failure.

PMID- 28554222
TI  - Physical activity: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To provide a broad overview of the state of physical activity (PA)
      research in the form of (1) definitions of PA, (2) health benefits, (3)
      prevalence, (4) correlates and (5) interventions. DESIGN: A high-level overview
      of published reviews of the literature. RESULTS: Regular PA is an effective
      primary and secondary preventative strategy against at least 25 chronic medical
      conditions with risk reduction typically in the 20-30% range. While approximately
      75% of adults meet recommended PA guidelines, the prevalence is slightly lower
      for women compared to men, and considerably lower for youth, older adults and
      those in higher income countries. Motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation
      remain consistent correlates of PA. Interventions show PA changes in the small
      effect size range for adults and youth but the heterogeneity is considerable
      across studies. Only a few (aggregate of behavioural regulation strategies,
      supervision, high frequency of contact) reliable moderators of intervention
      success were identified across study quality, sample characteristics,
      theory/behaviour change techniques and delivery modes/settings. CONCLUSION: PA
      research should continue to examine the mechanisms causing health outcomes, the
      dose that can lead to clinically relevant changes in health status, the scope and
      validity of PA surveillance and innovative behaviour change techniques, while
      improving the reach and duration of PA interventions.

PMID- 28554224
TI  - 'Now he sings'. The My Musical Memories Reminiscence Programme: Personalised
      interactive reminiscence sessions for people living with dementia.
AB  - This paper explores the impact of the My Musical Memories Reminiscence Programme
      (MMMRP), an innovative intervention that adopts a music-based reminiscence
      approach. MMMRP builds on the format of the popular Singing for the Brain
      sessions with the aim of increasing opportunities for interaction and
      reminiscence amongst people living with dementia. Data were collected pre- and
      post-intervention and three months later using structured observation, interviews
      and focus groups. Results suggest that the programme had a positive impact on
      participants by promoting engagement, reminiscence and social interaction. For
      some individuals the impacts continued beyond their participation in the
      programme. A range of key facilitators for successful implementation of this
      approach were identified including the Session Leader role, the involvement of
      informal carers and the input of volunteers.

PMID- 28554223
TI  - Outpatient management of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: a systematic
      review and a review of existing guidelines.
AB  - Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is a potentially serious complication of
      assisted reproductive treatment. Management of women with severe OHSS has
      traditionally included hospitalisation for close monitoring and supportive
      treatment. The aim of this review is to assess the evidence for safety and
      efficacy of outpatient management of severe OHSS. A systematic review of studies
      describing outpatient management options was performed. Current guidance from
      advisory bodies was also reviewed. Outpatient management has been found in
      observational studies to be safe and cost-effective compared to inpatient
      management. Paracentesis of ascitic fluid seems to be effective treatment for
      severe OHSS along with supportive management including maintenance of fluid
      balance and preventative measures against thrombo-embolism. GnRH antagonist was
      shown in few studies to be effective in treatment of early severe OHSS although
      further research is required to assess its role in this context. Appropriate
      outpatient set up and protocols are essential to provide safe outpatient
      management for women with severe OHSS.

PMID- 28554225
TI  - Lutein improves cell viability and reduces Alu RNA accumulation in hydrogen
      peroxide challenged retinal pigment epithelial cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Dysfunction of the microRNA (miRNA)-processing enzyme DICER1 and Alu RNA
      accumulation are linked to the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration
      (AMD). This study determined the optimal dose of lutein (LUT) and zeaxanthin
      (ZEA) to protect human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells against hydrogen
      peroxide (H2O2). The effect of the optimal dose of LUT and ZEA as DICER1 and Alu
      RNA modulators in cultured human RPE cells challenged with H2O2 was investigated.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: ARPE-19 cells were pre-treated with LUT, ZEA, or both for
      24 h before 200 MUM H2O2 challenge. Cell viability was measured by 3-(4,5
      dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. DICER1 and Alu
      RNA were quantified by western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction,
      respectively. RESULTS: H2O2 increased cell Alu RNA expression and decreased cell
      viability of ARPE-19, but had no significant impact on the DICER1 protein level.
      LUT, alone and in combination with ZEA pre-treatment, prior to H2O2 challenge
      significantly improved cell viability of ARPE-19 and reduced the level of Alu RNA
      compared to the negative control. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the use of
      LUT alone, and in combination with ZEA, in AMD prevention and treatment. This
      study is also the first to report LUT modulating effects on Alu RNA.

PMID- 28554226
TI  - Radiofrequency ablation using a multiple-electrode switching system for
      hepatocellular carcinoma within the Milan criteria: long-term results.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the long-term outcome of 516 consecutive patients treated with
      multiple-electrode switching system (MESS) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that met the Milan criteria. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We performed 522 MESS RFAs on 516 patients from December 2006 to June
      2011. A total of 956 tumours that met the Milan criteria with an average diameter
      of 2.64 cm (range, 0.9-4.6 cm) were treated with MESS RFA. Ultrasonic contrast
      and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were measured every 2 months during the first
      postoperative year and every 4 months thereafter. Enhanced computed tomography
      was performed every 6 months. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier
      method. Follow-up was censored at 60 months. Multivariate analysis was performed
      using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: For the 956 HCC tumours, the
      complete ablation rate with MESS was 98.83% (510/516). During a median of 34
      months (IQR, 23-52 months) of follow-up, 171 patients died and 4 were lost to
      follow-up (15, 30, 38 and 42 months). The cumulative incidence of local tumour
      progression at 1, 3 and 5 years was 0.39%, 4.96% and 6.66%, respectively, and the
      1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival was 99.42%, 83.97% and 68.42%, respectively.
      Tumour size >30 mm was the only parameter that was predictive of local tumour
      progression (p < .0001). Risk factors associated with overall survival included
      prothrombin time >14 s, serum AFP levels >200 ng/mL and tumour abutting vessel
      diameter <5 mm. The complication rate was 1.74%. CONCLUSION: MESS RFA is a safe
      and effective method for HCC treatment. This approach results in a high local
      progression-free survival for HCC tumours that meet the Milan criteria.

PMID- 28554227
TI  - Modulating epigenetic memory through vitamins and TET: implications for
      regenerative medicine and cancer treatment.
AB  - Vitamins A and C represent unrelated sets of small molecules that are essential
      to the human diet and have recently been shown to intensify erasure of epigenetic
      memory in naive embryonic stem cells. These effects are driven by complementary
      enhancement of the ten-eleven translocation (TET) demethylases - vitamin A
      stimulates TET expression, whereas vitamin C potentiates TET catalytic activity.
      Vitamin A and C cosupplementation synergistically enhances reprogramming of
      differentiated cells to the naive state, but overuse may exaggerate instability
      of imprinted genes. As such, optimizing their use in culture media will be
      important for regenerative medicine and mammalian transgenics. In addition,
      mechanistic perception of how these vitamins interact with the epigenome may be
      relevant for understanding cancer and improving patient treatment.

PMID- 28554228
TI  - Predictive value of IL-35 and IL-17 in diagnosis of childhood asthma.
AB  - This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between serum levels of IL-17 and IL
      35 and the presence and severity of childhood asthma. The study was performed on
      60 diagnosed asthmatic children, who were further classified into four groups
      according to the Global Initiative for Asthma Guidelines for Asthma Severity and
      Control (GINA) 2016, plus 30 age- and sex-matched apparently healthy children.
      All participants were subjected to full medical history, clinical examination,
      pulmonary function tests and laboratory evaluation in the form of complete blood
      count (CBC), serum total IgE, IL-17 and IL-35 by ELISA. Our results revealed that
      eosinophils count, IgE and IL-17 were significantly higher in the asthmatic group
      than the control group (p < .001), while IL-35 levels were significantly lower in
      asthmatics than control (p < .001). A strong negative correlation was found
      between serum IL-17 and serum IL-35; a positive correlation was found between
      serum IL-17 and both of serum total IgE and eosinophils counts in atopic
      asthmatic patients, and serum IL-35 showed significant negative correlations with
      both. ROC analysis of the data showed that the cut-off value of IL-35 level was
      <189.5 pg/mL and for IL-17 level, it was >13.1 pg/mL; this value could predict
      childhood asthma with sensitivity of 81.7% and 83.3%, and specificity of 76.7%
      and 70%, respectively. A combination of both cytokines yielded an increase in
      sensitivity to 95%. In conclusion, in the current study, IL-17 is upregulated
      while IL-35 is downregulated in childhood asthma with a significant negative
      correlation between both. These results suggest that both may play an important
      role in the pathogenesis of childhood asthma.

PMID- 28554229
TI  - Positive factors associated with quality of life among Chinese patients with
      renal carcinoma: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - Quality of life and positive psychological variables has become a focus of
      concern in patients with renal carcinoma. However, the integrative effects of
      positive psychological variables on the illness have seldom been reported. The
      aims of this study were to evaluate the quality of life and the integrative
      effects of hope, resilience and optimism on the quality of life among Chinese
      renal carcinoma patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the First
      Hospital of China Medical University. 284 participants completed questionnaires
      consisting of demographic and clinical characteristics, EORTC QLQ-C30, Adult Hope
      Scale, Resilience Scale-14 and Life Orientation Scale-Revised from July 2013 to
      July 2014. Pearson's correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were
      performed to explore the effects of related factors. Hope, resilience and
      optimism were significantly associated with quality of life. Hierarchical
      regression analyses indicated that hope, resilience and optimism as a whole
      accounted for 9.8, 24.4 and 21.9% of the variance in the global health status,
      functioning status and symptom status, respectively. The low level of quality of
      life for Chinese renal carcinoma patients should receive more attention from
      Chinese medical institutions. Psychological interventions to increase hope,
      resilience and optimism may be essential to enhancing the quality of life of
      Chinese cancer patients.

PMID- 28554231
TI  - Plexiform neurofibroma as a cause of carpal tunnel syndrome in a radial
      deficiency patient.
AB  - We reported a rare peripheral nerve case, a patient developed carpal tunnel
      syndrome with a history of floating thumb in right hand. The median nerve was
      found expanded and spindle-shaped and a plexiform neurofibroma was diagnosed. Our
      case sheds light on anatomy and possible etiological association which may help
      clinical management.

PMID- 28554230
TI  - Transcutaneous Spinal Direct Current Stimulation Alters Resting-State Functional
      Connectivity.
AB  - Transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) is a noninvasive method
      that can modulate spinal reflexes, sensory afferent conduction, and even pain
      perception. Although neurophysiological evidence suggests that tsDCS alters
      somatosensory and nociceptive afferent conduction to the cortex, its supraspinal
      effects have not yet been investigated by using functional imaging to investigate
      tsDCS-induced alterations in intrinsic functional connectivity (FC). Therefore,
      we hypothesize that tsDCS-induced changes in neurophysiological measures might
      also be reflected in spontaneous brain activity. We investigated tsDCS-induced
      changes in somatosensory cortical connectivity by using seed-to-voxel-based
      analyses from the bilateral primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and the thalamus in
      a double-blind, crossover study design. Resting state FC was measured by using
      blood oxygenation level-dependent, functional magnetic resonance imaging (3T
      Philips) before and after anodal, cathodal, and sham tsDCS (20 min, 2.5 mA,
      active electrode centered over T11 spinous process, reference electrode over left
      shoulder blade) in a double-blind, crossover study of 20 healthy men (24 +/- 0.7
      years). As compared with sham, anodal tsDCS resulted in a decreased connectivity
      between the S1 and the ipsilateral posterior insula for both left and right
      hemispheres. Anodal tsDCS also resulted in decreased thalamic connectivity with
      the anterior cingulate cortex, and increased connectivity between S1 and the
      thalamus. Cathodal tsDCS showed increased FC between the right thalamus and both
      left and right posterior insulae, and decreased connectivity between the S1 seeds
      and the occipital cortex. Our results provide evidence of supraspinal effects of
      tsDCS and suggest that tsDCS may provide a noninvasive intervention that is able
      to target cortical sensory networks.

PMID- 28554232
TI  - Two new monoterpenoid glycosides from the fresh rhizome of Tongling White Ginger
      (Zingiber officinale).
AB  - Two new monoterpenoid glycosides, trans-1,8-cineole-3,6-dihydroxy-3-O-beta-D
      glucopyranoside (1), and 5,9-dihydroxy borneol 2-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2),
      together with four known monoterpenoid glycosides (3-6), were isolated from the
      water-soluble constituents of the fresh rhizome of Tongling White Ginger
      (Zingiber officinale). Their structures were decisively elucidated by
      spectroscopic analysis. In vitro tests for antimicrobial activity showed that
      compounds 1 and 3 possess significant activity against two Gram-positive
      organisms, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis.

PMID- 28554234
TI  - Molecular characterization and therapeutic reaction to dasatinib in a CML patient
      harboring a novel e8a2 BCR-ABL1 transcript with a somatic mutation in TP53BP2 and
      cadherin-10 genes.

PMID- 28554233
TI  - Hyaluronic acid and Arg-Gly-Asp peptide modified Graphene oxide with dual
      receptor-targeting function for cancer therapy.
AB  - Graphene oxide (GO) modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) and Arg-gly-asp peptide
      (RGD) was designed as a dual-receptor targeting drug delivery system to enhance
      the specificity and efficiency of anticancer drug delivery. Firstly, GO-HA-RGD
      conjugate was characterized to reveal its structure and morphology. Whereafter,
      doxorubicin (Dox) as a model drug was loaded on GO-HA-RGD carrier, which
      displayed a high loading rate (72.9%, GO:Dox (w/w) = 1:1), pH-response and
      sustained drug release behavior. Cytotoxicity experiments showed that GO-HA-RGD
      possessed excellent biocompatibility towards SKOV-3 and HOSEpiC cells.
      Additionally, the GO-HA-RGD/Dox had a stronger cytotoxicity for SKOV-3 cells than
      either GO-HA/Dox (single receptor) or GO/Dox (no receptor). Moreover, celluar
      uptake studies illustrated that GO-HA-RGD conjugate could be effectively taken up
      by SKOV-3 cells via a synergic effect of CD44-HA and integrin-RGD mediated
      endocytosis. Hence, GO-HA-RGD nanocarrier is able to be a promising platform for
      targeted cancer therapeutic.

PMID- 28554235
TI  - The influence of current mood state, number of previous affective episodes and
      predominant polarity on insight in bipolar disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although many studies have explored the effect of current affective
      episodes on insight into bipolar disorder, the potential interaction between
      current mood state and previous affective episodes has not been consistently
      investigated. OBJECTIVE: To explore the influence of dominant polarity, number of
      previous affective episodes and current affective state on insight in bipolar
      disorder patients in euthymia or mania. METHODS: A total of 101 patients with
      bipolar disorder were recruited for the study, including 58 patients in euthymia
      (30 with no defined predominant polarity and 28 with manic predominant polarity)
      and 43 in mania (26 with no defined predominant polarity and 17 with manic
      predominant polarity). Patients underwent a clinical assessment and insight was
      evaluated through the Insight Scale for Affective Disorders. RESULTS: Bipolar
      disorder patients in mania had worse insight than those in euthymia, with no
      effect of dominant polarity. In addition, positive psychotic symptoms showed a
      significant effect on insight and its inclusion as a covariate eliminated
      differences related to mood state. Finally, the number of previous manic or
      depressive episodes did not correlate with insight level. CONCLUSIONS: Mania is a
      predictor of loss of insight into bipolar disorder. However, it is possible that
      its contribution is linked to the more frequent presence of psychotic symptoms in
      this state. Dominant polarity and number/type of previous affective episodes have
      a limited impact on insight.

PMID- 28554236
TI  - Anaplastic Ependymoma With Ganglionic Differentiation: Report of a Rare Case and
      Implications in Diagnosis.
AB  - Ependymomas are glial neoplasms with rare cases exhibiting neuronal
      differentiation. We describe a case of spinal anaplastic ependymoma with
      ganglionic differentiation in a 28-year-old woman. The ganglionic component was
      labeled by synaptophysin, whereas the rest of the tumor showed features of an
      anaplastic ependymoma. Stem cell marker MELK was noted to stain both the
      neoplastic ependymal and ganglionic components, possibly suggesting a stem
      cell/progenitor origin for the tumor with subsequent divergent differentiation.

PMID- 28554237
TI  - Rapid and frequent psychiatric readmissions: associated factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This article aims to examine the impact of clinical and demographic
      factors on both rapid readmission (being readmitted within 30 d) and frequent
      readmission (experiencing three or more admissions) in a London mental health
      trust. METHODS: A four-year study period with a sample of 7648 inpatients were
      examined with chi-square or Mann-Whitney U tests, and binary logistic regressions
      to assess the associations and possible predictors of rapid (readmitted within 30
      d) and frequent (admitted at least three times) readmission. RESULTS: Frequent
      admitters were more likely to be unemployed, have more care-coordinators, be
      living in accommodation with support, be Black or Black British, and to have
      certain diagnoses. Binary logistic regression revealed that our variables of
      interest explained between 36.1 and 60.9% of the variation in number of
      readmissions (+/-3 admissions), and between 3.7 and 4.2% of the variation in time
      to readmission (+/-30 d). CONCLUSIONS: Identifying factors that are associated
      with rehospitalisation and understanding their importance is necessary to reduce
      the risk of readmission. This study suggests that particular demographic,
      clinical and treatment factors require consideration to tackle the seemingly wide
      range of factors that could be affecting readmission to inpatient services.

PMID- 28554239
TI  - Video Communication With Cognitively Intact Nursing Home Residents: A Scoping
      Review.
AB  - Limited research exists examining video communication among cognitively intact
      nursing home residents to connect with family. This scoping review evaluated
      existing literature for video communication usage with nursing home residents,
      family, and nursing homes. A comprehensive search was completed using PubMed and
      EBSCOhost (including AgeLine, CINAHL, and PsycINFO) between 1972 and 2016 to
      locate English-language articles. The analysis identified five eligible studies
      (four involved an intervention, one assessed family views) meeting inclusion
      criteria. Findings included, seeing family members separated by distance, seeing
      other parts of their life, and visually monitoring resident's health.
      Participants described frustration with technology limitations, such as video or
      audio lag. Current literature does not show a comprehensive assessment of video
      communication usage for residents, family, and nursing homes. Future studies
      should address the complexity of the intersection of the person, nursing home,
      and families in terms of potential benefits and capability of video communication
      use with residents.

PMID- 28554238
TI  - Greater sensitivity to multiple sclerosis disability worsening and progression
      events using a roving versus a fixed reference value in a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Confirmed Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) progression
      occurring after a fixed-study entry baseline is a common measure of disability
      increase in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) studies but may not
      detect all disability progression events, especially those unrelated to overt
      relapses. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate possible measures of disability progression
      unrelated to relapse using EDSS data over ~5.5 years from the Tysabri(r)
      Observational Program (TOP). METHODS: TOP is an ongoing, prospective, open-label
      study in RRMS patients receiving intravenous 300 mg natalizumab every 4 weeks.
      Measures of increasing disability were assessed using as a reference either study
      baseline score or a "roving" system that resets the reference score after ?24- or
      ?48-week confirmation of a new score. RESULTS: This analysis included 5562
      patients. Approximately 70% more EDSS progression events unrelated to relapse and
      50% more EDSS worsening events overall were detected with a roving reference
      score (cumulative probability: 17.6% and 29.7%, respectively) than with a fixed
      reference baseline score (cumulative probability: 10.1% and 20.3%, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: In this long-term observational RRMS dataset, a roving EDSS reference
      value was more efficient than a study baseline EDSS reference in detecting
      progression/worsening events unrelated to relapses and thus the transition to
      secondary progressive disease.

PMID- 28554240
TI  - Numerical analysis of thermal impact of intramyocardial capillary blood flow
      during radiofrequency cardiac ablation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The thermal effect of the intramyocardial blood perfusion on the size of
      lesions created by radiofrequency cardiac ablation (RFCA) has not been adequately
      studied to date. Our objective was to assess the impact of including this
      phenomenon in RFCA computer modelling in terms of the thermal lesion depth
      created. METHODS: A computer model was built and computer simulations were
      conducted to assess the effect of including the blood perfusion term in the
      bioheat equation. This term mimics the intramyocardial blood flow (i.e., blood
      perfusion) in the cardiac wall at the site at which the RFCA is being conducted
      and hence represents a heat removing mechanism. When considered, blood perfusion
      rates ranged from 609 to 1719 ml/min/kg. Two electrode design and modes were
      considered: a non-irrigated electrode with constant temperature mode and an
      irrigated electrode with constant power mode. RESULTS: All the depths computed
      without including the blood perfusion term were larger than those that did
      include it, regardless of perfusion rate. The differences in lesion depth between
      ignoring and including blood perfusion increased over time; for a 60 s RFCA they
      were 0.45 and 1 mm for minimum and maximum perfusion rate, respectively. The
      differences were more or less independent of blood flow in the cardiac chamber,
      electrode type and ablation mode. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the heat
      sink effect of blood perfusion should be taken into account in the case of
      ablations (>1 minute) such as those conducted in RFCA of the ventricular wall.

PMID- 28554241
TI  - Interdisciplinary implementation of tacrolimus intravenous standard concentration
      in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients.
AB  - Purpose Reduction in waste of intravenous (IV) tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant
      used to prevent graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation recipients, was evaluated after standardizing the concentration.
      Methods A single-center, retrospective cohort study at a large academic
      comprehensive cancer center was performed comparing patient-specific intravenous
      tacrolimus doses (tacrolimus doses in 50, 100, or 250 mL of normal saline based
      on manufacturer's recommended concentration) to tacrolimus intravenous standard
      concentration (tacrolimus 1 mg in 250 mL of normal saline) continuous intravenous
      infusion titrated to prescribed dose. The cohort study was performed on two
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation nursing units consisting of a prepilot
      phase during which time patient-specific intravenous tacrolimus doses were
      compounded and administered, followed by the pilot phase during which patients
      received tacrolimus intravenous standard concentration. The primary endpoint was
      reduction in tacrolimus intravenous bags wasted. Secondary endpoints were drug
      cost savings, decreased intravenous infusion line supplies, decrease in time
      needed to execute dose changes, reduction in infusion pump alerts, and number of
      patient safety events. Results Compared to the prepilot phase, there was a 64%
      reduction in tacrolimus intravenous bags wasted during the pilot phase ( p =
      0.029), resulting in a mean monthly total cost savings of $224.31 for pilot
      units. Intravenous pump line use was reduced by 18% ( p = 0.067), yielding a
      monthly total cost savings of $84.02 for pilot units. The median time needed to
      execute dose changes and intravenous pump overrides was significantly reduced ( p
      < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusion This interdisciplinary quality
      improvement initiative led to increased efficiency, reduction in waste, and
      decreased intravenous pump alerts utilizing tacrolimus intravenous standard
      concentration.

PMID- 28554242
TI  - A new visualization method for navigated bronchoscopy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In flexible endoscopy techniques, such as bronchoscopy, there is often
      a challenge visualizing the path from start to target based on preoperative data
      and accessing these during the procedure. An example of this is visualizing only
      the inside of central airways in bronchoscopy. Virtual bronchoscopy (VB) does not
      meet the pulmonologist's need to detect, define and sample the frequent targets
      outside the bronchial wall. Our aim was to develop and study a new visualization
      technique for navigated bronchoscopy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We extracted the
      shortest possible path from the top of the trachea to the target along the airway
      centerline and a corresponding auxiliary route in the opposite lung. A surface
      structure between the centerlines was developed and displayed. The new technique
      was tested on non-selective CT data from eight patients using artificial lung
      targets. RESULTS: The new display technique anchored to centerline curved surface
      (ACCuSurf) made it easy to detect and interpret anatomical features, targets and
      neighboring anatomy outside the airways, in all eight patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      ACCuSurf can simplify planning and performing navigated bronchoscopy, meets the
      challenge of improving orientation and register the direction of the moving
      endoscope, thus creating an optimal visualization for navigated bronchoscopy.

PMID- 28554244
TI  - Effectiveness of the progestin-only pill for migraine treatment in women: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Background Migraine is highly prevalent in women (18%). Peak morbidity affects
      their most productive years, coinciding with peak fertility. Hormonal
      contraception is often tailored for migraine prevention. Estrogen-containing
      contraceptives may be contraindicated in women experiencing migraine with aura
      due to the risk of vascular events. While improvements in migraine with a
      progestin-only pill (POP), which inhibits ovulation are documented, the strength
      and quality of evidence has not been formally evaluated. Objectives To determine
      the effectiveness of progestin-only contraceptives for migraine treatment by
      systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources and selection MEDLINE, EMBASE
      and Cochrane Libraries were searched (1980 to September 2016) for studies on
      progestin-only treatments for migraine. Studies in English on >4 non-menopausal
      women aged 18-50 with migraine diagnosed by formal criteria were included. Data
      extraction and analysis Data were quality-assessed using the GRADE system. A
      random effects model was used for pooled analyses. Results Pooled analyses of
      four studies demonstrated that desogestrel 75 mcg/day, POP significantly but
      modestly reduced the number of migraine attacks and migraine days. Reduced
      intensity and duration, reduced analgesic and triptan use were observed, along
      with improved headache-related quality of life. GRADE analysis indicated evidence
      was low to very low for each outcome measure. Adverse effects resulted in
      treatment cessation for <10% of participants. Two studies compared desogestrel
      POP to a combined oral contraceptive, demonstrating similar migraine outcomes for
      both treatments. Conclusions The desogestrel POP shows promise in improving
      migraine in women. Current evidence is observational and based on small samples
      of women using only one oral progestin-only formulation. Further randomized
      trials on additional progestin-only contraceptives are required to confirm their
      role in migraine management.

PMID- 28554243
TI  - Functional interactions between transient receptor potential M8 and transient
      receptor potential V1 in the trigeminal system: Relevance to migraine
      pathophysiology.
AB  - Background Recent genome-wide association studies have identified transient
      receptor potential M8 ( TRPM8) as a migraine susceptibility gene. TRPM8 is a
      nonselective cation channel that mediates cool perception. However, its precise
      role in migraine pathophysiology is elusive. Transient receptor potential V1
      (TRPV1) is a nonselective cation channel activated by noxious heat. Both TRPM8
      and TRPV1 are expressed in trigeminal ganglion (TG) neurons. Methods We
      investigated the functional roles of TRPM8 and TRPV1 in a meningeal inflammation
      based migraine model by measuring the effects of facial TRPM8 activation on
      thermal allodynia and assessing receptor coexpression changes in TG neurons. We
      performed retrograde tracer labeling to identify TG neurons innervating the face
      and dura. Results We found that pharmacological TRPM8 activation reversed the
      meningeal inflammation-induced lowering of the facial heat pain threshold, an
      effect abolished by genetic ablation of TRPM8. No significant changes in the heat
      pain threshold were seen in sham-operated animals. Meningeal inflammation caused
      dynamic alterations in TRPM8/TRPV1 coexpression patterns in TG neurons, and
      colocalization was most pronounced when the ameliorating effect of TRPM8
      activation on thermal allodynia was maximal. Our tracer assay disclosed the
      presence of dura-innervating TG neurons sending collaterals to the face.
      Approximately half of them were TRPV1-positive. We also demonstrated functional
      inhibition of TRPV1 by TRPM8 in a cell-based assay using c-Jun N-terminal kinase
      phosphorylation as a surrogate marker. Conclusions Our findings provide a
      plausible mechanism to explain how facial TRPM8 activation can relieve migraine
      by suppressing TRPV1 activity. Facial TRPM8 appears to be a promising therapeutic
      target for migraine.

PMID- 28554245
TI  - A device for testing the dynamic performance of in situ force plates.
AB  - Force plates are often incorporated into motion capture systems for the
      calculation of joint kinetic variables and other data. This project aimed to
      create a system that could be used to check the dynamic performance of force
      plate in situ. The proposed solution involved the design and development of an
      eccentrically loaded wheel mounted on a weighted frame. The frame was designed to
      hold a wheel mounted in two orthogonal positions. The wheel was placed on the
      force plate and spun. A VICONTM motion analysis system captured the positional
      data of the markers placed around the rim of the wheel which was used to create a
      simulated force profile, and the force profile was dependent on spin speed. The
      root mean square error between the simulated force profile and the force plate
      measurement was calculated. For nine trials conducted, the root mean square error
      between the two simultaneous measures of force was calculated. The difference
      between the force profiles in the x- and y-directions is approximately 2%. The
      difference in the z-direction was under 0.5%. The eccentrically loaded wheel
      produced a predictable centripetal force in the plane of the wheel which varied
      in direction as the wheel was spun and magnitude dependent on the spin speed.
      There are three important advantages to the eccentrically loaded wheel: (1) it
      does not rely on force measurements made from other devices, (2) the tests
      require only 15 min to complete per force plate and (3) the forces exerted on the
      plate are similar to those of paediatric gait.

PMID- 28554246
TI  - Fungal infections in patients treated with ibrutinib: two unusual cases of
      invasive aspergillosis and cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.

PMID- 28554247
TI  - Association of social defeat stress-induced anhedonia-like symptoms with mGluR1
      dependent decrease in membrane-bound AMPA-GluR1 in the mouse ventral midbrain.
AB  - Anhedonia is a core symptom of social defeat stress (SDS)-induced depression
      associated with the reward system. We previously reported that decreased membrane
      bound AMPA-GluR1 in the reward system is associated with lipopolysaccharide
      induced anhedonia-like symptoms. Since group I metabotropic glutamate receptor
      (mGluR) activation reduces the surface density of GluR1, we examined whether
      group I mGluR-dependent decrease in membrane-bound GluR1 in the reward system is
      involved in SDS-induced anhedonia-like symptoms. Mice exposed to SDS for 4
      consecutive days had markedly decreased membrane-bound GluR1 and GluR2 in the
      prefrontal cortex (PFC) and membrane-bound GluR1 in the ventral midbrain (VM)
      along with lower sucrose preference (SP). Intra-PFC injection of the group I
      mGluR agonist (S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG; 100 MUmol) demonstrated
      decrease in membrane-bound GluR1 and GluR2 in the PFC 2 and 24 h and membrane
      bound GluR1 in the VM 24 h after injection. Moreover, intra-PFC injection of DHPG
      decreased SP only in the second 24-h (24-48 h) period. Conversely, intra-VM
      injection of DHPG decreased SP in both the first and second 24-h period and
      decreased membrane-bound GluR1 in the VM 2 and 24 h after injection. Pre
      treatment with the mGluR1 antagonist JNJ16259685 (30 mg/kg, subcutaneous)
      prevented SDS-decreased SP and membrane-bound GluR1 in the VM. The mGluR5
      antagonist 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine (MPEP; 10 mg/kg, subcutaneous)
      prevented SDS-induced decrease in membrane-bound GluR1 and GluR2 in the PFC,
      whereas MPEP did not affect SDS-induced decrease in SP and membrane-bound GluR1
      in the VM. These results suggest that mGluR1-mediated decrease in membrane-bound
      GluR1 in VM is involved in SDS-induced anhedonia-like symptoms.

PMID- 28554248
TI  - Apelin-13 attenuates cisplatin-induced cardiotoxicity through inhibition of ROS
      mediated DNA damage and regulation of MAPKs and AKT pathways.
AB  - Platinum-based chemotherapy represents one of the most effective ways in
      combating human cancers. However, the cardiotoxicity subsequent severely limited
      its clinical application. Increased evidences indicate that oxidative stress
      plays a crucial role in the pathological process of platinum-induced
      cardiotoxicity. It is reported that apelin-13 a bioactive peptide has the
      scavenging capacity of free radical, and it has the potential to regulate the
      cardiovascular system. Hence, the potential of apelin-13 to antagonize cisplatin
      induced cardiotoxicity was evaluated in H9c2 rat myocardial cells in vitro and in
      C57 mice in vivo. The results showed that cisplatin indeed caused DNA damage in
      H9c2 cells by promoting the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) and superoxide anion, which led to cell apoptosis and resulted in overt
      cardiotoxicity. However, apelin-13 pre-treatment effectively attenuated the
      cisplatin-induced ROS and superoxide anion generation, inhibited DNA damage, and
      suppressed the PARP cleavage and caspases activation. Further investigation
      revealed that apelin-13 blocked cisplatin-induced H9c2 cells apoptosis involving
      the regulation of MAPKs and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Importantly, apelin-13 co
      treatment also significantly attenuated cisplatin-induced cardiotoxicity in vivo
      by inhibiting myocardial cells apoptosis and improving angiogenesis in mice
      heart. Taken together, our results suggest that the use of apelin-13 may be an
      effective strategy for antagonizing the cardiotoxicity-induced by platinum-based
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28554249
TI  - Suppression of asparaginyl endopeptidase attenuates breast cancer-induced bone
      pain through inhibition of neurotrophin receptors.
AB  - Objective Cancer-induced bone pain is a common clinical problem in breast cancer
      patients with bone metastasis. However, the mechanisms driving cancer-induced
      bone pain are poorly known. Recent studies show that a novel protease,
      asparaginyl endopeptidase (AEP) plays crucial roles in breast cancer metastasis
      and progression. We aim to determine the functions and targeted suppress of AEP
      in a mouse model of breast cancer-induced bone pain. Methods Breast cancer cells
      with AEP knocked-down or overexpression were constructed and implanted into the
      intramedullary space of the femur to induce pain-like behavior in mice. AEP
      specific inhibitors or purified AEP proteins were further used in animal model.
      The histological characters of femur and pain ethological changes were measured.
      The expressions of AEP and neurotrophin receptors (p75NTR and TrkA) in dorsal
      root ganglion and spinal cord were examined. Results Femur radiographs and
      histological analysis revealed that cells with AEP knocked-down reduced bone
      destruction and pain behaviors. However, cells with AEP overexpression elevated
      bone damage and pain behaviors. Further, Western blot results found that the
      expressions of p75NTR and TrkA in dorsal root ganglions and spinal cords were
      reduced in mice inoculated with AEP knocked-down cells. Targeted suppression of
      AEP with specific small compounds significantly reduced the bone pain while
      purified recombinant AEP proteins increased bone pain. Conclusions AEP aggravate
      the development of breast cancer bone metastasis and bone pain by increasing the
      expression of neurotrophin receptors. AEP might be an effective target for
      treatment of breast cancerinduced bone pain.

PMID- 28554250
TI  - Resveratrol-decreased hyperalgesia mediated by the P2X7 receptor in gp120-treated
      rats.
AB  - Background Chronic pain is a common symptom in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
      1 infection/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients. The literature shows
      that the HIV envelope glycoprotein 120 (gp120) can directly cause hyperalgesia by
      stimulating primary sensory afferent nerves. The P2X7 receptor in the dorsal root
      ganglia (DRG) is closely related to neuropathic and inflammatory pain. In this
      study, we aimed to explore the effect of resveratrol (RES) on gp120-induced
      neuropathic pain that is mediated by the P2X7 receptor in the rat DRG. Results
      Mechanical hyperalgesia in rats treated with gp120 was increased compared with
      that in the sham group. The P2X7 expression levels in rats treated with gp120
      were higher than those in the sham group. Co-localization of the P2X7 receptor
      and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP, a marker of satellite glial cells
      [SGCs]) in the DRG SGCs of the gp120 group exhibited more intense staining than
      that of the sham group. RES decreased the mechanical hyperalgesia and P2X7
      expression levels in gp120 treatment rats. Co-localization of the P2X7 receptor
      and GFAP in the gp120+ RES group was significantly decreased compared to the
      gp120 group. RES decreased the IL-1beta and TNF-alpha receptor (R) expression
      levels and ERK1/2 phosphorylation levels as well as increased IL-10 expression in
      the DRG of gp120-treated rats. Whole cell clamping demonstrated that RES
      significantly inhibited adenosine triphosphate-activated currents in HEK293 cells
      that were transfected with the P2X7 plasmid. Conclusions RES relieved mechanical
      hyperalgesia in gp120-treated rats by inhibiting the P2X7 receptor.

PMID- 28554252
TI  - Efficient isolation and culture of endothelial cells from venous malformation
      using the Rho-associated protein kinase inhibitor Y27632.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The investigation of primary cells from a pathological lesion can
      elucidate the pathogenesis of diseases, but, for vascular malformations in
      humans, such basic research is still stagnant, because the isolation and culture
      of vascular endothelial cells (ECs) is very difficult. To obtain a sufficient
      amount of ECs from venous malformation (VM) this study took advantage of a Rho
      associated protein kinase inhibitor, Y27632, which had been used for the
      efficient procurement of primary keratinocytes. METHODS: ECs were isolated and
      cultured from VM lesions, combining enzymatic digestion, cell sorting, and
      Y27632. The proliferative effect of Y27632 on ECs was examined by proliferation
      assay. The characteristics of the ECs cultured with Y27632 by EC marker
      expression and tube formation assay were also examined. RESULTS: Y27632 enhanced
      the proliferation of ECs and elongated the senescence of the cells. The
      expression of specific markers of ECs such as von Willebrand factor, endothelin
      1, and VE-cadherin, was confirmed in the cells cultured with Y27632. In a tube
      formation assay, the cells cultured with Y27632 showed higher tube formation
      ability compared to the cells cultured without Y27632, indicating that Y27632
      promoted the angiogenic capability of ECs. CONCLUSIONS: The protocol using Y27632
      offers a new EC culture methodology and provides a new option for the biological
      investigation of vascular malformations. This new method will contribute to other
      types of vascular biology research as well.

PMID- 28554251
TI  - Association between circulating microRNA-208a and severity of coronary heart
      disease.
AB  - Circulating microRNA (miR)-208a is specifically expressed in the heart muscle,
      which is involved in the regulation of myosin during cardiac development.
      Previous studies reported that cardiac-specific miR-208a level is significantly
      higher in plasma of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. However, whether it
      correlates with severity of CHD, has never been elucidated before. The aim of
      this study was to explore the association between miR-208a and the presence and
      severity of CHD. Samples were collected from 290 CHD patients and 110 subjects
      with angiographic exclusion of CHD. Circulating miRNA-208a expression was
      detected using quantitative real-time PCR. The Gensini score was used to evaluate
      the severity of coronary stenotic lesions. Expression of miRNA-208a was
      identified on the basis of the quartiles of the Gensini score, and association
      between the miRNA-208a levels and CHD was analyzed. Diagnostic potential of miR
      208a of CHD was performed by ROC analysis. CHD patients had higher miRNA-208a
      expression (1.61, 0.45-3.86 vs. 0.66, 0.11-1.42, p < .001), and the biomarker
      level significantly increased following an increasing the Gensini score (p <
      .001). Gensini score was significantly associated with miRNA-208a expression (r =
      0.8525, p < .001). The optimal cut-off value of the relative level of miR-208a
      was with a specificity of 93.6% and a sensitivity of 75.5%. The AUC of miR-208a
      was 0.919 (95% CI, 0.893-0.945; p < .001). These preliminary results suggest that
      the expression of miR-208a may be associated with atherogenesis. The level of
      circulating miR-208a in predicting the severity of coronary atherosclerosis may
      have a relatively certain value.

PMID- 28554253
TI  - Efficacy and toxicity of therapy immediately after treatment with nivolumab in
      relapsed multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28554254
TI  - Implementation of the hyaluronic acid fat graft myringoplasty technique, pitfalls
      and lessons learned.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myringoplasty is a common procedure in otorhinolaryngology. Many
      techniques with different complications and outcomes have been described, one of
      which is hyaluronic acid fat graft myringoplasty (HAFGM). This technique, as
      proposed by Saliba, uses fat tissue and hyaluronic acid discs. The technique is
      relatively fast with a high success rate and low complications. However, what
      outcomes can be expected when performed by other surgeons? In this paper, we
      report on the technique's success in our own hands. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based
      on Saliba's protocol, we performed 86 HAFGMs by a transcanal approach between
      2012 and August 2014. However, our 70% success rate was significantly different
      from Saliba's 92% (p value 2.8e - 05). We visited Saliba's clinic in order to
      identify critical differences between our approaches. We adapted the differences
      we found in our protocol and analysed another 50 HAFGMs performed afterwards,
      between October 2014 and December 2015. RESULTS: The success rate increased to 86
      89%, this percentage is not different compared to Saliba's results (p value .25
      and .54). CONCLUSION: HAFGM is a reproducible technique in the hands of other
      surgeons, but critical following of the surgical protocol is important.

PMID- 28554255
TI  - Characterization of Water-Clear Polymeric Gels for Use as Radiotherapy Bolus.
AB  - Our purpose was to investigate polymeric gels for use as a highly transparent
      radiotherapy bolus and determine the relevant physical and dosimetric properties.
      We first quantified tensile properties (maximum stress, strain, and Young
      modulus) for various polymeric gels, along with a commercial bolus product in
      order to illustrate the wide variety of potential materials. For a select
      polymeric gel with tensile properties similar to currently used radiotherapy
      bolus, we also evaluated mass and electron density, effective atomic number,
      optical transparency, and percent depth dose in clinical megavoltage photon and
      electron beams. For this polymeric gel, mass density was 872 +/- 12 and 896 +/-
      13 g/cm3 when measured via weight/volume and computed tomography Hounsfield
      units, respectively. Electron density was 2.95 +/- 0.04 *1023 electrons/cm3.
      Adding fused silica (9% by weight) increases density to that of water. The ratio
      of the effective atomic number to that of water without and with added silica was
      0.780 and 0.835 at 1 MeV, 0.767 and 0.826 at 6 MeV, and 0.746 and 0.809 at 20
      MeV. Percent depth dose for 6 MV photons was within 2% of water within the first
      2.5 cm and after scaling by the density coincided within 1% out to >7 cm. For 6
      and 20 MeV electrons, after scaling for density D80% was within 1.3 and 1.5 mm of
      water, respectively. The high transparency and mechanical flexibility of
      polymeric gels indicate potential for use as a radiotherapy bolus; differences in
      density from water may be managed via either using "water equivalent thickness"
      or by incorporating fused silica into the material.

PMID- 28554256
TI  - Integration of methane removal in aerobic anammox-based granular sludge reactors.
AB  - Combined partial nitritation-anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes
      have been widely applied for nitrogen removal from anaerobic digestion reject
      water. However, such streams also contain dissolved methane that can escape to
      the atmosphere, hence contributing to global warming. This study investigates the
      possibility of integrating methane removal in aerobic anammox-based granular
      sludge reactors, through modelling and simulation. Methane removal could be
      established through aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB), denitrifying
      anaerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (damoB, NO2- + CH4 -> N2 + CO2), and/or
      archaea (damoA, NO3- + CH4 -> NO2- + CO2). The simulation results demonstrated
      that the combined removal of nitrogen and methane was feasible at low dissolved
      oxygen conditions. Aerobic MOB were the main responsible microorganisms for
      removing methane. A sensitivity analysis of key kinetic parameters showed a shift
      in the methanotrophic populations depending on the most favourable parameters for
      each microbial group, while keeping high nitrogen and methane removal
      efficiencies. Possible methane stripping during aeration could be limited by
      increasing the depth within the reactor column at which aeration was supplied.
      Overall, the integration of methane removal in aerobic anammox-based granular
      sludge reactors seems to be a promising process option to reduce the carbon
      footprint from wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28554257
TI  - Green synthesis of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles using Couroupita guianensis Aubl.
      fruit extract for their antibacterial and cytotoxicity activities.
AB  - In the present study, a sustainable green chemistry approach was established to
      fabricate magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4NPs) using the aqueous fruit extract
      of edible C. guianensis (CGFE). Synthesized NPs were further confirmed with
      different high-throughput characterization techniques such as UV-visible
      spectroscopy, FT-IR, XPS, DLS and zeta potential analysis. Additionally, XRD,
      AFM, HRTEM and SQUID VSM demonstrate the generation of crystalline CGFe3O4NPs
      with mean diameter of 17 +/- 10 nm. Interestingly, CGFe3O4NPs exhibit a
      stupendous bactericidal action against different human pathogens which depicts
      its antimicrobial value. A significant dose-dependent cytotoxic effect of
      CGFe3O4NPs was noticed against treated human hepatocellular carcinoma cells
      (HepG2).

PMID- 28554258
TI  - Investigation of transient forms of sulfur during biological treatment of spent
      caustic.
AB  - In the present study, the production of various transient forms of sulfur during
      biological oxidation of sulfidic spent caustics under haloalkaline conditions in
      a stirred tank bioreactor is investigated. Also, the effects of abiotic aeration
      (chemical oxidation), dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and sodium
      concentration on forms of sulfur during biological treatment are demonstrated.
      Thioalkalivibrio versutus strain was used for sulfide oxidation in spent caustic
      (SC). The aeration had an important effect on sulfide oxidation and its final
      products. At DO concentrations above 2 mg l-1, majority of sulfide was oxidized
      to sulfate. Maximum sulfide removal efficiency (%R) and yield of sulfate
      production [Formula: see text] was obtained in Na+ concentration ranging from 0.6
      to 2 M. Abiotic aeration, which is the most important factor of production of
      thiosulfate, resulted in the formation of an undesired product-polysulfide.
      However, abiotic aeration can be used as a pretreatment to biological treatment.
      In the bioreactor the removal efficiency was obtained as 82.7% and various forms
      of sulfur such as polysulfide, biosulfur, thiosulfate and sulfate was observed
      during biological treatment of SC.

PMID- 28554259
TI  - Frequency and prognostic significance of additional cytogenetic abnormalities to
      the Philadelphia chromosome in young and older adults with acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia.
AB  - About 25-35% of adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia show the
      Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome. Few series have evaluated the prognosis of
      additional cytogenetic alterations (ACA) to the Ph chromosome. We analyzed the
      frequency, type and prognostic significance ofACA in adults (18-60 years) treated
      in the ALL-Ph-08 trial. Fifty-two out of 74 patients (70%) showed ACA and 19
      (26%) presented monosomies associated with t(9;22) (monosomal karyotype, MK).
      Similar complete response (CR) rate, CR duration, overall survival and event-free
      survival (EFS) were observed in patients with or without ACA, but patients with
      MK showed shorter CR duration and EFS than the remaining. On multivariate
      analysis, the only variable with prognostic impact for CR duration and EFS was
      the presence of MK (p = .003 and p = .036, respectively). Although ACA associated
      with the Ph chromosome are frequent, only monosomies were associated with poor
      prognosis in this group of patients.

PMID- 28554261
TI  - Plasma alpha-1-acid glycoprotein as a potential predictive biomarker for non
      haematological adverse events of docetaxel in breast cancer patients.
AB  - CONTEXT: Rash and oral mucositis are major non-haematological adverse events
      (AEs) of docetaxel, in addition to fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, which
      restrict the use of the drug in cancer therapy. Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AAG)
      is an acute phase reactant glycoprotein and is a primary carrier of docetaxel in
      the blood. Docetaxel has extensive binding (>98%) to plasma proteins such as AAG,
      lipoproteins and albumin. OBJECTIVE: To study the association between plasma AAG
      level and non-haematological AEs of docetaxel in Malaysian breast cancer patients
      of three major ethnic groups (Malays, Chinese and Indians). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: One hundred and twenty Malaysian breast cancer patients receiving
      docetaxel as single agent chemotherapy were investigated for AAG plasma level
      using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Toxicity assessment was
      determined using Common Terminology Criteria of Adverse Events v4.0. The
      association between AAG and toxicity were then established. RESULTS: There was
      interethnic variation of plasma AAG level; it was 182 +/- 85 mg/dl in Chinese,
      237 +/- 94 mg/dl in Malays and 240 +/- 83 mg/dl in Indians. It was found that low
      plasma levels of AAG were significantly associated with oral mucositis and rash.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study proposes plasma AAG as a potential predictive biomarker
      of docetaxel non-haematological AEs namely oral mucositis and rash.

PMID- 28554262
TI  - Fatigue limits of titanium-bar joints made with the laser and the electric
      resistance welding techniques: microstructural characterization and hardness
      properties.
AB  - Fatigue behavior of the titanium bars is of utmost importance for the safe and
      reliable operation of dental implants and prosthetic constructions based on these
      implants. To date, however, only few data are available on the fatigue strength
      of dental prostheses made with electric resistance welding and laser welding
      techniques. This in-vitro study highlighted that although the joints made with
      the laser welding approach are credited of a superior tensile strength, joints
      made with electric resistance welding exhibited double the minimum fatigue
      strength with respect to the joints made with laser welding (120 vs 60 N).

PMID- 28554260
TI  - Efficacy of direct hemoperfusion using polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX
      DHP) in rapidly progressive interstitial pneumonias: results of a historical
      control study and a review of previous studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Direct hemoperfusion using polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX
      DHP) therapy has been approved for sepsis-associated acute respiratory distress
      syndrome, but its efficacy for other rapidly progressive interstitial pneumonias
      (RPIPs) is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of PMX
      DHP therapy for acute respiratory failure in patients with RPIPs, when compared
      with a historical control receiving conventional treatment without PMX-DHP.
      METHODS: This study comprised 77 patients with RPIPs in our institute between
      January 2002 and December 2015. The initial 36 patients between January 2002 and
      March 2007 were treated without PMX-DHP (historical control group), and the
      following 41 patients between April 2007 and December 2015 were treated with PMX
      DHP (PMX-DHP group) once daily for two successive days concurrently with
      corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressive agents. The 90-day mortality and
      clinical factors were compared between the groups. Cox proportional hazards
      models were constructed to analyze 90-day mortality and identify predictors.
      RESULTS: The 90-day mortality rate was significantly lower in the PMX-DHP group
      than in the controls (41.5% versus 66.7%, p = 0.019). PMX-DHP therapy was
      significantly associated with mortality (hazard ratio 0.505; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.270-0.904; p = 0.032). There were significant differences in the
      serial changes in the PaO2/FiO2 ratio, SOFA score, and blood neutrophil counts
      from days 0-5 after PMX-DHP between the survivor and non-survivor groups ( p =
      0.015, p < 0.001, p = 0.035, respectively). The improved PaO2/FiO2 ratio on day 3
      significantly correlated with the change in blood neutrophil counts (rs = -0.431,
      p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: PMX-DHP therapy may be effective in RPIPs patients
      accompanied by acute respiratory failure and is expected to reduce mortality
      rates.

PMID- 28554263
TI  - Older females in the workforce - the effects of age on psychophysical estimates
      of maximum acceptable lifting loads.
AB  - The number of older workers in the workforce is increasing substantially, and
      advanced age is associated with factors that could influence musculoskeletal
      injury risk and work capacity. This study's goals were to test whether
      psychophysical estimates of maximum acceptable weight of lift (liftmax) differed
      between younger and older workers, and to examine potential explanatory factors.
      Twenty-four female workers (half 50 + years; half 20-32 years) self-adjusted a
      box's mass to their perceived liftmax during four lifting tasks. Older workers'
      liftmax values were significantly lower (by approximately 24%) than their younger
      counterparts. There were no age-related differences in resting heart rate, or
      peak joint angles and final heart rate during the lifting trials. However, the
      older group demonstrated lower grip strength (by 24%), and lower heart rate
      reserve during the trials (by 18%). These results question whether current
      maximum acceptable lifting weights based on psychophysical information are
      appropriately protective for female workers greater than 50 years of age.
      Practitioner Summary: This psychophysical study demonstrated that older female
      workers (aged 50-63 years) selected maximum acceptable lift masses that were (on
      average) 24% lower than younger workers (aged 20-32 years), which corresponded
      with lower grip strength and heart rate reserve. Current maximum acceptable
      lifting weights based on psychophysical information may not protect female
      workers greater than 50 years of age.

PMID- 28554265
TI  - Secondary attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder following perinatal and
      childhood stroke: impact on cognitive and academic outcomes.
AB  - This cross-sectional retrospective clinical research study examines a large group
      of children followed within a pediatric stroke program and a developmental
      attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) clinic at the Hospital for Sick
      Children, between May 2004 and June 2016. All children with a history of stroke
      who participated in a neuropsychological assessment between the ages of 4 and 18
      years were considered for inclusion. From a sample of 275 participants with a
      history of stroke, 36 children (13.1%) received a diagnosis of secondary ADHD.
      Children with secondary ADHD were younger at the time of stroke and more likely
      to be identified as having a presumed perinatal stroke and persistent seizures
      than children without secondary ADHD diagnoses. There were no differences in
      pattern of lesion, size, or laterality between children who developed secondary
      ADHD and those who did not. Children with secondary ADHD had the lowest scores
      across all cognitive and academic measures compared to children with stroke-only
      and developmental ADHD. Findings highlight the added risk of receiving a
      diagnosis of secondary ADHD following pediatric stroke. Implications for future
      research and directed intervention are discussed.

PMID- 28554264
TI  - Health Variables Are Informative in Screening for Mild Cognitive Impairment Among
      Elderly African Americans.
AB  - To aid primary care providers in identifying people at increased risk for
      cognitive decline, we explored the relative importance of health and demographic
      variables in detecting potential cognitive impairment using the Mini-Mental State
      Examination (MMSE). Participants were 94 older African Americans coming to see
      their primary care physicians for reasons other than cognitive complaints.
      Education was strongly associated with cognitive functioning. Among those with at
      least 9 years of education, patients with more vascular risk factors were at
      greater risk for mild cognitive impairment. For patients with fewer than 9 years
      of education, those with fewer prescribed medications were at increased risk for
      dementia. These results suggest that in addition to the MMSE, primary care
      physicians can make use of patients' health information to improve identification
      of patients at increased risk for cognitive impairment. With improved
      identification, physicians can implement strategies to mitigate the progression
      and impact of cognitive difficulties.

PMID- 28554266
TI  - Tolerability profile of thiopurines in inflammatory bowel disease: a prospective
      experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The occurrence of thiopurine-related adverse events (AEs) may
      complicate the management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We
      aimed to evaluate the tolerability of thiopurines in a current IBD setting.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: All consecutive patients who started a treatment with
      azathioprine (AZA) from January 2010 to March 2016 were entered in a
      prospectively maintained database, and the AEs which led to the permanent
      discontinuation of the drug were reported. RESULTS: Two hundred and fifty three
      patients were included. Median total follow-up was 32 months (range: 0.2-75
      months). At the end of the study, AZA was discontinued in 160 patients (63.2%).
      The main reason leading to drug withdrawal was the occurrence of AEs (109/160
      patients [68.1%]; cumulative incidence among the entire cohort: 43.1%). Overall,
      the most frequent AEs leading to treatment withdrawal were nausea (31/253
      patients, 12.3%) and subjective symptoms, i.e., poorly defined side effects such
      as fatigue, headache and muscle pain (20/253 patients, 7.9%). Among the 109 AZA
      intolerant patients, a switch to 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) was performed in 44
      cases (40.4%). At the end of follow-up, 6-MP was discontinued in 35/44 patients
      (79.5%), mostly due to AEs (29/35 patients, 82.8%). Azathioprine-induced hepatic
      and pancreatic toxicity was associated with male gender (p = .01 and p = .03,
      respectively), and occurrence of nausea with Crohn's disease (p = .04).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our real-life prospective cohort showed the higher cumulative
      incidence of thiopurine withdrawal due to AEs reported to date. Switching from
      AZA to 6-MP was often ineffective.

PMID- 28554267
TI  - Executive function and attention in patients with stress-related exhaustion:
      perceived fatigue and effect of distraction.
AB  - Cognitive impairment has frequently been shown in patients who seek medical care
      for stress-related mental health problems. This study aims to extend the current
      knowledge of cognitive impairments in these patients by focusing on perceived
      fatigue and effects of distraction during cognitive testing. Executive function
      and attention were tested in a group of patients with stress-related exhaustion
      (n = 25) and compared with healthy controls (n = 25). Perceived fatigue was
      measured before, during and after the test session, and some of the tests were
      administered with and without standardized auditory distraction. Executive
      function and complex attention performance were poorer among the patients
      compared to controls. Interestingly, their performance was not significantly
      affected by auditory distraction but, in contrast to the controls, they reported
      a clear-cut increase in mental tiredness, during and after the test session.
      Thus, patients with stress-related exhaustion manage to perform during
      distraction but this was achieved at a great cost. These findings are discussed
      in terms of a possible tendency to adopt a high-effort approach despite cognitive
      impairments and the likelihood that such an approach will require increased
      levels of effort, which can result in increased fatigue. We tentatively conclude
      that increased fatigue during cognitive tasks is a challenge for patients with
      stress-related exhaustion and plausibly of major importance when returning to
      work demanding high cognitive performance.

PMID- 28554268
TI  - Knowledge and competence in temporomandibular disorders among Swedish general
      dental practitioners and dental hygienists.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate knowledge and competence in
      temporomandibular disorders (TMD) among dentists and dental hygienists working in
      the public dental service (PDS) in Sweden. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study
      population comprised all general dentists (n = 110) and dental hygienists (n =
      80) working in the PDS in two Swedish counties: Kronoberg (K) and Blekinge (B).
      The participants filled out a questionnaire comprised of 15 questions. RESULTS:
      The results of these questions are presented. The overall response rate for the
      general dentists was 87%, while the rate for the dental hygienists was 71%.
      Statistically significant differences between the general dentists in the two
      counties were found regarding the following: education in the field of TMD over
      the last 5 years (K: 37%, B: 73%), evaluation of occlusion when examining
      patients with suspected TMD ('always': K: 61%, B: 82%), and a desire for
      consultation of the OFP (orofacial pain)/TMD specialist by telephone (K: 71%, B:
      44%). Regarding the dental hygienists, there was a statistically significant
      difference concerning the use of the treatment modality 'reassurance' (K: 41%, B:
      7%). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the dental care providers in both counties -
      irrespective of professional category - had a positive attitude towards patients
      with TMD. Knowledge and competence in the field are sparse and require
      postgraduate education. There is a great need of an OFP/TMD specialist for more
      complicated patients and a need to implement updated knowledge and competence in
      the PDS in these two counties.

PMID- 28554269
TI  - Erratum: "Dioscorea nipponica Attenuates Migration and Invasion by Inhibition of
      Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator through Involving PI3K/Akt and
      Transcriptional Inhibition of NF-[Formula: see text]B and SP-1 in Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma".

PMID- 28554270
TI  - Dephosphorylation of myo-inositol phosphates in the in vitro intestinal Caco-2
      cell model.
AB  - Plant and microbial phytases present in raw materials can cause a
      dephosphorylation of phytate (myo-inositol hexakisphosphate) (InsP6)) during food
      processing resulting in a broad range of different myo-inositol phosphates such
      as pentakisphosphate (InsP5) and tetrakisphosphate (InsP4) in foods. Here, we
      investigated whether the human intestinal epithelium is able to dephosphorylate
      myo-inositol phosphates (InsP6, InsP5-, InsP4-, InsP3-isomers) using an in vitro
      model with differentiated human Caco-2 cells cultured on semipermeable inserts.
      Incubation of InsP6 and an InsP5-isomer with cells for 3 h showed no
      dephosphorylation of both InsPs. Treatment of cells with a mixture of different
      InsP4-isomers, however, caused a formation of about 3.5% of an InsP3-isomer
      (Ins(1,5,6)P3) and treatment with a mixture of different InsP3-isomers caused
      about 20% formation of InsP2-isomers, respectively. Thus, human intestinal cells
      can contribute to the dephosphorylation of myo-inositol phosphates of partly
      dephosphorylated forms such as InsP3 and InsP4.

PMID- 28554271
TI  - Genetic variants and clinical relevance associated with gestational diabetes
      mellitus in Chinese women: a case-control study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may share similar mechanisms with
      type 2 diabetes and obesity. In the current study, we aimed to verify twenty
      genes reported to be associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity in the Chinese
      GDM population. METHODS: Pregnant women aged 20-49 years at 24-28 gestational
      weeks were recruited and 556 cases and 445 controls were enrolled in the study.
      The genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was performed on
      peripheral blood samples. RESULTS: We discovered that GDM was associated with
      rs945508 (OR = 1.368, 95% CI = 1.080-1.732, p = .009), rs10804591 (OR = 1.446,
      95% CI = 1.192-1.754, p < .001), rs10245353 (OR = 1.204, 95% CI = 1.006-1.441, p
      = .043) and rs1552224 (OR = 1.451, 95% CI = 1.071-1.964, p = .016). CONCLUSIONS:
      We found that four SNPs associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity may also
      increase the risk of developing GDM in the Chinese population. Among these SNPs,
      we report for the first time that rs945508 in ARHGEF11, rs10804591 in PLXND1 and
      rs10245353 in NFE2L3 were associated with GDM.

PMID- 28554273
TI  - Multiple morbidities assessment.
AB  - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has released new
      guidelines on the care of people with multiple morbidities.

PMID- 28554272
TI  - Angiogenesis in JAK2 V617F positive myeloproliferative neoplasms and ruxolitinib
      decrease VEGF, HIF-1 enesis in JAK2 V617F positive cells.
AB  - Angiogenesis and JAK2 V617F mutation are common in BCR-ABL1 negative
      myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Ruxolitinib, a JAK inhibitor, is an
      effective treatment for some MPNs. However, the relationship between angiogenesis
      and JAK2 V617F and the effects of ruxolitinib on angiogenesis are still unknown.
      Here, we observed the correlation of JAK2 V617F mutation burden with VEGF, HIF-1a
      and microvascular density (MVD) in MPNs. We investigate the effect of ruxolitinib
      on the expression of VEGF and HIF-1alpha in JAK2 V617F positive cells. We found
      the expression levels of p-JAK2, VEGF, HIF-1a and MVD in the newly diagnosed MPNs
      were significantly increased and were related to the JAK2 V617F burden.
      Ruxolitinib can inhibit p-JAK2, VEGF, HIF-1a expression and suppress blood
      vessels' formation in chick embryo choriallantoic membrane. Our findings
      indicated that angiogenesis is related to JAK2 V617F burden and ruxolitinib could
      decrease VEGF and HIF-1a expression in JAK2 V617F positive cells.

PMID- 28554274
TI  - Reducing the use of restrictive interventions by changing staff attitudes.
AB  - The use of restraint in health and social care services has had a high profile in
      recent years. The goal for these organisations is to reduce it, and use effective
      preventive interventions instead. Changing staff attitudes to restraint, as part
      of a comprehensive training programme, is important in reducing the use of
      restrictive interventions. This article describes an approach to implementing
      training programmes, and applies aspects of this to the challenge of creating
      changes in the attitude of staff.

PMID- 28554275
TI  - Research should be at the core of nursing.
AB  - If we are to improve management of long-term conditions, and address the needs of
      our ageing population, we must make nursing research central to nursing practice.

PMID- 28554276
TI  - Leading by walking around in long-term care and transitional care facilities.
AB  - Nursing staff in long-term care/transitional care (LTC/TC) facilities in the US
      work in unique environments that can be stressful and demanding. There is much in
      the literature that describes different leadership styles in nursing, but a
      limited amount on leadership in LTC/TC environments. This article explores the
      concept of leading by walking around (LBWA), also known as leadership by walking,
      to cultivate therapeutic work environments in LTC/TC facilities in the US. It
      defines therapeutic work environments and describes the specific environment of
      LTC/TC facilities. It also briefly describes the nursing hierarchy and nurse
      education in the US. Finally, it describes the cultivation of therapeutic work
      environments by using LBWA and includes two examples of the concept in action.

PMID- 28554277
TI  - From twitter.
AB  - Nurses on Twitter.

PMID- 28554278
TI  - Inclusive leadership.
AB  - NHS England's second podcast, Inclusive Leadership in the NHS, has been made
      available.

PMID- 28554279
TI  - Patient-led care.
AB  - Former mental health service user and public engagement practitioner David
      Gilbert writes a blog, the Future Patient Blog, on the possibilities of patient
      led and user-led healthcare.

PMID- 28554280
TI  - May accused of showing 'contempt'.
AB  - Theresa May was accused of showing 'contempt' for nurses by failing to attend RCN
      congress.

PMID- 28554281
TI  - Number crunching: are there enough nurses?
AB  - Throughout the election campaign, the Conservatives have been keen to point out
      how it has increased the number of nurses in hospitals.

PMID- 28554282
TI  - Public perceptions.
AB  - The National Centre for Social Research's annual British Social Attitudes survey
      records the British public's views on the NHS and healthcare.

PMID- 28554284
TI  - Equal gender representation.
AB  - A report by Ruth Sealy of the University of Exeter Business School examines the
      steps the NHS should take to ensure equal gender representation on boards by
      2020.

PMID- 28554283
TI  - Why nursing needs community-centred care.
AB  - Patient- and family-centred care improve patient satisfaction, healthcare
      outcomes and healthcare delivery. But how would the addition of another layer,
      community-centred care, affect this model?

PMID- 28554285
TI  - Gluten-free food.
AB  - Staple gluten-free (GF) foods have been available on prescription to patients
      diagnosed with gluten sensitivity enteropathies, such as coeliac disease, since
      the late 1960s.

PMID- 28554287
TI  - Violence against women and girls.
AB  - In 2016, the Scottish Government published a revised version of Equally Safe,
      Scotland's strategy to eradicate violence against women and girls.

PMID- 28554286
TI  - RCN to ballot for industrial action if pay cap remains.
AB  - RCN president Cecilia Anim (pictured) has urged nurses to make their voices heard
      following the announcement of a summer of protest over pay.

PMID- 28554288
TI  - Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals Barker Janet
      Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals 240pp L22.99 Sage
      Publishing 9781473925038 1473925037 [Formula: see text].
AB  - Critical appreciation of the evidence base is a requirement for professional
      practice and this book, now in its third edition, is a well written and useful
      primer to the subject.

PMID- 28554289
TI  - Around the world.
AB  - 1. 23rd World Nursing and Healthcare Conference 10-12 July, Berlin, Germany
      tinyurl.com/worldnursing-berlin.

PMID- 28554290
TI  - Nurse directors need more time and support if they are to remain in post.
AB  - Delegates at an RCN congress fringe event discussed how better mentoring and more
      time for nurse directors to 'find their feet' are needed to improve retention
      rates.

PMID- 28554292
TI  - NHS should 'focus on wellness'.
AB  - The NHS emphasis on illness rather than wellness could be 'disabling patients',
      delegates told RCN congress.

PMID- 28554293
TI  - Staff feeling burned out due to overlong shifts.
AB  - Nurses have raised concerns about how night and day shifts run into each other,
      leading to staff feeling burned out and wanting to leave the profession.

PMID- 28554294
TI  - It's time to reward nursing leadership.
AB  - The cover of this month's Nursing Management features Susie Scales and Amy Sims,
      who together won the leadership category of the prestigious RCNi Nurse Awards.
      The two nurses set up a school-age immunisation programme from scratch and
      launched it within six months. They are now responsible for vaccinations
      throughout Derbyshire .

PMID- 28554295
TI  - Noticeboard.

PMID- 28554296
TI  - 'An amazing feat of leadership': meet the award-winning nursing pioneers.
AB  - A school-age immunisation programme set up from scratch and launched within six
      months is delivering impressive take-up results thanks to the leadership and
      commitment of the two nurses who run it.

PMID- 28554297
TI  - 'Above all, be brave'.
AB  - What is your job? My new role is director of nursing at Guilford County Detention
      Centers, North Carolina. I manage three sites across the county, with around
      1,300 inmates including men, women and juveniles.

PMID- 28554298
TI  - Nursing in rural India.
AB  - Nursing in India is evolving, and the inequality of practice and standards
      between cities and villages affects the health of the population. This article
      describes the challenges of providing healthcare in rural parts of India, and how
      nurses have made the best use of available resources to strive to achieve
      healthcare goals.

PMID- 28554299
TI  - Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: prevalence and associated factors
      in a Nigerian population.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of
      obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) among subjects with schizophrenia and also to
      determine their associated factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving
      232 patients with schizophrenia were recruited from a teaching hospital in
      Nigeria. Socio-demographic questionnaire, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory,
      Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Suicidality module of the MINI
      International Neuropsychiatric Inventory were administered. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of OCS was 54.3% among patients with schizophrenia, and washing
      symptom was the most common (51.7%). Patients with schizophrenia that had OCS had
      more severe psychopathologies and higher levels of suicidality. OCS among
      patients with schizophrenia were also associated with the use of second
      generation antipsychotic medications. CONCLUSIONS: OCS are common in
      schizophrenia. Hence, there is a need for routine screening of patients with
      schizophrenia for OCS and then, manage them appropriately.

PMID- 28554300
TI  - Relationships between clubshaft motions and clubface orientation during the golf
      swing.
AB  - Since clubface orientation at impact affects ball direction and ball spin, the
      ability to control clubface orientation is one of the most important skills for
      golfers. This study presents a new method to describe clubface orientation as a
      function of the clubshaft motions (i.e., swing plane orientation, clubshaft angle
      in the swing plane, and clubshaft rolling angle) during a golf swing and
      investigates the relationships between the clubshaft motions and clubface
      orientation at impact. The club motion data of driver shots were collected from
      eight skilled golfers using a three-dimensional motion capture system. The
      degrees of influence of the clubshaft motions on the clubface orientation were
      investigated using sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis revealed that
      the swing plane horizontal angle affected the clubface horizontal angle to an
      extent of 100%, that the clubshaft angle in the swing plane affected both the
      clubface vertical and horizontal angles to extents of 74 and 68%, respectively,
      and that the clubshaft rolling angle affected both the clubface vertical and
      horizontal angles to extents of -67 and 75%, respectively. Since the method
      presented here relates clubface orientation to clubshaft motions, it is useful
      for understanding the clubface control of a golfer.

PMID- 28554301
TI  - Exploring disorder in the human charged biased proteins.
AB  - A considerable interest has been put in the identification of biased regions in
      proteins. These regions are frequently associated with a structural role in the
      cell and particularly with protein disorder. Here, we have investigated the
      intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in the human charged biased proteins
      identified in our earlier work. We found that 65% of charged biased proteins
      contained significant IDRs involved particularly in DNA and RNA binding. Also, we
      have observed that these proteins are well conserved in metazoans and more
      particularly in mammalian. In addition, the IDRs are located largely in N
      terminal, C-terminal sequence flanking the functional domains (FD) and slightly
      less in (FD) itself. Our work also supports the association between protein
      disorder and protein-protein/DNA interaction. An example will be described.

PMID- 28554302
TI  - New cardiac expression of two adenosine-2A receptor isoforms in dysfunctioning
      minipigs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Eight A2AR variants are reported in humans while no A2AR isoforms in
      pigs. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential isoforms presence in
      cardiac pig tissue to better define possible involvement of A2AR in the
      cardiovascular pathophysiology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In adult male minipigs (n
      = 4) left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) was induced by pacing at 200 bpm in the
      right ventricular (RV) apex. In these animals and in sham operated pigs (C-SHAM,
      n = 4) cardiac tissue was collected from LV-septal wall (LV-SW)-close to pacing
      site-and from lateral (opposite) site (LV-OSW). A2AR specific primers, derived
      from Sus scrofa AY772412 sequence, were used for Real-Time PCR. The DNA was
      sequenced using the Sanger method. Histological analysis was also performed.
      RESULTS: In LV-SW of LVD minipigs the A2AR melting curves were characterized by a
      sharp peak between 87 and 91  degrees C (short isoform, 1-94 bp) on the right of
      the principal peak corresponding to a long A2AR isoform (GenBank: JQ229674.1) 1
      213 bp. As for C-SHAM only one peak was observed in LV-OSW region of LVD animals.
      The short isoform had an alternative promoter region and a specific translated
      protein. Histology showed in LVD-LV-SW prominent Purkinje cells compared to LV
      OSW and C-SHAM. No difference in A2AR expression was observed between LVD animals
      and C-SHAM although a slight decrease was observed in LVD-LV-OSW. CONCLUSIONS:
      The presence of two different isoforms in the myocardium close to the insertion
      of pacing is suggestive of a differential state-specific expression of A2AR in
      cardiac tissue.

PMID- 28554304
TI  - Ginsenoside Rb1 exerts antidiabetic action on C2C12 muscle cells by leptin
      receptor signaling pathway.
AB  - CONTEXT: Ginsenoside Rb1 improves insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in
      muscle cells via different signaling pathways; however, it is not clear that it
      has any effect on leptin signaling in skeletal muscle. OBJECTIVES: The aim of
      this study was to investigate the effect of ginsenoside Rb1 on leptin receptors
      expression and main signaling pathways of leptin (STAT3, PI3 kinase and ERK
      kinase) in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: C2C12 myotubes
      were incubated with various concentrations of Rb1 (0.1, 1 and 10 MUM) for
      different incubation times (1-12 h). Leptin receptors expression and GLUT-4
      translocation were analyzed using realtime PCR and western blot analyses,
      respectively. PI3 and ERK kinases were blocked using their specific inhibitors
      (wortmannin and PD98059) in the presence and absence of RB1 to determine the main
      signaling pathway related to leptin receptor activation in C2C12 cells. RESULTS:
      Rb1 could maximally stimulate both leptin receptors (OBRa and OBRb) mRNA and
      protein expression and phosphorylation of STAT3, PI3K and ERK2 in C2C12 myotubes
      at 10 MUM for 3 h. Rb1 induced GLUT4 translocation was inhibited by the silencing
      of OBRb mRNA, demonstrated that glucose uptake was mediated via leptin receptor
      activation. GLUT4 recruitment to the cell surface induced by Rb1 was inhibited by
      wortmannin, an inhibitor of PI3K in combination with OBRb siRNA, but not by
      PD98059 an ERK2 kinase-1 inhibitor, indicating that GLUT4 translocation induced
      by Rb1 was associated with the leptin receptor upregulation and subsequent
      activation of PI3K. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that Rb1 promote
      translocation of GLUT4 by upregulation of leptin receptors and activation of
      PI3K.

PMID- 28554303
TI  - C-type natriuretic peptide suppresses mesangial proliferation and matrix
      expression via a MMPs/TIMPs-independent pathway in vitro.
AB  - C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) acts mainly in a local, paracrine fashion to
      regulate vascular tone and cell proliferation. Although several in vivo studies
      have demonstrated that CNP exerts an inhibitory effect on mesangial matrix
      generation, a limited number of reports exist about the anti-extracellular matrix
      (ECM) accumulation effect of CNP and its underlying mechanisms in mesangial cells
      (MCs) in vitro. In this study, human MCs were incubated in serum-containing
      medium in the absence or presence of CNP (0, 10 and 100 pM) for 24, 48 and 72 h,
      respectively. CNP administration significantly suppresses MCs proliferation and
      collagen (Col)-IV expression in a time- and dose-dependent manner. In addition,
      the study presented herein was designed as a first demonstration of the
      regulative effects of CNP on the metabolisms of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)
      and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in MCs in vitro, and found
      that: (1) CNP administration significantly decreased the secretion and expression
      of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in the cultured MCs; (2) the secretion and expression of TIMP
      1 progressively elevated after treatment with CNP for 24 and 48 h, whereas
      declined at later time point; (3) CNP expression was negatively correlated with
      MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression; (4) the balance of MMPs/TIMPs was shifted toward the
      reduction in MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity and/or the increment in TIMP-1 expression,
      which could not account for the down-regulation of Col-IV expression in CNP
      treated MCs. In conclusion, CNP suppresses mesangial proliferation and ECM
      expression via a MMPs/TIMPs-independent pathway in vitro.

PMID- 28554306
TI  - Occupational Safety and Health in the Temporary Services Industry: A Model for a
      Community-University Partnership.
AB  - Workers in the temporary staffing industry face hazardous working conditions and
      have a high risk of occupational injury. This project brought together local
      workers' centers and university investigators to build a corps of Occupational
      Health Promoters (OHPs) and to test a survey tool and recruitment methods to
      identify hazards and raise awareness among workers employed by temporary staffing
      companies. OHPs interviewed ninety-eight workers employed by thirty-three
      temporary agencies and forty-nine client companies, working mainly in shipping
      and packing, manufacturing, and warehousing sectors. Surveys identified workplace
      hazards. OHPs reported two companies to OSHA, resulting in several citations.
      Partners reported greater understanding of occupational safety and health
      challenges for temporary workers and continue to engage in training, peer
      education, and coalition building.

PMID- 28554305
TI  - "Then They Trust You ...": Managing Ergonomics in Home Care.
AB  - The home care workforce, already at 2.7 million caregivers, will become the
      nation's fastest growing occupation by 2024 as the senior boom generation
      accelerates the demand for in home services to meet its long-term care needs. The
      physically challenging work of assisting clients with intimate, essential acts of
      daily living places home care workers (HCWs) at risk for musculoskeletal
      disorders (MSDs); yet, HCWs typically receive little formal job training and may
      lack appropriate assistive devices. In this qualitative pilot study, HCW focus
      groups described workplace MSD risk factors and identified problem-solving
      strategies to improve ergonomic conditions. The results revealed that HCWs rely
      on their behavioral insights, self-styled communications skills and caring
      demeanor to navigate MSD risks to themselves and increase clients' physical
      independence of movement. We suggest changes in employer and government policies
      to acknowledge HCWs as valued team members in long-term care and to enhance their
      effectiveness as caregivers.

PMID- 28554307
TI  - Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy Current Practice Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertensive disorders (preeclampsia, eclampsia, gestational
      hypertension, and chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia) complicate
      3-5% of all pregnancies and are a significant cause of maternal mortality and
      morbidity. Preeclampsia is a multi-system disorder characterised by new onset
      hypertension after the 20th week of pregnancy with proteinuria. Proteinuria is
      defined as 300 mg or more of protein in a 24-hour urine collection or a protein:
      creatinine ratio of 0.3 mg/dL using a spot urine specimen. Hypertensive disorders
      have a complex pathophysiology that results from abnormal placen- tation and a
      maternal response that develops into a clinicalsyndrome for which there is no
      single test or "cure". In high income countries, low rates of maternal mortality
      from hy- pertensive disease in pregnancy illustrate the importance of pregnant
      women being able to readily access antenatal care. CONCLUSION: There remains the
      need to develop evidence-based clinical guidelines for detection, prophylaxis and
      management worldwide.

PMID- 28554308
TI  - Lipid Metabolism in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease: A Five Year Follow-up
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) exhibit high morbidity
      as well as mortality for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
      Therefore, we investigated differences in individual lipoprotein classes and
      subclasses in ESRD patients under chronic high volume hemodiafiltration (HV-HDF)
      in comparison with a control group. We also assessed the prognosis of these
      patients and analyzed these parameters after 5 years follow-up. METHODS: 57
      patients and 50 controls were enrolled. We analysed high density (HDL) and low
      density (LDL) lipoprotein subfractions using the Quantimetrix Lipoprint(R)
      system. Subfractions were correlated with selected clinical-biochemical
      parameters including risk factors for atherosclerotic CVD at the beginning of and
      after 5 years follow-up. RESULTS: Fourteen patients survived the 5-year follow
      up. Follow-up results revealed a shift toward smaller HDL subfractions. In
      lipoproteins carrying apolipoprotein B, there was a shift of cholesterol from
      very low density (VLDL) to intermediate density (IDL) lipoproteins and LDLs.
      Hypolipidaemic therapy did not influence lipoprotein profiles in HV-HDF patients.
      CONCLUSION: 1. HV-HDF patients exhibit specific lipid profiles with elevated
      triacylglycerol, low HDL and LDL and higher content of cholesterol in remnant
      particles (VLDL and IDL) at the expense of large LDL. HDL subfractions were
      linked to the number of risk factors for CVD in the control group only. 2.
      Baseline lipoprotein profiles did not differ between survivors and non-survivors.
      Non-survivors had higher CRP and lower HDL-C. 3. During the 5 year follow-up
      period, cholesterol in HDL particles and lipoproteins carrying apolipoprotein B
      redistributed in survivors towards smaller particles, thus resembling the profile
      of control patients.

PMID- 28554309
TI  - Serum Levels of Vaspin and Its Correlation with Nitric Oxide in Type 2 Diabetic
      Patients with Nephropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetic Nephropathy (DN), a serious and prevalent complication of
      diabetes, has been rapidly raising worldwide. Vaspin, as an adipokine with anti
      diabetic effects, is predominantly released from visceral adipose tissue.
      Moreover, vaspin has the stimulatory effect on nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability
      through the activation of NO synthase. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study
      was to investigate the serum levels of vaspin and their correlation with NO
      metabolite in diabetic patients with normal renal function and renal
      insufficiency. METHODS: Volunteers patients with non-nephropathy Type 2 Diabetic
      Mellitus (T2DM) as control (n=40, age= 56.95+/-6.11 years) and patients with
      diabetic nephropathy (DN) (n=40, age=57.85+/-5.63 years) as case group were
      enrolled in this study, and serum samples were collected for the measurement of
      vaspin levels by ELISA technique. Also, serum levels of NO metabolites were
      calorimetrically assessed. RESULTS: We found that vaspin levels significantly
      decreased in diabetic patients with nephropathic condition as compared with
      diabetic patients with normal renal function (p <0.04). In addition, serum levels
      of NO metabolites were significantly higher in diabetic patients with nephropathy
      in comparison with non-nephropathic diabetics (p<0.001). When patients with DN
      were studied, vaspin levels positively correlated with NO metabolites and
      Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels. CONCLUSION:
      This study showed that low serum vaspin levels may be a risk factor for
      nephropathy in type II diabetic patients and increased levels of NO may be a
      defensive mechanism in the DN.

PMID- 28554310
TI  - Ion Channel and Neurotransmitter Modulators as Electroceutical Approaches to the
      Control of Cancer.
AB  - The activities of individual cells must be tightly coordinated in order to build
      and maintain complex 3- dimensional body structures during embryogenesis and
      regeneration. Thus, one way to view cancer is within systems biology as a network
      disorder affecting the ability of cells to properly interact with a morphodynamic
      field of instructive signals that keeps proliferation and migration orchestrated
      toward the anatomical needs of the host organism. One layer of this set of
      instructive microenvironmental cues is bioelectrical. Voltage gradients among all
      somatic cells (not just excitable nerve and muscle) control cell behavior, and
      the ionic coupling of cells into networks via electrochemical synapses allows
      them to implement tissue-level patterning decisions. These gradients have been
      increasingly implicated in the induction and suppression of tumorigenesis and
      metastasis, in the emerging links between developmental bioelectricity to the
      cancer problem. Consistent with the well-known role of neurotransmitter molecules
      in transducing electrical activity to downstream cascades in the brain,
      serotonergic signaling has likewise been implicated in cancer. Here, we review
      these recent data and propose new approaches for manipulating bioelectric and
      neurotransmitter pathways in cancer biology based on a bioelectric view of
      cancer. To support this methodology, we present new data on the effects of the
      SSRI Prozac and its analog (ZINC ID = ZINC06811610) on survival of both cancer
      (MCF7) and normal (MCF10A) breast cells exposed to these compounds. We found an
      IC50 concentration (25 uM for Prozac and 100 uM for the Prozac analog) at which
      these compounds inhibited tumor cell survival and proliferation. Additionally, at
      these concentrations, we did not observe alterations in a non-tumoral cell line.
      This constitutes a proof-of-concept demonstration for our hypothesis that the use
      of both existing and novel drugs as electroceuticals could serve as an
      alternative to highly toxic chemotherapy strategies replacing or augmenting them
      with less toxic alternatives. We believe this new approach forms an exciting
      roadmap for future biomedical advances.

PMID- 28554313
TI  - Evaluation of Multifunctional Hybrid Analogs for Stilbenes, Chalcones and
      Flavanones.
AB  - AIMS: In this study, discovery of novel anticancer agents acting by more than one
      mechanism was aimed. METHOD: For this purpose, eleven previously synthesized
      simple-stilbene, chalcone, flavanone derivatives and 31 novel stilbene-fused
      chalcones and stilbene-fused flavanones were tested for their aromatase
      inhibition, antiangiogenic and anti-proliferative properties in cancer (PC3, MCF
      7) and healthy (HUVEC) cell lines. MTT cell viability assay was used to evaluate
      the anti-proliferative activities of the compounds. CYP19/MFC highthroughput
      screening kit (BD Biosciences, Oxford, UK) was used to search the aromatase
      inhibition properties and matrigel tube formation assay was applied to determine
      the anti-angiogenic activities. RESULTS: Results indicate that the simple
      chalcone and flavanone derivatives were more cytotoxic than the simple- stilbenes
      in the both cancer cell lines. In contrast, the simple-stilbene structures were
      much more effective at aromatase inhibition. The cytotoxicity profiles of
      stilbene-fused chalcones in cancer cells imply that these molecules mostly mimic
      the simple chalcone structures. On the other hand, flavanones lose their
      cytotoxic activities after becoming fused with stilbenes. Additionally, aromatase
      inhibition assays showed that stilbene-fused chalcones again do mimic the simple
      chalcones but not simple-stilbenes and anti-angiogenic profiles of the tested
      molecules seem to be not related with stilbene fragments. Furthermore, stilbene
      fused flavanones may mimic both simple-flavanones and simple-stilbenes depending
      upon the type and position of the substituent in their respective terminal
      aromatic rings.

PMID- 28554314
TI  - Epigenetics in Odontogenesis and its Influences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Odontogenesis is fundamentally controlled by the genome. However,
      epigenetic factors have indispensable effects during odontogenesis. Previous
      studies have shown that exogenous factors, such as the environment, that cause
      hypomethylation and hypermethylation in DNA may lead to dental differences in
      monozygotic twin pairs. In addition, abnormalities in epigenetic regulation could
      induce disruptions in odontogenesis, thereby causing tooth malformation or
      agenesis. OBJECTIVE: This review overviews the epigenetic mechanisms involved in
      odontogenesis with the aim of establishing a fundamental vision of tooth
      development, which might be useful in further research in odontogenesis and
      therapy for dental diseases. RESULTS: We summarized articles about epigenetics in
      odontogenesis. Here, we present concrete epigenetic regulation mechanisms in
      odontogenesis that have been reported previously, following the order of
      microRNA, DNA methylation and histone modification. CONCLUSION: Epigenetic
      factors influence the proliferation, differentiation or apoptosis of cells that
      play indispensable roles during the process of odontogenesis which have the
      ability to exquisitely regulate the tooth number, size and shape.

PMID- 28554312
TI  - Calcium Signaling, PKC Gamma, IP3R1 and CAR8 Link Spinocerebellar Ataxias and
      Purkinje Cell Dendritic Development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a group of cerebellar diseases
      characterized by progressive ataxia and cerebellar atrophy. Several forms of SCAs
      are caused by missense mutations or deletions in genes related to calcium
      signaling in Purkinje cells. Among them, spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 (SCA14)
      is caused by missense mutations in PRKCG gene which encodes protein kinase C
      gamma (PKCgamma). It is remarkable that in several cases in which SCA is caused
      by point mutations in an individual gene, the affected genes are involved in the
      PKCgamma signaling pathway and calcium signaling which is not only crucial for
      proper Purkinje cell function but is also involved in the control of Purkinje
      cell dendritic development. In this review, we will focus on the PKCgamma
      signaling related genes and calcium signaling related genes then discuss their
      role for both Purkinje cell dendritic development and cerebellar ataxia. METHODS:
      Research related to SCAs and Purkinje cell dendritic development is reviewed.
      RESULTS: PKCgamma dysregulation causes abnormal Purkinje cell dendritic
      development and SCA14. Carbonic anhydrase related protein 8 (Car8) encoding CAR8
      and Itpr1 encoding IP3R1were identified as upregulated genes in one of SCA14
      mouse model. IP3R1, CAR8 and PKCgamma proteins are strongly and specifically
      expressed in Purkinje cells. The common function among them is that they are
      involved in the regulation of calcium homeostasis in Purkinje cells and their
      dysfunction causes ataxia in mouse and human. Furthermore, disruption of
      intracellular calcium homeostasis caused by mutations in some calcium channels in
      Purkinje cells links to abnormal Purkinje cell dendritic development and the
      pathogenesis of several SCAs. CONCLUSION: Once PKCgamma signaling related genes
      and calcium signaling related genes are disturbed, the normal dendritic
      development of Purkinje cells is impaired as well as the integration of signals
      from other neurons, resulting in abnormal development, cerebellar dysfunction and
      eventually Purkinje cell loss.

PMID- 28554315
TI  - Pharmacophore Modelling and 4D-QSAR Study of Ruthenium(II) Arene Complexes as
      Anticancer Agents (Inhibitors) by Electron Conformational- Genetic Algorithm
      Method.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The EC-GA method was employed in this study as a 4D-QSAR method, for
      the identification of the pharmacophore (Pha) of ruthenium(II) arene complex
      derivatives and quantitative prediction of activity. METHODS: The arrangement of
      the computed geometric and electronic parameters for atoms and bonds of each
      compound occurring in a matrix is known as the electron-conformational matrix of
      congruity (ECMC). It contains the data from HF/3-21G level calculations.
      Compounds were represented by a group of conformers for each compound rather than
      a single conformation, known as fourth dimension to generate the model. ECMCs
      were compared within a certain range of tolerance values by using the EMRE
      program and the responsible pharmacophore group for ruthenium(II) arene complex
      derivatives was found. For selecting the sub-parameter which had the most effect
      on activity in the series and the calculation of theoretical activity values, the
      non-linear least square method and genetic algorithm which are included in the
      EMRE program were used. In addition, compounds were classified as the training
      and test set and the accuracy of the models was tested by cross-validation
      statistically. RESULTS: The model for training and test sets attained by the
      optimum 10 parameters gave highly satisfactory results with R2 training= 0.817, q
      2=0.718 and SEtraining=0.066, q2 ext1 = 0.867, q2 ext2 = 0.849, q2 ext3 =0.895,
      ccctr = 0.895, ccctest = 0.930 and cccall = 0.905. CONCLUSION: Since there is no
      4D-QSAR research on metal based organic complexes in the literature, this study
      is original and gives a powerful tool to the design of novel and selective
      ruthenium(II) arene complexes.

PMID- 28554316
TI  - Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methyl Butyrate (HMB): From Experimental Data to Clinical
      Evidence in Sarcopenia.
AB  - beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) is a metabolite derived from leucine and
      its ketoacid alpha- ketoisocaproate. Leucine has a role in regulating protein
      synthesis in muscle cells, and HMB seems to be a key active metabolite in such
      regulation. HMB has been shown to modulate muscle protein degradation by
      inhibiting the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway, to up-regulate protein
      synthesis via the mTOR pathway, and to stabilize cell membranes via the rate
      limiting enzyme to cholesterol synthesis HMG- coenzyme A reductase. It can also
      decrease cell apoptosis, therefore improving cell survival; and increase
      proliferation and differentiation of muscle stem cell, via the MAPK/ERK and
      PI3K/Akt pathways. HMB is widely used as an ergogenic supplement by athletes and
      bodybuilders, usually combined with exercise training, to increase muscle mass
      and strength. Some studies have explored the role of HMB in chronic diseases
      associated with muscle wasting (cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This review focuses on the role of HMB in
      the management of sarcopenia (age or disease-related loss of muscle mass and
      function) in older persons. A small number of studies have shown increases in
      lean (muscle) mass and some muscle function and physical performance parameters
      in older people with or without resistance exercise, and preservation of muscle
      mass during bed rest. However, heterogeneous methodological approaches preclude
      solid conclusions, and more studies are needed to confirm the role of HMB as a
      promising agent to treat sarcopenia.

PMID- 28554311
TI  - The Role of Sigma-1 Receptor, an Intracellular Chaperone in Neurodegenerative
      Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Widespread protein aggregation occurs in the living system under
      stress or during aging, owing to disturbance of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      proteostasis. Many neurodegenerative diseases may have a common mechanism: the
      failure of protein homeostasis. Perturbation of ER results in unfolded protein
      response (UPR). Prolonged chronical UPR may activate apoptotic pathways and cause
      cell death. METHODS: Research articles on Sigma-1 receptor were reviewed.
      RESULTS: ER is associated to mitochondria by the mitochondria-associated ER
      membrane, MAM. The sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R), a well-known ER-chaperone localizes
      in the MAM. It serves for Ca2+-signaling between the ER and mitochondria,
      involved in ion channel activities and especially important during neuronal
      differentiation. Sig-1R acts as central modulator in inter-organelle signaling.
      Sig-1R helps cell survival by attenuating ER-stress. According to sequence based
      predictions Sig-1R is a 223 amino acid protein with two transmembrane (2TM)
      domains. The X-ray structure of the Sig-1R [1] showed a membrane-bound trimeric
      assembly with one transmembrane (1TM) region. Despite the in vitro determined
      assembly, the results of in vivo studies are rather consistent with the 2TM
      structure. The receptor has unique and versatile pharmacological profile.
      Dimethyl tryptamine (DMT) and neuroactive steroids are endogenous ligands that
      activate Sig-1R. The receptor has a plethora of interacting client proteins. Sig
      1R exists in oligomeric structures (dimer-trimer-octamer-multimer) and this fact
      may explain interaction with diverse proteins. CONCLUSION: Sig-1R agonists have
      been used in the treatment of different neurodegenerative diseases, e.g.
      Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases (AD and PD) and amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis. Utilization of Sig-1R agents early in AD and similar other diseases
      has remained an overlooked therapeutic opportunity.

PMID- 28554317
TI  - Exposing "Bright" Metals: Promising Advances in Photoactivated Anticancer
      Transition Metal Complexes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an increasingly prominent field in
      anticancer research. PDT agents are typically nontoxic in the absence of light
      and can be stimulated with nonionising irradiation to "activate" their cytotoxic
      effect. Photosensitzers are not classified as chemotherapy drugs although it is
      advantageous to control the toxicity of a drug through localised irradiation
      allowing for selective treatment. Transition metals are an extremely versatile
      class of compounds with various unique properties such as oxidation state,
      coordination number, redox potential and molecular geometry that can be tailored
      for specific uses. This makes them excellent PDT candidates as their properties
      can be manipulated to absorb a specific range of light wavelengths, cross
      cellular membranes or target specific sites in vitro. This article reviews recent
      advances in transition metal PDT agents, with a focus on structural scaffolds
      from which several metal complexes in a series are synthesised, as well as their
      in vitro cytotoxicity in the presence or absence of irradiation. CONCLUSION: The
      success of clinical photoactive agents such as Photofrin(r) has inspired the
      development of thousands of potential PDT agents. Transition metal complexes in
      particular have demonstrated excellent versatility and diversity when it comes to
      PDT for treatment of invasive cancers. This review has highlighted some of the
      many recent advances of transition metal PDT agents with high in vitro and in
      vivo phototoxic activity. Photoactive transition metal complexes have proven
      their potential due to their inherent physicochemical variety, allowing them to
      fill a niche in the PDT world.

PMID- 28554318
TI  - Anti-Cancer Compounds Targeted to VDAC: Potential and Perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: VDAC (Voltage-Dependent Anion selective Channel) is a small family of
      abundant pore-forming proteins located in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Their
      role range from the most intuitive, the formation of a hydrophilic conduit
      through the membrane thanks to its beta-barrel structure, to less understood
      functions that make them essential actors in the cross-talk between the
      bioenergetics metabolism and the cytosol components. Due to this localization,
      VDAC1, in particular, has been reported to be involved in apoptosis, Hexokinase
      and tubulin binding, and in the Warburg effect. For these reasons, an involvement
      of VDAC in cancer is considered consequential and a number of compounds have been
      proposed and used in experimental trials to demonstrate the efficacy of molecules
      affecting the functions of VDAC. OBJECTIVES: In this work, we thus survey the
      literature describing drug compounds acting on the cancerous proliferation
      through VDAC. Three main categories have been assigned: molecules acting on the
      VDAC-Hexokinase binding, molecules directly inhibiting the VDAC conductance,
      molecules affecting the expression levels of the VDAC gene. The application of
      biological peptides for this purpose is also considered. CONCLUSION: Since the
      knowledges about the functional properties of VDAC protein are still
      insufficient, VDAC as a pharmacological target in the fight against cancer is
      still a very open, but very promising, field.

PMID- 28554319
TI  - Cyclometalated Complexes of Platinum and Gold with Biological Properties: State
      of-the-Art and Future Perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The inherent problems accompanying chemotherapy necessitate the
      development of new anticancer approaches. The development of compounds that can
      disrupt cancerous cellular machinery by novel mechanisms, via interactions with
      proteins and non-canonical DNA structures (e.g. G-quadruplexes), as well as by
      alteration of the intracellular redox balance, is nowadays focus of intense
      research. In this context, organometallic compounds of the noble metals Pt and Au
      have become prominent experimental therapeutic agents. This review provides an
      overview of the Pt(II) and Au(III) cyclometalated compounds with a chelating ring
      containing a strong C-M sigma -bond to improve the stability of the compounds
      with respect to ligand exchange reactions and biological reduction. Furthermore,
      these properties can be easily tuned by modification of either the anionic
      cyclometalated or the ancillary ligands. Special focus has been set to C^N,
      C^N^C, C^N^N and C^N^S platinum(II) and gold(III) pincer complexes regarding
      their synthesis and biological mechanisms of action as anticancer agents.
      METHODS: A structured search of both chemical and medicinal databases for
      peerreviewed research literature has been conducted. The quality of retrieved
      papers was appraised using standard tools. The synthesis as well as the chemical
      and biological properties of the described compounds were carefully reviewed and
      described. The findings were outlined using a conceptual framework. RESULTS: In
      this review we included 155 papers, the majority originating from high-impact
      papers on the synthesis and biological modes of platinum(II) and gold(III)
      compounds. Among them, 17 papers were highlighted to give an introduction to the
      use of Pt and Au compounds with medicinal properties, mainly focussing on
      coordination compounds. The synthesis and medicinal properties of organometallic
      compounds of various metals (such as Fe, Ru, Ti) were outlined in 51 papers.
      These compounds included metallocenes, metallo- arenes, metallo-carbonyls,
      metallo-carbenes (e.g. N-heterocyclic carbenes), and alkynyl complexes. The C^N,
      C^N^C, C^N^N and C^N^S pincer complexes of platinum( II) (46 papers) and
      gold(III) (44 papers) were discussed concerning their synthesis, stability and
      advantages to develop therapeutic compounds. We strove to show the consistent
      development of C^N, C^N^C, C^N^N and C^N^S platinum(II) and gold(III) pincer
      complexes regarding their synthesis and biological modes from the early
      beginnings to the most recent findings. CONCLUSION: This review supplies a
      profound overview of the development of organometallic compounds for medicinal
      purposes, setting special focus to the synthesis and stability of C^N, C^N^C,
      C^N^N and C^N^S pincer complexes of platinum(II) and gold(III) and their use as
      anticancer agents.

PMID- 28554320
TI  - Dietary Polyphenols and Mitochondrial Function: Role in Health and Disease.
AB  - Mitochondria are cytoplasmic double-membraned organelles that are involved in a
      myriad of key cellular regulatory processes. The loss of mitochondrial function
      is related to the pathogenesis of several human diseases. Over the last decades,
      an increasing number of studies have shown that dietary polyphenols can regulate
      mitochondrial redox status, and in some cases prevent or delay disease
      progression. This paper aims to review the role of four dietary polyphenols -
      resveratrol, curcumin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and quercetin - in
      molecular pathways regulated by mitochondria and their potential impact in human
      health. Cumulative evidence showed that the aforementioned polyphenols improve
      mitochondrial functions in different in vitro and in vivo experiments. The
      mechanisms underlying the polyphenols' beneficial effects include, among others,
      the attenuation of oxidative stress, the regulation of mitochondrial metabolism
      and biogenesis and the modulation of cell-death signaling cascades, among other
      mitochondrial-independent effects. The understanding of the chemical-biological
      interactions of dietary polyphenols, namely with mitochondria, may have a huge
      impact on the treatment of mitochondrial dysfunction-related disorders.

PMID- 28554321
TI  - Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors in Immune-mediated Diseases: Mode of Action,
      Clinical Applications, Current and Future Perspectives.
AB  - Phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 is a superfamily of enzymes that catalyze the
      hydrolysis of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP), an intracellular
      second messenger and regulator of a wide array of genes and proteins. Increased
      levels of intracellular cAMP lead to activation of genes but also to inhibition
      of nuclear factor-kappa B, involved in pro-inflammatory responses. By increasing
      cAMP levels, PDE4 inhibitors, such as apremilast, reduced production of pro
      inflammatory TNFalpha, IFNgamma, and IL-17 and increased production of anti
      inflammatory IL-10 in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells, and in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Among PDE4 inhibitors,
      apremilast, roflumilast, and crisabolore have been approved for the treatment of
      psoriasis and PsA, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and atopic dermatitis,
      respectively. In a preliminary study on psoriasis and PsA we showed that at 6
      months apremilast decreased IFNgamma+CD3+ Th1 cells and IL- 17+CD3+ Th17 cells
      and increased regulatory B cells and regulatory T cells. In this review, we
      highlight recent findings of PDE4 inhibitors in atopic dermatitis, alopecia
      areata, uveitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and PsA, systemic lupus
      erythematosus, vasculitis, systemic sclerosis, multiple sclerosis and
      inflammatory bowel disease. Given the role of cAMP as second messenger in diverse
      intracellular pathways, selective PDE4 inhibitors are likely to be therapeutic
      agents for various immune mediated diseases.

PMID- 28554322
TI  - Recent Advances in Antibody-Drug Conjugates for Breast Cancer Treatment.
AB  - Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with roughly half a million
      deaths per year worldwide. Among various approaches for breast cancer treatment,
      chemotherapy is predominantly used for patients at stages II-IV, and monoclonal
      antibody (mAb) therapy is used for patients with human epidermal growth factor
      receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression. Integrating the tumor specificity provided by
      unique mAbs and cytotoxicity of small molecule drugs, antibody-drug conjugates
      (ADCs) are a series of smart chemotherapeutics that have recently shown great
      promise in treating a number of cancer types. ADCs are designed to selectively
      attack and kill cancer cells with minimal toxicity to normal tissues. Ado
      Trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) was the first and only ADC approved by the US Food
      and Drug Administration for HER2-positive breast cancer. Following the success of
      T-DM1, many novel ADCs have been developed, and their anticancer efficacies are
      currently undergoing preclinical or clinical investigation. The development of
      ADCs is a rapidly progressing field, and this review aims to summarize the most
      recent advances in ADCs targeting breast cancer over the past five years (2011
      2016). The review highlights compositions and mechanisms of action of these newly
      developed ADCs and discusses current challenges and future directions of
      developing new ADCs for improved treatment of breast cancer.

PMID- 28554323
TI  - Microwave: An Important and Efficient Tool for the Synthesis of Biological Potent
      Organic Compounds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Green Chemistry is an interdisciplinary science or it can also be
      explained as a branch of chemistry. It is generally described as the chemistry to
      aim to synthesize chemical compounds to trim down the utilization of harmful
      chemicals proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Recently, the
      plan of academicians, researchers, industrialists is to generate greener and more
      efficient methodologies to carry out various organic syntheses. OBJECTIVE: In the
      present scenario, green chemistry utilizes the raw materials economically,
      minimizes the waste and prevents the uses of harmful or hazardous chemicals to
      make the organic reactions simple and efficient. CONCLUSION: Microwave technique
      is a new, simple and efficient technology which opens new prospects to the
      chemists to carry out various organic and inorganic reactions, which are
      difficult via conventional methodology. It is used to decrease the duration of
      time to carry various organic transformation along with maximum yield, minimum by
      products, minimum energy utilization, less manpower etc. e.g. various famous
      organic reactions have been carried out by various research groups like Aldol
      condensation, Knoevenagel condensation, Beckmann rearrangement, Vilsmeier
      reaction, Perkin reaction, Benzil-Benzilic acid rearrangement, Fischer
      cyclization, Mannich reaction, Claisen-Schmidt condensation, etc. Further,
      reduction, oxidation, coupling, condensation reaction were also performed using
      microwave technology.

PMID- 28554324
TI  - Multi-Target-Directed Ligands Affecting Serotonergic Neurotransmission for
      Alzheimer's Disease Therapy: Advances in Chemical and Biological Research.
AB  - Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder
      characterized by progressive cognitive impairments and chronic inflammation that
      affects over 30 million people all over the world. Most of the Alzheimer's
      patients also suffer from psychosis, aggression, agitation, depression, anxiety,
      and many other behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. Unfortunately,
      the currently available anti-AD drugs provide modest symptomatic relief, and they
      do not reverse the neurodegeneration. Therefore, the average life expectancy
      after diagnosis is between six and ten years. Research data suggest that multi
      target-directed ligands (MTDLs) give an opportunity to prevent, halt, or reverse
      the progression of AD, and reduce the symptoms of the disease. The aim of this
      review is to update the most recent reports on the development of MTDLs affecting
      serotonergic neurotransmission as potential drugs for both symptomatic and
      disease-modifying therapy of AD. Multifunctional modulators of serotonergic
      system exerted procognitive, antipsychotic, antidepressant, and/or anxiolytic
      properties in preclinical studies. Some of them revealed their potential as
      modulators of tau phosphorylation or amyloid beta aggregation with
      neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and/or antioxidant properties. Among them,
      lumateperone - an inhibitor of serotonin transporter with a high affinity for
      serotonergic and dopaminergic receptors is currently being tested in clinical
      trials in patients with dementia, bipolar depression, or schizophrenia. The high
      therapeutic potential of MTDLs as anti-AD drugs seems to be the result of their
      involvement in multiple neurotransmitter systems and intracellular signaling
      pathways.

PMID- 28554325
TI  - Mycosporine-like Amino Acids for Skin Photoprotection.
AB  - Excessive human exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) continues to be a
      major public health concern, with skin cancer rates increasing year on year. The
      major protective measure is the use of synthetic UVR filters formulated into
      sunscreens, but there is growing concern that these chemicals cause damage to
      delicate marine ecosystems. One alternative is the use of biocompatible
      mycosporine-like amino acids (MAA), which occur naturally and are found
      predominantly in a wide range of marine species. Their role within nature is
      mainly thought to be photoprotective. This is a consequence of their optical
      properties but there is increasing evidence that they are also antioxidants at a
      chemical level, as well by activation of endogenous cell antioxidant defence
      mechanisms. However, their potential for human photoprotection is largely
      understudied. This review explores the role of MAA in nature and considers the
      literature available on the use of MAA within human models for photoprotection.

PMID- 28554326
TI  - Update on Cardiovascular Effects of Older and Newer Anti-diabetic Medications.
AB  - It is known that Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the leading cause of morbidity
      and mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Over the last years, one of
      the most discussed topics is the CV safety of anti-diabetic medications.
      Regarding CV safety of older antidiabetic agents the data are less clear and
      conclusions about their CV safety are mostly based on randomized controlled
      trials designed to assess their glucose lowering efficacy. In this review, we
      summarize the current knowledge about the CV safety of older and newer
      antidiabetic medications. According to the published literature metformin is the
      first line agent for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and seems to have cardio
      protective effects. The choice of the second line agent when metformin
      monotherapy fails to achieve HbA1c targets is less clear. In the light of the
      findings of the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial and the recently published LEADER and
      SUSTAIN 6 trials, empagliflozin, liraglutide and semaglutide seem reasonable
      options as second line agents for patients with CV disease. Sulfonylureas on the
      other hand, with the exception of gliclazide, should be avoided in those
      patients, although CV safety trials are still lacking. In individuals without CV
      disease any of the other classes of anti-diabetic medication can be selected on a
      patient-centered approach. Saxagliptin, alogliptin, sitagliptin and lixisenatide
      have been evaluated in CV safety trials and have neutral effects on CV outcomes,
      while pioglitazone may have some CV benefits. Saxagliptin and alogliptin,
      however, should be avoided in patients with heart failure, while pioglitazone is
      contraindicated in this population.

PMID- 28554327
TI  - VDAC-Targeted Drugs Affecting Cytoprotection and Mitochondrial Physiology in
      Cerebrovascular and Cardiovascular Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases are caused by impairment
      of the brain and/or heart circulation. Insufficient blood flow results in
      decreased oxygen delivery (ischemia), which affects mitochondrial functioning and
      consequently leads to insufficient ATP production. The predominant mitochondrial
      outer membrane protein, the voltage dependent anion selective channel (VDAC), is
      considered to be crucial for mitochondrial functioning. In human mitochondria, as
      in other vertebrates, three isoforms of VDAC (VDAC1-VDAC3) are present, and they
      likely play different roles. OBJECTIVE: In this review, we summarize the
      available data concerning VDAC involvement in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
      diseases with regard to VDAC isoforms and discuss the use of possible VDAC
      related intervention targets as well as known VDAC-interacting and cytoprotection
      conferring molecules in the treatment of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular
      diseases. METHOD AND RESULTS: The suitable references on disorders defined as
      cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases as well as VDAC contribution to these
      conditions were searched using PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. The
      review is based on the 138 carefully selected articles. CONCLUSION: Mitochondrial
      dysfunction triggered by changes in VDAC properties undoubtedly contributes to
      cell death and related diseases, including cerebrovascular and cardiovascular
      diseases. Thus, beside diagnostic application, modulation of VDAC activity,
      including its isoforms, is thus of great importance for the development of
      efficient therapeutic interventions. Moreover, identification of VDAC-interacting
      molecules that protect against mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death seems to
      be of great importance.

PMID- 28554328
TI  - The Role Of Diet In The Pathogenesis Of Cholesterol Gallstones.
AB  - Cholesterol gallstone disease is a major health problem in Westernized countries
      and depends on a complex interplay between genetic factors, lifestyle and diet,
      acting on specific pathogenic mechanisms. Overweigh, obesity, dyslipidemia,
      insulin resistance and altered cholesterol homeostasis have been linked to
      increased gallstone occurrence, and several studies point to a number of specific
      nutrients as risk- or protective factors with respect to gallstone formation in
      humans, motivating a rising interest in the identification of common and
      modifiable dietetic factors that put the patients at risk of gallstones or that
      are able to prevent gallstone formation and growth. In particular, dietary models
      characterized by increased energy intake with highly refined sugars and sweet
      foods, high fructose intake, low fiber contents, high fat, consumption of fast
      food and low vitamin C intake increase the risk of gallstone formation. On the
      other hand, high intake of monounsaturated fats and fiber, olive oil and fish
      (omega-3 fatty acids) consumption, vegetable protein intake, fruit, coffee,
      moderate alcohol consumption and vitamin C supplementation exert a protective
      role. The effect of some confounding factors (e.g., physical activity) cannot be
      ruled out, but general recommendations about the multiple beneficial effects of
      diet on cholesterol gallstones must be kept in mind, in particular in groups at
      high risk of gallstone formation.

PMID- 28554329
TI  - Back to the Bench? MEK and ERK Inhibitors for the Treatment of KRAS Mutant Lung
      Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung cancer accounts for one in five cancer deaths worldwide and
      mutations in the gene encoding for the Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS) oncoprotein
      define the largest molecular subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These
      tumors are characterized by activated MAPK signaling, however, no targeted
      inhibitors of mutant KRAS or of downstream signaling molecules have yet been
      approved for routine clinical use. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this
      review is to critically summarize the current developmental state of MEK and ERK
      inhibitors in pre-clinical models and in human clinical trials for KRAS mutant
      lung cancer particularly in light of the newly emerging concept of immune
      checkpoint blockade. METHOD: We performed a Pubmed-based literature search and
      considered publications from the fields of basic and translational biomedicinal
      and biochemistry research, as well as from past and ongoing human clinical trials
      (www.clinicaltrials.gov). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: MAPK pathway targeting agents
      are efficacious in pre-clinical models but their benefit is limited for patients
      with KRAS mutant NSCLC due to the lack of predictive factors, toxicity and the
      adaptive dynamic kinome reprogramming within the tumor. Overall, MEK inhibitors
      have advanced further in clinical development compared to ERK inhibitors. New
      treatment strategies as e.g. immune checkpoint blockade are currently
      revolutionizing the treatment paradigms and future clinical trials need to show
      if they replace MAPK targeting strategies or are used as add-on.

PMID- 28554330
TI  - Rho-associated protein kinase 2 (ROCK2): a new target of autoimmunity in
      paraneoplastic encephalitis.
AB  - Onconeural antibodies are associated with cancer and paraneoplastic encephalitis.
      While their pathogenic role is still largely unknown, their high diagnostic value
      is undisputed. In this study we describe the discovery of a novel target of
      autoimmunity in an index case of paraneoplastic encephalitis associated with
      urogenital cancer.A 75-year-old man with a history of invasive bladder carcinoma
      6 years ago with multiple recurrences and a newly discovered renal cell carcinoma
      presented with seizures and progressive cognitive decline followed by super
      refractory status epilepticus. Clinical and ancillary findings including brain
      biopsy suggested paraneoplastic encephalitis. Immunohistochemistry of the brain
      biopsy was used to characterize the inflammatory response. Indirect
      immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was used for autoantibody screening. The
      autoantigen was identified by histo-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry and
      was validated by expressing the recombinant antigen in HEK293 cells and
      neutralization tests. Sera from 125 control patients were screened using IFA to
      test for the novel autoantibodies.IFA analysis of serum revealed a novel
      autoantibody against brain tissue. An intracellular enzyme, Rho-associated
      protein kinase 2 (ROCK2), was identified as target-antigen. ROCK2 was expressed
      in affected brain tissue and archival bladder tumor samples of this patient.
      Brain histopathology revealed appositions of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells on ROCK2
      positive neurons. ROCK2 antibodies were not found in the sera of 20 patients with
      bladder cancer and 17 with renal cancer, both without neurological symptoms, 49
      healthy controls, and 39 patients with other antineuronal autoantibodies. In
      conclusion, novel onconeural antibodies targeting ROCK2 are associated with
      paraneoplastic encephalitis and should be screened for when paraneoplastic
      neurological syndromes, especially in patients with urogenital cancers, occur.

PMID- 28554333
TI  - HEADROOM BEYOND THE QUALITY- ADJUSTED LIFE-YEAR: THE CASE OF COMPLEX PEDIATRIC
      NEUROLOGY.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The headroom method was introduced for the very early evaluation of
      the potential value of new technologies. It allows for establishing a ceiling
      price for technologies to still be cost-effective by combining the maximum effect
      a technology might yield, the maximum willingness-to-pay (WTP) for this effect,
      and potential downstream expenses and savings. Although the headroom method is
      QALY-based, not all innovations are expected to result in QALY gain. METHODS:
      This study explores the feasibility and usefulness of the headroom method in the
      evaluation of technologies that are unlikely to result in QALY gain. This will be
      illustrated with the diagnostic trajectory of complex pediatric neurology (CPN).
      RESULTS: Our headroom analysis showed a large room for improvement in the current
      diagnostic trajectory of CPN in terms of diagnostic yield. Combining this with a
      maximum WTP value for an additional diagnosis and the potential downstream
      expenses and savings, resulted in a total headroom of ?15,028. This indicates
      that a new technology in this particular diagnostic trajectory, might be cost
      effective as long as its costs do not exceed ?15,028. CONCLUSIONS: The headroom
      method seems a useful tool in the very early evaluation of medical technologies,
      also in cases when immediate QALY gain is unlikely. It allows for allocating
      healthcare resources to those technologies that are most promising. It should be
      kept in mind, however, that the headroom assumes an optimistic scenario, and for
      that reason cannot guarantee future cost-effectiveness. It might be most useful
      for ruling out those technologies that are unlikely to be cost-effective.

PMID- 28554334
TI  - He said, she said: effects of bilingualism on cross-talker word recognition in
      infancy.
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to examine effects of bilingual language
      input on infant word segmentation and on talker generalization. In the present
      study, monolingually and bilingually exposed infants were compared on their
      abilities to recognize familiarized words in speech and to maintain generalizable
      representations of familiarized words. Words were first presented in the context
      of sentences to infants and then presented to infants in isolation during a test
      phase. During test, words were produced by a talker of the same gender and by a
      talker of the opposite gender. Results demonstrated that both bilingual and
      monolingual infants were able to recognize familiarized words to a comparable
      degree. Moreover, both bilingual and monolingual infants recognized words in
      spite of talker variation. Results demonstrated robust word recognition and
      talker generalization in monolingual and bilingual infants at 8 months of age.

PMID- 28554331
TI  - Outcome of acute respiratory distress syndrome in university and non-university
      hospitals in Germany.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigates differences in treatment and outcome of
      ventilated patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) between
      university and non-university hospitals in Germany. METHODS: This subanalysis of
      a prospective, observational cohort study was performed to identify independent
      risk factors for mortality by examining: baseline factors, ventilator settings
      (e.g., driving pressure), complications, and care settings-for example, case
      volume of ventilated patients, size/type of intensive care unit (ICU), and type
      of hospital (university/non-university hospital). To control for potentially
      confounding factors at ARDS onset and to verify differences in mortality, ARDS
      patients in university vs non-university hospitals were compared using additional
      multivariable analysis. RESULTS: Of the 7540 patients admitted to 95 ICUs from 18
      university and 62 non-university hospitals in May 2004, 1028 received mechanical
      ventilation and 198 developed ARDS. Although the characteristics of ARDS patients
      were very similar, hospital mortality was considerably lower in university
      compared with non-university hospitals (39.3% vs 57.5%; p = 0.012). Treatment in
      non-university hospitals was independently associated with increased mortality
      (OR (95% CI): 2.89 (1.31-6.38); p = 0.008). This was confirmed by additional
      independent comparisons between the two patient groups when controlling for
      confounding factors at ARDS onset. Higher driving pressures (OR 1.10; 1 cmH2O
      increments) were also independently associated with higher mortality. Compared
      with non-university hospitals, higher positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP)
      (mean +/- SD: 11.7 +/- 4.7 vs 9.7 +/- 3.7 cmH2O; p = 0.005) and lower driving
      pressures (15.1 +/- 4.4 vs 17.0 +/- 5.0 cmH2O; p = 0.02) were applied during
      therapeutic ventilation in university hospitals, and ventilation lasted twice as
      long (median (IQR): 16 (9-29) vs 8 (3-16) days; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Mortality risk of ARDS patients was considerably higher in non-university
      compared with university hospitals. Differences in ventilatory care between
      hospitals might explain this finding and may at least partially imply
      regionalization of care and the export of ventilatory strategies to non
      university hospitals.

PMID- 28554332
TI  - Genomic diagnosis for children with intellectual disability and/or developmental
      delay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Developmental disabilities have diverse genetic causes that must be
      identified to facilitate precise diagnoses. We describe genomic data from 371
      affected individuals, 309 of which were sequenced as proband-parent trios.
      METHODS: Whole-exome sequences (WES) were generated for 365 individuals (127
      affected) and whole-genome sequences (WGS) were generated for 612 individuals
      (244 affected). RESULTS: Pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants were found in
      100 individuals (27%), with variants of uncertain significance in an additional
      42 (11.3%). We found that a family history of neurological disease, especially
      the presence of an affected first-degree relative, reduces the pathogenic/likely
      pathogenic variant identification rate, reflecting both the disease relevance and
      ease of interpretation of de novo variants. We also found that improvements to
      genetic knowledge facilitated interpretation changes in many cases. Through
      systematic reanalyses, we have thus far reclassified 15 variants, with 11.3% of
      families who initially were found to harbor a VUS and 4.7% of families with a
      negative result eventually found to harbor a pathogenic or likely pathogenic
      variant. To further such progress, the data described here are being shared
      through ClinVar, GeneMatcher, and dbGaP. CONCLUSIONS: Our data strongly support
      the value of large-scale sequencing, especially WGS within proband-parent trios,
      as both an effective first-choice diagnostic tool and means to advance clinical
      and research progress related to pediatric neurological disease.

PMID- 28554335
TI  - Processed and ultra-processed foods are associated with lower-quality nutrient
      profiles in children from Colombia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if processed and ultra-processed foods consumed by
      children in Colombia are associated with lower-quality nutrition profiles than
      less processed foods. DESIGN: We obtained information on sociodemographic and
      anthropometric variables and dietary information through dietary records and 24 h
      recalls from a convenience sample of the Bogota School Children Cohort. Foods
      were classified into three categories: (i) unprocessed and minimally processed
      foods, (ii) processed culinary ingredients and (iii) processed and ultra
      processed foods. We also examined the combination of unprocessed foods and
      processed culinary ingredients. SETTING: Representative sample of children from
      low- to middle-income families in Bogota, Colombia. SUBJECTS: Children aged 5-12
      years in 2011 Bogota School Children Cohort. RESULTS: We found that processed and
      ultra-processed foods are of lower dietary quality in general. Nutrients that
      were lower in processed and ultra-processed foods following adjustment for total
      energy intake included: n-3 PUFA, vitamins A, B12, C and E, Ca and Zn. Nutrients
      that were higher in energy-adjusted processed and ultra-processed foods compared
      with unprocessed foods included: Na, sugar and trans-fatty acids, although we
      also found that some healthy nutrients, including folate and Fe, were higher in
      processed and ultra-processed foods compared with unprocessed and minimally
      processed foods. CONCLUSIONS: Processed and ultra-processed foods generally have
      unhealthy nutrition profiles. Our findings suggest the categorization of foods
      based on processing characteristics is promising for understanding the influence
      of food processing on children's dietary quality. More studies accounting for the
      type and degree of food processing are needed.

PMID- 28554336
TI  - Assessing immune competence in pigs by immunization with tetanus toxoid.
AB  - Immune competence can be tested by challenging organisms with a set of infectious
      agents. However, disease control requirements impose restrictions on the
      infliction of infections upon domestic pigs. Alternatively, vaccinations induce
      detectable immune responses that reflect immune competence. Here, we tested this
      approach with tetanus toxoid (TT) in young domestic pigs. To optimize the
      vaccination protocol, we immunized the pigs with a commercial TT vaccine at the
      age of 21 or 35 days. Booster immunizations were performed either 14 or 21 days
      later. TT-specific antibodies in plasma as well as lymphoproliferative responses
      were determined both 7 and 14 days after booster immunization using ELISA and
      lymphocyte transformation tests, respectively. In addition, general IgG and IgM
      plasma concentrations and mitogen-induced proliferation were measured. The
      highest TT-specific antibody responses were detected when blood samples were
      collected 1 week after a booster immunization conducted 21 days after primary
      immunization. The pigs' age at primary immunization did not have a significant
      influence on TT-specific antibody responses. Similarly, the TT-specific
      proliferative responses were highest when blood samples were collected 1 week
      after booster immunization, while age and time of primary and booster
      immunization were irrelevant in our setup. While general IgG and IgM plasma
      levels were highly age dependent, there were no significant age effects for TT
      specific immune responses. In addition, mitogen-induced proliferation was
      independent of immunization as well as blood sampling protocols. In summary, our
      model of TT vaccination provides an interesting approach for the assessment of
      immune competence in young pigs. The detected vaccination effects were not biased
      by age, even though our data were acquired from immune systems that were under
      development during our tests.

PMID- 28554337
TI  - ASSESSING VALUE, BUDGET IMPACT, AND AFFORDABILITY IN ASIA.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore definitions of value and the use
      of budget impact and affordability considerations in health technology assessment
      (HTA) in the Asia region, particularly in relation to high cost technologies.
      METHODS: Issues were debated by senior representatives from HTA and payer systems
      in Asian countries, delegates from industry, and invited experts at the 2016
      meeting of the HTAi Asia Policy Forum (HAPF). A premeeting survey was used to
      gather data on how value is assessed and budget impact calculations are used
      within current processes, as well as current approaches to managing
      affordability. RESULTS: All systems consider health benefit to be the key
      component of value. There is little consensus around "wider" elements of value
      that should be included. All systems use budget impact in decision making,
      although meeting attendees noted the challenges in making accurate estimates. The
      most common strategies used to address affordability concerns to date have been:
      restricting coverage, for example, to patients who are likely to get the highest
      value; discounts; and revenue caps. It was noted that these "solutions" may have
      unintended consequences of creating inequitable access to therapies and failing
      to provide adequate rewards for innovation. CONCLUSIONS: Decision makers, HTA
      agencies, and industry need to continue to work together to find mutually
      agreeable solutions to ensure that patients continue to get equitable access to
      effective therapies at costs that can be afforded throughout the Asia region.

PMID- 28554338
TI  - The development of an intraruminal nylon bag technique using non-fistulated
      animals to assess the rumen degradability of dietary plant materials.
AB  - Although the conventional in situ ruminal degradability method is a relevant tool
      to describe the nutritional value of ruminant feeds, its need for rumen
      fistulated animals may impose a restriction on its use when considering animal
      welfare issues and cost. The aim of the present work was to develop a ruminal
      degradability technique which avoids using surgically prepared animals. The
      concept was to orally dose a series of porous bags containing the test feeds at
      different times before slaughter, when the bags would be removed from the rumen
      for degradation measurement. Bags, smaller than those used in the conventional
      nylon bag technique, were made from woven nylon fabric, following two shape
      designs (rectangular flat shape, tetrahedral shape) and were fitted with one of
      three types of device for preventing their regurgitation. These bags were used in
      two experiments with individually housed non-pregnant, non-lactating sheep, as
      host animals for the in situ ruminal incubation of forage substrates. The bags
      were closed at the top edge by machine stitching and wrapped in tissue paper
      before oral dosing. Standard times for ruminal incubation of substrates in all of
      the tests were 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h before slaughter. The purpose of the
      first experiment was to compare the effectiveness of the three anti-regurgitation
      device designs, constructed from nylon cable ties ('Z-shaped', ARD1; 'double Z
      shaped', ARD2; 'umbrella-shaped', ARD3), and to observe whether viable
      degradation curves could be generated using grass hay as the substrate. In the
      second experiment, three other substrates (perennial ryegrass, red clover and
      barley straw) were compared using flat and tetrahedral bags fitted with type ARD1
      anti-regurgitation devices. Non-linear mixed-effect regression models were used
      to fit asymptotic exponential curves of the percentage dry matter loss of the
      four substrates against time of incubation in the reticulorumen, and the effect
      of type of anti-regurgitation device and the shape of nylon bag. All three
      devices were highly successful at preventing regurgitation with 93% to 100% of
      dosed bags being recovered in the reticulorumen at slaughter. Ruminal degradation
      data obtained for tested forages were in accordance with those expected from the
      conventional degradability technique using fistulated animals, with no
      significant differences in the asymptotic values of degradation curves between
      bag shape or anti-regurgitation device. The results of this research demonstrate
      the potential for using a small bag technique with intact sheep to characterise
      the in situ ruminal degradability of roughages.

PMID- 28554339
TI  - Intersectoral action for health: preventing psittacosis spread after one reported
      case.
AB  - Zoonotic diseases are a significant health threat for humans and animals. To
      better understand the epidemiology, etiology, and pathology of infectious agents
      affecting humans and animals combined approaches are needed. Here we describe an
      epidemiological investigation conducted by physicians and veterinarians after a
      reported case of psittacosis. Upon admission suffering from respiratory distress
      syndrome in a hospital and with a history of bird contact, a female patient was
      serologically diagnosed with psittacosis. After the case notification,
      veterinarians were able to investigate the source of infection by detecting
      Chlamydia psittaci in her pet cockatiel. The bird was hospitalized and
      successfully treated. In addition, the establishment where the pet bird was
      purchased was traced and through molecular techniques other birds intended to be
      sold as pets tested positive for C. psittaci. As a result, sanitary measures were
      applied and the establishment then was closed down. The birds intended for the
      pet commerce were treated and retested with negative molecular results for C.
      psittaci, thus avoiding disease propagation. Reliable data about zoonotic
      diseases can only be generated through the application of multidisciplinary
      approaches which take into account the epidemiological factors and interactions
      of humans, animals and their environments as an integrated system.

PMID- 28554340
TI  - Cardiac MRI T1 mapping in unrepaired anomalous left coronary artery from the
      pulmonary artery.
AB  - A 29-year-old gravida1 para1 woman presented with increasing fatigue. Multi
      modality imaging demonstrated the left coronary artery arising from the main
      pulmonary artery with large collateral vessels in the interventricular septum, in
      keeping with unrepaired anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.
      Cardiac MRI T1 mapping demonstrated globally elevated non-contrast T1 and
      extracellular volume fraction values, which suggested the presence of diffuse
      interstitial myocardial fibrosis. Cardiac MRI T1 mapping allows for a new
      dimension of myocardial characterisation, providing insight into subtle, diffuse
      abnormalities at the tissue level.

PMID- 28554341
TI  - Crowd Simulations and Determining the Critical Density Point of Emergency
      Situations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In modern societies, crowds and mass gatherings are recurrent. A
      combination of inadequate facilities and inefficient population management can
      lead to injury and death. Simulating people's behavior in crowds and mass
      gatherings can assist in the planning and management of gatherings, especially in
      emergency situations. METHODS: We aimed to determine the crowd pattern and the
      critical density point in the grand bazaar of Kerman in Iran. We collected data
      by use of a census method with a questionnaire. To determine the critical density
      point, height and weight data were placed in the equation $?,s?,{?equals}?,?sqrt
      {{{L{?vskip -1.5pt ?,?,?asterisk?,?,}M} ?over {3600}}} $ and the outer body
      surface of all the individuals in the bazaar was calculated. The crowd was
      simulated by use of flow-based modeling. Flow rate was determined by using the
      equation (flow rate=density * speed). By use of SketchUp Pro software (version 8;
      Trimble, Sunnyvale, CA), the movement of each person and the general flow rate
      were simulated in the three-dimensional environment of Kerman bazaar. RESULTS:
      Our findings showed that the population critical density point in Kerman bazaar
      would be 6112 people. In an accident, the critical density point in Kerman bazaar
      would be created in about 1 minute 10 seconds after the event. CONCLUSION: It
      seems necessary to identify and provide solutions for reducing the risk of
      disasters caused by overcrowding in Kerman bazaar. It is suggested that
      researchers conduct studies to design safe and secure emergency evacuation of
      Kerman bazaar as well as proper planning for better and faster access of aid
      squads to this location. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:674
      680).

PMID- 28554342
TI  - ASSESSING PATIENT'S PERCEPTION OF ORAL TELECONSULTATION.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The evaluation of telemedicine from the patient's point of view has
      focused on the patient pathway and patient satisfaction. However, research in
      this field does not provide us with the means to assess a patient's perception of
      the procedure if their reasoning ability is impaired. In this study, we use
      direct observation of a patient's behavior and mood to assess their perception of
      an oral teleconsultation procedure. METHODS: This study has been conducted in the
      context of a pilot project using an asynchronous teleconsultation to improve
      access to dental care for the dependent elderly, disabled people, and prisoners,
      some of whom may be cognitively impaired. We use a direct observation form
      consisting of five behavioral variables and eight affect variables to reflect the
      patient's experience of the oral teleconsultation procedure. RESULTS: A total of
      135 patients were evaluated; 10 refused the procedure. Psychotic patients (n =
      33) had a somewhat negative experience during the oral teleconsultation
      procedure. Patients who were not psychotic had a positive experience; this
      decreased as we moved from the autonomous to the semi-autonomous and then to the
      dependent sub-group. Some gender differences were also noted. CONCLUSIONS:
      Improving evidence on evaluating the acceptance of the cognitively impaired is
      required to improve the technology development process so that it can be
      translated into an improved patient experience and adherence. Although the study
      was specifically focused on teledentistry, the approach described in this study
      could be adapted to other forms of teleconsultation.

PMID- 28554343
TI  - Quantifying respiratory sinus arrhythmia: Effects of misspecifying breathing
      frequencies across development.
AB  - Low resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and to a lesser extent excessive
      RSA reactivity to emotion evocation, are observed in many psychiatric disorders
      characterized by emotion dysregulation, including syndromes spanning the
      internalizing and externalizing spectra, and other conditions such as nonsuicidal
      self-injury. Nevertheless, some inconsistencies exist. For example, null outcomes
      in studies of RSA-emotion dysregulation relations are sometimes observed among
      younger participants. Such findings may derive from use of age inappropriate
      frequency bands in calculating RSA. We combine data from five published samples
      (N = 559) spanning ages 4 to 17 years, and reanalyze RSA data using age
      appropriate respiratory frequencies. Misspecifying respiratory frequencies
      results in overestimates of resting RSA and underestimates of RSA reactivity,
      particularly among young children. Underestimates of developmental shifts in RSA
      and RSA reactivity from preschool to adolescence were also observed. Although
      correlational analyses revealed weak negative associations between resting RSA
      and aggression, those with clinical levels of externalizing exhibited lower
      resting RSA than their peers. No associations between RSA reactivity and
      externalizing were observed. Results confirm that age-corrected frequency bands
      should be used when estimating RSA, and that literature-wide overestimates of
      resting RSA, underestimates of RSA reactivity, and underestimates of
      developmental shifts in RSA and RSA reactivity may exist.

PMID- 28554344
TI  - Overview of Nanoparticle Coating of Dental Implants for Enhanced Osseointegration
      and Antimicrobial Purposes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Nanomaterials are suitable candidates for coating of titanium based (Ti
      based) dental implants due to their unique properties. The objective of this
      article is to summarize the application of nanoparticles as Ti-based implant
      coating materials in order to control and improve the implant success rate with
      focus on enhanced osseointegration and antimicrobial purposes. METHOD: This
      review was conducted using electronic databases and MeSH keywords to detect
      associated scientific literature published in English. RESULTS: The reviewed
      articles exhibited that a significant progress in research has occurred in the
      case of nanomaterial-based coatings for dental implants. Coating of Ti surfaces
      with nanoparticles can improve soft tissue integration and osteogeneration that
      leads to improved fixation of implants. Furthermore, osteoconductive
      nanoparticles induce a chemical bond with bone to attain good biological fixation
      for implants. Surface modification of implants using antibacterial properties can
      also decrease the potential for infection, and certainly, present improve
      clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the reported success, more clinically
      and in vivo information on the nanoparticle-based implant coatings will add to
      the successful application of the device in the clinic. This article is open to
      POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by
      clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.

PMID- 28554345
TI  - Quantitative Structure - Pharmacokinetic Relationships for Plasma Clearance of
      Basic Drugs with Consideration of the Major Elimination Pathway.
AB  - PURPOSE: The success of a new drug candidate is determined not only by its
      efficacy and safety, but also by proper pharmacokinetic behavior. The early
      prediction of pharmacokinetic parameters could save time and resources and
      accelerate drug development process. Plasma clearance (CL) is one of the key
      determinants of drug dosing regimen. The aim of the study is development of
      quantitative structure - pharmacokinetics relationships (QSPkRs) for the CL.
      METHODS: A dataset consisted of 263 basic drugs, which chemical structures were
      described by 154 descriptors.  Genetic algorithm, stepwise regression and
      multiple linear regression were used for variable selection and model
      development. Predictive ability of the models was assessed by internal and
      external validation.  Results. A number of significant QSPkR models for the CL
      were derived with respect to the primary elimination pathway (renal excretion,
      metabolism, or CYP3A4 mediated biotransformation), as well for the unbound
      clearance (CLu). The models were able to predict 52 - 80% of the drugs from
      external validation sets within the 2-fold error of the experimental values with
      geometric mean fold error 1.57 - 2.00. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma protein binding was
      the major restrictive factor for the CL of drugs, primarily cleared by
      metabolism.  The clearance was favored by lipophilicity and several structural
      features like OH-groups, aromatic rings, large hydrophobic centers, aliphatic
      groups, connected with electro-negative atoms, and non-substituted aromatic C
      atoms. The presence of Cl-atoms and abundance of 6-member aromatic rings or fused
      rings had negative effect.  The presence of ether O-atoms contributed negatively
      to the CL of both metabolism and renally excreted drugs, and urine excretion was
      favored by the presence of 3-valence N-atoms. These findings give insight on the
      main structural features governing plasma CL of basic drugs and could serve as a
      guide for lead optimization in the drug development process. This article is open
      to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by
      clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.

PMID- 28554346
TI  - Clay and Polymer-Based Composites Applied to Drug Release: A Scientific and
      Technological Prospection.
AB  - There has been a growing trend in recent years for the development of hybrid
      materials, called composites, based on clay and polymers, whose innovative
      properties render them attractive for drug release. The objective of this
      manuscript was to conduct a review of original articles on this topic published
      over the last decade and of the body of patents related to these carriers. A
      scientific prospection was carried out spanning the period from 2005 to 2015 on
      the Web of Science database. The technological prospection encompassed the United
      States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, the World
      International Patent Office and the National Institute of Industrial Property
      databases, filtering patents with the code A61K. The survey revealed a rise in
      the number of publications over the past decade, confirming the potential of
      these hybrids for use in pharmaceutical technology. Through interaction between
      polymer and clay, the mechanical and thermal properties of composites are
      enhanced, promoting stable, controlled drugs release in biological media. The
      most cited clays analyzed in the articles was montmorillonite, owing to its high
      surface area and capacity for ion exchange. The polymeric part is commonly
      obtained by copolymerization, particularly using acrylate derivatives. The hybrid
      materials are obtained mainly in particulate form on a nanometric scale,
      attaining a modified release profile often sensitive to stimuli in the media. A
      low number of patents related to the topic were found. The World International
      Patent Office had the highest number of lodged patents, while Japan was the
      country which published the most patents. A need to broaden the application of
      this technology to include more therapeutic classes was identified. Moreover, the
      absence of regulation of nanomaterials might explain the disparity between
      scientific and technological output. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION
      REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on
      ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.

PMID- 28554347
TI  - Embrace Action: Protect the Future of Nursing.

PMID- 28554349
TI  - 2017 Conference Highlights.

PMID- 28554348
TI  - Succession Planning: A Perioperative Imperative.

PMID- 28554350
TI  - 2017 Conference Awards.

PMID- 28554351
TI  - 2017 Conference Poster Winners.

PMID- 28554352
TI  - 2017 Conference Poster Collection.

PMID- 28554353
TI  - Enhanced Time Out: An Improved Communication Process.
AB  - An enhanced time out is an improved communication process initiated to prevent
      such surgical errors as wrong-site, wrong-procedure, or wrong-patient surgery.
      The enhanced time out at my facility mandates participation from all members of
      the surgical team and requires designated members to respond to specified time
      out elements on the surgical safety checklist. The enhanced time out incorporated
      at my facility expands upon the safety measures from the World Health
      Organization's surgical safety checklist and ensures that all personnel involved
      in a surgical intervention perform a final check of relevant information.
      Initiating the enhanced time out at my facility was intended to improve
      communication and teamwork among surgical team members and provide a highly
      reliable safety process to prevent wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient
      surgery.

PMID- 28554354
TI  - Association Between Acute Pain and Hemodynamic Parameters in a Postoperative
      Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - I conducted a prospective repeated-measure study in the general surgery intensive
      care unit to investigate the associations among acute postoperative pain,
      analgesic therapy, and hemodynamic parameters. I selected 33 patients and
      recorded 84 episodes of pain. I measured intensity of pain and hemodynamic
      parameters after patients were transferred from the postanesthesia care unit to
      the general surgery intensive care unit, immediately before analgesic therapy and
      at 15, 30, and 45 minutes after analgesic therapy. Acute pain increased systolic
      (SBP), diastolic (DBP), and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP); pulse rate (PR);
      and arterial oxygen saturation. Fifteen minutes after analgesic therapy, SBP and
      PR decreased, and DBP, MAP, and oxygen saturation increased. Thirty minutes after
      therapy, SBP, MAP, and PR decreased, and DBP and oxygen saturation increased.
      Forty-five minutes after therapy, SBP, MAP, and PR decreased, and DBP and oxygen
      saturation increased. I saw no significant hemodynamic parameter changes during
      postoperative episodes of pain.

PMID- 28554355
TI  - Implementing Skin-to-Skin Contact for Cesarean Birth.
AB  - Early skin-to-skin (STS) contact in the OR facilitates the development of
      mothering behaviors, breastfeeding success, and newborn adaptation to
      extrauterine life. A team at my institution performed a quality improvement
      project to implement a standard of care for STS contact in the OR during and
      after cesarean birth. Thirty-seven of 50 mother-infant dyads experienced STS
      contact in the OR or in the postanesthesia care unit. Twenty-five mothers and
      newborns who experienced STS contact did so on the OR bed. The median time
      newborns spent engaged in STS contact with their mothers was 42 minutes and 30
      seconds. Developing and using a standard of care to implement this evidence-based
      practice facilitated acceptance of this intervention. Obstacles that staff
      members encountered included maternal or neonatal instability, equipment
      problems, and nurse staffing issues. Staff members addressed these obstacles
      through creative problem-solving.

PMID- 28554356
TI  - Radioactive Seed Localization Program for Patients With Nonpalpable Breast
      Lesions.
AB  - Without early diagnosis and treatment, many lives are lost to breast cancer.
      Increased breast cancer awareness has facilitated research to guide health care
      providers toward improving patient outcomes. Research in diagnostic and treatment
      modalities has expanded to focus on improving the quality of life for patients
      with breast cancer who are living longer than expected. Providers can offer
      patients with nonpalpable breast lesions new screening techniques and improved
      treatment options, including radioactive seed localization lumpectomy. This
      treatment offers patients the potential for decreased tumor re-excision for
      positive margins near the surgical site, a lower volume of excised breast tissue,
      decreased operative time, convenient surgical scheduling, and less pain.
      Additionally, radioactive seed localization lumpectomy can improve patient and
      staff member satisfaction.

PMID- 28554357
TI  - Accuracy of Children's Perioperative Memories.
AB  - Children's declarative memories of medical procedures can influence their
      responses to subsequent events. No previous study has examined the accuracy of
      children's declarative memories after surgery. We tested the memory of 34
      anesthesia-naive five- to nine-year-old children undergoing ambulatory surgery
      for accuracy of contextual details, pain, and fear two weeks postoperatively.
      Parents were not present during induction, and we did not use sedative
      premedication. Children had a mean contextual recall accuracy of 64.5%. Most
      children (60.6%) remembered a prompt that was given one minute after receiving
      nitrous oxide. Children's memories of pain and fear were similar to their
      reported pain and fear on the day of surgery. Of 29 children, 6 (20.7%)
      exaggerated their memory of fear, and 8 of 22 children (36.4%) exaggerated their
      memory of pain. Although a small proportion of children had exaggerated memories,
      there was no evidence of consistent bias in their memory of fear or pain.

PMID- 28554358
TI  - Understanding and Improving Surgical Hand Hygiene Compliance.

PMID- 28554359
TI  - Clinical Issues-June 2017.
AB  - Defining a small amount of surgical smoke Key words: surgical smoke, medical
      surgical vacuum system, suction tubing. Assessment of hazardous medications Key
      words: hazardous medications, safety data sheets, OSHA hazard communication.
      Documentation of electrosurgical devices Key words: electrosurgical device.
      Developing an explant policy Key words: explant, guideline, implant, policy.

PMID- 28554360
TI  - Evidence appraisal of Seidi J, Ebnerasooli S, Shahsawari S, Nzarian S. The
      influence of oral ginger before operation on nausea and vomiting after cataract
      surgery under general anesthesia: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized
      clinical trial.: Electron Physician. 2017;9(1):3508-3514.

PMID- 28554361
TI  - Guideline at a Glance: Moderate Sedation/Analgesia.

PMID- 28554362
TI  - Amphotericin Toxicity.

PMID- 28554364
TI  - Associations of treatment effects between follow-up times and between outcome
      domains in interventions for somatoform disorders: Review of three Cochrane
      reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interventions for somatoform disorders typically address a range of
      outcomes. We aimed to examine treatment effects across outcome domains and
      specifically assess the association, at study level, between short and long term
      treatment effects and between treatment effects in different outcome domains.
      METHODS: We used data from recent systematic reviews of interventions for
      somatoform disorders to address three questions: We described outcome domains and
      measures by compiling forest plots of standardised mean difference. We examined
      the association of changes in outcome between short and long-term and between
      different outcome domains by non-parametric correlation. RESULTS: We analysed
      data from 47 studies across four outcome domains: physical symptoms, health
      related quality of life, depression and anxiety. Short-term and long-term
      treatment effects within each outcome domain were broadly similar and were
      correlated Reported reduction in physical symptoms was correlated with reductions
      in depression (rho=0.73, p=0.002) and anxiety (0.70, p<0.001) and increase in
      quality of life (0.54, p=0.03). CONCLUSION: Short term changes in outcome
      measures are correlated with longer term changes; outcome changes are correlated
      across domains independently of the type of treatment.

PMID- 28554363
TI  - Social support from the closest person and sleep quality in later life: Evidence
      from a British birth cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Supportive social relationships have been found to be related to
      fewer sleep problems and better sleep quality. We examined associations between
      positive and negative support from the nominated close person across 15years of
      follow-up with sleep quality in older age. METHODS: MRC National Survey of Health
      and Development study members reported sleep quality at age 68 (n=2446).
      Cumulative exposure to and changes in positive and negative support were derived
      from data at age 53, 60-64 and 68years. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores
      were regressed on social support measures adjusted for i) gender only then
      additionally ii) education, marital status, number in household, limiting
      illness, body mass index, caregiving, iii) and affective symptoms. RESULTS:
      Greater exposure to positive support and lower exposure to negative support over
      15years were independently associated with better sleep quality at age 68. Sleep
      quality was poorer for those who experienced declining positive support or
      increasing negative support. Those who nominated their spouse/partner as their
      closest person at age 53 but not at age 68 had poorer sleep quality than those
      who nominated their spouse on both occasions. These associations were not
      explained by the covariates, including affective symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Based on
      repeat data on support from the closest person, this study finds a link between
      declining social relationship quality and poor sleep quality. Whilst
      acknowledging that the association may be bi-directional, the study suggests that
      interventions to improve older people's social relationships may have benefits
      for sleep.

PMID- 28554365
TI  - Preliminary evidence for increased parasympathetic activity during social
      inclusion and exclusion in adolescents with functional abdominal pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Peer victimization (e.g. social exclusion) has been shown to be
      associated with physical health problems such as functional somatic complaints
      and especially symptoms of pain. To date, no study has investigated the
      mechanisms underlying this association in clinical pediatric samples. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the parasympathetic activity during a social exclusion
      experience in adolescents with functional abdominal pain (FAP). METHODS: Twenty
      adolecents with FAP and 21 matched healthy participants were compared regarding
      parameters of parasympathetic activation before, during, and after participating
      in the Cyberball-game, a well-established paradigm to induce social exclusion.
      RESULTS: Adolescents with FAP showed an increase in parasympathetic activation
      during both consecutive phases of the Cyberball game (inclusion as well as
      exclusion condition) whereas the healthy control group remained stable. There
      were no differences in subjective experience of in- and exclusion between the
      groups. CONCLUSION: The parasympathetic activation pattern may indicate altered
      processing of social stimuli in adolescents with FAP.

PMID- 28554366
TI  - Is psychotherapy for functional somatic syndromes harmful? A mixed methods study
      on negative effects.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Concern for negative effects of psychotherapy for functional
      somatic syndromes (FSS) has been expressed by clinicians and some patient
      associations, which may prevent patients from seeking treatment. Therefore, we
      sought to explore the occurrence and characteristics of negative effects from
      group-based psychotherapy as experienced by patients with severe or multiple FSS.
      METHODS: An adapted version of the explanatory sequential mixed methods design
      was applied. We used data from an on-going pilot study on Acceptance and
      Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Negative effects were
      measured by Inventory for the assessment of Negative Effects of Psychotherapy
      (INEP). In addition, telephone interviews were conducted with randomly chosen
      patients and patients who reported negative effects. The latter were asked to
      elaborate on their INEP response. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively
      while interview transcripts were explored by thematic analysis. RESULTS: Eighty
      patients responded to the questionnaire (89%). Negative effects to different
      extent (from 'slightly agree' to 'fully agree') were reported by 25 (31%). The
      most frequent negative effects were dependence on the therapist (12%), feeling
      down after therapy (6%) and insurance problems (7%). By exploring 27
      participants' experiences of negative effects 3 main themes were identified:
      relations in therapy, outcome and transition from therapy to everyday life.
      CONCLUSION: Patients with FSS reported a few specific negative effects, all with
      low frequency. Generally, therapy was well-received. Some patients did however
      express negative effects both within and outside the therapeutic context. It is
      important to inform patients about potential negative effects prior to
      psychotherapy.

PMID- 28554367
TI  - A systematic review of paruresis: Clinical implications and future directions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Paruresis refers to the inability to initiate or sustain urination
      where individuals are present due to the fear of perceived scrutiny from others.
      The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate four key questions: (1) What is
      the prevalence of paruresis and its associated demographic features; (2) What is
      the prevalence of psychopathology in paruresis cohorts, how does it compare to
      other chronic-health conditions, and what percentage of paruresis patients also
      have social anxiety disorder? (3) How does quality of life, and levels of anxiety
      and depression compare between those with and without paruresis; and (4) do
      psychological interventions for paruresis patients reduce paruresis symptoms, or,
      anxiety, or depression, or improve quality of life? METHOD: A review was
      conducted using PRISMA protocol for search strategy, selection criteria, and data
      extraction. Searched databases included PubMed, CINAHL, and PsychINFO. Over the
      1418 studies screened, ten were found relating to at least one review question.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of paruresis ranged between 2.8 and 16.4%, and around 5.1
      22.2% of individuals with paruresis also had Social Anxiety Disorder. Paruresis
      symptoms were shown to reduce in one intervention study. Paruresis was also
      associated with poorer quality of life. A key limitation of the research to date
      has been the notable methodological problems and lack of standardisation relating
      to the measurement of paruresis. CONCLUSION: Little is known about the prevalence
      of paruresis and more rigorous studies of paruresis are required. Recommendations
      in terms of clinical implications, diagnostic criteria and future research
      relating to paruresis are discussed.

PMID- 28554368
TI  - Mental disorders in patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) is a debilitating pain condition
      with prevalence rates between 2.0% and 26.6%. Studies indicate that CPPS is often
      associated with psychosocial factors, but little is known about the presence of
      full-blown mental disorders in female and male patients with CPPS. Therefore, the
      aim of this study was to investigate the frequencies of mental disorders in
      patients with CPPS. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were collected from patients
      visiting a specialized outpatient clinic. Frequencies of mental disorders were
      investigated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders
      (SCID-I) and compared to the general population. Furthermore, self-rating
      questionnaires were used to assess somatic symptom severity (PHQ-15), depression
      severity (PHQ-9) and anxiety severity (GAD-7). RESULTS: Data from 178 CPPS
      patients (60.1% female; age M=49.1, SD=18.0) were analyzed. Of the total sample,
      95.2% (95% CI 90.8-97.9) suffered from at least one mental disorder. The most
      prevalent mental disorders were somatoform disorders (91.7%; 95% CI 86.4-95.4),
      followed by mood disorders (50.6%; 95% CI 42.8-58.4) and anxiety disorders
      (32.1%; 95% CI 25.2-39.8). The self-reported symptom burden was also
      significantly higher than in the general population. Compared to men, women met
      the diagnoses of somatoform (p=0.012) and anxiety disorders (p=0.027)
      significantly more often and reported a significantly higher total somatic
      symptom severity (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results provide evidence for a
      clinically relevant psychosocial symptom burden in patients with CPPS, indicating
      the need for the examination of psychopathologies and multi-professional
      treatment for this patient group.

PMID- 28554369
TI  - Effects and mediators of psychosocial work characteristics on somatic symptoms
      six years later: Prospective findings from the Mannheim Industrial Cohort Studies
      (MICS).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Ample evidence documented the adverse health effects of work
      stressors, and recent research has increasingly focused on somatic symptoms which
      are very common and costly. Prospective evidence is however sparse and yielded
      mixed findings. Furthermore, there is reason to assume that depression and
      anxiety might mediate the effects of adverse psychosocial work conditions on
      somatic symptoms. This study aimed to investigate longitudinal effects of work
      stressors on somatic symptoms and the potential mediation by anxiety and/or
      depression. METHODS: Six year follow-up data from 352 individuals - free of
      potentially stress-related chronic disease - were utilized. Somatic symptoms were
      assessed by 19 items of an established list of complaints at baseline and follow
      up. The effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) model measured adverse psychosocial work
      conditions and over-commitment (OC). Linear regressions adjusted for socio
      demographics, social status, lifestyle, and baseline symptoms estimated the
      effects of the ERI ratio, effort, reward, OC, and the ERI ratio*OC interaction on
      somatic symptoms six years later. Furthermore, single and multiple mediation by
      anxiety and/or depression was investigated. RESULTS: There was a strong
      longitudinal effect of the ERI ratio, as well as of its subcomponents, and OC on
      somatic symptoms (all Bs>=|0.49|; p-values <=0.004). Moreover, the ERI ratio*OC
      interaction was significant (p-value=0.047). Multiple mediation analyses revealed
      especially anxiety to mediate the effect of work stressors on somatic symptoms
      (Sobel test=0.007). CONCLUSION: Adverse psychosocial work conditions seem to
      longitudinally affect somatic symptoms, potentially moderated by OC, and mediated
      by anxiety.

PMID- 28554370
TI  - Measurement invariance across Genders on the Childhood Illness Attitude Scales
      (CIAS).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Childhood Illness Attitude Scales (CIAS) were created as a
      developmentally appropriate measure for symptoms of health anxiety (HA) in school
      aged children. Despite overall sound psychometric properties reported in previous
      studies, more comprehensive examination of the latent structure and potential
      response bias in the CIAS is needed. The purpose of the present study was to
      cross-validate the latent structure of the CIAS across genders and to examine
      gender-specific variations in CIAS scores. METHODS: The sample comprised data
      from 602 Canadian and Danish school-aged children (Mage=10.54, SD=0.99; 52.5%
      girls). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test 3-, modified 3-, and
      4-factor models in both samples. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was
      performed to test factor structure invariance across boys and girls in a combined
      sample. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) was assessed using test
      characteristic curves. RESULTS: A modified 3-factor solution (i.e., fears=11
      items, help-seeking=6 items, and symptom effects=4 items) provided the best fit
      to the data (chi2 (364, N=602)=681.7, p<0.001; chi2/df=1.803; RMSEA=0.037;
      CFI=0.926). The factor structure was stable, well-fitting, and indicated
      measurement invariance across groups. DIF analyses revealed no gender-based
      response bias at the scale level. CONCLUSION: Results support a revised 3-factor
      version of the CIAS that can be used with confidence to assess symptoms of HA in
      school-aged boys and girls.

PMID- 28554371
TI  - The assessment of fatigue: Psychometric qualities and norms for the Checklist
      individual strength.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Checklist Individual Strength (CIS) measures four dimensions of
      fatigue: Fatigue severity, concentration problems, reduced motivation and
      activity. On the fatigue severity subscale, a cut-off score of 35 is used. This
      study 1) investigated the psychometric qualities of the CIS; 2) validated the cut
      off score for severe fatigue and 3) provided norms. METHODS: Representatives of
      the Dutch general population (n=2288) completed the CIS. The factor structure was
      investigated using an exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency and test
      retest reliability were determined. Concurrent validity was assessed in two
      additional samples by correlating the CIS with other fatigue scales (Chalder
      Fatigue Questionnaire, MOS Short form-36 Vitality subscale, EORTC QLQ-C30 fatigue
      subscale). To validate the fatigue severity cut-off score, a Receiver Operating
      Characteristics analysis was performed with patients referred to a chronic
      fatigue treatment centre (n=5243) and a healthy group (n=1906). Norm scores for
      CIS subscales were calculated for the general population, patients with chronic
      fatigue syndrome (CFS; n=1407) and eight groups with other medical conditions
      (n=1411). RESULTS: The original four-factor structure of the CIS was replicated.
      Internal consistency (alpha=0.84-0.95) and test-retest reliability (r=0.74-0.86)
      of the subscales were high. Correlations with other fatigue scales were moderate
      to high. The 35 points cut-off score for severe fatigue is appropriate, but,
      given the 17% false positive rate, should be adjusted to 40 for research in CFS.
      CONCLUSION: The CIS is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of fatigue,
      with a validated cut-off score for severe fatigue that can be used in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28554372
TI  - Differentiating progress in a clinical group of fibromyalgia patients during and
      following a multicomponent treatment program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Treatments including multiple nonpharmacological components have
      beneficial effects on the key symptoms of fibromyalgia, although effects are
      limited and often do not persist. In this study, we examined different patterns
      of clinical progress and the dynamic interplay between predictors and outcomes
      over time. METHODS: Fibromyalgia patients (N=153; 135 women) followed a
      multidisciplinary group program spanning 12weeks, aimed at "regaining control
      over daily functioning". Anxiety, depression, pain coping and kinesiophobia were
      used as predictor variables. Outcome variables were pain severity, pain-related
      disability, physical functioning and functional interference. All variables were
      assessed at 3 moments: on the first and last day of treatment, and 12weeks after
      the last day of treatment. Overall treatment effects were analyzed using mixed
      model analyses. Latent class growth analysis identifying different treatment
      trajectory classes was used to investigate individual differences in treatment
      effects. Finally, cross-lagged structural equation models were used to
      investigate the dynamic interplay between predictors and outcomes over time.
      RESULTS: Only a fourth to a third of the total group showed improvement on the
      outcome variables. These patients had lower baseline anxiety, depression and
      kinesiophobia, and improved more on anxiety, depression and kinesiophobia.
      Physical well-being had a stronger effect on anxiety and depression than vice
      versa. Physical functioning predicted relative changes in kinesiophobia, while
      kinesiophobia predicted relative changes in pain-related disability. CONCLUSION:
      The results emphasize the importance of tailoring treatments to individual needs
      in order to improve overall effectiveness of treatment programs.

PMID- 28554373
TI  - The relationship between cancer patient's fear of recurrence and chemotherapy: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to provide an overview of the current evidence
      available on the link between chemotherapy (CTX) and fear of cancer recurrence
      (FoR). METHODS: PubMED, Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases
      were searched to identify relevant studies. Two authors independently selected
      and assessed the studies regarding eligibility criteria. Meta-analysis of
      suitable studies was conducted, and quality rated. RESULTS: Forty eligible
      studies were included in the systematic review and twenty-nine of them were
      included in further meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of the available data confirmed
      a weak relationship between CTX and FoR (29 studies, 30,176 patients, overall
      r=0.093, 95% CI: 0.062, 0.123, P?0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis
      demonstrates a weak but significant relationship between cancer patient's FoR and
      the receipt of chemotherapy. However, these results should be interpreted with
      caution. Further investigation is warranted to explore possible mechanisms of FoR
      increase in patients who receive chemotherapy. Longitudinal studies assessing the
      trajectory of FoR during chemotherapy are also warranted.

PMID- 28554374
TI  - Conditioned pain modulation among young, healthy, and physically active African
      American and non-Hispanic White adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Research shows that African American (AA) adults experience more
      severe and frequent pain compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) adults.
      Additionally, experimental studies demonstrate that AA adults exhibit less
      efficient central pain inhibition compared to NHW adults, which may partially
      explain the racial/ethnic disparities in pain. Evidence suggests that regular
      physical activity (PA) may help improve central pain inhibition, but research
      shows that AA adults engage in less PA, and are less likely to meet PA guidelines
      for health promotion compared to NHW adults. These observations suggest that PA
      levels may help better understand the racial/ethnic difference in central pain
      inhibition. Therefore, this study compared central pain inhibition and PA levels
      among AA and NHW adults. METHODS: Young and healthy participants were recruited
      on campus, and 27 AA and 27 NHW adults completed this study. Central pain
      inhibitory processing was assessed using conditioned pain modulation (CPM), where
      changes in electrical pain ratings were quantified during and after exposure to
      pressure pain compared to baseline. PA levels were assessed using self-report
      questionnaires and accelerometer. RESULTS: The participants were generally
      physically active, and most participants in both groups met the public
      recommendation of PA for health promotion. Electrical pain ratings were
      significantly reduced during and after exposure to pressure pain compared to
      baseline. There was no racial/ethnic difference in a magnitude of changes in
      electrical pain ratings. CONCLUSION: Young, healthy, and physically active AA and
      NHW adults exhibit similar CPM responses. Regular PA may help attenuate the
      racial/ethnic difference in CPM responses.

PMID- 28554375
TI  - Home-based COPD psychoeducation: A qualitative study of the patients'
      experiences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the patients' experiences of a minimal home-based
      psychoeducative intervention aimed at reducing symptoms of anxiety. BACKGROUND:
      In a randomised controlled trial (RCT) we have shown that a minimal home-based
      and nurse-led psychoeducative intervention has a significant effect in reducing
      symptoms of anxiety and increasing mastery of dyspnoea in patients with advanced
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, we do not know if the
      intervention is perceived as meaningful and applicable in the everyday life of
      patients with advanced COPD. METHODS: We conducted a nested post-trial
      qualitative study. The study methodology was Interpretive Description as
      described by Thorne. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with
      twenty patients from the RCT intervention group i.g. home-living people with a
      diagnosis of advanced COPD and symptoms of anxiety. RESULTS: The patients
      described that making anxiety visible makes it manageable and provides relief.
      The patients described a feeling of being alone with managing anxiety and
      dyspnea, and the only way to gain in control of their cognitions was to mobilise
      internal resources. The intervention was appreciated by patients because it
      strengthened their internal resources. Further, it was perceived as a relief that
      the intervention insisted on talking about anxiety and thereby invited patients
      to verbalise worries related to end-of-life. CONCLUSION: This study offers
      knowledge to better understand the patients' experiences of a psychoeducative
      intervention. The intervention was perceived as comprehensible and applicable in
      the patients' everyday life and contributed to the patients' ability to self
      manage their condition.

PMID- 28554376
TI  - Exploring smoking, mental health and smoking-related disease in a nationally
      representative sample of older adults in Ireland - A retrospective secondary
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death among individuals
      with mental health difficulties (MHD). The aim of the current study was to
      determine the impact of smoking on the physical health of older adults with MHD
      in Ireland and to explore the extent to which smoking mediated or moderated
      associations between MHD and smoking-related diseases. METHODS: Cross-sectional
      analysis of a nationally representative sample of 8175 community-dwelling adults
      aged 50 and over from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was
      undertaken. Multivariate adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess
      the association between MHD, smoking (current/past/never) and smoking-related
      diseases (respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, smoking-related cancers).
      A number of variables were employed to identify individuals with MHD, including
      prescribed medication, self-reported diagnoses and self-report scales. RESULTS:
      MHD was associated with current (RRRs ranging from 1.84 [1.50 to 2.26] to 4.31
      [2.47 to 7.53]) and former (RRRs ranging from 1.26 [1.05 to 1.52] to 1.99 [1.19
      to 3.33]) smoking and also associated with the presence of smoking-related
      disease (ORs ranging from 1.24 [1.01 to 1.51] to 1.62 [1.00 to 2.62]). Smoking
      did not mediate and rarely moderated associations between MHD and smoking-related
      disease. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults in Ireland with MHD are more likely to smoke
      than those without such difficulties. They also experience higher rates of
      smoking-related disease, although smoking had no mediating and no consistent
      moderating role in these analyses. Findings underscore the need for attention to
      the physical health of those with MHD including support in smoking cessation.

PMID- 28554377
TI  - Pharmacological treatment options for low Bone Mineral Density and secondary
      osteoporosis in Anorexia Nervosa: A systematic review of the literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although there are several evidence-based treatments available to
      increase Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and reduce fracture risk in aging men and
      women, there are still uncertainties regarding which treatments are efficacious
      in reducing lifetime fracture risk in women with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). METHODS:
      Medline, PsychInfo, Embase and the Cochrane Database were searched for English
      Language Studies. Inclusion criteria were studies of females of any age with AN
      who received pharmacological treatment with the primary aim to increase BMD or
      reduce fracture risk. Data were extracted from each study regarding
      pharmacological treatment and dosage used, BMD and bone formation marker
      outcomes; and participant characteristics including age, Body Mass Index (BMI),
      duration of AN, and duration of amenorrhea. RESULTS: 675 studies were reviewed,
      of which 19 fit the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review,
      investigating a total of 1119 participants; 10 of the 19 included studies were
      double-blind RCTs. The remaining studies consisted of prospective observational
      studies, a retrospective cohort study, a case-control study and five non
      randomised control trials. Bisphosphonates were effective in increasing BMD in
      adult women with AN, while estrogen administered transdermally resulted in
      significant increases in BMD in mature adolescents with AN. Administration of
      oral contraceptives (OC) did not significantly increase BMD in randomised or
      controlled trials, however, lifetime OC use was associated with higher spinal
      BMD. CONCLUSION: Future research should clarify the safety of long-term
      bisphosphonate use in adult women with AN, and verify that transdermal estrogen
      replacement increases BMD in women with AN.

PMID- 28554378
TI  - High healthcare utilization near the onset of medically unexplained symptoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with medically unexplained syndromes (MUS) often do not
      receive appropriate healthcare. A critical time for effective healthcare is the
      inception of MUS. The current study examined data from a prospective longitudinal
      study of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) soldiers to
      understand the relationship of increasing physical symptom burden to healthcare
      utilization. METHODS: Data was examined from a prospective study of OEF/OIF
      soldiers assessed before and one year after deployment (n=336). Physical symptom
      burden was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15). Analyses were
      conducted with polynomial regression and response surface analysis (RSA).
      RESULTS: Increases in physical symptom burden predicted greater healthcare
      utilization one year after deployment: primary care practitioner (slope=-0.26,
      F=4.07, p=0.04), specialist (slope=-0.43, F=8.67, p=0.003), allied health therapy
      (e.g., physical therapy) (slope=-0.41, F=5.71, p=0.02) and mental health (slope=
      0.32, F=4.04, p=0.05). There were no significant difference in utilization
      between those with consistently high levels and those with increases in physical
      symptom burden. CONCLUSION: This is the first prospective study to examine, and
      show, a relationship between onset of clinically significant physical symptoms
      and greater healthcare utilization. Our data suggest that patients with
      increasing physical symptom burden have the same level of healthcare as patients
      with chronic physical symptom burden. Needed next steps are to better understand
      the quality of care at inception and determine how to intervene so that
      recommended approaches to care are provided from the onset.

PMID- 28554379
TI  - Time dependence of enzyme synergism during the degradation of model and natural
      lignocellulosic substrates.
AB  - Cellulosic ethanol production relies on the biochemical (enzymatic) conversion of
      lignocellulose to fermentable sugars and ultimately to bioethanol. However, the
      cost of lignocellulolytic enzymes is a limiting factor in the commercialisation
      of this technology. This therefore necessitates the optimisation of
      lignocellulolytic enzyme cocktails through the elucidation of synergistic
      interactions between enzymes so as to improve lignocellulose hydrolysis and also
      lower protein loadings in these reactions. However, many factors affect the
      synergism that occurs between these lignocellulolytic enzymes, such as enzyme
      ratios, substrate characteristics, substrate loadings, enzyme loadings and time.
      This review examines the effect of time on the synergistic dynamics between
      lignocellulolytic enzymes during the hydrolysis of both complex (true)
      lignocellulosic substrates and model substrates. The effect of sequential and
      simultaneous application of the lignocellulolytic enzymes on the synergistic
      dynamics during the hydrolysis of these substrates is also explored in this
      review. Finally, approaches are further proposed for efficient and synergistic
      hydrolysis of both complex lignocellulosic substrates and model substrates. With
      respect to the synergistic enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, this
      review exposed knowledge gaps that should be covered in future work in order to
      fully understand how enzyme synergism works: e.g. elucidating protein to protein
      interactions that exist between these enzymes in establishing synergy; and the
      effect of lignocellulose degradation products of one enzyme on the behaviour of
      the other enzyme and ultimately their synergistic relationship.

PMID- 28554380
TI  - Overexpression of hlyB and mdh genes confers halotolerance in Fremyella
      diplosiphon, a freshwater cyanobacterium.
AB  - Fremyella diplosiphon is a freshwater cyanobacterium that has great potential as
      a biofuel agent due to its ability to grow in low light intensity and acclimation
      to different wavelengths. To enhance its halotolerance for growth in 35gL-1
      sodium chloride (NaCl), plasmids harboring hemolysin B (hlyB) and malate
      dehydrogenase (mdh) genes were transformed into wild type F. diplosiphon (WT
      Fd33). Electroporation-mediated overexpression of the genes resulted in two
      transformants, HSF33-1 and HSF33-2, with 9- and 20-fold increases in hlyB and mdh
      transcript levels. In addition, up-regulation of proteins at the expected size
      ranges of 50-60kDa for HlyB and 40-50kDa for MDH was observed. Two-dimensional
      polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight/time-of-flight mass spectrometry revealed a
      protein spot corresponding to HlyB in HSF33-1 with a significant MOWSE score of
      164 and 3% sequence coverage, and a spot corresponding to MDH in HSF33-2 gave a
      significant MOWSE score of 124 with 10% sequence coverage. Physiological
      evaluation in BG11/HEPES medium and seawater adjusted to 35gL-1 NaCl confirmed
      that the transformants could thrive in high salinity with no loss of
      photosynthetic pigments. Results of the study indicate that overexpression of
      hlyB and mdh genes confer halotolerance in F. diplosiphon, thus maximizing its
      potential as a large-scale biofuel agent.

PMID- 28554381
TI  - Effects of high hydrostatic pressure or hydrophobic modification on thermal
      stability of xanthine oxidase.
AB  - The effect of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on the kinetics of thermal
      inactivation of xanthine oxidase (XOx) from bovine milk was studied. Inactivation
      of XOx followed pseudo-first-order kinetics at 0.1-300MPa and 55.0-70.0 degrees
      C. High pressure up to at least 300MPa stabilized XOx at all the studied
      temperatures. The highest stabilization effect of HHP on XOx was at 200-300MPa at
      55.0 and 58.6 degrees C, and at 250-300MPa at 62.3-70.0 degrees C. The stability
      of XOx increased 9.5 times at 300MPa and 70.0 degrees C compared to atmospheric
      pressure at the same temperature. The activation energy of inactivation of XOx
      decreased with pressure and was 1.9 times less at 300MPa (97.0+/-8.2kJmol-1) than
      at 0.1MPa (181.7+/-12.1kJmol-1). High pressure decreased the dependence of the
      rate constant of inactivation to temperature effects compared to atmospheric
      pressure. The stabilizing effect of HHP on XOx was highest at 70.0 degrees C
      where the activation volume of inactivation of XOx was 28.9+/-2.9cm3mol-1. A
      second approach to try to increase XOx stability involved hydrophobic
      modification using aniline or benzoate. However, the thermal stability of XOx
      remained unaffected after 8-14 modifications of carboxyl side groups per XOx
      monomer with aniline, or 12-17 modifications of amino side groups per XOx monomer
      with benzoate.

PMID- 28554382
TI  - A novel alpha-galactosidase from Fusarium oxysporum and its application in
      determining the structure of the gum arabic side chain.
AB  - We previously reported that Fusarium oxysporum 12S produces two bifunctional
      proteins, FoAP1 and FoAP2, with alpha-d-galactopyranosidase (GPase) and beta-l
      arabinopyranosidase (APase) activities. The aim of this paper was to purify a
      third GPase, FoGP1, from culture supernatant of F. oxysporum 12S, to characterize
      it, and to determine its mode of action towards gum arabic. A cDNA encoding FoGP1
      was cloned and the protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Module sequence
      analysis revealed the presence of a GH27 domain in FoGP1. The recombinant enzyme
      (rFoGP1) showed a GPase/APase activity ratio of 330, which was quite different
      from that of FoAP1 (1.7) and FoAP2 (0.2). Among the natural substrates tested,
      rFoGP1 showed the highest activity towards gum arabic. In contrast to other well
      characterized GPases, rFoGP1 released a small amount of galactose from alpha
      galactosyl oligosaccharides such as raffinose and exhibited no activity toward
      galactomannans, which are highly substituted with alpha-galactosyl side chains.
      This indicated that FoGP1 is an unusual type of GPase. rFoGP1 released 30% of the
      total galactose from gum arabic, suggesting the existence of a large number of
      alpha-galactosyl residues at the non-reducing ends of gum arabic side chains.
      Together, rFoGP1 and alpha-l-arabinofuranosidase released four times more
      arabinose than alpha-l-arabinofuranosidase acting alone. This suggested that a
      large number of alpha-l-arabinofuranosyl residues is capped by alpha-galactosyl
      residues. 1H NMR experiments revealed that rFoGP1 hydrolyzed the alpha-1,3
      galactosidic linkage within the side chain structure of [alpha-d-Galp-(1->3)
      alpha-l-Araf-(1->] in gum arabic. In conclusion, rFoGP1 is highly active toward
      alpha-1,3-galactosyl linkages but negligibly or not active toward alpha-1,6
      galactosyl linkages. The novel FoGP1 might be used to modify the physical
      properties of gum arabic, which is an industrially important polysaccharide used
      as an emulsion stabilizer and coating agent.

PMID- 28554383
TI  - High-level expression of a bacterial laccase, CueO from Escherichia coli K12 in
      Pichia pastoris GS115 and its application on the decolorization of synthetic
      dyes.
AB  - Laccases are oxidoreductase catalyze the oxidation of a wide range of substrates
      with oxygen as the electron acceptor. This report was aimed to the high-level
      expression of a laccase, CueO from Escherichia coli K12 in Pichia pastoris GS115
      and its application on decolorization of synthetic dyes. The yacK gene coding
      CueO was cloned into an expression vector of Pichia pastoris, pHBM905BDM and
      expressed in a secretory form with Pichia pastoris GS115 as the host. The yield
      of the recombinant protein was 556mg/L with high-density fermentation and the
      enzyme activity was about 41,000U/L. The recombinant laccase was purified and
      characterized. Its optimum pH and temperature was 3.0 and 55 degrees C with 2, 2'
      azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) as the substrate,
      respectively. This recombinant protein was thermostable and its half life at 70
      degrees C was about 60min. In the presence of natural redox mediator
      acetosyringone, the purified recombinant laccase decolorized 98.1% and 98.5% of
      Congo red, malachite green, respectively. It also decolorized 90.03% of Remazol
      brilliant blue R without this mediator. In addition, this enzyme was applied on
      the decolorization of wastewater from a textile printing factory and showed an
      obvious bleaching effect.

PMID- 28554384
TI  - Synthesis of fibrous and non-fibrous mesoporous silica magnetic yolk-shell
      microspheres as recyclable supports for immobilization of Candida rugosa lipase.
AB  - The mesoporous yolk-shell nanoparticles (MYSNs), with a movable Fe3O4 core inside
      the hollow capsules, with two different morphologies (1)
      Fe3O4@SiO2@hollow@fibrous SiO2 (Yolk Shell-1) (2)
      Fe3O4@SiO2@hollow@mesoporousSiO2 (Yolk Shell-2) were fabricated as carriers for
      Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) immobilization, through a template-assistant
      selectively etching method. Firstly the hydrophilic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were
      synthesized according to the solvothermal method. Then, SiO2 shell was coated on
      the Fe3O4 nanoparticle surface by a sol-gel reaction. Subsequently, the
      resorcinol farmaldehyde (RF) shell was covered on the surface of as-prepared
      Fe3O4@SiO2 composites and sandwiched Fe3O4@SiO2@RF composites were formed, which
      were finally provided with mesoporous fibrous (KCC) in the Yolk Shell-1 and
      mesoporous Silica in the Yolk Shell-2(Non fibrous). After selectively etching
      CTAB and the middle RF layer, the two kinds of yolk/shells composites were
      obtained. By utilization of their large and open mesopores (20-50nm) with good
      surface area (457.78-625.54m2/g,) CRL was immobilized after amino
      functionalization using glutaraldehyde as a linker. The ICRL on Y.S-1, Y.S-2
      showed good loading (797-501mg/g) and enzyme activity of (1503-837U/g)
      respectively. Thermal stability, resistance to pH, recycling and storage capacity
      were improved as compare to free lipase.

PMID- 28554385
TI  - Co-overexpression of Mgat1 and Mgat4 in CHO cells for production of highly
      sialylated albumin-erythropoietin.
AB  - Terminal sialic acids on N-glycan of recombinant human erythropoietin are very
      important for in vivo half-life, as this glycoprotein has three N-glycosylation
      sites. N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases I, II, IV, and V (i.e. Mgat1, Mgat2,
      Mgat4, and Mgat5) catalyze the formation of a glycan antennary structure. These
      enzymes display different reaction kinetics for a common substrate and generally
      show low expression in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Therefore, genetic
      control of Mgat expression is an effective method to increase sialic acid
      contents by enhancing glycan antennarity. To produce highly sialylated albumin
      erythropoietin (Alb-EPO), we co-overexpressed the Mgat1 and Mgat4 genes in CHO
      cells and determined the optimal ratio of Mgat1:Mgat4 gene expression. All
      transfected cell lines showed increased gene expression of Mgat4, including Mgat1
      overexpressing cell line. Sialic acid content of Alb-EPO was highest in co
      transfected cells with excess Mgat4 gene, and these cells showed a higher tri-
      and tetra-antennary structure than control cells. Based on these results, we
      suggest that co-transfection of the Mgat1 and Mgat4 genes at a ratio of 2:8 is
      optimal for extension of antennary structures. Also, regulation of Mgat gene
      expression in the glycan biosynthesis pathway can be a novel approach to increase
      the terminal sialic acids of N-glycans.

PMID- 28554387
TI  - [Editors' corner: Anales de Pediatria annual report].

PMID- 28554388
TI  - Erratum to: "Ventral and Dorsal Striatum Networks in Obesity: Link to Food
      Craving and Weight Gain" by Contreras-Rodriguez et al. (Biol Psychiatry 2017;
      81:789-796).

PMID- 28554386
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of novel astragalin galactosides using beta
      galactosidase from Bacillus circulans.
AB  - Astragalin (kaempferol-3-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside, Ast) is a kind of flavonoid
      known to have anti-oxidant, anti-HIV, anti-allergic, and anti-inflammatory
      effects. It has low solubility in water. In this study, novel astragalin
      galactosides (Ast-Gals) were synthesized using beta-galactosidase from Bacillus
      circulans and reaction conditions were optimized to increase the conversion yield
      of astragallin. Purified Ast-Gal1 (11.6% of Ast used, w/w) and Ast-Gal2 (6.7% of
      Ast used, w/w) were obtained by medium pressure chromatography (MPLC) with silica
      C18 column and open column packed with Sephadex LH-20. The structures of Ast-Gal1
      and Ast-Gal2 were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to be kaempferol
      3-O-beta-d-glucopyranosyl-(1->6)-beta-d-galactopyranoside and kaempferol-3-O-beta
      d-glucopyranosyl-(1->6)-beta-d-galactopyranosyl-(1->4)-beta-d-galactopyranoside,
      respectively. The water solubility of Ast, Ast-Gal1, and Ast-Gal2 were 28.2+/
      1.2mg/L, 38,300+/-3.5mg/L, and 38,800+/-2.8mg/L, respectively. The SC50 value
      (the concentration required to scavenge 50% of the ABTS+) of Ast, Ast-Gal1, and
      Ast-Gal2 were 5.1+/-1.6MUM, 6.5+/-0.4MUM, and 4.9+/-1.1MUM, respectively. The
      IC50 values (the half maximal inhibitory concentration) of Ast, Ast-Gal1, and Ast
      Gal2 against angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) were 171.0+/-1.2MUM, 186.0MUM,
      and 139.0+/-0.2MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28554389
TI  - The Behavioral Economics of Anxiety.

PMID- 28554390
TI  - Oxytocin and Other Pharmacologic Preventive Interventions for Posttraumatic
      Stress Disorder: Not a One-Size-Fits-All Approach.

PMID- 28554391
TI  - Predicting Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: From Circuits to Communities.

PMID- 28554392
TI  - Toward Micro-Switching Exposure Therapy: Potential Relevance for Posttraumatic
      Stress Disorder.

PMID- 28554393
TI  - Stem cell transplantation for spinal cord injury repair.
AB  - Stem cells, especially neural stem cells (NSCs), are a very attractive cell
      source for potential reconstruction of injured spinal cord though either
      neuroprotection, neural regeneration, remyelination, replacement of lost neural
      cells, or reconnection of disrupted axons. The later have great potential since
      recent studies demonstrate long-distance growth and connectivity of axons derived
      from transplanted NSCs after spinal cord injury (SCI). In addition, transplanted
      NSCs constitute a permissive environment for host axonal regeneration and serve
      as new targets for host axonal connection. This reciprocal connection between
      grafted neurons and host neurons constitutes a neuronal relay formation that
      could restore functional connectivity after SCI.

PMID- 28554394
TI  - From transplanting Schwann cells in experimental rat spinal cord injury to their
      transplantation into human injured spinal cord in clinical trials.
AB  - Among the potential therapies designed to repair the injured spinal cord is cell
      transplantation, notably the use of autologous adult human Schwann cells (SCs).
      Here, we detail some of the critical research accomplished over the last four
      decades to establish a foundation that enables these cells to be tested in
      clinical trials. New culture systems allowed novel information to be gained about
      SCs, including discovering ways to stimulate their proliferation to acquire
      adequately large numbers for transplantation into the injured human spinal cord.
      Transplantation of rat SCs into rat models of spinal cord injury has demonstrated
      that SCs promote repair of injured spinal cord. Additional work required to gain
      approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the first SC trial in the
      Miami Project is disclosed. This trial and a second one now underway are
      described.

PMID- 28554395
TI  - Recruitment of endogenous CNS stem cells for regeneration in demyelinating
      disease.
AB  - Demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), are responsible for a
      significant portion of the neurological disability burden worldwide, especially
      in young adults. Demyelination can be followed by a spontaneous regenerative
      process called remyelination, in which new myelin sheaths are restored to denuded
      axons. However, in chronic demyelinating disease such as MS, this process becomes
      progressively less efficient. This chapter reviews the biology of remyelination
      and the rationale and strategies by which it can be enhanced therapeutically in
      acquired demyelinating disease.

PMID- 28554397
TI  - Pluripotent stem cells and their utility in treating photoreceptor degenerations.
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration and inherited retinal degenerations represent
      the leading causes of blindness in industrialized countries. Despite different
      initiating causes, they share a common final pathophysiology, the loss of the
      light sensitive photoreceptors. Replacement by transplantation may offer a
      potential treatment strategy for both patient populations. The last decade has
      seen remarkable progress in our ability to generate retinal cell types, including
      photoreceptors, from a variety of murine and human pluripotent stem cell sources.
      Driven in large part by the requirement for renewable cell sources, stem cells
      have emerged not only as a promising source of replacement photoreceptors but
      also to provide in vitro systems with which to study retinal development and
      disease processes and to test therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28554398
TI  - Stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium transplantation for treatment of
      retinal disease.
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration remains the most common cause of blindness in
      the western world, severely comprising patients' and carers' quality of life and
      presenting a great cost to the healthcare system. As the disease progresses, the
      retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) layer at the back of the eye degenerates,
      contributing to a series of events resulting in visual impairment. The easy
      accessibility of the eye has allowed for in-depth study of disease progression in
      patients, while in vivo studies have facilitated investigations into healthy and
      diseased RPE. Consequently, a number of research groups are examining different
      approaches for the replacement of RPE cells in age-related macular degeneration
      (AMD) patients. This chapter examines some of these initial proof-of-principle
      studies and goes on to review the use of pluripotent stem cells as a source for
      RPE replacement in a number of current AMD clinical trials. Finally, we consider
      just some of the regulatory and manufacturing challenges presented in taking a
      promising AMD treatment from the research bench into clinical trials in patients,
      and how to mitigate potential risks early in process development.

PMID- 28554396
TI  - Progenitor cell-based treatment of glial disease.
AB  - Diseases of glia, including astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, are among the most
      prevalent and disabling, yet least appreciated, conditions in neurology. In
      recent years, it has become clear that besides the overtly glial disorders of
      oligodendrocyte loss and myelin failure, such as the leukodystrophies and
      inflammatory demyelinations, a number of neurodegenerative and psychiatric
      disorders may also be causally linked to glial dysfunction and derive from
      astrocytic as well as oligodendrocytic pathology. The relative contribution of
      glial dysfunction to many of these disorders may be so great as to allow their
      treatment by the delivery of allogeneic glial progenitor cells, the precursors to
      both astroglia and myelin-producing oligodendrocytes. Given the development of
      new methods for producing and isolating these cells from pluripotent stem cells,
      both the myelin disorders and appropriate glial-based neurodegenerative
      conditions may now be compelling targets for cell-based therapy. As such, glial
      cell-based therapies may offer potential benefit to a broader range of diseases
      than ever before contemplated, including disorders such as Huntington's disease
      and the motor neuron degeneration of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which have
      traditionally been considered neuronal in nature.

PMID- 28554399
TI  - Transplantation of reprogrammed neurons for improved recovery after stroke.
AB  - Somatic cells such as fibroblasts, reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem
      cells, can be used to generate neural stem/progenitor cells or neuroblasts for
      transplantation. In this review, we summarize recent studies demonstrating that
      when grafted intracerebrally in animal models of stroke, reprogrammed neurons
      improve function, probably by several different mechanisms, e.g., trophic
      actions, modulation of inflammation, promotion of angiogenesis, cellular and
      synaptic plasticity, and neuroprotection. In our own work, we have shown that
      human skin-derived reprogrammed neurons, fated to cortical progeny, integrate in
      stroke-injured neuronal network and form functional afferent synapses with host
      neurons, responding to peripheral sensory stimulation. However, whether neuronal
      replacement plays a role for the improvement of sensory, motor, and cognitive
      deficits after transplantation of reprogrammed neurons is still unclear. We
      conclude that further preclinical studies are needed to understand the
      therapeutic potential of grafted reprogrammed neurons and to define a road map
      for their clinical translation in stroke.

PMID- 28554400
TI  - Plasticity and regeneration in the injured spinal cord after cell transplantation
      therapy.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) typically damages the long axonal tracts of the spinal
      cord which results in permanent disability. However, regeneration of the injured
      spinal cord is approaching reality according to the advances in stem cell
      biology. Cell transplantation therapy holds potential to lead to recovery
      following SCI through some positive mechanisms. Grafted cells induce plasticity
      and regeneration in the injured spinal cord by promoting remyelination of damaged
      axons, reconstruction of neural circuits by synapse formation between host
      neurons and graft-derived neurons, and secreting neurotrophic factors to promote
      axonal elongation as well as reduce retrograde axonal degeneration. In this
      review, we will delineate (1) the microenvironment of the injured spinal cord
      that influence the plasticity and regeneration capacity after SCI, (2) a number
      of different kinds of cell transplantation therapies for SCI that has been
      extensively studied by researchers, and (3) potential mechanisms of grafted cell
      induced regeneration and plasticity in the injured spinal cord.

PMID- 28554402
TI  - Rebuilding CNS inhibitory circuits to control chronic neuropathic pain and itch.
AB  - Cell transplantation offers an attractive alternative to pharmacotherapy for the
      management of a host of clinical conditions. Most importantly, the transplanted
      cells provide a continuous, local delivery of therapeutic compounds, which avoids
      many of the adverse side effects associated with systemically administered drugs.
      Here, we describe the broad therapeutic utility of transplanting precursors of
      cortical inhibitory interneurons derived from the embryonic medial ganglionic
      eminence (MGE), in a variety of chronic pain and itch models in the mouse.
      Despite the cortical environment in which the MGE cells normally develop, these
      cells survive transplantation and will even integrate into the circuitry of an
      adult host spinal cord. When transplanted into the spinal cord, the cells
      significantly reduce the hyperexcitability that characterizes both chronic
      neuropathic pain and itch conditions. This MGE cell-based strategy differs
      considerably from traditional pharmacological treatments as the approach is
      potentially disease modifying (i.e., the therapy targets the underlying etiology
      of the pain and itch pathophysiology).

PMID- 28554403
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28554404
TI  - Original descriptions of the relationship between epididymal function and sperm
      morphology.
AB  - Roussel JD, Stallcup OT, Austin CR. Selective phagocytosis of spermatozoa in the
      epididymis of bulls, rabits, and monkeys. Fertil Steril 1967;18(4):509-16.
      "Examination of histologic sections of epididymes revealed the presence of many
      macrophages in the lumen of all regions, and it was often possible to discern
      parts of engulfed spermatozoa within the macrophages."

PMID- 28554405
TI  - Hallmarks of Clinical Aspects of Parkinson's Disease Through Centuries.
AB  - James Parkinson published a treatise "An Essay on The Shaking Palsy" in 1817.
      However, there is historical evidence that there were rudimentary descriptions of
      the disease long before Parkinson brought it to light. Later day physicians have
      added to the spectrum of the motor aspects of the disease over the last 200 years
      and the gamut of its clinical presentation is now known to be more ubiquitous
      than what was supposed earlier. In the 1960s, atypical Parkinsonism is identified
      as a distinct and separate entity, and after the introduction of levodopa in
      clinical practice, a variety of late motor complications have been described.
      Various stages of disability and motor scales have been devised which have helped
      in identifying and classifying the degree of severity of the disease. However,
      such impeccable was the original description that virtually little could be
      modified and later works have only added to the original text.

PMID- 28554401
TI  - Transplantation of GABAergic interneurons for cell-based therapy.
AB  - Many neurological disorders stem from defects in or the loss of specific neurons.
      Neuron transplantation has tremendous clinical potential for central nervous
      system therapy as it may allow for the targeted replacement of those cells that
      are lost in diseases. Normally, most neurons are added during restricted periods
      of embryonic and fetal development. The permissive milieu of the developing brain
      promotes neuronal migration, neuronal differentiation, and synaptogenesis. Once
      this active period of neurogenesis ends, the chemical and physical environment of
      the brain changes dramatically. The brain parenchyma becomes highly packed with
      neuronal and glial processes, extracellular matrix, myelin, and synapses. The
      migration of grafted cells to allow them to home into target regions and become
      functionally integrated is a key challenge to neuronal transplantation.
      Interestingly, transplanted young telencephalic inhibitory interneurons are able
      to migrate, differentiate, and integrate widely throughout the postnatal brain.
      These grafted interneurons can also functionally modify local circuit activity.
      These features have facilitated the use of interneuron transplantation to study
      fundamental neurodevelopmental processes including cell migration, cell
      specification, and programmed neuronal cell death. Additionally, these cells
      provide a unique opportunity to develop interneuron-based strategies for the
      treatment of diseases linked to interneuron dysfunction and neurological
      disorders associated to circuit hyperexcitability.

PMID- 28554406
TI  - Clinical Assessments in Parkinson's Disease: Scales and Monitoring.
AB  - Measurement of disease state is essential in both clinical practice and research
      in order to assess the severity and progression of a patient's disease status,
      effect of treatment, and alterations in other relevant factors. Parkinson's
      disease (PD) is a complex disorder expressed through many motor and nonmotor
      manifestations, which cause disabilities that can vary both gradually over time
      or come on suddenly. In addition, there is a wide interpatient variability making
      the appraisal of the many facets of this disease difficult. Two kinds of measure
      are used for the evaluation of PD. The first is subjective, inferential, based on
      rater-based interview and examination or patient self-assessment, and consist of
      rating scales and questionnaires. These evaluations provide estimations of
      conceptual, nonobservable factors (e.g., symptoms), usually scored on an ordinal
      scale. The second type of measure is objective, factual, based on technology
      based devices capturing physical characteristics of the pathological phenomena
      (e.g., sensors to measure the frequency and amplitude of tremor). These
      instrumental evaluations furnish appraisals with real numbers on an interval
      scale for which a unit exists. In both categories of measures, a broad variety of
      tools exist. This chapter aims to present an up-to-date summary of the most
      relevant characteristics of the most widely used scales, questionnaires, and
      technological resources currently applied to the assessment of PD. The review
      concludes that, in our opinion: (1) no assessment methods can substitute the
      clinical judgment and (2) subjective and objective measures in PD complement each
      other, each method having strengths and weaknesses.

PMID- 28554407
TI  - Biomarkers of Parkinson's Disease: An Introduction.
AB  - The development of biomarkers is of great importance in Parkinson's disease (PD)
      as it may contribute to confirmation and support of the diagnosis, tracking of
      progression, and prediction of the natural history of PD. Biomarkers also help in
      the identification of targets for treatment and measuring the efficacy of
      interventions. Biomarkers are, therefore, crucial to understanding the
      pathophysiology of PD, the second commonest neurodegenerative disorder in the
      world. Modern understanding of PD suggests that it is a multipeptide, multiorgan
      disorder presenting with a heterogeneous clinical condition, both motor and
      nonmotor. Biomarkers need to reflect this neuropathological and clinical
      heterogeneity of PD. In this review, we outline some key advances in the field of
      clinical, genetic, neuroimaging, and tissue-based biomarkers proposed or used for
      PD. The individual sections will be covered in relevant chapters and our review
      is largely a primer aimed to alert readers to the current state of the various
      biomarkers proposed for PD. In doing so, we have also underlined the important
      role multimodal rather than single biomarkers could play in our future
      understanding of PD.

PMID- 28554409
TI  - Imaging in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease characterized by
      the loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and aggregation of misfolded alpha
      synuclein in Lewy bodies. The underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration in PD
      are still unknown, and there are no disease-modifying treatments to slow the
      neurodegenerative processes. There is an urgent need to identify biomarkers that
      are able to monitor disease progression and assess the development and efficacy
      of novel disease-modifying drugs. Over the past years, neuroimaging techniques
      such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single-photon emission computed
      tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) have provided
      important advances in our understanding of PD. MRI provides information about
      structural and functional organization of the brain, while SPECT and PET can
      detect molecular changes in the brain. Here, we review the current neuroimaging
      literature in sporadic and genetic PD, which have contributed to our
      understanding of the physiopathological mechanisms of the disease.

PMID- 28554408
TI  - Genetics of Parkinson's Disease: Genotype-Phenotype Correlations.
AB  - Since the first discovery of a specific genetic defect in the SNCA gene, encoding
      for alpha-synuclein, as a causative factor for Parkinson's disease 20 years ago,
      a multitude of other genes have been linked to this disease in rare cases with
      Mendelian inheritance. Furthermore, the genetic contribution to the much more
      common sporadic disease has been demonstrated through case control association
      studies and, more recently, genome-wide association studies. Interestingly, some
      of the genes with Mendelian inheritance, such as SNCA, are also relevant to the
      sporadic disease, suggesting common pathogenetic mechanisms. In this review, we
      place an emphasis on Mendelian forms, and in particular genetic defects which
      present predominantly with Parkinsonism. We provide details into the particular
      phenotypes associated with each genetic defect, with a particular emphasis on
      nonmotor symptoms. For genetic defects for whom a sufficient number of patients
      has been assessed, there are evident genotype-phenotype correlations. However, it
      should be noted that patients with the same causative mutation may present with
      distinctly divergent phenotypes. This phenotypic variability may be due to
      genetic, epigenetic or environmental factors. From a clinical and genetic point
      of view, it will be especially interesting in the future to identify genetic
      factors that modify disease penetrance, the age of onset or other specific
      phenotypic features.

PMID- 28554410
TI  - The Motor Syndrome of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is centered on a specific
      motor syndrome that is characterized by the presence of bradykinesia, plus rest
      tremor, muscle rigidity, or both. Recently, novel criteria for diagnosing PD have
      been released that rehearse the motor syndrome as the core feature of PD. Beyond
      these three main symptoms, other motor features might be present in PD including
      gait difficulties and postural instability. Moreover, patients with PD usually
      develop motor complications 5-10 years into their disease. These motor
      complications are the strongest predictor of PD pathology and are in fact used
      clinically to support the diagnosis. Ancillary investigations are usually of
      little utility and to perform only in selected cases, which remarks the
      importance of the clinical examination for making the diagnosis of PD or suspect
      other condition that can be masquerading it.

PMID- 28554411
TI  - Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Cognitive Decline in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Among the nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), cognitive impairment is
      one of the most common and devastating. Over recent years, mild cognitive
      impairment (MCI) has become a recognized feature of PD (PD-MCI). The underlying
      mechanisms which influence onset, rate of decline, and conversion to dementia
      (PDD) are largely unknown. Adding to this uncertainty is the heterogeneity of
      cognitive domains affected. Currently there are no disease-modifying treatments
      that can slow or reverse this process. Identification of biomarkers that can
      predict rate and risk of cognitive decline is therefore an unmet need.
      Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an ideal biomarker candidate as its constituents
      reflect the metabolic processes underlying the functioning of brain parenchyma.
      The pathological hallmark of PD is the presence of aggregated alpha-synuclein
      (alpha-Syn) in intracellular Lewy inclusions. In addition, there is concomitant
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. In AD, decreased CSF beta-amyloid 1-42
      (Abeta42) and increased CSF tau levels are predictive of future cognitive
      decline, setting a precedent for such studies to be carried out in PD. CSF
      studies in PD have focused on the classical AD biomarkers and alpha-Syn.
      Longitudinal studies indicate that low levels of CSF Abeta42 are predictive of
      cognitive decline; however, results for tau and alpha-Syn were not consistent.
      This chapter summarizes recent findings of CSF biomarker studies and cognitive
      dysfunction in PD.

PMID- 28554412
TI  - Hallmarks of Treatment Aspects: Parkinson's Disease Throughout Centuries
      Including l-Dopa.
AB  - Deficit of striatal dopamine was first discovered in postmortem brain of patients
      with Parkinson's disease in 1960. This observation was the starting point for
      dopamine replacement therapy, and successful introduction of high dose l-dopa
      therapy in the 1969 revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Since
      then, constant attempts have been made to enhance the efficacy of l-dopa and
      reduce motor complications by providing more continuous dopamine stimulation.
      This chapter traces the hallmarks of medical treatments for Parkinson's disease
      throughout centuries including the first description of antiparkinsonian effects
      of anticholinergics, the birth of apomorphine in the 1900s, then discovery of l
      dopa in the 1960s, and development of dopamine agonists since the 1970s.

PMID- 28554413
TI  - The Nonmotor Features of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) were recognized by the great
      James Parkinson himself who mentioned symptoms such as sleep dysfunction,
      delirium, dementia, and dysautonomia, in his seminal 1817 essay, "An Essay on the
      Shaking Palsy" (Parkinson, 1817). In spite of the key impact of PD NMS on quality
      of life, there was little holistic research and awareness till the validation and
      use of comprehensive tools such as the NMS questionnaire, scale, and the revised
      version of the unified PD rating scale. Research studies using these tools
      highlighted the key impact of the burden of NMS on quality of life of PD patients
      and the need for NMS to be routinely assessed in clinic. We now define PD as a
      motor and nonmotor disorder, and the natural history includes a long prodromal
      phase of PD dominated by a range of NMS. The prodromal phase is the subject of
      much research particularly in relation to neuroprotection and identifying
      subjects at risk. Use of NMS tools has also validated burden grading of NMS with
      cutoff values, which can be used as outcome measure in clinical trials. Finally,
      the complex multineurotransmitter dysfunction that is seen in PD has been shown
      to manifest clinically as nonmotor subtypes. Recognition of such subtypes is
      likely to lead to the emergence of personalized and precision medicine in PD.

PMID- 28554414
TI  - Treatment Strategies in Early Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The clinicians' approach to the treatment of early Parkinson's disease (PD)
      should take into account numerous aspects, including how to inform a patient upon
      diagnosis and the critical decision of what therapy to adopt and when to start
      it. The treatment of the motor disorder associated with early PD needs to
      consider several crucial factors, such as age at onset, comorbidities, and the
      patient's functional requirements, and cannot be summarized in a simple formula.
      In younger patients (i.e., before the age of 70) and in those without high
      functional requirements, treatment is usually initiated with dopamine agonists
      and/or monoamine oxidase-B enzyme inhibitors (MAO-B I). By contrast, in older
      patients, or in those with high functional requirements, low doses of levodopa
      are generally used when treatment is started. In younger patients, levodopa
      should be added to dopamine agonists and/or MAO-B I, as required by disease
      progression, whereas in older patients, when response to levodopa alone is not
      satisfactory, dopamine agonists or catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors may
      subsequently be added.

PMID- 28554415
TI  - Treatment of Nonmotor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) are integral to Parkinson's disease (PD) and the
      management can often be challenging. In spite of the growing evidence that NMS
      have a key impact on the quality of life of patients and caregivers, most
      clinical trials still focus on motor symptoms as primary outcomes. As a
      consequence strong evidence-based treatment recommendations for NMS occurring in
      PD are spare. In this chapter, the current data addressing the treatment of major
      NMS such as sleep, cognitive and autonomic dysfunction, and depression and
      anxiety are described.

PMID- 28554416
TI  - Treatment of Older Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder
      after Alzheimer's disease. The prevalence of PD increases with age. The spectrum
      of clinical features, the rate of progression of the disease, the burden of
      nonmotor symptoms, and the response to medications are different in older
      patients with PD from the relatively younger patients. Management of symptoms of
      PD in older patients is challenging because of possible existence of several age
      related systemic illness. While dealing with older patients, it is crucial not to
      attribute all the physical symptoms to PD. Thorough evaluation for existence of
      diseases such as normal pressure hydrocephalus and vascular parkinsonism which
      partially mimic the symptoms of PD carries immense importance. Medical management
      of parkinsonian symptoms should be preferred with levodopa monotherapy. However,
      in patients with significant motor fluctuations, dopaminergic agents may be added
      with caution, as they are notorious for several adverse reactions. Nonmotor
      symptoms must be provided high importance as they substantially worsen the
      quality of life. In addition to parkinsonian symptoms, older patients with PD may
      need to undergo surgery for several conditions. Meticulous perioperative
      management is crucial as older patients with PD may face several surgery-related
      complications compared to the younger patients. Compliance to treatment is an
      important issue in old age. Hence multidisciplinary approach to management of PD
      in older patients should be emphasized.

PMID- 28554417
TI  - New Symptomatic Treatments for the Management of Motor and Nonmotor Symptoms of
      Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Motor symptoms are core features of Parkinson's disease, while nonmotor symptoms
      are present from the prodromal stage. Management strategies for the motor
      symptoms of Parkinson's disease have been widely researched and there have been
      many advances. Therapy has evolved from oral therapy to once a day to nonoral
      strategies, both for rescue and for infusion therapy. Treatment for nonmotor
      symptoms, however, has remained a key unmet need, although of late evidence base
      for management of some nonmotor symptoms such as pain, dementia, aspects of sleep
      dysfunction, and constipation has emerged. However, management of many nonmotor
      symptoms such as anxiety, apathy, fatigue, and insomnia remains uncharted. In
      this review, we address these management strategies and discuss the evidence base
      of available therapies.

PMID- 28554418
TI  - Device-Aided Treatment Strategies in Advanced Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - With peroral levodopa treatment, a majority of patients develop motor
      fluctuations and dyskinesia already within a few years of therapy. Device-aided
      Parkinson (PD) therapies refer to deep brain stimulation (DBS), levodopa
      carbidopa intestinal gel infusion (LCIG), and subcutaneous infusion of the
      dopamine agonist apomorphine and represent effective strategies counteracting
      motor fluctuations and dyskinesia. These three therapy options seem to be
      similarly effective in reducing "time with PD symptoms (off time)" by at least
      60%-65%. The use of advanced therapy also leads to a significant reduction of
      dyskinesia. Recent studies also indicate that these therapies can improve a
      number of nonmotor symptoms in advanced PD. Altogether this results in an
      improved health-related quality of life in most treated patients. The side
      effects and complications are quite different between the three; for DBS, serious
      adverse events include intracranial bleeding and infection, LCIG complications
      relate to the infusion equipment and the establishment of the percutaneous
      endoscopic gastrostomy, while for apomorphine infusion the most common side
      effect is a formation of noduli (local inflammation) at the point of infusion.
      The device-aided therapies are all indicated for the treatment of motor
      fluctuations and/or dyskinesia when peroral/transdermal PD medications cannot be
      further optimized. However, the choice of device-aided therapy is made on basis
      of indications/contraindications, but also the patients' symptom profile and
      his/her personal preferences. Therefore, it is important these treatments are
      discussed early, well before motor and nonmotor symptoms have deteriorated
      excessively.

PMID- 28554419
TI  - Palliative Care for Patients and Families With Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease
      worldwide. There is widespread consensus that Parkinson patients, their carers,
      and clinicians involved in their care would benefit from a fully integrated, need
      based provision of palliative care. However, the concept of palliative care in
      Parkinson's disease is still poorly defined and, consequently, poorly implemented
      into daily clinical practice. A particular challenge is the gradually progressive
      nature of Parkinson's disease-with insidiously increasing disability-making it
      challenging to clearly define the onset of palliative care needs for Parkinson
      patients. As people with Parkinson's disease are now living longer than in the
      past, future research needs to develop a more robust evidence-based approach to
      clarify the disease events associated with increased palliative care needs, and
      to examine these, prospectively, in an integrated palliative care service. The
      modern palliative care outlook, termed "simultaneous care,",is no longer
      restricted to the final stage of disease. It involves incorporating a continuity
      of care, effective management of the chronic-palliative interface, and a
      multidisciplinary network of professionals working both in the community and in
      specialized clinics, with active involvement of caregivers. Although promising,
      there is still a need to demonstrate the effectiveness of palliative care for
      patients with Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28554420
TI  - Multidisciplinary Care in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is now known to be a multisystemic and multipeptide
      neurodegenerative disorder, whereby patients have an array of symptoms both motor
      and nonmotor. Nonmotor features of PD have been shown to arise almost 15-20 years
      prior to motor symptoms and, as such, are also a key determinant to the quality
      of life of a patient. Therefore, there is increasing evidence that a PD patient's
      management must encompass a multidisciplinary approach to effectively manage and
      treat the patient's PD and also their individual symptoms. Therefore, the notion
      that a PD nurse specialist and a neurologist are the only key players, is no
      longer the case. Rather, the involvement of speech and language therapist,
      physiotherapists, palliative care, and others is vital for a patient's recovery
      and their effective management. Here we discuss a few professions who should
      ideally be present for each PD patient.

PMID- 28554421
TI  - The New Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - This chapter summarizes the advances in diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD)
      that were encapsulated in new International Parkinson Disease and Movement
      Disorders Society diagnostic criteria for PD. Numerous changes in our
      understanding of PD have occurred, including our understanding of the nonmotor
      profile of disease, the recognition of PD as a synucleinopathy, identification of
      genetic causes, novel hypotheses about spread of disease, etc. These have been
      reflected in a new definition of PD, which includes a clinicogenetic subtype of
      PD, removes dementia with Lewy Bodies as an exclusion criterion against PD, and
      recognizes multiple stages of early disease. The Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for
      PD reflect these changes and offer a new standardized diagnostic method for use
      in clinical research and even clinical practice. The criteria for prodromal PD
      use a method not seen in previous diagnostic criteria; they rely upon published
      studies of PD predictors to calculate the probability that any individual will
      develop PD. The field of PD is constantly advancing, and our methods of diagnosis
      need to advance with it; one hopes for a future filled with constant revisions
      and updates in our diagnostic methodology.

PMID- 28554422
TI  - Advances in the Clinical Differential Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The differential diagnosis of Parkinson's disease has widened considerably in
      recent years. This chapter aims to summarize the current knowledge on the
      clinical differential diagnoses of sporadic Parkinson's disease. As the number of
      monogenic familial Parkinson's disease variants and risk factors is growing, so
      is the number of appreciated etiologies of atypical parkinsonian and other
      pallidopyramidal syndromes. This work aims at summarizing the current knowledge
      on both motor and nonmotor neurological signs and symptoms that aid the clinical
      diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and its differential diagnoses.

PMID- 28554423
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28554424
TI  - Suicide prevention: large scale and small details.

PMID- 28554425
TI  - Excessive gambling and gaming: addictive disorders?

PMID- 28554426
TI  - Alcohol misuse and self-harm: an opportunity for early intervention in the
      emergency department.

PMID- 28554427
TI  - Ethical surgical placebo-controlled trials of deep brain stimulation for
      treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa.

PMID- 28554428
TI  - Ethical surgical placebo-controlled trials of deep brain stimulation for
      treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28554430
TI  - Michelle Riba-helping emotional issues in chronic diseases.

PMID- 28554431
TI  - The merciless mirror: Sylvia Plath's art, suicide, and influence.

PMID- 28554432
TI  - Correlation of Body Composition and Low Back Pain Severity in a Cross-Section of
      US Veterans.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Back pain is more prevalent in the obese, but whether back pain
      severity is directly correlated to obesity in veterans is unknown. We sought to
      determine if there was a correlation between body composition and low back pain
      severity in a sample of veterans. The hypothesis was that veterans with higher
      body mass index values would report higher low back pain severity scores.
      METHODS: This study was a retrospective chart review of 1768 veterans presenting
      to a Veterans Affairs chiropractic clinic with a chief complaint of low back pain
      between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2014. Spearman's rho was used to test
      for correlation between body composition as measured by body mass index and low
      back pain severity as measured by the Back Bournemouth Questionnaire. RESULTS: On
      average, the sample was predominantly male (91%), older than 50, and overweight
      (36.5%) or obese (48.9%). There was no correlation between body mass index and
      Back Bournemouth Questionnaire scores, r = .088, p < .001. CONCLUSIONS: The
      majority of veterans with low back pain in this sample were either overweight or
      obese. There was no correlation between body composition and low back pain
      severity in this sample of veterans.

PMID- 28554433
TI  - Systematic Review of Nondrug, Nonsurgical Treatment of Shoulder Conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of
      conservative nondrug, nonsurgical interventions, either alone or in combination,
      for conditions of the shoulder. METHODS: The review was conducted from March 2016
      to November 2016 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
      Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), and was registered with PROSPERO. Eligibility
      criteria included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, or
      meta-analyses studying adult patients with a shoulder diagnosis. Interventions
      qualified if they did not involve prescription medication or surgical procedures,
      although these could be used in the comparison group or groups. At least 2
      independent reviewers assessed the quality of each study using the Scottish
      Intercollegiate Guidelines Network checklists. Shoulder conditions addressed were
      shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS), rotator cuff-associated disorders (RCs),
      adhesive capsulitis (AC), and nonspecific shoulder pain. RESULTS: Twenty-five
      systematic reviews and 44 RCTs met inclusion criteria. Low- to moderate-quality
      evidence supported the use of manual therapies for all 4 shoulder conditions.
      Exercise, particularly combined with physical therapy protocols, was beneficial
      for SIS and AC. For SIS, moderate evidence supported several passive modalities.
      For RC, physical therapy protocols were found beneficial but not superior to
      surgery in the long term. Moderate evidence supported extracorporeal shockwave
      therapy for calcific tendinitis RC. Low-level laser was the only modality for
      which there was moderate evidence supporting its use for all 4 conditions.
      CONCLUSION: The findings of this literature review may help inform practitioners
      who use conservative methods (eg, doctors of chiropractic, physical therapists,
      and other manual therapists) regarding the levels of evidence for modalities used
      for common shoulder conditions.

PMID- 28554434
TI  - The big picture.

PMID- 28554435
TI  - American Board of Orthodontics responds.

PMID- 28554437
TI  - Precision of landmark identification in cone-beam computed tomography vs image
      orientation.

PMID- 28554436
TI  - ABO certification is a valuable learning experience.

PMID- 28554438
TI  - Editor's note.

PMID- 28554439
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28554440
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28554441
TI  - Simple but not so simple.

PMID- 28554442
TI  - Piezocision and root resorption: A biased conclusion?

PMID- 28554444
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28554443
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28554445
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28554447
TI  - Here we go again!

PMID- 28554448
TI  - Stability of orthodontic treatment outcome in relation to retention status: An 8
      year follow-up.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our aim was to evaluate the stability of orthodontic treatment
      outcome and retention status 7 or more years after active treatment in relation
      to posttreatment or postretention time, type of retention appliance, and duration
      of retainer use. METHODS: The subjects were former patients who completed
      orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances from 2000 to 2007. The pretreatment
      eligibility criteria were anterior crowding of 4 mm or more in the maxilla or the
      mandible and Angle Class I or Class II sagittal molar relationship. Acceptable
      pretreatment and posttreatment dental casts were required. A total of 67 patients
      participated, 24 men and 43 women, with a mean age of 24.7 years (range, 20.0
      50.0 years). All participants had a follow-up clinical examination, which
      included impressions for follow-up casts, and each completed a questionnaire.
      Data were obtained from pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up (T2) casts as
      well as from the patients' dental records. Treatment stability was evaluated with
      the peer assessment rating (PAR) index and Little's irregularity index. RESULTS:
      The participation rate was 64%. The average posttreatment time was 8.5 years
      (range, 7.0-11.0). All participants had received a retainer in the mandible,
      maxilla, or both after active treatment. At T2, the PAR score showed a mean
      relapse of 14%. The majority (78%) of participants still had a fixed retainer at
      T2 (retainer group), and 22% had been out of retention for at least 1 year
      (postretention group). The relapse according to the PAR did not differ
      significantly between participants with and without a retainer at T2. From
      posttreatment to T2, the irregularity of the mandibular incisors increased almost
      3 times more in participants with no retainer in the mandible compared with those
      with an intact retainer at T2 (P = 0.001). In the maxilla, no corresponding
      difference was found. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that occlusal relapse can
      be expected after active orthodontic treatment irrespective of long-term use of
      fixed retainers. Fixed canine-to-canine retainers seem effective to maintain
      mandibular incisor alignment, whereas in the maxilla a fixed retainer may not
      make any difference in the long term.

PMID- 28554449
TI  - Effects of bone grafting, performed with corticotomies and buccal tooth
      movements, on dehiscence formation in dogs.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A randomized split-mouth experiment was performed in dogs to
      determine the effects of bone grafting, together with corticotomies and buccal
      tooth movements, on dehiscence formation. METHODS: Bilateral full-thickness
      mucoperiosteal buccal flaps were raised, and corticotomies were performed with a
      piezosurgery unit adjacent to the maxillary second premolars in 7 dogs. The
      experimental (graft+) side received a demineralized freeze-dried allograph and a
      resorbable collagen membrane. The second premolars were expanded with archwires
      for 9 weeks, followed by 3 weeks of consolidation. Soft tissue measurements
      included probing depths, attachment loss, and recession. Tooth movements were
      monitored using intraoral, radiographic, and model measurements. Bone surrounding
      the second premolars was evaluated with microcomputed tomography. New bone
      formation was analyzed histologically using calcein and alizarin fluorescent
      labels, and hematoxylin and eosin stains. RESULTS: Postsurgical healing
      progressed normally with no signs of infection. The graft+ and control (graft-)
      second premolars underwent similar amounts of expansion (about 2.5 mm
      intraorally; about 1.7 mm radiographically) and tipping, with no statistically
      significant side differences. The soft tissue periodontium was not affected on
      either side. There were bony dehiscences on both the graft+ and graft- sides,
      with slightly but significantly (P = 0.038) more bone loss over the mesial root
      on the graft- side. Bone material density was significantly (P = 0.028) greater
      on the graft+ side. Buccal bone apposition was evident surrounding graft
      particles, and mineralized particulate graft material was present at the apical
      aspect of the roots on the graft+ side. CONCLUSIONS: Bone grafting does not
      prevent dehiscence formation because only a limited amount of new bone is formed,
      primarily at the more apical aspects of the tooth's roots.

PMID- 28554450
TI  - Oral health-related quality of life changes in patients with severe Class III
      malocclusion treated with the 2-jaw surgery-first approach.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this nonrandomized prospective study, we compared the effects of
      the surgery-first approach with conventional 2-jaw orthognathic surgery on
      skeletal Class III patients' oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL),
      quality of the orthodontic outcome, and average treatment duration. METHODS: The
      sample consisted of 16 patients with severe skeletal Class III malocclusion, who
      needed 2-jaw orthognathic surgery: 8 were treated with the surgery-first
      approach, and 8 were treated with the traditional orthodontic-surgical approach.
      OHRQoL was assessed by using the Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire
      (OQLQ) and the Oral Health Impact Profile-short version (OHIP-14). Malocclusion
      severity and esthetic self-perception were assessed with the Index of Orthodontic
      Treatment Need. Dental health status was determined using the Decayed, Missing
      and Filled Teeth Index. Tests were repeated at 7 times: baseline, 1 month after
      appliance placement, and 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after the
      beginning of the treatment; and for both groups, there was an also evaluation
      stage after the orthognathic surgery. RESULTS: After 2 years, the surgery-first
      group showed a significant decrease in malocclusion severity (P <0.001) and had
      significant reductions in OQLQ (P <0.001) and OHIP-14 scores (P <0.001). These
      changes began after the orthognathic surgery and were progressive throughout the
      evaluation periods. In the traditional orthodontic-surgical approach group, after
      2 years of monitoring, all patients were still in the preoperative orthodontic
      preparation phase, and their malocclusion severity increased significantly,
      thereby resulting in a not statistically significant worsening of their OHRQoL
      (OHIP-14, P = 0.89; OQLQ, P = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS: OHRQoL improved significantly
      in a linear trend of progressive improvements in all severe Class III patients
      who had the surgery-first approach after the surgical procedure through 2 years
      of follow-up, as their malocclusion and esthetic self-perception also improved.

PMID- 28554451
TI  - Evaluation of masseter muscles in relation to treatment with removable bite
      blocks in dolichofacial growing subjects: A prospective controlled study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the effects of
      posterior bite-blocks on masseter muscles and on facial growth in prepubertal
      dolichofacial subjects. METHODS: The treatment group comprised 21 consecutive
      prepubertal dolichofacial patients treated with rapid maxillary expansion
      followed by mandibular removable bite-blocks. Lateral cephalograms and
      ultrasonographic scans of the masseter muscles were made before (T1) and after
      (T2) treatment with bite-blocks. The treatment group was compared with a control
      group of 21 subjects matched for sex, age, and skeletal vertical pattern. An
      independent samples t test was used to compare the T1 to T2 changes in
      ultrasonographic scan measurements between the treatment group and the control
      group, and the T1 to T2 cephalometric changes in the treatment group. Regression
      analysis was performed to investigate associations between masseter muscle
      thickness and cephalometric treatment outcomes. RESULTS: Masseter muscle
      thickness showed a statistically significant decrease (-0.7 mm) in the treatment
      group compared with an increase (+0.6 mm) in the control group. A significant
      anterior rotation of the mandibular plane was observed in the treatment group as
      well as significant increases in overbite (1.8 mm) and total posterior facial
      height (1.5 mm). No significant associations were found between masseter muscle
      thickness and treatment outcomes apart from a tendency for overbite to increase
      more in subjects with thicker muscles. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with removable bite
      blocks produced a decrease in masseter muscle thickness and a reduction in
      vertical facial dimensions due to upward and forward rotation of the mandible. No
      significant correlation was found between the pretreatment masseter muscle
      thickness and the T1 to T2 cephalometric changes in the treatment group.

PMID- 28554452
TI  - Characterizing the orthodontic patient's purchase decision: A novel approach
      using netnography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A deeper and more thorough characterization of why patients do or
      do not seek orthodontic treatment is needed for effective shared decision making
      about receiving treatment. Previous orthodontic qualitative research has
      identified important dimensions that influence treatment decisions, but our
      understanding of patients' decisions and how they interpret benefits and barriers
      of treatment are lacking. The objectives of this study were to expand our current
      list of decision-making dimensions and to create a conceptual framework to
      describe the decision-making process. METHODS: Discussion boards, rich in
      orthodontic decision-making data, were identified and analyzed with qualitative
      methods. An iterative process of data collection, dimension identification, and
      dimension refinement were performed to saturation. A conceptual framework was
      created to describe the decision-making process. RESULTS: Fifty-four dimensions
      captured the ideas discussed in regard to a patient's decision to receive
      orthodontic treatment. Ten domains were identified: function, esthetics,
      psychosocial benefits, diagnosis, finances, inconveniences, risks of treatment,
      individual aspects, societal attitudes, and child-specific influences, each
      containing specific descriptive and conceptual dimensions. A person's desires,
      self-perceptions, and viewpoints, the public's views on esthetics and
      orthodontics, and parenting philosophies impacted perceptions of benefits and
      barriers associated with orthodontic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: We identified an
      expanded list of dimensions, created a conceptual framework describing the
      orthodontic patient's decision-making process, and identified dimensions
      associated with yes and no decisions, giving doctors a better understanding of
      patient attitudes and expectations.

PMID- 28554453
TI  - Impact of cone-beam computed tomography scan mode on the diagnostic yield of
      chemically simulated external root resorption.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the influence of
      cone-beam computed tomography scans on the diagnosis of chemically simulated
      external root resorption. METHODS: One hundred extracted anterior teeth were
      selected. Subsurface demineralization was induced on a limited area of the apical
      third of the root of 49 teeth. Each tooth was placed in an empty socket of a
      partially edentulous dry mandible. Cone-beam computed tomography images were
      obtained according to 3 protocols: (1) half scan, 0.40-mm voxel size; (2) full
      scan, 0.40-mm voxel size; and (3) full scan, 0.125-mm voxel size. Three observers
      evaluated the images. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the
      curve were compared with the Cochran Q and Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULTS:
      Protocol 3 had the highest sensitivity (81.63%), accuracy (80.67%), and area
      under the curve (0.807). There were statistically significant differences between
      protocol 3 and the other 2 protocols (P <0.001). The specificity of protocol 1
      (84.97%) was greater than that of protocols 2 (69.93%) and 3 (79.74%); however, a
      statistically significant difference was found only between protocols 1 and 2 (P
      = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: A more dedicated, high-resolution scan should be acquired
      when one intends to investigate the early stage of external root resorption
      during orthodontic treatment. However, this does not imply that all orthodontic
      patients should be subjected to high-dose cone-beam computed tomography scans.

PMID- 28554454
TI  - Diagnosis and treatment planning of orthodontic patients with 3-dimensional
      dentofacial records.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cephalometrics has been the foundation of orthodontic diagnosis for
      many years. However, for many orthodontic patients, a lateral cephalogram might
      not be necessary. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnosis and
      treatment planning agreement between standard records and nonradiographic 3
      dimensional (3D) dentofacial photogrammetry records. METHODS: Twenty patients had
      standard orthodontic records taken for their treatment as well as extraoral and
      intraoral 3D images. Twelve evaluators examined the standard records and then
      completed diagnosis and treatment planning questionnaires. They repeated the
      process 4 to 6 weeks later by using 3D photographic images along with the
      panoramic radiographs. Each evaluator also evaluated 2 random orthodontic cases
      twice with each method to evaluate consistency within each method. At the end of
      study, each evaluator was asked to complete a survey to document his or her
      experiences with the 3D photogrammetry method. Descriptive and kappa statistics
      were used to determine the agreement. RESULTS: Most diagnosis parameters had fair
      agreement between the methods and within each method. Skeletal and dental
      relationships had excellent agreement between and within the methods as well as
      most treatment decisions such as the need for extractions and surgery. Most
      evaluators (91.7%) thought that cephalometric x-rays would be needed only some of
      the time in diagnosis and treatment planning. Most evaluators (83.33%) thought
      that cephalometric radiographs are not needed in patients with a Class I +/- a
      quarter cusp with crowding or spacing. CONCLUSIONS: Most diagnostic decisions had
      fair agreement within and between the 2 methods. The decision to extract and the
      need for orthognathic surgery had excellent agreement between the cephalometric
      and photogrammetric methods. The majority of examiners agreed that patients with
      Class I malocclusions +/- a quarter cusp with no obvious skeletal discrepancy can
      be diagnosed and planned without a cephalometric radiograph.

PMID- 28554455
TI  - Dentoalveolar and arch dimension changes in patients treated with miniplate
      anchored maxillary protraction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate dentoalveolar and arch
      dimension changes in 2 miniplate-anchored maxillary protraction protocols in
      relation to an untreated control group using 3-dimensional digital models.
      METHODS: Thirty growing Class III subjects with maxillary deficiency in the late
      mixed or early permanent dentition phase were randomly divided into 3 groups. In
      group 1 (n = 10), patients were treated with skeletally anchored facemasks
      anchored with miniplates placed at the zygomatic buttress. In group 2 (n = 10),
      patients were treated with Class III elastics extending from infrazygomatic
      miniplates in the maxilla to symphyseal miniplates in the mandible. Group 3 (n =
      10) was an untreated control group. The decision to discontinue orthopedic
      treatment was made when the patients had 3 to 4 mm of positive anterior overjet.
      Pretreatment, posttreatment, and observation 3-dimensional digital models were
      analyzed, superimposed, 3 dimensionally mapped, and sectioned. RESULTS: In this
      study, there were no significant changes in maxillary arch depth and maxillary or
      mandibular intermolar width before and after maxillary protraction or after the
      observation period in the control group. The mandibular arch depth decreased by a
      small but statistically significant amount only in groups 1 and 3.
      Superimposition of the pretreatment and posttreatment or observation maxillary 3
      dimensional digital models showed minimal clinically significant dentoalveolar
      changes. CONCLUSIONS: Miniplate-anchored maxillary protraction protocols can
      accomplish maxillary advancement by eliminating movements of teeth and
      dentoalveolar changes. No spontaneous improvement in transverse deficiency was
      detected after correction of the anteroposterior deficiency at this age.
      Consequently, patients with transverse maxillary deficiency should have rapid
      maxillary expansion before or during the miniplate-anchored protraction period to
      improve the transverse deficiency.

PMID- 28554456
TI  - Gene expression profile altered by orthodontic tooth movement during healing of
      surgical alveolar defect.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We explored the gene expression profile altered by orthodontic
      tooth movement (OTM) during the healing of surgical alveolar defects in beagles.
      METHODS: An OTM-related healing model was established where a maxillary second
      premolar was protracted into the critical-sized defect for 6 weeks (group DT6).
      As controls, natural healing models without OTM were set at 2 weeks (group D2)
      and at 6 weeks (group D6) after surgery. Total RNAs were extracted from dissected
      tissue blocks containing the regenerated defects and additionally from sound
      alveolar bone as a baseline (group C). mRNA profiling was performed using
      microarray analysis. RESULTS: Functional annotations of gene clusters based on
      differentially expressed genes among groups indicated that the gene expression
      profile of group DT6 had a stronger similarity to that of group D2 than to group
      D6. The genes participating in high woven-bone fraction in group DT6 could be
      identified as TNFSF11, MMP13, SPP1, and DMP1, which were verified by quantitative
      real-time polymerase chain reactions. CONCLUSIONS: We investigated at the gene
      level that OTM can affect the healing state of surgical defects serving as
      favorable matrices for OTM with defect regeneration. It would be a basis on
      selecting putative genes to be therapeutically applied for tissue-friendly
      accelerated orthodontics in the future.

PMID- 28554457
TI  - Comparative evaluation of treatment outcomes between temporary anchorage devices
      and Class III elastics in Class III malocclusions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our objective was to elucidate the differences in treatment
      outcomes caused by the different mechanics of temporary anchorage devices (TADs)
      and Class III elastics in patients with Class III malocclusions. METHODS: Records
      of 23 patients with Angle Class III malocclusion were selected retrospectively.
      All had been treated with nonextraction comprehensive orthodontic treatment; 11
      were treated with TADs and 12 with Class III elastics. Pretreatment and
      posttreatment lateral cephalograms were used for evaluation of the treatment
      outcomes. A paired t test and a Student t test were used for statistical
      analysis. RESULTS: In both groups, proper overjet and Class I molar relationships
      were achieved, and the occlusal plane was rotated counterclockwise. In the
      elastics group, distal tipping of the mandibular molars, extrusion of the
      mandibular incisors and maxillary molars, clockwise rotation of the mandibular
      plane angle, and increased ANB angle were observed. In the TADs group, distal
      tipping and intrusion of the mandibular molars, bodily movement of the mandibular
      incisors, and reduced mandibular plane angle were observed. CONCLUSIONS: In
      nonextraction treatment for Class III malocclusions, the mandibular plane angle
      was increased in the elastics group, whereas it was decreased in TADs group.
      Thus, we suggest that Class III elastics are preferred for low-angle, short-face
      patients, whereas TADs are preferred for high-angle, long-face patients.

PMID- 28554458
TI  - Comparison of the treatment effects of different rapid maxillary expansion
      devices on the maxilla and the mandible. Part 1: Evaluation of dentoalveolar
      changes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to compare the dentoalveolar treatment
      effects of 3 rapid maxillary expansion (RME) appliances, supported by different
      tissues, on the maxilla and the mandible. METHODS: Patients were assessed for
      eligibility, and those who met the requirements and agreed to participate were
      enrolled in the study. Participants were randomly allocated into 3 groups,
      depending on the type of expansion. The tooth-borne group (n = 16; ages, 12.63 +/
      1.36 years) had RME with a tooth-borne appliance; the bone-borne group (n = 16;
      ages, 12.92 +/- 1.07 years) had RME with a bone-borne appliance; and the hybrid
      group (n = 15; ages, 13.41 +/- 0.88 years) had RME with hybrid appliances.
      Dentoalveolar effects were evaluated by digitally superimposed 3-dimensional
      scans of maxillary dental casts on a coordinate system and linear interdental
      width measurements of mandibular dental casts in the pretreatment, posttreatment,
      and postretention periods. For intragroup and intergroup comparisons, 1-way
      analysis of variance for repeated measures and multivariate analysis of variance
      were performed, respectively. RESULTS: Similar dentoalveolar treatment effects
      were achieved in all groups with the exception of a small amount of expansion on
      the right side in the bone-borne group. CONCLUSIONS: All 3 expanders led to the
      expansion of maxillary dentoalveolar structures with mild relapse. However, the
      amount of expansion of the bone-borne expander on the right side was
      statistically lower. Spontaneous interdental expansion was observed in the
      mandibular dentitions in all groups.

PMID- 28554459
TI  - Relationship between molar occlusion and masticatory movement in lateral
      deviation of the mandible.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The relationship between molar occlusion and chewing patterns was
      examined in subjects with laterally deviated mandibles. METHODS: Twenty-three
      patients with mandibular deviation from the midline (4 mm or more) and skeletal
      Class I (0 degrees  <=ANB <=4 degrees ) were divided into 2 groups: normal bite
      and crossbite. The chewing pattern was classified as normal, reversed, or
      crossover. RESULTS: The normal bite group had a normal chewing pattern on the
      affected side 100% of the time and a reversed chewing pattern on the affected and
      unaffected sides 0% and 7.2% of the time, respectively. Additionally, the normal
      bite group showed no evidence of a crossover chewing pattern and also had
      significantly less axial inclination of the mandibular teeth on the affected side
      compared with the crossbite group; lingual inclination was also evident. The
      crossbite group had a normal chewing pattern on the affected and unaffected sides
      0% and 55.6% of the time, respectively, and reversed and crossover chewing
      patterns on the affected side 55.6% and 44.4% of the time, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: A normal chewing pattern tends to result in lingual axial
      inclination of the mandibular molars on the affected side, as well as a more
      consistent chewing pattern.

PMID- 28554460
TI  - Forced eruption of a palatally impacted and transposed canine with a temporary
      skeletal anchorage device.
AB  - Treatment of palatally impacted and transposed canines is challenging for both
      orthodontists and oral surgeons. To treat a maxillary canine impaction without
      risking damage to adjacent teeth, it is necessary to use cone-beam computed
      tomography for proper localization and treatment planning. In this case report, a
      palatally impacted canine was initially retracted distally with a microimplant
      inserted in the palatal slope and then was moved buccally into its ideal
      position. The patient's occlusion and smile esthetics were significantly improved
      after orthodontic treatment.

PMID- 28554462
TI  - Treatment of Class II malocclusion with mandibular skeletal anchorage.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this case report was to present the dentofacial changes
      obtained with bone anchorage in a Class II patient with moderate to severe
      crowding. METHODS: A boy, aged 14.5 years, with a dolichofacial type, convex
      profile, and skeletal and dental Class II relationships was examined. After
      evaluation, functional treatment with bone anchorage and 4 first premolar
      extractions was decided as the treatment approach. Miniplates were placed on the
      buccal shelves of the mandibular third molars. The hook of the anchor was
      revealed from the first molar level. After surgery, the 4 first premolars were
      extracted to retract the protrusive mandibular incisors. The maxillary and
      mandibular first molars were banded, and a lip bumper was inserted to apply
      elastics and to help distalize the maxillary first molars. Orthodontic forces of
      300 to 500 g were applied immediately after placement, originating from the
      miniscrews to the hooks of the appliance to advance the mandible. RESULTS: After
      20 months of treatment, the patient had a dental and skeletal Class I
      relationship, the mandible was advanced, the maxilla was restrained, and overjet
      was decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of a bone anchor, Class II elastics,
      and an inner bow is a promising alternative to functional treatment, along with
      extractions, in Class II patients.

PMID- 28554463
TI  - Accuracy of printed dental models made with 2 prototype technologies and
      different designs of model bases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of printed models
      from intraoral scans with different designs of model bases, using 2 types of 3
      dimensional printing techniques. METHODS: Three types of model base design were
      created: regular base, horseshoe-shaped base, and horseshoe-shaped base with a
      bar connecting the posterior region. The digital models were printed with the 3
      dimensional printers using different techniques: stereolithography and triple
      jetting technology (polyjet). The printed models were then scanned with a
      computed tomography scanner and a desktop laser scanner to create the respective
      digital models. Evaluation of the accuracy was done by measuring the dentitions
      with Ortho Analyzer software (3Shape, Copenhagen, Denmark) and by model
      superimposition with Geomagic Qualify software (3D Systems, Rock Hill, SC). An
      observer measured the distances twice, with an interval of 2 weeks. The accuracy
      of the printed models was statistically evaluated by the mixed-effects regression
      model approach. RESULTS: The results showed that printed models made by the
      polyjet printer were accurate, regardless of the design of the model base.
      Printed models made with the stereolithography technique with the regular model
      base and the horseshoe-shaped base with a bar were accurate, but the transversal
      distances measured on the printed models with a horseshoe-shaped base were
      statistically significantly smaller. CONCLUSIONS: Printed models with a regular
      base or a horseshoe-shaped base with a bar were accurate regardless of the
      printing technique used. Printed models with a horseshoe-shaped base made with
      the stereolithography printer had a statistically significant reduction in the
      transversal dimension that was not found in the models printed with the polyjet
      technique.

PMID- 28554461
TI  - Traction of impacted canines in a skeletal Class III malocclusion: A challenging
      orthodontic treatment.
AB  - This case report describes the successful traction of 2 severely impacted
      canines. The patient, a 7-year-old girl, had good general health, nasal
      breathing, crossbite of the lateral incisors and canines, and a Class I molar
      relationship. The panoramic radiograph showed that the permanent canines were
      positioned above the roots of the lateral incisors, with the right canine in an
      accentuated inclination. The cephalometric analysis showed a skeletal Class III
      malocclusion with a predominance of horizontal growth. The Haas appliance
      associated with maxillary protraction was used during the first stage of
      treatment for 14 months. The second stage included the extraction of the
      deciduous molars, distal movement of the permanent molars to create space, and
      traction of the canines, and was associated with complete orthodontic treatment.
      The patient showed good esthetic and functional results at the end of treatment,
      verified by the stability over a period of 8 years after retention.

PMID- 28554464
TI  - Sticks and stones.

PMID- 28554465
TI  - Conditional logistic regression.

PMID- 28554466
TI  - Hairy root transgene expression analysis of a secretory peroxidase (PvPOX1) from
      common bean infected by Fusarium wilt.
AB  - Plant peroxidases (POXs) are one of the most important redox enzymes in the
      defense responses. However, the large number of different plant POX genes makes
      it necessary to carefully confirm the function of each paralogous POX gene in
      specific tissues and disease interactions. Fusarium wilt is a devastating disease
      of common bean caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli. In this study, we
      evaluated a peroxidase gene, PvPOX1, from a resistant common bean genotype,
      CAAS260205 and provided direct evidence for PvPOX1's role in resistance by
      transforming the resistant allele into a susceptible common bean genotype,
      BRB130, via hairy root transformation using Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Analysis of
      PvPOX1 gene over-expressing hairy roots showed it increased resistance to
      Fusarium wilt both in the roots and the rest of transgenic plants. Meanwhile, the
      PvPOX1 expressive level, the peroxidase activity and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
      accumulation were also enhanced in the interaction. The result showed that the
      PvPOX1 gene played an essential role in Fusarium wilt resistance through the
      occurrence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced hypersensitive response.
      Therefore, PvPOX1 expression was proven to be a valuable gene for further
      analysis which can strengthen host defense response against Fusarium wilt through
      a ROS activated resistance mechanism.

PMID- 28554467
TI  - Review: Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases in nutritional signaling in
      Arabidopsis.
AB  - Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) cascades are functional modules
      widespread among eukaryotic organisms. In plants, these modules are encoded by
      large multigenic families and are involved in many biological processes ranging
      from stress responses to cellular differentiation and organ development.
      Furthermore, MAPK pathways are involved in the perception of environmental and
      physiological modifications. Interestingly, some MAPKs play a role in several
      signaling networks and could have an integrative function for the response of
      plants to their environment. In this review, we describe the classification of
      MAPKs and highlight some of their biochemical actions. We performed an in silico
      analysis of MAPK gene expression in response to nutrients supporting their
      involvement in nutritional signaling. While several MAPKs have been identified as
      players in sugar, nitrogen, phosphate, iron and potassium-related signaling
      pathways, their biochemical functions are yet mainly unknown. The integration of
      these regulatory cascades in the current understanding of nutrient signaling is
      discussed and potential new avenues for approaches toward plants with higher
      nutrient use efficiencies are evoked.

PMID- 28554468
TI  - Limited-transpiration response to high vapor pressure deficit in crop species.
AB  - Water deficit under nearly all field conditions is the major constraint on plant
      yields. Other than empirical observations, very little progress has been made in
      developing crop plants in which specific physiological traits for drought are
      expressed. As a consequence, there was little known about under what conditions
      and to what extent drought impacts crop yield. However, there has been rapid
      progress in recent years in understanding and developing a limited-transpiration
      trait under elevated atmospheric vapor pressure deficit to increase plant growth
      and yield under water-deficit conditions. This review paper examines the
      physiological basis for the limited-transpiration trait as result of low plant
      hydraulic conductivity, which appears to be related to aquaporin activity.
      Methodology was developed based on aquaporin involvement to identify candidate
      genotypes for drought tolerance of several major crop species. Cultivars of maize
      and soybean are now being marketed specifically for arid conditions.
      Understanding the mechanism of the limited-transpiration trait has allowed a
      geospatial analyses to define the environments in which increased yield responses
      can be expected. This review highlights the challenges and approaches to finally
      develop physiological traits contributing directly to plant improvement for water
      limited environments.

PMID- 28554469
TI  - Improved responses to elevated CO2 in durum wheat at a low nitrate supply
      associated with the upregulation of photosynthetic genes and the activation of
      nitrate assimilation.
AB  - Elevated CO2 often leads to photosynthetic acclimation, and N availability may
      alter this response. We investigated whether the coordination of shoot-root N
      assimilation by elevated CO2 may help to optimize the whole-plant N allocation
      and maximize photosynthesis in hydroponically-grown durum wheat at two NO3-
      supplies in interaction with plant development. Transcriptional and biochemical
      analyses were performed on flag leaves and roots. At anthesis, the improved
      photosynthetic acclimation response to elevated CO2 at low N was associated with
      increased Rubisco, chlorophyll and amino acid contents, and upregulation of genes
      related to their biosynthesis, light reactions and Calvin-Benson cycle, while a
      decrease was recorded at high N. Despite the decrease in carbohydrates with
      elevated CO2 at low N and the increase at high N, a stronger upward trend in leaf
      NR activity was found at low rather than high N. The induction of N recycling
      related genes was accompanied by an amino acids decline at high N. At the grain
      filling stage, the photosynthetic acclimation to elevated CO2 at high N was
      associated with the downregulation of both N assimilation, mainly in roots, and
      photosynthetic genes. At low N, enhanced root N assimilation partly compensated
      for slower shoot N assimilation and maximized photosynthetic capacity.

PMID- 28554470
TI  - Discovery of novel cold-induced CISP genes encoding small RNA-binding proteins
      related to cold adaptation in barley.
AB  - To adapt to cold conditions, barley plants rely on specific mechanisms, which
      have not been fully understood. In this study, we characterized a novel barley
      cold-induced gene identified using a PCR-based high coverage gene expression
      profiling method. The identified gene encodes a small protein that we named CISP1
      (Cold-induced Small Protein 1). Homology searches of sequence databases revealed
      that CISP1 homologs (CISP2 and CISP3) exist in barley genome. Further database
      analyses showed that the CISP1 homologs were widely distributed in cold-tolerant
      plants such as wheat and rye. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR analyses
      indicated that the expression of barley CISP genes was markedly increased in
      roots exposed to cold conditions. In situ hybridization analyses showed that the
      CISP1 transcripts were localized in the root tip and lateral root primordium. We
      also demonstrated that the CISP1 protein bound to RNA. Taken together, these
      findings indicate that CISP1 and its homologs encoding small RNA-binding proteins
      may serve as RNA chaperones playing a vital role in the cold adaptation of barley
      root. This is the first report describing the likely close relationship between
      root-specific genes and the cold adaptation process, as well as the potential
      function of the identified genes.

PMID- 28554471
TI  - When is the unfolded protein response not the unfolded protein response?
AB  - As sessile organisms, plants are subjected to variety of stresses for which they
      have evolved different protection mechanisms. One mechanism involves endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) stress in which the process of protein folding is disturbed and
      misfolded proteins accumulate in the ER. ER stress elicits the unfolded protein
      response (UPR) whereby the stress conditions in the ER are communicated to the
      nucleus to regulate stress response genes. Since the UPR is one of a number of
      different mechanisms by which plants respond to stress, it is often difficult to
      distinguish the UPR from other stress responses. Many investigators have relied
      on the molecular signature of the UPR, the upregulation of UPR genes to implicate
      the UPR in response to various stresses. However, some of these genes are
      activated by other stresses making it problematic to know whether the UPR is
      truly activated in response to a given stress or is part of a complex response.
      Another challenge is to understand how plants actually perceive different stress
      conditions. Are all stress conditions that elicit the UPR response caused by an
      accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER? Is this the case for salt stress,
      which induces the UPR? How about biotic stresses, such as bacterial or viral
      infections? Do they lead to the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER or
      are there other means by which they induce the UPR?

PMID- 28554472
TI  - A case of neofunctionalization of a Putranjiva roxburghii PNP protein to trypsin
      inhibitor by disruption of PNP-UDP domain through an insert containing inhibitory
      site.
AB  - The attainment of new function by a protein is achieved through
      convergent/divergent evolution. In present work, the sequence analysis of a 34kDa
      protein from Putranjiva roxburghii, earlier reported as a potent trypsin
      inhibitor, showed resemblance to some of the wound inducible and vegetative
      storage proteins. A detailed sequence analysis revealed that these proteins
      belong to PNP-UDP family. In case of P. roxburghii protein, an approximately 46
      residue insert disrupts the PNP domain. Similar disruption of PNP domain is
      observed in related plant proteins. The characterization of recombinant full
      length and truncated (without 46 residue insert) forms of P. roxburghii PNP
      family protein (PRpnp) unraveled that trypsin inhibitory active site is located
      within the insert. The truncated form containing uninterrupted PNP domain showed
      strong PNP enzymatic activity where it hydrolyzed the N-glycosidic bond of
      inosine and guanosine. The full length protein, however, showed weak PNP enzyme
      activity which may be due to presence of the insert. These results indicate
      towards the neofunctionalization of PRpnp to a potent trypsin inhibitor through
      an insert containing inhibitory residue to cater to the needs of plant defense.
      The similar wound inducible and vegetative storage proteins may have also evolved
      due to evolutionary needs.

PMID- 28554473
TI  - Differential proteomic analysis revealing the ovule abortion in the female
      sterile line of Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.
AB  - Ovule abortion affects the yield and quality of Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. seeds.
      Research into ovule abortion has importance for improving the seed setting rate
      and establishing artificial seed production techniques. Fertile line (FL) ovules
      (FL-E) and sterile line (SL) ovules (SL-E) in the early stage of free nuclear
      mitosis of megagametophyte (FNMM), FL ovules (FL-L) and SL ovules (SL-L) in the
      late stage of FNMM of P. tabulaeformis were collected as materials. 4192 proteins
      were identified by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)
      based analysis. Bioinformatics analysis implied that in SL ovules, substances and
      energy might be deficient, perhaps leading to abnormal DNA replication. Because
      the incomplete antioxidant system and the abnormal expression levels of enzymes
      involved in cell signal transduction, DNA DSBs probably occurs. Facing the
      abnormities of DNA replication and damage, the cell cycle was arrested and the
      DNA damage failed to be repaired, potentially resulting in the occurrence of PCD.
      Taken together, an inference can be drawn from our study - substance and energy
      deficiencies, reactive oxygen stress, and the failure of both cell cycle
      progression and DNA damage repair, which possibly hinder FNMM, leading to ovule
      abortion in the female-sterile line of P. tabulaeformis.

PMID- 28554474
TI  - The retraction of the protoplast during PCD is an active, and interruptible,
      calcium-flux driven process.
AB  - The protoplast retracts during apoptosis-like programmed cell death (AL-PCD) and,
      if this retraction is an active component of AL-PCD, it should be used as a
      defining feature for this type of programmed cell death. We used an array of
      pharmacological and genetic tools to test if the rates of protoplast retraction
      in cells undergoing AL-PCD can be modulated. Disturbing calcium flux signalling,
      ATP synthesis and mitochondrial permeability transition all inhibited protoplast
      retraction and often also the execution of the death programme. Protoplast
      retraction can precede loss of plasma membrane integrity and cell death can be
      interrupted after the protoplast retraction had already occurred. Blocking
      calcium influx inhibited the protoplast retraction, reduced DNA fragmentation and
      delayed death induced by AL-PCD associated stresses. At higher levels of stress,
      where cell death occurs without protoplast retraction, blocking calcium flux had
      no effect on the death process. The results therefore strongly suggest that
      retraction of the protoplast is an active biological process dependent on an
      early Ca2+-mediated trigger rather than cellular disintegration due to plasma
      membrane damage. Therefore this morphologically distinct cell type is a
      quantifiable feature, and consequently, reporter of AL-PCD.

PMID- 28554476
TI  - Corrigendum to "Challenges to develop nitrogen-fixing cereals by direct nif-gene
      transfer" [Plant Sci. 225 (August) (2014) 130-137].

PMID- 28554475
TI  - OsCOL16, encoding a CONSTANS-like protein, represses flowering by up-regulating
      Ghd7 expression in rice.
AB  - Flowering time is an important agronomic trait that coordinates the plant life
      cycle with regional adaptability and thereby impacts yield potentials for cereal
      crops. The CONSTANS (CO)-like gene family plays vital roles in the regulation of
      flowering time. CO-like proteins are typically divided into four phylogenetic
      groups in rice. Several genes from groups I, III, and IV have been functionally
      characterized, though little is known about the genes of group II in rice. We
      report the functional characterization in rice of a constitutive floral
      inhibitor, OsCOL16, encoding a group-II CO-like protein that delays flowering
      time and increases plant height and grain yield. Overexpression of OsCOL16
      resulted in late heading under both long-day and short-day conditions. OsCOL16
      expression exhibits a diurnal oscillation and serves as a transcription factor
      with transcriptional activation activity. We determined that OsCOL16 up-regulates
      the expression of the floral repressor Ghd7, leading to down-regulation of the
      expression of Ehd1, Hd3a, and RFT1. Moreover, genetic diversity and evolutionary
      analyses suggest that remarkable differences in flowering times correlate with
      two major alleles of OsCOL16. Our combined molecular biology and phylogeographic
      analyses revealed that OsCOL16 plays an important role in regulating rice
      photoperiodic flowering, allowing for environmental adaptation of rice.

PMID- 28554477
TI  - The Arabidopsis GASA10 gene encodes a cell wall protein strongly expressed in
      developing anthers and seeds.
AB  - The Arabidopsis GASA10 gene encodes a GAST1-like (Gibberellic Acid-Stimulated)
      protein. Reporter gene analysis identified consistent expression in anthers and
      seeds. In anthers expression was developmentally regulated, first appearing at
      stage 7 of anther development and reaching a maximum at stage 11. Strongest
      expression was in the tapetum and developing microspores. GASA10 expression also
      occurred throughout the seed and in root vasculature. GASA10 was shown to be
      transported to the cell wall. Using GASA1 and GASA6 as positive controls,
      gibberellic acid was found not to induce GASA10 expression in Arabidopsis
      suspension cells. Overexpression of GASA10 (35S promoter-driven) resulted in a
      reduction in silique elongation. GASA10 shares structural similarities to the
      antimicrobial peptide snakin1, however, purified GASA10 failed to influence the
      growth of a variety of bacterial and fungal species tested. We propose cell wall
      associated GASA proteins are involved in regulating the hydroxyl radical levels
      at specific sites in the cell wall to facilitate wall growth (regulating cell
      wall elongation).

PMID- 28554479
TI  - Rice PcG gene OsEMF2b controls seed dormancy and seedling growth by regulating
      the expression of OsVP1.
AB  - The induction and release of seed dormancy are a precisely regulated process that
      influences seed germination. ABA promotes seed dormancy but suppresses seed
      germination and seedling growth. However, how chromatin and epigenetic mechanisms
      regulate the expression of ABA related genes during these processes remains
      unclear. Polycomb gene OsEMF2b was required for regulation of seed dormancy and
      seedling growth by dynamically activating and repressing ABA signal response
      genes. Downregulation of OsEMF2b led to vivipary and decreased expression level
      of OsVP1, which was involved in ABA signal pathway in seed dormancy. While, the
      seedlings with downregulation of OsEMF2b exhibited hyper-sensitive response to
      ABA and the expression of OsVP1 is upregulated. Yeast one-hybrid assay and ChIP
      analyses proved that OsEMF2b could bind to the promoter of OsVP1 directly and
      affected H3K27me3 enrichments of OsVP1 in seedling. Interestingly, both H3K27me3
      and H3K4me3 enrichments of OsVP1 were changed with OsEMF2b mis-expression in seed
      and seedling. We proposed that OsEMF2b may play a pivotal role in seed dormancy
      and seedling growth by regulating the expression of OsVP1 indirectly or directly.

PMID- 28554478
TI  - 'Bartlett' pear fruit (Pyrus communis L.) ripening regulation by low temperatures
      involves genes associated with jasmonic acid, cold response, and transcription
      factors.
AB  - Low temperature (LT) treatments enhance ethylene production and ripening rate in
      the European pear (Pyrus communis L.). However, the underlying molecular
      mechanisms are not well understood. This study aims to identify genes responsible
      for ripening enhancement by LT. To this end, the transcriptome of 'Bartlett'
      pears treated with LT (0 degrees C or 10 degrees C for up to 14 d), which results
      in faster ripening, and control pears without conditioning treatment was
      analyzed. LT conditioned pears reached eating firmness (18N) in 6 d while control
      pears took about 12 d when left to ripen at 20 degrees C. We identified 8,536
      differentially expressed (DE) genes between the 0 degrees C-treated and control
      fruit, and 7,938 DE genes between the 10 degrees C-treated and control fruit. In
      an attempt to differentiate temperature-induced vs. ethylene-responsive pathways,
      we also monitored gene expression in fruit sequentially treated with 1-MCP then
      exposed to low temperature. This analysis revealed that genes associated with
      jasmonic acid biosynthesis and signaling, as well as the transcription factors
      TCP9a, TCP9b, CBF1, CBF4, AGL24, MYB1R1, and HsfB2b could be involved in the LT
      mediated enhancement of ripening independently or upstream of ethylene.

PMID- 28554480
TI  - SGD1, a key enzyme in tocopherol biosynthesis, is essential for plant development
      and cold tolerance in rice.
AB  - Tocopherols, a group of Vitamin E compounds, are essential components of the
      human diet. In contrast to well documented roles in animals, the functions of
      tocopherols in plants are less understood. In this study, we characterized two
      allelic rice dwarf mutant lines designated sgd1-1 and sgd1-2 (small grain and
      dwarf1). Histological observations showed that the dwarf phenotypes were mainly
      due to cell elongation defects. A map-based cloning strategy and subsequent
      complementation test showed that SGD1 encodes homogentisate phytyltransferase
      (HPT), a key enzyme in tocopherol biosynthesis. Mutation of SGD1 resulted in
      tocopherol deficiency in both sgd1mutants. No oxidant damage was detected in the
      sgd1 mutants. Further analysis showed that sgd1-2 was hypersensitive to cold
      stress. Our results indicate that SGD1 is essential for plant development and
      cold tolerance in rice.

PMID- 28554481
TI  - Zebrafish Keep Their Cool.

PMID- 28554483
TI  - Editorial overview: Many shades of grey: how immune response is regulated by
      tumors.

PMID- 28554482
TI  - Process simulation and techno economic analysis of renewable diesel production
      via catalytic decarboxylation of rubber seed oil - A case study in Malaysia.
AB  - This work describes the economic feasibility of hydroprocessed diesel fuel
      production via catalytic decarboxylation of rubber seed oil in Malaysia. A
      comprehensive techno-economic assessment is developed using Aspen HYSYS V8.0
      software for process modelling and economic cost estimates. The profitability
      profile and minimum fuels selling price of this synthetic fuels production using
      rubber seed oil as biomass feedstock are assessed under a set of assumptions for
      what can be plausibly be achieved in 10-years framework. In this study, renewable
      diesel processing facility is modelled to be capable of processing 65,000 L of
      inedible oil per day and producing a total of 20 million litre of renewable
      diesel product per annual with assumed annual operational days of 347. With the
      forecasted renewable diesel retail price of 3.64 RM per kg, the pioneering
      renewable diesel project investment offers an assuring return of investment of
      12.1% and net return as high as 1.35 million RM. Sensitivity analysis conducted
      showed that renewable diesel production cost is most sensitive to rubber seed oil
      price and hydrogen gas price, reflecting on the relative importance of feedstock
      prices in the overall profitability profile.

PMID- 28554484
TI  - Editorial overview: Germinal centers and memory B-cells: from here to eternity.

PMID- 28554485
TI  - Microbial Interactions.

PMID- 28554487
TI  - Methodological Remarks in the Meta-Analysis on the Impact of Baseline Pulmonary
      Hypertension on Post-Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Outcomes.

PMID- 28554486
TI  - Comparison of the Antiplatelet Effects of Once and Twice Daily Low-Dose
      Ticagrelor and Clopidogrel After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Although Asian people are believed to be more susceptible to bleeding on
      currently recommended dose of ticagrelor, there is limited evidence supporting
      low-dose ticagrelor. We prospectively randomized patients receiving dual
      antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel into 3 groups; aspirin plus
      clopidogrel 75 mg versus aspirin plus ticagrelor 90 mg once daily versus aspirin
      plus ticagrelor 45 mg twice daily. Platelet function assessments were conducted
      using VerifyNow P2Y12 assay at baseline and 28 days after randomization. No
      differences in baseline P2Y12 reaction unit (PRU) values were observed among the
      3 groups. PRU values at the end of the treatment periods were significantly lower
      in low-dose ticagrelor (90 mg QD group, 98.6 +/- 73.4 and 45 mg BID group, 65.5
      +/- 58.8) compared with clopidogrel (221.2 +/- 50.1, both p <0.001). There was no
      significant difference in PRU values between 2 groups of low-dose ticagrelor (p =
      0.208). The rates of high on-treatment platelet reactivity were significantly
      lower in low-dose ticagrelor compared with clopidogrel, whereas clopidogrel
      showed higher rate of optimal on-treatment platelet reactivity than ticagrelor 45
      mg BID. However, similar rate of optimal on-treatment platelet reactivity was
      observed in clopidogrel and ticagrelor 90 mg QD. In conclusion, low-dose
      ticagrelor treatment, either with 90 mg QD or 45 mg BID, was associated with a
      more potent antiplatelet effect compared with clopidogrel treatment and once
      daily dose provided similar antiplatelet effect but favorable effect on optimal
      platelet inhibition compared with twice daily dose.

PMID- 28554488
TI  - Corrigendum to: Runoff of genotoxic compounds in river basin sediment under the
      influence of contaminated soils [Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. 75 (2012) 63-72].

PMID- 28554489
TI  - Hepatoprotective efficacy of Spirulina platensis against lead-induced oxidative
      stress and genotoxicity in catfish; Clarias gariepinus.
AB  - Lead (Pb) is a toxic environmental pollutant that induces a broad range of
      biochemical and physiological hazards in living organisms. We investigated the
      possible hepatoprotective effects of Spirulina platensis (SP) in counteracting
      the Pb-induced oxidative damage. Ninety-six adult African catfish were allocated
      into four equal groups. The 1st group (control) fed basal diet while the 2nd
      group (Pb-treated) fed on basal diet and exposed to 1mg Pb(NO3)2/L. The 3rd and
      4th groups fed SP-supplemented basal diets at levels of 0.25% and 0.5%,
      respectively and exposed to Pb. Serum samples were used to analyze hepatic
      function biomarkers, electrolytes, and oxidant and antioxidant status. Lipid
      peroxidation and DNA fragmentation were determined in the liver tissues. Pb
      exposure induced hepatic dysfunction, electrolytes (Na+, K+, Ca+2, and Cl-)
      imbalance, as well a significant decrease in GSH content, and LDH, AChE, SOD, CAT
      and GST enzymes activity. SP supplementation reverted these biochemical and
      genetic alterations close to control levels. This amelioration was higher with
      0.5% SP and at the 4th week of exposure, showing concentration- and time
      dependency. Thus, the current study suggests that SP could protect the catfish
      liver against lead-induced injury by scavenging ROS, sustaining the antioxidant
      status and diminishing DNA oxidative damage. The dietary inclusion of SP can be
      used as a promising protective agent to counteract oxidative stress-mediated
      diseases and toxicities.

PMID- 28554491
TI  - Does the emergency surgery score accurately predict outcomes in emergent
      laparotomies?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The emergency surgery score is a mortality-risk calculator for
      emergency general operation patients. We sought to examine whether the emergency
      surgery score predicts 30-day morbidity and mortality in a high-risk group of
      patients undergoing emergent laparotomy. METHODS: Using the 2011-2012 American
      College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, we
      identified all patients who underwent emergent laparotomy using (1) the American
      College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program definition of
      "emergent," and (2) all Current Procedural Terminology codes denoting a
      laparotomy, excluding aortic aneurysm rupture. Multivariable logistic regression
      analyses were performed to measure the correlation (c-statistic) between the
      emergency surgery score and (1) 30-day mortality, and (2) 30-day morbidity after
      emergent laparotomy. As sensitivity analyses, the correlation between the
      emergency surgery score and 30-day mortality was also evaluated in prespecified
      subgroups based on Current Procedural Terminology codes. RESULTS: A total of
      26,410 emergent laparotomy patients were included. Thirty-day mortality and
      morbidity were 10.2% and 43.8%, respectively. The emergency surgery score
      correlated well with mortality (c-statistic = 0.84); scores of 1, 11, and 22
      correlated with mortalities of 0.4%, 39%, and 100%, respectively. Similarly, the
      emergency surgery score correlated well with morbidity (c-statistic = 0.74);
      scores of 0, 7, and 11 correlated with complication rates of 13%, 58%, and 79%,
      respectively. The morbidity rates plateaued for scores higher than 11.
      Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the emergency surgery score effectively
      predicts mortality in patients undergoing emergent (1) splenic, (2)
      gastroduodenal, (3) intestinal, (4) hepatobiliary, or (5) incarcerated ventral
      hernia operation. CONCLUSION: The emergency surgery score accurately predicts
      outcomes in all types of emergent laparotomy patients and may prove valuable as a
      bedside decision-making tool for patient and family counseling, as well as for
      adequate risk-adjustment in emergent laparotomy quality benchmarking efforts.

PMID- 28554492
TI  - Cerebellar Disease Mimicking Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis: Langerhans Cell
      Histiocytosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This report highlights the differential diagnosis of predominant
      cerebellar white matter abnormalities with dentate nuclei involvement. PATIENT
      DESCRIPTION: We describe two individuals with Langerhans cell histiocytosis in
      whom the diagnosis of cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis was initially considered.
      The clinical picture consisted of a progressive cerebellar syndrome with typical
      magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities. In both individuals, the cerebellar
      syndrome preceded the diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis. CONCLUSIONS:
      The magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities and neurological features in
      patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis can be strikingly similar to those
      with cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis. In cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis, the
      cerebellar symptoms and cerebellar white matter abnormalities are usually seen in
      adult patients. In a pediatric patient with a cerebellar syndrome, showing these
      cerebellar white matter abnormalities a diagnosis of Langerhans cell
      histiocytosis is more likely.

PMID- 28554490
TI  - Candidate gene analysis for Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome.
AB  - Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) overexpress many genes on chromosome 21 due
      to trisomy and have high risk of dementia due to the Alzheimer's disease (AD)
      neuropathology. However, there is a wide range of phenotypic differences (e.g.,
      age at onset of AD, amyloid beta levels) among adults with DS, suggesting the
      importance of factors that modify risk within this particularly vulnerable
      population, including genotypic variability. Previous genetic studies in the
      general population have identified multiple genes that are associated with AD.
      This study examined the contribution of polymorphisms in these genes to the risk
      of AD in adults with DS ranging from 30 to 78 years of age at study entry (N =
      320). We used multiple logistic regressions to estimate the likelihood of AD
      using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes, adjusting for
      age, sex, race/ethnicity, level of intellectual disability and APOE genotype.
      This study identified multiple SNPs in APP and CST3 that were associated with AD
      at a gene-wise level empirical p-value of 0.05, with odds ratios in the range of
      1.5-2. SNPs in MARK4 were marginally associated with AD. CST3 and MARK4 may
      contribute to our understanding of potential mechanisms where CST3 may contribute
      to the amyloid pathway by inhibiting plaque formation, and MARK4 may contribute
      to the regulation of the transition between stable and dynamic microtubules.

PMID- 28554493
TI  - Statistical shape modeling predicts patellar bone geometry to enable stereo
      radiographic kinematic tracking.
AB  - Complications in the patellofemoral (PF) joint of patients with total knee
      replacements include patellar subluxation and dislocation, and remain a cause for
      revision. Kinematic measurements to assess these complications and evaluate
      implant designs require the accuracy of dynamic stereo-radiographic systems with
      3D-2D registration techniques. While tibiofemoral kinematics are typically
      derived by tracking metallic implants, PF kinematic measurements are difficult as
      the patellar implant is radiotransparent and a representation of the resected
      patella bone requires either pre-surgical imaging and precise implant placement
      or post-surgical imaging. Statistical shape models (SSMs), used to characterize
      anatomic variation, provide an alternative means to obtain the representation of
      the resected patella for use in kinematic tracking. Using a virtual platform of a
      stereo-radiographic system, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the
      ability of an SSM to predict subject-specific 3D implanted patellar geometries
      from simulated 2D image profiles, and to formulate an effective data collection
      methodology for PF kinematics by considering accuracy for a variety of patient
      pose scenarios. An SSM of the patella was developed for 50 subjects and a leave
      one-out approach compared SSM-predicted and actual geometries; average 3D errors
      were 0.45+/-0.07mm (mean+/-standard deviation), which is comparable to the
      accuracy of traditional segmentation. Further, initial imaging of the patella in
      five unique stereo radiographic perspectives yielded the most accurate
      representation. The ability to predict the remaining patellar geometry of the
      implanted PF joint with radiographic images and SSM, instead of CT, can reduce
      radiation exposure and streamline in vivo kinematic evaluations.

PMID- 28554494
TI  - Effects of a viscosupplementation therapy on rabbit menisci in an anterior
      cruciate ligament transection model of osteoarthritis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphological, microstructural, and
      mechanical effects of a viscosupplementation therapy on rabbit menisci at an
      early stage of osteoarthritis (OA). Anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT)
      was performed in twelve male New-Zealand White rabbits on the right knee joint.
      Six of these twelve rabbits received a mono intra-articular injection of high
      molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA) two weeks after ACLT. Six additional
      healthy rabbits served as controls. Medial menisci were removed from all right
      knees (n=18) six weeks after ACLT and were graded macroscopically. Indentation
      relaxation tests were performed in the anterior and posterior regions of the
      menisci. Collagen fiber organization and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content were
      assessed by biphotonic confocal microscopy and histology, respectively.
      Viscosupplementation significantly (p=0.002) improved the surface integrity of
      the medial menisci compared to the operated non-treated group. Moreover, the
      injection seems to have an effect on the GAG distribution in the anterior region
      of the menisci. However, the viscoelastic properties of both operated groups were
      similar and significantly lower than those of the healthy group, which was
      explained by their modified collagen fiber organization. They displayed
      disruption of the tie fibers due to structural alterations of the superficial
      layers from which they emanate, leading to modifications in the deep zone. To
      conclude, the viscosupplementation therapy prevents macroscopic lesions of the
      menisci, but it fails to restore their collagen fiber organization and their
      viscoelastic properties. This finding supports the role of this treatment in
      improving the lubrication over the knee.

PMID- 28554496
TI  - Update on nursing staffing challenges by state attorneys general.

PMID- 28554495
TI  - Response to letter to the editor concerning "A fully dynamic multi-compartmental
      poroelastic system: Application to aqueductal stenosis".

PMID- 28554497
TI  - Evaluating the older adult experience of a web-based, tablet-delivered heart
      failure self-care program using gerontechnology principles.
AB  - The goals of gerontechnology are to develop technology that facilitates goal
      attainment and improves satisfaction with life for older adults. Few mHealth
      technology systems have been evaluated using these criteria. The purpose of this
      paper was to present the qualitative analysis of participant post-intervention
      interviews from the tablet-delivered Penn State Heart Assistant intervention.
      Semi-structured interviews (n = 12) were conducted after the completion of a 30
      day study protocol. Interviews were transcribed verbatim by a professional
      transcriptionist, then analyzed using an iterative process of coding,
      categorization, and thematic development using DeDoose software and a
      gerontechnology interpretive lens. Two themes with six subthemes arose: Benefits 
      information sharing with others, usability and learnability, use of help
      resources; Suggestions - continuing use after the study, technical problems,
      participant suggested improvements. Interviews suggested improved goal attainment
      and satisfaction with life for the older adults with use of the tablet.

PMID- 28554498
TI  - Addressing refugee health through evidence-based policies: a case study.
AB  - The cumulative total of persons forced to leave their country for fear of
      persecution or organized violence reached an unprecedented 24.5 million by the
      end of 2015. Providing equitable access to appropriate health services for these
      highly diverse newcomers poses challenges for receiving countries. In this case
      study, we illustrate the importance of translating epidemiology into policy to
      address the health needs of refugees by highlighting examples of what works as
      well as identifying important policy-relevant gaps in knowledge. First, we formed
      an international working group of epidemiologists and health services researchers
      to identify available literature on the intersection of epidemiology, policy, and
      refugee health. Second, we created a synopsis of findings to inform a
      recommendation for integration of policy and epidemiology to support refugee
      health in the United States and other high-income receiving countries. Third, we
      identified eight key areas to guide the involvement of epidemiologists in
      addressing refugee health concerns. The complexity and uniqueness of refugee
      health issues, and the need to develop sustainable management information
      systems, require epidemiologists to expand their repertoire of skills to identify
      health patterns among arriving refugees, monitor access to appropriately designed
      health services, address inequities, and communicate with policy makers and
      multidisciplinary teams.

PMID- 28554499
TI  - Reply to the Letter to the Editor by Vargo et al.

PMID- 28554500
TI  - Semantic network analysis of vaccine sentiment in online social media.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine current vaccine sentiment on social media by constructing
      and analyzing semantic networks of vaccine information from highly shared
      websites of Twitter users in the United States; and to assist public health
      communication of vaccines. BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy continues to contribute
      to suboptimal vaccination coverage in the United States, posing significant risk
      of disease outbreaks, yet remains poorly understood. METHODS: We constructed
      semantic networks of vaccine information from internet articles shared by Twitter
      users in the United States. We analyzed resulting network topology, compared
      semantic differences, and identified the most salient concepts within networks
      expressing positive, negative, and neutral vaccine sentiment. RESULTS: The
      semantic network of positive vaccine sentiment demonstrated greater cohesiveness
      in discourse compared to the larger, less-connected network of negative vaccine
      sentiment. The positive sentiment network centered around parents and focused on
      communicating health risks and benefits, highlighting medical concepts such as
      measles, autism, HPV vaccine, vaccine-autism link, meningococcal disease, and MMR
      vaccine. In contrast, the negative network centered around children and focused
      on organizational bodies such as CDC, vaccine industry, doctors, mainstream
      media, pharmaceutical companies, and United States. The prevalence of negative
      vaccine sentiment was demonstrated through diverse messaging, framed around
      skepticism and distrust of government organizations that communicate scientific
      evidence supporting positive vaccine benefits. CONCLUSION: Semantic network
      analysis of vaccine sentiment in online social media can enhance understanding of
      the scope and variability of current attitudes and beliefs toward vaccines. Our
      study synthesizes quantitative and qualitative evidence from an interdisciplinary
      approach to better understand complex drivers of vaccine hesitancy for public
      health communication, to improve vaccine confidence and vaccination coverage in
      the United States.

PMID- 28554501
TI  - Burden of vaccine-preventable pneumococcal disease in hospitalized adults: A
      Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) Serious Outcomes Surveillance (SOS)
      network study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pneumococcal community acquired pneumonia (CAPSpn) and invasive
      pneumococcal disease (IPD) cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide.
      Although childhood immunization programs have reduced the overall burden of
      pneumococcal disease, there is insufficient data in Canada to inform immunization
      policy in immunocompetent adults. This study aimed to describe clinical outcomes
      of pneumococcal disease in hospitalized Canadian adults, and determine the
      proportion of cases caused by vaccine-preventable serotypes. METHODS: Active
      surveillance for CAPSpn and IPD in hospitalized adults was performed in hospitals
      across five Canadian provinces from December 2010 to 2013. CAPSpn were identified
      using sputum culture, blood culture, a commercial pan-pneumococcal urine antigen
      detection (UAD), or a serotype-specific UAD. The serotype distribution was
      characterized using Quellung reaction, and PCR-based serotyping on cultured
      isolates, or using a 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) serotype
      specific UAD assay. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In total, 4769 all-cause CAP cases
      and 81 cases of IPD (non-CAP) were identified. Of the 4769 all-cause CAP cases, a
      laboratory test for S. pneumoniae was performed in 3851, identifying 14.3% as
      CAPSpn. Of CAP cases among whom all four diagnostic test were performed, S.
      pneumoniae was identified in 23.2% (144/621). CAPSpn cases increased with age and
      the disease burden of illness was evident in terms of requirement for mechanical
      ventilation, intensive care unit admission, and 30-day mortality. Of serotypeable
      CAPSpn or IPD results, predominance for serotypes 3, 7F, 19A, and 22F was
      observed. The proportion of hospitalized CAP cases caused by a PCV13-type S.
      pneumoniae ranged between 7.0% and 14.8% among cases with at least one test for
      S. pneumoniae performed or in whom all four diagnostic tests were performed,
      respectively. Overall, vaccine-preventable pneumococcal CAP and IPD were shown to
      be significant causes of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized Canadian adults
      in the three years following infant PCV13 immunization programs in Canada.

PMID- 28554502
TI  - Protection of White Leghorn chickens by U.S. emergency H5 vaccination against
      clade 2.3.4.4 H5N2 high pathogenicity avian influenza virus.
AB  - During December 2014-June 2015, the U.S. experienced a high pathogenicity avian
      influenza (HPAI) outbreak caused by clade 2.3.4.4 H5Nx Goose/Guangdong lineage
      viruses with devastating consequences for the poultry industry. Three vaccines,
      developed based on updating existing registered vaccines or currently licensed
      technologies, were evaluated for possible use: an inactivated reverse genetics
      H5N1 vaccine (rgH5N1) and an RNA particle vaccine (RP-H5), both containing the
      hemagglutinin gene of clade 2.3.4.4 strain, and a recombinant herpesvirus turkey
      vectored vaccine (rHVT-H5) containing the hemagglutinin gene of clade 2.2 strain.
      The efficacy of the three vaccines, alone or in combination, was assessed in
      White Leghorn chickens against clade 2.3.4.4 H5N2 HPAI virus challenge. In Study
      1, single (rHVT-H5) and prime-boost (rHVT-H5+rgH5N1 or rHVT-H5+RP-H5) vaccination
      strategies protected chickens with high levels of protective immunity and
      significantly reduced virus shedding. In Study 2, single vaccination with either
      rgH5N1 or RP-H5 vaccines provided clinical protection in adult chickens and
      significantly reduced virus shedding. In Study 3, double rgH5N1 vaccination
      protected adult chickens from clinical signs and mortality when challenged
      20weeks post-boost, with high levels of long-lasting protective immunity and
      significantly reduced virus shedding. These studies support the use of
      genetically related vaccines, possibly in combination with a broad protective
      priming vaccine, for emergency vaccination programs against clade 2.3.4.4 H5Nx
      HPAI virus in young and adult layer chickens.

PMID- 28554504
TI  - Predictions of space radiation fatality risk for exploration missions.
AB  - : In this paper we describe revisions to the NASA Space Cancer Risk (NSCR) model
      focusing on updates to probability distribution functions (PDF) representing the
      uncertainties in the radiation quality factor (QF) model parameters and the dose
      and dose-rate reduction effectiveness factor (DDREF). We integrate recent heavy
      ion data on liver, colorectal, intestinal, lung, and Harderian gland tumors with
      other data from fission neutron experiments into the model analysis. In an
      earlier work we introduced distinct QFs for leukemia and solid cancer risk
      predictions, and here we consider liver cancer risks separately because of the
      higher RBE's reported in mouse experiments compared to other tumors types, and
      distinct risk factors for liver cancer for astronauts compared to the U.S.
      POPULATION: The revised model is used to make predictions of fatal cancer and
      circulatory disease risks for 1-year deep space and International Space Station
      (ISS) missions, and a 940 day Mars mission. We analyzed the contribution of the
      various model parameter uncertainties to the overall uncertainty, which shows
      that the uncertainties in relative biological effectiveness (RBE) factors at high
      LET due to statistical uncertainties and differences across tissue types and
      mouse strains are the dominant uncertainty. NASA's exposure limits are approached
      or exceeded for each mission scenario considered. Two main conclusions are made:
      1) Reducing the current estimate of about a 3-fold uncertainty to a 2-fold or
      lower uncertainty will require much more expansive animal carcinogenesis studies
      in order to reduce statistical uncertainties and understand tissue, sex and
      genetic variations. 2) Alternative model assumptions such as non-targeted
      effects, increased tumor lethality and decreased latency at high LET, and non
      cancer mortality risks from circulatory diseases could significantly increase
      risk estimates to several times higher than the NASA limits.

PMID- 28554503
TI  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae-derived virus-like particle parvovirus B19 vaccine
      elicits binding and neutralizing antibodies in a mouse model for sickle cell
      disease.
AB  - Parvovirus B19 infections are typically mild in healthy individuals, but can be
      life threatening in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD). A Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae-derived B19 VLP vaccine, now in pre-clinical development, is
      immunogenic in wild type mice when administered with the adjuvant MF59. Because
      SCD alters the immune response, we evaluated the efficacy of this vaccine in a
      mouse model for SCD. Vaccinated mice with SCD demonstrated similar binding and
      neutralizing antibody responses to those of heterozygous littermate controls
      following a prime-boost-boost regimen. Due to the lack of a mouse parvovirus B19
      challenge model, we employed a natural mouse pathogen, Sendai virus, to evaluate
      SCD respiratory tract responses to infection. Normal mucosal and systemic
      antibody responses were observed in these mice. Results demonstrate that mice
      with SCD can respond to a VLP vaccine and to a respiratory virus challenge,
      encouraging rapid development of the B19 vaccine for patients with SCD.

PMID- 28554505
TI  - Long term stability of Oligo (dT) 25 magnetic beads for the expression analysis
      of Euglena gracilis for long term space projects.
AB  - The unicellular freshwater flagellate Euglena gracilis has a highly developed
      sensory system. The cells use different stimuli such as light and gravity to
      orient themselves in the surrounding medium to find areas for optimal growth. Due
      to the ability to produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide, Euglena is a
      suitable candidate for life support systems. Participation in a long-term space
      experiment would allow for the analysis of changes and adaptations to the new
      environment, and this could bring new insights into the mechanism of perception
      of gravity and the associated signal transduction chain. For a molecular analysis
      of transcription patterns, an automated system is necessary, capable of
      performing all steps from taking a sample, processing it and generating data. One
      of the developmental steps is to find long-term stable reagents and materials and
      test them for stability at higher-than-recommended temperature conditions during
      extended storage time. We investigated the usability of magnetic beads in an
      Euglena specific lysis buffer after addition of the RNA stabilizer Dithiothreitol
      over 360 days and the lysis buffer with the stabilizer alone over 455 days at the
      expected storage temperature of 19  degrees C. We can claim that the stability is
      not impaired at all after an incubation period of over one year. This might be an
      interesting result for researchers who have to work under non-standard lab
      conditions, as in biological or medicinal fieldwork.

PMID- 28554506
TI  - BION-M 1: First continuous blood pressure monitoring in mice during a 30-day
      spaceflight.
AB  - Animals are an essential component of space exploration and have been used to
      demonstrate that weightlessness does not disrupt essential physiological
      functions. They can also contribute to space research as models of weightlessness
      induced changes in humans. Animal research was an integral component of the 30
      day automated Russian biosatellite Bion-M 1 space mission. The aim of the
      hemodynamic experiment was to estimate cardiovascular function in mice, a species
      roughly 3000 times smaller than humans, during prolonged spaceflight and post
      flight recovery, particularly, to investigate if mice display signs of
      cardiovascular deconditioning. For the first time, heart rate (HR) and blood
      pressure (BP) were continuously monitored using implantable telemetry during
      spaceflight and recovery. Decreased HR and unchanged BP were observed during
      launch, whereas both HR and BP dropped dramatically during descent. During
      spaceflight, BP did not change from pre-flight values. However, HR increased,
      particularly during periods of activity. HR remained elevated after spaceflight
      and was accompanied by increased levels of exercise-induced tachycardia. Loss of
      three of the five mice during the flight as a result of the hardware malfunction
      (unrelated to the telemetry system) and thus the limited sample number constitute
      the major limitation of the study. For the first time BP and HR were continuously
      monitored in mice during the 30-day spaceflight and 7-days of post-flight
      recovery. Cardiovascular deconditioning in these tiny quadruped mammals was
      reminiscent of that in humans. Therefore, the loss of hydrostatic pressure in
      space, which is thought to be the initiating event for human cardiovascular
      adaptation in microgravity, might be of less importance than other physiological
      mechanisms. Further experiments with larger number of mice are needed to confirm
      these findings.

PMID- 28554507
TI  - Track structure model of microscopic energy deposition by protons and heavy ions
      in segments of neuronal cell dendrites represented by cylinders or spheres.
AB  - Changes to cognition, including memory, following radiation exposure are a
      concern for cosmic ray exposures to astronauts and in Hadron therapy with proton
      and heavy ion beams. The purpose of the present work is to develop computational
      methods to evaluate microscopic energy deposition (ED) in volumes representative
      of neuron cell structures, including segments of dendrites and spines, using a
      stochastic track structure model. A challenge for biophysical models of neuronal
      damage is the large sizes (> 100um) and variability in volumes of possible
      dendritic segments and pre-synaptic elements (spines and filopodia). We consider
      cylindrical and spherical microscopic volumes of varying geometric parameters and
      aspect ratios from 0.5 to 5 irradiated by protons, and 3He and 12C particles at
      energies corresponding to a distance of 1cm to the Bragg peak, which represent
      particles of interest in Hadron therapy as well as space radiation exposure. We
      investigate the optimal axis length of dendritic segments to evaluate microscopic
      ED and hit probabilities along the dendritic branches at a given macroscopic
      dose. Because of large computation times to analyze ED in volumes of varying
      sizes, we developed an analytical method to find the mean primary dose in spheres
      that can guide numerical methods to find the primary dose distribution for
      cylinders. Considering cylindrical segments of varying aspect ratio at constant
      volume, we assess the chord length distribution, mean number of hits and ED
      profiles by primary particles and secondary electrons (delta-rays). For
      biophysical modeling applications, segments on dendritic branches are proposed to
      have equal diameters and axes lengths along the varying diameter of a dendritic
      branch.

PMID- 28554508
TI  - 28Si total body irradiation injures bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells via
      induction of cellular apoptosis.
AB  - Long-term space mission exposes astronauts to a radiation environment with
      potential health hazards. High-energy charged particles (HZE), including 28Si
      nuclei in space, have deleterious effects on cells due to their characteristics
      with high linear energy transfer and dense ionization. The influence of 28Si ions
      contributes more than 10% to the radiation dose equivalent in the space
      environment. Understanding the biological effects of 28Si irradiation is
      important to assess the potential health hazards of long-term space missions. The
      hematopoietic system is highly sensitive to radiation injury and bone marrow (BM)
      suppression is the primary life-threatening injuries after exposure to a moderate
      dose of radiation. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the acute
      effects of low doses of 28Si irradiation on the hematopoietic system in a mouse
      model. Specifically, 6-month-old C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9Gy
      28Si (600MeV) total body irradiation (TBI). The effects of 28Si TBI on BM
      hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) were
      examined four weeks after the exposure. The results showed that exposure to 28Si
      TBI dramatically reduced the frequencies and numbers of HSCs in irradiated mice,
      compared to non-irradiated controls, in a radiation dose-dependent manner. In
      contrast, no significant changes were observed in BM HPCs regardless of radiation
      doses. Furthermore, irradiated HSCs exhibited a significant impairment in
      clonogenic ability. These acute effects of 28Si irradiation on HSCs may be
      attributable to radiation-induced apoptosis of HSCs, because HSCs, but not HPCs,
      from irradiated mice exhibited a significant increase in apoptosis in a radiation
      dose-dependent manner. However, exposure to low doses of 28Si did not result in
      an increased production of reactive oxygen species and DNA damage in HSCs and
      HPCs. These findings indicate that exposure to 28Si irradiation leads to acute
      HSC damage.

PMID- 28554509
TI  - Low and high dose rate heavy ion radiation-induced intestinal and colonic
      tumorigenesis in APC1638N/+ mice.
AB  - Ionizing radiation (IR) is a recognized risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC)
      and astronauts undertaking long duration space missions are expected to receive
      IR doses in excess of permissible limits with implications for colorectal
      carcinogenesis. Exposure to IR in outer space occurs at low doses and dose rates,
      and energetic heavy ions due to their high linear energy transfer (high-LET)
      characteristics remain a major concern for CRC risk in astronauts. Previously, we
      have demonstrated that intestinal tumorigenesis in a mouse model (APC1638N/+) of
      human colorectal cancer was significantly higher after exposure to high dose rate
      energetic heavy ions relative to low-LET gamma radiation. The purpose of the
      current study was to compare intestinal tumorigenesis in APC1638N/+ mice after
      exposure to energetic heavy ions at high (50cGy/min) and relatively low
      (0.33cGy/min) dose rate. Male and female mice (6-8 weeks old) were exposed to
      either 10 or 50cGy of 28Si (energy: 300MeV/n; LET: 70keV/MUm) or 56Fe (energy:
      1000MeV/n; LET: 148keV/MUm) ions at NASA Space Radiation Laboratory in Brookhaven
      National Laboratory. Mice (n=20 mice/group) were euthanized and intestinal and
      colon tumor frequency and size were counted 150days after radiation exposure.
      Intestinal tumorigenesis in male mice exposed to 56Fe was similar for high and
      low dose rate exposures. Although male mice showed a decreasing trend at low dose
      rate relative to high dose rate exposures, the differences in tumor frequency
      between the two types of exposures were not statistically significant after 28Si
      radiation. In female mice, intestinal tumor frequency was similar for both
      radiation type and dose rates tested. In both male and female mice intestinal
      tumor size was not different after high and low dose rate radiation exposures.
      Colon tumor frequency in male and female mice after high and low dose rate
      energetic heavy ions was also not significantly different. In conclusion,
      intestinal and colonic tumor frequency and size was similar irrespective of
      energetic heavy ion radiation dose rate suggesting that carcinogenic potential of
      energetic heavy ions is independent of dose rate.

PMID- 28554510
TI  - Cosmic-ray interaction data for designing biological experiments in space.
AB  - There is growing interest in flying biological experiments beyond low-Earth orbit
      (LEO) to measure biological responses potentially relevant to those expected
      during a human mission to Mars. Such experiments could be payloads onboard
      precursor missions, including unmanned private-public partnerships, as well as
      small low-cost spacecraft (satellites) designed specifically for biosentinel-type
      missions. It is the purpose of this paper to provide physical cosmic-ray
      interaction data and related information useful to biologists who may be planning
      such experiments. It is not the objective here to actually design such
      experiments or provide radiobiological response functions, which would be
      specific for each experiment and biological endpoint. Nuclide-specific flux and
      dose rates were calculated using OLTARIS and these results were used to determine
      particle traversal rates and doses in hypothetical biological targets.
      Comparisons are provided between GCR in interplanetary space and inside the ISS.
      Calculated probabilistic estimates of dose from solar particle events are also
      presented. Although the focus here is on biological experiments, the information
      provided may be useful for designing other payloads as well if the space
      radiation environment is a factor to be considered.

PMID- 28554511
TI  - Induction of cardiac dysfunction in developing and adult zebrafish by chronic
      isoproterenol stimulation.
AB  - Zebrafish is a widely used model to evaluate genetic variants and modifiers that
      can cause heart muscle diseases. Surprisingly, the beta-adrenergic receptor (beta
      AR) pathway in zebrafish is not well characterized, although abnormal beta-AR
      signaling is a major contributor to human heart failure (HF). Chronic beta-AR
      activation in the attempt to normalize heart function in the failing heart
      results in a reduction of the beta-ARs expression and receptor desensitization,
      largely mediated through G-protein coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) upregulation.
      This in turn leads to further deterioration of heart function and progression
      towards HF. This study seeks to systematically characterize the function of the
      beta-AR signaling in developing and adult zebrafish to ultimately assess the
      ability to induce HF through chronic beta-AR activation by isoproterenol (ISO) as
      established in the mouse model. Larval hearts first responded to ISO by 3dpf, in
      concordance with robust expression of key components of the beta-AR signaling
      pathway. Although ISO-induced beta1-AR and beta2-AR isoform upregulation
      persisted, chronic ISO stimulation for 5d caused systolic cardiac dysfunction
      concurrently with maximal expression of G-protein-coupled receptor kinase-2
      (GRK2). More consistent to mammalians, adult zebrafish developed significant
      heart failure in concert with beta1-AR downregulation, and GRK2 and brain
      natriuretic peptide (BNP) upregulation in response to prolonged, 14d ISO
      stimulation. This was accompanied by significant cell death and inflammation
      without detectable fibrosis. Our study unveils important characteristics of
      larvae and adult zebrafish hearts pertaining to beta-AR signaling. A lack of beta
      AR responsiveness and atypical beta-AR/GRK2 ratios in larval zebrafish should be
      considered. Adult zebrafish resembled the mammalian situation on the functional
      and molecular level more closely, but also revealed differences to dysfunctional
      mammalian hearts, i.e. lack of fibrosis. Our study establishes the first ISO
      inducible HF model in adult zebrafish and present critical characteristics of the
      zebrafish heart essential to be considered when utilizing the zebrafish as a
      human disease and future drug discovery model.

PMID- 28554512
TI  - Functional atrial undersensing associated with device algorithm promoting AV
      conduction.
AB  - A 58-year-old woman received a dual chamber pacemaker (Medtronic) for sick sinus
      syndrome. Given intact AV conduction the Managed Ventricular Pacing mode
      algorithm (MVP) was programmed. The day after, she suffered from palpitations.
      Her ECG showed a possible loss of atrial capture accompanied by atrial
      undersensing. Telemetry-supported pacemaker control confirmed the loss of
      capture. Undersensing of atrial signal was functional, related to long atrial
      refractory period in MVP mode algorithm. Device algorithms could induce false
      suspicions. Awareness about the different pacing algorithms can be useful in
      order to avoid erroneous interpretations and to correct potential malfunctioning.

PMID- 28554513
TI  - Right ventricular apical versus non-apical implantable cardioverter defibrillator
      lead: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We aimed to study the effect of right ventricular implantable
      cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) lead positioning on clinical outcomes in
      patients undergoing ICD placement. METHODS: A systematic literature search was
      performed using PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials to identify clinical trials comparing outcomes in patients with
      ICD leads in apical and non-apical positions. The primary outcome of our study
      was death at 1-year follow-up. Secondary outcomes studied were "death at 3years",
      "total number of shocks", "appropriate shocks", "inappropriate shocks" and "cut
      to-suture time". RESULTS: We analyzed a total of 3731 patients (2852 in apical
      and 879 in non-apical ICD groups) enrolled in 4 clinical trials. No significant
      difference was observed between the apical and non-apical ICD groups in all-cause
      mortality at 1year (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.51-1.49, p=0.63; I2=5.32%). Similarly, no
      differences were seen between the two groups in death at 3years (OR=0.76; 95% CI
      0.56-1.04, p=0.08; I2=0%), total number of shocks (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.81-1.22,
      p=0.95; I2=0%), appropriate shocks (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.79-1.27, p=0.99; I2=0%),
      inappropriate shocks (OR 0.98; 95% CI 0.70-1.37, p=0.91; I2=0%) and cut-to-suture
      time (Standard mean difference=-0.03; 95% CI -0.20 to 0.14, p=0.73; I2=0%). No
      publication bias was seen. CONCLUSION: Non-apical RV ICD lead implantation is non
      inferior to traditional RV apical position with no significant differences in
      mortality, total number of shocks, appropriate shocks, inappropriate shocks and
      procedural time.

PMID- 28554514
TI  - Remodeling of ventricular repolarization in experimental right ventricular
      hypertrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To understand electrophysiological mechanisms that underlie the
      progression of compensated right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) to heart failure,
      the purpose of the study was to evaluate remodeling of ventricular repolarization
      in connection with hemodynamic abnormalities and vulnerability of the heart
      ventricles to arrhythmias in RVH rats with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)
      and heart failure. METHODS: PAH followed by heart failure was induced by
      monocrotaline in adult female Wistar rats. Unipolar epicardial electrograms and
      cardiac hemodynamic parameters were recorded in situ. Vulnerability to
      ventricular arrhythmias was measured as the threshold dose of aconitine required
      to produce sustained ventricular tachycardia. Histological examination of the
      heart ventricles was performed. Activation-recovery intervals (ARIs) and ARI
      dispersions were used as indices of durations and heterogeneity of repolarization
      respectively to assess ventricular repolarization. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The
      development of compensated RVH was characterized by the dramatic prolongation of
      repolarization against the less expressed increase in repolarization
      heterogeneity, whereas the dramatic increase in repolarization heterogeneity
      against the less expressed but inhomogeneous prolongation of repolarization
      occurred in the progression of compensated RVH to heart failure. These changes
      increased vulnerability of the failing heart but not the compensated heart to
      aconitine-induced ventricular arrhythmias.

PMID- 28554515
TI  - Catheter ablation of epicardial ventricular tachycardia from the coronary venous
      system: Is endocardial mapping always required?
AB  - Endocardial mapping is typically considered as the first step of VT ablation
      procedures. Nevertheless, when the electrocardiogram is highly suggestive of an
      epicardial VT, a minimally invasive procedure performed exclusively via the
      coronary sinus might be considered. This straightforward approach avoids all
      potential complications associated with access to the left ventricular
      endocardium, the aortic root, and the pericardial space.

PMID- 28554516
TI  - Re: Turini et al.: The State of Prescreening Discussions About Prostate-specific
      Antigen Testing Following Implementation of the 2012 United States Preventive
      Services Task Force Statement (Urology 2017;104:122-130).

PMID- 28554518
TI  - Reply by the Author.

PMID- 28554517
TI  - Factors Associated With Erectile Dysfunction and the Peyronie's Disease
      Questionnaire in Patients With Peyronie Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To elucidate patient characteristics that impact symptom-related
      bother and erectile function in patients with Peyronie disease (PD). METHODS: A
      post hoc analysis used data from patients with PD (ie, had PD symptoms >=12
      months and penile curvature deformity of 30-90 degrees) who received >=1
      injection of study medication in 2 phase 3 trials of collagenase clostridium
      histolyticum (Investigation for Maximal Peyronie's Reduction Efficacy and Safety
      Study I [n = 417] and Investigation for Maximal Peyronie's Reduction Efficacy and
      Safety Study II [n = 415]). The Covariance Analysis of Linear Structural
      Equations procedure was used to estimate the potential relationship of specified
      variables on the level of distress and erectile dysfunction associated with PD as
      measured by the Peyronie's Disease Questionnaire and the International Index of
      Erectile Function, erectile function domain. RESULTS: Pain during intercourse (P
      = .02) and PD bother (P <.0001) had a significant impact on International Index
      of Erectile Function, erectile function scores. The Peyronie's Disease
      Questionnaire bother domain score was significantly affected by penile curvature
      deformity, penile shortening, pain during intercourse, and the presence of
      plaques (P <=.0005 for all), with pain during intercourse having the greatest
      impact (maximum likelihood estimation +/- standard error = .496 +/- .030; P
      <.0001). Erectile function did not appear to be directly influenced by the
      presence of plaques, penile curvature deformity, or penile shortening but was
      associated with PD bother and penile pain. CONCLUSION: This post hoc analysis
      provides a conceptual framework through which disease characteristics may impact
      PD-related bother and erectile function in patients with PD.

PMID- 28554519
TI  - P.L.E.A.T.-Preventing Lymphocele Ensuring Absorption Transperitoneally: A Robotic
      Technique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To reduce the risk of symptomatic lymphocele after robotic pelvic
      lymph node dissection (PLND), we present a technique, preventing lymphocele
      ensuring absorption transperitoneally (P.L.E.A.T.), where the peritoneum is
      "pleated" along its midline, leaving 2 lateral openings and allowing lymphatic
      fluid to drain away from the pelvis and into the abdomen. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We analyzed a single-surgeon series of PLNDs during robotic radical
      prostatectomy, comparing 195 "standard" PLNDs (in which the peritoneum was "re
      approximated" or left completely open) with 176 cases in which P.L.E.A.T. was
      performed. RESULTS: In the group without P.L.E.A.T., 8 cases of symptomatic
      (grade >=3, according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification) lymphoceles (4.1%)
      were recorded. Only 1 patient in the P.L.E.A.T. group complained of symptoms
      because of a lymphocele (P = .039). No patient reported complications because of
      the procedure. CONCLUSION: The P.L.E.A.T. technique is a fast, easy-to-perform,
      and safe method of reducing the risk of symptomatic lymphocele after
      transperitoneal robotic PLND.

PMID- 28554520
TI  - Memokath Stent Failure in Recurrent Bulbar Urethral Strictures: Results From an
      Investigative Pilot Stage 2A Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of the Memokath stent in managing recurrent
      bulbar urethral strictures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an investigative pilot
      stage 2A study in patients with a recurrent bulbar urethral stricture who
      underwent a Memokath stent implant from January 2014 to January 2016 in a single
      high-volume center for urethral reconstruction. The Memokath stent (Pnn Medical
      A/S, Kvistgaard, Denmark) was manufactured from nitinol, a biocompatible alloy of
      nickel and titanium, which was endoscopically placed. It had a 24-Fr outside
      diameter and was preloaded on a disposable delivery device. When correctly
      positioned, the stent was anchored by a warm water (55 degrees C) instillation,
      which expanded the proximal end of the stent from 24 to 42 Fr .The stent was
      provided in lengths of 3-7 cm in 1-cm increments. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were
      included in the study. The median follow-up was 16 months. In 7 patients (43.7%),
      the stent was removed within 1 year. The main adverse events were pain,
      encrustations, stones, and recurrent strictures. Four patients (25%) were
      considered a success and 12 (75%) were failures. Study limitations include the
      small sample. CONCLUSION: The Memokath stent was deemed to be not clinically
      helpful and had significant side effects, and therefore should not be considered
      a treatment option for men with bulbar urethral strictures.

PMID- 28554521
TI  - Metabolic construction strategies for direct methanol utilization in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - The aim of this study was to metabolically construct Saccharomyces cerevisiae for
      achievement of direct methanol utilization and value added product (mainly
      pyruvate) production. After successful integration of methanol oxidation pathway
      originated from Pichia pastoris into the chromosome of S. cerevisiae, the
      recombinant showed 1.04g/L consumption of methanol and 3.13% increase of cell
      growth (OD600) when using methanol as the sole carbon source. Moreover, 0.26g/L
      of pyruvate was detected in the fermentation broth. The supplementation of 1g/L
      yeast extract could further improve cell growth with increase of 11.70% and
      methanol consumption to 2.35g/L. This represents the first genetically modified
      non-methylotrophic eukaryotic microbe for direct methanol utilization and would
      be of great value concerning the development of biotechnological processes.

PMID- 28554522
TI  - Engineering aspects of microbial exopolysaccharide production.
AB  - Although the ability to secrete exopolysaccharides (EPS) is widespread among
      microorganisms, only a few bacterial (e.g. xanthan, levan, dextran) and fungal
      (e.g. pullulan) EPS have reached full commercialization. During the last years,
      other microbial EPS producers have been the subject of extensive research,
      including endophytes, extremophiles, microalgae and Cyanobacteria, as well as
      mixed microbial consortia. Those studies have demonstrated the great potential of
      such microbial systems to generate biopolymers with novel chemical structures and
      distinctive functional properties. In this work, an overview of the bioprocesses
      developed for EPS production by the wide diversity of reported microbial
      producers is presented, including their development and scale-up. Bottlenecks
      that currently hinder microbial EPS development are identified, along with future
      prospects for further advancement.

PMID- 28554523
TI  - Improved ethanol production at high temperature by consolidated bioprocessing
      using Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain engineered with artificial zinc finger
      protein.
AB  - In this work, the consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      MNII/cocdeltaBEC3 was transformed by an artificial zinc finger protein (AZFP)
      library to improve its thermal tolerance, and the strain MNII-AZFP with superior
      growth at 42 degrees C was selected. Improved degradation of acid swollen
      cellulose by 45.9% led to an increase in ethanol production, when compared to the
      control strain. Moreover, the fermentation of Jerusalem artichoke stalk (JAS) by
      MNII-AZFP was shortened by 12h at 42 degrees C with a concomitant improvement in
      ethanol production. Comparative transcriptomics analysis suggested that the AZFP
      in the mutant exerted beneficial effect by modulating the expression of multiple
      functional genes. These results provide a feasible strategy for efficient ethanol
      production from JAS and other cellulosic biomass through CBP based-fermentation
      at elevated temperatures.

PMID- 28554524
TI  - Depression, Self-Esteem, and Childhood Abuse Among Hispanic Men Residing in the
      U.S.-Mexico Border Region.
AB  - Hispanics experience health disparities in mental health and HIV infection when
      compared to non-Hispanic Whites, which may be related to childhood abuse. The
      purpose of our cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between
      childhood abuse and depressive symptoms in a sample of Hispanic men (N = 103)
      living in a metropolitan U.S.-Mexico border area. Secondarily, we examined the
      role of self-esteem in mediating this relationship, and the moderating role of
      sexual orientation. Gay/bisexual men (n = 53) were more likely to report
      childhood abuse than heterosexual (n = 50) counterparts (47.2% vs. 32%). Self
      esteem mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and depression for men
      who have sex with men, but not heterosexual men. Nurses should increase knowledge
      of mental health disparities that impact Hispanic men to ensure that appropriate
      treatment can be provided to reduce the risk of co-occurring health risks to
      these men, including risk for HIV infection.

PMID- 28554525
TI  - Coupling between chromosome intermingling and gene regulation during cellular
      differentiation.
AB  - In this article, we summarize current findings for the emergence of biophysical
      properties such as nuclear stiffness, chromatin compaction, chromosome
      positioning, and chromosome intermingling during stem cell differentiation, which
      eventually correlated with the changes of gene expression profiles during
      cellular differentiation. An overview is first provided to link stem cell
      differentiation with alterations in nuclear architecture, chromatin compaction,
      along with nuclear and chromatin dynamics. Further, we highlight the recent
      biophysical and molecular approaches, imaging methods and computational
      developments in characterizing transcription-related chromosome organization
      especially chromosome intermingling and nano-scale chromosomal contacts. Finally,
      the article ends with an outlook towards the emergence of a functional roadmap in
      setting up chromosome positioning and intermingling in a cell type specific
      manner during cellular differentiation.

PMID- 28554526
TI  - Quantitative SYBR Green qPCR technique for the detection of the nematode parasite
      Anisakis in commercial fish-derived food.
AB  - The extensive presence of anisakids in fish for human consumption has become a
      problem of food safety and quality. The aim of this study was to develop and
      assess the performance of a quantitative SYBR Green qPCR assay for the detection
      and quantification of Anisakis DNA in fish by-products. L3 nematode larvae of A.
      simplex (s.l.) (n=510), A. physeteris (n=3), Hysterothylacium sp. (n=10) and
      Pseudoterranova sp. (n=1), isolated from blue whiting, horse mackerel and
      monkfish, were used for the optimization of the molecular assay. In addition,
      molecularly typed larvae of A. simplex (s.s.) (n=10) and A. pegreffii (n=5) of
      the complex A. simplex (s.l.) were used for the specificity assay. Primers
      targeting the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit II gene (COII) were
      selected. Analytical sensitivity and reproducibility were evaluated in a food
      matrix consisting of commercial fish-derived food spiked with larvae of A.
      simplex (s.l.). The assay proved to be specific for the three analyzed Anisakis
      species. A high reproducibility and sensitivity was detected, with a 95% limit of
      detection (LOD) of 0.30ng (95%CI 0.15-1.50) of A. simplex (s.l.) DNA per gram of
      food matrix and an operative LOD of 1.50ng after a PROBIT analysis. The assay was
      applied to study the presence of Anisakis in four types of processed commercial
      food, namely crab sticks, "gulas", croquettes and burgers. Overall, 180 food
      samples from 15 commercial brands were studied, detecting Anisakis DNA in over
      half of them. The analyzed surimi-based products, "gulas" and crab sticks, showed
      the highest Anisakis burden (5.86+/-0.69 and 4.68+/-0.73ng of Anisakis DNA per
      gram of food, respectively). Our results indicate that the optimized SYBR Green
      qPCR technique is an accurate and sensitive method that may improve detection of
      Anisakis in fresh and processed products.

PMID- 28554527
TI  - Electroencephalographic alpha activity modulations induced by breath-holding in
      apnoea divers and non-divers.
AB  - Little is known regarding cortical responses to sustained breath-holding (BH) in
      expert apnoea divers. The present study therefore investigated
      electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha activity and asymmetries in apnoea divers
      (experts) compared to non-divers (novices). EEG of 10 apnoea and 10 non-divers
      were recorded in the laboratory for either four minutes or for two minutes of BH.
      Alpha activity and alpha asymmetry (i.e. hemispherical EEG differences) were
      calculated and compared between expertise level and BH duration. Alpha amplitude
      in experts significantly decreased at four minutes of BH compared to resting
      activity, while alpha amplitude significantly decreased in novices only at centro
      parietal regions. Alpha-asymmetry analysis revealed that the experts' decrease in
      alpha at the end of BH was different in the frontal electrodes with the left
      prefrontal cortex activity higher than that in the right prefrontal cortex. This
      lateralized pattern reflected differential prefrontal processing of the unique
      psycho-physiological state of BH.

PMID- 28554528
TI  - Lobeline attenuates ethanol abstinence-induced depression-like behavior in mice.
AB  - Evidence indicates that the brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChRs)
      ligand lobeline reduces depression-like behaviors, ethanol drinking, and nicotine
      withdrawal-induced depression-like behaviors. The purpose of the present study
      was to determine the effects of lobeline on ethanol abstinence-induced depression
      like behavior and associated neuroadaptive changes in mice. Adult C57BL/6J male
      mice were allowed to drink 10% ethanol for 4 weeks using a two-bottle choice
      procedure. Mice were tested after 24 h and 14 days of ethanol abstinence in a
      forced swim test (FST), a measure for depression-like behavior. Acute lobeline
      treatment (1 mg/kg) significantly reduced immobility time compared to controls
      after 24 h and 14 days of abstinence. In addition, abstinence from chronic
      ethanol exposure reduced serotonin levels in the hippocampus, which was reversed
      by acute lobeline treatment. Repeated lobeline treatment (1 mg/kg, once daily)
      for 14 days during ethanol abstinence also significantly reduced FST immobility
      in mice exposed to ethanol. Chronic ethanol exposure significantly reduced the
      number of 5-bromo 2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive cells in the dentate gyrus of
      the hippocampus, indicating decreased hippocampal cell proliferation. Abstinence
      from chronic ethanol exposure also decreased brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      (BDNF) in the dentate gyrus and CA3 region of the hippocampus. In contrast,
      repeated lobeline treatment significantly increased both BrdU- and BDNF-positive
      cells. Taken together, our results indicate that lobeline produced antidepressant
      like effects, likely by targeting brain beta2-containing nAChRs, serotonergic
      neurotransmission, and/or hippocampal cell proliferation. Therefore, lobeline may
      have therapeutic utility to treat alcohol abstinence-induced depression.

PMID- 28554530
TI  - Electrical Muscle Stimulation Induces an Increase of VEGFR2 on Circulating
      Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Patients With Diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: External electric muscle stimulation (EMS) of the thigh muscles was
      found to reduce pain resulting from diabetic neuropathy (DN), a vascular
      complication of diabetes. This study investigated circulating hematopoietic stem
      cells (HSCs) after EMS treatment. Impaired function of HSCs and the subpopulation
      endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), important for neovascularization and
      endothelial repair, has been associated with DN. METHODS: Twenty-four patients
      with painful DN were treated 3 times with EMS over a period of 1 week. Blood
      samples were collected before and after the first EMS treatment. Before a fourth
      treatment, neuropathic pain was evaluated and a third blood sample was collected.
      Cells were used for flow cytometry. FINDINGS: Patients with painful DN reported
      that the pain decreased after 3 times of 1-hour treatments with EMS (Neuropathy
      Symptom Score: from 8 to 6, P = 0.001; Neuropathy Disability Score: from 5.5 to
      5, P = 0.027, n = 24). At the end of the study, diastolic blood pressure had
      decreased from 80 to 70 mm Hg (P = 0.043), and plasma adrenaline and
      noradrenaline metabolites metanephrine and normetanephrine were reduced (both P
      <= 0.01; n = 21). A single EMS treatment caused an immediate and transient
      decrease in the frequency of CD34+ HSCs in circulation (-20%; P < 0.001; n = 27).
      In 9 of the patients with DN, the proportion of HSCs expressing vascular
      endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2; defining the HSCs as EPCs)
      increased by 36% (P = 0.011) after EMS treatment. Proteins required for binding
      to endothelium (junctional adhesion molecule A and CD31), homing toward hypoxic
      tissue (C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4), and endothelial differentiation (CD31)
      were increased on HSCs immediately after EMS treatment. An increased frequency of
      VEGFR2 expression was also observed on HSCs of 6 healthy control volunteers (34%;
      P = 0.046) after EMS treatment, but not after sham treatment. IMPLICATIONS: Three
      EMS treatments decreased symptoms of pain caused by DN and reduced diastolic
      blood pressure and biomarkers of stress. A single EMS treatment increased
      molecules mediating attachment and differentiation on the surface of HSCs in
      circulation. We hypothesize that the EMS-induced increase in surface attachment
      molecules on the HSCs caused the HSCs to leave circulation and that EMS treatment
      improves the function of HSCs and EPCs in vivo.

PMID- 28554531
TI  - Some Reflections on Neuropathies.

PMID- 28554529
TI  - Maternal alcohol exposure during mid-pregnancy dilates fetal cerebral arteries
      via endocannabinoid receptors.
AB  - Prenatal alcohol exposure often results in fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal
      alcohol spectrum disorders. Mechanisms of fetal brain damage by alcohol remain
      unclear. We used baboons (Papio spp.) to study alcohol-driven changes in the
      fetal cerebral artery endocannabinoid system. Pregnant baboons were subjected to
      binge alcohol exposure via gastric infusion three times during a period
      equivalent to the second trimester of human pregnancy. A control group was
      infused with orange-flavored drink that was isocaloric to the alcohol-containing
      solution. Cesarean sections were performed at a time equivalent to the end of the
      second trimester of human pregnancy. Fetal cerebral arteries were harvested and
      subjected to in vitro pressurization followed by pharmacological profiling.
      During each alcohol-infusion episode, maternal blood alcohol concentrations (BAC)
      reached 80 mg/dL, that is, equivalent to the BAC considered legal intoxication in
      humans. Circulating anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) remained
      unchanged. Ultrasound studies on pregnant mothers revealed that fetal alcohol
      exposure decreased peak systolic blood velocity in middle cerebral arteries when
      compared to pre-alcohol levels. Moreover, ethanol-induced dilation was observed
      in fetal cerebral arteries pressurized in vitro. This dilation was abolished by
      the mixture of AM251 and AM630, which block cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2,
      respectively. In the presence of AM251, the cannabinoid receptor agonist AEA
      evoked a higher, concentration-dependent dilation of cerebral arteries from
      alcohol-exposed fetuses. The difference in AEA-induced cerebral artery dilation
      vanished in the presence of AM630. CB1 and CB2 receptor mRNA and protein levels
      were similar in cerebral arteries from alcohol-exposed and control-exposed
      fetuses. In summary, alcohol exposure dilates fetal cerebral arteries via
      endocannabinoid receptors and results in an increased function of CB2.

PMID- 28554532
TI  - Efficacy of Venlafaxine in Neuropathic Pain: A Narrative Review of Optimized
      Treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: The prevalence of neuropathic pain is high in the general population,
      and high priority is given to the management of this pain condition. The
      treatment of neuropathic pain remains challenging, despite the publication of
      national and international recommendations. The purpose of this narrative review
      of venlafaxine (VLX) is to provide a better knowledge of the pharmacology of this
      drug and a clearer view of its efficacy and tolerability in neuropathic pain.
      METHODS: Two independent reviewers searched PubMed with the following search
      terms: serotonin and noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors OR VLX hydrochloride AND
      pain. The reviewers included all clinical studies that investigated VLX in
      neuropathic pain conditions and excluded animal studies, studies on fibromyalgia,
      studies that focused on the prevention of neuropathic pain, case reports, and
      studies that did not clearly describe neuropathic pain in the included patients.
      We describe the 13 studies that we analyzed. FINDINGS: Eleven were randomized
      clinical trials, and the comparator was placebo in 8 studies. Nine studies
      reported that VLX was effective against neuropathic pain. However, among the
      trials, only one against placebo included a large number of patients with >200
      participants and one against pregabaline and carbamazepine had >200 patients.
      Most of the adverse events reported in the selected studies were consistent with
      known adverse events of VLX, and most were mild to moderate. However, most
      studies were of very short duration. IMPLICATIONS: Most of the clinical studies
      found that VLX was effective and well tolerated. However, given the limited
      number of study and the limitations of all these studies, further large clinical
      trials are needed. Currently, considering the limited therapeutic options for
      treating neuropathic pain and the highly variable nature of responses to all
      drugs, VLX has a place as a treatment option for neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28554533
TI  - Therapeutic Use of Filgrastim for Established Febrile Neutropenia Is Cost
      Effective Among Patients With Solid Tumors and Lymphomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: With the emergence of biosimilar filgrastim to the market, there is a
      gradual decrease in the listed price of the originator product of filgrastim over
      the years, and this could have an impact on the cost-effectiveness of filgrastim
      in the treatment of febrile neutropenia (FN). A cost-effectiveness analysis would
      allow clinicians to make informed decision when considering the therapeutic
      filgrastim among low-risk FN patients. This study aims to evaluate the cost
      effectiveness of adding therapeutic filgrastim to antibiotics in the treatment of
      established FN among patients with solid tumors and lymphomas. METHODS: A
      decision tree model was created to compare two treatment options for established
      FN as follows: (1) antibiotics alone (standard care) and (2) antibiotics with
      therapeutic filgrastim (comparator). The target population was a hypothetical
      cohort of adult cancer patients with solid tumors or lymphomas hospitalized with
      FN in Singapore. The analysis was performed from a hospital's perspective over a
      21-day time horizon. The main outcome measures included costs, quality-adjusted
      life year (QALY) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). One-way
      sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were conducted to
      evaluate the robustness of the results. FINDINGS: Compared with antibiotics
      alone, the treatment strategy of antibiotics with therapeutic filgrastim was a
      dominant choice, incurring a cost saving of US$125 per patient (comparator versus
      standard care: US$9110 versus US$9235) and additional health benefit of 0.0007
      QALY gained per patient (comparator versus standard care: 0.0450 versus 0.0443).
      Model results were robust against the parameter variations in the one-way
      sensitivity analyses, but increasing the cost of filgrastim beyond US$87 per
      injection would increase the ICER to >US$50,000/QALY. Furthermore, the strategy
      of antibiotics with therapeutic filgrastim was the preferred choice (dominant or
      cost-effective) in 83.7% of the model iterations at a willingness-to-pay
      threshold of US$50,000/QALY. IMPLICATIONS: From a hospital's perspective, the
      therapeutic filgrastim, in conjunction with antibiotics, in the treatment of FN
      is cost effective. This provides evidence to support the routine use of
      filgrastim for the treatment of FN among adult cancer patients with solid tumors
      and lymphomas.

PMID- 28554534
TI  - Ophthalmic Manifestations of Xeroderma Pigmentosum: A Perspective from the United
      Kingdom.
AB  - PURPOSE: To document the ocular manifestations of xeroderma pigmentosum (XP),
      presenting via the United Kingdom (UK) XP service, and to analyze the
      correlations between XP genotype and ophthalmic phenotype. DESIGN: Prospective
      observational case series. SUBJECTS: Eighty-nine patients seen by the UK
      Nationally Commissioned XP Service, from April 2010 to December 2014, with a
      genetically confirmed diagnosis of XP. METHODS: Patients underwent a full
      ophthalmic examination at each visit. Clinical features from both eyes were
      recorded on a standard proforma. The most recent assessments were analyzed. A 2
      tailed Fisher exact test was used to assess for differences in ocular features
      between patients in XP subgroups with impaired transcription coupled nucleotide
      excision repair (TC-NER) (category 1: XP-A, B, D, F, and G) and preserved TC-NER
      (category 2: XP-C, E, and V). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Lid and periocular
      abnormalities, ocular surface pathologies, neuro-ophthalmologic abnormalities,
      lens and retinal abnormalities, and visual acuity (VA). RESULTS: Ninety-three
      percent of XP patients in our cohort had ocular involvement, with 65% describing
      photophobia. The most common abnormalities were in the periocular skin and ocular
      surface, including interpalpebral conjunctival melanosis (44%) and conjunctival
      injection (43%). Eleven percent of patients had required treatment for periocular
      cancers and 2% for ocular surface cancers. The most common neuro-ophthalmologic
      finding was minimal pupillary reaction to light (25%). Patients in category 2 had
      significantly more ocular surface abnormalities than patients in category 1,
      including a greater proportion of conjunctival injection (P = 0.003),
      conjunctival corkscrew vessels (P < 0.001), corneal scarring (P = 0.01) and
      pingueculae under the age of 50 (P = 0.02). Meanwhile, patients in category 1 had
      a higher proportion of poorly reactive pupils (P < 0.001) and abnormal ocular
      movements (P = 0.03) compared with those in category 2. Five patients (6%)
      presented to ophthalmologists with ocular surface signs related to XP, before any
      formal diagnosis of XP was made. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of XP patients
      have ocular involvement. Regular examination by an ophthalmologist is essential,
      especially in screening for eyelid and ocular surface tumors. The ocular
      phenotype-genotype segregation within XP patients suggests that XP is a
      heterogeneous and complex disease. With further study, we hope to offer these
      patients more individualized patient care.

PMID- 28554535
TI  - A phosphorylation-motif for tuneable helix stabilisation in intrinsically
      disordered proteins - Lessons from the sodium proton exchanger 1 (NHE1).
AB  - Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are involved in many pivotal cellular
      processes including phosphorylation and signalling. The structural and functional
      effects of phosphorylation of IDPs remain poorly understood and difficult to
      predict. Thus, a need exists to identify motifs that confer phosphorylation
      dependent perturbation of the local preferences for forming e.g. helical
      structures as well as motifs that do not. The disordered distal tail of the
      Na+/H+ exchanger 1 (NHE1) is six-times phosphorylated (S693, S723, S726, S771,
      T779, S785) by the mitogen activated protein kinase 2 (MAPK1, ERK2). Using NMR
      spectroscopy, we found that two out of those six phosphorylation sites had a
      stabilizing effect on transient helices. One of these was further investigated by
      circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy as well as by molecular dynamic
      simulations, which confirmed the stabilizing effect and resulted in the
      identification of a short linear motif for helix stabilisation: [S/T]-P-{3}-[R/K]
      where [S/T] is the phosphorylation-site. By analysing IDP and phosphorylation
      site databases we found that the motif is significantly enriched around known
      phosphorylation sites, supporting a potential wider-spread role in
      phosphorylation-mediated regulation of intrinsically disordered proteins. The
      identification of such motifs is important for understanding the molecular
      mechanism of cellular signalling, and is crucial for the development of
      predictors for the structural effect of phosphorylation; a tool of relevance for
      understanding disease-promoting mutations that for example interfere with
      signalling for instance through constitutive active and often cancer-promoting
      signalling.

PMID- 28554536
TI  - Succinate, increased in metabolic syndrome, activates GPR91 receptor signaling in
      urothelial cells.
AB  - Metabolic syndrome is associated with overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and
      increased circulating levels of succinate, an intermediate of the Krebs cycle.
      The urothelium is an essential regulator of bladder muscle contraction. This
      study aimed to determine if GPR91, the succinate receptor, is expressed and
      functional in the bladder. Urothelial and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) were
      cultured and characterized. PCR revealed that urothelial cells express GPR91,
      twice as much as SMCs. Incubation of cells with succinate stimulated
      phosphorylation of ERK and JNK in urothelial cells. Succinate also potently
      inhibited forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP production in urothelial cells, an
      effect prevented by a protein Gi inhibitor. ERK phosphorylation stimulated by
      succinate was abolished by inhibitors of protein Gq, phospholipase C, MAPK
      pathway and PKC. Incubation of urothelial cells with succinate potently increased
      iNOS synthesis and secretion of nitric oxide (NO), and decreased secretion of
      prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Finally, succinate triggered entry of calcium in
      urothelial cells. GPR91 knockdown by shRNA abolished most of these signaling
      effects. We conclude that in the bladder, urothelial cells are a primary target
      of succinate through its receptor GPR91. Its activation leads to signaling via
      phospholipase C, MAPK, PKC pathway and protein Gq and Gi. Succinate binding to
      GPR91 triggers a rise in intracellular calcium, an increase in secretion of NO
      and a decrease in the release of PGE2. Succinate might be essential in the
      understanding of OAB that occurs in metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28554537
TI  - Survival rate of autotransplanted teeth after 5 years - A retrospective cohort
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autotransplantation of teeth (TX) is a predictable treatment option,
      although this type of therapy is often overlooked compared to other types of
      restorations. PURPOSE: As current literature contains few long-term studies
      concerning the outcome of autotransplanted immature molars, the aim was to
      evaluate results after a follow-up period of 5 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This
      retrospective study enrolled all patients treated with immature autotransplanted
      molars after a follow-up period of 5 years. In order to ensure comparable
      results, survival rate was investigated as well as clinical and radiological
      parameters. Contralateral teeth (TC) were used as controls for further
      assessments and for ensuring comparable future results. RESULTS: 52 patients with
      66 TX were examined. Mean age at the time of surgery was 19.64 years. Tooth
      survival rate after 5 years was 89.39%. The results for parameters such as PPD,
      BOP, mobility, dental caries, periapical pathologies and endodontic treatments
      showed no differences. In contrast, dental restorations (p < 0.001), occlusal
      contacts (p = 0.003) and sensitivity (p < 0.001) differed significantly between
      TX and TC. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings clearly confirm that TX is an
      effective alternative treatment option to fixed prosthodontic restorations and
      dental implants, and provides for results equivalent to those with the patients'
      natural teeth.

PMID- 28554538
TI  - Editorial Comment: Schizoaffective Disorder in Later Life: "Beware the
      Jabberwock".

PMID- 28554539
TI  - Challenging Assumptions About African American Participation in Alzheimer Disease
      Trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated potential effects of increased African
      American participation in Alzheimer disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment
      (MCI) clinical trials by examining differences in comorbid conditions and
      treatment outcome affecting trial design. METHODS: Using a meta-database of 18
      studies from the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study and the Alzheimer's
      Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a cohort of 5,164 subjects were included for
      whom there were baseline demographic data and information on comorbid disorders,
      grouped by organ system. Meta-analysis was used to compare prevalence of
      comorbidities, dropouts, and rates of change on the cognitive subscale of the
      Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale by race. Clinical trial scenarios similar to
      recent therapeutic trials were simulated to determine effects of increased
      African American participation on statistical power. RESULTS: Approximately 7% of
      AD, 4% of MCI, and 11% of normal participants were African American. African
      American subjects had higher prevalence of cardiovascular disorders (odds ratio:
      2.10; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.71-2.57) and higher rate of dropouts (odds
      ratio: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.15-2.21) compared with whites but lower rates of other
      disorders. There were no significant differences in rate of progression (-0.862
      points/year; 95% CI: -1.89 to 0.162) by race and little effect on power in
      simulated trials with sample sizes similar to current AD trial designs.
      CONCLUSION: Increasing African American participation in AD clinical trials will
      require adaptation of trial protocols to address comorbidities and dropouts.
      However, increased diversity is unlikely to negatively affect trial outcomes and
      should be encouraged to promote generalizability of trial results.

PMID- 28554540
TI  - In Vivo Multiparametric Ultrasound Imaging of Structural and Functional Tumor
      Modifications during Therapy.
AB  - Longitudinal imaging techniques are needed that can meaningfully probe the tumor
      microenvironment and its spatial heterogeneity. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound,
      shear wave elastography and quantitative ultrasound are ultrasound-based
      techniques that provide information on the vascular function and micro
      /macroscopic tissue structure. Modifications of the tumor microenvironment
      induced by cytotoxic and anti-angiogenic molecules in ectopic murine Lewis lung
      carcinoma tumors were monitored. The most heterogenous structures were found in
      tumors treated with anti-angiogenic drug that simultaneously accumulated the
      highest levels of necrosis and fibrosis. The anti-angiogenic group presented the
      highest number of correlations between parameters related to vascular function
      and those related to the micro-/macrostructure of the tumor microenvironment.
      Results suggest how patterns of multiparametric ultrasound modifications can be
      related to provide a more insightful marker of changes occurring within tumors
      during therapy.

PMID- 28554541
TI  - Sensitive albuminuria analysis using dye-binding based test strips.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Populations at increased risk for chronic kidney disease should be
      screened for albuminuria. Possibilities of advanced urine strip readers based on
      complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor technology were
      investigated for obtaining quantitative albuminuria results. METHODS: Reflectance
      data of test strips (Sysmex UFC 3500 reader+CMOS) were compared with albuminuria
      (BNII) and with proteinuria (Cobas 8000). Urinary creatinine was assayed using a
      Jaffe-based creatinine assay (Cobas 8000). RESULTS: Calibration curve was made
      between 11.5 and 121.5mg/L with detection limit of 5.5mg/L. Within-run CV values
      of reflectance data were 0.21% (UC-Control L; 10mg/L) and 0.37% (UC-Control H;
      >150mg/L) for albumin, and 0.71%/3.97% for creatinine. Between-run CV values were
      0.24%/0.42% for albumin and 0.93%/5.13% for creatinine. A strong correlation
      (r=0.92) was obtained between albuminuria (BNII) and protein strip reflectance
      data. Creatinine reflectance data correlated well with Jaffe-based urinary
      creatinine data (r=0.90). Albumin:creatinine ratio obtained by test strip and by
      wet chemistry showed a good correlation (r=0.59). Carbamylated, glycated and
      partially hydrolyzed isoforms of albumin could be detected by test strip.
      CONCLUSIONS: Dye-binding based albumin test strip assay in combination with a
      CMOS based reader would potentially allow quantitative analysis of albuminuria
      and determination of albumin:creatinine ratio.

PMID- 28554542
TI  - Electron current recordings in living cells.
AB  - Living cells exploit the electrical properties of matter for a multitude of
      fundamental physiological processes, such as accumulation of nutrients, cellular
      homeostasis, signal transmission. While ion channels and transporters (able to
      couple ions to various substrates) have been extensively studied, direct
      measurements of electron currents mediated by specific proteins are just at the
      beginning. Here, we present the various electrophysiological approaches that have
      allowed recordings of electron currents and highlight the future potential of
      such experiments.

PMID- 28554543
TI  - A method for the isolation and characterization of functional murine monoclonal
      antibodies by single B cell cloning.
AB  - Monoclonal antibody technologies have enabled dramatic advances in immunology,
      the study of infectious disease, and modern medicine over the past 40years.
      However, many monoclonal antibody discovery procedures are labor- and time
      intensive, low efficiency, and expensive. Here we describe an optimized mAb
      discovery platform for the rapid and efficient isolation, cloning and
      characterization of monoclonal antibodies in murine systems. In this platform,
      antigen-binding splenic B cells from immunized mice are isolated by FACS and
      cocultured with CD40L positive cells to induce proliferation and mAb production.
      After 12days of coculture, cell culture supernatants are screened for antigen,
      and IgG positivity and RNA is isolated for reverse-transcription. Positive-well
      cDNA is then amplified by PCR and the resulting amplicons can be cloned into
      ligation-independent expression vectors, which are then used directly to
      transfect HEK293 cells for recombinant antibody production. After 4days of
      growth, conditioned medium can be screened using biolayer interferometry for
      antigen binding and affinity measurements. Using this method, we were able to
      isolate six unique, functional monoclonal antibodies against an antigen of the
      human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Importantly, this method
      incorporates several important advances that circumvent the need for single-cell
      PCR, restriction cloning, and large scale protein production, and can be applied
      to a wide array of protein antigens.

PMID- 28554545
TI  - Cyclodextrin-mesoporous silica particle composites for controlled antibiotic
      release. A proof of concept toward colon targeting.
AB  - Cyclodextrins (CDs) and mesoporous silica particles (MSPs) have been combined as
      composite carriers for controlled antibiotic release. CDs were employed as
      "gatekeeper" agents and grafted onto MSPs to retain drug molecules inside the MSP
      carrier. A variety of CDs (unfunctionalized, positively charged and
      carboxymethylated) and three different coupling strategies (covalent binding,
      electrostatic adsorption and inclusion complexation) were systematically
      investigated for their ability to control the release of two antibiotic drugs,
      metronidazole and clofazimine. The drugs had significantly different
      physicochemical properties (metronidazole - small hydrophilic, clofazimine- large
      hydrophobic). We report for the first time on the encapsulation and
      characterization of metronidazole-loaded-MSP. Each CD coating strategy reduced
      the drug release rate in phosphate buffer compared to unmodified MSP (from 20% to
      100% retained drug). Covalent binding and inclusion complex approaches were
      significantly more effective than electrostatically adsorbed CD. In particular,
      the novel inclusion complex based on host/guest interaction between benzyl
      modified silica surface and alpha-CD proved to be very effective (60-100%
      retained drug amount). Using pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, our study
      shows that CD-MSP composites can retain both hydrophobic and hydrophilic
      antibiotic compounds with potential translation to triggered release formulation
      targeting bacterial infections in the colon and lower intestine.

PMID- 28554544
TI  - Immuno-nephelometric determination of group streptococcal anti-streptolysin O
      titres (ASOT) from dried blood spots: Method for validating a new assay.
AB  - This study was designed to determine the sensitivity and reproducibility of
      recovering anti-streptolysin O titres (ASOT) from dried blood spot (DBS) samples,
      a methodologic subcomponent of the penicillin pharmacokinetic studies in children
      receiving secondary prophylaxis with intramuscular benzathine penicillin for
      acute rheumatic fever.

PMID- 28554546
TI  - Cyclodextrin-based metal-organic frameworks particles as efficient carriers for
      lansoprazole: Study of morphology and chemical composition of individual
      particles.
AB  - Cyclodextrin-based metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOFs) represent an environment
      friendly and biocompatible class of MOFs drawing increasing attention in drug
      delivery. Lansoprazole (LPZ) is a proton-pump inhibitor used to reduce the
      production of acid in the stomach and recently identified as an antitubercular
      prodrug. Herein, LPZ loaded CD-MOFs were successfully synthesized upon the
      assembly with gamma-CD in the presence of K+ ions using an optimized co
      crystallization method. They were characterized in terms of morphology, size and
      crystallinity, showing almost perfect cubic morphologies with monodispersed size
      distributions. The crystalline particles, loaded or not with LPZ, have mean
      diameters of around 6MUm. The payloads reached 23.2+/-2.1% (wt) which corresponds
      to a molar ratio of 1:1 between LPZ and gamma-CD. It was demonstrated that even
      after two years storage, the incorporated drug inside the CD-MOFs maintained its
      spectroscopic characteristics. Molecular modelling provided a deeper insight into
      the interaction between the LPZ and CD-MOFs. Raman spectra of individual
      particles were recorded, confirming the formation of inclusion complexes within
      the tridimensional CD-MOF structures. Of note, it was found that each individual
      particle had the same chemical composition. The LPZ-loaded particles had
      remarkable homogeneity in terms of both drug loading and size. These results pave
      the way towards the use of CD-MOFs for drug delivery purposes.

PMID- 28554547
TI  - The influence of cardiac triggering time and an optimization strategy for
      improved cardiac MR spectroscopy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study how cardiac motion affects the spectral quality in cardiac MR
      spectroscopy and to establish an optimization strategy for the cardiac triggering
      time for improved quality and success rate of cardiac MRS. METHOD: Water spectra
      were acquired while the cardiac triggering time was varied over the cardiac
      cycle, and five different spectral quality parameters were studied (frequency,
      phase, linewidth, amplitude and noise). Furthermore, three different optimization
      strategies for the cardiac triggering time were tested, and finally, a comparison
      was made between water suppressed lipid spectra acquired in systole and diastole.
      RESULTS: The cardiac triggering time had a high impact on the spectral quality,
      especially on the mean signal amplitude and the standard deviation of the signal
      amplitude, phase and linewidth. Generally, the highest spectral quality was
      observed for spectra acquired in mid to end systole, at approximately 23% of the
      cardiac cycle. The exact optimal triggering time differed between subjects and
      needed to be individually optimized. To optimize the triggering time with our
      proposed MRS-method gave in average 13% higher signal than when the triggering
      time was determined through imaging. Lipid spectra acquired in systole
      demonstrated higher quality with improved SNR compared with acquisitions made in
      diastole. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the spectral quality in cardiac MRS
      is strongly dependent on the cardiac triggering time, and that the spectral
      quality as well as the repeatability between acquisitions is greatly improved
      when the cardiac triggering time is individually optimized in mid to end systole
      using MRS.

PMID- 28554548
TI  - Male-biased miR-92 from early chicken embryonic gonads directly targets ATRX and
      DDX3X.
AB  - MiR-17-92 cluster consists of multifunctional miRNAs related to gonadal
      development in mammals. Our preliminary data showed that gga-miR-92 was male
      biased in chicken embryonic gonads at E5.5 and E6.5. MiR-92(a-2) and two putative
      targets (ATRX and DDX3X) were highly conserved and located on mammalian
      Chromosome X but on autosomes in chicken. Here, we studied the expression and
      interaction of miR-92 and the targets (ATRX and DDX3X) in chicken embryonic
      gonads. What's more, male-biased miR-92 shows an opposite expression tendency
      with ATRX and DDX3X in eight embryonic stages and different tissues at E10.5 by
      qRT-PCR. To verify the regulation relationship between miR-92 and two targets, we
      performed dual-luciferase reporter assay in DF1, overexpression and inhibition of
      miR-92 in chicken embryonic fibroblasts (CEFs). The results show that miR-92
      directly targets ATRX and DDX3X by binding the 3' un-translated region (3'-UTR),
      and the over-expression and inhibition of miR-92 negatively regulates ATRX and
      DDX3X. After the identification of the expression of their downstream genes (AMH
      and WNT4) in mRNA level, we found that there is no regulatory relationship
      between ATRX and DDX3X. The overall results indicate that miR-92 may perform
      roles in early chicken gonadogenesis by regulating the expressions of ATRX and
      DDX3X, respectively.

PMID- 28554549
TI  - Utility of DXA for monitoring, technical aspects of DXA BMD measurement and
      precision testing.
AB  - Monitoring a patient's bone mineral density (BMD) is one of the main reasons for
      dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) referral. It is widely recommended by
      clinical guidelines, and the accepted standard in practice for managing patients
      with osteoporosis and other disorders. Clinicians and DXA providers must be
      familiar with the scientific rationale and procedures involved in measurement
      science to obtain accurate and reproducible results. Their importance is critical
      to maximise the value of scan acquisition and interpretation. Scanning individual
      patients, with different needs and disorders, requires excellence in training,
      experience, and is more complex than just simply 'measuring BMD'. Over the past 3
      decades many studies have validated the importance of monitoring BMD for fracture
      risk assessment, and for patients on osteoporosis treatment. New DXA features
      enhance the value of DXA monitoring today. Quality BMD measurement remains an
      essential component of patient care in osteoporosis and other disorders, playing
      a critical role in informed decision making for clinicians assessing and managing
      their patients. In this article we describe some of the technical aspects of
      measurement and discuss the utility of DXA for monitoring patients in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28554550
TI  - Reliability of MR Quantification of Rotator Cuff Muscle Fatty Degeneration Using
      a 2-point Dixon Technique in Comparison with the Goutallier Classification:
      Validation Study by Multiple Readers.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Presurgical assessment of fatty degeneration is
      important in the management of patients with rotator cuff tears. The Goutallier
      classification is widely accepted as a qualitative scoring system, although it is
      highly observer-dependent and has poor reproducibility. The objective of this
      study was to quantify fatty degeneration of the supraspinatus muscle using a 2
      point Dixon technique in patients with rotator cuff tears by multiple readers,
      and to evaluate the reproducibility compared to Goutallier classification.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred patients with rotator cuff tears who underwent
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including 2-point Dixon sequence at 3.0-T, were
      selected retrospectively. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of fatty
      degeneration were performed by two radiologists and three orthopedic surgeons
      independently. The fat quantification was performed by measuring signal intensity
      values of in phase (S(In)) and fat image (S(Fat)), and calculating fat fraction
      as S(Fat)/S(In). The reproducibility of MR quantification was analyzed by the
      intra- and interclass correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS:
      The interobserver agreement of the Goutallier classification among five readers
      was moderate (k = 0.51), whereas the interclass correlation coefficient regarding
      fat fraction value quantified in 2-point Dixon sequence was excellent (0.893).
      The mean differences in fat fraction values from the individual segmentation
      results were from -0.072 to 0.081. Proposed fat fraction grading and Goutallier
      grading showed similar frequency and distribution in severity of rotator cuff
      tears. CONCLUSIONS: Fat quantification in the rotator cuff muscles using a 2
      point Dixon technique at 3.0-T MRI is highly reproducible and clinically feasible
      in comparison to the qualitative evaluation using Goutallier classification.

PMID- 28554552
TI  - Orbital and Orbitocranial Trauma From Pencil Fragments: Role of Timely Diagnosis
      and Management.
AB  - PURPOSE: To emphasize the importance of early detection and radiologic evaluation
      of retained organic foreign bodies (FBs) in orbital or orbitocranial penetrating
      injuries by pencil. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. METHODS: A retrospective
      chart review of patients who had penetrating orbital or orbitocranial trauma at 2
      tertiary hospitals was conducted. Patients whose mechanism of injury was
      penetrating trauma by pencil were included. The patients' demographics, time
      between initial trauma and detection of foreign body, radiologic images, and
      resulting sequelae were reviewed. RESULTS: Four patients were included in this
      study. All patients were male; 3 were less than 2 years of age and 1 was 34 years
      old. Accidents were witnessed in 2 cases, and initial detections of FBs were
      delayed in 3 cases, from 2 days to 7 weeks. Three cases involved the right orbit.
      Computed tomography (CT) imaging of the head demonstrated penetration of the
      orbital walls in 3 cases. Three-dimensional CT scans were used to differentiate
      the penetrating graphite pencil fragments from the orbital wall, and catheter
      angiography was used in 1 case of suspected orbital apex penetration. Vision was
      lost in 1 patient while other severe neurologic deficits were fully recovered
      after removal of FB. CONCLUSIONS: Penetrating injury by pencils to the
      periorbital structures and delayed detection of retained pencil fragments can
      result in threat to life and vision. Radiologic examinations are essential to the
      detection of these retained FBs. Prompt detection and removal of the FBs within
      48 hours and treatment with antibiotics can save vision and life.

PMID- 28554551
TI  - Applying Quantitative CT Image Feature Analysis to Predict Response of Ovarian
      Cancer Patients to Chemotherapy.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to investigate the role of applying
      quantitative image features computed from computed tomography (CT) images for
      early prediction of tumor response to chemotherapy in the clinical trials for
      treating ovarian cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A dataset involving 91
      patients was retrospectively assembled. Each patient had two sets of pre- and
      post-therapy CT images. A computer-aided detection scheme was applied to segment
      metastatic tumors previously tracked by radiologists on CT images and computed
      image features. Two initial feature pools were built using image features
      computed from pre-therapy CT images only and image feature difference computed
      from both pre- and post-therapy images. A feature selection method was applied to
      select optimal features, and an equal-weighted fusion method was used to generate
      a new quantitative imaging marker from each pool to predict 6-month progression
      free survival. The prediction accuracy between quantitative imaging markers and
      the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria was also
      compared. RESULTS: The highest areas under the receiver operating characteristic
      curve are 0.684 +/- 0.056 and 0.771 +/- 0.050 when using a single image feature
      computed from pre-therapy CT images and feature difference computed from pre- and
      post-therapy CT images, respectively. Using two corresponding fusion-based image
      markers, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve
      significantly increased to 0.810 +/- 0.045 and 0.829 +/- 0.043 (P < 0.05),
      respectively. Overall prediction accuracy levels are 71.4%, 80.2%, and 74.7% when
      using two imaging markers and RECIST, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrated the feasibility of predicting patients' response to chemotherapy
      using quantitative imaging markers computed from pre-therapy CT images. However,
      using image feature difference computed between pre- and post-therapy CT images
      yielded higher prediction accuracy.

PMID- 28554553
TI  - Probing the dynamics of disorder.
AB  - Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play an important role in many diseases.
      IDPs are a large and important class of proteins; estimated to represent a
      significant fraction of many genomes. In contrast to protein-protein interactions
      between well-folded proteins, IDPs typically bind to targets using short
      consecutive stretches of amino acids. Structures of IDPs complexed with a target
      have shown great diversity in binding modes. However, how this binding diversity
      is achieved at the molecular level is not well understood. Unfortunately, the
      prediction and detailed characterization of IDPs experimentally is still a very
      challenging task; however molecular mechanics based molecular dynamics simulation
      are well suited for studying the dynamic behavior of IDPs. We look into the
      current state for force fields for simulating IDPs and an example of how these
      methods have been applied to the p53 protein. p53 is one of the most extensively
      studied IDPs, with multiple intrinsically disordered regulatory domains that
      mediate its interactions with many other proteins engaged in multiple biological
      pathways. We show how molecular dynamics simulations can be used to elucidate on
      the mechanisms involved in selection of the different binding partners.

PMID- 28554555
TI  - Mitochondrial disorders due to tRNA(Pro) mutations.

PMID- 28554554
TI  - Expanding the phenotypic spectrum associated with mutations of DYNC1H1.
AB  - Autosomal dominant mutations of DYNC1H1 cause a range of neurogenetic diseases,
      including mental retardation with cortical malformations, hereditary spastic
      paraplegia and spinal muscular atrophy. Using SNP array, linkage analysis and
      next generation sequencing, we identified two families and one isolated proband
      sharing a known spinal muscular atrophy, lower extremity predominant (SMALED)
      causing mutation DYNC1H1 c.1792C>T, p.Arg598Cys, and another family harbouring a
      c.2327C>T, p.Pro776Leu mutation. Here, we present a detailed clinical and
      pathological examination of these patients, and show that patients with DYNC1H1
      mutations may present with a phenotype mimicking a congenital myopathy. We also
      highlight features that increase the phenotypic overlap with BICD2, which causes
      SMALED2. Serial muscle biopsies were available for several patients, spanning
      from infancy and early childhood to middle age. These provide a unique insight
      into the developmental and pathological origins of SMALED, suggesting in utero
      denervation with reinnervation by surrounding intact motor neurons and segmental
      anterior horn cell deficits. We characterise biopsy features that may make
      diagnosis of this condition easier in the future.

PMID- 28554556
TI  - Dramatic elevation in urinary amino terminal titin fragment excretion quantified
      by immunoassay in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients and in dystrophin
      deficient rodents.
AB  - Enzyme-linked and electrochemiluminescence immunoassays were developed for
      quantification of amino (N-) terminal fragments of the skeletal muscle protein
      titin (N-ter titin) and qualified for use in detection of urinary N-ter titin
      excretion. Urine from normal subjects contained a small but measurable level of N
      ter titin (1.0 +/- 0.4 ng/ml). A 365-fold increase (365.4 +/- 65.0, P = 0.0001)
      in urinary N-ter titin excretion was seen in Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD)
      patients. Urinary N-ter titin was also evaluated in dystrophin deficient rodent
      models. Mdx mice exhibited low urinary N-ter titin levels at 2 weeks of age
      followed by a robust and sustained elevation starting at 3 weeks of age,
      coincident with the development of systemic skeletal muscle damage in this model;
      fold elevation could not be determined because urinary N-ter titin was not
      detected in age-matched wild type mice. Levels of serum creatine kinase and serum
      skeletal muscle troponin I (TnI) were also low at 2 weeks, elevated at later time
      points and were significantly correlated with urinary N-ter titin excretion in
      mdx mice. Corticosteroid treatment of mdx mice resulted in improved exercise
      performance and lowering of both urinary N-ter titin and serum skeletal muscle
      TnI concentrations. Low urinary N-ter titin levels were detected in wild type
      rats (3.0 +/- 0.6 ng/ml), while Dmdmdx rats exhibited a 556-fold increase (1652.5
      +/- 405.7 ng/ml, P = 0.002) (both at 5 months of age). These results suggest that
      urinary N-ter titin is present at low basal concentrations in normal urine and
      increases dramatically coincident with muscle damage produced by dystrophin
      deficiency. Urinary N-ter titin has potential as a facile, non-invasive and
      translational biomarker for DMD.

PMID- 28554558
TI  - Novel truncating variant in DNA2-related congenital onset myopathy and ptosis
      suggests genotype-phenotype correlation.
AB  - DNA2 encodes a protein with nuclease, ATPase, and helicase domains, and serves to
      maintain mitochondrial DNA integrity. Mutations in DNA2 cause autosomal dominant
      progressive ophthalmoplegia with mitochondrial DNA deletions. This disorder was
      first reported in four patients with heterozygous, missense mutations in DNA2.
      Clinical symptoms include limb-girdle and lower extremity weakness, myalgia, and
      ophthalmoplegia. All had a slowly progressive disease course and did not present
      for clinical evaluation until the fifth or sixth decade. We report a case of
      congenital-onset myopathy and ptosis in a child who was found to have a novel
      DNA2 variant resulting in a premature termination codon (p.Asn568Ilefs*4). Only
      one other case of a truncating mutation in DNA2 has been reported, and that
      patient also had early-onset, severe disease. We hypothesize that
      haploinsufficiency for the DNA2 protein due to truncating mutations results in
      mitochondrial genome instability and clinical symptoms of early-onset myopathy.
      Missense mutations that allow for residual protein function lead to a milder
      clinical phenotype.

PMID- 28554559
TI  - Endoscopic closure of septal perforations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The management of septal perforations is a challenge for the surgeon.
      A wide variety of surgical techniques have been described, with different
      approaches. There is no scientific evidence to support a particular approach. The
      objective of this review is to present a practical guide on the technique of
      choice for each case of septal perforation. DISCUSSION: Inspection of the nasal
      mucosa, the size of the perforation, the location and especially the osteo
      cartilaginous support, are the pillars of a successful surgery. For the sliding
      or rotating flaps of the mucosa of the septum it is essential to know in advance
      if the elevation of the mucopericondrio or mucoperiosteo of the septum is
      possible, otherwise the use of these flaps would not be indicated. The flaps of
      the lateral wall or nasal floor are the alternative. The pericranial flap may be
      indicated in total or near total perforations. CONCLUSION: The remnant of the
      nasal septum and status of osteo-cartilaginous support are the determining
      factors in the management of septal perforations. Each case should be evaluated
      individually and the approach chosen according to the size and location of the
      perforation, mucosal quality, personal history, previous surgery and the
      experience of the surgeon.

PMID- 28554557
TI  - Screening for Pompe disease in a Portuguese high risk population.
AB  - Pompe disease is a rare metabolic disorder with available enzymatic replacement
      therapy. Contrasting with the classic infantile form, the others subtypes have a
      heterogeneous presentation that makes an early and accurate diagnosis difficult.
      We conducted a prospective, multicenter, observational study to identify
      undiagnosed patients. During a one-year period, patients followed in Portuguese
      neuromuscular outpatient clinics with proximal muscle weakness affecting upper
      and/or lower limbs, hyperCKemia in two or more determinations or hypotonia and
      hyperCKemia, were screened for acid alpha-glucosidase deficiency by dried blood
      spots. Lysosomal acid-alpha-1,4-glucosidase activity was determined by tandem
      mass spectrometry and positive results were confirmed by molecular study. From
      the 99 patients screened, Pompe disease was confirmed in 4, with age of onset
      ranging from 2.5 to 48 years, all with limb girdle muscle weakness, corresponding
      to a frequency of 4% in our cohort and 4.9% of limb girdle muscle weakness.
      Screening for Pompe disease in high risk populations, using dried blood spots,
      was already performed in some European populations. Apart from two negative
      Scandinavian studies, positive cases were confirmed in 2.8-7.9% of patients
      presenting with limb girdle muscle weakness and in 0-2.5% with isolated
      hyperCKemia.

PMID- 28554560
TI  - The TH1 phenotype of follicular helper T cells indicates an IFN-gamma-associated
      immune dysregulation in patients with CD21low common variable immunodeficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A subgroup of patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID)
      experience immune dysregulation manifesting as autoimmunity, lymphoproliferation,
      and organ inflammation and thereby increasing morbidity and mortality. Therefore
      treatment of these complications demands a deeper comprehension of their cause
      and pathophysiology. OBJECTIVES: On the basis of the identification of an
      interferon signature in patients with CVID with secondary complications and a
      skewed follicular helper T-cell differentiation in defined monogenic
      immunodeficiencies, we sought to determine the profile of CD4 memory T cells in
      blood and secondary lymphatic tissues of these patients. METHODS: We quantified
      TH1/TH2/TH17 CD4 memory T cells in blood and lymph nodes of patients with CVID
      using flow cytometry, analyzed their function, and correlated all findings to the
      burden of immune dysregulation. RESULTS: Patients with CVID with immune
      dysregulation had a skewed memory CD4 T-cell differentiation toward a CXCR3+CCR6-
      TH1 phenotype both in blood and lymph nodes. Consistent with our phenotypic
      findings, we observed a higher IFN-gamma production in peripheral CD4 memory T
      cells and lymph node-derived follicular helper T cells of patients with CVID
      compared with those of healthy control subjects. Increased IFN-gamma production
      was accompanied by a poor germinal center output, an accumulation of T-box
      transcription factor (T-bet)+ B cells in lymph nodes, and an accumulation of T
      bet+CD21low B cells in peripheral blood of affected patients. CONCLUSION:
      Identification of excessive IFN-gamma production by blood and lymph node-derived
      T cells of patients with CVID with immune dysregulation will offer new
      therapeutic avenues for this subgroup. CD21low B cells might serve as a marker of
      this IFN-gamma-associated dysregulation.

PMID- 28554561
TI  - Environmental heterogeneity and the evolution of plant-virus interactions:
      Viruses in wild pepper populations.
AB  - Understanding host-pathogen interactions requires analyses to address the
      multiplicity of scales in heterogeneous landscapes. Anthropogenic influence on
      plant communities, especially cultivation, is a major cause of environmental
      heterogeneity. We have approached the analysis of how environmental heterogeneity
      determines plant-virus interactions by studying virus infection in a wild plant
      currently undergoing incipient domestication, the wild pepper or chiltepin,
      across its geographical range in Mexico. We have shown previously that
      anthropogenic disturbance is associated with higher infection and disease risk,
      and with disrupted patterns of host and virus genetic spatial structure. We now
      show that anthropogenic factors, species richness, host genetic diversity and
      density in communities supporting chiltepin differentially affect infection risk
      according to the virus analysed. We also show that in addition to these factors,
      a broad range of abiotic and biotic variables meaningful to continental scales,
      have an important role on the risk of infection depending on the virus. Last, we
      show that natural virus infection of chiltepin plants in wild communities results
      in decreased survival and fecundity, hence negatively affecting fitness. This
      important finding paves the way for future studies on plant-virus co-evolution.

PMID- 28554562
TI  - Identification and pathotypical analysis of a novel VIk sub-genotype Newcastle
      disease virus obtained from pigeon in China.
AB  - Newcastle disease virus (NDV) can lead to a devastating disease to various avian
      species including pigeons. Genotype VI NDV is a major cause of Newcastle disease
      (ND) in Columbiformes (i.e. pigeons and doves). Here, we analyzed the genetic
      diversity of genotype VI based on the complete F gene sequences of 2 pigeon
      origin isolates in northeastern China in 2015, along with 238 genotype VI strains
      available in GenBank. The phylogenetic tree and evolutionary distances revealed
      that the 2 new isolates were clustered into a new sub-genotype herein proposed as
      VIk. Although the 2 isolates contain the 113RQKRF117 cleavage site, a feature
      generally associated with virulent NDV strains, the values of ICPI and MDT showed
      lentogenic characteristics. The challenge experiment demonstrated that the
      isolate Pigeon/China/Jilin/NG05/2015 was pathogenic to pigeons, causing lesions
      in multiple tissues and organs. The emergence and spread of the sub-genotype VIk
      viruses illustrated that the genotype VI NDV was undergoing evolutionary changes.
      It is necessary to pay close attention and carry out epidemiological surveillance
      in pigeons.

PMID- 28554563
TI  - Left Ventricular Fibrosis and Systolic Hypertension Persist in a Repaired Aortic
      Coarctation Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite successful repair in early life, patients with coarctation of
      the aorta (CoA) are predisposed to several cardiovascular complications in later
      life related to systemic hypertension or left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, or
      both, the pathogenesis of which is unclear. METHODS: Three-week-old Sprague
      Dawley rats underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or a sham operation,
      with release of the constriction 3 weeks later. Twenty-five weeks after the
      repair operation, animals underwent hemodynamic assessment, LV gene profiling,
      and histologic analysis. RESULTS: Animals with repaired aortic constriction
      exhibited a significantly elevated central systolic pressure (116 +/- 5 mm Hg vs
      103 +/- 4 mm Hg; p < 0.05) despite the absence of any significant pressure
      gradient across the former constriction site compared with shams (5 +/- 4 mm Hg
      vs 0 +/- 2 mm Hg; p = 0.2). They also had more than a 2-fold increase in LV
      collagen deposition (4.86% +/- 0.24% vs 2.40% +/- 0.18%; p < 0.001). However, no
      significant differences were noted between the groups in maximum LV pressure (116
      +/- 3 mm Hg vs 107 +/- 3 mm Hg; p = 0.1), LV mass indexed to tibial length (p =
      0.07), or myocyte size. There was no significant differential expression of
      hypertrophy or fibrosis-related genes in the left ventricles of the repaired
      animals compared with shams. CONCLUSIONS: Despite successful early relief of
      simulated CoA in early life, relative hypertension and LV fibrosis were
      demonstrable late consequences in this animal model. This abnormal fibrosis
      persists in the absence of altered LV hemodynamics and gene expression.

PMID- 28554564
TI  - The third wave: Intermediate filaments in the maturing nervous system.
AB  - Intermediate filaments are critical for the extreme structural specialisations of
      neurons, providing integrity in dynamic environments and efficient communication
      along axons a metre or more in length. As neurons mature, an initial expression
      of nestin and vimentin gives way to the neurofilament triplet proteins and alpha
      internexin, substituted by peripherin in axons outside the CNS, which physically
      consolidate axons as they elongate and find their targets. Once connection is
      established, these proteins are transported, assembled, stabilised and modified,
      structurally transforming axons and dendrites as they acquire their full
      function. The interaction between these neurons and myelinating glial cells
      optimises the structure of axons for peak functional efficiency, a property
      retained across their lifespan. This finely calibrated structural regulation
      allows the nervous system to maintain timing precision and efficient control
      across large distances throughout somatic growth and, in maturity, as a
      plasticity mechanism allowing functional adaptation.

PMID- 28554565
TI  - Antioxidant mechanism of mitochondria-targeted plastoquinone SkQ1 is suppressed
      in aglycemic HepG2 cells dependent on oxidative phosphorylation.
AB  - Previously suggested antioxidant mechanisms for mitochondria-targeted
      plastoquinone SkQ1 included: i) ion-pairing of cationic SkQ1+ with free fatty
      acid anions resulting in uncoupling; ii) SkQ1H2 ability to interact with
      lipoperoxyl radical; iii) interference with electron flow at the inner ubiquinone
      (Q) binding site of Complex III (Qi), involving the reduction of SkQ1 to SkQ1H2
      by ubiquinol. We elucidated SkQ1 antioxidant properties by confocal fluorescence
      semi-quantification of mitochondrial superoxide (Jm) and cytosolic H2O2 (Jc)
      release rates in HepG2 cells. Only in glycolytic cells, SkQ1 prevented the
      rotenone-induced enhancement of Jm and Jc but not basal releases without
      rotenone. The effect ceased in glutaminolytic aglycemic cells, in which the redox
      parameter NAD(P)H/FAD increased after rotenone in contrast to its decrease in
      glycolytic cells. Autofluorescence decay indicated decreased NADPH/NADH ratios
      with rotenone in both metabolic modes. SkQ1 did not increase cell respiration and
      diminished Jm established high by antimycin or myxothiazol but not by
      stigmatellin. The revealed SkQ1 antioxidant modes reflect its reduction to SkQ1H2
      at Complex I IQ or Complex III Qi site. Both reductions diminish electron
      diversions to oxygen thus attenuating superoxide formation. Resulting SkQ1H2
      oxidizes back to SkQ1at the second (flavin) Complex I site, previously indicated
      for MitoQ10. Regeneration proceeds only at lower NAD(P)H/FAD in glycolytic cells.
      In contrast, cyclic SkQ1 reduction/SkQ1H2 oxidation does not substantiate
      antioxidant activity in intact cells in the absence of oxidative stress (neither
      pro-oxidant activity, representing a great advantage). A targeted delivery to
      oxidative-stressed tissues is suggested for the effective antioxidant therapy
      based on SkQ1.

PMID- 28554566
TI  - Modelling the free energy profile of the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier.
AB  - The mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier catalyses the equimolar exchange of adenosine
      di- and tri-phosphates. It operates by an alternating access mechanism in which a
      single substrate-binding site is made available either to the mitochondrial
      matrix or the intermembrane space through conformational changes. These changes
      are prevented in the absence of substrate by a large energy barrier due to the
      need for sequential disruption and formation of a matrix and cytoplasmic salt
      bridge network that are located on either side of the central cavity. In analogy
      to enzyme catalysis, substrate lowers the energy barrier by binding tighter in
      the intermediate state. Here we provide an in-silico kinetic model that captures
      the free energy profile of these conformational changes and treats the carrier as
      a nanomachine moving stochastically from the matrix to cytoplasmic conformation
      under the influence of thermal energy. The model reproduces the dependency of
      experimentally determined kcat and KM values on the cytoplasmic network strength
      with good quantitative accuracy, implying that it captures the transport
      mechanism and can provide a framework to understand the structure-function
      relationships of this class of transporter. The results show that maximum
      transport occurs when the interaction energies of the cytoplasmic network, matrix
      network and substrate binding are approximately equal such that the energy
      barrier is minimized. Consequently, the model predicts that there will be other
      interactions in addition to those of the cytoplasmic network that stabilise the
      matrix conformation of the ADP/ATP carrier.

PMID- 28554568
TI  - Recombinant Acetylcholinesterase purification and its interaction with silver
      nanoparticle.
AB  - Although the use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has substantial benefits, their
      entrance into the environment, food chain, and human body and their toxicity have
      come under serious scrutiny. Multiple noncovalent attractive forces between AgNPs
      and bio-macromolecules are responsible for immediate corona formation upon
      exposure to biological tissue. Here, the influence of AgNPs with neuro-enzyme
      Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was investigated. AgNPs to enzyme ratio had an effect
      on the enzyme and features of the treated samples. It was also observed that time
      increments had a positive effect on the size of AgNPs and caused an increase in
      their initial size. In other words, smaller AgNPs resulted in size increments
      after interaction with enzymes, while the larger ones showed size decrements. The
      nano-crystalline AgNPs were identified in x-ray powder diffraction analyses
      before and after treatment with AChE. The (220) crystalline plane is related to
      the internal crystallinity of cubic Ag. The results show that the interaction
      between AChE and AgNPs could lead not only to a decrease in AChE activity, but
      also to a reduction in the crystallinity and stability of AgNPs. The circular
      dichroism demonstrates that the secondary structure of AChE also declined after
      30 min of incubation with AgNPs at 37  degrees C.

PMID- 28554567
TI  - Purification and characterization of a bioactive alpha-fetoprotein produced by
      HEK-293 cells.
AB  - Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a biomarker that is used to diagnose hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) and can promote malignancy in HCC. AFP is an important target in
      the treatment of liver cancer. To obtain enough AFP to screen for AFP inhibitors,
      we expressed and purified AFP in HEK-293 cells. In the present study, we produced
      AFP in the cells and harvested highly pure rAFP (or recombinant expression AFP in
      HEK-293 cells). We also analysed the bioactivity of rAFP and found that rAFP
      promoted growth of the human HCC cells, antagonize paclitaxel inhibition of HCC
      cell proliferation, suppress expression of active caspase-3, and promote
      expression of Ras and survivin. This study provides a method to produce
      significant amounts of AFP for use in biochemical assays and functional studies
      and to screen AFP inhibitors for use in HCC therapy.

PMID- 28554569
TI  - Evolutionary perspectives on ageing.
AB  - From an evolutionary perspective, ageing is a decrease in fitness with
      chronological age - expressed by an increase in mortality risk and/or decline in
      reproductive success and mediated by deterioration of functional performance.
      While this makes ageing intuitively paradoxical - detrimental to individual
      fitness - evolutionary theory offers answers as to why ageing has evolved. In
      this review, I first briefly examine the classic evolutionary theories of ageing
      and their empirical tests, and highlight recent findings that have advanced our
      understanding of the evolution of ageing (condition-dependent survival, positive
      pleiotropy). I then provide an overview of recent theoretical extensions and
      modifications that accommodate those new discoveries. I discuss the role of
      indeterminate (asymptotic) growth for lifetime increases in fecundity and ageing
      trajectories. I outline alternative views that challenge a universal existence of
      senescence - namely the lack of a germ-soma distinction and the ability of tissue
      replacement and retrogression to younger developmental stages in modular
      organisms. I argue that rejuvenation at the organismal level is plausible, but
      includes a return to a simple developmental stage. This may exempt a particular
      genotype from somatic defects but, correspondingly, removes any information
      acquired during development. A resolution of the question of whether a
      rejuvenated individual is the same entity is central to the recognition of
      whether current evolutionary theories of ageing, with their extensions and
      modifications, can explain the patterns of ageing across the Tree of Life.

PMID- 28554570
TI  - Sex-specific lifespan and its evolution in nematodes.
AB  - Differences between sexes of the same species in lifespan and aging rate are
      widespread. While the proximal and evolutionary causes of aging are well
      researched, the factors that contribute to sex differences in these traits have
      been less studied. The striking diversity of nematodes provides ample opportunity
      to study variation in sex-specific lifespan patterns associated with shifts in
      life history and mating strategy. Although the plasticity of these sex
      differences will make it challenging to generalize from invertebrate to
      vertebrate systems, studies in nematodes have enabled empirical evaluation of
      predictions regarding the evolution of lifespan. These studies have highlighted
      how natural and sexual selection can generate divergent patterns of lifespan if
      the sexes are subject to different rates or sources of mortality, or if trade
      offs between complex traits and longevity are resolved differently in each sex.
      Here, we integrate evidence derived mainly from nematodes that addresses the
      molecular and evolutionary basis of sex-specific aging and lifespan. Ultimately,
      we hope to generate a clearer picture of current knowledge in this area, and also
      highlight the limitations of our understanding.

PMID- 28554571
TI  - Activity modulation of the oligopeptidase B from Serratia proteamaculans by site
      directed mutagenesis of amino acid residues surrounding catalytic triad
      histidine.
AB  - Oligopeptidase B (OpdB; EC 3.4.21.83) is a trypsin-like peptidase belonging to
      the family of serine prolyl oligopeptidases; two-domain structure of the enzyme
      includes C-terminal peptidase catalytic domain and N-terminal seven-bladed beta
      propeller domain. Importance of the interface between these domains and
      particularly of the 5 salt bridges for enzyme activity was established for
      protozoan OpdBs. However, these salt bridges are not conserved in gamma 
      proteobacterial OpdBs including the peptidase from Serratia proteamaculans (PSP).
      In this work, using comparative modelling and protozoan OpdBs' crystal structures
      we created 3D models of PSP in open and closed forms to elucidate the mechanism
      underlying inactivation of the truncated form of PSP1-655 obtained earlier.
      Analysis of the models shows that in the closed form of PSP charged amino acid
      residues of histidine loop, surrounding the catalytic triad His652, participate
      in formation of the inter-domain contact interface between catalytic and beta
      propeller domains, while in the open form of PSP disconnection of the catalytic
      triad and distortion of these contacts can be observed. Complete destruction of
      this interface by site-directed mutagenesis causes inactivation of PSP while
      elimination of the individual contacts leads to differential effects on the
      enzyme activity and substrate specificity. Thus, we identified structural factors
      regulating activity of PSP and supposedly of other gamma-proteobacterial OpdBs
      and discovered the possibility of directed modulation of their enzymatic
      features.

PMID- 28554572
TI  - Electrospray ionization ion mobility mass spectrometry provides novel insights
      into the pattern and activity of fetal hippocampus gangliosides.
AB  - Gangliosides (GGs), a particular class of glycosphingolipids ubiquitously found
      in tissues and body fluids, exhibit the highest expression in the central nervous
      system, especially in brain. GGs are involved in crucial processes, such as
      neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, synaptic transmission, cell adhesion, growth and
      proliferation. For these reasons, efforts are constantly invested into
      development and refinement of specific methods for GG analysis. We have recently
      shown that ion mobility separation (IMS) mass spectrometry (MS) has the
      capability to provide consistent compositional and structural information on GGs
      at high sensitivity, resolution and mass accuracy. In the present paper, we have
      implemented IMS MS for the first time in the study of a highly complex native GG
      mixture extracted and purified from human fetal hippocampus. As compared to
      previous studies, where no separation techniques prior to MS were applied, IMS MS
      technique has not just generated valuable novel information on the GG pattern
      characteristic for hippocampus in early developmental stage, but also provided
      data related to the GG molecular involvement in the synaptic functions by the
      discovery of 25 novel structures modified by CH3COO-. The detection and
      identification in fetal hippocampus of a much larger number of GG species than
      ever reported before was possible due to the ion mobility separation according to
      the charge state, the carbohydrate chain length and the degree of sialylation. By
      applying IMS in conjunction with collision induced dissociation (CID) tandem MS
      (MS/MS), novel GG species modified by CH3COO- attachment, discovered here for the
      first time, were sequenced and structurally investigated in details. The present
      findings, based on IMS MS, provide a more reliable insight into the expression
      and role of gangliosides in human hippocampus, with a particular emphasis on
      their cholinergic activity at this level.

PMID- 28554573
TI  - Clinical significance of CK7, HPV-L1, and koilocytosis for patients with cervical
      low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions: a retrospective analysis.
AB  - Most cervical low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs) do not progress
      to high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs); however, reliable
      biomarkers that predict LSIL progression are lacking. We investigated the
      association of cytokeratin 7 (CK7), human papillomavirus-L1 capsid protein (HPV
      L1), and koilocytosis with clinical outcomes of patients with LSIL. CK7, HPV-L1,
      Ki67, and p16-INK4A expression was determined in 72 cervical LSIL and 28 HSIL
      biopsy samples; koilocytosis was evaluated by reviewing biopsy slides. Fifty
      patients with LSIL received follow-up. CK7, HPV-L1, and koilocytosis were
      detected in 48.6%, 44.4%, and 52.0% of LSIL tissues and in 78.6%, 10.7%, and
      64.3% of HSIL tissues, respectively. Lesion grade was correlated directly with
      CK7 expression (P=.007) and inversely with HPV-L1 expression (P=.004). CK7
      expression in LSILs was correlated inversely with HPV-L1 expression and directly
      with p16-INK4A and Ki67 status. Furthermore, koilocytosis was significantly
      associated with HPV-L1 and p16-INK4A expression. Progression to cervical
      intraepithelial lesions of grades >=2 occurred in 34% of cases. CK7 negativity
      and HPV-L1 positivity were significantly associated with lower HSIL progression
      rates. HPV-L1-positive and CK7-negative LSILs showed significantly lower
      progression rates compared with HPV-L1-negative and CK7-positive LSILs (6.3% v
      positive cases showed a significantly lower progression rate (17.6%) compared
      with nonkoilocytic and HPV-L1-negative cases (50%). CK7-negative, HPV-L1
      positive, and koilocytic LSILs showed a progression rate of 7.7%. Koilocytosis
      and p16-INK4A were not significantly associated with clinical outcomes. Hence,
      evaluating HPV-L1, CK7, and koilocytosis profiles combined may be more reliable
      for LSIL prognostication.

PMID- 28554574
TI  - p16 expression in follicular dendritic cell sarcoma: a potential mimicker of
      human papillomavirus-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm that most
      commonly occurs in cervical lymph nodes. It has histologic and clinical overlap
      with the much more common p16-positive human papillomavirus (HPV)-related
      squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, which characteristically has
      nonkeratinizing morphology and often presents as an isolated neck mass. Not
      surprisingly, follicular dendritic cell sarcomas are commonly misdiagnosed as
      squamous cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemistry is helpful in separating the 2
      entities. Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma expresses dendritic markers such as
      CD21 and CD23 and is almost always cytokeratin negative. However, in many cases
      of HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma, only p16 immunohistochemistry as a
      prognostic and surrogate marker for HPV is performed. p16 expression in
      follicular dendritic cell sarcoma has not been characterized. Here, we
      investigate the expression of p16 in follicular dendritic cell sarcoma and
      correlate it with retinoblastoma protein expression. A pilot study of dendritic
      marker expression in HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma was also
      performed. We found that 4 of 8 sarcomas expressed p16 with strong and diffuse
      staining in 2 cases. In 2 of the 4 cases, p16 expression corresponded to loss of
      retinoblastoma protein expression. Dendritic marker expression (CD21 and CD23)
      was not found in HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas. As such,
      positive p16 immunohistochemistry cannot be used as supportive evidence for the
      diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma as strong and diffuse p16 expression may
      also occur in follicular dendritic cell sarcoma. Cytokeratins and dendritic
      markers are critical in separating the two tumor types.

PMID- 28554575
TI  - Dyrk1B overexpression is associated with breast cancer growth and a poor
      prognosis.
AB  - Dyrk1B, also called minibrain-related kinase (Mirk), is a member of the dual
      specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase (Dyrk)/minibrain family of
      dual-specificity protein kinases. It is a serine/threonine kinase involved in the
      regulation of tumor progression and cell proliferation. In this study, the role
      of Dyrk1B in breast cancer development was investigated. The expression of Dyrk1B
      was detected by Western blot and immunohistochemistry staining, both of which
      demonstrated that Dyrk1B was overexpressed in breast cancer tissues and cells.
      Statistical analysis showed that the extent of Dyrk1B expression was associated
      with multiple clinicopathologic factors, including tumor size, grade, estrogen
      receptor status, and Ki-67 expression, and that high expression predicted a poor
      prognosis. The growth of breast cancer cells was inhibited significantly after
      knockout of DYRK1B by small interfering RNA (siRNA). Moreover, FoxO1 could be
      phosphorylated by Dyrk1B, and then FoxO1 was shuttled from the cell nucleus into
      the cytoplasm, which might be the mechanism of Dyrk1B-mediated survival in breast
      cancer cells. The results suggest that Dyrk1B plays a key role in the progression
      of breast cancer and provides a new target for breast cancer therapy.

PMID- 28554576
TI  - Congenital capillary proliferation of the kidney: a distinctive renal vascular
      lesion of childhood.
AB  - Renal vascular lesions (RVL) are rare, and their morphological spectrum remains
      largely unknown, particularly in children. In this study, we characterize the
      clinicopathological features of RVL in a cohort of 12 children. Seven lesions
      were classified as previously recognized entities: vascular malformations (4),
      papillary endothelial hyperplasia (2), and pyogenic granuloma (lobular capillary
      hemangioma; 1). An eighth lesion showed nonspecific findings, which were
      interpreted as reactive during our review. The remaining 4 cases presented either
      prenatally, at birth, or shortly after birth and were morphologically similar.
      These were characterized by a peculiar pattern of capillary proliferation with
      entrapment of native renal structures, variable amounts of extramedullary
      hematopoiesis and reactive lymphocytes, foci of infarction and hemorrhage, and
      the presence of feeding and draining vessels at their periphery. To our
      knowledge, this represents a previously undescribed congenital vascular lesion
      involving the kidney, which we have descriptively and provisionally termed
      congenital capillary proliferation of the kidney (CCPK). While it is unclear
      whether CCPK represents a malformation or neoplastic proliferation, it shows
      overlapping features with congenital hemangioma of the liver (solitary congenital
      hepatic hemangioma) and congenital nonprogressive hemangioma (CNH) of the skin
      and soft tissue, suggesting a possible common pathogenesis among these 3
      entities.

PMID- 28554577
TI  - Molecular properties associated with transporter-mediated drug disposition.
AB  - Membrane transporters play a key role in the absorption, distribution, clearance,
      elimination, and transport of drugs. Understanding the drug properties and
      structure activity relationships (SAR) for affinity to membrane transporters is
      critical to optimize clearance and pharmacokinetics during drug design. To
      facilitate the early identification of clearance mechanism, a framework named the
      extended clearance classification system (ECCS) was recently introduced. Using in
      vitro and physicochemical properties that are readily available in early drug
      discovery, ECCS has been successfully applied to identify major clearance
      mechanism and to implicate the role of membrane transporters in determining
      pharmacokinetics. While the crystal structures for most of the drug transporters
      are currently not available, ligand-based modeling approaches that use
      information obtained from the structure and molecular properties of the ligands
      have been applied to associate the drug-related properties and transporter
      mediated disposition. The approach allows prospective prediction of transporter
      both substrate and/or inhibitor affinity and build quantitative structure
      activity relationship (QSAR) to enable early optimization of pharmacokinetics,
      tissue distribution and drug-drug interaction risk. Drug design applications can
      be further improved through uncovering transporter protein crystal structure and
      generation of quality data to refine and develop viable predictive models.

PMID- 28554578
TI  - Meningioma mimics: five key imaging features to differentiate them from
      meningiomas.
AB  - There are a wide variety of intracranial mass lesions, both benign and malignant,
      which can closely mimic meningioma on imaging. We present five characteristic
      imaging features that can alert the radiologist to consider other differential
      diagnoses. Of the five imaging characteristics that were rarely seen in
      meningiomas, but common and specific for meningioma mimics, absence of dural tail
      is the most common (83.7%). Homogeneous T2 hyperintensity or T2 hypointensity are
      seen in nearly half of meningioma mimics and osseous destruction and
      leptomeningeal extension are present in 40.5% and 21.6% of meningioma mimics,
      respectively. The distinction between meningioma and its mimics is important
      because a large portion of the meningioma mimics requires substantially different
      clinical and surgical management.

PMID- 28554579
TI  - Wall suction-assisted image-guided thoracentesis: a safe alternative to evacuated
      bottles.
AB  - AIM: To compare the safety of evacuated bottle-assisted thoracentesis with wall
      suction-assisted thoracentesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An institutional review
      board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant
      retrospective study of 161 consecutive patients who underwent 191 evacuated
      bottle-assisted thoracenteses from 1 January 2012 to 30 September 2012, and 188
      consecutive patients who underwent 230 wall suction-assisted thoracenteses from 1
      January 2013 to 30 September 2013 was conducted. All procedures used imaging
      guidance. Primary diagnosis, age, gender, total fluid volume removed, and adverse
      events (AE) up to 30 days post-procedure were recorded and graded using Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events 4.0 (CTCAE)2. RESULTS: Overall AE rates
      were 42.9% (82/191) for the evacuated bottle group and 19.6% (45/230) for the
      wall suction group (p<0.0001). Grade I AE occurred more commonly in the evacuated
      bottle group than in the wall suction group, [41.9% (80/191) and 18.3% (42/230)],
      respectively (p<0.0001). No significant differences were observed in grade 2
      [0.5% (1/191) and 0% (0/230), p=0.45] or grade 3 AE [0.5% (1/191) and 1.3%
      (3/230), p=0.63] between the evacuated bottle and wall suction groups,
      respectively. No grade 4 or 5 AE occurred. Excluding transient chest pain and
      cough, there was no statistical difference in overall AE rate between the
      evacuated bottle and wall suction groups [11% (21/191) and 8.3% (19/230), p=0.4].
      CONCLUSION: Image-guided thoracentesis performed with wall suction is safe when
      compared to evacuated bottles. The use of wall suction, in comparison to
      evacuated bottles, may decrease the incidence of transient chest pain or cough.

PMID- 28554580
TI  - Prognostic value of lymph node density in buccal squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Lymph node density(LND) has been shown to be a better prognosticator
      than conventional nodal classification to predict prognosis for squamous cell
      carcinoma(SCC) of the oral cavity. However, studies focusing on subsites of oral
      cancer are meager. The role of LND for buccal SCC was evaluated in this study.
      METHODS: A total of 39 patients with buccal SCC primarily treated surgically with
      neck dissection were identified. LND was defined as the number of positive nodes
      over the number of nodal yield. The cut-off of LND was <=0.07 or >0.07. Patient
      demographic data and clincopathologic parameters were described. Survival was
      expressed by Kaplan-Meier method and correlation with survival is analyzed with
      log-rank test. IBM SPSS Statistics version 22 was used for data computation.
      RESULTS: The median follow-up was 79.0months and median nodes removed was 23
      (range 8-93). Positive nodal involvement was found in 19(48.7%) patients. The 5
      year and 10-year OS were 67.4% and 42.5% whilst for DSS were 69.2% and 65.5%,
      respectively. When pT-, pN-, LND-classification and AJCC stage were analyzed for
      the whole series, only pN- (p=0.006) and LND-classification (p=0.002) were
      significant factors for OS, while pT-, pN-, LND-classification and AJCC stage
      were all significant factors for DSS. When only cases with positive nodal spread
      were considered, the pN-classification (pN1 vs pN2) was not a significant risk
      factor for either OS (p=0.075, HR 3.10(CI 0.89-10.76)) and DSS (p=0.074, HR
      3.58(CI 0.88-14.56)). By contrast, LND-classification (<=0.07 vs >0.07) remained
      a significant predictor for OS (p=0.03, HR 3.95(CI 1.15-13.63)), but not for the
      DSS (p=0.112, HR 2.92(CI 0.78-10.99)). CONCLUSION: The prognostic value of LND on
      buccal SCC is supported in this study. The results also suggest that LND is
      better than the conventional pN-classification to predict OS. Further studies on
      LND with big sample size for buccal SCC or other subsites of OSCC are worthwhile.

PMID- 28554581
TI  - Near fatal bronchospasm and bradycardia after carbetocin administration.

PMID- 28554582
TI  - Geranylgeraniol prevents the simvastatin-induced PCSK9 expression: Role of the
      small G protein Rac1.
AB  - Statins are known to increase the plasma levels of proprotein convertase
      subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) through the activation of the sterol responsive
      element binding protein (SREBP) pathway due to the inhibition of cholesterol
      biosynthesis. In the present study, we explore a possible role of the prenylated
      proteins on the statin-mediated PCSK9 induction in Caco-2 cells. Simvastatin
      (40MUM) induced both PCSK9 mRNA (10.7+/-3.2 fold) and protein (2.2+/-0.3 fold),
      after 24h incubation. The induction of PCSK9 mRNA was partially, but
      significantly, prevented by the co-incubation with mevalonate (MVA), farnesol
      (FOH) and geranylgeraniol (GGOH), while a complete prevention was observed on
      secreted PCSK9, evaluated by ELISA assay. Under the same experimental conditions,
      MVA, GGOH, but not FOH, prevented the activation of the PCSK9 promoter by
      simvastatin in a SRE-dependent manner. Simvastatin reduced by -35.7+/-15.2% the
      Rac1-GTP levels, while no changes were observed on RhoA- and Cdc42-GTP. This
      effect was prevented by MVA and GGOH. A Rac inhibitor, and N17Rac1 dominant
      negative mutant, significantly induced PCSK9 levels, and a suppression of Rac1
      expression by siRNA, counteract the effect of simvastatin on the induction of
      PCSK9 mRNA. Finally, simvastatin, and Rac inhibitor inhibited the nuclear
      translocation of STAT3 and its knock-down by siRNA increased significantly the
      susceptibility of Caco-2 to simvastatin on PCSK9 expression. Taken together, the
      present study reveal a direct role of Rac1 on simvastatin-mediated PCSK9
      expression via the reduction of STAT3 nuclear translocation.

PMID- 28554583
TI  - Autologous and allogeneic cardiac stem cell therapy for cardiovascular diseases.
AB  - Stem cell therapy is one of the most promising therapeutic innovations to help
      restore cardiac structure and function after ischemic insults to the heart.
      However, phase I and II clinical trials with autologous "first-generation stem
      cells" have yielded inconsistent results in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients and
      have not produced the definitive evidence for their broad clinical application.
      Recently, new cell types such as cardiac stem cells (CSC) and new allogeneic
      sources have attracted the attention of researchers given their inherent
      biological, clinical and logistic advantages. Preclinical evidence and emerging
      clinical data show that exogenous CSC produce a range of protein-based factors
      that have a powerful cardioprotective effect in the ischemic myocardium,
      immunoregulatory properties that promote angiogenesis and reduce scar formation,
      and are able to activate endogenous CSC which multiply and differentiate into
      cardiomyocytes and microvasculature. Furthermore, allogeneic CSC can be produced
      in large quantities beforehand and can be administered "off-the-shelf" early
      during the acute phase of myocardial ischemia. The distinctive immunological
      behavior of allogeneic CSC and their interaction with the host immune system is
      supposed to produce immunomodulatory beneficial effects in the short-term,
      preventing long-term side-effects after their rejection. Preclinical studies have
      shown highly promising results with allogeneic CSC, and clinical trials are
      already ongoing. Finally, unraveling questions about the biology and physiology
      of CSC, the characterization of their secretome, the conduction of larger
      clinical trials with autologous CSC, the definitive evidence on the safety and
      efficacy of allogeneic CSC in humans and the possibility of repeated
      administrations or combinations with other cell types and soluble factors will
      pave the road for further developments with CSC, that will undoubtedly determine
      the future of cardiovascular regenerative medicine in human beings.

PMID- 28554584
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28554585
TI  - Predictors of response to cardiac resynchronization therapy: A prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has modified the prognosis
      of chronic heart failure (HF) with left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
      However, 30% of patients do not have a favorable response. The big question is
      how to determine predictors of response. AIMS: To identify baseline
      characteristics that might influence echocardiographic response to CRT. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: We performed a prospective single-center hospital-based cohort study
      of consecutive HF patients selected to CRT (NYHA class II-IV, left ventricular
      ejection fraction (LVEF) <35% and QRS complex >=120 ms). Responders were defined
      as those with a >=5% absolute increase in LVEF at six months. Clinical,
      electrocardiographic, laboratory, echocardiographic, autonomic, endothelial and
      cardiopulmonary function parameters were assessed before CRT device implantation.
      Logistic regression models were used. Seventy-nine patients were included, 54
      male (68.4%), age 68.1 years (standard deviation 10.2), 19 with ischemic etiology
      (24%). At six months, 51 patients (64.6%) were considered responders. Although by
      univariate analysis baseline tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE)
      and serum creatinine were significantly different in responders, on multivariate
      analysis only TAPSE was independently associated with response, with higher
      values predicting a positive response to CRT (OR=1.13; 95% CI: 1.02-1.26;
      p=0.020). TAPSE >=15 mm was strongly associated with response, and TAPSE <15 mm
      with non-response (p=0.005). Responders had no TAPSE values below 10 mm.
      CONCLUSION: From a range of clinical and technical baseline characteristics,
      multivariate analysis only identified TAPSE as an independent predictor of CRT
      response, with TAPSE <15 mm associated with non-response. This study highlights
      the importance of right ventricular dysfunction in CRT response.
      ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02413151.

PMID- 28554586
TI  - Intense pleural FDG uptake 12 years after talc pleurodesis: PET/CT findings.

PMID- 28554587
TI  - A novel method for ABO-incompatible heart transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 1996, ABO-incompatible heart transplantation has been
      undertaken by performing whole-body plasma exchange to remove isohemagglutinins
      using the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit at the time of transplantation.
      This requires large volumes of donated blood and blood products, causes
      hemodynamic instability during the exchange transfusion, and limits practical use
      to small children. We sought to determine the efficacy of anti-A/B
      immunoadsorption within the CPB circuit on removal of isohemagglutinins in an ex
      vivo setting before its use clinically. METHODS: An anti-A/B immunoadsorption
      column was placed into a CPB circuit mimicking a typical ABO-incompatible
      transplant patient, which had been primed with type O whole human blood. Samples
      were taken for determination of isohemagglutinin titers following each plasma
      volume pass through the anti-A/B immunoadsorption column. RESULTS: There was a
      linear decrease of at least 1 dilution seen in both anti-A and anti-B IgG and IgM
      antibodies with each plasma volume pass through the column. This predictable
      removal allowed the formulation of selection criteria for ABO-incompatible heart
      transplantation given the reciprocal of titer and patient weight. This degree of
      predictability allowed us to use it successfully in the clinical setting,
      reducing antibodies to an undetectable level during ABO-incompatible heart
      transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: The incorporation of an anti-A/B immunoadsorption
      column into the extracorporeal circuit reduces allogeneic blood product
      requirement for ABO-incompatible heart transplantation, while providing
      efficacious removal of anti-A and anti-B isohemagglutinins. This can be
      undertaken within the time period of CPB before graft reperfusion and expands the
      potential recipient pool to larger patients with higher isohemagglutinin titers.

PMID- 28554589
TI  - The POPOP (puffing on pulse oximeter probe) sign of ethanol withdrawal.

PMID- 28554588
TI  - Pathologic C-spine fracture with low risk mechanism and normal physical exam.
AB  - Cervical spinal fracture is a rare, but potentially disabling complication of
      trauma to the neck. Clinicians often rely on clinical decision rules and
      guidelines to decide whether or not imaging is necessary when a patient presents
      with neck pain. Validated clinical guidelines include the Canadian C-Spine Rule
      and the Nexus criteria. Studies suggest that the risks of a pathologic fracture
      from a simple rear end collision are negligible. We present a case of an
      individual who presented to an emergency department (ED) after a low speed motor
      vehicle collision complaining of lateral neck pain and had multiple subsequent
      visits for the same complaint with negative exam findings. Ultimately, he was
      found to have a severely pathologic cervical spine fracture with notable cord
      compression. Our objective is to discuss the necessity to incorporate clinical
      decision rules with physician gestalt and the need to take into account co
      morbidities of a patient presenting after a minor MVC.

PMID- 28554590
TI  - The antimicrobial peptide derived from insulin-like growth factor-binding protein
      5, AMP-IBP5, regulates keratinocyte functions through Mas-related gene X
      receptors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In addition to their microbicidal properties, host defense peptides
      (HDPs) display various immunomodulatory functions, including keratinocyte
      production of cytokines/chemokines, proliferation, migration and wound healing.
      Recently, a novel HDP named AMP-IBP5 (antimicrobial peptide derived from insulin
      like growth factor-binding protein 5) was shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity
      against numerous pathogens, even at concentrations comparable to those of human
      beta-defensins and LL-37. However, the immunomodulatory role of AMP-IBP5 in
      cutaneous tissue remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether AMP-IBP5
      triggers keratinocyte activation and to clarify its mechanism. METHODS:
      Production of cytokines/chemokines and growth factors was determined by
      appropriate ELISA kits. Cell migration was assessed by in vitro wound closure
      assay, whereas cell proliferation was analyzed using BrdU incorporation assay
      complimented with XTT assay. MAPK and NF-kappaB activation was determined by
      Western blotting. Intracellular cAMP levels were assessed using cAMP enzyme
      immunoassay kit. RESULTS: Among various cytokines/chemokines and growth factors
      tested, AMP-IBP5 selectively increased the production of IL-8 and VEGF. Moreover,
      AMP-IBP5 markedly enhanced keratinocyte migration and proliferation. AMP-IBP5
      induced keratinocyte activation was mediated by Mrg X1-X4 receptors with MAPK and
      NF-kappaB pathways working downstream, as evidenced by the inhibitory effects of
      MrgX1-X4 siRNAs and ERK-, JNK-, p38- and NF-kappaB-specific inhibitors. We
      confirmed that AMP-IBP5 indeed induced MAPK and NF-kappaB activation.
      Furthermore, AMP-IBP5-induced VEGF but not IL-8 production correlated with an
      increase in intracellular cAMP. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that in
      addition to its antimicrobial function, AMP-IBP5 might contribute to wound
      healing process through activation of keratinocytes.

PMID- 28554591
TI  - Outcome of Judet's quadricepsplasty for knee contractures and the effect of local
      infiltration of epinephrine on reducing blood loss.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of Judet's quadricepsplasty for
      treatment of knee contractures and to identify the effect of local infiltration
      of epinephrine on blood loss associated with this procedure. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study was conducted in which all cases of knee contractures
      managed with Judet's quadricepsplasty from 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2013
      were included and were divided into two groups. The epinephrine group included
      patients who were infiltrated with diluted epinephrine (1:400,000) along with
      xylocaine, around the operative field 15 min prior to the incision time, while
      the control group did not receive any infiltration. Judet's outcome, blood loss,
      drop in hemoglobin and required blood transfusion were noted for all patients and
      compared between both groups. RESULTS: Most common preceding pathology identified
      for the development of knee contractures was periarticular fracture while
      ilizarov application was the most common etiology. Both groups were found similar
      in all preoperative characteristics except preoperative flexion contracture (p =
      0.02). All functional outcome measures including Judet's outcome were similar in
      both groups. In contrast, duration of surgery (p = 0.01), blood loss (p = 0.02),
      drop in hemoglobin (p = 0.01) and number of transfusions (p = 0.03) were
      significantly reduced in epinephrine group. CONCLUSION: Judet's quadricepsplasty
      is a useful procedure to increase the range of motion of rigid knees and local
      infiltration of epinephrine is effective in decreasing the amount of subsequent
      blood loss and transfusion requirements.

PMID- 28554593
TI  - Erratum to "Secondary latissimus dorsi transfer after failed reverse total
      shoulder arthroplasty" [J Shoulder Elbow Surg 2015;24:e337-e344].

PMID- 28554592
TI  - Progresses in understanding trauma-induced coagulopathy and the underlying
      mechanism.
AB  - Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) is a clinical syndrome caused by imbalance
      between clotting, anti-coagulation and fibrinolysis resulting from multiple
      pathological factors such as hemorrhage and tissue injury in the early stage of
      trauma, and is closely related to the outcome of trauma patients. It is proved in
      growing evidence that the endogenous coagulation disturbance in trauma itself is
      the activating factor of TIC, rather than dilution or other acquired
      coagulopathy. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms in
      the pathogenesis and progression is crucial for effective prevention and
      treatment in patients with TIC. This review focuses on transitions in the concept
      of TIC and mechanical progress.

PMID- 28554594
TI  - Improvement of 5,6alpha-epoxycholesterol, 5,6beta-epoxycholesterol, cholestane
      3beta,5alpha,6beta-triol and 6-oxo-cholestan-3beta,5alpha-diol recovery for
      quantification by GC/MS.
AB  - 5,6alpha-epoxycholesterol (5,6alpha-EC) and 5,6beta-epoxycholesterol (5,6beta-EC)
      are oxysterols involved in the anticancer pharmacology of the widely used
      antitumor drug tamoxifen. They are both metabolized into cholestane
      3beta,5alpha,6beta-triol (CT) by the cholesterol-5,6-epoxide hydrolase (ChEH)
      enzyme, and CT is metabolized by an as-yet uncharacterized enzyme into 6-oxo
      cholestan-3beta,5alpha-diol (OCDO). A recent feasibility study showed that the
      5,6-ECs may represent surrogate markers of tamoxifen activity in breast cancer
      patients undergoing endocrine therapy, thus there is a growing interest in their
      accurate quantification. These oxysterols are usually quantified by gas-liquid
      chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS), using an isotope dilution
      methodology with the corresponding deuterated oxysterol. This method is
      considered to be relative quantitative since all of the standards used are
      deuterated oxysterols, however it is not known whether the preparation of each
      oxysterol is affected in the same way by the extraction, pre-purification by
      solid phase extraction (SPE) and trimethylsilylation steps, particularly when
      using biological samples that contain many other reactive compounds. Thus, in
      this study we investigated the yield of the 5,6-ECs, CT and OCDO recovery from
      patient serum samples at different stages of their work-up and
      trimethylsilylation prior to GC/MS analysis, using [14C]-labeled analogs to
      follow these oxysterols at each step. We measured a 40 to 60% loss of material
      for the 5,6-ECs and OCDO, however we also describe the conditions that improved
      their recovery. Our data also show that the use of deuterated 5,6alpha-EC,
      5,6beta-EC, CT and OCDO is an absolute requirement for their accurate
      quantification.

PMID- 28554595
TI  - Design of electrospun nanofibrous mats for osteogenic differentiation of
      mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - The clinical translation potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in
      regenerative medicine has been greatly exploited. With the merits of high surface
      area to volume ratio, facile control of components, well retained topography, and
      the capacity to mimic the native extracellular matrix (ECM), nanofibers have
      received a great deal of attention as bone tissue engineering scaffolds.
      Electrospinning has been considered as an efficient approach for scale-up
      fabrication of nanofibrous materials. Electrospun nanofibers are capable of
      stimulating cell-matrix interaction to form a cell niche, directing cellular
      behavior, and promoting the MSCs adhesion and proliferation. In this review, we
      give a comprehensive literature survey on the mechanisms of electrospun
      nanofibers in supporting the MSCs differentiation. Specifically, the influences
      of biological and physical osteogenic inductive cues on the MSCs osteogenic
      differentiation are reviewed. Along with the significant advances in the field,
      current research challenges and future perspectives are also discussed.

PMID- 28554598
TI  - Baseline risk factors for drug use among African-American patients during first
      month induction/stabilization on methadone.
AB  - Drug use during methadone induction/stabilization negatively influences later
      methadone-maintenance-treatment [MMT] outcomes (retention, abstinence). Our study
      examined the association of baseline risk factors to drug use during the first
      month of methadone treatment as well as longer-term treatment retention. We
      conducted these analyses among a race/ethnic minority group at high risk for
      worse MMT outcomes. African-American MMT patients (N=212) were interviewed at
      intake to assess clinical (drug use history), psychosocial (close family member
      substance abuse, psychosocial problems), and demographic factors. Outcomes were
      first-month opioid+ and cocaine+ urine drug screen [UDS] results and retention
      (days in treatment). In bivariate analyses, co-occurring cocaine abuse/dependence
      was associated with worse outcomes for opioid+ UDS, cocaine+ UDS, and retention.
      Being a primary injection opioid user and residing farther from the clinic were
      associated with a higher proportion of cocaine+ UDS and shorter retention,
      respectively. Patients with a significant other substance abuse history provided
      a higher proportion of both opioid+ and cocaine+ UDS. Sibling and parent
      substance abuse histories were associated with a higher proportion of opioid+ UDS
      and shorter retention. Psychosocial problems (economic, housing) were associated
      with a higher proportion of cocaine+ UDS. In multivariate analyses, co-occurring
      cocaine abuse/dependence and primary injection opioid use best accounted for
      first-month opioid+ and cocaine+ UDS, respectively. A higher proportion of first
      month opioid+ and cocaine+ UDS and living farther from the clinic accounted for
      retention. African-American patients reporting baseline risk factors
      (particularly clinical) experience worse short- and long-term MMT outcomes.
      Recommendations for improving standards of care are discussed.

PMID- 28554596
TI  - Gradient nanocomposite hydrogels for interface tissue engineering.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are an emerging class of materials with unique
      physical and chemical properties due to their high surface area and disc-like
      shape. Recently, these 2D nanomaterials have been investigated for a range of
      biomedical applications including tissue engineering, therapeutic delivery and
      bioimaging, due to their ability to physically reinforce polymeric networks.
      Here, we present a facile fabrication of a gradient scaffold with two natural
      polymers (gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and methacrylated kappa carrageenan
      (MkappaCA)) reinforced with 2D nanosilicates to mimic the native tissue
      interface. The addition of nanosilicates results in shear-thinning
      characteristics of prepolymer solution and increases the mechanical stiffness of
      crosslinked gradient structure. A gradient in mechanical properties,
      microstructures and cell adhesion characteristics was obtained using a
      microengineered flow channel. The gradient structure can be used to understand
      cell-matrix interactions and to design gradient scaffolds for mimicking tissue
      interfaces.

PMID- 28554597
TI  - Why aren't physicians prescribing more buprenorphine?
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Buprenorphine is an underutilized pharmacotherapy that
      can play a key role in combating the opioid epidemic. Individuals with opioid use
      disorder (OUD) often struggle to find physicians that prescribe buprenorphine.
      Many physicians do not have the waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, and a large
      proportion of physicians that are waivered do not prescribe to capacity. This
      study aimed to quantitatively understand why physicians do not utilize
      buprenorphine for the treatment of OUD more frequently. METHODS: Physicians
      (n=558) with and without the waiver to prescribe buprenorphine were surveyed
      about perceived drawbacks associated with prescribing buprenorphine. Furthermore,
      resources were identified that would encourage those without the waiver to obtain
      it, and those with the waiver to accept more new patients. The survey was
      distributed online to physicians in the spring/summer of 2016 via the American
      Society for Addiction Medicine and American Medical Association listservs.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: A logistic regression analysis was used to identify
      reasons that respondents indicated no willingness to increase prescribing
      (chi2(4)=73.18, p<0.001); main reasons were lack of belief in agonist treatment
      (OR 3.98, 95% CI, 1.43 to 11.1, p=0.008), lack of time for additional patients
      (OR 5.54, 95% CI, 3.5 to 8.7, p<0.001), and belief that reimbursement rates are
      insufficient (OR 2.50, 95% CI, 1.3 to 4.8, p=0.006). Differences between non
      waivered and waivered physicians concerning attitudes toward buprenorphine
      treatment as well as resources that would increase willingness to prescribe are
      also discussed. Identifying barriers to buprenorphine utilization is crucial in
      expanding treatment options for individuals with OUD.

PMID- 28554599
TI  - Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of a buprenorphine subcutaneous depot
      formulation (CAM2038) for once-weekly dosing in patients with opioid use
      disorder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sublingual buprenorphine is effective for opioid dependence
      treatment but associated with misuse, abuse, and diversion. The present Phase
      I/II study evaluated a novel buprenorphine subcutaneous depot formulation for
      once-weekly dosing (CAM2038 q1w) in patients receiving maintenance treatment for
      opioid use disorder with daily sublingual buprenorphine. METHODS: After
      discontinuation of buprenorphine for 48h, patients received a single CAM2038 q1w
      dose based on their pre-study daily sublingual maintenance dose. CAM2038 q1w
      doses of 7.5, 15, 22.5, and 30mg were administered in a sequential dose
      escalating design. The following assessments were performed: pharmacokinetics of
      buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine, pharmacodynamics (evaluated using the
      Subjective and Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scales), and time to intake of rescue
      sublingual buprenorphine medication. RESULTS: Single doses of CAM2038 q1w
      indicated dose-proportional buprenorphine pharmacokinetics (Cmax and AUC0-7d),
      with time to Cmax ~20h and an apparent terminal half-life of 3-5days, supporting
      once-weekly dosing. On average, patients showed a rapid and extended decrease in
      opiate-withdrawal symptoms from baseline, with zero or very low SOWS and COWS
      values measured at least up to 7days after dosing of CAM2038 q1w. The median time
      to first use of rescue buprenorphine was 10days. No dose dependence was seen in
      the pharmacodynamics, attributable to the selection of CAM2038 q1w doses based on
      patients' pre-study maintenance doses. CAM2038 q1w was safe and generally well
      tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of a novel
      buprenorphine subcutaneous depot formulation for once-weekly dosing was
      evaluated, suggesting utility in maintenance treatment of patients with opioid
      use disorder.

PMID- 28554600
TI  - Gratitude, abstinence, and alcohol use disorders: Report of a preliminary
      finding.
AB  - Gratitude is a central component of addiction recovery for many, yet it has
      received scant attention in addiction research. In a sample of 67 individuals
      entering abstinence-based alcohol-use-disorder treatment, this study employed
      gratitude and abstinence variables from sequential assessments (baseline,
      6months, 12months) to model theorized causal relationships: gratitude would
      increase pre-post treatment and gratitude after treatment would predict greater
      percent days abstinent 6months later. Neither hypothesis was supported. This
      unexpected result led to the theory that gratitude for sobriety was the construct
      of interest; therefore, the association between gratitude and future abstinence
      would be positive among those already abstinent. Thus, post-treatment abstinence
      was tested as a moderator of the effect of gratitude on future abstinence: this
      effect was statistically significant. For those who were abstinent after
      treatment, the relationship between gratitude and future abstinence was positive;
      for those drinking most frequently after treatment, the relationship between
      gratitude and future abstinence was negative. In this preliminary study,
      dispositional tendency to affirm that there is much to be thankful for appeared
      to perpetuate the status quo-frequent drinkers with high gratitude were drinking
      frequently 6months later; abstinent individuals with high gratitude were
      abstinent 6months later. Gratitude exercises might be contraindicated for clients
      who are drinking frequently and have abstinence as their treatment goal.

PMID- 28554601
TI  - Hepatitis C virus core antigen: A potential alternative to HCV RNA testing among
      persons with substance use disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen (HCVcAg) may be an
      alternative diagnostic method to HCV RNA especially in populations such as
      substance users, the homeless or in resource-limited settings. AIMS: To evaluate
      performance of HCVcAg test in patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) on
      methadone in order to document its performance characteristics in the target
      population and to ensure that its specificity remains consistent across different
      populations. METHODS: HCVcAg levels from 109 methadone-maintained patients were
      compared to HCV RNA levels. RESULTS: Mean age was 53.8+/-7.8years, 59.6% were
      male, 68.8% African American, and 44% HCV-infected. HCVcAg was detectable in 47
      of 48 HCV-infected, and undetectable in all HCV RNA negative patients. The HCVcAg
      assay had sensitivity of 97.9% and specificity of 100%. Correlation with HCV RNA
      levels was excellent (r=0.88, 95% CI 0.76; 0.95, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: HCVcAg has
      excellent performance for the diagnosis of HCV infection in patients with OUD on
      methadone.

PMID- 28554602
TI  - The relationship between diversion-related attitudes and sharing and selling
      buprenorphine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Buprenorphine medication-assisted treatment (B-MAT) is an efficacious
      and popular outpatient treatment for opioid use disorder. However, the likelihood
      of buprenorphine diversion is a public health concern. We examined the
      relationship between attitudes toward diversion as predictors of both sharing and
      selling buprenorphine. METHOD: Participants (n=476) were patients undergoing
      short-term inpatient opioid detoxification. Multinomial logistic regression was
      used to estimate the adjusted association of sharing and selling buprenorphine
      with demographics, substance use behaviors, and attitudes toward sharing and
      selling buprenorphine. RESULTS: Among the two hundred persons who had ever been
      prescribed buprenorphine (73.4% male, 89% heroin users), 50.5% reported they had
      shared buprenorphine and 28.0% reported they had sold buprenorphine. Controlling
      for other covariates, the odds of sharing buprenorphine were 3.17 (95% CI 1.21;
      8.32) times higher for persons who agreed that it was "right to share
      buprenorphine with dope sick friends" than for those who did not agree with this
      attitude. Attitudes toward selling (OR 2.92; 95% CI 1.35; 6.21) and sharing (OR
      4.12; 95% CI 1.64; 10.32) buprenorphine were the only significant correlates of
      selling, with the odds of selling exponentially greater among persons with
      favorable attitudes toward sharing or selling buprenorphine. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although considered diversion, sharing B-MAT is normative among B-MAT patients.
      Assessing B-MAT patients' attitudes about diversion may help identify patients
      requiring enhanced oversight, education, or intervention aimed at modifying
      attitudes to reduce their likelihood to share or sell buprenorphine.

PMID- 28554603
TI  - Association between executive function and outcome measure of treatment in
      therapeutic community among cocaine dependent individuals.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the association between baseline executive
      functioning and outcome measure of treatment in 226 cocaine dependent individuals
      who initiated treatment in therapeutic communities TCs. The study was conducted
      across six TCs located in the region of Andalusia (southern Spain).
      Neuropsychological testing included tests of working memory, reasoning,
      inhibition, switching, attention interference and decision making. The outcome
      measures were type of discharge (treatment dropout vs. therapeutic discharge) and
      clinical impression of the TC outcome (clinically significant vs. non-significant
      changes). In the present study a prospective comparative design was used. We
      found significant performance differences on selective executive components which
      account for the type of discharge: treatment quitters had poorer attention
      response inhibition and attention switching than non-quitters, and the
      individuals who failed to achieve therapeutic objectives had poorer attention
      interference and inhibitory control than compliers. No significant differences
      were found between the outcome measure and the neuropsychological performance
      score on the other tasks. The results provide important information about the
      impact of executive components on in-treatment follow-up outcomes among
      dependence disorders in TC.

PMID- 28554604
TI  - How online counselling can support partners of individuals with problem alcohol
      or other drug use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Problematic alcohol and other drug (AOD) use impacts partners
      heavily, with an increased risk of experiencing domestic violence, financial
      stressors, health problems and relationship challenges. However, partners often
      do not seek help or support due to a range of barriers (e.g., shame, stigma,
      practical constraints). Online counselling may facilitate help-seeking by
      overcoming many of these barriers, however research is needed to explore what
      motivates partners to contact online counselling services, their experiences and
      needs, and how partners can be best supported online. METHOD: One hundred
      transcripts of partners of individuals with problem AOD use were sampled from a
      24-hour national AOD synchronous online chat counselling service. Descriptive
      content analysis was used to investigate themes related to help-seeking. RESULTS:
      Three broad themes, with seven sub-themes, were identified: (i) the reason for
      accessing online counselling (seeking advice, wanting to talk), (ii) discussing
      help-seeking and coping processes (past/present help-seeking or coping
      strategies, barriers and facilitators to seeking help and change), and (iii)
      planning for future assistance (future planning, treatment preferences).
      CONCLUSIONS: Partners wanted to talk about their concerns with a non-judgemental
      professional. However, the majority of help-seekers wanted advice and assistance
      in problem-solving, coping and the process of seeking further help. Future
      studies need to examine the impact of online help-seeking by partners.

PMID- 28554605
TI  - Corrigendum to "Timing matters: A randomized control trial of recovery coaches in
      foster care" [Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 77 (2017) 178-184].

PMID- 28554606
TI  - A randomized trial of brief assessment interventions for young adults who use
      drugs in the club scene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Efficacious interventions to reduce drug use and its consequences for
      club drug using populations are not apparent in the literature. We tested
      interviewer- (CAPI) and self-administered (ACASI) comprehensive health and social
      risk assessments as distinct interventions compared to waitlist control. METHODS:
      750 men and women ages 18-39 with multidrug use and heterosexual behavior were
      randomized in equal proportions to the three conditions. Instrumentation included
      well-tested measures of drug use, risky sex, mental distress and substance
      dependence. RESULTS: The sample was 56% male; mean age=25. Reported risk
      behaviors and health consequences did not differ by assessment modality. Adjusted
      HLM analyses showed a significant main effect of assigned condition on all
      outcomes. CAPI participants had greater reductions in drug use, risky sex, mental
      distress and substance dependence symptoms, and greater increases in abstinence,
      compared to ACASI intervention or control participants at 12months, except that
      the CAPI and ACASI conditions had similar efficacy for reductions in drug use.
      Effect sizes for CAPI versus ACASI participants were d=0.2-0.3, and between CAPI
      and controls d=0.2-0.4. Effect sizes for improved outcomes between ACASI compared
      to controls were small to non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: The study established the
      therapeutic benefit of interviewer interaction in reducing risky behavior among
      this young drug using population. The study demonstrated the efficacy and
      acceptability of a low threshold intervention in reducing drug use, sexual risk
      and related co-morbidities among a not-in-treatment young adult population that
      exhibits severe and complex levels of drug use, but that is also highly resistant
      to intervention.

PMID- 28554607
TI  - Cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition of stimulant users: A baseline
      analysis of the STRIDE cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Relatively little has been reported about the physical
      characteristics, such as cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body composition, of
      stimulant users. Identifying risk factors associated with the physical health of
      stimulant users is an important public health issue as new treatments should
      better address the entire range of health concerns experienced by this
      population. METHODS: We examined cross-sectional data gathered at baseline from
      the STimulant Reduction Intervention using Dosed Exercise (STRIDE) study, a
      multisite randomized clinical trial that examined exercise as an adjunct to
      treatment as usual for individuals in residential treatment programs (RTPs).
      Clients were approached after intake to the RTP. Prior to randomization, eligible
      individuals underwent a comprehensive screening process that included medical
      screening, where CRF was assessed through a maximal exercise test (time on
      treadmill), and a series of baseline examinations assessing domains of substance
      use and mental health. RESULTS: Data from 295 individuals with recent stimulant
      use disorders were analyzed. The mean body mass index (BMI) and waist
      circumference (WC) and for all participants was 27.8+/-5.7kg/m2 and 93.5+/
      14.2cm, respectively, while the mean time on treadmill was 13.7+/-2.9min. Few
      significant associations were observed between CRF, BMI, or WC and substance use
      and mental health measures. CONCLUSIONS: Stimulant users in this study presented
      with low CRF levels and would be considered overweight based on their BMI. These
      individuals would likely benefit from interventions that address both their
      stimulant use, as well as their physical health.

PMID- 28554608
TI  - Documented brief intervention not associated with resolution of unhealthy alcohol
      use one year later among VA patients living with HIV.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Unhealthy alcohol use is particularly risky for patients living with
      HIV (PLWH). Brief interventions reduce drinking among patients with unhealthy
      alcohol use, but whether its receipt in routine outpatient settings is associated
      with reduced drinking among PLWH with unhealthy alcohol use is unknown. We
      assessed whether PLWH who screened positive for unhealthy alcohol use were more
      likely to resolve unhealthy drinking one year later if they had brief alcohol
      intervention (BI) documented in their electronic health record in a national
      sample of PLWH from the Veterans Health Administration. METHODS: Secondary VA
      clinical and administrative data from the electronic medical record (EMR) were
      used to identify all positive alcohol screens (AUDIT-C score>=5) documented among
      PLWH (10/01/09-5/30/13) followed by another alcohol screen documented 9-15months
      later. Unadjusted and adjusted Poisson regression models assessed the association
      between brief intervention (advice to reduce drinking or abstain documented in
      EMR) and resolution of unhealthy alcohol use (follow-up AUDIT-C<5 with >=2 point
      reduction). RESULTS: Overall 2101 PLWH with unhealthy drinking (10/01/09-5/30/13)
      had repeat alcohol screens 9-15months later. Of those, 77% had brief intervention
      documented after their first screen, and 61% resolved unhealthy alcohol use at
      follow-up. Documented brief intervention was not associated with resolution
      [Adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.96, (95% CI 0.90-1.02)]. CONCLUSIONS: Documented
      brief intervention was not associated with resolving unhealthy alcohol use at
      follow-up screening among VA PLWH with unhealthy alcohol use. Effective methods
      of resolving unhealthy alcohol use in this vulnerable population are needed.

PMID- 28554609
TI  - Biofilm-induced changes to the composite surface.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Composites may undergo biodegradation in the oral cavity. The
      objective was to investigate the effect of single- and multi-species biofilms on
      the surface roughness and topography of two composites. METHODS: Disk-shaped
      specimens of a paste-like, Bis-GMA-free (Gradia Direct Anterior, GC), and a
      flowable, Bis-GMA-based composite (Tetric EvoFlow, Ivoclar-Vivadent) were
      prepared. After ethylene-oxide sterilization (38 degrees C), specimens (n=3) were
      incubated with Streptococcus mutans or mixed bacterial culture (Streptococcus
      mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, Actinomyces naeslundii and Fusobacterium
      nucleatum). As negative controls, unexposed specimens and specimens exposed to
      sterile medium (BHI) were used. Specimens exposed to acidified BHI medium (pH=5)
      and enzymatic solution of cholesterol esterase served as positive control.
      Following 6-week incubation, the attached biofilms were collected for real-time
      PCR assessment, after which the surface roughness and topography of the specimens
      were analyzed with atomic force microscopy. Surface hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity
      was determined by contact angle measurements. Biofilm structure was analyzed with
      scanning electron microscopy. RESULTS: Even though multi-species biofilms were
      thicker, with more cells attached, they did not significantly affect the surface
      roughness of the composites. On the other hand, S. mutans alone significantly
      increased the roughness of Tetric by 40.3%, while its effect on Gradia was lower
      (12%). The total amount of attached bacteria, however, did not differ between the
      composites. CONCLUSIONS: S. mutans can increase the surface roughness of
      composites, depending on their composition. This ability of S. mutans is,
      however, mitigated in co-culture with other species. In particular, bacterial
      esterases seem to be responsible for the increased composite surface roughness
      upon biofilms exposure. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Cariogenic bacteria can degrade
      composites, thereby increasing the surface roughness. Increased roughness and
      subsequent improved bacterial accumulation may facilitate the development of
      secondary caries around composites, which is the most common reason for the
      restoration failure.

PMID- 28554610
TI  - Reverse allostasis in biological systems: Minimal conditions and implications.
AB  - Biological control systems regulate the behavior of biological systems in a
      constantly changing environment. Homeostasis is the most widely studied outcome
      of biological control systems. Homeostatic systems maintain the system in its
      desired state despite variations in system parameters or the externally
      determined input rates of their constituents, i.e. they have zero or near zero
      steady state error. On the other hand, allostatic systems are not resistant
      against environmental changes and the steady state level of their controlled
      variables responds positively to the changes in their input rates. Little is
      known, however, on the existence and frequency of reverse allostatic systems,
      where the steady state value of the controlled variable correlates negatively
      with the input rate of that variable. In the present study, we derive the minimal
      conditions for the existence and local stability of reverse allostatic systems,
      and demonstrate in examples of metabolic, pharmacological, pathophysiological and
      ecological systems that the reverse allostasis requirements are relatively non
      stringent and may be satisfied in biological systems more commonly than usually
      thought. The possible existence of reverse allostatic systems in nature and their
      counter-intuitive implications in physiological systems, drug treatment,
      ecosystem management, and biological control are explored and testable
      predictions are made.

PMID- 28554611
TI  - A mathematical model of embodied consciousness.
AB  - We introduce a mathematical model of embodied consciousness, the Projective
      Consciousness Model (PCM), which is based on the hypothesis that the spatial
      field of consciousness (FoC) is structured by a projective geometry and under the
      control of a process of active inference. The FoC in the PCM combines
      multisensory evidence with prior beliefs in memory and frames them by selecting
      points of view and perspectives according to preferences. The choice of
      projective frames governs how expectations are transformed by consciousness.
      Violations of expectation are encoded as free energy. Free energy minimization
      drives perspective taking, and controls the switch between perception,
      imagination and action. In the PCM, consciousness functions as an algorithm for
      the maximization of resilience, using projective perspective taking and
      imagination in order to escape local minima of free energy. The PCM can account
      for a variety of psychological phenomena: the characteristic spatial
      phenomenology of subjective experience, the distinctions and integral
      relationships between perception, imagination and action, the role of affective
      processes in intentionality, but also perceptual phenomena such as the dynamics
      of bistable figures and body swap illusions in virtual reality. It relates
      phenomenology to function, showing the computational advantages of consciousness.
      It suggests that changes of brain states from unconscious to conscious reflect
      the action of projective transformations and suggests specific
      neurophenomenological hypotheses about the brain, guidelines for designing
      artificial systems, and formal principles for psychology.

PMID- 28554612
TI  - Essential oil diversity of Origanum vulgare L. populations from Southern Italy.
AB  - Essential oils (EOs) belonging to 25 wild populations of Origanum vulgare L.
      samples, growing wild in different locations of Calabria Region (Southern Italy),
      were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The quantitative and
      qualitative data showed EO concentrations ranging from 0.96 to 5.10% and 37
      compounds detected, representing more than 80% of the total composition of the
      oils. By applying hierarchical cluster analysis on the basis of the EO
      constituents, two main groups and three subgroups were found, reflecting the
      variation in the chemical composition of EOs from wild oregano populations. The
      first group consisted of acyclic (linalool/linalyl acetate) chemotypes with a
      predominant presence of linalyl acetate; the second was characterized by
      chemotypes rich in cymyl-compounds, mainly carvacrol, thymol and gamma-terpinene.
      The data obtained contribute to broaden the inventory of wild oregano populations
      from Calabria to plan programs for the selection of chemotypes with new and
      specific uses.

PMID- 28554613
TI  - Phytic acid-stabilized super-amphiphilic Fe3O4-graphene oxide for extraction of
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from vegetable oils.
AB  - Phytic acid-stabilized Fe3O4-graphene oxide (GOPA@Fe3O4) was assembled by
      microwave-enhanced hydrothermal synthesis and super-amphipathicity was
      demonstrated by measurement of dynamic oil and water contact angles. GOPA@Fe3O4
      was used as a sorbent for enrichment of eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      (PAHs) from vegetable oils by magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE). The
      extraction-desorption factors were systematically investigated and, under optimum
      conditions, the super-amphiphilic sorbent achieved wide linear ranges (0.2-200ngg
      1), satisfactory precision (3.44-6.64% for intra-day and 5.39-8.41% for inter
      day) and low limits of detection (LODs, 0.06-0.15ngg-1) for PAHs. Excellent
      recoveries (85.6-102.3%) for spiked PAHs were obtained with genuine vegetable oil
      samples. These results indicate that MSPE using GOPA@Fe3O4 as the sorbent,
      coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), is an efficient and
      simple method for the detection of low concentrations of PAHs in vegetable oils.

PMID- 28554614
TI  - Antibiotic use in heavy pigs: Comparison between urine and muscle samples from
      food chain animals analysed by HPLC-MS/MS.
AB  - The antibiotic overuse in zoothechnics, due to prophylactic and therapeutic
      treatments, or to their growth-promoting activity, is a major cause for the onset
      of widespread antibiotic resistance. Of particular relevance to this study, is
      the antibiotic abuse in pig breeding. Despite the comprehensive literature on
      residue controls in pig muscle, data on pig urine, a non-invasive, on-farm
      collectable matrix, are lacking. Therefore, we validated an HPLC-MS/MS method to
      detect 29 antimicrobials from eight classes and applied it to 43 anonymous pig
      urine and muscle paired samples and fulfilled the parameters in agreement with
      the Commission Decision 2002/657/UE. The analytical limits were moreover much
      lower than the maximum residue limits (MRLs) required by the Commission
      Regulation 37/2010/UE. In the samples, antibiotics were usually detected at
      higher frequencies and concentrations in urine than muscle. Urine proved a useful
      tool to detect antibiotic administration and their excessive use in pig farming
      is depicted.

PMID- 28554615
TI  - Utilization of quercetin and quercetin glycosides from onion (Allium cepa L.)
      solid waste as an antioxidant, urease and xanthine oxidase inhibitors.
AB  - This study aimed to determine the flavonol glycosides from onion solid waste
      (OSW) using HPLC analysis, with antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activities. We
      found considerable amount of quercetin-4'-O-monoglucoside (QMG: 254.85),
      quercetin-3,4'-O-diglucoside (QDG: 162.34), quercetin (Q: 60.44), and
      isorhamnetin-3-glucoside (IMG: 23.92) (mg/100g) dry weight (DW) of OSW. For OSW,
      the methanol and ethanol showed the strongest antioxidant activities, followed by
      ethyl acetate, chloroform, and n-hexane extracts. Among the flavonols, Q and QDG
      possessed higher antioxidant activities. OSW and flavonol glycosides displayed
      significant enzyme inhibitory activity, with IC50 values ranging from 12.5+/-0.11
      to 32.5+/-0.28 for OSW, 8.2+/-0.07 to 16.8+/-0.02 for flavonol glycosides, and
      4.2+/-0.05MUg/mL for thiourea (positive control) towards urease; while 15.2+/-0.8
      to 35.8+/-0.2 (MUg/mL) for OSW, 10.5+/-0.06 to 20.8+/-0.05 (MUg/mL) for flavonol
      glycosides, and 6.5+/-0.05MUg/mL for allopurinol (positive control) towards
      xanthine oxidase, respectively. The OSW and flavonol glycosides may thus be
      considered as potential antioxidant and antigout agents.

PMID- 28554616
TI  - Essential oils as food eco-preservatives: Model system studies on the effect of
      temperature on limonene antibacterial activity.
AB  - Antimicrobial properties of essential oils predestine these substances to be used
      as ecological food preservatives. However, their activity is determined by
      variety of factors among which external conditions and food properties are highly
      important. Herein the influence of limonene on artificial membranes was studied
      to verify the effect of temperature on the incorporation of this compound into
      model bacterial membrane. The investigations were done on lipid monolayers and
      the experiments involved the surface pressure-area measurements, penetration
      studies and Brewster Angle Microscopy analysis. It was found that limonene
      incorporates into lipid monolayers causing their fluidization. However, the
      magnitude of alterations depends on limonene concentration, model membrane
      composition and, for a given composition, on system condensation. Moreover, the
      influence of limonene is stronger at lower temperatures and, in the light of
      collected data, this may be a consequence of strong volatility and evaporation of
      limonene increasing with temperature.

PMID- 28554617
TI  - Dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA): interaction between DCA methods and 1
      methylcyclopropene on 'Fuji Suprema' apple quality.
AB  - The objective of the present work was to evaluate the appropriate respiratory
      quotient (RQ) value to achieve a safe lowest oxygen limit (LOL), during storage
      of 'Fuji Suprema' apples, in dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA), treated with or
      without 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). The apples were stored in DCA-RQ, a new
      technology for storing fruits, and were compared with the HarvestWatchTM, a
      system based on chlorophyll fluorescence DCA (DCA-CF), and static controlled
      atmosphere. DCA-RQ1.5 is the most suited for the storage of 'Fuji Suprema'
      apples. In this condition fermentative products were induced, which reduced
      ethylene production and respiration rate; however, it did not increase
      physiological disorders, and the concentration of ethyl acetate was below the
      odour threshold. 1-MCP application maintained higher flesh firmness and reduced
      the anaerobic metabolism, although it decreased fruit quality due to the
      occurrence of cavities, therefore its application is not recommended for 'Fuji
      Suprema' apple stored in DCA conditions.

PMID- 28554618
TI  - Graphene oxide-sensitized molecularly imprinted opto-polymers for charge-transfer
      fluorescent sensing of cyanoguanidine.
AB  - The hierarchical structuring of materials offers exciting opportunities to
      construct functional sensors. Multiple processes were combined to create complex
      materials for the selective detection of cyanoguanidine (CYA) using graphene
      oxide-sensitized molecularly imprinted opto-polymers (MIOP). Molecular imprinting
      was used to construct molecular-scale analyte-selective cavities, graphene oxide
      was introduced to provide a platform for the polymerization, and increase the
      stability and binding kinetic properties, and 3-methacryloxy propyl trimethoxy
      silane-modified quantum dots were combined with a functional monomer to increase
      the fluorescence quantum yield. Polymer cross-linking and fluorescence intensity
      were optimized for molecular recognition and opto-sensing detection. Selective
      and sensitive, fluorescence sensing of CYA was possible at concentrations as low
      as to 1.6MUM. It could be applied to the rapid and cost-effective monitoring of
      CYA in infant formula. The approach is generic and applicable to many molecules
      and conventional opto-sensors, based on molecularly imprinted polymer
      formulations, individually or in multiplexed arrays.

PMID- 28554619
TI  - Swarm motility inhibitory and antioxidant activities of pomegranate peel
      processed under three drying conditions.
AB  - During processing of ready-to-eat fresh fruits, large amounts of peel and seeds
      are discarded as waste. Pomegranate (Punicagranatum) peels contain high amounts
      of bioactive compounds which inhibit migration of Salmonella on wet surfaces. The
      metabolic distribution of bioactives in pomegranate peel, inner membrane, and
      edible aril portion was investigated under three different drying conditions
      along with the anti-swarming activity against Citrobacter rodentium. Based on the
      multivariate analysis, 29 metabolites discriminated the pomegranate peel, inner
      membrane, and edible aril portion, as well as the three different drying methods.
      Punicalagins (~38.6-50.3mg/g) were detected in higher quantities in all fractions
      as compared to ellagic acid (~0.1-3.2mg/g) and punicalins (~0-2.4mg/g). The
      bioactivity (antioxidant, anti-swarming) and phenolics content was significantly
      higher in peels than the edible aril portion. Natural anti-swarming agents from
      food waste may have promising potential for controlling food borne pathogens.

PMID- 28554620
TI  - Changes in flavonoid and phenolic acid contents in some Rosa species during
      ripening.
AB  - In this study, fruits of Rosa dumalis, R. canina, and R. villosa were cultivated
      and harvested at six different time points based on colour changes during the
      ripening period. Phenolic acid and flavonoid contents in fresh hypanthium were
      determined by HPLC-DAD. Derivatives of organic acid (gallic, caffeic, p-coumaric,
      and ferulic acids) and flavonoid (catechin, eriocitrin, rutin, apigenin,
      quercetin, apigenin-7-O-glucoside and kaempferol) were quantified using
      calibration curves. Phenolic acid contents of the Rosa species increased
      nonlinearly depending on the harvesting time. The highest amount of catechin was
      found at the fifth harvest time point (H-5) ranged from 323 to 472mgkg-1. The
      highest level of caffeic acid content was found in the R. dumalis ranged from 24
      to 77mgkg-1. The total amount of flavonoid increased up to the fifth harvest time
      point (H-5), whereas the amount of total phenolic acid tended to decrease until
      the same harvest period.

PMID- 28554621
TI  - Enhancing oxidative stability in heated oils using core/shell structures of
      collagen and alpha-tocopherol complex.
AB  - In this study, collagen mesh structure was prepared by carrying alpha-tocopherol
      in the form of core/shell complex. Antioxidant properties of alpha-tocopherol
      loaded carriers were tested in moisture added bulk oils at 140 degrees C. From
      one gram of collagen core/shell complex, 138mg alpha-tocopherol was released in
      medium chain triacylglycerol (MCT). alpha-Tocopherol was substantially protected
      against heat treatment when alpha-tocopherol was complexed in collagen
      core/shell. Oxidative stability in bulk oil was significantly enhanced by added
      collagen mesh structure or collagen core/shell complex with alpha-tocopherol
      compared to that in control bulk oils (p<0.05), although no significant
      difference was observed between oils containing collagen mesh structure and
      collagen core/shell with alpha-tocopherol (p>0.05). Results of DPPH loss in
      methanol demonstrated that collagen core/shell with alpha-tocopherol had
      significantly (p<0.05) higher antioxidant properties than collagen mesh structure
      up to a certain period. Therefore, collagen core/shell complex is a promising way
      to enhance the stability of alpha-tocopherol and oxidative stability in oil-rich
      foods prepared at high temperature.

PMID- 28554622
TI  - Comparison of anti-pathogenic activities of the human and bovine milk N-glycome:
      Fucosylation is a key factor.
AB  - Health differences between breast- and formula-fed infants have long been
      apparent despite great efforts in improving the function of baby formula by
      adjusting the levels of various milk nutritional components. However, the N
      glycome, a type of oligosaccharide decorating a diverse range of proteins, has
      not been extensively studied in milk regarding its biological function. In this
      study, the anti-pathogenic function of the enzymatically released human and
      bovine milk N-glycome against 5 food-borne pathogens was investigated. The human
      milk N-glycome showed significantly higher activity than bovine milk. After
      enzymatic defucosylation of human and bovine N-glycan pool, UHPLC peak shifts
      were observed in both suggesting heavy fucosylation of samples. Furthermore, the
      anti-pathogenic activity of the defulosylated N-glycome decreased significantly,
      and the significance of functional difference between the two almost disappeared.
      This result indicates the essential role of fucosylation for the anti-pathogenic
      function of the milk N-glycome, especially in human milk.

PMID- 28554623
TI  - Environmental-friendly technologies for the production of antioxidant
      xylooligosaccharides from wheat chaff.
AB  - Ultrasound irradiation and enzymatic hydrolysis were applied for the production
      of antioxidant xylooligosaccharides from wheat chaff. To facilitate enzyme
      action, 3% (w/w) suspension of raw material was pretreated by ultrasound at 25Hz,
      540W for 10min. Ultrasound treatment released xylooligosaccharides with
      predominant xylotriose into liquid fraction which expressed 1.03+/-0.01
      (MUmolAAE/g) ABTS radicals-scavenging activity. Endo-xylanase action on
      pretreated wheat chaff released 21.76+/-1.42 and 32.3+/-0.75mg reducing sugars
      equivalents/g after 24h when applied at dosages 0.15 and 0.3U/g. respectively.
      With increase in reaction time portion of xylotriose and xylotetraose in
      hydrolysates was increase relatively to xylopentose as well as quantities of
      xylose and glucose. Extremely significant inverse correlation between
      monosaccharides/oligosaccharides ratio and ABTS radical-scavenging activity was
      determined. Results indicated potential of environmental friendly ultrasound and
      enzymatic technologies for the production of xylooligosaccharides from wheat
      chaff for potential food application.

PMID- 28554624
TI  - Quality improvement of a rice-substituted fried noodle by utilizing the protein
      polyphenol interaction between a pea protein isolate and green tea (Camellia
      sinensis) extract.
AB  - The quality of rice-substituted fried noodles was improved by applying
      interaction between pea protein isolate (PPI) and green tea extract (GTE).
      Radical-scavenging activities of GTE were stably maintained when exposed to
      acidic pH, UV light, and fluorescent light, but decreased by approximately 65%
      when exposed to 80 degrees C for 168h. The RVA profiles of noodle dough showed
      that peak viscosity and breakdown increased significantly but that setback and
      final viscosity remained unchanged with 20% rice flour replacement. PPI
      significantly decreased the viscosity parameters of rice-supplemented dough, and
      the addition of GTE recovered these values significantly. The cooking loss and
      viscoelasticity (Rmax) of cooked rice-supplemented noodles were fully restored by
      combined treatment of PPI and GTE. GTE decreased the peroxide value of fried
      noodles by 14% after storage at 63 degrees C for 16days. Therefore, PPI+GTE
      treatment has great potential for use in fried noodles owing to the reinforced
      network and antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28554626
TI  - Hyperspectral imaging detection of decayed honey peaches based on their
      chlorophyll content.
AB  - Honey peach is a very common but highly perishable market fruit. When pathogens
      infect fruit, chlorophyll as one of the important components related to fruit
      quality, decreased significantly. Here, the feasibility of hyperspectral imaging
      to determine the chlorophyll content thus distinguishing diseased peaches was
      investigated. Three optimal wavelengths (617nm, 675nm, and 818nm) were selected
      according to chlorophyll content via successive projections algorithm. Partial
      least square regression models were established to determine chlorophyll content.
      Three band ratios were obtained using these optimal wavelengths, which improved
      spatial details, but also integrates the information of chemical composition from
      spectral characteristics. The band ratio values were suitable to classify the
      diseased peaches with 98.75% accuracy and clearly show the spatial distribution
      of diseased parts. This study provides a new perspective for the selection of
      optimal wavelengths of hyperspectral imaging via chlorophyll content, thus
      enabling the detection of fungal diseases in peaches.

PMID- 28554625
TI  - Residue behaviors and dietary risk assessment of dinotefuran and its metabolites
      in Oryza sativa by a new HPLC-MS/MS method.
AB  - In this study, we developed a new method to detect dinotefuran and its
      metabolites (UF and DN) in Oryza sativa (Rice) by HPLC-MS/MS in multiple reaction
      monitoring (MRM) modes. The recovery rates for dinotefuran, UF and DN were 82.3
      85.8%, 83.7-89.0%, and 81.6-90.2%, respectively. The dissipation kinetics of
      dinotefuran in rice followed a combined first+first kinetic model, where the half
      lives of dinotefuran and its metabolites were determined to be between 0.5 and
      2.3days. The dinotefuran residue in brown rice sampled at day 7, 14, and 21 after
      the last application was 0.4131mg/kg with a very low risk quotient (RQ) value. We
      recommend that the safety interval of application for rice is 7days. The method
      developed in this study is simple and rapid, with high accuracy and precision
      which meet the requirements for quantitative analysis of dinotefuran in rice.

PMID- 28554627
TI  - Heavy metal exposure from cooked rice grain ingestion and its potential health
      risks to humans from total and bioavailable forms analysis.
AB  - Heavy metal in rice studies has attracted a greater concern worldwide. However,
      there have been limited studies on marketed rice samples although it represents a
      vital ingestion portion for a real estimation of human health risk. This study
      was aimed to determine both total and bioaccessible of trace elements and heavy
      metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Co, Al, Zn, As, Pb and Fe) in 22 varieties of cooked rice
      using an inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. Both total and
      bioaccessible of trace elements and heavy metals were digested using closed
      nitric acid digestion and Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM) in
      vitro digestion model, respectively. Human health risks via Health Risk
      Assessment (HRA) were conducted to understand exposure risks involving adults and
      children representing Malaysian population. Zinc was the highest while As was the
      lowest contents for total and in their bioavailable forms. Four clusters were
      identified: (1) Pb, As, Co, Cd and Cr; (2) Cu and Al; (3) Fe and (4) Zn. For HRA,
      there was no any risks found from single element exposure. While potential
      carcinogenic health risks present for both adult and children from single As
      exposure (Life time Cancer Risk, LCR>1*10-4). Total Hazard Quotient values for
      adult and children were 27.0 and 18.0, respectively while total LCR values for
      adult and children were 0.0049 and 0.0032, respectively.

PMID- 28554628
TI  - Effect of the presence of protein on lipolysis and lipid oxidation occurring
      during in vitro digestion of highly unsaturated oils.
AB  - The effect of the presence of ovalbumin and soy protein isolate on lipolysis and
      oxidation taking place during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of slightly
      oxidized sunflower and flaxseed oils was addressed. The extent of lipolysis, the
      molar proportions of acyl groups/fatty acids after digestion, and the oxidation
      products formed were studied by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. The presence
      of proteins provoked a higher hydrolysis in triglycerides, a lower decrease of
      polyunsaturated chains, and a lower generation of oxidation compounds (conjugated
      dienes in chains having also hydroperoxy/hydroxy groups, epoxides and aldehydes);
      the formation of hydroxides was clearly favoured over that of hydroperoxides.
      Study of headspace composition by Solid Phase Microextraction-Gas
      Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry confirmed that oxidation advanced to a lesser
      extent in the presence of protein. Thus, amino acids/peptides released during
      digestion may show antioxidant properties, affecting not only the extent of lipid
      oxidation, but also reactions pathways.

PMID- 28554629
TI  - Enhancement of nutritional and bioactive compounds by in vitro culture of wild
      Fragaria vesca L. vegetative parts.
AB  - In vitro culture emerges as a sustainable way to produce bioactives for further
      applicability in the food industry. Herein, vegetative parts of Fragaria vesca L.
      (wild strawberry) obtained by in vitro culture were analyzed regarding
      nutritional and phytochemical compounds, as well as antioxidant activity. These
      samples proved to have higher content of protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids,
      soluble sugars, organic acids (including ascorbic acid) and tocopherols (mainly
      alpha-tocopherol) than wild grown F. vesca, as well as containing additional
      phenolic compounds. The antioxidant activity of hydromethanolic extracts could be
      correlated with the content of different phenolic groups and other compounds
      (sugars and organic acids). It was demonstrated that in vitro culture could
      enhance nutritional and bioactive compounds of Fragaria vesca L. plants,
      providing a very interesting biotechnological tool for potential food
      applications.

PMID- 28554630
TI  - Towards improved quality benchmarking and shelf life evaluation of black tiger
      shrimp (Penaeus monodon).
AB  - An improved quality benchmarking and shelf life evaluation of freshly harvested
      black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) was pursued by combining sensory and
      chemical methods. This involved developing a quality index method (QIM) to
      further assess both freshness and shelf life of the studied shrimp samples. The
      quality index included the use of trimethylamine (TMA-N), total volatile basis
      nitrogen (TVB-N), histamine, and hypoxanthine, which were performed at scheduled
      times during the ten days of ice storage (0 degrees C). Shelf life of the studied
      shrimp was most likely to be 8days, and there were positive linear correlations
      between quality indices (QI) and storage period. The quality of shrimp decreased
      over storage time. In fact, significant changes of chemical and sensory
      characteristics of the shrimp samples would become more obvious from day 5
      onwards. Besides, quality classification of black tiger shrimp involved four main
      levels, namely: excellent, good, moderately acceptable, and just acceptable.

PMID- 28554632
TI  - The composition of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of Saskatoon
      berry (Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt.) genotypes grown in central Poland.
AB  - Bioactive compounds in fruits of four Saskatoon berry genotypes grown in a trial
      in central Poland are presented in this paper. Two Polish breeding clones (no.
      5/6 and type S) and two Canadian cultivars - 'Martin' and 'Smoky' - were used in
      studies conducted in 2015-2016. Fourty-eight bioactive compounds were identified
      in Saskatoon berry genotypes, including twenty-nine polyphenolic compounds (4
      anthocyanins, 9 phenolic acids, 9 flavonols, 7 flavan-3-ols), 3 triterpenoids, 7
      carotenoids, 5 chlorophylls and 4 tocopherols. The results of the analysis showed
      that the fruits of clone no. 5/6 had significantly lower contents of pro-healthy
      compounds and antioxidant activity in comparison to the other three tested
      genotypes. These genotypes, which may offer new functional material, can be
      recommended for fruit growers to increase their income. Their fruits can be used
      for the food processing industry and for the production of health beneficial
      products.

PMID- 28554631
TI  - C-geranylated flavanones from YingDe black tea and their antioxidant and alpha
      glucosidase inhibition activities.
AB  - YingDe black tea is produced from crude tea prepared from leaves of Camellia
      sinensis var. assamica. In this work, we isolated and identified five novel
      flavanones, namely, amelliaone A-E (1-5), along with seven known compounds 6-12
      from the ethanol extract of YingDe black tea. The structures of these five novel
      phenolic compounds were determined using extensive 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy experiments. The compounds were further evaluated for
      antioxidant, alpha-glucosidase inhibitory, and cytotoxic activities. Compound 1
      exhibited higher alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity with a half-maximum
      inhibitory concentration value (IC50) of 10.2uM compared with acarbose (18.2uM).

PMID- 28554633
TI  - Glycation of clinically relevant chickpea allergen attenuates its allergic immune
      response in Balb/c mice.
AB  - Glycation of food allergens may alter their immunological behaviour. We sought to
      investigate the impact of glycation on the allergenicity of a food protein.
      Herein, a chickpea protein (~26kDa) was purified and characterized as lectin.
      Further, glycation of this purified protein was carried out. Thereafter, allergic
      behaviour of this glycated protein was compared with its native form, using
      various allergic parameters in Balb/c mice. The reduced allergenicity of glycated
      protein was observed as lesser allergic phenotypes, reduced serum immunoglobulins
      and allergic mediators, lower mast cells and eosinophil counts, lower protein
      expressions of Th2 cytokines and associated transcription factors. In addition,
      more Th1 and less Th2 cytokine production in exposed splenocyte, were evident in
      the glycated protein treated mice as compared to its native protein treatment.
      Thus, glycation of the chickpea allergen attenuated the sensitizing potential and
      allergic responses in Balb/c mice significantly and could also be clinically
      beneficial.

PMID- 28554634
TI  - Valorization of Dacryodes rostrata fruit through the characterization of its oil.
AB  - Dacryodes rostrata (kembayau) is an important food and oil resource for local
      communities in Borneo, but it is not commonly known to wider community. The
      objective of this work is to valorize kembayau fruit by evaluating the
      characteristics of the oil from the fruit. In this study, the physicochemical
      characteristics and the lipophilic essential nutrient; the fatty acid
      composition, vitamin E and beta-carotene content of oils obtained from the peel,
      pulp and seeds of kembayau fruits were studied. The pulp of the kembayau fruit
      contained highest proportion of oil, followed by peel and seed. Kembayau fruit
      contained vitamin E and had trace amount of beta-carotene. Besides, kembayau
      fruit oils were not toxic to BRL3A cells, provided hepatoprotection and reversed
      lipid peroxidation in paracetamol-induced toxicity. Our results suggest that
      kembayau can be a potential source for cooking oil as the physicochemical
      characteristics are comparable with commercial source such as oil palm.

PMID- 28554635
TI  - Anthocyanins from purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) and their color
      modulation by the addition of phenolic acids and food-grade phenolic plant
      extracts.
AB  - Anthocyanin profiles and contents of three purple sweet potato provenances were
      investigated by HPLC-DAD-MSn. In contrast to widely uniform profiles, the
      contents of total (558-2477mg/100gDM) and individual anthocyanins varied widely.
      Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative effects of intermolecular co
      pigmentation were studied by adding chlorogenic and rosmarinic acids, and food
      grade phenolic apple and rosemary extracts at various dosages to a diluted purple
      sweet potato concentrate at pH 0.9, 2.6, 3.6, and 4.6. Addition of co-pigments
      generally increased pKH estimate-values of anthocyanins from 3.28 (without co
      pigments) to up to 4.71, thus substantially broadening the pH range wherein
      colored forms prevail. The most pronounced hyperchromic shift by up to +50.5% at
      the absorption maximum was observed at pH 4.6. Simply by blending the co-pigments
      with purple sweet potato anthocyanins at pH-values ranging from 2.6 to 4.6,
      purplish-blue, light pink, magenta, brick-red, and intense red hues were
      accessible as expressed by CIE-L*a*b* color values.

PMID- 28554636
TI  - Ultrasonic extraction of pectin from Opuntia ficus indica cladodes after mucilage
      removal: Optimization of experimental conditions and evaluation of chemical and
      functional properties.
AB  - Ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE) of pectin from Opuntia ficus indica (OFI)
      cladodes after mucilage removal was attempted using the response surface
      methodology. The process variables were optimized by the isovariant central
      composite design in order to improve the pectin extraction yield. The optimum
      condition obtained was: sonication time 70min, temperature 70 degrees C, pH 1.5
      and the water-material ratio 30ml/g. This condition was validated and the
      performance of experimental extraction was 18.14%+/-1.41%, which was closely
      linked to the predicted value (19.06%). Thus, UAE present a promising alternative
      to conventional extraction process thanks to its high efficiency which was
      achieved in less time and at lower temperatures. The pectin extracted by UAE from
      OFI cladodes (UAEPC) has a low degree of esterification, high uronic acid
      content, important functional properties and good anti-radical activity. These
      results are in favor of the use of UAEPC as potential additive in food industry.

PMID- 28554637
TI  - Encapsulation of lycopene in Chlorella pyrenoidosa: Loading properties and
      stability improvement.
AB  - Aiming to improve the stability of lycopene and incorporate it into a complex
      nutraceutical, exogenous lycopene-loaded Chlorella pyrenoidosa cells (CPCs) were
      developed. The complex had an encapsulation yield of 13.06+/-0.89% and an
      encapsulation efficiency of 96.31+/-3.10%. Fluorescence analyses indicated that
      lycopene was encapsulated in the CPCs. X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric and
      differential scanning calorimetric analyses were conducted and compared to those
      of the non-loaded CPCs, lycopene and their physical mixture. These studies
      demonstrated that lycopene was amorphous in the complex. The degradation kinetics
      indicated that encapsulation increased the stability of lycopene. The antioxidant
      activity of lycopene loaded CPCs against DPPH free radicals was higher than that
      of the unencapsulated lycopene after storage at 25 degrees C for 25d. This study
      proved the feasibility of encapsulation of lycopene in the CPCs and combined the
      activities of both materials, which could be employed in the production of novel
      nutraceuticals to reduce oxidative stress.

PMID- 28554638
TI  - Effect of cold plasma on crocin esters and volatile compounds of saffron.
AB  - The effect of cold plasma on crocin esters and volatile oils of saffron was
      studied for the first time. After the treatments, (Ar, Ar/5% O2 and Ar/10% O2 at
      8 and 12kV of voltage), a decrease in crocin esters and saffranal and an increase
      in isophorone and 4-ketoisophorone was observed. After 4min, the saffron samples
      treated with Ar/20% O2 had blackened and the treatment was discontinued. The
      results show that increasing the input voltage and increasing the amount of added
      oxygen to Argon gas increased the changes in the safranal and crocin esters.
      There was no trans-2G, cis-4GG or cis-3Gg compounds observed after the Ar/10% O2
      cold plasma treatment at 12kV.

PMID- 28554639
TI  - Inhibition effect of food preservatives on endoproteinases.
AB  - The present manuscript proposes a novel approach to assess the impact of food
      additives on human metabolism by analysing their effect on biomarker enzyme
      activity. Alterations in the activity of pancreatic enzymes, such as chymotrypsin
      and trypsin, which are affected by the most common food preservatives, sodium
      benzoate (E211), potassium sorbate (E202) and sorbic acid (E200), have been
      evaluated. The proteinase activity was analysed with a bioluminescent method
      using the light intensity decay constant. Our study revealed that the
      preservatives reduce proteinase activity by 50% (EC50) at a much lower
      concentration than their acceptable daily intake (ADI). Thus, sodium benzoate and
      sorbic acid have an inhibition effect on chymotrypsin at concentrations 14 times
      lower and 70 times lower than their ADI and this increases with exposure time.
      Food preservative consumption impacts negatively on protein digestion, which is
      especially dangerous for patients with pancreatitis.

PMID- 28554640
TI  - Inhibition of alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase by Spanish extra virgin olive
      oils: The involvement of bioactive compounds other than oleuropein and
      hydroxytyrosol.
AB  - Despite the wide use of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to combat several diseases,
      the antidiabetic and anti-cholinesterase activity of Spanish EVOO have not been
      assessed. In order to evaluate which compounds are responsible for these
      activities of five Spanish EVOOs, in addition to flavonoids, we investigated for
      the first time the effect of the contents of carotenoids, fatty acids (FAs), and
      phytoprostanes (PhytoPs) on four enzymes: alpha-glucosidase, alpha-amylase,
      acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase. The extracts of these five
      Spanish EVOOs were found to contain three flavones, three carotenoids, six FAs,
      and seven classes of PhytoPs. The samples exhibited no in vitro anti
      cholinesterase activity but presented strong antidiabetic activity, in the order:
      'Arbequina'~'Picual'~'Cuquillo'>'Hojiblanca'>'Cornicabra'. The samples showed a
      higher in vitro hypoglycemic effect than individual or mixed standards, possibly
      due to interaction between multiple identified compounds and/or a very complex
      multivariate interaction between other factors.

PMID- 28554641
TI  - Indirect determination of the flavor enhancer maltol in foods and beverages
      through flame atomic absorption spectrometry after ultrasound assisted-cloud
      point extraction.
AB  - A simple ultrasound assisted-cloud point extraction (UA-CPE) method was developed
      and combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) for pre
      concentration and indirect determination of the flavor enhancer maltol in foods
      and beverages. The method is based on reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) by maltol at
      pH 6.5, and subsequent selective interaction of Cu(I) with bathocuproine (BCP) to
      form a ternary complex in presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Under the
      optimized conditions, pre-concentration of a 35mL sample solution allowed
      detection of 1.24ugL-1 maltol in a linear range of 4-230ugL-1. The method was
      validated by intra- and inter-day precision studies ranging from 2.1 to 3.4%, and
      recoveries ranged from 93.3% to 104.4% using standard addition method. After
      pretreatment with two different sample preparation steps assisted by ultrasound
      energy, the proposed method was applied successfully for determination of maltol
      in selected foods and beverages.

PMID- 28554642
TI  - Chemical rules on the assessment of antioxidant potential in food and food
      additives aimed at reducing oxidative stress and neurodegeneration.
AB  - Antioxidants (aOXs) enlarge the useful life of products consumed by humans. Life
      requires oxidation of glucose/fatty acids and, therefore, "antioxidant" becomes
      an oxymoron when trying to define benefits in organisms living in an oxygen-rich
      atmosphere. According to basic physico-chemical principles, the in vivo aOX
      potential of food supplements is negligible when compared with the main aOX
      molecules in the animal Kingdom: glucose and fatty acids. Thus, the aOX
      assumption to improve life-quality is misleading as oxidative stress and
      exacerbation occur when oxidant foods (e.g. fava beans) are consumed. Evolution
      produced potent detoxification mechanisms to handle these situations. When
      age/genetic/environmental factors negatively impact on detoxification mechanisms,
      nutrition helps on providing metabolites/precursors needed for boosting innate
      resources. Ambiguous techniques that attempt to measure in vivo aOX power, should
      give way to measuring the level of supplements and their metabolites in body
      fluids/tissues, and to measure the efficacy on antioxidant boosting REDOX
      pathways.

PMID- 28554643
TI  - Characterisation of cold plasma treated beef and dairy lipids using spectroscopic
      and chromatographic methods.
AB  - The efficacy of cold plasma for inactivation of food-borne pathogens in foods is
      established. However, insights on cold plasma-food interactions in terms of
      quality effects, particularly for oils and fats, are sparse. This study evaluated
      plasma-induced lipid oxidation of model matrices, namely dairy and meat fats.
      Product characterisation was performed using FTIR, 1H NMR and chromatographic
      techniques. The oxidation of lipids by cold plasma followed the Criegee mechanism
      and typical oxidation products identified included ozonides, aldehydes (hexanal,
      pentenal, nonanal and nonenal) and carboxylic acids (9-oxononanoic acid, octanoic
      acid, nonanoic acid), along with hydroperoxides (9- and 13-hydroperoxy
      octadecadienoylglycerol species). However, these oxidation products were only
      identified following extended treatment times of 30min and were also a function
      of applied voltage level. Understanding cold plasma interactions with food lipids
      and the critical parameters governing lipid oxidation is required prior to the
      industrial adoption of this technology for food products with high fat contents.

PMID- 28554644
TI  - Antimicrobial potential of macro and microalgae against pathogenic and spoilage
      microorganisms in food.
AB  - Algae are a valuable and never-failing source of bioactive compounds. The
      increasing efforts to use ingredients that are as natural as possible in the
      formulation of innovative products has given rise to the introduction of macro
      and microalgae in food industry. To date, scarce information has been published
      about algae ingredients as antimicrobials in food. The antimicrobial potential of
      algae is highly dependent on: (i) type, brown algae being the most effective
      against foodborne bacteria; (ii) the solvent used in the extraction of bioactive
      compounds, ethanolic and methanolic extracts being highly effective against Gram
      positive and Gram-negative bacteria; and (iii) the concentration of the extract.
      The present paper reviews the main antimicrobial potential of algal species and
      their bioactive compounds in reference and real food matrices. The validation of
      the algae antimicrobial potential in real food matrices is still a research
      niche, being meat and bakery products the most studied substrates.

PMID- 28554645
TI  - Molecular interactions in gelatin/chitosan composite films.
AB  - Gelatin and chitosan were mixed at different mass ratios in solution forms, and
      the rheological properties of these film-forming solutions, upon cooling, were
      studied. The results indicate that the significant interactions between gelatin
      and chitosan promote the formation of multiple complexes, reflected by an
      increase in the storage modulus of gelatin solution. Furthermore, these molecular
      interactions hinder the formation of gelatin networks, consequently decreasing
      the storage modulus of polymer gels. Both hydrogen bonds and electrostatic
      interactions are formed between gelatin and chitosan, as evidenced by the shift
      of the amide-II bands of polymers. X-ray patterns of composite films indicate
      that the contents of triple helices decrease with increasing chitosan content.
      Only one glass transition temperature (Tg) was observed in composite films with
      different composition ratios, and it decreases gradually with an increase in
      chitosan proportion, indicating that gelatin and chitosan have good miscibility
      and form a wide range of blends.

PMID- 28554646
TI  - Improvement of the quality of parboiled rice by using anti-browning agents during
      parboiling process.
AB  - Browning occurs in parboiled rice as a result of the Maillard reaction that
      negatively affects consumers' acceptability. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the ability of gallic acid, glycine, reduced glutathione and l-cysteine
      at 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% levels to inhibit browning reactions during the
      parboiling of rice. Gallic acid and l-cysteine did not exhibit browning
      inhibition effect at the studied levels. On the other hand, glycine and the
      higher concentrations of reduced glutathione (1.0 and 2.0%) were able to promote
      a whiter color and a low free 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde content (HMF). The
      highest level of 2.0% for glycine and reduced glutathione favored protein
      extractability and a weaker protein-starch matrix, roughly increasing the broken
      grains percentage. Cooking time changed just for reduced glutathione-treated
      rice, as a result of their weaker protein-starch matrix and the greater ability
      of the grains to soften during cooking.

PMID- 28554647
TI  - Polysaccharides from by-products of the Wonderful and Laffan pomegranate
      varieties: New insight into extraction and characterization.
AB  - The main crude polysaccharides (CPS), extracted from two widely cultivated
      pomegranate varieties, Laffan and Wonderful, were studied and characterized. We
      obtained the highest CPS extraction yield (approximatively 10% w/w on dried
      matter) by 1h of decoction (ratio 1/40w/v). The predominant polymers (75-80%) of
      the CPS samples showed a hydrodynamic volume close to 2000kDa by size exclusion
      chromatography and the exocarp and mesocarp profiles were very similar. The
      proton spectra (1H NMR), according to sugar composition and gelling ability,
      confirmed the main polysaccharide fractions were pectin with different acylation
      and methylation degree. The CPS from Laffan and Wonderful mesocarp showed
      prebiotic properties in vitro with Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. The
      composition of the decoction (12% ellagitannins and 10% of CPS) obtained by a
      green extraction process of pomegranate by-products, makes it a suitable
      component of functional food formulations.

PMID- 28554648
TI  - Exploration of reaction mechanisms of anthocyanin degradation in a roselle
      extract through kinetic studies on formulated model media.
AB  - Effect of oxygen, polyphenols and metals was studied on degradation of
      delphinidin and cyanidin 3-O-sambubioside of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. Experiments
      were conducted on aqueous extracts degassed or not, an isolated polyphenolic
      fraction and extract-like model media, allowing the impact of the different
      constituents to be decoupled. All solutions were stored for 2months at 37 degrees
      C. Anthocyanin and their degradation compounds were regularly HPLC-DAD-analyzed.
      Oxygen concentration did not impact the anthocyanin degradation rate. Degradation
      rate of delphinidin 3-O-sambubioside increased 6-fold when mixed with iron from 1
      to 13mg.kg-1 but decreased with chlorogenic and gallic acids. Degradation rate of
      cyanidin 3-O-sambubioside was not affected by polyphenols but increased by 3-fold
      with increasing iron concentration with a concomitant yield decrease of scission
      product, protocatechuic acid. Two pathways of degradation of anthocyanins were
      identified: a major metal-catalyzed oxidation followed by condensation and a
      minor scission which represents about 10% of degraded anthocyanins.

PMID- 28554649
TI  - Quantification of benzoxazinoids and their metabolites in Nordic breads.
AB  - Benzoxazinoids (Bx) and their metabolites are molecules with suggested health
      effects in humans, found in cereal grains and consequently in cereal foods.
      However, to date little is known about the amount of Bx in our diet. In this
      study, deuterated standards 2-hydroxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (HBOA-d4) and 2
      hydroxy-N-(2-hydroxyphenyl) acetamide (HHPAA-d4) were synthesized, to allow
      quantification of nine Bx and their metabolites in 30 breads and flours from
      Nordic countries by UHPLC-MS/MS. Samples containing rye had larger amounts of Bx
      (143-3560ug/g DM) than the ones containing wheat (11-449ug/g DM). More Bx were
      found in whole grain wheat (57-449ug/g DM) compared to refined wheat (11-92ug/g
      DM) breads. Finnish sourdough rye breads were notably high in their 2-hydroxy-N
      (2-hydroxyphenyl) acetamide (HHPAA) concentration (40-48ug/g DM). This new
      information on Bx content in flours and breads available in the Nordic countries
      will be useful for future work on determining dietary exposure to Bx.

PMID- 28554650
TI  - Wild blueberry polyphenol-protein food ingredients produced by three drying
      methods: Comparative physico-chemical properties, phytochemical content, and
      stability during storage.
AB  - Particulate colloidal aggregate food ingredients were prepared by complexing
      wheat flour, chickpea flour, coconut flour and soy protein isolate with aqueous
      wild blueberry pomace extracts, then spray drying, freeze drying, or vacuum oven
      drying to prepare dry, flour-like matrices. Physico-chemical attributes,
      phytochemical content and stability during storage were compared. Eighteen
      anthocyanins peaks were identified for samples. Spray dried matrices produced
      with soy protein isolate had the highest concentration of polyphenols (156.2mg
      GAE/g) and anthocyanins (13.4mg/g) and the most potent DPPH scavenging activity
      (714.1MUmolesTE/g). Spray dried blueberry polyphenols complexed with protein were
      protected from degradation during 16weeks at 4 degrees C and 20 degrees C. Soy
      protein isolate more efficiently captured and stabilized wild blueberry pomace
      phytochemicals than other protein sources. Overall, spray drying the blueberry
      extracts complexed with protein proved to be an environment-friendly strategy to
      produce stable functional ingredients with multiple applications for the food
      industry.

PMID- 28554652
TI  - Development of new chemiluminescence biosensors for determination of biogenic
      amines in meat.
AB  - Development of chemiluminescence one-shot biosensors for determination of
      biogenic amines is described and compared with high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) method coupled with pre-column derivatisation. The
      biosensors are based on enzymatic oxidation to 4-aminobutyraldehyde with
      putrescine oxidase or diamine oxidase as catalysts. The lowest measured
      concentration for the biosensor with putrescine oxidase was 1mg/L. The detection
      limit, calculated as 3sigma value, was 0.8mg/L. The biosensor with diamine
      oxidase had the lowest measured concentration of 1mg/L of putrescine. Detection
      limit, calculated as 3sigma value, was 1.3mg/L. Biosensors were tested on five
      different meat samples, and the results were compared with HPLC coupled with pre
      column derivatization. Results showed that new biosensors could be used in
      determination of putrescine concentration in meat samples but improvements, such
      as sample pretreatment before determination or design of interference free
      biosensor, are required.

PMID- 28554651
TI  - Fatty acid, volatile and sensory characteristics of beef as affected by grass
      silage or pasture in the bovine diet.
AB  - Fatty acids, volatile compounds and sensory attributes of beef from bulls fed
      concentrates to slaughter (C), grass silage for 120days (GS) followed by C (GSC),
      or GS followed by 100days at pasture and then C (GSPC), and slaughtered at 3
      target carcass weights, were determined. Total intramuscular fat (IMF) was lower
      for GSPC than for GSC and C. C18:3n-3 concentration and polyunsaturated fatty
      acid (PUFA) to saturated fatty acid (SFA) ratio were higher and C18:2n-6 and
      monounsaturated fatty acid concentrations and n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio lower for GSPC
      than C. C16:0, C18:0 and C18:1c9 increased with carcass weight when expressed
      quantitatively, but not when expressed proportionately. Hexanal concentration was
      higher and 2-methyl-1-butanol and toluene lower for C and GSC than for GSPC.
      Overall liking was negatively correlated with C20:5n-3 and PUFA/SFA ratio, but
      differences in sensory attributes (tenderness, flavour liking, overall liking)
      were most strongly correlated with IMF.

PMID- 28554653
TI  - Dendritic cells during mousepox: The role of delayed apoptosis in the
      pathogenesis of infection.
AB  - Dendritic cells (DCs) are effector cells linking the innate immune system with
      the adaptive immune response. Many viruses eliminate DCs to prevent host
      response, induce immunosuppression and to maintain chronic infection. In this
      study, we examined apoptotic response of dendritic cells during in vitro and in
      vivo infection with ectromelia virus (ECTV), the causative agent of mousepox.
      ECTV-infected bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs) from BALB/c mice underwent
      apoptosis through mitochondrial pathway at 48 h post infection, up-regulated FasL
      and decreased expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and pro-apoptotic Fas. Similar
      pattern of Bcl-2, Fas and FasL expression was observed for DCs early during in
      vivo infection of BALB/c mice. Both BMDCs and DCs from BALB/c mice showed no
      maturation upon ECTV infection. We conclude that ECTV-infected DCs from BALB/c
      mouse strain help the virus to spread and to maintain infection.

PMID- 28554654
TI  - Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced protein-losing enteropathy: a great
      masquerade of Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28554655
TI  - Hemorrhagic angiodysplasia of the digestive tract: pathogenesis, diagnosis, and
      management.

PMID- 28554656
TI  - Colon capsule endoscopy to screen for colorectal neoplasia in those with family
      histories of colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) has been recognized as an
      alternative for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in average-risk people. Our aim
      was to prospectively assess the accuracy of CCE as a screening tool in first
      degree relatives (FDRs) of people with CRC by using optical colonoscopy (OC) with
      segmental unblinding as the reference standard. METHODS: Consecutive patients
      admitted with a CRC diagnosis (index cases) were prospectively evaluated and
      invited to contact their FDRs. Available FDRs were invited to undergo CCE and OC
      on the following day, with segmental unblinding of CCE results. Sensitivity,
      specificity, and predictive values/negative predictive values (PPV/NPV) of CCE
      were assessed for detecting patients with any polyp >=6 mm and >=10 mm. RESULTS:
      A total of 177 FDRs (median age 57.0 years, 54.8% female) identified from 211
      index cases were included. Both CCE and OC were completed in all the included
      FDRs. Overall, CCE identified 51 of 56 FDRs with polyps >=6 mm (sensitivity 91%;
      95% CI, 81-96) and correctly classified as negative 107 of 121 participants
      without lesions >=6 mm (specificity 88%; 95% CI, 81-93). Per-patient positive and
      negative predictive values for >=6 mm lesions were 78% (95% CI, 67-87) and 95%
      (95% CI, 90-98), respectively. CCE detected 24 of 27 patients with polyps >=10 mm
      and correctly classified as negative 142 of 150 patients, corresponding to 89%
      sensitivity and 95% specificity. Post-CCE referral rates to colonoscopy were 37%
      and 18%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: CCE is an accurate method to screen FDRs of
      patients with CRC and could be offered as an alternative to those who decline or
      are unfit for colonoscopy screening. (Clinical trial registration number:
      NCT01184781.).

PMID- 28554657
TI  - Oral Ivermectin: Regaining a Drug for the Treatment of Scabies.

PMID- 28554658
TI  - Prolonged exposure to particulate chromate inhibits RAD51 nuclear import mediator
      proteins.
AB  - Particulate hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is a human lung carcinogen and a human
      health concern. The induction of structural chromosome instability is considered
      to be a driving mechanism of Cr(VI)-induced carcinogenesis. Homologous
      recombination repair protects against Cr(VI)-induced chromosome damage, due to
      its highly accurate repair of Cr(VI)-induced DNA double strand breaks. However,
      recent studies demonstrate Cr(VI) inhibits homologous recombination repair
      through the misregulation of RAD51. RAD51 is an essential protein in HR repair
      that facilitates the search for a homologous sequence. Recent studies show
      prolonged Cr(VI) exposure prevents proper RAD51 subcellular localization, causing
      it to accumulate in the cytoplasm. Since nuclear import of RAD51 is crucial to
      its function, this study investigated the effect of Cr(VI) on the RAD51 nuclear
      import mediators, RAD51C and BRCA2. We show acute (24h) Cr(VI) exposure induces
      the proper localization of RAD51C and BRCA2. In contrast, prolonged (120h)
      exposure increased the cytoplasmic localization of both proteins, although RAD51C
      localization was more severely impaired. These results correlate temporally with
      the previously reported Cr(VI)-induced RAD51 cytoplasmic accumulation. In
      addition, we found Cr(VI) does not inhibit interaction between RAD51 and its
      nuclear import mediators. Altogether, our results suggest prolonged Cr(VI)
      exposure inhibits the nuclear import of RAD51C, and to a lesser extent, BRCA2,
      which results in the cytoplasmic accumulation of RAD51. Cr(VI)-induced inhibition
      of nuclear import may play a key role in its carcinogenic mechanism since the
      nuclear import of many tumor suppressor proteins and DNA repair proteins is
      crucial to their function.

PMID- 28554659
TI  - Naloxegol, an opioid antagonist with reduced CNS penetration: Mode-of-action and
      human relevance for rat testicular tumours.
AB  - Naloxegol is an opioid antagonist which has been developed for the treatment of
      patients with opioid induced constipation. In the nonclinical safety program
      naloxegol was shown to have a very benign toxicity profile. In the rat, but not
      the mouse, 2-year carcinogenicity study a change in tumour pattern with an
      increase in testicular Leydig cell tumours (LCT) was observed after dosing at
      high (supra-pharmacological) concentrations. To establish the basis of the
      increase in LCT and to assess its potential relevance to humans, studies to
      exclude and potentially identify mode-of-action (MoA) were performed. A genotoxic
      mechanism was ruled out following negative results in the Ames, mouse lymphoma,
      and micronucleus assays. An effect on androgen metabolism was excluded since the
      treatment of rats with naloxegol for 14days did not result in any induction of
      CYP protein levels. It was demonstrated that administration of centrally
      restricted opioid antagonists naloxegol or methylnaltrexone at high doses induced
      an increase in LH release with no clear increase in testosterone, in contrast to
      the centrally acting opioid antagonist naloxone, which showed marked increases in
      both LH and testosterone. LCT due to increased LH stimulation is common in rats
      but not documented in humans. Collectively, the lack of genotoxicity signal, the
      lack of androgen effect, the increase in LH secretion in rats, which is no
      considered to be relevant for LCT formation in humans, and high margins to
      clinical exposures, the observed increase in LCT in the rat is not expected to be
      clinically relevant.

PMID- 28554660
TI  - Nanotechnology in agriculture: Opportunities, toxicological implications, and
      occupational risks.
AB  - Nanotechnology has the potential to make a beneficial impact on several
      agricultural, forestry, and environmental challenges, such as urbanization,
      energy constraints, and sustainable use of resources. However, new environmental
      and human health hazards may emerge from nano-enhanced applications. This raises
      concerns for agricultural workers who may become primarily exposed to such
      xenobiotics during their job tasks. The aim of this review is to discuss
      promising solutions that nanotechnology may provide in agricultural activities,
      with a specific focus on critical aspects, challenging issues, and research needs
      for occupational risk assessment and management in this emerging field. Eco
      toxicological aspects were not the focus of the review. Nano-fertilizers, (nano
      sized nutrients, nano-coated fertilizers, or engineered metal-oxide or carbon
      based nanomaterials per se), and nano-pesticides, (nano-formulations of
      traditional active ingredients or inorganic nanomaterials), may provide a
      targeted/controlled release of agrochemicals, aimed to obtain their fullest
      biological efficacy without over-dosage. Nano-sensors and nano-remediation
      methods may detect and remove environmental contaminants. However, limited
      knowledge concerning nanomaterial biosafety, adverse effects, fate, and acquired
      biological reactivity once dispersed into the environment, requires further
      scientific efforts to assess possible nano-agricultural risks. In this
      perspective, toxicological research should be aimed to define nanomaterial
      hazards and levels of exposure along the life-cycle of nano-enabled products, and
      to assess those physico-chemical features affecting nanomaterial toxicity,
      possible interactions with agro-system co-formulants, and stressors. Overall,
      this review highlights the importance to define adequate risk management
      strategies for workers, occupational safety practices and policies, as well as to
      develop a responsible regulatory consensus on nanotechnology in agriculture.

PMID- 28554662
TI  - The importance of publishing trials with negative results.

PMID- 28554661
TI  - Using DR52c/Ni2+ mimotope tetramers to detect Ni2+ reactive CD4+ T cells in
      patients with joint replacement failure.
AB  - T cell mediated hypersensitivity to nickel (Ni2+) is one of the most common
      causes of allergic contact dermatitis. Ni2+ sensitization may also contribute to
      the failure of Ni2+ containing joint implants, and revision to non-Ni2+
      containing hardware can be costly and debilitating. Previously, we identified
      Ni2+ mimotope peptides, which are reactive to a CD4+ T cell clone, ANi2.3
      (Valpha1, Vbeta17), isolated from a Ni2+ hypersensitive patient with contact
      dermatitis. This T cell is restricted to the major histocompatibility complex
      class II (MHCII) molecule, Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-DR52c (DRA, DRB3*0301).
      However, it is not known if Ni2+ induced T cell responses in sensitized joint
      replacement failure patients are similar to subjects with Ni2+ induced contact
      dermatitis. Here, we generated DR52c/Ni2+ mimotope tetramers, and used them to
      test if the same Ni2+ T cell activation mechanism could be generalized to Ni2+
      sensitized patients with associated joint implant failure. We confirmed the
      specificity of these tetramers by staining of ANi2.3T cell transfectomas. The
      DR52c/Ni2+ mimotope tetramer detected Ni2+ reactive CD4+ T cells in the
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients identified as Ni2+
      sensitized by patch testing and a positive Ni2+ LPT. When HLA-typed by a DR52
      specific antibody, three out of four patients were DR52 positive. In one patient,
      Ni2+ stimulation induced the expansion of Vbeta17 positive CD4+ T cells from 0.8%
      to 13.3%. We found that the percentage of DR52 positivity and Vbeta17 usage in
      Ni2+ sensitized joint failure patients are similar to Ni sensitized skin allergy
      patients. Ni2+ independent mimotope tetramers may be a useful tool to identify
      the Ni2+ reactive CD4+ T cells.

PMID- 28554663
TI  - Clinical trials and tribulations: 17OHPC and preventing recurrent preterm birth.

PMID- 28554665
TI  - Population incidence of pedestrian traffic injury in high-income countries: A
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Road traffic injuries are the fifth leading cause of years of life
      lost, with pedestrians comprising 39% of all road deaths. International
      recognition of this public health issue has led to a reduction in road traffic
      deaths in many high-income countries. However data on non-motorised road users
      such as pedestrians is incomplete. Additionally, non-fatal injuries are poorly
      documented. The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of pedestrian
      traffic injury reported from high-income countries. METHODS: A systematic review
      of the literature was conducted using MEDLINE, Scopus, PubMed and the Cochrane
      library. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they reported the incidence of
      pedestrian injury in a defined population from a high-income country defined
      using the World Bank atlas method for the 2016 fiscal year. A meta-analysis was
      performed on the population incidence of pedestrian traffic injury by world
      region. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were identified from eight high-income
      countries that satisfied the inclusion criteria. The pooled incidence of PTI in
      the European region was 68.8 per 100,000 population (95%CI 50-87.7, p<0.01) and
      89.3 per 100,000 (95%CI 47.2-131.4, p<0.01) in the American region. The incidence
      of pedestrian traffic injury varied from 20 per 100,000 in Victoria, Australia to
      203 per 100,000 in New York City, United States of America. Pedestrian mortality
      ranged from 0.9 to 14 per 100,000 population. Wide variation in population size,
      location and demographics was observed between studies. CONCLUSIONS: This review
      concluded a high burden of pedestrian trauma in HICs with individual reports
      reporting from rates of 20 to 203 per 100,000 population. Recommended
      interventions directed at reducing the burden of pedestrian trauma were not
      universally present in the reported high-income countries. Implementation of such
      safety strategies and demonstration of improvement in pedestrian trauma rates and
      outcomes present directions for further research.

PMID- 28554664
TI  - A profile of Dr Edward J. Quilligan.

PMID- 28554666
TI  - Human cytomegalovirus-mediated immunomodulation: Effects on glioblastoma
      progression.
AB  - The presence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM),
      first established in 2002, has developed into an area of considerable interest
      and controversy. Numerous studies have found evidence of possible HCMV infection
      of GBM tumor cells as well as myriad onco- and immunomodulatory properties
      exhibited by HCMV antigens and transcripts, while recent reports have failed to
      detect HCMV particles in GBM and question the virus' role in tumor progression.
      This review highlights the known immunomodulatory properties of HCMV, independent
      of GBM infection status, that help drive the virus from peripheral blood into the
      vital tissues and subsequently dampen local immune response, assisting GBM tumors
      in evading immune surveillance and contributing to the disease's poor prognosis.
      Emerging antiviral approaches to treating GBM, including antiviral drugs and
      immunotherapies directed against HCMV, are also examined.

PMID- 28554667
TI  - Microglia-glioblastoma interactions: New role for Wnt signaling.
AB  - Glioblastoma, the most aggressive and fatal type of brain tumor, is capable of
      interacting with brain immune cells such as microglia, which contributes to the
      growth of these tumors. Various molecules, including growth factors and
      cytokines, have been identified as regulators of microglia-glioblastoma
      interaction. Recent studies suggest that the Wnt family of lipoglycoproteins
      plays an important role, not only in biological events during development, but
      also in cancer progression, and can be part of microglia recruitment to
      glioblastoma as well as of tumor growth and invasion. Here, we discuss recent
      interesting findings that support a role for Wnt signaling pathways in the
      microglia-glioblastoma crosstalk.

PMID- 28554668
TI  - Anti-tumor effects of a 'human & mouse cross-reactive' anti-ADAM17 antibody in a
      pancreatic cancer model in vivo.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal types of tumor
      amongst all human cancers due to late diagnosis and resistant to treatment with
      chemotherapy and radiation. Preclinical and clinical studies have revealed that
      ErbB family for example epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a validated
      molecular target for pancreatic cancer prevention and therapy. The ErbB signaling
      cascade is regulated by a member of the ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloprotease)
      family, namely ADAM17, by enzymatic cleavage of precursor ligands into soluble
      cytokines and growth factors. Mouse genetic studies have demonstrated that ADAM17
      is required for PDAC development. In this study, we evaluated the anti-tumor
      effects of A9(B8) IgG - the first specific 'human and mouse cross-reactive'
      ADAM17 inhibitory antibody on pancreatic malignant transformation. We found that
      inhibition of ADAM17 with A9(B8) IgG efficiently suppressed the shedding of
      ADAM17 substrates both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrated that
      administration of A9(B8) IgG significantly suppressed motility in human
      pancreatic cancer cells and also significantly delayed tumorigenesis in the
      Pdx1Cre;KrasG12D;Trp53fl/+PDAC mouse model. Inhibition of ADAM17 with A9(B8) IgG
      particularly affected the progression of pre-invasive pancreatic lesions to
      advanced PDAC in mice. Taken together, the preclinical data presented here will
      provide a starting point for clinical applications of ADAM17 targeted therapy.

PMID- 28554671
TI  - Gastric conduit revision after esophagectomy: The raising of Lazarus.

PMID- 28554670
TI  - Serine protease isoforms in Gloydius intermedius venom: Full sequences, molecular
      phylogeny and evolutionary implications.
AB  - : Nine distinct venom serine proteases (vSPs) of Gloydius intermedius were
      studied by transcriptomic, sub-proteomic and phylogenetic analyses. Their
      complete amino acid sequences were deduced after Expression Sequence Tag (EST)
      analyses followed by cDNA cloning and sequencing. These vSPs appear to be
      paralogs and contain the catalytic triads and 1-4 potential N-glycosylation
      sites. Their relative expression levels evaluated by qPCR were grossly consistent
      with their EST hit-numbers. The major vSPs were purified by HPLC and their N
      terminal sequences matched well to the deduced sequences, while fragments of the
      minor vSPs were detected by LC-MS/MS identification. Specific amidolytic
      activities of the fractions from HPLC and anion exchange separation were assayed
      using four chromogenic substrates, respectively. Molecular phylogenetic tree
      based on the sequences of these vSPs and their orthologs revealed six major
      clusters, one of them covered four lineages of plasminogen activator like vSPs. N
      glycosylation patterns and variations for the vSPs are discussed. The high
      sequence similarities between G. intermedius vSPs and their respective orthologs
      from American pitvipers suggest that most of the isoforms evolved before Asian
      pitvipers migrated to the New World. Our results also indicate that the
      neurotoxic venoms contain more kallikrein-like vSPs and hypotensive components
      than the hemorrhagic venoms. SIGNIFICANCE: Full sequences and expression levels
      of nine paralogous serine proteases (designated as GiSPs) of Gloydius intermedius
      venom have been studied. A kallikrein-like enzyme is most abundant and four
      isoforms homologous to venom plasminogen-activators are also expressed in this
      venom. Taken together, the present and previous data demonstrate that the
      neurotoxic G. intermedius venoms contain more hypotensive vSPs relative to other
      hemorrhagic pitviper venoms and the pitviper vSPs are highly versatile and
      diverse. Their structure-function relationships remain to be explored and
      compared. A novel, simplified phylogenetic tree based on the sequences of GiSPs
      and their closely related orthologs from other pitvipers reveals six major
      subtypes and offers a better understanding of vSP duplication and evolution in
      pitvipers of both the Old and New Worlds. It is well known that specific vSPs are
      potential therapeutic or diagnostic agents that target the plasma proteins or
      coagulation factors. Our results not only render deeper insights into the
      variation and evolution of vSPs, but may help to choose right venoms for the
      development of better therapeutic leads.

PMID- 28554669
TI  - Patterns and associations between DAPT cessation and 2-year clinical outcomes in
      left main/proximal LAD versus other PCI: Results from the Patterns of Non
      Adherence to Dual Antiplatelet Therapy in Stented Patients (PARIS) registry.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of the left main (LM) or
      proximal left anterior descending artery (pLAD) is considered high-risk as these
      segments subtend substantial left ventricular myocardial area. We assessed the
      patterns and associations between dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) cessation and
      2-year outcomes in LM/pLAD vs. other PCI from the all-comer PARIS registry.
      METHODS: Two-year major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were a composite of
      cardiac death, myocardial infarction, definite/probable stent thrombosis or
      target lesion revascularization. DAPT cessation was predefined as physician
      guided permanent discontinuation, temporary interruption, or non-recommended
      disruption due to non-compliance or bleeding. RESULTS: Of the study population
      (n=5018), 25.0% (n=1252) underwent LM/pLAD PCI and 75.0% (n=3766) PCI to other
      segments. Compared to others, LM/pLAD patients presented with fewer
      comorbidities, less frequent acute coronary syndromes but more multivessel and
      bifurcation disease treated with greater stent lengths. Two-year adjusted risk of
      MACE (11.4% vs. 11.6%; HR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90-1.34, p=0.36) was similar between
      LM/pLAD vs. other patients. DAPT discontinuation was significantly higher (43.3%
      vs. 39.4%, p=0.01) in LM/pLAD patients with borderline significance for lower
      disruption (10.0% vs. 14.7%, p=0.059) compared to other patients. DAPT
      discontinuation was not associated with higher risk of MACE in LM/pLAD (HR 0.65,
      95% CI 0.34-1.25) or other PCI groups (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.47-0.95). CONCLUSIONS:
      LM/pLAD PCI was not an independent predictor of 2-year MACE. Compared to other
      PCI, patients undergoing LM/pLAD PCI had higher rates of physician recommended
      DAPT discontinuation, however, discontinuation did not result in greater adverse
      events.

PMID- 28554672
TI  - Importance of stratifying acute kidney injury in cardiogenic shock resuscitated
      with mechanical circulatory support therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although the outcomes of patients with cardiogenic shock remain poor,
      short-term mechanical circulatory support has become an increasingly popular
      modality for hemodynamic assistance and organ preservation. Because the kidney is
      exquisitely sensitive to poor perfusion, acute kidney injury is a common sequela
      of cardiogenic shock. This study examines the incidence and clinical impact of
      acute kidney injury in patients with short-term mechanical circulatory support
      for cardiogenic shock. METHODS: Retrospective review was performed of 293
      consecutive patients with cardiogenic shock who were treated with short-term
      mechanical circulatory support. The well-validated 2014 Kidney Disease Improving
      Global Outcomes criteria were used to stage acute kidney injury. Outcomes of
      interest were long-term mortality and renal recovery. RESULTS: Acute kidney
      injury developed in 177 of 293 patients (60.4%), of whom 113 (38.6%) were
      classified with stage 3 (severe). Kaplan-Meier survival estimates indicated a 1
      year survival of 49.2% in the nonsevere (stages 0-2) acute kidney injury cohort
      versus 27.3% in the severe acute kidney injury cohort (P < .001). Multivariable
      Cox regression demonstrated that severe acute kidney injury was a predictor of
      long-term mortality (hazard ratio, 1.54; confidence interval, 1.10-2.14; P =
      .011). Among hospital survivors, renal recovery occurred more frequently (82.4%
      vs 63.2%, P = .069) and more quickly (5.6 vs 24.5 days, P < .0001) in the
      nonsevere than in the severe acute kidney injury group. CONCLUSIONS: Acute kidney
      injury is common and frequently severe in patients in cardiogenic shock treated
      with short-term mechanical circulatory support. Milder acute kidney injury
      resolves with survival comparable to patients without acute kidney injury. Severe
      acute kidney injury is an independent predictor of long-term mortality.
      Nonetheless, many surviving patients with acute kidney injury do experience
      gradual renal recovery.

PMID- 28554673
TI  - Secondary sclerosing cholangitis in cardiac surgical patients: A complication
      with a dismal prognosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Secondary sclerosing cholangitis in critically ill patients is a
      rapidly progressing disease leading to biliary fibrosis and cirrhosis. We
      describe the course of sclerosing cholangitis in critically ill patients after
      cardiac surgery and compare this with matched patients. METHODS: A retrospective
      search for "secondary sclerosing cholangitis" and "liver and/or hepatic failure"
      in all adult patients (aged 18-93 years) who underwent cardiac surgery from April
      2007 to March 2016 identified 192 of 8625 patients. Of those, 12 were diagnosed
      with sclerosing cholangitis in critically ill patients (incidence, 0.14%). A 3:1
      matching was performed. Laboratory values, pharmacologic requirements,
      ventilation times, mechanical circulatory support, and endoscopic retrograde
      cholangiopancreatography studies were extracted from the hospital database.
      RESULTS: A total of 9 men and 3 women were affected (age 71 years; range, 59.8
      75.5 years). Critically ill patients with sclerosing cholangitis required
      vasoconstrictors and inotropes longer than control patients (norepinephrine 356.5
      hours [264.5-621] vs 68 hours [15-132.5], P = .003; enoximone 177 hours [124.3
      249.5] vs 48.5 hours [12-81 hours], P < .001, respectively). Critically ill
      patients with sclerosing cholangitis had longer intubation time (628.5 hours
      [377.3-883] vs 25 hours [9.8-117.5]; P < .001) and more surgical revisions (3
      [2.5-6] vs 1 [0-2], P = .003) than the matching group. Bilirubin (23.3 mg/dL
      [14.4-32.9] vs 1 mg/dL [0.6-2.7]; P < .001), gamma-glutamyltransferase (1082.3
      U/L [259.5-2265.7] vs 53.8 U/L [35.1-146]; P < .001), and alkaline phosphatase
      (751.5 U/L [372-1722.3] vs 80.5 U/L [53.3-122]; P < .001) were higher in
      critically ill patients with sclerosing cholangitis. One critically ill patient
      with sclerosing cholangitis underwent successful liver transplantation. A total
      of 11 patients sclerosing cholangitis died (92%) versus 12 patients (33%, P <
      .001) in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Sclerosing cholangitis in critically ill
      patients is a fatal complication in patients undergoing cardiac surgery who have
      a complicated postoperative course with prolonged vasoconstrictor, inotropic, and
      respiratory therapy, or who require frequent surgical revisions. Liver
      transplantation remains the only curative option but is often precluded by the
      age and critical state of patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28554674
TI  - A tale of two centrifugal left ventricular assist devices.

PMID- 28554675
TI  - Risk models for congenital and pediatric cardiac care: The importance of timing
      of data collection and selection of outcome variables.

PMID- 28554676
TI  - How old are you, and how many of these have you done? Fielding questions of age
      and experience in your early career.

PMID- 28554677
TI  - Interstitial lung disease and lung cancer: Decisions, precision, and tuna fish
      sandwiches.

PMID- 28554678
TI  - The role of imaging, deliberate practice, structure, and improvisation in
      approaching surgical perfection.

PMID- 28554679
TI  - Blood flow into ulcer-like projection of a type B aortic dissection visualized
      with computational fluid dynamics.

PMID- 28554680
TI  - The TREAT Registry: Evolution of Knowledge From 1999 to 2017: Lessons Learned.

PMID- 28554681
TI  - Epiploic Appendagitis: The Uncommon Intestinal Imitator.

PMID- 28554683
TI  - Methodology to assess quality of estimated disturbances in active disturbance
      rejection control structure for mechanical system.
AB  - A methodology to assess the quality of estimation of disturbances in mechanical
      systems, by state observers, in the control structure with active compensation of
      disturbances (ADRC) is presented. Evaluation is carried out by four performance
      indices that depend on the steady-state error between reference signals and
      output of the plant. These indices are related with the accuracy and precision of
      the closed loop system in the sense of norms L2 and Linfinity, for a set of
      reference signals representing the typical operating conditions of the mechanism.
      The effectiveness of the methodology is illustrated with the quality assessment
      of the estimated disturbance of five state observers to control of a simple
      pendulum and validated on a SCARA robot arm.

PMID- 28554682
TI  - Liver and Cardiovascular Damage in Patients With Lean Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver
      Disease, and Association With Visceral Obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Lean nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is defined as
      NAFLD that develops in patients with a body mass index (BMI) less than 25 kg/m2.
      We investigated the differences between lean NAFLD and NAFLD in overweight and
      obese persons, factors associated with the severity of liver and cardiovascular
      disease, and the effects of visceral obesity. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective cohort study of 669 consecutive patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD
      seen at 3 liver centers in Italy. We collected anthropometric, clinical, and
      biochemical data, as well as information on carotid atherosclerosis (artery
      intima-media thickness and plaque), liver histology (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
      [NASH] and fibrosis), insulin resistance, and diabetes. Overweight was defined as
      a BMI of 25 to 29.9 kg/m2, and obese was defined as a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater.
      Patients were assigned to groups based on waist circumference, a marker of
      visceral obesity (low: men, <94 cm, women <80 cm; medium: men, 94-102 cm, women
      80-88 cm; or high: men >102 cm, women >88 cm). DNA samples were analyzed for the
      rs738409 C>G (I148M in PNPLA3), the rs58542926 C>T (E167K in TM6SF2), and single
      nucleotide polymorphisms. Variables in men and women were analyzed using chi
      squared analysis and the Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Multiple linear or
      logistic regression analyses were adjusted for all the variables of clinical
      relevance or statistically significant at univariate analyses. The primary
      outcome was the difference in liver and cardiovascular disease between lean NAFLD
      and NAFLD in overweight and obese persons. Secondary outcomes were effects of
      visceral obesity, based on waist circumference, on hepatic, vascular, and
      metabolic features. RESULTS: Significantly lower proportions of patients with
      lean NAFLD (143 patients; 43 women; mean age, 46 +/- 13 y) had hypertension (P =
      .001), diabetes (P = .0001), and metabolic syndrome (P = .0001) than overweight
      or obese patients with NAFLD (526 patients; 149 women; mean age, 49 +/- 12 y).
      Significantly lower proportions of patients with lean NAFLD had NASH (17% vs 40%
      of obese or overweight patients with NAFLD; P = .0001), fibrosis of F2 or higher
      (17% vs 42%; P = .0001), or carotid plaques (27% vs 39%; P = .03). Patients with
      lean NAFLD had significantly thinner carotid intima-media (0.74 +/- 0.1 mm) than
      obese or overweight patients with NAFLD (0.84 +/- 0.3 mm; P = .0001). There was
      no significant difference in the proportions of patients with rs738409 C>G in
      PNPLA3, but a significantly greater proportion of patients with lean NAFLD
      carried rs58542926 C>T in TM6SF2 (4%) than obese or overweight individuals with
      NAFLD (0.3%; P = .001). Of the 143 patients with lean NAFLD, 27 had grade 3
      steatosis, 24 had a lobular inflammation score greater than 2, 10 had a
      ballooning score of 2, and 25 had a fibrosis score of 2 or higher. In patients
      with lean NAFLD, the only variable associated independently with NASH and a
      fibrosis score of 2 or higher was rs738409 C>G in PNPLA3. Patients with lean
      NAFLD and a medium waist circumference had a significantly higher risk of
      diabetes (odds ratio, 11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-106; P = .03) than
      overweight or obese patients with a similar waist circumference (odds ratio, 1.3;
      95% CI, 0.4-4.2; P = .6). Lean and overweight or obese patients with high waist
      circumferences had significant increases in risk compared with patients with low
      and medium circumference and diabetes, hypertension, and fibrosis scores of 2 or
      higher. CONCLUSIONS: In a retrospective study of patients with lean NAFLD vs
      obese or overweight persons with NAFLD, we found 20% of patients with lean NAFLD
      to have NASH, fibrosis scores of 2 or higher, and carotid atherosclerosis. Lean
      patients with rs738409 C>G in PNPLA3 should be monitored for liver disease
      progression; studies including large series of patients with lean NAFLD will
      clarify the possible role of TM6SF2 polymorphisms.

PMID- 28554685
TI  - Snail mucus - glandular origin and composition in Helix pomatia.
AB  - Apart from their well-known culinary use, gastropod species such as Helix, which
      have a hydrogel-like mucus, are increasingly being exploited for cosmetic,
      bioengineering and medical applications. However, not only are the origin and
      composition of these "sticky" secretions far from being fully characterized, the
      number and morphology of the mucus glands involved is also uncertain. This study
      aims to characterize in detail the cutaneous glands of the Helix pomatia foot on
      morphological, histochemical and immunohistochemical levels. Hereby the focus is
      on the gland position and appearance on the foot sole as well as on the chemical
      nature of the different gland secretions. At least five different gland types can
      be distinguished by their microanatomy; three are located on the dorsal side and
      two on the ventral side of the foot sole. Most glands are reactive for acidic
      proteins and sugars such as mannose and fucose, indicating the presence of acidic
      glycosaminoglycans. One dorsal gland type shows high reactivity for acidic
      proteins only. The isolated mucus includes a certain amount of the elements
      chlorine, potassium and calcium; evidence for lipids was also confirmed in the
      isolated mucus. The present results for Helix pomatia show a clear difference in
      the number of glands compared to the related species Helix aspersa (only four
      mucus glands); histochemically, the glands of both species similarly produce
      acidic proteins as well as acidic glycosaminoglycans. While calcium ions are
      known to play a role in mucus formation, the presence and function of other ions
      such as potassium still need to be clarified.

PMID- 28554684
TI  - Ovarian hormones in innate inflammation.
AB  - AIM: A more vigorous immune system activation is generally seen in women as
      compared to men. The reasons for these differences are still not understood. By
      investigating the immune-regulatory role of estrogens, we have previously shown
      that estradiol (E2) can regulate and ameliorate rheumatoid arthritis models. The
      aim of this study was to elucidate the role of ovariectomy (ovx) and estradiol
      (E2) in innate immune responses. METHODS: Female mice were ovx or sham operated.
      After three weeks, either dorsal air pouches were established by injections of
      sterile air with subsequent lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection, or LPS was
      injected intra-peritoneally (i.p). Mice received daily injections with E2 or
      vehicle for three days before challenge. 6 hours after challenge in the air
      pouch, blood cells were counted, leukocytes from the pouch were analyzed by flow
      cytometry, and cytometric bead array or ELISA were used to quantify cytokines
      collected from the air pouch. Blood cells were counted 1h after i.p challenge.
      RESULTS: Compared to sham, blood leukocyte numbers increased after ovx and ovx+E2
      6 h after LPS injections into the air pouch. LPS after ovx induced neutrophil
      infiltration into the pouch, accompanied by increased levels of MCP-1 and IL-6.
      Ovx+E2 further enhanced cell infiltration after LPS; however, the cell population
      diversified by also including more macrophages and monocytes, with reduced MCP-1
      and IL-6 levels. Compared to ovx, blood leukocyte numbers increased already 1h
      after i.p challenge in ovx+E2 mice. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that ovarian
      hormones and estradiol can adjust the acute innate immune reaction by regulating
      cell recruitment to inflammatory sites, diversify the responding cell population,
      and at the same time down-regulate production of certain pro-inflammatory
      cytokines. Our results also suggest a faster responding immune system after E2.
      Our results bring further information into the intricate relationship between
      inflammation and sex steroids.

PMID- 28554686
TI  - Preoperative preparation of "loss of domain" hernia. Progressive pneumoperitoneum
      and botulinum toxin type A.
AB  - Preoperative progressive pneumoperitoneum and botulinum toxin type A are useful
      tools in the preparation of patients with loss of domain hernias. Both procedures
      are complementary in the surgical repair, especially with the use of prosthetic
      techniques without tension, that allow a integral management of these patients.
      The aim of this paper is to update concepts related to both procedures,
      emphasizing the advantages that take place in the preoperative management of loss
      of domain hernias.

PMID- 28554688
TI  - Salt and methyl jasmonate aggravate growth inhibition and senescence in
      Arabidopsis seedlings via the JA signaling pathway.
AB  - Numerous studies have demonstrated the function of salinity or jasmonic acid (JA)
      in plant growth and senescence. This study evaluated how the combination of
      salinity and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) (SaM) worked as a novel stress and then
      regulated plant growth in Arabidopsis. Firstly, we found that compared with MeJA
      or NaCl treatment alone, SaM would significantly intensified plant growth
      inhibition and senescence in wild-type (WT) seedlings, and these phenotypes could
      be partially compromised after SaM stress in JA-insensitive mutants. Meanwhile,
      genes involved in JA signaling and Senescence Associated Gene 13 (SAG13) were
      dramatically increased by SaM stress than that by MeJA or NaCl alone in WT.
      Moreover, a group of secondary metabolite - indolic glucosinolates (IGs) showed
      obvious over-accumulation after SaM treatment than that after each single one in
      WT, and the seedlings treated with IGs' metabolites performed similar inhibited
      growth and chlorotic leaves phenotypes compared with those caused by SaM stress.
      All these indicated the toxicity of IGs and their metabolites would prevent the
      growth progress of plants. Therefore, we concluded that SaM worked as a novel
      stress and intensified plant growth inhibition and senescence, which was
      dependent on JA-dependent and -independent signaling pathways.

PMID- 28554689
TI  - High-biomass C4 grasses-Filling the yield gap.
AB  - A significant increase in agricultural productivity will be required by 2050 to
      meet the needs of an expanding and rapidly developing world population, without
      allocating more land and water resources to agriculture, and despite slowing
      rates of grain yield improvement. This review examines the proposition that high
      biomass C4 grasses could help fill the yield gap. High-biomass C4 grasses exhibit
      high yield due to C4 photosynthesis, long growth duration, and efficient capture
      and utilization of light, water, and nutrients. These C4 grasses exhibit high
      levels of drought tolerance during their long vegetative growth phase ideal for
      crops grown in water-limited regions of agricultural production. The stems of
      some high-biomass C4 grasses can accumulate high levels of non-structural
      carbohydrates that could be engineered to enhance biomass yield and utility as
      feedstocks for animals and biofuels production. The regulatory pathway that
      delays flowering of high-biomass C4 grasses in long days has been elucidated
      enabling production and deployment of hybrids. Crop and landscape-scale modeling
      predict that utilization of high-biomass C4 grass crops on land and in regions
      where water resources limit grain crop yield could increase agricultural
      productivity.

PMID- 28554687
TI  - Endocannabinoid Signaling in the Control of Social Behavior.
AB  - Many mammalian species, including humans, exhibit social behavior and form
      complex social groups. Mechanistic studies in animal models have revealed
      important roles for the endocannabinoid signaling system, comprising G protein
      coupled cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous lipid-derived agonists, in the
      control of neural processes that underpin social anxiety and social reward, two
      key aspects of social behavior. An emergent insight from these studies is that
      endocannabinoid signaling in specific circuits of the brain is context dependent
      and selectively recruited. These insights open new vistas on the neural basis of
      social behavior and social impairment.

PMID- 28554690
TI  - Functions of two Malus hupehensis (Pamp.) Rehd. YTPs (MhYTP1 and MhYTP2) in
      biotic- and abiotic-stress responses.
AB  - RNA binding proteins play important roles in plant responses to biotic and
      abiotic stresses. The YT521-B homology (YTH) domain-containing RNA binding
      protein (YTP) was first found in Rattus norvegicus and is related to oxygen
      deficient stress. The Malus YTP gene family has 15 members. Results from their
      functional analysis will help researchers improve stress tolerance and fruit
      quality in apple. We cloned two homologous YTP family members in M. hupehensis -
      MhYTP1 and MhYTP2 - and identified their promoter regions that contain many cis
      elements related to biotic and abiotic stresses. Both MhYTP1 and MhYTP2 can be
      induced by various treatments, e.g., methyl jasmonate (MeJA), salicylic acid
      (SA), abscisic acid (ABA), water-logging, water deficits, and high salinity. When
      compared with the wild type (WT), transgenic plants of 'GL-3' ('Royal Gala')
      apple that over-express MhYTP1 or MhYTP2 are more sensitive to D. mali infection,
      heat stress, and high salinity, more resistant to water-logging, chilling,
      drought and nutrition deficient conditions. All of these findings indicate that
      MhYTP1 and MhYTP2 participate in various biotic- and abiotic-stress responses.

PMID- 28554691
TI  - Melatonin confers plant tolerance against cadmium stress via the decrease of
      cadmium accumulation and reestablishment of microRNA-mediated redox homeostasis.
AB  - Although melatonin-alleviated cadmium (Cd) toxicity both in animals and plants
      have been well studied, little is known about its regulatory mechanisms in
      plants. Here, we discovered that Cd stress stimulated the production of
      endogenous melatonin in alfalfa seedling root tissues. The pretreatment with
      exogenous melatonin not only increased melatonin content, but also alleviated Cd
      induced seedling growth inhibition. The melatonin-rich transgenic Arabidopsis
      plants overexpressing alfalfa SNAT (a melatonin synthetic gene) exhibited more
      tolerance than wild-type plants under Cd conditions. Cd content was also reduced
      in root tissues. In comparison with Cd stress alone, ABC transporter and PCR2
      transcripts in alfalfa seedlings, PDR8 and HMA4 in Arabidopsis, were up-regulated
      by melatonin. By contrast, Nramp6 transcripts were down-regulated. Changes in
      above transporters were correlated with the less accumulation of Cd. Additionally
      Cd-triggered redox imbalance was improved by melatonin. These could be supported
      by the changes of the Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase gene regulated by miR398a and
      miR398b. Histochemical staining, laser scanning confocal microscope, and H2O2
      contents analyses showed the similar tendencies. Taking together, we clearly
      suggested that melatonin enhanced Cd tolerance via decreasing cadmium
      accumulation and reestablishing the microRNAs-mediated redox homeostasis.

PMID- 28554692
TI  - Transcription factor ThWRKY4 binds to a novel WLS motif and a RAV1A element in
      addition to the W-box to regulate gene expression.
AB  - WRKY transcription factors play important roles in many biological processes, and
      mainly bind to the W-box element to regulate gene expression. Previously, we
      characterized a WRKY gene from Tamarix hispida, ThWRKY4, in response to abiotic
      stress, and showed that it bound to the W-box motif. However, whether ThWRKY4
      could bind to other motifs remains unknown. In this study, we employed a
      Transcription Factor-Centered Yeast one Hybrid (TF-Centered Y1H) screen to study
      the motifs recognized by ThWRKY4. In addition to the W-box core cis-element
      (termed W-box), we identified that ThWRKY4 could bind to two other motifs: the
      RAV1A element (CAACA) and a novel motif with sequence of GTCTA (W-box like
      sequence, WLS). The distributions of these motifs were screened in the promoter
      regions of genes regulated by some WRKYs. The results showed that the W-box,
      RAV1A, and WLS motifs were all present in high numbers, suggesting that they play
      key roles in gene expression mediated by WRKYs. Furthermore, five WRKY proteins
      from different WRKY subfamilies in Arabidopsis thaliana were selected and
      confirmed to bind to the RAV1A and WLS motifs, indicating that they are
      recognized commonly by WRKYs. These findings will help to further reveal the
      functions of WRKY proteins.

PMID- 28554693
TI  - Overexpression of StNF-YB3.1 reduces photosynthetic capacity and tuber
      production, and promotes ABA-mediated stomatal closure in potato (Solanum
      tuberosum L.).
AB  - Nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) is one of the most ubiquitous transcription factors
      (TFs), comprising NF-YA, NF-YB and NF-YC subunits, and has been identified and
      reported in various aspects of development for plants and animals. In this work,
      StNF-YB3.1, a putative potato NF-YB subunit encoding gene, was isolated from
      Solanum tuberosum by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Overexpression of
      StNF-YB3.1 in potato (cv. Atlantic) resulted in accelerated onset of flowering,
      and significant increase in leaf chlorophyll content in field trials. However,
      transgenic potato plants overexpressing StNF-YB3.1 (OEYB3.1) showed significant
      decreases in photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance both at tuber
      initiation and bulking stages. OEYB3.1 lines were associated with significantly
      fewer tuber numbers and yield reduction. Guard cell size and stomatal density
      were not changed in OEYB3.1 plants, whereas ABA-mediated stomatal closure was
      accelerated compared to that of wild type plants because of the up-regulation of
      genes for ABA signaling, such as StCPK10-like, StSnRK2.6/OST1-like, StSnRK2.7
      like and StSLAC1-like. We speculate that the acceleration of stomatal closure was
      a possible reason for the significantly decreased stomatal conductance and
      photosynthetic rate.

PMID- 28554695
TI  - Glyphosate resistance reduces kochia fitness: Comparison of segregating resistant
      and susceptible F2 populations.
AB  - Glyphosate is considered the world's most important herbicide, but widespread and
      continual use has resulted in the evolution of resistance. Kochia scoparia
      (kochia) has evolved resistance via tandem gene amplification of glyphosate's
      target, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) and resistant
      populations have been reported from the Canadian Prairies and the Northern Great
      Plains. Here, we evaluated the fitness costs of EPSPS amplification in kochia by
      comparing susceptible and resistant full siblings from segregating F2 populations
      generated from within six populations. Kochia was expected to be highly diverse
      because of strong gene flow; however, six of the seven field-collected parents
      with higher EPSPS copy number were homozygous. Under competitive greenhouse
      conditions, the EPSPS type of the line's maternal parent showed persistent
      effects: delayed emergence, delayed flowering, and reductions in viable seed
      count and weight overall. High EPSPS copy number individuals had reduced seed
      count and weight, reduced competitive ability, and reduced final height in mixed
      stands, but better germination of the F3. However, all characteristics were
      highly variable and fitness costs were not constant across genetic backgrounds.
      In the absence of selection from glyphosate, kochia with increased EPSPS copy
      number will be at a competitive disadvantage in some genetic backgrounds.

PMID- 28554694
TI  - Influence of altitude and enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation on tuber production,
      seed viability, leaf pigments and morphology in the wild potato species Solanum
      kurtzianum Bitter & Wittm collected from an elevational gradient.
AB  - Climate change could lead to an upward shift in plant distribution, exposing
      populations to higher levels of ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation. In the framework of
      an in situ strategy for conserving potato wild relatives, we evaluated the effect
      of high UV-B levels on natural population of Solanum kurtzianum. The hypothesis
      is that plants from naturally higher altitudes are more adapted to increased UV-B
      radiation. Two populations from low and high altitudes were field supplemented
      using UV-B-lamps (+UV-B) or excluded from it with plastic filters. Additionally,
      to assess in which extent the plant responses to these artificial experimental
      conditions are reproducible in natural conditions, three genotypes were
      cultivated in two mountain experimental gardens (EG) at different elevations. +UV
      B treatment induced changes in leaf morphology and increases in phenolic
      compounds in both populations, indicating plant adaptation, since chlorophylls
      and reproductive structures were not negatively affected. These results indicate
      that this environmental factor may not limit the displacement of populations
      towards sites with higher UV-B levels. Meanwhile, in higher-altitude EG a tubers
      yield reduction, mainly through a decreased tuber number and a bigger
      accumulation of phenolic compounds than in +UV-B treatment were observed,
      suggesting that UV-B is not the only factor involved in plants adaptation to high
      altitude environments.

PMID- 28554696
TI  - [Hypertension during Takayasu's disease: An Algerian single center experience of
      279 patients].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Takayasu arteritis (TA) is an uncommon large vessel arteritis.
      Lesions produced by the inflammatory process can be stenotic, occlusive, or
      aneurysmal. Vascular changes lead to the main complications, including
      hypertension, most often due to renal artery stenosis or, more rarely, stenosis
      of the suprarenal aorta. AIM OF STUDY: Our study will assess the prevalence of
      hypertension during TA and describe its clinical profile. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Among 279 patients with TA resulting from single center study over a period of 35
      years, we collected 128 hypertensive patients. All have benefited from a vascular
      exploration. Renal angiography was performed in 85 patients. The classification
      of Lupi Herrera allowed us to distribute our patients according to the topography
      of their lesions. Patients are classified according to the degree of severity of
      their hypertension. Results are statistically analyzed with SPSS 10.0 database.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of hypertension is 45.8%, mainly affecting young women
      (87%). It is indicative of arteritis in 24.7%. Its diagnosis is difficult and
      delayed when arterial stenosis exist: inter-arm blood pressure difference
      (53.8%), inverse coarctation (30.4%) or unmeasurable blood pressure at the 4
      limbs (6.8%). In 54% of cases, hypertension was due to a renal artery stenosis.
      The presence of arterial hypertension was associated to a poor prognosis: it was
      severe in 54% of patients and was linked to 70% of deaths observed. CONCLUSION:
      Arterial hypertension is common during TA. It remains a factor of bad prognosis
      specially when renovascular hypertension is present.

PMID- 28554697
TI  - Orthostatic hypertension in normotensive type 2 diabetics: What characteristics?
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: We aimed to determine the prevalence of orthostatic
      hypertension (OHT) in normotensive, newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics, to assess
      clinical, biological characteristics of those patients and evaluate the evolution
      of their blood pressure, after one year of follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It
      is an observational, prospective, cohort study, on 108 normotensive, newly
      diagnosed diabetics, 40 men and 68 women aged from 40 to 70 ans. OHT was defined
      as an increase of systolic blood pressure (SBP) >=20mmHg and/or diastolic blood
      pressure (DBP) >=10mmHg, after 1 and 2min of standing from supine position.
      Arterial hypertension and metabolic syndrome were respectively defined according
      to WHO and AHA 2009 guidelines. Clinical and biological data were collected for
      all patients. They had a screening for diabetic complications and a follow-up
      during one year. Statistical analysis was performed with Epi-Info 6.04. RESULTS:
      We found OHT in 22 patients (20.4%). Patients with OHT had a higher SBP at lying
      position (P=0.029), a higher waist circumference (P=0.022) and LDL (P=0.041).
      They had more frequently obesity (P=0.036) left ventricular hypertrophy
      (P=0.024), metabolic syndrome (P=0.042) and cerebrovascular events (P=0.050) when
      compared with those with normal blood pressure response to orthostasis. One year
      after follow-up, the prevalence of permanent hypertension was significantly
      higher in the OHT group (P=0.0008). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that OHT is
      associated with insulin resistance syndrome and onset of sustained arterial
      hypertension in normotensive, newly diagnosed diabetics.

PMID- 28554698
TI  - Effects of carotid baroreceptor stimulation on retinal arteriole remodeling
      evaluated with adaptive optics camera in resistant hypertensive patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Baroreceptor activation therapy (BAT) leads to a decrease in
      blood pressure (BP) in patients affected by resistant hypertension (RH) by
      reducing sympathetic outflow. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of BAT
      on RH patients' retinal arteriolar microvasculature, a territory devoid of
      adrenergic innervation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Five patients defined as affected
      by RH after excluding secondary causes of hypertension and based on number of
      antihypertensive treatments, underwent the implantation of BarostimTM neoTM.
      Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) were assessed by
      office and 24-hours ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). Adaptive Optics Camera
      RTX1(r) (ImagineEye, Orsay, France) was used to measure wall thickness (WT),
      internal diameter (ID), wall cross-sectional area (WCSA) and wall-to-lumen ratio
      (WLR). A cohort of 21 not-controlled hypertensive patients matched for age,
      gender and follow-up time, undergoing standard-antihypertensive therapy changes,
      was selected as a control group. SBP and DBP were assessed by office and home BP
      monitoring (HBPM). Evaluations were performed at baseline and after 6 months mean
      follow-up. RESULTS: Office SBP decreased by 9.7+/-12.3% and 29.7+/-12.4% in
      standard-therapy and BAT group respectively, while office DBP decreased by 7.6+/
      17.4% and 14.8+/-15.7%. Concerning ABPM/HBPM, a mean reduction of both SBP and
      DBP of 7.9+/-11% was observed for the standard-therapy while a reduction of
      15.8+/-10.5% and 15.8%+/-5.3% was observed for SBP and DBP respectively in BAT
      group. While in the standard-therapy group a significant reduction in WLR (-5.9%)
      due to both ID increase (+2.3%) and WT reduction (-5.7%) was observed, without
      changes in WCSA (-0.3%), RH patients had a significant reduction in WCSA (
      12.1%), due to a trend in both WT and ID reduction (-6.5% and -1.7%
      respectively), without significant changes in WLR (-2%). CONCLUSION: While a
      reverse eutrophic remodeling was observed in patients undergoing a standard
      antihypertensive treatment, hypotrophic changes were found in RH patients
      undergoing BAT. Despite the lack of adrenergic receptors on retinal vessels,
      chronic baroreflex stimulation may exert an effect on retinal microvasculature in
      RH patients by more systemic than local mechanisms.

PMID- 28554699
TI  - [Prevalence of carotid artery stenosis in nonagenarians: Survey in a primary care
      hospital].
AB  - AIM: Carotid artery stenosis increases with age and may cause brain ischemia if
      arterial hypotension occurs. We performed a monocentric pilot study to
      investigate its prevalence in the very elderly and to assess its potential
      influence on blood pressure (BP) goals during antihypertensive treatment.
      METHODS: All patients>=90 years of a primary care medical ward were prospectively
      included over 15 months. Ultrasound exams of the precerebral arteries were
      offered to all elderly patients for routine evaluation of their cardiovascular
      risk. Frequencies of stenosed common, internal and external carotid arteries
      (CCA, ICA, ECA) were analyzed together with clinical BP and antihypertensive
      therapy. Patients with circulatory shock and readmissions were excluded. RESULTS:
      Sixty-three patients aged 92+/-3 years (78% female) hospitalized for a median of
      11 days were included. On admission, 76% were on antihypertensive drugs vs. 86%
      at discharge. Mean admission BP was 149/77 vs. 129/72mmHg at discharge; systolic
      BP<140mmHg 36% vs 64% (P<0.05). Mean intima-media thickness (ACC, right/left) was
      8.7/9.4mm. Prevalence of plaque or stenosis<60% was: CCA 19.0%, ICA 19.0%, ECA
      31.7%, bulb 74.6%; of stenosis>=60%: CCA 0%, ICA 7.9%, ECA 19.0%, ICA bilateral
      1.6% (unilateral occlusion 3.1%, no bilateral). Coincidence of systolic
      BP<120mmHg and ACI stenosis>=60% had a probability of 1-2%. CONCLUSION:
      Concerning the risk of brain ischemia due to carotid artery stenosis, a BP
      goal<140mmHg should be safe for most nonagenarians. If individual BP goals are
      lower, searching for significant stenosis by ultrasound may be useful.

PMID- 28554700
TI  - [Left ventricular hypertrophy in black African subjects with artery hypertension:
      Results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in semi-rural area in Senegal].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy according to
      electrocardiographic and echocardiographic criteria among hypertensive patients
      living in semi-rural Senegalese area. PATIENTS AND METHODS: According to the
      World Health Organization STEPSwise approach, we conducted, in November 2012, a
      cross-sectional and exhaustive study in the population aged at least 35 years old
      and living for at least six months in the semi-rural area of Gueoul. We
      researched electrocardiographic and echocardiographic left ventricular
      hypertrophy in hypertensive subjects. Data were analyzed with SPSS 18.0 software
      version. The significance level was agreed for a value of P<0.05. RESULTS: We
      examined 1411 subjects aged on average of 48.5+/-12.7 years. In total, 654
      subjects were hypertensive and screening of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH)
      was effective in 515 of them. According to Sokolow-Lyon index, 86 subjects
      (16.7%) presented electrocardiographic LVH, more frequently in men (P=0.002).
      According to Cornell index and Cornell product, LVH was founded respectively in
      66 (12.8%) and 52 subjects (10.1%), more frequently in female (P=0.0001;
      P=0.004). It was more common in grade 3 of hypertension however criteria. In
      echocardiography, prevalence of LVH was 2.2% (13 cases) according to the left
      ventricular mass, 9.3% (48 cases) according to the left ventricular mass indexed
      to body surface area and 8.2% (42 cases) according to the left ventricular mass
      indexed to height2.7. LVH was significantly correlated with the
      electrocardiographic LVH according to Sokolow-Lyon index (P<0.0001) and the grade
      3 of hypertension (P=0.003). CONCLUSION: Although rare in hypertensive Senegalese
      living in semi-rural area, left ventricular hypertrophy is correlated with
      severity of grade of hypertension. Screening by electrocardiogram will allow
      better follow-up of these hypertensive subjects.

PMID- 28554701
TI  - [Development of a risk calculator for drug compliance in treated hypertensives:
      The FLAHS Compliance Calculator].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the determinants of non-compliance with
      antihypertensive treatments among participants in the FLAHS 2015 survey and to
      develop a risk calculator for drug compliance in a hypertensive population.
      METHODS: The FLAHS surveys are carried out by self-questionnaire sent by mail to
      individuals from the TNS SOFRES (representative panel of the population living in
      metropolitan France) sampling frame. In 2015, FLAHS was performed in subjects
      aged 55years and older. Using the Girerd questionnaire, the "perfect observance"
      was determined for a score of 0 and "nonobservance" for a score of 1 or higher. A
      Poisson regression was conducted in univariate and multivariate to estimate risk
      ratios for each determinant. A non-compliance risk calculator is constructed from
      multivariate analysis. A Poisson regression was performed in univariate and
      multivariate to estimate risk ratios. For each sex, a probability table is
      produced from the equation of the multivariate analysis and then the calculation
      of a nonobservance probability ratio (PR) using the profile with the best
      probability as a reference. Each subject is then classified into one of the three
      classes of risk of non-compliance: low (PR <1.5), high (PR>=2) and intermediate
      (PR>=1.5 and <2). RESULTS: The survey included 6379 subjects and analysis based
      on 2370 treated hypertensives. The onset of treatment was less than 2years in 7%
      of subjects and the median follow-up duration of treatment was 10years. Perfect
      compliance was observed in 64% of subjects. Independent determinants of non
      compliance are: male sex, young age, number of antihypertensive tablet, treatment
      for a metabolic disease (diabetes, dyslipidemia), presence of other chronic
      illness, secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. To get the risk class of
      nonobservance a web page is available at http://www.comitehta.org/flahs
      observance-hta/. CONCLUSION: The development of the FLAHS Compliance Test is a
      tool whose use is possible during an office visit. Its free availability for
      French doctor will be one of the actions undertaken as part of the "call for
      action for adherence in hypertension" proposed by the French League Against
      Hypertension in 2017.

PMID- 28554702
TI  - [Cardiac hydatid cyst about 17 operated cases].
AB  - : Cardiac hydatid cyst is a rare parasitic disease. The purpose of this study was
      to describe the clinical, pathological features and the outcome of the surgical
      treatment of cardiac hydatid disease in our unit over a twenty-year period.
      METHODS: Between May 1994 and May 2014, seventeen cases of cardiac hydatid cysts
      were operated at our unit. Overall, twelve patients were male (mean age 25+/
      13years). All patients were complaining of dyspnea and 71% presented with chest
      pain. The diagnosis, based on histological examination, was suspected on
      echocardiography and computed tomography of chest. RESULTS: Our study revealed
      five possible locations, which were in decreasing order of frequency: left
      ventricle, interventricular septum, right ventricle, left atrium and pulmonary
      artery. The surgical procedure was a controlled puncture and aspiration of the
      cyst content, with cystectomy (69%), or pericystectomy (31%). The resulting
      cavity left open in 6 cases (37.5%) or carefully closed in 10 (62.5%). Hospital
      mortality was 11.8% (n=2). Morbidity was marked by conduction abnormalities
      (n=2), bleeding and hematoma of the residual cavity that required surgical
      treatment (n=3). Eleven patients were followed with a mean period of 40.5+/-19.4
      months. At follow-up, neither late deaths nor recurrence have occurred.
      CONCLUSION: Cardiac hydatid cyst is a serious disease whose treatment is
      surgical. Cystectomy and pericystectomy remain the two surgical techniques able
      to offer good chance of cure with acceptable morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28554703
TI  - Differences in prevalence, treatment and control rates of hypertension between
      male and female in the area of Blida (Algeria).
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare differences in prevalence rates, treatment and control of
      hypertension (AHT) between males and females in general medicine consultation in
      the area of Blida (Algeria). METHODS: We included 3622 patients in the study (42%
      males and 58% females), with a mean age of 48.14+/-10.11 years, examined between
      January 2014 and June 2016 in general medicine consultation in the area of Blida
      (Algeria). Data was collected with individual questionnaires. Measurement of
      blood pressure was made using validated semi-automatic devices (OMRON HEM model
      705CP). Individuals using antihypertensive drugs and/or blood pressure (BP)
      greater than or equal to 140/90mmHg were considered as hypertensives. The
      knowledge about the disease was identified among those who claimed to be aware of
      the diagnosis before the measurements. The treatment rate was calculated with
      those who reported using antihypertensive drugs. Controlled blood pressure was
      considered in individuals with values lower than 140/90mmHg. Lipid profile (total
      cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL cholesterol), and fasting blood sugar
      were measured. All calculations and statistical analyses are processed by the
      SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: The prevalence of hypertension was higher among men (46.2%)
      than women (31.6%) (P<0.001), and among aged over 55 years (P< 0.05) and those
      that have referred hypertensive parents (P<0.05). Among hypertensive men, 55.7%
      knew the diagnosis, 63.6% of them were under treatment, and 22% had controlled
      BP. Among the hypertensive women 69.8% knew the diagnosis, 85.1% were under
      treatment and 35.6% were with controlled BP (P<0.001 for the three variables).
      The most frequent associated risk factors were diabetes mellitus in 36.8% of the
      patients, obesity in 35.7% of the patients, microalbuminuria in 23.6% of the
      patients, hypercholesterolemia>2g/L in 11.6% of the patients, smoking in 7.7% of
      them. Presence of controlled AHT was not found to be associated with presence of
      other risk factors. The likelihood of having AHT was higher among men, diabetics,
      older subjects and higher BMI. CONCLUSION: Our study confirmed the high
      prevalence of AHT in general medicine consultation in Blida, which is a
      representative city in the north of Algeria. Although women are better treated,
      much remains to be done to reach BP goal, much in our countries which have the
      least financial resources to combat cardiovascular disabilities.

PMID- 28554704
TI  - Duration and exclusiveness of breastfeeding and school-age lung function and
      asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding reduces the risk of asthma in early childhood, but it
      is not clear whether its effect on respiratory morbidity is still present in
      later childhood. OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations of any breastfeeding,
      breastfeeding duration, and breastfeeding exclusiveness with lung function and
      asthma in school-aged children and whether associations were influenced by
      respiratory tract infections and maternal or child's atopic status. METHODS: This
      study of 4,464 children was embedded in a population-based prospective cohort
      study. Information on breastfeeding was obtained by multiple questionnaires from
      birth until 1 year of age. At 10 years of age, lung function was measured by
      spirometry, and information on asthma was obtained by questionnaire. Adjusted
      linear and logistic regression models were used to examine the associations.
      RESULTS: Shorter duration of breastfeeding was associated with a lower forced
      expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) only (z score change, -0.01; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], -0.02 to -0.00) per month shorter breastfeeding, but not asthma.
      When categorized, breastfeeding for 2 to 4 months was associated with a lower
      forced vital capacity (FVC) (z score change, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.20 to -0.03)
      compared with breastfeeding for 6 months or longer. Nonexclusive breastfeeding
      for 4 months was associated with a lower FVC (z score change, -0.08; 95% CI, 
      0.16 to -0.01) compared with exclusive breastfeeding for 4 months. Results did
      not materially change after additional adjustment for lower respiratory tract
      infections and were not modified by maternal history of asthma or atopy, child's
      eczema, or inhalant allergic sensitization. CONCLUSION: Shorter duration and
      nonexclusivity of breastfeeding were associated with a lower FEV1 and FVC but not
      asthma at school-age.

PMID- 28554705
TI  - Association of IgE Can f 2 and dyspnea in pet allergic patients.

PMID- 28554706
TI  - Multiplex PCR assay for genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Lima, Peru.

PMID- 28554707
TI  - Squamocin, an annonaceous acetogenin, enhances naphthalene degradation mediated
      by Bacillus atrophaeus CN4.
AB  - Squamocin belongs to a group of compounds called annonaceous acetogenins. They
      are secondary products of Annonaceae metabolism and can be isolated from Annona
      cherimolia seeds. This paper deals with the stimulation of biofilm formation of
      Bacillus atrophaeus CN4 by employing low squamocin concentrations to increase
      naphthalene degradation. Bacillus atrophaeus CN4, isolated from contaminated
      soil, has the ability to degrade naphthalene as the only source of carbon and
      energy. In the absence of additional carbon sources, the strain removed 69% of
      the initial concentration of naphthalene (approx. 0.2mmol/l) in the first 12h of
      incubation. The addition of squamocin in LB medium stimulated Bacillus atrophaeus
      CN4 biofilm formation and enhanced naphthalene removal. Squamocin (2.5MUg/ml)
      does not affect planktonic growth and therefore, the observed increases are
      solely due to the stimulation of biofilm formation.

PMID- 28554708
TI  - Protothecosis in a patient with T cell lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - Human protothecosis is a rare infection caused by algae of the genus Prototheca.
      Prototheca wickerhamii has been recognized as the main species that causes
      infection in immunocompromised hosts with deficits in innate or cellular
      immunity. We report a case of persisting subcutaneous protothecosis in a patient
      with T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia, who also presented a history of
      disseminated histoplasmosis.

PMID- 28554709
TI  - Ultrasound-guided genicular nerve block for pain control after total knee
      replacement: Preliminary case series and technical note.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an operation with moderate to
      severe postoperative pain. The Fast-Track models employ local infiltration
      techniques with anaesthetics at high volumes (100-150ml). We proposed a genicular
      nerve block with low volume of local anaesthetic. The aim of our study is to
      evaluate the periarticular distribution of these blocks in a fresh cadaver model
      and to describe the technique in a preliminary group of patients submitted to
      TKA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the anatomical phase, 4 genicular nerves (superior
      medial, superior lateral, inferior medial and inferior lateral) were blocked with
      4ml of local anaesthetic with iodinated contrast and methylene blue in each (16ml
      in total). It was performed on a fresh cadaver and the distribution of the
      injected medium was evaluated by means of a CT-scan and coronal anatomical
      sections on both knees. The clinical phase included 12 patients scheduled for
      TKA. Ultrasound-guided block of the 4 genicular nerves was performed
      preoperatively and their clinical efficacy evaluated by assessing pain after the
      reversal of the spinal block and at 12h after the block. Pain was measured using
      the numerical scale and the need for rescue analgesia was evaluated. RESULTS: A
      wide periarticular distribution of contrast was observed by CT-scan, which was
      later evaluated in the coronal sections. The distribution followed the joint
      capsule without entering the joint, both in the femur and in the tibia. The pain
      after the reversal of the subarachnoid block was 2+/-1, requiring rescue
      analgesia in 42% of the patients. At 12h, the pain according to the numerical
      scale was 4+/-1, 33% required rescue analgesia. CONCLUSION: The administration of
      4ml of local anaesthetic at the level of the 4 genicular nerves of the knee
      produces a wide periarticular distribution. Our preliminary data in a series of
      12 patients undergoing TKA seems to be clinically effective. Nevertheless,
      extensive case series and comparative studies with local infiltration techniques
      with anaesthetics are needed to support these encouraging results.

PMID- 28554710
TI  - The PECS II block as a major analgesic component for clavicle operations: A
      description of 7 case reports.
AB  - Clavicle fractures correspond to 35% of traumatic fractures of the shoulder
      girdle. Regional anaesthesia has shown better analgesic results than systemic
      treatment for perioperative management. Innervation of the clavicle is complex,
      at present its knowledge raises controversy. The lateral pectoral nerve through
      the innervating musculature predominantly participates in the lateral and
      anterior part of the clavicle. The following report of 7 cases describes the
      effective postoperative analgesia of modified PEC II block in patients with
      middle third clavicle fracture or acromioclavicular dislocation who underwent a
      modified PEC II block for postoperative pain management, in the context of a
      multimodal analgesia. The potential advantage of this management over other
      analgesic procedures should be evaluated in specific clinical trials.

PMID- 28554711
TI  - Scimitar syndrome: Anaesthetic management for pulmonary resection of the
      unaffected lung.
AB  - Scimitar syndrome is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by anomalous
      drainage of the right pulmonary veins in the inferior vena cava, frequently
      associated with right lung and pulmonary artery hypoplasia, dextrocardia and
      abnormal systemic arterial supply to the lower lobe. Pulmonary resection surgery
      on healthy lung is exceptional, and there are no published records of it, as far
      as we know. A man with scimitar syndrome diagnosed with a lung nodule with
      malignant features in the contralateral lung. This situation implies huge
      anaesthetic complexity, mainly for intraoperative ventilation. Although
      spirometry and stress test did not contraindicate the planned lobectomy,
      scintigraphy showed a hypoplastic right lung with an uptake of 15%. From an
      anaesthetic point of view we discarded selective ventilation of the right lung,
      since the shunt made it functionally non-existent. In consequence we proposed
      four anaesthetic possibilities. After the placement of an epidural catheter and
      left selective intubation, thoracoscopy with intermittent apnoeas was our first
      choice, and we could complete the extirpation and avoid excessive complexity.

PMID- 28554712
TI  - The role of CR3 (CD11b/CD18) and CR4 (CD11c/CD18) in complement-mediated
      phagocytosis and podosome formation by human phagocytes.
AB  - CR3 and CR4 belong to the family of beta2-integrins and play an important role in
      phagocytosis, cellular adherence and migration. CR3 and CR4 are generally
      expected to mediate similar functions due to their structural homology,
      overlapping ligand specificity and parallel expression on human phagocytes.
      Although the different signalling pathways of these receptors suggest distinct
      functions, possible differences are just being revealed. Previously we proved
      that CR3 plays a key role in the uptake of iC3b-opsonized particles by human
      dendritic cells. Now, besides measuring the overall phagocytic capacity of cells
      including the assessment of surface bound as well as internalized particles, we
      extended our investigations and studied the digestion of the iC3b opsonized
      antigen by various human phagocytes. The participation of CR3 and CR4 was
      compared in the process of binding, internalization and digestion of iC3b
      opsonized Staphylococcus aureus by monocytes, monocyte derived macrophages
      (MDMs), monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDDCs), and neutrophils. Comparing the
      activity of the two beta2-integrin type complement receptors we found that CR3
      plays a dominant role in the phagocytosis of iC3b opsonized S. aureus by all of
      these cell types. Studying another important integrin-mediated function we
      demonstrated earlier that CR4 is dominant in the adhesion of monocytes, MDMs and
      MDDCs to fibrinogen. Here we studied the participation of CR3 and CR4 in podosome
      formation by human phagocytes, since these structures are known to play an
      essential role in cell migration. Our confocal microscopy analysis revealed that
      both CD11b and CD11c concentrate in the podosome adhesion ring. In summary our
      data highlight differences in the function of human CR3 and CR4 in the process of
      uptake and digestion of complement opsonized antigen, while in the process of
      podosome formation, connected to cellular motility, both receptors equally take
      part.

PMID- 28554713
TI  - Different capacity of in vitro generated myeloid dendritic cells of newborns of
      healthy and allergic mothers to respond to probiotic strain E. coli O83:K24:H31.
AB  - Allergic diseases belong to one of the most common diseases with steadily
      increasing incidence even among young children. There is an urgent need to
      identify a prognostic marker pointing to increased risk of allergy development
      enabling early preventive measures introduction. It has been shown that
      administration of selected probiotic strains or mixtures could prevent allergy
      development. In our study, we have tested the capacity of probiotic strain
      Escherichia coli O83:K24:H31 (E. coli O83) to promote dendritic cell (DC)
      maturation and polarisation of immune responses. Increased presence of activation
      marker CD83 was observed on DC stimulated by E. coli O83 and DC of newborns of
      allergic mothers have significantly more increased cell surface presence of CD83
      in comparison to children of healthy mothers. Increased gene expression and
      secretion of IL-10 was detected in DC stimulated with E. coli O83 being higher in
      DC of newborns of healthy mothers in comparison to allergic ones. Generally,
      increased presence of intracellular cytokines (IL-4, IL-13, IFN-gamma, IL-17A, IL
      22, IL-10) was detected in CD4+ T cells cocultured with DC of children of
      allergic mothers in comparison to healthy ones. E. coli O83 primed DC
      significantly increased IL-10 and IL-17A in CD4 T cells of newborns of healthy
      mothers in comparison to the levels detected in CD4 T cells cocultured with
      control non-stimulated DC. We can conclude E. coli O83 induces dendritic cell
      maturation and IL-10 production in DC. Newborns of allergic mothers have
      generally increased reactivity of both DC and CD4 T cells which together with
      decreased capacity of DC of newborns of allergic mothers to produce IL-10 could
      support inappropriate immune responses development after allergen encounter.

PMID- 28554714
TI  - Analysis of shoulder abduction by dynamic shoulder radiograph following
      suprascapular nerve repair in brachial plexus injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Suprascapular nerve repair is a widely-prioritized procedure for
      shoulder reconstruction following brachial plexus injury. Although this procedure
      only reconstructs glenohumeral joint motion, the standard clinical assessment of
      shoulder function also includes the scapulothoracic joint contribution. The
      purpose of this preliminary study was to develop an objective method to
      accurately analyze shoulder abduction following suprascapular nerve repair in
      brachial plexus injury patients. METHODS: We introduced an objective method to
      accurately analyze independent shoulder abduction performed by supraspinatus
      muscle with the help of dynamic shoulder radiography. Antero-posterior
      radiographs of both shoulders in adduction and maximal active abduction were
      obtained. Five parameters were measured. They included global abduction,
      abduction in glenohumeral, scapulothoracic and clavicular joints along with
      lateral flexion of thoracic spine. Data were analyzed to distinguish glenohumeral
      joint contribution from that of scapulothoracic motion. The detailed biomechanics
      of glenohumeral motion were also analyzed in relation to scapulothoracic motion
      to separately define the contribution of each in global shoulder abduction.
      RESULTS: The test-retest, intra-examiner and inter-examiner reliabilities of the
      measurements were assessed. Intra-class correlation coefficient, Bland-Altman
      plots and repeatability coefficients showed excellent reliability for each
      parameter. The range of glenohumeral abduction showed high correlation to
      subtraction of the range of scapulothoracic from the range of global abduction.
      However, not all negative ranges of glenohumeral abduction meant non-recovery
      after nerve repair, because scapulothoracic motion contributed in parallel but
      not uniformly to global shoulder motion. CONCLUSION: The conventional measurement
      of shoulder global abduction with goniometer is not an appropriate method to
      analyze the results of suprascapular nerve repair in brachial plexus palsy
      patients. We recommend examination of glenohumeral and scapulothoracic motions
      separately with dynamic shoulder radiographic analysis. With scapulothoracic
      contribution to the global shoulder motion, the glenohumeral motion can be
      wrongly assessed.

PMID- 28554715
TI  - Hybrid surgery for a pseudoaneurysm caused by a clavicle fracture.

PMID- 28554716
TI  - Acute Hemodynamic Effects of Intra-aortic Balloon Counterpulsation Pumps in
      Advanced Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The utility of intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation pumps (IABPs) in
      low cardiac output states is unknown and no studies have explored the impact of
      IABP therapy on ventricular workload in patients with advanced heart failure
      (HF). For these reasons, we explored the acute hemodynamic effects of IABP
      therapy in patients with advanced HF. METHODS: We prospectively studied 10
      consecutive patients with stage D HF referred for IABP placement before left
      ventricular assist device (LVAD) surgery and compared with 5 control patients
      with preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) who did not receive
      IABP therapy. Hemodynamics were recorded using LV conductance and pulmonary
      artery catheters. Cardiac index (CI)-responder and CI-nonresponder status was
      assigned a priori as being "equal to or above" or below the median of the IABP
      effect on CI, respectively, within 24 hours after IABP activation. RESULTS:
      Compared with controls, patients with advanced HF had lower LVEF, lower LV end
      systolic pressure, lower LV stroke work, and higher LV end-diastolic pressures
      and volumes before IABP activation. IABP activation reduced LV stroke work
      primarily by reducing end-systolic pressure. IABP therapy increased CI by a
      median of 20% as well as increased diastolic pressure time index and the
      myocardial oxygen supply:demand ratio. Compared with CI-nonresponders, CI
      responders had higher systemic vascular resistance, lower right heart filling
      pressures, and a trend toward lower left heart filling pressures with improved
      indices of right heart function. Compared with CI-nonresponders, the diastolic
      pressure time index was increased among CI-responders. CONCLUSIONS: IABP therapy
      may be effective at reducing LV stroke work, increasing CI, and favorably
      altering the myocardial oxygen supply:demand ratio in patients with advanced HF,
      especially among patients with low right heart filling pressures and high
      systemic vascular resistance.

PMID- 28554718
TI  - Contryphan-Bt: A pyroglutamic acid containing conopeptide isolated from the venom
      of Conus betulinus.
AB  - A new member of the contryphans family was isolated from the venom of Conus
      betilinus, a vermivorous species distributed in the South China Sea. Its
      sequence, ZSGCO(D-W)KPWC-NH2 (Z, pyroglutamic acid), was established by a
      combination of de novo MS/MS sequencing and venom-duct transcriptome sequencing.
      The occurrence of D-Trp6 was confirmed by chemical synthesis and HPLC behavior
      comparison. Like known contryphans, contryphan-Bt produces the "stiff-tail"
      syndrome in mice and contains one disulfide bond, a hydroxyproline, a D
      tryptophan, and an amidated C-terminus. However, contryphan-Bt differs from
      previously identified contryphans by a pyroglutamic acid at the N terminus. CD
      spectrum reveals that contryphan-Bt possess beta-turn in solution.

PMID- 28554719
TI  - A systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo versus no treatment for insomnia
      symptoms.
AB  - This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the size of the
      placebo effect for insomnia symptoms when comparing placebo treatment with no
      treatment. PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and CINAHL databases were systematically searched
      for studies allocating participants with insomnia symptoms (diagnosed or self
      reported) to receive a placebo that they were led to believe was an active
      treatment or to a no treatment control group. Thirteen independent studies (n =
      566) met inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis indicated a reliable placebo effect
      whereby placebo treatment led to improved perceived sleep onset latency (SOL;
      Hedges g = 0.272), total sleep time (TST; Hedges g = 0.322), and global sleep
      quality (GSQ; Hedges' g = 0.581), when compared with no treatment. There was no
      effect on objective assessment of SOL, however only a few studies reported this
      outcome and there were insufficient sample sizes to meta-analyse other objective
      outcomes. Moderator analysis indicated that the placebo effect for perceived
      insomnia symptoms was quite consistent across different variables. The present
      findings provide strong evidence for placebo effects for perceived insomnia
      symptoms, but not on the only objective measurement with sufficient sample size
      to meta-analyse, namely objective SOL. This has important implications for the
      treatment of insomnia symptoms and the design and interpretation of clinical
      trials for insomnia symptoms.

PMID- 28554717
TI  - Phenylalanine derivatives with modulating effects on human alpha1-glycine
      receptors and anticonvulsant activity in strychnine-induced seizure model in male
      adult rats.
AB  - The critical role of alpha1-glycine receptor (alpha1-GLYRs) in pathological
      conditions such as epilepsy is well known. In the present study, structure
      activity relations for a series of phenylalanine derivatives carrying selected
      hydrogen bond acceptors were investigated on the functional properties of human
      alpha1-GLYR expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The results indicate that one
      particular substitution position appeared to be of special importance for control
      of ligand activity. Among tested ligands (1-8), the biphenyl derivative (2)
      provided the most promising antagonistic effect on alpha1-GLYRs, while its
      phenylbenzyl analogue (5) exhibited the highest potentiation effect. Moreover,
      ligand 5 with most promising potentiating effect showed in-vivo moderate
      protection when tested in strychnine (STR)-induced seizure model in male adult
      rats, whereas ligand 2 with highest antagonistic effect failed to provide
      appreciable anti(pro)convulsant effect. Furthermore, ligands 2 and 5 with the
      most promising effects on human alpha1-GLYRs were examined for their toxicity and
      potential neuroprotective effect against neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA).
      The results show that ligands 2 and 5 possessed neither significant
      antiproliferative effects, nor necrotic and mitochondrial toxicity (up to
      concentration of 50MUM). Moreover, ligand 2 showed weak neuroprotective effect at
      the 50MUM against 100MUM toxic dose of 6-OHDA. Our results indicate that
      modulatory effects of ligands 2 and 5 on human alpha1-GLYRs as well as on STR
      induced convulsion can provide further insights for the design of therapeutic
      agents in treatment of epilepsy and other pathological conditions requiring
      enhanced activity of inhibitory glycine receptors.

PMID- 28554720
TI  - The changing epidemiology and demography of cystic fibrosis.
AB  - Once considered a pediatric disease with a poor prognosis, individuals born with
      cystic fibrosis (CF) today can expect to live well into adulthood. The
      implementation of multidisciplinary care, novel treatments and newborn screening
      has resulted in the rapid evolution in the demographics of the CF population. The
      purpose of this review is to highlight the evolving epidemiology and demographics
      of the CF population internationally.

PMID- 28554721
TI  - Current and emerging comorbidities in cystic fibrosis.
AB  - Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is expressed
      ubiquitously throughout the body. Thus, while respiratory manifestations dominate
      much of cystic fibrosis (CF) care, there are prominent multi-organ manifestations
      and comorbidities. In the general population, the number of comorbidities
      increases with aging. Few illnesses have experienced such a dramatic improvement
      in survival as CF, which has been transformed from an illness of childhood death
      to one of adult survival. Hence, as longevity increases in CF, it is paralleled
      by an increasing number of patients with multicomplex comorbidities availing of
      care from adult CF multi-disciplinary teams. This review gives an overview of the
      traditional CF associated comorbidities and those emerging in an aging adult
      cohort. While historically the treatment of CF focused on the consequences of
      CFTR dysfunction, the recent advent of CFTR modulators with the potential to
      enhance CFTR function represents an opportunity to potentially reverse or delay
      the development of some of the comorbidities associated with CF. Where evidence
      is available for the impact of CFTR modulatory therapy, namely ivacaftor on
      comorbidities in CF, this is highlighted.

PMID- 28554722
TI  - Common clinical features of CF (respiratory disease and exocrine pancreatic
      insufficiency).
AB  - First described as a disease of the pancreas, cystic fibrosis is a genetically
      inherited progressive disease affecting multiple organ systems. Pulmonary and
      pancreatic involvement is common in individuals with cystic fibrosis, and the
      former is attributable to most of the mortality that occurs with the condition.
      This chapter provides an overview of a clinical approach to the pulmonary and
      pancreatic manifestations of cystic fibrosis.

PMID- 28554723
TI  - New treatments targeting the basic defects in cystic fibrosis.
AB  - Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic autosomal recessive disorder affecting around
      75,000 individuals worldwide. It is a multi-system disease but the main morbidity
      and mortality is caused by chronic lung disease. Due to newborn screening, a
      multidisciplinary approach to care and intensive symptomatic treatment, the
      prognosis has dramatically improved over the last decades and there are currently
      more adults than children in many countries. However, CF is still a very severe
      disease with a current median age of life expectancy in the fourth decade of
      life. The disease is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane
      conductance regulator (CFTR) gene which encodes the CFTR protein, a protein
      kinase A-activated ATP-gated anion channel that regulates the transport of
      electrolytes such as chloride and bicarbonate. More than 2000 mutations have been
      reported, although not all of these have functional consequences. An enormous
      research effort and progress has been made in understanding the consequences of
      these mutations on the CFTR protein structure and function, and this has led to
      the approval of two new drug therapies that are able to bind to defective CFTR
      proteins and partially restore their function. They are mutation-specific
      therapies and available at present for specific mutations only. They are the
      first personalized medicine for CF with a possible disease-modifying effect. A
      pipeline of other compounds is under development with different mechanisms of
      action. It is foreseeable that new combinations of compounds will further improve
      the correction of CFTR function. Other strategies including premature stop codon
      read-through drugs, antisense oligonucleotides that correct the basic defect at
      the mRNA level or gene editing to restore the defective gene as well as gene
      therapy approaches are all in the pipeline. All these strategies are needed to
      develop disease-modifying therapies for all patients with CF.

PMID- 28554724
TI  - Sepsis-associated cardiac arrest, caused or being caused?

PMID- 28554725
TI  - Substrate inhibition of 17beta-HSD1 in living cells and regulation of 17beta-HSD7
      by 17beta-HSD1 knockdown.
AB  - This study addresses first the role of human 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase
      type 1 (17beta-HSD1) in breast cancer (BC) cells. The enzyme has a high estrone
      activating activity that is subject to strong substrate inhibition as shown by
      enzyme kinetics at the molecular level. We used BC cells to verify this
      phenomenon in living cells: estrone concentration increase did reduce the
      reaction with 0.025 to 4MUM substrate. Moreover, 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT)
      demonstrated some inhibition of estrogen activation at both the molecular and
      cellular levels. The presence of DHT did not change the tendency toward substrate
      inhibition for estrone conversion, but shifted the inhibition toward higher
      substrate concentrations. Moreover, a binding study demonstrated that both DHT
      and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) can be bound to the enzyme, thereby supporting
      the multi-specificity of 17beta-HSD1. We then followed the concentrations of
      estradiol and performed q-RT-PCR measurements of reductive 17beta-HSDs after
      17beta-HSD1 inhibition. The estradiol decrease by the 17beta-HSD1 inhibition was
      demonstrated lending support to this observation. Knockdown and inhibition of
      17beta-HSD1 produced reduction in estradiol levels and the down-regulation of
      another reductive enzyme 17beta-HSD7, thus "amplifying" the reduction of
      estradiol by the 17beta-HSD1 modulation itself. The critical positioning of
      17beta-HSD7 in sex-hormone-regulation as well as the mutual regulation of steroid
      enzymes via estradiol in BC, are clearly demonstrated. Our study demonstrates
      that fundamental enzymological mechanisms are relevant in living cells. Moreover,
      further enzyme study in cells is merited to advance biological and medical
      research. We also demonstrated the central role of 17beta-HSD7 in sex-hormone
      conversion and regulation, supporting it as a novel target for estrogen-dependent
      (ER+) BC.

PMID- 28554726
TI  - Microbial expression of Exendin-4 analog and its efficacy in mice model.
AB  - Exendin-4 is a GLP 1 agonist incretin-mimetic peptide hormone comprising 39 amino
      acids. Exenatide (Byetta(r)) is a chemically synthesized version of Exendin-4
      with an additional C-terminal amidation. Exenatide acts as a GLP-1 receptor
      agonist. This paper illustrates the method adopted for cloning, fermentation and
      purification of recombinant Exendin-4 analog expressed in Escherichia coli. The
      biologically expressed analog was extensively characterized using different
      orthogonal methods to confirm their biological activity and physicochemical
      properties. It was observed that the expressed analog showed comparable
      functional properties as that of Byetta(r) irrespective of their modes of
      development. Further, in vivo efficacy of the recombinant Exendin-4 analog was
      studied in Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) in mice models. Byetta(r) and
      Exendin-4 analog treated groups showed comparable glucose lowering activity in
      the OGTT model.

PMID- 28554727
TI  - Testosterone modulates FoxO3a and p53-related genes to protect C2C12 skeletal
      muscle cells against apoptosis.
AB  - The loss of muscle mass and strength with aging, sarcopenia, is a prevalent
      condition among the elderly, associated with skeletal muscle dysfunction and
      enhanced muscle cell apoptosis. We have previously demonstrated that testosterone
      protects against H2O2-induced apoptosis in C2C12 muscle cells, at different
      levels: morphological, biochemical and molecular. Since we have observed that
      testosterone reduces p-p53 and maintains the inactive state of FoxO3a
      transcription factor, induced by H2O2, we analyzed if the hormone was exerting
      its antiapoptotic effect at transcriptional level, by modulating pro and
      antiapoptotic genes associated to them. We detected the upregulation of the
      proapoptotic genes Puma, PERP and Bim, and MDM2 in response to H2O2 at different
      periods of the apoptotic process, and the downregulation of the antiapoptotic
      gene Bcl-2, whereas testosterone was able to modulate and counteract H2O2
      effects. Furthermore, ERK and JNK kinases have been demonstrated to be linked to
      FoxO3a phosphorylation and thus its subcellular distribution. This work show some
      transcription level components, upstream of the classical apoptotic pathway, that
      are activated during oxidative stress and that are points where testosterone
      exerts its protective action against apoptosis, exposing some of the puzzle
      pieces of the intricate network that aged skeletal muscle apoptosis represents.

PMID- 28554728
TI  - Multi-Centre Study on Cardiovascular Risk Management on Patients Undergoing AAA
      Surveillance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk of cardiovascular events and death in patients with
      abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is high. Screening has been introduced to reduce
      AAA related mortality; however, after AAA diagnosis, cardiovascular modification
      may be as important to patient outcomes as surveillance. The aim of this study
      was to assess cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with small AAA. METHODS:
      Institutional approval was granted for The Vascular and Endovascular Research
      Network (VERN) to retrospectively collect data pertaining to cardiovascular risk
      reduction from four tertiary vascular units in England. Patients with small AAA
      (January 2013-December 2015) were included. Demographic details, postcode,
      current medications, and smoking status were recorded using a bespoke electronic
      database and analysed. In a secondary analysis VERN contacted all AAA screening
      units in England and Wales to assess their current protocols relating to CV
      protection. RESULTS: In total, 1053 patients were included (mean age 74 +/- 9
      years, all men). Of these, 745 patients (70.8%) had been prescribed an
      antiplatelet agent and 787 (74.7%) a statin. Overall, only 666 patients (63.2%)
      were prescribed both a statin and antiplatelet. Two hundred and sixty eight
      patients (32.1%) were current smokers and the proportion of patients who
      continued to smoke decreased with age. Overall, only 401 patients (48.1%) were
      prescribed a statin, antiplatelet, and had stopped smoking. In the secondary
      analysis 38 AAA screening units (84% national coverage) replied. Thirty-one units
      (82%) suggest changes to the patient's prescription; however, none monitor
      compliance with these recommendations or assess whether the general practitioner
      has been made aware of the AAA diagnosis or prescription advice. CONCLUSION: Many
      patients with small AAA are not prescribed an antiplatelet/statin, and still
      smoke cigarettes, and therefore remain at high risk of cardiovascular morbidity
      and mortality. National guidance to ensure this high risk group of patients is
      adequately protected from poor cardiovascular outcomes is lacking.

PMID- 28554729
TI  - Post-traumatic Femoral Arteriovenous Fistula.

PMID- 28554730
TI  - Synthesis and preliminary biological evaluation of radiolabeled 5-BDBD analogs as
      new candidate PET radioligands for P2X4 receptor.
AB  - P2X4 receptor has become an interesting molecular target for treatment and PET
      imaging of neuroinflammation and associated brain diseases such as Alzheimer's
      disease. This study reports the first design, synthesis, radiolabeling and
      biological evaluation of new candidate PET P2X4 receptor radioligands using 5
      BDBD, a specific P2X4 receptor antagonist, as a scaffold. 5-(3-Hydroxyphenyl)-1
      [11C]methyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzofuro[3,2-e][1,4]diazepin-2-one (N-[11C]Me-5-BDBD
      analog, [11C]9) and 5-(3-Bromophenyl)-1-[11C]methyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzofuro[3,2
      e][1,4]diazepin-2-one (N-[11C]Me-5-BDBD, [11C]8c) were prepared from their
      corresponding desmethylated precursors with [11C]CH3OTf through N
      [11C]methylation and isolated by HPLC combined with SPE in 30-50% decay corrected
      radiochemical yields with 370-1110GBq/umol specific activity at EOB. 5-(3
      [18F]Fluorophenyl)-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzofuro[3,2-e][1,4]diazepin-2-one ([18F]F-5
      BDBD, [18F]5a) and 5-(3-(2-[18F]fluoroethoxy)phenyl)-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzofuro[3,2
      e][1,4]diazepin-2-one ([18F]FE-5-BDBD, [18F]11) were prepared from their
      corresponding nitro- and tosylated precursors by nucleophilic substitution with
      K[18F]F/Kryptofix 2.2.2 and isolated by HPLC-SPE in 5-25% decay corrected
      radiochemical yields with 111-740GBq/umol specific activity at EOB. The
      preliminary biological evaluation of radiolabeled 5-BDBD analogs indicated these
      new radioligands have similar biological activity with their parent compound 5
      BDBD.

PMID- 28554732
TI  - A Randomized Controlled Trial of Atorvastatin in Patients With Bronchiectasis
      Infected With Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: A Proof of Concept Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are no randomized controlled trials of statin therapy in
      patients with severe bronchiectasis who are chronically infected with Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa. METHODS: Thirty-two patients chronically infected with P aeruginosa
      were recruited in this double-blind cross-over randomized controlled trial.
      Sixteen patients were recruited in each arm, were given atorvastatin 80 mg or
      placebo for 3 months followed by a washout period for 6 weeks, and then crossed
      over and administered the alternative therapy for 3 months. RESULTS: Twenty-seven
      patients completed the study. Atorvastatin did not significantly improve the
      primary end point of cough as measured by the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (mean
      difference, 1.92; 95% CI for difference, -0.57-4.41; P = .12). However,
      atorvastatin treatment resulted in an improved St. Georges Respiratory
      Questionnaire (-5.62 points; P = .016) and reduced serum levels of CXCL8 (P =
      .04), tumor necrosis factor (P = .01), and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (P =
      .04). There was a trend toward improvement in serum C-reactive protein and serum
      neutrophil counts (P = .07 and P = .06, respectively). We demonstrated in vitro
      that atorvastatin 10 MUM reduced formyl-methionyl-leucyl phenylalanine-induced
      upregulation of CD11b expression and changes in calcium flux, reflecting an
      ability to decrease neutrophil activation. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that
      atorvastatin reduced systemic inflammation and improved quality of life in
      patients with bronchiectasis who were infected with P aeruginosa. These effects
      may be due to an ability of atorvastatin to modulate neutrophil activation. TRIAL
      REGISTRY: ClinicalTrials.gov; No.: NCT01299194; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov.

PMID- 28554733
TI  - The role of insulin signalling in the endocrine stress response in Drosophila
      melanogaster: A mini-review.
AB  - The endocrine stress response in Drosophila includes catecholamines, juvenile
      hormone (JH), 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and the insulin/insulin-like growth factor
      signalling pathway (IIS). Several changes in the IIS and hormonal status that
      occur under unfavourable conditions are universal and do not depend on the nature
      of stress exposure. The reviewed studies on the impact of different element of
      the Drosophila IIS, such as insulin-like receptor, the homologue of its
      substrate, CHICO, the transcription factor dFOXO and insulin like peptide 6, on
      the hormonal status suggest that the IIS controls catecholamine metabolism
      indirectly via JH, and there is a feedback loop in the interaction of JH and IIS.
      Moreover, at least one of the ways in which the IIS is involved in the control of
      stress resistance is mediated through JH/dopamine signalling.

PMID- 28554734
TI  - Effects of chronic intracerebroventricular infusion of neurosecretory protein GL
      on body mass and food and water intake in chicks.
AB  - Recently, we discovered a novel cDNA encoding the precursor of a small secretory
      protein, neurosecretory protein GL (NPGL), in the chicken mediobasal
      hypothalamus. In this study, immunohistochemical analysis revealed that NPGL was
      produced in the infundibular and medial mammillary nuclei of the mediobasal
      hypothalamus, with immunoreactive fibers also detected in the hypothalamus and
      the median eminence. As it is known that these regions are involved in feeding
      behavior in chicks, we surveyed the effects of chronic intracerebroventricular
      infusion of NPGL on feeding behavior and body mass for a period of two weeks.
      NPGL stimulated food and water intake, with a concomitant increase in body mass.
      However, NPGL did not influence mRNA expression of several hypothalamic ingestion
      related neuropeptides. Our data suggest that NPGL may be a novel neuronal
      regulator involved in growth processes in chicks.

PMID- 28554731
TI  - RNA G-Quadruplexes in Biology: Principles and Molecular Mechanisms.
AB  - G-quadruplexes (G4s) are extremely stable DNA or RNA secondary structures formed
      by sequences rich in guanine. These structures are implicated in many essential
      cellular processes, and the number of biological functions attributed to them
      continues to grow. While DNA G4s are well understood on structural and, to some
      extent, functional levels, RNA G4s and their functions have received less
      attention. The presence of bona fide RNA G4s in cells has long been a matter of
      debate. The development of G4-specific antibodies and ligands hinted on their
      presence in vivo, but recent advances in RNA sequencing coupled with chemical
      footprinting suggested the opposite. In this review, we will critically discuss
      the biology of RNA G4s focusing on the molecular mechanisms underlying their
      proposed functions.

PMID- 28554735
TI  - Correlation between phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility and the resistome in
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Genetic determinants of antibiotic resistance (AR) have been extensively
      investigated. High-throughput sequencing allows for the assessment of the
      relationship between genotype and phenotype. A panel of 672 Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa strains was analysed, including representatives of globally
      disseminated multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant clones; genomes
      and multiple antibiograms were available. This panel was annotated for AR gene
      presence and polymorphism, defining a resistome in which integrons were included.
      Integrons were present in >70 distinct cassettes, with In5 being the most
      prevalent. Some cassettes closely associated with clonal complexes, whereas
      others spread across the phylogenetic diversity, highlighting the importance of
      horizontal transfer. A resistome-wide association study (RWAS) was performed for
      clinically relevant antibiotics by correlating the variability in minimum
      inhibitory concentration (MIC) values with resistome data. Resistome annotation
      identified 147 loci associated with AR. These loci consisted mainly of acquired
      genomic elements and intrinsic genes. The RWAS allowed for correct identification
      of resistance mechanisms for meropenem, amikacin, levofloxacin and cefepime, and
      added 46 novel mutations. Among these, 29 were variants of the oprD gene
      associated with variation in meropenem MIC. Using genomic and MIC data,
      phenotypic AR was successfully correlated with molecular determinants at the
      whole-genome sequence level.

PMID- 28554736
TI  - Heat transfer and loss by whole-body hyperthermia during severe lower-body
      heating are impaired in healthy older men.
AB  - Most studies demonstrate that aging is associated with a weakened
      thermoregulation. However, it remains unclear whether heat transfer (for heat
      loss) from the lower (uncompensable) to the upper (compensable) body during
      passively-induced severe lower-body heating is delayed or attenuated with aging.
      Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to investigate heat transfer from
      uncompensable to compensable body areas in young men and healthy older men during
      passively-induced whole-body hyperthermia with a demonstrated post-heating change
      in core body (rectal; Tre) temperature. Nine healthy older men and eleven healthy
      young men (69+/-6 vs. 21+/-1 years old, mean+/-SD, P<0.05) participated in
      passively-induced severe lower-body heating in water at approximately 43 degrees
      C. Despite a similar increment in Tre (approximately 2.5 degrees C) in both
      groups, the heating rate was significantly lower in older men than in young men
      (1.69+/-0.12 vs. 2.47+/-0.29 degrees C/h, respectively; P<0.05). The temperature
      increase in calf muscle and calf skin (uncompensable areas) was significantly
      higher in older men than in young men (5.10+/-0.18 vs. 3.99+/-0.14 degrees C;
      P<0.05 and 9.92+/-0.22 vs. 7.65+/-0.33 degrees C; P<0.05, respectively). However,
      the temperature increase in back skin and forearm skin (compensable areas) was
      significantly lower in older men than in young men (0.76+/-0.63 vs. 2.83+/-0.68
      degrees C; P<0.05 and 0.39+/-0.76 vs. 2.73+/-0.5 degrees C; P<0.05,
      respectively). Furthermore, a post-warming increase in Tre of approximately 0.2
      degrees C was observed only in older men (P<0.05). In conclusion, older men whose
      lower extremities were immersed showed greater accumulation and storage of heat
      in the skin and deep muscles than young men, and this was associated with a
      greater heat-transfer delay and subsequent inertia in the increased core body
      (Tre) temperature.

PMID- 28554738
TI  - Circulating donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies are a major factor in premature
      and accelerated allograft fibrosis.
AB  - Addressing the causes of kidney allograft-accelerated aging is an important
      challenge for improving long-term transplant outcomes. Here we investigated the
      role of circulating donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (HLA-DSAs) in the
      development and the progression of kidney allograft fibrosis with inclusion of
      traditional risk factors for allograft fibrosis. We prospectively enrolled 1539
      consecutive kidney recipients transplanted in two centers and assessed
      interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA) in biopsies performed at one
      year post-transplantation. The HLA-DSAs and all traditional determinants of IF/TA
      were recorded at transplantation and within the first year post-transplantation,
      including histological diagnoses in 2260 "for cause" biopsies. This identified
      498 (32%) patients with severe IF/TA (Banff IF/TA grade 2 or more). HLA-DSAs were
      significantly associated with severe IF/TA (adjusted odds ratio, 1.53; 95%
      confidence interval 1.16-2.01) after including 37 determinants. HLA-DSAs remained
      significantly associated with severe IF/TA in patients without antibody-mediated
      rejection (adjusted odds ratio 1.54; 1.11-2.14). HLA-DSAs were the primary
      contributor, being involved in 11% of cases, while T cell-mediated rejection,
      calcineurin-inhibitor toxicity, acute tubular necrosis, pyelonephritis, and BK
      virus-associated nephropathy were involved in 9%, 8%, 6%, 5%, and 4% of cases,
      respectively. One hundred fifty-four patients with HLA-DSA-associated severe
      IF/TA showed significantly increased microvascular inflammation, transplant
      glomerulopathy, C4d deposition in capillaries, and decreased allograft survival
      compared to 344 patients with severe IF/TA without HLA-DSAs. Three hundred
      seventy-eight patients with post-transplant HLA-DSAs exhibited significantly
      accelerated progression of IF/TA compared to 1161 patients without HLA-DSAs in
      the biopsies performed at one year post-transplant and beyond. Thus, circulating
      HLA-DSAs are major determinants of premature and accelerated allograft fibrosis
      acting independently of traditional risk factors and antibody-mediated rejection.

PMID- 28554737
TI  - Podocyte-specific JAK2 overexpression worsens diabetic kidney disease in mice.
AB  - Activation of JAK-STAT signaling has been implicated in the pathogenesis of
      diabetic kidney disease. An increased expression of JAK-STAT genes was found in
      kidney glomerular cells, including podocytes, in patients with early diabetic
      kidney disease. However, it is not known whether increased expression of JAK or
      STAT isoforms in glomerular cells can lead to worsening nephropathy in the
      setting of diabetes. Therefore, we overexpressed JAK2 mRNA specifically in
      glomerular podocytes of 129S6 mice to determine whether this change alone could
      worsen diabetic kidney disease. A 2-3 fold increase in glomerular JAK2
      expression, an increase similar to that found in humans with early diabetic
      kidney disease, led to substantial and statistically significant increases in
      albuminuria, mesangial expansion, glomerulosclerosis, glomerular fibronectin
      accumulation, and glomerular basement membrane thickening, and a significant
      reduction in podocyte density in diabetic mice. Treatment with a specific JAK1/2
      inhibitor for 2 weeks partly reversed the major phenotypic changes of diabetic
      kidney disease and specifically normalized expression of a number of downstream
      STAT3-dependent genes implicated in diabetic kidney disease progression. Thus,
      moderate increases in podocyte JAK2 expression at levels similar to those in
      patients with early diabetic kidney disease can lead directly to phenotypic and
      other alterations of progressive diabetic glomerulopathy. Hence, inhibition of
      these changes by treatment with a JAK1/2 inhibitor suggests that such treatment
      may help retard progression of early diabetic kidney disease in patients.

PMID- 28554739
TI  - That's how "you" do it: Generic you expresses norms during early childhood.
AB  - Prior research indicates that children construe norms as general and construe
      preferences as individual. The current studies tested whether this expectation is
      built into how children interpret and use language. We focused on the pronoun
      you, which is ambiguous between a canonical interpretation (referring to the
      addressee) and a generic interpretation (referring to people in general). In
      Study 1, children (N=132, ages 3-10years) were asked a series of questions
      containing "you," referring to either descriptive norms (e.g., "What do you do
      with bikes?") or preferences (e.g., "What do you like to do with bikes?"). In
      Study 2, parents conversed with their children (N=28, ages 2-4years) about
      prescriptive norms (e.g., "What should you do with books?") and preferences
      (e.g., "What do you like about books?"). In both studies, children's choice of
      pronoun in their answer revealed whether they interpreted you in the questions as
      generic or canonical. Results indicated that children more often interpreted you
      as generic in the normative contexts (i.e., responded with generic you, e.g.,
      "You read them") and as canonical in the preference contexts (i.e., responded
      with I, e.g., "I read them"). This pattern emerged by early preschool, providing
      the first evidence that the distinction between norms and preferences directs
      young children's interpretation and use of everyday language.

PMID- 28554740
TI  - Tuberculosis detection by pouched rats: Opportunities for reinforcement under low
      prevalence conditions.
AB  - Giant African pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) have been employed successfully
      in two operational tuberculosis-detection projects in which they sniff sputum
      samples from symptomatic individuals who have visited tuberculosis clinics. The
      prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis in this population is high, approximately
      20% in the regions where the rats have been used. If the rats are to be used to
      screen individuals from lower-prevalence populations, their performance under
      such conditions must first be evaluated. In this study, the prevalence of
      tuberculosis-positive samples presented to eight pouched rats was reduced to
      approximately 5%, and the percentage of known-positive samples included as
      opportunities for reinforcement was varied in sequence from 10 to 8, 6, 4, 2, 4,
      and 2. Liquid food reinforcers were delivered for identification responses to
      known-positive samples and at no other time. The rats' accuracy was clinically
      and statistically significantly lower at 2% than at the other values. These
      results indicate that the rats can perform well in low-prevalence scenarios but,
      if they are used under the conditions of the present study, at least 4% of the
      samples presented to them must be opportunities for reinforcement.

PMID- 28554741
TI  - A contemporary series of renal masses with emphasis on recently recognized
      entities and tumors of low malignant potential: A report based on 624 consecutive
      tumors from a single tertiary center.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A number of new renal tumor entities have been recognized by the
      2016 World Health Organization classification of urologic tumors. The
      classification includes tumors with different behavior and introduces one tumor
      with low malignant potential, the multilocular cystic clear cell renal cell
      neoplasm of low malignant potential (mcCCRCNLMP). However, some categories still
      labeled as "carcinoma", such as clear cell papillary renal cell carcinoma
      (CCPRCC), renal angioleiomyomatous tumor (RAT), and tubulocystic carcinoma
      (TCRCC), all with a particularly good prognosis when diagnosed as low stage, show
      no malignant behavior: in fact, no metastases have been reported in these
      categories when surgically excised. Current experience is limited to supporting
      these neoplasms as benign entities although, recent literature data is defining
      these entities as "low malignant potential tumors". MATERIAL AND METHODS: We
      conducted a search through our files on a consecutive series of 624 renal tumors
      diagnosed over a period of 2 years to address the incidence of this category of
      tumors. RESULTS: Applying strict histological criteria, the "low malignant
      potential" tumors, comprised 7% of renal masses that are less than 4cm in size
      and 3.8% of renal masses measuring 4-7cm in the series of 624 renal tumors. When
      benign tumors are taken into considerations, the benign and "low malignant
      potential tumors" represent about one third of renal masses <4cm and one sixth of
      renal masses between 4 and 7cm. All these cases have not shown recurrence or
      metastasis at follow-up, mean follow-up of 18 months (range 6-30 months).
      CONCLUSIONS: This information may assist urologists in developing guidelines for
      counseling and proper clinical management for patients with "low malignant
      potential" tumors or small renal masses.

PMID- 28554742
TI  - Immunohistochemical investigation of topoIIbeta, H3K27me3 and JMJD3 expressions
      in medulloblastoma.
AB  - Topoisomerase IIbeta (topoIIbeta) is a nuclear enzyme specifically expressed in
      neurons, and plays an important role in the development of the cerebellum. To
      date, the expression of topoIIbeta protein in medulloblastoma (MB) has not been
      investigated. In this study, 16 MB specimens including 10 classical subtypes of
      MB and 6 desmoplastic subtypes of MB (DMB), along with 5 normal cerebellum
      samples, were obtained from clinics. With immunohistochemical staining,
      prominently expressed topoIIbeta was seen in normal cerebellar tissues, while
      there was no or less pronounced staining in classical MB cells. Interestingly, on
      comparing topoIIbeta expression in different regions of DMB samples, relatively
      high levels of topoIIbeta were revealed within nodules composed of differentiated
      neurocytic cells, which are known to predict a favorable clinical outcome for MB.
      We also examined the expression of two epigenetic factors, H3K27me3 and JMJD3 in
      the different tissues. Very high levels of H3K27me3 were found in all MB samples,
      except the intranodules of DMB, where JMJD3 expression was more prominent.
      Furthermore, a negative correlation between topoIIbeta and H3K27me3 in MB was
      revealed in this study. Thus, our data primarily indicate that topoIIbeta can be
      used to estimate neuronal differentiation in MB, and may serve as a target for
      improving the survival rates for this condition. We speculate that H3K27me3
      repression of topoIIbeta at the transcriptional level may occur, although this
      needs to be verified using larger numbers of MB samples in future experiments.

PMID- 28554743
TI  - Edmondson-Steiner grade: A crucial predictor of recurrence and survival in
      hepatocellular carcinoma without microvascular invasio.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microvascular invasion (MVI), an important pathologic parameter, has
      been proven to be a powerful predictor of long-term prognosis in hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC). However, prognostic factors in HCC without MVI remain unknown.
      The present study aimed to identify the risk factors of recurrence and poor post
      resectional survival in this type of HCC. METHODS AND METHODS: A total of 109
      patients with MVI-absent HCC underwent radical hepatectomy were enrolled. The
      influence of clinicopathologic variables on recurrence and patient survival was
      assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Chi-square test
      found that Edmondson-Steiner grade and satellite nodule were significantly
      associated with recurrence, while the former was the single marker for early
      recurrence. Stepwise logistic regression analysis demonstrated the independent
      predictive role of Edmondson-Steiner grade for recurrence. On the other hand,
      Edmondson-Steiner grade, serum AFP level and satellite nodule were significant
      for overall and disease-free survival in univariate analysis, whereas tumor size
      was linked to disease-free survival. Of the variables, Edmondson-Steiner grade,
      serum AFP level and satellite nodule were independent indicators. CONCLUSIONS:
      Edmondson-Steiner grade, a histological classification, carries robust prognostic
      implications for all the endpoints for prognosis, thus being potential to be a
      crucial prognosticator in HCC without MVI.

PMID- 28554744
TI  - Analysis of histological and immunohistochemical patterns of benign and malignant
      adrenocortical tumors by computerized morphometry.
AB  - Diagnosis of benign and purely localized malignant adrenocortical lesions is
      still a complex issue. Moreover, histology-based diagnosis may suffer of a moment
      of subjectivity due to inter- and intra-individual variations. The aim of the
      present study was to assess, by computerized morphometry, the morphological
      features in benign and malignant adrenocortical neoplasms. Eleven adrenocortical
      adenomas (ACA) were compared with 18 adrenocortical cancers (ACC). All specimens
      were stained with H&E, cellular proliferation marker Ki-67 and reticulin. We
      generated a morphometric model based on the analysis of volume fractions occupied
      by Ki-67 positive and negative cells (nuclei and cytoplasm), vascular and
      inflammatory compartment; we also analyzed the surface fraction occupied by
      reticulin. We compared the quantitative data of Ki-67 obtained by morphometry
      with the quantification resulting from pathologist's visual reading. The volume
      fraction of Ki-67 positive cells in ACCs was higher than in ACAs. The volume
      fraction of nuclei in unit volume and the nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio in both Ki-67
      negative cells and Ki-67 positive cells were prominent in ACCs. The surface
      fraction of reticulin was considerably lower in ACCs. Our computerized
      morphometric model is simple, reproducible and can be used by the pathologist in
      the histological workup of adrenocortical tumors to achieve precise and reader
      independent quantification of several morphological characteristics of
      adrenocortical tumors.

PMID- 28554745
TI  - Genomic profiling of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)-Basis for
      precision medicine.
AB  - PURPOSE: Preparing for precision medicine, we surveyed genomic alterations in
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and identified candidate therapeutic
      targets by genomic profiling using next-generation sequencing (NGS). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Single-nucleotide variations, indels, and copy number variations in
      80 genes were evaluated by targeted deep sequencing in 24 surgically resected
      ESCC specimens. Immunohistochemistry analyses and silver in situ hybridization
      for ERBB2 (HER2) were conducted to verify the NGS results. Associations between
      clinicopathological factors and detected genomic alterations were estimated.
      RESULTS: The mean coverage of sequencing of the tumor tissues from 24 patients
      was 464.8X with 85.1% over 100X. We detected a total of 115 genetic alterations
      and more than one genetic alteration was detected in most patients (23/24,
      95.8%). Genes with genetic alterations detected in more than 20% of cases
      included TP53 (20/24, 83%), NOTCH1 (7/24, 29%), and MTOR (6/24, 25%).
      Amplification of 7 genes was detected in 8 cases. Genes showing amplification
      included AKT2 (1/24, 4.2%), EGFR (2/24, 8.3%), ERBB2 (HER2; 1/24, 4.2%), FGFR1
      (1/24, 4.2%), KRAS (1/24, 4.2%), MDM2 (1/24, 4.2%), and PIK3CA (1/24, 4.2%). The
      ERBB2 alteration was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and silver in situ
      hybridization. Patients with NF1 and ARID1A mutations were younger than the
      patients without the mutations. (p=0.024 and 0.014, respectively). NOTCH1
      mutation and EGFR genetic alteration were associated with a larger tumor size
      (p=0.019) and lesser invasion depth (p=0.005), respectively. CONCLUSION: This
      study revealed the genetic profiles of ESCC, which may provide a foundation for
      the development of novel targeted therapy and precision medicine.

PMID- 28554746
TI  - EGFR and KRAS molecular genotyping for pulmonary carcinomas: Feasibility of a
      simple and rapid technique implementable in any department of pathology.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: EGFR and KRAS genes are routinely tested in lung carcinomas with
      therapeutic implications. However the current testing methods require complex
      infrastructures and the delay for diagnosis remains often rather long, especially
      for initiating an appropriate treatment in patients with advanced stage tumor and
      short life expectancy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We evaluated the IdyllaTM fully
      automated molecular diagnostic system in routine conditions in 79 lung
      adenocarcinomas and 14 other non-small cell lung carcinomas, mostly in advanced
      stages (III or IV: 85%). Tests were performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded
      (n=83) or fresh (n=10) material, including cytological (n=24) and small biopsy
      (n=20) samples. In prospective cases (n=82), the most likely mutated gene (EGFR
      in non or occasional smokers and KRAS in smokers) was tested first; the second
      gene being only tested in case of negativity. RESULTS: The system did not require
      complex training. Mutational status was obtained in few hours after making the
      histological diagnosis and on the day of the patient's sampling by analyzing
      fresh material. The sequential testing strategy avoided 15 EGFR and 15 KRAS tests
      that would have been negative. Compared with reference methods, global
      specificity and sensitivity were both 100% for EGFR mutations, and 89.1% and
      91.7% for KRAS mutations, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that such
      easy-to-use systems can permit pathologists to integrate a reliable EGFR/KRAS
      status in their initial pathologic report, and could be useful complementary
      tools to the current molecular diagnostic methods, with regard to prompt
      therapeutic management of lung cancer patients.

PMID- 28554747
TI  - Architectural overlap between benign endocervix and pattern-A endocervical
      adenocarcinoma: Are all pattern-A tumors invasive?
AB  - Studies on the pattern-based classification for invasive endocervical
      adenocarcinoma showed that tumors with nondestructive invasion (pattern-A) have a
      0% rate of nodal metastases. Our understanding of pattern-A tumors and their
      distinction from in-situ adenocarcinoma requires further study. Thirteen sections
      diagnosed independently as pattern-A adenocarcinoma by three gynecologic
      pathologists, and 14 sections of benign endocervix were selected. Three
      additional pathologists (reviewers) evaluated a digital image from each section
      and classified it as pattern-A or benign based on architecture only. To blind the
      interpretation to cytologic features, nuclei and cytoplasm were obscured using
      morphometric software (Zen 2011, Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Germany). 13/27 cases
      (48%; 8 pattern-A, 5 benign) were correctly classified by all reviewers; 19/27
      (70%; 10 pattern-A, 9 benign) were correctly classified by >=2 reviewers. 3/13
      pattern-A cases (23%) were interpreted as benign by >=2 reviewers. Conversely,
      5/14 benign cervices (36%) were misinterpreted as pattern-A by >=2 reviewers. The
      number of glands per 20* field was higher in pattern-A cases with high reviewer
      agreement (p=0.004). An abnormal architecture is seen in many pattern-A
      adenocarcinomas in support of their invasive nature; some, however, have
      architecture that overlaps with that of benign endocervix thus may actually
      represent in-situ lesions. Likewise, normal cervix can be architecturally complex
      and mirror patterns that pathologists would classify as pattern-A if malignant
      cytologic features were present. Based on this overlap and the nil risk of nodal
      spread, an emphasis on the non-destructive, rather than the invasive, nature of
      pattern-A adenocarcinoma is recommended.

PMID- 28554748
TI  - Nephrogenic adenoma of the urinary tract: A 6-year single center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nephrogenic adenoma is an uncommon benign lesion that occurs at
      several sites in urinary tract, from the renal pelvis to urethra, with the
      highest frequency in urinary bladder. Nephrogenic adenoma displays a broad
      spectrum of architectural and cytological features. Hence, recognition of its
      characteristic histopathological features is needed to distinguish this lesion
      from its mimickers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective series of 21 cases of
      nephrogenic adenoma in 18 patients, which were diagnosed in our department
      between 2010 and 2016, were analyzed. All histological slides were reviewed by
      two pathologists and the diagnosis of each case was confirmed.
      Immunohistochemistry was performed for PAX-8 in all cases. CK7, PAX-2, PSA, p53,
      p63, GATA-3 and alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) were applied in problematic
      cases. RESULTS: The most common location of the lesion was urinary bladder (14
      patients) followed by renal pelvis (2 patients), ureter (1 patient) and urethra
      (1 patient). A history of urothelial carcinoma and repeated TUR procedures were
      observed in 12 patients. There were 2 pediatric patients aged 3 years. Both of
      them had undergone previous urosurgery because of megaureter in one and bladder
      exstrophy in the other. Other clinical antecedents included bladder diverticulum
      (1 patient), cystitis (1 patient) and nephrolithiasis (1 patient). Recurrence of
      lesion was seen in two patients (once in one case and twice in the other one).
      The median time to disease recurrence in these patients was 11 months (range, 2
      20 months). Histologically, the lesions exhibited various morphological findings,
      with mixed (15 cases, 71.4%), pure tubular (3 cases, 14.3%), pure papillary (2
      cases, 9.5%) and pure flat (1 case, 4.8%) growth patterns. Of the 15 cases with
      mixed patterns, 8 cases were tubulocystic and flat, 3 cases were tubular and
      flat, 2 cases were tubular, papillary and flat, 1 case was tubulocystic,
      papillary and flat, and 1 case was tubular and papillary. Flat pattern was
      observed in 15 cases (71.4%). It was seen in association with other patterns in
      14 cases (mixed morphology) and purely in 1 case. Our findings suggested that the
      flat pattern is a frequent finding in nephrogenic adenomas. Notably one case in
      this series showed superficial extension into bladder muscularis propria.
      CONCLUSIONS: Histologically nephrogenic adenoma may simulate a variety of
      malignancies. Awareness of characteristic morphologic features of nephrogenic
      adenoma is needed to diagnose this lesion correctly.

PMID- 28554749
TI  - Significance of M2 macrophages in glomerulonephritis with crescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: CD163 and CD206, markers of M2 macrophages, possesses anti
      inflammatory properties. This study aims to investigate the clinicopathologic
      significance of M2 macrophages in patients of glomerulonephritis with crescents.
      METHODS: Renal tissue samples from patients of glomerulonephritis with more than
      30% cell or cell-fibrous crescents, including lupus nephritis (LN, n=14), anti
      neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV, n=14), IgA
      nephropathy(IgAN) (n=11), Henoch Schonlein purpura
      glomerulonephritis(HSPGN)(n=8)were included in this study. The expression of
      CD163, CD206 and CD68 in renal tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry or
      immunofluorescence. RESULTS: (1) CD163 was mainly expressed in cell or cell
      fibrous crescents, proliferative glomerular lesions and acute tubulointerstitial
      injury. There were numerous CD163-positive cells in LN and AAV in comparison with
      IgAN and HSPGN. (2) CD206-positive cells were mainly observed in acute
      tubulointerstitial injury, and proliferative glomerular lesions, especially in
      LN. Patients with LN had numerous CD206-positive cells in glomerular than other
      groups. The number of CD163-positive cells and CD206-positive cells in acute
      tubulointerstitial lesions of LN and AAV were more than IgAN and HSPGN. (3) Both
      the number of CD163-positive cells and CD206-positive cells in acute
      tubulointerstitial lesions negatively correlated to estimated glomerular
      filtration rate. (4) In LN, activity index (AI) positively correlated with the
      number of CD206-positive cells and CD163-positive cells. Dual staining showed
      that CD163-positive cells and CD206-positive cells also expressed CD68.
      CONCLUSIONS: CD163-positive cells and CD206-positive cells, subpopulation of
      macrophages, which were involved in the pathogenesis of active crescentic
      glomerulonephritis, especially in LN and AAV.

PMID- 28554750
TI  - Evaluation of the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in Iranian patients with
      thyroid papillary carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common
      thyroid cancer. EBV is one of the most important viruses related to different
      types of malignancies. This study investigated the relationship between EBV and
      papillary thyroid carcinoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study the presence of
      Epstein-Barr Nuclear Antigen 1 (EBNA1) gene in papillary thyroid carcinoma
      tissues were examined by nested-PCR method. Paraffin-embedded tissues (N=41)
      blocks of thyroid cancer were used. DNA was extracted from all samples and then
      samples were evaluated for the presence of EBV gene. RESULTS: In 41 samples,
      EBNA1 was detected in 65.8% of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma which
      was significantly higher in younger ages. CONCLUSION: The significant presence of
      EBV genome in papillary thyroid carcinoma suggests that this virus may play a
      role in this cancer especially in younger ages. As a result, monitoring of
      patients with EBV latent infection for PTC can be very important.

PMID- 28554751
TI  - Correlations of Foxo3 and Foxo4 expressions with clinicopathological features and
      prognosis of bladder cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study is performed to explore the correlations of forkhead box O3
      (FoxO3) and forkhead box O4 (FoxO4) expressions with clinicopathological features
      and prognosis of bladder cancer. METHODS: Bladder cancer tissues and adjacent
      normal tissues from the recruited 222 patients were collected. Quantitative real
      time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blotting and
      immunohistochemistry were applied to determine the expressions of FoxO3 and
      FoxO4. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to examine the correlation
      between the expressions of FoxO3 and FoxO4. All patients were followed up and
      overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were recorded. Kaplan-Meier
      survival curve was drawn to determine the associations of FoxO3 and FoxO4
      expressions and postoperative survival. Cox proportional hazards model was
      conducted to analyze the risk factors for poor prognosis of bladder cancer.
      RESULTS: The mRNA and expressions of FoxO3 and FoxO4 proteins in the bladder
      cancer tissues were lower than that in the adjacent normal tissues (both P<0.05).
      The positive rates of FoxO3 and FoxO4 were lower in the patients with lymph node
      metastasis than that in the patients without lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), and
      significantly lower in the patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (Tis
      T1) than in those with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (T2-T3) in TNM staging,
      and remarkably lower in the patients with high grade than in those with low grade
      in the histological type (P<0.05). Furthermore, the expressions of FoxO3 and
      FoxO4 were positively correlated in the bladder cancer tissues (P<0.05). Negative
      expressions of FoxO3 and FoxO4 and lymph node metastasis were the risk factors
      for the poor prognosis of bladder cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The FoxO3 and FoxO4
      expressions may potentially associate with the clinicopathological features and
      prognosis of bladder cancer.

PMID- 28554752
TI  - Diagnostic utility of Ki-67 immunohistochemistry in small endoscopic biopsies of
      the ureter and renal pelvis.
AB  - Diagnosis of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma in ureteroscopic biopsies
      is challenging. Therefore, an immunohistochemical marker that can differentiate
      between malignant and benign urothelium and predict final pathological features
      is necessary. In this study, we investigated Ki-67 expression in 26 ureteroscopic
      biopsies of the ureter and renal pelvis diagnosed with urothelial carcinoma (UC)
      and in 13 biopsies with non-neoplastic urothelium, using digital image analysis.
      The median Ki-67 labeling index was 1.5% (range: 0.2-13.9%) in non-neoplastic
      urothelial specimens and 15.0% (range: 0.2-61.3%) in UC specimens (p=0.0001). In
      12 of 26 (46%) UC specimens, the Ki-67 labeling index was more than 20%. By
      contrast, the Ki-67 labeling index was less than 5% in 11 of 13 (85%) non
      neoplastic urothelial specimens. Ki-67 expression in ureteroscopic biopsies was
      significantly correlated with high tumor grade (p=0.013), concomitant carcinoma
      in situ (p=0.011), and stromal invasion (p=0.048) in surgical resection
      specimens. Our data suggested that Ki-67 may provide supplemental, objective
      evidence that can aid diagnosis of upper urinary tract UC in ureteroscopic biopsy
      specimens. Determination of Ki-67 expression in ureteroscopic biopsy specimens is
      potentially helpful in clinical decision making for patients with suspected upper
      urinary tract UC.

PMID- 28554753
TI  - Clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of immunohistochemical expression
      of HIF-1alpha, CXCR4 and CA9 in colorectal carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immunohistochemical expressions of HIF-1alpha, CA9
      and CXCR4 in resected human CRC specimens in relation to clinicopathologic and
      prognostic variables. METHODS: A total of 186 patients (mean(SD) age: 56.7(12.6)
      years, 54.0% were males) with colorectal adenocarcinoma were included in this
      retrospective study. Resection specimens of the primary tumor were reviewed to
      confirm the diagnoses and the stage of the disease. Data on age, gender, tumor
      characteristics (localization, size, macroscopic growth pattern, histologic type,
      grade, angiolymphatic invasion, TNM stage), applied treatments and clinical
      outcome (overall survival, local recurrence and distant metastasis) were obtained
      from the hospital records. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue specimens was
      performed to determine HIF-1alpha, CA9 and CXCR4 expressions. RESULTS: Overall,
      94.0% of cases showed HIF-1alpha immunoreactivity, 89% showed CXCR4
      immunoreactivity, and 15.6% showed CA9 immunoreactivity, while weak expression of
      immunohistochemical markers was noted in 51.1%, 93.0% and 50.5% of cases,
      respectively. HIF-1alpha expression was higher among males than in females
      (median (min-max) final score of 6 (0-9) vs. 3 (0-9), p=0.013). CA9 expressed at
      higher levels in ulcerovegetative and depressed tumors than in polypoid ones [0(0
      9) vs. 0(0-6), p=0.039]. CXCR4 expression was significantly higher in tumors <5cm
      than >=5cm [6(0-9) vs. 3(0-9), p=0.028] and in grade 1-2 than grade 3 tumors [4(0
      9) vs. 3(0-9), p=0.030]. No significant difference was noted in survival with
      respect to strength of HIF-1alpha, CA9 and CXCR4 immunoreactivity. CONCLUSION: In
      conclusion, our findings revealed weak-to-moderate HIF-1alpha and CXCR4
      immunoreactivity in majority of resection samples, and weak CA9 immunoreactivity
      in majority of CA9 positive cases. Other than gender (HIF-1alpha), macroscopic
      growth pattern (CA9) and tumor size and histologic grade (for CXCR4), none of the
      clinicopathologic and prognostic factors investigated were associated with
      expression of immunohistochemical markers and level of immunoreactivity had no
      impact on survival.

PMID- 28554754
TI  - Prognostic significance of lymph node metastasis in esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - Prediction of lymph node metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)
      is very important to have prognostic significance. The objective of this study
      which involved a relatively large number of ESCC patients was to investigate the
      correlated factors for lymph node metastasis and prognosis in ESCC. We analyzed a
      retrospective review of 446 patients with ESCC treated by esophagectomy between
      January 2010 and July 2016. The relationship between lymph node metastasis and
      clinicopathological parameters were analyzed. The association between overall
      survival and clinicopathological factors were evaluated using univariate and
      multivariable Cox regression models. In the present study, 36.8% esophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma patients were histologically shown to have lymph node
      metastasis. Lymph node metastasis was closely correlated with tumor
      differentiation (p=0.016), perineural invasion (p=0.022), advanced stage tumor
      (p<0.001) and venous invasion (p<0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed
      that patients with tumor size, higher T stage, perineuronal invasion, lymph node
      metastasis, N stage and LNR higher than 0.2 had unfavorable prognosis (p<0.05).
      The univariate analysis revealed for overall survival that tumor size,
      pathological stage, perineuronal invasion, lymph metastasis, N stage, involved
      LNR were relevant prognostic indicators. Furthermore, tumor size, lymph
      metastasis, N stage and LNR could as independent prognostic factors.

PMID- 28554755
TI  - Characterization of common and rare mutations in EGFR and associated
      clinicopathological features in a large population of Chinese patients with lung
      cancer.
AB  - Lung cancer with EGFR mutation is often associated pathological characteristics
      and good responses to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, certain
      types of rare EGFR mutations have be linked to cases with poor response to EGFR
      TKIs. Therefore, extensive molecular screening and pathological characterization
      are essential for accurate diagnosis and selection of effective treatment plans.
      Although a large body of studies have established the rate of EGFR mutations as a
      whole entity, the rates of each individual types of mutations, especially those
      rare ones, have not been precisely determined in large patient populations with
      uniform genetic background. To address this issue, we assembled a large cohort of
      456 Chinese patients with lung cancers to determine the rate of both common and
      rare forms of EGFR mutations and associated clinicopathological features in this
      retrospective study. We have found single or double EGFR mutations in 200 (43.9%)
      patients, including exon 19 deletions (E19del) (20%), exon 21 L858R (17.1%) and
      L861Q (1.5%) point mutations, exon 20 T790M (1.3%) and other mutations (1,3%),
      exon 18 mutations (1.3%), and double mutations (1.3%). EGFR mutation as well as
      its subtypes E19del, L858R, or double mutations were associated with female
      patients or never-smokers. In contrast, rare mutations, especially EGFR TKI
      resistant exon 20 mutations, were not statistically associated with any
      clinicopathological features, implicating that tumorigenesis driven by different
      EGFR mutations were mechanistically different. In summary, we have determined
      occurring rate of EGFR subtype mutations and demonstrated that different
      mutations showed different clinicopathological manifestations in lung cancer.

PMID- 28554756
TI  - Metanephric stromal tumor with a rare incidence of squamous epithelium: A case
      report and a brief review of the literature.
AB  - Metanephric stromal tumor (MST) of the kidney, a rare benign pediatric neoplasm
      recognized for less than 20 years, is not widely known. The authors describe a
      case of MST with rare squamous epithelium in a 14-month-old female. A renal mass
      was discovered during her fetal period. After her birth, computerized tomography
      revealed that the mass was localized in the inferior pole of her left kidney. She
      then underwent nephrectomy. The tumor was an unencapsulated but well-defined mass
      with a white, solid and firm cut surface and had dimensions of 4cm*3.5cm*3cm. The
      tumor was initially diagnosed as Wilms tumor because its frozen section exhibited
      spindle cells with cartilaginous and rare squamous epithelial elements. However,
      the paraffin-embedded section of the tumor exhibited bland stromal cells
      surrounding the entrapped tubules; this arrangement produced an "onion-skin"
      appearance. The rare squamous epithelial element appeared to originate from
      normal renal tubules. Immunohistochemistry results were positive for CD34 and
      INI1, as well as a low Ki-67 expression level, but were negative for S-100,
      Desmin, Actin, CD117 and Catenin-beta. Fluorescence in situ hybridization
      analysis did not detect an ETV6 rearrangement. Morphological characteristics,
      immunophenotyping and molecular genetic analysis indicated MST. No recurrence or
      metastases occurred during the follow-up period of 36 months. Epithelial elements
      should be examined carefully in pediatric patients with renal masses. MST should
      be included in their differential diagnoses.

PMID- 28554757
TI  - Clinicopathological significance and prognostic role of EZH2 expression in non
      small cell lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological
      characteristics and prognostic role of enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2)
      expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: The correlation
      between EZH2 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics, including
      sex, smoking history, tumor differentiation, histologic type, tumor stage, and
      lymph node metastasis, was evaluated through a meta-analysis. In addition, the
      prognostic value of EZH2 expression was elucidated. This study included 1,932
      patients with NSCLC from 11 eligible studies. RESULTS: The overall rate of EZH2
      expression was 0.548 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.491-0.604]. There were
      significant correlations between EZH2 expression and male sex and smoking
      history. The expression rate of EZH2 was significantly lower in adenocarcinoma
      than in other histologic types. Furthermore, EZH2 expression rates were higher in
      NSCLC with moderately and poorly differentiation and nodal disease than in well
      differentiated NSCLC without nodal disease. There was a significant correlation
      between EZH2 expression and worse overall and disease-free survival [hazard ratio
      (HR) 1.938, 95% CI 1.617-2.323 and HR 1.713, 95% CI 1.366-2.149, respectively].
      Subgroup analysis revealed no significant difference for the prognostic effect of
      EZH2 expression between histologic types or detection methods. CONCLUSION: Our
      data collectively suggest that EZH2 expression is significantly correlated with
      aggressive tumor behavior and poor prognosis in NSCLC.

PMID- 28554758
TI  - Primary dura-based synovial sarcoma of the parafalcine region of brain.
AB  - Dura-based intracranial neoplasms include a wide range of primary and metastatic
      tumors, varying in their clinical, radiologic, morphologic, and immunophenotypic
      characteristics. At this anatomic location, sarcomas are rare, however, they
      exhibit close morphologic resemblances to meningioma. Herein we describe the
      third case of primary synovial sarcoma of the parafalcine region in a50-years-old
      female, who presented with left-sided hemiplegia. The radiologic survey revealed
      a 5.5cm*5.8cm contrast enhancing dura-based mass at the right parafalcine region
      with meningeal enhancement and edema in the surrounding areas. Morphologic
      evaluation exhibited a high-grade spindle cell neoplasm, with focal
      hemangiopericytomatous pattern. The tumor cells were diffusely immunoreactive for
      CD99, Bcl2, TLE-1, and vimentin. The Ki-67 proliferation index was 40%.
      Pancytokeratin was focally positive. Epithelial membrane antigen, progesterone
      receptor, CD34, S-100, and glial fibrillary acidic protein were negative.
      Fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed tumor specific translocation
      t(X;18)(p11.2;q11.2). Hence, final diagnosis of synovial sarcoma was rendered.
      Primary meningeal synovial sarcoma should be considered in the differential of
      aggressive and high-grade dura-based tumors in view of their relative
      chemosensitivity and future prospect of a molecular target-based therapy. The
      index case highlights the importance of an extensive pathologic analysis of high
      grade mesenchymal lesions of the meninges to arrive at a definitive diagnosis and
      differentiate such tumors from other usual dura-based tumors, which has important
      therapeutic and prognostic implications.

PMID- 28554759
TI  - Clinicopathological analysis of concomitant hepatic embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma
      and hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatic embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) is extremely rare. Here we report the
      simultaneous occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and ERMS of the liver
      in a 40-year-old man without any symptoms. Macroscopically, the mass was composed
      of two different tumors. The large tumor was 4.5*4*4cm and was poorly
      circumscribed and soft in the central region of left lateral lobe of the liver
      with apparently focal necrosis. The small tumor, with diameter of 1cm, was
      adjacent to the large tumor without clear boundary. Histologically, the large
      tumor was composed of numerous spindle-shaped or round cells with brightly
      eosinophilic cytoplasm as well as pathologic mitosis. Immunohistochemical
      staining was positive for MyoD1 and myogenin in nuclear testing. However, in the
      small tumor, cells demonstrated hepatocyte differentiation and were focally
      positive for HepPar1. A diagnosis of concomitant ERMS and HCC of the liver was
      made. The patient received no adjuvant treatment after hepatic left lateral
      lobectomy. The regular follow-up observation conducted by imaging examinations
      displayed that there was no sign of recurrence or metastasis of the mass over 32
      months. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of ERMS of the liver
      associated with HCC. The diagnosis can only be made by pathological examination.
      The primary therapy method for this tumor is operative resection.

PMID- 28554760
TI  - Reversal of P-glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistance is induced by
      saikosaponin D in breast cancer MCF-7/adriamycin cells.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) cells over expressing P-glycoprotein (P-gp) encoded by
      the MDR1 gene is major obstacles for successful cancer chemotherapy. P-gp could
      extrude anti-cancer drugs out of cancer cells and decrease effective
      intracellular drug concentrations. MDR reversal agents for P-gp can restore the
      sensitivity of MDR cells to such drugs. Saikosaponin D (SSd), one of the major
      triterpenoid saponins derived from Bupleurum chinense DC (BCDC), has been shown
      to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious and anti-tumor properties. The aim
      of the present study was to investigate the reversal effect of SSd on MDR in MCF
      7/adriamycin (ADR) human breast cancer cells and investigate the underlying
      mechanisms of SSd. The results demonstrated that SSd inhibited the proliferation
      of MCF-7/ADR and MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, SSd increased
      the cytotoxicity of ADR on MCF-7/ADR cells and the resistance fold of SSd
      treatment was demonstrated to be significantly higher when compared with that of
      the group without SSd treatment. Additionally, the effects of the drug
      combination showed that SSd and ADR combination were synergistic. Accumulation
      and efflux studies with the P-gp substrate, rhodamine 123 (Rh123), demonstrated
      that SSd restored Rh123 accumulation and inhibited P-gp-mediated drug efflux.
      Importantly, we found that SSd could enhance the sensitivity of MCF-7/ADR cells
      towards ADR by down-regulating MDR1 and P-gp expression. In conclusion, the
      results of the present study indicated that SSd may represent a potent reversal
      agent for P-gp-mediated MDR in breast cancer therapy.

PMID- 28554761
TI  - Roles of microRNAs in cancer associated fibroblasts of gastric cancer.
AB  - Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a key component of the tumor
      microenvironment (TME). They play critical roles in the occurrence and
      development of gastric cancer (GC) through controlling various cytokines
      secretion and direct cell-to-cell interaction. However, the underlying mechanism
      of CAFs in tumor progression has not been entirely elucidated. MicroRNAs (miRNAs)
      as important factors have a central role in the interplay between tumor cell and
      TME. Recent studies also highlight that the aberrant expression of miRNAs in CAFs
      is involved in multiple functions in tumorigenesis and malignant process of GC.
      In this article, we shortly introduce the miRNAs biogenesis and provide an
      overview of the mechanisms and emerging roles of CAFs-related miRNAs. Focusing on
      these miRNAs as potential therapeutic targets may bring better treatment effect
      on GC and other diseases.

PMID- 28554762
TI  - Effect of plasma-activated medium on the decrease of tumorigenic population in
      lymphoma.
AB  - Nonequilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma (NEAPP) is a novel approach for blood
      coagulation, wound healing, and tumor elimination. NEAPP not only directly but
      also indirectly affects living cells via the medium exposed to NEAPP-yielding
      devises, called plasma-activated medium (PAM). The conservable and portable PAM
      serves as an alternative and advantageous approach over direct NEAPP. Here we
      examined the effect of PAM on lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL) cell lines. We
      found that PAM induced plasma cell differentiation and reduced tumorigenic
      population. PAM increased the expression level of PRDM1alpha, which is a
      transcription factor promoting plasma cell differentiation, suggesting that
      plasma cell differentiation of LPL might be mediated by PRDM1alpha. We previously
      reported that plasma cell component of LPL is vulnerable to apoptosis and less
      tumorigenic. These findings suggested that PAM treatment might become a novel
      therapy against LPL by inducing the transition from tumorigenic to non
      tumorigenic population.

PMID- 28554763
TI  - Characterization of rhodamine 123 low staining cells and their dynamic changes
      during the injured-repaired progress induced by 5-FU.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characterization of intestinal epithelial stem
      cells stained by Rhodamine 123 (Rho) and analyze the dynamic changes of
      intestinal epithelial stem cells during the injured-repaired progress induced by
      5-FU. METHODS: Mucosal cells were obtained from adult C57BL/6J mice. The Rho
      stained cells were sorted using FACS. The mouse model of intestinal mucosal
      injured-repaired was established by injecting 5-FU and sacrificed at different
      time post-injection, and the middle intestines were used for detecting the
      percentage of Rho low staining cell fraction by FACS and detecting the expression
      of the intestinal epithelial stem cells marker-musashi-1 (msi-1) by RT-PCR and
      immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The Rho stained intestinal mucosal cells were
      divided into three fractions: Rho low staining fraction (12.35%), Rho middle
      staining fraction (35.5%) and Rho strong staining fraction (50.5%). The cells in
      Rho low staining fraction expressed rich msi-1 and most of which were in the
      G0/G1 phase of cell cycle. After treatment of 5-FU, the intestinal mucous were
      damaged, although the number of msi-1 positive cells has a little decrease, there
      was no statistical difference among the mice at different time after injection
      (P>0.05). However, the percentage of msi-1 positive cells increased significantly
      after injection (P<0.01), and the percentage of msi-1 positive cells decreased
      gradually during the repaired procedure of the intestinal mucous. There was
      significant positive correction between the percentage of msi-1 positive cells
      and the percentage of Rho low staining cell fraction (r=0.867, p<0.01) after 5-FU
      injection. CONCLUSIONS: The Rho low staining cell fraction from intestinal mucous
      contained rich intestinal epithelial stem cells, and the intestinal epithelial
      stem cell which expressed msi-1 played a key role in repairing the damage of
      intestinal mucous induced by 5-FU.

PMID- 28554764
TI  - Pigmented trichoblastoma developed in a sebaceous nevus: HRAS mutation as a
      common molecular driver.
AB  - A 40-year-old woman presented with a pigmented nodule on a previously existing
      yellowish, verrucous plaque on the scalp. The histological diagnosis was
      consistent with a pigmented trichoblastoma developed within a sebaceous nevus
      (SN). A multigene hotspot mutational profiling of the BRAF, NRAS, HRAS and KRAS
      genes was carried out, and a shared G13R HRAS mutation in both the trichoblastoma
      and the sebaceous nevus components was found. These data support a common
      molecular landscape of the two lesions.

PMID- 28554765
TI  - Evaluation of the immunohistochemical expression of Gal-1, Gal-3 and Gal-9 in the
      colon of chronic chagasic patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the
      immunohistochemical expression of Gal-1, Gal-3 and Gal-9 in the colon of chronic
      chagasic patients compared to biopsied non-chagasic patients. MATERIAL OR
      SUBJECTS: Thirty-two colon fragments were selected from chagasic patients with
      megacolon (n=25) and nonchagasic patients without megacolon (n=7). METHODS:
      Immunohistochemistry for Gal-1, Gal-3 and Gal-9 was performed using a common
      light microscope and the results were scored 0-3 according to labeling intensity.
      Data were analyzed statistically by the chi-square test. RESULTS: Higher Gal-1,
      Gal-3 and Gal-9 expression was observed in the myenteric plexus ganglia of
      chagasic patients compared to non-chagasic patients, p=0.0487, p=0.0019 and
      p=0.0325, respectively, whereas no significant differences were observed between
      groups regarding the expression of Gal-1, Gal-3 and Gal-9 in the muscle layer.
      CONCLUSION: Since Gal-1, Gal-3 and Gal-9 galectin expression was higher in the
      myenteric plexus ganglia of chagasic patients, we believe that these lectins may
      be associated with ganglionitis in the chagasic megacolon. However, since the
      present study was the first to report the participation of Gal-9 in Chagas
      disease, further investigations are needed to elucidate the role of galectin 9 in
      this disease.

PMID- 28554766
TI  - The level and clinical significance of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in oral squamous
      cell carcinoma: An immunohistochemical study in 95 patients.
AB  - Accumulating evidence has revealed that aberrant abundance of 5
      hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is critically involved in tumorigenesis. The aim of
      the present study was to investigate the level of 5hmC in primary oral squamous
      cell carcinoma (OSCC) and determine its clinical significance as well as
      prognostic value in predicting patients' outcomes. The expression levels of 5hmC
      in 95 human OSCC samples and 24 normal oral mucosa were evaluated by
      immunohistochemical staining. Moreover, the associations between the expression
      status of 5hmC and several clinicopathological parameters as well as patients'
      survival were further statistically assessed. Our immunohistochemical results
      revealed that 5hmC was significantly downregulated in a significant fraction of
      OSCC as compared their normal counterparts. However, elevated 5hmC level was
      found to be significantly associated with pathological grade and cervical node
      metastasis with P-values of 0.0239 and 0.0041, respectively. Results from Kaplan
      Meier cumulative survival analyses indicated that high expression of 5hmC in OSCC
      was significantly associated with decreased overall survival, disease-free and
      disease-specific survival as compared to those with low 5hmC (Log-rank, P=0.0210,
      0.0313, 0.0415, respectively). Furthermore, the univariate and multivariate
      survival analyses further identified the expression status of 5hmC as an
      independent prognostic factor affecting patients' survival. Taken together, our
      results reveal a significant decrease of 5hmC level in a large subset of OSCC.
      However, high level of 5hmC associates with tumor aggressive features and
      unfavorable prognosis in a fraction of OSCC patients.

PMID- 28554767
TI  - Plasma HPV DNA is detectable in oral leukoplakia patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral leukoplakia is considered a potentially malignant lesion for the
      development of squamous cell carcinoma, and various risk factors may be related
      to its development and malignant transformation, including the human
      papillomavirus (HPV). The aim of this case-control study was to detect the
      presence of HPV in fresh tissue, plasma and saliva samples obtained from patients
      with and without oral leukoplakia, and verify the correlation of the presence of
      DNA of HPV between different sources of materials. METHODS: In this study, 32
      patients with oral leukoplakia and 24 patients selected in a case-control manner
      were included. DNA extraction from the samples was performed, and afterwards it
      was amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) for the detection of HPV
      (nPCR: MY09-MY11/GP05+-GP06+). RESULTS: The DNA of HPV was found in 68.75% of the
      fresh tissue samples; in 50% of plasma, and in 62.5% of saliva samples in the
      group of patients with leukoplakia; in comparison with 45.8%, 54%, and 45.8%, in
      the fresh tissue, plasma and saliva samples, respectively, in the control group.
      CONCLUSION: Based on the present study, there was no difference in the rate of
      HPV detection in patients with or without oral leukoplakia. However all sources
      tested in this study were considered suitable for HPV detection, especially
      plasma samples, which showed be an important non-invasive source of HPV detection
      in leukoplakia patients.

PMID- 28554768
TI  - Caveolin-1 expression in oral lichen planus, dysplastic lesions and squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - Caveolin-1(Cav-1), the main part of caveolae structure, is supposed to play a
      role in pathogenesis of many human tumors. Since oral lichen planus (OLP) is
      considered as a potential premalignant disease, this study evaluated Cav-1
      expression in OLP in comparison with benign hyperkeratosis, dysplastic epithelium
      and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), to investigate its possible role in
      pathogenesis and malignant transformation of OLP. In this cross-sectional
      retrospective study, immunohistochemical expression of Cav-1 in the epithelial
      component and stroma was evaluated in 81 samples, including 12 cases of
      hyperkeratosis, 24 OLP, 22 epithelial dysplasia, and 23 OSCC samples.
      Correlations between Cav-1 expression and clinicopathological variables were
      evaluated statistically. Positive Cav-1 staining was found in 58% of OLP, 91% of
      hyperkeratosis, 100% of epithelial dysplasia, and 95% of OSCC samples. OSCC
      showed the highest Cav-1 expression and OLP had the lowest (P=0.001). The
      intensity of staining was significantly increased in stepwise manner from OLP to
      OSCC (P=0.001). Expression of Cav-1 was related to the grade of samples in OSCC
      and dysplastic samples (P=0.04). Based on the findings, it was concluded that Cav
      1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of OLP and carcinogenesis of SCC, but its
      role in malignant transformation of OLP is not confirmed. Further studies are
      needed to evaluate its potential therapeutic function in OLP and SCC.

PMID- 28554769
TI  - Immunohistochemical expression of p16, Ki-67 and p53 in cervical lesions - A
      systematic review.
AB  - This study evaluated the immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of p16, p53 and Ki
      67 in precancerous lesions and in cervical cancer (CC). Identification and review
      of publications assessing IHC expression in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
      (CIN) and CC until February 15, 2017. Systematic review of studies in women with
      and without cervical lesions in order to evaluate whether there is overexpression
      of these biomarkers. A total of 28 publications met the criteria which included
      6005 patients. The analysis showed that there is higher IHC expression of these
      biomarkers associated with the more severe lesions. Nineteen out of 22 evaluated
      studies have shown that there is a higher p16 expression in more severe lesions
      (CC), while in p53 expression only 4 out of the 9 studies showed a higher
      expression among more severe cases. Regarding the Ki-67 expression, it was
      observed that 9 out of 14 studies showed higher expression in more severe
      lesions. A complete absence of or just minimal IHC expression was observed in the
      normal cervical epithelium, whilst a significant increase in the expression of
      these biomarkers was detected according to the severity of lesions. Results
      suggest that these biomarkers can be considered useful tools for discriminating
      between the stages of the progressive cervical disease.

PMID- 28554770
TI  - The actin binding cytoskeletal protein Moesin is involved in nuclear mRNA export.
AB  - Current models imply that the evolutionarily conserved, actin-binding Ezrin
      Radixin-Moesin (ERM) proteins perform their activities at the plasma membrane by
      anchoring membrane proteins to the cortical actin network. Here we show that
      beside its cytoplasmic functions, the single ERM protein of Drosophila, Moesin,
      has a novel role in the nucleus. The activation of transcription by heat shock or
      hormonal treatment increases the amount of nuclear Moesin, indicating biological
      function for the protein in the nucleus. The distribution of Moesin in the
      nucleus suggests a function in transcription and the depletion of mRNA export
      factors Nup98 or its interacting partner, Rae1, leads to the nuclear accumulation
      of Moesin, suggesting that the nuclear function of the protein is linked to mRNA
      export. Moesin localizes to mRNP particles through the interaction with the mRNA
      export factor PCID2 and knock down of Moesin leads to the accumulation of mRNA in
      the nucleus. Based on our results we propose that, beyond its well-known,
      manifold functions in the cytoplasm, the ERM protein of Drosophila is a new,
      functional component of the nucleus where it participates in mRNA export.

PMID- 28554771
TI  - Membrane contact sites, ancient and central hubs of cellular lipid logistics.
AB  - Membrane contact sites (MCSs) are regions where two organelles are closely
      apposed to facilitate molecular communication and promote a functional
      integration of compartmentalized cellular processes. There is growing evidence
      that MCSs play key roles in controlling intracellular lipid flows and
      distributions. Strikingly, even organelles connected by vesicular trafficking
      exchange lipids en bulk via lipid transfer proteins that operate at MCSs. Herein,
      we describe how MCSs developed into central hubs of lipid logistics during the
      evolution of eukaryotic cells. We then focus on how modern eukaryotes exploit
      MCSs to help solve a major logistical problem, namely to preserve the unique
      lipid mixtures of their early and late secretory organelles in the face of
      extensive vesicular trafficking. This article is part of a Special Issue
      entitled: Membrane Contact Sites edited by Christian Ungermann and Benoit
      Kornmann.

PMID- 28554773
TI  - Modulation of neuronal activity in the Drosophila mushroom body by DopEcR, a
      unique dual receptor for ecdysone and dopamine.
AB  - G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) for steroid hormones mediate unconventional
      steroid signaling and play a significant role in the rapid actions of steroids in
      a variety of biological processes, including those in the nervous system.
      However, the effects of these GPCRs on overall neuronal activity remain largely
      elusive. Drosophila DopEcR is a GPCR that responds to both ecdysone (the major
      steroid hormone in insects) and dopamine, regulating multiple second messenger
      systems. Recent studies have revealed that DopEcR is preferentially expressed in
      the nervous system and involved in behavioral regulation. Here we utilized the
      bioluminescent Ca2+-indicator GFP-aequorin to monitor the nicotine-induced Ca2+
      response within the mushroom bodies (MB), a higher-order brain center in flies,
      and examined how DopEcR modulates these Ca2+-dynamics. Our results show that in
      DopEcR knockdown flies, the nicotine-induced Ca2+-response in the MB was
      significantly enhanced selectively in the medial lobes. We then reveal that
      application of DopEcR's ligands, ecdysone and dopamine, had different effects on
      nicotine-induced Ca2+-responses in the MB: ecdysone enhanced activity in the
      calyx and cell body region in a DopEcR-dependent manner, whereas dopamine reduced
      activity in the medial lobes independently of DopEcR. Finally, we show that flies
      with reduced DopEcR function in the MB display decreased locomotor activity. This
      behavioral phenotype of DopEcR-deficient flies may be partly due to their
      enhanced MB activity, since the MB have been implicated in the suppression of
      locomotor activity. Overall, these data suggest that DopEcR is involved in region
      specific modulation of Ca2+ dynamics within the MB, which may play a role in
      behavioral modulation.

PMID- 28554775
TI  - Zonula occludens-2 regulates Rho proteins activity and the development of
      epithelial cytoarchitecture and barrier function.
AB  - Silencing Zonula occludens 2 (ZO-2), a tight junctions (TJ) scaffold protein, in
      epithelial cells (MDCK ZO-2 KD) triggers: 1) Decreased cell to substratum
      attachment, accompanied by reduced expression of claudin-7 and integrin beta1,
      and increased vinculin recruitment to focal adhesions and stress fibers
      formation; 2) Lowered cell-cell aggregation and appearance of wider intercellular
      spaces; 3) Increased RhoA/ROCK activity, mediated by GEF-HI recruitment to cell
      borders by cingulin; 4) Increased Cdc42 activity, mitotic spindle disorientation
      and the appearance of cysts with multiple lumens; 5) Increased Rac and cofilin
      activity, multiple lamellipodia formation and random cell migration but increased
      wound closure; 6) Diminished cingulin phosphorylation and disappearance of planar
      network of microtubules at the TJ region; and 7) Increased transepithelial
      electrical resistance at steady state, coupled to an increased expression of ZO-1
      and claudin-4 and a decreased expression of claudin-2 and paracingulin. Hence, ZO
      2 is a crucial regulator of Rho proteins activity and the development of
      epithelial cytoarchitecture and barrier function.

PMID- 28554776
TI  - [Prostate cancer histoseminar: Update of the 2016 WHO classification - case No.
      7: STUMP (stromal tumor of uncertain malignancy potential) and low grade stromal
      sarcoma].

PMID- 28554772
TI  - ER-plasma membrane junctions: Why and how do we study them?
AB  - Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-plasma membrane (PM) junctions are membrane
      microdomains important for communication between the ER and the PM. ER-PM
      junctions were first reported in muscle cells in 1957, but mostly ignored in non
      excitable cells due to their scarcity and lack of functional significance. In
      2005, the discovery of stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) mediating a
      universal Ca2+ feedback mechanism at ER-PM junctions in mammalian cells led to a
      resurgence of research interests toward ER-PM junctions. In the past decade,
      several major advancements have been made in this emerging topic in cell biology,
      including the generation of tools for labeling ER-PM junctions and the unraveling
      of mechanisms underlying regulation and functions of ER-PM junctions. This review
      summarizes early studies, recently developed tools, and current advances in the
      characterization and understanding of ER-PM junctions. This article is part of a
      Special Issue entitled: Membrane Contact Sites edited by Christian Ungermann and
      Benoit Kornmann.

PMID- 28554777
TI  - [Prostate cancer histoseminar: Update of the 2016 WHO classification - case no1:
      bilateral prostatic adenocarcinoma, Gleason score 8 (4+4)].

PMID- 28554778
TI  - [Prostate cancer histoseminar: Update of the 2016 WHO classification - case no5:
      prostatic adenocarcinoma with postradiation modifications].

PMID- 28554774
TI  - Tubular lipid binding proteins (TULIPs) growing everywhere.
AB  - Tubular lipid binding proteins (TULIPs) have become a focus of interest in the
      cell biology of lipid signalling, lipid traffic and membrane contact sites. Each
      tubular domain has an internal pocket with a hydrophobic lining that can bind a
      hydrophobic molecule such as a lipid. This allows TULIP proteins to carry lipids
      through the aqueous phase. TULIP domains were first found in a large family of
      extracellular proteins related to the bacterial permeability-inducing protein
      (BPI) and cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP). Since then, the same fold
      and lipid transfer capacity have been found in SMP domains (so-called for their
      occurrence in synaptotagmin, mitochondrial and lipid binding proteins), which
      localise to intracellular membrane contact sites. Here the methods for
      identifying known TULIPs are described, and used to find previously unreported
      TULIPs, one in the silk polymer and another in prokaryotes illustrated by the E.
      coli protein YceB. The bacterial TULIP alters views on the likely evolution of
      the domain, suggesting its presence in the last universal common ancestor. The
      major function of TULIPs is to handle lipids, but we still do not know how they
      work in detail, or how many more remain to be discovered. This article is part of
      a Special Issue entitled: Membrane Contact Sites edited by Christian Ungermann
      and Benoit Kornmann.

PMID- 28554779
TI  - [Prostate cancer histoseminar: Update of the 2016 WHO classification - case no 2:
      Prostatic adenocarcinoma, pleomorphic giant cell variant].

PMID- 28554780
TI  - Interventions in type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular mortality-An
      overview of clinical trials.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) has been associated with an increased
      cardiovascular risk. Improving glycaemia or other traditional cardiovascular risk
      factors may reduce cardiovascular risk in patients with T2DM. However, single
      risk intervention in T2DM has not provided convincing evidence in the reduction
      of cardiovascular risk. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of
      clinical trials involving reduction of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with
      T2DM. Trials with glucose lowering therapies have shown conflicting results.
      Intensive therapy to reduce glycaemia has shown some benefit on composite
      cardiovascular endpoints but these benefits take a longer period to emerge.
      Recent studies with empagliflozin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists
      show promising results, but the mechanisms are most likely not mediated by
      improved glycaemia, given the relatively rapid effects. Both LDL-cholesterol and
      blood pressure reduction have been proven by large meta-analysis to reduce both
      cardiovascular events and mortality in all patients with T2DM. Treatment of
      microalbuminuria and anti-platelet therapy have only been proven in diabetic
      patients with increased cardiovascular risk. Classical lifestyle interventions
      have been disappointing with respect to cardiovascular outcome, possibly due to
      limited weight reduction. So far, the strongest evidence lies on bariatric
      surgery and a multifactorial intervention to reduce mortality and cardiovascular
      events in the long term.

PMID- 28554781
TI  - Nation-based case-control study investigating the relationship between oral
      corticosteroids use and pulmonary tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: No published formal study focuses on the relationship
      between oral corticosteroids use and pulmonary tuberculosis in Taiwan. The aim of
      the study was to investigate whether oral corticosteroids use was associated with
      increased odds of pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS: The retrospective, nation
      based, case-control study was conducted to analyze the database of the Taiwan
      National Health Insurance Program between 2000 and 2013. Subjects aged 20 to
      84years with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis were defined as the cases
      (n=6021). Randomly selected subjects without pulmonary tuberculosis aged 20 to
      84years were defined as the controls (n=6021). Subjects who never had a
      prescription for oral corticosteroids were defined as never use. Subjects who
      ever had a prescription for oral corticosteroids were defined as ever use.
      RESULTS: After adjustment for confounders, the adjusted odds ratio of pulmonary
      tuberculosis was 1.91 for subjects with even use of oral corticosteroids (95%
      confidence interval 1.73, 2.11), comparing with never use. The adjusted odds
      ratio of pulmonary tuberculosis was 1.03 for subjects with increasing cumulative
      dose of oral corticosteroids for per milligram (95% confidence interval 1.02,
      1.03), comparing with never use. In addition, the adjusted odds ratios of
      pulmonary tuberculosis were 1.83 (95% CI 1.65, 2.02) for subjects with cumulative
      duration of oral corticosteroids<3months, and 2.12 (95% CI 1.87, 2.40) for
      subjects with cumulative duration>=3months, comparing with never use. CONCLUSION:
      Though the finding is not unexpected, use of oral corticosteroids is
      significantly associated with 1.9-fold increased odds of pulmonary tuberculosis,
      independent of other risk comorbidities. There are dose-dependent and duration
      dependent effects of oral corticosteroids use on the risk of pulmonary
      tuberculosis.

PMID- 28554782
TI  - External Validation of the HERNIAscore: An Observational Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The HERNIAscore is a ventral incisional hernia (VIH) risk assessment
      tool that uses only preoperative variables and predictable intraoperative
      variables. The aim of this study was to validate and modify, if needed, the
      HERNIAscore in an external dataset. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective
      observational study of all patients undergoing resection for gastrointestinal
      malignancy from 2011 through 2015 at a safety-net hospital. The primary end point
      was clinical postoperative VIH. Patients were stratified into low-risk, medium
      risk, and high-risk groups based on HERNIAscore. A revised HERNIAscore was
      calculated with the addition of earlier abdominal operation as a categorical
      variable. Cox regression of incisional hernia with stratification by risk class
      was performed. Incidence rates of clinical VIH formation within each risk class
      were also calculated. RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-seven patents were enrolled.
      On Cox regression, in addition to the 3 variables of the HERNIAscore (BMI, COPD,
      and incision length), earlier abdominal operation was also predictive of VIH. The
      revised HERNIAscore demonstrated improved predictive accuracy for clinical VIH.
      Although the original HERNIAscore effectively stratified the risk of an
      incisional radiographic VIH developing, the revised HERNIAscore provided a
      statistically significant stratification for both clinical and radiographic VIHs
      in this patient cohort. CONCLUSIONS: We have externally validated and improved
      the HERNIAscore. The revised HERNIAscore uses BMI, incision length, COPD, and
      earlier abdominal operation to predict risk of postoperative incisional hernia.
      Future research should assess methods to prevent incisional hernias in moderate
      to-high risk patients.

PMID- 28554783
TI  - Carbon Concentration in Algae: Reducing CO2 From Exhaust Gas.
AB  - Algal carbon-concentrating mechanisms can be used to sequester CO2 from the
      atmosphere, and the resulting biomass can produce various value-added products.
      Mechanisms for carbon concentration in algae are complex and sometimes
      inefficient. We need to understand how algae successfully overcome these
      challenges while capturing CO2 from their nearby environment.

PMID- 28554784
TI  - DNA recovery from latent fingermarks treated with an infrared fluorescent
      fingerprint powder.
AB  - The effect of the infrared fluorescent fingermark visualisation powder, fpNatural
      1TM, on the recovery of both the quantity and quality of touch DNA from
      fingerprints deposited on glass slides, was investigated using qPCR and STR
      typing. Four donors each deposited replicate marks, which were either left
      untreated (n=5) or treated by dusting with fpNatural 1TM (n=5). Each sample was
      swabbed using the double swab technique, before being extracted using the EZNA
      Forensic DNA kit and then DNA quantitated before being subjected to DNA profile
      analysis. Results showed that there was no significant effect of fpNatural 1TM on
      either the quantity or quality of recovered DNA. This suggests that fpNatural 1TM
      may prove a good choice of powder for regular use at crime scenes or in the
      laboratory. The fpNatural 1TM properties of low density, water immiscibility and
      low DNA affinity may account for these positive outcomes.

PMID- 28554785
TI  - Mind-Mindedness of Male and Female Caregivers in Childcare and the Relation to
      Sensitivity and Attachment: An Exploratory Study.
AB  - Mind-mindedness refers to the caregiver's ability to be attuned to the child's
      mental states. Within the parent-child relationship, mind-mindedness relates to
      parents' sensitive caregiving, and to children's secure attachment. However, the
      same relations are still unexplored in out-of-home care settings. We investigated
      the associations between childcare professionals' mind-mindedness, sensitive
      responsiveness and respect for autonomy, and child-caregiver attachment security.
      Moreover, we examined whether these relations are influenced by caregivers' and
      children's gender. Participants were 17 caregiver couples (17 males, 17 females)
      and 34 three-year-old children (17 boys, 17 girls), recruited in childcare
      centers. Mind-mindedness toward the boy or the girl (dyadic) or both children
      (non-dyadic), sensitive responsiveness and respect for autonomy were assessed
      during a semi-structured play. Attachment security was assessed through
      observations. Male and female caregivers had equivalent scores of mind
      mindedness, sensitive responsiveness, and respect for autonomy. Similarly,
      children were securely attached to male and female caregivers. Girls' and boys'
      secure attachment was predicted by caregivers' use of non-dyadic mind-related
      comments. For girls, but not for boys, the relation was partially mediated by
      caregivers' respect for autonomy. The results are discussed in terms of their
      relevance for the quality of child-caregiver relationships, and children's socio
      emotional development.

PMID- 28554786
TI  - Is sensory processing an issue for infants with colic?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the association between sensory functioning, sleep,
      cry/fuss, and feeding behaviors of infants with colic younger than 4 months of
      age. METHODS: Dunn's Infant/Toddler Sensory ProfileTM and a modified Barr Baby
      Day Diary(c) were used to assess 44 breastfed infants with colic under four
      months of age. Colic was defined according to Wessel's criteria. RESULTS: Thirty
      four of the 44 infants with colic (77%) scored as atypical for sensory
      processing. Of these, 56% scored atypical for sensory processing on quadrant one
      (Q1) (Low Registration), with 24%, 65%, and 18% scoring as atypical for sensory
      processing on Q2 (Sensory seeking), Q3 (Sensory sensitivity), and Q4 (Sensation
      avoiding), respectively. All infants demonstrating sensation avoiding also scored
      as Low Threshold. A moderate statistically significant correlation was found
      between sensation seeking and time spent sleeping (r=0.31; p=0.04). No other
      statistically significant associations between infant behaviors and their sensory
      functioning were demonstrated. Overall, infants demonstrating atypical sensory
      responses (in any quadrant) slept significantly more than infants demonstrating
      typical sensory responses (mean difference=-67.8min/day; 95% CI=-133.6 to -2.1;
      p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Very limited associations between infant behaviors and
      sensory functioning were demonstrated, suggesting that sensory functioning may
      not be a significant factor in the multifactorial nature of infant colic. Further
      well-designed studies using validated tools for infants with colic are required
      to determine whether associations between infant behaviors and sensory
      functioning exist.

PMID- 28554787
TI  - Spending an Evening in the Dark: The Radiology Medical Student Call Experience.
AB  - The level of independent decision-making required of a radiology resident, as
      well as the acuity of studies populating the worklist, differ between the normal
      workday and a call shift. However, unlike clerkships where call is standard,
      medical students in radiology typically only have half of the true resident
      experience. To expose our rotating medical students to what a future career in
      radiology might actually look like, we implemented a required call shift as part
      of our medical student curriculum. All rotating third- and fourth-year medical
      students were assigned a single 3-hour short call shift alongside a radiology
      resident during the final week of their rotation. Following this shift, students
      answered questions via anonymous online survey regarding their perceptions of
      radiology (primary end point) as well as workload and role of radiology in the
      clinical care of patients (secondary end points). Following medical student call,
      63% of students reported a more positive view of radiology as a career.
      Additionally, 57% felt that radiology residents work as much or more than other
      specialties while one call, and several students identified communication issues
      regarding indications or appropriateness of studies. While we hope that this
      overwhelmingly positive experience will draw more students into radiology as a
      career, we also believe that many participating medical students will benefit
      from a greater understanding of what a radiologist's job entails, as well as how
      this may be affected by communication issues or increased utilization of imaging.

PMID- 28554788
TI  - Abdominal Lymphangiomatosis With Intestinal Lymphangiectasia Diagnosed by
      Magnetic Resonance Lymphangiography: A Case Report.

PMID- 28554789
TI  - Diagnostic Performance of SRU and ATA Thyroid Nodule Classification Algorithms as
      Tested With a 1 Million Virtual Thyroid Nodule Model.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound (SRU 2005) and American
      Thyroid Association (ATA 2009 and ATA 2015) have published algorithms regarding
      thyroid nodule management. Kwak et al. and other groups have described models
      that estimate thyroid nodules' malignancy risk. The aim of our study is to use
      Kwak's model to evaluate the tradeoffs of both sensitivity and specificity of SRU
      2005, ATA 2009 and ATA 2015 management algorithms. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      1,000,000 thyroid nodules were modeled in MATLAB. Ultrasound characteristics were
      modeled after published data. Malignancy risk was estimated per Kwak's model and
      assigned as a binary variable. All nodules were then assessed using the published
      management algorithms. With the malignancy variable as condition positivity and
      algorithms' recommendation for FNA as test positivity, diagnostic performance was
      calculated. RESULTS: Modeled nodule characteristics mimic those of Kwak et al.
      12.8% nodules were assigned as malignant (malignancy risk range of 2.0-98%). FNA
      was recommended for 41% of nodules by SRU 2005, 66% by ATA 2009, and 82% by ATA
      2015. Sensitivity and specificity is significantly different (< 0.0001): 49% and
      60% for SRU; 81% and 36% for ATA 2009; and 95% and 20% for ATA 2015. CONCLUSION:
      SRU 2005, ATA 2009 and ATA 2015 algorithms are used routinely in clinical
      practice to determine whether thyroid nodule biopsy is indicated. We demonstrate
      significant differences in these algorithms' diagnostic performance, which result
      in a compromise between sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28554790
TI  - A comparative study of the suitability of different cereal straws for
      lignocellulose nanofibers isolation.
AB  - The aim of this work is to study the suitability of different soda cereal straw
      pulps (wheat, barley, corn and oats) to produce lignocellulose nanofibers (LCNF).
      For the study of the influence of the composition and physical characteristics,
      the pulps were characterized, observing that the physical characteristics do not
      influence the nanofibrillation process. However, the composition of the fibers
      plays a key role, mainly the hemicellulose content. The LCNF produced were
      characterized: chemical structure (FTIR), crystallinity (XRD), thermal stability
      (TGA), size (DLS) and colloidal stability (ZP). The TO-LCNF are those which
      presents higher nanofibrillation yields and lower nanofibers size, however
      presents low crystallinity, thermal stability and a further depolymerization
      compared to the others LCNF. The lignin contents allow a greater thermal
      stability (<330 degrees C) than the same size CNF (<250 degrees C). TO-LCNF
      present more stable suspensions (ZP<-25mV) due to their higher surface charge
      (COO- groups). AF4 technique was used to effectively determine the size of
      polydispersed samples of LCNF by avoiding the errors committed by conventional
      techniques. In addition, it is observed that wheat and barley straws present the
      most homogeneity in the LCNF samples, being the wheat which presents the best
      values in the production of LCNF under the three pretreatments.

PMID- 28554791
TI  - Preferential role of iron in heme degradation of hemoglobin upon gamma
      irradiation.
AB  - It is usually believed that gamma-ray interaction with biomolecules is
      intermediately performed by reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced from
      radiolysis of water. Hemoglobin (Hb) as one of the most abundant biomolecule in
      blood and well-studied endogenously affected by ROS, was a good candidate for
      study. Adult human Hb was extracted and irradiated using four distinct 20, 60, 90
      and 170Gy doses from Co-60 gamma-ray source. UV-vis, fluorescence and FT-IR
      spectroscopies were used to study the whole conformational changes and partial
      degradation of heme. Hb species calculated using Benesch equations indicated that
      the concentration of oxy-Hb was decreased from 9.97MUM to 6.56MUM, while the
      total metastable met and deoxy-Hb concentration were just increased 2.39MUM and
      about 8.4% of total heme was diminished. Heme degradation was studied using
      fluorescence spectra at two 321 and 460nm excitation wavelengths as fully and
      partially degradation of heme respectively. Inverse behavior of these two
      fluorescence spectra suggested a new mechanism of heme degradation in which gamma
      ray preferably absorbed by heme without any intermediary effects of water. It was
      confirmed by FT-IR spectra at 900-1000cm-1 where the FeN and NH of porphyrin
      indicate their own stretching vibrational bands. Thermal stability justified that
      the gamma radiation induced the conformational changes of Hb which is appeared
      during thermal unfolding. First derivative of thermal spectra indicated that the
      Tm of 170Gy dose irradiated sample is 2 degrees C lowered and total concentration
      of Hb was decreased 14%.

PMID- 28554792
TI  - Specificity studies on proteases for dehairing in leather processing using
      decorin as model conjugated protein.
AB  - Enzyme based dehairing of animal skins in leather processing is considered a
      greener alternative to conventional chemical based dehairing process. The
      specificity based screening of proteases would be an important criterion as it
      would help in removing hairs by acting particularly on the proteoglycans holding
      the hair to the bulb without damaging the other proteins. The present paper
      describes a comparative study of the specificity of a dehairing protease with non
      dehairing one isolated from Bacillus sps. Dehairing protease was found to be
      trypsin-like, non-collagenolytic and non-keratinolytic enzyme whereas non
      dehairing one was a metalloprotease with non-collagenolytic activity but
      specificity for soluble keratin. Substrate specificity was studied using decorin
      as model proteoglycan. The dehairing enzyme was effective in digesting the core
      protein of the decorin as confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography
      analysis and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The histochemical studies on
      dehaired skins also confirmed preservation of skin matrix with no visible damage
      to collagen. This study emphasizes the importance of screening proteases based on
      their specificity characteristics for effective and safer enzyme-only dehairing
      process. The acquired knowledge can be employed in formulating bacterial growth
      media to produce dehairing proteases that would help in commercial exploitation
      of this greener option.

PMID- 28554793
TI  - Quantifying Na(I)-insulin and K(I)-insulin non-covalent complexes by ESI-MS
      method and calculation of their equilibrium constants.
AB  - In this study, the dissociation and formation equilibrium constants of Na(I)
      insulin and K(I)-insulin complexes have been calculated after the quantifying
      them on ESI mass spectrometer. The ESI-MS spectra of the complexes were measured
      by using the solvents as 50% MeOH in water and 100% water. The effect of pH on
      the Na(I)-insulin and K(I)-insulin complex formation were examined. Serial
      binding of Na(I) and K(I) ions to the insulin molecule were observed in the ESI
      MS measurements. The first formation equilibrium constants were calculated as
      Kf1: 5.48*103 1/M for Na(I)-insulin complex and Kf1: 4.87*103 1/M for K(I)
      insulin in water. The binding capability of Na(I) ions to insulin molecule is
      higher than the capability of K(I) ions. In case of a comparison together with
      Ca(II)-insulin and Mg(II)-insulin, the formation equilibrium constants (Kf1) are
      in order of Ca(II)-insulin>Mg(II)-insulin>Na(I)-insulin>K(I)-insulin in water.
      The results showed that Na(I) and K(I) ions are involved in the formation of the
      non-covalent complexes with insulin molecule, since high extracellular and
      intracellular concentrations of them in the body.

PMID- 28554794
TI  - Comparative studies of chitosan and its nanoparticles for the adsorption
      efficiency of various dyes.
AB  - Chitosan has been considered as a chelating agent with the potential for the
      adsorption of dyes, metal ions and proteins. This study was aimed to prepare and
      characterize different fungal chitosan nanoparticles (FCI-1 to FCI-6 NPs) by
      ionic gelation method and to evaluate its efficacy on the sorption of various
      commercial dyes. Morphological observations showed that the FCI-1 is nearly
      spherical in shape with particle size ranging from 2 to 30nm, as determined by
      electron microscopic studies. Electron micrograph revealed that FCI-1 NPs were
      stable even after eighteen months of storage at 4 degrees C. Adsorption
      efficiencies of FCI-1 NPs and FCI-1 were estimated against various dyes such as
      RBB, MO, DR, NBB and CSB using spectrophotometry. Out of the dyes tested, FCI-1
      NPs showed better adsorption efficiency for CSB whereas only RBB followed
      Langmuir isotherm. The adsorption of remaining dyes may probably be through
      random adsorption. The results indicated that FCI-1 NPs could be used as
      efficient sorbents in treating industrial dye effluents.

PMID- 28554795
TI  - A review on cellulose and lignin based binders and electrodes: Small steps
      towards a sustainable lithium ion battery.
AB  - Lithium ion batteries (LIB) are the most promising energy storage systems for
      portable electronics and future electric or hybrid-electric vehicles. However
      making them safer, cost effective and environment friendly is the key challenge.
      In this regard, replacing petro-derived materials by introducing renewable
      biomass derived cellulose derivatives and lignin based materials into the battery
      system is a promising approach for the development of green materials for LIB.
      These biomaterials introduce sustainability as well as improved safety in the
      final disposal of LIB batteries. In this review we introduce LIB materials
      technology in brief and recent developments in electrodes and binders based on
      cellulose and their derivatives and lignin for lithium ion batteries.

PMID- 28554796
TI  - Detection of bone defects around zirconium component after total knee
      arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is difficult to detect bone defects caused by loosening or
      osteolysis around the femoral component after total knee arthroplasty (TKA)
      because the thick metal hinders visualization of bone defects. Previous reports
      have shown that tomosynthesis, a novel tomographic technique, is advantageous
      over fluoroscopically guided plain radiography, computed tomography (CT) and
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the early detection of bone defects around a
      conventional cobalt-chromium alloy component. However, there have been no reports
      on a zirconium component. The purpose of this study was to examine the
      sensitivity and specificity of the detection of bone defects around a zirconium
      component using fluoroscopically guided plain radiography, tomosynthesis, CT and
      MRI. METHODS: Six zirconium femoral components were implanted in pig knees. Two
      were cemented without any bone defects. Two were cemented with cystic defects.
      Two were cemented with four-millimeter-thick defects between the bone cement and
      the bone. Defects were filled with agarose gel. Eight orthopedic surgeons
      examined the fluoroscopically guided plain radiography, tomosynthesis, CT and MRI
      images. Sensitivity and specificity of each method were analyzed. RESULTS: No
      bone defects were detected with plain radiography. The sensitivity and
      specificity of tomosynthesis were 21.9% and 36.8%, respectively. The sensitivity
      and specificity of CT were 15.1% and 33.0%, respectively. The sensitivity and
      specificity of MRI were 84.4% and 86.6%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: For the
      detection of bone defects around a zirconium component after TKA, MRI is
      advantageous over fluoroscopically guided plain radiography, tomography and CT,
      in terms of sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28554797
TI  - Juxtaposing the real-time unfolding of subjective experience and ERP neuromarker
      dynamics.
AB  - Electroencephalographic (EEG) potentials have remained a valuable source of data
      and theories concerning neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). The EEG based
      methods are far from being exhausted and are continually valuable in the quest
      for the markers of NCC. To set the background for the research presented in this
      issue, we review the published work on EEG-based markers of NCC. The article is
      organized according to the principle of the time-course aspect of brain
      potentials with regard to the stimuli for which subject's awareness is
      experimentally measured and/or manipulated. We treat brain potentials as the
      principal dependent measure as well as independent variable. More specifically,
      we also draw attention to the fact that in the overwhelming share of studies
      relative negativization of the ERPs tends to mark NCC.

PMID- 28554798
TI  - The psychophysiology of motivation: Body and brain in action.

PMID- 28554799
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28554800
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28554801
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28554802
TI  - Influence of chemical composition on biochemical methane potential of fruit and
      vegetable waste.
AB  - This study investigates the influence of chemical composition on the biochemical
      methane potential (BMP) of twelve different batches of fruit and vegetable waste
      (FVW) with different compositions collected over one year. BMP ranged from 288 to
      516LNCH4kgVS-1, with significant statistical differences between means, which was
      explained by variations in the chemical composition over time. BMP was most
      strongly correlated to lipid content and high calorific values. Multiple linear
      regression was performed to develop statistical models to more rapidly predict
      methane potential. Models were analysed that considered chemical compounds and
      that considered only high calorific value as a single parameter. The best BMP
      prediction was obtained using the statistical model that included lipid, protein,
      cellulose, lignin, and high calorific value (HCV), with R2 of 92.5%; lignin was
      negatively correlated to methane production. Because HCV and lipids are strongly
      correlated, and because HCV can be determined more rapidly than overall chemical
      composition, HCV may be useful for predicting BMP.

PMID- 28554803
TI  - Integrated omics approaches to characterize a nuclear receptor corepressor
      associated histone deacetylase in mouse skeletal muscle.
AB  - Nuclear receptors regulate gene expression by differentially binding to
      coactivators or corepressors in a ligand-dependent manner, which further recruits
      a set of epigenome-modifying enzymes that remodel chromatin conformation. Histone
      acetylation is a major epigenomic change controlled by histone acetyltransferases
      (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs). HDAC3 is the only HDAC that confers the
      enzymatic activity to the complexes nucleated by nuclear receptor corepressors
      NCoR and SMRT. To address the metabolic function of HDAC3, we have deleted it
      specifically in mouse skeletal muscles. We have performed the following omics
      profiling in skeletal muscles of these mice: (1) RNA-seq profiling of total RNA;
      (2) Global nuclear run-on (GRO-seq) analysis of nascent RNAs; (3) Chromatin
      immuno-precipitation (ChIP-seq) of HDAC3 at both early evening and early morning;
      (4) proteomics profiling with mass spectrometry; (5) snap-shot metabolomics
      profiling of water-soluble metabolites at the basal condition; (6) snap-shot
      metabolomics profiling of lipid species at the basal condition; (7) kinetic
      fluxomics analysis of glucose utilization using 13C6-glucose In vivo during
      treadmill running exercise. These approaches have provided several novel insights
      into how nuclear receptors regulate circadian rhythm of skeletal muscle fuel
      metabolism, which has been published elsewhere. Here we present the original
      datasets and technical details during the execution, analysis, and interpretation
      of these omics studies.

PMID- 28554804
TI  - A comparison of the sexually dimorphic dexamethasone transcriptome in mouse
      cerebral cortical and hypothalamic embryonic neural stem cells.
AB  - Fetal exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids reprograms distinct neural circuits
      in the developing brain, often in a sex-specific manner, via mechanisms that
      remain poorly understood. To reveal whether such reprogramming is associated with
      select molecular signatures, we characterized the transcriptome of primary,
      embryonic mouse cerebral cortical and hypothalamic neural progenitor/stem cells
      derived from individual male and female embryos exposed to the synthetic
      glucocorticoid, dexamethasone. Gene expression profiling by RNA-Seq identified
      differential expression of common and unique genes based upon brain region, sex,
      and/or dexamethasone exposure. These gene expression datasets provide a unique
      resource that will inform future studies examining the molecular mechanisms
      responsible for region- and sex-specific reprogramming of the fetal brain brought
      about by in utero exposure to excess glucocorticoids.

PMID- 28554805
TI  - Genomics of sex hormone receptor signaling in hepatic sexual dimorphism.
AB  - The liver plays a crucial role in a variety of physiological processes. Sexual
      dimorphism is markedly defined in liver disorders, such as fatty liver diseases
      and liver cancer, but barely addressed in the normal liver. Distinct sex hormone
      signaling between male and female livers is the major driving factor for hepatic
      sexual dimorphism. Over 6000 genes are differently expressed between male and
      female livers in mice. Here we address how sex hormone receptors, estrogen
      receptor alpha (ERalpha) and androgen receptor (AR), mediate sexually dimorphic
      gene expression in mouse livers. We identified 5192 ERalpha target genes and 4154
      AR target genes using ChIP-Seq. Using liver-specific ERalpha or AR knockout mice,
      we further identified direct and functional target genes of ERalpha (123 genes)
      and AR (151 genes) that contribute to hepatic sexual dimorphism. We also found
      that the most significant sexually dimorphic gene expression was initiated at
      birth by comparing hepatic gene expression data from the embryonic stage E10.5 to
      the postnatal stage P60 during liver development. Overall, our study indicates
      that sex hormone receptor signaling drives sexual dimorphism of hepatic gene
      expression throughout liver development.

PMID- 28554807
TI  - How right is left? Handedness modulates neural responses during morphosyntactic
      processing.
AB  - Most neurocognitive models of language processing generally assume population
      wide homogeneity in the neural mechanisms used during language comprehension, yet
      individual differences are known to influence these neural mechanisms. In this
      study, we focus on handedness as an individual difference hypothesized to affect
      language comprehension. Left-handers and right-handers with a left-handed blood
      relative, or familial sinistrals, are hypothesized to process language
      differently than right-handers with no left-handed relatives (Hancock and Bever,
      2013; Ullman, 2004). Yet, left-handers are often excluded from neurocognitive
      language research, and familial sinistrality in right-handers is often not taken
      into account. In the current study we used event-related potentials to test
      morphosyntactic processing in three groups that differed in their handedness
      profiles: left-handers (LH), right-handers with a left-handed blood relative (RH
      FS+), and right-handers with no reported left-handed blood relative (RH FS-; both
      right-handed groups were previously tested by Tanner and Van Hell, 2014). Results
      indicated that the RH FS- group showed only P600 responses during morphosyntactic
      processing whereas the LH and RH FS+ groups showed biphasic N400-P600 patterns.
      N400s in LH and RH FS+ groups are consistent with theories that associate left
      handedness (self or familial) with increased reliance on lexical/semantic
      mechanisms during language processing. Inspection of individual-level results
      illustrated that variability in RH FS- individuals' morphosyntactic processing
      was remarkably low: most individuals were P600-dominant. In contrast, LH and RH
      FS+ individuals showed marked variability in brain responses, which was similar
      for both groups: half of individuals were N400-dominant and half were P600
      dominant. Our findings have implications for neurocognitive models of language
      that have been largely formulated around data from only right-handers without
      accounting for familial sinistrality or including left-handers, and moreover
      highlight that there is systematic - and often ignored - variability in language
      processing outcomes in neurologically healthy populations.

PMID- 28554806
TI  - Blockade of ATP P2X7 receptor enhances ischiatic nerve regeneration in mice
      following a crush injury.
AB  - Preventing damage caused by nerve degeneration is a great challenge. There is a
      growing body of evidence implicating extracellular nucleotides and their P2
      receptors in many pathophysiological mechanisms. In this work we aimed to
      investigate the effects of the administration of Brilliant Blue G (BBG) and
      Pyridoxalphosphate-6-azophenyl-2', 4'- disulphonic acid (PPADS), P2X7 and P2 non
      selective receptor antagonists, respectively, on sciatic nerve regeneration. Four
      groups of mice that underwent nerve crush lesion were used: two control groups
      treated with vehicle (saline), a group treated with BBG and a group treated with
      PPADS during 28days. Gastrocnemius muscle weight was evaluated. For functional
      evaluation we used the Sciatic Functional Index (SFI) and the horizontal ladder
      walking test. Nerves, dorsal root ganglia and spinal cords were processed for
      light and electron microscopy. Antinoceptive effects of BBG and PPADS were
      evaluated through von Frey E, and the levels of IL-1beta and TNF-alpha were
      analyzed by ELISA. BBG promoted an increase in the number of myelinated fibers
      and on axon, fiber and myelin areas. BBG and PPADS led to an increase of TNF
      alpha and IL-1beta in the nerve on day 1 and PPADS caused a decrease of IL-1beta
      on day 7. Mechanical allodynia was reversed on day 7 in the groups treated with
      BBG and PPADS. We concluded that BBG promoted a better morphological regeneration
      after ischiatic crush injury, but this was not followed by anticipation of
      functional improvement. In addition, both PPADS and BBG presented anti
      inflammatory as well as antinociceptive effects.

PMID- 28554809
TI  - Five-year outcomes of the First Distal Uninstrumented Vertebra after posterior
      fusion for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Lenke 1 or 2.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tilt of the First Distal Uninstrumented Vertebra (FDUV) reflects
      changes in the main curve and compensatory lumbar curve after posterior fusion to
      treat thoracic Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). HYPOTHESIS: FDUV tilt 5
      years or more post-fusion depends chiefly on reduction of the main curve and on
      other factors such as selection of the last instrumented vertebra. MATERIAL AND
      METHOD: A multicenter retrospective cohort of 182 patients with Lenke 1 or 2 AIS
      treated with posterior instrumentation and followed up for a mean of 8 years and
      a minimum of 5 years was studied. The patients were divided into two groups based
      on whether tilt of the upper endplate of the FDUV was <=5 degrees  or >5 degrees
      at last follow-up. Variables associated with tilt were identified by multiple
      logistic regression. RESULTS: Six variables were significantly associated with
      FDUVtilt: percentage of correction at last follow-up, correction loss, lumbar
      modifier B, number of instrumented vertebrae, inclusion within the
      instrumentation of the distal neutral vertebra, and inclusion within the
      instrumentation of the lowest vertebra intersected by the central sacral vertical
      line. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The main variables associated with FDUVtilt <=5
      degrees  were a final correction percentage >=60% and absence of correction loss
      between the postoperative period and last follow-up. Given the stable reduction
      provided by contemporary instrumentations, we recommend selective thoracic fusion
      of Lenke 1 or 2 AIS with lumbar modifiers A, B, and C. The lowest instrumented
      vertebra should be either the neutral vertebra or the vertebra intersected by the
      central sacral vertical line if it is distal to the neutral vertebra. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE IV: Retrospective multicenter study.

PMID- 28554808
TI  - Acute finger-tip infection: Management and treatment. A 103-case series.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute fingertip infections (AFTI) are common. Surgical treatment is
      the norm in case of effusion. There is, however, no consensus on treatment
      modalities, or on adjuvant antibiotic therapy (AT). We present the results of a
      consecutive cohort of 103 AFTIs treated in emergency consultation. MATERIALS AND
      METHOD: One hundred and one patients were treated by excision and extensive
      lavage under digital anesthesia, with systematic bacteriological sampling.
      Patient history, treatment history, location, type of bacteria, complications or
      recurrences and AT prescription were recorded and analyzed. All patients were
      reviewed at first dressing (5-7 days) and recontacted at 1 month, to record any
      pain, stiffness or recurrence. Three groups were distinguished: A: without
      preoperative AT (n=71); B: under AT before surgery (n=14); C: with postoperative
      AT (for severe comorbidity) (n=16). RESULTS: Mean age was 39.7 years (range: 14
      84 years). The three main types of bacteria were: Staphylococcus aureus (58.3%),
      polymicrobial flora (16.5%), and Streptococcus (12.6%). Mean time to first
      dressing was 5.7 days. There were no recurrences, whatever the bacterial type or
      patient group. In 5 patients in group A (8.2%), AT was later prescribed at day 5
      (3 for hypercicatrization and 2 for maceration). In groups B and C, progression
      was unproblematic. At 1 month, all patients considered themselves cured; finger
      tip sensitivity was conserved in 10, and 16 were awaiting complete nail regrowth.
      DISCUSSION: Hospital admission, operative treatment under general anesthesia, and
      AT are factors exacerbating cost and increase the management burden of AFTI.
      Treatment in emergency consultation seems perfectly feasible. AT does not seem
      useful in the absence of severe comorbidities if resection is complete. Analysis
      of bacterial susceptibility and renewal of the initial dressing at 1 week enable
      progression to be monitored and treatment changed as necessary.

PMID- 28554810
TI  - Limiting interpedicular screw displacement increases shear forces in screws: A
      finite element study.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Screw loosening has been reported for non-fusion devices.
      Forces on pedicle screws could be related to kinematic parameters as the
      interpedicular displacement (ID), which consists of the displacement between
      superior and inferior screw heads from full extension to full flexion. PURPOSE:
      To investigate the relationship between ID and screw loosening for different
      designs of posterior implants using a finite element model. METHODS: An L3-sacrum
      previously validated spine FE model was used. Three-rod designs were considered
      in L4-L5 segment: a rigid screw-rod implant, a flexible one and a specific design
      with a sliding rod providing limited restrain in ID. In order to simulate
      intermediate configurations, the friction coefficient between the sliding rods
      and connectors were varied. The sacrum was rigidly fixed. Rotations (flexion
      extension, lateral bending and axial rotation) were applied to L3, for each
      modeled configuration: intact, injured, injured with different implants. Model
      consistency was checked with existing experimental in vitro data on intact and
      instrumented segments. Screw loads were computed as well as ID. RESULTS: In
      flexion-extension, the ID was less than 2mm for rigid (R) and flexible (F)
      constructs and 5.5mm for intact spine and the sliding implant (S3). Screw's shear
      forces were 272N, 153N, 43N respectively for R, F and S3 constructs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Implants that allow ID presented lower screws loads. A compromise between the
      ability of the implant to withstand compressive forces, which requires
      longitudinal stiffness, and its ability to allow ID could be important for future
      implant designs in order to prevent screw loosening.

PMID- 28554811
TI  - The Impact of Prostate Cancer Zonal Origin on Pathological Parameters at Radical
      Prostatectomy and Subsequent Biochemical Failure.
AB  - PURPOSE: We assessed the impact of prostatic zone tumor origin on pathological
      prognostic features and subsequent biochemical outcomes after radical
      prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 7,051 patients who underwent
      radical prostatectomy between September 1998 and December 2016 in Western
      Australia were divided into a high grade group, defined as Gleason sum 4 + 3, 8
      and 9 or greater and ISUP (International Society of Urological Pathology) groups
      3, 4 and 5, and a low grade group, defined as Gleason sum 6 or less and 3 + 4,
      and ISUP groups 1 and 2. The t-test and the Pearson chi-square test were used to
      evaluate differences between transition zone and peripheral/central zone cancer.
      The Kaplan-Meier method with the log rank test was used to determine differences
      in biochemical recurrence-free survival at 5 years in patients with high grade
      disease. Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analyses
      were performed. Model calibration was determined by the internal validation
      method. RESULTS: High grade transition zone cancer was associated with
      significantly increased prostate specific antigen, tumor volume and incidence of
      positive surgical margins but a lower incidence of intraductal carcinoma,
      extraprostatic spread, seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node involvement and
      biochemical failure after radical prostatectomy. Patients with low grade prostate
      cancer had excellent biochemical recurrence-free survival regardless of tumor
      origin. The high grade multivariable model had a c-index of 0.78 and improved
      predictive accuracy, particularly for high grade transition zone disease.
      CONCLUSIONS: Transition zone tumor origin independently and positively impacts
      biochemical outcomes of high grade prostate cancer. A high grade postoperative
      prognostic model including transition zone tumor origin as an independent
      predictor was developed and predictive accuracy was significantly improved in
      patients with high grade, transition zone disease.

PMID- 28554812
TI  - Outcomes of a Cohort of Prenatally Diagnosed and Early Enrolled Patients with
      Congenital Solitary Functioning Kidney.
AB  - PURPOSE: We evaluated the clinical course of patients prenatally diagnosed and
      enrolled early with congenital solitary functioning kidney, and identified the
      risk factors for renal injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      evaluated 322 patients with congenital solitary functioning kidney according to
      the inclusion criteria of 1) prenatal diagnosis of solitary kidney; 2) first
      evaluation at 1 to 3 months of life with confirmation of congenital solitary
      functioning kidney, and evaluation of possible associated congenital anomalies of
      the kidney and urinary tract by abdominal ultrasound, renal scintigraphy and
      cystography; and 3) absence of any condition potentially affecting renal function
      in the neonatal period as well as absence of renal injury at enrollment (1 to 3
      months of life) confirmed by a normal estimated glomerular filtration rate, lack
      of proteinuria and hypertension. Followup of 306 patients was evaluated. RESULTS:
      Median followup was 7.2 years (range 1 to 23) and 1 or more signs of renal injury
      were found in 12 of 306 patients (3.9%). Considering the entire population the
      cumulative proportion of patients free from renal injury at 17 years old was
      93.7%, vs 81.3% and 95.9% for subjects with and those without congenital
      anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract of congenital solitary functioning
      kidney (p <0.001), respectively. Of congenital anomalies of the kidney and
      urinary tract, congenital solitary functioning kidney resulted in significant
      risk factors for renal injury (HR 8.75, 95% CI 2.77-27.65). CONCLUSIONS: In an
      evaluation of a large cohort of patients enrolled early with congenital solitary
      functioning kidney with a prenatal diagnosis, excluding those with neonatal onset
      of renal damage, the prevalence of renal damage was 3.9%. Among congenital
      anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract, congenital solitary functioning kidney
      represented the major risk factor.

PMID- 28554813
TI  - Impact of Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) of Lactobacillus gasseri strains isolated
      from human vagina on cervical tumor cells (HeLa).
AB  - Lactobacilli, commonly used as probiotics, have been shown to maintain vaginal
      health and contribute to host microbiota interaction. Exopolysaccharides (EPSs)
      produced by lactobacillus have been found to have an important role in probiotic
      activity; however, there is limited knowledge concerning their impact on cervical
      cancer and urogenital health. The objective of this study is to investigate and
      compare EPSs of L. gasseri strains (G10 and H15), isolated from a healthy human
      vagina, for their capability to inhibit cervical cancer cell (HeLa) growth and
      modulate immune response. HeLa cells were treated with live culture at ~108
      CFU/ml or increasing concentration of lyophilized EPS (L-EPS) (100, 200, or 400
      MUg/ml) of L. gasseri strains and their ability to adhere to host cells, inhibit
      proliferation, and modulate immune response were evaluated. Additionally,
      monosaccharide composition of the L-EPSs produced by L. gasseri strains was
      determined by HPLC. The sugar component was the same; however, relative
      proportions of the individual monosaccharides except mannose were different.
      Although they both produce similar amount of EPS, the most adhesive strain was
      G10. Both live and L-EPS of L. gasseri strains were capable of inhibiting the
      cell proliferation of HeLa cells with the impact of L-EPS being strain specific.
      L-EPSs of L. gasseri strains induced apoptosis in HeLa cells in a strain
      dependent manner. The ability to induce apoptosis by G10 associated with an
      upregulation of Bax and Caspase 3. L. gasseri strains showed an anti-inflammatory
      impact on HeLa cells by decreasing the production of TNF-alpha and increasing the
      IL-10 production. In conclusion, diversity in sugar composition of EPS might
      contribute to adhesion and proliferation properties. Although our results suggest
      a relationship between the ability of a strain to induce apoptosis and its sugar
      composition of EPS, further research is required to determine the probiotic
      mechanisms of action by which L. gasseri strains result in strain specific anti
      proliferative activity.

PMID- 28554814
TI  - Bioaugmentation of the thermophilic anaerobic biodegradation of cellulose and
      corn stover.
AB  - Two stable, thermophilic mixed cellulolytic consortia were enriched from an
      industrial scale biogas fermenter. The two consortia, marked as AD1 and AD2, were
      used for bioaugmentation in laboratory scale batch reactors. They enhanced the
      methane yield by 22-24%. Next generation sequencing method revealed the main
      orders being Thermoanaerobacterales and Clostridiales and the predominant strains
      were Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum, Caldanaerobacter subterraneus,
      Thermoanaerobacter pseudethanolicus and Clostridium cellulolyticum. The effect of
      these strains, cultivated in pure cultures, was investigated with the aim of
      reconstructing the defined cellulolytic consortium. The addition of the four
      bacterial strains and their mixture to the biogas fermenters enhanced the methane
      yield by 10-11% but it was not as efficient as the original communities
      indicating the significant contribution by members of the enriched communities
      present in low abundance.

PMID- 28554815
TI  - Alcohol consumption and risk of heart failure: Meta-analysis of 13 prospective
      studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Controversy exists on the association between alcohol
      consumption and risk of heart failure (HF). We carried out a meta-analysis to
      summarize available prospective data on alcohol consumption and HF. METHODS: We
      searched PubMed for relevant studies published until January 1, 2017. Relative
      risk (RR) estimates from individual studies were pooled in a random-effects meta
      analysis. RESULTS: A total of 13 prospective studies, with 13,738 HF cases and
      355,804 participants, were included in the meta-analysis. Light alcohol drinking
      (0.1-7 drinks/week) was inversely associated with risk of HF (RR, 0.86; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.81-0.90). There was no statistically significant
      association between moderate (7.1-14 drinks/week), high (14.1-28 drinks/week), or
      heavy (>28 drinks/week) alcohol consumption and HF risk. Former drinking was
      associated with an increased risk of HF compared with never or occasional
      drinking (RR, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.11-1.33). CONCLUSIONS: This meta
      analysis found that light alcohol drinking was associated with a lower risk of
      HF. Former drinking was associated with a higher risk of HF.

PMID- 28554817
TI  - Outcome of primary repair in extremely and very low-birth-weight infants with
      esophageal atresia/distal tracheoesophageal fistula.
AB  - PURPOSE: The optimal surgical management of extremely (ELBW) and very low-birth
      weight (VLBW) neonates with esophageal atresia and distal tracheoesophageal
      fistula (EA/TEF) (Gross type C) is still debated. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the surgical outcome of primary repair in these patients and compare it
      to >=1500g neonates. METHODS: Medical records of neonates with repaired EA from
      2002 to 2016 were reviewed. RESULTS: 4 ELBW, 7 VLBW, and 24 >=1500g infants had
      type C EA/TEF and underwent primary repair. Anastomotic leakage occurred in 0%
      ELBW, 0% VLBW and 8.3% >=1500g patients and anastomotic stricture in 25% ELBW,
      28.5% VLBW and 37.5% >=1500g patients. 50% ELBW, 14.2% VLBW and 20.8% >=1500g
      patients underwent secondary fundoplication. One patient of the VLBW group and
      one patient of the >=1500g group died postoperatively of causes not related to
      EA/TEF. CONCLUSIONS: In extremely and very low-birth-weight neonates with type C
      EA/TEF surgical outcome after primary repair is comparable to the outcome in
      >=1500g neonates. Primary repair can be performed in most of these patients and
      staged repair can be restricted to unstable patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Treatment study level III.

PMID- 28554816
TI  - A pre-operative clinical scoring system to distinguish perforation risk with
      pediatric appendicitis.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Appendicitis is a common, potentially serious pediatric disease. An
      important factor in determining management strategy [whether/when to perform
      appendectomy, duration of antibiotic therapy/hospitalization, etc.] and
      predicting outcome is distinguishing whether perforation is present. OBJECTIVE:
      The objective was to determine efficacy of commonly assessed pre-operative
      variables in stratifying perforation risk in children with appendicitis. DESIGN:
      A retrospective analysis of consecutive cases was performed. SETTING: The setting
      was a large urban hospital pediatric emergency department. PARTICIPANTS: Four
      hundred forty-eight consecutive cases of CT [computerized tomography]-confirmed
      pediatric appendicitis during a 6-year period in an urban pediatric ED [emergency
      department]: 162 with perforation and 286 non-perforated. MAIN OUTCOME(S) AND
      MEASURE(S): To determine efficacy of clinical and laboratory variables with
      distinguishing perforation outcome in children with appendicitis. RESULTS:
      Regression analysis identified 3 independently significant variables associated
      with perforation outcome - and determined their ideal threshold values: duration
      of symptoms>1day; ED-measured fever [body temperature >38.0  degrees C]; CBC WBC
      absolute neutrophil count >13,000/mm3. The resulting multivariate ROC [receiver
      operating characteristic] curve after applying these threshold values gave an AUC
      [area under curve] of 89% for perforation outcome [p<0.001]. Risk for perforation
      was additive with each additional predictive variable exceeding its threshold
      value, linearly increasing from 7% with no variable present to 85% when all 3
      variables are present. CONCLUSIONS: A pre-operative scoring system comprised of 3
      commonly assessed clinical/laboratory variables is useful in stratifying
      perforation risk in children with appendicitis. Physicians can utilize these
      factors to gauge pre-operative risk for perforation in children with
      appendicitis, which can potentially aid in planning subsequent management
      strategy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28554818
TI  - Effect of portable non-invasive ventilation & environmental conditions on
      everyday activities.
AB  - The current study examined the effect of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) within
      environments of differing temperature and humidity on several physiological and
      perceptual responses while performing six activities of daily living (i.e.
      putting on shirt/shoes/trousers, vacuuming, hanging towels, and walking on a
      treadmill). Sixteen healthy participants completed the activities of varying
      difficulty within four experimental conditions: with and without NIV; and in
      temperate (22 degrees C, 40% relative humidity) and hot-humid environments (32
      degrees C, 70% relative humidity). Comparisons of physiological responses between
      conditions were examined via repeated measures ANOVAs. Overall, NIV resulted in
      similar physiological and perceptual responses within all environmental
      conditions for healthy participants. Further, NIV use increased heart rate during
      the most strenuous task (29.5+/-12.7 vs. 22.8+/-12.0bpm, p=0.008) indicating NIV
      use may stress cardiovascular functioning during moderate-high intensity
      activities. Tropical conditions did not alter physiological or perceptual
      responses during everyday tasks with NIV use by healthy adults. Future
      investigations examining the independent and combined impacts of task intensity,
      extreme environments and NIV use will clarify the benefits of NIV for healthy and
      clinical populations.

PMID- 28554819
TI  - Interstitial lung fluid balance in healthy lowlanders exposed to high-altitude.
AB  - We aimed to assess lung fluid balance before and after gradual ascent to 5150m.
      Lung diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO), alveolar-capillary membrane
      conductance (DmCO) and ultrasound lung comets (ULCs) were assessed in 12 healthy
      lowlanders at sea-level, and on Day 1, Day 5 and Day 9 after arrival at Mount
      Everest Base Camp (EBC). EBC was reached following an 8-day hike at progressively
      increasing altitudes starting at 2860m. DLCO was unchanged from sea-level to Day
      1 at EBC, but increased on Day 5 (11+/-10%) and Day 9 (10+/-9%) vs. sea-level
      (P<=0.047). DmCO increased from sea-level to Day 1 (9+/-6%), Day 5 (12+/-8%), and
      Day 9 (17+/-11%) (all P<=0.001) at EBC. There was no change in ULCs from sea
      level to Day 1, Day 5 and Day 9 at EBC. These data provide evidence that
      interstitial lung fluid remains stable or may even decrease relative to at sea
      level following 8days of gradual exposure to high-altitude in healthy humans.

PMID- 28554820
TI  - Argininic acid alters markers of cellular oxidative damage in vitro: Protective
      role of antioxidants.
AB  - We, herein, investigated the in vitro effects of argininic acid on thiobarbituric
      acid-reactive substances (TBA-RS), total sulfhydryl content and on the activities
      of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
      glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the blood, kidney and liver of 60-day-old
      rats. We also verified the influence of the antioxidants (each at 1.0mM) trolox
      and ascorbic acid, as well as of NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) at
      1.0mM, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, on the effects elicited by argininic
      acid on the parameters tested. The liver, renal cortex and renal medulla were
      homogenized in 10vol (1:10w/v) of 20mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.4,
      containing 140mM KCl; and erythrocytes and plasma were prepared from whole blood
      samples obtained from rats. For in vitro experiments, the samples were pre
      incubated for 1h at 37 degrees C in the presence of argininic acid at final
      concentrations of 0.1, 1.0 and 5.0MUM. Control experiments were performed without
      the addition of argininic acid. Results showed that argininic acid (5.0MUM)
      enhanced CAT and SOD activities and decreased GSH-Px activity in the
      erythrocytes, increased CAT and decreased GSH-Px activities in the renal cortex
      and decreased CAT and SOD activities in the renal medulla of 60-day-old rats, as
      compared to the control group. Antioxidants and/or L-NAME prevented most of the
      alterations caused by argininic acid on the oxidative stress parameters
      evaluated. Data suggest that argininic acid alters antioxidant defenses in the
      blood and kidney of rats; however, in the presence of antioxidants and L-NAME,
      most of these alterations in oxidative stress were prevented. These findings
      suggest that oxidative stress may be make an important contribution to the damage
      caused by argininic acid in hyperargininemic patients and that treatment with
      antioxidants may be beneficial in this pathology.

PMID- 28554821
TI  - Stem Cell Therapy: The Phoenix in Clinical Medicine?

PMID- 28554822
TI  - Impact of cell adhesion and migration on nanoparticle uptake and cellular
      toxicity.
AB  - In vitro cell-nanoparticle (NP) studies involve exposure of NPs onto the
      monolayer cells growing at the bottom of a culture plate, and assumed that the
      NPs evenly distributed for a dose-responsive effect. However, only a few
      proportion of the administered dose reaches the cells depending on their size,
      shape, surface, and density. Often the amount incubated (administered dose) is
      misled as a responsive dose. Herein, we proposed a cell adhesion-migration (CAM)
      strategy, where cells incubated with the NP coated cell culture substrate to
      maximize the cell-NP interaction and investigated the physiological properties of
      the cells. In the present study, cell adhesion and migration pattern of human
      breast cancer cell (MCF-7) and mouse melanoma cell (B16-F10) on cell culture
      substrate decorated with toxic (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) and
      biocompatible (poly (sodium 4-styrenesulphonate), PSS) gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)
      of different sizes (5 and 40nm) were investigated and evaluated for cellular
      uptake efficiency, proliferation, and toxicity. Results showed enhanced cell
      adhesion, migration, and nanoparticle uptake only on biocompatible PSS coated
      AuNP, irrespective of its size. Whereas, cytotoxic NP shows retard proliferation
      with reduced cellular uptake efficiency. Considering the importance of cell
      adhesion and migration on cellular uptake and cytotoxicity assessment of
      nanoparticle, CAM strategy would hold great promises in cell-NP interaction
      studies.

PMID- 28554823
TI  - Mercury contamination in facial skin lightening creams and its health risks to
      user.
AB  - This study aims to determine concentrations of mercury in facial skin lightening
      cream according to different price categories (category I: <RM29.99, category II:
      RM30.00-RM59.99, category III: RM60.00-RM99.99 and category IV: >=RM100.00) and
      their potential health risks to users. Prices of skin lightening creams were
      determined during a preliminary market survey. Thereafter, twenty samples were
      purchased from various locations such as cosmetic stalls, beauty shops,
      pharmacies and street vendors based on their stratified price categories. Samples
      were extracted using microwave digester and analyzed using cold vapor atomic
      absorption spectrometry (CV-AAS). Non-carcinogenic chronic health risks for
      application of facial skin lightening cream were calculated using Dermal
      Absorption Dose (DAD) and Hazard Quotient (HQ). Concentrations of mercury in
      samples were less than the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)
      permitted trace levels (<1 ppm) except for one sample from category III which was
      manufactured in China. Concentrations of mercury in facial skin lightening creams
      ranged from not detected to 1.13 mg kg-1. There was no significant association
      between concentrations of mercury with price categories (p = 0.12). There was no
      significant non-carcinogenic health risk due to daily application of the facial
      skin lightening creams based on assumption of 30 years exposure period (HQ < 1).

PMID- 28554824
TI  - The Perception of Formant Tuning in Soprano Voices.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: At the upper end of the soprano range, singers adjust their vocal
      tract to bring one or more of its resonances (Rn) toward a source harmonic,
      increasing the amplitude of the sound; this process is known as resonance tuning.
      This study investigated the perception of (R1) and (R2) tuning, key strategies
      observed in classically trained soprano voices, which were expected to be
      preferred by listeners. Furthermore, different vowels were compared, whereas
      previous investigations have usually focused on a single vowel. METHODS:
      Listeners compared three synthetic vowel sounds, at four fundamental frequencies
      (f0), to which four tuning strategies were applied: (A) no tuning, (B) R1 tuned
      to f0, (C) R2 tuned to 2f0, and (D) both R1 and R2 tuned. Participants compared
      preference and naturalness for these strategies and were asked to identify each
      vowel. RESULTS: The preference and naturalness results were similar for /alpha/,
      with no clear pattern observed for vowel identification. The results for /u/
      showed no clear difference for preference, and only slight separation for
      naturalness, with poor vowel identification. The results for /i/ were striking,
      with strategies including R2 tuning both preferred and considered more natural
      than those without. However, strategies without R2 tuning were correctly
      identified more often. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that perception of
      different tuning strategies depends on the vowel and perceptual quality
      investigated, and the relationship between the formants and (f0). In some cases,
      formant tuning was beneficial at lower f0s than expected, based on previous
      resonance tuning studies.

PMID- 28554825
TI  - Contact Quotient of Female Singers Singing Four Pitches for Five Vowels in Normal
      and Pressed Phonations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate the contact quotient (CQ)
      values of breathy, normal, and pressed phonation types in four different sections
      of the female singing range. METHODS: Electroglottography (EGG) and acoustic
      signals were recorded from 10 female singing teachers. Five vowels were sung for
      1-3 seconds each, in three phonation types-normal, breathy, and pressed, in four
      pitches representing registration change points in the singing range. CQ values
      were automatically generated from the EGG signal using VoceVista at 35% threshold
      level. Sound pressure levels were checked in Praat. Unianova and correlations
      were performed using an SPSS program. RESULTS: CQ values of female participants
      in the study yielded ranges of 0.25-0.62 in normal and 0.34-0.73 in pressed.
      Normal and pressed CQ differed significantly from each other at P < 0.00. Breathy
      samples were not viable for analysis. A concentration of CQ values from 0.5 to
      0.6 of both pressed low and pressed break samples was noted, but CQ values across
      the pitch range showed no significant trend. CONCLUSIONS: Normal and pressed
      phonation CQ values beyond the speaking pitch varied among the subjects. Pressed
      phonation CQ values were mostly higher, but the values were only relative to the
      corresponding normal phonation on the same pitch. Other measurements may be more
      suitable for measuring vocal fold impact stress in higher frequencies, thus,
      distinguishing normal from pressed singing.

PMID- 28554827
TI  - Field-scale forward and back diffusion through low-permeability zones.
AB  - Understanding the effects of back diffusion of groundwater contaminants from low
      permeability zones to aquifers is critical to making site management decisions
      related to remedial actions. Here, we combine aquifer and aquitard data to
      develop recommended site characterization strategies using a three-stage
      classification of plume life cycle based on the solute origins: aquifer source
      zone dissolution, source zone dissolution combined with back diffusion from an
      aquitard, and only back diffusion. We use measured aquitard concentration profile
      data from three field sites to identify signature shapes that are characteristic
      of these three stages. We find good fits to the measured data with analytical
      solutions that include the effects of advection and forward and back diffusion
      through low-permeability zones, and linearly and exponentially decreasing flux
      resulting from source dissolution in the aquifer. Aquifer contaminant time series
      data at monitoring wells from a mature site were well described using analytical
      solutions representing the combined case of source zone and back diffusion, while
      data from a site where the source had been isolated were well described solely by
      back diffusion. The modeling approach presented in this study is designed to
      enable site managers to implement appropriate remediation technologies at a
      proper timing for high- and low-permeability zones, considering estimated plume
      life cycle.

PMID- 28554826
TI  - Oxidative pathways in the sickle cell and beyond.
AB  - Polymerization of deoxy sickle cell hemoglobin (HbS) is well recognized as the
      primary event that triggers the classic cycles of sickling/unsickling of patients
      red blood cells (RBCs). RBCs are also subjected to continuous endogenous and
      exogenous oxidative onslaughts resulting in hemolytic rate increases which
      contribute to the evolution of vasculopathies associated with this disease.
      Compared to steady-state conditions, the occurrences of vaso-occlusive crises
      increase the levels of both RBC-derived microparticles as well as extracellular
      Hb in circulation. Common byproduct resulting from free Hb oxidation and from Hb
      laden microparticles is heme (now recognized as damage associated molecular
      pattern (DAMP) molecule) which has been shown to initiate inflammatory responses.
      This review provides new insights into the interplay between microparticles, free
      Hb and heme focusing on Hb's pseudoperoxidative activity that drives RBC's
      cytosolic, membrane changes as well as oxidative toxicity towards the vascular
      system. Emerging antioxidative strategies that include the use of protein and
      heme scavengers in controlling Hb oxidative pathways are discussed.

PMID- 28554828
TI  - Phytochelatins and monothiols in salt marsh plants and their relation with metal
      tolerance.
AB  - Phytochelatins (PCs) and monothiols and their relation with trace element
      concentrations were studied in three plant species from two Portuguese salt
      marshes. Belowground tissues showed always higher element concentrations, while
      enhanced values of monothiols were found in aboveground biomass. Glutathione was
      usually the most abundant monothiol. The concentration of total PCs was higher in
      leaves or stems than in roots of Halimione portulacoides and Sarcocornia
      perennis, while in Spartina maritima the highest concentrations were reported in
      large roots. PC2 was synthesized by all tissues and species and was higher in
      large roots of S. maritima. PC4 and PC5 were in high levels in small roots of S.
      maritima. PC2 was positively correlated with As, Zn and Pb. Although being the
      first evidence of PCs and monothiols in these species under natural conditions,
      our results do not point to a simple relationship with elements concentrations,
      suggesting a complex mechanism involved.

PMID- 28554829
TI  - Bioinformatics can boost metabolomics research.
AB  - Metabolomics is the modern term for the field of small molecule research in
      biology and biochemistry. Currently, metabolomics is undergoing a transition
      where the classic analytical chemistry is combined with modern cheminformatics
      and bioinformatics methods, paving the way for large-scale data analysis. We give
      some background on past developments, highlight current state-of-the-art
      approaches, and give a perspective on future requirements.

PMID- 28554830
TI  - RNA-bioinformatics: Tools, services and databases for the analysis of RNA-based
      regulation.
AB  - The importance of RNA-based regulation is becoming more and more evident. Genome
      wide sequencing efforts have shown that the majority of the DNA in eukaryotic
      genomes is transcribed. Advanced high-throughput techniques like CLIP for the
      genome-wide detection of RNA-protein interactions have shown that post
      transcriptional regulation by RNA-binding proteins matches the complexity of
      transcriptional regulation. The need for a specialized and integrated analysis of
      RNA-based data has led to the foundation of the RNA Bioinformatics Center (RBC)
      within the German Network of Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI). This paper
      describes the tools, services and databases provided by the RBC, and shows
      example applications. Furthermore, we have setup an RNA workbench within the
      Galaxy framework. For an easy dissemination, we offer a virtualized version of
      Galaxy (via Galaxy Docker) enabling other groups to use our RNA workbench in a
      very simple way.

PMID- 28554831
TI  - A logician's approach to meta-analysis with unexplained heterogeneity.
AB  - Meta-analysis is a powerful tool for combining related studies but such an
      aggregation would be flawed if studies investigated different populations or
      applied different methods in this investigation. While studies with differences
      that are statistically detected but not explained can be analysed by techniques
      of random-effects meta-analysis, it is difficult to analyse a study if it
      provides us with complex knowledge. This paper introduces a new method for meta
      analysis that deals with both complex knowledge and unexplained heterogeneity,
      and which shares some properties with Bayesian methods. The newly developed
      method is applicable in a wide range of medical and also non-medical problems. A
      demonstration will be provided on a real medical example concerning the one-year
      incidence of diagnosis of cancer in patients with unprovoked venous
      thromboembolism. Our main findings based on several recent statistically
      heterogeneous studies indicate significant improvement in the cancer detection
      rate if routine evaluation for those patients is performed jointly with extensive
      screening techniques.

PMID- 28554832
TI  - Evolution of the histologic classification of thyroid neoplasms and its impact on
      clinical management.
AB  - The vast majority of low grade follicular cell derived thyroid carcinomas follows
      an indolent clinical course and is associated with very low mortality. Risk
      stratification using multiple clinical and pathologic characteristics has become
      the standard of care to guide appropriate management and avoid overtreatment.
      Over the past few decades, the field of thyroid pathology has witnessed several
      major changes that significantly impacted upon patients' care. These are: 1) The
      reclassification of non-invasive encapsulated follicular variant of papillary
      thyroid carcinoma as noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like
      nuclear features; 2) the diagnosis of Hurthle cell carcinoma based on the
      presence of capsular and vascular invasion; 3) a detailed definition of poorly
      differentiated thyroid carcinoma, taking into consideration mitosis and necrosis;
      and 4) the emphasis on a detailed pathologic analysis such as the extent of
      vascular invasion and extrathyroidal extension. This review describes these
      histological concepts and details the history, rationale, and clinical impacts of
      such changes. These shifts in the classification and characterization of thyroid
      carcinoma provided a platform supporting therapy de-escalation. In addition
      several lessons were learned from these changes especially from the
      misclassification of the non-invasive encapsulated follicular variant of
      papillary thyroid carcinoma. We hope that the lessons learned will help better
      classify tumors in the future whether arising in the thyroid or other organs.

PMID- 28554834
TI  - Consecutive yearly outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus in a haemato-oncology
      ward and efficacy of infection control measures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant respiratory
      tract infection in immunosuppressed patients. AIM: To describe two consecutive
      yearly outbreaks of RSV in our haemato-oncology ward. METHODS: Haematology
      patients presenting with respiratory symptoms were screened by polymerase chain
      reaction for viral respiratory pathogens using a saline gargle. FINDINGS: None of
      our patients had undergone bone marrow transplant but all had underlying
      haematological malignancies. Eight patients were affected in the first outbreak
      (mortality rate: 37.5%) and 12 patients were affected in the second (mortality
      rate: 8.3%). Extensive infection control measures were implemented in both
      outbreaks and were successful in preventing further cross-transmission.
      CONCLUSION: There was significant learning from both outbreaks and actions
      implemented with the aim of reducing the likelihood and impact of future
      outbreaks.

PMID- 28554833
TI  - Optimization of mitochondrial isolation techniques for intraspinal
      transplantation procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Proper mitochondrial function is essential to maintain normal
      cellular bioenergetics and ionic homeostasis. In instances of severe tissue
      damage, such as traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, mitochondria become
      damaged and unregulated leading to cell death. The relatively unexplored field of
      mitochondrial transplantation following neurotrauma is based on the theory that
      replacing damaged mitochondria with exogenous respiratory-competent mitochondria
      can restore overall tissue bioenergetics. NEW METHOD: We optimized techniques in
      vitro to prepare suspensions of isolated mitochondria for transplantation in
      vivo. Mitochondria isolated from cell culture were genetically labeled with turbo
      green fluorescent protein (tGFP) for imaging and tracking purposes in vitro and
      in vivo. RESULTS: We used time-lapse confocal imaging to reveal the incorporation
      of exogenous fluorescently-tagged mitochondria into PC-12 cells after brief co
      incubation. Further, we show that mitochondria can be injected into the spinal
      cord with immunohistochemical evidence of host cellular uptake within 24h.
      COMPARISON TO EXISTING METHODS: Our methods utilize transgenic fluorescent
      labeling of mitochondria for a nontoxic and photostable alternative to other
      labeling methods. Substrate addition to isolated mitochondria helped to restore
      state III respiration at room temperature prior to transplantation. These
      experiments delineate refined methods to use transgenic cell lines for the
      purpose of isolating well coupled mitochondria that have a permanent fluorescent
      label that allows real time tracking of transplanted mitochondria in vitro, as
      well as imaging in situ. CONCLUSIONS: These techniques lay the foundation for
      testing the potential therapeutic effects of mitochondrial transplantation
      following spinal cord injury and other animal models of neurotrauma.

PMID- 28554835
TI  - Transcriptome profiling of the Macrobrachium rosenbergii lymphoid organ under the
      white spot syndrome virus challenge.
AB  - Macrobrachium rosenbergii is a crustacean with economic importance, and adult
      prawns are generally thought to be tolerant to white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)
      infection. Although certain genes are known to respond to WSSV infection and
      lymphoid tissue is an important immune organ, the response of lymphoid organ to
      WSSV infection is unclear. Next-generation sequencing was employed in this study
      to determine the transcriptome differences between WSSV infection and mock
      lymphoid organs. A total of 44,606,694 and 40,384,856 clean reads were generated
      and assembled into 73,658 and 72,374 unigenes from the control sample and the
      WSSV infection sample, respectively. Based on homology searches, KEGG, GO, and
      COG analysis, 21,323 unigenes were annotated. Among them, 4951 differential
      expression genes were identified and categorized into 244 metabolic pathways.
      Coagulation cascades, and pattern recognition receptor signaling pathways were
      used as examples to discuss the response of host to WSSV infection. We also
      identified 12,308 simple sequence repeats, which can be further used as
      functional markers. Results contribute to a better understanding of the immune
      response of prawn lymphoid organ to WSSV and provide information for identifying
      novel genes in the absence of the prawn genome.

PMID- 28554836
TI  - Comparative study of three phenoloxidases in the sea cucumber Apostichopus
      japonicus.
AB  - In order to preliminarily illustrate the functional differences of phenoloxidases
      (POs) in Apostichopus japonicus, the full-length cDNAs of two POs (named as
      AjPOII and AjPOIII, respectively) were cloned from the coelomocytes of A.
      japonicus using 3'- and 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends method, and combined
      with the previously acquired full-length cDNA of a laccase-type PO from A.
      japonicus (Accession No. KF040052, named as AjPOI), the sequence structure and
      phylogenic status of POs from A. japonicus (AjPOs) were comparatively analyzed,
      and the transcriptional expression of AjPOs in different tissues, at different
      developmental stages and after different bacterial challenges was determined with
      quantitative real-time PCR method. Sequence analysis indicated AjPOII and AjPOIII
      were both laccase-type POs, coincident to the results of phylogenic analysis.
      Sequence analysis also showed that AjPOI had a transmembrane domain (J. Jiang et
      al., 2014), AjPOII contained a signal peptide, and AjPOIII possessed a signal
      peptide and a transmembrane domain, implying that three AjPOs might play
      different roles in immune and physiological processes. Transcriptional expression
      analysis showed that AjPOII and AjPOIII were most abundant in tube feet, while
      AjPOIhad the highest expression level in coelomocytes (J. Jiang et al., 2014),
      suggesting that AjPOI may be mainly involved in immune response, while AjPOII and
      AjPOIII are probably responsible for other physiological processes in addition to
      immune response. Besides, three AjPOs were determined to have different
      expression patterns during organism development and different spectrums of
      response against bacteria, which further indicated that there might be immune and
      physiological functional differentiation among three AjPOs.

PMID- 28554837
TI  - Identification, polymorphism and expression of MHC class Ialpha in golden
      pompano, Trachinotus ovatus.
AB  - The classical major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) plays a vital role
      in the immune system. In this study, we cloned and identified golden pompano
      (Trachinotus ovatus) MHC Ialpha (Trov-MHC Ialpha), which encodes 351 amino acid
      residues including a leader peptide, alpha1, alpha2, alpha3 domain, a
      transmembrane region and a cytoplasmic domain. Twenty six different sequences,
      which encoded various numbers of amino acid residues ranging from 348 to 354,
      were obtained from 12 individuals. Highly genetic polymorphism was found in the
      Trov-MHC Ialpha, especially in the alpha1 and alpha2 domains. Meanwhile, in the
      alpha1 and alpha2 domains, 21 positive selected positions were revealed by site
      models, indicating the diversity of Trov-MHC Ialpha may be mainly generated by
      positive selection. Moreover, quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR
      and western blotting analyses demonstrated that Trov-MHC Ialpha was ubiquitously
      expressed in the nine tested tissues and more highly expressed in intestine, head
      kidney, gill, and spleen. In the head kidney and spleen, Trov-MHC Ialpha was
      significantly upregulated under LPS or poly I:C stimulation. The results of this
      study provide valuable insight into molecular polymorphism, evolutionary
      mechanism, expression and function of MHC Ialpha in the immune system of golden
      pompano.

PMID- 28554838
TI  - The identification of microRNAs involved in the response of Chinese shrimp
      Fenneropenaeus chinensis to white spot syndrome virus infection.
AB  - MicroRNA (miRNA) is a class of small noncoding RNA, which is involved in the post
      transcriptional regulation in all metazoan eukaryotes. MiRNAs might play an
      important role in the host response to virus infection. However, miRNAs in the
      aquatic crustacean species were not extensively investigated. To obtain a better
      understanding of the response of Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis to white
      spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection, the sequence and expression profile of
      miRNAs in the hepatopancreas of WSSV-infected F. chinensis were obtained by the
      high-throughput Illumina HiSeq 2500 deep sequencing technique. A total number of
      129 known miRNAs and 44 putative novel miRNAs were identified from the deep
      sequencing data. The peak size of miRNAs was 22 nt (37.0%). 25 miRNAs were
      significantly (P < 0.05) differentially expressed post WSSV infection. Six of the
      differentially expressed miRNAs were randomly selected for further verification
      by the real-time RT-PCR technique. The results showed that there was a
      consistency between the deep sequencing and real-time RT-PCR assay. The target
      genes of differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted. Each miRNA had 4 target
      genes on average. The results suggested that some specific miRNAs might be
      involved in the response of F. chinensis to WSSV infection, and further provided
      basic information for the investigation of specific miRNAs in F. chinensis.

PMID- 28554839
TI  - Biophysical and structural characterization of mono/di-arylated lactosamine
      derivatives interaction with human galectin-3.
AB  - Combination of biophysical and structural techniques allowed characterizing and
      uncovering the mechanisms underlying increased binding affinity of lactosamine
      derivatives for galectin 3. In particular, complementing information gathered
      from X-ray crystallography, native mass spectrometry and isothermal
      microcalorimetry showed favorable enthalpic contribution of cation-pi interaction
      between lactosamine aryl substitutions and arginine residues from the
      carbohydrate recognition domain, which resulted in two log increase in compound
      binding affinity. This incrementing strategy allowed individual contribution of
      galectin inhibitor moieties to be dissected. Altogether, our results suggest that
      core and substituents of these saccharide-based inhibitors can be optimized
      separately, providing valuable tools to study the role of galectins in diseases.

PMID- 28554840
TI  - Atorvastatin augments temozolomide's efficacy in glioblastoma via prenylation
      dependent inhibition of Ras signaling.
AB  - Ras signaling is often dysregulated and plays essential roles for the maintenance
      of glioblastoma. The proper function of Ras depends largely on the appropriate
      post-translational modification termed prenylation. Targeting protein prenylation
      therefore represents an alternative therapeutic strategy in glioblastoma. In this
      study, we demonstrate that prenylation inhibition by atorvastatin is active
      against glioblastoma. Atorvastatin alone dose-dependently inhibits growth and
      survival of multiple glioblastoma cell lines. Its combination with temozolomide
      significantly enhances temozolomide's efficacy in in vitro cultured cell system
      as well as in vivo xenograft glioblastoma tumor model. We further show that this
      is achieved by the inhibition of Ras prenylation, leading to decreased activation
      of Ras and its downstream signaling pathways, including Erk, rS6 and eIF4E. Our
      findings suggest that inhibition of Ras activity by atorvastatin effectively
      targets the MEK and other signaling pathways. Our study provides a fundamental
      evidence to repurpose atorvastatin for a potential treatment of glioblastoma.

PMID- 28554842
TI  - Jasmonate-induced biosynthesis of steroidal glycoalkaloids depends on COI1
      proteins in tomato.
AB  - In tomato, perception of jasmonates by a receptor complex, which includes the F
      box protein CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1 (COI1), elicits biosynthesis of defensive
      steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs) via a jasmonate-responsive ERF transcription
      factor, JRE4/GAME9. Although JRE4 is upregulated by jasmonate and induces the
      expression of many metabolic genes involved in SGA biosynthesis, it is not known
      whether JRE4 alone is sufficient for increased SGA biosynthesis upon activation
      of jasmonate signaling. Here, we show that application of methyl jasmonate
      induces the expression of JRE4 and SGA biosynthesis genes in leaves and hairy
      roots of wild-type tomato, but not in jasmonic acid insensitive 1 (jai1), a loss
      of-function mutant allele of the tomato COI1 gene. Induced overexpression of JRE4
      increased the expression of SGA biosynthesis genes in transgenic hairy roots of
      both wild-type tomato and the jai1 mutant, suggesting that JRE4 is the primary
      transcription factor that functions downstream of the jasmonate signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28554841
TI  - ERK1/2 signaling mediated naringin-induced osteogenic differentiation of
      immortalized human periodontal ligament stem cells.
AB  - Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) are promising tools for the
      investigations of cell differentiation and bone regeneration. However, the
      limited life span significantly restricts their usefulness. In this study, we
      established an immortalized PDLSC cell line by the introduction of Bmi1 (PDLSC
      Bmi1). Several genes related to cell cycle, cell replication and stemness were
      found to be changed with the overexpression of Bmi1. Compared with primary
      PDLSCs, the immortalized cells had a slower aging rate, maintained in a
      proliferative state without crisis for more than 30 passages, and retained the
      molecular markers and biological functions of primary ones. Using the PDLSC-Bmi1,
      we confirmed the promotive effect of naringin on osteogenesis. Naringin promoted
      the osteogenic differentiation of PDLSC-Bmi1 manifested as the increased activity
      of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), expression of the runt-related transcription
      factor 2 (Runx2) and osteocalcin (OCN), and formation of mineralized nodules. In
      addition, the extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) 1/2 was found to be
      activated by naringin, and the ERK1/2 specific inhibitor significantly inhibited
      naringin-induced osteogenic differentiation in PDLSC-Bmi1. Our results indicated
      that the overexpression of Bmi1 extended the life span of PDLSCs without
      perturbing their biological functions, and that naringin promoted the
      osteogenesis of PDLSC-Bmi1 at least partially through the ERK1/2 signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28554843
TI  - NF-kappaB signaling and cell-fate decision induced by a fast-dissociating tumor
      necrosis factor mutant.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a pluripotent inflammatory cytokine that can
      induce both the pro-survival nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) pathway and the
      pro-apoptotic caspase pathway. Selectively activating only one of the two
      pathways remains challenging. We used TNF mutants with different receptor binding
      kinetics to study their effects on NF-kappaB signaling dynamics and cell
      apoptosis. A TNF mutant, R1antTNF, which binds to TNFR1 with increased
      association and dissociation rates, induced NF-kappaB signaling with shorter
      response time and first peak duration. The short nuclear stay of NF-kappaB led to
      biased activation of downstream genes, favoring the fast response ones. At the
      same time, R1antTNF retains pro-apoptotic activity. At 10 ng/ml, R1antTNF
      selectively activated the pro-apoptotic pathway rather than the pro-survival NF
      kappaB pathway. Our study provides a new example for the emerging evidence that
      ligand-receptor binding kinetics play a key role in the selective activation of
      downstream pathways, which deserves more attention in future drug discovery and
      disease studies.

PMID- 28554844
TI  - Control of cancer stem cell like population by intracellular target
      identification followed by the treatment with peptide-siRNA complex.
AB  - Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer cells and have been known
      to create cancer reoccurrence during cancer therapy due to their stem cell-like
      characteristics. However, exact target to control the CSC has not been fully
      established. Here, we enriched CD44High population of MDA-MB-231 cells by CD44
      antibody as a CSC marker. By Phospho Antibody Array, CD44High population of MDA
      MB-231 cells reveals Feline sarcoma-related tyrosine kinase (FER) protein was
      highly activated. When FER siRNA and low molecular weight protamine (LMWP) as
      cell penetrating peptides are applied to this population, cancer migration and
      colony forming ability are inhibited. Moreover, silencing FER using FER siRNA and
      LMWP conjugates enhances anti-metastasis related factors including E-cadherin,
      p75 and p63. Taken together, FER is a new marker for targeting breast CSCs and
      peptide-mediated siRNA method could be an effective and safe way of delivery and
      be a new therapeutic strategy for targeting breast cancer.

PMID- 28554845
TI  - A novel anatomical patellar plate for transverse patellar fracture - A
      biomechanical in-vitro study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the safety and stability of our
      novel anatomical patella plate and to compare its stability with tension band
      wire technique. METHODS: A total of 12 cadaveric preserved knees (six right and
      six left patellae) with close patellar size were chosen to form two groups of six
      samples. Each group received either plate or tension band-wiring fixation for an
      experimentally created patella fracture. Cyclic load of an average of 350 N was
      applied for all specimens and after accomplishing 50 cycles the displacements of
      all fracture edges were recorded. RESULTS: After completing 50 cycles in each
      group, the average fracture edges displacement measured in the plate group was
      1.98 +/- 0.299 mm, whereas the average fracture edges displacement measured in
      the tension band-wire group was 2.85 +/- 0.768 mm (p = 0.016). CONCLUSION: In the
      operative treatment of displaced transverse patellar fractures, the strength of
      fixation obtained by titanium curved plates is highly stronger when compared to
      the fixation with a tension band-wire technique. Fixation with titanium curved
      plates provides satisfactory stability at the fracture site which allow
      withstanding the cyclic loads during the postoperative rehabilitation.

PMID- 28554846
TI  - Development of an Undergraduate Radiology Curriculum: Ten-Year Experience From
      the University of British Columbia.

PMID- 28554847
TI  - Panicolytic-like action of bradykinin in the dorsal periaqueductal gray through
      MU-opioid and B2-kinin receptors.
AB  - A wealth of evidence has shown that opioid and kinin systems may control proximal
      defense in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (dPAG), a critical panic
      associated area. Studies with drugs that interfere with serotonin-mediated
      neurotransmission suggest that the MU-opioid receptor (MOR) synergistically
      interacts with the 5-HT1A receptor in the dPAG to inhibit escape, a panic-related
      behavior. A similar inhibitory effect has also been reported after local
      administration of bradykinin (BK), which is blocked by the non-selective opioid
      receptor antagonist naloxone. The latter evidence, points to an interaction
      between BK and opioids in the dPAG. We further explored the existence of this
      interaction through the dPAG electrical stimulation model of panic. We also
      investigated whether intra-dPAG injection of captopril, an inhibitor of the
      angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) that also degrades BK, causes a panicolytic
      like effect. Our results showed that intra-dPAG injection of BK inhibited escape
      performance in a dose-dependent way, and this panicolytic-like effect was blocked
      by the BK type 2 receptor (B2R) antagonist HOE-140, and by the selective MOR
      antagonist CTOP. Conversely, the panicolytic-like effect caused by local
      administration of the selective MOR agonist DAMGO was antagonized by pre
      treatment with either CTOP or HOE-140, indicating cross-antagonism between MOR
      and B2R. Finally, intra-dPAG injection of captopril also impaired escape in a
      dose-dependent way, and this panicolytic-like effect was blocked by pretreatment
      with HOE-140, suggesting mediation by endogenous BK. The panicolytic-like effect
      of captopril indicates that the use of ACE inhibitors in the clinical management
      of panic disorder may be worth exploring.

PMID- 28554848
TI  - Sex- and hormone-dependent alterations in alcohol withdrawal-induced anxiety and
      corticolimbic endocannabinoid signaling.
AB  - Alcohol dependence is associated with anxiety during withdrawal. The
      endocannabinoid (ECB) system participates in the neuroendocrine and behavioral
      response to stress and changes in corticolimbic ECB signaling may contribute to
      alcohol withdrawal-induced anxiety. Moreover, symptoms of alcohol withdrawal
      differ between sexes and sexual dimorphism in withdrawal-induced ECB recruitment
      may be a contributing factor. Herein, we exposed intact male and female rats and
      ovariectomized (OVX) female rats with or without estradiol (E2) replacement to 6
      weeks of chronic intermittent alcohol vapor and measured anxiety-like behavior,
      ECB content, and ECB-related mRNA in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and
      ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Acute alcohol withdrawal increased
      anxiety-like behavior, produced widespread disturbances in ECB-related mRNA, and
      reduced anandamide (AEA) content in the BLA and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG)
      content in the vmPFC of male, but not female rats. Similar to males, alcohol
      exposed OVX females showed reductions in Napepld mRNA in the BLA, decreased AEA
      content in the BLA and vmPFC, and reductions in all ECB-related genes measured in
      the vmPFC. Importantly, E2 replacement prevented withdrawal-induced alterations
      in ECB content (but not mRNA) in OVX females, and although alcohol-exposed OVX
      females failed to exhibit more anxiety compared to their respective control,
      chronic alcohol exposure abolished the anxiolytic properties of E2 in OVX rats.
      These data indicate that ovarian sex hormones (but not E2 alone) protect against
      withdrawal-induced alterations in corticolimbic ECB signaling but do not impart
      resilience to withdrawal-induced anxiety. Thus, the mechanisms implicated in the
      manifestation of alcohol withdrawal-induced anxiety are most likely sex-specific.
      This article is part of the Special Issue entitled "A New Dawn in Cannabinoid
      Neurobiology".

PMID- 28554849
TI  - Deciding where to attend: Large-scale network mechanisms underlying attention and
      intention revealed by graph-theoretic analysis.
AB  - The neural mechanisms by which intentions are transformed into actions remain
      poorly understood. We investigated the network mechanisms underlying spontaneous
      voluntary decisions about where to focus visual-spatial attention (willed
      attention). Graph-theoretic analysis of two independent datasets revealed that
      regions activated during willed attention form a set of functionally-distinct
      networks corresponding to the frontoparietal network, the cingulo-opercular
      network, and the dorsal attention network. Contrasting willed attention with
      instructed attention (where attention is directed by external cues), we observed
      that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was allied with the dorsal attention
      network in instructed attention, but shifted connectivity during willed attention
      to interact with the cingulo-opercular network, which then mediated
      communications between the frontoparietal network and the dorsal attention
      network. Behaviorally, greater connectivity in network hubs, including the
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and the
      inferior parietal lobule, was associated with faster reaction times. These
      results, shown to be consistent across the two independent datasets, uncover the
      dynamic organization of functionally-distinct networks engaged to support
      intentional acts.

PMID- 28554850
TI  - The role of working memory sub-components in food choice and dieting success.
AB  - Evidence suggests a role for self-reported working memory (WM) in self-reported
      food intake, but it is not known which WM sub-components are involved. It is also
      important to consider how individual differences in dietary restraint and
      disinhibition influence WM and the impact of this on food choice. The current
      study assessed the relationship between WM sub-components and food choice, using
      computerised measures of WM sub-components and a direct assessment of food
      intake. The role of dieting success (measured by restraint and disinhibition) as
      a distal predictor of food choice that influences food choices via WM, and the
      role of WM more generally in dieting success were investigated. Female
      undergraduate students (N = 117, mean age: 18.9 years, mean BMI: 21.6 kg/m2)
      completed computer tasks assessing three components of WM (updating, phonological
      loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and a snack food taste-test. Greater
      visuospatial WM span was associated with a higher (lower) percentage of food
      intake that was low (high) energy dense. It was also found that unsuccessful
      dieters (high restraint, high disinhibition) had poorer visuospatial WM span and
      consumed a lower (higher) percentage of low (high) energy dense food.
      Visuospatial WM span significantly mediated the relationship between dieting
      success and percentage of low energy dense food intake. Further, dietary
      restraint was associated with poorer updating ability, irrespective of
      disinhibition. These findings suggest that better visuospatial WM is associated
      with a greater (reduced) preference for low (high) energy dense foods, and that
      deficits in visuospatial WM may undermine dieting attempts. Future work should
      assess whether the ability to deal with food cravings mediates the relationship
      between visuospatial WM and dieting success and investigate how WM may influence
      the mechanisms underlying behavioural control.

PMID- 28554851
TI  - Executive function in childhood obesity: Promising intervention strategies to
      optimize treatment outcomes.
AB  - Executive functions (EFs) are hypothesized to play a role in the development and
      maintenance of obesity due to their role in self-regulatory processes that manage
      energy-balance behaviors. Children with obesity have well-documented deficits in
      EF, which may impede effectiveness of current, evidence-based treatments. This
      review examines top-down EF processes (e.g., inhibitory control, working memory,
      cognitive flexibility), as well as bottom-up automatic processes that interact
      with EFs (e.g., attentional bias, delay discounting) and their relation to weight
      loss treatment success in children. It then evaluates EF-related interventions
      that may improve treatment response. Empirical studies that included an
      intervention purported to affect EF processes as well as pre-post measurements of
      EF and/or relative weight in populations ages 19 or younger with
      overweight/obesity were reviewed. Findings indicate that poorer EF may hinder
      treatment response. Moreover, there is preliminary evidence that behavioral
      weight loss intervention and physical activity may positively affect EF and that
      improvements in EF are related to enhanced weight loss. Finally, novel
      intervention strategies, such as computer training of core EFs, attention
      modification programs, and episodic future thinking, show promise in influencing
      both EFs and EF-related skills and weight. Further research is needed to provide
      more conclusive evidence of the efficacy of these interventions and additional
      applications and settings should be considered.

PMID- 28554852
TI  - Gbeta1 is required for neutrophil migration in zebrafish.
AB  - Signaling mediated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is essential for the
      migration of cells toward chemoattractants. The recruitment of neutrophils to
      injured tissues in zebrafish larvae is a useful model for studying neutrophil
      migration and trafficking in vivo. Indeed, the study of this process led to the
      discovery that PI3Kgamma is required for the polarity and motility of
      neutrophils, features that are necessary for the directed migration of these
      cells to wounds. However, the mechanism by which PI3Kgamma is activated remains
      to be determined. Here we show that signaling by specifically the heterotrimeric
      G protein subunit Gbeta1 is critical for neutrophil migration in response to
      wounding. In embryos treated with small-molecule inhibitors of Gbetagamma
      signaling, neutrophils failed to migrate to wound sites. Although both the Gbeta1
      and Gbeta4 isoforms are expressed in migrating neutrophils, only deficiency for
      the former (morpholino-based knockdown) interfered with the directed migration of
      neutrophils towards wounds. The Gbeta1 deficiency also impaired the ability of
      cells to change cell shape and reduced their general motility, defects that are
      similar to those in neutrophils deficient for PI3Kgamma. Transplantation assays
      showed that the requirement for Gbeta1 in neutrophil migration is cell
      autonomous. Finally, live imaging revealed that Gbeta1 is required for polarized
      activation of PI3K, and for the actin dynamics that enable neutrophil migration.
      Collectively, our data indicate that Gbeta1 signaling controls proper neutrophil
      migration by activating PI3K and modulating actin dynamics. Moreover, they
      illustrate a role for a specific Gbeta isoform in chemotaxis in vivo.

PMID- 28554853
TI  - Severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the intensive care unit: A 6-year
      experience in Milano, Italy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe imported Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a potentially life
      threatening disease with a reported mortality rate of 5-10% when patients are
      admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. METHODS: To retrospectively review the
      clinical aspects, the value of severity predictive scores and the management of
      patients with severe P. falciparum malaria admitted to an ICU in Milano, Italy
      between January 2010 and December 2015. RESULTS: Twelve patients were included:
      seven were male and five female with a median age of 43 years. All were initially
      treated with intravenous quinine. Median parasitaemia upon admission was 14,5%
      (range 1-20%). At the time of ICU admission, 3 patients (25%) had 5 or more World
      Health Organization criteria for severe malaria while another 6 of them developed
      one or more of the latter during their stay in ICU. Five required mechanical
      ventilation because of respiratory failure due to ARDS. Four patients required
      renal replacement therapy. Three patients underwent blood exchange transfusion.
      All patients survived. CONCLUSIONS: Our retrospective evaluation of adults
      patients admitted to the ICU with severe imported P. falciparum malaria
      demonstrated a favourable outcome. Severity predictive scores currently in use
      probably overestimate the risk of malaria mortality in patients treated in health
      care systems of high income countries.

PMID- 28554854
TI  - HGF induces EMT in non-small-cell lung cancer through the hBVR pathway.
AB  - The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial event during non
      small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) invasion and metastasis. However, the mechanisms
      involved in NSCLC EMT have not been fully clarified. Hepatocyte growth factor
      (HGF) and human biliverdin reductase (hBVR) are reported to contribute to EMT in
      several diseases. Here, we show that compared with transforming growth factor
      beta (TGF-beta), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and epidermal growth factor
      (EGF), HGF is an important cell factor for EMT in NSCLC cell lines A549 and H460.
      Met protein, HGF receptors, and hBVR were found to be highly expressed and
      positively correlated with EMT in NSCLC tissue sections. In addition, HGF and
      hBVR induced a decrease in epithelial protein marker expression and an increase
      in mesenchymal protein marker expression as well as increased cellular migration
      and invasion, indicating that both HGF and hBVR mediate EMT in A549 and H460 cell
      lines. Furthermore, HGF-induced EMT and migration and invasion in both cell lines
      was inhibited by si-hBVR. Taken together, our data show that HGF induces EMT in
      NSCLC through the hBVR pathway.

PMID- 28554855
TI  - Sleep and the heart: Interoceptive differences linked to poor experiential sleep
      quality in anxiety and depression.
AB  - Interoception is the sense through which internal bodily changes are signalled
      and perceived. Individual differences in interoception are linked to emotional
      style and vulnerability to affective disorders. Here we test how experiential
      sleep quality relates to dimensions of interoceptive ability. 180 adults (42 'non
      clinical' individuals, 138 patients accessing mental health services) rated their
      quality of sleep before performing tests of cardiac interoception. Poor sleep
      quality was associated with lower measures of interoceptive performance accuracy,
      and higher self-report measures of interoceptive sensibility in individuals with
      diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety. Additionally, poor sleep quality was
      associated with impaired metacognitive interoceptive awareness in patients with
      diagnoses of depression (alone or with anxiety). Thus, poor sleep quality, a
      common early expression of psychological disorder, impacts cardiac interoceptive
      ability and experience across diagnoses. Sleep disruption can contribute to the
      expression of affective psychopathology through effects on perceptual and
      interpretative dimensions of bodily awareness.

PMID- 28554856
TI  - Beneficial Role of Low-Dose Antithymocyte Globulin in Unrelated Stem Cell
      Transplantation for Adult Patients with Acquired Severe Aplastic Anemia:
      Reduction of Graft-versus-Host Disease and Improvement of Graft-versus-Host
      Disease-Free, Failure-Free Survival Rate.
AB  - Stem cell transplantation (SCT) from an unrelated donor (URD) is often considered
      in patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) whom immunosuppressive therapy
      failed and matched sibling donor is not available. To reduce the incidence of
      graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in URD SCT, introducting antithymocyte globulin
      (ATG) into the conditioning regimen has been proposed. Although ATG was shown to
      play a role in reducing GVHD in a cohort with diverse hematologic diseases, its
      role in SAA remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to determine the
      efficacy and toxicity of ATG in URD SCT for adult patients with SAA. We
      investigated 83 adult patients with SAA who underwent URD SCT between 2003 and
      2014. The transplantation strategy consisted of total body irradiation (total 800
      cGy) and cyclophosphamide (total 100 mg/kg to 120 mg/kg), followed by tacrolimus
      and a short-term methotrexate. We divided patients into 2 groups: group 1 (n =
      25), which received HLA-matched (8/8) bone marrow (BM) without ATG, and group 2
      (n = 58), which received SCT from either an HLA-mismatched donor or peripheral
      blood (PB). Thereafter, group 2 was subdivided according to ATG use into group 2A
      (without ATG, n = 26), which served as a historical cohort, and group 2B (with
      ATG, n = 32). Rabbit ATG (Thymoglobulin; Genzyme-Sanofi, Lyon, France) was used
      in group 2B at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg. The median age of all patients was 30 years
      (range, 17 to 59 years). The incidence of GVHD was significantly lower in group
      2B than group 2A, as demonstrated by the rate of grade II to IV acute GVHD at day
      100 (31.2% versus 61.5%, P = .003) and the rate of chronic GVHD at 3 years (21.9%
      versus 65.4%, P = .002). The overall survival rates of the 3 groups were similar.
      However, GVHD-free, failure-free survival (GFFS) was significantly higher in
      group 2B than group 2A (P = .034). A multivariable model identified use of ATG as
      an independent factor affecting grades II to IV acute GVHD (hazard ratio [HR],
      2.902; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.417 to 5.942; P = .004), chronic GVHD (HR
      , 3.005; 95% CI, 1.279 to 7.059; P = .012), and GFFS (HR, 2.363; 95% CI, 1.162 to
      4.805; P = .014). Toxicities, including infectious complications, were not
      different among the 3 groups. In conclusion, low-dose ATG (2.5 mg/kg) can reduce
      the incidence of acute and chronic GVHD and improve the quality of life in
      patients with SAA who receive stem cells from either an HLA-mismatched donor or
      PB; importantly, these benefits are achieved without increased toxicity.
      Furthermore, ATG can be considered in URD SCT from HLA-matched BM cells.

PMID- 28554857
TI  - Effects of mammarenavirus infection (Wenzhou virus) on the morphology of Rattus
      exulans.
AB  - The circulation of mammarenaviruses in rodent populations of the Mekong region
      has recently been established, with a genetic variant of Wenzhou virus,
      Cardamones virus, detected in two Rattus species. This study tests the potential
      teratogenic effects of Wenzhou infection on the development of a Murid rodent,
      Rattus exulans. Using direct virus detection, morphological records and
      comparative analyses, a link was demonstrated between host infection status and
      host morphologies (the spleen irrespective of weight, the skull shape and the
      cranial cavity volume) at the level of the individual (females only). This study
      demonstrates that mammarenavirus infections can impact natural host physiology
      and/or affect developmental processes. The presence of an infecting micro
      parasite during the development of the rat may lead to a physiological trade-off
      between immunity and brain size. Alternatively, replication of virus in
      specialized organs can result in selective morphologic abnormalities and lesions.

PMID- 28554858
TI  - Influence of low frequency PSEN1 variants on familial Alzheimer's disease risk in
      Brazil.
AB  - About 30-70% of familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases are related to mutations
      in presenilin-1 gene (PSEN1). Although the role of mutations and common variants
      in AD had been extensively investigated, the contribution of rare or low
      frequency PSEN1 variants on AD risk remains unclear. In the current study, we
      performed a mutational screening of PSEN1 coding exons and flanking intronic
      sequences among 53 index cases with familial history of AD from Rio de Janeiro
      (Brazil). Two missense variants (rs63750592; rs17125721), one rare and a low
      frequency variant, and two intronic variants (rs3025786; rs165932) were
      identified. In silico tools were used to predict the functional impact of the
      variants, revealing no changes in protein functionality by exonic variants.
      Otherwise, all variants were predicted to alter splicing signals. Prediction
      results, together with previous reports, suggest a correlation between rs17125721
      and AD. So, a subsequent case-control study to evaluate the role of rs1712572 on
      AD risk was performed in an additional sample of 120 AD sporadic cases and in 149
      elderly healthy controls by TaqMan Genotyping Assay. Our data indicates a risk
      association for rs17125721 in familial AD cases (OR=6.0; IC95%=1.06-33.79;
      p=0.042). In addition, we tested the multiplicative interaction between allele
      epsilon4 of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) and rs17125721 and no statistical
      association was found. Taken together, our findings provide new insight about the
      genetic relevance of low frequency PSEN1 variants for familial AD development.

PMID- 28554859
TI  - Microtubule-associated tau contributes to intra-dendritic trafficking of AMPA
      receptors in multiple ways.
AB  - Microtubule-associated protein tau has crucial roles not only in the formation of
      some neurodegenerative disorders but also in normal synaptic functions, although
      its contributions to these are still unclear. Here, to reveal the influence of
      tau deletion on trafficking of synaptic receptors, we investigated the
      distribution of GluA2-containing AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) within
      neuronal dendrites in wild-type and tau-deficient neurons using biochemical and
      laser-confocal imaging techniques. Under basal conditions, expression of GluA2 at
      tau-deficient synapses was almost normal; however, its level within dendrites in
      tau-deficient neurons was greater than that in wild-type neurons. After NMDA
      treatment, a decrease in GluA2-containing AMPARs at synapses was observed in wild
      type neurons, but not in tau-deficient neurons. Single-cell imaging of GluA2
      within dendrites demonstrated that wild-type neurons, but not tau-deficient
      neurons, showed enlargement of GluA2 puncta. Interestingly, we also found that
      NMDA rapidly reduced the number of GluA2 puncta without changing their size in
      tau-deficient neurons but not wild-type neurons. These results demonstrate the
      multiple contributions of tau to the maintenance of dynamic AMPAR trafficking
      within dendrites during both stimulated and unstimulated conditions.

PMID- 28554860
TI  - Chronic sleep fragmentation exacerbates amyloid beta deposition in Alzheimer's
      disease model mice.
AB  - Sleep fragmentation due to intermittent nocturnal arousal resulting in a
      reduction of total sleep time and sleep efficiency is a common symptom among
      people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and elderly people with normal cognitive
      function. Although epidemiological studies have indicated an association between
      sleep fragmentation and elevated risk of AD, a relevant disease model to
      elucidate the underlying mechanisms was lacking owing to technical limitations.
      Here we successfully induced chronic sleep fragmentation in AD model mice using a
      recently developed running-wheel-based device and demonstrate that chronic sleep
      fragmentation increases amyloid beta deposition. Notably, the severity of amyloid
      beta deposition exhibited a significant positive correlation with the extent of
      sleep fragmentation. These findings provide a useful contribution to the
      development of novel treatments that decelerate the disease course of AD in the
      patients, or decrease the risk of developing AD in healthy elderly people through
      the improvement of sleep quality.

PMID- 28554861
TI  - Galantamine alleviates senescence of U87 cells induced by beta-amyloid through
      decreasing ROS production.
AB  - Galantamine, which is currently used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
      (AD), has been shown to exert a neuroprotective effect against beta-amyloid
      (Abeta) peptide-induced toxicity, a critical component involved in the
      pathogenesis of AD. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of
      galantamine on proliferation, senescence and ROS production in a U87 cell line
      treated with Abeta. With the use of a Cell Counting Kit-8 and beta galactosidase
      staining assay, we observed that galantamine (0.3MUM) pretreatment significantly
      prevented Abeta1-40-induced cell degradation and senescence. Abeta1-40-induced
      ROS production and p53 expression were increased as determined by DCF-derived
      fluorescence using flow cytometry and Western blotting and reduced in response to
      galantamine pretreatment. Overall, we found that all alterations resulting from
      Abeta1-40 were reversed by galantamine pretreatment. In addition, we demonstrate
      that this neuroprotection from galantamine can be blocked by an alpha7 nAChR
      antagonist. Taken together, the findings of this study provide a better
      understanding of the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of galantamine,
      effects which include antioxidative properties.

PMID- 28554863
TI  - Lysergic acid amide as chemical marker for the total ergot alkaloids in rye flour
      - Determination by high-performance thin-layer chromatography-fluorescence
      detection.
AB  - Ergot alkaloids are generally determined by high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) coupled to fluorescence detection (FLD) or mass selective
      detection, analyzing the individual compounds. However, fast and easy screening
      methods for the determination of the total ergot alkaloid content are more
      suitable, since for monitoring only the sum of the alkaloids is relevant. The
      herein presented screening uses lysergic acid amide (LSA) as chemical marker,
      formed from ergopeptine alkaloids, and ergometrine for the determination of the
      total ergot alkaloids in rye with high-performance thin-layer chromatography
      fluorescence detection (HPTLC-FLD). An ammonium acetate buffered extraction step
      was followed by liquid-liquid partition for clean-up before the ergopeptine
      alkaloids were selectively transformed to LSA and analyzed by HPTLC-FLD on silica
      gel with isopropyl acetate/methanol/water/25% ammonium hydroxide solution
      (80:10:3.8:1.1, v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The enhanced native fluorescence of
      LSA and unaffected ergometrine was used for quantitation without any interfering
      matrix. Limits of detection and quantitation were 8 and 26MUg LSA/kg rye, which
      enables the determination of the total ergot alkaloids far below the applied
      quality criterion limit for rye. Close to 100% recoveries for different rye
      flours at relevant spiking levels were obtained. Thus, reliable results were
      guaranteed, and the fast and efficient screening for the total ergot alkaloids in
      rye offers a rapid alternative to the HPLC analysis of the individual compounds.

PMID- 28554862
TI  - A repetitive modular oscillation underlies human brain electric activity.
AB  - The modular function j, central in the assessment of abstract mathematical
      problems, describes elliptic, intertwined trajectories that move in the planes of
      both real and complex numbers. Recent clues suggest that the j-function might
      display a physical counterpart, equipped with a quantifiable real component and a
      hidden imaginary one, currently undetectable by our senses and instruments. Here
      we evaluate whether the real part of the modular function can be spotted in the
      electric activity of the human brain. We assessed EEGs from five healthy males,
      eyes-closed and resting state, and superimposed the electric traces with the
      bidimensional curves predicted by the j-function. We found that the two
      trajectories matched in more than 85% of cases, independent from the subtending
      electric rhythm and the electrode location. Therefore, the real part of the j
      function's peculiar wave is ubiquitously endowed all over normal EEGs paths. We
      discuss the implications of such correlation in neuroscience and neurology,
      highlighting how the j-function might stand for the one of the basic oscillations
      of the brain, and how the still unexplored imaginary part might underlie several
      physiological and pathological nervous features.

PMID- 28554864
TI  - Theoretical study of separation and concentration of solutes by closed-loop
      recycling liquid-liquid chromatography with multiple sample injection.
AB  - The method of closed-loop recycling counter-current chromatography (CLR CCC) with
      multiple sample injection is proposed for the separation and concentration of a
      target component of a mixture. Analytical expressions are developed to describe
      the CLR CCC separations with multiple sample injection. Several possible
      implementations of multiple feed injection are analyzed: the feed is injected in
      each cycle, after every two cycles and in an arbitrary cycle. The application of
      different modes of multiple feed injection to the separation and concentration of
      the target component from binary mixtures by CLR CCC has been studied. The
      results of this study indicate that it is possible to achieve simultaneously both
      the separation and concentration of the target component.

PMID- 28554865
TI  - Development of primary standards for mass spectrometry to increase accuracy in
      quantifying environmental contaminants.
AB  - Internal standards are essential in electrospray ionization liquid chromatography
      mass spectrometry (ESI-LC-MS) to correct for systematic error associated with
      ionization suppression and/or enhancement. A wide array of instrument setups and
      interfaces has created difficulty in comparing the quantitation of absolute
      analyte response across laboratories. This communication demonstrates the use of
      primary standards as operational qualification standards for LC-MS instruments
      and their comparison with commonly accepted internal standards. In monitoring the
      performance of internal standards for perfluorinated compounds, potassium
      hydrogen phthalate (KHP) presented lower inter-day variability in instrument
      response than a commonly accepted deuterated perfluorinated internal standard (d3
      PFOS), with percent relative standard deviations less than or equal to 6%. The
      inter-day precision of KHP was greater than d3-PFOS over a 28-day monitoring of
      perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), across concentrations ranging from 0 to
      100MUg/L. The primary standard trometamol (Trizma) performed as well as known
      internal standards simeton and tris (2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCPP), with
      intra-day precision of Trizma response as low as 7% RSD on day 28. The inter-day
      precision of Trizma response was found to be greater than simeton and TCPP,
      across concentrations of neonicotinoids ranging from 1 to 100MUg/L. This study
      explores the potential of primary standards to be incorporated into LC-MS/MS
      methodology to improve the quantitative accuracy in environmental contaminant
      analysis.

PMID- 28554866
TI  - Two-structured solid particle model for predicting and analyzing supercritical
      extraction performance.
AB  - Solid extraction process, using the supercritical fluid, is a modern science and
      technology, which has come in vogue regarding its considerable advantages. In the
      present article, a new and comprehensive model is presented for predicting the
      performance and separation yield of the supercritical extraction process. The
      base of process modeling is partial differential mass balances. In the proposed
      model, the solid particles are considered twofold: (a) particles with intact
      structure, (b) particles with destructed structure. A distinct mass transfer
      coefficient has been used for extraction of each part of solid particles to
      express different extraction regimes and to evaluate the process accurately
      (internal mass transfer coefficient was used for the intact-structure particles
      and external mass transfer coefficient was employed for the destructed-structure
      particles). In order to evaluate and validate the proposed model, the obtained
      results from simulations were compared with two series of available experimental
      data for extraction of chamomile extract with supercritical carbon dioxide, which
      had an excellent agreement. This is indicative of high potentiality of the model
      in predicting the extraction process, precisely. In the following, the effect of
      major parameters on supercritical extraction process, like pressure, temperature,
      supercritical fluid flow rate, and the size of solid particles was evaluated. The
      model can be used as a superb starting point for scientific and experimental
      applications.

PMID- 28554867
TI  - Ionic strength-dependent changes in tentacular ion exchangers with variable
      ligand density. II. Functional properties.
AB  - The effect of ligand density was studied on protein adsorption and transport
      behavior in tentacular cation-exchange sorbents at different ionic strengths.
      Results were obtained for lysozyme, lactoferrin and a monoclonal antibody (mAb)
      in order to examine the effects of protein size and charge. The combination of
      ligand density and ionic strength results in extensive variability of the static
      and dynamic binding capacities, transport rate and binding affinity of the
      proteins. Uptake and elution experiments were performed to quantify the transport
      behavior of selected proteins, specifically to estimate intraparticle protein
      diffusivities. The observed trend of decreasing uptake diffusivities with an
      increase in ligand density was correlated to structural properties of the ligand
      density variants, particularly the accessible porosity. Increasing the ionic
      strength of the equilibration buffer led to enhanced mass transfer during uptake,
      independent of the transport model used, and specifically for larger proteins
      like lactoferrin and mAb, the most significant effects were evident in the
      sorbent of the highest ligand density. For lysozyme, higher ligand density leads
      to higher static and dynamic binding capacities whereas for lactoferrin and the
      mAb, the binding capacity is a complex function of accessible porosity due to
      ionic strength-dependent changes. Ligand density has a less pronounced effect on
      the elution rate, presumably due to ionic strength-dependent changes in the pore
      architecture of the sorbents.

PMID- 28554868
TI  - A novel deletion of SNURF/SNRPN exon 1 in a patient with Prader-Willi-like
      phenotype.
AB  - Here we report the smallest deletion involving SNURF/SNRPN that causes major
      symptoms of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), including hypotonia, dysmorphic
      features, intellectual disability, and obesity. A female patient with the
      aforementioned and additional features was referred to the Mayo Clinic
      Cytogenetics laboratory for genetic testing. Chromosomal microarray analysis and
      subsequent Sanger sequencing identified a de novo 6.4 kb deletion at 15q11.2,
      containing exon 1 of the SNURF gene and exon 1 of the shortest isoform of the
      SNRPN gene. SNURF/SNRPN exon 1, which is methylated on the silent maternal
      allele, is associated with acetylated histones on the expressed paternal allele.
      This region also overlaps with the PWS-imprinting center (IC). Subsequent
      molecular methylation analysis was performed using methylation-specific MLPA (MS
      MLPA), which characterized that the deletion of SNURF/SNRPN exon 1 was paternal
      in origin, consistent with the PWS-like phenotype. Since SNURF/SNRPN gene and the
      PWS-IC are known to regulate snoRNAs, it is likely that the PWS-like phenotype
      observed in patients with paternal SNURF/SNRPN deletion is due to the disrupted
      expression of SNORD116 snoRNAs.

PMID- 28554869
TI  - Pathogenicity of three genetically diverse strains of PRRSV Type 1 in specific
      pathogen free pigs.
AB  - Studies from Eastern European countries proved that porcine reproductive and
      respiratory syndrome virus Type 1 (PRRSV-1) harbours high genetic diversity and
      that genetically divergent subtypes 2-4 circulate in this area. In the present
      study, we compared the pathogenicity of two different PRRSV-1 subtype 2 strains
      and a strain representing PRRSV-1 subtype 1. Four groups of 8-week-old specific
      pathogen free pigs were either infected with subtype 2 strain ILI6, subtype 2
      strain or BOR59, subtype 1 strain 18794, or mock inoculated. The most pronounced
      clinical signs were observed in pigs infected with BOR59. Pigs from both subtype
      2 strain infected groups exhibited significantly elevated mean body temperatures
      on DPI 2 compared to the other two groups, the difference remaining significant
      up to DPI 13 for the BOR59 group, only. The pigs in the latter group also
      displayed significantly highest levels of early viremia together with the most
      rapid APP response. Overall, the results indicated that BOR59 strain can be
      considered a highly pathogenic strain, similarly to subtype 3 strains Lena and
      SU1-bel, while the virulence of the other subtype 2 strain ILI6 was intermediate
      between BOR59 and subtype 1 strain.

PMID- 28554870
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects and corresponding mechanisms of cirsimaritin extracted
      from Cirsium japonicum var. maackii Maxim.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of
      cirsimaritin isolated from an ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Cirsium
      japonicum var. maackii Maxim. using RAW264.7 cells. The extract and its flavonoid
      cirsimaritin inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production and inducible nitric oxide
      synthase expression in RAW264.7 cells. Cirsimaritin inhibited interleukin-6,
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and NO production in a concentration-dependent
      manner in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. From a western blot
      study, pretreatment with cirsimaritin inhibited phosphorylation/degradation of
      IkappaBalpha and phosphorylation of Akt in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells.
      Moreover, cirsimaritin suppressed activation of LPS-induced transcription
      factors, such as c-fos and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3
      (STAT3), in RAW264.7 cells. Collectively, these results show that cirsimaritin
      possesses anti-inflammatory activity, which is regulated by inhibition of c-fos
      and STAT3 phosphorylation in RAW264.7 cells.

PMID- 28554872
TI  - Safety Window for the Volar Needle Approach for Examination of the Pronator
      Quadratus Using Ultrasonography.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate pronator quadratus (PQ) anatomy and determine the
      proper volar needle insertion point based on landmarks, the tip of the ulnar
      styloid (an imaginary vertical line passing the tip of the ulnar styloid process
      [U line]), and the ulnar margin of the palmaris longus tendon (uPL) using
      ultrasonography. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Department of physical
      medicine and rehabilitation. PARTICIPANTS: Participants between 20 and 60 years
      without any diseases. (N=25; 13 men, 12 women; 50 forearms). INTERVENTIONS:
      Ultrasonography. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The proximal and distal volar surface
      points of origin, the proximal and distal insertion sites, and the midpoint of
      the PQ (PQ_M) were determined. The distance of each of the PQ surface indices
      from the U line was measured, and the probe was positioned at the level of PQ_M
      parallel to the U line. The relative distances from the vertical surface points
      of the median nerve and ulnar artery to the uPL were measured. RESULTS: The mean
      age and body mass index were 32.7+/-10.4 years and 21.98+/-2.83kg/m2. The PQ_M
      was located at a mean distance of 2.63+/-0.35cm proximal from the U line (men
      2.79+/-0.37cm and women 2.45+/-0.21cm; P<.05). The mean safety window for the
      volar approach was 0.72+/-1.8cm toward the radial side and 1.51+/-0.30cm toward
      the ulnar side from the uPL. The PQ was at a mean depth of 1.30+/-0.19cm from the
      skin and had a mean thickness of 1.19+/-0.24cm at the level of PQ_M. The distance
      between the U line and the proximal edge of the PQ, as well as the PQ thickness,
      was greater in men than in women. CONCLUSIONS: The volar approach for needle
      electromyographic examination of the PQ can be performed precisely and safely.

PMID- 28554871
TI  - Design, synthesis of novel furan appended benzothiazepine derivatives and in
      vitro biological evaluation as potent VRV-PL-8a and H+/K+ ATPase inhibitors.
AB  - A series of new of furan derivatised [1,4] benzothiazepine analogues were
      synthesized starting from 1-(furan-2-yl)ethanone. 1-(Furan-2-yl)ethanone was
      converted into chalcones by its reaction with various aromatic aldehydes, then
      were reacted with 2-aminobenzenethiol in acidic conditions to obtain the title
      compounds in good yields. The synthesized new compounds were characterized by 1H
      NMR, 13C NMR, Mass spectral studies and elemental analyses. All the new compounds
      were evaluated for their in vitro VRV-PL-8a and H+/K+ ATPase inhibitor
      properties. Preliminary studies revealed that, some molecules amongst the
      designed series showed promising VRV-PL-8a and H+/K+ ATPase inhibitor properties.
      Further, rigid body docking studies were performed to understand possible docking
      sites of the molecules on the target proteins and the mode of binding. This
      finding presents a promising series of lead molecules that can serve as
      prototypes for the treatment of inflammatory related disorder that can mitigate
      the ulcer inducing side effect shown by other NSAIDs.

PMID- 28554873
TI  - Effect of Exercise and Cognitive Training on Falls and Fall-Related Factors in
      Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of exercise and cognitive training on falls
      reduction and on factors known to be associated with falls among community
      dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). DATA SOURCES: Seven
      databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ProQuest, ProQuest
      Dissertations and Theses, Digital Dissertation Consortium) and reference lists of
      pertinent articles were searched. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials
      (RCTs) on the effect of exercise, cognitive training, or a combination of both on
      falls and factors associated with falls such as balance, lower limb muscle
      strength, gait, and cognitive function among community-dwelling older adults with
      MCI were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted using the modified Joanna
      Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument
      (JBI-MAStARI) tool. Study quality was assessed using the JBI-MAStARI appraisal
      instrument. DATA SYNTHESIS: Seventeen RCTs (1679 participants; mean age +/- SD,
      74.4+/-2.4y) were included. Exercise improved gait speed and global cognitive
      function in MCI; both are known factors associated with falls. Cognitive training
      alone had no significant effect on cognitive function, while combined exercise
      and cognitive training improved balance in MCI. Neither fall rate nor the number
      of fallers was reported in any of the studies included. CONCLUSIONS: This review
      suggests that exercise, and combined exercise and cognitive training improve
      specific factors associated with falls such as gait speed, cognitive function,
      and balance in MCI. Further research on the direct effect of exercise and
      cognitive training on the fall rate and incidence in older adults with MCI with
      larger sample sizes is highly recommended.

PMID- 28554874
TI  - Free cholesterol accumulation in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells exacerbates
      acetaminophen hepatotoxicity via TLR9 signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Although obesity is a risk factor for acute liver failure, the
      pathogenic mechanisms are not yet fully understood. High cholesterol (HC) intake,
      which often underlies obesity, is suggested to play a role in the mechanism. We
      aimed to elucidate the effect of a HC diet on acetaminophen-induced acute liver
      injury, the most frequent cause of acute liver failure in the USA. METHODS:
      C57BL/6 Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) knockout (Tlr9-/-) mice and their Tlr9+/+
      littermates were fed an HC diet for fourweeks and then treated with
      acetaminophen. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) were isolated from the
      mice for in vivo and in vitro analyses. RESULTS: The HC diet exacerbated
      acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury in a TLR9/inflammasome pathway-dependent
      manner. LSECs played a major role in the cholesterol loading-induced
      exacerbation. The accumulation of free cholesterol in the endolysosomes in LSECs
      enhanced TLR9-mediated signaling, thereby exacerbating the pathology of
      acetaminophen-induced liver injury through the activation of the
      TLR9/inflammasome pathway. The accumulation of free cholesterol in LSEC
      endolysosomes induced a dysfunction of the Rab7 membrane trafficking recycling
      mechanism, thus disrupting the transport of TLR9 from late endosomes to the
      lysosomes. Consequently, the level of active TLR9 in the late endosomes
      increased, thereby enhancing TLR9 signaling in LSECs. CONCLUSIONS: HC intake
      exaggerated acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury via free cholesterol
      accumulation in LSECs, demonstrating a novel role of free cholesterol as a
      metabolic factor in TLR9 signal regulation and pathologies of acetaminophen
      induced liver injury. Therapeutic approaches may target this pathway. Lay
      summary: High cholesterol intake exacerbated acetaminophen-induced acute liver
      injury via the accumulation of free cholesterol in the endolysosomes of liver
      sinusoidal endothelial cells. This accumulation enhanced Toll-like receptor 9
      signaling via impairment of its membrane trafficking mechanism. Thus, free
      cholesterol accumulation, as an underlying metabolic factor, exacerbated the
      pathology of acetaminophen-induced liver injury through activation of the
      TLR9/inflammasome pathway.

PMID- 28554876
TI  - Heart failure and endothelial nitric oxide synthase G894T gene polymorphism
      frequency variations within ancestries.
AB  - The G894T polymorphism in endothelial nitric oxide synthase enzyme gene plays an
      important role in heart failure (HF) and its frequency varies among populations.
      We investigated this association in highly admixed samples in terms of ancestry.
      The cohort included 210 HF patients and 106 healthy individuals. Self-reported
      race and NYHA class were analyzed for HF patients. G894T polymorphism was
      analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and by restriction fragment length
      polymorphism technique. Ancestry was estimated using a PCR reaction containing 46
      autosomal ancestry informative markers and an analysis by capillary
      electrophoresis. The GG homozygous genotype had a higher frequency in HF patients
      (63.8%) than in healthy individuals (48.1%), showing an increased chance (odds
      ratio 1.90, 95% confidence interval 1.18-3.05). The ancestry profiles in patients
      and controls were similar, with a major European contribution (57.1% and 63.2%),
      followed by African (30.2% and 24.0%) and Native American (12.7% and 12.8%),
      without a significant difference between both samples (p = 0.28). The GG genotype
      is associated to HF prognosis, and this association remains present in highly
      admixed sample groups.

PMID- 28554875
TI  - CD39 limits P2X7 receptor inflammatory signaling and attenuates sepsis-induced
      liver injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The severity of sepsis can be linked to excessive inflammatory
      responses resulting in hepatic injury. P2X7 receptor activation by extracellular
      ATP (eATP) exacerbates inflammation by augmenting cytokine production; while CD39
      (ENTPD1) scavenges eATP to generate adenosine, thereby limiting P2X7 activation
      and resulting in A2A receptor stimulation. We aim to determine how the functional
      interaction of P2X7 receptor and CD39 control the macrophage response, and
      consequently impact on sepsis and liver injury. METHODS: Sepsis was induced by
      cecal ligation and puncture in C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and CD39-/- mice. Several
      in vitro assays were performed using peritoneal or bone marrow derived
      macrophages to determine CD39 ectonucleotidase activity and its role in sepsis
      induced liver injury. RESULTS: CD39 expression in macrophages limits ATP-P2X7
      receptor pro-inflammatory signaling. P2X7 receptor paradoxically boosts CD39
      activity. Inhibition and/or deletion of P2X7 receptor in LPS-primed macrophages
      attenuates cytokine production and inflammatory signaling as well as preventing
      ATP-induced increases in CD39 activity. Septic CD39-/- mice exhibit higher levels
      of inflammatory cytokines and show more pronounced liver injury than WT mice.
      Pharmacological P2X7 blockade largely prevents tissue damage, cell apoptosis,
      cytokine production, and the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways in the
      liver from septic WT, while only attenuating these outcomes in CD39-/- mice.
      Furthermore, the combination of P2X7 blockade with adenosine A2A receptor
      stimulation completely inhibits cytokine production, the activation of
      inflammatory signaling pathways, and protects septic CD39-/- mice against liver
      injury. CONCLUSIONS: CD39 attenuates sepsis-associated liver injury by scavenging
      eATP and ultimately generating adenosine. We propose boosting of CD39 would
      suppress P2X7 responses and trigger adenosinergic signaling to limit systemic
      inflammation and restore liver homeostasis during the acute phase of sepsis. Lay
      summary: CD39 expression in macrophages limits P2X7-mediated pro-inflammatory
      responses, scavenging extracellular ATP and ultimately generating adenosine. CD39
      genetic deletion exacerbates sepsis-induced experimental liver injury.
      Combinations of a P2X7 antagonist and adenosine A2A receptor agonist are
      hepatoprotective during the acute phase of abdominal sepsis.

PMID- 28554877
TI  - Comparison of Ecological Momentary Assessment Versus Direct Measurement of E
      Cigarette Use With a Bluetooth-Enabled E-Cigarette: A Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assessing the frequency and intensity of e-cigarette use presents
      special challenges beyond those posed by cigarette use. Accurate measurement of e
      cigarette consumption, puff duration, and the stability of these measures over
      time will be informative for estimating the behavioral and health effects of e
      cigarette use. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the
      accuracy of self-reported e-cigarette puff counts collected via ecological
      momentary assessment (EMA) to objective puff count data collected by a Bluetooth
      enabled e-cigarette device and to examine the feasibility and acceptability of
      using a second-generation e-cigarette among adult smokers. METHODS: A total of 5
      adult smokers were enrolled in a longitudinal parent study assessing how e
      cigarette use affects cigarette use among e-cigarette-naive smokers. Using a text
      message-based EMA system, participants reported e-cigarette puffs for 2 weeks.
      Participants were also given a Bluetooth-enabled e-cigarette (Smokio) that
      passively collected puff counts and puff duration. Comparisons between mean
      reports of Smokio (device-report) and EMA (self-report) use were evaluated using
      paired t tests. Correlation and agreement between device- and self-reports were
      evaluated using Pearson correlation and the concordance correlation coefficient
      (CCC), respectively. A linear mixed effect model was used to determine the fixed
      effect of timing and Smokio-reported daily puffs on report accuracy. We examined
      the relationship between time of day and reporting accuracy using Tukey's test
      for multiple pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: A total of 5 African American
      participants, 4 men and 1 woman, who ranged in age from 24 to 59 years completed
      the study, resulting in 5180 observations (device-report) of e-cigarette use. At
      baseline, participants reported smoking for 5 to 25 years and consumed a mean of
      7 to 13 cigarettes per day (CPD); 4 smoked within 30 minutes of waking. At the 30
      day follow-up, CPD range decreased to 1 to 3 cigarettes; 4 participants reported
      past 7-day e-cigarette use, and 1 participant reported no cigarette smoking in
      the past 7 days. Over 2 weeks of e-cigarette use, participants took an average of
      1074 e-cigarette (SD 779.0) puffs per person as captured by the device reports.
      Each participant took a mean of 75.0 (SD 58.8) puffs per day, with each puff
      lasting an average of 3.6 (SD 2.4) seconds. Device reports captured an average of
      33.3 (SD 47.8) more puffs per person per day than the self-reported e-cigarette
      puffs. In 87% of days, participants underestimated the number of puffs they had
      taken on the Smokio. There was significant moderate correlation (r=.47, P<.001)
      but poor agreement (pc=0.31, 95% CI 0.15-0.46) between the device- and self
      reported data. Reporting accuracy was affected by amount and timing of e
      cigarette use. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to self-reported e-cigarette use, the
      Bluetooth-enabled device captured significantly more e-cigarette use and allowed
      for examination of puff duration in addition to puff counts. A Bluetooth-enabled
      e-cigarette is a powerful and feasible tool for objective collection of e
      cigarette use behavior in the real world.

PMID- 28554879
TI  - A Smartphone-Based Approach for Triage of Human Papillomavirus-Positive Sub
      Saharan African Women: A Prospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan African countries are marked by a high incidence of
      cervical cancer. Madagascar ranks 11th among the countries with the highest
      cervical cancer incidence worldwide. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to
      evaluate the performances of digital smartphone-based visual inspection with
      acetic acid (D-VIA) and Lugol's iodine (D-VILI) for diagnosing cervical precancer
      and cancer. METHODS: Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive women recruited through
      a cervical screening campaign had D-VIA and D-VILI examinations with endocervical
      curettage (ECC) and cervical biopsy. Three images were captured for each woman
      (native, D-VIA, D-VILI) using a smartphone camera. The images were randomly coded
      and distributed on 2 online databases (Google Forms). The D-VIA form included
      native and D-VIA images, and the D-VILI form included native and D-VILI images.
      Pathological cases were defined as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or
      worse (CIN2+). Physicians rated the images as non-pathological or pathological.
      Using the ECC and cervical biopsy results as references, the sensitivity and
      specificity of D-VIA and D-VILI examinations for each and all physicians were
      calculated. RESULTS: Altogether, 15 clinicians assessed 240 images. Sensitivity
      was higher for the D-VIA interpretations (94.1%; 95% CI 81.6-98.3) than for the D
      VILI interpretations (78.8%; 95% CI 54.1-92.1; P=.009). In contrast, the
      specificity was higher for the D-VILI interpretations (56.4%; 95% CI 38.3-72.9)
      than for the D-VIA interpretations (50.4%; 95% CI 35.9-64.8; P=.005). CONCLUSION:
      Smartphone-based image for triage of HPV-positive women is more accurate for
      detecting CIN2+ lesions with D-VIA than D-VILI, although with a small loss of
      specificity.

PMID- 28554880
TI  - Diversity in eMental Health Practice: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service Providers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Australia, mental health services are undergoing major systemic
      reform with eMental Health (eMH) embedded in proposed service models for all but
      those with severe mental illness. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service
      providers have been targeted as a national priority for training and
      implementation of eMH into service delivery. Implementation studies on technology
      uptake in health workforces identify complex and interconnected variables that
      influence how individual practitioners integrate new technologies into their
      practice. To date there are only two implementation studies that focus on eMH and
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service providers. They suggest that the
      implementation of eMH in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      populations may be different from the implementation of eMH with allied health
      professionals and mainstream health services. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study is to investigate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service
      providers in one regional area of Australia used eMH resources in their practice
      following an eMH training program and to determine what types of eMH resources
      they used. METHODS: Individual semistructured qualitative interviews were
      conducted with a purposive sample of 16 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      service providers. Interviews were co-conducted by one indigenous and one non
      indigenous interviewer. A sample of transcripts were coded and thematically
      analyzed by each interviewer and then peer reviewed. Consensus codes were then
      applied to all transcripts and themes identified. RESULTS: It was found that 9 of
      the 16 service providers were implementing eMH resources into their routine
      practice. The findings demonstrate that participants used eMH resources for
      supporting social inclusion, informing and educating, assessment, case planning
      and management, referral, responding to crises, and self and family care. They
      chose a variety of types of eMH resources to use with their clients, both
      culturally specific and mainstream. While they referred clients to online
      treatment programs, they used only eMH resources designed for mobile devices in
      their face-to-face contact with clients. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander service providers and the eMH field with
      findings that may inform and guide the implementation of eMH resources. It may
      help policy developers locate this workforce within broader service provision
      planning for eMH. The findings could, with adaptation, have wider application to
      other workforces who work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients. The
      findings highlight the importance of identifying and addressing the particular
      needs of minority groups for eMH services and resources.

PMID- 28554878
TI  - Adherence to AHA Guidelines When Adapted for Augmented Reality Glasses for
      Assisted Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation (CPR) are nowadays recognized as the world's most authoritative
      resuscitation guidelines. Adherence to these guidelines optimizes the management
      of critically ill patients and increases their chances of survival after cardiac
      arrest. Despite their availability, suboptimal quality of CPR is still common.
      Currently, the median hospital survival rate after pediatric in-hospital cardiac
      arrest is 36%, whereas it falls below 10% for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
      Among emerging information technologies and devices able to support caregivers
      during resuscitation and increase adherence to AHA guidelines, augmented reality
      (AR) glasses have not yet been assessed. In order to assess their potential, we
      adapted AHA Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) guidelines for AR glasses.
      OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to determine whether adapting AHA guidelines for AR
      glasses increased adherence by reducing deviation and time to initiation of
      critical life-saving maneuvers during pediatric CPR when compared with the use of
      PALS pocket reference cards. METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial
      with two parallel groups of voluntary pediatric residents, comparing AR glasses
      to PALS pocket reference cards during a simulation-based pediatric cardiac arrest
      scenario-pulseless ventricular tachycardia (pVT). The primary outcome was the
      elapsed time in seconds in each allocation group, from onset of pVT to the first
      defibrillation attempt. Secondary outcomes were time elapsed to (1) initiation of
      chest compression, (2) subsequent defibrillation attempts, and (3) administration
      of drugs, as well as the time intervals between defibrillation attempts and drug
      doses, shock doses, and number of shocks. All these outcomes were assessed for
      deviation from AHA guidelines. RESULTS: Twenty residents were randomized into 2
      groups. Time to first defibrillation attempt (mean: 146 s) and adherence to AHA
      guidelines in terms of time to other critical resuscitation endpoints and drug
      dose delivery were not improved using AR glasses. However, errors and deviations
      were significantly reduced in terms of defibrillation doses when compared with
      the use of the PALS pocket reference cards. In a total of 40 defibrillation
      attempts, residents not wearing AR glasses used wrong doses in 65% (26/40) of
      cases, including 21 shock overdoses >100 J, for a cumulative defibrillation dose
      of 18.7 Joules per kg. These errors were reduced by 53% (21/40, P<.001) and
      cumulative defibrillation dose by 37% (5.14/14, P=.001) with AR glasses.
      CONCLUSIONS: AR glasses did not decrease time to first defibrillation attempt and
      other critical resuscitation endpoints when compared with PALS pocket cards.
      However, they improved adherence and performance among residents in terms of
      administering the defibrillation doses set by AHA.

PMID- 28554881
TI  - Incorporation of a Stress Reducing Mobile App in the Care of Patients With Type 2
      Diabetes: A Prospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe and sustained emotional stress creates a physiological burden
      through increased sympathetic activity and higher energy demand. This may lead to
      increased oxidative stress and development of the metabolic syndrome. Emotional
      stress has been shown to contribute to the onset, progression, and control of
      type 2 diabetes (T2D). Stress management and biofeedback assisted relaxation have
      been shown to improve glycemic control. Use of a mobile app for stress management
      may enhance the scalability of such an approach. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to assess the effect of using a mobile app of biofeedback-assisted relaxation
      on weight, blood pressure (BP), and glycemic measures of patients with T2D.
      METHODS: Adult patients with T2D and inadequate glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c
      [HbA1c]>7.5%) were recruited from the outpatient diabetes clinic. Baseline
      weight, BP, HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglycerides (TG), and 7-point
      self-monitoring of blood glucose were measured. Patients were provided with a
      stress reducing biofeedback mobile app and instructed to use it 3 times a day.
      The mobile app-Serenita-is an interactive relaxation app based on acquiring a
      photoplethysmography signal from the mobile phone's camera lens, where the user
      places his finger. The app collects information regarding the user's blood flow,
      heart rate, and heart rate variability and provides real-time feedback and
      individualized breathing instructions in order to modulate the stress level. All
      clinical and biochemical measures were repeated at 8 and 16 weeks of the study.
      The primary outcome was changes in measures at 8 weeks. RESULTS: Seven patients
      completed 8 weeks of the study and 4 completed 16 weeks. At week 8, weight
      dropped by an average of 4.0 Kg (SD 4.3), systolic BP by 8.6 mmHg (SD 18.6),
      HbA1c by 1.3% (SD 1.6), FPG by 4.3 mmol/l (4.2), and serum TG were unchanged.
      CONCLUSIONS: Stress reduction using a mobile app based on biofeedback may improve
      glycemic control, weight, and BP.

PMID- 28554883
TI  - Streptococcus bovis prosthetic valve endocarditis associated with silent colonic
      carcinoma.
AB  - A 75-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with a 3-month history of fever.
      Of note, she had a bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement 1 year prior to
      admission. Streptococcus bovis was isolated from three sets of blood cultures. An
      echocardiogram showed a flickering mass attached to the bioprosthesis. Her blood
      culture became sterile by the fourth day of ceftriaxone therapy. In spite of the
      absence of gastrointestinal symptoms, screening colonoscopy revealed an invasive
      colonic adenocarcinoma. The association linking S. bovis endocarditis and colonic
      tumours is well recognised. However, despite early reports of this association by
      Klein et al in 1979, a large number of practising physicians remain unaware of
      this phenomenon. This lack of awareness results in lost opportunities for early
      diagnosis and, consequently, improved outcome in such patients. Our report
      emphasises this association in an area with a low incidence of S. bovis
      endocarditis.

PMID- 28554884
TI  - Ichthyosis linearis circumflexa with bamboo hair: challenges in the diagnosis and
      management.
AB  - A 15-year-old boy had persistent and refractory erythroderma since early
      childhood. His parents noticed polycyclic skin lesions and hair fragility around
      the age of 5 years. He was treated by a local untrained practitioner for more
      than 3 years without any significant improvement, and he developed weight gain,
      thinning of skin, muscle weakness and growth retardation. He was evaluated in
      2015 and found to have iatrogenic Cushing's disease with severe skeletal
      complications and pituitary-adrenal-gonadal suppression, which persisted despite
      gradual withdrawal of steroids.

PMID- 28554886
TI  - A rare case of bilateral lens dislocations.

PMID- 28554882
TI  - Diagnosis, Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, Prevention, and Control of
      Hypertension in Cameroon: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of
      Clinic-Based and Community-Based Studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension holds a unique place in population health and health
      care because it is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease and the most
      common noncommunicable condition seen in primary care worldwide. Without
      effective prevention and control, raised blood pressure significantly increases
      the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, heart failure,
      dementia, renal failure, and blindness. There is an urgent need for stakeholders
      including individuals and families-across the health system, researchers, and
      decision makers to work collaboratively for improving prevention, screening and
      detection, diagnosis and evaluation, awareness, treatment and medication
      adherence, management, and control for people with or at high risk for
      hypertension. Meeting this need will help reduce the burden of hypertension
      related disease, prevent complications, and reduce the need for hospitalization,
      costly interventions, and premature deaths. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to
      synthesize evidence on the epidemiological landscape and control of hypertension
      in Cameroon, and to identify elements that could potentially inform interventions
      to combat hypertension in this setting and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
      METHODS: The full search process will involve several steps, including selecting
      relevant databases, keywords, and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH); searching for
      relevant studies from the selected databases; searching OpenGrey and the Grey
      Literature Report for gray literature; hand searching in Google Scholar; and
      soliciting missed publications (if any) from relevant authors. We will select
      qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods studies with data on the epidemiology
      and control of hypertension in Cameroon. We will include published literature in
      French or English from electronic databases up to December 31, 2016, and
      involving adults aged 18 years or older. Both facility and population-based
      studies on hypertension will be included. Two reviewers of the team will
      independently search, screen, extract data, and assess the quality of selected
      studies using suitable tools. Selected studies will be analyzed by narrative
      synthesis, meta-analysis, or both, depending on the nature of the data retrieved
      in line with the review objectives. RESULTS: This review is part of an ongoing
      research program on disease prevention and control in the context of the dual
      burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases in Africa. The first results
      are expected in 2017. CONCLUSIONS: This review will provide a comprehensive
      assessment of the burden of hypertension and control measures that have been
      designed and implemented in Cameroon. Findings will form the knowledge base
      relevant to stakeholders across the health system and researchers who are
      involved in hypertension prevention and control in the community and clinic
      settings in Cameroon, as a yardstick for similar African countries. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017054950;
      http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ display_record.asp?ID=CRD42017054950
      (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qYSjt9Jc).

PMID- 28554885
TI  - Osteolytic lesions: osteitis fibrosa cystica in the setting of severe primary
      hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - A 58-year-old female patient presented with several weeks history of significant
      bilateral knee pain. Initial knee radiographs demonstrated lucencies of the bony
      cortex while extensive osteolytic lesions on a routine chest radiograph were
      suggestive of multiple myeloma or bony metastases. Biochemical investigation
      revealed primary hyperparathyroidism with renal insufficiency. A parathyroid
      adenoma was demonstrated on a neck ultrasound and sestamibi scan and subsequently
      confirmed by histology. We illustrate a case of primary hyperparathyroidism with
      osteitis fibrosa cystica and brown tumours which were initially mistaken for
      malignant disease.

PMID- 28554887
TI  - Portomesenteric venous thrombosis complicated by a haemorrhagic shock: a rare
      complication of laparoscopic gastrectomy.
AB  - Portomesenteric venous thrombosis is a rare complication reported in only a few
      cases involving laparoscopic bariatric surgery. We report a case of a 44-year-old
      woman who presented 14 days after recent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy with the
      chief complaint of abdominal pain and associated nausea. Abdominal CT
      demonstrated thrombi in her superior mesenteric, portal and splenic veins. She
      was initiated on therapeutic heparin but developed haemorrhagic shock shortly
      afterwards. Subsequent CT angiogram failed to localise the source of her
      haemorrhage. Her haemodynamic instability improved following a 6-day intensive
      care unit stay requiring vasopressive agents and blood transfusions. Further
      hypercoagulable workup revealed that she was a heterozygous carrier of the
      prothrombin gene mutation, and thus started on lifelong oral anticoagulation.

PMID- 28554889
TI  - Development of Glutamatergic Proteins in Human Visual Cortex across the Lifespan.
AB  - Traditionally, human primary visual cortex (V1) has been thought to mature within
      the first few years of life, based on anatomical studies of synapse formation,
      and establishment of intracortical and intercortical connections. Human vision,
      however, develops well beyond the first few years. Previously, we found prolonged
      development of some GABAergic proteins in human V1 (Pinto et al., 2010). Yet as
      >80% of synapses in V1 are excitatory, it remains unanswered whether the majority
      of synapses regulating experience-dependent plasticity and receptive field
      properties develop late, like their inhibitory counterparts. To address this
      question, we used Western blotting of postmortem tissue from human V1 (12 female,
      18 male) covering a range of ages. Then we quantified a set of postsynaptic
      glutamatergic proteins (PSD-95, GluA2, GluN1, GluN2A, GluN2B), calculated indices
      for functional pairs that are developmentally regulated (GluA2:GluN1;
      GluN2A:GluN2B), and determined interindividual variability. We found early loss
      of GluN1, prolonged development of PSD-95 and GluA2 into late childhood,
      protracted development of GluN2A until ~40 years, and dramatic loss of GluN2A in
      aging. The GluA2:GluN1 index switched at ~1 year, but the GluN2A:GluN2B index
      continued to shift until ~40 year before changing back to GluN2B in aging. We
      also identified young childhood as a stage of heightened interindividual
      variability. The changes show that human V1 develops gradually through a series
      of five orchestrated stages, making it likely that V1 participates in visual
      development and plasticity across the lifespan.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Anatomical
      structure of human V1 appears to mature early, but vision changes across the
      lifespan. This discrepancy has fostered two hypotheses: either other aspects of
      V1 continue changing, or later changes in visual perception depend on
      extrastriate areas. Previously, we showed that some GABAergic synaptic proteins
      change across the lifespan, but most synapses in V1 are excitatory leaving
      unanswered how they change. So we studied expression of glutamatergic proteins in
      human V1 to determine their development. Here we report prolonged maturation of
      glutamatergic proteins, with five stages that map onto life-long changes in human
      visual perception. Thus, the apparent discrepancy between development of
      structure and function may be explained by life-long synaptic changes in human
      V1.

PMID- 28554890
TI  - Atypical aspirates of the breast: a dilemma in current cytology practice.
AB  - AIMS: The probabilistic approach is widely adopted for breast fine needle
      aspiration cytology. However, a definite cytological diagnosis is not always
      possible for C3 (atypia) cases, which poses a management dilemma as this
      represents a mixed category of benign and malignant cases. It would be beneficial
      to be able to predict malignancy based on specific cytological features in C3
      aspirates. METHODS: A comprehensive panel of cytological features (including
      quantitative, cytomorphological and background features) in a large cohort of C3
      breast aspirates with subsequent histological excisions was evaluated to identify
      relevant morphological criteria predicting the risk of subsequent malignancy.
      RESULTS: A total of 229 C3 specimens with histological follow-up were included.
      Malignant outcome was found in 30.1% of specimens and the majority were invasive
      cancers. Features that showed a significant association with malignant outcome
      included older age (p=0.001), lower percentage of epithelial cell clusters and
      high percentage of single cells (p=0.002), cribriform architecture in cell
      clusters (p=0.034), presence of intracellular mucin (p=0.027), increased cell
      clusters without myoepithelial cells (p=0.048), diminished fibromyxoid stromal
      fragments (p=0.001), reduced bipolar nuclei (p=0.021) and the presence of
      necrosis (p=0.023). Except for the percentages of single cells and cell clusters
      without myoepithelial cells, all other features were shown to be independent risk
      predictors in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: C3 aspirates were associated
      with a significant probability of histological malignancy. Certain quantitative,
      cytomorphological and background features were potentially helpful in predicting
      the risk of a malignant outcome. The prediction could be clinically useful in the
      management of C3 cases.

PMID- 28554888
TI  - What are the current challenges of managing cancer pain and could digital
      technologies help?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pain remains a problem for people with cancer despite effective
      treatments being available. We aimed to explore current pain management
      strategies used by patients, caregivers and professionals and to investigate
      opportunities for digital technologies to enhance cancer pain management.
      METHODS: A qualitative study comprising semistructured interviews and focus
      groups. Patients with cancer pain, their caregivers and health professionals from
      Northeast Scotland were recruited from a purposive sample of general practices.
      Professionals were recruited from regional networks. RESULTS: Fifty one
      participants took part in 33 interviews (eight patients alone, six
      patient/caregiver dyads and 19 professionals) and two focus groups (12
      professionals). Living with cancer was hard work for patients and caregivers and
      comparable to a 'full-time job'. Patients had personal goals which involved
      controlling pain intensity and balancing this with analgesic use, side effects,
      overall symptom burden and social/physical activities.Digital technologies were
      embraced by most patients, and made living life with advanced cancer easier and
      richer (eg, video calls with family). Technology was underutilised for pain and
      symptom management. There were suggestions that technology could support self
      monitoring and communicating problems to professionals, but patients and
      professionals were concerned about technological monitoring adding to the work of
      managing illness. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer pain management takes place in the context
      of multiple, sometimes competing personal goals. It is possible that technology
      could be used to help patients share individual symptom experiences and goals,
      thus enhancing tailored care. The challenge is for digital solutions to add value
      without adding undue burden.

PMID- 28554891
TI  - DNA repair gene expressions are related to bone marrow cellularity in
      myelodysplastic syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the expression of genes related to nuclear excision
      (ERCC8, XPA and XPC), homologous recombination and non-homologous end-joining
      (ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2 and LIG4) repair mechanisms, using quantitative PCR
      methodologies, and it relation with bone marrow cellularity in myelodysplastic
      syndrome (MDS). METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 51 adult de novo patients with
      MDS (3 refractory anaemia (RA), 11 refractory anaemia with ringed sideroblasts
      (RARS), 28 refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia (RCMD), 3 refractory
      anaemia with excess blasts type I (RAEB-I), 5 refractory anaemia with excess
      blasts type II (RAEB-II), and 1 chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML) were
      evaluated. For karyotype, 16.2% patients were defined as very low prognosis,
      59.5% low risk, 8.1% intermediate risk, 5.4% high risk and 10.8% very high risk.
      For bone marrow cellularity, 17.6%, 17.6% and 64.7% presented as hypocellular,
      normocellular and hypercellular, respectively. Patients with hypocellular MDS had
      significantly decreased expression of ATM (p=0.000), BRCA1 (p=0.014), BRCA2
      (p=0.003), LIG4 (p=0.004) and ERCC8 (p=0.000) than those with
      normocellular/hypercellular bone marrow, whereas XPA (p=0.049) and XPC (p=0.000)
      genes were increased. In patients with hypoplastic MDS, a low expression of ATM
      (p=0.0268), LIG4 (p=0.0199) and ERCC8 (p=0.0493) was significantly associated
      with the presence of chromosomal abnormalities. We detected positive correlations
      between BRCA1 and BRCA2 (r=0.416; p=0.007), ATM and LIG4 (r=0.472; p=0.001), LIG4
      and BRCA1 (r=0.333; p=0.026), LIG4 and BRCA2 (r=0.334; p=0.025), ATM and XPA
      (r=0.377; p=0.008), ATM and XPC (r=0.287; p=0.046), LIG4 and XPC (r=0.371;
      p=0.007) and XPA and XPC genes (r=0.895; p=0.0000). We also found among all
      patients evaluated that correlation with LIG4 occurred most often. CONCLUSIONS:
      These correlations demonstrate the important intrinsic relations between single
      and double DNA strand breaks genes in MDS, emphasising that these genes are
      related to MDS pathogenesis.

PMID- 28554892
TI  - Extrapolation in the development of paediatric medicines: examples from approvals
      for biological treatments for paediatric chronic immune-mediated inflammatory
      diseases.
AB  - The European Union (EU) Paediatric Regulation requires that all new medicinal
      products applying for a marketing authorisation (MA) in the EU provide a
      paediatric investigation plan (PIP) covering a clinical and non-clinical trial
      programme relating to the use in the paediatric population, unless a waiver
      applies. Conducting trials in children is challenging on many levels, including
      ethical and practical issues, which may affect the availability of the clinical
      evidence. In scientifically justified cases, extrapolation of data from other
      populations can be an option to gather evidence supporting the benefit-risk
      assessment of the medicinal product for paediatric use. The European Medicines
      Agency (EMA) is working on providing a framework for extrapolation that is
      scientifically valid, reliable and adequate to support MA of medicines for
      children. It is expected that the extrapolation framework together with
      therapeutic area guidelines and individual case studies will support future PIPs.
      Extrapolation has already been employed in several paediatric development
      programmes including biological treatment for immune-mediated diseases. This
      article reviews extrapolation strategies from MA applications for products for
      the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, paediatric psoriasis and
      paediatric inflammatory bowel disease. It also provides a summary of
      extrapolation advice expressed in relevant EMA guidelines and initiatives
      supporting the use of alternative approaches in paediatric medicine development.

PMID- 28554893
TI  - Concordance between self-reported STI history and biomedical results among men
      who have sex with men in Los Angeles, California.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: HIV studies and risk assessments among men who have sex with men
      (MSM) frequently use self-reported STI history as a proxy for true STI history.
      The objective of our study was to assess the validity of self-reported STI
      history through comparison with laboratory-confirmed biomedical results. METHODS:
      Data were analysed for MSM attending the Los Angeles LGBT Center (the Center)
      from August 2011 to July 2015. We identified 10 529 unique MSM who received
      testing for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and/or syphilis and had a later visit in which
      they self-reported their STI history to a clinic counsellor during a risk
      assessment. RESULTS: MSM who had an STI in the past year self-reported their STI
      history with 51%-56% accuracy, and MSM who had an STI more than a year ago self
      reported their STI history with 65%-72% accuracy. Among MSM with any positive
      STIs at the Center, black/African-American and Hispanic MSM were more likely to
      inaccurately self-report their positive results for gonorrhoea (adjusted OR
      (aOR): 1.48, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.01; aOR: 1.39, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.70). Additionally,
      HIV-positive MSM were more likely to inaccurately self-report their positive
      results for gonorrhoea (aOR: 1.63, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.18) and/or syphilis (aOR:
      2.19, 95% CI 1.08 to 4.47). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that attempts to
      evaluate the validity of self-reported STI history among MSM. We found that self
      reported STI history may not be an appropriate proxy for true STI history in
      certain settings and minority populations. Clinical guidelines and research
      studies that rely on self-reported STI history will need to modify their
      recommendations in light of the limited validity of these data.

PMID- 28554896
TI  - Spotlight on the May 30 issue.

PMID- 28554897
TI  - Personal reflections about Lewis P. (Bud) Rowland (1925-2017).

PMID- 28554898
TI  - Alveolar echinococcosis presenting with simultaneous cerebral and spinal
      involvement.

PMID- 28554899
TI  - Editors' Note.

PMID- 28554894
TI  - Fam60a defines a variant Sin3a-Hdac complex in embryonic stem cells required for
      self-renewal.
AB  - Sin3a is the central scaffold protein of the prototypical Hdac1/2 chromatin
      repressor complex, crucially required during early embryonic development for the
      growth of pluripotent cells of the inner cell mass. Here, we compare the
      composition of the Sin3a-Hdac complex between pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) and
      differentiated cells by establishing a method that couples two independent
      endogenous immunoprecipitations with quantitative mass spectrometry. We define
      the precise composition of the Sin3a complex in multiple cell types and identify
      the Fam60a subunit as a key defining feature of a variant Sin3a complex present
      in ES cells, which also contains Ogt and Tet1. Fam60a binds on H3K4me3-positive
      promoters in ES cells, together with Ogt, Tet1 and Sin3a, and is essential to
      maintain the complex on chromatin. Finally, we show that depletion of Fam60a
      phenocopies the loss of Sin3a, leading to reduced proliferation, an extended G1
      phase and the deregulation of lineage genes. Taken together, Fam60a is an
      essential core subunit of a variant Sin3a complex in ES cells that is required to
      promote rapid proliferation and prevent unscheduled differentiation.

PMID- 28554895
TI  - PAR-1 promotes microtubule breakdown during dendrite pruning in Drosophila.
AB  - Pruning of unspecific neurites is an important mechanism during neuronal
      morphogenesis. Drosophila sensory neurons prune their dendrites during
      metamorphosis. Pruning dendrites are severed in their proximal regions. Prior to
      severing, dendritic microtubules undergo local disassembly, and dendrites thin
      extensively through local endocytosis. Microtubule disassembly requires a katanin
      homologue, but the signals initiating microtubule breakdown are not known. Here,
      we show that the kinase PAR-1 is required for pruning and dendritic microtubule
      breakdown. Our data show that neurons lacking PAR-1 fail to break down dendritic
      microtubules, and PAR-1 is required for an increase in neuronal microtubule
      dynamics at the onset of metamorphosis. Mammalian PAR-1 is a known Tau kinase,
      and genetic interactions suggest that PAR-1 promotes microtubule breakdown
      largely via inhibition of Tau also in Drosophila Finally, PAR-1 is also required
      for dendritic thinning, suggesting that microtubule breakdown might precede
      ensuing plasma membrane alterations. Our results shed light on the signaling
      cascades and epistatic relationships involved in neurite destabilization during
      dendrite pruning.

PMID- 28554901
TI  - Author response: Formal faculty observation and assessment of bedside skills for
      3rd-year neurology clerks.

PMID- 28554900
TI  - Letter re: Formal faculty observation and assessment of bedside skills for 3rd
      year neurology clerks.

PMID- 28554902
TI  - Letter re: Safety of domperidone in treating nausea associated with
      dihydroergotamine infusion and headache.

PMID- 28554903
TI  - Author response: Safety of domperidone in treating nausea associated with
      dihydroergotamine infusion and headache.

PMID- 28554904
TI  - Mystery Case: Don't fall for pseudo-INO!

PMID- 28554905
TI  - Clinical Reasoning: A 27-year-old man with acute-onset ataxia.

PMID- 28554907
TI  - MS and bone marrow transplant: Not for most patients.

PMID- 28554906
TI  - Clinical Reasoning: A 45-year-old woman with immobility and incontinence.

PMID- 28554909
TI  - Prevalence and types of rectal douches used for anal intercourse among men who
      have sex with men in Brazil.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rectal douching (RD) is practised among men who have sex with men
      (MSM), and various products and materials are used. There have been no studies in
      Brazil on this practice and its risks in the transmission of sexually transmitted
      infections and HIV. METHOD: Between June and August 2015, 401 MSM over the age of
      18 were interviewed about their sexual practices associated with RD over the last
      3 months. RD was associated with the reported sexual behaviour, and descriptive
      statistical analyses were conducted on the same. RESULTS: Among the respondents,
      85.6% identified themselves as men and 14.4% as transgender; 255 declared
      themselves to be white (63.6%) and 104 to be mixed (25.9%). From among those who
      had performed anal sex within the last 3 months (n=369), 197 reported having used
      RD (53.4%). The most commonly used material was a shower hose (84.5%) and the
      main product used was water (93%). Of those interviewed, 94.5% never received
      guidelines from health professionals on this practice and its potential risks.
      Receptive anal intercourse and RD were found to be associated (p<0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: RD is a common practice among the MSM population. Health
      professionals must deepen their knowledge of this. We propose studies in Brazil
      on the practice of RD that-from that knowledge strategies for prevention and harm
      reduction-can be incorporated to the vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28554908
TI  - Role of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and N-Terminal Prohormone BNP as Predictors of
      Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With a Recent Coronary Event
      and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Natriuretic peptides are recognized as important predictors of
      cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure, but less is known about
      their prognostic importance in patients with acute coronary syndrome. We sought
      to determine whether B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal prohormone B
      type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) could enhance risk prediction of a broad
      range of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome and
      type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with a recent acute
      coronary syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus were prospectively enrolled in the
      ELIXA trial (n=5525, follow-up time 26 months). Best risk models were constructed
      from relevant baseline variables with and without BNP/NT-proBNP. C statistics,
      Net Reclassification Index, and Integrated Discrimination Index were analyzed to
      estimate the value of adding BNP or NT-proBNP to best risk models. Overall, BNP
      and NT-proBNP were the most important predictors of all outcomes examined,
      irrespective of history of heart failure or any prior cardiovascular disease. BNP
      significantly improved C statistics when added to risk models for each outcome
      examined, the strongest increments being in death (0.77-0.82, P<0.001),
      cardiovascular death (0.77-0.83, P<0.001), and heart failure (0.84-0.87,
      P<0.001). BNP or NT-proBNP alone predicted death as well as all other variables
      combined (0.77 versus 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with a recent acute
      coronary syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus, BNP and NT-proBNP were powerful
      predictors of cardiovascular outcomes beyond heart failure and death, ie, were
      also predictive of MI and stroke. Natriuretic peptides added as much predictive
      information about death as all other conventional variables combined. CLINICAL
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier:
      NCT01147250.

PMID- 28554910
TI  - Supportive text messages for patients with alcohol use disorder and a comorbid
      depression: a protocol for a single-blind randomised controlled aftercare trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and mood disorders commonly co-occur,
      and are associated with a range of negative outcomes for patients. Mobile phone
      technology has the potential to provide personalised support for such patients
      and potentially improve outcomes in this difficult-to-treat cohort. The aim of
      this study is to examine whether receiving supporting SMS text messages,
      following discharge from an inpatient dual diagnosis treatment programme, has a
      positive impact on mood and alcohol abstinence in patients with an AUD and a
      comorbid mood disorder. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The present study is a single-blind
      randomised controlled trial. Patients aged 18-70 years who meet the criteria for
      both alcohol dependency syndrome/alcohol abuse and either major depressive
      disorder or bipolar disorder according to the Structured Clinical Interview for
      Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV Axis I will be
      randomised to receive twice-daily supportive SMS text messages for 6 months plus
      treatment as usual, or treatment as usual alone, and will be followed-up at 3, 6,
      9 and 12 months postdischarge. Primary outcome measures will include changes from
      baseline in cumulative abstinence duration, which will be expressed as the
      proportion of days abstinent from alcohol in the preceding 90 days, and changes
      from baseline in Beck Depression Inventory scores. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The
      trial has received full ethical approval from the St. Patrick's Hospital Research
      Ethics Committee (protocol 13/14). Results of the trial will be disseminated
      through peer-reviewed journal articles and at academic conferences. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02404662; Pre-results.

PMID- 28554911
TI  - Navigating high-risk surgery: protocol for a multisite, stepped wedge, cluster
      randomised trial of a question prompt list intervention to empower older adults
      to ask questions that inform treatment decisions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Older patients frequently undergo operations that carry high risk
      for postoperative complications and death. Poor preoperative communication
      between patients and surgeons can lead to uninformed decisions and result in
      unexpected outcomes, conflict between surgeons and patients, and treatment
      inconsistent with patient preferences. This article describes the protocol for a
      multisite, cluster-randomised trial that uses a stepped wedge design to test a
      patient-driven question prompt list (QPL) intervention aimed to improve
      preoperative decision making and inform postoperative expectations. METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: This Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute-funded trial will be
      conducted at five academic medical centres in the USA. Study participants include
      surgeons who routinely perform vascular or oncological surgery, their patients
      and families. We aim to enrol 40 surgeons and 480 patients over 24 months.
      Patients age 65 or older who see a study-enrolled surgeon to discuss a vascular
      or oncological problem that could be treated with high-risk surgery will be
      enrolled at their clinic visit. Together with stakeholders, we developed a QPL
      intervention addressing preoperative communication needs of patients considering
      major surgery. Guided by the theories of self-determination and relational
      autonomy, this intervention is designed to increase patient activation. Patients
      will receive the QPL brochure and a letter from their surgeon encouraging its
      use. Using audio recordings of the outpatient surgical consultation, patient and
      family member questionnaires administered at three time points and retrospective
      chart review, we will compare the effectiveness of the QPL intervention to usual
      care with respect to the following primary outcomes: patient engagement in
      decision making, psychological well-being and post-treatment regret for patients
      and families, and interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict relating to treatment
      decisions and treatments received. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Approvals have been
      granted by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Wisconsin and at
      each participating site, and a Certificate of Confidentiality has been obtained.
      Results will be reported in peer-reviewed publications and presented at national
      meetings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02623335.

PMID- 28554912
TI  - A cross-sectional survey using electronic distribution of a questionnaire to
      subscribers of educational material written by clinicians, for clinicians, to
      evaluate whether practice change resulted from reading the Clinical Communique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore whether subscribers reported clinical practice changes as a
      result of reading the Clinical Communique (CC). Secondarily, to compare the
      characteristics of subscribers who self-reported changes to clinical practice
      with those who did not, and to explore subscribers' perceptions of the
      educational value of the CC. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Online cross
      sectional survey between 21 July 2015 and 18 August 2015 by subscribers of the CC
      (response rate=29.9%, 1008/3373), conducted by a team from Monash University,
      Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change in clinical practice as a result of
      reading the CC. RESULTS: 53.0% of respondents reported that their practice had
      changed after reading the CC. Respondents also found that the CC raised awareness
      (96.5%) and provided ideas about improving patient safety and care (94.1%)
      leading them to discuss cases with their colleagues (79.6%) and review their
      practice (75.7%). Multivariate analysis indicated that working in a residential
      aged care facility (p<0.05) and having taken part in an inquest (p<0.05) were
      significantly associated with practice change. CONCLUSION: The design and content
      of the CC has generated a positive impact on the healthcare community. It is
      presented in a format that appears to be accessible and acceptable to readers and
      achieves its goals of promoting safer clinical care through greater awareness of
      the medico-legal context of practice.

PMID- 28554913
TI  - Protocol for a single-centre, parallel-arm, randomised controlled superiority
      trial evaluating the effects of transcatheter arterial embolisation of abnormal
      knee neovasculature on pain, function and quality of life in people with knee
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA) is common. Advanced knee OA is
      successfully treated with joint replacement surgery, but effectively managing
      mild to moderate knee OA can be difficult. Angiogenesis increases with OA and
      might contribute to pain and structural damage. Modifying angiogenesis is a
      potential treatment pathway for OA. The aim of the current study is to determine
      whether transcatheter arterial embolisation of abnormal neovasculature arising
      from the genicular arterial branches improves knee pain, physical function and
      quality of life in people with mild to moderate symptomatic knee OA. METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: The study is a single centre, parallel-arm, double-blinded (participant
      and assessor), randomised controlled superiority trial with 1:1 random block
      allocation. Eligible participants have mild to moderate symptomatic knee OA and
      will be randomly assigned to receive either embolisation of aberrant knee
      neovasculature of genicular arterial branches or a placebo intervention. Outcome
      measures will be collected prior to the intervention and again 1, 6 and 12 months
      postintervention. The primary outcome is change in knee pain between baseline and
      12 month assessment as measured by the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome
      Score (KOOS). Secondary outcomes include change in self-reported physical
      function (KOOS), self-reported quality of life (KOOS, EuroQol: EQ-5D-5L), self
      reported knee joint stiffness (KOOS), self-reported global change, 6 min walk
      test performance, and 30 s chair-stand test performance. Intention-to-treat
      analysis will be performed including all participants as randomised. To detect a
      mean between group difference in change pain of 20% at the one year reassessment
      with a two-sided significance level of alpha=0.05 and power of 80% using a two
      sample t-test, we require 29 participants per arm which allows for 20% of
      participants to drop out. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Barwon Health Human Research
      Ethics Committee, 30 May 2016, (ref:15/101). Study results will be disseminated
      via peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: Universal trial number U1111-1183-8503, Australian New Zealand Clinical
      Trials Registry, ACTRN12616001184460, approved 29 August 2016.

PMID- 28554914
TI  - A bespoke mobile application for the longitudinal assessment of depression and
      mood during pregnancy: protocol of a feasibility study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Depression is a common mental health disorder during pregnancy,
      with important consequences for mothers and their children. Despite this, it goes
      undiagnosed and untreated in many women attending antenatal care. Smartphones
      could help support the prompt identification of antenatal depression in this
      setting. In addition, these devices enable the implementation of ecological
      momentary assessment techniques, which could be used to assess how mood is
      experienced during pregnancy. With this study, we will assess the feasibility of
      using a bespoke mobile application (app) running on participants' own handsets
      for the longitudinal (6 months) monitoring of antenatal mood and screening of
      depression. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will use a randomised controlled study
      design to compare two types of assessment strategies: retrospective + momentary
      (consisting of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale plus five momentary and
      two contextual questions), and retrospective (consisting of the Edinburgh
      Postnatal Depression Scale only). We will assess the impact that these strategies
      have on participant adherence to a prespecified sampling protocol, dropout rates
      and timeliness of data completion. We will evaluate differences in acceptance of
      the technology through a short quantitative survey and open-ended questions. We
      will also assess the potential effect that momentary assessments could have on
      retrospective data. We will attempt to identify any patterns in app usage through
      the analysis of log data. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been reviewed
      and approved by the National Research Ethics Service Committee South East Coast
      Surrey on 15 April 2016 as a notice of substantial amendment to the original
      submission (9 July 2015) under the Research Ethics Committee (REC) reference
      15/LO/0977. This study is being sponsored by Imperial College London under the
      reference number 15IC2687 and has been included in the UK Clinical Research
      Network Study Portfolio under the Central Portfolio Management System number
      19280. The findings of this study will be disseminated through academic peer
      reviewed publications, poster presentations and abstracts at academic and
      professional conferences, discussion with peers, and social media. The findings
      of this study will also inform the PhD theses of JSMB and KD.

PMID- 28554915
TI  - Support received after bereavement by suicide and other sudden deaths: a cross
      sectional UK study of 3432 young bereaved adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that people bereaved by suicide are less likely
      to receive formal or informal support than people bereaved by other causes of
      sudden death. DESIGN: National cross-sectional study. SETTING: Adults working or
      studying at any UK higher education institution (HEI) in 2010. PARTICIPANTS: A
      total of 3432 eligible respondents aged 18-40 years bereaved by the sudden death
      of a close friend or relative, sampled from approximately 659 572 bereaved and
      non-bereaved staff and students at 37 of 164 UK HEIs invited to participate.
      EXPOSURES: Bereavement by suicide (n=614; 18%), by sudden unnatural causes
      (n=712; 21%) and by sudden natural causes (n=2106; 61%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Receipt of formal and informal support postbereavement; timing of valued support.
      RESULTS: 21% (725/3432) of our sample of bereaved adults reported receiving no
      formal or informal bereavement support, with no evidence for group differences.
      People bereaved by suicide were less likely to have received informal support
      than those bereaved by sudden natural causes (adjusted OR (AOR)=0.79; 95% CI 0.64
      to 0.98) or unnatural causes (AOR=0.74; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.96) but did not differ
      from either comparison group on receipt of formal support. People bereaved by
      suicide were less likely to have received immediate support (AOR=0.73; 95% CI
      0.59 to 0.90) and more likely to report delayed receipt of support (AOR=1.33; 95%
      CI 1.08 to 1.64) than people bereaved by sudden natural causes. Associations were
      not modified by gender, or age bereaved, but became non-significant when
      adjusting for stigma. CONCLUSIONS: People bereaved by suicide are less likely to
      receive informal support than people bereaved by other causes of sudden death and
      are more likely to perceive delays in accessing any support. This is concerning
      given their higher risk of suicide attempt and the recommendations within suicide
      prevention strategies regarding their need for support. STUDY REGISTRATION:
      http://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/bereavementstudy/.

PMID- 28554916
TI  - Bone mineral density reference standards for Chinese children aged 3-18: cross
      sectional results of the 2013-2015 China Child and Adolescent Cardiovascular
      Health (CCACH) Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: No nationwide paediatric reference standards for bone mineral density
      (BMD) are available in China. We aimed to provide sex-specific BMD reference
      values for Chinese children and adolescents (3-18 years). METHODS: Data (10 818
      participants aged 3-18 years) were obtained from cross-sectional surveys of the
      China Child and Adolescent Cardiovascular Health in 2015, which included four
      municipality cities and three provinces. BMD was measured using Hologic Discovery
      Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scanner. The DXA measures were modelled
      against age, with height as an independent variable. The LMS statistical method
      using a curve fitting procedure was used to construct reference smooth cross
      sectional centile curves for dependent versus independent variables. RESULTS:
      Children residing in Northeast China had the highest total body less head (TBLH)
      BMD while children residing in Shandong Province had the lowest values. Among
      children, TBLH BMD was higher for boys as compared with girls; but, it increased
      with age and height in both sexes. Furthermore, TBLH BMD was higher among US
      children as compared with Chinese children. There was a large difference in BMD
      for height among children from these two countries. US children had a much higher
      BMD at each percentile (P) than Chinese children; the largest observed difference
      was at P50 and P3 and the smallest difference was at P97. CONCLUSIONS: This is
      the first study to present a sex-specific reference dataset for Chinese children
      aged 3-18 years. The data can help clinicians improve interpretation, assessment
      and monitoring of densitometry results.

PMID- 28554917
TI  - Optimisation and validation of a remote monitoring system (Onco-TreC) for home
      based management of oral anticancer therapies: an Italian multicentre feasibility
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite the growing number of oral agents available for cancer
      treatment, their efficacy may be reduced due to the lack of adherence,
      inappropriate adverse event self-management and arbitrary dose adjustment. The
      management of anticancer therapies could exponentially benefit from the
      introduction of mobile health technologies in a highly integrated electronic
      oncology system. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We plan to customise and fine-tune an
      existing monitoring TreC platform used in different chronic diseases in the
      oncology setting. This project follows a multistep approach with two major
      purposes: 1. participatory design techniques driven by Health Literacy and
      Patient Reported Outcomes principles in order to adapt the system to the oncology
      setting involving patients and healthcare providers; 2. a prospective training
      validation, interventional, non-pharmacological, multicentre study on a series of
      consecutive patients with cancer (20 and 60 patients in the training and
      validation steps, respectively) in order to assess system capability, usability
      and acceptability. The novel Onco-TreC 2.0 is expected to contribute to improving
      the adherence and safety of cancer care, promoting patient empowerment and
      patient-doctor communication. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was
      obtained from the Independent Ethics Committees of the participating institutions
      (CEIIAV protocol Number 2549/2015; reference Number 1315-PU). Informed consent
      will be obtained from all study participants. Findings will be disseminated
      through peer-reviewed journals, conferences and event presentations. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02921724); (Pre-results). Other study
      ID Number: IRST100.18.

PMID- 28554919
TI  - Validation of asthma recording in electronic health records: protocol for a
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asthma is a common, heterogeneous disease with significant morbidity
      and mortality worldwide. It can be difficult to define in epidemiological studies
      using electronic health records as the diagnosis is based on non-specific
      respiratory symptoms and spirometry, neither of which are routinely registered.
      Electronic health records can nonetheless be valuable to study the epidemiology,
      management, healthcare use and control of asthma. For health databases to be
      useful sources of information, asthma diagnoses should ideally be validated. The
      primary objectives are to provide an overview of the methods used to validate
      asthma diagnoses in electronic health records and summarise the results of the
      validation studies. METHODS: EMBASE and MEDLINE will be systematically searched
      for appropriate search terms. The searches will cover all studies in these
      databases up to October 2016 with no start date and will yield studies that have
      validated algorithms or codes for the diagnosis of asthma in electronic health
      records. At least one test validation measure (sensitivity, specificity, positive
      predictive value, negative predictive value or other) is necessary for inclusion.
      In addition, we require the validated algorithms to be compared with an external
      golden standard, such as a manual review, a questionnaire or an independent
      second database. We will summarise key data including author, year of
      publication, country, time period, date, data source, population, case
      characteristics, clinical events, algorithms, gold standard and validation
      statistics in a uniform table. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study is a
      synthesis of previously published studies and, therefore, no ethical approval is
      required. The results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for
      publication. Results from this systematic review can be used to study outcome
      research on asthma and can be used to identify case definitions for asthma.
      PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42016041798.

PMID- 28554918
TI  - Speech and communication in Parkinson's disease: a cross-sectional exploratory
      study in the UK.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess associations between cognitive status, intelligibility,
      acoustics and functional communication in PD. DESIGN: Cross-sectional exploratory
      study of functional communication, including a within-participants experimental
      design for listener assessment. SETTING: A major academic medical centre in the
      East of England, UK. PARTICIPANTS: Questionnaire data were assessed for 45 people
      with Parkinson's disease (PD), who had self-reported speech or communication
      difficulties and did not have clinical dementia. Acoustic and listener analyses
      were conducted on read and conversational speech for 20 people with PD and 20
      familiar conversation partner controls without speech, language or cognitive
      difficulties. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Functional communication assessed by the
      Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) and Communicative Effectiveness
      Survey (CES). RESULTS: People with PD had lower intelligibility than controls for
      both the read (mean difference 13.7%, p=0.009) and conversational (mean
      difference 16.2%, p=0.04) sentences. Intensity and pause were statistically
      significant predictors of intelligibility in read sentences. Listeners were less
      accurate identifying the intended emotion in the speech of people with PD (14.8%
      point difference across conditions, p=0.02) and this was associated with worse
      speaker cognitive status (16.7% point difference, p=0.04). Cognitive status was a
      significant predictor of functional communication using CPIB (F=8.99, p=0.005,
      eta2 = 0.15) but not CES. Intelligibility in conversation sentences was a
      statistically significant predictor of CPIB (F=4.96, p=0.04, eta2 = 0.19) and CES
      (F=13.65, p=0.002, eta2 = 0.43). Read sentence intelligibility was not a
      significant predictor of either outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive status was an
      important predictor of functional communication-the role of intelligibility was
      modest and limited to conversational and not read speech. Our results highlight
      the importance of focusing on functional communication as well as physical speech
      impairment in speech and language therapy (SLT) for PD. Our results could inform
      future trials of SLT techniques for PD.

PMID- 28554920
TI  - Physical activity, immune function and inflammation in kidney patients (the PINK
      study): a feasibility trial protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) display increased
      infection-related mortality and elevated cardiovascular risk only partly
      attributed to traditional risk factors. Patients with CKD also exhibit a pro
      inflammatory environment and impaired immune function. Aerobic exercise has the
      potential to positively impact these detriments, but is under-researched in this
      patient population. This feasibility study will investigate the effects of acute
      aerobic exercise on inflammation and immune function in patients with CKD to
      inform the design of larger studies intended to ultimately influence current
      exercise recommendations. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Patients with CKD, including
      renal transplant recipients, will visit the laboratory on two occasions, both
      preceded by appropriate exercise, alcohol and caffeine restrictions. On visit 1,
      baseline assessments will be completed, comprising anthropometrics, body
      composition, cardiovascular function and fatigue and leisure time exercise
      questionnaires. Participants will then undertake an incremental shuttle walk test
      to estimate predicted peak O2 consumption (VO2peak). On visit 2, participants
      will complete a 20 min shuttle walk at a constant speed to achieve 85% estimated
      VO2peak. Blood and saliva samples will be taken before, immediately after and 1
      hour after this exercise bout. Muscle O2 saturation will be monitored throughout
      exercise and recovery. Age and sex-matched non-CKD 'healthy control' participants
      will complete an identical protocol. Blood and saliva samples will be analysed
      for markers of inflammation and immune function, using cytometric bead array and
      flow cytometry techniques. Appropriate statistical tests will be used to analyse
      the data. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: A favourable opinion was granted by the East
      Midlands-Derby Research Ethics Committee on 18 September 2015 (ref 15/EM/0391),
      and the study was approved and sponsored by University Hospitals of Leicester
      Research and Innovation (ref 11444). The study was registered with ISRCTN (ref
      38935454). The results will be presented at relevant conferences, and it is
      anticipated that the reports will be published in appropriate journals in 2018.

PMID- 28554921
TI  - Selection by a panel of clinicians and family representatives of important early
      morbidities associated with paediatric cardiac surgery suitable for routine
      monitoring using the nominal group technique and a robust voting process.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: With survival following paediatric cardiac surgery improving, the
      attention of quality assurance and improvement initiatives is shifting to long
      term outcomes and early surgical morbidities. We wanted to involve family
      representatives and a range of clinicians in selecting the morbidities to be
      measured in a major UK study. SETTING: Paediatric cardiac surgery services in the
      UK. PARTICIPANTS: We convened a panel comprising family representatives,
      paediatricians from referring centres, and surgeons and other clinicians from
      surgical centres. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Using the nominal group
      technique augmented by a robust voting process to identify group preferences,
      suggestions for candidate morbidities were elicited, discussed, ranked and then
      shortlisted. The shortlist was passed to a clinical group that provided a view on
      the feasibility of monitoring each shortlisted morbidity in routine practice. The
      panel then met again to select a prioritised list of morbidities for further
      study, with the list finalised by the clinical group and chief investigators.
      RESULTS: At the first panel meeting, 66 initial suggestions were made, with this
      reduced to a shortlist of 24 after two rounds of discussion, consolidation and
      voting. At the second meeting, this shortlist was reduced to 10 candidate
      morbidities. Two were dropped on grounds of feasibility and replaced by another
      the panel considered important. The final list of nine morbidities included
      indicators of organ damage, acute events and feeding problems. Family
      representatives and clinicians from outside tertiary centres brought some issues
      to greater prominence than if the panel had consisted solely of tertiary
      clinicians or study investigators. CONCLUSION: The inclusion of patient and
      family perspectives in identifying metrics for use in monitoring a specialised
      clinical service is challenging but feasible and can broaden notions of quality
      and how to measure it.

PMID- 28554922
TI  - Relationship between dietary factors and the number of altered metabolic syndrome
      components in Chinese adults: a cross-sectional study using data from the China
      Health and Nutrition Survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To study the correlation between dietary factors and the number of
      altered metabolic syndrome components (MetS) in Chinese adults systematically.
      SETTING: A cross-sectional study using demographic and dietary data of adults
      aged 18-75 years from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (2009) was conducted
      in nine provinces in China. PARTICIPANTS: There were 6034 eligible subjects (2800
      men and 3234 women) in this study. OUTCOMES: The primary outcome of this study
      were diet assessments and the number of altered MetS components. Dietary intake
      was measured using a combination of a 3-day period with 24-hour and household
      food inventory; average daily intakes of nutrients were estimated according to
      the Chinese Food Composition Table. Blood samples were analysed in a national
      central laboratory and the number of clustering MetS components was calculated by
      adding the presence of each MetS component. RESULTS: After adjusting for
      covariates, and taking zero MetS as comparison, the high risk factors correlating
      with increased numbers of altered MetS components in men were higher intake of
      protein (70.4-73.4 g; Ptrend=0.0004), cholesterol (238.7-266.6 mg; Ptrend=0.004),
      meat (90.6-105.7 g; Ptrend=0.016), fish/seafood (30.4-42.3 g; Ptrend=0.001), and
      lower intake of coarse cereals (16.5-12.7 g; Ptrend=0.051), tubers (37.3-32.7 g;
      Ptrend=0.030), and dietary fibre (11.7-11.5 g; ANCOVA p=0.058). Meanwhile, the
      high risk factors correlating with the increased number of altered MetS
      components in women were higher intake of wheat (101.9-112.6 g; Ptrend=0.066) and
      sodium (3862.3-4005.7 mg, Ptrend=0.032), and lower intake of beta-carotene
      (1578.6-1382.7 ug; Ptrend=0.007), milk, and dairy products (17.8-11.5 g;
      Ptrend=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Some foods and nutritional factors correlate with an
      increased number of altered MetS components in Chinese adults. More prospective,
      multicentre and clinical research work to further examine these associations is
      underway.

PMID- 28554923
TI  - Trends in alcohol-related injury admissions in adolescents in Western Australia
      and England: population-based cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol-related harm in young people is now a global health priority.
      We examined trends in hospital admissions for alcohol-related injuries for
      adolescents in Western Australia (WA) and in England, identified groups most at
      risk and determined causes of injuries. METHODS: Annual incidence rates for
      alcohol-related injury rates were calculated using population-level hospital
      admissions data for WA and England. We compared trends in different types of
      alcohol-related injury by age and gender. RESULTS: Despite a decrease in the
      overall rate of injury admissions for people aged 13-17 years in WA, alcohol
      related injuries have increased significantly from 1990 to 2009 (from 8 to 12 per
      10 000). Conversely, alcohol-related injury rates have declined in England since
      2007. In England, self-harm is the most frequently recorded cause of alcohol
      related injury. In WA, unintentional injury is most common; however, violence
      related harm is increasing for boys and girls. CONCLUSION: Alcohol-related harm
      of sufficient severity to require hospital admission is increasing among
      adolescents in WA. Declining trends in England suggest that this trend is not
      inevitable or irreversible. More needs to be done to address alcohol-related
      harm, and on-going monitoring is required to assess the effectiveness of
      strategies.

PMID- 28554924
TI  - Optimal plateau pressure for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: a
      protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lower tidal volume ventilation in patients with acute respiratory
      distress syndrome (ARDS) is a strategy to reduce the plateau pressure and driving
      pressure to limit ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Several randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses showed that limiting both the plateau
      pressure and the tidal volume decreased mortality, but the optimal plateau
      pressure to demonstrate a benefit is uncertain. The aim of this systematic review
      is to investigate the optimal upper limit of plateau pressure in patients with
      ARDS to prevent VILI and improve clinical outcomes using meta-analysis with and
      without meta-regression. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: RCTs comparing two mechanical
      ventilation strategies will be included, with lower plateau pressure and with
      higher plateau pressure, among patients with ARDS and acute lung injury. Data
      sources include MEDLINE via the NCBI Entrez system, Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE and Ichushi, a database of papers in
      Japanese. Two of three physicians will independently screen trials obtained by
      search for eligibility, and extract data from included studies onto standardised
      data recording forms. For each included trial, the risk of bias and the quality
      of evidence will be evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation Assessment
      Development and Evaluation system. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study does not
      require ethical approval. The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis
      with and without meta-regression will be disseminated through conference
      presentation and publication in a peer-reviewed journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: CRD42016041924.

PMID- 28554925
TI  - A cross-sectional study on prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) in India: rationale and methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common preventable
      and treatable chronic respiratory disease, which affects 210 million people
      globally. Global and national guidelines exist for the management of COPD.
      Although evidence-based, they are inadequate to address the phenotypic and
      genotypic heterogeneity in India. Co-existence of other chronic respiratory
      diseases can adversely influence the prognosis of COPD.India has a huge burden of
      COPD with various risk factors and comorbid conditions. However, valid prevalence
      estimates employing spirometry as the diagnostic tool and data on important
      comorbid conditions are not available. This study protocol is designed to address
      this knowledge gap and eventually to build a database to undertake long-term
      cohort studies to describe the phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity among COPD
      patients in India. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective is to estimate the
      prevalence of COPD among adults aged >=25 years for each gender in India. The
      secondary objective is to identify the risk factors for COPD and important
      comorbid conditions such as asthma and post-tuberculosis sequelae. It is also
      proposed to validate the currently available definitions for COPD diagnosis in
      India. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A cross-sectional study will be undertaken among the
      populations of sub-urban areas of Chennai and Shillong cities, which represent
      the Southern and Northeastern regions of India. We will collect data on
      sociodemographic variables, economic characteristics, risk factors of COPD and
      comorbidities. The Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and
      Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) definitions will be used for the diagnosis of
      COPD and asthma. Data will be analysed for estimation of the prevalence of COPD,
      asthma and associated factors. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study proposal was
      approved by the respective institutional ethics committees of participating
      institutions. The results will be disseminated through publications in the peer
      reviewed journals and a report will be submitted to the concerned public health
      authorities in India for developing appropriate research and management policies.

PMID- 28554926
TI  - Long-term antibiotics for prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection in
      older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To address clinical uncertainties about the effectiveness and safety
      of long-term antibiotic therapy for preventing recurrent urinary tract infections
      (UTIs) in older adults. DESIGN: Systematic review andmeta-analysis of randomised
      trials. METHOD: We searched Medline, Embase, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and
      Allied Health Literature(CINAHL), and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials
      from inception to August 2016. Eligible studies compared long-term antibiotic
      therapy with non-antibiotic therapy or placebo in men or women aged over 65, or
      in postmenopausal women, with recurrent UTIs. RESULTS: We did not identify any
      studies that included older men. Three randomised controlled trials compared long
      term antibiotics with vaginal oestrogens (n=150), oral lactobacilli (n=238) and D
      mannose powder (n=94) in postmenopausal women. Long-term antibiotics reduced the
      risk of UTI recurrence by 24% (three trials, n=482; pooled risk ratio (RR) 0.76;
      95% CI 0.61 to 0.95, number needed to treat=8.5). There was no statistically
      significant increase in risk of adverse events (mild adverse events: pooled RR
      1.52; 95% CI 0.76 to 3.03; serious adverse events: pooled RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.31 to
      2.66). One trial showed 90% of urinary and faecal Escherichia coli isolates were
      resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole after 1 month of prophylaxis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings from three small trials with relatively short follow-up
      periods suggest long-term antibiotic therapy reduces the risk of recurrence in
      postmenopausal women with recurrent UTI. We did not identify any evidence to
      inform several clinically important scenarios including, benefits and harms in
      older men or frail care home residents, optimal duration of prophylaxis,
      recurrence rates once prophylaxis stops and effects on urinary antibiotic
      resistance.

PMID- 28554927
TI  - Systemic glucocorticoid use in Denmark: a population-based prevalence study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Glucocorticoid (GC) use is widespread and associated with many
      adverse effects. Thus, it is important to ascertain GC utilisation patterns. In
      this study, we examined the annual prevalence of prescription users and amount of
      use of systemic GCs. DESIGN: Population-wide prevalence study. SETTING: The
      primary healthcare and hospital sectors in Denmark from 1999 to 2015. RESULTS:
      Approximately 3% of the Danish population redeemed at least one prescription for
      a systemic GC annually between 1999 and 2015, with annual prevalence remaining
      constant over the period. However, after adjusting for age and sex, we observed a
      decrease in annual prevalence from 1999 to 2015, with a prevalence ratio of 0.92
      (95% CI 0.91 to 0.92). Annual prevalence was highest among the elderly (7.0%-8.2%
      among persons 65-79 years of age and 8.4%-10% among persons 80+ years of age).
      Prednisolone was the most frequently redeemed systemic GC, with annual prevalence
      increasing from 1.4% to 2.1% during the 1999-2015 period. The amount of systemic
      GCs provided to the hospital sector increased from 2.3 defined daily doses
      (DDD)/1000 inhabitants/day in 1999 to 3.5 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2015, while
      the amount provided to the primary healthcare sector remained constant in the
      range of 10-11 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day. CONCLUSION: We found a high prevalence
      of systemic GC use of 3% with a remarkably high prevalence in elderly of up to
      10%, wherefore continued awareness of its effects is mandated.

PMID- 28554929
TI  - Nutritional rickets in Norway: a nationwide register-based cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Poor vitamin D status has been reported to be highly prevalent in
      many non-western immigrant groups living in Norway and other western countries.
      However, data on rickets are scarce, and the aim of the current study was to
      identify new cases of nutritional rickets in Norway in the period 2008-2012 among
      children under the age of 5 years. DESIGN: Register-based cohort study. SETTING:
      The Norwegian population from 2008 to 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Children with
      nutritional rickets under the age of 5 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Nutritional
      rickets. Patients with ICD10 (International Statistical Classification of
      Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision) diagnosis code E55.0 (active
      rickets) treated at all Norwegian hospitals were identified in the Norwegian
      Patient Registry. We were able to review 85% of the medical records for diagnosis
      confirmation. In addition, we identified patients with the diagnoses E55.9, E64.3
      and E83.3 to identify individuals with rickets who had been given other
      diagnoses. RESULTS: Nutritional rickets was confirmed in 39 children aged 0-4
      years with the diagnosis of E55.0. In addition, three patients with the diagnosis
      of unspecified vitamin D deficiency (E55.9) were classified as having nutritional
      rickets, giving a total of 42 patients. Mean age at diagnosis was 1.40 years
      (range 0.1-3.5 years), and 93% had a non-western immigrant background. The
      incidence rate of rickets was estimated to be 0.3 per 10 000 person-years in the
      total Norwegian child population under the age of 5 years and 3.1 per 10 000
      person-years in those with an immigrant background from Asia or Africa.
      CONCLUSION: The number of children with nutritional rickets in Norway remained
      low in the period 2008-2012. Nearly all children had a non-western immigrant
      background.

PMID- 28554930
TI  - Exploring the acceptability of a 'limited patient consent procedure' for a
      proposed blood-borne virus screening programme: a Delphi consensus building
      technique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify components of a proposed blood-borne virus (BBV)
      population screening programme and its associated consent procedure that both the
      public and health practitioners (HPs) would find acceptable. The proposed BBV
      screening system would aim to reduce late diagnosis of BBVs and be used in
      patients undergoing routine blood tests, aided by risk stratification software to
      target individuals at higher risk of infection. DESIGN: A Delphi technique was
      used to build consensus among two separate groups, public participants and HPs in
      England. METHODS: A survey incorporating vignettes was developed, with input from
      an external panel of experts. Over three rounds, 46 public participants and 37
      HPs completed the survey, rating statements on a four-point Likert scale. The
      survey covered issues around stigma and sensitivity, the use of risk
      stratification algorithms and 'limited' patient consent (ie, preinformed of the
      option to 'opt-out'). Consensus was defined as >70% of participants agreeing or
      disagreeing with each statement. RESULTS: Consensus was achieved among both
      groups in terms of acceptability of the screening programme. There was also
      consensus on using patient data to risk-stratify screening algorithms and the
      need to obtain some form of consent around the time of drawing blood.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the special protected status of HIV in England
      is no longer deemed necessary today and hinders appropriate care. We propose that
      a novel 'limited consent procedure' could be implemented in future screening
      programmes.

PMID- 28554928
TI  - Epidural analgesia in critically ill patients with acute pancreatitis: the
      multicentre randomised controlled EPIPAN study protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is associated with high morbidity and
      mortality in its most severe forms. Most patients with severe AP require
      intubation and invasive mechanical ventilation, frequently for more than 7 days,
      which is associated with the worst outcome. Recent increasing evidence from
      preclinical and clinical studies support the beneficial effects of epidural
      analgesia (EA) in AP, such as increased gut barrier function and splanchnic,
      pancreatic and renal perfusion, decreased liver damage and inflammatory response,
      and reduced mortality. Because recent studies suggest that EA might be a safe
      procedure in the critically ill, we sought to determine whether EA reduced AP
      associated respiratory failure and other major clinical outcomes in patients with
      AP. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Epidural Analgesia for Pancreatitis (EPIPAN) trial
      is an investigator-initiated, prospective, multicentre, randomised controlled two
      arm trial with assessor-blinded outcome assessment. The EPIPAN trial will
      randomise 148 patients with AP requiring admission to an intensive care unit
      (ICU) to receive EA (with patient-controlled epidural administration of
      ropivacaine and sufentanil) combined with standard care based on current
      recommendations on the treatment of AP (interventional group), or standard care
      alone (reference group). The primary outcome is the number of ventilator-free
      days at day 30. Secondary outcomes include main complications of AP (eg, organ
      failure and mortality, among others), levels of biological markers of systemic
      inflammation, epithelial lung injury, renal failure, and healthcare-associated
      costs. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the appropriate ethics
      committee (CPP Sud-Est VI). Informed consent is required. If the combined
      application of EA and standard care proves superior to standard care alone in
      patients with AP in the ICU, the use of EA may become standard practice in
      experienced centres, thereby decreasing potential complications related to AP and
      its burden in critically ill patients. The results will be disseminated in a peer
      reviewed journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02126332.

PMID- 28554931
TI  - Developing a core outcome set for infant colic for primary, secondary and
      tertiary care settings: a prospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Infant colic (IC) is defined as recurrent and prolonged crying without
      an obvious cause or evidence of failure to thrive or illness. It is a common
      problem with a prevalence of 5%-25%. The unknown aetiology results in a wide
      variety in interventions and use of heterogeneous outcome measures across
      therapeutic trials. Our aim was to develop a core outcome set (COS) for IC to
      facilitate and improve evidence synthesis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective study
      design; primary, secondary and tertiary care. METHODS: The COS was developed
      using a modified Delphi technique. First, healthcare professionals (HCPs) and
      parents of infants with IC were asked to list up to five outcomes they considered
      relevant in the treatment of IC. Outcomes mentioned by >10% of participants were
      forwarded to a shortlist. In the second round, outcomes on this shortlist were
      rated and prioritised. The final COS was defined in a face-to-face expert meeting
      of paediatricians. RESULTS: F of invited stakeholders (133 HCPs and 55 parents of
      infants with IC) completed both Delphi rounds. Duration of crying, family stress,
      sleeping time of infant, quality of life (of family), discomfort of infant and
      hospital admission/duration were rated as most important outcomes in IC, framing
      the final COS. CONCLUSIONS: The use of this COS should serve as a minimum of
      outcomes to be measured and reported. This will benefit evidence synthesis, by
      enhancing homogeneity of outcomes, and enable evaluation of success in
      therapeutic trials on IC. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use this COS
      when setting up a clinical trial in primary, secondary and/or tertiary care or
      performing a systematic review on IC.

PMID- 28554932
TI  - The role of academic health centres in building equitable health systems: a
      systematic review protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Academic health centres (AHCs) are complex organisations often
      defined by their 'tripartite' mission: to achieve high standards of clinical
      care, undertake clinical and laboratory research and educate health
      professionals. In the last decade, AHCs have moved away from what was a dominant
      focus on high impact (clinical) interventions for individuals, towards a more
      population-oriented paradigm requiring networked institutions and responsiveness
      to a range of issues including distribution of health outcomes and health
      determinants. Reflective of this paradigm shift is a growing interest in the role
      of AHCs in addressing health disparities and improving health system equity. This
      protocol outlines a systematic review that seeks to synthesise and critically
      appraise the current state of evidence on the role of AHCs in contributing to
      equitable health systems locally and globally. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Electronic
      searches will be conducted on a pilot list of bibliographic databases, including
      Google Scholar, Scopus, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, ProQuest Dissertations &
      Theses, Cochrane Library, Evidence Based Medicine Reviews, Campbell Library and
      A+ Education, from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2016. Apart from studies
      reporting clinical interventions or trials, all types of published peer-reviewed
      and grey literature will be included in the review. The single screening method
      will be employed in selecting studies, with two additional reviewers consulted
      where allocation is unclear. Quality and relevance appraisal utilising Joanna
      Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools will follow data extraction to a
      preprepared template. Thematic synthesis will be undertaken to develop
      descriptive themes and inform analysis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As the review
      is focused on the analysis of secondary data, it does not require ethics
      approval. The results of the study will be disseminated through articles in peer
      reviewed journals and trade publications as well as presentations at relevant
      national and international conferences. Results will be further disseminated
      through networks and associations of AHCs. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: International
      Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number CRD42016051802.

PMID- 28554933
TI  - An investigation on the use of snus and its association with respiratory and
      sleep-related symptoms: a cross-sectional population study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Studies of the health effects of moist oral tobacco, snus, have
      produced inconsistent results. The main objective of this study is to examine the
      health effects of snus use on asthma, respiratory symptoms and sleep-related
      problems, a field that has not been investigated before. METHODS AND MATERIAL:
      This cross-sectional study was based on a postal questionnaire completed by 26
      697 (59.3%) participants aged 16 to 75 years and living in Sweden. The
      questionnaire included questions on tobacco use, asthma, respiratory symptoms and
      sleeping problems. The association of snus use with asthma, respiratory symptoms
      and sleep-related symptoms was mainly tested in never-smokers (n=16 082).
      RESULTS: The current use of snus in never-smokers was associated with an
      increased risk of asthma (OR 1.51 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.77)), asthmatic symptoms,
      chronic bronchitis and chronic rhinosinusitis. This association was not present
      among ex-snus users. Snoring was independently related to both the former and
      current use of snus ((OR 1.37 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.68)) and (OR 1.59 (95% CI 1.34 to
      1.89), respectively)). A higher risk of difficulty inducing sleep was seen among
      snus users. CONCLUSION: Snus use was associated with a higher prevalence of
      asthma, respiratory symptoms and snoring. Healthcare professionals should be
      aware of these possible adverse effects of snus use.

PMID- 28554934
TI  - Validity of the Italian algorithm for the attribution of neuropsychiatric events
      in systemic lupus erythematosus: a retrospective multicentre international
      diagnostic cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate the Italian algorithm of attribution of neuropsychiatric
      (NP) events to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in an external international
      cohort of patients with SLE. METHODS: A retrospective cohort diagnostic accuracy
      design was followed. SLE patients attending three tertiary care lupus clinics,
      with one or more NP events, were included. The attribution algorithm, applied to
      the NP manifestations, considers four weighted items for each NP event: (1) time
      of onset of the event; (2) type of NP event (major vs minor), (3) concurrent non
      SLE factors; (4) favouring factors. To maintain blinding, two independent teams
      of assessors from each centre evaluated all NP events: the first provided an
      attribution diagnosis on the basis of their own clinical judgement, assumed as
      the 'gold standard'; the second applied the algorithm, which provides a
      probability score ranging from 0 to 10. The performance of the algorithm was
      evaluated by calculating the area under curve (AUC) of thereceiver operating
      characteristic curve. RESULTS: The study included 243 patients with SLE with at
      least one NP manifestation, for a total of 336 events. 285 (84.8%) NP events
      involved the central nervous system and 51 (15.2%) the peripheral nervous system.
      The attribution score for the first NP event showed good accuracy with an AUC of
      0.893 (95% CI 0.849 to 0.937) using dichotomous outcomes for NPSLE (related vs
      uncertain/unrelated). The best single cut-off point to optimise classification of
      a first NPSLE-related event was>=7 (sensitivity 87.9%, specificity 82.6%).
      Satisfactory accuracy was observed also for subsequent NP events. CONCLUSIONS:
      Validation exercise on an independent international cohort showed that the
      Italian attribution algorithm is a valid and reliable tool for the identification
      of NP events attributed to SLE.

PMID- 28554937
TI  - Untargeted antifungal therapy in adult patients with complicated intra-abdominal
      infection: protocol for a systematic review with meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intra-abdominal infections are the second most frequent cause of
      sepsis. In a recent cohort, fungal specimens were found in 51.9% of all patients
      with sepsis and peritonitis. Current systematic reviews comparing untargeted
      antifungal treatment with placebo or no treatment in patients who are critically
      ill have provided conflicting results, and clinical equipoise exists.
      Accordingly, we aim to assess patient-important benefits and harms of untargeted
      antifungal therapy versus placebo or no treatment in adult patients with
      complicated intra-abdominal infection. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct a
      systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis of randomised
      clinical trials assessing any untargeted antifungal therapy compared with placebo
      or no treatment in adult patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections.
      The primary outcome is all-cause mortality, and secondary outcomes include
      adverse events, duration of mechanical ventilation and inotropic support, need
      for renal replacement therapy, emergence of antibiotic resistance and intensive
      care unit and hospital length-of-stay. Conventional meta-analysis, including
      sensitivity and subgroup analyses, and assessment of the risk of systematic
      (bias) and random errors will be conducted. The review will be prepared according
      to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
      statement, the Cochrane methodology and the Grading of Recommendations,
      Assessment, Development and Evaluation. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical
      approval is not required as this systematic review only includes previously
      published data. We aim to publish the review in an international peer-reviewed
      journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: International Prospective Register of
      Systematic Reviews registration number: CRD42016053508.

PMID- 28554936
TI  - Selecting children with suspected inflammatory bowel disease for endoscopy with
      the calgranulin C or calprotectin stool test: protocol of the CACATU study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The introduction of the faecal calprotectin (FC) test to screen
      children with chronic gastrointestinal complaints has helped the clinician to
      decide whether or not to subject the patient to endoscopy. In spite of this, a
      considerable number of patients without inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is still
      scoped. Faecal calgranulin C (S100A12) is a marker of intestinal inflammation
      that is potentially more specific for IBD than FC, as it is exclusively released
      by activated granulocytes. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the specificity of
      S100A12 is superior to the specificity of FC without sacrificing sensitivity in
      patients with suspected IBD. METHODS: An international prospective cohort of
      children with suspected IBD will be screened with the existing FC stool test and
      the new S100A12 stool test. The reference standard (endoscopy with biopsies) will
      be applied to patients at high risk of IBD, while a secondary reference (clinical
      follow-up) will be applied to those at low risk of IBD. The differences in
      specificity and sensitivity between the two markers will be calculated. ETHICS
      AND DISSEMINATION: This study is submitted to and approved by the Medical Ethics
      Review Committee of the University Medical Center Groningen (the Netherlands) and
      the Antwerp University Hospital (Belgium). The results will be disseminated
      through a peer-reviewed publication, conference presentation and incorporation in
      the upcoming National Guideline on Diagnosis and Therapy of IBD in Children.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02197780 .

PMID- 28554938
TI  - Term admissions to neonatal units in England: a role for transitional care? A
      retrospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the primary reasons for term admissions to neonatal units
      in England, to determine risk factors for admissions for jaundice and to estimate
      the proportion who can be cared for in a transitional setting without separation
      of mother and baby. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study using neonatal unit
      admission data from the National Neonatal Research Database and data of live
      births in England from the Office for National Statistics. SETTING: All 163
      neonatal units in England 2011-2013. PARTICIPANTS: 133 691 term babies born >=37
      weeks gestational age and admitted to neonatal units in England. PRIMARY AND
      SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Primary reasons for admission, term babies admitted for the
      primary reason of jaundice, patient characteristics, postnatal age at admission,
      total length of stay, phototherapy, intravenous fluids, exchange transfusion and
      kernicterus. RESULTS: Respiratory disease was the most common reason for
      admission overall, although jaundice was the most common reason for admission
      from home (22% home vs 5% hospital). Risk factors for admission for jaundice
      include male, born at 37 weeks gestation, Asian ethnicity and multiple birth. The
      majority of babies received only a brief period of phototherapy, and only a third
      received intravenous fluids, suggesting that some may be appropriately managed
      without separation of mother and baby. Admission from home was significantly
      later (3.9 days) compared with those admitted from elsewhere in the hospital (1.7
      days) (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Around two-thirds of term admissions for jaundice
      may be appropriately managed in a transitional care setting, avoiding separation
      of mother and baby. Babies with risk factors may benefit from a community midwife
      postnatal visit around the third day of life to enable early referral if
      necessary. We recommend further work at the national level to examine provision
      and barriers to transitional care, referral pathways between primary and
      secondary care, and community postnatal care.

PMID- 28554935
TI  - The accuracy of postoperative, non-invasive Air-Test to diagnose atelectasis in
      healthy patients after surgery: a prospective, diagnostic pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of peripheral capillary oxygen
      saturation (SpO2) while breathing room air for 5 min (the 'Air-Test') in
      detecting postoperative atelectasis. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. Diagnostic
      accuracy was assessed by measuring the agreement between the index test and the
      reference standard CT scan images. SETTING: Postanaesthetic care unit in a
      tertiary hospital in Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred and fifty patients from
      12 January to 7 February 2015; 170 patients scheduled for surgery under general
      anaesthesia who were admitted into the postsurgical unit were included.
      INTERVENTION: The Air-Test was performed in conscious extubated patients after a
      30 min stabilisation period during which they received supplemental oxygen
      therapy via a venturi mask. The Air-Test was defined as positive when SpO2 was
      <=96% and negative when SpO2 was >=97%. Arterial blood gases were measured in all
      patients at the end of the Air-Test. In the subsequent 25 min, the presence of
      atelectasis was evaluated by performing a CT scan in 59 randomly selected
      patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary study outcome was assessment of the
      accuracy of the Air-Test for detecting postoperative atelectasis compared with
      the reference standard. The secondary outcome was the incidence of positive Air
      Test results. RESULTS: The Air-Test diagnosed postoperative atelectasis with an
      area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.90 (95% CI 0.82 to
      0.98) with a sensitivity of 82.6% and a specificity of 87.8%. The presence of
      atelectasis was confirmed by CT scans in all patients (30/30) with positive and
      in 5 patients (17%) with negative Air-Test results. Based on the Air-Test,
      postoperative atelectasis was present in 36% of the patients (62 out of 170).
      CONCLUSION: The Air-Test may represent an accurate, simple, inexpensive and non
      invasive method for diagnosing postoperative atelectasis. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      NCT02650037.

PMID- 28554939
TI  - Simplified clinical algorithm for identifying patients eligible for immediate
      initiation of antiretroviral therapy for HIV (SLATE): protocol for a randomised
      evaluation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: African countries are rapidly adopting guidelines to offer
      antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all HIV-infected individuals, regardless of CD4
      count. For this policy of 'treat all' to succeed, millions of new patients must
      be initiated on ART as efficiently as possible. Studies have documented high
      losses of treatment-eligible patients from care before they receive their first
      dose of antiretrovirals (ARVs), due in part to a cumbersome, resource-intensive
      process for treatment initiation, requiring multiple clinic visits over a several
      week period. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Simplified Algorithm for Treatment
      Eligibility (SLATE) study is an individually randomised evaluation of a
      simplified clinical algorithm for clinicians to reliably determine a patient's
      eligibility for immediate ART initiation without waiting for laboratory results
      or additional clinic visits. SLATE will enrol and randomise (1:1) 960 adult, HIV
      positive patients who present for HIV testing or care and are not yet on ART in
      South Africa and Kenya. Patients randomised to the standard arm will receive
      routine, standard of care ART initiation from clinic staff. Patients randomised
      to the intervention arm will be administered a symptom report, medical history,
      brief physical exam and readiness assessment. Patients who have positive
      (satisfactory) results for all four components of SLATE will be dispensed ARVs
      immediately, at the same clinic visit. Patients who have any negative results
      will be referred for further clinical investigation, counselling, tests or other
      services prior to being dispensed ARVs. After the initial visit, follow-up will
      be by passive medical record review. The primary outcomes will be ART initiation
      <=28 days and retention in care 8 months after study enrolment. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been provided by the Boston University
      Institutional Review Board, the University of the Witwatersrand Human Research
      Ethics Committee (Medical) and the KEMRI Scientific and Ethics Review Unit.
      Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and made widely available
      through presentations and briefing documents. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02891135.

PMID- 28554941
TI  - Terra firma-forme dermatosis: a benign cutaneous entity with no systemic
      manifestations.

PMID- 28554940
TI  - The association between human herpesvirus infections and stroke: a systematic
      review protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: After primary infection, human herpesviruses establish latency and
      persist lifelong. Periodic virus reactivation can lead to serious inflammatory
      complications. Recent research suggests that herpesvirus reactivation may also be
      linked to acute stroke. An improved understanding of this relationship is vital
      to inform public health prevention strategies. We will review the evidence
      regarding the role of human herpesviruses in triggering stroke. METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: A systematic literature review of published and grey literature studies
      with a human herpesvirus (infection or reactivation) as an exposure and stroke as
      an outcome will be carried out. Randomised controlled trials, cohort, case
      control, case crossover and self-controlled case series designs will be eligible;
      no restrictions will be placed on publication status, language and geographical
      or healthcare setting. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials,
      Embase, Global Health, Medline, Scopus and Web of Science will be searched from
      dates of inception to January 2017. A prespecified search strategy of medical
      subject headings and free text terms (in the title and abstract) for human
      herpesviruses AND stroke will be used. Two reviewers will independently screen
      titles and abstracts for eligible studies, followed by full-text screening. The
      reviewers will then extract data from the eligible studies using standardised,
      pilot-tested tables and assess risk of bias in individual studies, in line with
      the Cochrane Collaboration approach. The data will be synthesised in a narrative
      format, and meta-analyses considered where there are sufficient data. Quality of
      evidence will be assessed in line with theGrading of Recommendations, Assessment,
      Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As this is
      a systematic review, ethical approval is not required. The results will be
      submitted for peer-review publication and presented at national conferences. A
      lay and short summary will be disseminated on appropriate webpages. PROSPERO
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017054502.

PMID- 28554942
TI  - MSTO1 is a cytoplasmic pro-mitochondrial fusion protein, whose mutation induces
      myopathy and ataxia in humans.
AB  - The protein MSTO1 has been localized to mitochondria and linked to mitochondrial
      morphology, but its specific role has remained unclear. We identified a c.22G > A
      (p.Val8Met) mutation of MSTO1 in patients with minor physical abnormalities,
      myopathy, ataxia, and neurodevelopmental impairments. Lactate stress test and
      myopathological results suggest mitochondrial dysfunction. In patient
      fibroblasts, MSTO1 mRNA and protein abundance are decreased, mitochondria display
      fragmentation, aggregation, and decreased network continuity and fusion activity.
      These characteristics can be reversed by genetic rescue. Short-term silencing of
      MSTO1 in HeLa cells reproduced the impairment of mitochondrial morphology and
      dynamics observed in the fibroblasts without damaging bioenergetics. At variance
      with a previous report, we find MSTO1 to be localized in the cytoplasmic area
      with limited colocalization with mitochondria. MSTO1 interacts with the fusion
      machinery as a soluble factor at the cytoplasm-mitochondrial outer membrane
      interface. After plasma membrane permeabilization, MSTO1 is released from the
      cells. Thus, an MSTO1 loss-of-function mutation is associated with a human
      disorder showing mitochondrial involvement. MSTO1 likely has a physiologically
      relevant role in mitochondrial morphogenesis by supporting mitochondrial fusion.

PMID- 28554944
TI  - How good is the evidence to support primary care practice?
AB  - Our goal was to determine the extent to which recommendations for primary care
      practice are informed by high-quality research-based evidence, and the extent to
      which they are based on evidence of improved health outcomes (patient-oriented
      evidence). As a substrate for study, we used Essential Evidence, an online,
      evidence-based, medical reference for generalists. Each of the 721 chapters makes
      overall recommendations for practice that are graded A, B or C using the Strength
      of Recommendations Taxonomy (SORT). SORT A represents consistent and good quality
      patient-oriented evidence; SORT B is inconsistent or limited quality patient
      oriented evidence and SORT C is expert opinion, usual practice or recommendations
      relying on surrogate or intermediate outcomes. Pairs of researchers abstracted
      the evidence ratings for each chapter in tandem, with discrepancies resolved by
      the lead author. Of 3251 overall recommendations, 18% were graded 'A', 34% were
      'B' and 49% were 'C'. Clinical categories with the most 'A' recommendations were
      pregnancy and childbirth, cardiovascular, and psychiatric; those with the least
      were haematological, musculoskeletal and rheumatological, and poisoning and
      toxicity. 'A' level recommendations were most common for therapy and least common
      for diagnosis. Only 51% of recommendations are based on studies reporting patient
      oriented outcomes, such as morbidity, mortality, quality of life or symptom
      reduction. In conclusion, approximately half of the recommendations for primary
      care practice are based on patient-oriented evidence, but only 18% are based on
      patient-oriented evidence from consistent, high-quality studies.

PMID- 28554943
TI  - SPINK2 deficiency causes infertility by inducing sperm defects in heterozygotes
      and azoospermia in homozygotes.
AB  - Azoospermia, characterized by the absence of spermatozoa in the ejaculate, is a
      common cause of male infertility with a poorly characterized etiology. Exome
      sequencing analysis of two azoospermic brothers allowed the identification of a
      homozygous splice mutation in SPINK2, encoding a serine protease inhibitor
      believed to target acrosin, the main sperm acrosomal protease. In accord with
      these findings, we observed that homozygous Spink2 KO male mice had azoospermia.
      Moreover, despite normal fertility, heterozygous male mice had a high rate of
      morphologically abnormal spermatozoa and a reduced sperm motility. Further
      analysis demonstrated that in the absence of Spink2, protease-induced stress
      initiates Golgi fragmentation and prevents acrosome biogenesis leading to
      spermatid differentiation arrest. We also observed a deleterious effect of
      acrosin overexpression in HEK cells, effect that was alleviated by SPINK2
      coexpression confirming its role as acrosin inhibitor. These results demonstrate
      that SPINK2 is necessary to neutralize proteases during their cellular transit
      toward the acrosome and that its deficiency induces a pathological continuum
      ranging from oligoasthenoteratozoospermia in heterozygotes to azoospermia in
      homozygotes.

PMID- 28554946
TI  - Cannabis legislation fails to protect Canada's youth.

PMID- 28554945
TI  - Genetic background and evolution of relapses in aggressive B-cell lymphomas.
AB  - Relapses of aggressive B-cell lymphomas pose a higher risk to affected patients
      because of potential treatment resistance and usually rapid tumor growth. Recent
      advances, such as targeting Bruton tyrosine kinase, have provided promising
      results in small numbers of cases, but treatment for the majority of patients
      remains challenging and outcomes are generally poor. A number of recent studies
      have utilized state-of-the-art genomic technologies in an attempt to better
      understand tumor genome evolution during relapse and to identify relapse-specific
      genetic alterations. It has been found that in some settings (e.g. diffuse large
      B-cell lymphomas in immunocompromised patients, secondary diffuse large B-cell
      lymphomas as Richter transformations) a significant part of the recurrences are
      clonally-unrelated de novo neoplasms, which might have distinct genomic and drug
      sensitivity profiles as well as different prognoses. Similar to earlier findings
      in indolent lymphomas, genetic tumor evolution of clonally-related relapsing
      aggressive B-cell lymphomas is predominantly characterized by two patterns: early
      divergence from a common progenitor and late divergence/linear evolution from a
      primary tumor. The clinical implications of these distinct patterns are not yet
      clear and will require additional investigation; however, it is plausible that
      these two patterns of recurrence are linked to different treatment-resistance
      mechanisms. Attempts to identify drivers of relapses result in a very
      heterogeneous list of affected genes and pathways as well as epigenetic
      mechanisms and suggest many ways of how recurrent tumors can adapt to treatment
      and expand their malignant properties.

PMID- 28554947
TI  - Disparities in infant hospitalizations in Indigenous and non-Indigenous
      populations in Quebec, Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infant mortality is higher in Indigenous than non-Indigenous
      populations, but comparable data on infant morbidity are lacking in Canada. We
      evaluated disparities in infant morbidities experienced by Indigenous populations
      in Canada. METHODS: We used linked population-based birth and health
      administrative data from Quebec, Canada, to compare hospitalization rates, an
      indicator of severe morbidity, in First Nations, Inuit and non-Indigenous
      singleton infants (< 1 year) born between 1996 and 2010. RESULTS: Our cohort
      included 19 770 First Nations, 3930 Inuit and 225 380 non-Indigenous infants.
      Compared with non-Indigenous infants, all-cause hospitalization rates were higher
      in First Nations infants (unadjusted risk ratio [RR] 2.05, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.99-2.11; fully adjusted RR 1.43, 95% CI 1.37-1.50) and in Inuit
      infants (unadjusted RR 1.96, 95% CI 1.87-2.05; fully adjusted RR 1.37, 95% CI
      1.24-1.52). Higher risks of hospitalization (accounting for multiple comparisons)
      were observed for First Nations infants in 12 of 16 disease categories and for
      Inuit infants in 7 of 16 disease categories. Maternal characteristics (age,
      education, marital status, parity, rural residence and Northern residence) partly
      explained the risk elevations, but maternal chronic illnesses and gestational
      complications had negligible influence overall. Acute bronchiolitis (risk
      difference v. non-Indigenous infants, First Nations 37.0 per 1000, Inuit 39.6 per
      1000) and pneumonia (risk difference v. non-Indigenous infants, First Nations
      41.2 per 1000, Inuit 61.3 per 1000) were the 2 leading causes of excess
      hospitalizations in Indigenous infants. INTERPRETATION: First Nations and Inuit
      infants had substantially elevated burdens of hospitalizations as a result of
      diseases of multiple systems. The findings identify substantial unmet needs in
      disease prevention and medical care for Indigenous infants.

PMID- 28554948
TI  - Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome.

PMID- 28554949
TI  - Atypical presentation of syphilis as an aphthous ulcer.

PMID- 28554950
TI  - Ectopic tooth: an unusual cause of headache.

PMID- 28554951
TI  - Two documents.

PMID- 28554952
TI  - Questions on analysis of firearm injuries study.

PMID- 28554953
TI  - The authors respond to: "Questions on analysis of firearm injuries study".

PMID- 28554955
TI  - Increased rate of early smoking in children and adolescents with attention
      deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PMID- 28554954
TI  - More on firearm injuries among children and youth.

PMID- 28554956
TI  - Is Ontario's youth pharmacare proposal just a symbolic gesture?

PMID- 28554957
TI  - Record number of unmatched medical graduates.

PMID- 28554958
TI  - Is police-public health collaboration an oxymoron?

PMID- 28554960
TI  - Semantic dementia, progressive non-fluent aphasia and their association with
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PMID- 28554959
TI  - Longitudinal assessment of excessive daytime sleepiness in early Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is common and disabling in
      Parkinson's disease (PD). Predictors of EDS are unclear, and data on biological
      correlates of EDS in PD are limited. We investigated clinical, imaging and
      biological variables associated with longitudinal changes in sleepiness in early
      PD. METHODS: The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative is a prospective
      cohort study evaluating progression markers in participants with PD who are
      unmedicated at baseline (n=423) and healthy controls (HC; n=196). EDS was
      measured with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Clinical, biological and
      imaging variables were assessed for associations with EDS for up to 3 years. A
      machine learning approach (random survival forests) was used to investigate
      baseline predictors of incident EDS. RESULTS: ESS increased in PD from baseline
      to year 3 (mean+/-SD 5.8+/-3.5 to 7.55+/-4.6, p<0.0001), with no change in HC.
      Longitudinally, EDS in PD was associated with non-tremor dominant phenotype,
      autonomic dysfunction, depression, anxiety and probable behaviour disorder, but
      not cognitive dysfunction or motor severity. Dopaminergic therapy was associated
      with EDS at years 2 and 3, as dose increased. EDS was also associated with
      presynaptic dopaminergic dysfunction, whereas biofluid markers at year 1 showed
      no significant associations with EDS. A predictive index for EDS was generated,
      which included seven baseline characteristics, including non-motor symptoms and
      cerebrospinal fluid phosphorylated-tau/total-tau ratio. CONCLUSIONS: In early PD,
      EDS increases significantly over time and is associated with several clinical
      variables. The influence of dopaminergic therapy on EDS is dose dependent.
      Further longitudinal analyses will better characterise associations with imaging
      and biomarkers.

PMID- 28554961
TI  - Atrial fibrillation is associated with anterior predominant white matter lesions
      in patients presenting with embolic stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: High white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden is commonly found on
      brain MRI among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, whether the link
      between AF and WMH extends beyond a common vascular risk factor profile is
      uncertain. We sought to determine whether AF relates to a distinct WMH lesion
      pattern which may suggest specific underlying pathophysiological relationships.
      METHODS: We retrospectively analysed a cohort of consecutive patients presenting
      with embolic stroke at an academic hospital and tertiary referral centre between
      March 2010 and March 2014. In total, 234 patients (53% female, 74% anterior
      circulation infarction) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the
      analyses. WMH lesion distribution was classified according to previously defined
      categories. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine
      variables associated with AF within 90 days of index hospital discharge. RESULTS:
      Among included patients, 114 had AF (49%). After adjustment for the CHA2DS2-VASc
      score (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age >=75 years (doubled), diabetes
      mellitus, prior stroke/TIA (doubled), vascular disease, age 65-74 years, sex
      category (female)) score, WMH lesion burden as assessed on the Fazekas scale,
      embolic stroke pattern, infarct distribution and pertinent interaction terms, AF
      was significantly associated with presence of anterior subcortical WMH patches
      (OR 3.647, 95% CI 1.681 to 7.911, p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: AF is associated with
      specific WMH lesion pattern among patients with embolic stroke aetiology. This
      suggests that the link between AF and brain injury extends beyond thromboembolic
      complications to include a cardiovasculopathy that affects the brain and can be
      detected and characterised by WMH.

PMID- 28554963
TI  - Reduced reactive hyperemia may explain impaired flow-mediated dilation after on
      pump cardiac surgery.
AB  - In previous studies, Flow Mediated Dilation (FMD) was used to study the effect of
      cardiac surgery on endothelial function. This study investigated the effect of on
      pump cardiac surgery on FMD and reactive hyperemia. The FMD-response and reactive
      hyperemia were measured in 25 patients the morning before- and the first morning
      after cardiac surgery. Brachial artery diameter and blood flow were measured with
      ultrasound at baseline before 5 min occlusion of the blood flow to the forearm,
      and continuously for 3 min after release of the occlusion. An exponential wash
      out model was fitted to the blood flow over time. Nineteen patients remained for
      final data analysis. Data are mean +/- SEM The FMD response was reduced after
      surgery from 3.3 +/- 0.5% to 1.4 +/- 0.6% (P = 0.02). Max blood flow after cuff
      release was reduced from 342 +/- 30 mL preoperatively to 305 +/- 30 mL
      postoperatively (P < 0.00) and fell toward baseline significantly quicker;
      preoperative half-life was 36 +/- 2.4 sec. versus 29 +/- 1.9 sec postoperatively
      (P < 0.00). Resting blood flow was reduced from 84 +/- 9 mL/min to 66 +/- 9
      mL/min, (P < 0.00). Brachial artery baseline diameter was unaffected by coronary
      artery bypass surgery (P = 0.3). The observed reduction in brachial artery FMD
      after surgery, by previous authors taken to represent endothelial dysfunction,
      may at least partly be due to reduced hyperemic flow postoperatively. In studies
      where FMD is measured on multiple occasions, flow data should also be included.
      Reduced postoperative blood flow to the arm may indicate regional differences in
      vascular resistance after cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28554962
TI  - Local transmural action potential gradients are absent in the isolated, intact
      dog heart but present in the corresponding coronary-perfused wedge.
AB  - The left ventricular (LV) coronary-perfused canine wedge preparation is a model
      commonly used for studying cardiac repolarization. In wedge studies,
      transmembrane potentials typically are recorded; whereas, extracellular
      electrical recordings are commonly used in intact hearts. We compared
      electrically measured activation recovery interval (ARI) patterns in the intact
      heart with those recorded at the same location in the LV wedge preparation. We
      also compared electrically recorded and optically obtained ARIs in the LV wedge
      preparation. Five Langendorff-perfused canine hearts were paced from the right
      atrium. Local activation and repolarization times were measured with eight
      transmural needle electrodes. Subsequently, left ventricular coronary-perfused
      wedge preparations were prepared from these hearts while the electrodes remained
      in place. Three electrodes remained at identical positions as in the intact
      heart. Both electrograms and optical action potentials were recorded (pacing
      cycle length 400-4000 msec) and activation and repolarization patterns were
      analyzed. ARIs found in the subepicardium were shorter than in the subendocardium
      in the LV wedge preparation but not in the intact heart. The transmural ARI
      gradient recorded at the cut surface of the wedge was not different from that
      recorded internally. ARIs recorded internally and at the cut surface in the LV
      wedge preparation, both correlated with optically recorded action potentials. ARI
      and RT gradients in the LV wedge preparation differed from those in the intact
      canine heart, implying that those observations in human LV wedge preparations
      also should be extrapolated to the intact human heart with caution.

PMID- 28554964
TI  - Decreasing cerebral oxygen consumption during upright tilt in vasovagal syncope.
AB  - We measured changes in transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) and near infrared
      spectroscopy (NIRS) during 70 degrees  upright tilt in patients with recurrent
      vasovagal syncope (VVS, N = 20), postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS, N = 20),
      and healthy controls (N = 12) aged 15-27 years old. VVS was included if they
      fainted during testing within 5-15 min of upright tilt. We combined TCD and NIRS
      to obtain estimates of percent change in the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen
      consumption (CMRO2), cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv), and oxygen extraction
      fraction (OEF). Over the course of 10 min of upright tilt, CBFv decreased from a
      baseline of 70 +/- 5 to 63 +/- 5 cm/sec in controls and 74 +/- 3 to 64 +/- 3
      cm/sec in POTS while decreasing from 74 +/- 4 to 44 +/- 3 cm/sec in VVS CMRO2 was
      unchanged in POTS and controls during tilt while OEF increased by 19 +/- 3% and
      15 +/- 3%, respectively. CMRO2 decreased by 31 +/- 3% in VVS during tilt while
      OEF only increased by 7 +/- 3%. Oxyhemoglobin decreased by 1.1 +/- 1.3 MUmol/kg
      brain tissue in controls, by 1.1 +/- 1.3 MUmol/kg in POTS, and 11.1 +/- 1.3
      MUmol/kg in VVS CBFv and CMRO2 fell steadily in VVS during upright tilt. The
      deficit in CMRO2 in VVS results from inadequate OEF in the face of greatly
      reduced CBF.

PMID- 28554965
TI  - Fetuin-A aggravates lipotoxicity in podocytes via interleukin-1 signaling.
AB  - Sterile inflammation is considered critical in the pathogenesis of diabetic
      nephropathy (DN). Here we show that Fetuin-A (FetA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      exacerbate palmitic acid-induced podocyte death, which is associated with a
      strong induction of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and keratinocyte
      chemoattractant (KC). Moreover, blockage of TLR4 prevents MCP-1 and KC secretion
      and attenuates podocyte death induced by palmitic acid alone or combined with
      FetA. In addition, inhibition of interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling by anakinra, a
      recombinant human IL-1Ra, or a murinized anti-IL-1beta antibody attenuates the
      inflammatory and ultimate cell death response elicited by FetA alone or combined
      with palmitic acid. In vivo short-term therapy of diabetic DBA/2J mice with an
      anti-IL1-beta antibody for 4 weeks prevented an increase in serum FetA and
      considerably decreased urinary tumor necrosis alpha (TNF-alpha), a known risk
      factor for DN progression. In summary, our results suggest that FetA similarly to
      LPS leads to an inflammatory response in podocytes, which exacerbates palmitic
      acid-induced podocyte death and our data imply a critical role for IL-1beta
      signaling in this process. The study offers the rational for prolonged in vivo
      studies aimed at testing anti-IL-1beta therapy for prevention and treatment of
      DN.

PMID- 28554966
TI  - The Yin and Yang of bile acid action on tight junctions in a model colonic
      epithelium.
AB  - Gastrointestinal epithelial barrier loss due to tight junction (TJ) dysfunction
      and bile acid-induced diarrhea are common in patients with inflammatory diseases.
      Although excess colonic bile acids are known to alter mucosal permeability, few
      studies have compared the effects of specific bile acids on TJ function. We
      report that the primary bile acid, chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), and its 7alpha
      dehydroxylated derivative, lithocholic acid (LCA) have opposite effects on
      epithelial integrity in human colonic T84 cells. CDCA decreased transepithelial
      barrier resistance (pore) and increased paracellular 10 kDa dextran permeability
      (leak), effects that were enhanced by proinflammatory cytokines (PiC [ng/mL]:
      TNFalpha[10] + IL-1beta[10] + IFNgamma[30]). CDCA reversed the cation selectivity
      of the monolayer and decreased intercellular adhesion. In contrast, LCA alone did
      not alter any of these parameters, but attenuated the effects of CDCA +/- PiC on
      paracellular permeability. CDCA, but not PiC, decreased occludin and not claudin
      2 protein expression; CDCA also decreased occludin localization. LCA +/- CDCA had
      no effects on occludin or claudin expression/localization. While PiC and CDCA
      increased IL-8 production, LCA reduced both basal and PiC +/- CDCA-induced IL-8
      production. TNFalpha + IL1beta increased IFNgamma, which was enhanced by CDCA and
      attenuated by LCA CDCA+/-PiC increased production of reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) that was attenuated by LCA Finally, scavenging ROS attenuated CDCA's leak,
      but not pore actions, and LCA enhanced this effect. Thus, in T84 cells, CDCA
      plays a role in the inflammatory response causing barrier dysfunction, while LCA
      restores barrier integrity. Understanding the interplay of LCA, CDCA, and PiC
      could lead to innovative therapeutic strategies for inflammatory and diarrheal
      diseases.

PMID- 28554967
TI  - Basal late sodium current is a significant contributor to the duration of action
      potential of guinea pig ventricular myocytes.
AB  - In cardiac myocytes, an enhancement of late sodium current (INaL) under
      pathological conditions is known to cause prolongation of action potential
      duration (APD). This study investigated the contribution of INaL under basal,
      physiological conditions to the APD Whole-cell INaL and the APD of ventricular
      myocytes isolated from healthy adult guinea pigs were measured at 36 degrees C.
      The INaL inhibitor GS967 or TTX was applied to block INaL The amplitude of basal
      INaL and the APD at 50% repolarization in myocytes stimulated at a frequency of
      0.17 Hz were -0.24 +/- 0.02 pA/pF and 229 +/- 6 msec, respectively. GS967 (0.01-1
      MUmol/L) concentration dependently reduced the basal INaL by 18 +/- 3-82 +/- 4%.
      At the same concentrations, GS967 shortened the APD by 9 +/- 2 to 25 +/- 1%.
      Similarly, TTX at 0.1-10 MUmol/L decreased the basal INaL by 13 +/- 1-94 +/- 1%
      and APD by 8 +/- 1-31 +/- 2%. There was a close correlation (R2 = 0.958) between
      the percentage inhibition of INaL and the percentage shortening of APD caused by
      either GS967 or TTX MTSEA (methanethiosulfonate ethylammonium, 2 mmol/L), a
      NaV1.5 channel blocker, reduced the INaL by 90 +/- 5%, suggesting that the NaV1.5
      channel isoform is the major contributor to the basal INaL KN-93 (10 MUmol/L) and
      AIP (2 MUmol/L), blockers of CaMKII, moderately reduced the basal INaL Thus, this
      study provides strong evidence that basal endogenous INaL is a significant
      contributor to the APD of cardiac myocytes. In addition, the basal INaL of guinea
      pig ventricular myocytes is mainly generated from NaV1.5 channel isoform and is
      regulated by CaMKII.

PMID- 28554969
TI  - Setting the scene: what did we know before Rosetta?
AB  - This paper provides an overview of our state of knowledge about comets prior to
      the Rosetta mission encounter. Starting with the historical perspective, this
      paper discusses the development of comet science up to the modern era of space
      exploration. The extent to which comets are tracers of solar system formation
      processes or preserve pristine interstellar material has been investigated for
      over four decades. There is increasing evidence that in contrast with the
      distinct dynamical comet reservoirs we see today, comet formation regions
      strongly overlapped in the protoplanetary disc and there was significant
      migration of material in the disc during the epoch of comet formation. Comet
      nuclei are now known to be very low-density highly porous bodies, with very low
      thermal inertia, and have a range of sizes which exhibit a deficiency of very
      small bodies. The low thermal inertia suggests that comets may preserve pristine
      materials close to the surface, and that this might be accessible to sample
      return missions.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after
      Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554968
TI  - Neonatal high protein intake enhances neonatal growth without significant adverse
      renal effects in spontaneous IUGR piglets.
AB  - In humans, early high protein (HP) intake has been recommended to prevent
      postnatal growth restriction and complications of intrauterine growth restriction
      (IUGR). However, the impact of such a strategy on the kidneys remains unknown,
      while significant renal hypertrophy, proteinuria, and glomerular sclerosis have
      been demonstrated in few experimental studies. The objective of this study was to
      evaluate the effects of a neonatal HP formula on renal structure in IUGR piglets.
      Spontaneous IUGR piglets were randomly allocated to normal protein (NP, n = 10)
      formula or to HP formula (+50% protein content, n = 10) up to day 28 after birth.
      Body weight, body composition, renal functions, and structure were assessed at
      the end of the neonatal period. While birth weights were similar, 28-day-old HP
      piglets were 18% heavier than NP piglets (P < 0.01). Carcass protein content was
      22% higher in HP than in NP offspring (P < 0.01). Despite a HP intake, kidney
      weight and glomerular fibrosis were unaltered in HP piglets. Only a 20% increase
      in glomerular volume was noted in HP piglets (P < 0.05) and restricted to the
      inner cortical area nephrons (P = 0.03). Plasma urea/creatinine ratio and
      proteinuria were unchanged in HP piglets. In conclusion, neonatal HP feeding in
      IUGR piglets significantly enhanced neonatal growth and tissue protein deposition
      but mildly affected glomerular volume. It can be speculated that a sustained
      tissue protein anabolism in response to HP intake have limited single nephron
      glomerular hyperfiltration.

PMID- 28554970
TI  - The Philae lander mission and science overview.
AB  - The Philae lander accomplished the first soft landing and the first scientific
      experiments of a human-made spacecraft on the surface of a comet. Planned,
      expected and unexpected activities and events happened during the descent, the
      touch-downs, the hopping across and the stay and operations on the surface. The
      key results were obtained during 12-14 November 2014, at 3 AU from the Sun,
      during the 63 h long period of the descent and of the first science sequence on
      the surface. Thereafter, Philae went into hibernation, waking up again in late
      April 2015 with subsequent communication periods with Earth (via the orbiter),
      too short to enable new scientific activities. The science return of the mission
      comes from eight of the 10 instruments on-board and focuses on morphological,
      thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of the surface as well as on the
      surface composition. It allows a first characterization of the local environment
      of the touch-down and landing sites. Unique conclusions on the organics in the
      cometary material, the nucleus interior, the comet formation and evolution became
      available through measurements of the Philae lander in the context of the Rosetta
      mission.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after
      Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554972
TI  - The composition of cometary ices.
AB  - The chemical composition of cometary ices provides clues for the conditions of
      formation and evolution of the early Solar System. A large number of molecules
      have been identified in cometary atmospheres, from both ground-based observations
      and space, including in situ investigations. This includes large organic
      molecules, which are also observed in star-forming regions. This paper presents a
      review of molecular abundances measured in cometary atmospheres from remote
      sensing observations with ground-based and space-based telescopes. The diversity
      of composition observed in comet populations is presented and discussed.This
      article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554973
TI  - D2O and HDS in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
AB  - The European Rosetta mission has been following comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
      for 2 years, studying the nucleus and coma in great detail. For most of these 2
      years the Rosetta Orbiter Sensor for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) has
      analysed the volatile part of the coma. With its high mass resolution and
      sensitivity it was able to not only detect deuterated water HDO, but also doubly
      deuterated water, D2O and deuterated hydrogen sulfide HDS. The ratios for
      [HDO]/[H2O], [D2O]/[HDO] and [HDS]/[H2S] derived from our measurements are (1.05
      +/- 0.14) * 10-3, (1.80 +/- 0.9) * 10-2 and (1.2 +/- 0.3) * 10-3, respectively.
      These results yield a very high ratio of 17 for [D2O]/[HDO] relative to
      [HDO]/[H2O]. Statistically one would expect just 1/4. Such a high value can be
      explained by cometary water coming unprocessed from the presolar cloud, where
      water is formed on grains, leading to high deuterium fractionation. The high
      [HDS]/[H2S] ratio is compatible with upper limits determined in low-mass star
      forming regions and also points to a direct correlation of cometary H2S with
      presolar grain surface chemistry.This article is part of the themed issue
      'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554974
TI  - Comets as a possible source of nanodust in the Solar System cloud and in
      planetary debris discs.
AB  - Comets, comet-like objects and their fragments are the most plausible source for
      the dust in both the inner heliosphere and planetary debris discs around other
      stars. The smallest size of dust particles in debris discs is not known and
      recent observational results suggest that the size distribution of the dust
      extends down to sizes of a few nanometres or a few tens of nanometres. In the
      Solar System, electric field measurements from spacecraft observe events that are
      explained with high-velocity impacts of nanometre-sized dust. In some planetary
      debris discs an observed mid- to near-infrared emission supposedly results from
      hot dust located in the vicinity of the star. And the observed emission is
      characteristic of dust of sizes a few tens of nanometres. Rosetta observations,
      on the other hand, provide little information on the presence of nanodust near
      comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This article describes why this is not in
      contradiction to the observations of nanodust in the heliosphere and in planetary
      debris discs. The direct ejection of nanodust from the nucleus of the comet would
      not contribute significantly to the observed nanodust fluxes. We discuss a
      scenario that nanodust forms in the interplanetary dust cloud through the high
      velocity collision process in the interplanetary medium for which the production
      rates are highest near the Sun. Likewise, fragmentation by collisions occurs near
      the star in planetary debris discs. The collisional fragmentation process in the
      inner Solar System occurs at similar velocities to those of the collisional
      evolution in the interstellar medium. A question for future studies is whether
      there is a common magic size of the smallest collision fragments and what
      determines this size.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science
      after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554976
TI  - Interaction of the solar wind with comets: a Rosetta perspective.
AB  - The Rosetta mission provides an unprecedented possibility to study the
      interaction of comets with the solar wind. As the spacecraft accompanies comet
      67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from its very low-activity stage through its perihelion
      phase, the physics of mass loading is witnessed for various activity levels of
      the nucleus. While observations at other comets provided snapshots of the
      interaction region and its various plasma boundaries, Rosetta observations allow
      a detailed study of the temporal evolution of the innermost cometary
      magnetosphere. Owing to the short passage time of the solar wind through the
      interaction region, plasma instabilities such as ring--beam and non-gyrotropic
      instabilities are of less importance during the early life of the magnetosphere.
      Large-amplitude ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves, the 'singing' of the comet, is
      probably due to a modified ion Weibel instability. This instability drives a
      cross-field current of implanted cometary ions unstable. The initial pick-up of
      these ions causes a major deflection of the solar wind protons. Proton
      deflection, cross-field current and the instability induce a threefold structure
      of the innermost interaction region with the characteristic Mach cone and
      Whistler wings as stationary interaction signatures as well as the ULF waves
      representing the dynamic aspect of the interaction.This article is part of the
      themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554975
TI  - Mechanical and electrostatic experiments with dust particles collected in the
      inner coma of comet 67P by COSIMA onboard Rosetta.
AB  - The in situ cometary dust particle instrument COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass
      Analyser) onboard ESA's Rosetta mission has collected about 31 000 dust particles
      in the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since August 2014. The
      particles are identified by optical microscope imaging and analysed by time-of
      flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. After dust particle collection by low
      speed impact on metal targets, the collected particle morphology points towards
      four families of cometary dust particles. COSIMA is an in situ laboratory that
      operates remotely controlled next to the comet nucleus. The particles can be
      further manipulated within the instrument by mechanical and electrostatic means
      after their collection by impact. The particles are stored above 0 degrees C in
      the instrument and the experiments are carried out on the refractory, ice-free
      matter of the captured cometary dust particles. An interesting particle
      morphology class, the compact particles, is not fragmented on impact. One of
      these particles was mechanically pressed and thereby crushed into large
      fragments. The particles are good electrical insulators and transform into rubble
      pile agglomerates by the application of an energetic indium ion beam during the
      secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis.This article is part of the themed issue
      'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554977
TI  - SOHO comets: 20 years and 3000 objects later.
AB  - We present a summary of the more than 3000 sungrazing and near-Sun comets
      discovered in coronagraph images returned by the Solar and Heliospheric
      Observatory (SOHO), since its launch in December 1995. We address each of the
      four main populations of objects observed by SOHO: Kreutz (sungrazing) group,
      Meyer group, Marsden and Kracht (96P-family) group and non-group comets.
      Discussions for each group include basic properties, discovery statistics and
      morphological appearance. In addition to updating the community on the status of
      the discoveries by SOHO, we also show that the rate of discovery of Kreutz
      sungrazers has probably remained static since approximately 2003 and we report on
      the first likely fragmentation pair observed within the Meyer group.This article
      is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554971
TI  - The 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko observation campaign in support of the Rosetta
      mission.
AB  - We present a summary of the campaign of remote observations that supported the
      European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. Telescopes across the globe (and in
      space) followed comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from before Rosetta's arrival
      until nearly the end of the mission in September 2016. These provided essential
      data for mission planning, large-scale context information for the coma and tails
      beyond the spacecraft and a way to directly compare 67P with other comets. The
      observations revealed 67P to be a relatively 'well-behaved' comet, typical of
      Jupiter family comets and with activity patterns that repeat from orbit to orbit.
      Comparison between this large collection of telescopic observations and the in
      situ results from Rosetta will allow us to better understand comet coma chemistry
      and structure. This work is just beginning as the mission ends-in this paper, we
      present a summary of the ground-based observations and early results, and point
      to many questions that will be addressed in future studies.This article is part
      of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554978
TI  - Asteroid-comet continuum objects in the solar system.
AB  - In this review presented at the Royal Society meeting, 'Cometary science after
      Rosetta', I present an overview of studies of small solar system objects that
      exhibit properties of both asteroids and comets (with a focus on so-called active
      asteroids). Sometimes referred to as 'transition objects', these bodies are
      perhaps more appropriately described as 'continuum objects', to reflect the
      notion that rather than necessarily representing actual transitional evolutionary
      states between asteroids and comets, they simply belong to the general population
      of small solar system bodies that happen to exhibit a continuous range of
      observational, physical and dynamical properties. Continuum objects are
      intriguing because they possess many of the properties that make classical comets
      interesting to study (e.g. relatively primitive compositions, ejection of surface
      and subsurface material into space where it can be more easily studied, and
      orbital properties that allow us to sample material from distant parts of the
      solar system that would otherwise be inaccessible), while allowing us to study
      regions of the solar system that are not sampled by classical comets.This article
      is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554979
TI  - Cometary dust: the diversity of primitive refractory grains.
AB  - Comet dust is primitive and shows significant diversity. Our knowledge of the
      properties of primitive cometary particles has expanded significantly through
      microscale investigations of cosmic dust samples (anhydrous interplanetary dust
      particles (IDPs), chondritic porous (CP) IDPs and UltraCarbonaceous Antarctic
      micrometeorites, Stardust and Rosetta), as well as through remote sensing
      (Spitzer IR spectroscopy). Comet dust are aggregate particles of materials
      unequilibrated at submicrometre scales. We discuss the properties and processes
      experienced by primitive matter in comets. Primitive particles exhibit a diverse
      range of: structure and typology; distribution of constituents; concentration and
      form of carbonaceous and refractory organic matter; Mg- and Fe-contents of the
      silicate minerals; sulfides; existence/abundance of type II chondrule fragments;
      high-temperature calcium-aluminium inclusions and ameboid-olivine aggregates; and
      rarely occurring Mg-carbonates and magnetite, whose explanation requires aqueous
      alteration on parent bodies. The properties of refractory materials imply there
      were disc processes that resulted in different comets having particular
      selections of primitive materials. The diversity of primitive particles has
      implications for the diversity of materials in the protoplanetary disc present at
      the time and in the region where the comets formed.This article is part of the
      themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554980
TI  - Comets: looking ahead.
AB  - We outline the key questions about comets that must be answered in order to
      understand cometary formation in the context of the protoplanetary disc and the
      role of comets in the formation and evolution of the solar system. We then
      discuss the new understanding of comets from Rosetta and from other recent
      advances, including work presented by others at the discussion meeting. Finally,
      we suggest some key directions for future projects to better address the above
      questions.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after
      Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554981
TI  - The Rosetta mission orbiter science overview: the comet phase.
AB  - The international Rosetta mission was launched in 2004 and consists of the
      orbiter spacecraft Rosetta and the lander Philae. The aim of the mission is to
      map the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by remote sensing, and to examine its
      environment in situ and its evolution in the inner Solar System. Rosetta was the
      first spacecraft to rendezvous with and orbit a comet, accompanying it as it
      passes through the inner Solar System, and to deploy a lander, Philae, and
      perform in situ science on the comet's surface. The primary goals of the mission
      were to: characterize the comet's nucleus; examine the chemical, mineralogical
      and isotopic composition of volatiles and refractories; examine the physical
      properties and interrelation of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus;
      study the development of cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer
      of the nucleus and in the coma; detail the origin of comets, the relationship
      between cometary and interstellar material and the implications for the origin of
      the Solar System; and characterize asteroids 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia. This
      paper presents a summary of mission operations and science, focusing on the
      Rosetta orbiter component of the mission during its comet phase, from early 2014
      up to September 2016.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science
      after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554982
TI  - Cometary science after Rosetta.
AB  - The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission ended operations on 30 September 2016
      having spent over 2 years in close proximity to its target comet, 67P/Churyumov
      Gerasimenko. Shortly before this, in summer 2016, a discussion meeting was held
      to examine how the results of the mission could be framed in terms of cometary
      and solar system science in general. This paper provides a brief history of the
      Rosetta mission, and gives an overview of the meeting and the contents of this
      associated special issue.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary
      science after Rosetta'.

PMID- 28554984
TI  - The Effect of Deoxycholic Acid on Secretion and Motility in the Rat and Guinea
      Pig Large Intestine.
AB  - Background/Aims: Bile acid is an important luminal factor that affects
      gastrointestinal motility and secretion. We investigated the effect of bile acid
      on secretion in the proximal and distal rat colon and coordination of bowel
      movements in the guinea pig colon. Methods: The short-circuit current from the
      mucosal strip of the proximal and distal rat colon was compared under control
      conditions after induction of secretion with deoxycholic acid (DCA) as well as
      after inhibition of secretion with indomethacin, 1,2-bis (o-aminophenoxy) ethane
      N,N,N',N'-tetra-acetic acid (an intracellular calcium chelator; BAPTA), and
      tetrodotoxin (TTX) using an Ussing chamber. Colonic pressure patterns were also
      evaluated in the extracted guinea pig colon during resting, DCA stimulation, and
      inhibition by TTX using a newly developed pressure-sensing artificial stool.
      Results: The secretory response in the distal colon was proportionate to the
      concentration of DCA. Also, indomethacin, BAPTA, and TTX inhibited chloride
      secretion in response to DCA significantly (P < 0.05). However, these changes
      were not detected in the proximal colon. When we evaluated motility, we found
      that DCA induced an increase in luminal pressure at the proximal, middle, and
      distal sensors of an artificial stool simultaneously during the non-peristaltic
      period (P < 0.05). In contrast, during peristalsis, DCA induced an increase in
      luminal pressure at the proximal sensor and a decrease in pressure at the middle
      and distal sensors of the artificial stool (P < 0.05). Conclusions: DCA induced a
      clear segmental difference in electrogenic secretion. Also, DCA induced a more
      powerful peristaltic contraction only during the peristaltic period.

PMID- 28554985
TI  - Evaluation of the ambulatory arterial stiffness index in lead-exposed workers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Lead exposure has been associated with various cardiovascular
      disorders. It may also cause increased inflammation and fibrosis in the arterial
      system resulting in an increase in arterial stiffness. In this study, the
      ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI), which is a technique that measures
      arterial stiffness, was evaluated in occupationally lead-exposed workers.
      METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 68 lead-exposed workers without known
      cardiovascular risk factors and 68 healthy subjects were evaluated according to
      the 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitorization (ABPM) profiles and blood
      and 24-hour urine lead levels. A regression slope of diastolic over systolic
      blood pressure (BP) was computed in each participant. AASI was defined as 1 minus
      the regression slope. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in terms of
      baseline demographic, clinical, echocardiographic characteristics, and ABPM
      profiles between the groups. In lead-exposed workers, the mean age was 34.7+/-8.1
      years, and the median blood and urine lead levels were 40.5 ug/dL and 34.9 ug/L,
      respectively. AASI was 0.42+/-0.10 in lead-exposed workers and 0.37+/-0.10 in
      control subjects (p=0.007). In correlation analysis, AASI was correlated with
      both blood (r=0.417, p<0.001) and urine lead (r=0.242, p=0.047) levels. In
      regression analysis, blood lead level was found to be associated with AASI
      (beta=0.086, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: AASI, which is an indicator of arterial
      stiffness, was found to be higher in lead-exposed workers than in healthy
      individuals. Increased AASI may be considered an early sign of arterial
      involvement in case of lead exposure.

PMID- 28554983
TI  - CYP2J2 metabolites, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids, attenuate Ang II-induced cardiac
      fibrotic response by targeting Galpha12/13.
AB  - The arachidonic acid-cytochrome P450 2J2-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (AA-CYP2J2-EET)
      metabolic pathway has been identified to be protective in the cardiovascular
      system. This study explored the effects of the AA-CYP2J2-EET metabolic pathway on
      cardiac fibrosis from the perspective of cardiac fibroblasts and underlying
      mechanisms. In in vivo studies, 8-week-old male CYP2J2 transgenic mice (aMHC
      CYP2J2-Tr) and littermates were infused with angiotensin II (Ang II) or saline
      for 2 weeks. Results showed that CYP2J2 overexpression increased EET production.
      Meanwhile, impairment of cardiac function and fibrotic response were attenuated
      by CYP2J2 overexpression. The effects of CYP2J2 were associated with reduced
      activation of the alpha subunits of G12 family G proteins (Galpha12/13)/RhoA/Rho
      kinase (ROCK) cascade and elevation of the NO/cyclic guanosine monophosphate
      (cGMP) level in cardiac tissue. In in vitro studies, cardiac fibroblast
      activation, proliferation, migration, and collagen production induced by Ang II
      were associated with activation of the Galpha12/13/RhoA/ROCK pathway, which was
      inhibited by exogenous 11,12-EET. Moreover, silencing of Galpha12/13 or RhoA
      exerted similar effects as 11,12-EET. Furthermore, inhibitory effects of 11,12
      EET on Galpha12/13 were blocked by NO/cGMP pathway inhibitors. Our findings
      indicate that enhancement of the AA-CYP2J2-EET metabolic pathway by CYP2J2
      overexpression attenuates Ang II-induced cardiac dysfunction and fibrosis by
      reducing the fibrotic response of cardiac fibroblasts by targeting the
      Galpha12/13/RhoA/ROCK pathway via NO/cGMP signaling.

PMID- 28554986
TI  - Connexin 43 is involved in the sympathetic atrial fibrillation in canine and
      canine atrial myocytes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common rapid cardiac arrhythmia
      associated with high morbidity and mortality. Stimulation of the sympathetic
      nerve is involved in AF occurrence. The gap junction protein connexin 43 (Cx43)
      plays a key role in electrical conduction velocity in cardiac tissues, and under
      expression of Cx43 was linked with AF. The aim of this study was to investigate
      whether Cx43 was involved in sympathetic AF. METHODS: Fifteen dogs were randomly
      divided into 3 groups (5 in each group). Sympathetic AF was induced in dogs and
      isolated canine atrial myocytes by isoproterenol (ISO) perfusion and rapid atrium
      pacing (RAP). The expression levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) and tyrosine
      hydroxylase (TH) in the atrial tissues were detected using immunohistochemical
      staining. The transcription and protein expression of Cx43 in the AF cell model
      was measured. Subsequently, Cx43 was blocked by short interfering (si) RNA in
      atrial myocytes and the gap junctional intercellular communication was detected
      using the scrape-loading and dye transfer assay. RESULTS: Sympathetic AF was
      successfully induced by a combination of ISO perfusion and RAP. The expression
      levels of NGF and TH were increased in the RAP group, and further increased in
      the RAP + ISO group. Tissue samples from the AF dogs had a lower Cx43 level than
      those of the control group (p<0.05). The expressions of mRNA and protein of Cx43
      in sympathetic AF cell model decreased by 26% and 28%, respectively, when
      compared with the control group, with p<0.05. Silencing Cx43 in cells by siRNA
      could also efficiently reduce Cx43 expression. The relative levels of Cx45 mRNA
      were decreased by 73% compared with unaffected cells. The scrape-loading and dye
      transfer assay showed that gap junctional intercellular communication was
      hampered in the sympathetic AF cell model and silencing Cx43 could impede channel
      conduction. CONCLUSION: The results suggested that low expression of Cx43 was
      involved in sympathetic AF by influencing intercellular channel conduction.
      Intervention of Cx43 expression might be an appealing therapy to sympathetic AF.

PMID- 28554987
TI  - The impact of cardiac rhythm on the mitral valve area and gradient in patients
      with mitral stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cardiac rhythm on
      the echocardiographic mitral valve area (MVA) and transmitral gradient
      calculation in relation to net atrioventricular compliance (Cn). METHODS:
      Patients (n=22) with mild or moderate pure rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) (MVA <2
      cm2 and MVA >1 cm2) and atrial fibrillation (AF) were evaluated. All patients
      underwent transthoracic electrical DC cardioversion under amiodarone treatment.
      Nineteen of the 22 patients were successfully converted to sinus rhythm (SR). The
      patients were evaluated with transthoracic echocardiography before and two to
      three days after DC cardioversion. In order to deal with variable R-R intervals,
      the measurements were averaged on five to eight consecutive beats in AF. Cn was
      calculated with a previously validated equation [Cn (mL/mm Hg)=1.270 x MVA/E-wave
      downslope]. The Cn difference between AF and SR was calculated as follows: [(AF
      Cn-SR Cn)/AF Cn] x 100. The percentage gradient (mean or maximal) difference
      between AF and SR was calculated as follows: [AF gradient (mean or maximal) - SR
      gradient (mean or maximal)]/[AF gradient (mean or maximal)] x 100. RESULTS: The
      MVA was lower (MVA planimetric; 1.62+/-0.29 vs. 1.54+/-0.27; p=.003, MVA PHT;
      1.66+/-0.30 vs. 1.59+/-0.26; p=0.01) but transmitral gradient (mean gradient;
      6.49+/-2.51 vs. 8.89+/-3.52; p=0.001, maximal gradient: 16.94+/-5.11 vs. 18.57+/
      4.54; p=0.01) and Cn values (5.37+/-0.77 vs. 6.26+/-0.64; p<0.001) were higher in
      the AF than SR. There was a significant correlation between Cn difference and
      transmitral gradient difference (mean and maximal) (Cn difference-mean gradient
      difference; r=0.46; p=0.05; Cn difference-maximal gradient difference; r=0.72;
      p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Cardiac rhythm has a significant impact on
      echocardiographic evaluation of MVA, transmitral gradient, and Cn in patients
      with MS.

PMID- 28554988
TI  - Effects of garlic on brachial endothelial function and capacity of plasma to
      mediate cholesterol efflux in patients with coronary artery disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of garlic on brachial endothelial
      function and THP-1 macrophage cholesterol efflux (CE) and examined whether garlic
      modulates ATP-binding cassette (ABC) A1 and ABCG1 mRNA expressions in peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from patients with coronary artery
      disease (CAD). METHODS: In this randomized, placebo-controlled trial, patients
      with CAD were randomly divided into two groups: those receiving garlic powder or
      placebo tablets twice daily for 3 months. Brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD)
      was assessed using ultrasound. Fasting blood samples were collected before and
      after period and PBMC and plasma were isolated. Human THP-1 monocytes were
      differentiated into macrophages, labeled with 3H-cholesterol, and incubated with
      plasma samples, and CE was assessed. ABCA1 and ABCG1 mRNA expressions were
      determined in PBMCs. RESULTS: After 3 months, brachial FMD values significantly
      improved (50.7%) in the garlic group compared with those in the placebo group
      (p=0.016). High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels significantly
      decreased in the garlic group, but the difference between the two groups was not
      statistically significant. No significant difference was observed with regard to
      CE and ABCA1 and ABCG1 mRNA expressions in PBMCs. CE was negatively correlated
      with hs-CRP levels. CONCLUSION: Short-term treatment with garlic may improve the
      endothelial function and may affect hs-CRP levels; however, it could neither
      significantly improve THP-1 macrophage CE nor affect ABCA1 or ABCG1 expressions
      in PBMCs.

PMID- 28554989
TI  - Previous cerebrovascular disease is an important predictor of clinical outcomes
      in elderly patients with percutaneous coronary interventions: The Nobori-Biolimus
      eluting stent prospective multicenter 1-year observational registry in South
      Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The appropriate selection of elderly patients for revascularization
      has become increasingly important because these subsets of patients are more
      likely to experience a major cardiac or cerebrovascular event-percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI). The objective of this study was to determine
      important independent risk factor for predicting clinical outcomes in the elderly
      patients after successful PCI, particularly in a series of South Korean
      population. METHODS: This study is prospective, multicenter, observational cross
      sectional study. A total of 1,884 consecutive patients who underwent successful
      PCI with Nobori(r) Biolimus A9-eluting stents were enrolled between April 2010
      and December 2012. They were divided into two groups according to the age:
      patients <75 years old (younger patient group) and >=75 years old (elderly
      patient group). The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular
      events (MACCE) at 1-year after index PCI. RESULTS: The 1-year cumulative
      incidence of MACCE (12.9% vs. 4.3%, p<0.001) and total death (7.1% vs. 1.5%,
      p<0.001) was significantly higher in the elderly group than in younger group.
      Previous cerebrovascular disease was significantly correlated with MACCE in
      elderly patients 1-year after PCI (hazard ratio, 2.804; 95% confidence interval,
      1.290-6.093 p=0.009). CONCLUSION: Previous cerebrovascular disease is important
      independent predictor of the MACCE in elderly patients at 1-year after PCI with
      Nobori(r) Biolimus A9-eluting stents especially in a series of South Korean
      population. Therefore, careful PCI with intensive monitoring and management can
      improve major clinical outcomes after successful PCI in elderly patients with
      previous cerebrovascular disease compared with younger patients.

PMID- 28554990
TI  - The role of SCUBE1 in the pathogenesis of no-reflow phenomenon presenting with ST
      segment elevation myocardial infarction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: SCUBE1 [signal peptide-CUB (complement C1r/C1 s)-EGF (epidermal growth
      factor)-like domain-containing protein 1] might function as a novel platelet
      endothelial adhesion molecule and play pathological roles in cardiovascular
      biology. Acute myocardial infarction is one of the most common causes of death in
      modern society. The concept of "no reflow" (NR) refers to a state of myocardial
      tissue hypoperfusion in the presence of a patent epicardial coronary artery. The
      main mechanisms of this phenomenon are thought to be high platelet activity and
      much thrombus burden. So, we researched the role of SCUBE1 in the pathogenesis of
      NR. METHODS: A total of 142 patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) (n=42 with NR and n=100 without NR) and 50 healthy individuals were
      prospectively case-control recruited between March 2015 and October 2016 from our
      outpatient clinics of cardiology department. Patients with STEMI were diagnosed
      according to American Heart Association (AHA) guideline for the management of
      STEMI. RESULTS: The mean SCUBE1 levels of the control subjects were 34+/-8.4
      ng/mL, the mean SCUBE1 levels of patients with STEMI who were treated
      successfully with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were 51+/-6.2,
      and the mean SCUBE1 levels of patients with STEMI who had NR phenomenon after
      primary PCI procedure were 97.2+/-8.9 ng/mL. CONCLUSION: In our opinion, SCUBE1
      might contribute to NR phenomenon via thrombus activation and aggregation. The
      pathophysiology of NR phenomenon is unclear. The present study is the first
      clinical study that demonstrated that serum SCUBE1 level was significantly higher
      in patients with NR and that serum SCUBE1 was an independent predictor for the
      presence of NR in our study population.

PMID- 28554991
TI  - Changes of Microrna Levels in Plasma of Patients with Rectal Cancer during
      Chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - Since the response to chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal
      cancer is heterogeneous, valid biomarkers are needed to monitor tumor response.
      Circulating microRNAs are promising candidates, however analyses of circulating
      microRNAs in rectal cancer are still rare. 111 patients with rectal cancer and 46
      age-matched normal controls were enrolled. The expression levels of 30 microRNAs
      were analyzed in 17 pre-treatment patients' plasma samples. Differentially
      regulated microRNAs were validated in 94 independent patients. For 52 of the 94
      patients a paired comparison between pre-treatment and post-treatment samples was
      performed. miR-17, miR-18b, miR-20a, miR-31, and miR-193a_3p, were significantly
      downregulated in pre-treatment plasma samples of patients with rectal cancer (p <
      0.05). miR-29c, miR-30c, and miR-195 showed a trend of differential regulation.
      After validation, miR-31 and miR-30c were significantly deregulated by a decrease
      of expression. In 52 patients expression analyses of the 8 microRNAs in matched
      pre-treatment and post-treatment samples showed a significant decrease for all
      microRNAs (p < 0.05) after treatment. Expression levels of miR-31 and miR-30c
      could serve as valid biomarkers if validated in a prospective study. Plasma
      microRNA expression levels do not necessarily represent miRNA expression levels
      in tumor tissue. Also, expression levels of microRNAs change during multimodal
      therapy.

PMID- 28554992
TI  - Dialysis Procedures Alter Metabolic Conditions.
AB  - A progressive chronic kidney disease results in retention of various substances
      that more or less contribute to dysfunction of various metabolic systems. The
      accumulated substances are denominated uremic toxins. Although many toxins remain
      undetected, numerous newly defined toxins participate in the disturbance of food
      breakdown. In addition, toxic effects may downregulate other pathways, resulting
      in a reduced ability of free fatty acid breakdown by lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and
      hepatic lipase (HL). Dialysis may even worsen metabolic functions. For LPL and
      HL, the use of heparin and low molecular weight heparin as anticoagulation during
      hemodialysis (HD) initiate a loss of these enzymes from their binding sites and
      degradation, causing a temporary dysregulation in triglyceride breakdown. This
      lack of function will cause retention of the triglyceride containing lipids for
      at least 8 h. In parallel, the breakdown into free fatty acids is limited, as is
      the energy supply by them. This is repeated thrice a week for a normal HD
      patient. In addition, dialysis will cause a loss of amino acids and disturb
      glucose metabolism depending on the dialysates used. The addition of glucose in
      the dialysate may support oxidation of carbohydrate and the retention of Amadori
      products and subsequent tissue alterations. To avoid these effects, it seems
      necessary to further study the effects of anticoagulation in HD, the extent of
      use of glucose in the dialysate, and the supplementation of amino acids.

PMID- 28554993
TI  - A Review of the Structure, Preparation, and Application of NLCs, PNPs, and PLNs.
AB  - Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are modified solid lipid nanoparticles
      (SLNs) that retain the characteristics of the SLN, improve drug stability and
      loading capacity, and prevent drug leakage. Polymer nanoparticles (PNPs) are an
      important component of drug delivery. These nanoparticles can effectively direct
      drug delivery to specific targets and improve drug stability and controlled drug
      release. Lipid-polymer nanoparticles (PLNs), a new type of carrier that combines
      liposomes and polymers, have been employed in recent years. These nanoparticles
      possess the complementary advantages of PNPs and liposomes. A PLN is composed of
      a core-shell structure; the polymer core provides a stable structure, and the
      phospholipid shell offers good biocompatibility. As such, the two components
      increase the drug encapsulation efficiency rate, facilitate surface modification,
      and prevent leakage of water-soluble drugs. Hence, we have reviewed the current
      state of development for the NLCs', PNPs', and PLNs' structures, preparation, and
      applications over the past five years, to provide the basis for further study on
      a controlled release drug delivery system.

PMID- 28554994
TI  - Total Synthesis and Pharmacological Investigation of Cordyheptapeptide A.
AB  - The present investigation reports the synthesis of a phenylalanine-rich N
      methylated cyclopeptide, cordyheptapeptide A (8), previously isolated from the
      insect pathogenic fungus Cordyceps sp. BCC 1788, accomplished through the
      coupling of N-methylated tetrapeptide and tripeptide fragments followed by
      cyclization of the linear heptapeptide unit. Structure elucidation of the newly
      synthesized cyclopolypeptide was performed by means of FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR,
      and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FABMS), and screened for its
      antibacterial, antidermatophytic, and cytotoxic potential. According to the
      antimicrobial activity results, the newly synthesized N-Methylated cyclopeptide
      exhibited potent antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae and antifungal activity against
      dermatophytes Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum audouinii at a
      concentration of 6 MUg/mL, in comparison to the reference drugs, gatifloxacin and
      griseofulvin. In addition, cyclopolypeptide 8 displayed suitable levels of
      cytotoxicity against Dalton's lymphoma ascites (DLA) and Ehrlich's ascites
      carcinoma (EAC) cell lines.

PMID- 28554996
TI  - DOA Finding with Support Vector Regression Based Forward-Backward Linear
      Prediction.
AB  - Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation has drawn considerable attention in array
      signal processing, particularly with coherent signals and a limited number of
      snapshots. Forward-backward linear prediction (FBLP) is able to directly deal
      with coherent signals. Support vector regression (SVR) is robust with small
      samples. This paper proposes the combination of the advantages of FBLP and SVR in
      the estimation of DOAs of coherent incoming signals with low snapshots. The
      performance of the proposed method is validated with numerical simulations in
      coherent scenarios, in terms of different angle separations, numbers of
      snapshots, and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Simulation results show the
      effectiveness of the proposed method.

PMID- 28554995
TI  - Curcuma mangga-Mediated Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles: Characterization,
      Stability, Cytotoxicity, and Blood Compatibility.
AB  - The utilization of toxic chemicals as reducing and stabilizing agents in the
      preparation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has increased in vivo toxicity and thus
      limited its application in clinical settings. Herein, we propose an alternative
      method of preparing highly stable AuNPs, where non-toxic Curcuma mangga (CM)
      extract was used as a single reducing and stabilizing agent to overcome the
      aforementioned constraints. The morphological images enunciated that the
      homogeneously dispersed AuNPs exhibited spherical morphology with an average
      particle diameter of 15.6 nm. Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) and cyclic
      voltammetry analysis demonstrated that carbonyl groups of terpenoids in CM
      extract played an important role in the formation and stabilization of AuNPs.
      Green-synthesized AuNPs were found to have good stability in physiological media
      after 24 h of dispersion. The AuNPs were also cytocompatible with human colon
      fibroblast cell (CCD-18Co) and human lung fibroblast cell (MRC-5).
      Hemocompatibility tests revealed that the AuNPs were blood-compatible, with less
      than 10% of hemolysis without any aggregation of erythrocytes. The current study
      suggests potential in employing a CM-extract-based method in the preparation of
      AuNPs for anticancer diagnosis and therapy.

PMID- 28554997
TI  - Direct vs. Expressed Breast Milk Feeding: Relation to Duration of Breastfeeding.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies examining direct vs. expressed breast milk feeding are
      scarce. We explored the predictors of mode of breastfeeding and its association
      with breastfeeding duration in a multi-ethnic Asian population. METHODS: We
      included 541 breastfeeding mother-infant pairs from the Growing Up in Singapore
      Toward healthy Outcomes cohort. Mode of breastfeeding (feeding directly at the
      breast, expressed breast milk (EBM) feeding only, or mixed feeding (a combination
      of the former 2 modes)) was ascertained at three months postpartum. Ordinal
      logistic regression analyses identified predictors of breast milk expression. Cox
      regression models examined the association between mode of breastfeeding and
      duration of any and of full breastfeeding. RESULTS: Maternal factors
      independently associated with a greater likelihood of breast milk expression
      instead of direct breastfeeding were Chinese (vs. Indian) ethnicity, (adjusted
      odds ratio, 95% CI; 3.41, 1.97-5.91), tertiary education (vs. secondary education
      or lower) (2.22, 1.22-4.04), primiparity (1.54, 1.04-2.26) and employment during
      pregnancy (2.53, 1.60-4.02). Relative to those who fed their infants directly at
      the breast, mothers who fed their infants EBM only had a higher likelihood of
      early weaning among all mothers who were breastfeeding (adjusted hazard ratio,
      95% CI; 2.20, 1.61-3.02), and among those who were fully breastfeeding (2.39,
      1.05-5.41). Mothers who practiced mixed feeding, however, were not at higher risk
      of earlier termination of any or of full breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers who
      fed their infants EBM exclusively, but not those who practiced mixed feeding,
      were at a higher risk of terminating breastfeeding earlier than those who fed
      their infants directly at the breast. More education and support are required for
      women who feed their infants EBM only.

PMID- 28554998
TI  - Nutritional Vitamin D in Renal Transplant Patients: Speculations and Reality.
AB  - Reduced levels of nutritional vitamin D are commonly observed in most chronic
      kidney disease (CKD) patients and particularly in patients who have received a
      kidney transplant (KTx). In the complex clinical scenario characterizing the
      recipients of a renal graft, nutritional vitamin D deficiency has been put in
      relation not only to the changes of mineral and bone metabolism (MBM) after KTx,
      but also to most of the medical complications which burden KTx patients. In fact,
      referring to its alleged pleiotropic (non-MBM related) activities, vitamin D has
      been claimed to play some role in the occurrence of cardiovascular, metabolic,
      immunologic, neoplastic and infectious complications commonly observed in KTx
      recipients. Furthermore, low nutritional vitamin D levels have also been
      connected with graft dysfunction occurrence and progression. In this review, we
      will discuss the purported and the demonstrated effects of native vitamin D
      deficiency/insufficiency in most of the above mentioned fields, dealing
      separately with the MBM-related and the pleiotropic effects.

PMID- 28554999
TI  - The Impact of Prenatal Organophosphate Pesticide Exposures on Thai Infant
      Neurodevelopment.
AB  - A birth cohort was begun to investigate the levels and sources of pesticide
      exposure in pregnant women living in Thailand, and to examine the effects of
      pesticide exposure on infant neurodevelopment at five months of age. Subjects
      were interviewed using questionnaires regarding their demographic
      characteristics, educational background, and work and home activities related to
      pesticide exposures. Spot urine samples were collected at 28 weeks gestation and
      analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine maternal metabolite
      levels of organophosphate pesticides including dimethyl phosphate (DMP); total
      DEP (diethyl phosphate (DEP), diethyl thiophosphate (DETP), and diethyl
      dithiophosphate (DEDTP), and total DAP (the sum of all metabolite levels). At
      five months of age, infant development was evaluated using the Bayley Scales of
      Infant and Toddler Development-III (Bayley-III). Higher total DEP and total DAP
      metabolite levels from the mother at 28 weeks' gestation were significantly
      associated with reduced motor composite scores on the Bayley-III at five months
      of age. The total DEP levels were also significantly associated with reduced
      cognitive composite scores. Prenatal concentrations of maternal urinary
      metabolites were associated with infant cognitive and motor development. The
      results of several studies now suggest the need for public health intervention to
      reduce prenatal pesticide exposures from both agricultural and domestic use.

PMID- 28555000
TI  - Recent Advances in the Development of Mammalian Geranylgeranyl Diphosphate
      Synthase Inhibitors.
AB  - The enzyme geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGDPS) catalyzes the synthesis of
      the 20-carbon isoprenoid geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP). GGPP is the
      isoprenoid donor for protein geranylgeranylation reactions catalyzed by the
      enzymes geranylgeranyl transferase (GGTase) I and II. Inhibitors of GGDPS result
      in diminution of protein geranylgeranylation through depletion of cellular GGPP
      levels, and there has been interest in GGDPS inhibitors as potential anti-cancer
      agents. Here we discuss recent advances in the development of GGDPS inhibitors,
      including insights gained by structure-function relationships, and review the
      preclinical data that support the continued development of this novel class of
      drugs.

PMID- 28555001
TI  - Enhancement of Biomass and Lipid Productivities of Water Surface-Floating
      Microalgae by Chemical Mutagenesis.
AB  - Water surface-floating microalgae have great potential for biofuel applications
      due to the ease of the harvesting process, which is one of the most problematic
      steps in conventional microalgal biofuel production. We have collected promising
      water surface-floating microalgae and characterized their capacity for biomass
      and lipid production. In this study, we performed chemical mutagenesis of two
      water surface-floating microalgae to elevate productivity. Floating microalgal
      strains AVFF007 and FFG039 (tentatively identified as Botryosphaerella sp. and
      Chlorococcum sp., respectively) were exposed to ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) or
      1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), and pale green mutants (PMs) were
      obtained. The most promising FFG039 PM formed robust biofilms on the surface of
      the culture medium, similar to those formed by wild type strains, and it
      exhibited 1.7-fold and 1.9-fold higher biomass and lipid productivities than
      those of the wild type. This study indicates that the chemical mutation strategy
      improves the lipid productivity of water surface-floating microalgae without
      inhibiting biofilm formation and floating ability.

PMID- 28555003
TI  - FLOWERING LOCUS T Triggers Early and Fertile Flowering in Glasshouse Cassava
      (Manihot esculenta Crantz).
AB  - Accelerated breeding of plant species has the potential to help challenge
      environmental and biochemical cues to support global crop security. We
      demonstrate the over-expression of ArabidopsisFLOWERING LOCUS T in Agrobacterium
      mediated transformed cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz; cultivar 60444) to
      trigger early flowering in glasshouse-grown plants. An event seldom seen in a
      glasshouse environment, precocious flowering and mature inflorescence were
      obtained within 4-5 months from planting of stem cuttings. Manual pollination
      using pistillate and staminate flowers from clonal propagants gave rise to viable
      seeds that germinated into morphologically typical progeny. This strategy comes
      at a time when accelerated crop breeding is of increasing importance to
      complement progressive genome editing techniques.

PMID- 28555002
TI  - Cellular and Molecular Targets of Resveratrol on Lymphoma and Leukemia Cells.
AB  - Resveratrol (RSV) is a well known chemopreventive molecule featuring anti-cancer
      properties. Our paper describes the main molecular targets of RSV linked to its
      antiproliferative activity on lymphoma and leukemia experimental models. It
      discusses further the most recent and most promising among these molecular
      targets for a translational application.

PMID- 28555006
TI  - Underwater Depth and Temperature Sensing Based on Fiber Optic Technology for
      Marine and Fresh Water Applications.
AB  - Oceanic conditions play an important role in determining the effects of climate
      change and these effects can be monitored through the changes in the physical
      properties of sea water. In fact, Oceanographers use various probes for measuring
      the properties within the water column. CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature and
      Depth) provide profiles of physical and chemical parameters of the water column.
      A CTD device consists of Conductivity (C), Temperature (T) and Depth (D) probes
      to monitor the water column changes with respect to relative depth. An optical
      fibre-based point sensor used as a combined pressure (depth) and temperature
      sensor and the sensor system are described. Measurements accruing from underwater
      trials of a miniature sensor for pressure (depth) and temperature in the ocean
      and in fresh water are reported. The sensor exhibits excellent stability and its
      performance is shown to be comparable with the Sea-Bird Scientific commercial
      sensor: SBE9Plus.

PMID- 28555004
TI  - Epigenetic Signature: A New Player as Predictor of Clinically Significant
      Prostate Cancer (PCa) in Patients on Active Surveillance (AS).
AB  - Widespread prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing notably increased the number
      of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnoses. However, about 30% of these patients have low
      risk tumors that are not lethal and remain asymptomatic during their lifetime.
      Overtreatment of such patients may reduce quality of life and increase healthcare
      costs. Active surveillance (AS) has become an accepted alternative to immediate
      treatment in selected men with low-risk PCa. Despite much progress in recent
      years toward identifying the best candidates for AS in recent years, the greatest
      risk remains the possibility of misclassification of the cancer or missing a high
      risk cancer. This is particularly worrisome in men with a life expectancy of
      greater than 10-15 years. The Prostate Cancer Research International Active
      Surveillance (PRIAS) study showed that, in addition to age and PSA at diagnosis,
      both PSA density (PSA-D) and the number of positive cores at diagnosis (two
      compared with one) are the strongest predictors for reclassification biopsy or
      switching to deferred treatment. However, there is still no consensus upon
      guidelines for placing patients on AS. Each institution has its own protocol for
      AS that is based on PRIAS criteria. Many different variables have been proposed
      as tools to enrol patients in AS: PSA-D, the percentage of freePSA, and the
      extent of cancer on biopsy (number of positive cores or percentage of core
      involvement). More recently, the Prostate Health Index (PHI), the 4 Kallikrein
      (4K) score, and other patient factors, such as age, race, and family history,
      have been investigated as tools able to predict clinically significant PCa.
      Recently, some reports suggested that epigenetic mapping differs significantly
      between cancer patients and healthy subjects. These findings indicated as future
      prospect the use of epigenetic markers to identify PCa patients with low-grade
      disease, who are likely candidates for AS. This review explores literature data
      about the potential of epigenetic markers as predictors of clinically significant
      disease.

PMID- 28555005
TI  - Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) Spectroscopy in Studies of the Protective
      Effects of 24-Epibrasinoide and Selenium against Zearalenone-Stimulation of the
      Oxidative Stress in Germinating Grains of Wheat.
AB  - These studies concentrate on the possibility of using selenium ions and/or 24
      epibrassinolide at non-toxic levels as protectors of wheat plants against
      zearalenone, which is a common and widespread mycotoxin. Analysis using the UHPLC
      MS technique allowed for identification of grains having the stress-tolerant and
      stress-sensitive wheat genotype. When germinating in the presence of 30 uM of
      zearalenone, this mycotoxin can accumulate in both grains and hypocotyls
      germinating from these grains. Selenium ions (10 uM) and 24-epibrassinolide (0.1
      uM) introduced together with zearalenone decreased the uptake of zearalenone from
      about 295 to 200 ng/g and from about 350 to 300 ng/g in the grains of tolerant
      and sensitive genotypes, respectively. As a consequence, this also resulted in a
      reduction in the uptake of zearalenone from about 100 to 80 ng/g and from about
      155 to 128 ng/g in the hypocotyls from the germinated grains of tolerant and
      sensitive wheat, respectively. In the mechanism of protection against the
      zearalenone-induced oxidative stress, the antioxidative enzymes-mainly superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)-were engaged, especially in the sensitive
      genotype. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies allowed for a description
      of the chemical character of the long-lived organic radicals formed in
      biomolecular structures which are able to stabilize electrons released from
      reactive oxygen species as well as the changes in the status of transition
      paramagnetic metal ions. The presence of zearalenone drastically decreased the
      amount of paramagnetic metal ions-mainly Mn(II) and Fe(III)-bonded in the organic
      matrix. This effect was particularly found in the sensitive genotype, in which
      these species were found at a smaller level. The protective effect of selenium
      ions and 24-epibrassinolide originated from their ability to inhibit the
      destruction of biomolecules by reactive oxygen species. An increased ability to
      defend biomolecules against zearalenone action was observed for 24
      epibrassinolide.

PMID- 28555007
TI  - B-Myb Is Up-Regulated and Promotes Cell Growth and Motility in Non-Small Cell
      Lung Cancer.
AB  - B-Myb is a transcription factor that is overexpressed and plays an oncogenic role
      in several types of human cancers. However, its potential implication in lung
      cancer remains elusive. In the present study, we have for the first time
      investigated the expression profile of B-Myb and its functional impact in lung
      cancer. Expression analysis by quantificational real-time polymerase chain
      reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry demonstrated that B-Myb expression is
      aberrantly overexpressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and positively
      correlated with pathologic grade and clinical stage of NSCLC. A gain-of-function
      study revealed that overexpression of B-Myb significantly increases lung cancer
      cell growth, colony formation, migration, and invasion. Conversely, a loss-of
      function study showed that knockdown of B-Myb decreases cell growth, migration,
      and invasion. B-Myb overexpression also promoted tumor growth in vivo in a NSCLC
      xenograft nude mouse model. A molecular mechanistic study by RNA-sequencing (RNA
      seq) analysis showed that B-Myb overexpression causes up-regulation of various
      downstream genes (e.g., COL11A1, COL6A1, FN1, MMP2, NID1, FLT4, INSR, and CCNA1)
      and activation of multiple critical pathways (e.g., extracellular signal
      regulated kinases (ERK) and phosphorylated-protein kinase B (Akt) signaling
      pathways) involved in cell proliferation, tumorigenesis, and metastasis.
      Collectively, our results indicate a tumor-promoting role for B-Myb in NSCLC and
      thus imply its potential as a target for the diagnosis and/or treatment of NSCLC.

PMID- 28555009
TI  - Acute Regression in Young People with Down Syndrome.
AB  - Abstract: Adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) can present a
      rapid regression with loss of independence and daily skills. Causes of regression
      are unknown and treatment is most of the time symptomatic. We did a retrospective
      cohort study of regression cases: patients were born between 1959 and 2000, and
      were followed from 1984 to now. We found 30 DS patients aged 11 to 30 years old
      with history of regression. Regression occurred regardless of the cognitive level
      (severe, moderate, or mild intellectual disability (ID)). Patients presented
      psychiatric symptoms (catatonia, depression, delusions, stereotypies, etc.),
      partial or total loss of independence in activities of daily living (dressing,
      toilet, meals, and continence), language impairment (silence, whispered voice,
      etc.), and loss of academic skills. All patients experienced severe emotional
      stress prior to regression, which may be considered the trigger. Partial or total
      recovery was observed for about 50% of them. In our cohort, girls were more
      frequently affected than boys (64%). Neurobiological hypotheses are discussed as
      well as preventative and therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28555010
TI  - Adaptive Data Aggregation and Compression to Improve Energy Utilization in Solar
      Powered Wireless Sensor Networks.
AB  - A node in a solar-powered wireless sensor network (WSN) collects energy when the
      sun shines and stores it in a battery or capacitor for use when no solar power is
      available, in particular at night. In our scheme, each tiny node in a WSN
      periodically determines its energy budget, which takes into account its residual
      energy, and its likely acquisition and consumption. If it expects to acquire more
      energy than it can store, the data which has it has sensed is aggregated with
      data from other nodes, compressed, and transmitted. Otherwise, the node continues
      to sense data, but turns off its wireless communication to reduce energy
      consumption. We compared several schemes by simulation. Our scheme reduced the
      number of nodes forced to black out due to lack of energy so that more data
      arrives at the sink node.

PMID- 28555011
TI  - The IL-6 Gene Promoter SNP and Plasma IL-6 in Response to Diet Intervention.
AB  - We recently reported that interleukin-6 (IL-6), an inflammatory marker associated
      with breast pathology and the development of breast cancer, decreases with diet
      intervention and weight loss in both insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant
      obese women. Here, we tested whether an individual's genotype at an IL6 SNP,
      rs1800795, which has previously been associated with circulating IL-6 levels,
      contributes to changes in IL-6 levels or modifies the effect of diet composition
      on IL-6 in these women. We genotyped rs1800795 in overweight/obese women (N =
      242) who were randomly assigned to a lower fat (20% energy), higher carbohydrate
      (65% energy) diet; a lower carbohydrate (45% energy), higher fat (35% energy)
      diet; or a walnut-rich (18% energy), higher fat (35% energy), lower carbohydrate
      (45% energy) diet in a 1-year weight loss intervention study of obesity-related
      biomarkers for breast cancer incidence and mortality. Plasma IL-6 levels were
      measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. At baseline, individuals with a CC
      genotype had significantly lower IL-6 levels than individuals with either a GC or
      GG genotype (p < 0.03; 2.72 pg/mL vs. 2.04 pg/mL), but this result was not
      significant when body mass index (BMI) was accounted for; the CC genotype group
      had lower BMI (p = 0.03; 32.5 kg/m2 vs. 33.6 kg/m2). We did not observe a 2-way
      interaction of time*rs1800795 genotype or diet*rs1800795 genotype. Our findings
      provide evidence that rs1800795 is associated with IL-6 levels, but do not
      support a differential interaction effect of rs1800795 and diet composition or
      time on changes in circulating IL-6 levels. Diet intervention and weight loss are
      an important strategy for reducing plasma IL-6, a risk factor of breast cancer in
      women, regardless of their rs1800795 genotype.

PMID- 28555008
TI  - Different Intestinal Microbial Profile in Over-Weight and Obese Subjects
      Consuming a Diet with Low Content of Fiber and Antioxidants.
AB  - Obesity has been related to an increased risk of multiple diseases in which
      oxidative stress and inflammation play a role. Gut microbiota has emerged as a
      mediator in this interaction, providing new mechanistic insights at the interface
      between fat metabolism dysregulation and obesity development. Our aim was to
      analyze the interrelationship among obesity, diet, oxidative stress, inflammation
      and the intestinal microbiota in 68 healthy adults (29.4% normal-weight). Diet
      was assessed through a food frequency questionnaire and converted into nutrients
      and dietary compounds using food composition tables. The intestinal microbiota
      was assessed by quantitative PCR, fecal short chain fatty acids by gas
      chromatography and serum biomarkers by standard protocols. Higher levels of
      malondialdehyde (MDA), C reactive protein (CRP), serum leptin, glucose, fat
      percentage and the intestinal Lactobacillus group were found in the obese people.
      Cluster analysis of body mass index, fat mass, glucose, LDL/HDL ratio, leptin,
      MDA and CRP classified the subjects into two groups. The levels of the intestinal
      Bacteroides-Prevotella-Porphyromonas group were lower in the cluster and linked
      to a higher pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory status, whose individuals also had
      lower intake of fruits, dried fruits, and fish. These results could be useful for
      designing strategies targeted to obesity prevention.

PMID- 28555013
TI  - Silver Nanoparticles in Orthopedic Applications: New Insights on Their Effects on
      Osteogenic Cells.
AB  - Infections of orthopedic implants are associated with high morbidity. The
      emergence of antibiotic resistant strains and the tendency of microbes to form
      biofilms on orthopedic devices prompt the individuation of novel antimicrobial
      agents. Silver nanoparticles represent an interesting alternative, but their
      effects on bone cells need to be clarified. We focused on osteoblast-like cells
      and on bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells and found that these cells are rather
      resistant to the cytotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles, with a half maximal
      inhibitory concentration around 25 ug/mL as detected by MTT assay. Within a month
      of treatment, osteoblast-like cells adapt to the presence of the nanoparticles by
      upregulating hsp70 as shown by western blot. Hsp70 overexpression correlates with
      the restoration of normal cell proliferation. No alterations in the extent and
      time requirements were detected in mesenchymal stem cell induced to differentiate
      in osteoblasts in the presence of silver nanoparticles. Because the
      concentrations of silver nanoparticles which show antimicrobial activity are
      lower than those exerting toxic effects on bone-forming cells in vitro, we
      suggest that silver nanoparticles might represent a challenging tool to fight
      infections in orthopedic implants.

PMID- 28555015
TI  - Simple Technique of Exfoliation and Dispersion of Multilayer Graphene from
      Natural Graphite by Ozone-Assisted Sonication.
AB  - Owing to its unique properties, graphene has attracted tremendous attention in
      many research fields. There is a great space to develop graphene synthesis
      techniques by an efficient and environmentally friendly approach. In this paper,
      we report a facile method to synthesize well-dispersed multilayer graphene (MLG)
      without using any chemical reagents or organic solvents. This was achieved by the
      ozone-assisted sonication of the natural graphite in a water medium. The
      frequency or number of ozone treatments plays an important role for the
      dispersion in the process. The possible mechanism of graphene exfoliation and the
      introduction of functional groups have been postulated. The experimental setup is
      unique for ozone treatment and enables the elimination of ozone off-gas. The heat
      generated by the dissipation of ultrasonic waves was used as it is, and no
      additional heat was supplied. The graphene dispersion was stable, and no evidence
      of aggregation was observed---even after several months. The characterization
      results show that well-dispersed MLG was successfully synthesized without any
      significant damage to the overall structure. The graphene obtained by this method
      has potential applications in composite materials, conductive coatings, energy
      storage, and electronic devices.

PMID- 28555012
TI  - Biological and Physicochemical Functions of Ubiquitylation Revealed by Synthetic
      Chemistry Approaches.
AB  - Most intracellular proteins are subjected to post-translational modification by
      ubiquitin. Accordingly, it is of fundamental importance to investigate the
      biological and physicochemical effects of ubiquitylation on substrate proteins.
      However, preparation of ubiquitylated proteins by an enzymatic synthesis bears
      limitations in terms of yield and site-specificity. Recently established chemical
      ubiquitylation methodologies can overcome these problems and provide a new
      understanding of ubiquitylation. Herein we describe the recent chemical
      ubiquitylation procedures with a focus on the effects of ubiquitylation on target
      proteins revealed by the synthetic approach.

PMID- 28555014
TI  - In Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Idebenone Derivative-Loaded Solid Lipid
      Nanoparticles.
AB  - Idebenone (IDE) has been proposed for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases
      involving mitochondria dysfunctions. Unfortunately, to date, IDE therapeutic
      treatments have not been as successful as expected. To improve IDE efficacy, in
      this work we describe a two-step approach: (1) synthesis of IDE ester derivatives
      by covalent linking IDE to other two antioxidants, trolox (IDETRL) and lipoic
      acid (IDELIP), to obtain a synergic effect; (2) loading of IDE, IDETRL, or IDELIP
      into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) to improve IDE and its esters' water
      solubility while increasing and prolonging their antioxidant activity. IDE and
      its derivatives loaded SLN showed good physico-chemical and technological
      properties (spherical shape, mean particle sizes 23-25 nm, single peak in the
      size distribution, zeta potential values -1.76/-2.89 mV, and good stability at
      room temperature). In vitro antioxidant activity of these SLN was evaluated in
      comparison with free drugs by means of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC)
      test. IDETRL and IDELIP showed a greater antioxidant activity than IDE and
      encapsulation of IDE and its derivatives into SLN was able to prolong their
      antioxidant activity. These results suggest that loading IDETRL and IDELIP into
      SLN could be a useful strategy to improve IDE efficacy.

PMID- 28555016
TI  - Evaluation of Feature Extraction and Recognition for Activity Monitoring and Fall
      Detection Based on Wearable sEMG Sensors.
AB  - As an essential subfield of context awareness, activity awareness, especially
      daily activity monitoring and fall detection, plays a significant role for
      elderly or frail people who need assistance in their daily activities. This study
      investigates the feature extraction and pattern recognition of surface
      electromyography (sEMG), with the purpose of determining the best features and
      classifiers of sEMG for daily living activities monitoring and fall detection.
      This is done by a serial of experiments. In the experiments, four channels of
      sEMG signal from wireless, wearable sensors located on lower limbs are recorded
      from three subjects while they perform seven activities of daily living (ADL). A
      simulated trip fall scenario is also considered with a custom-made device
      attached to the ankle. With this experimental setting, 15 feature extraction
      methods of sEMG, including time, frequency, time/frequency domain and entropy,
      are analyzed based on class separability and calculation complexity, and five
      classification methods, each with 15 features, are estimated with respect to the
      accuracy rate of recognition and calculation complexity for activity monitoring
      and fall detection. It is shown that a high accuracy rate of recognition and a
      minimal calculation time for daily activity monitoring and fall detection can be
      achieved in the current experimental setting. Specifically, the Wilson Amplitude
      (WAMP) feature performs the best, and the classifier Gaussian Kernel Support
      Vector Machine (GK-SVM) with Permutation Entropy (PE) or WAMP results in the
      highest accuracy for activity monitoring with recognition rates of 97.35% and
      96.43%. For fall detection, the classifier Fuzzy Min-Max Neural Network (FMMNN)
      has the best sensitivity and specificity at the cost of the longest calculation
      time, while the classifier Gaussian Kernel Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis
      (GK-FDA) with the feature WAMP guarantees a high sensitivity (98.70%) and
      specificity (98.59%) with a short calculation time (65.586 ms), making it a
      possible choice for pre-impact fall detection. The thorough quantitative
      comparison of the features and classifiers in this study supports the feasibility
      of a wireless, wearable sEMG sensor system for automatic activity monitoring and
      fall detection.

PMID- 28555018
TI  - Adventure Behavior Seeking Scale.
AB  - This article presents a new tool-the Adventure Behavior Seeking Scale (ABSS). The
      Adventure Behavior Seeking Scale was developed to assess individuals' highly
      stimulating behaviors in natural environments. An exploratory factor analysis was
      conducted with 466 participants and resulted in one factor. The internal
      consistency was 0.80. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed using another
      sample of 406 participants, and results verified the one-factor structure. The
      findings indicate that people with a lot of experience in outdoor adventure have
      a higher score on the ABSS scale than control groups without such experience. The
      results also suggest that the 8-item ABSS scores were highly related to sensation
      seeking. The author discusses findings in regard to the ABSS as an instrument to
      measure outdoor adventure. However, further studies need to be carried out in
      other sample groups to further validate the scale.

PMID- 28555017
TI  - Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide Coatings on High Aspect Ratio Micro-Pillar Arrays
      for 3D Thin Film Lithium Ion Batteries.
AB  - In this work, we present the electrochemical deposition of manganese dioxide
      (MnO2) thin films on carbon-coated TiN/Si micro-pillars. The carbon buffer layer,
      grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), is used as a
      protective coating for the underlying TiN current collector from oxidation,
      during the film deposition, while improving the electrical conductivity of the
      stack. A conformal electrolytic MnO2 (EMD) coating is successfully achieved on
      high aspect ratio C/TiN/Si pillar arrays by tailoring the deposition process.
      Lithiation/Delithiation cycling tests have been performed. Reversible insertion
      and extraction of Li+ through EMD structure are observed. The fabricated stack is
      thus considered as a good candidate not only for 3D micorbatteries but also for
      other energy storage applications.

PMID- 28555019
TI  - Mutual Regulation of NOD2 and RIG-I in Zebrafish Provides Insights into the
      Coordination between Innate Antibacterial and Antiviral Signaling Pathways.
AB  - Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2) and
      retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) are two important cytosolic pattern
      recognition receptors (PRRs) in the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular
      patterns (PAMPs), initiating innate antibacterial and antiviral signaling
      pathways. However, the relationship between these PRRs, especially in teleost
      fish models, is rarely reported. In this article, we describe the mutual
      regulation of zebrafish NOD2 (DrNOD2) and RIG-I (DrRIG-I) in innate immune
      responses. Luciferase assays were conducted to determine the activation of NF
      kappaB and interferon signaling. Morpholino-mediated knockdown and mRNA-mediated
      rescue were performed to further confirm the regulatory roles between DrNOD2 and
      DrRIG-I. Results showed that DrNOD2 and DrRIG-I shared conserved structural
      hallmarks with their mammalian counterparts, and activated DrRIG-I signaling can
      induce DrNOD2 production. Surprisingly, DrNOD2-initiated signaling can also
      induce DrRIG-I expression, indicating that a mutual regulatory mechanism may
      exist between them. Studies conducted using HEK293T cells and zebrafish embryos
      showed that DrRIG-I could negatively regulate DrNOD2-activated NF-kappaB
      signaling, and DrNOD2 could inhibit DrRIG-I-induced IFN signaling. Moreover,
      knocking down DrRIG-I expression by morpholino could enhance DrNOD2-initiated NF
      kappaB activation, and vice versa, which could be rescued by their corresponding
      mRNAs. Results revealed a mutual feedback regulatory mechanism underlying NOD2
      and RIG-I signaling pathways in teleosts. This mechanism reflects the
      coordination between cytosolic antibacterial and antiviral PRRs in the complex
      network of innate immunity.

PMID- 28555020
TI  - N-Caffeoyltryptamine, a Potent Anti-Inflammatory Phenolic Amide, Suppressed MCP-1
      Expression in LPS-stimulated THP-1 Cells and Rats Fed a High-Fat Diet.
AB  - Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a well-known chemokine critically
      involved in the pathophysiological progression of several inflammatory diseases
      including arthrosclerosis. N-caffeoyltryptamine is a phenolic amide with strong
      anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, in this paper, the potential effect of N
      caffeoyltryptamine on MCP-1 expression was investigated as a potential p38
      mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase inhibitor in vitro and in vivo. At the
      concentration of 20 MUM, N-caffeoyltryptamine significantly inhibited p38 MAP
      kinase alpha, beta, gamma and delta by 15-50% (p < 0.05), particularly p38 MAP
      kinase alpha (IC50 = 16.7 MUM) and beta (IC50 = 18.3 MUM). Also, the pretreatment
      of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated THP-1 cells with N-caffeoyltryptamine
      (10, 20 and 40 MUM) led to significant suppression of MCP-1 production by 10-45%
      (p < 0.05) in the cells. Additionally, N-caffeoyltryptamine was also able to
      significantly downregulate MCP-1 mRNA expression in the THP-1 cells (p < 0.05).
      On the basis of this strong inhibition in vitro, an animal study was conducted to
      confirm this inhibitory effect in vivo. Rats were divided into three groups (n =
      8): a normal control diet (C), a high-fat diet (HF), or a high-fat diet
      supplemented with N-caffeoyltryptamine (2 mg per day) (HFS). After 16 weeks,
      blood samples were collected from the rats in each group, and MCP-1 levels were
      determined in plasma with other atherogenic markers (C-reactive protein and
      soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin)). As expected, the average MCP-1 levels of the
      HF group were found to be higher than those of the C group (p < 0.05). However,
      the MCP-1 levels of the HFS group were significantly lower than those of the HF
      group (p < 0.05), suggesting that N-caffeoyltryptamine could decrease MCP-1
      expression in vivo. Related to other atherogenic markers such as C-reactive
      protein and sE-selectin, there was no significant difference in their levels
      between the HF and HFS groups. These data suggest that N-caffeoyltryptamine may
      specifically suppress MCP-1 expression in vitro and in vivo, possibly by
      inhibiting p38 MAP kinase.

PMID- 28555023
TI  - A Protocol Layer Trust-Based Intrusion Detection Scheme for Wireless Sensor
      Networks.
AB  - This article proposes a protocol layer trust-based intrusion detection scheme for
      wireless sensor networks. Unlike existing work, the trust value of a sensor node
      is evaluated according to the deviations of key parameters at each protocol layer
      considering the attacks initiated at different protocol layers will inevitably
      have impacts on the parameters of the corresponding protocol layers. For
      simplicity, the paper mainly considers three aspects of trustworthiness, namely
      physical layer trust, media access control layer trust and network layer trust.
      The per-layer trust metrics are then combined to determine the overall trust
      metric of a sensor node. The performance of the proposed intrusion detection
      mechanism is then analyzed using the t-distribution to derive analytical results
      of false positive and false negative probabilities. Numerical analytical results,
      validated by simulation results, are presented in different attack scenarios. It
      is shown that the proposed protocol layer trust-based intrusion detection scheme
      outperforms a state-of-the-art scheme in terms of detection probability and false
      probability, demonstrating its usefulness for detecting cross-layer attacks.

PMID- 28555022
TI  - Location-Enhanced Activity Recognition in Indoor Environments Using Off the Shelf
      Smart Watch Technology and BLE Beacons.
AB  - Activity recognition in indoor spaces benefits context awareness and improves the
      efficiency of applications related to personalised health monitoring, building
      energy management, security and safety. The majority of activity recognition
      frameworks, however, employ a network of specialised building sensors or a
      network of body-worn sensors. As this approach suffers with respect to
      practicality, we propose the use of commercial off-the-shelf devices. In this
      work, we design and evaluate an activity recognition system composed of a smart
      watch, which is enhanced with location information coming from Bluetooth Low
      Energy (BLE) beacons. We evaluate the performance of this approach for a variety
      of activities performed in an indoor laboratory environment, using four
      supervised machine learning algorithms. Our experimental results indicate that
      our location-enhanced activity recognition system is able to reach a
      classification accuracy ranging from 92% to 100%, while without location
      information classification accuracy it can drop to as low as 50% in some cases,
      depending on the window size chosen for data segmentation.

PMID- 28555021
TI  - Identification of Novel Vacuolin-1 Analogues as Autophagy Inhibitors by Virtual
      Drug Screening and Chemical Synthesis.
AB  - Autophagy is a fundamental cellular degradation process which is essential for
      cell homeostasis, and dysfunctional autophagy has been associated with a variety
      of human diseases, such as cancer. Several autophagy chemical modulators have
      been applied in a number of preclinical or clinical trials against these
      autophagy related diseases, especially cancer. Small molecule vacuolin-1 potently
      and reversibly inhibits both endosomal-lysosomal trafficking and autophagosome
      lysosome fusion, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying vacuolin-1 mediated
      autophagy inhibition remain unknown. Here, we first performed the virtual drug
      screening and identified 14 vacuolin-1 analogues as autophagy inhibitors. Based
      on these virtual screening results, we further designed and synthesized 17
      vacuolin-1 analogues, and found that 13 of them are autophagy inhibitors and a
      couple of them are as potent as vacuolin-1. In summary, these studies expanded
      the pool of useful autophagy inhibitors and reveal the structural-activity
      relationship of vacuolin-1 analogues, which is useful for future development of
      vacuolin-1 analogues with high potency and for identification of the molecular
      targets of vacuolin-1.

PMID- 28555024
TI  - New Diagnostic and Treatment Modalities for Neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
AB  - Neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome is a widely recognized, yet controversial,
      syndrome. The lack of specific objective diagnostic modalities makes diagnosis
      difficult. This is compounded by a lack of agreed upon definitive criteria to
      confirm diagnosis. Recent efforts have been made to more clearly define a set of
      diagnostic criteria that will bring consistency to the diagnosis of neurogenic
      thoracic syndrome. Additionally, advancements have been made in the quality and
      techniques of various imaging modalities that may aid in providing more accurate
      diagnoses. Surgical decompression remains the mainstay of operative treatment;
      and minimally invasive techniques are currently in development to further
      minimize the risks of this procedure. Medical management continues to be refined
      to provide non-operative treatment modalities for certain patients, as well. The
      aim of the present work is to review these updates in the diagnosis and treatment
      of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome.

PMID- 28555025
TI  - Investigation of Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) on Mechanical Properties of Cold
      Water Fish Gelatin Biodegradable Edible Films.
AB  - The tendency to use biocompatible packages, such as biodegradable films, is
      growing since they contain natural materials, are recyclable and do not cause
      environmental pollution. In this research, cold water fish gelatin and
      carboxymethyl cellulose were combined for use in edible films. Due to its unique
      properties, gelatin is widely used in creating gel, and in restructuring,
      stabilizing, emulsifying, and forming foam and film in food industries. This
      research for the first time modified and improved the mechanical properties of
      cold water fish gelatin films in combination with carboxymethyl cellulose. Cold
      water fish gelatin films along with carboxymethyl cellulose with concentrations
      of 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 50% were prepared using the casting method. The
      mechanical properties were tested by the American National Standard Method.
      Studying the absorption isotherm of the resulting composite films specified that
      the humidity of single-layer water decreased (p < 0.05) and caused a reduction in
      the equilibrium moisture of these films. In the mechanical testing of the
      composite films, the tensile strength and Young's modulus significantly increased
      and the elongation percent significantly decreased with the increase in the
      concentration of carboxymethyl cellulose. Considering the biodegradability of the
      films and the improvement of their mechanical properties by carboxymethyl
      cellulose, this kind of packaging can be used in different industries, especially
      the food industry, as an edible coating for packaging food and agricultural
      crops.

PMID- 28555026
TI  - Structural Characterization of Lignin in Fruits and Stalks of Chinese Quince.
AB  - Chinese quince (Chaenomeles sinensis) is used in food and pharmaceutical
      products, but it is seldom eaten as a raw fruit due to its astringent, woody
      flesh. The structural characterization of lignin fractions from Chinese quince
      was very important to investigate the structure-activity relationships of lignin.
      In this investigation, to characterize the structure of lignin in Chinese quince
      fruits, the milled wood lignin sample was isolated from the fruits (FMWL) and the
      chemical structure of FMWL was investigated by sugar analysis, FT-IR, GPC,
      pyrolysis-GC/MS analysis, UV spectra analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA),
      and advanced NMR spectroscopic techniques. In addition, the lignin fraction from
      the stalk of Chinese quince (SMWL) was also prepared for comparison to obtained
      more information of lignin structure in the fruits. The results showed that the
      two lignin fractions isolated from fruit and stalk of Chinese quince exhibited
      different structural features. The two MWL samples were mainly composed of beta-O
      4 ether bonds, beta-5 and beta-beta' carbon-carbon linkages in the lignin
      structural units. Compared to the SMWL, the FMWL fraction had the higher S/G
      ratio and more carbohydrates linkages. The predominant carbohydrates associated
      with FMWL and SMWL fractions were glucans-type hemicelluloses and xylan-type
      hemicelluloses, respectively. Understanding the structure of lignin could give
      insight into the properties of the lignin and enable the food processing industry
      to separate lignin more efficiently.

PMID- 28555027
TI  - Performance of BDS-3: Measurement Quality Analysis, Precise Orbit and Clock
      Determination.
AB  - Since 2015, China has successfully launched five experimental BeiDou global
      navigation system (BDS-3) satellites for expanding the regional system to global
      coverage. An initial performance assessment and characterization analysis of the
      BDS-3 is presented. Twenty days of tracking data have been collected from eleven
      monitoring stations. The tracking characteristics and measurement quality are
      analyzed and compared with the regional BDS (BDS-2) in terms of observed carrier
      to-noise density ratio, pseudo-range multipath, and noise. The preliminary
      results suggest that the measurement quality of BDS-3 outperforms the BDS-2 for
      the same type of satellites. In addition, the analysis of multipath combinations
      reveals that the problem of satellite-induced code biases found in BDS-2 seems to
      have been solved for BDS-3. Precise orbit and clock determination are carried out
      and evaluated. The orbit overlap comparison show a precision of 2-6 dm in 3D root
      mean square (RMS) and 6-14 cm in the radial component for experimental BDS-3
      satellites. External validations with satellite laser ranging (SLR) show residual
      RMS on the level of 1-3 dm. Finally, the performance of the new-generation
      onboard atomic clocks is evaluated and results confirm an increased stability
      compared to BDS-2 satellite clocks.

PMID- 28555028
TI  - Study of ZnS Nanostructures Based Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical
      Biosensors for Uric Acid Detection.
AB  - Uric acid (UA) is a kind of purine metabolism product and important in clinical
      diagnosis. In this work, we present a study of ZnS nanostructures-based
      electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors for UA detection. Through a
      simple hydrothermal method and varying the ratio of reaction solvents, we
      obtained ZnS nanomaterials of one-dimensional to three-dimensional morphologies
      and they were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy
      (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). To fabricate the UA biosensor and study the
      effect of material morphology on its performance, ZnS nanomaterials were
      deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) conducting glass and then coated with uricase
      by physical absorption. Three kinds of working electrodes were characterized by
      cyclic voltammetry method. The effect of material morphology on performance of UA
      detection was investigated via amperometric response based electrochemical method
      based on enzymatic reaction. The ZnS urchin-like nanostructures electrode shows
      better sensitivity compared with those made of nanoparticles and nanoflakes
      because of its high surface-area-to-volume ratio. The photoelectrochemical method
      for detection of UA was also studied. The sensitivity was increased 5 times after
      irradiation of 300 nm UV light. These results indicate that ZnS nanostructures
      are good candidate materials for developing enzyme-based UA biosensors.

PMID- 28555029
TI  - Venom On-a-Chip: A Fast and Efficient Method for Comparative Venomics.
AB  - Venom research has attracted an increasing interest in disparate fields, from
      drug development and pharmacology, to evolutionary biology and ecology, and
      rational antivenom production. Advances in "-omics" technologies have allowed the
      characterization of an increasing number of animal venoms, but the methodology
      currently available is suboptimal for large-scale comparisons of venom profiles.
      Here, we describe a fast, reproducible and semi-automated protocol for
      investigating snake venom variability, especially at the intraspecific level,
      using the Agilent Bioanalyzer on-chip technology. Our protocol generated a
      phenotype matrix which can be used for robust statistical analysis and
      correlations of venom variation with ecological correlates, or other extrinsic
      factors. We also demonstrate the ease and utility of combining on-chip technology
      with previously fractionated venoms for detection of specific individual toxin
      proteins. Our study describes a novel strategy for rapid venom discrimination and
      analysis of compositional variation at multiple taxonomic levels, allowing
      researchers to tackle evolutionary questions and unveiling the drivers of the
      incredible biodiversity of venoms.

PMID- 28555030
TI  - A Compact Magnetic Field-Based Obstacle Detection and Avoidance System for
      Miniature Spherical Robots.
AB  - Due to their efficient locomotion and natural tolerance to hazardous
      environments, spherical robots have wide applications in security surveillance,
      exploration of unknown territory and emergency response. Numerous studies have
      been conducted on the driving mechanism, motion planning and trajectory tracking
      methods of spherical robots, yet very limited studies have been conducted
      regarding the obstacle avoidance capability of spherical robots. Most of the
      existing spherical robots rely on the "hit and run" technique, which has been
      argued to be a reasonable strategy because spherical robots have an inherent
      ability to recover from collisions. Without protruding components, they will not
      become stuck and can simply roll back after running into bstacles. However, for
      small scale spherical robots that contain sensitive surveillance sensors and
      cannot afford to utilize heavy protective shells, the absence of obstacle
      avoidance solutions would leave the robot at the mercy of potentially dangerous
      obstacles. In this paper, a compact magnetic field-based obstacle detection and
      avoidance system has been developed for miniature spherical robots. It utilizes a
      passive magnetic field so that the system is both compact and power efficient.
      The proposed system can detect not only the presence, but also the approaching
      direction of a ferromagnetic obstacle, therefore, an intelligent avoidance
      behavior can be generated by adapting the trajectory tracking method with the
      detection information. Design optimization is conducted to enhance the obstacle
      detection performance and detailed avoidance strategies are devised. Experimental
      results are also presented for validation purposes.

PMID- 28555031
TI  - History-Based Response Threshold Model for Division of Labor in Multi-Agent
      Systems.
AB  - Dynamic task allocation is a necessity in a group of robots. Each member should
      decide its own task such that it is most commensurate with its current state in
      the overall system. In this work, the response threshold model is applied to a
      dynamic foraging task. Each robot employs a task switching function based on the
      local task demand obtained from the surrounding environment, and no communication
      occurs between the robots. Each individual member has a constant-sized task
      demand history that reflects the global demand. In addition, it has response
      threshold values for all of the tasks and manages the task switching process
      depending on the stimuli of the task demands. The robot then determines the task
      to be executed to regulate the overall division of labor. This task selection
      induces a specialized tendency for performing a specific task and regulates the
      division of labor. In particular, maintaining a history of the task demands is
      very effective for the dynamic foraging task. Various experiments are performed
      using a simulation with multiple robots, and the results show that the proposed
      algorithm is more effective as compared to the conventional model.

PMID- 28555032
TI  - Strawberry (cv. Romina) Methanolic Extract and Anthocyanin-Enriched Fraction
      Improve Lipid Profile and Antioxidant Status in HepG2 Cells.
AB  - Dyslipidemia and oxidation of low density lipoproteins (LDL) are recognized as
      critical factors in the development of atherosclerosis. Healthy dietary patterns,
      with abundant fruit and vegetable consumption, may prevent the onset of these
      risk factors due to the presence of phytochemical compounds. Strawberries are
      known for their high content of polyphenols; among them, flavonoids are the major
      constituents, and it is presumed that they are responsible for the biological
      activity of the fruit. Nevertheless, there are only a few studies that actually
      evaluate the effects of different fractions isolated from strawberries. In order
      to assess the effects of two different strawberry extracts (whole methanolic
      extract/anthocyanin-enriched fraction) on the lipid profile and antioxidant
      status in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells, the triglycerides and LDL
      cholesterol content, lipid peroxidation, intracellular reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) content and antioxidant enzymes' activity on cell lysates were determined.
      Results demonstrated that both strawberry extracts not only improved the lipid
      metabolism by decreasing triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol contents, but also
      improved the redox state of HepG2 cells by modulating thiobarbituric acid
      reactive substances production, antioxidant enzyme activity and ROS generation.
      The observed effects were more pronounced for the anthocyanin-enriched fraction.

PMID- 28555033
TI  - Annual Wormwood Leaf Inhibits the Adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 and Obesity in High-Fat
      Diet-Induced Obese Rats.
AB  - Annual wormwood (AW) (Artemisia annua L.) has anti-malarial, anti-bacterial, anti
      oxidant, anti-tumour, and anti-inflammatory activities. In the present study, we
      evaluated the effects of annual wormwood leaves (AWL) on adipocyte
      differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells and high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese rats. 3T3
      L1 adipocytes and HFD-induced obese rats were treated with AWL, and its effect on
      gene expression was analyzed using RT-PCR and Western blotting experiments.
      Treatment with AWL effectively prevented triglyceride accumulation during
      adipogenesis in a dose-dependent manner. Consistently, AWL suppressed the
      differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes into adipocytes through the
      downregulation of dexamethasone, 3-isobutyl-1- methylxanthine, and insulin (DMI)
      induced serine/threonine kinase protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) activation and the
      expression of adipogenic genes, including the CCAAT/enhancer binding protein
      alpha (C/EBPalpha) and peroximal proliferator-activated receptor-gamma
      (PPARgamma). Moreover, the expression of adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein 4
      (aP2), which is a known PPARgamma-target gene, was downregulated by AWL
      treatment. Oral administration of AWL extracts significantly decreased the body
      weight gain, adipose tissue mass, adipocyte cell size, serum triglyceride (TG),
      and total cholesterol (TC) levels in HFD-induced obese rats. These results
      provide novel insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-obesity
      effects of AWL that are mediated by the downregulation of the expression of major
      adipogenic transcription factors, C/EBPalpha and PPARgamma and Akt signalling.

PMID- 28555034
TI  - Analytical Tools to Improve Optimization Procedures for Lateral Flow Assays.
AB  - Immunochromatographic or lateral flow assays (LFAs) are inexpensive, easy to use,
      point-of-care medical diagnostic tests that are found in arenas ranging from a
      doctor's office in Manhattan to a rural medical clinic in low resource settings.
      The simplicity in the LFA itself belies the complex task of optimization required
      to make the test sensitive, rapid and easy to use. Currently, the manufacturers
      develop LFAs by empirical optimization of material components (e.g., analytical
      membranes, conjugate pads and sample pads), biological reagents (e.g.,
      antibodies, blocking reagents and buffers) and the design of delivery geometry.
      In this paper, we will review conventional optimization and then focus on the
      latter and outline analytical tools, such as dynamic light scattering and optical
      biosensors, as well as methods, such as microfluidic flow design and mechanistic
      models. We are applying these tools to find non-obvious optima of lateral flow
      assays for improved sensitivity, specificity and manufacturing robustness.

PMID- 28555035
TI  - Identification of a Blue Zone in a Typical Chinese Longevity Region.
AB  - Influenced by a special local environment, the proportion of centenarians is
      particularly high in some places, known as "blue zones". Blue zones are
      mysterious regions that continue to attract research. This paper explores the
      spatial distribution of the longevity population in a typical Chinese longevity
      region. Longevity evaluation indexes are used to analyze the longevity phenomenon
      in 88 towns between 2011 and 2015. Our research findings show that longevity is
      more important than birth rate and migration in shaping the degree of deep aging
      in the research region. Fluctuations in the proportion of centenarians are much
      higher than for nonagenarians, both in relation to towns and to years. This is
      because there are so few centenarians that data collected over a short time
      period cannot accurately represent the overall degree of longevity in a small
      region; data and statistics must be collected over a longer time period to
      achieve this. GIS analysis revealed a stable longevity zone located in the center
      of the research region. This area seems to help people live more easily to 90-99
      years old; however, its ability to help nonagenarians live to 100 is a weaker
      effect.

PMID- 28555036
TI  - High Resolution Full-Aperture ISAR Processing through Modified Doppler History
      Based Motion Compensation.
AB  - A high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) technique is presented
      using modified Doppler history based motion compensation. To this purpose, a
      novel wideband ISAR system is developed that accommodates parametric processing
      over extended aperture length. The proposed method is derived from an ISAR-to-SAR
      approach that makes use of high resolution spotlight SAR and sub-aperture
      recombination. It is dedicated to wide aperture ISAR imaging and exhibits robust
      performance against unstable targets having non-linear motions. We demonstrate
      that the Doppler histories of the full aperture ISAR echoes from disturbed
      targets are efficiently retrieved with good fitting models. Experiments have been
      conducted on real aircraft targets and the feasibility of the full aperture ISAR
      processing is verified through the acquisition of high resolution ISAR imagery.

PMID- 28555037
TI  - Evidence of the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Probiotics and Synbiotics in
      Intestinal Chronic Diseases.
AB  - Probiotics and synbiotics are used to treat chronic diseases, principally due to
      their role in immune system modulation and the anti-inflammatory response. The
      present study reviewed the effects of probiotics and synbiotics on intestinal
      chronic diseases in in vitro, animal, and human studies, particularly in
      randomized clinical trials. The selected probiotics exhibit in vitro anti
      inflammatory properties. Probiotic strains and cell-free supernatants reduced the
      expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines via action that is principally mediated
      by toll-like receptors. Probiotic administration improved the clinical symptoms,
      histological alterations, and mucus production in most of the evaluated animal
      studies, but some results suggest that caution should be taken when administering
      these agents in the relapse stages of IBD. In addition, no effects on chronic
      enteropathies were reported. Probiotic supplementation appears to be potentially
      well tolerated, effective, and safe in patients with IBD, in both CD and UC.
      Indeed, probiotics such as Bifidobacterium longum 536 improved the clinical
      symptoms in patients with mild to moderate active UC. Although it has been
      proposed that probiotics can provide benefits in certain conditions, the risks
      and benefits should be carefully assessed before initiating any therapy in
      patients with IBD. For this reason, further studies are required to understand
      the precise mechanism by which probiotics and synbiotics affect these diseases.

PMID- 28555038
TI  - Table Olive Fermentation Using Starter Cultures with Multifunctional Potential.
AB  - Table olives are one of the most popular plant-derived fermented products. Their
      enhanced nutritional value due to the presence of phenolic compounds and
      monounsaturated fatty acids makes olives an important food commodity of the
      Mediterranean diet. However, despite its economic significance, table olive
      fermentation is mainly craft-based and empirically driven by the autochthonous
      microbiota of the olives depending on various intrinsic and extrinsic factors,
      leading to a spontaneous process and a final product of variable quality. The use
      of microorganisms previously isolated from olive fermentations and studied for
      their probiotic potential and technological characteristics as starter cultures
      may contribute to the reduction of spoilage risk resulting in a controlled
      fermentation process. This review focuses on the importance of the development
      and implementation of multifunctional starter cultures related to olives with
      desirable probiotic and technological characteristics for possible application on
      table olive fermentation with the main purpose being the production of a health
      promoting and sensory improved functional food.

PMID- 28555039
TI  - FADS Gene Polymorphisms, Fatty Acid Desaturase Activities, and HDL-C in Type 2
      Diabetes.
AB  - Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) correlate with risk of dyslipidemia and
      cardiovascular diseases. Fatty acid desaturase (FADS) single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) modulate circulating PUFA concentrations. This study
      examined influence of FADS1 and FADS2 genetic variants on desaturase activities
      and blood lipid concentrations in type 2 diabetes patients, and further assessed
      their interrelationships. Selected SNPs (FADS1: rs174547, rs174548, rs174550;
      FADS2: rs174575, rs174576, rs174583, rs498793 and rs2727270) were genotyped in
      820 type 2 diabetes patients and compared with those reported in the HapMap.
      Patient subgroups (n = 176) without taking lipid-lowering medicine were studied
      to assess influence of tag SNPs including rs174547, rs174575, rs498793 and
      rs2727270 on delta-5 desaturase (D5D: 20:4 (n-6)/20:3 (n-6)) and delta-6
      desaturase (D6D:18:3 (n-6)/18:2 (n-6)) activities, and blood lipids. FADS1
      rs174547 TT/TC/CC and FADS2 rs2727270 CC/CT/TT were significantly (p for trend <
      0.05) associated with reduced HDL-C, D5D and D6D activities. Upon adjustment for
      confounders, D5D (p = 0.006) correlated significantly and D6D marginally (p =
      0.07) correlated with increased HDL-C levels, whereas rs174547 and rs2727270
      polymorphisms were not associated. D6D andD5D activities may play a role in
      modulating HDL-C levels in type 2 diabetes. Future studies with larger sample
      sizes are needed to investigate how FADS genetic variations interact with
      desaturase activities or PUFAs in the metabolism of lipoproteins in diabetic
      patients.

PMID- 28555040
TI  - Body Composition Analysis Allows the Prediction of Urinary Creatinine Excretion
      and of Renal Function in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to predict urinary creatinine excretion (UCr),
      creatinine clearance (CCr) and the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) from body
      composition analysis. Body cell mass (BCM) is the compartment which contains
      muscle mass, which is where creatinine is generated. BCM was measured with body
      impedance analysis in 165 chronic kidney disease (CKD) adult patients (72 women)
      with serum creatinine (SCr) 0.6-14.4 mg/dL. The GFR was measured (99mTc-DTPA) and
      was predicted using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) formula. The
      other examined parameters were SCr, 24-h UCr and measured 24-h CCr (mCCr). A
      strict linear correlation was found between 24-h UCr and BCM (r = 0.772).
      Multiple linear regression (MR) indicated that UCr was positively correlated with
      BCM, body weight and male gender, and negatively correlated with age and SCr. UCr
      predicted using the MR equation (MR-UCr) was quite similar to 24-h UCr. CCr
      predicted from MR-UCr and SCr (MR-BCM-CCr) was very similar to mCCr with a high
      correlation (r = 0.950), concordance and a low prediction error (8.9 mL/min/1.73
      m2). From the relationship between the GFR and the BCM/SCr ratio, we predicted
      the GFR (BCM GFR). The BCM GFR was very similar to the GFR with a high
      correlation (r = 0.906), concordance and a low prediction error (12.4 mL/min/1.73
      m2). In CKD patients, UCr, CCr and the GFR can be predicted from body composition
      analysis.

PMID- 28555041
TI  - The Effect of Dry Eye Disease on Scar Formation in Rabbit Glaucoma Filtration
      Surgery.
AB  - The success rate of glaucoma filtration surgery is closely related to
      conjunctival inflammation, and the main mechanism of dry eye disease (DED) is
      inflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of DED on bleb
      scar formation after rabbit glaucoma filtration surgery. Sixteen New Zealand
      white rabbits were randomly divided into control and DED groups. A DED model was
      induced by twice-daily topical administration of 0.1% benzalkonium chloride (BAC)
      drops for three weeks. Ocular examinations were performed to verify the DED
      model. Surgical effects were assessed, and histologic assessments were performed
      on the 28th postoperative day. Higher fluorescein staining scores, lower basal
      tear secretion levels and goblet cell counts, and increased interleukin 1beta (IL
      1beta) levels were observed in the DED group. The DED eyes displayed
      significantly higher intraocular pressure (IOP)% on the 14th postoperative day; a
      smaller bleb area on days 14, 21 and 28; and a shorter bleb survival time.
      Moreover, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and alpha-smooth muscle actin
      (alpha-SMA) levels were significantly increased in the DED group. These results
      demonstrate that DED promotes filtering bleb scar formation and shortens bleb
      survival time; these effects may be mediated via IL-1beta.

PMID- 28555042
TI  - The Cytotoxicity of the Ajoene Analogue BisPMB in WHCO1 Oesophageal Cancer Cells
      Is Mediated by CHOP/GADD153.
AB  - Garlic is a food and medicinal plant that has been used in folk medicine since
      ancient times for its beneficial health effects, which include protection against
      cancer. Crushed garlic cloves contain an array of small sulfur-rich compounds
      such as ajoene. Ajoene is able to interfere with biological processes and is
      cytotoxic to cancer cells in the low micromolar range. BisPMB is a synthetic
      ajoene analogue that has been shown in our laboratory to have superior
      cytotoxicity to ajoene. In the current study we have performed a DNA microarray
      analysis of bisPMB-treated WHCO1 oesophageal cancer cells to identify pathways
      and processes that are affected by bisPMB. The most significantly enriched
      biological pathways as assessed by gene ontology, KEGG and ingenuity pathway
      analysis were those involving protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum
      (ER) and the unfolded protein response. In support of these pathways, bisPMB was
      found to inhibit global protein synthesis and lead to increased levels of
      ubiquitinated proteins. BisPMB also induced alternate splicing of the
      transcription factor XBP-1; increased the expression of the ER stress sensor
      GRP78 and induced expression of the ER stress marker CHOP/GADD153. CHOP
      expression was found to be central to the cytotoxicity of bisPMB as its silencing
      with siRNA rendered the cells resistant to bisPMB. The MAPK proteins, JNK and
      ERK1/2 were activated following bisPMB treatment. However JNK activation was not
      critical in the cytotoxicity of bisPMB, and ERK1/2 activation was found to play a
      pro-survival role. Overall the ajoene analogue bisPMB appears to induce
      cytotoxicity in WHCO1 cells by activating the unfolded protein response through
      CHOP/GADD153.

PMID- 28555044
TI  - Denoising Algorithm for CFA Image Sensors Considering Inter-Channel Correlation.
AB  - In this paper, a spatio-spectral-temporal filter considering an inter-channel
      correlation is proposed for the denoising of a color filter array (CFA) sequence
      acquired by CCD/CMOS image sensors. Owing to the alternating under-sampled grid
      of the CFA pattern, the inter-channel correlation must be considered in the
      direct denoising process. The proposed filter is applied in the spatial,
      spectral, and temporal domain, considering the spatio-tempo-spectral correlation.
      First, nonlocal means (NLM) spatial filtering with patch-based difference (PBD)
      refinement is performed by considering both the intra-channel correlation and
      inter-channel correlation to overcome the spatial resolution degradation
      occurring with the alternating under-sampled pattern. Second, a motion
      compensated temporal filter that employs inter-channel correlated motion
      estimation and compensation is proposed to remove the noise in the temporal
      domain. Then, a motion adaptive detection value controls the ratio of the spatial
      filter and the temporal filter. The denoised CFA sequence can thus be obtained
      without motion artifacts. Experimental results for both simulated and real CFA
      sequences are presented with visual and numerical comparisons to several state-of
      the-art denoising methods combined with a demosaicing method. Experimental
      results confirmed that the proposed frameworks outperformed the other techniques
      in terms of the objective criteria and subjective visual perception in CFA
      sequences.

PMID- 28555043
TI  - Chronic Fructose Ingestion as a Major Health Concern: Is a Sedentary Lifestyle
      Making It Worse? A Review.
AB  - Obesity contributes to metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance,
      dyslipidemia, hypertension, and glucose intolerance, all of which are risk
      factors associated with metabolic syndrome. The growing prevelance of metabolic
      syndrome seems to be an end result of our current lifestyle which promotes high
      caloric, high-fat foods and minimal physical activity, resulting in a state of
      positive energy balance. Increased adiposity and physical inactivity may
      represent the beginning of the appearance of these risk factors. Understanding
      the metabolic and cardiovascular disturbances associated with diet and exercise
      habits is a crucial step towards reducing the risk factors for metabolic
      syndrome. Although considerable research has been conducted linking chronic
      fructose ingestion to the increased prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome
      risk factors, these studies have mainly been performed on animals, and/or in a
      post-absorptive state. Further, the magnitude of the effect of fructose may
      depend on other aspects of the diet, including the total amount of carbohydrates
      and fats in the diet and the overall consumption of meals. Therefore, the overall
      aim of this review paper is to examine the effects of a diet high in fructose on
      postprandial lipidemia, inflammatory markers and glucose tolerance, all risk
      factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, an objective is to
      investigate whether increased physical activity can alter such effects.

PMID- 28555045
TI  - Socioeconomic, Geospatial, and Geopolitical Disparities in Access to Health Care
      in the US 2011-2015.
AB  - Individuals forgoing needed medical care due to barriers associated with cost are
      at risk of missing needed care that may be necessary for the prevention or
      maintenance of a chronic condition among other things. Thus, continued monitoring
      of factors associated with forgone medical care, especially among vulnerable
      populations, is critical. National survey data (2011-2015) for non
      institutionalized adults residing in the USA were utilized to assess forgone
      medical care, defined as not seeking medical care when the individual thought it
      was necessary because of cost in the past 12 months. Logistic regression was used
      to predict forgone medical care vs. sought medical care. Racial/ethnic minority
      working-age adults, those with lower incomes, those with lower educations, those
      residing in the South, and those residing in states that failed to participate in
      Medicaid Expansion in 2014 were more likely (p < 0.01) to forgo medical care due
      to cost in the past year. Policy makers seeking to reduce barriers to forgone
      medical care can use this information to tailor their efforts (e.g., mechanisms
      targeted to bridge gaps in access to care) to those most at-risk and to consider
      state-level policy decisions that may impact access to care.

PMID- 28555046
TI  - Collagen from the Marine Sponges Axinella cannabina and Suberites carnosus:
      Isolation and Morphological, Biochemical, and Biophysical Characterization.
AB  - In search of alternative and safer sources of collagen for biomedical
      applications, the marine demosponges Axinella cannabina and Suberites carnosus,
      collected from the Aegean and the Ionian Seas, respectively, were comparatively
      studied for their insoluble collagen, intercellular collagen, and spongin-like
      collagen content. The isolated collagenous materials were morphologically,
      physicochemically, and biophysically characterized. Using scanning electron
      microscopy and transmission electron microscopy the fibrous morphology of the
      isolated collagens was confirmed, whereas the amino acid analysis, in conjunction
      with infrared spectroscopy studies, verified the characteristic for the collagen
      amino acid profile and its secondary structure. Furthermore, the isoelectric
      point and thermal behavior were determined by titration and differential scanning
      calorimetry, in combination with circular dichroism spectroscopic studies,
      respectively.

PMID- 28555047
TI  - Synthesis and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of New Hydroxybenzylidene
      Hydrazines.
AB  - Hydroxybenzylidene hydrazines exhibit a wide spectrum of biological activities.
      Here, we report synthesis and free radical scavenging activity of nine new N
      (hydroxybenzylidene)-N'-[2,6-dinitro-4-(trifluoromethyl)]phenylhydrazines. The
      chemical structures of these compounds were confirmed by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, 19F
      NMR, IR spectroscopy, LC-MS, and elemental analysis. The prepared compounds were
      tested for their activity to scavenge 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH),
      galvinoxyl radical (GOR), and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulphonic
      acid (ABTS) radicals. The free radical scavenging activity expressed as SC50
      values of these compounds varied in a wide range, from a strong to no radical
      scavenging effect. The most effective radical scavengers were hydroxybenzylidene
      hydrazines containing three hydroxyl groups in the benzylidene part of their
      molecules. The prepared compounds were also tested for their activity to inhibit
      photosynthetic electron transport in spinach chloroplasts. IC50 values of these
      compounds varied in wide range, from an intermediate to no inhibitory effect.

PMID- 28555048
TI  - Sensitivity of HOXB13 as a Diagnostic Immunohistochemical Marker of Prostatic
      Origin in Prostate Cancer Metastases: Comparison to PSA, Prostein, Androgen
      Receptor, ERG, NKX3.1, PSAP, and PSMA.
AB  - AIMS: Determining the origin of metastases is an important task of pathologists
      to allow for the initiation of a tumor-specific therapy. Recently, homeobox
      protein Hox-B13 (HOXB13) has been suggested as a new marker for the detection of
      prostatic origin. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic
      sensitivity of HOXB13 in comparison to commonly used immunohistochemical markers
      for prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Histologically confirmed prostate
      cancer lymph node metastases from 64 cases were used to test the diagnostic value
      of immunohistochemical markers: prostate specific antigen (PSA), Prostatic acid
      phosphatase (PSAP), prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), homeobox gene
      NKX3.1, prostein, androgen receptor (AR), HOXB13, and ETS-related gene (ERG). All
      markers were evaluated semi-quantitatively using Remmele's immune reactive score.
      RESULTS: The detection rate of prostate origin of metastasis for single markers
      was 100% for NKX3.1, 98.1% for AR, 84.3% for PSMA, 80.8% for PSA, 66% for PSAP,
      60.4% for HOXB13, 59.6% for prostein, and 50.0% for ERG. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggest that HOXB13 on its own lacks sensitivity for the detection of prostatic
      origin. Therefore, this marker should be only used in conjunction with other
      markers, preferably the highly specific PSA. The combination of PSA with NKX3.1
      shows a higher sensitivity and thus appears preferable in this setting.

PMID- 28555049
TI  - Recent Advances in Asymmetric Organocatalyzed Conjugate Additions to
      Nitroalkenes.
AB  - The asymmetric conjugate addition of carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to
      nitroalkenes is a very interesting tool for the construction of highly
      functionalized synthetic building blocks. Thanks to the rapid development of
      asymmetric organocatalysis, significant progress has been made during the last
      years in achieving efficiently this process, concerning chiral organocatalysts,
      substrates and reaction conditions. This review surveys the advances in
      asymmetric organocatalytic conjugate addition reactions to alpha,beta-unsaturated
      nitroalkenes developed between 2013 and early 2017.

PMID- 28555050
TI  - A Three-Year Follow-Up Study of Antibiotic and Metal Residues, Antibiotic
      Resistance and Resistance Genes, Focusing on Kshipra-A River Associated with Holy
      Religious Mass-Bathing in India: Protocol Paper.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is one of the major health emergencies
      for global society. Little is known about the ABR of environmental bacteria and
      therefore it is important to understand ABR reservoirs in the environment and
      their potential impact on health. METHOD/DESIGN: Quantitative and qualitative
      data will be collected during a 3-year follow-up study of a river associated with
      religious mass-bathing in Central India. Surface-water and sediment samples will
      be collected from seven locations at regular intervals for 3 years during
      religious mass-bathing and in absence of it to monitor water-quality, antibiotic
      residues, resistant bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes and metals. Approval
      has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of R.D. Gardi Medical College,
      Ujjain, India (No. 2013/07/17-311). RESULTS: The results will address the issue
      of antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistance with a focus on a river
      environment in India within a typical socio-behavioural context of religious mass
      bathing. It will enhance our understanding about the relationship between
      antibiotic residue levels, water-quality, heavy metals and antibiotic resistance
      patterns in Escherichia coli isolated from river-water and sediment, and seasonal
      differences that are associated with religious mass-bathing. We will also
      document, identify and clarify the genetic differences/similarities relating to
      phenotypic antibiotic resistance in bacteria in rivers during religious mass
      bathing or during periods when there is no mass-bathing.

PMID- 28555052
TI  - Blackcurrant Alters Physiological Responses and Femoral Artery Diameter during
      Sustained Isometric Contraction.
AB  - Blackcurrant is rich in anthocyanins that may affect exercise-induced
      physiological responses. We examined tissue oxygen saturation, muscle activity,
      cardiovascular responses and femoral artery diameter during a submaximal
      sustained isometric contraction. In a randomised, double-blind, crossover design,
      healthy men (n = 13, age: 25 +/- 4 years, BMI: 25 +/- 3 kg.m-2, mean +/- SD)
      ingested New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract (600 mg?day-1 CurraNZTM) or
      placebo (PL) for 7-days separated by 14-days washout. Participants produced
      isometric maximal voluntary contractions (iMVC) and a 120-s 30%iMVC of the
      quadriceps with electromyography (EMG), near-infrared spectroscopy, hemodynamic
      and ultrasound recordings. There was no effect of NZBC extract on iMVC (NZBC: 654
      +/- 73, PL: 650 +/- 78 N). During the 30%iMVC with NZBC extract, total peripheral
      resistance, systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure were lower with
      increased cardiac output and stroke volume. With NZBC extract, EMG root mean
      square of the vastusmedialis and muscle oxygen saturation were lower with higher
      total haemoglobin. During the 30%iMVC, femoral artery diameter was increased with
      NZBC extract at 30 (6.9%), 60 (8.2%), 90 (7.7%) and 120 s (6.0%). Intake of NZBC
      extract for 7-days altered cardiovascular responses, muscle oxygen saturation,
      muscle activity and femoral artery diameter during a 120-s 30%iMVC of the
      quadriceps. The present study provides insight into the potential mechanisms for
      enhanced exercise performance with intake of blackcurrant.

PMID- 28555053
TI  - Genealogy of Conjugated Acyclic Polyenes.
AB  - Based on the total pi-electron energies Epis of Huckel Molecular Orbital (HMO)
      method for all the possible isomers of conjugated acyclic polyenes (C2nH2n+2) up
      to n = 7, the structure-stability relation of the possible isomers was analyzed.
      It was shown that the mean length of conjugation L can roughly predict the
      ordering of stability among isomers, while the Z-index, or Hosoya-index, can
      almost perfectly reproduce their stability. Further, the genealogy of the
      conjugated acyclic polyene family was obtained by drawing systematic diagrams
      connecting these isomers of different n, and governed by several simple rules.
      Namely, the stability change of a given isomer in the genealogy connecting n and
      n + 1 polyenes can be classified into three different modes of vinyl addition
      (elongation, inner and outer branching) and horn growing, i.e., substitution of 
      HC=CH- moiety with -HC(=CH2)-C(=CH2)H-. By using the Z-index, we can extend this
      type of discussion to polyene radicals and even to "cross-conjugated" cyclic
      polyenes containing only one odd-membered cycle, such as radialene and fulvene.

PMID- 28555051
TI  - Chalcomycins from Marine-Derived Streptomyces sp. and Their Antimicrobial
      Activities.
AB  - Dihydrochalcomycin (1) and chalcomycin, (2), two known chalcomycins, and
      chalcomycin E (3), a new compound, were isolated from marine-derived Streptomyces
      sp. HK-2006-1. Their structures were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic and X
      ray crystallographic analysis. The antimicrobial activities against
      Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger
      of 1-3 were evaluated. Compounds 1-2 exhibited activities against S. aureus with
      minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 32 ug/mL and 4 ug/mL, respectively.
      The fact that 1-2 showed stronger activity against S. aureus 209P than 3
      indicated that the epoxy unit was important for antimicrobial activity. This
      structure-activity tendency of chalcomycins against S. aureus is different from
      that of aldgamycins reported in our previous research, which provide a valuable
      example for the phenomenon that 16-membered macrolides with different sugars do
      not have parallel structure-activity relationships.

PMID- 28555054
TI  - Knockdown of XBP1 by RNAi in Mouse Granulosa Cells Promotes Apoptosis, Inhibits
      Cell Cycle, and Decreases Estradiol Synthesis.
AB  - Granulosa cells are crucial for follicular growth, development, and follicular
      atresia. X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1), a basic region-leucine zipper protein,
      is widely involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, cellular
      stress response, and other signaling pathways. In this study, RNA interference,
      flow cytometry, western blot, real-time PCR, Cell Counting Kit (CCK8), and ELISA
      were used to investigate the effect of XBP1 on steroidogenesis, apoptosis, cell
      cycle, and proliferation of mouse granulosa cells. ELISA analysis showed that
      XBP1 depletion significantly decreased the concentrations of estradiol (E2).
      Additionally, the expression of estrogen synthesis enzyme Cyp19a1 was sharply
      downregulated. Moreover, flow cytometry showed that knockdown of XBP1 increased
      the apoptosis rate and arrests the cell cycle in S-phase in granulosa cells
      (GCs). Further study confirmed these results. The expression of CCAAT-enhancer
      binding protein homologous protein (CHOP), cysteinyl aspartate specific proteases
      3 (caspase-3), cleaved caspase-3, and Cyclin E was upregulated, while that of Bcl
      2, Cyclin A1, and Cyclin B1 was downregulated. Simultaneously, CCK8 analysis
      indicated that XBP1 disruption inhibited cell proliferation. In addition, XBP1
      knockdown also alters the expression of Has2 and Ptgs2, two essential genes for
      folliculogenesis. Collectively, these data reveal a novel critical role of XBP1
      in folliculogenesis by regulating the cell cycle, apoptosis, and steroid
      synthesis of mouse granulosa cells.

PMID- 28555056
TI  - Functional Coping Dynamics and Experiential Avoidance in a Community Sample with
      No Self-Injury vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Only vs. Those with Both Non-Suicidal
      Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour.
AB  - Although emotional avoidance may be a critical factor in the pathway from
      psychological distress to self-injury and/or suicidality, little is known about
      the relative importance of differing functional coping dynamics and experiential
      avoidance between people with self-injury histories of differing intent (e.g.,
      Non-Suicidal Self-Injury only vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury plus Suicidal
      Behaviour; NSSI vs. NSSI + SB). A community-based survey (N = 313; female, 81%;
      ages 16-49 years, M = 19.78, SD = 3.48) explored self-reported experiential
      avoidance and functional coping dynamics in individuals with (i) no self-injury
      history (controls); (ii) a history of NSSI only; and (iii) a history of NSSI +
      SB. Jonckheere-Terpstra trend tests indicated that avoidance coping was higher in
      the NSSI and NSSI + SB groups than in controls. Emotion regulation was higher in
      controls than those with a history of self-injury (NSSI and NSSI + SB). Approach
      and reappraisal coping demonstrated significant ordered effects such that control
      participants were higher in these coping dynamics than those with a history of
      NSSI only, who, in turn, were higher than those with a history of NSSI + SB
      (Control > NSSI > NSSI + SB). Endorsement of the reappraisal/denial facet of
      experiential avoidance was most pronounced in those with a history of NSSI + SB
      (Control < NSSI < NSSI + SB). No significant ordered effects were observed for
      other dimensions of experiential avoidance. Understanding how the endorsement of
      functional coping dynamics and which components of experiential avoidance vary
      between groups with differing self-injury intent histories has important
      implications for treatment planning.

PMID- 28555057
TI  - Generalized Chirp Scaling Combined with Baseband Azimuth Scaling Algorithm for
      Large Bandwidth Sliding Spotlight SAR Imaging.
AB  - This paper presents an efficient and precise imaging algorithm for the large
      bandwidth sliding spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The existing sub
      aperture processing method based on the baseband azimuth scaling (BAS) algorithm
      cannot cope with the high order phase coupling along the range and azimuth
      dimensions. This coupling problem causes defocusing along the range and azimuth
      dimensions. This paper proposes a generalized chirp scaling (GCS)-BAS processing
      algorithm, which is based on the GCS algorithm. It successfully mitigates the
      deep focus along the range dimension of a sub-aperture of the large bandwidth
      sliding spotlight SAR, as well as high order phase coupling along the range and
      azimuth dimensions. Additionally, the azimuth focusing can be achieved by this
      azimuth scaling method. Simulation results demonstrate the ability of the GCS-BAS
      algorithm to process the large bandwidth sliding spotlight SAR data. It is proven
      that great improvements of the focus depth and imaging accuracy are obtained via
      the GCS-BAS algorithm.

PMID- 28555055
TI  - The Methods of Choice for Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) Characterization.
AB  - In recent years, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have become a subject of intense
      study. These membrane-enclosed spherical structures are secreted by almost every
      cell type and are engaged in the transport of cellular content (cargo) from
      parental to target cells. The impact of EVs transfer has been observed in many
      vital cellular processes including cell-to-cell communication and immune response
      modulation; thus, a fast and precise characterization of EVs may be relevant for
      both scientific and diagnostic purposes. In this review, the most popular
      analytical techniques used in EVs studies are presented with the emphasis on
      exosomes and microvesicles characterization.

PMID- 28555058
TI  - Modeling Hybridization Kinetics of Gene Probes in a DNA Biochip Using FEMLAB.
AB  - Microfluidic DNA biochips capable of detecting specific DNA sequences are useful
      in medical diagnostics, drug discovery, food safety monitoring and agriculture.
      They are used as miniaturized platforms for analysis of nucleic acids-based
      biomarkers. Binding kinetics between immobilized single stranded DNA on the
      surface and its complementary strand present in the sample are of interest. To
      achieve optimal sensitivity with minimum sample size and rapid hybridization,
      ability to predict the kinetics of hybridization based on the thermodynamic
      characteristics of the probe is crucial. In this study, a computer aided
      numerical model for the design and optimization of a flow-through biochip was
      developed using a finite element technique packaged software tool (FEMLAB;
      package included in COMSOL Multiphysics) to simulate the transport of DNA through
      a microfluidic chamber to the reaction surface. The model accounts for fluid
      flow, convection and diffusion in the channel and on the reaction surface.
      Concentration, association rate constant, dissociation rate constant,
      recirculation flow rate, and temperature were key parameters affecting the rate
      of hybridization. The model predicted the kinetic profile and signal intensities
      of eighteen 20-mer probes targeting vancomycin resistance genes (VRGs). Predicted
      signal intensities and hybridization kinetics strongly correlated with
      experimental data in the biochip (R2 = 0.8131).

PMID- 28555059
TI  - Applications of Fluorogens with Rotor Structures in Solar Cells.
AB  - Solar cells are devices that convert light energy into electricity. To drive
      greater adoption of solar cell technologies, higher cell efficiencies and
      reductions in manufacturing cost are necessary. Fluorogens containing rotor
      structures may be helpful in addressing some of these challenges due to their
      unique twisted structures and photophysics. In this review, we discuss the
      applications of rotor-containing molecules as dyes for luminescent down-shifting
      layers and luminescent solar concentrators, where their aggregation-induced
      emission properties and large Stokes shifts are highly desirable. We also discuss
      the applications of molecules containing rotors in third-generation solar cell
      technologies, namely dye-sensitized solar cells and organic photovoltaics, where
      the twisted 3-dimensional rotor structures are used primarily for aggregation
      control. Finally, we discuss perspectives on the future role of molecules
      containing rotor structures in solar cell technologies.

PMID- 28555061
TI  - Synthesis of Gallic Acid Analogs as Histamine and Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine
      Inhibitors for Treatment of Mast Cell-Mediated Allergic Inflammation.
AB  - Gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid), is a natural product found in various
      foods and herbs that are well known as powerful antioxidants. Our previous report
      demonstrated that it inhibits mast cell-derived inflammatory allergic reactions
      by blocking histamine release and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression. In this
      report, various amide analogs of gallic acid have been synthesized by introducing
      different amines through carbodiimide-mediated amide coupling and Pd/C-catalyzed
      hydrogenation. These compounds showed a modest to high inhibitory effect on
      histamine release and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression. Among them, the amide
      bearing (S)-phenylglycine methyl ester 3d was found to be more active than
      natural gallic acid. Further optimization yielded several (S)- and (R)
      phenylglycine analogs that inhibited histamine release in vitro. Our findings
      suggest that some gallamides could be used as a treatment for allergic
      inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28555060
TI  - Role of Homologous Fc Fragment in the Potency and Efficacy of Anti-Botulinum
      Antibody Preparations.
AB  - The only approved treatment for botulism relies on passive immunity which is
      mostly based on antibody preparations collected from hyper-immune horses. The IgG
      Fc fragment is commonly removed from these heterologous preparations to reduce
      the incidence of hyper-sensitivity reactions. New-generation therapies entering
      the pipeline are based on a combination of humanized monoclonal antibodies
      (MAbs), which exhibit improved safety and pharmacokinetics. In the current study,
      a systematic and quantitative approach was applied to measure the direct
      contribution of homologous Fc to the potency of monoclonal and polyclonal
      antitoxin preparations in mice. Homologous Fc increased the potency of three
      individual anti-botulinum toxin MAbs by up to one order of magnitude. Moreover,
      Fc fragment removal almost completely abolished the synergistic potency obtained
      from a combined preparation of these three MAbs. The MAb mixture neutralized a
      400-mouse median lethal dose (MsLD50) of botulinum toxin, whereas the F(ab')2
      combination failed to neutralize 10 MsLD50 of botulinum toxin. Notably, increased
      avidity did not compensate for this phenomenon, as a polyclonal, hyper-immune,
      homologous preparation lost 90% of its potency as well upon Fc removal. Finally,
      the addition of homologous Fc arms to a heterologous pharmaceutical anti
      botulinum toxin polyclonal horse F(ab')2 preparation improved its efficacy when
      administered to intoxicated symptomatic mice. Our study extends the aspects by
      which switching from animal-based to human-based antitoxins will improve not only
      the safety but also the potency and efficacy of passive immunity against toxins.

PMID- 28555062
TI  - Non-Coding RNAs in Hodgkin Lymphoma.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by
      binding to the 3'-UTR of their target genes, can act as oncogenes or tumor
      suppressors. Recently, other types of non-coding RNAs-piwiRNAs and long non
      coding RNAs-have also been identified. Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a B cell origin
      disease characterized by the presence of only 1% of tumor cells, known as Hodgkin
      and Reed-Stenberg (HRS) cells, which interact with the microenvironment to evade
      apoptosis. Several studies have reported specific miRNA signatures that can
      differentiate HL lymph nodes from reactive lymph nodes, identify histologic
      groups within classical HL, and distinguish HRS cells from germinal center B
      cells. Moreover, some signatures are associated with survival or response to
      chemotherapy. Most of the miRNAs in the signatures regulate genes related to
      apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, or signaling pathways. Here we review findings on
      miRNAs in HL, as well as on other non-coding RNAs.

PMID- 28555063
TI  - The Occurrence of the Colistin Resistance Gene mcr-1 in the Haihe River (China).
AB  - Antibiotic failure is occurring worldwide. In a routine surveillance study on
      antibioticresistance genes (ARGs) in natural water bodies, we noted the detection
      of colistin-resistance gene mcr-1, previously identified in Escherichia coli and
      Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from human beings and animals in several
      countries. The mcr-1 gene might be present in water environments, because aquatic
      ecosystems are recognized as reservoirs for antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB)
      and ARGs. In this study, a qPCR assay was developed to monitor and quantify the
      mcr-1 gene in the Haihe River, China. The results showed that all 18 samples
      collected from different locations over 6 months along the Haihe River were
      positive for the mcr-1 gene, and the highest level of mcr-1 reached 3.81 * 105
      gene copies (GC) per liter of water. This is the first study to quantify mcr-1 in
      a natural water system by qPCR. Our findings highlight the potential for this
      antibiotic resistance determinant to spread extensively, suggesting a significant
      health and ecological impact.

PMID- 28555064
TI  - Induction of p53-Independent Apoptosis and G1 Cell Cycle Arrest by Fucoidan in
      HCT116 Human Colorectal Carcinoma Cells.
AB  - It is well known that fucoidan, a natural sulfated polysaccharide present in
      various brown algae, mediates anticancer effects through the induction of cell
      cycle arrest and apoptosis. Nevertheless, the role of tumor suppressor p53 in the
      mechanism action of fucoidan remains unclear. Here, we investigated the
      anticancer effect of fucoidan on two p53 isogenic HCT116 (p53+/+ and p53-/-) cell
      lines. Our results showed that inhibition of cell viability, induction of
      apoptosis and DNA damage by treatment with fucoidan were similar in two cell
      lines. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that fucoidan resulted in G1 arrest in
      the cell cycle progression, which correlated with the inhibition of
      phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (pRB) and concomitant association of
      pRB with the transcription factor E2Fs. Furthermore, treatment with fucoidan
      obviously upregulated the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors,
      such as p21WAF1/CIP1 and p27KIP1, which was paralleled by an enhanced binding
      with CDK2 and CDK4. These events also commonly occurred in both cell lines,
      suggesting that fucoidan triggered G1 arrest and apoptosis in HCT116 cells by a
      p53-independent mechanism. Thus, given that most tumors exhibit functional p53
      inactivation, fucoidan could be a possible therapeutic option for cancer
      treatment regardless of the p53 status.

PMID- 28555065
TI  - A Novel Micro Cold Atmospheric Plasma Device for Glioblastoma Both In Vitro and
      In Vivo.
AB  - Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) treatment is a rapidly expanding and emerging
      technology for cancer treatment. Direct CAP jet irradiation is limited to the
      skin and it can also be invoked as a supplement therapy during surgery as it only
      causes cell death in the upper three to five cell layers. However, the current
      cannulas from which the plasma emanates are too large for intracranial
      applications. To enhance efficiency and expand the applicability of the CAP
      method for brain tumors and reduce the gas flow rate and size of the plasma jet,
      a novel micro-sized CAP device (uCAP) was developed and employed to target
      glioblastoma tumors in the murine brain. Various plasma diagnostic techniques
      were applied to evaluate the physics of helium uCAP such as electron density,
      discharge voltage, and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The direct and
      indirect effects of uCAP on glioblastoma (U87MG-RedFluc) cancer cells were
      investigated in vitro. The results indicate that uCAP generates short- and long
      lived species and radicals (i.e., hydroxyl radical (OH), hydrogen peroxide
      (H2O2), and nitrite (NO2-), etc.) with increasing tumor cell death in a dose
      dependent manner. Translation of these findings to an in vivo setting
      demonstrates that intracranial uCAP is effective at preventing glioblastoma tumor
      growth in the mouse brain. The uCAP device can be safely used in mice, resulting
      in suppression of tumor growth. These initial observations establish the uCAP
      device as a potentially useful ablative therapy tool in the treatment of
      glioblastoma.

PMID- 28555066
TI  - Expression of Genes Related to Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis in Different Organs
      of Ixeris dentata var. albiflora.
AB  - Members of the genus Ixeris have long been used in traditional medicines as
      stomachics, sedatives, and diuretics. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL),
      cinnamate-4-hydroxylase (C4H), 4-coumarate: coenzyme-A (CoA) ligase (4CL),
      chalcone synthase (CHS), and dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) are important
      enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway. In this study, we analyzed seven genes
      from Ixeris dentata var. albiflora that are involved in phenylpropanoid
      biosynthesis, using an Illumina/Solexa HiSeq 2000 platform. The amino acid
      sequence alignments for IdPALs, IdC4H, Id4CLs, IdCHS, and IdDFR showed high
      identity to sequences from other plants. We also investigated transcript levels
      using quantitative real-time PCR, and analyzed the accumulation of
      phenylpropanoids in different organs of I. dentata var. albiflora using high
      performance liquid chromatography. The transcript levels of IdC4H, Id4CL1, IdCHS,
      and IdDFR were highest in the leaf. The catechin, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid,
      and quercetin contents were also highest in the leaf. We suggest that expression
      of IdC4H, Id4CL1, IdCHS, and IdDFR is associated with the accumulation of
      phenylpropanoids. Our results may provide baseline information for elucidating
      the mechanism of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis in different organs of I. dentata
      var. albiflora.

PMID- 28555067
TI  - Outcome of a Modified Laparoscopic Suture Rectopexy for Rectal Prolapse with the
      Use of a Single or Double Suture: A Case Series of 15 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND Surgery is considered to be a mainstay of therapy for full-thickness
      rectal prolapse (FTRP). Surgical procedures for FTRP have been described, but
      optimal treatment is still controversial. The aim of this report is to evaluate
      the safety and feasibility of a simplified laparoscopic suture rectopexy (LSR) in
      a case series of 15 patients who presented with FTRP and who had postoperative
      follow-up for six months. CASE REPORT Fifteen patients who underwent a modified
      LSR at our surgical unit from September 2010 were retrospectively evaluated. The
      mean age of the patients was 72.5+/-10.9 years. All 15 patients underwent general
      anesthesia, with rectal mobilization performed according to the plane of the
      total mesorectal excision. By lifting the mobilized and dissected rectum
      cranially to the promontorium, the optimal point for subsequent suture fixation
      of the rectum was marked. The seromuscular layer of the anterior right wall was
      then sutured to the presacral fascia using only one or two interrupted
      nonabsorbable polypropylene sutures. The mean operative time was 176.2+/-35.2
      minutes, with minimal blood loss. No moderate or severe postoperative
      complications were observed, and there was no postoperative mortality. One
      patient (6.7%) developed recurrence of rectal prolapse one month following
      surgery. CONCLUSIONS The advantages of this LSR procedure for the management of
      patients with FTRP are its simplicity, safety, efficacy, and practicality and the
      potential for its use in patients who can tolerate general anesthesia.

PMID- 28555068
TI  - Acute Phase Proteins for Monitoring Hematopoietic Recovery After Early Engrafting
      of CD34+ Peripheral-Blood-Stem-Cells for Autografting or Allografting in Patients
      with Malignant Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND Neutropenic fever (NF) is associated with delayed engraftment after
      peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). MATERIAL AND METHODS We
      followed the levels of acute-phase proteins (APPs) serially in 60 patients after
      peripheral blood stem-cell autograft (n=39) or peripheral blood stem-cell
      allograft (n=21) for hematologic malignancies and germinal tumors; we then
      examined the correlation of those levels with the presence of fever and with
      markers of engraftment. RESULTS Fever (present in 60% of patients) was associated
      with a highly statistically significant delay in reaching conventional
      engraftment targets (ANC >500/MUL [0.5*10^9/L]; platelets >20,000/MUL
      [20*10^9/L]; reticulocytes >20,000/MUL [20*10^9/L]) (for all associations,
      p<0.001). Every 4th day for 24 days, we measured the APPs levels and the number
      of neutrophils (ANC), platelets (PL), and reticulocytes (RET) to reach the
      reference values of >0.5 G/L or >1.0 G/L for ANC, >20 G/L or >50 G/L for PL, and
      >20 G/L for RET, respectively. The presence of NF resulted in longer time to
      engraft hematopoietic stem cells with ANC, PL, and PET counts statistically
      significant (range 0.001-0.004). The median day range for NF patients was 21.22
      26.89 versus 13.88-19.13 for no NF patients. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide
      additional information for monitoring hematopoietic engraftment in patients
      following PBSCT; the presence of NF can be tracked by serial measurements in
      serum of three investigated APPs throughout an early phase of hematopoietic
      recovery.

PMID- 28555069
TI  - Association Between Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Non-Receptor Type 22 (PTPN22)
      Polymorphisms and Risk of Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that
      involves the imbalance of peripheral tolerance possibly caused by the negative
      signal of activated T cells. The polymorphisms in the human protein tyrosine
      phosphatase non-receptor type 22 (PTPN22) gene have been pointed out to be
      related to the pathogenesis of AS, but conclusions over this issue remain
      contradictory. We attempted to give a more precise conclusion about the effects
      of PTPN22 polymorphisms on AS risk by means of a meta-analysis. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS PubMed, Embase, Wanfang, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure
      (CNKI) were searched for relevant studies published in the English or Chinese
      language. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were
      calculated with a fixed- or random-effects model to evaluate the correlation
      between PTPN22 rs2488457, rs1217414, and rs2476601 polymorphisms and AS
      susceptibility. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to detect the stability
      of the results. RESULTS The present meta-analysis showed a positive correlation
      of both PTPN22 rs2488457 and rs1217414 polymorphisms with AS risk under CC vs.
      GG, CC + GC vs. GG, CC vs. GC + GG, allele C vs. allele G (OR=1.39, 95% CI=1.04
      1.85, P=0.646; OR=1.29, 95% CI=1.03-1.62, P=0.426; OR=1.26, 95% CI=1.02-1.56,
      P=0.971; OR=1.20, 95% CI=1.05-1.38, P=0.571), and TT vs. CC and TT vs. CT + CC
      models (OR=3.83, 95% CI=1.11-13.24, P=0.196; OR=3.83, 95% CI=1.09-13.42,
      P=0.244), respectively. CONCLUSIONS PTPN22 rs2488457 and rs1217414 polymorphisms
      may be risk factors for AS occurrence.

PMID- 28555070
TI  - Absence Seizure Control by a Brain Computer Interface.
AB  - The ultimate goal of epileptology is the complete abolishment of epileptic
      seizures. This might be achieved by a system that predicts seizure onset combined
      with a system that interferes with the process that leads to the onset of a
      seizure. Seizure prediction remains, as of yet, unresolved in absence-epilepsy,
      due to the sudden onset of seizures. We have developed a real-time absence
      seizure prediction algorithm, evaluated it and implemented it in an on-line,
      closed-loop brain stimulation system designed to prevent the spike-wave
      discharges (SWDs), typical for absence epilepsy, in a genetic rat model. The
      algorithm corretly predicted 88% of the SWDs while the remaining were quickly
      detected. A high number of false-positive detections occurred mainly during light
      slow-wave-sleep. Inclusion of criteria to prevent false-positives greatly reduced
      the false alarm rate but decreased the sensitivity of the algoritm.
      Implementation of the latter version into a closed-loop brain-stimulation-system
      resulted in a 72% decrease in seizure activity. In contrast to long standing
      beliefs that SWDs are unpredictable, these results demonstrate that they can be
      predicted and that the development of closed-loop seizure prediction and
      prevention systems is a feasable step towards interventions to attain control and
      freedom from epileptic seizures.

PMID- 28555072
TI  - Bacterial pathogenesis: Campylobacter follows the clues.

PMID- 28555071
TI  - Seasonally lagged effects of climatic factors on malaria incidence in South
      Africa.
AB  - Globally, malaria cases have drastically dropped in recent years. However, a high
      incidence of malaria remains in some sub-Saharan African countries. South Africa
      is mostly malaria-free, but northeastern provinces continue to experience
      seasonal outbreaks. Here we investigate the association between malaria incidence
      and spatio-temporal climate variations in Limpopo. First, dominant spatial
      patterns in malaria incidence anomalies were identified using self-organizing
      maps. Composite analysis found significant associations among incidence anomalies
      and climate patterns. A high incidence of malaria during the pre-peak season (Sep
      Nov) was associated with the climate phenomenon La Nina and cool air temperatures
      over southern Africa. There was also high precipitation over neighbouring
      countries two to six months prior to malaria incidence. During the peak season
      (Dec-Feb), high incidence was associated with positive phase of Indian Ocean
      Subtropical Dipole. Warm temperatures and high precipitation in neighbouring
      countries were also observed two months prior to increased malaria incidence.
      This lagged association between regional climate and malaria incidence suggests
      that in areas at high risk for malaria, such as Limpopo, management plans should
      consider not only local climate patterns but those of neighbouring countries as
      well. These findings highlight the need to strengthen cross-border control of
      malaria to minimize its spread.

PMID- 28555074
TI  - Viral evolution: Zika is on point to increase spread.

PMID- 28555075
TI  - Acute ketamine administration corrects abnormal inflammatory bone markers in
      major depressive disorder.
AB  - Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have clinically relevant,
      significant decreases in bone mineral density (BMD). We sought to determine if
      predictive markers of bone inflammation-the osteoprotegerin (OPG)-RANK-RANKL
      system or osteopontin (OPN)-play a role in the bone abnormalities associated with
      MDD and, if so, whether ketamine treatment corrected the abnormalities. The OPG
      RANK-RANKL system plays the principal role in determining the balance between
      bone resorption and bone formation. RANKL is the osteoclast differentiating
      factor and diminishes BMD. OPG is a decoy receptor for RANKL, thereby increasing
      BMD. OPN is the bone glue that acts as a scaffold between bone tissues matrix
      composition to bind them together and is an important component of bone strength
      and fracture resistance. Twenty-eight medication-free inpatients with treatment
      resistant MDD and 16 healthy controls (HCs) participated in the study. Peripheral
      bone marker levels and their responses to IV ketamine infusion in MDD patients
      and HCs were measured at four time points: at baseline, and post-infusion at 230
      min, Day 1, and Day 3. Patients with MDD had significant decreases in baseline
      OPG/RANKL ratio and in plasma OPN levels. Ketamine significantly increased both
      the OPG/RANKL ratio and plasma OPN levels, and significantly decreased RANKL
      levels. Bone marker levels in HCs remained unaltered. We conclude that the OPG
      RANK-RANKL system and the OPN system play important roles in the serious bone
      abnormalities associated with MDD. These data suggest that, in addition to its
      antidepressant effects, ketamine also has a salutary effect on a major medical
      complication of depressive illness.

PMID- 28555076
TI  - Comparative genomic evidence for the involvement of schizophrenia risk genes in
      antipsychotic effects.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for schizophrenia have identified over 100
      loci encoding >500 genes. It is unclear whether any of these genes, other than
      dopamine receptor D2, are immediately relevant to antipsychotic effects or
      represent novel antipsychotic targets. We applied an in vivo molecular approach
      to this question by performing RNA sequencing of brain tissue from mice
      chronically treated with the antipsychotic haloperidol or vehicle. We observed
      significant enrichments of haloperidol-regulated genes in schizophrenia GWAS loci
      and in schizophrenia-associated biological pathways. Our findings provide
      empirical support for overlap between genetic variation underlying the
      pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the molecular effects of a prototypical
      antipsychotic.

PMID- 28555073
TI  - Pathways to zoonotic spillover.
AB  - Zoonotic spillover, which is the transmission of a pathogen from a vertebrate
      animal to a human, presents a global public health burden but is a poorly
      understood phenomenon. Zoonotic spillover requires several factors to align,
      including the ecological, epidemiological and behavioural determinants of
      pathogen exposure, and the within-human factors that affect susceptibility to
      infection. In this Opinion article, we propose a synthetic framework for animal
      to-human transmission that integrates the relevant mechanisms. This framework
      reveals that all zoonotic pathogens must overcome a hierarchical series of
      barriers to cause spillover infections in humans. Understanding how these
      barriers are functionally and quantitatively linked, and how they interact in
      space and time, will substantially improve our ability to predict or prevent
      spillover events. This work provides a foundation for transdisciplinary
      investigation of spillover and synthetic theory on zoonotic transmission.

PMID- 28555077
TI  - The dendritic spine morphogenic effects of repeated cocaine use occur through the
      regulation of serum response factor signaling.
AB  - The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a primary brain reward region composed
      predominantly of medium spiny neurons (MSNs). In response to early withdrawal
      from repeated cocaine administration, de novo dendritic spine formation occurs in
      NAc MSNs. Much evidence indicates that this new spine formation facilitates the
      rewarding properties of cocaine. Early withdrawal from repeated cocaine also
      produces dramatic alterations in the transcriptome of NAc MSNs, but how such
      alterations influence cocaine's effects on dendritic spine formation remain
      unclear. Studies in non-neuronal cells indicate that actin cytoskeletal
      regulatory pathways in nuclei have a direct role in the regulation of gene
      transcription in part by controlling the access of co-activators to their
      transcription factor partners. In particular, actin state dictates the
      interaction between the serum response factor (SRF) transcription factor and one
      of its principal co-activators, MAL. Here we show that cocaine induces
      alterations in nuclear F-actin signaling pathways in the NAc with associated
      changes in the nuclear subcellular localization of SRF and MAL. Using in vivo
      optogenetics, the brain region-specific inputs to the NAc that mediate these
      nuclear changes are investigated. Finally, we demonstrate that regulated SRF
      expression, in turn, is critical for the effects of cocaine on dendritic spine
      formation and for cocaine-mediated behavioral sensitization. Collectively, these
      findings reveal a mechanism by which nuclear-based changes influence the
      structure of NAc MSNs in response to cocaine.

PMID- 28555078
TI  - Tau-dependent suppression of adult neurogenesis in the stressed hippocampus.
AB  - Stress, a well-known sculptor of brain plasticity, is shown to suppress
      hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult brain; yet, the underlying cellular
      mechanisms are poorly investigated. Previous studies have shown that chronic
      stress triggers hyperphosphorylation and accumulation of the cytoskeletal protein
      Tau, a process that may impair the cytoskeleton-regulating role(s) of this
      protein with impact on neuronal function. Here, we analyzed the role of Tau on
      stress-driven suppression of neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus (DG) using
      animals lacking Tau (Tau-knockout; Tau-KO) and wild-type (WT) littermates. Unlike
      WTs, Tau-KO animals exposed to chronic stress did not exhibit reduction in DG
      proliferating cells, neuroblasts and newborn neurons; however, newborn astrocytes
      were similarly decreased in both Tau-KO and WT mice. In addition, chronic stress
      reduced phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/mammalian target of rapamycin
      (mTOR)/glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK3beta)/beta-catenin signaling, known to
      regulate cell survival and proliferation, in the DG of WT, but not Tau-KO,
      animals. These data establish Tau as a critical regulator of the cellular
      cascades underlying stress deficits on hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult
      brain.

PMID- 28555081
TI  - Genomic determinants of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.
AB  - The biology, clinical phenotype and progression rate of chronic myelomonocytic
      leukemia (CMML) are highly variable due to diverse initiating and secondary
      clonal genetic events. To determine the effects of molecular features including
      clonal hierarchy in CMML, we studied whole-exome and targeted next-generation
      sequencing data from 150 patients with robust clinical and molecular annotation
      assessed cross-sectionally and at serial time points of disease evolution. To
      identify molecular lesions unique to CMML, we compared it to the related myeloid
      neoplasms (N=586), including juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic
      syndromes (MDS) and primary monocytic acute myeloid leukemia and discerned
      distinct molecular profiles despite similar pathomorphological features. Within
      CMML, mutations in certain pathways correlated with clinical classification, for
      example, proliferative vs dysplastic features. While most CMML patients (59%) had
      ancestral (dominant/co-dominant) mutations involving TET2, SRSF2 or ASXL1 genes,
      secondary subclonal hierarchy correlated with clinical phenotypes or outcomes.
      For example, progression was associated with acquisition of new expanding clones
      carrying biallelic TET2 mutations or RAS family, or spliceosomal gene mutations.
      In contrast, dysplastic features correlated with mutations usually encountered in
      MDS (for example, SF3B1 and U2AF1). Classification of CMML based on hierarchies
      of ancestral and subclonal mutational events may correlate strongly with clinical
      features and prognosis.

PMID- 28555080
TI  - Deregulation of kinase signaling and lymphoid development in EBF1-PDGFRB ALL
      leukemogenesis.
AB  - The chimeric fusion oncogene early B-cell factor 1-platelet-derived growth factor
      receptor-beta (EBF1-PDGFRB) is a recurrent lesion observed in Philadelphia-like B
      acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and is associated with particularly poor
      prognosis. While it is understood that this fusion activates tyrosine kinase
      signaling, the mechanisms of transformation and importance of perturbation of
      EBF1 activity remain unknown. EBF1 is a nuclear transcription factor required for
      normal B-lineage specification, commitment and development. Conversely, PDGFRB is
      a receptor tyrosine kinase that is normally repressed in lymphocytes, yet PDGFRB
      remains a common fusion partner in leukemias. Here, we demonstrate that the EBF1
      PDGFRB fusion results in loss of EBF1 function, multimerization and
      autophosphorylation of the fusion protein, activation of signal transducer and
      activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) signaling and gain of interleukin-7 (IL-7)
      independent cell proliferation. Deregulation and loss of EBF1 function is
      critically dependent on the nuclear export activity of the transmembrane (TM)
      domain of PDGFRB. Deletion of the TM domain partially rescues EBF1 function and
      restores IL-7 dependence, without requiring kinase inhibition. Moreover, we
      demonstrate that EBF1-PDGFRB synergizes with loss of IKAROS function in a fully
      penetrant B-ALL in vivo. Thus, we establish that EBF1-PDGFRB is sufficient to
      drive leukemogenesis through TM-dependent loss of transcription factor function,
      increased proliferation and synergy with additional genetic insults including
      loss of IKAROS function.

PMID- 28555082
TI  - Identification of a novel PML-RARG fusion in acute promyelocytic leukemia.

PMID- 28555079
TI  - MUC1 inhibition leads to decrease in PD-L1 levels via upregulation of miRNAs.
AB  - The PD-L1/PD-1 pathway is a critical component of the immunosuppressive tumor
      microenvironment in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but little is known about its
      regulation. We investigated the role of the MUC1 oncoprotein in modulating PD-L1
      expression in AML. Silencing of MUC1 in AML cell lines suppressed PD-L1
      expression without a decrease in PD-L1 mRNA levels, suggesting a post
      transcriptional mechanism of regulation. We identified the microRNAs miR-200c and
      miR-34a as key regulators of PD-L1 expression in AML. Silencing of MUC1 in AML
      cells led to a marked increase in miR-200c and miR-34a levels, without changes in
      precursor microRNA, suggesting that MUC1 might regulate microRNA-processing. MUC1
      signaling decreased the expression of the microRNA-processing protein DICER, via
      the suppression of c-Jun activity. NanoString (Seattle, WA, USA) array of MUC1
      silenced AML cells demonstrated an increase in the majority of probed microRNAs.
      In an immunocompetent murine AML model, targeting of MUC1 led to a significant
      increase in leukemia-specific T cells. In concert, targeting MUC1 signaling in
      human AML cells resulted in enhanced sensitivity to T-cell-mediated lysis. These
      findings suggest MUC1 is a critical regulator of PD-L1 expression via its effects
      on microRNA levels and represents a potential therapeutic target to enhance anti
      tumor immunity.

PMID- 28555083
TI  - PPAR-delta modulates membrane cholesterol and cytokine signaling in malignant B
      cells.
AB  - A deeper understanding of the mechanisms that underlie aberrant signal
      transduction in B-cell cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may
      reveal new treatment strategies. The lipid-activated nuclear receptor peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta) accounts for a number of
      properties of aggressive cancers and was found to enhance Janus kinase (JAK)
      mediated phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription
      (STAT) proteins in B lymphoma cell lines and primary CLL cells. Autocrine
      production of cytokines such as IL10 and interferon-beta was not increased by
      PPARdelta but signaling responses to these cytokines were amplified and
      associated with increased cholesterol biosynthesis and plasma membrane levels.
      Plasmalemmal cholesterol and STAT phosphorylation from type 1 interferons (IFNs)
      were increased by PPARdelta agonists, transgenes and exogenous cholesterol, and
      decreased by cyclodextrin, PPARD deletion and chemical PPARdelta inhibitors.
      Functional consequences of PPARdelta-mediated perturbation of IFN signaling
      included impaired upregulation of co-stimulatory molecules. These observations
      suggest PPARdelta modulates signaling processes in malignant B cells in part by
      altering cholesterol metabolism and changes the outcomes of signaling from
      cytokines such as IFNs. PPARdelta antagonists may have therapeutic activity as
      anti-leukemic signal transduction modulators.

PMID- 28555085
TI  - SONGS IN THE COUNTERTRANSFERENCE OR "GILDING THE PHILOSOPHIC PILL".
AB  - Songs that interrupt the psychoanalytic psychotherapist's countertransference
      reverie are invariably relevant and potentially useful. Like any other
      countertransference "presence," songs accompanying the narrative may contribute
      to understanding both patient and analytic process. Taking their intrusive,
      fecund, pesky presence one step further, song lyrics may be used as metaphor
      saturated interventions, helping reach the well-defended patient. Five brief
      vignettes illustrate the process. Because we must learn to tolerate ordinary
      unhappiness, Blues music, a carrier of preconscious mythic themes (love and
      work), may prove especially useful, helping the patient indirectly embrace
      everyday wisdom, endure hard times, universalize misery, and see ourselves in the
      roomy mirror of metaphor.

PMID- 28555084
TI  - Mitoxantrone, etoposide and cytarabine following epigenetic priming with
      decitabine in adults with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia or other
      high-grade myeloid neoplasms: a phase 1/2 study.
AB  - DNA methyltransferase inhibitors sensitize leukemia cells to chemotherapeutics.
      We therefore conducted a phase 1/2 study of mitoxantrone, etoposide and
      cytarabine following 'priming' with 5-10 days of decitabine (dec/MEC) in 52
      adults (median age 55 (range: 19-72) years) with relapsed/refractory acute
      myeloid leukemia (AML) or other high-grade myeloid neoplasms. During dose
      escalation in cohorts of 6-12 patients, all dose levels were well tolerated. As
      response rates appeared similar with 7 and 10 days of decitabine, a 7-day course
      was defined as the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D). Among 46 patients treated
      at/above the RP2D, 10 (22%) achieved a complete remission (CR), 8 without
      measurable residual disease; five additional patients achieved CR with incomplete
      platelet recovery, for an overall response rate of 33%. Seven patients (15%) died
      within 28 days of treatment initiation. Infection/neutropenic fever, nausea and
      mucositis were the most common adverse events. While the CR rate compared
      favorably to a matched historic control population (observed/expected CR
      ratio=1.77), CR rate and survival were similar to two contemporary salvage
      regimens used at our institution (G-CLAC (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor
      (G-CSF); clofarabine; cytarabine) and G-CLAM (G-CSF; cladribine; cytarabine;
      mitoxantrone)). Thus, while meeting the prespecified efficacy goal, we found no
      evidence that dec/MEC is substantially better than other cytarabine-based
      regimens currently used for relapsed/refractory AML.

PMID- 28555088
TI  - Optimal Financial Knowledge and Wealth Inequality.
AB  - We show that financial knowledge is a key determinant of wealth inequality in a
      stochastic lifecycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation,
      where financial knowledge enables individuals to better allocate lifetime
      resources in a world of uncertainty and imperfect insurance. Moreover, because of
      how the U.S. social insurance system works, better-educated individuals have most
      to gain from investing in financial knowledge. Our parsimonious specification
      generates substantial wealth inequality relative to a one-asset saving model and
      one where returns on wealth depend on portfolio composition alone. We estimate
      that 30-40 percent of retirement wealth inequality is accounted for by financial
      knowledge.

PMID- 28555086
TI  - Hepatic CD36 downregulation parallels steatosis improvement in morbidly obese
      undergoing bariatric surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The notion that hepatic expression of genes involved in lipid
      metabolism is altered in obese patients is relatively new and its relationship
      with hepatic steatosis and cardiometabolic alterations remains unclear.
      OBJECTIVE: We assessed the impact of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) on
      the expression profile of genes related to metabolic syndrome in liver biopsies
      from morbidly obese individuals using a custom-made, focused cDNA microarray, and
      assessed the relationship between the expression profile and hepatic steatosis
      regression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plasma and liver samples were obtained from
      patients at baseline and 12 months after surgery. Samples were assayed for
      chemical and gene expression analyses, as appropriate. Gene expression profiles
      were assessed using custom-made, focused TaqMan low-density array cards. RESULTS:
      RYGB-induced weight loss produced a favorable reduction in fat deposits, insulin
      resistance (estimated by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA
      IR)), and plasma and hepatic lipid levels. Compared with the baseline values, the
      gene expression levels of key targets of lipid metabolism were significantly
      altered: CD36 was significantly downregulated (-40%; P=0.001), whereas APOB
      (+27%; P=0.032) and SCARB1 (+37%; P=0.040) were upregulated in response to
      surgery-induced weight reduction. We also observed a favorable reduction in the
      expression of the PAI1 gene (-80%; P=0.007) and a significant increase in the
      expression of the PPARA (+60%; P=0.014) and PPARGC1 genes (+36%; P=0.015).
      Notably, the relative fold decrease in the expression of the CD36 gene was
      directly associated with a concomitant reduction in the cholesterol (Spearman's
      r=0.92; P=0.001) and phospholipid (Spearman's r=0.76; P=0.04) contents in this
      tissue. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time, RYGB-induced weight loss was shown to
      promote a favorable downregulation of CD36 expression, which was proportional to
      a favorable reduction in the hepatic cholesterol and phospholipid contents in our
      morbidly obese subjects following surgery.

PMID- 28555087
TI  - Strategic incorporation of fluorine in the drug discovery of new-generation
      antitubercular agents targeting bacterial cell division protein FtsZ.
AB  - This article presents an account of our research on the discovery and development
      of new-generation fluorine-containing antibacterial agents against drug-resistant
      tuberculosis, targeting FtsZ. FtsZ is an essential protein for bacterial cell
      division and a highly promising therapeutic target for antibacterial drug
      discovery. Through design, synthesis and semi-HTP screening of libraries of novel
      benzimidazoles, followed by SAR studies, we identified highly potent lead
      compounds. However, these lead compounds were found to lack sufficient metabolic
      and plasma stabilities. Accordingly, we have performed extensive study on the
      strategic incorporation of fluorine into lead compounds to improve
      pharmacological properties. This study has led to the development of highly
      efficacious fluorine-containing benzimidazoles as potential drug candidates. We
      have also performed computational docking analysis of these novel FtsZ inhibitors
      to identify their putative binding site. Based on the structural data and docking
      analysis, a plausible mode-of-action for this novel class of FtsZ inhibitors is
      proposed.

PMID- 28555089
TI  - Stigmasterol Modulates Allergic Airway Inflammation in Guinea Pig Model of
      Ovalbumin-Induced Asthma.
AB  - We explored the potential benefits of stigmasterol in the treatment of asthma, an
      airway disorder characterized by immune pathophysiology and with an ever
      increasing worldwide prevalence. We assessed the modulatory effect of the
      intraperitoneal administration of stigmasterol on experimentally induced airway
      inflammation in guinea pigs. The effect of stigmasterol on inflammatory cell
      proliferation, oxidative stress, lung histopathology, and remodeling was
      investigated. The results showed significant suppressive effects on ovalbumin
      induced airway inflammatory damage. Stigmasterol at 10-100 mg/kg reduced
      proliferation of eosinophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes while reducing
      peribronchiolar, perivascular, and alveolar infiltration of inflammatory cells.
      Histopathology revealed stigmasterol maintained lung architecture and reversed
      collagen deposition, an index of lung remodeling. Overexpression of serum
      vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin
      E (OVA sIgE) elicited by ovalbumin sensitization and challenge was significantly
      controlled with stigmasterol. Taken together, stigmasterol possessed significant
      antiasthmatic properties and had suppressive effects on key features of allergen
      induced asthma.

PMID- 28555091
TI  - Gravity Compensation and Feedback of Ground Reaction Forces for Biped Balance
      Control.
AB  - This paper considers the balance control of a biped robot under a constant
      external force or on a sloped ground. We have proposed a control method with
      feedback of the ground reaction forces and have realized adaptive posture changes
      that ensure the stability of the robot. However, fast responses have not been
      obtained because effective control is achieved by an integral feedback that
      accompanies a time delay necessary for error accumulation. To improve this
      response, here, we introduce gravity compensation in a feedforward manner. The
      stationary state and its stability are analyzed based on dynamic equations, and
      the robustness as well as the response is evaluated using computer simulations.
      Finally, the adaptive behaviors of the robot are confirmed by standing
      experiments on the slope.

PMID- 28555090
TI  - The Distribution of Activation Markers and Selectins on Peripheral T Lymphocytes
      in Preeclampsia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Impaired maternal immune tolerance resulting in systemic
      inflammation plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.
      Phenotypical changes of monocytes and neutrophil granulocytes have already been
      studied in preeclampsia, and some studies also included T lymphocyte activation
      markers; however, the results are controversial and a comprehensive analysis of
      activation markers is lacking. The characteristics of cellular adhesion molecules
      in preeclampsia are yet to be described. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Peripheral blood
      samples of 18 preeclamptic patients and 20 healthy pregnant women in the third
      trimester were evaluated using flow cytometry to characterize the cell surface
      expression of T lymphocyte activation markers and selectins. RESULTS: We found an
      elevated ratio of HLA-DR and CD122-, CD62E-, and CD62L-expressing cells among the
      CD4+ T lymphocytes in PE in comparison to healthy pregnancy. No alterations were
      found in the prevalence of CD69-, CD25-, and CD62P-expressing lymphocytes and
      CD11c-expressing monocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the role of
      activated T lymphocytes and specific cell adhesion molecules in the pathogenesis
      of preeclampsia.

PMID- 28555092
TI  - Tetrodotoxin for Moderate to Severe Cancer-Related Pain: A Multicentre,
      Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Design Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated subcutaneous injections of tetrodotoxin (TTX) for
      the treatment of moderate to severe, inadequately controlled cancer-related pain.
      METHODS: Eligible patients were randomized to receive TTX (30 MUg) or placebo
      subcutaneously twice daily for four consecutive days. Efficacy was assessed using
      pain and composite endpoints (including pain and quality of life measures), and
      safety was evaluated using standard measures. RESULTS: 165 patients were enrolled
      at 19 sites in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with 149 patients in the
      primary analysis "intent-to-treat" population. The primary analysis supports a
      clinical benefit of TTX over placebo based on the pain endpoint alone with a
      clinically significant estimated effect size of 16.2% (p = 0.0460). The p value
      was nominally statistically significant after prespecified (Bonferroni Holm)
      adjustment for the two primary endpoints but not at the prespecified two-sided 5%
      level. The mean duration of analgesic response was 56.7 days (TTX) and 9.9 days
      (placebo). Most common adverse events were nausea, dizziness, and oral numbness
      or tingling and were generally mild to moderate and transient. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although underpowered, this study demonstrates a clinically important analgesic
      signal. TTX may provide clinically meaningful analgesia for patients who have
      persistent moderate to severe cancer pain despite best analgesic care. This
      clinical study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00725114).

PMID- 28555093
TI  - Enhanced Adsorption of Selenium Ions from Aqueous Solution Using Iron Oxide
      Impregnated Carbon Nanotubes.
AB  - The aim of this research was to investigate the potential of raw and iron oxide
      impregnated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as adsorbents for the removal of selenium
      (Se) ions from wastewater. The original and modified CNTs with different loadings
      of Fe2O3 nanoparticles were characterized using high resolution transmission
      electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray
      diffractometer (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area analyzer,
      thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential, and energy dispersive X-ray
      spectroscopy (EDS). The adsorption parameters of the selenium ions from water
      using raw CNTs and iron oxide impregnated carbon nanotubes (CNT-Fe2O3) were
      optimized. Total removal of 1 ppm Se ions from water was achieved when 25 mg of
      CNTs impregnated with 20 wt.% of iron oxide nanoparticles is used. Freundlich and
      Langmuir isotherm models were used to study the nature of the adsorption process.
      Pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order models were employed to study the kinetics
      of selenium ions adsorption onto the surface of iron oxide impregnated CNTs.
      Maximum adsorption capacity of the Fe2O3 impregnated CNTs, predicted by Langmuir
      isotherm model, was found to be 111 mg/g. This new finding might revolutionize
      the adsorption treatment process and application by introducing a new type of
      nanoadsorbent that has super adsorption capacity towards Se ions.

PMID- 28555094
TI  - Effects of Fat and Sugar, Either Consumed or Infused toward the Brain, on
      Hypothalamic ER Stress Markers.
AB  - Protein-folding stress at the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) occurs in the
      hypothalamus during diet-induced obesity (DIO) and is linked to metabolic disease
      development. ER stress is buffered by the activation of the unfolded protein
      response (UPR), a controlled network of pathways inducing a set of genes that
      recovers ER function. However, it is unclear whether hypothalamic ER stress
      during DIO results from obesity related changes or from direct nutrient effects
      in the brain. We here investigated mRNA expression of UPR markers in the
      hypothalamus of rats that were exposed to a free choice high-fat high-sugar
      (fcHFHS) diet for 1 week and then overnight fed ad libitum, or fasted, or
      fat/sugar deprived (i.e., switched from obesogenic diet to chow). In addition, we
      determined the direct effects of fat/sugar on mRNA expression of hypothalamus UPR
      markers by intracarotic infusions of intralipids and/or glucose in chow-fed rats
      that were fasted overnight. Short term (1 week) exposure to fcHFHS diet increased
      adiposity compared to chow-feeding. Short term exposure to a fcHFHS diet,
      followed by mild food restriction overnight, induced hypothalamic ER stress in
      rats as characterized by an increase in spliced to unspliced X-box binding
      protein 1 mRNA ratio in hypothalamus of fcHFHS fed rats compared to chow fed
      rats. Moreover, infused lipids toward the brain of overnight fasted rats, were
      able to induce a similar response. Non-restricted ad libitum fcHFHS-diet fed or
      totally fasted rats did not show altered ratios. We also observed a clear
      increase in hypothalamic activating transcription factor 4 mRNA in rats on the
      fcHFHS diet while being ad libitum fed or when infused with intralipid via the
      carotic artery compared to vehicle infusions. However, we did not observe
      induction of downstream targets implying that this effect is a more general
      stress response and not related to ER stress. Overall, we conclude that the
      hypothalamic stress response might be a sensitive sensor of fat and energy
      status.

PMID- 28555095
TI  - Nutritional Ketosis Affects Metabolism and Behavior in Sprague-Dawley Rats in
      Both Control and Chronic Stress Environments.
AB  - Nutritional ketosis may enhance cerebral energy metabolism and has received
      increased interest as a way to improve or preserve performance and resilience.
      Most studies to date have focused on metabolic or neurological disorders while
      anecdotal evidence suggests that ketosis may enhance performance in the absence
      of underlying dysfunction. Moreover, decreased availability of glucose in the
      brain following stressful events is associated with impaired cognition,
      suggesting the need for more efficient energy sources. We tested the hypotheses
      that ketosis induced by endogenous or exogenous ketones could: (a) augment
      cognitive outcomes in healthy subjects; and (b) prevent stress-induced detriments
      in cognitive parameters. Adult, male, Sprague Dawley rats were used to
      investigate metabolic and behavioral outcomes in 3 dietary conditions: ketogenic
      (KD), ketone supplemented (KS), or NIH-31 control diet in both control or chronic
      stress conditions. Acute administration of exogenous ketones resulted in
      reduction in blood glucose and sustained ketosis. Chronic experiments showed that
      in control conditions, only KD resulted in pronounced metabolic alterations and
      improved performance in the novel object recognition test. The hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response revealed that KD-fed rats maintained
      peripheral ketosis despite increases in glucose whereas no diet effects were
      observed in ACTH or CORT levels. Both KD and KS-fed rats decreased escape
      latencies on the third day of water maze, whereas only KD prevented stress
      induced deficits on the last testing day and improved probe test performance.
      Stress-induced decrease in hippocampal levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate was
      attenuated in KD group while both KD and KS prevented stress effects on BDNF
      levels. Mitochondrial enzymes associated with ketogenesis were increased in both
      KD and KS hippocampal samples and both endothelial and neuronal glucose
      transporters were affected by stress but only in the control diet group. Our
      results highlight the complex relationship between peripheral metabolism,
      behavioral performance and biochemical changes in the hippocampus. Endogenous
      ketosis improved behavioral and metabolic parameters associated with energy
      metabolism and cognition while ketone supplementation replicated the biochemical
      effects within the hippocampus but only showed modest effects on behavioral
      improvements.

PMID- 28555096
TI  - Role of Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Instrumental Learning: Blockade of Dopamine
      D1 Receptors Suppresses Overt but Not Covert Learning.
AB  - HIGHLIGHTS Blockade of dopamine D1 receptors in ACC suppressed instrumental
      learning when overt responding was required.Covert learning through observation
      was not impaired.After treatment with a dopamine antagonist, instrumental
      learning recovered but not the rat's pretreatment level of effort tolerance.ACC
      dopamine is not necessary for acquisition of task-relevant cues during learning,
      but regulates energy expenditure and effort based decision. Dopamine activity in
      anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is essential for various aspects of instrumental
      behavior, including learning and effort based decision making. To dissociate
      learning from physical effort, we studied both observational (covert) learning,
      and trial-and-error (overt) learning. If ACC dopamine activity is required for
      task acquisition, its blockade should impair both overt and covert learning. If
      dopamine is not required for task acquisition, but solely for regulating the
      willingness to expend effort for reward, i.e., effort tolerance, blockade should
      impair overt learning but spare covert learning. Rats learned to push a lever for
      food rewards either with or without prior observation of an expert conspecific
      performing the same task. Before daily testing sessions, the rats received
      bilateral ACC microinfusions of SCH23390, a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, or
      saline-control infusions. We found that dopamine blockade suppressed overt
      responding selectively, leaving covert task acquisition through observational
      learning intact. In subsequent testing sessions without dopamine blockade, rats
      recovered their overt-learning capacity but not their pre-treatment level of
      effort tolerance. These results suggest that ACC dopamine is not required for the
      acquisition of conditioned behaviors and that apparent learning impairments could
      instead reflect a reduced level of willingness to expend effort due to cortical
      dopamine blockade.

PMID- 28555097
TI  - Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual
      Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning,
      Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate
      a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground
      discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well
      as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and
      sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination (PATH to Reading
      neurotraining) acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream,
      thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control
      functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students
      who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining.
      This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students
      improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining
      exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading (Raz-Kids (RK)). The
      neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve
      magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the
      input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This
      approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for
      dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This
      randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire
      second and third grade classrooms (42 students) for 30 min twice a week before
      guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of
      12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills.
      Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing
      deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained
      attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal
      students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the
      causal role of visual movement discrimination training in improving high-level
      cognitive functions such as attention, reading acquisition and working memory.
      This study supports the hypothesis that faulty timing in synchronizing the
      activity of magnocellular with parvocellular visual pathways in the dorsal stream
      is a fundamental cause of dyslexia and being at-risk for reading problems in
      normal students, and argues against the assumption that reading deficiencies in
      dyslexia are caused by phonological or language deficits, requiring a paradigm
      shift from phonologically-based treatment of dyslexia to a visually-based
      treatment. This study shows that visual movement-discrimination can be used not
      only to diagnose dyslexia early, but also for its successful treatment, so that
      reading problems do not prevent children from readily learning.

PMID- 28555098
TI  - Hemodynamic Response Alterations in Sensorimotor Areas as a Function of Barbell
      Load Levels during Squatting: An fNIRS Study.
AB  - Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) serves as a promising tool to
      examine hemodynamic response alterations in a sports-scientific context. The
      present study aimed to investigate how brain activity within the human motor
      system changes its processing in dependency of different barbell load conditions
      while executing a barbell squat (BS). Additionally, we used different fNIRS probe
      configurations to identify and subsequently eliminate potential exercise induced
      systemic confounders such as increases in extracerebral blood flow. Ten healthy,
      male participants were enrolled in a crossover design. Participants performed a
      BS task with random barbell load levels (0% 1RM (1 repetition maximum), 20% 1RM
      and 40% 1RM for a BS) during fNIRS recordings. Initially, we observed global
      hemodynamic response alterations within and outside the human motor system.
      However, short distance channel regression of fNIRS data revealed a focalized
      hemodynamic response alteration within bilateral superior parietal lobe (SPL) for
      oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and not for deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) when
      comparing different load levels. These findings indicate that the previously
      observed load/force-brain relationship for simple and isolated movements is also
      present in complex multi-joint movements such as the BS. Altogether, our results
      show the feasibility of fNIRS to investigate brain processing in a sports-related
      context. We suggest for future studies to incorporate short distance channel
      regression of fNIRS data to reduce the likelihood of false-positive hemodynamic
      response alterations during complex whole movements.

PMID- 28555099
TI  - Load-Dependent Increases in Delay-Period Alpha-Band Power Track the Gating of
      Task-Irrelevant Inputs to Working Memory.
AB  - Studies exploring the role of neural oscillations in cognition have revealed
      sustained increases in alpha-band power (ABP) during the delay period of verbal
      and visual working memory (VWM) tasks. There have been various proposals
      regarding the functional significance of such increases, including the inhibition
      of task-irrelevant cortical areas as well as the active retention of information
      in VWM. The present study examines the role of delay-period ABP in mediating the
      effects of interference arising from on-going visual processing during a
      concurrent VWM task. Specifically, we reasoned that, if set-size dependent
      increases in ABP represent the gating out of on-going task-irrelevant visual
      inputs, they should be predictive with respect to some modulation in visual
      evoked potentials resulting from a task-irrelevant delay period probe stimulus.
      In order to investigate this possibility, we recorded the electroencephalogram
      while subjects performed a change detection task requiring the retention of two
      or four novel shapes. On a portion of trials, a novel, task-irrelevant bilateral
      checkerboard probe was presented mid-way through the delay. Analyses focused on
      examining correlations between set-size dependent increases in ABP and changes in
      the magnitude of the P1, N1 and P3a components of the probe-evoked response and
      how such increases might be related to behavior. Results revealed that increased
      delay-period ABP was associated with changes in the amplitude of the N1 and P3a
      event-related potential (ERP) components, and with load-dependent changes in
      capacity when the probe was presented during the delay. We conclude that load
      dependent increases in ABP likely play a role in supporting short-term retention
      by gating task-irrelevant sensory inputs and suppressing potential sources of
      disruptive interference.

PMID- 28555100
TI  - The Impact of Monaural Beat Stimulation on Anxiety and Cognition.
AB  - Application of auditory beat stimulation has been speculated to provide a
      promising new tool with which to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and to enhance
      cognition. In spite of reportedly similar EEG effects of binaural and monaural
      beats, data on behavioral effects of monaural beats are still lacking. Therefore,
      we examined the impact of monaural beat stimulation on anxiety, mood and memory
      performance. We aimed to target states related to anxiety levels and general well
      being, in addition to long-term and working memory processes, using monaural
      beats within the range of main cortical rhythms. Theta (6 Hz), alpha (10 Hz) and
      gamma (40 Hz) beat frequencies, as well as a control stimulus were applied to
      healthy participants for 5 min. After each stimulation period, participants were
      asked to evaluate their current mood state and to perform cognitive tasks
      examining long-term and working memory processes, in addition to a vigilance
      task. Monaural beat stimulation was found to reduce state anxiety. When
      evaluating responses for the individual beat frequencies, positive effects on
      state anxiety were observed for all monaural beat conditions compared to control
      stimulation. Our results indicate a role for monaural beat stimulation in
      modulating state anxiety and are in line with previous studies reporting anxiety
      reducing effects of auditory beat stimulation.

PMID- 28555101
TI  - Learning-Related Brain-Electrical Activity Dynamics Associated with the
      Subsequent Impact of Learnt Action-Outcome Associations.
AB  - Goal-directed behavior relies on the integration of anticipated outcomes into
      action planning based on acquired knowledge about the current contingencies
      between behavioral responses (R) and desired outcomes (O) under specific stimulus
      conditions (S). According to ideomotor theory, bidirectional R-O associations are
      an integral part of this knowledge structure. Previous EEG studies have
      identified neural activity markers linked to the involvement of such
      associations, but the initial acquisition process has not yet been characterized.
      The present study thus examined brain-electrical activity dynamics during the
      rapid acquisition of novel bidirectional R-O associations during instructed S-R
      learning. Within a trial, we inspected response-locked and stimulus-locked
      activity dynamics in order to identify markers linked to the forward and backward
      activation of bidirectional R-O associations as they were being increasingly
      strengthened under forced choice conditions. We found that a post-response
      anterior negativity following auditory outcomes was increasingly attenuated as a
      function of the acquired association strength. This suggests that previously
      reported action-induced sensory attenuation effects under extensively trained
      free choice conditions can be established within few repetitions of specific R-O
      pairings under forced choice conditions. Furthermore, we observed the even more
      rapid development of a post-response but pre-outcome fronto-central positivity
      which was reduced for high R-O learners which might indicate the rapid deployment
      of preparatory attention towards predictable outcomes. Finally, we identified a
      learning-related stimulus-locked activity modulation within the visual P1-N1
      latency range which might reflect the multi-sensory integration of the perceived
      antecedent visual stimulus the anticipated auditory outcome.

PMID- 28555102
TI  - A Model of Fast Hebbian Spike Latency Normalization.
AB  - Hebbian changes of excitatory synapses are driven by and enhance correlations
      between pre- and postsynaptic neuronal activations, forming a positive feedback
      loop that can lead to instability in simulated neural networks. Because Hebbian
      learning may occur on time scales of seconds to minutes, it is conjectured that
      some form of fast stabilization of neural firing is necessary to avoid runaway of
      excitation, but both the theoretical underpinning and the biological
      implementation for such homeostatic mechanism are to be fully investigated.
      Supported by analytical and computational arguments, we show that a Hebbian spike
      timing-dependent metaplasticity rule, accounts for inherently-stable, quick
      tuning of the total input weight of a single neuron in the general scenario of
      asynchronous neural firing characterized by UP and DOWN states of activity.

PMID- 28555103
TI  - Blood Pressure Control in Aging Predicts Cerebral Atrophy Related to Small-Vessel
      White Matter Lesions.
AB  - Cerebral small-vessel damage manifests as white matter hyperintensities and
      cerebral atrophy on brain MRI and is associated with aging, cognitive decline and
      dementia. We sought to examine the interrelationship of these imaging biomarkers
      and the influence of hypertension in older individuals. We used a multivariate
      spatial covariance neuroimaging technique to localize the effects of white matter
      lesion load on regional gray matter volume and assessed the role of blood
      pressure control, age and education on this relationship. Using a case-control
      design matching for age, gender, and educational attainment we selected 64
      participants with normal blood pressure, controlled hypertension or uncontrolled
      hypertension from the Northern Manhattan Study cohort. We applied gray matter
      voxel-based morphometry with the scaled subprofile model to (1) identify regional
      covariance patterns of gray matter volume differences associated with white
      matter lesion load, (2) compare this relationship across blood pressure groups,
      and (3) relate it to cognitive performance. In this group of participants aged 60
      86 years, we identified a pattern of reduced gray matter volume associated with
      white matter lesion load in bilateral temporal-parietal regions with relative
      preservation of volume in the basal forebrain, thalami and cingulate cortex. This
      pattern was expressed most in the uncontrolled hypertension group and least in
      the normotensives, but was also more evident in older and more educated
      individuals. Expression of this pattern was associated with worse performance in
      executive function and memory. In summary, white matter lesions from small-vessel
      disease are associated with a regional pattern of gray matter atrophy that is
      mitigated by blood pressure control, exacerbated by aging, and associated with
      cognitive performance.

PMID- 28555104
TI  - tDCS Over the Motor Cortex Shows Differential Effects on Action and Object Words
      in Associative Word Learning in Healthy Aging.
AB  - Healthy aging is accompanied by a continuous decline in cognitive functions. For
      example, the ability to learn languages decreases with age, while the
      neurobiological underpinnings for the decline in learning abilities are not known
      exactly. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in combination with
      appropriate experimental paradigms, is a well-established technique to
      investigate the mechanisms of learning. Based on previous results in young
      adults, we tested the suitability of an associative learning paradigm for the
      acquisition of action- and object-related words in a cohort of older
      participants. We applied tDCS to the motor cortex (MC) and hypothesized an
      involvement of the MC in learning action-related words. To test this, a cohort of
      18 healthy, older participants (mean age 71) engaged in a computer-assisted
      associative word-learning paradigm, while tDCS stimulation (anodal, cathodal,
      sham) was applied to the left MC. Participants' task performance was quantified
      in a randomized, cross-over experimental design. Participants successfully
      learned novel words, correctly translating 39.22% of the words after 1 h of
      training under sham stimulation. Task performance correlated with scores for
      declarative verbal learning and logical reasoning. Overall, tDCS did not
      influence associative word learning, but a specific influence was observed of
      cathodal tDCS on learning of action-related words during the NMDA-dependent
      stimulation period. Successful learning of a novel lexicon with associative
      learning in older participants can only be achieved when the learning procedure
      is changed in several aspects, relative to young subjects. Learning success
      showed large inter-individual variance which was dependent on non-linguistic as
      well as linguistic cognitive functions. Intriguingly, cathodal tDCS influenced
      the acquisition of action-related words in the NMDA-dependent stimulation period.
      However, the effect was not specific for the associative learning principle,
      suggesting more neurobiological fragility of learning in healthy aging compared
      with young persons.

PMID- 28555106
TI  - High Fat Diet-Induced Hepatic 18-Carbon Fatty Acids Accumulation Up-Regulates
      CYP2A5/CYP2A6 via NF-E2-Related Factor 2.
AB  - To investigate the role of hepatic 18-carbon fatty acids (FA) accumulation in
      regulating CYP2A5/2A6 and the significance of Nrf2 in the process during
      hepatocytes steatosis, Nrf2-null, and wild type mice fed with high-fat diet
      (HFD), and Nrf2 silenced or over expressed HepG2 cells administered with 18
      carbon FA were used. HE and Oil Red O staining were used for mice hepatic
      pathological examination. The mRNA and protein expressions were measured with
      real-time PCR and Western blot. The results showed that hepatic CYP2A5 and Nrf2
      expression levels were increased in HFD fed mice accompanied with hepatic 18
      carbon FA accumulation. The Nrf2 expression was increased dose-dependently in
      cells administered with increasing concentrations of stearic acid, oleic acid,
      and alpha-linolenic acid. The Nrf2 expression was dose-dependently decreased in
      cells treated with increasing concentrations of linoleic acid, but the Nrf2
      expression level was still found higher than the control cells. The CYP2A6
      expression was increased dose-dependently in increasing 18-carbon FA treated
      cells. The HFD-induced up-regulation of hepatic CYP2A5 in vivo and the 18-carbon
      FA treatment induced up-regulation of CYP2A6 in HepG2 cells were, respectively,
      inhibited by Nrf2 deficiency and Nrf2 silencing. While the basal expression of
      mouse hepatic CYP2A5 was not impeded by Nrf2 deletion. Nrf2 over expression
      improved the up-regulation of CYP2A6 induced by 18-carbon FA. As the classical
      target gene of Nrf2, GSTA1 mRNA relative expression was increased in Nrf2 over
      expressed cells and was decreased in Nrf2 silenced cells. In presence or absence
      of 18-carbon FA treatment, the change of CYP2A6 expression level was similar to
      GSTA1 in Nrf2 silenced or over expressed HepG2 cells. It was concluded that HFD
      induced hepatic 18-carbon FA accumulation contributes to the up-regulation of
      CYP2A5/2A6 via activating Nrf2. However, the CYP2A5/2A6 expression does not only
      depend on Nrf2.

PMID- 28555105
TI  - Pharmacological Modulation of Functional Phenotypes of Microglia in
      Neurodegenerative Diseases.
AB  - Microglia are the resident innate immune cells of the central nervous system that
      mediate brain homeostasis maintenance. Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation is a
      hallmark shared by various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's
      disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Numerous studies have shown
      microglial activation phenotypes to be heterogeneous; however, these microglial
      phenotypes can largely be categorized as being either M1 or M2 type. Although the
      specific classification of M1 and M2 functionally polarized microglia remains a
      topic for debate, the use of functional modulators of microglial phenotypes as
      potential therapeutic approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases
      has garnered considerable attention. This review discusses M1 and M2 microglial
      phenotypes and their relevance in neurodegenerative disease models, as described
      in recent literature. The modulation of microglial polarization toward the M2
      phenotype may lead to development of future therapeutic and preventive strategies
      for neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, we focus on recent
      studies of microglial polarization modulators, with a particular emphasis on the
      small-molecule compounds and their intracellular target proteins.

PMID- 28555107
TI  - Characterization and Anti-Inflammatory Potential of an Exopolysaccharide from
      Submerged Mycelial Culture of Schizophyllum commune.
AB  - Background and Purpose: Mushroom polysaccharides have attracted attention in food
      and pharmacology fields because of their many biological activities. The
      structure characterization and anti-inflammatory activity of exopolysaccharide
      from Schizophyllum commune were evaluated in present study. Methods: An
      exopolysaccharide from a submerged mycelial fermentation of S. commune was
      obtained using DEAE-52 cellulose and Sephadex G-150 chromatography. The molecular
      weight (MW), monosaccharide compositions, chemical compositions, methylation
      analysis, circular dichroism studies, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and
      atomic force microscopy were investigated. Results: It was a homogeneous protein
      bound heteropolysaccharide with MW of 2,900 kDa. The exopolysaccharide contained
      a beta-(1->3) glycosidic backbone, (1->4)- and (1->6)- glycosidic side chain, and
      high amount of glucose. The anti-inflammatory activity of exopolysaccharide was
      assessed by inhibiting the production of nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric
      oxide synthase (iNOS), and 5- lipoxygenase (5-LOX) from macrophages. This
      exopolysaccharide significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited lipopolysaccharides-induced
      iNOS expression levels in the cells in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: It
      indicated significant anti-inflammatory effects, which showed that
      exopolysaccharide might be exploited as an effective anti-inflammatory agent for
      application in NO-related disorders such as inflammation and cancer.

PMID- 28555109
TI  - Rethinking the Appraisal and Approval of Drugs for Fracture Prevention.
AB  - Background: In January 2014, the EMA's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment
      Committee recommended that strontium ranelate no longer be used for osteoporosis.
      However, EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use decided to restrict
      its use rather than ban it. Starting from this fact, evidence of drugs for
      fracture prevention over the last 30 years was reviewed and lessons to be learnt
      from this story are highlighted. Findings: The general belief that drug therapy
      may become a "solution" for fragility fractures is challenged. The key points of
      the article are as follows: Lessons 1-5: Bone density and morphometric vertebral
      compression are not reliable surrogate endpoints. In fact, clinically relevant
      endpoints are essential to assess harms and benefits in clinical trials. There is
      a need for assessing overall harm-benefit with well-designed trials, taking into
      account that drug therapy may not be more effective in high-risk patients.
      Lessons 6-10: While bisphosphonates and strontium ranelate show a questionable
      harm-benefit ratio on hip fracture prevention, denosumab results are inconclusive
      and no benefit has been proved coming from calcitonines or teriparatide. After
      decades of widespread use, effectiveness of drugs for osteoporosis remains
      uncertain, yet adverse effects are more apparent. Conclusions: Well-designed and
      large trials over prolonged follow-up periods, measuring clinically relevant
      outcomes as hip and other disabling fractures, are urgently needed in order to
      properly understand the harm-benefit ratio of commonly prescribed drugs.
      Regulatory agencies should be more transparent and make individual-patient data
      from all clinical trials publicly available, allowing for independent assessment
      and pooled analysis.

PMID- 28555108
TI  - Is the Comparison between Exercise and Pharmacologic Treatment of Depression in
      the Clinical Practice Guideline of the American College of Physicians Evidence
      Based?
AB  - Major depression disorder is most commonly treated with antidepressants. However,
      due to their side effects clinicians seek non-pharmacologic options, and one of
      these is exercise. The literature on the benefits of exercise for depression is
      extensive. Nevertheless, two recent reviews focusing on antidepressants vs. other
      therapies as a basis for clinical practice guidelines recommended mainly
      antidepressants, excluding exercise as a viable choice for treatment of
      depression. The aim of this perspective is to analyze the literature exploring
      the reasons for this discrepancy. Two categories of publications were examined:
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses or systematic reviews.
      Based on this reassessment, RCTs comparing exercise to antidepressants reported
      that exercise and antidepressants were equally effective. RCTs comparing exercise
      combined with antidepressants to antidepressants only reported a significant
      improvement in depression following exercise as an adjunctive treatment. Almost
      all the reviews examining exercise vs. other treatments of depression, including
      antidepressants, support the use of exercise in the treatment of depression, at
      least as an adjunctive therapy. The two reviews examining pharmacologic vs. non
      pharmacologic therapies as a basis for clinical practice guidelines examined
      limited evidence on exercise vs. antidepressants. In addition, it is possible
      that academics and health care practitioners are skeptical of viewing exercise as
      medicine. Maybe, there is a reluctance to accept that changes in lifestyle as
      opposed to pharmacological treatment can alter biological mechanisms.
      Longitudinal studies are needed for assessing the effectiveness of exercise in
      real clinical settings, as well as studies exploring dose-response relationship
      between exercise and depression.

PMID- 28555110
TI  - Reduced Membrane Insertion of CLC-K by V33L Barttin Results in Loss of Hearing,
      but Leaves Kidney Function Intact.
AB  - In the mammalian ear, transduction of sound stimuli is initiated by K+ entry
      through mechano-sensitive channels into inner hair cells. K+ entry is driven by a
      positive endocochlear potential that is maintained by the marginal cell layer of
      the stria vascularis. This process requires basolateral K+ import by NKCC1 Na+
      2Cl--K+ co-transporters as well as Cl- efflux through ClC-Ka/barttin or ClC
      Kb/barttin channels. Multiple mutations in the gene encoding the obligatory CLC-K
      subunit barttin, BSND, have been identified in patients with Bartter syndrome
      type IV. These mutations reduce the endocochlear potential and cause deafness. As
      CLC-K/barttin channels are also expressed in the kidney, patients with Bartter
      syndrome IV typically also suffer from salt-wasting hyperuria and electrolyte
      imbalances. However, there was a single report on a BSND mutation that resulted
      only in deafness, but not kidney disease. We herein studied the functional
      consequences of another recently discovered BSND mutation that predicts exchange
      of valine at position 33 by leucine. We combined whole-cell patch clamp, confocal
      microscopy and protein biochemistry to analyze how V33L affects distinct
      functions of barttin. We found that V33L reduced membrane insertion of CLC
      K/barttin complexes without altering unitary CLC-K channel function. Our findings
      support the hypothesis of a common pathophysiology for the selective loss of
      hearing due to an attenuation of the total chloride conductance in the stria
      vascularis while providing enough residual function to maintain normal kidney
      function.

PMID- 28555111
TI  - Novel GLP-1 Analog Supaglutide Reduces HFD-Induced Obesity Associated with
      Increased Ucp-1 in White Adipose Tissue in Mice.
AB  - GLP-1, an important incretin hormone plays an important role in the regulation of
      glucose homeostasis. However, the therapeutic use of native GLP-1 is limited due
      to its short half-life. We recently developed a novel GLP-1 mimetics
      (supaglutide) by genetically engineering recombinant fusion protein production
      techniques. We demonstrated that this formulation possessed long-lasting GLP-1
      actions and was effective in glycemic control in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes
      rodent models. Here, we investigated the effects of supaglutide in regulating
      energy homeostasis in obese mice. Mice were fed with high-fat diet (HFD) for 6
      months to induce obesity and then subjected to supaglutide treatment (300 MUg/kg,
      bi-weekly for 4 weeks), and placebo as control. Metabolic conditions were
      monitored and energy expenditure was assessed by indirect calorimetry (CLAMS).
      Cold tolerance test was performed to evaluate brown-adipose tissue (BAT)
      activities in response to cold challenge. Glucose tolerance and insulin
      resistance were evaluated by intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test and insulin
      tolerance tests. Liver and adipose tissues were collected for histology analysis.
      Expression of uncoupling protein 1(Ucp1) in adipose tissues was evaluated by
      Western blotting. We found that supaglutide treatment reduced body weight, which
      was associated with reduced food intake. Compared to the placebo control,
      supaglutide treatment improved lipid profile, i.e., significantly decreased
      circulating total cholesterol levels, declined serum triglyceride, and free fatty
      acid levels. Importantly, the intervention significantly reduced fatty liver,
      decreased liver triglyceride content, and concomitantly ameliorated liver injury
      exemplified by declined hepatic alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartic
      transaminase (AST) content. Remarkably, supaglutide reduced hepatic lipid
      accumulation and altered morphometry in favor of small adipocytes in fat. This is
      consistent with the observation that supaglutide increased tolerance of the mice
      to cold environment associated with up-regulation of Ucp1 in the inguinal fat.
      Furthermore, supaglutide improved glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity in
      the obese mice suggesting improved glucose and energy homeostasis. Our findings
      suggest that supaglutide exerts beneficial effect on established obesity through
      reducing energy intake and is associated with brown remodeling of white adipose
      tissue.

PMID- 28555112
TI  - Caveolin-1: Functional Insights into Its Role in Muscarine- and Serotonin-Induced
      Smooth Muscle Constriction in Murine Airways.
AB  - An increased bronchoconstrictor response is a hallmark in the progression of
      obstructive airway diseases. Acetylcholine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT,
      serotonin) are the major bronchoconstrictors. There is evidence that both
      cholinergic and serotonergic signaling in airway smooth muscle (ASM) involve
      caveolae. We hypothesized that caveolin-1 (cav-1), a structural protein of
      caveolae, plays an important regulatory role in ASM contraction. We analyzed
      airway contraction in different tracheal segments and extra- and intrapulmonary
      bronchi in cav-1 deficient (cav-1-/-) and wild-type mice using organ bath
      recordings and videomorphometry of methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MCD) treated and non
      treated precision-cut lung slices (PCLS). The presence of caveolae was
      investigated by electron microscopy. Receptor subtypes driving 5-HT-responses
      were studied by RT-PCR and videomorphometry after pharmacological inhibition with
      ketanserin. Cav-1 was present in tracheal epithelium and ASM. Muscarine induced a
      dose dependent contraction in all airway segments. A significantly higher Emax
      was observed in the caudal trachea. Although, caveolae abundancy was largely
      reduced in cav-1-/- mice, muscarine-induced airway contraction was maintained,
      albeit at diminished potency in the middle trachea, in the caudal trachea and in
      the bronchus without changes in the maximum efficacy. MCD-treatment of PLCS from
      cav-1-/- mice reduced cholinergic constriction by about 50%, indicating that
      cholesterol-rich plasma domains account for a substantial portion of the
      muscarine-induced bronchoconstriction. Notably, cav-1-deficiency fully abrogated
      5-HT-induced contraction of extrapulmonary airways. In contrast, 5-HT-induced
      bronchoconstriction was fully maintained in cav-1-deficient intrapulmonary
      bronchi, but desensitization upon repetitive stimulation was enhanced. RT-PCR
      analysis revealed 5-HT1B, 5-HT2A, 5-HT6, and 5-HT7 receptors as the most
      prevalent subtypes in the airways. The 5-HT-induced-constriction in PCLS could be
      antagonized by ketanserin, a 5-HT2A receptor inhibitor. In conclusion, the role
      of cav-1, caveolae, and cholesterol-rich plasma domains in regulation of airway
      tone are highly agonist-specific and dependent on airway level. Cav-1 is
      indispensable for serotonergic contraction of extrapulmonary airways and
      modulates cholinergic constriction of the trachea and main bronchus. Thus, cav
      1/caveolae shall be considered in settings such as bronchial hyperreactivity in
      common airway diseases and might provide an opportunity for modulation of the
      constrictor response.

PMID- 28555113
TI  - Identifying Electrophysiological Prodromes of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder:
      Results from a Pilot Study.
AB  - The objective of this research project is the identification of a physiological
      prodrome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has a reliability that
      could justify preemptive treatment in the sub-syndromal state. Because
      abnormalities in event-related potentials (ERPs) have been observed in fully
      expressed PTSD, the possible utility of abnormal ERPs in predicting delayed-onset
      PTSD was investigated. ERPs were recorded from military service members recently
      returned from Iraq or Afghanistan who did not meet PTSD diagnostic criteria at
      the time of ERP acquisition. Participants (n = 65) were followed for up to 1
      year, and 7.7% of the cohorts (n = 5) were PTSD-positive at follow-up. The
      initial analysis of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve constructed
      using ERP metrics was encouraging. The average amplitude to target stimuli gave
      an area under the ROC curve of greater than 0.8. Classification based on the
      Youden index, which is determined from the ROC, gave positive results. Using
      average target amplitude at electrode Cz yielded Sensitivity = 0.80 and
      Specificity = 0.87. A more systematic statistical analysis of the ERP data
      indicated that the ROC results may simply represent a fortuitous consequence of
      small sample size. Predicted error rates based on the distribution of target ERP
      amplitudes approached those of random classification. A leave-one-out cross
      validation using a Gaussian likelihood classifier with Bayesian priors gave lower
      values of sensitivity and specificity. In contrast with the ROC results, the
      leave-one-out classification at Cz gave Sensitivity = 0.65 and Specificity =
      0.60. A bootstrap calculation, again using the Gaussian likelihood classifier at
      Cz, gave Sensitivity = 0.59 and Specificity = 0.68. Two provisional conclusions
      can be offered. First, the results can only be considered preliminary due to the
      small sample size, and a much larger study will be required to assess
      definitively the utility of ERP prodromes of PTSD. Second, it may be necessary to
      combine ERPs with other biomarkers in a multivariate metric to produce a prodrome
      that can justify preemptive treatment.

PMID- 28555114
TI  - Attitudes about Future Genetic Testing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and
      Addiction among Community-Based Veterans.
AB  - This study explored attitudes toward hypothetical genetic testing for
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction among veterans. We surveyed a
      random sample of community-based veterans (n = 700) by telephone. One year later,
      we asked the veterans to provide a DNA sample for analysis and 41.9% of them
      returned the DNA samples. Overall, most veterans were not interested in genetic
      testing neither for PTSD (61.7%) nor for addiction (68.7%). However, bivariate
      analyses suggested there was an association between having the condition of
      interest and the likelihood of genetic testing on a 5-point scale (p < 0.001 for
      PTSD; p = 0.001 for alcohol dependence). While ordinal regressions confirmed
      these associations, the models with the best statistical fit were bivariate
      models of whether the veteran would likely test or not. Using logistic
      regressions, significant predictors for PTSD testing were receiving recent mental
      health treatment, history of a concussion, younger age, having PTSD, having
      alcohol dependence, currently taking opioids for pain, and returning the DNA
      sample during the follow-up. For addiction testing, significant predictors were
      history of concussion, younger age, psychotropic medication use, having alcohol
      dependence, and currently taking opioids for pain. Altogether, 25.9% of veterans
      reported that they would have liked to have known their genetic results before
      deployment, 15.6% reported after deployment, and 58.6% reported they did not want
      to know neither before nor after deployment. As advancements in genetic testing
      continue to evolve, our study suggests that consumer attitudes toward genetic
      testing for mental disorders are complex and better understanding of these
      attitudes and beliefs will be crucial to successfully promote utilization.

PMID- 28555116
TI  - Interaction between Gender and Skill on Competitive State Anxiety Using the Time
      to-Event Paradigm: What Roles Do Intensity, Direction, and Frequency Dimensions
      Play?
AB  - Background and purpose: The functional understanding and examination of
      competitive anxiety responses as temporal events that unfold as time-to
      competition moves closer has emerged as a topical research area within the
      domains of sport psychology. However, little is known from an inclusive and
      interaction oriented perspective. Using the multidimensional anxiety theory as a
      framework, the present study examined the temporal patterning of competitive
      anxiety, focusing on the dimensions of intensity, direction, and frequency of
      intrusions in athletes across gender and skill level. Methods: Elite and semi
      elite table tennis athletes from the Ghanaian league (N = 90) completed a
      modified version of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) with the
      inclusion of the directional and frequency of intrusion scales at three temporal
      phases (7 days, 2 days, and 1 h) prior to a competitive fixture. Results:
      Multivariate Analyses of Variance repeated measures with follow-up analyses
      revealed significant interactions for between-subjects factors on all anxiety
      dimensions (intensity, direction, and frequency). Notably, elite (international)
      female athletes were less cognitively anxious, showed more facilitative
      interpretation toward somatic anxiety symptoms and experienced less frequency of
      somatic anxiety symptoms than their male counterparts. However, both elite groups
      displayed appreciable level of self-confidence. For time-to-event effects, both
      cognitive and somatic anxiety intensity fluctuated whereas self-confidence showed
      a steady rise as competition neared. Somatic anxiety debilitative interpretation
      slightly improved 1 h before competition whereas cognitive anxiety frequencies
      also increased progressively during the entire preparatory phase. Conclusion:
      Findings suggest a more dynamic image of elite athletes' pre-competitive anxiety
      responses than suggested by former studies, potentially influenced by cultural
      differences. The use of psychological skills interventions that require effective
      structure, content, and timing in a composite manner is suggested.

PMID- 28555115
TI  - Long-term Results from the Empowering a Multimodal Pathway Toward Healthy Youth
      Program, a Multimodal School-Based Approach, Show Marked Reductions in
      Suicidality, Depression, and Anxiety in 6,227 Students in Grades 6-12 (Aged 11
      18).
AB  - Here, we report on findings from a 15-month follow-up of a school-based program
      called Empowering a Multimodal Pathway Toward Healthy Youth (EMPATHY). This was
      primarily intended to reduce suicidal thinking in pre-teens, adolescents, and
      youth students aged 11-18 in middle schools (Grades 6-8) and high SCHOOLS (Grades
      9-12). It also aimed to reduce depression and anxiety. The EMPATHY multimodal
      program consisted of repeated data collection, identification of a high-risk
      group, a rapid intervention for this high-risk group including offering
      supervised online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program, a universal CBT
      intervention for those in Grades 6-8, a variety of interactions with trained
      staff ("Resiliency Coaches"), and referral to external medical and psychiatric
      services where appropriate. There were four time-points at which assessments were
      made: baseline, 3, 7, and 15 months. Here, we report cross-sectional findings
      over 15 months in a total of 6,227 students who were assessed at least once
      during the study period. Additionally, we report longitudinal findings from the
      1,884 students who completed all 4 assessments. Our results found highly
      statistically significant decreases in suicidality rates, with the percentage of
      the total school population who were actively suicidal decreasing from 4.4% at
      baseline (n = 143 of 3,244) to 2.8% at 15 months (n = 125 of 4,496) (p < 0.001).
      There were also highly statistically significant reductions in depression and
      anxiety scores at each time-point. Thus, Mean Depression scores at baseline for
      the entire student population were 3.73 +/- 3.87 (n = 3,244) at baseline and
      decreased to 3.22 +/- 3.52 (n = 4,496) (p < 0.001). Since most students were not
      depressed, whole population changes such as this may indicate impact in many
      areas. In the longitudinal analysis of students who completed all four
      assessments, there were also highly statistically significant improvements in
      depression and anxiety scores at all time-points. For example, depression scores
      decreased from a mean of 3.43 +/- 3.67 (n = 1,884) at baseline to 2.95 +/- 3.53
      (n = 1,884) at 15-months (p < 0.001), while the number who were actively suicidal
      decreased from 69 to 37. These results suggest that school-based multimodal
      programs, utilizing a combination of interventions, can have meaningful benefits
      across entire school populations.

PMID- 28555117
TI  - Social Saliency of the Cue Slows Attention Shifts.
AB  - Eye gaze is a powerful cue that indicates where another person's attention is
      directed in the environment. Seeing another person's eye gaze shift spontaneously
      and reflexively elicits a shift of one's own attention to the same region in
      space. Here, we investigated whether reallocation of attention in the direction
      of eye gaze is modulated by personal familiarity with faces. On the one hand, the
      eye gaze of a close friend should be more effective in redirecting our attention
      as compared to the eye gaze of a stranger. On the other hand, the social
      relevance of a familiar face might itself hold attention and, thereby, slow
      lateral shifts of attention. To distinguish between these possibilities, we
      measured the efficacy of the eye gaze of personally familiar and unfamiliar faces
      as directional attention cues using adapted versions of the Posner paradigm with
      saccadic and manual responses. We found that attention shifts were slower when
      elicited by a perceived change in the eye gaze of a familiar individual as
      compared to attention shifts elicited by unfamiliar faces at short latencies (100
      ms). We also measured simple detection of change in direction of gaze in
      personally familiar and unfamiliar faces to test whether slower attention shifts
      were due to slower detection. Participants detected changes in eye gaze faster
      for familiar faces than for unfamiliar faces. Our results suggest that personally
      familiar faces briefly hold attention due to their social relevance, thereby
      slowing shifts of attention, even though the direction of eye movements are
      detected faster in familiar faces.

PMID- 28555118
TI  - Laryngeal Features Are Phonetically Abstract: Mismatch Negativity Evidence from
      Arabic, English, and Russian.
AB  - Many theories of phonology assume that the sound structure of language is made up
      of distinctive features, but there is considerable debate about how much
      articulatory detail distinctive features encode in long-term memory. Laryngeal
      features such as voicing provide a unique window into this question: while many
      languages have two-way contrasts that can be given a simple binary feature
      account [+/-VOICE], the precise articulatory details underlying these contrasts
      can vary significantly across languages. Here, we investigate a series of two-way
      voicing contrasts in English, Arabic, and Russian, three languages that implement
      their voicing contrasts very differently at the articulatory-phonetic level. In
      three event-related potential experiments contrasting English, Arabic, and
      Russian fricatives along with Russian stops, we observe a consistent pattern of
      asymmetric mismatch negativity (MMN) effects that is compatible with an
      articulatorily abstract and cross-linguistically uniform way of marking two-way
      voicing contrasts, as opposed to an articulatorily precise and cross
      linguistically diverse way of encoding them. Regardless of whether a language is
      theorized to encode [VOICE] over [SPREAD GLOTTIS], the data is consistent with a
      universal marking of the [SPREAD GLOTTIS] feature.

PMID- 28555119
TI  - Patterns of Alcohol Consumption in Spanish University Alumni: Nine Years of
      Follow-Up.
AB  - The aim of this study was to empirically identify different profiles of Spanish
      university alumni, based on their alcohol use over 9 years, and to further
      characterize them. A cohort study was carried out between 2005 and 2015 among
      university students (Compostela Cohort-Spain; n2015 = 415). Alcohol consumption
      was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). A two
      stage cluster analysis, based on their AUDIT total scores was carried out
      separately for males and females. The further characterization of every profile
      was based on demographic data, age at onset of alcohol use, positive alcohol
      related expectancies, tobacco and cannabis use, as well as their answers to some
      European Addiction Severity Index items. Five different clusters were identified:
      Low users (29.2%), Moderated users (37.2%), At-risk users (14.2%), Decreasing
      users (13.2%) and Large users (6.2%) for females, and Low users (34.4%), At-risk
      users (25.6%), High-risk users (15.6%), Decreasing users (14.4%) and Large users
      (10.0%) for males. Being a cannabis user or a smoker was positively associated to
      those more hazardous clusters in both genders. Regarding females, significant
      differences in the age of onset and high positive expectancies were found.
      However, there were few significant differences among the groups in relation to
      their employment status and social relations. The results reveal the existence of
      different typologies of alcohol users among university alumni, with differences
      among males and females. Modifying positive expectancies, limiting access to
      alcohol at a young age, and reducing uses of other substances uses are key to
      promote healthier alcohol use profiles and to prevent hazardous uses.

PMID- 28555120
TI  - Psychotic-Like Experiences at the Healthy End of the Psychosis Continuum.
AB  - There is increasing evidence pointing toward a continuous distribution of
      psychotic symptoms and accompanying factors between subclinical and clinical
      populations. However, for the construction of continuum models, a more detailed
      knowledge of different types of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) and their
      associations with distress, functional impairment, and demographic variables is
      needed. We investigated PLE in a sample of healthy adults (N = 206) incorporating
      the recently developed revised Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (PAGE-R).
      For the first time, the PAGE-R was cross validated with PLE, disorganized-, and
      negative-like symptoms [Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), Physical
      Anhedonia Scale (PAS)]. We subjected the PAGE-R to exploratory factor analyses
      and examined the resulting subtypes of EE for specific associations with
      contextual factors, valence ratings, socio-demographic variables, and general
      psychological burden (Revised Symptom-Checklist-90). Correlational cross
      validation suggested that the PAGE-R measures facets of PLE. Importantly, we (1)
      identified three types of exceptional experiences (EE): Odd beliefs, dissociative
      anomalous perceptions, and hallucinatory anomalous perceptions. Further, the
      results suggested that even in healthy individuals (2) PLE and EE are indicative
      of reduced functioning, as reflected by increased psychological burden and lower
      educational achievement. Moreover, (3) similar sex-differences might exist as in
      psychotic patients with women reporting more positive-like symptoms and EE but
      less disorganized-like symptoms than men. Importantly, (4) EE might be
      differentially implicated in psychological functioning. We suggest that the PAGE
      R holds the potential to complement the current assessment of sub-clinical
      psychosis. However, whereas our results might point toward a continuity of
      psychotic symptoms with EE and normal experiences, they require replication in
      larger samples as well as equivalence testing across the psychosis continuum.
      Future analyses incorporating the PAGE-R might shed more light onto mechanisms
      that are implicated in the progress or resilience toward clinical illness.

PMID- 28555121
TI  - Risk Factors for Gambling Problems on Online Electronic Gaming Machines, Race
      Betting and Sports Betting.
AB  - Growth of Internet gambling has fuelled concerns about its contribution to
      gambling problems. However, most online gamblers also gamble on land-based forms,
      which may be the source of problems for some. Studies therefore need to identify
      the problematic mode of gambling (online or offline) to identify those with an
      online gambling problem. Identifying most problematic form of online gambling
      (e.g., EGMs, race betting, sports betting) would also enable a more accurate
      examination of gambling problems attributable to a specific online gambling form.
      This study pursued this approach, aiming to: (1) determine demographic,
      behavioral and psychological risk factors for gambling problems on online EGMs,
      online sports betting and online race betting; (2) compare the characteristics of
      problematic online gamblers on each of these online forms. An online survey of
      4,594 Australian gamblers measured gambling behavior, most problematic mode and
      form of gambling, gambling attitudes, psychological distress, substance use, help
      seeking, demographics and problem gambling status. Problem/moderate risk gamblers
      nominating an online mode of gambling as their most problematic, and identifying
      EGMs (n = 98), race betting (n = 291) or sports betting (n = 181) as their most
      problematic gambling form, were compared to non-problem/low risk gamblers who had
      gambled online on these forms in the previous 12 months (n = 64, 1145 and 1213
      respectively), using bivariate analyses and then logistic regressions.
      Problem/moderate risk gamblers on each of these online forms were then compared.
      Risk factors for online EGM gambling were: more frequent play on online EGMs,
      substance use when gambling, and higher psychological distress. Risk factors for
      online sports betting were being male, younger, lower income, born outside of
      Australia, speaking a language other than English, more frequent sports betting,
      higher psychological distress, and more negative attitudes toward gambling. Risk
      factors for online race betting comprised being male, younger, speaking a
      language other than English, more frequent race betting, engaging in more
      gambling forms, self-reporting as semi-professional/professional gambler, illicit
      drug use whilst gambling, and more negative attitude toward gambling. These
      findings can inform improved interventions tailored to the specific
      characteristics of high risk gamblers on each of these online activities.

PMID- 28555123
TI  - Cognitive-Processing Bias in Chinese Student Teachers with Strong and Weak
      Professional Identity.
AB  - Professional identity plays an important role in career development. Although
      many studies have examined professional identity, differences in cognitive
      processing biases between Chinese student teachers with strong and weak
      professional identity are poorly understood. The current study adopted Tversky's
      social-cognitive experimental paradigm to explore cognitive-processing biases in
      Chinese student teachers with strong and weak professional identity. Experiment 1
      showed that participants with strong professional identity exhibited stronger
      positive-coding bias toward positive profession-related life events, relative to
      that observed in those with weak professional identity. Experiment 2 showed that
      participants with strong professional identity exhibited greater recognition bias
      for previously read items, relative to that observed in those with weak
      professional identity. Overall, the results suggested that participants with
      strong professional identity exhibited greater positive cognitive-processing bias
      relative to that observed in those with weak professional identity.

PMID- 28555122
TI  - Binge Drinking Trajectory and Decision-Making during Late Adolescence: Gender and
      Developmental Differences.
AB  - Objective: Impaired affective decision-making has been consistently related to
      alcohol dependence. However, less is known about decision-making and binge
      drinking (BD) in adolescents. The main goal of this longitudinal study was to
      determine the association between BD and decision-making from late adolescence to
      early adulthood. A second aim is to assess developmental changes and performance
      differences in males and females. Method: An initial sample of 155 1st-year
      university students, (76 non-BDs, 40 females; and 79 BDs, 39 females), was
      followed prospectively over a 4-year period. The students were classified as
      stable non-BDs, stable BDs and ex-BDs according to their scores in item 3 of the
      AUDIT and the speed of alcohol consumption. Decision-making was assessed by the
      Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) three times during the study. Dependent variables were
      net gain and net loss. Results were analyzed using generalized linear mixed
      models. Results: A stable BD pattern was not associated with either
      disadvantageous decision-making or sensitivity to loss frequency. Performance
      improved significantly in both genders over the study period, especially in the
      last blocks of the task. Females showed a higher sensitivity to loss frequency
      than males. No gender-related differences were observed in gains. Conclusion:
      Performance in affective decision-making continues to improve in late
      adolescence, suggesting neuromaturational development in both genders. Females
      are more sensitive to loss frequency. Stable BD during late adolescence and
      emerging adulthood is not associated with deficits in decision-making. Poor
      performance of the IGT may be related to more severe forms of excessive alcohol
      consumption.

PMID- 28555124
TI  - Observational Study of 180 degrees  Turning Strategies Using Inertial Measurement
      Units and Fall Risk in Poststroke Hemiparetic Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We analyzed spontaneous 180 degrees  turning strategies in poststroke
      hemiparetic patients by using inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the
      association of turning strategies with risk of falls. METHODS: We included right
      paretic (RP) and left paretic (LP) post-stroke patients, and healthy controls
      (HCs) from a physical and rehabilitation department in France between July 2015
      and October 2015. All subjects were right-handed and right-footed for
      mobilization tasks. Participants were instructed to turn 180 degrees  in a self
      selected direction after a 10-m walk while wearing three IMUs on their trunk and
      both feet. We defined three turning patterns based on the number of external
      steps (pattern I = 1; II = 2-4 steps; and III >= 5) and four turning strategies
      based on the side chosen to turn (healthy or paretic) and the stance limb used
      during the first step of the turn (healthy or paretic). Falls in the 6 months
      after measurement were investigated. RESULTS: We included 17 RP [mean (SD) age
      57.5 (9.5) years (range 43-73)], 20 LP patients [mean age 60.7 (8.8) years (range
      43-63)], and 15 HCs [mean age 56.7 (16.1) years (range 36-83)]. The LP and RP
      groups behaved similarly in turning patterns, but 90% of LP patients turned
      spontaneously to the paretic side versus 59% of RP patients. This difference
      increased with turning strategies: 85% of LP versus 29% of RP patients used
      strategy 4 (paretic turn side with paretic limb). Patients using strategy 4 had
      the highest rate of falls. CONCLUSION: We propose to consider spontaneous turning
      strategies as new indicators to evaluate the risk of fall after stroke. IMU could
      be routinely used to identify this risk and guide balance rehabilitation
      programs.

PMID- 28555125
TI  - Determinants of Motion Sickness in Tilting Trains: Coriolis/Cross-Coupling
      Stimuli and Tilt Delay.
AB  - Faster trains require tilting of the cars to counterbalance the centrifugal
      forces during curves. Motion sensitive passengers, however, complain of
      discomfort and overt motion sickness. A recent study comparing different control
      systems in a tilting train, suggested that the delay of car tilts relative to the
      curve of the track contributes to motion sickness. Other aspects of the motion
      stimuli, like the lateral accelerations and the car jitters, differed between the
      tested conditions and prevented a final conclusion on the role of tilt delay.
      Nineteen subjects were tested on a motorized 3D turntable that simulated the roll
      tilts during yaw rotations experienced on a tilting train, isolating them from
      other motion components. Each session was composed of two consecutive series of
      12 ideal curves that were defined on the bases of recordings during an actual
      train ride. The simulated car tilts started either at the beginning of the curve
      acceleration phase (no-delay condition) or with 3 s of delay (delay condition).
      Motion sickness was self-assessed by each subject at the end of each series using
      an analog motion sickness scale. All subjects were tested in both conditions.
      Significant increases of motion sickness occurred after the first sequence of 12
      curves in the delay condition, but not in the no-delay condition. This increase
      correlated with the sensitivity of motion sickness, which was self-assessed by
      each subject before the experiment. The second sequence of curve did not lead to
      a significant further increase of motion sickness in any condition. Our results
      demonstrate that, even if the speed and amplitude are as low as those experienced
      on tilting trains, a series of roll tilts with a delay relative to the horizontal
      rotations, isolated from other motion stimuli occurring during a travel, generate
      Coriolis/cross-coupling stimulations sufficient to rapidly induce motion sickness
      in sensitive individuals. The strength and the rapid onset of the motion sickness
      reported confirm that, even if the angular velocity involved are low, the
      Coriolis/cross-coupling resulting from the delay is a major factor in causing
      sickness that can be resolved by improving the tilt timing relative to the
      horizontal rotation originating from the curve.

PMID- 28555126
TI  - Altered Motor Unit Discharge Coherence in Paretic Muscles of Stroke Survivors.
AB  - After a cerebral stroke, a series of changes at the supraspinal and spinal
      nervous system can alter the control of muscle activation, leading to persistent
      motor impairment. However, the relative contribution of these different levels of
      the nervous system to impaired muscle activation is not well understood. The
      coherence of motor unit (MU) spike trains is considered to partly reflect
      activities of higher level control, with different frequency band representing
      different levels of control. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to
      quantify the different sources of contribution to altered muscle activation. We
      examined the coherence of MU spike trains decomposed from surface electromyogram
      (sEMG) of the first dorsal interosseous muscle on both paretic and contralateral
      sides of 14 hemispheric stroke survivors. sEMG was obtained over a range of force
      contraction levels at 40, 50, and 60% of maximum voluntary contraction. Our
      results showed that MU coherence increased significantly in delta (1-4 Hz), alpha
      (8-12 Hz), and beta (15-30 Hz) bands on the affected side compared with the
      contralateral side, but was maintained at the same level in the gamma (30-60 Hz)
      band. In addition, no significant alteration was observed across medium-high
      force levels (40-60%). These results indicated that the common synaptic input to
      motor neurons increased on the paretic side, and the increased common input can
      originate from changes at multiple levels, including spinal and supraspinal
      levels following a stroke. All these changes can contribute to impaired
      activation of affected muscles in stroke survivors. Our findings also provide
      evidence regarding the different origins of impaired muscle activation
      poststroke.

PMID- 28555127
TI  - Cerebral Microbleeds, Hypertension, and Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Cerebral
      Autosomal-Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and
      Leukoencephalopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts
      and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common genetic cause of stroke. In
      addition to ischemic stroke, CADASIL predisposes to development of cerebral
      microbleeds (CMB). CMB and hypertension are known to be associated with
      intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The purpose of this study was to analyze the
      relationships among CMB, hypertension, and ICH in CADASIL. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We enrolled 94 genetically confirmed CADASIL patients from 76 unrelated families
      at Jeju National University Hospital (Korea) between March 2012 and February
      2015. We analyzed CMB presence, number, and distribution on susceptibility
      weighted imaging MRI using the microbleed anatomical rating scale. Multiple
      logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with the presence of
      CMB and ICH. RESULTS: CMB were observed in 62 patients (66%), median number of
      CMB per patient was 4 (range 0-121). Twenty-two ICHs were found in 16 patients
      (17%). There was incongruence between the most common site of CMB (thalamus) and
      that of ICH (basal ganglia). Hypertension was independently associated with the
      presence of CMB (multiple regression OR, 2.71; 95% CI 1.02-7.18, p < 0.05), and
      CMB >= 9 (highest third) was significantly associated with the presence of ICH
      (multiple regression OR = 9.50, 95% CI 1.08-83.71, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In this
      CADASIL sample, presence of hypertension was independently associated with CMB
      presence, and CMB burden was independently associated with ICH. Incongruence of
      sites for CMB and ICH is currently unexplained and requires further study.

PMID- 28555128
TI  - A Case of Apparent Upper-Body Freezing in Parkinsonism while Using a Wheelchair.
AB  - Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common, disabling gait disturbance in Parkinson's
      disease (PD) and other Parkinsonian syndromes. Freezing also occurs during non
      gait movements involving the upper limbs. The mechanisms underlying freezing are
      complex, likely involving motor, cognitive, and sensory systems that contribute
      to the episodes. Here, we reported a 60-year-old female with a 24-year history of
      parkinsonism who experienced significant FOG when ambulatory. Disease progression
      resulted in her permanent use of a powered wheelchair. While using the power
      chair, the patient experiences apparent paroxysmal freezing in the hand and arm
      used to steer and propel the chair. These episodes, some lasting up to several
      minutes, occur only in circumstances (e.g., entering and leaving an elevator)
      that are similar to environments known to elicit and exacerbate FOG. Episodes are
      transient and can be volitionally interrupted by the patient but sometimes
      require external assistance. Therapeutic intervention for this type of potential
      freezing has yet to be determined. This case may provide insight into the complex
      nature of freezing behavior and suggests a need for new approaches to treating
      non-traditional freezing behavior.

PMID- 28555129
TI  - Identification of Atypical El TorV. cholerae O1 Ogawa Hosting SXT Element in
      Senegal, Africa.
AB  - Vibrio cholerae O1 is the causative agent of cholera with classical and El Tor,
      two well-established biotypes. In last 20 years, hybrid strains of classical and
      El Tor and variant El Tor which carry classical ctxB have emerged worldwide. In
      2004-2005, Senegal experienced major cholera epidemic with a number of cases
      totalling more than 31719 with approximately 458 fatal outcomes (CFR, 1.44%). In
      this retrospective study, fifty isolates out of a total of 403 V. cholerae
      biotype El Tor serovar Ogawa isolates from all areas in Senegal during the 2004
      2005 cholera outbreak were randomly selected. Isolates were characterized using
      phenotypic and genotypic methods. The analysis of antibiotic resistance patterns
      revealed the predominance of the S-Su-TCY-Tsu phenotype (90% of isolates). The
      molecular characterization of antibiotic resistance revealed the presence of the
      SXT element, a self-transmissible chromosomally integrating element in all
      isolates. Most of V. cholerae isolates had an intact virulence cassette (86%)
      (ctx, zot, ace genes). All isolates tested gave amplification with primers for
      classical CT, and 10/50 (20%) of isolates carried classical and El Tor ctxB. The
      study reveals the presence of atypical V. cholerae O1 El Tor during cholera
      outbreak in Senegal in 2004-2005.

PMID- 28555131
TI  - A Phloem-Feeding Insect Transfers Bacterial Endophytic Communities between
      Grapevine Plants.
AB  - Bacterial endophytes colonize the inner tissues of host plants through the roots
      or through discontinuities on the plant surface, including wounds and stomata.
      Little is known regarding a possible role of insects in acquiring and
      transmitting non-phytopathogenic microorganisms from plant to plant, especially
      those endophytes that are beneficial symbionts providing plant protection
      properties and homeostatic stability to the host. To understand the ecological
      role of insects in the transmission of endophytic bacteria, we used freshly
      hatched nymphs of the American sap-feeding leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus
      (vector) to transfer microorganisms across grapevine plants. After contact with
      the vector, sink plants were colonized by a complex endophytic community
      dominated by Proteobacteria, highly similar to that present in source plants. A
      similar bacterial community, but with a higher ratio of Firmicutes, was found on
      S. titanus. Insects feeding only on sink plants transferred an entirely different
      bacterial community dominated by Actinobacteria, where Mycobacterium sp., played
      a major role. Despite the fact that insects dwelled mostly on plant stems, the
      bacterial communities in plant roots resembled more closely those inside and on
      insects, when compared to those of above-ground plant organs. We prove here the
      potential of insect vectors to transfer entire endophytic bacterial communities
      between plants. We also describe the role of plants and bacterial endophytes in
      establishing microbial communities in plant-feeding insects.

PMID- 28555130
TI  - Viruses and miRNAs: More Friends than Foes.
AB  - There is evidence that eukaryotic miRNAs (hereafter called host miRNAs) play a
      role in the replication and propagation of viruses. Expression or targeting of
      host miRNAs can be involved in cellular antiviral responses. Most times host
      miRNAs play a role in viral life-cycles and promote infection through complex
      regulatory pathways. miRNAs can also be encoded by a viral genome and be
      expressed in the host cell. Viral miRNAs can share common sequences with host
      miRNAs or have totally different sequences. They can regulate a variety of
      biological processes involved in viral infection, including apoptosis, evasion of
      the immune response, or modulation of viral life-cycle phases. Overall,
      virus/miRNA pathway interaction is defined by a plethora of complex mechanisms,
      though not yet fully understood. This article review summarizes recent advances
      and novel biological concepts related to the understanding of miRNA expression,
      control and function during viral infections. The article also discusses
      potential therapeutic applications of this particular host-pathogen interaction.

PMID- 28555132
TI  - Stimulation of Fengycin-Type Antifungal Lipopeptides in Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens in the Presence of the Maize Fungal Pathogen Rhizomucor
      variabilis.
AB  - Most isolates belonging to the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum clade
      retain the potential to produce a vast array of structurally diverse
      antimicrobial compounds that largely contribute to their efficacy as biocontrol
      agents against numerous plant fungal pathogens. In that context, the role of
      cyclic lipopeptides (CLPs) has been well-documented but still little is known
      about the impact of interactions with other soil-inhabiting microbes on the
      expression of these molecules. In this work, we wanted to investigate the
      antagonistic activity developed by this bacterium against Rhizomucor variabilis,
      a pathogen isolated from diseased maize cobs in Democratic Republic of Congo. Our
      data show that fengycins are the major compounds involved in the inhibitory
      activity but also that production of this type of CLP is significantly
      upregulated when co-cultured with the fungus compared to pure cultures. B.
      amyloliquefaciens is thus able to perceive fungal molecules that are emitted and,
      as a response, up-regulates the biosynthesis of some specific components of its
      antimicrobial arsenal.

PMID- 28555133
TI  - An Influenza HA and M2e Based Vaccine Delivered by a Novel Attenuated Salmonella
      Mutant Protects Mice against Homologous H1N1 Infection.
AB  - Attenuated Salmonella strains constitute a promising technology for the
      development of a more efficient multivalent protein based vaccines. In this
      study, we constructed a novel attenuated strain of Salmonella for the delivery
      and expression of the H1N1 hemagglutinin (HA) and the conserved extracellular
      domain of the matrix protein 2 (M2e). We demonstrated that the constructed
      Salmonella strain exhibited efficient HA and M2e protein expressions and little
      cytotoxicity and pathogenicity in mice. Using BALB/c mice as the model, we showed
      that the mice vaccinated with a Salmonella strain expressing HA and M2e protein
      antigens, respectively, induced significant production of HA and M2e-specific
      serum IgG1 and IgG2a responses, and of anti-HA interferon-gamma producing T
      cells. Furthermore, immunization with Salmonella-HA-M2e-based vaccine via
      different routes provided protection in 66.66% orally, 100% intramuscularly, and
      100% intraperitoneally immunized mice against the homologous H1N1 virus while
      none of the animals survived treated with either the PBS or the Salmonella
      carrying empty expression vector. Ex vivo stimulated dendritic cells (DCs) with
      heat killed Salmonella expressing HA demonstrated that DCs play an important role
      in the elicitation of HA-specific humoral immune responses in mice. In summary,
      Salmonella-HA-M2e-based vaccine elicits efficient antigen-specific humoral and
      cellular immune responses, and provides significant immune protection against a
      highly pathogenic H1N1 influenza virus.

PMID- 28555134
TI  - The Transcription Factor ZNF683/HOBIT Regulates Human NK-Cell Development.
AB  - We identified ZNF683/HOBIT as the most highly upregulated transcription factor
      gene during ex vivo differentiation of human CD34+ cord blood progenitor cells to
      CD56+ natural killer (NK) cells. ZNF683/HOBIT mRNA was preferentially expressed
      in NK cells compared to other human peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes.
      During ex vivo differentiation, ZNF683/HOBIT mRNA started to increase shortly
      after addition of IL-15 and further accumulated in parallel to the generation of
      CD56+ NK cells. shRNA-mediated knockdown of ZNF683/HOBIT resulted in a
      substantial reduction of CD56-CD14- NK-cell progenitors and the following
      generation of CD56+ NK cells was largely abrogated. The few CD56+ NK cells, which
      escaped the developmental inhibition in the ZNF683/HOBIT knockdown cultures,
      displayed normal levels of NKG2A and KIR receptors. Functional analyses of these
      cells showed no differences in degranulation capacity from control cultures.
      However, the proportion of IFN-gamma-producing cells appeared to be increased
      upon ZNF683/HOBIT knockdown. These results indicate a key role of ZNF683/HOBIT
      for the differentiation of the human NK-cell lineage and further suggest a
      potential negative control on IFN-gamma production in more mature human NK cells.

PMID- 28555135
TI  - Why the Immune System Should Be Concerned by Nanomaterials?
AB  - Particles possess huge specific surface area and therefore nanomaterials exhibit
      unique characteristics, such as special physical properties and chemical hyper
      reactivity, which make them particularly attractive but also raise numerous
      questions concerning their safety. Interactions of nanomaterials with the immune
      system can potentially lead to immunosuppression, hypersensitivity (allergy),
      immunogenicity and autoimmunity, involving both innate and adaptive immune
      responses. Inherent physical and chemical NP characteristics may influence their
      immunotoxicity, i.e., the adverse effects that can result from exposure. This
      review will focus on the possible interaction of nanomaterials including protein
      aggregates with the innate immune system with specific emphasis on antigen
      presenting cells, i.e., dendritic cells, macrophages and monocytes.

PMID- 28555137
TI  - What We Have Learned and What We Have Missed in Tuberculosis Pathophysiology for
      a New Vaccine Design: Searching for the "Pink Swan".
AB  - This is a call to encourage the search for a new vaccine to stop the progression
      of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis (TB) disease. TB is a
      highly discreet and stigmatized disease, with a massive impact on human health.
      It has killed 1.2 billion people in the last 200 years and still kills 1.5
      million people per year. Over the last 20 years, the TB vaccine field has
      experienced spectacular developments, and we have learned about (1) the
      importance of the Th1 response in controlling infection, mainly against RD1 and
      Ag85 antigens; (2) the stability of the antigenic repertoire; (3) the dynamics of
      M. tuberculosis granulomas; or (4) the link between typical and atypical
      pulmonary TB and the immune status of the host. However, we still do not (1) know
      how to avoid M. tuberculosis infection and reinfection; (2) understand the major
      role of the increase in lesion size in progression from infection to disease; (3)
      the role of interlobular septa in encapsulating pulmonary lesions; or (4) the
      role of neutrophilic infiltration and an exaggerated inflammatory response in the
      development of TB disease. These are strong reasons to pursue new, imaginative
      proposals involving both the antibody response and a balanced, tolerant immune
      response that averts progression toward TB. So far, the scientific mindset has
      been quite monolithic and has mainly focused on the stimulation of conventional T
      cells. But this approach has failed. For that reason, we are seeking
      unconventional perspectives to find a "pink swan," a more efficacious and safer
      vaccine candidate.

PMID- 28555136
TI  - Oncolytic Immunotherapy: Conceptual Evolution, Current Strategies, and Future
      Perspectives.
AB  - The concept of oncolytic virus (OV)-mediated cancer therapy has been shifted from
      an operational virotherapy paradigm to an immunotherapy. OVs often induce
      immunogenic cell death (ICD) of cancer cells, and they may interact directly with
      immune cells as well to prime antitumor immunity. We and others have developed a
      number of strategies to further stimulate antitumor immunity and to productively
      modulate the tumor microenvironment (TME) for potent and sustained antitumor
      immune cell activity. First, OVs have been engineered or combined with other ICD
      inducers to promote more effective T cell cross-priming, and in many cases, the
      breaking of functional immune tolerance. Second, OVs may be armed to express Th1
      stimulatory cytokines/chemokines or costimulators to recruit and sustain the
      potent antitumor immunity into the TME to focus their therapeutic activity within
      the sites of disease. Third, combinations of OV with immunomodulatory drugs or
      antibodies that recondition the TME have proven to be highly promising in early
      studies. Fourth, combinations of OVs with other immunotherapeutic regimens (such
      as prime-boost cancer vaccines, CAR T cells; armed with bispecific T-cell
      engagers) have also yielded promising preliminary findings. Finally, OVs have
      been combined with immune checkpoint blockade, with robust antitumor efficacy
      being observed in pilot evaluations. Despite some expected hurdles for the rapid
      translation of OV-based state-of-the-art protocols, we believe that a cohort of
      these novel approaches will join the repertoire of standard cancer treatment
      options in the near future.

PMID- 28555138
TI  - Under Pressure: Interactions between Commensal Microbiota and the Teleost Immune
      System.
AB  - Commensal microorganisms inhabit every mucosal surface of teleost fish. At these
      surfaces, microorganisms directly and indirectly shape the teleost immune system.
      This review provides a comprehensive overview of how the microbiota and
      microbiota-derived products influence both the mucosal and systemic immune system
      of fish. The cross talk between the microbiota and the teleost immune system
      shifts significantly under stress or disease scenarios rendering commensals into
      opportunists or pathogens. Lessons learnt from germ-free fish models as well as
      from oral administration of live probiotics to fish highlight the vast impact
      that microbiota have on immune development, antibody production, mucosal
      homeostasis, and resistance to stress. Future studies should dissect the specific
      mechanisms by which different members of the fish microbiota and the metabolites
      they produce interact with pathogens, with other commensals, and with the teleost
      immune system.

PMID- 28555140
TI  - Tripartite Motif-Containing Protein 22 Interacts with Class II Transactivator and
      Orchestrates Its Recruitment in Nuclear Bodies Containing TRIM19/PML and Cyclin
      T1.
AB  - Among interferon (IFN) inducible antiviral factors both tripartite motif
      containing protein 22 (TRIM22) and class II transactivator (CIITA) share the
      capacity of repressing human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proviral
      transcription. TRIM22 is constitutively expressed in a subset of U937 cell clones
      poorly permissive to HIV-1 replication, whereas CIITA has been shown to inhibit
      virus multiplication in both T lymphocytic and myeloid cells, including poorly
      HIV-1 permissive U937 cells, by suppressing Tat-mediated transactivation of HIV-1
      transcription. Therefore, we tested whether TRIM22 and CIITA could form a nuclear
      complex potentially endowed with HIV-1 repressive functions. Indeed, we observed
      that TRIM22, independent of its E3 ubiquitin ligase domain, interacts with CIITA
      and promotes its recruitment into nuclear bodies. Importantly,
      TRIM19/promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein, another repressor of HIV-1
      transcription also acting before proviral integration, colocalize in these
      nuclear bodies upon TRIM22 expression induced by IFN-gamma. Finally, tTRIM22
      nuclear bodies also contained CyclinT1, a crucial elongation factor of HIV-1
      primary transcripts. These findings show that TRIM22 nuclear bodies are a site of
      recruitment of factors crucial for the regulation of HIV-1 transcription and
      highlight the potential existence of a concerted action between TRIM22, CIITA,
      and TRIM19/PML to maintain a state of proviral latency, at least in myeloid
      cells.

PMID- 28555139
TI  - Escherichia coli Heat-Labile Enterotoxin B Limits T Cells Activation by Promoting
      Immature Dendritic Cells and Enhancing Regulatory T Cell Function.
AB  - Treatments to limit T cell activation are essential for managing autoimmune and
      inflammatory disorders. The B subunit of Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin
      (EtxB) is known to ameliorate inflammatory disease in vivo but the mechanism by
      which this is mediated is not well understood. Here, we show that following
      intranasal administration, EtxB acts on two key cellular regulators of T cell
      activation: regulatory T cells and dendritic cells (DCs). EtxB enhances the
      proliferation of lung regulatory T cells and doubles their suppressive function,
      likely through an increase in expression of the Treg effector molecule CTLA-4.
      EtxB supports the generation of interleukin-10-producing DCs that are unable to
      activate T cells. These data show, for the first time, that mucosal EtxB
      treatment limits T cells activation by acting jointly on two distinct types of
      immune cells.

PMID- 28555141
TI  - Characterization of Insect Resistance Loci in the USDA Soybean Germplasm
      Collection Using Genome-Wide Association Studies.
AB  - Management of insects that cause economic damage to yields of soybean mainly rely
      on insecticide applications. Sources of resistance in soybean plant introductions
      (PIs) to different insect pests have been reported, and some of these sources,
      like for the soybean aphid (SBA), have been used to develop resistant soybean
      cultivars. With the availability of SoySNP50K and the statistical power of genome
      wide association studies, we integrated phenotypic data for beet armyworm,
      Mexican bean beetle (MBB), potato leafhopper (PLH), SBA, soybean looper (SBL),
      velvetbean caterpillar (VBC), and chewing damage caused by unspecified insects
      for a comprehensive understanding of insect resistance in the United States
      Department of Agriculture Soybean Germplasm Collection. We identified significant
      single nucleotide (SNP) polymorphic markers for MBB, PLH, SBL, and VBC, and we
      highlighted several leucine-rich repeat-containing genes and myeloblastosis
      transcription factors within the high linkage disequilibrium region surrounding
      significant SNP markers. Specifically for soybean resistance to PLH, we found the
      PLH locus is close but distinct to a locus for soybean pubescence density on
      chromosome 12. The results provide genetic support that pubescence density may
      not directly link to PLH resistance. This study offers a novel insight of soybean
      resistance to four insect pests and reviews resistance mapping studies for major
      soybean insects.

PMID- 28555142
TI  - Oligodeoxynucleotides Can Transiently Up- and Downregulate CHS Gene Expression in
      Flax by Changing DNA Methylation in a Sequence-Specific Manner.
AB  - Chalcone synthase (CHS) has been recognized as an essential enzyme in the
      phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway. Apart from the leading role in the
      production of phenolic compounds with many valuable biological activities
      beneficial to biomedicine, CHS is well appreciated in science. Genetic
      engineering greatly facilitates expanding knowledge on the function and genetics
      of CHS in plants. The CHS gene is one of the most intensively studied genes in
      flax. In our study, we investigated engineering of the CHS gene through genetic
      and epigenetic approaches. Considering the numerous restrictions concerning the
      application of genetically modified (GM) crops, the main purpose of this research
      was optimization of the plant's modulation via epigenetics. In our study, plants
      modified through two methods were compared: a widely popular agrotransformation
      and a relatively recent oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) strategy. It was recently
      highlighted that the ODN technique can be a rapid and time-serving antecedent in
      quick analysis of gene function before taking vector-mediated transformation. In
      order to understand the molecular background of epigenetic variation in more
      detail and evaluate the use of ODNs as a tool for predictable and stable gene
      engineering, we concentrated on the integration of gene expression and gene-body
      methylation. The treatment of flax with a series of short oligonucleotides
      homologous to a different part of CHS gene isoforms revealed that those directed
      to regulatory gene regions (5'- and 3'-UTR) activated gene expression, directed
      to non-coding region (introns) caused gen activity reduction, while those
      homologous to a coding region may have a variable influence on its activity. Gene
      expression changes were accompanied by changes in its methylation status.
      However, only certain (CCGG) motifs along the gene sequence were affected. The
      analyzed DNA motifs of the CHS flax gene are more accessible for methylation when
      located within a CpG island. The methylation motifs also led to rearrangement of
      the nucleosome location. The obtained results suggest high specificity of ODN
      action and establish a potential valuable alternative for improvement of crops.

PMID- 28555143
TI  - Global Transcriptome Analysis of Combined Abiotic Stress Signaling Genes Unravels
      Key Players in Oryza sativa L.: An In silico Approach.
AB  - Combined abiotic stress (CAbS) affects the field grown plants simultaneously. The
      multigenic and quantitative nature of uncontrollable abiotic stresses complicates
      the process of understanding the stress response by plants. Considering this, we
      analyzed the CAbS response of C3 model plant, Oryza sativa by meta-analysis. The
      datasets of commonly expressed genes by drought, salinity, submergence, metal,
      natural expression, biotic, and abiotic stresses were data mined through
      publically accessible transcriptomic abiotic stress (AbS) responsive datasets. Of
      which 1,175, 12,821, and 42,877 genes were commonly expressed in meta
      differential, individual differential, and unchanged expressions respectively.
      Highly regulated 100 differentially expressed AbS genes were derived through
      integrative meta-analysis of expression data (INMEX). Of this 30 genes were
      identified from AbS gene families through expression atlas that were
      computationally analyzed for their physicochemical properties. All AbS genes were
      physically mapped against O. sativa genome. Comparative mapping of these genes
      demonstrated the orthologous relationship with related C4 panicoid genome. In
      silico expression analysis of these genes showed differential expression patterns
      in different developmental tissues. Protein-protein interaction of these genes,
      represented the complexity of AbS. Computational expression profiling of
      candidate genes in response to multiple stresses suggested the putative
      involvement of OS05G0350900, OS02G0612700, OS05G0104200, OS03G0596200,
      OS12G0225900, OS07G0152000, OS08G0119500, OS06G0594700, and Os01g0393100 in CAbS.
      These potential candidate genes need to be studied further to decipher their
      functional roles in AbS dynamics.

PMID- 28555144
TI  - Uptake of Silicon by Sugarcane from Applied Sources May Not Reflect Plant
      Available Soil Silicon and Total Silicon Content of Sources.
AB  - Soils of the tropics and sub-tropics are typically acid and depleted of soluble
      sources of silicon (Si) due to weathering and leaching associated with high
      rainfall and temperatures. Together with intensive cropping, this leads to
      marginal or deficient plant Si levels in Si-accumulating crops such as rice and
      sugarcane. Although such deficiencies can be corrected with exogenous application
      of Si sources, there is controversy over the effectiveness of sources in relation
      to their total Si content, and their capacity to raise soil and plant Si
      concentrations. This study tested the hypothesis that the total Si content and
      provision of plant-available Si from six sources directly affects subsequent
      plant Si uptake as reflected in leaf Si concentration. Two trials with potted
      cane plants were established with the following Si sources as treatments: calcium
      silicate slag, fused magnesium (thermo) phosphate, volcanic rock dust, magnesium
      silicate, and granular potassium silicate. Silicon sources were applied at rates
      intended to achieve equivalent elemental soil Si concentrations; controls were
      untreated or lime-treated. Analyses were conducted to determine soil and leaf
      elemental concentrations. Among the sources, calcium silicate produced the
      highest leaf Si concentrations, yet lower plant-available soil Si concentrations
      than the thermophosphate. The latter, with slightly higher total Si than the
      slag, produced substantially greater increases in soil Si than all other
      products, yet did not significantly raise leaf Si above the controls. All other
      sources did not significantly increase soil or leaf Si concentrations, despite
      their high Si content. Hence, the total Si content of sources does not
      necessarily concur with a product's provision of soluble soil Si and subsequent
      plant uptake. Furthermore, even where soil pH was raised, plant uptake from
      thermophosphate was well below expectation, possibly due to its limited liming
      capacity. The ability of the calcium silicate to provide Si while simultaneously
      and significantly increasing soil pH, and thereby reducing reaction of Si with
      exchangeable Al3+, is proposed as a potential explanation for the greater Si
      uptake into the shoot from this source.

PMID- 28555145
TI  - RNA-Seq Analysis of Diverse Rice Genotypes to Identify the Genes Controlling
      Coleoptile Growth during Submerged Germination.
AB  - The rate of coleoptile elongation varies between different rice varieties that
      are grown under water during the germination stage. Compared to sensitive
      varieties, submergence-tolerant rice exhibits substantial coleoptile elongation
      in order to uptake oxygen (O2) from the surface and thus have a better chance to
      survive water stress. We conducted RNA-seq analysis in order to investigate 7-day
      old shoot transcriptome dynamics in six rice genotypes that exhibit different
      coleoptile elongation rates under water. This enabled us to identify the genes
      involved in photosynthesis, lipid metabolism, glycolysis, anaerobic fermentation,
      hormone synthesis, cell wall growth and elongation, and to demonstrate that these
      genes are differentially regulated within, and between, genotypes. Further, in
      addition to determining how allelic variation affects anaerobic germination, we
      compared the expression patterns and genomic sequences of six genotypes; this
      enabled us to discover that some genes carry small-to-large deletions in the
      coding region of sensitive varieties. These structural variations may explain the
      absence of transcripts in the dataset, as well as the failure of sensitive
      variety to respond to submergence. On the basis of these results, we hypothesize
      that transcriptional regulation enhances coleoptile elongation. Although this is
      an area for future research, the outcome of this study is expected to facilitate
      rice breeding for direct-seeding.

PMID- 28555146
TI  - Lack of Impacts during Early Establishment Highlights a Short-Term Management
      Window for Minimizing Invasions from Perennial Biomass Crops.
AB  - Managing intentional species introductions requires evaluating potential
      ecological risks. However, it is difficult to weigh costs and benefits when data
      about interactions between novel species and the communities they are introduced
      to are scarce. In anticipation of expanded cultivation of perennial biomass
      crops, we experimentally introduced Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus *
      giganteus (two non-native candidate biomass crops) into two different non-crop
      habitats (old field and flood-plain forest) to evaluate their establishment
      success and impact on ambient local communities. We followed these controlled
      introductions and the composition dynamics of the receiving communities over a 5
      year period. Habitats differed widely in adult Miscanthus survival and
      reproduction potential between species, although seed persistence and seedling
      emergence were similar in the two biomass crops in both habitats. Few
      introductions survived in the floodplain forest habitat, and this mortality
      precluded analyses of their potential impacts there. In old field habitats,
      proportional survival ranged from 0.3 to 0.4, and plant survival and growth
      increased with age. However, there was no evidence of biomass crop species
      effects on community richness or evenness or strong impacts on the resident old
      field constituents across 5 years. These results suggest that Miscanthus species
      could establish outside of cultivated fields, but there will likely be a lag in
      any impacts on the receiving communities. Local North American invasions by M.
      sinensis and M. sacchariflorus display the potential for Miscanthus species to
      develop aggressively expanding populations. However, the weak short-term
      community-level impacts demonstrated in the current study indicate a clear
      management window in which eradicating species footholds is easily achieved, if
      they can be detected early enough. Diligent long-term monitoring, detection, and
      eradication plans are needed to successfully minimize harmful invasions from
      these biomass crops.

PMID- 28555147
TI  - Contemporary Remotely Sensed Data Products Refine Invasive Plants Risk Mapping in
      Data Poor Regions.
AB  - Invasive weeds are a serious problem worldwide, threatening biodiversity and
      damaging economies. Modeling potential distributions of invasive weeds can
      prioritize locations for monitoring and control efforts, increasing management
      efficiency. Forecasts of invasion risk at regional to continental scales are
      enabled by readily available downscaled climate surfaces together with an
      increasing number of digitized and georeferenced species occurrence records and
      species distribution modeling techniques. However, predictions at a finer scale
      and in landscapes with less topographic variation may require predictors that
      capture biotic processes and local abiotic conditions. Contemporary remote
      sensing (RS) data can enhance predictions by providing a range of spatial
      environmental data products at fine scale beyond climatic variables only. In this
      study, we used the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and empirical
      maximum entropy (MaxEnt) models to model the potential distributions of 14
      invasive plant species across Southeast Asia (SEA), selected from regional and
      Vietnam's lists of priority weeds. Spatial environmental variables used to map
      invasion risk included bioclimatic layers and recent representations of global
      land cover, vegetation productivity (GPP), and soil properties developed from
      Earth observation data. Results showed that combining climate and RS data reduced
      predicted areas of suitable habitat compared with models using climate or RS data
      only, with no loss in model accuracy. However, contributions of RS variables were
      relatively limited, in part due to uncertainties in the land cover data. We
      strongly encourage greater adoption of quantitative remotely sensed estimates of
      ecosystem structure and function for habitat suitability modeling. Through
      comprehensive maps of overall predicted area and diversity of invasive species,
      we found that among lifeforms (herb, shrub, and vine), shrub species have higher
      potential invasion risk in SEA. Native invasive species, which are often
      overlooked in weed risk assessment, may be as serious a problem as non-native
      invasive species. Awareness of invasive weeds and their environmental impacts is
      still nascent in SEA and information is scarce. Freely available global spatial
      datasets, not least those provided by Earth observation programs, and the results
      of studies such as this one provide critical information that enables strategic
      management of environmental threats such as invasive species.

PMID- 28555148
TI  - Genome Wide Identification of Orthologous ZIP Genes Associated with Zinc and Iron
      Translocation in Setaria italica.
AB  - Genes in the ZIP family encode transcripts to store and transport bivalent metal
      micronutrient, particularly iron (Fe) and or zinc (Zn). These transcripts are
      important for a variety of functions involved in the developmental and
      physiological processes in many plant species, including most, if not all,
      Poaceae plant species and the model species Arabidopsis. Here, we present the
      report of a genome wide investigation of orthologous ZIP genes in Setaria italica
      and the identification of 7 single copy genes. RT-PCR shows 4 of them could be
      used to increase the bio-availability of zinc and iron content in grains. Of 36
      ZIP members, 25 genes have traces of signal peptide based sub-cellular
      localization, as compared to those of plant species studied previously, yet
      translocation of ions remains unclear. In silico analysis of gene structure and
      protein nature suggests that these two were preeminent in shaping the functional
      diversity of the ZIP gene family in S. italica. NAC, bZIP and bHLH are the
      predominant Fe and Zn responsive transcription factors present in SiZIP genes.
      Together, our results provide new insights into the signal peptide
      based/independent iron and zinc translocation in the plant system and allowed
      identification of ZIP genes that may be involved in the zinc and iron absorption
      from the soil, and thus transporting it to the cereal grain underlying high
      micronutrient accumulation.

PMID- 28555149
TI  - Comparative Transcriptomics Reveals Differential Gene Expression Related to
      Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Resistance in the Octoploid Strawberry.
AB  - The strawberry is an important fruit worldwide; however, the development of the
      strawberry industry is limited by fungal disease. Anthracnose is caused by the
      pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and leads to large-scale losses in
      strawberry quality and production. However, the transcriptional response of
      strawberry to infection with C. gloeosporioides is poorly understood. In the
      present study, the strawberry leaf transcriptome of the 'Yanli' and 'Benihoppe'
      cultivars were deep sequenced via an RNA-seq analysis to study C. gloeosporioides
      resistance in strawberry. Among the sequences, differentially expressed genes
      were annotated with Gene Ontology terms and subjected to pathway enrichment
      analysis. Significant categories included defense, plant-pathogen interactions
      and flavonoid biosynthesis were identified. The comprehensive transcriptome data
      set provides molecular insight into C. gloeosporioides resistance genes in
      resistant and susceptible strawberry cultivars. Our findings can enhance breeding
      efforts in strawberry.

PMID- 28555150
TI  - Crops In Silico: Generating Virtual Crops Using an Integrative and Multi-scale
      Modeling Platform.
AB  - Multi-scale models can facilitate whole plant simulations by linking gene
      networks, protein synthesis, metabolic pathways, physiology, and growth. Whole
      plant models can be further integrated with ecosystem, weather, and climate
      models to predict how various interactions respond to environmental
      perturbations. These models have the potential to fill in missing mechanistic
      details and generate new hypotheses to prioritize directed engineering efforts.
      Outcomes will potentially accelerate improvement of crop yield, sustainability,
      and increase future food security. It is time for a paradigm shift in plant
      modeling, from largely isolated efforts to a connected community that takes
      advantage of advances in high performance computing and mechanistic understanding
      of plant processes. Tools for guiding future crop breeding and engineering,
      understanding the implications of discoveries at the molecular level for whole
      plant behavior, and improved prediction of plant and ecosystem responses to the
      environment are urgently needed. The purpose of this perspective is to introduce
      Crops in silico (cropsinsilico.org), an integrative and multi-scale modeling
      platform, as one solution that combines isolated modeling efforts toward the
      generation of virtual crops, which is open and accessible to the entire plant
      biology community. The major challenges involved both in the development and
      deployment of a shared, multi-scale modeling platform, which are summarized in
      this prospectus, were recently identified during the first Crops in silico
      Symposium and Workshop.

PMID- 28555151
TI  - Molecular Cytogenetic Characterization of two Triticum-Secale-Thinopyrum
      Trigeneric Hybrids Exhibiting Superior Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight, Leaf
      Rust, and Stem Rust Race Ug99.
AB  - Fusarium head blight (FHB), leaf rust, and stem rust are the most destructive
      fungal diseases in current world wheat production. The diploid wheatgrass,
      Thinopyrum elongatum (Host) Dewey (2n = 2x = 14, EE) is an excellent source of
      disease resistance genes. Two new Triticum-Secale-Thinopyrum trigeneric hybrids
      were derived from a cross between a hexaploid triticale (X Triticosecale
      Wittmack, 2n = 6x = 42, AABBRR) and a hexaploid Triticum trititrigia (2n = 6x =
      42, AABBEE), were produced and analyzed using genomic in situ hybridization and
      molecular markers. The results indicated that line RE21 contained 14 A
      chromosomes, 14 B-chromosomes, three pairs of R-chromosomes (4R, 6R, and 7R), and
      four pairs of E-chromosomes (1E, 2E, 3E, and 5E) for a total chromosome number of
      2n = 42. Line RE62 contained 14 A-chromosomes, 14 B-chromosomes, six pairs of R
      chromosomes, and one pair of translocation chromosomes between chromosome 5R and
      5E, for a total chromosome number of 2n = 42. At the seedling and adult growth
      stages under greenhouse conditions, line RE21 showed high levels of resistance to
      FHB, leaf rust, and stem rust race Ug99, and line RE62 was highly resistant to
      leaf rust and stem rust race Ug99. These two lines (RE21 and RE62) display
      superior disease resistance characteristics and have the potential to be utilized
      as valuable germplasm sources for future wheat improvement.

PMID- 28555152
TI  - Molecular Cytogenetic Characterization of Novel Wheat-rye T1RS.1BL Translocation
      Lines with High Resistance to Diseases and Great Agronomic Traits.
AB  - Rye has been used worldwide as a source for the genetic improvement of wheat. In
      this study, two stable wheat-rye primary T1RS.1BL translocation lines were
      selected from the progeny of the crossing of the wheat cultivar Mianyang11-1 and
      a Chinese local rye variety, Weining. These two novel translocation lines were
      identified by molecular cytogenetic analysis. PCR results, multi-color
      fluorescence in situ hybridization (MC-FISH), and acid polyacrylamide gel
      electrophoresis (A-PAGE) indicated that both new translocation lines harbor a
      pair of T1RS.1BL translocation chromosomes, and have been named RT828-10 and
      RT828-11, respectively. The cytogenetic results also indicated that the pSc119.2
      signals of 5AL were absent in both lines along with the pSc119.2 signals of 4AL
      of RT828-11. When inoculated with different stripe rust and powdery mildew
      isolates, both lines expressed high resistance to Puccinia striiformis f. sp.
      tritici and Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici pathotypes, which are prevalent in
      China and are virulent on Yr9 and Pm8. The line RT828-11 also exhibited excellent
      agronomic traits in the field. The present study indicates that this rye variety
      may carry untapped variations that could potentially be used for wheat
      improvement.

PMID- 28555153
TI  - Dominant Trees in a Subtropical Forest Respond to Drought Mainly via Adjusting
      Tissue Soluble Sugar and Proline Content.
AB  - It is well-known that drought has considerable effects on plant traits from leaf
      to ecosystem scales; however, little is known about the relative contributions of
      various traits within or between tree species in determining the plant's
      sensitivity or the tolerance to drought under field conditions. We conducted a
      field throughfall exclusion experiment to simulate short-term drought (~67%
      throughfall exclusion during the dry season from October to March) and prolonged
      drought (~67% throughfall exclusion prolonging the dry season from October to
      May) and to understand the effects of drought on two dominant tree species
      (Michelia macclurei and Schima superba) in subtropical forests of southern China.
      The morphological, physiological, and nutritional responses of the two species to
      the two types of drought were determined. There were significantly different
      morphological (leaf max length, max width, leaf mass per area), physiological
      (leaf proline) and nutritional (P, S, N, K, Ca, Mg) responses by M. macclurei and
      S. superba to prolonged drought. Comparison between the drought treatments for
      each species indicated that the trees responded species-specifically to the short
      term and prolonged drought, with S. superba exhibiting larger plasticity and
      higher adaption than M. macclurei. M. macclurei responded more sensitively to
      prolonged drought in terms of morphology, proline content, and nutritional traits
      and to short-term drought with regard to soluble sugars content. The differential
      species-specific responses to drought will allow us to estimate the changes in
      dominant trees in subtropical forests of China that have experienced a decade's
      worth of annual seasonal drought.

PMID- 28555154
TI  - Amyloid beta Modification: A Key to the Sporadic Alzheimer's Disease?

PMID- 28555155
TI  - Review of Factors Related to the Thyroid Cancer Epidemic.
AB  - Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer, of which the incidence has
      dramatically increased worldwide in the past few decades. The reasons for the
      observed rapid increase still are not fully understood, but evidence suggests
      that overdiagnosis, with the advancement in detection methods and screening
      policies, is not the sole driver of the substantial increase of the incidence.
      However, the effect of environmental/lifestyle factors remains speculative other
      than that of radiation exposure at a young age. This review tries to give a
      balanced view of debated factors leading to the thyroid cancer epidemic, to offer
      some alternatives in understanding the controversies, and to suggest potential
      directions in the search of modifiable risk factors to help reduce thyroid
      cancer.

PMID- 28555157
TI  - Accuracy Evaluation of a Stereolithographic Surgical Template for Dental Implant
      Insertion Using 3D Superimposition Protocol.
AB  - THE AIM: of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a stereolithographic
      template, with sleeve structure incorporated into the design, for computer-guided
      dental implant insertion in partially edentulous patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Sixty-five implants were placed in twenty-five consecutive patients with a
      stereolithographic surgical template. After surgery, digital impression was taken
      and 3D inaccuracy of implants position at entry point, apex, and angle deviation
      was measured using an inspection tool software. Mann-Whitney U test was used to
      compare accuracy between maxillary and mandibular surgical guides. A p value <
      .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Mean (and standard deviation) of 3D
      error at the entry point was 0.798 mm (+/-0.52), at the implant apex it was 1.17
      mm (+/-0.63), and mean angular deviation was 2.34 (+/-0.85). A statistically
      significant reduced 3D error was observed at entry point p = .037, at implant
      apex p = .008, and also in angular deviation p = .030 in mandible when comparing
      to maxilla. CONCLUSIONS: The surgical template used has proved high accuracy for
      implant insertion. Within the limitations of the present study, the protocol for
      comparing a digital file (treatment plan) with postinsertion digital impression
      may be considered a useful procedure for assessing surgical template accuracy,
      avoiding radiation exposure, during postoperative CBCT scanning.

PMID- 28555158
TI  - The Nonradiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis, the Radiographic Axial
      Spondyloarthritis, and Ankylosing Spondylitis: The Tangled Skein of Rheumatology.
AB  - Since 1984 the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) has been based upon the
      modified New York (mNY) criteria with mandatory presence of radiographic
      sacroiliitis, without which the diagnosis is not tenable. However, it may take
      years or decades for radiographic sacroiliitis to develop delaying the diagnosis
      for long periods. It did not matter in the past because no effective treatment
      was available. However, with the availability of a highly effective treatment,
      namely, tumour necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors (TNFi), the issue of early
      diagnosis of AS acquired an urgency. The Assessment of SpondyloArthritis
      International Society (ASAS) classification criteria published in 2009 was a
      significant step towards this goal. These criteria described an early stage of
      the disease where sacroiliitis was demonstrable only on MRI but not on standard
      radiograph. Therefore, this stage of the disease was labelled "nonradiographic
      axial SpA" (nr-axSpA). But questions have been raised if, in search of early
      diagnosis, specificity was compromised. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA,
      USA) withheld approval for the use of TNFi in patients with nr-axSpA because of
      issues related to the specificity of these criteria. This review attempts to
      clarify some of these aspects of the nr-axSpA-AS relationship and also tries to
      answer the question whether ASAS classifiable radiographic axial
      spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA) term can be interchangeably used with the term AS.

PMID- 28555159
TI  - Physiological Uterine Involution in Primiparous and Multiparous Women: Ultrasound
      Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the uterine involution period after uncomplicated delivery in
      primiparous and multiparous women. METHODS: Longitudinal prospective study.
      Repeated parameters were measured and endometrial contents and diastolic notch
      were observed. Measurements of primiparous and multiparous women were carried out
      after labour on the 1st, 3rd, 10th, 30th, 42nd, and 60th postpartum days. The
      analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: The median uterus
      parameters are bigger in multiparous group in physiological puerperium, but the
      decreasing trend is the same. The endometrial cavity on the 10th day was
      significantly wider in multiparous women and mainly echo-negative view of the
      uterine cavity was observed. The evaluation of the uterine angle deviation
      changes from an extremely retroverted position to a more anteverted position. RI
      of the uterine artery in both groups was low immediately after labour and
      significantly increased one month postpartum. Notching of the uterine artery
      undergoes changes, but diastolic notch does not appear in all postpartum women
      even after two months following labour. CONCLUSIONS: The puerperium period after
      normal vaginal delivery depends on parity. The trend of involution in primiparous
      and multiparous women follows a similar pattern, yet, it lasts longer in the
      multiparous women. Ultrasound of uterine is certainly a useful tool after labour
      and may be important in facilitating an early detection of postpartum uterine
      complications.

PMID- 28555160
TI  - Boi-ogi-to (TJ-20), a Kampo Formula, Suppresses the Inflammatory Bone Destruction
      and the Expression of Cytokines in the Synovia of Ankle Joints of Adjuvant
      Arthritic Rats.
AB  - TJ-20 is a formula consisting of 6 herbs that has been used in the clinical
      treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China and Japan for centuries. However,
      scientific evidence of the effects of TJ-20 has not been established. In the
      present study, we focused on the therapeutic effects and investigated the main
      function of TJ-20 on adjuvant arthritis (AA), an animal model of RA, which was
      induced with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). TJ-20 was administered orally at
      600 mg/kg once a day from 0, 7, and 10 days to 8 weeks after the CFA treatment.
      TJ-20 significantly ameliorated inflammatory progression and bone destruction in
      AA in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, TJ-20 significantly reduced the
      increased changes in a number of macrophages and helper T cells. Moreover, TJ-20
      suppressed the expression of TNF-alpha whereas it augmented the expression of IL
      10 and attenuated Th1 cells responses in the synovia of the ankle joint.
      Therefore, TJ-20 regulated the expression of proinflammatory and anti
      inflammatory cytokines in macrophages and Th1/Th2 balance in the synovia of ankle
      joints in AA rats. These results suggest the positive anti-inflammatory effect of
      TJ-20 and provide a scientific basis for the clinical use of TJ-20 for RA.

PMID- 28555161
TI  - A Systems Dynamic Model for Drug Abuse and Drug-Related Crime in the Western Cape
      Province of South Africa.
AB  - The complex problem of drug abuse and drug-related crimes in communities in the
      Western Cape province cannot be studied in isolation but through the system they
      are embedded in. In this paper, a theoretical model to evaluate the syndemic of
      substance abuse and drug-related crimes within the Western Cape province of South
      Africa is constructed and explored. The dynamics of drug abuse and drug-related
      crimes within the Western Cape are simulated using STELLA software. The
      simulation results are consistent with the data from SACENDU and CrimeStats SA,
      highlighting the usefulness of such a model in designing and planning
      interventions to combat substance abuse and its related problems.

PMID- 28555156
TI  - Improving In Vivo Efficacy of Bioactive Molecules: An Overview of Potentially
      Antitumor Phytochemicals and Currently Available Lipid-Based Delivery Systems.
AB  - Cancer is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Many of
      the chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment exhibit cell toxicity and
      display teratogenic effect on nontumor cells. Therefore, the search for
      alternative compounds which are effective against tumor cells but reduce toxicity
      against nontumor ones is of great importance in the progress or development of
      cancer treatments. In this sense, scientific knowledge about relevant aspects of
      nutrition intimately involved in the development and progression of cancer
      progresses rapidly. Phytochemicals, considered as bioactive ingredients present
      in plant products, have shown promising effects as potential
      therapeutic/preventive agents on cancer in several in vitro and in vivo assays.
      However, despite their bioactive properties, phytochemicals are still not
      commonly used in clinical practice due to several reasons, mainly attributed to
      their poor bioavailability. In this sense, new formulation strategies are
      proposed as carriers to improve their bioefficacy, highlighting the use of lipid
      based delivery systems. Here, we review the potential antitumoral activity of the
      bioactive compounds derived from plants and the current studies carried out in
      animal and human models. Furthermore, their association with lipids as a
      formulation strategy to enhance their efficacy in vivo is also reported. The
      development of high effective bioactive supplements for cancer treatment based on
      the improvement of their bioavailability goes through this association.

PMID- 28555162
TI  - Red Yeast Rice Protects Circulating Bone Marrow-Derived Proangiogenic Cells
      against High-Glucose-Induced Senescence and Oxidative Stress: The Role of Heme
      Oxygenase-1.
AB  - The inflammation and oxidative stress of bone marrow-derived proangiogenic cells
      (PACs), also named endothelial progenitor cells, triggered by hyperglycemia
      contributes significantly to vascular dysfunction. There is supporting evidence
      that the consumption of red yeast rice (RYR; Monascus purpureus-fermented rice)
      reduces the vascular complications of diabetes; however, the underlying mechanism
      remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of RYR extract in
      PACs, focusing particularly on the role of a potent antioxidative enzyme, heme
      oxygenase-1 (HO-1). We found that treatment with RYR extract induced nuclear
      factor erythroid-2-related factor nuclear translocation and HO-1 mRNA and protein
      levels in PACs. RYR extract inhibited high-glucose-induced (30 mM) PAC senescence
      and the development of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a dose-dependent manner.
      The HO-1 inducer cobalt protoporphyrin IX also decreased high-glucose-induced
      cell senescence and oxidative stress, whereas the HO-1 enzyme inhibitor zinc
      protoporphyrin IX and HO-1 small interfering RNA significantly reversed RYR
      extract-caused inhibition of senescence and reduction of oxidative stress in high
      glucose-treated PACs. These results suggest that RYR extract serves as
      alternative and complementary medicine in the treatment of these diseases, by
      inducing HO-1, thereby decreasing the vascular complications of diabetes.

PMID- 28555163
TI  - Spontaneous Production of Glutathione-Conjugated Forms of 1,2-Dichloropropane:
      Comparative Study on Metabolic Activation Processes of Dihaloalkanes Associated
      with Occupational Cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - Recently, epidemiological studies revealed a positive relationship between an
      outbreak of occupational cholangiocarcinoma and exposure to organic solvents
      containing 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2-DCP). In 1,2-DCP-administered animal models,
      we previously found biliary excretion of potentially oncogenic metabolites
      consisting of glutathione- (GSH-) conjugated forms of 1,2-DCP (GS-DCPs); however,
      the GS-DCP production pathway remains unknown. To enhance the understanding of
      1,2-DCP-related risks to human health, we examined the reactivity of GSH with 1,2
      DCP in vitro and compared it to that with dichloromethane (DCM), the other
      putative substance responsible for occupational cholangiocarcinoma. Our results
      showed that 1,2-DCP was spontaneously conjugated with GSH, whereas this
      spontaneous reaction was hardly detected between DCM and GSH. Further analysis
      revealed that glutathione S-transferase theta 1 (GSTT1) exhibited less effect on
      the 1,2-DCP reaction as compared with that observed for DCM. Although GSTT1
      mediated bioactivation of dihaloalkanes could be a plausible explanation for the
      production of reactive metabolites related to carcinogenesis based on previous
      studies, this catalytic pathway might not mainly contribute to 1,2-DCP-related
      occupational cholangiocarcinoma. Considering the higher catalytic activity of
      GSTT1 on DCM as compared with that on 1,2-DCP, our findings suggested differences
      in the activation processes associated with 1,2-DCP and DCM metabolism.

PMID- 28555164
TI  - Brain Multimodality Monitoring: A New Tool in Neurocritical Care of Comatose
      Patients.
AB  - Neurocritical care patients are at risk of developing secondary brain injury from
      inflammation, ischemia, and edema that follows the primary insult. Recognizing
      clinical deterioration due to secondary injury is frequently challenging in
      comatose patients. Multimodality monitoring (MMM) encompasses various tools to
      monitor cerebral metabolism, perfusion, and oxygenation aimed at detecting these
      changes to help modify therapies before irreversible injury sets in. These tools
      include intracranial pressure (ICP) monitors, transcranial Doppler (TCD),
      HemedexTM (thermal diffusion probe used to measure regional cerebral blood flow),
      microdialysis catheter (used to measure cerebral metabolism), LicoxTM (probe used
      to measure regional brain tissue oxygen tension), and continuous
      electroencephalography. Although further research is needed to demonstrate their
      impact on improving clinical outcomes, their contribution to illuminate the black
      box of the brain in comatose patients is indisputable. In this review, we further
      elaborate on commonly used MMM parameters, tools used to measure them, and the
      indications for monitoring per current consensus guidelines.

PMID- 28555165
TI  - Tissue Hypoperfusion, Hypercoagulopathy, and Kidney and Liver Dysfunction after
      Ingestion of a Naphazoline-Containing Antiseptic.
AB  - Naphazoline is a peripheral alpha2-adrenergic receptor agonist commonly used as a
      topical decongestant. In Japan, over-the-counter antiseptics often contain
      naphazoline to effect local hemostasis. We present the first case involving the
      development of hypercoagulopathy, with kidney and liver dysfunction, following a
      naphazoline overdose. A 22-year-old Japanese woman with a history of depression
      ingested 160 mL of a commercially available antiseptic containing 0.1%
      naphazoline. Three days later, she was brought to the emergency department
      because of general fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. Physical examination revealed
      cool, pale extremities. Laboratory data showed evidence of severe kidney and
      liver dysfunction (creatinine, 9.2 mg/dL; alanine aminotransferase, 2948 IU/L),
      hypercoagulation (D-dimers, 58.3 MUg/mL), and thrombocytopenia (platelet count,
      90,000/MUL). After infusion of normal saline, intravenous administration of
      alprostadil, and hemodiafiltration, her organ function completely recovered.
      Because both the kidney and liver express alpha2-adrenergic receptors, their
      failure was likely associated with naphazoline overdose-induced hypoperfusion.
      The most plausible causes of hypercoagulation are peripheral low perfusion and
      subsequent microthrombus formation. This case illustrates that severe organ
      dysfunction can occur following over-the-counter antiseptic ingestion and serves
      as a caution for both drug manufacturers and healthcare professionals.

PMID- 28555166
TI  - Is It Necessary to Specifically Define the Cause of Surgically Treated Biliary
      Tract Infections? A Rare Case of Raoultella planticola Cholecystitis and
      Literature Review.
AB  - Raoultella planticola is an aquatic and soil organism that does not notoriously
      cause invasive infections in humans. Infections in the literature are limited
      only in case reports. We present a very rare case of R. planticola cholecystitis.
      A 71-year-old female patient with abdominal pain was diagnosed with acute
      cholecystitis. Patient received intravenous antibiotic treatment, but the
      treatment failed and the patient underwent an open cholecystectomy. The final
      pathological result was gangrenous cholecystitis complicated with R. planticola.
      Eventually, the patient recovered with appropriate antimicrobial therapy.
      Patients with acute cholecystitis are usually treated without any microbiological
      sampling and antibiotic treatment is started empirically. To date, there have
      only been 5 reported biliary system related R. planticola infections in humans.
      We believe that Raoultella species might be a more frequent agent than usually
      thought, especially in resistant cholecystitis cases. Resistant strains should be
      considered as a possible causative organism when the patient's condition worsened
      despite proper antimicrobial therapy. It should be considered safe to send
      microbiological samples for culture and specifically define the causative
      microorganisms even in the setting of a cholecystectomized patient.

PMID- 28555167
TI  - Impaired Emotion Recognition after Left Hemispheric Stroke: A Case Report and
      Brief Review of the Literature.
AB  - Impaired recognition of emotion after stroke can have important implications for
      social competency, social participation, and consequently quality of life. We
      describe a case of left hemispheric ischemic stroke with impaired recognition of
      specifically faces expressing fear. Three months later, the patient's spouse
      reports that the patient was irritable and slow in communication, which may be
      caused by the impaired emotion recognition. The case is discussed in relation to
      the literature concerning emotion recognition and its neural correlates. Our case
      supports the notion that emotion recognition, including fear recognition, is
      regulated by a network of interconnected brain regions located in both
      hemispheres. We conclude that impaired emotion recognition is not uncommon after
      stroke and can be caused by dysfunction of this emotion-network.

PMID- 28555168
TI  - A Case of Sevoflurane Use during Pregnancy in the Management of Persistent Status
      Asthmaticus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sevoflurane is rarely used for the treatment of status asthmaticus.
      We report a case of sevoflurane hepatotoxicity in pregnancy with presentation
      similar to HELLP syndrome. CASE: A G2P1001 at 23 weeks in status asthmaticus
      presented with pCO2 > 130 and pH < 7. She was nonresponsive to traditional
      therapy. Sevoflurane was added for a 24 hr period. Respiratory status improved.
      Extubation occurred on day 12. Workup for preeclampsia spectrum disorders
      occurred due to maternal hypertension. Given the atypical presentation and
      hepatotoxicity, a liver biopsy was performed. Histologic features suggested drug
      induced hepatic injury. Liver function subsequently normalized. She delivered a
      term neonate without short-term complications. CONCLUSION: The use of sevoflurane
      is a treatment option of status asthmaticus during pregnancy. Providers should be
      aware of the potential for hepatotoxicity.

PMID- 28555170
TI  - Chronic Dialysis Dependent Renal Failure Resulting from a Massive Bladder
      Containing Inguinal Hernia.
AB  - Bladder involvement in inguinal hernia is relatively rare, 1-4%, although the
      incidence is increased to 10% with advancing age or obesity. There are several
      previously reported cases presenting with obstructive uropathy and renal failure,
      but all reversed with urinary diversion and hernia repair. We believe this to be
      the first reported case of bladder hernia leading to dialysis dependent chronic
      renal failure.

PMID- 28555169
TI  - Strongyloides Colitis as a Harmful Mimicker of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - Autoinfection caused by Strongyloides stercoralis frequently becomes a life-long
      disease unless it is effectively treated. There is overlapping histomorphology
      between Strongyloides colitis and inflammatory bowel disease; a low index of
      suspicion can lead to misdiagnosis and fatal consequences. We present a case of
      Strongyloides colitis mimicking the clinical and pathologic features of
      inflammatory bowel disease. A 64-year-old female presented to the emergency
      department with a four-day history of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and hematochezia.
      Colonoscopy revealed diffuse inflammation suggestive of inflammatory bowel
      disease, which led to initiation of 5-aminosalicylic acid and intravenous
      methylprednisolone. Biopsies of the colon revealed increased lymphoplasmacytic
      infiltrate of the lamina propria with eosinophilic microabscesses and presence of
      larvae, consistent with Strongyloides stercoralis. Immunosuppressive medication
      was halted. The patient ultimately died a few days later. This case emphasizes
      the importance of identifying the overlapping clinical and pathologic features of
      Strongyloides colitis and inflammatory bowel disease. A high index of suspicion
      and recognition of particular histological findings, including eosinophilic
      microabscesses, aid in the correct diagnosis. Definitive diagnosis is crucial as
      each disease carries distinct therapeutic implications and outcome.

PMID- 28555171
TI  - Perforated Duodenal Diverticulum Treated Conservatively: Another Two Successful
      Cases.
AB  - Diverticula of the duodenum proceed those of the colon in respect to frequency of
      location. Incidence at times of autopsy ranges from 15 to 23%. Despite the fact
      that more than 90% of duodenal diverticulum cases are asymptomatic, complications
      if they do occur can be calamitous. Perforation is one of these rare
      complications. Surgical intervention has always been the mainstay for
      symptomatic/complicated duodenal diverticula, but with the advancement of
      imaging, medical treatment, and proper intensive observation, conservative
      treatment came forth. We hereby present two cases of duodenal diverticula,
      complicated by perforation and fistulization into the retroperitoneal cavity,
      both treated conservatively by Taylor's approach of upper gastrointestinal tract
      perforation. Review of other cases of duodenal diverticulum perforation has also
      been presented.

PMID- 28555172
TI  - Multimodal laser-based angioscopy for structural, chemical and biological imaging
      of atherosclerosis.
AB  - The complex nature of atherosclerosis demands high-resolution approaches to
      identify subtle thrombogenic lesions and define the risk of plaque rupture. Here,
      we report the proof-of-concept use of a multimodal scanning fiber endoscope (SFE)
      consisting of a single optical fiber scanned by a piezoelectric drive that
      illuminates tissue with red, blue, and green laser beams, and digitally
      reconstructs images at 30 Hz with high resolution and large fields-of-view. By
      combining laser-induced reflectance and fluorescence emission of intrinsic
      fluorescent constituents in arterial tissues, the SFE allowed us to co-generate
      endoscopic videos with a label-free biochemical map to derive a morphological and
      spectral classifier capable of discriminating early, intermediate, advanced, and
      complicated atherosclerotic plaques. We demonstrate the capability of scanning
      fiber angioscopy for the molecular imaging of vulnerable atherosclerosis by
      targeting proteolytic activity with a fluorescent probe activated by matrix
      metalloproteinases. We also show that the SFE generates high-quality spectral
      images in vivo in an animal model with medium-sized arteries. Multimodal laser
      based angioscopy could become a platform for the diagnosis, prognosis, and image
      guided therapy of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28555173
TI  - Efficacy and Molecular Mechanisms of Differentiated Response to the Aurora and
      Angiogenic Kinase Inhibitor ENMD-2076 in Preclinical Models of p53-Mutated Triple
      Negative Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype associated with poor
      prognosis and for which there are limited therapeutic options. The purpose of
      this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ENMD-2076 in p53-mutated TNBC patient
      derived xenograft (PDX) models and describe patterns of terminal cell fate in
      models demonstrating sensitivity, intrinsic resistance, and acquired resistance
      to ENMD-2076. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: p53-mutated, TNBC PDX models were treated with
      ENMD-2076 and evaluated for mechanisms of sensitivity or resistance to treatment.
      Correlative tissue testing was performed on tumor tissue to assess for markers of
      proliferation, apoptosis, senescence, and pathways of resistance after treatment
      and at the time of acquired resistance. RESULTS: Sensitivity to ENMD-2076 200
      mg/kg daily was associated with induction of apoptosis while models exhibiting
      intrinsic or acquired resistance to treatment presented with a senescent
      phenotype. Response to ENMD-2076 was accompanied by an increase in p53 and p73
      levels, even within the background of mutant p53. Treatment with ENMD-2076
      resulted in a decrease in pAurA and an increase in pHH3. We observed a TNBC
      subtype switch from the luminal androgen receptor to the basal-like subtype at
      acquired resistance. CONCLUSION: ENMD-2076 has antitumor activity in preclinical
      models of p53-mutated TNBC. Increased levels of p53 and p73 correlated with
      sensitivity whereas senescence was associated with resistance to ENMD-2076. The
      novel finding of a TNBC subtype switch at time of acquired resistance may provide
      mechanistic insights into the biologic effects of selective pressure of
      anticancer treatments on TNBC. ENMD-2076 is currently being evaluated in a Phase
      2 clinical trial in patients with metastatic, previously treated TNBC where these
      biologic correlates can be further explored.

PMID- 28555176
TI  - Editorial: ARDS: Reaching for the Horizon.

PMID- 28555175
TI  - MALDI-TOF MS Profiling-Advances in Species Identification of Pests, Parasites,
      and Vectors.
AB  - Invertebrate pests and parasites of humans, animals, and plants continue to cause
      serious diseases and remain as a high treat to agricultural productivity and
      storage. The rapid and accurate species identification of the pests and parasites
      are needed for understanding epidemiology, monitoring outbreaks, and designing
      control measures. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) profiling has emerged as a rapid, cost effective, and
      high throughput technique of microbial species identification in modern
      diagnostic laboratories. The development of soft ionization techniques and the
      release of commercial pattern matching software platforms has resulted in the
      exponential growth of applications in higher organisms including parasitology.
      The present review discusses the proof-of-principle experiments and various
      methods of MALDI MS profiling in rapid species identification of both laboratory
      and field isolates of pests, parasites and vectors.

PMID- 28555174
TI  - The ATP-Dependent Protease ClpP Inhibits Biofilm Formation by Regulating Agr and
      Cell Wall Hydrolase Sle1 in Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Biofilm causes hospital-associated infections on indwelling medical devices. In
      Staphylococcus aureus, Biofilm formation is controlled by intricately coordinated
      network of regulating systems, of which the ATP-dependent protease ClpP shows an
      inhibitory effect. Here, we demonstrate that the inhibitory effect of ClpP on
      biofilm formation is through Agr and the cell wall hydrolase Sle1. Biofilm formed
      by clpP mutant consists of proteins and extracellular DNA (eDNA). The increase of
      the protein was, at least in part, due to the reduced protease activity of the
      mutant, which was caused by the decreased activity of agr. On the other hand, the
      increase of eDNA was due to increased cell lysis caused by the higher level of
      Sle1. Indeed, as compared with wild type, the clpP mutant excreted an increased
      level of eDNA, and showed higher sensitivity to Triton-induced autolysis. The
      deletion of sle1 in the clpP mutant decreased the biofilm formation, the level of
      eDNA, and the Triton-induced autolysis to wild-type levels. Despite the increased
      biofilm formation capability, however, the clpP mutant showed significantly
      reduced virulence in a murine model of subcutaneous foreign body infection,
      indicating that the increased biofilm formation capability cannot compensate for
      the intrinsic functions of ClpP during infection.

PMID- 28555177
TI  - Changes in Frequency and Activation Status of Major CD4+ T-Cell Subsets after
      Initiation of Immunosuppressive Therapy in a Patient with New Diagnosis Childhood
      Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies suggest that defects of regulatory T-cells (Tregs)
      and impaired cellular immunity are secondary to an imbalance between auto
      aggressive T-cells and Tregs in lupus patients. Discrepancies in Tregs and
      effector T-cells (Teff) in active lupus patients are shown to be restored in
      patients upon receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Therefore, our main aim was to
      observe frequencies of these CD4+ T-cell subsets and Tregs/Teff ratio in a new
      diagnosis of childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematous (cSLE) before and after
      initiation of therapy. In addition, we monitored T-cell exhaustion status by
      examining responses to super-antigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and PD-1
      expression in this patient. METHODS: Phenotyping of CD4+ T-cell subsets was
      carried out under basal conditions and after SEB stimulation using flow cytometry
      in one inactive (I-cSLE) and one active cSLE (A-cSLE) patient, as well as a
      healthy control (HC). The A-cSLE patient was a new diagnosis. Variables were
      measured at three consecutive time points in the active patient, reflecting
      various stages of disease activity. Activation status of CD4+ T-cells in the A
      cSLE patient was compared to that of the I-cSLE patient and HC. Disease activity
      was measured by calculating the systemic lupus erythematous disease activity
      index. RESULTS: We found that the A-cSLE patient was not Tregs deficient. The
      patient had increased frequency of Tregs, and the Tregs/Teff ratio increased when
      the disease activity became less severe. CD4+ T-cells in the I-cSLE patient and
      in the A-cSLE patient with milder disease activity had heightened responsiveness
      to SEB, whereas T-cells were relatively hypo-responsive to SEB in the A-cSLE
      patient when disease activity was higher. The active patient exhibited higher
      frequencies of PD-1+ expressing Tregs, Teff, and Tnaive/mem cells under basal
      conditions compared to the HC and I-cSLE patient. CONCLUSION: In the A-cSLE
      patient, changes in Tregs/Teff ratio correlated better with clinical improvement
      compared to Tregs frequencies alone and might reflect the restoration of immune
      homeostasis with therapy. SEB hypo-responsiveness in the A-cSLE patient when
      disease activity was higher paralleled with findings of greater frequencies of PD
      1+ expressing Tregs, Teff, and Tnaive/mem cells, suggests a possible global
      exhaustion status of CD4+ T-cells in this patient.

PMID- 28555179
TI  - The Management of Cyanotic Spells in Children with Oesophageal Atresia.
AB  - Cyanotic spells, also known as blue spells, dying spells, or apparent life
      threatening events, refer to a bluish tone visible in the mucosal membranes and
      skin caused by an oxygen decrease in the peripheral circulation. Although this
      decrease may be transient and benign, it may also be indicative of a severe
      underlying problem that requires immediate intervention. Children with
      oesophageal atresia (OA) are at risk for a number of coexisting conditions that
      may trigger cyanotic spells. This current article will focus on the management of
      cyanotic spells both in children with innominate artery compression and those
      with tracheomalacia.

PMID- 28555180
TI  - Risk Factors for Neurocognitive Functioning in Children with Autosomal Recessive
      Polycystic Kidney Disease.
AB  - This mini review provides an overview of the issues and challenges inherent in
      autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), with a particular focus on
      the neurological factors and neurocognitive functioning of this population. ARPKD
      typically is discovered at the end of pregnancy or during the neonatal
      developmental period and occurs in approximately 1 in 20,000 live births. During
      the neonatal period, there is a relatively high risk of death, with many infants
      dying from respiratory failure. As the child ages, they experience progressive
      kidney disease and become increasingly vulnerable to liver disease, with many
      individuals eventually requiring dual organ transplants. This mini review
      provides a brief description of ARPKD and describes the various factors that
      place children with ARPKD at risk for neurological and neuropsychological
      impairment (e.g., a genetic condition leading to chronic kidney disease and
      eventual transplant; difficult-to-treat hypertension; eventual liver disease;
      possible dual transplantation of the kidneys and liver; chronic lung disease),
      including that these factors are present during a critical period of brain
      development. Further, the mini review discusses the available studies that have
      addressed the neurocognitive functioning in children with ARPKD. This paper
      concludes by providing the key clinical and research challenges that face the
      field of pediatric nephrology with respect to the clinical and scientific study
      of the neurocognitive functioning of children with ARPKD. Selected directions are
      offered in both the clinical and research arenas for this multiorgan chronic
      condition.

PMID- 28555178
TI  - Central Nervous System Complications in Children Receiving Chemotherapy or
      Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
AB  - Therapy-related neurotoxicity greatly affects possibility of survival and quality
      of life of pediatric patients treated for cancer. Central nervous system (CNS)
      involvement is heterogeneous, varying from very mild and transient symptoms to
      extremely severe and debilitating, or even lethal syndromes. In this review, we
      will discuss the broad scenario of CNS complications and toxicities occurring
      during the treatment of pediatric patients receiving both chemotherapies and
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Different types of complications are
      reviewed ranging from therapy related to cerebrovascular with a specific focus on
      neuroradiologic and clinical features.

PMID- 28555181
TI  - Fundoplication in Patients with Esophageal Atresia: Patient Selection,
      Indications, and Outcomes.
AB  - Patients with esophageal atresia (EA) suffer from abnormal and permanent
      esophageal intrinsic and extrinsic innervation that affects severely esophageal
      motility. The repair of EA also results in esophageal shortening that affects
      distal esophageal sphincter mechanism. Consequently, gastroesophageal reflux
      (GER) is common in these patients, overall approximately half of them suffer from
      symptomatic reflux. GER in EA patients often resists medical therapy and anti
      reflux surgery in the form of fundoplication is required. In patients with pure
      and long gap EA, the barrier mechanisms against reflux are even more damaged,
      therefore, most of these patients undergo fundoplication during first year of
      life. Other indications for anti-reflux surgery include recalcitrant anastomotic
      stenoses and apparent life-threatening episodes. In short term, fundoplication
      alleviates symptoms in most patients but recurrences are common occurring in at
      least one third of the patients. Patients with fundoplication wrap failure often
      require redo surgery, which may be complicated and associated with significant
      morbidity. A safe option in a subset of patients with failed anti-reflux surgery
      appears to be long-term medical treatment with proton pump inhibitors.

PMID- 28555182
TI  - Improving Neonatal Care with Technology.

PMID- 28555183
TI  - The Road to Dog Rabies Control and Elimination-What Keeps Us from Moving Faster?
AB  - Rabies, a vaccine preventable neglected tropical disease, still claims an
      estimated 35,000-60,000 human lives annually. The international community, with
      more than 100 endemic countries, has set a global target of 0 human deaths from
      dog-transmitted rabies by 2030. While it has been proven in several countries and
      regions that elimination of rabies as a public health problem is feasible and
      tools are available, rabies deaths globally have not yet been prevented
      effectively. While there has been extensive rabies research, specific areas of
      implementation for control and elimination have not been sufficiently addressed.
      This article highlights some of the commonest perceived barriers for countries to
      implementing rabies control and elimination programs and discusses possible
      solutions for sociopolitical, organizational, technical, and resource-linked
      requirements, following the pillars of the global framework for the elimination
      of dog-mediated human rabies adopted at the global rabies meeting in December
      2015.

PMID- 28555184
TI  - Exploring Community Stakeholders' Perceptions of the Enhancing Family Well-being
      Project in Hong Kong: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community engagement is a powerful tool in bringing about positive
      social and community change. Community stakeholders possess critical experience
      and knowledge that are needed to inform the development of community-based
      projects. However, limited literature is available on the practical experience
      involved with planning and implementing community-based family programs. Even
      less has been published documenting efforts in Chinese communities. This paper
      explores community stakeholders' experiences with the enhancing family well-being
      project-part of a citywide project entitled the "FAMILY Project," aimed at
      promoting family health, happiness, and harmony in Hong Kong. METHODS: This
      qualitative evaluation examined the perspectives of community stakeholders. Four
      focus groups with social workers (n = 24) and six in-depth interviews with
      steering committee members were conducted from December 2012 to May 2013 in Hong
      Kong. Focus groups and in-depths interview were audiotaped, transcribed, and
      analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. RESULTS: Rich accounts were given by
      our respondents on various aspects of the project. Main themes and subthemes were
      identified and grouped into four categories (project conception, project
      implementation, project consolidation, and the overall impact of the project).
      Respondents described the practical challenges associated with the project (e.g.,
      recruitment, balancing scientific research, and lack of resources) and identified
      the elements that are important to the success of the project. These included the
      commitment to a shared goal, multi-agency collaboration, and a platform for
      knowledge exchange. Finally, respondents perceived benefits of the project at
      both the individual and community level. CONCLUSION: Our project sheds light on
      many of the practical considerations and challenges associated with a designing
      and implementing a community-based family intervention project. Community
      stakeholders input provided important information on their perceived benefits and
      barriers and can inform and improve future development of community-based family
      intervention programs.

PMID- 28555185
TI  - Molecular Determinants of Cephalopod Muscles and Their Implication in Muscle
      Regeneration.
AB  - The ability to regenerate whole-body structures has been studied for many decades
      and is of particular interest for stem cell research due to its therapeutic
      potential. Several vertebrate and invertebrate species have been used as model
      systems to study pathways involved in regeneration in the past. Among
      invertebrates, cephalopods are considered as highly evolved organisms, which
      exhibit elaborate behavioral characteristics when compared to other mollusks
      including active predation, extraordinary manipulation, and learning abilities.
      These are enabled by a complex nervous system and a number of adaptations of
      their body plan, which were acquired over evolutionary time. Some of these novel
      features show similarities to structures present in vertebrates and seem to have
      evolved through a convergent evolutionary process. Octopus vulgaris (the common
      octopus) is a representative of modern cephalopods and is characterized by a
      sophisticated motor and sensory system as well as highly developed cognitive
      capabilities. Due to its phylogenetic position and its high regenerative power
      the octopus has become of increasing interest for studies on regenerative
      processes. In this paper we provide an overview over the current knowledge of
      cephalopod muscle types and structures and present a possible link between these
      characteristics and their high regenerative potential. This may help identify
      conserved molecular pathways underlying regeneration in invertebrate and
      vertebrate animal species as well as discover new leads for targeted tissue
      treatments in humans.

PMID- 28555186
TI  - Structural Equation Modeling of the Effects of Family, Preschool, and Stunting on
      the Cognitive Development of School Children.
AB  - A recent study based on a sample of 1,580 children from five adjacent
      geographical locations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was carried out to examine
      the association of nutrition, family influence, preschool education, and
      disadvantages in geographical location with the cognitive development of school
      children. Data were collected on the children from 2009 to 2011 for this
      developmental study and included cognitive scores and information on the health
      and nutrition of the children. The current study analyzed the association of
      demographic variables (geographical location (site)), child variables (sex,
      preschool education and socioeconomic status), parental level of education
      (maternal and paternal), child's health (HIV status and hemoglobin level) and
      anthropometric measures of nutritional status (height-for-age) with children's
      cognitive outcomes. The hypothesis is that the nutritional status of children is
      a pathway through which the indirect effects of the variables of interest exert
      influence on their cognitive outcomes. Factor analysis based on principal
      components was used to create a variable based on the cognitive measures,
      correlations were used to examine the bivariate association between the variables
      of interest in the preliminary analysis and a path analysis was constructed,
      which was used for the disaggregation of the direct and indirect effects of the
      predictors for each cognitive test in a structural equation model. The results
      revealed that nutritional status directly predicts cognitive test scores and is a
      path through which other variables indirectly influence children's cognitive
      outcome and development.

PMID- 28555187
TI  - Why Do Parotid Pleomorphic Adenomas Recur? A Systematic Review of Pathological
      and Surgical Variables.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The recurrence of pleomorphic adenoma (PA) has been extensively
      debated, mostly in relation to the extent of parotidectomy. METHODS: A systematic
      review was undertaken to clarify the surgical and pathological variables related
      to PA recurrence. Inclusion criteria were as follows: English literature, and
      prospective or retrospective studies. Exclusion criteria were as follows: single
      case reports, reviews, and lack of PA recurrence data. RESULTS: Pathology-related
      variables associated with recurrence include the histological subtype, the
      thickness and incompleteness of the tumor capsule, pseudopodia, and satellite
      nodules. Surgery-related variables associated with recurrence are the presence of
      intact margins and tumor puncture or spillage. Other factors are the size of the
      tumor and the age of patient. Myxoid subtypes of PA tend to have incomplete and
      thinner capsules and to recur more frequently. Surgical variables related to
      recurrence include positive margins and tumor spillage. CONCLUSION: Myxoid and/or
      large PA, especially in young patients, should be approached more cautiously to
      avoid recurrences.

PMID- 28555188
TI  - Educational Health Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Findings
      from Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007-2008.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Socioeconomic disparities in health have emerged as an important area
      in public health, but studies from Afro-Caribbean populations are uncommon. In
      this study, we report on educational health disparities in cardiovascular disease
      (CVD) risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and
      obesity), among Jamaican adults. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Jamaica
      Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007-2008. Trained research staff administered
      questionnaires and obtained measurements of blood pressure, anthropometrics,
      glucose and cholesterol. CVD risk factors were defined by internationally
      accepted cut-points. Educational level was classified as primary or lower, junior
      secondary, full secondary, and post-secondary. Educational disparities were
      assessed using age-adjusted or age-specific prevalence ratios and prevalence
      differences obtained from Poisson regression models. Post-secondary education was
      used as the reference category for all comparisons. Analyses were weighted for
      complex survey design to yield nationally representative estimates. RESULTS: The
      sample included 678 men and 1,553 women with mean age of 39.4 years. The effect
      of education on CVD risk factors differed between men and women and by age group
      among women. Age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes mellitus was higher among men
      with less education, with prevalence differences ranging from 6.9 to 7.4
      percentage points (p < 0.05 for each group). Prevalence ratios for diabetes among
      men ranged from 3.3 to 3.5 but were not statistically significant. Age-specific
      prevalence of hypertension was generally higher among the less educated women,
      with statistically significant prevalence differences ranging from 6.0 to 45.6
      percentage points and prevalence ratios ranging from 2.5 to 4.3. Similarly,
      estimates for obesity and hypercholesterolemia suggested that prevalence was
      higher among the less educated younger women (25-39 years) and among more
      educated older women (40-59 and 60-74 years). There were no statistically
      significant associations for diabetes among women, or for hypertension, high
      cholesterol, or obesity among men. CONCLUSION: Educational health disparities
      were demonstrated for diabetes mellitus among men, and for obesity, hypertension,
      and hypercholesterolemia among women in Jamaica. Prevalence of diabetes was
      higher among less educated men, while among younger women the prevalence of
      hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity was higher among those with less
      education.

PMID- 28555189
TI  - Trigeminal Nerve Root Demyelination Not Seen in Six Horses Diagnosed with
      Trigeminal-Mediated Headshaking.
AB  - Trigeminal-mediated headshaking is an idiopathic neuropathic facial pain syndrome
      in horses. There are clinical similarities to trigeminal neuralgia, a neuropathic
      facial pain syndrome in man, which is usually caused by demyelination of
      trigeminal sensory fibers within either the nerve root or, less commonly, the
      brainstem. Our hypothesis was that the neuropathological substrate of headshaking
      in horses is similar to that of trigeminal neuralgia in man. Trigeminal nerves,
      nerve roots, ganglia, infraorbital, and caudal nasal nerves from horse abattoir
      specimens and from horses euthanized due to trigeminal-mediated headshaking were
      removed, fixed, and processed for histological assessment by a veterinary
      pathologist and a neuropathologist with particular experience of trigeminal
      neuralgia histology. No histological differences were detected between samples
      from horses with headshaking and those from normal horses. These results suggest
      that trigeminal-mediated headshaking may have a different pathological substrate
      from trigeminal neuralgia in man.

PMID- 28555190
TI  - Evolution of the Apicomplexan Sugar Transporter Gene Family Repertoire.
AB  - Apicomplexan protist parasites utilize host sugars transported into the parasite
      by sugar transporter proteins for use as an energy source. We performed a phylum
      wide phylogenetic analysis of the apicomplexan sugar transporter repertoire.
      Phylogenetic analyses revealed six major subfamilies of apicomplexan sugar
      transporters. Transporters in one subfamily have undergone expansions in
      Piroplasma species and Gregarina niphandrodes, while other subfamilies are highly
      divergent and contain genes found in only one or two species. Analyses of the
      divergent apicomplexan subfamilies revealed their presence in ciliates,
      indicating their alveolate ancestry and subsequent loss in chromerids and many
      apicomplexans.

PMID- 28555191
TI  - Percutaneous Mechanical Thrombectomy Using Rotarex(r) S Device in Acute Limb
      Ischemia in Infrainguinal Occlusions.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy
      using Rotarex S in the treatment of acute limb ischemia (ALI) in infrainguinal
      occlusions in a retrospective study of patients treated in our institution.
      METHODS: In this study, we identified a total of 147 ALI patients that underwent
      mechanical thrombectomy using Rotarex S at our institution. In 82% of the cases,
      percutaneous thrombectomy was used as first-line treatment, and for the remainder
      of the cases, it was used as bailout after ineffective aspiration or
      thrombolysis. Additional fibrinolysis and adjunctive aspirational thrombectomy
      were utilized for outflow occlusion when required. Procedural outcomes,
      amputation rate, and mortality at 30 days were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 147
      patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy, Rotarex S was used as first-line
      treatment in 120 cases and as second-line treatment in 27 cases. Overall, we
      achieved 90.5% procedural revascularization success rate when combining
      mechanical thrombectomy with limited thrombolysis for severe outflow obstruction,
      and 1 death and 3 amputations were observed. We achieved primary success in 68.7%
      of the patients with the mechanical thrombectomy only, and in 21.8% of the
      patients, we successfully used additional limited thrombolysis in the outflow.
      The overall mortality was 0.7% and amputation rate was 2% at 30 days. CONCLUSION:
      Percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy as first-line mini-invasive treatment in
      infrainguinal ALI is safe, quick, and effective, and the performance outcomes can
      be superior to that of traditional surgical embolectomy.

PMID- 28555192
TI  - The Use of Xanthan Gum as Vaccine Adjuvant: An Evaluation of Immunostimulatory
      Potential in BALB/c Mice and Cytotoxicity In Vitro.
AB  - The successful production of new, safe, and effective vaccines that generate
      immunological memory is directly related to adjuvant feature, which is
      responsible for increasing and/or modulating the immune response. Several
      compounds display adjuvant activity, including carbohydrates. These compounds
      play important roles in the immune response, as well as having biocompatible
      properties in vaccine formulations. One such carbohydrate is xanthan gum, a
      polysaccharide that is produced by the plant-pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas
      spp., which has adjuvant attributes. This study evaluated the immune response
      induced by xanthan gum associated with ovalbumin in BALB/c mice, which were
      subcutaneously immunized, in terms of antibody production (IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b,
      and IgG3), and assessed the levels of IFN-gamma in the splenocyte culture using
      indirect ELISA. Furthermore, we investigated in vitro cytotoxicity of xanthan in
      the embryo fibroblasts cell line of the NIH/3T3 mouse by MTT assay and propidium
      iodide uptake assay. The mice immunized with ovalbumin plus xanthan gum exhibited
      higher antibody IgG1 responses than control groups. Furthermore, the xanthan
      polysaccharide was capable of increasing the immunogenicity of antigens by
      producing IFN-gamma and did not exhibit cytotoxicity effects in NIH/3T3 mouse
      fibroblast cells, considered a promising candidate for vaccine adjuvant.

PMID- 28555193
TI  - Helicobacter pylori from Peptic Ulcer Patients in Uganda Is Highly Resistant to
      Clarithromycin and Fluoroquinolones: Results of the GenoType HelicoDR Test
      Directly Applied on Stool.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Around 70-90% of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is due to Helicobacter
      pylori and requires treatment with antimicrobials to which these bacteria are
      susceptible. Common H. pylori diagnostic tests do not provide drug susceptibility
      data. Using the GenoType HelicoDR PCR test designed for gastric biopsies for
      simultaneous detection of H. pylori and its resistance to clarithromycin
      (CLA)/fluoroquinolones (FLQ), we present evidence for stool as an optional test
      specimen and also provide data on prevalence of H. pylori resistance to CLA and
      FLQ in Uganda. METHODS: Stool from 142 symptomatic PUD patients at three
      hospitals in Kampala was screened for H. pylori using a rapid antigen test. The
      GenoType HelicoDR test was run on all H. pylori antigen positives to determine
      PCR positivity and resistance to CLA/FLQ. RESULTS: Thirty-one samples (22%) were
      H. pylori antigen positive, and 21 (68%) of these were H. pylori PCR positive.
      Six of the 21 (29%) were resistant to CLA and eight to FLQ (42%), while two gave
      invalid FLQ resistance results. CONCLUSION: Stool is a possible specimen for the
      GenoType HelicoDR test for rapid detection of H. pylori and drug resistance. In
      Uganda, Helicobacter pylori is highly resistant to CLA and FLQ.

PMID- 28555194
TI  - The Effects of Formaldehyde on Cytochrome P450 Isoform Activity in Rats.
AB  - Formaldehyde (FA) is an occupational and indoor pollutant. Long-term exposure to
      FA can irritate the respiratory mucosa, with potential carcinogenic effects on
      the airways. The effects of acute FA poisoning on the activities of CYP450
      isoforms CYP1A2, CYP2C11, CYP2E1, and CYP3A2 were assessed by determining changes
      in the pharmacokinetic parameters of the probe drugs phenacetin, tolbutamide,
      chlorzoxazone, and testosterone, respectively. Rats were randomly divided into
      three groups: control, low FA dose (exposure to 110 ppm for 2 h for 3 days), and
      high FA dose (exposure to 220 ppm for 2 h for 3 days). A mixture of the four
      probe drugs was injected into rats and blood samples were taken at a series of
      time points. Plasma concentrations of the probe drugs were measured by HPLC. The
      pharmacokinetic parameters t1/2, AUC(0-t), and Cmax of tolbutamide,
      chlorzoxazone, and testosterone increased significantly in the high dose versus
      control group (P < 0.05), whereas the CL of chlorzoxazone and testosterone
      decreased significantly (P < 0.05). However, t1/2, AUC(0-t), and Cmax of
      phenacetin decreased significantly (P < 0.05), whereas the CL of phenacetin
      increased significantly (P < 0.05) compared to controls. Thus, acute FA poisoning
      suppressed the activities of CYP2C11, CYP2E1, and CYP3A2 and induced the activity
      of CYP1A2 in rats. And the change of CYP450 activity caused by acute FA poisoning
      may be associated with FA potential carcinogenic effects on the airways.

PMID- 28555195
TI  - Resolving the Taxonomic Status of Chamelea gallina and C. striatula (Veneridae,
      Bivalvia): A Combined Molecular Cytogenetic and Phylogenetic Approach.
AB  - The striped venus clams Chamelea gallina and C. striatula are commercially
      important bivalves inhabiting European and North African coastal waters. The
      taxonomic status of these taxa has been the subject of debate for decades. In
      order to elucidate this issue, we generated 5S and 28S ribosomal RNA and H3
      histone gene probes and mapped them by fluorescent in situ hybridization to the
      chromosomes of morphologically identified striped venus clams, collected from
      four geographically distant Atlantic and Mediterranean populations. The
      nucleotide variation at the three DNA markers, that is, the nuclear internal
      transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I
      (COI), and the large ribosomal subunit rRNA (16S) fragments, was also studied and
      the resultant phylogenetic trees were evaluated. Striking differences in both the
      chromosome distribution of these genes and the clustering of the samples on the
      phylogenetic trees observed provide clear evidence that C. gallina and C.
      striatula are separated species.

PMID- 28555196
TI  - Exogenous Expressions of FTO Wild-Type and R316Q Mutant Proteins Caused an
      Increase in HNRPK Levels in 3T3-L1 Cells as Demonstrated by DIGE Analysis.
AB  - Fat mass and obesity-associated protein is an enzyme that oxidatively
      demethylates DNA. Although there are numerous studies regarding the catalytic
      function of FTO, the overall existence or absence of FTO on cellular proteome has
      not been investigated. This study investigated the changes in the soluble
      proteome of 3T3-L1 cells upon expression of the WT and the mutant (R316Q) FTO
      proteins. Protein extracts prepared from 3T3-L1 cells expressing either the WT or
      the mutant FTO proteins were used in DIGE experiments. Analysis of the data
      revealed the number of spots matched to every member and there were 350 +/- 20
      spots with 30.5% overall mean coefficient of variation. Eleven regulated protein
      spots were excised from the gels and identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF. One of the
      identified proteins was heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K, which
      displayed more than 2.6- and 3.7-fold increases in its abundance in the WT and
      the mutant FTO expressing cells, respectively. Western blot analysis validated
      these observations. This is the first study revealing the presence of a parallel
      increase in expressions of FTO and HNRNPK proteins. This increase may codictate
      the metabolic changes occurring in the cell and may attribute a significance to
      HNRNPK in FTO-associated transformations.

PMID- 28555197
TI  - Effect of Body Mass Index on Posttonsillectomy Hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Obesity affects adverse outcomes in patients undergoing various
      surgeries. Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures and
      posttonsillectomy hemorrhage (PTH) is the major complication in patients with
      tonsillectomy. However, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on posttonsillectomy
      bleeding episodes is not well known. This study aimed to assess the clinical
      association between obesity and PTH. METHODS: A total of 98 tonsillectomies were
      retrospectively reviewed. Patient charts were analyzed regarding demographic data
      and the indication for surgery. Patients with PTH were compared with uneventful
      cases. Patients were divided into three groups based on BMI: normal weight (BMI <
      25 kg/m2), overweight (BMI >= 25 and <30 kg/m2), and obese (>=30 kg/m2). RESULTS:
      PTH occurred in 13% of patients with normal weight, in 23.5% of patients with
      overweight, and in 50% patients with obesity. The occurrence of PTH was
      significantly higher in patients with obesity than in those with normal weight
      and overweight (p = 0.008). Multivariate analysis showed that obesity was a
      significant factor affecting the incidence of PTH after adjusting for confounding
      factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the obese condition is
      independently associated with the incidence of PTH.

PMID- 28555198
TI  - Reductions in Resting Blood Pressure in Young Adults When Isometric Exercise Is
      Performed Whilst Walking.
AB  - Aerobic and isometric training have been shown to reduce resting blood pressure,
      but simultaneous aerobic and isometric training have not been studied. The
      purpose of this study was to compare the changes in resting systolic (SBP),
      diastolic (DBP), and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) after 6 weeks of either
      (i) simultaneous walking and isometric handgrip exercise (WHG), (ii) walking
      (WLK), (iii) isometric handgrip exercise (IHG), or control (CON). Forty-eight
      healthy sedentary participants (age 20.7 +/- 1.7 yrs, mass 67.2 +/- 10.2 kg,
      height 176.7 +/- 1.2 cm, male n = 26, and female n = 22) were randomly allocated,
      to one of four groups (n = 12 in each). Training was performed 4 * week-1 and
      involved either treadmill walking for 30 minutes (WLK), handgrip exercise 3 * 10
      s at 20% MVC (IHG), or both performed simultaneously (WHG). Resting SBP, DBP, and
      MAP were recorded at rest, before and after the 6-week study period. Reductions
      in resting blood pressure were significantly greater in the simultaneous walking
      and handgrip group than any other group. These results show that simultaneous
      walking and handgrip training may have summative effects on reductions in resting
      blood pressure.

PMID- 28555199
TI  - Multidisciplinary approach for replacement ?root resorption following severe
      intrusive luxation: ?A case report of decoronation.
AB  - Intrusive luxation is a severe trauma-related event with a high frequency of pulp
      necrosis and root resorption. A common complication following intrusion is tooth
      ankylosis, which can extend to progressive replacement root resorption. An
      increasing infraposition in growing individuals can also occur. Decoronation is a
      new conservative treatment for cases of tooth ankylosis in young patients who
      have not finished growing. In this surgical technique, the tooth crown is removed
      and the root with replacement resorption process remains inside the alveolus.
      This treatment allows the alveolar bone to continue to develop, thus preserving
      bone dimensions. The purpose of this article is to report a multidisciplinary
      case of a young patient with anterior open bite, dental ankylosis, and tooth
      infraposition affected by intrusive luxation. Decoronation was the treatment of
      choice for this patient. The patient was then referred to orthodontic treatment
      to maintain the space of the maxillary right central incisor and open bite
      correction. After 5 years of follow-up, good clinical and radiologic results were
      obtained.

PMID- 28555200
TI  - Chlorhexidine mouthwash as an anticaries agent: ?A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of chlorhexidine mouthwashes on the
      reduction of cariogenic bacteria on patients with moderate to high risk for
      dental caries. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of the literature was performed
      using Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. The search was
      limited to articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, published until January
      2017. The research question was formulated following the PICO strategy. The risk
      of bias was evaluated using the guidelines of the Cochrane Handbook for
      Systematic Reviews of Interventions. CONCLUSION: All the authors found
      statistically significant differences in Streptococcus mutans levels during and
      after the use of a chlorhexidine mouthwash. Although the results are suggestive,
      there is a clear need for the development of new studies with higher quality and
      with longer follow-ups, in order to assess whether the results translate into
      less development of dental caries and, consequently, whether or not these
      products should be incorporated into prevention protocols.

PMID- 28555201
TI  - Reconstruction of horizontovertical alveolar defects. Presentation of a novel
      split-thickness flap design ?for guided bone regeneration: ?A case report with 5
      year follow-up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To introduce a novel split-thickness flap design without periosteal
      and vertical releasing incisions for horizontovertical ridge augmentation. METHOD
      AND MATERIALS: Three patients with generalized chronic periodontitis presented
      posterior partial edentulism with class C alveolar defects according to the
      horizontal, vertical, and combination (HVC) classification. In all three cases,
      implant placement and simultaneous horizontovertical ridge augmentation utilizing
      a novel split-thickness flap design was performed. Hard tissue reconstruction was
      followed by additional soft tissue grafting at membrane removal if optimal peri
      implant soft tissue stability could not be ensured. Following abutment
      connection, fixed implant-retained partial dentures were fabricated. RESULTS: The
      healing procedure after surgeries was uneventful in all cases, without any
      serious local or systemic adverse events. After 9 months of healing, complete
      pocket resolution without gingival recession was observed at neighboring teeth
      with periodontal attachment loss. A comparison of the mean bone to implant/screw
      contact at first surgery and at membrane removal demonstrated a mean crestal bone
      regeneration of 3.08 +/- 1.25 mm. At 12 months after prosthetic loading, signs of
      positive bone remodeling and crestal bone maintenance were shown on intraoral
      radiographs in all cases. Radiographic results showed maintained alveolar crest
      contours during 60 months of follow-up in all three cases. CONCLUSION: The
      clinical and radiographic observations of the three presented cases demonstrate
      that the guided bone regeneration technique utilizing titanium membranes in
      combination with autologous and xenogeneic grafting materials applied with the
      presented split-thickness flap resulted in predictable three-dimensional
      reconstruction of hard tissues.

PMID- 28555202
TI  - Editorial: The scientific plague affecting medical and dental research: from fake
      news to fake studies.

PMID- 28555203
TI  - The effectiveness of systemic antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing local
      complications after tooth extraction. A systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the beneficial or harmful effects of systemic prophylactic
      antibiotics at extraction of teeth, apart from third molars, vs no antibiotic or
      placebo administration. Furthermore, if antibiotics are beneficial, to determine
      which type, dosage, duration and timing of administration is the most effective.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register (to 30
      January 2016) and MEDLINE (1 January 1950 to 30 January 2016) were searched.
      There were no language or date restrictions placed on the searches of the
      electronic databases. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of parallel group
      design, with a follow-up of at least 2 weeks, comparing the administration of
      various prophylactic antibiotic regimens vs no antibiotics to people undergoing
      extraction of teeth, not including third molars, were included. Outcome measures
      were postoperative complications/adverse events, post-operative pain and
      swelling. Screening of eligible studies, assessment of the risk of bias of the
      trials and data extraction were conducted in triplicate by three independent
      review authors. Results were to be expressed as risk ratios (RRs) using a random
      effects model for dichotomous outcomes, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
      Heterogeneity, including both clinical and methodological factors, was to be
      investigated. RESULTS: No relevant RCT was identified. CONCLUSIONS: There is no
      RCT to determine if the antibiotic therapy is needed at extraction of teeth,
      excluding third molars. Properly designed and conducted RCTs are needed to
      understand the role of the antibiotic therapy for tooth extraction. Conflict-of
      interest statement: This systematic review was self-funded and the authors have
      no conflict of interests to declare.

PMID- 28555204
TI  - Immediate loading of two (fixed-on-2) vs four (fixed-on-4) implants placed with a
      flapless technique supporting mandibular cross-arch fixed prostheses: 3-year
      results from a pilot randomised controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcome of two vs four implants placed flapless in fully
      edentulous mandibles and immediately restored with metal-resin screw-retained
      cross-arch prostheses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 60 patients from two
      different centres were randomised: 30 to the fixed-on-2 group and 30 to the fixed
      on-4 group according to a parallel group design. To be immediately loaded
      implants had to be inserted with a minimum torque of 40 Newton/cm (Ncm). Outcome
      measures were prosthesis and implant failures, complications, and marginal bone
      level changes. RESULTS: Flaps were raised in 18 patients. Two implants in two
      patients did not reach the planned insertion torque and were replaced immediately
      by larger diameter ones. Three years after loading, two patients dropped out from
      the fixed-on-2 group and one from the fixed-on-4 group. No implant failure or
      prosthetic failure occurred. A total of 12 fixed-on-2 patients were affected by
      one complication each vs 13 fixed-on-4 patients. There were no statistically
      significant differences for complications between groups (difference in
      proportion = -0.03; 95% CI -29 to 0.22; P [Fisher's exact test] =1.000). There
      were no statistically significant differences for marginal peri-implant bone loss
      between the two groups (mean difference = 0.14; CI 95% -0.17 to 0.45; P [ANCOVA]
      = 0.356), with both groups losing marginal bone in a statistically significant
      way (1.70 mm for fixed-on-2 implants and 1.56 mm for fixed-on-4 implants). There
      were statistically significant differences between the two centres, with more
      bone being lost for the Bologna centre (2.18 vs 1.13 mm; P (ANCOVA) < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Up to 3 years after loading, these preliminary results suggest that
      immediately loaded mandibular cross-arch fixed prostheses can be supported by
      only two dental implants. Longer follow-ups (about 10 years) are needed to
      properly evaluate this therapeutic option. Conflict of interest statement: This
      study was completely self-financed and no funding from the implant manufacturers
      has been sought or obtained, not even in the form of free materials.

PMID- 28555205
TI  - Conventional drills vs piezoelectric surgery preparation for placement of four
      immediately loaded zygomatic oncology implants in edentulous maxillae: results
      from 1-year split-mouth randomised controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the outcome of site preparation for zygomatic oncology
      implants using conventional preparation with rotary drills or piezoelectric
      surgery with dedicated inserts for placing two zygomatic implants per zygoma
      according to a split-mouth design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty edentulous
      patients with severely atrophic maxillas not having sufficient bone volume for
      placing dental implants and less than 4 mm of bone height subantrally had their
      hemi-maxillas randomised according to a split-mouth design into implant site
      preparation with conventional rotational drills or piezoelectric surgery. Two
      zygomatic oncology implants (unthreaded coronal portion) were placed in each hemi
      maxilla. Implants that achieved an insertion torque superior to 40 Ncm were
      immediately loaded with screw-retained metal reinforced acrylic provisional
      prostheses. Outcome measures were: prosthesis and implant failures, any
      complications, time to place the implants, presence of post-operative haematoma,
      and patient's preference by independent assessors. All patients were followed up
      to 1 year after loading. RESULTS: In two patients drills had also to be used at
      the piezoelectric surgery side to enable implant sites to be prepared. One
      implant for the conventional drill group did not achieve an insertion torque
      superior to 40 Ncm since it fractured the zygoma. No patients dropped out and two
      distal oncology implants failed in the same patient (one per group), who was not
      prosthetically rehabilitated. Six complications occurred at drilled sites and
      three at piezoelectric surgery sites (two patients had bilateral complications),
      the difference being not statistically significant (P (McNemar's test) = 0.375;
      odds ratio = 4.00; 95% CI of odds ratio: 0.45 to 35.79). Implant placement with
      convention drills took on average 14.35 +/- 1.76 min and with piezoelectric
      surgery 23.50 +/- 2.26 min, implant placement time being significantly shorter
      with conventional drilling (difference = 9.15 +/- 1.69 min; 95%CI: 8.36 to 9.94
      min; P < 0.001). Post-operative haematomas were more frequent at drilled sites (P
      = 0.001), and 16 patients found both techniques equally acceptable, while four
      preferred piezoelectric surgery (P = 0.125). CONCLUSIONS: Both drilling
      techniques achieved similar clinical results, but conventional drilling required
      9 min less and could be used in all instances, although it was more aggressive.
      These results may be system-dependent, therefore they cannot be generalised to
      other zygomatic systems with confidence. Conflict-of-interest statement: This
      study was partially supported by Southern Implants (Irene, South Africa), the
      manufacturer of the zygomatic implants and the conventional drills evaluated in
      this study. However, data property belonged to the authors and by no means did
      the manufacturer interfere with the conduct of the trial or the publication of
      its results. Drs Felice and Pistilli developed the piezoelectric surgery
      zygomatic insert used in the present study.

PMID- 28555206
TI  - A comparison of two implants with conical vs internal hex connections: 1-year
      post-loading results from a multicentre, randomised controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of identical implants
      with conical or internal hex connections. METHODS: A total of 90 patients with
      partial edentulism requiring one implant-supported prosthesis were randomly
      allocated in two equal groups (n = 45) to receive either implants with a conical
      connection or implants of the same type, but with an internal hex connection at
      three centres. Patients were followed for 1 year after loading. Outcome measures
      were implant failures, any complication and marginal bone level changes. RESULTS:
      One patient (2.2%) belonging to the internal hex group dropped out. One implant
      (2.2%) failed in the conical group. There were no statistically significant
      differences in implant failures between the two groups (2.2% vs. 0%, difference
      2.2; 95% CI: -1.3; 5.7; P = 0.315). Two complications occurred in the conical
      group and two in the internal hex group (P = 1.000, difference 0.00, 95% CI: 
      3.1; 3.1). The 12-month peri-implant bone resorption was similar in both groups:
      0.56 +/- 0.53 mm (95% CI 0.03; 1.09) in the conical group and 0.60 +/- 0.62 mm
      (95% CI 0.02; 1.22) in the internal hex group (difference = 0.04 +/- 0.55, 95%
      CI: -0.51; 0.59, P = 0.745). CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitation of this study,
      preliminary short-term data (1 year post-loading) did not show any statistical
      differences between the two internal connection types, therefore clinicians could
      choose whichever connection they prefer. Conflict of interest statement: Tommaso
      Grandi serves as consultant for J Dental Care, Modena, Italy. This study was
      completely self-financed and no funding was sought or obtained, not even in the
      form of free materials.

PMID- 28555207
TI  - Molar replacement with 7 mm-wide diameter implants: to place the implant
      immediately or to wait 4 months after socket preservation? ?1 year after loading
      results from a randomised controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To test the hypothesis that there is no difference in clinical,
      radiographic and aesthetic outcomes positioning single post-extractive 7 mm
      diameter implants or waiting 4 months after molar extraction and socket
      preservation procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients requiring one implant
      supported single restoration to replace a failing tooth in the molar region of
      both maxilla and mandible were selected. Patients were randomised according to a
      parallel group design into two arms: implant installation in fresh extraction
      sockets grafted with cortico-cancellous heterologous bone and porcine derma
      (group A) or delayed implant installation 4 months after tooth extraction and
      socket preservation using the same materials (group B). Implants were submerged
      for 4 months. The primary outcome measures were the success rates of the implants
      and prostheses and the occurrence of any surgical and prosthetic complications
      during the entire follow-up. Secondary outcome measures were: peri-implant
      marginal bone level (MBL) changes, resonance frequency analysis (ISQ) and pink
      esthetic score (PES) values at implant placement (baseline) up to 1 year after
      loading. RESULTS: Twelve patients were randomised to group A and 12 to group B.
      No patient dropped out within 1 year after loading. No implant and prosthesis
      failed and no complications occurred during the entire follow-up. One year after
      loading, statistically significant higher mean MBL loss was experienced in group
      A (0.63 mm +/- 0.31 mm) compared to group B (0.23 mm +/- 0.06 mm); difference
      0.41 mm (95% CI 0.17-0.53; P = 0.001). Six months after implant placement, mean
      ISQ value was 78.8 +/- 2.8 for group A and 79.9 +/- 3.6 for group B, showing no
      statistically significant difference between groups (difference 1.1; 95% CI: 0.04
      to 2.96; P = 0.422). One year after loading, mean PES was 10.6 +/- 1.8 [range: 8
      to13] in group A and 12.2 +/- 1.2 [range: 11 to 14] in group B. The difference
      was statistically significant (1.6 +/- 2.7; 95% CI -0.55-2.55; P = 0.019) with
      better results for group B. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this study,
      both procedures achieved successful results over the 1-year follow-up period, but
      waiting 4 months after tooth extraction and socket preservation procedure was
      associated with less marginal bone loss and a better aesthetic outcome. Conflict
      of-interest statement: Dr Marco Tallarico is Research Project Manager of Osstem
      AIC Italy. However no company supported this study and all authors declare no
      conflicts of interest.

PMID- 28555208
TI  - Comparison of immediately loaded flapless-placed one-piece implants and flapped
      placed conventionally loaded two-piece implants, both fitted with all-ceramic
      single crowns, ?in the posterior mandible: 3-year results from ?a randomised
      controlled pilot trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare outcomes for immediately loaded one-piece implants (OPI),
      placed flapless, and conventionally loaded two-piece implants (TPI), placed after
      two-stage flapped surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight participants were
      randomised to receive either one OPI (19 participants, OPI group) or one TPI (19
      participants, TPI group) inserted in the posterior mandible with a torque of at
      least 35 Ncm according to a parallel group design. OPI were immediately loaded
      with non-occluding temporary crowns. After 3 months, TPI were exposed and
      implants in both groups were occlusally loaded with zirconia crowns. Outcome
      measures were implant failure, prosthesis failure, any complication and changes
      of probing pocket depth (PPD), plaque index (PI), gingiva index (GI), and peri
      implant marginal bone level, recorded by unblinded assessors. RESULTS: Three
      years after occlusal loading, three participants dropped out from the TPI group.
      There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with
      regard to participants with implant failure (OPI group 1/19; TPI group 0/16;
      difference in proportions (DIP), -5.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI) -15.3 to
      4.8; P = 1.000), prosthesis failure (OPI group 3/19, TPI group 5/16; DIP, 15.5%;
      95% CI -12.6 to 43.5; P = 0.424), any complication (OPI group 6/19, TPI group
      5/16; DIP, -0.3%; 95% CI -31.2 to 30.5; P = 1.000), or changes of PPD (P =0.174),
      PI (P = 0.222), or GI (P = 0.415). Veneer chipping accounted for most prosthesis
      failures and complications. On average OPI and TPI lost 1.34 mm and 0.67 mm of
      marginal bone, respectively, the difference between groups being statistically
      significant (mean difference, 0.66 mm; 95% CI -0.02 to 1.34; P = 0.024) in favour
      of TPI implants. CONCLUSIONS: Both implant procedures might be viable in the
      short term, but statistically significantly more bone loss might be indicative of
      future problems with OPI. Because of the high incidence of chipping, veneered
      zirconia crowns cannot be recommended on posterior implants. Conflict-of-interest
      statement: The authors are grateful to Nobel Biocare for providing the study
      materials free of charge. Money received from the manufacturer was used to
      reimburse participants for regular attendance at follow-up appointments and to
      finance data management. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

PMID- 28555210
TI  - Report of a jaw osteonecrosis possibly caused?by denosumab.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) occurring in an
      implant area possibly related to denosumab, a relatively new antiosteoporotic
      agent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two months following the extraction of both
      maxillary first molars, a bilateral maxillary sinus floor elevation was performed
      on a 64-year-old female patient under a biannual ?60 mg denosumab
      antiosteoporotic treatment. Seven months later, two implants were inserted in a
      single-stage procedure in each of the grafted sinuses. After 3 months, the
      implants underwent prosthetic rehabilitation at one side, and a series of
      failures that led to an ONJ instalment at the other side. RESULTS: The ONJ
      persisted over 7 months and was only resolved by a surgical approach consisting
      of a piezoelectric osteotomy and platelet-rich fibrin with a tension-free wound
      closure. CONCLUSIONS: A cumulative effect of denosumab is likely to be associated
      with a jaw osteonecrosis, which in this case was manageable using a surgical
      approach with no need to interrupt the appropriate drug treatment course.
      Conflict of interest statement: The authors certify that they are not affiliated
      with, or involved in any organisation or entity with any financial or non
      financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this
      manuscript.

PMID- 28555211
TI  - Research in focus.
AB  - This section presents a brief review of articles on dental implants considered of
      special interest to readers, in order to encourage the development of research,
      the interest in data analysis and the attention to scientific publications. Your
      comments are welcome. Please contact Dr Michele Nieri at michelenieri@gmail.com.

PMID- 28555209
TI  - Characterisation of apical bone lesions: Comparison of MRI and CBCT with
      histological findings - a case series.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this case series was to compare magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in the representation of
      periapical osteolyses. Based on the histological findings, the potential of MRI
      for further lesion characterisation was investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Thirteen patients (average age: 41 +/- 27 years) with a total of 15 periapical
      lesions (five molars, five premolars, and five front teeth) were examined. Lesion
      characterisation was based on the homogeneity/heterogeneity of the lesions, the
      signal intensity within the lesion compared to the surrounding tissue and
      differences in the signal intensities between different MRI contrast weightings.
      Results were compared with CBCT and histological findings. RESULTS: Although all
      patients presented with dental restorations, such as fixed partial dentures and
      filling materials, all periapical lesions could be diagnosed with either imaging
      modality. Histologically, 13 cysts and two apical granuloma were confirmed. In
      CBCT, the similar appearance of all lesions did not allow any further
      characterisation. In MRI, radicular cysts and granuloma could be characterised by
      their appearance in the MRI images with different contrast weightings. The MRI
      derived characterisations were consistent with the histological findings.
      CONCLUSIONS: The presented study shows that the application of multi-contrast MRI
      may lead to better characterisation of apical lesions, thus enabling an improved
      patient-specific selection of the optimal treatment option. Conflict-of-interest
      statement: MAG, ESS, and LKS do not report any potential conflict-of-interest; EH
      and JU are employees of Sirona Dental Systems; VR is receiving a research grant
      by Sirona Dental Systems.

PMID- 28555212
TI  - Enhanced photoelectrochemical response of plasmonic Au embedded BiVO4/Fe2O3
      heterojunction.
AB  - The effect of embedding Au nanoparticles (NPs) in a BiVO4/Fe2O3 heterojunction
      for photoelectrochemical water splitting is studied here for the first time. The
      present nanostructured heterojunction offers three major advantages over pristine
      BiVO4 and Fe2O3: (i) the formation of a heterojunction between BiVO4 and Fe2O3
      enhances the charge carrier separation and transfer, (ii) the layer of Fe2O3
      provides protection to BiVO4 from photocorrosion and, (iii) the Au NPs possessing
      surface plasmon resonance (SPR) enhance the photoelectrochemical response by
      transferring energy to metal oxides by hot electron transfer (HET) and plasmon
      resonant energy transfer (PRET). The present study reveals that the
      heterojunction ITO/BiVO4/Fe2O3 (with 32% v/v Au solution in both layers) gives
      the best performance and mitigates the limitations of both pristine Fe2O3 and
      BiVO4. A thirteen-fold increment in applied bias photon-to-current conversion
      efficiency (ABPE) was observed at 1.24 V vs. RHE under the condition of 1 Sun
      illumination. Monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency
      (IPCE) measurements indicated that an Au embedded heterojunction is more
      effective in harvesting visible light in comparison to a heterojunction without
      Au NPs.

PMID- 28555213
TI  - An encoded viral micropatch for multiplex cell-based assays through localized
      gene delivery.
AB  - The increasing number of potential drug targets and compounds has led to the
      development of high-throughput cell-based assays. Simultaneous processing of
      multiple targets in the same experiment based on localized target gene expression
      is a very efficient strategy for this purpose. To address this need, we present
      an adenoviral vector-immobilized microparticle with two-dimensional (2D) shape
      encoding properties that allows localized patch-like gene delivery to monolayer
      cultured cells. This format conveniently achieves multiplexed gene delivery
      compatible with both high-throughput cellular assays and fluorescence high
      content imaging instruments. A multiplex G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)
      internalization assay was developed to demonstrate the compatibility of this
      system with high-throughput image-based cellular assays.

PMID- 28555214
TI  - The maximum penalty criterion for ridge regression: application to the
      calibration of the force constant in elastic network models.
AB  - Tikhonov regularization, or ridge regression, is a popular technique to deal with
      collinearity in multivariate regression. We unveil a formal analogy between ridge
      regression and statistical mechanics, where the objective function is comparable
      to a free energy, and the ridge parameter plays the role of temperature. This
      analogy suggests two novel criteria for selecting a suitable ridge parameter:
      specific-heat (Cv) and maximum penalty (MP). We apply these fits to evaluate the
      relative contributions of rigid-body and internal fluctuations, which are
      typically highly collinear, to crystallographic B-factors. This issue is
      particularly important for computational models of protein dynamics, such as the
      elastic network model (ENM), since the amplitude of the predicted internal motion
      is commonly calibrated using B-factor data. After validation on simulated
      datasets, our results indicate that rigid-body motions account on average for
      more than 80% of the amplitude of B-factors. Furthermore, we evaluate the ability
      of different fits to reproduce the amplitudes of internal fluctuations in X-ray
      ensembles from the B-factors in the corresponding single X-ray structures. The
      new ridge criteria are shown to be markedly superior to the commonly used two
      parameter fit that neglects rigid-body rotations and to the full fits regularized
      under generalized cross-validation. In conclusion, the proposed fits ensure a
      more robust calibration of the ENM force constant and should prove valuable in
      other applications.

PMID- 28555216
TI  - Gas/vapour separation using ultra-microporous metal-organic frameworks: insights
      into the structure/separation relationship.
AB  - The separation of related molecules with similar physical/chemical properties is
      of prime industrial importance and practically entails a substantial energy
      penalty, typically necessitating the operation of energy-demanding low
      temperature fractional distillation techniques. Certainly research efforts, in
      academia and industry alike, are ongoing with the main aim to develop advanced
      functional porous materials to be adopted as adsorbents for the effective and
      energy-efficient separation of various important commodities. Of special interest
      is the subclass of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with pore aperture sizes below
      5-7 A, namely ultra-microporous MOFs, which in contrast to conventional zeolites
      and activated carbons show great prospects for addressing key challenges in
      separations pertaining to energy and environmental sustainability, specifically
      materials for carbon capture and separation of olefin/paraffin,
      acetylene/ethylene, linear/branched alkanes, xenon/krypton, etc. In this tutorial
      review we discuss the latest developments in ultra-microporous MOF adsorbents and
      their use as separating agents via thermodynamics and/or kinetics and molecular
      sieving. Appreciably, we provide insights into the distinct microscopic
      mechanisms governing the resultant separation performances, and suggest a
      plausible correlation between the inherent structural features/topology of MOFs
      and the associated gas/vapour separation performance.

PMID- 28555217
TI  - Lifshitz phase: the microscopic structure of aqueous and ethanol mixtures of 1,n
      diols.
AB  - We study binary mixtures of ethylene glycol and 1,3-propandiol with water or
      ethanol using computer simulations. Despite strong hydrogen bonding tendencies
      between all these molecules, we find that these mixtures are surprisingly
      homogeneous, in contrast to the strong micro-heterogeneity found in aqueous
      ethanol mixtures. The aqueous diol mixtures are found to be close to ideal
      mixtures, with near-ideal Kirkwood-Buff integrals. Ethanol-diol mixtures show
      weak non-ideality. The origin of this unexpected randomness is due to the fact
      that the two hydrogen bonding hydroxyl groups of the 1,n-diol are bound by the
      neutral alkyl bond, which prevents the micro-segregation of the different types
      of hydroxyl groups. These findings suggest that random disorder can arise in the
      presence of strong interactions - in contrast to the usual picture of random
      disorder due to weak interactions between the components. They point to the
      important role of molecular topology in tuning concentration fluctuations in
      complex liquids. We propose and justify herein the name of Lifshitz phases to
      designate such types of disordered systems.

PMID- 28555218
TI  - Colloidal diffusion in confined geometries.
AB  - Colloidal dispersions in confined geometries exhibit rich diffusive dynamics
      governed by an interplay between particle-particle and particle-wall
      interactions. This perspective reviews recent selected computational and
      experimental studies on diffusion of dense liquid-like dispersions in spatial
      confinement, with an emphasis on general physical concepts rather than system
      specific details. The common thread is to analyse colloidal diffusion in confined
      geometries in terms of the local density experienced by the colloidal particles,
      viz. at the level of anisotropic pair densities, which have recently become
      experimentally accessible.

PMID- 28555220
TI  - A hand-twisted helical crystal based solely on hydrogen bonding.
AB  - A hand twistable hydrogen bonded two-dimensional plastic crystal, 4-pyridinyl 4
      nitrobenzoate hydrate, is obtained from a brittle precursor using a
      retrosynthetic design strategy based on molecular/supramolecular equivalence.

PMID- 28555221
TI  - Tunable electronic structure and magnetic moment in C2N nanoribbons with
      different edge functionalization atoms.
AB  - First principles calculations based on density functional theory were carried out
      to study the electronic and magnetic properties of C2N nanoribbons (C2NNRs). The
      electronic structure could be modified by different methods using saturated or co
      saturated H, O, and F on the edges, which can provide a new pathway at the
      nanoscale for fabricating 2D spintronic materials. It was found that the pristine
      armchair C2NNR (A-C2NNR) is a nonmagnetic semiconductor with a direct band gap,
      while the pristine zigzag C2NNRs (Z-C2NNRs) can show either magnetic
      semiconductor with an indirect band gap or magnetic metallic behavior depending
      on its ribbon widths. A-C2NNRs with one type of atom (H, O or F) saturated on the
      edges are nonmagnetic, while H and O (F and O) co-saturated A-C2NNRs show
      magnetic ground states. H and O (F and O) co-saturated Z-C2NNRs share a larger
      magnetic moment compared to the case with H, O and F saturated on the edges.
      Furthermore, O-saturated Z-C2NNR is a spin "gapless" semiconductor. Additionally,
      there is no need to spin flip in the process of electronic transition near the
      Fermi level. Therefore, C2NNRs might have potential applications in
      photoelectronic and spinelectronic devices.

PMID- 28555222
TI  - Reversible formation and cleavage of Pt->Ag dative bonds in a pre-organized
      cavity of a luminescent heteropolynuclear platinum(ii) complex.
AB  - A U-shaped Pt2Ag2 complex [Pt2Ag2(ppy)2(Ph2pz)4] with a pre-organized cavity (ppy
      = 2-phenylpridinate and Ph2pz = 3,5-diphenylpyrazolate) and related complexes
      have been prepared. The Pt2Ag2 complexes react with Ag(i) ions to give the
      corresponding Pt2Ag3 complexes containing Pt->Ag dative bonds. It became obvious
      that the existence of the C(ipso) atom in the chelate ligand is important as the
      driving force for forming Pt->Ag dative bonds. However, once the Pt2Ag3 complex
      is formed, the trapped Ag(i) ion is mainly stabilized by the Pt->Ag dative bonds,
      which are stronger than the Ag-C(ipso) bond. The trapped Ag(i) ion can be
      abstracted from the cavity selectively by adding an equivalent amount of chloride
      ion into the solution of Pt2Ag3 complexes to reproduce the original Pt2Ag2
      complexes.

PMID- 28555223
TI  - N-Sulfonyl alpha-imino ester-derived chiral oxaziridines: catalytic asymmetric
      synthesis and application as a modular chiral organic oxidant.
AB  - A novel class of chiral N-sulfonyl oxaziridines is introduced for use as
      structurally modifiable chiral oxidants. These oxaziridines are readily prepared
      from N-sulfonyl alpha-imino esters in a highly enantioenriched form by oxidation
      with hydrogen peroxide using l-isoleucine-derived triaminoiminophosphorane as a
      catalyst. The distinct advantage of their structural modularity is demonstrated
      through the identification of an optimal oxaziridine that exhibits high
      reactivity and enantiospecificity in the asymmetric oxidation of a silyl enol
      ether and N-sulfonyl allylic and homoallylic amines.

PMID- 28555224
TI  - First-principles study of adsorption-desorption kinetics of aqueous V2+/V3+ redox
      species on graphite in a vanadium redox flow battery.
AB  - Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) represent a promising solution to grid
      scale energy storage, and understanding the reactivity of electrode materials is
      crucial for improving the power density of VRFBs. However, atomistic details
      about the interactions between vanadium ions and electrode surfaces in aqueous
      electrolytes are still lacking. Here, we examine the reactivity of the basal
      (0001) and edge (112[combining macron]0) graphite facets with water and aqueous
      V2+/V3+ redox species at 300 K employing Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD)
      coupled with metadynamics simulations. The results suggest that the edge surface
      is characterized by the formation of ketonic C[double bond, length as m-dash]O
      functional groups due to complete water dissociation into the H/O/H configuration
      with surface O atoms serving as active sites for adsorption of V2+/V3+ species.
      The formation of V-O bonds at the surface should significantly improve the
      kinetics of electron transfer at the edge sites, which is not the case for the
      basal surface, in agreement with the experimentally hypothesized mechanism.

PMID- 28555225
TI  - BAR-based optimum adaptive sampling regime for variance minimization in
      alchemical transformation.
AB  - The efficiency of alchemical free energy simulations with the staging strategy is
      improved by adaptively manipulating the significance of each ensemble followed by
      importance sampling. The OBAR (optimum BAR) method introduced in this work with
      explicit consideration of the statistical inefficiency in each ensemble
      outperforms the traditional equal time rule which is used in standard
      applications of alchemical transformation with the window sampling regime in the
      sense of minimizing the total variance of the free energy estimate. The Time
      Derivative of total Variance (TDV) is proposed for the OBAR criterion which is
      linearly dependent on the variance and is more sensitive to the importance rank
      than the overlap matrix. The performance of OBAR workflow is demonstrated for
      solvation of several small molecules and a protein ligand binding system.

PMID- 28555226
TI  - Two-step modulation of ion recognition using a bis(saloph)-macrocyclic host
      having a 24-crown-8-like cavity.
AB  - Precise modulation of cation binding affinity was accomplished by the efficient
      two-step conversion of a newly synthesized macrocyclic ligand H4L2 having a 24
      crown-8-like cavity and two saloph moieties. The conversion of H4L2 into L2Ni2
      resulted in a 120-fold enhancement in the binding affinity towards Cs+. The
      electrochemical reduction of L2Ni2 further enhanced the recognition ability by 3
      orders of magnitude.

PMID- 28555227
TI  - B-Hpi: a nonclassical hydrogen bond or dispersion contact?
AB  - Close B-Hpi contacts have recently been observed in crystallographic structures
      of Ir-dithiolene-phosphine complexes containing boron hydride cluster. This
      finding was interpreted using quantum chemical calculations as a new type of
      electrostatically driven nonclassical hydrogen bonding. However, such an
      explanation contradicts the wealth of evidence for unique noncovalent
      interactions of boron hydrides. Moreover, care must be exercised when
      computational methods are used to interpret new phenomena. Therefore, here, we
      cautiously examine the B-Hpi interaction by means of advanced quantum chemistry
      and disprove the claimed attractive electrostatic nature and rather define it as
      a nonspecific dispersion-driven contact. In summary, we present evidence that the
      crystallographically observed B-Hpi contacts do not constitute a novel type of
      hydrogen bonding of boron hydride clusters.

PMID- 28555228
TI  - Dehydrogenative homocoupling of tetrafluorobenzene on Pd(111) via para-selective
      C-H activation.
AB  - Aryl homocoupling reactions via meta- and ortho-selective C-H activation have
      been achieved on surfaces, but the highly important para-selective C-H activation
      has not been reported yet. Combined with scanning tunneling microscopy, time-of
      flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and density functional theory, here we
      describe dehydrogenative homocoupling of tetrafluorobenzene on Pd(111) via para
      selective C-H activation to form perfluorinated oligo(p-phenylene)s.

PMID- 28555232
TI  - Palladium-catalyzed sequential monoarylation/amidation of C(sp3)-H bonds:
      stereoselective synthesis of alpha-amino-beta-lactams and anti-alpha,beta-diamino
      acid.
AB  - Pd-Catalyzed sequential monoarylation/amidation of C(sp3)-H bonds of alanine
      enabled by a removable 5-methoxyquinolin-8-amine (MQ) auxiliary is described.
      This process is highly efficient and compatible with a variety of functional
      groups, providing a general and practical access to various alpha-amino-beta
      lactams. The synthetic potential of this protocol is further demonstrated by the
      stereoselective synthesis of orthogonally protected anti-alpha,beta-diamino
      acids.

PMID- 28555231
TI  - Micropatterned macroporous structures in microfluidic devices for viral
      separation from whole blood.
AB  - Separation and enrichment of bio-nanoparticles from cell suspensions and blood
      are critical steps in many chemical and biomedical practices. We demonstrate here
      the design and fabrication of a microfluidic immunochromatographic device
      incorporating regular and multiscale monolithic structures to capture viruses
      from blood. The device contains micropatterned arrays of macroporous materials to
      perform size-exclusion and affinity chromatography in a simple flow-through
      process. The microscale gaps in the array allow the passage of cells while the
      macroporous matrices promote viral capture. Computational analyses reveal that
      fluid permeation into the porous matrices is controllable by the micropattern
      shape, separation distance and dimensions. Experimental analyses using blood
      samples containing human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) as a model system further
      prove significantly improved viral capture efficiency using devices incorporating
      multiscale structures than those containing solid micropatterns. Such
      microfluidic devices with regular and multiscale structures have a potential for
      the separation and concentration of a wide range of bio-nanoparticles as well as
      macromolecules from complex mixtures containing both nano- and micro-sized
      species.

PMID- 28555233
TI  - Identification of the protonation site of gaseous triglycine: the cis-peptide
      bond conformation as the global minimum.
AB  - Extensive ab initio investigations have been performed to characterize stable
      conformers of protonated triglycine (GGGH) in the gas phase. Calculations using
      the composite CBS-QB3 method confirmed that the most favorable site of
      protonation on triglycine at 298 K is still the traditional amino nitrogen,
      rather than the more-recently reported amide oxygen. Furthermore, a non-proline
      cis-peptide bond conformer is identified for the first time as the global minimum
      of GGGH. Further transition state calculations considering the temperature
      effects explained why the previous experimental infrared multiple photon
      dissociation (IRMPD) spectrum contains a combination of two local minima, rather
      than a global one. First-principles simulations have been performed for near-edge
      X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectra
      (XPS) at the C, N and O K-edges to identify the notable spectral differences that
      enable the unambiguous identification of different protonated forms. The
      calculated proton affinity (PA) and gas basicity (GB) of triglycine are in
      excellent agreement with the experimental values. Our study thus provides
      valuable insights into the protonation of short peptides and illustrates the
      competition between cis and trans peptide bonds.

PMID- 28555234
TI  - The first molecular dumbbell consisting of an endohedral Sc3N@C80 and an empty
      C60-fullerene building block.
AB  - An unprecedented hybrid dumbbell consisting of a metallofullerene and an empty
      fullerene was afforded via simple click reaction of suitable precursor
      derivatives of Sc3N@C80 and a C60 hexakisadduct.

PMID- 28555235
TI  - [Ge5Ni2(CO)3]2-: the first functionalized cluster of closo-[Ge5]2.
AB  - A new functionalized cluster, [Ge5Ni2(CO)3]2-, derived from the closo-[E5]2- (E =
      Si-Pb) anions which have been known for decades but whose reactivity has rarely
      been studied, was successfully isolated from the reaction of [Ni(PPh3)2(CO)2] and
      [Ge5]2- in ethylenediamine (en) solution, and its formation pathway was also
      investigated.

PMID- 28555236
TI  - Separating lanthanides and actinides from nitric acid solutions by using N,N-di(2
      ethylhexyl)-diglycolamic acid (HDEHDGA).
AB  - The extraction of Eu(iii), U(vi), and Pu(iv) from 0.1-3 M HNO3 solutions by using
      N,N-di(2-ethyl-hexyl)-diglycolamic acid (HDEHDGA) is presented. In contrast to
      common organic acid extractants, such as long-chain carboxylic acids,
      organophosphorus acids, and derivatives of beta-diketones, losing extractability,
      HDEHDGA exhibits a strong ability to extract lanthanide and actinide ions from
      high HNO3 solutions.

PMID- 28555237
TI  - Conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons over zeolite ZSM-23 (MTT): exceptional
      effects of particle size on catalyst lifetime.
AB  - A variety of synthetic procedures have been used to obtain zeolite ZSM-23 (MTT)
      catalysts with crystallite sizes ranging from the micrometer to nanometer scale.
      When the acidic zeolite is used as a catalyst for the methanol to hydrocarbon
      (MTH) reaction, the catalytic lifetime is dramatically influenced by the
      crystallite shape and size.

PMID- 28555238
TI  - Formation of supramolecular hetero-triads by controlling the hydrogen bonding of
      conjugate bases with a diprotonated porphyrin based on electrostatic interaction.
AB  - The thermodynamic stability of diprotonated saddle-distorted
      dodecaphenylporphyrin (H4DPP2+(X-)2) was controlled by the hydrogen-bonding
      strength of conjugate bases (X-) of strong acids (HX) or acids (R+-COOH) having
      positively charged moieties. The thermodynamic control of H4DPP2+(X-)2 made it
      possible to achieve selective formation of supramolecular hetero-triads,
      H4DPP2+(X-)(Cl-).

PMID- 28555239
TI  - Efficient light harvesting within a C153@Zr-based MOF embedded in a polymeric
      film: spectral and dynamical characterization.
AB  - Light harvesting is a natural phenomenon that scientists try to mimic in
      artificial systems. Having this in mind, attention has been focused on using new
      smart-materials for photonics. Herein, we report on the photobehaviour of a Zr
      NDC MOF (NDC = dimethyl 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate) and its composite material,
      Coumarin153@Zr-NDC, embedded within a polymeric membrane of poly[bisphenol A
      carbonate-co-4,4'-(3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexylidene)diphenol carbonate] (PC). For
      the mixed matrix membrane (MMM) Zr-NDC/PC, we observed interparticle excimer-like
      formation, taking place in times shorter than 15 ps and giving rise to a red
      shifted broad emission band. The interparticle interactions are supported by the
      SEM images, as they reflect the contact between the MOF crystals. The C153@Zr
      NDC/PC material presents an energy transfer (ET) process from the excited MOF to
      the trapped C153 molecules in 820 ps, with a 35 nm red-shifted emission band
      corresponding to C153 in PC. The fluorescence quantum yield, as a result of this
      ET from the MOF, is high enough (25%) to explore the possibility of using this
      new composite material in a LED device. To elucidate the observed photobehavior,
      we compared it with those of C153/PC and (2,6-NDC + C153)/PC films. These results
      shed light on the spectroscopic and dynamical properties of these new composite
      materials formed by a highly fluorescent molecule, and easily synthesized MOFs
      and polymeric matrices, opening the way for more research based on these mixed
      inorganic and organic compounds for possible applications in the fields of
      luminescence sensing and emitting devices.

PMID- 28555241
TI  - Prehistoric massacre revealed. Perimortem cranial trauma from Potocani, Croatia.
AB  - ABSTRACT: During archaeological rescue excavations carried out in 2007 at
      Potocani in continental Croatia, a pit containing numerous human skeletal remains
      (MNI = 41) was discovered. The remains were mostly articulated but also
      commingled and showed no clear pattern of organization. There were no associated
      artifacts, just a few pottery fragments probably belonging to the Copper Age
      Lasinja Culture (c. 4300 to 3950 BCE). Anthropological analyses suggest the
      presence of individuals of all ages and both sexes with many crania exhibiting
      various perimortem injuries. Three human bone samples from different layers were
      dated to around 4100 cal BCE by radiocarbon analysis. These radiocarbon dates
      combined with other aspects of archaeological context, indicate that the
      deposition was a single episode rather than a long-term accumulation. All this
      suggests a single violent encounter (massacre). Here we present results of the
      bioarchaeological analysis of four adult crania with clear signs of perimortem
      trauma. These include blunt force trauma as well as cuts and penetrating injuries
      indicating the use of different weapons/tools.

PMID- 28555242
TI  - Y chromosomal deletion pattern in Koreans inhabiting Jeju Island.
AB  - ABSTRACT: Mutations occur in Y chromosome genes similar to autosomal genes.
      However, unlike autosomal genes, Y chromosome genes do not undergo recombination,
      which produce distinctive characteristics and distribution patterns in different
      geographic regions. Therefore, detailed analysis of mutations of Y chromosome
      genes might provide information for personal identification or analysis of
      phylogenetic history. In Y-STR (short tandem repeat) analysis tests on 668
      habitants of Jeju Island, the largest island in the Korean peninsula located
      apart from the mainland, a deletion at DYS448 was found in 10 samples. The length
      of deletion was estimated by confirming specific Sequence Tagged Site (STS)
      markers ranging from G66018 to sY1201. Patterns found were similar to those of
      the Kalmyks, a tribe that has had strong social and genetic influences in Jeju
      Island in the past. Historically from 1273 on, Jeju Island was governed by
      Mongolian for about one hundred years. The results of this study suggest such
      historical aspects affected the genetic composition of people living in Jeju
      Island. Furthermore, previous reports showed that Y chromosomal deletions and
      region specific Y chromosomal mutations depended on regional differences. This
      study may be useful for a better understanding of the genetic structure of Jeju
      habitants as well as Korean population for the purpose of forensic practice and
      population genetics.

PMID- 28555243
TI  - No association between nutrition and body height in German kindergarten children 
      a pilot study.
AB  - ABSTRACT: Anthropologists all over the world are discussing influences on
      individual height including quantity and quality of nutrition. To examine whether
      a relationship between nutritional components and height can be found this pilot
      study has been developed. The research samples consisted of 44 children (age 3-6
      years) attending two different kindergartens in Germany. Height measurements were
      taken for each child. Furthermore the parents had to fill out a 24-hour
      questionnaire to document their children's eating habits during the weekend. In
      order to standardize the measured height values z-scores were calculated with
      reference to the average height of the overall cohort. The results of correlation
      analysis indicate that height is not significantly related to any of the main
      nutritional components as protein (r = -0.148), carbohydrates (r = 0.126), fat (r
      = 0.107), fibre (r = -0.289), vitamin (r = 0.050), calcium (r = 0.110), potassium
      (r = 0.189) and overall calorie intake (r = 0.302). In conclusion, it can be
      stated that the quality of nutrition may not have a strong influence on
      individual height. However, due to the small sample size further research should
      be provided with a larger cohort of children to verify the present results.

PMID- 28555244
TI  - Estimation of ancestry for an undocumented mandibular sample using dental
      morphology.
AB  - ABSTRACT: Dental morphology is a useful resource in archaeology, anthropology and
      paleontology, due to its genetic determination. Teeth are a material of high
      durability and stability. This work aims to study the dental morphology and test
      the Portuguese and European biological affinities of an undocumented mandibular
      sample, through comparison with global and Iberian samples. The dental traits in
      163 mandibles (kept at the Museum of Natural History of the University of Oporto,
      Portugal) were scored using a standardized methodology (ASUDAS: Arizona State
      University Dental Anthropology System) and compared to other world-wide and
      Iberian samples through Principal Components (PCA) and Mean Measure of Divergence
      analyses. The undertaken quantitative and statistical tests demonstrated the
      unknown sample to be closer to the Coimbra Portuguese sample in all three
      comparisons. This suggests this undocumented mandibular sample is possibly of
      Portuguese 19th/20th century origin.

PMID- 28555245
TI  - 2D:4D finger length ratio and skeletal biomarker of biological aging.
AB  - ABSTRACT: The aim of this population-based study was to evaluate the association
      between the index to ring (2D:4D) finger length ratio and the osseographic score
      (OSS), the skeletal biomarker of biological aging. A sample included 802 males
      and 738 females who had participated in a Chuvashian skeletal aging study. Age,
      sex, basic demographics, anthropometric data and X-rays of both hands were
      collected. Each hand was visually classified on X-ray as either Type 1 - index
      finger was longer than ring finger; Type 2 - equal; or Type 3 - shorter than the
      ring finger. OSS is a skeletal biomarker that comprises osteoporotic and
      osteoarthritic changes observable on a hands X-ray. The mean age of males in the
      studies sample was 46.98 +/- 17.10 and mean age females was 48.65 +/- 16.62. OSS
      showed significant association with age (r = 0.886, p < 0.001), body mass index
      (BMI) (r-0.253, p < 0.001) and sex (F = 13.771, p < 0.001). Results of one-way
      ANCOVA for finger length ratio types of right hand showed a significant
      difference in OSS (d.f. = 2, F = 7.569, p = 0.001), after adjustment for age,
      sex, and BMI. The posthoc comparison showed that individuals with Type 3 (2D <
      4D) ratio showed significantly higher OSS scores that ones with Type 1 (p =
      0.012) and Type 2 (p = 0.003). In an analysis of finger length ratio types of
      left hand also a significant difference in OSS was found (d.f. = 2, F = 3.290, p
      = 0.038). The posthoc comparison showed that individuals with Type 3 (2D < 4D)
      ratio showed significantly higher OSS scores that ones with Type 2 (p = 0.33)
      ratio. Finger length ratio is associated with an OSS, a skeletal biomarker of
      biological aging. Individuals with Type 3 finger length pattern showed
      significantly higher OSS that ones with Type 1 and Type 2.

PMID- 28555246
TI  - Generating equations to estimate body mass of Korean skeletal remains.
AB  - ABSTRACT: This study aims to generate Korean specific standards for body mass
      estimation and compare their performance to previous techniques derived from non
      Korean samples. Due to a lack of known reference samples in Korea, estimation
      equations were generated using the hybrid method on 106 Korean unknown skeletons.
      In the first phase of the hybrid method (morphometric method), a downward
      adjustment of 4.5 kg was necessary to compensate for a systematic overestimation
      associated with the morphometric method being applied to Asian samples. Estimates
      using the adjusted morphometric method were regarded as actual body mass. New
      body mass equations revealed a better performance in accuracy and precision than
      previous techniques. However, caution is required in their forensic application
      because they yield an estimate for body mass around onset of adulthood, rather
      than the body mass at the time of death.

PMID- 28555247
TI  - Rib anomalies in a Neolithic period skeleton from Croatia.
AB  - ABSTRACT: Congenital anomalies develop during intrauterine development. They can
      occur in soft tissues as well as skeletal elements and vary from minor to life
      threatening. In this paper we present a case of an individual from the Neolithic
      site of Vinka, Croatia. This adult male exhibited multiple congenital anomalies
      on cranial and postcranial skeleton. These include several rib anomalies on the
      right side: hyperplasia of the third rib, bifid fourth rib and flaring of the
      eighth rib. Additionally, lambdoid ossicles, parastyle of the second maxillary
      molar and supracondylar processes of the humeri are present. In this study we put
      emphasis on rib anomalies, very rarely reported in archaeological settings, and
      compare them to clinical cases.

PMID- 28555249
TI  - Anatomy of the cutaneous lymphatic system of the trunk: a clinico-anatomical
      study of 90 cutaneous melanomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: The cutaneous lymphatic system of the trunk is a complex network, the
      anatomical knowledge of which remains unclear. The lymphatic system plays a major
      role in the dissemination of lymphophilic cancers like melanomas. The aim of this
      study was to improve our knowledge, optimize the care of patients with cutaneous
      tumors of the trunk, and to use our clinical experience of the topography of
      pathologic lymph nodes related to cutaneous melanomas and depicted by
      lymphoscintigraphy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective study included 90
      consecutive patients who had primary resection of cutaneous melanoma of the trunk
      between June 2011 and January 2015. All patients had lymphatic mapping by
      lymphoscintigraphy, followed by sentinel lymph node procedure. We compared data
      of lymphatic imaging (lymphoscintigraphy and SPECT-CT) and surgery. We divided
      the trunk into 36 regions based on cutaneous anatomical landmarks to determine
      the topography of the lymphatic system for each tumor. RESULTS: Our study showed
      cutaneous lymphatic drainage of melanomas of the trunk in 16 different areas.
      This drainage could be single or multiple. We observed that drainage could be
      controlateral in medial regions of the trunk, and lymphatic pathway could be
      retrograde. This drainage could be bilateral for medial regions and mainly into
      axillary areas for regions above L1 level. Posterior regions of the trunk had
      more diversity of drainage areas than anterior regions. CONCLUSIONS: Cutaneous
      lymphatic drainage of the trunk was not limited to axillary and inguinal areas,
      showed interindividual variability, and was single or multiple, unilateral or
      bilateral, and unpredictable.

PMID- 28555248
TI  - Fat emboli syndrome and the orthopaedic trauma surgeon: lessons learned and
      clinical recommendations.
AB  - PURPOSE: Fat emboli syndrome is a rare but well-described complication of long
      bone fractures classically characterised by a triad of respiratory failure,
      mental status changes and petechial rash. In this paper, we present the case of a
      patient who sustained bilateral femoral fractures and subsequently developed FES.
      Our aim was to review and summarise the current literature regarding the
      pathophysiology and management of fat emboli syndrome (FES) and propose an
      algorithm for treating patients with bilateral femoral fractures to reduce the
      risk of FES. METHODS: A literature analysis was performed to determine
      implications in the clinical setting. RESULTS: Currently, there exists little
      high-quality evidence to guide the orthopaedic surgeon in identifying patients at
      highest risk of FES or in preventing FES in patients with multiple long-bone
      fractures. However, the literature does suggest that the risk is directly related
      to the volume of marrow displaced and inversely related to both the time to
      fracture stabilisation and the respiratory reserve of the patient. Based on these
      correlations, we propose an algorithm for treating patients with bilateral
      femoral fractures, taking into consideration haemodynamic and pulmonary
      stability. CONCLUSIONS: Our algorithm for managing bilateral femoral fractures
      prioritises early stabilisation with external fixation, staged intramedullary
      nailing and conversion to plate fixation if FES develops. This protocol is meant
      to be the basis of future investigations of optimal treatment strategies.

PMID- 28555250
TI  - Ultrasound biomechanical anatomy of the soft structures in relation to the ulnar
      nerve in the cubital tunnel of the elbow.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic ulnar nerve entrapment worsened by elbow flexion is the most
      common injury, but rare painful conditions may also be related to ulnar nerve
      instability. The posterior bundle of the medial collateral ligament (pMCL) and
      the retinaculum, respectively form a soft floor and a ceiling for the cubital
      tunnel. The aim of our study was to dynamically assess these soft structures of
      the cubital tunnel focusing on those involved in the biomechanics of the ulnar
      nerve. METHODS: Forty healthy volunteers had a bilateral ultrasonography of the
      cubital tunnel. Elbows were scanned in full extension, 45 degrees  and 90 degrees
      , and maximal passive flexion. Morphological changes of the nerve and related
      structures were dynamically assessed on transverse views. RESULTS: Both the pMCL
      and the retinaculum tightened with flexion. During elbow flexion, the tightening
      of the pMCL superficially moved the ulnar nerve remote from the osseous floor of
      the retroepicondylar groove. A retinaculum was visible in all 69 tunnels with
      stable nerves (86.3%), tightened in flexion, but absent in 11 tunnels with
      unstable nerves (13.7%). The retinaculum was fibrous in 60 elbows and muscular in
      nine, the nine muscular variants did not significantly influence the biomechanics
      of stable nerves. Stable nerves flattened in late flexion between the tightened
      pMCL and retinaculum, whereas unstable nerves transiently flattened when
      translating against the anterior osseous edge of the groove. CONCLUSION: The
      retinaculum and the pMCL are key structures in the biomechanics of the ulnar
      nerve in the cubital tunnel of the elbow.

PMID- 28555251
TI  - Post-resistance exercise ingestion of milk protein attenuates plasma TNFalpha and
      TNFr1 expression on monocyte subpopulations.
AB  - Attenuating TNFalpha/TNFr1 signaling in monocytes has been proposed as a means of
      mitigating inflammation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of
      a milk protein supplement on TNFalpha and monocyte TNFr1 expression. Ten
      resistance-trained men (24.7 +/- 3.4 years; 90.1 +/- 11.3 kg; 176.0 +/- 4.9 cm)
      ingested supplement (SUPP) or placebo (PL) immediately post-exercise in a
      randomized, cross-over design. Blood samples were obtained at baseline (BL),
      immediately (IP), 30-min (30P), 1-h (1H), 2-h (2H), and 5-h (5H) post-exercise to
      assess plasma concentrations of myoglobin; tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNFalpha); and expression of tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFr1) on
      classical, intermediate, and non-classical monocytes. Magnitude-based inferences
      were used to provide inferences on the true effects of SUPP compared to PL.
      Plasma TNFalpha concentrations were "likely attenuated" (91.6% likelihood effect)
      from BL to 30P in the SUPP group compared with PL (d = 0.87; mean effect: 2.3 +/-
      2.4 pg mL-1). TNFr1 expressions on classical (75.9% likelihood effect) and
      intermediate (93.0% likelihood effect) monocytes were "likely attenuated" from BL
      to 2H in the SUPP group compared with PL (d = 0.67; mean effect: 510 +/- 670 RFU,
      and d = 1.05; mean effect: 2500 +/- 2300 RFU, respectively). TNFr1 expression on
      non-classical monocytes was "likely attenuated" (77.6% likelihood effect) from BL
      to 1H in the SUPP group compared with PL (d = 0.69; mean effect: 330 +/- 430
      RFU). Ingestion of a milk protein supplement immediately post-exercise appears to
      attenuate both plasma TNFalpha concentrations and TNFr1 expression on monocyte
      subpopulations in resistance-trained men.

PMID- 28555253
TI  - A Turkish case of galactosialidosis with a new homozygous mutation in CTSA gene.
AB  - Galactosialidosis is an autosamal reressive lysosomal storage disease caused by a
      combined deficiency of lysosomal beta-galactosidase and neuraminidase, due to a
      primary defect in protective protein/cathepsin A. Three subtypes are recognized:
      the early infantile type, the late infantile type, and the juvenile/adult type.
      We report here a female patient with early infantile galactosialidosis who was
      born at 35 weeks of gestation. After birth she remained at the neonatal intensive
      care unit. Physical examination revealed, coarse facial features, hepatomegaly,
      cardiac murmur and diffuse hypotonia. The patient's mother had a past history of
      fetal hydrops history. The diagnosis of galactosialidosis was confirmed by
      decreased activity of beta-galactosidase and undetectable neuraminidase activity
      in fibroblasts. Genetic examination revealed a new homozygous mutation
      (c.1284delG) in the CTSA gene.

PMID- 28555252
TI  - The perinatal effects of maternal caffeine intake on fetal and neonatal brain
      levels of testosterone, estradiol, and dihydrotestosterone in rats.
AB  - Testosterone, estradiol, and dihydrotestosterone are the main sex steroid
      hormones responsible for the organization and sexual differentiation of brain
      structures during early development. The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical
      axis, adrenal cells, and gonads play a key role in the production of sex steroids
      and express adenosine receptors. Caffeine is a non-selective adenosine
      antagonist; therefore, it can modulate metabolic pathways in these tissues.
      Besides, the proportion of pregnant women that consume caffeine is ~60%. That is
      why the relationship between maternal caffeine consumption and fetal development
      is important. Therefore, we aimed to investigate this modulatory effect of
      maternal caffeine consumption on sex steroids in the fetal and neonatal brain
      tissues. Pregnant rats were treated with a low (0.3 g/L) or high (0.8 g/L) dose
      of caffeine in their drinking water during pregnancy and lactation. The
      testosterone, estradiol, and dihydrotestosterone levels in the frontal cortex and
      hypothalamus were measured using radioimmunoassay at embryonic day 19 (E19),
      birth (PN0), and postnatal day 4 (PN4). The administration of low-dose caffeine
      increased the body weight in PN4 male and female rats and anogenital index in PN4
      males. The administration of high-dose caffeine decreased the adrenal weight in
      E19 male rats and increased testosterone levels in the frontal cortex of E19
      female rats and the hypothalamus of PN0 male rats. Maternal caffeine intake
      during pregnancy affects sex steroid levels in the frontal cortex and
      hypothalamus of the offspring. This concentration changes of the sex steroids in
      the brain may influence behavioral and neuroendocrine functions at some point in
      adult life.

PMID- 28555254
TI  - Successful Antifungal Combination Therapy and Surgical Approach for Aspergillus
      fumigatus Suppurative Thyroiditis Associated with Thyrotoxicosis and Review of
      Published Reports.
AB  - In immunocompromised patients, Aspergillus infections are important causes of
      morbidity and mortality. We describe a patient with cryoglobulinemic vasculitis
      who developed disseminated invasive aspergillosis with thyrotoxicosis caused by
      Aspergillus fumigatus. The diagnosis was based upon radiological, microbiological
      and pathological findings. The patient was treated successfully with voriconazole
      and caspofungin treatment followed by total thyroidectomy. We provide an overview
      of published reports on Aspergillus thyroiditis with an emphasis on therapeutic
      approaches.

PMID- 28555255
TI  - A Simple Method for the Purification of Nisin.
AB  - Nisin, an antimicrobial peptide showing activity against a broad range of Gram
      positive bacteria, is widely used as a food preservative and has potential as a
      therapeutic for a range of infectious diseases. Here, we present a simple
      purification method, based on a salting-out approach, which can produce a powder
      containing ~33% nisin, from a nisin-producing culture in a whey permeate-based
      medium. This process removes over 99% of the lactic acid, NaCl, lactose and non
      nisin proteins from the cell-free culture supernatant. The approach can also
      enrich a commonly used commercial nisin preparation over 30-fold to a purity of
      ~58%. These are higher purities than comparable published methods. The simplicity
      of this approach facilitates its use in research and also its scale-up.

PMID- 28555256
TI  - Minimally invasive combined glaucoma and cataract surgery: clinical results of
      the smallest ab interno gel stent.
AB  - PURPOSE: To verify the efficacy in intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction and
      safety of the smallest gel stent (XEN 45 Gel Stent) microincisional glaucoma
      surgery combined with microincisional cataract surgery (MICS). METHODS:
      Nonrandomized prospective clinical study. Forty-one eyes of 33 patients with open
      angle glaucoma underwent a XEN 45 Gel Stent implantation combined with MICS.
      Treatment outcomes analyzed included: IOP, medication use, intra- and
      postoperative complications. At the end of the follow-up, we evaluated the
      complete success, defined as a postoperative IOP >= 6 and <=17 mmHg without
      glaucoma medications and the qualified success defined as a postoperative IOP >=
      6 and <=17 mmHg, with glaucoma medications. RESULTS: The mean preoperative IOP
      was 22.5 +/- 3.7 mmHg on 2.5 +/- 0.9 medication classes. After 12 months, the
      mean postoperative IOP was 13.1 +/- 2.4 mmHg (mean IOP reduction of 41.82%) with
      a mean of 0.4 +/- 0.8 medication classes (P < 0.05 for IOP and medications). The
      complete success rate was achieved in 80.4% and a qualified success in 97.5%.
      There were no major intra- and postoperative complications during the first year
      of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the smaller diameter XEN
      45 gel implant is statistically effective in reducing IOP and medications in
      glaucoma patients with a low rate of complications.

PMID- 28555257
TI  - Professor Enrico Mihich, 1928-2016.

PMID- 28555258
TI  - Peripheral blood T cell alterations in newly diagnosed diffuse large B cell
      lymphoma patients and their long-term dynamics upon rituximab-based
      chemoimmunotherapy.
AB  - The importance of T cell-dependent immune responses in achieving long-term cure
      of chemoimmunotherapy-treated cancer patients is underscored by the recently
      described "vaccinal effect" exerted by therapeutic mAbs. In accordance, pre- and
      post-therapy peripheral blood lymphopenia represents a well-established negative
      prognostic factor in DLBCL. We analyzed the phenotypic and functional (IFNgamma
      production, and Granzyme B (GrzB) cytotoxic granule marker expression) profile of
      peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets ("conventional" CD4+ and CD8+,
      FOXP3+CD25bright Treg, and "innate-like" CD56+) in DLBCL patients at diagnosis,
      and assessed the long-term impact of R-CHOP chemoimmunotherapy, in a prospective
      study. At diagnosis, DLBCL patients showed lower lymphocyte counts, due to
      selective decrement of CD4+ T (including Treg) and B lymphocytes. While all T
      cell subsets transiently decreased during therapy, CD4+ T cell and Treg remained
      significantly lower than controls, up to 1 year after R-CHOP. Phenotypically
      skewed profile of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets associated with higher frequencies
      of IFNgamma+ and GrzB+ cells at diagnosis, that transiently decreased during
      therapy, and re-attained persistently elevated levels, till up to 1 year after
      therapy. Differently, the pre-therapy elevated levels of circulating monocytes,
      and of plasma IL-6 and IL-10 rapidly normalized upon R-CHOP. In sum, we describe
      a quantitatively and functionally altered status of the peripheral blood T cell
      compartment in DLBCL patients at diagnosis, that persists long-term after tumor
      eradication, and it is only transiently perturbed by R-CHOP chemoimmunotherapy.
      Moreover, data suggest the association of selected T cell functional features
      with DLBCL phenotype, and with therapy outcome.

PMID- 28555259
TI  - In vitro differentiated plasmacytoid dendritic cells as a tool to induce anti
      leukemia activity of natural killer cells.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is believed to be resistant to NK cell
      mediated killing. To overcome this resistance, we developed an innovative
      approach based on NK cell stimulation with Toll-like receptor (TLR)-activated
      plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC). The translation of this approach into the
      clinic requires the production of high numbers of human pDC. Herein, we show that
      in vitro differentiation of cord blood CD34+ progenitors in the presence of aryl
      hydrocarbon receptor antagonists gives rise to clinically relevant numbers of
      pDC, as about 108 pDC can be produced from a typical cord blood unit. Blocking
      the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) pathway significantly increased the yield of
      pDC. When compared to pDC isolated from peripheral blood, in vitro differentiated
      pDC (ivD-pDC) exhibited an increased capacity to induce NK cell-mediated killing
      of ALL. Although ivD-pDC produced lower amounts of IFN-alpha than peripheral
      blood pDC upon TLR activation, they produced more IFN-lambda2, known to play a
      critical role in the induction of anti-tumoral NK cell functions. Both TLR-9 and
      TLR-7 ligands triggered pDC-induced NK cell activation, offering the possibility
      to use any clinical-grade TLR-7 or TLR-9 ligands in future clinical trials.
      Finally, adoptive transfer of ivD-pDC cultured in the presence of an AHR
      antagonist cured humanized mice with minimal ALL disease. Collectively, our
      results pave the way to clinical-grade production of sufficient numbers of human
      pDC for innate immunotherapy against ALL and other refractory malignancies.

PMID- 28555260
TI  - Serum Copeptin Predicts Severity and Recurrent Stroke in Ischemic Stroke
      Patients.
AB  - Several studies investigated the prognostic role of copeptin in stroke. The aim
      of this study is to assess copeptin levels in serum, and investigate their
      associations with risk of recurrent stroke in a 1-year follow-up study in
      patients with ischemic stroke. In this post hoc analysis, serum levels of
      copeptin and NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) were measured at the time of admission in a
      cohort of 316 patients with ischemic stroke. The end point was stroke recurrence
      after 1-year follow-up. We used logistic regression model to assess the
      relationship between copeptin levels and risk recurrent stroke. Logistic
      regression analysis considering traditional risk factors showed a relationship
      between serum copeptin levels and moderate-to-high clinical severity when serum
      copeptin was used as a continuous variable (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.03-1.09). In the
      follow-up, 54 patients (17.1%) had a stroke recurrence. The stroke recurrence
      events distribution across the copeptin quartiles ranged between 5.1% (first
      quartile) to 23.1% (fourth quartile). In multivariate models comparing the third
      (OR = 2.78; 95% CI 1.85-3.53) and fourth quartiles (OR = 4.00; 95% CI 2.86-6.50)
      against the first quartile of the copeptin, levels of copeptin were associated
      with stroke recurrence events. A higher serum copeptin level is a predictor of
      both severity at admission and stroke recurrence at 1-year in stroke patients.

PMID- 28555263
TI  - Diamond ring sign.

PMID- 28555262
TI  - qRfg3, a novel quantitative resistance locus against Gibberella stalk rot in
      maize.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: A quantitative trait locus  qRfg3 imparts recessive resistance to
      maize Gibberella stalk rot. qRfg3 has been mapped into a 350-kb interval and
      could reduce the disease severity index by ~26.6%. Gibberella stalk rot, caused
      by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum, severely affects maize yield and
      grain quality worldwide. To identify more resistance quantitative trait loci
      (QTLs) against this disease, we analyzed a recombinant inbred line (RIL)
      population derived from a cross between resistant H127R and susceptible C7-2
      inbred lines. Within this population, maize resistance to Gibberella stalk rot
      had high broad-sense heritability. A major QTL, qRfg3, on chromosome 3 was
      consistently detected across three field trials, accounting for 10.7-19.4% of the
      total phenotypic variation. Using a progeny-based sequential fine-mapping
      strategy, we narrowed qRfg3 down to an interval of ~350 kb. We further
      demonstrated that qRfg3 is a recessive resistance locus to Gibberella stalk rot
      that reduced the disease severity index by ~26.6%. Both the gene location and
      recessive genetic mode distinguish qRfg3 from other stalk rot resistance loci.
      Hence, qRfg3 is valuable as a complement to existing resistance QTLs to improve
      maize resistance to Gibberella stalk rot.

PMID- 28555264
TI  - Right posterior hepatic notch sign.

PMID- 28555261
TI  - Paradigm shift of therapeutic management of brain metastases in EGFR-mutant non
      small cell lung cancer in the era of targeted therapy.
AB  - Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) mutations commonly present brain metastases (BM) at the time of NSCLC
      diagnosis or during the clinical course. Conventionally, the prognosis of BM has
      been extremely poor, but the advent of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has
      drastically improved the prognosis in these patients. Despite the presence of the
      blood-brain barrier, EGFR-TKIs have dramatic therapeutic effects on both BM and
      extracranial disease. In addition, recent systemic chemotherapies reportedly play
      a role in controlling BM. These treatment modalities can potentially replace
      whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) to prevent or delay neurocognitive decline.
      Therefore, how to utilize these treatments is one issue. The other issue is what
      kind of treatment is best for recurrence after TKI therapy. Recent reports have
      shown a positive effect of a combination therapy of EGFR-TKI and radiotherapy on
      BM. Although neurocognitive decline is underscored when WBRT is considered, a
      survival benefit from WBRT has been proven especially in the potential long
      survivors with good prognostic index, especially disease-specific graded
      prognostic index (DS-GPA). In this review, treatment strategy including
      chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy is discussed in terms of risk-benefit
      balance in conjunction with DS-GPA.

PMID- 28555265
TI  - Whole-volume vs. segmental CT texture analysis of the liver to assess
      metachronous colorectal liver metastases.
AB  - PURPOSE: It is unclear whether changes in liver texture in patients with
      colorectal cancer are caused by diffuse (e.g., perfusional) changes throughout
      the liver or rather based on focal changes (e.g., presence of occult metastases).
      The aim of this study is to compare a whole-liver approach to a segmental
      (Couinaud) approach for measuring the CT texture at the time of primary staging
      in patients who later develop metachronous metastases and evaluate whether
      assessing CT texture on a segmental level is of added benefit. METHODS: 46
      Patients were included: 27 patients without metastases (follow-up >2 years) and
      19 patients who developed metachronous metastases within 24 months after
      diagnosis. Volumes of interest covering the whole liver were drawn on primary
      staging portal-phase CT. In addition, each liver segment was delineated
      separately. Mean gray-level intensity, entropy (E), and uniformity (U) were
      derived with different filters (sigma0.5-2.5). Patients/segments without
      metastases and patients/segments that later developed metachronous metastases
      were compared using independent samples t tests. RESULTS: Absolute differences in
      entropy and uniformity between the group without metastases and the group with
      metachronous metastases group were consistently smaller for the segmental
      approach compared to the whole-liver approach. No statistically significant
      differences were found in the texture measurements between both groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this small patient cohort, we could not demonstrate a clear
      predictive value to identify patients at risk of developing metachronous
      metastases within 2 years. Segmental CT texture analysis of the liver probably
      has no additional benefit over whole-liver texture analysis.

PMID- 28555268
TI  - [Medical assessment of environmental influences : New challenges for practice
      ante portas].

PMID- 28555266
TI  - Laparoscopic surgery for congenital biliary dilatation: a single-institution
      experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: Laparoscopic surgery as a treatment for congenital biliary dilatation is
      uncommon. We herein present a series of laparoscopic surgeries for congenital
      biliary dilatation performed in our institution and review our experience with
      this approach over a long period of time. METHODS: Medical records of 36
      consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for congenital biliary
      dilatation from 1996 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Data on patient
      demographics, operative time, blood loss, hospital stay, and complications were
      evaluated. A comparison between the former period (Group A, 1996-2005) and the
      latter period (Group B, 2006-2015) was performed. RESULTS: The patients comprised
      23 females and 13 males with a median age of 34 years. The median operative time,
      blood loss, and hospital stay was 493 min, 154 g, and 11 days, respectively.
      Total early and late complications occurred in 7 (19%) and 2 (5%) patients,
      respectively. A comparison between Groups A and B revealed no significant
      difference in operative time or complications, but operative blood loss, open
      conversion, and hospital stay were significantly lower in Group B than in Group A
      (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic surgery for congenital biliary dilatation is
      feasible and provides acceptable results. Further prospective studies of larger
      numbers of patients are needed.

PMID- 28555267
TI  - Long-term outcome of adipose-derived regenerative cell-enriched autologous fat
      transplantation for reconstruction after breast-conserving surgery for Japanese
      women with breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: More effective methods are needed for breast reconstruction after breast
      conserving surgery for breast cancer. The aim of this clinical study was to
      assess the perioperative and long-term outcomes of adipose-derived regenerative
      cell (ADRC)-enriched autologous fat grafting. METHODS: Ten female patients who
      had undergone breast-conserving surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy for breast
      cancer were enrolled. An ADRC-enriched fat graft prepared from the patient's
      adipose tissue was implanted at the time of adipose tissue harvest. The
      perioperative and long-term outcomes of the grafts, which included safety,
      efficacy, and questionnaire-based patient satisfaction, were investigated.
      RESULTS: The mean operation time was 188 +/- 30 min, and the mean duration of
      postoperative hospitalization was 1.2 +/- 0.4 days. No serious postoperative
      complications were associated with the procedure. Neither recurrence nor
      metastatic disease was observed during the follow-up period (7.8 +/- 1.5 years)
      after transplantation. Of 9 available patients, "more than or equal to average"
      satisfaction with breast appearance and overall satisfaction were reported by 6
      (66.7%) and 5 (55.6%) patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: ADRC-enriched
      autologous fat transplantation is thus considered to be safe perioperatively,
      with no long-term recurrence, for patients with breast cancer treated by breast
      conserving surgery, and it may be an option for breast reconstruction, even after
      adjuvant radiotherapy.

PMID- 28555269
TI  - Placement accuracy of external ventricular drain when comparing freehand
      insertion to neuronavigation guidance in severe traumatic brain injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: External ventricular drain (EVD) placement is a frequently performed
      neurosurgical procedure. Inaccuracies in drain positioning and the need for
      multiple passes using the classic freehand insertion technique is well reported
      in the literature, especially in the traumatic brain injury (TBI) population. The
      purpose of this study was to evaluate if electromagnetic neuronavigation guidance
      for EVD insertion improves placement accuracy and minimizes the number of passes
      in severe TBI patients. METHODS: Navigation was applied prospectively for all new
      severe TBI patients who required ventricular catheter placement over a period of
      1 year, and compared with a retrospective cohort of severe TBI patients who had
      EVD inserted freehand in the preceding year. The placement accuracy was evaluated
      using the Kakarla grading system; the number of passes was also compared.
      RESULTS: Fifty-four cases were recruited: 35 (64.8%) had their EVD placed using
      the freehand technique and 19 (35.2%) using navigation guidance. In the
      navigation group, the placement accuracy was: 94.7% (18/19) grade 1, 5.3% (1/19)
      grade 2, and none at grade 3. In comparison, freehand placement was associated
      with misplacement (grades 2 and 3) in 42.9% of the cases (p value = 0.009). The
      number of passes was significantly lower in the navigation group (mean of 1.16 +/
      0.38), compared with the freehand group (mean of 1.63 +/- 0.88) (p value =
      0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Using the navigation to guide EVD placement was associated
      with a significantly better accuracy and a lower number of passes in severe TBI
      patients.

PMID- 28555270
TI  - Critical review of brain AVM surgery, surgical results and natural history in
      2017.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An understanding of the present standing of surgery, surgical results
      and the role in altering the future morbidity and mortality of untreated brain
      arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) is appropriate considering the myriad
      alternative management pathways (including radiosurgery, embolization or some
      combination of treatments), varying risks and selection biases that have
      contributed to confusion regarding management. The purpose of this review is to
      clarify the link between the incidence of adverse outcomes that are reported from
      a management pathway of either surgery or no intervention with the projected
      risks of surgery or no intervention. METHODS: A critical review of the literature
      was performed on the outcomes of surgery and non-intervention for bAVM. An
      analysis of the biases and how these may have influenced the outcomes was
      included to attempt to identify reasonable estimates of risks. RESULTS: In the
      absence of treatment, the cumulative risk of future hemorrhage is approximately
      16% and 29% at 10 and 20 years after diagnosis of bAVM without hemorrhage and 35%
      and 45% at 10 and 20 years when presenting with hemorrhage (annualized, this risk
      would be approximately 1.8% for unruptured bAVMs and 4.7% for 8 years for bAVMs
      presenting with hemorrhage followed by the unruptured bAVM rate). The cumulative
      outcome of these hemorrhages depends upon whether the patient remains untreated
      and is allowed to have a further hemorrhage or is treated at this time. Overall,
      approximately 42% will develop a new permanent neurological deficit or death from
      a hemorrhagic event. The presence of an associated proximal intracranial aneurysm
      (APIA) and restriction of venous outflow may increase the risk for subsequent
      hemorrhage. Other risks for increased risk of hemorrhage (age, pregnancy, female)
      were examined, and their purported association with hemorrhage is difficult to
      support. Both the Spetzler-Martin grading system (and its compaction into the
      Spetzler-Ponce tiers) and Lawton-Young supplementary grading system are excellent
      in predicting the risk of surgery. The 8-year risk of unfavorable outcome from
      surgery (complication leading to a permanent new neurological deficit with a
      modified Rankin Scale score of greater than one, residual bAVM or recurrence) is
      dependent on bAVM size, the presence of deep venous drainage (DVD) and location
      in critical brain (eloquent location). For patients with bAVMs who have neither a
      DVD nor eloquent location, the 8-year risk for an unfavorable outcome increases
      with size (increasing from 1 cm to 6 cm) from 1% to 9%. For patients with bAVM
      who have either a DVD or eloquent location (but not both), the 8-year risk for an
      unfavorable outcome increases with the size (increasing from 1 cm to 6 cm) from
      4% to 35%. For patients with bAVM who have both a DVD and eloquent location, the
      8-year risk for unfavorable outcome increases with size (increasing from 1 cm to
      3 cm) from 12% to 38%. CONCLUSION: Patients with a Spetzler-Ponce A bAVM
      expecting a good quality of life for the next 8 years are likely to do better
      with surgery in expert centers than remaining untreated. Ongoing research is
      urgently required on the outcome of management pathways for bAVM.

PMID- 28555271
TI  - Delayed-onset post-craniotomy headache responsive to botulinum toxin A: a case
      series.
AB  - We report here the case of four patients presenting with delayed-onset temporal
      pain after pterional craniotomy. They reported similar symptoms: attacks of pain
      over the temporal region, ipsilateral to the operative site, irradiating around
      the eye and lasting from 10 min to 1 h. All patients had hypertrophy of at least
      one part of the temporalis muscle. All responded dramatically to botulinum toxin
      A injection (25 to 50 Botox(r) units) into the temporalis muscle. We suggest that
      the headaches were caused by aberrant nerve regeneration following surgical
      injury to the frontal branch of the facial nerve.

PMID- 28555272
TI  - Anatomical variants and bilateral lacrimal pathways surgery: avoiding unnecessary
      surgery.
AB  - Success rates (SR) of transcanalicular diode laser-assisted dacryocystorhinostomy
      (TCL DCR) may be affected by the presence of nasal anatomical variations and
      additionally by whether or not the pathology is bilateral. The aim is to
      determine whether it is necessary to perform preliminary nasal anatomical
      variations surgery and to determine whether bilateral cases may be operated
      simultaneously. We extracted the patients undergoing simultaneous bilateral TCL
      DCR and we compared SR across the different groups using ANOVA, Chi-square
      testing and logistical regression. 159 Lacrimal pathways were operated: 89
      unilateral and 35 bilateral. Non-nasal anatomical variations (non-NAV) unilateral
      surgery returned a success of 72.72%. The mean SR for nasal anatomical variations
      (NAV) unilateral surgery was 70.1%. The SR for non-NAV bilateral surgery was
      60.86%. The mean SR for nasal anatomical variations bilateral surgery was 58.33%.
      As we identified no significant differences in the SR for NAV and non-NAV
      patients, we can avoid simultaneous corrective surgery.

PMID- 28555273
TI  - Effects of transcutaneous electrical stimulation on vocal folds adduction.
AB  - According to most previous studies, inducing movements in internal laryngeal
      muscles by transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) was impossible. However,
      the movements have been reported after using needle electrodes inserted into the
      internal superior laryngeal nerve (ISLN). Herein, we aimed to apply an innovative
      TES protocol to cause movements in vocal folds. A short duration and high
      frequency electrical current was applied by two surface electrodes just above the
      entrance of ISLN to larynx. The subjects were 32 normal participants (mean age =
      23.87; SD = 3.43). During TES application, the vocal folds' movements were
      examined by flexible videonasolaryngoscopy. Statistical paired t test was used to
      analyze the differences of vocal folds opening angle, in degrees, during rest and
      TES periods. Furthermore, the movements were judged by seven experienced speech
      pathologists via a 9-point rate scale from -1 (any abduction) to 8 (complete
      adduction). The mean vocal folds adduction increased by 35.68 degrees  (t = 9.35,
      p > 0.001) due to TES application. The mean qualitative scores assigned by raters
      to each subject were between 6 and 7 points, which indicate an acceptable
      adduction in vocal folds through TES. Unlike previous studies, the applied TES
      protocol in this research induced significant vocal fold movements. This might be
      attributed to our different stimulation parameters, which were designed to
      penetrate deeply and stimulate ISLN specifically. It is worth noting that we
      introduced a novel TES protocol, which should be confirmed and then examined as a
      complementary therapy for neurologic voice disorders in future studies.

PMID- 28555274
TI  - Survival analysis of 287 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients in a
      single institution: a retrospective comparison of two consecutive time intervals
      with surgical and conservative treatment approaches.
AB  - This study is a retrospective analysis of clinico-pathological data to
      investigate survival rates of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
      (OPSCC) treated with different modalities in a single academic head and neck
      cancer center in different time intervals. Altogether, 287 patients with OPSCC
      were included in this comparison. Patients were analysed during two different
      treatment periods: Group 1 included patients treated mainly with primary surgery
      +/- adjuvant radio(chemo)therapy between 2002 and 2007, while Group 2 included
      patients treated with organ/function-preservation protocols if indicated. Main
      outcome measures were overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS).
      Between 2002 and 2007, early-stage OPSCC showed a 5-year OS of 75% compared to
      that of 86% between 2008 and 2013. Locally advanced OPSCC showed a 5-year OS of
      66% between 2002 and 2007 compared to that of 74% between 2008 and 2013. RFS in
      early-stage OPSCC was 48% between 2002 and 2007 in contrast to that of 77%
      between 2008 and 2013. With locally advanced OPSCC, RFS was 55% between 2002 and
      2007 compared to that of 56% between 2008 and 2013. These differences were
      statistically not significant. The OS and RFS remained generally unchanged over
      the analysed time period. There was no significant difference in the outcomes
      with regards to HPV status and to their treatment modality.

PMID- 28555275
TI  - Control of force during rapid visuomotor force-matching tasks can be described by
      discrete time PID control algorithms.
AB  - Force trajectories during isometric force-matching tasks involving isometric
      contractions vary substantially across individuals. In this study, we
      investigated if this variability can be explained by discrete time proportional,
      integral, derivative (PID) control algorithms with varying model parameters. To
      this end, we analyzed the pinch force trajectories of 24 subjects performing two
      rapid force-matching tasks with visual feedback. Both tasks involved isometric
      contractions to a target force of 10% maximal voluntary contraction. One task
      involved a single action (pinch) and the other required a double action
      (concurrent pinch and wrist extension). 50,000 force trajectories were simulated
      with a computational neuromuscular model whose input was determined by a PID
      controller with different PID gains and frequencies at which the controller
      adjusted muscle commands. The goal was to find the best match between each
      experimental force trajectory and all simulated trajectories. It was possible to
      identify one realization of the PID controller that matched the experimental
      force produced during each task for most subjects (average index of similarity:
      0.87 +/- 0.12; 1 = perfect similarity). The similarities for both tasks were
      significantly greater than that would be expected by chance (single action: p =
      0.01; double action: p = 0.04). Furthermore, the identified control frequencies
      in the simulated PID controller with the greatest similarities decreased as task
      difficulty increased (single action: 4.0 +/- 1.8 Hz; double action: 3.1 +/- 1.3
      Hz). Overall, the results indicate that discrete time PID controllers are
      realistic models for the neural control of force in rapid force-matching tasks
      involving isometric contractions.

PMID- 28555276
TI  - Suppression of phosphorylated MAPK and caspase 3 by carbon dioxide.
AB  - Although CO2 is produced during the oxidation of different substrates in all
      types of cells, the role of this gas in the regulation of cellular function is
      not clearly understood. Since changes in several signal transduction as well as
      apoptotic, anti-apoptotic, and other proteins are known to modify cellular
      function, we investigated if some of these proteins are altered upon incubating
      the rat hind leg skeletal muscle in a medium enriched with CO2 (1000-1200 ppm)
      for 30 min. CO2 was observed to depress phosphorylated levels of ERK1 (P44) and
      ERK2 (P42) without affecting the unphosphorylated content of these MAPK proteins.
      On the other hand, no change in p38 MAPK protein was found but the content of its
      degradation product 30 kDa proteins (both phosphorylated and unphosphorylated)
      was decreased. No alterations in the content of other signaling proteins (PKA and
      Akt), inflammatory molecule (TNF-alpha), and vascular endothelial growth factor
      (VEGF) were seen upon exposure of the muscle to CO2. The content for apoptotic
      and anti-apoptotic proteins (Bad and Bcl2), except for a decrease in caspase 3,
      were also not affected by CO2. These results indicate that CO2 may serve as a
      gasotransmitter to regulate cellular function by depressing MAPK and caspase 3
      activities.

PMID- 28555277
TI  - Association between anti-Porphyromonas gingivalis antibody, anti-citrullinated
      protein antibodies, and rheumatoid arthritis : A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between anti
      Porphyromonas gingivalis (anti-P. gingivalis) antibody levels and rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) and its correlation with anti-citrullinated protein antibodies
      (ACPA). METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of studies comparing (a) anti-P.
      gingivalis antibody levels in RA patients and healthy controls and (b) the
      correlation coefficients between the anti-P. gingivalis antibody levels and ACPA
      in RA patients. RESULTS: The study included 14 articles with 3829 RA patients and
      1239 controls. Our meta-analysis showed that anti-P. gingivalis antibody levels
      were significantly higher in the RA group than in the control group (standardized
      mean difference [SMD] = 0.630, 95% CI = 0.272-0.989, p = 0.001). Subgroup
      analysis revealed that RA patients had significantly elevated anti-P. gingivalis
      antibody levels compared with healthy controls, but not compared with the non-RA
      control group and also not between different sample sizes. Anti-P. gingivalis
      antibody levels were significantly higher in the RA group than in the control
      group in the age-/sex-matched population, but not in the unmatched population.
      Anti-P. gingivalis antibody levels were significantly higher in the ACPA-positive
      group than in the ACPA-negative group (SMD = 0.322, 95% CI = 0.164-0.480, p = 6.4
      * 10-5). Meta-analysis of the correlation coefficients showed a significant
      positive correlation between anti-P. gingivalis antibody levels and ACPA
      (correlation coefficient = 0.147, 95% CI = 0.033-0.258, p = 0.012). CONCLUSION:
      Our meta-analysis demonstrated that anti-P. gingivalis antibody levels were
      significantly higher in patients with RA and they were positively correlated with
      ACPA.

PMID- 28555278
TI  - The response of archaeal species to seasonal variables in a subtropical aerated
      soil: insight into the low abundant methanogens.
AB  - Archaea are cosmopolitan in aerated soils around the world. While the dominance
      of Thaumarchaeota has been reported in most soils, the methanogens are recently
      found to be ubiquitous but with low abundances in the aerated soil globally.
      However, the seasonal changes of Archaea community in the aerated soils are still
      in the mist. In this study, we investigated the change of Archaea in the context
      of environmental variables over a period of 12 months in a subtropical soil on
      the Chongming Island, China. The results showed that Nitrososphaera spp. were the
      dominant archaeal population while the methanogens were in low proportions but
      highly diverse (including five genera: Methanobacterium, Methanocella,
      Methanosaeta, Methanosarcina, and Methanomassiliicoccus) in the aerated soil
      samples determined by high throughput sequencing. A total of 126 LSA correlations
      were found in the dataset including all the 72 archaeal OTUs and 8 environmental
      factors. A significance index defined as the pagerank score of each OTU divided
      by its relative abundance was used to evaluate the significance of each OTU. The
      results showed that five out of 17 methanogen OTUs were significantly positively
      correlated with temperature, suggesting those methanogens might increase with
      temperature rather than being dormant in the aerated soils. Given the metabolic
      response of methanogens to temperature under aerated soil conditions, their
      contribution to the global methane cycle warrants evaluation.

PMID- 28555280
TI  - Fabrication of Low-Generation Dendrimers into Nanostructures for Efficient and
      Nontoxic Gene Delivery.
AB  - Dendrimers with well-defined molecular structure and high monodispersity have
      gained tremendous interest in gene delivery. However, current gene carriers based
      on dendrimers are either not effective or are too toxic on the transfected cells.
      The efficacy and cytotoxicity of dendrimers are strongly correlated with their
      molecular weight or generation. High-generation dendrimers are reported with
      relatively high transfection efficacy but serious cytotoxicity due to the excess
      positive charges on the polymers, while low-generation dendrimers with minimal
      toxicity have poor polyplex stability and thus weak transfection efficacy. To
      break up the correlation between efficacy and toxicity, low-generation dendrimers
      were fabricated into various nanostructures by several strategies to improve
      their gene-binding capacity, polyplex stability, and transfection efficacy
      without inducing additional toxicity. In this review article, we will highlight
      recent advances in the development of assembled dendrimer nanostructures for
      efficient and non-toxic gene delivery. Specifically, the principles and
      strategies in the fabrication of dendrimer nanostructures are intensively
      reviewed.

PMID- 28555279
TI  - Mercury uptake by halophytes in response to a long-term contamination in coastal
      wetland salt marshes (northern Adriatic Sea).
AB  - Mercury (Hg) distribution in saltmarsh sediments and in three selected halophytes
      (Limonium narbonense, Sarcocornia fruticosa and Atriplex portulacoides) of a
      wetland system (Marano and Grado Lagoon, Italy) following a contamination
      gradient in sediments was investigated. The Hg uptake was evaluated at the root
      system level by calculating the enrichment factor (EF) and in the aboveground
      tissues by means of the translocation factor (TF). The related methylmercury
      (MeHg) concentrations in the halophytes were also investigated with regard to the
      location of the sites and their degree of contamination. Hg concentration in
      halophytes seemed poorly correlated both with the total Hg in rhizo-sediments and
      with the specific plant considered, supporting the evidence that the chemico
      physical parameters of sediments could significantly affect metal availability
      for plants. Hg concentrations in roots increased with depth and were 20-fold
      higher than content measured in related rhizo-sediments (high EF). A low content
      of Hg is translocated in aboveground tissues (very low TF values), thus
      highlighting a kind of avoidance strategy of these halophytes against Hg
      toxicity. MeHg values were comparable between the two sites and among species,
      but the translocation from below- to aboveground plant tissues was more active.

PMID- 28555281
TI  - Disease activity and mucosal healing in inflammatory bowel disease: a new role
      for histopathology?
AB  - Histologic evaluation of disease activity in the setting of inflammatory bowel
      disease is gaining interest within the gastroenterology community. Recent data
      suggests that histologic measurements of inflammation in ulcerative colitis are
      more sensitive at detecting disease activity and perform better than endoscopic
      measurements in predicting clinical outcomes. Histologic measurements are also
      increasingly used in ulcerative colitis clinical trials to assess response to new
      therapies. Histologic measurements of disease activity are less well studied in
      Crohn's disease, but are gaining attention. Current published treatment
      algorithms in inflammatory bowel disease do not take into consideration
      histologic activity; however, this may change in the near future. In order for
      histologic measurements to be included in clinical decision-making, validated,
      reliable, and responsive histologic scoring systems are needed. In this review,
      the recent literature on the significance of histologic activity in both
      ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease is summarized. Histologic scoring systems
      are also briefly discussed.

PMID- 28555283
TI  - Statin use does not protect from fractures: the healthy adherer effect is a
      plausible explanation in observational studies.

PMID- 28555282
TI  - SMARCA4-deficient pulmonary adenocarcinoma: clinicopathological,
      immunohistochemical, and molecular characteristics of a novel aggressive neoplasm
      with a consistent TTF1neg/CK7pos/HepPar-1pos immunophenotype.
AB  - Alterations in SMARCA4, a member of the chromatin remodeling Switch Sucrose Non
      Fermentable (SWI/SNF) complex, characterize a subset of non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC), but detailed morphological and immunophenotypic description of
      this tumor type is lacking. We describe 20 NSCLC cases found on routine screening
      not to express SMARCA4 by immunohistochemistry (IHC). These tumors were stained
      for CK7, TTF1, SMARCA2, SMARCA4, SMARCB1, and HepPar-1 and analyzed for molecular
      alterations, using a 160 cancer-related gene panel including the full coding
      sequence of SMARCA4. Patients were eight females and 12 males aged 41 to 76
      (median, 60). Of 18 tumors with detailed data, 14 presented with synchronous
      distant metastases (M1). Histological examination showed predominantly solid
      adenocarcinoma (n = 15), frankly rhabdoid (n = 3) and mucinous (n = 2) patterns.
      Except for the rhabdoid cases, all tumors showed at least focal unequivocal
      glands and lacked squamous differentiation, justifying a diagnosis of
      adenocarcinoma. IHC showed a distinctive uniform immunophenotype (CK7+/HepPar
      1+/TTF1-) in 18/20 cases. Only 2/16 cases showed limited weak expression of
      neuroendocrine markers. EGFR mutations and EML4-ALK and ROS1 gene rearrangements
      were not found in any of the examined cases. Next-generation sequencing, using a
      160 cancer-related gene panel, revealed concurrent SMARCA4 and TP53 mutations in
      nine of the 12 (75%) successfully tested cases. Our study highlights (1) the
      morphological diversity of SMARCA4-deficient lung adenocarcinoma, (2) the
      consistent absence of expression of TTF1 in the presence of expression of HepPar
      1, (3) absence of EGFR driver mutations, and (4) frequent inactivating SMARCA4
      mutations as underlying mechanism of the observed SMARCA4 protein loss. SMARCA4
      deficient pulmonary adenocarcinoma is emerging as a distinctive, albeit
      phenotypically heterogeneous molecular subgroup of TTF1-negative NSCLC. Uniform
      HepPar-1 expression in this subset of NSCLC may represent a diagnostic pitfall
      and merits further studies to explore the mechanisms involved.

PMID- 28555284
TI  - Statin treatment and healthy adherer effects.

PMID- 28555286
TI  - [Management of arterial hypertension].
AB  - Arterial hypertension has a high prevalence and is a major risk factor for the
      development of cardiovascular diseases. It is a major contributor to worldwide
      morbidity and mortality and hence poses a huge socioeconomic burden. Despite
      great progress in perception, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, blood
      pressure control is inadequate in less than half of the hypertensive patients
      (<140/90 mm Hg). The diagnosis of arterial hypertension starts in most patients
      with the conventional office blood pressure measurement. Out-of-office blood
      pressure measurement is an important adjunct, especially to unmask white-coat
      hypertension. To reach the right target blood pressure many effective
      antihypertensive drugs are available. By how much the blood pressure should be
      lowered is currently a matter of controversy. The 2013 European and the identical
      German national guidelines recommend a target blood pressure of <140/90 mm Hg for
      most patients. The recent SPRINT study revealed that some patients may benefit
      from an even lower blood pressure. This CME-article summarizes recent
      developments in the management of arterial hypertension and provides tips for
      daily practice based on these aims.

PMID- 28555285
TI  - Association of adiposity indices with bone density and bone turnover in the
      Chinese population.
AB  - : Associations of adiposity indices with bone mineral density (BMD) and bone
      turnover markers were evaluated in Chinese participants. Body mass index, fat
      mass, and lean mass are positively related to BMD in both genders. Subcutaneous
      fat area was proved to be negatively associated with BMD and positively
      correlated with osteocalcin in postmenopausal females. INTRODUCTION: Obesity is
      highly associated with osteoporosis, but the effect of adipose tissue on bone is
      contradictory. Our study aimed to assess the associations of adiposity indices
      with bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover markers (BTMs) in the Chinese
      population. METHODS: Our study recruited 5215 participants from the Shanghai
      area, evaluated related anthropometric and biochemical traits in all
      participants, tested serum BTMs, calculated fat distribution using magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) images and image analysis software, and tested BMD with
      dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: When controlled for age, all adiposity
      indices were positively correlated with BMD of all sites for both genders. As for
      the stepwise regression analysis, body mass index (BMI), fat mass, and lean mass
      were protective for BMD in both genders. However, subcutaneous fat area (SFA) was
      detrimental for BMD of the L1-4 and femoral neck (beta +/- SE -0.0742 +/- 0.0174;
      p = 2.11E-05; beta +/- SE -0.0612 +/- 0.0147; p = 3.07E-05). Adiposity indices
      showed a negative correlation with BTMs adjusting for age, especially with
      osteocalcin. In the stepwise regression analysis, fat mass was negatively
      correlated with osteocalcin (beta +/- SE -8.8712 +/- 1.4902; p = 4.17E-09) and
      lean mass showed a negative correlation with N-terminal procollagen of type I
      collagen (PINP) for males (beta +/- SE -0.3169 +/- 0.0917; p = 0.0006). In
      females, BMI and visceral fat area (VFA) were all negatively associated with
      osteocalcin (beta +/- SE -0.4423 +/- 0.0663; p = 2.85E-11; beta +/- SE -7.1982 +/
      1.1094; p = 9.95E-11), while SFA showed a positive correlation with osteocalcin
      (beta +/- SE: 5.5993 +/- 1.1753; p = 1.98E-06). CONCLUSION: BMI, fat mass, and
      lean mass are proved to be beneficial for BMD in both males and postmenopausal
      females. SFA is negatively associated with BMD and positively correlated with
      osteocalcin in postmenopausal females.

PMID- 28555287
TI  - Genetic diagnostics of inherited aortic diseases : Medical strategy analysis.
AB  - Genetic aortic syndromes (GAS) include Marfan, Loeys-Dietz, vascular Ehlers
      Danlos, and Turner syndrome as well as congenital bicuspid aortic valve. The
      clinical management of these diseases has certain similarities and differences.
      We employed medical strategy analysis to test the utility of genetic diagnostics
      in the management of GAS. We chose the standpoint of the cardiologist for our
      analysis. In the first step, the medical goals in the management of GAS are
      specified. In the second step, the accuracy of genetic diagnostics for GAS is
      examined. Finally, conclusions can be drawn about the utility of genetic
      diagnostics in managing GAS. We found that genetic diagnostics is necessary to
      exclude GAS, to diagnose GAS, and to specify disease types. Second, combining
      phenotype with genotype information maximizes the predictability of the course of
      disease. Third, with genetic diagnostics it is possible to predict the birth of
      children with causative mutations for GAS and to initiate drug therapy to prevent
      the onset of aortic dilatation or to slow down its progression to aortic
      aneurysm. Finally, genetic diagnostics improves prognostic predictions and
      thereby contributes to a better timing of elective surgery and to a better choice
      of procedures. The findings of our medical strategy analysis indicate the high
      utility of genetic diagnostics for managing GAS.

PMID- 28555289
TI  - Association of high carotid bifurcation and thyrolinguofacial trunk: a rare
      variation.
AB  - Variations in the origins and the branching pattern of the carotid system of
      arteries are not uncommon. Here we report a rare case of higher bifurcation of
      the common carotid artery (CCA) (at the level of the greater cornu of the hyoid
      bone), thyrolinguofacial trunk (TLFT) originating from the CCA, superior
      laryngeal artery (SLA) arising from the external carotid artery (ECA) on the left
      side, and linguofacial trunk arising from the ECA on the right side. In the
      present case, the CCA and carotid bifurcation may have arisen from the second
      aortic arch. The ECA bud could have developed from parts of the first aortic arch
      and ventral aorta. Thus, the altered blood flow through these vessels due to high
      carotid bifurcation could have caused disproportionate growth and shift in the
      origins of the branches of the ECA. An understanding of the bifurcation of the
      CCA and the branching pattern of the ECA should prove useful to surgeons
      performing selective intra-arterial chemotherapy for head and neck cancer.

PMID- 28555288
TI  - [Congenital disorders of lipoprotein metabolism].
AB  - Congenital disorders of lipid metabolism are caused by a wide range of variants
      of the genes for receptors, apolipoproteins, enzymes, transfer factors, and
      cellular cholesterol transporters. Clinically most relevant are autosomal
      dominant familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and familial combined
      hyperlipoproteinemia (FCHL). FH has a prevalence of 1:250. It is due to mutations
      of the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, less often to mutations of the
      apolipoprotein B (APOB), the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9
      (PCSK9), or the signal transducing adapter family member 1 (STAP1). FH often
      leads to early atherosclerosis. Its diagnosis can definitely be made only by
      molecular genetic testing. The detection of mutations of the LDLR, APOB, or PCSK9
      is an indicator for extremely high cardiovascular risk, independently of the
      concentration of LDL cholesterol. FCHL is also common (1:100) and is seen in
      about 10% of patients with early myocardial infarction. It is produced by
      combinations of frequent genetic variants affecting triglycerides and LDL
      cholesterol. Other monogenic hyperlipoproteinemias (HLP) affect the catabolism of
      chylomicrons (familial chylomicronemia) or of remnants of triglyceride-rich
      lipoproteins (type III hyperlipoproteinemia). Multiple hereditary disorders in
      HDL metabolism - with a broad spectrum of clinical significance - are known.
      Currently, second generation sequencing methods are used to simultaneously
      analyze multiple disease-causing genes. This approach cost-neutrally provides
      additional information such as the genetic risk of atherosclerosis and
      predisposition to statin intolerance.

PMID- 28555291
TI  - Early Adolescents' Peer Experiences with Ethnic Diversity in Middle School:
      Implications for Academic Outcomes.
AB  - As the U.S. becomes increasingly ethnically diverse, opportunities for cross
      ethnic interaction at school may be increasing, and these interactions may have
      implications for academic outcomes for both ethnic minority and White youth. The
      current study examines how cross-ethnic peer relationships, measured using peer
      nominations for acceptance and daily lunchtime interactions, relate to academic
      outcomes for an ethnically diverse sample of 823 (45% boys and 55% girls; M age 
      = 11.69) public middle school sixth graders across one Midwestern and two Western
      states. For White, Black, Asian, Latino/a, and Multiethnic students, self
      reported daily cross-ethnic peer interactions were associated with higher end-of
      year GPAs in core academic courses and teachers' expectations for educational
      attainment, but not self-reported school aversion. Making cross-ethnic acceptance
      nominations was not associated with any academic outcomes. Thus, daily
      opportunities for cross-ethnic interactions may be important school experiences
      for early adolescents.

PMID- 28555292
TI  - Associations Between Trauma Type, Timing, and Accumulation on Current Coping
      Behaviors in Adolescents: Results from a Large, Population-based Sample.
AB  - The development of adolescents' coping in response to stress is critical for
      adaptive functioning; these coping strategies may be shaped by numerous
      environmental factors during childhood, including experiences such as exposure to
      trauma. Childhood trauma has been shown to undermine contemporaneous coping, but
      how does a history of exposure to trauma and the characteristics of that trauma
      (type, timing, and accumulation) relate to current coping among adolescents? We
      addressed this question using a nationally-representative sample of 9427
      adolescents (ages 13-18; 48.9% female; 66% White). Adolescents reported on their
      lifetime exposure to 18 different traumas, including witnessing or experiencing
      interpersonal violence, accidents, disasters, and violent or accidental loss of
      loved ones, as well as their current use of coping behaviors when under stress
      (problem-focused, positive emotion-focused, and negative emotion-focused coping
      strategies). The study's results highlight that exposure to nearly all forms of
      trauma was unrelated to problem-focused and positive emotion-focused coping
      behaviors, but strongly associated with increased negative emotion-focused
      coping. Use of each coping style did not vary with age at first exposure to
      trauma, but increased with the number of lifetime traumatic events experienced.
      The findings suggest that the extent of prior exposure to trauma, including
      variations across type and timing, may be related to a particular form of coping
      that has been linked to increased risk for mental health problems. Study results
      highlight coping strategies as a potential target for prevention and treatment
      efforts, and indicate a need to better understand the malleability and trajectory
      of coping responses to stress for promoting healthy youth development.

PMID- 28555293
TI  - Unpacking the Relationships between Impulsivity, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and
      Adolescent Violence: An Application of a Neighborhood-Based Group Decomposition.
AB  - Scholars have become increasingly interested in how social environments condition
      the relationships between individual risk-factors and adolescent behavior. An
      appreciable portion of this literature is concerned with the relationship between
      impulsivity and delinquency across neighborhood settings. The present article
      builds upon this growing body of research by considering the more nuanced
      pathways through which neighborhood disadvantage shapes the development of
      impulsivity and provides a situational context for impulsive tendencies to
      manifest in violent and aggressive behaviors. Using a sample of 12,935 adolescent
      from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
      (mean age = 15.3, 51% female; 20% Black, 17% Hispanic), we demonstrate the extent
      to which variation in the association between impulsivity and delinquency across
      neighborhoods can be attributed to (1) differences in mean-levels of impulsivity
      and violence and (2) differences in coefficients across neighborhoods. The
      results of a series of multivariate regression models indicate that impulsivity
      is positively associated with self-reported violence, and that this relationship
      is strongest among youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The moderating
      effect of neighborhood disadvantage can be attributed primarily to the stronger
      effect of impulsivity on violence in these areas, while differences in average
      levels of violence and impulsivity account for a smaller, yet nontrivial portion
      of the observed relationship. These results indicate that the differential effect
      of impulsivity on violence can be attributed to both developmental processes that
      lead to the greater concentration of violent and impulsive adolescents in
      economically deprived neighborhoods as well as the greater likelihood of
      impulsive adolescents engaging in violence when they reside in economically
      disadvantaged communities.

PMID- 28555295
TI  - Expression and Characterization of Hyperthermostable Exopolygalacturonase RmGH28
      from Rhodothermus marinus.
AB  - The gene RmGH28 from the organism Rhodothermus marinus, a putative glycosyl
      hydrolase family 28 polygalacturonase, was expressed in Escherichia coli and
      biochemically characterized. The gene was found to encode an exopolygalacturonase
      termed RmGH28, with galacturonic acid monomer and the polymer substrate (n-1) as
      the products released when acting on de-esterified polygalacturonic acid from
      citrus pectin. The enzyme at 25  degrees C had k cat ~6 s-1 when acting on
      polygalacturonic acid, with K m ~0.7 MUM and a substrate inhibition constant K si
      ~70 MUM. The enzyme was hyperthermophilic, with one half initial enzyme activity
      remaining after 1-h incubation at 93.9  degrees C. Since the enzyme can function
      at high temperatures where reaction rates are increased and the risk of bacterial
      contamination is decreased, this indicates that RmGH28 can be useful in industry
      for generating galacturonic acid from pectin. The amino acid sequence of RmGH28
      is highly homologous to the known hyperthermophilic exopolygalacturonases TtGH28
      and Tm0437, which together can serve as starting points for structure-function
      studies and molecular breeding enzyme engineering approaches.

PMID- 28555294
TI  - The longitudinal relationship of work stress with peak expiratory flow: a cohort
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Research has suggested that psychological stress is associated with
      reduced lung function and with the development of respiratory disease. Among the
      major potential sources of stress in adulthood are working conditions. We aimed
      to examine the relationship of work stress with lung function. METHODS: We drew
      on 4-year prospective data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in
      Europe. The analyzed sample comprised 2627 workers aged 50 years or older who
      were anamnestically free of respiratory disease. Work stress at baseline was
      operationalized by abbreviated instruments measuring the well-established effort
      reward imbalance model (seven items) and the control component of the job-demand
      control (two items). Peak expiratory flow (PEF) was determined at baseline and at
      follow-up. Continuous and categorized (i.e., by the tertile) work stress
      variables were employed in multivariable linear regression models to predict PEF
      change. RESULTS: Work stress did not show statistically significant associations
      with PEF change. For instance, the unstandardized regression coefficient for PEF
      decline according to high versus low effort-reward imbalance was -1.41 (95%
      confidence interval = -3.75, 0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to
      examine prospective relationships between work stress and PEF. Overall, we did
      not observe meaningful associations. Future studies should consider a broader
      spectrum of spirometric parameters and should expand research to younger and
      possibly less-selected working populations (i.e., aged <50 years).

PMID- 28555297
TI  - Abdominal pain in a 5-year-old girl with bilateral nephromegaly: Questions.

PMID- 28555296
TI  - Acute kidney injury in premature newborns-definition, etiology, and outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal acute kidney injury (AKI) is common and is associated with
      poor outcomes. New criteria for the diagnosis of AKI were introduced based on the
      increase in serum creatinine (SCr) levels and/or reduction of urine output (UOP).
      Yet, there is no generally accepted opinion so far, which criteria (whether SCr,
      UOP, or their combination) are the most appropriate to diagnose neonatal AKI.
      METHODS: The retrospective study included 195 prematurely born neonates who
      fulfilled all inclusion criteria (with at least two SCr measurements). In all the
      neonates included in the study, AKI was diagnosed using three different
      definitions: (1) SCr criteria (an increase in SCr values of >=0.3 mg/dl), (2) UOP
      criteria (UOP < 1.5 ml/kg/h), and (3) SCr + UOP criteria. RESULTS: Out of all of
      the patients the study included, 85 (44%) were diagnosed with AKI. The neonates
      who had AKI had a significantly lower gestational age, birth weight, and Apgar
      score, longer duration of mechanical ventilation, and a higher mortality rate.
      SCr + UOP criteria showed higher sensitivity for prediction of death compared to
      SCr or UOP alone (p = 0.0008, 95% CI 0.040-0.154, and p = 0.0038, 95% CI 0.024
      0.125, respectively). If only SCr or only UOP criterion are used, they fail to
      identify AKI in 61 and 67%, respectively. AKI was an independent risk factor for
      death (OR 7.4875; CI 3.1887-17.5816). CONCLUSIONS: Similar to other studies, our
      data showed that neonates with AKI have worse outcome. Neonatal AKI defined based
      on SCr + UOP criteria is a better predictor of death than neonatal AKI defined
      based only on the SCr or UOP criteria. Also, by using SCr + UOP criteria for
      diagnosing neonatal AKI, more patients with AKI are recruited than when only one
      of those criteria is used.

PMID- 28555298
TI  - Abdominal pain in a 5-year-old girl with bilateral nephromegaly: Answers.
AB  - Renal involvement in non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a recognized development, but it
      mostly follows a diagnosis of lymphoma. We describe a rare case of a T-cell-type
      non-Hodgkin lymphoma that first presents as nephromegaly in a 5-year-old girl
      admitted to the emergency department with abdominal pain. Further investigation
      revealed bilateral nephromegaly, but the results of blood tests, imaging studies,
      and bone marrow aspiration were inconclusive. During the second week of
      hospitalization, significant physical examination revealed an enlarged lymph node
      in the anterior cervical chains, confirming a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's
      lymphoma. This case illustrates that it is important to have a high degree of
      suspicion in any patient presenting with unexplained enlarged kidneys without any
      identifiable cause because it could be the first presentation of a hematologic
      malignancy.

PMID- 28555299
TI  - Life with one kidney.
AB  - Life with a solitary functioning kidney (SFK) may be different from that when
      born with two kidneys. Based on the hyperfiltration hypothesis, a SFK may lead to
      glomerular damage with hypertension, albuminuria and progression towards end
      stage renal disease. As the prognosis of kidney donors was considered to be very
      good, having a SFK has been considered to be a benign condition. In contrast, our
      research group has demonstrated that being born with or acquiring a SFK in
      childhood results in renal injury before adulthood in over 50% of those affected.
      Most congenital cases will be detected during antenatal ultrasound screening, but
      up to 38% of cases of unilateral renal agenesis are missed. In about 25-50% of
      cases of antenatally detected SFK there will be signs of hypertrophy, which could
      indicate additional nephron formation and is associated with a somewhat reduced
      risk of renal injury. Additional renal and extrarenal anomalies are frequently
      detected and may denote a genetic cause for the SFK, even though for the majority
      of cases no explanation can (yet) be found. The ongoing glomerular
      hyperfiltration results in renal injury, for which early markers are lacking.
      Individuals with SFK should avoid obesity and excessive salt intake to limit
      additional hyperfiltration. As conditions like hypertension, albuminuria and a
      mildly reduced glomerular filtration rate generally do not result in specific
      complaints but may pose a threat to long-term health, screening for renal injury
      in any individual with a SFK would appear to be imperative, starting from
      infancy. With early treatment, secondary consequences may be diminished, thereby
      providing the optimal life for anyone born with a SFK.

PMID- 28555300
TI  - Safety of Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping in Preterm Neonates Less than 34 weeks
      Gestation: Correspondence.

PMID- 28555302
TI  - Respecting the Dignity of Children with Disabilities in Clinical Practice.
AB  - Prevailing philosophies about parental and other caregiver responsibilities
      toward children tend to be protectionist, grounded in informed benevolence in a
      way that countenances rather than circumvents intrusive paternalism. And among
      the kinds of children an adult might be called upon to parent or otherwise care
      for, children with disabilities figure among those for whom the strongest and
      snuggest shielding is supposed be deployed. In this article, we examine whether
      this equation of securing well-being with sheltering by protective parents and
      other care-givers should unreflectively be adopted for disabled children. We also
      consider why healthcare providers might reasonably be reluctant to yield to this
      principle, even if parents instinctively suppose that protectionism is the
      parenting policy that best serves their disabled child's interest. We contend
      that caregivers owe children with disabilities at least as much, and possibly
      more, respect for self-governance than other children need. In spite of disabled
      children's vulnerability and even in view of it, we argue that they should be
      accorded not only welfare rights to well-being but at least a modified version of
      liberty rights as well. Healthcare providers are especially favorably positioned
      to facilitate the latter response. The main components of respectful caregiving
      can come into conflict with one another, but we present some priorities that
      advise against adopting a protectionist account of parenting rights, or at least
      against accepting protectionist views that focus parenting narrowly on shaping
      ideas about the child's welfare. In sum, caring for a disabled child, we argue,
      involves more than creating conditions that will afford her contentment and
      comfort over the course of life.

PMID- 28555301
TI  - Nuances of electrophoresis study of titin/connectin.
AB  - Almost 40 years has passed since the discovery of giant elastic protein titin
      (also known as connectin) of striated and smooth muscles using gel
      electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is a
      major technique for studying the isoform composition and content of titin. This
      review provides historical insights into the technical aspects of the
      electrophoresis methods used to identify titin and its isoforms. We particularly
      focus on the nuances of the technique that improve the preservation of its
      primary structure so that its high molecular weight isoforms can be visualized.

PMID- 28555304
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28555303
TI  - The Evolution of Spina Bifida Treatment Through a Biomedical Ethics Lens.
AB  - Spina bifida is a neurodevelopmental disorder that results in a broad range of
      disability. Over the last few decades, there have been significant advances in
      diagnosis and treatment of this condition, which have raised concerns regarding
      how clinicians prognosticate the extent of disability, determine quality of life,
      and use that information to make treatment recommendations. From the selective
      treatment of neonates in the 1970s, to the advent of maternal-fetal surgery
      today, the issues that have been raised surrounding spina bifida intervention
      invoke principles of medical bioethics such as beneficence and nonmaleficence,
      while also highlighting how quality of life judgments may drive care decisions.
      Such changes in treatment norms are also illustrative of how disability is viewed
      both within the medical community and by society at large. An examination of the
      changes in spina bifida treatment provides a model through which to understand
      how ethically complex decisions regarding care for children with disabilities has
      evolved, and the challenges faced when medical information is combined with value
      based judgments to guide medical decision making.

PMID- 28555307
TI  - The influence of ancient Greek thought on fifteenth century anatomy: Galenic
      influence and Leonardo da Vinci.
AB  - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) can be called one of the earliest contributors to
      the history of anatomy and, by extension, the study of medicine. He may have even
      overshadowed Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), the so-called founder of human
      anatomy, if his works had been published within his lifetime. While some of the
      best illustrations of their time, with our modern knowledge of anatomy, it is
      clear that many of da Vinci's depictions of human anatomy are inaccurate.
      However, he also made significant discoveries in anatomy and remarkable
      predictions of facts he could not yet discover with the technology available to
      him. Additionally, da Vinci was largely influenced by Greek anatomists, as
      indicated from his ideas about anatomical structure. In this historical review,
      we describe da Vinci's history, influences, and discoveries in anatomical
      research and his depictions and errors with regards to the musculoskeletal
      system, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and other organs.

PMID- 28555305
TI  - Differential regulation of glyceroneogenesis by glucocorticoids in epididymal and
      retroperitoneal white adipose tissue from rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: Investigate the glycerol-3-phosphate generation pathways in epididymal
      (EPI) and retroperitoneal (RETRO) adipose tissues from dexamethasone-treated
      rats. METHODS: Rats were treated with dexamethasone for 7 days. Glycerol-3
      phosphate generation pathways via glycolysis, glyceroneogenesis and direct
      phosphorylation of glycerol were evaluated, respectively, by 2-deoxyglucose
      uptake, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK-C) activity and pyruvate
      incorporation into triacylglycerol (TAG)-glycerol, and glycerokinase activity and
      glycerol incorporation into TAG-glycerol. RESULTS: Dexamethasone treatment
      markedly decreased the body weight, but increased the weight and lipid content of
      EPI and RETRO and plasma insulin, glucose, non-esterified fatty acid and TAG
      levels. EPI and RETRO from dexamethasone-treated rats showed increased rates of
      de novo fatty acid synthesis (80 and 100%) and basal lipolysis (20%). In EPI,
      dexamethasone decreased the 2-deoxyglucose uptake (50%), as well as
      glyceroneogenesis, evidenced by a decrease of PEPCK-C activity (39%) and TAG
      glycerol synthesis from pyruvate (66%), but increased the glycerokinase activity
      (50%) and TAG-glycerol synthesis from glycerol (72%) in this tissue. In spite of
      a similar reduction in 2-deoxyglucose uptake in RETRO, dexamethasone treatment
      increased glyceroneogenesis, evidenced by PEPCK activity (96%), and TAG-glycerol
      synthesis from pyruvate (110%), accompanied by a decrease in glycerokinase
      activity (50%) and TAG-glycerol synthesis from glycerol (50%). Dexamethasone
      effects on RETRO were accompanied by a decrease in p-Akt content and by lower
      insulin effects on the rates of glycerol release in the presence of isoproterenol
      and on the rates of glucose uptake in isolated adipocytes. CONCLUSION: Our data
      demonstrated differential regulation of glyceroneogenesis and direct
      phosphorylation of glycerol by glucocorticoids in EPI and RETRO from rats.

PMID- 28555306
TI  - Prognostic Value of Perineural Invasion in Resected Gastric Cancer Patients
      According to Lauren Histotype.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to investigate perineural invasion (PNI) as a
      prognostic factor in gastric cancer patients. 455 patients submitted to extended
      (D2 or more) lymphadenectomy (median number of 39 retrieved lymph nodes, range:
      15-140) between 1995 and 2012 were retrospectively studied. Patients were
      categorized in two groups according to the PNI status, and PNI positivity was
      assessed in presence of cancer cells in the perinerium or the neural fascicles
      using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Median follow-up for surviving patients was
      80.3 months. Survival analysis was performed by univariate and multivariate
      analysis, using a Cox proportional hazards model. 162 patients (33.9%) had
      positive PNI; this was strongly associated with advanced stages of disease,
      residual tumor, lymphovascular invasion, Lauren diffuse-mixed histotype and tumor
      size. Five-year cancer-related survival was 65,7% and 20,6% in PNI negative vs.
      positive groups, respectively (p < 0.001). The prognostic impact of PNI at
      univariate analysis was particularly evident in patients submitted to R0 surgery,
      early as well as advanced stage, advanced nodal stage and T status. At
      multivariate analysis, PNI did not result statistically significant in the
      overall series, but emerged as an independent prognostic factor in the group of
      patients with Lauren intestinal histotype (p = 0.005, hazard ratio: 1.99, 95%
      confidence interval 1.24-3.19). PNI is related to advanced stage and poor long
      term survival in gastric cancer, and may serve as an adjunctive prognostic factor
      in the intestinal histotype.

PMID- 28555308
TI  - Radiologically occult medulloblastoma with hydrocephalus: case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There have been no reports of occult medulloblastoma nor
      noncommunicating hydrocephalus due to radiologically occult brain tumors. Herein,
      we report radiologically occult medulloblastoma with noncommunicating
      hydrocephalus. CASE REPORT: A 3-year-old boy presented with macrocephaly, visual
      field constriction, and papilledema. Neuroimagings showed enlargement of the
      ventricles without any mass lesions. The CT cisternography did not show influx of
      the contrast into the ventricles, which suggested local cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      circulatory disturbance at the outlet of the fourth ventricle. Due to possible
      obstructive nature of hydrocephalus, endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) was
      performed. Three months after the ETV, he presented with repeated vomiting.
      Neuroimagings showed a 3-cm fourth ventricular mass with progressive
      hydrocephalus. Surgical resection was performed, which revealed the pathology was
      medulloblastoma. CONCLUSION: We report the case of radiologically occult
      medulloblastoma which was demonstrated radiologically in the follow-up period of
      ETV for noncommunicating hydrocephalus of uncertain etiology. This is the first
      description of a radiologically occult medulloblastoma and also the first
      description of an occult brain tumor with noncommunicating hydrocephalus. The
      occult brain tumor may be included in the etiology of hydrocephalus.

PMID- 28555309
TI  - Comprehensive analysis of Iranian reports of pediatric central nervous system
      tumors.
AB  - PURPOSE: Iran lacks a national registry reporting the data of central nervous
      system (CNS) tumors in children. Consequently, treatment success and failure
      rates are unknown, and a centralized system for disease-management
      recommendations does not exist. METHODS: To critically evaluate the current state
      of pediatric CNS tumor studies and reporting in Iran, we performed an extensive
      retrospective analysis of all known reports identified with multiple search
      engines. RESULTS: Of 409 initially retrieved articles, we evaluated 123 matching
      our inclusion criteria. We further narrowed these reports to 74 by excluding
      studies pertaining to adult patients only, non-CNS tumors, or brain metastases.
      We also excluded studies that were performed outside of Iran or that did not
      contain relevant data from our analysis. We divided the remaining studies into
      those describing exclusively pediatric patients (3484 patients) and those
      describing mixed populations of adults and children (18,641 patients). In total,
      our analysis included 22,125 patients. CONCLUSIONS: We identified many
      limitations in the reporting of studies describing the treatment or prevalence of
      CNS tumors in children in Iran. Our results may guide future efforts in Iran to
      improve the care for children with CNS tumors and may provide a valuable template
      for other comprehensive country- and disease-specific retrospective analyses.

PMID- 28555310
TI  - Antenatal management of fetal neurosurgical diseases.
AB  - The advance in the imaging tools during the pregnancy (ultrasound and magnetic
      resonance) allowed the early diagnose of many fetal diseases, including the
      neurological conditions. This progress brought the neurosurgeons the possibility
      to propose treatments even before birth. Myelomeningocele is the most recognized
      disease that can be treated during pregnancy with a high rate of success.
      Additionally, this field can be extended to other conditions such as
      hydrocephalus and encephaloceles. However, each one of these diseases has nuances
      in the diagnostic evaluation that should fit the requirements to perform the
      fetal procedure and overbalance the benefits to the patients. In this article,
      the authors aim to review the neurosurgical aspects of the antenatal management
      of neurosurgical conditions based on the experience of a pediatric neurosurgery
      center.

PMID- 28555311
TI  - Occipitocervical inclination: new radiographic parameter of neutral
      occipitocervical position.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe occipitocervical inclination (OCI), a new parameter that
      could compensate for defects in existing radiographic parameters, and to define
      occipitocervical neutral position. METHODS: Neutral, flexion, and extension
      lateral cervical spine radiographs of 200 patients (100 male and 100 female
      patients) judged to be normal were analyzed. The mean age was 45.19 years (range
      11-74; 42.84 for male and 47.53 for female patients). For OCI, the angle formed
      by the line connecting the posterior border of the C4 vertebral body and
      McGregor's line was measured. Occipitocervical angle (OCA) and occipitocervical
      distance (OCD) were measured and compared with OCI. RESULTS: OCI on standard,
      neutral lateral cervical radiographs was 102.51 degrees  +/- 8.87 degrees . There
      was no significant gender difference in neutral OCI 102.81 degrees  +/- 7.93
      degrees  for male and 102.21 degrees  +/- 9.74 degrees  for female patients (P =
      0.631). The mean neutral OCA was 38.69 degrees  +/- 9.23 degrees , and the mean
      neutral OCD was 22.98 +/- 5.10 mm. Pearson's correlation coefficient for the
      value of the cervical lordosis angle and that of neutral OCI was r = 0.274 (P <
      0.001). Intraclass correlation coefficient values for inter- and intraobserver
      reliability for OCI were significantly higher than those for OCA (P < 0.001) and
      tended to be higher than those for OCD (P = 0.087). CONCLUSIONS: OCI is a very
      useful parameter for the determination of neutral position during
      occipitocervical fusion for patients with altered C0-C2 anatomy.

PMID- 28555312
TI  - Long fusions to S1 with or without pelvic fixation can induce relevant acute
      variations in pelvic incidence: a retrospective cohort study of adult spine
      deformity surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to verify if any changes occur in pelvic
      incidence (PI) in adult patients undergoing long fusion to sacrum for spine
      deformity and to describe the effect of fixation to pelvis on these variations.
      METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional study. Sixty-six adults patients, 87%
      females (mean +/- SD age: 65.1 +/- 7.6 years), undergoing fusion from the
      thoracic spine to the sacrum for adult spine deformity were included. Patients
      were divided in two different groups: Group A: sacral fixation alone and Group B:
      sacral fixation plus pelvis fixation. Pre and postoperative standardized full
      standing X-rays were analyzed with measurement of: PI, pelvic tilt (PT), lumbar
      lordosis (LL) and sagittal vertical axis (SVA). RESULTS: A significant effect of
      time interaction (preoperative to early postoperative; F = 59.93, F = 44.78 and F
      = 39.87, all p < 0.001) existed for PT, SS and TK in both groups (all, p <
      0.001). After adjustment for patients' age (>65 vs. <65 years), a statistically
      significant increase of PI was observed in patients >65 years (p = 0.006) in
      Group A between preoperative and postoperative measurements. All patients in
      Group B exhibited a decrease in PI from preoperative to postoperative.
      CONCLUSIONS: Older patients undergoing long fusion to the sacrum without pelvic
      fixation had an increase in PI after surgery. Conversely, pelvic fixation with
      hips intraoperatively extended has decreased the value of PI from pre- to early
      postoperative. These changes could be related to degeneration of the sacroiliac
      joints causing increased rotational mobility and the magnitude of the differences
      is in the range of clinical relevance.

PMID- 28555313
TI  - Uneven intervertebral motion sharing is related to disc degeneration and is
      greater in patients with chronic, non-specific low back pain: an in vivo, cross
      sectional cohort comparison of intervertebral dynamics using quantitative
      fluoroscopy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Evidence of intervertebral mechanical markers in chronic, non-specific
      low back pain (CNSLBP) is lacking. This research used dynamic fluoroscopic
      studies to compare intervertebral angular motion sharing inequality and
      variability (MSI and MSV) during continuous lumbar motion in CNSLBP patients and
      controls. Passive recumbent and active standing protocols were used and the
      relationships of these variables to age and disc degeneration were assessed.
      METHODS: Twenty patients with CNSLBP and 20 matched controls received
      quantitative fluoroscopic lumbar spine examinations using a standardised protocol
      for data collection and image analysis. Composite disc degeneration (CDD) scores
      comprising the sum of Kellgren and Lawrence grades from L2-S1 were obtained.
      Indices of intervertebral motion sharing inequality (MSI) and variability (MSV)
      were derived and expressed in units of proportion of lumbar range of motion from
      outward and return motion sequences during lying (passive) and standing (active)
      lumbar bending and compared between patients and controls. Relationships between
      MSI, MSV, age and CDD were assessed by linear correlation. RESULTS: MSI was
      significantly greater in the patients throughout the intervertebral motion
      sequences of recumbent flexion (0.29 vs. 0.22, p = 0.02) and when flexion,
      extension, left and right motion were combined to give a composite measure (1.40
      vs. 0.92, p = 0.04). MSI correlated substantially with age (R = 0.85, p = 0.004)
      and CDD (R = 0.70, p = 0.03) in lying passive investigations in patients and not
      in controls. There were also substantial correlations between MSV and age (R =
      0.77, p = 0.01) and CDD (R = 0.85, p = 0.004) in standing flexion in patients and
      not in controls. CONCLUSION: Greater inequality and variability of motion sharing
      was found in patients with CNSLBP than in controls, confirming previous studies
      and suggesting a biomechanical marker for the disorder at intervertebral level.
      The relationship between disc degeneration and MSI was augmented in patients, but
      not in controls during passive motion and similarly for MSV during active motion,
      suggesting links between in vivo disc mechanics and pain generation.

PMID- 28555315
TI  - Differential efficacies of the nicotinic alpha4beta2 desensitizing agents in
      reducing nicotine self-administration in female rats.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Desensitization of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine
      receptors holds promise as an effective treatment of tobacco addiction.
      Previously, we found that sazetidine-A (Saz-A), which selectively desensitizes
      alpha4beta2 nicotinic receptors, significantly decreased intravenous (IV)
      nicotine self-administration (SA) in rats with an effective dose of 3 mg/kg in
      acute and repeated injection studies. We also found that chronic infusions of Saz
      A at doses of 2 and 6 mg/kg/day significantly reduced nicotine SA in rats. In
      continuing studies, we have characterized other Saz-A analogs, YL-2-203 and VMY-2
      95, to determine their efficacies in reducing nicotine SA in rats. METHODS: Young
      adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were fitted with IV catheters and were trained
      for nicotine SA (0.03 mg/kg/infusion) on a fixed ratio 1 schedule for ten
      sessions. The same rats were also implanted subcutaneously with osmotic minipumps
      to continually deliver 2 or 6 mg/kg body weight YL-2-203, VMY-2-95, or saline for
      four consecutive weeks. RESULTS: Chronic administration of VMY-2-95 at doses of 2
      and 6 mg/kg/day caused significant (p < 0.01) decreases in nicotine SA over the 2
      weeks of continued nicotine SA and for the 1-week period of resumed access after
      a week of enforced abstinence, whereas chronic administration of YL-2-203 at the
      same doses was not found to be effective. CONCLUSIONS: These studies, together
      with our previous studies of Saz-A, revealed a spectrum of efficacies for these
      alpha4beta2 nicotinic receptor desensitizing agents and provide a path forward
      for the most effective compounds to be further developed as possible aids to
      smoking cessation.

PMID- 28555316
TI  - The Relationship Between Spirituality/Religiousness and Unhealthy Alcohol Use
      Among HIV-Infected Adults in Southwestern Uganda.
AB  - HIV and alcohol use are two serious and co-existing problems in sub-Saharan
      Africa. We examined the relationship between spirituality and/or religiousness
      (SR) and unhealthy alcohol use among treatment-naive HIV-infected adults
      attending the HIV clinic in Mbarara, Uganda. Unhealthy alcohol was defined as
      having either an alcohol use disorders identification test-consumption score of
      >=4 for men or >=3 for women, or having a phosphatidylethanol level of >=50 ng/ml
      based on analysis of dried bloodspot specimens. Of the 447 participants, 67.8%
      were female; the median age was 32 years (interquartile range [IQR] 27-40). About
      half reported being Protestant (49.2%), 35.1% Catholic, and 9.2% Muslim. The
      median SR score was high (103 [IQR 89-107]); 43.3% drank at unhealthy levels.
      Higher SR scores were associated with lower odds of unhealthy drinking (adjusted
      odds ratio [aOR]: 0.83 per standard deviation [SD] increase; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.66-1.03). The "religious behavior" SR subscale was significantly
      associated with unhealthy alcohol use (aOR: 0.72 per SD increase; 95% CI 0.58
      0.88). Religious institutions, which facilitate expression of religious behavior,
      may be helpful in promoting and maintaining lower levels of alcohol use.

PMID- 28555317
TI  - Trends in Sexual Behavior Among Men Who have Sex with Men (MSM) in High-Income
      Countries, 1990-2013: A Systematic Review.
AB  - HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) have been increasing in
      several high-income countries. A better understanding of the sexual behavior
      trends among MSM can be useful for informing HIV prevention. We conducted a
      systematic review of studies that examined behavioral trends (1990-2013) in any
      condomless anal sex, condomless anal sex with an HIV-discordant partner, and
      number of partners. Studies included come from the United States, Europe, and
      Australia. We found increasing trends in condomless anal sex and condomless anal
      sex with an HIV-discordant partner, and a decreasing trend in number of partners.
      The increase in condomless anal sex may help to explain the increase in HIV
      infections. More explanatory research is needed to provide insight into factors
      that contribute to these behavior trends. Continuous monitoring of HIV, risk
      behaviors, and use of prevention and treatment is needed to evaluate prevention
      efforts and monitor HIV transmission risk.

PMID- 28555318
TI  - Conformational Characteristics of Rice Hexokinase OsHXK7 as a Moonlighting
      Protein involved in Sugar Signalling and Metabolism.
AB  - Hexokinase (HXK) as a moonlighting protein involves in glucose metabolism and
      signalling to regulate growth and development in plants. Therefore, the
      clarification for the structural properties of OsHXK7 (Oryza sativa Hexokinase 7)
      is essential to understand its role mechanism associated with the Glc signalling
      and metabolism. In this study, the structural characteristics of OsHXK7 (Oryza
      sativa Hexokinase 7) were identified. In the fluorescence spectrum, the Trp peak
      representing OsHXK7 binding to D-glucose (D-Glc) and 2-deoxyglucose (2-dG) showed
      an obvious blue shift. The distinct change in the secondary structure of OsHXK7
      after binding to Glc was also detected in circular dichroism spectra. Using
      superimposed modelling, OsHXK7 showed a Glc-induced structural change, in which
      the 76th glycine, 148th serine and 256th tryptophan were contained within the
      pocket region. It was further shown by site-directed mutagenesis that the 76th
      glycine and the 256th tryptophan, but not the 148th serine, are the pivotal sites
      of OsHXK7 that maintain its catalytic activity and intrinsic blue shift
      fluorescence. These results suggest that OsHXK7 binding to Glc leads to a
      conformational change, that is likely essential for the function of OsHXK7 in Glc
      signalling and metabolism during plant growth and development.

PMID- 28555319
TI  - Proteomic Analysis of Rice Seedlings Under Cold Stress.
AB  - Low temperature can greatly restrict the growth and development of rice. The rice
      seedlings show growth retardation, lamina wrap, and part of blade even died under
      the condition of low temperature. In order to get more information about cold
      stress responses in rice, two dimensional electrophoresis and bioinformatics
      analysis of mass spectrometry were used to preliminary survey the cold tolerance
      of cold sensitive line 9311 and cold resistance variety Fujisaka 5 under cold
      stress. Two dimensional electrophoresis maps of 9311 and Fujisaka 5 were
      established under cold treatment. With analysis of bioinformation, the proteins
      were found involve in many aspects of rice development. The largest category of
      proteins is functioning on metabolism. By comparing the proteins from the two
      varieties, it can be found that most proteins from 9311 were down-regulated and
      were up-regulated in Fujisaka 5. The results showed that the membrane composition
      and structure were damaged, metabolism changed dramatically and rice defense
      system was activated under the cold stimulation. Fifty-nine proteins related to
      the resistance of cold stress were identified in our study, and we have
      investigated and classified all of their biological functions. The importance of
      our study are providing some conduct for the research of rice resistant to cold
      stress, supporting auxiliary technique for rice varieties and widening the search
      field of cold tolerance in plants.

PMID- 28555321
TI  - [Rare metabolic disorders and urolithiasis].
AB  - Numerous metabolic anomalies, which often have no direct pathological relevance
      when considered individually, are found in all people. In most patients with
      urinary tract stones, it can be assumed that a specific combination or
      interaction of these anomalies occurs, thus, resulting in stone formation, but
      only after individual exogenous risk factors are triggered. Lithogenesis is the
      result of a cascade of different "events" that are temporally close to one
      another, but sometimes these events interact strong enough that significant stone
      growth occurs. Chronic metabolic disorders usually lead to permanently altered
      urine compositions. The occurrence of physiological urine constituents in
      nonnormal concentration ratios and/or the nonphysiological excretion of metabolic
      products can significantly increase the lithogenicity of urine, so that
      urolithiasis can manifest itself as a clinical symptom. In cases of urolithiasis
      of unknown origin, a potentially hidden rare metabolic anomaly should always be
      considered. In addition, if a patient has a known metabolic disease, then this
      should always be taken into account as a risk factor for stone formation and
      attempts should be taken to clarify its influence on urine composition. This also
      applies to the efficacy of a therapy. A distinct link between a metabolic disease
      and stone formation is generally rare and will likely remain so despite
      significant advances regarding differential diagnosis and etiopathology. This
      article focuses on very rare metabolic causes and/or genetic syndromes which may
      be associated with urolithiasis. Patients receiving symptomatic stone treatment
      should receive life-long follow-up care from a urologist because reducing the
      recurrence rate helps to improve the quality of life of the patients.

PMID- 28555320
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic Analyses of Lithium: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Even though lithium has been used for the treatment of
      bipolar disorder for several decades, its toxicities are still being reported.
      The major limitation in the use of lithium is its narrow therapeutic window.
      Several methods have been proposed to predict lithium doses essential to attain
      therapeutic levels. One of the methods used to guide lithium therapy is
      population pharmacokinetic approach which accounts for inter- and intra
      individual variability in predicting lithium doses. Several population
      pharmacokinetic studies of lithium have been conducted. The objective of this
      review is to provide information on population pharmacokinetics of lithium
      focusing on nonlinear mixed effect modeling approach and to summarize significant
      factors affecting lithium pharmacokinetics. METHODS: A literature search was
      conducted from PubMed database from inception to December, 2016. Studies
      conducted in humans, using lithium as a study drug, providing population
      pharmacokinetic analyses of lithium by means of nonlinear mixed effect modeling,
      were included in this review. RESULTS: Twenty-four articles were identified from
      the database. Seventeen articles were excluded based on the inclusion and
      exclusion criteria. A total of seven articles were included in this review. Of
      these, only one study reported a combined population pharmacokinetic
      pharmacodynamic model of lithium. Lithium pharmacokinetics were explained using
      both one- and two-compartment models. The significant predictors of lithium
      clearance identified in most studies were renal function and body size. One study
      reported a significant effect of age on lithium clearance. The typical values of
      lithium clearance ranged from 0.41 to 9.39 L/h. The magnitude of inter-individual
      variability on lithium clearance ranged from 12.7 to 25.1%. Only two studies
      evaluated the models using external data sets. CONCLUSIONS: Model methodologies
      in each study are summarized and discussed in this review. For future
      perspective, a population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic study of lithium is
      recommended. Moreover, external validation of previously published models should
      be performed.

PMID- 28555322
TI  - Assessment of airway compression on chest radiographs in children with pulmonary
      tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because small, pliable paediatric airways are easily compressed by
      enlarged lymph nodes, detection of radiographic airway compression might be an
      objective criterion for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the frequency and inter-observer agreement of airway compression on
      chest radiographs in children with pulmonary tuberculosis compared to those with
      a different lower respiratory tract infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chest
      radiographs of children with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis were read by two
      readers according to a standardised format and a third reader when there was
      disagreement. Radiographs of children with proven pulmonary tuberculosis were
      compared to those with a different lower respiratory tract infection. We
      evaluated frequency and location of radiographic airway compression. Findings
      were correlated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and age. We
      assessed inter-observer agreement using kappa statistics. RESULTS: We reviewed
      radiographs of 505 children (median age 25.9 months, interquartile range [IQR]
      14.3-62.2). Radiographic airway compression occurred in 54/188 (28.7%) children
      with proven pulmonary tuberculosis and in 24/317 (7.6%) children with other types
      of lower respiratory tract infection (odds ratio [OR] 4.9; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 2.9-8.3). A higher frequency of radiographic airway compression
      occurred in infants (22/101, or 21.8%) compared to older children (56/404, or
      13.9%; OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.0-3.0). We found no association between airway
      compression and HIV infection. Inter-observer agreement ranged from none to fair
      (kappa of 0.0-0.4). CONCLUSION: There is a strong association between airway
      compression on chest radiographs and confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis. However
      this finding's clinical use as an objective criterion for diagnosis of pulmonary
      tuberculosis in children is limited by poor inter-observer agreement.

PMID- 28555323
TI  - Liquid-based endometrial cytology associated with curettage in the investigation
      of endometrial carcinoma in a population of 1987 women.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of
      liquid-based endometrial cytology, in comparison with histology. METHODS: 1987
      patients scheduled for hysteroscopy were enrolled in this study. All patients
      proceeded sequentially through endometrial cytology, hysteroscopy and then
      dilatation and curettage (D&C). Cytology sampling was performed by brushing the
      uterus cavity using SAP-1 and the sample was prepared to liquid-based smear using
      SurePath technology. The slides were stained by Papanicolaou method. All
      cytological diagnosis was correlated with the D&C histological diagnosis.
      RESULTS: Cyto-histological correlations were possible in 1672 (89.3%) patients:
      in 254 (12.8%) patients the D&C was inadequate, in 75 (3.8%) patients the
      cytology was inadequate, and in 14 (0.7%) patients both were inadequate. In
      postmenopausal women, 758 of 790 cytologies (96.0%) were adequate, while 586 of
      790 histologies (74.2%) were adequate. SAP-1 provided more sufficient materials
      for cytology than D&C for histology (P < 0.001). Taking atypical hyperplasia or
      worse as a positive result, the diagnostic accuracy of liquid-based endometrial
      cytology was 86.1%, sensitivity was estimated at 70.3%, specificity at 88.5%,
      positive predictive value at 48.0% and negative predictive value at 95.2%. Taking
      endometrial carcinoma as a positive result, the diagnostic accuracy of liquid
      based endometrial cytology was 94.4%; sensitivity was estimated at 53.2%,
      specificity at 98.6%, positive predictive value at 79.8% and negative predictive
      value at 95.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Liquid-based endometrial cytology can be considered
      a useful method for detecting of endometrial pathology as a first-line approach.

PMID- 28555324
TI  - Low maternal circulating levels of vitamin D as potential determinant in the
      development of gestational diabetes mellitus.
AB  - Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), defined as any glucose intolerance with the
      onset or first recognition during pregnancy, is characterized by rising
      incidence, fostered by the worldwide increase of pathological nutritional status
      from young age. Clinical research has intended to identify potential risk
      factors, suggested improvements in screening strategies, and recommended the
      combination between promotion of an appropriate lifestyle before and during
      pregnancy and selected therapeutic approaches. Preventing pathological
      hyperglycemia could have several benefits, ranging from clinical side (reduction
      in the risk of adverse perinatal and long-term sequelae) to financial side (cost
      reduction to healthcare systems). Among risk factors recognized, deficiency in 25
      hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], already acknowledged as involved in calcium
      homeostasis, pathogenesis of cardiovascular, oncological, infective and immunity
      diseases, could predispose to the development of both type 1 and 2 diabetes,
      modifying the activity of pancreatic beta-cells vitamin D (VD) receptor. In
      pregnant women, lower 25(OH)D concentrations have been suggested to present an
      inverse association with maternal glycaemia, insulin resistance, and increased
      risk of GDM. In spite of growing body of evidence, there is not full agreement on
      the therapeutic association between GDM based on VD deficiency and 25(OH)D
      supplementation. In the attempt to bring up-to-date the role of low VD levels on
      subsequent development of GDM, this narrative review, based on medium-high
      quality randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis
      published in last decade, has a twofold purpose: firstly, to elucidate the
      relationship between maternal VD status and GDM; and secondly, to illuminate the
      impact of VD supplementation on GDM onset.

PMID- 28555325
TI  - Erratum to: Serum HMGB1 concentrations at 4 weeks is a useful predictor of
      extreme poor prognosis for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with
      sorafenib and hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy.

PMID- 28555326
TI  - Pursuing a Gastroenterology Fellowship as a Foreign Medical Graduate.

PMID- 28555328
TI  - Evolving Concepts in Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Tremendous advances have been made in the field of atopic
      dermatitis in the past 5 years. We will explore developments in burden of
      disease, co-morbidities, pathogenesis, prevention, and management. RECENT
      FINDINGS: The tremendous burden moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD) places
      on families from a medical, psychosocial, and financial perspective has been
      characterized. Epidemiologic studies have identified intriguing new associations
      beyond the well-characterized "atopic march" of food allergies, asthma, and hay
      fever. Studies of primary prevention have gained traction including the
      remarkable impacts of early emollient therapy. Basic advances have simultaneously
      elucidated the nature of atopic inflammation, setting the stage for an explosion
      of new potential therapeutic targets. After a fallow period of nearly 15 years
      without a substantial therapeutic advance, this year has already seen two new FDA
      approved treatments for AD. AD has a tremendous impact on quality of life with an
      underappreciated burden of disease; there are important newly described co
      morbidities including ADHD and anemia; new insights into etio-pathogenesis have
      paved the way for novel topical therapies like crisaborole, and new systemic
      interventions like dupilumab.

PMID- 28555327
TI  - Navigation-guided clipping of a de novo aneurysm associated with superficial
      temporal artery-middle cerebral artery bypass combined with indirect pial
      synangiosis in a patient with moyamoya disease.
AB  - De novo aneurysms associated with superficial temporal artery (STA)-middle
      cerebral artery (MCA) bypass are an extremely rare complication of direct
      revascularization surgery for moyamoya disease (MMD). The basic pathology of MMD
      includes fragility of the intracranial arterial wall characterized by medial
      layer thinness and waving of the internal elastic lamina. However, the incidence
      of newly formed aneurysms at the site of anastomosis currently remains unknown.
      Among 317 consecutive direct/indirect combined revascularization surgeries
      performed for MMD, we encountered a 52-year-old woman manifesting a de novo
      aneurysm adjacent to the site of anastomosis 11 years after successful STA-MCA
      bypass with encephalo-duro-myo-synangiosis (EDMS). Although the patient remained
      asymptomatic, the aneurysm gradually increased in diameter to more than 6 mm with
      the formation of a daughter sac, and a computational fluid dynamic study revealed
      low wall shear stress at the aneurysm dome. The patient underwent microsurgical
      clipping of the aneurysm using a neuro-navigation system that permitted the
      minimally invasive dissection of the temporal muscle flap used for EDMS at the
      site of the aneurysm without affecting pial synangiosis. The aneurysm was
      successfully occluded using a titanium clip without complications. The
      postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged without
      neurological deficits. De novo aneurysms associated with STA-MCA bypass for MMD
      may be safely treated with microsurgical clipping, even in cases initially
      managed by a combined revascularization procedure that includes complex pial
      synangiosis. We recommend the application of the neuro-navigation system for the
      maximum preservation of pial synangiosis during this procedure.

PMID- 28555329
TI  - T Cells in Allergic Asthma: Key Players Beyond the Th2 Pathway.
AB  - Asthma is a common chronic lung disease that affects 300 million people
      worldwide. It causes the airways of the lungs to swell and narrow due to
      inflammation (swelling and excess mucus build-up in the airways) and airway
      constriction (tightening of the muscles surrounding the airways). Atopic asthma
      is the most common form of asthma, and is triggered by inhaled allergens that
      ultimately promote the activation of the Th2-like T cells and the development of
      Th2-mediated chronic inflammation. Different subsets of T cells, including T
      follicular helper cells, tissue-resident T, cells and Th2 effector cells, play
      different functions during allergic immune response. Dendritic cells (DCs) are
      known to play a central role in initiating allergic Th2-type immune responses and
      in the development of the T cell phenotype. However, this function depends on the
      complex interaction with other cells of the immune system and determines whether
      the response to environmental allergens will be one of tolerance or allergic
      inflammation. This review discusses cell interactions leading to the initiation
      and maintenance of allergic Th2-type immune responses, particularly those
      associated with allergic asthma.

PMID- 28555331
TI  - Chronic Non-Cancer Pain Management Capacity in Karachi.
AB  - Chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) affects people everywhere in the world, but people
      in developing countries have far less access to therapies that provide relief.
      There are often missed opportunities to implement these therapies. Karachi shares
      many characteristics with megacities of the global south and represents Pakistan
      in the global city league. This review informs readers about the availability of
      health management and pain services for CNCP in Karachi, and their comparability
      to those found in other global cities. The literature about CNCP and its
      management in Karachi and Pakistan is scarce. Nevertheless, some conclusions can
      be made. In order to inform readers based in other global cities, a brief review
      of the current health system and pain services in Karachi and Pakistan are
      discussed together with barriers that impede pain service outputs. The present
      review employs vignettes to illustrate typical experiences of CNCP patients
      seeking pain management services in three sectors: public, charitable, and
      private institutions.

PMID- 28555330
TI  - The P2Y1 receptor-mediated leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells is inhibited
      by melatonin.
AB  - Extracellular ATP (released by endothelial and immune cells) and its metabolite
      ADP are important pro-inflammatory mediators via the activation of purinergic P2
      receptors (P2Y and P2X), which represent potential new targets for anti
      inflammatory therapy. Endothelial P2Y1 receptor (P2Y1R) induces endothelial cell
      activation triggering leukocyte adhesion. A number of data have implicated
      melatonin as a modulator of immunity, inflammation, and endothelial cell
      function, but to date no studies have investigated whether melatonin modulates
      endothelial P2YR signaling. Here, we evaluated the putative effect of melatonin
      on P2Y1R-mediated leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells and TNF-alpha
      production, using mesenteric endothelial cells and fresh peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells isolated from rats. Endothelial cells were treated with the
      P2Y1R agonist 2MeSATP, alone or in combination with melatonin, and then exposed
      to mononuclear cells. 2MeSATP increased leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells
      and TNF-alpha production in vitro, and melatonin inhibited both effects without
      altering P2Y1R protein expression. In addition, assays with the Ca2+ chelator
      BAPTA-AM indicate that the effect of melatonin on 2MeSATP-stimulated leukocyte
      adhesion depends on intracellular Ca2+ modulation. P2Y1R is considered a
      potential target to control chronic inflammation. Therefore, our data unveiled a
      new endothelial cell modulator of purinergic P2Y1 receptor signaling.

PMID- 28555332
TI  - Protective role of downregulated MLK3 in myocardial adaptation to chronic
      hypoxia.
AB  - A series of protective responses could be evoked to achieve compensatory
      adaptation once cardiomyocytes are subjected to chronic hypoxia. MLK3/JNK/c-jun
      signaling pathway was previously demonstrated to be involved in this process. In
      the present study, we aim to further examine the performance of MLK3 in hypoxic
      H9C2 cells and potential mechanism. Myocardial samples of patients with
      congenital heart disease (CHD) were collected. H9C2 cells were cultured in
      hypoxic conditions for various durations. MLK3 was silenced by transfection of
      shRNA to evaluate its role in cell viability. We found expression of MLK3 protein
      was lower in patients with cyanotic CHD. In hypoxic H9C2 cells, its expression
      was gradually decreased in a time-dependent manner. However, there was no
      significant difference about expression of MLK3 mRNA. According to the results of
      MTT, LDH, and TUNEL, faster cell growth curve, lower death rate, and less
      apoptotic cells could be observed in MLK-shRNA group compared with scramble-shRNA
      group. Silencing of MLK3 significantly reduced expression of cleaved caspase-3,
      cleaved PARP, Bad, and Bax, together with increased expression of Bcl-2 and
      ration of Bcl-2/Bax. Both ratio of phospho-JNK/total JNK and ratio of phospho-c
      jun/total c-jun were significantly decreased once MLK3 was silenced. At various
      reoxygenation time, MLK3 shRNA could significantly promote cell survival and
      decrease cell death according to MTT and LDH. Our results suggested that chronic
      hypoxia could reduce MLK3 expression in a posttranscriptional regulatory manner.
      Downregulation of MLK3 protects H9C2 cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis and H/R
      injury via blocking the activation of JNK and c-jun.

PMID- 28555333
TI  - The value of [11C]-acetate PET and [18F]-FDG PET in hepatocellular carcinoma
      before and after treatment with transarterial chemoembolization and bevacizumab.
AB  - PURPOSE: This prospective study was to investigate the value of [11C]-acetate PET
      and [18F]-FDG PET in the evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) before and
      after treatment with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody (bevacizumab). METHODS: Twenty-two
      patients (three women, 19 men; 62 +/- 8 years) with HCC verified by
      histopathology were treated with TACE and bevacizumab (n = 11) or placebo (n =
      11). [11C]-acetate PET and [18F]-FDG PET were performed before and after TACE
      with bevacizumab or placebo. Comparisons between groups were performed with t
      tests and Chi-squared tests, where appropriate. Overall survival (OS) was defined
      as the time from start of bevacizumab or placebo until the date of death/last
      follow-up, respectively. RESULTS: The patient-related sensitivity of [11C]
      acetate PET, [18F]-FDG PET, and combined [11C]-acetate and [18F]-FDG PET was 68%,
      45%, and 73%, respectively. There was a significantly higher rate of conversion
      from [11C]-acetate positive lesions to negative lesions in patients treated with
      TACE and bevacizumab as compared with that in patients with TACE and placebo (p <
      0.05). In patients with negative acetate PET, the mean OS in patients treated
      with TACE and bevacizumab was 259 +/- 118 days and was markedly shorter as
      compared with that (668 +/- 217 days) in patients treated with TACE and placebo
      (p < 0.05). In patients treated with TACE and placebo, there was significant
      difference in mean OS in patients with positive FDG PET as compared with that in
      patients with negative FDG PET (p < 0.05). The HCC lesions had different tracer
      avidities showing the heterogeneity of HCC. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that
      combining [18F]-FDG with [11C]-acetate PET could be useful for the management of
      HCC patients and might also provide relevant prognostic and molecular
      heterogeneity information.

PMID- 28555334
TI  - Prenatal nicotine exposure induces HPA axis-hypersensitivity in offspring rats
      via the intrauterine programming of up-regulation of hippocampal GAD67.
AB  - The intrauterine programming of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
      hypersensitivity is associated with chronic adult diseases. Our previous studies
      demonstrated the HPA-axis hypersensitivity in offspring rats induced by prenatal
      nicotine exposure. The goal of the present study is to further investigate the
      intrauterine programming mechanism. Pregnant Wistar rats were subcutaneously
      administered with 2.0 mg/kg day of nicotine from gestational day (GD) 9-20. A
      group of the pregnant rats was euthanized at GD20, and the fetal rats were
      extracted. The remaining rats were left to come to term, and the adult offspring
      were exposed to chronic stress. For adult offspring rats, prenatal nicotine
      exposure induced HPA-axis hypersensitivity after chronic stress, accompanied by
      imbalanced glutamatergic/GABAergic afferent inputs. Moreover, prenatal nicotine
      exposure enhanced the expression of hippocampal glutamic acid decarboxylase 67
      (GAD67), accompanied by a decreased methylation ratio within nt -1019 to -689 of
      the GAD67 promoter, decreased expression of Dnmt1, and an increased GABA content
      and density of GABAergic neurons. The fetal rats exhibited changes consistent
      with the adult rats. Similar effects were also observed by treating the fetal
      hippocampal cell line H19-7 with 1-100 MUM nicotine, while dihydro-beta
      erythroidine hydrobromide (DHbetaE), the specific inhibitor of alpha4beta2nAChR,
      can reverse the effects caused by nicotine. These results indicate that prenatal
      nicotine exposure can enhance the potential excitability of the hypothalamus via
      the intrauterine programming of up-regulation of hippocampal GAD67. All of these
      results contribute to the HPA-axis hypersensitivity in adult offspring.

PMID- 28555335
TI  - Parenting Stress through the Lens of Different Clinical Groups: a Systematic
      Review & Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Research has demonstrated an association between parenting stress and child
      behavior problems, and suggested levels of parenting stress are higher among
      parents of children at risk for behavior problems, such as those with autism and
      developmental delay (ASD/DD). The goal of the present study was to conduct a
      systematic review of parenting stress and child behavior problems among different
      clinical groups (i.e., ASD/DD, chronic illness, with or at-risk for behavioral
      and/or mood disorders). We also examined demographic and methodological variables
      as moderators and differences in overall levels of parenting stress between the
      clinical groups. This systematic review documents a link between parenting stress
      and child behavior problems with an emphasis on externalizing behavior. One
      hundred thirty-three studies were included for quantitative analysis. Parenting
      stress was more strongly related to child externalizing (weighted ES r = 0.57, d
      = 1.39) than internalizing (weighted ES r = 0.37, d = 0.79) problems. Moderation
      analyses indicated that the association between parenting stress and behavior
      problems was stronger among studies which had mostly male and clinic-recruited
      samples. Overall, parenting stress levels were higher for parents of children
      with ASD/DD compared to parents of children from other clinical groups. Findings
      document the association between parenting stress and child behavior problems and
      highlight the importance of assessing parenting stress as part of routine care
      and throughout behavioral intervention programs, especially for groups of
      children at high risk for behavior problems, such as children with ASD/DD, in
      order to identify support for both the parent(s) and child.

PMID- 28555336
TI  - A Novel Liquid-Liquid Extraction for the Determination of Sertraline in Tap Water
      and Waste Water at Trace Levels by GC-MS.
AB  - A simple, green and fast analytical method was developed for the determination of
      sertraline in tap and waste water samples at trace levels by using supportive
      liquid-liquid extraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Different
      parameters affecting extraction efficiency such as types and volumes of
      extraction and supporter solvents, extraction period, salt type and amount were
      optimized to get lower detection limits. Ethyl acetate was selected as optimum
      extraction solvent. In order to improve the precision, anthracene-D10 was used as
      an internal standard. The calibration plot of sertraline was linear from 1.0 to
      1000 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. The limit of detection value
      under the optimum conditions was found to be 0.43 ng/mL. In real sample
      measurements, spiking experiments were performed to check the reliability of the
      method for these matrices. The spiking experiments yielded satisfactory
      recoveries of 91.19 +/- 2.48%, 90.48 +/- 5.19% and 95.46 +/- 6.56% for 100, 250
      and 500 ng/mL sertraline for tap water, and 85.80 +/- 2.15% and 92.43 +/- 4.02%
      for 250 and 500 ng/mL sertraline for waste water.

PMID- 28555337
TI  - Occurrence, Distribution and Ecological Risks of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics in
      the Dongjiang River and the Beijiang River, Pearl River Delta, South China.
AB  - The occurrence and distribution of five selected fluoroquinolones (FQs) were
      studied in the Dongjiang River and the Beijiang River, South China.
      Ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and enoxacin, used as human and veterinary medicines,
      were detected with detection frequencies of 75%-100% and average concentrations
      of 9.5-18.8 ng L-1 in the two rivers. Meanwhile, enrofloxacin, which is only used
      as veterinary medicine, was detected at lower levels (2.9-4.0 ng L-1) than those
      of ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and enoxacin. The spatial distribution of the five
      FQs exhibited a close relationship with the intensity of local human activity.
      Certain antibiotics were detected in industrial wastewater and domestic sewage at
      considerably higher concentrations than those measured in the river water,
      indicating important sources of antibiotic contamination. Finally, an ecological
      risk assessment based on the calculated risk quotient showed that ciprofloxacin
      could pose high risk to Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa). The two rivers
      are important sources of drinking water and should arouse the attention of
      relevant departments. Effective measures must be taken to strengthen the
      protection of the two rivers.

PMID- 28555338
TI  - The affective and somatic side of depression: subtypes of depressive symptoms
      show diametrically opposed associations with glycemic control in people with type
      1 diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: While depression has been linked to serious adverse outcomes in diabetes,
      associations with glycemic control are not conclusive. Inconsistencies could be
      due to the complex symptomatology of depression. Aim of this study was to analyze
      the associations of depressive subtypes with glycemic control in people with type
      1 and type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Patients completed the Center for Epidemiological
      Studies-Depression scale which comprises affective, somatic, and anhedonic
      symptoms. These subtypes were analyzed in a joint linear regression analysis with
      glycemic control as a dependent variable. Subtype scores were calculated as mean
      item scores. Separate analyses for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes were
      conducted. All analyses were controlled for demographic and medical confounders.
      RESULTS: The sample comprised 604 patients with type 1 and 382 patients with type
      2 diabetes. In people with type 1 diabetes, the somatic and affective subtype
      showed diametrically opposed associations with glycemic control (somatic: beta
      =+0.23, p < .05; affective: beta = -0.23, p < .05). Anhedonia was not
      significantly associated with glycemic control. In people with type 2 diabetes,
      none of the depressive subtypes was significantly associated with glycemic
      control. CONCLUSIONS: For people with type 1 diabetes, the distinction of
      subtypes offered a detailed picture of the associations of depressive symptoms
      with glycemic control. However, due to the cross-sectional design, inferences
      about the direction of these associations cannot be made. In clinical practice,
      instead of focusing on overall depression, healthcare providers should examine
      the nature of depressive symptoms and how they might be related to having
      diabetes.

PMID- 28555339
TI  - Role of Mobile Technology to Improve Diabetes Care in Adults with Type 1
      Diabetes: The Remote-T1D Study iBGStar(r) in Type 1 Diabetes Management.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The role of mobile technology in patient-reported outcomes (PRO)
      and glycemic control in adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) needs further
      evaluation. METHODS: The single-center, prospective, 6-month, open-label,
      investigator-initiated study randomized 100 subjects with T1D in a 1:1 fashion to
      a control group using self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) with Accu-Chek
      Nano(r) and an intervention group using SMBG with iPhone plus glucose meter
      (iBGStar(r)). The primary endpoint was the change in PRO (hypoglycemia fear
      score, behavior and worry subscores). Secondary outcomes were the improvement in
      glycemic variability indices and the reduction in A1c values. RESULTS: Baseline
      demographics and glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) values were similar in the two
      groups. There was a significant decrease in A1c value at 6 months in iBGStar(r)
      group compared to the control group (-0.16 vs. -0.51, p = 0.04). The total
      insulin dose increased significantly in the iBGStar(r) group at 3 months but did
      not change at 6 months. The hypoglycemia fear scale (PRO) improved in both groups
      at 6 months (-1.4 +/- 10.0 vs. -3.9 +/- 12.5, p = 0.32). CONCLUSION: The use of
      iBGStar(r) resulted in better glycemic control and improvement in some PRO
      (hypoglycemia fear and behavior scores) compared to the control group at 6 months
      with no increased risk of hypoglycemia. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01825382. FUNDING: Sanofi.

PMID- 28555340
TI  - Erratum to: Comparison of potential higher order reference methods for total
      haemoglobin quantification-an interlaboratory study.

PMID- 28555343
TI  - Preparation of polymer brushes grafted graphene oxide by atom transfer radical
      polymerization as a new support for trypsin immobilization and efficient proteome
      digestion.
AB  - Highly efficient protein digestion is one of the key issues in the "bottom-up"
      strategy-based proteomic studies. Compared with the time-consuming solution-based
      free protease digestion, immobilized protease digestion offers a promising
      alternative with obviously improved sample processing throughput. In this study,
      we proposed a new immobilized protease digestion strategy using two kinds of
      polymer-grafted graphene oxide (GO) conjugated trypsin. The polymer brush grafted
      GO was prepared using in situ polymer growth on initiator-functionalized GO using
      surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and
      characterized by AFM, TEM, TGA, and XPS. The polymer brush grafted GO supports
      three-dimensional trypsin immobilization, which not only increases the loading
      amount but also improves accessibility towards protein substrates. Both of the
      two types of immobilized trypsin provide 700 times shorter digestion time, while
      maintaining comparable protein/peptide identification scale compared with that of
      free trypsin digestion. More interestingly, combined application of the two types
      of immobilized trypsin with different surface-grafted polymers leads to at least
      18.3/31.3% enhancement in protein/peptide identification compared with that
      obtained by digestion using a single type, indicating the potential of this
      digestion strategy for deeper proteome coverage using limited mass spectrometer
      machine hour. We expect these advantages may find valuable application in high
      throughput clinical proteomic studies, which often involve processing of a large
      number of samples. Graphical abstract Preparation of polymer brushes grafted and
      trypsin immobilized graphene oxide and its application in proteome digestion and
      mass spectrometry identification.

PMID- 28555341
TI  - Offline pentafluorophenyl (PFP)-RP prefractionation as an alternative to high-pH
      RP for comprehensive LC-MS/MS proteomics and phosphoproteomics.
AB  - Technological advances in liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC
      MS/MS) have enabled comprehensive analyses of proteins and their post
      translational modifications from cell culture and tissue samples. However, sample
      complexity necessitates offline prefractionation via a chromatographic method
      that is orthogonal to online reversed-phase high-performance liquid
      chromatography (RP-HPLC). This additional fractionation step improves target
      identification rates by reducing the complexity of the sample as it is introduced
      to the instrument. A commonly employed offline prefractionation method is high pH
      reversed-phase (Hi-pH RP) chromatography. Though highly orthogonal to online RP
      HPLC, Hi-pH RP relies on buffers that interfere with electrospray ionization.
      Thus, samples that are prefractionated using Hi-pH RP are typically desalted
      prior to LC-MS/MS. In the present work, we evaluate an alternative offline
      prefractionation method, pentafluorophenyl (PFP)-based reversed-phase
      chromatography. Importantly, PFP prefractionation results in samples that are
      dried prior to analysis by LC-MS/MS. This reduction in sample handling relative
      to Hi-pH RP results in time savings and could facilitate higher target
      identification rates. Here, we have compared the performances of PFP and Hi-pH RP
      in offline prefractionation of peptides and phosphopeptides that have been
      isolated from human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cells. Given the prevalence of
      isobaric mass tags for peptide quantification, we evaluated PFP chromatography of
      peptides labeled with tandem mass tags. Our results suggest that PFP is a viable
      alternative to Hi-pH RP for both peptide and phosphopeptide offline
      prefractionation.

PMID- 28555344
TI  - Analysis of the evolution of the detection limits of electrochemical nucleic acid
      biosensors II.
AB  - This critical review of electrochemical biosensors allowing direct detection of
      nucleic acid targets reports on different transduction pathways and their latest
      breakthroughs. A classification of the various strategies based on the nature of
      the electrochemical transduction is established to emphasize the efficiency of
      each of them. It provides an overall picture of the detection limit of the
      various approaches developed during the last two decades. Graphical Abstract
      Detection limits evolutions of electrochemical DNA biosensors.

PMID- 28555342
TI  - Microchip electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection for the
      determination of the ratio of nitric oxide to superoxide production in
      macrophages during inflammation.
AB  - It is well known that excessive production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen
      species is linked to the development of oxidative stress-driven disorders. In
      particular, nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide (O2*-) play critical roles in many
      physiological and pathological processes. This article reports the use of 4-amino
      5-methylamino-2',7'-difluorofluorescein diacetate and MitoSOX Red in conjunction
      with microchip electrophoresis and laser-induced fluorescence detection for the
      simultaneous detection of NO and O2*- in RAW 264.7 macrophage cell lysates
      following different stimulation procedures. Cell stimulations were performed in
      the presence and absence of cytosolic (diethyldithiocarbamate) and mitochondrial
      (2-methoxyestradiol) superoxide dismutase (SOD) inhibitors. The NO/O2*- ratios in
      macrophage cell lysates under physiological and proinflammatory conditions were
      determined. The NO/O2*- ratios were 0.60 +/- 0.07 for unstimulated cells
      pretreated with SOD inhibitors, 1.08 +/- 0.06 for unstimulated cells in the
      absence of SOD inhibitors, and 3.14 +/- 0.13 for stimulated cells. The effect of
      carnosine (antioxidant) or Ca2+ (intracellular messenger) on the NO/O2*- ratio
      was also investigated. Graphical Abstract Simultaneous detection of nitric oxide
      and superoxide in macrophage cell lysates.

PMID- 28555348
TI  - [Magnetic resonance imaging : Recent studies on biological effects of static
      magnetic and high-frequency electromagnetic fields].
AB  - PROBLEM: During the last few years, new studies on biological effects of strong
      static magnetic fields and on thermal effects of high-frequency electromagnetic
      fields used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were published. Many of these
      studies have not yet been included in the current safety recommendations. METHOD:
      Scientific publications since 2010 on biological effects of static and
      electromagnetic fields in MRI were researched and evaluated. RESULTS: New studies
      confirm older publications that have already described effects of static magnetic
      fields on sensory organs and the central nervous system, accompanied by sensory
      perceptions. A new result is the direct effect of Lorentz forces on ionic
      currents in the semicircular canals of the vestibular system. Recent studies of
      thermal effects of high-frequency electromagnetic fields were focused on the
      development of anatomically realistic body models and a more precise simulation
      of exposure scenarios. RECOMMENDATION FOR PRACTICE: Strong static magnetic fields
      can cause unpleasant sensations, in particular, vertigo. In addition, they can
      influence the performance of the medical staff and thus potentially endanger the
      patient's safety. As a precaution, medical personnel should move slowly within
      the field gradient. High-frequency electromagnetic fields lead to an increase in
      the temperature of patients' tissues and organs. This should be considered
      especially in patients with restricted thermoregulation and in pregnant women and
      neonates; in these cases exposure should be kept as low as possible.

PMID- 28555347
TI  - Repetition Priming Effects in Proficient Mandarin-Cantonese and Cantonese
      Mandarin Bidialectals: An Event-Related Potential Study.
AB  - The present study adopted a repetition priming paradigm to investigate the
      bidialectal (bilingual) representation of speakers with different native dialects
      by event-related potential (ERP) technique. Proficient Mandarin-Cantonese and
      Cantonese-Mandarin bidialectals participated in the study. They were required to
      judge whether a word was a biological word or not, when the words (target word)
      were represented under four types of repetition priming conditions: Mandarin
      (prime)-Mandarin (target), Mandarin (prime)-Cantonese (target), Cantonese (prime)
      Cantonese (target) and Cantonese (prime)-Mandarin (target). Results of reaction
      time and accuracy primarily indicated larger repetition priming effects in
      Mandarin-Mandarin and Cantonese-Cantonese (within-language) conditions than that
      in Mandarin-Cantonese and Cantonese-Mandarin (between-language) conditions. But
      more importantly, P200 and N400 mean amplitudes revealed distinct repetition
      priming effects between two types of participants. Specifically, both P200 and
      N400 indicated that the repetition priming effect in Mandarin-Mandarin condition
      was larger than that in Cantonese-Cantonese condition for Mandarin-Cantonese
      participants, whereas it was opposite for Cantonese-Mandarin participants. In
      addition, P200 also suggested opposite patterns of repetition priming effects in
      between-language priming conditions for two groups of participants. The
      repetition priming effect in Mandarin-Cantonese condition was larger than that in
      Cantonese-Mandarin condition for Mandarin-Cantonese participants, while for
      Cantonese-Mandarin participants, it was opposite (Mandarin-Cantonese < Cantonese
      Mandarin). The results implied a clear asymmetric representation of two dialects
      for proficient bidialectals. They were further discussed in light of native
      dialect and language use frequency.

PMID- 28555346
TI  - Endobronchial Metastasis from Extrapulmonary Neoplasms: Analysis of
      Clinicopathologic Features and Cytological Evaluation by Bronchial Brushing.
AB  - PURPOSE: Bronchial brushings (BB) commonly aid in the diagnosis of primary lung
      cancer. However, the utility of this method in diagnosing endobronchial
      metastases (EBM) from extrapulmonic malignancies has not been thoroughly
      evaluated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the sensitivity of BB in
      diagnosing EBM. METHODS: An institutional database was queried for all patients
      with cytologically or histologically confirmed extrapulmonary EBM identified by
      endobronchial biopsy between 1978 and 2013. Data were collected on patient
      demographics, histologic and cytologic diagnoses, time from primary malignancy to
      identification of EBM, and location of EBM. The sensitivity of BB for the
      diagnosis of EBM and the clinicopathologic features of extrapulmonary EBM were
      assessed. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients (33 females, 23 males; mean age 53 years)
      were identified with EBM. Diagnoses included lymphoma (21), breast adenocarcinoma
      (11), colonic adenocarcinoma (7), melanoma (6), renal cell carcinoma (RCC, 5),
      embryonal carcinoma (2), and 1 case each of tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma,
      thymic carcinoma, leiomyosarcoma, and sarcoma, not otherwise specified. The
      sensitivity of BB for identifying EBM was 85% overall and 94% for non-hematologic
      malignancies. The mean interval between primary diagnosis and EBM was 59 months
      (range 0-264 months). Excluding ten patients who had EBM at their initial
      presentation, lymphoma had the shortest (10 months) and RCC had the longest (264
      months) mean interval between primary diagnosis and EBM. The mean time between
      EBM identification and death was 22.4 months (n = 24). CONCLUSION: Bronchial
      brushing is a sensitive technique for diagnosing non-hematologic extrapulmonic
      endobronchial metastases.

PMID- 28555351
TI  - The Promise of Enterprise Architecture for Global Health Informatics.

PMID- 28555349
TI  - Hospital admission for treatment of complications after extracorporeal shock wave
      lithotripsy for renal stones: a study of risk factors.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine risk factors of hospital admission
      for treatment of complications after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL).
      The electronic files and images of all patients who underwent SWL for treatment
      of renal stones between January 2011 and December 2015 were retrospectively
      reviewed. All patients underwent SWL with the same electromagnetic lithotripter
      (Dornier Lithotripot S). The data of those who needed hospital admission for
      treatment of complications within 30 days after SWL were compared with patients
      who did not require hospital admission. Compared data included patients'
      demographics (age, gender, BMI, ASA score, and pre-SWL stenting), renal
      characters (side, hydronephrosis, and solitary kidney), and stone characters
      (site, length, density, and previous treatment). Univariate and multivariate
      statistical analyses were used to identify risk factors. The study included 1179
      patients. Complications that required hospital admission were observed in 108
      patients (9.2%). They included obstructing steinstrasse in 91 (7.7%), peri-renal
      hematoma in 3 (0.25%), and fever (>38.0  degrees C) in 14 (1.2%). Independent
      risk factors on multivariate analysis were solitary kidney (OR 2.855, P = 0.017),
      pre-SWL stenting (RR 2.03, P = 0.044), ASA II (OR 1.965, P = 0.007),
      hydronephrosis (RR 1.639, P = 0.024), and stone length (RR 1.083, P < 0.001).
      Patients with medical co-morbidities, pre-SWL ureteral stents, large stones and
      those with obstructed and/or solitary renal unit are more liable to post-SWL
      complications that need hospital admission. The probability of hospital admission
      has to be explained to patients with these risk factors.

PMID- 28555345
TI  - New Insights on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Based on Plasticity-Related Network
      Changes and High-Order Statistics.
AB  - Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain characterized by the predisposition to
      generate recurrent unprovoked seizures, which involves reshaping of neuronal
      circuitries based on intense neuronal activity. In this review, we first detailed
      the regulation of plasticity-associated genes, such as ARC, GAP-43, PSD-95,
      synapsin, and synaptophysin. Indeed, reshaping of neuronal connectivity after the
      primary, acute epileptogenesis event increases the excitability of the temporal
      lobe. Herein, we also discussed the heterogeneity of neuronal populations
      regarding the number of synaptic connections, which in the theoretical field is
      commonly referred as degree. Employing integrate-and-fire neuronal model, we
      determined that in addition to increased synaptic strength, degree correlations
      might play essential and unsuspected roles in the control of network activity.
      Indeed, assortativity, which can be described as a condition where high-degree
      correlations are observed, increases the excitability of neural networks. In this
      review, we summarized recent topics in the field, and data were discussed
      according to newly developed or unusual tools, as provided by mathematical graph
      analysis and high-order statistics. With this, we were able to present new
      foundations for the pathological activity observed in temporal lobe epilepsy.

PMID- 28555350
TI  - Membranous nephropathy-one morphologic pattern with different diseases.
AB  - Since the discovery of the phospholipase A2 receptor 1 (PLA2R1) and
      thrombospondin type-1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A) as endogenous antigens
      involved in the development of membranous nephropathy (MN) in over 80% of adult
      patients, substantial progress in the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of MN has
      been made. In most cases of patients with MN, it is now possible to specifically
      define the responsible pathogenic mechanisms of disease and make a diagnosis even
      without a renal biopsy. Moreover, the presence of antibodies in the blood and the
      detection of the antigens in renal biopsies allow the definite diagnosis without
      the morphologic uncertainties, which now still apply for only about 20% of all
      renal biopsies showing MN. The discovery that the expression of THSD7A in
      malignant tumors might serve as the site of primary antigen recognition for the
      immune system to start MN might lead to a better understanding of not only tumor
      associated MN, which accounts for up to 10% of all patients with MN, but also of
      the pathomechanisms relevant for MN development in general.

PMID- 28555352
TI  - A New mHealth App for Monitoring and Awareness of Healthy Eating: Development and
      User Evaluation by Spanish Users.
AB  - Modern-day society has moved towards a more sedentary lifestyle. Advances in
      technology and changes in habits in our daily lives have led a large part of the
      population towards a spiralling sedentary lifestyle and obesity. The main
      objective of this work is to develop and subsequently assess a mobile app, named
      DietApp, that provides advice about obtaining a healthy diet according to age,
      clinical history and physical condition. DietApp has been developed for iOS and
      Android systems, and a survey comprising 7 simple questions enabled the app to be
      evaluated on a user level by taking into account aspects such as its usefulness
      and ease of use. DietApp was assessed by 150 Spanish individuals between 18 and
      69 years of age, and 84% of them thought it was easy to use. 80% of users also
      considered the dietary suggestions provided by the app to be very useful while
      62% were of the opinion that it is very useful in general. All of them would
      recommend the app to other users. During the six months when the app was used,
      any dietary excess or shortcomings were corrected in 72% of those interviewed. A
      mobile app has been created that is easy to use and attractive, providing
      personalised suggestions according to illness that are useful for the individual.

PMID- 28555353
TI  - Information and Communications Technologies Health Projects in Panama: A
      Systematic Review and their Relation with Public Policies.
AB  - This paper presents a review about Information and Communications Technologies
      (ICTs) health projects in Panama. The main contribution is to provide a vision of
      the situation in Panama, allowing an understanding of the dynamics of health
      policies and how they have affected the implementation of ICT's Projects to
      improve the health of Panamanians. We analyze the projects found with ICT's in
      health of Panama, which allow us to see a perspective of projects information is
      obtained from 2000 to 2016, however it is important to highlight that there may
      be other projects that we do not know because we did not find enough information
      or evidence of the same. That is why this review has interviews with key
      personnel, who have guided us with the search for information. 56% of technology
      projects are concentrated in the capital city and only 16% in the province of
      Chiriqui. 64% of these projects are focused on the development of information
      systems, mainly focused on electronic patient registration. And 60% refers to
      projects related to primary health care. The MINSA and CSS both with a 20%
      participation in ICT project, in addition we can notice the dispersion of
      projects for hospitals, where each one is developing programs per their needs or
      priorities. The national information about ICT projects of Health, it has been
      notorious the state of dispersion and segmented of public health information. We
      consider that it is a natural consequence of Policy in Panamanian Health System.
      This situation limits the information retrieval and knowledge of ICT in Health of
      Panama. To stakeholders, this information is directed so that health policies are
      designed towards a more effective and integral management, administering the
      ICT's as tools for the well-being of most the Panamanian population, including
      indigenous group.

PMID- 28555354
TI  - Contiguous gene deletion of chromosome 2p16.3-p21 as a cause of Lynch syndrome.
AB  - Lynch syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition caused by pathogenic mutations
      in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. Although commonly associated with
      clinical features such as intellectual disability and congenital anomalies,
      contiguous gene deletions may also result in cancer predisposition syndromes. We
      report on a 52-year-old male with Lynch syndrome caused by deletion of chromosome
      2p16.3-p21. The patient had intellectual disability and presented with a
      prostatic adenocarcinoma with an incidentally identified synchronous sigmoid
      adenocarcinoma that exhibited deficient MMR with an absence of MSH2 and MSH6
      protein expression. Family history was unrevealing. Physical exam revealed short
      stature, brachycephaly with a narrow forehead and short philtrum, brachydactyly
      of the hands, palmar transverse crease, broad and small feet with
      hyperpigmentation of the soles. The patient underwent total colectomy with
      ileorectal anastomosis for a pT3N1 sigmoid adenocarcinoma. Germline genetic
      testing of the MSH2, MSH6, and EPCAM genes revealed full gene deletions. SNP
      array based DNA copy number analysis identified a deletion of 4.8 Mb at 2p16.3
      p21. In addition to the three Lynch syndrome associated genes, the deleted
      chromosomal section encompassed genes including NRXN1, CRIPT, CALM2, FBXO11,
      LHCGR, MCFD2, TTC7A, EPAS1, PRKCE, and 15 others. Contiguous gene deletions have
      been described in other inherited cancer predisposition syndromes, such as
      Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. Our report and review of the literature suggests
      that contiguous gene deletion within the 2p16-p21 chromosomal region is a rare
      cause of Lynch syndrome, but presents with distinct phenotypic features,
      highlighting the need for recognition and awareness of this syndromic entity.

PMID- 28555355
TI  - Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis in children with sickle cell
      disease.
AB  - Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) suffer from an increased incidence of
      gallstone formation due to hemolysis of sickled red blood cells; this leads to an
      increased level of bilirubin in secreted bile that becomes a nidus for pigment
      stone formation. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is considered a standard
      operative procedure for gallstone disease mainly due to lower postoperative wound
      complaints, faster recovery, better postoperative cosmetic results, shorter
      hospital stay, and earlier return to work. Although numerous studies have been
      published addressing both the advantages and complications of LC in acute
      calcular cholecystitis, there is still limited evidence concerning the safety and
      efficacy of LC for the management of cholelithiasis in pediatric patients with
      SCD, and controversies remain unresolved. In this review, we aim to
      comprehensively study the available literature and propose evidence-based
      practice recommendations for the optimal management of gallstones in pediatric
      SCD patients. The current practice differs greatly depending on the prevalence of
      SCD in a particular geographic area. We acknowledge the limited number of
      patients reported, the lack of randomized control trials addressing the practice
      of specific recommendations, and the need for further evidence-based studies.

PMID- 28555356
TI  - The long-term prognostic value of survivin expressing circulating tumor cells in
      patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Long-term follow-up study to evaluate the impact on disease-free
      survival and cancer-specific survival of survivin expression in tissue and CTCs
      from T1G3 bladder cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was conducted
      using tumor tissue and blood samples from 54 patients with a primary diagnosis of
      T1G3 NMIBC. Survivin was evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain
      reaction in tumor tissues. CTCs were isolated from blood by CELLectionTM
      Dynabeads (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Cells were lysed and cDNA was
      synthesized and analysed for the expression of CD45, CK8 and survivin. The
      endpoints of this long-termanalysis were disease-free survival, DFS and cancer
      specific survival, CSS. RESULTS: Here, we report that, at 9 years of median
      follow-up, disease-free survival and cancer-specific survival are both
      significantly influenced by the expression of survivin in tumor tissue (p =
      0.006), by the presence of CTCs (p < 0.0001) and by the expression of survivin in
      CTCs (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The statistically significant impact of survivin
      expressing CTCs on cancer-specific survival that we observed might be interpreted
      as the result of the persistence of a subpopulation of highlander cells in the
      blood of T1G3 bladder patients over time.

PMID- 28555357
TI  - Attenuation of beta-Amyloid Toxicity In Vitro and In Vivo by Accelerated
      Aggregation.
AB  - Accumulation and aggregation of beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptides result in neuronal
      death, leading to cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. The self
      assembled Abeta molecules form various intermediate aggregates including
      oligomers that are more toxic to neurons than the mature aggregates, including
      fibrils. Thus, one strategy to alleviate Abeta toxicity is to facilitate the
      conversion of Abeta intermediates to larger aggregates such as fibrils. In this
      study, we designed a peptide named A3 that significantly enhanced the formation
      of amorphous aggregates of Abeta by accelerating the aggregation kinetics.
      Thioflavin T fluorescence experiments revealed an accelerated aggregation of
      Abeta monomers, accompanying reduced Abeta cytotoxicity. Transgenic
      Caenorhabditis elegans over-expressing amyloid precursor protein exhibited
      paralysis due to the accumulation of Abeta oligomers, and this phenotype was
      attenuated by feeding the animals with A3 peptide. These findings suggest that
      the Abeta aggregation-promotion effect can potentially be useful for developing
      strategies to reduce Abeta toxicity.

PMID- 28555358
TI  - Complex chromosomal rearrangement-a lesson learned from PGS.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to report a case of non-diagnosed complex
      chromosomal rearrangement (CCR) identified by preimplantation genetic screening
      (PGS) followed by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) which resulted in a
      pregnancy and delivery of healthy offspring. METHODS: A 29-year-old woman and her
      spouse, both diagnosed previously with normal karyotypes, approached our IVF-PGD
      center following eight early spontaneous miscarriages. PGS using chromosomal
      microarray analysis (CMA) was performed on biopsied trophectoderm. Fluorescence
      in situ hybridization (FISH), as well as re-karyotype, were performed on
      metaphase derived from peripheral blood of the couple. Subsequently, in the
      following PGD cycle, a total of seven blastocysts underwent CMA. RESULTS: A gain
      or loss at three chromosomes (3, 7, 9) was identified in six out of seven embryos
      in the first PGS-CMA cycle. FISH analysis of parental peripheral blood samples
      demonstrated that the male is a carrier of a CCR involving those chromosomes;
      this was in spite of a former diagnosis of normal karyotypes for both parents. Re
      karyotype verified the complex translocation of 46,XY,t (3;7;9)(q23;q22;q22).
      Subsequently, in the following cycle, a total of seven blastocysts underwent PGD
      CMA for the identified complex translocation. Two embryos were diagnosed with
      balanced chromosomal constitution. A single balanced embryo was transferred and
      pregnancy was achieved, resulting in the birth of a healthy female baby.
      CONCLUSIONS: PGS employing CMA is an efficient method to detect unrevealed
      chromosomal abnormalities, including complicated cases of CCR. The combined
      application of array CGH and FISH technologies enables the identification of an
      increased number of CCR carriers for which PGD is particularly beneficial.

PMID- 28555359
TI  - Broadband W-band Rapid Frequency Sweep Considerations for Fourier Transform EPR.
AB  - A multi-arm W-band (94 GHz) electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer that
      incorporates a loop-gap resonator with high bandwidth is described. A goal of the
      instrumental development is detection of free induction decay following rapid
      sweep of the microwave frequency across the spectrum of a nitroxide radical at
      physiological temperature, which is expected to lead to a capability for Fourier
      transform electron paramagnetic resonance. Progress toward this goal is a theme
      of the paper. Because of the low Q-value of the loop-gap resonator, it was found
      necessary to develop a new type of automatic frequency control, which is
      described in an appendix. Path-length equalization, which is accomplished at the
      intermediate frequency of 59 GHz, is analyzed. A directional coupler is favored
      for separation of incident and reflected power between the bridge and the loop
      gap resonator. Microwave leakage of this coupler is analyzed. An oversize
      waveguide with hyperbolic-cosine tapers couples the bridge to the loop-gap
      resonator, which results in reduced microwave power and signal loss. Benchmark
      sensitivity data are provided. The most extensive application of the instrument
      to date has been the measurement of T1 values using pulse saturation recovery. An
      overview of that work is provided.

PMID- 28555361
TI  - Improving efficacy and efficiency through the implementation of a new
      organisational model in a Radiation Oncology Department.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate a new organisational model, "process management" (PM),
      implemented in the Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria (HUVV) compared
      with traditional models used in other Radiation Oncology Departments (RODs), in
      terms of efficacy and efficiency. METHODS: The study period ranged from September
      2011 to August 2012. Efficacy was assessed, comparing the number of patients
      attended in first consultation and treated per month, average waiting time from
      referral to first visit and average waiting time from first visit to treatment.
      Data were collected from two public hospitals in Andalusia: the HUVV and another
      Public Hospital in Andalusia (PHA1). Efficiency was assessed comparing the costs
      per patient attended in first visit and treated at HUVV in 2012 compared with
      those of a second Public Hospital in Andalusia (PHA2) for 2008. The number of
      sessions saved using hypofractionation versus classical schemes during the year
      2012 in HUVV was estimated, and the money saved was calculated. RESULTS: In the
      efficacy analysis, we found significant differences in the average waiting time
      for first visit, start of treatment, and the number of patients seen and treated
      annually. After calculating the total cost generated in the ROD, the efficiency
      analysis showed a lower cost per patient attended in first visit (EUR 599.17) and
      per patient treated (EUR 783.50), with a saving of 6035 sessions using
      hypofractionated schemes. CONCLUSIONS: Process management in an ROD reduces time,
      both to first medical visit and to treatment initiation, allowing an optimisation
      of linear accelerator (LINAC) capacity.

PMID- 28555360
TI  - A correlation between long-term in vitro dynamic calcification and abnormal flow
      patterns past bioprosthetic heart valves.
AB  - In this paper, a long-term in vitro dynamic calcification of three porcine aortic
      heart valves was investigated using a combined approach that involved accelerated
      wear testing of the valves in the rapid calcification solution, hydrodynamic
      assessment of the progressive change of effective orifice area (EOA) along with
      the transaortic pressure gradient, and quantitative visualization of the flow.
      The motivation for this study was developing a standardized, economical, and
      feasible in vitro testing methodology for bioprosthetic heart valve
      calcification, which would address both the hydrodynamic performance of the
      valves as well as the subsequent changes in the flow field. The results revealed
      the failure of the test valves at 40 million cycles mark, associated with the
      critical decrease in the EOA, followed by the increase in the maximum value of
      viscous shear stress of up to 52%, compared to the values measured at the
      beginning of the study. The decrease in the EOA was subsequently followed by the
      rapid increase in the maximum streamwise velocity of the central orifice jet up
      to the value of about 2.8 m/s, compared to the initial value of 2 m/s, and to the
      value of 2.2 m/s in the case of a control valve along with progressive narrowing
      of the velocity profile for two test valves. The significance of the current work
      is in demonstrating a correlation between calcification of the aortic valve and
      spatial as well as the temporal development of abnormal flow features.

PMID- 28555362
TI  - The Incidence of Drug- and Herbal and Dietary Supplement-Induced Liver Injury:
      Preliminary Findings from Gastroenterologist-Based Surveillance in the Population
      of the State of Delaware.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The population-based incidence rate of drug-induced liver
      injury (DILI) in the USA is not known. The Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network
      (DILIN) accrues cases of hepatotoxicity due to medications and herbal and dietary
      supplements (HDS) from limited geographical areas. The current analysis was an
      ancillary study of DILIN aimed at determining the annual incidence of DILI in the
      USA on a population basis, through surveillance in the state of Delaware.
      METHODS: At the outset of the study, there were 41 gastroenterologists in the
      state of Delaware and all agreed to participate in surveillance for DILI, which
      comprised active reporting of suspected cases to the DILIN. The
      gastroenterologists underwent training in the diagnosis of DILI and were provided
      with DILIN inclusion criteria. Only cases that met the DILIN laboratory inclusion
      criteria in 2014 were included in the incidence calculation, and these patients
      were invited to participate in the DILIN Prospective Study. The number of
      suspected cases that met inclusion criteria served as the numerator and the 2014
      Delaware adult population as the denominator. RESULTS: During 2014, 23 patients
      were identified by the surveillance network, 20 of whom met DILIN laboratory
      inclusion criteria, leading to an incidence of 2.7 cases of DILI per 100,000
      adult residents [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-3.9 per 100,000]. Fourteen
      subjects agreed to participate in the DILIN; six declined. Among enrolled cases,
      the mean age was 51 years, 57% were women, and 71% were white. Eight cases were
      attributed to antibiotics (36%) and other drugs (21%) and six to HDS (43%). The
      pattern of injury was hepatocellular in all HDS cases, but only 50% of
      conventional drug cases (p = 0.05), which more commonly presented with
      eosinophilia (p = 0.47) and higher alkaline phosphatase levels (p = 0.05). Half
      of patients were jaundiced, none developed liver failure, and all recovered
      without the need for transplantation. CONCLUSION: Prospective, gastroenterologist
      based surveillance for suspected DILI in Delaware yielded an incidence of 2.7
      cases per 100,000 adults in 2014; this is the first prospective estimate of DILI
      for the USA. Because surveillance was limited to subspecialists, the actual
      incidence of DILI is likely to be higher. These findings provide a benchmark
      statistic for the epidemiology of DILI in the United States, to be refined with
      expansion of the surveillance period.

PMID- 28555363
TI  - Malnutrition is an independent risk factor for mortality in Mexican patients with
      systemic sclerosis: a cohort study.
AB  - Factors for mortality in systemic sclerosis (SSc) vary in different cohorts
      around the world. Case-control study nested in a cohort. We included patients
      >=16 years of age with SSc (ACR/EULAR 2013), from 2005 to 2015. Demographic and
      clinical variables and causes of mortality were recorded. We calculated Crude
      Mortality Rate (CMR), Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR), and Kaplan-Meier
      survival analysis was performed. A Cox proportional hazard (HR) regression
      analysis of the potential risk factors associated with mortality was also
      performed. A total of 220 patients with SSc were included. During follow-up, 28
      deaths occurred. The sum of total time contributed by all subjects was 1074 years
      person, the CMR was 12.72%, the overall SMR was 4.5, in women 3.7, and in men
      4.7. The survival rate at 5 and 10 years was 83 and 70%, respectively. The causes
      of death were definitively attributed to SSc in 21.4% of the cases, probably in
      28.7%, unrelated in 35.6%, and unknown in 14.3%. The direct cause of death of the
      patients was infection in 25% of cases, cardiovascular disease in 14%, lung
      involvement in 14%, pulmonary embolism in 11%, and neoplasia in 11%. The Cox
      regression analysis showed that the factors associated with mortality were: male
      gender (HR 5.84, CI 95% 1.31-26, p = 0.013), severe Medsger's score for general
      symptoms (HR 5.12, CI 95% 1.74-14.97, p = 0.021) and severe malnutrition (HR
      3.77, CI 95% 1.23-11.06, p = 0.008). Infections, cardiovascular disease, and lung
      involvement were the leading cause of death. Male gender and severe general
      affection and malnutrition were associated with a poorer prognosis of SSc.

PMID- 28555365
TI  - Long-term results of rotational acetabular osteotomy for osteonecrosis with
      collapse of the femoral head in young patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The surgical treatment of osteonecrosis with collapse of the femoral
      head is still controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the
      clinical outcome of rotational acetabular osteotomy by Ninomiya and Tagawa for
      osteonecrosis of the femoral head in young patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Rotational acetabular osteotomy was performed in 202 consecutive patients between
      1995 and 2003. Among them, rotational acetabular osteotomy with osteonecrosis of
      the femoral head was performed in 31 patients (42 hips). The mean age at the time
      of surgery was 31.2 years (range 16-45). The mean duration of follow-up was 16.1
      years (range 13.1-21 years). RESULTS: The mean preoperative Japanese Orthopedic
      Association hip score of 56.8 points improved to a mean of 72.4 points at the
      final follow-up. The 10-year survival rate with conversion to total hip
      arthroplasty as an end-point was 91.9%, and the 15-year survival rate was 75.5%,
      the 20-year survival rate was 67.9%. The conversion to total hip arthroplasty was
      performed in nine hips. The average time to the conversion to total hip
      arthroplasty was 12.1 years. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the necrotized range is
      wide, if normal cartilage remains on the lateral side of the femoral head, it can
      be utilized for the weight-bearing region by laterally rotating the acetabulum.
      Since the outcome was favorable, we believe that this is a valuable treatment
      option for this disease.

PMID- 28555364
TI  - Osteoclast-Associated Receptor (OSCAR) Distribution in the Synovial Tissues of
      Patients with Active RA and TNF-alpha and RANKL Regulation of Expression by
      Osteoclasts In Vitro.
AB  - Osteoclast-associated receptor (OSCAR) is a co-stimulatory receptor in
      osteoclastogenesis. Synovial tissues from active rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
      patients express higher levels of OSCAR compared with osteoarthritic and normal
      patients; however, the comparison of OSCAR levels in different regions of active
      RA synovium has not been reported. The regulation of OSCAR by TNF-alpha and
      receptor activator of NF kappa beta ligand (RANKL) in pre-osteoclasts/osteoclasts
      in vitro is unclear. OSCAR and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)
      expression levels did not differ between the cartilage pannus junction (CPJ) and
      non-CPJ regions in active RA. We demonstrate a similar pattern of OSCAR
      expression in the CPJ and non-CPJ synovial tissue from patients with active RA.
      OSCAR was associated with mononuclear cells in both the lining and sub-lining and
      endothelial cells (von Willebrand factor positive). Pre-osteoclasts (TRAP
      positive cells) were present in the lining and sub-lining of both regions. OSCAR
      messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and release by pre-oscteoclasts/osteoclasts was
      modulated by RANKL with/without TNF-alpha in vitro. Osteoclast resorption on
      dentine slices was significantly greater with TNF-alpha pre-treatment and RANKL
      (10 ng/ml) than RANKL 10 or 50 ng/ml alone or RANKL 10 ng/ml with TNF-alpha given
      from day 3 post-RANKL. The lower levels of OSCAR mRNA expression corresponded
      with high osteoclast activity levels.

PMID- 28555366
TI  - Pulley lesions in rotator cuff tears: prevalence, etiology, and concomitant
      pathologies.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to demonstrate the prevalence of lesions in the biceps
      pulley complex in a representative, consecutive series of rotator cuff tears and
      rotator cuff interval treatments. We also analyzed associated tear pattern of
      rotator cuff injuries and superior labrum anterior-posterior (SLAP) lesions. We
      evaluated the relationships of these lesions to traumatic genesis and the
      prevalence of pulley lesions in revision cases. METHODS: This retrospective study
      analyzed all pre- and intra-operative documentation on arthroscopic rotator cuff
      reconstructions and isolated pulley lesion treatments performed by a single
      surgeon over 2 consecutive years. According to Habermeyer et al., we classified
      cases into four groups, based on the presence of additional or related complete
      or partial rotator cuff tears, SLAP lesions, trauma, and primary or revision
      surgery. RESULTS: Among 382 patients with rotator cuff tears, 345 (90.3%) had an
      injured pulley system; 151 (43.8%) had partial tears of the rotator cuff; out of
      these, 106 (30.6%) were articular-sided. All of these articular-sided partial
      tears showed extension into the pulley complex. In 154 cases (44.6%), history of
      shoulder trauma was associated with the beginning of symptoms. In addition,
      concomitant SLAP lesions occurred in 25-62% of pulley lesions, correlating with
      the severity of pulley lesions. Among the 345 cases, there have been 32 (9.3%)
      revision cases where a pulley lesion was intra-operatively identified and
      addressed. CONCLUSIONS: Pulley complex lesions are present in 90.3% of surgically
      treated rotator cuff lesions, particularly in articular-sided injuries. In
      addition, we found a significant relationship between the incidence of SLAP
      lesions and the severity of pulley lesions. It seems reasonable to assume an
      important role of pulley system injuries in the pathogenesis of rotator cuff
      lesions.

PMID- 28555367
TI  - Subtrochanteric fractures in elderly people treated with intramedullary fixation:
      quality of life and complications following open reduction and cerclage wiring
      versus closed reduction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Subtrochanteric fractures are more difficult to treat than other
      proximal femoral fractures. The aim of this study was to report the outcomes for
      patients with subtrochanteric fractures treated using a cephalomedullary nail
      following open reduction and cerclage wiring versus closed reduction alone,
      regarding health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and social function. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study including patients aged 60
      years or older suffering fragility subtrochanteric fractures of the femur treated
      with cephalomedullary nails, with a minimum 2-year follow-up. We defined two
      treatment groups: one treated with closed reduction manoeuvres (60 patients), and
      another treated with open reduction and cerclage wiring (30 patients). The
      outcomes were mortality, orthopaedic complications (reoperation and no-union),
      social function (Jensen Index), and HRQoL (EQ-5D index score). RESULTS: There
      were no differences regarding sex, age, side affected, type of implant,
      anaesthetic risk, 1-year mortality, and orthopaedic complications. Surgical time
      was longer in the cerclage wire group, but length of stay was 2 days shorter for
      the cerclage group and reduction was better. Patients treated with cerclage
      wiring had significantly better EQ-ED at 12 months (0.66 +/- 0.22 points vs. 0.78
      +/- 0.15 points); and social status at 12 and 18 months (2.77 +/- 1.00 points vs.
      2.10 +/- 1.22 points). CONCLUSIONS: Better reduction is achieved when using
      cerclage wires for fragility subtrochanteric fractures. These fractures had a
      negative effect on quality of life and social function, but better outcomes were
      observed in the cerclage group.

PMID- 28555369
TI  - Role of molecular turnover in dynamic deformation of a three-dimensional cellular
      membrane.
AB  - In cells, the molecular constituents of membranes are dynamically turned over by
      transportation from one membrane to another. This molecular turnover causes the
      membrane to shrink or expand by sensing the stress state within the cell,
      changing its morphology. At present, little is known as to how this turnover
      regulates the dynamic deformation of cellular membranes. In this study, we
      propose a new physical model by which molecular turnover is coupled with three
      dimensional membrane deformation to explore mechanosensing roles of turnover in
      cellular membrane deformations. In particular, as an example of microscopic
      machinery, based on a coarse-graining description, we suppose that molecular
      turnover depends on the local membrane strain. Using the proposed model, we
      demonstrate computational simulations of a single vesicle. The results show that
      molecular turnover adaptively facilitates vesicle deformation, owing to its
      stress dependence; while the vesicle drastically expands in the case with low
      bending rigidity, it shrinks in that with high bending rigidity. Moreover,
      localized active tension on the membrane causes cellular migration by driving the
      directional transport of molecules within the cell. These results illustrate the
      use of the proposed model as well as the role of turnover in the dynamic
      deformations of cellular membranes.

PMID- 28555370
TI  - Promoting Nurturing Environments in Afterschool Settings.
AB  - Given the rise in dual-career and single-parent families, and the need for
      monitoring and supervision during out-of-school time, afterschool settings are
      becoming important contexts for the prevention of problem behaviors and the
      promotion of the positive development of youth. Research indicates that high
      quality afterschool programs can have positive effects on children's academic,
      socio-emotional, and behavioral outcomes. But less is known about how these
      influences occur and potential mechanisms involved in this nurturing and
      promotion process. This paper draws upon the current theoretical and empirical
      literature in school settings and beyond to examine ways in which afterschool
      settings can be leveraged as a potential nurturing environment. We apply the
      conceptualization of nurturing environments put forth by Biglan et al. (Am
      Psychol 67(4):257-271, 2012. doi: 10.1037/a0026796 ), which attends to the
      minimization of toxic social and biological conditions, reinforcement of diverse
      prosocial behaviors, limiting opportunities and influences for problem behavior,
      and promoting psychological flexibility in the pursuit of one's values and goals.
      This paper concludes by identifying potential future research directions and
      practice implications regarding afterschool settings as nurturing environments
      for all youth.

PMID- 28555368
TI  - A mutated dph3 gene causes sensitivity of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells to
      cytotoxic agents.
AB  - Dph3 is involved in diphthamide modification of the eukaryotic translation
      elongation factor eEF2 and in Elongator-mediated modifications of tRNAs, where a
      5-methoxycarbonyl-methyl moiety is added to wobble uridines. Lack of such
      modifications affects protein synthesis due to inaccurate translation of mRNAs at
      ribosomes. We have discovered that integration of markers at the msh3 locus of
      Schizosaccharomyces pombe impaired the function of the nearby located dph3 gene.
      Such integrations rendered cells sensitive to the cytotoxic drugs hydroxyurea and
      methyl methanesulfonate. We constructed dph3 and msh3 strains with mutated ATG
      start codons (ATGmut), which allowed investigating drug sensitivity without
      potential interference by marker insertions. The dph3-ATGmut and a dph3::loxP
      ura4-loxM gene disruption strain, but not msh3-ATGmut, turned out to be sensitive
      to hydroxyurea and methyl methanesulfonate, likewise the strains with cassettes
      integrated at the msh3 locus. The fungicide sordarin, which inhibits diphthamide
      modified eEF2 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, barely affected survival of wild type
      and msh3Delta S. pombe cells, while the dph3Delta mutant was sensitive. The msh3
      ATG mutation, but not dph3Delta or the dph3-ATG mutation caused a defect in
      mating-type switching, indicating that the ura4 marker at the dph3 locus did not
      interfere with Msh3 function. We conclude that Dph3 is required for cellular
      resistance to the fungicide sordarin and to the cytotoxic drugs hydroxyurea and
      methyl methanesulfonate. This is likely mediated by efficient translation of
      proteins in response to DNA damage and replication stress.

PMID- 28555371
TI  - Hierarchical High-Order Functional Connectivity Networks and Selective Feature
      Fusion for MCI Classification.
AB  - Conventional Functional connectivity (FC) analysis focuses on characterizing the
      correlation between two brain regions, whereas the high-order FC can model the
      correlation between two brain region pairs. To reduce the number of brain region
      pairs, clustering is applied to group all the brain region pairs into a small
      number of clusters. Then, a high-order FC network can be constructed based on the
      clustering result. By varying the number of clusters, multiple high-order FC
      networks can be generated and the one with the best overall performance can be
      finally selected. However, the important information contained in other networks
      may be simply discarded. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose to make
      full use of the information contained in all high-order FC networks. First, an
      agglomerative hierarchical clustering technique is applied such that the
      clustering result in one layer always depends on the previous layer, thus making
      the high-order FC networks in the two consecutive layers highly correlated. As a
      result, the features extracted from high-order FC network in each layer can be
      decomposed into two parts (blocks), i.e., one is redundant while the other might
      be informative or complementary, with respect to its previous layer. Then, a
      selective feature fusion method, which combines sequential forward selection and
      sparse regression, is developed to select a feature set from those informative
      feature blocks for classification. Experimental results confirm that our novel
      method outperforms the best single high-order FC network in diagnosis of mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects.

PMID- 28555372
TI  - Determinants of catastrophic health expenditure in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Catastrophic health expenditure is a measure of financial risk
      protection and it is often incurred by households who have to pay out of pocket
      for health care services that are not affordable. The study assessed the
      determinants of catastrophic health expenditure among households in Nigeria.
      METHODS: Secondary data from the Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard Survey
      (HNLSS) of 2009/10 was utilized to assess factors associated with catastrophic
      health expenditure in Nigeria. Household and individual characteristics
      associated with catastrophic health expenditure were determined using bivariate
      analysis and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Results showed that
      irrespective of the threshold for the two concepts of total household expenditure
      and non-food expenditure, having household members aged between 6 and 14 years,
      having household members aged between 15 and 24 years, having household members
      aged between 25 and 54 years, having no education, having primary education,
      having secondary education, lack of health insurance coverage, visiting a private
      health facility, households living in north central zone, households living in
      north east zone and having household members with non-chronic illnesses were
      factors that increase the risk of incurring catastrophic health expenditure among
      households. CONCLUSIONS: Policy-makers and political actors need to design
      equitable health financing policies that will increase financial risk protection
      for people in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

PMID- 28555373
TI  - Blood Brain Barrier Injury in Diabetes: Unrecognized Effects on Brain and
      Cognition.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disorder due to the inability properly to metabolize
      glucose associated with dysregulation of metabolic pathways of lipids and
      proteins resulting in structural and functional changes of various organ systems.
      DM has detrimental effects on the vasculature, resulting in the development of
      various cardiovascular diseases and stemming from microvascular injury. The blood
      brain barrier (BBB) is a highly specialized structure protecting the unique
      microenvironment of the brain. Endothelial cells, connected by junctional
      complexes and expressing numerous transporters, constitute the main cell type in
      the BBB. Other components, including pericytes, basement membrane, astrocytes and
      perivascular macrophages, join endothelial cells to form the neurovascular unit
      (NVU) and contribute to the proper function and integrity of the BBB. The role of
      the BBB in the pathogenesis of diabetic encephalopathy and other diabetes-related
      complications in the central nervous system is apparent. However, the mechanisms,
      timing and consequences of BBB injury in diabetes are not well understood. The
      importance of further studies related to barrier dysfunction in diabetes is
      dictated by its potential involvement in the cognitive demise associated with DM.
      This review summarizes the impact of DM on BBB/NVU integrity and function leading
      to neurological and cognitive complications.

PMID- 28555375
TI  - Overview of the 8th Edition TNM Classification for Head and Neck Cancer.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: The main purpose of the TNM system is to provide an anatomic
      based classification to adequately depict cancer prognosis. Accurate cancer
      staging is important for treatment selection and outcome prediction, research
      design, and cancer control activities. To maintain clinical relevance, periodical
      updates to TNM are necessary. The recently published 8th edition TNM
      classification institutes the following changes to the staging of head and neck
      (excluding thyroid cancer): new stage classifications [HPV-related oropharyngeal
      cancer (HPV+ OPC) and soft tissue sarcoma of the head and neck (HN-STS)] and
      modification of T and N categories [T and N categories for nasopharyngeal cancer
      (NPC), T categories for oral cavity squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC), N categories
      for non-viral related head and neck cancer and unknown primary (CUP), and T
      categories for head and neck cutaneous carcinoma]. These changes reflect better
      understanding tumor biology and clinical behavior (e.g., HPV+ OPC and HN-STS),
      improved outcomes associated with technical advances in diagnosis and treatment
      (e.g., NPC), evolving knowledge about additional prognostic factors and risk
      stratification from research and observation (e.g., inclusion of depth of
      invasion variable for OSCC, inclusion of extranodal extension variable for all
      non-viral head and neck cancer, and reintroduction of size criteria for non
      Merkel cell cutaneous carcinoma of the head and neck). This review summarizes the
      changes and potential advantages and limitations/caveats associated with them.
      Further evidence is needed to evaluate whether these changes would result in
      improvement in TNM stage performance to better serve the needs for clinical care,
      research, and cancer control.

PMID- 28555374
TI  - The Cisplatin Total Dose and Concomitant Radiation in Locoregionally Advanced
      Head and Neck Cancer: Any Recent Evidence for Dose Efficacy?
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with high-dose (100 mg/m2),
      single-agent cisplatin is considered the standard of care for locoregionally
      advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC). Poor compliance often due to significant
      treatment-related toxicities observed during CRT regimen has stimulated research
      efforts to examine for evidence of the optimal cumulative cisplatin dose and
      schedule. The findings from this systematic literature review demonstrate that
      there are insufficient prospective, randomized controlled data to determine the
      optimal total dose (and schedule) of cisplatin to administer concomitantly with
      radiotherapy in the treatment of LAHNC. Given the clinical challenges associated
      with administering concurrent CRT with single-agent high-dose cisplatin, as well
      as the long-term toxicities accompanying this treatment, an examination of the
      available literature for evidence of dose efficacy is of continued clinical
      interest. Moving forward, it is critical that researchers include complete
      descriptions of key disease and treatment variables (i.e. treatment compliance
      and HPV status) to inform and strengthen clinical decisions. The substantial
      heterogeneity of LAHNC has led to the focus of recent research efforts to risk
      stratify using a combination of clinical and molecular markers (e.g. HPV status).
      Thus, the optimal total dose (and schedule) of cisplatin may need to be modified
      to reflect the specific characteristics of the individual patient subpopulations
      being treated. At present, CRT remains the standard of care for LAHNC, but this
      field is rapidly evolving. National and international clinical trials are ongoing
      to evaluate treatment de-intensification in favourable risk patient subsets and
      treatment intensification in poor-risk patient subsets, these will provide
      evidence-based guidance to individualize therapy with the ultimate goal of
      improving patient outcomes.

PMID- 28555377
TI  - AlphaLISA detection of alpha-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid and its
      potential application in Parkinson's disease diagnosis.

PMID- 28555376
TI  - Proteomic Analysis Revealed the Fruiting-Body Protein Profile of Auricularia
      polytricha.
AB  - Auricularia polytricha is one of the most widely cultivated edible mushrooms in
      China. Many advances have been made to A. polytricha, but there is still no
      proteomic information of this species. Our current understanding was based upon
      the translated information of its transcriptome or other relative species. This
      study presented the proteomic information of fruiting-body proteins by shotgun
      liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which identified
      15,508 peptides corresponding to 1850 high-confidence proteins. Of these, 1383
      were annotated across the GO subcategories with 829 (44.81%) involved in
      biological process, 908 (49.08%) in molecular function, and 406 (21.95%) in
      cellular components. Among these high-confidence proteins, 132 proteins were
      annotated as carbohydrate-active enzymes, of which 51 were secreted enzymes.
      Moreover, a number of commercially important enzymes were detected, functioning
      as auxiliary activity (AA) family 5 glyoxal oxidase, AA5 galactose oxidase,
      glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 20 hexosaminidase, and GH47 alpha-mannosidase. To
      the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize A. polytricha
      proteome, and also fills the gap of our knowledge on the under-developed mushroom
      species.

PMID- 28555378
TI  - [A 59-year-old woman with upper abdominal pain and fever].
AB  - A 59-year-old woman suffered from fever and upper abdominal pain. The computed
      tomography (CT) scan revealed a liver lesion. Conventional imaging techniques
      (CT, magnetic resonance imaging, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography) did not allow
      for a consistent diagnosis. Fine needle biopsy of the liver lesion was performed.
      Histologically, fibrotic inflammation was found and an inflammatory pseudotumor
      (IPT) diagnosed. Despite treatment with steroids and antibiotics, the size of the
      IPT increased; thus, surgical resection was necessary. In case of fever of
      unknown origin, IPT should be considered as a potential diagnosis.

PMID- 28555379
TI  - [Recent development of hypertension and acute renal failure in a 59-year-old
      woman].
AB  - We report on a 59-year-old woman who presented with nausea, fatigue, arterial
      hypertension, and acute renal failure. Clinical examination, laboratory findings
      of blood and urine and abdominal sonography were inconclusive. Renal biopsy
      revealed infiltration by a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In fluorodeoxyglucose
      positron emission tomography/computed tomography tracer enrichment was
      demonstrated in both kidneys, skeletal system and retroperitoneal lymph nodes.
      Renal function improved already after the first cycle of R-CHOP (rituximab,
      cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone). After chemotherapy, a
      complete remission, normalization of blood pressure and renal function were
      achieved.

PMID- 28555380
TI  - Anti-gliadin antibodies in breast milk from celiac mothers on a gluten-free diet.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the presence of total IgA and anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA)
      in BM from CD mothers who follow a gluten-free diet (GFD) and from mothers on a
      normal gluten-containing diet (ND). METHODS: 218 samples of mature milk were
      obtained at different months of lactation (1-6) from 83 mothers (2 or more
      samples per mother) from Italy (Naples), The Netherlands (Leiden) and Spain
      (Madrid, Valencia and Reus): 42 CD mothers on GFD for more than 2 years and 41
      non-CD mothers on a ND. Whey samples were analyzed for AGA-IgA by an indirect
      homemade ELISA and for total IgA (g/L) by a commercial ELISA kit. RESULTS: AGA
      IgA was detected in BM, both in mothers on a GFD and mothers on a ND. AGA-IgA
      levels in both groups of mothers, CD and non-CD, show the same trend towards
      decreasing slightly along the months of lactation (p = 0.91). A different trend
      is observed for total IgA levels, decreasing markedly in CD mothers from the
      first month of lactation onwards but remaining stable in non-CD mothers (p =
      0.048). A statistically significant association was found between the means of
      total IgA and AGA-IgA (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: AGA-IgA is present in BM from
      mothers on a ND as well as in BM from mothers who had been on a GFD for years.
      This reflects the existence of a long-lasting immunological memory independent of
      the mother's diet. If the presence of these antibodies has any role in promoting
      the acquisition of gluten tolerance in the infant, our study shows that children
      of CD mothers would be on equal conditions as children of non-CD mothers.

PMID- 28555382
TI  - Prevalence and characteristics of self-reported physical and mental disorders
      among adults with hearing loss in Denmark: a national survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: Existing research shows that people with hearing loss have a high risk
      of additional physical and mental disorders. However, only a few population-based
      studies have been conducted. This study assesses the prevalence and
      characteristics of additional disorders among adults with hearing loss in Denmark
      and thereby contributes a population-based study to this area of research.
      METHOD: Data on self-reported physical and mental disorders from a national
      survey of 772 adults with hearing loss were compared to corresponding data from a
      national survey of 18,017 adults from the general population. RESULTS: People
      with hearing loss reported more physical and mental disorders than the general
      population. Specifically, they reported higher incidences of visual impairment,
      cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, and "other mental disorders".
      CONCLUSION: Adults with hearing loss have a greater risk of additional physical
      and mental disorders. It is important for clinicians to have some understanding
      of the communication needs and characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing
      patients, so that they can recognize and treat symptoms and provide appropriate
      support.

PMID- 28555381
TI  - Do racial patterns in psychological distress shed light on the Black-White
      depression paradox? A systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Major epidemiologic studies in the US reveal a consistent "paradox" by
      which psychiatric outcomes such as major depressive disorder (MDD) are less
      prevalent among Blacks relative to Whites, despite greater exposure to social and
      economic stressors and worse physical health outcomes. A second paradox, which
      has received less attention and has never been systematically documented, is the
      discrepancy between these patterns and Black-White comparisons in psychological
      distress, which reveal consistently higher levels among Blacks. By systematically
      documenting the latter paradox, this paper seeks to inform efforts to explain the
      first paradox. METHODS: We conduct a systematic review of the literature
      estimating the prevalence of MDD and levels of psychological distress in Blacks
      and Whites in the US. RESULTS: The literature review yielded 34 articles
      reporting 54 relevant outcomes overall. Blacks have a lower prevalence of MDD in
      8 of the 9 comparisons observed. In contrast, Blacks have higher levels of
      psychological distress (in terms of "high distress" and mean scores) than Whites
      in 42 of the 45 comparisons observed. Tests of statistical significance, where
      available, confirm this discrepant pattern. CONCLUSIONS: A systematic review of
      the epidemiologic evidence supports the existence of a "double paradox" by which
      Blacks' lower prevalence of MDD relative to Whites' is inconsistent with both the
      expectations of social stress theory and with the empirical evidence regarding
      psychological distress. Efforts to resolve the Black-White depression paradox
      should account for the discordant distress results, which seem to favor
      artifactual explanations.

PMID- 28555383
TI  - New fronts emerge in the influenza cytokine storm.
AB  - Influenza virus is a significant pathogen in humans and animals with the ability
      to cause extensive morbidity and mortality. Exuberant immune responses induced
      following infection have been described as a "cytokine storm," associated with
      excessive levels of proinflammatory cytokines and widespread tissue damage.
      Recent studies have painted a more complex picture of cytokine networks and their
      contributions to clinical outcomes. While many cytokines clearly inflict
      immunopathology, others have non-pathological delimited roles in sending alarm
      signals, facilitating viral clearance, and promoting tissue repair, such as the
      IL-33-amphiregulin axis, which plays a key role in resolving some types of lung
      damage. Recent literature suggests that type 2 cytokines, traditionally thought
      of as not involved in anti-influenza immunity, may play an important regulatory
      role. Here, we discuss the diverse roles played by cytokines after influenza
      infection and highlight new, serene features of the cytokine storm, while
      highlighting the specific functions of relevant cytokines that perform unique
      immune functions and may have applications for influenza therapy.

PMID- 28555384
TI  - Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility, severity, and treatment
      response.
AB  - A decade after the first genome-wide association study in rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA), a plethora of genetic association studies have been published on RA and its
      clinical or serological subtypes. We review the major milestones in the study of
      the genetic architecture of RA susceptibility, severity, and response to
      treatment. We set the scientific context necessary for non-geneticists to
      understand the potential clinical applications of human genetics and its
      significance for a stratified approach to the management of RA in the future.

PMID- 28555388
TI  - Right coronary artery ectasia with coronary arteriovenous fistula mimicking
      Takotsubo-like left ventricular dysfunction in the electrocardiogram.
AB  - A coronary arteriovenous fistula is an abnormal connection between a coronary
      artery and any of four chambers in the heart. We repot a unique case with a
      fistulae originating from right coronary artery and draining into the right
      atrium via coronary sinus although Takotsubo-like left ventricular dysfunction or
      acute myocardial infarction was initially thought to have occurred according to
      the electrocardiogram finding.

PMID- 28555386
TI  - Molecular pathogenesis of viral hemorrhagic fever.
AB  - The clinical syndrome referred to as viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) can be caused
      by several different families of RNA viruses, including select members of the
      arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, filoviruses, and flaviviruses. VHF is characterized
      by malaise, fever, vascular permeability, decreased plasma volume, coagulation
      abnormalities, and varying degrees of hemorrhage. Study of the filovirus Ebola
      virus has demonstrated a critical role for suppression of innate antiviral
      defenses in viral pathogenesis. Additionally, antigen-presenting cells are
      targets of productive infection and immune dysregulation. Among these cell
      populations, monocytes and macrophages are proposed to produce damaging
      inflammatory cytokines, while infected dendritic cells fail to undergo proper
      maturation, potentially impairing adaptive immunity. Uncontrolled virus
      replication and accompanying inflammatory responses are thought to promote
      vascular leakage and coagulopathy. However, the specific molecular pathways that
      underlie these features of VHF remain poorly understood. The arenavirus Lassa
      virus and the flavivirus yellow fever virus exhibit similar molecular
      pathogenesis suggesting common underlying mechanisms. Because non-human primate
      models that closely mimic VHF are available for Ebola, Lassa, and yellow fever
      viruses, we propose that comparative molecular studies using these models will
      yield new insights into the molecular underpinnings of VHF and suggest new
      therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28555387
TI  - Ameliorating the severity of sleep-disordered breathing concomitant with heart
      failure status after percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation for
      drug-refractory hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.
AB  - The coexistence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and hypertrophic obstructive
      cardiomyopathy (HOCM) has widely been recognized; however, the impact of
      percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation (PTSMA) for HOCM on SDB
      remains unknown. Herein, we examine cardiorespiratory polygraph parameters in
      patients with drug-refractory HOCM before and after PTSMA. Forty consecutive drug
      refractory HOCM patients, admitted to Keio University Hospital, and who underwent
      cardiorespiratory polygraphy were retrospectively analyzed. Cardiorespiratory
      polygraphy was performed before and after PTSMA if patients underwent PTSMA.
      Patients with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) >=5/h were considered to have SDB.
      The total number of central sleep apneas, obstructive sleep apneas, and hypopnea
      events was evaluated. Thirty-two out of 40 patients (80%) with drug-refractory
      HOCM had SDB. All patients experienced relief of heart failure-associated
      symptoms after PTSMA. The severity of SDB was found to be correlated with left
      atrial diameter. The AHI decreased after PTSMA [before 15.4 (range 10.9-23.5)/h
      vs. after 13.1 (8.3-17.8)/h, P = 0.02]. Especially, the hypopnea index decreased
      after PTSMA. The average and lowest arterial oxygen saturation also increased
      after PTSMA (94.2 +/- 1.9-95.7 +/- 1.6%, P = 0.009; 81.3 +/- 5.7-85.8 +/- 4.8%, P
      = 0.012, respectively). In patients with drug-refractory HOCM, PTSMA decreased
      the AHI and improved arterial oxygen saturation measures. Thus, invasive
      treatment of the left ventricular obstruction ameliorates the severity of SDB, in
      addition to improving heart failure status.

PMID- 28555390
TI  - Pure motor monoparesis due to infarction of the "hand knob" area: radiological
      and morphological features.

PMID- 28555389
TI  - Plaque characteristics and inflammatory markers for the prediction of major
      cardiovascular events in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction.
AB  - To investigate the clinical utility of culprit plaque characteristics and
      inflammatory markers for the prediction of future cardiovascular events in
      patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with successful
      drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. We evaluated 172 STEMI patients with
      successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with DES using pre
      PCI high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
      (NLR) and pre-PCI intravascular ultrasound virtual histology (IVUS-VH) of culprit
      lesions. The incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) including
      all-cause mortality, non-fatal MI, stroke and late revascularization were
      recorded during hospitalization and follow-up. During follow-up (median 41
      months), the incidence of MACE did not significantly differ among patients with
      or without all 3 high-risk plaque features on IVUS-VH (15.1 vs. 16.2%; p = 0.39).
      In contrast, patients with elevated hs-CRP and NLR levels were at significant
      risk for MACE [32.7 vs. 5.8%; hazard ratio (HR) 7.85; p < 0.001 and 43.9 vs.
      6.9%; HR 8.44; p < 0.001, respectively]. High-risk plaque features had no
      incremental usefulness to predict future MACE. However, the incorporation of hs
      CRP and NLR into a model with conventional clinical and procedural risk factors
      significantly improved the C-statistic for the prediction of MACE (0.76-0.89; p =
      0.04). High-risk plaque features identified by IVUS-VH in culprit lesions were
      not associated with future MACE in patients with STEMI receiving DES. However,
      elevated hs-CRP and NLR levels were significantly associated with poorer outcomes
      and had incremental predictive values over conventional risk factors.

PMID- 28555385
TI  - Cytokine storm and sepsis disease pathogenesis.
AB  - Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide. Sepsis is a severe
      clinical syndrome related to the host response to infection. The severity of
      infections is due to an activation cascade that will lead to an autoamplifying
      cytokine production: the cytokine storm. Cytokines are a broad category of
      relatively small proteins (<40 kDa) that are produced and released with the aim
      of cell signaling. Our understanding of the processes that trigger this
      tremendous amount of cytokine production has made dramatic progress over the last
      decades, but unfortunately, these findings could not translate yet into effective
      treatments; so far, all clinical trials targeting cytokine production or effects
      failed. This review aims to summarize the pathophysiology of the cytokine storm;
      to describe the type, effects, and kinetics of cytokine production; and to
      discuss the therapeutic challenges of targeting cytokines. New promising
      therapeutic strategies focusing on the endothelium, as a source and a target of
      cytokines, are described.

PMID- 28555391
TI  - Improved recovery and biological activities of an engineered polyene NPP analogue
      in Pseudonocardia autotrophica.
AB  - NPP A1 produced by Pseudonocardia autotrophica is a unique disaccharide
      containing polyene macrolide. NPP A1 was reported to have higher water solubility
      and lower hemolytic toxicity than nystatin A1 while retaining its antifungal
      activity. An engineered NPP A1 analogue, NPP A2, was generated by inactivation of
      the nppL gene, encoding a P450 monooxygenase in P. autotrophica. The resulting
      compound exhibited the corresponding chemical structure of NPP A1 but lacked a
      C10 hydroxyl group. In this study, newly developed crystallization recovery
      methods for NPP A2 purification, followed by an evaluation of in vitro antifungal
      activity and hemolytic activity, were performed. The crystallization methods were
      designed to eliminate the undesired viscous impurities encountered during the NPP
      A2 purification process, resulting in improved purity from 5.3 to 83.5% w/w. NPP
      A2 isolated from the improved purification process also exhibited two times
      higher antifungal activity and 1.8 times higher hemolytic toxicity than those of
      NPP A1. These results suggest that the minor structural modification of
      disaccharide-containing polyene macrolides, such as removing a C10 hydroxyl
      group, might require an alternative recovery process, such as crystallization, to
      confirm its improved biological activity.

PMID- 28555393
TI  - Income-environment relationship in Sub-Saharan African countries: Further
      evidence with trade openness.
AB  - This paper examines the dynamic relationship between energy consumption, income
      growth, carbon emissions and trade openness in fourteen Sub-Saharan African (SSA)
      countries. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration
      and the Toda-Yamamoto causality test were used to investigate the long-run and
      short-run properties, respectively. The long-run estimations give evidence
      against the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in SSA countries. In
      contrast, the results highlight the significant and monotonically contribution of
      income growth and energy consumption in explaining carbon emissions in the long
      run and short-run in several countries. Furthermore, the results show that trade
      openness enhances economic growth and is not linked to causing carbon emissions
      in these countries. Hence, a trade incentive policy may be implemented without
      harmful effect on the quality of the environment.

PMID- 28555392
TI  - Present status of recycling waste mobile phones in China: a review.
AB  - A large number of waste mobile phones have already been generated and are being
      generated. Various countries around the world have all been positively exploring
      the way of recycling and reuse when facing such a large amount of waste mobile
      phones. In some countries, processing waste mobile phones has been forming a
      complete industrial chain, which can not only recycle waste mobile phones to
      reduce their negative influence on the environment but also turn waste into
      treasure to acquire economic benefits dramatically. However, the situation of
      recycling waste mobile phones in China is not going well. Waste mobile phones are
      not formally covered by existing regulations and policies for the waste electric
      and electronic equipment in China. In order to explore an appropriate system to
      recover waste mobile phones, the mobile phone production and the amount of waste
      mobile phones are introduced in this paper, and status of waste mobile phones
      recycling is described; then, the disposal technology of electronic waste that
      would be most likely to be used for processing of electronic waste in industrial
      applications in the near future is reviewed. Finally, rationalization proposals
      are put forward based on the current recovery status of waste mobile phones for
      the purpose of promoting the development of recycling waste mobile phones in
      developing countries with a special emphasis on China.

PMID- 28555395
TI  - Sorption of thiabendazole in sub-tropical Brazilian soils.
AB  - Thiabendazole (TBZ) is an ionizable anthelmintic agent that belongs to the class
      of benzimidazoles. It is widely used in veterinary medicine and as a fungicide in
      agriculture. Sorption and desorption are important processes influencing
      transport, transformation, and bioavailability of xenobiotic compounds in soils;
      data related to sorption capacity are therefore needed for environmental risk
      assessments. The aim of this work was to assess the sorption potential of TBZ in
      four Brazilians soils (sandy, sandy-clay, and clay soils), using batch
      equilibrium experiments at three pH ranges (2.3-3.0, 3.8-4.2, and 5.5-5.7). The
      Freundlich sorption coefficient (K F) ranged from 9.0 to 58 MUg1-1/n  (mL) 1/n  g
      1, with higher values generally observed at the lower pH ranges (2.3-3.0 and 3.8
      4.2) and for clay soils. The highest organic carbon-normalized sorption
      coefficients (KOC) obtained at pH 3.8-5.7 (around the natural pH range of 4.1
      5.0) for both clay soils and sandy-clay soil were 3255 and 2015 mL g-1,
      respectively. The highest correlations K F vs SOM (r = 0.70) and K F vs clay
      content (r = 0.91) were observed at pH 3.8-4.2. Our results suggest that TBZ
      sorption/desorption is strongly pH dependent and that its mobility could be
      higher in the studied soils than previously reported in soils from temperate
      regions.

PMID- 28555394
TI  - The use of wastewater in livestock production and its socioeconomic and welfare
      implications.
AB  - Although epidemiological studies have found a significant amount of toxins in
      surface water, a complex link between animals' access to wastewater and
      associated animal and human welfare losses needs to be explored. The scarcity of
      safe water has put stress on the utilization of wastewater for crops and
      livestock production. The access of animals to wastewater is related to the
      emergence of dangerous animal's diseases, hampering productivity, increasing
      economic losses, and risking human health along the food chain. This review
      explores use of wastewater for agriculture, epidemiological evidence of microbial
      contamination in wastewater, and animal and human welfare disruption due to the
      use of wastewater for crop and livestock production. More specifically, the
      review delves into animals exposure to wastewater for bathing, drinking, or
      grazing on a pasture irrigated with contaminated water and related animal and
      human welfare losses. We included some scientific articles and reviews published
      from 1970 to 2017 to support our rational discussions. The selected articles
      dealt exclusively with animals direct access to wastewater via bathing and
      indirect access via grazing on pasture irrigated with contaminated wastewater and
      their implication for animal and human welfare losses. The study also identified
      that some policy options such as wastewater treatments, constructing wastewater
      stabilization ponds, controlling animal access to wastewater, and dissemination
      of necessary information to ultimate consumers related to the source of
      agricultural produce and wastewater use in animal and crop production are
      required to protect the human and animal health and welfare.

PMID- 28555396
TI  - Human health impact assessment of exposure to particulate matter: an AirQ
      software modeling.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the health impacts related to particulate
      matter less than 10 MUm (PM10) exposure in the city of Yazd, Iran. For this aim,
      AirQ 2.2.3 software was used to model relationship between short-term exposure to
      PM10 and disease cases proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The
      annual mean concentration of PM10 was 97 MUg/m3. The maximum concentration value
      of PM10 was measured during the summer (731 MUg/m3). 4.988% (95%CI: 3.381-6.542%)
      of the total mortality, 7.3% (95%CI; 4.19-10.21%) of cardiovascular mortality,
      and 10.21% (95%CI; 4.19-14.89%) of respiratory mortality were related to the PM10
      concentrations. Consequently, the AirQ software can provide valuable information
      about the importance of air pollution and the substantial impacts of PM10 on the
      society for policymakers.

PMID- 28555397
TI  - Novel highly porous magnetic hydrogel beads composed of chitosan and sodium
      citrate: an effective adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous
      solutions.
AB  - This research focuses on the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions
      using magnetic chitosan hydrogel beads as a potential sorbent. Highly porous
      magnetic chitosan hydrogel (PMCH) beads were prepared by a combination of in situ
      co-precipitation and sodium citrate cross-linking. Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy indicated that the high sorption efficiency of metal cations is
      attributable to the hydroxyl, amino, and carboxyl groups in PMCH beads.
      Thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that introducing Fe3O4 nanoparticles
      increases the thermal stability of the adsorbent. Laser confocal microscopy
      revealed highly uniform porous structure of the resultant PMCH beads, which
      contained a high moisture content (93%). Transmission electron microscopy
      micrographs showed that the Fe3O4 nanoparticles, with a mean diameter of 5 +/- 2
      nm, were well dispersed inside the chitosan beads. Batch adsorption experiments
      and adsorption kinetic analysis revealed that the adsorption process obeys a
      pseudo-second-order model. Isotherm data were satisfactorily described by the
      Langmuir equation, and the maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was 84.02
      mg/g. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectra
      analyses were performed to confirm the adsorption of Pb2+ and to identify the
      adsorption mechanism.

PMID- 28555399
TI  - Assessing demineralization treatments for PVC effluent reuse in the resin
      polymerization step.
AB  - To reduce fresh water consumption in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, the
      effluent from a biological treatment must be demineralized to be re-used in the
      resin polymerization process. Demineralization is a critical process, since the
      quality and the stability of the PVC resins are highly influenced by the water
      quality used in the process. The main target values for water parameters are the
      following: conductivity <10 MUScm-1, TOC < 10 mg L-1, and Al < 0.1 mg L-1. To
      achieve this quality, several reverse osmosis membranes from different materials
      and suppliers were tested and compared in the demineralization treatment.
      Polyamide membranes showed higher salt rejection compared to cellulose acetate
      membranes yielding both types similar flux and permeability. Two-pass reverse
      osmosis treatment was necessary to reach conductivities lower than 10 MUS cm-1.
      On the other hand, a good quality effluent for reuse was obtained by combining RO
      and ionic exchange resins. Results showed that good quality PVC resins in terms
      of color, granulometry, porosity, and bulk density were obtained when
      demineralized water from two-pass reverse osmosis was used as fresh water,
      proving the feasibility of the effluent reuse in the PVC industry.

PMID- 28555398
TI  - Heavy metals in soils from a typical industrial area in Sichuan, China: spatial
      distribution, source identification, and ecological risk assessment.
AB  - Anthropogenic activities could result in increasing concentrations of heavy
      metals in soil and deteriorating in soil environmental quality. Topsoil samples
      from a typical industrial area, Shiting River Valley, Sichuan, Southwest China,
      were collected and determined for the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd, As, and
      Hg. The mean concentrations of these metals were lower than the national
      threshold values, but were slightly higher than their corresponding background
      values, indicating enrichment of these metals in soils in the valley, especially
      for Cu, Zn, and Hg. The topsoils in this area demonstrated moderate pollution and
      low potential ecological risk. Principal component analysis coupled with cluster
      analysis was applied to analyze the data and identified possible sources of these
      heavy metals; the results showed that soil Cd, Hg, As, Cu, and Zn were
      predominantly controlled by human activities, whereas Cr was mainly from the
      parent material. The spatial distribution of the heavy metals varied distinctly
      and was closely correlated to local anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, the
      concentrations of heavy metals in the industrial land demonstrated relatively
      higher levels than those of other land use patterns. Soil metal concentrations
      decreased with the distance increase from the traffic highway (0-1.0 km) and
      water system (0-2.0 km). Additionally, soil properties, especially pH and soil
      organic matter, were found to be important factors in the distribution and
      composition of metals.

PMID- 28555400
TI  - Groundwater quality assessment and pollution source apportionment in an intensely
      exploited region of northern China.
AB  - Deterioration in groundwater quality has attracted wide social interest in China.
      In this study, groundwater quality was monitored during December 2014 at 115
      sites in the Hutuo River alluvial-pluvial fan region of northern China. Results
      showed that 21.7% of NO3- and 51.3% of total hardness samples exceeded grade III
      of the national quality standards for Chinese groundwater. In addition, results
      of gray relationship analysis (GRA) show that 64.3, 10.4, 21.7, and 3.6% of
      samples were within the I, II, IV, and V grades of groundwater in the Hutuo River
      region, respectively. The poor water quality in the study region is due to
      intense anthropogenic activities as well as aquifer vulnerability to
      contamination. Results of principal component analysis (PCA) revealed three major
      factors: (1) domestic wastewater and agricultural runoff pollution (anthropogenic
      activities), (2) water-rock interactions (natural processes), and (3) industrial
      wastewater pollution (anthropogenic activities). Using PCA and absolute principal
      component scores-multivariate linear regression (APCS-MLR), results show that
      domestic wastewater and agricultural runoff are the main sources of groundwater
      pollution in the Hutuo River alluvial-pluvial fan area. Thus, the most
      appropriate methods to prevent groundwater quality degradation are to improve
      capacities for wastewater treatment and to optimize fertilization strategies.

PMID- 28555401
TI  - Emerging multidrug-resistant Bengal Bay clone ST772-MRSA-V in Norway: molecular
      epidemiology 2004-2014.
AB  - A multidrug-resistant, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clone,
      PVL-positive ST772-MRSA-V, named the Bengal Bay clone, is emerging worldwide. In
      Norway, where MRSA prevalence is low, a sudden increase in ST772-MRSA-V initiated
      a nationwide molecular epidemiological study. Clinical data were obtained from
      the Norwegian Surveillance System for Communicable Diseases (MSIS). S. aureus
      isolates were characterised by antibiotic susceptibility profiles and
      comprehensive genotyping (spa typing, MLVA, DNA microarray). ST772-MRSA was
      detected in 145 individuals during 2004-2014, with 60% of cases occurring in 2013
      2014. Median age was 31 years and male/female ratio 1.16. The majority had a
      family background from the Indian subcontinent (70%). MRSA acquisition was mainly
      reported as unknown (39%) or abroad (42%), the latter associated with a home
      country visit (59%), tourism (16%), and immigration (13%). Clinical infection was
      present in 75%, predominantly by SSTI (83%), 18% were admitted to hospital and
      42% were linked to small-scale outbreaks (n = 25). All isolates were multidrug
      resistant. Most isolates were resistant to erythromycin, gentamicin and
      norfloxacin. Genotyping revealed a conserved clone predominated by spa type t657
      (83%), MLVA-type 432 (67%) and the genes lukF/S, sea, sec/sel, egc, scn, cna,
      ccrAA/ccrC, agrII and cap5. A few untypical ccr gene combinations were detected.
      Bengal Bay isolates have likely been imported on several occasions and revision
      of infection control guidelines may prevent further spread.

PMID- 28555402
TI  - Clostridium difficile infections in Finland, 2008-2015: trends, diagnostics and
      ribotypes.
AB  - We evaluated Clostridium difficile (CD) diagnostics in Finnish clinical
      microbiology laboratories during 2006-2011, with an update in 2015, in relation
      to CD surveillance data of the National Infectious Disease Register (NIDR) and
      ribotyping data from the national reference laboratory during the years 2008
      2015. In 2011, diagnostic activity varied regionally more than three-fold and the
      positivity rate ranged between 7 and 21%. Nucleic acid amplification testing
      (NAAT) was implemented in the regions with high activity and NAAT users tested
      30% more patients and found 15% more cases per population than those not using
      it. Culture was performed in 79% of laboratories, primary toxin testing by enzyme
      immunoassay (EIA) in 83% and by NAAT in 17%. In 2014, 12/19 laboratories used
      NAAT as the primary detection method and four as the secondary method, and ten
      cultured. Increasing usage of NAAT was not systematically related to various
      trends detected regionally in annual CD rates. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
      ribotyping of 1771 CD isolates (4.1% of CD cases) identified 146 distinct
      profiles, of which 37% were binary toxin positive. The most common ribotype was
      027, but its proportion decreased, while 078 slightly increased. Transition from
      culture to NAAT in CD infection (CDI) diagnostics did not cause a significant
      increase in the observed CDI incidence. Major differences between diagnostic
      activity, methods and strategies in different regions have persisted over the
      years, which should be considered when comparing the regional epidemiology of
      CDI.

PMID- 28555403
TI  - Dissemination of bla OXA-370 gene among several Enterobacteriaceae species in
      Brazil.
AB  - OXA-370 is a recently described OXA-48 variant that has only been described in a
      few Enterobacter spp. and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. The purpose of this
      study is to assess the prevalence of OXA-370-producing isolates in carbapenem
      nonsusceptible Enterobacteriaceae recovered from 28 hospitals from Brazil. Real
      time PCR was used to determine the presence of bla NDM-1, bla KPC-2, bla VIM
      type, bla GES-type, bla OXA-48-like, and bla IMP-type genes. A total of 4,451
      Enterobacteriaceae were screened. The gene bla OXA-48-like was detected in 74
      (2.5%) isolates, mostly of Enterobacter spp. (44.6% E. cloacae and 2.7% E.
      aerogenes) and Klebsiella spp. (31.1% K. pneumoniae and 6.7% K. oxytoca),
      followed by Escherichia coli, (6.7%), Morganella morganii, (2.7%), Citrobacter
      freundii (1.3%), Proteus mirabilis (1.3%), Providencia stuartii (1.3%), and
      Serratia spp. (1.3%). These isolates were from five hospitals, 67 (90.5%) from
      the hospital where the bla OXA-370 was first described. Sequencing of bla OXA-48
      like was performed in 52 isolates, including E. cloacae, E. aerogenes, K.
      pneumoniae, K. oxytoca, E. coli, and C. freundii; all presenting 100% identity
      with bla OXA-370. PFGE revealed the presence of distinct clones among K.
      pneumoniae, E. cloacae, K. oxytoca, and E. coli. Susceptibility rates to
      meropenem, imipenem, and ertapenem among OXA-370-producing isolates were 92.3%,
      78.8%, 7.7% respectively; the MIC50 /MIC90 were 0.38/2 mg/L and 1/3 mg/L for
      meropenem and imipenem respectively. Overall, antimicrobial susceptibility
      analysis suggests that OXA-370 lacks carbapenemase activity. Our study
      demonstrated that the bla OXA-370 gene is disseminated among several
      Enterobacteriaceae species and clones, indicating a high potential for
      dissemination.

PMID- 28555404
TI  - Abnormal Myocardial Contractility After Pediatric Heart Transplantation by
      Cardiac MRI.
AB  - Acute cellular rejection (ACR) compromises graft function after heart
      transplantation (HTX). The purpose of this study was to describe systolic
      myocardial deformation in pediatric HTX and to determine whether it is impaired
      during ACR. Eighteen combined cardiac magnetic resonance imaging
      (CMR)/endomyocardial biopsy (EMBx) examinations were performed in 14 HTX patients
      (11 male, age 13.9 +/- 4.7 years; 1.2 +/- 1.3 years after HTX). Biventricular
      function and left ventricular (LV) circumferential strain, rotation, and torsion
      by myocardial tagging CMR were compared to 11 controls as well as between
      patients with and without clinically significant ACR. HTX patients showed mildly
      reduced biventricular systolic function when compared to controls [LV ejection
      fraction (EF): 55 +/- 8% vs. 61 +/- 3, p = 0.02; right ventricular (RV) EF: 48 +/
      7% vs. 53 +/- 6, p = 0.04]. Indexed LV mass was mildly increased in HTX patients
      (67 +/- 14 g/m2 vs. 55 +/- 13, p = 0.03). LV myocardial deformation indices were
      all significantly reduced, expressed by global circumferential strain (-13.5 +/-
      2.3% vs. -19.1 +/- 1.1%, p < 0.01), basal strain (-13.7 +/- 3.0% vs. -17.5 +/-
      2.4%, p < 0.01), mid-ventricular strain (-13.4 +/- 2.7% vs. -19.3 +/- 2.2%, p <
      0.01), apical strain (-13.5 +/- 2.8% vs. -19.9 +/- 2.0%, p < 0.01), basal
      rotation (-2.0 +/- 2.1 degrees  vs. -5.0 +/- 2.0 degrees , p < 0.01), and torsion
      (6.1 +/- 1.7 degrees  vs. 7.8 +/- 1.1 degrees , p < 0.01). EMBx demonstrated ACR
      grade 0 R in 3 HTX cases, ACR grade 1 R in 11 HTX cases and ACR grade 2 R in 4
      HTX cases. When comparing clinically non-significant ACR (grades 0-1 R vs. ACR 2
      R), basal rotation, and apical rotation were worse in ACR 2 R patients (-1.4 +/-
      1.8 degrees  vs. -4.2 +/- 1.4 degrees , p = 0.01 and 10.2 +/- 2.9 degrees  vs.
      2.8 +/- 1.9 degrees , p < 0.01, respectively). Pediatric HTX recipients
      demonstrate reduced biventricular systolic function and decreased myocardial
      contractility. Myocardial deformation indices by CMR may serve as non-invasive
      markers of graft function and, perhaps, rejection in pediatric HTX patients.

PMID- 28555405
TI  - Molecular characterization and expression profile of nanos in Schistosoma
      japonicum and its influence on the expression several mammalian stem cell
      factors.
AB  - Pluripotent stem cells, called neoblasts, are well known for the regenerative
      capability and developmental plasticity in flatworms. Impressive advancement has
      been made in free-living flatworms, while in case of its parasitic counterpart,
      neoblast-like stem cells have attracted recent attention for its self-renewal and
      differentiation capacity. Nanos is a key conserved post-transcriptional regulator
      critical for the formation, development, and/or maintenance of the pluripotent
      germ line stem cell systems in many metazoans including schistosomes. In the
      present study, we report the molecular cloning and expression of nanos
      orthologous genes nanos in Schistosoma japonicum (Sjnanos). The cDNA of Sjnanos
      is 826 bp long, containing an open reading frame (ORF) for 223 amino acid long
      protein. qRT-PCR analysis shown that Sjnanos was differently expressed in several
      stages of schistosomes with relatively high level in schistosomula. Additionally,
      Sjnanos was expressed highly in adult females compared to adult males.
      Transfection of recombinant plasmid for expressing Sjnanos resulted in
      significant proliferation and increased expression of several stem cell factors
      in mammalian cells. Overall, our preliminary study provides the molecular basis
      to further functionally characterize Sjnanos in S. japonicum.

PMID- 28555407
TI  - Effect of a Synthesized Amyl-Glycine1, 10-Phenanthroline Platinum Nitrate on
      Structure and Stability of Human Blood Carrier Protein, Albumin: Spectroscopic
      and Modeling Approaches.
AB  - In the present study, biological evaluation of a new synthesized anti-cancer
      compound, amyl-glycine1, 10-phenanthroline Platinum nitrate (Pt(II) complex), was
      investigated at different temperatures by spectroscopic methods (far-UV circular
      dichroism (CD) and fluorescence) and modeling methods (docking and FRET). Human
      serum albumin (HSA), one of the vital proteins in drug delivery system in the
      body, was used as a target protein. The Pt(II) complex is able to quench the
      intrinsic fluorescence of HSA considerably. Binding and thermodynamic parameters
      of the interaction between the protein and the ligand were analyzed by
      fluorescence quenching method. The far-UV CD spectra revealed that the secondary
      structure of HSA did not show any noticeable change upon interaction with Pt(II)
      complex at both 25 and 37 degrees C. The calculation of fluorescence resonance
      energy transfer (FRET) confirmed that quenching mechanism is static, and the
      observed distance between the donor and acceptor is 1.18 nm. Molecular docking
      results are in agreement with experimental data suggesting that there is one site
      on HSA at which Pt(II) complex binds spontaneously. Moreover, docking results
      together with FRET evaluation illustrated that Pt(II) complex is located near
      Trp214 at a distance of 1.96 nm. Our experimental and theoretical results
      indicated that the driving forces for Pt(II) complex interaction with HSA are
      hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions. The combination of molecular
      docking and spectroscopy methods suggested that use of this new Pt(II) complex as
      an anti-cancer agent, is an effective innovative approach in cancer chemotherapy
      providing a better understanding of effects of new designed drugs.

PMID- 28555409
TI  - Gastric Bypass and Synchronous Cholecystectomy: a Matter of Numbers?

PMID- 28555410
TI  - Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28555406
TI  - Investigation of previously implicated genetic variants in chronic tic disorders:
      a transmission disequilibrium test approach.
AB  - Genetic studies in Tourette syndrome (TS) are characterized by scattered and
      poorly replicated findings. We aimed to replicate findings from candidate gene
      and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Our cohort included 465 probands with
      chronic tic disorder (93% TS) and both parents from 412 families (some probands
      were siblings). We assessed 75 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 465
      parent-child trios; 117 additional SNPs in 211 trios; and 4 additional SNPs in
      254 trios. We performed SNP and gene-based transmission disequilibrium tests and
      compared nominally significant SNP results with those from a large independent
      case-control cohort. After quality control 71 SNPs were available in 371 trios;
      112 SNPs in 179 trios; and 3 SNPs in 192 trios. 17 were candidate SNPs implicated
      in TS and 2 were implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or autism
      spectrum disorder (ASD); 142 were tagging SNPs from eight monoamine
      neurotransmitter-related genes (including dopamine and serotonin); 10 were top
      SNPs from TS GWAS; and 13 top SNPs from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
      OCD, or ASD GWAS. None of the SNPs or genes reached significance after adjustment
      for multiple testing. We observed nominal significance for the candidate SNPs
      rs3744161 (TBCD) and rs4565946 (TPH2) and for five tagging SNPs; none of these
      showed significance in the independent cohort. Also, SLC1A1 in our gene-based
      analysis and two TS GWAS SNPs showed nominal significance, rs11603305
      (intergenic) and rs621942 (PICALM). We found no convincing support for previously
      implicated genetic polymorphisms. Targeted re-sequencing should fully appreciate
      the relevance of candidate genes.

PMID- 28555411
TI  - The top ten unknowns in paediatric mechanical ventilation.

PMID- 28555408
TI  - Bariatric Surgery-Induced Resolution of Hypertension and Obstructive Sleep Apnea:
      Impact of Modulation of Body Fat, Ectopic Fat, Autonomic Nervous Activity,
      Inflammatory and Adipokine Profiles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity-associated systemic hypertension (HTN) and obstructive sleep
      apnea (OSA) have multiple pathophysiological pathways including ectopic fat
      deposition, inflammation, altered adipokine profile, and increased sympathetic
      nervous activity. We characterized these potential mechanisms in severely obese
      patients with or without HTN and OSA. We also compared changes of these
      mechanisms at 12 months following biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch
      (BPD-DS) surgery according to HTN and OSA resolution. METHODS: Sixty-two severely
      obese patients were evaluated at baseline and 12 months; 40 patients underwent
      BPD-DS. Blood samples, bioelectrical impedance analysis, computed tomography
      scan, and 24-h heart rate monitoring were performed. OSA have been determined
      with polysomnography and HTN with blood pressure measurement and medical file.
      RESULTS: Patients with HTN (n = 35) and OSA (n = 32) were older men with higher
      ectopic fat deposition and lower parasympathetic nervous activity without
      difference in adipokines and inflammatory markers. Lower reduction in weight was
      observed in patients with unresolved HTN (-40.9 +/- 3.3 kg vs. -55.6 +/- 3.8 kg;
      p = 0.001) and OSA (-41.4 +/- 10.7 kg vs. -51.0 +/- 15.2 kg; p = 0.006). Visceral
      adipose tissue reduction was lower in patients with unresolved HTN (-171.0 +/-
      25.7 cm2 vs. -274.5 +/- 29.0 cm2; p = 0.001) in contrast to a trend for lower
      abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue reduction in patients with unresolved OSA (
      247.7 +/- 91.5 cm2 vs. -390.5 +/- 109.1 cm2; p = 0.08). At 12 months,
      parasympathetic activity was lowest in unresolved HTN and OSA patients, without
      difference in adipokines and inflammatory biomarkers. CONCLUSION: Lower ectopic
      fat mobilization, lower level of parasympathetic nervous activity, and lower
      subcutaneous adiposity mobilization may play a role in the pathophysiology of
      unresolved HTN and OSA following BPD-DS surgery.

PMID- 28555412
TI  - Guest editorial: Hematopoietic stem cells.

PMID- 28555413
TI  - Epigenetic dysregulation of hematopoietic stem cells and preleukemic state.
AB  - Recent genetic analyses have revealed that premalignant somatic mutations in
      hematopoietic cells are common in older people without an evidence of hematologic
      malignancies, leading to clonal hematopoietic expansion. This phenomenon has been
      termed clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP). Frequency of such
      clonal somatic mutations increases with age: in 5-10% of people older than 70
      years and around 20% of people older than 90 years. The most commonly mutated
      genes found in individuals with CHIP were epigenetic regulators, including DNA
      methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A), Ten-eleven-translocation 2 (TET2), and Additional
      sex combs-like 1 (ASXL1), which are also recurrently mutated in myeloid
      malignancies. Recent functional studies have uncovered pleiotropic effect of
      mutations in DNMT3A, TET2, and ASXL1 in hematopoietic stem cell regulation and
      leukemic transformation. Of note, CHIP is associated with an increased risk of
      hematologic malignancy and all-cause mortality, albeit the annual risk of
      leukemic transformation was relatively low (0.5-1%). These findings suggest that
      clonal hematopoiesis per se may not be sufficient to engender preleukemic state.
      Further studies are required to decipher the exact mechanism by which preleukemic
      stem cells originate and transform into a full-blown leukemic state.

PMID- 28555415
TI  - Plasma cell myeloma with histiocyte-like morphology.

PMID- 28555414
TI  - Germline ETV6 mutations and predisposition to hematological malignancies.
AB  - Patients with thrombocytopenia 5 have an autosomal dominant disorder of decreased
      platelet number with tendency to bleed, usually presenting in childhood, and have
      been found to have germline mutations in ETV6, which encodes a master
      hematopoietic transcription factor. Some patients who present similarly have
      inherited mutations in RUNX1 or ANKRD26. All three germline syndromes are also
      associated with a predisposition to myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute
      leukemia (AL). Since the first description of germline ETV6 mutations, 18
      families have been reported. The common phenotype is mild to moderate
      thrombocytopenia with a variable predisposition to acute lymphoblastic leukemia
      (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and MDS. This review will focus upon the
      role of ETV6 in hematopoiesis, especially in myeloid differentiation and
      maturation, and will describe the functional effects of mutant ETV6. The review
      will also provide an overview of common clinical features as well as
      recommendations for patient screening and follow-up and will debate whether
      additional clinical features should be included with the germline ETV6 syndrome.

PMID- 28555418
TI  - Differences in quality-of-life dimensions of Adult Strabismus Quality of Life and
      Amblyopia & Strabismus Questionnaires.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Adult Strabismus Quality of Life Questionnaire (AS-20) and the
      Amblyopia & Strabismus Questionnaire (A&SQ) both measure health-related quality
      of life in strabismus patients. We evaluated to what extent these instruments
      cover similar domains by identifying the underlying quality-of-life factors of
      the combined questionnaires. METHODS: Participants were adults from a historic
      cohort with available orthoptic childhood data documenting strabismus and/or
      amblyopia. They had previously completed the A&SQ and were now asked to complete
      the AS-20. Factor analysis was performed on the correlation-matrix of the
      combined AS-20 and A&SQ data to identify common underlying factors. The
      identified factors were correlated with the clinical variables of angle of
      strabismus, degree of binocular vision, and visual acuity of the worse eye.
      RESULTS: One hundred ten patients completed both questionnaires (mean age, 44
      years; range, 38-51 years). Six factors were found that together explained 78% of
      the total variance. The factor structure was dominated by the first four factors.
      One factor contained psychosocial and social-contact items, and another factor
      depth-perception items from both questionnaires. A third factor contained seven
      items-only from the AS-20-on eye strain, stress, and difficulties with reading
      and with concentrating. A fourth factor contained seven items-only from the A&SQ
      on fear of losing the better eye and visual disorientation, specific for
      amblyopia. Current visual acuity of the worse eye correlated with depth
      perception items and vision-related items, whereas current binocular vision
      correlated with psychosocial and social-contact items, in 93 patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Factor analysis suggests that the AS-20 and A&SQ measure a similar
      psychosocial quality-of-life domain. However, functional problems like avoidance
      of reading, difficulty in concentrating, eye stress, reading problems, inability
      to enjoy hobbies, and need for frequent breaks when reading are represented only
      in the AS-20. During the development of the A&SQ, asthenopia items were
      considered insufficiently specific for strabismus and were excluded a priori. The
      patients who generated the items for the AS-20 had, in majority, adulthood-onset
      strabismus and diplopia and were, hence, more likely to develop such complaints
      than our adult patients with childhood-onset strabismus and/or amblyopia.

PMID- 28555416
TI  - Clinical characteristics and outcomes of septic bursitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Limited data guide practice in evaluation and treatment of septic
      bursitis. We aimed to characterize clinical characteristics, microbiology, and
      outcomes of patients with septic bursitis stratified by bursal involvement,
      presence of trauma, and management type. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective
      cohort study of adult patients admitted to a single center from 1998 to 2015 with
      culture-proven olecranon and patellar septic bursitis. Baseline characteristics,
      clinical features, microbial profiles, operative interventions, hospitalization
      lengths, and 60-day readmission rates were determined. Patients were stratified
      by bursitis site, presence or absence of trauma, and operative or non-operative
      management. RESULTS: Of 44 cases of septic bursitis, patients with olecranon and
      patellar bursitis were similar with respect to age, male predominance, and
      frequency of bursal trauma; patients managed operatively were younger (p = 0.05).
      Clinical features at presentation and comorbidities were similar despite bursitis
      site, history of trauma, or management. The most common organism isolated from
      bursal fluid was Staphylococcus aureus. Patients managed operatively were
      discharged to rehabilitation less frequently (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      of septic bursitis is among the largest reported. We were unable to identify
      presenting clinical features that differentiated patients treated surgically from
      those treated conservatively. There was no clear relationship between preceding
      trauma or bursitis site and clinical course, management, or outcomes. Patients
      with bursitis treated surgically were younger. Additional study is needed to
      identify patients who would benefit from early surgical intervention for septic
      bursitis.

PMID- 28555419
TI  - Assessing guideline-concordant prescribing for community-acquired pneumonia.
AB  - Background Current reports of outpatient antimicrobial prescribing practices may
      overestimate guideline concordance since they address only drug selection.
      Appropriate stewardship should consider all prescribing criteria (i.e., dose,
      frequency, duration, and route of administration) to fully assess guideline
      concordance. Objective Using a community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) example, the
      aims of this pilot study were to estimate guideline concordance in adult patients
      18 years or older when all prescribing criteria are considered, and provide
      recommendations to optimize treatment. Specific objectives were to determine
      which medications were most commonly prescribed for high-and low-risk patients,
      respectively, and determine if prescription parameters typically meet guideline
      recommendations. Methods This historical (retrospective) chart review at a large,
      non-emergent, outpatient academic practice included adult cases of CAP identified
      by ICD-9 codes, 481.x-486.x, 480.x and 487.x, diagnosed between July 1, 2014 and
      June 30, 2015. Patients were stratified into low- or high-risk categories based
      on presence of comorbidities and recent antibiotic use. Descriptive statistics
      were used to profile the sample and estimate aggregate guideline appropriateness,
      based on Infectious Disease Society of America/American Thoracic Society
      guidelines. Cases that were not prescribed an antibiotic at the index visit were
      excluded from assessment of concordance. Results Of the 101 total episodes
      identified, 49% were treated with an antibiotic. Of the 45 cases that met low
      risk criteria, seven of the 24 treated cases (29%) received an appropriate
      antibiotic. When considering all prescription elements, all seven cases were
      congruent, for a composite concordance rate of 29%. Of the 56 cases that met high
      risk criteria, 13 of the 25 treated cases (52%) received an appropriate
      antibiotic, although two cases were prescribed a suboptimal dose, and one case
      was prescribed a suboptimal duration, dropping composite concordance to 40%.
      Overall, prescribing was concordant in 17 of the 49 treated cases (35%).
      Conclusion Concordance with current guidelines in this local sample is
      suboptimal. In the low-risk group, when the correct medication was chosen, dose,
      duration, and frequency were appropriate. Consideration of dose and duration of
      treatment decreased the rate of concordant prescribing in the high-risk group.

PMID- 28555420
TI  - Limited sampling strategy for predicting busulfan exposure in hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation recipients.
AB  - Background Optimization of the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) of
      busulfan, an essential component of conditioning regimens, improves the outcomes
      in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).
      Traditional sampling methods for calculating AUC require multiple sampling.
      Objective To establish a limited sampling strategy for predicting the AUC0-12 of
      intravenous busulfan for Chinese adult patients prior to HSCT. Methods The
      pharmacokinetics of twice-daily intravenous busulfan was studied in forty-five
      Chinese adult patients. Limited sampling models were established by the multiple
      linear regression analysis. The prediction error (PE) and the absolute prediction
      error (APE) were calculated to evaluate predictive accuracy. The agreement
      between the predicted and actual AUC0-12 was investigated by the Bland-Altman
      analysis. The accuracy and robustness of the models was validated by the
      bootstrap analysis. Results The AUC0-12 values of the 1st and 7th doses of
      busulfan were 1491 +/- 403.7 and 1908 +/- 518.5 MUmol L-1 min, respectively. The
      2-sample model suggested that the predicted AUC0-12 of twice-daily intravenous
      busulfan could be calculated using the following equation: AUC0-12 = 40.017 +
      0.955 * C3 + 1.088 * C6 with r2 = 0.919. The mean PE and APE of the model were
      0.52 +/- 7.67 and 6.32 +/- 4.27%, respectively. Conclusion The 2-sample model is
      an effective and reliable approach to predict the AUC0-12 of twice-daily
      intravenous busulfan in Chinese adult patients.

PMID- 28555421
TI  - Improving medication adherence among community-dwelling seniors with cognitive
      impairment: a systematic review of interventions.
AB  - Background Medication non-adherence may lead to poor therapeutic outcomes.
      Cognitive functions deteriorate with age, contributing to decreased adherence.
      Interventions have been tested to improve adherence in seniors with cognitive
      impairment or Alzheimer disease (AD), but high-quality systematic reviews are
      lacking. It remains unclear which interventions are promising. Objectives We
      conducted a systematic review to identify, describe, and evaluate interventions
      aimed at improving medication adherence among seniors with any type of cognitive
      impairment. Methods Following NICE guidance, databases and websites were searched
      using combinations of controlled and free vocabulary. All adherence-enhancing
      interventions and study designs were considered. Studies had to include community
      dwelling seniors, aged 65 years or older, with cognitive impairment, receiving at
      least one medication for a chronic condition, and an adherence measure. Study
      characteristics and methodological quality were assessed. Results We identified
      13 interventions, including six RCTs. Two studies were of poor, nine of
      low/medium and two of high quality. Seven studies had sample sizes below 50 and
      six interventions focused on adherence to AD medication. Six interventions tested
      a behavioral, four a medication oriented, two an educational and one a multi
      faceted approach. Studies rarely assessed therapeutic outcomes. All but one
      intervention showed improved adherence. Conclusion Three medium quality studies
      showed better adherence with patches than with pills for AD treatment. Promising
      interventions used educational or reminding strategies, including one high
      quality RCT. Nine studies were of low/moderate quality. High quality RCTs using a
      theoretical framework for intervention selection are needed to identify
      strategies for improved adherence in these seniors.

PMID- 28555422
TI  - Ischemic stroke and intracranial hemorrhage in patients with recurrent
      glioblastoma multiforme, treated with bevacizumab.
AB  - Bevacizumab (BVZ), a monoclonal antibody directed against vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF), has been suspected to increase the incidence of ischemic
      stroke (IS) and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in GBM patients. Intracranial
      vascular events, such as IS and ICH, were retrospectively analyzed in 364 MRI
      scans of 82 patients with recurrent GBM (1st/2nd/3rd relapse). Out of these 82
      patients, 40 were treated with BVZ (178 scans) in addition to basic treatment,
      whereas 42 patients matching for age and gender received basic treatment (186
      scans). Distribution of typical vascular risk factors between both groups was
      analyzed retrospectively. In seven out of 82 patients (8%) vascular events were
      detected in MRI. Four vascular events were recorded in the BVZ-group (3 IS and 1
      ICH), and 3 vascular events were found in the Control-group (1 IS and 2 ICH; p >
      0.05 between both groups). Likewise, vascular risk factors (arterial
      hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, former vascular event, hyperlipidemia,
      tobacco consumption and/or hypercholesterolemia) did not differ significantly
      between both groups. BVZ treatment does not seem to be associated with an
      increased risk for vascular events in patients with GBM in recurrence.

PMID- 28555423
TI  - Improving the utility of 1H-MRS for the differentiation of glioma recurrence from
      radiation necrosis.
AB  - Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) has shown promise in
      distinguishing recurrent high-grade glioma from posttreatment radiation effect
      (PTRE). The purpose of this study was to establish objective 1H-MRS criteria
      based on metabolite peak height ratios to distinguish recurrent tumor (RT) from
      PTRE. A retrospective analysis of magnetic resonance imaging and 1H-MRS data was
      performed. Spectral metabolites analyzed included N-acetylaspartate, choline
      (Cho), creatine (Cr), lactate (Lac), and lipids (Lip). Quantitative 1H-MRS
      criteria to differentiate RT from PTRE were identified using 81 biopsy-matched
      spectral voxels. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted
      for all metabolite ratio combinations with the pathology diagnosis as the
      classification variable. Forward discriminant analysis was used to identify ratio
      variables that maximized the correct classification of RT versus PTRE. Our
      results were applied to 205 records without biopsy-matched voxels to examine the
      percent agreement between our criteria and the radiologic diagnoses. Five ratios
      achieved an acceptable balance [area under the curve (AUC) >= 0.700] between
      sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing RT from PTRE, and each ratio
      defined a criterion for diagnosing RT. The ratios are as follows: Cho/Cr > 1.54
      (sensitivity 66%, specificity 79%), Cr/Cho <= 0.63 (sensitivity 65%, specificity
      79%), Lac/Cho <= 2.67 (sensitivity 85%, specificity 58%), Lac/Lip <= 1.64
      (sensitivity 54%, specificity 95%), and Lip/Lac > 0.58 (sensitivity 56%,
      specificity 95%). Application of our ratio criteria in prospective studies may
      offer an alternative to biopsy or visual spectral pattern recognition to
      distinguish RT from PTRE in patients with gliomas.

PMID- 28555424
TI  - Functional analysis of the DEPDC1 oncoantigen in malignant glioma and brain tumor
      initiating cells.
AB  - DEP domain containing 1 (DEPDC1) is a novel oncoantigen expressed in cancer
      cells, which presents oncogenic activity and high immunogenicity. Although DEPDC1
      has been predicted to be a useful antigen for the development of a cancer
      vaccine, its pathophysiological roles in glioma have not been investigated. Here,
      we analyzed the expression and function of DEPDC1 in malignant glioma. DEPDC1
      expression in glioma cell lines, glioma tissues, and brain tumor initiating cells
      (BTICs) was assessed by western blot and quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR). The effect of DEPDC1 downregulation on cell growth and nuclear factor
      kappa B (NFkappaB) signaling in glioma cells was investigated. Overall survival
      was assessed in mouse glioma models using human glioma cells and induced mouse
      brain tumor stem cells (imBTSCs) to determine the effect of DEPDC1 suppression in
      vivo. DEPDC1 expression was increased in glioma cell lines, tissues, and BTICs.
      Suppression of endogenous DEPDC1 expression by small interfering RNA (siRNA)
      inhibited glioma cell viability and induced apoptosis through NFkappaB signaling.
      In mouse glioma models using human glioma cells and imBTSCs, downregulation of
      DEPDC1 expression prolonged overall survival. These results suggest that DEPDC1
      represents a target molecule for the treatment of glioma.

PMID- 28555425
TI  - Ethical considerations of neuro-oncology trial design in the era of precision
      medicine.
AB  - The field of oncology is currently undergoing a paradigm shift. Advances in the
      understanding of tumor biology and in tumor sequencing technology have
      contributed to the shift towards precision medicine, the therapeutic framework of
      targeting the individual oncogenic changes each tumor harbors. The success of
      precision medicine therapies, such as targeted kinase inhibitors and
      immunotherapies, in other cancers have motivated studies in brain cancers. The
      high specificity and cost of these therapies also encourage a shift in clinical
      trial design away from randomized control trials towards smaller, more exclusive
      early phase clinical trials. While these new trials advance the clinical
      application of increasingly precise and individualized therapies, their design
      brings ethical challenges . We review the pertinent ethical considerations for
      clinical trials of precision medicine in neuro-oncology and discuss methods to
      protect patients in this new era of trial design.

PMID- 28555426
TI  - A novel approach to the extraction of fetal electrocardiogram based on empirical
      mode decomposition and correlation analysis.
AB  - Fetal heart rate monitoring is the process of checking the condition of the fetus
      during pregnancy and it would allow doctors and nurses to detect early signs of
      trouble during labor and delivery. The fetal ECG (FECG) signal is so weak and
      also is corrupted by other signals and noises, mainly by maternal ECG signal. It
      is so hard to acquire a noise-free, precise and reliable FECG using the
      conventional methods. In this study, a combination of empirical mode
      decomposition (EMD) algorithms, correlation and match filtering is used for
      extracting FECG from maternal abdominal ECG signals. The proposed method benefits
      from match filtering ability to detect fetal signal and QRS complex to detect
      weak QRS peaks. The combined method, has been applied successfully on different
      signal qualities, even for signals that their analysis was hard and complicated
      for other methods. This method is able to detect R-R intervals with high
      accuracy. It was proved that the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition
      method provides a better frequency resolution of modes and also requires less
      iterations that leads to a considerably less computational cost than EMD and
      ensemble empirical mode decomposition and can reconstruct the FECG completely
      from the calculated modes. We believe that this method opens a new field in non
      invasive maternal abdominal signal processing so the FECG signal could be
      extracted with high speed and accuracy.

PMID- 28555427
TI  - Optimization of high-yielding protocol for DNA extraction from the forest
      rhizosphere microbes.
AB  - Soil is major reservoir for microbes and harbors a vast microbial diversity. Soil
      microbiota plays a pivotal role in biogeochemical cycles, bioremediation, and in
      health and disease states of humans, animals, and plants. It is imperative to
      understand the microbial signatures which are specific in such an ecosystem to
      unravel their potential role and impact on environment. During the recent years,
      exploration of soil microbial communities has been geared up with the advent of
      advanced sequencing technologies. Introduction of custom-made protocols and
      optimized procedures have enhanced the accuracy levels along with cost
      effectiveness of DNA extraction. Standardization of DNA extraction method from
      soil microbiota has its own limitations due to different nature of soils and the
      complexity of ecosystems. Though a few standardized protocols are in usage, huge
      variations and complexities among the microbial communities frequently suggest
      the optimization, based on various known and unknown factors. Therefore, a set of
      four standardized DNA isolation protocols was comparatively analyzed with respect
      to our custom-made protocol owing to the scientific fact that the same protocol
      does not hold good for all soil samples. Furthermore, the developed protocol has
      been successfully applied for the identification of efficient plant-specific
      Rhizobial stains for five legume plants from the soils of various locations under
      same geographical region. Out of 40 Badrachalam forest soils, five samples,
      KPFS36, CHFS17, TPFS33, GVFS06, and GPFS40, one for each of Arachis hypogaea,
      Vigna radiata, Vigna mungo, Glycine max, and Cicer arietinum plants, were
      selected, respectively, for the soil DNA extraction. A considerable improvement
      in the DNA yield was identified using the modified protocol with a yield of 21.08
      MUg/g providing abundant DNA fragments for further investigation on Rhizobial
      species.

PMID- 28555428
TI  - Bactericidal potential of silver nanoparticles synthesized using cell-free
      extract of Comamonas acidovorans: in vitro and in silico approaches.
AB  - The need to overcome human threats from pathogenic microbes, development of
      nanomaterials have been provoked for a new generation of antimicrobials. In the
      present study, biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was acquired using
      Comamonas acidovorans extract within 72 h under static condition. Electron
      microscopy studies revealed that the size of AgNPs was ranging from 6-53 nm and
      had spherical, oval and irregular shapes with smooth surfaces. Prepared AgNPs
      interacted with proteins, carbohydrates and other aromatic molecules.
      Biosynthesized AgNPs were bactericidal, which significantly inhibited pathogenic
      microbes, i.e., Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia
      coli. Higher concentrations of AgNPs (20 MUg ml-1) inhibited 92-98% growth of all
      tested bacteria within 24 h. AgNPs-protein network studies carried out to
      recognize the protein interactions with AgNPs and to understand probable
      bactericidal mechanisms. AgNPs may penetrate into cell through membrane proteins
      and damage them by modifying amino acids. Due to AgNPs-protein interactions,
      dysfunctions in enzymes obstruct certain metabolic processes, which cause the
      bacteria to die eventually. In certain pathogenic microbes, cue and cus systems
      detoxify Ag+ ions, transport through transporter proteins and expel them to the
      extracellular space, which are mainly responsible for Ag resistance.

PMID- 28555429
TI  - Sex-oriented research on dioecious crops of Indian subcontinent: an updated
      review.
AB  - A number of dioecious species are grown across India and some of those plants
      play a crucial role in the agro-based economy of the country. The diagnosis of
      sex is very difficult in the dioecious plant prior flowering wherein sex
      identification at the seedling stage is of great importance to breeders as well
      as farmers for crop improvement or production purpose. A comprehensive approach
      of sex determination comprising morphological, biochemical, cytological and
      molecular attributes is a must required for gender differentiation in dioecious
      plant species. In the present review, we highlighted the economical, medicinal as
      well as industrial importance of most of the dioecious species extensively grown
      in Indian subcontinent. In addition to that, the cytogenetic, genetic as well as
      molecular information in connection to their sex determination were critically
      discussed in this review.

PMID- 28555430
TI  - Effect of gene order in DNA constructs on gene expression upon integration into
      plant genome.
AB  - Several plant biotechnology applications are based on the expression of multiple
      genes located on a single transformation vector. The principles of stable
      expression of foreign genes in plant cells include integration of full-length
      gene fragments consisting of promoter and transcription terminator sequences, and
      avoiding converging orientation of the gene transcriptional direction. Therefore,
      investigators usually generate constructs in which genes are assembled in the
      same orientation. However, no specific information is available on the effect of
      the order in which genes should be assembled in the construct to support optimum
      expression of each gene upon integration in the genome. While many factors,
      including genomic position and the integration structure, could affect gene
      expression, the investigators judiciously design DNA constructs to avoid
      glitches. However, the gene order in a multigene assembly remains an open
      question. This study addressed the effect of gene order in the DNA construct on
      gene expression in rice using a simple design of two genes placed in two possible
      orders with respect to the genomic context. Transgenic rice lines containing
      green fluorescent protein (GFP) and beta-glucuronidase (GUS) genes in two
      distinct orders were developed by Cre-lox-mediated site-specific integration.
      Gene expression analysis of transgenic lines showed that both genes were
      expressed at similar levels in either orientation, and different transgenic lines
      expressed each gene within 1-2* range. Thus, no significant effect of the gene
      order on gene expression was found in the transformed rice lines containing
      precise site-specific integrations and stable gene expression in plant cells
      could be obtained with altered gene orders. Therefore, gene orientation and
      integration structures are more important factors governing gene expression than
      gene orders in the genomic context.

PMID- 28555431
TI  - Isolation and characterization of phosphate solubilizing bacteria from Western
      Indian Himalayan soils.
AB  - Previous studies confirmed the existence of diversified microbial flora in the
      rhizosphere of Himalayan Red Kidney Bean (RKB) (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).
      Therefore, fifteen different temperate and subtropical regions of Western Indian
      Himalaya (WIH) were explored for the isolation of RKB rhizosphere-associated
      Phosphorus (P) solubilizing bacteria. On the basis of qPCR analysis, three soils,
      i.e., Munsyari, Kandakhal and Nainital soils were selected for the isolation of P
      solubilizers. Among 133 isolates, three bacteria viz. Lysinibaccilus macroides ST
      30, Pseudomonas palleroniana N-26 and Pseudomonas jessenii MP-1 were selected
      based on their P solubilization potential. Moreover, in vitro seed germination
      assay was performed to investigate their effectiveness against four native crops
      viz. (Cicer arietrinum L.), (Vigna radiata L.), (Pisum sativum L.) and (Zea mays
      L.). Treated seeds showed significant increase in germination efficiency over
      their respective controls. The results suggest that Lysinibaccilus macroides ST
      30, strain is a potential plant growth-promoting bacterium for chickpea (Cicer
      arietrinum L.) and, therefore, could be implemented as a low-cost bio-inoculant
      in hill agriculture system.

PMID- 28555432
TI  - Procoagulant serine glycoprotease from Cucumis sativus L.: action on human
      fibrinogen and fibrin clot.
AB  - Upon examination of the fruit extract of Cucumis sativus L. for its
      pharmacological benefits, it was previously observed that it has potential
      proteolytic, fibrinogenolytic and procoagulant activities. These properties can
      be attributed to the presence of the protease. In this regard, the present study
      comprised of purification and characterization of protease. Purification of the
      enzyme involved ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by gel filtration and ion
      exchange chromatography. The purified cucumis protease (CPro) exhibits
      homogeneity as attested by SDS-PAGE and RP-HPLC with a retention time of 14.246
      min with molecular mass ~75.3 kDa. CPro was identified as a glycoprotein and
      serine protease. Azocasein is the preferred substrate for CPro as it showed low
      Km value of 0.3809 mg/ml. Purified CPro exhibits optimum activity at 37  degrees
      C and pH 8. CPro shows its involvement in hemostasis-the very first step in wound
      healing. CPro degrades the subunits of human fibrinogen in the order Aalpha >
      Bbeta > gamma. It also hydrolyzes the subunits of the partially cross-linked
      fibrin clot in the order alpha-polymer > gamma-gamma dimer > beta-chain. CPro
      reduced the clotting time of citrated plasma, prothrombin time and activated
      partial thromboplastin time of plasma. CPro is neither hemorrhagic nor edema
      inducing, thus considered to be a non-toxic protease. This work provides evidence
      for the use of cucumber extract in wound healing and authenticates its use in
      cosmetics.

PMID- 28555433
TI  - Structural and activity variability of fractions with different charge density
      and chain length from pharmaceutical heparins.
AB  - Heparin is a structurally complex polysaccharide used as a clinical
      anticoagulant. It is comprised of a heterogeneous mixture of polysaccharide
      chains having a variety of sequences and lengths. The production methods and
      regulatory controls of pharmaceutical heparins have changed over the years. This
      study assesses the structural and activity uniformity of the polysaccharide
      chains comprising two contemporary heparin products. The heparin fractions with
      different sizes and charges were separated with size exclusion and ion exchange
      chromatography. The fractions were analyzed for their molecular weight
      properties, di- and tetrasaccharide compositions, and anti-factor IIa and anti
      factor-Xa activities. The distribution of these properties through chains of
      different lengths and ones with different charge density were compared. The
      results demonstrate that with the increase in heparin purity, activity and
      molecular weight required by the current pharmacopeia, the uniformity of
      pharmaceutical heparin products have increased.

PMID- 28555434
TI  - With expanded carrier screening, founder populations run the risk of being
      overlooked.
AB  - Genetically isolated populations exist worldwide. Specific genetic disorders,
      including rare autosomal recessive disorders may have high prevalences in these
      populations. We searched for Dutch genetically isolated populations and their
      autosomal recessive founder mutations. We investigated whether these founder
      mutations are covered in the (preconception) expanded carrier screening tests of
      five carrier screening providers. Our results show that the great majority of
      founder mutations are not covered in these screening panels, and these panels may
      thus not be appropriate for use in founder populations. It is therefore important
      to be aware of founder mutations in a population when offering carrier tests.

PMID- 28555435
TI  - Brazilian legal and bioethical approach about donation for research and patents
      of human body parts.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to explain why the Brazilian legal system does not
      accept commercialization or commodification of human body parts, including genes
      or cells. As a consequence, in Brazil, the donation of human body parts for
      research-including basic or translational-must be made altruistically. For the
      same reason, the Brazilian patent system cannot be applied to human parts, cells
      or genes. Here, we present a qualitative analysis of juridical, bioethical, and
      social reasoning related to the legal status of human body parts especially in
      biobanks, as well as a description of the Brazilian legal system for
      clarification. Our aim is to discuss the responsibility of researchers for making
      available the scientific information resulting from scientific research and
      biobank storage of human body parts and to ensure the free utilization of
      knowledge in human health research.

PMID- 28555436
TI  - Relationship of hepatitis B virus infection to the recurrence of hepatocellular
      carcinoma after direct acting antivirals.
AB  - Recently, two conflicting articles about recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) after direct acting antivirals (DAA) against hepatitis C virus (HCV) were
      published. We investigated the relationship between DAA and HCC recurrence.
      Eligible patients were (1) history of HCC and treated curatively with
      interventions, and (2) interferon-free DAA therapy was initiated after
      eradication of HCC. We analyzed contributing factor for HCC recurrence. Ten out
      of 23 participants (43%) encountered recurrence of HCC. Age, sex, diabetes
      mellitus, fibrosis score, chemistry, and alpha-fetoprotein did not differ between
      patients with recurrence and patients without recurrence. The patients with
      recurrence had significantly higher values of antibody to hepatitis B core
      antigen (anti-HBc) than the patients without recurrence, 6.06+/-3.75 vs. 0.91+/
      2.43 (p=0.0019). The relative risk of HCC recurrence comparing anti-HBc positive
      to negative was 5.2 (95% confidence interval 1.40 to 19.32). Odds ratio was 22.0
      (95% confidence interval 2.5 to 191.1). We conclude that anti-HBc positivity was
      a strong contributing factor for HCC recurrence after DAA therapy.

PMID- 28555438
TI  - Transition index maps for urban growth simulation: application of artificial
      neural networks, weight of evidence and fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation.
AB  - Transition index maps (TIMs) are key products in urban growth simulation models.
      However, their operationalization is still conflicting. Our aim was to compare
      the prediction accuracy of three TIM-based spatially explicit land cover change
      (LCC) models in the mega city of Mumbai, India. These LCC models include two data
      driven approaches, namely artificial neural networks (ANNs) and weight of
      evidence (WOE), and one knowledge-based approach which integrates an analytical
      hierarchical process with fuzzy membership functions (FAHP). Using the relative
      operating characteristics (ROC), the performance of these three LCC models were
      evaluated. The results showed 85%, 75%, and 73% accuracy for the ANN, FAHP, and
      WOE. The ANN was clearly superior compared to the other LCC models when
      simulating urban growth for the year 2010; hence, ANN was used to predict urban
      growth for 2020 and 2030. Projected urban growth maps were assessed using
      statistical measures, including figure of merit, average spatial distance
      deviation, producer accuracy, and overall accuracy. Based on our findings, we
      recomend ANNs as an and accurate method for simulating future patterns of urban
      growth.

PMID- 28555439
TI  - Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of Guaribas river water (Piaui, Brazil), influenced
      by anthropogenic action.
AB  - In general, tropical rivers have a great impact on human activities.
      Bioaccumulation of toxins is a worldwide problem nowadays and has been,
      historically, overlooked by the supervisory authorities. This study evaluated
      cytogenotoxic effects of Guaribas river (a Brazilian river) water during dry and
      rainy seasons of 2014 by using the Allium cepa test system. The toxicogenetic
      variables, including root growth, mitotic index, and chromosomal aberrations,
      were analyzed in meristematic cells of A. cepa exposed to water samples taken
      from the up-, within, and downstream of the city Picos (state: Piaui). The
      physical-chemical parameters were also analyzed to explain water quality and
      possible anthropogenic action. Additionally, the presence of heavy metals was
      also analyzed to explain water quality and possible damaging effects on
      eukaryotic cells. The results suggest that the river water exerted cytotoxic,
      mutagenic, and genotoxic effects, regardless of the seasons. In addition,
      Guaribas river presented physico-chemical values outside the Brazilian laws,
      which can be a characteristic of human pollution (domestic sewage, industrial,
      and local agriculture). The genetic damage was positively correlated with higher
      levels of heavy metals. The pollution of the Guaribas river water may link to the
      chemical contamination, including the action of heavy metals and their impacts on
      genetic instability in the aquatic ecosystem. In conclusion, necessary steps
      should be taken into account for further toxicogenetic studies of the Guaribas
      river water, as it has an influence in human health of the same region of Brazil.

PMID- 28555440
TI  - Effect of High Dietary Manganese on the Immune Responses of Broilers Following
      Oral Salmonella typhimurium Inoculation.
AB  - Manganese (Mn) is an essential nutrient for both host and pathogen. Recent
      studies have demonstrated the nutritional immunity of Mn against Salmonella
      infection in mammals. To investigate the effect of high dietary Mn on immune
      responses of broilers following Salmonella challenge, 144 1-day-old male broilers
      were fed a basal diet (containing 20.04 mg Mn/kg) plus an additional 40 (the
      control group) or 400 mg Mn/kg (the H-Mn group) for 7 days. The 72 broilers in
      each group were then orally inoculated with 5 * 107 CFUs of Salmonella
      typhimurium (ATCC#14028) or phosphate-buffered saline. Peripheral blood, spleens,
      cecal tonsils, and bursa of Fabricius were collected from Salmonella-inoculated
      and Salmonella-noninoculated broilers (n = 6) at 2 days post inoculation (2 DPI)
      and 7 days post inoculation (7 DPI). Peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations
      were determined by flow cytometry. The messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance of genes
      was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Salmonella
      counts were higher (P < 0.05) in the H-Mn group than that in the control group at
      2 DPI in the cecal contents of Salmonella-inoculated broilers. High dietary Mn
      increased CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ percentages in the peripheral blood of Salmonella
      inoculated broilers at 2 DPI. Salmonella inoculation increased interleukin (IL)-6
      mRNA expression in spleens and bursa of Fabricius at 2 DPI and increased IL-1beta
      and IL-6 mRNA expression in cecal tonsils at 7 DPI in the H-Mn group. These
      changes were not observed in the control group. High dietary Mn increased
      interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) in spleens and decreased IFN-gamma and IL-12 mRNA
      expression in cecal tonsils of Salmonella-inoculated broilers at 2 DPI. High
      dietary Mn decreased IL-17 mRNA expression in the bursa of Fabricius at 7 DPI,
      but increased this expression in cecal tonsils at 2 and 7 DPI in Salmonella
      inoculated broilers. These results suggested that dietary Mn level affected T
      helper (Th) 1-cytokine reaction in spleens and cecal tonsils, and Th17-mediated
      immunity in cecal tonsils and the bursa of Fabricius of broilers when challenged
      with Salmonella.

PMID- 28555441
TI  - Alopecia Areata of the Beard: A Review of the Literature.
AB  - Alopecia areata (AA) is a T-cell mediated autoimmune disorder in which
      inflammatory cells attack the hair follicle, resulting in round, well
      circumscribed patches of noncicatricial hair loss in normal appearing skin. AA
      affecting the beard area is well known and is referred to as AA of the beard
      (BAA) or AA barbae when involvement is limited exclusively to the beard. BAA has
      been documented in a select number of studies. We review the literature and
      discuss the clinical features, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of BAA.
      Clinical presentation of BAA can vary and manifest as single small areas of hair
      loss, multiple small or large simultaneous focuses, or total hair loss. Most
      patients are middle-aged males with focal patches of round or oval hair loss,
      mostly localized along the jawline. Patches are characteristically well
      circumscribed and smooth with white hair present at the periphery. Dermoscopic
      features of BAA include yellow dots, broken hair, and short vellus hairs. BAA may
      be associated with other autoimmune disorders, including atopic dermatitis,
      vitiligo, and psoriasis. Many treatment modalities are available for BAA, and
      selection of a therapy depends on several factors, including disease activity,
      extent of area affected, duration of disease, and age of the patient. Topical
      corticosteroids are most commonly used as initial treatment, followed by
      intralesional steroids. Other therapeutic modalities are discussed.

PMID- 28555437
TI  - Autoimmunity in 2016.
AB  - The number of peer-reviewed articles published during the 2016 solar year and
      retrieved using the "autoimmunity" key word remained stable while gaining a
      minimal edge among the immunology articles. Nonetheless, the quality of the
      publications has been rising significantly and, importantly, acquisitions have
      become available through scientific journals dedicated to immunology or
      autoimmunity. Major discoveries have been made in the fields of systemic lupus
      erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmunity of the central nervous system,
      vasculitis, and seronegative spondyloarthrithritides. Selected examples include
      the role of IL17-related genes and long noncoding RNAs in systemic lupus
      erythematosus or the effects of anti-pentraxin 3 (PTX3) in the treatment of this
      paradigmatic autoimmune condition. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, there
      have been reports of the role of induced regulatory T cells (iTregs) or
      fibrocytes and T cell interactions with exciting implications. The large number
      of studies dealing with neuroimmunology pointed to Th17 cells, CD56(bright) NK
      cells, and low-level TLR2 ligands as involved in multiple sclerosis, along with a
      high salt intake or the micriobiome-derived Lipid 654. Lastly, we focused on the
      rare vasculitides to which numerous studies were devoted and suggested that
      unsuspected cell populations, including monocytes, mucosal-associated invariant T
      cells, and innate lymphoid cells, may be crucial to ANCA-associated
      manifestations. This brief and arbitrary discussion of the findings published in
      2016 is representative of a promising background for developments that will
      enormously impact the work of laboratory scientists and physicians at an
      exponential rate.

PMID- 28555442
TI  - [The treatment of acute secondary peritonitis : A retrospective analysis of the
      use of continuous negative pressure therapy].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with acute secondary peritonitis often need relaparotomies
      and open abdominal lavages. Continuous negative pressure therapy seems to be
      beneficial. OBJECTIVES: Does the efficacy of the therapy depend on the continuous
      negative pressure system used? MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis
      was performed in the Chirurgische Klinik der Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Charite
      Campus Mitte, including all patients who underwent abdominal vacuum therapy
      between December 2013 and February 2015. Two different systems (ABThera(r), KCI
      Medizinprodukte GmbH and Suprasorb(r) CNP Drainagefolie, Lohmann & Rauscher GmbH)
      were available for treatment. RESULTS: During the 14 month study period, 33
      patients with acute secondary peritonitis were treated with abdominal negative
      pressure therapy. Vacuum therapy treatment was applied for a median of 4 days
      (range 0-22 days). Eight patients (24%) died during hospitalisation. After
      completion of intraabdominal vacuum therapy, direct fascial closure was feasible
      in 26 patients (79%). There were no differences concerning patient
      characteristics, duration of abdominal vacuum therapy, the possibility of direct
      fascial closure or morbidity and mortality with the two different systems used.
      CONCLUSIONS: Acute secondary peritonitis is associated with high morbidity. We
      achieved a lower mortality rate compared to prospective clinical trials using
      intraabdominal continuous negative pressure therapy. The effectiveness and cost
      efficiency of different therapy systems should be the topic of further research.

PMID- 28555444
TI  - Diverticulitis recurrence after percutaneous abscess drainage.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recurrent diverticulitis has been reported in 30-50% of patients who
      recover from an episode of diverticular-associated abscess. Our aim was to review
      the outcomes of patients who underwent non-operative management after
      percutaneous drainage (PD) of colonic diverticular abscess. METHODS: All patients
      with a diverticular-associated abscess were identified between 2001 and 2012.
      Individual charts were queried for peri-procedural data and follow-up. The most
      recent follow-up data were acquired via the electronic medical record or
      telephone call. RESULTS: A total of 165 patients underwent PD of diverticular
      associated abscesses. Abscess locations were pelvic (n = 122), abdominal (n =
      36), and both (n = 7), while median abscess size was 6.1 +/- 2.2 cm. One hundred
      eighteen patients clinically improved following non-operative management, and 81
      of these patients did not undergo subsequent colonic resection within 4 months of
      PD. Of these, 8 died within 12 months. Among the remaining 73 patients, there
      were no significant differences in demographics or abscess variables compared to
      those who underwent elective surgery within 4 months. Only 7 of 73 patients had
      documented episodes of recurrences, while 22 patients later had elective surgery
      (1.1 +/- 1.2 years from the index case). Five-year colectomy-free survival was
      55% (95%CI 42-66%), while the recurrence-free survival at 5 years was 77% (95%CI
      65-86%). All recurrences were managed non-operatively initially and one patient
      went on to have elective resection. CONCLUSION: A sizable number of patients
      successfully recover from complicated diverticulitis following PD. Subsequent non
      operative management carries an acceptable risk for recurrent episodes and may be
      considered as a reasonable management option.

PMID- 28555443
TI  - [Extracorporeal lung support].
AB  - Systems for extracorporeal lung support have recently undergone significant
      technological improvements leading to more effective and safe treatment. Despite
      limited scientific evidence these systems are increasingly used in the intensive
      care unit for treatment of different types of acute respiratory failure. In
      general two types of systems can be differentiated: devices for extracorporeal
      carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) for ventilatory insufficiency and devices for
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe hypoxemic failure. Despite
      of all technological developments extracorporeal lung support remains an invasive
      and a potentially dangerous form of treatment with bleeding and vascular injury
      being the two main complications. For this reason indications and
      contraindications should always be critically considered and extracorporeal lung
      support should only be carried out in centers with appropriate experience and
      expertise.

PMID- 28555445
TI  - Paenibacillus aquistagni sp. nov., isolated from an artificial lake accumulating
      industrial wastewater.
AB  - Strain 11T was isolated from water of an artificial lake accumulating industrial
      wastewater on the outskirts of Celje, Slovenia. Phenotypic characterisation
      showed strain 11T to be a Gram-stain positive, spore forming bacterium. The 16S
      rRNA gene sequence identified strain 11T as a member of the genus Paenibacillus,
      closely related to Paenibacillus alvei (96.2%). Genomic similarity with P. alvei
      29T was 73.1% (gANI), 70.2% (ANIb), 86.7% (ANIm) and 21.7 +/- 2.3% (GGDC). The
      DNA G+C content of strain 11T was determined to be 47.5%. The predominant
      menaquinone of strain 11T was identified as MK-7 and the major fatty acid as
      anteiso-C15:0. The peptidoglycan was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid.
      In contrast to its close relatives P. alvei DSM 29T, Paenibacillus apiarius DSM
      5581T and Paenibacillus profundus NRIC 0885T, strain 11T was found to be able to
      ferment D-fructose, D-mannose and D-xylose. A draft genome of strain 11T contains
      a cluster of genes associated with type IV pilin synthesis usually found in
      clostridia, and only sporadically in other Gram-positive bacteria. Genotypic,
      chemotaxonomic, physiological and biochemical characteristics of strain 11T
      presented in this study support the creation of a novel species within the genus
      Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus aquistagni sp. nov. is proposed,
      with strain 11T (=ZIM B1027T =LMG 29561T =CCM 8679T ) as the type strain.

PMID- 28555446
TI  - Development of angle information system to facilitate the adjustment of needle
      holding posture.
AB  - PURPOSE: Our purpose is to develop a system based on image processing methods
      that can inform users of the angular relationship between the needle and the
      forceps. The user thereby adjusts their needle grasping posture according to the
      angle information, which leads to an improvement in suturing accuracy. METHODS:
      The system prototype consists of a camera and an image processing computer. The
      image captured by the camera is input to the computer, and then, the angular
      relationship between the forceps and needle is calculated via image processing.
      Then, the system informs the user of the calculated angular relationship between
      the needle and forceps in real time. To evaluate whether the system improves
      suturing accuracy, we invited 12 participants to enroll in an experiment based on
      a suturing task. RESULTS: The experimental results illustrate that the system
      allows participants to easily adjust the positional relationship between the
      needle and the forceps and that this adjusted angular relationship leads to
      higher suturing accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Adjustment to holding the needle at a
      right angle before insertion has a critical effect on suturing quality.
      Therefore, we developed a system that informs the user of the angular
      relationship between the needle and the forceps. The results of the evaluation
      show that the system significantly improves the suturing accuracy of participants
      via informing them of the angle.

PMID- 28555447
TI  - Assessment of the myocardial FDG-PET image quality with the use of maximal
      Standardized Uptake Value myocardial to background index. Application of the
      results in regard to semiquantitative assessment of myocardial viability with
      cardiac dedicated softwar.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to semiquantitatively assess the
      degree of myocardial fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in glucose-loaded myocardial
      viability positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans, to
      calculate the myocardial to background index, and correlate the index with image
      quality assessed on the basis of visual qualitative assessment. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The myocardial FDG-PET/CT study was carried out in 69 non-diabetic
      patients, who had known coronary artery disease, by intravenous injection of 250
      +/- 70 MBq (range: 180-320 MBq) FDG. Images were interpreted visually and
      patients were divided into three groups according to the grade of myocardial
      uptake: optimal, suboptimal, and uninterpretable. Semiquantitative analysis was
      performed by calculating the standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for myocardium
      and background (blood pool) activity, and expressed as the myocardial to
      background (M/B) activity ratio. RESULTS: On the basis of visual (qualitative)
      analysis, 60/69 (86.96%) patients showed optimal quality of FDG cardiac uptake,
      3/69 (4.35%) were suboptimal, and uninterpretable FDG PET scan results were found
      in 6/69 (8.70%) patients. The M/B index was found to be significantly higher in
      images of optimal vs. suboptimal quality (6.87 +/- 3.99 vs. 1.65 +/- 0.78
      respectively; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The index ratio of 2.2, which is
      consistent with the upper borderline value for visually uninterpretable images,
      was considered the cut-off value for scans of optimal and non-optimal quality.

PMID- 28555449
TI  - A retrospective analysis of the accuracy of radioactively labeled autologous
      leukocytes in patients with infected prosthetic joints.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Labeled leukocyte scintigraphy (LS) is considered a valuable tool in
      preoperative diagnosis of prosthetic joint infections (PJI). The aim of this
      study was to determine the accuracy of LS combined with bone marrow scintigraphy
      (BMS), as well as inflammation markers CRP and WBC, in detecting infection in
      patients with prosthetic joints. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study included
      patients suspected of having PJI between January and September 2013 at the Vienna
      General Hospital who underwent imaging with 99mTc-HMPAO labeled autologous
      leukocytes and subsequent BMS. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed in terms of
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive
      value (NPV). RESULTS: A total of 48 patients were included. The most common joint
      investigated was knee (25), followed by hip (9), shoulder (2), and elbow (1).
      Other parts of the body investigated included the femur (6), tibia (2), leg (2),
      and foot (1). The pathogens most frequently isolated included Staphylococcus
      epidermidis and Candida albicans. The sensitivity of LS was 60%, specificity 97%,
      PPV 86% and NPV 90%. Overall accuracy was calculated to be 90%. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study was able to demonstrate that 99mTc-HMPAO labeled autologous leukocytes in
      patients presenting with symptoms of PJI is accurate. In contrast, however,
      inflammation markers CRP and WBC are not accurate pre-diagnostic markers for PJI.

PMID- 28555448
TI  - New synthesis route of active substance d,l-HMPAO for preparation Technetium
      Tc99m Exametazime.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Technetium Tc99m Exametazime (99mTc-HMPAO) is currently used as a
      radiopharmaceutical for determining regional cerebral blood flow and for the
      labelling of autologous leucocytes for infection and inflammation imaging. The
      HMPAO ligand exists in two diastereomeric forms: d,l and meso. Usually, the
      substance is obtained in low chemical yield in a time consuming procedure.
      Furthermore, the final product still contains some amounts of the meso-form. The
      aim of this study was to develop the efficient, reliable and fast method for
      isolation of the d,l-HMPAO, which would provide the ligand with high purity and
      free from the meso-diastereomer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The mixture of the meso-
      and d,l-HMPAO was synthesized in two-steps by condensation of propanediamine with
      keto-oxime and the reduction of the obtained bisimine. The d- and l-enantiomers
      were separated individually directly from this mixture by repeated
      crystallizations from ethanol as their tartrate salts and pooled together in
      equal proportions. That substance was characterized for its identity and isomeric
      purity using IR, HPLC and GC methods. The meso-free d,l-HMPAO was used for the
      preparation of the radiopharmaceutical freeze-dried kit for technetium-99m
      radiolabelling. Quality assessment of obtained 99mTc-d,l-HMPAO complex was
      performed according to the current Ph.Eur. monograph 1925 and USP monograph -
      Technetium Tc99m Exametazime Injection. To verify its biological activity, the
      kit-prepared 99mTc-d,l-HMPAO has been used for the white blood cell (WBC)
      labelling. RESULTS: According to the proposed synthesis route the d,l-HMPAO was
      obtained with around 18-20% yield in the total time of 10 days. The ligand
      identity was confirmed and the HPLC analysis revealed more than 99% chemical
      purity. The undesired meso-form was not detected. Freeze dried kit formulation
      for 99mTc-labelling of d,l-HMPAO has been established and four batches of kits
      were manufactured. The radiochemical purity of 99mTc-d,l-HMPAO complex was high
      (> 95% of lipophilic technetium-99m exametazime). Brain uptake in rats reached
      2.1 +/- 0.3%. The in vitro labelling of WBC resulted in 68.3 +/- 6.6% yield.
      CONCLUSION: A new synthesis method of d,l-HMPAO, drug substance for technetium
      99m exametazime preparation has been developed.

PMID- 28555451
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28555452
TI  - SELECTED ABSTRACTS OF THE 20TH CONGRESS OF THE "HEVESY GYORGY" HUNGARIAN SOCIETY
      OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE. Budapest, May 25-27, 2017.

PMID- 28555450
TI  - Usefulness of parametric renal clearance images in the assessment of basic risk
      factors for renalnal clearance images in the assessment of basic risk factors for
      renal scarring in children with recurrent urinary tract infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinically confirmed incidents of acute pyelonephritis (APN)
      following recurrent infections of urinary tract (UTI) form basic risk factors for
      renal scarring in children. Vesico-uretheral reflux (VUR) of higher grade is
      additional risk factor for this scarring. Opinions on diagnostic value of summed
      sequential images of renal uptake phase (SUM) of dynamic renal scintigraphy in
      detection of renal scars are diverse. However, several publications point to
      higher diagnostic efficacy of clearance parametric images (PAR) generated from
      this study. THE AIM OF THE STUDY: To establish a clinical value of parametric
      renal clearance images in detection of renal scarring. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      prospective study was performed in a group of 91 children at the age of 4 to 18
      years with recurrent UTI. Clinically documented incidents of APN were noted in 32
      children: in 8 cases - one and in the remaining 24 - 2 to 5 (mean 3) incidents.
      In the remaining 59 patients only infections of the lower part of urinary tract
      were diagnosed. Static renal 99mTc-DMSA SPECT study and after 2-4 days dynamic
      renal studies (99mTc-EC) were performed in every patient not earlier than 6
      months after the last documented incident of UTI. PAR images generated from a
      dynamic study by in-house developed software and SUM images were compared with a
      gold standard SPECT study. RESULTS: Percentages of children with detected renal
      scar(s) with SPECT and PAR methods amounted to 55% and 54%, respectively and were
      statistically significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than with SUM method - 31%. Scars
      in children with history of APN detected with SPECT and PAR methods were
      significantly more frequent than with infections of only lower part of urinary
      tract (72% vs. 46%; p = 0.017 and 69% vs. 46%; p = 0.036, respectively). A SUM
      method did not reveal statistically significant differences between frequencies
      of detection of scars in groups specified above - 38% vs. 27% (p = 0.31). Both
      SPECT and PAR methods showed also that frequencies of occurrence of renal scars
      in children with higher grades of VUR were higher than without or with lower
      grades of VUR: 79% vs. 50% (p = 0.048) and 79% vs. 49% (p = 0.04). A SUM method
      did not reveal higher frequency of renal scars in children with high VUR grades:
      36% vs. 30% (p = 0.44). CONCLUSION: Results obtained with PAR and SPECT methods
      were similar. An advantage of PAR over SUM images obtained from a dynamic renal
      scintigraphy in detection of renal scars in children with UTI was confirmed.

PMID- 28555453
TI  - [A phenotypic description of 26 patients with Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome (cranio
      cerebello-cardiac dysplasia or 3C syndrome)].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome (also known as cranio-cerebello-cardiac
      dysplasia or 3C syndrome) is a rare genetic syndrome that is mainly characterised
      by the association of cardiac and craniofacial anomalies together with others
      affecting the posterior fossa. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We report on 26 patients
      with Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome at a hospital in Medellin, in the Department of
      Antioquia, Colombia. RESULTS: Males account for 69% of this cohort. The mean age
      of the cohort was 30 months, and 42% were under the age of one year at the time
      of diagnosis. All of them presented ocular disorders, and megalocornea was the
      most frequent ocular manifestation (69%), whereas low-set ears (80.7%) and septal
      heart defects (68.7%) were the most common facial and cardiac malformations,
      respectively. The most frequent malformations of the posterior fossa were
      megacisterna magna (31.8%) and Dandy-Walker malformation (27%). 84% of the cases
      had delayed neurodevelopment or intellectual disability. Skeletal manifestations
      were frequent: the group consisting of camptodactyly, single palmar crease,
      overlapping fingers, vertical talus and nail hypoplasia were found in hands and
      feet in 96% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Ritscher-Schinzel syndrome is a
      heterogeneous syndrome from the genetic and clinical point of view. These results
      suggest that the skeletal and ocular abnormalities that were observed can
      facilitate the phenotypic diagnosis. However, it is necessary to conduct further
      studies that allow us to gain a deeper knowledge of its prevalence and help
      identify other genes involved in this syndrome.

PMID- 28555454
TI  - [Cognitive training combined with aerobic exercises in multiple sclerosis
      patients: a pilot study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The scientific evidences associated to the effectiveness of
      different techniques of cognitive rehabilitation are still contradictory. AIM: To
      compare a program of combined training (physical and cognitive) in front of a
      program of physical training and to observe their effectiveness about the
      optimization of the cognitive functions in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: It was carried out an experimental study in 32 patients
      with MS. The patients were distributed in two groups: 16 to the experimental
      group (combined cognitive training with aerobic exercises) and 16 patients to the
      control group (aerobic exercises). The intervention was planned for six weeks
      combining cognitive tasks by means of a game of dynamic board of cubes and signs
      (TaDiCS (r)) and a program of aerobic exercises. The Brief Repeatable Battery of
      Neuropsychological Test and the Stroop Test were applied to evaluate the
      cognitive yield. Also, the Beck Depression Inventory was administered. RESULTS:
      There were found significant differences in the intergrupal analysis after the
      intervention in the variable learning and visuoespacial long term memory (p =
      0.000), attention (p = 0.026) and inhibitory control (p = 0.007). Also, in the
      intragroup analysis there were found significant differences in these variables
      and information processing speed in the group that received the combined
      training. These patients also showed a significant improvement in the emotional
      state (p = 0.043). CONCLUSION: The cognitive training combined with the aerobic
      exercises is effective to improve the cognitive performance.

PMID- 28555455
TI  - [Vagus nerve stimulation: treatment of 158 pediatric patients with a long-term
      follow-up].
AB  - AIM: To describe a series of patients with drug resistant epilepsy treated with
      vagus nerve stimulation in a national pediatric hospital, evaluating efficacy,
      safety and tolerability. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 158
      pediatric patients with epilepsy resistant to pharmacological and non
      pharmacological treatment including surgery that were treated with vagus nerve
      stimulation between 2001-2015. Patients with progressive encephalopathies, and
      congenital heart disease were excluded. RESULTS: 158 patients (80 male) were
      included, with a mean age at implantation of 11.4 years and a mean age at
      evolution of epilepsy of 9.5 years. Time of follow-up: 1-15 years (median: 6.9
      years). Patient's age at this time: 2-31 years (median: 14.1 years).
      Effectiveness: 66.5% of patients showed more or equal at 50% of seizure control
      at 24 months of implant. Just three patients showed severe side effects (1.8%).
      Minor side effects were seen in 26 patients (16.4%). Without side effects: 129
      (81.8%). CONCLUSION: Vagus nerve stimulation is an effective, tolerable and safe
      therapy in our pediatric series with refractory epilepsy.

PMID- 28555456
TI  - [Acute polyneuropathies in a hospital in the south of Spain: ten years'
      experience].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Guillain-Barre syndrome is the most frequent cause of acute flaccid
      paralysis in children. AIM: To describe the characteristics of patients diagnosed
      with acute polyneuropathies and their long-term progress. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis of children under 14 years of
      age admitted to our hospital between January 2004 and December 2014. Clinical,
      demographic and neurophysiological variables were collected together with other
      imaging tests. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients, with a mean age of 3.83 years, were
      diagnosed with acute polyneuropathies, four of them of Moroccan origin. Twenty of
      them (76%) had a history of previous infection. The mean time elapsed since the
      onset of the symptoms until admission to hospital was 9.2 days, and from
      admission until beginning with gamma globulins it was 1.6 days. The clinical
      signs and symptoms prior to diagnosis were of a very heterogeneous nature. They
      all presented muscular weakness; 90% displayed areflexia; and 30% showed
      involvement of the cranial nerves. All of them (100%) received intravenous gamma
      globulins, and 38.4% were given systemic corticosteroids. Two patients presented
      chronification of the pathology. There was no mortality in the series.
      CONCLUSIONS: The patients included in our study presented very unspecific
      symptoms in the early phases, which initially led to alternative diagnoses. To
      avoid this delay in the diagnosis, it is essential to perform an exhaustive
      physical examination that includes the myotatic reflexes and to maintain a high
      level of suspicion of the disease even with normal results in the complementary
      tests if they are performed at an early stage. We detected a greater number of
      cases of axonal polyneuropathy, which can possibly be explained by the high
      number of patients of Moroccan origin who were treated.

PMID- 28555457
TI  - [Situs inversus of the optic nerve. A case report].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Situs inversus of the optic nerve is a congenital anomaly
      characterised by the emergence of the vessels in the retina towards the nose
      rather than in a temporal direction. It is caused by an anomalous insertion of
      the optic stalks into the optic vesicle that gives rise to dysversion of the head
      of the optic nerve. It is not an isolated condition and usually appears jointly
      with tilted disc syndrome and in patients with myopia. It is characterised by the
      presence of inferior conus atrophy, deficiencies in the temporal visual field,
      refraction defects and ambliopy. CASE REPORT: A 22 years-old female who attended
      an ophthalmological examination due to severe frontal headaches accompanied by
      halos and loss of sharpness in her sight. From the results of the ophthalmetric
      and ophthalmological examination she was diagnosed as suffering from a condition
      consistent with this congenital anatomical anomaly. CONCLUSIONS: Situs inversus
      of the optic nerve is a rare condition that may appear in isolation or
      accompanied by other pathologies. Application of the visual field test and new
      diagnostic techniques, such as optical coherence tomography, facilitates the
      differential diagnosis of this situation. Its prevalence remains unknown, as it
      is not included in the register of rare diseases. Moreover, the scant number of
      patients studied and the scarce literature on this anomaly do not allow us to
      know whether the defects it causes develop over time. It would therefore be
      important to perform an ophthalmological follow-up of patients with situs
      inversus of the optic nerve.

PMID- 28555459
TI  - [Reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome with isolated involvement of
      the brainstem and spinal cord].

PMID- 28555458
TI  - [Process-based approach neuropsychological assessment: review of the evidence and
      proposal for improvement of dementia screening tools].
AB  - A detailed neuropsychological assessment plays an important role in the
      diagnostic process of mild cognitive impairment. However, available brief
      cognitive screening tests for this clinical population are administered and
      interpreted based mainly, or exclusively, on total achievement scores. This score
      based approach can lead to erroneous clinical interpretations unless we also pay
      attention to the test taking behaviour or to the type of errors committed during
      the test performance. The goals of the current review are to present the grounds
      for the process-based approach to neuropsychological assessment, to offer a brief
      review of the evidence obtained so far regarding its usefulness, and to show the
      results of a systematic review of existing screening and neuropsychological
      assessment tools, some of which were already created and/or modified using this
      approach, and others that may benefit in their screening properties if they
      underwent modifications according to a process-based approach. It is expected
      that, in a relatively short period of time, process-based approach versions of
      screening tools will be available. These modified versions will not alter
      substantially the standard administration procedure, but will provide a way for
      scoring and interpretation that goes beyond total scores. This will allow
      clarifying with higher accuracy the underlying cognitive components involved in
      the successful or unsuccessful performance in cognitive tasks, and thus will
      facilitate an early diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28555460
TI  - [Compassionate use of cannabidiol in spray form for the treatment of spastic
      paraparesis in a patient with adrenomyeloneuropathy].

PMID- 28555461
TI  - High-flow nasal cannulae for respiratory support in adult intensive care
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High-flow nasal cannulae (HFNC) deliver high flows of blended
      humidified air and oxygen via wide-bore nasal cannulae and may be useful in
      providing respiratory support for adult patients experiencing acute respiratory
      failure in the intensive care unit (ICU). OBJECTIVES: We evaluated studies that
      included participants 16 years of age and older who were admitted to the ICU and
      required treatment with HFNC. We assessed the safety and efficacy of HFNC
      compared with comparator interventions in terms of treatment failure, mortality,
      adverse events, duration of respiratory support, hospital and ICU length of stay,
      respiratory effects, patient-reported outcomes, and costs of treatment. SEARCH
      METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL;
      2016, Issue 3), MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health
      Literature (CINAHL), Embase, Web of Science, proceedings from four conferences,
      and clinical trials registries; and we handsearched reference lists of relevant
      studies. We conducted searches from January 2000 to March 2016 and reran the
      searches in December 2016. We added four new studies of potential interest to a
      list of 'Studies awaiting classification' and will incorporate them into formal
      review findings during the review update. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included
      randomized controlled studies with a parallel or cross-over design comparing HFNC
      use in adult ICU patients versus other forms of non-invasive respiratory support
      (low-flow oxygen via nasal cannulae or mask, continuous positive airway pressure
      (CPAP), and bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP)). DATA COLLECTION AND
      ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed studies for inclusion,
      extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. MAIN RESULTS: We included 11 studies
      with 1972 participants. Participants in six studies had respiratory failure, and
      in five studies required oxygen therapy after extubation. Ten studies compared
      HFNC versus low-flow oxygen devices; one of these also compared HFNC versus CPAP,
      and another compared HFNC versus BiPAP alone. Most studies reported randomization
      and allocation concealment inadequately and provided inconsistent details of
      outcome assessor blinding. We did not combine data for CPAP and BiPAP comparisons
      with data for low-flow oxygen devices; study data were insufficient for separate
      analysis of CPAP and BiPAP for most outcomes. For the primary outcomes of
      treatment failure (1066 participants; six studies) and mortality (755
      participants; three studies), investigators found no differences between HFNC and
      low-flow oxygen therapies (risk ratio (RR), Mantel-Haenszel (MH), random-effects
      0.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.49 to 1.27; and RR, MH, random-effects 0.63,
      95% CI 0.38 to 1.06, respectively). We used the GRADE approach to downgrade the
      certainty of this evidence to low because of study risks of bias and different
      participant indications. Reported adverse events included nosocomial pneumonia,
      oxygen desaturation, visits to general practitioner for respiratory
      complications, pneumothorax, acute pseudo-obstruction, cardiac dysrhythmia,
      septic shock, and cardiorespiratory arrest. However, single studies reported
      adverse events, and we could not combine these findings; one study reported fewer
      episodes of oxygen desaturation with HFNC but no differences in all other
      reported adverse events. We downgraded the certainty of evidence for adverse
      events to low because of limited data. Researchers noted no differences in ICU
      length of stay (mean difference (MD), inverse variance (IV), random-effects 0.15,
      95% CI -0.03 to 0.34; four studies; 770 participants), and we downgraded quality
      to low because of study risks of bias and different participant indications. We
      found no differences in oxygenation variables: partial pressure of arterial
      oxygen (PaO2)/fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) (MD, IV, random-effects 7.31,
      95% CI -23.69 to 41.31; four studies; 510 participants); PaO2 (MD, IV, random
      effects 2.79, 95% CI -5.47 to 11.05; three studies; 355 participants); and oxygen
      saturation (SpO2) up to 24 hours (MD, IV, random-effects 0.72, 95% CI -0.73 to
      2.17; four studies; 512 participants). Data from two studies showed that oxygen
      saturation measured after 24 hours was improved among those treated with HFNC
      (MD, IV, random-effects 1.28, 95% CI 0.02 to 2.55; 445 participants), but this
      difference was small and was not clinically significant. Along with concern about
      risks of bias and differences in participant indications, review authors noted a
      high level of unexplained statistical heterogeneity in oxygenation effect
      estimates, and we downgraded the quality of evidence to very low. Meta-analysis
      of three comparable studies showed no differences in carbon dioxide clearance
      among those treated with HFNC (MD, IV, random-effects -0.75, 95% CI -2.04 to
      0.55; three studies; 590 participants). Two studies reported no differences in
      atelectasis; we did not combine these findings. Data from six studies (867
      participants) comparing HFNC versus low-flow oxygen showed no differences in
      respiratory rates up to 24 hours according to type of oxygen delivery device (MD,
      IV, random-effects -1.51, 95% CI -3.36 to 0.35), and no difference after 24 hours
      (MD, IV, random-effects -2.71, 95% CI -7.12 to 1.70; two studies; 445
      participants). Improvement in respiratory rates when HFNC was compared with CPAP
      or BiPAP was not clinically important (MD, IV, random-effects -0.89, 95% CI -1.74
      to -0.05; two studies; 834 participants). Results showed no differences in
      patient-reported measures of comfort according to oxygen delivery devices in the
      short term (MD, IV, random-effects 0.14, 95% CI -0.65 to 0.93; three studies; 462
      participants) and in the long term (MD, IV, random-effects -0.36, 95% CI -3.70 to
      2.98; two studies; 445 participants); we downgraded the certainty of this
      evidence to low. Six studies measured dyspnoea on incomparable scales, yielding
      inconsistent study data. No study in this review provided data on positive end
      expiratory pressure measured at the pharyngeal level, work of breathing, or cost
      comparisons of treatment. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We were unable to demonstrate
      whether HFNC was a more effective or safe oxygen delivery device compared with
      other oxygenation devices in adult ICU patients. Meta-analysis could be performed
      for few studies for each outcome, and data for comparisons with CPAP or BiPAP
      were very limited. In addition, we identified some risks of bias among included
      studies, differences in patient groups, and high levels of statistical
      heterogeneity for some outcomes, leading to uncertainty regarding the results of
      our analysis. Consequently, evidence is insufficient to show whether HFNC
      provides safe and efficacious respiratory support for adult ICU patients.

PMID- 28555462
TI  - Intermuscular Adipose Tissue Content and Intramyocellular Lipid Fatty Acid
      Saturation Are Associated with Glucose Homeostasis in Middle-Aged and Older
      Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance is associated with the higher content of
      intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) and the saturation of intramyocellular lipid
      (IMCL), but a paucity of data exist in humans. This study examined associations
      among IMAT content, IMCL saturation, and fasting glucose concentration in middle
      aged and older adults with overweight or obesity. METHODS: Seventy-five subjects
      (26 males, 49 females) were recruited and thigh muscle and IMAT were assessed
      using magnetic resonance imaging. Vastus lateralis tissue was acquired from a
      subset of nine subjects and IMCL content and saturation were assessed using
      nonlinear dual complex microscopy. RESULTS: The characteristics of the 75
      subjects were as follows: age 59+/-11 years, body mass index 30+/-5 kg/m2,
      fasting glucose concentration 5.2+/-0.5 mmol/L, fasting insulin concentration
      12.2+/-7.3 MUU/mL, fasting homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance
      (HOMA-IR) 2.9+/-2.0 (mean+/-SD). IMAT to muscle tissue (MT) volume ratio was
      positively associated with the saturated fatty acid to unsaturated fatty acid
      ratio in IMCL. IMAT:MT was positively associated with fasting glucose
      concentration and HOMA-IR. IMCL saturation was positively associated with fasting
      glucose concentration while muscle cell area, IMCL area, and % IMCL in muscle
      cell were not associated with fasting glucose concentration. CONCLUSION: These
      results indicate that higher intermuscular fat content and IMCL saturation may
      impact fasting glucose concentration in middle-aged and older adults with
      overweight or obesity. The centralization of adipose tissue in the appendicular
      region of the body may promote insulin resistance.

PMID- 28555463
TI  - Association of Plasma Ghrelin Levels with Insulin Resistance in Type 2 Diabetes
      Mellitus among Saudi Subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the exact mechanism of insulin resistance (IR) has not yet
      been established, IR is the hallmark characteristic of type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM). The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between plasma
      ghrelin levels and IR in Saudi subjects with T2DM. METHODS: Patients with T2DM
      (n=107, cases) and non-diabetic apparently healthy subjects (n=101, controls)
      from Saudi Arabia were included in this study. The biochemical profiles and
      plasma insulin levels of all subjects were analyzed, and IR was estimated using
      the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index. Active
      ghrelin levels in plasma were measured using the radioimmunoassay technique.
      RESULTS: Only 46.7% (50 of 107) of the T2DM subjects had IR, including 26% (28 of
      107) with severe IR (HOMA-IR >=5), while 5.9% (six of 101) of the controls had
      moderate IR (3 <=HOMA-IR <5). HOMA-IR values were not associated with age,
      disease duration, or gender. Importantly, T2DM itself and the co-occurrence of IR
      with T2DM were significantly associated with low plasma ghrelin levels. However,
      ghrelin levels were inversely correlated with the HOMA-IR index, body weight, and
      fasting plasma insulin levels, mainly in the control subjects, which was
      indicative of the breakdown of metabolic homeostasis in T2DM. CONCLUSION: The
      prevalence of IR was relatively low, and IR may be inversely associated with
      plasma ghrelin levels among Saudi patients with T2DM.

PMID- 28555464
TI  - Glucocorticoid-Induced Diabetes Mellitus: An Important but Overlooked Problem.
AB  - Glucocorticoids are widely used as potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive
      drugs to treat a wide range of diseases. However, they are also associated with a
      number of side effects, including new-onset hyperglycemia in patients without a
      history of diabetes mellitus (DM) or severely uncontrolled hyperglycemia in
      patients with known DM. Glucocorticoid-induced diabetes mellitus (GIDM) is a
      common and potentially harmful problem in clinical practice, affecting almost all
      medical specialties, but is often difficult to detect in clinical settings.
      However, scientific evidence is lacking regarding the effects of GIDM, as well as
      strategies for prevention and treatment. Similarly to nonsteroid-related DM, the
      principles of early detection and risk factor modification apply. Screening for
      GIDM should be considered in all patients treated with medium to high doses of
      glucocorticoids. Challenges in the management of GIDM stem from wide fluctuations
      in postprandial hyperglycemia and the lack of clearly defined treatment
      protocols. Together with lifestyle measures, hypoglycemic drugs with insulin
      sensitizing effects are indicated. However, insulin therapy is often unavoidable,
      to the point that insulin can be considered the drug of choice. The treatment of
      GIDM should take into account the degree and pattern of hyperglycemia, as well as
      the type, dose, and schedule of glucocorticoid used. Moreover, it is essential to
      instruct the patient and/or the patient's family about how to perform the
      necessary adjustments. Prospective studies are needed to answer the remaining
      questions regarding GIDM.

PMID- 28555465
TI  - Identification of Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young Caused by Glucokinase
      Mutations Detected Using Whole-Exome Sequencing.
AB  - Glucokinase maturity-onset diabetes of the young (GCK-MODY) represents a distinct
      subgroup of MODY that does not require hyperglycemia-lowering treatment and has
      very few diabetes-related complications. Three patients from two families who
      presented with clinical signs of GCK-MODY were evaluated. Whole-exome sequencing
      was performed and the effects of the identified mutations were assessed using
      bioinformatics tools, such as PolyPhen-2, SIFT, and in silico modeling. We
      identified two mutations: p.Leu30Pro and p.Ser383Leu. In silico analyses
      predicted that these mutations result in structural conformational changes,
      protein destabilization, and thermal instability. Our findings may inform future
      GCK-MODY diagnosis; furthermore, the two mutations detected in two Korean
      families with GCK-MODY improve our understanding of the genetic basis of the
      disease.

PMID- 28555466
TI  - Climate and the distribution of vector-borne diseases: what's in store?
AB  - Not available.

PMID- 28555467
TI  - Estimating small area health-related characteristics of populations: a
      methodological review.
AB  - Estimation of health-related characteristics at a fine local geographic level is
      vital for effective health promotion programmes, provision of better health
      services and population-specific health planning and management. Lack of a micro
      dataset readily available for attributes of individuals at small areas negatively
      impacts the ability of local and national agencies to manage serious health
      issues and related risks in the community. A solution to this challenge would be
      to develop a method that simulates reliable small-area statistics. This paper
      provides a significant appraisal of the methodologies for estimating health
      related characteristics of populations at geographical limited areas. Findings
      reveal that a range of methodologies are in use, which can be classified as three
      distinct set of approaches: i) indirect standardisation and individual level
      modelling; ii) multilevel statistical modelling; and iii) micro-simulation
      modelling. Although each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, it
      appears that microsimulation- based spatial models have significant robustness
      over the other methods and also represent a more precise means of estimating
      health-related population characteristics over small areas.

PMID- 28555468
TI  - Spatial epidemiology of cancer: a review of data sources, methods and risk
      factors.
AB  - Cancer is a major concern among chronic diseases today. Spatial epidemiology
      plays a relevant role in this matter and we present here a review of this
      subject, including a discussion of the literature in terms of the level of
      geographic data aggregation, risk factors and methods used to analyse the spatial
      distribution of patterns and spatial clusters. For this purpose, we performed a
      websearch in the Pubmed and Web of Science databases including studies published
      between 1979 and 2015. We found 180 papers from 63 journals and noted that
      spatial epidemiology of cancer has been addressed with more emphasis during the
      last decade with research based on data mostly extracted from cancer registries
      and official mortality statistics. In general, the research questions present in
      the reviewed papers can be classified into three different sets: i) analysis of
      spatial distribution of cancer and/or its temporal evolution; ii) risk factors;
      iii) development of data analysis methods and/or evaluation of results obtained
      from application of existing methods. This review is expected to help promote
      research in this area through the identification of relevant knowledge gaps.
      Cancer's spatial epidemiology represents an important concern, mainly for public
      health policies design aimed to minimise the impact of chronic disease in
      specific populations.

PMID- 28555469
TI  - Impact of climate variability on the occurrence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in
      Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran.
AB  - Leishmaniasis, one of the most important parasitic diseases worldwide, is
      frequently cited with respect to health risks related to climate change. The
      current variability of the climate may have different impacts on the transmission
      of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) depending on the various Leishmania species. The
      number and distribution of CL cases in Khuzestan Province, Southwestern Iran was
      analysed over the 2010-2014 period with regard to temperature, humidity,
      rainfall, sunshine hours, evaporation and wind-related climate issues. During the
      study period, there were 4672 recorded clinical cases of CL, the incidence of
      which was found to fall into three types of areas, such as high, intermediate and
      low-level endemic areas. Compared to the intermediate and low-endemic areas, the
      hyper-endemic areas showed significantly variable meteorological data with regard
      to rainy days, maximum/minimum temperature and humidity. Decreased temperatures
      in the eastern part of this province were found to promote the disease towards
      its centre. We conclude that the meteorological variables and incidence data of
      CL indicate that the number of rainy days, maximum and minimum temperatures and
      relative humidity are significant variables that can predict CL incidence.
      Indeed, the substantial climatic variability occurring during the recent 5-year
      period (2010-2014) in Khuzestan Province could be the main reason for the change
      in epidemiology and transmission of CL.

PMID- 28555470
TI  - Spatio-temporal dynamics of schistosomiasis in Rwanda between 2001 and 2012:
      impact of the national Neglected Tropical Disease control programme.
AB  - Schistosomiasis is recognised as a major public health problem in Rwanda. We
      aimed to identify the spatio-temporal dynamics of its distribution at a fine
      scale spatial resolution and to explore the impact of control programme
      interventions. Incidence data of Schistosoma mansoni infection at 367 health
      facilities were obtained for the period 2001-2012. Disease cluster analyses were
      conducted using spatial scan statistics and geographic information systems. The
      impact of control interventions was assessed for three distinct sub-periods.
      Findings demonstrated persisting, emerging and re-emerging clusters of
      schistosomiasis infection across space and time. The control programme initially
      caused an abrupt increase in incidence rates during its implementation phase.
      However, this was followed by declining and disappearing clusters when the
      programme was fully in place. The findings presented should contribute to a
      better understanding of the dynamics of schistosomiasis distribution to be used
      when implementing future control activities, including prevention and elimination
      efforts.

PMID- 28555471
TI  - Comparison of the spatial patterns of schistosomiasis in Zimbabwe at two points
      in time, spaced twenty-nine years apart: is climate variability of importance?
AB  - Temperature, precipitation and humidity are known to be important factors for the
      development of schistosome parasites as well as their intermediate snail hosts.
      Climate therefore plays an important role in determining the geographical
      distribution of schistosomiasis and it is expected that climate change will alter
      distribution and transmission patterns. Reliable predictions of distribution
      changes and likely transmission scenarios are key to efficient schistosomiasis
      intervention-planning. However, it is often difficult to assess the direction and
      magnitude of the impact on schistosomiasis induced by climate change, as well as
      the temporal transferability and predictive accuracy of the models, as prevalence
      data is often only available from one point in time. We evaluated potential
      climate-induced changes on the geographical distribution of schistosomiasis in
      Zimbabwe using prevalence data from two points in time, 29 years apart; to our
      knowledge, this is the first study investigating this over such a long time
      period. We applied historical weather data and matched prevalence data of two
      schistosome species (Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni). For each time
      period studied, a Bayesian geostatistical model was fitted to a range of
      climatic, environmental and other potential risk factors to identify significant
      predictors that could help us to obtain spatially explicit schistosomiasis risk
      estimates for Zimbabwe. The observed general downward trend in schistosomiasis
      prevalence for Zimbabwe from 1981 and the period preceding a survey and control
      campaign in 2010 parallels a shift towards a drier and warmer climate. However, a
      statistically significant relationship between climate change and the change in
      prevalence could not be established.

PMID- 28555472
TI  - Child mortality inequalities across Rwanda districts: a geoadditive continuous
      time survival analysis.
AB  - Child survival programmes are efficient when they target the most significant and
      area-specific factors. This study aimed to assess the key determinants and
      spatial variation of child mortality at the district level in Rwanda. Data from
      the 2010 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey were analysed for 8817 live births
      that occurred during five years preceding the survey. Out of the children born,
      433 had died before survey interviews were carried out. A full Bayesian geo
      additive continuous-time hazard model enabled us to maximise data utilisation and
      hence improve the accuracy of our estimates. The results showed substantial
      district- level spatial variation in childhood mortality in Rwanda. District
      specific spatial characteristics were particularly associated with higher death
      hazards in two districts: Musanze and Nyabihu. The model estimates showed that
      there were lower death rates among children from households of medium and high
      economic status compared to those from low-economic status households. Factors,
      such as four antenatal care visits, delivery at a health facility, prolonged
      breastfeeding and mothers younger than 31 years were associated with lower child
      death rates. Long preceding birth intervals were also associated with fewer
      hazards. For these reasons, programmes aimed at reducing child mortality gaps
      between districts in Rwanda should target maternal factors and take into
      consideration district-specific spatial characteristics. Further, child survival
      gains require strengthening or scaling-up of existing programmes pertaining to
      access to, and utilisation of maternal and child health care services as well as
      reduction of the household gap in the economic status.

PMID- 28555473
TI  - Epidemiological aspects and spatial distribution of human and canine visceral
      leishmaniasis in an endemic area in northeastern Brazil.
AB  - Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a systemic disease endemic in tropical countries
      and transmitted through sand flies. In particular, Canis familiaris (or
      domesticated dogs) are believed to be a major urban reservoir for the parasite
      causing the disease Leishmania. The average number of human VL cases was 58 per
      year in the state of Sergipe. The city of Aracaju, capital of Sergipe in
      Northeastern Brazil, had 159 cases of VL in humans. Correlatively, the percentage
      of serologically positive dogs for leishmaniasis increased from 4.73% in 2008 to
      12.69% in 2014. Thus, these studies aimed to delineate the spatial distribution
      and epidemiological aspects of human and canine VL as mutually supportive for
      increased incidence. The number of human cases of VL and the frequency of canine
      positive serology for VL both increased between 2008 and 2014. Spatial
      distribution analyses mapped areas of the city with the highest concentration of
      human and canine VL cases. The neighbourhoods that showed the highest disease
      frequency were located on the outskirts of the city and in urbanised areas or
      subjected to development. Exponential increase in VL-positive dogs further
      suggests that the disease is expanding in urban areas, where it can serve as a
      reservoir for transmission of dogs to humans via the sand fly vector.

PMID- 28555475
TI  - Geographic clustering of elderly people with above-norm anthropometric
      measurements and blood chemistry.
AB  - The global percentage of people over 60 is strongly increasing and estimated to
      exceed 20% by 20,150, which means that there will be an increase in many
      pathological conditions related to aging. Mapping of the location of aging people
      and identification of their needs can be extremely valuable from a social
      economic point of view. Participants in this study were 148 randomly selected
      adults from Talca City, Chile aged 60-74 at baseline. Geographic information
      systems (GIS) analyses were performed using ArcGIS software through its module
      Spatial Autocorrelation. In this study, we demonstrated that elderly people show
      geographic clustering according to above-norm results of anthropometric
      measurements and blood chemistry. The spatial identifications found would
      facilitate exploring the impact of treatment programmes in communities where many
      aging people live, thereby improving their quality of life as well as reducing
      overall costs.

PMID- 28555474
TI  - Fine scale mapping of malaria infection clusters by using routinely collected
      health facility data in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
AB  - This study investigated whether passively collected routine health facility data
      can be used for mapping spatial heterogeneities in malaria transmission at the
      level of local government housing cluster administrative units in Dar es Salaam,
      Tanzania. From June 2012 to January 2013, residential locations of patients
      tested for malaria at a public health facility were traced based on their local
      leaders' names and geo-referencing the point locations of these leaders' houses.
      Geographic information systems (GIS) were used to visualise the spatial
      distribution of malaria infection rates. Spatial scan statistics was deployed to
      detect spatial clustering of high infection rates. Among 2407 patients tested for
      malaria, 46.6% (1121) could be traced to their 411 different residential housing
      clusters. One small spatially aggregated cluster of neighbourhoods with high
      prevalence was identified. While the home residence housing cluster leader was
      unambiguously identified for 73.8% (240/325) of malaria-positive patients, only
      42.3% (881/2082) of those with negative test results were successfully traced. It
      was concluded that recording simple points of reference during routine health
      facility visits can be used for mapping malaria infection burden on very fine
      geographic scales, potentially offering a feasible approach to rational
      geographic targeting of malaria control interventions. However, in order to tap
      the full potential of this approach, it would be necessary to optimise patient
      tracing success and eliminate biases by blinding personnel to test results.

PMID- 28555476
TI  - Use of geographical information systems for delimiting health service areas in
      China.
AB  - With the objective of choosing a practical and valid method to delimit health
      service areas of regional health service centres to build a regional basic health
      service network, we first drew lessons from traditional geographic methods of
      delimiting trade areas and then applied two methods to delimit health service
      areas, i.e. the proximal method and the gravity method. We verified the
      effectiveness of these methods by an index of similarity with the aid of real in
      patient data. Calculation of the similarity indices shows that health service
      areas delimited by the proximal method has an 87.3% similarity to the real health
      service area, while the gravity method gives 88.6%. Our conclusion is that both
      methods are suitable for delimiting health service areas at regional health
      service centres, but find that the proximal method is more practicable in
      operational terms for delimiting health service areas in region health planning.

PMID- 28555477
TI  - An analysis of the process and results of manual geocode correction.
AB  - Geocoding is the science and process of assigning geographical coordinates (i.e.
      latitude, longitude) to a postal address. The quality of the geocode can vary
      dramatically depending on several variables, including incorrect input address
      data, missing address components, and spelling mistakes. A dataset with a
      considerable number of geocoding inaccuracies can potentially result in an
      imprecise analysis and invalid conclusions. There has been little quantitative
      analysis of the amount of effort (i.e. time) to perform geocoding correction, and
      how such correction could improve geocode quality type. This study used a low
      cost and easy to implement method to improve geocode quality type of an input
      database (i.e. addresses to be matched) through the processes of manual geocode
      intervention, and it assessed the amount of effort to manually correct inaccurate
      geocodes, reported the resulting match rate improvement between the original and
      the corrected geocodes, and documented the corresponding spatial shift by geocode
      quality type resulting from the corrections. Findings demonstrated that manual
      intervention of geocoding resulted in a 90% improvement of geocode quality type,
      took 42 hours to process, and the spatial shift ranged from 0.02 to 151,368 m.
      This study provides evidence to inform research teams considering the application
      of manual geocoding intervention that it is a low-cost and relatively easy
      process to execute.

PMID- 28555478
TI  - Comparing the accuracy of food outlet datasets in an urban environment.
AB  - Studies that investigate the relationship between the retail food environment and
      health outcomes often use geospatial datasets. Prior studies have identified
      challenges of using the most common data sources. Retail food environment
      datasets created through academic-government partnership present an alternative,
      but their validity (retail existence, type, location) has not been assessed yet.
      In our study, we used ground-truth data to compare the validity of two datasets,
      a 2015 commercial dataset (InfoUSA) and data collected from 2012 to 2014 through
      the Maryland Food Systems Mapping Project (MFSMP), an academic-government
      partnership, on the retail food environment in two low-income, inner city
      neighbourhoods in Baltimore City. We compared sensitivity and positive predictive
      value (PPV) of the commercial and academic-government partnership data to ground
      truth data for two broad categories of unhealthy food retailers: small food
      retailers and quick-service restaurants. Ground-truth data was collected in 2015
      and analysed in 2016. Compared to the ground-truth data, MFSMP and InfoUSA
      generally had similar sensitivity that was greater than 85%. MFSMP had higher PPV
      compared to InfoUSA for both small food retailers (MFSMP: 56.3% vs InfoUSA:
      40.7%) and quick-service restaurants (MFSMP: 58.6% vs InfoUSA: 36.4%). We
      conclude that data from academic-government partnerships like MFSMP might be an
      attractive alternative option and improvement to relying only on commercial data.
      Other research institutes or cities might consider efforts to create and maintain
      such an environmental dataset. Even if these datasets cannot be updated on an
      annual basis, they are likely more accurate than commercial data.

PMID- 28555479
TI  - Spatial accessibility to basic public health services in South Sudan.
AB  - At independence in 2011, South Sudan's health sector was almost non-existent. The
      first national health strategic plan aimed to achieve an integrated health
      facility network that would mean that 70% of the population were within 5 km of a
      health service provider. Publically available data on functioning and closed
      health facilities, population distribution, road networks, land use and elevation
      were used to compute the fraction of the population within 1 hour walking
      distance of the nearest public health facility offering curative services. This
      metric was summarised for each of the 78 counties in South Sudan and compared
      with simpler metrics of the proportion of the population within 5 km of a health
      facility. In 2016, it is estimated that there were 1747 public health facilities,
      out of which 294 were non-functional in part due to the on-going civil conflict.
      Access to a service provider was poor with only 25.7% of the population living
      within one-hour walking time to a facility and 28.6% of the population within 5
      km. These metrics, when applied sub-nationally, identified the same high
      priority, most vulnerable counties. Simple metrics based upon population
      distribution and location of facilities might be as valuable as more complex
      models of health access, where attribute data on travel routes are imperfect or
      incomplete and sparse. Disparities exist in South Sudan among counties and those
      with the poorest health access should be targeted for priority expansion of
      clinical services.

PMID- 28555480
TI  - Assessing effects of structural zeros on models of canine cancer incidence: a
      case study of the Swiss Canine Cancer Registry.
AB  - Epidemiological research of canine cancers could inform comparative studies of
      environmental determinants for a number of human cancers. However, such an
      approach is currently limited because canine cancer data sources are still few in
      number and often incomplete. Incompleteness is typically due to under
      ascertainment of canine cancers. A main reason for this is because dog owners
      commonly do not seek veterinary care for this diagnosis. Deeper knowledge on
      under-ascertainment is critical for modelling canine cancer incidence, as an
      indication of zero incidence might originate from the sole absence of diagnostic
      examinations within a given sample unit. In the present case study, we
      investigated effects of such structural zeros on models of canine cancer
      incidence. In doing so, we contrasted two scenarios for modelling incidence data
      retrieved from the Swiss Canine Cancer Registry. The first scenario was based on
      the complete enumeration of incidence data for all Swiss municipal units. The
      second scenario was based on a filtered sample that systematically discarded
      structural zeros in those municipal units where no diagnostic examination had
      been performed. By means of cross-validation, we assessed and contrasted
      statistical performance and predictive power of the two modelling scenarios. This
      analytical step allowed us to demonstrate that structural zeros impact on the
      generalisability of the model of canine cancer incidence, thus challenging future
      comparative studies of canine and human cancers. The results of this case study
      show that increased awareness about the effects of structural zeros is critical
      to epidemiological research.

PMID- 28555481
TI  - Haemodialysis services in the northeastern region of Iran.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease is growing and the current estimated global prevalence
      exceeds 13%. As the use of haemodialysis machines for patients with end stage
      renal disease increases survival considerably, it is critical to plan correctly
      for the allocation of these machines. This study aimed to develop a geographical
      information systems (GIS)-based approach to predict the need for this service in
      the northeastern region of Iran taking into account where patients live and where
      haemodialysis is the most needed and identifying areas with poor access to
      haemodialysis centres. Patients were interviewed to obtain self-reported actual
      travel time and the inverse distance-weighting algorithm was used to determine
      access in each area. The prediction is based on the domestic growth rate for
      haemodialysis services and the estimated active hours of machine use for the next
      five years. We estimate that six new haemodialysis machines are required in
      northeastern Iran at the present time with 50 machines required over the next
      five years. Ashkhane City was identified to have the least access to
      haemodialysis centres in the study area. Our GIS-based model can be used to
      investigate not only the need for new haemodialysis machines but also to examine
      geographic disparities in the allocation of haemodialysis centres and to identify
      areas most in need of this service. It is important that policymakers consider
      both spatial and non-spatial dimensions of access to enable better allocation of
      haemodialysis services ensuring they are targeted to reach those in need.

PMID- 28555482
TI  - Neonatal mortality in East Africa and West Africa: a geographic analysis of
      district-level demographic and health survey data.
AB  - Under-five child mortality declined 47% since 2000 following the implementation
      of the United Nation's (UN) Millennium Development Goals. To further reduce under
      five child mortality, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will focus on
      interventions to address neonatal mortality, a major contributor of under-five
      mortality. The African region has the highest neonatal mortality rate (28.0 per
      1000 live births), followed by that of the Eastern Mediterranean (26.6) and South
      East Asia (24.3). This study used the Demographic and Health Survey Birth Recode
      data (http://dhsprogram.com/data/File-Types-and-Names.cfm) to identify high-risk
      districts and countries for neonatal mortality in two sub-regions of Africa -
      East Africa and West Africa. Geographically weighted Poisson regression models
      were estimated to capture the spatially varying relationships between neonatal
      mortality and dimensions of potential need i) care around the time of delivery,
      ii) maternal education, and iii) women's empowerment. In East Africa, neonatal
      mortality was significantly associated with home births, mothers without an
      education and mothers whose husbands decided on contraceptive practices,
      controlling for rural residency. In West Africa, neonatal mortality was also
      significantly associated with home births, mothers with a primary education and
      mothers who did not want or plan their last child. Importantly, neonatal
      mortality associated with home deliveries were explained by maternal exposure to
      unprotected water sources in East Africa and older maternal age and female sex of
      infants in West Africa. Future SDG-interventions may target these dimensions of
      need in priority high-risk districts and countries, to further reduce the burden
      of neonatal mortality in Africa.

PMID- 28555483
TI  - Point process methods in epidemiology: application to the analysis of human
      immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome mortality in urban
      areas.
AB  - The analysis of spatio-temporal patterns of disease or death in urban areas has
      been developed mainly from the ecological studies approach. These designs may
      have some limitations like the ecological fallacy and instability with few cases.
      The objective of this study was to apply the point process methodology, as a
      complement to that of aggregated data, to study HIV/AIDS mortality in men in the
      city of Alicante (Spain). A case-control study in residents in the city during
      the period 2004-2011 was designed. Cases were men who died from HIV/AIDS and
      controls represented the general population, matched by age to cases. The risk
      surfaces of death over the city were estimated using the log-risk function of
      intensities, and we contrasted their temporal variations over the two periods.
      High risk significant areas of death by HIV/AIDS, which coincide with the most
      deprived areas in the city, were detected. Significant spatial change of the
      areas at risk between the periods studied was not detected. The point process
      methodology is a useful tool to analyse the patterns of death by HIV/AIDS in
      urban areas.

PMID- 28555484
TI  - Spatial analysis of the regional variation of reproductive tract infections and
      spousal migration correlates in Nepal.
AB  - Nepal has a diverse geographic landscape that could potentially create clustered
      subpopulations with regional socio-cultures that could result in differential
      health outcomes. With an alarming rise in married male populations migrating for
      work, it is possible that these migrants are engaged in risky sexual behaviour,
      putting their wives at risk for infectious disease outcomes, including
      reproductive tract infections (RTI), when they return home. The prevalence of
      male migration varies by geographic region in Nepal and this variation could
      potentially contribute to different RTI rates. Using a cross-sectional dataset
      (the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey) including 9607 married women, we
      investigated geospatial and socio-cultural factors associated with the symptoms
      of RTIs with a focus on the husbands' migration status. Choropleth maps were
      created to illustrate areas with high percentages of RTIs that correlated with
      migration patterns. Overall, 31.9% of the husbands were migrating for work. After
      adjusting for wealth, contraception use, age at first marriage, urban/rural
      status and husband's education, women whose husbands had been absent for a year
      or more in Nepal's Mid-West region (OR 1.93 95%, CI 1.02-3.67) or Far-West region
      (OR 2.89 95%, CI 1.24-6.73) were more likely to report RTI-like symptoms than
      others. Our results suggest a potential association between husbands' migration
      status and Nepali women reporting RTI symptoms by geographic regions. However,
      further research is needed to put this outcome on a stronger footing with respect
      to this under-studied population, specifically in the context of geographical
      variation.

PMID- 28555485
TI  - Cystic echinococcosis in cattle dairy farms: spatial distribution and
      epidemiological dynamics.
AB  - A study monitoring cystic echinococcosis (CE) in adult dairy cattle from
      intensive livestock farms located in the municipality of Arborea (Sardinia,
      Italy) was carried out between 2012 and 2015. A retrospective study of veterinary
      reporting forms of post-mortem inspections in 10 different Italian
      slaughterhouses was also performed. In addition, data on viability and molecular
      characterisation of hydatid cysts removed from parasitised organs in cattle was
      carried out. A geographical information system (GIS) with data layers of the
      study area and the geo-referenced points of 160 cattle farms was constructed. CE
      was found in 21.9% (35/160) of the surveyed farms. The retrospective study
      revealed that 0.05% (13/23,656) of adult slaughtered animals (over one year of
      age) from Arborea had tested positive to CE. The results stratified per year
      showed the following CE prevalences: 0.09% (5/5673) in 2012; 0.02% (1/5682) in
      2013; 0.08% (5/6261) in 2014; and 0.03% (2/6040) in 2015 (chi2 with 3 degrees of
      freedom=3.81; P=0.282). The E. granulosus sensu stricto (formerly called G1 or
      sheep strain) was detected in all cysts subjected to molecular analysis. The GIS
      analysis showed that CE is fairly resilient in the Arborea territory where most
      of cattle farms are located, while a small cluster of cases was found located in
      the southeastern part of Arborea, close to districts where sheep farms are
      situated. The present survey reports the presence of CE in Sardinian dairy cattle
      intensive farms and suggests that the parasitic pressure of CE in the island
      continues to be very strong.

PMID- 28555486
TI  - Topically-administered acetyl-L-carnitine increases sciatic nerve regeneration
      and improves functional recovery after tubulization of transected short nerve
      gaps.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve injuries repair is still among the most challenging
      and concern-raising tasks in neurosurgery. The effect of an acetyl-L-carnitin
      loaded silicone tube as an in-situ delivery system in defects bridging was
      studied using a rat sciatic nerve regeneration model. METHODS: A 10-mm sciatic
      nerve defect was bridged using a silicone tube (SIL/ALC) filled with 10 uL acetyl
      L-carnitine (100 ng/mL). In the control group (SIL), the tube was filled with the
      same volume of the phosphate-buffered solution. The regenerated fibers were
      studied 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: The functional study
      confirmed faster recovery of the regenerated axons in acetyl-L-carnitine treated
      than control group (P<0.05). The mean ratios of gastrocnemius muscles weight were
      measured. There was a statistically significant difference between the muscle
      weight ratios of SIL/ALC and SIL groups (P<0.05). Morphometric indices of
      regenerated fibers showed that the number and diameter of the myelinated fibers
      in SIL/ALC were significantly higher than in the control group. In
      immuohistochemistry, the location of reactions to S-100 in the SIL/ALC group was
      clearly more positive than in the SIL group. CONCLUSIONS: Acetyl-L-carnitine,
      when loaded in a silicone tube, can bring to an improvement in functional
      recovery and quantitative morphometric indices of sciatic nerve.

PMID- 28555487
TI  - Is stereotactic radiosurgery a treatment option for intracranial solitary fibrous
      tumors?

PMID- 28555488
TI  - The unusual subarachnoid hemorrhage presentation by a "sentinel" isolated
      trochlear nerve palsy of a posterior communicating artery aneurysm.

PMID- 28555489
TI  - Pin-point selection of recipient MCA at M4 for STA-MCA bypass using micro-Doppler
      ultrasonography.

PMID- 28555490
TI  - Spinal cord anaplastic ependymoma induced by radiation treatment of breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28555491
TI  - Insular intracranial hemangiopericytoma in a child.

PMID- 28555492
TI  - Equilibrium Isotherm, Kinetic Modeling, Optimization, and Characterization
      Studies of Cadmium Adsorption by Surface-Engineered Escherichia coli
AB  - Background: Amongst the methods that remove heavy metals from environment,
      biosorption approaches have received increased attention because of their
      environmentally friendly and cost-effective feature, as well as their superior
      performances. Methods: In the present study, we investigated the ability of a
      surface-engineered Escherichia coli, carrying the cyanobacterial metallothionein
      on the cell surface, in the removal of Ca (II) from solution under different
      experimental conditions. The biosorption process was optimized using central
      composite design. In parallel, the kinetics of metal biosorption was studied, and
      the rate constants of different kinetic models were calculated. Results: Cadmium
      biosorption is followed by the second-order kinetics. Freundlich and Langmuir
      equations were used to analyze sorption data; characteristic parameters were
      determined for each adsorption isotherm. The biosorption process was optimized
      using the central composite design. The optimal cadmium sorption capacity (284.69
      nmol/mg biomass) was obtained at 40 degrees C (pH 8) and a biomass dosage of 10
      mg. The influence of two elutants, EDTA and CaCl2, was also assessed on metal
      recovery. Approximately, 68.58% and 56.54% of the adsorbed cadmium were removed
      by EDTA and CaCl2 during desorption, respectively. The Fourier transform infrared
      spectrophotometer (FTIR) analysis indicated that carboxyl, amino, phosphoryl,
      thiol, and hydroxyl are the main chemical groups involved in the cadmium
      bioadsorption process. Conclusion: Results from this study implied that chemical
      adsorption on the heterogeneous surface of E. coli E and optimization of
      adsorption parameters provides a highly efficient bioadsorbent.

PMID- 28555493
TI  - Feedstocks to Pharmacophores: Cu-Catalyzed Oxidative Arylation of Inexpensive
      Alkylarenes Enabling Direct Access to Diarylalkanes.
AB  - A Cu-catalyzed method has been identified for selective oxidative arylation of
      benzylic C-H bonds with arylboronic esters. The resulting 1,1-diarylalkanes are
      accessed directly from inexpensive alkylarenes containing primary and secondary
      benzylic C-H bonds, such as toluene or ethylbenzene. All catalyst components are
      commercially available at low cost, and the arylboronic esters are either
      commercially available or easily accessible from the commercially available
      boronic acids. The potential utility of these methods in medicinal chemistry
      applications is highlighted.

PMID- 28555494
TI  - Self-Template Synthesis of Ag-Pt Hollow Nanospheres as Electrocatalyst for
      Methanol Oxidation Reaction.
AB  - Ag-Pt bimetallic hollow nanospheres have been prepared through a one-pot, wet
      chemical route. The formation of the hollow nanostructure can be explained by a
      self-template mechanism in which initially formed silver nanoparticles serve as
      the template. The Ag-Pt hollow nanospheres with an Ag/Pt ratio of 0.89:1 show the
      best electrochemical catalytic performances in the methanol oxidation reaction.
      Furthermore, the catalytic activity of the Ag-Pt hollow nanospheres is also much
      better than that of commercial Pt/C catalyst. The superior electrochemical
      performance of the Ag-Pt hollow nanospheres can be ascribed to the hollow
      nanostructure and the synergistic effect of Ag and Pt.

PMID- 28555495
TI  - Capping of Mn-Doped ZnS Quantum Dots with DHLA for Their Stabilization in Aqueous
      Media: Determination of the Nanoparticle Number Concentration and Surface Ligand
      Density.
AB  - Colloidal Mn2+-doped ZnS quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized, surface modified,
      and thoroughly characterized using a pool of complementary techniques. Cap
      exchange of the native l-cysteine coating of the QDs with dihydrolipoic acid
      (DHLA) ligands is proposed as a strategy to produce nanocrystals with a strong
      phosphorescent-type emission and improved aqueous stability. Moreover, such a
      stable DHLA coating can facilitate further bioconjugation of these QDs to
      biomolecules using established reagents such as cross-linker molecules. First, a
      structural and morphological characterization of the l-cysteine QD core was
      performed by resorting to complementary techniques, including X-ray powder
      diffraction (XRD) and microscopy tools. XRD patterns provided information about
      the local structure of ions within the nanocrystal structure and the number of
      metal atoms constituting the core of a QD. The judicious combination of the data
      obtained from these complementary characterization tools with the analysis of the
      QDs using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) allowed us to
      assess the number concentration of nanoparticles in an aqueous sample, a key
      parameter when such materials are going to be used in bioanalytical or
      toxicological studies. Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled
      online to ICP-MS detection proved to be an invaluable tool to compute the number
      of DHLA molecules attached to the surface of a single QD, a key feature that is
      difficult to estimate in nanoparticles and that critically affects the behavior
      of nanoparticles when entering the biological media (e.g., cellular uptake,
      biodistribution, or protein corona formation). This hybrid technique also allowed
      us to demonstrate that the elemental composition of the nanoparticle core remains
      unaffected after the ligand exchange process. Finally, the photostability and
      robustness of the DHLA-capped QDs, critical parameters for bioanalytical
      applications, were assessed by molecular luminescence spectroscopy.

PMID- 28555496
TI  - Synthesis of Core-Shell Structured Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon@Silica Material
      via a Sol-Gel Method.
AB  - Core-shell structured nitrogen-doped porous carbon@silica material with uniform
      structure and morphology was synthesized via a sol-gel method. During this
      process, a commercial triblock copolymer and the in situ formed pyrrole
      formaldehyde polymer acted as cotemplates, while tetraethyl orthosilicate acted
      as silica precursor. The synergetic effect of the triblock copolymer and the
      pyrrole-formaldehyde polymer enables the formation of the core-shell structure.
      Herein, the pyrrole-formaldehyde polymer acted as not only the template, but also
      the nitrogen-doped carbon precursor of the core. The obtained core-shell
      structured porous material possesses moderate Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific
      surface area (410 m2 g-1) and pore volume (0.53 cm3 g-1). Moreover, corresponding
      hollow silica spheres or nitrogen-doped porous carbon spheres can be synthesized
      by calcining the core-shell structured material in air or etching it with HF. The
      X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results reveal that the nitrogen states of the
      obtained material are mainly pyridinic-N and pyridonic-N/pyrrolic-N, which are
      beneficial for carbon dioxide adsorption. The carbon dioxide uptake capacity of
      the nitrogen-doped carbon spheres can reach 12.3 wt % at 273 K and 1.0 bar,
      meanwhile, the material shows good gas adsorption selectivities for CO2/CH4 and
      CO2/N2.

PMID- 28555498
TI  - Integrated Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Chip Based on a Total
      Reflection Liquid Core Waveguide.
AB  - This study proposes a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) chip integrated
      with a liquid core waveguide. Due to the total reflection, the chip suppresses
      the leaky waveguide mode and enables a long propagation distance for SERS signal
      collection. A 10 nM rhodamine 6G Raman signal was obtained using a QE65000
      portable microspectrometer at a low excitation power intensity of 14.5 W/cm2. The
      proposed SERS chip was also used to detect the SERS spectrum of a silkworm DNA
      solution, the structural information of which was clearly shown. In addition, due
      to the lower excitation power density, damage to the structure of the biomolecule
      was avoided.

PMID- 28555499
TI  - Dangerous sadness: nervoza among first and second generation Macedonian
      immigrants to Australia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nervoza is a commonly-used illness category among Macedonian
      Australians. Although nervoza belongs broadly to the category of 'nerve
      illnesses' little is known of its meaning among Macedonian immigrants, and
      whether there is intergenerational attrition in its meaning and use. We aimed to
      explore how nervoza and its treatment are perceived by members of the Macedonian
      community in Australia. DESIGN: In-depth interviews in Macedonian with 18
      participants from the Macedonian community in Melbourne, Australia. RESULTS:
      Nervoza is a layered concept relating shame, emotional experience and nerves,
      used as an idiom of distress and sadness in the presence of acute and chronic
      stressors. Nervoza develops in both the social world (through poverty, grief or
      the loss of war), and in the psyche of distressed and isolated people. It is
      viewed as dangerous on many levels: to physical health, as a 'gateway condition'
      to long-term psychological illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia, and to
      the person's social well-being. The normalised treatment for nervoza in Macedonia
      - benzodiazepines - is the subject of significant medical control in Australia.
      CONCLUSION: For sufferers of nervoza, the social self is both medicalized and
      stigmatised. Health services in Australia are often considered marginal in the
      management of nervoza. Second generation Macedonians viewed the concept as
      unhelpful, and possibly increasing the stigmatisation of mental illnesses. The
      lack of knowledge about, and underutilisation of, mental health services and
      support groups in the Macedonian Australian community should be the focus of
      community-based inter-generational health literacy initiatives.

PMID- 28555497
TI  - LdtMav2, a nonclassical transpeptidase and susceptibility of Mycobacterium avium
      to carbapenems.
AB  - AIM: Mycobacterium avium infections, especially in immune-compromised
      individuals, present a significant challenge as therapeutic options are limited.
      In this study, we investigated if M. avium genome encodes nonclassical
      transpeptidases and if newer carbapenems are effective against this mycobacteria.
      MATERIALS & METHODS: Biochemical and microbiological approaches were used to
      identify and characterize a nonclassical transpeptidase, namely L,D
      transpeptidase, in M. avium. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: We describe the biochemical
      and physiological attributes of a L,D-transpeptidase in M. avium, LdtMav2.
      Suggestive of a constitutive requirement, levels of LdtMav2, a L,D-transpeptidase
      in M. avium, remain constant during exponential and stationary phases of growth.
      Among beta-lactam antibacterials, only a subset of carbapenems inhibit LdtMav2
      and tebipenem, a new oral carbapenem, inhibits growth of M. avium.

PMID- 28555500
TI  - Updates on the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in males worldwide and the
      commonest cancer in males in the UK. The recent updates on the diagnosis and
      treatment of prostate cancer were discussed at a multidisciplinary day event
      organized by the British Institute of Radiology and held in London in November
      2016. This day covered the use of the prostate-specific antigen biomarker and of
      advanced imaging techniques such as multiparametric and whole-body MRI, choline
      positron emission tomography/CT and gallium-labelled prostate-specific membrane
      antigen for the detection of prostate cancer. In addition, the results of several
      trials assessing the management of the disease were discussed, in particular the
      Prostate Cancer Intervention Versus Observation Trial and Prostate Testing for
      Cancer and Treatment trials which evaluated the gain of intervention vs
      observation, and four randomized controlled trials comparing hypofractionated and
      standard radiotherapy regimen. Further to this event, this commentary highlights
      the topical issues relating to recently published guidelines and to trials for
      the management of prostate cancer where these were discussed.

PMID- 28555501
TI  - Genomic diversity and immunomodulatory activity of Lactobacillus plantarum
      isolated from dairy products.
AB  - In this study, we aimed to investigate some functional characteristics and the
      immunomodulatory properties of three strains of Lactobacillus plantarum of dairy
      origin which, in a previous screening, showed to be candidate probiotics. Genome
      sequencing and comparative genomics, which confirmed the presence of genes
      involved in folate and riboflavin production and in the immune response of
      dendritic cells (DCs), prompted us to investigate the ability of the three
      strains to accumulate the two vitamins and their immunomodulation properties. The
      ability of the three strains to release antioxidant components in milk was also
      investigated. Small amounts of folate and riboflavin were produced by the three
      strains, while they showed a good antioxidant capacity in milk with FRAP method.
      The immune response experiments well correlated with the presence of candidate
      genes influencing in DCs cytokine response to L. plantarum. Specifically, the
      amounts of secreted cytokins by DCs after stimulation with cells of Lp790, Lp813
      and Lp998 resulted pro-inflammatory whereas stimulation with culture supernatants
      (postbiotics) inhibited the release of interleukin (IL)-12p70 and increased the
      release of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine. This study adds further evidence
      on the importance of L. plantarum in human health. Understanding how probiotics
      (or postbiotics) work in preclinical models can allow a rational choice of the
      different strains for clinical and/or commercial use.

PMID- 28555502
TI  - Safety and tolerance of three probiotic strains in healthy infants: a multi
      centre randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - Some strains of species belonging to the genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus
      are used in order to maintain health. Although these organisms have a long record
      of safe use, it is important to assess their safety and tolerance in potentially
      vulnerable populations, such as infants. The objective of this study was to
      evaluate the safety and tolerance of three probiotic strains (Bifidobacterium
      longum subsp. infantis R0033, Bifidobacterium bifidum R0071 and Lactobacillus
      helveticus R0052) in healthy infants aged 3 to 12 months. A multi-centre
      randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention study with 221 healthy
      full-term infants was conducted. Infants received either a placebo or one of the
      3 probiotic strains (3*109 cfu) daily during an 8 week intervention period.
      Growth (weight, height and head circumference), adverse events (AEs)/serious
      adverse events (SAEs), concentrations of D-lactic acid in urine samples,
      characteristics of the stools and use of medication were collected for safety
      evaluation. All 4 groups were homogeneous with respect to age, gender, feeding
      type, ethnicity, height, weight and head circumference at the start of the study.
      The results showed that changes in growth (weight, height and head circumference)
      were equivalent in all 4 groups. No SAEs were reported. Total number of AEs
      recorded was equivalent in all groups. Thus, the use of B. infantis R0033, L.
      helveticus R0052 and B. bifidum R0071 in infancy is safe, and well tolerated.

PMID- 28555503
TI  - Spontaneous isolated dissection and atherosclerotic plaques of superior
      mesenteric artery: the vastly different occurrence site suggests the opposite
      haemodynamic aetiology.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The development of atherosclerotic plaques and spontaneous isolated
      dissection (SID) of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) was considered to be
      related to opposite haemodynamics. The purpose of this study was to compare their
      occurrence sites and the morphology of the SMA to confirm the haemodynamic
      aetiologies. METHODS: 57 patients with SID and 64 patients with atherosclerotic
      plaques were compared about patient characteristics, location of SID and plaque,
      the distance from lesion to the aortic ostia, SMA branching angle and inlet
      diameter of the SMA. RESULTS: The location of SID and plaque was very different
      (p < 0.001). The anterior wall was the most common entry site of SIDSMA (84.0%)
      but the least frequent origin site of atherosclerotic plaques (7.8%). The
      posterior, left and right walls were the frequent origin sites of atherosclerotic
      plaques (total 92.2%) but not for SIDSMA. Most plaques started from the aortic
      ostia, and their average distance to the aortic ostia was significantly less than
      the distance from the entry site to the aortic ostia of SIDSMA (p < 0.001). No
      significant difference was found between SIDSMA and the plaque groups in the
      branching angle and inlet diameter of the SMA. CONCLUSION: The vastly different
      sites of SIDSMA and atherosclerotic plaque indicate their opposite haemodynamic
      aetiology. Advances in knowledge: By comparing the location of the two diseases,
      we demonstrate their different haemodynamic causes.

PMID- 28555504
TI  - Prevalence and incidence of noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis among US adults in
      2013.
AB  - Bronchiectasis is an incurable pulmonary disorder that is characterized
      pathologically by permanent bronchial dilatation and severe bronchial
      inflammation and clinically by chronic productive cough and recurrent infectious
      exacerbations; bronchiectasis often occurs in the presence of chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease. It is widely believed that increasing use of high-resolution
      computed tomography has led to a marked rise in the number of persons with
      diagnosed bronchiectasis in current US clinical practice; up-to-date evidence,
      however, is lacking. Using a retrospective cohort design and health-care claims
      data (2009-2013), we estimated the prevalence of bronchiectasis (noncystic
      fibrosis)-based on narrow case-finding criteria-to be 139 cases per 100,000
      persons, to be higher among women versus men (180 vs. 95 per 100 K), and to
      increase substantially with age (from 7 per 100 K to 812 per 100 K aged 18-34
      years and >=75 years, respectively); annual incidence was estimated to be 29
      cases per 100,000 persons. Disease prevalence based on broad case-finding
      criteria was estimated to be 213 cases per 100,000 persons. The findings of this
      study suggest that between 340,000 and 522,000 adults were receiving treatment
      for bronchiectasis and that 70,000 adults were newly diagnosed with
      bronchiectasis, in 2013 US clinical practice. The findings of this study also
      suggest that bronchiectasis is much more common than previously reported (annual
      growth rate since 2001, 8%), presumably due-at least in part-to recent advances
      in, and increased use of, radiologic techniques. Additional research is needed to
      validate the findings of this study, to identify the reasons for increased
      prevalence, and to promote education about bronchiectasis nationally.

PMID- 28555505
TI  - Comparison of dose distribution for head and neck cancer patients with and
      without dose painting escalation during radiotherapy realized with tomotherapy
      unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine and quantify the percentage dose increase to organs at
      risk (OARs) with multiple-level dose painting (DP) for patients with head and
      neck cancer in comparison with standard regimen. METHODS: 12 patients who had
      undergone fluorine-18 fludeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography
      (PET)/CT scan were retrospectively enrolled. Two treatment plans-one using DP
      escalation and one without-were optimized for each patient base on PET/CT data.
      The following variables were assessed: dose to OARs and target volumes; execution
      time; equivalent uniform dose; and normal tissue complication probability.
      RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in beam-on time were observed
      between plans with and without DP. However, significantly higher doses were
      observed for all DP-escalated plans in the OARs, with only two exceptions: the
      brain stem and V60Gy for the mandible. Multiple-level DP resulted in dose
      increases ranging from 3.0% to 12.9%, depending on the OAR. The largest increase
      was seen for the parotid glands and the smallest for the mandible. Significant
      differences in the equivalent uniform dose were observed only for the parotid
      glands and spinal column, where the dose without DP was lower. The normal tissue
      complication probability for most OARs was very small. CONCLUSION: Importantly,
      even though DP escalation resulted in higher doses to OARs vs conventional
      treatment planning, these usually did not exceed the dose tolerance levels.
      However, clinical trials are necessary to confirm the benefits of DP and to
      guarantee no additional toxicity. Advances in knowledge: Multiple-level DP by
      numbers resulted in 3.0-12.9% dose increase, depending on the OAR. Our findings
      may suggest that DP escalation to very high doses is feasible for about 83% of
      patients without higher toxicity; however, it still should be confirmed on a
      larger group of patients.

PMID- 28555507
TI  - Performance Measurement and Target-Setting in California's Safety Net Health
      Systems.
AB  - Health policies encourage implementing quality measurement with performance
      targets. The 2010-2015 California Medicaid waiver mandated quality measurement
      and reporting. In 2013, California safety net hospitals participating in the
      waiver set a voluntary performance target (the 90th percentile for Medicare
      preferred provider organization plans) for mammography screening and cholesterol
      control in diabetes. They did not reach the target, and the difference-in
      differences analysis suggested that there was no difference for mammography ( P =
      .39) and low-density lipoprotein control ( P = .11) performance compared to
      measures for which no statewide quality improvement initiative existed.
      California's Medicaid waiver was associated with improved performance on a number
      of metrics, but this performance was not attributable to target setting on
      specific health conditions. Performance may have improved because of secular
      trends or systems improvements related to waiver funding. Relying on condition
      specific targets to measure performance may underestimate improvements and
      disadvantage certain health systems. Achieving ambitious targets likely requires
      sustained fiscal, management, and workforce investments.

PMID- 28555506
TI  - Capability of CBCT to identify patients with low bone mineral density: a
      systematic review.
AB  - The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature about the
      capability of CBCT images to identify individuals with low bone mineral density
      (BMD). As the literature is scarce regarding this topic, the purpose of this
      systematic review is also to guide future research in this area. A detailed
      search was performed in five databases without restrictions of time or languages.
      Additionally, a grey literature search was conducted. The Quality Assessment Tool
      for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 was applied to evaluate the methodological
      design of selected studies. With the inclusion of only six studies, the evidence
      is limited to endorse the use of CBCT assertively as a diagnostic tool for low
      BMD. All of the three studies that analyzed radiomorphometric indices found that
      the linear measurements of the mandibular inferior cortex were lower in
      osteoporotic individuals. CBCT-derived radiographic density vertebral and
      mandibular measurements were also capable for differentiating individuals with
      osteoporosis from individuals with normal BMD. The analysis of the cervical
      vertebrae showed high accuracy measurements. This systematic review indicates a
      scarcity of studies regarding the potential of CBCT for screening individuals
      with low BMD. However, the studies indicate that radiomorphometric indices and
      CBCT-derived radiographic density should be promising tools for differentiating
      individuals with osteoporosis from individuals with normal BMD.

PMID- 28555510
TI  - Perioperative blood glucose concentrations in kittens following overnight fasting
      and gonadectomy.
AB  - Objectives The objective of this study was to determine if hypoglycemia is an
      effect of overnight fasting and gonadectomy in kittens, as well as to determine
      predictors of baseline and postoperative blood glucose. Methods This was a
      prospective observational study. Seventy-five kittens between the age of 8 and 16
      weeks undergoing routine castration or ovariohysterectomy at an animal shelter
      were included. Two blood glucose measurements were analyzed per kitten after an
      overnight fast: a baseline reading prior to preoperative examination, and a
      reading immediately postoperatively. Predictors of the baseline and postoperative
      blood glucose levels were determined using multi-level mixed-effects linear
      regression. Results Kittens, when fasted overnight, were not hypoglycemic (<60
      mg/dl). No kittens exhibited clinical signs consistent with hypoglycemia. No
      kittens had a blood glucose <70 mg/dl postoperatively. Postoperative
      hyperglycemia (>150 mg/dl) was observed in 44% of kittens. The only predictor of
      fasted blood glucose levels was body condition score. The only predictor of
      postoperative blood glucose levels was the fasting blood glucose value.
      Conclusions and relevance Overnight fasting prior to elective sterilization in 8-
      to 16-week-old kittens did not result in hypoglycemia. Concern regarding
      hypoglycemia after a prolonged fast in kittens may be unwarranted for short
      procedures in healthy animals.

PMID- 28555508
TI  - Iterative reconstruction in single-source dual-energy CT angiography: feasibility
      of low and ultra-low volume contrast medium protocols.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of using contrast medium (CM) of low and
      ultra-low volumes and injection rates in aortic CT angiography (CTA) through the
      joint application of single-source dual-energy CT (ssDECT) and adaptive
      statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR). METHODS: 120 patients with known or
      suspected aortic dissection underwent aortic CTA and were equally divided into 3
      groups. Conventional 120-kVp scan with a CM volume of 70 ml and an injection rate
      of 5 ml s-1 was performed on Group A. Groups B and C underwent ssDECT scan with
      CM volumes of 0.6 and 0.4 ml kg-1, respectively. 40% and 50% ASIR algorithms were
      applied for Groups B and C, respectively. A five-point grading scheme was
      utilized to subjectively evaluate the image quality, and the CT value and
      contrast-to-noise ratio were recorded as objective measures. The radiation dose
      was also evaluated. RESULTS: Groups B and C had equivalent subjective scores and
      CT values as Group A, whereas they had higher or equivalent contrast-to-noise
      ratios. Group B had 40.1% and 30% reductions on CM volume and injection rate,
      respectively, than Group A. Group C further resulted in 19.2% and 22% lesser CM
      volume and injection rate than Group B. The average effective radiation doses for
      the study groups were 22.5-24.5% lower than the control group. CONCLUSION: With
      the aid of ASIR and ssDECT for aortic CTA, it is feasible to adopt low and ultra
      low CM volumes and injection rates while obtaining good quality images. Advances
      in knowledge: Low and ultra-low CM volumes and injection rates are feasible in
      CTA through the joint application of ssDECT and ASIR.

PMID- 28555509
TI  - Inhibitory effects of propofol on Th17 cell differentiation.
AB  - Propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) is probably the most widely used intravenous
      anesthetic agent in daily practice. It has been reported to show immunomodulatory
      activity. However, the effect of propofol on the differention of T cells remains
      unclear. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that propofol
      inhibited both interleukin (IL)-6 plus transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)
      induced Th17 cell differentiation in vitro and in LPS-challenged mice. Propofol
      also suppressed the IL-6-induced phosphorylation of Janus kinase-2 (JAK2)/signal
      transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3) pathway, a cytokine-activated
      essential transcription factor in Th17 cell development, which occurred
      concomitantly with the enhancement of suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS3)
      expression involved in the downregulation of STAT3 phosphorylation. These data
      extend our knowledge of the immunosuppressive effects of propofol and their
      underlying mechanism.

PMID- 28555511
TI  - Mitigation of inflammation using the intravenous anesthetic dexmedetomidine in
      the mouse air pouch model.
AB  - Dexmedetomidine, an alpha2-adrenergic/imidazoline receptor agonist, is a widely
      used intravenous anesthetic. Its primary current usage is for sedation of
      patients in the intensive care unit. The mouse air pouch model is versatile in
      studying the anti-inflammatory effect of a drug on a local inflammation, which is
      induced by a variety of substances. In the present study, using the carrageenan
      induced air pouch inflammation model, we tested whether dexmedetomidine mitigates
      inflammation occurring locally in the mouse air pouch. We found that
      dexmedetomidine dose-dependently inhibited the production of tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)-6 in the pouch and decreased the number
      of white blood cells (WBC) recruited into the pouch. Dexmedetomidine also dose
      dependently inhibited the production of neutrophil chemokines, cxcl1 and cxcl2.
      Furthermore, the dexmedetomidine-induced decreased recruitment of WBC into the
      pouch was successfully reversed with intra-pouch administration of cxcl1/cxcl2,
      but not TNF-alpha or IL-6. Lastly, the inhibition of the production of the
      cytokines and chemokines with dexmedetomidine was reversed by the treatment of
      yohimbine, suggesting that dexmedetomidine's anti-inflammatory effect is
      primarily via the stimulation of the alpha2-adrenergic receptor. We conclude that
      dexmedetomidine has an anti-inflammatory property in the carrageenan-induced
      mouse air pouch inflammation model, and that the dexmedetomidine-induced
      inhibition of production of the neutrophil chemokines, cxcl1 and cxcl2, may be
      related, at least in part, to the inhibition of WBC intra-pouch recruitment.

PMID- 28555512
TI  - The use of neuropsychological tests to assess intelligence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We sought to derive a 'neuropsychological intelligence quotient' (NIQ)
      to replace IQ testing in some routine assessments. METHOD: We administered
      neuropsychological testing and a seven-subtest short form of the Wechsler Adult
      Intelligence Scale to a community sample of 394 adults aged 18-96 years. We
      regressed Wechsler Full Scale IQs (W-FSIQ) on 23 neuropsychological scores and
      derived an NIQ from 9 measures that explained significant variance in W-FSIQ. We
      then compared subgroups of 284 healthy and 108 unhealthy participants in NIQ and
      W-FSIQ to assess criterion validity, correlated NIQ and W-FSIQ scores with
      education level and independence for activities of daily living to assess
      convergent validity, and compared validity coefficients for the NIQ with those of
      'hold' and 'no-hold' indices. RESULTS: By design, NIQ and W-FSIQ scores
      correlated highly (r = .84), and both were higher in healthy participants. The
      difference was larger for NIQ, which accounted for more variability in activities
      of daily living. The NIQ and 'no-hold' index were better predicted by health
      status and less predicted by educational status than the 'hold' index.
      CONCLUSIONS: We constructed an NIQ that correlates highly with Wechsler FSIQ.
      Tests required to obtain NIQ are commonly used and can be administered in about
      45 min. Validity properties of NIQ and W-FSIQ are similar. The NIQ bore greater
      resemblance to a 'no-hold' than 'hold' index. One can obtain a reasonably
      accurate estimate of current Full Scale IQ without formal intelligence testing
      from a brief neuropsychological battery.

PMID- 28555514
TI  - Transition Phase Nutrition Recommendations: A Missing Link in the Nutrition
      Management of Preterm Infants
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the availability of international nutrition recommendations,
      preterm infants remain vulnerable to suboptimal nutrition. The standard approach
      of assessing nutrient intakes chronologically may make it difficult to identify
      the origin of nutrient deficits and/or excesses. OBJECTIVE: To develop a
      "nutrition phase" approach to evaluating nutrition support, enabling analysis of
      nutrient intakes during the period of weaning from parenteral nutrition (PN) to
      enteral nutrition (EN), called the transition (TN) phase, and compare the data
      with those analyzed using the standard "chronological age" approach to assess
      whether the identification of nutrient deficits and/or excesses can be improved.
      METHODS: Analysis of a comprehensive nutrition database developed using actual
      nutrient intake data collected on an hourly basis in 59 preterm infants (birth
      weight <=1500 g, gestation <34 weeks) over the period of PN delivery (range, 2-21
      days). RESULTS: The nutrition phase analysis approach revealed substantial
      macronutrient and energy deficits during the TN phase. In particular, deficits
      were identified as maximal during the EN-dominant TN phase (enteral feeds >=80
      mL/kg/d) of the infant's nutrition course. In contrast, the chronological age
      analysis approach did not reveal a corresponding pattern of deficit occurrence
      but rather intakes that approximated or exceeded recommendations. CONCLUSION:
      Actual intakes of nutrients, analyzed using a nutrition phase approach to
      evaluating nutrition support, enabled a more infant-driven rather than age-driven
      application of nutrition recommendations. This approach unmasked nutrient
      deficits occurring during the transition phase. Overcoming nutrient deficits in
      this nutrition phase should be prioritized to improve the nutrition management of
      preterm infants.

PMID- 28555515
TI  - Chronic Illnesses and Depressive Symptoms Among Older People: Functional
      Limitations as a Mediator and Self-Perceptions of Aging as a Moderator.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This research examined the mediation of functional limitations in the
      relationship between chronic illnesses and depressive symptoms among older
      Americans along with tests for the moderation of self-perceptions of aging.
      METHOD: Data from the Health and Retirement Study (2008, 2010, and 2012) were
      used. Longitudinal mediation models were tested using a sample of 3,382 Americans
      who responded to psychosocial questions and were over 65 years old in 2008.
      RESULTS: Functional limitations mediated the linkage between chronic illnesses
      and depressive symptoms. Negative self-perceptions of aging exacerbated the
      effects of chronic illnesses on depressive symptoms. DISCUSSION: Health care
      professionals should be aware of depressive symptoms in older adults reporting
      chronic illnesses and particularly in those reporting functional limitations. To
      decrease the risk of depressive symptoms caused by chronic illnesses, negative
      self-perceptions of aging may need to be challenged.

PMID- 28555513
TI  - High-mobility group box protein 1 expression in inflammatory diseases of the
      middle ear.
AB  - High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear non-histone protein, playing a
      critical role as a mediator between innate and acquired immunity; when released
      extracellularly, it coordinates the cellular stress response (under necrosis,
      bacterial lipopolysaccharide stimulation) and acts as an inflammatory marker and
      cytokine. The aim of the study was to demonstrate whether HMGB1 is over-expressed
      in chronic middle-ear pathologies and whether the entity of expression and the
      localization are correlated with the degree of the inflammatory reaction, thus
      suggesting that HMGB1 may play a crucial role in chronic inflammatory disorders
      of the middle ear, as already demonstrated in other airway diseases. We analyzed
      30 samples of middle-ear mucosa in patients affected by chronic suppurative
      otitis media with ear drum perforation with/without cholesteatoma and
      otosclerosis as control. The distribution of HMGB1 was evaluated as nuclear,
      cytoplasmic, and/or extracellular staining. The inflammatory cells observed in
      the biopsies were mostly lymphocytes and plasmacells. A statistically significant
      difference in inflammation score between otosclerosis and chronic otitis samples
      ( P < 0.01; Anova test) and between otosclerosis and cholesteatoma samples ( P <
      0.05; Anova test) was observed; the HMGB1 positivity was in accordance with the
      density of the inflammatory infiltrate. HMGB1 is over-expressed in chronic middle
      ear pathologies and may play a role in the progression of the inflammatory
      process from recurrent acute otitis media to chronic suppurative otitis media.

PMID- 28555516
TI  - Clinical utility of the Rey 15-Item Test, recognition trial, and error scores for
      detecting noncredible neuropsychological performance in a mixed clinical sample
      of veterans.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study examined the Rey 15-Item Test (RFIT),
      Recognition Trial, and Error Scores for identifying noncredible performance in a
      mixed clinical veteran sample compared to another widely used validity measure,
      the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). METHOD: Sixty-two veterans who completed
      the RFIT (Recall/Recognition Trials), TOMM, and Word Memory Test (WMT) during
      clinical evaluation were included. Using the WMT as the criterion, 71% (N = 44)
      were classified as valid and 29% (N = 18) as invalid. RESULTS: Among valid
      participants, 25% failed the RFIT Recall, whereas 78% of invalid participants
      passed (sensitivity: 22%; specificity: 75%; diagnostic odds ratio [DOR]: .86).
      The Recognition Trial increased sensitivity to 39% for identifying invalid
      performance, but 25% of valid participants still scored below cut-off
      (specificity: 75%; DOR: 1.91). RFIT Recall and Recognition Trial logistic
      regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were
      nonsignificant, with respective classification accuracies of 71 and 72.6% and
      areas under the curve (AUCs) of .52 and .55. RFIT Error Scores also failed to
      differentiate validity groups. In contrast, TOMM had stronger psychometric
      properties (sensitivity: 50%; specificity: 97.7%; DOR: 43; classification
      accuracy: 82.3%; AUC: .91). Moreover, RFIT Recall and Recognition failure rates
      were 14 and 22% greater, respectively, among those with cognitive impairment,
      whereas 95% of those with impairment and 100% without passed the TOMM.
      CONCLUSION: Despite frequent use among VA neuropsychologists, the RFIT displayed
      limited ability to detect noncredible performance and misclassified a large
      percentage of valid participants in this mixed clinical veteran sample,
      suggesting limited utility with this population.

PMID- 28555517
TI  - In-Patient Mortality among PLHIV: A 7-Year Hospital-Based Retrospective Study in
      Coastal South India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the wide usage of highly active antiretroviral therapy, the
      morbidity and mortality due to HIV have declined gradually. The aim of our study
      was to determine the cause of mortality among HIV-infected patients and the
      factors causing early death. METHODS: Using medical records of 73 inpatients who
      are dead, data were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 19 (IBM SPSS
      Statistics). Chi-square test was performed to determine the factors contributing
      to early death. A P value <.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Among 73
      deaths, 50 (68.5%) were AIDS related and 23 (31.5%) were non-AIDS related. The
      most common opportunistic infection causing death was Pneumocystis carinii
      pneumonia. Early deaths were strongly attributed to low CD4 counts at admission
      (<100 cells), antiretroviral therapy-naive status, late presentation, and fewer
      admissions ( P value <.05). CONCLUSION: Although AIDS-defining illness remains
      the main cause of death in HIV, there is significant number of deaths due to non
      HIV-related causes.

PMID- 28555518
TI  - Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and dioxin-like
      coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls in mackerel obtained from the Japanese market,
      1999-2003.
AB  - This study analysed the concentrations and toxic-equivalent (TEQ) levels of
      dioxin congeners in mackerel commercially available in Japan in early 2000s. The
      content of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated
      dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (DL
      PCBs) was determined in 17 mackerel samples from different areas. TEQ levels in
      mackerel muscle were 0.78 pg TEQ g-1 wet weight (wt) on average (range = 0.21
      2.26 pg TEQ g-1 wet wt) for PCDD/Fs (PCDDs plus PCDFs), 2.81 pg TEQ g-1 wet wt on
      average (range = 1.02-8.5 pg TEQ g-1 wet wt) for DL-PCBs, and 3.59 pg TEQ g-1 wet
      wt on average (range = 1.24-10.8 pg g-1 wet wt) for dioxins (PCDD/Fs plus DL
      PCBs). The results revealed somewhat higher TEQ levels for dioxins compared with
      the other data for fish and shellfish in the Japanese market. TEQ levels were
      well correlated with mackerel body weight; the main contributors were tetra- and
      penta-CDD/Fs, some hexa-CDD/Fs, and all 12 DL-PCBs, which are known to have high
      bioaccumulation potential. In particular, PCB 126 was mostly responsible for the
      observed correlation of DL-PCB and dioxins-TEQ levels with mackerel body weight.
      The average daily intake of dioxins in terms of TEQ through mackerel consumption
      was estimated to be 4.81 pg TEQ/person/day, accounting for 7% of the total intake
      of dioxins-TEQ through fish and shellfish in Japan.

PMID- 28555519
TI  - Simplification to single-tablet regimen of elvitegravir, cobicistat,
      emtricitabine, tenofovir DF from multi-tablet ritonavir-boosted protease
      inhibitor plus coformulated emtricitabine and tenofovir DF regimens: week 96
      results of STRATEGY-PI.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) simplification to a single-tablet
      regimen can benefit HIV-1-infected, virologically suppressed, individuals on ART
      composed of multiple pills. OBJECTIVE: We assessed long-term efficacy and safety
      of switching to co-formulated elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and
      tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (E/C/F/TDF) from multi-tablet ritonavir-boosted
      protease inhibitor (PI + RTV) plus F/TDF (TVD) regimens. METHODS: STRATEGY-PI was
      a 96-week, phase 3b, randomized (2:1), open-label, non-inferiority study
      examining the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of switching to E/C/F/TDF from
      PI + RTV + TVD regimens in virologically suppressed individuals (HIV-1 RNA <50
      copies/mL). Participants were randomized to switch to E/C/F/TDF (switch group) or
      to continue their PI + RTV + TVD regimens (no-switch group). Eligibility criteria
      included no resistance to F/TDF or history of virologic failure, and estimated
      creatinine clearance >=70 mL/min. RESULTS: At week 96, 87% (252/290) of switch
      and 70% (97/139) of no-switch participants maintained HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL
      (difference: 17%, 95% CI 8.7-26.0%, p < 0.001). Superiority of the switch to
      E/C/F/TDF vs. no-switch was due to a smaller proportion of both virologic
      failures (switch, 1% [3/290]; no-switch, 6% [8/139]) and discontinuations for non
      virologic reasons (switch, 11% [31/290]; no-switch, 24% [33/139]). No treatment
      emergent resistance was observed in switch subjects with virologic failure.
      Discontinuation rates from adverse events were 3% in both groups (9/293, switch;
      4/140, no-switch). Switching from PI + RTV + TVD to E/C/F/TDF was associated with
      significant improvements in patient-reported outcomes related to gastrointestinal
      symptoms (nausea and bloating). CONCLUSION: E/C/F/TDF is a safe, effective long
      term alternative to multi-tablet PI + RTV + TVD-based regimens in virologically
      suppressed, HIV-1-infected adults, and improves patient-reported gastrointestinal
      symptoms.

PMID- 28555520
TI  - Modification of biochar by Fe2O3 for the removal of pyridine and quinoline.
AB  - The biochar produced by pyrolysis at 600 degrees C from powdered mango bark
      impregnated with iron, namely Fe2O3/biochar, was recognized as a multifunctional
      material for environmental applications. This work aims at using the above
      material for the removal of pyridine and quinoline from aqueous solutions. The
      physico-chemical properties of synthesized biochars were studied systematically
      with several commonly used material characterization methods including scanning
      electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Structural
      and morphological analyses of the biochars showed that Fe2O3 particles were
      nanosized and distributed evenly on the surface of biochar, and thus exhibited
      great adsorption capacity for the removal of pyridine and quinoline. In addition,
      the results suggested that the main magnetic phase is maghemite (Fe2O3). The
      modified biochar showed high removal capacity (99%) for quinoline, but the
      removal capacity of pyridine was only 73%. The pH experiment in this passage
      indicated that both pyridine and quinoline reached a maximum adsorption amount at
      pH near 9.0. Adsorption kinetics suggested that the pseudo-second-order was well
      fitting the experiment data. The equilibrium study showed that the Langmuir model
      can adequately describe the adsorption process for pyridine and quinoline. The
      main mechanism of pyridine and quinoline removal was possibly electrostatic
      interactions and pi-pi interactions between the modified biochar and the
      adsorbate.

PMID- 28555521
TI  - Prevalence of bruxism and temporomandibular disorders among orphans in southeast
      Uganda: A gender and age comparison.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aims of the current study were: (1) to assess the prevalence of
      oral habits, bruxism, and temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) among children
      living in Uganda; (2) to establish whether parafunctional activities are
      associated with TMDs; and (3) to examine the possible impact of gender and age on
      the prevalence of bruxism, oral habits, and TMDs. METHODS: This study included
      153 children aged 6-17 years. The study consisted of a questionnaire and a
      clinical examination. RESULTS: TMDs were moderately prevalent (35%).
      Parafunctional habits were performed by 93% of the participants. When performed
      extensively, they were significantly related to myalgia. No gender or age
      significant differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: 1. Only extensive masticatory
      parafunctional oral activity is significantly related to myalgia. 2. Gender and
      age had no impact on the prevalence of bruxism, oral habits, or TMDs. 3. Sleep
      and awake bruxism were not related to anamnestic symptoms or clinical findings in
      TMD.

PMID- 28555522
TI  - Compositional data analysis for physical activity, sedentary time and sleep
      research.
AB  - The health effects of daily activity behaviours (physical activity, sedentary
      time and sleep) are widely studied. While previous research has largely examined
      activity behaviours in isolation, recent studies have adjusted for multiple
      behaviours. However, the inclusion of all activity behaviours in traditional
      multivariate analyses has not been possible due to the perfect multicollinearity
      of 24-h time budget data. The ensuing lack of adjustment for known effects on the
      outcome undermines the validity of study findings. We describe a statistical
      approach that enables the inclusion of all daily activity behaviours, based on
      the principles of compositional data analysis. Using data from the International
      Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment, we demonstrate the
      application of compositional multiple linear regression to estimate adiposity
      from children's daily activity behaviours expressed as isometric log-ratio
      coordinates. We present a novel method for predicting change in a continuous
      outcome based on relative changes within a composition, and for calculating
      associated confidence intervals to allow for statistical inference. The
      compositional data analysis presented overcomes the lack of adjustment that has
      plagued traditional statistical methods in the field, and provides robust and
      reliable insights into the health effects of daily activity behaviours.

PMID- 28555523
TI  - Clinical outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndrome and moderate or severe
      chronic anaemia undergoing coronary angiography or intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are limited data on the impact of chronic moderate or severe
      anaemia on the clinical outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndrome
      undergoing coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention. METHODS:
      We retrospectively compared two groups of consecutive patients with acute
      coronary syndrome according to their haemoglobin level on admission. The research
      group ( n=89) had a haemoglobin level of 10.9 g/dl or less and a control group (
      n=79) of age-matched patients had a haemoglobin level greater than 10.9 g/dl. We
      studied drug therapy before, during and after intervention, and performed 1-year
      follow-up of bleeding complications according to the Bleeding Academic Research
      Consortium criteria, all-cause mortality and re-infarction, as well as
      haemoglobin level on discharge, 6 and 12 months after admission. RESULTS:
      Compared to controls, a haemoglobin level less than 10.9 g?dl on admission is
      associated with a higher rate of major bleeding: 26 patients (32%) versus none in
      the control group ( P<0.001); and the use of packed red blood cell (RBC)
      transfusion: nine patients (11.7%) versus none in the control group ( P=0.003)
      within the first 6 months post-catheterisation. However, the re-infarction rate
      and mortality were similar in the study and control groups: 9.2% versus 9.7% (
      P=0.915) and 12.6% versus 8.9% ( P=0.434), accordingly. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic
      moderate or severe anaemia in patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing
      coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with a
      substantially increased risk of bleeding in the first 6 months. However, rates of
      mortality and re-infarction were similar.

PMID- 28555524
TI  - Ellipticine inhibits the proliferation and induces apoptosis in rheumatoid
      arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes via the STAT3 pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Ellipticine (5,11-dimethyl-6H-pyrido[4,3-b]carbazole) is an alkaloid
      isolated from Apocyanaceae plants. This study was designed to investigate the
      effects of ellipticine on the proliferation and apoptosis of fibroblast-like
      synoviocytes (FLSs) from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: RA
      FLSs were exposed to different concentrations of ellipticine (i.e., 0.5, 1, 2, 4
      and 8 MUM) for 24-72h and measured for viability, proliferation and apoptosis.
      The involvement of signal transducer and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3)
      signaling in the action of ellipticine was determined by Western blot analysis,
      luciferase reporter assay and rescue experiments. RESULTS: Ellipticine treatment
      significantly inhibited the viability and proliferation of RA-FLSs in a
      concentration-dependent manner. In contrast, ellipticine exposure did not alter
      the viability of normal human FLSs. Moreover, ellipticine triggered significant
      apoptosis and increased caspase-3 activity in RA-FLSs. Mechanistically,
      ellipticine reduced the phosphorylation of STAT3 and downregulated the expression
      of Mcl-1, cyclin D1 and Bcl-2. Luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that
      ellipticine treatment led to a significant inhibition of STAT3-mediated
      transcriptional activity in RA-FLSs. Overexpression of constitutively active
      STAT3 reversed the suppressive effects of ellipticine on RA-FLSs, which was
      accompanied by restoration of Mcl-1, cyclin D1 and Bcl-2. DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSIONS: Ellipticine shows anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on RA
      FLSs through inhibition of the STAT3 pathway and may have therapeutic potential
      in RA.

PMID- 28555525
TI  - Hepatoprotective effect of parthenolide in rat model of nonalcoholic fatty liver
      disease.
AB  - CONTEXT: The active ingredients of traditional medical herbs have been the focus
      of scientific interests. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to explore the
      mechanisms of actions of parthenolide on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
      (NAFLD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five male Wistar rats were fed high-fat
      diet (HFD) for eight weeks with or without an intraperitoneal injection of
      parthenolide to develop NAFLD. Liver triacylglycerol (TG), total antioxidant
      capacity (TAC), total oxidative status (TOS), thiobarbituric acid reactant
      substances (TBARs), total thiol groups and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF
      alpha) and cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1) levels as well as liver ALT, AST and
      catalase activities were determined. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR was
      performed to obtain hepatic gene expression levels of TNF-alpha, CYP2E1 and
      nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). RESULTS: HFD caused a significant weight gain
      and increased liver TG content as well as alteration in ALT and AST activities,
      which were attenuated after administration of parthenoide (p < .05). Weakened
      liver antioxidant system (TAC, total thiol groups and catalase activity) and
      increased oxidative stress markers (TBARs and TOS) were mainly ameliorated by
      parthenolide treatment (p < .05). Increased hepatic TNF-alpha, NF-kappaB and
      CYP2E1 at the both gene expression and protein levels were found associated with
      necroinflammatory changes in histopathological observations and were abrogated
      almost completely after parthenolide treatment. Oxidative and inflammatory
      changes observed in HFD fed rats were indicative of NAFLD, which were suppressed
      with parthenolide treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results, parthenolide
      might be a candidate agent for preventing NAFLD due to its anti-inflammatory and
      anti-oxidative potency.

PMID- 28555526
TI  - Statin intolerance in heterozygous familial hypercolesterolemia with
      cardiovascular disease: After PCSK-9 antibodies what else?
AB  - Background Familial hypercholesterolemia is the elective clinical condition that
      deserves the maximal personalisation in lipid-lowering therapy, especially in the
      presence of statin intolerance. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9
      (PCSK9) inhibitors represent a promising approach to lower low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Methods We enrolled 18 patients (mean age 62 +/- 8
      years, 72% men) affected by heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and
      cardiovascular disease, with a history of statin intolerance assigned to PCSK9
      inhibitors. Six patients were also on LDL apheresis. Associated Lp(a)
      hyperlipoproteinemia (defined as >60 mg/dl) was observed in two out of 18
      subjects. PCSK9 inhibitor injectable monoclonal antibodies were administered,
      every 2 weeks, on top of patient therapy for 12 +/- 4 weeks (evolocumab in 15
      subjects, alirocumab in three subjects). Results After 3 months (12 +/- 4 weeks)
      of therapy, a decrease in total cholesterol (-35%), LDL cholesterol (-51%) and
      Lp(a) levels (-20%) was observed. Five out of 18 patients reached LDL cholesterol
      levels of <70 mg/dl, seven showed LDL cholesterol values between 71 and 100
      mg/dl, and six out of 18 still had LDL cholesterol levels above 100 mg/dl. Among
      the six patients with LDL cholesterol levels >100 mg/dl, three were already on
      LDL apheresis before the PCSK9 inhibitor treatment, while three were referred to
      LDL apheresis treatment. Adverse events were reported in two out of 18 patients
      on evolocumab: one presented with flu-like syndrome and the other reported
      episodes of mild difficulty in maintaining concentration. Conclusions PCSK9
      inhibitors represent a novel therapeutic tool for patients with familial
      hypercholesterolemia who are intolerant to statins. However, more data are needed
      before cleaning up the old therapeutic armamentarium, such as LDL apheresis,
      which is likely to preserve its valuable role also in the new lipid-lowering era.

PMID- 28555527
TI  - Mapping the collaterome for precision cerebrovascular health: Theranostics in the
      continuum of stroke and dementia.
AB  - Precision cerebrovascular health or individualized long-term preservation of the
      brain and associated blood vessels, is predicated on understanding, diagnosing,
      and tailoring therapies for people at risk of ischemic injury associated with
      stroke and vascular dementia. The associated imaging patterns are sculpted by the
      protective effect of the collaterome, the innate compensatory ability of the
      brain and vasculature to offset hypoperfusion when antegrade or normal arterial
      inflow pathways are compromised. Theranostics or rational and synchronous use of
      diagnostic studies in tandem with specific therapies to optimally guide patient
      outcomes in ischemic brain disorders may capitalize on the pivotal role of the
      collaterome. Understanding the functional impact of the collaterome across
      populations of individuals would advance translational science on the brain,
      while questions with immediate clinical implications may be prioritized. Big data
      and systematic analyses are necessary to develop normative standards, multimodal
      imaging atlases, and delineation of specific patterns to guide clinical
      management. Large-scale, systematic imaging analyses of the collaterome provide a
      platform for translational work on cerebral collateral circulation and
      hemodynamics and a theranostic framework with direct clinical implications. This
      article frames incipient research objectives to guide precision stroke medicine
      in coming years, building upon the collaterome concept in brain health.

PMID- 28555529
TI  - What and how we write becomes our footprint in transplant science.

PMID- 28555528
TI  - Education Before Kidney Transplantation.
AB  - CONTEXT: Poor knowledge about immunosuppressive (IS) medications remains a major
      problem for patients in the posttransplant setting. Therefore, more effective
      educational strategies in the pretransplant setting are being considered as a
      possible method to improve knowledge and readiness for the challenges of
      posttransplant care. However, the most effective/relevant content of a
      pretransplant educational program is yet to be determined. OBJECTIVE: To identify
      pretransplant education topics from the posttransplant patient perspective.
      DESIGN: A focus group meeting was conducted among 7 high-functioning, stable
      adult kidney transplant recipients recruited from the Saskatchewan Transplant
      Program. Demographic information including age, gender, occupation,
      background/ethnicity, and time since transplant were recorded. A moderator,
      assistant moderator, and research assistant facilitated the 90-minute focus group
      meeting using a predetermined semistructured interview guide. The session was
      audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Nvivo software was used to code the data
      and identify emerging themes exploring views of participants relating to the
      educational information required for pretransplant patients. RESULTS: Patients
      were satisfied with the education they had received. Ideas were classified into
      the following major themes-patient satisfaction, transplant waitlist, surgery,
      medications, posttransplant complications, lifestyle and monitoring, knowledge
      acquisition, illusion of control, and life changes posttransplant. Knowledge gaps
      were identified in all areas of the transplantation process and were not
      exclusive to IS medications. CONCLUSION: Misconceptions regarding transplantation
      were identified by a group of high-functioning, stable adult recipients who were
      satisfied with their clinical care. Future educational strategies should aim to
      address the entire transplantation process and not be limited to medications.

PMID- 28555530
TI  - Albumin-based drug delivery using cysteine 34 chemical conjugates - important
      considerations and requirements.
AB  - The long blood circulation time of albumin has been clinically utilized as a half
      life extension technology for improved drug performance. The availability of one
      free thiol for site-selective chemical conjugation offers an alternative approach
      to current genetic fusion and association-based products. This special report
      highlights important factors for successful conjugation that allows the reader to
      design and evaluate next-generation albumin conjugates. Albumin type, available
      conjugation chemistries, linker length, animal models and influence of
      conjugation on albumin pharmacokinetics and drug activity are discussed.

PMID- 28555531
TI  - Masking the Identities of Celebrities and Personally Familiar Individuals:
      Effects on Visual and Auditory Recognition Performance.
AB  - The current study compared the effectiveness of masking on recognition
      performance for faces and voices of celebrities and personally familiar
      individuals. On the basis of the theory suggesting stronger memory
      representations for personally familiar individuals, we expected masking to be
      more effective for celebrities than for personally familiar stimulus persons.
      Furthermore, we sought to replicate the face recognition advantage with masked
      stimuli. Face pixelation and electronic changes of the voice pitch were applied
      as masking techniques, using four masking levels for each stimulus. Thirty-one
      undergraduate students were presented with the masked faces and voices of 10
      celebrities and 10 personally familiar fellow students. As expected, more correct
      recognitions occurred for faces than for voices, suggesting that masking does not
      counteract the mechanisms causing the face recognition advantage. Unexpectedly,
      masking effectiveness did not differ between celebrities and personally familiar
      individuals. This may be due to the type of personally familiar individuals used.
      Within personally familiar stimuli, increased familiarity did not predict the
      effectiveness of masking. Whereas the highest masking level eliminated speaker
      recognition, masking did not fully eliminate face recognition. From a practical
      perspective, the findings especially question the suitability of pixelation as a
      means for identity concealment.

PMID- 28555532
TI  - Insights into the epidemiology, aetiology and associations of infraspinatus
      atrophy in overhead athletes: a systematic review.
AB  - Infraspinatus atrophy (IA) is much more prevalent in overhead sports compared
      with the general population. Its exact aetiology in this group of athletes
      remains unclear and definitive associations with pathology and performance have
      not yet been reached. The aim of this systematic review is to present the
      evidence on IA in overhead athletes focussing on the proposed mechanisms of
      suprascapular neuropathy and its associations with shoulder pathology and
      performance. A thorough literature search via Medline, EMBASE and Scopus was
      performed. From the nine articles identified, the majority of authors propose
      suprascapular nerve (SN) injury at the spinoglenoid notch; however, the
      suprascapular notch has also been suggested as a potential site of injury. With
      regard to the exact mechanism of suprascapular neuropathy, the majority of
      authors propose repeated traction of the nerve during extreme shoulder abduction
      and horizontal adduction and/or eccentric contractions of the infraspinatus. In
      the limited relevant literature, convincing links between IA and performance or
      shoulder pathology have not been identified. IA in overhead sports is most likely
      of multi-factorial aetiology. Important questions about IA and its significance
      in overhead sports remain unanswered and more biomechanical and prospective
      studies are warranted to provide further insights into this athletic injury.

PMID- 28555533
TI  - Reliability of peripheral arterial tonometry in patients with heart failure,
      diabetic nephropathy and arterial hypertension.
AB  - Endothelial dysfunction plays a major role in cardiovascular diseases and pulse
      amplitude tonometry (PAT) offers a non-invasive way to assess endothelial
      dysfunction. However, data about the reliability of PAT in cardiovascular patient
      populations are scarce. Thus, we evaluated the test-retest reliability of PAT
      using the natural logarithmic transformed reactive hyperaemia index (LnRHI). Our
      cohort consisted of 91 patients (mean age: 65+/-9.7 years, 32% female), who were
      divided into four groups: those with heart failure with preserved ejection
      fraction (HFpEF) ( n=25), heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (
      n=22), diabetic nephropathy ( n=21), and arterial hypertension ( n=23). All
      subjects underwent two separate PAT measurements at a median interval of 7 days
      (range 4-14 days). LnRHI derived by PAT showed good reliability in subjects with
      diabetic nephropathy (intra-class correlation (ICC) = 0.863) and satisfactory
      reliability in patients with both HFpEF (ICC = 0.557) and HFrEF (ICC = 0.576).
      However, in subjects with arterial hypertension, reliability was poor (ICC =
      0.125). We demonstrated that PAT is a reliable technique to assess endothelial
      dysfunction in adults with diabetic nephropathy, HFpEF or HFrEF. However, in
      subjects with arterial hypertension, we did not find sufficient reliability,
      which can possibly be attributed to variations in heart rate and the respective
      time of the assessments. Clinical Trial Registration Identifier: NCT02299960.

PMID- 28555534
TI  - Personality risk for antisocial behavior: Testing the intersections between
      callous-unemotional traits, sensation seeking, and impulse control in
      adolescence.
AB  - The current project seeks to integrate literatures on personality risk for
      antisocial behavior (ASB) by examining how callous-unemotional traits relate to
      (a) the development of disinhibited traits and (b) the association between
      disinhibited traits and ASB. In Study 1, using a nationally representative sample
      of youth (N > 7,000), we examined whether conduct problems and lack of guilt
      assessed during ages 4-10 years predicted levels of and changes in disinhibited
      traits over the course of adolescence, and moderated associations between these
      traits and ASB. High levels of childhood conduct problems were associated with
      higher levels of impulsivity, sensation seeking, and ASB in early adolescence,
      whereas lack of guilt was associated with lower levels of sensation seeking.
      Neither conduct problems nor lack of guilt significantly predicted changes in
      impulsivity or sensation seeking, and associations among changes in sensation
      seeking, impulsivity, and ASB were also consistent across levels of conduct
      problems and lack of guilt. In Study 2, using a cross-sectional sample of
      adolescents (N = 970), we tested whether callous-unemotional traits moderated
      associations between disinhibited traits and ASB. Consistent with the results of
      Study 1, associations between disinhibited personality and ASB were consistent
      across a continuous range of callous-unemotional traits.

PMID- 28555535
TI  - Family environments and leukocyte transcriptome indicators of a proinflammatory
      phenotype in children and parents.
AB  - High conflict and low warmth in families may contribute to immune cells
      developing a tendency to respond to threats with exaggerated inflammation that is
      insensitive to inhibitory signaling. We tested associations between family
      environments and expression of genes bearing response elements for transcription
      factors that regulate inflammation: nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) and
      glucocorticoid receptor. The overall sample (47 families) completed interviews,
      questionnaires, and 8-week daily diary assessments of conflict and warmth, which
      were used to create composite family conflict and warmth scores. The diaries
      assessed upper respiratory infection (URI) symptoms, and URI episodes were
      clinically verified. Leukocyte RNA was extracted from whole blood samples
      provided by a subsample of 42 children (8-13 years of age) and 73 parents. In
      children, higher conflict and lower warmth were related to greater expression of
      genes bearing response elements for the proinflammatory transcription factor NF
      kappaB, and more severe URI symptoms. In parents, higher conflict and lower
      warmth were also related to greater NF-kappaB-associated gene expression.
      Monocytes and dendritic cells were implicated as primary cellular sources of
      differential gene expression in the sample. Consistent with existing conceptual
      frameworks, stressful family environments were related to a proinflammatory
      phenotype at the level of the circulating leukocyte transcriptome.

PMID- 28555537
TI  - Centralised databases as a primer for research.

PMID- 28555536
TI  - Laryngeal amyloidosis: diagnosis, pathophysiology and management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laryngeal amyloidosis represents approximately 1 per cent of all
      benign laryngeal lesions, and can cause variable symptoms depending on anatomical
      location and size. Treatment ranges from observation through to endoscopic
      microsurgery, laser excision and laryngectomy. OBJECTIVES: To highlight the
      diversity of presentations, increase awareness of paediatric amyloidosis and
      update the reader on current management. CASE SERIES: Five cases are illustrated.
      Four adult patients were female, and the one child, the second youngest in the
      literature, was male. Amyloid deposits were identified in all laryngeal areas,
      including the supraglottis, glottis and subglottis. Treatment consisted of
      balloon dilatation, endoscopic excision, laser cruciate incision, and resection
      with carbon dioxide laser, a microdebrider and coblation wands. CONCLUSION:
      Laryngeal amyloidosis remains a rare and clinically challenging condition.
      Diagnosis should be considered for unusual appearing submucosal laryngeal
      lesions. Treatment of this disease needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis
      and managed within an appropriate multidisciplinary team.

PMID- 28555539
TI  - The independence of the infundibular building blocks in the setting of double
      outlet right ventricle.
AB  - It has long been contentious as to whether the presence of bilateral
      infundibulums, or conuses, is a prerequisite for the diagnosis of double-outlet
      right ventricle. As the use of such a criterion would abrogate the so-called
      "morphological method", which correctly states that one variable entity should
      not be defined on the basis of another entity that is itself variable, it is now
      accepted that double outlet can exist in the setting of fibrous continuity
      between the leaflets of the atrioventricular and arterial valves. Although this
      debate has now been resolved, there are other contentious areas still requiring
      clarification in the setting of hearts unified because of the presence of this
      particular ventriculo-arterial connection - for example, it is questionable
      whether the channel between the ventricles should be described as a "ventricular
      septal defect", whereas it is equally arguable that the mere presence of fibrous
      continuity between the leaflets of the arterial valves does not necessarily place
      the channel in a doubly committed location. In this review, we describe a series
      of autopsied hearts in which the anatomical features serve to illuminate these
      various topics. We then discuss recent findings regarding cardiac development
      that point to the individuality of the building blocks of the ventricular outflow
      tracts, specifically the outlet septum, the inner heart curvature, or ventriculo
      infundibular fold, and the septomarginal trabeculation, or septal band.

PMID- 28555538
TI  - Comparison of self-expandable and balloon-expanding stents for hybrid ductal
      stenting in hypoplastic left heart complex.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to compare the procedural and mid-term performance of a
      specifically designed self-expanding stent with balloon-expandable stents in
      patients undergoing hybrid palliation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome and its
      variants. BACKGROUND: The lack of specifically designed stents has led to off
      label use of coronary, biliary, or peripheral stents in the neonatal ductus
      arteriosus. Recently, a self-expanding stent, specifically designed for use in
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome, has become available. METHODS: We carried out a
      retrospective cohort comparison of 69 neonates who underwent hybrid ductal
      stenting with balloon-expandable and self-expanding stents from December, 2005 to
      July, 2014. RESULTS: In total, 43 balloon-expandable stents were implanted in 41
      neonates and more recently 47 self-expanding stents in 28 neonates. In the
      balloon-expandable stents group, stent-related complications occurred in nine
      patients (22%), compared with one patient in the self-expanding stent group (4%).
      During follow-up, percutaneous re-intervention related to the ductal stent was
      performed in five patients (17%) in the balloon-expandable stent group and seven
      patients (28%) in self-expanding stents group. CONCLUSIONS: Hybrid ductal
      stenting with self-expanding stents produced favourable results when compared
      with the results obtained with balloon-expandable stents. Immediate additional
      interventions and follow-up re-interventions were similar in both groups with
      complications more common in those with balloon-expandable stents.

PMID- 28555540
TI  - A novel flavivirus detected in two Aedes spp. collected near the demilitarized
      zone of the Republic of Korea.
AB  - Flaviviruses comprise a large and diverse group of positive-stranded RNA viruses,
      including tick-, mosquito- and unknown-vector-borne flaviviruses. A novel
      flavivirus was detected in pools of Aedes vexans nipponii (n=1) and Aedes
      esoensis (n=3) collected in 2012 and 2013 near the demilitarized zone (DMZ),
      Republic of Korea (ROK). Phylogenetic analyses of the NS5, E gene and complete
      polyprotein coding sequence (CDS) showed that the novel virus fell within the
      Aedes-borne flaviviruses (ABFVs), with nucleotide identity ranging from 57.8-75.1
      %, 46.1-74.2 % and 51.1-76.2 %, respectively. While the novel ABFV was distant
      from other flaviviruses within the group, it formed a clade with Ilomantsi virus
      (ILOV). Sequence alignments of the partial NS5 gene, full-length E gene and
      polyprotein CDS between the novel virus and ILOV showed approximately 76.2 %
      nucleotide identity and 90 % amino acid identity, respectively. The ABFV
      identified in Aedes mosquitoes from the ROK is a novel ABFV based on the sequence
      analyses and is designated as Panmunjeom flavivirus (PANFV).

PMID- 28555541
TI  - Avian influenza virus A H7N9 infects multiple mononuclear cell types in
      peripheral blood and induces dysregulated cytokine responses and apoptosis in
      infected monocytes.
AB  - Most patients with avian influenza A H7N9 virus (H7N9) infection suffer from
      severe illness, accompanied by dysregulated cytokine/chemokine response, delayed
      viral clearance and impaired neutralizing antibody response. Here, we evaluated
      the role of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in the pathogenesis of
      H7N9 infection using an ex vivo infection model. H7N9 infected a significantly
      higher percentage of PBMCs (23.9 %) than those of avian influenza A H5N1 virus
      (H5N1) (12.3 %) and pandemic H1N1 virus (pH1N1) (5.5 %) (P<0.01). H7N9 infected
      significantly more B and T lymphocytes than H5N1. When compared with pH1N1, H7N9
      infected PBMCs had significantly higher mRNA levels of proinflammatory cytokines
      and type I interferons (IFNs) at 6 h post-infection (p.i.), but significantly
      lower levels of IFN-gamma and IP-10 at 12 h p.i. Among the PBMCs, CD14+ monocytes
      were most permissive to H7N9 infection. The percentage of infected CD14+
      monocytes was significantly higher for H7N9 than that of pH1N1, but not
      significantly different from that of H5N1. H7N9-infected monocytes showed higher
      expression of MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta and RANTES than that of pH1N1 at 6 h p.i.
      H7N9- but not pH1N1-infected monocytes died rapidly via apoptosis. Furthermore,
      pH1N1- but not H7N9-infected monocytes showed increased expression of the
      monocyte activation and differentiation markers. Unlike pH1N1, H7N9 showed
      similar PBMC/monocyte cytokine/chemokine expression profile, monocyte cell death
      and expression of activation/differentiation markers to H5N1. Besides
      proinflammatory cytokine activation leading to a cytokine storm, impaired IFN
      gamma production, rapid monocytic death and lack of monocyte differentiation may
      affect the ability of H7N9-infected innate immune cells to recruit protective
      adaptive immunity.

PMID- 28555542
TI  - Rift Valley fever virus: strategies for maintenance, survival and vertical
      transmission in mosquitoes.
AB  - Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus causing severe
      disease in humans and ruminants. Spread of RVFV out of Africa has raised concerns
      that it could emerge in Europe or the USA. Virus persistence is dependent on
      successful infection of, replication in, and transmission to susceptible
      vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, modulated by virus-host and vector-virus
      interactions. The principal accepted theory for the long-term maintenance of RVFV
      involves vertical transmission (VT) of virus to mosquito progeny, with the virus
      surviving long inter-epizootic periods within the egg. This VT hypothesis,
      however, is yet to be comprehensively proven. Here, evidence for and against the
      VT of RVFV is reviewed along with the identification of factors limiting its
      detection in natural and experimental data. The observations of VT for other
      arboviruses in the genera Alphavirus, Flavivirus and Orthobunyavirus are
      discussed within the context of RVFV. The review concludes that VT of RVFV is
      likely but that current data are insufficient to irrefutably prove this
      hypothesis.

PMID- 28555543
TI  - Broad-spectrum inhibition of common respiratory RNA viruses by a pyrimidine
      synthesis inhibitor with involvement of the host antiviral response.
AB  - Our previous screening of 50 240 structurally diverse compounds led to the
      identification of 39 influenza A virus infection inhibitors (Kao R.Y., Yang D.,
      Lau L.S., Tsui W.H., Hu L. et al. Nat Biotechnol 2010;28:600-605). Further
      screening of these compounds against common respiratory viruses led to the
      discovery of compound FA-613. This inhibitor exhibited low micromolar antiviral
      activity against various influenza A and B virus strains, including the highly
      pathogenic influenza A strains H5N1 and H7N9, enterovirus A71, respiratory
      syncytial virus, human rhinovirus A, SARS- and MERS-coronavirus. No significant
      cellular toxicity was observed at the effective concentrations. Animal studies
      showed an improved survival rate in BALB/c mice that received intranasal FA-613
      treatments against a lethal dose infection of A/HK/415742Md/2009 (H1N1). Further
      cell-based assays indicated that FA-613 interfer with the de novo pyrimidine
      biosynthesis pathway by targeting the dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. Surprisingly,
      FA-613 lost its antiviral potency in the interferon-deficient Vero cell line,
      while maintaining its inhibitory activity in an interferon-competent cell line
      which showed elevated expression of host antiviral genes when infected in the
      presence of FA-613. Further investigation of the specific connection between
      pyrimidine synthesis inhibition and the induction of host innate immunity might
      aid clinical development of this type of drug in antiviral therapies. Therefore,
      in acute cases of respiratory tract infections, when rapid diagnostics of the
      causative agent are not readily available, an antiviral drug with properties like
      FA-613 could prove to be very valuable.

PMID- 28555544
TI  - Development and characterization of Sindbis virus with encoded fluorescent RNA
      aptamer Spinach2 for imaging of replication and immune-mediated changes in
      intracellular viral RNA.
AB  - Viral RNA studies often rely on in situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase
      PCR to provide snapshots of RNA dynamics in infected cells. To facilitate
      analysis of cellular RNAs, aptamers Spinach and Spinach2 that bind and activate
      the conditional fluorophore 3, 5-difluoro-4-hydroxybenzylidene imidazolinon have
      been developed. To determine the feasibility of applying this technology to viral
      RNA, we have used cDNA clones of the TE strain of Sindbis virus (SINV) to
      construct multiple viruses containing one or two copies of tRNA-scaffolded
      Spinach2 after a second subgenomic promoter, TEds-1Sp and TEds-2Sp within the
      3'UTR, TE-1UTRSp, or after a second subgenomic promoter and in the 3'UTR, TEds
      1Sp+1 UTRSp. TEds-1Sp+1 UTRSp gave the brightest signal and replicated well in
      cell culture, while TEds-2Sp was the dimmest and replicated poorly. Selection of
      baby hamster kidney cells infected with TEds-1Sp+1 UTRSp for improved signal
      intensity identified a virus with a stronger signal and point mutations in the
      tRNA scaffold. Imaging of SINV in BHK cells showed RNA to be concentrated in
      filopodia that contacted and transferred RNA to adjacent cells. The effect of
      treatment with anti-E2 antibody, which effects non-cytolytic clearance of SINV
      from neurons, on viral RNA was cell-type-dependent. In antibody-treated BHK
      cells, intracellular viral RNA increased and spread of infection continued. In
      undifferentiated and differentiated AP7 neuronal cells antibody treatment induced
      viral RNA clearance. Both viruses with two inserted aptamers were prone to
      deletion. These studies form the basis for further development of aptamer
      labelled viral RNAs that will facilitate functional studies on the dynamics of
      infection and clearance.

PMID- 28555545
TI  - Identification of cross-reacting T-cell epitopes in structural and non-structural
      proteins of swine and pandemic H1N1 influenza A virus strains in pigs.
AB  - Heterologous protection against swine influenza viruses (SwIVs) of different
      lineages is an important concern for the pig industry. Cross-protection between
      'avian-like' H1N1 and 2009 pandemic H1N1 lineages has been observed previously,
      indicating the involvement of cross-reacting T-cells. Here, reverse vaccinology
      was applied to identify cross-reacting MHC class I T-cell epitopes from two
      different SwIV H1 lineages in pigs. In silico prediction followed by in vitro and
      in vivo testing was used to identify SLA-1*0702 T-cell epitopes in heterologous
      SwIV-infected pigs. Following viral infection, tetramer specific T-cell
      populations were identified. The majority of the identified T-cell epitopes were
      conserved between the examined lineages, suggesting that targeting cross-reactive
      T-cell epitopes could be used to improve vaccines against SwIV in SLA-1*0702
      positive pigs.

PMID- 28555546
TI  - ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Iridoviridae.
AB  - The Iridoviridae is a family of large, icosahedral viruses with double-stranded
      DNA genomes ranging in size from 103 to 220 kbp. Members of the subfamily
      Alphairidovirinae infect ectothermic vertebrates (bony fish, amphibians and
      reptiles), whereas members of the subfamily Betairidovirinae mainly infect
      insects and crustaceans. Infections can be either covert or patent, and in
      vertebrates they can lead to high levels of mortality among commercially and
      ecologically important fish and amphibians. This is a summary of the current
      International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of
      the Iridoviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/iridoviridae.

PMID- 28555547
TI  - Close genetic relatedness of picornaviruses from European and Asian bats.
AB  - Our investigation of 1004 faecal specimens from European bats for picornaviruses
      by broadly reactive nested reverse transcription-PCR found picornaviral RNA in 28
      samples (2.8 %). Phylogenetic analysis of the partial 3D genomic region suggested
      that one bat virus belonged to the species Enterovirus G (EV-G, formerly Porcine
      enterovirus B). Bat infection was supported by relatively high EV-G
      concentrations of 1.1*106 RNA copies per gram of faeces. All other bat viruses
      belonged either to the bat-associated genus Mischivirus, or to an unclassified
      Picornaviridae group distantly related to the genus Sapelovirus. Members of this
      unclassified sapelovirus-related group had RNA secondary structures in their 3'
      nontranslated regions that were typical of enteroviruses and that resembled
      structures that occur in bat-associated coronaviruses, suggesting ancient
      recombination events. Based on sequence distances, several picornaviruses from
      European and Chinese bats were likely conspecific, suggesting connectivity of
      virus populations. Due to their high mutation rates and their diversity,
      picornaviruses may be useful tools for studies of bat and virus ecology.

PMID- 28555549
TI  - [Coimbra Telemedicine Service Improves Access to Pediatric Cardiology in Cape
      Verde].

PMID- 28555548
TI  - Recombination events and variability among full-length genomes of co-circulating
      molluscum contagiosum virus subtypes 1 and 2.
AB  - Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is the sole member of the Molluscipoxvirus
      genus and causes a highly prevalent human disease of the skin characterized by
      the formation of a variable number of lesions that can persist for prolonged
      periods of time. Two major genotypes, subtype 1 and subtype 2, are recognized,
      although currently only a single complete genomic sequence corresponding to MCV
      subtype 1 is available. Using next-generation sequencing techniques, we report
      the complete genomic sequence of four new MCV isolates, including the first one
      derived from a subtype 2. Comparisons suggest a relatively distant evolutionary
      split between both MCV subtypes. Further, our data illustrate concurrent
      circulation of distinct viruses within a population and reveal the existence of
      recombination events among them. These results help identify a set of MCV genes
      with potentially relevant roles in molluscum contagiosum epidemiology and
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28555550
TI  - [Implementation of Telemedicine in Cape Verde: Influencing Factors].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine is the provision of health services, where distance is
      a critical factor, using information and communication technologies. Cape Verde
      has bet on using this tool to increase access of the population of its islands to
      specialized care. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Qualitative study, covering the period
      between 2013 and 2014. It uses document analysis, semi-structured interviews and
      focus groups to collect data and analysis of content for their analysis. The
      participant population includes doctors, nurses and professionals from some
      institutions related to telemedicine. RESULTS: The priorities of the National
      Telemedicine Program are set, the cores and reference centers are operational,
      with trained personnel and equipment installed. Several other policy instruments
      and conditioning factors and facilitators of the program have been identified.
      DISCUSSION: Telemedicine is contributing to the reduction of inequalities in
      access to health, in Cape Verde. However, the full adoption of a service based on
      a new technology depends on conditioning factors and facilitators, and several
      success factors of telemedicine, identified in the literature, are not observed
      and in conjunction with other existing weaknesses affect the overall development
      of the National Telemedicine Program. However the strengths and capabilities are
      highlighted opportunities to act. CONCLUSION: Despite the progress, some
      telemedicine success factors highlighted on the literature are not seen in the
      country.

PMID- 28555551
TI  - [Economic Crisis and Portuguese National Health Service Physicians: Findings from
      a Descriptive Study of Their Perceptions and Reactions from Health Care Units in
      the Greater Lisbon Area].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Europe, scant scientific evidence exists on the impact of
      economic crisis on physicians. This study aims at understanding the adjustments
      made by public sector physicians to the changing conditions, and their
      perceptions on the market for medical services in the Lisbon metropolitan area.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A random sample of 484 physicians from Sao Jose Hospital
      and health center groups in Cascais and Amadora, to explore their perceptions of
      the economic crisis, and the changes brought to their workload. This paper
      provides a descriptive statistical analysis of physicians' responses. RESULTS: In
      connection to the crisis, our surveyed physicians perceived an increase in demand
      but a decrease of supply of public health services, as well as an increase in the
      supply of health services by the private sector. Damaging government policies for
      the public sector, and the rise of private services and insurance providers were
      identified as game changers for the sector. Physicians reported a decrease in
      public remuneration (- 30.5%) and a small increase of public sector hours. A
      general reduction in living standard was identified as the main adaptation
      strategy to the crisis. Passion for the profession, its independence and
      flexibility, were the most frequently mentioned compensating factors. A
      percentage of 15% of physicians declared considering migration as a possibility
      for the near future. DISCUSSION: The crisis has brought non-negligible changes to
      physicians' working conditions and to the wider market for medical services in
      Portugal. CONCLUSION: The physicians' intrinsic motivation for the professions
      helped counterbalance salary cuts and deteriorating working conditions.

PMID- 28555552
TI  - Anxiety, Family Functioning and Neuroendocrine Biomarkers in Obese Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This observational study explores potential links between obese
      children's cortisol, and parental mental state, family functioning, and the
      children's symptoms of anxiety and depression. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A non-random
      sample of 104 obese children (55 boys), mean age 10.9 years (standard deviation
      1.76), was recruited from a childhood obesity clinic. Obesity was defined as body
      mass index above the 95th age- and gender-specific percentiles. Neuroendocrine
      biomarkers were measured. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed with
      self and parent-reported questionnaires (Anxiety, Depression and Stress Scales;
      Child Behaviour Checklist). Family functioning was assessed with parent-reported
      questionnaires (Family Adaptation and Cohesion Scales-III). RESULTS: A
      significant, negative correlation (rs = -0.779; p = 0.003) between girls'
      cortisol and their parents' anxiety symptoms was found, limited to high
      functioning families. Boys scored significantly higher than girls on parent
      reported internalizing symptoms but not on self-report. No association was found
      between cortisol in children and parental depressive symptoms. DISCUSSION:
      Whether the association between cortisol levels in obese children and parental
      mental health is effectively restricted to girls from high functioning families
      or is due to study limitations, requires further research. The lack of
      associations between cortisol in children and parental depressive symptoms,
      suggests a specific association between cortisol and parental anxiety symptoms.
      CONCLUSION: These results highlight the importance of taking into account family
      functioning, parental mental state and gender, when investigating neuroendocrine
      biomarkers in obese children associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression.

PMID- 28555553
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of Foley Catheter Balloon for Cervix Priming in Term
      Pregnancy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Foley catheter promotes cervix priming by a direct mechanical
      effect of distension. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective observational study was
      conducted at a tertiary hospital, including all cases of induction of labor with
      Foley catheter between September 1, 2013 and November 30, 2015. Women were
      eligible if they had a singleton pregnancy with a Bishop score < 6 and a
      gestational age >= 41 weeks or a medical indication for induction of labor. The
      primary outcome was the Bishop score variation (difference between Bishop score
      before and after insertion of Foley catheter). Mode of delivery, induction-to
      delivery time, uterine tachysystole with fetal decelerations, peripartum fever >=
      38o C, maternal pain and mortality were also analyzed. RESULTS: Within 201
      inductions with Foley catheter, average increase in Bishop score after catheter
      placement was three (1 - 7), with only 5% (11/201) of unmodified cervix after
      catheter removal/extrusion. Vaginal delivery rate was 71% (142/201) and in women
      with a previous cesarean section (n = 40) was 37% (15/40). Average induction-to
      delivery time was 38 hours (4 - 120). Uterine infection rate was 3% (6/201).
      There was only one case of significant vaginal bleeding which required immediate
      catheter removal. There has been no significative maternal or neonatal morbidity.
      DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Foley catheter is a safe and effective method of cervical
      priming for women with an unfavorable cervix, even in the case of a previous
      cesarean delivery.

PMID- 28555554
TI  - [Graduate Students in Medicine Course: Motivation, Socialization and Academic
      Recognition].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Students with a previous degree have personal and professional
      experiences that can contribute to a different academic path during the medical
      course. This study aims to: 1) analyze both satisfaction and impact of academic
      recognition; 2) investigate whether motivations and expectations at entrance are
      maintained along the course; 3) to evaluate socialization after regress to higher
      education. MATERIAL AND METHODS: To accomplish the first objective a
      questionnaire was administered to 82 students who entered the medical school from
      2011/2012 to 2013/2014. For the second and third goals a focus group was run
      (three groups with five students each, representing the three academic years).
      RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Students felt satisfied with the recognition, and 50% of
      them believe that accreditations replace knowledge acquired with the curricular
      units, and 47% preferred to obtain accreditation. Academic achievement was
      negatively associated with the satisfaction of recognition and positively with
      age, background and registration cycle. Socialization of these students is
      distinct from the younger ones, their motivations at entrance are intrinsic and,
      contrary to expectations, are maintained along the course. CONCLUSION: Students
      prefer recognition instead of attending the curricular units. The most satisfied
      with the recognition accomplish less credits and the younger ones, from health
      area and enrolled in the clinical cycle, accomplish more. Along the course,
      motivations become more solid, expectations change and socialization is carried
      out with greater responsibility.

PMID- 28555555
TI  - [Relevant Factors on Cognitive Evaluation of the Portuguese Population].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aging is an inevitable process that has a social impact in the
      forecoming decades, and it will present a great challenge regarding public
      health. An efficient health system requires a reflection on the preventive
      measures to be implemented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study population comprised
      a total number of 2672 individuals of both genders, aged 55 years and over,
      residents in continental Portugal, to whom a questionnaire was applied that
      included the following sections: Social network; Locomotion; Physical autonomy;
      Instrumental autonomy; Cognitive assessment; Physical activity. RESULTS: The
      study of aging in the Portuguese population found that physical autonomy for
      tasks related to daily life are associated with better cognitive evaluation. A
      statistically significant association was found between performance in cognitive
      assessment and gender, age, schooling, the fact of living alone, the number of
      hours being alone, autonomy to walk in the street, washing, dressing, eating,
      preparing meals, doing shopping, managing money and taking medications and washer
      / treat clothing. DISCUSSION: Cognitive evaluation is negatively influenced by
      the number of hours that an individual is alone. CONCLUSION: Activities of daily
      life must be valued, since they require the ability to plan and carry out tasks
      and their preservation is a key component in successful aging.

PMID- 28555556
TI  - Playing-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders of Professional Orchestra Musicians
      from the North of Portugal: Comparing String and Wind Musicians.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: It is well known that musicians are a group prone to suffer from
      playing-related musculoskeletal disorders. Professional orchestra musicians play
      for several hours a week and have to fight against pain caused by their
      profession. The aim of this study was to explore and describe self-reported
      complaints among professional orchestra musicians and to compare its intensity
      and the prevalence between string and wind instruments. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Hundred and twelve professional orchestra musicians from the three main
      professional orchestras from the North of Portugal were individually interviewed
      about the prevalence and the intensity (measured by verbal numerical scale for
      pain) of their playing-related musculoskeletal disorders. RESULTS: About two
      third (62.5%) of the interviewed musicians presented playing-related
      musculoskeletal disorders during the time of the interview. Despite there are no
      significant statistic values between groups, results suggested that playing
      related musculoskeletal disorders are more common in string players and more
      intense in wind players. DISCUSSION: Referring to the prevalence of playing
      related musculoskeletal disorders, our data is in line with other studies from
      different countries. More than half of professional orchestra musicians in the
      North of Portugal are playing with a mild to moderate pain. CONCLUSION: Future
      studies focusing on working-related problems among professional orchestra
      musicians in Portugal would be useful to better describe the problem of
      occupational diseases among performing artist.

PMID- 28555557
TI  - [Psychological Treatments for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Review of
      Cognitive-Behavioral Oriented Therapies].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Borderline personality disorder is the most common personality
      disorder, with a global prevalence rate between 1.6% and 6%. It is characterized
      by affective disturbance and impulsivity, which lead to a high number of self
      harm behaviors and great amount of health services use. International guidelines
      recommend psychotherapy as the primary treatment for borderline personality
      disorder. This paper reviews evidence about the effects and efficacy of cognitive
      behavioral oriented psychological treatments for borderline personality disorder.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A literature review was conducted in Medline and PubMed
      databases, using the following keywords: borderline personality disorder,
      cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and efficacy. RESULTS: Sixteen randomized
      clinical trials were evaluate in this review, which analyzed the effects of
      several cognitive-behavioral oriented psychotherapeutic interventions, namely
      dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, schema-focused
      therapy and manual-assisted cognitive therapy. All above stated treatments showed
      clinical beneficial effects, by reducing borderline personality disorder core
      pathology and associated general psychopathology, as well as by reducing the
      severity and frequency of self-harm behaviors, and by improving the overall
      social, interpersonal and global adjustment. Dialectical behavioral therapy and
      schema-focused therapy also caused a soaring remission rate of diagnostic
      borderline personality disorder criteria of 57% and 94%, respectively.
      DISCUSSION: Although there were differences between the psychotherapeutic
      interventions analysed in this review, all showed clinical benefits in the
      treatment of borderline personality disorder. Dialectical behavioral therapy and
      schema-focused therapy presented the strongest scientific data documenting their
      efficacy, but both interventions are integrative cognitive-behavioral therapies
      which deviate from the traditional cognitive-behavioral model. CONCLUSION: In
      summary, the available studies support cognitive-behavioral psychological
      treatments as an efficacious intervention in borderline personality disorder.
      However, the existing scientific literature on this topic is still scarce and
      there is need for more studies, with higher methodological rigor, that should
      validate these results.

PMID- 28555558
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Rotator Cuff Tears After 65 Years of Age: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to analyze current evidence
      regarding surgical management of rotator cuff tears in patients of 65 years of
      age and above. Our hypothesis was that surgical repair of rotator cuff tears, in
      patients older than 65 years, conveys good outcome scores. We have not found a
      similar systematic review in current literature. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Medline(r), PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials were
      searched from January 1999 unto December 2015 for studies, regardless of
      language, including the words 'rotator cuff' and '65 years' or '70 years'.
      Inclusion criteria were studies (level I to IV) that reported clinical outcomes
      in patients older than 65 years, having undertaken surgical repair of a
      symptomatic rotator cuff tears. Arthroscopic, mini open and open techniques were
      included. Exclusion criteria were: studies with patients younger than 65 years,
      studies that did not use validated outcome evaluation scores as primary
      assessment tools and those with follow up under one year. This work followed the
      Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses - PRISMA
      guidelines. Data abstracted included patient demographics, tear pattern, surgical
      procedures, clinical and repair results. Outcome scores were converted to
      percentages, allowing comparison of data between studies. RESULTS: After deep
      analysis, 14 studies met the inclusion criteria: 11 level IV studies, 1 level III
      study and 2 level II studies. Seven studies found statistically significant
      outcome improvements between pre and postoperative evaluations. All studies
      reported good or excellent surgical outcomes. DISCUSSION: Better results would
      probably be achieved if all studies had rigorous and homogeneous patient
      selection criteria, but the fact is, that even though this was not the case, the
      clinical scores remained favorable, and with statistically significant outcome
      improvement in all studies with prospectively collected data. CONCLUSION: Based
      on current literature, rotator cuff repair in patients older than 65 years
      imparts favorable improvement in clinical outcome scores and overall patient
      satisfaction.

PMID- 28555559
TI  - [Bisalbuminemia: A Rare Variant of Albumin].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bisalbuminemia is a qualitative disorder of albumin and it is
      defined by the coexistence in the same individual of two types of serum albumin
      with different electrophoretic mobility. There are two forms: hereditary and
      permanent, or acquired and transient. CASE REPORT: Girl, 17-years-old, referenced
      to the hospital consult after incidental finding of bisalbuminemia detected in
      plasma protein electrophoresis performed within the investigation of diminished
      muscular tone in the lower limbs. Physical examination was normal. Secondary
      causes of bisalbuminemia were excluded. Later, it was confirmed the same disorder
      in plasma protein electrophoresis performed to her 14-years-old brother and
      mother. DISCUSSION: We describe a rare case of hereditary bisalbuminemia in a
      portuguese family. In general, this condition shows no pathological significance,
      however it is of interest to the clinicians the knowledge of this analytic change
      for better orientation of their patients.

PMID- 28555560
TI  - Bilateral Deep Vein Thrombosis Associated with Inferior Vena Cava Agenesis in a
      Young Patient Manifesting as Low Back Pain.
AB  - Congenital absence of the inferior vena cava is a rare vascular anomaly, and most
      cases are asymptomatic. Nevertheless, patients with inferior vena cava
      malformations may have increased risk of deep venous thrombosis. Particularly,
      cases of bilateral deep venous thrombosis may arise owing to an insufficient
      collateral venous drainage from the lower limbs. We hereby describe a case of a
      previously healthy young male patient presenting with bilateral lower limb deep
      venous thrombosis as the initial clinical manifestation of congenital inferior
      vena cava agenesis. We conclude that in young patients presenting with deep
      venous thrombosis, especially when thrombosis occurs spontaneously, bilaterally,
      or recurrently, inferior vena cava anomalies should be thoroughly investigated
      and ruled out as appropriate.

PMID- 28555561
TI  - Intragastric Penetration of the Connecting Tube After Laparoscopic Adjustable
      Gastric Banding.

PMID- 28555562
TI  - Diplopia as Rare Initial Manifestation of Gastric Cancer.

PMID- 28555563
TI  - [Genetic Study of Primary Dystonias: Recommendations from the Centro Hospitalar
      Sao Joao Neurogenetics Group].
AB  - The primary dystonias are a particular group of dystonias of presumed genetic
      origin, with a wide age of onset and variable progression. The diagnosis is,
      therefore, a challenge and the issue of the genetic investigation presents
      frequently in clinical practice. In the past few years several gene mutations
      have been identified as causative of primary dystonias. The choice of molecular
      testing is complex, given the clinical specificities and low frequency of these
      entities and the cost of genetic testing. It must follow observation by
      specialized clinicians highly differentiated in this area and be supported by a
      rational plan of investigation. The Centro Hospitalar Sao Joao Neurogenetics
      Group, a multidisciplinary team of Neurologists and Geneticists with special
      interest in neurogenetic disorders, devised consensus recommendations for the
      investigation of the genetic etiology of the primary dystonias, based on
      international consensus documents and recent published scientific evidence. This
      manuscript adopts the new classification system for genetic movement disorders,
      allowing for its systematic and standardized use in clinical practice.

PMID- 28555564
TI  - [Letter to the Editor. Urticaria in the Emergency Room: Recommendations for
      Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approach].

PMID- 28555566
TI  - Activation of the same mGluR5 receptors in the amygdala causes divergent effects
      on specific versus indiscriminate fear.
AB  - Although mGluR5-antagonists prevent fear and anxiety, little is known about how
      the same receptor in the amygdala gives rise to both. Combining in vitro and in
      vivo activation of mGluR5 in rats, we identify specific changes in intrinsic
      excitability and synaptic plasticity in basolateral amygdala neurons that give
      rise to temporally distinct and mutually exclusive effects on fear-related
      behaviors. The immediate impact of mGluR5 activation is to produce anxiety
      manifested as indiscriminate fear of both tone and context. Surprisingly, this
      state does not interfere with the proper encoding of tone-shock associations that
      eventually lead to enhanced cue-specific fear. These results provide a new
      framework for dissecting the functional impact of amygdalar mGluR-plasticity on
      fear versus anxiety in health and disease.

PMID- 28555568
TI  - Famine in South Sudan.

PMID- 28555565
TI  - Threat of shock increases excitability and connectivity of the intraparietal
      sulcus.
AB  - Anxiety disorders affect approximately 1 in 5 (18%) Americans within a given 1
      year period, placing a substantial burden on the national health care system.
      Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the neural mechanisms mediating
      anxiety symptoms. We used unbiased, multimodal, data-driven, whole-brain measures
      of neural activity (magnetoencephalography) and connectivity (fMRI) to identify
      the regions of the brain that contribute most prominently to sustained anxiety.
      We report that a single brain region, the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), shows both
      elevated neural activity and global brain connectivity during threat. The IPS
      plays a key role in attention orienting and may contribute to the hypervigilance
      that is a common symptom of pathological anxiety. Hyperactivation of this region
      during elevated state anxiety may account for the paradoxical facilitation of
      performance on tasks that require an external focus of attention, and impairment
      of performance on tasks that require an internal focus of attention.

PMID- 28555569
TI  - Breaking up is hard to do: Brexit and European science.

PMID- 28555567
TI  - Control of PNG kinase, a key regulator of mRNA translation, is coupled to meiosis
      completion at egg activation.
AB  - The oocyte-to-embryo transition involves extensive changes in mRNA translation,
      regulated in Drosophila by the PNG kinase complex whose activity we show here to
      be under precise developmental control. Despite presence of the catalytic PNG
      subunit and the PLU and GNU activating subunits in the mature oocyte, GNU is
      phosphorylated at Cyclin B/CDK1sites and unable to bind PNG and PLU. In vitro
      phosphorylation of GNU by CyclinB/CDK1 blocks activation of PNG. Meiotic
      completion promotes GNU dephosphorylation and PNG kinase activation to regulate
      translation. The critical regulatory effect of phosphorylation is shown by
      replacement in the oocyte with a phosphorylation-resistant form of GNU, which
      promotes PNG-GNU complex formation, elevation of Cyclin B, and meiotic defects
      consistent with premature PNG activation. After PNG activation GNU is
      destabilized, thus inactivating PNG. This short-lived burst in kinase activity
      links development with maternal mRNA translation and ensures irreversibility of
      the oocyte-to-embryo transition.

PMID- 28555570
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance and food safety in Africa.

PMID- 28555571
TI  - Corrections.

PMID- 28555572
TI  - Corrections.

PMID- 28555573
TI  - Corrections.

PMID- 28555574
TI  - MCR-1-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak in China.

PMID- 28555575
TI  - Defining sepsis: inspiring proposals meet practical realities.

PMID- 28555576
TI  - Pharmaceutical waste and antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28555577
TI  - e-learning for global antimicrobial stewardship.

PMID- 28555578
TI  - Staphylococcus aureus in critical care.

PMID- 28555579
TI  - Staphylococcus aureus in critical care - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28555580
TI  - Laminar flow ventilation during surgery.

PMID- 28555581
TI  - Helminths in organ transplantation.

PMID- 28555582
TI  - Helminths in organ transplantation.

PMID- 28555583
TI  - Helminths in organ transplantation - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28555584
TI  - Ending neglected tropical diseases.

PMID- 28555585
TI  - Highlights from the 27th ECCMID.

PMID- 28555586
TI  - Seasonal malaria chemoprevention in the Sahel.

PMID- 28555587
TI  - HIV in the Philippines.

PMID- 28555590
TI  - Pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema associated with influenza A H1N1
      virus.

PMID- 28555591
TI  - Noma in a patient with HIV.

PMID- 28555592
TI  - Repositionable percutaneous aortic valve implantation with the LOTUS valve: 30
      day and 1-year outcomes in 250 high-risk surgical patients.
AB  - AIMS: The REPRISE IIE trial aimed to evaluate outcomes following transcatheter
      aortic valve implantation of the fully repositionable and retrievable LOTUS valve
      with a unique seal designed to minimise paravalvular leak (PVL). METHODS AND
      RESULTS: This prospective, multicentre study enrolled 250 patients with severe
      aortic stenosis considered high-risk for surgery by a multidisciplinary Heart
      Team. An independent clinical events committee adjudicated events per Valve
      Academic Research Consortium criteria. Mean age was 84 years; 77% were in NYHA
      Class III/IV. LOTUS valve implantation produced significant haemodynamic
      improvements at one year without valve embolisation, ectopic valve deployment, or
      additional valve implantation. Primary endpoints were met as the 30-day mortality
      rate in the extended cohort (4.4%, N=250), and mean valve gradient in the main
      cohort (11.5+/-5.2 mmHg, N=120) were below (p<0.001) their predefined performance
      objectives. At 30 days, disabling stroke was 2.8% and new pacemaker implantation
      was 28.9% in all patients and 32.0% in pacemaker-naive patients. By one year, all
      cause mortality was 11.6%, disabling stroke was 3.6%, 95% of patients alive were
      in NYHA Class I/II, and there was no core laboratory-adjudicated moderate/severe
      PVL. CONCLUSIONS: LOTUS valve implantation produced good valve haemodynamics,
      minimal PVL, sustained significant improvement in functional status, and good
      clinical outcomes one year post implant.

PMID- 28555593
TI  - 3D printed models in patients with coronary artery fistulae: anatomical
      assessment and interventional planning.
AB  - AIMS: Coronary artery fistulae represent one of the most challenging anatomical
      defects to define accurately. We aimed to investigate the additional benefit
      conferred by volume rendering of tomographic images and 3D printing for diagnosis
      and interventional planning. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four cases of coronary fistulae
      were considered for transcatheter closure. Multidetector computed tomography
      (three cases) or cardiac magnetic resonance (one case) images were acquired and
      segmented using Mimics software. Each case was reviewed after incremental
      consideration of diagnostic resources: two cardiologists reported source and
      volume-rendered images; device closure was discussed by the interventional
      cardiology team. All diagnoses and planned management were reviewed after
      inspection of a 3D model. Using source images alone, both cardiologists correctly
      described the course and drainage in two out of four cases. Aided by volume
      rendering, this improved to three out of four cases. Inspection of the 3D printed
      model prompted the planned interventional approach and device sizing to be
      altered in two out of four cases. In one out of four cases, the intervention was
      abandoned after inspection of the 3D printed model. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis and
      management of patients with coronary artery fistulae rely on detailed image
      analyses. 3D models add value when determining the feasibility of, and the
      approach to intervention in these cases.

PMID- 28555594
TI  - Carag bioresorbable septal occluder (CBSO): histopathology of experimental
      implants.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate local biological responses to the
      partially bioresorbable nonmetal frame Carag bioresorbable septal occluder system
      in an experimental setting. METHODS AND RESULTS: A Good Laboratory Practices
      (GLP) study was performed with implantation of the device into the interatrial
      septum of 24 German Landrace pigs with follow-up periods of 3, 5, 8 and 15 months
      (six animals in each group). One non-implant-related death occurred one month
      after implantation. Histology was obtained by sawing and grinding of the hard
      resin embedded specimen after formalin fixation. All occlusion devices were found
      correctly positioned without any residual shunt at the end of the experiments.
      Complete endothelialisation could be confirmed histologically in all specimens
      independent of implantation period. There were only a few lymphocytic
      infiltrations locally related to the implant materials. Sporadic macrophages and
      foreign body giant cells were found adjacent to the textile fabric. Resorption of
      the biodegradable frame material was seen to proceed with implantation time.
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report on histopathology of a septal defect
      occluder with a bioresorbable filament structure in vivo which is already in
      clinical use. Good biocompatibility was demonstrated with documentation of timely
      degradation and substitution of the polymer material by fibromuscular cells and
      extracellular matrix components.

PMID- 28555595
TI  - Endoscopic vs Microscopic Approach in Stapes Surgery: Advantages in the Middle
      Ear Structures Visualization and Trainee's Point of View.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Comparing the endoscopic and microscopic approaches in stapes surgery,
      and establishing the surgical approach that allows better results in terms of
      visualization of the middle ear structures and aids assistant's training.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one residents from the first to the fifth year of
      training in Otolaryngology were enrolled in this prospective study. A
      questionnaire specifically designed to investigate the understanding of middle
      ear anatomy, the surgical steps, and a personal opinion about endoscopic stapes
      surgery was submitted to each resident. RESULTS: Statistical differences between
      the endoscopic and microscopic approaches were evident about identification of
      stapes and long process of the incus (p=0.03) and stapes footplate and the oval
      window (p=0.03). No substantial difference between the two surgical approaches
      emerged regarding the visualization of the tympanic membrane and the other middle
      ear structures (p>0.5). A substantial difference in favor of the endoscopic
      approach emerged regarding the identification of the hole creation in the
      footplate of the stapes. CONCLUSION: Endoscopic stapes surgery could favor an
      easier understanding of the surgical technique for assistants in training with
      little knowledge of the anatomy and surgical steps.

PMID- 28555597
TI  - Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as Salvage Therapy for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing
      Loss.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To measure the effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy as salvage
      therapy after the failure of steroid therapy for sudden sensorineural hearing
      loss (SSNHL). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-three patients with SSNHL were
      unsuccessfully treated with systemic steroid therapy. Following steroid therapy,
      43 patients received additional HBO therapy while 50 did not. Hearing levels at
      0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 kHz before and after therapy were measured. RESULTS: A
      significant difference in hearing thresholds after HBO therapy was found at all
      frequencies in patients with a hearing loss of >61 dB. The group of patients with
      a hearing threshold of <=60 dB had a significant improvement only at 250 and 500
      Hz, while group of patients without additional therapy control group showed no
      hearing improvement. CONCLUSION: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy therapy as salvage
      therapy for SSNHL showed some benefits in hearing improvement. Better results
      could be expected in patients with severe hearing loss, while in patients with
      mild-or-moderate hearing loss, recovery should be expected only at low
      frequencies.

PMID- 28555596
TI  - Comparative Analysis of Laser and Non-Laser Stapes Surgeries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to observe differences in the efficacy of laser and
      surgical treatments of middle-ear conductive hearing loss (MECHL). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 276 ears of 267 patients with MECHL were divided into laser
      (n=172) and surgical (n=104) treatment groups according to the treatment method.
      Changes in the air-bone gap (ABG) after treatment and at the time of final follow
      up were compared. An ABG value <20 dB was defined as effective and an ABG value
      <10 dB, significantly effective. The long-term treatment effects were also
      compared at the time of final follow-up. Additionally, postoperative adverse
      reactions were recorded for both the groups. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period
      was 76.77+/-43.62 months (range: 12-168 months). No significant difference in ABG
      was found between the two groups (21.31+/-11.64 dB vs. 19.14+/-9.79 dB, p>0.05).
      However, the laser treatment group showed slightly better results than the
      surgical treatment group at the final follow-up, although the difference between
      the groups was not found to be significant (11.69+/-9.98 dB vs. 12.62+/-10.94 dB,
      p>0.05). There was no difference in the long-term treatment effects between the
      two groups (effective: 87.21% vs. 88.46%, p>0.05; significantly effective: 55.81%
      vs. 56.73%, p>0.05). The incidence rates of postoperative adverse reactions were
      not significantly different. CONCLUSION: The treatment efficacy of laser and
      surgical treatments for MECHL are similar.

PMID- 28555598
TI  - Test-Retest Reliability of the Components of Multi-Frequency Tympanometry.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Multi-frequency tympanometry and its components are extensively used
      to identify middle ear disorders. However, there are a limited number of studies
      that have attempted to determine its test-retest reliability. Thus, the present
      study attempted to determine the test-retest reliability of the different
      components of multi-frequency tympanometry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The resonant
      frequency (RF), F45, and DeltaG were determined three times in 40adults with
      normal hearing. The results obtained across the three trials were compared to
      determine the test-retest reliability. RESULTS: F45 and DeltaG had excellent
      intra- and inter-session reliabilities. The reliability of the RF was also good,
      but it was relatively less compared to that of the other two measures. The study
      also showed that there was no effect of gender on the reliability measures.
      CONCLUSION: Thus, F45 and DeltaG can be clinically used considering theirhigh
      reliability, and the RF should be interpreted with caution. However, further
      studies on a larger group of patientsincluding a clinical group are essential for
      determining the further applicability of these results.

PMID- 28555599
TI  - Speech Perception in Quiet and in Noise Condition in Individuals with Auditory
      Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study investigated the effect of noise on syllable perception in
      individuals with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) and compared that
      with the normal hearing individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 54
      participants were considered, out of which 26 individuals were diagnosed with
      ANSD and 28 with normal hearing sensitivity. Syllable identification and
      discrimination were assessed in both the groups in quiet as well as +10 dB SNR.
      RESULTS: All the individuals with ANSD performed poorer on syllable
      identification and syllable discrimination tasks compared to individuals with
      normal hearing. Information transfer and d-prime analyses revealed that noise
      affects the perception of voicing information in individuals with ANSD compared
      to place and manner information. Among the consonants tested, /pa/ was more
      resistant to noise. CONCLUSION: Noise had deleterious effects on speech
      perception in individuals with ANSD. Low-frequency information appears to be more
      susceptible to the effects of noise in individuals with ANSD.

PMID- 28555600
TI  - Audiological Findings in Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 4C.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4C (CMT4C) is a hereditary
      demyelinating early onset neuropathy with prominent unsteadiness and occasional
      cranial nerve involvement. Vestibulopathy caused by the dysfunction of cranial
      nerve VIII has been demonstrated in a high percentage of these patients, but the
      presence and degree of auditory neuropathy are unknown. The aim of the study was
      to characterize the hearing abnormalities of a series of patients with CMT4C and
      to determine the presence and severity of auditory neuropathy (AN) in these
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten patients with genetically confirmed CMT4C
      underwent comprehensive clinical and audiological testing. The results were
      compared among patients in different age groups and also to the results of
      vestibular testing that had already been performed. RESULTS: Only 3 patients had
      hearing problems, but 9 had hearing abnormalities on ancillary testing that were
      compatible with different degrees of auditory nerve dysfunction. In the mildest
      cases, only the abnormality of the stapedial reflex and distortion of wave I in
      auditory brainstem responses could be detected. In the more severe cases, tonal
      audiometry revealed asymmetric hearing loss. These findings were more severe in
      older patients, even after correcting for age-related hypoacusia. In these
      patients, vestibular dysfunction could also be detected and seemed to be more
      profound and symmetric than hearing loss. CONCLUSION: This report confirms and
      defines the presence of different degrees of auditory neuropathy in all patients
      with CMT4C, being detectable, usually unilaterally, during infancy, and worsening
      with disease progression.

PMID- 28555601
TI  - Influence of Smoking on Ultra-High-Frequency Auditory Sensitivity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, an attempt was made to determine the effect of smoking
      on ultra-high-frequency auditory sensitivity. The study also attempted to
      determine the relationship between the nature of smoking and ultra-high-frequency
      otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and thresholds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study
      sample included 25 smokers and 25 non-smokers. A detailed history regarding their
      smoking habits was collected. High-frequency audiometric thresholds and
      amplitudes of high-frequency distortion-product OAEs were analyzed for both ears
      from all participants. RESULTS: The results showed that the ultra-high-frequency
      thresholds were elevated and that there was reduction in the amplitudes of ultra
      high-frequency OAEs in smokers. There was an increased risk of auditory damage
      with chronic smoking. CONCLUSION: The study results highlight the application of
      ultra-high-frequency OAEs and ultra-high-frequency audiometry for the early
      detection of auditory impairment. However, similar studies should be conducted on
      a larger population for better generalization of the results.

PMID- 28555602
TI  - Efficacy of Directional Microphones in Hearing Aids Equipped with Wireless
      Synchronization Technology.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the use of directionality in hearing aids
      with wireless synchronization on localization and speech intelligibility in
      noise. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 25 individuals with bilateral
      mild to moderate flat sensorineural hearing loss. For the localization
      experiment, eight loudspeakers (Genelec 8020B) arranged in a circle covering a 0
      360 degrees  angle and the Cubase 6 software were used for presenting the
      stimulus. A car horn of 260 ms was presented from these loudspeakers, one at a
      time, randomly. The listener was instructed to point to the direction of the
      source. The degree of the localization error was obtained with and without
      directionality and wireless synchronization options. For speech perception in a
      noise experiment, signal to noise ratio-50 (SNR-50) was obtained using sentences
      played through a speaker at a fixed angle of 0 degrees . A calibrated eight
      talker speech babble was used as noise and the babble was routed either through 0
      degrees , 90 degrees , 270 degrees  (through one speaker at a time) or through
      both 90 degrees  and 270 degrees  speakers. RESULTS: The results revealed that
      the conditions where both the wireless synchronization and directionality were
      activated resulted in a significantly better performance in both localization and
      speech perception in noise tasks. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the
      directionality in the wireless synchronization hearing aids coordinates with each
      other binaurally for better preservation of binaural cues, thus reducing the
      localization errors and improving speech perception in noise. The results of this
      study could be used to counsel and justify the selection of the directional
      wireless synchronization hearing aids.

PMID- 28555603
TI  - Virtual Auditory Space Training-Induced Changes of Auditory Spatial Processing in
      Listeners with Normal Hearing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Localization involves processing of subtle yet highly enriched
      monaural and binaural spatial cues. Remediation programs aimed at resolving
      spatial deficits are surprisingly scanty in literature. The present study is
      designed to explore the changes that occur in the spatial performance of normal
      hearing listeners before and after subjecting them to virtual acoustic space
      (VAS) training paradigm using behavioral and electrophysiological measures.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten normal-hearing listeners participated in the study,
      which was conducted in three phases, including a pre-training, training, and post
      training phase. At the pre- and post-training phases both behavioral measures of
      spatial acuity and electrophysiological P300 were administered. The spatial
      acuity of the participants in the free field and closed field were measured apart
      from quantifying their binaural processing abilities. The training phase
      consisted of 5-8 sessions (20 min each) carried out using a hierarchy of graded
      VAS stimuli. RESULTS: The results obtained from descriptive statistics were
      indicative of an improvement in all the spatial acuity measures in the post
      training phase. Statistically, significant changes were noted in interaural time
      difference (ITD) and virtual acoustic space identification scores measured in the
      post-training phase. Effect sizes (r) for all of these measures were
      substantially large, indicating the clinical relevance of these measures in
      documenting the impact of training. However, the same was not reflected in P300.
      CONCLUSION: The training protocol used in the present study on a preliminary
      basis proves to be effective in normal-hearing listeners, and its implications
      can be extended to other clinical population as well.

PMID- 28555604
TI  - Designing a Method with Physician Participation to Assess and Improve Quality of
      Healthcare in Otolaryngology.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patient choice of healthcare centers to be treated for specific
      diseases is compromised by the low accessibility of understandable information.
      Physicians are rarely involved in healthcare quality assessment, despite their
      potentially valuable input. The purpose of this study was to develop a
      methodology for evaluating the quality of care that specifically incorporates
      advice from medical specialists and provides accessible information for patients
      in search of high-quality healthcare. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pilot Delphi study
      was conducted among 28 Spanish otolaryngology experts, seeking their opinion on
      the quality-of-care indicators and on their ability to recommend the most
      suitable department for the treatment of specific otolaryngologic diseases.
      RESULTS: The average acceptance rate was 91.9% for quality-of-care indicator and
      96.5% for the resources needed for improving the quality of care. Furthermore,
      93% experts reported that patients frequently ask for physician advice on which
      center provides better care for a specific disease, 92.6% experts believe they
      could recommend the best centers for specific otolaryngologic diseases, and 80%
      experts agreed that expert opinion on the quality of care offered by different
      centers would be a valuable addition to quality-of-care assessment. CONCLUSION:
      The incorporation of physician advice into healthcare quality assessment may
      improve the usefulness of healthcare quality indicators for patients. Assessment
      tools incorporating physician advice should be developed and validated.

PMID- 28555605
TI  - Surgical Treatment for Epstein-Barr Virus Otomastoiditis Complicated by Facial
      Nerve Paralysis: A Case Report of Two Young Brothers and Review of Literature.
AB  - We report the case of two young brothers with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
      otomastoiditis complicated by a facial nerve paralysis. The boys, aged 7 months
      (patient A) and 2 years and 8 months (patient B), were diagnosed with a facial
      nerve paralysis House-Brackmann (HB) grade IV (A) and V (B). After unsuccessful
      pharmacological treatment, patient A underwent mastoidectomy and atticoantrotomy
      and patient B underwent a transmastoidal surgical decompression of the facial
      nerve. They recovered to HB grades I and II facial nerve palsy (FNP),
      respectively. Although rare and relatively unknown, EBV should be considered in
      the differential diagnosis of children with FNP of unknown cause. Surgical
      intervention may be a viable therapy with good recovery.

PMID- 28555606
TI  - A Comprehensive Insight into the Rehabilitative Treatment of Persistent Benign
      Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

PMID- 28555607
TI  - Should Bone Cement be Used Only in Limited Ossicular Chain Defects?

PMID- 28555608
TI  - Does Hypericum Perforatum Have Inflammatory or Anti-Inflammatory Effects?

PMID- 28555609
TI  - Erratum.
AB  - The editorial by Arun K. Gadre entitled "The Problem of Gift and Honorary
      Authorship - Who is an Author?" (J Int Adv Otol 2016; 12), Obtituaries by David
      A. Moffat entitled "In Memoriam: Per Moller"(J Int Adv Otol 2016; 12: 222) and by
      Angel Ramos Macias entitled "In Memoriam: John Niparko" (J Int Adv Otol 2016; 12:
      223) were published without a DOI due to a technical error. These papers were
      since provided with the DOIs listed below; * Arun K. Gadre. The Problem of Gift
      and Honorary Authorship - Who is an Author? DOI: 10.5152/iao.2017.31013 * David
      A. Moffat. In Memoriam: Per Moller. DOI: 10.5152/iao.2017.31011 * Angel Ramos
      Macias. In Memoriam: John Niparko. DOI: 10.5152/iao.2017.31012.

PMID- 28555610
TI  - Effect of polymer residues on the electrical properties of large-area graphene
      hexagonal boron nitride planar heterostructures.
AB  - Polymer residue plays an important role in the performance of 2D heterostructured
      materials. Herein, we study the effect of polymer residual impurities on the
      electrical properties of graphene-boron nitride planar heterostructures. Large
      area graphene (Gr) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) monolayers were synthesized
      using chemical vapor deposition techniques. Atomic van-der-Waals heterostructure
      layers based on varied configurations of Gr and h-BN layers were assembled. The
      average interlayer resistance of the heterojunctions over a 1 cm2 area for
      several planar heterostructure configurations was assessed by impedance
      spectroscopy and modeled by equivalent electrical circuits. Conductive AFM
      measurements showed that the presence of polymer residues on the surface of the
      Gr and h-BN monolayers resulted in significant resistance deviations over
      nanoscale regions.

PMID- 28555611
TI  - Real-time inference of word relevance from electroencephalogram and eye gaze.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Brain-computer interfaces can potentially map the subjective relevance
      of the visual surroundings, based on neural activity and eye movements, in order
      to infer the interest of a person in real-time. APPROACH: Readers looked for
      words belonging to one out of five semantic categories, while a stream of words
      passed at different locations on the screen. It was estimated in real-time which
      words and thus which semantic category interested each reader based on the
      electroencephalogram (EEG) and the eye gaze. MAIN RESULTS: Words that were
      subjectively relevant could be decoded online from the signals. The estimation
      resulted in an average rank of 1.62 for the category of interest among the five
      categories after a hundred words had been read. SIGNIFICANCE: It was demonstrated
      that the interest of a reader can be inferred online from EEG and eye tracking
      signals, which can potentially be used in novel types of adaptive software, which
      enrich the interaction by adding implicit information about the interest of the
      user to the explicit interaction. The study is characterised by the following
      novelties. Interpretation with respect to the word meaning was necessary in
      contrast to the usual practice in brain-computer interfacing where stimulus
      recognition is sufficient. The typical counting task was avoided because it would
      not be sensible for implicit relevance detection. Several words were displayed at
      the same time, in contrast to the typical sequences of single stimuli. Neural
      activity was related with eye tracking to the words, which were scanned without
      restrictions on the eye movements.

PMID- 28555612
TI  - Development of an advanced radioactive airborne particle monitoring system for
      use in early warning networks.
AB  - Automatic real-time warning networks are essential for the almost immediate
      detection of anomalous levels of radioactivity in the environment. In the case of
      Extremadura region (SW Spain), a radiological network (RARE) has been operational
      in the vicinity of the Almaraz nuclear power plant and in other areas farther
      away since 1992. There are ten air monitoring stations equipped with Geiger
      Muller counters in order to evaluate the external ambient gamma dose rate. Four
      of these stations have a commercial system that provides estimates of the total
      artificial alpha and beta activity concentrations in aerosols, and of the 131I
      activity (gaseous fraction). Despite experience having demonstrated the benefits
      and robustness of these commercial systems, important improvements have been made
      to one of these air monitoring systems. In this paper, the analytical and
      maintenance shortcomings of the original commercial air monitoring system are
      described first; the new custom-designed advanced air monitoring system is then
      presented. This system is based mainly on the incorporation of gamma spectrometry
      using two scintillation detectors, one of NaI:Tl and the other of LaBr3:Ce, and
      compact multichannel analysers. Next, a comparison made of the results provided
      by the two systems operating simultaneously at the same location for three months
      shows the advantages of the new advanced air monitoring system. As a result, the
      gamma spectrometry analysis allows passing from global alpha and beta activity
      determinations due to artificial radionuclides in aerosols, and the inaccurate
      measurement of the gaseous 131I activity concentration, to the possibility of
      identifying a large number of radionuclides and quantifying each of their
      activity concentrations. Moreover, the new station's dual capacity is designed to
      work in early warning monitoring mode and surveillance monitoring mode. This is
      based on custom developed software that includes an intelligent system to issue
      the necessary warnings when radiological anomalies or technical problems are
      identified. Implicitly, for the construction of the advanced station, substantial
      mechanical and electronic developments have been required. They have essentially
      consisted of integrating a new replacement device, whose operation has reduced
      the maintenance tasks.

PMID- 28555613
TI  - Superconducting gap structure in the electron doped BiS2-based superconductor.
AB  - The influence of electron doping on semimetallic SrFBiS2 has been investigated by
      means of resistivity, zero and transverse  -  field (ZF/TF) muon spin
      relaxation/rotation (MUSR) experiments. SrFBiS2 is semimetallic in its normal
      state and small amounts of La doping results in bulk superconductivity at 2.8 K,
      at ambient pressure. The temperature dependence of the superfluid density as
      determined by TF-MUSR can be best modelled by an isotropic s  -  wave type
      superconducting gap. We have estimated the magnetic penetration depth [Formula:
      see text] nm, superconducting carrier density [Formula: see text] carriers m-3
      and effective-mass enhancement m *  =  1.558 m e. Additionally, there is no clear
      sign of the occurrence of spontaneous internal magnetic fields below [Formula:
      see text], which implies that the superconducting state in this material can not
      be categorized by the broken time-reversal symmetry which is in agreement with
      the previous theoretical prediction.

PMID- 28555614
TI  - Global Regulation of Differential Gene Expression by c-Abl/Arg Oncogenic Kinases.
AB  - BACKGROUND Studies have found that c-Abl oncogenic kinases may regulate gene
      transcription by RNA polymerase II phosphorylation or by direct regulation of
      specific transcription factors or coactivators. However, the global regulation of
      differential gene expression by c-Abl/Arg is largely unknown. In this study,
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) regulated by c-Abl/Arg were identified, and
      related cellular functions and associated pathways were investigated. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS RNA obtained from wild-type and c-Abl/Arg gene-silenced MCF-7 cells
      was analyzed by RNA-Seq. DEGs were identified using edgeR software and partially
      validated by qRT-PCR. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and
      Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were used to explore the potential functions of
      these DEGs. RESULTS A total of 1,034 DEGs were significantly regulated by c
      Abl/Arg (399 were up-regulated and 635 were down-regulated after c-Abl/Arg double
      knockdown). GO and KEGG analyses showed that the DEGs were primarily involved in
      cellular metabolic processes, neurodegenerative disease, the metabolic process
      and signaling pathway of cAMP, angiogenesis, and cell proliferation. CONCLUSIONS
      Our data collectively support the hypothesis that c-Abl/Arg regulate differential
      gene expression, providing new insights into the biological functions of c-Abl
      and Arg.

PMID- 28555615
TI  - Hydrodynamic cavitation in Stokes flow of anisotropic fluids.
AB  - Cavitation, the nucleation of vapour in liquids, is ubiquitous in fluid dynamics,
      and is often implicated in a myriad of industrial and biomedical applications.
      Although extensively studied in isotropic liquids, corresponding investigations
      in anisotropic liquids are largely lacking. Here, by combining liquid crystal
      microfluidic experiments, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and
      theoretical arguments, we report flow-induced cavitation in an anisotropic fluid.
      The cavitation domain nucleates due to sudden pressure drop upon flow past a
      cylindrical obstacle within a microchannel. For an anisotropic fluid, the
      inception and growth of the cavitation domain ensued in the Stokes regime, while
      no cavitation was observed in isotropic liquids flowing under similar
      hydrodynamic parameters. Using simulations we identify a critical value of the
      Reynolds number for cavitation inception that scales inversely with the order
      parameter of the fluid. Strikingly, the critical Reynolds number for anisotropic
      fluids can be 50% lower than that of isotropic fluids.

PMID- 28555616
TI  - Central and peripheral clocks are coupled by a neuropeptide pathway in
      Drosophila.
AB  - Animal circadian clocks consist of central and peripheral pacemakers, which are
      coordinated to produce daily rhythms in physiology and behaviour. Despite its
      importance for optimal performance and health, the mechanism of clock
      coordination is poorly understood. Here we dissect the pathway through which the
      circadian clock of Drosophila imposes daily rhythmicity to the pattern of adult
      emergence. Rhythmicity depends on the coupling between the brain clock and a
      peripheral clock in the prothoracic gland (PG), which produces the steroid
      hormone, ecdysone. Time information from the central clock is transmitted via the
      neuropeptide, sNPF, to non-clock neurons that produce the neuropeptide, PTTH.
      These secretory neurons then forward time information to the PG clock. We also
      show that the central clock exerts a dominant role on the peripheral clock. This
      use of two coupled clocks could serve as a paradigm to understand how daily
      steroid hormone rhythms are generated in animals.

PMID- 28555618
TI  - Coherent control of the silicon-vacancy spin in diamond.
AB  - Spin impurities in diamond have emerged as a promising building block in a wide
      range of solid-state-based quantum technologies. The negatively charged silicon
      vacancy centre combines the advantages of its high-quality photonic properties
      with a ground-state electronic spin, which can be read out optically. However,
      for this spin to be operational as a quantum bit, full quantum control is
      essential. Here we report the measurement of optically detected magnetic
      resonance and the demonstration of coherent control of a single silicon-vacancy
      centre spin with a microwave field. Using Ramsey interferometry, we directly
      measure a spin coherence time, T2*, of 115+/-9 ns at 3.6 K. The temperature
      dependence of coherence times indicates that dephasing and decay of the spin
      arise from single-phonon-mediated excitation between orbital branches of the
      ground state. Our results enable the silicon-vacancy centre spin to become a
      controllable resource to establish spin-photon quantum interfaces.

PMID- 28555617
TI  - A-kinase anchoring protein BIG3 coordinates oestrogen signalling in breast cancer
      cells.
AB  - Approximately 70% of breast cancer cells express oestrogen receptor alpha
      (ERalpha). Previous studies have shown that the Brefeldin A-inhibited guanine
      nucleotide-exchange protein 3-prohibitin 2 (BIG3-PHB2) complex has a crucial role
      in these cells. However, it remains unclear how BIG3 regulates the suppressive
      activity of PHB2. Here we demonstrate that BIG3 functions as an A-kinase
      anchoring protein that binds protein kinase A (PKA) and the alpha isoform of the
      catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1Calpha), thereby dephosphorylating
      and inactivating PHB2. E2-induced PKA-mediated phosphorylation of BIG3-S305 and 
      S1208 serves to enhance PP1Calpha activity, resulting in E2/ERalpha signalling
      activation via PHB2 inactivation due to PHB2-S39 dephosphorylation. Furthermore,
      an analysis of independent cohorts of ERalpha-positive breast cancers patients
      reveal that both BIG3 overexpression and PHB2-S39 dephosphorylation are strongly
      associated with poor prognosis. This is the first demonstration of the mechanism
      of E2/ERalpha signalling activation via the BIG3-PKA-PP1Calpha tri-complex in
      breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28555619
TI  - Probing the early stages of shock-induced chondritic meteorite formation at the
      mesoscale.
AB  - Chondritic meteorites are fragments of asteroids, the building blocks of planets,
      that retain a record of primordial processes. Important in their early evolution
      was impact-driven lithification, where a porous mixture of millimetre-scale
      chondrule inclusions and sub-micrometre dust was compacted into rock. In this
      Article, the shock compression of analogue precursor chondrite material was
      probed using state of the art dynamic X-ray radiography. Spatially-resolved shock
      and particle velocities, and shock front thicknesses were extracted directly from
      the radiographs, representing a greatly enhanced scope of data than could be
      measured in surface-based studies. A statistical interpretation of the measured
      velocities showed that mean values were in good agreement with those predicted
      using continuum-level modelling and mixture theory. However, the distribution and
      evolution of wave velocities and wavefront thicknesses were observed to be
      intimately linked to the mesoscopic structure of the sample. This Article
      provides the first detailed experimental insight into the distribution of extreme
      states within a shocked powder mixture, and represents the first mesoscopic
      validation of leading theories concerning the variation in extreme pressure
      temperature states during the formation of primordial planetary bodies.

PMID- 28555620
TI  - Leukocyte integrin Mac-1 regulates thrombosis via interaction with platelet
      GPIbalpha.
AB  - Inflammation and thrombosis occur together in many diseases. The leukocyte
      integrin Mac-1 (also known as integrin alphaMbeta2, or CD11b/CD18) is crucial for
      leukocyte recruitment to the endothelium, and Mac-1 engagement of platelet
      GPIbalpha is required for injury responses in diverse disease models. However,
      the role of Mac-1 in thrombosis is undefined. Here we report that mice with Mac-1
      deficiency (Mac-1-/-) or mutation of the Mac-1-binding site for GPIbalpha have
      delayed thrombosis after carotid artery and cremaster microvascular injury
      without affecting parameters of haemostasis. Adoptive wild-type leukocyte
      transfer rescues the thrombosis defect in Mac-1-/- mice, and Mac-1-dependent
      regulation of the transcription factor Foxp1 contributes to thrombosis as
      evidenced by delayed thrombosis in mice with monocyte-/macrophage-specific
      overexpression of Foxp1. Antibody and small-molecule targeting of Mac-1:GPIbalpha
      inhibits thrombosis. Our data identify a new pathway of thrombosis involving
      leukocyte Mac-1 and platelet GPIbalpha, and suggest that targeting this
      interaction has anti-thrombotic therapeutic potential with reduced bleeding risk.

PMID- 28555621
TI  - Deposition and drying dynamics of liquid crystal droplets.
AB  - Drop drying and deposition phenomena reveal a rich interplay of fundamental
      science and engineering, give rise to fascinating everyday effects (coffee
      rings), and influence technologies ranging from printing to genotyping. Here we
      investigate evaporation dynamics, morphology, and deposition patterns of drying
      lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal droplets. These drops differ from typical
      evaporating colloidal drops primarily due to their concentration-dependent
      isotropic, nematic, and columnar phases. Phase separation occurs during
      evaporation, and in the process creates surface tension gradients and significant
      density and viscosity variation within the droplet. As a result, the drying
      multiphase drops exhibit different convective currents, drop morphologies, and
      deposition patterns (coffee-rings).

PMID- 28555622
TI  - Zooming in on the phycosphere: the ecological interface for phytoplankton
      bacteria relationships.
AB  - By controlling nutrient cycling and biomass production at the base of the food
      web, interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria represent a fundamental
      ecological relationship in aquatic environments. Although typically studied over
      large spatiotemporal scales, emerging evidence indicates that this relationship
      is often governed by microscale interactions played out within the region
      immediately surrounding individual phytoplankton cells. This microenvironment,
      known as the phycosphere, is the planktonic analogue of the rhizosphere in
      plants. The exchange of metabolites and infochemicals at this interface governs
      phytoplankton-bacteria relationships, which span mutualism, commensalism,
      antagonism, parasitism and competition. The importance of the phycosphere has
      been postulated for four decades, yet only recently have new technological and
      conceptual frameworks made it possible to start teasing apart the complex nature
      of this unique microbial habitat. It has subsequently become apparent that the
      chemical exchanges and ecological interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria
      are far more sophisticated than previously thought and often require close
      proximity of the two partners, which is facilitated by bacterial colonization of
      the phycosphere. It is also becoming increasingly clear that while interactions
      taking place within the phycosphere occur at the scale of individual
      microorganisms, they exert an ecosystem-scale influence on fundamental processes
      including nutrient provision and regeneration, primary production, toxin
      biosynthesis and biogeochemical cycling. Here we review the fundamental physical,
      chemical and ecological features of the phycosphere, with the goal of delivering
      a fresh perspective on the nature and importance of phytoplankton-bacteria
      interactions in aquatic ecosystems.

PMID- 28555623
TI  - Redesigning metabolism based on orthogonality principles.
AB  - Modifications made during metabolic engineering for overproduction of chemicals
      have network-wide effects on cellular function due to ubiquitous metabolic
      interactions. These interactions, that make metabolic network structures robust
      and optimized for cell growth, act to constrain the capability of the cell
      factory. To overcome these challenges, we explore the idea of an orthogonal
      network structure that is designed to operate with minimal interaction between
      chemical production pathways and the components of the network that produce
      biomass. We show that this orthogonal pathway design approach has significant
      advantages over contemporary growth-coupled approaches using a case study on
      succinate production. We find that natural pathways, fundamentally linked to
      biomass synthesis, are less orthogonal in comparison to synthetic pathways. We
      suggest that the use of such orthogonal pathways can be highly amenable for
      dynamic control of metabolism and have other implications for metabolic
      engineering.

PMID- 28555624
TI  - Conjugation of squalene to gemcitabine as unique approach exploiting endogenous
      lipoproteins for drug delivery.
AB  - Once introduced in the organism, the interaction of nanoparticles with various
      biomolecules strongly impacts their fate. Here we show that nanoparticles made of
      the squalene derivative of gemcitabine (SQGem) interact with lipoproteins (LPs),
      indirectly enabling the targeting of cancer cells with high LP receptors
      expression. In vitro and in vivo experiments reveal preeminent affinity of the
      squalene-gemcitabine bioconjugates towards LP particles with the highest
      cholesterol content and in silico simulations further display their incorporation
      into the hydrophobic core of LPs. To the best of our knowledge, the use of
      squalene to induce drug insertion into LPs for indirect cancer cell targeting is
      a novel concept in drug delivery. Interestingly, not only SQGem but also other
      squalene derivatives interact similarly with lipoproteins while such interaction
      is not observed with liposomes. The conjugation to squalene represents a
      versatile platform that would enable efficient drug delivery by simply exploiting
      endogenous lipoproteins.

PMID- 28555625
TI  - Co-infecting microorganisms dramatically alter pathogen gene essentiality during
      polymicrobial infection.
AB  - Identifying genes required by pathogens during infection is critical for
      antimicrobial development. Here, we use a Monte Carlo simulation-based method to
      analyse high-throughput transposon sequencing data to determine the role of
      infection site and co-infecting microorganisms on the in vivo 'essential' genome
      of Staphylococcus aureus. We discovered that co-infection of murine surgical
      wounds with Pseudomonas aeruginosa results in conversion of ~25% of the in vivo
      S. aureus mono-culture essential genes to non-essential. Furthermore, 182 S.
      aureus genes are uniquely essential during co-infection. These 'community
      dependent essential' (CoDE) genes illustrate the importance of studying pathogen
      gene essentiality in polymicrobial communities.

PMID- 28555627
TI  - Amazonian forest-savanna bistability and human impact.
AB  - A bimodal distribution of tropical tree cover at intermediate precipitation
      levels has been presented as evidence of fire-induced bistability. Here we
      subdivide satellite vegetation data into those from human-unaffected areas and
      those from regions close to human-cultivated zones. Bimodality is found to be
      almost absent in the unaffected regions, whereas it is significantly enhanced
      close to cultivated zones. Assuming higher logging rates closer to cultivated
      zones and spatial diffusion of fire, our spatiotemporal mathematical model
      reproduces these patterns. Given a gradient of climatic and edaphic factors,
      rather than bistability there is a predictable spatial boundary, a Maxwell point,
      that separates regions where forest and savanna states are naturally selected.
      While bimodality can hence be explained by anthropogenic edge effects and natural
      spatial heterogeneity, a narrow range of bimodality remaining in the human
      unaffected data indicates that there is still bistability, although on smaller
      scales than claimed previously.

PMID- 28555626
TI  - Discovery of extremely halophilic, methyl-reducing euryarchaea provides insights
      into the evolutionary origin of methanogenesis.
AB  - Methanogenic archaea are major players in the global carbon cycle and in the
      biotechnology of anaerobic digestion. The phylum Euryarchaeota includes diverse
      groups of methanogens that are interspersed with non-methanogenic lineages. So
      far, methanogens inhabiting hypersaline environments have been identified only
      within the order Methanosarcinales. We report the discovery of a deep
      phylogenetic lineage of extremophilic methanogens in hypersaline lakes and
      present analysis of two nearly complete genomes from this group. Within the
      phylum Euryarchaeota, these isolates form a separate, class-level lineage
      'Methanonatronarchaeia' that is most closely related to the class Halobacteria.
      Similar to the Halobacteria, 'Methanonatronarchaeia' are extremely halophilic and
      do not accumulate organic osmoprotectants. The high intracellular concentration
      of potassium implies that 'Methanonatronarchaeia' employ the 'salt-in'
      osmoprotection strategy. These methanogens are heterotrophic methyl-reducers that
      use C1-methylated compounds as electron acceptors and formate or hydrogen as
      electron donors. The genomes contain an incomplete and apparently inactivated set
      of genes encoding the upper branch of methyl group oxidation to CO2 as well as
      membrane-bound heterodisulfide reductase and cytochromes. These features
      differentiate 'Methanonatronarchaeia' from all known methyl-reducing methanogens.
      The discovery of extremely halophilic, methyl-reducing methanogens related to
      haloarchaea provides insights into the origin of methanogenesis and shows that
      the strategies employed by methanogens to thrive in salt-saturating conditions
      are not limited to the classical methylotrophic pathway.

PMID- 28555628
TI  - Morphogenesis of liquid crystal topological defects during the nematic-smectic A
      phase transition.
AB  - The liquid crystalline phases of matter each possess distinct types of defects
      that have drawn great interest in areas such as topology, self-assembly and
      material micropatterning. However, relatively little is known about how defects
      in one liquid crystalline phase arise from defects or deformations in another
      phase upon crossing a phase transition. Here, we directly examine defects in the
      in situ thermal phase transition from nematic to smectic A in hybrid-aligned
      liquid crystal droplets on water substrates, using experimental, theoretical and
      numerical analyses. The hybrid-aligned nematic droplet spontaneously generates
      boojum defects. During cooling, toric focal conic domains arise through a
      sequence of morphological transformations involving nematic stripes and locally
      aligned focal conic domains. This simple experiment reveals a surprisingly
      complex pathway by which very different types of defects may be related across
      the nematic-smectic A phase transition, and presents new possibilities for
      controlled deformation and patterning of liquid crystals.

PMID- 28555629
TI  - Electric field imaging of single atoms.
AB  - In scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), single atoms can be imaged
      by detecting electrons scattered through high angles using post-specimen, annular
      type detectors. Recently, it has been shown that the atomic-scale electric field
      of both the positive atomic nuclei and the surrounding negative electrons within
      crystalline materials can be probed by atomic-resolution differential phase
      contrast STEM. Here we demonstrate the real-space imaging of the (projected)
      atomic electric field distribution inside single Au atoms, using sub-A spatial
      resolution STEM combined with a high-speed segmented detector. We directly
      visualize that the electric field distribution (blurred by the sub-A size
      electron probe) drastically changes within the single Au atom in a shape that
      relates to the spatial variation of total charge density within the atom. Atomic
      resolution electric field mapping with single-atom sensitivity enables us to
      examine their detailed internal and boundary structures.

PMID- 28555632
TI  - Corrigendum: Eluxadoline Efficacy in IBS-D Patients Who Report Prior Loperamide
      Use.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ajg.2017.72.

PMID- 28555631
TI  - The Conversion of Planned Colonoscopy to Sigmoidoscopy and the Effect of this
      Practice on the Measurement of Quality Indicators.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A cecal intubation rate (CIR) of >90% is a well-accepted quality
      indicator of colonoscopy and is consequently monitored within endoscopy units.
      Endoscopists' desire to meet this target may mean that incomplete colonoscopies
      are recorded as flexible sigmoidoscopies. The aim of this study was to examine
      whether the conversion of requested colonoscopies is a clinically significant
      phenomenon and whether this impacts upon the measurement of quality indicators.
      METHODS: A retrospective review of all flexible sigmoidoscopies performed between
      1 January 2015 and 31 December 2015 at Nottingham University Hospitals, Sheffield
      Teaching Hospitals, and Cambridge University Hospitals was performed. Where a
      colonoscopy was requested but a flexible sigmoidoscopy performed, the patient's
      records and endoscopy reports were reviewed to determine whether this conversion
      was decided before the start of the procedure and documented. RESULTS: During the
      12-month period, 6,839 flexible sigmoidoscopies were performed by 125
      endoscopists. The original requests of 149 sigmoidoscopies could not be retrieved
      and were therefore excluded from this analysis. Of the 6,690 sigmoidoscopy
      requests reviewed, 2.8% (n=190) procedures were originally requested as a
      colonoscopy. On review of patient records, 85 conversions were appropriate
      according to pre-defined criteria. However, 105 conversions were deemed
      inappropriate, occurring in patients who had a valid documented indication for
      colonoscopy and had undergone full bowel preparation. The most common reasons
      cited included poor bowel preparation (n=37), technically challenging procedure
      (n=24), at the endoscopist's discretion based on clinical factors (n=21), and
      obstructing patology (n=8). A clear reason for conversion was not apparent in 11
      cases. During the study period, 21,271 colonoscopies were performed and so
      conversions represent 0.45% of the total requests. When inappropriate conversions
      were included in individuals' performance data, 15 endoscopists fell to <=90%
      target cecal intubation target. CONCLUSIONS: A small, but significant number of
      colonoscopies are converted to flexible sigmoidoscopies at the time of the
      procedure. This study demonstrates the conversion of colonoscopy to sigmoidoscopy
      as being a potential limitation of relying on CIR alone. Endoscopy units should
      consider monitoring the rate of inappropriate conversions to ensure quality.

PMID- 28555634
TI  - Erratum: Positive PET in a Patient With Esophageal Leiomyoma.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ajg.2016.205.

PMID- 28555630
TI  - Colorectal Cancer Screening: Recommendations for Physicians and Patients from the
      U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - This document updates the colorectal cancer (CRC) screening recommendations of
      the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force of Colorectal Cancer (MSTF), which represents
      the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Gastroenterological
      Association, and The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. CRC
      screening tests are ranked in 3 tiers based on performance features, costs, and
      practical considerations. The first-tier tests are colonoscopy every 10 years and
      annual fecal immunochemical test (FIT). Colonoscopy and FIT are recommended as
      the cornerstones of screening regardless of how screening is offered. Thus, in a
      sequential approach based on colonoscopy offered first, FIT should be offered to
      patients who decline colonoscopy. Colonoscopy and FIT are recommended as tests of
      choice when multiple options are presented as alternatives. A risk-stratified
      approach is also appropriate, with FIT screening in populations with an estimated
      low prevalence of advanced neoplasia and colonoscopy screening in high prevalence
      populations. The second-tier tests include CT colonography every 5 years, the FIT
      fecal DNA test every 3 years, and flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 to 10 years.
      These tests are appropriate screening tests, but each has disadvantages relative
      to the tier 1 tests. Because of limited evidence and current obstacles to use,
      capsule colonoscopy every 5 years is a third-tier test. We suggest that the
      Septin9 serum assay (Epigenomics, Seattle, Wash) not be used for screening.
      Screening should begin at age 50 years in average-risk persons, except in African
      Americans in whom limited evidence supports screening at 45 years. CRC incidence
      is rising in persons under age 50, and thorough diagnostic evaluation of young
      persons with suspected colorectal bleeding is recommended. Discontinuation of
      screening should be considered when persons up to date with screening, who have
      prior negative screening (particularly colonoscopy), reach age 75 or have <10
      years of life expectancy. Persons without prior screening should be considered
      for screening up to age 85, depending on age and comorbidities. Persons with a
      family history of CRC or a documented advanced adenoma in a first-degree relative
      age <60 years or 2 first-degree relatives with these findings at any age are
      recommended to undergo screening by colonoscopy every 5 years, beginning 10 years
      before the age at diagnosis of the youngest affected relative or age 40,
      whichever is earlier. Persons with a single first-degree relative diagnosed at
      >=60 years with CRC or an advanced adenoma can be offered average-risk screening
      options beginning at age 40 years.

PMID- 28555633
TI  - Low Birthweight Increases the Likelihood of Severe Steatosis in Pediatric Non
      Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Small for gestational age (SGA) is associated with an increased risk
      of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Our aim was to investigate the
      correlation of birthweight with the severity of liver damage in a large cohort of
      children with NAFLD. METHODS: Two hundred and eighty-eight consecutive Caucasian
      Italian overweight/obese children with biopsy-proven NAFLD were included in the
      study. We examined the relative association of each histological feature of NAFLD
      with metabolic alterations, insulin-resistance, I148M polymorphism in the patatin
      like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) gene, and birthweight
      relative to gestational age. RESULTS: In the whole NAFLD cohort, 12.2% of
      patients were SGA, 62.8% appropriate for gestational age (AGA), and 25% large for
      gestational age (LGA). SGA children had a higher prevalence of severe steatosis
      (69%) and severe portal inflammation (14%) compared with the AGA and LGA groups.
      Notably, severe steatosis (>66%) was decreasing from SGA to AGA and LGA, whereas
      the prevalence of moderate steatosis (33-66%) was similar in three groups. The
      prevalence of type 1 NAFLD is higher in the LGA group with respect to the other
      two groups (25% vs.5.2% vs.9.4%), whereas the SGA group shows a higher prevalence
      of overlap type (85.8%) with respect to the LGA group (51.4%) but not compared
      with the AGA group (75%). At multivariable regression analysis, SGA at birth
      increased fourfold the likelihood of severe steatosis (odds ratio (OR) 4.0, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) 1.43-10.9, P=0.008) and threefold the likelihood of
      NAFLD Activity Score (NAS)>=5 (OR 2.98, 95% CI 1.06-8.33, P=0.037) independently
      of homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and PNPLA3 genotype. The
      PNPLA3-CC wild-type genotype was the strongest independent predictor of the
      absence of significant fibrosis (OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.13-0.52, P=<0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: In children with NAFLD, the risk of severe steatosis is increased by
      SGA at birth, independent of and in addition to other powerful risk factors
      (insulin-resistance and I148M variant of the PNPLA3 gene).

PMID- 28555635
TI  - The Association between Distal Findings and Proximal Colorectal Neoplasia: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Whether screening participants with distal hyperplastic polyps (HPs)
      detected by flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) should be followed by subsequent
      colonoscopy is controversial. We evaluated the association between distal HPs and
      proximal neoplasia (PN)/advanced proximal neoplasia (APN) in asymptomatic,
      average-risk patients. METHODS: We searched Ovid Medline, EMBASE, and the
      Cochrane Library from inception to 30 June 2016 and included all screening
      studies that examined the relationship between different distal findings and
      PN/APN. Data were independently extracted by two reviewers with disagreements
      resolved by a third reviewer. We pooled absolute risks and odds ratios (ORs) with
      a random effects meta-analysis. Seven subgroup analyses were performed according
      to study characteristics. Heterogeneity was characterized with the I2 statistics.
      RESULTS: We analyzed 28 studies (104,961 subjects). When compared with normal
      distal findings, distal HP was not associated with PN (OR=1.16, 95% confidence
      interval (CI)=0.89-1.51, P=0.14, I2=40%) or APN (OR=1.09, 95% CI=0.87-1.36,
      P=0.39, I2=5%), while subjects with distal non-advanced or advanced adenoma had
      higher odds of PN/APN. Higher odds of PN/APN were observed for more severe distal
      lesions. Weaker association between distal and proximal findings was noticed in
      studies with higher quality, larger sample size, population-based design, and
      more stringent endoscopy quality-control measures. The Egger's regression tests
      showed all P>0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Distal HP is not associated with PN/APN in
      asymptomatic screening population when compared with normal distal findings.
      Hence, the presence of distal HP alone detected by FS does not automatically
      indicate colonoscopy referral for all screening participants, as other risk
      factors of PN/APN should be considered.

PMID- 28555637
TI  - Sea-level records from the U.S. mid-Atlantic constrain Laurentide Ice Sheet
      extent during Marine Isotope Stage 3.
AB  - The U.S. mid-Atlantic sea-level record is sensitive to the history of the
      Laurentide Ice Sheet as the coastline lies along the ice sheet's peripheral
      bulge. However, paleo sea-level markers on the present-day shoreline of Virginia
      and North Carolina dated to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, from 50 to 35 ka, are
      surprisingly high for this glacial interval, and remain unexplained by previous
      models of ice age adjustment or other local (for example, tectonic) effects.
      Here, we reconcile this sea-level record using a revised model of glacial
      isostatic adjustment characterized by a peak global mean sea level during MIS 3
      of approximately -40 m, and far less ice volume within the eastern sector of the
      Laurentide Ice Sheet than traditional reconstructions for this interval. We
      conclude that the Laurentide Ice Sheet experienced a phase of very rapid growth
      in the 15 kyr leading into the Last Glacial Maximum, thus highlighting the
      potential of mid-field sea-level records to constrain areal extent of ice cover
      during glacial intervals with sparse geological observables.

PMID- 28555636
TI  - Pyk2 modulates hippocampal excitatory synapses and contributes to cognitive
      deficits in a Huntington's disease model.
AB  - The structure and function of spines and excitatory synapses are under the
      dynamic control of multiple signalling networks. Although tyrosine
      phosphorylation is involved, its regulation and importance are not well
      understood. Here we study the role of Pyk2, a non-receptor calcium-dependent
      protein-tyrosine kinase highly expressed in the hippocampus. Hippocampal-related
      learning and CA1 long-term potentiation are severely impaired in Pyk2-deficient
      mice and are associated with alterations in NMDA receptors, PSD-95 and dendritic
      spines. In cultured hippocampal neurons, Pyk2 has autophosphorylation-dependent
      and -independent roles in determining PSD-95 enrichment and spines density. Pyk2
      levels are decreased in the hippocampus of individuals with Huntington and in the
      R6/1 mouse model of the disease. Normalizing Pyk2 levels in the hippocampus of
      R6/1 mice rescues memory deficits, spines pathology and PSD-95 localization. Our
      results reveal a role for Pyk2 in spine structure and synaptic function, and
      suggest that its deficit contributes to Huntington's disease cognitive
      impairments.

PMID- 28555638
TI  - Recent enhancement of central Pacific El Nino variability relative to last eight
      centuries.
AB  - The far-reaching impacts of central Pacific El Nino events on global climate
      differ appreciably from those associated with eastern Pacific El Nino events.
      Central Pacific El Nino events may become more frequent in coming decades as
      atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations rise, but the instrumental record of
      central Pacific sea-surface temperatures is too short to detect potential trends.
      Here we present an annually resolved reconstruction of NINO4 sea-surface
      temperature, located in the central equatorial Pacific, based on oxygen isotopic
      time series from Taiwan tree cellulose that span from 1190 AD to 2007 AD. Our
      reconstruction indicates that relatively warm Nino4 sea-surface temperature
      values over the late twentieth century are accompanied by higher levels of
      interannual variability than observed in other intervals of the 818-year-long
      reconstruction. Our results imply that anthropogenic greenhouse forcing may be
      driving an increase in central Pacific El Nino-Southern Oscillation variability
      and/or its hydrological impacts, consistent with recent modelling studies.

PMID- 28555640
TI  - Attosecond interferometry with self-amplified spontaneous emission of a free
      electron laser.
AB  - Light-phase-sensitive techniques, such as coherent multidimensional spectroscopy,
      are well-established in a broad spectral range, already spanning from radio
      frequencies in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to visible and ultraviolet
      wavelengths in nonlinear optics with table-top lasers. In these cases, the
      ability to tailor the phases of electromagnetic waves with high precision is
      essential. Here we achieve phase control of extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a
      free-electron laser (FEL) on the attosecond timescale in a Michelson-type all
      reflective interferometric autocorrelator. By varying the relative phase of the
      generated pulse replicas with sub-cycle precision we observe the field
      interference, that is, the light-wave oscillation with a period of 129 as. The
      successful transfer of a powerful optical method towards short-wavelength FEL
      science and technology paves the way towards utilization of advanced nonlinear
      methodologies even at partially coherent soft X-ray FEL sources that rely on self
      amplified spontaneous emission.

PMID- 28555639
TI  - Clonally stable Vkappa allelic choice instructs Igkappa repertoire.
AB  - Although much has been done to understand how rearrangement of the Igkappa locus
      is regulated during B-cell development, little is known about the way the
      variable (V) segments themselves are selected. Here we show, using B6/Cast hybrid
      pre-B-cell clones, that a limited number of V segments on each allele is
      stochastically activated as characterized by the appearance of non-coding RNA and
      histone modifications. The activation states are clonally distinct, stable across
      cell division and developmentally important in directing the Ig repertoire upon
      differentiation. Using a new approach of allelic ATAC-seq, we demonstrate that
      the Igkappa V alleles have differential chromatin accessibility, which may serve
      as the underlying basis of clonal maintenance at this locus, as well as other
      instances of monoallelic expression throughout the genome. These findings
      highlight a new level of immune system regulation that optimizes gene diversity.

PMID- 28555641
TI  - A parts list for fungal cellulosomes revealed by comparative genomics.
AB  - Cellulosomes are large, multiprotein complexes that tether plant biomass
      degrading enzymes together for improved hydrolysis1. These complexes were first
      described in anaerobic bacteria, where species-specific dockerin domains mediate
      the assembly of enzymes onto cohesin motifs interspersed within protein
      scaffolds1. The versatile protein assembly mechanism conferred by the bacterial
      cohesin-dockerin interaction is now a standard design principle for synthetic
      biology2,3. For decades, analogous structures have been reported in anaerobic
      fungi, which are known to assemble by sequence-divergent non-catalytic dockerin
      domains (NCDDs)4. However, the components, modular assembly mechanism and
      functional role of fungal cellulosomes remain unknown5,6. Here, we describe a
      comprehensive set of proteins critical to fungal cellulosome assembly, including
      conserved scaffolding proteins unique to the Neocallimastigomycota. High-quality
      genomes of the anaerobic fungi Anaeromyces robustus, Neocallimastix californiae
      and Piromyces finnis were assembled with long-read, single-molecule technology.
      Genomic analysis coupled with proteomic validation revealed an average of 312
      NCDD-containing proteins per fungal strain, which were overwhelmingly
      carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes), with 95 large fungal scaffoldins
      identified across four genera that bind to NCDDs. Fungal dockerin and scaffoldin
      domains have no similarity to their bacterial counterparts, yet several catalytic
      domains originated via horizontal gene transfer with gut bacteria. However, the
      biocatalytic activity of anaerobic fungal cellulosomes is expanded by the
      inclusion of GH3, GH6 and GH45 enzymes. These findings suggest that the fungal
      cellulosome is an evolutionarily chimaeric structure-an independently evolved
      fungal complex that co-opted useful activities from bacterial neighbours within
      the gut microbiome.

PMID- 28555643
TI  - Development of an orally available inhibitor of CLK1 for skipping a mutated
      dystrophin exon in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal progressive muscle-wasting disease.
      Various attempts are underway to convert severe DMD to a milder phenotype by
      modulating the splicing of the dystrophin gene and restoring its expression. In
      our previous study, we reported TG003, an inhibitor of CDC2-like kinase 1 (CLK1),
      as a splice-modifying compound for exon-skipping therapy; however, its
      metabolically unstable feature hinders clinical application. Here, we show an
      orally available inhibitor of CLK1, named TG693, which promoted the skipping of
      the endogenous mutated exon 31 in DMD patient-derived cells and increased the
      production of the functional exon 31-skipped dystrophin protein. Oral
      administration of TG693 to mice inhibited the phosphorylation of serine/arginine
      rich proteins, which are the substrates of CLK1, and modulated pre-mRNA splicing
      in the skeletal muscle. Thus, TG693 is a splicing modulator for the mutated exon
      31 of the dystrophin gene in vivo, possibly possessing therapeutic potential for
      DMD patients.

PMID- 28555642
TI  - TGF-beta activation by bone marrow-derived thrombospondin-1 causes Schistosoma-
      and hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an obstructive disease of the
      precapillary pulmonary arteries. Schistosomiasis-associated PAH shares altered
      vascular TGF-beta signalling with idiopathic, heritable and autoimmune-associated
      etiologies; moreover, TGF-beta blockade can prevent experimental pulmonary
      hypertension (PH) in pre-clinical models. TGF-beta is regulated at the level of
      activation, but how TGF-beta is activated in this disease is unknown. Here we
      show TGF-beta activation by thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is both required and
      sufficient for the development of PH in Schistosoma-exposed mice. Following
      Schistosoma exposure, TSP-1 levels in the lung increase, via recruitment of
      circulating monocytes, while TSP-1 inhibition or knockout bone marrow prevents
      TGF-beta activation and protects against PH development. TSP-1 blockade also
      prevents the PH in a second model, chronic hypoxia. Lastly, the plasma
      concentration of TSP-1 is significantly increased in subjects with scleroderma
      following PAH development. Targeting TSP-1-dependent activation of TGF-beta could
      thus be a therapeutic approach in TGF-beta-dependent vascular diseases.

PMID- 28555644
TI  - Coral calcification in a changing World and the interactive dynamics of pH and
      DIC upregulation.
AB  - Coral calcification is dependent on the mutualistic partnership between
      endosymbiotic zooxanthellae and the coral host. Here, using newly developed
      geochemical proxies (delta11B and B/Ca), we show that Porites corals from natural
      reef environments exhibit a close (r2 ~0.9) antithetic relationship between
      dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and pH of the corals' calcifying fluid (cf). The
      highest DICcf (~ * 3.2 seawater) is found during summer, consistent with
      thermal/light enhancement of metabolically (zooxanthellae) derived carbon, while
      the highest pHcf (~8.5) occurs in winter during periods of low DICcf (~ * 2
      seawater). These opposing changes in DICcf and pHcf are shown to maintain
      oversaturated but stable levels of carbonate saturation (Omegacf ~ * 5 seawater),
      the key parameter controlling coral calcification. These findings are in marked
      contrast to artificial experiments and show that pHcf upregulation occurs largely
      independent of changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, and hence ocean
      acidification, but is highly vulnerable to thermally induced stress from global
      warming.

PMID- 28555646
TI  - Geomagnetic spikes on the core-mantle boundary.
AB  - Extreme variations of Earth's magnetic field occurred in the Levant region around
      1000 BC, when the field intensity rapidly rose and fell by a factor of 2. No
      coherent link currently exists between this intensity spike and the global field
      produced by the core geodynamo. Here we show that the Levantine spike must span
      >60 degrees  longitude at Earth's surface if it originates from the core-mantle
      boundary (CMB). Several low intensity data are incompatible with this geometric
      bound, though age uncertainties suggest these data could have sampled the field
      before the spike emerged. Models that best satisfy energetic and geometric
      constraints produce CMB spikes 8-22 degrees  wide, peaking at O(100) mT. We
      suggest that the Levantine spike reflects an intense CMB flux patch that grew in
      place before migrating northwest, contributing to growth of the dipole field.
      Estimates of Ohmic heating suggest that diffusive processes likely govern the
      ultimate decay of geomagnetic spikes.

PMID- 28555645
TI  - A promoter-proximal transcript targeted by genetic polymorphism controls E
      cadherin silencing in human cancers.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs are emerging players in the epigenetic machinery with key
      roles in development and diseases. Here we uncover a complex network comprising a
      promoter-associated noncoding RNA (paRNA), microRNA and epigenetic regulators
      that controls transcription of the tumour suppressor E-cadherin in epithelial
      cancers. E-cadherin silencing relies on the formation of a complex between the
      paRNA and microRNA-guided Argonaute 1 that, together, recruit SUV39H1 and induce
      repressive chromatin modifications in the gene promoter. A single nucleotide
      polymorphism (rs16260) linked to increased cancer risk alters the secondary
      structure of the paRNA, with the risk allele facilitating the assembly of the
      microRNA-guided Argonaute 1 complex and gene silencing. Collectively, these data
      demonstrate the role of a paRNA in E-cadherin regulation and the impact of a
      noncoding genetic variant on its function. Deregulation of paRNA-based epigenetic
      networks may contribute to cancer and other diseases making them promising
      targets for drug discovery.

PMID- 28555648
TI  - Public health: Public investment in childhood health: worth the cost.

PMID- 28555649
TI  - Basic research: PHD inhibitors miss their mark.

PMID- 28555650
TI  - Development: Non-muscle myosin II in kidney morphogenesis.

PMID- 28555647
TI  - JunB is essential for IL-23-dependent pathogenicity of Th17 cells.
AB  - CD4+ T-helper cells producing interleukin-17 (IL-17), known as T-helper 17 (TH17)
      cells, comprise heterogeneous subsets that exhibit distinct pathogenicity.
      Although pathogenic and non-pathogenic TH17 subsets share a common RORgammat
      dependent TH17 transcriptional programme, transcriptional regulatory mechanisms
      specific to each of these subsets are mostly unknown. Here we show that the AP-1
      transcription factor JunB is critical for TH17 pathogenicity. JunB, which is
      induced by IL-6, is essential for expression of RORgammat and IL-23 receptor by
      facilitating DNA binding of BATF at the Rorc locus in IL-23-dependent pathogenic
      TH17 cells, but not in TGF-beta1-dependent non-pathogenic TH17 cells. Junb
      deficient T cells fail to induce TH17-mediated autoimmune encephalomyelitis and
      colitis. However, JunB deficiency does not affect the abundance of gut-resident
      non-pathogenic TH17 cells. The selective requirement of JunB for IL-23-dependent
      TH17 pathogenicity suggests that the JunB-dependent pathway may be a therapeutic
      target for autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28555651
TI  - Heart failure: Macrophages take centre stage in the heart-brain-kidney axis.

PMID- 28555653
TI  - Epidemiology: Surveying kidney care worldwide.

PMID- 28555654
TI  - Vascular disease: Trialling stem cell treatment for vascular disease.

PMID- 28555655
TI  - Designing lead-free antiferroelectrics for energy storage.
AB  - Dielectric capacitors, although presenting faster charging/discharging rates and
      better stability compared with supercapacitors or batteries, are limited in
      applications due to their low energy density. Antiferroelectric (AFE) compounds,
      however, show great promise due to their atypical polarization-versus-electric
      field curves. Here we report our first-principles-based theoretical predictions
      that Bi1-xRxFeO3 systems (R being a lanthanide, Nd in this work) can potentially
      allow high energy densities (100-150 J cm-3) and efficiencies (80-88%) for
      electric fields that may be within the range of feasibility upon experimental
      advances (2-3 MV cm-1). In addition, a simple model is derived to describe the
      energy density and efficiency of a general AFE material, providing a framework to
      assess the effect on the storage properties of variations in doping, electric
      field magnitude and direction, epitaxial strain, temperature and so on, which can
      facilitate future search of AFE materials for energy storage.

PMID- 28555656
TI  - Overcoming the crystallization and designability issues in the ultrastable
      zirconium phosphonate framework system.
AB  - Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) based on zirconium phosphonates exhibit superior
      chemical stability suitable for applications under harsh conditions. These
      compounds mostly exist as poorly crystallized precipitates, and precise
      structural information has therefore remained elusive. Furthermore, a zero
      dimensional zirconium phosphonate cluster acting as secondary building unit has
      been lacking, leading to poor designability in this system. Herein, we overcome
      these challenges and obtain single crystals of three zirconium phosphonates that
      are suitable for structural analysis. These compounds are built by previously
      unknown isolated zirconium phosphonate clusters and exhibit combined high
      porosity and ultrastability even in fuming acids. SZ-2 possesses the largest void
      volume recorded in zirconium phosphonates and SZ-3 represents the most porous
      crystalline zirconium phosphonate and the only porous MOF material reported to
      survive in aqua regia. SZ-2 and SZ-3 can effectively remove uranyl ions from
      aqueous solutions over a wide pH range, and we have elucidated the removal
      mechanism.

PMID- 28555652
TI  - Reducing the costs of chronic kidney disease while delivering quality health
      care: a call to action.
AB  - The treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and of end-stage renal disease
      (ESRD) imposes substantial societal costs. Expenditure is highest for renal
      replacement therapy (RRT), especially in-hospital haemodialysis. Redirection
      towards less expensive forms of RRT (peritoneal dialysis, home haemodialysis) or
      kidney transplantation should decrease financial pressure. However, costs for CKD
      are not limited to RRT, but also include nonrenal health-care costs, costs not
      related to health care, and costs for patients with CKD who are not yet receiving
      RRT. Even if patients with CKD or ESRD could be given the least expensive
      therapies, costs would decrease only marginally. We therefore propose a
      consistent and sustainable approach focusing on prevention. Before a preventive
      strategy is favoured, however, authorities should carefully analyse the cost to
      benefit ratio of each strategy. Primary prevention of CKD is more important than
      secondary prevention, as many other related chronic diseases, such as diabetes
      mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, and
      pulmonary disorders could also be prevented. Primary prevention largely consists
      of lifestyle changes that will reduce global societal costs and, more
      importantly, result in a healthy, active, and long-lived population.
      Nephrologists need to collaborate closely with other sectors and governments, to
      reach these aims.

PMID- 28555657
TI  - Associating cellular epigenetic models with human phenotypes.
AB  - Epigenetic association studies have been carried out to test the hypothesis that
      environmental perturbations trigger cellular reprogramming, with downstream
      effects on cellular function and phenotypes. There have now been numerous studies
      of the potential molecular mediators of epigenetic changes by epigenome-wide
      association studies (EWAS). However, a challenge for the field is the
      interpretation of the results obtained. We describe a second-generation EWAS
      approach, which focuses on the possible cellular models of epigenetic
      perturbations, studied by rigorous analysis and interpretation of genomic data.
      Thus refocused, epigenetics research aligns with the field of functional genomics
      to provide insights into environmental and genetic influences on phenotypic
      variation in humans.

PMID- 28555660
TI  - MiCASA is a new method for quantifying cellular organization.
AB  - While many tools exist for identifying and quantifying individual cell types, few
      methods are available to assess the relationships between cell types in organs
      and tissues and how these relationships change during aging or disease states. We
      present a quantitative method for evaluating cellular organization, using the
      mouse thymus as a test organ. The thymus is the primary lymphoid organ
      responsible for generating T cells in vertebrates, and its proper structure and
      organization is essential for optimal function. Our method, Multitaper Circularly
      Averaged Spectral Analysis (MiCASA), identifies differences in the tissue-level
      organization with high sensitivity, including defining a novel type of phenotype
      by measuring variability as a specific parameter. MiCASA provides a novel and
      easily implemented quantitative tool for assessing cellular organization.

PMID- 28555661
TI  - Risk factors for severe dysphagia in acute cervical spinal cord injury.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective, consecutive case series. OBJECTIVES: The
      relationship between dysphagia and acute cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) has
      been recently reported; however, the cause and mechanism of dysphagia are still
      not well understood. No definitive factors have yet been established according to
      multivariate analysis. The objective is to elucidate the incidence and risk
      factors of dysphagia in patients with acute CSCI. SETTING: Spinal Injuries
      Center, Fukuoka, Japan. METHODS: A total of 298 patients with acute CSCI, who
      were evaluated for neurological impairment within 3 days after injury, were
      reviewed. CSCI patients with tube dependence due to obvious aspiration after
      injury were defined as having dysphagia. The factors postulated to increase the
      risk for dysphagia, including the patient's age, sex, American Spinal Injury
      Association (ASIA) impairment scale at 3 days after injury, level of injury,
      tracheostomy and operative treatment, were analyzed using a multiple logistic
      regression model. RESULTS: Of 298 patients, 21 were suffering from severe
      dysphagia after acute CSCI (7.0%). Of these 21 patients, 12 (57%) had CSCI at the
      C3-C4 level. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that old age
      (>72 years), severe ASIA impairment scale (A or B) and presence of tracheostomy
      were significant risk factors of dysphagia. Level of injury ?C3-C4 was not a
      significant risk factor after adjustment for several potential confounders.
      CONCLUSION: The incidence of severe dysphagia associated with aspiration was 7%.
      Old age, severe paralysis and presence of tracheostomy may be the risk factors
      for dysphagia. The risk for dysphagia should be evaluated to prevent aspiration
      pneumonia.

PMID- 28555659
TI  - Human Y-chromosome variation in the genome-sequencing era.
AB  - The properties of the human Y chromosome - namely, male specificity, haploidy and
      escape from crossing over - make it an unusual component of the genome, and have
      led to its genetic variation becoming a key part of studies of human evolution,
      population history, genealogy, forensics and male medical genetics. Next
      generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have driven recent progress in these
      areas. In particular, NGS has yielded direct estimates of mutation rates, and an
      unbiased and calibrated molecular phylogeny that has unprecedented detail.
      Moreover, the availability of direct-to-consumer NGS services is fuelling a rise
      of 'citizen scientists', whose interest in resequencing their own Y chromosomes
      is generating a wealth of new data.

PMID- 28555662
TI  - Event centrality as a unique predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms and
      perceived disability following spinal cord injury.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving completion of self
      report measures. OBJECTIVES: Individuals who acquire a spinal cord injury (SCI)
      face numerous physical and psychological challenges, with the former receiving
      considerable less attention during the rehabilitation process. In this article,
      we examined event centrality as a unique predictor of psychological outcomes in a
      sample of individuals receiving rehabilitation for SCI. Event centrality refers
      to the extent to which individuals construe a stressful experience as a core part
      of their identity. In samples of individuals exposed to psychological traumas
      (for example, sexual assault or military combat), event centrality has emerged as
      a consistent and powerful predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs).
      This is the first study to examine event centrality in an SCI sample. SETTING:
      Inpatient rehabilitation program in a large urban city in the Southwestern United
      States. METHODS: A sample of 55 participants in rehabilitation for a recent SCI
      completed measures of event centrality, PTSS, depressed mood and perceived
      disability. RESULTS: Event centrality was significantly related to perceived
      disability (r=0.48) and PTSS (r=0.31) and accounted for unique variance in these
      two outcomes after controlling for demographics and depressed mood. CONCLUSION:
      Event centrality is common among individuals with SCI and may be a unique
      contributor to worse psychological and functional outcomes. We hope our findings
      will alert health-care professionals to the importance of event centrality.
      SPONSORSHIP: This study was supported by a grant from the Danish National
      Research Foundation (DNRF89).

PMID- 28555658
TI  - TET-mediated active DNA demethylation: mechanism, function and beyond.
AB  - In mammals, DNA methylation in the form of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) can be actively
      reversed to unmodified cytosine (C) through TET dioxygenase-mediated oxidation of
      5mC to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5
      carboxylcytosine (5caC), followed by replication-dependent dilution or thymine
      DNA glycosylase (TDG)-dependent base excision repair. In the past few years,
      biochemical and structural studies have revealed mechanistic insights into how
      TET and TDG mediate active DNA demethylation. Additionally, many regulatory
      mechanisms of this process have been identified. Technological advances in
      mapping and tracing the oxidized forms of 5mC allow further dissection of their
      functions. Furthermore, the biological functions of active DNA demethylation in
      various biological contexts have also been revealed. In this Review, we summarize
      the recent advances and highlight key unanswered questions.

PMID- 28555663
TI  - Comparison of three methods of penile vibratory stimulation for semen retrieval
      in men with spinal cord injury.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, three-way crossover design. OBJECTIVE: Penile
      vibratory stimulation (PVS) is recommended as the first line of treatment for
      semen retrieval in anejaculatory men with spinal cord injury (SCI). This study
      compared ejaculatory success rates and patient preference for three methods of
      PVS within the same group of men with SCI. SETTING: Major medical university.
      METHODS: Fifteen men with SCI each received three methods of PVS. Method 1 (M1):
      applying one FertiCare Personal device to the dorsum or frenulum of the glans
      penis; Method 2 (M2): 'sandwiching' the glans penis between two FertiCare
      devices; Method 3 (M3): sandwiching the glans penis between the two vibrating
      surfaces of the Viberect-X3 device. The order of M1, M2 and M3 was varied to
      control for sequencing effects. Following each PVS trial, subjects rated their
      experience on a questionnaire with scaled responses. RESULTS: Ejaculation success
      rates were high for each method; however, ejaculation latency was significantly
      longer with M3 compared with M1 or M2. In survey questions about patient
      preference, there were no significant differences between M1 and M2. In contrast,
      M3 was rated lower than M1 and M2 in patient preference. Semen collection may be
      more difficult with the Viberect device. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these
      findings, we recommend attempting PVS with one FertiCare device. If that fails,
      use two FertiCare devices. Although the Viberect-X3 was preferred less by
      patients, it had similar efficacy as the Ferticare vibrator(s) and may be
      suitable for home use by some patients.

PMID- 28555664
TI  - The association between injustice perception and psychological outcomes in an
      inpatient spinal cord injury sample: the mediating effects of anger.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study design involving completion of self-report
      measures. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between perceived injustice,
      post-traumatic stress symptoms and depression in a sample of individuals
      receiving inpatient rehabilitation care following hospitalization for acute
      spinal cord injury (SCI), as well as the mediating role of anger variables.
      SETTING: Inpatient rehabilitation program in a large urban city in the
      Southwestern United States. METHODS: A sample of 53 participants with an average
      of 204.51 days (s.d.=410.67, median=56) post injury occurrence completed measures
      of perceived injustice, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms as well as
      measures of trait anger, state anger, anger inhibition and anger expression.
      RESULTS: Perceived injustice was significantly correlated with depression and
      post-traumatic stress symptoms, and accounted for unique variance in depression
      and post-traumatic stress symptoms when controlling for demographic and injury
      related variables. Anger inhibition was found to mediate the relationship between
      perceived injustice and depression. Trait anger and anger expression were found
      to mediate the relationship between perceived injustice and post-traumatic stress
      symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with previous research, perceived injustice was
      associated with greater depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms. The
      results support previous findings that anger inhibition mediates between
      perceived injustice and depression, and provides novel findings regarding
      mediation of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Results provide preliminary evidence
      for the role of perceived injustice in SCI and potential mechanisms by which it
      may exert its effects.

PMID- 28555665
TI  - International Spinal Cord Injury Core Data Set (version 2.0)-including
      standardization of reporting.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: The study design includes expert opinion, feedback, revisions and
      final consensus. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to present the new
      knowledge obtained since the International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Core Data Set
      (Version 1.0) published in 2006, and describe the adjustments made in Version
      2.0, including standardization of data reporting. SETTING: International.
      METHODS: Comments received from the SCI community were discussed in a working
      group (WG); suggestions from the WG were reviewed and revisions were made. All
      suggested revisions were considered, and a final version was circulated for final
      approval. RESULTS: The International SCI Core Data Set (Version 2.0) consists of
      25 variables. Changes made to this version include the deletion of one variable
      'Total Days Hospitalized' and addition of two variables 'Date of Rehabilitation
      Admission' and 'Date of Death.' The variable 'Injury Etiology' was extended with
      six non-traumatic categories, and corresponding 'Date of Injury' for non
      traumatic cases, was defined as the date of first physician visit for symptoms
      related to spinal cord dysfunction. A category reflecting transgender was added.
      A response category was added to the variable on utilization of ventilatory
      assistance to document the use of continuous positive airway pressure for sleep
      apnea. Other clarifications were made to the text. The reporting of the pediatric
      SCI population was updated as age groups 0-5, 6-12, 13-14, 15-17 and 18-21.
      CONCLUSION: Collection of the core data set should be a basic requirement of all
      studies of SCI to facilitate accurate descriptions of patient populations and
      comparison of results across published studies from around the world.

PMID- 28555666
TI  - The use of the neurologic exam to predict awareness and control of lower urinary
      tract function post SCI.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether T11-L2
      sensation is significantly associated with perception of bladder filling and
      whether S3-S5 sensation is significantly associated with potential for voluntary
      voiding after spinal cord injury (SCI). SETTING: Alabama, United States. METHODS:
      A total of 79 men and women with SCI, and 40 able-bodied (AB) subjects, ages 19
      60, seen in an outpatient academic medical center clinic, underwent International
      Standards for Neurological Classification of SCI (ISNCSCI) assessment along with
      urodynamic testing to assess lower urinary tract (LUT) function. X2 test was
      performed to compare: (1) bladder sensation across T11-L2 groups classified by
      total sensory scores and (2) ability to voluntarily void across S3-S5 scores.
      RESULTS: Persons with greater ability to perceive pinprick and light touch
      sensation in the T11-L2 dermatomes were more likely to perceive bladder filling
      both via self-report and by urodynamics. However, persons with greater sensation
      at T6-T9 and S3-5 also had a greater likelihood of perceiving bladder filling.
      Subjects with greater preservation of sensation in S3-5 reported greater ability
      to initiate and control voiding. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest ISNCSCI results
      along with self-report can be used to predict potential for bladder control.
      SPONSORSHIP: National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

PMID- 28555667
TI  - The reliability of measuring wound undermining in people with spinal cord injury.

PMID- 28555668
TI  - Glucose represses dendritic cell-induced T cell responses.
AB  - Glucose and glycolysis are important for the proinflammatory functions of many
      immune cells, and depletion of glucose in pathological microenvironments is
      associated with defective immune responses. Here we show a contrasting function
      for glucose in dendritic cells (DCs), as glucose represses the proinflammatory
      output of LPS-stimulated DCs and inhibits DC-induced T-cell responses. A glucose
      sensitive signal transduction circuit involving the mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1),
      HIF1alpha and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) coordinates DC metabolism
      and function to limit DC-stimulated T-cell responses. When multiple T cells
      interact with a DC, they compete for nutrients, which can limit glucose
      availability to the DCs. In such DCs, glucose-dependent signalling is inhibited,
      altering DC outputs and enhancing T-cell responses. These data reveal a mechanism
      by which T cells regulate the DC microenvironment to control DC-induced T-cell
      responses and indicate that glucose is an important signal for shaping immune
      responses.

PMID- 28555669
TI  - Rapid mass production of two-dimensional metal oxides and hydroxides via the
      molten salts method.
AB  - Because of their exotic electronic properties and abundant active sites, two
      dimensional (2D) materials have potential in various fields. Pursuing a general
      synthesis methodology of 2D materials and advancing it from the laboratory to
      industry is of great importance. This type of method should be low cost, rapid
      and highly efficient. Here, we report the high-yield synthesis of 2D metal oxides
      and hydroxides via a molten salts method. We obtained a high-yield of 2D ion
      intercalated metal oxides and hydroxides, such as cation-intercalated manganese
      oxides (Na0.55Mn2O4.1.5H2O and K0.27MnO2.0.54H2O), cation-intercalated tungsten
      oxides (Li2WO4 and Na2W4O13), and anion-intercalated metal hydroxides
      (Zn5(OH)8(NO3)2.2H2O and Cu2(OH)3NO3), with a large lateral size and nanometre
      thickness in a short time. Using 2D Na2W4O13 as an electrode, a high performance
      electrochemical supercapacitor is achieved. We anticipate that our method will
      enable new path to the high-yield synthesis of 2D materials for applications in
      energy-related fields and beyond.

PMID- 28555671
TI  - Neuroendrocrine effects on autoimmunity.

PMID- 28555672
TI  - T cell-B cell collaboration.

PMID- 28555674
TI  - NK cell allorecognition.

PMID- 28555675
TI  - Reply to comment of Prof. Artur Czekierdowski.

PMID- 28555673
TI  - The dichotomous nature of T helper 17 cells.
AB  - T helper 17 (TH17) cells have been extensively studied since their discovery 10
      years ago, primarily because of their known pathogenic role in many inflammatory
      diseases. Substantial progress has been made in understanding their development,
      regulation and functional activities, and genome-wide transcriptomic analysis has
      identified regulatory networks, nodes and interactions that provide vital clues
      for further studies. In this Review, we describe recent studies that have
      revealed the dichotomous nature of TH17 cells, which on the one hand allows these
      cells to be pathogenic drivers of inflammatory disorders and on the other hand
      allows them to support the integrity of the intestinal barrier in a non
      inflammatory manner.

PMID- 28555677
TI  - A portable visual detection method based on a target-responsive DNA hydrogel and
      color change of gold nanorods.
AB  - A new method based on a functional DNA crosslinked hydrogel as a target
      responsive unit and gold nanorods (AuNRs) as a multicolor signal readout circuit
      was developed for the sensitive and visual detection of different targets. The
      color variation of the AuNR solution was correlated with the concentration of the
      target. This system can be extended to detect various targets by designing the
      corresponding target-responsive DNA hydrogels.

PMID- 28555680
TI  - Achieving high aspect ratio wrinkles by modifying material network stress.
AB  - Wrinkle aspect ratio, or the amplitude divided by the wavelength, is hindered by
      strain localization transitions when an increasing global compressive stress is
      applied to synthetic material systems. However, many examples from living
      organisms show extremely high aspect ratios, such as gut villi and flower petals.
      We use three experimental approaches to demonstrate that these high aspect ratio
      structures can be achieved by modifying the network stress in the wrinkle
      substrate. We modify the wrinkle stress and effectively delay the strain
      localization transition, such as folding, to larger aspect ratios by using a zero
      stress initial wavy substrate, creating a secondary network with post-curing, or
      using chemical stress relaxation materials. A wrinkle aspect ratio as high as
      0.85, almost three times higher than common values of synthetic wrinkles, is
      achieved, and a quantitative framework is presented to provide understanding the
      different strategies and predictions for future investigations.

PMID- 28555670
TI  - Chemokines in the cancer microenvironment and their relevance in cancer
      immunotherapy.
AB  - The tumour microenvironment is the primary location in which tumour cells and the
      host immune system interact. Different immune cell subsets are recruited into the
      tumour microenvironment via interactions between chemokines and chemokine
      receptors, and these populations have distinct effects on tumour progression and
      therapeutic outcomes. In this Review, we focus on the main chemokines that are
      found in the human tumour microenvironment; we elaborate on their patterns of
      expression, their regulation and their roles in immune cell recruitment and in
      cancer and stromal cell biology, and we consider how they affect cancer immunity
      and tumorigenesis. We also discuss the potential of targeting chemokine networks,
      in combination with other immunotherapies, for the treatment of cancer.

PMID- 28555681
TI  - Monitoring of bacterial film formation and its breakdown with an angular-based
      surface plasmon resonance biosensor.
AB  - Bacterial biofilms are a leading cause of infection in health-care settings.
      Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors stand as valuable tools not only for
      the detection of biological entities and the characterisation of biomaterials but
      also as a suitable means to monitor bacterial film formation. This article
      reports on a proof-of-concept study for the use of an angular-based SPR biosensor
      for the monitoring of bacterial cell growth and biofilm formation and removal
      under the effect of different cleaning agents. The benefit of this custom-made
      SPR instrument is that it records simultaneously both the critical and resonant
      angles. This provides unique information on the growth of bacterial cells which
      is otherwise not obtainable with commonly used intensity-based SPR systems. The
      results clearly showed that a multilayer biofilm can be formed in 48 hours and
      the steps involved can be monitored in real-time with the SPR instrument through
      the measurement of the refractive index change and following the evolution in the
      shape of the SPR curve. The number, the depth and the sharpness of the reflection
      ripples varied as the film became thicker. Simulation results confirmed that the
      number of layers of bacteria affected the number of ripples at the critical
      angle. Real-time monitoring of the film breakdown with three cleaning agents
      indicated that bleach solution at 4.5% was the most effective in disrupting the
      biofilm from the gold sensor. Our overall findings suggest that the SPR biosensor
      with angular modulation presented in this article can perform real-time
      monitoring of biofilm formation and has the potential to be used as a platform to
      test the efficiency of disinfectants.

PMID- 28555682
TI  - Crosslinked shells for nano-assembled capsules: a new encapsulation method for
      smaller Gd3+-loaded capsules with exceedingly high relaxivities.
AB  - Nano-assembled capsules can incorporate large payloads of high relaxivity Gd3+,
      permitting the development of highly detectable molecular imaging agents for MRI.
      A new encapsulating shell, based upon cross-linked peptides, is found to afford
      smaller capsules (127 nm average diameter) with exceptionally high per-Gd3+
      relaxivities (70.7 s-1 mmolal-1).

PMID- 28555683
TI  - Foamed emulsion drainage: flow and trapping of drops.
AB  - Foamed emulsions are ubiquitous in our daily life but the ageing of such systems
      is still poorly understood. In this study we investigate foam drainage and
      measure the evolution of the gas, liquid and oil volume fractions inside the
      foam. We evidence three regimes of ageing. During an initial period of fast
      drainage, both bubbles and drops are very mobile. As the foam stabilises drainage
      proceeds leading to a gradual decrease of the liquid fraction and slowing down of
      drainage. Clusters of oil drops are less sheared, their dynamic viscosity
      increases and drainage slows down even further, until the drops become blocked.
      At this point the oil fraction starts to increase in the continuous phase. The
      foam ageing leads to an increase of the capillary pressure until the oil acts as
      an antifoaming agent and the foam collapses.

PMID- 28555684
TI  - Compression of polymer brushes in the weak interpenetration regime: scaling
      theory and molecular dynamics simulations.
AB  - We employ scaling theory and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to probe the
      compression of the semi-dilute polymer brush bilayers (BBLs) in the weak
      interpenetration (IP) regime. Such a regime is characterized by two layers of
      interacting polymer brushes grafted on opposing planar surfaces having a
      separation dg, such that d0 < dg < 2d0, with d0 being the unperturbed brush
      height. Currently, scaling theories are known for polymer BBLs with a much larger
      degree of IP (i.e., dg < d0) - in such regimes, the brush height can be
      quantified by the corresponding IP length delta. On the other hand, we show that
      in the weak IP regime, the brush height is not solely dictated by delta. We
      develop new scaling theories to show that delta in this weak IP regime is
      different from that in the strong IP regime. Secondly, we establish that the
      compressed brush height in this weakly IP regime can be described as d ~ Nchi
      with chi < 1 and varying monotonically with dg/d0. MD simulations are carried out
      to quantify delta and chi and the results match excellently with our new scaling
      theory predictions. Finally, we establish that our scaling theory can reasonably
      predict the experimentally witnessed variation of the interaction energy
      dictating the compressive force between the interpenetrating brushes in this
      weakly IP regime.

PMID- 28555685
TI  - Towards higher electron mobility in modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs core shell
      nanowires.
AB  - Precise control over the electrical conductivity of semiconductor nanowires is a
      crucial prerequisite for implementation of these nanostructures into novel
      electronic and optoelectronic devices. Advances in our understanding of doping
      mechanisms in nanowires and their influence on electron mobility and radiative
      efficiency are urgently required. Here, we investigate the electronic properties
      of n-type modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs nanowires via optical pump terahertz (THz)
      probe spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy over the temperature range
      5 K-300 K. We directly determine an ionization energy of 6.7 +/- 0.5 meV (T = 52
      K) for the Si donors within the AlGaAs shell that create the modulation doping
      structure. We further elucidate the temperature dependence of the electron
      mobility, photoconductivity lifetime and radiative efficiency, and determine the
      charge-carrier scattering mechanisms that limit electron mobility. We show that
      below the donor ionization temperature, charge scattering is limited by
      interactions with interfaces, leading to an excellent electron mobility of 4360
      +/- 380 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 5 K. Above the ionization temperature, polar scattering
      via longitudinal optical (LO) phonons dominates, leading to a room temperature
      mobility of 2220 +/- 130 cm2 V-1 s-1. In addition, we show that the Si donors
      effectively passivate interfacial trap states in the nanowires, leading to
      prolonged photoconductivity lifetimes with increasing temperature, accompanied by
      an enhanced radiative efficiency that exceeds 10% at room temperature.

PMID- 28555688
TI  - A high throughput immunoassay for the therapeutic drug monitoring of tegafur.
AB  - Cancer is a group of diseases in which abnormal cells grow and divide without
      control, with the potential to invade other parts of the body. Chemotherapy is a
      type of treatment that uses chemical agents to treat cancer. These drugs are
      toxic and produce undesirable adverse drug reactions due to their narrow
      therapeutic window and highly variable pharmacokinetics, thus, they need to be
      monitored to establish personalized treatment to achieve maximal efficiency and
      reduce drug toxicity. Nowadays, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is not
      routinely used for chemotherapy agents, however, TDM has the potential to improve
      the clinical benefit of chemotherapy drugs. Tegafur, a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil
      (5FU), is one of the main anti-cancer drugs used worldwide. Herein, a
      reproducible and sensitive indirect competitive ELISA has been developed and
      validated in plasma samples. The assay reports an IC50 of 35.6 nM, reaching a
      limit of detection of 2.7 nM. It is highly reproducible and does not show cross
      reactivity with any related compound. In summary, this assay provides a
      sensitive, accurate and high throughput analytical method for tegafur
      quantification in plasma, which fits TDM requirements.

PMID- 28555689
TI  - Epitaxial magnetite nanorods with enhanced room temperature magnetic anisotropy.
AB  - Nanostructured magnetic materials with well-defined magnetic anisotropy are very
      promising as building blocks in spintronic devices that operate at room
      temperature. Here we demonstrate the epitaxial growth of highly oriented Fe3O4
      nanorods on a SrTiO3 substrate by hydrothermal synthesis without the use of a
      seed layer. The epitaxial nanorods showed biaxial magnetic anisotropy with an
      order of magnitude difference between the anisotropy field values of the easy and
      hard axes. Using a combination of conventional magnetometry, transverse
      susceptibility, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and magneto-optic Kerr effect
      (MOKE) measurements, we investigate magnetic behavior such as temperature
      dependent magnetization and anisotropy, along with room temperature magnetic
      domain formation and its switching. The interplay of epitaxy and enhanced
      magnetic anisotropy at room temperature, with respect to randomly oriented powder
      Fe3O4 nanorods, is discussed. The results obtained identify epitaxial nanorods as
      useful materials for magnetic data storage and spintronic devices that
      necessitate tunable anisotropic properties with sharp magnetic switching
      phenomena.

PMID- 28555693
TI  - Near-equilibrium measurement of quantum size effects using Kelvin probe force
      microscopy.
AB  - In nano-structures such as thin films electron confinement results in the
      quantization of energy levels in the direction perpendicular to the film. The
      discretization of the energy levels leads to the oscillatory dependence of many
      properties on the film thickness due to quantum size effects. Pb on Si(111) is a
      specially interesting system because a particular relationship between the Pb
      atomic layer thickness and its Fermi wavelength leads to a periodicity of the
      oscillation of two atomic layers. Here, we demonstrate how the combination of
      scanning force microscopy (SFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) provides
      a reliable method to monitor the quantum oscillations in the work function of Pb
      ultra-thin film nano-structures on Si(111). Unlike other techniques, with
      SFM/KPFM we directly address single Pb islands, determine their height while
      suppressing the influence of electrostatic forces, and, in addition,
      simultaneously evaluate their local work function by measurements close to
      equilibrium, without current-dependent and non-equilibrium effects. Our results
      evidence even-odd oscillations in the work function as a function of the film
      thickness that decay linearly with the film thickness, proving that this method
      provides direct and precise information on the quantum states.

PMID- 28555694
TI  - Improved molecular level identification of organic compounds using comprehensive
      two-dimensional chromatography, dual ionization energies and high resolution mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - A new analytical methodology combining comprehensive two-dimensional gas
      chromatography (GC*GC), dual ionization energies and high resolution time of
      flight mass spectrometry has been developed that improves molecular level
      identification of organic compounds in complex environmental samples. GC*GC
      maximizes compound separation providing cleaner mass spectra by minimizing
      erroneous fragments from interferences and co-eluting peaks. Traditional electron
      ionization (EI, 70 eV) provides MS fragmentation patterns that can be matched to
      published EI MS libraries while vacuum ultraviolet photoionization (VUV, 10.5 eV)
      yields MS with reduced fragmentation enhancing the abundance of the molecular ion
      providing molecular formulas when combined with high resolution mass
      spectrometry. We demonstrate this new approach by applying it to a sample of
      organic aerosol. In this sample, 238 peaks were matched to EI MS library data
      with FM >= 800 but a fifth (42 compounds) were determined to be incorrectly
      identified because the molecular formula was not confirmed by the VUV MS data.
      This highlights the importance of using a complementary technique to confirm
      compound identifications even for peaks with very good matching statistics. In
      total, 171 compounds were identified by EI MS matching to library spectra with
      confirmation of the molecular formula from the high resolution VUV MS data and
      were not dependent on the matching statistics being above a threshold value. A
      large number of unidentified peaks were still observed with FM < 800, which in
      routine analysis would typically be neglected. Where possible, these peaks were
      assigned molecular formulas from the VUV MS data (211 in total). In total, the
      combination of EI and VUV MS data provides more than twice as much molecular
      level peak information than traditional approaches and improves confidence in the
      identification of individual organic compounds. The molecular formula data from
      the VUV MS data was used, in conjunction with GC*GC retention times and the
      observed EI MS, to generate a new, searchable EI MS library compatible with the
      standard NIST MS search program. This library is deliberately dynamic and
      editable so that other end users can add new entries and update existing entries
      as new information becomes available.

PMID- 28555695
TI  - Thermally responsive reduced graphene oxide with designable secondary
      functionality.
AB  - Both dual responsive and thermal responsive reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with a
      strategically inbuilt function have been successfully synthesized by utilizing
      non-covalent modified poly(NIPAm-co-ViEtImBr) combined with anion exchange.

PMID- 28555696
TI  - Towards seamlessly-integrated textile electronics: methods to coat fabrics and
      fibers with conducting polymers for electronic applications.
AB  - Traditional textile materials can be transformed into functional electronic
      components upon being dyed or coated with films of intrinsically conducting
      polymers, such as poly(aniline), poly(pyrrole) and poly(3,4
      ethylenedioxythiophene). A variety of textile electronic devices are built from
      the conductive fibers and fabrics thus obtained, including: physiochemical
      sensors, thermoelectric fibers/fabrics, heated garments, artificial muscles and
      textile supercapacitors. In all these cases, electrical performance and device
      ruggedness is determined by the morphology of the conducting polymer active layer
      on the fiber or fabric substrate. Tremendous variation in active layer morphology
      can be observed with different coating or dyeing conditions. Here, we summarize
      various methods used to create fiber- and fabric-based devices and highlight the
      influence of the coating method on active layer morphology and device stability.

PMID- 28555697
TI  - Double network hydrogels with highly enhanced toughness based on a modified first
      network.
AB  - A novel double network (DN) hydrogel with highly enhanced toughness has been
      prepared using reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT)-modified poly(2
      acrylamide-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS) as the first network, and
      polyacrylamide (PAM) as the second network. The mechanical properties of the
      first-network-modified PAMPS/PAM DN hydrogels have been studied and the new DN
      hydrogel shows remarkably high fracture energy (3.3 MJ m-3) in tensile
      deformation, which is nearly 9 times larger than that of the unmodified PAMPS/PAM
      DN hydrogel. Synchrotron radiation small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used
      to study the microstructures of the first-network single network (SN) and DN
      hydrogels. It was demonstrated by the SAXS results that the introduction of the
      RAFT agent into the first network enlarges the size of the ordered cross-linked
      domains in the SN hydrogel. The large ordered domains are beneficial for
      entanglement and interpenetration between the first and the second networks to
      dissipate concentrated stress more efficiently, resulting in the enhanced
      toughness of the first-network-modified DN hydrogels.

PMID- 28555698
TI  - A smart drug: a pH-responsive photothermal ablation agent for Golgi apparatus
      activated cancer therapy.
AB  - We report a pH-responsive photothermal ablation agent (pH-PTT) based on cyanine
      dyes for photothermal therapy (PTT). The nanoparticles formed by BSA and pH-PTT
      preferentially accumulated in the Golgi apparatus of cancer cells compared to
      normal cells, and thus can be specifically activated by the acidic Golgi
      apparatus in cancer cells for effective PTT both ex vivo and in vivo.

PMID- 28555699
TI  - Morphological control of self-assembled multivalent (SAMul) heparin binding in
      highly competitive media.
AB  - Tuning molecular structures of self-assembling multivalent (SAMul) dendritic
      cationic lipopeptides controls the self-assembled morphology. In buffer,
      spherical micelles formed by higher generation systems bind polyanionic heparin
      better than worm-like micelles formed by lower generation systems. In human
      serum, the binding of spherical micelles to heparin is adversely affected, while
      worm-like micelles maintain their relative binding ability.

PMID- 28555700
TI  - A gigantically increased ratio of electrical to thermal conductivity and
      synergistically enhanced thermoelectric properties in interface-controlled TiO2
      RGO nanocomposites.
AB  - We report synergistically enhanced thermoelectric properties through the
      independently controlled charge and thermal transport properties in a TiO2
      reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite. By the consolidation of TiO2-RGO
      hybrid powder using spark plasma sintering, we prepared an interface-controlled
      TiO2-RGO nanocomposite where its grain boundaries are covered with the RGO
      network. Both the enhancement in electrical conductivity and the reduction in
      thermal conductivity were simultaneously achieved thanks to the beneficial
      effects of the RGO network, and detailed mechanisms are discussed. This led to
      the gigantic increase in the ratio of electrical to thermal conductivity by six
      orders of magnitude and also the synergistic enhancement in the thermoelectric
      figure of merit by two orders. Our results present a strategy for the realization
      of 'phonon-glass electron-crystals' through interface control using graphene in
      graphene hybrid thermoelectric materials.

PMID- 28555701
TI  - Bifunctional plasmonic-magnetic particles for an enhanced microfluidic SERS
      immunoassay.
AB  - Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) is emerging as a promising strategy for
      the quantification of immunoglobulin G (IgG) due to its inherent high sensitivity
      and specificity; however, it remains challenging to integrate SERS detection with
      a microfluidic system in a simple, efficient and low-cost manner. Here, we report
      on a novel bifunctional plasmonic-magnetic particle-based immunoassay, in which
      plasmonic nanoparticles act as soluble SERS immunosubstrates, whereas magnetic
      particles are for promoting micromixing in a microfluidic chip. With this novel
      SERS immunosubstrate in conjunction with the unique microfluidic system, we could
      substantially reduce the assay time from 4 hours to 80 minutes as well as enhance
      the detection specificity by about 70% in comparison to a non-microfluidic
      immunoassay. Compared to previous microfluidic SERS systems, our strategy offers
      a simple microfluidic chip design with only one well for mixing, washing and
      detection.

PMID- 28555702
TI  - Morphological explanation of high tear resistance of EPDM/NR rubber blends.
AB  - The fatigue properties of cross-linked blends of ethylene propylene diene rubber
      (EPDM) with low natural rubber (NR) content and reinforced with carbon black (CB)
      are studied. It is found that such EPDM/NR compounds have superior crack growth
      resistance and fatigue lifetime. For low NR contents, transmission electron
      microscopy reveals that the NR phase forms small droplets of 20-50 nm.
      Remarkably, these droplets are even smaller than the primary CB particles. Atomic
      force microscopy shows that the the NR phase droplets have a higher loss factor
      and a smaller elastic modulus than the surrounding EPDM matrix. Rheometer
      measurements are used to study the effect of the phase morphology on the rubber
      mechanical properties. These rheological data are compared with the prediction of
      the Eshelby model describing the effect of elastic inclusions on solids. A
      complex interplay between the rubber phase morphology and the solubility of both
      the sulfur cross-linking system and CB is observed, which cannot be predicted
      theoretically. It is proposed that the soft NR droplets effectively inhibit the
      crack propagation in the EPDM matrix.

PMID- 28555703
TI  - In situ assembly of active surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates via
      electric field-guided growth of dendritic nanoparticle structures.
AB  - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) can provide ultrasensitive detection of
      chemical and biological analytes down to the level of a single molecule. The need
      for costly, nanostructured, noble-metal substrates, however, poses a major
      obstacle in the widespread application of the method. Here we present for the
      first time a novel type of metallic nanostructured substrates that, not only
      exhibit a remarkable SERS activity, but are also produced in a facile, cost
      effective and nanofabrication-free manner. The substrates are formed through an
      electric field-guided assembly process of silver nanocolloids, which results in
      extended and interconnected dendritic nanoparticle structures with a high density
      of "hot spots". A unique and significant performance attribute of these
      nanostructures is their ability to also function as concentration amplification
      devices, thereby further enhancing their analyte detection efficiency. This major
      advantage against conventional SERS substrates is illustrated experimentally here
      with the concentration and detection of proteins from solution. Low limits of
      detection for illicit drugs, food contaminants and pesticides in relevant
      matrices are also demonstrated. The SERS-active dendrites are reusable and can be
      removed and replaced in a few minutes. The SERS substrates presented herein
      constitute a significant advance towards more effective and less expensive
      diagnostic tools.

PMID- 28555704
TI  - Transdisciplinary Research In Frailty: Knowledge Translation To Inform New Models
      of Care.
AB  - Transforming care for frail older adults requires more than rigorous research.
      While preventing, identifying and managing frailty are critical to reducing the
      personal and health systems impact of frailty worldwide, collaborative approaches
      to research and research application that reflect stakeholder perspectives and
      priorities are necessary to create meaningful solutions to frailty-related
      challenges. In South Australia, a new Centre for Research Excellence in Frailty
      was recently launched with funding from the National Health and Medical Research
      Council of Australia. Comprised of a national team with international
      partnerships and expertise spanning geriatric medicine, nursing, general
      practice, health economics, pharmacy and rehabilitation medicine, the team is
      working across traditional disciplinary silos to achieve system level
      improvements. Drawing from this exemplar, we discuss how a co-design approach to
      knowledge translation underpins this transdisciplinary research, and how
      successfully restructuring health services to meet the physical, emotional and
      social needs of older adults hinges upon such collaboration.

PMID- 28555705
TI  - Role of Anti-Inflammatory Cytokines on Muscle Mass and Performance Changes in
      Elderly Men and Women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Investigate the presence of a correlation between systemic
      inflammatory profile of community-dwelling individuals and the loss of muscular
      mass and performance in old age over a 4.5y follow-up, focusing on the role of
      anti-inflammatory cytokines in muscular changes in elderly. DESIGN: Longitudinal
      clinical study. SETTING: Subjects were randomly selected from lists of 11 general
      practitioners in the city of Verona, Italy. PARTICIPANTS: The study included 120
      subjects, 92 women and 28 men aged 72.27+/-2.06 years and with BMI of 26.52+/
      4.07 kg/m2 at baseline. MEASUREMENTS: Six minutes walking test (6MWT),
      appendicular and leg fat free mass (FFM) as measured with Dual Energy X-ray
      absorptiometry, were obtained at baseline and after 4.5 years (4.5y) of mean
      follow-up. Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and circulating levels of
      TNFalpha, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 were evaluated at baseline. RESULTS: A
      significant reduction of appendicular FFM, leg FFM and 6MWT performance (all
      p<0.001) was observed after 4.5 y follow-up. In a stepwise regression model,
      considering appendicular FFM decline as dependent variable, lnIL-4, BMI, baseline
      appendicular FFM, lnTNFalpha and lnIL-13 were significant predictors of
      appendicular FFM decline explaining 30.8% of the variance. While building a
      stepwise multiple regression considering leg FFM as a dependent variable, lnIL-4,
      BMI and leg FFM were significant predictors of leg FFM decline and explained
      27.4% of variance. When considering 6MWT decline as a dependent variable,
      baseline 6MWT, lnIL-13 and lnTNFalpha were significant predictors of 6MWT decline
      to explain 22.9% of variance. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggest that higher serum
      levels of anti-inflammatory markers, and in particular IL-4 and IL-13, may play a
      protective role on FFM and performance maintenance in elderly subjects.

PMID- 28555706
TI  - Can We Predict Morbidity and Mortality of Patients Aged 75 Years and Older
      Undergoing Cystectomy?
AB  - Radical cystectomy is associated with a high postoperative mortality and
      morbidity in older patients. We aimed to define the predictive value of
      comorbidity scores and determine the prognostic factors of postoperative
      complications. Preoperative associated morbidities were collected and graded
      according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score system, the
      Adult Comorbidity Evaluation (ACE) scale and the Charlson comorbidity index.
      Surgical complications were graded according to Clavien classification. Early and
      late complications were recorded. Data are from 49 consecutive patients aged >=
      75 years who had an open surgery for bladder cancer. The most commonly associated
      conditions were smoking, renal insufficiency, and arterial hypertension.
      Incidence of early and late complications was 49% and 16%, respectively. Four and
      25 death events occurred during the early and late follow-up, respectively. The
      incidence of morbidity and mortality were not related to ASA, ACE or Charlson
      scores. Preoperative malnutrition, renal insufficiency, higher need of
      perioperative blood transfusions, and prolonged ileus were identified as risk
      factors of postoperative morbidity. Late complications seemed related to low
      weight.

PMID- 28555707
TI  - Components and Indicators of Frailty Measures: A Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty is a debilitating condition in older adults that is
      associated with increased risks for adverse outcomes. However, the issue of
      quantifying frailty remains elusive. There is a lack of consistency in the
      frailty components and the corresponding indicators used to quantify these
      components. OBJECTIVE: 1) to describe the components of frailty and examine the
      existing measures of frailty; and 2) to identify current gaps in knowledge of
      frailty measures. METHODS: The PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases were
      searched. Each study was reviewed to determine its fit with inclusion/exclusion
      criteria. RESULTS: A total of 49 studies were identified and comprised the
      sample. Each study described one unique measure of frailty. The frailty
      components and corresponding indicators within three domains (physical,
      psychological, and social) were described. The most frequently reported
      components of frailty were mobility and balance, nutrition, and cognitive
      function. Fifteen of 49 frailty measures included components across all three
      domains. Current frailty measures were critiqued and important areas for future
      study are identified. CONCLUSIONS: The frailty components and corresponding
      indicators vary considerably across different frailty measures. Future studies
      are needed to address inconsistences in frailty measures and models.

PMID- 28555708
TI  - Test-Retest Reliability of Measurements of Hand-Grip Strength Obtained by
      Dynamometry from Older Adults: A Systematic Review of Research in the PubMed
      Database.
AB  - A systematic review was performed to summarize literature describing the test
      retest reliability of grip strength measures obtained from older adults. Relevant
      literature was identified via a PubMed search. Seventeen articles were deemed
      appropriate based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The relative test-retest
      reliability of grip strength measures obtained by dynamometry was good to
      excellent (intra-class correlation coefficients > 0.80) in all but 3 studies,
      which involved older adults with severe dementia. Absolute reliability, as
      indicated by summary statistics such as the minimum detectable change (95%), was
      more variable. As a percentage, that change ranged from 14.5% to 98.5%.
      Consequently, clinicians can be confident in the relative reliability of grip
      strength measures obtained from at risk older adults. However, relatively large
      percentage changes in grip strength may be necessary to conclude with confidence
      that a real change has occurred over time in some populations.

PMID- 28555709
TI  - The Association between Daily Walking Behavior and Self-Reported Physical
      Function in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.
AB  - Many older people do not participate in organized exercise, and daily walking may
      be the most substantial contributor to physical activity. To investigate the
      association between daily walking behavior and self-reported health-related
      physical function, older community-dwelling volunteers wore activity-registering
      sensors for three days. Self-reported health-related physical functioning was
      measured using the SF36 10-item Physical Function subscale. Forty-six
      participants wore a sensor (mean age 77.6, SD 3.6, 61 % women). In a multiple
      regression model, steps per day (B=.005, p<=.001) and walks per day (B=-.174,
      p=.010) were associated with the SF36-PF subscale. The association between
      physical functioning and walks per day was negative: Those who took many walks
      per day may have been walking more indoors. Health professionals are likely
      justified in advising older people to incorporate walking into daily life for
      health purposes. The cross-sectional design does not allow for inferences about
      causality.

PMID- 28555710
TI  - The Effect of Physical Exercise on Frail Older Persons: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Physical exercise is one of the most effective non-pharmacological interventions
      aimed to improve mobility and independence in older persons. The effect of
      physical exercise and the most effective type of exercise in frail older persons
      remain undefined. This systematic review examines the effectiveness of physical
      exercise on frail older persons. Seven databases were search for randomized
      control trials which assessed the effect of exercise on participants who were
      identified as being frail using specific and validated criteria. Nine articles
      were reviewed from eight studies, from which seven used a validated definition of
      frailty. Based on the articles analyzed in our systematic review, the evidence
      suggests that exercise has a positive effect on various measures used to
      determine frailty including cognition, physical functioning, and psychological
      wellbeing. Some studies revealed that exercise may prevent or delay the onset of
      frailty which can enhance quality of life in older adults. Despite the evidence
      for exercise interventions in frail older adults, it appears that there is no
      clear guidance regarding the most effective program variables. The reviewed
      studies were generally long in duration (>=6 months) with sessions lasting around
      60 minutes performed three or more times per week, including multicomponent
      exercises. In conclusion, although exercise interventions appear to be effective
      in managing the various components of frailty and preventing/delaying the onset
      of frailty, the most effective exercise program in this population remains
      unidentified.

PMID- 28555711
TI  - Determination of the Mechanisms that Cause Sarcopenia through cDNA Microarray.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia, the aging-related deterioration of skeletal muscle, is a
      disease that is directly associated with quality of life. Given the trend of an
      increasing aging population worldwide, the prevention of aging-related diseases
      such as sarcopenia has become ever more important and urgent. OBJECTIVE: To
      identify potential therapeutic targets for this disease. METHODS: we used a
      bioinformatics approach of combining cDNA microarray analysis and protein-protein
      interaction prediction. RESULTS: We found 673 significant differentially
      expressed genes (128 upregulated and 545 downregulated) in sarcopenia patients of
      over 60 years of age. Most of the upregulated genes were involved in metabolic
      processes such as the PPAR signaling pathway. In particular, FABP4, PLIN1, and
      ADIPOQ were related to fatty acid and lipid metabolism. Some of the downregulated
      genes were located in the mitochondrial matrix. Additionally, through the protein
      interaction network analysis, we found two key molecules (MAP1LC3B and HSP90AB1)
      that were associated with autophagy. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that
      mitochondrial dysfunction and lipid metabolism are associated with sarcopenia.

PMID- 28555712
TI  - Frailty in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients under Dialysis and Its Association
      with Clinical and Biochemical Markers.
AB  - Frailty is a common complication in elderly patients with end-stage renal disease
      (ESRD) under dialysis, which is a strong risk factor for low quality of life,
      morbidity, and mortality. In this work, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of
      frailty in a group of Portuguese ESRD patients, and its association with socio
      demographic, clinical and biochemical markers. We performed a cross-sectional
      study with 83 ESRD patients (44 males and 39 females, 64.3 [+/-14.6] years old)
      on regular dialysis. The classification of the ESRD patients as robust, pre-frail
      and frail was performed using the FRAIL questionnaire. Social support, data about
      sociodemographic and comorbidities, and haematological, iron status, dialysis
      adequacy, nutritional and inflammatory markers were also evaluated. Our results
      confirmed that frailty is a highly prevalent condition in ESRD patients,
      particularly in female patients. An association between FRAIL score and increased
      depressive symptoms, presence of hypertension and decrease nutritional status was
      also found.

PMID- 28555713
TI  - How Older Persons Perceive the Loss of Independence: The Need of a Holistic
      Approach to Frailty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2004, the definition of the frailty syndrome has shifted from
      purely physical criteria to a more comprehensive consideration of the individual,
      including their psychosocial criteria. In this study, qualitative research
      methods were used as a complementary approach in order to enrich the existing
      quantitative results in this area. OBJECTIVE: To understand the views of older
      persons on the risk of loss of independence. METHODS: The study population
      comprised people over 75 years of age who were living at home in the south-west
      of France and were considered to be at risk of losing their independence. Data
      were collected using individual semi-structured in-depth interviews, accompanied
      by observations. Inductive analysis was carried out according to grounded theory
      methods. RESULTS: Fifteen individual interviews were conducted to achieve
      theoretical data saturation. Analysis of the content of the interviews revealed
      seven risk factors for the loss of independence: poor mental health, poor
      physical health, social isolation, no longer leaving the home, an unsuitable
      environment, unsuitable living conditions, and few resources. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results complement the purely physical approach to screening for the frailty
      syndrome and lead us to reconsider our screening approach to include a more
      holistic view of the older person and their circumstances.

PMID- 28555714
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Promotion of a Proposal to Incorporate Advance Care
      Planning Conversations into Frailty Prevention Programs for Frail Older People.

PMID- 28555715
TI  - The dexamethasone induced osteogenic differentiation of dental follicle cells.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells are excellent for in vitro studies about biological
      processes during the differentiation of osteogenic progenitor cells into
      mineralizing cells such as osteoblasts. Human dental follicle cells (DFCs) are
      dental mesenchymal stem cells and they can be isolated from third molar teeth.
      Because DFCs are the genuine progenitor cells of periodontal tissue cells, they
      have been used for the evaluation of molecular mechanisms during the
      differentiation of undifferentiated stem cells into alveolar osteoblasts and
      cementoblasts. To reveal molecular mechanisms of osteogenic differentiation,
      initial studies investigated the proteome and the transcriptome of DFCs after the
      induction of the osteogenic differentiation with the glucocorticoid
      dexamethasone. These studies showed for example that dexamethasone induces the
      transcription factor ZBTB16 (zinc finger and BTB domain containing protein 16)
      and that ZBTB16 is crucial for osteogenic differentiation of DFCs. This article
      is a survey of the molecular mechanisms in DFCs during osteogenic differentiation
      with dexamethasone.

PMID- 28555716
TI  - Trajectories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder dimensions in adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a lack of available information on the trajectories of
      attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) dimensions during adulthood. This
      study investigates the course and the predictors of change for each ADHD domain
      in a clinical sample of adults with ADHD. METHOD: Adults with ADHD (n = 344) were
      followed up for 7 years, with a final retention rate of 66.0%. Trajectories of
      inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and their potential predictors were
      examined. RESULTS: On average, symptoms declined in all ADHD domains during
      follow-up. Despite this, rises in inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive
      symptoms were observed in approximately 13%, 25%, and 17% of patients
      respectively. Different predictors influenced the trajectory of each ADHD
      dimension. Oppositional defiant disorder and social phobia were associated with
      the maintenance of symptoms, while alcohol use disorder was associated with both
      maintenance and rise of symptoms. CONCLUSION: Unexpectedly, a rise in the
      symptoms after 7 years was not uncommon in adults with ADHD. Prevalent
      comorbidities have the potential to influence the neurodevelopment and the
      trajectory of ADHD. Therefore, such predictors should be investigated in
      population cohorts to better characterize the course of ADHD. Additionally, these
      findings may be relevant in prevention studies and in strategies for ADHD
      treatment.

PMID- 28555717
TI  - Beyond the Individual: The Interdependence of Advance Directive Completion by
      Older Married Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine how individual and spousal demographic and health
      factors are associated with advance directive (AD) completion by married older
      adults. DESIGN: Dyadic structural equation modeling using the Actor-Partner
      Interdependence Model. SETTING: The 2004 to 2012 waves of the Health and
      Retirement Study. PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling heterosexual married couples
      aged 65 and older (N = 2,243). MEASUREMENTS: Structural equation modeling with a
      probit link function was used to estimate associations between men's and women's
      age, education, health status, prior hospitalization or outpatient surgery in the
      past 10 years, regular health care provider, and household net assets and their
      own and their spouses' probabilities of having an AD. RESULTS: Individual and
      spousal ages were each positively associated with AD completion for men and
      women. Those with higher education were more likely to possess ADs. Women's
      probabilities of having ADs were also positively associated with husbands'
      education. Men whose wives' were in poor health were less likely to have ADs. Men
      who were hospitalized or underwent outpatient surgery were more likely to have
      ADs, as were their wives. Women who had regular sources of health care were more
      likely to have completed ADs. CONCLUSION: AD completion by older married adults
      is associated with both individual and spousal factors. How spouses influence one
      another's advance care planning differs by gender. Future research should account
      for the dyadic nature of advance care planning, as should public education
      efforts and interventions promoting AD completion.

PMID- 28555719
TI  - A Sudden Loss Of Vision.

PMID- 28555720
TI  - The combination of overweight and smoking increases the severity of androgenetic
      alopecia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Even though androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of
      alopecia, factors associated with AGA severity have been poorly investigated.
      OBJECTIVES: The objective of our study was to investigate risk factors for AGA
      severity among a Caucasian population. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted among AGA subjects in the outpatient clinic of a reference hospital for
      skin diseases in Rome, Italy. A total of 351 Caucasian subjects with AGA, mean
      age 35.6 years, were enrolled in the study. Information on educational level,
      family history of AGA, diet, alcohol consumption, the presence of chronic
      diseases, the use of pills including dietary supplements, BMI, and smoking was
      collected by a face-to-face interview using standardized questionnaires. Norwood
      and Ludwig classifications were used to assess the degree of AGA. RESULTS:
      Subjects with a BMI of 25 or more and current smokers had circa six times an
      increased risk of having moderate or severe AGA (OR: 6.72; 95% CI: 2.57-17.6). In
      the multivariate model, after controlling for gender, age, education,
      dyslipidemia, dietary supplements, and wine consumption, the effect of high BMI
      and smoking (OR: 5.96; 95% CI: 1.65-21.5) on AGA severity remained. Only age and
      gender, besides the effect of BMI and smoking, remained statistically significant
      in the multivariate model while education, the presence of dyslipidemia, dietary
      supplements, and wine consumption did not remain statistically significant.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the combination of overweight and smoking is
      associated with an increased severity of androgenetic alopecia.

PMID- 28555721
TI  - Seeking Value in Healthcare: The Importance of Generalists as Primary Care
      Physicians.

PMID- 28555718
TI  - Bone Turnover with Venlafaxine Treatment in Older Adults with Depression.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Epidemiologic data suggest older adults receiving serotonergic
      antidepressants may have accelerated bone loss. We examined bone turnover marker
      changes and patient-level variables associated with these changes in older adults
      receiving protocolized antidepressant treatment. DESIGN: Open-label, protocolized
      treatment study. SETTING: Medical centers in Pittsburgh, St Louis, and Toronto.
      PARTICIPANTS: Older adults with major depression (N = 168). MEASUREMENTS: Serum
      levels of the bone resorption marker C-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type
      1 collagen (CTX) and the bone formation marker procollagen type 1 N propeptide
      (P1NP) were assayed before and after 12 weeks of treatment with venlafaxine.
      Whether CTX and P1NP changes were associated with depression remission and
      duration of depression and genetic polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter
      (5HTTLPR) and 1B receptor (HTR1B) were also examined. RESULTS: CTX increased and
      P1NP decreased during venlafaxine treatment, a profile consistent with
      accelerated bone loss. Two individual-level clinical variables were correlated
      with bone turnover; participants whose depression did not go into remission had
      higher CTX levels, and those with chronic depression had lower P1NP levels. HTR1B
      genotype predicted P1NP change, whereas 5HTTLPR genotype was unrelated to either
      biomarker. CONCLUSION: Bone turnover markers change with antidepressant treatment
      in a pattern that suggests accelerated bone loss, although the clinical
      significance of these changes is unclear. These data are preliminary and argue
      for a larger, controlled study to confirm whether antidepressants are harmful to
      bone metabolism and whether certain individuals might be at increased risk.

PMID- 28555722
TI  - The global state of psoriasis disease epidemiology: a workshop report.
AB  - The International Psoriasis Council, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to
      innovation across the full spectrum of psoriasis, led a symposium to discuss the
      current state of psoriasis epidemiology and to introduce the vision and
      development of a Global Psoriasis Atlas. The symposium was held on 9 September
      2015 at the 45th annual meeting of the European Society for Dermatological
      Research, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Collectively, these presentations
      highlighted challenges associated with assessing psoriasis epidemiology and
      emphasized the urgent need for an authoritative resource to clarify psoriasis
      disease burden on a global scale.

PMID- 28555723
TI  - Warfarin-induced skin necrosis accompanied by aggravation of vasculitis in a
      patient with cutaneous arteritis.

PMID- 28555724
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetics of Amoxicillin in Term Neonates Undergoing Moderate
      Hypothermia.
AB  - The pharmacokinetics (PK) of amoxicillin in asphyxiated newborns undergoing
      moderate hypothermia were quantified using prospective data (N = 125). The
      population PK was described by a 2-compartment model with a priori birthweight
      (BW) based allometric scaling. Significant correlations were observed between
      clearance (Cl) and postnatal age (PNA), gestational age (GA), body temperature
      (TEMP), and urine output (UO). For a typical patient with GA 40 weeks, BW 3,000
      g, 2 days PNA (i.e., TEMP 33.5 degrees C), and normal UO, Cl was 0.26 L/h
      (interindividual variability (IIV) 41.9%) and volume of distribution of the
      central compartment was 0.34 L/kg (IIV of 114.6%). For this patient, Cl increased
      to 0.41 L/h at PNA 5 days and TEMP 37.0 degrees C. The respective contributions
      of both covariates were 23% and 27%. Based on Monte Carlo simulations we
      recommend 50 and 75 mg/kg/24h amoxicillin in three doses for patients with GA 36
      37 and 38-42 weeks, respectively.

PMID- 28555725
TI  - The association between psoriasis and coeliac disease.

PMID- 28555726
TI  - Vector population growth and condition-dependent movement drive the spread of
      plant pathogens.
AB  - Plant viruses, often spread by arthropod vectors, impact natural and agricultural
      ecosystems worldwide. Intuitively, the movement behavior and life history of
      vectors influence pathogen spread, but the relative contribution of each factor
      has not been examined. Recent research has highlighted the influence of host
      infection status on vector behavior and life history. Here, we developed a model
      to explore how vector traits influence the spread of vector-borne plant viruses.
      We allowed vector life history (growth rate, carrying capacity) and movement
      behavior (departure and settlement rates) parameters to be conditional on whether
      the plant host is infected or healthy and whether the vector is viruliferous
      (carrying the virus) or not. We ran simulations under a wide range of parameter
      combinations and quantified the fraction of hosts infected over time. We also ran
      case studies of the model for Barley yellow dwarf virus, a persistently
      transmitted virus, and for Potato virus Y, a non-persistently transmitted virus.
      We quantified the relative importance of each parameter on pathogen spread using
      Latin hypercube sampling with the statistical partial rank correlation
      coefficient technique. We found two general types of mechanisms in our model that
      increased the rate of pathogen spread. First, increasing factors such as vector
      intrinsic growth rate, carrying capacity, and departure rate from hosts
      (independent of whether these factors were condition-dependent) led to more
      vectors moving between hosts, which increased pathogen spread. Second, changing
      condition-dependent factors such as a vector's preference for settling on a host
      with a different infection status than itself, and vector tendency to leave a
      host of the same infection status, led to increased contact between hosts and
      vectors with different infection statuses, which also increased pathogen spread.
      Overall, our findings suggest that vector population growth rates had the
      greatest influence on rates of virus spread, but rates of vector dispersal from
      infected hosts and from hosts of the same infection status were also very
      important. Our model highlights the importance of simultaneously considering
      vector life history and behavior to better understand pathogen spread. Although
      developed for plant viruses, our model could readily be utilized with other
      vector-borne pathogen systems.

PMID- 28555727
TI  - Targeting JAK/STAT signalling in inflammatory skin diseases with small molecule
      inhibitors.
AB  - For most inflammatory skin diseases topical glucocorticosteroids and traditional
      oral immunosuppressive drugs remain the principle treatment choices, but this has
      started to change. A deeper understanding in individual disease pathogenesis,
      basic immune mechanisms and molecular signalling pathways, together with advances
      in pharmaceutical drug development, allow us to interfere more precisely with
      disease-related factors. Some examples of inflammation-controlling interventions
      include antibodies neutralizing disease-associated cytokines, and small molecules
      targeting intracellular pathways relevant to cytokine production or cytokine
      signalling. So far, this is best established for psoriasis, an inflammatory skin
      disease dominated by Th17 cytokines. In this review, we focus on chronic
      inflammatory skin diseases where cytokines using type I/II cytokine receptors
      play a dominant role in disease pathogenesis and where novel treatments with
      inhibitors of the JAK/STAT pathway are already under clinical investigation. To
      better understand the rationale of using JAK/STAT inhibitors in the discussed
      skin diseases, we give an overview of important genetic and immunological
      associations with the JAK/STAT pathway and summarize the stage of clinical
      development of small molecular inhibitors. JAK/STAT inhibitors will presumably
      find wide application in dermatology, since they can be applied not only
      systematically but also topically for the treatment of inflammatory skin
      diseases.

PMID- 28555728
TI  - Platelet distribution width as the prognostic marker in coronary bifurcation
      treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mean platelet volume (MPV) was proved to be a reliable prognostic
      factor in cardiac patients. However, platelet distribution width (PDW) was
      disclosed to be more specific marker of platelet reactivity. The aim of study was
      to evaluate whether baseline PDW value can predict the outcome in patients
      undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) with drug-eluting stent
      implantation within coronary bifurcation lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a
      two-centre observational study, which included patients who underwent PCI within
      bifurcation lesions between January 2014 and December 2014. Thrombocytopenia
      below 100 000/MUL and STEMI were the exclusion criteria. Analysed data came
      entirely from in-hospital records and information obtained from the 12-month
      telephone follow-up. RESULTS: We included 269 patients. Mean PDW value was 13.4
      +/- 2.5 fL, whereas median was 13 (Q1 < 11.6 fL, Q2 11.6-13 fL, Q3 13-14.8 fL and
      Q4 > 14.8 fL). We found strong correlation between PDW and MPV (r = 0.96, P <
      0.001), but no correlation was revealed between red blood cell distribution width
      (RDW) and PDW (r = 0.003, P = 0.95) as well as RDW and MPV (r = 0.0018, P =
      0.98). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve showed that PDW for cutoff
      15.8% can predict MACE rate with sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 47% (area
      under curve - AUC 0.654; P = 0.01). A ROC curve for PDW categorized by 1-year TLR
      rate was described by optimal cutoff 16.3%, with sensitivity 69% and specificity
      54% (AUC 0.697; P = 0.0015). CONCLUSIONS: PDW is an affordable and reliable
      predictor of 1-year MACE and TLR rate after PCI within coronary bifurcation
      lesions.

PMID- 28555730
TI  - PHLOX AND COLIAS: THE EFFICIENCY OF A POLLINATION SYSTEM.

PMID- 28555729
TI  - Oral Health and Dental Care in Older Asian Americans in Central Texas.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine factors associated with dental health insurance, self
      rated oral health, and use of preventive dental care services in older Asian
      Americans. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: The Asian American Quality of
      Life Survey was conducted with 2,614 Asian Americans living in central Texas
      using questionnaires available in English and six Asian languages. PARTICIPANTS:
      Asian American Quality of Life Survey participants aged 60 and older (N = 533;
      mean age = 69.4 +/- 6.9). MEASUREMENTS: Participants were asked whether they had
      insurance that covered the cost of any dental visit, how they would rate their
      overall oral health status, and whether they had visited a dental clinic for a
      routine examination in the past 12 months. Information was also collected on
      sociodemographic and immigration-related variables. RESULTS: More than 61% of the
      sample had no dental health insurance, 45% reported that their oral health was
      fair or poor, and 44% had not used preventive dental care services. A series of
      logistic regression analyses identified factors posing a significant risk to oral
      health and dental care. For example, those with limited English proficiency were
      3.5 times as likely to lack dental health insurance and 3.2 times as likely to
      rate their oral health as fair or poor. The odds of not using preventive dental
      care services were 6.4 times as great in those without dental health insurance.
      CONCLUSION: The overall findings call attention to efforts to promote oral health
      and dental care in older Asian Americans.

PMID- 28555731
TI  - RAPID EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN LARVAL MIXTURES OF THE HOUSEFLY.

PMID- 28555732
TI  - DISCRIMINATION BEHAVIOR AND HYBRIDIZATION OF THE BLUE-WINGED AND GOLDEN-WINGED
      WARBLERS.

PMID- 28555733
TI  - KARYOTYPIC EVOLUTION OF BEES AND CORRESPONDING TAXONOMIC IMPLICATIONS.

PMID- 28555734
TI  - PREHISTORIC AGRICULTURE.

PMID- 28555735
TI  - CHARA VULGARIS AND C. CONTRARIA: PATTERNS OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION FOR TWO
      COSMOPOLITAN SPECIES COMPLEXES.

PMID- 28555736
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGIES IN LIFE TABLE CHARACTERISTICS AMONG FERAL AND URBAN
      STRAINS OF AEDES AEGYPTI (L.).

PMID- 28555737
TI  - POLLINATION STUDY IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF MIMULUS GUTTATUS.

PMID- 28555738
TI  - A POCKET OF VARIABILITY IN PINUS RIGIDA.

PMID- 28555739
TI  - GENETIC DISTANCE AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA GROUP.

PMID- 28555740
TI  - A PATERNAL ROLE FOR BULLS OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS SEA LION.

PMID- 28555741
TI  - GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC DIFFERENTIATION AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE IN FOUR SPECIES OF
      LEPIDOPTERA.

PMID- 28555742
TI  - POLLEN EXCHANGE AS A FUNCTION OF SPECIES PROXIMITY IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28555743
TI  - RECOGNITION BY DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER OF INDIVIDUALS FROM OTHER STRAINS OR
      CULTURES: SUPPORT FOR THE ROLE OF OLFACTORY CUES IN SELECTIVE MATING?

PMID- 28555744
TI  - EGG-PRODUCTION, POLYPLOIDIZATION AND EVOLUTION IN A DIPLOID ALL-FEMALE FISH OF
      THE GENUS POECILIOPSIS.

PMID- 28555745
TI  - EVOLUTION IN THE STAPHYLINID GENUS PRIOCHIRUS (COLEOPTERA).

PMID- 28555746
TI  - Tropical insect diversity: evidence of greater host specialization in seed
      feeding weevils.
AB  - Host specialization has long been hypothesized to explain the extraordinary
      diversity of phytophagous insects in the tropics. However, addressing this
      hypothesis has proved challenging because of the risk of over-looking rare
      interactions, and hence biasing specialization estimations, and the difficulties
      to separate the diversity component attributable to insect specialization from
      that related to host diversity. As a result, the host specialization hypothesis
      lacks empirical support for important phytophagous insect clades. Here, we test
      the hypothesis in a radiation of seed-feeding insects, acorn weevils (Curculio
      spp.), sampled in temperate and tropical regions (California and Nicaragua,
      respectively) with an equivalent pool of oak host species. Using DNA sequences
      from three low-copy genes, we delimited to species level 778 weevil larvae
      extracted from host seeds and assessed their phylogenetic relationships by
      Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference. We then reconstructed the oak-weevil
      food webs and examined differences in alpha, beta and gamma diversity using Hill
      numbers of effective species. We found a higher alpha, beta and gamma diversity
      of weevils in Nicaragua compared to California despite similar richness of host
      species at both local and regional level. By means of Bayesian mixed models, we
      also found that tropical weevil species were highly specialized both in terms of
      host range and interaction strength, whereas their temperate congeners had a
      broader taxonomic and phylogenetic host spectrum. Finally, in Nicaraguan species,
      larval body size was highly correlated with the size of the acorns infested, as
      would be expected by a greater host specialization, whereas in California this
      relationship was absent. Altogether, these lines of evidence support the host
      specialization hypothesis and suggest contrasting eco-evolutionary dynamics in
      tropical and temperate regions even in absence of differences in host diversity.

PMID- 28555748
TI  - Patient controlled analgesia: effective and cost-effective management of acute
      pain within the Emergency Department?

PMID- 28555749
TI  - Have We Learned How to Use Bisphosphonates Yet?

PMID- 28555747
TI  - Liver X receptors link lipid metabolism and inflammation.
AB  - The response of immune cells to pathogens is often associated with changes in the
      flux through basic metabolic pathways. Indeed, in many cases changes in
      metabolism appear to be necessary for a robust immune response. The Liver X
      receptors (LXRs) are members of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily that
      regulate gene networks controlling cholesterol and lipid metabolism. In immune
      cells, particularly in macrophages, LXRs also inhibit proinflammatory gene
      expression. This Review will highlight recent studies that connect LXR-dependent
      control of lipid metabolism to regulation of the immune response.

PMID- 28555751
TI  - Metabolic regulation of macrophages during tissue repair: insights from skeletal
      muscle regeneration.
AB  - Macrophages are highly versatile cells that are involved both in the mounting and
      the resolution of inflammatory responses. Besides their properties in innate
      immunity to fight against pathogens, macrophages are essential for tissue repair,
      during which they adopt sequential inflammatory status. While the acquisition of
      some canonical polarized inflammatory statuses in vitro (M1/M2) is beginning to
      be understood at the molecular level, the regulation of macrophage skewing in
      vivo has been less investigated. Immunometabolism, in particular, is an emerging
      field, and most of the studies so far have investigated the control of macrophage
      polarization using in vitro set-ups. In this context, skeletal muscle
      regeneration is an excellent paradigm to study tissue repair, since the
      sequential steps of inflammatory response and tissue repair are well
      characterized. In this Review, after introducing macrophage populations and
      functions during skeletal muscle regeneration, we present the current knowledge
      on the metabolic regulation of macrophage inflammatory status, with particular
      emphasis on the comparison between in vitro and in vivo models of macrophage
      activation. We also discuss the metabolic regulation of macrophages in vivo
      during skeletal muscle regeneration.

PMID- 28555752
TI  - Self-esteem development in the school context: The roles of intrapersonal and
      interpersonal social predictors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: When considering that social inclusion is a basic human need, it makes
      sense that self-esteem is fueled by social feedback and the sense of being liked
      by others. This is particularly true with respect to early adolescence, when
      peers become increasingly important. In the current article, we tested which
      components of social inclusion are particularly beneficial for the development of
      self-esteem by differentiating between intrapersonal components (i.e., self
      perceptions of social inclusion) and interpersonal components (i.e., perceiver
      and target effects of liking). METHOD: Using longitudinal data from 2,281 fifth
      graders and 1,766 eighth graders (TRAIN; Jonkmann et al., 2013), we tested mean
      level self-esteem development and the role of intrapersonal components in this
      development. Using classroom round-robin data on liking from subsamples of 846
      (689) fifth-(eighth-)grade students nested in 46 (39) classes, we tested effects
      of interpersonal relationship components on self-esteem development in the
      classroom context. RESULTS: The three major findings demonstrated, first, no
      consistent trends in mean levels of self-esteem in early to middle adolescence;
      second, constant positive effects of intrapersonal components between students
      and within students across time; and third, no stable effects of interpersonal
      components. CONCLUSIONS: The discussion highlights the role of intrapersonal
      components and the methodological challenges of our study.

PMID- 28555750
TI  - Research Priorities to Advance the Health and Health Care of Older Adults with
      Multiple Chronic Conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To prioritize research topics relevant to the care of the growing
      population of older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). DESIGN:
      Survey of experts in MCC practice, research, and policy. Topics were derived from
      white papers, funding announcements, or funded research projects relating to
      older adults with MCCs. SETTING: Survey conducted through the Health Care Systems
      Research Network (HCSRN) and Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence
      Centers (OAICs) Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth
      Initiative, a joint endeavor of the HCSRN and OAICs. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals
      affiliated with the HCSRN or OAICs and national MCC experts, including
      individuals affiliated with funding agencies having MCC-related grant portfolios.
      MEASUREMENTS: A "top box" methodology was used, counting the number of
      respondents selecting the top response on a 5-point Likert scale and dividing by
      the total number of responses to calculate a top box percentage for each of 37
      topics. RESULTS: The highest-ranked research topics relevant to the health and
      healthcare of older adults with MCCs were health-related quality of life in older
      adults with MCCs; development of assessment tools (to assess, e.g., symptom
      burden, quality of life, function); interactions between medications, disease
      processes, and health outcomes; disability; implementation of novel (and
      scalable) models of care; association between clusters of chronic conditions and
      clinical, financial, and social outcomes; role of caregivers; symptom burden;
      shared decision-making to enhance care planning; and tools to improve clinical
      decision-making. CONCLUSION: Study findings serve to inform the development of a
      comprehensive research agenda to address the challenges relating to the care of
      this "high-need, high-cost" population and the healthcare delivery systems
      responsible for serving it.

PMID- 28555753
TI  - Bullying and cyberbullying studies in the school-aged population on the island of
      Ireland: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bullying research has gained a substantial amount of interest in
      recent years because of the implications for child and adolescent development.
      AIM AND SAMPLE: We conducted a meta-analysis of traditional and cyberbullying
      studies in the Republic and North of Ireland to gain an understanding of
      prevalence rates and associated issues (particularly psychological correlates and
      intervention strategies) among young people (primary and secondary school
      students). METHOD: Four electronic databases were searched (PsychArticles, ERIC,
      PsychInfo and Education Research Complete) for studies of traditional bullying
      and cyberbullying behaviours (perpetrators, victims or both) published between
      January 1997 and April 2016. RESULTS: A final sample of 39 articles fit our
      selection criteria. CMA software was used to estimate a pooled prevalence rate
      for traditional/cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. A systematic review
      on the psychological impacts for all types of bullying and previously used
      interventions in an Irish setting is also provided. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      demonstrate the influence moderating factors (e.g., assessment tools, answer
      scale, time frame) have on reported prevalence rates. These results are discussed
      in light of current studies, and points for future research are considered.

PMID- 28555754
TI  - Expression patterns of Sema3A in developing amniote limbs: With reference to the
      diversification of peripheral nerve innervation.
AB  - Paired limbs were acquired in the ancestor of tetrapods and their morphology has
      been highly diversified in amniotes in relation to the adaptive radiation to the
      terrestrial environment. These morphological changes may have been induced by
      modification of the developmental program of the skeletal or muscular system. To
      complete limb modification, it is also important to change the neuronal
      framework, because the functions of the limbs rely on neural circuits that
      involve coordinated movement. Previous studies have shown that class 3
      semaphorins (Sema3 semaphorins), which act as repulsive axonal guidance cues,
      play a crucial role in the formation of the peripheral nerves in mice. Here, we
      studied the expression pattern of Sema3A orthologues in embryos of developing
      amniotes, including mouse, chick, soft-shelled turtle, and ocelot gecko. Sema3A
      transcripts were expressed in restricted mesenchymal parts of the developing limb
      primordium in all animals studied, and developing spinal nerves appeared to
      extend through Sema3A-negative regions. These results suggest that a Sema3A
      dependent guidance system plays a key role in neuronal circuit formation in
      amniote limbs. We also found that Sema3A partially overlapped with the
      distribution of cartilage precursor cells. Based on these results, we propose a
      model in which axon guidance and skeletogenesis are linked by Sema3A; such
      mechanisms may underlie functional neuron rearrangement during limb
      diversification.

PMID- 28555755
TI  - Reliability of the Assisting Hand Assessment in adolescents.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the interrater and test-retest reliability of the Assisting
      Hand Assessment in adolescents (Ad-AHA) with cerebral palsy (CP) and to evaluate
      the alternate-form reliability of different test activities. METHOD: Participants
      were 112 adolescents with unilateral CP (60 males, 52 females; mean age 14y 5mo
      [standard deviation {SD} 2y 8mo], Manual Ability Classification System levels I
      III). Reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC),
      smallest detectable change (SDC), and Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS: ICCs for
      interrater (n=38) and test-retest reliability (n=31) were excellent: 0.97 (95% CI
      0.94-0.98) and 0.99 (95% CI 0.98-0.99) respectively. The alternate-form
      reliability of different test activities was excellent for children (age 10-12y,
      n=30) performing the School-Kids AHA and Ad-AHA Board Game 0.99 (95% CI 0.98
      0.99) and for adolescents (age 13-18y) performing the Ad-AHA Board Game compared
      to the Ad-AHA Present (n=28) 0.99 (95% CI 0.95-0.98), or the Ad-AHA Sandwich
      (n=29) 0.99 (95% CI 0.98-0.99) tasks. SDC for test-retest was 4.5 AHA-units.
      INTERPRETATION: Ad-AHA scores are consistent across different raters and
      occasions. The good alternate-form reliability indicates that the different test
      activities can be used interchangeably in adolescents with unilateral CP.
      Differences greater than or equal to 5 AHA-units can be considered a change
      beyond measurement error. The use of logit based AHA-units makes change
      comparable for persons at different ability levels.

PMID- 28555756
TI  - Design and chemical syntheses of potent matriptase-2 inhibitors based on trypsin
      inhibitor SFTI-1 isolated from sunflower seeds.
AB  - Matriptase-2 plays a pivotal role in keeping iron concentrations within a narrow
      physiological range in humans. The opportunity to reduce matriptase-2 proteolytic
      activity may open a novel possibility to treat iron overload diseases, such as
      hereditary hemochromatosis and thalassemia. Here, we present 23 new analogues of
      trypsin inhibitor SFTI-1 designed to inhibit human matriptase-2. Influence of the
      modifications Gly1Lys, Ile10Arg, and Phe12His, as well as the introduction of
      Narg in P1 or P1 and P4 positions were examined. Selected peptides were further
      analyzed, together with previously reported peptides, for their inhibitory
      activity against related human proteases, that are, matriptase-1, plasmin,
      thrombin and trypsin. A highly potent inhibitor of matriptase-2, the bicycylic
      [Arg5 , Arg10 , His12 ]SFTI-1, with a Ki value of 15 nm was obtained.

PMID- 28555757
TI  - Using urinary parameters to estimate seasonal variation in the physical condition
      of female white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus imitator).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The physical condition of females depends on access to resources,
      which vary over space and time. Assessing variation in physical condition can
      help identify factors affecting reproductive success, but noninvasive measurement
      is difficult in wild animals. Creatinine concentration relative to the specific
      gravity (i.e., density) of urine has promise for noninvasively quantifying the
      relative muscle mass (RMM) of wild primates. We verified the relationship between
      these urinary parameters for wild white-faced capuchin monkeys, and assessed
      temporal changes in the RMM of females across groups and between periods of high
      and low resource abundance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected urine from 25
      adult females in three groups across varying seasons at Sector Santa Rosa, Costa
      Rica. We measured the specific gravity and creatinine concentration of 692
      samples and the effect of specific gravity on creatinine concentration. We used
      the residuals of this relationship to measure effects of group and season using
      mixed-effects models. RESULTS: Specific gravity significantly predicted
      creatinine concentration. Season, group membership and the interaction between
      these variables were significant predictors of residual creatinine variation.
      Specifically, RMM was higher during months with high fruit energy density, lower
      in one social group, and less variable among females in the smallest group.
      DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that specific gravity and creatinine may be used
      as urinary parameters to make inferences about the RMM of capuchins. Using this
      technique, we infer that females experienced changes in muscle mass according to
      variation in resource energy availability and social group variation.

PMID- 28555758
TI  - Novel dermoscopic findings in mudi-chood disease - a case report.

PMID- 28555760
TI  - HERMON BUMPUS AND NATURAL SELECTION IN THE HOUSE SPARROW PASSER DOMESTICUS.

PMID- 28555759
TI  - Postictal generalized EEG suppression and respiratory dysfunction following
      generalized tonic-clonic seizures in sleep and wakefulness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is a common cause of death
      in epilepsy and frequently occurs following generalized tonic-clonic seizures
      (GTCS) in sleep. Postictal generalized electroencephalography (EEG) suppression
      (PGES), postictal immobility, and periictal respiratory dysfunction are potential
      risk factors for SUDEP. We sought to determine whether there was a difference in
      respiratory dysfunction, PGES, and postictal immobility for GTCS occurring during
      wakefulness or sleep. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed video-EEG telemetry
      data in the epilepsy-monitoring unit. Patients' state at seizure onset and
      seizure characteristics were identified. Respiratory parameters and heart rate
      were recorded. Presence and duration of PGES and time to first postictal
      nonrespiratory movement were recorded. RESULTS: There were 165 seizures in 67
      patients. There was no significant difference in the duration of postictal
      immobility in GTCS occurring out of wakefulness or sleep (p = 0.280). Oxygen
      desaturation nadir (p = 0.572) and duration of oxygen desaturation were not
      significantly different for GTCS starting during sleep or wakefulness (p =
      0.992). PGES occurred more frequently when seizure onset was in sleep than in
      wakefulness (p = 0.004; odds ratio [OR] 2.760). There was no difference in the
      duration of PGES between the two groups. SIGNIFICANCE: PGES occurs more commonly
      after GTCS in sleep than in wakefulness but, in the epilepsy-monitoring unit
      (EMU), a patient's state at seizure onset does not affect the degree of
      respiratory dysfunction or duration of postictal immobility. In sleep, outside
      the hospital setting, GTCS are likely to go unnoticed. Postictal immobility in
      prone patients prevents head repositioning and unimpeded air exchange. A positive
      feedback cycle ensues with increasing respiratory distress, potentiating
      postictal immobility and PGES and eventually leading to asystole. Our findings
      suggest that the high incidence of nocturnal SUDEP may be related to the
      unsupervised environment during sleep rather than the severity of sleep-related
      respiratory dysfunction or PGES duration in the immediate postictal period.

PMID- 28555761
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEM AND GENETIC VARIATION IN LEAVENWORTHIA.

PMID- 28555762
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF THE ALLOTETRAPLOID CLARKIA GRACILIS.

PMID- 28555763
TI  - FURTHER EVIDENCE OF GENETIC AND INCREASED DEVELOPMENTAL HOMEOSTASIS IN A
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER NATURAL POPULATION DURING A MINOR CLIMATIC SHIFT.

PMID- 28555765
TI  - ISOZYMIC EVIDENCE BEARING ON THE ORIGIN OF NICOTIANA TABACUM L.

PMID- 28555764
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF CAVE-DWELLING FISHES OF THE GENUS ASTYANAX.

PMID- 28555766
TI  - EVIDENCE AGAINST GENETIC SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY IN THE HOMOSPOROUS FERN PTERIDIUM
      AQUILINUM.

PMID- 28555767
TI  - COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR IN THE SEMISPECIES OF THE SUPERSPECIES DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28555768
TI  - DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF PRIOCHIRUS SPECIES (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) IN THE
      SOLOMON ISLANDS.

PMID- 28555769
TI  - THE BREAKDOWN OF TRIMORPHIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN OXALIS SECTION CORNICULATAE.

PMID- 28555770
TI  - MATE SELECTION AND BALANCED POLYMORPHISM IN THE TROPICAL NYMPHALID BUTTERFLY,
      ANARTIA FATIMA.

PMID- 28555771
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SELECTION IN GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS L. IN
      THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, AMERICA.

PMID- 28555772
TI  - SELECTIVE ATTRACTION OF MALE EUGLOSSINE BEES TO ORCHID FLORAL FRAGRANCES AND ITS
      IMPORTANCE IN LONG DISTANCE POLLEN FLOW.

PMID- 28555773
TI  - Sex differences in empathy for pain: What is the role of autonomic regulation?
AB  - Empathy involves both affective and cognitive components whereby we understand,
      and express concerns for, the experiences of others. Women typically have
      superior trait empathy compared with men, which seems to have a neurological
      basis with sex differences in the structure and function of neural networks
      involved in empathy. This study investigated sex differences in empathy for pain
      using the Empathy for Pain Scale, and examined whether these trait differences
      were associated with disruptions in autonomic regulation, specifically via the
      parasympathetic nervous system (measured through the square root of the mean
      squared differences of successive R-R intervals; RMSSD) both at rest and during a
      socioevaluative stress task (i.e., the serial sevens task). Compared with men,
      women reported higher empathic concern (Cohen's r = .25) and affective distress
      (Cohen's d = 0.65) toward another in pain. In both men and women, there was a
      decrease in lnRMSSD in the stress task compared to rest. Sex moderated the
      relationship between resting lnRMSSD and self-reported empathic concern.
      Specifically, there was no clear association between empathic concern and lnRMSSD
      in men whereas in women there was a negative relationship, with lower resting
      lnRMSSD associated with higher empathic concern, and higher lnRMSSD associated
      with lower levels of empathic concern that were similar to men. These findings
      suggest that empathic feelings may result from poorer psychophysiological
      regulation, and concur with previous research displaying sex-specific
      relationships between resting heart rate variability and emotion regulation
      abilities.

PMID- 28555774
TI  - Post-Fordist reconfigurations of gender, work and life: theory and practice.
AB  - Based on an in-depth study with 56 informants (25 women and 31 men), across the
      ICT (information and communication technology), creative and academic sectors in
      one city/regional hub in Ireland, this article investigates the so-called
      revolution in work/life practices associated with the post-Fordist labour
      processes of the Knowledge Economy from the perspectives of workers themselves.
      Recent theorizations of post-Fordist work patterns emphasize a rearranging of
      work and life place boundaries; a reconfiguring of work and life time boundaries;
      and a dissolving of the gendered boundaries of work and life (production and
      social reproduction) (Adkins and Dever ; Morini and Fumagalli ; Gill and Pratt ;
      Weeks ; Hardt and Negri ). Our findings suggest that, instead of dissolving
      boundaries, workers constantly struggle to draw boundaries between what counts as
      work and as life, and that this varies primarily in relation to gender and stage
      in a gendered life trajectory. Work extensification is compensated for via a
      perceived freedom to shape one's own life, which is articulated in terms of
      individualized boundary-drawing. While younger men embraced 'always on' work,
      they also articulated anxieties about how these work habits might interfere with
      family aspirations. This was also true for younger women who also struggled to
      make time for life in the present. For mothers, boundary drawing was articulated
      as a necessity but was framed more in terms of personal choice by fathers.
      Although all participants distinguished between paid work and life as distinct
      sites of value, boundaries were individually drawn and resist any easy mapping of
      masculinity and femininity onto the domains of work and life. Instead, we argue
      that it is the process of boundary drawing that reveals gendered patterns. The
      personalized struggles of these relatively privileged middle-class workers centre
      on improving the quality of their lives, but raise important questions about the
      political possibilities within and beyond the world of post-Fordist labour.

PMID- 28555775
TI  - What weighs more-low compliance with self-deferral or minor medical procedures?
      Explaining the high rate of hepatitis C virus window-period donations in Poland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of nucleic acid testing (NAT) for routine
      blood donor screening, hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA-only detection rates reported
      from Poland have been higher than in most other European countries. STUDY DESIGN
      AND METHODS: To examine factors that likely contribute to these window-period
      donations, we conducted a case-control study among 47 recently HCV-infected blood
      donors (cases), who gave blood between July 2002 and June 2014, and 141 controls
      matched by age, sex, and donation dates. Firth-corrected, conditional logistic
      regression models were fitted to estimate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence
      intervals. Adjusted population-attributable fractions were calculated based on
      the distribution of exposure among the cases. RESULTS: On multivariate analysis,
      recent exposures in health care environments not routinely ascertained through
      predonation questionnaires were strongly associated with recently acquired HCV
      infection. These exposures included minor medical and dental procedures in the
      preceding 6 months (adjusted odds ratio, 5.77; 95 % confidence interval, 2.01
      18.53). However, based on the population-attributable fraction, more important
      were behavioral deferrable risks that went unreported at the time of donation,
      such as high-risk sexual behaviors in the preceding 6 months (population
      attributable fraction, 34%) or lifetime histories of drug use (population
      attributable fraction, 28%). CONCLUSIONS: This study raises questions about the
      effectiveness of deferral policy in excluding high-risk individuals. In addition,
      it provides further evidence supporting short, temporal deferrals for small
      medical procedures and dental treatments in Poland.

PMID- 28555776
TI  - Concurrent mood and anxiety disorders are associated with pharmacoresistant
      seizures in patients with MTLE.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether mood disorders (MD) and anxiety disorders (AD)
      are associated with seizure control in patients with mesial temporal lobe
      epilepsy (MTLE). We compared patients without any current psychiatric disorder,
      patients with current MD and/or AD, patients with subsyndromic depression
      episodes (SSDE) and anxiety episodes (SSAE), and patients with family psychiatric
      history. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, we included 144 consecutive
      patients with MTLE (82 pharmacoresistant and 62 treatment-responsive patients).
      Every patient underwent a psychiatric evaluation including the Structured
      Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
      Disorders, Fourth Edition) Axis I (SCID-I), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck
      Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy
      (NDDI-E), and Interictal Dysphoric Disorder Inventory (IDDI). Patients were
      divided into four groups: PsychNeg (G1, n = 61), current SSDE and SSAE (G2, n =
      26), Current MD or AD (G3, n = 25), and current mixed MD/AD (G4, n = 32).
      RESULTS: Among patients with pharmacoresistant MTLE, 68.3% (56/82) experienced
      symptoms of depression and/or anxiety (G2, G3, and G4) (odds ratio [OR] 2.8, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.41-5.53, p < 0.01). Patients with mixed MD/AD (G4, n =
      24/32) were more likely to have pharmacoresistant MTLE (OR 4.04, 95% CI 1.57
      10.42, p < 0.01) than psychiatric asymptomatic patients (G1, n = 26/61), and
      their seizure frequency was significantly higher (p < 0.01). Positive family
      psychiatric history was more frequent in pharmacoresistant patients (n = 27/82,
      OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.02-5.05, p = 0.04). Finally, 31.6% of patients with MD and or
      AD were not receiving psychiatric treatment. SIGNIFICANCE: Identification of
      comorbid MD/AD and of family psychiatric history is of the essence in patients
      with MTLE, as they appear to be associated with worse seizure control.

PMID- 28555777
TI  - Early ictal and interictal patterns in FIRES: The sparks before the blaze.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) is a catastrophic
      epileptic encephalopathy described as explosive onset of super refractory status
      epilepticus (SRSE) in previously healthy children. We describe
      electroencephalography (EEG) abnormalities in the hyperacute phase of FIRES, with
      the aim of contributing to the diagnostic characterization of a syndrome
      otherwise lacking specific biomarkers. METHODS: This is a retrospective single
      center, case series of seven children with FIRES. Cases were identified from a
      Neurocritical Care database. Patient characteristics and clinical course were
      obtained from electronic medical records. Electroencephalography recordings were
      reviewed in two segments: the initial 12 h of recording and the 12 h prior to
      initiation of a medically induced burst suppression (BS). RESULTS: Fourteen 12-h
      segments of video-electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were analyzed for
      commonalities. A beta-delta complex resembling extreme delta brush (EDB) occurred
      in at least one 12-h segment for all patients. In six patients, seizures were
      brief and relatively infrequent during the first recording, with a gradual
      evolution to status epilepticus by the second. We observed a characteristic
      electrographic seizure pattern in six of seven patients with prolonged focal fast
      activity at onset. Shifting seizures were seen in four of seven patients.
      SIGNIFICANCE: The diagnosis of FIRES is typically assigned late in a patient's
      clinical course, which has broad implications for clinical care and research. We
      retrospectively analyzed acute EEG features in seven patients with FIRES and
      discovered three common features: gradual increase in seizure burden, presence of
      a recurrent EDB, and a typical seizure pattern. Recognition of this pattern may
      facilitate early diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28555779
TI  - Pharmacology of oxidative stress: translational opportunities.
AB  - LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on Redox Biology and
      Oxidative Stress in Health and Disease. To view the other articles in this
      section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v174.12/issuetoc.

PMID- 28555778
TI  - The feasibility of salivary sample collection in an international pediatric
      cohort: The the TEDDY study.
AB  - Saliva offers a relatively noninvasive method for measuring analytes such as
      cortisol, holding particular promise for use in pediatric populations on a large
      scale if a rigorous collection protocol is feasible in diverse settings. The
      Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young study protocol, conducted in
      centers in the United States, Sweden, Finland, and Germany, used salivary
      collection to assess cortisol level as a physiologic marker of stress. Saliva was
      collected using Sorbettes from subjects at 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years of age.
      Parents collected a morning sample, and staff collected pre- and post-blood draw
      samples. Feasibility was assessed based on protocol completion, adherence with
      instructions, factors affecting adherence, and sufficiency of saliva sample for
      cortisol determination. Collection of saliva samples in a diverse pediatric
      population is feasible. Establishing non-invasive and acceptable methods for
      collecting physiological parameters of stress will allow better exploration of
      determinants of health in this important population.

PMID- 28555780
TI  - Development and psychometric properties of the Hand-Use-at-Home questionnaire to
      assess amount of affected hand-use in children with unilateral paresis.
AB  - AIM: To describe the development of the parent-rated Hand-Use-at-Home
      questionnaire (HUH) assessing the amount of spontaneous use of the affected hand
      in children with unilateral paresis, and to test its internal structure,
      unidimensionality, and validity. METHOD: Parents of children with unilateral
      cerebral palsy (CP) and professionals participated in the development of the HUH.
      To examine internal validity, data of 322 children (158 males, 164 females; mean
      age 6y 7mo, standard deviation [SD] 2y 1mo) with unilateral CP (n=131) or
      neonatal brachial plexus palsy (NBPP) (n=191) were collected. Rasch analysis was
      used to examine discriminative capacity of the 5-category rating scale as well as
      unidimensionality and hierarchy of the item set. Additionally, data of 55
      children with typical development (24 males, 31 females; 6y 9mo, SD 2y 5mo) were
      used to examine construct validity. RESULTS: The 5-category rating scale was
      disordered in all items and was collapsed to obtain the best discriminating sum
      score. Ten misfitting or redundant items were removed. Eighteen hierarchically
      ordered bimanual items fitted the unidimensional model within acceptable range.
      The HUH significantly discriminated between the three groups (children with
      typical development, NBPP, unilateral CP; H(2) =118.985, p<0.001), supporting its
      construct validity. INTERPRETATION: The HUH is a valid instrument to assess the
      amount of spontaneous use of the affected hand in children with unilateral upper
      limb paresis.

PMID- 28555782
TI  - Stepwise partitioning of Xp21: a profiling method for XK deletions causative of
      the McLeod syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: McLeod syndrome (MLS) is hematologically defined by the absence of
      the red blood cell (RBC) antigen Kx on the transmembrane RBC protein, XK,
      representing a highly specific diagnostic marker. Direct molecular assessment of
      XK therefore represents a desirable diagnostic tool. Whereas pathogenic point
      mutations may be simply identified, partial and complete deletions of XK on
      Xp21.1, eventually covering adjacent genes and causing multifaceted "continuous
      gene syndromes," are difficult to localize. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Three
      different McLeod patient samples were tested using 16 initial positional
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures distributed over an approximately 2.8
      Mbp Xp-chromosomal region, ranging telomeric from MAGEB16 to OTC, centromeric of
      XK. The molecular breakpoint of one sample with an apparent large Xp deletion was
      iteratively narrowed down by stepwise positioning further PCR procedures and
      sequenced. Two mutant XK genes, one previously published and serving as a
      positive control, were also sequenced. RESULTS: We confirmed the positive control
      as previously published and listed as XK*N.20 by the International Society of
      Blood Transfusion (ISBT). The other XK showed a novel four-nucleotide deletion in
      Exon 1, 195-198delCCGC (newly listed as XK*N.39 by the ISBT). The third sample
      had an approximately 151-kbp X-chromosomal deletion, reaching from Exon 2 of
      LANCL3, across XK to Exon 3 of CYBB (newly listed as XK*N.01.016 by the ISBT).
      Carrier status of the patients' sister was diagnosed using a diagnostic "gap
      PCR." CONCLUSIONS: The stepwise partitioning of Xp21.1 is pragmatic and cost
      efficient in comparison to other diagnostic techniques such as "massive parallel
      sequencing" given the rarity of MLS. All males with suspected MLS should be
      considered for molecular XK profiling.

PMID- 28555784
TI  - MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OVER THE MUTATIONAL LANDSCAPE.

PMID- 28555781
TI  - High C-Reactive Protein Predicts Delirium Incidence, Duration, and Feature
      Severity After Major Noncardiac Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between the inflammatory marker C-reactive
      protein (CRP) measured preoperatively and on postoperative day 2 (POD2) and
      delirium incidence, duration, and feature severity. DESIGN: Prospective cohort
      study. SETTING: Two academic medical centers. PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged 70 and
      older undergoing major noncardiac surgery (N = 560). MEASUREMENTS: Plasma CRP was
      measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Delirium was assessed from
      Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) interviews and chart review. Delirium duration
      was measured according to number of hospital days with delirium. Delirium feature
      severity was defined as the sum of CAM-Severity (CAM-S) scores on all
      postoperative hospital days. Generalized linear models were used to examine
      independent associations between CRP (preoperatively and POD2 separately) and
      delirium incidence, duration, and feature severity; prolonged hospital length of
      stay (LOS, >5 days); and discharge disposition. RESULTS: Postoperative delirium
      occurred in 24% of participants, 12% had 2 or more delirium days, and the mean +/
      standard deviation sum CAM-S was 9.3 +/- 11.4. After adjusting for age, sex,
      surgery type, anesthesia route, medical comorbidities, and postoperative
      infectious complications, participants with preoperative CRP of 3 mg/L or greater
      had a risk of delirium that was 1.5 times as great (95% confidence interval (CI)
      = 1.1-2.1) as that of those with CRP less than 3 mg/L, 0.4 more delirium days (P
      < .001), more-severe delirium (3.6 CAM-S points higher, P < .001), and a risk of
      prolonged LOS that was 1.4 times as great (95% CI = 1.1-1.8). Using POD2 CRP,
      participants in the highest quartile (>=235.73 mg/L) were 1.5 times as likely to
      develop delirium (95% CI = 1.0-2.4) as those in the lowest quartile (<=127.53
      mg/L), had 0.2 more delirium days (P < .05), and had more severe delirium (4.5
      CAM-S points higher, P < .001). CONCLUSION: High preoperative and POD2 CRP were
      independently associated with delirium incidence, duration, and feature severity.
      CRP may be useful to identify individuals who are at risk of developing delirium.

PMID- 28555783
TI  - Implementation of a critical care outreach service: a qualitative study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to explore hospital staff perceptions of the
      perceived challenges and outcomes of implementing a critical care outreach
      service. BACKGROUND: A nurse-led critical care outreach service was designed and
      implemented to identify and treat acutely ill patients in a large tertiary care
      hospital in Iran. METHODS: A qualitative analysis of data from two focus groups
      and seven interviews was carried out using conventional content analyses
      techniques. A total of 24 hospital staff members participated, including critical
      care outreach team members, physicians, ward head nurses and ward staff.
      FINDINGS: Two main categories described the perceived challenges to the
      implementation of the critical care outreach service: 1) the hospital context,
      with four subcategories related to staff shortages, the instability of physician
      positions, the lack of specialized essential services and the absence of a system
      to establish do-not-resuscitate orders, and 2) staff resistance to different
      nursing priorities, routines and extra work. In two additional main categories,
      participants also described positive and negative perceived outcomes. The
      positive perceived outcomes included three subcategories of alleviating equipment
      shortages, improving nursing knowledge and patient care and improving patient and
      healthcare professional satisfaction. DISCUSSION: While critical care outreach
      has the potential to improve patient perceived outcomes and both patient and
      provider satisfaction with care, the contextual and clinical realities in
      hospitals are significant and must be examined during the planning and
      implementation of future outreach. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND
      HEALTH POLICY: A critical care outreach service in the context of an Iranian
      hospital has the potential to improve ward nurse familiarity with the care of
      acutely ill patients and the quality of palliative care. However, attention ought
      to be paid to the hospital's structural and contextual factors. Alleviating
      nursing shortages, reducing staff resistance and preparing goals of care
      guidelines that address restrictions on resuscitation could facilitate
      implementation of critical care outreach services.

PMID- 28555785
TI  - THE MANIFESTATION OF PHENOTYPIC SELECTION AT CONSTITUENT LOCI. I. STABILIZING
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28555786
TI  - POPULATION DENSITY, OUTCROSSING RATE, AND HETEROZYGOTE SUPERIORITY IN PONDEROSA
      PINE.

PMID- 28555787
TI  - INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE AMYLASE AND ADIPOSE CHROMOSOMAL REGIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28555788
TI  - DYNAMICS OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION: TEMPORAL IMPACT OF GENE FLOW IN POCKET
      GOPHER POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28555789
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SEX DETERMINING MECHANISMS: A REVIEW OF FACT AND THEORY.

PMID- 28555790
TI  - DIFFERENCES IN SURVIVORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT RATE AND FERTILITY BETWEEN THE
      LONGWINGED AND WINGLESS MORPHS OF THE WATERSTRIDER, LIMNOPORUS CANALICULATUS.

PMID- 28555791
TI  - POLLEN-OVULE RATIOS AND HERMAPHRODITE SEXUAL ALLOCATION STRATEGIES.

PMID- 28555792
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE IN BLACK FLIES: ALLOZYMIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL ESTIMATES FOR
      PROSIMULIUM MIXTUM AND P. FUSCUM (DIPTERA: SIMULIIDAE).

PMID- 28555793
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF REEF-BUILDING CORALS
      (SCLERACTINIA).

PMID- 28555794
TI  - DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION: A REPORT.

PMID- 28555795
TI  - SELECTION FOR DELAYED SENESCENCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28555796
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN MORMON CRICKETS (ORTHOPTERA:
      TETTIGONIIDAE, ANABRUS SIMPLEX).

PMID- 28555797
TI  - POSSIBLE PREZYGOTIC REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN SEA URCHINS SEPARATED BY THE
      ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

PMID- 28555798
TI  - CHARACTERIZATION OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIABILITY IN A HYBRID SWARM BETWEEN
      SUBSPECIES OF BLUEGILL SUNFISH (LEPOMIS MACROCHIRUS).

PMID- 28555799
TI  - GROUP SELECTION: THE INTERACTION OF LOCAL DEME SIZE AND MIGRATION IN THE
      DIFFERENTIATION OF SMALL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28555800
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL DISTANCE: AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN TWO PERSPECTIVES IN EVOLUTIONARY
      BIOLOGY.

PMID- 28555801
TI  - 1984 THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY PRIZE AWARDED.

PMID- 28555802
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTIONARY REVERSAL OF COMPETITIVE DOMINANCE.

PMID- 28555803
TI  - LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF POSTPONED SENESCENCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28555804
TI  - OUTCROSSING AND POLLINATOR LIMITATION OF FRUIT SET: BREEDING SYSTEMS OF
      NEOTROPICAL INGA TREES (FABACEAE: MIMOSOIDEAE).

PMID- 28555805
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONS AMONG THE DARWIN'S FINCHES.

PMID- 28555806
TI  - CHANGES IN GROUP-SELECTED TRAITS THAT OCCUR WHEN GROUP SELECTION IS RELAXED.

PMID- 28555807
TI  - BIRD VERSUS MAMMAL MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY.

PMID- 28555808
TI  - SPERM PREDOMINANCE AMONG DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA KARYOTYPES.

PMID- 28555809
TI  - BRAIN SIZE, ADAPTATION AND HETEROCHRONY IN GEOMYOID RODENTS.

PMID- 28555810
TI  - Reduced right ventricular diameter during cardiac arrest caused by tension
      pneumothorax - a porcine ultrasound study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Advanced life support (ALS) guidelines recommend ultrasound to
      identify reversible causes of cardiac arrest. Right ventricular (RV) dilatation
      during cardiac arrest is commonly interpreted as a sign of pulmonary embolism.
      The RV is thus a focus of clinical ultrasound examination. Importantly, in animal
      studies ventricular fibrillation and hypoxia results in RV dilatation. Tension
      pneumothorax (tPTX) is another reversible cause of cardiac arrest, however, the
      impact on RV diameter remains unknown. AIM: To investigate RV diameter evaluated
      by ultrasound in cardiac arrest caused by tPTX or hypoxia. METHODS: Pigs were
      randomized to cardiac arrest by either tPTX (n = 9) or hypoxia (n = 9) and
      subsequently resuscitated. Tension pneumothorax was induced by injection of air
      into the pleural cavity. Hypoxia was induced by reducing tidal volume. Ultrasound
      images of the RV were obtained throughout the study. Tension pneumothorax was
      decompressed after the seventh rhythm analysis. The primary endpoint was RV
      diameter after the third rhythm analysis. RESULTS: At cardiac arrest the RV
      diameter was 17 mm (95% CI: 13; 21) in the tPTX group and 36 mm (95% CI: 33; 40)
      in the hypoxia group (P < 0.01, n = 9 for both). At third rhythm analysis RV
      diameter was smaller in the tPTX group: 12 mm (95% CI: 7; 16) vs. hypoxia group:
      28 mm (25; 32) (P < 0.01). After decompression no difference existed between
      groups: tPTX 29 mm (95% CI: 23; 34) vs. hypoxia 29 mm (95% CI: 20; 38).
      CONCLUSION: The RV diameter is smaller during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in
      cardiac arrest caused by tPTX when compared with hypoxia. The difference
      disappears after tPTX decompression.

PMID- 28555814
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28555811
TI  - Long-Term Oral Bisphosphonate Therapy and Fractures in Older Women: The Women's
      Health Initiative.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between long-term bisphosphonate use and
      fracture in older women at high risk of fracture. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort.
      SETTING: Women's Health Initiative. PARTICIPANTS: Older women who reported at
      least 2 years of bisphosphonate use in 2008-09 (N = 5,120). MEASUREMENTS:
      Exposure data were from a current medications inventory. Outcomes (hip, clinical
      vertebral, wrist or forearm, any clinical fracture) were ascertained annually.
      Using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, the association between
      duration of bisphosphonate use (3-5, 6-9, 10-13 years) and fracture was
      estimated, using 2 years as the referent group. RESULTS: On average participants
      were 80 years old and were followed for 3.7 +/- 1.2 years. There were 127 hip,
      159 wrist or forearm, 235 clinical vertebral, and 1,313 clinical fractures. In
      multivariate-adjusted analysis, 10 to 13 years of bisphosphonate use was
      associated with higher risk of any clinical fracture than 2 years of use (hazard
      ratio (HR) = 1.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07-1.57). This association
      persisted in analyses limited to women with a prior fracture (HR = 1.30, 95% CI =
      1.01-1.67) and women with no history of cancer (HR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.10-1.68).
      The association of 10 to 13 years of use, compared with 2 years of use, was not
      statistically significant for hip (HR = 1.66, 95% CI = 0.81-3.40), clinical
      vertebral (HR = 1.65, 95% CI = 0.99-2.76), or wrist fracture (HR = 1.16, 95% CI =
      0.67-2.00). CONCLUSION: In older women at high risk of fracture, 10 to 13 years
      of bisphosphonate use was associated with higher risk of any clinical fracture
      than 2 years of use. These results add to concerns about the benefit of very long
      term bisphosphonate use.

PMID- 28555813
TI  - Heterogeneity of trichoscopy findings in dissecting cellulitis of the scalp:
      correlation with disease activity and duration.

PMID- 28555815
TI  - EULOGY: THOMAS JAMES MORTON SCHOPF (1939-1984).

PMID- 28555812
TI  - Lung-resident gammadelta T cells and their roles in lung diseases.
AB  - gammadelta T cells are greatly enriched in mucosal and epithelial sites, such as
      the skin, respiratory, digestive and reproductive tracts, and they are defined as
      tissue-resident immune cells. In these tissues, the characteristics and
      biological roles of gammadelta T cells are distinguished from each other. The
      lungs represent the most challenging immunological dilemma for the host, and they
      have their own effective immune system. The abundance of gammadelta T cells, an
      estimated 8-20% of resident pulmonary lymphocytes in the lung, maintains lung
      tissue homeostasis. In this review, we summarize the recent research progress
      regarding lung-resident gammadelta T cells, including their development,
      residency and immune characteristics, and discuss the involvement of gammadelta T
      cells in infectious diseases of the lung, including bacterial, viral and fungal
      infections; lung allergic disease; lung inflammation and fibrosis; and lung
      cancer.

PMID- 28555816
TI  - ON THE MEASUREMENT OF NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION: THEORY.

PMID- 28555817
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS ON
      THE REPRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF THE COMMON COCKLEBUR, XANTHIUM STRUMARIUM L.

PMID- 28555818
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE OF THE CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28555819
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF POLYPHAGY IN AN INSECT HERBIVORE. I. GENOTYPE
      ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION IN LARVAL PERFORMANCE ON DIFFERENT HOST PLANT SPECIES.

PMID- 28555820
TI  - INBREEDING AND THE EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISM UNDER KIN SELECTION: EFFECTS ON
      RELATEDNESS AND GROUP STRUCTURE.

PMID- 28555821
TI  - GENETIC CHANGES COINCIDING WITH THE COLONIZATION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE WALNUT HUSK
      FLY, RHAGOLETIS COMPLETA.

PMID- 28555822
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND LOCAL SELECTION IN IMPATIENS PALLIDA (BALSAMINACEAE), A
      SELFING ANNUAL.

PMID- 28555823
TI  - THE EXPECTED FIXATION RATE OF CHROMOSOMAL INVERSIONS.

PMID- 28555825
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF POLYPHAGY IN AN INSECT HERBIVORE. II. GENETIC
      CORRELATIONS IN LARVAL PERFORMANCE WITHIN AND AMONG HOST PLANTS.

PMID- 28555824
TI  - COEVOLUTION IN ECOSYSTEMS: RED QUEEN EVOLUTION OR STASIS?

PMID- 28555826
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-POLLINATION IN GRANITE OUTCROP SPECIES OF ARENARIA
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE). I. MORPHOLOGICAL CORRELATES.

PMID- 28555827
TI  - SEX CHROMOSOMES AND THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM.

PMID- 28555828
TI  - ECOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN A DARWIN'S FINCH, GEOSPIZA
      DIFFICILIS.

PMID- 28555829
TI  - INFLUENCE OF FLOWER COLOR POLYMORPHISM ON GENETIC TRANSMISSION IN A NATURAL
      POPULATION OF THE COMMON MORNING GLORY, IPOMOEA PURPUREA.

PMID- 28555830
TI  - ON THE MEASUREMENT OF NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION: APPLICATIONS.

PMID- 28555831
TI  - THE COMPARISON OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND GENETIC VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF
      THE GRASS DANTHONIA SPICATA.

PMID- 28555832
TI  - EVOLUTION BY KIN SELECTION: A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC MODEL ILLUSTRATED BY MATERNAL
      PERFORMANCE IN MICE.

PMID- 28555833
TI  - Predictive models in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate predictive models for neural antibody positivity and
      immunotherapy response in epilepsy. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study
      of epilepsy cases at Mayo Clinic (Rochester-MN; Scottsdale-AZ, and Jacksonville
      FL) in whom autoimmune encephalopathy/epilepsy/dementia autoantibody testing
      profiles were requested (06/30/2014-06/30/2016). An Antibody Prevalence in
      Epilepsy (APE) score, based on clinical characteristics, was assigned to each
      patient. Among patients who received immunotherapy, a Response to Immunotherapy
      in Epilepsy (RITE) score was assigned. Favorable seizure outcome was defined as
      >50% reduction of seizure frequency at the first follow-up. RESULTS: Serum and
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 1,736 patients were sent to the Mayo Clinic
      Neuroimmunology Laboratory for neural autoantibody evaluation. Three hundred
      eighty-seven of these patients met the diagnostic criteria for epilepsy. Central
      nervous system (CNS)-specific antibodies were detected in 44 patients. Certain
      clinical features such as new-onset epilepsy, autonomic dysfunction, viral
      prodrome, faciobrachial dystonic seizures/oral dyskinesia, inflammatory CSF
      profile, and mesial temporal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities had a
      significant association with positive antibody results. A significantly higher
      proportion of antibody-positive patients had an APE score >=4 (97.7% vs. 21.6%, p
      < 0.01). Sensitivity and specificity of an APE score >=4 to predict presence of
      specific neural auto-antibody were 97.7% and 77.9%, respectively. In the subset
      of patients who received immunotherapy (77), autonomic dysfunction, faciobrachial
      dystonic seizures/oral dyskinesia, early initiation of immunotherapy, and
      presence of antibodies targeting plasma membrane proteins (cell-surface antigens)
      were associated with favorable seizure outcome. Sensitivity and specificity of a
      RITE score >=7 to predict favorable seizure outcome were 87.5% and 83.8%,
      respectively. SIGNIFICANCE: APE and RITE scores can aid diagnosis, treatment, and
      prognostication of autoimmune epilepsy. A PowerPoint slide summarizing this
      article is available for download in the Supporting Information section here.

PMID- 28555834
TI  - Effects of breeder turnover and harvest on group composition and recruitment in a
      social carnivore.
AB  - Breeder turnover can influence population growth in social carnivores through
      changes to group size, composition and recruitment. Studies that possess detailed
      group composition data that can provide insights about the effects of breeder
      turnover on groups have generally been conducted on species that are not subject
      to recurrent annual human harvest. We wanted to know how breeder turnover affects
      group composition and how harvest, in turn, affects breeder turnover in
      cooperatively breeding grey wolves (Canis lupus Linnaeus 1758). We used
      noninvasive genetic sampling at wolf rendezvous sites to construct pedigrees and
      estimate recruitment in groups of wolves before and after harvest in Idaho, USA.
      Turnover of breeding females increased polygamy and potential recruits per group
      by providing breeding opportunities for subordinates although resultant group
      size was unaffected 1 year after the turnover. Breeder turnover had no effect on
      the number of nonbreeding helpers per group. After breeding male turnover, fewer
      female pups were recruited in the new males' litters. Harvest had no effect on
      the frequency of breeder turnover. We found that breeder turnover led to shifts
      in the reproductive hierarchies within groups and the resulting changes to group
      composition were quite variable and depended on the sex of the breeder lost. We
      hypothesize that nonbreeding females direct help away from non-kin female pups to
      preserve future breeding opportunities for themselves. Breeder turnover had
      marked effects on the breeding opportunities of subordinates and the number and
      sex ratios of subsequent litters of pups. Seemingly subtle changes to groups,
      such as the loss of one individual, can greatly affect group composition, genetic
      content, and short-term population growth when the individual lost is a breeder.

PMID- 28555835
TI  - Antiproliferative and antimicrobial efficacy of the compounds isolated from the
      roots of Oenothera biennis L.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oenothera biennis L., commonly known as evening primrose, harbours
      the flavonoids, steroids, tannins, fatty acids and terpenoids responsible for a
      diverse range of biological activity, such as antitumour, anti-arthritic and anti
      inflammatory effects. In addition to the previous reports from aerial parts of
      this plant, studies related to antiproliferative or antimicrobial activity from
      the roots are warranted. OBJECTIVE: To investigate antiproliferative and
      antimicrobial activity of compounds/mixture (1-8) isolated and characterized from
      the roots of O. biennis L. A possible mechanism of antiproliferative activity was
      also studied by targeting ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and cathepsin D (CATD).
      STUDY DESIGN: Antiproliferative efficacy of the compounds/mixture was examined in
      selected cancer cell lines along with their probable mechanism of action. The
      antimicrobial activity was also studied against selected microbes (bacteria and
      fungi). METHODS: Antiproliferative potential was evaluated by MTT assay against
      selected cell lines. The mechanism of action was studied spectrophotometrically
      by targeting ODC and CATD using both an in-vitro and an in-silico approach. The
      antimicrobial efficiency was analysed using the disc diffusion and broth dilution
      methods. KEY FINDINGS: Oenotheralanosterol B (3) and the mixture of
      oenotheralanosterol A and oenotheralanosterol B (4) exhibited antiproliferative
      activity against breast, hepatic, prostate and leukaemia cancer cell lines as
      well as in mouse macrophages (IC50 8.35-49.69 MUg/ml). Oenotheralanosterol B (3)
      and the mixture of oenotheralanosterol A and oenotheralanosterol B (4) displayed
      a strong molecular interaction with succinate dehydrogenase (binding energy -6.23
      and -6.84 kcal/mol and Ki 27.03 and 9.6 MUm, respectively). Oenotheralanosterol A
      (1), oenotheralanosterol B (3) and mixture of oenotheralanosterol A and
      oenotheralanosterol B (4) potently inhibited the ODC activity with IC50 ranging
      from 4.65 +/- 0.35 to 19.06 +/- 4.16 MUg/ml and also showed a strong interaction
      with ODC (BE -4.17 to -4.46 kcal/mol). Oenotheralanosterol A (1), cetoleilyl
      diglucoside (2), oenotheralanosterol B (3), dihydroxyprenylxanthone acetylated
      (6) and dihydroxyprenylxanthone (7) inhibited CATD activity (IC50 3.95 +/- 0.49
      to 24.35 +/- 2.89 MUg/ml). The in-silico molecular interaction analysis of
      compounds with CATD revealed the non-specific interaction. A moderate
      antimicrobial activity was observed against selected microbes with a growth
      inhibition ranging from 6 to 14 mm and minimum inhibitory concentration between
      125 and 500 MUg/ml. Oenotheralanosterol B (3) and dihydroxyprenylxanthone
      acetylated (6) exhibited better antimicrobial activity with an MIC range from
      62.50 to 500 MUg/ml. CONCLUSION: Oenotheralanosterol B (3) exhibited stronger
      antiproliferative and antimicrobial potential with respect to the other compounds
      tested, whereas oenotheralanosterol A (1) was a potent inhibitor of ODC and CATD.
      Hence, it is suggested that these in-vitro findings could be studied further in
      vivo for biological activity, safety evaluation and derivatization to enhance
      potency and efficacy.

PMID- 28555836
TI  - Dietary composition and prey selectivity of juvenile porcupine rays Urogymnus
      asperrimus.
AB  - Fifty-five juvenile porcupine ray Urogymnus asperrimus were collected in the
      isolated St Joseph Atoll, Seychelles. Stomach contents were sampled using non
      lethal gastric lavage to determine the dietary composition, degree of prey
      selectivity and whether sex or size affected their diet. Sediment samples were
      collected to quantify prey availability so that prey selectivity could be
      estimated. Two phyla (Sipuncula and Nemertea) and 11 polychaete and crustacean
      families were recorded in stomach contents. Juvenile U. asperrimus appeared to
      specialize on one polychaete family, Capitellidae, which was the most important
      prey item (index of importance = 35%). This polychaete family was also most
      abundant in the sediment samples and U. asperrimus are thus considered
      opportunistic predators. There was evidence of a size-related shift in the
      crustacean families consumed by juvenile U. asperrimus. Data collected at this
      remote location provides important baseline ecological information that may prove
      useful in developing conservation strategies for this ecologically important
      species.

PMID- 28555837
TI  - Amelanotic melanoma in oculocutaneous albinism: a genetic, dermoscopic and
      reflectance confocal microscopy study.

PMID- 28555838
TI  - Spontaneous CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses directed against cancer testis
      antigens are present in the peripheral blood of testicular cancer patients.
AB  - Cancer/testis antigen (CTAg) expression is restricted to spermatogenic cells in
      an immune-privileged site within the testis. However, these proteins are
      expressed aberrantly by malignant cells and T-cell responses against CTAgs
      develop in many cancer patients. We investigated the prevalence, magnitude and
      phenotype of CTAg-specific T cells in the blood of patients with testicular germ
      cell tumors (TGCTs). CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell responses against MAGE-A family
      antigens were present in 44% (20/45) of patients' samples assayed by ex vivo IFN
      gamma ELISPOT. The presence of MAGE-specific CD8+ T cells was further determined
      following short-term in vitro expansion through the use of pMHC-I multimers
      containing known immunogenic peptides. Longitudinal analysis revealed that the
      frequency of MAGE-specific T cells decreased by 89% following orchidectomy
      suggesting that persistence of tumor antigen is required to sustain CTAg-specific
      T-cell immunity. Notably, this decrease correlated with a decline in the global
      effector/memory T-cell pool following treatment. Spontaneous T-cell immunity
      against CTAg proteins therefore develops in many patients with testicular cancer
      and may play an important role in the excellent clinical outcome of patients with
      this tumor subtype.

PMID- 28555840
TI  - The effect of interpregnancy interval on obesity/overweight among women in the
      first trimester of pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of interpregnancy interval (IPI) on
      obesity/overweight among pregnant Sudanese women in early pregnancy. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional study was conducted at Saad Abu-Alela Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan,
      from January to December 2015. Women with a singleton pregnancy and at least one
      previous pregnancy were enrolled in the first trimester. A questionnaire was used
      to collect clinical and sociodemographic data from the participants, and current
      body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square
      of height in meters. RESULTS: Among 1045 participants, 344 (32.9%), 424 (40.6%),
      and 277 (26.5%) women had short (<18 months), normal (18-30 months), and long
      IPIs (>30 months), respectively. BMI indicated 18 (1.7%), 408 (39.0%), 381
      (36.5%), and 238 (22.8%) women were underweight (<18.5), normal weight (18.5
      24.9), overweight (25.0-29.9), and obese (>=30.0), respectively. Age and
      proportion using contraceptives were increased among women with long IPI (both
      P<0.001). When compared with women of normal weight, overweight women and obese
      women were more likely to have a long IPI (odds ratio 1.72, 95% confidence
      interval 1.08-2.93; and 1.71, 1.05-2.94, respectively). CONCLUSION: Long IPI was
      associated with obesity and overweight, which were prevalent among pregnant
      Sudanese women.

PMID- 28555839
TI  - Promotion of endocytosis efficiency through an ATP-independent mechanism at rat
      calyx of Held terminals.
AB  - KEY POINTS: At rat calyx of Held terminals, ATP was required not only for slow
      endocytosis, but also for rapid phase of compensatory endocytosis. An ATP
      independent form of endocytosis was recruited to accelerate membrane retrieval at
      increased activity and temperature. ATP-independent endocytosis primarily
      involved retrieval of pre-existing membrane, which depended on Ca2+ and the
      activity of neutral sphingomyelinase but not clathrin-coated pit maturation. ATP
      independent endocytosis represents a non-canonical mechanism that can efficiently
      retrieve membrane at physiological conditions without competing for the limited
      ATP at elevated neuronal activity. ABSTRACT: Neurotransmission relies on membrane
      endocytosis to maintain vesicle supply and membrane stability. Endocytosis has
      been generally recognized as a major ATP-dependent function, which efficiently
      retrieves more membrane at elevated neuronal activity when ATP consumption within
      nerve terminals increases drastically. This paradox raises the interesting
      question of whether increased activity recruits ATP-independent mechanism(s) to
      accelerate endocytosis at the same time as preserving ATP availability for other
      tasks. To address this issue, we studied ATP requirement in three typical forms
      of endocytosis at rat calyx of Held terminals by whole-cell membrane capacitance
      measurements. At room temperature, blocking ATP hydrolysis effectively abolished
      slow endocytosis and rapid endocytosis but only partially inhibited excess
      endocytosis following intense stimulation. The ATP-independent endocytosis
      occurred at calyces from postnatal days 8-15, suggesting its existence before and
      after hearing onset. This endocytosis was not affected by a reduction of
      exocytosis using the light chain of botulinum toxin C, nor by block of clathrin
      coat maturation. It was abolished by EGTA, which preferentially blocked
      endocytosis of retrievable membrane pre-existing at the surface, and was impaired
      by oxidation of cholesterol and inhibition of neutral sphingomyelinase. ATP
      independent endocytosis became more significant at 34-35 degrees C, and recovered
      membrane by an amount that, on average, was close to exocytosis. The results of
      the present study suggest that activity and temperature recruit ATP-independent
      endocytosis of pre-existing membrane (in addition to ATP-dependent endocytosis)
      to efficiently retrieve membrane at nerve terminals. This less understood
      endocytosis represents a non-canonical mechanism regulated by lipids such as
      cholesterol and sphingomyelinase.

PMID- 28555841
TI  - Regulatory Consequences of "Brexit" for the Development of Medicinal Products.
AB  - The United Kingdom voted in a referendum in June 2016 to leave the European Union
      (EU) after 45 years of membership. Among the many political, social, and
      scientific consequences are those for the regulation of health care products. No
      longer will the efficacy, safety, and quality of medicines in the United Kingdom
      be subject to an EU regulatory framework. The European Medicines Agency (EMA),
      which is currently located in London, will move elsewhere in Europe. The
      pharmaceutical industry will reassess its commitment to the UK health scene.

PMID- 28555842
TI  - Continuing Professional Development Quiz.

PMID- 28555843
TI  - Dentistry - Why be Down in the Mouth?

PMID- 28555845
TI  - DEEP-SEA ASTEROIDS: HIGH GENETIC VARIABILITY IN A STABLE ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28555846
TI  - BEE FLOWERS: A HYPOTHESIS ON FLOWER VARIETY AND BLOOMING TIMES.

PMID- 28555847
TI  - GIBBON AND SIAMANG.

PMID- 28555849
TI  - SEX RATIO SELECTION IN AN AGE-STRUCTURED POPULATION.

PMID- 28555848
TI  - EVOLUTION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILIDAE : CHROMOSOMAL PHYLOGENY OF THE DROSOPHILA
      CRASSIFEMUR COMPLEX.

PMID- 28555850
TI  - POPULATION DENSITY AND MATING RATES IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28555852
TI  - ASPECT DIVERSITY IN MOTHS: A TEMPERATE-TROPICAL COMPARISON.

PMID- 28555851
TI  - Comparison of Reaction Time Distributions in Homozygous and Heterozygous
      Populations.

PMID- 28555853
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28555855
TI  - GENETIC SIMILARITY AND DISTANCE: COMMENTS AND COMPARISONS.

PMID- 28555854
TI  - UNSTABLE INTERMEDIATES BETWEEN ORINOCAN AND INTERIOR SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA
      PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28555856
TI  - MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF CEPAEA NEMORALIS (L.) ON THE BRENDON HILLS, ENGLAND. II.
      VARIATION IN CHIASMA FREQUENCY.

PMID- 28555857
TI  - COMPLEMENTARY ROLES OF HALICTIDS AND SYRPHIDS IN THE POLLINATION OF JEPSONIA
      HETERANDRA (SAXIFRAGACEAE).

PMID- 28555859
TI  - DARWINIAN OR "ORIENTED" EVOLUTION?

PMID- 28555858
TI  - ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO: 1. POPULATION DYNAMICS AND
      LABORATORY RESPONSES TO FOOD AND POPULATION DENSITY.

PMID- 28555860
TI  - SONG DIALECTS AND GENETIC DIFFERENCES IN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS (ZONOTRICHIA
      LEUCOPHRYS).

PMID- 28555861
TI  - THE BEHAVIORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FRILL AND HORN MORPHOLOGY IN CERATOPSIAN
      DINOSAURS.

PMID- 28555862
TI  - MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF CEPAEA NEMORALIS (L.) ON THE BRENDON HILLS, ENGLAND. I.
      ECOLOGY AND ECOGENETICS.

PMID- 28555863
TI  - REPLY TO LOFTUS-HILLS.

PMID- 28555864
TI  - GENE CONTROL MECHANISMS AND THEIR POSSIBLE BEARING ON THE NEUTRALIST-SELECTIONIST
      CONTROVERSY.

PMID- 28555865
TI  - PATTERN DIVERSITY OF INCOMPATIBILITY GROUPS IN JEPSONIA HETERANDRA
      (SAXIFRAGACEAE).

PMID- 28555866
TI  - ALLELIC DIVERSITY IN THE OUTCROSSING ANNUAL PLANT STEPHANOMERIA EXIGUA SSP.
      CAROTIFERA (COMPOSITAE).

PMID- 28555867
TI  - HOST CASTRATION AS A PARASITIC STRATEGY.

PMID- 28555868
TI  - RACE.

PMID- 28555869
TI  - DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF CHROMOSOME VARIATION IN TRILLIUM
      OVATUM.

PMID- 28555870
TI  - THE EVIDENCE FOR REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT BETWEEN THE TOADS BUFO
      AMERICANUS AND B. WOODHOUSII FOWLERI.

PMID- 28555871
TI  - Microanatomical diversification of the zona pellucida in aplochelioid
      killifishes.
AB  - This study investigates zona pellucida (ZP) ultrastructure in fertilized eggs of
      annual killifishes (suborder Aplocheiloidei), a group of highly specialized
      fishes that are able to survive desiccation for several weeks to months before
      they hatch. Little is known about ZP or chorionic ultrastructure sustaining these
      life-history modes, so scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to describe
      this trait in a large number of aplocheiloids with a focus on the family
      Rivulidae and the genus Hypsolebias. New images of ZP ultrastructure for 52
      aplocheiloid species are provided, more than doubling the number characterized
      thus far. The evolution of chorionic structure within this group is studied using
      these new data. Characters were coded into a morphological matrix and optimized
      onto a consensus phylogeny to assess phylogenetic signal and reconstruct
      ancestral character states. Although ZP characters seem highly homoplastic and
      exhibit a large amount of structural convergence among lineages, aplocheiloid
      killifishes have evolved a number of unique structures associated with the
      chorion. Some annual species seem to have lost long filaments because eggs are
      deposited in the soil instead of being adhered to aquatic plants.

PMID- 28555872
TI  - Local density regulates migratory songbird reproductive success through effects
      on double-brooding and nest predation.
AB  - Knowledge of the density-dependent processes that regulate animal populations is
      key to understanding, predicting, and conserving populations. In migratory birds,
      density-dependence is most often studied during the breeding season, yet we still
      lack a robust understanding of the reproductive traits through which density
      influences individual reproductive success. We used 27-yr of detailed, individual
      level productivity data from an island-breeding population of Savannah sparrows
      Passerculus sandwichensis to evaluate effects of local and total annual
      population density on female reproductive success. Local density (number of
      neighbors within 50 m of a female's nest) had stronger effects on the number of
      young fledged than did total annual population density. Females nesting in areas
      of high local density were more likely to suffer nest predation and less likely
      to initiate and fledge a second clutch, which led to fewer young fledged in a
      season. Fledging fewer young subsequently decreased the likelihood of a female
      recruiting offspring into the breeding population in a subsequent year.
      Collectively, these results provide insight into the scale and reproductive
      mechanisms mediating density-dependent reproductive success and fitness in
      songbirds.

PMID- 28555873
TI  - Does size matter? An examination of problem gamblers' skin conductance responses
      to large and small magnitude rewards.
AB  - Previous research has shown that individuals with substance use disorder equally
      value small and large magnitude rewards. This has led some researchers to
      conceptualize the problematic behaviors associated with this disorder as being,
      at least in part, caused by a deficiency in processing reward stimuli.
      Considering the documented similarities between substance use disorder and
      disordered gambling, the current study sought to investigate whether problem
      gamblers also display such an aberrant pattern of incentive processing. Skin
      conductance responses (SCRs) to small and large magnitude wins were recorded from
      16 problem gamblers (PGs) and 16 healthy controls (HCs) while they completed a
      computer-simulated electronic gaming machine task. The results show that, while
      large wins elicited greater SCRs compared to small wins for the HC group, no
      difference in SCR amplitude was found following large and small wins in the PG
      group. These findings suggest that problem gamblers may be less effective at
      evaluating the value of incentives, and are discussed in terms of relevant
      theoretical frameworks.

PMID- 28555874
TI  - Bayesian Quantile Impairment Threshold Benchmark Dose Estimation for Continuous
      Endpoints.
AB  - Quantitative risk assessment often begins with an estimate of the exposure or
      dose associated with a particular risk level from which exposure levels posing
      low risk to populations can be extrapolated. For continuous exposures, this
      value, the benchmark dose, is often defined by a specified increase (or decrease)
      from the median or mean response at no exposure. This method of calculating the
      benchmark dose does not take into account the response distribution and,
      consequently, cannot be interpreted based upon probability statements of the
      target population. We investigate quantile regression as an alternative to the
      use of the median or mean regression. By defining the dose-response quantile
      relationship and an impairment threshold, we specify a benchmark dose as the dose
      associated with a specified probability that the population will have a response
      equal to or more extreme than the specified impairment threshold. In addition, in
      an effort to minimize model uncertainty, we use Bayesian monotonic semiparametric
      regression to define the exposure-response quantile relationship, which gives the
      model flexibility to estimate the quantal dose-response function. We describe
      this methodology and apply it to both epidemiology and toxicology data.

PMID- 28555875
TI  - Enhancement of synchronized activity between hippocampal CA1 neurons during
      initial storage of associative fear memory.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Learning and memory storage requires neuronal plasticity induced in
      the hippocampus and other related brain areas, and this process is thought to
      rely on synchronized activity in neural networks. We used paired whole-cell
      recording in vivo to examine the synchronized activity that was induced in
      hippocampal CA1 neurons by associative fear learning. We found that both membrane
      potential synchronization and spike synchronization of CA1 neurons could be
      transiently enhanced after task learning, as observed on day 1 but not day 5. On
      day 1 after learning, CA1 neurons showed a decrease in firing threshold and rise
      times of suprathreshold membrane potential changes as well as an increase in
      spontaneous firing rates, possibly contributing to the enhancement of spike
      synchronization. The transient enhancement of CA1 neuronal synchronization may
      play important roles in the induction of neuronal plasticity for initial storage
      and consolidation of associative memory. ABSTRACT: The hippocampus is critical
      for memory acquisition and consolidation. This function requires activity- and
      experience-induced neuronal plasticity. It is known that neuronal plasticity is
      largely dependent on synchronized activity. As has been well characterized,
      repetitive correlated activity of presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons can lead
      to long-term modifications at their synapses. Studies on network activity have
      also suggested that memory processing in the hippocampus may involve learning
      induced changes of neuronal synchronization, as observed in vivo between
      hippocampal CA3 and CA1 networks as well as between the rhinal cortex and the
      hippocampus. However, further investigation of learning-induced synchronized
      activity in the hippocampus is needed for a full understanding of hippocampal
      memory processing. In this study, by performing paired whole-cell recording in
      vivo on CA1 pyramidal cells (PCs) in anaesthetized adult rats, we examined CA1
      neuronal synchronization before and after associative fear learning. We first
      found in naive animals that there was a low level of membrane potential (MP)
      synchronization and spike synchronization of CA1 PCs. In conditioned animals, we
      found a significant enhancement of both MP synchronization and spike
      synchronization, as observed on day 1 after learning, and this enhancement was
      transient and not observed on day 5. Accompanying learning-induced synchronized
      activity was a decreased firing threshold and rise time of suprathreshold MP
      changes as well as an increased spontaneous firing rate, possibly contributing to
      the enhanced spike synchronization. The transiently enhanced CA1 neuronal
      synchronization may have important roles in generating neuronal plasticity for
      hippocampal storage and consolidation of associative memory traces.

PMID- 28555876
TI  - Cooperative effects of tropomyosin on the dynamics of the actin filament.
AB  - Tropomyosin (Tpm) plays an important role in regulating the organisation and
      functions of the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we describe a new approach to analyse
      the effects of Tpm on actin dynamics. Using F-actin proteolytically modified
      within the DNase-binding loop (ECP-actin), we show that Tpm binding almost
      completely suppresses the increased subunit exchange intrinsic for this F-actin.
      The effect is both concentration-dependent and cooperative, with half-maximal
      inhibition observed at about a 1 : 50 Tpm : actin ratio. Tpm decreases not only
      the number concentration of ECP-actin filaments, but also the rate of the
      filament subunit exchange. Our data suggest that Tpm regulates the dynamics of
      actin filaments by an allosteric strengthening of intermonomer contacts in the
      actin filament, and that this mechanism may be involved in the modulation of
      cytoskeletal dynamics.

PMID- 28555877
TI  - Synergistic protection against acute flurothyl-induced seizures by adjuvant
      treatment of the ketogenic diet with the type 2 diabetes drug pioglitazone.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We have previously found that the transcription factor peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) contributes to the mechanism of
      action of the ketogenic diet (KD), an established treatment for pediatric
      refractory epilepsy. We have found that the KD increases brain PPARgamma and that
      inhibition or genetic loss of PPARgamma prevents the antiseizure effects of the
      KD on (1) acutely induced seizures in nonepileptic mice and (2) spontaneous
      recurrent seizures in epileptic mice. Here, we tested the hypothesis that
      adjuvant treatment of KD-treated mice with a PPARgamma agonist, pioglitazone,
      would result in an additive effect. METHODS: Acute seizures were induced in three
      groups of C57Bl/6 mice by inhalation exposure to flurothyl gas. In Group 1, mice
      were weaned onto either a standard diet or KD comprised of a
      fat:carbohydrate/protein ratio of either 6:1, 3:1, or 1:1 for 2 weeks. In Group
      2, vehicle or pioglitazone (0.1, 1, 10, 80 mg/kg) was administered 4 h prior to
      flurothyl exposure. In Group 3, vehicle or increasing doses of pioglitazone were
      administered to KD-treated mice 4 h prior to flurothyl exposure. Latency times to
      clonic seizures and generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures were recorded, and
      isobolographic analysis was used to determine combinatorial interactions.
      RESULTS: Neither KD treatment nor pioglitazone alone or in combination affected
      clonic seizures. However, the latency to GTC seizures was dose-dependently and
      significantly increased by both KD (~57%, p < 0.05) and pioglitazone (~28%, p <
      0.05). Coadministration of an ineffective 1:1 KD and pioglitazone resulted in ~47
      55% (p < 0.05) increase in latency to GTC. Isobolographic analysis indicated a
      synergistic interaction of the KD and pioglitazone. SIGNIFICANCE: These results
      suggest coadministration may enable reduction of the KD ratio without loss of
      seizure protection. Such adjuvant treatment could improve quality of life and
      limit adverse effects of a classic KD or high-dose pioglitazone.

PMID- 28555878
TI  - Correlation between a 2D channelized Hotelling observer and human observers in a
      low-contrast detection task with multislice reading in CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: Model observers have been successfully developed and used to assess the
      quality of static 2D CT images. However, radiologists typically read images by
      paging through multiple 2D slices (i.e., multislice reading). The purpose of this
      study was to correlate human and model observer performance in a low-contrast
      detection task performed using both 2D and multislice reading, and to determine
      if the 2D model observer still correlate well with human observer performance in
      multislice reading. METHODS: A phantom containing 18 low-contrast spheres (6
      sizes * 3 contrast levels) was scanned on a 192-slice CT scanner at five dose
      levels (CTDIvol = 27, 13.5, 6.8, 3.4, and 1.7 mGy), each repeated 100 times.
      Images were reconstructed using both filtered-backprojection (FBP) and an
      iterative reconstruction (IR) method (ADMIRE, Siemens). A 3D volume of interest
      (VOI) around each sphere was extracted and placed side-by-side with a signal
      absent VOI to create a 2-alternative forced choice (2AFC) trial. Sixteen 2AFC
      studies were generated, each with 100 trials, to evaluate the impact of radiation
      dose, lesion size and contrast, and reconstruction methods on object detection.
      In total, 1600 trials were presented to both model and human observers. Three
      medical physicists acted as human observers and were allowed to page through the
      3D volumes to make a decision for each 2AFC trial. The human observer performance
      was compared with the performance of a multislice channelized Hotelling observer
      (CHO_MS), which integrates multislice image data, and with the performance of
      previously validated CHO, which operates on static 2D images (CHO_2D). For
      comparison, the same 16 2AFC studies were also performed in a 2D viewing mode by
      the human observers and compared with the multislice viewing performance and the
      two CHO models. RESULTS: Human observer performance was well correlated with the
      CHO_2D performance in the 2D viewing mode [Pearson product-moment correlation
      coefficient R = 0.972, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.919 to 0.990] and with the
      CHO_MS performance in the multislice viewing mode (R = 0.952, 95% CI: 0.865 to
      0.984). The CHO_2D performance, calculated from the 2D viewing mode, also had a
      strong correlation with human observer performance in the multislice viewing mode
      (R = 0.957, 95% CI: 879 to 0.985). Human observer performance varied between the
      multislice and 2D modes. One reader performed better in the multislice mode (P =
      0.013); whereas the other two readers showed no significant difference between
      the two viewing modes (P = 0.057 and P = 0.38). CONCLUSIONS: A 2D CHO model is
      highly correlated with human observer performance in detecting spherical low
      contrast objects in multislice viewing of CT images. This finding provides some
      evidence for the use of a simpler, 2D CHO to assess image quality in clinically
      relevant CT tasks where multislice viewing is used.

PMID- 28555879
TI  - Impact of liver disease on outcomes of patients hospitalized for epistaxis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Liver disease (LD) often results in coagulation abnormalities that
      may predispose to more severe epistaxis. The purpose of this analysis was to
      examine characteristics of patients hospitalized for epistaxis with LD and
      explore the impact of LD on patient outcomes. METHODS: The 2002 to 2013 National
      Inpatient Sample was queried for cases with a primary diagnosis of epistaxis.
      Cases with additional codes meeting the Agency for Healthcare Research and
      Quality's definition of LD were identified and compared to the non-LD cohort.
      RESULTS: Out of 39,879 cases meeting inclusion criteria, 3.6% had LD. LD was
      associated with younger age (55.7 years vs. 67.5 years; P < 0.001), longer
      hospital stay (3.9 days vs. 3.2 days; P < 0.001), and greater hospital charges
      ($26,141 vs. $18,200; P < 0.001) compared to the non-LD cohort. LD patients had
      higher rates of alcohol abuse, coagulopathy, chronic blood loss anemia, and renal
      failure. LD patients also had higher rates of sepsis, urinary/renal
      complications, respiratory failure, and infectious pneumonia. LD was associated
      with decreased rates of aggressive management (defined as ligation or
      embolization) (6.6%-9.0%; P < 0.002) and anterior or posterior nasal packing. In
      our multivariate logistic regression model correcting for age, gender, race, and
      significant comorbidities, LD was associated with 1.520 (1.336-1.729; P < 0.001)
      greater odds of transfusion and 2.264 (1.372-3.736; P = 0.001) greater odds of in
      hospital mortality. CONCLUSION: Among patients hospitalized for epistaxis, LD
      resulted in greater morbidity and mortality. Clinicians should be aware of the
      particular risk that LD bears on the hospitalized epistaxis patient. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 2C. Laryngoscope, 127:2691-2697, 2017.

PMID- 28555881
TI  - Parasite-microbiota interactions potentially affect intestinal communities in
      wild mammals.
AB  - Detecting interaction between species is notoriously difficult, and disentangling
      species associations in host-related gut communities is especially challenging.
      Nevertheless, due to contemporary methods, including metabarcoding and 16S
      sequencing, collecting observational data on community composition has become
      easier and much more common. We studied the previously collected datasets of
      intestinal bacterial microbiota and parasite compositions within longitudinally
      followed mouse lemurs by analysing the potential interactions with diversity
      metrics and novel joint species distribution modelling. Both methods showed
      statistical association between certain parasite species and bacterial microbiota
      composition. Unicellular Eimeria sp. had an effect on diversity of gut
      microbiota. The cestode Hymenolepis diminuta had negative associations with
      several bacterial orders, whereas closely related species Hymenolepis nana had
      positive associations with several bacterial orders. Our results reveal potential
      interactions between some, but not all, intestinal parasites and gut bacterial
      microbiota. Host variables contributed over half of the total variation explained
      with the model, and sex was the most important single host variable; especially
      with microbiota, there were sex-related differences in the community composition.
      This study shows how joint species distribution modelling can incorporate both
      within-host dynamics of several taxa and host characteristics to model potential
      interactions in intestinal community. These results provide new hypothesis for
      interactions between and among parasites and bacterial microbiota to be tested
      further with experimental studies.

PMID- 28555880
TI  - Fabrication of elastomeric silk fibers.
AB  - Methods to generate fibers from hydrogels, with control over mechanical
      properties, fiber diameter, and crystallinity, while retaining cytocompatibility
      and degradability, would expand options for biomaterials. Here, we exploited
      features of silk fibroin protein for the formation of tunable silk hydrogel
      fibers. The biological, chemical, and morphological features inherent to silk
      were combined with elastomeric properties gained through enzymatic crosslinking
      of the protein. Postprocessing via methanol and autoclaving provided tunable
      control of fiber features. Mechanical, optical, and chemical analyses
      demonstrated control of fiber properties by exploiting the physical cross-links,
      and generating double network hydrogels consisting of chemical and physical cross
      links. Structure and chemical analyses revealed crystallinity from 30 to 50%,
      modulus from 0.5 to 4 MPa, and ultimate strength 1-5 MPa depending on the
      processing method. Fabrication and postprocessing combined provided fibers with
      extensibility from 100 to 400% ultimate strain. Fibers strained to 100% exhibited
      fourth order birefringence, revealing macroscopic orientation driven by chain
      mobility. The physical cross-links were influenced in part by the drying rate of
      fabricated materials, where bound water, packing density, and microstructural
      homogeneity influenced cross-linking efficiency. The ability to generate robust
      and versatile hydrogel microfibers is desirable for bottom-up assembly of
      biological tissues and for broader biomaterial applications.

PMID- 28555882
TI  - Pilomatricoma: An unusual cause of lump in a male breast.
AB  - We present the case of a 48-year-old man who presented with a painless,
      progressively increasing lump in the left breast. The mammographic and
      sonographic appearance of the lesion was suspicious for malignancy. Fine needle
      aspiration cytology and histopathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of
      pilomatricoma. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 46:209-211,
      2018.

PMID- 28555883
TI  - Depression symptom dimensions and asymmetrical frontal cortical activity while
      anticipating reward.
AB  - Unipolar depression has been characterized as involving diminished approach
      motivation and reward sensitivity. A psychophysiological indicator of approach
      motivation involves an asymmetry in frontal EEG activity, such that greater left
      relative to right frontal cortical activity indicates increased approach
      motivation. Consistent with the perspective of reduced approach motivation
      tendencies, depression has been associated with decreased relative left frontal
      cortical activity. To date, supporting research has primarily relied on
      categorical diagnoses or composite symptom counts. However, given the
      heterogeneity in depression, it is unclear what specific symptom dimensions
      relate to decreased relative left frontal cortical activity. The present study
      examined the association between multiple depression symptom dimensions and
      asymmetrical frontal cortical activity while anticipating reward in separate
      undergraduate (n = 75) and clinical samples (current major depressive disorder [n
      = 68] and never depressed controls [n = 67]). All participants completed the
      Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms, a self-report measure of factor
      analytically derived symptom dimensions. Frontal cortical activity was assessed
      during a computerized slot machine task while participants anticipated potential
      monetary reward or no incentive. In undergraduates with low depression symptoms
      and never depressed controls, reward trials relative to no-incentive trials
      elicited greater relative left frontal cortical activity. Furthermore, in both
      samples across all participants, increased dysphoria and lassitude symptoms were
      associated with decreased relative left frontal cortical activity while
      anticipating reward. The present study suggests that depression symptoms
      consistent with motivational disengagement are associated with decreased relative
      left frontal cortical activity.

PMID- 28555884
TI  - Intraspecific variation in growth rate is a poor predictor of fitness for reef
      corals.
AB  - Genetic variation underlying differences in organism performance is subject to
      natural selection, and organisms with high values of genetically determined
      phenotypic measures of fitness should perform better than those that do not.
      Using small scleractinian corals (i.e., <=40-mm diameter), this principle was
      tested with 20 yr of census data from St. John, US Virgin Islands. Using growth
      rate (change in diameter) as a measure of fitness, growth in one year was tested
      for association with growth and survivorship in the following two years, and this
      process was repeated over 20 yr using a 3-yr sliding window. Virtually all
      variation in growth was independent of colony size, and growth among pairs of
      years was highly variable, with corals that grew fast in one year rarely growing
      fast in the next 2 yr. While growth in some pairs of years was positively
      correlated, <=4% of the growth variance was explained by growth in the preceding
      2 yr. Survivorship was related positively to growth in the preceding year, but
      the association was weak, it did not extend over 3 yr, and was inconsistent over
      the study. These results demonstrate the importance of the environment in
      translating phenotypic measures of fitness into future performance, and for small
      Caribbean corals, they suggest that environmental conditions may preempt genotype
      in determining short-term success.

PMID- 28555885
TI  - Serum extracellular vesicles contain protein biomarkers for primary sclerosing
      cholangitis and cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - : Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) includes a heterogeneous group of biliary cancers with
      poor prognosis. Several conditions, such as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC),
      are risk factors. Noninvasive differential diagnosis between intrahepatic CCA and
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is sometimes difficult. Accurate noninvasive
      biomarkers for PSC, CCA, and HCC are not available. In the search for novel
      biomarkers, serum extracellular vesicles (EV) were isolated from CCA (n = 43),
      PSC (n = 30), or HCC (n = 29) patients and healthy individuals (control, n = 32);
      and their protein content was characterized. By using nanoparticle tracking
      analysis, serum EV concentration was found to be higher in HCC than in all the
      other groups. Round morphology (by transmission electron microscopy), size (~180
      nm diameter by nanoparticle tracking analysis), and markers (clusters of
      differentiation 9, 63, and 81 by immunoblot) indicated that most serum EV were
      exosomes. Proteome profiles (by mass spectrometry) revealed multiple
      differentially expressed proteins among groups. Several of these proteins showed
      high diagnostic values with maximum area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve of 0.878 for CCA versus control, 0.905 for CCA stage I-II
      versus control, 0.789 for PSC versus control, 0.806 for noncirhottic PSC versus
      control, 0.796 for CCA versus PSC, 0.956 for CCA stage I-II versus PSC, 0.904 for
      HCC versus control, and 0.894 for intrahepatic CCA versus HCC. Proteomic analysis
      of EV derived from CCA human cells in vitro revealed higher abundance of
      oncogenic proteins compared to EV released by normal human cholangiocytes.
      Orthotopic implant of CCA human cells in the liver of immunodeficient mice
      resulted in the release to serum of EV containing some similar human oncogenic
      proteins. CONCLUSION: Proteomic signatures found in serum EV of CCA, PSC, and HCC
      patients show potential usefulness as diagnostic tools. (Hepatology 2017;66:1125
      1143).

PMID- 28555886
TI  - Lymphatic invasion predicts sentinel lymph node metastasis and adverse outcome in
      primary cutaneous melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis is a powerful predictor of
      survival in primary cutaneous melanoma. Lymphatic invasion (LI) may correlate
      with increased risk of SLN metastasis. Intralymphatic metastases, often difficult
      to detect on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections, are readily identified
      with dual immunohistochemistry for melanocytic and lymphatic markers. METHODS: We
      used dual S100/D240 immunohistochemistry to detect LI in 125 melanomas from
      patients who underwent SLN biopsy and correlated LI with melanoma staging
      parameters and disease status. RESULTS: Dual immunohistochemistry allowed for the
      identification of LI in 33 cases (26%), compared to only 2% on H&E stained
      sections. Melanomas with LI showed greater thickness, higher mitotic rate and
      more frequent ulceration. Eleven of 33 cases with LI (33%) and 10 of 92 cases
      without LI (11%) were associated with a positive SLN (P = .006). More patients
      without LI were disease-free at last follow-up (80%) than patients with LI (50%;
      P = .002); LI was significantly associated with decreased progression-free
      survival. CONCLUSION: The detection of LI is improved by dual
      immunohistochemistry and predicts SLN metastasis. The presence of LI may impact
      therapeutic planning in melanoma, such as the decision to perform a SLN biopsy.

PMID- 28555888
TI  - Computerized detection of leukocytes in microscopic leukorrhea images.
AB  - PURPOSE: Detection of leukocytes is critical for the routine leukorrhea exam,
      which is widely used in gynecological examinations. An elevated vaginal leukocyte
      count in women with bacterial vaginosis is a strong predictor of vaginal or
      cervical infections. In the routine leukorrhea exam, the counting of leukocytes
      is primarily performed by manual techniques. However, the viewing and counting of
      leukocytes from multiple high-power viewing fields on a glass slide under a
      microscope leads to subjectivity, low efficiency, and low accuracy. To date, many
      biological cells in stool, blood, and breast cancer have been studied to realize
      computerized detection; however, the detection of leukocytes in microscopic
      leukorrhea images has not been studied. Thus, there is an increasing need for
      computerized detection of leukocytes. METHODS: There are two key processes in the
      computerized detection of leukocytes in digital image processing. One is
      segmentation; the other is intelligent classification. In this paper, we propose
      a combined ensemble to detect leukocytes in the microscopic leukorrhea image.
      After image segmentation and selecting likely leukocyte subimages, we obtain the
      leukocyte candidates. Then, for intelligent classification, we adopt two methods:
      feature extraction and classification by a support vector machine (SVM); applying
      a modified convolutional neural network (CNN) to the larger subimages. If
      different methods classify a candidate in the same category, the process is
      finished. If not, the outputs of the methods are provided to a classifier to
      further classify the candidate. RESULTS: After acquiring leukocyte candidates, we
      attempted three methods to perform classification. The first approach using
      features and SVM achieved 88% sensitivity, 97% specificity, and 92.5% accuracy.
      The second method using CNN achieved 95% sensitivity, 84% specificity, and 89.5%
      accuracy. Then, in the combination approach, we achieved 92% sensitivity, 95%
      specificity, and 93.5% accuracy. Finally, the images with marked and counted
      leukocytes were obtained. CONCLUSION: A novel computerized detection system was
      developed for automated detection of leukocytes in microscopic images. Different
      methods resulted in comparable overall qualities by enabling computerized
      detection of leukocytes. The proposed approach further improved the performance.
      This preliminary study proves the feasibility of computerized detection of
      leukocytes in clinical use.

PMID- 28555887
TI  - In vitro detection of chemical allergens: an optimized assay using mouse bone
      marrow-derived dendritic cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identification of the allergenic potency of chemicals is a key step
      in the safety assessment process. Predictive assays that require no or few
      animals are needed. OBJECTIVES: To develop an alternative in vitro mouse bone
      marrow-derived dendritic cell (BMDC) assay to determine the allergenic potential
      of chemicals. METHODS: BMDCs were exposed to well-known allergens and to non
      allergenic chemicals. Surface marker expression and cytokine release of BMDCs
      were analysed after treatment. RESULTS: Eleven tested chemicals showed a
      significant stimulation index (SI) of >1.5 (accuracy, 75%; sensitivity, 69%). The
      four non-allergens all showed a SI of <1.5. Eight contact allergens tested showed
      a significant SI of >1.5 (accuracy, 92%; sensitivity, 89%), whereas only two
      respiratory allergens showed a significant SI of >1.5 (accuracy, 60%;
      sensitivity, 33%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the BMDC assay could
      become a reliable test for assessment of the allergenic potential of chemicals.
      The next step should include the testing of further chemicals, with the aim of
      integrating this assay into the toolbox of in vitro methods for the evaluation of
      the allergenic potential of chemicals.

PMID- 28555891
TI  - A quantitative analysis of light-driven charge transfer processes using voronoi
      partitioning of time dependent DFT-derived electron densities.
AB  - An analytical method is presented that provides quantitative insight into light
      driven electron density rearrangement using the output of standard time-dependent
      density functional theory (TD-DFT) computations on molecular compounds. Using
      final and initial electron densities for photochemical processes, the subtraction
      of summed electron density in each atom-centered Voronoi polyhedron yields the
      electronic charge difference, QVECD . This subtractive method can also be used
      with Bader, Mulliken and Hirshfeld charges. A validation study shows QVECD to
      have the most consistent performance across basis sets and good conservation of
      charge between electronic states. Besides vertical transitions, relaxation
      processes can be investigated as well. Significant electron transfer is computed
      for isomerization on the excited state energy surface of azobenzene. A number of
      linear anilinepyridinium donor-bridge-acceptor chromophores was examined using
      QVECD to unravel the influence of its pi-conjugated bridge on charge separation.
      Finally, the usefulness of the presented method as a tool in optimizing charge
      transfer is shown for a homologous series of organometallic pigments. The
      presented work allows facile calculation of a novel, relevant quantity describing
      charge transfer processes at the atomic level. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28555892
TI  - Pain in cerebral palsy: a neglected comorbidity.

PMID- 28555893
TI  - INTERACTION AND COEVOLUTION.

PMID- 28555889
TI  - Reduced muscle strength in ether lipid-deficient mice is accompanied by altered
      development and function of the neuromuscular junction.
AB  - Inherited deficiency in ether lipids, a subgroup of phospholipids whose
      biosynthesis needs peroxisomes, causes the fatal human disorder rhizomelic
      chondrodysplasia punctata. The exact roles of ether lipids in the mammalian
      organism and, therefore, the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease are
      still largely enigmatic. Here, we used glyceronephosphate O-acyltransferase
      knockout (Gnpat KO) mice to study the consequences of complete inactivation of
      ether lipid biosynthesis and documented substantial deficits in motor performance
      and muscle strength of these mice. We hypothesized that, probably in addition to
      previously described cerebellar abnormalities and myelination defects in the
      peripheral nervous system, an impairment of neuromuscular transmission
      contributes to the compromised motor abilities. Structurally, a morphologic
      examination of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) in diaphragm muscle at different
      developmental stages revealed aberrant axonal branching and a strongly increased
      area of nerve innervation in Gnpat KO mice. Post-synaptically, acetylcholine
      receptor (AChR) clusters colocalized with nerve terminals within a widened
      endplate zone. In addition, we detected atypical AChR clustering, as indicated by
      decreased size and number of clusters following stimulation with agrin, in vitro.
      The turnover of AChRs was unaffected in ether lipid-deficient mice.
      Electrophysiological evaluation of the adult diaphragm indicated that although
      evoked potentials were unaltered in Gnpat KO mice, ether lipid deficiency leads
      to fewer spontaneous synaptic vesicle fusion events but, conversely, an increased
      post-synaptic response to spontaneous vesicle exocytosis. We conclude from our
      findings that ether lipids are essential for proper development and function of
      the NMJ and may, therefore, contribute to motor performance. Read the Editorial
      Highlight for this article on page 463.

PMID- 28555890
TI  - The dual role of LESION SIMULATING DISEASE 1 as a condition-dependent scaffold
      protein and transcription regulator.
AB  - Since its discovery over two decades ago as an important cell death regulator in
      Arabidopsis thaliana, the role of LESION SIMULATING DISEASE 1 (LSD1) has been
      studied intensively within both biotic and abiotic stress responses as well as
      with respect to plant fitness regulation. However, its molecular mode of action
      remains enigmatic. Here, we demonstrate that nucleo-cytoplasmic LSD1 interacts
      with a broad range of other proteins that are engaged in various molecular
      pathways such as ubiquitination, methylation, cell cycle control, gametogenesis,
      embryo development and cell wall formation. The interaction of LSD1 with these
      partners is dependent on redox status, as oxidative stress significantly changes
      the quantity and types of LSD1-formed complexes. Furthermore, we show that LSD1
      regulates the number and size of leaf mesophyll cells and affects plant
      vegetative growth. Importantly, we also reveal that in addition to its function
      as a scaffold protein, LSD1 acts as a transcriptional regulator. Taken together,
      our results demonstrate that LSD1 plays a dual role within the cell by acting as
      a condition-dependent scaffold protein and as a transcription regulator.

PMID- 28555894
TI  - ALLOZYMES AND SONG DIALECTS: A REASSESSMENT.

PMID- 28555897
TI  - FEMALE-BIASED SEX RATIOS IN SOCIAL INSECTS LACKING MORPHOLOGICAL CASTES.

PMID- 28555896
TI  - SYMPOSIUM.

PMID- 28555895
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION ON BODY SIZE, TERRITORY AND PLUMAGE VARIABLES IN A POPULATION OF
      DARWIN'S FINCHES.

PMID- 28555898
TI  - HERITABILITY ESTIMATES FOR AGE AND LENGTH AT MATURITY IN TWO POPULATIONS OF
      MOSQUITOFISH THAT SHARED ANCESTORS IN 1905.

PMID- 28555899
TI  - LIFE HISTORY ADAPTATION TO DEMOGRAPHIC REGIME IN LABORATORY-CULTURED TISBE
      FURCATA (COPEPODA, HARPACTICOIDA).

PMID- 28555900
TI  - EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE REPRODUCTIVE ALLOCATIONS IN HETEROSTYLOUS PLANTS.

PMID- 28555901
TI  - IS A JACK-OF-ALL-TEMPERATURES A MASTER OF NONE?

PMID- 28555902
TI  - MEASURING THE COST OF REPRODUCTION. II. THE CORRELATION STRUCTURE OF THE LIFE
      TABLES OF FIVE FRESHWATER INVERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28555904
TI  - ICSEB - III: Third International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology,
      1985.

PMID- 28555903
TI  - A COMPARISON OF ELECTROPHORETIC AND MORPHOMETRIC VARIABILITY IN THE FACE FLY,
      MUSCA AUTUMNALIS.

PMID- 28555905
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY LANDSCAPES FOR COMPLEX SELECTION.

PMID- 28555906
TI  - LIFE HISTORY VARIATION IN A FRESHWATER COPEPOD: EVIDENCE FROM POPULATION CROSSES.

PMID- 28555907
TI  - DIRECT EVIDENCE THAT THE ILYODON MORPHS ARE A SINGLE BIOLOGICAL SPECIES.

PMID- 28555908
TI  - DIFFERENCES IN FITNESS BETWEEN SEEDLINGS DERIVED FROM CLEISTOGAMOUS AND
      CHASMOGAMOUS FLOWERS IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.

PMID- 28555909
TI  - INCREASED DENSITY DOES NOT INCREASE REMATING FREQUENCY IN LABORATORY POPULATIONS
      OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28555910
TI  - CODING MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERS FOR CONSTRUCTING DISTANCE WAGNER NETWORKS.

PMID- 28555911
TI  - EVOLUTION IN A SEASONAL ENVIRONMENT: SIMPLICITY LOST?

PMID- 28555912
TI  - PROMETHEAN FIRE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF MIND.

PMID- 28555913
TI  - GENETICS, SPECIATION AND THE FOUNDER PRINCIPLE.

PMID- 28555914
TI  - GENIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF TRITURUS VULGARIS (URODELA,
      SALAMANDRIDAE).

PMID- 28555915
TI  - MUTATIONAL LOAD IN CLONAL PLANTS: A STUDY OF TWO FERN SPECIES.

PMID- 28555916
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1984
      Meetings.

PMID- 28555917
TI  - REPLY TO "ALLOZYMES AND SONG DIALECTS: A REASSESSMENT".

PMID- 28555918
TI  - PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TRANSITION ZONES IN SPECIATION AND POPULATION
      DIFFERENTIATION: A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF RANGE EXPANSION.

PMID- 28555919
TI  - ANNUAL VARIATION OF SURVIVAL ADVANTAGE OF LARGE JUVENILE SIDE-BLOTCHED LIZARDS,
      UTA STANSBURIANA: ITS CAUSES AND EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE.

PMID- 28555920
TI  - MOLECULAR EVOLUTION: THE COMING OF AGE.

PMID- 28555921
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF DELAYED PLUMAGE MATURATION IN MALE NORTHERN ORIOLES.

PMID- 28555922
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN FROG PECTORAL GIRDLES: TESTING ALTERNATIVES TO A
      TRADITIONAL ADAPTIVE EXPLANATION.

PMID- 28555923
TI  - MEASURING THE COST OF REPRODUCTION. I. THE CORRELATION STRUCTURE OF THE LIFE
      TABLE OF A PLANKTON ROTIFER.

PMID- 28555924
TI  - Physical-Mechanical characterization of cosmetic formulations and correlation
      between instrumental measurements and sensorial properties.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The correct choice of raw materials in the development of cosmetic
      formulations is essential for obtaining stable and pleasant skin care products.
      Therefore, rheological, texture and sensory analyses are important to understand
      the behaviour and stability of the formulations. In this context, the aim of this
      study was to develop cosmetic formulations containing or not (vehicle) UV filters
      and chicory root extract, to evaluate their stability as well as to characterize
      their physical and texture properties and correlate them with the sensory
      attributes. METHODS: Four formulations containing organic UV filters and chicory
      extract, each alone or in combination, were developed and evaluated for 180 days
      with a cone and plate rheometer, a texture analyzer and consumer's sensorial
      analysis. Thus, the data obtained were correlated to observe the different
      influences. RESULTS: The developed formulations remained stable after 180 days
      regarding macroscopic aspects, organoleptic characteristics and pH values. The
      addition of the UV filters alone and in combination with the active substance
      resulted in significant increases in rheology properties, viscosity and
      consistency. The formulation with the active ingredient showed significant
      decreases in the texture parameters after 180 days, mainly due to its
      polysaccharide inulin. All formulations obtained high scores in sensorial
      parameters. A strong correlation was mainly found between spreadability and work
      of shear, and between the texture parameters. CONCLUSION: The raw materials
      strongly influenced the physical, texture and sensorial parameters. Finally, the
      UV filters showed a greater influence on the results of the formulations than the
      chicory root extract. In conclusion, the association of the mentioned methods
      allows the correct choice of ingredients and their combinations.

PMID- 28555925
TI  - Functional severity of CLCNKB mutations correlates with phenotypes in patients
      with classic Bartter's syndrome.
AB  - KEY POINTS: The highly variable phenotypes observed in patients with classic
      Bartter's syndrome (BS) remain unsatisfactorily explained. The wide spectrum of
      functional severity of CLCNKB mutations may contribute to the phenotypic
      variability, and the genotype-phenotype association has not been established. Low
      level expression of the human ClC-Kb channel in mammalian cells impedes the
      functional study of CLCNKB mutations, and the underlying cause is still unclear.
      The human ClC-Kb channel is highly degraded by proteasome in human embryonic
      kidney cells. The C-terminal in-frame green fluorescent protein fusion may slow
      down the proteasome-mediated proteolysis. Barttin co-expression necessarily
      improves the stability, membrane trafficking and gating of ClC-Kb. CLCNKB
      mutations in barttin-binding sites, dimer interface or selectivity filter often
      have severe functional consequences. The remaining chloride conductance of the
      ClC-Kb mutant channel significantly correlates with the phenotypes, such as age
      at diagnosis, plasma chloride concentration, and the degree of calciuria in
      patients with classic BS. ABSTRACT: Mutations in the CLCNKB gene encoding the
      human voltage-gated chloride ClC-Kb (hClC-Kb) channel cause classic Bartter's
      syndrome (BS). In contrast to antenatal BS, classic BS manifests with highly
      variable phenotypes. The functional severity of the mutant channel has been
      proposed to explain this phenomenon. Due to difficulties in the expression of
      hClC-Kb in heterologous expression systems, the functional consequences of mutant
      channels have not been thoroughly examined, and the genotype-phenotype
      association has not been established. In this study, we found that hClC-Kb, when
      expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, was unstable due to degradation
      by proteasome. In-frame fusion of green fluorescent protein (GFP) to the C
      terminus of the channel may ameliorate proteasome degradation. Co-expression of
      barttin increased protein abundance and membrane trafficking of hClC-Kb and
      markedly increased functional chloride current. We then functionally
      characterized 18 missense mutations identified in our classic BS cohort and
      others using HEK cells expressing hClC-Kb-GFP. Most CLCNKB mutations resulted in
      marked reduction in protein abundance and chloride current, especially those
      residing at barttin binding sites, dimer interface and selectivity filter. We
      enrolled classic BS patients carrying homozygous missense mutations with well
      described functional consequences and clinical presentations for genotype
      phenotype analysis. We found significant correlations of mutant chloride current
      with the age at diagnosis, plasma chloride concentration and urine calcium
      excretion rate. In conclusion, hClC-Kb expression in HEK cells is susceptible to
      proteasome degradation, and fusion of GFP to the C-terminus of hClC-Kb improves
      protein expression. The functional severity of the CLCNKB mutation is an
      important determinant of the phenotype in classic BS.

PMID- 28555926
TI  - Association between vascular rings and learning performance: A cross-sectional
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic tracheal obstruction has been associated with learning
      deficits; hence, early surgical intervention has been suggested. AIM: To evaluate
      the relationship between learning performance and vascular ring caused by an
      isolated aberrant right subclavian artery. METHODS: Participants included 1,685
      undergraduate students (ie, students of medical informatics and medical/public
      health students) in Central Taiwan. The diagnostic period was from 2005 to 2010.
      Vascular ring was diagnosed by two-dimensional echocardiographic screening and
      was validated by esophagogram. The reference group (medical students) was
      associated with higher learning performance, whereas the comparison group
      (students of medical informatics and public health) was associated with lower
      learning performance. Multiple logistic regression was used for analysis.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of vascular ring among the reference and comparison
      groups was 0.48 and 2.03%, respectively. The odds ratio for the vascular ring was
      4.90 (95% confidence interval: 1.30-18.40) after adjusting for potential
      confounders. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that vascular ring can impact
      learning efficiency and advocates for larger dedicated studies. (c) 2017 The
      Authors Journal of Clinical Ultrasound Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Clin Ultrasound 45:556-560, 2017.

PMID- 28555927
TI  - Sensitization and cross-reactivity patterns of contact allergy to diisocyanates
      and corresponding amines: investigation of diphenylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate,
      diphenylmethane-4,4'-diamine, dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate, and
      dicylohexylmethane-4,4'-diamine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isocyanates are used in polyurethane production. Dermal exposure to
      isocyanates can induce contact allergy. The most common isocyanate is
      diphenylmethane diisocyanate used for industrial purposes. The isomer
      diphenylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate (4,4'-MDI) is used in patch testing.
      Diphenylmethane-4,4'-diamine (4,4'-MDA) is its corresponding amine. Concurrent
      reactions to 4,4'-MDI and 4,4'-MDA have been reported, as have concurrent
      reactions to 4,4'-MDI and dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate (4,4'-DMDI).
      OBJECTIVES: To investigate the sensitization capacities and the cross-reactivity
      of 4,4'-MDI, 4,4'-MDA, 4,4'-DMDI, and dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'-diamine (4,4'
      DMDA). METHODS: The guinea-pig maximization test (GPMT) was used. RESULTS: The
      GPMT showed sensitizing capacities for all investigated substances: 4,4'-MDI,
      4,4'-MDA, 4,4'-DMDI, and 4,4'-DMDA (all p < 0.001). 4,4'-MDI-sensitized animals
      showed cross-reactivity to 4,4'-MDA (p < 0.001) and 4,4'-DMDI (all p < 0.05).
      4,4'-MDA-sensitized animals showed cross-reactivity to 4,4'-DMDA (p = 0.008).
      CONCLUSION: All of the investigated substances were shown to be strong
      sensitizers. Animals sensitized to 4,4'-MDI showed cross-reactivity to 4,4'-MDA
      and 4,4'-DMDI, supporting previous findings in the literature. The aromatic amine
      4,4'-MDA showed cross-reactivity to the aliphatic amine 4,4'-DMDA.

PMID- 28555928
TI  - Impact of excessive gingival display on oral health-related quality of life in a
      Southern Brazilian young population.
AB  - AIM: To compare oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) between individuals
      with and without excessive gingival display (EGD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross
      sectional study was conducted in 53 individuals with EGD and 53 controls matched
      for sex and age. The outcome was OHRQoL, determined using the Oral Health Impact
      Profile (OHIP-14) and self-perceptions of satisfaction with smile aesthetics. A
      clinical examination was conducted to evaluate the smile line, colour of the
      teeth, tooth wear and malocclusion. Poisson regression was used to model the
      association between excessive gingival display and OHRQoL. RESULTS: Participants
      with EGD had higher total OHIP-14 score (4.81 +/- 4.76) in comparison with the
      controls (1.85 +/- 3.77; p < .001). The percentage of satisfied with smile
      individuals without and with EGD was 78.9% and 21.1%, respectively (p = .005). In
      the multivariate analysis, total OHIP-14 scores were 2.10-fold higher individuals
      with EGD, independently of the other variables analysed. Impacts were evident on
      the functional limitation, psychological discomfort, psychological disability and
      social handicap. CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of EGD exerted a negative impact on
      OHRQoL independently of confounding variables in this specific population. The
      present findings justify the planning of treatment for individuals with EGD that
      impacts quality of life.

PMID- 28555929
TI  - PM2.5-induced lung inflammation in mice: Differences of inflammatory response in
      macrophages and type II alveolar cells.
AB  - Particulate matter 2.5 (<PM2.5 MUm) leads to chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease. In this study, biomarkers related to inflammation and oxidative stress
      in vitro and in vivo experiments were investigated to clarify the PM2.5-induced
      lung inflammation mechanisms. In an in vitro study using RAW264.7 cells, PM2.5
      caused phosphorylation of nuclear factor-kappaB, p38 mitogen-activated protein
      kinase and extracellular response kinases, an increase of proinflammatory gene
      and protein expressions (e.g. monocyte chemotactic protein-1, tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha). These biomarkers were substantially attenuated by polymyxin B
      (PMB). PM2.5 induced heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) gene, which was attenuated by N
      acetylcysteine (NAC). However, the suppressive effects of NAC on inflammatory
      biomarkers were very weak. In bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) of wild
      type BALB/c mice, the effects of PMB and NAC on PM2.5-induced inflammatory
      responses were similar to RAW264.7 cells. In BMDMs of MyD88-/- mice, PM2.5
      induced proinflammatory mediators were substantially more attenuated. PM2.5
      caused an increase of proinflammatory gene expressions (interleukin-6,
      cyclooxygenase 2) and HO-1 gene in MLE-12 cells (mouse alveolar cell line). These
      biomarkers were substantially attenuated by NAC, but not by PMB. When BALB/c mice
      were exposed intratracheally to 0.2 mg PM2.5, PM2.5 caused severe lung
      inflammation, an increase of neutrophils along with proinflammatory mediators in
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. The inflammation was attenuated by NAC,
      particularly by NAC + PMB, but not by PMB alone. These results indicate that
      macrophages may act sensitively to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) present in PM2.5 and
      release proinflammatory mediators via the LPS/MyD88 pathway. However, type II
      alveolar cells may react sensitively to oxidative stress induced by PM2.5 and
      cause inflammatory response. Therefore, overall, PM2.5 may cause predominantly
      oxidative stress-dependent inflammation rather than LPS/MyD88-dependent
      inflammation in type II alveolar cell-rich lungs. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley &
      Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28555930
TI  - Safety of acoustic separation in plastic devices for extracorporeal blood
      processing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acoustic cell separation uses ultrasound waves to separate cells from
      plasma to perform plasmapheresis. Although the fundamental process has been
      studied for decades, no acoustic cell separation has been studied in a disposable
      plastic format suitable for clinical applications. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We
      developed a disposable, rectangular, polystyrene microchannel acoustic cell
      separation system and applied acoustic energy relevant for plasmapheresis. Fresh
      blood from healthy volunteers was exposed in vitro to acoustic energy in an open
      microfluidic circuit with and without ultrasound applied. Blood was tested for
      perturbations in red blood cells, platelets, and coagulation using clinical
      assays. RESULTS: Red blood cell and platelet size parameters as well as
      coagulation activation all were within 3% of baseline values. P-selectin
      expression on platelets increased by an average of 10.9% relative to baseline.
      Hemolysis increased with flow through the microfluidic channel, but percentage
      hemolysis remained below 0.3%. CONCLUSION: Blood parameters in a single-pass,
      microfluidic acoustic cell-separation apparatus remained within normal limits. In
      vivo animal studies that model continuous separation in a physiologic environment
      are warranted.

PMID- 28555932
TI  - Is hepatitis B immune globulin still needed after liver transplantation for
      chronic hepatitis B?

PMID- 28555931
TI  - Soluble activin receptor type IIB decoy receptor differentially impacts murine
      osteogenesis imperfecta muscle function.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is characterized by skeletal fragility
      and muscle weakness. In this study we investigated the effects of soluble activin
      type IIB receptor (sActRIIB-mFc) on muscle mass and function in 2 distinct mouse
      models of OI: osteogenesis imperfecta murine (oim) and +/G610C. METHODS: Wild
      type (WT), +/G610C, and oim/oim mice were treated from 2 to 4 months of age with
      Tris-buffered saline (vehicle) or sActRIIB-mFc and their hindlimb muscles
      evaluated for mass, morphology, and contractile function. RESULTS: sActRIIB-mFc
      treated WT, +/G610C, and oim/oim mice had increased hindlimb muscle weights and
      myofiber cross-sectional area compared with vehicle-treated counterparts.
      sActRIIB-mFc-treated oim/oim mice also exhibited increased contractile function
      relative to vehicle-treated counterparts. DISCUSSION: Blocking endogenous ActRIIB
      was effective at increasing muscle size in mouse models of OI, and increasing
      contractile function in oim/oim mice. ActRIIB inhibitors may provide a potential
      mutation-specific therapeutic option for compromised muscle function in OI.
      Muscle Nerve 57: 294-304, 2018.

PMID- 28555933
TI  - Lentigo maligna melanoma with a history of cosmetic treatment: Prevalence,
      surgical outcomes and considerations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lentigo maligna (LM) is melanoma in situ on sun-damaged skin and
      presents diagnostic challenges due to overlapping features with benign pigmented
      lesions. Cosmetic treatments may be inadvertently performed on LM. The aim of
      this study is to estimate the prevalence of LM with prior cosmetic treatment, and
      evaluate surgical outcomes. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Retrospective review of
      biopsy-proven LM presenting over a 10-year-period (2006-2015). Prior cosmetic
      treatment and biopsies were recorded. Records were reviewed for demographic data,
      clinical characteristics, and surgical outcomes. RESULTS: 37/503 (7.4%) patients
      with LM reported prior cosmetic therapy. Most (95%) were on the head and neck;
      mean size 1.9 cm. Most patients reported cryotherapy (73%), followed by laser
      (29.7%), topical bleaching agents (18.9%), and electrodessication, and/or
      curettage (5.3%). Ten patients (27%) received two or more modalities. Eight
      patients (21.6%) reported prior benign biopsies. Six patients (16%) had invasive
      disease, two on initial biopsy and 4/34 (11.7%) upstaged upon excision. Average
      margin for clearance was 9.1 mm. CONCLUSION: Prior cosmetic treatment of LM is
      not uncommon, and may delay diagnosis and obscure borders, resulting in wider
      surgical margins. Clinicians should consider a biopsy confirming the benign
      nature of equivocal lesions prior to cosmetic treatment. Lasers Surg. Med. 49:819
      826, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28555934
TI  - Activity of synthetic peptides against Chlamydia.
AB  - The in vitro activity of six synthetic peptides against 36 strains of Chlamydia
      from different origins was investigated. Clavanin MO (CMO) proved to be the most
      active peptide, reducing the inclusion number of all Chlamydia strains from eight
      different species tested by >=50% at 10 ug mL-1 . Mastoparan L showed an equal
      activity against C. trachomatis, C. pneumoniae, C. suis, and C. muridarum, but
      did not exert any inhibitory effect against C. psittaci, C. pecorum, C. abortus,
      and C. avium even at 80 ug mL-1 . These data suggest that CMO could be a
      promising compound in the prevention and treatment of chlamydial infections.

PMID- 28555935
TI  - A novel multilayer MV imager computational model for component optimization.
AB  - PURPOSE: A novel Megavoltage (MV) multilayer imager (MLI) design featuring higher
      detective quantum efficiency and lower noise than current conventional MV imagers
      in clinical use has been recently reported. Optimization of the MLI design for
      multiple applications including tumor tracking, MV-CBCT and portal dosimetry
      requires a computational model that will provide insight into the physics
      processes that affect the overall and individual components' performance. The
      purpose of the current work was to develop and validate a comprehensive
      computational model that can be used for MLI optimization. METHODS: The MLI model
      was built using the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE)
      application. The model includes x-ray and charged-particle interactions as well
      as the optical transfer within the phosphor. A first prototype MLI device
      featuring a stack of four detection layers was used for model validation. Each
      layer of the prototype contains a copper buildup plate, a phosphor screen and
      photodiode array. The model was validated against measured data of Modulation
      Transfer Function (MTF), Noise-Power Spectrum (NPS), and Detective Quantum
      Efficiency (DQE). MTF was computed using a slanted slit with 2.3 degrees  angle
      and 0.1 mm width. NPS was obtained using the autocorrelation function technique.
      DQE was calculated from MTF and NPS data. The comparison metrics between
      simulated and measured data were the Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) and
      the normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE). RESULTS: Good agreement between
      measured and simulated MTF and NPS values was observed. Pearson's correlation
      coefficient for the combined signal from all layers of the MLI was equal to
      0.9991 for MTF and 0.9992 for NPS; NRMSE was 0.0121 for MTF and 0.0194 for NPS.
      Similarly, the DQE correlation coefficient for the combined signal was 0.9888 and
      the NRMSE was 0.0686. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive model of the novel MLI design
      was developed using the GATE toolkit and validated against measured MTF, NPS, and
      DQE data acquired with a prototype device featuring four layers. This model will
      be used for further optimization of the imager components and configuration for
      clinical radiotherapy applications.

PMID- 28555936
TI  - Haemodialysis significantly reduces serum levetiracetam levels inducing epileptic
      seizures: Case report.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Levetiracetam is used in the treatment of some forms
      of epilepsy. In renal impairment and patients on chronic haemodialysis, dose
      adjustment is required. We report a case. CASE DESCRIPTION: This case report
      describes a woman on levetiracetam treatment who presented with generalized tonic
      clonic seizures during a haemodialysis session. We report on treatment adjustment
      and on the impact of dialysis on levetiracetam levels. WHAT IS NEW AND
      CONCLUSION: Haemodialysis reduces serum levetiracetam concentration and can lead
      to subtherapeutic levels. Close monitoring is necessary when dialysis is used on
      patients receiving anticonvulsant drugs that are extensively eliminated by the
      procedure.

PMID- 28555937
TI  - Market-driven production of biospecimens and the role of NHS hospital-led
      biobanks.
AB  - Biobanks are vital for biospecimen production in research, despite the
      regulatory, recruitment and commercial difficulties they face. We conducted
      interviews with clinicians, researchers, volunteers who recruit biobank
      participants, regulators and NHS managers about the integration of a biobank into
      an NHS hospital. We show that medical waste collected for biomedical research
      acquires its socio-ethical and economic value from the level of integration (both
      technologically and organisationally) of the biobank into the NHS hospital. There
      is extensive investment in a range of intellectual and commercial relationships
      and labour among stakeholders involved in the production of biospecimens. It is
      not only the boundaries of research, clinical care and commercialisation of
      biospecimens that blur but also those of volunteerism and citizenship. Hospital
      led biobanks provide an opportunity to study the intertwining of biomedical
      innovation and healthcare.

PMID- 28555938
TI  - Assessment of the lethal and sublethal effects of 20 environmental chemicals in
      zebrafish embryos and larvae by using OECD TG 212.
AB  - Fish embryo toxicity tests are used to assess the lethal and sublethal effects of
      environmental chemicals in aquatic organisms. Previously, we used a short-term
      toxicity test published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
      Development (test no. 212: Fish, Short-term Toxicity Test on Embryo and Sac-Fry
      Stages [OECD TG 212]) to assess the lethal and sublethal effects of aniline and
      several chlorinated anilines in zebrafish embryos and larvae. To expand upon this
      previous study, we used OECD TG 212 in zebrafish embryos and larvae to assess the
      lethal and sublethal effects of 20 additional environmental chemicals that
      included active pharmaceutical ingredients, pesticides, metals, aromatic
      compounds or chlorinated anilines. Zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) were exposed
      to the test chemicals until 8 days post-fertilization. A delayed lethal effect
      was induced by 16 of the 20 test chemicals, and a positive correlation was found
      between heart rate turbulence and mortality. We also found that exposure to the
      test chemicals at concentrations lower than the lethal concentration induced the
      sublethal effects of edema, body curvature and absence of swim-bladder inflation.
      In conclusion, the environmental chemicals assessed in the present study induced
      both lethal and sublethal effects in zebrafish embryos and larvae, as assessed by
      using OECD TG 212. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28555939
TI  - Comparison of aloe vera and omeprazole in the treatment of equine gastric ulcer
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anecdotally, aloe vera is used to treat gastric ulceration, although
      no studies have yet investigated its efficacy in horses. OBJECTIVES: To test the
      hypothesis that aloe vera would be noninferior to omeprazole in the treatment of
      equine gastric ulcer syndrome. STUDY DESIGN: Randomised, blinded clinical trial.
      METHODS: Forty horses with grade >=2 lesions of the squamous and/or glandular
      mucosa were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Horses received either aloe
      vera inner leaf gel (17.6 mg/kg bwt) b.i.d. or omeprazole (4 mg/kg bwt) s.i.d.
      for approximately 28 days, after which a repeat gastroscopic examination was
      performed to determine disease resolution. Horses with persistent lesions were
      offered a further 28 days of treatment with omeprazole (4 mg/kg bwt s.i.d.) and
      were re-examined on completion of treatment. RESULTS: Efficacy analyses were
      based on 39 horses that completed the trial. Equine squamous gastric disease
      (ESGD) was observed in 38 horses; improvement and healing rates in these horses
      were 56% and 17%, respectively, in the aloe vera group, and 85% and 75%,
      respectively, in the omeprazole group. Healing was less likely to occur in horses
      with prolonged gastric emptying. Equine glandular gastric disease (EGGD) was less
      common than ESGD (n = 14) and numbers were too small to perform meaningful
      statistical analyses. The hypothesis that aloe vera would be noninferior to
      omeprazole was not supported. MAIN LIMITATIONS: No placebo control group was
      included. Limited numbers preclude any comment on the efficacy of aloe vera in
      the treatment of EGGD. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with aloe vera was inferior to
      treatment with omeprazole.

PMID- 28555941
TI  - Bias-Corrected Estimation in Continuous Sampling Plans.
AB  - Continuous sampling plans (CSPs) are algorithms used for monitoring and
      maintaining the quality of a production line. Although considerable work has been
      done on the development of CSPs, to our knowledge, there has been no
      corresponding effort in developing estimators with good statistical properties
      for data arising from a CSP inspection process. For example, information about
      the failure rate of the process will affect the management of the process, both
      in terms of selecting appropriate CSP parameters to keep the failure rate after
      inspection at a suitable level, and in terms of policy, for example, whether the
      process should be completely inspected, or shut down. The motivation for this
      exercise was developing sampling protocols for Australia's Department of
      Agriculture and Water Resources for monitoring the biosecurity compliance of
      incoming goods at international borders. In this study, we show that maximum
      likelihood estimation of the failure rate under a sampling scheme can be biased
      depending on when estimation is performed, and we provide explicit expressions
      for the main contribution of the bias under various CSPs. We then construct bias
      corrected estimators and confidence intervals, and evaluate their performance in
      a numerical study.

PMID- 28555940
TI  - Altered molecular profile in thyroid cancers from patients affected by the Three
      Mile Island nuclear accident.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: In 1979, Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant
      experienced a partial meltdown with release of radioactive material. The effects
      of the accident on thyroid cancer (TC) in the surrounding population remain
      unclear. Radiation-induced TCs have a lower incidence of single nucleotide
      oncogenic driver mutations and higher incidence of gene fusions. We used next
      generation sequencing (NGS) to identify molecular signatures of radiation-induced
      TC in a cohort of TC patients residing near TMI during the time of the accident.
      STUDY DESIGN: Case series. METHODS: We identified 44 patients who developed
      papillary thyroid carcinoma between 1974 and 2014. Patients who developed TC
      between 1984 and 1996 were at risk for radiation-induced TC, patients who
      developed TC before 1984 or after 1996 were the control group. We used targeted
      NGS of paired tumor and normal tissue from each patient to identify single
      nucleotide oncogenic driver mutations. Oncogenic gene fusions were identified
      using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: We
      identified 15 patients in the at-risk group and 29 patients in the control group.
      BRAFV600E mutations were identified in 53% patients in the at-risk group and 83%
      patients in the control group. The proportion of patients with BRAF mutations in
      the at-risk group was significantly lower than predicted by the The Cancer Genome
      Atlas cohort. Gene fusion or somatic copy number alteration drivers were
      identified in 33% tumors in the at-risk group and 14% of tumors in the control
      group. CONCLUSIONS: Findings were consistent with observations from other
      radiation-exposed populations. These data raise the possibility that radiation
      released from TMI may have altered the molecular profile of TC in the population
      surrounding TMI. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 127:S1-S9, 2017.

PMID- 28555942
TI  - A review of chromatographic methods for ketamine and its metabolites norketamine
      and dehydronorketamine.
AB  - Ketamine has a synthetic, sedative, nonbarbiturate and fast-acting anaesthetic
      properties and it is commonly used in both humans and veterinary surgery. There
      are many analytical methods available for the qualitative and quantitative
      determination of ketamine and its metabolites. We have focused on sample pre
      treatment and chromatographic techniques used since the year 2000 for the
      determination of ketamine and its metabolites in biological samples. Liquid and
      gas chromatography coupled with various detection techniques (mass spectrometry,
      ultraviolet or fluorescence detection) have been used in these publications. This
      review gives information on the implementation of methods for studying ketamine
      and its metabolites in various research applications. It could be useful in
      forensic sciences including doping control and also in the therapeutic drug
      monitoring of ketamine and norketamine in human and animal clinical surgery.

PMID- 28555944
TI  - Association of salivary peroxidase activity and concentration with periodontal
      health: A validity study.
AB  - AIM: Whereas the relationship between myeloperoxidase and periodontitis has been
      widely examined that between salivary peroxidase and periodontitis has received
      little attention. We examined how periodontitis depends on both salivary
      peroxidase activity and concentration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A full mouth,
      clinical assessment of probing depth was performed in a sample of 46 participants
      aged 25-54 years. To minimise bias, these data were corrected by data from the
      general population (Study of Health in Pomerania). Using five repeated
      measurements of activity and concentration over 1 day, we assessed daily
      biological variability and increased the reliability of salivary peroxidase
      measurements. RESULTS: Salivary peroxidase activity was associated with probing
      depth (interquartile range effect = -0.48; robust estimates of 95% confidence
      interval: -0.90 to -0.31; p = .0052), and its effect was not confounded by
      salivary peroxidase concentration. In turn, the effect of salivary peroxidase
      concentration was confounded by salivary peroxidase activity, and it was smaller
      than that of activity. CONCLUSIONS: We found an inverse association between
      salivary peroxidase activity and probing depth. Thus, our results imply that
      salivary peroxidase activity could be a protective factor against periodontitis.
      However, large, well-designed studies are needed to explore the causal mechanisms
      of this association.

PMID- 28555943
TI  - Pro-angiogenic TIE-2-expressing monocytes/TEMs as a biomarker of the effect of
      sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Sorafenib, a multi-kinase inhibitor, inhibits tumor angiogenesis and is the first
      line systemic therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      However, due to its limited effects and frequent occurrence of side effects,
      biomarkers are needed to predict the effects of sorafenib. We considered the
      possibility of using TIE-2-expressing monocytes (TEMs) to predict the response in
      sorafenib-treated patients with advanced HCC. TEMs serve as a diagnostic marker
      of HCC and are related to angiogenesis. We analyzed 25 advanced HCC patients and
      prospectively evaluated TEMs before (Pre TEMs) and at 1 month after initial
      therapy (T1m TEMs). The radiologic response was evaluated by modified Response
      Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST). Median survival time (MST) was
      significantly longer in the partial response/stable disease (PR/SD) group (21.8
      months) than in the PD group (8.7 months). DeltaTEMs (changes of T1m TEMs
      compared to Pre TEMs) were significantly lower in the PR/SD group than in the PD
      group. MST of the DeltaTEMs low group (14.2 months) was significantly longer than
      that of the high group (8.7 months). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression
      analyses showed that DeltaTEMs [hazard ratio (HR) = 8.53, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) = 1.51-48.16, p = 0.015] and Child-Pugh class (HR = 5.59, 95% CI = 1.06
      29.63, p = 0.043) were independently associated with overall survival. Our
      results suggest that DeltaTEMs could serve as a biomarker for predicting
      radiologic response and overall survival in sorafenib-treated patients with
      advanced HCC.

PMID- 28555945
TI  - Recommendations on the use of magnetic resonance imaging in PSC-A position
      statement from the International PSC Study Group.
AB  - : Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disorder
      characterized by inflammation and fibrosis of the intra- and/or extrahepatic bile
      ducts. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive imaging modality that
      can be used to diagnose PSC and detect disease related complications.
      Quantitative MRI technologies also have the potential to provide valuable
      prognostic information. Despite the potential of this imaging technology, the
      clinical application of MRI in the care of PSC patients and imaging standards
      vary across institutions. Moreover, a unified position statement about the role
      of MRI in the care of PSC patients, quality imaging standards, and its potential
      as a research tool is lacking. CONCLUSION: Members of the International PSC Study
      Group and radiologists from North America and Europe have compiled the following
      position statement to provide guidance regarding the application of MRI in the
      care of PSC patients, minimum imaging standards, and future areas of research.
      (Hepatology 2017;66:1675-1688).

PMID- 28555946
TI  - Comparative Effectiveness of Oral Antiplatelet Agents in Patients with Acute
      Coronary Syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In randomized controlled trials, prasugrel and ticagrelor reduced
      cardiovascular complications in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS)
      compared with clopidogrel. However, limited head-to-head comparisons have been
      conducted across the three antiplatelet agents using real-world data. The aim of
      this study was to compare clinical outcomes of three strategies during a 1-year
      period after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: Rates of all
      cause and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalizations were compared
      retrospectively using an insurance claims database. Patients who filled a
      prescription for an oral antiplatelet agent between September 2011 and December
      2013 for post ACS-PCI care were identified. Time to all-cause and AMI
      hospitalization for a 365-day postdischarge period was compared using Cox
      proportional hazard models controlling for potential confounders within a
      propensity score matched cohort. RESULTS: A matched cohort of 9504 clopidogrel,
      7128 prasugrel, and 2376 ticagrelor patients was analyzed. The 1-year hazard
      ratio (HR) for the two newer agents versus clopidogrel was 0.84 (0.78-0.91). The
      HR for the newer agents versus clopidogrel of admission with AMI as the primary
      diagnosis was 0.78 (0.61-1.03), and for AMI as any diagnosis during a
      hospitalization was 0.88 (0.77-1.00). The HR of all-cause admission for
      ticagrelor versus prasugrel was 0.97 (0.84-1.13), and the HRs of AMI-related
      admission were not statistically significant between the two agents. Robustness
      checks across statistical methods to control for potential confounders did not
      influence the conclusion. CONCLUSION: This real-world study demonstrated that use
      of the newer agents following PCI was associated with a decrease in all-cause and
      AMI-related hospitalizations. However, no significant difference was found in the
      rate of admission between ticagrelor versus prasugrel. Due to concerns regarding
      statistical power, future studies should examine larger cohorts to obtain more
      precise estimates for AMI hospitalization for ticagrelor and prasugrel.

PMID- 28555947
TI  - Roaming of dogs in remote Indigenous communities in northern Australia and
      potential interaction between community and wild dogs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the roaming of Indigenous community dogs and potential
      interaction with wild dogs and dingoes. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey and
      longitudinal follow-up study. METHODS: Six remote Indigenous communities in Cape
      York Peninsula and Arnhem Land in northern Australia were selected. Hair samples
      were collected from community dogs and microsatellite DNA analyses were used to
      determine hybrid (>10% dingo DNA) status. Dogs were fitted with GPS collars and
      home range (ha) was estimated during monitoring periods of up to 3 days. RESULTS:
      In Cape York Peninsula, 6% of the 35 dogs sampled were dingo hybrids, whereas in
      Arnhem Land 41% of the 29 dogs sampled were hybrids. The median extended home
      range was estimated to be 4.54 ha (interquartile range, 3.40 - 7.71). Seven
      community dogs were identified with an estimated home range > 20 ha and home
      ranges included the bushland surrounding communities. No significant difference
      in home ranges was detected between hybrid and non-hybrid dogs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Study results provide some evidence (dingo hybridisation, bushland forays) of the
      potential interaction between domestic and wild dogs in northern Australia. The
      nature of this interaction needs further investigation to determine its role in
      disease transmission; for example, in the case of a rabies incursion in this
      region.

PMID- 28555948
TI  - A suspected case of intermediate syndrome in a dog with carbamate toxicosis.
AB  - CASE REPORT: A 7-year-old female spayed Labrador Retriever was managed for
      suspected carbamate toxicosis after confirmed ingestion of a large amount of
      methiocarb. Therapy included decontamination, supportive care and management for
      aspiration pneumonia. On the third day of hospitalisation, after an initial
      clinical improvement, the dog developed respiratory muscle weakness, inspiratory
      dyspnoea and pronounced cervical muscle weakness. These delayed clinical signs
      were consistent with the 'intermediate syndrome' described in some cases of
      organophosphate and carbamate toxicoses in humans and also described in one case
      of organophosphate toxicosis in the dog. Intermediate syndrome has not been
      reported in carbamate toxicosis in the dog. CONCLUSION: This case report
      highlights the necessity for veterinarians to monitor for additional
      complications not commonly considered in acute carbamate toxicoses.

PMID- 28555949
TI  - End-to-side anastomosis of the left ventral colon to the small colon in a
      neonatal foal with segmental agenesis of the large colon.
AB  - CASE REPORT: A newborn foal was referred for evaluation because it had not passed
      meconium, despite the administration of four enemas. Abdominal radiographs and
      ultrasound scans showed generalised gaseous distension of the intestine and there
      was no observable meconium in the colon. Positive contrast colography showed
      contrast medium extending to the transverse colon. An exploratory laparotomy
      confirmed the absence of the left and right dorsal colon and the pelvic and
      diaphragmatic flexures. An end-to-side anastomosis of the left ventral colon to
      the midpoint of the small colon was performed. The foal recovered from
      anaesthesia and surgery uneventfully and immediately began suckling from the
      mare, with no signs of abdominal pain in the postoperative period. The foal began
      to pass soft faeces 3 days after surgery and at 6 months after surgery the foal
      was clinically normal and growing at a similar rate to its cohort. CONCLUSION:
      Intestinal atresia is a rare condition in foals, but should be considered as a
      differential diagnosis in foals that fail to pass meconium. Early recognition and
      surgical intervention can offer an improved chance of short-term survival in
      cases where there is adequate intestine to anastomose. An end-to-side anastomosis
      technique can be used where an end-to-end technique is not practical because of
      the difference in diameter of the proximal and distal intestinal segments.

PMID- 28555950
TI  - Lowland copperhead (Austrelaps superbus) envenomation causing severe
      neuromuscular paralysis in a dog.
AB  - CASE REPORT: A case of lowland copperhead snake (Austrelaps superbus)
      envenomation in a dog is described. The dog developed severe and prolonged
      neuromuscular paralysis, including ventilatory failure. The dog was treated
      successfully with antivenom, intravenous fluids and mechanical ventilation.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The toxic components of lowland copperhead snake venom are
      reviewed.

PMID- 28555952
TI  - Students' opinions on welfare and ethics issues for companion animals in
      Australian and New Zealand veterinary schools.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine what veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand
      consider important competences in companion animal welfare and ethics (AWE)
      required on their first day of practice, and to explore how their priorities
      relate to gender and stage of study. METHODS: Undergraduate students at all
      veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand were sent an online survey. A
      subset of questions required participants to rank the importance of preselected
      AWE topics pertaining to companion animals. Data were analysed to determine
      differences in the way students of different gender or academic stage prioritised
      each of these AWE topics. RESULTS: Of 3220 currently enrolled students, 851
      participated in the survey: 79% were female, 17% male, 4% unspecified. Ranking of
      the AWE topics, from highest to lowest importance, was: neutering, companion
      animal husbandry, euthanasia, behaviour and training, animal breeding, over
      servicing in relation to animal needs and cosmetic surgery. Female students
      consistently ranked competency in AWE issues surrounding neutering more highly
      than male students (P = 0.006). Students in senior years of study ranked the
      importance of competency in animal abuse/hoarding (P = 0.048), shelter medicine
      (P = 0.012) and animal breeding (P = 0.002) less highly than those in junior
      years. CONCLUSIONS: Australasian veterinary students placed more importance on
      competency in AWE issues associated with clinical practice (such as neutering and
      euthanasia) than on professional behaviours (such as over-servicing and animal
      breeding). However, we consider that emphasis should still be placed on
      developing graduate competency in the latter categories to reflect growing
      societal concerns about companion animal over-supply and inappropriate
      professional conduct.

PMID- 28555953
TI  - Relationship between sources of pet acquisition and euthanasia of cats and dogs
      in an animal shelter: a pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Approximately 140,000 unwanted dogs and cats are culled in Australia
      annually. There is a paucity of information linking sources of pet acquisition
      with subsequent euthanasia, which may inform evidence-based strategies to reduce
      euthanasia rates. This pilot study aimed to determine whether there is a higher
      risk of euthanasia related to the source of acquisition for pets surrendered to
      an animal shelter. METHODS: Data for 5391 dogs and 5581 cats surrendered to one
      Queensland shelter between January 2006 and December 2009 were analysed. RESULTS:
      The main sources of acquisition for owner-surrendered dogs were 'shelter' and
      'pet shop' and for owner-surrendered cats were 'own litter' and 'shelter'.
      Euthanasia rates for different sources varied. For adult dogs, acquisition
      through newspaper advertisements was associated with the highest euthanasia rate.
      Adult cats obtained as gifts (from friend or family member) had the highest
      euthanasia rate. For junior cats, the overwhelming source was the owner's own
      litter (68% of intake) and only kittens acquired as strays were at significantly
      higher risk of euthanasia. For both dogs and cats, animals acquired from shelters
      had lower rates of euthanasia than most other sources, which suggests that
      shelter-sourced animals may be considered a preferred source for pet acquisition
      to assist in reducing the number of adoptable pets euthanased. CONCLUSION: There
      was evidence from the study animal shelter that the risk of euthanasia was
      related to acquisition source. These findings should be confirmed by prospective
      studies, which should also investigate the interaction between acquisition source
      and other factors, using larger data sets from a variety of shelters.

PMID- 28555954
TI  - Prevalence and effect of Theileria orientalis infection in homebred calves in the
      Gloucester region of New South Wales, Australia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence of Theileria orientalis in the Gloucester
      area of New South Wales and its effect on individual animals. METHODS: Blood
      samples (EDTA and clotted blood) were collected from a total of 55 calves and
      their dams from 6 properties over a 16-week period. A total of 202 and 190 blood
      samples were collected from the calves and dams, respectively, and were examined
      via blood film for the presence of intraerythrocytic T. orientalis piroplasms.
      Packed cell volume (PCV) was measured to determine infection resulting in
      anaemia. The presence of antibodies against the T. orientalis major piroplasm
      surface protein (MPSP) was tested using ELISA. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of
      T. orientalis infection in both dams and calves from all herds examined was 95%.
      Mean peak parasitaemia was observed in calves between 6 and 9 weeks of age (P =
      0.051), coinciding with a decline in mean PCV. Only 3 (6%) of the blood samples
      collected from the dams were positive for Theileria-associated antibodies and no
      significant relationship (P > 0.05) was found between the presence of antibodies
      in the dams and PCV levels in the calves. There was no evidence that passive
      transfer of antibodies from dams to calves protected the calves against a decline
      in PCV. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed a high prevalence of low-level Theileria
      infection, but low MPSP seroconversion rates, in dams and calves in an area where
      the disease has been endemic for a number of years.

PMID- 28555955
TI  - Mind the gap: financial London and the regional class pay gap.
AB  - The hidden barriers, or 'gender pay gap', preventing women from earning
      equivalent incomes to men is well documented. Yet recent research has uncovered
      that, in Britain, there is also a comparable class-origin pay gap in higher
      professional and managerial occupations. So far this analysis has only been
      conducted at the national level and it is not known whether there are regional
      differences within the UK. This paper uses pooled data from the 2014 and 2015
      Labour Force Survey (N = 7,534) to stage a more spatially sensitive analysis that
      examines regional variation in the class pay gap. We find that this 'class
      ceiling' is not evenly spatially distributed. Instead it is particularly marked
      in Central London, where those in high-status occupations who are from working
      class backgrounds earn, on average, L10,660 less per year than those whose
      parents were in higher professional and managerial employment. Finally, we
      inspect the Capital further to reveal that the class pay gap is largest within
      Central London's banking and finance sector. Challenging policy conceptions of
      London as the 'engine room' of social mobility, these findings suggest that class
      disadvantage within high-status occupations is particularly acute in the Capital.
      The findings also underline the value of investigating regional differences in
      social mobility, and demonstrate how such analysis can unravel important and
      previously unrecognized spatial dimensions of class inequality.

PMID- 28555956
TI  - Physiological functioning moderates infants' sensory sensitivity in higher
      conflict families.
AB  - Children exposed to parent conflict may be at risk for emotional and behavioral
      disorders by becoming sensitized to conflict cues in their environments. This
      study explored possible precursors to negative child outcomes associated with
      parent conflict by examining the relation between parent conflict and infants' (N
      = 36; 23-42 weeks; 44% female) behavioral sensitivity to general sensory stimuli
      (e.g., loud noises, physical touch). To determine whether infants' characteristic
      autonomic arousal and regulation moderated this association, infant baseline skin
      conductance (SC) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured. Parents
      reported levels of parent conflict, and mothers reported infants' behavioral
      sensory sensitivity. The association between parent conflict and lower threshold
      for sensory sensitivity was strongest for infants with higher physiological
      arousal (higher SC) and lesser capacity for physiological regulation (lower RSA).
      Children may become more sensitive to environmental stimuli as a function of
      parent conflict during infancy, though this appears to depend on characteristic
      physiological arousal and regulation.

PMID- 28555957
TI  - Diethylhexyl phthalate magnifies deposition of 14 C-bisphenol A in reproductive
      tissues of mice.
AB  - Endocrine disrupting chemicals are found in diverse common products, including
      cosmetics, food packaging, thermal receipt paper and plastic containers. This
      exposes most people in developed countries through ingestion, skin absorption and
      inhalation. Two ubiquitous endocrine disrupting chemicals, bisphenol A (BPA) and
      diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) can interact in disrupting blastocyst implantation
      in inseminated females. We hypothesized that DEHP might increase the
      bioavailability of BPA in tissues by competing for metabolic enzymes. We injected
      0, 3, 9 or 18 mg DEHP into female and male mice and allowed 30 min for the
      chemical to circulate before giving them a food supplement containing 50 MUg kg-1
      14 C-BPA. Animals were dissected 1 h following 14 C-BPA administration and
      various tissue samples were acquired. Samples were solubilized and radioactivity
      was measured via liquid scintillation counting. In cycling females, DEHP
      increased BPA deposition in the muscle, uterus, ovaries and blood serum relative
      to controls. In peri-implantation females, DEHP increased deposition of BPA in
      the uterus, ovaries and serum relative to controls. In males, DEHP doses
      increased BPA deposition in serum and epididymis relative to controls. These
      results are consistent with the hypothesis that DEHP competes with BPA for
      conjugating enzymes such as UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, thereby magnifying the
      presence of BPA in estrogen-binding reproductive tissues. Copyright (c) 2017 John
      Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28555958
TI  - Industrial Safety and Utopia: Insights from the Fukushima Daiichi Accident.
AB  - Feedback from industrial accidents is provided by various state or even
      international, institutions, and lessons learned can be controversial. However,
      there has been little research into organizational learning at the international
      level. This article helps to fill the gap through an in-depth review of official
      reports of the Fukushima Daiichi accident published shortly after the event. We
      present a new method to analyze the arguments contained in these voluminous
      documents. Taking an intertextual perspective, the method focuses on the accident
      narratives, their rationale, and links between "facts," "causes," and
      "recommendations." The aim is to evaluate how the findings of the various reports
      are consistent with (or contradict) "institutionalized knowledge," and identify
      the social representations that underpin them. We find that although the
      scientific controversy surrounding the results of the various inquiries reflects
      different ethical perspectives, they are integrated into the same utopian ideal.
      The involvement of multiple actors in this controversy raises questions about the
      public construction of epistemic authority, and we highlight the special status
      given to the International Atomic Energy Agency in this regard.

PMID- 28555960
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF TEMPERATURE REGULATION IN MUS MUSCULUS. III.
      DIALLEL ANALYSIS OF CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TRAITS.

PMID- 28555961
TI  - MEASUREMENT OF THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF INDIVIDUAL SELECTION AND KIN SELECTION
      AMONG FEMALES OF THE GENUS MACACA.

PMID- 28555959
TI  - Design of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation of Mineralocorticoid Receptor
      Antagonism in Diabetic Atherosclerosis (MAGMA) Trial.
AB  - Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) activation plays an essential role in promoting
      inflammation, fibrosis, and target organ damage. Currently, no studies are
      investigating MR antagonism in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with
      chronic kidney disease, at high risk for cardiovascular complications, who are
      otherwise not candidates for MR antagonism by virtue of heart failure. Further,
      there is limited information on candidate therapies that may demonstrate
      differential benefit from this therapy. We hypothesized that MR antagonism may
      provide additional protection from atherosclerosis progression in higher-risk
      patients who otherwise may not be candidates for such a therapeutic approach. In
      this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, subjects with T2DM with
      chronic kidney disease (>= stage 3) will be randomized in a 1:1 manner to placebo
      or spironolactone (12.5 mg with eventual escalation to 25 mg daily over a 4-week
      period). The co-primary efficacy endpoint will be percentage change in total
      atheroma volume in thoracic aorta and left ventricular mass at 52 weeks in
      patients treated with spironolactone vs placebo. Secondary outcomes include 24
      hour mean systolic blood pressure, central aortic blood pressure, and insulin
      resistance (HOMA-IR) at 6 weeks. A novel measure in the study will be changes in
      candidate miRNAs that regulate expression of NR3C2 (MR gene) as well as measuring
      monocyte/macrophage polarization in response to therapy with spironolactone. We
      envision that our strategy of simultaneously probing the effects of a drug
      combined with analysis of mechanisms of action and predictive response will
      likely provide key information with which to design event-based trials.

PMID- 28555962
TI  - ESTIMATION OF THE RATE OF GLYCEROL 3-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE EVOLUTION IN HIGHER
      VERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28555963
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF INSECT MATING SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28555964
TI  - LIFE HISTORY TRAITS AND NATURAL SELECTION FOR SMALL BODY SIZE IN A POPULATION OF
      DARWIN'S FINCHES.

PMID- 28555965
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF HABITAT PREFERENCE IN SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28555966
TI  - THE NATURE OF GENETIC VARIATION FOR SPECIES FORMATION.

PMID- 28555967
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF TEMPERATURE REGULATION IN MUS MUSCULUS. II.
      DIALLEL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL TRAITS.

PMID- 28555969
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28555968
TI  - QUEEN-WORKER CONFLICT AND EUSOCIAL EVOLUTION IN A POLYGYNOUS ANT SPECIES.

PMID- 28555970
TI  - ORIGIN AND EXPRESSION OF AN ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE GENE DUPLICATION IN THE GENUS
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28555971
TI  - REVENGE OF THE UGLY DUCKLING.

PMID- 28555973
TI  - TRADEOFFS IN PERFORMANCE ON DIFFERENT HOSTS: EVIDENCE FROM WITHIN- AND BETWEEN
      SITE VARIATION IN THE BEETLE DELOYALA GUTTATA.

PMID- 28555974
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE AND CHANGE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA ROBUSTA:
      SYSTEMATIC INVERSION AND INVERSION ASSOCIATION FREQUENCY SHIFTS IN THE GREAT
      SMOKY MOUNTAINS.

PMID- 28555976
TI  - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

PMID- 28555975
TI  - ARTIFICIAL SELECTION ON A FITNESS-COMPONENT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28555977
TI  - A COMMENT ON FITNESS ESTIMATION.

PMID- 28555978
TI  - 1984 MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGISTS and AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL
      SOCIETY, ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SOCIETY, BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, CRUSTACEAN
      SOCIETY, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ASTACOLOGY, SOCIETY OF SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY,
      AND WESTERN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS.

PMID- 28555979
TI  - DROSOPHILA OF THE DESERT.

PMID- 28555980
TI  - THE LIMITS TO LIFE HISTORY EVOLUTION IN DAPHNIA.

PMID- 28555981
TI  - THE EFFECT OF MUTAGENESIS ON COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28555982
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1984
      Meetings.

PMID- 28555983
TI  - STILL ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO ACHIEVE ASSORTATIVE MATING BY DISRUPTIVE SELECTION IN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28555984
TI  - ECOLOGICAL CAUSES OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM.

PMID- 28555985
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION ARISING FROM INAPPROPRIATE FITNESS ESTIMATION.

PMID- 28555986
TI  - ON THE MEASUREMENT OF TOTAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION: A REPLY TO CHRISTIANSEN.

PMID- 28555987
TI  - COHORT SELECTION.

PMID- 28555988
TI  - LATERAL PLATE MORPH VARIATION IN CALIFORNIA POPULATIONS OF THE THREESPINE
      STICKLEBACK, GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS.

PMID- 28555989
TI  - CAN UNIFORM SELECTION RETARD RANDOM GENETIC DIVERGENCE BETWEEN ISOLATED
      CONSPECIFIC POPULATIONS?

PMID- 28555990
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATIVE BREEDING BY DELAYED RECIPROCITY AND QUEUING FOR
      FAVORABLE SOCIAL POSITIONS.

PMID- 28555991
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATING? YES. AN ANSWER TO D. J. MERRELL.

PMID- 28555992
TI  - QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KARYOTYPE ALTERATION AND SPECIES DIFFERENTIATION IN
      MAMMALS.

PMID- 28555995
TI  - Second International Symposium, on the Structure and Functioning of Plant
      Populations.

PMID- 28555993
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT POLLINATOR FORAGING, FLOWERING PHENOLOGY, AND TEMPORAL POLLEN
      DISPERSAL PATTERNS IN LINANTHUS BICOLOR.

PMID- 28555996
TI  - BEHAVIORAL REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AMONG POPULATIONS OF THE ROTIFER BRACHIONUS
      PLICATILIS.

PMID- 28555997
TI  - MOLECULAR VARIATION IN INSULAR ENDEMIC DROSOPHILA SPECIES OF THE MACARONESIAN
      ARCHIPELAGOS.

PMID- 28555998
TI  - 1983 The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize Recipient.

PMID- 28555999
TI  - THE DEVELOPMENTAL GENETIC BASIS OF ORGANISMAL EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556001
TI  - CURRENT PROBLEMS IN SOCIOBIOLOGY: AN ADAPTATIONIST REVIEW.

PMID- 28556000
TI  - GENE FLOW DISTANCES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF TETRAOPES TETRAOPHTHALMUS.

PMID- 28556002
TI  - TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON LIFE HISTORY VARIATION IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.

PMID- 28556003
TI  - MATING BEHAVIOR AND THE EVOLUTION OF DROSOPHILA MAURITIANA.

PMID- 28556004
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION DURING SPECIATION IN THE HELIANTHUS DEBILIS COMPLEX.

PMID- 28556005
TI  - THE RELATION OF GROWTH TO HETEROZYGOSITY IN PITCH PINE.

PMID- 28556006
TI  - SEXUAL REPRODUCTION: AN ADAPTATION REDUCING PARENT-OFFSPRING CONTAGION.

PMID- 28556008
TI  - George Gaylord Simpson Prize.

PMID- 28556007
TI  - A UNIQUE APPROACH TO THE EVOLUTION OF SEX.

PMID- 28556009
TI  - FLORAL VARIATION AND SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION IN MUNTINGIA CALABURA
      (ELAEOCARPACEAE), A SPECIES WITH HERMAPHRODITE FLOWERS.

PMID- 28556010
TI  - GENETIC BASIS OF DIFFERENCES IN GENITAL MORPHOLOGY AMONG THREE SIBLING SPECIES OF
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28556012
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1984
      Meetings.

PMID- 28556011
TI  - THE MEASUREMENT OF SELECTION ON CORRELATED CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28556013
TI  - International Organization of Plant Biosystematists.

PMID- 28556015
TI  - POLLEN DISPERSAL BY HUMMINGBIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO
      LOWLAND TROPICAL PLANTS.

PMID- 28556014
TI  - A SIMPLE MENDELIAN MODEL FOR 13- AND 17- YEAR LIFE CYCLES OF PERIODICAL CICADAS,
      WITH HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN THEM.

PMID- 28556017
TI  - THE INHERITANCE OF QUANTITATIVE FITNESS TRAITS IN GUPPIES, POECILIA RETICULATA
      (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28556018
TI  - RARE MALE MATING DISADVANTAGE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28556020
TI  - The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize.

PMID- 28556019
TI  - A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE ORIGINS OF A LOWLAND TROPICAL
      SALAMANDER FAUNA. II. PATTERNS OF MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556021
TI  - Hereditary progressive mucinous histiocytosis: 3 different phenotypes in 3 family
      members.
AB  - We describe 3 cases of multiple histiocytic cutaneous tumors that began in
      childhood and affected 3 members from 2 generations of the same family: a mother,
      a daughter and a nephew. The lesions were mostly skin-colored papules distributed
      symmetrically on the dorsum of the forearms and hands and on the face and thighs.
      There were no signs of spontaneous regression. The clinical and histopathological
      features were consistent with a diagnosis of hereditary progressive mucinous
      histiocytosis (HPMH), but phenotypic expression varied somewhat between the 3
      patients. HPMH has only been described in 8 families to date, and just one of the
      reports included 3 well-documented cases. Our cases confirm that HPMH can affect
      males and expands the clinical spectrum of skin lesions in this disease.

PMID- 28556022
TI  - Predictors of premature termination from psychotherapy for anorexia nervosa: Low
      treatment credibility, early therapy alliance, and self-transcendence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Failure to complete treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN) is- common,
      clinically concerning but difficult to predict. This study examines whether
      therapy-related factors (patient-rated pretreatment credibility and early
      therapeutic alliance) predict subsequent premature termination of treatment (PTT)
      alongside self-transcendence (a previously identified clinical predictor) in
      women with AN. METHODS: 56 women aged 17-40 years participating in a randomized
      outpatient psychotherapy trial for AN. Treatment completion was defined as
      attending 15/20 planned sessions. Measures were the Treatment Credibility,
      Temperament and Character Inventory, Vanderbilt Therapeutic Alliance Scale and
      the Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale. Statistics were univariate tests,
      correlations, and logistic regression. RESULTS: Treatment credibility and certain
      early patient and therapist alliance/process subscales predicted PTT. Lower self
      transcendence and lower early process accounted for 33% of the variance in
      predicting PTT. DISCUSSION: Routine assessment of treatment credibility and early
      process (comprehensively assessed from multiple perspectives) may help clinicians
      reduce PTT thereby enhancing treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28556023
TI  - Index report of cutaneous angiosarcomas with strong positivity for tyrosinase
      mimicking melanoma with further evaluation of melanocytic markers in a large
      angiosarcoma series.
AB  - Cutaneous angiosarcoma can be challenging to diagnose particularly when poorly
      vasoformative and studied on biopsies. We report a case of a cutaneous
      angiosarcoma with strong positivity for tyrosinase, the first to our knowledge,
      initially misdiagnosed as melanoma. We subsequently evaluated the reactivity of
      panmelanocytic cocktail (tyrosinase, HMB-45 and Melan-A), SOX10, tyrosinase and
      MITF in a large tissue microarray (TMA) of angiosarcoma. The TMA included 142
      cases of angiosarcomas (29 cutaneous, 22 primary breast, 41 post-radiation
      breast, 15 visceral, 26 deep soft tissue and bone, 5 chronic lymphedema
      associated and 4 angiosarcomas arising in other sarcomas). Immunohistochemical
      studies were performed with anti-panmelanocytic cocktail, anti-SOX10, anti-MITF
      and anti-tyrosinase antibodies. TMA staining results were scored on intensity and
      percentage of tumoral labeling. Aside from the index case, no cases (0 of 133)
      showed positivity for tyrosinase including 28 cutaneous angiosarcomas. One breast
      angiosarcoma (1 of 131) was positive for MITF. All cases were negative for SOX10
      and panmelanocytic cocktail (0 of 132). Angiosarcomas can rarely be positive for
      tyrosinase and MITF. Pathologists should be cognizant of these rare exceptions to
      prevent confusion with melanoma. Additional immunohistochemical markers for
      vascular and melanocytic differentiation, thorough histological examination for
      vasoformative and in situ areas as well as clinical impression are helpful in
      these exceptionally problematic cases.

PMID- 28556024
TI  - Cancer of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction-Major changes in the
      American Joint Committee on Cancer eighth edition cancer staging manual.
AB  - Answer questions and earn CME/CNE New to the eighth edition of the American Joint
      Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Cancer Staging Manual for epithelial cancers of the
      esophagus and esophagogastric junction are separate, temporally related cancer
      classifications: 1) before treatment decision (clinical); 2) after esophagectomy
      alone (pathologic); and 3) after preresection therapy followed by esophagectomy
      (postneoadjuvant pathologic). The addition of clinical and postneoadjuvant
      pathologic stage groupings was driven by a lack of correspondence of survival,
      and thus prognosis, between both clinical and postneoadjuvant pathologic cancer
      categories (facts about the cancer) and pathologic categories. This was revealed
      by a machine-learning analysis of 6-continent data from the Worldwide Esophageal
      Cancer Collaboration, with consensus of the AJCC Upper GI Expert Panel. Survival
      is markedly affected by histopathologic cell type (squamous cell carcinoma and
      adenocarcinoma) in clinically and pathologically staged patients, requiring
      separate stage grouping for each cell type. However, postneoadjuvant pathologic
      stage groups are identical. For the future, more refined and granular data are
      needed. This requires: 1) more accurate clinical staging; 2) innovative solutions
      to pathologic staging challenges in endoscopically resected cancers; 3)
      integration of genomics into staging; and 4) precision cancer care with targeted
      therapy. It is the responsibility of the oncology team to accurately determine
      and record registry data, which requires eliminating both common errors and those
      related to incompleteness and inconsistency. Despite the new complexity of eighth
      edition staging of cancers of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction, these
      key concepts and new directions will facilitate precision cancer care. CA Cancer
      J Clin 2017;67:304-317. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28556025
TI  - Determination of Controlled Self-Assembly of a Paracrystalline Material by
      Homology Modelling with Hybrid NMR and TEM.
AB  - Controlling complexity, flexibility, and functionality of synthetic and
      biomimetic materials requires insight into how molecular functionalities can be
      exploited for steering their packing. A fused NDI-salphen (NDI=naphthalene
      diimide) prototypic artificial photosynthesis material, DATZnS, is shown to be
      comprised of a phenazine motif, in which the alignment of electric dipole moments
      in a P2/c supramolecular scaffold can be modulated with bulky substituents. They
      can also be switched between parallel stacks of dipoles running antiparallel in
      the DATZnS-H compared with parallel stacks of dipoles in polar layers running in
      opposite directions in the DATZnS(3'-NMe) parent compound. Spatial correlations
      obtained from HETCOR spectra, collected with a long cross polarization contact
      time of 2 ms, reveal an antiparallel stacking for the DATZnS-H homologue. These
      constraints and limited data from TEM are used to construct a structural model
      within the P2/c space group determined by the molecular C2 symmetry. By using
      homology modelling, a pseudo octahedral coordination of the Zn is shown to follow
      the packing-induced chirality with enantiomeric pairs of the Lambda and Delta
      forms alternating along antiparallel stacks. The model helps to understand how
      the steric hindrance modulates the self-assembly in this novel class of fused
      materials by steric hindrance at the molecular level.

PMID- 28556027
TI  - DISPERSAL AND PLANT MATING SYSTEMS: THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-FERTILIZATION IN
      SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS.
AB  - Intermediate rates of self-fertilization can be evolutionarily stable when the
      progeny of self-fertilization events are less successful migrants than those of
      outcrossing events, unless self-fertilization reduces an individual's
      contribution to the pollen pool by an amount equal to the rate at which it self
      fertilizes. This result holds regardless of whether pollen or diaspores are more
      widely dispersed. The differential migration of selfed and outcrossed progeny may
      be a result of differential establishment with comparable rates of dispersal, or
      it may be a result of differential dispersal rates. In the first case, detailed
      predictions concerning the evolutionarily stable selfing rate can be made. In the
      second case, only qualitative predictions are possible in the absence of specific
      assumptions about how the migration rate is affected by the average selfing rate
      in each subpopulation.

PMID- 28556026
TI  - Preclinical pilot study monitoring topical drug penetration and dermal
      bioavailability of a peptidase inhibitor from different galenic formulations into
      pig dermis, using cutaneous microdialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous microdialysis (CM) is an ex vivo technique that allows
      study of tissue chemistry, including bioavailability of actual tissue
      concentration of unbound drug in the interstitial fluid of the body. AIM: To test
      the penetration and dermal bioavailability of galenic formulations of the small
      molecule IP10.C8, a dual-protease inhibitor of the dipeptidyl peptidase and
      aminopeptidase families. METHODS: Using CM, we tested the penetration and dermal
      bioavailability of IP10.C8 into the dermis and subcutis of pigs, and determined
      the tissue concentration of IP10.C8 enzymatically, using an enzyme activity assay
      (substrate Gly-Pro-pNA) and high performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS:
      Dermal bioavailability was enhanced by using microemulsion or the addition of the
      penetration enhancer oleic acid to a hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) gel formulation.
      Dermal bioavailability was also enhanced when galenic formulations were prepared
      with higher pH (7.5 vs. 6.5) or higher drug concentration (5% vs. 1%) in HEC gel.
      CONCLUSION: It seems possible, using CM for topical skin penetration testing in
      anaesthetized domestic pigs, to test the bioavailability of newly designed drugs.
      However, the experimental time is limited due to the anaesthesia, and is
      dependent on drug recovery. Validation of this technique for routine use is
      challenging, and more experiments are needed to validate this preclinical set-up.

PMID- 28556028
TI  - THE NEOLITHIC TRANSITION AND THE GENETICS OF POPULATIONS IN EUROPE: A REVIEW.

PMID- 28556029
TI  - LOW GENIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF THE CALIFORNIA FAN PALM
      (WASHINGTONIA FILIFERA).
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess the relative roles of population size and
      geographic isolation in determining population-genetic structure. Using
      electrophoretic techniques to quantify allozymic variation at 16 genetic loci, we
      measured genic variation within and among 16 natural populations of the
      California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera). Genotypes were determined for every
      individual in each population so that parametric values rather than sample
      estimates for measures of genic variability were obtained. Palm populations
      displayed low levels of within-population variability. The proportion of
      polymorphic loci and observed heterozygosity were 0.098 and 0.009 per population,
      respectively. Population size displayed a significant positive correlation with
      proportion of polymorphic loci, but not with observed heterozygosity. Low levels
      of genetic differentiation among populations were demonstrated by an F-statistic
      analysis and the computation of genetic similarity values. A hierarchical
      analysis of gene diversity revealed that only about 2% of the total gene
      diversity in W. filifera resides as among-population diversity. Climatic and
      geological changes since the Pliocene have eliminated widespread palm
      populations, and the species is presently restricted to isolated locations around
      the Colorado Desert. Existing populations in southern California are either
      relicts or recent recolonizations resulting from the dispersal of seeds from a
      refugium population in Baja California, Mexico. The observed patterns of low
      within- and low among-population genic diversity seem most consistent with a
      recent colonization by fan palms. It is hypothesized that stochastic processes
      reduced levels of genic variability in this refugium population during its
      formation. Dispersal of seeds from this refugium into suitable habitats in the
      Colorado Desert would produce populations with low variability and high genetic
      similarity because of their common ancestry. However, low intrapopulation
      variability and genetic homogeneity across populations could be the product of
      uniform selection pressures favoring a narrow array of specialized genotypes in
      either relict or colonizing populations.

PMID- 28556030
TI  - PARTIAL NICHE SEPARATION IN SPINACIA OLERACEA L.: AN EXAMINATION OF REPRODUCTIVE
      ALLOCATION.

PMID- 28556031
TI  - SYMPOSIUM TO HONOR G. LEDYARD STEBBINS.

PMID- 28556032
TI  - PREDATOR-INDUCED SHELL DIMORPHISM IN THE ACORN BARNACLE CHTHAMALUS ANISOPOMA.
AB  - Field experiments were conducted in order to determine the nature of shell
      dimorphism in the acorn barnacle Chthamalus anisopoma and the adaptive
      significance of the atypical form. The typical morph has the conical shape which
      is characteristic of acorn barnacles, while the atypical morph appears bent over,
      with the rim of its aperture oriented perpendicular to its base. The experiments
      showed that: 1) the bent-over morphology is an environmentally-induced
      developmental response to the presence of a carnivorous gastropod (Acanthina
      angelica) and 2) that "bents" are more resistant than "conics" to specialized
      predation by this snail. The results also showed that predation by A. angelica is
      patchy and heaviest in the near vicinity of cracks and crevices, which it uses as
      refuges during periods of tidal inundation. Because predation is patchy and bents
      are less fecund and grow slower than conics, the conditional developmental
      strategy is likely to be favored over strict genetical control of shell
      morphology.

PMID- 28556033
TI  - VARIATION IN CONTRIBUTIONS OF ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION TO THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF
      POPULATIONS OF THE SEA ANEMONE METRIDIUM SENILE.
AB  - Northeastern North American populations of the sea anemone Metridium senile show
      marked differences in levels of genotypic diversity. Comparisons with
      expectations generated by computer simulation show that some populations are
      genotypically as diverse as expected for sexually reproducing populations with
      free recombination, whereas others are significantly less diverse than expected,
      despite efforts to avoid collecting clonemates. These reductions in diversity are
      not attributable to the Wahlund effect; they probably result from extensive
      clonal reproduction. Reduced genotypic diversity may be produced by low rates of
      recruitment of planktonic larvae, followed by asexual proliferation. The
      resulting founder effect may account for previously documented random allele
      frequency variation between adjacent populations. It is presently uncertain
      whether the few genotypes found in some populations are particularly well-adapted
      to local conditions.

PMID- 28556035
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556034
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION OF ASCARIDOID WORMS WITH DIFFERENT LIFE CYCLES.

PMID- 28556036
TI  - COMPARISON OF POPULATION STRUCTURE IN CHROMOSOMALLY POLYTYPIC AND MONOTYPIC
      SPECIES OF SCELOPORUS (SAURIA: IGUANIDAE) IN RELATION TO CHROMOSOMALLY-MEDIATED
      SPECIATION.
AB  - Sceloporus grammicus has been used as an example of stasipatric speciation, and
      some models of chromosomal speciation have assumed that the fission
      rearrangements which distinguish the chromosome races within this complex are
      negatively heterotic in the heterozygous state. Consequently, such rearrangements
      are assumed to be fixed by drift in small, inbred populations. Allelic variation
      at 19 presumptive gene loci was examined in 13 samples of a chromosomally
      conservative congener, Sceloporus graciosus, and was compared to an equivalent
      data set for the chromosomally polytypic S. grammicus. Several estimates of
      population variability and structure were calculated, and results were
      inconsistent with models of extreme population subdivision and/or frequent
      bottlenecks and extinction-colonization events in S. grammicus. For example, mean
      level of heterozygosity and mean number of alleles per locus were significantly
      higher in S. grammicus than in S. graciosus, while the average genetic distance
      (D) was significantly higher in S. graciosus. These results are considered in
      light of expected "Wrightian" population genetic parameters, and we conclude that
      S. grammicus does not seem to have the population structure necessary for the
      fixation of strongly negatively heterotic rearrangements.

PMID- 28556037
TI  - PHYLETIC PHENOCOPIES: A USEFUL TECHNIQUE FOR PROBING THE GENETIC AND
      DEVELOPMENTAL BASIS OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE.

PMID- 28556038
TI  - GOOD NEWS!

PMID- 28556039
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON BEAK AND BODY SIZE IN THE SONG SPARROW.
AB  - We documented temporal patterns of natural selection on beak and body traits in a
      song sparrow population. We looked for evidence of selection in association with
      reproduction and overwinter survival in order to identify the conditions under
      which size in beak and body traits is adaptive. We also attempted to identify the
      specific traits most closely associated with fitness under these conditions.
      Selection was observed in association with both survival and reproduction.
      Patterns of selection differed between the sexes. Selection on males was weak and
      stabilizing in association with overwinter survival. Selection on females was
      strong, was both stabilizing and directional, and was associated with both
      survival and reproduction. In females, traits that enhanced juvenile survival
      also reduced reproductive success; i.e., there was a trade-off between survival
      and reproduction. Patterns of selection in the song sparrow parallel those
      reported for the Galapagos finch, Geospiza fortis. However, in song sparrows,
      selection occurred mainly on tarsus length and beak length, and not on beak depth
      or width as in G. fortis. This difference may occur because most North American
      sparrows partition food resources by habitat, while most Galapagos ground finches
      partition food by seed size.

PMID- 28556040
TI  - SEX-RATIO CONTROL IN A PARASITIC WASP, NASONIA VITRIPENNIS. II. EXPERIMENTAL
      ANALYSIS OF AN OPTIMAL SEX-RATIO MODEL.
AB  - An optimal theory of facultative sex-ratio adjustment (Werren, 1980) was tested
      using the data from a series of sequential oviposition experiments (Orzack and
      Parker, 1986). Sex ratios produced by several genotypes in previously parasitized
      hosts differ significantly from the theoretical prediction. In addition, there is
      more variance of these "second" sex ratios than would be generated purely by
      sampling. I outline an alternative model of sex-ratio determination, based upon
      an imperfect ability of second females to detect previous parasitization, which
      accounts for the trends observed in the data. These results imply that selection
      on second sex ratios is weak or that females cannot control sex ratios finely
      enough to manifest the proper response. This analysis along with other results
      (Orzack and Parker, 1986; Parker and Orzack, 1985; Grant et al., 1974; Werren et
      al., 1981; Skinner, 1982) suggests that we need a more comprehensive theory of
      sex-ratio evolution, one which accounts for the diversity of first and second sex
      ratio phenotypes in this species.

PMID- 28556041
TI  - MODE OF POLLINATION AND SELECTION ON MATING SYSTEM: A COMMENT ON AIDE'S PAPER.

PMID- 28556042
TI  - DISRUPTIVE SELECTION ON BODY WEIGHT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Disruptive selection can have two consequences in a population: the rise of
      polymorphism or the divergence of the population. Divergence creates
      subpopulations which can be sexually isolated. Previous studies have shown that
      these consequences depend on the pattern of mate choices by the individuals. We
      have studied the effects of different patterns of mating (free mating, enforced
      random mating and enforced assortative mating) in a population of Drosophila
      melanogaster subjected to disruptive selection on body weight. Disruptive
      selection increased the weight dispersion in all mating patterns but brought
      about divergence within the population only when it occurred in association with
      enforced assortative mating (without complete sexual isolation between the
      subpopulations). When mating was free, the dispersion, measured by change in the
      coefficient of variation, was only somewhat larger than with enforced random
      mating: thus the principal consequence of disruptive selection was the rise of
      polymorphism in the population.

PMID- 28556043
TI  - ALLOZYME AND MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLES DENDROCTONUS
      PONDEROSAE HOPKINS (COLEOPTERA: SCOLYTIDAE) ASSOCIATED WITH HOST TREE.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine whether mountain pine beetles
      utilizing different host species were differentiated for either morphological or
      protein variation. Genetic differentiation among host species has been reported
      for the southern pine beetle, the Douglas-fir beetle, the jeffrey pine beetle,
      and the mountain pine beetle. However, in these studies, the host trees were
      sampled at separate sites, and hence geographic variation and variation due to
      host tree were confounded. The mountain pine beetle occasionally utilizes three
      host trees (ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, and limber pine) at single sites in
      Colorado. Five polymorphic enzyme loci and six morphological characters were used
      to describe beetles resident in different hosts. Differentiation within a site
      among host trees was detected at two of five polymorphic proteins, and for both
      size and morphological shape. The magnitude of genetic differentiation among
      hosts within a site was approximately equivalent to the magnitude of
      differentiation among sites. These data suggest that the species of host tree may
      be an important biotic factor associated with the genetic structure of bark
      beetle communities. The results are discussed in terms of their potential role in
      the process of speciation by host race formation.

PMID- 28556045
TI  - SSE MEETINGS: CALL FOR PROPOSALS.

PMID- 28556044
TI  - DISJUNCTIVE CLINE OF CRITICAL PHOTOPERIOD IN THE REPRODUCTIVE DIAPAUSE OF
      DROSOPHILA LACERTOSA.

PMID- 28556046
TI  - SEX-RATIO CONTROL IN A PARASITIC WASP, NASONIA VITRIPENNIS. I. GENETIC VARIATION
      IN FACULTATIVE SEX-RATIO ADJUSTMENT.
AB  - The precision of sex-ratio control in a parasitic wasp, Nasonia vitripennis
      (Pteromalidae) was investigated using a series of "sequential oviposition"
      experiments in which a female oviposits on hosts previously visited by another
      female. There are clear genotypic differences in the averages of these "second"
      sex ratios. Indeed, one genotype does not alter sex ratio detectably. Two
      genotypes with identical average sex ratios on previously unparasitized hosts
      have distinct second sex ratios. Artificial selection on one strain to produce
      less female-biased "first" sex ratios in previously unparasitized hosts has not
      affected the ability of that strain to adjust sex ratio, suggesting that the
      proximal mechanisms controlling first and second sex ratios can change
      independently. Adjustment of sex ratios is accomplished by the production of
      fewer females and more males. Sex ratios produced in control hosts indicate that
      sex ratios are adjusted in hosts independently of one another. Second sex-ratio
      response also appears to be independent of host clumping. These results represent
      both a challenge to our present understanding of sex-ratio evolution (see Orzack,
      1986) and a foundation for experimental description of this important adaptation.

PMID- 28556047
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF WIND AND ANIMAL POLLINATION ON VARIATION IN OUTCROSSING RATES.

PMID- 28556049
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS OF DROSOPHILA SECHELLIA WITH D. MAURITIANA, D.
      SIMULANS, AND D. MELANOGASTER FROM THE AFROTROPICAL REGION.
AB  - Hybridization tests among the four sibling species of the Drosophila melanogaster
      complex were made to determine the reproductive status of the recently discovered
      D. sechellia (which is endemic to a few islands and islets of the Seychelles
      archipelago) with regard to its three close relatives, D. mauritiana (endemic to
      Mauritius) and Afrotropical strains of the two cosmopolitan species D.
      melanogaster and D. simulans. Interstrain variation in the ability to hybridize
      with other species was also analyzed for D. melanogaster and D. simulans. D.
      mauritiana and D. simulans appear to be more weakly isolated from each other than
      either species is from D. sechellia. A striking unilateral mating success is
      observed in the cross of D. sechellia with D. simulans. The most extreme
      isolation is between D. melanogaster and its three siblings. Variation in the
      ability of strains to hybridize is observed in heterospecific crosses between D.
      simulans and either D. melanogaster or D. mauritiana.

PMID- 28556050
TI  - INBREEDING AND THE COST OF MEIOSIS: THE EVOLUTION OF SELFING IN POPULATIONS
      PRACTICING BIPARENTAL INBREEDING.
AB  - The effect of biparental inbreeding on the conditions governing the evolution of
      selfing is examined using recursions in mating-type frequencies. Sibmating in
      combination with random outcrossing influences two key determinants of the
      adaptive value of selfing: 1) the meiotic cost of biparental reproduction and 2)
      the level of inbreeding depression due to deleterious mutations. Biparental
      inbreeding serves to maintain biparental reproduction by increasing relatedness
      between parents and their biparentally derived offspring and introduces the
      possibility of an optimal mating system that incorporates both modes of
      reproduction. Biparental inbreeding serves to promote uniparental reproduction by
      reducing the relative inbreeding depression suffered by uniparental offspring.
      The net effect of these two antagonistic trends depends upon the extent to which
      mutational load accounts for differences in the numbers of the two types of
      offspring. A brief summary of the empirical literature suggests that: 1)
      biparental inbreeding may occur in populations exhibiting mixed mating systems;
      2) while inbreeding depression represents an important factor, it does not
      account entirely for differences in offspring number between the two modes of
      reproduction.

PMID- 28556051
TI  - FACTORS INFLUENCING FREQUENCY OF THE MID-STYLED MORPH IN TRISTYLOUS POPULATIONS
      OF OXALIS ALPINA.
AB  - Genetic models and computer simulations suggest that modifications of
      incompatibility in tristylous populations of Oxalis alpina from southeastern
      Arizona should result in evolution of distyly, due to the inability of the mid
      floral morph to compete effectively with the short and long floral morphs. To
      evaluate this hypothesis, progeny testing of naturally pollinated individuals was
      carried out over a three-year period for populations with differing mid
      frequencies. In contrast to expectations, mids appeared in greater than expected
      proportions in many cases. Detailed analysis of results from two trimorphic
      populations where the mid form is relatively uncommon revealed that mid morphs
      produced far more mid progeny among their offspring than expected. Assuming that
      all compatible pollen has the same probability of deposition on appropriate
      stigmas, mid excesses were found among progeny of shorts and longs in these
      populations as well. In a third population where the mid form is abundant, mid
      excesses were not found among the progeny of mids, nor were mid excesses typical
      among the progeny of shorts and longs. Mid excesses among progeny of populations
      where the mid form is uncommon may explain retention of this form, despite
      incompatibility modifications that should favor evolution of distyly. Over
      representation of mids may result from gametophytic selection favoring mid
      alleles. If this is the case, tristylous populations may be in equilibrium, with
      the frequencies of the three morphs determined by the balance of the opposing
      selective forces resulting from incompatibility modifications and gametophytic
      selection.

PMID- 28556052
TI  - SEED SIZE VARIABILITY: A CONSEQUENCE OF VARIABLE GENETIC QUALITY AMONG OFFSPRING?

PMID- 28556053
TI  - EARLY HISTORY OF SEXUAL SELECTION THEORY.

PMID- 28556054
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY OF RAINBOW TROUT HYBRIDS: GENOMIC COADAPTATION OR
      HETEROZYGOSITY?
AB  - I compare the developmental stability of first generation hybrids between
      hatchery strains of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) to that of the three pure
      parental strains raised in a common environment. Two of three reciprocal hybrid
      pairs show significantly less fluctuating asymmetry of four meristic characters
      than is found in parental strains. In contrast, the third hybrid pair shows
      reduced but not significantly lower developmental stability compared to pure
      strains. These hybrids had previously been found to develop slower than their
      maternal parental strains, indicating divergence of parental regulatory
      mechanisms controlling early ontogeny. A significant positive association between
      the degree of relative delay in hybrid developmental rate and their degree of
      developmental instability supports this view. For example, the only hybrid pair
      with decreased developmental stability also had the largest relative delay in
      development time of all hybrids. Neither absolute developmental rate nor enzyme
      heterozygosity at 42 loci alone can explain the degree of fluctuating asymmetry
      in these hybrids. The developmental stability of hybrids is apparently a result
      of the interaction between the developmental divergence between parental strains
      and their genomic heterozygosity due to hybridization.

PMID- 28556055
TI  - SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY IN THE HAWAIIAN MADIINAE (COMPOSITAE): AN EXCEPTION TO
      BAKER'S RULE.

PMID- 28556056
TI  - ANNUAL MEETING SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556057
TI  - CRANIAL MORPHOLOGY OF DOMESTIC AND WILD CANIDS: THE INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPMENT ON
      MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE.
AB  - The domestic dog varies remarkably in cranial morphology. In fact, the
      differences in size and proportion between some dog breeds are as great as those
      between many genera of wild canids. In this study, I compare patterns of
      intracranial allometry and morphologic diversity between the domestic dog and
      wild canid species. The results demonstrate that the domestic dog is
      morphologically distinct from all other canids except its close relatives, the
      wolf-like canids. Following this, I compare patterns of static and ontogenetic
      scaling. Data on growth of domestic dogs are presented and used to investigate
      the developmental mechanisms underlying breed evolution. Apparently, most small
      breeds are paedomorphic with respect to certain morphologic characters. In dogs
      and other domestic animals, morphologic diversity among adults seems to depend on
      that expressed during development.

PMID- 28556058
TI  - ON THE COEXISTENCE AND COEVOLUTION OF ASEXUAL AND SEXUAL COMPETITORS.
AB  - The coexistence and coevolution of sexual and asexual species under resource
      competition are explored with three models: a nongenetic ecological model, a
      model including single locus genetics, and a quantitative-genetic model. The
      basic assumption underlying all three models is that genetic differences are
      translated into ecological differences. Hence if sexual species are genetically
      more variable, they will be ecologically more variable. Under classical
      competition theory, this increased ecological variability can, in many cases, be
      an advantage to individual sexual genotypes and to the sexual species as a whole.
      The purpose of this paper is to determine the conditions when this advantage will
      outway three disadvantages of sexuality: the costs of males, of segregation, and
      of the additive component of recombination. All three models reach similar
      conclusions. Although asexuality confers an advantage, it is much less than a two
      fold advantage because minor increases in the overall species niche width of the
      sexual species will offset the reproductive advantage of the asexual species.
      This occurs for two reasons. First, an increase in species niche width increases
      the resource base of the sexual species. Second, to the extent that the increase
      in niche width is due to increased differences between individuals, a reduction
      in intraspecific competition will result. This is not to imply that the sexual
      species will always win. The prime conditions that enable sexual species to
      stably coexist with or even supplant an asexual sister species are: relatively
      high between-genotype (but within-species) niche differentiation; significant
      niche differences between the species; low environmental variance; severe
      resource exploitation; larger within-phenotype niche width in the sexual species
      than in the asexual species. Spatial or temporal heterogeneities are not required
      in this model. This is an important difference between this model and other
      models for sexual advantage. Instead, depletion of resources used by common
      genotypes creates a rare-genotype advantage. The sexual species, with its great
      diversity of genotypes, is better equipped to capture this advantage. Although
      the mechanisms of our model are framed in terms of competition for shared
      resources, the important factor is that it generates frequency-dependent
      fitnesses. Other frequency-dependent ecological mechanisms, such as shared
      predators with functional responses, or shared genotypically-specific parasites,
      would work as well.

PMID- 28556059
TI  - MEASURING THE MULTIPLE INSEMINATION FREQUENCY OF DROSOPHILA IN NATURE: USE OF A Y
      LINKED MOLECULAR MARKER.

PMID- 28556060
TI  - The value of a comprehensive natural history in late infantile CLN5 disease.

PMID- 28556062
TI  - Clinical and microbiological effects of the adjunctive use of probiotics in the
      treatment of gingivitis: A randomized controlled clinical trial.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a probiotic combination in the treatment of
      gingivitis and to assess its impact on the subgingival microbiota. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted in gingivitis subjects
      during 6 weeks. Test treatment consisted of the administration of two oral
      tablets per day containing the probiotic strains Lactobacillus plantarum,
      Lactobacillus brevis and Pediococcus acidilactici; the control group received the
      same tablets but without live bacteria. The main outcome variable was the changes
      in gingival index (GI). Subgingival samples were collected and analysed by
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for five putative periodontal
      pathogens. Outcome variables were compared between and within groups, and
      multiple regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 59 patients (29
      tests, 30 placebos) were included in the analysis. Both treatment groups
      experienced a statistically significant improvement in mean GI (p < .0001), but
      no differences between treatment groups were found for any clinical index. A
      significantly higher reduction in the number of sites with higher GI scores (GI =
      3 at baseline) was observed in the test group. In subgingival samples, a
      significant reduction in T. forsythia was significant only in the test group (p <
      .008). CONCLUSIONS: The use of probiotic tablets containing L. plantarum, L.
      brevis and P. acidilactici did not lead to significant changes in mean GI;
      although a significant reduction occurred in the number of sites with severe
      inflammation. Furthermore, the adjunctive use of this probiotic promoted a
      significant microbiological impact.

PMID- 28556064
TI  - DISTANCE METHODS FOR INFERRING PHYLOGENIES: A JUSTIFICATION.

PMID- 28556063
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR ALLOPATRIC AND SYMPATRIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG COLOR MORPHS
      OF A LAKE MALAWI CICHLID FISH.

PMID- 28556065
TI  - CHANGES IN COROLLA COLOR AND OTHER FLORAL CHARACTERISTICS IN CRYPTANTHA HUMILIS
      (BORAGINACEAE): CUES TO DISCOURAGE POLLINATORS?

PMID- 28556061
TI  - Acetylsalicylic acid in critically ill patients: a cross-sectional and a
      randomized trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite decades of clinical use, the pharmacokinetics and the effects
      of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in critically ill patients remain ill-defined. We
      aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics and the effects of different ASA
      formulations during critical illness. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study and a
      randomized, parallel-group trial were performed. Critically ill patients under
      chronic oral ASA treatment (100 mg enteric-coated) were screened for high 'on
      treatment' platelet reactivity (HTPR) according to arachidonic acid-induced whole
      blood aggregometry. Thirty patients with HTPR were randomized to receive 100 mg
      ASA intravenously, 100 mg enteric-coated ASA bid (bis in die) or 81 mg chewable
      ASA (n = 10 per group). Serum thromboxane B2 (TXB2) levels, ASA and salicylic
      acid levels were quantified. RESULTS: Of 66 patients, 85% (95% confidence
      intervals 74-93%) had HTPR. Compared to baseline infusion of 100 mg, ASA
      significantly reduced platelet aggregation after 24 h to median 80% (Quartiles:
      66-84%). Intake of 81 mg chewable ASA significantly reduced platelet aggregation
      to 75% (54-86%) after four hours, but increased it to 117% after 24 h (81-163%).
      Treatment with 100 mg enteric-coated ASA bid decreased platelet aggregation after
      24 h to median 56% (52-113%). Baseline TXB2 levels were median 0.35 ng/mL (0.07
      0.94). Infusion of ASA or intake of 100 mg ASA bid reduced TXB2 levels to 0.07
      0.18 ng/mL after 24 h, respectively. Chewable ASA reduced TXB2 levels only
      transiently. Pharmacokinetic analysis revealed highly variable absorption
      patterns of oral ASA formulations. CONCLUSION: There is a very high prevalence of
      HTPR in critically ill patients on peroral ASA therapy, caused by an incomplete
      suppression of TXB2 and/or by impaired absorption of ASA.

PMID- 28556066
TI  - BIOGEOGRAPHIC ROOTS.

PMID- 28556067
TI  - STATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY ALLOMETRY OF OSTEOMETRIC TRAITS IN SELECTED LINES OF
      RATS.

PMID- 28556068
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR SELECTIVE FRUIT PRODUCTION IN ASCLEPIAS.

PMID- 28556069
TI  - FIGHTING AND ASSESSMENT IN HARPOBITTACUS SCORPIONFLIES.

PMID- 28556070
TI  - ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY IN HORSE SKULL EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556071
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND PROXIMITY-DEPENDENT CROSSING SUCCESS IN PHLOX
      DRUMMONDII.

PMID- 28556072
TI  - BIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS.

PMID- 28556073
TI  - CONDITIONAL NEUTRALITY OF POLYGENE EFFECTS.

PMID- 28556074
TI  - DISTRIBUTIONAL AND ECOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN ASEXUAL GYNOGENETIC
      PLANTHOPPERS AND RELATED SEXUAL SPECIES OF THE GENUS MUELLERIANELLA (HOMOPTERA,
      DELPHACIDAE).

PMID- 28556075
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE UNDER UNIFORM SELECTION. I. SIMILARITY AMONG POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER IN THEIR RESPONSES TO ARTIFICIAL SELECTION FOR MODIFIERS
      OF ciD.

PMID- 28556076
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A CYCLICAL PARTHENOGEN.

PMID- 28556077
TI  - GENETICS, SPECIATION AND THE FOUNDER PRINCIPLE.

PMID- 28556078
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND DIVERGENCE IN A DISJUNCT PHLOX.

PMID- 28556079
TI  - A COMPARISON BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND BIOCHEMICAL VARIATION IN THE WILD BARLEY
      HORDEUM MURINUM.

PMID- 28556080
TI  - DEFERRED REPRODUCTION AS A RESPONSE TO SEXUAL SELECTION IN A CORAL REEF FISH: A
      TEST OF THE LIFE HISTORICAL CONSEQUENCES.

PMID- 28556081
TI  - SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION AND AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS 1984
      MEETINGS.

PMID- 28556082
TI  - HISTOCOMPATIBILITY IN HAWAIIAN AND POLYNESIAN POPULATIONS OF THE PARTHENOGENETIC
      GECKO LEPIDODACTYLUS LUGUBRIS.

PMID- 28556084
TI  - LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF SIZE VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF CENTRIS PALLIDA
      (HYMENOPTERA: ANTHOPHORIDAE).

PMID- 28556083
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. I.
      A TEST OF THE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28556085
TI  - AN APPARENT DISJUNCTION BETWEEN THE EVOLUTION OF FORM AND SUBSTANCE IN THE GENUS
      TETRAHYMENA.

PMID- 28556086
TI  - KIN-RECOGNITION AND THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LARVAE OF THE BRYOZOAN BUGULA
      NERITINA (L.).

PMID- 28556087
TI  - THE REBIRTH OF BIOGEOGRAPHY.

PMID- 28556089
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF PARTHENOGENESIS: A GENETIC REPRESENTATION OF THE "COST OF
      MEIOSIS".

PMID- 28556088
TI  - EVOLUTION SOCIETY NEWS.

PMID- 28556090
TI  - Value of Sonography in the Diagnosis of Sialolithiasis: Comparison With the
      Reference Standard of Direct Stone Identification.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of sonography
      for diagnosing sialolithiasis in comparison with the existing reference standard
      of direct identification of a stone. METHODS: A total of 659 glands with signs of
      obstructive sialadenopathy were evaluated retrospectively. Sonographic
      examinations of the large head salivary glands had been performed initially in
      all cases. Direct depiction of a stone during sialoendoscopy or transoral ductal
      surgery or observation of stone fragmentation with discharge of concrements after
      extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, was regarded as definitive evidence and as
      the reference standard for the presence of sialolithiasis. The sonographic
      results were compared with those for direct identification of stones. RESULTS:
      The sensitivity of sonography was 94.7%, with specificity of 97.4%, a positive
      predictive value of 99.4%, and a negative predictive value of 79.6%. Stones that
      were not diagnosed correctly on sonography were most often located in the distal
      area of the duct. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that sialolithiasis can be
      diagnosed by sonography with a high degree of certainty. Sonography thus appears
      to be highly appropriate as the examination method of choice.

PMID- 28556091
TI  - Incremental Sampling Methodology: Applications for Background Screening
      Assessments.
AB  - This article presents the findings from a numerical simulation study that was
      conducted to evaluate the performance of alternative statistical analysis methods
      for background screening assessments when data sets are generated with
      incremental sampling methods (ISMs). A wide range of background and site
      conditions are represented in order to test different ISM sampling designs. Both
      hypothesis tests and upper tolerance limit (UTL) screening methods were
      implemented following U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidance for
      specifying error rates. The simulations show that hypothesis testing using two
      sample t-tests can meet standard performance criteria under a wide range of
      conditions, even with relatively small sample sizes. Key factors that affect the
      performance include unequal population variances and small absolute differences
      in population means. UTL methods are generally not recommended due to conceptual
      limitations in the technique when applied to ISM data sets from single decision
      units and due to insufficient power given standard statistical sample sizes from
      ISM.

PMID- 28556092
TI  - Reduced glial activity after surgery: A sign of immunoparalysis of the brain?

PMID- 28556093
TI  - Recovery of rat muscle size but not function more than 1 year after a single
      botulinum toxin injection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neurotoxin injection is used to treat a wide variety of
      neuromuscular disorders. The purpose of this study was to measure the functional
      and structural properties of botulinum toxin-injected adult rat skeletal muscle
      over nearly the entire lifespan. METHODS: Ten groups of animals were subjected to
      either neurotoxin injection [Botox, Type A (BT-A); Allergan, Irvine, California]
      or saline solution injection. Neurotoxin-injected animals (n = 90) were analyzed
      at different time-points: 1 week; 1 month; 3 months; 6 months; 12 months; or 18
      months. RESULTS: In spite of the recovery of structural features, such as muscle
      mass and fiber area, dorsiflexion torque production remained significantly
      depressed by 25%, even at 12 months after neurotoxin injection. DISCUSSION: The
      data demonstrate that, after a single BT-A injection, although gross muscle
      morphology recovered over a 12-month time period, loss of contractile function
      did not recover. Muscle Nerve 57: 435-441, 2018.

PMID- 28556094
TI  - Reduced growth in wild juvenile sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka infected with
      sea lice.
AB  - Daily growth rings were examined in the otoliths of wild juvenile sockeye salmon
      Oncorhynchus nerka to determine whether infection by ectoparasitic sea lice
      Caligus clemensi and Lepeophtheirus salmonis was associated with reduced host
      body growth, an important determinant of survival. Over 98% of the sea lice
      proved to be C. clemensi and the fish that were highly infected grew more slowly
      than uninfected individuals. Larger fish also grew faster than smaller fish.
      Finally, there was evidence of an interaction between body size and infection
      status, indicating the potential for parasite-mediated growth divergence.

PMID- 28556095
TI  - The microbiota of diapause: How host-microbe associations are formed after
      dormancy in an aquatic crustacean.
AB  - A critical question in symbiosis research is where and how organisms obtain
      beneficial microbial symbionts in different ecological contexts. Microbiota of
      juveniles are often derived directly from their mother or from the immediate
      environment. The origin of beneficial symbionts, however, is less obvious in
      organisms with diapause and dispersal stages, such as plants with dormant seeds
      and animals in ephemeral or strongly seasonal habitats. In these cases, parents
      and offspring are separated in time and space, which may affect opportunities for
      both vertical and horizontal transmission of symbionts. The planktonic crustacean
      Daphnia produces long-lasting resting eggs to endure winter freezing and summer
      droughts and requires microbiota for growth and reproduction. It is unknown how
      hatchlings from resting stages form associations with microbial consorts after
      diapause. Using natural samples of D. magna resting eggs after several years of
      storage, we show that the total bacterial community derived from both the
      exterior and interior of the eggs' ephippial cases is sufficiently beneficial to
      ensure normal Daphnia functioning in otherwise bacteria-free conditions. We do
      not find direct evidence that the required bacteria are of maternal origin,
      though sequencing reveals that the resting stage is accompanied by bacterial taxa
      previously found in association with adult animals. These findings suggest that
      although Daphnia are strongly dependent on environmental bacteria for normal
      functioning, host-bacteria associations are somewhat general and availability of
      specific bacteria is not a strong constraint on host ecology. Nevertheless,
      animals and microbes may be ecologically linked through co-dispersal.

PMID- 28556096
TI  - Standardized toxicity testing may underestimate ecotoxicity: Environmentally
      relevant food rations increase the toxicity of silver nanoparticles to Daphnia.
AB  - Daphnia in the natural environment experience fluctuations in algal food supply,
      with periods when algal populations bloom and seasons when Daphnia have very
      little algal food. Standardized chronic toxicity tests, used for ecological risk
      assessment, dictate that Daphnia must be fed up to 400 times more food than they
      would experience in the natural environment (outside of algal blooms) for a
      toxicity test to be valid. This disconnect can lead to underestimating the
      toxicity of a contaminant. We followed the growth, reproduction, and survival of
      Daphnia exposed to 75 and 200 ug/L silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at 4 food rations
      for up to 99 d and found that AgNP exposure at low, environmentally relevant food
      rations increased the toxicity of AgNPs. Exposure to AgNP at low food rations
      decreased the survival and/or reproduction of individuals, with potential
      consequences for Daphnia populations (based on calculated specific population
      growth rates). We also found tentative evidence that a sublethal concentration of
      AgNPs (75 ug/L) caused Daphnia to alter energy allocation away from reproduction
      and toward survival and growth. The present findings emphasize the need to
      consider resource availability, and not just exposure, in the environment when
      estimating the effect of a toxicant. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3008-3018. (c)
      2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28556098
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA. V. CHARACTER CLUSTERS
      AND ASYMMETRY.

PMID- 28556097
TI  - Diabetic macular oedema: clinical risk factors and emerging genetic influences.
AB  - Diabetic macular oedema is the major cause of visual impairment in type 1 and
      type 2 diabetes. As type 2 diabetes becomes more prevalent worldwide, the
      prevalence of diabetic macular oedema is also expected to rise. Current
      management of diabetic macular oedema is challenging, expensive and not optimal
      in a subset of patients. Therefore, it is important to increase our understanding
      of the risk factors involved and develop preventative strategies. While clinical
      risk factors for diabetic macular oedema have been identified, few studies have
      addressed potential genetic risk factors. Epidemiology and family studies suggest
      genetic influences are of importance. In this review, we summarise known clinical
      risk factors, as well as discuss the small number of genetic studies that have
      been performed for diabetic macular oedema.

PMID- 28556099
TI  - HERBIVORY IN LIZARDS.

PMID- 28556100
TI  - AN ESTIMATE OF THE POTENTIAL EVOLUTIONARY INCREASE IN SPECIES DENSITY IN THE
      POLYNESIAN ANT FAUNA.

PMID- 28556102
TI  - Minutes of the Twenty-first Annual Business Meeting.

PMID- 28556101
TI  - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SERUM PROTEINS OF THE SPECIES OF TARICHA AND THEIR
      HYBRIDS.

PMID- 28556103
TI  - BARRIERS TO HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN AEDES AEGYPTI AND AEDES ALBOPICTUS (DIPTERA:
      CULICIDAE).

PMID- 28556104
TI  - A STUDY OF THE GENUS CHROTOGONUS (ORTHOPTERA). VIII. PATTERNS OF VARIATION IN
      EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY.

PMID- 28556105
TI  - A PROPOSITION ON THE POPULATION DYNAMICS OF THE STERILE t ALLELES IN THE HOUSE
      MOUSE.

PMID- 28556106
TI  - THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON REPRODUCTON IN SOME MORPHS OF THE LANDSNAIL CEPAEA
      NEMORALIS (L.).

PMID- 28556107
TI  - INCREASE IN THE VARIANCE OF FITNESS DUE TO SELECTION.

PMID- 28556108
TI  - STUDIES ON NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA VI. COMPETITION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER AND DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.

PMID- 28556109
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY MORPHOGENESIS.

PMID- 28556110
TI  - HOST EXPLOITATION OF TWO CLOSELY RELATED WATER MITES.

PMID- 28556111
TI  - CERTAINTY AND CIRCULARITY IN EVOLUTIONARY TAXONOMY.

PMID- 28556112
TI  - DROSOPHILA IMAII, A NEW SIBLING SPECIES RELATED TO DROSOPHILA BIFASCIATA.

PMID- 28556113
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY AND ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THREE SPECIES OF BLACKBIRDS
      (ICTERIDAE) IN CENTRAL MEXICO.

PMID- 28556114
TI  - THE HOMOLOGIES OF THE LABYRINTHODONT CENTRUM.

PMID- 28556115
TI  - TWO PARAPATRIC SPECIES OF POCKET GOPHERS.

PMID- 28556116
TI  - MATROCLINOUS INHERITANCE AND CLONAL STRUCTURE OF A MEXICAN POPULATION OF THE
      GYNOGENETIC FISH, POECILIA FORMOSA.

PMID- 28556117
TI  - VARIATION IN PHLOX DIVARICATA.

PMID- 28556118
TI  - SURVIVAL AND GESTATION IN PIGS.

PMID- 28556119
TI  - PREDATOR RESPONSES TO ARTIFICIAL BATESIAN MIMICS RELEASED IN A NEOTROPICAL
      ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28556121
TI  - International Conjerence on Systematic Biology.

PMID- 28556120
TI  - THE FORMATION OF SUBGROUPS BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF INBREEDING SYSTEMS IN A TRILLIUM
      POPULATION.

PMID- 28556122
TI  - Role of Procalcitonin in Differentiating between Infectious and Noninfectious
      Fevers among Patients with Lymphoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study is to prospectively evaluate the
      role of procalcitonin (PCT) in distinguishing infectious fever from noninfectious
      fever (NIF) among febrile lymphoma patients. The secondary objective is to
      evaluate the usefulness of PCT in distinguishing among bloodstream infections
      (BSI), local infections and unidentified infections (LIUI), and NIF. METHODS:
      Patients with lymphoma and fever were prospectively recruited between August 2014
      and November 2015. PCT was measured within 24 hours of fever onset (PCT1) and 24
      72 hours thereafter (PCT2). The higher PCT value between PCT1 and PCT2 was also
      documented (PCTmax ). PCT levels (PCT1, PCT2, and PCTmax ) were compared for BSI,
      LIUI, and NIF. In addition, the difference between PCT1 and PCT2 was evaluated in
      patients with complete data on both PCT1 and PCT2. RESULTS: Of 108 eligible
      patients, 12 were diagnosed with BSI, 83 with LIUI, and 13 with NIF. PCTmax was
      statistically different between the infectious fever (BSI and LIUI combined) and
      NIF groups (median PCTmax : 0.44 ng/ml vs 0.19 ng/ml; p=0.026). PCT1 was not
      statistically different for patients with BSI, LIUI, and NIF (p=0.217). However,
      PCT2 and PCTmax were significantly higher in patients with BSI compared to those
      with NIF (p=0.026 and 0.002, respectively). Meanwhile, patients with BSI have
      significantly higher PCTmax values than those with LIUI (p=0.034). Among 90 cases
      with complete data on both PCT1 and PCT2, PCT2 was significantly higher than PCT1
      in patients with BSI (median PCT: 0.98 ng/ml vs 0.47 ng/ml; p=0.045) and patients
      with LIUI (median PCT: 0.43 ng/ml vs 0.24 ng/ml; p=0.004), while not significant
      in patients with NIF (p=0.374). CONCLUSION: Two separate PCT measurements can
      differentiate between infectious fever and NIF and predict for BSI in lymphoma
      patients with fever.

PMID- 28556123
TI  - When endometriosis is the barrier for fertility.

PMID- 28556124
TI  - Uterine adenomyosis and infertility, review of reproductive outcome after in
      vitro fertilization and surgery.
AB  - This review includes an analysis of the clinical studies evaluating reproductive
      outcome and adenomyosis, and a review of studies on reproductive outcome and
      surgical treatment options for adenomyosis. Strict diagnostic criteria and
      classification of disease are needed for an image diagnosis of adenomyosis.
      Studies of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI)
      populations and women with surgically treated deep endometriosis have suggested
      that adenomyosis has a negative impact on reproductive outcome, although there
      are substantial variations between studies. Few data are available on the
      relation between the extent of disease and impact on reproductive outcome, but a
      correlation appears to exist. Case series seem to confirm a positive effect of
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog treatment and surgery on reproductive
      outcome, but there are no controlled trials. Evidence is impaired by the poor
      quality of many studies, a lack of strict image diagnosis, and the absence of a
      classification of the extent of disease. Selection of the optimal evidence-based
      treatment options for adenomyosis in the fertility clinic is difficult because of
      a lack of evidence regarding the relation between fertility and the degree and
      composition of adenomyosis. Adenomyosis may reduce implantation so severely that
      surgical or other treatment options should be recommended, but the benefit of
      these treatment options needs to be verified. Referral of women with adenomyosis
      and recurrent miscarriage and repeated failure of assisted reproductive
      technology to centers with a special interest in adenomyosis research and
      treatment may be critical.

PMID- 28556125
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT OF HETEROSTYLY IN THE ANGIOSPERMS.

PMID- 28556127
TI  - STUDIES OF NATURAL POPULATIONS OF MUS. I. BIOCHEMICAL POLYMORPHISMS AND THEIR
      BEARING ON BREEDING STRUCTURE.

PMID- 28556126
TI  - THE IDENTIFICATION OF HYBRID PLANTS IN SEGREGATING POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28556128
TI  - THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHYLOGENY OF FROGS.

PMID- 28556129
TI  - THE ESTIMATION OF RELATIVE FITNESS OF DROSOPHILA POPULATIONS. V. GENERATION
      INTERVAL AND HETEROGENEITY IN COMPETITION.

PMID- 28556130
TI  - EVOLUTION, ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF SAND WASPS.

PMID- 28556131
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AND STABILITY OF SOME CHARACTERS THAT DISTINGUISH
      LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL. FROM SOLANUM PENNELLII COR.

PMID- 28556133
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE AVIAN GENUS COLUMBA AS INDICATED BY OVALBUMIN
      TRYPTIC PEPTIDES.

PMID- 28556132
TI  - VARIATIONS IN THE BREEDING SYSTEMS OF A WILD RICE, ORYZA PERENNIS.

PMID- 28556134
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL RATE AND COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN TRIBOLIUM. II. CHANGES IN
      COMPETITIVE ABILITY FOLLOWING FURTHER SELECTION FOR DEVELOPMENTAL RATE.

PMID- 28556135
TI  - COMMENTS ON "THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF GASTROPOD TORSION".

PMID- 28556136
TI  - OUTCROSSING IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. III. THE DEER CREEK POPULATION OF CLARKIA
      EXILIS.

PMID- 28556137
TI  - SERUM PROTEINS OF SALAMANDERS OF THE AMBYSTOMA JEFFERSONIANUM COMPLEX, AND THE
      ORIGIN OF THE TRIPLOID SPECIES OF THIS GROUP.

PMID- 28556138
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE VALUE OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM: I, ANISOGAMY.

PMID- 28556139
TI  - SELECTION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. 6. VARIATION GENETICS, AND MORE GRAPHS FOR
      ESTIMATION.

PMID- 28556140
TI  - DROUGHT, DIASTROPHISM, AND QUANTUM EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556141
TI  - POPULATION STUDIES IN PREDOMINANTLY SELF-POLLINATED SPECIES. VIII. GENETIC
      VARIABILITY IN THE FESTUCA MICROSTACHYS COMPLEX.

PMID- 28556142
TI  - FURTHER EVIDENCE BEARING UPON THE ORIGIN OF EXTRA DIMINUTIVE CHROMOSOMES IN
      OENOTHERA HOOKERI.

PMID- 28556143
TI  - MATING BEHAVIOR AND FITNESS AS A FUNCTION OF SINGLE ALLELE DIFFERENCES IN
      EPHESTIA KUHNIELLA Z.

PMID- 28556144
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS IN PELYCOSAURIAN REPTILES: A FACTOR-ANALYTIC STUDY.

PMID- 28556145
TI  - INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF A POLYGENIC SYSTEM IN ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF THE FUNGUS
      SCHIZOPHYLLUM COMMUNE.

PMID- 28556146
TI  - FEMALE DIMORPHISM IN A MALE-MONOMORPHIC SPECIES.

PMID- 28556148
TI  - SEX CHANGE WITH INBREEDING: EXPERIMENTS ON SEPARATE VERSUS COMBINED SEXES.
AB  - Ipomopsis rubra plants grown in the laboratory initially produced hermaphrodite
      flowers, but some self- or sib-mated individuals switched to produce large
      numbers of pistillate (male sterile) flowers. The sex change did not occur with
      outcrossing. Plants with extreme male sterility were also observed in natural
      populations, usually in smaller individuals. Male sterility may be compensated by
      more seeds (resource reallocation), better seeds (avoidance of selfing), or both.
      Pistillate flowers were smaller, so savings could be used for additional seeds.
      Selfed seeds had reduced survival and fecundity, so avoidance of selfing could
      produce better quality offspring. We explored costs and benefits of sex change
      with two fitness models. The first assumes randomoutcross matings. Estimates of
      resource reallocation and inbreeding (selfing) depression are sufficient for
      pistillate inflorescences to have equal or greater fitness than hermaphrodite
      inflorescences if the selfing rate is high. Frequencies of sex change with
      intensive self-pollination were consistent with this model. The second model
      assumes all nonself matings are between sibs in "local mating" groups. Parents
      may benefit by male sterility in offspring, but gains would be higher if sex
      change occurred earlier and at higher than observed frequencies.

PMID- 28556147
TI  - EVOLUTION AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA IN NEUROSPORA CRASSA.
AB  - We studied mitochondrial DNA variability in 19 natural Neurospora crassa isolates
      and one wild-type isolate to examine evolution of these fungi and their
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). We combined restriction endonuclease analysis of
      natural isolate mtDNA with DNA-DNA hybridization to cloned EcoR I fragments of a
      wild-type genome to discriminate between length mutations and site changes due to
      nucleotide substitution. Most variability was due to length mutations (insertions
      and deletions); genome size could vary 25% between pairs of isolates. Length
      mutation distribution was not random, nor simply explained by the presence of
      coding versus noncoding regions. Restriction-site changes were few; the estimated
      amount of nucleotide substitution per nucleotide between the most divergent pair
      of isolates was 0.78%. Evolutionary relationships among isolates based on both
      types of mutations were compatible, and suggest that geographically distinct
      populations of mitochondrial DNA exist in the biological species, N. crassa. In
      contrast, no such correlation was shown by the previously determined distribution
      of nuclear heterokaryon incompatibility genes in the same isolates (Mylyk, 1975,
      1976).

PMID- 28556149
TI  - WAITING FOR POST-NEO-DARWIN.

PMID- 28556150
TI  - GENETIC COVARIANCE BETWEEN OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE AND LARVAL PERFORMANCE IN AN
      INSECT HERBIVORE.
AB  - An experimental study determined that females of the herbivorous fly species
      Liriomyza sativae (Diptera: Agromyzidae) preferentially oviposit on the plant
      species on which their female progeny attain the greatest pupal weight. A
      modified parent/offspring regression was used to quantify this relationship as an
      additive genetic covariance between host-plant preference and relative
      performance of female larvae on different plant species. The implications of a
      genetic covariance between preference and performance on the course of evolution
      in herbivores are discussed. Several females from one population refused to
      oviposit on one of the plant species; this population also suffered the only
      significant larval mortality on this plant. These results corroborate the
      avoidance of unsuitable host plants seen in the genetic analyses of individuals,
      but relative to the genetic data, such population-level data are of limited
      usefulness in the study of evolutionary mechanisms by which insect populations
      become adapted to their host plants.

PMID- 28556151
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC SYMPATRY IN A "RING SPECIES," THE PLETHODONTID SALAMANDER ENSATINA
      ESCHSCHOLTZII, IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

PMID- 28556153
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION: TOE FRINGES IN THE SAND
      DWELLING LIZARD UMA SCOPARIA.

PMID- 28556154
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN ALLOZYMES IN A "RING SPECIES," THE PLETHODONTID
      SALAMANDER ENSATINA ESCHSCHOLTZII OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA.
AB  - The ring species Ensatina eschscholtzii (a plethodontid salamander) of western
      North America has a circle of subspecies surrounding the Central Valley of
      California which come into contact and are sympatric in southern California. We
      examined 26 proteins in 19 populations (maximum of 10 specimens per population)
      collected throughout the range in order to gain an understanding of the degree of
      differentiation in the group. Allozymic differentiation is profound, with genetic
      distances in excess of 0.5 (Rogers or Nei) between populations. Naturally
      hybridizing populations differ by genetic distances greater than 0.4. Two general
      classes of color morphs, blotched and unblotched, are segregated geographically,
      but they do not form discrete genetic units. Both are deeply differentiated, and
      genetic distances among populations of either class exceed those measured between
      the classes where they are sympatric in southern California. This study disclosed
      little evidence of gene exchange around the ring of populations and sampling of
      many additional populations in regions between populations sampled thus far will
      be required to determine whether smooth intergradation occurs. Although genetic
      distances measured exceed those between some co-occurring species of plethodontid
      salamanders, we find no evidence of borders between cryptic species.

PMID- 28556155
TI  - PATTERNS OF MULTIPLE PATERNITY IN POPULATIONS OF RAPHANUS SATIVUS.
AB  - Although multiple paternity has been documented for a large number of species,
      detailed studies of variation in multiple paternity among broods, individuals,
      and populations are lacking. We measured the extent of multiple paternity in the
      multi-seeded fruits of wild radish, Raphanus sativus, from three natural
      populations in southern California. Every parent sampled produced one or more
      multiply sired fruits, and, in most plants, over half the fruits analyzed proved
      to be multiply sired. In all, 75% of the 388 multi-seeded fruits analyzed showed
      multiple paternity. Among these fruits, the minimum number of paternal donors
      ranged from one to four, with a mode of two paternal parents. The fraction of
      multiply sired fruits varied from 68-85% among populations and from 40-100% among
      plants. Plants were heterogeneous for multiple paternity in the 1984 population.
      A significant positive correlation between multiple paternity and number of
      fruits per plant suggests that plants preferentially abort single sired fruits.
      The total number of mates that could be detected for entire plants ranged from 3
      14 with a mode of seven. Multiple paternity is likely to be important in other
      species producing multi-seeded fruits.

PMID- 28556156
TI  - RULES OF INVARIANCE IN EVOLUTIONARY MORPHOLOGY: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
      VERTEBRATE SKULL.

PMID- 28556157
TI  - DIRECT AND CORRELATED RESPONSES TO SELECTION AMONG LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN
      MILKWEED BUGS (ONCOPELTUS FASCIATUS).
AB  - Offspring-parent regressions provided initial estimates of heritabilities and
      genetic correlations among wing length, body length, pronotum width, head-capsule
      width, development time, age at first reproduction, and fecundity in an Iowa
      population of the large milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus. Replicated,
      bidirectional selection for wing length was imposed for nine generations. The
      direct response to selection revealed the existence of substantial additive
      genetic variance for wing length in this population. Traits were assayed for
      correlated responses to selection after seven generations. Body length, pronotum
      width, head capsule width, and fecundity showed consistent, positive correlated
      responses. Development time showed a negative correlated response. Age at first
      reproduction showed no consistent correlated response to selection on wing
      length. These pleiotropic effects among wing length and fecundity, development
      time, and body size characters provide the potential for these traits to evolve
      together in O. fasciatus, independently of age at first reproduction.

PMID- 28556158
TI  - GENETIC DETERMINATION OF PLANT SUSCEPTIBILITY TO AN HERBIVOROUS INSECT DEPENDS ON
      ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT.

PMID- 28556159
TI  - SYMPOSIUM TO HONOR G. LEDYARD STEBBINS.

PMID- 28556160
TI  - UNIDIRECTIONAL INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.
AB  - Drosophila simulans females from a strain collected at Watsonville, CA produce
      very few offspring when mated with males from a strain collected at Riverside 510
      km away. This incompatibility does not exist in the reciprocal cross. In the
      incompatible cross, mating and oviposition are normal, but eggs fail to hatch. A
      survey of other California populations indicates that unidirectional
      incompatibility is widespread. The incompatibility is maternally inherited over
      one generation. Using older Riverside males or rearing the strains at 28 degrees
      C suppresses incompatibility. Culturing the strains on medium with tetracycline
      restores compatibility, suggesting the involvement of a microorganism.

PMID- 28556161
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. IV.
      EFFECT OF NEIGHBOR RELATEDNESS AND APHID INFESTATION ON SEEDLING PERFORMANCE.
AB  - To investigate the effect of neighbor relatedness in seedling populations,
      propagules of six Anthoxanthum odoratum parents, produced from a reciprocal
      diallel cross, were planted into the parental source population, a mown field.
      The propagules were either surrounded by four unrelated neighbors in a 1 cm
      square, four sibling neighbors, or no neighbors. About 45% of the emerging
      seedlings were attacked by aphids (Schizaphis graminum). Aphid infestation
      significantly reduced seedling survivorship and did not differ with parental
      genotype or neighbor relatedness; plants without neighbors had a slightly higher
      infestation risk. Plants without neighbors had lower survivorship than those
      surrounded by unrelated neighbors although this difference was only significant
      for plants infested by aphids. When infested by aphids, plants surrounded by
      siblings had lower survivorship than plants surrounded by non-relatives,
      suggesting the operation of minority advantage. These results are consistent with
      the frequency-dependent selection hypothesis for the evolution and maintenance of
      sexual reproduction.

PMID- 28556162
TI  - ENTROPY: THE GREAT ILLUSION.

PMID- 28556163
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF LARGE-LAKE DAPHNIA POPULATIONS.
AB  - Cyclical parthenogenesis allows study of the genetic and evolutionary
      characteristics of groups exhibiting both asexual and sexual reproduction. The
      cladoceran genus Daphnia contains species which vary with respect to the relative
      incidence of sexual reproduction; pond species tend to undergo sexual
      reproduction more regularly than species found in large lakes. Previous genetic
      studies have focused on pond populations, generating expectations about large
      lake populations that have not been fully met by recent studies. The present
      study of the Palearctic species Daphnia galeata further examines the genetic
      structure of large-lake populations. Nine local populations, from lakes in
      northern Germany, are examined for genetic variation at seven enzyme loci.
      Populations exhibit similar allelic arrays and often similar allele frequencies
      at the five polymorphic loci; values of Nei's genetic distance (D) ranged from
      0.002 to 0.239, with a mean of 0.084. FST values range from 0.012 to 0.257, and
      spatial autocorrelation coefficients range from -0.533 to 0.551, for the eight
      alleles analyzed. With few exceptions, within-population genotypic frequencies
      were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was, however, significant heterogeneity
      in genotypic frequencies among populations. The number of coexisting clonal
      groups, as determined by three locus genotypes, is high within populations.
      Clonal groups are widely distributed among localities. The amount of genetic
      divergence observed among these large-lake populations is smaller than that
      previously observed among pond populations and suggests that different processes
      may be important in determining the genetic structure and subsequent phenotypic
      divergence of lake versus pond populations.

PMID- 28556165
TI  - STAFF CHANGES.

PMID- 28556164
TI  - LOCAL MATE COMPETITION IN FINITE GROUPS.

PMID- 28556166
TI  - LIFETIME REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SELECTION IN A
      NONTERRITORIAL DAMSELFLY (ODONATA: COENAGRIONIDAE).
AB  - Major components of male and female lifetime reproductive success (LRS) were
      quantified for a damselfly that exhibits "scramble competition" for mates. The
      opportunity for selection on male reproduction was potentially 2.9 times that for
      females. Differential fertility/clutch and survivorship each accounted for about
      half of the total variation in female reproductive success. Variation in
      fertilization efficiency accounted for 7% of the total opportunity for selection
      on males. Although differences in survivorship and mating efficiency each
      contributed to about a third of the total opportunity for selection on male
      reproduction, both components appeared to be influenced by random factors.
      Survivorship was age-independent, and the mating distributions among males with
      equal mating opportunities were indistinguishable from those expected if matings
      were random with respect to male phenotype. Because the proportion of the
      standarized variance (I) in LRS that was attributed to sexual selection depended
      on the way the selective episodes were defined, the sample of individuals
      included in the partitioning analysis, and the degree of sexual selection on
      mated males that could be detected, my results caution against drawing
      conclusions about the dynamics of sexual selection on populations based on a
      superficial comparison of I values.

PMID- 28556167
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF TWO SIBLING SPECIES, DROSOPHILA SIMULANS AND D.
      SECHELLIA.
AB  - Drosophila simulans and D. sechellia are sibling species, the former cosmopolitan
      and the latter restricted to the Seychelles Islands. We used classical genetic
      analysis to measure the numbers and effects of genes responsible for reproductive
      isolation and morphological differences in male genitalia between these species.
      At least five loci are responsible for male sterility in hybrids, with the
      strongest effects produced by at least two genes on the X chromosome. At least
      three (and probably four) loci are responsible for the interspecific difference
      in the size of the posterior process of the male genital arch. These genetic
      results, as well as the pattern of morphological divergence between the species,
      show several parallels with the divergence between D. simulans and its other
      island relative, D. mauritiana. We also present the DNA sequence of a 4.5
      kilobase region containing the alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) locus of D. sechellia,
      and combine this with previous data to reconstruct the phylogenies of the three
      species and their more distant relative D. melanogaster. Both D. mauritiana and
      D. sechellia are very closely related to D. simulans. Although most phylogenies
      show the two island species to be independent offshoots of the D. simulans
      lineage (with D. sechellia the more recent), the branch points are too close to
      make this conclusion unambiguous. The genetic and evolutionary parallels between
      the simulans/mauritiana and the simulans/sechellia divergences may therefore
      represent either a striking evolutionary convergence or a close common ancestry
      of the island species. A comparison of Adh alleles within species shows that the
      divergence among them may be almost as large as among alleles from different
      species. We conclude that many of the nucleotide differences among these species
      actually represent polymorphisms within common ancestors. It may be difficult to
      build accurate phylogenies using only a single DNA sequence from each species.

PMID- 28556168
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION.
      III. MATERNAL AND PATERNAL EFFECTS DURING SEEDLING ESTABLISHMENT.
AB  - To determine whether genetic differences in fitness components exist among seeds
      and seedlings in a natural population, weighed propagules of six parents of
      Anthoxanthum odoratum from a reciprocal diallel cross were planted into the
      parental source population, a mown field. Seed families of maternal genotypes
      differed in germination success, while paternal families showed no detectable
      differences. Differential germination success could not be attributed to
      propagule weight. Seed families ranked differently in germination percentage in
      different blocks. No survivorship differences among parental seed families could
      be detected. There were significant cross * block * germination and cross * block
      * survivorship interactions; different crosses performed better or worse in
      different blocks. In some cases, crosses sired by different fathers within a
      maternal seed family differed in germination or survivorship, suggesting that
      natural selection may be capable of discriminating among juvenile genotypes
      within a maternal family despite the presence of large overall maternal effects.
      These results indicate that seedling establishment may differ according to
      genotype and that microsite heterogeneity may maintain genetic variation in
      juvenile traits in natural plant populations.

PMID- 28556169
TI  - PHILOSPHY FOR A NEW BIOLOGY.

PMID- 28556170
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF DROSOPHILA BUZZATII. VIII. EVIDENCE FOR ENDOCYCLIC
      SELECTION ACTING ON THE INVERSION POLYMORPHISM IN A NATURAL POPULATION.
AB  - The pattern of selection acting in nature on the chromosomal polymorphism of the
      cactophilic species Drosophila buzzatii was investigated by comparing inversion
      and karyotypic frequencies through four different life-cycle stages: adult males,
      eggs, third-instar larvae, and immature adults. All population samples were
      obtained in June 1981 at an old Opuntia ficus-indica plantation near Carboneras,
      Spain. The analysis rests on several assumptions which are explicitly set forth
      and discussed. The results, if these assumptions prove true, indicate strong
      directional selection for larval viability acting on the second-chromosome
      karyotypes and also suggest selective differences in fecundity and longevity.
      Heterotic selection, however, cannot be ruled out for other fitness components
      such as male mating success. This kind of selection could be operating on the
      fourth-chromosome polymorphism as well. Some gene arrangements showed significant
      and opposite changes in frequency at different parts of the life cycle, thus
      demonstrating endocyclic selection.

PMID- 28556171
TI  - PARTIAL INBREEDING: EQUILIBRIUM HETEROZYGOSITY AND THE HETEROZYGOSITY PARADOX.
AB  - The effect of partial inbreeding on equilibrium populations has been extended to
      any degree of mating. As expected, for distantly related mates, the equilibrium
      levels of inbreeding and heterozygosity are not affected as much as by partial
      selfing. Formulas are also given for equilibrium levels of inbreeding and
      heterozygosity when two or more degrees of mating are present in a population.
      Inbreeding, other than selfing, may partially explain the deficiency of
      heterozygotes in outcrossers, part of the "heterozygosity paradox."

PMID- 28556172
TI  - MORE GOOD NEWS!

PMID- 28556173
TI  - SOME PROBLEMS IN ESTIMATING THE INTENSITY OF SELECTION THROUGH FERTILITY
      DIFFERENCES IN NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS.
AB  - We used empirical data from a laboratory population of Heterandria formosa
      (Pisces, Poeciliidae) and simulations based on those data to examine methods of
      estimating the intensity of phenotypic selection through fertility differences
      when generations overlap. The correct intensity was known because we knew the
      history of every female, as well as the rate at which the population was growing.
      The net reproductive rate, which is an appropriate measure of fitness when
      generations do not overlap, underestimated the true intensity of selection. This
      measure of fitness did not provide a rank order of individuals that agreed
      significantly with the correct rank order. Simulated schemes of vertical sampling
      of females, using number of offspring produced during the sampling window as a
      measure of fitness, provided no consistently useful information about the
      direction or intensity of selection. Weighting the number of offspring by female
      age, to give more value to offspring of younger females, produced only a slight
      improvement in accuracy. Other data indicated that fertility differentials are
      closely tied to particular environmental conditions. When generations overlap,
      estimates of fertility differentials will have to be based on horizontal studies
      of lifetime performance of a cohort coupled with demographic information on the
      entire population.

PMID- 28556174
TI  - NULL ALLELES AS A POSSIBLE CAUSE OF HETEROZYGOTE DEFICIENCIES IN THE OYSTER
      CRASSOSTREA VIRGINICA AND OTHER BIVALVES.

PMID- 28556175
TI  - EVOLUTION OF CONDITION-DEPENDENT SEX ORNAMENTS AND MATING PREFERENCES: SEXUAL
      SELECTION BASED ON VIABILITY DIFFERENCES.
AB  - The possibility that the evolution of mating preferences and secondary sex traits
      can be based on heritable differences in viability is examined with a three-locus
      model. Earlier genetic models suggested that viability-based processes alone
      cannot explain the evolution of mate choice and sex ornaments that reduce
      survival; a Fisherian mating advantage seemed necessary. The present model is
      based on a monogamous mating system that precludes such a mating advantage. A key
      assumption is that ornament development depends on the phenotypic condition and
      overall genotype of the possessor; there is evidence that secondary sex traits
      often mirror nutritional status and health, sometimes through hormonal mediation.
      Ornament and preference can then hitchhike slowly to high frequency with alleles
      that confer a slight survival advantage, provided that such alleles become
      available often enough. The evolution of mating preferences and secondary sex
      traits that reflect overall genotypic constitution therefore can be based solely
      on viability differences, no Fisherian mating advantage being required. In
      practice, these and several other mechanisms of sexual selection may occur
      together.

PMID- 28556176
TI  - Lixisenatide, a Once-Daily Prandial Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist for
      the Treatment of Adults with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - Lixisenatide, a short-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA),
      has been available in Europe since 2013 and was recently approved in the United
      States for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D) as an adjunct to diet and
      exercise. The objective of this systematic review is to describe the
      pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy of lixisenatide in patients
      with T2D. We conducted a search of the EMBASE database, limited to human studies
      with abstracts available in English. Published conference abstracts, limited to
      the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the
      Study of Diabetes meetings in 2015, as well as abstracts presented at the ADA
      meeting in 2016, were also screened. The abstracts retrieved were assessed for
      relevance; review articles and meta-analyses focusing on GLP-1 RAs as a class
      were excluded. Lixisenatide induced mean reductions of 0.46-0.99% in glycated
      hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c ), 55.86-143.43 mg/dl in 2-hour postprandial glucose (PPG)
      levels, and 56.58-127.75 mg/dl in mealtime glucose level variations. Changes in
      fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels and weight ranged from -21.98 to +5.41 mg/dl
      and from -2.96 to +0.3 kg, respectively, in patients with T2D enrolled in the
      GetGoal clinical program (a program of clinical trials that established the
      efficacy and safety profile of lixisenatide 20 MUg once/day across patients with
      T2D with differing background therapies). Lixisenatide was well tolerated,
      demonstrating rates of symptomatic hypoglycemia of 0.8-42.9% and a very low rate
      of severe hypoglycemia (< 1.5%) as well as no increased risk of cardiovascular
      events. The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal in nature, mainly
      transient nausea and vomiting of mild-to-moderate severity. Lixisenatide
      effectively lowers HbA1c levels in patients with T2D through a mechanism of
      action complementary to that of agents that mainly target FPG, with the
      additional benefit of weight loss. Its once-daily administration schedule and
      effect on PPG levels make it an attractive option as add-on treatment to basal
      insulin therapy or oral antidiabetic agents.

PMID- 28556177
TI  - Outcome predictors in dilated cardiomyopathy or myocarditis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to identify parameters of prognostic
      relevance in patients presenting with chronic left ventricular dysfunction who
      underwent endomyocardial biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 351
      consecutive patients (age 47.7 +/- 12.6 years, 281 male) with a chronic left
      ventricular dysfunction were enrolled. Endomyocardial biopsies were analysed by
      histopathology according to Dallas criteria and immunohistological WHO criteria.
      Virus genome was detected by polymerase chain reaction. The combined end point
      was time to death or heart transplantation. RESULTS: About 19% of patients (n =
      67) showed positive Dallas criteria and 39% (n = 118) immunohistochemical signs
      of inflammation. Viral genome was present in 58% (n = 155). During follow-up, 25%
      (n = 89; 76 death, 13 HTx) reached the end point. Dallas-positive histopathology
      (hazard ratio: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.29-0.84, P = 0.031), ejection fraction (hazard
      ratio: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.94-0.99, P = 0.019) and beta-blocker therapy (hazard
      ratio: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.23-0.69, P = 0.003) were independent outcome predictors.
      For patients under beta-blocker therapy, Dallas-positive histopathology (hazard
      ratio: 0.37; 95% CI: 0.25-0.76, P = 0.009) and NYHA class III and class IV
      (hazard ratio: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.04-3.12, P = 0.006) were independent predictors.
      CONCLUSIONS: For patients with a chronic left ventricular dysfunction, Dallas
      positive histopathology, beta-blocker therapy and left ventricular ejection
      fraction are the most striking parameters for outcome prediction.

PMID- 28556178
TI  - Change of appetite in patients with functional digestive disorder. Association
      with psychological disorders: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Changes in appetite are a frequent complaint in patients
      with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). The aims of this study are to
      evaluate whether the changes in appetite are associated with specific FGIDs and
      to explore associations of these changes with symptoms of anxiety or depression.
      METHODS: This study included 1009 consecutive FGID patients (71% female), aged
      48.9 years who all filled out a Rome III questionnaire for the evaluation of
      FGIDs, submitted to a psychological evaluation of symptoms of anxiety, and
      completed the Beck Depression Inventory questionnaire. The patients were
      classified according to their appetite change using a 7-point grading scale and
      split into three groups: those with appetite loss, those with no change in
      appetite, and those with increased appetite. RESULTS: Among the 1009, 496
      patients (49%) reported a change in appetite, of which 332 (33%) patients
      reported a decrease in appetite and 164 (16%) patients reported an increase in
      appetite. Appetite was not affected in 51% of patients. Changes in appetite
      depended on gender, body mass index and psychometric evaluation scores. Increased
      appetite did not have specific FGIDs associations, while decreased appetite was
      associated with esophageal, gastroduodenal, bowel, and anorectal symptoms. The
      presence of depressive symptoms was also a predictor for the majority of FGIDs in
      decreased appetite, while anxiety trait was significant for globus and dysphagia.
      CONCLUSIONS: Decreased appetite was associated with FGIDs, especially in the
      presence of depressive symptoms. A reduced appetite would help to predict
      psychological disorders associated with FGIDs. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: None
      declared. LEGAL REGISTRATION: This study was a registered study in the French
      National Drug Agency (ANSM, Agence Nationale de Securite du Medicamentet des
      produits de sante, Study Number 2016-A01120-51). COMPETING INTERESTS: Michel
      Bouchoucha, Marinos Fysekidis, Florence Mary, Gheorghe Airinei, Cyriaque Bon, and
      Robert Benamouzig have no competitive interests.

PMID- 28556179
TI  - Innovations in Publishing.

PMID- 28556180
TI  - Multiple-coil k-space interpolation enhances resolution in single-shot
      spatiotemporal MRI.
AB  - PURPOSE: Spatio-temporal encoding (SPEN) experiments can deliver single-scan MR
      images without folding complications and with robustness to chemical shift and
      susceptibility artifacts. Further resolution improvements are shown to arise by
      relying on multiple receivers, to interpolate the sampled data along the low
      bandwidth dimension. The ensuing multiple-sensor interpolation is akin to
      recently introduced SPEN interleaving procedures, albeit without requiring
      multiple shots. METHODS: By casting SPEN's spatial rasterization in k-space, it
      becomes evident that local k-data interpolations enabled by multiple receivers
      are akin to real-space interleaving of SPEN images. The practical implementation
      of such a resolution-enhancing procedure becomes similar to those normally used
      in simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics or sensitivity encoding, yet
      relaxing these methods' fold-over constraints. RESULTS: Experiments validating
      the theoretical expectations were carried out on phantoms and human volunteers on
      a 3T scanner. The experiments showed the expected resolution enhancement, at no
      cost to the sequence's complexity. With the addition of multibanding and
      stimulated echo procedures, 48-slice full-brain coverage could be recorded free
      from distortions at submillimeter resolution, in 3 s. CONCLUSIONS: Super-resolved
      SPEN with SENSE (SUSPENSE) achieves the goals of multishot SPEN interleaving
      delivering single-shot submillimeter in-plane resolutions in scanners equipped
      with suitable multiple sensors. Magn Reson Med 79:796-805, 2018. (c) 2017
      International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28556181
TI  - Ultrasonography in neuralgic amyotrophy: Sensitivity, spectrum of findings, and
      clinical correlations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the value of ultrasonography in
      neuralgic amyotrophy. METHODS: Fifty-three patients with 70 affected nerves were
      examined with high-resolution ultrasound. RESULTS: The most commonly affected
      nerve was the anterior interosseous (23%). Ultrasonographic abnormalities in the
      affected nerves, rather than in the brachial plexus, were observed, with an
      overall sensitivity of 74%. Findings included the swelling of the nerve/fascicle
      with or without incomplete/complete constriction and rotational phenomena (nerve
      torsion and fascicular entwinement). A significant difference was found among the
      categories of ultrasonographic findings with respect to clinical outcome (P =
      0.01). In nerves with complete constriction and rotational phenomena,
      reinnervation was absent or negligible, indicating surgery was warranted.
      DISCUSSION: Ultrasonography may be used as a diagnostic aid in neuralgic
      amyotrophy, which was hitherto a clinical and electrophysiological diagnosis, and
      may also help in identifying potential surgical candidates. Muscle Nerve 56: 1054
      1062, 2017.

PMID- 28556182
TI  - Two Novel Bioactive Peptides from Antarctic Krill with Dual Angiotensin
      Converting Enzyme and Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV Inhibitory Activities.
AB  - Inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) and angiotensin converting enzyme
      (ACE) are considered useful in managing 2 often associated conditions: diabetes
      and hypertension. In this study, corolase PP was used to hydrolyze Antarctic
      krill protein. The hydrolysate (AKH) was isolated by ultrafiltration and purified
      by size-exclusion chromatography, ion exchange chromatography and reversed-phase
      high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) sequentially. The in vitro
      inhibitory activities of all AKHs and several fractions obtained against ACE and
      DPP-IV were assessed. Two peptides, purified with dual-strength inhibitory
      activity against ACE and DPP-IV, were identified by TOF-MS/MS. Results indicated
      that not all fractions exhibited dual inhibitory activities of ACE and DPP-IV.
      The purified peptide Lys-Val-Glu-Pro-Leu-Pro had half-maximal inhibitory
      concentrations (IC50 ) of 0.93+/-0.05 and 0.73+/-0.04 mg/mL against ACE and DPP
      IV, respectively. The other peptide Pro-Ala-Leu had IC50 values of 0.64+/-0.05
      and 0.88+/-0.03 mg/mL against ACE and DPP-IV, respectively. This study firstly
      reported the sequences of dual bioactive peptides from Antarctic krill proteins,
      further provided new insights into the bioactive peptides responsible for the ACE
      and DPP-IV inhibitory activities from the Antarctic krill protein hydrolysate to
      manage hypertension and diabetes.

PMID- 28556183
TI  - A simple blood test expedites the diagnosis of glucose transporter type 1
      deficiency syndrome.
AB  - Glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) deficiency syndrome (GLUT1-DS) leads to a wide
      range of neurological symptoms. Ketogenic diets are very efficient to control
      epilepsy and movement disorders. We tested a novel simple and rapid blood test in
      30 patients with GLUT1-DS with predominant movement disorders, 18 patients with
      movement disorders attributed to other genetic defects, and 346 healthy controls.
      We detected significantly reduced GLUT1 expression only on red blood cells from
      patients with GLUT1-DS (23 patients; 78%), including patients with inconclusive
      genetic analysis. This test opens perspectives for the screening of GLUT1-DS in
      children and adults with cognitive impairment, movement disorder, or epilepsy.
      Ann Neurol 2017;82:133-138.

PMID- 28556184
TI  - The utility of on-site ultrasound screening in population at high risk for deep
      venous thrombosis in temporary housing after the great East Japan Earthquake.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of ultrasonography for
      screening of a population at risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in a post
      disaster setting. METHODS: Ultrasonography was applied as a screening technique
      to the residents of a temporary housing facility who were displaced following the
      Great East Japan Earthquake. Thirty DVT screening sessions were held from April
      2013 to June 2015. Individuals were invited to participate if they were
      identified as "high risk" for DVT, defined as those with low activity levels, a
      history of lower limb trauma, baseline lower limb pain or swelling, a cancer
      bearing status, or a history of venous thromboembolic event. Ultrasonographic
      examinations were performed from the calf to the popliteal veins using portable
      devices. RESULTS: Of the 3,316 subjects screened (682 men and 2,634 women) with a
      mean age of 71 +/- 9.7 years, DVT was diagnosed in 382 (11.5%). DVT was more
      likely in older, symptomatic, or female patients with a history of venous
      thromboembolism and attempting to perform daily exercise. The rate of DVT
      diagnosis increased from 9.9% in 2013 to 13.5% in 2015. CONCLUSIONS:
      Ultrasonography is efficient for screening at-risk populations in challenging
      settings. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:566-574, 2017.

PMID- 28556185
TI  - Systematic review of the diagnosis of scabies in therapeutic trials.
AB  - Human scabies (infestation with the mite Sarcoptes scabiei var hominis) causes a
      significant disease burden worldwide, yet there are no agreed diagnostic
      guidelines. We aimed to determine whether a consistent approach to diagnosing
      scabies has been used for published scabies therapeutic trials. The data sources
      used were the MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane databases, from 1946 to 29 August
      2013. Eligible studies were trials of therapeutic interventions against scabies
      in human subjects, published in English, enrolling patients with scabies, and
      using various therapeutic interventions. Language was a limitation of this study
      as some relevant trials published in languages other than English may have been
      excluded. Each study was reviewed by two independent authors, who assessed the
      clinical examination and testing approaches used for scabies diagnosis in the
      included studies. We found that of 71 included trials, 40 (56%) specified which
      clinical findings were used for diagnosis, which were predominantly rash, rash
      distribution, pruritus and mite burrows. Parasitological testing was used in 63%
      of trials (n = 45) and was used more frequently in clinic-based than in field
      studies. Nearly one-quarter of trials (24%, n = 17) did not define the diagnostic
      method used. Overall, the diagnostic approaches were poorly described,
      prohibiting accurate comparison of existing studies. This review further supports
      the need for consensus diagnostic guidelines for scabies.

PMID- 28556186
TI  - Factors associated with oophorectomy in children with benign ovarian masses.

PMID- 28556187
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide, a possible molecular mediator between periodontitis and
      coronary artery disease.
AB  - AIM: We aimed to study how lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in saliva and serum
      associates with each other, periodontal microbial burden, periodontitis and
      coronary artery disease (CAD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The used Parogene cohort
      comprised N = 505 Finnish adults. Coronary diagnosis was acquired by coronary
      angiography, and the main outcomes were as follows: no significant CAD (n = 123),
      stable CAD (n = 184) and acute coronary syndrome (n = 169). Periodontitis was
      defined according to clinical and radiographic examinations. Levels for 75
      strains of subgingival bacteria were determined by checkerboard DNA-DNA
      hybridization. Saliva and serum LPS activity was analysed by Limulus amebocyte
      lysate assay. RESULTS: The level of 11 bacterial strains, which were mainly oral
      and respiratory Gram-negative species, associated with salivary LPS levels in an
      age- and gender-adjusted linear regression. A total of 4.9% of the serum LPS,
      that is endotoxemia, variation was explainable by saliva LPS among patients with
      periodontitis (n = 247, R2  = .049, Pearson's r = .222, p < .001). Endotoxemia
      associated with stable CAD in a confounder adjusted multinomial logistic
      regression model (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.04-3.81, p = .039, 3rd tertile). CONCLUSIONS:
      In particular in periodontitis patients, subgingival microbial burden contributes
      to endotoxemia. LPS is a possible molecular mediator between periodontitis and
      CAD.

PMID- 28556188
TI  - Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on neuroplasticity in
      corticomotor pathways of the tongue muscles.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate effects of transcranial direct current
      stimulation (tDCS) on neuroplasticity in corticomotor pathways related to tongue
      muscles evoked by a training task using the tongue drive system (TDS). Using a
      crossover design, 13 healthy participants completed two sessions of tDCS while
      performing 30 min of TDS training. Sessions were spaced at least 2 weeks apart
      and participants randomly received anodal and sham tDCS stimulation in the first
      session and the other condition in the second session. Single and paired pulse
      transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to elicit motor evoked potentials
      (MEPs) of the tongue at three time-points: before, immediately after and 30 min
      after training. Participant-based reports of fun, pain, fatigue and motivation,
      level of difficulty and effort were evaluated on numerical rating scales. There
      was no consistent significant effect of anodal and sham stimulation on single or
      paired pulse stimulation MEP amplitude immediately or 30 min after TDS training.
      Irrespective of tDCS type, training with TDS induced cortical plasticity in terms
      of increased MEP amplitudes for higher stimulus intensities after 30 min compared
      with before and immediately after training. Participant-based reports revealed no
      significant difference between tDCS conditions for level of fun, fatigue,
      motivation, difficulty and level of effort but a significant increase in pain in
      the anodal condition, although pain level was low for both conditions. In
      conclusion, tongue MEP amplitudes appear to be sensitive to training with the
      tongue using TDS; however, anodal tDCS does not have an impact on training-evoked
      neuroplasticity of tongue corticomotor pathways.

PMID- 28556189
TI  - Reorganization of interaction networks modulates the persistence of species in
      late successional stages.
AB  - Ecological interaction networks constantly reorganize as interspecific
      interactions change across successional stages and environmental gradients. This
      reorganization can also be associated with the extent to which species change
      their preference for types of niches available in their local sites. Despite the
      pervasiveness of these interaction changes, previous studies have revealed that
      network reorganizations have a minimal or insignificant effect on global
      descriptors of network architecture, such as connectance, modularity and
      nestedness. However, little is known about whether these reorganizations may have
      an effect on community dynamics and composition. To answer the question above, we
      study the multi-year dynamics and reorganization of plant-herbivore interaction
      networks across secondary successional stages of a tropical dry forest. We
      develop new quantitative tools based on a structural stability approach to
      estimate the potential impact of network reorganization on species persistence.
      Then, we investigate whether this impact can explain the likelihood of
      persistence of herbivore species in the observed communities. We find that
      resident (early-arriving) herbivore species increase their likelihood of
      persistence across time and successional stages. Importantly, we demonstrate
      that, in late successional stages, the reorganization of interactions among
      resident species has a strong inhibitory effect on the likelihood of persistence
      of colonizing (late-arriving) herbivores. These findings support earlier
      predictions suggesting that, in mature communities, changes of species
      interactions can act as community-control mechanisms (also known as priority
      effects). Furthermore, our results illustrate that the dynamics and composition
      of ecological communities cannot be fully understood without attention to their
      reorganization processes, despite the invariability of global network properties.

PMID- 28556191
TI  - Sonography of Scrotal Wall Lesions and Correlation With Other Modalities.
AB  - The scrotal wall may be involved in a variety of pathologic processes. Such
      lesions may rise primarily from the layers of the scrotum or may be due to a
      process arising from scrotal content. Imaging is not needed in most cases, but it
      may be useful for making such differentiations and for evaluation of possible
      involvement of the testes and epididymides in cases of primary wall
      abnormalities. This pictorial essay will show the imaging findings observed in a
      variety of pathologic conditions affecting the scrotal wall, both common and
      unusual ones, with an emphasis on clinically relevant findings and features that
      lead to a specific diagnosis.

PMID- 28556192
TI  - Microsurgical anatomy of the maxillary artery for extracranial-intracranial
      bypass in the pterygopalatine segment of the maxillary artery.
AB  - The extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass using the maxillary artery (MA) has
      been successfully completed using a radial artery (RA) graft but the complicated
      anatomy and narrow exposure make it difficult. The purpose of this article is to
      define the microsurgical exposure of the MA through the middle fossa and describe
      the branches, diameter, and length of the MA available for the EC-IC bypass in
      the sphenopalatine fossa and anterior part of the infratemporal fossa. 5
      cadaveric specimens were dissected bilaterally (10 MA dissections) to define the
      microsurgical anatomy of the MA through an intracranial approach. The exposable
      branches of the MA at the level of the infratemporal and sphenopalatine fossae
      were the anterior deep temporal, posterior superior alveolar, and infraorbital
      arteries. The origin of each branch could be exposed. The available section of
      the MA for use as a donor vessel is between the origin of the anterior deep
      temporal artery and the infraorbital artery. The mean exposable length of the MA
      was 19.4 mm. The mean outer diameter of the donor MA was 3.2 mm. Tension-free EC
      IC bypass was possible using a RA graft between the MA and the middle cerebral
      artery, the MA and the supraclinoid internal carotid artery (ICA), or the MA and
      the petrous ICA. Exposure of the MA at the infratemporal and sphenopalatine
      fossae is complicated but provides length and diameter suitable as a donor artery
      for the EC-IC bypass. Clin. Anat. 31:724-733, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28556193
TI  - Addressing obesity in the dental setting: What can be learned from oral health
      care professionals' efforts to screen for medical conditions.
AB  - PURPOSE: This scoping review focused on what can be learned from oral health
      professionals' (OHCPs) efforts to provide screenings for medical conditions in
      the dental setting that could guide strategies for addressing childhood obesity.
      METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Grey Literature, and CINAHL were searched
      (limitation English language). Search terms covered OHCPs and various oral
      systemic conditions of interest (details provided in the paper. Nineteen
      unduplicated, relevant articles were categorized based on relationship to
      question. RESULTS: Screening for diabetes and heart disease risk in the dental
      setting has been shown to be effective and patients and providers are willing to
      participate, although not yet routinely implemented. Screening/counseling for
      tobacco-cessation has been shown to be effective, but few (<10 percent) OHCPs
      provided this activity or received tobacco cessation training. For obesity
      screening/counseling, the majority of dentists (82 percent) reported they would
      be more willing to offer this service if obesity were directly related to oral
      disease. The one healthy weight intervention pilot study was well received by
      caregivers/patients and resulted in improved food choices. Successful
      implementation included a dedicated staff member, the dental hygienist. Lack of
      adequate training was a commonly reported barrier for all of these conditions; in
      addition, for obesity screening/counseling fear of appearing judgmental, and fear
      of patient rejection were also commonly reported. CONCLUSIONS: Systematic studies
      are needed building on existing literature and exploring best implementation
      practices. Enhanced training is needed on relationship of oral health and
      systemic health and OHCPs' role.

PMID- 28556194
TI  - Assessment of serum beta-hCG and lipid profile in early second trimester as
      predictors of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the ability of serum beta-human chorionic
      gonadotropin (beta-hCG) and serum lipid profile in early second trimester as
      predictors of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. METHODS: The present hospital
      based prospective study was conducted between November 24, 2012, and April 30,
      2014, at a tertiary hospital in Mangalore, India. Women of any parity with a
      pregnancy of 14-20 weeks were included. Venous blood (3 mL) was collected, and
      serum beta-hCG and lipid profile were estimated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay and an enzymatic colorimetric test with lipid clearing factor,
      respectively. A cutoff value of beta-hCG for predicting hypertensive disorders
      was obtained by receiver operating curve analysis. RESULTS: Serum beta-hCG was
      significantly higher among women who subsequently developed hypertension (71 142
      IU/L [n=27]) than among those who did not (20 541 IU/L [n=137]; P<0.001). The
      sensitivity and specificity of serum beta-hCG to predict hypertension were 92.6%
      and 94.9% respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 78.1%
      and 98.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Serum beta-hCG might be used as a predictor
      of hypertensive disorders that complicate pregnancy. Dyslipidemia was not found
      to be a useful marker.

PMID- 28556195
TI  - Use of nystatin and chlorhexidine in oral medicine: Properties, indications and
      pitfalls with focus on geriatric patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work was to review the scientific literature on the
      properties, indications and pitfalls related to nystatin and chlorhexidine in
      oral medicine and also to compare these to other topical antifungal agents,
      considering the elderly population. BACKGROUND: Nystatin is a polyene antifungal
      widely used as a topical formulation to treat candidiasis, whereas chlorhexidine
      is a wide-spectrum antimicrobial, especially used against bacteria, but also
      effective in treating some fungal infections including those caused by Candida
      spp. These compounds have been prescribed for immunocompromised patients,
      hospitalized or not, some of them undergoing head and neck radiation therapy
      and/or chemotherapy, including elderly patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dental
      and medical literature concerning the use of nystatin and chlorhexidine in oral
      medicine were selected and reviewed. RESULTS: Nystatin and chlorhexidine are gold
      standard antimicrobial mouthrinses respectively for Candida spp. and bacteria.
      Although recognized as effective in cotrolling oral infections, both nystatin and
      chlorhexidine are just complementary to systemic therapy in cases of systemic
      infections already established. The prescriber should also take into account that
      some commercial nystatin and chlorhexidine formulations contain compounds such as
      sugar and ethanol, which can be associated with side effects. Meanwhile,
      alternative formulations in which these compounds are absent are available and
      should be considered. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies investigating new drugs and
      interactions of drug combinations are necessary to improve the therapeutic
      management of oral infections.

PMID- 28556196
TI  - Serving optometry for 100 years: the story of Clinical and Experimental
      Optometry.

PMID- 28556197
TI  - Plantar warts on Tollund Man's feet (Denmark, fourth century BC). Limits of
      retrospective dermatological diagnosis.

PMID- 28556198
TI  - Can bottom-up processes of attention be a source of 'interference' in situations
      where top-down control of attention is crucial?
AB  - In this study, we investigate whether emotionally engaged bottom-up processes of
      attention can be a source of 'interference' in situations where top-down control
      of attention is necessary. Participants were asked to monitor and report on a
      video of a war scenario showing a developing battle in two conditions:
      emotionally positive and emotionally negative. Half of the participants (n = 15)
      were exposed to task-irrelevant pictures of positive emotional valence embedded
      within the scenario; the other half were exposed to task-irrelevant pictures of
      negative emotional valence. Sensitivity and Bias scores were calculated using
      signal detection theory. Overall, task accuracy scores were dependent upon the
      valence; negative pictures had an adverse effect on performance, whereas positive
      pictures improved performance. We concluded that negative emotional pictures
      interfered with top-down control of attention by attracting competing bottom-up
      processes of attention. We found the opposite effect for positive emotional
      stimuli.

PMID- 28556199
TI  - Isolation of Egg Yolk Granules as Low-Cholesterol Emulsifying Agent in
      Mayonnaise.
AB  - Egg yolk is an essential ingredient for many food products due to its excellent
      functional properties such as emulsification. However, the consumers' concern of
      its cholesterol level has led food industry to seek solutions for its
      replacement. Utilization of low-fat egg yolk granules as emulsifier can be an
      alternative strategy. In this study, granules with low cholesterol content were
      separated from egg yolk by a simple method under easily scalable centrifugal
      conditions. The egg yolk granules isolated within 0.17 M NaCl solution achieved a
      22.5% yield that was similar to that using higher centrifugation speeds and
      longer time. The yield of egg yolk granules increased from 25% to 32% when the
      yolk:water ratio was changed from 1:1 to 1:2. Mayonnaise was prepared to evaluate
      the emulsifying capacity of the egg yolk granules. It was found that egg yolk
      granules exhibited similar emulsifying activity as that of whole egg yolk, but a
      better emulsion stabilizing property that is evidenced by the higher viscosity of
      mayonnaise prepared with the granules. In addition, the viscosities of mayonnaise
      prepared by spray dried yolk and granules were slightly higher than the liquid
      counterpart, showing a further improvement by spray drying on the emulsion
      stabilizing properties. The mechanical spectra of mayonnaise samples by frequency
      sweep also suggested that granules favored the formation of stronger 3
      dimensional arrangements of oil droplets and therefore a more stable emulsion.
      Results suggest that granules isolated within 0.17 M NaCl solution present best
      emulsifying properties and can be applied as whole yolk replacer in food
      emulsions.

PMID- 28556200
TI  - Difficulties and practices regarding information provision among Korean and
      Italian nurses.
AB  - AIM: To investigate nurses' opinions and practices of providing information in a
      global context through cultural comparison. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION:
      Providing sufficient information to patients about nursing interventions and
      plans is essential for patient-centred care. While many countries have specific
      legislation making information delivery to patients a legal duty of nurses, no
      such legislation exists in both the Republic of Korea and Italy; nurses' only
      guidance is the deontological code. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey
      study involving a convenience sample of 174 Korean nurses and 121 Italian nurses
      working in internal medicine and surgery at university hospitals. Data were
      collected using a self-administered questionnaire between February and November
      2014. The questionnaire assessed demographic and professional characteristics,
      and difficulties and practices regarding information provision. RESULTS: Korean
      and Italian nurses significantly differed in all demographic and professional
      characteristics. More Korean than Italian participants reported that their role
      in providing information was well explained within their teams, but both groups
      reported the same level and type of difficulties in delivering information.
      Nurses in both countries regularly informed patients about medications and
      nursing procedures, but provided information about nursing care plans less
      frequently. Few nurses frequently provided information to relatives instead of
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: Despite cultural, demographic and professional differences
      between Korean and Italian nurses, their difficulties and practices in
      information delivery to patient were similar. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH
      POLICY: Hospital managers and policymakers should be aware that nurse-patient
      communication can be impaired by organizational factors, patient characteristics
      or the interaction among providers. Educational interventions and strategies are
      needed to increase information provision to patients about nursing care plans.

PMID- 28556201
TI  - A recent-onset ulcerated nodular plaque on the scalp.

PMID- 28556202
TI  - Confocal microscopy as an early relapse marker for acanthamoeba keratitis.
AB  - Acanthameoba keratitis is a serious ophthalmological condition with a potentially
      vision-threatening prognosis. Early diagnosis and recognition of relapse, and the
      detection of persistent Acanthamoeba cysts, are essential for informing the
      prognosis and managing the condition. We suggest the use of in vivo confocal
      microscopy not only to identify the early signs of relapse after keratoplasty in
      patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis, but also as an additional follow-up tool
      after antimicrobial crosslinking. This study shows that in vivo confocal
      microscopy is, in experienced hands, a quick and reliable diagnostic tool. Clin.
      Anat. 31:60-63, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556203
TI  - Linking statins and lipids in Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28556204
TI  - Optimal combination of anti-scatter grids and software correction for CBCT
      imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has been widely adopted in clinical
      practice for image-guided radiotherapy. Soft tissue contrast and Hounsfield units
      are impaired to the presence of scattered radiation. In our previous work, we
      proposed a high selectivity anti-scatter grid (ASG) as a possible solution to the
      problem. An alternative approach is the application of iterative scatter
      correction using deconvolution with scatter point spread function (PSF). The
      purpose of this work was to compare the performance of ASGs with different
      selectivity with and without the iterative and uniform scatter corrections in
      terms of CBCT image quality. A secondary objective of this study was to develop a
      novel measurement approach to measure the scatter point spread functions.
      METHODS: The scatter PSF was modeled as a sum of two bivariate Gaussian
      functions. The PSF parameters were estimated from a series of transmission
      measurements through polystyrene slabs of varying thickness with lead partial
      beam-blocker for three different ASG designs ranging from low (5.6), medium (9),
      and high (11) selectivity. The scatter correction scheme is based on iterative
      convolution of the current estimate of the primary with the scatter PSF until the
      root mean square deviation (RMSD) of the measured projection and the sum of the
      estimate of primary and scatter falls below a predefined threshold. The image
      quality was evaluated with the CIRS CBCT Image Quality and Electron Density
      phantom in a head and neck and pelvis configuration and the CIRS Virtual Male
      Human Patient. The image quality was quantified by the contrast-to-noise ratio
      (CNR) relative to the uncorrected scans and the root mean square deviation of the
      average gray values for different regions with respect to the nominal Hounsfield
      units and the mean difference of the reconstructed HU between the planning CT and
      CBCTs of the virtual human phantom. RESULTS: For the head and neck phantom, the
      CNR increased with more advanced scatter correction algorithm and the ASG
      selectivity, reaching 3.9, 3.7, 3.5, and 3.1 for the high, medium, light, and
      with no grid configuration, respectively, combined with the iterative software
      correction. The same is true for the pelvis phantom with CNR improvement reaching
      1.5 for the heavy and medium grid, 1.3 for the light grid, and 1.1 on its own.
      The HU RMSD for the head and neck phantom was 22 HU, 13 HU, 12 HU, and 6 HU for
      iterative correction without the grid, with the light grid, medium grid and the
      heavy grid, respectively. For same correction strategies, the values for the
      pelvis phantom where 170, 120, 34, and 27 HU. The average difference with the PCT
      of the virtual human phantom was 59 +/- 48 HU and 63 +/- 59 HU with scans
      reconstructed with the iterative correction and two higher selectivity grids.
      Visual inspection revealed similar trends for a head-and-neck and prostate cancer
      patient. CONCLUSIONS: The best scatter mitigation strategy was found to be a
      combination of a grid with selectivity larger than 9, combined with iterative
      scatter estimation. None of the investigated grids required increasing the
      imaging dose. The PSF determined using proposed method leads to image quality
      improvements results for all but one of the investigated scenarios.

PMID- 28556205
TI  - Assessment of factors associated with smoking cessation at diagnosis or during
      follow-up of Crohn's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Smoking cessation is known to improve the course of Crohn's
      disease (CD). However, the factors associated with smoking cessation after CD
      diagnosis have not been well established. METHODS: Clinical characteristics and
      change in smoking status were evaluated in 445 current smokers at the time of CD
      diagnosis. Patients were classified into three subgroups based on their final
      smoking status and time of smoking cessation: non-quitters, quitters at
      diagnosis, and quitters during follow-up. RESULTS: The overall smoking cessation
      rate was 55.7% (248 of 445 patients). The diagnosis of CD was the main reason for
      quitting (41.5%, 103 of 248 patients). Smoking cessation at the time of CD
      diagnosis was associated with intestinal resection within 3 months from CD
      diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] 2.355, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.348-4.116, P =
      0.003), light smoking (OR 2.041, 95% CI 1.157-3.602, P = 0.014), and initiation
      of smoking before 18 years of age (OR 0.570, 95% CI 0.327-0.994, P = 0.047).
      Light smoking (OR 1.762, 95% CI 1.019-3.144, P = 0.043) and initiation of smoking
      before 18 years (OR 0.588, 95% CI 0.381-0.908, P = 0.017) were also associated
      with overall smoking cessation. CONCLUSION: Quitters after CD diagnosis,
      including quitters at diagnosis and quitters during follow-up, had features
      distinct from those of non-quitters. Given the motivation at CD diagnosis, a
      detailed history of smoking habits should be taken and all current smokers should
      be encouraged to quit smoking at the time of CD diagnosis.

PMID- 28556208
TI  - MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS.

PMID- 28556206
TI  - The differences in the incidence of diabetes mellitus and prediabetes according
      to the type of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors prescribed in Korean patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Very few studies conducted in Korea have investigated the
      relationship between statins and the incidence of diabetes. Therefore, we
      analyzed the progression from normal blood glucose to prediabetes and then to
      diabetes mellitus (DM) according to the type, intensity, and dose of statin
      prescribed. METHODS: Data of patients who were first prescribed statins between
      2009 and 2011 were extracted from electronic medical records. Patients with
      normal blood glucose or prediabetes were observed for 4 years after initiation of
      statin therapy. RESULTS: A total of 2890 patients were included in our study and
      analyzed on the basis of the first statin they were prescribed. The incidence
      rate of DM in patients with prediabetes was 1.72 times that of patients with
      normal glucose levels (odds ratio = 1.72, 95% confidence interval = 1.41-2.10, P
      < .001). Regarding progression from normal blood glucose to prediabetes, the
      incidence rate of prediabetes was significantly lower in patients prescribed
      pitavastatin (odds ratio = 0.62, 95% confidence interval = 0.40-0.96, P = .031)
      compared to that in patients prescribed atorvastatin. Regarding the progression
      from normal blood glucose or prediabetes to DM, there were no significant
      differences among all statins. CONCLUSIONS: Lower DM incidence in patients
      prescribed pitavastatin appears to be primarily because of the lower rate of
      progression from normal blood glucose to prediabetes. These findings indicate
      that avoiding statins because of DM risk is unjustified and that clinicians
      should prescribe statins from the appropriate potency group.

PMID- 28556207
TI  - Characterization of Self-Defining Memories in Individuals with Severe Alcohol Use
      Disorders After Mid-Term Abstinence: The Impact of the Emotional Valence of
      Memories.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-defining memories (SDM) are distinguished from other
      autobiographical memory (AM) processes to delineate those associated with the
      sense of personal identity and continuity in one's individual history. With
      chronic alcohol consumption, the construction of such memories may be modified in
      terms of specificity, valence, meaning-making, and evoked topics. This study
      sought to characterize SDM in a population of 27 patients with alcohol use
      disorder (AUD) who had been abstinent for at least 2 months compared with 28
      control participants. METHODS: Besides cognitive and clinical assessment,
      participants were told to describe verbally and date 5 SDM and their narratives
      were recorded. For each memory, 5 dimensions were evaluated: level of
      specificity, emotional valence, integration of meaning, topics, and distance of
      memory in time. RESULTS: Overall, SDM of participants with AUD were specifically
      characterized by (i) low specificity, (ii) low integration, (iii) a predominance
      of memories with negative emotional valence and a low frequency of positive
      memories, and (iv) a low frequency of topics related to success. When different
      dimensions of the SDM were crossed, their characteristics depended mainly on the
      valence of the memory. Negative memories were more frequent, more specific and
      more integrated, while positive SDM were less frequent, less specific and less
      integrated. CONCLUSIONS: The results underline the construction of a form of SDM
      with drinking problems that is mainly characterized by the disruption of positive
      memory and the presence of highly specific and integrated negative experiences. A
      disruption of the integration process modulated by the valence of memories could
      have repercussions on maintaining a sense of personal identity, the pursuit of
      personal goals and on social adaptability, and could constitute one of the main
      risks associated with persistent drinking problems. These results highlight the
      relevance of developing AM training programs for patients with AUD.

PMID- 28556209
TI  - THE EFFECT OF NICHE PREFERENCE ON POLYMORPHISM PROTECTION IN A HETEROGENEOUS
      ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - A model is proposed in which niche choice precedes natural selection in an
      individual's life span; the panmictic population occupies an environment divided
      into niches, each contributing a constant proportion of parents to the next
      generation. Niche choice and fitness within the niche are controlled either by
      the same locus or by two linked loci. The conditions for a protected polymorphism
      are derived. It is shown that niche preferences can increase the protective
      effect of natural selection over a polymorphism. This effect depends on the
      existence of a positive correlation between preference for a niche and relative
      fitness within that niche, and also on the relative size of the niches. In the
      absence of within-niche fitness differences, alleles that cause preference for
      different niches can still be protected. Alleles that determine preference for
      niches contributing little to the total population can be eliminated by the
      ability to choose between niches.

PMID- 28556210
TI  - SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL FACTORS AFFECTING COEXISTENCE AMONG SEXUAL AND CLONAL FORMS
      OF POECILIOPSIS.
AB  - We examined spatial and seasonal factors affecting coexistence of closely related
      sexual and asexual fishes of the genus Poeciliopsis living in two ecologically
      distinct stream habitats. Stream order and productivity influenced frequencies of
      these fish, and local habitat patchiness contributed strongly to spatial
      segregation. The magnitude and direction of local segregation was unaffected by
      striking seasonal variation in one stream. For the second stream, the relative
      contributions of local, geographical, and seasonal components of spatial
      variation were assessed through estimation of variance components. Spatial
      segregation at the smallest scale accounted for the largest proportion of
      variance in the distribution of species and clones.

PMID- 28556211
TI  - ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF CONTINENTAL BIOTAS: SPECIATION AND HISTORICAL CONGRUENCE
      WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN AVIFAUNA.
AB  - Factors governing the origin and evolution of continental biotas were
      investigated using an analysis of speciation patterns within the Australian
      avifauna. Phylogenetic relationships within seven lineages of birds were analyzed
      by numerical cladistic techniques applied to data sets of morphological
      characters. These relationships revealed extensive congruence among the spatial
      and temporal histories of lineages whose species are endemic to common areas of
      endemism. A general hypothesis is constructed to explain this congruence in which
      widespread biotas are postulated to have been partitioned into areas of endemism
      by the origin of geomorphological and/or ecological-climatic barriers. Congruence
      in these phylogenetic patterns of differentiation suggests the following
      historical pattern of interrelationships for areas of endemism along the northern
      and eastern coasts of Australia: (Kimberley Plateau + Arnhem Land) + ([New Guinea
      + Cape York Peninsula] + [Atherton Plateau + Eastern Coastal Rainforest]).
      Likewise, this study indicates that the arid interior avifauna was segregated
      into two closely related biotas (Eastern and Western Desert biotas) by the Eyrean
      Barrier. These biotas are, in turn, related to a more mesic avifauna that was
      itself subdivided into areas of endemism located in the Southwest and Southeast
      corners of the continent.

PMID- 28556212
TI  - ON BEING THE RIGHT SIZE: NATURAL SELECTION AND BODY SIZE IN THE HERRING GULL.

PMID- 28556213
TI  - PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION BY NEUTRAL MUTATION.
AB  - A general model is developed for predicting the genetic variance within
      populations and the rate of divergence of population mean phenotypes for
      quantitative traits under the joint operation of random sampling drift and
      mutation in the absence of selection. In addition to incorporating the dominance
      effects of mutant alleles, the model yields some insight into the effects of
      linkage and the mating system on the mutational production of quantitative
      genetic variation. Despite these additional and potentially serious
      complications, it is found that, for small populations, the simple predictions
      obtained by previous investigators using additive-genetic models hold reasonably
      well. Even after accounting for dominance and linkage, the equilibrium level of
      genetic variance is unlikely to be much less than 2NVm or to be more than 4NVm ,
      where N is the effective population size and Vm is the new variance from mutation
      appearing each generation. The rate of increase of the between-line variance per
      generation ultimately equals 2Vm regardless of population size, although the time
      to attain the asymptotic rate is proportional to N. Expressions are presented for
      the rate of approach to the equilibrium level of genetic variance and for the
      expected variance of the within-population and between-population genetic
      variances. The relevance of the derived model, which amounts to a generalization
      of the neutral theory to the phenotypic level, is discussed in the context of the
      detection of natural selection, the maintenance of pure lines for biomedical and
      agricultural purposes, the development of genetic conservation programs, and the
      design of indices of morphological distance between species.

PMID- 28556215
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY MONOGRAPHS.

PMID- 28556214
TI  - EVALUATING KINSHIP OF NEWLY SETTLED JUVENILES WITHIN SOCIAL GROUPS OF THE CORAL
      REEF FISH ANTHIAS SQUAMIPINNIS.
AB  - It is conventionally assumed that eggs and/or larvae of most coral reef fishes
      are thoroughly mixed during a pelagic phase, so that juvenile recruits at any
      particular reef site represent a random sample of the reproductive products
      entering the local gene pool. However, a recent review of biological factors that
      might limit mixing raised the testable hypothesis that groups of genetically
      related individuals may sometimes persist through the pelagic phase and settle as
      sibling cohorts (Shapiro, 1983). Here we provide a critical genetic test of this
      hypothesis by examining allozyme variation in juvenile aggregations of the
      serranid reef fish, Anthias squamipinnis. Results demonstrate that juvenile
      cohorts within large social groups in Anthias are not composed exclusively or
      predominantly of siblings, but rather represent a random sample of progeny from
      many matings. Also included are considerations of allelic and genotypic criteria
      by which hypotheses about sibling assemblages might generally be evaluated.

PMID- 28556216
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION IN THE HAWAIIAN SILVERSWORD ALLIANCE (COMPOSITAE-MADIINAE).
      II. CYTOGENETICS OF ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL HYBRIDS.
AB  - The Hawaiian silversword alliance of Argyroxiphium, Dubautia, and Wilkesia, in
      spite of exhibiting spectacular morphological, ecological, physiological, and
      chromosomal diversity, is remarkably cohesive, genetically. This is attested to
      by the ease of production of artificial hybrids and by the high frequency of
      spontaneous hybridization among such life forms as mat-forming subshrub,
      monocarpic rosette shrub, polycarpic shrub, cushion plant, tree, and vine. Even
      the least fertile of these hybrids is capable of producing backcross progeny.
      Moreover, first generation interspecific and intergeneric hybrids have been
      successfully used to produce trispecific hybrids in a number of instances. In
      general, the widest hybrid combinations have been as readily produced as crosses
      within a species. At present eight genomes or chromosome races distinguished by
      reciprocal translocations are recognized on the basis of meiotic analysis of
      artificial and spontaneous hybrids. Seven of these races are found among those
      species with 14 pairs of chromosomes. The eighth genome very likely characterizes
      all nine species of this alliance that have 13 pairs of chromosomes. The
      cytogenetic data indicate that redundancy of translocations involving the same
      chromosomes has been a recurrent theme in the chromosomal differentiation of
      these taxa. There appears to be little, if any, correlation between chromosomal
      evolution and adaptive radiation as assessed by gross habital differentiation in
      this group. However, within Dubautia, a novel ecophysiological trait associated
      with colonization of xeric habitats is restricted to species with n = 13. In
      contrast to the bulk of the Hawaiian flora, which is characterized by self
      compatibility and chromosomal stability, it is suggested that the occurrence of
      self-incompatibility in the Hawaiian Madiinae may have favored selection of
      supergenes via chromosomal repatterning, and this may account for the diversity
      of chromosome structure seen in this group.

PMID- 28556217
TI  - PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS, FLUCTUATING RANGES, AND LOW GENETIC VARIABILITY IN A
      LARGE MAMMAL (OVIS DALLI).

PMID- 28556218
TI  - EVOLUTION OF ADULT MORPHOLOGY AND LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS IN CAVERNICOLOUS
      PTOMAPHAGUS BEETLES.
AB  - Morphological and life-history characters were determined for a series of six
      increasingly cavernicolous species of eastern United States Ptomaphagus beetles.
      Contrary to expectations, dimensions of only some adult structural characters
      uniformly covary as an overall measure of evolutionary adaptation for cave life.
      Adult reproductive characters that show adaptation for cave life are loss of
      reproductive seasonality and production of fewer and larger eggs. Significant
      change in pre-imaginal life-cycle stages was not found. This is in contrast to
      cavernicolous bathysciine beetles of Europe which show remarkable adaptive trends
      in pre-imaginal stages, but larval adaptations are not strongly coevolved with
      adult cave-adaptive characters. This suggests that evolution of cave adaptation
      in adult endopterygote insects occurs before and independently from that in
      larvae.

PMID- 28556219
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS: PREDICTIONS OF
      REACTION NORMS FOR AGE AND SIZE AT MATURITY.
AB  - We used life-history theory to predict reaction norms for age and size at
      maturation. We assumed that fecundity increases with size and that juvenile
      mortality rates of offspring decrease as ages-at-maturity of parents increase,
      then calculated the reaction norm by varying growth rate and calculating an
      optimal age at maturity for each growth rate. The reaction norm for maturation
      should take one of at least four shapes that depend on specific relations between
      changes in growth rates and changes in adult mortality rates, juvenile mortality
      rates, or both. Most organisms should mature neither at a fixed size nor at a
      fixed age, but along an age-size trajectory. The model makes possible a clear
      distinction between the genetic and phenotypic components of variation. The
      evolved response to selection is reflected in the shape and position of the
      reaction norm. The phenotypic response of a single organism to rapid or slow
      growth is defined by the location of its maturation event as a point on the
      reaction norm. A quantitative test with data from 19 populations and species of
      fish showed that predictions were in good agreement with observations (r = 0.93,
      P < 0.0001). The predictions of the model also agreed qualitatively with observed
      phenotypic variation in age and size at maturity in humans, platyfish, fruit
      flies, and red deer. This preliminary success suggests that experiments designed
      to test the predictions directly will be worthwhile.

PMID- 28556222
TI  - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

PMID- 28556220
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION TO HOST PLANTS IN UROLEUCON (HOMOPTERA: APHIDIDAE).
AB  - The morphology of host-specific Old World Uroleucon (Homoptera: Aphididae)
      species is related to features of their host plant species (Asteraceae and
      Campanulaceae) by canonical correlation analysis. Aphid species on pubescent host
      species have longer rostra and shorter hind tarsi, adaptations for feeding and
      walking on hirsute surfaces. Also, aphid species on taller hosts are larger. The
      positive relationship between rostrum length and host trichome density is further
      supported by simple regression analyses on two species complexes. Regression
      parameters differ between groups, suggesting different responses to different
      trichome types. This morphological adaptation involves characters used
      extensively by taxonomists and could result in convergence obscuring phylogenetic
      relationships of herbivore taxa and, particularly, the relation of herbivore
      phylogeny to host phylogeny.

PMID- 28556223
TI  - INHIBITION OF FEMALE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER REMATING BY A SEMINAL FLUID PROTEIN
      (ESTERASE 6).
AB  - Recent experiments have indicated that EST 6 transferred to D. melanogaster
      females during copulation mediates a large decrease in their attractiveness
      within the first six hours after mating. This decrease in attractiveness could
      increase the male's fitness if it were associated with less frequent remating by
      their mates, because a large proportion of the first male's sperm is lost if a
      female remates within one day. Here, I confirm a strong EST 6 influence on the
      receptivity of mated females; females with EST 6+ first mates remate
      significantly less frequently between 6 and 18 hours after mating than females
      that have not received EST 6 in the ejaculate. However, the previously observed
      effect of EST 6 on the attractiveness of mated females could not be
      substantiated. Transfer of EST 6 did not lead to a significant difference in
      attractiveness between EST 6 degrees -and EST 6+ -mated females at any time
      within the first 10 hours after mating for females from either of two strains.

PMID- 28556224
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF WING DIMORPHISM IN INSECTS.
AB  - Wing-dimorphic insects are excellent subjects for a study of the evolution of
      dispersal since the nondispersing brachypterous morph is easily recognized. The
      purpose of this paper is to develop a framework within which the evolution of
      wing dimorphism can be understood. A review of the literature indicates that the
      presence or absence of wings may be controlled by a single locus, two-allele
      genetic system or a polygenic system. Both types of inheritance can be subsumed
      within a general threshold model. An increase in the frequency of a brachypterous
      morph in a population may result from an increased relative fitness of this morph
      or the emigration of the macropterous type. The abundance of wing-polymorphic
      species argues for an increased fitness of the brachypterous form. An analysis of
      the life-history characteristics of 22 species of insects indicates that the
      brachypterous morph is both more fecund and reproduces earlier that the
      macropterous morph. Unfortunately, data on males are generally lacking. It is
      suggested that suppression of wing production results when some hormone, perhaps
      juvenile hormone, exceeds a threshold value during a critical stage of
      development. Further, it is known that in the monomorphically winged species
      Oncopeltus fasciatus both flight and oviposition are regulated by the titer of
      juvenile hormone. These observations are used to construct a possible pathway for
      the evolution of wing dimorphism. This suggests that evolution to a dimorphic
      species requires both an increase in the rate of production of the wing
      suppressing hormone and a change in the threshold level at which wing and wing
      muscle production are suppressed. The stage in this evolutionary sequence that an
      organism will reach depends on the stability of the habitat.

PMID- 28556225
TI  - DINOSAURS FOR GROWN-UPS.

PMID- 28556226
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN PLANT-INSECT ASSOCIATIONS: SURVIVAL OF LEPTINOTARSA
      DECEMLINEATA POPULATIONS ON SOLANUM CAROLINENSE.
AB  - Populations of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Coleoptera:
      Chrysomelidae), from the east coast of the United States differ in their ability
      to survive on a wild host, Solanum carolinense (Solanaceae), but not on their
      most important cultivated host, Solanum tuberosum. On the wild host, the North
      Carolina population survived best, while populations from Virginia, New Jersey,
      and Connecticut exhibited uniformly low survival. Formal genetic studies of
      populations from Connecticut and North Carolina demonstrated heritable variation
      in the ability to survive on S. carolinense both between and within populations;
      the North Carolina population had the higher heritability for this trait.
      Overall, there was no genetic variation between populations or within the North
      Carolina population for survival on S. tuberosum, but such variation existed
      within the Connecticut population. Hybrids and backcrosses between these two
      lines all survived at intermediate levels, although survivorship did not appear
      to be inherited additively. Differences in survival were greater than differences
      in adult weight at emergence and development time of the survivors. Leptinotarsa
      decemlineata was first reported from North Carolina less than 100 years ago. The
      rapid expansion of L. decemlineata's host range in North Carolina is attributed
      to the poor synchrony between the insect and S. tuberosum compared to more
      northerly locations. In contrast to the prediction of a strong negative
      correlation in fitness on different host species, the ability of L. decemlineata
      to survive on S. carolinense was not correlated with that on S. tuberosum. Adult
      weight and female development time were significantly positively correlated
      across hosts. Our results are in accord with most previous studies in which
      strong negative correlations in fitness of specialized phytophagous insects
      feeding on different hosts were expected, sought, but not found.

PMID- 28556227
TI  - ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY.

PMID- 28556228
TI  - THE FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE-LOCUS HETEROZYGOSITY UNDER THE
      MULTIPLICATIVE OVERDOMINANCE AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION MODELS.
AB  - There is a growing body of literature suggesting that the fitness of an
      individual increases with the observed number of heterozygous loci. Broad
      theoretical considerations indicate that under various sorts of balancing
      selection, this is what one should generally expect in a population of multiple
      locus genotypes. To date, however, it has not been possible to distinguish
      between two potential explanations of the phenomenon. The first explanation is
      that the loci examined are themselves responsible for the fitness differences
      observed (or, equivalents, are very closely linked to those that do). The genetic
      variation in question is thought to be maintained in polymorphic equilibrium by
      some form of balancing selection. The second explanation assumes that the
      observed loci are themselves selectively irrelevant but that their heterozygosity
      reflects that of the total genome. Genomic heterozygosity is thought to be
      predictive of fitness, being an obverse measure of generalized inbreeding
      depression. We provide a formal derivation of an explicit relationship between
      fitness and multiple-locus genotype for a simple form of the first explanation,
      the multiplicative overdominance model. The inbreeding depression model is a
      degenerate special case of this more general formulation. A formal estimation and
      testing framework is constructed that should facilitate evaluation of the two
      models with empiric data on heterozygosity and fitness.

PMID- 28556229
TI  - SYMMETRY VERSUS ASYMMETRY IN SEXUAL ISOLATION EXPERIMENTS.
AB  - Two hypotheses predicting the ancestral or derived status of populations and
      based on asymmetrical mate discrimination (Kaneshiro, 1976; Watanabe and
      Kawanishi, 1979) were tested using nine laboratory populations of D. simulans, a
      highly outcrossed ancestral population, and eight populations derived from it via
      founder-flush-crash cycles. The data from individual mating tests using pairwise
      combinations of these populations fit the Kaneshiro hypothesis reasonably well,
      rejecting the Watanabe-Kawanishi hypothesis. However, more powerful tests
      rejected the Kaneshiro hypothesis for the data we analyzed. The values for
      derived females predicted by the Kaneshiro hypothesis were biased: they were
      consistently high for derived males and consistently low for ancestral males. We
      propose a hypothesis, based on variation in mating propensities and symmetrical
      mate discrimination. We assessed the power of Kaneshiro's and our hypotheses to
      predict the number of matings between derived females and derived males by
      plotting predicted vs. observed values and fitting these points to the expected
      line of unit slope passing through the origin. Predictions of our hypothesis
      explained more of the variance (r2 = 0.87) than predictions of the Kaneshiro
      model (r2 = 0.63). While asymmetrical sexual isolation undoubtedly occurs between
      some species, its existence cannot be determined simply by measuring mating
      frequencies in a single experiment.

PMID- 28556230
TI  - BODY SIZE OF INSULAR LIZARDS: A PATTERN OF HOLOCENE DWARFISM.
AB  - Until recently there have been scant historical data available to test and
      supplement studies on the evolution of body size within insular lizards. However,
      there is now an accumulating fossil record from islands which shows that numerous
      species have declined in average maximum body size since the beginning of the
      Holocene, regardless of phylogenetic afffinities, habits, or even size of the
      species itself. Coincident with decline in body size, human colonization of
      islands has permanently altered insular environments, with the consequence that
      native flora and fauna have been depleted. Indeed, the fossil record documents
      high extinction rates among insular vertebrates during the past few thousand
      years. It follows that resource deterioration may have led to the reduction of
      lizard body size, as expressed genotypically in selection for corresponding
      smaller dimensions, and phenotypically through arrested growth and development
      leading to compression of the age-class structure. The effect of human settlement
      on small islands has been underestimated, and although the consequences do not
      render completely in vain the attempts to understand ecological processes on
      them, they are of sufficient magnitude to stress caution in any assessment of a
      modern insular biota.

PMID- 28556231
TI  - GENETIC CLONAL RECOGNITION ABILITIES IN MARINE INVERTEBRATES MUST BE MAINTAINED
      BY SELECTION FOR SOMETHING ELSE.

PMID- 28556232
TI  - Decreased plasma beta-amyloid in the Alzheimer's disease APP A673T variant
      carriers.
AB  - We investigated the association of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related rare variants
      APP A673T and ABCA7 rs200538373-C with the levels of beta-amyloid (Abeta) and
      parameters of metabolic and cardiovascular health in a population-based cohort of
      healthy middle-aged and elderly men. Carriers of protective APP A673T variant
      had, on average, 28% lower levels of Abeta40 and Abeta42 in plasma as compared to
      the controls and the carriers of ABCA7 rs200538373-C. This is the first report to
      show decreased Abeta levels in plasma in APP A673T carriers and thus provides
      evidence that lower Abeta levels throughout life may be protective against AD.
      Ann Neurol 2017;82:128-132.

PMID- 28556234
TI  - Diagnostic imaging of oronasal fistulas in a dachshund.
AB  - Oronasal fistula development is described anecdotally as a common disease process
      in the dachshund but little is known about its imaging appearance. This case
      report describes the clinical presentation, computed tomography (CT)
      characterisation, dental radiograph confirmation and treatment of bilateral
      oronasal fistulas in a 14-year-old dachshund.

PMID- 28556233
TI  - Poor peripheral blood stem cell mobilization affects long-term outcomes in
      multiple myeloma patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) mobilization is routinely
      undertaken prior to autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with
      multiple myeloma (MM). A number of studies have identified risk factors for poor
      PBSC mobilization, however, little data exists to correlate mobilization with
      disease-specific outcomes in this patient population. Prospective work in MM has
      demonstrated similar outcomes in a homogenous patient population. METHODS: In
      this single institution analysis, we retrospectively studied the impact of poor
      PBSC mobilization on progression free survival (PFS) and OS in MM patients
      undergoing PBSC mobilization. Poor mobilizers are defined as patients that
      collected < 4 * 106 CD34+ cells/kg over maximum of 5 apheresis days, or those
      that required >=2 mobilization cycles to achieve this target. RESULTS: We confirm
      that poor PBSC mobilization is significantly associated with a shortened PFS (P =
      .0012) and OS (P = .0005) compared with good mobilizers. Our univariate analysis
      also shows that independent risk factors for poor mobilization include male
      gender, higher ideal body weight, and a greater median number of lines of
      chemotherapy prior to PBSC mobilization. However, by multivariate analysis, only
      number of prior lines of chemotherapy remains significantly predictive of poor
      mobilization (Odds ratio 1.857, P = .0095). The use of high-dose G-CSF (> 10
      mcg/kg/day) and/or plerixafor can significantly improve mobilization and ASCT
      chances in this population. DISCUSSION: These data indicate that poor
      mobilization can be predictable and is associated with more aggressive disease
      biology and worse outcomes, warranting intensive post-ASCT management.

PMID- 28556235
TI  - Genotoxicity testing approaches for the safety assessment of substances used in
      food contact materials prior to their authorization in the European Union.
AB  - Food contact materials are all materials and articles intended to come directly
      or indirectly into contact with food. Before being included in the positive
      European "Union list" of authorized substances (monomers, other starting
      substances and additives) for plastic food contact materials, the European Food
      Safety Authority (EFSA) must assess their safety "in use". If relevant for risk,
      the safety of the main impurities, reaction and degradation products originating
      from the manufacturing process is also evaluated. Information on genotoxicity is
      always required irrespective of the extent of migration and the resulting human
      exposure, in view of the theoretical lack of threshold for genotoxic events. The
      2008 EFSA approach, requiring the testing of food contact materials in three in
      vitro mutagenicity tests, though still acceptable, is now superseded by the 2011
      EFSA Scientific Committee's recommendation for only two complementary tests
      including a bacterial gene mutation test and an in vitro micronucleus test, to
      detect two main genetic endpoints (i.e., gene mutations and chromosome
      aberrations). Follow-up of in vitro positive results depends on the type of
      genetic effect and on the substance's systemic availability. In this study, we
      provide an analysis of the data on genotoxicity testing gathered by EFSA on food
      contact materials for the period 1992-2015. We also illustrate practical examples
      of the approaches that EFSA took when evaluating "non standard" food contact
      chemicals (e.g., polymeric additives, oligomer or other reaction mixtures, and
      nanosubstances). Additionally, EFSA's experience gained from using non testing
      methods and/or future possibilities in this area are discussed. Environ. Mol.
      Mutagen. 58:361-374, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556236
TI  - Osteoporosis in Crisis: It's Time to Focus on Fracture.
AB  - A crisis in osteoporosis treatment exists; the majority of those who sustain
      fracture do not receive treatment to reduce future fracture risk. This crisis
      presents an opportunity to focus the field from osteoporosis to fracture, the
      outcome of consequence. Proposed here is a change in focus suggesting that 1)
      attempts to define the level of trauma leading to fracture are counterproductive
      and that all fractures in older adults merit consideration of evaluation and 2)
      bone loss is not the entire problem but rather part of a broader syndrome
      including osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and other factors leading to fracture. With
      this approach, all fractures in older adults should be evaluated for potential
      lifestyle, non-pharmacological, and pharmacological interventions that could be
      implemented to reduce the risk of fracture recurrence. (c) 2017 American Society
      for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28556238
TI  - X-inactive specific transcript RNA in-situ hybridization as a tool for resolving
      specimen contamination events.

PMID- 28556237
TI  - Characteristics and outcomes of patients with profound hyponatraemia due to
      primary polydipsia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hyponatraemia due to excessive fluid intake (ie primary polydipsia
      [PP]) is common. It may culminate in profound hyponatraemia-carrying considerable
      risk of morbidity. However, data on patients with PP leading to hyponatraemia are
      lacking. Herein, we describe the characteristics of polydiptic patients
      hospitalized with profound hyponatraemia and assess 1-year outcomes. DESIGN:
      Substudy of the prospective observational Co-MED Study. PATIENTS: Patients with
      an episode of profound hyponatraemia (<=125 mmol/L) due to PP in the medical
      emergency were eligible and classified into psychogenic polydipsia (PsyP),
      dipsogenic polydipsia (DiP) and beer potomania (BP). MEASUREMENTS: Symptoms,
      laboratory findings and factors contributing to hyponatraemia (comorbidities,
      medication and liquid intake) were assessed. A 1-year follow-up was performed to
      evaluate recurrence of hyponatraemia, readmission rate and mortality. RESULTS:
      Twenty-three patients were included (median age 56 years [IQR 50-65], 74%
      female), seven had PsyP, eight had DiP and eight had BP. Median serum sodium of
      all patients was 121 mmol/L (IQR 114-123), median urine osmolality 167 mmol/L
      (IQR 105-184) and median copeptin 3.6 mmol/L (IQR 1.9-5.5). Psychiatric
      diagnoses, particularly dependency disorder (43%) and depression (35%), were
      highly prevalent. Factors provoking hyponatraemia were found in all patients (eg
      acute water load, medication, stress). During the follow-up period, 67% of
      patients were readmitted, 52% of these with rehyponatraemia, and three patients
      (38%) with BP died. CONCLUSION: Patients with PP are more likely to be female and
      to have addictive and affective disorders. Given the high recurrence,
      rehospitalization and mortality rate, careful monitoring and long-term follow-up
      including controls of serum sodium, education and behavioural therapy are needed.

PMID- 28556239
TI  - Simplified derivation of stopping power ratio in the human body from dual-energy
      CT data.
AB  - PURPOSE: The main objective of this study is to propose an alternative
      parameterization for the empirical relation between mean excitation energies (I
      value) and effective atomic numbers (Zeff ) of human tissues, and to present a
      simplified formulation (which we called DEEDZ-SPR) for deriving the stopping
      power ratio (SPR) from dual-energy (DE) CT data via electron density (rhoe ) and
      Zeff calibration. METHODS: We performed a numerical analysis of this DEEDZ-SPR
      method for the human-body-equivalent tissues of ICRU Report 46, as objects of
      interest with unknown SPR and rhoe . The attenuation coefficients of these
      materials were calculated using the XCOM photon cross-sections database. We also
      applied the DEEDZ-SPR conversion to experimental DECT data available in the
      literature, which was measured for the tissue-characterization phantom using a
      dual-source CT scanner at 80 kV and 140 kV/Sn. RESULTS: It was found that the
      DEEDZ-SPR conversion enables the calculation of SPR simply by means of the
      weighted subtraction of an electron-density image and a low- or high-kV CT image.
      The simulated SPRs were in excellent agreement with the reference values over the
      SPR range from 0.258 (lung) to 3.638 (bone mineral-hydroxyapatite). The relative
      deviations from the reference SPR were within +/-0.6% for all ICRU-46 human
      tissues, except for the thyroid that presented a -1.1% deviation. The overall
      root-mean-square error was 0.21%. Application to experimental DECT data confirmed
      this agreement within the experimental accuracy, which demonstrates the practical
      feasibility of the method. CONCLUSIONS: The DEEDZ-SPR conversion method could
      facilitate the construction of SPR images as accurately as a recent DECT-based
      calibration procedure of SPR parameterization based directly on the CT numbers in
      a DECT data set.

PMID- 28556240
TI  - Oocyte viability and cortical activation under different salt solutions in
      Prochilodus lineatus (Teleostei: Prochilodontidae).
AB  - This study aimed to evaluate the effect of five salt solutions in the maintenance
      of morphological features of cortical alveolus, hydration and fertilization
      capacity of Prochilodus lineatus oocytes. For this purpose, five saline solutions
      were tested: Ringer's solution, Ringer's lactate solution, Hank's balanced salt
      solution (HBSS), Hank's balanced salt solution without calcium (HBSS without
      calcium) and solution for salmonid eggs. Oocytes were maintained for 2 hr in
      saline solution with controlled temperature subsequently evaluated for hydration,
      cortical activation and fertilization ability. In the evaluation of the
      fertilization ability, two controls were used: C1-fertilized oocytes after
      extrusion-and C2-oocytes kept in ovarian fluid and fertilized after 2 hr. There
      was a significant reduction in the viability of oocytes C2 (28.8% +/- 12.9%)
      compared to C1 (65.3% +/- 26.7%), and no significant differences were found
      between treatments HBSS and HBSS without calcium and C2. Only HBSS and HBSS
      without calcium maintained the non-activated state of the gametes, with a
      fertilization rate of 16.4% +/- 6.7% and 5.6% +/- 2.3%, respectively; however,
      they did not extend the viability of oocytes, such that they continued to undergo
      degradation during the storage period, similar to oocytes retained only in
      ovarian fluid.

PMID- 28556241
TI  - Carbon and oxygen minibeam radiation therapy: An experimental dosimetric
      evaluation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To perform dosimetric characterization of a minibeam collimator in both
      carbon and oxygen ion beams to guide optimal setup geometry and irradiation for
      future radiobiological studies. METHODS: Carbon and oxygen minibeams were
      generated using a prototype tungsten multislit collimator presenting line
      apertures 700 MUm wide, which are spaced 3500 MUm centre-to-centre distance
      apart. Several radiation beam spots generated the desired field size of 15 * 15
      mm2 and production of a 50 mm long spread out Bragg peak (SOBP) centered at 80 mm
      depth in water. Dose evaluations were performed with two different detectors: a
      PTW microDiamond(r) single crystal diamond detector and radiochromic films
      (EBT3). Peak-to-valley dose ratio (PVDR) values, output factors (OF), penumbras,
      and full width at half maximum (FWHM) were measured. RESULTS: Measured lateral
      dose profiles exhibited spatial fractionation of dose at depth in a water phantom
      in the expected form of peaks and valleys for both carbon and oxygen radiation
      fields. The diamond detector and radiochromic film provided measurements of PVDR
      in good agreement. PVDR values at shallow depth were about 60 and decreased to
      about 10 at 80 mm depth in water. OF in the center of the SOBP was about 0.4;
      this value is larger than the corresponding one in proton minibeam radiation
      therapy measured using a comparable collimator due to a reduced lateral
      scattering for carbon and oxygen minibeams. CONCLUSIONS: Carbon and oxygen
      minibeams may be produced by a mechanical collimator. PVDR values and output
      factors measured in this first study of these minibeam radiation types indicate
      there is potential for their therapeutic use. Optimization of minibeam collimator
      design and the number and size of focal spots for irradiation are advocated to
      improve PDVR values and dose distributions for each specific applied use.

PMID- 28556243
TI  - Anatomical study of the internal nasal branch of the infraorbital nerve:
      Application to Minimizing Nerve Damage With Surgery In and Around the Nose.
AB  - The internal nasal branch of the infraorbital nerve (ION) runs down the nose and
      around the ala to be distributed to the nasal septum and vestibule. The aim of
      this study was to measure the internal nasal branch around the ala of the nose
      and discuss its possible relevance in clinical/surgical practice. Twelve sides
      from seven specimens derived from fresh frozen and embalmed Caucasian cadaveric
      heads were dissected. The specimens included three males and four females. The
      ages of the cadavers at death ranged from 65 to 84 years. The diameter of the
      internal nasal branch, horizontal distance from the lateral contour of the ala
      (Point A) to the branch (distance H) and vertical distance from the bottom part
      of the ala (Point B) to the branch (distance V) were recorded. Distance H ranged
      from -1.6 to 1.5 mm on right sides and -1.0 to 1.5 mm on left sides. The diameter
      of the nerves at Point A ranged from 1.3 to 1.8 mm on right sides and 1.3 to 1.6
      mm on left sides. Distance V ranged from -1.5 to 1.0 mm on right sides and -2.3
      to 1.1 mm on left sides. The diameter of the nerves at Point B ranged from 0.7 to
      1.3 mm on right sides and 0.8 to 1.2 mm on left sides. The results of this study
      are the first to detail the topography of the internal nasal branch of the ION.
      Clin. Anat. 30:817-820, 2017. (c) 2017Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556242
TI  - Cerebral compensation during motor function in Friedreich ataxia: The IMAGE-FRDA
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Friedreich ataxia is characterized by progressive motor
      incoordination that is linked to peripheral, spinal, and cerebellar
      neuropathology. Cerebral abnormalities are also reported in Friedreich ataxia,
      but their role in disease expression remains unclear. METHODS: In this cross
      sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging study, 25 individuals with
      Friedreich ataxia and 33 healthy controls performed simple (self-paced single
      finger) and complex (visually cued multifinger) tapping tasks to respectively
      gauge basic and attentionally demanding motor behavior. For each task, whole
      brain functional activations were compared between groups and correlated with
      disease severity and offline measures of motor dexterity. RESULTS: During simple
      finger tapping, cerebral hyperactivation in individuals with Friedreich ataxia at
      the lower end of clinical severity and cerebral hypoactivation in those more
      severely affected was observed in premotor/ventral attention brain regions,
      including the supplementary motor area and anterior insula. Greater activation in
      this network correlated with greater offline finger tapping precision. Complex,
      attentionally demanding finger tapping was also associated with cerebral
      hyperactivation, but in this case within dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the
      executive control network and superior parietal regions of the dorsal attention
      system. Greater offline motor precision was associated with less activation in
      the dorsal attention network. DISCUSSION: Compensatory activity is evident in the
      cerebral cortex in individuals with Friedreich ataxia. Early compensation
      followed by later decline in premotor/ventral attention systems demonstrates
      capacity-limited neural reserve, while the additional engagement of higher order
      brain networks is indicative of compensatory task strategies. Network-level
      changes in cerebral brain function thus potentially serve to mitigate the impact
      of motor impairments in Friedreich ataxia. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and
      Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28556244
TI  - Coherence enhancement in quantitative susceptibility mapping by means of
      anisotropic weighting in morphology enabled dipole inversion.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate an anisotropic structural prior in morphology enabled
      dipole inversion (MEDI) for improving accuracy in quantitative susceptibility
      mapping (QSM). THEORY AND METHODS: Anisotropic weighting (AW) was devised and
      implemented to incorporate orientation information into the edge agreement in the
      MEDI method. AW performance was compared with isotropic weighting by testing and
      validating on in vivo brain multiple orientation MRI data using COSMOS and the
      (33) component of the susceptibility tensor as reference. RESULTS: Suppressing
      streaking artifacts, AW improved not only QSM image quality but also accuracy in
      terms of RMSE (root mean square error), HFEN (high frequency error norm), SSIM
      (structural similarity index), and GDA (gradient direction agreement). In
      addition, it outperformed isotropic weighting in region of interest-based
      analysis. From a computational perspective, AW was as fast as isotropic
      weighting, taking approximately the same central processing unit times.
      CONCLUSION: Using AW in MEDI improves QSM accuracy compared with isotropic
      weighting. Magn Reson Med 79:1172-1180, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for
      Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28556245
TI  - Physico-chemical properties, rheology and degree of esterification of passion
      fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) peel flour.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The peel of yellow passion fruit is as an agro-industrial waste of
      great environmental impact, representing more than 50% of the total weight of the
      fruit. For this reason, and also considering its importance as a source of
      functional components such as pectin, this organic waste is increasingly
      attracting the attention of researchers. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the physico-chemical composition and physical properties of this material, which
      may be of interest to the food industry. RESULTS: We obtained two samples of
      passion fruit peel flour applying different processes: flour without treatment
      (FWOT) and flour with treatment by maceration (FWT). It was found that the flour
      samples contain, respectively, 372.4 g kg-1 and 246.7 kg-1 of soluble fiber and,
      according to the FTIR analysis, this material corresponds to high and low
      methoxyl pectins, respectively. CONCLUSION: The flour obtained by maceration
      (FWT) offers greater benefits for industrial use, with 60% fewer tannins and
      greater thermal stability. In addition, this sample does not reabsorb moisture as
      easily, although FWOT also shows potential for use in dietary products.
      Considering the pseudoplastic properties of the flours, the application of both
      samples could be expanded to many industrial sectors. (c) 2017 Society of
      Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28556247
TI  - Enhanced quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) using real-time field control.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the potential of a real-time field-control (FC) system for
      mitigating effects of spatiotemporal field fluctuations in quantitative
      susceptibility mapping (QSM) at 7 T. METHODS: Magnitude, phase, and QSM images of
      phantoms and healthy volunteers were acquired under standard conditions and under
      induced field perturbation (FP) (phantoms: periodic water-bottle displacement;
      volunteers: deep breathing and forearm movement) with and without FC, which
      continuously detects and minimizes magnetic-field variations. RESULTS: Field
      control successfully eliminated FP-induced impairment of phantom image quality
      and deviations from a linear susceptibility increase for increasing gadolinium
      concentration in a Gd dilution series (y = 320x - 0.60, R2  = 0.93 for the scan
      with FP and FC versus y = 259x - 0.54, R2  = 0.78 for the scan with FP and no FC
      (slope literature value: 326 ppm L/mol)). Similarly, in volunteers, FC allowed a
      recovery of a FP-induced loss of identifiable brain structures and reduced the
      relative change of mean susceptibilities and standard deviations (93 +/- 53% to
      34 +/- 46%) in all regions of interests with respect to the reference scan.
      CONCLUSIONS: Real-time FC improved the delineation of brain structures and the
      match of susceptibility values with reference values obtained without FP. Magn
      Reson Med 79:770-778, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance
      in Medicine.

PMID- 28556246
TI  - Cacna1g is a genetic modifier of epilepsy in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome.
AB  - Dravet syndrome, an early onset epileptic encephalopathy, is most often caused by
      de novo mutation of the neuronal voltage-gated sodium channel gene SCN1A. Mouse
      models with deletion of Scn1a recapitulate Dravet syndrome phenotypes, including
      spontaneous generalized tonic-clonic seizures, susceptibility to seizures induced
      by elevated body temperature, and elevated risk of sudden unexpected death in
      epilepsy. Importantly, the epilepsy phenotype of Dravet mouse models is highly
      strain-dependent, suggesting a strong influence of genetic modifiers. We
      previously identified Cacna1g, encoding the Cav3.1 subunit of the T-type calcium
      channel family, as an epilepsy modifier in the Scn2aQ54 transgenic epilepsy mouse
      model. In this study, we asked whether transgenic alteration of Cacna1g
      expression modifies severity of the Scn1a+/- Dravet phenotype. Scn1a+/- mice with
      decreased Cacna1g expression showed partial amelioration of disease phenotypes
      with improved survival and reduced spontaneous seizure frequency. However,
      reduced Cacna1g expression did not alter susceptibility to hyperthermia-induced
      seizures. Transgenic elevation of Cacna1g expression had no effect on the Scn1a+/
      epilepsy phenotype. These results provide support for Cacna1g as a genetic
      modifier in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome and suggest that Cav3.1 may be a
      potential molecular target for therapeutic intervention in patients.

PMID- 28556248
TI  - Use of protocatechuic acid as the sole antioxidant in the base medium for in
      vitro culture of ovine isolated secondary follicles.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of the protocatechuic acid (PCA) as the sole
      antioxidant in the base medium for in vitro culture of ovine secondary follicles.
      Secondary follicles (200-230 MUm) were isolated and cultured in alpha-minimal
      essential medium supplemented with BSA, insulin, glutamine and hypoxanthine
      (alpha-MEM: antioxidant-free medium) or alpha-MEM also added by transferrin,
      selenium and ascorbic acid (alpha-MEM+: with antioxidant) or alpha-MEM added by
      PCA (56.25; 112.5; 225; 450; or 900 MUg/ml). Moreover, after culture, oocytes
      were matured and the chromatin configuration and DNA fragmentation were
      evaluated. After 12 days, the treatment containing 56.25 MUg/ml PCA showed higher
      percentage of normal follicles than control medium or the other treatments (p <
      .05), except for 900 MUg/ml PCA (p > .05). The antrum formation was significantly
      higher in treatments containing 56.25, 112.5 or 900 MUg/ml PCA, compared to the
      alpha-MEM and similar (p > .05) to the other treatments. The rates of fully grown
      oocytes (>=110 MUm) were similar (p > .05) among all treatments containing PCA
      and alpha-MEM+, and those were superior (p < .05) than alpha-MEM, except for 450
      MUg/ml PCA (p > .05). GSH levels and mitochondrial activity were higher (p < .05)
      in alpha-MEM+ than in alpha-MEM and similar (p > .05) to all PCA treatments. The
      rates of meiotic resumption and DNA fragmentation were similar (p > .05) among
      alpha-MEM+ and 56.25 MUg/ml PCA. In conclusion, PCA at 56.25 MUg/ml as the sole
      antioxidant added to the medium for ovine isolated secondary follicle culture
      maintains follicular survival, GSH and active mitochondria levels, meiotic
      developmental competence and DNA integrity of cultured oocytes.

PMID- 28556249
TI  - Characterization of Sodium Mobility and Binding by 23 Na NMR Spectroscopy in a
      Model Lipoproteic Emulsion Gel for Sodium Reduction.
AB  - The effects of formulation and processing parameters on sodium availability in a
      model lipid/protein-based emulsion gel were studied for purposes of sodium
      reduction. Heat-set model gels were prepared with varying levels of protein,
      lipid, and NaCl contents and high pressure homogenization treatments. Single
      quantum and double quantum-filtered 23 Na NMR spectroscopy experiments were used
      to characterize sodium mobility, structural order around "bound" (restricted
      mobility) sodium, and sodium binding, which have been correlated to saltiness
      perception in food systems previously. Total sodium mobility was lower in gels
      with higher protein or fat content, and was not affected by changes in
      homogenization pressure. The gels with increased protein, fat, or homogenization
      pressure had increased structure surrounding "bound" sodium and more relative
      "bound" sodium due to increased interfacial protein interactions. The data
      obtained in this study provide information on factors affecting sodium
      availability, which can be applied towards sodium reduction in lipid/protein
      based foods.

PMID- 28556251
TI  - Involving the public in mental health and learning disability research: Can we,
      should we, do we?
AB  - : WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: UK health policy is clear that researchers
      should involve the public throughout the research process. The public, including
      patients, carers and/or local citizens can bring a different and valuable
      perspective to the research process and improve the quality of research
      undertaken. Conducting health research is demanding with tight deadlines and
      scarce resources. This can make involving the public in research very
      challenging. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This is the first time
      the attitudes of researchers working in mental health and learning disability
      services towards PPI have been investigated. The principles of service user
      involvement in mental health and learning disability services may support PPI in
      research as a tool of collaboration and empowerment. This article extends our
      understanding of the cultural and attitudinal barriers to implementing PPI
      guidelines in mental health and learning disability services. WHAT ARE THE
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Researchers in mental health and learning disability
      services need to champion, share and publish effective involvement work.
      Structural barriers to PPI work should be addressed locally and successful
      strategies shared nationally and internationally. Where PPI guidelines are being
      developed, attention needs to be paid to cultural factors in the research
      community to win "hearts and minds" and support the effective integration of PPI
      across the whole research process. ABSTRACT: Introduction Patient and public
      involvement (PPI) is integral to UK health research guidance; however,
      implementation is inconsistent. There is little research into the attitudes of
      NHS health researchers towards PPI. Aim This study explored the attitude of
      researchers working in mental health and learning disability services in the UK
      towards PPI in health research. Method Using a qualitative methodology, semi
      structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of eight
      researchers. A framework approach was used in the analysis to generate themes and
      core concepts. Results Participants valued the perspective PPI could bring to
      research, but frustration with tokenistic approaches to involvement work was also
      evident. Some cultural and attitudinal barriers to integrating PPI across the
      whole research process were identified. Discussion Despite clear guidelines and
      established service user involvement, challenges still exist in the integration
      of PPI in mental health and learning disability research in the UK. Implications
      for practice Guidelines on PPI may not be enough to prompt changes in research
      practice. Leaders and researchers need to support attitudinal and cultural
      changes where required, to ensure the full potential of PPI in mental health and
      learning disability services research is realized. Relevance statement Findings
      suggest that despite clear guidelines and a history of service user involvement,
      there are still challenges to the integration of PPI in mental health and
      learning disability research in the UK. For countries where PPI guidelines are
      being developed, attention needs to be paid to cultural factors in the research
      community to win "hearts and minds" and support the effective integration of PPI
      across the whole research process.

PMID- 28556250
TI  - Nitric oxide induces monosaccharide accumulation through enzyme S-nitrosylation.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) is extensively involved in various growth processes and stress
      responses in plants; however, the regulatory mechanism of NO-modulated cellular
      sugar metabolism is still largely unknown. Here, we report that NO significantly
      inhibited monosaccharide catabolism by modulating sugar metabolic enzymes through
      S-nitrosylation (mainly by oxidizing dihydrolipoamide, a cofactor of pyruvate
      dehydrogenase). These S-nitrosylation modifications led to a decrease in cellular
      glycolysis enzymes and ATP synthase activities as well as declines in the content
      of acetyl coenzyme A, ATP, ADP-glucose and UDP-glucose, which eventually caused
      polysaccharide-biosynthesis inhibition and monosaccharide accumulation. Plant
      developmental defects that were caused by high levels of NO included delayed
      flowering time, retarded root growth and reduced starch granule formation. These
      phenotypic defects could be mediated by sucrose supplementation, suggesting an
      essential role of NO-sugar cross-talks in plant growth and development. Our
      findings suggest that molecular manipulations could be used to improve fruit and
      vegetable sweetness.

PMID- 28556252
TI  - Traumatic globe rupture after deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty-A novel
      management technique.
AB  - A traumatic wound dehiscence can occur many years after surgery in 2-6% of all
      keratoplasties. Intraocular tissue prolapse can lead to severe visual loss. Deep
      anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) leads to higher wound stability because of
      the intact Descemet membrane. We report a case of a novel management of wound
      dehiscence following DALK. A 59-year-old patient underwent uncomplicated DALK for
      advanced keratoconus. Eighteen months later he experienced a traumatic wound
      dehiscence (globe rupture) after a fall. Visual acuity decreased to light
      perception on the affected eye, the iris and prolapsed vitreous were
      incarcerated, and no retinal details were recognizable. The corneal graft was
      dehiscent over eight clock hours, the Descemet membrane was ruptured, and the
      stroma dissolved over 30% of its surface in a bell shape. Primary wound closure
      was performed with nylon 10-0 single interrupted corneal sutures. One day after
      emergency treatment, a 23-gauge pars-plana-vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage was
      conducted and a retinal tear was treated with laser photocoagulation. The
      Descemet membrane was repositioned using a 23 g vitrectomy probe under air and
      the globe was filled with SF6 gas. Postoperatively, visual acuity increased to
      6/15 and the cornea cleared up. Corneal graft and Descemet membrane repositioning
      after trauma can avoid a further keratoplasty and the risk of immunological
      rejection of donor endothelial cells. Clin. Anat. 31:56-59, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556253
TI  - Physical characterization of the quality of medical images does not adequately
      reflect their clinical quality.

PMID- 28556254
TI  - The Influence of pH and Sodium Hydroxide Exposure Time on Glucosamine and
      Acrylamide Levels in California-Style Black Ripe Olives.
AB  - Acrylic acid, N-acetyl-glucosamine and glucosamine were investigated for their
      role in the formation of acrylamide in California-style black ripe olives
      [CBROs]. Levels of acrylic acid and glucosamine are reported for the first time
      in fresh (333.50 +/- 21.88 and 243.59 +/- 10.06 nmol/g, respectively) and in
      brine-stored olives (184.50 +/- 6.02 and 165.88 +/- 11.51 nmol/g, respectively).
      Acrylamide levels significantly increased when acrylic acid (35.2%), N-acetyl
      glucosamine (29.9%), and glucosamine (124.0%) were added to olives prior to
      sterilization. However, isotope studies indicate these compounds do not
      contribute carbon and/or nitrogen atoms to acrylamide. The base-catalyzed
      degradation of glucosamine is demonstrated in olive pulp and a strong correlation
      (r2 = 0.9513) between glucosamine in olives before sterilization and acrylamide
      formed in processed CBROs is observed. Treatment with sodium hydroxide (pH > 12)
      significantly reduces acrylamide levels over 1 to 5 d without impacting olive
      fruit texture.

PMID- 28556255
TI  - National cohort study showed that infants with Down's syndrome faced a high risk
      of hospitalisation for the respiratory syncytial virus.
AB  - AIM: The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of hospitalisation
      in infants. We investigated this risk in children with Down's syndrome under two
      years of age, adjusted for other known risk factors. METHODS: This national,
      retrospective 1:2 matched cohort study comprised all Swedish children born with
      Down's from 2006 to 2011, who were each randomly matched to two controls without
      Down's. Data on RSV hospitalisation and risk factors for RSV were obtained from
      national registers. The risk of RSV hospitalisation was assessed using
      multivariable Cox regression with pairwise stratification. RESULTS: The study
      comprised 814 children with Down's and 1628 controls. We found that 82 children
      with Down's (10.1%) and 22 controls (1.4%) were hospitalised for RSV. The hazard
      ratio for children with Down's was 4.00 (95% confidence interval 1.58-10.13) for
      up to one year of age and 6.60 (95% CI: 2.83-15.38) for up to two years of age,
      adjusted for other risk factors. During the second year of life, RSV
      hospitalisation continued for children with Down's, while it was minimal for the
      controls. CONCLUSION: Children with Down's faced a high risk of RSV
      hospitalisation, which continued beyond the first year of age.

PMID- 28556256
TI  - Two-step inversion with a logarithmic transformation for microwave breast
      imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: The authors have developed a new two-step microwave tomographic image
      reconstruction process specifically designed to incorporate logarithmic
      transformed microwave imaging algorithms as a means of significantly improving
      spatial resolution and target property recovery. Log transform eliminates the
      need for a priori information, but spatial filtering often integrated as part of
      the regularization required to stabilize image recovery, generally smooths image
      features and reduces object definition. The new implementation begins with this
      smoothed image as the first step, but then utilizes it as the starting estimate
      for a second step which continues the iterative process with a standard weighted
      Euclidean distance regularization. The penalty term of the latter restricts the
      new image to a multi-dimensional location close to the original but allows the
      algorithm to optimize the image without excessive smoothing. METHODS: The overall
      approach is based on a Gauss-Newton iterative scheme which incorporates a log
      transformation as a way of making the reconstruction more linear. It has been
      shown to be robust and not require a priori information as a condition for
      convergence, but does produce somewhat smoothed images as a result of associated
      regularization. The new two-step process utilizes the previous technique to
      generate a smoothed initial estimate and then uses the same reconstruction
      process with a weighted Euclidean distance penalty term. A simple and repeatable
      method has been implemented to determine the weighting factor without significant
      computational burden. The reconstructions are assessed according to conventional
      parameter estimation metrics. RESULTS: We apply the approach to phantom
      experiments using large, high contrast canonical shapes followed by a set of
      images recovered from an actual patient exam. The image improvements are
      substantial in regards to improved property recovery and feature delineation
      without inducing unwanted artifacts. Analysis of the residual vector after the
      reconstruction process further emphasizes that the minimization criterion is
      efficient with minimal biases. CONCLUSIONS: The outcome is a novel synergism of
      an established stable reconstruction algorithm with a conventional regularization
      technique. It maintains the ability to recover high quality microwave tomographic
      images without the bias of a priori information while substantially improving
      image quality. The results are confirmed on both phantom experiments and patient
      exams.

PMID- 28556257
TI  - Hierarchically Enhanced Impact Resistance of Bioinspired Composites.
AB  - An order of magnitude tougher than nacre, conch shells are known for being one of
      the toughest body armors in nature. However, the complexity of the conch shell
      architecture creates a barrier to emulating its cross-lamellar structure in
      synthetic materials. Here, a 3D biomimetic conch shell prototype is presented,
      which can replicate the crack arresting mechanisms embedded in the natural
      architecture. Through an integrated approach combining simulation, additive
      manufacturing, and drop tower testing, the function of hierarchy in conch shell's
      multiscale microarchitectures is explicated. The results show that adding the
      second level of cross-lamellar hierarchy can boost impact performance by 70% and
      85% compared to a single-level hierarchy and the stiff constituent, respectively.
      The overarching mechanism responsible for the impact resistance of conch shell is
      the generation of pathways for crack deviation, which can be generalized to the
      design of future protective apparatus such as helmets and body armor.

PMID- 28556258
TI  - Extramedullary disease at diagnosis of AML does not influence outcome of patients
      undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant in CR1.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Extramedullary disease (EMD) at diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia
      (AML) has been associated with increased risk of relapse and worse outcomes post
      chemotherapy. This study sought to investigate the association of EMD with
      outcomes following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT).
      METHODS: This single-center retrospective study investigated the impact of EMD at
      diagnosis on the outcome of patients transplanted for AML in first complete
      remission (CR1). The study included 303 consecutive patients with AML
      transplanted in CR1, median age 51 years (range 18-71). RESULTS: EMD at diagnosis
      was documented in 39 patients (13%), either histologically (26 patients) or
      clinically/radiologically (13 patients). Among the 39 EMD patients, 16 had CNS
      disease, seven had gingival infiltration, and five had leukemia cutis. On
      univariate analysis, EMD had no significant impact on survival, with a 3-year OS
      of 55% (95% CI 38-69) compared to 48% for the non-EMD group (95% CI 42%-55%)
      (P=.84). Likewise, 3-year CIR was 18% vs 19% (P=.86) and 3-year NRM was 26% vs
      33% (P=.83) for EMD vs non-EMD groups, respectively. Multivariate analysis
      confirmed these results. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that EMD at diagnosis of AML
      does not seem to influence outcomes following allo-HCT performed in CR1.

PMID- 28556260
TI  - Metal-Ligand Complex-Induced Ultrafast Charge-Carrier Relaxation and Charge
      Transfer Dynamics in CdX (X=S, Se, Te) Quantum Dots Sensitized with
      Nitrocatechol.
AB  - The present work describes the effect of interfacial complex formation on charge
      carrier dynamics in CdX (X=S, Se, Te) quantum dots (QDs) sensitized nitro
      catechol (NCAT). To compare experiments were also carried out with catechol (CAT)
      where no such complexation was observed. Time-resolved emission studies suggest
      faster charge separation in CdS(Se)/NCAT system as compared to CdS(Se)/CAT
      although change in Gibbs free energy for hole transfer is less in former as
      compared to later. This suggests that complex formation favours charge
      separation. Similar studies were also carried out in CdTe/NCAT system where hole
      transfer process was not viable thermodynamically but due to complex formation
      charge separation was observed. Femtosecond transient absorption studies have
      been carried out to monitor charge carrier dynamics in early time scale.
      Transient studies show faster electron cooling in QDs/NCAT system as compared to
      pure QDs and has been assigned to the complex formation on QDs surface.
      Interestingly charge recombination dynamics is much faster in QDs/NCAT system as
      compared to pure QDs which can be attributed to the stronger coupling between QDs
      and NCAT. Our results suggest a strong metal-ligand complex formation on QDs
      surface that controls charge carrier dynamics in QDs/molecular adsorbate system
      and to the best of our knowledge it has never been reported.

PMID- 28556259
TI  - Phenobarbital and midazolam increase neonatal seizure-associated neuronal injury.
AB  - Status epilepticus is common in neonates and infants, and is associated with
      neuronal injury and adverse developmental outcomes. gamma-Aminobutyric acidergic
      (GABAergic) drugs, the standard treatment for neonatal seizures, can have
      excitatory effects in the neonatal brain, which may worsen the seizures and their
      effects. Using a recently developed model of status epilepticus in postnatal day
      7 rat pups that results in widespread neuronal injury, we found that the GABAA
      agonists phenobarbital and midazolam significantly increased status epilepticus
      associated neuronal injury in various brain regions. Our results suggest that
      more research is needed into the possible deleterious effects of GABAergic drugs
      on neonatal seizures and on excitotoxic neuronal injury in the immature brain.
      Ann Neurol 2017;82:115-120.

PMID- 28556262
TI  - The test of time: a history of clock drawing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The clock drawing test (CDT) has become one of the most widely used
      cognitive screening instruments in clinical and research settings. Its
      effectiveness, acceptability, and quick and easy administration have made it a
      staple for cognitive screening in dementia and a wide range of brain disorders.
      Despite a spike in popularity since the 1990s, its origins are relatively
      unknown. The goal of this review is to chronicle its saga and chart its usage
      over time. METHODS: PsycInfo, Medline, and PubMed literature searches were
      performed from earliest record to June 2016, in addition to manual cross
      referencing of bibliographies, with a focus before 1990. Summary of relevant
      articles and books up until 1989 is included, as well as clinical applications
      and surveys that track CDT usage over time. RESULTS: While MacDonald Critchley's
      well-known textbook from 1953, The Parietal Lobes, is often cited as the first
      mention of the CDT, its recorded use actually stretches back more than a century
      to 1915. A review of the literature shows that the CDT began as a test for
      aphasia-related disorders and constructional apraxia until its entry into
      contemporary cognitive screening in the 1980s when it primarily became a
      cognitive screen. Its usage took off in 1989 with over 2000 publications since.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite a fairly obscure existence for decades, the CDT has emerged
      as an effective and ideal cognitive screening instrument for a wide range of
      conditions. Its use continues to increase, and it has been incorporated into
      several widely used cognitive screening batteries. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley
      & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556261
TI  - Technical Note: Angular dependence of a 2D monolithic silicon diode array for
      small field dosimetry.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the 2D monolithic silicon diode array
      size of 52 * 52 mm2 (MP512) angular response. An angular correction method has
      been developed that improves the accuracy of dose measurement in a small field.
      METHODS: The MP512 was placed at the center of a cylindrical phantom, irradiated
      using 6 MV and 10 MV photons and incrementing the incidence of the beam angle in
      15 degrees  steps from 0 degrees  to 180 degrees , and then in 1 degrees  steps
      between 85 degrees  and 95 degrees . The MP512 response was characterized for
      square field sizes varying between 1 * 1 cm2 and 10 * 10 cm2 . The angular
      correction factor was obtained as the ratio of MP512 response to EBT3 film
      measured doses as a function of the incidence angle (O) and was normalized at 0
      degrees  incidence angle. Beam profiles of the corrected MP512 responses were
      compared with the EBT3 responses to verify the effectiveness of the method
      adopted. RESULTS: The intrinsic angular dependence of the MP512 shows maximum
      relative deviation from the response normalized to 0 degrees  of 18.5 +/- 0.5%
      and 15.5 +/- 0.5% for 6 MV and 10 MV, respectively, demonstrating that the
      angular response is sensitive to the energy. In contrast, the variation of
      angular response is less affected by field size. Comparison of cross-plane
      profiles measured by the corrected MP512 and EBT3 shows an agreement within +/-2%
      for all field sizes when the beams irradiated the array at 0 degrees , 45 degrees
      , 135 degrees , and 180 degrees  angles of incidence from the normal to the
      detector plane. At 90 degrees  incidence, corresponding to a depth dose
      measurement, up to a 6% discrepancy was observed for a 1 * 1 cm2 field of 6 MV.
      CONCLUSION: An angular correction factor can be adopted for small field sizes.
      Measurements discrepancies could be encountered when irradiating with very small
      fields parallel to the detector plane. Using this approach, the MP512 is shown to
      be a suitable detector for 2D dose mapping of small field size photon beams.

PMID- 28556264
TI  - Design of a Tri-PET collimator for high-resolution whole-body mouse imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: Tri-PET refers to high-resolution 511-keV emission tomography using a
      multipinhole collimator in conjunction with lower resolution PET detectors
      operating in coincidence mode. Tri-PET is unique in that three spatial locations
      are associated with each event (two detector coordinates and one pinhole
      location). Spatial resolution and sensitivity are similar to that of 511-keV
      SPECT and are governed mainly by the collimator design. However because of a
      third spatial location in Tri-PET, the line-of-response is overdetermined. This
      feature permits new opportunities in data processing which impact collimator
      design. In particular, multiplexing can be avoided since the coincidence data
      identify the pinhole through which the photon passed. In this paper, the
      principles of Tri-PET collimator design are reviewed and then applied to the case
      of high-resolution imaging of a small animal in a clinical PET scanner. METHODS:
      The design of a 148-pinhole collimator for whole-body imaging of a mouse is
      presented. Two pinhole designs were investigated: knife-edge pinholes with 1.1 mm
      aperture and novel hyperboloidal pinholes with 1.2 mm aperture, both having 18
      degrees  cone angle. The pinhole configuration is unfocused, covering a whole
      body mouse field of view with nearly uniform sensitivity. Computer simulations
      were performed of a micro hot rods phantom imaged with this collimator in a
      clinical PET scanner. Sensitivity was estimated by simulating a point source
      centered on-axis at locations spanning a 70-mm axial range, similar to the NEMA
      NU-4 standard for whole-body mouse imaging. RESULTS: Reconstructed images of the
      hot rods phantom demonstrated the ability to resolve 1.1 mm structures with the
      knife-edge pinholes and 1.0 mm structures with the hyperboloidal pinholes.
      Sensitivity was found to be 0.093% and 0.054% for the knife-edge and
      hyperboloidal pinholes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: With a properly designed
      multipinhole collimator, high-resolution and acceptable sensitivity are
      achievable with Tri-PET using ordinary clinical PET detectors.

PMID- 28556263
TI  - Tree water dynamics in a drying and warming world.
AB  - Disentangling the relative impacts of precipitation reduction and vapour pressure
      deficit (VPD) on plant water dynamics and determining whether acclimation may
      influence these patterns in the future is an important challenge. Here, we report
      sap flux density (FD ), stomatal conductance (Gs ), hydraulic conductivity (KL )
      and xylem anatomy in pinon pine (Pinus edulis) and juniper (Juniperus monosperma)
      trees subjected to five years of precipitation reduction, atmospheric warming
      (elevated VPD) and their combined effects. No acclimation occurred under
      precipitation reduction: lower Gs and FD were found for both species compared to
      ambient conditions. Warming reduced the sensibility of stomata to VPD for both
      species but resulted in the maintenance of Gs and FD to ambient levels only for
      pinon. For juniper, reduced soil moisture under warming negated benefits of
      stomatal adjustments and resulted in reduced FD , Gs and KL . Although reduced
      stomatal sensitivity to VPD also occurred under combined stresses, reductions in
      Gs , FD and KL took place to similar levels as under single stresses for both
      species. Our results show that stomatal conductance adjustments to high VPD could
      minimize but not entirely prevent additive effects of warming and drying on water
      use and carbon acquisition of trees in semi-arid regions.

PMID- 28556265
TI  - Postinfectious olfactory loss: A retrospective study on 791 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Postinfectious olfactory loss is among the most common
      causes of olfactory impairment and has substantial negative impact on patients'
      quality of life. Recovery rates have been shown to spontaneously improve in most
      of patients, usually within 2 to 3 years. However, existing studies are limited
      by small sample sizes and short follow-up. We aimed to assess the prognostic
      factors for recovery in a large sample of 791 patients with postinfectious
      olfactory disorders. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective analysis of 791 patients with postinfectious olfactory loss.
      Olfactory functions were assessed using the Sniffin' Sticks test at the first and
      final visits (mean follow-up = 1.94 years). RESULTS: Smell test scores improved
      over time. In particular, patient's age and the odor threshold (T), odor
      discrimination (D), and odor identification (I) (TDI) score at first visit were
      significant predictors of the extent of change. The percentage of anosmic and
      hyposmic patients exhibiting clinically significant improvement was 46% and 35%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides new evidence within the
      postinfectious olfactory loss literature, shedding light on the prognostic
      factors and showing that recovery of olfactory function is very frequent, even
      many years after the infection. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:10-15,
      2018.

PMID- 28556266
TI  - Identification of stress degradation products of iloperidone using liquid
      chromatography coupled with an Orbitrap mass spectrometer.
AB  - RATIONALE: Iloperidone (ILOP) is an atypical antipsychotic drug used for the
      treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. Comprehensive stress
      testing of the ILOP drug was carried out as per ICH guidelines to understand its
      degradation profile. The presence of degradation products in a drug affects not
      only the quality, but also the safety and efficacy of drug formulation. Thus, it
      is essential to develop an efficient analytical method which can be useful for
      the separation, identification and characterization of all possible degradation
      products of ILOP. METHODS: ILOP was subjected to various stress conditions such
      as acidic, basic, neutral hydrolysis, oxidation, photolysis and thermal
      conditions; and the resulting degradation products were investigated using LC-PDA
      HRMS and MS/MS. An efficient and simple ultra-high-performance liquid
      chromatography (UHPLC) method has been developed on Acquity UPLC(r) BEH C18
      column (2.1 * 100mm, 1.7 MUm) using a gradient elution of heptafluorobutyric acid
      (0.1% HFBA) and acetonitrile as mobile phase. RESULTS: ILOP was found to degrade
      under acidic and basic hydrolysis and oxidative stress conditions, whereas it was
      stable under neutral hydrolysis, thermal and photolytic conditions. A total of
      seven degradation products (DP1 to DP7) were identified and characterized by
      LC/MS/MS in positive ion mode with accurate mass measurements. The hydrolytic
      degradation under acidic and basic conditions produced two DPs (DP1 and DP2) and
      four DPs (DP4 to DP7), respectively, whereas DP3 was formed under oxidative
      conditions. In silico toxicity predictions showed higher probability values for
      DP4, DP6 and DP7, which indicates these DPs have the potential to mutate DNA.
      CONCLUSIONS: ILOP was found to be labile under hydrolytic and oxidative
      conditions. The structures of the degradation products were rationalized by
      appropriate mechanisms. The proposed method can be effectively used for the
      determination and detection of ILOP and its degradation products.

PMID- 28556267
TI  - Isomerization, Ring Expansion, and Ring Contraction of 1,3-Diphosphete Complexes.
AB  - Reactions between the 1,3-diphosphete complex [Cp'''Co(eta4 -P2 C2 tBu2 )] (1)
      and Ag[Al{OC(CF3 )3 }4 ] (Ag[pftb]) were carried out under different conditions.
      In CH2 Cl2 , the unprecedented 1,2-diphosphete isomerization product [Ag2
      {Cp'''Co(MU,eta4 :eta1 :eta1 -1,2-P2 C2 tBu2 )}2 {Cp'''Co(MU,eta4 :eta1 -1,2-P2
      C2 tBu2 )}2 ]?2[pftb] (2) could be isolated. In diffusion experiments of 1 in n
      hexane with Ag[pftb] in CH2 Cl2 , the triphosphacobaltocenium complex
      [Cp'''Co(eta5 -P3 C2 tBu2 )][pftb] (4) and the phosphirenylium complex
      [Cp'''Co(eta3 -PC2 tBu2 )][pftb] (5) were obtained, showing a ring expansion and
      a ring contraction, respectively, under mild conditions. Moreover, addition of
      pyridine to the Ag complex 2 led to the new 1,2-diphosphete complex [Cp'''Co(eta4
      -1,2-P2 C2 tBu2 )] (3). Compound 3 is also formed by thermolysis of 1, making it
      a promising method for this type of isomerization. 1,2-Diphosphete complexes like
      3 are thermodynamically more stable but also synthetically more elusive than
      their 1,3-isomer counterparts.

PMID- 28556268
TI  - Incidence of nonamyloidogenic mutations in the transthyretin gene in patients
      with autonomic and small fiber neuropathy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mutations of the transthyretin (TTR) gene have been associated with
      polyneuropathy; the protein product has a tendency to form amyloid deposits in
      the peripheral nervous system. METHODS: Patients with small fiber neuropathy
      (SFN) with or without autonomic symptoms were given skin biopsies to assess nerve
      fiber density. Any patient with autonomic symptoms was assessed for autonomic
      neuropathy (AN). If testing revealed no clear cause of neuropathy, the TTR gene
      was sequenced. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent of patients were found to harbor at
      least 1 mutation in the TTR gene sequence (variants of unknown significance
      [VUS]). Of 24 patients diagnosed with SFN, 8% of patients had a point mutation
      (c76G>A). Of those patients who were diagnosed with both SFN and AN, 68% of
      patients had a VUS within the TTR gene (c76G>A, c337-18G>C). CONCLUSIONS: The
      results suggest an association between presumed nonamyloidogenic mutations in the
      TTR gene and the development of AN and SFN. Muscle Nerve 57: 140-142, 2017.

PMID- 28556269
TI  - Cervical varices: An unusual source of first-trimester hemorrhage.
AB  - Endocervical varices are a rare cause of obstetrical hemorrhage. Usually
      presenting in the second and third trimesters, bleeding varices often require
      pregnancy termination or indicated preterm birth via cesarean delivery. Our
      patient experienced variceal hemorrhage at 12 weeks' gestation in a dichorionic
      twin pregnancy conceived through in vitro fertilization. A low-lying placenta
      resolved at 19 weeks followed by variceal regression at 22 weeks' gestation.
      Endocervical varices causing first-trimester hemorrhage may regress with
      resolution of a coexisting low placental implantation, permitting planned vaginal
      delivery, despite progressive hemodynamic changes of pregnancy. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 46:218-221, 2018.

PMID- 28556270
TI  - Premature ejaculation is not a disease.

PMID- 28556271
TI  - Translocation of cell-penetrating peptides into Candida fungal pathogens.
AB  - Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are small peptides capable of crossing cellular
      membranes while carrying molecular cargo. Although they have been widely studied
      for their ability to translocate nucleic acids, small molecules, and proteins
      into mammalian cells, studies of their interaction with fungal cells are limited.
      In this work, we evaluated the translocation of eleven fluorescently labeled
      peptides into the important human fungal pathogens Candida albicans and C.
      glabrata and explored the mechanisms of translocation. Seven of these peptides
      (cecropin B, penetratin, pVEC, MAP, SynB, (KFF)3 K, and MPG) exhibited
      substantial translocation (>80% of cells) into both species in a concentration
      dependent manner, and an additional peptide (TP-10) exhibiting strong
      translocation into only C. glabrata. Vacuoles were involved in translocation and
      intracellular trafficking of the peptides in the fungal cells and, for some
      peptides, escape from the vacuoles and localization in the cytosol were
      correlated to toxicity toward the fungal cells. Endocytosis was involved in the
      translocation of cecropin B, MAP, SynB, MPG, (KFF)3 K, and TP-10, and cecropin B,
      penetratin, pVEC, and MAP caused membrane permeabilization during translocation.
      These results indicate the involvement of multiple translocation mechanisms for
      some CPPs. Although high levels of translocation were typically associated with
      toxicity of the peptides toward the fungal cells, SynB was translocated
      efficiently into Candida cells at concentrations that led to minimal toxicity.
      Our work highlights the potential of CPPs in delivering antifungal molecules and
      other bioactive cargo to Candida pathogens.

PMID- 28556272
TI  - Up to 89% of neonates received antibiotics in cross-sectional Indian study
      including those with no infections and unclear diagnoses.
AB  - AIM: There is a global lack of data on antibiotic prescribing for neonates. This
      study compared antibiotic prescribing practices in the neonatal intensive care
      units (NICUs) of two private-sector, tertiary-level hospitals. METHODS: A three
      year, cross-sectional study was conducted from 2008 to 2011 in the NICUs of a
      teaching and nonteaching hospital in the Ujjain district of India. The data were
      analysed using methods recommended by the World Health Organization. RESULTS: Of
      the 1789 inpatients, 89% (1399/1572) in the nonteaching hospital and 71%
      (154/217) in the teaching hospital were prescribed antibiotics and 123 patients
      died. All the antibiotics were prescribed empirically and cephalosporins and
      aminoglycosides were the most commonly prescribed subclasses. Fixed-dose
      combinations of cephalosporins were commonly prescribed in the nonteaching
      hospital. Neonatal sepsis was the most common diagnosis, in more than 30% of
      patients, and more than 93% neonates with sepsis were prescribed antibiotics. In
      addition, 40% of neonates in the nonteaching hospital were admitted for
      observation and were frequently prescribed antibiotics. CONCLUSION: These two
      Indian NICUs prescribed antibiotics for noninfectious or unclear diagnoses in
      addition to prescribing combinations of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Such
      practices increase the global risk of treatment failure, neonatal mortality rates
      and antibiotic resistance.

PMID- 28556273
TI  - Tracking and Analyzing Individual Distress Following Terrorist Attacks Using
      Social Media Streams.
AB  - Risk research has theorized a number of mechanisms that might trigger, prolong,
      or potentially alleviate individuals' distress following terrorist attacks. These
      mechanisms are difficult to examine in a single study, however, because the
      social conditions of terrorist attacks are difficult to simulate in laboratory
      experiments and appropriate preattack baselines are difficult to establish with
      surveys. To address this challenge, we propose the use of computational focus
      groups and a novel analysis framework to analyze a social media stream that
      archives user history and location. The approach uses time-stamped behavior to
      quantify an individual's preattack behavior after an attack has occurred,
      enabling the assessment of time-specific changes in the intensity and duration of
      an individual's distress, as well as the assessment of individual and social
      level covariates. To exemplify the methodology, we collected over 18 million
      tweets from 15,509 users located in Paris on November 13, 2015, and measured the
      degree to which they expressed anxiety, anger, and sadness after the attacks. The
      analysis resulted in findings that would be difficult to observe through other
      methods, such as that news media exposure had competing, time-dependent effects
      on anxiety, and that gender dynamics are complicated by baseline behavior.
      Opportunities for integrating computational focus group analysis with traditional
      methods are discussed.

PMID- 28556275
TI  - Physical Injury and Somatic Complaints: The Mediating Role of Posttraumatic
      Stress Symptoms in Young Survivors of a Terror Attack.
AB  - Physically injured trauma survivors have particularly high risk for later somatic
      complaints and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, the potential
      mediating role of PTSS linking injury to later somatic complaints has been poorly
      investigated. In this study, survivors (N = 255) were interviewed longitudinally
      at 2 timepoints after the terror attack on Utoya Island, Norway, in 2011.
      Assessments included injury sustained during the attack, PTSS (after 4-5 months),
      somatic complaints (after 14-15 months), and background factors. Causal mediation
      analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential mediating role of PTSS in
      linking injury to somatic complaints comparing 2 groups of injured survivors with
      noninjured survivors. For the nonhospitalized injured versus the noninjured
      survivors, the mediated pathway was significant (average causal mediation effect;
      ACME = 0.09, p = .028, proportion = 55.8%). For the hospitalized versus the
      noninjured survivors, the mediated pathway was not significant (ACME = 0.04, p =
      .453, proportion = 11.6%). PTSS may play a significant mediating role in the
      development of somatic complaints among nonhospitalized injured trauma survivors.
      Intervening health professionals should be aware of this possible pathway to
      somatic complaints.

PMID- 28556274
TI  - A new methodological approach to adjust alcohol exposure distributions to improve
      the estimation of alcohol-attributable fractions.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To assess the burden of excessive alcohol use, researchers
      estimate alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs) routinely. However, under
      reporting in survey data can bias these estimates. We present an approach that
      adjusts for under-reporting in the estimation of AAFs, particularly within
      subgroups. This framework is a refinement of a previous method conducted by Rehm
      et al. METHODS: We use a measurement error model to derive the 'true' alcohol
      distribution from a 'reported' alcohol distribution. The 'true' distribution
      leverages per-capita sales data to identify the distribution average and then
      identifies the shape of the distribution with self-reported survey data. Data are
      from the National Alcohol Survey (NAS), the National Household Survey on Drug
      Abuse (NHSDA) and the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related
      Conditions (NESARC). We compared our approach with previous approaches by
      estimating the AAF of female breast cancer cases. RESULTS: Compared with Rehm et
      al.'s approach, our refinement performs similarly under a gamma assumption. For
      example, among females aged 18-25 years, the two approaches produce estimates
      from NHSDA that are within a percentage point. However, relaxing the gamma
      assumption generally produces more conservative evidence. For example, among
      females aged 18-25 years, estimates from NHSDA based on the best-fitting
      distribution are only 19.33% of breast cancer cases, which is a much smaller
      proportion than the gamma-based estimates of approximately 28%. CONCLUSIONS: A
      refinement of Rehm et al.'s approach to adjusting for underreporting in the
      estimation of alcohol-attributable fractions provides more flexibility. This
      flexibility can avoid biases associated with failing to account for the
      underlying differences in alcohol consumption patterns across different study
      populations. Comparisons of our refinement with Rehm et al.'s approach show that
      results are similar when a gamma distribution is assumed. However, results are
      appreciably lower when the best-fitting distribution is chosen versus gamma-based
      results.

PMID- 28556278
TI  - Acceptability of beehive products as ingredients in quinoa bars.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to develop a puffed quinoa bar with beehive
      products of high content of phenolic compounds, based on acceptability and
      perception of consumers. A rotational central composite design of three variables
      (honey, pollen and propolis) was used for food product formulation. The responses
      to optimize were sensorial acceptability and polyphenol content. Next to
      acceptability a check-all-that-apply (CATA) test was performed with 115
      consumers. Preference maps were used to relate acceptability and sensorial
      attributes of bars that cause rejection or acceptance. RESULTS: The experimental
      design determined that pollen and propolis significantly increased phenolic
      content but decreased acceptability of formulations. Preference maps established
      that attributes like astringency, bitter flavor, pungency and intense yellow
      color were associated with the low acceptability while attributes of sweetness
      and weak astringency were related to high acceptance of products. Range of
      polyphenol content determined in the widely accepted formulations was 2.15-2.91 g
      kg-1 , significantly higher than commercial products. CONCLUSION: The
      incorporation of beehive products, in quinoa bars, increased the total polyphenol
      content and the functional properties, but at the same time reduced the consumer
      acceptability. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28556277
TI  - Distribution of blood flow velocity in the normal aorta: Effect of age and
      gender.
AB  - PURPOSE: To apply flow distribution analysis in the entire aorta across a wide
      age range from pediatric to adult subjects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In all, 98
      healthy subjects (age 9-78 years, 41 women) underwent 4D flow MRI at 1.5T and 3T
      for the assessment of 3D blood flow in the thoracic aorta. Subjects were
      categorized into age groups: group 1 (n = 9, 5 women): 9-15 years; group 2 (n =
      13, 8 women): 16-20 years; group 3 (n = 27, 14 women): 21-39 years; group 4 (n =
      40, 11 women): 40-59 years; group 5 (n = 9, 3 women): >60 years. Data analysis
      included the 3D segmentation of the aorta, aortic valve peak velocity, mid
      ascending aortic diameter, and calculation of flow velocity distribution
      descriptors (mean, median, standard deviation, incidence of velocities >1 m/s,
      skewness, and kurtosis of aortic velocity magnitude). Ascending aortic diameter
      was normalized by body surface area. RESULTS: Age was significantly associated
      with normalized aortic diameter (R = 0.73, P < 0.001), skewness (R = 0.76, P <
      0.001), and kurtosis (R = 0.74, P < 0.001), all adjusted by heart rate. Aortic
      peak velocity and velocity distribution descriptors, adjusted by heart rate, were
      significantly different between age groups (P < 0.001, analysis of covariance).
      Skewness and kurtosis significantly increased (P < 0.001) during adulthood (>40
      years) as compared with childhood (<21 years). Men and women revealed significant
      differences (P <= 0.05) for peak velocity, incidence, mean, median, standard
      deviation, and skewness, all adjusted by heart rate. CONCLUSION: Aortic
      hemodynamics significantly change with age and gender, indicating the importance
      of age- and gender-matched control cohorts for the assessment of the impact of
      cardiovascular disease on aortic blood flow. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical
      Efficacy: Stage 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:487-498.

PMID- 28556276
TI  - Activation of Aedes aegypti prophenoloxidase-3 and its role in the immune
      response against entomopathogenic fungi.
AB  - Serine protease cascade-mediated melanization is an important innate immune
      response in insects and crustaceans, which involves the proteolytic activation of
      prophenoloxidase (PPO). In this study, we investigated the role of Aedes aegypti
      PPO3 in antifungal immune defence. We expressed and purified recombinant PPO3
      (rPPO3) in Escherichia coli and demonstrated that rPPO3 was activated by ethanol
      and, to a lesser extent, by cetylpyridinium chloride. In the presence of Cu2+ ,
      rPPO3 exhibited enzyme activity. Immunoblot results revealed that the rPPO3 was
      cleaved by the haemolymph from immune-challenged mosquitoes or purified Ostrinia
      furnacalis serine protease 105 in vitro. The cleaved rPPO3 converted dopamine to
      toxic intermediates that killed fungal conidia of Beauveria bassiana in vitro. In
      mosquitoes challenged with Be. bassiana, cleavage of rPPO3 produced a 50 kDa
      phenoloxidase (PO) fragment. Further analysis revealed that the survival rate of
      mosquitoes with fungal infection increased significantly following injection of
      rPPO3 into the haemocoel. Taken together, our results suggest that proteolytic
      cleavage of the mosquito PPO3 plays an important role in the antifungal immune
      response. This has led to a better understanding of the mechanism of PPO
      activation in the mosquito and the role of melanization in the antifungal immune
      response.

PMID- 28556279
TI  - Porous Aromatic Framework as an Efficient Metal-Free Electro-catalyst for Non
      enzymatic H2 O2 Sensing.
AB  - A porous aromatic framework (referred as PAF-39) based on tetrakis(4-(9H-carbazol
      9-yl)phenyl)methane has been designed and synthesized by oxidative coupling
      polymerization. PAF-39 exhibits high surface area and high heat of adsorption
      (Qst ) of CO2 . Especially, the PAF material was applied for non-enzymatic H2 O2
      sensing.

PMID- 28556280
TI  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection of T1 cancer with colonic diverticulum by pocket
      creation method.

PMID- 28556281
TI  - MRI and surgical lumbosacral trunk positioning palsy.

PMID- 28556283
TI  - Computer-aided diagnosis program for classifying the risk of hepatocellular
      carcinoma on MR images following liver imaging reporting and data system (LI
      RADS).
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) program for
      liver lesions on magnetic resonance (MR) images for classification of the risk of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following the liver imaging reporting and data
      system (LI-RADS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Liver MR images from 41 patients with
      hyperenhancing liver lesions categorized as LR 3, 4, and 5 were evaluated by two
      radiologists. The major LI-RADS features of each index liver lesion were
      recorded, including size (maximum transverse diameter), presence of
      hyperenhancement, washout appearance, and capsule appearance. A CAD program was
      implemented to register MR images at different contrast-enhancement phases,
      segment liver lesions, extract lesion features, and classify lesions according to
      LI-RADS. The LI-RADS features quantified by CAD were compared with those assessed
      by radiologists using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and receiver
      operator curve (ROC) analyses. The LI-RADS categorization between CAD and
      radiologists was evaluated using the weighted Cohen's kappa coefficient. RESULTS:
      The mean and standard deviation of the lesion diameters were 21 +/- 11 mm (range,
      7-70 mm) by radiologists and 22 +/- 11 mm (range, 8-72 mm) by CAD (ICC, 0.96
      0.97). The area under the curve (AUC) for the washout assessment by CAD was 0.79
      0.93 with sensitivity 0.69-0.82 and specificity 0.79-1. The AUC for the capsule
      assessment by CAD was 0.79-0.9 with sensitivity 0.75-0.9 and specificity 0.82
      0.96. The classifications by the radiologists and CAD coincided in 76-83% lesions
      (k = 0.57-0.71), while the agreements between radiologists were in 78% lesions (k
      = 0.59). CONCLUSION: We developed a CAD program for liver lesions on MR images
      and showed a substantial agreement in the LI-RADS-based classification of the
      risk of HCCs between the CAD and radiologists. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 Technical
      Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:710-722.

PMID- 28556282
TI  - Interspecific competition counteracts negative effects of dispersal on adaptation
      of an arthropod herbivore to a new host.
AB  - Dispersal and competition have both been suggested to drive variation in
      adaptability to a new environment, either positively or negatively. A
      simultaneous experimental test of both mechanisms is however lacking. Here, we
      experimentally investigate how population dynamics and local adaptation to a new
      host plant in a model species, the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae),
      are affected by dispersal from a stock population (no-adapted) and competition
      with an already adapted spider mite species (Tetranychus evansi). For the
      population dynamics, we find that competition generally reduces population size
      and increases the risk of population extinction. However, these negative effects
      are counteracted by dispersal. For local adaptation, the roles of competition and
      dispersal are reversed. Without competition, dispersal exerts a negative effect
      on adaptation (measured as fecundity) to a novel host and females receiving the
      highest number of immigrants performed similarly to the stock population females.
      By contrast, with competition, adding more immigrants did not result in a lower
      fecundity. Females from populations with competition receiving the highest number
      of immigrants had a significantly higher fecundity than females from populations
      without competition (same dispersal treatment) and than the stock population
      females. We suggest that by exerting a stronger selection on the adapting
      populations, competition can counteract the migration load effect of dispersal.
      Interestingly, adaptation to the new host does not significantly reduce
      performance on the ancestral host, regardless of dispersal rate or competition.
      Our results highlight that assessments of how species can adapt to changing
      conditions need to jointly consider connectivity and the community context.

PMID- 28556284
TI  - Safety and efficacy of the combination of once-daily tadalafil and alpha-1
      blocker in Japanese men with lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign
      prostatic hyperplasia: A randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of tadalafil plus alpha1 -blocker
      combination therapy in Japanese patients with lower urinary tract symptoms
      suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia. METHODS: The present multicenter,
      randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period cross-over study
      compared the effects of tadalafil and a placebo added to ongoing alpha1 -blocker
      therapy. A total of 171 Japanese patients were randomized. RESULTS: Tadalafil
      combined with an alpha1 -blocker did not decrease blood pressure in the
      orthostatic test. The only statistically significant differences in vital signs
      between the combination and monotherapy groups were diastolic blood pressure and
      pulse (P = 0.0194 and 0.0313, respectively). However, these changes were not
      considered clinically meaningful. Treatment-related adverse events occurred in
      28.1% (47/167) and 24.2% (39/161) of patients in the combination therapy and
      alpha1 -blocker monotherapy groups, respectively. Additionally, 56.7% (89/157) of
      patients preferred combination therapy to monotherapy, though this was not
      statistically significant (P = 0.0937). There was a statistically significant
      reduction in the International Prostate Symptom Score voiding subscore in the
      combination therapy group (P = 0.0442). CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent treatment with
      tadalafil and an alpha1 -blocker seems to be safe and well tolerated in Japanese
      patients with lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic
      hyperplasia. Adding tadalafil to baseline alpha1 -blocker therapy does not
      translate in adverse effects on the blood pressure. Patients tend to prefer
      combination therapy over monotherapy, and there seems to be a clinical benefit
      when using combination therapy.

PMID- 28556285
TI  - Diagnostic Performance of Sonographic Features in Patients With Biliary Atresia:
      A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of sonographic features of
      biliary atresia in patients with infantile cholestasis. METHODS: The Ovid-MEDLINE
      and EMBASE databases were searched for studies of the diagnostic performance of
      sonographic features of biliary atresia in patients with infantile cholestasis. A
      meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the
      triangular cord sign and other sonographic features in patients with biliary
      atresia. RESULTS: Seventeen eligible studies with 1444 patients were included.
      The triangular cord sign had high accuracy for diagnosing biliary atresia: the
      meta-analytic summary sensitivity and specificity were 85% (95% confidence
      interval, 77%-90%) and 97% (95% confidence interval, 94%-99%), respectively. The
      area under the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curve was
      0.97. Meta-regression analysis revealed that the cutoff thickness of the
      triangular cord sign (3 or 4 mm) was a significant factor affecting study
      heterogeneity (P < .01). The proportions of nonidentification of the gallbladder
      (GB) ranged from 0% to 53%. Abnormal GB morphologic characteristics,
      nonvisualization of the common bile duct, and the presence of hepatic subcapsular
      flow showed relatively high sensitivities and specificities. CONCLUSIONS: The
      triangular cord sign and other sonographic features, including abnormal GB
      morphologic characteristics, nonvisualization of the common bile duct, and the
      presence of hepatic subcapsular flow, had high diagnostic performance for the
      diagnosis of biliary atresia.

PMID- 28556286
TI  - A Coordination Network with Ligand-Centered Redox Activity Based on facial-[CrIII
      (2-mercaptophenolato)3 ]3- Metalloligands.
AB  - The design of redox-active metal-organic frameworks and coordination networks
      (CNs), which exhibit metal- and/or ligand-centered redox activity, has recently
      received increased attention. In this study, the redox-active metalloligand (RML)
      [Me4 N]3 fac-[CrIII (mp)3 ] (1) (mp=2-mercaptophenolato) was synthesized and
      characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, and its reversible
      ligand-centered one-electron oxidation was examined by cyclic voltammetry and
      spectroelectrochemical measurements. Since complex 1 contains O/S coordination
      sites in three directions, complexation with K+ ions led to the formation of the
      two-dimensional honeycomb sheet-structured [K3 fac-{CrIII (mp)3 }(H2 O)6 ]n (2?6
      H2 O), which is the first example of a redox-active CN constructed from a RML
      with o-disubstituted benzene ligands. Herein, we unambiguously demonstrate the
      ligand-centered redox activity of the RML within the CN 2?6 H2 O in the solid
      state.

PMID- 28556287
TI  - Differential neuronal susceptibility and apoptosis in congenital Zika virus
      infection.
AB  - To characterize the mechanism of Zika virus (ZIKV)-associated microcephaly, we
      performed immunolabeling on brain tissue from a 20-week fetus with intrauterine
      ZIKV infection. Although ZIKV demonstrated a wide range of neuronal and non
      neuronal tropism, the infection rate was highest in intermediate progenitor cells
      and immature neurons. Apoptosis was observed in both infected and uninfected
      bystander cortical neurons, suggesting a role for paracrine factors in induction
      of neuronal apoptosis. Our results highlight differential neuronal susceptibility
      and neuronal apoptosis as potential mechanisms in the development of ZIKV
      associated microcephaly, and may provide insights into the design and best timing
      of future therapy. Ann Neurol 2017;82:121-127.

PMID- 28556288
TI  - Application of Surface Click Reactions to Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance
      (LSPR) Biosensing.
AB  - Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectroscopy is an effective tool for
      sensitive, affordable, and label-free biosensing. LSPR transducers based on
      nanoparticulate Au films have been applied to biosensing of receptor-analyte
      interactions, employing primarily thiolated receptors for constructing
      biorecognition interfaces on nanostructured Au surfaces. This popular method
      suffers from a major drawback, that is, the need to prepare a thiolated receptor
      for each system used, which is typically synthetically complex and time
      consuming. Herein, we present an alternative approach based on the click reaction
      between azide and terminal alkyne, which avoids the need to synthesize thiol
      derivatized receptors and is applicable to the heterogeneous morphology of LSPR
      transducers. The receptors are tethered with an alkyne group, which is
      considerably simpler than thiolation, while producing a stable product. The
      transducer surface is modified with a layer of a commercial long-chain thiol
      azide molecule, then clicked with an alkyne-dertivatized receptor to produce the
      biorecognition interface. This method is employed for immobilization of four
      different alkyne-bearing receptor molecules on Au nano-island film based LSPR
      transducers, followed by testing of their performance in biorecognition of
      specific analytes using LSPR and FTIR spectroscopies. The results establish the
      usefulness of click chemistry for the preparation of biorecognition interfaces on
      nanostructured LSPR transducers.

PMID- 28556289
TI  - Influence of regular reporting on local Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter
      spp. sensitivity to antibiotics on consumption of antibiotics and resistance
      patterns.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Regular surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is
      an important component of multifaceted interventions directed at the problem with
      resistance of bacteria causing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in
      intensive care units (ICUs). Our aim was to analyse antimicrobial consumption and
      resistance among isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp.
      causing HAIs, before and after the introduction of mandatory reporting of
      resistance patterns to prescribers. METHODS: A retrospective observational study
      was conducted between January 2011 and December 2015, at an interdisciplinary ICU
      of the Clinical Centre Kragujevac, Serbia. The intervention consisted of
      continuous resistance monitoring of all bacterial isolates from ICU patients and
      biannual reporting of results per isolate to prescribers across the hospital.
      Both utilization of antibiotics and density of resistant isolates of P.
      aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp. were followed within the ICU. RESULTS AND
      DISCUSSION: Resistance densities of P. aeruginosa to all tested antimicrobials
      were lower in 2015, in comparison with 2011. Although isolates of Acinetobacter
      spp. had lower resistance density in 2015 than in 2011 to the majority of
      investigated antibiotics, a statistically significant decrease was noted only for
      piperacillin/tazobactam. Statistically significant decreasing trends of
      consumption were recorded for third-generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides
      and fluoroquinolones, whereas for the piperacillin/tazobactam,
      ampicillin/sulbactam and carbapenems, utilization trends were decreasing, but
      without statistical significance. In the same period, increasing trends of
      consumption were observed for tigecycline and colistin. WHAT IS NEW AND
      CONCLUSION: Regular monitoring of resistance of bacterial isolates in ICUs and
      reporting of summary results to prescribers may lead to a significant decrease in
      utilization of some antibiotics and slow restoration of P. aeruginosa and
      Acinetobacter spp. susceptibility.

PMID- 28556290
TI  - Moderate-to-high normal levels of thyrotropin is a risk factor for urinary
      incontinence and an unsuitable quality of life in women over 65 years.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between normal serum
      concentrations of thyrotropin (TSH) and urinary incontinence (IU), urinary
      infections, and quality of life in old women. Euthyroid post-menopausal women
      without sarcopenia, estrogen replacement, emotional illness, and/or cancer were
      enrolled as participants. Anthropometric indicators, serum glucose and estradiol,
      and thyroid profile were measured. Sociodemographic, clinical, physical activity,
      and quality of life (SF-36) surveys were applied. One-hour pad test and
      International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form (ICIQ-SF)
      were used to determine UI. Urinalysis was also done. In agreement with results
      from the pad test (cut-off point >=1.4 g), the ICIQ-SF reveled approximately 50%
      of incontinent women. A high percentage of women had moderate-high bacteriuria
      and urinary infections. Logistic regression analysis showed that age is a risk
      factor for both UI and urinary infection. Diabetes, number of pregnancies or
      childbirths, urinary infections, and bacteriuria did not influence the presence
      of UI. To allocate women into four groups according to their age (<65 or >=65
      years old) and TSH concentrations (0.3-1.9 or 2-10 MUUI/mL), we found that
      moderate-to-high normal levels of TSH is a risk factor for UI and a worse quality
      of life in the oldest women. Our results highlight the profit of measuring TSH
      concentrations in post-menopausal women.

PMID- 28556291
TI  - Prenatal phthalate exposure and altered patterns of DNA methylation in cord
      blood.
AB  - Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation may be a molecular mechanism through
      which environmental exposures affect health. Phthalates are known endocrine
      disruptors with ubiquitous exposures in the general population including pregnant
      women, and they have been linked with a number of adverse health outcomes. We
      examined the association between in utero phthalate exposure and altered patterns
      of cord blood DNA methylation in 336 Mexican-American newborns. Concentrations of
      11 phthalate metabolites were analyzed in maternal urine samples collected at 13
      and 26 weeks gestation as a measure of fetal exposure. DNA methylation was
      assessed using the Infinium HumanMethylation 450K BeadChip adjusting for cord
      blood cell composition. To identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) that
      may be more informative than individual CpG sites, we used two different
      approaches, DMRcate and comb-p. Regional assessment by both methods identified 27
      distinct DMRs, the majority of which were in relation to multiple phthalate
      metabolites. Most of the significant DMRs (67%) were observed for later pregnancy
      (26 weeks gestation). Further, 51% of the significant DMRs were associated with
      the di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites. Five individual CpG sites were
      associated with phthalate metabolite concentrations after multiple comparisons
      adjustment (FDR), all showing hypermethylation. Genes with DMRs were involved in
      inflammatory response (IRAK4 and ESM1), cancer (BRCA1 and LASP1), endocrine
      function (CNPY1), and male fertility (IFT140, TESC, and PRDM8). These results on
      differential DNA methylation in newborns with prenatal phthalate exposure provide
      new insights and targets to explore mechanism of adverse effects of phthalates on
      human health. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:398-410, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556292
TI  - A review of the role of sebum in the mechanism of acne pathogenesis.
AB  - Acne is one of the most common skin disorders, and its occurrence is closely
      related to many factors, including sebum secretion, hormone levels, bacterial
      infection, and inflammatory reactions. Among these, changes in sebum secretion
      are believed to be one important factor of acne. Increased sebum secretion can
      induce acne occurrence, and increasing evidence indicates sebum component changes
      are also strongly related to acne occurrence. Recently, developments in
      lipidomics have provided effective lipid analysis methods. These can help
      elucidate the effects of different types of sebum on acne occurrence and provide
      a theoretical basis for research on the mechanisms of acne pathogenesis and
      treatment.

PMID- 28556293
TI  - Bone scan index: A new biomarker of bone metastasis in patients with prostate
      cancer.
AB  - Bone scintigraphy is one of the first-line imaging modalities for the screening
      and follow up of bone metastasis in patients with prostate cancer. The amount (%)
      of bone metastasis can be calculated using a bone scan index thanks to recent
      advances in quantitative bone scintigraphy. Since an artificial neural network
      was applied for hot-spot characterization and quantitation, the bone scan index
      has become a simple, reproducible and practical means of quantifying bone
      metastasis. The bone scan index is presently considered as an imaging biomarker
      of bone metastasis. The present article summarizes the principles and application
      of bone scan index using dedicated software (EXINI bone in Europe and North
      America; BONENAVI in Japan), and the advantages and cautions of using the bone
      scan index. The bone scan index could serve as a practical marker with which to
      monitor disease progression and treatment effects in multicenter studies, and to
      manage prostate and other types of cancer in the clinical setting.

PMID- 28556294
TI  - Combined Angiography and Late Gadolinium Enhancement Acquisition to Improve
      Assessment of Pulmonary Vein Isolation for Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a Shared K-space (SharK) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      sequence that combines angiographic and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE)
      acquisitions to improve atrial wall segmentation and scar identification, and to
      develop a novel visualization method that quantifies scar encirclement of
      pulmonary veins postablation treatment for atrial fibrillation. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A SharK sequence was developed and used at 3T to image the left atrium
      in 11 patients postcryoballoon ablation. The effects of sharing k-space between
      the angiographic and LGE acquisitions on the accuracy of scar were assessed. The
      left atrial wall was segmented and points about each pulmonary vein (PV) ostia
      were projected onto a bullseye to quantitatively compare PV encirclement. The
      parameters used to quantify encirclement were varied to perform a sensitivity
      analysis. RESULTS: Compared to using a complete set of k-space, total atrial scar
      differences were significant only when sharing >75% k-space (P = 0.014), and 90%
      sensitivity and specificity for identifying scar was achieved when sharing 50% k
      space. In patients, the right PVs showed more intersubject variance in
      encirclement compared to the left PVs. A 100 degrees  anteroinferior portion of
      the left PVs was always encircled, while the superior segments of both right PVs
      was ablated in only 6/11 patients. CONCLUSION: A SharK sequence was developed to
      combine angiographic and LGE imaging for atrial wall segmentation and scar
      identification. The PV bullseye quantifies and localizes encirclement about the
      PVs. The left PVs showed a higher amount of scar encirclement and less
      variability compared to the right PVs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy:
      Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:477-486.

PMID- 28556295
TI  - Robust rankings of socioeconomic health inequality using a categorical variable.
AB  - When assessing socioeconomic health inequalities, researchers often draw upon
      measures of income inequality that were developed for ratio scale variables. As a
      result, the use of categorical data (such as self-reported health status)
      produces rankings that may be arbitrary and contingent to the numerical scale
      adopted. In this paper, we develop a method that overcomes this issue by
      providing conditions for which these rankings are invariant to the numerical
      scale chosen by the researcher. In doing so, we draw on the insight provided by
      Allison and Foster (2004) and extend their method to the dimension of
      socioeconomic inequality by exploiting the properties of rank-dependent indices
      such as Wagstaff (2002) achievement and extended concentration indices. We also
      provide an empirical illustration using the National Institute of Health Survey
      2012.

PMID- 28556296
TI  - Histological Grade and Immunohistochemical Biomarkers of Breast Cancer:
      Correlation to Ultrasound Features.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to correlate various features of breast
      cancers on ultrasound to their histological grade and immunohistochemical
      biomarkers. METHODS: Seventy-three patients with 77 invasive breast cancers,
      diagnosed between August 2011 and December 2014, were included in this
      prospective analysis. Margin, posterior features, shape, and vascularity were
      determined from ultrasound and classified according to the Breast Imaging
      Reporting and Data System lexicon. Histological grade, estrogen receptor (ER),
      progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)
      status (positive [+] or negative [-]) were determined from surgical pathology
      reports. The cancers were categorized into low grade (grades 1 or 2) and high
      grade (grade 3). Correlation of ultrasound features of the cancers to their
      histological grade and receptor status was performed. RESULTS: There were 47 low
      grade and 29 high-grade cancers. There was a significant difference in margin and
      posterior features between the low and high grade, ER + and ER-, and PR + and PR-
      (all P < .05), but not between HER2 + and HER2- cancers (both P > .05). There was
      no significant difference in shape and vascularity among the different subtypes
      (all P > .05). Spiculated margin was significantly associated with low-grade,
      ER+, PR + status; angular margin with high grade; microlobulated margin with ER-
      status; shadowing with PR + status; and enhancement with high grade, ER- status
      (all P < .05, all odds ratios >= 3.94). CONCLUSIONS: There was significant
      association of margin and posterior features of breast cancers with their
      histological grade and receptor status.

PMID- 28556297
TI  - Precise Two-Photon Photodynamic Therapy using an Efficient Photosensitizer with
      Aggregation-Induced Emission Characteristics.
AB  - Two-photon photodynamic therapy (PDT) is able to offer precise 3D manipulation of
      treatment volumes, providing a target level that is unattainable with current
      therapeutic techniques. The advancement of this technique is greatly hampered by
      the availability of photosensitizers with large two-photon absorption (TPA) cross
      section, high reactive-oxygen-species (ROS) generation efficiency, and bright two
      photon fluorescence. Here, an effective photosensitizer with aggregation-induced
      emission (AIE) characteristics is synthesized, characterized, and encapsulated
      into an amphiphilic block copolymer to form organic dots for two-photon PDT
      applications. The AIE dots possess large TPA cross section, high ROS generation
      efficiency, and excellent photostability and biocompatibility, which overcomes
      the limitations of many conventional two-photon photosensitizers. Outstanding
      therapeutic performance of the AIE dots in two-photon PDT is demonstrated using
      in vitro cancer cell ablation and in vivo brain-blood-vessel closure as examples.
      This shows therapy precision up to 5 um under two-photon excitation.

PMID- 28556298
TI  - Predictive inference for best linear combination of biomarkers subject to limits
      of detection.
AB  - Measuring the accuracy of diagnostic tests is crucial in many application areas
      including medicine, machine learning and credit scoring. The receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curve is a useful tool to assess the ability of a diagnostic
      test to discriminate between two classes or groups. In practice, multiple
      diagnostic tests or biomarkers are combined to improve diagnostic accuracy.
      Often, biomarker measurements are undetectable either below or above the so
      called limits of detection (LoD). In this paper, nonparametric predictive
      inference (NPI) for best linear combination of two or more biomarkers subject to
      limits of detection is presented. NPI is a frequentist statistical method that is
      explicitly aimed at using few modelling assumptions, enabled through the use of
      lower and upper probabilities to quantify uncertainty. The NPI lower and upper
      bounds for the ROC curve subject to limits of detection are derived, where the
      objective function to maximize is the area under the ROC curve. In addition, the
      paper discusses the effect of restriction on the linear combination's
      coefficients on the analysis. Examples are provided to illustrate the proposed
      method. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556299
TI  - Use of oxygen isotopes to differentiate between nitrous oxide produced by fungi
      or bacteria during denitrification.
AB  - RATIONALE: Fungal denitrifiers can contribute substantially to N2 O emissions
      from arable soil and show a distinct site preference for N2 O (SP(N2 O)). This
      study sought to identify another process-specific isotopic tool to improve
      precise identification of N2 O of fungal origin by mass spectrometric analysis of
      the N2 O produced. METHODS: Three pure bacterial and three fungal species were
      incubated under denitrifying conditions in treatments with natural abundance and
      stable isotope labelling to analyse the N2 O produced. Combining different
      applications of isotope ratio mass spectrometry enabled us to estimate the oxygen
      (O) exchange accelerated by denitrifying enzymes and the ongoing microbial
      pathway in parallel. This experimental set-up allowed the determination of
      delta18 O(N2 O) values and isotopic fractionation of O, as well as SP(N2 O)
      values, as a perspective to differentiate between microbial denitrifiers.
      RESULTS: Oxygen exchange during N2 O production was lower for bacteria than for
      fungi, differed between species, and depended also on incubation time. Apparent O
      isotopic fractionation during denitrification was in a similar range for bacteria
      and fungi, but application of the fractionation model indicated that different
      enzymes in bacteria and fungi were responsible for O exchange. This difference
      was associated with different isotopic fractionation for bacteria and fungi.
      CONCLUSIONS: delta18 O(N2 O) values depend on isotopic fractionation and isotopic
      fractionation may differ between processes and organism groups. By comparing
      SP(N2 O) values, O exchange and the isotopic signature of precursors, we propose
      here a novel tool for differentiating between different sources of N2 O.

PMID- 28556301
TI  - Supraventricular tachycardia after withdrawal of prolonged dexmedetomidine
      infusion in a paediatric patient without heart disease.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been reported to be safe
      in paediatric patients. CASE DESCRIPTION: We present the case of a girl without
      heart disease admitted at our PICU due to an influenza A acute respiratory
      distress syndrome, who suffered a paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT)
      twelve hours after DEX progressive withdrawal was completed. WHAT IS NEW AND
      CONCLUSION: This is the first report of PSVT as an adverse reaction to DEX in a
      paediatric patient without heart disease.

PMID- 28556300
TI  - Development of protein degradation inducers of oncogenic BCR-ABL protein by
      conjugation of ABL kinase inhibitors and IAP ligands.
AB  - Chromosomal translocation occurs in some cancer cells, which results in the
      expression of aberrant oncogenic fusion proteins that include BCR-ABL in chronic
      myelogenous leukemia (CML). Inhibitors of ABL tyrosine kinase, such as imatinib
      and dasatinib, exhibit remarkable therapeutic effects, although emergence of drug
      resistance hampers the therapy during long-term treatment. An alternative
      approach to treat CML is to downregulate the BCR-ABL protein. We have devised a
      protein knockdown system by hybrid molecules named Specific and Non-genetic
      inhibitor of apoptosis protein [IAP]-dependent Protein Erasers (SNIPER), which is
      designed to induce IAP-mediated ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of
      target proteins, and a couple of SNIPER(ABL) against BCR-ABL protein have been
      developed recently. In this study, we tested various combinations of ABL
      inhibitors and IAP ligands, and the linker was optimized for protein knockdown
      activity of SNIPER(ABL). The resulting SNIPER(ABL)-39, in which dasatinib is
      conjugated to an IAP ligand LCL161 derivative by polyethylene glycol (PEG) * 3
      linker, shows a potent activity to degrade the BCR-ABL protein. Mechanistic
      analysis suggested that both cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP1)
      and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) play a role in the degradation
      of BCR-ABL protein. Consistent with the degradation of BCR-ABL protein, the
      SNIPER(ABL)-39 inhibited the phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator
      of transcription 5 (STAT5) and Crk like proto-oncogene (CrkL), and suppressed the
      growth of BCR-ABL-positive CML cells. These results suggest that SNIPER(ABL)-39
      could be a candidate for a degradation-based novel anti-cancer drug against BCR
      ABL-positive CML.

PMID- 28556302
TI  - The contribution of alcohol use and other behavioural, material and social
      factors to socio-economic differences in alcohol-related disorders in a Swedish
      cohort.
AB  - AIMS: We estimated the degree to which the relationship between socio-economic
      position (SEP) and alcohol-related disorders is attenuated after adjustment for
      levels and patterns of drinking, behavioural, material and social factors.
      DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study with baseline in 2002, with linkage to
      register data on patient care and deaths in 2002-11 to yield the outcome
      measures. SETTING: Stockholm County, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Respondents to
      baseline survey aged 25-64 (n = 17 440) with information on all studied
      covariates. MEASUREMENTS: Occupational class was the studied SEP indicator and a
      combined measure of volume of weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of heavy
      episodic drinking, smoking, employment status, income, social support, marital
      status and education, all at baseline, were the studied covariates. Alcohol
      related disorders (n = 388) were indicated by first register entries on alcohol
      related medical care or death during the follow-up. FINDINGS: Unskilled workers
      had an approximately four times greater risk of alcohol-related disorders than
      higher non-manual employees, hazard ratio (HR) = 4.08 (2.78, 5.98). After
      adjustment for alcohol use, the SEP difference in risk for alcohol-related harm
      fell by a fourth for the same group, HR = 2.91 (1.96, 4.33). The difference was
      reduced further when behavioural factors and material factors were taken into
      account, HR = 2.09 (1.34, 3.26), whereas adjusting for social factors and
      attained education resulted in smaller reductions. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic
      differences in alcohol use explain one fourth of the socio-economic position
      differences in alcohol-related disorders in Stockholm, Sweden. Hazardous alcohol
      use and other behavioural, material and social factors together explain nearly
      60% of the socio-economic position differences in alcohol-related disorders.

PMID- 28556303
TI  - Screening approach for identifying candidate drugs and drug-drug interactions
      related to hip fracture risk in persons with Alzheimer disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess whether a "drugome-wide" screen with case-crossover design is
      a feasible approach for identifying candidate drugs and drug-drug interactions.
      METHODS: All community-dwelling residents of Finland who received a clinically
      verified Alzheimer disease diagnosis in 2005 to 2011 and experienced incident hip
      fracture (HF) afterwards (N = 4851). Three scenarios were used to test the
      sensitivity of this approach (1) hazard period 0 to 30 and control period 31 to
      61 days before HF, (2) hazard period 0 to 30 and control period 336 to 366 days
      before HF, and (3) hazard period 0 to 14 and control period 16 to 30 days before
      HF. RESULTS: Nine, 44, and 5 drugs were associated with increased HF risk and 8,
      23, and 4 with decreased risk in scenarios 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Six drugs
      were identified with scenario 1 only and 54 and 1 with scenarios 2 and 3,
      respectively. Only six drugs (metoprolol, simvastatin, trimethoprim, codeine
      combinations, fentanyl, and paracetamol) were associated with HF in all
      scenarios, four with 1 and 2 (cefalexin, buprenorphine, olanzapine, and
      memantine), and one with 1 and 3 (enalapril) or 2 and 3 (ciprofloxacin). The
      direction of associations was the same in all/both scenarios. The interaction
      results were equally versatile, with hydroxocobalamin*oxazepam being the only
      interaction observed in all scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: Case-crossover analysis is a
      potential approach for identifying candidate drugs and drug-drug interactions
      associated with adverse events as it implicitly controls for fixed confounders.
      The results are highly dependent on applied hazard and control periods, but the
      choice of periods can help in targeting the analyses to different phases of drug
      use.

PMID- 28556304
TI  - SUV2, which encodes an ATR-related cell cycle checkpoint and putative plant
      ATRIP, is required for aluminium-dependent root growth inhibition in Arabidopsis.
AB  - A suppressor mutagenesis screen was conducted in order to identify second site
      mutations that could reverse the extreme hypersensitivity to aluminium (Al) seen
      for the Arabidopsis mutant, als3-1. From this screen, it was found that a loss-of
      function mutation in the previously described SUV2 (SENSITIVE TO UV 2), which
      encodes a putative plant ATRIP homologue that is a component of the ATR-dependent
      cell checkpoint response, reversed the als3-1 phenotype. This included prevention
      of hallmarks associated with als3-1 including Al-dependent terminal
      differentiation of the root tip and transition to endoreduplication. From this
      analysis, SUV2 was determined to be required for halting cell cycle progression
      and triggering loss of the quiescent centre (QC) following exposure to Al. In
      conjunction with this, SUV2 was found to have a similar role as ATR, ALT2 and
      SOG1 in Al-dependent stoppage of root growth, all of which are required for
      promotion of expression of a suite of genes that likely are part of an Al
      dependent DNA damage transcriptional response. This work argues that these Al
      response factors work together to detect Al-dependent damage and subsequently
      activate a DNA damage response pathway that halts the cell cycle and subsequently
      promotes QC differentiation and entrance into endocycling.

PMID- 28556305
TI  - Hypothalamic dopamine is required for salsolinol-induced prolactin secretion in
      goats.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to clarify the relationship between hypothalamic
      dopamine (DA) and salsolinol (SAL) for the secretion of prolactin (PRL) in goats.
      SAL or thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) was intravenously injected into female
      goats treated with or without the D2 DA receptor antagonist haloperidol (Hal),
      which crosses the blood-brain barrier, and the PRL-releasing response to SAL was
      compared with that to TRH. PRL-releasing responses to SAL, Hal, and Hal plus SAL
      were also examined after a pretreatment to augment central DA using carbidopa
      (Carbi) and L-dopa. The PRL-releasing response to Hal alone was greater than that
      to SAL or TRH alone. The PRL-releasing response to Hal plus SAL was similar to
      that of Hal alone. In contrast, the PRL-releasing response to Hal plus TRH was
      greater than that to TRH or Hal alone. The treatment with Carbi plus L-dopa
      inhibited SAL- and Hal-induced PRL secretion. The inhibition of the PRL-releasing
      response to SAL disappeared when SAL was injected with Hal. These results
      indicate that the mechanisms underlying the SAL-induced PRL response differ from
      those of TRH, and suggest that hypothalamic DA and its synthesis is associated in
      part with SAL-induced PRL secretion in goats.

PMID- 28556306
TI  - Differential responses of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and right posterior
      superior temporal sulcus to spontaneous mentalizing.
AB  - Previous research suggests a role of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in
      metacognitive representation of social information, while the right posterior
      superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) has been linked to social perception. This study
      targeted these functional roles in the context of spontaneous mentalizing. An
      animated shapes task was presented to 46 subjects during functional magnetic
      resonance imaging. Stimuli consisted of video clips depicting animated shapes
      whose movement patterns prompt spontaneous mentalizing or simple intention
      attribution. Based on their differential response during spontaneous mentalizing,
      both regions were characterized with respect to their task-dependent connectivity
      profiles and their associations with autistic traits. Functional network analyses
      revealed highly localized coupling of the right pSTS with visual areas in the
      lateral occipital cortex, while the dmPFC showed extensive coupling with
      instances of large-scale control networks and temporal areas including the right
      pSTS. Autistic traits were related to mentalizing-specific activation of the
      dmPFC and to the strength of connectivity between the dmPFC and posterior
      temporal regions. These results are in good agreement with the hypothesized roles
      of the dmPFC and right pSTS for metacognitive representation and perception-based
      processing of social information, respectively, and further inform their
      implication in social behavior linked to autism. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3791-3803,
      2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556307
TI  - Evaluation of peroxidative stress of cancer cells in vitro by real-time
      quantification of volatile aldehydes in culture headspace.
AB  - RATIONALE: Peroxidation of lipids in cellular membranes results in the release of
      volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including saturated aldehydes. The real-time
      quantification of trace VOCs produced by cancer cells during peroxidative stress
      presents a new challenge to non-invasive clinical diagnostics, which as described
      here, we have met with some success. METHODS: A combination of selected ion flow
      tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS), a technique that allows rapid, reliable
      quantification of VOCs in humid air and liquid headspace, and electrochemistry to
      generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro has been used. Thus, VOCs present
      in the headspace of CALU-1 cancer cell line cultures exposed to ROS have been
      monitored and quantified in real time using SIFT-MS. RESULTS: The CALU-1 lung
      cancer cells were cultured in 3D collagen to mimic in vivo tissue. Real-time SIFT
      MS analyses focused on the volatile aldehydes: propanal, butanal, pentanal,
      hexanal, heptanal and malondialdehyde (propanedial), that are expected to be
      products of cellular membrane peroxidation. All six aldehydes were identified in
      the culture headspace, each reaching peak concentrations during the time of
      exposure to ROS and eventually reducing as the reactants were depleted in the
      culture. Pentanal and hexanal were the most abundant, reaching concentrations of
      a few hundred parts-per-billion by volume, ppbv, in the culture headspace.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of these experiments demonstrate that peroxidation of
      cancer cells in vitro can be monitored and evaluated by direct real-time analysis
      of the volatile aldehydes produced. The combination of adopted methodology
      potentially has value for the study of other types of VOCs that may be produced
      by cellular damage.

PMID- 28556308
TI  - Topical capsaicin 8% for the treatment of neuropathic itch conditions.

PMID- 28556309
TI  - Local sampling paints a global picture: Local concentration measurements sense
      direction in complex chemical gradients.
AB  - Detecting and interpreting extracellular spatial signals is essential for
      cellular orientation within complex environments, such as during directed cell
      migration or growth in multicellular development. Although the molecular
      understanding of how cells read spatial signals like chemical gradients is still
      lacking, recent work has revealed that stochastic processes at different temporal
      and spatial scales are at the core of this gradient sensing process in a wide
      range of eukaryotes. Fast biochemical reactions like those underlying GTPase
      activity dynamics form a functional module together with slower cell
      morphological changes driven by membrane remodelling. This biochemical
      morphological module explores the environment by stochastic local concentration
      sampling to determine the source of the gradient signal, enabling efficient
      signal detection and interpretation before polarised growth or migration towards
      the gradient source is initiated. Here we review recent data describing local
      sampling and propose a model of local fast and slow feedback counteracted by
      gradient-dependent substrate limitation to be at the core of gradient sensing by
      local sampling.

PMID- 28556310
TI  - Variation in cannabis potency and prices in a newly legal market: evidence from
      30 million cannabis sales in Washington state.
AB  - AIMS: To (1) assess trends and variation in the market share of product types and
      potency sold in a legal cannabis retail market and (2) estimate how potency and
      purchase quantity influence price variation for cannabis flower. DESIGN:
      Secondary analysis of publicly available data from Washington State's cannabis
      traceability system spanning 7 July 2014 to 30 September 2016. Descriptive
      statistics and linear regressions assessed variation and trends in cannabis
      product variety and potency. Hedonic regressions estimated how purchase quantity
      and potency influence cannabis flower price variation. SETTING: Washington State,
      USA. PARTICIPANTS: (1) A total of 44 482 176 million cannabis purchases,
      including (2) 31 052 123 cannabis flower purchases after trimming price and
      quantity outliers. MEASUREMENTS: Primary outcome measures were (1) monthly
      expenditures on cannabis, total delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration
      and cannabidiol (CBD) concentration by product type and (2) excise tax-inclusive
      price per gram of cannabis flower. Key covariates for the hedonic price
      regressions included quantity purchased, THC and CBD. FINDINGS: Traditional
      cannabis flowers still account for the majority of spending (66.6%), but the
      market share of extracts for inhalation increased by 145.8% between October 2014
      and September 2016, now comprising 21.2% of sales. The average THC-level for
      cannabis extracts is more than triple that for cannabis flowers (68.7% compared
      to 20.6%). For flower products, there is a statistically significant relationship
      between price per gram and both THC [coefficient = 0.012; 95% confidence interval
      (CI) = 0.011-0.013] and CBD (coefficient = 0.017; CI = 0.015-0.019). The
      estimated discount elasticity is -0.06 (CI = -0.07 to -0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In the
      state of Washington, USA, the legal cannabis market is currently dominated by
      high-THC cannabis flower, and features growing expenditures on extracts. For
      cannabis flower, both THC and CBD are associated with higher per-gram prices, and
      there are small but significant quantity discounts.

PMID- 28556312
TI  - Three-Dimensional Power Doppler Vascularization in Women With Ovarian
      Endometriomas and Relationship With Associated Painful Symptoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to evaluate the correlation between
      endometrioma-associated pain and lesion vascularization as measured with 3
      dimensional power Doppler transvaginal sonography. METHODS: Endometriomas were
      examined, and 4 indices were obtained: mean grayness, flow index, vascularization
      index, and vascularization-flow index. Dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, and
      dyspareunia were analyzed in terms of severity, presence/absence, and duration.
      RESULTS: Twenty-nine women were selected. The univariable association of painful
      symptoms in terms of presence/absence and duration was low with the exception of
      mean grayness with the presence of chronic pelvic pain (beta = -0.106; P = .047;
      95% confidence interval, 0.810 to 0.998). The R2 value increased to 0.226 for
      dysmenorrhea (beta = -0.475; P = .029) when analyzing the association between the
      vascularization index and the severity of painful symptoms. The visual analog
      scale scores for chronic pelvic pain and dyspareunia were higher (R2  = 0.300;
      beta = -0.547 and -0.548, respectively; P = .028 and .053). CONCLUSIONS: We
      observed an inverse association between the severity of pain and endometrioma
      vascularization. Further larger studies are required to confirm our findings.

PMID- 28556311
TI  - Defining pain in newborns: need for a uniform taxonomy?
AB  - : A framework for defining pain terms such as acute, persistent, prolonged or
      chronic pain to newborns was derived from the scientific literature on neonatal
      pain assessments, previous attempts to define chronic pain and the clinical and
      neurophysiological features of neonatal pain. This novel framework incorporates
      the temporal features, localising characteristics, and secondary effects of the
      pain experienced, as well as the behavioural and physiological response patterns
      of newborns. CONCLUSION: Although not evidence-based, this framework provides an
      initial starting point for defining commonly used neonatal pain terms. It will
      require future revision/refinement based on the accumulating evidence for non
      acute pain.

PMID- 28556314
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF THE THERMAL SENSITIVITY OF SPRINT SPEED IN ANOLIS
      LIZARDS.
AB  - I present evidence that the thermal sensitivity of sprint speed of Anolis lizards
      has evolved to match the activity body temperatures (Tb ) experienced by local
      populations in nature. Anolis lizards from a range of altitudes in Costa Rica
      have limited thermoregulatory abilities and consequently have field Tb that
      differ substantially in median and interquartile distance (a measure of
      variability). Experimentally determined maximal sprint temperatures (Tb at which
      lizards run fastest) were positively correlated with median field Tb , and
      performance breadths (ranges of Tb over which lizards run well) were correlated
      with the variability (interquartile distance) of field Tb in the species I
      examined. Such correlations would be expected if the thermal sensitivity of
      sprint speed and field Tb had evolved together to improve the sprint performance
      of lizards in nature. Integration of laboratory and field studies indicates that
      several species of Anolis regularly experience impaired sprint speeds in the
      field, despite apparent evolutionary modification of their thermal physiologies.
      However, this impairment would have been more severe if the thermal sensitivities
      of sprint speed had not evolved. Data from other groups of lizards indicate that
      the thermal sensitivity of sprint speed has not evolved to match Tb of local
      populations (Hertz et al., 1983; Crowley, 1985). These lizards experience less
      variable Tb and less impairment of sprint speeds in the field than do the anoles.
      Thus, selection for modification of the thermal sensitivity of sprint speed might
      have been stronger for anoles than for other groups of lizards.

PMID- 28556313
TI  - An analysis of purchase price of legal and illicit cigarettes in urban retail
      environments in 14 low- and middle-income countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: To estimate and compare price differences between legal and
      illicit cigarettes in 14 low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). DESIGN: A cross
      sectional census of all packs available on the market was purchased. SETTING:
      Cigarette packs were purchased in formal retail settings in three major cities in
      each of 14 LMIC: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico,
      Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3240 packs were purchased (range = 58 packs in Egypt to
      505 in Russia). Packs were categorized as 'legal' or 'illicit' based on the
      presence of a health warning label from the country of purchase and existence of
      a tax stamp; 2468 legal and 772 illicit packs were in the analysis. MEASUREMENTS:
      Descriptive statistics stratified by country, city and neighborhood socio
      economic status were used to explore the association between price and legal
      status of cigarettes. FINDINGS: The number of illicit cigarettes in the sample
      setting was small (n < 5) in five countries (Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico,
      Russia) and excluded from analysis. In the remaining nine countries, the median
      purchase price of legal cigarettes ranged from US$0.32 in Pakistan (n = 72) to
      US$3.24 in Turkey (n = 242); median purchase price of illicit cigarettes ranged
      from US$0.80 in Ukraine (n = 14) to US$3.08 in India (n = 41). The difference in
      median price between legal and illicit packs as a percentage of the price of
      legal packs ranged from 32% in Philippines to 455% in Bangladesh. Median purchase
      price of illicit cigarette packs was higher than that of legal cigarette packs in
      six countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam).
      Median purchase price of illicit packs was lower than that of legal packs in
      Turkey, Ukraine and China. CONCLUSIONS: The median purchase price of illicit
      cigarettes is higher than that of legal cigarette packs in Bangladesh, India,
      Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico,
      Russia appear to have few or no illicit cigarettes for purchase from formal,
      urban retailers.

PMID- 28556315
TI  - PLANT POPULATION BIOLOGY BEYOND THE CROSSROADS.

PMID- 28556316
TI  - DIFFERENTIATION AMONG NINE POPULATIONS OF PHLOX. I. ELECTROPHORETIC AND
      QUANTITATIVE VARIATION.
AB  - The organization of genetic variation in Phlox drummondii was investigated using
      both allozyme electrophoresis and quantitative genetics. Variation at five
      polymorphic enzyme loci was characterized in nine populations, and variation in
      16 morphological and life-history characters was examined using an analysis of
      full- and half-sibs in seven populations. Significant levels of genetic variation
      were found at enzyme loci and for metric characters. Significant heritabilities
      were observed for 15 of the 16 characters examined. Genetic differences among
      populations were revealed both by Nei's genetic distance and by phenotypic
      differences, summarized by discriminant analysis. Partitioning variance in
      allozyme frequencies among hierarchical levels of genetic organization indicated
      that 94% of this variance lay within populations, 4% between populations within
      varieties, and 2% between varieties. Partitioning phenotypic variance for metric
      characters indicated that 73% lay within populations, 24% lay between populations
      within varieties, and 3% lay between varieties. Thus, both electrophoretic and
      metric characters indicated that despite extensive genetic differentiation among
      populations, most of the evolutionary potential of the species lies within
      populations.

PMID- 28556317
TI  - ON THE INSTABILITY OF POLYGENIC SEX DETERMINATION: THE EFFECT OF SEX-SPECIFIC
      SELECTION.
AB  - A combination of analytical and simulation models is used to explore the initial
      evolution of genic sex determination from polygenic sex determination. Prior
      studies have indicated that polygenic sex determination is rare or absent in
      extant species but that it has likely played an important intermediate role in
      the evolution of other genetic sex-determination systems. This study explores why
      polygenic sex determination does not persist. Two possibilities are considered.
      First it is assumed that a major sex-determining gene also pleiotropically
      increases fitness. Second it is assumed that the sex-determining gene is neutral
      but linked to another locus segregating for a rare selectively favored allele.
      The major conclusion from the models is that sex-specific natural selection will
      cause polygenic sex determination to be a transient state in most populations.
      Polygenic sex determination may be an important intermediate step in the
      evolution of genetically controlled sexual differentiation, but it is unlikely to
      persist unless there is some selective advantage compared to genic sex
      determination. This may in part explain the relatively small number of extant
      species that have polygenic sex determination.

PMID- 28556318
TI  - TOO VALUABLE TO REVIEW.

PMID- 28556319
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION IN PEROMYSCUS. I. TESTS OF
      THE HOMOGENEITY OF GENETIC COVARIANCE STRUCTURE AMONG SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES.
AB  - Phenotypic and additive genetic covariance matrices were estimated for 15
      morphometric characters in three species and subspecies of Peromyscus. Univariate
      and multivariate ANOVAs indicate these groups are highly diverged in all
      characters, P. leucopus having the largest body size, P. maniculatus bairdii the
      smallest, and P. maniculatus nebrascensis being intermediate. Comparing the
      structure of P and G within each taxon revealed significant similarities in all
      three cases. This proportionality was strong enough to justify using P in the
      place of G to analyze evolutionary processes using quantitative genetic models
      when G can not be estimated, as in fossil material. However, the similarity
      between genetic and phenotypic covariance structures is sufficiently low that
      estimates of the genetic parameters should be used when possible. The additive
      genetic covariance matrices were compared to examine the assumption that they
      remain constant during evolution, an assumption which underlies many applications
      of quantitative-genetic models. While matrix permutation tests indicated
      statistically significant proportionality between the genetic covariance
      structures of the two P. maniculatus subspecies, there is no evidence of
      significant genetic structural similarity between species. This result suggests
      that the assumption of constant genetic covariance structure may be valid only
      within species. (It does not, however, necessarily imply a causal relationship
      between speciation and heterogeneity of genetic covariance structures.) The low
      matrix correlation for the two P. maniculatus subspecies' genetic covariance
      matrices indicates G may not be functionally constant, even within species. The
      lack of similarity observed here may be due partly to sampling variation.

PMID- 28556321
TI  - LEE R. G. SNYDER MEMORIAL FUND.

PMID- 28556320
TI  - EFFECTS OF PARENTAL PHOTOPERIOD REGIME ON PROGENY DEVELOPMENT TIME IN DROSOPHILA
      SIMULANS.

PMID- 28556322
TI  - ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EGRET AND HERON BROOD REDUCTION.
AB  - Data from great egrets and great blue herons were used to test a fundamental
      assumption of Lack's brood-reduction hypothesis, that mortality is brood-size
      dependent. This was confirmed for the largest brood sizes (4 and 3), which, in
      egrets, also have the highest sib-fighting rates. Broods of one, however,
      experienced paradoxically high mortality, especially early in the season. The
      hypothesis is advanced that parents desert unprofitably small broods when
      sufficient time remains for production of a larger brood. A simple game-theory
      model shows that this parental desertion may hinge primarily on the overall costs
      of renesting. Egret brood reduction caused by sibling aggression (siblicide)
      occurred later than less aggressive forms of brood reduction. The inclusive
      fitness of senior broodmates is maximized by the successful fledging of all sibs,
      and the physical superiority of seniors (in food-handling for herons; food
      handling and aggression for egrets) usually suffices to guarantee their own
      welfare in brood competitions. Finally, it is shown that the last chick in
      asynchronously hatching broods represents two kinds of reproductive value (RV) to
      the parents-"extra RV" (obtained despite the survival of elder sibs) and
      "insurance RV" (obtained only when at least one elder sib dies first)-which can
      be distinguished from field data. This approach can be used in comparisons with
      other asynchronous species for partitioning the fitness contributions of marginal
      offspring.

PMID- 28556323
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PROKARYOTES.

PMID- 28556324
TI  - RESPONSE TO DENSITY IN A WILD POPULATION OF THE PERENNIAL HERB SALVIA LYRATA:
      VARIATION AMONG FAMILIES.
AB  - In order to determine the potential for natural selection to promote genetic
      specialization to different environments, this study quantified genetic variation
      for response to conspecific density and to other aspects of the environment that
      vary spatially. The progeny of a random collection of Salvia lyrata, a perennial
      herb, were planted into the source field in a range of densities and into several
      closely neighboring locations. The highest density and particular locations
      induced significantly greater mortality relative to the remaining densities and
      locations, indicating major effects of density and spatial location on fitness.
      Over the duration of the entire study, there was also significant variation among
      families in mortality. The survival data gave no indication of variation among
      families in their responses to the range of environments. Conversely, results
      based on growth and size indicated that different families were favored in
      different densities and locations, in support of the hypothesis that environment
      dependent selection promotes specialization to different environments in this
      species. The correlation among families between leaf number in high and low
      density was small and positive, indicating near-independence of performance in
      different densities.

PMID- 28556325
TI  - ON FACTORS AFFECTING THE FIXATION OF CHROMOSOMAL REARRANGEMENTS AND NEUTRAL
      GENES: COMPUTER SIMULATIONS.
AB  - Computer simulation models were developed to determine which conditions are
      favorable for the stochastic fixation of chromosomal mutations within small
      isolated demes. The models incorporated biological parameters of litter size, age
      dependent mortality, overlapping generations, potentially varying sex ratios, and
      fertility reduction due to meiotic problems when the mutation was present in a
      heterozygous condition. Results of the models indicated that random processes
      alone may adequately explain the frequency of fixation of chromosomal mutations
      under the conditions of a) the number of initial founders is small (5 or 10); b)
      there is relatively little fecundity reduction due to meiotic problems; c) the
      number of offspring per mating is high. Furthermore, results of our models imply
      that fixation of a mutation is unlikely when the number of karyotypic
      rearrangements is low and when there is high survivorship of individuals from one
      breeding period to the next. However, if bottlenecks involve larger numbers of
      individuals (20 or more), few offspring per mating, or substantial reductions in
      fecundity, then it is unlikely that fixation by random processes will be adequate
      to explain the situations observed in nature. A significant conclusion of these
      simulations is that when population size is reduced to five or ten individuals,
      the extinction rate may exceed 40% or 30%, respectively.

PMID- 28556326
TI  - SONORAN DESERT SPRING.

PMID- 28556327
TI  - FLIGHTLESSNESS IN STEAMER-DUCKS (ANATIDAE: TACHYERES): ITS MORPHOLOGICAL BASES
      AND PROBABLE EVOLUTION.
AB  - Flightlessness in Tachyeres is caused by wing-loadings in excess of 2.5 g.cm-2 ,
      which result from the large body size and small wing areas of the flightless
      species. Reduced wing areas of flightless species are related to absolutely
      shorter remiges, and to relatively or absolutely shortened wing bones, although
      these reductions differ among species. Reduced lengths of the ulna, radius, and
      carpometacarpus are associated most strongly with flightlessness. Pectoral
      muscles and the associated sternal keel are well developed in all species of
      Tachyeres, largely because of the use of wings in "steaming," an important
      locomotor behavior. Relative size of these muscles was greatest in largely
      flighted T. patachonicus; however, sexual dimorphism in wing-loadings results in
      flightlessness in some males of this species. Proportions in the wing skeleton,
      intraspecific allometry, and limited data on growth indicate that the relatively
      short wing bones and remiges of flightless Tachyeres are produced developmentally
      by a delay in the growth of wing components, and that this heterochrony may
      underlie, in part, skeletal sexual dimorphism. Increased body size in flightless
      steamer-ducks is advantageous in territorial defense of food resources and young,
      and perhaps diving in cold, turbulent water; reductions in wing area probably
      reflect refinements for wing-assisted locomotion and combat. Flightlessness in
      steamer-ducks is not related to relaxed predation pressure, but instead was
      permitted selectively by the year-round habitability of the southern South
      American coasts. These conditions not only permitted the success of the three
      flightless species of Tachyeres, but at present may be moving marine populations
      of T. patachonicus toward flightlessness.

PMID- 28556328
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISMS IN PEROMYSCUS BOYLII FROM
      SOUTHWESTERN MEXICO.

PMID- 28556330
TI  - LOTUS CORNICULATUS REGULATES OFFSPRING QUALITY THROUGH SELECTIVE FRUIT ABORTION.
AB  - Each inflorescence on Lotus corniculatus commonly aborts about half of its
      immature fruits. Compared to random patterns of fruit abortion, natural patterns
      of fruit abortion produce mature fruits that contain significantly more seeds.
      Moreover, these progeny are more likely to germinate, are more vigorous as
      seedlings, and have greater reproductive output as adults. These results indicate
      that L. corniculatus selectively aborts those fruits with the fewest seeds and,
      by doing so, increases the average quality of its offspring.

PMID- 28556331
TI  - VARIABLE SELECTION ON THE TIMING OF GERMINATION IN COLLINSIA VERNA
      (SCROPHULARIACEAE).
AB  - Natural selection on the timing of seed germination was investigated in a natural
      population of the winter annual Collinsia verna (Scrophulariaceae) for two years.
      The goal was to quantify 1) the importance of the timing of seed germination to
      life history evolution in this population and 2) variation in selection in time
      and space. During fall germination, seedlings were assigned to cohorts on the
      basis of their dates of germination. Growth, survivorship, and reproduction were
      censused throughout both years. Selection on the timing of germination was
      quantified using linear and quadratic regressions during three ecologically
      important periods in the life cycle, using the techniques of Lande and Arnold
      (1983) and Arnold and Wade (1984a, 1984b). Comparisons were made between years
      and on two spatial scales within years. Overall, selection favored early
      germinating plants in the first year. The primary determinant of the relationship
      of the timing of germination to fitness was fecundity selection, rather than
      viability selection on seedlings. Fecundity selection was respondible for from
      54% to 80% of the change in the mean time of germination. Significant disruptive
      selection characterized the second field season, again mediated mainly through
      fecundity selection. There was also temporal and spatial heterogeneity in
      selection on this character. Transects and quadrats differed significantly in the
      direction and magnitude of natural selection. In addition, the direction of
      selection changed between episodes for the transects. The results illustrate the
      importance of the timing of germination to life-history evolution in this annual
      plant and the complex action of natural selection on this character.

PMID- 28556332
TI  - INBREEDING AS A STRATEGY IN SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS.
AB  - A generalized expression for coefficients of consanguinity and relationship with
      previous inbreeding is presented to examine various breeding strategies in
      subdivided populations. Conditions that would favor inbreeding are developed for:
      1) nonfamilial inbreeding within a deme versus outbreeding; 2) altruistic
      inbreeding by females versus outbreeding; 3) sib-mating versus outbreeding; and
      4) sib-mating versus nonfamilial breeding within a deme. Inbreeding behavior is
      advantageous under certain conditions but depends on the types of mating, the
      previous breeding history of the deme, the rate of accumulation of inbreeding
      depression, and the cost of migration. In polygynous mating systems it is
      genetically more advantageous for males to migrate, because female emigration may
      1) leave a related male with no mate or one fewer mate, or 2) force both male and
      female to risk the cost of migration. Nonfamilial breeding is always a better
      strategy than sib-mating given previous inbreeding within the deme. Even when the
      cost of migration is zero, inbreeding is favored if the coefficient of
      relationship among relatives is greater than the ratio of the probabilities of
      offspring inviability to offspring viability. Although high inbreeding
      coefficients are probably not adaptive unless the costs of migration are great or
      inbreeding depression constants are small, low levels of inbreeding are
      advantageous in many situations. Therefore, increased genetic representation by
      way of inbreeding and inclusive fitness is a major component of the evolutionary
      process.

PMID- 28556333
TI  - INSECTS AND FLOWERS.

PMID- 28556334
TI  - RACE FORMATION, SPECIATION, AND INTROGRESSION WITHIN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS, D.
      MAURITIANA, AND D. SECHELLIA INFERRED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA ANALYSIS.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA cleavage maps from three chromosomally homosequential species
      Drosophila simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia, were established for 12
      restriction enzymes. One isofemale strain was studied in D. sechellia (se), 13 in
      D. simulans, and 17 in D. mauritiana: in the last two species, respectively,
      three (siI, II, and III) and two (maI and II) cleavage morphs were found. The
      evolutionary relationships based on mtDNA cleavage map comparisons show that the
      maI and se mtDNAs are internal branches of the phylogenetic tree of the D.
      simulans mtDNA. D. mauritiana and D. sechellia species appear to be derived from
      a population of D. simulans which carried an ancestral form of the current siI
      mtDNA type. In addition, two cleavage morphs (siIII [only present in D. simulans
      from Madagascar] and maI) appeared to be identical, although found in different
      species. We present a speculative interpretation of data on biogeography and
      hybridization which is consistent with the hypothesis of a recent introgression
      of mitochondrial DNA of D. simulans from Madagascar into D. mauritiana.

PMID- 28556335
TI  - DEFINITION AND ESTIMATION OF FIXATION INDICES.

PMID- 28556336
TI  - ANNUAL MEETING SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556337
TI  - SPERM COMPETITION AND THE EVOLUTION OF NUPTIAL FEEDING BEHAVIOR IN THE CRICKET,
      GRYLLODES SUPPLICANS (WALKER).
AB  - The pattern of sperm predominance in doubly mated female crickets, Gryllodes
      supplicans, was investigated using a radiation-sterility technique. Female G.
      supplicans made significant use of sperm from both males in fertilizing eggs;
      overall, first males to mate enjoyed a small advantage, fertilizing about 60% of
      the offspring produced subsequent to the second mating. The combined use of the
      sperm of both males in fertilizing eggs occurred soon after the second mating;
      evidently, mixing of ejaculates within a female's spermatheca does occur. Male G.
      supplicans provide females with a nuptial gift, the spermatophylax, which
      influences the time at which a female removes the externally attached sperm
      ampulla; this in turn determines the quantity of sperm that is transferred.
      Moreover, the degree of sperm precedence achieved by a male may be positively
      related to the time at which the female removes his sperm ampulla. Thus males, by
      feeding females, ensure not only that a sufficient number of sperm are
      transferred to fertilize all of a female's eggs, but also may increase the
      certainty of their paternity. In mating systems in which females control sperm
      transfer and paternity is influenced by numbers of sperm (i.e., numerical sperm
      competition), an increase in prezygotic investment in females may be an adaptive
      male response.

PMID- 28556338
TI  - VARIABLE ITEROPARITY AS A LIFE-HISTORY TACTIC IN THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO
      WYEOMYIA SMITHII.
AB  - Larval density, but not geographic origin (Florida to Ontario), affected female
      fecundity among 12 populations of W. smithii, regardless of whether or not they
      had opportunity to take blood meals. Neither the degree of iteroparity nor male
      longevity varied with density or geographic region of origin, but longevity was
      greater among southern, potentially blood-feeding females, than among northern,
      nonbiting females. Among the southern females, iteroparity, but not fecundity,
      increased with opportunity to take blood meals. Specifically, there was no
      increase in fecundity among females whose larvae were nutritionally deprived
      relative to females whose larvae were well fed. I interpret the retention of
      hematophagy and facultatively augmented iteroparity in W. smithii as a means for
      females developing under predictably impoverished but irregularly opportunistic
      conditions to reallocate and temporally diversify their reproductive effort.

PMID- 28556339
TI  - DELAYED PLUMAGE MATURATION IN PASSERINE BIRDS: RELIABLE SIGNALING BY SUBORDINATE
      MALES?
AB  - Three hypotheses (Cryptic, Female Mimicry, and Winter Adaptation) have been
      proposed to explain the occurrence of delayed plumage maturation (DPM) in
      passerine birds. We show that each of these hypotheses is really a composite of
      two different questions about: 1) the proximate function of dull plumage in
      second year (SY) males and 2) the selective mechanism that has favored that
      proximate function. We review the three hypotheses in the context of this
      distinction, and we find little evidence clearly supporting any of them. We
      propose a new Status Signaling Hypothesis (SSH) suggesting that dull SY male
      plumage is a reliable signal of subordinate. We suggest that female choice based
      on male plumage color (as an index of male quality) is the selective mechanism
      that has favored subordinate status signaling by SY males. If females prefer
      bright males, then dull plumage may be a reliable signal of subordinance and SY
      males may experience reduced levels of aggression from adult males. Male
      characters (like plumage color) are most likely to be the object of female choice
      when males defend simple nesting territories with little or no variation in
      territory quality. In such a system, SY males with low resource-holding potential
      would benefit (via matings or experience) by signaling subordinance and being
      allowed to settle among more brightly colored adults. Thus, DPM is expected to be
      more prevalent when males defend simple nesting territories. This prediction of
      the SSH is supported by data from the literature-a significantly higher
      proportion of species with DPM defend simple nesting territories (versus all
      purpose territories) than do species without DPM.

PMID- 28556340
TI  - NATURAL HISTORY AND EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28556341
TI  - INTERPOPULATION DIFFERENCES IN HOST PREFERENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF LEARNING IN
      THE BUTTERFLY, BATTUS PHILENOR.
AB  - The host-discrimination behavior of the adult female pipevine swallowtail
      butterfly (Battus philenor) was investigated for two populations, an east Texas
      population that uses two host species with different leaf shapes and a Virginia
      montane population that uses one host species with a single leaf shape. While
      Texas and Virginia females exhibited similar chemotactile responses after landing
      on various host species, butterflies from each population landed more frequently
      on certain host species used by that particular population. Despite this
      difference in searching behavior, Texas and Virginia populations were equally
      capable of learning to search for the leaf shape of a particular host species in
      artificial enclosure arrays. In addition, learning of leaf-shape preference was
      confounded equally when each population was introduced into arrays containing all
      the host species found in both populations. The lack of differentiation in
      learning of leaf-shape preference between populations that differ in host breadth
      and host preference argues against the specific hypothesis that learning of leaf
      shape preference represents a local adaptation that permits foraging butterflies
      in the east Texas population to respond to seasonal changes in the relative
      quality or abundance of host species that differ in leaf shape. Three hypotheses
      are proposed to explain the apparent absence of interpopulation genetic variation
      in learning traits. One hypothesis supposes that learning of leaf-shape
      discrimination is mediated by the same physiological mechanisms that permit
      females to learn to discriminate among suitable and unsuitable conspecific
      plants. Selection for restriction of learning of leaf-shape preference in the
      Virginia montane population may therefore be constrained by selection for
      learning of other types of discrimination behavior.

PMID- 28556342
TI  - RANDOM DRIFT, UNIFORM SELECTION, AND THE DEGREE OF POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION.

PMID- 28556344
TI  - HERITABILITY AND SELECTION ON TARSUS LENGTH IN THE PIED FLYCATCHER (FICEDULA
      HYPOLEUCA).
AB  - The heritability estimate (+/-SE) for tarsus length in the pied flycatcher is
      0.53 +/- 0.10, based on mother-offspring regressions. The heritability is almost
      the same (0.50 +/- 0.22) for offspring transferred to other nests and reared by
      foster parents, whereas there is no resemblance (0.04 +/- 0.23) between the
      offspring and their foster mothers. Hence, the nest environment does not affect
      parent-offspring resemblance. However, a full-sib correlation yields an estimate
      of the heritability twice as high as the parent-offspring regression did,
      indicating that shared environment effects, which are not correlated with the
      tarsus length of parents, must be important. An environmental deviation due to
      food factors affecting tarsus length is demonstrated. The most important food
      factors are probably associated with 1) polygyny, which leads to reduced paternal
      feeding at secondary nests, 2) high breeding density, and 3) progress of the
      breeding season. All three are associated with reductions in offspring mean
      tarsus length. We estimate selection on tarsus length for the major components of
      lifetime reproductive success. Offspring with the shortest tarsi have reduced
      survival from fledging until breeding, and males with tarsus length close to the
      mean are most successful in attracting mates. Clutch size increases with female
      tarsus length, except for individuals with very long tarsi. In general,
      directional selection is weak, but stabilizing selection is rather strong for
      survival and male mating success.

PMID- 28556345
TI  - EXTINCTION: THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT.

PMID- 28556346
TI  - Factors affecting masticatory function of community-dwelling older people:
      Investigation of the differences in the relevant factors for subjective and
      objective assessment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine relevant factors for subjective and
      objective assessment of masticatory functions and elucidate any differences
      between the two methods. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported that the
      results of subjective and objective assessment of masticatory function in older
      people do not necessarily agree. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 487
      community-dwelling Japanese older people (205 male and 282 female; mean age
      74.1+/-6.3 years) who participated in a comprehensive geriatric health
      examination. Basic information (gender and age), higher level of competence in
      daily living, depression, subjective masticatory function (SMF) and objective
      masticatory function (OMF) assessments, cognitive function, skeletal muscle mass,
      handgrip strength, gait speed and oral status (number of remaining and functional
      teeth, mouth dryness and occlusal force) were recorded. RESULTS: Multiple
      logistic regression analysis showed that depression (odds ratio [OR]: 1.181, 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 1.094-1.275), mouth dryness (OR: 2.037, CI: 1.212
      3.423) and occlusal force (OR: 0.997, CI: 0.996-0.999) were significantly
      associated with SMF, whereas higher level of competence in daily living (OR:
      0.730 CI: 0.586-0.910), skeletal muscle mass (OR: 0.521 CI: 0.283-0.960), number
      of functional teeth (OR: 0.862 CI: 0.775-0.959), number of remaining teeth (OR:
      0.868 CI: 0.810-0.930) and occlusal force (OR: 0.994, CI: 0.991-0.998) were
      associated with OMF. CONCLUSION: Subjective masticatory functionSMF and OMF were
      associated with different factors, suggesting that both mental and physical
      factors should be taken into consideration when treating decreased masticatory
      function.

PMID- 28556347
TI  - A case of ulcerative colitis with squamous cell carcinomas and multiple foci of
      squamous dysplasia.
AB  - Squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) in ulcerative colitis (UC) is rare. A 38 year-old
      Japanese woman, who suffered from left-sided UC for 18 years, underwent total
      colectomy due to SqCCs in the rectum and the sigmoid colon. They were well
      differentiated SqCC, and metastasis was found in the paracolic lymph nodes.
      Multiple small foci of squamous dysplasia (SD) were noted in the rectal mucosa.
      Glandular dysplasia was not found. TP53 was not detected in SD. Approximately 40%
      of cells were immunostained with TP53 in SqCC, however no mutation was found in
      TP53 gene. Human papilloma virus and Epstein Barr virus were negative in SD and
      SqCCs. The patient is free of the disease at one and half years after surgery and
      chemotherapy. SD may be a precursor of SqCC. It appeared that TP53 does not play
      a vital role in the development of SqCCs in the current case. Careful attention
      should be paid to SD in UC patients. Viral infection may need to be examined. The
      pathogenesis of SqCC in patients of UC needs to be elucidated.

PMID- 28556348
TI  - Printable and Rewritable Full Block Copolymer Structural Color.
AB  - Structural colors (SCs) of photonic crystals (PCs) arise from selective
      constructive interference of incident light. Here, an ink-jet printable and
      rewritable block copolymer (BCP) SC display is demonstrated, which can be quickly
      written and erased over 50 times with resolution nearly equivalent to that
      obtained with a commercial office ink-jet printer. Moreover, the writing process
      employs an easily modified printer for position- and concentration-controlled
      deposition of a single, colorless, water-based ink containing a reversible
      crosslinking agent, ammonium persulfate. Deposition of the ink onto a self
      assembled BCP PC film comprising a 1D stack of alternating layers enables
      differential swelling of the written BCP film and produces a full-colored SC
      display of characters and images. Furthermore, the information can be readily
      erased and the system can be reset by application of hydrogen bromide.
      Subsequently, new information can be rewritten, resulting in a chemically
      rewritable BCP SC display.

PMID- 28556349
TI  - Actinic keratosis. Or maybe not?

PMID- 28556350
TI  - Effects of hemodialysis on intraneural blood flow in end-stage kidney disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We quantified intraneural blood flow (INBF) in 18 patients with end
      stage kidney disease (ESKD) and examined its relationship with nerve size,
      neuropathy severity, and nerve excitability parameters. METHODS: Sonographic
      measurements of the median nerve were performed at the same site before and after
      hemodialysis. INBF was quantified by analyzing power Doppler sonograms to obtain
      the vessel score (VSc) and maximum perfusion intensity (MPI). Corresponding
      median motor nerve excitability studies were performed. Neuropathy severity was
      assessed using Total Neuropathy Score. RESULTS: A total of 39% of ESKD patients
      had detectable INBF compared with none in the control group (P < 0.0001).
      Patients with detectable INBF had larger nerves and more severe neuropathy (P <
      0.01). INBF parameters were significantly reduced after a session of dialysis
      (VSc: P < 0.01; MPI: P < 0.01). A significant relationship was found between
      interdialytic change in INBF and changes in nerve excitability. CONCLUSIONS:
      Increased INBF is a potential marker for neuropathy severity in ESKD patients.
      Muscle Nerve 57: 287-293, 2018.

PMID- 28556351
TI  - THRIVE score predicts clinical and radiological outcome after endovascular
      therapy or thrombolysis in patients with anterior circulation stroke in everyday
      clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Based on the data of several trials the Totaled Health
      Risks in Vascular Events (THRIVE) score has been shown to predict outcome after
      either intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) or endovascular therapy (ET) in acute
      stroke patients. It is unknown whether the THRIVE score can also predict outcome
      in everyday clinical practice. Using our prospectively obtained stroke database
      the utility of the THRIVE score to predict clinical and radiological outcome in
      everyday clinical practice was analysed. METHODS: The relationships between
      THRIVE and good outcome (modified Rankin Scale <= 2 at discharge), poor outcome
      (modified Rankin Scale 5-6), in-hospital death, symptomatic intracranial
      haemorrhage (SICH) as well as infarct size were examined in patients with distal
      intracranial carotid artery, M1 and M2 occlusions after either IVT or ET.
      RESULTS: From January 2008 to October 2016 a total of 546 patients were treated
      with IVT and 492 patients received ET with stent retrievers (with or without
      IVT). In both treatment groups the THRIVE score predicted clinical outcome
      (Mantel-Haenszel chi-squared tests for trend P < 0.001 for good outcome, P <
      0.001 for poor outcome and P < 0.001 for in-hospital death). In the ET group the
      THRIVE score remained an independent predictor of outcome after controlling for
      recanalization. The THRIVE score was associated with the infarct size after IVT
      or ET, whereas it did not predict SICH rates in either treatment group.
      CONCLUSIONS: In everyday clinical practice the THRIVE score strongly predicts
      clinical outcome and the extent of ischaemia after ET or IVT in patients with
      anterior circulation large vessel occlusions.

PMID- 28556352
TI  - Connecting insomnia, sleep apnoea and depression.

PMID- 28556354
TI  - Modeling Precheck Parallel Screening Process in the Face of Strategic Applicants
      with Incomplete Information and Screening Errors.
AB  - In security check systems, tighter screening processes increase the security
      level, but also cause more congestion, which could cause longer wait times.
      Having to deal with more congestion in lines could also cause issues for the
      screeners. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Precheck Program was
      introduced to create fast lanes in airports with the goal of expediting
      passengers who the TSA does not deem to be threats. In this lane, the TSA allows
      passengers to enjoy fewer restrictions in order to speed up the screening time.
      Motivated by the TSA Precheck Program, we study parallel queueing imperfect
      screening systems, where the potential normal and adversary
      participants/applicants decide whether to apply to the Precheck Program or not.
      The approved participants would be assigned to a faster screening channel based
      on a screening policy determined by an approver, who balances the concerns of
      safety of the passengers and congestion of the lines. There exist three types of
      optimal normal applicant's application strategy, which depend on whether the
      marginal payoff is negative or positive, or whether the marginal benefit equals
      the marginal cost. An adversary applicant would not apply when the screening
      policy is sufficiently large or the number of utilized benefits is sufficiently
      small. The basic model is extended by considering (1) applicants' parameters to
      follow different distributions and (2) applicants to have risk levels, where the
      approver determines the threshold value needed to qualify for Precheck. This
      article integrates game theory and queueing theory to study the optimal screening
      policy and provides some insights to imperfect parallel queueing screening
      systems.

PMID- 28556353
TI  - Decreased Absorption of Dolutegravir and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate, But Not
      Emtricitabine, in an HIV-Infected Patient Following Oral and Jejunostomy-Tube
      Administration.
AB  - The use of enteral feeding tubes to administer antiretroviral medications is
      necessary in certain patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
      However, adequacy of drug exposures after these administration routes are largely
      unknown, making dosing recommendations and the attainment of viral suppression
      challenging in this patient population. This report describes a patient with
      advanced HIV infection and a complicated medical history including long-term
      intractable nausea/vomiting necessitating antiretroviral medication
      administration via a Roux-en-Y jejunostomy (J)-tube. Pharmacokinetic assessments
      were performed to compare differences in antiretroviral drug absorption and
      plasma exposure following oral and J-tube administration of dolutegravir,
      tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, and emtricitabine. Results were also compared with
      published pharmacokinetic data in HIV-infected individuals. Exposure to
      dolutegravir and tenofovir were similar between J-tube and oral administration
      routes, whereas emtricitabine exposure was 38% lower when administered via J
      tube. However, in comparison with reference data in HIV-infected individuals
      taking these medications orally, exposure to dolutegravir and tenofovir was 75
      76% and 55-61% lower, respectively, following both routes of administration.
      Emtricitabine exposure was similar to and 71% higher than reference data
      following J-tube and oral administration, respectively. This report highlights
      the importance of performing pharmacokinetic assessments in patients with the
      potential for impaired drug absorption to ensure antiretroviral treatment
      success.

PMID- 28556357
TI  - Dyspareunia From Large Retained Fetal Bone Diagnosed by Pelvic Ultrasound.

PMID- 28556355
TI  - Bias and inference from misspecified mixed-effect models in stepped wedge trial
      analysis.
AB  - Many stepped wedge trials (SWTs) are analysed by using a mixed-effect model with
      a random intercept and fixed effects for the intervention and time periods
      (referred to here as the standard model). However, it is not known whether this
      model is robust to misspecification. We simulated SWTs with three groups of
      clusters and two time periods; one group received the intervention during the
      first period and two groups in the second period. We simulated period and
      intervention effects that were either common-to-all or varied-between clusters.
      Data were analysed with the standard model or with additional random effects for
      period effect or intervention effect. In a second simulation study, we explored
      the weight given to within-cluster comparisons by simulating a larger
      intervention effect in the group of the trial that experienced both the control
      and intervention conditions and applying the three analysis models described
      previously. Across 500 simulations, we computed bias and confidence interval
      coverage of the estimated intervention effect. We found up to 50% bias in
      intervention effect estimates when period or intervention effects varied between
      clusters and were treated as fixed effects in the analysis. All misspecified
      models showed undercoverage of 95% confidence intervals, particularly the
      standard model. A large weight was given to within-cluster comparisons in the
      standard model. In the SWTs simulated here, mixed-effect models were highly
      sensitive to departures from the model assumptions, which can be explained by the
      high dependence on within-cluster comparisons. Trialists should consider
      including a random effect for time period in their SWT analysis model. (c) 2017
      The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28556356
TI  - Identification of a functional enhancer variant within the chronic pancreatitis
      associated SPINK1 c.101A>G (p.Asn34Ser)-containing haplotype.
AB  - The haplotype harboring the SPINK1 c.101A>G (p.Asn34Ser) variant (also known as
      rs17107315:T>C) represents the most important heritable risk factor for
      idiopathic chronic pancreatitis identified to date. The causal variant contained
      within this risk haplotype has however remained stubbornly elusive. Herein, we
      set out to resolve this enigma by employing a hypothesis-driven approach. First,
      we searched for variants in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) with
      rs17107315:T>C using HaploReg v4.1. Second, we identified two candidate SNPs by
      visual inspection of sequences spanning all 25 SNPs found to be in LD with
      rs17107315:T>C, guided by prior knowledge of pancreas-specific transcription
      factors and their cognate binding sites. Third, employing a novel cis-regulatory
      module (CRM)-guided approach to further filter the two candidate SNPs yielded a
      solitary candidate causal variant. Finally, combining data from phylogenetic
      conservation and chromatin accessibility, cotransfection transactivation
      experiments, and population genetic studies, we suggest that rs142703147:C>A,
      which disrupts a PTF1L-binding site within an evolutionarily conserved HNF1A
      PTF1L CRM located ~4 kb upstream of the SPINK1 promoter, contributes to the
      aforementioned chronic pancreatitis risk haplotype. Further studies are required
      not only to improve the characterization of this functional SNP but also to
      identify other functional components that might contribute to this high-risk
      haplotype.

PMID- 28556358
TI  - Buffering the Uneven Impact of the Affordable Care Act: Immigrant-serving Safety
      net Providers in New Mexico.
AB  - We conducted a study in early 2014 to document how the initial implementation of
      the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affected health care provision to different
      categories of immigrants from the perspective of health care providers in New
      Mexico. Though ACA navigators led enrollment, a range of providers nevertheless
      became involved by necessity, expressing concern about how immigrants were faring
      in the newly configured health care environment and taking on advocacy roles.
      Providers described interpreting shifting eligibility and coverage, attending to
      vulnerable under/uninsured patients, and negotiating new bureaucratic barriers
      for insured patients. Findings suggest that, like past efforts, this recent
      reform to the fragmented health care system has perpetuated a condition in which
      safety-net clinics and providers are left to buffer a widening gap for immigrant
      patients. With possible changes to the ACA ahead, safety-net providers' critical
      buffering roles will likely become more crucial, underscoring the necessity of
      examining their experiences with past reforms.

PMID- 28556359
TI  - Synthesis, Solid-State Structure, and Bonding Analysis of a Homoleptic Beryllium
      Azide.
AB  - [Ph4 P]2 [Be(N3 )4 ] (1) and [PNP]2 [Be(N3 )4 ] (2; PNP=Ph3 PNPPh3 ) were
      synthesized by reacting Be(N3 )2 with [Ph4 P]N3 and [PNP]N3 . Compound 1
      represents the first structurally characterized homoleptic beryllium azide. The
      electronic structure and bonding situation in the tetraazidoberyllate dianion
      [Be(N3 )4 ]2- were investigated by quantum-chemical calculations (NPA, ELF, LOL).

PMID- 28556360
TI  - Association of cytochrome P450 1B1 haplotypes with head and neck cancer risk.
AB  - Genetic polymorphisms have been reported in several cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes,
      including CYP1B1 which metabolically activates procarcinogens present in tobacco
      to carcinogenic intermediates. This study used a case-control approach in North
      Indian population to determine associations between genetic variants in CYP1B1
      and risk of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC). We examined the
      genotype and haplotype frequencies at various single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs), including SNPs previously reported in the promoter region and intron 1 of
      CYP1B1 in Caucasians. Using cycle sequencing, 9 SNPs were identified in the
      promoter region, intron 1, and exons 2 and 3. Haplotype analysis revealed that 5
      SNPs (those in the promoter region, intron, and Arg48Gly and Ala119Ser in exon 2)
      were in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD). Cases with the T-A-T-G-T haplotype
      were significantly associated with increased risk of HNSCC. Interestingly, qRT
      PCR studies revealed a significant increase in mRNA expression of CYP1B1 in
      peripheral blood isolated from cases with the T-A-T-G-T haplotype compared with
      cases with the C-G-C-C-G haplotype, and in cases compared to controls for both
      main haplotypes. The data thus provide evidence that CYP1B1 haplotypes could be
      more effective in predicting HNSCC risk. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:443-450, 2017.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556361
TI  - Skin involvement as the first symptom of rapidly progressive ALK-positive
      systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
AB  - Systemic anaplastic large cell lymphomas (sALCLs) comprise a heterogeneous group
      of relatively rare T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas that are characterized by CD30
      expression. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive ALCL is a type of sALCL
      that commonly involves lymph nodes and extranodal sites. Skin involvement usually
      presents as tumours, nodules and ulcers. We describe an unusual case of ALK
      positive ALCL in an 11-year-old Chinese boy, who initially presented with skin
      eruption with rapid progression and poor prognosis. This case emphasizes the
      value of clinical factors to predict the prognosis of ALK-positive sALCL, and we
      recommend close collaboration between dermatologists, pathologists and
      haematologists/oncologists to assure the correct diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28556362
TI  - A case of primary secretory carcinoma of the thyroid with high-grade features.

PMID- 28556363
TI  - Photocontrolled Living Polymerization Systems with Reversible Deactivations
      through Electron and Energy Transfer.
AB  - Recently, visible-light-regulated polymerization has been gaining popularity, as
      it opens a range of new opportunities for the synthesis of functional polymers
      and materials. Here, the most recent developments in this field are summarized,
      which is the use of photocatalysts and catalyst-free approaches to mediate
      polymerization upon photoexcitation. These catalysts can transfer an electron or
      energy to activate an initiator. The recent achievements in light-regulated atom
      transfer radical polymerization, reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer
      polymerization, ring-opening metathesis polymerization, cobalt-mediated radical
      polymerization, iodine-mediated radical polymerization, and living cationic
      polymerization are reviewed. Recent development in these fields have solved
      important challenges in polymer chemistry, such as the development of oxygen
      tolerant polymerization, polymerization mediated by near-infrared, metal-free
      polymerization, and spatial-, temporal-, and sequence-controlled polymerization.
      Some applications of these techniques will be discussed, such as adapting the
      current photocatalytic systems to synthesize heterogeneous photocatalysts that
      act as recyclable photocatalysts and novel light-mediated approaches for surface
      functionalization of hybrid materials and living cells. Finally, the existing
      challenges in polymer chemistry that could be overcome by further development of
      light-mediated polymerization techniques are highlighted along with the future
      directions of this field.

PMID- 28556365
TI  - Identification and expression profiling of novel plant cell wall degrading
      enzymes from a destructive pest of palm trees, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.
AB  - Plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) from insects were recently identified
      as a multigene family of proteins that consist primarily of glycoside hydrolases
      (GHs) and carbohydrate esterases (CEs) and play essential roles in the
      degradation of the cellulose/hemicellulose/pectin network in the invaded host
      plant. Here we applied transcriptomic and degenerate PCR approaches to identify
      the PCWDEs from a destructive pest of palm trees, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus,
      followed by a gut-specific and stage-specific differential expression analysis.
      We identified a total of 27 transcripts encoding GH family members and three
      transcripts of the CE family with cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase
      activities. We also identified two GH9 candidates, which have not previously been
      reported from Curculionidae. The gut-specific quantitative expression analysis
      identified key cellulases, hemicellulases and pectinases from R. ferrugineus. The
      expression analysis revealed a pectin methylesterase, RferCE8u02, and a
      cellulase, GH45c34485, which showed the highest gut enriched expression.
      Comparison of PCWDE expression patterns revealed that cellulases and pectinases
      are significantly upregulated in the adult stages, and we observed specific high
      expression of the hemicellulase RferGH16c4170. Overall, our study revealed the
      potential of PCWDEs from R. ferrugineus, which may be useful in biotechnological
      applications and may represent new tools in R. ferrugineus pest management
      strategies.

PMID- 28556364
TI  - Phase I study of glasdegib (PF-04449913), an oral smoothened inhibitor, in
      Japanese patients with select hematologic malignancies.
AB  - The hedgehog signaling pathway regulates multiple morphogenetic processes during
      embryogenesis. Aberrant activation of the hedgehog pathway signal transduction in
      adult tissues is associated with the pathogenesis of hematologic malignancies and
      solid tumors. We report findings from an open-label, multicenter phase I trial of
      the selective, small-molecule hedgehog signaling inhibitor glasdegib (PF
      04449913) in Japanese patients with select advanced hematologic malignancies.
      Glasdegib was administered as once-daily oral doses (25, 50 and 100 mg) in 28-day
      cycles after a lead-in dose on Day -5. The primary objectives were to determine
      first-cycle dose-limiting toxicities, safety, vital signs and laboratory test
      abnormalities. Secondary objectives included evaluation of pharmacokinetics,
      pharmacodynamics and preliminary evidence of clinical activity of glasdegib. No
      dose-limiting toxicities were noted in the 13 patients in the present study. All
      patients experienced at least one treatment-emergent, all-causality adverse
      event. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events (observed in >=3
      patients) were dysgeusia (n = 9), muscle spasms (n = 5), alopecia, decreased
      appetite (n = 4 each), and increased blood creatinine phosphokinase, constipation
      and diarrhea (n = 3 each). Two deaths occurred during the study and were deemed
      not to be treatment-related due to disease progression. Glasdegib demonstrated
      dose-proportional pharmacokinetics, marked downregulation of the glioma
      associated transcriptional regulator GLI1 expression in normal skin, and evidence
      of preliminary clinical activity, although data are limited. Glasdegib was safe
      and well tolerated across the dose levels tested. It is confirmed that the 100-mg
      dose is safe and tolerable in Japanese patients, and this dose level will be
      examined in the future clinical trial.

PMID- 28556367
TI  - Refugee children and their health, development and well-being over the first year
      of settlement: A longitudinal study.
AB  - AIM: This study aimed to describe refugee children, their families and settlement
      characteristics, and how their development and social-emotional well-being change
      over time. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal study of 61 refugee children (6
      months to 15 years) in an Australian setting, over 2009-2013 and measured child,
      family and settlement factors as well as physical health, development and social
      emotional well-being (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ). RESULTS:
      Questionnaires were completed with parents of 54 (89%) children at year 2 and 52
      (100%) at year 3. Forty percent of parents had low levels of education, 30% of
      fathers were absent on arrival, 13% of children were born in refugee camps and
      11% of parents self-disclosed previous trauma. Over time, there was increased
      parental employment (P = 0.001), improved English proficiency for partners (P =
      0.02) and reduced stressful life events in the last 12 months (P = 0.003). At
      years 2 and 3, parents were studying English (96%; 76%), accessing government
      financial support (96%; 100%) and primary health care (98%; 87%), and feeling
      supported by their own (78%; 73%) or the general (69%; 63%) community. Fifteen
      percent of children had a chronic disease, and 13% were obese and overweight. In
      pre-school children, 27% had mild developmental problems in year 2; all were
      normal by year 3. Abnormal SDQ total difficulties scores reduced over time from
      13 to 6% of children but this did not reach significance. CONCLUSION: Most
      refugee children have developmental and well-being outcomes within the normal
      range by year 3. However, a minority of children have persistently poor social
      emotional outcomes.

PMID- 28556368
TI  - A PDGFB mutation causes paroxysmal nonkinesigenic dyskinesia with brain
      calcification.

PMID- 28556369
TI  - Retinal pigment epithelium expansion around the neural retina occurs in two
      separate phases with distinct mechanisms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a specialized monolayer of
      epithelial cells that forms a tight barrier surrounding the neural retina. RPE
      cells are indispensable for mature photoreceptor renewal and survival, yet how
      the initial RPE cell population expands around the neural retina during eye
      development is poorly understood. RESULTS: Here we characterize the
      differentiation, proliferation, and movements of RPE progenitors in the Zebrafish
      embryo over the period of optic cup morphogenesis. RPE progenitors are present in
      the dorsomedial eye vesicle shortly after eye vesicle evagination. We define two
      separate phases that allow for full RPE expansion. The first phase involves a
      previously uncharacterized antero-wards expansion of the RPE progenitor domain in
      the inner eye vesicle leaflet, driven largely by an increase in cell number.
      During this phase, RPE progenitors start to express differentiation markers. In
      the second phase, the progenitor domain stretches in the dorsoventral and
      posterior axes, involving cell movements and shape changes, and coinciding with
      optic cup morphogenesis. Significantly, cell division is not required for RPE
      expansion. CONCLUSIONS: RPE development to produce the monolayer epithelium that
      covers the back of the neural retina occurs in two distinct phases driven by
      distinct mechanisms. Developmental Dynamics 246:598-609, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556366
TI  - A role for primary cilia in aortic valve development and disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) disease is the most common congenital
      heart defect, affecting 0.5-1.2% of the population and causing significant
      morbidity and mortality. Only a few genes have been identified in pedigrees, and
      no single gene model explains BAV inheritance, thus supporting a complex genetic
      network of interacting genes. However, patients with rare syndromic diseases that
      stem from alterations in the structure and function of primary cilia
      ("ciliopathies") exhibit BAV as a frequent cardiovascular finding, suggesting
      primary cilia may factor broadly in disease etiology. RESULTS: Our data are the
      first to demonstrate that primary cilia are expressed on aortic valve mesenchymal
      cells during embryonic development and are lost as these cells differentiate into
      collagen-secreting fibroblastic-like cells. The function of primary cilia was
      tested by genetically ablating the critical ciliogenic gene Ift88. Loss of Ift88
      resulted in abrogation of primary cilia and increased fibrogenic extracellular
      matrix (ECM) production. Consequentially, stratification of ECM boundaries
      normally present in the aortic valve were lost and a highly penetrant BAV
      phenotype was evident at birth. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support cilia as a novel
      cellular mechanism for restraining ECM production during aortic valve development
      and broadly implicate these structures in the etiology of BAV disease in humans.
      Developmental Dynamics 246:625-634, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556370
TI  - Inhibitor-Assisted High-Pressure Inactivation of Bacteria in Skim Milk.
AB  - The combined inactivation effects of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and
      antimicrobial compounds (potassium sorbate and epsilon-polylysine [epsilon-PL])
      on 4 different bacterial strains present in skim milk and the effect of these
      treatments on milk quality were investigated in this study. HHP treatment at 500
      MPa for 5 min reduced the populations of Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica
      Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus from 6.5 log
      colony-forming units (CFUs) or higher to less than 1 log CFU/mL. Compared to HHP
      alone, HHP with potassium or epsilon-PL resulted in significantly higher
      reductions in the bacterial counts. After 5 min of treatment with HHP (500 MPa)
      and epsilon-PL (2 mg/mL), no growth of E. coli, S. enterica Typhimurium, or L.
      monocytogenes in skim milk was observed during 15 d of refrigerated storage (4 +/
      1  degrees C). Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the
      synergistic treatments caused more serious damage to the bacterial cell walls.
      Quality assessments of the treated samples indicated that the combined treatments
      did not influence the color, the turbidity, the concentrations of -SH group of
      the proteins, or the in vitro digestion patterns of the milk. This study
      demonstrates that HHP with potassium or epsilon-PL may be useful in the
      processing of milk or milk-containing foods.

PMID- 28556371
TI  - Effects of aligned alpha-helix peptide dipoles on experimental electrostatic
      potentials.
AB  - Aligned protein alpha-helix dipoles have been implicated in protein function and
      structure. The recent breakthroughs in high-resolution electron microscopy (EM)
      of macromolecules makes it possible to explore fundamental aspects of structural
      biology at the detailed molecular level. The electrostatic potential (ESP)
      generated by aligned protein alpha-helix dipole should be observable in high
      resolution EM maps despite the fact that the effect may be partially screened by
      induced electric fields. Here, we show that aligned backbone dipoles in protein
      alpha-helices account for long-range features in the protein ESP functions. Our
      results are consistent with experimental EM maps and density functional theory
      calculations, including direct Fourier summation for proper calculation of the
      ESP due to the nonlocal nature of the ESP function from aligned dipoles and other
      partial atomic charges.

PMID- 28556372
TI  - Plant-plant interactions influence developmental phase transitions, grain
      productivity and root system architecture in Arabidopsis via auxin and PFT1/MED25
      signalling.
AB  - Transcriptional regulation of gene expression influences plant growth,
      environmental interactions and plant-plant communication. Here, we report that
      population density is a key factor for plant productivity and a major root
      architectural determinant in Arabidopsis thaliana. When grown in soil at varied
      densities from 1 to 32 plants, high number of individuals decreased stem growth
      and accelerated senescence, which negatively correlated with total plant biomass
      and seed production at the completion of the life cycle. Root morphogenesis was
      also a major trait modulated by plant density, because an increasing number of
      individuals grown in vitro showed repression of primary root growth, lateral root
      formation and root hair development while affecting auxin-regulated gene
      expression and the levels of auxin transporters PIN1 and PIN2. We also found that
      mutation of the Mediator complex subunit PFT1/MED25 renders plants insensitive to
      high density-modulated root traits. Our results suggest that plant density is
      critical for phase transitions, productivity and root system architecture and
      reveal a role of Mediator in self-plant recognition.

PMID- 28556373
TI  - High-resolution dynamic 31 P-MRSI using a low-rank tensor model.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a rapid 31 P-MRSI method with high spatiospectral resolution
      using low-rank tensor-based data acquisition and image reconstruction. METHODS:
      The multidimensional image function of 31 P-MRSI is represented by a low-rank
      tensor to capture the spatial-spectral-temporal correlations of data. A hybrid
      data acquisition scheme is used for sparse sampling, which consists of a set of
      "training" data with limited k-space coverage to capture the subspace structure
      of the image function, and a set of sparsely sampled "imaging" data for high
      resolution image reconstruction. An explicit subspace pursuit approach is used
      for image reconstruction, which estimates the bases of the subspace from the
      "training" data and then reconstructs a high-resolution image function from the
      "imaging" data. RESULTS: We have validated the feasibility of the proposed method
      using phantom and in vivo studies on a 3T whole-body scanner and a 9.4T
      preclinical scanner. The proposed method produced high-resolution static 31 P
      MRSI images (i.e., 6.9 * 6.9 * 10 mm3 nominal resolution in a 15-min acquisition
      at 3T) and high-resolution, high-frame-rate dynamic 31 P-MRSI images (i.e., 1.5 *
      1.5 * 1.6 mm3 nominal resolution, 30 s/frame at 9.4T). CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic
      spatiospectral variations of 31 P-MRSI signals can be efficiently represented by
      a low-rank tensor. Exploiting this mathematical structure for data acquisition
      and image reconstruction can lead to fast 31 P-MRSI with high resolution, frame
      rate, and SNR. Magn Reson Med 78:419-428, 2017. (c) 2017 International Society
      for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28556374
TI  - Oncogenic role of neurotensin and neurotensin receptors in various cancers.
AB  - Neurotensin (NTS) has long been recognized as a neurotransmitter or
      neuromodulator in the central nervous system and as an endocrine agent in the
      periphery via actions mediated through neurotensin receptors (NTSRs). Many
      studies support a role for NTS in the endocrine, autocrine and paracrine growth
      stimulation of cancer, with oncogenic actions described for NTS in different
      types of cancers and cancer cell lines at each step of cancer progression,
      ranging from tumour growth and survival to metastatic spread. The mechanisms
      underlying the effects of the NTS/NTSR system in cell proliferation, migration
      and invasion, as well as the anti-apoptotic effects of this system, have been
      elucidated in different types of cancers, and include mitogen-activated protein
      kinases, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and RhoGTPases. The present mini review
      summarizes recent findings relating to the oncogenic function of the NTS/NTSR
      system.

PMID- 28556375
TI  - Ichthyosis with confetti presenting as collodion baby: a novel mutation in KRT10.

PMID- 28556376
TI  - The Formation of Surface Lithium-Iron Ternary Hydride and its Function on
      Catalytic Ammonia Synthesis at Low Temperatures.
AB  - Lithium hydride (LiH) has a strong effect on iron leading to an approximately 3
      orders of magnitude increase in catalytic ammonia synthesis. The existence of
      lithium-iron ternary hydride species at the surface/interface of the catalyst
      were identified and characterized for the first time by gas-phase optical
      spectroscopy coupled with mass spectrometry and quantum chemical calculations.
      The ternary hydride species may serve as centers that readily activate and
      hydrogenate dinitrogen, forming Fe-(NH2 )-Li and LiNH2 moieties-possibly through
      a redox reaction of dinitrogen and hydridic hydrogen (LiH) that is mediated by
      iron-showing distinct differences from ammonia formation mediated by conventional
      iron or ruthenium-based catalysts. Hydrogen-associated activation and conversion
      of dinitrogen are discussed.

PMID- 28556377
TI  - Deficiency of filaggrin regulates endogenous cysteine protease activity, leading
      to impaired skin barrier function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disorder,
      characterized by skin barrier defects and enhanced allergen priming. Null
      mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG) are strongly associated with moderate to
      severe AD, but the pathways linking barrier dysfunction and cutaneous
      inflammation are still largely unknown. AIM: To assess alteration of endogenous
      cysteine protease activity in FLG-deficient keratinocytes, and to determine
      whether the alteration in cysteine protease activity affects epidermal barrier
      function and associated gene and protein expression. METHODS: We established a
      stable FLG knockdown cell line, and reconstructed epidermal equivalents in vitro.
      Barrier function of the reconstructed epidermis, the barrier-associated genes and
      proteins, and the activity of endogenous cysteine proteases were tested.
      Inhibitors of cysteine proteases were used to further evaluate the role of
      endogenous cysteine proteases in epidermal barrier function. RESULTS: FLG
      knockdown induced impaired epidermal barrier function. Microarray, western
      blotting and fluorescence staining showed reduced expression of K10, ZO-1, E
      cadherin, claudin-1 and occludin in FLG knockdown keratinocytes. Compared with
      cysteine protease activity in control cells, protease activity was dramatically
      enhanced in FLG knockdown keratinocytes. Furthermore, administration of cysteine
      protease inhibitors significantly recovered expression of K10 and tight junction
      proteins, and the barrier defect induced by FLG deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: This is
      the first observation of elevated endogenous cysteine protease activity in FLG
      deficient keratinocytes, which may play an important role in impaired barrier
      function in AD skin. Modulation of cysteine protease activity might be a novel
      therapeutic approach for AD treatment.

PMID- 28556378
TI  - Security and the Traumatized Street Child: How Gender Shapes International
      Psychiatric Aid in Cairo.

PMID- 28556379
TI  - Role of serum steroid hormones in women with stress urinary incontinence: a case
      control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the potential relationship between endogenous sex
      steroids and presence of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      A total of 47 peri- and postmenopausal women with SUI were matched 1:1 with 47
      continent women based on age, menopausal status, body mass index (BMI) and
      parity. Blood samples were drawn from all the women for assessment of oestradiol
      (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, testosterone,
      androstendion (AEON), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate and sex hormone-binding
      globulin with an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. RESULTS: Women with SUI
      had significantly lower serum levels of E2 (8.49 +/- 7.47 vs 13.09 +/- 13.80; P =
      0.048) and AEON (0.59 +/- 0.41 vs 1.20 +/- 0.87; P = 0.033) compared with
      controls. This difference in E2 levels remained significant after controlling for
      age, menopausal age, years from menopause, BMI, parity, testosterone and AEON. In
      addition, hypertension and history of hysterectomy were observed significantly
      more frequently in the SUI group (P < 0.001). There was no significant
      association between hormone levels and degree of SUI (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The
      results of the present study indicate that a low E2 level might have a negative
      impact on the lower urinary tract and continence mechanism and a low E2 level is
      a possible risk factor for SUI in women.

PMID- 28556380
TI  - Waitlist Outcomes for Patients Relisted Following Failed Donation After Cardiac
      Death Liver Transplant: Implications for Awarding Model for End-Stage Liver
      Disease Exception Scores.
AB  - Understanding of outcomes for patients relisted for ischemic cholangiopathy
      following a donation after cardiac death (DCD) liver transplant (LT) will help
      standardization of a Model for End-Stage Liver Disease exception scheme for
      retransplantation. Early relisting (E-RL) for DCD graft failure caused by primary
      nonfunction (PNF) or hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) was defined as relisting
      <=14 days after DCD LT, and late relisting (L-RL) due to biliary complications
      was defined as relisting 14 days to 3 years after DCD LT. Of 3908 DCD LTs
      performed nationally between 2002 and 2016, 540 (13.8%) patients were relisted
      within 3 years of transplant (168 [4.3%] in the E-RL group, 372 [9.5%] in the L
      RL group). The E-RL and L-RL groups had waitlist mortality rates of 15.4% and
      10.5%, respectively, at 3 mo and 16.1% and 14.3%, respectively, at 1 year.
      Waitlist mortality in the L-RL group was higher than mortality and delisted rates
      for patients with exception points for both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and
      hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) at 3- to 12-mo time points (p < 0.001). Waitlist
      outcomes differed in patients with early DCD graft failure caused by PNF or HAT
      compared with those with late DCD graft failure attributed to biliary
      complications. In L-RL, higher rates of waitlist mortality were noted compared
      with patients listed with exception points for HCC or HPS.

PMID- 28556381
TI  - The spoilage yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii: Foe or friend?
AB  - Zygosaccharomyces bailii is a non-Saccharomyces budding yeast known as one of the
      most aggressive food spoilage microorganisms, often isolated as a contaminant
      during wine fermentation, as well as from many acidic, high-sugar and canned
      foods. The spoilage ability relies on the yeast's unique feature of tolerating
      the most common preservatives such as sulphite, dimethyl dicarbonate, acetic acid
      and sorbic acid. Therefore, many studies have focused on the description of this
      peculiar tolerance with the aim of developing preventative measures against Z.
      bailii food spoilage. These studies demonstrated the involvement of diverse
      molecular and physiological mechanisms in the yeast resistance, comprising
      detoxification of preservatives, adaptation of the cytoplasmic pH and modulation
      of the cell wall/membrane composition. At the same time, the described traits
      unveiled Z. bailii as a novel potential workhorse for industrial bioprocesses.
      Here we present the yeast Z. bailii starting from important aspects of its
      robustness and concluding with the exploitation of its potential in
      biotechnology. Overall, the article describes Z. bailii from different
      perspectives, converging in presenting it as one of the most interesting species
      of the Saccharomycotina subphylum. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556382
TI  - Reentrant Phase Transition Drives Dynamic Substructure Formation in
      Ribonucleoprotein Droplets.
AB  - Intracellular ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules are membrane-less droplet
      organelles that are thought to regulate posttranscriptional gene expression.
      While liquid-liquid phase separation may drive RNP granule assembly, the
      mechanisms underlying their supramolecular dynamics and internal organization
      remain poorly understood. Herein, we demonstrate that RNA, a primary component of
      RNP granules, can modulate the phase behavior of RNPs by controlling both droplet
      assembly and dissolution in vitro. Monotonically increasing the RNA concentration
      initially leads to droplet assembly by complex coacervation and subsequently
      triggers an RNP charge inversion, which promotes disassembly. This RNA-mediated
      reentrant phase transition can drive the formation of dynamic droplet
      substructures (vacuoles) with tunable lifetimes. We propose that active cellular
      processes that can create an influx of RNA into RNP granules, such as
      transcription, can spatiotemporally control the organization and dynamics of such
      liquid-like organelles.

PMID- 28556383
TI  - 2D Porous Carbons prepared from Layered Organic-Inorganic Hybrids and their Use
      as Oxygen-Reduction Electrocatalysts.
AB  - 2D porous carbon nanomaterials have attracted tremendous attention in different
      disciplines especially for electrochemical catalysis. The significant advantage
      of such 2D materials is that nearly all their surfaces are exposed to the
      electrolyte and can take part in the electrochemical reaction. Here, a versatile
      active-salt-templating strategy to efficiently synthesize 2D porous carbon
      nanosheets from layered organic-inorganic hybrids is presented. The resulting
      heteroatom-doped carbon nanosheets (NFe/CNs) exhibit exceptional performance for
      the oxygen-reduction reaction and in Zn-air battery electrodes. The activity of
      the best catalyst within a series of NFe/CNs exceeds the performance of
      conventional carbon-supported Pt catalysts in terms of onset potential (0.930 vs
      0.915 V of Pt/C), half-wave potential (0.859 vs 0.816 V of Pt/C), long-time
      stability, and methanol tolerance. Also, when applied as a cathode catalyst in a
      zinc-air battery the NFe/CNs presented here outperform commercial Pt/C catalysts.

PMID- 28556384
TI  - Migraine associated with altitude: results from a population-based study in
      Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A 1988 pilot study in Peru suggested an association
      between migraine and chronic exposure to high altitude. This study provides
      epidemiological evidence corroborating this. METHODS: In a cross-sectional
      nationwide population-based study, a representative sample of Nepali-speaking
      adults were recruited through stratified multistage cluster sampling. They were
      visited at home by trained interviewers using a culturally adapted questionnaire.
      The altitude of dwelling of each participant was recorded. RESULTS: Of 2100
      participants, over half [1100 (52.4%)] were resident above 1000 m and almost one
      quarter [470 (22.4%)] at >=2000 m. Age- and gender-standardized migraine
      prevalence increased from 27.9% to 45.5% with altitude between 0 and 2499 m and
      thereafter decreased to 37.9% at >=2500 m. The likelihood of having migraine was
      greater (odds ratio, 1.5-2.2; P <= 0.007) at all higher altitudes compared with
      <500 m. In addition, all symptom indices increased with altitude across the range
      <500 m to 2000-2499 m, i.e. median attack frequency from 1.3 to 3.0 days/month (P
      < 0.001), median duration from 9 to 24 h (P < 0.001) and pain intensity [the
      proportion reporting 'bad pain' (highest intensity)] from 35.5% to 56.9% (P =
      0.011). Each of these showed a downward trend above 2500 m. CONCLUSIONS: Dwelling
      at high altitudes increases not only migraine prevalence but also the severity of
      its symptoms.

PMID- 28556385
TI  - Atenolol Versus Propranolol for Treatment of Infantile Hemangiomas During the
      Proliferative Phase: A Retrospective Noninferiority Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The nonselective beta-blocker propranolol is the current
      criterion standard for treatment of infantile hemangiomas (IHs) and the first
      therapy that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved for the
      condition, but concern about adverse effects, such as bronchospasm, hypoglycemia,
      and sleep disturbances, has sparked interest in the use of alternative agents
      such as the selective beta1 antagonist atenolol. Our aim was to compare the
      efficacy and adverse effect profiles of atenolol with those of propranolol in the
      treatment of IHs in a retrospective noninferiority trial. METHODS: Twenty-seven
      children with IHs treated with atenolol according to the Cleveland Clinic
      foundation's standardized clinical assessment and management plan (SCAMP) met
      inclusion criteria and were compared with a matched group of 53 children with IHs
      treated with propranolol. Three reviewers assessed response to therapy using a
      modified version of the previously validated Hemangioma Activity Score (HAS).
      RESULTS: The mean change in HAS was -2.94 +/- 1.20 for patients treated with
      atenolol and -2.96 +/- 1.42 for those treated with propranolol. There was no
      statistically significant difference in pre- and posttreatment modified HAS
      scores between the two groups (p = 0.60). There was no significant difference in
      the overall rate of adverse effects (p = 0.10), although 11% of patients treated
      with propranolol experienced reactive airway symptoms, whereas this was not seen
      in any of the patients treated with atenolol. CONCLUSION: Our study supports
      previous findings that atenolol is at least as effective as propranolol for
      treatment of IHs and poses less risk of bronchospasm. Our SCAMP proposes
      guidelines for dosing and monitoring parameters.

PMID- 28556386
TI  - Simple modification of arm position improves B1+ and signal homogeneity in the
      thoracolumbar spine at 3T.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the homogeneity of the radiofrequency magnetic field (B1+ )
      and signal intensity using different arm positions during 3T thoracolumbar spinal
      imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty volunteers were scanned with a four
      channel radiofrequency (RF) transmit coil at 3T, with arms on the bed
      (conventional), arms elevated by 100 mm (arm lift), or with the arms-up position
      (elevated arm). Axial B1+ maps and sagittal T1 -weighted image (T1 WI)-performed
      RF shimming were obtained for each arm position. The mean and standard deviation
      (SD) of the flip angle (FA) at the center of the vertebra on each B1+ map, and
      contrast noise ratios (CNRs) between the spinal cord and cerebrospinal fluid of
      sagittal T1 WI, were calculated and compared among the different arm positions.
      RESULTS: Mean FA values (degrees) for the arm lift and elevated arm positions
      were significantly larger than for the conventional position (P < 0.001 for both)
      at the twelfth thoracic vertebra (Th12). FA SD values for the arm lift and
      elevated arm position were significantly smaller than for the conventional
      position (P < 0.001 for both) at Th12. CNR for the arm lift and elevated arm
      position were significantly higher than for the conventional position (P = 0.007
      and 0.002, respectively). The mean and SD of the FA and the CNR did not differ
      significantly for the arm lift and elevated arm positions (P = 0.591, 0.958, and
      0.927, respectively). CONCLUSION: Inhomogeneities of B1+ and signal intensities
      were improved by simply changing the arm position in 3T thoracolumbar spinal
      imaging. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging
      2018;47:123-130.

PMID- 28556387
TI  - Motor milestone assessment of infants with spinal muscular atrophy using the
      hammersmith infant neurological Exam-Part 2: Experience from a nusinersen
      clinical study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this study we examined the feasibility of assessing motor
      milestone performance of infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) using the
      Hammersmith Infant Neurological Exam-Part 2 (HINE-2) in a phase 2 study of
      nusinersen. METHODS: Nineteen SMA infants were assessed using the HINE-2 at
      baseline (<=7 months of age), and periodically up to 39 months of age. We
      evaluated whether the HINE-2 was feasible, reliable, and sensitive to change.
      RESULTS: Motor milestone assessments in SMA infants were feasible using the HINE
      2. Baseline test-retest reliability was excellent (R = 0.987; P < 0.0001). SMA
      infants were extremely low functioning at baseline and the HINE-2 was able to
      detect changes over time in 16 of 19 infants within all 8 domains. HINE-2
      improvements were correlated with changes in other neuromuscular outcome
      measures. CONCLUSION: Results support the use of the HINE-2 motor milestone
      assessment in clinical trials of SMA infants. Muscle Nerve 57: 143-146, 2017.

PMID- 28556388
TI  - Dose-dependence of transient respiratory motion artifacts on gadoxetic acid
      enhanced arterial phase MR images.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the occurrence of transient respiratory motion (TM) artifacts
      between 0.05 mmol/kg and 0.025 mmol/kg gadoxetic-acid on arterial phase MRI intra
      individually for evaluating dose-dependence of gadoxetic acid. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This retrospective study involved 91 patients who underwent dynamic MRI
      at 1.5T at different times, one time with 0.05 mmol/kg and the other 0.025
      mmol/kg gadoxetic-acid. Examinations with 0.05 mmol/kg totaled 91 scans, and
      examinations with 0.025 mmol/kg totaled 375 scans (due to multiple exams for
      several patients). The scan with 0.025 mmol/kg closest in time to the 0.05
      mmol/kg scan was selected to minimize temporal effects. Two radiologists graded
      TM artifacts in the arterial phase images using a four-point scale: no, mild,
      moderate, and severe artifacts. Results were compared between the two protocols
      (0.05 mmol/kg versus all 0.025 mmol/kg and 0.05 mmol/kg versus selected 0.025
      mmol/kg), and the odds ratio for moderate-to-severe artifacts was calculated.
      RESULTS: Significantly more TM artifacts were observed in the double dose (16/91
      [17%]) scans compared with either all (17/375 [4%]; P < 0.01) or selected (3/91
      [3%]; P = 0.01) standard dose scans. The odds ratio of the moderate-to-severe
      artifacts with the higher dose was 4.99-5.33. CONCLUSION: There appears to be
      dose-dependence of gadoxetic-acid and the occurrence of TM artifacts. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:433-438.

PMID- 28556390
TI  - PROSPECT multicenter trial-a real milestone in prolapse surgery?

PMID- 28556389
TI  - Current practice and challenges in night-time care for people with dementia
      living in care homes: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the current practices and challenges in night-time care for
      people with dementia living in care homes in the UK. METHODS: Focus group
      discussions (FGD) were held with care staff and family carers from five care
      homes in South London. To supplement the FGD data, an online survey was
      circulated to family carers (n = 16), and informal interviews were conducted with
      night-time care staff and nurses (n = 19). The questions for the online survey
      were designed to specifically explore the themes that emerged from the FGD.
      RESULTS: Thematic analysis revealed eight key themes in the management of sleep
      disturbance in people with dementia living in care homes: current night-time care
      practices, dissonance in perceived causes of sleep disturbances, inconsistencies
      in treatment options, insufficient staffing levels, working relationships between
      shifts, nurse burden and responsibility, communication as a critical challenge,
      connecting with residents and one overarching theme of balance. CONCLUSIONS: The
      findings of this study highlight the need for an evidence-based sleep disturbance
      management programme designed for use in care homes and informed by stakeholders.
      The key themes identified represent the major barriers to good quality care and
      areas which future programmes will need to address to improve the quality of
      night-time care in care homes. There are clearly opportunities for future
      examination of non-pharmacological night-time care management programmes for use
      in the population. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556391
TI  - Cardiac Myxoma: A Rare Case Series of 3 Patients and a Literature Review.
AB  - Myxoma is the most common tumor in the heart. A typical myxoma is relatively
      straightforward to diagnose. However, certain cardiac myxomas have rare features.
      We report three extremely rare cases of cardiac myxoma. One case involved a
      myxoma that originated from the annulus of the tricuspid after valvuloplasty, one
      case involved myxomas associated with left atrial thrombus and severe mitral
      stenosis, and the third case involved myxoma combined with severe calcification.
      All three cases were diagnosed by echocardiography and pathology. We also review
      clinical presentations and diagnostic characteristics of cardiac myxomas.

PMID- 28556392
TI  - The effects of pharmacist interventions on adult outpatients with cancer: A
      systematic review.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVES: Most antineoplastic drugs are highly toxic and have
      low therapeutic indexes, which can result in drug-related problems. In this
      context, pharmacist interventions may play an important role in the success of
      the treatment. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of
      pharmacist interventions on adult outpatients with cancer using antineoplastic
      drugs. METHODS: A literature search was performed using PubMed, ISI Web of
      Science and LILACS databases from January 1990 to April 2016, using MeSH terms or
      text words related to pharmacist interventions, cancer and outpatient care.
      Studies published in English, Portuguese or Spanish on the effects of pharmacist
      interventions in outcome measures in adult outpatients with cancer were included.
      Two independent authors performed study selection and data extraction with a
      consensus process. The articles were analysed according to previously established
      criteria, such as country, study design, setting, population, type of cancer,
      description of the intervention and control groups, outcomes, main conclusions
      and study limitations. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: A total of 874 records were
      identified, of which 11 satisfied the inclusion criteria. The studies were
      conducted mainly in the United States and included patients aged >50 years. Most
      studies had a before-after design. Pharmacist interventions primarily included
      educating and counselling patients on the management of adverse events. Rates of
      nausea and vomiting control, medication adherence and patient satisfaction were
      the most common outcome measures; a significant benefit in these parameters as a
      result of pharmacist interventions was noted in most studies. WHAT IS NEW AND
      CONCLUSION: The findings from this systematic review indicate that pharmacist
      interventions can improve outcome measures in outpatients with cancer. However,
      the collective quality of the studies was poor and gaps identified indicate that
      further research is needed to provide more robust results.

PMID- 28556393
TI  - Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of a monopolar nonablative radiofrequency
      device for the improvement of vulvo-vaginal laxity and urinary incontinence.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Vaginal childbirth, natural process of aging,
      congenital factors, and surgical interventions are considered the main causes of
      vulvo-vaginal laxity driven by changes in collagen and elastin fibers. This
      causes a loss of strength and flexibility within the vaginal wall. As a result,
      women may experience lack of sensation and stress urinary incontinence (SUI)-the
      condition of involuntary loss of urine associated with activities that cause an
      increase in intra-abdominal pressure (eg, sneezing, coughing, and lifting). Both
      vaginal laxity and urinary incontinence significantly affect patients' quality of
      life (QoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of a
      noninvasive radiofrequency device when used to treat SUI and vulvo-vaginal laxity
      through its heating effect which stimulates collagen and elastin fibers. METHODS:
      Twenty-seven women (average age 44.78+/-10.04 years) with indications of
      mild/moderate SUI as well as vulvo-vaginal laxity were treated with a monopolar
      radiofrequency device. The treatment course consisted of three once-a-week
      sessions. Each session included intravaginal treatment followed by treatment of
      labia majora and the perineum. Improvement in the SUI condition was evaluated by
      applying the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Urinary
      Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-UI SF). Data were collected at the baseline, after
      the last treatment and at 1-month follow-up visit. Vaginal laxity was assessed by
      subjective vulvo-vaginal laxity questionnaire (VVLQ). Data were collected before
      the 1st treatment and during the 1-month follow-up visit. Patient's satisfaction
      was recorded using a satisfaction questionnaire. Data were collected after the
      last treatment and at the 1-month follow-up visit. Any adverse events related to
      the treatments were monitored. RESULTS: On a scale of 0 to 5, the average
      frequency of urine leak improved from "2-3 times a week" (2.15+/-1.03 points
      prior to treatment) to "once a week" (1.00+/-0.78 points post-treatment), and on
      to "never" (0.44+/-0.51 points at the 1-month follow-up visit). Sixteen subjects
      (59.3%) reported decrease in the amount of leakage, with 15 women (55.6%)
      becoming completely leak-free at the 1-month follow-up. At the 1-month follow-up
      visit, 24 subjects (88.9%) expressed their condition's interference with everyday
      life decreased and 17 patients (62.9%) said the condition did not interfere with
      their everyday life at all as a result of the treatment. All results are
      statistically significant (P<.05). No adverse events were recorded. All subjects
      reported improvement in vaginal laxity, from average perception of "very loose"
      (2.19+/-1.08 points prior to treatment) to "moderately tight" (5.74+/-0.76 points
      at the 1-month follow-up visit). During the follow-up visit, 89% of the patients
      "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that their SUI condition improved, and 93% of the
      patients "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that their gratification during
      intercourse improved. None of the subjects reported dissatisfaction. CONCLUSION:
      The study confirmed the monopolar radiofrequency method as an effective and safe
      treatment of SUI and vulvo-vaginal laxity. The treatments were well tolerated by
      all subjects with no adverse effects.

PMID- 28556394
TI  - A robust diffusion tensor model for clinical applications of MRI to cartilage.
AB  - PURPOSE: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of articular cartilage is a promising
      technique for the early diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA). However, in vivo
      diffusion tensor (DT) measurements suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
      that can result in bias when estimating the six parameters of the full DT, thus
      reducing sensitivity. This study seeks to validate a simplified four-parameter DT
      model (zeppelin) for obtaining more robust and sensitive in vivo DTI biomarkers
      of cartilage. METHODS: We use simulations in a substrate to mimic changes during
      OA; and analytic simulations of the DT drawn from a range of fractional
      anisotropies (FA) measured with high-quality DT data from ex vivo human
      cartilage. We also use in vivo data from the knees of a healthy subject and two
      OA patients with Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grades 1 and 2. RESULTS: For simulated in
      vivo cartilage SNR (~25) and anisotropy levels, the estimated mean values of MD
      from the DT and zeppelin models were identical to the ground truth values.
      However, zeppelin's FA is more accurate in measuring water restriction. More
      specifically, the FA estimations of the DT model were additionally biased by
      between +2% and +48% with respect to zeppelin values. Additionally, both mean
      diffusivity (MD) and FA of the zeppelin had lower parameter variance compared to
      the full DT (F-test, P < 0.05). We observe the same trends from in vivo values of
      patient data. CONCLUSION: The zeppelin is more robust than the full DT for
      cartilage diffusion anisotropy and SNR at levels typically encountered in
      clinical applications of articular cartilage. Magn Reson Med 79:1157-1164, 2018.
      (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28556397
TI  - Body Image Models among Low-income African American Mothers and Daughters in the
      Southeast United States.
AB  - Obesity among low-income African American women has been studied using the
      concepts of both satisfaction and acceptance. The satisfaction frame suggests
      greater satisfaction with their bodies than their white counterparts,
      irrespective of size. The acceptance frame suggests that alternative aesthetics
      serve as resistance against intersectional marginalization. Yet, while these
      women accept their body size in defiance of thinness ideals, they may not be
      satisfied. We describe cultural models of body image among mothers and daughters
      in Alabama. We found that respectability, material consumption, and parental
      support were important factors determining positive body image, exceeding
      descriptions of physical features. We further found that those expressing greater
      body dissatisfaction emphasized respectability, whereas those with less
      dissatisfaction assigned importance to consumerism and physical form. These
      findings suggest divergences between biomedical messaging and lived experience.
      They also challenge uncritical or universalist applications of these frames when
      interpreting African American women's perceptions of their own bodies.

PMID- 28556398
TI  - Heterodimerization of Group I Ribozymes Enabling Exon Recombination through Pairs
      of Cooperative trans-Splicing Reactions.
AB  - Group I (GI) self-splicing ribozymes are attractive tools for biotechnology and
      synthetic biology. Several trans-splicing and related reactions based on GI
      ribozymes have been developed for the purpose of recombining their target mRNA
      sequences. By combining trans-splicing systems with rational modular engineering
      of GI ribozymes it was possible to achieve more complex editing of target RNA
      sequences. In this study we have developed a cooperative trans-splicing system
      through rational modular engineering with use of dimeric GI ribozymes derived
      from the Tetrahymena group I intron ribozyme. The resulting pairs of ribozymes
      exhibited catalytic activity depending on their selective dimerization. Rational
      modular redesign as performed in this study would facilitate the development of
      sophisticated regulation of double or multiple trans-splicing reactions in a
      cooperative manner.

PMID- 28556395
TI  - Effects of exercise training on breast cancer metastasis in a rat model.
AB  - Exercise training is thought to play a protective role against cancer development
      and metastasis, either by reducing hormonal stimulation of hormone-dependent
      cancers or by reducing the permeability of vascular walls towards invading
      metastatic cells. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the role of long-term
      exercise training in the development and metastasis of breast cancer, in an
      immune-competent 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea (MNU) induced rat model. A single MNU
      dose was administered to Sprague-Dawley rats at 50 days of age and the rats were
      subjected to exercise training on a treadmill at 20 m/min, 60 min/day, 5
      days/week for 35 weeks. Exercised animals developed slightly less (2.30 +/- 1.42)
      tumours per animal than sedentary animals (2.55 +/- 1.44) and did not develop any
      metastasis, while two pulmonary metastases were observed in the sedentary group.
      All primary neoplasms and their metastases were positive for oestrogen (ER) alpha
      and progesterone (PR) receptors, indicating high hormonal sensitivity.
      Interestingly, exercise training increased circulating oestrogen levels, thus
      suggesting that the mechanism might involve either or both of a protective
      hormone-independent effect and modulation of tumoural vascularization.

PMID- 28556399
TI  - Studies on the luminescence properties of cerium co-doping on Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+
      phosphor by solid-state reaction method.
AB  - Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Ce3+ , Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ and Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Ce3+ phosphors
      were prepared using the solid-state reaction method. The crystal structures of
      the sintered phosphors were of melilite type, which has a tetragonal
      crystallography. The chemical compositions of the sintered phosphors was
      confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The different
      thermoluminescence kinetic parameters [activation energy (E), frequency factor
      (s) and order of the kinetics (b)] of these phosphors were evaluated and compared
      using the peak shape method. Under ultraviolet excitation, the emission spectra
      of both Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ and Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Ce3+ phosphors were composed
      of a broad emission band peaking at 530 nm. When the Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ phosphor
      is co-doped with Ce3+ ions, photoluminescence, afterglow and mechanoluminescence
      intensity was strongly enhanced. Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ showed some afterglow with a
      short persist time. On incorporation of Ce3+ , efficient energy transfer from
      Ce3+ to Eu2+ was found and the emission intensity of Eu2+ was enhanced. The
      mechanoluminescence intensities of Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Ce3+ , Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ and
      Ca2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Ce3+ phosphors increased proportionally increased with the
      increase in impact velocity, which suggests that these phosphors can be used as
      sensors to detect stress in an object.

PMID- 28556400
TI  - Real-time three-dimensional image angle rectification to improve hand-eye
      coordination in single-port laparoendoscopic surgery.

PMID- 28556401
TI  - Quantitative proteome-based systematic identification of SIRT7 substrates.
AB  - SIRT7 is a class III histone deacetylase that is involved in numerous cellular
      processes. Only six substrates of SIRT7 have been reported thus far, so we aimed
      to systematically identify SIRT7 substrates using stable-isotope labeling with
      amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) coupled with quantitative mass spectrometry
      (MS). Using SIRT7+/+ and SIRT7-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts as our model
      system, we identified and quantified 1493 acetylation sites in 789 proteins, of
      which 261 acetylation sites in 176 proteins showed >=2-fold change in acetylation
      state between SIRT7-/- and SIRT7+/+ cells. These proteins were considered
      putative SIRT7 substrates and were carried forward for further analysis. We then
      validated the predictive efficiency of the SILAC-MS experiment by assessing
      substrate acetylation status in vitro in six predicted proteins. We also
      performed a bioinformatic analysis of the MS data, which indicated that many of
      the putative protein substrates were involved in metabolic processes. Finally, we
      expanded our list of candidate substrates by performing a bioinformatics-based
      prediction analysis of putative SIRT7 substrates, using our list of putative
      substrates as a positive training set, and again validated a subset of the
      proteins in vitro. In summary, we have generated a comprehensive list of SIRT7
      candidate substrates.

PMID- 28556402
TI  - Cold Snapshot of a Molecular Rotary Motor Captured by High-Resolution Rotational
      Spectroscopy.
AB  - We present the first high-resolution rotational spectrum of an artificial
      molecular rotary motor. By combining chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave
      spectroscopy and supersonic expansions, we captured the vibronic ground-state
      conformation of a second-generation motor based on chiral, overcrowded alkenes.
      The rotational constants were accurately determined by fitting more than 200
      rotational transitions in the 2-4 GHz frequency range. Evidence for dissociation
      products allowed for the unambiguous identification and characterization of the
      isolated motor components. Experiment and complementary quantum-chemical
      calculations provide accurate geometrical parameters for the C27 H20 molecular
      motor, the largest molecule investigated by high-resolution microwave
      spectroscopy to date.

PMID- 28556403
TI  - Silver fir and Douglas fir are more tolerant to extreme droughts than Norway
      spruce in south-western Germany.
AB  - Improving our understanding of the potential of forest adaptation is an urgent
      task in the light of predicted climate change. Long-term alternatives for
      susceptible yet economically important tree species such as Norway spruce (Picea
      abies) are required, if the frequency and intensity of summer droughts will
      continue to increase. Although Silver fir (Abies alba) and Douglas fir
      (Pseudotsuga menziesii) have both been described as drought-tolerant species, our
      understanding of their growth responses to drought extremes is still limited.
      Here, we use a dendroecological approach to assess the resistance, resilience,
      and recovery of these important central Europe to conifer species the exceptional
      droughts in 1976 and 2003. A total of 270 trees per species were sampled in 18
      managed mixed-species stands along an altitudinal gradient (400-1200 m a.s.l.) at
      the western slopes of the southern and central Black Forest in southwest Germany.
      While radial growth in all species responded similarly to the 1976 drought,
      Norway spruce was least resistant and resilient to the 2003 summer drought.
      Silver fir showed the overall highest resistance to drought, similarly to Douglas
      fir, which exhibited the widest growth rings. Silver fir trees from lower
      elevations were more drought prone than trees at higher elevations. Douglas fir
      and Norway spruce, however, revealed lower drought resilience at higher
      altitudes. Although the 1976 and 2003 drought extremes were quite different,
      Douglas fir maintained consistently the highest radial growth. Although our study
      did not examine population-level responses, it clearly indicates that Silver fir
      and Douglas fir are generally more resistant and resilient to previous drought
      extremes and are therefore suitable alternatives to Norway spruce; Silver fir
      more so at higher altitudes. Cultivating these species instead of Norway spruce
      will contribute to maintaining a high level of productivity across many Central
      European mountain forests under future climate change.

PMID- 28556404
TI  - Viral-mediated oligodendroglial alpha-synuclein expression models multiple system
      atrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MSA is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a
      combination of autonomic dysfunction, cerebellar ataxia, and l-dopa unresponsive
      parkinsonism. The hallmark of MSA is the accumulation of alpha-synuclein, forming
      cytoplasmic inclusions in oligodendrocytes. Adeno-associated viruses allow
      efficient targeting of disease-associated genes in selected cellular ensembles
      and have proven efficient for the neuronal overexpression of alpha-synuclein in
      the substantia nigra in the context of PD. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to develop viral
      based models of MSA. METHODS: Chimeric viral vectors expressing either human wild
      type alpha-synuclein or green fluorescent protein under the control of mouse
      myelin basic protein were injected in the striatum of rats and monkeys. Rats
      underwent a longitudinal motor assessment before histopathological analysis at 3
      and 6 months. RESULTS: Injection of vectors expressing alpha-synuclein in the
      striatum resulted in >80% oligodendroglial selectivity in rats and >60% in
      monkeys. Rats developed progressive motor deficits that were l-dopa unresponsive
      when assessed at 6 months. Significant loss of dopaminergic neurons occurred at 3
      months, further progressing at 6 months, together with a loss of striatal
      neurons. Prominent alpha-synuclein accumulation, including phosphorylated and
      proteinase-K-resistant alpha-synuclein, was detected in the striatum and
      substantia nigra. CONCLUSIONS: Viral-mediated oligodendroglial expression of
      alpha-synuclein allows replicating some of the key features of MSA. This flexible
      strategy can be used to investigate, in several species, how alpha-synuclein
      accumulation in selected oligodendroglial populations contributes to the
      pathophysiology of MSA and offers a new framework for preclinical validation of
      therapeutic strategies. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder
      Society.

PMID- 28556405
TI  - Tuberculosis in China: A longitudinal predictive model of the general population
      and recommendations for achieving WHO goals.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health
      challenge. China accounts for more than 10% of the global TB burden, and
      effective modelling of TB trends remains limited. METHODS: We used data drawn
      primarily from two Chinese nation-wide cross-sectional epidemiological surveys
      combined with data from China's National Disease Reporting Network to construct
      an eight-state Markov model that simulates TB prevalence. By adjusting the
      relevant parameters, we evaluated which characteristics have the greatest bearing
      upon prevalence and efficacy of the response measures. RESULTS: If current trends
      continue, the prevalence of TB in China will enter an 8-year period of decline
      from approximately 390 to 200 cases per 100 000 population and stabilize at 163
      cases per 100 000 population, which is a figure well above the World Health
      Organization (WHO) goal of eliminating TB by 2050. We find that the proportion of
      notified cases in the population, the rate of progression from latent to active
      and the overall treatment success rate are the chief factors affecting disease
      progression. CONCLUSION: We suggest a 90-90-90 strategy, wherein the proportion
      of notified cases in the population reaches 90%, the risk of progression from
      latent to active is decreased by 90% compared with the current level and the
      overall treatment success rate is increased to 90%. This strategy could reduce TB
      prevalence to less than 10 cases per 100 000 population within 5 years and to
      1.77 cases per 100 000 population within 50 years.

PMID- 28556406
TI  - Disease stage and plasma levels of cytokines in Huntington's disease: A 2-year
      follow-up study.

PMID- 28556407
TI  - Creating positive practice environments in a primary health care setting.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions of nurse
      managers, nurses, and a physician in the community health centre with the most
      positive practice environment in a province of South Africa. METHODS: Ten (N =
      10) semistructured individual interviews were conducted with personnel of the
      community health centre with the most positive practice environment. RESULTS:
      Personnel cited the following as the most important characteristics of a positive
      practice environment in a primary health care setting: support, leadership and
      governance, collegial nurse-physician relationships, and quality of care.
      CONCLUSION: In a primary health care setting, it is important to train, appoint,
      and support managers who in turn will be able to train and support their
      personnel. Furthermore, reciprocal community involvement must be encouraged
      between personnel of the community health centre and stakeholders in the
      community to improve the health status of the community. Finally, group cohesions
      between all health care workers and managers at different organisational levels
      should be encouraged, as this enhances teamwork and a culture of teaching
      learning and improves the competence of all staff.

PMID- 28556408
TI  - Reprogrammable Chemical 3D Shaping for Origami, Kirigami, and Reconfigurable
      Molding.
AB  - Origami- and kirigami-based design principles have recently received strong
      interest from the scientific and engineering communities because they offer fresh
      approaches to engineering of structural hierarchy and adaptive functions in
      materials, which could lead to many promising applications. Herein, we present a
      reprogrammable 3D chemical shaping strategy for creating a wide variety of stable
      complex origami and kirigami structures autonomously. This strategy relies on a
      reverse patterning method that encodes prescribed 3D geometric information as a
      spatial pattern of the unlocked phase (dispersed phase) in the locked phase
      (matrix phase) in a pre-stretched Nafion sheet. Building upon the unique chemical
      reprogramming capability of the Nafion shape memory polymer, we have developed a
      reconfigurable molding technology that can significantly reduce time, costs, and
      waste by shaping various 3D materials with high fidelity.

PMID- 28556409
TI  - Prevention of infectious complications after prostate biopsy procedure.
AB  - Although febrile complications are rarely encountered after a prostate biopsy
      procedure, in recent years the number of cases of fatal infection after that have
      increased along with increases in resistant bacteria. The available biopsy
      approaches are transrectal and transperineal, with the transrectal approach
      primarily used. As the invasion path of the puncture needle differs between these
      approaches, pretreatment and the method of administration of preventive
      antimicrobial drugs should be separately considered for infection prevention.
      Recently, the Japanese guidelines for perioperative infection prevention in the
      field of urology were revised after receiving approval from the Japanese
      Urological Association. With use of the transrectal approach, attempts have been
      made to selectively administer prophylactic antibiotics by confirming the
      presence or absence of resistant bacteria in rectal swab culture results before
      carrying out a prostate biopsy procedure because of potential problems associated
      with resistant bacteria in rectal flora. For preventive antibiotics, a single
      dose of oral quinolone is recommended for patients with low risk, whereas daily
      administrations of piperacillin/tazobactam are recommended for those considered
      to be high risk. In contrast, for the transperineal procedure, a single dose of
      oral quinolone is recommended as a preventive antibiotic. With both approaches,
      it is important to empirically administer broad-spectrum antimicrobials when
      occurrence of a febrile infection after a prostate biopsy procedure is confirmed.

PMID- 28556410
TI  - Seasonal variability of the parameters of the Ball-Berry model of stomatal
      conductance in maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under
      well-watered and water-stressed conditions.
AB  - The Ball-Berry (BB) model of stomatal conductance (gs ) is frequently coupled
      with a model of assimilation to estimate water and carbon exchanges in plant
      canopies. The empirical slope (m) and 'residual' gs (g0 ) parameters of the BB
      model influence transpiration estimates, but the time-intensive nature of
      measurement limits species-specific data on seasonal and stress responses. We
      measured m and g0 seasonally and under different water availability for maize and
      sunflower. The statistical method used to estimate parameters impacted values
      nominally when inter-plant variability was low, but had substantial impact with
      larger inter-plant variability. Values for maize (m = 4.53 +/- 0.65; g0  = 0.017
      +/- 0.016 mol m-2 s-1 ) were 40% higher than other published values. In maize, we
      found no seasonal changes in m or g0 , supporting the use of constant seasonal
      values, but water stress reduced both parameters. In sunflower, inter-plant
      variability of m and g0 was large (m = 8.84 +/- 3.77; g0  = 0.354 +/- 0.226 mol m
      2 s-1 ), presenting a challenge to clear interpretation of seasonal and water
      stress responses - m values were stable seasonally, even as g0 values trended
      downward, and m values trended downward with water stress while g0 values
      declined substantially.

PMID- 28556411
TI  - The genetic landscape of familial congenital hydrocephalus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Congenital hydrocephalus is an important birth defect, the genetics of
      which remains incompletely understood. To date, only 4 genes are known to cause
      Mendelian diseases in which congenital hydrocephalus is the main or sole clinical
      feature, 2 X-linked (L1CAM and AP1S2) and 2 autosomal recessive (CCDC88C and
      MPDZ). In this study, we aimed to determine the genetic etiology of familial
      congenital hydrocephalus with the assumption that these cases represent Mendelian
      forms of the disease. METHODS: Exome sequencing combined, where applicable, with
      positional mapping. RESULTS: We identified a likely causal mutation in the
      majority of these families (21 of 27, 78%), spanning 16 genes, none of which is X
      linked. Ciliopathies and dystroglycanopathies were the most common etiologies of
      congenital hydrocephalus in our cohort (19% and 26%, respectively). In 1 family
      with 4 affected members, we identified a homozygous truncating variant in EML1,
      which we propose as a novel cause of congenital hydrocephalus in addition to its
      suggested role in cortical malformation. Similarly, we show that recessive
      mutations in WDR81, previously linked to cerebellar ataxia, mental retardation,
      and disequilibrium syndrome 2, cause severe congenital hydrocephalus.
      Furthermore, we confirm the previously reported candidacy of MPDZ by presenting a
      phenotypic spectrum of congenital hydrocephalus associated with 5 recessive
      alleles. INTERPRETATION: Our study highlights the importance of recessive
      mutations in familial congenital hydrocephalus and expands the locus
      heterogeneity of this condition. Ann Neurol 2017;81:890-897.

PMID- 28556412
TI  - Patient-reported outcomes in Huntington's disease: Quality of life in
      neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL) and Huntington's disease health-related
      quality of life (HDQLIFE) physical function measures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a need for patient-reported outcome measures that capture
      the impact that motor impairments have on health-related quality of life in
      individuals with Huntington's disease. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study
      were to establish the reliability and validity of new physical functioning
      patient-reported outcome measures in Huntington's disease. METHODS: A total of
      510 individuals with Huntington's disease completed 2 Quality of Life in
      Neurological Disorders (Lower Extremity Function and Upper Extremity Function)
      and 3 Huntington's Disease Health-Related Quality of Life (Chorea, Speech
      Difficulties, and Swallowing Difficulties) measures. Clinician-rated and generic
      self-report measures were also administered. RESULTS: Reliabilities for the new
      patient reported physical functioning measures were excellent (all Cronbach's
      alpha > .92). Convergent, discriminant validity and known group validity was
      supported. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide psychometric support for new patient
      reported physical functioning measures and the fact that these measures can be
      used as clinically meaningful endpoints in Huntington's disease research and
      clinical practice. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder
      Society.

PMID- 28556413
TI  - Concomitant screening for liver fibrosis and steatosis in French type 2 diabetic
      patients using Fibroscan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for steatohepatitis and fibrosis.
      Non-invasive liver stiffness (LS) and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP)
      measurements by Fibroscan allow assessing liver fat and fibrosis. AIM: To
      determine the prevalence of steatosis and significant fibrosis in a community
      based diabetic population. METHODS: LS and CAP were measured in 705 patients
      using the standard "M probe." A second "XL probe" was used, without CAP
      measurement, in case of failure with the "M probe." RESULTS: LS and CAP
      measurements were obtained in 437 patients (the M group), LS measurements (LSM)
      with the XL probe being available in additional 232 patients. After the combined
      use of both probes, LSM failure and unreliable result were 1.6% and 5.6%
      respectively. Overall, 12.7% (n=85), 7.3% and 2.1% exhibited significant or
      advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis (LSM>=8 kPa, >=9.6 kPa, >=13 kPa respectively),
      half of the patients with LSM>=8 kPa displayed normal liver tests. Significant
      and severe steatosis were measured in 75% and 24% of the M group patients. By
      multivariate analysis, factors associated with severe fibrosis were age,
      overweight, high GGT. Forty-seven patients with LSM>=8 kPa underwent liver
      biopsy; 93% had steatosis and 51% severe fibrosis. A significant correlation was
      found between LSM values and fibrosis score with an accuracy rate of 83%, 68% and
      83% for LSM>=8 kPa, >=9.6 kPa and >=13 kPa respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The
      prevalence of significant steatosis is very high and significant fibrosis affect
      12.7% of the patients. Fibroscan is an effective procedure to screen for fibrosis
      and steatosis in diabetic patients.

PMID- 28556416
TI  - New developments in chyluria after global programs to eliminate lymphatic
      filariasis.
AB  - Chyluria, commonly seen in south Asian countries, is mainly a manifestation of
      lymphatic filariasis as a result of infestation with Wuchereria bancrofti,
      although many other causes can contribute. Many patients can be effectively
      treated with dietary modifications and drug therapy. The most widely used drug is
      diethyl carbamazine. The recurrences are common after such treatment. Such
      patients would benefit from sclerotherapy to obliterate the lympatico-renal
      fistulae located mainly in the renal pelvicalyceal system. The commonly used
      sclerosing agent is a combination of 5% povidone-iodine and 50% dextrose
      instilled through a ureteric catheter. A small percentage of patients who recur
      after sclerotherapy and those with systemic complications, such as
      hypoproteinemia and edema, might require surgery in the form of renal hilar
      lymphatic disconnection. Although it is a major operation, the success rates are
      >90%. Laparoscopic and robotic techniques have minimized the morbidity related to
      such surgery. With the advent of the global program for eradication of filariasis
      initiated by the World Health Organization, the incidence of the disease is
      decreasing. Mass chemotherapy with diethyl carbamazine is the mainstay of this
      global program. Many years after eliminating filariasis, chyluria continue to
      occur in such populations, though in dwindling numbers. Future research should
      aim at finding more efficacious sclerosing agents with minimal recurrences.

PMID- 28556415
TI  - Symptoms associated with Lewy body disease in mild cognitive impairment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is associated with a range of
      cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms. We aimed to identify if some of these
      symptoms might aid early diagnosis of Lewy body disease in cases of mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: Lewy body MCI (MCI-LB; n = 36), Alzheimer's
      disease MCI (MCI-AD; n = 21), DLB (n = 36), AD (n = 21) and control (n = 20)
      participants were recruited. An interview-based questionnaire about the presence
      of symptoms thought to be associated with Lewy body disease was completed by
      participants with, where possible, their carer/relative. The prevalence of each
      symptom was compared between MCI-LB and MCI-AD and between established DLB and
      AD, and a symptom scale based on these findings was devised. RESULTS: Fluctuating
      concentration/attention; episodes of confusion; muscle rigidity; changes in hand
      writing, gait and posture; falls; drooling; weak voice; symptoms of REM sleep
      behaviour disorder (RBD) and misjudging objects were more common in MCI-LB
      compared with MCI-AD, and also in DLB compared with AD. Hyposmia, tremor,
      slowness and autonomic symptoms were not specific to Lewy body disease. REM sleep
      behaviour disorder and hyposmia were reported to develop several years prior to
      the onset of cognitive symptoms in Lewy body disease. A 10-point symptom scale
      differentiated between MCI-LB and MCI-AD with a sensitivity of 83% and a
      specificity of 100%. CONCLUSIONS: Drooling, misjudging objects and symptoms
      related to parkinsonism, fluctuating cognition and RBD may be the most
      characteristic symptoms of MCI-LB. Slowness, tremor, autonomic symptoms and
      hyposmia are all common in MCI-LB but are not specific to the disease. Copyright
      (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556414
TI  - Dynamic compression of human and ovine meniscal tissue compared with a potential
      thermoplastic elastomer hydrogel replacement.
AB  - Understanding how human meniscal tissue responds to loading regimes mimetic of
      daily life as well as how it compares to larger animal models is critical in the
      development of a functionally accurate synthetic surrogate. Seven human and eight
      ovine cadaveric meniscal specimens were regionally sectioned into cylinders 5 mm
      in diameter and 3 mm thick along with 10 polystyrene-b-polyethylene oxide block
      copolymer-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) hydrogels. Samples were compressed
      to 12% strain at 1 Hz for 5000 cycles, unloaded for 24 h, and then retested. No
      differences were found within each group between test one and test two. Human and
      ovine tissue exhibited no regional dependency (p < 0.05). Human samples relaxed
      quicker than ovine tissue or the TPE hydrogel with modulus values at cycle 50 not
      significantly different from cycle 5000. Ovine menisci were found to be similar
      to human menisci in relaxation profile but had significantly higher modulus
      values (3.44 MPa instantaneous and 0.61 MPa after 5000 cycles compared with 1.97
      and 0.11 MPa found for human tissue) and significantly different power law fit
      coefficients. The TPE hydrogel had an initial modulus of 0.58 MPa and experienced
      less than a 20% total relaxation over the 5000. Significant differences in the
      magnitude of compressive modulus between human and ovine menisci were observed,
      however the relaxation profiles were similar. Although statistically different
      than the native tissues, modulus values of the TPE hydrogel material were similar
      to those of the human and ovine menisci, making it a material worth further
      investigation for use as a synthetic replacement. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2722-2728, 2017.

PMID- 28556417
TI  - Dengue data and surveillance in Tanzania: a systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although there is evidence that dengue virus is circulating in
      Tanzania, the country lacks a dengue surveillance system. Consequently, the true
      estimate of dengue seroprevalence, as well as the incidence in the population,
      the frequency and magnitude of outbreaks is unknown. This study therefore sought
      to systematically review available dengue data from Tanzania. METHODS: The
      systematic review was conducted and reported using the PRISMA tool. Five
      databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, WHOLIS and Google Scholar) were
      searched for articles using various keywords on the illness, data and
      geographical location. Identified articles were assessed for inclusion based on
      predefined eligibility criteria. Data were extracted from included articles,
      analysed and reported. RESULTS: Based on the 10 seroprevalence studies in defined
      populations with estimates of acute confirmed infections that were included in
      the review, the estimated seroprevalence of past dengue infection in Tanzania
      ranged from 50.6% in a health facility-based study to 11% in a population-based
      study. Acute confirmed infections of dengue were estimated to be as high as 38.2%
      of suspected cases. Only one study reported on an outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: It is
      evident that dengue needs to become part of regular disease surveillance in
      Tanzania. Control measures need to be instituted with a focus on building human
      resource capacity and integrating dengue control measures in ongoing health
      programmes, for both preventive and curative interventions. Systematic reviews
      are valuable in assessing health issues when surveillance data are not available.

PMID- 28556418
TI  - Phase I randomized study of KHK4083, an anti-OX40 monoclonal antibody, in
      patients with mild to moderate plaque psoriasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: OX40 (CD134) is expressed in lesional but not healthy skin of
      patients with psoriasis. KHK4083 is a fully human monoclonal antibody against
      OX40. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this first-in-human phase 1 study was to
      determine the safety and tolerability of ascending single doses of KHK4083 in
      patients with mild to moderate plaque psoriasis. Secondary aims were to determine
      the pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity of KHK4083, and an exploratory objective
      was to assess clinical activity. METHODS: In phase 1a, single doses of KHK4083
      0.003 and 0.001 mg/kg IV were administered open label in two cohorts (each n =
      6). Phase 1b had a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled,
      ascending single-dose design in seven cohorts. Randomization was performed 3 : 1
      to KHK4083 (n = 6) or placebo (n = 2) within each cohort. Ascending doses of
      KHK4083 were 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 and 10 mg/kg IV, and 1.0 mg/kg SC. RESULTS:
      There were no severe or serious adverse events (AEs), or discontinuations because
      of AEs. The most frequent treatment-related AEs in the 55 patients who received
      KHK4083 were mild or moderate chills (9.1%), and infusion/injection site
      reactions (7.3%). No clinically meaningful or dose-related changes from baseline
      in laboratory values, vital signs, ECG recordings or physical examinations were
      observed. Some KHK4083 recipients (10/54) developed anti-KHK4083 antibodies
      following treatment. Mean elimination half-life (t1/2 ) increased with dose,
      maximum serum concentration increased in a dose-proportional manner, and area
      under the serum concentration-time curve increased in a more than dose
      proportional manner with increasing IV dose. Absolute bioavailability following
      SC administration was 73%. There was some indication of improvement in Psoriasis
      Area Severity Index (PASI) and sPGA scores at the highest IV doses (1.0 and 10
      mg/kg) and the SC dose (1.0 mg/kg). The largest PASI 50 response and improvement
      in sPGA score >=2 occurred with KHK4083 1.0 mg/kg SC. CONCLUSION: KHK4083
      administration as a single dose up to 10 mg/kg IV or 1.0 mg/kg SC was generally
      safe and well tolerated in patients with mild to moderate plaque psoriasis with
      no dose-limiting AEs.

PMID- 28556420
TI  - Impact of postoperative positioning on the outcome of pars plana vitrectomy with
      gas tamponade for primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: comparison between
      supine and prone positioning.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the postoperative anatomic success rates and the frequency of
      complications between prone or supine postoperative positioning after
      transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (TSV) for rhegmatogenous retinal
      detachment (RRD). METHODS: All patients underwent primary 27-gauge TSV for the
      treatment of primary RRD. Patients were divided into two groups as follows: group
      A was patients instructed to keep strict postoperative prone positioning for a
      minimum of 8 days. Group B was patients instructed to keep the prone positioning
      on the day of the surgery followed by supine positioning for minimum of 7 days
      from the day after surgery. RESULT: Sixty-two eyes were enrolled (group A: 32,
      group B: 30). There was no significant difference in baseline data between two
      groups. The initial and final anatomical success rates were 93.8% and 100% in
      group A and 93.3% and 100% in group B, respectively (p = 1, p = 1, respectively).
      Posterior synechia of the iris occurred in one eye in group A and in two eyes in
      group B (p = 0.61). Macular pucker and retinal fold did not occur in either
      group. Preoperative intraocular pressure (IOP; mmHg) was 14.5 +/- 2.9 in group A
      and 14.5 +/- 2.6 in group B (p = 0.92). Intraocular pressure (IOP) was not
      statistically different between the groups during the follow-up period (p = 0.36,
      p = 0.07, respectively). CONCLUSION: Supine positioning may be an option as a
      postoperative positioning after TSV and gas tamponade for the treatment of RRD.

PMID- 28556419
TI  - Association of diabetes mellitus and biochemical knee cartilage composition
      assessed by T2 relaxation time measurements: Data from the osteoarthritis
      initiative.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the association of the presence and severity of diabetes
      mellitus (DM) with articular cartilage composition, using magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI)-based T2 relaxation time measurements, and structural knee
      abnormalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the Osteoarthritis Initiative 208,
      participants with DM (age 63.0 +/- 8.9 years; 111 females) and risk factors for
      osteoarthritis (OA) or mild radiographic tibiofemoral OA (Kellgren-Lawrence [KL]
      grade <=2) were identified and group-matched with 208 controls without DM (age
      63.3 +/- 9.1 years; 111 females). Subjects with diabetes-related renal or
      ophthalmological complications or insulin treatment at baseline (n = 50) were
      defined as severe DM. 3T MR images of the right knee were assessed for articular
      cartilage T2 , including texture and laminar analyses derived from the patella,
      medial, and lateral femur and tibia and for structural abnormalities using the
      modified whole-organ magnetic resonance imaging score (WORMS). Clustered linear
      regression analyses were used to assess associations of DM with MRI findings.
      RESULTS: DM subjects had significantly higher cartilage T2 in the patella (mean
      difference 0.92 msec [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79, 1.06]; P = 0.001) and
      medial femur (mean difference 0.36 msec [95% CI 0.27, 0.81]; P = 0.006) compared
      to controls. Averaged over all compartments, DM subjects showed significantly
      higher texture parameters (variance, P = 0.001; contrast, P = 0.002; entropy, P <
      0.001). Subjects with severe DM additionally showed higher T2 in the medial
      tibial deep and superficial layers (P = 0.011 and P = 0.041) compared to
      controls. No significant differences in cartilage, meniscus, and overall WORMS
      were found between the groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: In comparison to
      nondiabetic controls, cartilage in DM subjects showed higher and more
      heterogeneous cartilage T2 values, indicating increased articular cartilage
      degeneration. This affected even more compartments in subjects with severe DM.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:380
      390.

PMID- 28556421
TI  - Gastrointestinal disorders after immunosuppression: an experimental model to
      evaluate the influence of monotherapy on motility parameters.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? The aim was to propose
      an animal model for investigating the effects of immunosuppressive monotherapy on
      gastrointestinal motility using a non-invasive biomagnetic technique. What is
      main finding and its importance? In our experimental study, immunosuppressive
      drugs currently in use accelerated gastric emptying whilst increasing the
      frequency and amplitude of gastric contractions after treatment, except for
      Mycophenolate and azathioprine. Alternating current biosusceptometry is a useful
      tool to evaluate side-effects of drugs on the gastrointestinal tract, which will
      help in understanding the symptoms and improving clinical management of patients.
      The aim was to propose an animal model for investigating the effects of
      immunosuppressive monotherapy on gastrointestinal motility using a non-invasive
      biomagnetic technique. Male Wistar rats were randomly distributed into the
      following treatment groups: ciclosporin, tacrolimus, prednisone, sirolimus,
      mycophenolate mofetil, everolimus, azathioprine and control. Each animal was
      treated for 14 days by gavage with dosages ranging from 1 to 20 mg kg-1  day-1
      considering the area-to-volume ratio and hepatic metabolism. Gastrointestinal
      transit and gastric contractility measurements were evaluated by alternating
      current biosusceptometry before and after treatment. Gastric emptying was faster
      in animals treated with tacrolimus, prednisone, sirolimus and everolimus compared
      with control animals (126.7 +/- 12.7 min). There was a significant increase in
      the frequency of contractions after ciclosporin, tacrolimus, azathioprine and
      sirolimus treatment compared with control animals (4.6 +/- 0.3 cycles min-1 ).
      Increases in the amplitude of contraction were observed after treatment with
      tacrolimus, sirolimus and everolimus compared with control rats (34.9 +/- 6.0
      dB). The results showed that our animal model was suitable for demonstrating that
      most immunosuppressive drugs currently in use impaired at least one
      gastrointestinal motility parameter. As a non-invasive technique, alternating
      current biosusceptometry is a potentially useful tool for evaluation of side
      effects of drugs in gastrointestinal tract, helping us to understand the symptoms
      to improve clinical management of patients.

PMID- 28556422
TI  - The American Society of Transplantation Consensus Conference on the Use of
      Hepatitis C Viremic Donors in Solid Organ Transplantation.
AB  - The availability of direct-acting antiviral agents for the treatment of hepatitis
      C virus (HCV) infection has resulted in a profound shift in the approach to the
      management of this infection. These changes have affected the practice of solid
      organ transplantation by altering the framework by which patients with end-stage
      organ disease are managed and receive organ transplants. The high level of safety
      and efficacy of these medications in patients with chronic HCV infection provides
      the opportunity to explore their use in the setting of transplanting organs from
      HCV-viremic patients into non-HCV-viremic recipients. Because these organs are
      frequently discarded and typically come from younger donors, this approach has
      the potential to save lives on the solid organ transplant waitlist. Therefore, an
      urgent need exists for prospective research protocols that study the risk versus
      benefit of using organs for hepatitis C-infected donors. In response to this
      rapidly changing practice and the need for scientific study and consensus, the
      American Society of Transplantation convened a meeting of experts to review
      current data and develop the framework for the study of using HCV viremic organs
      in solid organ transplantation.

PMID- 28556423
TI  - A rare complication of topical atropine for treatment of eccrine hidrocystoma:
      Pharmacological fixed dilated pupils.
AB  - Multiple eccrine hidrocystoma (EH) has been treated with topical atropine with
      variable results. However, in rare cases, anticholinergic side effects have been
      seen after the use of the topical form of this drug. We presented a 50-year-old
      woman who developed recent onset of visual disturbance and photophobia from 2
      weeks prior. The diagnosis of topical atropine-induced bilateral mydriasis was
      made. We reported a recognized but often overlooked case of bilateral mydriasis
      caused by application of topical 1% atropine for treatment of multiple EH.

PMID- 28556424
TI  - Growth of organic films on indoor surfaces.
AB  - We present a model for the growth of organic films on impermeable indoor
      surfaces. The model couples transport through a gas-side boundary layer adjacent
      to the surface with equilibrium partitioning of semivolatile organic compounds
      (SVOCs) between the gas phase and the surface film. Model predictions indicate
      that film growth would primarily be influenced by the gas-phase concentration of
      SVOCs with octanol-air partitioning (Koa ) values in the approximate range
      10<=log Koa <=13. Within the relevant range, SVOCs with lower values will
      equilibrate with the surface film more rapidly. Over time, the film becomes
      relatively enriched in species with higher log Koa values, while the proportion
      of gas-phase SVOCs not in equilibrium with the film decreases. Given stable
      airborne SVOC concentrations, films grow at faster rates initially and then
      subsequently diminish to an almost steady growth rate. Once an SVOC is
      equilibrated with the film, its mass per unit film volume remains constant, while
      its mass per unit area increases in proportion to overall film thickness. The
      predictions of the conceptual model and its mathematical embodiment are generally
      consistent with results reported in the peer-reviewed literature.

PMID- 28556425
TI  - Fibromyalgia: A "Chronic Pain Condition" or a True "Chronic Pain Disease"?

PMID- 28556426
TI  - Retrospective study on the incidence and outcome of proven and probable invasive
      fungal infections in high-risk pediatric onco-hematological patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a cause of morbidity, mortality
      and increased health costs in children undergoing chemotherapy or hematopoietic
      stem cell transplant (HSCT). METHODS: Multicenter, retrospective study to assess
      the incidence, outcome of proven and probable IFI (PP-IFI) in children treated
      for acute leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma or who underwent HSCT from 2006 to 2012.
      RESULTS: Over the 7-year period, 127 PP-IFI were diagnosed in 123 patients,
      median age of 9.7 years. The 1-year cumulative incidence was 2.5% (CI 1.8-3.7)
      after frontline chemotherapy, 9.4% (CI 5.8-15.0) after relapse, and 5.3% (CI 3.9
      7.1) after HSCT. Severe neutropenia was present in 98 (77%) patients. Culture
      proven agents were Candida spp., mostly non-albicans, 28, mold 23, whereas three
      proven IFI were identified by histopathology. Favorable response to treatment
      within 3 months from diagnosis was observed in 77 (89%). The overall ninety-day
      probability of survival was 68% (CI 59-76). CONCLUSIONS: About two-thirds of
      pediatric patients with PP-IFI survived, regardless of whether the infection
      occurred after frontline chemotherapy, reinduction chemotherapy for disease
      relapse, or after HSCT. Further prospective studies are needed to define the
      impact of antifungal prophylaxis and early combination therapy on short-term
      overall survival.

PMID- 28556427
TI  - Everolimus-Based Immunosuppression in Liver Transplant Recipients.

PMID- 28556429
TI  - Acute nutritional axonal neuropathy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study describes clinical, laboratory, and electrodiagnostic
      features of a severe acute axonal polyneuropathy common to patients with acute
      nutritional deficiency in the setting of alcoholism, bariatric surgery (BS), or
      anorexia. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of clinical, electrodiagnostic, and
      laboratory data of patients with acute axonal neuropathy. RESULTS: Thirteen
      patients were identified with a severe, painful, sensory or sensorimotor axonal
      polyneuropathy that developed over 2-12 weeks with sensory ataxia, areflexia,
      variable muscle weakness, poor nutritional status, and weight loss, often with
      prolonged vomiting and normal cerebrospinal fluid protein. Vitamin B6 was low in
      half and thiamine was low in all patients when obtained before supplementation.
      Patients improved with weight gain and vitamin supplementation, with motor
      greater than sensory recovery. DISCUSSION: We suggest that acute or subacute
      axonal neuropathy in patients with weight loss or vomiting associated with
      alcohol abuse, BS, or dietary deficiency is one syndrome, caused by micronutrient
      deficiencies. Muscle Nerve 57: 33-39, 2018.

PMID- 28556430
TI  - Sol-Gel-Derived Biohybrid Materials Incorporating Long-Chain DNA Aptamers.
AB  - Sol-gel-derived bio/inorganic hybrid materials have been examined for diverse
      applications, including biosensing, affinity chromatography and drug discovery.
      However, such materials have mostly been restricted to the interaction between
      entrapped biorecognition elements and small molecules, owing to the requirement
      for nanometer-scale mesopores in the matrix to retain entrapped biorecognition
      elements. Herein, we report on a new class of macroporous bio/inorganic hybrids,
      engineered through a high-throughput materials screening approach, that entrap
      micron-sized concatemeric DNA aptamers. We demonstrate that the entrapment of
      these long-chain DNA aptamers allows their retention within the macropores of the
      silica material, so that aptamers can interact with high molecular weight targets
      such as proteins. Our approach overcomes the major limitation of previous sol-gel
      derived biohybrid materials by enabling molecular recognition for targets beyond
      small molecules.

PMID- 28556428
TI  - Identification of tissue-specific transcriptional markers of caloric restriction
      in the mouse and their use to evaluate caloric restriction mimetics.
AB  - Caloric restriction (CR) without malnutrition has been shown to retard several
      aspects of the aging process and to extend lifespan in different species. There
      is strong interest in the identification of CR mimetics (CRMs), compounds that
      mimic the beneficial effects of CR on lifespan and healthspan without restriction
      of energy intake. Identification of CRMs in mammals is currently inefficient due
      to the lack of screening tools. We have performed whole-genome transcriptional
      profiling of CR in seven mouse strains (C3H/HeJ, CBA/J, DBA/2J, B6C3F1/J,
      129S1/SvImJ, C57BL/6J, and BALB/cJ) in white adipose tissue (WAT), gastrocnemius
      muscle, heart, and brain neocortex. This analysis has identified tissue-specific
      panels of genes that change in expression in multiple mouse strains with CR. We
      validated a subset of genes with qPCR and used these to evaluate the potential
      CRMs bezafibrate, pioglitazone, metformin, resveratrol, quercetin, 2,4
      dinitrophenol, and L-carnitine when fed to C57BL/6J 2-month-old mice for 3
      months. Compounds were also evaluated for their ability to modulate previously
      characterized biomarkers of CR, including mitochondrial enzymes citrate synthase
      and SIRT3, plasma inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma, glycated
      hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and adipocyte size. Pioglitazone, a PPAR-gamma agonist,
      and L-carnitine, an amino acid involved in lipid metabolism, displayed the
      strongest effects on both the novel transcriptional markers of CR and the
      additional CR biomarkers tested. Our findings provide panels of tissue-specific
      transcriptional markers of CR that can be used to identify novel CRMs, and also
      represent the first comparative molecular analysis of several potential CRMs in
      multiple tissues in mammals.

PMID- 28556431
TI  - White matter microstructure in athletes with a history of concussion: Comparing
      diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density
      imaging (NODDI).
AB  - Sport concussion is associated with disturbances in brain function in the absence
      of gross anatomical lesions, and may have long-term health consequences.
      Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods provide a powerful
      tool for investigating alterations in white matter microstructure reflecting the
      long-term effects of concussion. In a previous study, diffusion tensor imaging
      (DTI) showed that athletes with a history of concussion had elevated fractional
      anisotropy (FA) and reduced mean diffusivity (MD) parameters. To better
      understand these effects, this study compared DTI results to neurite orientation
      dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), which was used to estimate the
      intracellular volume fraction (VIC ) and orientation dispersion index (ODI).
      Sixty-eight (68) varsity athletes were recruited, including 37 without a history
      of concussion and 31 with concussion >6 months prior to imaging. Univariate
      analyses showed elevated FA and decreased MD for concussed athletes, along with
      increased VIC and reduced ODI, indicating greater neurite density and coherence
      of neurite orientation within white matter. Multivariate analyses also showed
      that for athletes with a history of concussion, white matter regions with
      increased FA had increased VIC and decreased ODI, with greater effects among
      athletes who were imaged a longer time since their last concussion. These
      findings enhance our understanding of the relationship between the biophysics of
      water diffusion and concussion neurobiology for young, healthy adults. Hum Brain
      Mapp 38:4201-4211, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556432
TI  - Randomized controlled clinical trial comparing one-piece and two-piece dental
      implants supporting fixed and removable dental prostheses: 4- to 6-year
      observations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To test whether or not a one- (S1) and a two-piece (S2) dental
      implant systems render the same biological, technical, and esthetic outcomes
      regarding implants and implant-supported reconstructions over an observation
      period of 4 to 6 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients were randomly
      assigned to receive S1 or S2 implants. The implants were restored with either
      fixed or removable prostheses. The insertion of the final reconstruction was
      chosen as baseline. One-year and 4- to 6-year (FU-5) measurements included
      biological (e.g. marginal bone level, probing pocket depth, peri-implant
      mucositis, and peri-implantitis), technical (e.g. fracture or loosening of
      prosthetic screws, fracture or loosening of abutments, fracture of framework,
      and/or veneering ceramic (minor, major), loss of retention for cemented
      restorations), and esthetic parameters (visibility of the crown margin,
      shimmering of the implant through the mucosa, the level of the facial margo
      mucosae compared to the contralateral tooth or implant site and the modified
      papilla index) for implants and reconstructions. Survival and success rates of
      implants and reconstructions were calculated. Because of the asymmetric data
      distributions, nonparametric statistical methods were applied. RESULTS: The
      implant-based analysis revealed a cumulative implant survival rate of 97.9% (S1:
      96.6%; S2: 98.9%) at FU-5. The median marginal bone level for group S1 changed
      from 0.51 mm at baseline to 0.49 mm at FU-5 and for group S2 from 1.02 mm to 1.35
      mm (P < 0.001). Patient-level analyses demonstrated a frequency of peri-implant
      mucositis of 7.7% (S1) and 10.0% (S2) and for peri-implantitis of 7.7% (S1) and
      13.3% (S2) at FU-5. The patient-based cumulative implant survival rate was 94.6%
      (S1: 92.3%; S2: 96.7%). The overall patient-based biological complication rate
      amounted to 15.4% (S1) and to 23.3% (S2) (P = 0.517), whereas the overall
      technical complication rates were 30.8% (S1) and 13.3% (S2) (P = 0.349). The
      prosthetic survival rates were 93.1% for S1 and 100% for S2 (P > 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Both implant systems reveal high survival rates on the implant and
      prosthetic level. Apart from marginal bone-level changes, biological and
      technical outcomes did not reveal significant differences between the two implant
      systems.

PMID- 28556433
TI  - It Is Bad Policy and Contrary to Federal Law to Prioritize Local Allocation of
      Livers to Address Geographically Based Social Inequities.

PMID- 28556434
TI  - Integration of reflectance confocal microscopy into clinical practice for the
      management of lentigo maligna.

PMID- 28556435
TI  - Self-Assembly of Di-N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Gold-Adorned Corannulenes on C60.
AB  - The deprotonation of a corannulene-based bisazolium salt allowed the preparation
      of a corannulene-based NHC di-AuI complex. The prepared di-AuI -complex was
      tested in the recognition of fullerene-C60 , demonstrating good binding affinity
      in toluene solution, and producing a host-guest complex with 3:1 stoichiometry,
      as evidenced by a combination of NMR spectroscopy and ITC titrations. The
      experimental results are fully supported by DFT calculations. The binding of C60
      with the di-AuI complex in toluene solution is enthalpically and entropically
      favoured. Remarkably, the entropic term is the dominant parameter in the binding
      process. The good complementarity that exists between the concave shape of the
      corannulene-di-gold complex and the convex surface of the fullerene, together
      with the presence of tBu groups and the AuCl fragment are key factors for the
      measured high affinity between host and guest. The obtained results indicate that
      fullerene may be acting as a template for the formation of a self-assembled
      aggregate involving up to three molecules of the di-AuI complex.

PMID- 28556438
TI  - Anterior compartment descent: A new measure in the assessment of urethral
      hypermobility in women with urinary incontinence.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To introduce a new, simple, non-invasive test to quantify urethral
      hypermobility. METHODS: We reviewed data of women with urinary incontinence who
      were examined at the Department for General Gynaecology and Urogynaecology,
      Clinic for Gynaecology and Perinatology, Maribor, Slovenia, between October 2010
      and March 2014. Patients' age, diagnosis, results of the Q-tip test and Pelvic
      Organ Prolapse Quantification measurements were collected. In addition, a new
      parameter was defined as anterior compartment descent, a midline distance between
      the external urethral meatus and maximum descent of the anterior vaginal wall
      when performed the Valsalva maneuver. Statistical analysis was performed with
      spss software using the Mann-Whitney test, correlation, regression and receiver
      operating characteristic curve analysis. The analysis was also carried out
      separately for patients with anterior compartment prolapse stage 0 or I. RESULTS:
      A total of 472 women were included, 323 of them with anterior compartment
      prolapse stage 0 or I. Women with urethral hypermobility had significantly higher
      anterior compartment descent values than patients without urethral hypermobility
      (3.7 cm vs 2.6 cm, P < 0.001). A moderate correlation was found between anterior
      compartment descent and the Q-tip test (Spearman's rho = 0.55, P < 0.001). Age
      and anterior compartment descent were identified as independent variables for the
      presence of urethral hypermobility. When the cut-off value is set at 3.5 cm,
      anterior compartment descent represents a test for urethral hypermobility
      assessment with sensitivity of 65.2%, specificity of 88.6%, positive predictive
      value of 97.0% and negative predictive value of 30.7%. Anterior compartment
      descent values were also significantly higher in patients with anterior
      compartment prolapse stage 0 or I (3.4 +/- 0.7 cm vs 2.6 +/- 0.7 cm, P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: The anterior compartment descent could be a valuable tool for the
      assessment of urethral hypermobility. Further effort should be directed into the
      standardization of the technique, determination of the normal range of anterior
      compartment descent, and its intra- and interobserver reliability.

PMID- 28556437
TI  - A New Anti-Inflammatory Alkaloid from Roots of Heracleum dissectum.
AB  - Using various chromatographic methods, a new piperidinone alkaloid, (3S)-3-{4
      [(1E)-3-hydroxyprop-1-en-1-yl]-2-methoxyphenoxy}piperidin-2-one (1), together
      with 10 known compounds, bergapten (2), xanthotoxol (3), isopimpinellin (4),
      isobergapten (5), heratomol-6-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside (6), scopoletin (7),
      apterin (8), 3-methoxy-4-beta-d-glucopyranosyloxypropiophenone, (praeroside; 9),
      tachioside (10) and coniferin (11), were isolated from roots of Heracleum
      dissectum Ledeb. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of physicochemical
      properties and the detailed interpretation of various spectroscopic data. All the
      isolated compounds were screened for anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. As the
      results, compound 1 and 8 showed significantly inhibitory activity on nitric
      oxide production in RAW264.7 cells.

PMID- 28556436
TI  - Effect of recombinant human bone morphogenic protein 9 (rhBMP9) loaded onto bone
      grafts versus barrier membranes on new bone formation in a rabbit calvarial
      defect model.
AB  - Recent research has demonstrated that recombinant human bone morphogenetic
      protein 9 (rhBMP9) has been considered the most osteoinductive growth factor of
      the BMP-family. In the present study, rhBMP9 was investigated for its influence
      in combination with two biomaterials for bone regenerative medicine. Either
      porcine-derived collagen membrane (CM) or deproteinized bovine bone mineral (DBM)
      combined with 20 ug of rhBMP9 were implanted in 6 mm rabbit calvarial defects.
      Bone augmentation was evaluated by microCT and histomorphometry at 8 weeks post
      surgery. Both CM + rhBMP9 and DBM + rhBMP9 groups significantly promoted
      mineralized tissue volume (microCT) and area, new bone height and area
      (histomorphometric measurements) when compared to CM and DBM alone groups or
      control (empty). All specimens in the CM + rhBMP9 group but not all in the DBM +
      rhBMP9 group induced a complete horizontal bone defect closure. Multinucleated
      giant cells (MNGCs) were observed directly in contact with DBM surfaces
      irrespective of rhBMP9, whereas CM was generally not associated to the presence
      of MNGCs. When combined with rhBMP9, DBM augmented a larger volume of mineralized
      tissue (including the mineralized bone graft), whereas CM induced greater volume
      of native host bone. While DBM in combination with rhBMP9 induced higher
      mineralized tissue mostly associated with the bone grafting material, CM may have
      presented preferable results based on a higher horizontal defect closure with a
      faster regeneration of host new bone. The effect of including collagen within the
      carrier system of rhBMP9 on bone regeneration justifies further evaluation of
      this combination procedure in larger animal models. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2655-2661, 2017.

PMID- 28556439
TI  - Latent developmental trajectories of episodic heavy drinking from adolescence to
      early adulthood: Predictors of trajectory groups and alcohol problems in early
      adulthood as outcome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: To identify latent developmental episodic heavy drinking
      (EHD) trajectory groups for Norwegian adolescents, investigate risk factors
      associated with group membership and to assess differences in alcohol problems
      between different groups in early adulthood. DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were from
      1266 individuals measured at four time points from age 13/14 years to age 26/27
      years. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify groups with different
      EHD development. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigated if
      gender, impulsivity, school commitment, parents' socio-economic status, frequency
      of seeing parents drunk and parental knowledge could predict group membership.
      Differences in alcohol problem scores at age 26/27 were also assessed. RESULTS:
      Four trajectory groups were identified: 'stable high', 'early increasers', 'late
      increasers' and 'stable low'. Membership of the high-risk trajectory groups
      'stable high' and 'early increasers' was predicted by high impulsivity, low
      school commitment, high frequency of seeing parents drunk and low parental
      knowledge. The risk of alcohol problems at age 26/27 was greater for the 'stable
      high' group, the 'early increasers' and the 'late increasers' compared with the
      'stable low' group. The 'stable high' and 'early increasers' had similar risk of
      alcohol problems. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Stable high and early increasing
      EHD in adolescence was associated with more alcohol problems in early adulthood.
      Such trajectories were predicted by high impulsivity, low school commitment, high
      frequency of seeing parents drunk and low parental knowledge. [Brunborg GS,
      Norstrom T, Storvoll EE. Latent developmental trajectories of episodic heavy
      drinking from adolescence to early adulthood: Predictors of trajectory groups and
      alcohol problems in early adulthood as outcome.

PMID- 28556440
TI  - Relationship between maternal depression and bonding failure: A prospective
      cohort study of pregnant women.
AB  - AIM: Although the association between maternal depression and bonding failure
      during pregnancy and after delivery has been investigated, the causal
      relationships remain unclear. METHODS: A total of 751 women (mean [SD] age, 32.1
      [4.4] years) completed the Mother-Infant Bonding Questionnaire and the Edinburgh
      Postnatal Depression Scale during early pregnancy before week 25 (T1), during
      late pregnancy around week 36 (T2), and at 5 days after delivery (T3). We created
      a structural regression model to clarify the relationships between depressive
      mood and bonding failure during pregnancy and at 5 days after delivery. The model
      was tested with structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Our non-recursive model
      fit the data well, and we found that: (i) during T2, bonding failure predicted
      depressive mood (P < 0.01, r = 0.23); (ii) at T3, bonding failure predicted
      depressive mood (P < 0.05, r = 0.31); (iii) during T1, depressive mood was
      correlated with bonding failure (P < 0.01, r = 0.45); (iv) depressive mood during
      T1 predicted depressive mood during T2 (P < 0.01, r = 0.58); (v) depressive mood
      during T2 predicted depressive mood at T3 (P < 0.01, r = 0.45); (vi) bonding
      failure during T1 predicted bonding failure during T2 (P < 0.01, r = 0.84); and
      (vii) bonding failure during T2 predicted bonding failure at T3 (P < 0.01, r =
      0.44). The determinant coefficients of depressive mood and bonding failure at T3
      were 0.41 and 0.28, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our large-scale cohort study
      indicates that bonding failure predicts depressive mood during pregnancy and 5
      days after delivery. These findings suggest that protection and support for
      pregnant women with depressive mood and bonding failure may prevent both issues
      during pregnancy and the early stage after delivery.

PMID- 28556442
TI  - How many have you done, doctor? When is enough enough?

PMID- 28556441
TI  - Sickle cell disease and implementation science: A partnership to accelerate
      advances.
AB  - Sickle cell disease (SCD) results in end organ damage and a shortened lifespan.
      Both the pathophysiology of the disease and the social determinants of health
      affect patient outcomes. Randomized controlled trials have been completed among
      this population and resulted in medical advances; however, the gestation of these
      advances and the lack of penetrance into clinical practice have limited
      advancements in clinical improvements for many people with SCD. We discuss the
      role of implementation science in SCD and highlight the need for this science to
      shorten the length of time to implement evidence-based care for more people with
      SCD.

PMID- 28556443
TI  - SWATH-based quantitative proteomics reveals the mechanism of enhanced Bombyx mori
      nucleopolyhedrovirus-resistance in silkworm reared on UV-B treated mulberry
      leaves.
AB  - Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is one of the most acute infectious
      diseases in silkworm, which has led to great economic loss in sericulture.
      Previous study showed that the content of secondary metabolites in mulberry
      leaves, particularly for moracin N, was increased after UV-B irradiation. In this
      study, the BmNPV resistance of silkworms reared on UV-B treated and moracin N
      spread mulberry leaves was improved. To uncover the mechanism of enhanced BmNPV
      resistance, silkworm midguts from UV-B treated mulberry leaves (BUM) and moracin
      N (BNM) groups were analyzed by SWATH-based proteomic technique. Of note, the
      abundance of ribosomal proteins in BUM and BNM groups was significantly changed
      to maintain the synthesis of total protein levels and cell survival. While,
      cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, calcium ATPase and programmed cell death 4
      involved in apoptotic process were up-regulated in BNM group. Expressions of
      lipase-1, serine protease precursor, Rab1 protein, and histone genes were
      increased significantly in BNM group. These results suggest that moracin N might
      be the main active component in UV-B treated mulberry leaves which could improve
      the BmNPV-resistance of silkworm through promoting apoptotic cell death,
      enhancing the organism immunity, and regulating the intercellular environment of
      cells in silkworm. It also presents an innovative process to reduce the mortality
      rate of silkworms infected with BmNPV.

PMID- 28556444
TI  - Parent-adolescent concordance on the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines
      (DIB-R) and the Childhood Interview for Borderline Personality Disorder (CI-BPD).
AB  - While the degree of concordance between parent and adolescent self-report of
      internalizing and externalizing pathology is well studied, virtually nothing is
      known about concordance in borderline pathology and the implication of parent
      adolescent discrepancies for outcomes. The present study aimed to (1) examine
      discrepancies between parents and adolescents on two interview-based measures of
      borderline personality disorder (BPD)-the Revised Diagnostic Interview for
      Borderlines (DIB-R22 ) and the Childhood Interview for Borderline Personality
      Disorder (CI-BPD23 ); and (2) investigate the implications of discrepancies for
      clinical outcomes. Diagnostic concordance on the DIB-R and CI-BPD showed rates of
      82% and 94% respectively, with lower concordance demonstrated for dimensionally
      scored variables. Standardized difference scores between adolescent and parent
      reports on both borderline measures were significantly correlated with few
      interview-based axis I diagnoses as reported by parents, but not adolescents
      themselves. Implications regarding the use of each measure for the assessment and
      diagnosis of borderline personality disorder are discussed. Copyright (c) 2017
      John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556445
TI  - Induction of Necroptosis in Cancer Stem Cells using a Nickel(II)-Dithiocarbamate
      Phenanthroline Complex.
AB  - The cytotoxic properties of a series of nickel(II)-dithiocarbamate phenanthroline
      complexes is reported. The complexes 1-6 kill bulk cancer cells and cancer stem
      cells (CSCs) with micromolar potency. Two of the complexes, 2 and 6, kill twice
      as many breast cancer stem cell (CSC)-enriched HMLER-shEcad cells as compared to
      breast CSC-depleted HMLER cells. Complex 2 inhibits mammosphere formation to a
      similar extent as salinomycin (a CSC-specific toxin). Detailed mechanistic
      studies suggest that 2 induces CSC death by necroptosis, a programmed form of
      necrosis. Specifically, 2 triggers MLKL phosphorylation, oligomerization, and
      translocation to the cell membrane. Additionally, 2 induces necrosome-mediated
      propidium iodide (PI) uptake and mitochondrial membrane depolarisation, as well
      as morphological changes consistent with necroptotosis. Strikingly, 2 does not
      evoke necroptosis by intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production or
      poly(ADP) ribose polymerase (PARP-1) activation.

PMID- 28556446
TI  - Multiresidue analysis of glucocorticoids in milk by LC-MS/MS with low-temperature
      purification and dispersive solid-phase extraction.
AB  - A multiresidue method for the determination of 12 glucocorticoids (clobetasol
      propionate, budesonide, triamcinolone, triamcinolone acetonide, fludrocortisone
      acetate, flumethasone, beclomethasone, prednisone acetate, 6-alpha
      methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, cortisone, and prednisone) in bovine milk was
      developed using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.
      Isoflupredone was used as an internal standard. Milk samples were treated with
      ethyl acetate to extract glucocorticoids and were frozen at -20 degrees C for 6 h
      to precipitate fat. The extract was dried under nitrogen, and residues were
      dissolved in an acetonitrile/water solution. A further clean-up step was used by
      dispersive solid-phase extraction, with octadecyl silica and primary secondary
      amine as the absorbents. The recoveries of glucocorticoids spiked at 0.5, 1.0,
      10.0 MUg/kg ranged from 75.7 to 117.3%, except for clobetasol propionate and
      budesonide (16.1-49.5%). The limits of quantification were 0.01-0.5 MUg/kg in
      milk. This method has been successfully applied in real samples. The results
      demonstrated that this method is simple, robust, and suitable for identification
      of glucocorticoid residues in milk.

PMID- 28556447
TI  - Tobacco smoking and the risk of diverticular disease - a systematic review and
      meta-analysis of prospective studies.
AB  - AIM: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether tobacco
      smoking is associated with an increased risk of diverticular disease. METHOD: The
      PubMed and Embase databases were searched for studies of smoking and diverticular
      disease up to 19 February 2016. Prospective studies that reported adjusted
      relative risk (RR) estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of diverticular
      disease associated with current or previous smoking were included. Summary RRs
      were estimated using a random effects model. RESULTS: We identified five
      prospective studies which comprised 6076 cases of incident diverticular disease
      (diverticulosis and diverticulitis) among 385 291 participants and three studies
      with 1118 cases of complications related to diverticular disease (abscess or
      perforation) among 292 965. The summary RR for incident diverticular disease was
      1.36 (95% CI 1.15-1.61, I2  = 84%, n = 4) for current smokers, 1.17 (95% CI 1.05
      1.31, I2  = 49%, n = 4) for former smokers and 1.29 (95% CI 1.16-1.44, I2  = 62%,
      n = 5) for ever smokers. The summary RR was 1.11 (95% CI 0.99-1.25, I2  = 82%, n
      = 4) per 10 cigarettes per day. Although there was some indication of
      nonlinearity there was a dose-dependent positive association with increasing
      number of cigarettes smoked per day. There was some evidence that smoking also
      increases the risk of complications of diverticular disease, but the number of
      studies was small. CONCLUSION: The current meta-analysis provides evidence that
      tobacco smoking is associated with an increased incidence of diverticular disease
      and related complications.

PMID- 28556448
TI  - Non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in children: Review of literature and
      recommendations for management.
AB  - Non-typhoidal Salmonellae are a major cause of infectious diarrhoea worldwide and
      can cause invasive diseases, including bacteraemia, meningitis and osteomyelitis.
      Young or immunocompromised children and those with underlying conditions such as
      sickle cell disease are particularly vulnerable to invasive disease. There has
      been an increase in the rate of resistant non-typhoidal Salmonella, which is
      associated with invasive disease and hospitalisation. The intracellular nature of
      non-typhoidal Salmonella protects against extracellular antibiotics and can
      facilitate disease relapse, particularly meningitis. Effective antimicrobial
      agents with good intracellular penetration include azithromycin, fluoroquinolones
      and third-generation cephalosporins. Antibiotic treatment of non-typhoidal
      Salmonella gastroenteritis is only indicated if there are risk factors for
      invasive disease as it can prolong excretion and does not shorten the duration of
      gastrointestinal symptoms. Optimal choice and length of therapy for
      gastroenteritis and invasive disease in children is not clear. Here, we provide a
      review of the literature and treatment recommendations.

PMID- 28556450
TI  - Uniform Yolk-Shell MoS2 @Carbon Microsphere Anodes for High-Performance Lithium
      Ion Batteries.
AB  - As an electrode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), MoS2 has attracted
      much attention because of its high capacity and low cost. However, the rational
      design of a novel electrode structure with a high capacity, fast charge/discharge
      rate, and long cycling lifetime remains a great challenge. Herein, a
      environmentally friendly etching strategy is reported for the construction of
      monodisperse, inner void-controlled yolk-shell MoS2 @carbon microspheres. The
      resulting anode reveals an initial discharge capacity up to 1813 mAh g-1 , a high
      reversible capacity (1016 mAh g-1 ), excellent cycling stability (200 cycles),
      and superior rate performance. Such microspheres consist of nanosized MoS2 yolks
      (~280 nm), porous carbon shells (~25 nm) and well-controlled internal voids in
      between, opening a new pathway for the optimization of the electrochemical
      properties of MoS2 -based anodes without sacrificing their capacity. In addition,
      this etching strategy offers a new method for the development of functional,
      hollow MoS2 -based composites.

PMID- 28556449
TI  - Effects of MetAP2 inhibition on hyperphagia and body weight in Prader-Willi
      syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - AIMS: There are no treatments for the extreme hyperphagia and obesity in Prader
      Willi syndrome (PWS). The bestPWS clinical trial assessed the efficacy, safety
      and tolerability of the methionine aminopeptidase 2 (MetAP2) inhibitor,
      beloranib. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants with PWS (12-65 years old) were
      randomly assigned (1:1:1) to biweekly placebo, 1.8 mg beloranib or 2.4 mg
      beloranib injection for 26 weeks at 15 US sites. Co-primary endpoints were the
      changes in hyperphagia [measured by Hyperphagia Questionnaire for Clinical Trials
      (HQ-CT); possible score 0-36] and weight by intention-to-treat.
      ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT02179151. RESULTS: One-hundred and seven
      participants were included in the intention-to-treat analysis: placebo (n = 34);
      1.8 mg beloranib (n = 36); or 2.4 mg beloranib (n = 37). Improvement (reduction)
      in HQ-CT total score was greater in the 1.8 mg (mean difference -6.3, 95% CI -9.6
      to -3.0; P = .0003) and 2.4 mg beloranib groups (-7.0, 95% CI -10.5 to -3.6; P =
      .0001) vs placebo. Compared with placebo, weight change was greater with 1.8 mg
      (mean difference - 8.2%, 95% CI -10.8 to -5.6; P < .0001) and 2.4 mg beloranib (
      9.5%, 95% CI -12.1 to -6.8; P < .0001). Injection site bruising was the most
      frequent adverse event with beloranib. Dosing was stopped early due to an
      imbalance in venous thrombotic events in beloranib-treated participants (2 fatal
      events of pulmonary embolism and 2 events of deep vein thrombosis) compared with
      placebo. CONCLUSIONS: MetAP2 inhibition with beloranib produced statistically
      significant and clinically meaningful improvements in hyperphagia-related
      behaviours and weight loss in participants with PWS. Although investigation of
      beloranib has ceased, inhibition of MetAP2 is a novel mechanism for treating
      hyperphagia and obesity.

PMID- 28556451
TI  - Skin Cancers in Organ Transplant Recipients.
AB  - Long-term utilization of immunosuppression in organ transplant recipients (OTRs)
      leads to decreased immune-mediated tumor surveillance and development of
      malignant tumors. A delicate balance needs to be maintained in the intensity of
      immunosuppression to keep the risk of malignancy low without jeopardizing life
      saving graft function. OTRs are prone to developing skin cancers that exhibit
      unique epidemiologic, pathophysiologic, and prognostic characteristics. In this
      review, we discuss the most commonly reported skin cancers in OTRs: squamous cell
      carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC), Kaposi sarcoma, Merkel cell
      carcinoma, and malignant melanoma (MM). Tumors in this high-risk population are
      aggressive and may respond poorly to standard therapies; however, new targeted
      therapies are promising. Checkpoint inhibitor antibodies have been used for
      treatment of cutaneous SCC, Merkel cell carcinoma, and MM; epidermal growth
      factor receptor inhibitors have been used for cutaneous SCC; hedgehog pathway
      inhibitors have been used for BCC; and BRAF and MEK inhibitors are being used
      increasingly in the management of MM. Guidelines for dermatologic screening are
      variable and primarily based on expert opinion. Prospective evidence-based trials
      by multidisciplinary groups are needed to better define surveillance schedules
      for pre- and posttransplant cutaneous malignancies.

PMID- 28556452
TI  - Dimensional alterations following vertical ridge augmentation using collagen
      membrane and three types of bone grafting materials: A retrospective
      observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various biomaterials have been introduced for vertical ridge
      augmentation to replace autogenous block bone grafting. PURPOSE: This
      retrospective study radiographically evaluated dimensional alterations of the
      vertically augmented alveolar ridge using collagen membrane and 3 types of
      materials: autogenous bone block, allogenous bone block, and particulated bone
      substitute. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The electronic medical records of 32 patients
      who received vertical ridge augmentation using 3 types of materials were
      searched: 9 for autogenous bone block, 12 for allogenous bone block, and 11 for
      particulated bone substitutes. The vertical bone gain, progression of bone
      resorption, and peri-implant marginal bone loss after prosthetic loading were
      measured on follow-up radiographs. RESULTS: The alveolar ridge was vertically
      augmented by 5.13 +/- 1.61, 4.54 +/- 2.48, and 3.90 +/- 0.85 mm (mean +/-
      standard deviation) after grafting with autogenous bone block, allogenous bone
      block, and particulated bone substitute, respectively. The radiographic vertical
      height of the augmented ridge that received autogenous bone block reduced
      continuously during the first year but was stable thereafter. Sites that received
      allogenous bone block or particulated bone substitute exhibited dimensional
      shrinkage for up to 1.5 years postsurgery. However, the peri-implant marginal
      bone loss did not exceed 1 mm throughout the observational periods in all groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: The clinical findings of this study suggest that the alveolar ridge
      can be vertically augmented using either allogenous bone block or particulated
      bone substitute. However, they require a longer healing period to ensure
      dimensional stability compared to the autogenous bone block.

PMID- 28556453
TI  - HIV screening in pregnant women: A systematic review of cost-effectiveness
      studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vertical transmission represents the major route of HIV infection
      for children. However, the preventive interventions available are extremely
      effective. This review summarizes evidence regarding the cost-effectiveness of
      mother-to-child-transmission preventive screenings, to help policy makers in
      choosing the optimal antenatal screening strategy. METHODS: A systematic review
      following PRISMA guidelines was conducted, using 3 databases: PubMed, Scopus, and
      Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry. All articles regarding HIV screening to
      avoid vertical transmission were included. RESULTS: The review included 21
      papers. Seven studies assessed the cost-effectiveness of universal antenatal
      screening during early gestation. Two papers considered the integration of HIV
      screening with other medical interventions. Eight works estimated the cost
      effectiveness of HIV screening in late pregnancy. Finally, 4 papers considered
      the combination of multiple strategies. The selected papers focused on both
      developed and developing countries, with a different HIV prevalence. The
      characteristics and methodology of the studies were heterogeneous. However, all
      studies agreed about the main findings, outlining the cost-effectiveness of both
      universal antenatal screening and HIV rescreening in late pregnancy. Cost
      effectiveness improved when HIV burden increased. The major findings were proved
      to be robust across various scenarios when tested in sensitivity analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: The review confirmed the cost-effectiveness not only of HIV
      universal antenatal screening but also of rescreening in late gestation in both
      developed and developing countries. Universal screening is cost-effective even in
      case of extremely low HIV prevalence. Therefore, to maximize screening, coverage
      appears as a worldwide priority. In certain settings, a targeted screening
      towards high-risk groups could be a valuable option.

PMID- 28556456
TI  - Gender violence, poverty and HIV infection risk among persons engaged in the sex
      industry: cross-national analysis of the political economy of sex markets in 30
      European and Central Asian countries.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Persons engaged in the sex industry are at greater risk of HIV and
      other sexually transmitted infections than the general population. One major
      factor is exposure to higher levels of risky sexual activity. Expanding condom
      use is a critical prevention strategy, but this requires negotiation with those
      buying sex, which takes place in the context of cultural and economic
      constraints. Impoverished individuals who fear violence are more likely to forego
      condoms. METHODS: Here we tested the hypotheses that poverty and fear of violence
      are two structural drivers of HIV infection risk in the sex industry. Using data
      from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Bank
      for 30 countries, we evaluated poverty, measured using the average income per day
      per person in the bottom 40% of the income distribution, and gender violence,
      measured using homicide rates in women and the proportion of women exposed to
      violence in the last 12 months and/or since age 16 years. RESULTS: We found that
      HIV prevalence among those in the sex industry was higher in countries where
      there were greater female homicide rates (beta = 0.86; P = 0.018) and there was
      some evidence that self-reported exposure to violence was also associated with
      higher HIV prevalence (beta = 1.37; P = 0.043). Conversely, HIV prevalence was
      lower in countries where average incomes among the poorest were greater (beta = 
      1.05; P = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with the theory that
      reducing poverty and exposure to violence may help reduce HIV infection risk
      among persons engaged in the sex industry.

PMID- 28556454
TI  - Genetics of Hereditary Ataxia in Scottish Terriers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Scottish Terriers have a high incidence of juvenile onset hereditary
      ataxia primarily affecting the Purkinje neuron of the cerebellar cortex and
      causing slowly progressive cerebellar dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: To identify
      chromosomal regions associated with hereditary ataxia in Scottish Terriers.
      ANIMALS: One hundred and fifty-three Scottish Terriers were recruited through the
      Scottish Terrier Club of America. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective study. Dogs
      were classified as affected if they had slowly progressive cerebellar signs. When
      possible, magnetic resonance imaging and histopathological evaluation of the
      brain were completed as diagnostic aids. To identify genomic regions connected
      with the disease, genome-wide mapping was performed using both linkage- and
      association-based approaches. Pedigree evaluation and homozygosity mapping were
      also performed to examine mode of inheritance and to investigate the region of
      interest, respectively. RESULTS: Linkage and genome-wide association studies in a
      cohort of Scottish Terriers both identified a region on CFA X strongly associated
      with the disease trait. Homozygosity mapping revealed a 4 Mb region of interest.
      Pedigree evaluation failed to identify the possible mode of inheritance due to
      the lack of complete litter information. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This
      finding suggests that further genetic investigation of the potential region of
      interest on CFA X should be considered in order to identify the causal mutation
      as well as develop a genetic test to eliminate the disease from this breed.

PMID- 28556457
TI  - New insight into foregut functions of xenobiotic detoxification in the cockroach
      Periplaneta americana.
AB  - The physiological functions of insect foregut, especially in xenobiotic
      detoxification, are scarcely reported because of unimportance in appearance and
      insufficient molecular information. The cockroach Periplaneta americana, an
      entomological model organism, provides perfect material to study physiological
      functions of foregut tissue due to its architectural feature. Through Illumina
      sequencing of foregut tissue from P. americana individuals (control) or insects
      treated with cycloxaprid, as a novel neonicotinoid insecticide, 54 193 166 clean
      reads were obtained and further assembled into 53 853 unigenes with an average
      length of 366 bp. Furthermore, the number of unigenes involved in xenobiotic
      detoxification was analyzed, mainly including 70 cytochrome P450s, 12 glutathione
      S-transferases (GSTs), seven carboxylesterases (CarEs) and seven adenosine
      triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. Compared to control, the
      expression of 22 xenobiotic detoxification unigenes was up-regulated after
      cycloxaprid application, mainly containing 18 P450s, one GST, two CarEs and one
      ABC adenosine triphosphate transporter, indicating that the oxidation-reduction
      was the major reactive process to cycloxaprid application. Through quantitative
      real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, the expression of selected unigenes
      (six P450s, one GST and one CarE) was up-regulated at least two-fold following
      cycloxaprid treatment, and was generally in agreement with transcriptome data.
      Compared to the previous midgut transcriptome of P. americana, it looks like the
      expressive abundance of the xenobiotic detoxification unigenes might be important
      factors to the detoxifying functional differences between foregut and midgut. In
      conclusion, insect foregut would also play important roles in the physiological
      processes related to xenobiotic detoxification.

PMID- 28556455
TI  - The serine/threonine phosphatases of apicomplexan parasites.
AB  - The balance between phosphorylation and de-phosphorylation, which is delicately
      regulated by protein kinases and phosphatases, is critical for nearly all
      biological processes. The Apicomplexa are a large phylum which contains various
      parasitic protists, including human pathogens, such as Plasmodium, Toxoplasma,
      Cryptosporidium and Babesia species. The diverse life cycles of these parasites
      are highly complex and, not surprisingly, many of their key steps are exquisitely
      regulated by phosphorylation. Interestingly, many of the kinases and
      phosphatases, as well as the substrates involved in these events are unique to
      the parasites and therefore phosphorylation constitutes a viable target for
      antiparasitic intervention. Most progress on this realm has come from studies in
      Toxoplasma and Plasmodium of their respective kinomes and phosphoproteomes.
      Nonetheless, given their likely importance, phosphatases have recently become the
      focus of research within the apicomplexan parasites. In this review, we
      concentrate on serine/threonine phosphatases in apicomplexan parasites, with the
      focus on comprehensively identifying and naming protein phosphatases in available
      apicomplexan genomes, and summarizing the progress of their functional analyses
      in recent years.

PMID- 28556458
TI  - Behaviour change intervention to improve shared toilet maintenance and
      cleanliness in urban slums of Dhaka: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Shared toilets in urban slums are often unclean and poorly
      maintained, discouraging consistent use and thereby limiting impacts on health
      and quality of life. We developed behaviour change interventions to support
      shared toilet maintenance and improve user satisfaction. We report the
      intervention effectiveness on improving shared toilet cleanliness. METHODS: We
      conducted a cluster-randomised controlled trial among users of 1226 shared
      toilets in 23 Dhaka slums. We assessed baseline toilet cleanliness in January
      2015. The six-month intervention included provision of hardware (bin for solid
      waste, 4 l flushing bucket, 70 l water reservoir), and behaviour change
      communication (compound meetings, interpersonal household sessions, signs
      depicting rules for toilet use). We estimated the adjusted difference in
      difference (DID) to assess outcomes and accounted for clustering effects using
      generalised estimating equations. RESULTS: Compared to controls, intervention
      toilets were more likely to have water available inside toilet cubicles (DID:
      +4.7%, 95% CI: 0.2, 9.2), access to brush/broom for cleaning (DID: +8.4%, 95% CI:
      2, 15) and waste bins (DID: +63%, 95% CI: 59, 66), while less likely to have
      visible faeces inside the pan (DID: -13%, 95% CI: -19, -5), the smell of faeces
      (DID: -7.6%, 95% CI: -14, -1.3) and household waste inside the cubicle (DID: -4%,
      95% CI: -7, -1). CONCLUSIONS: In one of few efforts to promote shared toilet
      cleanliness, intervention compounds were significantly more likely to have
      cleaner toilets after six months. Future research might explore how residents can
      self-finance toilet maintenance, or employ mass media to reduce per-capita costs
      of behaviour change.

PMID- 28556459
TI  - Does coffee consumption impact on heaviness of smoking?
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Coffee consumption and cigarette smoking are strongly
      associated, but whether this association is causal remains unclear. We sought to:
      (1) determine whether coffee consumption influences cigarette smoking causally,
      (2) estimate the magnitude of any association and (3) explore potential
      mechanisms. DESIGN: We used Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses of
      observational data, using publicly available summarized data from the Tobacco and
      Genetics (TAG) consortium, individual-level data from the UK Biobank and in-vitro
      experiments of candidate compounds. SETTING: The TAG consortium includes data
      from studies in several countries. The UK Biobank includes data from men and
      women recruited across England, Wales and Scotland. PARTICIPANTS: The TAG
      consortium provided data on n <= 38 181 participants. The UK Biobank provided
      data on 8072 participants. MEASUREMENTS: In MR analyses, the exposure was coffee
      consumption (cups/day) and the outcome was heaviness of smoking (cigarettes/day).
      In our in-vitro experiments we assessed the effect of caffeic acid, quercetin and
      p-coumaric acid on the rate of nicotine metabolism in human liver microsomes and
      cDNA-expressed human CYP2A6. FINDINGS: Two-sample MR analyses of TAG consortium
      data indicated that heavier coffee consumption might lead to reduced heaviness of
      smoking [beta = -1.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -2.88 to -0.09]. However,
      in-vitro experiments found that the compounds investigated are unlikely to
      inhibit significantly the rate of nicotine metabolism following coffee
      consumption. Further MR analyses in UK Biobank found no evidence of a causal
      relationship between coffee consumption and heaviness of smoking (beta = 0.20,
      95% CI = -1.72 to 2.12). CONCLUSIONS: Amount of coffee consumption is unlikely to
      have a major causal impact upon amount of cigarette smoking. If it does influence
      smoking, this is not likely to operate via effects of caffeic acid, quercetin or
      p-coumaric acid on nicotine metabolism. The observational association between
      coffee consumption and cigarette smoking may be due to smoking impacting on
      coffee consumption or confounding.

PMID- 28556460
TI  - HLA genotyping using the Illumina HLA TruSight next-generation sequencing kits: A
      comparison.
AB  - Illumina first introduced their TruSight human leucocyte antigen (HLA) next
      generation sequencing (NGS) typing kit in 2015 and subsequently followed up with
      a new version in 2016. Here we report on our experience comparing the two
      versions of the Illumina HLA NGS kits.

PMID- 28556461
TI  - Double flap phalloplasty in transgender men: Surgical technique and outcome of
      pedicled anterolateral thigh flap phalloplasty combined with radial forearm free
      flap urethral reconstruction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Radial forearm free flap (RFFF) tube-in-tube phalloplasty is the
      most performed phalloplasty technique worldwide. The conspicuous donor-site scar
      is a drawback for some transgender men. In search for techniques with less
      conspicuous donor-sites, we performed a series of one-stage pedicled
      anterolateral thigh flap (ALT) phalloplasties combined with RFFF urethral
      reconstruction. In this study, we aim to describe this technique and assess its
      surgical outcome in a series of transgender men. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between
      January 2008 and December 2015, nineteen transgender men (median age 37, range 21
      57) underwent pedicled ALT phalloplasty combined with RFFF urethral
      reconstruction in one stage. The surgical procedure was described. Patient
      demographics, surgical characteristics, intra- and postoperative complications,
      hospitalization length, and reoperations were recorded. RESULTS: The size of the
      ALT flaps ranged from 12 * 12 to 15 * 13 cm, the size of the RFFFs from 14 * 3 to
      17 * 3 cm. Median clinical follow-up was 35 months (range 3-95). Total RFFF
      failure occurred in two patients, total ALT flap failure in one patient, and
      partial necrosis of the ALT flap in one patient. Long-term urinary complications
      occurred in 10 (53%) patients, of which 9 concerned urethral strictures.
      CONCLUSIONS: In experienced hands, one-stage pedicled ALT phalloplasty combined
      with RFFF urethral reconstruction is a feasible alternative surgical option in
      eligible transgender men, who desire a less conspicuous forearm scar. Possible
      drawbacks comprise flap-related complications, difficult inner flap monitoring
      and urethral complications.

PMID- 28556462
TI  - GSK3 activity regulates rhythms in hippocampal clock gene expression and synaptic
      plasticity.
AB  - Hippocampal rhythms in clock gene expression, enzymatic activity, and long-term
      potentiation (LTP) are thought to underlie day-night differences in memory
      acquisition and recall. Glycogen synthase kinase 3-beta (GSK3beta) is a known
      regulator of hippocampal function, and inhibitory phosphorylation of GSK3beta
      exhibits region-specific differences over the light-dark cycle. Here, we sought
      to determine whether phosphorylation of both GSK3alpha and GSK3beta isoforms has
      an endogenous circadian rhythm in specific areas of the hippocampus and whether
      chronic inhibition or activation alters the molecular clock and hippocampal
      plasticity (LTP). Results indicated a significant endogenous circadian rhythm in
      phosphorylation of GSK3beta, but not GSK3alpha, in hippocampal CA1 extracts from
      mice housed in constant darkness for at least 2 weeks. To examine the importance
      of this rhythm, genetic and pharmacological strategies were used to disrupt the
      GSK3 activity rhythm by chronically activating or inhibiting GSK3. Chronic
      activation of both GSK3 isoforms in transgenic mice (GSK3-KI mice) diminished
      rhythmic BMAL1 expression. On the other hand, chronic treatment with a GSK3
      inhibitor significantly shortened the molecular clock period of organotypic
      hippocampal PER2::LUC cultures. While WT mice exhibited higher LTP magnitude at
      night compared to day, the day-night difference in LTP magnitude remained with
      greater magnitude at both times of day in mice with chronic GSK3 activity. On the
      other hand, pharmacological GSK3 inhibition impaired day-night differences in LTP
      by blocking LTP selectively at night. Taken together, these results support the
      model that circadian rhythmicity of hippocampal GSK3beta activation state
      regulates day/night differences in molecular clock periodicity and a major form
      of synaptic plasticity (LTP).

PMID- 28556464
TI  - Tobacco Harms, Nicotine Pharmacology, and Pharmacologic Tobacco Cessation
      Interventions for Women.
AB  - Firsthand and secondhand tobacco use is linked to a multitude of harmful
      illnesses, adverse perinatal outcomes, and death. Cessation attempts among women
      may be hampered by their unique biologic response to nicotine. Current research
      has revealed epigenetic changes from intrauterine nicotine exposure that have
      intergenerational consequences. Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy
      of various pharmacologic tobacco cessation interventions in conjunction with
      behavioral counseling. Based on this evidence, the US Preventative Services Task
      Force (USPSTF) 2015 guideline recommends pharmacologic therapy for all
      nonpregnant persons who smoke in addition to behavioral counseling. The
      effectiveness of pharmacologic treatments among pregnant women is less clear,
      with far fewer studies evaluating potential benefits and harms. While exposure to
      pharmacologic therapies raises concerns for fetal safety, these potential risks
      must be weighed against those of continued tobacco use, which guarantees fetal
      exposure to nicotine. First-line tobacco cessation medications include nicotine
      replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion, and varenicline. Second-line medications
      include nortriptyline and clonidine. Pharmacokinetics, effectiveness, regimens,
      and safety profiles for nonpregnant, pregnant, and lactating women are reviewed.
      Alternative tobacco cessation options and potential new pharmacologic tobacco
      cessation agents are discussed. Initiating brief interventions, using the 5A's
      and 5R's model is described.

PMID- 28556465
TI  - Biphasic axillary synovial sarcoma diagnosed by preoperative fine-needle
      aspiration cytology.
AB  - Synovial sarcoma (SS) is a soft-tissue sarcoma which usually occurs in lower
      extremities. Less than 20 cases of SS located in shoulder or axillary region have
      been reported, and these studies describe histopathological features. We report a
      case of axillary SS diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration cytology,
      immunocytochemistry, and molecular techniques performed on cytology smears. A 48
      year-old woman presented with a palpable and well-defined axillary mass which
      measured 4 cm. On-site smears showed high cellularity with spindle cells, and a
      mesenchymal tumor was suspected. Definitive cytological analysis showed cells
      with ovoid- or comma-shaped nuclei arranged in loose sheets and fascicles,
      associated with naked nuclei and isolated cells. Mitotic count was 2 mitoses/HPF.
      Immunocytochemical studies showed vimentin and focal CK AE1-AE3 positivity. A PCR
      was performed and the specific translocation t(X;18) was detected. The lesion was
      excised and the diagnosis of biphasic SS was confirmed. The identification of SS
      on cytology specimens is difficult and differential diagnosis is broad.
      Complementary studies are necessary and they can be performed on FNA smears or
      cell blocks.

PMID- 28556466
TI  - Microproteomics with microfluidic-based cell sorting: Application to 1000 and 100
      immune cells.
AB  - Ultimately, cell biology seeks to define molecular mechanisms underlying cellular
      functions. However, heterogeneity within cell populations must be considered for
      optimal assay design and data interpretation. Although single-cell analyses are
      desirable for addressing this issue, practical considerations, including assay
      sensitivity, limit their broad application. Therefore, omics studies on small
      numbers of cells in defined subpopulations represent a viable alternative for
      elucidating cell functions at the molecular level. MS-based proteomics allows in
      depth proteome exploration, although analyses of small numbers of cells have not
      been pursued due to loss during the multistep procedure involved. Thus,
      optimization of the proteomics workflow to facilitate the analysis of rare cells
      would be useful. Here, we report a microproteomics workflow for limited numbers
      of immune cells using non-damaging, microfluidic chip-based cell sorting and MS
      based proteomics. Samples of 1000 or 100 THP-1 cells were sorted, and after
      enzymatic digestion, peptide mixtures were subjected to nano-LC-MS analysis. We
      achieved reasonable proteome coverage from as few as 100-sorted cells, and the
      data obtained from 1000-sorted cells were as comprehensive as those obtained
      using 1 MUg of whole cell lysate. With further refinement, our approach could be
      useful for studying cell subpopulations or limited samples, such as clinical
      specimens.

PMID- 28556463
TI  - A single bout of exercise increases hippocampal Bdnf: influence of chronic
      exercise and noradrenaline.
AB  - Research in human subjects suggests that acute exercise can improve memory
      performance, but the qualities of the exercise necessary to promote improved
      memory, and the signaling pathways that mediate these effects are unknown. Brain
      derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), noradrenergic signaling, and post
      translational modifications to AMPA receptors have all been implicated in the
      enhancement of memory following emotional or physical arousal; however, it is not
      known if a single bout of exercise is sufficient to engage these pathways. Here
      we use a rodent model to investigate the effects of acute and chronic exercise on
      hippocampal transcript-specific Bdnf expression and phosphorylation of the GluR1
      subunit of the AMPA-type glutamate receptor. A single bout of treadmill exercise
      was insufficient to mimic the increased expression of GluR1 protein and
      phosphorylation at Ser845 observed following 1 month of voluntary wheel running.
      However, acute exercise was sufficient to increase Bdnf transcript IV messenger
      RNA (mRNA) expression in sedentary subjects, but not subjects housed for 1 month
      with a running wheel. High-intensity acute exercise increased total Bdnf mRNA in
      sedentary mice, but not above levels observed following chronic access to the
      running wheel. Although depletion of central noradrenergic signaling with DSP-4
      reduced Bdnf IV mRNA, the effect of acute exercise on Bdnf mRNA persisted. Our
      characterization of the effects of acute exercise on Bdnf expression and
      persistence in the absence of noradrenergic modulation may inform strategies to
      employ physical activity to combat cognitive aging and mental health disorders.

PMID- 28556467
TI  - Association between smoking and alcohol-related behaviours: a time-series
      analysis of population trends in England.
AB  - AIMS: This paper estimates how far monthly changes in prevalence of cigarette
      smoking, motivation to quit and attempts to stop smoking have been associated
      with changes in prevalence of high-risk drinking, and motivation and attempts to
      reduce alcohol consumption in England. DESIGN: Data were used from the Alcohol
      and Smoking Toolkit Studies between April 2014 and June 2016. These involve
      monthly household face-to-face surveys of representative samples of ~1700 adults
      in England. MEASUREMENTS: Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with
      Exogeneous Input (ARIMAX) modelling was used to assess the association over time
      between monthly prevalence of (a) smoking and high-risk drinking; (b) high
      motivation to quit smoking and high motivation to reduce alcohol consumption; and
      (c) attempts to quit smoking and attempts to reduce alcohol consumption.
      FINDINGS: Mean smoking prevalence over the study period was 18.6% and high-risk
      drinking prevalence was 13.0%. A decrease of 1% of the series mean smoking
      prevalence was associated with a reduction of 0.185% of the mean prevalence of
      high-risk drinking 2 months later [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.033 to 0.337,
      P = 0.017]. A statistically significant association was not found between
      prevalence of high motivation to quit smoking and high motivation to reduce
      alcohol consumption (beta = 0.324, 95% CI = -0.371 to 1.019, P = 0.360) or
      prevalence of attempts to quit smoking and attempts to reduce alcohol consumption
      (beta = -0.026, 95% CI = -1.348 to 1.296, P = 0.969). CONCLUSION: Between 2014
      and 2016, monthly changes in prevalence of smoking in England were associated
      positively with prevalence of high-risk drinking. There was no significant
      association between motivation to stop and motivation to reduce alcohol
      consumption, or attempts to quit smoking and attempts to reduce alcohol
      consumption.

PMID- 28556468
TI  - Association of the expression level of the neurodegeneration-related proteins
      with the risk of development and progression of primary open-angle glaucoma.

PMID- 28556469
TI  - Neuregulin 3 and its roles in schizophrenia risk and presentation.
AB  - Neuregulins, a four-member family of epidermal growth factor-like signaling
      molecules, have been studied for over two decades. They were first implicated in
      schizophrenia in 2002 with the detection of linkage and association at the NRG1
      locus followed after a few years by NRG3. However, the associations with disease
      have not been very consistently observed. In contrast, association of NGR3
      variants with disease presentation, specifically the presence of delusions, has
      been more consistent. This appears to be mediated by quantitative changes in the
      alternative splicing of the gene, which has also been consistently observed.
      Additional diseases and phenotypes, psychiatric or not, have also been connected
      with NRG3. These results demonstrate two important aspects of behavioral genetics
      research. The first is that if we only consider simple risk and fail to examine
      the details of each patient's individual phenotype, we will miss important
      insights on the disease biology. This is an important aspect of the goals of
      precision medicine. The second is that the functional consequences of variants
      are often more complex than simple alterations in levels of transcription of a
      particular gene, including, among others, regulation of alternative splicing. To
      accurately model and understand the biological consequences of phenotype
      associated genetic variants, we need to study the biological consequences of each
      specific variant. Simply studying the consequences of a null allele of the
      orthologous gene in a model system, runs the risk of missing the many nuances of
      hypomorphic and/or gain of function variants in the genome of interest.

PMID- 28556470
TI  - Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Differentiation Between Low- and High- Grade Bladder
      Urothelial Carcinoma and Correlation With Tumor Microvessel Density.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Time-intensity curves (TICs) of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)
      were analyzed retrospectively to differentiate between low-grade and high-grade
      bladder urothelial carcinoma, and to investigate correlation with tumor
      microvessel density (MVD). METHODS: The data of 105 patients with pathologically
      confirmed bladder urothelial carcinoma (55 low-grade and 50 high-grade) were
      reviewed. Lesions were examined before surgery using conventional ultrasound and
      CEUS with TIC analysis. The TIC parameters time from peak to one-half the signal
      intensity (TPH) and the corresponding descending slope (DS) of the low-grade and
      high-grade groups were compared, and receiver operating characteristic curves
      constructed. The MVDs of the resectioned tissue specimens were quantified via
      immunohistochemistry for CD34. RESULTS: Based on conventional ultrasound, the low
      grade and high-grade groups were similar in tumor shape, number, topography,
      internal echo, height, width, and vascularity. The TPH of the high-grade group
      was significantly longer than that of the low-grade group, and the DS was lower.
      The cutoff points of TPH and DS for differentiating low-grade and high-grade
      bladder urothelial carcinoma were 48.06 seconds and 0.15 dB/seconds, respectively
      (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.79 for both). The
      mean MVDs per high-power field of the low-grade and high-grade groups were 41.39
      16.65 and 51.03 20.16, respectively (P = .009). The TPH correlated linearly with
      MVD (P < .01), as did the DS (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound
      can be used to differentiate low from high-grade bladder urothelial carcinoma.
      The TIC parameters of CEUS reflect the MVD of bladder urothelial tumors and may
      be helpful for evaluating tumor angiogenesis, with implications for clinical
      diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

PMID- 28556472
TI  - Novel Donor Transfer Algorithm for Multiorgan and Facial Allograft Procurement.

PMID- 28556471
TI  - Putative Cerebral Microbleeds in Dogs Undergoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging of
      the Head: A Retrospective Study of Demographics, Clinical Associations, and
      Relationship to Case Outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are focal intraparenchymal signal voids
      on gradient-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), corresponding to regions of
      chronic hemorrhage. In humans, they are associated with systemic disease and
      shorter survival times. Although similar findings have been identified in dogs,
      their epidemiology and clinical correlations have not been investigated.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine epidemiological features, clinical associations, and
      associations with outcome for putative CMB-like foci (putative microbleeds
      [pMBs]) identified by T2*-weighted MRI in dogs. ANIMALS: Five hundred and eighty
      two dogs undergoing 3T brain MRI between 2011 and 2016. METHODS: Retrospective
      case-control study. Demographic, diagnostic, and clinicopathological data were
      obtained from medical records and phone follow-up. Demographic variables were
      compared between dogs with and without evidence of pMBs. For dogs with such
      evidence, and a subset of matched controls, associations with clinical
      presentation, concurrent disease, and survival times were evaluated. RESULTS:
      Dogs with pMBs were older (P < .001) and smaller (P = .004) than unaffected dogs.
      Compared to matched controls, they presented more frequently for vestibular signs
      (P = .030). Cortical atrophy occurred concurrently with pMBs in 26% (14/54) of
      dogs. Diagnosed renal disease was not significantly associated with pMBs, but
      proteinuria was more common in dogs with pMBs than in matched controls (odds
      ratio = 3.01, P = .005). Dogs with pMBs had a shorter median survival time than
      did matched controls (P = .011). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Putative
      microbleeds occurred in 54 of 582 (9.3%) of dogs undergoing brain MRI, but may
      not be a normal consequence of aging. They were associated with shorter survival
      time and proteinuria in the study population.

PMID- 28556473
TI  - Flyweight, Superelastic, Electrically Conductive, and Flame-Retardant 3D Multi
      Nanolayer Graphene/Ceramic Metamaterial.
AB  - A ceramic/graphene metamaterial (GCM) with microstructure-derived superelasticity
      and structural robustness is achieved by designing hierarchical honeycomb
      microstructures, which are composited with two brittle constituents (graphene and
      ceramic) assembled in multi-nanolayer cellular walls. Attributed to the designed
      microstructure, well-interconnected scaffolds, chemically bonded interface, and
      coupled strengthening effect between the graphene framework and the nanolayers of
      the Al2 O3 ceramic (NAC), the GCM demonstrates a sequence of multifunctional
      properties simultaneously that have not been reported for ceramics and ceramics
      matrix-composite structures, such as flyweight density, 80% reversible
      compressibility, high fatigue resistance, high electrical conductivity, and
      excellent thermal-insulation/flame-retardant performance simultaneously. The 3D
      well-ordered graphene aerogel templates are strongly coupled with the NAC by the
      chemically bonded interface, exhibiting mutual strengthening, compatible
      deformability, and a linearly dependent relationship between the density and
      Young's modulus. Considerable size effects of the ceramic nanolayers on the
      mechanical properties are revealed in these ceramic-based metamaterials. The
      designed hierarchical honeycomb graphene with a fourth dimensional control of the
      ceramic nanolayers on new ways to scalable fabrication of advanced
      multifunctional ceramic composites with controllable design suggest a great
      potential in applications of flexible conductors, shock/vibration absorbers,
      thermal shock barriers, thermal insulation/flame-retardant skins, and porous
      microwave-absorbing coatings.

PMID- 28556474
TI  - Describing mate preference functions and other function-valued traits.
AB  - Mate preferences are important causes of sexual selection. They shape the
      evolution of sexual ornaments and displays, sometimes maintaining genetic
      diversity and sometimes promoting speciation. Mate preferences can be challenging
      to study because they are expressed in animal brains and because they are a
      function of the features of potential mates that are encountered. Describing them
      requires taking this into account. We present a method for describing and
      analysing mate preference functions, and introduce a freely available computer
      program that implements the method. We give an overview of how the program works,
      and we discuss how it can be used to visualize and quantitatively analyse
      preference functions. In addition, we provide an informal review of different
      methods of testing mate preferences, with recommendations for how best to set up
      experiments on mate preferences. Although the program was written with mate
      preferences in mind, it can be used to study any function-valued trait, and we
      hope researchers will take advantage of it across a broad range of traits.

PMID- 28556475
TI  - Evaluation of clinical validity of the Rabin cone contrast test in normal phakic
      or pseudophakic eyes and severely dichromatic eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical validity of the Rabin cone contrast test (RCCT;
      Innova Systems, Inc.) in patients with normal phakic/pseudophakic eyes and severe
      dichromatic colour vision deficiency (CVD). METHODS: We evaluated age-related
      changes in the RCCT scores in 166 phakic eyes and 34 pseudophakic eyes and the
      RCCT sensitivity and specificity in 28 men with severe dichromatic CVD (10 with
      protanopia, 18 with deutanopia) and nine age-matched controls. All participants
      had 20/20 or better Snellen best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The RCCT was
      used to measure the L, M and S-CCT scores (range, 0-100). RESULTS: In normal
      phakic eyes, the mean L, M and S-CCT scores decreased gradually with ageing, with
      normal levels in patients in the second to seventh decades of life and some below
      normal in the eighth and ninth decades of life. In normal pseudophakic eyes, the
      mean L, M and S-CCT scores were normal in patients in the seventh to ninth
      decades of life. In eyes with severe CVD, the mean L, M and S-CCT scores were,
      respectively, 31.5 +/- 18.3, 86.0 +/- 12.6 and 98.0 +/- 6.3 in patients with
      protanopia; 92.8 +/- 10.5, 50.8 +/- 19.6 and 97.8 +/- 5.2 in patients with
      deutanopia; and 99.4 +/- 1.7, 98.3 +/- 5.0 and 99.4 +/- 1.7 in controls. The RCCT
      sensitivity and specificity were 100% for diagnosing the CVD type. CONCLUSION:
      The RCCT can be used in non-visually impaired patients up to the seventh decade
      of life and after cataract surgery in elderly patients. The RCCT is available for
      CVD screening and typing and the score has a wide distribution range even in
      patients with severe CVD.

PMID- 28556476
TI  - Neurophysiological changes associated with implant-associated augmentation
      procedures in the lower jaw.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurophysiological changes after oral and maxillofacial surgery
      remain one of the topics of current research. PURPOSE: This study evaluated if
      implant placement associated with augmentation procedures increases the
      possibility of sensory disturbances or result in impaired quality of life during
      the healing period. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients who had obtained an implant
      placement in the lower jaw in combination with augmentation procedures were
      examined by implementing a comprehensive Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST)
      protocol for extra- and intraoral use. As augmentation procedures, we used Guided
      Bone Regeneration (Group A) and Customized Bone Regeneration (Group B)
      techniques. Patients were tested bilaterally at the chin and mucosal lower lip.
      Results were compared to a group without augmentation procedures (Group C).
      Patients' quality of life and psychological comorbidity after the surgical
      procedures was assessed with the Oral Health Impact Profile and the Hospital
      Anxiety and Depression Scale. RESULTS: For groups A (n = 20) and B (n = 8),
      mechanical QST parameters showed no significant differences in all qualities of
      the inferior alveolar nerve compared to the contralateral side and compared to
      the nonaugmentation control group (n = 32) as well. Evaluation of quality of life
      and psychological factors showed no statistical differences. CONCLUSIONS:
      Augmentation procedures did not increase sensory disturbances, indicating no
      changes in the neurophysiological pathways. Extended augmentation procedures did
      not lead to sensory changes either or result in an impaired quality of life or
      modified anxiety and depression scores.

PMID- 28556477
TI  - Assessing meta-regression methods for examining moderator relationships with
      dependent effect sizes: A Monte Carlo simulation.
AB  - Dependent effect sizes are ubiquitous in meta-analysis. Using Monte Carlo
      simulation, we compared the performance of 2 methods for meta-regression with
      dependent effect sizes-robust variance estimation (RVE) and 3-level modeling-with
      the standard meta-analytic method for independent effect sizes. We further
      compared bias-reduced linearization and jackknife estimators as small-sample
      adjustments for RVE and Wald-type and likelihood ratio tests for 3-level models.
      The bias in the slope estimates, width of the confidence intervals around those
      estimates, and empirical type I error and statistical power rates of the
      hypothesis tests from these different methods were compared for mixed-effects
      meta-regression analysis with one moderator either at the study or at the effect
      size level. All methods yielded nearly unbiased slope estimates under most
      scenarios, but as expected, the standard method ignoring dependency provided
      inflated type I error rates when testing the significance of the moderators.
      Robust variance estimation methods yielded not only the best results in terms of
      type I error rate but also the widest confidence intervals and the lowest power
      rates, especially when using the jackknife adjustments. Three-level models showed
      a promising performance with a moderate to large number of studies, especially
      with the likelihood ratio test, and yielded narrower confidence intervals around
      the slope and higher power rates than those obtained with the RVE approach. All
      methods performed better when the moderator was at the effect size level, the
      number of studies was moderate to large, and the between-studies variance was
      small. Our results can help meta-analysts deal with dependency in their data.

PMID- 28556478
TI  - Pattern of relapse in low-risk breast cancer patients followed within a community
      care network.
AB  - International guidelines have set the frame and methods of patients' surveillance
      after early breast cancer (BC) treatment. Since 1998, delegation of low-risk BC
      patients follow-up to nonhospital practitioners has been developed within a care
      network in the Paris region. We used the Gynecomed care network digital database
      to describe the characteristics of oncological events which occurred in the
      cohort, and to assess the quality of BC follow-up in relapsing patients. Events
      were defined as any local, contralateral, or metastatic recurrence, as well as
      second cancer or death due to any cause. We developed a ranked evaluation method
      of our surveillance program. Among the 3019 patients followed in the network, 116
      (4.3%) patients had 116 events. Median follow-up was 7.1 years (0-51). First
      events were local-regional relapses, contralateral BCs, metastatic events, second
      primaries in respectively 52, 26, 14, 24 cases. During the first 5 years, 68.4%
      of surveillance visits were performed on time, 13.5% were behind schedule and
      18.1% were not performed, while 79.1% of mammographies were performed on time,
      7.7% behind schedule, and 13.2% were not performed. On schedule examinations
      allowed diagnosis of 77% of the local-regional, ipsilateral relapses or
      contralateral BCs, including 38 (69%) discovered by mammographies and 17 (31%) by
      clinical examination. A nonhospital practitioner care network is able to comply
      with good surveillance practices and deliver high quality surveillance, in
      accordance with international guidelines. Delegation of low-risk BC surveillance
      to nonhospital practitioners is reliable.

PMID- 28556479
TI  - Tonic and phasic changes in anteromedial globus pallidus activity in Tourette
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tourette syndrome is a hyperkinetic neurodevelopmental disorder
      characterized by tics. OBJECTIVE: Assess the neuronal changes in the
      associative/limbic GP associated with Tourette syndrome. METHODS:
      Neurophysiological recordings were performed from the anterior
      (associative/limbic) GPe and GPi of 8 awake patients during DBS electrode
      implantation surgeries. RESULTS: The baseline firing rate of the neurons was low
      in a state-dependent manner in both segments of the GP. Tic-dependent transient
      rate changes were found in the activity of individual neurons of both segments
      around the time of the tic. Neither oscillatory activity of individual neurons
      nor correlations in their interactions were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      demonstrate the involvement of the associative/limbic pathway in the underlying
      pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome and point to tonic and phasic modulations of
      basal ganglia output as a key mechanisms underlying the abnormal state of the
      disorder and the expression of individual tics, respectively. (c) 2017
      International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28556481
TI  - If you needed an organ transplant would you have one? The effect of reciprocity
      priming and mode of delivery on organ donor registration intentions and
      behaviour.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There are approximately 6,500 people on the UK national transplant
      waiting list, around 400 of whom die every year. Only 35% of the UK population
      are currently on the organ donation register. We report two studies examining
      whether a reciprocity prime, in which participants were asked whether they would
      accept a donated organ, increased organ donation intentions and behaviour.
      DESIGN: Between-participants, randomized controlled design. METHODS: In two
      studies, participants who were not currently registered organ donors took part
      either face-to-face or online and were randomly allocated to a reciprocity prime
      or control condition. Following the manipulation, they were asked to indicate, on
      either a paper or online questionnaire, their intention to join the organ donor
      register. Study 2 was similar to Study 1 but with the addition that after
      reporting intention, participants were then offered an organ donation information
      leaflet or the opportunity to click a link for further information (proxy
      behavioural measure). RESULTS: In both studies, reciprocity primed participants
      reported greater intentions to register than controls. However, in Study 2, no
      effect on donation behaviour was found. CONCLUSIONS: Reciprocal altruism may be a
      useful tool in increasing intentions to join the organ donor register. Further
      evaluation is required to determine whether this increase in intention can be
      translated into organ donation behaviour. Statement of contribution What was
      already known? Demand for organs in the United Kingdom far outstrips supply, so
      finding strategies to increase registration on the organ donor register could
      save hundreds of lives per year. Despite the majority of people in the United
      Kingdom agreeing that organ donation is a good thing, most people do not register
      as donors. A limited amount of evidence of the impact of perceived reciprocity
      suggests that encouraging people to consider themselves as recipients and priming
      ideas of shared responsibility may increase the likelihood of their subsequent
      willingness to register. What does this study add? Novel evidence that employing
      a simple reciprocity prime increases organ donor registration intentions.
      Replication of findings across two separate studies. Novel examination of the
      impact of mode of delivery of messages to encourage organ donation. A basis for
      further research into the translation of intentions into organ donor registration
      behaviour.

PMID- 28556480
TI  - Survival after resection of appendiceal carcinoma by hemicolectomy and less
      radical than hemicolectomy: a population-based propensity score matched analysis.
AB  - AIM: The operative treatment for non-metastatic appendiceal carcinoma is
      controversial despite the recommendation of right hemicolectomy (RH) by many
      researchers. The aim of this population-based study was to compare outcomes after
      RH and less radical resection than right hemicolectomy (LRH). METHOD: A total of
      1144 patients who underwent resection with additional lymphadenectomy of Stages I
      III appendiceal carcinoma from 2004 to 2012 were identified in the Surveillance,
      Epidemiology and End Results database. Overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific
      survival (CSS) after RH and LRH were assessed by unadjusted and risk-adjusted Cox
      regression analysis and by propensity score matched analysis. RESULTS: A total of
      855 (74.7%) patients underwent RH and 289 (25.3%) underwent LRH. In an unadjusted
      analysis, survival after LRH and RH did not differ in OS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.95,
      95% CI 0.71-1.26, P = 0.707] and CSS (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.69-1.32, P = 0.762). The
      5-year OS and CSS in patients who underwent RH were 71.6% (95% CI 67.8-75.6%) and
      76.4% (95% CI 72.8-80.3) compared with 73.8% (95% CI 67.9-80.2) and 78.7% (95% CI
      73.2-84.7) in patients with LRH, respectively. No relevant difference in survival
      between LRH and RH could be observed in a multivariable analysis (OS, HR 0.90,
      95% CI 0.65-1.25, P = 0.493; CSS, HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.60-1.26, P = 0.420) and after
      propensity score adjusted analysis (OS, HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.62-1.22, P = 0.442;
      CSS, HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.67-1.40, P = 0.883). CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective
      analysis, survival after RH for non-metastatic appendiceal carcinoma was not
      statistically significantly superior to LRH. Hence, LRH with lymphadenectomy
      might be sufficient for treatment of non-metastatic appendiceal carcinoma.

PMID- 28556482
TI  - Gingerenone A, a polyphenol present in ginger, suppresses obesity and adipose
      tissue inflammation in high-fat diet-fed mice.
AB  - SCOPE: Ginger exerts protective effects on obesity and its complications. Our
      objectives here are to identify bioactive compounds that inhibit adipogenesis and
      lipid accumulation in vitro, elucidate the anti-obesity effect of gingerenone A
      (GA) in diet-induced obesity (DIO), and investigate whether GA affects adipose
      tissue inflammation (ATI). METHODS AND RESULTS: Oil red O staining showed that GA
      had the most potent inhibitory effect on adipogenesis and lipid accumulation in
      3T3-L1 cells among ginger components tested at a single concentration (40 MUM).
      Consistent with in vitro data, GA attenuates DIO by reducing fat mass in mice.
      This was accompanied by a modulation of fatty acid metabolism via activation of
      AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, GA
      suppressed ATI by inhibiting macrophage recruitment and downregulating pro
      inflammatory cytokines. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that GA may be used as
      a potential therapeutic candidate for the treatment of obesity and its
      complications by suppressing adipose expansion and inflammation.

PMID- 28556484
TI  - Response to "Cortisol in human milk: The good, the bad, or the Ugly?"

PMID- 28556483
TI  - Drug sensitivity and resistance testing identifies PLK1 inhibitors and
      gemcitabine as potent drugs for malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.
AB  - Patients with malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), a rare soft tissue
      cancer associated with loss of the tumor suppressor neurofibromin (NF1), have
      poor prognosis and typically respond poorly to adjuvant therapy. We evaluated the
      effect of 299 clinical and investigational compounds on seven MPNST cell lines,
      two primary cultures of human Schwann cells, and five normal bone marrow
      aspirates, to identify potent drugs for MPNST treatment with few side effects.
      Top hits included Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors (volasertib and BI2536)
      and the fluoronucleoside gemcitabine, which were validated in orthogonal assays
      measuring viability, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis. DNA copy number, gene
      expression, and protein expression were determined for the cell lines to assess
      pharmacogenomic relationships. MPNST cells were more sensitive to BI2536 and
      gemcitabine compared to a reference set of 94 cancer cell lines. PLK1, RRM1, and
      RRM2 mRNA levels were increased in MPNST compared to benign neurofibroma tissue,
      and the protein level of PLK1 was increased in the MPNST cell lines compared to
      normal Schwann cells, indicating an increased dependence on these drug targets in
      malignant cells. Furthermore, we observed an association between increased mRNA
      expression of PLK1, RRM1, and RRM2 in patient samples and worse disease outcome,
      suggesting a selective benefit from inhibition of these genes in the most
      aggressive tumors.

PMID- 28556485
TI  - Two-year functional and anatomical results after converting treatment resistant
      eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration to aflibercept in accordance
      with a treat and extend protocol.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the effects of converting to aflibercept in accordance with a
      treat and extend (T&E) strategy in eyes with treatment resistant exudative age
      related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: Two-year prospective study of eyes
      with exudative AMD and persistent macular fluid despite monthly treatment with
      ranibizumab or bevacizumab. Eyes were converted to 2.0 mg aflibercept in
      accordance with a T&E protocol. RESULTS: Fifty eyes from 47 patients were
      included. At baseline, the mean central retinal thickness (CRT) was 273 MUm and
      mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) 0.25 logarithm of the minimal angle of
      resolution (logMAR). The mean number of aflibercept injections the first year was
      9.2. After 1 year, there was a reduction in mean CRT to 228 MUm (p < 0.001); 22
      eyes (44%) had a dry macula; and the mean BCVA was 0.24 logMAR (p = 0.531). The
      mean number of aflibercept injections the second year was 8.0 (p = 0.013 compared
      to first year). After 2 years, 24 eyes (48%) received treatment more frequently
      than every eighth week. The mean CRT was 225 MUm (p < 0.001 compared to
      baseline); 31 eyes (62%) had a dry macula; and mean BCVA was 0.32 logMAR (p =
      0.005 compared to baseline). Five eyes did not complete 2 years of aflibercept
      treatment after failing to improve. CONCLUSION: A majority of eyes showed
      improved anatomic outcomes. There was a small decrease in mean BCVA after the
      second year of treatment. About half of the eyes required treatment more
      frequently than the recommended aflibercept label of an 8-week interval.

PMID- 28556487
TI  - Response to: Prophylactic Ureteric Stents in Renal Transplant Recipients: A
      Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Early Versus Late Removal.

PMID- 28556486
TI  - Endoscopic video-assisted transoral resection of lateral oropharyngeal tumors.
AB  - Endoscopic, video-assisted transoral resection of oropharyngeal tumors is a novel
      technique carried out using common instruments present in most otolaryngology
      departments. The technique facilitates oropharyngeal resection akin to transoral
      robotic surgery (TORS) without the need for a robot. A dual surgeon approach,
      analogous to that of endoscopic skull base surgery is used. Each surgeon can
      actively participate in the resection with several key advantages over current
      techniques. The technique is applicable to departments internationally especially
      where the use of a robot is prohibited by cost or availability. This is
      especially important given the resection of oropharyngeal tumours offers the
      opportunity of single modality treatment or reduced intensity adjuvant treatment
      compared to traditional non-surgical therapy.

PMID- 28556488
TI  - Induction therapy with rabbit antithymocyte globulin versus basiliximab after
      kidney transplantation: a health economic analysis from a German perspective.
AB  - A health economic analysis was undertaken based on the 1-year database from a
      randomized study of rabbit anti-human thymocyte immunoglobulin (rATG) versus
      basiliximab, in kidney transplantation using resource utilization data and cost
      estimates from three German hospitals. A three-state Markov model was applied to
      estimate cost-effectiveness to 10 years post-transplant. Total mean treatment
      cost per patient to year 1 post-transplant was ?62 075 vs. ?59 767 for rATG
      versus basiliximab (P < 0.01). rATG therapy was associated with similar treatment
      costs to basiliximab by year 2, and a predicted cumulative treatment cost saving
      of ?4 259 under rATG versus basiliximab by year 10 post-transplant. The mean
      number of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per patient by year 1 was 0.809 vs.
      0.802 in the rATG and basiliximab cohorts, respectively (P = 0.38), with
      cumulative QALYs of 6.161 and 6.065 per patient by year 10. By year 2, the
      cumulative cost per QALY was slightly lower under rATG (?35 378) than basiliximab
      (?35 885), progressing to a saving of ?1 041 under rATG for the cumulative cost
      per QALY by year 10. In conclusion, this model indicates that rATG induction
      provides a modest increase in QALYs with lower long-term costs than basiliximab
      in deceased-donor high-risk kidney transplant patients.

PMID- 28556489
TI  - Factors associated with risk of central nervous system relapse in patients with
      non-core binding factor acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Central nervous system (CNS) relapse is uncommon in patients with acute myeloid
      leukemia (AML) with the use of high-dose cytarabine containing chemotherapy
      regimens. The clinical and molecular features associated with a higher risk of
      CNS relapse are not well defined. We assessed the incidence and outcome of CNS
      relapses among 1245 patients with relapsed/refractory AML referred to our
      institution between 2000 and 2014. CNS leukemia relapse was observed in 51
      patients (4.1%). Using a multivariate regression model and after adjusting for
      age, FLT3-ITD mutation (OR = 2.33; P = .02) and elevated LDH (>1000 IU/L, OR =
      1.99; P = .04) were independent predictive factors for CNS relapse. Patients
      under 64 years of age with 0, 1, or 2 baseline adverse features had a probability
      of 3.8%, 7.0%-8.0%, and 13.9% for developing CNS disease, respectively. Our study
      identifies patients with AML at higher risk for CNS relapse in whom prophylactic
      CNS therapy may be warranted.

PMID- 28556490
TI  - Aptamer-functionalized Fe3 O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a solid-phase extraction
      adsorbent for the selective extraction of berberine from Cortex phellodendri.
AB  - The extraction adsorbent was fabricated by immobilizing the highly specific
      recognition and binding of aptamer onto the surface of Fe3 O4 magnetic
      nanoparticles, which not only acted as recognition elements to recognize and
      capture the target molecule berberine from the extract of Cortex phellodendri,
      but also could favor the rapid separation and purification of the bound berberine
      by using an external magnet. The developed solid-phase extraction method in this
      work was useful for the selective extraction and determination of berberine in
      Cortex phellodendri extracts. Various conditions such as the amount of aptamer
      functionalized Fe3 O4 magnetic nanoparticles, extraction time, temperature, pH
      value, Mg2+ concentration, elution time and solvent were optimized for the solid
      phase extraction of berberine. Under optimal conditions, the purity of berberine
      extracted from Cortex phellodendri was as high as 98.7% compared with that of
      4.85% in the extract, indicating that aptamer-functionalized Fe3 O4 magnetic
      nanoparticles-based solid-phase extraction method was very effective for
      berberine enrichment and separation from a complex herb extract. The
      applicability and reliability of the developed solid-phase extraction method were
      demonstrated by separating berberine from nine different concentrations of one
      Cortex phellodendri extract. The relative recoveries of the spiked solutions of
      all the samples were between 95.4 and 111.3%, with relative standard deviations
      ranging between 0.57 and 1.85%.

PMID- 28556491
TI  - Frequency of submicroscopic chromosomal aberrations in pregnancies without
      increased risk for structural chromosomal aberrations: systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish, based on a systematic literature review, the frequency
      of pathogenic submicroscopic chromosomal aberrations in fetuses that are not at
      increased risk for unbalanced structural chromosomal aberrations, with the aim of
      determining whether high-resolution testing for submicroscopic aberrations is
      beneficial in a general pregnant population. METHODS: EMBASE, PubMed, Web of
      Science and CENTRAL databases were searched systematically on 3 June 2016 for all
      relevant articles on the prevalence of pathogenic submicroscopic copy number
      variants (CNVs) in fetuses referred for prenatal invasive testing because of
      advanced maternal age (AMA) or parental anxiety (ANX). Relevant full-text
      articles were analyzed and the prevalence of submicroscopic CNVs was calculated
      based on the extracted data. Meta-analysis was conducted in a pooled cohort of 10
      614 fetuses based on the 10 largest studies (n > 300) of a total of 19 that were
      relevant. RESULTS: Pooled estimate analysis indicated that 0.84% (95% CI, 0.55
      1.30%) of fetuses that had invasive testing because of AMA/ANX carried a
      pathogenic clinically significant submicroscopic aberration. The onset/penetrance
      of submicroscopic findings was studied in 10 314 fetuses reported in eight papers
      that presented aberrant cases with all necessary details to allow assessment of
      the findings. The pooled estimates resulting from meta-analysis of the data
      indicated that an early-onset syndromic disorder was detected in 0.37% (95% CI,
      0.27-0.52%) of cases, a susceptibility CNV was found in 0.30% (95% CI, 0.14
      0.67%) and late-onset diseases were reported in 0.11% (95% CI, 0.05%-0.21%). The
      prevalence of early-onset syndromic disorders caused by a submicroscopic
      aberration was calculated to be 1:270. When the risk for submicroscopic
      aberrations is added to the individual risk for microscopic chromosomal
      aberrations, all pregnant women have a risk of higher than 1 in 180 for a
      relevant chromosomal aberration, and pregnant women under 36 years of age have a
      higher risk for submicroscopic pathogenic aberrations than for Down syndrome.
      CONCLUSION: This systematic review shows that a significant proportion of fetuses
      in a general pregnant population carry a submicroscopic pathogenic CNV. Based on
      these figures, all women should be informed on their individual risk for all
      pathogenic chromosomal aberrations and not only for common trisomies. Copyright
      (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28556492
TI  - New Insights Into the Alleged Kidney Donor Profile Index Labeling Effect on
      Kidney Utilization.
AB  - The Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) became a driving factor in deceased donor
      kidney allocation on December 4, 2014, with the implementation of the kidney
      allocation system (KAS). On April 20, 2016, the annual recalibration of the
      Kidney Donor Risk Index into KDPI was incorrectly programmed in DonorNet,
      resulting in erroneously high KDPI values, by between 1 and 21 percentage points
      (e.g. actual KDPI of 70% was displayed as 86%). The error was corrected on May
      19, 2016, <24 h after being recognized. During this 30-day period, the
      distribution of recipients largely resembled pre-KAS patterns. The observed
      discard rate of 22.9% was higher than the post-KAS average of 19.6% (odds ratio
      [OR]: 1.22) but far lower than the projected rate of 31.4% (OR: 1.96) based on
      the usual discard rate by KDPI relationship, suggesting clinicians and patients
      did not rely heavily on this single number (KDPI) in kidney-utilization
      decisions. Still, risk-adjusted analyses suggest the elevated discard rate was
      most likely attributable to the erroneously high KDPIs, not a shift in donor
      characteristics or random chance. The rise in discard rate was sharply higher for
      kidneys with inflated KDPI that crossed the 85% policy threshold (OR: 1.46; p =
      0.049) versus those that did not (OR: 1.06; p = 0.631).

PMID- 28556493
TI  - Multi-scale responses to warming in an experimental insect metacommunity.
AB  - In metacommunities, diversity is the product of species interactions at the local
      scale and dispersal between habitat patches at the regional scale. Although
      warming can alter both species interactions and dispersal, the combined effects
      of warming on these two processes remains uncertain. To determine the independent
      and interactive effects of warming-induced changes to local species interactions
      and dispersal, we constructed experimental metacommunities consisting of enclosed
      milkweed patches seeded with five herbivorous milkweed specialist insect species.
      We treated metacommunities with two levels of warming (unwarmed and warmed) and
      three levels of connectivity (isolated, low connectivity, high connectivity).
      Based on metabolic theory, we predicted that if plant resources were limited,
      warming would accelerate resource drawdown, causing local insect declines and
      increasing both insect dispersal and the importance of connectivity to
      neighboring patches for insect persistence. Conversely, given abundant resources,
      warming could have positive local effects on insects, and the risk of traversing
      a corridor to reach a neighboring patch could outweigh the benefits of additional
      resources. We found support for the latter scenario. Neither resource drawdown
      nor the weak insect-insect associations in our system were affected by warming,
      and most insect species did better locally in warmed conditions and had dispersal
      responses that were unchanged or indirectly affected by warming. Dispersal across
      the matrix posed a species-specific risk that led to declines in two species in
      connected metacommunities. Combined, this scaled up to cause an interactive
      effect of warming and connectivity on diversity, with unwarmed metacommunities
      with low connectivity incurring the most rapid declines in diversity. Overall,
      this study demonstrates the importance of integrating the complex outcomes of
      species interactions and spatial structure in understanding community response to
      climate change.

PMID- 28556495
TI  - Assessment of fracture risk in proximal tibia with tumorous bone defects by a
      finite element method.
AB  - There has not been a satisfying method to predict the fracture risk in tumorous
      bone lesions. To tackle this challenge, we used a finite element method to assess
      the fracture risk in the proximal tibia (pT) when the size and location of the
      tumorous defects are varied in bone. Towards this end, the circular cortical
      defects, mimicking the tumorous lesions by forming cortical window defects, with
      a diameter (F) of 20, 30, 40, or 50 mm, are structured on the anteromedial,
      lateral, posterior wall of pT, which is located 5, 15, and 25 mm below articular
      margin, respectively. We found that under walking conditions, the Von Mises
      Stress of each defective tibia model was larger than that of the intact tibia
      model and also showed a positive linear correlation with the sizes of the
      defects. A notable fracture risk was not observed until the defect was F30 mm or
      larger. When the defect emerged, the anteromedial wall resisted fracture risk
      more than the rest of wall. Our results show that the size and location of the
      bone tumors are important factors affecting the fracture risk of pT. Our findings
      will be beneficial to clinicians when deciding what treatment to use for pT
      lesions.

PMID- 28556494
TI  - Familial association of abstinent remission from alcohol use disorder in first
      degree relatives of alcohol-dependent treatment-seeking probands.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Studies that have included family history of alcohol use
      disorder (AUD) as a predictor of remission from AUD have yielded few significant
      results. The goals of this study were to estimate the association of persistent
      AUD, non-abstinent remission and abstinent remission ('AUD/remission status') in
      a proband with AUD/remission status in a relative and to test whether this
      association differed in related and unrelated proband-relative pairs. DESIGN:
      High-risk family study of alcohol dependence. Probands were recruited from
      treatment settings and relatives were invited to participate. Baseline
      assessments occurred between 1991 and 1998 with follow-up between 1996 and 2005.
      Half of probands were matched with a biological 1st-degree relative with life
      time AUD (related group) and half of probands were paired with an unrelated
      individual with life-time AUD (unrelated group). SETTING: Brooklyn, New York;
      Indianapolis, Indiana; Iowa City, Iowa; San Diego, California; Farmington,
      Connecticut; and St Louis, Missouri, USA. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 606 probands
      (25.7% female, mean age 37.7) with baseline and follow-up data and 606 of their
      1st-degree relatives who had life-ime AUDs (45.8% female, mean age 36.2 years).
      MEASUREMENTS: Persistent AUD, non-abstinent remission and abstinent remission
      were based on self-report interview data on most recent AUD symptoms and alcohol
      consumption. Dependent variable was relatives' AUD/remission status. Independent
      variable was probands' AUD/remission status. FINDINGS: A total of 34.6% of
      probands and 20.6% of relatives were abstinent and 11.1% of probands and 22.8% of
      relatives were in non-abstinent remission. AUD/remission status was correlated
      significantly in related (r = 0.23, P = 0.0037) but not in unrelated pairs. A
      significant interaction of probands' abstinent remission with a variable
      representing related (versus unrelated, P = 0.003) pairs suggested a familial
      association for abstinent remission. In related pairs, individuals with an
      abstinent proband were more likely to be abstinent themselves than were
      individuals whose proband had persistent AUD [relative risk ratio = 3.27, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) = 1.56-6.85, P = 0.002]; this association was not
      significant in unrelated pairs. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of abstinent
      remission among people with alcohol use disorder appears to be more than three
      times greater for individuals who are related to an abstinent proband versus
      those related to a proband with persistent alcohol use disorder.

PMID- 28556496
TI  - Prevalence rates of borderline symptoms reported by adolescent inpatients with
      BPD, psychiatrically healthy adolescents and adult inpatients with BPD.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The validity of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in children and
      adolescents has not been studied in a rigorous manner reflecting the criteria of
      Robins and Guze first detailed in 1970. This paper and the others in this series
      address some aspects of this multifaceted validation paradigm, which requires
      that a disorder has a known clinical presentation, can be delimited from other
      disorders, 'runs' in families, and something of its aetiology, treatment response
      and course is known. METHODS: Three groups of subjects were studied: 104
      adolescent inpatients meeting the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines
      and DSM-IV criteria for BPD, 60 psychiatrically healthy adolescents and 290 adult
      inpatients meeting the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and DSM-III-R
      criteria for BPD. RESULTS: Adolescents with BPD had significantly higher
      prevalence rates of 22 of the 24 symptoms studied than psychiatrically healthy
      adolescents. Only rates of serious treatment regressions and countertransference
      problems failed to reach the Bonferroni-corrected level of 0.002. Adolescents and
      adults with BPD had only four symptomatic differences that reached this level of
      significance, with adolescents with BPD reporting significantly lower levels of
      quasi-psychotic thought, dependency/masochism, devaluation/manipulation/sadism
      and countertransference problems than adults with BPD. CONCLUSIONS: Taken
      together, the results of this study suggest that adolescents report BPD as severe
      as that reported by adults. They also suggest that BPD in adolescents is not a
      tumultuous phase of normal adolescence. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons,
      Ltd.

PMID- 28556497
TI  - A genome-wide quantitative trait locus (QTL) linkage scan of NEO personality
      factors in Latino families segregating bipolar disorder.
AB  - Personality traits have been suggested as potential endophenotypes for Bipolar
      Disorder (BP), as they can be quantitatively measured and show correlations with
      BP. The present study utilized data from 2,745 individuals from 686 extended
      pedigrees originally ascertained for having multiplex cases of BP (963 cases of
      BPI or schizoaffective BP). Subjects were assessed with the NEO Personality
      Inventory, Revised (NEO PI-R) and genotyped using the Illumina HumanLinkage-24
      Bead Chip, with an average genetic coverage of 0.67 cM. Two point linkage scores
      were calculated for each trait as a quantitative variable using SOLAR (Sequential
      Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines). Suggestive evidence for linkage was found
      for neuroticism at 1q32.1 (LOD = 2.52), 6q23.3 (2.32), 16p12 (2.79), extraversion
      at 4p15.3 (2.33), agreeableness at 4q31.1 (2.37), 5q34 (2.80), 7q31.1 (2.56),
      16q22 (2.52), and conscientiousness at 4q31.1 (2.50). Each of the above traits
      have been shown to be correlated with the broad BP phenotype in this same sample.
      In addition, for the trait of openness, we found significant evidence of linkage
      to chromosome 3p24.3 (rs336610, LOD = 4.75) and suggestive evidence at 1q43
      (2.74), 5q35.1 (3.03), 11q14.3 (2.61), 11q21 (2.30), and 19q13.1 (2.52). These
      findings support previous linkage findings of the openness trait to chromosome
      19q13 and the agreeableness trait to 4q31 and identify a number of new loci for
      personality endophenotypes related to bipolar disorder.

PMID- 28556499
TI  - The 2015 US Food and Drug Administration Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule.
AB  - As of 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discontinued the pregnancy
      risk categories (ABCDX) that had been used to denote the putative safety of drugs
      for use among pregnant women. The ABCDX system has been replaced by the FDA
      Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule (PLLR) that requires narrative text to
      describe risk information, clinical considerations, and background data for the
      drug. The new rule includes 3 overarching categories: 1) pregnancy, which
      includes labor and birth; 2) lactation; and 3) females and males of reproductive
      potential. This article reviews the key components of the PLLR and clinical
      implications, and provides resources for clinicians who prescribe drugs for women
      of reproductive age.

PMID- 28556500
TI  - Evaluation of sleep quality in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and efficacy
      of anti-TNF-alpha therapy on sleep problems: A polisomnographic study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between
      sleep quality (SQ) and disease activity (DA) in patients with ankylosing
      spondylitis (AS) and to evaluate the response to anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha
      (anti-TNF-alpha) therapy on sleep disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 34
      patients who met the modified New York classification criteria for AS were
      included in this prospective study. Patients were divided into two groups as
      follows: Group I (n = 15) with high DA and receiving anti-TNF-alpha therapy, and
      Group II (n = 19) in remission. DA was assessed by the Bath AS Disease Activity
      Index. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and polysomnography (PSG) were used
      to determine disorders and patterns of sleep, respectively, in both groups at
      baseline as well as at the third month of anti-TNF-alpha therapy in Group I.
      RESULTS: Baseline evaluation revealed impaired SQ in 57.9% of all patients. PSG
      demonstrated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, snoring and periodic leg movements
      in 73.7%, 74.4% and 26.3% of patients, respectively. Prior to anti-TNF-alpha
      therapy, PSQI and snoring score were significantly higher in Group I (P = 0.0001,
      P = 0.012, respectively). Although there was a significant reduction in PSQI
      scores in Group I (P = 0.005) at the third month of anti-TNF-alpha therapy, no
      change was observed in PSG parameters (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Sleep disorders
      increase in AS, particularly in patients with high DA. Anti-TNF-alpha therapy has
      improved SQ without any improvement in PSG. Therefore, it may be concluded that
      PSG parameters might be more associated with disease pathogenesis rather than DA
      in patients with AS.

PMID- 28556498
TI  - Sodium intake and multiple sclerosis activity and progression in BENEFIT.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a high-salt diet, as measured by urinary sodium
      concentration, is associated with faster conversion from clinically isolated
      syndrome (CIS) to multiple sclerosis (MS) and MS activity and disability.
      METHODS: BENEFIT was a randomized clinical trial comparing early versus delayed
      interferon beta-1b treatment in 465 patients with a CIS. Each patient provided a
      median of 14 (interquartile range = 13-16) spot urine samples throughout the 5
      year follow-up. We estimated 24-hour urine sodium excretion level at each time
      point using the Tanaka equations, and assessed whether sodium levels estimated
      from the cumulative average of the repeated measures were associated with
      clinical (conversion to MS, Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS]) and magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes. RESULTS: Average 24-hour urine sodium levels
      were not associated with conversion to clinically definite MS over the 5-year
      follow-up (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.91, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.67-1.24 per
      1g increase in estimated daily sodium intake), nor were they associated with
      clinical or MRI outcomes (new active lesions after 6 months: HR = 1.05, 95% CI =
      0.97-1.13; relative change in T2 lesion volume: -0.11, 95% CI = -0.25 to 0.04;
      change in EDSS: -0.01, 95% CI = -0.09 to 0.08; relapse rate: HR = 0.78, 95% CI =
      0.56-1.07). Results were similar in categorical analyses using quintiles.
      INTERPRETATION: Our results, based on multiple assessments of urine sodium
      excretion over 5 years and standardized clinical and MRI follow-up, suggest that
      salt intake does not influence MS disease course or activity. Ann Neurol
      2017;82:20-29.

PMID- 28556502
TI  - Household coverage of Swaziland's national community health worker programme: a
      cross-sectional population-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To ascertain household coverage achieved by Swaziland's national
      community health worker (CHW) programme and differences in household coverage
      across clients' sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: Household survey from
      June to September 2015 in two of Swaziland's four administrative regions using
      two-stage cluster random sampling. Interviewers administered a questionnaire to
      all household members in 1542 households across 85 census enumeration areas.
      RESULTS: While the CHW programme aims to cover all households in the country,
      only 44.5% (95% confidence interval: 38.0% to 51.1%) reported that they had ever
      been visited by a CHW. In both uni- and multivariable regressions, coverage was
      negatively associated with household wealth (OR for most vs. least wealthy
      quartile: 0.30 [0.16 to 0.58], P < 0.001) and education (OR for >secondary
      schooling vs. no schooling: 0.65 [0.47 to 0.90], P = 0.009), and positively
      associated with residing in a rural area (OR: 2.95 [1.77 to 4.91], P < 0.001).
      Coverage varied widely between census enumeration areas. CONCLUSIONS: Swaziland's
      national CHW programme is falling far short of its coverage goal. To improve
      coverage, the programme would likely need to recruit additional CHWs and/or
      assign more households to each CHW. Alternatively, changing the programme's
      ambitious coverage goal to visiting only certain types of households would likely
      reduce existing arbitrary differences in coverage between households and
      communities. This study highlights the need to evaluate and reform large long
      standing CHW programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.

PMID- 28556503
TI  - Occurrence and human exposure assessment of organophosphate flame retardants in
      indoor dust from various microenvironments of the Rhine/Main region, Germany.
AB  - We analyzed organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) in 74 indoor dust samples
      collected from seven microenvironments (building material markets, private cars,
      daycare centers, private homes, floor/carpet stores, offices, and schools) in the
      Rhine/Main region of Germany. Ten of 11 target OPFRs were ubiquitously detected,
      some with more than 97% detection frequency, including tris(1,3
      dichloroisopropyl)phosphate (TCIPP), tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate (TBOEP),
      triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), and tris(isobutyl) phosphate (TIBP). Total
      concentrations (?OPFRs) ranged from 5.9 to 4800 MUg/g, with TBOEP and TCIPP being
      the most abundant congeners. The ?OPFRs in schools, private cars, offices, and
      daycare centers were significantly (P<.05) higher than in private homes. The
      ?OPFRs for building material markets (19 MUg/g) and floor/carpet stores (20
      MUg/g) showed no significant difference to the other microenvironments, likely
      because of forced ventilation. The profiles of OPFRs in dust samples from offices
      and private homes were highly similar, while profiles from the other five
      microenvironments were substantially different. Comparison of our results with
      previous studies indicates a significant global variation in OPFR concentrations
      and their profiles, reflecting distinct fire safety regulations in different
      countries and/or different sampling strategies. Dust ingestion constitutes the
      major exposure pathway to OPFRs for toddlers, while air inhalation is the major
      pathway for adults.

PMID- 28556501
TI  - A three-gene signature from protein-protein interaction network of LOXL2- and
      actin-related proteins for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma prognosis.
AB  - Current staging is inadequate for predicting clinical outcome of esophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Aberrant expression of LOXL2 and actin-related
      proteins plays important roles in ESCC. Here, we aimed to develop a novel
      molecular signature that exceeds the power of the current staging system in
      predicting ESCC prognosis. We found that LOXL2 colocalized with filamentous actin
      in ESCC cells, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that LOXL2 is
      related to the actin cytoskeleton. An ESCC-specific protein-protein interaction
      (PPI) network involving LOXL2 and actin-related proteins was generated based on
      genome-wide RNA-seq in 15 paired ESCC samples, and the prognostic significance of
      14 core genes was analyzed. Using risk score calculation, a three-gene signature
      comprising LOXL2, CDH1, and FN1 was derived from transcriptome data of patients
      with ESCC. The high-risk three-gene signature strongly correlated with poor
      prognosis in a training cohort of 60 patients (P = 0.003). In mRNA and protein
      levels, the prognostic values of this signature were further validated in 243
      patients from a testing cohort (P = 0.001) and two validation cohorts (P = 0.021,
      P = 0.007). Furthermore, Cox regression analysis revealed that the signature was
      an independent prognostic factor. Compared with using the signature or TNM stage
      alone, the combined model significantly enhanced the accuracy in evaluating ESCC
      prognosis. In conclusion, our data reveal that the tumor-promoting role of LOXL2
      in ESCC is mediated by perturbing the architecture of actin cytoskeleton through
      its PPIs. We generated a novel three-gene signature (PPI interfaces) that
      robustly predicts poor clinical outcome in ESCC patients.

PMID- 28556504
TI  - Effects of conjugated linoleic acid supplementation on serum C-reactive protein:
      A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - AIM: To undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies to
      determine the effect of conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) supplementation on serum
      C-reactive protein (CRP). METHOD: PubMed-Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane
      Database, and Google Scholar databases were searched (up until May 2016) to
      identify prospective studies evaluating the impact of CLAs supplementation on
      serum CRP. Random-effects models meta-analysis was used for quantitative data
      synthesis. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the leave-one-out method.
      Heterogeneity was quantitatively assessed using the I2 index. Systematic review
      registration: CRD42016038945. RESULTS: From a total of 85 entries identified via
      searches, 14 studies were included in the final selection. The meta-analysis
      indicated a significant increase in serum CRP concentrations following
      supplementation with CLAs (weighted mean difference [WMD] 0.63 mg/dL, 95%
      confidence interval [95% CI] 0.13-1.13, N=21 arms, heterogeneity P=.026; I2
      =52.3%). These findings were robust in sensitivity analyses. Random-effects meta
      regression revealed that changes in serum CRP levels were independent of the
      dosage of CLAs supplementation (slope: -0.02; 95% CI: -0.10, 0.12; P=.889) or
      duration of follow-up (slope: 0.271; 95% CI: -0.05, 0.59; P=.098). CONCLUSIONS:
      This meta-analysis suggests that CLA supplementation is associated with an
      increase in plasma CRP concentrations and a reduction in serum adiponectin
      concentrations, which indicates that CLA supplements have a proinflammatory
      effect. Randomized control trials with larger sample size and a longer follow-up
      period may be required for future investigations to provide an unequivocal
      answer.

PMID- 28556505
TI  - Restoring Maximum Vertical Browsing Reach in Sauropod Dinosaurs.
AB  - The ongoing controversy centered on neck posture and function in sauropod
      dinosaurs is misplaced for a number of reasons. Because of an absence of
      pertinent data it is not possible to accurately restore the posture and range of
      motion in long necked fossil animals, only gross approximations are possible. The
      existence of a single "neutral posture" in animals with long, slender necks may
      not exist, and its relationship to feeding habits is weak. Restorations of
      neutral osteological neck posture based on seemingly detailed diagrams of
      cervical articulations are not reliable because the pictures are not sufficiently
      accurate due to a combination of illustration errors, and distortion of the
      fossil cervicals. This is all the more true because fossil cervical series lack
      the critical inter-centra cartilage. Maximum vertical reach is more readily
      restorable and biologically informative for long necked herbivores. Modest
      extension of 10 degrees  between each caudal cervical allowed high shouldered
      sauropods to raise the cranial portion of their necks to vertical postures that
      allowed them to reach floral resources far higher than seen in the tallest
      mammals. This hypothesis is supported by the dorsally extended articulation of
      the only known co-fused sauropod cervicals. Many sauropods appear to have been
      well adapted for rearing in order to boost vertical reach, some possessed
      retroverted pelves that may have allowed them to walk slowly while bipedal. A
      combination of improved high browsing abilities and sexual selection probably
      explains the unusually long necks of tall ungulates and super tall sauropods.
      Anat Rec, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Anat Rec, 300:1802-1825, 2017.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556507
TI  - Modified headspace solid-phase microextraction for the determination of
      quantitative relationships between components of mixtures consisting of alcohols,
      esters, and ethers - impact of the vapor pressure difference of the compounds.
AB  - The quantitative relationship between analytes established by the headspace solid
      phase microextraction procedure for multicomponent mixtures depends not only on
      the character and strength of interactions of individual components with solid
      phase microextraction fiber but also on their vapor pressure in the applied
      headspace solid-phase microextraction system. This study proves that vapor
      pressure is of minor importance when the sample is dissolved/suspended in a low
      volatility liquid of the same physicochemical character as that of the used solid
      phase microextraction fiber coating. It is demonstrated for mixtures of alcohols,
      esters, ethers and their selected representatives by applying a headspace solid
      phase microextraction system composed of Carbowax fiber and sample solutions in
      polyethyleneglycol. The observed differences in quantitative relations between
      components of the examined mixtures established by their direct analysis and by
      modified headspace solid-phase microextraction are insignificant (Fexp  < Fcrit
      ). It is explained by a significant diminution in vapor pressure difference
      between individual components of the examined mixture in the applied headspace
      solid phase microextraction system due to low components concentration in
      polyethyleneglycol suspensions (Raoult's law) and due to strong specific
      interactions of analyte molecules with polyethyleneglycol molecules.

PMID- 28556506
TI  - Dissociated Agonist of Glucocorticoid Receptor or Prednisone for Active
      Rheumatoid Arthritis: Effects on P1NP and Osteocalcin Pharmacodynamics.
AB  - Fosdagrocorat (PF-04171327), a dissociated agonist of the glucocorticoid
      receptor, has potent anti-inflammatory activity in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis with reduced adverse effects on bone health. To identify fosdagrocorat
      doses with bone formation marker changes similar to prednisone 5 mg, we
      characterized treatment-related changes in amino-terminal propeptide of type I
      collagen (P1NP) and osteocalcin (OC) with fosdagrocorat (1, 5, 10, or 15 mg) and
      prednisone (5 or 10 mg) in a phase II randomized trial (N = 323). The time course
      of markers utilized a mixed-effects longitudinal kinetic-pharmacodynamic model.
      Median predicted changes from baseline at week 8 with fosdagrocorat 5, 10, and 15
      mg were -18, -22, and -22% (P1NP), and -7, -13, and -17% (OC), respectively.
      Changes with prednisone 5 and 10 mg were -15% and -18% (P1NP) and -10% and -17%
      (OC). The probability of fosdagrocorat doses up to 15 mg being noninferior to
      prednisone 5 mg for P1NP and OC changes was >90%.

PMID- 28556508
TI  - Hassall's corpuscles in the fine-needle aspiration cytology of pediatric ectopic
      thymic tissue.

PMID- 28556509
TI  - Regulating the for-profit private healthcare providers towards universal health
      coverage: A qualitative study of legal and organizational framework in Mongolia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regulating the behavior of private providers in the context of mixed
      health systems has become increasingly important and challenging in many
      developing countries moving towards universal health coverage including Mongolia.
      This study examines the current regulatory architecture for private healthcare in
      Mongolia exploring its role for improving accessibility, affordability, and
      quality of private care and identifies gaps in policy design and implementation.
      METHODS: Qualitative research methods were used including documentary review,
      analysis, and in-depth interviews with 45 representatives of key actors involved
      in and affected by regulations in Mongolia's mixed health system, along with long
      term participant observation. RESULTS: There has been extensive legal
      documentation developed regulating private healthcare, with specific
      organizations assigned to conduct health regulations and inspections. However,
      the regulatory architecture for healthcare in Mongolia is not optimally designed
      to improve affordability and quality of private care. This is not limited only to
      private care: important regulatory functions targeted to quality of care do not
      exist at the national level. The imprecise content and details of regulations in
      laws inviting increased political interference, governance issues, unclear roles,
      and responsibilities of different government regulatory bodies have contributed
      to failures in implementation of existing regulations.

PMID- 28556510
TI  - Vasa previa: easy to miss.

PMID- 28556511
TI  - Host-specific effects of soil microbial filtrates prevail over those of
      arbuscular mycorrhizae in a fragmented landscape.
AB  - Plant-soil interactions have been shown to determine plant community composition
      in a wide range of environments. However, how plants distinctly interact with
      beneficial and detrimental organisms across mosaic landscapes containing
      fragmented habitats is still poorly understood. We experimentally tested feedback
      responses between plants and soil microbial communities from adjacent habitats
      across a disturbance gradient within a human-modified tropical montane landscape.
      In a greenhouse experiment, two components of soil microbial communities were
      amplified; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and a filtrate excluding AMF spores
      from the soils of pastures (high disturbance), coffee plantations (intermediate
      disturbance), and forest fragments (low disturbance), using potted seedlings of
      11 plant species common in these habitats (pasture grass, coffee, and nine native
      species). We then examined their effects on growth of these same 11 host species
      with reciprocal habitat inoculation. Most plant species received a similar
      benefit from AMF, but differed in their response to the filtrates from the three
      habitats. Soil filtrate from pastures had a net negative effect on plant growth,
      while filtrates from coffee plantations and forests had a net positive effect on
      plant growth. Pasture grass, coffee, and five pioneer tree species performed
      better with the filtrate from "away" (where these species rarely occur) compared
      to "home" (where these species typically occur) habitat soils, while four shade
      tolerant tree species grew similarly with filtrates from different habitats.
      These results suggest that pastures accumulate species-specific soil enemies,
      while coffee plantations and forests accumulate beneficial soil microbes that
      benefit pioneer native plants and coffee, respectively. Thus, compared to AMF,
      soil filtrates exerted stronger habitat and host-specific effects on plants,
      being more important mediators of plant-soil feedbacks across contrasting
      habitats.

PMID- 28556512
TI  - Comparison of circumferential peripheral angle closure using iridotrabecular
      contact index after laser iridotomy versus combined laser iridotomy and
      iridoplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the quantitative changes of peripheral angle after laser
      iridotomy (LI) alone (group A) or combined LI and Iridoplasty (group B) using
      iridotrabecular contact (ITC) index by swept-source anterior segment optical
      coherence tomography (AS-OCT). METHODS: In this prospective comparative
      observational study, OCT images were obtained before and after the procedure. In
      each image frame, scleral spur (SS) and the ITC end point (EP) were marked and
      ITC index was calculated as a percentage of the angle closure from 360 degrees .
      Age, gender, diagnosis and initial ITC index in Group B were matched with group
      A. Changes in ITC index, anterior chamber angle parameters, and intraocular
      pressure (IOP) were inspected. RESULTS: Thirty-three eyes (20 patients) with
      shallow anterior chamber were included in each group. Initial ITC index and
      initial IOP were not significantly different between the two groups (both p >
      0.05). However, ITC index and IOP after the procedure were significantly lower in
      group B than those in group A (ITC index: 31.3 +/- 23.2 in group A, 19.0 +/- 21.3
      in group B, p = 0.011, IOP: p = 0.004). All anterior chamber angle parameters in
      group B and all parameters in group A except nasal trabecular-iris angles (TIA)
      were significantly increased after the laser procedure (all p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: In patients with shallow anterior chamber, combined LI and
      Iridoplasty may open the peripheral angle better than LI alone. Iridoplasty may
      be able to additionally relieve the peripheral angle closure caused by other
      mechanisms than pupillary block.

PMID- 28556513
TI  - Ionic-liquid-functionalized zinc oxide nanoparticles for the solid-phase
      extraction of triazine herbicides in corn prior to high-performance liquid
      chromatography analysis.
AB  - Zinc oxide nanoparticles have recently been used as effective adsorbent materials
      for sample pretreatment in analytical chemistry because of their excellent
      properties, such as high specific surface area, high effective porosity, non
      toxicity, and ease of fabrication. In this study, the zinc oxide nanoparticles
      functionalized by an ionic liquid, 1-carboxyethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride,
      were fabricated and used as the adsorbent for the solid phase extraction of five
      triazine herbicides in corn for the first time. High-performance liquid
      chromatography was employed for the determination of these triazine herbicides.
      Several experimental parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were
      investigated, including the volume of extraction solvent, the extraction time,
      the type of extraction solvent and elution solvent, the amount of absorbent, and
      the volume of elution solvent. By using the proposed method, low limits of
      detection and quantification for all the five triazine herbicides were obtained
      between 0.71-1.08 and 2.67-3.64 ng/g, respectively. Recoveries of the proposed
      method range from 89.05 to 100.33% with intra- and inter-day relative standard
      deviations lower than 8.45%. The calibration curves are linear in the
      concentration range of 0.005-1.00 MUg/g with the correlation coefficient higher
      than 0.9954.

PMID- 28556514
TI  - Psi Multiple eccrine spiradenomas with a zosteriform pattern-Report of a rare
      case diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology.

PMID- 28556515
TI  - Musculoskeletal structure and function in response to the combined effect of an
      obesogenic diet and age in male C57BL/6J mice.
AB  - SCOPE: The effects of a long-term high fat and sucrose diet (HFS) superimposed
      with aging on bone and muscle structure and/or function. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Male C57BL/6J mice (20 weeks of age) were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: baseline
      (BSL, n = 12), or assigned to a control (AGE, n = 12) or HFS (HFS-AGE, n = 11)
      diet for 13 weeks. Trabecular bone structure, volumetric bone mineral density
      (vBMD), and body composition, were measured longitudinally at 20, 24, and 32
      weeks of age. In vitro contractile measures were performed on isolated soleus and
      extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles for each group. Both AGE and HFS-AGE had
      similar declines in trabecular bone structure, while HFS-AGE resulted in
      increased soleus cross-sectional area (CSA) compared to AGE, but this did not
      translate to greater twitch or tetanic peak force. The ratio of outcomes of bone
      to muscle declined in both AGE and HFS-AGE compared to BSL as a result of greater
      declines in trabecular bone structure than muscle function. CONCLUSION:
      Consumption of a 13-week HFS diet at 20 weeks of age did not exacerbate age
      related declines in bone or muscle, but these tissues do not decline in a
      coordinate manner with greater declines in bone than muscle.

PMID- 28556517
TI  - Improving the production, activity, and stability of CLEAs with diepoxides.
AB  - Among enzyme immobilization techniques, the preparation of cross-linked enzyme
      aggregates has shown promising results in biocatalysis, because they are easy to
      prepare, versatile, and cheap. The method involves the precipitation of enzymes
      with ammonium sulfate or an organic solvent and subsequent cross-linking with
      glutaraldehyde. However, the Schiff base produced with glutaraldehyde is
      reversible and can be broken with acids or bases, releasing proteins to the
      reaction medium. To solve this problem, we propose replacing glutaraldehyde with
      diepoxide compounds to obtain an irreversible secondary amine bond. Such a
      substitution avoids protein leakage during the biocatalytic process,
      contamination of the final products, and loss of enzyme. It also improves the
      synthesis of the biocatalyst, because, while the Schiff base is favored at mildly
      acidic pH, the epoxide reaction can be made at the optimal enzyme pH, assuring
      its structural stability and catalytic performance. The proposed method has been
      successfully used in the production and optimization of aldolase epoxy-cross
      linked aggregates, which retain 98% activity. (c) 2017 American Institute of
      Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1425-1429, 2017.

PMID- 28556518
TI  - Low glycated hemoglobin level is associated with severity of frailty in Japanese
      elderly diabetes patients.
AB  - AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Previously, a study using a narrowly defined (physical base)
      frailty scale reported that both good and bad (U-shaped curve) glycated
      hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels were frailty risk factors in patients with type 2
      diabetes mellitus. However, no such studies in Japan have shown this. We aimed to
      evaluate the frailty risk factors including HbA1c in elderly Japanese patients
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus using a broadly defined (both physical and
      psychosocial base) frailty scale, the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We randomly enrolled 132 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (aged >=65 years) and categorized the patients into nine stages of frailty using
      CFS. Because no patient had CFS 9, patients with a CFS score of 1-4 and 5-8 were
      defined as non-frail and frail, respectively. We attempted to identify the risk
      factors of frailty by investigating the association between CFS stage and various
      patient factors. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis showed that an increase in
      age, low levels of albumin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood
      pressure, HbA1c, total cholesterol, and bodyweight were statistically significant
      and strong independent risk factors for frailty, suggesting that reverse
      metabolism owing to malnutrition in elderly type 2 diabetes mellitus patients
      might be involved. CONCLUSIONS: HbA1c level was not a U-shaped risk for frailty,
      suggesting that relatively good glycemic control might be more important for
      frailty than poor control in elderly type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

PMID- 28556520
TI  - Mechanism-Driven Approach To Develop a Mild and Versatile C-H Amidation through
      IrIII Catalysis.
AB  - Described herein is a mechanism-based approach to develop a versatile C-H
      amidation protocol under IrIII catalysis. Reaction kinetics of a key C-N coupling
      step with acyl azide and 1,4,2-dioxazol-5-one led us to conclude that
      dioxazolones are much more efficient in mediating the formation of a carbon
      nitrogen bond from an iridacyclic intermediate. Computational analysis revealed
      that the origin of higher reactivity is asynchronous decarboxylation motion,
      which may facilitate the formation of Ir-imido species. Importantly,
      stoichiometric reactivity was successfully translated into catalytic activity
      with a broad range of substrates (18 different types), many of which are regarded
      as challenging to functionalize. Application of the new method enables late-stage
      functionalization of drug molecules.

PMID- 28556516
TI  - EMT- and MET-related processes in nonepithelial tumors: importance for disease
      progression, prognosis, and therapeutic opportunities.
AB  - The epithelial-to mesenchymal (EMT) process is increasingly recognized for
      playing a key role in the progression, dissemination, and therapy resistance of
      epithelial tumors. Accumulating evidence suggests that EMT inducers also lead to
      a gain in mesenchymal properties and promote malignancy of nonepithelial tumors.
      In this review, we present and discuss current findings, illustrating the
      importance of EMT inducers in tumors originating from nonepithelial/mesenchymal
      tissues, including brain tumors, hematopoietic malignancies, and sarcomas. Among
      these tumors, the involvement of mesenchymal transition has been most extensively
      investigated in glioblastoma, providing proof for cell autonomous and
      microenvironment-derived stimuli that provoke EMT-like processes that regulate
      stem cell, invasive, and immunogenic properties as well as therapy resistance.
      The involvement of prominent EMT transcription factor families, such as TWIST,
      SNAI, and ZEB, in promoting therapy resistance and tumor aggressiveness has also
      been reported in lymphomas, leukemias, and sarcomas. A reverse process,
      resembling mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET), seems particularly
      relevant for sarcomas, where (partial) epithelial differentiation is linked to
      less aggressive tumors and a better patient prognosis. Overall, a hybrid model in
      which more stable epithelial and mesenchymal intermediates exist likely extends
      to the biology of tumors originating from sources other than the epithelium.
      Deeper investigation and understanding of the EMT/MET machinery in nonepithelial
      tumors will shed light on the pathogenesis of these tumors, potentially paving
      the way toward the identification of clinically relevant biomarkers for prognosis
      and future therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28556519
TI  - Lessons Learned: Early Termination of a Randomized Trial of Calcineurin Inhibitor
      and Corticosteroid Avoidance Using Belatacept.
AB  - The intent of this National Institutes of Health-sponsored study was to compare a
      belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with a maintenance regimen of
      tacrolimus and mycophenolate. Nineteen primary, Epstein-Barr virus-immune renal
      transplant recipients with a negative cross-match were randomized to one of three
      groups. All patient groups received perioperative steroids and maintenance
      mycophenolate mofetil. Patients in groups 1 and 2 were induced with alemtuzumab
      and maintained on tacrolimus or belatacept, respectively. Patients in group 3
      were induced with basiliximab, received 3 mo of tacrolimus, and maintained on
      belatacept. There was one death with a functioning allograft due to endocarditis
      (group 1). There were three graft losses due to vascular thrombosis (all group 2)
      and one graft loss due to glomerular disease (group 1). Biopsy-proven acute
      cellular rejection was more frequent in the belatacept-treated groups, with 10
      treated episodes in seven participants compared with one episode in group 1;
      however, estimated GFR was similar between groups at week 52. There were no
      episodes of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder or opportunistic
      infections in any group. Protocol enrollment was halted prematurely because of a
      high rate of serious adverse events. Such negative outcomes pose challenges to
      clinical investigators, who ultimately must weigh the risks and benefits in
      randomized trials.

PMID- 28556521
TI  - The need to implement the landscape of fear within rodent pest management
      strategies.
AB  - Current reactive pest management methods have serious drawbacks such as the heavy
      reliance on chemicals, emerging genetic rodenticide resistance and high secondary
      exposure risks. Rodent control needs to be based on pest species ecology and
      ethology to facilitate the development of ecologically based rodent management
      (EBRM). An important aspect of EBRM is a strong understanding of rodent pest
      species ecology, behaviour and spatiotemporal factors. Gaining insight into the
      behaviour of pest species is a key aspect of EBRM. The landscape of fear (LOF) is
      a mapping of the spatial variation in the foraging cost arising from the risk of
      predation, and reflects the levels of fear a prey species perceives at different
      locations within its home range. In practice, the LOF maps habitat use as a
      result of perceived fear, which shows where bait or traps are most likely to be
      encountered and used by rodents. Several studies have linked perceived predation
      risk of foraging animals with quitting-harvest rates or giving-up densities
      (GUDs). GUDs have been used to reflect foraging behaviour strategies of predator
      avoidance, but to our knowledge very few papers have directly used GUDs in
      relation to pest management strategies. An opportunity for rodent control
      strategies lies in the integration of the LOF of rodents in EBRM methodologies.
      Rodent management could be more efficient and effective by concentrating on those
      areas where rodents perceive the least levels of predation risk. (c) 2017 The
      Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28556523
TI  - Cytomegalovirus-Induced Polyarteritis Nodosa in a Liver Transplant Recipient.
AB  - Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a necrotizing vasculitis that has been associated
      with viral infections, especially hepatitis B virus. We hereby report a case of
      tissue-invasive cytomegalovirus (CMV)-induced PAN in a liver transplant recipient
      presenting with acute kidney injury and active urinary sediment. Treatment
      directed against both PAN and CMV resulted in improvement in kidney function,
      normalization of urinary indices and resolution of the CMV infection. There was
      no recurrence of either PAN or CMV after a 3-year follow-up period.

PMID- 28556522
TI  - Prevalence rates of childhood protective factors in adolescents with BPD,
      psychiatrically healthy adolescents and adults with BPD.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Existing literature on the aetiology of borderline personality
      disorder (BPD) has primarily focused on pathological childhood experiences, while
      little to no research has been conducted on protective factors that may serve to
      ameliorate these symptoms. The current study attempts to fill this gap in the
      literature by comparing the rates of childhood protective factors among
      adolescents with BPD, psychiatrically healthy adolescents and adults with BPD.
      METHODS: One hundred and four subjects were adolescent inpatients between the
      ages of 13 and 17 who met Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and
      Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition criteria for
      BPD. Sixty were age-matched psychiatrically healthy comparison subjects. Two
      hundred and ninety subjects were adult inpatients between the ages of 18 and 35
      who met Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and Revised Diagnostic and
      Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Third Edition criteria for BPD. All three
      groups were interviewed by using the Revised Childhood Experiences Questionnaire,
      a semi-structured interview that assesses pathological and protective childhood
      experiences. RESULTS: Psychiatrically healthy adolescents reported significantly
      higher rates of 4 out of 18 protective factors than adolescents with BPD.
      Adolescents with BPD reported significantly higher rates of 5 of these 18
      protective factors than adults with BPD. Adults with BPD were significantly more
      likely to endorse having a steady after school or weekend work record than
      adolescents with BPD. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the results of this study
      suggest that adolescents meeting criteria for BPD report lower rates of some
      protective factors than psychiatrically healthy adolescents. They also suggest
      that they have higher rates of some protective factors than adults with BPD.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556524
TI  - Effects of comorbidity and medication use on the haemodynamic status during
      office-based laryngeal procedures: A prospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Office-based laryngeal procedures (OBLPs) are emerging as effective
      alternative modalities for vocal disorders. This study systematically
      investigates the haemodynamic status of patients, specifically focusing on the
      potential effects of underlying comorbidity and medication use. DESIGN:
      Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Tertiary referral centre. PARTICIPANTS: We
      prospectively recruited 214 consecutive patients who received OBLPs during
      January-December 2015. All procedures were performed under local anaesthesia
      without sedation, in an upright (sitting) position. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We
      measured heart rate (HR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and oxygen
      saturations at baseline (before procedure), immediately after local anaesthesia
      to the pharynx and larynx, immediately after completing of procedure, and 20
      minutes after the procedure. RESULTS: Systolic, diastolic blood pressures and HR
      all significantly increased after local anaesthesia, and gradually decreased
      after the procedure (P<.01). Oxygen concentration remained unchanged. Patients
      with comorbidity and those receiving vasoactive medications showed significantly
      higher perioperative blood pressures than the other patients (P<.05), but the
      trend remained similar. Prominent hypertension (systolic >=160 mm Hg or diastolic
      >=100 mm Hg) was noted in 17 patients, more commonly in patients with older age,
      higher baseline blood pressures and receiving vasoactive medications. Only 2% of
      patients with normal baseline measurements developed prominent hypertension
      perioperatively. Tachycardia (HR>=100 bpm) developed in 22 patients, more
      frequently in patients with higher baseline HRs, and perceiving greater
      discomforts. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that routine haemodynamic monitoring
      may not be necessary for all the OBLPs, but should be considered for older
      patients, those with higher baseline blood pressure or HR, sensitive patients who
      might be more susceptible to perioperative discomfort, and those receiving
      vasoactive medications.

PMID- 28556525
TI  - Upper urinary tract washings outperform voided urine specimens to detect upper
      tract high-grade urothelial carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cytological examination of voided urine (VU) can reliably diagnose
      high-grade urothelial carcinoma (HGUC) of the lower urinary tract, but its value
      in the diagnosis of upper tract HGUC (UTHGUC) is less well-established. To
      clarify the utility of VU in the setting of UTHGUC, we examined urinary specimens
      from patients with UTHGUC on follow-up surgical pathology. METHODS: 52 VU
      specimens (47 patients) with subsequent biopsy-proven UTHGUC were identified over
      a 12-year period; 32 had a corresponding upper tract urinary washing (UW)
      specimen. Patients with concurrent bladder HGUC were excluded. The diagnoses of
      VU specimens were tabulated and compared to those of UW specimens. RESULTS: Three
      UW specimens had a less severe diagnosis, 8 had the same diagnosis, and 21 had a
      more severe diagnosis than the corresponding VU specimen from the same patient.
      Significantly more UW specimens demonstrated high-risk features as compared with
      VU specimens (P = .003). In specimens with atypia, a definitive diagnosis of HGUC
      was made significantly more often on UW vs. VU specimens (P = .003). CONCLUSIONS:
      Among patients with confirmed UTHGUC, 50% of preceding VU specimens demonstrated
      high-grade features compared to almost 90% of UW specimens. Though VU cytology
      shows atypia in the majority of cases, it performs inferiorly to UW for the
      detection of UTHGUC. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2017;45:700-704. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556527
TI  - A T-Shaped Nickel(I) Metalloradical Species.
AB  - A T-shaped NiI complex was synthesized using a rigid acridane-based pincer ligand
      to prepare a metalloradical center. Structural data displays a nickel ion is
      embedded in the plane of a PNP ligand. Having a sterically exposed half-filled
      dx2-y2 orbital, this three-coordinate NiI species reveals unique open-shell
      reactivity including the homolytic cleavage of various sigma-bonds, such as H-H,
      N-N, and C-C.

PMID- 28556526
TI  - Examining the role of the physician as a source of variation: Are physician
      related variations necessarily unwarranted?
AB  - RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES: The physician is often implicated as an
      important cause of observed variations in health care service use. However, it is
      not clear if physician-related variation is problematic for patient care. This
      paper illustrates that observed physician-related variation is not necessarily
      unwarranted. METHODS: This is a narrative review. RESULTS: Many studies have
      attributed observed variations to the physician, but little attention is given
      towards discriminating between those variations that exist for good reasons and
      those that are unwarranted. Two arguments can be made for why physician-related
      variation is unwarranted. The first posits that physician-related factors should
      not play a role in management of care decisions because such decisions should be
      driven by science (which is imagined to be definitive). The second considers the
      possibility of supplier-induced demand as a factor driving observed variations.
      We show that neither argument is sufficient to rule out that physician-related
      variations may be warranted. Furthermore, the claim that such variations are
      necessarily problematic for patients has yet to be substantiated empirically.
      CONCLUSIONS: It is not enough to simply show that physician-related variation can
      exist-one must also show where it is unwarranted and what is the magnitude of
      unwarranted variations. Failure to show this can have significant implications on
      how we interpret and respond to observed variations. Improved measurement of the
      sources of variation, especially with respect to patient preferences and context,
      may help us start to disentangle physician-related variation that is desirable
      from that which is unwarranted.

PMID- 28556528
TI  - Managing conflict between large carnivores and livestock.
AB  - Large carnivores are persecuted globally because they threaten human industries
      and livelihoods. How this conflict is managed has consequences for the
      conservation of large carnivores and biodiversity more broadly. Mitigating human
      predator conflict should be evidence-based and accommodate people's values while
      protecting carnivores. Despite much research into human and large-carnivore
      coexistence strategies, there have been few attempts to document the success of
      conflict-mitigation strategies on a global scale. We conducted a meta-analysis of
      global research on conflict mitigation related to large carnivores and humans. We
      focused on conflicts that arise from the threat large carnivores pose to
      livestock. We first used structured and unstructured searching to identify
      replicated studies that used before-after or control-impact design to measure
      change in livestock loss as a result of implementing a management intervention.
      We then extracted relevant data from these studies to calculate an overall effect
      size for each intervention type. Research effort and focus varied among
      continents and aligned with the histories and cultures that shaped livestock
      production and attitudes toward carnivores. Livestock guardian animals most
      effectively reduced livestock losses. Lethal control was the second most
      effective control, although its success varied the most, and guardian animals and
      lethal control did not differ significantly. Financial incentives have promoted
      tolerance of large carnivores in some settings and reduced retaliatory killings.
      We suggest coexistence strategies be location-specific, incorporate cultural
      values and environmental conditions, and be designed such that return on
      financial investment can be evaluated. Improved monitoring of mitigation measures
      is urgently required to promote effective evidence-based policy.

PMID- 28556530
TI  - Characterizing differences between MSCs and TM cells: Toward autologous stem cell
      therapies for the glaucomatous trabecular meshwork.
AB  - Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, is characterized by an increase in
      intraocular pressure, which is largely determined by resistance to aqueous humour
      outflow through the trabecular meshwork (TM). In glaucoma, the cellularity of the
      TM is decreased, and, as a result, stem cell therapies for the TM represent a
      potential therapeutic option for restoring TM function and treating glaucoma
      patients. We here focus on adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a
      potential autologous cell source for TM regenerative medicine applications and
      describe characterization techniques at the messenger (reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction), protein (western blotting, flow
      cytometry), and functional (contractility, phagocytosis) levels to distinguish
      MSCs from TM cells. We present a panel of 12 transcripts to allow: (a) suitable
      normalization of reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      results across cell types and after exposure to potential differentiation
      stimuli; (b) distinguishing MSCs from TM cells; (c) distinguishing subtypes of TM
      cells; and (d) distinguishing TM cells from those in neighbouring tissue. At the
      protein level, dexamethasone induction of myocilin was a robust discriminating
      factor between MSCs and TM cells and was complemented by other protein markers.
      Finally, we show that contractility and phagocytosis differ between MSCs and TM
      cells. These methods are recommended for use in future differentiation studies to
      fully define if a functional TM-like phenotype is being achieved.

PMID- 28556529
TI  - Multicentre cross-sectional study for bone-articular lesions associated with
      dialysis related amyloidosis in Japan.
AB  - AIM: Dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA) exhibits multiple bone-articular lesions,
      such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), trigger finger (TF), spinal canal stenosis
      (SCS), destructive spondyloarthropathy (DSA), bone cysts, and joint pains. DRA
      leads to a decrease in activities of daily living (ADL). We investigated the
      initiation of CTS and TF, and evaluated the relationship between walking
      disturbances and bone-articular lesions or joint pains. METHODS: A multicentre
      cross-sectional study was performed. Eighty-two patients with clinical DRA from
      20 hospitals in Japan were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 82 patients, the first
      symptom of DRA was CTS in 39 patients (47.6%) and TF in 21 (25.6%). The mean new
      onset vintages of 21 earlier cases in the CTS and TF groups were 86.1 +/- 36.3
      and 133.2 +/- 56.4 (mean +/- SD) months, respectively (P = 0.0091). The
      development of SCS and DSA appeared to be later than CTS and TF. Multiple
      regression analysis revealed that knee joint pain was a significant contributor
      to walking disturbances. CONCLUSION: Carpal tunnel syndrome appeared
      significantly earlier than TF since the initiation of dialysis. In the advanced
      phase, knee joint pain was a major cause of decreased ADL in patients with
      clinical DRA.

PMID- 28556531
TI  - Effects of uncontrolled periodontitis on marginal bone alterations around
      implants: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The hypothesis of bacterial infection initiating marginal bone loss
      around dental implant in analogy with natural tooth is still in debate. PURPOSE:
      The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the effects of
      uncontrolled periodontitis on marginal bone alterations around implants compared
      with the periodontal health group at a mean follow-up of at least 6 years.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty consecutive uncontrolled periodontally compromised
      patients (PCP) and 30 periodontally healthy patients (PHP), with a total of 96
      Straumann implants (PCP = 55, PHP = 41) were matched for age, gender, smoking,
      and implant characteristics. The inclusion criteria for PCPs were continuing
      tooth loss due to uncontrolled periodontal disease and no supportive periodontal
      maintenance after implant therapy. Peri-implant conditions were examined and the
      number of teeth lost during the follow-up periods was recorded in both groups.
      Radiographic marginal bone loss of implants and adjacent teeth was calculated
      having the restoration time point as baseline. RESULTS: No implant loss occurred
      in both groups. The mean number of teeth lost during the follow-up periods was
      0.67 +/- 0.80 in the PHP group, 3.93 +/- 2.36 in the PCP group with statistical
      significance. The average overall bone loss was significantly greater at teeth
      than that around implants in the PCP group (0.54 +/- 0.27 versus 0.22 +/- 0.25
      mm, P < .001), while no statistically significant differences were observed in
      the PHP group (0.18 +/- 0.08 versus 0.22 +/- 0.18 mm, P = .317). No statistically
      significant differences were observed between PC and PH patients when comparing
      the peri-implant marginal bone loss. No significant correlations were found
      between teeth loss and crestal bone loss at implants sites in both groups.
      CONCLUSION: This study indicated that the marginal bone level around implants
      seemed more stable in comparison to that around the natural teeth when exposed to
      uncontrolled periodontal disease.

PMID- 28556533
TI  - In vitro evaluation of gel-encapsulated adipose derived stem cells: Biochemical
      cues for in vivo peripheral nerve repair.
AB  - Adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) are becoming one of the most exploited cells in
      peripheral nerve repair. They are fast-growing and able to protect neurons from
      apoptosis; they can reduce post-injury latency and the risk of muscle atrophy.
      This study evaluates laminin-loaded fibrin gel as an ASC-carrying scaffold for
      nerve repair. In vitro, ASC retained their proliferative activity but showed
      significant increase in proliferation rate when encapsulated in gels with low
      laminin concentrations (i.e., 1 MUg/mL). We observed a linear decrease of ASC
      proliferation rate with increasing laminin concentration from 1 to 100 MUg/mL. We
      next examined the effect of the ASC-carrying fibrin gels on in vitro dorsal root
      ganglia (DRG) neurite extension, then in vivo sciatic nerve regeneration in adult
      rats. The ASC-carrying gel was embedded in 15-mm-long, 1.5-mm-diameter
      polydimethylsiloxane regenerative conduits for in vivo evaluation. At 8-week post
      implantation, robust regeneration was observed across the long gap. Taken
      together, these results suggest ASC-carrying gels are a potential path to improve
      the efficacy of nerve regeneration through artificial guidance conduits and
      electrode nerve interfaces.

PMID- 28556532
TI  - Feline large granular lymphocyte lymphoma: An Italian Society of Veterinary
      Oncology (SIONCOV) retrospective study.
AB  - Feline large granular lymphocyte (LGL) lymphoma is an uncommon subtype of
      lymphoma characterized by a grave prognosis and scarce response to chemotherapy.
      There are limited reports on clinico-pathological and prognostic factors. One
      hundred and 9 cats with newly diagnosed LGL lymphoma that underwent initial
      staging (including hematology, serum biochemistry, thoracic radiographs and
      abdominal ultrasound), and followed-up were retrospectively evaluated. LGL
      lymphoma was localized within the gastrointestinal tract with or without extra
      intestinal involvement in 91.7% of the cases, and at extra-gastrointestinal sites
      in 8.3%. Symptoms were frequent. Anemia (31.2%) and neutrophilia (26.6%) were
      commonly observed, and 14 (12.8%) cats had neoplastic circulating cells. Frequent
      biochemistry abnormalities included elevated ALT (39.4%) and hypoalbuminemia
      (28.4%). Twenty (54.1%) of 37 cats had elevated serum LDH. Treatment varied among
      cats, and included surgery (11%), chemotherapy (23%), corticosteroids (38.5%) and
      no treatment (27.5%). Median time to progression (MTTP) was 5 days, and median
      survival time (MST) 21 days. MST was significantly shorter in the case of
      substage b, circulating neoplastic cells, lack of chemotherapy administration,
      and lack of treatment response. A small subset of cats (7.3%) survived more than
      6 months, suggesting that a more favorable clinical course can be found among LGL
      lymphoma patients.

PMID- 28556534
TI  - Current Resources for Evidence-Based Practice, May/June 2017.

PMID- 28556535
TI  - Mineral Composition of Uroliths Obtained from Sheep and Goats with Obstructive
      Urolithiasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the mineral composition of the causative urolith is
      important to develop preventative strategies. Advances in analytic techniques
      have led to detection of urolith components not previously recognized.
      HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to characterize uroliths
      in sheep and goats structurally and clinically. We hypothesized that amorphous
      magnesium calcium phosphate (AMCP) would be a naturally occurring urolith type in
      sheep and goats. ANIMALS: Forty-nine sheep and goats presenting for obstructive
      urolithiasis from June 15, 2014 through June 14, 2016 were reviewed along with
      the demographic data of all small ruminants admitted during that same period.
      METHODS: Medical records were reviewed for demographic and historical data, and
      36 uroliths obtained from these cases during diagnostic or therapeutic procedures
      were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy to determine chemical composition.
      RESULTS: AMCP is a naturally occurring urolith type in obstructed male sheep and
      goats and was the most common urolith type in this study, where it occurred as a
      majority component with struvite (39% of uroliths) or as a pure component (11%).
      Pure struvite was found in 1 urolith (2%). Calcium carbonate was the second most
      frequent urolith with 31% of uroliths being pure calcium carbonate. CONCLUSIONS
      AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This study demonstrates that uroliths, which appear
      consistent with struvite, could actually be calcium-containing AMCP. Urolith
      analysis is critical in determining mineral content of uroliths to guide dietary
      recommendations for prevention.

PMID- 28556536
TI  - Rapid and cost-effective method for the simultaneous quantification of seven
      alkaloids in Corydalis decumbens by microwave-assisted extraction and capillary
      electrophoresis.
AB  - A rapid and cost-effective method based on microwave-assisted extraction followed
      by capillary electrophoresis was developed for simultaneous quantification of
      seven alkaloids in Corydalis decumbens for the first time. The main parameters
      affecting microwave-assisted extraction and capillary electrophoresis separation
      were investigated and optimized. The optimal microwave-assisted extraction was
      performed at 40 degrees C for 5 min using methanol/water (90:10, v/v) as the
      extracting solvent. Electrophoretic separation was achieved within 15 min using
      an uncoated fused-silica capillary (50 MUm internal diameter and 27.7 cm
      effective length) and a 500 mM Tris buffer containing 45% v/v methanol (titrated
      to pH* 2.86 with H3 PO4 ). The developed method was successfully applied to the
      quantification of seven alkaloids in Corydalis decumbens obtained from different
      regions of China. The combination of microwave-assisted extraction with capillary
      electrophoresis was an effective method for the rapid analysis of the alkaloids
      in Corydalis decumbens.

PMID- 28556537
TI  - Insecticidal activities of their components derived from the essential oils of
      Cinnamomum sp. barks and against Ricania sp. (Homoptera: Ricaniidae), a newly
      recorded pest.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insecticidal activities of Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum
      zeylanicum oils and their components are not known against Ricania sp.
      Insecticidal activities of major components derived from C. cassia and C.
      zeylanicum oils were examined in spray and leaf-dipping bioassays against Ricania
      sp. nymphs and adults. RESULTS: The LC50 value of C. cassia and C. zeylanicum
      oils was 37.66 and 72.62 mg L-1 , respectively, in leaf-dipping bioassays against
      Ricania sp. nymphs, and 77.38 and 134.86 mg L-1 in spray bioassays against
      Ricania sp. adults. The insecticidal activity of C. cassia oil was 1.74-1.93
      times greater than that of C. zeylanicum oil. When examined by gas chromatography
      mass spectrometry, the cinnamaldehyde content of C. cassia and C. zeylanicum oils
      was 80.20% and 46.32%, respectively. Based on the LC50 values of cinnamaldehyde,
      hydrocinnamaldehyde and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamaldehyde against Ricania sp.
      nymphs and adults, cinnamaldehyde (LC50 , 31.25 and 62.43 mg L-1 ) demonstrated
      the most potent insecticidal activity, followed by 4-hydroxy-3
      methoxycinnamaldehyde (172.19 and 212.77 mg L-1 ) and hydrocinnamaldehyde (275.05
      and 318.63 mg L-1 ). CONCLUSION: The findings revealed that C. cassia oil, C.
      zeylanicum oil and cinnamaldehyde have potential value in the management of
      Ricania sp. and could be valuable as effective insecticides. (c) 2017 Society of
      Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28556538
TI  - A retrospective database analysis to evaluate the potential of ex vivo lung
      perfusion to recruit declined lung donors.
AB  - Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) is currently used for both standard and extended
      criteria donor (ECD) lungs. To enlarge the donor pool, we might have to extend
      the threshold for ECD donation. The purpose of this study was to estimate how
      many additional ECD lungs could be recruited by EVLP. We reviewed all multi-organ
      donors (MODs) from our collaborative donor hospitals (January 2010-June 2015).
      All unused lung donors were categorized using registered donor data and evaluated
      by two independent investigators to identify which lungs could be transplanted
      after EVLP. 584 MODs were registered at our transplant center. 268 (45.9%) were
      declined as lung donor at the moment of registration, and 316 (54.1%) were
      considered as a donor for lung transplantation. In the latter, lungs from 220
      (37.7%) donors were transplanted and 96 donors (16.4%) were not. We identified 78
      of 364 declined donors (21.4%) whose lungs could potentially become
      transplantable after EVLP. With this retrospective database analysis of unused
      lung donors, we identified a large potential for EVLP to further increase the
      donor pool in transplant centers where the majority of donor lungs are already
      extended.

PMID- 28556539
TI  - Simple, rapid, and environmentally friendly method for the separation of
      isoflavones using ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography.
AB  - Isoflavones are natural substances that exhibit hormone-like pharmacological
      activities. The separation of isoflavones remains an analytical challenge because
      of their similar structures. We show that ultra-high performance supercritical
      fluid chromatography can be an appropriate tool to achieve the fast separation of
      12 common dietary isoflavones. Among the five tested columns the Torus DEA column
      was found to be the most effective column for the separation of these
      isoflavones. The impact of individual parameters on the retention time and
      separation factor was evaluated. These parameters were optimized to develop a
      simple, rapid, and green method for the separation of the 12 target analytes. It
      only took 12.91 min using gradient elution with methanol as an organic modifier
      and formic acid as an additive. These isoflavones were determined with limit of
      quantitation ranging from 0.10 to 0.50 MUg/mL, which was sufficient for reliable
      determination of various matrixes.

PMID- 28556541
TI  - Development of a 3-step straight-through purification strategy combining membrane
      adsorbers and resins.
AB  - The pressures to efficiently produce complex biopharmaceuticals at reduced costs
      are driving the development of novel techniques, such as in downstream processing
      with straight-through processing (STP). This method involves directly and
      sequentially purifying a particular target with minimal holding steps. This work
      developed and compared six different 3-step STP strategies, combining membrane
      adsorbers, monoliths, and resins, to purify a large, complex, and labile
      glycoprotein from Chinese hamster ovary cell culture supernatant. The best
      performing pathway was cation exchange chromatography to hydrophobic interaction
      chromatography to affinity chromatography with an overall product recovery of up
      to 88% across the process and significant clearance of DNA and protein
      impurities. This work establishes a platform and considerations for the
      development of STP of biopharmaceutical products and highlights its suitability
      for integration with single-use technologies and continuous production methods.
      (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:931-940,
      2017.

PMID- 28556540
TI  - Sustained NFkappaB inhibition improves insulin sensitivity but is detrimental to
      muscle health.
AB  - Older adults universally suffer from sarcopenia and approximately 60-70% are
      diabetic or prediabetic. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying these aging
      related metabolic disorders are unknown. NFkappaB has been implicated in the
      pathogenesis of several aging-related pathologies including sarcopenia and type 2
      diabetes and has been proposed as a target against them. NFkappaB also is thought
      to mediate muscle wasting seen with disuse, denervation, and some systemic
      diseases (e.g., cancer, sepsis). We tested the hypothesis that lifelong
      inhibition of the classical NFkappaB pathway would protect against aging-related
      sarcopenia and insulin resistance. Aged mice with muscle-specific overexpression
      of a super-repressor IkappaBalpha mutant (MISR) were protected from insulin
      resistance. However, MISR mice were not protected from sarcopenia; to the
      contrary, these mice had decreases in muscle mass and strength compared to wild
      type mice. In MISR mice, NFkappaB suppression also led to an increase in
      proteasome activity and alterations in several genes and pathways involved in
      muscle growth and atrophy (e.g., myostatin). We conclude that the mechanism
      behind aging-induced sarcopenia is NFkappaB independent and differs from muscle
      wasting due to pathologic conditions. Our findings also indicate that, while
      suppressing NFkappaB improves insulin sensitivity in aged mice, this
      transcription factor is important for normal muscle mass maintenance and its
      sustained inhibition is detrimental to muscle function.

PMID- 28556542
TI  - Long-term outcomes of de novo autoimmune hepatitis in pediatric liver transplant
      recipients.
AB  - The long-term course and outcome of DAIH is unknown. A retrospective multicenter
      study assessing associations and long-term consequences of DAIH developing in a
      transplanted allograft is presented. Children with DAIH were followed from
      diagnosis until death, re-LT, or transfer of care and for a minimum of 1 year. A
      total of 31 patients of 1833 (1.7%) LT were identified; 29 followed for a median
      of 7.1 years (range, 1.6-15); 52% had no rejection preceding diagnosis of DAIH.
      Transaminases fell following treatment with steroids and antimetabolites (ALT 108
      vs 39 U/L (P=.002); AST 112 vs 52 U/L (P=.003); GGT 72 vs 36 U/L (P=.03), but
      this was not universally sustained. Transaminases >2X ULN observed in 38% of
      patients at last follow-up; commonly GGT, attributed to bile duct injury and
      ductopenia. Portal hypertension (PHT) was seen in four patients and associated
      with severe fibrosis and cirrhosis. Re-LT occurred in two patients for chronic
      rejection (CR) and uncontrolled PHT with gastrointestinal bleeding, respectively.
      No deaths from DAIH were reported. DAIH is an uncommon complication following
      pediatric LT requiring prolonged and augmented immunosuppression. It is
      associated with continued allograft dysfunction and may lead to bile duct injury,
      CR, and PHT necessitating re-LT.

PMID- 28556543
TI  - Westley score and clinical factors in predicting the outcome of croup in the
      pediatric emergency department.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Westley croup score has been generally used to assess the severity of
      croup. This study aimed to identify the individual factors associated with
      Westley score (WS) and other clinical factors in predicting the outcomes in the
      pediatric emergency department (PED). POPULATION AND METHOD: We prospectively
      recruited patients with croup from the PED. The individual factors of WS, fever,
      age, and the length of hospital stay were analyzed to predict clinical outcomes.
      We calculated all the areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curve to determine the cutoff values of initial WS discriminating the need for
      admission to the wards. RESULT: A total of 192 patients with croup were enrolled.
      Cyanosis and altered consciousness were not clinically significant even in
      patients with severe croup, whereas retraction and air entry were the major
      factors in WS for predicting clinical outcomes. The initial WS had a strong
      correlation with the length of hospital stay (r = 0.617, P < 0.001). ROC analysis
      showed that patients with an initial WS <2 (sensitivity, 5%; specificity, 100%;
      LR+ , 1.05; LR- , 0; AUC, 0.87) were discharged home while the patients with an
      initial WS >=5 (sensitivity, 99%; specificity, 57%; LR+ , 41.0; LR- , 0.43) were
      more likely to require to stay in the PED. Patients with an WS >=6 were more
      likely to be admitted to the wards (sensitivity, 97%; specificity, 47%; LR+ ,
      416.35; LR- , 0.54; AUC, 0.90) CONCLUSION: Patients with an initial WS of 1-2
      could be safely treated at home and those with initial WS >5 required
      hospitalization for further treatment.

PMID- 28556544
TI  - Pituicytoma-An outlook on possible targeted therapies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pituicytoma is a rare neoplasm of the sella region. Tumor resection
      is the primary treatment option, but remains subtotal due to excessive bleeding
      in many cases. The search for alternative or additional treatment regimens is
      necessary. AIMS: We aimed to determine the receptor expression of pituicytoma to
      find alternatives or supplements to surgical therapy in the use of targeted
      therapies. METHODS: Pituicytoma samples were collected from three institutions
      between 2006 and 2015 and were stained for vascular endothelial growth factors
      (VEGF), thyroid transcription factor (TTF1), and somatostatin receptors (SSTR
      2/3/5). The stains were classified from 0=no staining to +++=strong staining. A
      complementary retrospective analysis of the patient charts regarding sex, age,
      and primary symptoms, pituitary function, and perioperative complications was
      performed. RESULTS: Ten samples were analyzed; mean patient age was 57.8 years SD
      16.3 years. Seven samples were acquired from male patients (one relapse) and
      three from female. All tumors stained strongly positive (+++) for VEGF-R. Six
      samples stained positive for TTF1. As for somatostatin receptors, three samples
      were slightly positive for SSTR 2; seven were negative. SSTR 3 was + in one,
      three were ++, three were +++, and three were 0. SSTR 5 stained +++ in 1, ++ in
      5, + in 1, and 0 in three patients. CONCLUSIONS: Pituicytomas were generally
      positive for VEGFR and showed regular expression of SSTR 3 and 5 indicating a
      possible treatment option through targeted therapies in cases where resection
      remains insufficient. Further research is necessary as to whether tumor growth
      can be inhibited using these pathways.

PMID- 28556545
TI  - Effect of timing of renal replacement therapy on outcomes of critically ill
      patients in the intensive care unit.
AB  - AIM: Currently, indications for renal replacement therapy (RRT) remain
      controversial. Whether early RRT can improve the prognosis of critically ill
      patients in the ICU is unclear. This study aimed to assess the relationship
      between timing of RRT initiation and short-term prognosis of patients in the ICU.
      METHODS: This was a retrospective study of data obtained from 28 hospitals in
      Beijing. The subjects received RRT treatment in the ICU from March 2012 to August
      2012. RESULTS: A total of 9049 cases were reviewed, and 281 patients who
      underwent RRT were enrolled and divided into the non-survival (n = 144) and
      survival (n = 137) groups, according to their outcome at 28 days from ICU
      admission. Median RRT initiation times were 1 (0-25) and 1 (0-21) days in the non
      survival and survival groups, respectively (P = 0.001) and oliguria/anuria
      frequency at RRT initiation were 76.6% and 65.3% (P = 0.036), respectively. The
      mortality of patients administered RRT within 24 h of ICU admission was lower
      than that of those treated after 24 h (P = 0.014). In patients with
      oliguria/anuria at RRT initiation, the 28-day mortality rate was 52.8%, which was
      higher than 39.0% obtained for those with no oliguria/anuria at RRT initiation (P
      = 0.036). Multivariate logistic analysis showed that late initiation of RRT was
      an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality (HR = 1.139, 95%CI 1.046-1.242, P
      = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Timing of RRT is associated with 28-day mortality of ICU
      treated patients. Early RRT might improve patient survival.

PMID- 28556547
TI  - A systematic review on cell-seeded tissue engineering of penile corpora.
AB  - Tissue engineering of corporal tissue is a new development in otherwise
      untreatable erectile dysfunction and in urethral reconstructions to treat
      hypospadias or severe urethral stricture disease. Multiple complications can
      arise with the current treatments, whereas engineered tissue, if well
      vascularized and existing of autologous cells, may lead to better results. The
      aim of this review was to provide an overview of literature on cell-seeded-based
      tissue engineering of corporal penile tissue. A literature search was performed
      following the PRISMA guidelines. Papers describing cell-seeded tissue engineering
      of corporal tissue were included. Studies using different techniques, such as
      intracavernous injection were excluded. Fifteen articles were included in the
      review. Twelve of these studies described engineering of the corpus cavernosum in
      animal models. Two articles were found on engineering of animal corpus spongiosum
      and one article on engineering of the human glans. Both synthetic scaffolds and
      biological scaffolds were used. The advantage of a biological, acellular scaffold
      was that the native, complex architecture of corporal tissue was maintained. Most
      studies used endothelial and smooth muscle cells from corporal origin, but stem
      cells were also investigated. Furthermore, dynamic culturing achieved an improved
      cell content and functionality. This review has summarized the developments in
      tissue engineering of corpus cavernosum and spongiosum tissue. Functional tissue
      has been developed in animal studies with the use of seeded cells on scaffolds.
      This knowledge will form a basis for the development of tissue engineering of
      corporal tissue for clinical applications.

PMID- 28556546
TI  - A state-wide initiative to promote genetic testing in an underserved population.
AB  - Genetic testing for cancer susceptibility has been widely studied and utilized
      clinically. Access to genetic services in research and practice is largely
      limited to well-insured, Caucasian individuals. In 2009, the Cancer Resource
      Foundation (CRF) implemented the Genetic Information for Treatment Surveillance
      and Support (GIFTSS) program to cover the out-of-pocket expenses associated with
      cancer genetic testing, targeting high-risk individuals with limited financial
      means and limited health insurance coverage. Here, we (i) describe the
      characteristics of participants in the Massachusetts (MA) GIFTSS program and (ii)
      evaluate mutations found in this diverse sample. A secondary retrospective data
      analysis was performed using de-identified demographic data obtained from
      laboratory requisition forms and cancer genetic testing result information from
      the laboratory source. Eligible participants were those who utilized the MA
      GIFFTS program from 2009 through December of 2014. Data were summarized using
      descriptive measures of central tendency. Participants were residents of
      Massachusetts who had health insurance and had a reported income within 250-400%
      of the federal poverty level. Genetic testing results were categorized following
      clinical guidelines. Overall, 123 (13%) of participants tested positive for a
      mutation in a cancer susceptibility gene. For those with a cancer diagnosis, 65
      (12%) were found to have a positive result and 20 (7%) had a variant of uncertain
      significance (VUS). For those unaffected patients, 58 (15%) had a positive result
      and 10 (3%) were found to have a VUS. The results from this study are useful in
      describing genetic testing outcomes in this high-risk underserved community.
      Repeatedly, the literature reports that individuals from diverse or limited
      resource settings are less likely to access genetic testing. Continued research
      efforts should be devoted to promoting the access of genetic testing in the high
      risk, underserved community.

PMID- 28556548
TI  - Contribution of Soluble Forms of Programmed Death 1 and Programmed Death Ligand 2
      to Disease Severity and Progression in Systemic Sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the function and serum levels of soluble forms of
      programmed death 1 (sPD-1) and one of its ligands, soluble PD ligand 2 (sPD-L2),
      in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and in a mouse model of topoisomerase I
      (topo I)-induced SSc. METHODS: Serum levels of sPD-1 and sPD-L2 in 91 patients
      with SSc were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Expression
      of PD-1 and PD-L2 on T cells, B cells, and macrophages was quantified by flow
      cytometry. The effects of blockade of PD-1 and PD-L2 were analyzed by
      microfluidic ELISA (micro-ELISA), a technique that can measure very low amounts
      of cytokines. In addition, the effects of sPD-1 and sPD-L2 on disease progression
      were assessed in mice with topo I-induced SSc. RESULTS: Serum levels of sPD-1 and
      sPD-L2 were elevated in patients with SSc and correlated with the extent of
      fibrosis and immunologic abnormalities. Expression levels of PD-1 and PD-L2 were
      significantly elevated on SSc T cells, B cells, and macrophages. Micro-ELISA
      analysis of serum samples from patients with SSc showed that PD-L2high B cells
      had higher levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10) production compared with PD-L2low B
      cells, indicating that PD-L2 acts as a regulator of T cell cytokine production
      via cognate interactions with T cells and B cells. In mice with topo I-induced
      SSc, production of IL-10 by topo I-specific B cells in cultures with T cells and
      topo I protein was significantly higher than that by conventional B cells, and
      intraperitoneal injection of recombinant chimeric PD-1-Fc and PD-L2-Fc canceled
      these enhanced effects. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that sPD-1 and sPD-L2
      contribute to disease development in SSc via the regulation of cognate
      interactions with T cells and B cells.

PMID- 28556550
TI  - Highlights - June 2017.

PMID- 28556551
TI  - Recent advancements in electrospinning design for tissue engineering
      applications: A review.
AB  - Electrospinning, a technique used to fabricate fibrous scaffolds, has gained
      popularity in recent years as a method to produce tissue engineered grafts with
      architectural similarities to the extracellular matrix. Beyond its versatility in
      material selection, electrospinning also provides many tools to tune the fiber
      morphology and scaffold geometry. Recent efforts have focused on extending the
      capabilities of electrospinning to produce scaffolds that better recapitulate
      tissue properties and enhance regeneration. This review highlights these
      advancements by providing an overview of the processing variables and setups used
      to modulate scaffold architecture, discussing strategies to improve cellular
      infiltration and guide cell behavior, and providing a summary of electrospinning
      applications in tissue engineering. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2892-2905, 2017.

PMID- 28556549
TI  - Methods for studying the metabolic basis of Drosophila development.
AB  - The field of metabolic research has experienced an unexpected renaissance. While
      this renewed interest in metabolism largely originated in response to the global
      increase in diabetes and obesity, studies of metabolic regulation now represent
      the frontier of many biomedical fields. This trend is especially apparent in
      developmental biology, where metabolism influences processes ranging from stem
      cell differentiation and tissue growth to sexual maturation and reproduction. In
      this regard, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a powerful tool
      for dissecting conserved mechanisms that underlie developmental metabolism, often
      with a level of detail that is simply not possible in other animals. Here we
      describe why the fly is an ideal system for exploring the relationship between
      metabolism and development, and outline a basic experimental strategy for
      conducting these studies. WIREs Dev Biol 2017, 6:e280. doi: 10.1002/wdev.280 For
      further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

PMID- 28556552
TI  - Does the presence of unilateral maxillary incisor edge asymmetries influence the
      perception of smile esthetics?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Determine orthodontists and laypersons' perception of maxillary
      central and lateral incisor edge asymmetries in full-face and close-up smiles.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Four smile photos were selected for this study: two full
      face and two close-up smile photos of two male subjects, a white man and an Afro
      descendant man. Both were considered pleasant smiles, following some principles
      of an ideal smile. Images were digitally altered to create tooth wear asymmetries
      on the maxillary left central and lateral incisor in 0.5 mm increments. Final
      images were arranged randomly into a photo album and were shown to 86 judges (43
      orthodontists and 43 laypersons). Judges were asked to evaluate the
      attractiveness of the images according to a visual analog scale. Data were
      statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the
      Tukey's post hoc test and the Student t test. RESULTS: There was no statistically
      significant difference in the mean esthetic scores of the full-face and close-up
      smile photos. The most attractive smiles were those without asymmetries and those
      with 0.5 mm wear in the lateral incisor, whereas the least attractive ones were
      those with 1.0-1.5 mm wear in the central incisors. Statistically significant
      difference was found in the mean scores given by the judges in most cases. The
      orthodontists were more critical and assigned lower scores than the laypersons.
      CONCLUSIONS: The presence of maxillary incisor asymmetries is a critical factor
      influencing the perception of smile esthetics. The most attractive smiles of the
      men investigated were those without asymmetry and those with 0.5 mm incisor edge
      asymmetry in the lateral incisor. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The presence of incisal
      asymmetries (especially in maxillary central incisors) negatively influences
      smile esthetics, corroborating the clinical hypothesis that the closer to the
      facial midline, the greater the need for symmetry.

PMID- 28556553
TI  - Tailoring Biomaterials for Cancer Immunotherapy: Emerging Trends and Future
      Outlook.
AB  - Cancer immunotherapy, as a paradigm shift in cancer treatment, has recently
      received tremendous attention. The active cancer vaccination, immune checkpoint
      blockage (ICB) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) for T-cell-based adoptive cell
      transfer are among these developments that have achieved a significant increase
      in patient survival in clinical trials. Despite these advancements, emerging
      research at the interdisciplinary interface of cancer biology, immunology,
      bioengineering, and materials science is important to further enhance the
      therapeutic benefits and reduce side effects. Here, an overview of the latest
      studies on engineering biomaterials for the enhancement of anticancer immunity is
      given, including the perspectives of delivery of immunomodulatory therapeutics,
      engineering immune cells, and constructing immune-modulating scaffolds. The
      opportunities and challenges in this field are also discussed.

PMID- 28556554
TI  - Carpal Tunnel Biopsy Identifying Transthyretin Amyloidosis.

PMID- 28556555
TI  - Examination of Hydroxychloroquine Use and Hemolytic Anemia in G6PDH-Deficient
      Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Some sources urge caution when prescribing hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to
      patients with G6PDH deficiency, presumably due to a risk of hemolytic anemia.
      There are limited published data, however, to support this risk. Additionally,
      not all patients with G6PDH deficiency are at similar risk for hemolysis, and
      people with the African variant are at particularly low risk. Through a
      retrospective chart review, we aimed to quantify the frequency of G6PDH-deficient
      patients with hemolysis attributed to HCQ. METHODS: We identified Duke University
      Medical Center rheumatology patients with HCQ use and a measured G6PDH level. A
      retrospective chart review was performed, recording demographics, G6PDH levels,
      episodes of anemia, laboratory values consistent with hemolysis, and HCQ use.
      RESULTS: Of the 275 patients reviewed, 84% were female; 46% were African American
      and 48% were white. The leading diagnoses were systemic lupus erythematosus
      (32%), rheumatoid arthritis (29%), and inflammatory arthritis (14%). Only 4% of
      patients were G6PDH deficient (all African American). Two G6PDH-deficient
      patients had hemolysis during severe lupus flares that occurred while not taking
      HCQ. There were no reported episodes of hemolysis in more than 700 months of HCQ
      exposure among the 11 G6PDH-deficient patients. CONCLUSION: This is the largest
      study to date evaluating G6PDH deficiency with concurrent use of HCQ. Of 11
      patients with G6PDH deficiency, 2 had episodes of hemolysis, but these did not
      occur during HCQ therapy. These data do not support routine measurement of G6PDH
      levels or withholding HCQ therapy among African American patients with G6PDH
      deficiency.

PMID- 28556556
TI  - Competing-risks model in screening for pre-eclampsia in twin pregnancy according
      to maternal factors and biomarkers at 11-13 weeks' gestation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a model for screening for pre-eclampsia (PE) in twin
      pregnancies based on maternal demographic characteristics and medical history and
      biomarkers at 11-13 weeks' gestation. METHODS: This was a screening study in twin
      pregnancies at 11-13 weeks' gestation. Bayes theorem was used to combine the a
      priori risk from maternal factors with various combinations of uterine artery
      pulsatility index (UtA-PI), mean arterial pressure (MAP), serum pregnancy
      associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and placental growth factor (PlGF) multiples
      of the median (MoM) values. The performance of screening for PE requiring
      delivery at < 32, < 37 and < 42 weeks' gestation was estimated in 1100 twin
      pregnancies and 35 948 singleton pregnancies with complete data on UtA-PI, MAP,
      PlGF and PAPP-A. RESULTS: In twin pregnancies that developed PE, the values of
      MAP and UtA-PI were increased and the values of PlGF and PAPP-A were decreased.
      The distributions of log10 MoM values of biomarkers with gestational age at
      delivery were similar to those that were previously reported in singleton
      pregnancies and it was therefore assumed that the same model could be used for
      both singleton and twin pregnancies. The performance of screening for PE by
      maternal factors was improved by the addition of MAP, UtA-PI and PlGF; there was
      no further improvement with the addition of PAPP-A. In a mixed population of
      singleton and twin pregnancies, combined screening by maternal factors, MAP, UtA
      PI and PlGF and risk cut-off of 1 in 75 for PE at < 37 weeks, the detection rate
      of PE at < 32, < 37 and < 42 weeks in singleton pregnancies was 91%, 77% and 57%,
      respectively, at a screen-positive rate (SPR) of 13%; the respective rates for
      twin pregnancies were 100%, 99% and 97%, at a SPR of 75%. CONCLUSION: First
      trimester combined screening for PE in singleton pregnancies can be adapted for
      screening in twins, leading to detection of nearly all affected cases but at a
      high SPR. Copyright (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28556557
TI  - Conjunctiva derived mesenchymal stem cell (CJMSCs) as a potential platform for
      differentiation into corneal epithelial cells on bioengineered electrospun
      scaffolds.
AB  - With the aid of tissue engineering, the capability of nanofibrous scaffolds was
      examined for corneal epithelial differentiation of Conjunctiva mesenchymal stem
      cells (CJMSCs) as a new source. This study tried to provide a synthetic corneal
      sheet which could be applied in corneal regeneration. The hybrid arrangement of
      fine Silk fibers with the diameter of 93.65 nm and the polyurethane (PU) fibers
      with an average diameter of 575.5 makes a mat with sufficient mechanical
      properties and interconnected pores that could accelerate nutrient diffusion.
      After methanol and plasma treatment, the highest biocompatibility of Silk-PU
      hybrid nanofibrous scaffolds based on cell attachment and proliferation were
      proven using MTT assay. The differentiation morphology of cells was observed by
      SEM micrographs of cells seeded on the scaffold after 12 days treatment through
      the differentiation medium. Despite up-regulation of Cytokeratin (CK)3, CK8,
      CK12, Desmocollin (DSC)1, and Desmoglein (DSG)1 in the treated PU and silk hybrid
      nanofibrous scaffolds, the relative expression of CK3, CK8, and CK12 genes were
      highest among TCP, treated PU and silk nanofibrous scaffolds. Immunocytochemistry
      (ICC) analysis was used to characterize the protein expression of CK3 in CJ-MSCs
      seeded on different groups. Although, For both TCP and hybrid group, CJ-MSCs were
      positive for corneal epithelial-specific marker CK3, ICC data demonstrated that
      CJ-MSCs seeded on the hybrid group likewise PU or Silk pure nanofibrous
      scaffolds, could differentiate into corneal epithelial-like cells. Finally, it
      was inferred that the hybrid PU and silk nanofibrous scaffold has the potential
      for the treatment of corneal epithelium. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2703-2711, 2017.

PMID- 28556558
TI  - Particulate air pollution impacts directly on bacterial pathogen behaviour and
      infection.

PMID- 28556559
TI  - Synbiotic Fermentation for the Co-Production of Lactic and Lactobionic Acids from
      Residual Dairy Whey.
AB  - Besides its properties as an antioxidant, stabilizer, or acidifier, lactobionic
      acid has emerged as a potential prebiotic compound, raising the possibility of
      being included together with the probiotic microorganism Lactobacillus casei in
      novel functional fermented foods with synbiotic characteristics. Their
      manufacturing strategy could benefit from the recently implemented microbial
      synthesis of lactobionic acid by the strong producer Pseudomonas taetrolens,
      employing residual dairy whey as raw material. The phenomenon of amensalism
      established between Pseudomonas and Lactobacillus makes simultaneous fermentation
      unfeasible. A novel sequential process has been developed in which L. casei is
      inoculated in a second step. Its ability to utilize lactobionic acid as a carbon
      and energy source was previously tested. Experimental results showed the capacity
      of L. casei to work efficiently on the residual substrate fermented by P.
      taetrolens, producing lactic acid by degrading the remaining lactose, with a
      lactic acid yield on substrate and productivity of 0.95 g g-1 and 0.20 g L-1 h-1
      , respectively. Lactobionic acid was barely consumed in this complex growth
      medium, thus ensuring its presence in the resulting fermented product. (c) 2017
      American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1250-1256, 2017.

PMID- 28556560
TI  - Association of MicroRNA-618 Expression With Altered Frequency and Activation of
      Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) are a critical source of type I
      interferons (IFNs) that can contribute to the onset and maintenance of
      autoimmunity. Molecular mechanisms leading to PDC dysregulation and a persistent
      type I IFN signature are largely unexplored, especially in patients with systemic
      sclerosis (SSc), a disease in which PDCs infiltrate fibrotic skin lesions and
      produce higher levels of IFNalpha than those in healthy controls. This study was
      undertaken to investigate potential microRNA (miRNA)-mediated epigenetic
      mechanisms underlying PDC dysregulation and type I IFN production in SSc.
      METHODS: We performed miRNA expression profiling and validation in highly
      purified PDCs obtained from the peripheral blood of 3 independent cohorts of
      healthy controls and SSc patients. Possible functions of miRNA-618 (miR-618) on
      PDC biology were identified by overexpression in healthy PDCs. RESULTS:
      Expression of miR-618 was up-regulated in PDCs from SSc patients, including those
      with early disease who did not present with skin fibrosis. IFN regulatory factor
      8, a crucial transcription factor for PDC development and activation, was
      identified as a target of miR-618. Overexpression of miR-618 reduced the
      development of PDCs from CD34+ cells in vitro and enhanced their ability to
      secrete IFNalpha, mimicking the PDC phenotype observed in SSc patients.
      CONCLUSION: Up-regulation of miR-618 suppresses the development of PDCs and
      increases their ability to secrete IFNalpha, potentially contributing to the type
      I IFN signature observed in SSc patients. Considering the importance of PDCs in
      the pathogenesis of SSc and other diseases characterized by a type I IFN
      signature, miR-618 potentially represents an important epigenetic target to
      regulate immune system homeostasis in these conditions.

PMID- 28556561
TI  - Cellular conditions that modulate the fungicidal activity of occidiofungin.
AB  - AIMS: To identify cellular conditions that significantly alter susceptibility of
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans and Candida glabrata to the
      antimicrobial peptide, occidiofungin. METHODS AND RESULTS: Genetic and
      pharmacological approaches were used to determine a role for calcium signalling
      in occidiofungin sensitivity profiles for S. cerevisiae, C. albicans and C.
      glabrata strains of yeast. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and drop assays
      found that extracellular calcium resulted in a fourfold resistance, and this was
      independent of an intact calmodulin-calcineurin signalling pathway. A similar
      resistance was found in the presence of magnesium but not other cations.
      Occidiofungin was found to be ineffective against cells in a quiescent state when
      measured by MIC, drop assay and short-term time-kill assays. A similar resistance
      pattern was detected for S. cerevisiae cultures pre-exposed to cycloheximide or
      placed in depleted media conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Extracellular calcium results
      in fungal tolerance to occidiofungin bioactivity outside of the calmodulin
      calcineurin pathway. In addition, the resistance of quiescent cells suggests that
      active cellular growth is a requirement for occidiofungin's mechanism of action.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The identification of cellular conditions
      that have a role in the activity of occidiofungin provided insight into potential
      cellular targets of this novel antifungal.

PMID- 28556562
TI  - Drug Release as a function of bioactivity, incubation regime, liquid, and initial
      load: Release of bortezomib from calcium phosphate-containing silica/collagen
      xerogels.
AB  - The ability of silica-/collagen-based composite xerogels to act as drug delivery
      systems was evaluated by taking into account the initial drug concentration,
      bioactivity of the xerogels, liquid, and incubation regime. The proteasome
      inhibitor bortezomib was chosen as a model drug, used for the systemic treatment
      of multiple myeloma. Incubation during 14 days in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)
      or simulated body fluid (SBF) showed a weak initial burst and was identified to
      be of first order with subsequent release being independent from the initial load
      of 0.1 or 0.2 mg bortezomib per 60 mg monolithic sample. Faster drug release
      occurred during incubation in SBF compared to PBS, and during static incubation
      without changing the liquid, compared to dynamic incubation with daily liquid
      changes. Drug-loaded xerogels with hydroxyapatite as a third component exhibited
      enhanced bioactivity retarding drug release, explained by formation of a surface
      calcium phosphate layer. The fastest release of 50% of the total drug load was
      observed for biphasic xerogels after 7 days during dynamic incubation in SBF. As
      a result, the presented concept is suitable for the intended combination of the
      advantageous bone substitution properties of xerogels and local application of
      drugs exemplified by bortezomib. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater
      Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1165-1173, 2018.

PMID- 28556563
TI  - Functionalization promotes pathogen-mimicking characteristics of polyanhydride
      nanoparticle adjuvants.
AB  - Rational design of adjuvants and delivery systems will promote development of
      next-generation vaccines to control emerging and re-emerging diseases. To
      accomplish this, understanding the immune-enhancing properties of new adjuvants
      relative to those induced by natural infections can help with the development of
      pathogen-mimicking materials that will effectively initiate innate immune
      signaling cascades. In this work, the surfaces of polyanhydride nanoparticles
      composed of sebacic acid (SA) and 1,6-bis(p-carboxyphenoxy) hexane were decorated
      with an ethylene diamine spacer partially modified with either a glycolic acid
      linker or an alpha-1,2-linked di-mannopyranoside (di-mannose) to confer "pathogen
      like" properties and enhance adjuvanticity. Co-incubation of linker-modified
      nanoparticles with dendritic cells (DCs) elicited significant increases in
      surface expression of MHC I, MHC II, CD86, and CD40, and enhanced secretion of IL
      6, IL-12p40, and TNF-alpha. An 800% increase in uptake of ethylene-diamine
      spaced, linker and di-mannose functionalized polyanhydride nanoparticles was also
      observed. Together, our data showed that linker-functionalized polyanhydride
      nanoparticles demonstrate similar patterns of uptake, intracellular trafficking,
      particle persistence, and innate activation as did DCs exposed to Yersinia pestis
      or Escherichia coli. These results set the stage for rational selection of
      adjuvant chemistries to induce pathogen-mimicking immune responses. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2762-2771, 2017.

PMID- 28556564
TI  - Associations between ABO blood groups and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma:
      influence on resection status and survival.
AB  - Both serology-based and genetic studies have reported an association between
      pancreatic cancer risk and ABO blood groups. We have investigated this
      relationship in a cohort of pancreatic cancer patients from Western Norway (n =
      237) and two control materials (healthy blood donors, n = 379; unselected
      hospitalized patients, n = 6149). When comparing patient and blood donor ABO
      allele frequencies, we found only the A1 allele to be associated with
      significantly higher risk for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) (23.8% vs.
      17.9%; OR = 1.43, P = 0.018). Analyzing phenotypes, blood group A was more
      frequent among PDAC cases than blood donors (50.8% vs. 40.6%; OR = 1.51, P =
      0.021), an enrichment fully explained by the A1 subgroup. Blood group O frequency
      was lower in cases than in blood donors (33.8% vs. 42.7%; OR = 0.69, P = 0.039).
      This lower frequency was confirmed when cases were compared to hospitalized
      patients (33.8% vs. 42.9%; OR = 0.68, P = 0.012). Results for blood group B
      varied according to which control cohort was used for comparison. When patients
      were classified according to surgical treatment, the enrichment of blood group A
      was most prominent among unresected cases (54.0%), who also had the lowest
      prevalence of O (28.7%). There was a statistically significant better survival (P
      = 0.04) for blood group O cases than non-O cases among unresected but not among
      resected patients. Secretor status did not show an association with PDAC or
      survival. Our study demonstrates that pancreatic cancer risk is influenced by ABO
      status, in particular blood groups O and A1 , and that this association may
      reflect also in tumor resectability and survival.

PMID- 28556567
TI  - Revisiting the concept of inflammatory cell-induced corrosion.
AB  - A peculiar type of surface pitting damage to revised joint replacement implant
      metal surfaces has been attributed to cellular activity and termed "inflammatory
      cell-induced-corrosion." We visually examined 1859 explanted metal implants to
      document the presence and extent of these features. The data was used to examine
      correlations between these features and the implant material, and modularity as
      well as clinical variables. The features were observed in approximately 77% of
      modular and 30% of monobloc hip implants in a variety of metals, as well as to
      some degree in various other implants. To test the possibility that these
      features were an artefact of electrocautery damage during revision surgery, a
      cleaned, flat, polished, CoCr disk was exposed to a variety of electrocautery
      interactions. This led to the production of pits and markings comparable to the
      published damage and to the damage found on the explants we examined. It is
      concluded that electrocautery damage rather than cellular activity is the cause
      of these features. Although rarely reported, this damage may be associated with
      femoral neck fracture. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part
      B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1148-1155, 2018.

PMID- 28556565
TI  - Demonstration of the utility of biomarkers for dietary intake assessment; proline
      betaine as an example.
AB  - SCOPE: There is a dearth of studies demonstrating the use of dietary biomarkers
      for determination of food intake. The objective of this study was to develop
      calibration curves for use in quantifying citrus intakes in an independent
      cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants (n = 50) from the NutriTech food-intake
      study consumed standardized breakfasts for three consecutive days over three
      consecutive weeks. Orange juice intake decreased over the weeks. Urine samples
      were analyzed by NMR-spectroscopy and proline betaine was quantified and
      normalized to osmolality. Calibration curves were developed and used to predict
      citrus intake in an independent cohort; the Irish National Adult Nutrition Survey
      (NANS) (n = 565). Proline betaine displayed a dose-response relationship to
      orange juice intake in 24 h and fasting samples (p < 0.001). In a test set,
      predicted orange juice intakes displayed excellent agreement with true intake.
      There were significant associations between predicted intake measured in 24 h and
      fasting samples and true intake (r = 0.710-0.919). Citrus intakes predicted for
      the NANS cohort demonstrated good agreement with self-reported intake and this
      agreement improved following normalization to osmolality. CONCLUSION: The
      developed calibration curves successfully predicted citrus intakes in an
      independent cohort. Expansion of this approach to other foods will be important
      for the development of objective intake measurements.

PMID- 28556568
TI  - Cortisol in human milk: The good, the bad, or the ugly?

PMID- 28556566
TI  - Select human cancer mutants of NRMT1 alter its catalytic activity and decrease N
      terminal trimethylation.
AB  - A subset of B-cell lymphoma patients have dominant mutations in the histone H3
      lysine 27 (H3K27) methyltransferase EZH2, which change it from a monomethylase to
      a trimethylase. These mutations occur in aromatic resides surrounding the active
      site and increase growth and alter transcription. We study the N-terminal
      trimethylase NRMT1 and the N-terminal monomethylase NRMT2. They are 50%
      identical, but differ in key aromatic residues in their active site. Given how
      these residues affect EZH2 activity, we tested whether they are responsible for
      the distinct catalytic activities of NRMT1/2. Additionally, NRMT1 acts as a tumor
      suppressor in breast cancer cells. Its loss promotes oncogenic phenotypes but
      sensitizes cells to DNA damage. Mutations of NRMT1 naturally occur in human
      cancers, and we tested a select group for altered activity. While directed
      mutation of the aromatic residues had minimal catalytic effect, NRMT1 mutants
      N209I (endometrial cancer) and P211S (lung cancer) displayed decreased
      trimethylase and increased monomethylase/dimethylase activity. Both mutations are
      located in the peptide-binding channel and indicate a second structural region
      impacting enzyme specificity. The NRMT1 mutants demonstrated a slower rate of
      trimethylation and a requirement for higher substrate concentration. Expression
      of the mutants in wild type NRMT backgrounds showed no change in N-terminal
      methylation levels or growth rates, demonstrating they are not acting as dominant
      negatives. Expression of the mutants in cells lacking endogenous NRMT1 resulted
      in minimal accumulation of N-terminal trimethylation, indicating homozygosity
      could help drive oncogenesis or serve as a marker for sensitivity to DNA damaging
      chemotherapeutics or gamma-irradiation.

PMID- 28556569
TI  - Matrilin-3 codelivery with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells promotes
      articular cartilage regeneration in a rat osteochondral defect model.
AB  - Matrilin-3 is an essential extracellular matrix component present only in
      cartilaginous tissues. Matrilin-3 exerts chondroprotective effects by regulating
      an anti-inflammatory function and extracellular matrix components. We
      hypothesized that the codelivery of matrilin-3 with infrapatellar adipose-tissue
      derived mesenchymal stem cells (Ad-MSCs) may enhance articular cartilage
      regeneration. Matrilin-3 treatment of Ad-MSCs in serum-free media induced
      collagen II and aggrecan expression, and matrilin-3 in chondrogenic media also
      enhanced in vitro chondrogenic differentiation. Next, the in vivo effect of
      matrilin-3 codelivery with Ad-MSCs on cartilage regeneration was assessed in an
      osteochondral defect model in Sprague Dawley rats: Ad-MSCs and hyaluronic acid
      were implanted at the defect site with or without matrilin-3 (140, 280, and 700
      ng). Safranin O staining revealed that matrilin-3 (140 and 280 ng) treatment
      significantly improved cartilage regeneration and glycosaminoglycan accumulation.
      In the animals treated with 140-ng matrilin-3, in particular, the defect site
      exhibited complete integration with surrounding tissue and a smooth glistening
      surface. The International Cartilage Repair Society macroscopic and O'Driscoll
      microscopic scores for regenerated cartilage were furthermore shown to be
      considerably higher for this group (matrilin-3; 140 ng) compared with the other
      groups. Furthermore, the defects treated with 140-ng matrilin-3 revealed
      significant hyaline-like cartilage regeneration in the osteochondral defect
      model; in contrast, the defects treated with 700-ng matrilin-3 exhibited
      drastically reduced cartilage regeneration with mixed hyaline-fibrocartilage
      morphology. Codelivery of matrilin-3 with Ad-MSCs significantly influenced
      articular cartilage regeneration, supporting the potential use of this tissue
      specific protein for a cartilage-targeted stem cell therapy.

PMID- 28556571
TI  - Controlling the Resting Membrane Potential of Cells with Conducting Polymer
      Microwires.
AB  - All cells have a resting membrane potential resulting from an ion gradient across
      the plasma membrane. The resting membrane potential of cells is tightly coupled
      to regeneration and differentiation. The ability to control this parameter
      provides the opportunity for both biomedical advances and the probing of
      fundamental bioelectric pathways. The use of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):
      polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) conducting polymer microwires to depolarize
      cells is tested using E. coli cells loaded with a fluorescent dye that is pumped
      out of the cells in response to depolarization; a more positive membrane
      potential. Fluorescence imaging of the cells in response to a conducting-polymer
      microwire applied voltage confirms depolarization and shows that the rate of
      depolarization is a function of the applied voltage and frequency. Microwire
      activity does not damage the cells, demonstrated with a propidium iodide assay of
      membrane integrity. The conducting polymer microwires do not penetrate the cell,
      or even come into contact with the cell; they only need to generate a minimum
      electric field, controlled by the placement of the wires. It is expected that
      these microwires will provide a new, noninvasive, cellular-scale tool for the
      control of resting membrane potential with high spatial precision.

PMID- 28556570
TI  - What families have in the emergency tracheostomy kits: Identifying gaps to
      improve patient safety.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the contents of parent-created emergency tracheostomy kits
      and identify deficiencies. METHODS: This was an observational study. Data on
      emergency tracheostomy kits were abstracted for 30 consecutive children who had a
      tracheostomy tube in situ during an outpatient clinic visit with the Division of
      Respiratory Medicine and/or the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
      Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children between February 1 and October 30,
      2016. A checklist of 12 essential items based on expert consensus was used to
      evaluate each tracheostomy kit. RESULTS: Emergency tracheostomy kits from all
      children were missing at least one item from the 12-item checklist. Nineteen
      (63%) kits had three or more critical items missing. All kits had the same size
      tracheotomy tube. Twenty-two (73%) kits did not have a half size smaller
      tracheostomy tube. Fifteen (50%) were missing a manual resuscitation bag and four
      (13.3%) were missing a suction machine. Children who had tracheostomy tube in
      situ for >=4 years were more likely to have >=3 missing items in their kit
      (43.4%) compared to those who had tracheostomy tube for <4 years (20%), (chi2 (1)
      = 9.85, P = 0.0017). CONCLUSION: Maintenance of a fully stocked emergency
      tracheostomy kit can save a child's life. It is incumbent upon healthcare
      providers to ensure ongoing reassessment of knowledge and skills required to care
      for a child with a tracheostomy tube and to regularly review the components of a
      child's emergency tracheostomy kit.

PMID- 28556572
TI  - The Effect of Temperature on Selectivity in the Oscillatory Mode of the
      Phenylacetylene Oxidative Carbonylation Reaction.
AB  - Reaction temperature plays a major role in product selectivity in the oscillatory
      mode of the palladium-catalyzed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction.
      At 40  degrees C, dimethyl (2Z)-2-phenyl-2-butenedioate is the major product
      whereas at 0  degrees C the major product is 5,5-dimethoxy-3-phenyl-2(5H)
      furanone. The occurrence of oscillations in pH coincides with an increase in the
      rate of phenylacetylene consumption and associated product formation. Experiments
      were performed isothermally in a reaction calorimeter to correlate reactant
      consumption and product formation with the occurrence of pH oscillations and the
      heat released by the reaction. An increase in the size of the pH drop in a single
      oscillation correlates with an increase in energy, indicating that this section
      of a single oscillation relates to reactant consumption. Based on these
      observations, a reaction pathway responsible for product formation is provided.

PMID- 28556573
TI  - Initiating Intrapartum Nitrous Oxide in an Academic Hospital: Considerations and
      Challenges.
AB  - A 50%-50% mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen has long been used for managing
      pain during labor in many countries, but only recently has this intrapartum
      analgesic technique become popular in the United States. Nitrous oxide is
      considered minimal sedation and a safe pain management alternative. Many
      facilities are now interested in providing laboring women this analgesic option.
      The process of establishing use of nitrous oxide in a large institution can be
      complicated and may seem daunting. This brief report describes the challenges
      that occurred during the process of initiating nitrous oxide for pain management
      during childbirth at an academic medical center and discusses various committee
      roles. Nurses at the University of New Mexico Hospital now directly oversee the
      administration of nitrous oxide to women in labor in accordance to an established
      guideline. Despite limited available research, the guideline also allows offering
      nitrous oxide as a pain management technique for women with opioid dependence.
      Key components of the guideline and specifics related to education, cost, and
      safety are reviewed.

PMID- 28556574
TI  - Influence of Environmental Factors on Essential Oil Variability in Origanum
      compactum Benth. Growing Wild in Morocco.
AB  - The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of environmental factors on
      essential oils (EOs) composition of Origanum compactum populations sampled all
      over the distribution area of the species in Morocco, and to determine the extent
      of the chemical profiles throughout the geographical distribution of the species.
      The chemical compositions were submitted to canonical correlation analysis and
      canonical discriminant analysis that indicated a significant relationship between
      oil components and some environmental factors. According to their chemical
      composition and edapho-climatic characteristics, two major groups of populations
      were differentiated. The first group was composed of samples growing in regions
      with humid climate, clayey, sandy, and alkaline soils. These samples showed high
      thymol, alpha-terpineol, linalool, and carvacryl methyl oxide content. The second
      group consisted of plants belonging to semi-arid climate, and growing at high
      altitudes and silty soils. These samples were characterized by high carvacrol,
      alpha-thujene, alpha-terpinene, and myrcene content. However, populations exposed
      to sub-humid climate, appeared less homogeneous and belong mainly either to the
      first or second group. A significant correlation between some edaphic factors
      (pH, K2 O content, soil texture) and the EOs yield of O. compactum plants was
      evidenced. In spite of the correlation obtained for the oil composition with
      edapho-climatic factors and the variance explained by the environmental data set,
      the observed EO diversity might be also genetically determined.

PMID- 28556575
TI  - Characterizing the impact of pressure on virus filtration processes and
      establishing design spaces to ensure effective parvovirus removal.
AB  - Virus filtration provides robust removal of potential viral contaminants and is a
      critical step during the manufacture of biotherapeutic products. However, recent
      studies have shown that small virus removal can be impacted by low operating
      pressure and depressurization. To better understand the impact of these
      conditions and to define robust virus filtration design spaces, we conducted
      multivariate analyses to evaluate parvovirus removal over wide ranges of
      operating pressure, solution pH, and conductivity for three mAb products on
      PlanovaTM BioEX and 20N filters. Pressure ranges from 0.69 to 3.43 bar (10.0-49.7
      psi) for Planova BioEX filters and from 0.50 to 1.10 bar (7.3 to 16.0 psi) for
      Planova 20N filters were identified as ranges over which effective removal of
      parvovirus is achieved for different products over wide ranges of pH and
      conductivity. Viral clearance at operating pressure below the robust pressure
      range suggests that effective parvovirus removal can be achieved at low pressure
      but that Minute virus of mice (MVM) logarithmic reduction value (LRV) results may
      be impacted by product and solution conditions. These results establish robust
      design spaces for Planova BioEX and 20N filters where high parvovirus clearance
      can be expected for most antibody products and provide further understanding of
      viral clearance mechanisms. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
      Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1294-1302, 2017.

PMID- 28556576
TI  - Ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced mri of the breast using compressed sensing:
      breast cancer diagnosis based on separate visualization of breast arteries and
      veins.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility of ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced (UF
      DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with compressed sensing (CS) for the
      separate identification of breast arteries/veins and perform temporal evaluations
      of breast arteries and veins with a focus on the association with ipsilateral
      cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our Institutional Review Board approved this
      study with retrospective design. Twenty-five female patients who underwent UF-DCE
      MRI at 3T were included. UF-DCE MRI consisting of 20 continuous frames was
      acquired using a prototype 3D gradient-echo volumetric interpolated breath-hold
      sequence including a CS reconstruction: temporal resolution, 3.65 sec/frame;
      spatial resolution, 0.9 * 1.3 * 2.5 mm. Two readers analyzed 19 maximum intensity
      projection images reconstructed from subtracted images, separately identified
      breast arteries/veins and the earliest frame in which they were respectively
      visualized, and calculated the time interval between arterial and venous
      visualization (A-V interval) for each breast. RESULTS: In total, 49 breasts
      including 31 lesions (breast cancer, 16; benign lesion, 15) were identified. In
      39 of the 49 breasts (breasts with cancers, 16; breasts with benign lesions, 10;
      breasts with no lesions, 13), both breast arteries and veins were separately
      identified. The A-V intervals for breasts with cancers were significantly shorter
      than those for breasts with benign lesions (P = 0.043) and no lesions (P =
      0.007). CONCLUSION: UF-DCE MRI using CS enables the separate identification of
      breast arteries/veins. Temporal evaluations calculating the time interval between
      arterial and venous visualization might be helpful in the differentiation of
      ipsilateral breast cancers from benign lesions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical
      Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:97-104.

PMID- 28556577
TI  - Clinical and neurobiological effects of aerobic exercise in dental phobia: A
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity has shown to be effective in anxiety disorders. For
      specific phobia, no studies are available that systematically examined the
      effects of an aerobic exercise intervention on phobic fear within a randomized
      controlled design. Therefore, we investigated the acute effect of a standardized
      aerobic training on clinical symptoms of dental phobia as well as on stress
      related neurobiological markers. METHODS: Within a crossover design, 30 patients
      with dental phobia (mean age: 34.1 years; mean score of the Dental Anxiety Scale:
      18.8) underwent two minor dental interventions separated by 7 days. Dental
      treatment was performed after 30 min of physical activity at either 20% VO2 max
      (control) or 70% VO2 max (intervention), respectively. To control for
      habituation, patients were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions prior
      to the first intervention. Moreover, saliva samples were collected at five times
      in order to determine changes in salivary cortisol (sC) and alpha-amylase (sAA)
      due to treatment. RESULTS: In comparison to baseline, aerobic exercise within 70%
      VO2 max significantly reduced clinical anxiety and sC concentrations before,
      during, and after the dental treatment. In contrast, the control condition led to
      decreased sAA levels at different time points of measurement. Habituation
      occurred at the second study day, independent of the order. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study provides evidence for an effect of moderate-intense exercise on clinical
      symptoms and sC in patients with dental phobia. Therefore, acute aerobic exercise
      might be a simple and low-cost intervention to reduce disorder-specific phobic
      fear.

PMID- 28556578
TI  - Fasting serum hippuric acid is elevated after bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)
      consumption and associates with improvement of fasting glucose levels and insulin
      secretion in persons at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
AB  - SCOPE: Urinary hippuric acid has been proposed as a biomarker for fruit,
      vegetable, and polyphenol consumption. We assessed how serum hippuric acid
      changes after a bilberry-enriched diet (BB; high anthocyanin intake) and another
      berry diet including strawberries, raspberries, and cloudberries (SRC; lower
      anthocyanin intake) and how these changes associate with insulin and glucose
      metabolism. METHODS AND RESULTS: Hippuric acid was measured with LC-QTOF-MS
      metabolite profiling analysis from fasting serum samples at baseline and after an
      8-week intervention in 47 individuals with features of the metabolic syndrome who
      were randomized to either a BB diet (n = 15), an SRC diet (n = 20) or a control
      diet (n = 12). Fasting serum hippuric acid increased significantly (3.5-fold, p =
      0.001) only in the BB group and correlated with changes in fasting plasma glucose
      concentration (r = -0.54, p < 0.05) and insulin secretion (r = 0.59, p < 0.05).
      These associations were confirmed in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (n =
      198). CONCLUSION: Fasting serum hippuric acid is increased after consumption of
      anthocyanin-rich bilberries, and may contribute to the beneficial effect of
      bilberry consumption through its associations with better glycemic control and
      beta-cell function.

PMID- 28556579
TI  - Abortion.

PMID- 28556580
TI  - Sending family history questionnaires to patients before a colonoscopy improves
      genetic counseling for hereditary colorectal cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether sending a family history questionnaire to
      patients prior to undergoing colonoscopy results in an increased availability of
      family history and better genetic counseling. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed
      to patients before they underwent outpatient colonoscopy at a university hospital
      in 2013. These patients' additional characteristics and referral for genetic
      evaluation were retrieved from the electronic medical records. Patients
      undergoing inpatient coloboscopy, with confirmed hereditary colorectal cancer
      (CRC) or inflammatory bowel disease were excluded. All study patients from 2010
      to 2013 were matched with the database of the genetics department to determine
      who consulted a geneticist. RESULTS: A total of 6163 patients underwent
      colonoscopy from 2010 to 2013. Of 1421 who underwent colonoscopy in 2013, 53
      (3.7%) consulted a geneticist, while 75 (1.6%) of 4742 patients undergoing
      colonoscopy between 2010 and 2012 did so (P < 0.01). A total of 974 patients
      undergoing colonoscopy in 2013 were included to evaluate the completed
      questionnaire. Of these, 282 (29.0%) completed the questionnaire. Family history
      was not recorded in the electronic medical records of 393 (40.3%). In 129
      (32.8%), family history was obtained from the completed questionnaire. In 2013,
      49 (60.5%) out of 81 patients referred for genetic counseling were referred based
      on their family history. Eight (9.9%) patients were referred based on the
      completed questionnaire. CONCLUSION: Screening for hereditary CRC in a population
      undergoing outpatient colonoscopy with a questionnaire sent by mail resulted in
      an increased availability of family histories and genetic counseling.

PMID- 28556582
TI  - Precision and accuracy of imageless navigation versus freehand implantation of
      total hip arthroplasty: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is named the most successful surgical
      procedure of the twentieth century. To remain a success in the twenty-first
      century THA should meet the higher demands of patients and society with regard to
      technical and functional outcome, costs and implant survival. To meet these
      demands optimal acetabular cup positioning is necessary. An imageless navigation
      system (NAV) might prevent malpositioning of the acetabular cup in THA. The aim
      of this study has been to compare the precision and accuracy of the anteversion
      and inclination of the acetabular cup position after NAV implantation and after
      freehand implantation of THA. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis was
      conducted to assess the precision (variance) and accuracy (deviation from the
      target) from all available high-quality randomised control trials to date.
      RESULTS: Six out of seven studies concluded a statistically significant
      difference in precision in anteversion between the NAV group and the freehand
      group. Five out of seven studies concluded a statistically significant difference
      in precision in inclination. There is a significantly better accuracy for the NAV
      group than for the freehand group for anteversion (p = 0.002) and for inclination
      (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study showed that NAV placement is more precise and
      has an improved accuracy for anteversion and inclination than freehand placement
      of the acetabular cup. However, there is a lack of evidence to support an
      improved functional outcome and a reduction of complications and revisions.

PMID- 28556583
TI  - Learning From Lessons on Applying Information Technology in Organ Transplant: A
      Stepping Stone to Achieve Electronic Health Record Meaningful Use.

PMID- 28556581
TI  - Population Modeling of Selexipag Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Response
      Parameters in Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
AB  - Selexipag (Uptravi) is an oral selective IP prostacyclin receptor agonist
      approved for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The pivotal
      GRIPHON study was the largest clinical study ever conducted in PAH patients,
      providing long-term data from 1,156 patients. PAH comedication did not affect
      exposure to selexipag, while exposure to its active metabolite ACT-333679 was
      reduced by 30% when taken in combination, clinically not relevant in the context
      of individual dose up-titration. Using log-linear regression models linking model
      predicted steady-state exposure to pharmacodynamics (PD), exposure to selexipag
      and ACT-333679 showed some statistically significant, albeit not clinically
      relevant, effects on exercise capacity, laboratory values, and the occurrence of
      prostacyclin-related adverse events, but not on vital signs or adverse events
      denoting hemorrhage. Using suitable modeling techniques, the GRIPHON study
      yielded clinically relevant data with limited burden of pharmacokinetics (PK)
      blood sampling, demonstrating that PK/PD modeling enables firm conclusions even
      with sparse PK and PD sampling.

PMID- 28556584
TI  - Efficacy between high and medium doses of glucocorticoid therapy in remission
      induction of IgG4-related diseases: a preliminary randomized controlled trial.
AB  - AIM: In order to evaluate the efficacy and safety of high versus medium doses of
      glucocorticoid therapy in remission induction of immunoglobulin G4-related
      disease (IgG4-RD), we set up a randomized controlled study. METHOD: Newly
      diagnosed IgG4-RD patients were randomly assigned to two groups: high doses of
      prednisone (0.8-1.0 mg/kg/day) and medium doses (0.5-0.6 mg/kg/day). Patients
      were assessed at weeks 0, 4, 12 and 24. The primary outcome was the remission
      rate at week 24. The secondary endpoints included IgG4-RD responder index (IgG4
      RD RI), IgG and IgG4 levels. RESULTS: Twenty cases in each group finished the
      study. At week 24, the total response rates were 95% and 80% in high and medium
      dose groups, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two
      groups. IgG4-RD RI reduced from 14.9 to 3.0 in the high dose group, while in the
      medium dose group it was from 13.1 to 3.2. At week 24, the average level of IgG4
      reduced from 1576 to 324 mg/dL and from 1445 to 684 mg/dL in the two groups,
      respectively. Relapsed patients had higher baseline IgG4-RD RI. There was no
      severe adverse effect shown in both groups. CONCLUSION: The effect of remission
      induction was similar in high and medium glucocorticoid groups. However, patients
      with more organs involved and higher IgG4-RD RI score at baseline might get more
      benefit with high dose glucocorticoid for remission induction.

PMID- 28556585
TI  - Diagnosing endocrine hypertension: a practical approach.
AB  - Hypertension is a leading cardiovascular risk factor that remains difficult to
      manage in a large segment of the population. Secondary causes of hypertension,
      which are amenable to targeted treatment or even cure, may contribute to poor
      blood pressure control. The most common endocrine cause, primary aldosteronism,
      requires biochemical screening as there are often no symptoms or signs other than
      hypertension. Screening tests should be performed after adequate preparation to
      optimize the results and minimize the confounding effects of diet and
      medications. Further testing beyond the initial screen generally requires input
      from specialist units to coordinate confirmatory tests and radiological
      procedures. Other less common or even rare endocrine causes of hypertension
      generally present with symptoms and signs of pituitary, adrenal, thyroid or
      parathyroid dysfunction rather than hypertension per se. Here, we review the
      endocrine causes of hypertension and provide a practical approach to their
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28556586
TI  - Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine versus artesunate-amodiaquine for treatment of
      malaria infection in pregnancy in Ghana: an open-label, randomised, non
      inferiority trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ) is non
      inferior to artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) for treating uncomplicated malaria
      infection in pregnancy. METHODS: A total of 417 second/ third trimester pregnant
      women with confirmed asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia were
      randomised to receive DHA-PPQ or ASAQ over 3 days. Women were followed up on days
      1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 42 after treatment start and at delivery for
      parasitological, haematological, birth outcomes and at 6-week post-partum to
      ascertain the health status of the babies. Parasitological efficacy (PE) by days
      28 and 42 were co-primary outcomes. Analysis was per-protocol (PP) and modified
      intention-to-treat (ITT). Non-inferiority was declared if the two-sided 95%
      confidence interval for PE at the endpoints excluded 5% lower efficacy for DHA
      PPQ. Secondary outcomes were assessed for superiority. RESULTS: In PP analysis,
      PE was 91.6% for DHA-PPQ and 89.3% for ASAQ by day 28 and 89.0% and 86.5%,
      respectively, by day 42. DHA-PPQ was non-inferior to ASAQ with respect to
      uncorrected PE [adjusted difference by day 28 (DHA-PPQ-ASAQ); 3.5% (95%CI: -1.5,
      8.5); and day 42: 3.9% (95%CI: -2.7, 10.4)]. ITT analysis gave similar results.
      PCR to distinguish recrudescence and reinfection was unsuccessful. DHA-PPQ
      recipients had fewer adverse events of vomiting, dizziness, and general weakness
      compared to ASAQ. Both drugs were well-tolerated, and there was no excess of
      adverse birth outcomes. CONCLUSION: DHA-PPQ was non-inferior to ASAQ for
      treatment of malaria infection during pregnancy. No safety concerns were
      identified. Our findings contribute to growing evidence that DHA-PPQ is useful
      for control of malaria in pregnancy.

PMID- 28556587
TI  - A graphic approach to the analysis of a large X-ray microanalysis dataset
      obtained via SEM-EDS.
AB  - A graphical method for phase analysis of advanced materials by EDS-SEM was
      developed and demonstrated on deformed superconducting Bi(Pb)2223 ceramics.
      Through visual representation, this method allows for the rapid and efficient
      analysis of large X-ray microanalysis datasets and to identify phase composition
      of fine particles of secondary phases against a background of other phases. The
      graphical method can be applied using existing software and therefore does not
      require the development of new programs or complex computations.

PMID- 28556589
TI  - Dual-Emission Channels for Simultaneous Sensing of Cysteine and Homocysteine in
      Living Cells.
AB  - The development of a fluorescent probe to distinguish between cysteine (Cys) and
      homocysteine (Hcy) is always a challenge owing to their structural similarity,
      and the simultaneous detection of Cys and Hcy by utilizing different emission
      channels is especially difficult. In this work, we designed and synthesized a new
      fluorescent probe to differentiate between Cys and Hcy on the basis of a coumarin
      derivative with a chlorine atom and an alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde. Cys and
      Hcy induced different cascade reactions with the probe, which led to different
      products with distinct photophysical properties. The nonfluorescent probe
      responded to Cys and emitted strong blue fluorescence, whereas it reacted with
      Hcy and generated yellow fluorescence without interference from glutathione. In
      addition, the probe was successfully applied to distinguish between Cys and Hcy
      in living cells.

PMID- 28556590
TI  - Biocompatibility of four common orthopedic biomaterials following
      neuroelectromyostimulation: An in-vivo study.
AB  - Despite the worldwide high prevalence of total joint arthroplasty (TJA), life
      expectancy of prosthesis remains limited by mechanical and chemical constraint
      which promote wear debris production, surrounding tissues damage and finally
      prosthesis loosening. Such results could be amplified by neuro
      myoelectrostimulation (NMES; widely used to reduce neuromuscular deficits
      observed following TJA surgery). It was previously described in an in vivo
      experiment that interactions between NMES and Ti6Al4V implant are deleterious for
      both implant and surrounding muscles. The purpose of the present study was to
      compare the biocompatibility of four common orthopedic biomaterials, two metallic
      (Ti6Al4V, CrCo) and two nonmetallic (PEEK, Al2 O3 ) alloys, fixed on rat tibial
      crest in which the surrounding muscles were electrostimulated. Muscle cell death
      rate was not found significantly increased, with or without electrical
      stimulation for nonmetallic implants. Contrary to Ti6Al4V alloy, the CrCo implant
      did not induce destruction of the surrounding muscle. However, cell viability
      decreased for both metallic alloys when NMES was applied but within a greater
      significant extent for Ti6Al4V implant. Otherwise, when NMES was applied, implant
      to-bone adhesion significantly decreased for Ti6Al4V while no significant
      difference was found for PEEK, Al2 O3 , and CrCo. Statistical analyses reveal
      also a lesser adhesion strength for Ti6Al4V compared with CrCo when NMES was
      applied. Selecting the most suitable material in term of biocompatibility remains
      a major concern and non-metallic materials seems to be more appropriated in
      regard to electrical currents used for post TJA care. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1156-1164, 2018.

PMID- 28556591
TI  - Preparation of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for the rapid and
      selective separation and enrichment of perfluorooctane sulfonate.
AB  - As a persistent organic pollutant, perfluorooctane sulfonate has drawn a great
      worldwide attention. In this contribution, a novel material of magnetic
      molecularly imprinted polymers, based on perfluorooctane sulfonate, as a
      template, molecule was prepared. The magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were
      characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometry. The
      adsorption isotherm was measured, and adsorption kinetic tests were conducted.
      The adsorbents possess high recognition ability (2.460 mg/g) and short adsorption
      equilibration time (60 min). Besides, they show good specificity and good
      reusability with the adsorption capacities of adsorbent toward perfluorooctane
      sulfonate decreasing less than 3% after five adsorption-desorption cycles. The
      magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were used successfully in the separation
      and enrichment of perfluorooctane sulfonate in real water sample and exhibited
      good prospects in environmental treatment and monitoring.

PMID- 28556588
TI  - Effects of DNA Methylation on Progression to Interstitial Fibrosis and Tubular
      Atrophy in Renal Allograft Biopsies: A Multi-Omics Approach.
AB  - Progressive fibrosis of the interstitium is the dominant final pathway in renal
      destruction in native and transplanted kidneys. Over time, the continuum of
      molecular events following immunological and nonimmunological insults lead to
      interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy and culminate in kidney failure. We
      hypothesize that these insults trigger changes in DNA methylation (DNAm)
      patterns, which in turn could exacerbate injury and slow down the regeneration
      processes, leading to fibrosis development and graft dysfunction. Herein, we
      analyzed biopsy samples from kidney allografts collected 24 months
      posttransplantation and used an integrative multi-omics approach to understand
      the underlying molecular mechanisms. The role of DNAm and microRNAs on the graft
      gene expression was evaluated. Enrichment analyses of differentially methylated
      CpG sites were performed using GenomeRunner. CpGs were strongly enriched in
      regions that were variably methylated among tissues, implying high tissue
      specificity in their regulatory impact. Corresponding to this methylation
      pattern, gene expression data were related to immune response (activated state)
      and nephrogenesis (inhibited state). Preimplantation biopsies showed similar DNAm
      patterns to normal allograft biopsies at 2 years posttransplantation. Our
      findings demonstrate for the first time a relationship among epigenetic
      modifications and development of interstitial fibrosis, graft function, and inter
      individual variation on long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28556592
TI  - The effect of riboflavin/UVA cross-linking on anti-degeneration and promoting
      angiogenic capability of decellularized liver matrix.
AB  - Weak mechanical property and unstable degradation rate limited the application of
      decellularized liver matrix in tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to
      explore a new method for improving the mechanical properties, anti-degeneration
      and angiogenic capability of decellularized liver matrix. This was achieved by a
      novel approach using riboflavin/ultraviolet A treatment to induce collagen cross
      linking of decellularized matrix. Histological staining and scanning electron
      microscope showed that the diameter of cross-linked fibers significantly
      increased compared with the control group. The average peak load and Young's
      modulus of decellularized matrix were obviously improved after cross-linking.
      Then we implanted the modified matrix into the rat hepatic injury model to test
      the anti-degeneration and angiogenic capability of riboflavin/UVA cross-linked
      decellularized liver scaffolds in vivo. The results indicated that cross-linked
      scaffolds degrade more slowly than those in the control group. In the experiment
      group, average microvessel density in the implanted matrix was higher than that
      in the control group since the first week after implantation. In conclusion, we
      initiated the method to improve the biomechanical properties of decellularized
      liver scaffolds by riboflavin/UVA cross-linking, and more importantly, its
      improvement on anti-degeneration and angiogenesis was identified. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2662-2669, 2017.

PMID- 28556594
TI  - Fibroadenoma in adolescent females after living donor liver transplantation.
AB  - Breast FA is the most common breast tumor diagnosed in young women. Female renal
      transplant recipients on CsA have an increased risk of developing FA. However,
      reports of FA after LDLT have not been described. Our objectives were to
      determine the incidence of FA, analyze risk factors for FA, and evaluate
      treatment strategies in adolescent females after LDLT. A total of 18 female
      patients aged 10-19 years who underwent LDLT and survived at least one year after
      transplantation were enrolled in our study. The incidence of FA was 11.1%. To
      determine pre- or post-transplant conditions that are associated with FA after
      transplantation, the patients were divided into two groups according to the
      presence or absence of FA: FA group (n=2) and non-FA group (n=16). There were no
      differences in mean age at LDLT, mean age at breast evaluation, and mean duration
      between transplantation and breast evaluation between the two groups. However,
      there was a difference in the immunosuppressive regimen between the two groups.
      The FA group was maintained on CsA, whereas the non-FA group was maintained on
      tacrolimus. CsA might be implicated in FA development in adolescent females after
      LDLT.

PMID- 28556595
TI  - Strategies for Efficient Solar Water Splitting Using Carbon Nitride.
AB  - Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3 N4 )-based photocatalysts are promising for
      photocatalytic water splitting to produce clean solar fuels due to their low
      cost, suitable band structure and excellent photocatalytic performance. This
      review focuses on the state-of-the-art progress of the strategies for modifying g
      C3 N4 -based photocatalysts toward efficient photocatalytic water splitting. In
      particular, we highlight the importance of interfacial engineering and
      nanostructural control to facilitating charge separation and migration. Other
      strategies including doping and defect engineering are also concisely discussed.
      Finally, the perspectives on the challenges and future development of g-C3 N4 
      based photocatalysts are presented.

PMID- 28556593
TI  - Comparative molecular profiling of HPV-induced squamous cell carcinomas.
AB  - Approximately 5% of all cancer incidences result from human papillomavirus (HPV)
      infection. HPV infection most commonly leads to cancers of the anogenital region
      or oropharynx. It is unknown whether different HPV-mediated cancers collectively
      share a molecular signature and it is important to determine if there are
      targetable alterations common to different types of HPV-positive tumors. We
      analyzed 743 p53 wild-type samples of anal, cervical, oropharyngeal, and vulvar
      squamous cell carcinomas which underwent multiplatform testing at a commercial
      molecular profiling service. Expression of 24 proteins was measured by
      immunohistochemistry (IHC), mutation of 48 genes was determined by next
      generation and Sanger sequencing, and copy number alteration for six genes was
      determined by in situ hybridization. The four cohorts had remarkably similar
      molecular profiles. No gene had a statistically significant difference in
      mutation frequency or copy number change between the four different types of
      squamous cell carcinomas. The only significant differences between cohorts were
      frequency of ERCC1 and SPARC loss as determined by IHC. In all four cancer types,
      oncogene mutation and PD-L1 expression was relatively infrequent. The most
      commonly mutated gene was PIK3CA, with mutations most often affecting the helical
      domain of the protein and accompanied by concurrent lack of PTEN expression. Loss
      of MGMT and RRM1 was common among the four cohorts and may be predictive of
      response to cytotoxic therapies not currently being used to treat these cancer
      types. The similar molecular profiles of the four cohorts indicate that treatment
      strategies may be similarly efficacious across HPV-positive cancers.

PMID- 28556596
TI  - Surface Energy and Surface Stability of Ag Nanocrystals at Elevated Temperatures
      and Their Dominance in Sublimation-Induced Shape Evolution.
AB  - The surface energy and surface stability of Ag nanocrystals (NCs) are under
      debate because the measurable values of the surface energy are very inconsistent,
      and the indices of the observed thermally stable surfaces are apparently in
      conflict. To clarify this issue, a transmission electron microscope is used to
      investigate these problems in situ with elaborately designed carbon-shell
      capsulated Ag NCs. It is demonstrated that the {111} surfaces are still thermally
      stable at elevated temperatures, and the victory of the formation of {110}
      surfaces over {111} surfaces on the Ag NCs during sublimation is due to the
      special crystal geometry. It is found that the Ag NCs behave as quasiliquids
      during sublimation, and the cubic NCs represent a featured shape evolution, which
      is codetermined by both the wetting equilibrium at the Ag-C interface and the
      relaxation of the system surface energy. Small Ag NCs (~10 nm) no longer maintain
      the wetting equilibrium observed in larger Ag NCs, and the crystal orientations
      of ultrafine Ag NCs (~6 nm) can rotate to achieve further shape relaxation. Using
      sublimation kinetics, the mean surface energy of Ag NCs at 1073 K is calculated
      to be 1.1-1.3 J m-2 .

PMID- 28556597
TI  - G-CSF Indirectly Induces Apoptosis of Osteoblasts During Hematopoietic Stem Cell
      Mobilization.
AB  - The objective of this study was to explore the mechanism underlying osteoblast
      suppression in the process of hematopoietic stem cells mobilization induced by
      granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). The apoptosis of human and mouse
      osteoblasts was examined by detecting caspase 3. The levels of serum DKK1 and
      osteocalcin in the supernatant of co-culture of mouse osteoblasts and mouse bone
      marrow nucleated cells were measured. The number of mouse osteoblasts co-cultured
      with mouse bone marrow nucleated cells was measured and the osteocalcin mRNA
      level was also measured. The G-CSF-induced decrease in osteoblast function was
      partly due to the apoptosis of osteoblasts. There was no significant difference
      in the level of serum DKK1 in healthy donors before and 5 days after
      mobilization. The osteocalcin gene and protein expression was significantly
      different in co-cultured osteoblasts with bone marrow nucleated cells treated
      with and without G-CSF. Osteoblasts undergo apoptosis during mobilization and G
      CSF affects osteoblasts through bone marrow nucleated cells.

PMID- 28556599
TI  - Updates From the Literature, May/June 2017.

PMID- 28556598
TI  - Single- and Multiple-Day Dosing Studies to Investigate High-Dose Pharmacokinetics
      of Epelsiban and Its Metabolite, GSK2395448, in Healthy Female Volunteers.
AB  - Open-label single- and double-blind repeat-dose studies in healthy female
      volunteers were conducted to investigate the pharmacokinetics (PK) and
      safety/tolerability of epelsiban total daily doses ranging from 600 to 900 mg. In
      1 study (n = 12), epelsiban was dosed at 300 or 450 mg twice daily (every 12
      hours) for a single day. In the repeat-dose double-blind study, epelsiban and
      placebo were administered to 31 subjects as 200 mg 3 times daily, 300 mg 3 times
      daily (TID), or 450 mg twice daily (BID) for 14 days. After both single and 14
      daily repeat doses, the PK profiles for epelsiban and its metabolite, GSK2395448,
      remained linear at all administered doses. The exposures at a given total daily
      dose were also similar between BID and TID dosing regimens. Exposure (AUC0-tau ),
      based on dosing intervals, for both epelsiban and GSK2395448 was similar.
      However, compared with morning dosing, Cmax was lower after evening dosing,
      possibly because of a food effect. The highest accumulation of epelsiban and
      GSK2395448 exposures (AUC0-tau ) was approximately 34% for each after repeat
      dosing, consistent with the short half-life. At total daily doses of 600 and 900
      mg, epelsiban was generally well tolerated, and there were no significant safety
      concerns identified.

PMID- 28556600
TI  - Enhanced expression of cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptide snakin-1 in
      Escherichia coli using an aggregation-prone protein coexpression system.
AB  - Snakin-1 (SN-1) is a cysteine-rich plant antimicrobial peptide and the first
      purified member of the snakin family. SN-1 shows potent activity against a wide
      range of microorganisms, and thus has great biotechnological potential as an
      antimicrobial agent. Here, we produced recombinant SN-1 in Escherichia coli by a
      previously developed coexpression method using an aggregation-prone partner
      protein. Our goal was to increase the productivity of SN-1 via the enhanced
      formation of insoluble inclusion bodies in E. coli cells. The yield of SN-1 by
      the coexpression method was better than that by direct expression in E. coli
      cells. After refolding and purification, we obtained several milligrams of
      functionally active SN-1, the identity of which was verified by MALDI-TOF MS and
      NMR studies. The purified recombinant SN-1 showed effective antimicrobial
      activity against test organisms. Our studies indicate that the coexpression
      method using an aggregation-prone partner protein can serve as a suitable
      expression system for the efficient production of functionally active SN-1. (c)
      2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1520-1528,
      2017.

PMID- 28556601
TI  - Polymorphism at residue 156 of the new HLA-A*02:683 allele suggests immunological
      relevance.
AB  - HLA-A*02:683 is most similar to 4 different HLA-A*02 subtypes with a single
      nucleotide difference.

PMID- 28556603
TI  - Taking Care of Your Health.

PMID- 28556602
TI  - A Free-Radical Pathway to Hydrogenated Phenanthrene in Molecular Clouds-Low
      Temperature Growth of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.
AB  - The hydrogen-abstraction/acetylene-addition mechanism has been fundamental to
      unravelling the synthesis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) detected in
      combustion flames and carbonaceous meteorites like Orgueil and Murchison.
      However, the fundamental reaction pathways accounting for the synthesis of
      complex PAHs, such as the tricyclic anthracene and phenanthrene along with their
      dihydrogenated counterparts, remain elusive to date. By investigating the
      hitherto unknown chemistry of the 1-naphthyl radical with 1,3-butadiene, we
      reveal a facile barrierless synthesis of dihydrophenanthrene adaptable to low
      temperatures. These aryl-type radical additions to conjugated hydrocarbons via
      resonantly stabilized free-radical intermediates defy conventional wisdom that
      PAH growth is predominantly a high-temperature phenomenon and thus may represent
      an overlooked path to PAHs as complex as coronene and corannulene in cold regions
      of the interstellar medium like in the Taurus Molecular Cloud.

PMID- 28556604
TI  - Loosening of the fixing screw in single implant crowns: predisposing factors,
      prevention and treatment options.
AB  - : The problem of technical complications in implants and implant-supported
      restorations has existed for decades. The most frequent complication is the
      loosening of the fixing screw, which although is not catastrophic, if it occurs
      repeatedly, it may affect the success of the implant therapy and the patient
      satisfaction. Factors that affect the frequency of prosthetic complications
      include: the implant-abutment connection, para-functional habits, cantilevers,
      and the type of restoration. Regarding the implant-abutment connection, the first
      systems were those with an external hexagon. Because of their small height and
      the disadvantages that this entails, other connection types were developed, such
      as those of hexagonal and conical connection, which decreased the complication
      rates, including the loosening of the fixing screw. On the dilemma "cement- or
      screw-retained restoration", the choice depends on biological, technical, and
      aesthetic factors. Cement-retained restorations are simpler in construction with
      lower cost and clinicians are more familiar with the clinical procedure. On the
      other side, if the fixing screw of the abutment is loosened in a cement-retained
      restoration, it may be a difficult and demanding clinical task to fix this
      prosthetic complication. Screw-retained restorations are more prone to loosening
      of the fixing screw, but allow easy retrievability and repair. Their use however,
      is often restricted because of diverting or unfavorable inclination of the
      alveolar ridge and the implant. The aim of this article was to present clinical
      solutions for the complication of screw-loosening through clinical examples and
      discuss the factors that may predispose to its occurrence. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
      The problem of technical complications in implants and implant-supported
      restorations has existed for decades. The most frequent complication is the
      loosening of the fixing screw which, although is not catastrophic, if it occurs
      repeatedly, it may affect the success of the implant therapy and the patient
      satisfaction. Factors that affect the frequency of prosthetic complications
      include: the implant-abutment connection, para-functional habits, cantilevers and
      the type of restoration. The treatment options for the clinician are limited but
      certain preventing measures during construction of the restoration may be helpful
      to overcome this clinical problem.

PMID- 28556605
TI  - Ionic Liquid/Metal-Organic Framework Composites: From Synthesis to Applications.
AB  - Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely studied for different
      applications owing to their fascinating properties such as large surface areas,
      high porosities, tunable pore sizes, and acceptable thermal and chemical
      stabilities. Ionic liquids (ILs) have been recently incorporated into the pores
      of MOFs as cavity occupants to change the physicochemical properties and gas
      affinities of MOFs. Several recent studies have shown that IL/MOF composites show
      superior performances compared with pristine MOFs in various fields, such as gas
      storage, adsorption and membrane-based gas separation, catalysis, and ionic
      conductivity. In this review, we address the recent advances in syntheses of
      IL/MOF composites and provide a comprehensive overview of their applications.
      Opportunities and challenges of using IL/MOF composites in many applications are
      reviewed and the requirements for the utilization of these composite materials in
      real industrial processes are discussed to define the future directions in this
      field.

PMID- 28556606
TI  - Dinuclear Platinum(II) Complexes with Bone-Targeting Groups as Potential Anti
      Osteosarcoma Agents.
AB  - Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant bone tumor primarily affecting
      adolescents. Targeted platinum(II) complexes are promising candidates for
      overcoming the general toxicity of conventional platinum anticancer drugs. In
      this study four dinuclear platinum(II) complexes, {[cis-Pt(NH3 )2 Cl]2 (PD)} (NO3
      )2 (1), {[cis-Pt(NH3 )2 Cl]2 (PDBP)} (NO3 )2 (2), {[cis-Pt(DACH)Cl]2 (PD)} (NO3
      )2 (3), and {[cis-Pt(DACH)Cl]2 (PDBP)} (NO3 )2 (4) [PD=5,5'-carbonylbis(2-(2
      (pyridin-2-yl)ethyl)isoindoline-1,3-dione), PDBP=tetraethyl (((bis(1,3-dioxo-2-(2
      (pyridin-2-yl)ethyl)isoindolin-5-yl)methylene)amino) methylene)bis(phosphonate),
      DACH=1,2-diaminocyclohexane)], were designed and synthesized. The complexes were
      fully characterized by 1 H, 13 C, 195 Pt or 31 P NMR spectroscopy and HR-MS. ICP
      MS studies showed that considerable amounts of Pt accumulate in U2OS osteosarcoma
      cells. The interactions of the complexes with calf thymus DNA and plasmid pUC19
      DNA were investigated using CD and gel electrophoresis, which indicated that the
      complexes can react with DNA. The in vitro cytotoxicity showed that 2 is the most
      potent complex towards U2OS cells. The cellular inhibition mode was examined by
      flow cytometry. Complex 2 kills U2OS cells predominately through an apoptotic
      pathway and arrests the cell cycle mainly in the G2 or M phase. The results
      demonstrate that dinuclear platinum(II) complexes with bone-targeting groups
      could be anticancer agents for osteosarcoma.

PMID- 28556608
TI  - Impact of a National Controlled Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) Program on
      Organ Donation in the United Kingdom: A 10-Year Study.
AB  - Organ transplantation is the most successful treatment for some forms of organ
      failure, yet a lack of organs means many die on the waiting list. In the United
      Kingdom, the Organ Donation Taskforce was set up to identify barriers to organ
      donation and in 2008 released its first report (Organ Donation Taskforce Report;
      ODTR). This study assesses the success since the ODTR and examines the impact of
      the United Kingdom's controlled donation after circulatory death (DCD) program
      and the controversies surrounding it. There were 12 864 intended donation after
      brain death (DBD) or DCD donors from April 2004 to March 2014. When the 5 years
      preceding the ODTR was compared to the 5 years following, intended DCD donors
      increased 292% (1187 to 4652), and intended DBD donors increased 11% (3327 to
      3698). Organs retrieved per intended DBD donor remained static (3.30 to 3.26),
      whereas there was a decrease in DCD (1.54 to 0.99) due to a large rise in donors
      who did not proceed to donation (325 to 2464). The majority of DCD donors who
      proceeded did so within 30 min from time of withdrawal. Our study suggests
      further work on converting eligible referrals to organ donation and exploring
      methods of converting DCD to DBD donors.

PMID- 28556609
TI  - Psychological impact of a genetic diagnosis on hearing impairment-An exploratory
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Genetic testing for hereditary hearing impairment has become more
      routinely available as a diagnostic tool in the outpatient clinic. However,
      little is known about the psychological impact of a genetic diagnosis. To
      evaluate this impact, an exploratory study was conducted. DESIGN: Prospectively,
      48 individuals who underwent genetic testing for hereditary hearing impairment
      were included in this study. Study participants were asked to fill out the
      following questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, Impact of Event
      Scale, Self-Efficacy 24, Illness Cognition Questionnaire and the Inventory for
      Social Reliance. Questionnaires were filled out on three occasions: before
      genetic testing, directly after counselling on either positive or negative test
      results, and six weeks thereafter. RESULTS: No significant differences were found
      between the group that received a genetic diagnosis for their hearing impairment
      and the group that did not. CONCLUSION: This study did not demonstrate
      differences between receiving a genetic diagnosis or not; however, special
      attention to psychological well-being should be offered to hearing-impaired
      patients who seek a genetic diagnosis for their hearing impairment. Additionally,
      the psychological impact of sensorineural hearing impairment might be greater
      than the impact of a genetic diagnosis itself. Based on the current exploratory
      study, there are no psychological reasons in favour of or against genetic testing
      for hereditary hearing impairment.

PMID- 28556607
TI  - Translational Modeling to Guide Study Design and Dose Choice in Obesity
      Exemplified by AZD1979, a Melanin-concentrating Hormone Receptor 1 Antagonist.
AB  - In this study, we present the translational modeling used in the discovery of
      AZD1979, a melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCHr1) antagonist aimed for
      treatment of obesity. The model quantitatively connects the relevant biomarkers
      and thereby closes the scaling path from rodent to man, as well as from dose to
      effect level. The complexity of individual modeling steps depends on the quality
      and quantity of data as well as the prior information; from semimechanistic body
      composition models to standard linear regression. Key predictions are obtained by
      standard forward simulation (e.g., predicting effect from exposure), as well as
      non-parametric input estimation (e.g., predicting energy intake from longitudinal
      body-weight data), across species. The work illustrates how modeling integrates
      data from several species, fills critical gaps between biomarkers, and supports
      experimental design and human dose-prediction. We believe this approach can be of
      general interest for translation in the obesity field, and might inspire
      translational reasoning more broadly.

PMID- 28556610
TI  - VEGF release from a polymeric nanofiber scaffold for improved angiogenesis.
AB  - Angiogenesis plays a pivotal role in tissue engineering and regenerative
      medicine. This study aimed to develop an electrospun fiber scaffold that supports
      release of recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (rhVEGF) to
      enhance angiogenesis. Scaffolds composed of core-shell fibers were fabricated
      using co-electrospinning. The core solution was composed of polyethylene oxide
      and mixed with rhVEGF. The shell solution was composed of polycarpolactone, with
      0.25, 1, and 3% of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to manipulate pore size on the
      shell. Pore size and density increased with higher PEG concentrations. Similarly,
      rhVEGF release was affected by PEG concentration: initial burst release was found
      in all scaffolds, followed by continuous 4 h release in 3% PEG and 18 h release
      in the 0.25 and 1% PEG polymeric scaffolds. Endothelial cell migration toward
      rhVEGF-incorporated polymeric scaffold was 80-fold higher as compared to VEGF
      free polymeric scaffold. In a subcutaneous mouse model, VEGF-incorporated
      polymeric scaffold stimulated cell migration into the scaffold within three days
      and significantly enhanced blood vessels formation within 14 days, whereas
      control scaffolds contained few vessels. In conclusion, the described novel
      scaffold represents a promising device for vascular tissue engineering, which may
      be of clinical significance in treating vascular deficient wounds. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2712-2721, 2017.

PMID- 28556612
TI  - Identification of a novel HLA-C*08 allele, HLA-C*08:01:20.
AB  - HLA-C*08:01:20 differs from C*08:01:01 by a single nucleotide substitution at
      position 93 of exon 2.

PMID- 28556611
TI  - Defining the minimal clinically important difference for olfactory outcomes in
      the surgical treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Olfactory dysfunction is a common and defining symptom of chronic
      rhinosinusitis (CRS). Many measures of olfactory dysfunction in CRS are limited
      by scoring criteria defined within general populations with interpretations of
      statistical significance to infer clinically meaningful improvement. In this
      investigation we define a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for the
      Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) in CRS patients electing endoscopic sinus
      surgery (ESS). METHODS: A multicenter cohort of 290 adult patients electing ESS
      for medically recalcitrant CRS were prospectively enrolled between March 2011 and
      June 2015 and completed BSIT evaluations before and after ESS. Distribution and
      anchor-based analytic approaches were utilized to define MCID values of the BSIT
      across patient cofactors. RESULTS: A total of 92 (?32%) patients were found to
      have preoperative olfactory dysfunction (BSIT <9), significantly associated with
      nasal polyposis (chi2 = 35.0; p < 0.001). The effect-size distribution-based
      approach identified 1.0 as a MCID criterion value between "small" and "medium"
      effect (range, 0.61-1.52) overall. Significant mean postoperative change (DeltaM)
      was reported for patients with olfactory dysfunction (DeltaM = 2.28; p < 0.001),
      both with (n = 54; DeltaM = 2.52; p < 0.001) and without (n = 38; DeltaM = 1.95;
      p < 0.001) nasal polyposis, significantly exceeding the MCID criterion. Anchor
      based approaches with regression modeling confirmed associations between MCID
      values and postoperative changes to olfactory-specific survey responses (p <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: Clinically meaningful change in BSIT scores may be defined as
      an absolute value difference of at least 1.0 unit for heterogeneous patients
      electing ESS for CRS. Significantly exceeding this criterion may be restricted to
      CRS patients with baseline olfactory dysfunction, regardless of nasal polyposis.

PMID- 28556614
TI  - Preparation of arginine-modified reduced graphene oxide composite filled in an on
      line solid-phase extraction disk and its application in the analysis of
      heterocyclic aromatic amines.
AB  - An arginine-modified reduced graphene oxide composite was prepared in an on-line
      solid-phase extraction disk and coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography
      for the re-enrichment of heterocyclic aromatic amines. The synthetic composite
      presented an excellent adsorption capability because of the ultrahigh active
      surface area of graphene and the abundant alkaline groups of arginine. The
      adsorption capacity of it was 52.7 mg 2-amino-3-methyl-imidazo[4,5-f]-quinoline
      per gram, nearly twice that of threonine-modified reduced graphene oxide
      composite, glutamic acid modified reduced graphene oxide composite, and reduced
      graphene oxide. This on-line method was successfully applied to the detection of
      a series of heterocyclic aromatic amines in beef jerky. After clean-up and re
      enrichment of the on-line solid-phase extraction disk, the chromatographic
      background of the sample was low and the shape of chromatographic peaks was
      sharp. The method detection limit was in the range of 0.30-0.49 ng/g, and the
      recovery was in the range of 82.0-111.5%.

PMID- 28556613
TI  - Scale-up/Scale-down of microbial bioprocesses: a modern light on an old issue.
AB  - The bio-economy is in transit from innovation to commercialization. The
      bioprocess industry is expected to increasingly deliver bio-products to the
      market, in large amounts, at high quality and at competitive cost levels. This
      requires flawless start-up of new large-scale bioprocesses and continuous
      improvement of running processes. Fermentation scale-up and operation can benefit
      from recent advances in three areas: 1. computation-driven design of scale-down
      simulators, 2. omics-driven metabolic engineering and 3. sensing and
      understanding of population heterogeneity. Integration of these fields requires a
      unified computational approach, linked to big data and simulated reality
      frameworks, of which the contours are becoming visible today.

PMID- 28556615
TI  - Characteristics of germinal center-like structures in patients with Sjogren's
      syndrome.
AB  - AIM: To analyze the relationship between ectopic germinal centers (GCs) in the
      salivary glands and the clinical/laboratory characteristics of patients with
      Sjogren's syndrome (SS). METHODS: Retrospectively, 126 patients with primary SS
      (pSS) and 16 patients with secondary SS (sSS) were analyzed. Minor salivary gland
      biopsies were evaluated for the presence of GC-like morphology by hematoxylin and
      eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for CD21. Clinical and
      serological data were obtained from medical records. RESULTS: GC-like structures
      were observed in 36/126 (28.6%) pSS patients and 4/16 (25.0%) sSS patients. The
      mean inflammatory focus score of the gland was significantly higher in GC
      positive samples than in GC-negative ones in both pSS and sSS patients (P = 0.007
      and 0.024, respectively). In pSS, significantly elevated titers of rheumatoid
      factor (RF)-IgM (P = 0.023) and antinuclear antibodies (ANA) (P = 0.036),
      increased levels of IgA (P = 0.012) and IgG (P = 0.017) were encountered in GC
      positive patients. The GC-positive group also presented higher prevalence of anti
      SSA antibodies, lower levels of white blood cells, higher levels of erythrocyte
      sedimentation rate and gamma-globulin, although not statistically significant. In
      sSS patients with ectopic GC formation, ANA titers were remarkably elevated. The
      anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP)-IgG titers and the prevalence of
      antikeratin antibody (AKA)-IgG, antiperinuclear factor (APF)-IgG were also
      increased, yet not significantly. GCs were found to be associated with antibody
      and immunoglobulin production. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that SS patients
      with ectopic GCs have distinct features. Ectopic GC structures were particularly
      noted in patients with higher focus scores, and might play an essential role in
      sustaining antibody production as well as B cell activation.

PMID- 28556616
TI  - Fast-acting insulin aspart in Japanese patients with type 1 diabetes: Faster
      onset, higher early exposure and greater early glucose-lowering effect relative
      to insulin aspart.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fast-acting insulin aspart (faster aspart) is insulin aspart (IAsp)
      in a new formulation with two added excipients (niacinamide and L-arginine) in
      order to obtain accelerated absorption after subcutaneous dosing. The present
      study compared the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic characteristics of faster
      aspart vs IAsp in Japanese patients with type 1 diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      In a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design, 43 participants were given
      faster aspart and IAsp (0.2 U/kg single dose) at two separate dosing visits.
      Frequent pharmacokinetic blood sampling was carried out, and pharmacodynamics
      were assessed using an automated euglycemic clamp lasting for a maximum of 12 h
      after dosing (target 5.5 mmol/L). RESULTS: Faster aspart showed onset of
      appearance approximately twice-as-fast vs IAsp (least squares means: 3.0 vs 7.1
      min; estimated treatment difference -4.1 min, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -5.0,
      -3.2; P < 0.001) and onset of action occurring approximately 5 min earlier (20.2
      vs 25.5 min; estimated treatment difference -5.3 min, 95% CI: -8.4, -2.2; P =
      0.001). Within the first 30 min post-dose, both exposure (area under the curve
      [AUC]IAsp,0-30 min ) and glucose-lowering effect (AUCGIR,0-30 min ) were
      approximately twofold greater for faster aspart vs IAsp (P < 0.001 and P = 0.002,
      respectively). Bioavailability of faster aspart was similar to IAsp (AUCIAsp,0-t
      ; estimated treatment ratio 0.99, 90% CI: 0.96-1.02), whereas the total glucose
      lowering effect (AUCGIR,0-t ) was slightly lower for faster aspart vs IAsp
      (estimated treatment ratio 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87-0.99, P = 0.020). CONCLUSIONS:
      Faster aspart showed faster onset, higher early exposure and a greater early
      glucose-lowering effect relative to IAsp in Japanese patients with type 1
      diabetes, in accordance with previous findings in Caucasian type 1 diabetes
      patients.

PMID- 28556617
TI  - Discovery of ectosymbiotic Endomicrobium lineages associated with protists in the
      gut of stolotermitid termites.
AB  - The genus Endomicrobium is a dominant bacterial group in the gut of lower
      termites, and most phylotypes are intracellular symbionts of gut protists. Here
      we report the discovery of Endomicrobium ectosymbionts of termite gut protists.
      We found that bristle-like Endomicrobium cells attached to the surface of
      spirotrichosomid protist cells inhabiting the termite Stolotermes victoriensis.
      Transmission electron microscopy revealed that a putative Endomicrobium cell
      likely attached to the protist surface via a protrusion from the tip of the
      bacterium. A phylotype, sharing 98.9% 16S rRNA sequence identity with the
      Endomicrobium ectosymbionts of the spirotrichosomid protists, was also found on
      the cell surface of the protist Trichonympha magna in the gut of the termite
      Porotermes adamsoni. We propose the novel species 'Candidatus Endomicrobium
      superficiale' for these bacteria. T. magna simultaneously harboured another
      Endomicrobium ectosymbiont that shared 93.5-94.2% 16S rRNA sequence identities
      with 'Ca. Endomicrobium superficiale'. Furthermore, Spirotrichonympha-like
      protists in P. adamsoni guts were associated with an Endomicrobium phylotype that
      possibly attached to the host flagella. A phylogenetic analysis suggested that
      these ectosymbiotic lineages have evolved multiple times from free-living
      Endomicrobium lineages and are relatively distant from the endosymbionts. Our
      results provide novel insights into the ecology and evolution of the
      Endomicrobium.

PMID- 28556618
TI  - High-Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cell Based on Poly(3-Hexylthiophene): Influence
      of Molecular Weight and Mesoscopic Scaffold Layer.
AB  - Here, we investigated the effect of the molecular weight (MW) of poly 3
      hexylthiophene (P3HT) hole-transport material on the performance of perovskite
      solar cells (PSCs). We found that by increasing the MW the photovoltaic
      performances of the cells are enhanced leading to an improvement of the overall
      efficiency. P3HT-based PSCs with a MW of 124 kDa can achieve an overall average
      efficiency of 16.2 %, double with respect to the ones with a MW of 44 kDa.
      Opposite to spiro-OMeTAD-based PSCs, the photovoltaic parameters of the P3HT
      based devices are enhanced by increasing the mesoporous TiO2 layer thickness from
      250 to 500 nm. Moreover, for a titania scaffold layer thickness of 500 nm, the
      efficiency of P3HT-based PSCs with high MW is larger than the spiro-OMeTAD based
      PSCs with the same scaffold layer thickness. Recombination reactions of the
      devices were also investigated by voltage decay and electrochemical impedance
      spectroscopy. We found that the relationship between P3HT MW and cell performance
      is related to the reduction of charge recombination and to the increase of the
      P3HT light absorption by increasing the MW.

PMID- 28556619
TI  - Enhanced process understanding and multivariate prediction of the relationship
      between cell culture process and monoclonal antibody quality.
AB  - This work investigates the insights and understanding which can be deduced from
      predictive process models for the product quality of a monoclonal antibody based
      on designed high-throughput cell culture experiments performed at milliliter
      (ambr-15(r) ) scale. The investigated process conditions include various media
      supplements as well as pH and temperature shifts applied during the process.
      First, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to show the strong correlation
      characteristics among the product quality attributes including aggregates,
      fragments, charge variants, and glycans. Then, partial least square regression
      (PLS1 and PLS2) is applied to predict the product quality variables based on
      process information (one by one or simultaneously). The comparison of those two
      modeling techniques shows that a single (PLS2) model is capable of revealing the
      interrelationship of the process characteristics to the large set product quality
      variables. In order to show the dynamic evolution of the process predictability
      separate models are defined at different time points showing that several product
      quality attributes are mainly driven by the media composition and, hence, can be
      decently predicted from early on in the process, while others are strongly
      affected by process parameter changes during the process. Finally, by coupling
      the PLS2 models with a genetic algorithm first the model performance can be
      further improved and, most importantly, the interpretation of the large
      dimensioned process-product-interrelationship can be significantly simplified.
      The generally applicable toolset presented in this case study provides a solid
      basis for decision making and process optimization throughout process
      development. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog.,
      33:1368-1380, 2017.

PMID- 28556621
TI  - Measuring the aggregation of CHO cells prior to single cell cloning allows a more
      accurate determination of the probability of clonality.
AB  - The manufacturing process for biotherapeutics is closely regulated by the Food
      and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other
      regulatory agencies worldwide. To ensure consistency of the product of a
      manufacturing cell line, International Committee on Harmonization guidelines
      (Q5D, 1997) state that the cell substrate should be derived from a single cell
      progenitor, i.e., clonal.Cell lines in suspension culture may naturally revert to
      cell adhesion in the form of doublets, triplets and higher order structures of
      clustered cells. We can show evidence of a single colony from limiting dilution
      cloning or in semi-solid media, but we cannot determine the number of cells from
      which the colony originated. To address this, we have used the ViCELL(r) XR
      (Beckman Coulter, High Wycombe, UK) cell viability analyzer to determine the
      proportion of clusters of two or more cells in a sample of the cell suspension
      immediately prior to cloning. Here, we show data to define the accuracy of the
      ViCELL for characterizing a cell suspension and summarize the statistical model
      combining two or more rounds of cloning to derive the probability of clonality.
      The resulting statistical model is applied to cloning in semi-solid medium, but
      could equally be applied to a limiting dilution cloning process. We also describe
      approaches to reduce cell clusters to generate a cell line with a high
      probability of clonality from a CHO host lineage. (c) 2017 American Institute of
      Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:593-601, 2018.

PMID- 28556620
TI  - Systematic Review of Quantitative Measures of Stakeholder Engagement.

PMID- 28556622
TI  - Predictors of Hospitalization, Length of Stay, and Cost of Care Among Adults With
      Dermatomyositis in the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for hospitalization with
      dermatomyositis and assess inpatient burden of dermatomyositis. METHODS: Data on
      72,651,487 hospitalizations from the 2002-2012 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a 20%
      stratified sample of all acute-care hospitalizations in the US, were analyzed.
      International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification
      coding was used to identify hospitalizations with a diagnosis of dermatomyositis.
      RESULTS: There were 9,687 and 43,188 weighted admissions with a primary or
      secondary diagnosis of dermatomyositis, respectively. In multivariable logistic
      regression models with stepwise selection, female sex (logistic regression:
      adjusted odds ratio 2.05 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.80, 2.34]), nonwhite
      race (African American: 1.68 [1.57, 1.79]; Hispanic: 2.38 [2.22, 2.55]; Asian:
      1.54 [1.32, 1.81]; and multiracial/other: 1.65 [1.45, 1.88]), and multiple
      chronic conditions (2-5: 2.39 [2.20, 2.60] and >=6: 2.80 [2.56, 3.07]) were all
      associated with higher rates of hospitalization for dermatomyositis. The weighted
      total length of stay (LOS) and inflation-adjusted cost of care for patients with
      a primary inpatient diagnosis of dermatomyositis was 80,686 days and
      $168,076,970, with geometric means of 5.38 (95% CI 5.08, 5.71) and $11,682 (95%
      CI $11,013, $12,392), respectively. LOS and costs of hospitalization were
      significantly higher in patients with dermatomyositis compared to those without.
      Notably, race/ethnicity was associated with increased LOS (log-linear regression:
      adjusted beta [95% CI] for African American: 0.14 [0.04, 0.25] and Asian: 0.38
      [0.22, 0.55]) and cost of care (Asian: 0.51 [0.36, 0.67]). CONCLUSION: There is a
      significant and increasing inpatient burden for dermatomyositis in the US. There
      appear to be racial differences, as nonwhites have higher prevalence of
      admission, increased LOS, and cost of care.

PMID- 28556624
TI  - A Quantitative Systems Physiology Model of Renal Function and Blood Pressure
      Regulation: Application in Salt-Sensitive Hypertension.
AB  - Salt-sensitivity (SS) refers to changes in blood pressure in response to changes
      in sodium intake. SS individuals are at greater risk for developing kidney
      disease, and also respond differently to antihypertensive therapies compared to
      salt-resistant (SR) individuals. In this study we used a systems pharmacology
      model of renal function (presented in a companion article) to evaluate the
      ability of proposed mechanisms to produce salt-sensitivity. The model reproduced
      previously published data on renal functional changes in response to salt-intake,
      and also predicted that glomerular pressure, a variable that is not easily
      evaluated clinically but is a key factor in renal injury, increases with salt
      intake in SS hypertension. We then used the model to generate mechanistic insight
      into the differential blood pressure and glomerular pressure responses to
      angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, thiazide diuretics, and calcium
      channel blockers observed in SS and SR hypertension.

PMID- 28556623
TI  - Ultrasonography-driven combination antibiotic therapy with tigecycline
      significantly increases survival among patients with neutropenic enterocolitis
      following cytarabine-containing chemotherapy for the remission induction of acute
      myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Neutropenic enterocolitis (NEC) is an abdominal infection reported primarily in
      patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) following chemotherapy, especially
      cytarabine, a notable efficacious cytotoxic agent for AML remission. Specific
      data regarding the impact of different cytarabine schedules and/or antibacterial
      regimens for NEC are sparse. The aim of the study was to identify the predictors
      of outcome within 30 days of NEC onset. NEC episodes were retrospectively
      pinpointed among 440 patients with newly diagnosed AML hospitalized in our
      Institution, over a 10-year period, for receiving chemotherapy protocols with 100
      6000 mg/m2 daily of cytarabine. Two subgroups, survivors versus nonsurvivors,
      were compared by using logistic regression analysis. NEC was documented in 100 of
      420 (23.8%) analyzed patients: 42.5% had received high-dose cytarabine, whereas
      19% and 15% intermediate-dose and standard-dose cytarabine, respectively (P <
      0.001). The 30-day NEC attributable mortality rate was 23%. In univariate
      analysis, antileukemic protocols containing robust dosages of cytarabine were
      significantly associated with high mortality (P < 0.001); whereas, standard-dose
      cytarabine and prompt initiation (at the ultrasonographic appearance of
      intestinal mural thickening) of NEC therapy with antibiotic combinations
      including tigecycline were significantly associated with low mortality. In
      multivariate analysis, high-dose cytarabine-containing chemotherapy was the
      independent predictor of poor outcome (odds ratio [OR]: 0.109; 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.032-0.364; P < 0.001), whereas ultrasonography-driven NEC
      therapy with antibiotic regimens including tigecycline was associated with a
      favorable outcome (OR: 13.161; 95% CI: 1.587-109.17; P = 0.017). Chemotherapy
      schedules with robust dosages of cytarabine for AML remission are associated with
      a high rate of NEC incidence and attributable. Vigorous antibacterial therapy,
      triggered off pathologic ultrasonographic findings, with drug combinations which
      have broad antimicrobial coverage and good gut penetration, specifically those
      also including tigecycline, may be effective in improving 30-day survival rate
      after NEC onset.

PMID- 28556626
TI  - Media development for large scale Agrobacterium tumefaciens culture.
AB  - A chemically defined media was developed for growing Agrobacterium tumefaciens at
      large scale for commercial production of recombinant proteins by transient
      expression in plants. Design of experiments was used to identify major and
      secondary effects of ten media components: sucrose, ammonium sulfate ((NH4 )2 SO4
      ), magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (MgSO4 *7H2 O), calcium chloride dihydrate
      (CaCl2 *2H2 O), iron (II) sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO4 *7H2 O), manganese (II)
      sulfate monohydrate (MnSO4 *H2 O), zinc sulfate heptahydrate (ZnSO4 *7H2 O),
      sodium chloride (NaCl), potassium chloride (KCl) and a sodium/potassium phosphate
      buffer (Na2 HPO4 /KH2 PO4 ). Calcium and zinc were found to have no detectable
      impact on biomass concentration or transient expression level, and concentrations
      of the other components that maximized final biomass concentration were
      determined. The maximum specific growth rate of Agrobacterium strain C58C1 pTFS40
      in this media was 0.33 +/- 0.01 h-1 and the final biomass concentration after 26
      h of batch growth in shake flasks was 2.6 g dry cell weight/L. Transient
      expression levels of the reporter protein GUS following infiltration of a
      recombinant Agrobacterium strain C58C1 into N. benthamiana were comparable when
      the strain was grown in the defined media, Lysogeny Broth (LB) media, or yeast
      extract-peptone (YEP) media. In LB and YEP media, free amino acid concentration
      was measured at three points over the course of batch growth of Agrobacterium
      strain C58C1 pTFS40; results indicated that l-serine and l-asparagine were
      depleted from the media first, followed by l-alanine and l-glutamic acid. (c)
      2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1218-1225,
      2017.

PMID- 28556625
TI  - Suppression of a methionine synthase by calmodulin under environmental stress in
      the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana.
AB  - Methionine synthase (MetE, EC 2.1.1.14) catalyses the final step in the
      methionine biosynthetic pathway. Methionine biosynthesis plays a major role in
      protein biogenesis and is the source of S-adenosyl methionine (SAM), the
      universal donor of methyl groups. In this study, we demonstrated that BbMetE acts
      as a typical MetE enzyme in the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. In
      addition, we found that BbMetE binds to calmodulin (CaM) in vitro and in vivo.
      The functional role of CaM binding to BbMetE was to negatively regulate BbMetE
      activity in B. bassiana. Our proton-nuclear magnetic resonance data revealed that
      CaM inhibitor W-7 increases methionine content in B. bassiana, suggesting that
      CaM negatively regulates the BbMetE activity. Environmental stress stimuli such
      as salt, H2 O2 and heat suppressed BbMetE activity in B. bassiana. W-7 reversed
      this effect, suggesting that the inhibitory mechanism is mediated through
      stimulation of CaM activity. Therefore, this work suggests that BbMetE plays an
      important role in methionine biosynthesis, which is mediated by environmental
      stress stimuli via the CaM signalling pathway.

PMID- 28556627
TI  - A Mathematical Model to Predict HIV Virological Failure and Elucidate the Role of
      Lymph Node Drug Penetration.
AB  - Preventing virological failure following HIV treatment remains a difficult task
      that is further complicated by the emergence of drug resistance. We have
      developed a mathematical model able to explain and predict HIV virological
      outcomes for various compounds and patients' drug intake patterns. Compared to
      current approaches, this model considers, altogether, drug penetration into lymph
      nodes, a refined adherence representation accounting for the propensity for long
      drug holidays, population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variability, drug
      interaction, and crossresistance. In silico results are consistent with clinical
      observations for treatment with efavirenz, efavirenz in association with
      tenofovir DF and emtricitabine, or boosted darunavir. Our findings indicate that
      limited lymph node drug penetration can account for a large proportion of cases
      of virological failure and drug resistance. Since a limited amount of information
      is required by the model, it can be of use in the process of drug discovery and
      to guide clinical treatment strategies.

PMID- 28556629
TI  - In vitro methanol production from methyl coenzyme M using the Methanosarcina
      barkeri MtaABC protein complex.
AB  - Methanol:coenzyme M methyltransferase is an enzyme complex composed of three
      subunits, MtaA, MtaB, and MtaC, found in methanogenic archaea and is needed for
      their growth on methanol ultimately producing methane. MtaABC catalyzes the
      energetically favorable methyl transfer from methanol to coenzyme M to form
      methyl coenzyme M. Here we demonstrate that this important reaction for possible
      production of methanol from the anaerobic oxidation of methane can be reversed in
      vitro. To this effect, we have expressed and purified the Methanosarcina barkeri
      MtaABC enzyme, and developed an in vitro functional assay that demonstrates
      MtaABC can catalyze the energetically unfavorable (DeltaG degrees  = 27 kJ/mol)
      reverse reaction starting from methyl coenzyme M and generating methanol as a
      product. Demonstration of an in vitro ability of MtaABC to produce methanol may
      ultimately enable the anaerobic oxidation of methane to produce methanol and from
      methanol alternative fuel or fuel-precursor molecules. (c) 2017 American
      Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1243-1249, 2017.

PMID- 28556628
TI  - Tris-base buffer: a promising new inhibitor for cancer progression and
      metastasis.
AB  - Neutralizing tumor external acidity with oral buffers has proven effective for
      the prevention and inhibition of metastasis in several cancer mouse models. Solid
      tumors are highly acidic as a result of high glycolysis combined with an
      inadequate blood supply. Our prior work has shown that sodium bicarbonate,
      imidazole, and free-base (but not protonated) lysine are effective in reducing
      tumor progression and metastasis. However, a concern in translating these results
      to clinic has been the presence of counter ions and their potential undesirable
      side effects (e.g., hypernatremia). In this work, we investigate
      tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, (THAM or Tris), a primary amine with no counter
      ion, for its effects on metastasis and progression in prostate and pancreatic
      cancer in vivo models using MRI and bioluminescence imaging. At an ad lib
      concentration of 200 mmol/L, Tris effectively inhibited metastasis in both models
      and furthermore led to a decrease in the expression of the major glucose
      transporter, GLUT-1. Our results also showed that Tris-base buffer (pH 8.4) had
      no overt toxicity to C3H mice even at higher doses (400 mmol/L). In conclusion,
      we have developed a novel therapeutic approach to manipulate tumor extracellular
      pH (pHe) that could be readily adapted to a clinical trial.

PMID- 28556630
TI  - Posterior wall left ventricular aneurysm repair.
AB  - Posterior wall aneurysms are a relatively rare form of left ventricular aneurysm
      that can sometimes involve the mitral valve. This tutorial illustrates the
      technical aspects of posterior wall left ventricular aneurysm repair.

PMID- 28556632
TI  - Multi-vessel small thoracotomy coronary artery bypass using in situ bilateral
      internal thoracic arteries and right gastroepiploic artery.
AB  - We present an innovative method of minimally invasive total arterial
      revascularization on a beating heart, using in situ bilateral internal thoracic
      arteries and laparoscopically harvested in situ right gastroepiploic artery. The
      safety and feasibility of this technique have been established.

PMID- 28556634
TI  - Uniportal VATS for treatment of bullous lung disease.
AB  - This tutorial shows the resection of a bulla by uniportal video assisted
      thoracoscopic surgery in bullous lung disease. This disease is a benign condition
      requiring treatment in cases of severe dyspnea, spontaneous secondary
      pneumothorax, repeated infection, hemoptysis, and an increase in bulla size. The
      uniportal VATS approach results in less pain, better cosmoses, and a quicker
      recovery for the patient.

PMID- 28556635
TI  - [The hospitalized morbidity of the population older than working age of the
      Russian Federation].
AB  - The article presents the distribution of patients older than working age, retired
      from the hospital, analyzed the hospitalized morbidity by classes of diseases and
      separate nosology in the Russian Federation for the period 2010-2014 years
      (according to the form of Federal statistical observation No 14). During the
      study period, the number of persons of retirement age, people released from
      hospital care, increased by 13,45 % reported a slight increase in the rate of
      hospital morbidity by 0,14 %. The main reasons for treatment in hospital
      organizations are diseases of the circulatory system, neoplasms, diseases of the
      digestive system, respiratory system, eye and adnexa, etc. The average duration
      of stay on the bed of patients older than working age in hospitals were analysed
      accordingly classes of diseases. Over 5 years the indicator decreased by 1,3 days
      (from 14,2 to 12,9 days).

PMID- 28556636
TI  - [Trends of population aging in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): socio-demographic
      aspect].
AB  - The scale and the signs of population aging in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),
      having expressed gender differences, have been defined. In the course of the
      analysis it have been revealed that the decline in mortality and life expectancy
      growth, migratory outflow of young population, reducing the number of children
      led to an increase in the number of older persons. It was found that the increase
      and redistribution of the dependency rate on the working population in the
      direction of older people acts as a consequence of the aging process. The survey
      of the employment behaviour of the elderly population of the Republic showed that
      the main activity motives of elderly are instrumental and social.

PMID- 28556637
TI  - [Length telomere leukocytes as ageing markers and risk factors for age-related
      diseases in humans].
AB  - The purpose of the research was studying of leukocyte telomere length association
      with age, sex, risk factors for age-related diseases in Russian people of pre
      retirement and retirement age. By quantitative real-time PCR method we studied
      the leukocyte telomere length in 398 men (56,3+/-7,2 years) and 365 women (56,6+/
      7,1 years) selected from a population sample of 45-69 year-old residents of the
      Oktyabrsky and Kirovsky districts of Novosibirsk (9 400 people). The selection
      was formed in the course of work on the international project HAPIEE. As a
      result, an inverse correlation of telomere length with age (r=-0,159, r<0,001),
      with the ratio waist / hips (r=-0,107, p=0,003) was found out. The average length
      of telomeres in women significantly more than in men, p=0,031.The correlation of
      telomere length in males with weight (r=0,140, p=0,005), waist size (r=0,111,
      p=0,027) was found out. In women, there is an inverse correlation of telomere
      length with a waist size (r=-0,127, p=0,015), the ratio of waist / hips (r=
      0,141, p=0,007). The length of telomeres is an inverse correlation with
      correlation with quantity of the cigarettes smoked (r=-0,121, r=0,024). The
      length of telomeres leukocytes correlates with age, smoking, and a number of
      phenotypical signs. In men with the family anamnesis burdened by malignancies
      leucocytes telomere length was found to be greater than in men without such
      anamnesis.

PMID- 28556638
TI  - [Role of PLAT, PKHD1L1, STK38L and TEAD1 genes Alu-polymorphism for longevity].
AB  - The distribution of allele and genotype frequencies of Alu(I/D)-polymorphic sites
      in PLAT (TPA25), PKHD1L1 (Yb8AC702), STK38L (Ya5ac2145) i TEAD1 (Ya5ac2013) genes
      was first characterized in the ethnically homogeneous group (Tatars from the
      Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia), and was established (found) the association
      of each gene polymorphism with age. The study group consisted of 1580 unrelated
      individuals aged between 21 and 109 years, including 204 long-livers. It was
      found that STK38L*I/D genotype had positive association with longevity in the
      total group (OR=1,016, p=0,034). Long-lived women had a high probability of
      detection of PKHD1L1*I/I (OR=1,289, p=0,009), PLAT*D/D (OR=1,175, p=0,016) and
      TEAD1*I/I (OR=1,047, p=0,042) genotypes. PKHD1L1*I/D genotype was a significant
      factor in providing of male longevity (OR=1,713, p=0,030). Therefore, age
      dependent changes in genotype frequencies are specific for each studied gene.

PMID- 28556639
TI  - [Bioinformatic investigation of the involvement of candidate genes of cytokines
      in the formation of large myomatous nodes in women with uterine cancer in older
      age groups].
AB  - The aim was to study bioinformatics involvement of candidate genes of cytokines
      in the formation of large fibroids in women with uterine cancer in older age
      groups. Genotyping of 15 molecular genetic markers cytokines was performed in 120
      patients with uterine myoma with large myoma nodes and 107 patients with myoma
      nodes of small size. The study found that genetic risk factors for fibroids with
      large uterine fibroids are two combinations of genetic variants: G SDF-1, CC IL
      1beta, A RANTES (OR=5,56) and A RANTES with genotype CC IL-1beta (OR=4,60). 12 of
      15 polymorphic loci studied in various combinations (8 revealed significant
      combinations) have protective value in the formation of large fibroids with
      uterine cancer (OR=0,09-0,31).

PMID- 28556640
TI  - ["Protein of senility" CCL11, "protein of juvenility" GDF11 and their role in age
      related pathology].
AB  - The paper presents the latest literature data on the structure and functions of
      "protein of juvenility" - CCL11 and "protein of senility" - GDF11. Chemokine
      CCL11 injected to young animals has been shown to lead to degenerative changes in
      the central nervous system (CNS), disturb cognitive functions and impede tissue
      regeneration. CCL11 concentration increases dramatically in schizophrenia,
      Alzheimer's disease, neuro-inflammatory disorders, cerebral malaria, drug
      addiction, as well as in atherosclerosis, periodontal disease, macular
      degeneration, cancer and other pathologies. In contrast to CCL11, differentiation
      growth factor 11 (GDF11), being administered to old mice, eliminates age
      associated hypertrophy of the heart, improves muscle tone and prevents
      degenerative changes in the CNS, improves cognitive functions and enhances tissue
      regeneration. Its concentration decreases in cardiovascular disease,
      osteoporosis, and other "diseases of old age". At the same time, the higher the
      GDF11 level in the blood, the milder myocardial infarction, stroke and other age
      related diseases of the cardiovascular system.

PMID- 28556641
TI  - [Age-related changes Kernogan's index of venous vessels hollow and parenchymatous
      organs at stages of a postnatal ontogenesis].
AB  - Kernogan's index determination of hollow and parenchymatous organs' venous
      vessels was conducted on 80 men corpses of the three age groups. Average age of
      the investigated men corpses of the mature period is 27,8+/-4,2 years, elderly -
      67,8+/-3,7 years, senile - 81,9+/-4,5 years. The age variability transformation
      of venous vessels bandwidth of lungs, kidneys, heart, stomach and ileum were
      obligate. It was revealed that the Kernogan's index of venous vessels changes can
      be equally detected at different age periods. While, with the obsolence, there is
      a gradual indicator's decline, which is mostly discerned in parenchymatous
      organs, while for the hollow organs transformations are less essentic.

PMID- 28556642
TI  - [Bilateral stenoses of carotids. The surgical treatment in acute period of
      ischemic stroke in patients of different age groups].
AB  - The study included 138 patients who had 193 reconstructive operations on carotid
      arteries (CA) in the acute period of ischemic stroke. The 1st group included 22
      patients with bilateral stenosis, age under 60 years; the 2nd group - 33 patients
      with a bilateral stenosis at the age more than 60 years; the 3rd group consisted
      of 83 patients with bilateral stenosis of the ipsilateral CA were operated in an
      acute period of ischemic stroke, but with contraindications and/or refused the
      surgery on the contralateral CA. Brain computer tomography, ultrasound duplex
      scanning of the CA with the assessment degree of stenosis and structure of
      plaques, also MSCT-AG of the head and neck vessels were performed for all
      patients. Cerebral oximeter was used for assessing adequate cerebral perfusion
      during cross-clamping of the CA. Indications for the installation of a temporary
      intraluminal shunt during cross-clamping of the CA performed according to the
      method.

PMID- 28556643
TI  - [Recent medical techniques for peripheral nerve repair: nerve guidance conduits
      update].
AB  - The review deals with recent medical methods of reconstruction of peripheral
      nerve injuries, especially using the technology of nerve guidance conduits
      (NGCs), as well as scientific and applied prospects of further development of
      clinical and technical research in this area. In neurosurgery established
      techniques for the treatment of peripheral nerve injures include the matching and
      suturing of severed nerve fibers (however, it is important to avoid tension in
      gaps for effective regeneration of the nerve fiber), as well as allo/autologous
      nerve grafting for larger gaps (gold standard of repair). Unfortunately, this
      treatment is not always feasible in a number of clinical situations, has
      drawbacks and is associated with a potential risk of postoperative complications;
      in particular applying of donor transplants is complicated immunological
      incompatibility reactions. The use of implantable artificial tunneling device
      known as a nerve guidance conduit is an alternative method of reconstruction,
      contributing to the physiological regeneration of nerve fiber. The article
      describes technical engineering constructions - including by using various non-
      and biomaterials, liquid metals, light/laser, methods of electrospinning and
      microstereolithography - which are either commercially available or pre-tested
      and clinical studies detailing outcomes and reconstructive options. The review
      emphasizes that the further development of scientific research in the field of
      new materials and polymers, as well as techniques for the preparation and
      implantation of nerve conduits and their subsequent practical assessment is
      necessary for clinical medicine and rehabilitation.

PMID- 28556644
TI  - [Characteristics of inflammatory response in patients after senile cataract
      surgery].
AB  - The aim of the work was to study prognostic value of some laboratory markers
      (anti-DNA antibodies, cell adhesive molecules, neopterin) in heriatric patients
      with exudative inflammation after cataract surgery. 12 in-patients with
      postoperative iridocyclitis and endophthalmitis were included. The assays were
      taken twice: after admission and before discharging. The follow-up period was 6
      months. Preliminary data show that high serum levels of sVCAM, sICAM and anti-DNA
      antibodies, as well as very low levels of anti-DNA antibodies seems to be
      associated with poor outcomes in those patients (enucleation, blindness, lens
      extraction). Small cohort doesn't allow us to make strict conclusion about
      prognostic value of these laboratory markers. The study should be continued.

PMID- 28556646
TI  - [Clinical features of patients of older age groups with uterine myoma].
AB  - The study analyzed 301 patients with uterine cancer at the age of 45 years and
      older and 304 patients with uterine myoma 45 years. It was found that patients
      with uterine myoma of the older age group (45 and older) have the following
      clinical features: overweight and thus increased BMI these women, a lower
      percentage of a family history of uterine cancer, a smaller percentage of
      infertility, a greater number of pregnancies, births, medical abortions, the high
      prevalence of diseases of the cardiovascular system and pathology of the cervix,
      large size fibroids and as a consequence more common compartment syndrome
      adjacent organs by myoma nodes (disuric disorders).

PMID- 28556645
TI  - [Age features of cytogenetic effects of spring-summer encephalitis among
      residents of northern western Siberia in connection with polymorphism for genes
      of glutathione-S-transferase].
AB  - The aim of this work was a comparative study of the effects of spring diseases
      cytogenetic years of tick-borne encephalitis in elderly and young age due to
      differences in genes of glutathione-S-transferase. Surveyed by routine
      cytogenetics 120 patients with tick-borne encephalitis residents North of Tomsk
      region. We have taken in the study persons aged 20-35 years (Group 1) and 65-85
      years old (Group 2). Material for study (buccal epithelium) was taken from each
      subject 3-5 times: 1st-2nd day after hospitalization, in 1 week, 1, 3 and 6
      months. Tick-borne encephalitis infection causes a significantly large changes in
      cytogenetic regimens using buccal epithelium in the elderly than in younger
      patients. Restoring cytogenetic norms observed in a group of young in 3 months
      after hospitalization, in the elderly - in 6 months. When comparing cytogenetic
      effects of encephalitis shows: the young patients tick-borne encephalitis level
      by routine cytogenetics abnormal cells was significantly higher in carriers of
      inactive forms of gene GSTM1 (0)/GSTT1 (0) than containing active homozygous
      variants of these genes. Such patterns have not been noted in a group of elderly
      patients.

PMID- 28556647
TI  - [The problem of osteoporosis in patients with cardiovascular and broncho
      obstructive disease].
AB  - The article deals with the problem of osteoporosis in patients with
      cardiovascular and broncho-obstructive disease. The risk factors and clinical
      functional features of osteoporosis are analyzed in patients with coronary heart
      disease, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchial asthma.
      Indicators of bone mineral density in patients with cardiovascular and broncho
      obstructive disease on average meet the criteria for osteopenia. Most examinees
      had a high risk of osteoporotic fractures as a result of significant reduction in
      bone mineral density. The presence of osteoporosis in patients with
      cardiovascular and broncho-obstructive pathology from the point of co-morbidity
      results in a syndrome of mutual aggravation that determines the need for a
      comprehensive diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

PMID- 28556648
TI  - [Compensate restructuring of high cortical regulation of movement in aging at
      chronic cerebral ischemia].
AB  - Dynamic praxis was tested in three groups: two groups of old responders with
      cognitive impairment of varying severity and one group of old responders sick of
      vascular dementia. These groups were compared. Methodological basis this research
      is Luriya's theory of system dynamic localization psychic functions. We found
      changes of dynamic praxis in aging. Motor acts some slow in Old responders with
      mild cognitive impairment. They compensate this deficit through laud speech,
      increase of latent period before motor act. Responders with cognitive impairment
      have motor perseverations, movement slowdown, which were more often at vascular
      dementia. They could not compensate motor deficits in fully. But same of them can
      compensate motor deficit after prompting or hit.

PMID- 28556649
TI  - [The role of a lysine residue in the antioxidant and dna-protective activity of
      oligopeptides].
AB  - Oligopeptides present in the living cell were found to have antioxidative
      activity and to be involved in the regulation of antioxidant balance by
      interaction with the redox-dependent cellular signaling cascades. Experiments on
      animal models have shown that the introduction of oligopeptides causes
      geroprotective and adaptogenic effects. In the present work, we investigate the
      biological action of a number of synthetic oligopeptides using bacterial
      biosensors. This approach allows us to precisely estimate the antioxidant
      properties of the compounds without affecting their participation in regulatory
      cascades typical to eukaryotic cells. It has been shown that the ability of
      oligopeptides to protect cells from action of physical prooxidant factors (UV
      irradiation) is related to the presence of a lysine residue in the molecule. For
      chemical pro-oxidants (dioxidine), we have observed a similar, though less strict
      pattern. This effect also correlates with DNA-protective activity of the
      investigated oligopeptides.

PMID- 28556651
TI  - [Objectification feasibility stage dynamic control damage in patients elderly and
      senile with polytrauma].
AB  - In this work the results of treatment of 116 patients with polytrauma older age
      groups was analysed, the comparison group consisted of 55 patients with multiple
      injuries aged 20 to 40 years. The objective of the study was the search of
      criteria of the objectification assess the severity of condition of patients of
      elderly and senile age with polytrauma on the basis of laboratory parameters and
      evaluation of the influence of concomitant somatic pathology on the level of
      lethality. We analysed the significance of each of the selected indicators and
      their entirety, thereby simplifying the formation of evidence-informed way to
      predict fatal outcome in patients of elderly and senile age with polytrauma.

PMID- 28556650
TI  - [Oxidative DNA damage in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease in older patients].
AB  - Oxidative stress has long been recognized to play an important role in the
      pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and aging,
      initiating oxidative damage of biomolecules. In this study the development of
      imbalances in the system of lipid peroxidation and increase the level of the
      marker of oxidative damage to DNA - 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-ONdG) in patients
      with COPD and healthy individuals. Evaluation of the relationship between the
      parameters of the system of lipid peroxidation and the level of 8-ONdG allowed to
      drill down to different oxidative mechanisms in the pathogenesis of COPD in
      patients of middle or old age.

PMID- 28556652
TI  - [The use of speech audiometry in the practice of the geriatric center].
AB  - The aim of the study was to evaluate a new test of speech audiometry while
      examining aged patients. 32 aged listeners from 60 to 88 years old were examined:
      20 hearing aid (HA) users and 12 patients with normal hearing thresholds and mild
      cognitive impairment according to the results of the mini-mental state
      examination (MMSE). The speech audiometry consisted of the traditional
      polysyllabic words discrimination test and a new speech test with motor responses
      (Verbal Tasks and Motor Responses - VTMR); in both tests the signal was presented
      in background noise (polyphony) in free field. All listeners performed the VTMR
      test significantly better than the polysyllabic words discrimination test. In the
      group of hearing impaired patients the mean result in VTMR test was 73,2+/-29,2 %
      without HA and 88,6+/-20,5 % with it, in traditional test - 34,8+/-20,9 % without
      HA and 56+/-18,4 % with it. All patients of the group with normal hearing and
      mild cognitive impairment performed the VTMR test with 100 % result, their speech
      discrimination score in traditional test was 88+/-12 %. In the practice of the
      geriatric center the use of both the traditional speech audiometry and the new
      speech test with motor responses seems to be reasonable, that allows examining
      the auditory function in patients with significant deterioration of speech
      intelligibility or cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28556653
TI  - [Recovery form of the vertebral body in a transpedicular fixation at spine
      fractures associated with osteoporosis].
AB  - We analyzed the correction indexes of posttraumatic deformation in 27 patients
      aged 61-76 years (62,9+/-1,4 years), when using an osteoplasty and transpedicular
      of fixation in respect of fractures of bodies vertebras of the thoracic and
      lumbar localization, associated with osteoporosis. Indicators of posttraumatic
      deformation the wedging index (WI) and the segmental kyphosis (SK) decreased at
      all patients. At the same time the minimally invasive (transcutaneous) operation
      allowed to achieve recovery of the lost anatomy and does not concede to results
      of open intervention. In group of patients with compression fractures decreased
      WI and SK, and in group with burst nature of damage only WI authentically
      decreased. Both indicators of deformation decreased at patients with T-criterion
      more than -3 SD, and only WI authentically decreased at patients with more
      expressed decrease in mineral density (T-criterion >-3). The received results
      show recovery of the lost anatomy, at the same time extent of correction depends
      on character fractures and the number of bone masses.

PMID- 28556654
TI  - [Assessment of skin photoaging in middle-aged and elder patients with non
      melanoma skin cancers].
AB  - The development of methods of early detection of non-melanoma skin cancers,
      assessment of risk factors, including photoaging, by means of non-invasive
      techniques are the main research interests of modern dermato-oncology and
      gerontology. In our study we aim to investigate the range of clinical features of
      photoaging in 92 patients older than 50 years (50 patients had malignant
      epithelial skin tumors (actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma), to reveal risk
      factors for basal-cell carcinoma using adapted SCINEXA scale and to assess of the
      pathomorphological features of dermathoheliosis using reflectance confocal
      microscopy. The assessment of photoaging by means of SCINEXA with subsequent non
      invasive evaluation using reflectance confocal microscopy allows to evaluate the
      cumulative effect of the ultraviolet irradiation on the skin with objective
      criteria. That algorithm is perspective in terms of early detection of the risk
      factors of non-melanoma skin cancers.

PMID- 28556655
TI  - [Behavioral psychotherapy and citoftavin in the treatment of deforming
      coxarthrosis in elderly patients].
AB  - The authors studied the efficiency of the expansion of the standard course of
      conservative therapy of deforming coxarthrosis by appointment Cytoflavin and
      behavioral therapy. The study was performed on 104 elderly patients. It was found
      that the addition of the existing scheme increases the effectiveness of
      therapeutic interventions, which manifests itself as the improvement of the
      mental and physical components of quality of life by reducing pain and increasing
      the functionality of some of the affected hip. At the heart of positive clinical
      effect is a decrease in processes of inflammation and reduction of tension of
      regulatory processes in the organism. Positive quality extra medical appointments
      was the absence of significant side effects when taken orally Cytoflavin
      requiring discontinuation of the drug, as well as the absence of failure patients
      from further sessions of behavioral therapy.

PMID- 28556656
TI  - [Psychophysiological determinants of perception of quality of life of
      gerontological patients with urolithiasis].
AB  - The analysis of psychophysiological determinancy perception of life quality of
      gerontological patients with urolithiasis. The study was performed on 108
      patients aged 60 to 76 years (51men, 57women). In order to determine the
      psychophysiological phenomenology of life survey was selected - before surgery,
      during the severe clinical manifestations of the disease. Research Methods
      "integrative anxiety test" (ICT 1997), "type attitude to the disease" (Tobol,
      1987), total questionnaire WHOQOL-100. Types relationship to disease, in which
      anxiety is not significantly improved due to illness, causes higher levels of QOL
      (86,4+/-2,69) compared to the level of 70,1+/-4,28 points (p<0,001, r=-0,35)
      corresponding types of response in the presence of high anxiety. The presence of
      trait anxiety levels decreased quality of life in both sexes. In men, there was
      the highest level of determinism of the quality of life of their independence and
      physical ability; women - social relations and spiritual sphere. The lowest
      indicators of quality of life were observed in women and in patients with acute
      onset and complicated urolithiasis.

PMID- 28556657
TI  - [Demographic and social predictors of place of death in the group of elderly].
AB  - Analysis of data from the 2814 Medical certificates of death was performed to
      reveal socio-demographic characteristics of citizens who died at elderly age,
      depending on the place of death and alcohol anamnesis. Divorced or single elderly
      people with lower educational status had greater odds ratio to die "on the
      street" or "at home" rather than in a "medical organization" (respectively to
      characteristics of demographic status and the structure of causes of death).
      Clinically verified diagnosis of "Mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol"
      (F10) in anamnesis was not associated with the "choice" of place of death among
      elderly people. Obtained results can be used to develop the regional programs in
      the field of public health.

PMID- 28556658
TI  - [Analysis of catamnesis combatants and pensioners of the Ministry of internal
      Affairs with mental disorders].
AB  - We analysed catamnesis of combatants and pensioners of the Ministry of internal
      Affairs (MIA) of Russia, dismissed in connection with the presence of mental
      disorder impeding further passage of service. It is shown that within three years
      after the dismissal of the combatants noted the negative clinical dynamics of
      mental state with a disability, the formation of a concomitant alcohol
      dependence. They have expressed social problems as divorce, do manual work low
      skilled or do not work, which requires improved approaches to providing them with
      medical psychological and social assistance, with regular observation. The
      establishment of mental health Centers in the departmental regional health units
      of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Russia on the basis of existing centres of
      psychophysiological diagnostics, system-monitoring the mental state of the
      combatants with mental disorders and improve the quality of provision of medical
      assistance.

PMID- 28556659
TI  - Covalent Surface Modification of Silicon Oxides with Alcohols in Polar Aprotic
      Solvents.
AB  - Alcohol-based monolayers were successfully formed on the surfaces of silicon
      oxides through reactions performed in polar aprotic solvents. Monolayers prepared
      from alcohol-based reagents have been previously introduced as an alternative
      approach to covalently modify the surfaces of silicon oxides. These reagents are
      readily available, widely distributed, and are minimally susceptible to side
      reactions with ambient moisture. A limitation of using alcohol-based compounds is
      that previous reactions required relatively high temperatures in neat solutions,
      which can degrade some alcohol compounds or could lead to other unwanted side
      reactions during the formation of the monolayers. To overcome these challenges,
      we investigate the condensation reaction of alcohols on silicon oxides carried
      out in polar aprotic solvents. In particular, propylene carbonate has been
      identified as a polar aprotic solvent that is relatively nontoxic, readily
      accessible, and can facilitate the formation of alcohol-based monolayers. We have
      successfully demonstrated this approach for tuning the surface chemistry of
      silicon oxide surfaces with a variety of alcohol containing compounds. The
      strategy introduced in this research can be utilized to create silicon oxide
      surfaces with hydrophobic, oleophobic, or charged functionalities.

PMID- 28556660
TI  - Chronology of CH...O Hydrogen Bonding from Molecular Dynamics Studies of the
      Phosphoric Acid-Catalyzed Allylboration of Benzaldehyde.
AB  - CH...O hydrogen bonds involving formyl groups have been invoked as a crucial
      factor controlling many asymmetric transformations. We conducted quasi-classical
      direct molecular dynamics simulations on the phosphoric acid-catalyzed
      allylboration of benzaldehyde to understand the synergy between the phosphoric
      acid OH...O hydrogen bond and the secondary CH...O formyl hydrogen bond as the
      reaction occurs. In the gas phase, both the CH...O and OH...O hydrogen bonds are
      enhanced from reactants to transition states. In toluene, the trend of H-bond
      enhancement is observed with a smaller magnitude because of solvent caging. The
      strength of the formyl hydrogen bond in the TS, a second CH...O interaction
      between the P?O oxygen and ortho-hydrogen of the phenyl ring and the OH...O
      hydrogen bond were determined using quantum mechanical calculations (4.6, 1.0,
      and 14.5 kcal mol-1, respectively).

PMID- 28556661
TI  - "Turn-on" Fluorescence Sensing and Discriminative Detection of Aliphatic Amines
      Using a 5-Fold-Interpenetrated Coordination Polymer.
AB  - A 5-fold-interpenetrated zinc-based coordination polymer can discriminately
      detect aliphatic amines through a fluorescence "turn-on" method. This compound
      can sense aliphatic amines in the solid state, solution state, and vapor phase.
      Theoretical calculations revealed that the ground-state dipole moment of the
      corresponding amines guides the order of enhancement.

PMID- 28556662
TI  - Polarity-Dependent Growth Rates of Selective Area Grown ZnO Nanorods by Chemical
      Bath Deposition.
AB  - Polarity is known to affect the growth and properties of ZnO single crystals and
      epitaxial films, but its effects are mostly unknown in ZnO nanorods. To leave
      polarity as the only varying parameter, ZnO nanorods are grown by chemical bath
      deposition under identical conditions and during the same run on O- and Zn-polar
      ZnO single crystals patterned by electron beam lithography with the same pattern
      consisting of 15 different domains. The resulting well-ordered O- and Zn-polar
      ZnO nanorod arrays with high structural uniformity are formed on all the domains.
      The comparison of their typical dimensions unambiguously reveals that Zn-polar
      ZnO nanorods have much higher growth rates than O-polar ZnO nanorods for all the
      hole diameter and period combinations. The distinct growth rates are explained in
      the framework of the surface reaction-/diffusive transport-limited elongation
      regime analysis, which yields a much larger surface reaction rate constant for Zn
      polar ZnO nanorods. The origin of the difference is attributed to polarity
      dependent dangling bond configurations at the top polar c-faces of ZnO nanorods,
      which may further be affected by polarity-dependent interactions with the ionic
      species in aqueous solution. These findings show the relevance of considering
      polarity as an important quantity in ZnO nanorods.

PMID- 28556663
TI  - Preparation of T-2-glucoronide with Rat Hepatic Microsomes and Its Use along with
      T-2 for Activation of the JAK/STAT Signaling Pathway in RAW264.7 Cells.
AB  - T-2 toxin (T-2), one of the most toxic trichothecene A-type mycotoxins, is
      biotransformed in animal tissues to modified T-2s (mT-2s) including T-2
      glucuronide (T-2-GlcA). In this study, the optimal conditions for T-2-GlcA
      synthesis were established, and the JAK/STAT pathway in RAW264.7 cells was used
      to study the toxicity of T-2-GlcA. Because many mT-2 standards are not readily
      available, optimal conditions for T-2-GlcA synthesis in vitro were established by
      incubating T-2 with rat liver microsomes, UDPGA, and 0.2% Triton X-100 for 90
      min. qRT-PCR and Western blot results showed 21- and 760-fold increases in IL-6
      mRNA expression induced by T-2-GlcA and T-2, respectively. Similar differences
      were observed in JAK3, SOCS2/3, and CIS mRNA expression. T-2-GlcA induced a dose
      responsive decrease in STAT1 mRNA expression, whereas the result with T-2 was the
      opposite. Moreover, the phosphorylation of STAT3 induced by T-2-GlcA was higher
      than that by T-2, whereas the phosphorylation of STAT1 was to the contrary.
      Overall, the results show that T-2-GlcA was somewhat toxic, but activation of the
      JAK/STAT pathway in RAW264.7 was higher by T-2.

PMID- 28556664
TI  - Benchmarking Micropollutant Removal by Activated Carbon and Porous beta
      Cyclodextrin Polymers under Environmentally Relevant Scenarios.
AB  - The cost-effective and energy-efficient removal of organic micropollutants (MPs)
      from water and wastewater is challenging. The objective of this research was to
      evaluate the performance of porous beta-cyclodextrin polymers (P-CDP) as
      adsorbents of MPs in aquatic matrixes. Adsorption kinetics and MP removal were
      measured in batch and flow-through experiments for a mixture of 83 MPs at
      environmentally relevant concentrations (1 MUg L-1) and across gradients of pH,
      ionic strength, and natural organic matter (NOM) concentrations. Performance was
      benchmarked against a coconut-shell activated carbon (CCAC). Data reveal pseudo
      second-order rate constants for most MPs ranging between 1.5 and 40 g mg-1 min-1
      for CCAC and 30 and 40000 g mg-1 min-1 for P-CDP. The extent of MP removal
      demonstrates slower but more uniform uptake on CCAC and faster but more selective
      uptake on P-CDP. Increasing ionic strength and the presence of NOM had a negative
      effect on the adsorption of MPs to CCAC but had almost no effect on adsorption of
      MPs to P-CDP. P-CDP performed particularly well for positively charged MPs and
      neutral or negatively charged MPs with McGowan volumes greater than 1.7 (cm3 mol
      1)/100. These data highlight advantages of P-CDP adsorbents relevant to MP
      removal during water and wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28556665
TI  - Mechanics of Nanostructured Porous Silica Aerogel Resulting from Molecular
      Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - Silica aerogels are nanostructured, highly porous solids which have, compared to
      other soft materials, special mechanical properties, such as extremely low
      densities. In the present work, the mechanical properties of silica aerogels have
      been studied with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The aerogel model of 192
      000 atoms was created with different densities by direct expansion of beta
      cristobalite and subjected to series of thermal treatments. Because of the high
      number of atoms and improved modeling procedure, the proposed model was more
      stable and showed significant improvement in the smoothness of the resulting
      stress-strain curves in comparison to previous models. Resulting Poisson's ratio
      values for silica aerogels lie between 0.18 and 0.21. The elasticity moduli
      display a power law dependence on the density, with the exponent estimated to be
      3.25 +/- 0.1. These results are in excellent agreement with reported experimental
      as well as computational values. Two different deformation scenarios have been
      discussed. Under tension, the low-density aerogels were more ductile while the
      denser ones behaved rather brittle. In the compression simulations of low-density
      aerogels, deformation occurred without significant increase in stress. However,
      for high densities, atoms offer a higher resistance to the deformation, resulting
      in a more stiff response and an early densification. The relationship between
      different mechanical parameters has been found in the cyclic loading simulations
      of silica aerogels with different densities. The residual strain grows linearly
      with the applied strain (>=0.16) and can be approximated by a phenomenological
      relation epsilonp = 1.09epsilonmax - 0.12. The dissipation energy also varies
      with the compressive strain according to a power law with an exponent of 2.31 +/-
      0.07. Moreover, the tangent modulus under cyclic loading varies exponentially
      with the compressive strain. The results of the study pave the way toward
      multiscale modeling of silica as well as reinforced silica aerogels.

PMID- 28556666
TI  - Field-Assisted Slow Magnetic Relaxation in a Six-Coordinate Co(II)-Co(III)
      Complex with Large Negative Anisotropy.
AB  - The reaction of Co(CH3COO)2.4H2O with the Schiff base ligand LH4 derived from o
      vanillin and tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane produces the dinuclear mixed-valence
      complex [CoIICoIII(LH2)2(CH3COO)(H2O)](H2O)3 (1), which has been investigated
      using IR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, temperature-dependent magnetic
      susceptibility, magnetization, HFEPR spectroscopy, and ac susceptibility
      measurements at various frequencies, temperatures, and external magnetic fields.
      The structure of 1 consists of neutral molecules in which two cobalt ions with
      distorted octahedral geometries, CoIIO6 and CoIIIN2O4, are bridged by two
      deprotonated -CH2O- groups of the two LH22- ligands. 1 completes a series with
      Cl, Br, NO3, and NCS anions published before by different authors. Low
      temperature HFEPR measurements reveal that the ground electronic state of the
      Co(II) center in 1 is a highly anisotropic Kramers doublet; the effective g
      values of 7.18, 2.97, and 1.96 are frequency-independent over the frequency
      ranges 200-630, 200-406, and 200-300 GHz for the highest, intermediate, and
      lowest geff values, respectively. The two lower values were not seen at higher
      frequencies because the magnetic field was not high enough. Temperature-dependent
      magnetic susceptibility and field-dependent magnetization data confirm high
      magnetic anisotropy of the easy axis type. Complex 1 behaves as a single-ion
      magnet under a small applied external field and demonstrates two relaxation modes
      that strongly depend on the applied static dc field. The observation of multiple
      relaxation pathways clearly distinguishes 1 from the Cl and Br analogues.

PMID- 28556667
TI  - Accelerometer-Measured Patterns of Shared Physical Activity Among Mother-Young
      Child Dyads.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many mothers and young children are not meeting physical activity
      guidelines. Parent-child coparticipation in physical activity (ie, shared
      physical activity) provides opportunities for social modeling and might be
      associated with child physical activity. There is very little information about
      shared physical activity using objective measures. METHODS: Participants (N = 17
      mother-young child dyads) completed a demographic survey and height/weight
      measurements, and wore a Bluetooth(r) accelerometer for 1 week. Accelerometers
      were initialized using the proximity function to yield both individual and
      proximity [a minute-by-minute log of whether the 2 accelerometers were in- or out
      of-range (~50 m or less)] data. Shared physical activity was calculated in MATLAB
      by overlaying individual and proximity accelerometer data. RESULTS: Mother-child
      dyads spent approximately 2 hours per day in shared time that was mostly shared
      sedentary activities. Less than 1% of shared minutes per day were spent in shared
      moderate to vigorous physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers and young children
      spent a small portion of their day in shared activities. Most mother-child shared
      time was spent in sedentary or light activities rather than moderate to vigorous
      physical activity. This method for objectively measuring shared physical activity
      provides novel information about the context in which physical activity occurs
      and could be used to understand patterns of physical activity among other dyads.

PMID- 28556668
TI  - A Novel Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Classification and Its
      Relationship With Physical Fitness in Spanish Older Adults: The PHYSMED Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As there is no gold-standard methodology to classify older people in
      relation to physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB), this paper aimed
      to propose a classification combining PA and SB. METHODS: Within a broader study,
      433 subjects, aged 55 years and older (57% females) from Madrid and Majorca, were
      evaluated for PA and SB by means of validated questionnaires. Physical fitness
      was analyzed objectively using the EXERNET test battery. Cluster analyses were
      used to establish behavioral patterns, combining PA and SB. RESULTS: Males spent
      more time doing regular PA but less time walking and working at home than females
      (P < .001). Comparing the groups (inactive and high sedentary, inactive and low
      sedentary, active and high sedentary, and active and low sedentary), the worst
      aerobic endurance (P < .001) and lower body strength (P < .05) were obtained in
      males from both inactive groups. Agility was highest in the active and low
      sedentary group (P < .05). No significant differences were observed in females.
      CONCLUSIONS: The proposed classification is valid, as it classifies subjects
      according to their PA and SB, and outcomes are related to objectively measured
      fitness. It could facilitate the work of public health authorities, researchers,
      and physicians.

PMID- 28556669
TI  - Impact on Area-Level Physical Activity Following the Implementation of a Fitness
      Zone in Montevideo, Uruguay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to measure the level of physical activity
      (PA) of the users of an urban park before and after the installation of 2 fitness
      zones (FZs) and to assess the impact of that intervention on the users' level of
      PA. METHODS: The System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities method
      was applied in the urban plaza Liber Seregni in Montevideo (Uruguay): 14
      different areas were mapped and then recategorized as fitness (for PAs, including
      sports), green, and paved zones. Observations were made in the spring (Sep-Oct)
      of 2011 and 2014, before and after placing 2 FZs. Participation was analyzed by
      gender, year, mapped areas, and zones, and significant differences were assessed
      using the chi2 test. RESULTS: In total, 7342 individuals (4091 men and 3251
      women) were observed. A greater number of people with intense PA could be seen in
      the FZ, with significant differences between 2011 (45%) and 2014 (70%; P < .05).
      CONCLUSION: This is the first longitudinal study on the impact of an intervention
      to increase the level of PA in public spaces in Uruguay. Higher intensity levels
      of PA and fewer sedentary people were observed after the installation of the FZ.

PMID- 28556670
TI  - Not Just Fun and Games: Toy Advertising on Television Targeting Children Promotes
      Sedentary Play.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the volume of television toy advertising targeting Canadian
      children and to determine if it promotes active or sedentary play, targets males
      or females more frequently, and has changed over time. METHODS: Data for toy/game
      advertising from 27 television stations in Toronto for the month of May in 2006
      and 2013 were licensed from Neilsen Media Research (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). A
      content analysis was performed on all ads to determine what age group and gender
      were targeted and whether physical or sedentary activity was being promoted.
      Comparisons were made between 2006 and 2013. RESULTS: There were 3.35 toy
      ads/h/children's specialty station in 2013 (a 15% increase from 2006). About 88%
      of toy ads promoted sedentary play in 2013, a 27% increase from 2006 levels,
      while toy ads promoting active play decreased by 33%. In both 2006 and 2013, a
      greater number of sedentary toy ads targeted males (n = 1519, May 2006; n = 2030,
      May 2013) compared with females (n = 914, May 2006; n = 1619, May 2013), and
      between 2006 and 2013, these ads increased significantly for both males and
      females. CONCLUSION: Future research should explore whether such advertising
      influences children's preferences for activities and levels of physical activity.

PMID- 28556671
TI  - Imputing Accelerometer Nonwear Time When Assessing Moderate to Vigorous Physical
      Activity in Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A limitation of accelerometer measures of moderate to vigorous
      physical activity (MVPA) is nonwear time. Nonwear-time data is typically deleted
      prior to estimating MVPA. In this study, we used an approach that used
      sociodemographic, health, and time data to guide the imputation of nonwear-time
      data. We determined whether imputing nonwear-time data influences estimates of
      MVPA and the association between MVPA, body mass index, and blood pressure.
      METHODS: Seven days of accelerometer data were collected on 332 children aged 10
      13 years. MVPA was estimated in a "nonimputed dataset," wherein nonwear-time data
      were deleted prior to estimating MVPA, and in an "imputed dataset," wherein
      nonwear-time data were imputed using sociodemographic and health characteristics
      of participants and time characteristics of the nonwear period prior to
      estimating MVPA. RESULTS: Nonwear time represented 7% of waking hours. Average
      MVPA estimates did not differ in the nonimputed and imputed datasets (56.8 vs
      58.4 min/d). The strength of the relationship between MVPA and the 2 health
      outcomes did not differ in the nonimputed and imputed datasets. CONCLUSIONS:
      Studies achieving high accelerometer wear-time compliance can obtain MVPA
      estimates without substantial bias if they use the traditional approach of
      deleting nonwear-time data.

PMID- 28556673
TI  - Markers of Bone Health, Bone-Specific Physical Activities, Nutritional Intake,
      and Quality of Life of Professional Jockeys in Hong Kong.
AB  - Weight-making practices, regularly engaged in by horse racing jockeys, have been
      suggested to impair both physiological and mental health. This study aimed to
      assess bone health markers, nutritional intake, bone-specific physical activity
      (PA) habits, and quality of life of professional jockeys in Hong Kong (n = 14),
      with gender-, age-, and body mass index-matched controls (n = 14). Anthropometric
      measurements, serum hormonal biomarkers, bone mineral density, bone-specific PA
      habits, nutritional intake, and quality of life were assessed in all
      participants. The jockey group displayed significantly lower bone mineral density
      at both calcanei than the control group (left: 0.50 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.63 +/- 0.07
      g/cm2; right: 0.51 +/- 0.07 vs. 0.64 +/- 0.10 g/cm2, both ps < .01). Thirteen of
      the 14 jockeys (93%) showed either osteopenia or osteoporosis in at least one of
      their calcanei. No significant difference in bone mineral density was detected
      for either forearm between the groups. The current bone-specific PA questionnaire
      score was lower in the jockey group than the control group (5.61 +/- 1.82 vs.
      8.27 +/- 2.91, p < .05). Daily energy intake was lower in the jockeys than the
      controls (1,360 +/- 515 vs. 1,985 +/- 1,046 kcal/day, p < .01). No significant
      group difference was found for micronutrient intake assessed by the bone-specific
      food frequency questionnaire, blood hormonal markers, and quality of life scores.
      Our results revealed suboptimal bone conditions at calcanei and insufficient
      energy intake and bone-loading PAs among professional jockeys in Hong Kong
      compared with healthy age-, gender-, and body mass index-matched controls.
      Further research is warranted to examine the effect of improved bone-loading PAs
      and nutritional habits on the musculoskeletal health of professional jockeys.

PMID- 28556672
TI  - Faster Use and Fewer Failures with Needle-Free Nasal Glucagon Versus Injectable
      Glucagon in Severe Hypoglycemia Rescue: A Simulation Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During severe hypoglycemic episodes, people with diabetes depend on
      others to help with treatment. We compared needle-free nasal glucagon and
      commercially available injectable glucagon for ease of use by caregivers of
      people with diabetes and by others in treating simulated episodes of severe
      hypoglycemia. METHODS: Sixteen instructed caregivers and 15 noninstructed
      acquaintances administered nasal and injectable glucagon to manikins, simulating
      unconscious people with diabetes during severe hypoglycemia episodes. RESULTS:
      With nasal glucagon, 15 caregivers (94%) and 14 acquaintances (93%) administered
      a full dose (mean time 0.27 and 0.44 min, respectively). One caregiver and one
      acquaintance did not administer nasal glucagon because they did not fully depress
      the plunger on the device. Two caregivers deliberately administered both insulin
      and nasal glucagon, believing that insulin would also help the patient. With
      injectable glucagon, eight caregivers (50%) injected glucagon (mean time 1.89
      min), but only two (13%) administered the full dose. Three acquaintances (20%)
      injected a partial dose of injectable glucagon (mean time 2.40 min); none gave a
      full dose. Errors included injecting diluent only, bending the needle, and
      injecting with an empty syringe. Two caregivers and one acquaintance injected
      insulin because they confused insulin with injectable glucagon. CONCLUSIONS: More
      than 90% of participants delivered full doses of nasal glucagon, while 13% and 0%
      of caregivers and acquaintances delivered full doses of injectable glucagon,
      indicating that nasal glucagon is easier for nonmedically trained people to
      administer. Thus, nasal glucagon has the potential to substantially improve
      treatment for patients experiencing a life-threatening episode of severe
      hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28556674
TI  - Implementation of Yoga Therapy into U.S. Healthcare Systems.

PMID- 28556675
TI  - A new modeling approach allowing prediction and comparison of the long-term
      outcomes of treatments for hemophilia B.
AB  - AIM: To develop a modeling approach to compare clinical outcomes of nonacog beta
      pegol to a standard-acting factor IX (FIX) product. METHODS: Regression analysis
      linked FIX activity to bleed rates. Pharmacokinetic parameters were used to
      estimate FIX activity over time. The probability of bleeds was estimated for both
      treatment arms. A Markov model estimated the presence of target joints and
      annualized bleed rates (ABRs). RESULTS: Higher FIX activity showed reduced ABRs
      (p < 0.001). Target joints resulted in higher bleed rates (p < 0.001). When FIX
      activity levels and bleed risks were applied to the Markov model, ABRs for
      nonacog beta pegol and its comparator were 2.40 and 6.36, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: This model provides a starting point for assessing the added value of
      new FIX products.

PMID- 28556676
TI  - Predictors of Postpartum Exercise According to Prepregnancy Body Mass Index and
      Gestational Weight Gain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study purposes were to examine (1) differences in postpartum
      exercise (EX) and related personal/psychological correlates in women according to
      prepregnancy weight and pregnancy gestational weight gain (GWG) status and (2)
      predictors of EX at 2 weeks, 2 months, and 6 months postpartum. METHODS:
      Participants (N = 891) were recruited at maternity hospitalization and completed
      interviews to assess EX (Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire) and personal
      correlates (demographics, anxiety/depressive symptoms) before/during pregnancy.
      Telephone interviews were conducted to assess postpartum EX/psychological
      correlates. Women were categorized according to prepregnancy weight (normal and
      overweight) and pregnancy GWG status (above or within weight gain guidelines):
      normal-above, normal-within, overweight-above, and overweight-within. RESULTS:
      Low levels of EX minutes were observed in all women with significant differences
      for strenuous EX minutes (overweight-within women had the lowest strenuous EX;
      normal-weight women had more strenuous EX than overweight women regardless of
      GWG). Correlates explained 14%-37% of the variance in postpartum EX; prepregnancy
      EX and pregnancy EX were strong determinants of early postpartum EX, and early
      postpartum EX predicted 6-month postpartum EX. Unique predictors of EX also
      emerged (eg, depressive symptoms for women with GWG above guidelines).
      CONCLUSIONS: These study findings highlight the benefits of EX before/during
      pregnancy for promoting postpartum EX and suggest tailoring postpartum EX
      interventions based on personal/psychological correlates to maximize
      effectiveness.

PMID- 28556677
TI  - A Review of Physical Activity Interventions Delivered via Facebook.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of social networking sites to deliver behavioral
      interventions is becoming more prevalent. The purpose of this review was to
      systematically evaluate the published research to determine the effectiveness of
      Facebook-delivered interventions for promoting physical activity behavior change.
      METHODS: A search of interventions delivered via Facebook (as the primary
      delivery method or part of a multifaceted intervention) in which physical
      activity was the primary or secondary outcome resulted in 8 studies for review.
      RESULTS: Overall, 87.5% of the Facebook interventions reported some type of
      significant physical activity behavior change (ie, interactions, main effects for
      time, differences between conditions); however, only 2 of these interventions
      found this change to be significantly better for the treatment group than the
      control group. CONCLUSION: Future researchers are encouraged to test the
      effectiveness of Facebook-delivered physical activity interventions with
      additional control groups that receive no aspects of the intervention within
      experimental study designs, more diverse samples, theory-based content with
      assessment of mediators of behavior change, direct observations of physical
      activity, and long-term follow-ups. Although based on a small sample of studies,
      Facebook appears to be a promising delivery method for physical activity
      interventions.

PMID- 28556678
TI  - Emerging drugs for urothelial (bladder) cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Metastatic urothelial carcinoma has been associated with poor
      prognosis and a median survival of approximately 12-14 months with standard
      therapy. Treatment options for decades have been limited to platinum based
      chemotherapy as first line with few therapeutic options available to the majority
      who will ultimately progress beyond platinum. Areas covered: This review focuses
      on the various targeted, antiangiogenic, chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic
      agents currently being developed for the treatment of urothelial carcinoma.
      Expert opinion: Incorporation of systemic immunotherapy into the treatment of
      urothelial carcinoma has already fundamentally changed the treatment of this
      disease. The landscape is rapidly changing and it is likely that immunotherapy
      will be incorporated into therapy in earlier disease states and in novel
      combinations. Outcomes in urothelial carcinoma have improved and likely to
      improve further with ongoing and future clinical research that is discussed in
      this review.

PMID- 28556679
TI  - Molecular Characterization and Risk Assessment of Bacillus cereus Sensu Lato
      Isolated from Ultrahigh-Temperature and Pasteurized Milk Marketed in Rio de
      Janeiro, Brazil.
AB  - The presence of Bacillus cereus in milk is a major concern in the dairy industry.
      In this study 27 Bacillus cereus sensu lato isolates from pasteurized and
      ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) milk (24 whole UHT and 4 pasteurized samples)
      collected at supermarket chains in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were evaluated to
      assess the potential risk for food poisoning. Toxigenic and virulence profiles
      were defined by gene-specific PCR. Affiliation to phylogenetic groups was
      assigned by panC sequencing. Microbiological analysis revealed the presence of B.
      cereus s.l. in eight (33.3%) brands (six brands of UHT and two brands of
      pasteurized milk). Twenty-seven isolates were recovered (13 B. cereus and 14
      Bacillus thuringiensis ). Predominant toxigenic patterns were type I (contains
      all toxin genes except ces) and type II (does not contain cytK and ces), with
      seven (25.9%) isolates each. Predominant virulence patterns were type 2 (does not
      contain hlyII or shp) and type 3 (contains all virulence genes), with five
      (18.5%) isolates each. All isolates belonged to phylogenetic groups III and IV.
      Presence of hbl, piplc, and sph was associated with group IV isolates. Our
      results suggest that B. thuringiensis and B. cereus sensu stricto should be
      considered potential foodborne pathogens. Because the majority of the milk
      isolates studied have the potential to cause food poisoning because of the high
      prevalence of toxin and virulence genes and the specific phylogenetic group
      affiliations, these milk products can be potentially hazardous for human
      consumption.

PMID- 28556680
TI  - Efficacy of Gaseous Ozone Application during Vacuum Cooling against Escherichia
      coli O157:H7 on Spinach Leaves as Influenced by Bacterium Population Size.
AB  - Foodborne disease outbreaks associated with the consumption of fresh produce pose
      a threat to public health, decrease consumer confidence in minimally processed
      foods, and negatively impact the sales of these commodities. The aim of the study
      was to determine the influence of population size of inoculated pathogen on its
      inactivation by gaseous ozone treatment during vacuum cooling. Spinach leaves
      were spot inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 at approximate initial
      populations of 108, 107, and 105 CFU/g. Inoculated leaves were vacuum cooled
      (28.5 inHg; 4 degrees C) in a custom-made vessel and then were subjected to a
      gaseous ozone treatment under the following conditions: 1.5 g of ozone per kg of
      gas mixture, vessel pressure at 10 lb/in2 gauge, 94 to 98% relative humidity, and
      30 min of holding time at 9 degrees C. Treatment of the leaves, having the
      aforementioned inocula, decreased E. coli populations by 0.2, 2.1, and 2.8 log
      CFU/g, respectively, compared with the inoculated untreated controls.
      Additionally, spinach leaves were inoculated at 1.4 * 103 CFU/g, which
      approximates natural contamination level, and the small populations remaining
      after ozone treatment were quantified using the most-probable-number (MPN)
      method. Vacuum and ozone sequential treatment decreased this E. coli O157:H7
      population to <3 MPN/g (i.e., greater than 3-log reduction). Resulting log
      reductions were greater (P < 0.05) at the lower rather than the higher inoculum
      levels. In conclusion, treatment of spinach leaves with gaseous ozone is
      effective against pathogen loads comparable to those found in naturally
      contaminated fresh produce, but efficacy decreases as inoculum level increases.

PMID- 28556681
TI  - Epidemiology of Shoulder Dislocations in High School and Collegiate Athletics in
      the United States: 2004/2005 Through 2013/2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shoulder dislocations occur frequently in athletes across a variety
      of sports. This study provides an updated descriptive epidemiological analysis of
      shoulder dislocations among high school and college athletes and compares injury
      rates and patterns across these age groups. HYPOTHESIS: There would be no
      difference in injury rates/patterns between high school and college athletes.
      STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3.
      METHODS: Shoulder dislocation data from the High School Reporting Information
      Online (RIO) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury
      Surveillance Program (ISP) databases were analyzed from the 2004/2005 through
      2013/2014 (NCAA) or 2005/2006 through 2013/2014 (RIO) academic years in 11
      different sports. Rate ratios (RRs) and injury proportion ratios (IPRs) were
      calculated to make comparisons between age groups. RESULTS: During the study
      period, 598 shoulder dislocations were reported during 29,249,482 athlete
      exposures (AEs) among high school athletes, for an overall shoulder dislocation
      rate of 2.04 per 100,000 AEs; 352 shoulder dislocations were reported during
      13,629,533 AEs among college athletes, for an overall injury rate of 2.58 per
      100,000 AEs. College athletes had a higher rate of shoulder dislocation than high
      school athletes (RR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.11-1.44). However, the injury rate in
      football was lower in collegiate than high school athletes (RR, 0.52; 95% CI,
      0.43-0.62). Surgery was performed to correct 28.0% of high school and 29.6% of
      college shoulder dislocations. Shoulder dislocations resulted in longer return-to
      play times than other shoulder injuries. CONCLUSION: Overall, shoulder
      dislocation rates were higher among collegiate than high school athletes. This
      may be due to greater contact forces involved in sports at higher levels of play,
      although the increased rate in high school football warrants additional research.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Higher shoulder dislocation rates within collegiate athletics
      are likely due to the higher level of intensity at this level of play, with
      stronger and faster athletes resulting in more forceful collisions.

PMID- 28556682
TI  - Bouts of Vigorous Physical Activity and Bone Strength Accrual During Adolescence.
AB  - PURPOSE: We examined the influence of vigorous physical activity (VPA) bout
      frequency on bone strength accrual across adolescence, independent of total
      volume of VPA. METHODS: We measured VPA (6 metabolic equivalents; total volume
      and bout frequency <5 min in duration) annually using waist-worn accelerometers
      (ActiGraph GT1M) in 309 adolescents (9-20 y at baseline: 99, <13 y; 126, 13-18 y;
      84, >18 y) over a maximum of 4 years. We applied finite element analysis to high
      resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography scans of the distal tibia
      (8% site) to estimate bone strength (failure load; F.Load, Newtons). We fit a
      mixed effects model with maturity offset (years from age at peak height velocity)
      as a random effect and sex, ethnicity, tibia length, lean body mass, and VPA
      (volume and bout frequency) as fixed effects. RESULTS: VPA volume and bout
      frequency were positively associated with F.Load across adolescence; however, VPA
      volume did not predict F.Load once VPA bout frequency was included in the model.
      Participants in the upper quartile of VPA bout frequency (~33 bouts per day) had
      10% (500 N) greater F.Load across adolescence compared with participants in the
      lowest quartile (~9 bouts per day; P = .012). Each additional daily bout of VPA
      was associated with 21 N greater F.Load, independent of total volume of VPA.
      CONCLUSION: Frequent VPA should be promoted for optimal bone strength accrual.

PMID- 28556684
TI  - Environmental and Behavioral Influences of Physical Activity in Junior High
      School Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing access and opportunity for physical activity (PA) in
      schools are effective; however, not everyone experiences the same effects.
      Prompting and reinforcement may encourage more frequent participation in
      recreational PA during the school day. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate a lunchtime PA intervention on whole school PA participation and
      whether behavioral support enhanced these effects. METHODS: A modified reversal
      design compared an environmental and an environmental plus behavioral support
      intervention on lunchtime PA participation versus baseline levels in a suburban
      junior high school in the western United States (N = 1452). PA and related
      contextual data were collected using systematic observation. RESULTS:
      Significantly more girls and boys were observed in PA during the interventions
      compared with baseline phases (F2,1173 = 13.52, P < .0001, eta2 = .023; F2,1173 =
      20.14, P < .0001, eta2 = .033, for girls and boys, respectively). There were no
      significant differences between the environmental phase and the environment plus
      behavioral support phase. CONCLUSION: Providing access and opportunity
      significantly increased the number of girls and boys observed in PA during a
      lunchtime program, with no additive effects of behavioral support. Further
      research into providing the individual-level contingencies at an institutional
      level is needed.

PMID- 28556685
TI  - Relationship Between Meeting 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Cardiometabolic Risk
      Factors in Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between
      adherence to pediatric 24-hour movement guidelines (moderate to vigorous physical
      activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) and cardiometabolic risk factors.
      METHODS: The sample included 357 white and African American children aged 5-18
      years. Physical activity, television viewing, and sleep duration were measured
      using questionnaires, and the 24-hour movement guidelines were defined as >=60
      minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity on >=5 days per week,
      <= 2 hours per day of television, and sleeping 9-11 hours per night (ages 5-13 y)
      or 8-10 hours per night (ages 14-18 y). Waist circumference, body fat, abdominal
      visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue, blood pressure, fasting triglycerides,
      high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and glucose were measured in a clinical
      setting. RESULTS: A total of 26.9% of the sample met none of the guidelines,
      whereas 36.4%, 28.3%, and 8.4% of the sample met 1, 2, or all 3 guidelines,
      respectively. There were significant associations between the number of
      guidelines met and body mass index, visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue,
      triglycerides, and glucose. There were no associations with blood pressure or
      high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. CONCLUSIONS: Meeting more components of the
      24-hour movement guidelines was associated with lower levels of obesity and
      several cardiometabolic risk factors. Future efforts should consider novel
      strategies to simultaneously improve physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep
      in children.

PMID- 28556686
TI  - Dominance genetic and maternal effects for genetic evaluation of egg production
      traits in dual-purpose chickens.
AB  - 1. A study was conducted to study direct dominance genetic and maternal effects
      on genetic evaluation of production traits in dual-purpose chickens. The data set
      consisted of records of body weight and egg production of 49 749 Mazandaran fowls
      from 19 consecutive generations. Based on combinations of different random
      effects, including direct additive and dominance genetic and maternal additive
      genetic and environmental effects, 8 different models were compared. 2. Inclusion
      of a maternal genetic effect in the models noticeably improved goodness of fit
      for all traits. Direct dominance genetic effect did not have noticeable effects
      on goodness of fit but simultaneous inclusion of both direct dominance and
      maternal additive genetic effects improved fitting criteria and accuracies of
      genetic parameter estimates for hatching body weight and egg production traits.
      3. Estimates of heritability (h2) for body weights at hatch, 8 weeks and 12 weeks
      of age (BW0, BW8 and BW12, respectively), age at sexual maturity (ASM), average
      egg weights at 28-32 weeks of laying period (AEW), egg number (EN) and egg
      production intensity (EI) were 0.08, 0.21, 0.22, 0.22, 0.21, 0.09 and 0.10,
      respectively. For BW0, BW8, BW12, ASM, AEW, EN and EI, proportion of dominance
      genetic to total phenotypic variance (d2) were 0.06, 0.08, 0.01, 0.06, 0.06, 0.08
      and 0.07 and maternal heritability estimates (m2) were 0.05, 0.04, 0.03, 0.13,
      0.21, 0.07 and 0.03, respectively. Negligible coefficients of maternal
      environmental effect (c2) from 0.01 to 0.08 were estimated for all traits, other
      than BW0, which had an estimate of 0.30. 4. Breeding values (BVs) estimated for
      body weights at early ages (BW0 and BW8) were considerably affected by components
      of the models, but almost similar BVs were estimated by different models for
      higher age body weight (BW12) and egg production traits (ASM, AEW, EN and EI).
      Generally, it could be concluded that inclusion of maternal effects (both genetic
      and environmental) and, to a lesser extent, direct dominance genetic effect would
      improve the accuracy of genetic evaluation for early age body weights in dual
      purpose chickens.

PMID- 28556687
TI  - Effects of Adolescent Sport Practice on Health Outcomes of Adult Amateur
      Endurance Cyclists: Adulthood Is Not Too Late to Start.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the effects of adolescent sport practice on the
      training, performance, and health outcomes of adult amateur endurance cyclists
      and compared health outcomes of 3 adult groups: amateur endurance cyclists who
      practiced sports during adolescence, amateur endurance cyclists who did not
      practice sports during adolescence, and inactive individuals. METHODS: In 859
      (751 men and 108 women) adult cyclists and 718 inactive subjects (307 men and 411
      women), we examined adolescent sport practice, current training status, quality
      of life, quality of sleep, anxiety and depression, and cardiometabolic risk: body
      mass index, physical activity, physical fitness, adherence to Mediterranean diet,
      and alcohol and tobacco consumption. RESULTS: Independent of gender, no
      significant differences in training, performance, or health outcomes were
      observed between amateur endurance cyclists who practiced sports during
      adolescence and those who did not. Independent of gender, cyclists reported
      significantly better health outcomes than inactive individuals in all variables,
      except depression. CONCLUSIONS: Training, performance, and health outcomes did
      not differ between adult amateur endurance cyclists who practiced sports during
      adolescence and those who did not, but their health outcomes were significantly
      improved compared with inactive individuals, except for depression.

PMID- 28556688
TI  - Severe and rapidly-progressive Lafora disease associated with NHLRC1 mutation: a
      case report.
AB  - Lafora disease (LD), also known as progressive myoclonic epilepsy-2 (EPM2), is a
      rare, fatal autosomal recessive disorder typically starting during adolescence in
      otherwise neurologically normal individuals. It is clinically characterized by
      insidious of progressive neurological features including seizures, action
      myoclonus, visual hallucination, ataxia and dementia. Mutations in the laforin
      (EPM2A) gene on chromosome 6q24 or in the malin gene (NHLRC1) on chromosome 6p22
      are responsible of LD phenotype. Diagnostic workup includes genetic analysis as
      well as axillary skin biopsy with evidence of typical periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)
      positive polyglucosan inclusion bodies (Lafora bodies) in the apocrine glands
      and/or in the eccrine duct. Usually, genotype-phenotype correlations do not
      reveal substantial differences between patients carrying EPM2A and NHLRC1
      mutations, but a few specific NHLRC1 mutations appear to correlate with a late
      onset and slow progressing LD. We report a case of LD due to compound
      heterozygote NHLRC1 mutation in an adolescent presenting with severe and atypical
      electro-clinical features, mimicking an autoimmune encephalopathy, and a rapidly
      progressive clinical course.

PMID- 28556690
TI  - Vitamin D Status and Muscle Function Among Adolescent and Young Swimmers.
AB  - Impaired muscle function has been coupled to vitamin D insufficiency in young
      women and in elderly men and women. Those living at Northern latitudes are at
      risk for vitamin D insufficiency due to low sun exposure which may be more
      pronounced among elite swimmers because of their indoor training schedules. We
      aimed to examine vitamin D status among young elite swimmers and evaluate the
      association between vitamin D status and muscle strength. Twenty-nine swimmers,
      12 female and 17 male (16-24 years) residing at latitude 55-56 degrees N were
      studied in March and April. Blood samples were analyzed for serum 25
      hydroxyvitamin D (s-25(OH)D) and hand-grip strength was measured as marker of
      muscle strength. Subjects' vitamin D and calcium intake were assessed by food
      frequency questionnaire and sun exposure and training status by questionnaires.
      Mean (+/- SD) s-25(OH)D was 52.6 +/- 18.3nmol/L among all swimmers. In 45% of the
      swimmers s-25(OH)D was below 50 nmol/L. Female swimmers had higher s-25(OH)D
      concentration than male swimmers (61.7 +/- 17,5 nmol/L vs. 46.2 +/- 16,5 nmol/L,
      p = .026). Among male swimmers, those with sufficient vitamin D status had higher
      hand grip strength than those with insufficient vitamin D status (50.6 +/- 6.4 kg
      vs. 41.1 +/- 7.8 kg, p = .02). Among Danish elite swimmers 45% had an
      insufficient vitamin D status during the spring; the prevalence being higher
      among male swimmers. Muscle strength was significantly higher in male swimmers
      with sufficient vitamin D status.

PMID- 28556689
TI  - Health-related quality of life data from a phase 3, international, randomized,
      open-label, multicenter study in patients with previously treated mantle cell
      lymphoma treated with ibrutinib versus temsirolimus.
AB  - Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare, aggressive, incurable B-cell malignancy.
      Ibrutinib has been shown to be highly active for patients with
      relapsed/refractory (R/R) MCL. The RAY trial (MCL3001) was a phase 3, randomized,
      open-label, multicenter study that compared ibrutinib with temsirolimus in
      patients with R/R MCL. Active disease is frequently associated with impaired
      functional status and reduced well-being. Therefore, the current study employed
      two patient-reported outcome instruments, the Functional Assessment of Cancer
      Therapy-Lymphoma (FACT-Lym) and the EQ-5D-5L, to assess symptoms, well-being,
      health status, and health-related quality of life of patients on treatment within
      the RAY trial. We found that patients on ibrutinib had substantial improvement in
      FACT-Lym subscale and total scores, and had improvement in EQ-5D-5L utility and
      VAS scores compared with temsirolimus patients, indicating a superior well-being.
      These improvements in well-being correlated with clinical response, indicating
      that better health-related quality of life was associated with decreased disease
      burden.

PMID- 28556692
TI  - War trauma and maternal-fetal attachment predicting maternal mental health,
      infant development, and dyadic interaction in Palestinian families.
AB  - Optimal maternal-fetal attachment (MFA) is believed to be beneficial for infant
      well-being and dyadic interaction, but research is scarce in general and among
      risk populations. Our study involved dyads living in war conditions and examined
      how traumatic war trauma associates with MFA and which factors mediate that
      association. It also modeled the role of MFA in predicting newborn health, infant
      development, mother-infant interaction, and maternal postpartum mental health.
      Palestinian women from the Gaza Strip (N = 511) participated during their second
      trimester (T1), and when their infants were 4 (T2) and 12 (T3) months. Mothers
      reported MFA (interaction with, attributions to, and fantasies about the fetus),
      social support, and prenatal mental health (post-traumatic stress disorder,
      depression, and anxiety) at T1, newborn health at T2, and the postpartum mental
      health, infant's sensorimotor and language development, and mother-infant
      interaction (emotional availability) at T3. Results revealed, first, that war
      trauma was not directly associated with MFA but that it was mediated through a
      low level of social support and high level of maternal prenatal mental health
      problems. Second, intensive MFA predicted optimal mother-reported infant's
      sensorimotor and language development and mother-infant emotional availability
      but not newborn health or maternal postpartum mental health.

PMID- 28556691
TI  - T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced brain magnetic resonance imaging: A
      preliminary study with low infusion rate in pediatric patients.
AB  - Background The aim of this preliminary study is to evaluate the results of T1
      weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in
      pediatric patients at 1.5T, with a low peripheral intravenous gadoteric acid
      injection rate of 1 ml/s. Materials and methods Children with neurological
      symptoms were examined prospectively with conventional MRI and T1-weighted DCE
      MRI. An magnetic resonance perfusion analysis method was used to obtain time
      concentration curves (persistent pattern, type-I; plateau pattern, type-II;
      washout pattern, type-III) and to calculate pharmacokinetic parameters. A total
      of two radiologists manually defined regions of interest (ROIs) in the part of
      the lesion exhibiting the greatest contrast enhancement and in the surrounding
      normal or contralateral tissue. Lesion/surrounding tissue or contralateral tissue
      pharmacokinetic parameter ratios were calculated. Tumors were categorized by
      grade (I-IV) using the World Health Organization (WHO) Grade. Mann-Whitney
      testing and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were performed.
      Results A total of nine boys and nine girls (mean age 10.5 years) were included.
      Lesions consisted of 10 brain tumors, 3 inflammatory lesions, 3 arteriovenous
      malformations and 2 strokes. We obtained analyzable concentration-time curves for
      all patients (6 type-I, 9 type-II, 3 type-III). Ktrans between tumor tissue and
      surrounding or contralateral tissue was significantly different ( p = 0.034).
      Ktrans ratios were significantly different between grade I tumors and grade IV
      tumors ( p = 0.027) and a Ktrans ratio value superior to 0.63 appeared to be
      discriminant to determine a grade IV of malignancy. Conclusions Our results
      confirm the feasibility of pediatric T1-weighted DCE MRI at 1.5T with a low
      injection rate, which could be of great value in differentiating brain tumor
      grades.

PMID- 28556693
TI  - The Perception and Needs of Psychologists Toward Blended Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Blended care, meaning that online (Internet) components are used in
      combination with face-to-face contact, in mental health is increasingly
      encouraged, but research about the needs of psychologists is scarce. METHODS: We
      assessed the perceptions, design, and barriers toward blended care among members
      of the Dutch Association of Psychologists through an e-mailed survey. Mean scores
      (SD) and answer percentages were calculated. Mann-Whitney tests were performed to
      investigate differences between users and nonusers and primary- and secondary
      care professionals. RESULTS: Generally, psychologists (63% response rate) had a
      positive perception toward blended care and they intended to use it in future (M
      = 3.71, SD = 1.19). Users of blended care and secondary care professionals were
      more positive toward blended care than nonusers and primary care professionals.
      Online psychoeducation, diary forms, and exercises for different therapeutic
      approaches and communication technology configurations were most welcomed. Still,
      quite some barriers were mentioned before professionals would use blended care.
      CONCLUSIONS: Psychologists had a positive perception toward blended care, as long
      as attention is paid to the perceived barriers. Results of this survey could be
      used in the development of online components that correspond to the needs of
      professionals. Reviewing the needs of psychologists, e-health components of
      different therapeutic approaches, apart from cognitive behavioral therapy, are
      welcomed. Future research is necessary to gain insight in the (cost)
      effectiveness of blended care for different types of patients (e.g.,
      transdiagnostic interventions) and of different therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28556756
TI  - Peer Review Panel and Ad Hoc Reviewers for the Journal of Periodontology.

PMID- 28556757
TI  - 2016 Research Forum Poster Session and Competition: Winners.

PMID- 28556755
TI  - Effects of Exercise Training Alone on Depot-Specific Body Fat Stores in Youth:
      Review of Recent Literature.
AB  - The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased at an alarming rate. The
      increased obesity rate in pediatrics parallels the increased risks for developing
      metabolic abnormalities, such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In particular, the strong relationship between
      obesity and such health consequences is well explained by the excessive
      accumulation of depot-specific body adiposity, such as visceral adipose tissue,
      intrahepatic lipid content, intermuscular adipose tissue, and/or intramyocellular
      lipid content. Limited evidence suggests that both aerobic and resistance
      exercise alone, independent of weight loss, can be an effective therapeutic
      strategy for improving risk markers of metabolic abnormalities as well as
      inducing positive changes in depot-specific body adiposity in obese children and
      adolescents. However, the independent role of exercise alone (without calorie
      restriction) in body fat distribution is still unclear, and the results are less
      conclusive in pediatrics. In this brief review, the effects of aerobic and
      resistance exercise on depot-specific body adiposity changes in children and
      adolescents are discussed.

PMID- 28556760
TI  - Your New Editor.

PMID- 28556759
TI  - Potential Use of Ayahuasca in Grief Therapy.
AB  - The death of a loved one is ultimately a universal experience. However,
      conventional interventions employed for people suffering with uncomplicated grief
      have gathered little empirical support. The present study aimed to explore the
      potential effects of ayahuasca on grief. We compared 30 people who had taken
      ayahuasca with 30 people who had attended peer-support groups, measuring level of
      grief and experiential avoidance. We also examined themes in participant
      responses to an open-ended question regarding their experiences with ayahuasca.
      The ayahuasca group presented a lower level of grief in the Present Feelings
      Scale of Texas Revised Inventory of Grief, showing benefits in some psychological
      and interpersonal dimensions. Qualitative responses described experiences of
      emotional release, biographical memories, and experiences of contact with the
      deceased. Additionally, some benefits were identified regarding the ayahuasca
      experiences. These results provide preliminary data about the potential of
      ayahuasca as a therapeutic tool in treatments for grief.

PMID- 28556761
TI  - Accuracy of the Fitbit Zip for Measuring Steps for Adolescents With Visual
      Impairments.
AB  - Our purpose in this study was to document the criterion validity of the Fitbit
      Zip for measuring steps taken by youth with visual impairments (VI). A secondary
      purpose was to determine whether walking pace, mounting position, or relative
      position to the user's mobility device impacted the criterion validity of the
      device. Fourteen adolescent-aged individuals (Mage = 15.4; 13 male and 1 female)
      with VI participated in this study. Participants wore four Fitbit Zips at
      different mounting positions and completed two, 2-min walking trials while the
      lead investigator hand tallied steps. Measurement validity was analyzed using
      absolute percent error (APE), intraclass correlation coefficients estimated level
      of conformity, and paired samples t tests and Cohen's d effect sizes assessed APE
      relative to mounting positions. Results supported the use of the Fitbit Zip
      during regular-paced walking; however, caution must be used during activities
      exceeding regular walking speeds, as devices consistently underestimated steps.

PMID- 28556762
TI  - Evaluation of Game Performance in Elite Male Sitting Volleyball Players.
AB  - The aims of the current study were (a) to analyze the differences in game
      performances of sitting volleyball athletes representing the different types of
      disabilities and (b) to assess whether the seated position vertical reach is one
      of the crucial factors in the game performance level of sitting volleyball
      athletes. One hundred male athletes from various national teams participating in
      the European Championships in Sitting Volleyball (2009) took part in this study.
      The athletes were categorized according to type of disability and the results of
      the vertical reach in a seated position. Thirtysix games were analyzed using the
      Game Performance Sheet for Sitting Volleyball. Twenty-three game performance
      parameters were studied. In addition, the sum and effectiveness of attacks,
      blocks, block services, services, ball receiving, and defensive actions were
      calculated. The main results indicated significant differences between athletes
      with minimal disability and athletes with single amputations from above the knee
      in the level of defensive performances and the summation of defensive actions.
      There was also a significant difference between athletes in relation to their
      vertical reach during activity and attacking actions, blocks, and ball receiving.
      In addition, there were strong relationships between the players' vertical reach
      scores and their activity and effectiveness in sitting volleyball. In conclusion,
      the accuracy of the World Organization Volleyball for Disabled classification
      systems for sitting volleyball players was confirmed. There is a strong
      relationship between players' vertical reach and their effectiveness in sitting
      volleyball.

PMID- 28556764
TI  - In-Service Physical Educators' Experiences of Online Adapted Physical Education
      Endorsement Courses.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate in-service physical education (PE)
      teachers' experiences during online adapted physical education (APE) graduate
      courses. Based on andragogy theory (adult learning theory) we employed a
      descriptive qualitative methodology using an explanatory case study design. The
      participants (6 female and 3 male) were in-service PE teachers enrolled in an
      online graduate APE endorsement program. Data collection included journal
      reflection reports and face-to-face interviews. A constant comparative method was
      used to interpret the data. Three interrelated themes emerged from the
      participants' narratives. The first theme, instructor communication, exposes the
      advantages and disadvantages the participants perceived regarding communication
      while enrolled in the online APE graduate courses. The second theme, bulletin
      board discussion experiences, described participants' perceptions of the use of
      the bulletin board discussion forum. Lastly, the final theme, assessment
      experiences, described how the participants learned knowledge and skills through
      online courses related to assessment and evaluation.

PMID- 28556765
TI  - Erratum: Bardid et al. (2016).
AB  - In the article by Bardid F., Huyben F., Deconinck F.J.A., De Martelaer K.,
      Seghers J., & Lenoir M., "Convergent and Divergent Validity Between the KTK and
      MOT 4-6 Motor Tests in Early Childhood, " in Adapted Pyhsical Activity Quarterly,
      33(1), the wrong DOI was printed. The DOI for this article is
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/APAQ.2014-0228. The online version has been corrected.

PMID- 28556766
TI  - Effects of B-Active2 on Balance, Gait, Stress, and Well-Being of Adults With
      Autism Spectrum Disorders and Intellectual Disability: A Controlled Trial.
AB  - Effects of B-Active2 (Enjoy Being Physically Active by Walking Safely: A Leisure
      Education Program) on the risk of falls, stress, and well-being of a sample of 44
      adults with ASD (ages M = 36.88; SD =7.31) were examined using a controlled
      experimental trial. Given the relationship between physical activity and stress
      reduction to individual well-being, B-Active2 was developed as a multidimensional
      program involving leisure education and walking designed to create an enjoyable
      context in which adults with ASD learn about and engage in physical activity. All
      participants were evaluated on balance, gait, well-being, and stress at baseline
      and at 1 month postintervention by a team of therapists blind to study
      objectives. There was a significant difference postintervention on balance, F(1,
      40) = 55.63, p < .001, eta2 = .58; gait, F(1, 40) = 23.58, p < .001, eta 2 =.37;
      and well-being, F(1, 40) = 34.16, p < .001, eta 2 = .47). No statistically
      significant effect was found for level of stress reduction, F(1, 40) = 0.27, n.s.
      Results of this study support the conclusion that B-Active2 is a viable leisure
      education program that promotes physical activity of adults with ASD and has
      positive effects on their well-being and risk of falls.

PMID- 28556767
TI  - Digest.

PMID- 28556768
TI  - Expert Users' Perceptions of Racing Wheelchair Design and Setup: The Knowns,
      Unknowns, and Next Steps.
AB  - This paper demonstrates how a qualitative methodology can be used to gain novel
      insights into the demands of wheelchair racing and the impact of particular
      racing chair configurations on optimal sport performance via engagement with
      expert users (wheelchair racers, coaches, and manufacturers). We specifically
      explore how expert users understand how wheels, tires, and bearings impact sport
      performance and how they engage, implement, or reject evidence-based research
      pertaining to these components. We identify areas where participants perceive
      there to be an immediate need for more research especially pertaining to the
      ability to make individualized recommendations for athletes. The findings from
      this project speak to the value of a qualitative research design for capturing
      the embodied knowledge of expert users and also make suggestions for "next step"
      projects pertaining to wheels, tires, and bearings drawn directly from the
      comments of participants.

PMID- 28556769
TI  - Health impact assessment for health promotion, education and learning.

PMID- 28556770
TI  - Case assignment in English-speaking children: a paired priming paradigm.
AB  - This study employed a paired priming paradigm to ask whether input features
      influence a child's propensity to use non-nominative versus nominative case in
      subject position, and to use non-nominative forms even when verbs are marked for
      agreement. Thirty English-speaking children (ages 2;6 to 3;7) heard sentences
      with pronouns that had non-contrasting case forms (e.g. Dad hugs it and it hugs
      Tigger) and it was hypothesized that these forms would lead to more errors (e.g.
      Him hugs Barney) in an elicited phrase more often than if the children heard
      contrasting case forms (e.g. Dad hugs us and we hug the doggie). Tense/agreement
      features were also examined in children's elicited productions. The findings were
      consistent with predictions, and supported the input ambiguity hypothesis of
      Pelham (2011). Implications for current accounts of the optional infinitive stage
      are discussed.

PMID- 28556771
TI  - On the inevitability of death.

PMID- 28556772
TI  - Faecalimonas umbilicata gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from human faeces, and
      reclassification of Eubacterium contortum, Eubacterium fissicatena and
      Clostridium oroticum as Faecalicatena contorta gen. nov., comb. nov.,
      Faecalicatena fissicatena comb. nov. and Faecalicatena orotica comb. nov.
AB  - Two bacterial strains, designated EGH7T and TSAH33, were isolated from human
      faeces and characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach that included
      analysis of morphology, phenotypic and biochemical features, cellular fatty acid
      profiles and phylogenetic position based on 16S rRNA and hsp60 gene sequence
      analyses. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that these
      strains represented members of the family Lachnospiraceae and formed a
      monophyletic cluster near Eubacterium contortum JCM 6483T (95 % sequence
      similarity), Ruminococcus gnavus JCM 6515T (95 %), Clostridium oroticum JCM 1429T
      (95 %), Eubacterium fissicatena JCM 31501T (95 %) and Clostridium nexile JCM
      31500T (94 %). The results of a hsp60 gene sequence analysis supported the
      phylogenetic tree based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, with a sequence similarity
      value of between 77.9 and 84.8 % to the five strains listed above. The novel
      strains were obligately anaerobic, non-pigmented, non-spore-forming, non-motile,
      Gram-stain-positive cocco-bacilli. The strains formed characteristic umbilicated
      colonies on EG agar plates. The major cellular fatty acids were C18 : 1omega9c,
      C16 : 0 and C18 : 1omega9c dimethyl acetal (DMA). EGH7T and TSAH33 have DNA G+C
      contents of 46.9 and 45.5 mol%, respectively. On the basis of these data, strains
      EGH7T and TSAH33 represent a novel species of a novel genus, for which the name
      Faecalimonas umbilicata gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of F.
      umbilicata is EGH7T (=JCM 30896T=DSM 103426T).

PMID- 28556773
TI  - Starmerella anomalae f.a., sp. nov., Starmerella asiatica f.a., sp. nov.,
      Starmerella henanensis f.a., sp. nov. and Starmerella scarabaei f.a., sp. nov.,
      four yeast species isolated from scarab beetles.
AB  - Eleven yeast strains representing four novel species of the genus Starmerella
      were isolated from scarabs beetles collected in Nanyang, Henan Province, Central
      China. Phylogenetic analysis using combined sequences of the D1/D2 domains of the
      large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions
      placed all the novel species in a clade distinct from the other known species in
      the clade representing the members of the genus Starmerella. These novel species
      differed from each other or their closest known species by more than 4.9 %
      nucleotide substitutions in the D1/D2 domains and by more than 9.1 % nucleotide
      substitutions in the ITS regions. The four novel species can also be separated
      from their closest relatives in terms of physiological characteristics. No asci
      or signs of conjugation were found in the novel species on the most common
      sporulation media. The novel species are designated as Starmerella anomalae f.a.,
      sp. nov. (type strain NYNU 157145T=CICC 33094T=CBS 14178T), Starmerella asiatica
      f.a., sp. nov. (type strain NYNU 15782T=CICC 33089T=CBS 14173T), Starmerella
      henanensis f.a., sp. nov. (type strain NYNU 15766T=CICC 33088T=CBS 14172T) and
      Starmerella scarabaei f.a., sp. nov. (type strain NYNU 15821T=CICC 33090T=CBS
      14174T).

PMID- 28556774
TI  - Functional MRI examination of empathy for pain in people with schizophrenia
      reveals abnormal activation related to cognitive perspective-taking but typical
      activation linked to affective sharing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is associated with important disturbances in empathy
      that are related to everyday functioning. Empathy is classically defined as
      including affective (sharing others' emotions) and cognitive (taking others'
      cognitive perspectives) processes. In healthy individuals, studies on empathy for
      pain revealed specific brain systems associated with these sets of processes,
      notably the anterior middle cingulate (aMCC) and anterior insula (AI) for
      affective sharing and the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ) for the
      cognitive processes, but the integrity of these systems in patients with
      schizophrenia remains uncertain. METHODS: Patients with schizophrenia and healthy
      controls performed a pain empathy task while undergoing fMRI scanning.
      Participants observed pictures of hands in either painful or nonpainful
      situations and rated the level of pain while imagining either themselves (self)
      or an unknown person (other) in these situations. RESULTS: We included 27
      patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls in our analyses. For the pain
      versus no pain contrast, patients showed overall typical activation patterns in
      the aMCC and AI, with only a small part of the aMCC showing reduced activation
      compared with controls. For the other versus self contrast, patients showed an
      abnormal modulation of activation in the TPJ bilaterally (extending to the
      posterior superior temporal sulcus, referred to as the TPJ/pSTS). LIMITATIONS:
      The design included an unnecessary manipulation of the visual perspective that
      reduced the number of trials for analysis. The sample size may not account for
      the heterogeneity of schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: People with schizophrenia showed
      relatively intact brain activation when observing others' pain, but showed
      abnormalities when asked to take the cognitive perspectives of others.

PMID- 28556775
TI  - Glutamatergic deficit and schizophrenia-like negative symptoms: new evidence from
      ketamine-induced mismatch negativity alterations in healthy male humans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Targeting the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is a major
      translational approach for treating negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Ketamine
      comprehensively produces schizophrenia-like symptoms, such as positive, cognitive
      and negative symptoms in healthy volunteers. The amplitude of the mismatch
      negativity (MMN) is known to be significantly reduced not only in patients with
      schizophrenia, but also in healthy controls receiving ketamine. Accordingly, it
      was the aim of the present study to investigate whether changes of MMN amplitudes
      during ketamine administration are associated with the emergence of schizophrenia
      like negative symptoms in healthy volunteers. METHODS: We examined the impact of
      ketamine during an MMN paradigm with 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) and
      assessed the psychopathological status using the Positive and Negative Syndrome
      Scale (PANSS) in healthy male volunteers using a single-blind, randomized,
      placebo-controlled crossover design. Low-resolution brain electromagnetic
      tomography was used for source localization. RESULTS: Twenty-four men were
      included in our analysis. Significant reductions of MMN amplitudes and an
      increase in all PANSS scores were identified under the ketamine condition.
      Smaller MMN amplitudes were specifically associated with more pronounced negative
      symptoms. Source analysis of MMN generators indicated a significantly reduced
      current source density (CSD) under the ketamine condition in the primary auditory
      cortex, the posterior cingulate and the middle frontal gyrus. LIMITATIONS: The
      sample included only men within a tight age range of 20-32 years. CONCLUSION: The
      MMN might represent a biomarker for negative symptoms in schizophrenia related to
      an insufficient NMDAR system and could be used to identify patients with
      schizophrenia with negative symptoms due to NMDAR dysfunction.

PMID- 28556776
TI  - HIF-1alpha is required for disturbed flow-induced metabolic reprogramming in
      human and porcine vascular endothelium.
AB  - Hemodynamic forces regulate vascular functions. Disturbed flow (DF) occurs in
      arterial bifurcations and curvatures, activates endothelial cells (ECs), and
      results in vascular inflammation and ultimately atherosclerosis. However, how DF
      alters EC metabolism, and whether resulting metabolic changes induce EC
      activation, is unknown. Using transcriptomics and bioenergetic analysis, we
      discovered that DF induces glycolysis and reduces mitochondrial respiratory
      capacity in human aortic ECs. DF-induced metabolic reprogramming required hypoxia
      inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha), downstream of NAD(P)H oxidase-4 (NOX4)
      derived reactive oxygen species (ROS). HIF-1alpha increased glycolytic enzymes
      and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-1 (PDK-1), which reduces mitochondrial
      respiratory capacity. Swine aortic arch endothelia exhibited elevated ROS, NOX4,
      HIF-1alpha, and glycolytic enzyme and PDK1 expression, suggesting that DF leads
      to metabolic reprogramming in vivo. Inhibition of glycolysis reduced inflammation
      suggesting a causal relationship between flow-induced metabolic changes and EC
      activation. These findings highlight a previously uncharacterized role for flow
      induced metabolic reprogramming and inflammation in ECs.

PMID- 28556779
TI  - Anthropometric profile and diabetic foot risk: a cross-sectional study using
      thermography.
AB  - Diabetes is one of the greatest todays public health problems with enormous
      social and economic implications for society. Diabetic foot disorders represent a
      substantial economic burden with detrimental effects on quality of life with
      special impairment in physical domain. Early detection strategies of these
      complications should be implemented in order to avoid possible wounds,
      ulcerations and amputations. This work can be characterized as a cross-sectional
      study with an analytical approach. It involved 44 volunteers of both genders (22
      women and 22 men; 66.70 +/- 6.26 years of age) with type 2 diabetes (diagnosed at
      11.84 +/- 8.22 years), selected among the candidates to Diabetes em Movimento(r)
      (a community-based exercise program for patients with type 2 diabetes developed
      in the city of Vila Real, Portugal). Foot plantar thermal images were acquired
      through a high-resolution infrared camera (FLIR Systems Inc. Model SC2000; 320 *
      240 pixels). Three regions of interest (ROI) were defined for evaluation: first
      finger, fifth finger and the heel. From the three pairs of ROIs evaluated, the
      higher temperature asymmetry was selected for diabetic foot risk analysis. The
      results showed the existence of a positive and significant association between
      BMI and fat mass with asymmetries in feet temperature. Three subjects with
      diabetes-related foot complications (ROIs higher temperature asymmetry >= 2.20 
      degrees C) were identified in the sample. All participants with detected diabetes
      related foot complications were obese (BMI >= 30 kg/m2) with high levels of body
      fat (>= 45%). It can be concluded that exist a positive association either of BMI
      (r=0.399, p=0.007) either of body fat percentage (r=0.432, p=0.003), with
      diabetic foot risk in patients with type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28556778
TI  - How a brain keeps its cool.
AB  - Temperature-sensing neurons in the Drosophila brain cooperate with the central
      circadian clock to help regulate body temperature.

PMID- 28556777
TI  - The force-sensing peptide VemP employs extreme compaction and secondary structure
      formation to induce ribosomal stalling.
AB  - Interaction between the nascent polypeptide chain and the ribosomal exit tunnel
      can modulate the rate of translation and induce translational arrest to regulate
      expression of downstream genes. The ribosomal tunnel also provides a protected
      environment for initial protein folding events. Here, we present a 2.9 A cryo
      electron microscopy structure of a ribosome stalled during translation of the
      extremely compacted VemP nascent chain. The nascent chain forms two alpha-helices
      connected by an alpha-turn and a loop, enabling a total of 37 amino acids to be
      observed within the first 50-55 A of the exit tunnel. The structure reveals how
      alpha-helix formation directly within the peptidyltransferase center of the
      ribosome interferes with aminoacyl-tRNA accommodation, suggesting that during
      canonical translation, a major role of the exit tunnel is to prevent excessive
      secondary structure formation that can interfere with the peptidyltransferase
      activity of the ribosome.

PMID- 28556780
TI  - Theory of magnons in spin systems with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.
AB  - We study in this paper magnetic properties of a system of quantum Heisenberg
      spins interacting with each other via a ferromagnetic exchange interaction J and
      an in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction D. The non-collinear ground state
      due to the competition between J and D is determined. We employ a self-consistent
      Green'function theory to calculate the spin-wave spectrum and the layer
      magnetizations at finite T in two and three dimensions as well as in a thin film
      with surface effects. Analytical details and the validity of the method are shown
      and discussed. Numerical solutions are shown for realistic physical interaction
      parameters. Discussion on possible experimental verifications is given.

PMID- 28556781
TI  - Supine MRI for regional breast radiotherapy: imaging axillary lymph nodes before
      and after sentinel-node biopsy.
AB  - Regional radiotherapy (RT) is increasingly used in breast cancer treatment.
      Conventionally, computed tomography (CT) is performed for RT planning. Lymph node
      (LN) target levels are delineated according to anatomical boundaries. Magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) could enable individual LN delineation. The purpose was
      to evaluate the applicability of MRI for LN detection in supine treatment
      position, before and after sentinel-node biopsy (SNB). Twenty-three female breast
      cancer patients (cTis-3N0M0) underwent 1.5 T MRI, before and after SNB, in
      addition to CT. Endurance for MRI was monitored. Axillary levels were delineated.
      LNs were identified and delineated on MRI from before and after SNB, and on CT,
      and compared by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. LN locations and LN-based volumes
      were related to axillary delineations and associated volumes. Although
      postoperative effects were visible, LN numbers on postoperative MRI (median 26
      LNs) were highly reproducible compared to preoperative MRI when adding excised
      sentinel nodes, and higher than on CT (median 11, p  <  0.001). LN-based volumes
      were considerably smaller than respective axillary levels. Supine MRI of LNs is
      feasible and reproducible before and after SNB. This may lead to more accurate RT
      target definition compared to CT, with potentially lower toxicity. With the MRI
      techniques described here, initiation of novel MRI-guided RT strategies aiming at
      individual LNs could be possible.

PMID- 28556782
TI  - Identification of interstitial-like defects in a computer model of glassy
      aluminum.
AB  - Computer simulation shows that glassy aluminum produced by rapid melt quenching
      contains a significant number of 'defects' similar to dumbbell (split)
      interstitials in the crystalline state. Although these 'defects' do not have any
      clear topological pattern as opposed to the crystal, they can be uniquely
      identified with the same properties which are characteristic of these defects in
      the crystalline structure, i.e. strong sensitivity to applied shear stress,
      specific local shear strain fields and distinctive low-/high-frequency
      peculiarities in the vibration spectra of 'defective' atoms. This conclusion
      provides new support for the interstitialcy theory, which was found to give
      consistent and verifiable explanations for a number of relaxation phenomena in
      metallic glasses and their relationship with the maternal crystalline state.

PMID- 28556784
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28556785
TI  - To Tax or Not to Tax Sugary Drinks? This Is the Question.

PMID- 28556787
TI  - Liver Failure in Early Infancy.

PMID- 28556788
TI  - An Improved Compressive Sensing and Received Signal Strength-Based Target
      Localization Algorithm with Unknown Target Population for Wireless Local Area
      Networks.
AB  - In this paper a two-phase compressive sensing (CS) and received signal strength
      (RSS)-based target localization approach is proposed to improve position accuracy
      by dealing with the unknown target population and the effect of grid dimensions
      on position error. In the coarse localization phase, by formulating target
      localization as a sparse signal recovery problem, grids with recovery vector
      components greater than a threshold are chosen as the candidate target grids. In
      the fine localization phase, by partitioning each candidate grid, the target
      position in a grid is iteratively refined by using the minimum residual error
      rule and the least-squares technique. When all the candidate target grids are
      iteratively partitioned and the measurement matrix is updated, the recovery
      vector is re-estimated. Threshold-based detection is employed again to determine
      the target grids and hence the target population. As a consequence, both the
      target population and the position estimation accuracy can be significantly
      improved. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves the
      best accuracy among all the algorithms compared.

PMID- 28556789
TI  - Characterization of Metabolite Profile in Phyllanthus niruri and Correlation with
      Bioactivity Elucidated by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Based Metabolomics.
AB  - Phyllanthus niruri is an important medicinal plant. To standardize the extract
      and guarantee its maximum benefit, processing methods optimization ought to be
      amenable and beneficial. Herein, three dried P. niruri samples, air (AD), freeze
      (FD) and oven (OD), extracted with various ethanol to water ratios (0%, 50%, 70%,
      80% and 100%) were evaluated for their metabolite changes using proton nuclear
      magnetic resonance (1H-NMR)-based metabolomics approach. The amino acids analysis
      showed that FD P. niruri exhibited higher content of most amino acids compared to
      the other dried samples. Based on principal component analysis (PCA), the FD P.
      niruri extracted with 80% ethanol contained higher amounts of hypophyllanthin and
      phenolic compounds based on the loading plot. The partial least-square (PLS)
      results showed that the phytochemicals, including hypophyllanthin, catechin,
      epicatechin, rutin, quercetin and chlorogenic, caffeic, malic and gallic acids
      were correlated with antioxidant and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities,
      which were higher in the FD material extracted with 80% ethanol. This report
      optimized the effect of drying and ethanol ratios and these findings demonstrate
      that NMR-based metabolomics was an applicable approach. The FD P. niruri
      extracted with 80% ethanol can be used as afunctional food ingredient for
      nutraceutical or in medicinal preparation.

PMID- 28556790
TI  - DNA Methylation Profiling of Human Prefrontal Cortex Neurons in Heroin Users
      Shows Significant Difference between Genomic Contexts of Hyper- and
      Hypomethylation and a Younger Epigenetic Age.
AB  - We employed Illumina 450 K Infinium microarrays to profile DNA methylation (DNAm)
      in neuronal nuclei separated by fluorescence-activated sorting from the
      postmortem orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of heroin users who died from heroin
      overdose (N = 37), suicide completers (N = 22) with no evidence of heroin use and
      from control subjects who did not abuse illicit drugs and died of non-suicide
      causes (N = 28). We identified 1298 differentially methylated CpG sites (DMSs)
      between heroin users and controls, and 454 DMSs between suicide completers and
      controls (p < 0.001). DMSs and corresponding genes (DMGs) in heroin users showed
      significant differences in the preferential context of hyper and hypo DM.
      HyperDMSs were enriched in gene bodies and exons but depleted in promoters,
      whereas hypoDMSs were enriched in promoters and enhancers. In addition, hyperDMGs
      showed preference for genes expressed specifically by glutamatergic as opposed to
      GABAergic neurons and enrichment for axonogenesis- and synaptic-related gene
      ontology categories, whereas hypoDMGs were enriched for transcription factor
      activity- and gene expression regulation-related terms. Finally, we found that
      the DNAm-based "epigenetic age" of neurons from heroin users was younger than
      that in controls. Suicide-related results were more difficult to interpret.
      Collectively, these findings suggest that the observed DNAm differences could
      represent functionally significant marks of heroin-associated plasticity in the
      OFC.

PMID- 28556792
TI  - Two New Oxodolastane Diterpenes from the Jamaican Macroalga Canistrocarpus
      cervicornis.
AB  - The chemical investigation of the organic extract of Canistrocarpus cervicornis,
      collected at Drunken Man's Cay at Port Royal, Jamaica, has led to the isolation
      of two new dolastane diterpenes 4R-acetoxy-8S,9S-epoxy-14S-hydroxy-7-oxodolastane
      (1) and 4R-hydroxy-8S,9S-epoxy-14S-hydroxy-7-oxodolastane (2) and the previously
      isolated dolastane (4R,9S,14S)-4,9,14-trihydroxydolast-1(15),7-diene (3) as a
      major diterpene constituent. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated
      by extensive spectroscopic analyses. Compounds 1-3 were evaluated for their
      cytotoxicity against human tumor cell lines PC3 and HT29. The results revealed
      that the dolastane diterpenes (1-3) displayed moderate, concentration dependent,
      cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28556791
TI  - Significance of Phosphorylated Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and Its Signal
      Transducers in Human Soft Tissue Sarcoma.
AB  - Abstract: Previous studies have shown that total epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) protein is highly expressed in soft tissue sarcoma (STS). We aimed to
      investigate the significance of phosphorylated-EGFR (pEGFR) and its activated
      downstream signal transducers in STS tissue samples. A tissue microarray
      comprising 87 STS samples was assessed for total EGFR, pEGFR and its
      phosphorylated signal transducers and expression was correlated with
      clinicopathlogical parameters including patient outcome. Although the expression
      of total EGFR was significantly associated with adverse STS histologic grade (p =
      0.004) and clinical stage (p = 0.012) similar to pEGFR, phosphorylated protein
      kinase B (pAkt) and phosphorylated extracellular signal regulated kinase (pERK),
      it is not a prognostic factor for survival. By contrast, the expression of pEGFR
      is an independent factor for cancer specific survival, while pERK is an
      independent prognostic factor for both overall and cancer specific survival in
      STS (p < 0.05, Cox proportional hazard model and log-rank test) in addition to
      the recognised factors of tumour grade and clinical stage. pERK and pEGFR are new
      independent prognostic factors for overall and/or cancer specific survival in
      STS. The expression of EGFR/pEGFR, and their associated downstream signal
      transducers, was associated with STS progression, suggesting that EGFR downstream
      signalling pathways may jointly support STS cell survival.

PMID- 28556794
TI  - Formation of Conductive DNA-Based Nanowires via Conjugation of dsDNA with
      Cationic Peptide.
AB  - A novel conductive DNA-based nanomaterial, DNA-peptide wire, composed of a DNA
      core and a peripheral peptide layer, is presented. The electrical conductivity of
      the wire is found to be at least three orders in magnitude higher than that of
      native double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). High conductivity of the wires along with a
      better resistance to mechanical deformations caused by interactions between the
      substrate and electrode surface make them appealing for a wide variety of
      nanoelectronic and biosensor applications.

PMID- 28556793
TI  - Syntheses of Radioiodinated Pyrimidine-2,4,6-Triones as Potential Agents for Non
      Invasive Imaging of Matrix Metalloproteinases.
AB  - Dysregulated expression or activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is
      observed in many kinds of live-threatening diseases. Therefore, MMP imaging for
      example with radiolabelled MMP inhibitors (MMPIs) potentially represents a
      valuable tool for clinical diagnostics using non-invasive single photon emission
      computed tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. This
      work includes the organic chemical syntheses and in vitro evaluation of five
      iodinated barbiturate based MMPIs and the selection of derivative 9 for
      radiosyntheses of isotopologues [123I]9 potentially useful for MMP SPECT imaging
      and [124I]9 for MMP PET imaging.

PMID- 28556795
TI  - Perception of Organic Food Consumption in Romania.
AB  - This study provides insight into the attitude of Romanian consumers towards
      organic food. Furthermore, it examines the sustainable food production system in
      Romania from the perspective of consumer behavior. This study used a mathematical
      model of linear regression with the main purpose being to determine the best
      prediction for the dependent variable when given a number of new values for the
      independent variable. This empirical research is based on a survey with a sample
      of 672 consumers, which uses a questionnaire to analyze their intentions towards
      sustainable food products. The results indicate that a more positive attitude of
      consumers towards organic food products will further strengthen their purchasing
      intentions, while the status of the consumption of organic consumers will not
      affect their willingness to purchase organic food products. Statistics have shown
      that sustainable food consumption is beneficial for health, so it can also become
      a profitable business in Romania. Furthermore, food sustainability in Romania
      depends on the ability of an organic food business to adapt to the new
      requirements of green consumption.

PMID- 28556797
TI  - Small and Smaller-sRNAs and MicroRNAs in the Regulation of Toxin Gene Expression
      in Prokaryotic Cells: A Mini-Review.
AB  - Non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) have been identified in the wide range of bacteria
      (also pathogenic species) and found to play an important role in the regulation
      of many processes, including toxin gene expression. The best characterized
      prokaryotic sRNAs regulate gene expression by base pairing with mRNA targets and
      fall into two broad classes: cis-encoded sRNAs (also called antisense RNA) and
      trans-acting sRNAs. Molecules from the second class are frequently considered as
      the most related to eukaryotic microRNAs. Interestingly, typical microRNA-size
      RNA molecules have also been reported in prokaryotic cells, although they have
      received little attention up to now. In this work we have collected information
      about all three types of small prokaryotic RNAs in the context of the regulation
      of toxin gene expression.

PMID- 28556796
TI  - Sugar-Binding Profiles of Chitin-Binding Lectins from the Hevein Family: A
      Comprehensive Study.
AB  - Chitin-binding lectins form the hevein family in plants, which are defined by the
      presence of single or multiple structurally conserved GlcNAc (N
      acetylglucosamine)-binding domains. Although they have been used as probes for
      chito-oligosaccharides, their detailed specificities remain to be investigated.
      In this study, we analyzed six chitin-binding lectins, DSA, LEL, PWM, STL, UDA,
      and WGA, by quantitative frontal affinity chromatography. Some novel features
      were evident: WGA showed almost comparable affinity for pyridylaminated
      chitotriose and chitotetraose, while LEL and UDA showed much weaker affinity, and
      DSA, PWM, and STL had no substantial affinity for the former. WGA showed
      selective affinity for hybrid-type N-glycans harboring a bisecting GlcNAc
      residue. UDA showed extensive binding to high-mannose type N-glycans, with
      affinity increasing with the number of Man residues. DSA showed the highest
      affinity for highly branched N-glycans consisting of type II LacNAc (N
      acetyllactosamine). Further, multivalent features of these lectins were
      investigated by using glycoconjugate and lectin microarrays. The lectins showed
      substantial binding to immobilized LacNAc as well as chito-oligosaccharides,
      although the extents to which they bound varied among them. WGA showed strong
      binding to heavily sialylated glycoproteins. The above observations will help
      interpret lectin-glycoprotein interactions in histochemical studies and glyco
      biomarker investigations.

PMID- 28556798
TI  - Loss of BAX by miR-365 Promotes Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression by
      Suppressing Apoptosis.
AB  - Pro-apoptotic BCL2 associated X (BAX) is traditionally thought to be regulated by
      anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family members, like BCL2-like 1 (BCL-XL), at the protein
      level. However, the posttranscriptional regulation of BAX is under explored. In
      this study, we identified BAX as the novel downstream target of miR-365, which is
      supported by gain- and loss-of-function studies of onco-miR-365. Loss of BAX by
      either RNA interference or highly-expressed miR-365 in cells of cutaneous
      squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) enhanced the tumor resistance against apoptosis,
      while repressing cell proliferation, migration, and invasiveness. In vivo
      experiment confirmed that BAX knockdown promotes the growth of CSCC xenografts.
      Collectively, our results find a miR-365-BAX axis for alleviating the pro
      apoptotic effects of BAX, which promotes CSCC development and may facilitate the
      generation of novel therapeutic regimens to the clinical treatment of CSCC.

PMID- 28556799
TI  - Impaired Insulin Signaling is Associated with Hepatic Mitochondrial Dysfunction
      in IR+/--IRS-1+/- Double Heterozygous (IR-IRS1dh) Mice.
AB  - Mitochondria play a pivotal role in energy metabolism, but whether insulin
      signaling per se could regulate mitochondrial function has not been identified
      yet. To investigate whether mitochondrial function is regulated by insulin
      signaling, we analyzed muscle and liver of insulin receptor (IR)+/--insulin
      receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1)+/- double heterozygous (IR-IRS1dh) mice, a well
      described model for insulin resistance. IR-IRS1dh mice were studied at the age of
      6 and 12 months and glucose metabolism was determined by glucose and insulin
      tolerance tests. Mitochondrial enzyme activities, oxygen consumption, and
      membrane potential were assessed using spectrophotometric, respirometric, and
      proton motive force analysis, respectively. IR-IRS1dh mice showed elevated serum
      insulin levels. Hepatic mitochondrial oxygen consumption was reduced in IR-IRS1dh
      animals at 12 months of age. Furthermore, 6-month-old IR-IRS1dh mice demonstrated
      enhanced mitochondrial respiration in skeletal muscle, but a tendency of impaired
      glucose tolerance. On the other hand, 12-month-old IR-IRS1dh mice showed improved
      glucose tolerance, but normal muscle mitochondrial function. Our data revealed
      that deficiency in IR/IRS-1 resulted in normal or even elevated skeletal muscle,
      but impaired hepatic mitochondrial function, suggesting a direct cross-talk
      between insulin signaling and mitochondria in the liver.

PMID- 28556802
TI  - Multi-Site Simultaneous Time-Resolved Photometry with a Low Cost Electro-Optics
      System.
AB  - Sunlight reflected off of resident space objects can be used as an optical signal
      for astrometric orbit determination and for deducing geometric information about
      the object. With the increasing population of small satellites and debris in low
      Earth orbit, photometry is a powerful tool in operational support of space
      missions, whether for anomaly resolution or object identification. To accurately
      determine size, shape, spin rate, status of deployables, or attitude information
      of an unresolved resident space object, multi-hertz sample rate photometry is
      required to capture the relatively rapid changes in brightness that these objects
      can exhibit. OSCOM, which stands for Optical tracking and Spectral
      characterization of CubeSats for Operational Missions, is a low cost and portable
      telescope system capable of time-resolved small satellite photometry, and is
      field deployable on short notice for simultaneous observation from multiple
      sites. We present the electro-optical design principles behind OSCOM and light
      curves of the 1.5 U DICE-2 CubeSat and simultaneous observations of the main body
      of the ASTRO-H satellite after its fragmentation event.

PMID- 28556801
TI  - Heterogeneous Trajectories of Physical and Mental Health in Late Middle Age:
      Importance of Life-Course Socioeconomic Positions.
AB  - Drawing on life course and cumulative disadvantage theory, this study examines
      heterogeneous trajectories of functional limitations and depressive symptoms
      among late middle-aged individuals. This study used prospective data from 6010
      adults, 51 to 64 years old, collected over a 12-year-period from the Health and
      Retirement Study. Considering the empirical proposition that several physical and
      mental trajectories may exist, Latent Class Growth Modeling was used. Five
      heterogeneous patterns of joint trajectories (Relatively healthy, Moderately
      improving, Steadily deteriorating, Steeply deteriorating, and Persistently high
      comorbid) were identified. Early life adversity was related to an increasing risk
      of declines in physical and mental health. The Persistently high comorbid class
      was characterized by a concentration of disadvantages over the life course. The
      development of public health interventions could help reduce co-existing physical
      and mental health problems, especially during late middle-age.

PMID- 28556803
TI  - Using Color, Texture and Object-Based Image Analysis of Multi-Temporal Camera
      Data to Monitor Soil Aggregate Breakdown.
AB  - Remote sensing has shown its potential to assess soil properties and is a fast
      and non-destructive method for monitoring soil surface changes. In this paper, we
      monitor soil aggregate breakdown under natural conditions. From November 2014 to
      February 2015, images and weather data were collected on a daily basis from five
      soils susceptible to detachment (Silty Loam with various organic matter content,
      Loam and Sandy Loam). Three techniques that vary in image processing complexity
      and user interaction were tested for the ability of monitoring aggregate
      breakdown. Considering that the soil surface roughness causes shadow cast, the
      blue/red band ratio is utilized to observe the soil aggregate changes. Dealing
      with images with high spatial resolution, image texture entropy, which reflects
      the process of soil aggregate breakdown, is used. In addition, the Huang
      thresholding technique, which allows estimation of the image area occupied by
      soil aggregate, is performed. Our results show that all three techniques indicate
      soil aggregate breakdown over time. The shadow ratio shows a gradual change over
      time with no details related to weather conditions. Both the entropy and the
      Huang thresholding technique show variations of soil aggregate breakdown
      responding to weather conditions. Using data obtained with a regular camera, we
      found that freezing-thawing cycles are the cause of soil aggregate breakdown.

PMID- 28556800
TI  - Disease Prevention: An Opportunity to Expand Edible Plant-Based Vaccines?
AB  - The lethality of infectious diseases has decreased due to the implementation of
      crucial sanitary procedures such as vaccination. However, the resurgence of
      pathogenic diseases in different parts of the world has revealed the importance
      of identifying novel, rapid, and concrete solutions for control and prevention.
      Edible vaccines pose an interesting alternative that could overcome some of the
      constraints of traditional vaccines. The term "edible vaccine" refers to the use
      of edible parts of a plant that has been genetically modified to produce specific
      components of a particular pathogen to generate protection against a disease. The
      aim of this review is to present and critically examine "edible vaccines" as an
      option for global immunization against pathogenic diseases and their outbreaks
      and to discuss the necessary steps for their production and control and the list
      of plants that may already be used as edible vaccines. Additionally, this review
      discusses the required standards and ethical regulations as well as the
      advantages and disadvantages associated with this powerful biotechnology tool.

PMID- 28556804
TI  - Smartphone-Based pH Sensor for Home Monitoring of Pulmonary Exacerbations in
      Cystic Fibrosis.
AB  - Currently, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients lack the ability to track their lung
      health at home, relying instead on doctor checkups leading to delayed treatment
      and lung damage. By leveraging the ubiquity of the smartphone to lower costs and
      increase portability, a smartphone-based peripheral pH measurement device was
      designed to attach directly to the headphone port to harvest power and
      communicate with a smartphone application. This platform was tested using
      prepared pH buffers and sputum samples from CF patients. The system matches
      within ~0.03 pH of a benchtop pH meter while fully powering itself and
      communicating with a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone paired with either a glass or
      Iridium Oxide (IrOx) electrode. The IrOx electrodes were found to have 25% higher
      sensitivity than the glass probes at the expense of larger drift and matrix
      sensitivity that can be addressed with proper calibration. The smartphone-based
      platform has been demonstrated as a portable replacement for laboratory pH
      meters, and supports both highly robust glass probes and the sensitive and
      miniature IrOx electrodes with calibration. This tool can enable more frequent pH
      sputum tracking for CF patients to help detect the onset of pulmonary
      exacerbation to provide timely and appropriate treatment before serious damage
      occurs.

PMID- 28556805
TI  - Corrosivity Sensor for Exposed Pipelines Based on Wireless Energy Transfer.
AB  - External corrosion was identified as one of the main causes of pipeline failures
      worldwide. A solution that addresses the issue of detecting and quantifying
      corrosivity of environment for application to existing exposed pipelines has been
      developed. It consists of a sensing array made of an assembly of thin strips of
      pipeline steel and a circuit that provides a visual sensor reading to the
      operator. The proposed sensor is passive and does not require a constant power
      supply. Circuit design was validated through simulations and lab experiments.
      Accelerated corrosion experiment was conducted to confirm the feasibility of the
      proposed corrosivity sensor design.

PMID- 28556806
TI  - Quality of Life in Women with Stage 1 Stress Urinary Incontinence after
      Application of Conservative Treatment-A Randomized Trial.
AB  - Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) influences quality of life in female patients.
      In this study, we used ICIQ LUTS QoL (The International Consultation Incontinence
      Questionnaire Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms quality of life) to determine the
      quality of life (QoL) in various domains in patients with stage 1 SUI. The study
      included 140 perimenopausal women subjected to urodynamic tests at the Department
      of Gynaecology, Endocrinology and Gynaecologic Oncology, Pomeranian Medical
      University, Police (Poland) in 2013-2015. The study subjects were divided into
      two groups, A and B. Each patient completed two questionnaires, an original
      survey developed by the authors and the validated ICIQ LUTS QoL. Two exercise
      programs, each lasting for 3 months and consisting of 4 weekly sessions, were
      recommended to the study subjects. The program for Group A included exercises for
      pelvic floor muscles (PFM) with simultaneous tension of the transverse abdominal
      muscle (TrA), and the program for Group B, PFM exercises without TrA tension.
      After completing the exercise programs, patients with stage 1 SUI, both from
      Group A and from Group B, showed a significant improvement in most QoL domains
      measured with ICIQ LUTS QoL. However, more beneficial effects of the training
      were observed in the group subjected to PFM exercises with TrA tension.

PMID- 28556808
TI  - Antinociceptive Effect of the Essential Oil from Croton conduplicatus Kunth
      (Euphorbiaceae).
AB  - Medicinal plants have been widely used in the treatment of chronic pain. In this
      study, we describe the antinociceptive effect of the essential oil from Croton
      conduplicatus (the EO 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg, i.p.), a medicinal plant native to
      Brazil. Antinociceptive activity was investigated by measuring the nociception
      induced by acetic acid, formalin, hot plate and carrageenan. A docking study was
      performed with the major constituents of the EO (E-caryophyllene, caryophyllene
      oxide, and camphor). The EO reduced nociceptive behavior at all doses tested in
      the acetic acid-induced nociception test (p < 0.05). The same was observed in
      both phases (neurogenic and inflammatory) of the formalin test. When the hot
      plate test was conducted, the EO (50 mg/kg) extended the latency time after 60
      min of treatment. The EO also reduced leukocyte migration at all doses,
      suggesting that its antinociceptive effect involves both central and peripheral
      mechanisms. Pretreatment with glibenclamide and atropine reversed the
      antinociceptive effect of the EO on the formalin test, suggesting the involvement
      of KATP channels and muscarinic receptors. The docking study revealed a
      satisfactory interaction profile between the major components of the EO and the
      different muscarinic receptor subtypes (M2, M3, and M4). These results
      corroborate the medicinal use of C. conduplicatus in folk medicine.

PMID- 28556809
TI  - Frequency Domain Analysis of Sensor Data for Event Classification in Real-Time
      Robot Assisted Deburring.
AB  - Process monitoring using indirect methods relies on the usage of sensors. Using
      sensors to acquire vital process related information also presents itself with
      the problem of big data management and analysis. Due to uncertainty in the
      frequency of events occurring, a higher sampling rate is often used in real-time
      monitoring applications to increase the chances of capturing and understanding
      all possible events related to the process. Advanced signal processing methods
      are used to further decipher meaningful information from the acquired data. In
      this research work, power spectrum density (PSD) of sensor data acquired at
      sampling rates between 40-51.2 kHz was calculated and the corelation between PSD
      and completed number of cycles/passes is presented. Here, the progress in number
      of cycles/passes is the event this research work intends to classify and the
      algorithm used to compute PSD is Welch's estimate method. A comparison between
      Welch's estimate method and statistical methods is also discussed. A clear co
      relation was observed using Welch's estimate to classify the number of
      cycles/passes. The paper also succeeds in classifying vibration signal generated
      by the spindle from the vibration signal acquired during finishing process.

PMID- 28556807
TI  - The Effects of the Global Economic Recession and a Reduced Alcohol Tax on
      Hospitalizations Due to Alcohol-Attributed Diseases in Taiwan.
AB  - This study is to assess the effects of the 2008 economic crisis and a 2009
      alcohol tax reduction on alcohol-related morbidity for men of different
      socioeconomic statuses in Taiwan. Admissions data for the period from 2007 to
      2012 for men aged 24-59 years in 2007 was retrieved from the National Health
      Insurance Research Database. With stratification over three income levels, an
      interrupted time-series analysis examining the effects of the crisis and taxation
      reduction on incidence rates of hospitalization for alcohol-attributed diseases
      (AADs) was employed. The low income group showed a significant (p < 0.05) change
      in the rate of AAD-related hospitalizations in July 2008; specifically, an abrupt
      7.11% increase that was then sustained for several months thereafter. In
      contrast, while the middle income group exhibited a significant 22.9% decline in
      the rate of AAD-related hospitalizations over the course of the crisis, that
      downward trend was gradual. The reduction of the alcohol tax resulted in
      increased rates of AADs among both the low and high income groups. The economic
      recession and the reduction of the alcohol tax resulted in an increased rate of
      AAD among low income men.

PMID- 28556810
TI  - Transtheoretical Model of Change during Travel Behavior Interventions: An
      Integrative Review.
AB  - This study aims to identify the relevant empirical work, to synthesize its
      findings, and to thus attain a general understanding of the application of the
      Transtheoretical Model (TTM) in transport behavior research. An integrative
      literature review was used to determine whether or not the implemented
      interventions impact the stages and processes of travel behavior change. Data was
      collected from different databases. English language articles published between
      2002 and 2017 were included. After sequentially narrowing the search and removing
      duplicates, 53 relevant papers remained, 13 of which fulfilled the stated
      criteria of constituting a transport intervention study using the TTM as a
      reference frame. The final 13 studies were classified and categorized according
      to stages and processes in the TTM. Findings showed that none of the
      interventions met the method requirements for a proper evaluation of design and
      outcome measurement. Reporting did not follow a standardized structure desirable
      when enabling comparative analyses. Allowing for these shortcomings, it is
      inferred that positive travel behavior changes have been obtained during some
      interventions. Importantly, although it was stated that the empirical studies
      were based on the TTM, the included interventions were implemented irrespective
      of the individual's stage of change. For future research, it will be necessary to
      conduct evaluations of higher quality.

PMID- 28556811
TI  - Towards Targeting PI3K-Dependent Regulation of Gene Expression in Brain Cancer.
AB  - The PI3K pathway is one of the most highly perturbed cell signaling pathways in
      human cancer, including the most common malignant brain tumors, gliomas, where
      either activating mutations of positive pathway effectors or loss/inactivation of
      pathway inhibitors occurs. Knowledge of the precise transcription factors
      modulated by PI3K in tumor cells remains elusive but there are numerous PI3K
      responsive signaling factors, including kinases, which can activate many
      transcription factors. In the context of cancer, these transcription factors
      participate in the regulation of target genes expression networks to support
      cancer cell characteristics such as survival, proliferation, migration and
      differentiation. This review focuses on the role of PI3K signaling-regulated
      transcription in brain cancer cells from a series of recent investigations. A
      deeper understanding of this regulation is beginning to provide the hope of
      developing more sophisticated anti-cancer targeting approaches, where both
      upstream and downstream components of the PI3K pathway may be targeted by
      existing and novel drugs.

PMID- 28556812
TI  - Ultrafine Particle Distribution and Chemical Composition Assessment during
      Military Operative Trainings.
AB  - (1) Background: The assessment of airborne particulate matter (PM) and ultrafine
      particles (UFPs) in battlefield scenarios is a topic of particular concern; (2)
      Methods: Size distribution, concentration, and chemical composition of UFPs
      during operative military training activities (target drone launches, ammunition
      blasting, and inert bomb impact) were investigated using an electric low-pressure
      impactor (ELPI+) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM), equipped with energy
      dispersive spectroscopy (EDS); (3) Results: The median of UFPs, measured for all
      sampling periods and at variable distance from sources, was between 1.02 * 103
      and 3.75 * 103 particles/cm3 for drone launches, between 3.32 * 103 and 15.4 *
      103 particles/cm3 for the ammunition blasting and from 7.9 * 103 to 1.3 * 104
      particles/cm3 for inert launches. Maximum peak concentrations, during emitting
      sources starting, were 75.5 * 106 and 17.9 * 106 particles/cm3, respectively.
      Particles from the drone launches were predominantly composed of silicon (Si),
      iron (Fe) and calcium (Ca), and those from the blasting campaigns by magnesium
      (Mg), sulphur (S), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), barium (Ba) and silicon (Si); (4)
      Conclusions: The investigated sources produced UFPs with median values lower than
      other anthropogenic sources, and with a similar chemical composition.

PMID- 28556813
TI  - Cognitive-Motivational Determinants of Residents' Civic Engagement and Health
      (Inequities) in the Context of Noise Action Planning: A Conceptual Model.
AB  - The Environmental Noise Directive expects residents to be actively involved in
      localising and selecting noise abatement interventions during the noise action
      planning process. Its intervention impact is meant to be homogeneous across
      population groups. Against the background of social heterogeneity and
      environmental disparities, however, the impact of noise action planning on
      exposure to traffic-related noise and its health effects is unlikely to follow
      homogenous distributions. Until now, there has been no study evaluating the
      impact of noise action measures on the social distribution of traffic-related
      noise exposure and health outcomes. We develop a conceptual (logic) model on
      cognitive-motivational determinants of residents' civic engagement and health
      (inequities) by integrating arguments from the Model on household's Vulnerability
      to the local Environment, the learned helplessness model in environmental
      psychology, the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress, and the reserve capacity
      model. Specifically, we derive four hypothetical patterns of cognitive
      motivational determinants yielding different levels of sustained physiological
      activation and expectancies of civic engagement. These patterns may help us
      understand why health inequities arise in the context of noise action planning
      and learn how to transform noise action planning into an instrument conducive to
      health equity. While building on existing frameworks, our conceptual model will
      be tested empirically in the next stage of our research process.

PMID- 28556814
TI  - Combined Treatment with Hyaluronic Acid and Mesalamine Protects Rats from
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease Induced by Intracolonic Administration of
      Trinitrobenzenesulfonic Acid.
AB  - Drugs such as mesalamine (5-ASA) are currently recommended for the treatment of
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To reduce the frequency of their administration
      and improve their therapeutic effect, this study investigated the adhesion
      efficacy, wound healing promotion, and decrease in inflammation in ulcers in the
      colonic tissue of rats with colitis after combined treatment with hyaluronic acid
      (HA) and 5-ASA (IBD98-M). HA-fluoresceinamine (FL) conjugates successfully
      adhered to the mucosal layer and were conjugated in the vascular tissue. In
      addition, macroscopic and microscopic observations indicated that colonic
      injuries reduced significantly after treatment with IBD98-M. Compared with PBS
      and 5-ASA treatment alone, treatment with IBD98-M more effectively reduced bowel
      inflammation and promoted colonic mucosal healing in TNBS-induced colitis. IBD98
      M treatment also reduced myeloperoxidase activity and the expression levels of
      cyclooxygenase 2 and tumor necrosis factor-alphain the colitis tissue. In
      conclusion, IBD98-M treatment strongly promoted wound healing in colonic injuries
      and significantly inhibited MPO activity in the inflamed colon tissue of rats.
      Combined treatment with HA and 5-ASA can accelerate wound healing and reduce
      inflammatory reaction in rat colitis.

PMID- 28556815
TI  - The Antidiabetic Mechanisms of Polyphenols Related to Increased Glucagon-Like
      Peptide-1 (GLP1) and Insulin Signaling.
AB  - Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an endocrine disease related to
      impaired/absent insulin signaling. Dietary habits can either promote or mitigate
      the onset and severity of T2DM. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been
      correlated with a decreased incidence of T2DM, apparently due to their high
      polyphenol content. Polyphenols are compounds of plant origin with several
      documented bioactivities related to health promotion. The present review
      describes the antidiabetic effects of polyphenols, specifically related to the
      secretion and effects of insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1), an enteric
      hormone that stimulates postprandial insulin secretion. The evidence suggests
      that polyphenols from various sources stimulate L-cells to secrete GLP1, increase
      its half-life by inhibiting dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), stimulate beta-cells
      to secrete insulin and stimulate the peripheral response to insulin, increasing
      the overall effects of the GLP1-insulin axis. The glucose-lowering potential of
      polyphenols has been evidenced in various acute and chronic models of healthy and
      diabetic organisms. Some polyphenols appear to exert their effects similarly to
      pharmaceutical antidiabetics; thus, rigorous clinical trials are needed to fully
      validate this claim. The broad diversity of polyphenols has not allowed for
      entirely describing their mechanisms of action, but the evidence advocates for
      their regular consumption.

PMID- 28556816
TI  - Salmonid Jumping and Playing: Potential Cultural and Welfare Implications.
AB  - Salmonids of several species and other fishes can jump into the air from the
      water. This behavior has been used in net pen culture applications to control
      parasitic sea lice. The reasons that salmonids jump remain a topic for
      speculation. Research on these behaviors has focused on Atlantic salmon in net
      pen culture in Northwest Europe. Jumping in salmonids is a heterogeneous
      behavioral category with diverse functional outcomes. Additional research is
      needed from broad perspectives spanning indigenous and institutional science,
      cultural wisdom, and ethological direct observation. In theory and in practice,
      it is interesting that some salmonid jumping behavior may be a form of play.

PMID- 28556817
TI  - The Lateral Tracking Control for the Intelligent Vehicle Based on Adaptive PID
      Neural Network.
AB  - The intelligent vehicle is a complicated nonlinear system, and the design of a
      path tracking controller is one of the key technologies in intelligent vehicle
      research. This paper mainly designs a lateral control dynamic model of the
      intelligent vehicle, which is used for lateral tracking control. Firstly, the
      vehicle dynamics model (i.e., transfer function) is established according to the
      vehicle parameters. Secondly, according to the vehicle steering control system
      and the CARMA (Controlled Auto-Regression and Moving-Average) model, a second
      order control system model is built. Using forgetting factor recursive least
      square estimation (FFRLS), the system parameters are identified. Finally, a
      neural network PID (Proportion Integral Derivative) controller is established for
      lateral path tracking control based on the vehicle model and the steering system
      model. Experimental simulation results show that the proposed model and algorithm
      have the high real-time and robustness in path tracing control. This provides a
      certain theoretical basis for intelligent vehicle autonomous navigation tracking
      control, and lays the foundation for the vertical and lateral coupling control.

PMID- 28556818
TI  - Vital Sign Monitoring and Mobile Phone Usage Detection Using IR-UWB Radar for
      Intended Use in Car Crash Prevention.
AB  - In order to avoid car crashes, active safety systems are becoming more and more
      important. Many crashes are caused due to driver drowsiness or mobile phone
      usage. Detecting the drowsiness of the driver is very important for the safety of
      a car. Monitoring of vital signs such as respiration rate and heart rate is
      important to determine the occurrence of driver drowsiness. In this paper, robust
      vital signs monitoring through impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar is
      discussed. We propose a new algorithm that can estimate the vital signs even if
      there is motion caused by the driving activities. We analyzed the whole fast time
      vital detection region and found the signals at those fast time locations that
      have useful information related to the vital signals. We segmented those signals
      into sub-signals and then constructed the desired vital signal using the
      correlation method. In this way, the vital signs of the driver can be monitored
      noninvasively, which can be used by researchers to detect the drowsiness of the
      driver which is related to the vital signs i.e., respiration and heart rate. In
      addition, texting on a mobile phone during driving may cause visual, manual or
      cognitive distraction of the driver. In order to reduce accidents caused by a
      distracted driver, we proposed an algorithm that can detect perfectly a driver's
      mobile phone usage even if there are various motions of the driver in the car or
      changes in background objects. These novel techniques, which monitor vital signs
      associated with drowsiness and detect phone usage before a driver makes a
      mistake, may be very helpful in developing techniques for preventing a car crash.

PMID- 28556819
TI  - Extraction of Rice Phenological Differences under Heavy Metal Stress Using EVI
      Time-Series from HJ-1A/B Data.
AB  - An effective method to monitor heavy metal stress in crops is of critical
      importance to assure agricultural production and food security. Phenology, as a
      sensitive indicator of environmental change, can respond to heavy metal stress in
      crops and remote sensing is an effective method to detect plant phenological
      changes. This study focused on identifying the rice phenological differences
      under varied heavy metal stress using EVI (enhanced vegetation index) time
      series, which was obtained from HJ-1A/B CCD images and fitted with asymmetric
      Gaussian model functions. We extracted three phenological periods using first
      derivative analysis: the tillering period, heading period, and maturation period;
      and constructed two kinds of metrics with phenological characteristics: date
      intervals and time-integrated EVI, to explore the rice phenological differences
      under mild and severe stress levels. Results indicated that under severe stress
      the values of the metrics for presenting rice phenological differences in the
      experimental areas of heavy metal stress were smaller than the ones under mild
      stress. This finding represents a new method for monitoring heavy metal
      contamination through rice phenology.

PMID- 28556820
TI  - Placebo by Proxy in Neonatal Randomized Controlled Trials: Does It Matter?
AB  - Placebo effects emerging from the expectations of relatives, also known as
      placebo by proxy, have seldom been explored. The aim of this study was to
      investigate whether in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) there is a clinically
      relevant difference in long-term outcome between very preterm infants whose
      parents assume that verum (PAV) had been administered and very preterm infants
      whose parents assume that placebo (PAP) had been administered. The difference
      between the PAV and PAP infants with respect to the primary outcome-IQ at 5 years
      of age-was considered clinically irrelevant if the confidence interval (CI) for
      the mean difference resided within our pre-specified +/-5-point equivalence
      margins. When adjusted for the effects of verum/placebo, socioeconomic status
      (SES), head circumference and sepsis, the CI was [-3.04, 5.67] points in favor of
      the PAV group. Consequently, our study did not show equivalence between the PAV
      and PAP groups, with respect to the pre-specified margins of equivalence.
      Therefore, our findings suggest that there is a small, but clinically irrelevant
      degree to which a preterm infant's response to therapy is affected by its
      parents' expectations, however, additional large-scale studies are needed to
      confirm this conjecture.

PMID- 28556821
TI  - A National Census of Birth Weight in Purebred Dogs in Italy.
AB  - Despite increasing professionalism in dog breeding, the physiological range of
      birth weight in this species remains unclear. Low birth weight can predispose to
      neonatal mortality and growth deficiencies in humans. To date, the influence of
      the morphotype on birth weight has never been studied in dogs. For this purpose,
      an Italian census of birth weight was collected from 3293 purebred pups based on
      maternal morphotype, size, body weight and breed, as well as on litter size and
      sex of pups. Multivariate analysis outcomes showed that birth weight (p < 0.001)
      and litter size (p < 0.05) increased with maternal size and body weight. Birth
      weight was also influenced by the maternal head and body shape, with
      brachycephalic and brachymorph dogs showing the heaviest and the lightest pups,
      respectively (p < 0.001). Birth weight decreased with litter size (p < 0.001),
      and male pups were heavier than females (p < 0.001). These results suggest that
      canine morphotype, not only maternal size and body weight, can affect birth
      weight and litter size with possible practical implications in neonatal
      assistance.

PMID- 28556822
TI  - Two Saporin-Containing Immunotoxins Specific for CD20 and CD22 Show Different
      Behavior in Killing Lymphoma Cells.
AB  - Immunotoxins (ITs) are hybrid proteins combining the binding specificity of
      antibodies with the cytocidal properties of toxins. They represent a promising
      approach to lymphoma therapy. The cytotoxicity of two immunotoxins obtained by
      chemical conjugation of the plant toxin saporin-S6 with the anti-CD20 chimeric
      antibody rituximab and the anti-CD22 murine antibody OM124 were evaluated on the
      CD20-/CD22-positive cell line Raji. Both ITs showed strong cytotoxicity for Raji
      cells, but the anti-CD22 IT was two logs more efficient in killing, probably
      because of its faster internalization. The anti-CD22 IT gave slower but greater
      caspase activation than the anti-CD20 IT. The cytotoxic effect of both
      immunotoxins can be partially prevented by either the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD
      or the necroptosis inhibitor necrostatin-1. Oxidative stress seems to be involved
      in the cell killing activity of anti-CD20 IT, as demonstrated by the protective
      role of the H2O2 scavenger catalase, but not in that of anti-CD22 IT. Moreover,
      the IT toxicity can be augmented by the contemporary administration of other
      chemotherapeutic drugs, such as PS-341, MG-132, and fludarabine. These results
      contribute to the understanding of the immunotoxin mechanism of action that is
      required for their clinical use, either alone or in combination with other drugs.

PMID- 28556823
TI  - Belief Interval of Dempster-Shafer Theory for Line-of-Sight Identification in
      Indoor Positioning Applications.
AB  - Location data are among the most widely used contextual data in context-aware and
      ubiquitous computing applications. Numerous systems with distinct deployment
      costs and levels of positioning accuracy have been developed over the past decade
      for indoor positioning purposes. The most useful method focuses on the received
      signal strength (RSS) and provides a set of signal transmission access points.
      Furthermore, most positioning systems are based on non-line-of-sight (NLOS)
      rather than line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, and this cause ranging errors for
      location predictions. Hence, manually compiling a fingerprint database measuring
      RSS involves high costs and is thus impractical in online prediction
      environments. In our proposed method, a comparison method is derived on the basis
      of belief intervals, as proposed in Dempster-Shafer theory, and the signal
      features are characterized on the LOS and NLOS conditions for different field
      experiments. The system performance levels were examined with different features
      and under different environments through robust testing and by using several
      widely used machine learning methods. The results showed that the proposed method
      can not only retain positioning accuracy but also save computation time in
      location predictions.

PMID- 28556826
TI  - Corrigendum: The contemporary distribution of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in
      humans, alternative hosts and vectors.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.50.

PMID- 28556825
TI  - Modelling the role of groundwater hydro-refugia in East African hominin evolution
      and dispersal.
AB  - Water is a fundamental resource, yet its spatiotemporal availability in East
      Africa is poorly understood. This is the area where most hominin first
      occurrences are located, and consequently the potential role of water in hominin
      evolution and dispersal remains unresolved. Here, we show that hundreds of
      springs currently distributed across East Africa could function as persistent
      groundwater hydro-refugia through orbital-scale climate cycles. Groundwater
      buffers climate variability according to spatially variable groundwater response
      times determined by geology and topography. Using an agent-based model, grounded
      on the present day landscape, we show that groundwater availability would have
      been critical to supporting isolated networks of hydro-refugia during dry periods
      when potable surface water was scarce. This may have facilitated unexpected
      variations in isolation and dispersal of hominin populations in the past. Our
      results therefore provide a new environmental framework in which to understand
      how patterns of taxonomic diversity in hominins may have developed.

PMID- 28556824
TI  - Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African
      ancestry in post-Roman periods.
AB  - Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical
      population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions
      with ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia and Europe. Particularly, in the first
      millennium BCE Egypt endured foreign domination leading to growing numbers of
      foreigners living within its borders possibly contributing genetically to the
      local population. Here we present 90 mitochondrial genomes as well as genome-wide
      data sets from three individuals obtained from Egyptian mummies. The samples
      recovered from Middle Egypt span around 1,300 years of ancient Egyptian history
      from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period. Our analyses reveal that ancient
      Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians,
      who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times. This analysis
      establishes ancient Egyptian mummies as a genetic source to study ancient human
      history and offers the perspective of deciphering Egypt's past at a genome-wide
      level.

PMID- 28556827
TI  - RiceAtlas, a spatial database of global rice calendars and production.
AB  - Knowing where, when, and how much rice is planted and harvested is crucial
      information for understanding the effects of policy, trade, and global and
      technological change on food security. We developed RiceAtlas, a spatial database
      on the seasonal distribution of the world's rice production. It consists of data
      on rice planting and harvesting dates by growing season and estimates of monthly
      production for all rice-producing countries. Sources used for planting and
      harvesting dates include global and regional databases, national publications,
      online reports, and expert knowledge. Monthly production data were estimated
      based on annual or seasonal production statistics, and planting and harvesting
      dates. RiceAtlas has 2,725 spatial units. Compared with available global crop
      calendars, RiceAtlas is nearly ten times more spatially detailed and has nearly
      seven times more spatial units, with at least two seasons of calendar data,
      making RiceAtlas the most comprehensive and detailed spatial database on rice
      calendar and production.

PMID- 28556828
TI  - Interactive models of communication at the nanoscale using nanoparticles that
      talk to one another.
AB  - 'Communication' between abiotic nanoscale chemical systems is an almost
      unexplored field with enormous potential. Here we show the design and preparation
      of a chemical communication system based on enzyme-powered Janus nanoparticles,
      which mimics an interactive model of communication. Cargo delivery from one
      nanoparticle is governed by the biunivocal communication with another
      nanoparticle, which involves two enzymatic processes and the interchange of
      chemical messengers. The conceptual idea of establishing communication between
      nanodevices opens the opportunity to develop complex nanoscale systems capable of
      sharing information and cooperating.

PMID- 28556829
TI  - PCLO rs2522833-mediated gray matter volume reduction in patients with drug-naive,
      first-episode major depressive disorder.
AB  - Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been linked to differences in the volume of
      certain areas of the brain and to variants in the piccolo presynaptic cytomatrix
      protein (PCLO), but the relationship between PCLO and brain morphology has not
      been studied. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in PCLO, rs2522833, is
      thought to affect protein stability and the activity of the hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal axis. We investigated the relationship between cortical volume
      and this SNP in first-episode, drug-naive patients with MDD or healthy control
      subjects. Seventy-eight participants, including 30 patients with MDD and 48
      healthy control subjects, were recruited via interview. PCLO rs2522833 genotyping
      and plasma cortisol assays were performed, and gray matter volume was estimated
      using structural magnetic resonance images. Among the individuals carrying the C
      allele of PCLO rs2522833, the volume of the left temporal pole was significantly
      smaller in those with MDD than in healthy controls (family-wise error-corrected,
      P=0.003). No differences were detected in other brain regions. In addition, the C
      carriers showed a larger volume reduction in the left temporal pole than those in
      the individuals with A/A genotype (P=0.0099). Plasma cortisol levels were
      significantly higher in MDD-affected C-carriers than in the healthy control C
      carriers (12.76+/-6.10 vs 9.31+/-3.60 nm, P=0.045). We conclude that PCLO SNP
      rs2522833 is associated with a gray matter volume reduction in the left temporal
      pole in drug-naive, first-episode patients with MDD carrying the C-allele.

PMID- 28556831
TI  - Sex differences in recent first-onset depression in an epidemiological sample of
      adolescents.
AB  - Prior studies provide limited and contradictory evidence regarding sex
      differences in the incidence of depression during adolescence, a critical period
      for development of the disorder. Data from six consecutive years (2009-2014) of a
      national survey of US adolescents aged 12-17 (N=101 685) are used to characterize
      sex differences in the incidence of depression by age and to compare recent first
      onset and persistent depression with respect to impairment, suicide attempts,
      conduct problems and academic functioning. Projecting from age-specific incidence
      proportions, the cumulative incidence of depression between the ages of 12 and 17
      is 13.6% among male and 36.1% among female subjects. The sex difference in
      incidence is significant at the age of 12 years (5.2% in female versus 2.0% in
      male subjects, P<0.0001), and it is significantly larger at ages of 13 through 17
      years than at the age of 12 years (P-values<0.05). Depression-related impairment
      is lower in recent first-onset than in persistent depression among female but not
      among male subjects. The prevalence of conduct problems and poor academic
      functioning is higher in both recent first-onset and persistent depression
      relative to those with no depression for both male and female subjects. The
      incidence of depression during adolescence is higher than that suggested by prior
      studies based on retrospective recall. Contrary to prior studies, evidence
      suggests that the sex difference in depression originates during childhood and
      grows in magnitude during adolescence. High levels of impairment, suicide
      attempts, conduct problems and poor academic functioning argue against a 'wait
      and see' approach to clinical treatment of recent first-onset depression.

PMID- 28556832
TI  - Genetic susceptibility to cardiovascular disease and risk of dementia.
AB  - Several studies have shown cardiovascular disease (CVD) to be associated with
      dementia, but it is not clear whether CVD per se increases the risk of dementia
      or whether the association is due to shared risk factors. We tested how a genetic
      risk score (GRS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) affects dementia risk after
      CVD in 13 231 Swedish twins. We also utilized summarized genome-wide association
      data to study genetic overlap between CAD and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and
      additionally between shared risk factors and each disease. There was no direct
      effect of a CAD GRS on dementia (hazard ratio 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI):
      0.98-1.01). However, the GRS for CAD modified the association between CVD and
      dementia within 3 years of CVD diagnosis, ranging from a hazard ratio of 1.59
      (95% CI: 1.05-2.41) in the first GRS quartile to 1.91 (95% CI: 1.28-2.86) in the
      fourth GRS quartile. Using summary statistics, we found no genetic overlap
      between CAD and AD. We did, however, find that both AD and CAD share a
      significant genetic overlap with lipids, but that the overlap arose from clearly
      distinct gene clusters. In conclusion, genetic susceptibility to CAD was found to
      modify the association between CVD and dementia, most likely through associations
      with shared risk factors.

PMID- 28556830
TI  - Adolescence is the starting point of sex-dichotomous COMT genetic effects.
AB  - The catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) genetic variations produce pleiotropic
      behavioral/neuroanatomical effects. Some of these effects may vary among sexes.
      However, the developmental trajectories of COMT-by-sex interactions are unclear.
      Here we found that extreme COMT reduction, in both humans (22q11.2 deletion
      syndrome COMT Met) and mice (COMT-/-), was associated to cortical thinning only
      after puberty and only in females. Molecular biomarkers, such as tyrosine
      hydroxylase, Akt and neuronal/cellular counting, confirmed that COMT-by-sex
      divergent effects started to appear at the cortical level during puberty. These
      biochemical differences were absent in infancy. Finally, developmental cognitive
      assessment in 22q11DS and COMT knockout mice established that COMT-by-sex
      dichotomous effects in executive functions were already apparent in adolescence.
      These findings uncover that genetic variations severely reducing COMT result in
      detrimental cortical and cognitive development selectively in females after their
      sexual maturity. This highlights the importance of taking into account the
      combined effect of genetics, sex and developmental stage.

PMID- 28556834
TI  - Developmental regulation of SMN expression: pathophysiological implications and
      perspectives for therapy development in spinal muscular atrophy.
AB  - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the predominant form of motoneuron disease in
      children and young adults is caused by loss of function of the SMN protein. On
      the basis of a disrupted splice acceptor site in exon 7, transcripts from a
      second SMN gene in humans called SMN2 cannot give rise to SMN protein at
      sufficient levels for maintaining function of motoneurons and motor circuits.
      First clinical trials with Spinraza/Nusinersen, a drug that counteracts disrupted
      splicing of SMN2 transcripts, have shown that elevating SMN levels can
      successfully interfere with motoneuron dysfunction. This review summarizes
      current knowledge about the pathophysiological alterations in Smn-deficient
      motoneurons, which lead to defective neuromuscular transmission and altered
      spinal circuit formation. Both pathological mechanisms are important targets for
      therapeutic intervention. However, the developmental time window when therapeutic
      interventions ideally should start is not known. Endogenous SMN expression both
      from SMN1 and SMN2 genes is high at early developmental stages and declines
      progressively in humans and mice. Thus, therapeutic SMN upregulation should start
      just before SMN declines below a critical threshold, and before irreversible
      defects occur at neuromuscular junctions and in spinal circuits. Previous results
      indicate that loss of Smn function leads to synaptic dysfunction during a stage
      of neuromuscular development when synaptic strength determines which synapses are
      maintained or not. This time window appears as an important target for therapy,
      which possibly could be supported by additional strategies that strengthen
      synaptic transmission.

PMID- 28556833
TI  - Blockade of interleukin-6 receptor in the periphery promotes rapid and sustained
      antidepressant actions: a possible role of gut-microbiota-brain axis.
AB  - Depression is a common, severe and chronic psychiatric disease. Although the
      currently available antidepressants have been used in the treatment of
      depression, their beneficial effects are limited. Accumulating evidence suggests
      that pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) have an important
      role in the pathogenesis of depression. This study was undertaken to examine
      whether anti-mouse IL-6 receptor antibody (MR16-1) induces antidepressant effects
      in a social defeat stress model. Intravenous injection of MR16-1 induced rapid
      onset and long-lasting antidepressant effects in susceptible mice after social
      defeat stress through its anti-inflammatory actions. In contrast,
      intracerebroventricular injection of MR16-1 induced no antidepressant effects in
      susceptible mice. Furthermore, treatment with MR16-1 could significantly
      normalize alterations in the expression of synaptic proteins (postsynaptic
      density protein 95 and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid
      receptor 1) and dendritic spine density in the brain regions of susceptible mice.
      Gut microbiota analysis using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing showed that MR16
      1 significantly improved decreased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio in susceptible
      mice. It also significantly improved decreased levels of Oscillospira in
      susceptible mice. These findings suggest that peripheral IL-6 has a key role in
      the pathogenesis of depression and that the blockade of IL-6 receptor in the
      periphery might have rapid-onset and long-lasting antidepressant effects by
      normalizing the altered composition of gut microbiota in susceptible mice after
      social defeat stress. Therefore, the blockade of IL-6 receptor in the periphery
      shows promise as a novel therapeutic approach for depressed patients with higher
      IL-6 blood levels.

PMID- 28556835
TI  - Drug-seeking motivation level in male rats determines offspring susceptibility or
      resistance to cocaine-seeking behaviour.
AB  - Liability to develop drug addiction is heritable, but the precise contribution of
      non-Mendelian factors is not well understood. Here we separate male rats into
      addiction-like and non-addiction-like groups, based on their incentive motivation
      to seek cocaine. We find that the high incentive responding of the F0 generation
      could be transmitted to F1 and F2 generations. Moreover, the inheritance of high
      incentive response to cocaine is contingent on high motivation, as it is elicited
      by voluntary cocaine administration, but not high intake of cocaine itself. We
      also find DNA methylation differences between sperm of addiction-like and non
      addiction-like groups that were maintained from F0 to F1, providing an epigenetic
      link to transcriptomic changes of addiction-related signalling pathways in the
      nucleus accumbens of offspring. Our data suggest that highly motivated drug
      seeking experience may increase vulnerability and/or reduce resistance to drug
      addiction in descendants.

PMID- 28556848
TI  - Pilot study of risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease in northern
      and southern Cameroonians.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the risk factors for
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) are similar in the northern and southern regions of
      Cameroon. METHODS: The participants answered a questionnaire concerning their
      lifestyle. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were evaluated in 192
      individuals and biochemical parameters in 50 randomly selected volunteers.
      RESULTS: Northerners displayed low alcohol and tobacco consumption, little
      practice of sport but physically demanding professions, and consumption of
      soybean, refined palm and other polyunsaturated oils. Southerners consumed
      alcohol, practiced sport, had intellectually based professions, and consumed
      crude and refined palm oils. Waist circumference and body mass index were higher
      in the southerners compared to the northerners. Blood glucose levels, and
      systolic and diastolic blood pressures were higher among the northerners than the
      southerners. Among the southerners, there were positive correlations between
      total cholesterol levels and systolic or diastolic blood pressure, low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol and blood glucose levels or diastolic blood pressure,
      triglyceride levels and systolic blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Providing region
      adapted, health-related advice for northern and southern Cameroonians would
      contribute to reducing risk factors for CVD.

PMID- 28556849
TI  - Effects of age on systemic inflamatory response syndrome and results of coronary
      bypass surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary artery bypass (CAB) surgery triggers systemic inflammatory
      response syndrome (SIRS) via several mechanisms. Moreover, age is directly
      correlated with SIRS. We evaluated the effect of age on SIRS and postoperative
      outcome after CAB surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of
      229 patients who had undergone CAB surgery. The patients were divided into three
      groups according to age: group 1, < 40 years (n = 61); group 2, 40-75 years (n =
      83); and group 3, > 75 years old (n = 85). Pre- and peri-operative data were
      assessed in all patients. SIRS was diagnosed according to the criteria
      established by Boehme. RESULTS: The average pre-operative EuroSCORE value in
      group 3 was higher than in the other groups and body surface areas were
      significantly lower in group 3 than in the other groups (p < 0.05). The
      postoperative SIRS rates were 68.9% in group 1, 84.3% in group 2 and 91.8% in
      group 3 (group 1 vs group 3; p < 0.05). Mortality rates were not significantly
      different between the groups (p > 0.05). The predictive factors for SIRS were
      age, EuroSCORE rate, on-pump CAB surgery and intra-aortic balloon pump use.
      CONCLUSIONS: Age was an important risk factor for SIRS during the postoperative
      period after CAB.

PMID- 28556851
TI  - Perceptions of radiation safety training among interventionalists in South
      Africa.
AB  - Exposure to ionising radiation may have deterministic and stochastic health
      effects, which include skin changes, chromosomal aberrations, cataracts and
      carcinomas. Formalised training in radiation safety and protection improves
      knowledge on the subject and facilitates greater compliance in safety practices.
      This qualitative study included 54 interventionalists (adult and paediatric
      cardiologists, and interventional radiologists). The participants were
      purposively selected and interviewed to explore their perceptions about radiation
      safety. A thematic analysis of the transcripts was done using a deductive and
      inductive approach. Findings showed participating cardiologists had less
      knowledge about radiation safety than participating radiologists. Cardiologists
      reported little or no formal training on radiation safety and did not display a
      culture of radiation safety. There was no consensus on how the training gap
      should be addressed. There is a perceived need to change and enhance the
      radiation safety culture among interventionists, and the participants proffered
      some ideas. These included the need for re-curricularisation of cardiologists'
      training to create awareness of radiation safety practices.

PMID- 28556850
TI  - Clinical profile, management and outcomes of patients with pulmonary embolism: a
      retrospective tertiary centre study in Angola.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially fatal disease. In Angola, few
      data are available on its occurrence. The aim of the study was to characterise
      the clinical profile, management and outcomes of patients with PE. METHODS: A
      retrospective observational study was conducted at the Girassol Clinic in Luanda,
      Angola. The medical records of patients admitted to the intensive care unit were
      analysed from 2011 to 2015. RESULTS: Fifty patients were included and the median
      age was 50.5 +/- 17.8 years. Dyspnoea and immobilisation for more than 72 hours
      were the most frequently seen risk factors at admission; 28% of the patients had
      massive PE, 36% sub-massive PE, 28% were haemodynamically unstable at admission
      and 30% had a very high risk of mortality. The in-hospital mortality rate was
      20%. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical characteristics of our patients were similar to
      those described in the literature. The high prevalence of patients with very high
      risk at admisson highlights the need to investigate the cause of worst
      cardiovascular disease outcomes in Africans.

PMID- 28556854
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28556852
TI  - Role of melatonin in glucose uptake by cardiomyocytes from insulin-resistant
      Wistar rats.
AB  - AIM: Melatonin supplementation reduces insulin resistance and protects the heart
      in obese rats. However, its role in myocardial glucose uptake remains unknown.
      This study investigated the effect of short-term melatonin treatment on glucose
      uptake by cardiomyocytes isolated from obese and insulin-resistant rats. METHODS:
      Cardiomyocytes were isolated from obese rats fed a high-calorie diet for 16 to 23
      weeks, their age-matched controls, as well as young control rats aged four to
      eight weeks. After incubation with melatonin with or without insulin, glucose
      uptake was initiated by the addition of 2-deoxy-D- [3H] glucose and measured
      after 30 minutes. Additional control and obese rats received melatonin in the
      drinking water (4 mg/kg/day) for the last six weeks of feeding (20 weeks) and
      glucose uptake was determined in isolated cardiomyocytes after incubation with
      insulin. Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance and biometric parameters were also
      measured. RESULTS: Obese rats (fed for more than 20 weeks) developed glucose
      intolerance. Cardiomyocytes isolated from these obese rats had a reduced response
      to insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (ISGU) (p < 0.05). Melatonin administration
      in vitro had no effect on glucose uptake per se. However, it increased ISGU by
      cardiomyocytes from the young rats (p < 0.05), while having no effect on ISGU by
      cardiomyocytes from the older control and obese groups. Melatonin in vivo had no
      significant effect on glucose tolerance, but it increased basal (p < 0.05) and
      ISGU by cardiomyocytes from the obese rats (50.1 +/- 1.7 vs 32.1 +/- 5.1 pmol/mg
      protein/30 min, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that short-term
      melatonin treatment in vivo but not in vitro improved glucose uptake and insulin
      responsiveness of cardiomyocytes in obesity and insulin-resistance states.

PMID- 28556853
TI  - Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster.

PMID- 28556858
TI  - Effects of Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy on Pain and Mood Disorders in
      Patients With High-Frequency Migraine.
AB  - Context: The substantial functional impairment associated with migraine has both
      physical and emotional ramifications. Mood disorders are often comorbid in
      patients with migraine and are known to adversely affect migraine activity.
      Objectives: To explore the effects of osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMTh;
      manipulative care provided by foreign-trained osteopaths) on pain and mood
      disorders in patients with high-frequency migraine. Methods: Retrospective review
      of the medical records of patients with high-frequency migraine who were treated
      with OMTh at the Headache Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico
      Fondazione Santa Lucia from 2011 to 2015. Clinical assessments were made using
      the Headache Disability Inventory (HDI), the Headache Impact Test (HIT-6), the
      Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
      (STAI) forms X-1 and X-2. Results: Medical records of 11 patients (6 women; mean
      age, 47.5 [7.8] years) with a diagnosis of high-frequency migraine who
      participated in an OMTh program met the inclusion criteria and were included in
      the study. When the questionnaire scores obtained at the first visit (T0) and
      after 4 OMTh sessions (T1) were compared, significant improvement in scores were
      observed on STAI X-2 (T0: 43.18 [2.47]; T1: 39.45 [2.52]; P<.05), HIT-6 (T0: 63
      [2.20]; T1: 56.27 [2.24]; P<.05), and HDI (T0: 58.72 [6.75]; T1: 45.09 [7.01];
      P<.05). Conclusion: This preliminary study revealed that patients with high
      frequency migraine and comorbid mood disorders showed significant improvement
      after four 45-minute OMTh sessions. Further investigation into the effects of
      OMTh on pain and mood disorders in patients with high-frequency migraine is
      needed.

PMID- 28556857
TI  - Emergency Health Care Professionals' Understanding of the Costs of Care in the
      Emergency Department.
AB  - Background: Efficiency and fiscal responsibility are important to the equal,
      safe, and effective delivery of care in the emergency department, where all
      presenting patients must be evaluated for emergent conditions. Health care
      professionals' understanding of the costs of care is a first step to developing
      rational approaches for the efficient distribution of the finite resources
      hospitals and emergency departments have at their disposal to reduce costs to
      patients and health care systems. Objective: To determine emergency department
      health care professionals' knowledge of the costs to patients of routine care
      delivered in the emergency department. Methods: An internet-based survey of
      currently practicing emergency medicine health care professionals with various
      levels of training (physicians, residents, physician assistants, and nurse
      practitioners) was conducted to evaluate their ability to identify the cost of
      care for 3 common presentations to the emergency department: abdominal pain,
      dyspnea, and sore throat. Results: Four hundred forty-one emergency medicine
      health care professionals participated. In the 3 cases presented, correct costs
      were determined by 43.0%, 32.0%, and 40.1% of participants, respectively.
      Geographic region was not related to cost determination. Larger institution size
      was related to greater cost chosen (P=.01). Higher level of training was
      significantly correlated with perceived understanding of cost (P<.001); however,
      it was not related to accurate cost assessment in this study. Conclusion:
      Emergency medicine health care professionals have an inadequate understanding of
      the costs associated with care routinely provided in the emergency department.

PMID- 28556859
TI  - One Health: Children, Waterfowl, and Lead Exposure in Northwestern Nigeria.
AB  - The One Health concept focuses on the interrelationship between the health of
      humans, animals, and the environment. There is a delicate balance among these
      relationships, and when an imbalance exists, the effects can be catastrophic.
      Such an imbalance occurred in 2010, when elevated lead exposure in rural
      communities in northwestern Nigeria resulted in the deaths of an estimated 400
      children younger than 5 years in a 12-month period. Before the children became
      ill, waterfowl began to die in great numbers, a connection that would not be
      realized until much later. This review covers toxicodynamics and the neurotoxic
      effects of lead in the developing central nervous system, the role that animals
      can play in recognizing lead exposure and contamination, and environmental
      sources of lead exposure. The experiences in Nigeria may be especially pertinent
      to the emerging problems associated with lead exposure and poisoning in the
      United States.

PMID- 28556860
TI  - Bridging the Gap: An Osteopathic Primary Care-Centered Approach to Duchenne
      Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a deadly and incurable disease typically
      diagnosed in early childhood. Presently, the delay between a caregiver's initial
      concern and the primary care physician obtaining creatine kinase levels-the most
      important screening test-is more than a year. It is imperative to diagnose DMD as
      soon as possible because early treatment has the potential to double the
      patient's lifespan. In addition, because of geographic and economic
      disadvantages, multidisciplinary DMD treatment centers are not readily available
      to all patients. Therefore, the challenge of early diagnosis and treatment
      coordination rests with the primary care physician. The present review provides
      osteopathic primary care physicians with current and relevant information
      regarding DMD diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28556861
TI  - Osteopathic Medical Students Entering Family Medicine and Attitudes Regarding
      Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment: Preliminary Findings of Differences by Sex.
AB  - Context: Factors distinguishing osteopathic physicians from their allopathic
      counterparts include the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT),
      application of osteopathic principles and practice (OPP), and a greater
      likelihood of entering primary care, specifically family medicine (FM). In the
      United States, the percentage of entering osteopathic medical students who were
      female rose from 14.3% in fall 1977 to 44.3% in fall 2015. Objectives: To
      investigate the perspectives of female osteopathic medical students as they
      relate to osteopathic distinctiveness. Methods: Students at the West Virginia
      School of Osteopathic Medicine who were eligible to participate in graduation
      exercises in 2014 or 2015 were asked to complete the school's standard Exit
      Survey. The research team chose 5 items from the survey to include in the current
      analysis. Sex had been self-identified at admission, and residency in first
      postgraduate year was categorized as FM or other specialty. Graduates entering a
      transitional year or traditional internship were removed from analysis. Results:
      Analysis was conducted for 308 of the 375 students (82%) expected to graduate in
      2014 or 2015. chi2 analysis found no difference by sex in the number of graduates
      entering FM residencies vs other specialties (P=.727). Statistically significant
      differences were found in 2 survey items: "Use of OMT will enhance my practice"
      (P=.005) and "What emphasis do you believe OMT will have in your practice?"
      (P<.001). Graduating female students responded more favorably to OMT on both
      items. For the latter item, 91.4% of female and 80.3% of male students indicated
      OMT would have at least some role in their practices. Sex differences remained
      after statistically controlling for entry into FM. Conclusion: Female graduating
      osteopathic medical students were more likely to report that OMT will have at
      least some role in their practices. Future studies of the attitudes and practice
      patterns of osteopathic physicians should analyze for differences by sex.

PMID- 28556862
TI  - Therapeutic Hypothermia to Treat a Newborn With Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic
      Encephalopathy.
AB  - Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is caused by neonatal asphyxia and can lead to
      mortality or long-term neurodevelopmental morbidity in neonates. Therapeutic
      hypothermia (TH) is one of the few effective ways to manage mitigating neurologic
      sequelae. The authors describe the case of a neonate who had a perinatal hypoxic
      insult and sustained no long-term sequelae after being treated with TH. It is
      important that osteopathic physicians who provide obstetric and gynecologic,
      perinatal, and emergency medical care are able to recognize a perinatal hypoxic
      event, understand the stratification of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy risk
      factors, and implement early TH protocols.

PMID- 28556863
TI  - Use of the Fascial Distortion Model to Evaluate a Limp in a Child.
AB  - Pediatric limp is a relatively common condition in primary care and can be
      challenging to diagnose and manage. Common causes of painful pediatric limp
      include transient synovitis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and trauma. The
      authors present the case of an 11-year-old girl with a painful limp and anterior
      ankle pain of unclear origin. Osteopathic structural examination revealed a
      somatic dysfunction known as continuum distortion, 1 of 6 fascial alterations
      identified in the fascial distortion model. Myofascial release was applied,
      providing rapid, complete resolution of symptoms. This case demonstrates that
      osteopathic physicians may consider the fascial distortion model framework when
      identifying causes of pain in patients.

PMID- 28556864
TI  - Asynchronous Bilateral Ovarian Torsion.

PMID- 28556865
TI  - Abruptio Placentae.

PMID- 28556867
TI  - Voicing Ageism in Nursing Home Dementia Care.
AB  - Elderspeak (i.e., infantilizing communication) is a common form of ageism that
      has been linked to resistiveness to care in nursing home residents with dementia.
      Nursing home staff use elderspeak by modifying speech with older residents based
      on negative stereotypes, which results in patronizing communication that provides
      a message of incompetence. The purpose of the current secondary analysis was to
      describe communication practices used by nursing home staff that reflect ageism.
      Transcripts of 80 video recordings of staff-resident communication collected
      during nursing home care activities were re-analyzed to identify specific
      elderspeak patterns, including diminutives, collective pronouns, tag questions,
      and reflectives. Elderspeak was used in 84% of transcripts, and specifically
      during bathing, dressing, oral care, and other activities. Collective pronoun
      substitution occurred most frequently-in 69% of recorded conversations. Subgroup
      analysis of the inappropriate terms of endearment found that "honey"/"hon" and
      "sweetheart"/"sweetie" were most commonly used. [Journal of Gerontological
      Nursing, 43(9), 16-20.].

PMID- 28556866
TI  - Model for Risk-Based Screening of Diabetic Retinopathy in People With Newly
      Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of inflammatory/lipid
      markers and potential risk factors for diabetic retinopathy (DR) development in
      newly diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods:
      Participants in this study were 1062 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM.
      Demographic and clinical data of patients were collected. Assessment of DR status
      was performed using digital two-field photography. In addition, HbA1c (%), lipid
      profile, and urinary albumin were measured at recruitment. The following
      inflammatory markers were also measured: serum C-reactive protein, white blood
      cells, platelet, adiponectin, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, vascular endothelial growth
      factor, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), IL-1b, IL-1 receptor antagonist
      (IL-1RA), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1. Univariate and multivariate
      analyses of the association of various potential risk factors and DR were
      conducted. Results: Univariate analysis showed that male sex, any cardiovascular
      event, and HbA1c were positively associated with DR, while IL-1RA, IL-1b, IL-6,
      and TNF-alpha were significantly negatively associated with presence of DR in the
      cohort. Risk factors that remained significantly associated with DR presence at
      the multivariate analysis were male sex, any cardiovascular event, HbA1c, and IL
      1RA. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that HbA1c levels, male sex, and
      previous cardiovascular events were risk factors for presence of DR in people
      with newly diagnosed T2DM, while IL-1RA seemed to have a protective role. The
      prevalence of DR in our population was 20.2%, reflecting current practice. Our
      findings may contribute to future risk-based modelling of screening for DR.

PMID- 28556868
TI  - Peripheral Inflammatory Biomarkers and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults With and
      Without Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Peripheral inflammatory biomarkers may play an important role in the cognitive
      decline of aging and incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, data from
      epidemiological studies present conflicting findings. The purpose of the current
      review was to systematically determine the current state of the science on the
      association between peripheral inflammatory biomarkers and cognitive decline.
      Articles published from January 1, 2006 to October 28, 2016 were searched using
      the Medline and Embase databases. Nine studies met inclusion criteria (two
      examined participants with AD dementia and seven examined participants without
      dementia). Although a wide range of peripheral inflammatory biomarkers was
      examined, C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 were the most studied. Findings
      show conflicting results for the association between peripheral inflammatory
      biomarkers and cognitive decline. Peripheral inflammation may harm and help the
      brain, and therefore, the challenge of modulating immunity will be to find ways
      of fine tuning inflammation to delay, prevent, or treat AD. [Journal of
      Gerontological Nursing, 43(12), 53-60.].

PMID- 28556869
TI  - What Do Family Members Really Want When Older Adults Transition to a Nursing
      Home?
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to explore family members' perceptions of
      supports received during the transition experience of their older adult family
      member into a nursing home. In this exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study,
      interviews were conducted with six family members during the initial 6-month
      period following admission of the older adult family members. One overarching
      theme was found: importance of recognizing and supporting the personhood of older
      adult family members. Implications for how older adults' personhood can be
      supported are described. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(11), 9-14.].

PMID- 28556870
TI  - Person-Centered Dementia Care in the Community: A Perspective From the United
      Kingdom.
AB  - Dementia is a global concern. Although effort is being put toward finding a cure,
      many advances have been made in ensuring excellence in dementia care. In the
      United Kingdom, the concept of person-centered dementia care has transformed what
      is expected for individuals with dementia. Now embraced in national policy in the
      United Kingdom, it was pioneered by Thomas Kitwood and Kathleen Bredin and driven
      by a concern for the quality of care for individuals with dementia in care homes.
      The purpose of the current article is to describe key concepts of Kitwood's
      pioneering work in person-centered dementia care and to use them to inform
      current community-based supports and services for individuals with dementia in
      their own homes, whether alone or with family carers. [Journal of Gerontological
      Nursing, xx(x), xx-xx.].

PMID- 28556871
TI  - Nursing Work in Long-Term Care: An Integrative Review.
AB  - Evidence suggests that delivery of good nursing care in long-term care (LTC)
      facilities is reflected in nurses' descriptions of the factors and structures
      that affect their work. Understanding the contemporary nature of nursing work in
      aged care will influence policies for improving current work structures in this
      practice setting. The current review aims to present a contemporary perspective
      of RNs' work in LTC facilities. A comprehensive search and purposeful selection
      of the literature was conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Google
      Scholar databases. Nine studies were eligible for review. Common themes revealed
      that nursing work in aged care settings is characterized by RNs providing
      indirect care tasks-primarily care coordination, engaging in non-nursing
      activities, and having an expanded and overlapping role. As care providers, aged
      care RNs do not always provide direct care as part of their nursing work. The
      scope of RN work beyond its clinical nature or performance of non-nursing tasks
      adds complexity in clarifying RN work roles in aged care. [Journal of
      Gerontological Nursing, 43(11), 41-49.].

PMID- 28556872
TI  - Medication Adherence Interventions for Older Adults With Heart Failure: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - Medication adherence is crucial in patients with heart failure; however, the rate
      of medication nonadherence in the heart failure population is 50%, making it a
      significant problem. The purpose of the current review was to summarize
      intervention studies designed to improve medication adherence in older adults
      with heart failure. A search was conducted to locate randomized controlled trials
      or quasi-experimental studies that tested interventions to improve medication
      adherence in patients 45 or older with heart failure. Five of eight studies (63%)
      showed a statistically significant improvement in medication adherence in
      intervention groups. Five of these six studies used a combination of educational,
      behavioral, and affective interventions, and focused on medication adherence
      alone versus multiple health behaviors. Interventions using combined approaches
      and focusing only on medication adherence show the most promise for future
      studies. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(10), 37-45.].

PMID- 28556873
TI  - Nurses' Perceptions and Management of Urinary Incontinence in Hospitalized Older
      Adults: An Integrative Review.
AB  - Urinary incontinence (UI) is a geriatric syndrome affecting older adults in long
      term and acute hospital care. Most research has focused on nurses' perceptions of
      UI in long-term care and community settings rather than acute hospital settings.
      The purpose of the current integrative review was to understand nurses'
      perceptions and use of continence strategies for hospitalized older adults.
      Literature published from 1996-2016 was reviewed. Critical appraisal of the
      articles by two researchers yielded 10 articles that described nine studies.
      Findings revealed that nurses lack knowledge or motivation to thoroughly assess
      UI in older adults, often focusing on containment strategies (e.g., adult briefs)
      rather than conducting an assessment and promoting continence. More education
      about UI assessment, management, and research is needed to improve nursing care
      of hospitalized older adults. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(10), 46
      55.].

PMID- 28556874
TI  - Nurses' Experience With and Perception of Barriers to Promoting Mobility in
      Hospitalized Older Adults: A Descriptive Study.
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to examine nurses' barriers, including
      knowledge, attitude, and external barriers, to promoting physical activity in
      hospitalized older adults. Differences between the perceptions of barriers based
      on nurses' experience were also examined. A behavioral framework classifying
      nurse knowledge, nurse attitude, and external barriers was used for the study.
      Eighty-five nurses were recruited from two community-based hospitals in the
      Pacific Northwest. The findings suggest that nurses with varying levels of
      experience perceive a variety of barriers to promoting mobility in hospitalized
      older adults. Nurses with <=5 years of experience perceived that they may lack
      knowledge and training to safely mobilize hospitalized patients and make
      appropriate referrals to therapists. Nurses' attitudes revealed that they
      collectively viewed the promotion of mobility as a priority, but novice nurses
      did not. Further, some nurses deferred the responsibility to promote mobility to
      other disciplines. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(11), 22-29.].

PMID- 28556875
TI  - Nonpharmacological Treatments for Post-Stroke Depression: An Integrative Review
      of the Literature.
AB  - Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and the number one cause of long-term
      disability. Seventy-five percent of annual stroke victims are older than 65. Post
      stroke depression (PSD) is a common consequence of stroke, with the estimated
      prevalence ranging from 25% to 79%. Although several studies have investigated
      the impact of pharmacological interventions on PSD, there is a significant gap in
      knowledge regarding the efficacy of nonpharmacological measures for treatment of
      PSD. The purpose of the current integrative literature review was to synthesize
      the state of knowledge on selected nonpharmacological treatments for PSD and
      present findings regarding the efficacy of investigated treatments. Twenty-one
      studies published from 1992-2016 were identified and synthesized. Results
      indicated that studies demonstrating improvement in depressive symptoms included
      ecosystem-focused therapy, life review therapy, problem solving therapy, meridian
      acupressure, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, music therapy,
      exercise, light therapy, motivational interviewing, and robotic-assisted
      neurorehabilitation. [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2017; 10(4):182-195.].

PMID- 28556877
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556876
TI  - Comparison of Two Cognitive Training Programs With Effects on Functional
      Activities and Quality of Life.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of two types of
      cognitive training in 60 older adults with mild cognitive impairment by assessing
      the impact on functional activities, quality of life (QOL), and various cognitive
      functions. The primary outcomes were functional activity level and QOL. The
      secondary outcome was cognitive examination. Group assignment was random. Group A
      (n = 30) underwent CogniPlus, a computer-based, cognitive training. Group B (n =
      30) underwent classical group-based cognitive training. Both programs comprised
      two 30-minute sessions per week for 10 weeks. After training, group A had better
      QOL (p < 0.001, effect size [ES] = 0.69) and better attention (increased load
      score, p < 0.05, ES = -0.23; errors, p < 0.001, ES = -0.47); however, there were
      no group differences in functional activity level. Group A demonstrated larger
      improvements in QOL and attention than group B (i.e., classical cognitive
      training), but the transfer to functional activities was the same between groups.
      [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2017; 10(4):172-180.].

PMID- 28556878
TI  - [Gene editing - which values should govern?].

PMID- 28556879
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556880
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556881
TI  - [The Social Insurance Agency and the health care system must be able to evolve
      together].

PMID- 28556883
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556882
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556884
TI  - ?

PMID- 28556885
TI  - ?
AB  - Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in medical patients at Sahlgrenska University
      Hospital A hospitalized medical patient with risk factors has a 5-15 % risk of
      venous thromboembolism (VTE). Nonetheless thromboprophylaxis is largely
      underused. Our aim was to establish the proportion of high risk patients at
      Sahlgrenska University Hospital receiving thromboprophylaxis and to examine the 3
      month incidence of VTE and bleeding. 198 patients were included and risk
      stratified according to American College of Chest Physician guidelines. 12 % of
      high risk patients without and 26 % with increased bleeding risk received
      pharmacological thromboprophylaxis, as did 8 % of the patients without increased
      risk of VTE. VTE events occurred in 4.5 % of high risk patients, none received
      prophylaxis. Bleeding occurred in 5.8 % of those with increased bleeding risk.
      There is a need to improve thromboprophylaxis use to enhance patient safety and
      quality of care, for instance by issuing local guidelines.

PMID- 28556886
TI  - Clarifying the link between cannabis use and risk for psychosis.

PMID- 28556887
TI  - COMT Val158Met and MTHFR C677T moderate risk of schizophrenia in response to
      childhood adversity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mesolimbic dopamine sensitization has been hypothesized to be a
      mediating factor of childhood adversity (CA) on schizophrenia risk. Activity of
      catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met increases mesolimbic dopamine
      signaling and may be further regulated by methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase
      (MTHFR) C677T. This study investigates the three-way interaction between CA,
      COMT, and MTHFR. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study on individuals
      born after 1981, linking population-based registers to study the three-way
      interaction. We included 1699 schizophrenia cases and 1681 controls, and used
      conditional logistic regression to report incidence rate ratios (IRRs). RESULTS:
      Childhood adversity was robustly associated with schizophrenia. No main genetic
      effects were observed. MTHFR C677T increased schizophrenia risk in a dose
      dependent manner per MTHFR T allele (P = 0.005) consequent upon CA exposure.
      After inclusion of the significant (P = 0.03) COMT * MTHFR * CA interaction, the
      risk was further increased per high-activity COMT Val allele. Hence, exposed COMT
      Val/Val and MTHFR T/T carriers had an IRR of 2.76 (95% CI, 1.66-4.61). Additional
      adjustments for ancestry and parental history of mental illness attenuated the
      results with the interaction being only marginally significant. CONCLUSION: MTHFR
      C677T and COMT Val158Met interact with CA to increase risk of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28556888
TI  - Comments regarding "Four cases of mucous membrane pemphigoid with clinical
      features of oral lichen planus" and on the utility of immunofluorescence.

PMID- 28556889
TI  - Involvement of M2 macrophages in the pathomechanisms of multicentric
      reticulohistiocytosis.

PMID- 28556891
TI  - Mobile Phones in the Bedroom: Trajectories of Sleep Habits and Subsequent
      Adolescent Psychosocial Development.
AB  - Mobile phones are an essential part of an adolescent's life, leading them to
      text, phone, or message into the night. Longitudinal latent growth models were
      used to examine relations between changes in adolescent night-time mobile phone
      use, changes in sleep behavior, and changes in well-being (depressed mood,
      externalizing behavior, self-esteem, and coping) for 1,101 students (43% male)
      between 13 and 16 years old. Both night-time mobile phone use and poor sleep
      behavior underwent positive linear growth over time. Increased night-time mobile
      phone use was directly associated with increased externalizing behavior and
      decreased self-esteem and coping. Changes in sleep behavior mediated the relation
      between early changes in night-time mobile phone use and later increases in
      depressed mood and externalizing behavior and later declines in self-esteem and
      coping.

PMID- 28556890
TI  - Recent progress in relapsed multiple myeloma therapy: implications for treatment
      decisions.
AB  - The availability of novel therapies for the treatment of multiple myeloma has had
      a dramatic impact on the depth of response that can be expected on initial
      treatment. Despite these advances, disease relapse remains inevitable in most
      patients and brings with it a different set of priorities for therapy. The most
      recent wave of novel agents may have a particular impact in the relapsed setting.
      In this review, we examine the evidence currently available from clinical trials
      for the use of novel agents, particularly in the formation of triplet therapy. We
      consider data supporting the addition of the proteasome inhibitors carfilzomib
      and ixazomib, or the monoclonal antibodies elotuzumab or daratumumab, to a
      treatment backbone of lenalidomide and dexamethasone. The clinical data set is
      less well developed for the addition of a third agent to the combination of
      bortezomib and dexamethasone; nonetheless, data are presented supporting the
      addition of the histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat, or elotuzumab or
      daratumumab. While acknowledging the lack of head-to-head data on which to base
      comparisons between the numerous regimens, we collate the latest data in order to
      provide a basis on which to make clinical decisions in this rapidly advancing
      field.

PMID- 28556892
TI  - A novel method to analyse in vivo the physiological state and cell viability of
      phototrophic microorganisms by confocal laser scanning microscopy using a dual
      laser.
AB  - Phototrophic microorganisms are very abundant in extreme environments, where are
      subjected to frequent and strong changes in environmental parameters.
      Nevertheless, little is known about the physiological effects of these changing
      environmental conditions on viability of these microorganisms, which are
      difficult to grow in solid media and have the tendency to form aggregates. For
      that reason, it is essential to develop methodologies that provide data in short
      time consuming, in vivo and with minimal manipulating the samples, in response to
      distinct stress conditions. In this paper, we present a novel method using
      Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy and a Dual Laser (CLSM-DL) for determining the
      cell viability of phototrophic microorganisms without the need of either staining
      or additional use of image treating software. In order to differentiate viable
      and nonviable Scenedesmus sp. DE2009 cells, a sequential scan in two different
      channels was carried out from each same xyz optical section. On the one hand,
      photosynthetic pigments fluorescence signal (living cells) was recorded at the
      red channel (625- to 785-nm fluorescence emission) exciting the samples with a
      561-nm laser diode, and an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) of 20%. On the
      other hand, nonphotosynthetic autofluorescence signal (dead cells) was recorded
      at the green channel (500- to 585-nm fluorescence emission) using a 405-nm UV
      laser, an AOTF of 15%. Both types of fluorescence signatures were captured with a
      hybrid detector. The validation of the CLSM-DL method was performed with SYTOX
      green fluorochrome and electron microscopic techniques, and it was also applied
      for studying the response of distinct light intensities, salinity doses and
      exposure times on a consortium of Scenedesmus sp. DE2009.

PMID- 28556893
TI  - A component-by-component characterisation of high-risk atherosclerotic plaques by
      multiphoton microscopic imaging.
AB  - AIMS: Atherosclerotic plaques vulnerable to rupture are almost always inflamed,
      and carry a large lipid core covered by a thin fibrous cap. The other components
      may include neovascularisation, intraplaque haemorrhage and spotty calcification.
      In contrast, stable plaques are characterised by a predominance of smooth muscle
      cells and collagen, and lipid core is usually deep seated or absent. This study
      is a proof of principle experiment to evaluate the feasibility of multiphoton
      microscopy (MPM) to identify aforementioned plaque components. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: MPM is a nonlinear optical technique that allows imaging based on
      intrinsic tissue signals including autofluorescence and higher-order scattering.
      In our study, MPM imaging was performed on morphologically diverse aortic and
      coronary artery plaques obtained during autopsy. Various histologically verified
      plaque components including macrophages, cholesterol crystals, haemorrhage,
      collagen and calcification were recognised by MPM. CONCLUSIONS: Recognition of
      the distinct signatures of various plaque components suggests that MPM has the
      potential to offer next-generation characterisation of atherosclerotic plaques.
      The higher lateral resolution (comparable to histology) images generated by MPM
      for identifying plaque components might complement larger field of view and
      greater imaging depth currently available with optical coherence tomography
      imaging. As the next step MPM would need to be evaluated for intact vessel
      imaging ex vivo and in vivo.

PMID- 28556894
TI  - Analysis of precursors to multiply controlled problem behavior: A replication.
AB  - We replicated Fritz, Iwata, Hammond, and Bloom (2013) by evaluating the efficacy
      of an experimental methodology to identify precursors to aggression displayed by
      an adolescent with autism spectrum disorder. Using their trial-based precursor
      analysis, we identified seven precursors to aggression. Next, we compared the
      outcomes of separate precursor and aggression functional analyses and showed that
      both precursors and aggression were multiply controlled by the same variables.

PMID- 28556896
TI  - Associations Between Sexting Behaviors and Sexual Behaviors Among Mobile Phone
      Owning Teens in Los Angeles.
AB  - The implications of teen sexting for healthy development continue to concern
      parents, academics, and the general public. Using a probability sample of high
      school students (N = 1,208) aged 12-18, the prevalence of sexting, associations
      with sexting, and associations between sexing and sexual activity were assessed.
      Seventeen percent both sent and received sexts, and 24% only received sexts.
      Sending and receiving sexts were positively associated with each other and both
      behaviors were associated with having peers who sext. Lifetime reports of sexual
      intercourse, anal sex, oral sex, and recent unprotected sex were positively
      associated with reports of texting 300 or more times per day, only receiving
      sexts, and both sending and receiving sexts.

PMID- 28556895
TI  - A pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model predicting tumour growth inhibition after
      intermittent administration with the mTOR kinase inhibitor AZD8055.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: AZD8055 is a potent orally available mTOR kinase
      inhibitor with in vitro and in vivo antitumour activity against a range of tumour
      types. Preclinical studies showed that AZD8055 induced a dose-dependent
      pharmacodynamic effect in xenograft models in vivo, but a lack of understanding
      of the relative contributions of the maximum inhibition of the biomarkers and the
      duration of inhibition to the antitumour effect, limited the rational design of
      experiments to optimize the dose and schedules of treatment. EXPERIMENTAL
      APPROACH: In this study, a mathematical modelling approach was developed to
      relate pharmacodynamics and antitumour activity using preclinical data generated
      in mice bearing U87-MG xenografts. KEY RESULTS: Refinement and validation of the
      model was carried out in a panel of additional human tumour xenograft models with
      different growth rates and different sensitivity to AZD8055 (from partial growth
      inhibition to regression). Finally, the model was applied to accurately predict
      the efficacy of high, intermittent dosing schedules of AZD8055. CONCLUSIONS AND
      IMPLICATIONS: Overall, this new model linking pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic
      biomarkers and efficacy across several tumour xenografts with different
      sensitivity to AZD8055 was able to identify the optimal dose and route of
      administration to maximize the antitumour efficacy in preclinical models and its
      potential for translation into man.

PMID- 28556897
TI  - Claims for compensation after injuries related to airway management: a nationwide
      study covering 15 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Securing the airway is one of the most important responsibilities in
      anaesthesia. Injuries related to airway management can occur. Analysis from
      closed claims can help to identify patterns of injury, risk factors and areas for
      improvement. METHODS: All claims to The Norwegian System of Compensation to
      Patients from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2015 within the medical specialty of
      anaesthesiology were studied. Data were extracted from this database for patients
      and coded by airway management procedures. RESULTS: Of 400 claims for injuries
      related to airway management, 359 were classified as 'non-severe' and 41 as
      'severe'. Of the severe cases, 37% of injuries occurred during emergency
      procedures. Eighty-one claims resulted in compensation, and 319 were rejected. A
      total of ?1,505,344 was paid to the claimants during the period. Claims of dental
      damage contributed to a numerically important, but financially modest, proportion
      of claims. More than half of the severe cases were caused by failed intubation or
      a misplaced endotracheal tube. CONCLUSION: Anaesthesia procedures are not without
      risk, and injuries can occur when securing the airway. The most common injury was
      dental trauma. Clear patterns of airway management that resulted in injuries are
      not apparent from our data, but 37% of severe cases were related to emergency
      procedures which suggest the need for additional vigilance. Guidelines for
      difficult intubation situations are well established, but adherence to such
      guidelines varies. Good planning of every general anaesthesia should involve
      consideration of possible airway problems and assessment of pre-existing poor
      dentition.

PMID- 28556898
TI  - Hemoglobin Concentration Influences N-Terminal Pro B-Type Natriuretic Peptide
      Levels in Hospitalized Older Adults with and without Heart Failure.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between hemoglobin and N-terminal pro
      B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentration in hospitalized older adults
      with or without a diagnosis of heart failure (HF). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study
      based on retrospective hospital records review. SETTING: Geriatric acute care
      ward. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 65 and older (N = 226; mean age 81.1), with
      (n = 104) and without (n = 122) a diagnosis of HF. MEASUREMENTS: Information was
      collected on demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and laboratory and
      echocardiographic data. The relationship between hemoglobin and NT-proBNP was
      evaluated using linear regression models adjusted for potential confounders.
      RESULTS: A negative association was found between NT-proBNP and hemoglobin (beta
      = -0.226, P < .001). The regression coefficient was -0.114 (P = .04) in the
      subsample with HF and -0.191 (P < .001) in the subsample without HF. After
      adjustment for potential confounders, the inverse association between hemoglobin
      and NT-proBNP was confirmed in the whole sample (beta = -0.182, P < .001), in
      those with HF (beta = -0.136, P = .007), and in those without HF (beta = -0.165,
      P = .003). CONCLUSION: Hemoglobin concentration should be taken into account in
      the interpretation of NT-proBNP in hospitalized older adults, especially those
      without HF.

PMID- 28556899
TI  - The measure and mismeasure of reciprocity in heterostylous flowers.
AB  - The goal of biological measurement is to capture underlying biological phenomena
      in numerical form. The reciprocity index applied to heterostylous flowers is
      meant to measure the degree of correspondence between fertile parts of opposite
      sex on complementary (inter-compatible) morphs, reflecting the correspondence of
      locations of pollen placement on, and stigma contact with, pollinators. Pollen of
      typical heterostylous flowers can achieve unimpeded fertilization only on
      opposite-morph flowers. Thus, the implicit goal of this measurement is to assess
      the likelihood of 'legitimate' pollinations between compatible morphs, and hence
      reproductive fitness. Previous reciprocity metrics fall short of this goal on
      both empirical and theoretical grounds. We propose a new measure of reciprocity
      based on theory that relates floral morphology to reproductive fitness. This
      method establishes a scale based on adaptive inaccuracy, a measure of the fitness
      cost of the deviation of phenotypes in a population from the optimal phenotype.
      Inaccuracy allows the estimation of independent contributions of maladaptive bias
      (mean departure from optimum) and imprecision (within-population variance) to the
      phenotypic mismatch (inaccuracy) of heterostylous morphs on a common scale. We
      illustrate this measure using data from three species of Primula (Primulaceae).

PMID- 28556900
TI  - Vitamin D and mental health: optimizing in the midst of the complexity.

PMID- 28556901
TI  - Impact of an Individual Mandate and Other Health Reforms on Dependent Coverage
      for Adolescents and Young Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of state-level dependent coverage expansion
      (DCE) with and without other state health reforms on exit from dependent coverage
      for adolescents and young adults (AYA). DATA SOURCES: Administrative longitudinal
      data for 131,542 privately insured AYA in Massachusetts (DCE with other reforms)
      versus Maine and New Hampshire (DCE without other reforms) across three periods:
      prereform (1/00-12/06), poststate reform (1/07-9/10), and postfederal reform
      (10/10-12/12). STUDY DESIGN: A difference-in-differences estimator was used to
      determine the rate of exit from dependent coverage, age at exit from dependent
      coverage, and re-uptake of dependent coverage among AYA in states with
      comprehensive reforms versus DCE only. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Implementation of DCE
      with other reforms was significantly associated with a 23 percent reduction in
      exit from dependent coverage among AYA compared to the reduction observed for DCE
      alone. Additionally, comprehensive reforms were associated with over two
      additional years of dependent coverage for the average AYA and a 33 percent
      increase in the odds of regaining dependent coverage after a prior loss.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that an individual mandate and other reforms may
      enhance the effect of DCE in preventing loss of coverage among AYA.

PMID- 28556902
TI  - Comparison of the prognostic values of selected inflammation based scores in
      patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The significance of inflammation based scores including the
      neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
      (dNLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR),
      prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and plasma fibrinogen remains unclear in
      medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). We aimed to compare the prognostic value of
      these scores. METHODS: Seventy-eight patients newly diagnosed as MTC with
      operation in our institution from May 2009 to September 2016 were retrospectively
      evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Kaplan-Meier
      analyses were calculated to compare the prognostic value of these scores.
      RESULTS: Increased PLR was predictive of lymph node metastasis (AUC = 0.644, P =
      0.022), capsule invasion (AUC = 0.666, P = 0.007), advanced tumor stages (AUC =
      0.657, P = 0.011), and recurrence (AUC = 0.655, P = 0.049). Increased fibrinogen
      was predictive of lymph node metastasis (AUC = 0.669, P = 0.006) and capsule
      invasion (AUC = 0.631, P = 0.038). Reduced PNI was predictive of recurrence (AUC
      = 0.655, P = 0.049). Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox regression analysis revealed
      that PLR was a significant predictor for recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: PLR,
      fibrinogen, and PNI are all predictive. Specially, PLR is superior to other
      inflammation based scores in terms of prognostic ability.

PMID- 28556903
TI  - Outcome summaries of latency-based functional analyses conducted in hospital
      inpatient units.
AB  - Latency-based functional analysis (FA) may be a viable alternative to the
      standard, rate-based, FA when frequently evoking problem behavior is not
      advisable. We conducted 18 latency-based FAs of the problem behavior of children
      diagnosed with autism in inpatient hospital settings and identified functional
      relations during 44.4% (8 of 18) of latency-based FAs. Implications for
      conducting FAs of severe problem behavior are discussed.

PMID- 28556904
TI  - Diagnostic application of a capture based NGS test for the concurrent detection
      of variants in sequence and copy number as well as LOH.
AB  - Whole exome sequencing (WES) has made the identification of causative SNVs/InDels
      associated with rare Mendelian conditions increasingly accessible. Incorporation
      of softwares allowing CNVs detection into the WES bioinformatics pipelines may
      increase the diagnostic yield. However, no standard protocols for this analysis
      are so far available and CNVs in non-coding regions are totally missed by WES, in
      spite of their possible role in the regulation of the flanking genes expression.
      So, in a number of cases the diagnostic workflow contemplates an initial
      investigation by genomic arrays followed, in the negative cases, by WES. The
      opposite workflow may also be applied, according to the familial segregation of
      the disease. We show preliminary results for a diagnostic application of a single
      next generation sequencing panel permitting the concurrent detection of LOH and
      variations in sequences and copy number. This approach allowed us to highlight
      compound heterozygosity for a CNV and a sequence variant in a number of cases,
      the duplication of a non-coding region responsible for sex reversal, and a whole
      chromosome isodisomy causing reduction to homozygosity for a WFS1 variant.
      Moreover, the panel enabled us to detect deletions, duplications, and
      amplifications with sensitivity comparable to that of the most widely used array
      CGH platforms.

PMID- 28556906
TI  - A dissimilar biosimilar? Lichenoid drug eruption induced by an infliximab
      biosimilar.
AB  - The advent of therapeutic antibodies, or biological medications, has transformed
      the treatment of many inflammatory diseases in dermatology. Recently, the
      development of biosimilars, biological drugs that are highly similar in quality,
      safety and efficacy to approved biologics, has changed this landscape. Although
      biosimilars are not identical to their reference product, they are required to
      have the same mechanism of action, route of administration, dosage form and
      strength as the reference product. This also leads to the possibility that subtle
      differences in the activity of these biosimilars can lead to differing clinical
      responses. We report the first case of a lichenoid eruption induced by a
      biosimilar to infliximab after switching from infliximab. Several days after
      initial infusion of the biosimilar, the patient developed a pruritic
      papulosquamous eruption that was biopsied to reveal a lichenoid drug eruption.
      Possible mechanisms for lichenoid drug eruptions as a result of tumour necrosis
      factor-alpha inhibitor administration are discussed, along with reasons why such
      a reaction may occur with a biosimilar but not the original, reference product.
      This case report calls attention to the unique differences between biosimilars
      and biological medications that a clinician should consider prior to prescribing
      these medications.

PMID- 28556905
TI  - Working memory load impairs the evaluation of behavioral errors in the medial
      frontal cortex.
AB  - Early error monitoring in the medial frontal cortex enables error detection and
      the evaluation of error significance, which helps prioritize adaptive control.
      This ability has been assumed to be independent from central capacity, a limited
      pool of resources assumed to be involved in cognitive control. The present study
      investigated whether error evaluation depends on central capacity by measuring
      the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) in a flanker paradigm while working memory
      load was varied on two levels. We used a four-choice flanker paradigm in which
      participants had to classify targets while ignoring flankers. Errors could be due
      to responding either to the flankers (flanker errors) or to none of the stimulus
      elements (nonflanker errors). With low load, the Ne/ERN was larger for flanker
      errors than for nonflanker errors-an effect that has previously been interpreted
      as reflecting differential significance of these error types. With high load, no
      such effect of error type on the Ne/ERN was observable. Our findings suggest that
      working memory load does not impair the generation of an Ne/ERN per se but rather
      impairs the evaluation of error significance. They demonstrate that error
      monitoring is composed of capacity-dependent and capacity-independent mechanisms.

PMID- 28556907
TI  - Challenges describing motor profiles in alternating hemiplegia of childhood.

PMID- 28556908
TI  - Hydrophilic interaction anion exchange for separation of multiply modified
      neutral and anionic Dictyostelium N-glycans.
AB  - The unusual nature of the N-glycans of the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium
      discoideum has been revealed by a number of studies, primarily based on
      examination of radiolabeled glycopeptides but more recently also by MS. The
      complexity of the N-glycomes of even glycosylation mutants is compounded by the
      occurrence of anionic modifications, which also present an analytical challenge.
      In this study, we have employed hydrophilic interaction anion exchange (HIAX)
      HPLC in combination with MALDI-TOF MS/MS to explore the anionic N-glycome of the
      M31 (modA) strain, which lacks endoplasmic reticulum alpha-glucosidase II, an
      enzyme conserved in most eukaryotes including Homo sapiens. Prefractionation with
      HIAX chromatography enabled the identification of N-glycans with unusual oligo
      alpha1,2-mannose extensions as well as others with up to four anionic
      modifications. Due to the use of hydrofluoric acid treatment, we were able to
      discriminate isobaric glycans differing in the presence of sulphate or phosphate
      on intersected structures as opposed to those carrying GlcNAc-phosphodiesters.
      The latter represent biosynthetic intermediates during the pathway leading to
      formation of the methylphosphorylated mannose epitope, which may have a similar
      function in intracellular targeting of hydrolases as the mannose-6-phosphate
      modification of lysosomal enzymes in mammals. In conclusion, HIAX in combination
      with MS is a highly sensitive approach for both fine separation and definition of
      neutral and anionic N-glycan structures.

PMID- 28556909
TI  - Altered post-capillary and collecting venular reactivity in skeletal muscle with
      metabolic syndrome.
AB  - KEY POINTS: With the development of the metabolic syndrome, both post-capillary
      and collecting venular dilator reactivity within the skeletal muscle of obese
      Zucker rats (OZR) is impaired. The impaired dilator reactivity in OZR reflects a
      loss in venular nitric oxide and PGI2 bioavailability, associated with the
      chronic elevation in oxidant stress. Additionally, with the impaired dilator
      responses, a modest increase in adrenergic constriction combined with an elevated
      thromboxane A2 production may contribute to impaired functional dilator and
      hyperaemic responses at the venular level. For the shift in skeletal muscle
      venular function with development of the metabolic syndrome, issues such as
      aggregate microvascular perfusion resistance, mass transport and exchange within
      with capillary networks, and fluid handling across the microcirculation are
      compelling avenues for future investigation. ABSTRACT: While research into
      vascular outcomes of the metabolic syndrome has focused on arterial/arteriolar
      and capillary levels, investigation into venular function and how this impacts
      responses has received little attention. Using the in situ cremaster muscle of
      obese Zucker rats (OZR; with lean Zucker rats (LZR) as controls), we determined
      indices of venular function. At ~17 weeks of age, skeletal muscle post-capillary
      venular density was reduced by ~20% in LZR vs. OZR, although there was no
      evidence of remodelling of the venular wall. Venular tone at ~25 MUm (post
      capillary) and ~75 MUm (collecting) diameter was elevated in OZR vs. LZR. Venular
      dilatation to acetylcholine was blunted in OZR vs. LZR due to increased oxidant
      stress-based loss of nitric oxide bioavailability (post-capillary) and increased
      alpha1 - (and alpha2 -) mediated constrictor tone (collecting). Venular
      constrictor responses in OZR were comparable to LZR for most stimuli, although
      constriction to alpha1 -adrenoreceptor stimulation was elevated. In response to
      field stimulation of the cremaster muscle (0.5, 1, 3 Hz), venular dilator and
      hyperaemic responses to lower frequencies were blunted in OZR, but responses at 3
      Hz were similar between strains. Venous production of TxA2 was higher in OZR than
      LZR and significantly higher than PGI2 production in either following arachidonic
      acid challenge. These results suggest that multi-faceted alterations to skeletal
      muscle venular function in OZR may contribute to alterations in upstream
      capillary pressure profiles and the transcapillary exchange of solutes and water
      under conditions of metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28556910
TI  - Effects of trait anger, driving anger, and driving experience on dangerous
      driving behavior: A moderated mediation analysis.
AB  - To explore the effect of anger behind the wheel on driving behavior and accident
      involvement has been the subject of many studies. However, few studies have
      explored the interaction between anger and driving experience on dangerous
      driving behavior. This study is a moderated mediation analysis of the effect of
      trait anger, driving anger, and driving experience on driving behavior. A sample
      of 303 drivers was tested using the Trait Anger Scale (TAS), the Driving Anger
      Scale (DAS), and the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI). The results showed that
      trait anger and driving anger were positively correlated with dangerous driving
      behavior. Driving anger partially mediated the effect of trait anger on dangerous
      driving behavior. Driving experience moderated the relationship between trait
      anger and driving anger. It also moderated the effect of driving anger on
      dangerous driving behavior. These results suggest that drivers with more driving
      experience may be safer as they are not easily irritated during driving.

PMID- 28556911
TI  - A comparison of the lubrication behavior of whey protein model foods using
      tribology in linear and elliptical movement.
AB  - : Lubrication is an important factor in the sensory evaluation of food products.
      Tribology provides a theoretical framework and instrumental methods for
      evaluating frictional properties between two moving surfaces and the lubrication
      behavior of products between these surfaces. Relating frictional measurements to
      sensory properties detected during oral processing requires careful and pertinent
      choices in surface materials and testing conditions. The aims of this study were
      to investigate: (a) differences in lubrication behavior of a range of food
      textures and (b) the differences between linear and elliptical movement and added
      saliva to understand the contribution of food structure to friction. Six whey
      protein model food samples, ranging in texture from fluid to semisolid to soft
      solid, were analyzed using a pin on disk tribometer to determine the coefficient
      of friction (COF) across a range of sliding speeds. The samples were analyzed in
      their initial form and post-oral processing (n = 4) in both linear and elliptical
      movements. Elliptical movement slightly decreased coefficients of friction and
      extended the shape of the friction curve. Increases in test food viscosity
      decreased the COF but differences in viscosity were not apparent when test foods
      were mixed with saliva. Data correction for viscosity shifted the friction curves
      horizontally, indicating that lubrication had a greater impact upon friction than
      viscosity. This study provides initial insights for further comparison of linear
      and elliptical movement with a variety of sample compositions. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: Sensory perception of smoothness and creaminess are often major
      contributors to overall hedonic food liking and are a major reason why products
      high in fat and sugar are more highly preferred over other foods. These
      parameters are influenced by friction and lubrication between the tongue, palate,
      teeth, food products, and saliva during oral processing. Tribology provides an
      instrumental method to evaluate friction between moving surfaces that mimic oral
      surfaces and the lubrication behavior of foods. Trends in frictional measurements
      can be correlated with sensory ratings of the same foods to better understand why
      preferences exist for certain foods or food compositions and how to effectively
      improve the acceptability and enjoyment of healthier foods.

PMID- 28556913
TI  - Bilingual Infants Demonstrate Advantages in Learning Words in a Third Language.
AB  - Prior research suggests that bilingualism may endow infants with greater
      phonological flexibility. This study investigated whether this flexibility
      facilitates word learning in additional languages (n = 96). Experiment 1 compared
      18- to 20-month-old monolingual (English) and bilingual (English/Mandarin)
      infants on their ability to learn words distinguished by click consonants from a
      Southern African language, Ndebele. English-Mandarin bilingual infants were
      sensitive to Ndebele click contrasts, but monolingual English infants were not.
      In Experiments 2a and 2b, we investigated whether enhanced bilingual sensitivity
      extended to analogous nonlinguistic labels: hand claps and finger snaps. Although
      discriminated by infants, neither group distinguished words labeled by hand claps
      and finger snaps. Results suggest that bilingual infants' sustained openness to
      non native contrast may facilitate the uptake of words in distant languages.

PMID- 28556912
TI  - Farnesyltransferase inhibitor FTI-277 inhibits PD-L1 expression on septic spleen
      lymphocytes and promotes spleen lymphocyte activation.
AB  - Farnesyltransferase inhibitors have been tested in clinical trials for the
      treatment of tumours. In sepsis, the binding of programmed death 1 (PD-1) to
      programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) promotes lymphocyte apoptosis and decreases
      cytokine expression, thus affecting survival rates. The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway plays
      an important role in chronic viral infection, bacterial infection and sepsis.
      However, the precise immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory functions of this
      pathway remain poorly understood. In our previous study, the induction of sepsis
      by caecal ligation and puncture (CLP) resulted in increased farnesyltransferase
      activity and farnesylated protein levels in the spleen relative to sham
      treatment. However, the effect of inhibition of farnesyltransferase activity on
      overall survival rates in patients with sepsis and the specific signalling
      pathway involved remain to be investigated. In this study, mice with CLP-induced
      sepsis were treated with farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI-277), and PD-L1
      expression on septic spleen lymphocytes was examined. Flow cytometric analysis
      revealed that PD-L1 is expressed constitutively on lymphocytes and that PD-L1
      protein expression was up-regulated strongly following CLP. FTI-277 down
      regulated PD-L1 mRNA and protein expression on septic spleen lymphocytes in a
      dose-dependent manner. This effect was associated closely with nuclear factor
      kappa B (NF-kappaB). In addition, the significant damping effect of FTI-277 on
      the PD-L1 signal promoted interferon (IFN)-gamma secretion, interleukin (IL)-2
      production and splenocyte proliferation in response to anti-CD3+ CD28+ antibodies
      in mice. Furthermore, FTI-277 reduced spleen lymphocyte apoptosis in septic mice.
      Therefore, FTI-277 regulates spleen lymphocyte activity via the PD-L1 signalling
      pathway, with significant anti-inflammatory effects attributable to suppression
      of the NF-kappaB pathway. Farnesyltransferase represents a valuable therapeutic
      target for the treatment of sepsis.

PMID- 28556914
TI  - Model-based bootstrapping when correcting for measurement error with application
      to logistic regression.
AB  - When fitting regression models, measurement error in any of the predictors
      typically leads to biased coefficients and incorrect inferences. A plethora of
      methods have been proposed to correct for this. Obtaining standard errors and
      confidence intervals using the corrected estimators can be challenging and, in
      addition, there is concern about remaining bias in the corrected estimators. The
      bootstrap, which is one option to address these problems, has received limited
      attention in this context. It has usually been employed by simply resampling
      observations, which, while suitable in some situations, is not always formally
      justified. In addition, the simple bootstrap does not allow for estimating bias
      in non-linear models, including logistic regression. Model-based bootstrapping,
      which can potentially estimate bias in addition to being robust to the original
      sampling or whether the measurement error variance is constant or not, has
      received limited attention. However, it faces challenges that are not present in
      handling regression models with no measurement error. This article develops new
      methods for model-based bootstrapping when correcting for measurement error in
      logistic regression with replicate measures. The methodology is illustrated using
      two examples, and a series of simulations are carried out to assess and compare
      the simple and model-based bootstrap methods, as well as other standard methods.
      While not always perfect, the model-based approaches offer some distinct
      improvements over the other methods.

PMID- 28556915
TI  - A microbially derived tyrosine-sulfated peptide mimics a plant peptide hormone.
AB  - The biotrophic pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) produces a sulfated
      peptide named RaxX, which shares similarity to peptides in the PSY (plant peptide
      containing sulfated tyrosine) family. We hypothesize that RaxX mimics the growth
      stimulating activity of PSY peptides. Root length was measured in Arabidopsis and
      rice treated with synthetic RaxX peptides. We also used comparative genomic
      analyses and reactive oxygen species burst assays to evaluate the activity of
      RaxX and PSY peptides. Here we found that a synthetic sulfated RaxX derivative
      comprising 13 residues (RaxX13-sY), highly conserved between RaxX and PSY,
      induces root growth in Arabidopsis and rice in a manner similar to that triggered
      by PSY. We identified residues that are required for activation of immunity
      mediated by the rice XA21 receptor but that are not essential for root growth
      induced by PSY. Finally, we showed that a Xanthomonas strain lacking raxX is
      impaired in virulence. These findings suggest that RaxX serves as a molecular
      mimic of PSY peptides to facilitate Xoo infection and that XA21 has evolved the
      ability to recognize and respond specifically to the microbial form of the
      peptide.

PMID- 28556918
TI  - A Ten-year Study of Suicides from a Rural/Suburban County.
AB  - This study will discuss trends in suicide data compiled over 10 years in Dutchess
      County, NY, from 2004 to 2013. These data were based on reporting and examination
      standards recommended by the National Association of Medical Examiners and
      Department of Justice death investigation standards. Almost 300 cases were
      analyzed in terms of the deceased's gender, age, race, method of suicide, and
      weapon used. Results from this study agree with other reports showing significant
      differences for method of death both in terms of age and gender, with men more
      likely to choose firearms and women more likely to choose overdose. Furthermore,
      older persons were more likely to commit suicide by firearms, and the younger
      persons were more likely to commit suicide by overdose. However, other areas,
      such as method of suicide, differ from national statistics.

PMID- 28556919
TI  - Ethical living: relinking ethics and consumption through care in Chile and
      Brazil.
AB  - Mainstream conceptualizations of 'ethical consumption' equate the notion with
      conscious, individual, market-mediated choices motivated by ethical or political
      aims that transcend ordinary concerns. Drawing on recent sociology and
      anthropology of consumption literature on the links between ordinary ethics and
      ethical consumption, this article discusses some of the limitations of this
      conceptualization. Using data from 32 focus groups conducted in Chile and Brazil,
      we propose a conceptualization of ethical consumption that does not centre on
      individual, market-mediated choices but understands it at the level of practical
      outcomes, which we refer to as different forms of 'ethical living'. To do that,
      we argue, we need to depart from the deontological understanding of ethics that
      underpins mainstream approaches to ethical consumption and adopt a more
      consequentialist view focusing on ethical outcomes. We develop these points
      through describing one particular ordinary moral regime that seemed to be
      predominant in participants' accounts of ethics and consumption in both Chile and
      Brazil: one that links consumption and ethics through care. We show that the
      moral regime of care leads to 'ethical outcomes', such as energy saving or
      limiting overconsumption, yet contrary to the mainstream view of ethical
      consumption emphasizing politicized choice expressed through markets, these
      result from following ordinary ethics, often through routines of practices.

PMID- 28556917
TI  - Decreased relapsed rate and treatment-related mortality contribute to improved
      outcomes for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia in successive clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outcomes for children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have improved
      over the past 20 years even though the medications used for induction therapy
      have not changed. METHODS: This study analyzed data from patients with AML who
      were enrolled in successive protocols (AML97 and AML02) to determine the
      contributors to the improved outcomes of the latter clinical trial. RESULTS:
      There were significant improvements in 5-year overall survival (48.9% vs 71.2%; P
      < .0001) and event-free survival (43.5% vs 61.8%; P = .002) from AML97 to AML02.
      The 5-year cumulative incidence of early death (ED)/treatment-related mortality
      (TRM) was reduced for patients treated in AML02 (18.5% vs 7.9%; P = .007).
      Although the overall incidence of refractory disease (6.5% vs 5.6%; P = .736) and
      relapse (29.3% vs 21.0%; P = .12) did not differ between the 2 studies, patients
      with low-risk AML who were treated in AML02 had a reduced incidence of relapse
      (27.3% vs 8.8%; P = .036). CONCLUSIONS: The improved outcomes of the AML02 trial
      resulted from improved disease control for low-risk patients and overall
      decreased ED/TRM. These results emphasize the importance of supportive-care
      measures throughout chemotherapy courses and hematopoietic cell transplantation
      and the value of treatment intensity for patients with low-risk AML while
      underscoring the need for novel therapy, rather than increased therapy intensity,
      for children with high-risk AML. Cancer 2017;123:3791-3798. (c) 2017 American
      Cancer Society.

PMID- 28556916
TI  - Intestinal dysbiosis and probiotic applications in autoimmune diseases.
AB  - In humans, a complex interaction between the host immune system and commensal
      microbiota is required to maintain gut homeostasis. In this symbiotic
      relationship, the microbiota provides carbohydrate fermentation and digestion,
      vitamin synthesis and gut-associated lymphoid tissue development, as well as
      preventing colonization by pathobionts, whereas the host offers a niche and
      nutrients for the survival of the microbiota. However, when this mutualistic
      relationship is compromised and an altered interaction between immune cells and
      microorganisms occurs, the gut microbiota may cause or contribute to the
      establishment of infectious diseases and trigger autoimmune diseases. Researchers
      have made efforts to clarify the role of the microbiota in autoimmune disease
      development and find new therapeutic approaches to treat immune-mediated
      diseases. However, the exact mechanisms involved in the dysbiosis and breakdown
      of the gut epithelial barrier are currently unknown. Here, we provide a general
      overview of studies describing gut microbiota perturbations in animal models of
      autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid
      arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Moreover, we include the main studies
      concerning dysbiosis in humans and a critical discussion of the existing data on
      the use of probiotics in these autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28556920
TI  - AMPK activator acadesine fails to alleviate isoniazid-caused mitochondrial
      instability in HepG2 cells.
AB  - Isoniazid (INH) is a first-line antituberculosis drug that is adversely
      associated with hepatotoxicity. Recently, impairment of mitochondrial homeostasis
      involved in this side effect has been noticed. Mitochondrial homeostasis is
      achieved by the balance between the generation of functional mitochondria by
      biogenesis and elimination of dysfunctional mitochondria by autophagy. AMP
      activated protein kinase (AMPK) can maintain mitochondrial stability through
      positive control of these two processes. In this study, we showed that AMPK
      activator acadesine (AICAR) alleviated INH-caused impairment of mitochondrial
      biogenesis by activation of silent information regulator two ortholog 1 (SIRT1)
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC1 alpha)
      pathway in HepG2 cells. However, mitochondrial instability and apoptosis were
      caused by AICAR along with an unexpected decrease in INH-induced cytoprotective
      autophagy. Therefore, AICAR failed to alleviate INH-caused mitochondrial
      instability in HepG2 cells due to its inhibitory effect on autophagy induced by
      INH. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556922
TI  - Perceptually accurate display of two greyscale images as a single colour image.
AB  - Life scientists often desire to display the signal from two different molecular
      probes as a single colour image, so as to convey information about the probes'
      relative concentrations as well as their spatial corelationship. Traditionally,
      such colour images are created through a merge display, where each greyscale
      signal is assigned to different channels of an RGB colour image. However, human
      perception of colour and greyscale intensity is not equivalent. Thus, a merged
      image display conveys to the typical viewer only a subset of the absolute and
      relative intensity information present in and between two greyscale images. The
      Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage L*a*b* colour space (CIELAB) has been
      designed to specify colours according to the perceptually defined quantities of
      hue (perceived colour) and luminosity (perceived brightness). Here, we use the
      CIELAB colour space to encode two dimensions of information about two greyscale
      images within these two perceptual dimensions of a single colour image. We term
      our method a Perceptually Uniform Projection display and show using biological
      image examples how these displays convey more information about two greyscale
      signals than comparable RGB colour space-based techniques.

PMID- 28556921
TI  - Membrane-bound Dickkopf-1 in Foxp3+ regulatory T cells suppresses T-cell-mediated
      autoimmune colitis.
AB  - Induction of tolerance is a key mechanism to maintain or to restore immunological
      homeostasis. Here we show that Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells use Dickkopf-1
      (DKK-1) to regulate T-cell-mediated tolerance in the T-cell-mediated autoimmune
      colitis model. Treg cells from DKK-1 hypomorphic doubleridge mice failed to
      control CD4+ T-cell proliferation, resulting in CD4 T-cell-mediated autoimmune
      colitis. Thymus-derived Treg cells showed a robust expression of DKK-1 but not in
      naive or effector CD4 T cells. DKK-1 expression in Foxp3+ Treg cells was further
      increased upon T-cell receptor stimulation in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly,
      Foxp3+ Treg cells expressed DKK-1 in the cell membrane and the functional
      inhibition of DKK-1 using DKK-1 monoclonal antibody abrogated the suppressor
      function of Foxp3+ Treg cells. DKK-1 expression was dependent on de novo protein
      synthesis and regulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway but not
      by the canonical Wnt pathway. Taken together, our results highlight membrane
      bound DKK-1 as a novel Treg-derived mediator to maintain immunological tolerance
      in T-cell-mediated autoimmune colitis.

PMID- 28556923
TI  - Antiarrhythmic properties of ivabradine in an experimental model of Short-QT-
      Syndrome.
AB  - The If channel inhibitor ivabradine is recommended for treatment of chronic heart
      failure. However, ivabradine also inhibits human ether-a-go-go (hERG) mediated
      potassium currents. The aim of the present study was to assess the
      electrophysiologic effects of ivabradine in an experimental model of short-QT
      syndrome. Twelve rabbit hearts were isolated and Langendorff-perfused. After
      obtaining baseline data, pinacidil, an IK-ATP channel opener, was infused (1
      MUmol/L). Eight endo- and epicardial monophasic action potentials and a 12-lead
      ECG showed a significant abbreviation of QT interval (-32 ms, P<.05) and
      shortening of action potential duration at 90% of repolarization (APD90; -22 ms,
      P<.05). The shortening of ventricular repolarization was accompanied by a
      reduction of effective refractory period (ERP; -20 ms, P<.05). Thereafter, hearts
      were additionally treated with ivabradine (5 MUmol/L) leading to an increase of
      QT interval (+31 ms, P<.05), APD90 (+15 ms, P<.05) as well as of ERP (+38 ms,
      P<.05) and post-repolarization refractoriness (PRR, +33 ms, P<.05) as compared
      with sole pinacidil infusion. Under baseline conditions, ventricular fibrillation
      (VF) was inducible by a standardized pacing protocol including programmed
      stimulation and burst stimulation in 3 of 12 hearts (6 episodes). After
      application of 1 MUmol/L pinacidil, 6 of 12 hearts were inducible (22 episodes).
      Additional infusion of 5 MUmol/L ivabradine led to a significant suppression of
      VF. Only two episodes could be induced in 1 of 12 hearts. In the present study
      ivabradine reversed the electrophysiologic effects of pharmacologically simulated
      short-QT syndrome. Ivabradine demonstrated antiarrhythmic properties based on an
      increase of both ERP and PRR.

PMID- 28556924
TI  - Determination and risk assessment of naturally occurring genotoxic and
      carcinogenic alkenylbenzenes in nutmeg-based plant food supplements.
AB  - A risk assessment of nutmeg-based plant food supplements (PFS) containing
      different alkenylbenzenes was performed based on the alkenylbenzene levels
      quantified in a series of PFS collected via the online market. The estimated
      daily intake (EDI) of the alkenylbenzenes amounted to 0.3 to 312 MUg kg-1 body
      weight (bw) for individual alkenylbenzenes, to 1.5 to 631 MUg kg-1 bw when adding
      up the alkenylbenzene levels assuming equal potency, and to 0.4 to 295 MUg kg-1
      bw when expressed in safrole equivalents using toxic equivalency factors (TEFs).
      The margin of exposure approach (MOE) was used to evaluate the potential risks.
      Independent of the method used for the intake estimate, the MOE values obtained
      were generally lower than 10000 indicating a priority for risk management. When
      taking into account that PFS may be used for shorter periods of time and using
      Haber's rule to correct for shorter than lifetime exposure it was shown that
      limiting exposure to only 1 or 2 weeks would result in MOE values that would be,
      with the presently determined levels of alkenylbenzenes and proposed uses of the
      PFS, of low priority for risk management (MOE > 10000). It is concluded that the
      results of the present paper reveal that nutmeg-based PFS consumption following
      recommendations for daily intake especially for longer periods of time raise a
      concern. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556925
TI  - Period Prevalence and Reporting Rate of Needlestick Injuries to Nurses in Iran: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to provide a precise
      estimate of the period prevalence of needlestick injuries (NSI) among nurses
      working in hospitals in Iran and the reporting rate of NSI to nurse managers. We
      searched both international (PubMed, Scopus and the Institute for Scientific
      Information) and Iranian (Scientific Information Database, Iranmedex and Magiran)
      scientific databases to find studies published from 2000 to 2016 of NSI among
      Iranian nurses. The following keywords in Persian and English were used: "needle
      stick" or "needle stick" or "needlestick," with and without "injury" or
      "injuries," "prevalence" or "frequency," "nurses" or "nursing staff," and "Iran."
      In a sample of 21 articles with 6,480 participants, we estimated that the overall
      1-year period prevalence of NSI was 44% (95% confidence interval [CI], 35-53%)
      among Iranian nurses. The overall 1-year period prevalence of reporting NSI to
      nurse managers was 42% (95% CI, 33-52%). In meta-regression analysis, sample
      size, mean age, years of experience, and gender ratio were not associated with
      prevalence of NSI or reporting rate. The year of data collection was positively
      associated with period prevalence of NSI (p < .05), but not with the period
      prevalence of reporting NSI to nurse managers. Results indicated a high NSI
      period prevalence and low NSI reporting rate among nurses in Iran. Thus,
      effective interventions are required in hospitals in Iran to reduce the
      prevalence and increase the reporting rate of NSI. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28556926
TI  - Emergence of MPLW515 mutation in a patient with CALR deletion: Evidence of
      secondary acquisition of MPL mutation in the CALR clone.
AB  - Myeloproliferative neoplasms are characterized by transduction pathway recognized
      as mutually exclusive molecular abnormalities such as BCR-ABL translocation,
      JAK2V617F or JAK2 exon 12 mutations, MPL w515, and CALR mutations. However, in
      some rare cases, associations of such mutations are found in 1 patient. This can
      be related to 2 pathologies (at least 2 different clones harboring 2 mutations)
      or associated mutations in 1 clone. We describe here such an association of CALR
      and MPL mutations in a patient harboring the second mutation in a subclone during
      the phenotypic evolution of the myeloproliferative neoplasms.

PMID- 28556927
TI  - The biomechanical, chemical and physiological adaptations of the eggs of two
      Australian megapodes to their nesting strategies and their implications for
      extinct titanosaur dinosaurs.
AB  - Megapodes are galliform birds endemic to Australasia and unusual among modern
      birds in that they bury their eggs for incubation in diverse substrates and using
      various strategies. Alectura lathami and Leipoa ocellata are Australian megapodes
      that build and nest in mounds of soil and organic matter. Such unusual nesting
      behaviours have resulted in particular evolutionary adaptations of their eggs and
      eggshells. We used a combination of scanning electron microscopy, including
      electron backscatter diffraction and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, to
      determine the fine structure of the eggshells and micro-CT scanning to map the
      structure of pores. We discovered that the surface of the eggshell of A. lathami
      displays nodes similar to those of extinct titanosaur dinosaurs from Transylvania
      and Auca Mahuevo egg layer #4. We propose that this pronounced nodular
      ornamentation is an adaptation to an environment rich in organic acids from their
      nest mound, protecting the egg surface from chemical etching and leaving the
      eggshell thickness intact. By contrast, L. ocellata nests in mounds of sand with
      less organic matter in semiarid environments and has eggshells with weakly
      defined nodes, like those of extinct titanosaurs from AM L#3 that also lived in a
      semiarid environment. We suggest the internode spaces in both megapode and
      titanosaur species act as funnels, which concentrate the condensed water vapour
      between the nodes. This water funnelling in megapodes through the layer of
      calcium phosphate reduces the likelihood of bacterial infection by creating a
      barrier to microbial invasion. In addition, the accessory layer of both species
      possesses sulphur, which reinforces the calcium phosphate barrier to bacterial
      and fungal contamination. Like titanosaurs, pores through the eggshell are Y
      shaped in both species, but A. lathami displays unique mid-shell connections
      tangential to the eggshell surface and that connect some adjacent pores, like the
      eggshells of titanosaur of AM L#4 and Transylvania. The function of these
      interconnections is not known, but likely helps the diffusion of gases in eggs
      buried in environments where occlusion of pores is possible.

PMID- 28556928
TI  - Using Alkylate Components for Classifying Gasoline in Fire Debris Samples.
AB  - The characteristic that discriminates gasoline from other ignitable liquids is
      that it contains high-octane blending components. This study elaborates on the
      idea that the presence of gasoline in fire debris samples should be based on the
      detection of known high-octane blending components. The potential of the high
      octane blending component alkylate as a characteristic feature for gasoline
      detection and identification in fire debris samples is explored. We have devised
      characteristic features for the detection of alkylate and verified the presence
      of alkylate in a large collection of gasoline samples from petrol stations in the
      Netherlands. Alkylate was detected in the vast majority of the samples. It is
      demonstrated that alkylate can be detected in fire debris samples that contain
      traces of gasoline by means of routine GC-MS methods. Detection of alkylate,
      alongside other gasoline blend components, results in a more solid foundation for
      gasoline detection and identification in fire debris samples.

PMID- 28556929
TI  - Obstetric outcomes following fertility-preserving management of gynecologic
      malignancies.

PMID- 28556930
TI  - Nurses' Unique Opportunity to Promote Patient Engagement in Prenatal Care.
AB  - AIM: To report an analysis of the concept of patient engagement in prenatal care.
      BACKGROUND: Engagement in health care has been widely discussed but vaguely
      defined. Patients benefit more from their health care when they are fully engaged
      in their care. Patient engagement in prenatal care is an important element of
      prenatal care utilization that has not been analyzed, standardized as a concept,
      or measured. DESIGN: Concept analysis. DATA SOURCES: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO
      databases, and the internet were searched for literature published in English
      with a focus on peer-reviewed journals from disciplines of business, allied
      health sciences, health administration, psychology, and nursing, focusing on the
      period of 2010-2015. METHODS: Hybrid version of the Walker and Avant concept
      analysis method (2011). RESULTS: This concept analysis provides 4 defining
      attributes of patient engagement in prenatal care and a table of related
      empirical referents of engagement. These elements offer a foundation for further
      nursing scholarship toward measurement and evaluation of patient engagement in
      prenatal care. CONCLUSION: Patient engagement in prenatal care represents a human
      response to a health condition. Efforts to increase patient engagement in health
      care are best addressed by the nursing profession through continued research and
      intervention development.

PMID- 28556932
TI  - A systematic review of the association between consumption of sugar-containing
      beverages and excess weight gain among children under age 12.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A systematic review was conducted to address this clinical question:
      Does consumption of (non-dairy) sugar-containing beverages (SCBs) among children
      under age 12 result in excess weight gain? METHODS: The authors searched four
      databases for controlled trials (randomized and non-randomized) and cohort
      studies published in English through March 29, 2016: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane
      Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL. Initial and full-text screening, data
      abstraction, and risk of bias assessment were performed independently and in
      duplicate. RESULTS: Thirty-eight studies met inclusion criteria for this
      systematic review. One was a randomized controlled trial, and 37 were cohort
      studies. Though the results of these studies were mixed, the majority
      demonstrated a statistically significant positive association between SCB
      consumption in children under age 12 and total adiposity and central adiposity.
      In contrast, most studies that assessed 100 percent fruit juice consumption only
      with either total adiposity or central adiposity did not support an association.
      Among only children under age 5 at baseline, no studies examined central
      adiposity, but nearly all studies examining SCBs and total adiposity, and a
      majority examining only fruit juice consumption, demonstrated a statistically
      significant positive association. CONCLUSION: Our results support a statistically
      significant positive association between SCBs and total and central adiposity
      among children under age 12. This association is most consistent for total
      adiposity among children <5. Our results for 100 percent fruit juice only suggest
      differences by age, as most studies among those < 12 were negative but most among
      those <5 were positive.

PMID- 28556931
TI  - Quantification of carbamylated albumin in serum based on capillary
      electrophoresis.
AB  - Protein carbamylation, a nonenzymatic posttranslational modification promoted
      during uremia, is linked to a poor prognosis. In the present study, carbamylation
      of serum albumin was assayed using the symmetry factor on a capillary
      electrophoresis instrument (Helena V8). The symmetry factor has been defined as
      the distance from the center line of the peak to the back slope, divided by the
      distance from the center line of the peak to the front slope, with all
      measurements made at 10% of the maximum peak height. Serum albumin, creatinine,
      and urea concentrations were assayed using routine methods, whereas uremic toxins
      were determined using HPLC. In vitro carbamylation induced a marked albumin peak
      asymmetry. Reference values for the albumin symmetry factor were 0.69-0.92. In
      kidney patients, albumin peak asymmetry corresponded to the chronic kidney
      disease stage (p < 0.0001). The symmetry factor correlated well with serum urea
      (r = -0.5595, p < 0.0001) and creatinine (r = -0.5986, p < 0.0001)
      concentrations. Several protein-bound uremic toxins showed a significant negative
      correlation with the symmetry factor. Morphology of the albumin fraction was not
      affected by presence of glycated albumin and protein-bound antibiotics. In
      conclusion, the presented method provides a simple, practical way for monitoring
      protein carbamylation.

PMID- 28556934
TI  - A quantitative systematic review of the effects of training interventions on
      enhancing the competence of nursing staff in managing challenging patient
      behaviour.
AB  - AIMS: This systematic quantitative review identifies and summarizes the current
      knowledge and effects of training interventions for managing patients'
      challenging behaviour. BACKGROUND: Challenging behaviour is an acknowledged
      worldwide healthcare problem and its management can have a huge impact on quality
      of care. Evidence-based training interventions that focus on managing challenging
      behaviour are needed, but few tools for the systematic evaluation of these
      interventions are currently offered. DESIGN: A quantitative systematic review
      following the 2008 Centre for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines. DATA SOURCES:
      CINAHL, Scopus, PsycInfo, PubMed and Cochrane were searched using the same terms
      for papers published in English from 2005-2015. REVIEW METHODS: Studies were
      assessed for quality and risk of bias, according to the Cochrane Effective
      Practice and Organisation of Care Group criteria. A narrative summary was
      conducted. RESULTS: We included 17 studies and evaluated 16 training
      interventions. Interventions were classified into four key themes:
      disengagements, communication, controlling behavioural symptoms and restrictive
      measures. Our review showed that interventions were more likely to decrease
      violent incident rates and increase staff confidence than change staff attitudes
      or increase knowledge. The elements of competence used to manage challenging
      behaviour were measured unilaterally. The evidence provided by studies was
      largely weak. CONCLUSION: The variety of measurements used in the studies made
      comparing the effectiveness of the training interventions difficult. An
      individual's competence to manage challenging behaviour needs to be defined and a
      comprehensive scale for evaluating competence is also needed. Patient safety
      should be included in future evaluations.

PMID- 28556935
TI  - Values, virtues and initiatives-time for a conversation.

PMID- 28556933
TI  - Heterotypic endosomal fusion as an initial trigger for insulin-induced glucose
      transporter 4 (GLUT4) translocation in skeletal muscle.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Comprehensive imaging analyses of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4)
      behaviour in mouse skeletal muscle was conducted. Quantum dot-based single
      molecule nanometry revealed that GLUT4 molecules in skeletal myofibres are
      governed by regulatory systems involving 'static retention' and 'stimulus
      dependent liberation'. Vital imaging analyses and super-resolution microscopy
      based morphometry demonstrated that insulin liberates the GLUT4 molecule from its
      static state by triggering acute heterotypic endomembrane fusion arising from the
      very small GLUT4-containing vesicles in skeletal myofibres. Prior exposure to
      exercise-mimetic stimuli potentiated this insulin-responsive endomembrane fusion
      event involving GLUT4-containing vesicles, suggesting that this endomembranous
      regulation process is a potential site related to the effects of exercise.
      ABSTRACT: Skeletal muscle is the major systemic glucose disposal site. Both
      insulin and exercise facilitate translocation of the glucose transporter glucose
      transporter 4 (GLUT4) via distinct signalling pathways and exercise also enhances
      insulin sensitivity. However, the trafficking mechanisms controlling GLUT4
      mobilization in skeletal muscle remain poorly understood as a resuly of technical
      limitations. In the present study, which employs various imaging techniques on
      isolated skeletal myofibres, we show that one of the initial triggers of insulin
      induced GLUT4 translocation is heterotypic endomembrane fusion arising from very
      small static GLUT4-containing vesicles with a subset of transferrin receptor
      containing endosomes. Importantly, pretreatment with exercise-mimetic stimuli
      potentiated the susceptibility to insulin responsiveness, as indicated by these
      acute endomembranous activities. We also found that AS160 exhibited stripe-like
      localization close to sarcomeric alpha-actinin and that insulin induced a
      reduction of the stripe-like localization accompanying changes in its detergent
      solubility. The results of the present study thus provide a conceptual framework
      indicating that GLUT4 protein trafficking via heterotypic fusion is a critical
      feature of GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscles and also suggest that the
      efficacy of the endomembranous fusion process in response to insulin is involved
      in the benefits of exercise.

PMID- 28556936
TI  - Parasagittal fractures of the proximal phalanx in Thoroughbred racehorses in the
      UK: Outcome of repaired fractures in 113 cases (2007-2011).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thirty years have elapsed since the last published review of outcome
      following fracture of the proximal phalanx in Thoroughbred racehorses in the UK
      and contemporary results are needed to be able to advise of expected outcome.
      OBJECTIVES: Collect and analyse outcome data following repair of fractures of the
      proximal phalanx in Thoroughbred racehorses in the UK. STUDY DESIGN:
      Retrospective case series. METHODS: Case records of all Thoroughbred racehorses
      admitted to Newmarket Equine Hospital for evaluation of a parasagittal fracture
      of the proximal phalanx during a 5 years period were reviewed. Follow-up data
      regarding racing careers was collected for horses that underwent repair.
      Following exclusion of outliers, cases with incomplete data sets and comminuted
      fractures, mixed effect logistic regression was used to identify variables
      affecting returning to racing and odds ratios and confidence intervals
      calculated. RESULTS: Of 113 repaired cases, fracture configurations included
      short incomplete parasagittal (n = 12), long incomplete parasagittal (n = 86),
      complete parasagittal (n = 12) and comminuted (n = 3). A total of 54 (48%) cases
      raced after surgery. Horses that fractured at 2 years of age had increased odds
      of racing following surgery than those older than 2 years of age (OR 1.34; 95% CI
      1.13-1.59, P = 0.002). Horses sustaining short incomplete parasagittal fractures
      had increased odds of racing following surgery compared with those with complete
      parasagittal fractures (OR 2.62; 95% CI 1.36-5.07, P = 0.006). No horses with
      comminuted fractures returned to racing. MAIN LIMITATIONS: Data are relevant only
      to Thoroughbred racehorses in the UK. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of the
      cases in this series raced following surgical repair. More 2-year-old horses
      raced following surgery, but this likely reflects horses, specifically older
      horses, passing out of training from unrelated factors. Fracture configuration
      affects odds of racing, which is relevant to owners when deciding on treatment.

PMID- 28556937
TI  - Abnormal Fetal Findings Associated With a Global Sphericity Index of the 4
      Chamber View Below the 5th Centile.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the global sphericity index
      (GSI) of the 4-chamber view and correlate the results with abnormal ultrasound
      findings. METHODS: The epicardial end-diastolic basal-apical length (BAL) and
      transverse length (TL) of the 4-chamber view were measured to compute the GSI
      (BAL/TL) in 200 control fetuses between 20 and 40 weeks' gestation. Three hundred
      study fetuses were prospectively examined between 17 and 39 weeks' gestation. The
      GSI, Z score, and centile were computed for each of the fetuses. RESULTS: The GSI
      (1.233; SD, 0.0953) in the control fetuses was independent of gestational age.
      Eighteen percent of the study fetuses (55 of 300) had a GSI below the 5th centile
      (<1.08), of whom 96% (53 of 55) had additional abnormal ultrasound findings.
      Fetuses with an estimated fetal weight below the 10th centile had a significantly
      (P < .05) higher rate of an umbilical artery Doppler pulsatility index above the
      95th centile (27% versus 17.7%), a middle cerebral artery Doppler pulsatility
      index below the 5th centile (27% versus 0%), an abnormal cerebroplacental ratio
      (27% versus 4.5%), and an amniotic fluid index of less than 5 cm (36% versus 9%).
      The TL was significantly increased compared with the BAL in fetuses with cardiac
      dysfunction, irrespective of the estimated fetal weight. CONCLUSIONS: An abnormal
      GSI below the 5th centile is associated with abnormal fetal ultrasound findings.

PMID- 28556938
TI  - Superiority of magnetic resonance imaging over conventional radiography in the
      early diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis.

PMID- 28556939
TI  - A case of Fanconi syndrome due to a deferasirox overdose and a trial of
      plasmapheresis.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Deferasirox has nephrotoxic effects in the context
      of chronic therapy. This case report illustrates proximal tubular dysfunction
      (Fanconi syndrome) due to an acute deferasirox overdose. CASE DESCRIPTION: In
      response, we trialled plasmapheresis to eliminate the drug. Deferasirox levels
      were obtained in the context of three rounds of plasmapheresis. Given the half
      life model of decay, we concluded that plasmapheresis may not have been
      successful. The patient ultimately recovered normal tubular function after 2
      months. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: This report is the first to describe acute
      deferasirox-induced nephrotoxicity, and the application of plasmapheresis that,
      ultimately, did not change the typical time to recovery.

PMID- 28556940
TI  - Three TOB1-related YABBY genes are required to maintain proper function of the
      spikelet and branch meristems in rice.
AB  - YABBY genes play important roles in the development of lateral organs such as
      leaves and floral organs in Angiosperms. However, the function of YABBY genes is
      poorly understood in monocots. We focused on three rice (Oryza sativa) YABBY
      genes, TONGARI-BOUSHI (TOB1, TOB2, TOB3), which are closely related to
      Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) FILAMENTOUS FLOWER (FIL). To elucidate the
      function of these YABBY genes, we employed a reverse genetic approach. TOB genes
      were expressed in bract and lateral organ primordia, but not in meristems. RNAi
      knockdown of TOB2 or TOB3 in the tob1 mutant caused abnormal spikelet
      development. Furthermore, simultaneous knockdown of both TOB2 and TOB3 in tob1
      affected not only spikelet, but also inflorescence development. In severe cases,
      the inflorescences comprised naked branches without spikelets. Analysis of
      inflorescence development at an early stage showed that the observed phenotypic
      defects were closely associated with a failure to initiate and maintain
      reproductive meristems. These results indicate that the TOB genes regulate the
      maintenance and fate of all reproductive meristems. It is likely that the
      function of FIL/TOB clade YABBY genes has been conserved between Arabidopsis and
      rice to maintain the proper function of meristems, even though these genes are
      expressed in lateral organ primordia.

PMID- 28556942
TI  - The elusive ettringite under the high-vacuum SEM - a reflection based on natural
      samples, the use of Monte Carlo modelling of EDS analyses and an extension to the
      ettringite group minerals.
AB  - Ettringite, Ca6 Al2 (SO4 )3 (OH)12 .26H2 O, or C6 AS-3 H32 as it is known in
      cement chemistry notation, is a major phase of interest in cement science as an
      hydration product and in polluted soil treatment since its structure can
      accommodate with many hazardous cations. Beyond those anthropogenic features,
      ettringite is first of all a naturally occurring mineral (although rare). An
      example of its behaviour under the scanning electron microscope and during energy
      dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) qualitative analysis is presented, based on the
      study of natural ettringite crystals from the N'Chwaning mine in South Africa.
      Monte Carlo modelling of the electron-matter interaction zone at various voltages
      is presented and confronted with actual, observed beam damage on crystals, which
      burst at the analysis spot. Finally, theoretical energy dispersive spectroscopy
      spectra for all the ettringite group minerals have been computed as well as Monte
      Carlo modelling of the electron-matter interaction zone. The knowledge of the
      estimation of the size of this zone may thus be helpful for the understanding of
      energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis in cement pastes or ettringite-remediated
      soils.

PMID- 28556941
TI  - The buffering capacity of stems: genetic architecture of nonstructural
      carbohydrates in cultivated Asian rice, Oryza sativa.
AB  - Harnessing stem carbohydrate dynamics in grasses offers an opportunity to help
      meet future demands for plant-based food, fiber and fuel production, but requires
      a greater understanding of the genetic controls that govern the synthesis,
      interconversion and transport of such energy reserves. We map out a blueprint of
      the genetic architecture of rice (Oryza sativa) stem nonstructural carbohydrates
      (NSC) at two critical developmental time-points using a subpopulation-specific
      genome-wide association approach on two diverse germplasm panels followed by
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in a biparental population. Overall, 26 QTL
      are identified; three are detected in multiple panels and are associated with
      starch-at-maturity, sucrose-at-maturity and NSC-at-heading. They tag OsHXK6 (rice
      hexokinase), ISA2 (rice isoamylase) and a tandem array of sugar transporters.
      This study provides the foundation for more in-depth molecular investigation to
      validate candidate genes underlying rice stem NSC and informs future comparative
      studies in other agronomically vital grass species.

PMID- 28556943
TI  - Infected mediastinal bronchogenic cyst successfully treated by endoscopic
      ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration drainage through the esophagus.

PMID- 28556944
TI  - Queer signs: The women of the British projective test movement.
AB  - As queer history is often hidden, historians must look for "signs" that hint at
      queer lives and experiences. When psychologists use projective tests, the search
      for queer signs has historically been more literal, and this was especially true
      in the homophobic practices of Psychology in the mid-twentieth century. In this
      paper, I respond to Elizabeth Scarborough's call for more analytic history about
      the lesser known women in Psychology's history. By focusing on British projective
      research conducted by lesbian psychologist June Hopkins, I shift perspective and
      consider, not those who were tested (which has been historically more common),
      but those who did the testing, and position them as potential queer subjects.
      After briefly outlining why the projective test movement is ripe for such
      analysis and the kinds of queer signs that were identified using the Rorschach
      ink blot test in the mid-twentieth century, I then present June Hopkins' (1969,
      1970) research on the "lesbian personality." This work forms a framework upon
      which I then consider the lives of Margaret Lowenfeld, Ann Kaldegg, and Effie
      Lillian Hutton, all of whom were involved in the British projective test movement
      a generation prior to Hopkins. By adopting Hopkins' research to frame their
      lives, I present the possibility of this ambiguous history being distinctly
      queer.

PMID- 28556946
TI  - Dexmedetomidine protects mice against myocardium ischaemic/reperfusion injury by
      activating an AMPK/PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway.
AB  - Acute myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (MIR) injury leads to severe arrhythmias
      and has a high rate of lethality. In the present study, we aim to determine the
      effect of dexmedetomidine (Dex) on heart injury parameters following MIR surgery.
      We examined the effects of Dex on heart function parameters and infarct size
      following MIR surgery. Proinflammatory cytokines, oxidative products and anti
      oxidative enzymes in the myocardium were measured to evaluate the anti
      inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of Dex. The role of the adenosine 5'
      monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/phosphatidylino-sitol 3
      kinase (PI3k)/Akt/endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) pathway was
      investigated using their inhibitors. The alteration of haemodynamic parameters,
      histopathological results, and infarct size caused by MIR was attenuated by Dex.
      The interleukine-1 beta (IL-1beta), IL-6, tumour necrosis factor-a (TNF-alpha)
      and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were all significantly decreased. Anti-oxidative
      enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GPx)
      were restored by Dex. Oxidative products8-OHdG, MDA and protein carbonyl were all
      decreased by Dex (P<.05). Dex activated AMPK expression, eNOS and Akt
      phosphorylation. The influence of Dex on cardiac function was reversed by the
      inhibitors of the eNOS, AMPK and PI3K/Akt pathways. These results indicate that
      Dex protected the cardiac functional, histological changes, inflammation and
      oxidative stress induced by MIR. Our results present a novel signalling mechanism
      that Dex protects MIR injury by activating an AMPK/PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway.

PMID- 28556947
TI  - On the applicability of density functional theory to manganese-based complexes
      with catalytic activity toward water oxidation.
AB  - The present contribution assesses the performance of several popular and accurate
      density functionals, namely B3LYP, BP86, M06, MN12L, mPWPW91, PBE0, and TPSSh
      toward manganese-based coordination complexes. These compounds show promising
      properties toward application to catalytic water oxidation. Although manganese
      with N- and O-biding ligands tends to give rise to high spin complexes, the
      results show that BP86, mPWPW91, and specially MN12L, tend to yield low-spin
      complexes. The usage of these functionals for such compounds is, thus,
      discouraged. All the functionals considered deliver accurate geometries. The
      present results show, however, that B3LYP delivers geometries deviating from
      experimental values when compared to the other functionals of the set. M06, PBE0,
      and TPSSh deliver geometries of similar accuracy, PBE0 outstanding slightly with
      respect to the other two. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28556945
TI  - Leukemia/lymphoma-related factor (LRF) exhibits stage- and context-dependent
      transcriptional controls in the oligodendrocyte lineage and modulates
      remyelination.
AB  - Leukemia/lymphoma-related factor (LRF), a zinc-finger transcription factor
      encoded by Zbtb7a, is a protooncogene that regulates differentiation in diverse
      cell lineages, and in the CNS, its function is relatively unexplored. This study
      is the first to examine the role of LRF in CNS pathology. We first examined LRF
      expression in a murine viral model of spinal cord demyelination with clinically
      relevant lesion characteristics. LRF was rarely expressed in oligodendrocyte
      progenitors (OP) yet, was detected in nuclei of the majority of oligodendrocytes
      in healthy adult CNS and during remyelination. Plp/CreERT :Zbtb7afl/fl mice were
      then used with cuprizone demyelination to determine the effect of LRF knockdown
      on oligodendrocyte repopulation and remyelination. Cuprizone was given for 6
      weeks to demyelinate the corpus callosum. Tamoxifen was administered at 4, 5, or
      6 weeks after the start of cuprizone. Tamoxifen-induced knockdown of LRF impaired
      remyelination during 3 or 6-week recovery periods after cuprizone. LRF knockdown
      earlier within the oligodendrocyte lineage using NG2CreERT :Zbtb7afl/fl mice
      reduced myelination after 6 weeks of cuprizone. LRF knockdown from either the
      Plp/CreERT line or the NG2CreERT line did not significantly change OP or
      oligodendrocyte populations. In vitro promoter assays demonstrated the potential
      for LRF to regulate transcription of myelin-related genes and the notch target
      Hes5, which has been implicated in control of myelin formation and repair. In
      summary, in the oligodendrocyte lineage, LRF is expressed mainly in
      oligodendrocytes but is not required for oligodendrocyte repopulation of
      demyelinated lesions. Furthermore, LRF can modulate the extent of remyelination,
      potentially by contributing to interactions regulating transcription.

PMID- 28556948
TI  - Two cases of Mycobacterium marinum infection on the upper limbs.

PMID- 28556949
TI  - Does early-life family income influence later dental pain experience? A
      prospective 14-year study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between
      early-life family income and dental pain experience from childhood to early
      adulthood. METHODS: Data came from a 14-year prospective study (1991/1992
      2005/2006) carried out in South Australia, which included children and
      adolescents aged 4-17 years (N = 9875) at baseline. The outcome was dental pain
      experience obtained at baseline, 14 years later in adulthood and at a middle
      point of time. The main explanatory variable was early-life family income
      collected at baseline. RESULTS: The prevalence of dental pain was 22.8% at
      baseline, 19.3% at 'middle time' and 39.3% at follow up. The proportion of people
      classified as 'poor' at baseline was 27.7%. Being poor early in life was
      significantly associated with dental pain at 14-year follow up (odds ratio =
      1.45; 95% confidence interval = 1.27-1.66). CONCLUSIONS: Early-life relative
      poverty is associated with more frequent dental pain across the 14-year follow up
      and may be a key exposure variable for later dental conditions.

PMID- 28556950
TI  - The radiosynthesis of novel PI3K inhibitor , 8-ethoxy-2-(4-[18 F]fluorophenyl)-3
      nitro-2H-chromene (18 F-EFPNC).
AB  - 8-ethoxy-2-(4-[18 F]fluorophenyl)-3-nitro-2H-chromene(18 F-EFPNC)was preparated
      through nucleophilic substitution reaction of the precursor 8-ethoxy -2-[(4 -N,
      N, N-trimethylammonium triflate)phenyl]-3-nitro-2H-chromene and nuclide [18 F]
      fluorination. The best radiosynthesis condition was obtained via [18 F]
      fluorination substitution reaction between [18 F] and 18 mg of the precursor in
      dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) at 150  degrees C for 5 min after the radiosynthesis
      method was optimized.The decay-corrected radiochemical yields(DCRY) of 18 F-EFPNC
      were 38.5% with total synthesis time of 45 min.The radiochemical purity of 18 F
      EFPNC was more than 95% by Thin-layer chromatography(TLC) analysis.The test of 18
      F-EFPNC's radiochemical stability showed it was stable at room temperature for up
      to 2 h.The above results demonstrated that the radiosynthesis method of 18 F
      EFPNC was feasible.

PMID- 28556951
TI  - The human mast cell line-1 cell membrane chromatography coupled with HPLC-ESI
      MS/MS method for screening potentical anaphylactic components from chuanxinlian
      injection.
AB  - Chuanxinlian injection is a traditional Chinese medicine injection widely used in
      China to treat sore throat, cough and dysentery, although a high occurrence of
      severe adverse reactions has been reported in clinical practice in recent years.
      In the present study, a human mast cell line-1 cell membrane chromatography
      coupled with HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method was established to screen and identify
      potentical anaphylactic components in chuanxinlian injection, and the
      dehydroandrographolide was identified as a potential anaphylactic component. In
      vitro anaphylactic assay showed that intracellular Ca2+ concentration clearly
      increased under dehydroandrographolide (100 MUm) treatment. beta-Hexosaminidase
      and histamine release in human mast cell line-1 cells were both markedly enhanced
      with increased concentrations of dehydroandrographolide, confirming the
      anaphylactic activity of dehydroandrographolide. The application for chuanxinlian
      injection in this study suggested that the developed human mast cell line-1 cell
      membrane chromatography coupled with HPLC-ESI-MS/MS system may be effective and
      rapid for screening the potentical anaphylactic components from complex samples.

PMID- 28556952
TI  - A miniaturized sensor for detection of formaldehyde fumes.
AB  - A miniaturized chemical sensor is here described for the analysis of
      environmental pollutants (VOC: volatile organic chemicals). It is used for remote
      detection of formaldehyde (FA) fumes in the atmosphere, and is based on the redox
      reaction between FA and silver nitrate. The sensor is worn as a bracelet and the
      data acquired are transferred via a Bluetooth channel to a smartphone. A
      dedicated software transforms the signal from a grey to a color scale. The signal
      response has been assessed over low (20 to 120 ppb) as well as higher (1-15 ppm
      range) levels. The sensor has been applied to monitor potential FA fumes of some
      artwork in the Summer Palace in Beijing and the modifications induced by FA
      treatment on a precious Stradivarius violin. The performance of this novel sensor
      is compared with a commercial apparatus widely adopted, namely the Honeywell
      MultiRAE Lite wireless portable multi-gas monitor (pumped model).

PMID- 28556953
TI  - Novel biallelic SZT2 mutations in 3 cases of early-onset epileptic
      encephalopathy.
AB  - The seizure threshold 2 (SZT2) gene encodes a large, highly conserved protein
      that is associated with epileptogenesis. In mice, Szt2 is abundantly expressed in
      the central nervous system. Recently, biallelic SZT2 mutations were found in 7
      patients (from 5 families) presenting with epileptic encephalopathy with
      dysmorphic features and/or non-syndromic intellectual disabilities. In this
      study, we identified by whole-exome sequencing compound heterozygous SZT2
      mutations in 3 patients with early-onset epileptic encephalopathies. Six novel
      SZT2 mutations were found, including 3 truncating, 1 splice site and 2 missense
      mutations. The splice-site mutation resulted in skipping of exon 20 and was
      associated with a premature stop codon. All individuals presented with seizures,
      severe developmental delay and intellectual disabilities with high variability.
      Brain MRIs revealed a characteristic thick and short corpus callosum or a
      persistent cavum septum pellucidum in each of the 2 cases. Interestingly, in the
      third case, born to consanguineous parents, had unexpected compound heterozygous
      missense mutations. She showed microcephaly despite the other case and previous
      ones presenting with macrocephaly, suggesting that SZT2 mutations might affect
      head size.

PMID- 28556955
TI  - Complete reversal of bone marrow fibrosis after parathyroidectomy for secondary
      hyperparathyroidism.

PMID- 28556954
TI  - Transcatheter arterial embolization in normal canine liver.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of selective transcatheter arterial
      embolization (TAE) in the normal canine liver. STUDY DESIGN: Experimental study.
      ANIMALS: Adult Beagle dogs (n = 5). METHODS: Gelatin sponge particles (GSPs) were
      injected through a microcatheter for selective embolization of the left hepatic
      artery in normal dogs. Computed tomography (CT) and histology were performed
      during an 8-week observation period; biochemical analysis data were obtained
      during a 12-week observation period after TAE. RESULTS: Embolization was
      successful in all dogs and did not induce any change in the clinical appearance
      of dogs. Postoperative CT was consistent with recanalization of the artery within
      2 weeks of embolization in all dogs. Hepatic enzyme levels increased temporarily
      after embolization but gradually returned to normal ranges. Histological
      examinations did not differ between treated and untreated liver tissues.
      CONCLUSION: TAE appears safe in normal dogs observed for 12 weeks. Arterial
      recanalization seems to occur within 2 weeks after injection of GSPs in the left
      hepatic artery. IMPACT/CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Selective TAE of the hepatic artery
      was well tolerated in normal dogs. Selective TAE may be applicable to canine
      hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28556956
TI  - Prognostic value of p21-activated kinase 4 in resected pancreatic cancer.
AB  - Resectable pancreatic cancer has a high recurrence rate after curative surgery.
      Biomarkers are needed for distinguishing patients who may benefit from curative
      resection. In this study, we sought to analyze the prognostic value of p21
      activated kinase 1 (PAK1), p21-activated kinase 4 (PAK4), human equilibrative
      nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1), and thymidylate synthase (TS) in surgically
      resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas. A total of 160 pancreatic cancer
      patients who underwent surgery with curative intent were retrospectively
      reviewed. Tissue microarrays were constructed and immunohistochemical stains were
      performed for PAK1, PAK4, hENT1, and TS. The absence of PAK4 expression in
      pancreatic adenocarcinomas was associated with poorer histologic differentiation
      (p < 0.001), shorter overall survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.86, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 1.43-5.71; p = 0.003], and disease-free survival (HR = 2.29, 95%
      CI: 1.11-4.74; p = 0.025) on univariate analyses. In addition, more frequent
      venous invasion and lymph node metastases were seen in PAK4-negative tumors
      although not statistically significant. PAK1, hENT1, and TS expression status did
      not have significant influences on patient survival. In conclusion, PAK4 of the
      markers tested in this study may be a potential prognostic biomarker for
      pancreatic adenocarcinomas.

PMID- 28556957
TI  - Increased frequency of bronchiolar histotypes in lung carcinomas associated with
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - AIMS: The association between lung cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)
      is well known, but the significance of this association is poorly understood.
      Bronchiolar honeycomb cysts have been proposed as possible precursors for the
      development of carcinoma, but limited evidence in support of this hypothesis is
      available. The aim of this study was to investigate this hypothesis analysing a
      series of carcinomas arising in IPF by immunohistochemistry. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Thirty-three lung carcinomas arising in patients with IPF were analysed with a
      panel of immunohistochemical markers. The antibodies included those against
      pneumocyte markers [thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF1), napsin-A, and
      surfactant protein A], the goblet cell marker mucin 5AC, markers of
      basal/squamous cell differentiation [cytokeratin (CK) 5/6 and DeltaN-p63], and
      markers related to enteric differentiation (CDX2, mucin 2, CK20, and villin). A
      series of 100 consecutive lung adenocarcinomas arising in smokers without IPF
      were investigated as controls. All carcinomas arising in IPF patients were
      peripherally located on imaging analysis. The diagnoses were: eight squamous cell
      carcinomas, 20 adenocarcinomas, three small-cell carcinomas (including one
      composite small-cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma), and two large-cell
      carcinomas. Among adenocarcinomas, a 'pneumocyte' profile (TTF1/napsin-A/SPA1
      triple-positive) was observed in seven of 20 (35% versus 84% in non-IPF controls,
      P = 0.0001). The remaining 13 adenocarcinomas (65%) showed rare histotypes: four
      invasive mucinous adenocarcinomas (20% in IPF patients versus 1% in non-IPF
      controls, P = 0.002), seven tumours (35%) that were characterized by variable
      expression of markers of enteric differentiation, and two tumours (10%) that
      showed a peculiar basaloid component. CONCLUSIONS: The immunohistochemical
      characterization of carcinomas arising in IPF patients shows striking divergence
      from that in non-IPF smokers. The prevalence of rare entities showing bronchiole
      related markers is in line with the hypothesis that these tumours arise from
      transformed small airways in honeycomb lung areas where abnormal bronchiolar
      proliferation takes place.

PMID- 28556958
TI  - Downregulation of androgen receptors by NaAsO2 via inhibition of AKT-NF-kappaB
      and HSP90 in castration resistant prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Androgen and androgen receptor (AR) play essential roles in the
      development and maintenance of prostate cancer. The recently identified AR splice
      variants (AR-Vs) have been considered as a plausible mechanism for the primary
      resistance against androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in castration-resistant
      prostate cancer (CRPC). Sodium meta-arsenite (NaAsO2 ; KML001; Kominox), a
      trivalent arsenical, is an orally bioavailable and water soluble, which is
      currently in phase I/II clinical trials for the treatment of prostate cancer. It
      has a potent anti-cancer effect on prostate cancer cells and xenografts. The aim
      of this study was to examine the effect of NaAsO2 on AR signaling in LNCaP and
      22Rv1 CRPC cells. METHODS: We used hormone-sensitive LNCaP cells, hormone
      insensitive 22Rv1 cells, and CRPC patient-derived primary cells. We analyzed anti
      cancer effect of NaAsO2 using real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR,
      Western blotting, immunofluorescence staining and CellTiter Glo(r) luminescent
      assay. Statistical evaluation of the results was performed by one-way ANOVA.
      RESULTS: NaAsO2 significantly reduced the translocation of AR and AR-Vs to the
      nucleus as well as their level in LNCaP and 22Rv1 cells. Besides, the level of
      the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), downstream target gene of AR, was also
      decreased. This compound was also an effective modulator of AKT-dependent NF
      kappaB activation which regulates AR. NaAsO2 significantly inhibited
      phosphorylation of AKT and expression and nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB. We
      then investigated the effect of NaAsO2 on AR stabilization. NaAsO2 promoted HSP90
      acetylation by down-regulating HDAC6, which reduces the stability of AR in
      prostate cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we show that NaAsO2 disrupts AR
      signaling at multiple levels by affecting AR expression, stability, and
      degradation in primary tumor cell cultures from prostate cancer patients as well
      as CRPC cell lines. These results suggest that NaAsO2 could be a novel
      therapeutics for prostate cancer.

PMID- 28556959
TI  - Exacerbation of allopurinol-induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic
      symptoms by teicoplanin: A case report.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic
      symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a rare and potentially life-threatening drug
      reaction. Allopurinol is one of the most frequently reported drugs accounting for
      DRESS syndrome development. In contrast to allopurinol, DRESS syndrome induced by
      teicoplanin has not been reported frequently. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 50-year-old
      woman was admitted to receive FLAG chemotherapy regimen (fludarabine, cytarabine
      (high-dose Ara-C), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) for relapsed acute
      lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treatment. Allopurinol was initiated at a dose of
      300 mg per day 48 hours before chemotherapy regimen initiation, for tumour lysis
      syndrome prophylaxis. Seven days after allopurinol initiation, the patient
      presented with fever, dyspnoea, shortening of breath, facial oedema, generalized
      pruritus, erythema and macular rash affecting the face, abdomen, trunk, upper and
      lower limbs and an elevation in hepatic enzymes. Allopurinol was immediately
      discontinued and intravenous hydrocortisone was started concomitantly alongside
      other supportive measures. About 72 hours later, pruritus, erythema and rash were
      ameliorated and abnormalities in liver tests were improved. Afterwards,
      teicoplanin administration led to severe deterioration of pruritus, erythema and
      rash; subsequently, serum alanine aminotransferase increased again and episodes
      of worsening dyspnea occurred. Signs of hypersensitivity reaction were reduced by
      discontinuation of teicoplanin and supportive care. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION:
      We report a case of allopurinol-induced DRESS syndrome, which was exacerbated by
      administration of teicoplanin. It can be suggested that the administration of
      drugs with high possibility of hypersensitivity reactions should be avoided
      during the acute phase of DRESS syndrome.

PMID- 28556960
TI  - The cellular character of liquefaction degeneration in oral lichen planus and the
      role of interferon gamma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a T-cell-mediated chronic inflammatory
      oral mucosal disease of unknown etiology, and liquefaction degeneration in the
      basal keratinocytes is one of the specific histological changes. However, the
      understanding of liquefaction degeneration is still very limited, and how does it
      affect the prognosis of LP is largely unknown. Therefore, the objective of this
      study was to clarify the intrinsic change behind the liquefaction degeneration in
      lichen planus and to evaluate the effect of the OLP-typical cytokine, IFN-gamma,
      on these changes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Biopsies were collected from patients
      with OLP; immunochemistry staining was performed to analyze E-cadherin, vimentin,
      CK19, beta1 integrin, nestin, STAT1, and STAT3 expression. Primary oral
      epithelial cells were cultured in vitro, and 20 ng/mL IFN-gamma was applied to
      assay the effect on epithelial cells. RESULTS: E-cadherin expression was
      decreased but vimentin expression was increased in the OLP epithelial cells that
      undergo liquefaction degeneration, showing the typical epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) alteration. In vitro research showed that the OLP-typical
      cytokine, IFN-gamma, possesses EMT-inducing ability, and the primary oral
      epithelial cells stimulated by IFN-gamma acquired some properties of cancer stem
      cells, expressing more beta1 integrin, alpha6 integrin, and nestin. In addition,
      the major downstream mediator of IFN-gamma receptor, STAT1, was expressed more
      intensive and extensive with the malignant transition of OLP. CONCLUSION:
      Liquefaction degeneration in oral lichen planus is an EMT phenomenon, the IFN
      gamma may be the main inducer, and IFN-gamma signaling might be implicated in
      malignant transition of OLP.

PMID- 28556961
TI  - Hydroxychloroquine affects bone resorption both in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - We recently showed that patients with primary Sjogren syndrome (pSS) have
      significantly higher bone mineral density (BMD) compared to healthy controls. The
      majority of those patients (69%) was using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which may
      have favorable effects on BMD. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether HCQ
      modulates osteoclast function. Osteoclasts were cultured from PBMC-sorted
      monocytes for 14 days and treated with different HCQ doses (controls 1 and 5
      MUg/ml). TRAP staining and resorption assays were performed to evaluate
      osteoclast differentiation and activity, respectively. Staining with an
      acidification marker (acridine orange) was performed to evaluate intracellular pH
      at multiple timepoints. Additionally, a fluorescent cholesterol uptake assay was
      performed to evaluate cholesterol trafficking. Serum bone resorption marker beta
      CTx was evaluated in rheumatoid arthritis patients. HCQ inhibits the formation of
      multinuclear osteoclasts and leads to decreased bone resorption. Continuous HCQ
      treatment significantly decreases intracellular pH and significantly enhanced
      cholesterol uptake in mature osteoclasts along with increased expression of the
      lowdensity lipoprotein receptor. Serum beta-CTx was significantly decreased after
      6 months of HCQ treatment. In agreement with our clinical data, we demonstrate
      that HCQ suppresses bone resorption in vitro and decreases the resorption marker
      beta-CTx in vivo. We also showed that HCQ decreases the intracellular pH in
      mature osteoclasts and stimulates cholesterol uptake, suggesting that HCQ induces
      osteoclastic lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) leading to decreased
      resorption without changes in apoptosis. We hypothesize that skeletal health of
      patients with increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures may benefit from HCQ
      by preventing BMD loss.

PMID- 28556963
TI  - Prediction of 30-year cardiovascular disease risk in psoriatic population.

PMID- 28556964
TI  - Psychopathy and Mortality.
AB  - It is not known how mortality differs between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic
      individuals. We linked data from subjects having been in forensic mental
      examinations at Niuvanniemi Hospital during 1984-1993 to the data from the
      National Death Registry to estimate the association between psychopathy and
      mortality. One hundred psychopathic individuals scoring 25 or higher in the PCL-R
      scale were followed up for 20-30 years. Two control groups were used as follows:
      178 offenders scoring less than 25 on the PCL-R, and sample of general population
      drawn from the Finnish National Statistics database. Results reveal that
      psychopaths die younger than the general population, and the causes of death are
      more violent than in the nonpsychopath control group. There was a significant
      positive correlation between PCL-R score and mortality, and the mortality among
      psychopaths was about fivefold when compared with general population.

PMID- 28556965
TI  - Attachment Security and Developmental Patterns of Growth in Executive Functioning
      During Early Elementary School.
AB  - Despite the extensive research demonstrating the importance of child executive
      functioning (EF) for school adjustment, little longitudinal work has formally
      examined developmental change in EF during the early school years. Based on a
      sample of 106 mother-child dyads, the current longitudinal study investigated
      patterns of growth in child performance on three executive tasks between
      kindergarten (Mage  = 6 years) and Grade 3 (Mage  = 9 years), and the predictive
      role of earlier mother-child attachment security in these patterns. The results
      suggest that early elementary school is a period of significant developmental
      improvement in child EF, although child performance on different EF tasks follows
      distinct trajectories across time. The study also provides evidence for a
      sustained relation between children's early attachment security and their ongoing
      acquisition of executive skills.

PMID- 28556962
TI  - Treatment of spontaneous preterm labour with retosiban: a phase II pilot dose
      ranging study.
AB  - AIMS: The aims of the present study were to investigate the maternal, fetal and
      neonatal safety and tolerability, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of
      intravenous (IV) retosiban in pregnant women with spontaneous preterm labour
      (PTL) between 340/7 and 356/7  weeks' gestation. METHODS: In parts A and B of a
      three-part, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study, women were
      randomized 3:1 (Part A) or 2:1 (Part B) to either 12-h IV retosiban followed by a
      single dose of oral placebo (R-P) or 12-h IV placebo followed by single-dose oral
      retosiban (P-R). RESULTS: A total of 29 women were randomized; 20 to R-P and nine
      to P-R. An integrated analysis found that adverse events were infrequent in
      mothers/newborns and consistent with events expected in the population under
      study or associated with confounding factors. Retosiban was rapidly absorbed
      after oral administration, with an observed half-life of 1.45 h. Efficacy
      analyses included 19 women. While not statistically significant, those receiving
      R-P more frequently achieved uterine quiescence in 6 h (R-P, 63%; 95% credible
      interval [CrI]: 38, 84; P-R, 43%; 95% CrI: 12, 78) and more achieved a reduction
      of >=50% in uterine contractions in 6 h (R-P, 63%; 95% CrI: 38, 84; P-R, 29%; 95%
      CrI: 4, 64). The number of days to delivery was increased in women receiving R-P
      (median 26 days for R-P vs. 13 days for P-R). CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous retosiban
      has a favourable safety and tolerability profile and might prolong pregnancies in
      women with PTL. The study provides the rationale and dosing strategy for further
      evaluation of the efficacy of retosiban in the treatment of PTL.

PMID- 28556966
TI  - Effects of sample processing and storage on the integrity of cell-free miRNAs in
      maternal plasma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cell-free fetal miRNAs have been identified as potential biomarkers
      for fetal abnormalities and/or placental function. Factors affecting the
      stability of cell-free fetal miRNA samples (type of collection tube and time
      interval between sampling and analysis) have not previously been reported.
      METHODS: Blood from pregnant women (n = 12, 18 +/- 4 weeks' gestation) was
      collected into two types of tube (EDTA and RNA BCT) and was stored at different
      temperatures for up to 72 h. Expression of seven apparently placental specific
      miRNAs was then measured to compare the effects of sampling and storage. These
      miRNAs were also assessed in non-pregnant women (n = 9). RESULTS: The quantity of
      miRNA extracted was not affected by time or tube. Three miRNAs (miR-518b, miR-525
      and miR-526a*) were measureable only in pregnant women, but miR-518b was not
      always present. Detailed study of the two pregnancy specific miRNAs showed no
      effect of tube type at 4 h. However, variability in miRNA level was observed with
      increased time and was significant for one miRNA in the BCT tube at >48 h (p <
      0.005). CONCLUSION: Some cffmiRNAs are placental specific, and these samples are
      stable when analyzed within 48 h of collection in either tube type. (c) 2017 John
      Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556968
TI  - Worldwide hemisphere-dependent lean in Cook pines.

PMID- 28556969
TI  - Metabolic profiling of quercetin in rats using ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
AB  - Quercetin, a kind of major flavonoid found in many traditional chinese medicines,
      is an effective substance for treatments such as lowering blood lipids. However,
      the studies on quercetin have been mainly focused on its pharmacological effect;
      the treatment of diseases on a material basis, particularly the metabolites
      derived from quercetin in vivo, has not been evaluated. In this study, we
      determined the levels, distributions and types of quercetin's metabolites in
      plasma, urine, feces and bile of rats after a single oral administration of
      quercetin at a dose of 80 mg/kg, using ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS). A
      total of 36 metabolites of quercetin were identified, including 11 metabolites in
      plasma, 34 metabolites in urine, 12 metabolites in feces and 21 metabolites in
      bile. The results showed that phase I metabolites were reduction metabolites and
      phase II metabolites mainly included glucuronidation, sulfation and methylation
      metabolites. These results provide important information on the metabolism of
      quercetin, which will be helpful for its further development and utilization.

PMID- 28556967
TI  - Teriparatide Treatment Improves Bone Defect Healing Via Anabolic Effects on New
      Bone Formation and Non-Anabolic Effects on Inhibition of Mast Cells in a Murine
      Cranial Window Model.
AB  - Investigations of teriparatide (recombinant parathyroid hormone [rPTH]) as a
      potential treatment for critical defects have demonstrated the predicted anabolic
      effects on bone formation, and significant non-anabolic effects on healing via
      undefined mechanisms. Specifically, studies in murine models of structural
      allograft healing demonstrated that rPTH treatment increased angiogenesis
      (vessels <30 MUm), and decreased arteriogenesis (>30 MUm) and mast cell numbers,
      which lead to decreased fibrosis and accelerated healing. To better understand
      these non-anabolic effects, we interrogated osteogenesis, vasculogenesis, and
      mast cell accumulation in mice randomized to placebo (saline), rPTH (20 MUg/kg/2
      days), or the mast cell inhibitor sodium cromolyn (SC) (24 MUg/kg/ 2days), via
      longitudinal micro-computed tomography (MUCT) and multiphoton laser scanning
      microscopy (MPLSM), in a critical calvaria defect model. MUCT demonstrated that
      SC significantly increased defect window closure and new bone volume versus
      placebo (p < 0.05), although these effects were not as great as rPTH.
      Interestingly, both rPTH and SC have similar inhibitory effects on arteriogenesis
      versus placebo (p < 0.05) without affecting total vascular volume. MPLSM time
      course studies in untreated mice revealed that large numbers of mast cells were
      detected 1 day postoperation (43 +/- 17), peaked at 6 days (76 +/- 6), and were
      still present in the critical defect at the end of the experiment on day 30 (20
      +/- 12). In contrast, angiogenesis was not observed until day 4, and functional
      vessels were first observed on 6 days, demonstrating that mast cell accumulation
      precedes vasculogenesis. To confirm a direct role of mast cells on osteogenesis
      and vasculogenesis, we demonstrated that specific diphtheria toxin-alpha deletion
      in Mcpt5-Cre-iDTR mice results in similar affects as SC treatment in WT mice.
      Collectively, these findings demonstrate that mast cells inhibit bone defect
      healing by stimulating arteriogenesis associated with fibrotic scaring, and that
      an efficacious non-anabolic effect of rPTH therapy on bone repair is suppression
      of arteriogenesis and fibrosis secondary to mast cell inhibition. (c) 2017
      American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28556970
TI  - Topical treatment of all-trans retinoic acid inhibits murine melanoma partly by
      promoting CD8+ T-cell immunity.
AB  - All-trans retinoic acid (atRA), the main biologically active metabolite of
      vitamin A, has been implicated in immunoregulation and anti-cancer. A recent
      finding that vitamin A could decrease the risk of melanoma in humans indicates
      the beneficial role of atRA in melanoma. However, it remains unknown whether
      topical application of atRA could inhibit melanoma growth by influencing tumour
      immunity. We demonstrate topical application of tretinoin ointment (atRA as the
      active ingredient) effectively inhibited B16F10 melanoma growth. This is
      accompanied by markedly enhanced CD8+ T-cell responses, as evidenced by
      significantly increased proportions of effector CD8+ T cells expressing granzyme
      B, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, or interferon-gamma, and Ki67+ proliferating
      CD8+ T cells in atRA-treated tumours compared with vaseline controls.
      Furthermore, topical atRA treatment promoted the differentiation of effector CD8+
      T cells in draining lymph nodes (DLN) of tumour-bearing mice. Interestingly, atRA
      did not affect tumoral CD4+ T-cell response, and even inhibited the
      differentiation of interferon-gamma-expressing T helper type 1 cells in DLN.
      Importantly, we demonstrated that the tumour-inhibitory effect of atRA was partly
      dependent on CD8+ T cells, as CD8+ T-cell depletion restored tumour volumes in
      atRA-treated mice, which, however, was still significantly smaller than those in
      vaseline-treated mice. Finally, we demonstrated that atRA up-regulated MHCI
      expression in B16F10 cells, and DLN cells from tumour-bearing mice had a
      significantly higher killing rate when culturing with atRA-treated B16F10 cells.
      Hence, our study demonstrates that topical atRA treatment effectively inhibits
      melanoma growth partly by promoting the differentiation and the cytotoxic
      function of effector CD8+ T cells.

PMID- 28556972
TI  - Comparing anger, anger expression, life stress and social support between Korean
      female nursing and general university students.
AB  - AIMS: To compare anger, anger expression, life stress and social support among
      female students at a nursing university and a general university and to examine
      factors affecting anger in each group. BACKGROUND: University students typically
      experience constant stress resulting from factors like academic requirements,
      personal relationships and career decisions; this tends to promote anger.
      Particularly, nursing students' anger can negatively affect the quality of care
      that they provide, and also their mental health. Therefore, anger management of
      nursing students is very important in the training and development of future
      nurses. Nursing education needs to confirm factors associated with anger of
      nursing students compared with general university students to develop specific
      intervention programs for decreasing their anger levels. DESIGN: A descriptive,
      cross-sectional design was used. METHODS: Participants were 286 female students
      (146 from a nursing university and 140 from a general university); they completed
      self-report surveys examining anger, anger expression, life stress and social
      support. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was done to identify factors
      affecting anger. Data were collected from 15 May-10 June 2016. RESULTS/FINDINGS:
      In the stepwise multiple regression analysis, we entered three anger expression
      factors, eight life stress factors and social support as explanatory variables;
      factors affecting anger among nursing students were anger-out and same-sex peer
      relationship stress. In general university students, anger-out, anger-control and
      anger-in were identified as factors affecting anger. CONCLUSION: Becoming
      proficient in beneficial anger expression techniques and reducing stress from
      same-sex peer relationships will reduce anger among female nursing students.

PMID- 28556974
TI  - Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis followed by venous thromboembolism
      resulting in severe cutaneous ulcers.

PMID- 28556971
TI  - Low-level laser therapy (780 nm) combined with collagen sponge scaffold promotes
      repair of rat cranial critical-size defects and increases TGF-beta, FGF-2,
      OPG/RANK and osteocalcin expression.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of collagen sponge scaffold
      (CSS) implantation associated with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on repairing
      bone defects. A single 5-mm cranial defect was surgically created in forty Wistar
      rats, which then received one of the following four interventions (n = 10 per
      group): no treatment (G0); bone defect implanted with collagen sponge scaffold
      (CSS) alone (G1); defect treated with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) (wavelength
      780 nm; total energy density 120 J/cm2 ; power 50 mW) alone (G2); and CSS
      associated with LLLT treatment (G3). After surgery, animals in each group were
      euthanized at 21 days and 30 days (n = 5 per euthanasia time group). Bone
      formation was monitored by X-ray imaging analysis. Biopsies were collected and
      processed for histological analysis and immunohistochemical evaluation of
      transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2),
      osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of nuclear factor k (RANK).
      Osteocalcin (OCN) was detected by immunofluorescence analysis. Compared to the G0
      group, defects in the 30-day G3 group exhibited increased bone formation, both by
      increase in radiopaque areas (P < 0.01) and by histomorphometric analysis (P <
      0.001). The histopathological analysis showed a decreased number of inflammatory
      cells (P < 0.001). The combined CCS + LLLT (G3) treatment also resulted in the
      most intense immunostaining for OPG, RANK, FGF-2 and TGF-beta, and the most
      intense and diffuse OCN immunofluorescent labelling at 30 days postsurgery (G3
      vs. G0 group, P < 0.05). Therefore, the use of CCS associated with LLLT could
      offer a synergistic advantage in improving the healing of bone fractures.

PMID- 28556973
TI  - Primary cutaneous perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa): Five new cases
      and review of the literature.
AB  - PEComas represent a family of uncommon mesenchymal tumors composed of
      "perivascular epithelioid cells" with a distinct immunophenotype that typically
      shows both myogenic and melanocytic differentiation. The PEComa family includes
      angiomyolipoma (AML), clear cell "sugar" tumor of the lung and extra pulmonary
      sites, lymphangioleiomyomatosis and clear cell myomelanocytic tumor of the
      falciform ligament/ligamentum teres. Very rarely, PEComas may arise in the skin.
      Primary cutaneous PEComas typically display a dermal proliferation of epithelioid
      cells with pale, clear, or granular pink cytoplasm arranged in nests and
      trabecula with an intervening arborizing network of delicate capillaries. Primary
      cutaneous PEComas have a lower frequency of myogenic marker expression than their
      deep soft tissue and visceral counterparts. They also often express strong
      diffuse CD10, leading to potential confusion with metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma. Most cases behave indolently. We report 5 additional cases of this
      rare entity. All showed classic histologic features and expression of either HMB
      45 and/or Melan-A/MART-1. Four cases were tested for myogenic markers (2 were
      positive & 2 were negative). Three cases were tested for CD10 (all 3 were
      positive). All of our cases with clinical follow-up behaved indolently. Table 1
      provides a summary of findings for all 5 cases in our series.

PMID- 28556975
TI  - Successful endoscopic closure of gastrocutaneous fistulas using a combination of
      polyethylene glycolic acid mesh and the Funada-style gastropexy device.

PMID- 28556976
TI  - Exploring the radiosynthesis and in vitro characteristics of [68 Ga]Ga-DOTA
      Siglec-9.
AB  - Vascular adhesion protein 1 is a leukocyte homing-associated glycoprotein, which
      upon inflammation rapidly translocates from intracellular sources to the
      endothelial cell surface. It has been discovered that the cyclic peptide residues
      283-297 of sialic acid-binding IgG-like lectin 9 (Siglec-9) "CARLSLSWRGLTLCPSK"
      bind to vascular adhesion protein 1 and hence makes the radioactive analogues of
      this compound ([68 Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9) interesting as a noninvasive visualizing
      marker of inflammation. Three different approaches to the radiosynthesis of [68
      Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 are presented and compared with previously published methods.
      A simple, robust radiosynthesis of [68 Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 with a yield of 62%
      (non decay-corrected) was identified, and it had a radiochemical purity >98% and
      a specific radioactivity of 35 MBq/nmol. Furthermore, the protein binding and
      stability of [68 Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 were analyzed in vitro in mouse, rat,
      rabbit, pig, and human plasma and compared with in vivo pig results. The plasma
      in vitro protein binding of [68 Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 was the lowest in the pig
      followed by rabbit, human, rat, and mouse. It was considerably higher in the in
      vivo pig experiments. The in vivo stability in pigs was lower than the in vitro
      stability. Despite considerable species differences, the observed characteristics
      of [68 Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 are suitable as a positron emission tomography tracer.

PMID- 28556977
TI  - Testing plant use of mobile vs immobile soil water sources using stable isotope
      experiments.
AB  - We tested for isotope exchange between bound (immobile) and mobile soil water,
      and whether there is isotope fractionation during plant water uptake. These are
      critical assumptions to the formulation of the 'two water worlds' hypothesis
      based on isotope profiles of soil water. In two different soil types, soil-bound
      water in two sets of 19-l pots, each with a 2-yr-old avocado plant (Persea
      americana), were identically labeled with tap water. After which, one set
      received isotopically enriched water whereas the other set received tap water as
      the mobile phase water. After a dry down period, we analyzed plant stem water as
      a proxy for soil-bound water as well as total soil water by cryogenic
      distillation. Seventy-five to 95% of the bound water isotopically exchanged with
      the mobile water phase. In addition, plants discriminated against 18 O and 2 H
      during water uptake, and this discrimination is a function of the soil water loss
      and soil type. The present experiment shows that the assumptions for the 'two
      water worlds' hypothesis are not supported. We propose a novel explanation for
      the discrepancy between isotope ratios of the soil water profile and other water
      compartments in the hydrological cycle.

PMID- 28556978
TI  - Giant pyogenic granuloma of the finger in an HIV-positive patient.

PMID- 28556979
TI  - Nursing care of patients with chronic liver diseases: Time for action.

PMID- 28556981
TI  - Effect of bariatric surgery treatment on lower urinary tract symptoms.

PMID- 28556980
TI  - Acne: morphologic and vascular study of lesions and surrounding skin by means of
      optical coherence tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acne vulgaris is a disease of the pilosebaceous unit, characterized
      by hyper-keratinization process, comedos formation and inflammatory reactions.
      OBJECTIVE: The definition of the morphology and the vascularization of acne
      lesions by means of dynamic optical coherence tomography (D-OCT), to non
      invasively define the alterations occurring during the acne development and
      patient therapeutic management. METHODS: A set of standardized clinical pictures
      and D-OCT images were acquired from 114 acne lesions of 31 volunteers, presenting
      mild to moderate acne and evaluated by experts. Fifteen patients treated with
      oral antibiotics were followed during time at 0, 20, 40, and 60 days. RESULTS:
      Optical coherence tomography enabled to identify vascular and morphological
      aspects characterizing different types of acne lesions. Oral antibiotic treatment
      improved the morphologic features and decreased the digitally reconstructed
      vascular signal during time. CONCLUSION: The characterization of acne lesions and
      the identification of vascular pattern in acne lesions through D-OCT,
      corresponding to blood vessel dilation and inflammatory associated hyper
      vascularization, may have important clinical consequences in the assessment of
      acne severity, therapeutic decisions and treatment efficacy monitoring.

PMID- 28556982
TI  - N-Heterocyclic Vinylidene-Stabilized Phosphorus Biradicaloid.
AB  - Four-membered biradicaloid compounds containing a N2 E2 (E=main group element)
      framework have been thoroughly investigated; however, the synthesis of stable
      analogues with a C2 P2 skeleton remains a challenge. Base-mediated double C-H
      functionalization of IPr=CH2 (1) (IPr=C[N(2,6-iPr2 -C6 H3 )CH]2 ) with PCl3
      affords [{(IPr)CP}2 Cl]Cl (2) as a royal blue solid. Treatment of 2 with KC8
      yields the stable phosphorus biradicaloid [(IPr)CP]2 (3) featuring a four
      membered C2 P2 ring. Compound 3 is diamagnetic and shows sharp and temperature
      independent NMR resonances, revealing its singlet biradicaloid nature. The
      stability of 3 is attributed to the sigma- and pi-electron-donating property of
      the N-heterocyclic vinylidene [(IPr)C] group.

PMID- 28556984
TI  - The emerging role of anti-CD25 directed therapies as both immune modulators and
      targeted agents in cancer.
AB  - CD25 (also termed IL2RA) forms one component of the high-affinity heterotrimeric
      interleukin 2 (IL2) receptor on activated T cells. Its affinity for IL2 and
      cellular function are tightly regulated and vary in different cell types. The
      high frequency of CD25 on the surface of many different haematological tumour
      cells is now well established and, apart from its prognostic significance, CD25
      may be present on leukaemic stem cells and enable oncogenic signalling pathways
      in leukaemic cells. Additionally, high CD25 expression in activated circulating
      immune cells and Tregs is a factor that has already been exploited by IL2
      immunotherapies for treatment of tumours and autoimmune disease. The relative
      clinical safety and efficacy of administering anti-CD25 radioimmunoconjugates and
      immunotoxins in various haematological tumour indications has been established
      and clinical trials of a novel CD25-directed antibody drug conjugate are
      underway.

PMID- 28556985
TI  - Does centre experience matter?

PMID- 28556983
TI  - PINK1 regulates mitochondrial trafficking in dendrites of cortical neurons
      through mitochondrial PKA.
AB  - Mitochondrial Protein Kinase A (PKA) and PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1), which is
      linked to Parkinson's disease, are two neuroprotective serine/threonine kinases
      that regulate dendrite remodeling and mitochondrial function. We have previously
      shown that PINK1 regulates dendrite morphology by enhancing PKA activity. Here,
      we show the molecular mechanisms by which PINK1 and PKA in the mitochondrion
      interact to regulate dendrite remodeling, mitochondrial morphology, content, and
      trafficking in dendrites. PINK1-deficient cortical neurons exhibit impaired
      mitochondrial trafficking, reduced mitochondrial content, fragmented
      mitochondria, and a reduction in dendrite outgrowth compared to wild-type
      neurons. Transient expression of wild-type, but not a PKA-binding-deficient
      mutant of the PKA-mitochondrial scaffold dual-specificity A Kinase Anchoring
      Protein 1 (D-AKAP1), restores mitochondrial trafficking, morphology, and content
      in dendrites of PINK1-deficient cortical neurons suggesting that recruiting PKA
      to the mitochondrion reverses mitochondrial pathology in dendrites induced by
      loss of PINK1. Mechanistically, full-length and cleaved forms of PINK1 increase
      the binding of the regulatory subunit beta of PKA (PKA/RIIbeta) to D-AKAP1 to
      enhance the autocatalytic-mediated phosphorylation of PKA/RIIbeta and PKA
      activity. D-AKAP1/PKA governs mitochondrial trafficking in dendrites via the Miro
      2/TRAK2 complex and by increasing the phosphorylation of Miro-2. Our study
      identifies a new role of D-AKAP1 in regulating mitochondrial trafficking through
      Miro-2, and supports a model in which PINK1 and mitochondrial PKA participate in
      a similar neuroprotective signaling pathway to maintain dendrite connectivity.

PMID- 28556986
TI  - Characteristics of highly rated leadership in nursing homes using item response
      theory.
AB  - AIM: To identify characteristics of highly rated leadership in nursing homes.
      BACKGROUND: An ageing population entails fundamental social, economic and
      organizational challenges for future aged care. Knowledge is limited of both
      specific leadership behaviours and organizational and managerial characteristics
      which have an impact on the leadership of contemporary nursing home care. DESIGN:
      Cross-sectional. METHOD: From 290 municipalities, 60 were randomly selected and
      35 agreed to participate, providing a sample of 3605 direct-care staff employed
      in 169 Swedish nursing homes. The staff assessed their managers' (n = 191)
      leadership behaviours using the Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire. Data were
      collected from November 2013 - September 2014, and the study was completed in
      November 2016. A two-parameter item response theory approach and regression
      analyses were used to identify specific characteristics of highly rated
      leadership. RESULTS: Five specific behaviours of highly rated nursing home
      leadership were identified; that the manager: experiments with new ideas;
      controls work closely; relies on subordinates; coaches and gives direct feedback;
      and handles conflicts constructively. The regression analyses revealed that
      managers with social work backgrounds and privately run homes were significantly
      associated with higher leadership ratings. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the
      five most important leadership behaviours that characterize those nursing home
      managers rated highest in terms of leadership. Managers in privately run nursing
      homes and managers with social work backgrounds were associated with higher
      leadership ratings. Further work is needed to explore these behaviours and
      factors predictive of higher leadership ratings.

PMID- 28556987
TI  - Data presentation options to manage variability in physical activity research.
AB  - This paper presents seven tactics for managing the variability evident in some
      physical activity data. High levels of variability in daily step-count data from
      pedometers or accelerometers can make typical visual inspection difficult.
      Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to discuss several strategies that
      might facilitate the visual interpretation of highly variable data. The seven
      strategies discussed in this paper are phase mean and median lines, daily average
      per week, weekly cumulative, proportion of baseline, 7-day moving average, change
      point detection, and confidence intervals. We apply each strategy to a data set
      and discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

PMID- 28556989
TI  - Weight-based dosing of alemtuzumab: an ounce of prevention?

PMID- 28556990
TI  - The relationship between anxiety-depression status and psychosocial adjustments
      in the patients undergoing liver transplantation.

PMID- 28556991
TI  - Determining the relative strengths of aromatic and aliphatic C-H???X hydrogen
      bonds in imidazolium ionic liquids through measurement of H/D isotope effects on
      19 F nuclear shielding.
AB  - The relative strengths of aromatic and aliphatic C-H???X hydrogen bonds in
      imidazolium ionic liquids were investigated through measurement of H/D isotope
      effects on the 19 F nuclear shielding of deuterated isotopologues of 1-n-butyl-3
      methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and tetrafluoroborate ([C4 mim]PF6 and [C4
      mim]BF4 ). Delta19 F(H,D) values ranging from 9.7 to 49.7 ppb were observed for
      [C4 mim]PF6 isotopologues, while for the [C4 mim]BF4 series these went from 26.2
      to 83.8 ppb. Our findings indicate that the interactions between the fluorinated
      anions and protons on the C-1' and C-1" position of the N-alkyl sidechains are
      comparable to, and in some cases stronger than, those involving protons on the
      aromatic ring, underscoring the role that these weak interionic forces have on
      the local ordering of imidazolium salts in the liquid state. Copyright (c) 2017
      John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28556988
TI  - Laparoscopic ischemic conditioning of the stomach increases neovascularization of
      the gastric conduit in patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Gastric ischemic preconditioning has been proposed to
      improve blood flow and reduce the incidence of anastomotic complications
      following esophagectomy with gastric pull-up. This study aimed to evaluate the
      effect of prolonged ischemic preconditioning on the degree of neovascularization
      in the distal gastric conduit at the time of esophagectomy. METHODS: A
      retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database identified 30
      patients who underwent esophagectomy. The patients were divided into three
      groups: control (no preconditioning, n = 9), partial (short gastric vessel
      ligation only, n = 8), and complete ischemic preconditioning (left and short
      gastric vessel ligation, n = 13). Microvessel counts were assessed, using
      immunohistologic analysis to determine the degree of neovascularization at the
      distal gastric margin. RESULTS: The groups did not differ in age, gender, BMI,
      pathologic stage, or cancer subtype. Ischemic preconditioning durations were 163
      +/- 156 days for partial ischemic preconditioning, compared to 95 +/- 50 days for
      complete ischemic preconditioning (P = 0.2). Immunohistologic analysis
      demonstrated an increase in microvessel counts of 29% following partial ischemic
      preconditioning (P = 0.3) and 67% after complete ischemic preconditioning (P <
      0.0001), compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that prolonged
      ischemic preconditioning is safe and does not interfere with subsequent
      esophagectomy. Complete ischemic preconditioning increased neovascularization in
      the distal gastric conduit.

PMID- 28556993
TI  - Protein contact dermatitis induced by cabbage with recurrent symptoms after oral
      intake.

PMID- 28556992
TI  - Management of sulfonylurea-treated monogenic diabetes in pregnancy: implications
      of placental glibenclamide transfer.
AB  - The optimum treatment for HNF1A/HNF4A maturity-onset diabetes of the young and
      ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP ) channel neonatal diabetes, outside pregnancy, is
      sulfonylureas, but there is little evidence regarding the most appropriate
      treatment during pregnancy. Glibenclamide has been widely used in the treatment
      of gestational diabetes, but recent data have established that glibenclamide
      crosses the placenta and increases risk of macrosomia and neonatal hypoglycaemia.
      This raises questions about its use in pregnancy. We review the available
      evidence and make recommendations for the management of monogenic diabetes in
      pregnancy. Due to the risk of stimulating increased insulin secretion in utero,
      we recommend that in women with HNF1A/ HNF4A maturity-onset diabetes of the
      young, those with good glycaemic control who are on a sulfonylurea per conception
      either transfer to insulin before conception (at the risk of a short-term
      deterioration of glycaemic control) or continue with sulfonylurea (glibenclamide)
      treatment in the first trimester and transfer to insulin in the second trimester.
      Early delivery is needed if the fetus inherits an HNF4A mutation from either
      parent because increased insulin secretion results in ~800-g weight gain in
      utero, and prolonged severe neonatal hypoglycaemia can occur post-delivery. If
      the fetus inherits a KATP neonatal diabetes mutation from their mother they have
      greatly reduced insulin secretion in utero that reduces fetal growth by ~900 g.
      Treating the mother with glibenclamide in the third trimester treats the affected
      fetus in utero, normalising fetal growth, but is not desirable, especially in the
      high doses used in this condition, if the fetus is unaffected. Prospective
      studies of pregnancy in monogenic diabetes are needed.

PMID- 28556994
TI  - Hyperglycaemia in pregnant rats causes sex-related vascular dysfunction in adult
      offspring: role of cyclooxygenase-2.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? Hyperglycaemia during
      pregnancy induces vascular dysfunction and hypertension in male offspring. Given
      that female offspring from other fetal programming models are protected from the
      effects of fetal insult, the present study investigated whether there are sex
      differences in blood pressure and vascular function in hyperglycaemia-programmed
      offspring. What is the main finding and its importance? We demonstrated that
      hyperglycaemia in pregnant rats induced vascular dysfunction and hypertension
      only in male offspring. We found sex differences in oxidative stress and
      cyclooxygenase-2-derived prostanoid production that might underlie the vascular
      dysfunction. These differences, particularly in resistance arteries, may in part
      explain the absence of hypertension in female offspring born to hyperglycaemic
      dams. Exposure to maternal hyperglycaemia induces hypertension and vascular
      dysfunction in adult male offspring. Given that female offspring from several
      fetal programming models are protected from the effects of fetal insult, in this
      study we analysed possible differences relative to sex in blood pressure and
      vascular function in hyperglycaemia-programmed offspring. Hyperglycaemia was
      induced on day 7 of gestation (streptozotocin, 50 mg kg-1 ). Blood pressure,
      acetylcholine and phenylephrine or noradrenaline responses were analysed in the
      aorta and mesenteric resistance arteries of 3-, 6- and 12-month-old male and
      female offspring. Thromboxane A2 release was analysed with commercial kits and
      superoxide anion (O2- ) production by dihydroethidium-emitted fluorescence. Male
      but not female offspring of hyperglycaemic dams (O-DR) had higher blood pressure
      than control animals (O-CR). Contraction in response to phenylephrine increased
      and relaxation in response to acetylcholine decreased only in the aorta from 12
      month-old male O-DR and not in age-matched O-CR. Contractile and vasodilator
      responses were preserved in both the aorta and mesenteric resistance arteries
      from female O-DR of all ages. Pre-incubation with tempol, superoxide dismutase,
      indomethacin, NS-398, furegrelate or SQ29548 decreased contraction in response to
      phenylephrine and potentiated relaxation in response to acetylcholine in 12-month
      old male O-DR aorta. In this artery, thromboxane A2 release and O2- generation
      were greater in O-DR than O-CR groups. In conclusion, exposure to hyperglycaemia
      in utero results in sex-specific and age-dependent hypertension. The fact that
      vascular function is preserved in female O-DR may in part explain the absence of
      hypertension in this group. In contrast, the peripheral artery dysfunction
      associated with increased cyclooxygenase-2-derived production of vasoconstrictor
      prostanoids could underlie the increased blood pressure in male O-DR.

PMID- 28556995
TI  - Synthesis and Characterization of Bromoaluminate Ionic Liquids.
AB  - Twelve bromoaluminate based ionic liquids (ILs) were synthesized and
      characterized by IR, Raman, and NMR spectroscopy, as well as single crystal X-ray
      diffraction in part. Their principal physicochemical properties including melting
      points, conductivities, viscosities, and densities were determined and compared
      with related ILs. The influence of the cation and anion on the physicochemical
      properties are discussed. The [AlBr4 ]- based salts are-with one exception-solid
      at room temperature, while the compounds based on the anion [Al2 Br7 ]- are
      liquid at room temperature. The liquid salts show low viscosities (49-139 mPa s),
      medium to high conductivities (0.76-3.53 mS cm-1 ) and high densities (1.82-2.04
      g cm-3 ) at 28  degrees C. Furthermore, we showed aluminum electrodeposition from
      Lewis acidic ILs based on AlBr3 and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide and
      investigated the stability range of various formulations.

PMID- 28556996
TI  - Semi-high-throughput isolation and N-glycan analysis of human fibrinogen using
      monolithic supports bearing monoclonal anti-human fibrinogen antibodies.
AB  - Fibrinogen (FIB) is a secretory glycoprotein synthesized by hepatocytes that has
      a key role in blood clotting. Its glycosylation has not been studied in detail
      and little is known about the biological variability of FIB N-glycosylation,
      mainly due to the lack of fast, simple, and robust approaches to purify FIB from
      blood plasma samples. In recent years, customised chromatographic monoliths have
      been used for a variety of biological applications due to their unique
      characteristics. Here we describe development and optimisation of monolithic
      supports bearing monoclonal anti-human fibrinogen antibodies in a single column
      as well as in multi-well plate formats with high FIB specificity and binding
      capacity for fast immunoaffinity purification of FIB from human blood samples.
      The developed semi-high-throughput workflow has been successfully applied for FIB
      immunoaffinity isolation and subsequent ultra performance liquid chromatography N
      glycosylation analysis in ten healthy human individuals, demonstrating the
      potential of monolithic supports in glycomics studies.

PMID- 28556997
TI  - Response to early repeat celiotomy in horses after a surgical treatment of
      jejunal strangulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the outcome after early repeat celiotomy in horses
      operated for jejunal strangulation. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case series.
      ANIMALS: Horses (n = 22) that underwent repeat celiotomy for postoperative reflux
      (POR) and/or postoperative colic (POC) that did not improve within 48 hours from
      onset after initial surgical treatment of strangulating jejunal lesions by
      jejunojejunostomy (n = 14) or no resection (n = 8). METHODS: Medical records were
      reviewed for clinical signs, duration of signs before repeat surgery, surgical
      findings and treatment, and outcome. Survival was documented by phone call at
      long-term follow-up. The influence of POC and POR on timing of surgery were
      analyzed. Long-term survival was examined by Kaplan-Meier analyses. RESULTS:
      Repeat celiotomy was performed at a median of 57 hours after initial surgery and
      16.5 hours from onset of signs, and earlier in horses with POC compared with POR
      (P < .05). A total of 3/22 horses were euthanatized under anesthesia. A total of
      9 of 11 horses with initial jejunojejunostomy required resection of the original
      anastomosis due to anastomotic complications. In 8 horses without resection,
      second surgery included resection (4) or decompression (4). Repeat celiotomy was
      successful in 13/16 horses with POR. Repeat celiotomy eliminated POC in all
      horses (n = 9). A total of 19 horses were recovered from anesthesia and all
      survived to discharge. Incisional infections were diagnosed in 13/17 horses where
      both surgeries were performed through the same ventral median approach, and
      hernias developed in 4/13 infected incisions. Median survival time was 90 months.
      CONCLUSION: Repeat celiotomy can eliminate signs of POR and/or POC, and the
      additional surgery does not appear to aggravate POR. Criteria for repeat
      celiotomy in this study could provide guidelines for managing POC and POR after
      surgery for jejunal strangulation.

PMID- 28556998
TI  - Sometimes Less is More: Establishing the Core Symptoms of PTSD.
AB  - Historically, the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have garnered
      attention and controversy due to symptom overlap with other disorders. To improve
      diagnostic specificity, researchers have proposed to reformulate PTSD symptoms
      into a parsimonious set of core criteria. The core symptoms consisted of
      recurrent distressing dreams or flashbacks; internal or external avoidance; and
      hypervigilance or exaggerated startle. The purpose of this study was to examine a
      previously proposed set of "core" PTSD criteria in identifying cases of PTSD
      within a veteran sample. Veterans (N = 383) presenting to a Veterans Affairs (VA)
      Medical Center PTSD clinic for psychological services were assessed using the
      Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5). A logistic regression
      analysis revealed that the core criteria accurately identified 79% of veterans
      with PTSD (OR = 11.57). Findings support a parsimonious set of core criteria in
      the assessment and diagnosis of PTSD. Future studies should replicate these
      findings in diverse, nonveteran samples.

PMID- 28556999
TI  - Helical Oligonaphthodioxepins Showing Intense Circularly Polarized Luminescence
      (CPL) in Solution and in the Solid State.
AB  - A series of oligonaphthodioxepins was synthesized, revealing a helically arranged
      octamer, (R,R,R,R,R,R,R)-3, which showed intense circularly polarized
      luminescence (CPL) both in solution and in the solid state. The fluorescence
      quantum yields (PhiFL ) in solution and in the solid state were 0.90 and 0.22,
      respectively, and the glum values in solution and in the solid state were +2.2*10
      3 and +7.0*10-3 , respectively. This is one of the highest solid-state CPL glum
      values yet reported. The high PhiFL and glum values were due to the rigidity, as
      well as to the fact that (R,R,R,R,R,R,R)-3 was a non-planar molecule. Moreover,
      (R,R,R,R,R,R,R)-3 was highly stable both chemically and stereochemically.

PMID- 28557001
TI  - Assessment of in vitro inhibitory activity of hydrogen peroxide on the growth of
      Malassezia pachydermatis and to compare its efficacy with commercial ear
      cleaners.
AB  - Otitis caused by Malassezia pachydermatis is generally a common and recurrent
      disease in canine clinical pathology. The increased incidence of fungal resistant
      to antifungal in both humans and pets is a cause for concern and is associated
      with the indiscriminate use of antifungals. Finding the most effective
      disinfectants and antifungals has become essential. To evaluate the in vitro
      inhibitory activity of hydrogen peroxide on the growth of M. pachydermatis and
      compare its efficacy with commercial ear cleaners. The test for sensitivity to
      antimicrobials was carried out following the indications of the CLSI document M44
      A2. The comparative results demonstrated that hydrogen peroxide 1.5% showed
      excellent results for growth inhibition of M. pachydermatis, followed by
      Epiotic(r) and MalAcetic(r) , the lowest result was for Otoclean(r) .

PMID- 28557000
TI  - Clinical Trials in Veterinary Medicine: A New Era Brings New Challenges.
AB  - Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are among the most rigorous ways to determine
      the causal relationship between an intervention and important clinical outcome.
      Their use in veterinary medicine has become increasingly common, and as is often
      the case, with progress comes new challenges. Randomized clinical trials yield
      important answers, but results from these studies can be unhelpful or even
      misleading unless the study design and reporting are carried out with care.
      Herein, we offer some perspective on several emerging challenges associated with
      RCTs, including use of composite endpoints, the reporting of different forms of
      risk, analysis in the presence of missing data, and issues of reporting and
      safety assessment. These topics are explored in the context of previously
      reported veterinary internal medicine studies as well as through illustrative
      examples with hypothetical data sets. Moreover, many insights germane to RCTs in
      veterinary internal medicine can be drawn from the wealth of experience with RCTs
      in the human medical field. A better understanding of the issues presented here
      can help improve the design, interpretation, and reporting of veterinary RCTs.

PMID- 28557003
TI  - Exchanging narratives-A qualitative study of peer support among surgical lung
      cancer patients.
AB  - AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine how hospitalised,
      surgical lung cancer patients experience talking to a former patient, and how the
      former patient experiences the role as supportive. BACKGROUND: During
      hospitalisation, patients often create a community in which they can engage with
      fellow patients. The exchange of experiences with others in a similar situation
      might increase opportunities for support and complement nursing care, but there
      is a need for more evidence and understanding on the topic. DESIGN: The
      methodological framework is based on the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's text
      interpretation theory. Qualitative interviews were conducted with nine patients,
      including a peer informant, using a narrative structure. The analysis was
      conducted on three levels: (i) naive reading, (ii) structural analysis and (iii)
      critical interpretation . RESULTS: Four themes were developed from the analysis
      of the interviews: Exchanging emotional thoughts is easier with a peer; Talking
      to a peer reduces loneliness; Being ambiguous about a relationship with fellow
      patients; and Being the main person in the conversation with a peer. Sharing
      stories about having similar symptoms and undergoing similar journeys
      predominated, and the key feature of the contact between patients was the
      commonality of their stories. CRITICAL INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION: Telling
      one's story to a former patient, and thereby creating a joint, common story, is
      the essence of this study. The support received in this process can be empowering
      because knowledge of the illness experience is shared and increased. This can
      help create new coping strategies. The contact with a former patient offered a
      way to confirm one's thoughts and to find a way out of the illness perspective,
      by seeing how the former patient had recovered. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE:
      The nursing field faces challenges in the relational aspect of caring because of
      ever greater efficient and shortened hospital stays; therefore, the peer support
      concept is becoming increasingly relevant. Patient peers offer each other their
      own perspectives, and it is important to raise awareness of the value of this and
      incorporate it into patient stays in hospital.

PMID- 28557002
TI  - Mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 signalling is essential for germinal
      centre reaction.
AB  - The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine-threonine kinase that has
      been shown to be essential for the differentiation and function of various immune
      cells. Earlier in vitro studies showed that mTOR signalling regulates B-cell
      biology by supporting their activation and proliferation. However, how mTOR
      signalling temporally regulates in vivo germinal centre B (GCB) cell development
      and differentiation into short-lived plasma cells, long-lived plasma cells and
      memory cells is still not well understood. In this study, we used a combined
      conditional/inducible knock-out system to investigate the temporal regulation of
      mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) in the GCB cell response to acute lymphocytic
      choriomeningitis virus infection by deleting Raptor, a main component of mTORC1,
      specifically in B cells in pre- and late GC phase. Early Raptor deficiency
      strongly inhibited GCB cell proliferation and differentiation and plasma cell
      differentiation. Nevertheless, late GC Raptor deficiency caused only decreases in
      the size of memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells through poor maintenance
      of GCB cells, but it did not change their differentiation. Collectively, our data
      revealed that mTORC1 signalling supports GCB cell responses at both early and
      late GC phases during viral infection but does not regulate GCB cell
      differentiation into memory B cells and plasma cells at the late GC stage.

PMID- 28557004
TI  - Identification of beta-chain of Fo F1 -ATPase in apoptotic cell population
      induced by Microplitis bicoloratus bracovirus and its role in the development of
      Spodoptera litura.
AB  - Two physiological changes of Spodoptera litura parasitized by Microplitis
      bicoloratus are hemocyte-apoptosis and retarded immature development. beta-Chain
      of Fo F1 -ATPase was found from a S. litura transcriptome. It belongs to a
      conserved P-loop NTPase superfamily, descending from a common ancestor of
      Lepidopteran clade. However, the characterization of beta-chain of ATPase in
      apoptotic cells and its involvement in development remain unknown. Here, the
      ectopic expression and endogenous Fo F1 -ATPase beta-chain occurred on S. litura
      cell membrane: in vivo, at the late stage of apoptotic hemocyte, endogenous Fo F1
      -ATPase beta-chain was stably expressed during M. bicoloratus larva development
      from 4 to 7 days post-parasitization; in vitro, at an early stage of pre
      apoptotic Spli221 cells by infecting with M. bicoloratus bracovirus particles,
      the proteins were speedily recover expression. Furthermore, endogenous Fo F1 
      ATPase beta-chain was localized on the apoptotic cell membrane. RNA interference
      (RNAi) of Fo F1 -ATPase beta-chain led to significantly decreased head capsule
      width. This suggested that Fo F1 -ATPase beta-chain positively regulated the
      development of S. litura. The RNAi effect on the head capsule width was enhanced
      with parasitism. Our research found that Fo F1 -ATPase beta-chain was expressed
      and localized on the cell membrane in the apoptotic cells, and involved in the
      development of S. litura.

PMID- 28557007
TI  - Simultaneous determination of ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rg1, paeoniflorin,
      albiflorin and oxypaeoniflorin in rat plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry: Application to a pharmacokinetic study of wen-Yang-Huo-Xue soft
      capsule.
AB  - A simple and sensitive HPLC-MS/MS method was developed and fully validated for
      simultaneous determination of ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rg1, paeoniflorin,
      albiflorin and oxypaeoniflorin in rat plasma. Plasma samples were pretreated with
      protein precipitation using acetonitrile. The chromatographic separation was
      carried out on a C18 column with a gradient mobile phase consisting of
      acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1% formic acid). All analytes and digoxin
      (internal stand, IS) were quantitated through electrospray ionization in negative
      ion multiple reaction monitoring mode. All calibration curves exhibited good
      linearity (r > 0.9960) over a wide concentration range for all components. The
      intra-day and inter-day precisions (RSD) at three different levels were all
      <12.0% and the accuracies (RE) ranging from -6.1 to 6.2%. The extraction
      recoveries of the five compounds ranged from 89.2 to 97.1%. The validated method
      was successfully applied in a comparative pharmacokinetic study of Wen-Yang-Huo
      Xue soft capsule (WYHXSC) in rats. Compared with single pure component, the
      exposure of the investigated components, except for oxypaeoniflorin, increased
      after oral administration of WYHXSC in rats, which suggested a synergistic
      effects between the herbs in the WYHXSC preparations.

PMID- 28557006
TI  - Neutral processes forming large clones during colonization of new areas.
AB  - In species reproducing both sexually and asexually clones are often more common
      in recently established populations. Earlier studies have suggested that this
      pattern arises due to natural selection favouring generally or locally successful
      genotypes in new environments. Alternatively, as we show here, this pattern may
      result from neutral processes during species' range expansions. We model a
      dioecious species expanding into a new area in which all individuals are capable
      of both sexual and asexual reproduction, and all individuals have equal survival
      rates and dispersal distances. Even under conditions that favour sexual
      recruitment in the long run, colonization starts with an asexual wave. After
      colonization is completed, a sexual wave erodes clonal dominance. If individuals
      reproduce more than one season, and with only local dispersal, a few large clones
      typically dominate for thousands of reproductive seasons. Adding occasional long
      distance dispersal, more dominant clones emerge, but they persist for a shorter
      period of time. The general mechanism involved is simple: edge effects at the
      expansion front favour asexual (uniparental) recruitment where potential mates
      are rare. Specifically, our model shows that neutral processes (with respect to
      genotype fitness) during the population expansion, such as random dispersal and
      demographic stochasticity, produce genotype patterns that differ from the
      patterns arising in a selection model. The comparison with empirical data from a
      post-glacially established seaweed species (Fucus radicans) shows that in this
      case, a neutral mechanism is strongly supported.

PMID- 28557008
TI  - Influence of TNF-alpha inhibitors and fumaric acid esters on male fertility in
      psoriasis patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Is there any influence of a therapy with TNF-alpha inhibitors or
      fumaric acid esters and of disease activity status on male fertility and sperm
      quality in patients with psoriasis? METHODS: In this monocentric, open-label,
      prospective study, semen samples were collected from patients receiving either
      TNF-alpha inhibitors or fumaric acid esters for moderate-to-severe plaque
      psoriasis. Semen was analysed at baseline before onset of the systemic therapy
      and monitored every 3 months under therapy. Sperm parameters were assessed
      according to the current WHO definitions. RESULTS: In total, 101 semen specimens
      from 27 patients were obtained. Mean Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI)
      score at baseline was 11.05. Only 14.8% of patients showed a normozoospermia
      without any other abnormal seminal values. 85.2% of patients had at least one
      sperm/seminal abnormality, including two patients showing an azoospermia.
      Interestingly, 48.1% showed sperm parameters indicative of genital tract
      inflammation. Therapy with TNF-alpha inhibitors or fumaric acid esters did not
      have any negative effects on relevant sperm parameters such as mean total sperm
      number, sperm concentration, total and progressive motility. No major gonadal
      dysfunction was observed in any patient. CONCLUSION: At baseline, many patients
      with psoriasis showed abnormal semen/sperm parameters and remarkably elevated
      leukocytes and values of seminal polymorphonuclear elastase, indicating a genital
      tract inflammation. Thus, genital tract inflammation may represent an important
      comorbidity of psoriasis, little attention paid to so far. Regarding treatment
      with TNF-alpha inhibitors or fumaric acid esters, no major negative (side-)
      effects on sperm quality were observed.

PMID- 28557009
TI  - Drug concentration and antidrug antibodies in patients with psoriasis treated
      with adalimumab or etanercept.

PMID- 28557005
TI  - Sarcopenia in Alcoholic Liver Disease: Clinical and Molecular Advances.
AB  - Despite advances in treatment of alcohol use disorders that focus on increasing
      abstinence and reducing recidivism, alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is projected to
      be the major cause of cirrhosis and its complications. Malnutrition is recognized
      as the most frequent complication in ALD, and despite the high clinical
      significance, there are no effective therapies to reverse malnutrition in ALD.
      Malnutrition is a relatively imprecise term, and sarcopenia or skeletal muscle
      loss, the major component of malnutrition, is primarily responsible for the
      adverse clinical consequences in patients with liver disease. It is, therefore,
      critical to define the specific abnormality (sarcopenia) rather than malnutrition
      in ALD, so that therapies targeting sarcopenia can be developed. Skeletal muscle
      mass is maintained by a balance between protein synthesis and proteolysis. Both
      direct effects of ethanol (EtOH) and its metabolites on the skeletal muscle and
      the consequences of liver disease result in disturbed proteostasis (protein
      homeostasis) and consequent sarcopenia. Once cirrhosis develops in patients with
      ALD, abstinence is unlikely to be effective in completely reversing sarcopenia,
      as other contributors including hyperammonemia, hormonal, and cytokine
      abnormalities aggravate sarcopenia and maintain a state of anabolic resistance
      initiated by EtOH. Cirrhosis is also a state of accelerated starvation, with
      increased gluconeogenesis that requires amino acid diversion from signaling and
      substrate functions. Novel therapeutic options are being recognized that are
      likely to supplant the current "deficiency replacement" approach and instead
      focus on specific molecular perturbations, given the increasing availability of
      small molecules that can target specific signaling components. Myostatin
      antagonists, leucine supplementation, and mitochondrial protective agents are
      currently in various stages of evaluation in preclinical studies to prevent and
      reverse sarcopenia, in cirrhosis in general, and ALD, specifically. Translation
      of these data to human studies and clinical application requires priority for
      allocation of resources.

PMID- 28557010
TI  - Rapid amyloid-beta oligomer and protofibril accumulation in traumatic brain
      injury.
AB  - Deposition of amyloid-beta (Abeta) is central to Alzheimer's disease (AD)
      pathogenesis and associated with progressive neurodegeneration in traumatic brain
      injury (TBI). We analyzed predisposing factors for Abeta deposition including
      monomeric Abeta40, Abeta42 and Abeta oligomers/protofibrils, Abeta species with
      pronounced neurotoxic properties, following human TBI. Highly selective ELISAs
      were used to analyze N-terminally intact and truncated Abeta40 and Abeta42, as
      well as Abeta oligomers/protofibrils, in human brain tissue, surgically resected
      from severe TBI patients (n = 12; mean age 49.5 +/- 19 years) due to life
      threatening brain swelling/hemorrhage within one week post-injury. The TBI
      tissues were compared to post-mortem AD brains (n = 5), to post-mortem tissue of
      neurologically intact (NI) subjects (n = 4) and to cortical biopsies obtained at
      surgery for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus patients (iNPH; n = 4). The
      levels of Abeta40 and Abeta42 were not elevated by TBI. The levels of Abeta
      oligomers/protofibrils in TBI were similar to those in the significantly older AD
      patients and increased compared to NI and iNPH controls (P < 0.05). Moreover, TBI
      patients carrying the AD risk genotype Apolipoprotein E epsilon3/4 (APOE
      epsilon3/4; n = 4) had increased levels of Abeta oligomers/protofibrils (P <
      0.05) and of both N-terminally intact and truncated Abeta42 (P < 0.05) compared
      to APOE epsilon3/4-negative TBI patients (n = 8). Neuropathological analysis
      showed insoluble Abeta aggregates (commonly referred to as Abeta plaques) in
      three TBI patients, all of whom were APOE epsilon3/4 carriers. We conclude that
      soluble intermediary Abeta aggregates form rapidly after TBI, especially among
      APOE epsilon3/4 carriers. Further research is needed to determine whether these
      aggregates aggravate the clinical short- and long-term outcome in TBI.

PMID- 28557011
TI  - Costs and savings of parenting interventions: results of a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This systematic review of economic evaluations of universal
      preventative or targeted treatment parenting interventions that aim to enhance
      parent-infant interaction is primarily intended to inform decision makers who
      have to make difficult spending decisions, especially at a time of reduced
      spending allocations. A synthesis of available costs and savings about parenting
      interventions that set out to enhance parent-infant interaction is presented.
      This topic is important specifically in view of the UK Governments' emphasis on
      the equalities agenda and the early years. The benefits of positive early life
      experiences, which include good parent-infant interaction, are far reaching and
      may be positively correlated with improved educational, health and well-being
      outcomes and reduced criminality. METHODS: A literature search was undertaken
      using on-line indexing databases between 2004 and 2014 that included the search
      terms 'parent', 'infant', 'interaction', 'cost benefit analysis' and their
      synonyms. RESULTS: Despite existing economic studies generally focusing upon
      targeted short-run outcomes, significant savings were observed in the included
      studies. Parenting interventions could save the health service around L2.5k per
      family over 25 years and could save the criminal justice system over L145k per
      person over the life course. In light of the escalating costs of remedial
      services, these potential savings may provide the UK and other governments with a
      robust incentive to invest in early years parenting interventions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Parenting interventions can be economically efficient and return savings on
      investment. Moreover, and one might argue as a moral imperative of democratic
      societies, population health can be improved and health inequalities reduced. An
      important debate is needed about early years policy, to include acknowledgement
      of the differences between UK and international healthcare systems and the
      potential savings from the synergistic and spin-off effects of early years
      interventions to inform decision-making to fund and implement appropriate action.

PMID- 28557012
TI  - Four-dimensional ultrasound guidance for pelvic floor Botulinum toxin-A injection
      in chronic pelvic pain: a novel technique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Botulinum toxin-A (BoNT-A) is used in the treatment of pelvic floor
      muscle overactivity associated with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) when conservative
      methods such as physiotherapy are not effective or appropriate. Traditional
      injection techniques require finger-guided palpation of pelvic floor muscles with
      concurrent insertion of the needle. The aim of this study was to describe a novel
      technique for the injection of BoNT-A into the pelvic floor musculature using
      four-dimensional ultrasound (4D-US) guidance. METHODS: Thirty-one BoNT-A
      injections were performed using the new technique between October 2013 and
      January 2016, on women scheduled to have BoNT-A injection for pelvic floor muscle
      overactivity and CPP. The pelvic floor was assessed by 4D-US. A test injection of
      saline was performed to confirm location of the needle, then BoNT-A was injected
      into the muscle under ultrasound guidance, using 4D-US to confirm that the fluid
      expanded and tracked along muscle fibers. RESULTS: The saline test confirmed
      correct location of the needle following a median of 1 (range, 1-3) attempt at
      needle placement. In all 31 instances, satisfactory injection of BoNT-A, with 4D
      US confirmation of fluid expansion within the muscle body, was performed.
      CONCLUSIONS: Injection of BoNT-A under 4D-US guidance is feasible and allows
      accurate placement into the target muscle in women with pelvic floor muscle
      overactivity associated with CPP. This technique may provide a safer alternative
      to finger-guided methods, owing to a lower likelihood of operator needle-stick
      injury. Copyright (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28557013
TI  - Unravelling the complexity and redundancy of carbon catabolic repression in
      Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25.
AB  - The two-component system CbrAB is the principal regulator for cellular metabolic
      balance in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and is necessary for growth on many
      substrates including xylose. To understand the regulatory linkage between CbrAB
      and genes for xylose utilization (xut), we performed transposon mutagenesis of
      DeltacbrB to select for Xut+ suppressors. This led to identification of crc and
      hfq. Subsequent genetic and biochemical analysis showed that Crc and Hfq are key
      mediators of succinate-provoked carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Specifically,
      Crc/Hfq sequentially bind to mRNAs of both the transcriptional activator and
      structural genes involved in xylose catabolism. However, in the absence of
      succinate, repression is relieved through competitive binding by two ncRNAs, CrcY
      and CrcZ, whose expression is activated by CbrAB. These findings provoke a model
      for CCR in which it is assumed that crc and hfq are functionally complementary,
      whereas crcY and crcZ are genetically redundant. Inactivation of either crcY or
      crcZ produced no effects on bacterial fitness in laboratory media, however,
      results of mathematical modelling predict that the co-existence of crcY and crcZ
      requires separate functional identity. Finally, we provide empirical evidence
      that CCR is advantageous in nutrient-complex environments where preferred carbon
      sources are present at high concentrations but fluctuate in their availability.

PMID- 28557014
TI  - A narrative evaluation of a community-based nurse navigation role in an urban at
      risk community.
AB  - AIMS: To explore community members' stories of their experiences with a Nurse
      Navigator programme serving an urban neighbourhood and primary care practice to
      address persistent health and social barriers adversely affecting health equity
      and well-being. BACKGROUND: In response to striking health and social
      inequalities existing across neighbourhoods in a large southern city in Ontario,
      Canada, a pilot programme was designed to improve health and social outcomes in a
      specific "at-risk" neighbourhood. The programme includes nurse-led navigation
      support for individuals and families and networking to facilitate improved
      service integration at a systems level. DESIGN: A narrative inquiry approach
      based on the Three-Dimensional Narrative Inquiry Space method, as described by
      Clandinin & Connelly (Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative
      research, ). METHODS: A thematic analysis of nine community members' life stories
      from narrative semi-structured interviews (January-June 2014) in conjunction with
      field notes, observations and documents. Participants' life stories created a
      common narrative of the experience of navigation in a community setting.
      FINDINGS: There were four main themes: "opening the door"; "more than just a
      conversation"; "making connections"; and "on a new trajectory". Participants
      valued the development of a therapeutic relationship, which optimized social
      inclusion, barrier reduction and connectivity to supportive health and social
      services. CONCLUSIONS: The relational process of navigation as an antecedent to
      barrier reduction has direct implications for programme development, continuing
      education of navigators and quality improvement of existing navigation services.
      Study findings have implications for development of navigation competencies for
      nurses working with priority populations to address health inequities.

PMID- 28557015
TI  - Palestinian community perceptions of do-not-resuscitation order for terminally
      Ill patients: A qualitative study.
AB  - AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To illustrate the Palestinian community's views, opinions and
      stances about the concept of do-not-resuscitate for terminally ill patients.
      BACKGROUND: Do-not-resuscitate orders are practised in many countries worldwide,
      but there is no consensus on their practice in the Middle East. Do-not
      resuscitate orders may be applied for terminally ill paediatric patients. Some
      studies have been conducted describing people's experiences with these do-not
      resuscitate orders. However, few studies have considered community perspectives
      on do-not-resuscitate orders for terminally ill patients in Palestine. DESIGN: A
      descriptive-qualitative design was adopted. METHODS: A purposive sample of 24
      participants was interviewed, with consideration of demographical characteristics
      such as age, gender, education and place of residency. The participants were
      recruited over a period of 6 months. Individual semistructured interviews were
      utilised. These interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.
      FINDINGS: Significantly, the majority of the participants did not know the
      meaning of do-not-resuscitate and thought that removal of life-sustaining devices
      and do-not-resuscitate were the same concept. Most of the interviewees adopted
      stances against do-not-resuscitate orders. Several factors were suggested to
      influence the decision of accepting or rejecting the do-not-resuscitate order.
      The majority of the participants mentioned religion as a major factor in forming
      their viewpoints. The participants expressed different views regarding issuing a
      law regarding do-not-resuscitate orders. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide a
      unique understanding that there is a general misunderstanding among our
      participants regarding the do-not-resuscitate order. Further research with
      policymakers and stakeholders is still required.

PMID- 28557016
TI  - Recurrence patterns of retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma and impact of salvage
      surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Optimal treatment strategies for retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma
      (RPLMS), particularly recurrent disease, are unknown. METHODS: We searched the
      tumor registry at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) to
      identify patients with RPLMS treated between 1994 and 2013. RESULTS: We
      identified 172 patients with a diagnosis of a RPLMS. Among the 85 patients who
      underwent complete resection included in the survival analysis, the median
      overall survival (OS) was 8.3 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-12.3), 5
      year local recurrence rate was 21%, and 5-year distant metastasis rate was 47%.
      Among 114 patients who experienced recurrence, patients who underwent salvage
      surgery for recurrent disease had longer OS after recurrence than patients who
      did not undergo salvage surgery (median survival after recurrence 5.6 vs 3.3
      years, 3-year OS rates after recurrence 72.6% vs 58.1%, HR 0.402 [95%CI, 0.243
      0.666]; P = 0.0004). Whether salvage surgery was performed for local or distant
      recurrence was not associated with OS. Patients who had a longer disease-free
      interval (>=12 months) had better progression-free survival after salvage surgery
      than those who had a shorter interval (HR, 0.437 [95%CI, 0.244-0.783]; P =
      0.0055). CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that salvage surgery be considered for
      selected patients with local or distant recurrence of RP LMS.

PMID- 28557018
TI  - Tunable Ligand Effects on Ruthenium Catalyst Activity for Selectively Preparing
      Imines or Amides by Dehydrogenative Coupling Reactions of Alcohols and Amines.
AB  - Selective dehydrogenative synthesis of imines from a variety of alcohols and
      amines was developed by using the ruthenium complex [RuCl2 (dppea)2 ] (6 a:
      dppea=2-diphenylphosphino-ethylamine) in the presence of catalytic amounts of
      Zn(OCOCF3 )2 and KOtBu, whereas the selective dehydrogenative formation of amides
      from the same sources was achieved by using another ruthenium complex, [RuCl2
      {(S)-dppmp}2 ] [6 d: (S)-dppmp=(S)-2-((diphenylphosphenyl)methyl)pyrrolidine], in
      the presence of catalytic amounts of Zn(OCOCF3 )2 and potassium
      bis(trimethylsilyl)amide (KHMDS). Our previously reported ruthenium complex,
      [Ru(OCOCF3 )2 (dppea)2 ] (8 a), was the catalyst precursor for the imine
      synthesis, whereas [Ru(OCOCF3 )2 {(S)-dppmp}2 ] (8 d), which was derived from the
      treatment of 6 d with Zn(OCOCF3 )2 and characterized by single-crystal X-ray
      analysis, was the pre-catalyst for the amide formation. Control experiments
      revealed that the zinc salt functioned as a reagent for replacing chloride anions
      with trifluoroacetate anions. Plausible mechanisms for both selective
      dehydrogenative coupling reactions are proposed based on a time-course study,
      Hammett plot, and deuterium-labeling experiments.

PMID- 28557017
TI  - Novel compounds targeting the enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli type three
      secretion system reveal insights into mechanisms of secretion inhibition.
AB  - Anti-virulence (AV) compounds are a promising alternative to traditional
      antibiotics for fighting bacterial infections. The Type Three Secretion System
      (T3SS) is a well-studied and attractive AV target, given that it is widespread in
      more than 25 species of Gram-negative bacteria, including enterohemorrhagic E.
      coli (EHEC), and as it is essential for host colonization by many pathogens. In
      this work, we designed, synthesized and tested a new series of compounds that
      block the functionality of the T3SS of EHEC. Affinity chromatography experiments
      identified the primary target of the compounds as the T3SS needle pore protein
      EspD, which is essential for effector protein translocation into host cells.
      These data were supported by mechanistic studies that determined the coiled-coil
      domain 1 of EspD as a key compound-binding site, thereby preventing correct
      assembly of the T3SS complex on the cell surface. However, binding of inhibitors
      to EspD or deletion of EspD itself did not result in transcriptional down
      regulation of effector proteins. Instead, we found the compounds to exhibit dual
      functionality by also down-regulating transcription of the entire chromosomal
      locus encoding the T3SS, further demonstrating their desirability and
      effectiveness.

PMID- 28557019
TI  - Development of a validated UPLC-MS/MS method for determination of humantenmine in
      rat plasma and its application in pharmacokinetics and bioavailability studies.
AB  - Humantenmine (HMT), the most toxic compound isolated from Gelsemium elegans
      Benth, is a well-known active herbal compound. A rapid and sensitive ultra
      performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method
      was developed and validated to estimate the absolute oral bioavailability of HMT
      in rats. Quantification was performed by multiple reaction monitoring using
      electrospray ionization operated in positive ion mode with transitions of m/z
      327.14 -> m/z 296.19 for HMT and m/z 323.20 -> m/z 236.23 for gelsemine (internal
      standard, IS). The linear range of the calibration curve was 1-256 nmol/L, with a
      lower limit of quantification at 1 nmol/L. The accuracy of HMT ranged from 89.39
      to 107.5%, and the precision was within 12.24% (RSD). Excellent recovery and
      negligible matrix effect were observed. HMT remained stable during storage,
      preparation and analytical procedures. The pharmacokinetics of HMT in rats showed
      that HMT reached the concentration peak at 12.50 +/- 2.74 min with a peak
      concentration of 28.49 +/- 6.65 nmol/L, and the corresponding area under the
      concentration-time curve (AUC0-t ) was 1142.42 +/- 202.92 nmol/L min after 200
      MUg/kg HMT was orally administered to rats. The AUC0-t of HMT given at 20 MUg/kg
      by tail vein administration was 1518.46 +/- 192.24 nmol/L min. The calculated
      absolute bioavailability of HMT was 7.66%.

PMID- 28557021
TI  - Effects of high amylose corn starch and microbial transglutaminase on the
      textural and microstructural properties of wheat flour composite gels at high
      temperatures.
AB  - : Textural and microstructural properties of composite gels (CGs), along with
      wheat flour and high amylose corn starch (Hylon VII) mixed with microbial
      transglutaminase (MTGase) at different levels and temperatures were investigated.
      The results showed by increasing Hylon starch content, the firmness increased and
      adhesiveness decreased. Indeed, high level of amylose and cross-linking formed by
      MTGase enhanced the gel elasticity and reduced adhesiveness. Moreover, MTGase had
      more effect on the firmness and provided more cross-linked intermolecular gel
      structures at high temperatures. By adding MTGase to the CG, the lowest peak
      viscosity and final viscosity were found for 15% of Hylon starch. As the more
      Hylon content in the CG, the more water solubility index was particularly
      obtained at high temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed
      that MTGase and Hylon starch addition enhanced the structure. The differences in
      SEM of CG were reflected the pasting properties of the gels. Consequently, MTGase
      treated gels can withstand high temperature as well as maintain the overall
      structure of the samples gels. Therefore, the increment of Hylon to the CG gels
      supplied tighter, stronger, and denser protein network which were formed by
      MTGase cross-linking within the network of starch and proteins. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: Although, transglutaminase was practically used in the production
      of noodles and pasta in Japan, but there is little academic and industrial
      knowledge concerning its utilization in the pasta or noodles. Moreover, long
      shelf-life noodle/pasta products have become popular in the Japanese market and
      in the emergency conditions like as floods or earthquake, but they can be stored
      for at least 5 months by applying heat treatment at 95C. Here, high amylose corn
      starch as a resistant starch, wheat flour, and microbial transglutaminase
      (MTGase) were selected as the main components in the composite gel (CG) systems
      to elucidate the effects of MTGase and Hylon on the texture, microstructure, and
      pasting behavior of CGs at high temperatures to produce long-life noodle/pasta
      products (about 2 years) through retort processing.

PMID- 28557020
TI  - First-time fathers' postnatal experiences and support needs: A descriptive
      qualitative study.
AB  - AIM: To explore first-time fathers' postnatal experiences and support needs in
      the early postpartum period. BACKGROUND: The postnatal period is a stressful
      transition period for new fathers. It is imperative to understand their needs and
      experiences to provide appropriate support for them. The majority of previous
      studies were based in Western countries and explored fathers' needs during
      pregnancy and childbirth, with few studies conducted in the postnatal period. In
      Singapore, a multiracial society with differing paternal cultural values from its
      Western counterparts, there is considerable need to examine the experiences and
      needs of first-time fathers. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative design was used.
      METHODS: Data were collected from November 2015-January 2016. Fifteen first-time
      fathers were recruited from two postnatal wards of a public hospital, using a
      purposive sampling method. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct
      face-to-face interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted and ethics approval
      was sought for this study. RESULTS: Four overarching themes and seventeen
      subthemes were generated. The four overarching themes were: (1) No sense of
      reality to sense of responsibility; (2) Unprepared and challenged; (3) Support:
      needs, sources, experience and attitude; and (4) Future help for fathers.
      CONCLUSION: Fathers undergo a transition phase where they have unmet support
      needs during the early postnatal period. Understanding and addressing these needs
      may facilitate smooth transition to fatherhood. This study's findings can be used
      to involve fathers and design future supportive educational programs to promote
      positive parenting experiences and family dynamics.

PMID- 28557022
TI  - Missing binary outcomes under covariate-dependent missingness in cluster
      randomised trials.
AB  - Missing outcomes are a commonly occurring problem for cluster randomised trials,
      which can lead to biased and inefficient inference if ignored or handled
      inappropriately. Two approaches for analysing such trials are cluster-level
      analysis and individual-level analysis. In this study, we assessed the
      performance of unadjusted cluster-level analysis, baseline covariate-adjusted
      cluster-level analysis, random effects logistic regression and generalised
      estimating equations when binary outcomes are missing under a baseline covariate
      dependent missingness mechanism. Missing outcomes were handled using complete
      records analysis and multilevel multiple imputation. We analytically show that
      cluster-level analyses for estimating risk ratio using complete records are valid
      if the true data generating model has log link and the intervention groups have
      the same missingness mechanism and the same covariate effect in the outcome
      model. We performed a simulation study considering four different scenarios,
      depending on whether the missingness mechanisms are the same or different between
      the intervention groups and whether there is an interaction between intervention
      group and baseline covariate in the outcome model. On the basis of the simulation
      study and analytical results, we give guidance on the conditions under which each
      approach is valid. (c) 2017 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John
      Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28557023
TI  - Muscular workload of veterinary students during simulated open and laparoscopic
      surgery: A pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare upper extremity muscle activity and workload between
      simulated open surgery, multiple port laparoscopic surgery (MLS), and single
      incision laparoscopic surgery (SLS) techniques in veterinary students. STUDY
      DESIGN: Pilot study. POPULATION: Veterinary students (n = 10) from years 1 to 4.
      METHODS: Bipolar skin surface electrodes were fixed bilaterally to the forearm
      flexor, forearm extensor, biceps brachii, triceps brachii, and upper trapezius
      muscles. Electromyography data were recorded during one repetition of 2 simulated
      surgical exercises via open surgery, MLS, and SLS. Participants completed a
      validated workload survey after each simulated surgical technique. Muscle
      activity and perceived workload were compared between surgical techniques with 1
      way ANOVAs and Fisher's LSD post hoc tests. RESULTS: Muscle activity during peg
      transfer was higher with MLS and SLS compared to simulated open surgery in the
      right and left forearm extensors (both P < .0001), right (P < .0001) and left
      biceps (P = .0005), right triceps (P = .0004), and right upper trapezius muscles
      (P = .0211). Similar results were found for the right and left forearm extensors
      (both P < .0001), right (P = .0381) and left (P = .0147) forearm flexors, right
      biceps (P < .0001), and right triceps (P = .0004) during a simulated suture task.
      Participants found laparoscopic techniques more mentally demanding, physically
      demanding, complex, and stressful compared to a simulated open surgical
      technique. CONCLUSION: In veterinary students, average muscle activity and
      perceived workload were highest using MLS and SLS compared to an open surgical
      technique when performing simulated surgical exercises in a laparoscopic box
      trainer.

PMID- 28557025
TI  - Birth weight and childhood size in a national sample of 6- to 11-year-old
      children.
AB  - The extent to which body size (stature, weight, or weight-for-stature) in later
      childhood is related to birth weight for normal-weight, full-term infants was
      explored using data from a national sample of U.S. children examined in Cycle II
      of the National Health Examination Survey, 1963-65. Standardized measurements of
      stature and weight from 4,689 white singletons ages 6-11 years were linked with
      birth certificate information. There were small but consistent positive
      associations of attained stature and weight with birth weight. The Body Mass
      Index (BMI), a measure of weight in proportion to stature, was also positively
      related to birth weight, although not as consistently, suggesting that the
      greater attained weight of higher birth weight children may be related to
      increased adiposity as well as to greater stature. However, simulations of the
      effect of an across-the-board increase in birth weight by 100 g or 200 g showed a
      negligible expected increase in the number of children with high BMI values.
      These findings indicate that birth weight is directly or indirectly a factor
      related to growth in childhood, but that upward shifts in the distribution of
      birth weight would have little effect on the prevalence of childhood obesity. (c)
      1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the
      public domain in the United States of America. .

PMID- 28557024
TI  - A DFT Study on the Stabilization of the B=B Triple Bond in a Metallaborocycle:
      Contrasting Electronic Structures of Boron and Carbon Analogues.
AB  - The electronic structure of (eta5 -Cp)2 Zr(NH2 -BB-NH2 ) (3 b) suggests that it
      could be a candidate for having a boron-boron triple bond in the cyclic system;
      however, computational studies shows that 3 b is a very high energy isomer on its
      potential energy surface. Replacement of amines with tricoordinate nucleophilic
      boron groups (eta5 -Cp)2 Zr[B(PH3 )2 -BB-B(PH3 )2 ] (3 c) reduces the relative
      energy dramatically. The B=B triple bond arises through the donation of two
      electrons from the metal fragment, ZrCp2 , to the in-plane pi-bonding orbital of
      the central B-B unit. Strong sigma-donating and chelating bis-phosphine ligands
      (Me2 P(CH2 )n PMe2 ), which stabilize donor-acceptor bonding interaction in gem
      diborene L2 B-BBr2 (10), would be a good choice along the synthetic path towards
      3 d, (eta5 -Cp)2 Zr[B4 (Me2 P(CH2 )3 PMe2 )2 ]. A comparison of the energetics of
      the reaction leading to a cyclic boryne system (3 d), with the linear boryne
      isomer [(B2 NHCPh )2 ] shows that the angle strain from cyclization is
      compensated by stabilization from the metal.

PMID- 28557026
TI  - Growth of a national sample of Israeli children: Are local standards needed?
AB  - Statures and weights of two national samples of Jewish children, from 9-15 months
      and 7-10 years of age, and their birth weights were studied, based on personal
      records (n = 7,532 and 4,638 respectively). Comparison with the National Center
      for Health Statistics (NCHS) median indicated that the median birth weight of the
      population is similar to the reference population. At both ages, males and
      females were slightly lighter and shorter than the reference data. Although the
      differences are small, <25% of the respective standard deviations for weight and
      stature, they are statistically significant due to the large sample sizes. The
      magnitude of the difference, however, has no biological meaningfulness. Jewish
      children of Asian and African origin have lower weights and statures at 8.75
      years of age than Jewish children of European or American origin. The maximal
      differences between the ethnic groups are 1.4 kg and 2.5 cm in males after
      adjusting for maternal education, age, and birth order. The similar growth of
      Israeli children relative to NCHS reference data suggests that their growth is
      relatively unconstrained. The NCHS data are thus the reference of choice for the
      Israeli Jewish population. The small difference between ethnic groups, the
      continuously changing ethnic composition, and the homogenization of the
      population over time justify use of one standard for the heterogeneous Israeli
      population. Worldwide migration in the 1990s, considerable immigration to Israel,
      and heterogeneous gene pools in most countries make the construction of local
      standards irrelevant. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557027
TI  - Population differences in cardiovascular reactivity to the cold pressor test.
AB  - The interaction of race and climatic adaptation on patterns of cardiovascular
      reactivity among young adult males was examined. Malay and Chinese subjects
      living in a tropical climate in the Orient and Caucasians living in a sub
      tropical climate in North America were investigated. The cold pressor test with
      hand immersion in cold water was used as the stressor. Systolic and diastolic
      blood pressures, cardiac frequency, cardiac output, and stroke volume were
      measured. The results provided limited evidence for absence of differences in
      cardiac reactivity among racial groups and for greater vascular reactivity in the
      Caucasians. Cold immersion also elicited differential responses which could be
      partially attributed to differences in acclimatizations status. (c) 1995 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557028
TI  - Secular trend in the age at menarche in Haiti.
AB  - Trends in age at menarche of 10,563 pregnant Haitian women enrolled in a
      longitudinal study of maternal mortality are examined. Mean recalled age at
      menarche for adult women in the sample was 15.37 years. However, there was a
      clear decline in mean menarcheal ages from the oldest to the youngest women, with
      a mean rate of decline for adult women of 0.36 years per decade. Mean menarcheal
      age was higher in each age group of rural women than for women in the
      metropolitan Port-au-Prince area; the rate of decline for adult rural women (0.37
      years per decade) was nonsignificantly higher than that for adult metropolitan
      women (0.30 years per decade). The data suggest a secular decline in age at
      menarche in Haiti, as well as a continuing disparity between metropolitan and
      rural women. A declining age at menarche has important implications for fertility
      and reproductive health in Haiti, and may reflect a gradual improvement in health
      and nutritional status. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557029
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28557030
TI  - Aging of metacarpal density at midshaft and proximal end.
AB  - Aging of bone density of the second metacarpal at midshaft (compact bone) and the
      proximal end (trabecular bone) was compared in 114 men and 115 women, 30-98 years
      of age. The microdensitometric (MD) pattern of the bone at both sites, area
      (Sigma GS) and midheight (GSmid), were measured in standardized aluminun
      equivalents (SAE). In both sexes, Sigma GS and GSmid showed a greater deviation
      at the proximal end than at midshaft. There was a significant correlation between
      both sites for each parameter. Pattern area was significantly greater at the
      proximal end than at midshaft(P ? 0.01), but the relation was reversed for GSmid.
      At both sites, Sigma GS and GSmid decreased gradually with age in both sexes,
      especially after 69 years in women. Each parameter showed a significant negative
      linear regression with age at both sites in women and at midshaft in men. In both
      sexes, the slope of the regression curve of Sigma GS with age was significantly
      steeper at the proximal end than at midshaft. In women, the estimated rate of
      decline was 0.90% and 0.56% for Sigma GS, and 1.20% and 0.73% for GSmid per year
      at the proximal end and midshaft, respectively. The bone density loss with age
      may be slightly greater in trabecular than in compact bone. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557031
TI  - Lipids and apoproteins in relation to participation in organized sport activities
      and pubertal development in boys.
AB  - This study considers changes in the plasma lipid and apoprotein profiles of boys
      in relation to participation in organized sport activities and to testosterone
      (T) levels. Fifty boys, aged 9.9 +/- 0.6 years (mean +/- S.D.), participated in
      the study. During a 3 year follow-up, the following measurements were taken twice
      a year: stature, weight, and skinfolds. Blood samples for lipids and apoproteins
      and sex hormone levels, and information on participation in sport activities were
      also obtained. No relationship was found between participation in organized sport
      activities and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) or apoprotein A-I
      (apo A-I). The changes of the profile over time in more active boys
      (participation rate > 3 hr/wk) were similar to those of less active boys
      (participation rate < 1 hr/wk) (MANOVA, repeated measures, not significant.)
      Consistent relationships between sex hormones and lipids and apoproteins were
      restricted to T with total cholesterol (TC), HDL-C, and apo A-I, respectively.
      The common variance ranged from 5.8% (rT,TC ) to 18.5% (rT,HDL-C ) (P ? 0.05.)
      When the boys who reached advanced puberty during the follow-up period (n = 21)
      were studied apart from those who did not (n =29), differences were found in TC,
      apo A-I, and HDL-C, TC decreased from 4.6 +/- 0.65 to 4.3 +/- 0.58 mmol/l in the
      more advanced pubertal boys, and increased from 4.6 +/- 0.90 to 4.8 +/- 0.79
      mmol/l in the others; apo A-I decreased from 185 +/- to 28.3 to 156 +/- 20.4
      mg/dl and from 179 +/- 20.6 to 176 +/- 27.7 mg/dl, respectively (MANOVA, repeated
      measures, P ? 0.05) HDL-C was lower in advanced pubertal boys at the end of
      follow-up (1.4 +/- 0.33 and 1.7 +/- 0.38 mmol/l, respectivel; P ? 0.05). The lack
      of a relationship with regular physical activity may be due to the high levels of
      HDL-C and apo A-I at the begining of the study. On the other hand, the effect of
      the increasing T levels on HDL-C and apo A-I may have overwhelmed the presumed
      effect of regular physical activitiy. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557032
TI  - Impact of seasonal variation in food availability and disease stress on the
      health status of nomadic Turkana children: A longitudinal analysis of morbidity,
      immunity, and nutritional status.
AB  - The possible influence of seasonal variations in rainfall, resource availability,
      and morbidity on immune function and nutritional status was examined in a
      longitudinal study of 54 nomadic Turkana children, 6 months to 10 years of age.
      The highly seasonal nature of rainfall in the arid semidesert environment of the
      Turkana District, northwestern Kenya, was associated with varying levels of
      animal milk production and meat and blood consumption. Despite significant
      seasonal variation in rainfall and food availability, the nutritional status of
      Turkana children, assessed through various anthropometric indicators, showed only
      moderate, if any, decline in the dry season. Rather, the data indicated that
      Turkana Children suffer from chronic mild-to-moderate malnutrition. In addition,
      analyses of cellular immunocompetence of the children, recognized to be a
      functional index of nutritional status, revealed extremely high levels of
      immunosuppression Year-round. Significant monthly variation in the levels of
      acute respiratory and gastrointestinal infections among children were found,
      although averages across seasons were not significantly different and did not
      correspond with fluctuations in rainfall or resources availability. Instead,
      periodic spikes in the prevalence of morbidity occurred against an already high
      level of infectious endemicity. The results indicate that food availability is
      not likely to be the sole determinant of nutritional status and that infection
      may be an important contribtor to the high levels of nutritional and
      immunological stress among nomadic Turkana Children. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557033
TI  - Letters: To the editor.

PMID- 28557034
TI  - Hypovitaminosis A: A model for sudden infant death syndrome.
AB  - The cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is unknown. It is the leading
      cause of death from age one month to one year in North America. The purpose of
      this essay is to generate some testable hypotheses as to the cause of SIDS by
      drawing attention to distinct epidemiological parallels between SIDS and a newly
      recognized form of enamel hypoplasia, termed localized hypoplasia of the primary
      canine tooth (LHPC), which has been attributed to vitamin A deficiency. LHPC and
      SIDS share a common epidemiological profile: winter seasonality, occurrence at 3
      5 months, and affecting apparently healthy children, but with increased incidence
      in socio economically disadvantaged families particularly racial/ethnic
      minorities (except Hispanics who show a reduced incidence), previously
      compromised infant health, less prenatal counselling, and less breastfeeding.
      Vitamin A has pervasive functions throughout the body including bone growth and
      maintenance of epithelial membranes. It is proposed that SIDS is due in part to
      hypovitaminosis A through one of several mechanisms: imbalanced basicranial
      growth producing mechanical constriction on the respiratory nerves passing
      through the jugular foramen; or through compromised myelination and/or maturation
      of the brain stem and cranial nerves involved in respiration; or through
      pharyngeal collapse due to mandibular undergrowth; or dysfunction of hypoxia
      sensitive epithelial cells in the trachea. It is recommended that assay of
      hypoxia-sensitive epithelial cells in the trachea. It is recommended that assay
      of the retinyl ester content of the liver of SIDS victims be included in autopsy
      protocol. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557035
TI  - Conservative scoring and exclusion of the phenomenon of interest in linear enamel
      hypoplasia studies.
AB  - Conservative criteria are generally employed to select only "sufficiently large"
      linear enamel defects to be scored as linear enamel hypopasias (LEHs), a practice
      that excludes enamel defects below arbitrarily selected size thresholds. A
      question arising is, are such practices likely to exclude small, yet
      authentic(i.e., physiological stress induced) LEH? The permanent maxillary and
      mandibular first and second incisors, canines, and first premolars on dental
      casts (n = 532) form a contemporary Canadian farming commune were scored for LEH,
      with linear defects being categorized by both breadth and width to yeild the
      scores A (smallest), B, C, and D (largest). Relative frequencies were calculated
      as the percent prevalence of each score per tooth divided by the highest percent
      prevalence exhibited by any tooth in the same dental arch. The intertooth patters
      of the relative frequencies were tested for concordance. Secondly, assuming that
      different researchers employ different scoring criteria, tests for concordance of
      mean n of LEHs/tooth were conducted using data from four different reports as a
      second test for intertooth concordance of various-sized defects. Substantial
      concordance was obseved between A, B, C, and D (Kandall's coefficient of
      concordance, W = .65, P <.005) and in the interstudy comparison (W = .67, P
      <.01). Because it is unlikely that defects of varying sizes would have similar
      intertooth distributions if they did not have similar etiologies, it may be
      inferred that all of the defects observed, even the very small defects, A, are
      variants of the same phenomenon, LEH. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557036
TI  - Elizabeth Smithgall Watts-Parrish (1941-1994).

PMID- 28557037
TI  - Seasonality and child morbidity in rural Bangladesh.
AB  - This study examined seasonal variation in the impact of infection on child
      nutritional status. Maternal reports of child illness were examined in relation
      to monthly changes in weight, weight-for-age, and midupper arm circumference
      (MUAC) of children aged 2-6 years of age. The greatest deterioration in short
      term nutritional status was associated with episodes of fever, followed by
      episodes of diarrhea and respiratory infections. The monsoon season was
      associated with the highest prevalence of fever, respiratory infection, and
      diarrheal diseases. Irrespective of the prevalence of infection, the relationship
      between infection and nutritional status varied across seasons. Weight loss and
      decreases in MUAC associated with infection in the dry and monsoon seasons were
      statistically significantly greater than those in the winter months. The observed
      seasonal variation in morbidity is an important consideration for studies of
      infection and malnutrition in children. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557038
TI  - Prognostic performance of several anthropometric indicators for predicting low
      and insufficient birth weight.
AB  - Weight gain and several anthropometric indicators were studied in a sample of 181
      pregnant women. The period considered ranged from the 12th to the 34th weeks of
      gestation. Changes in all of the attributes were calculated and related to a
      birth weight below 3,000 g. Optimal cut-off points for each indicator were
      defined as those which minimize a loss functioin which depends on the rates of
      false positive and false negatives. The independent predictive capacity of each
      attribute was assessed by means of sensitivity, specificity, positive and
      negative predictive values, relative risk, and two "measures of detectability"
      associated to the ROC (relative operating characteristic) curve of the attribute.
      A logistic regression model was fitted by searching for the best combination of
      indicators. The individual predictive capacities of the attributes were
      considerably improved when they were combined into a logistic equation. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557039
TI  - P. C. Mahalnobis's contributions to biometry.

PMID- 28557040
TI  - Estimates of aging and secular changes using total arm length.
AB  - Stature, total arm length, and subischial length were studied in a cross
      sectional sample of 387 working (career women) and 460 nonworking women
      (housewives), 20-75 years of age, from one endogamous group, the Khatris.
      Statural decrease due to aging was separated from secular effects by using total
      arm length, which was least affected by aging. The rate of loss in stature due to
      aging was 0.142 cm/year in the working women and 0.140 cm/year in the nonworking
      women. Both estimates are significantly different from zero. After adjusting
      stature for estimated aging effects, the resulting secular estimates were 0.004
      cm/year in working women and 0.01 cm/year for nonworking women, both of which do
      not significantly differ from zero. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557041
TI  - Modified cuckoo search algorithm in microscopic image segmentation of
      hippocampus.
AB  - Microscopic image analysis is one of the challenging tasks due to the presence of
      weak correlation and different segments of interest that may lead to ambiguity.
      It is also valuable in foremost meadows of technology and medicine.
      Identification and counting of cells play a vital role in features extraction to
      diagnose particular diseases precisely. Different segments should be identified
      accurately in order to identify and to count cells in a microscope image.
      Consequently, in the current work, a novel method for cell segmentation and
      identification has been proposed that incorporated marking cells. Thus, a novel
      method based on cuckoo search after pre-processing step is employed. The method
      is developed and evaluated on light microscope images of rats' hippocampus which
      used as a sample for the brain cells. The proposed method can be applied on the
      color images directly. The proposed approach incorporates the McCulloch's method
      for levy flight production in cuckoo search (CS) algorithm. Several objective
      functions, namely Otsu's method, Kapur entropy and Tsallis entropy are used for
      segmentation. In the cuckoo search process, the Otsu's between class variance,
      Kapur's entropy and Tsallis entropy are employed as the objective functions to be
      optimized. Experimental results are validated by different metrics, namely the
      peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error, feature similarity index
      and CPU running time for all the test cases. The experimental results established
      that the Kapur's entropy segmentation method based on the modified CS required
      the least computational time compared to Otsu's between-class variance
      segmentation method and the Tsallis entropy segmentation method. Nevertheless,
      Tsallis entropy method with optimized multi-threshold levels achieved superior
      performance compared to the other two segmentation methods in terms of the PSNR.

PMID- 28557042
TI  - Enhancing the Catalytic Activity of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8-Derived N
      Doped Carbon with Incorporated CeO2 Nanoparticles in the Oxygen Reduction
      Reaction.
AB  - Incorporation of CeO2 nanoparticles into the cavity of zeolitic imidazolate
      framework-8 (ZIF-8) was followed by high-temperature pyrolysis to generate CeO2
      @N-doped carbon materials. Introduction of the CeO2 nanoparticles greatly
      enhanced the catalytic activity of the ZIF-8-derived carbon materials in the
      oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) owing to the presence of Ce3+ and oxygen
      vacancies with high content of chemisorbed oxygen in CeO2 and the well-maintained
      skeleton of the original ZIF-8 with uniform mesoporous structure. The material
      treated at 900  degrees C (CeO2 @N-C-900) showed excellent ORR catalytic activity
      in both acidic and alkaline electrolyte. The ORR onset and half-wave potentials
      of CeO2 @N-C-900 were 1.003 and 0.908 V versus RHE, respectively, in 0.1 m KOH
      aqueous solution, which are comparable to those of Pt/C catalysts. Furthermore,
      it exhibited much better stability and methanol crossover tolerance than Pt/C,
      indicative of its good potential for applications in energy conversion.

PMID- 28557043
TI  - A psychological intervention programme for patients with breast cancer under
      chemotherapy and at a high risk of depression: A randomised clinical trial.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To develop a nurse-led psychological intervention programme
      and to evaluate its effects on psychological distress and quality of life in
      patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy and at a high risk of
      depression. BACKGROUND: Depression is common among patients with breast cancer
      undergoing chemotherapy. Psychological intervention programmes that improve
      psychological distress and quality of life have previously been lacking in South
      Korea. DESIGN: This was a pre- and post-test randomised controlled trial.
      METHODS: The nurse-led psychological intervention programme comprised seven
      weekly counselling sessions delivered face to face and telephonically. These
      aimed to provide emotional support to patients and to enable them to express
      their feelings. Patients at a high risk of depression were recruited from an
      oncology outpatient clinic in a university hospital. Sixty participants were
      evenly and randomly allocated to either the intervention group or the control
      group. The effects of the intervention on psychological distress (mood
      disturbance, anxiety and depression) and quality of life were examined using
      linear mixed models. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the intervention
      group reported significantly lower mood disturbance, anxiety and depression and
      showed an improved global health status and physical, role and emotional
      functions. They also reported fewer symptoms such as fatigue, nausea/vomiting,
      pain and insomnia. CONCLUSIONS: Our nurse-led psychological intervention
      programme might reduce patients' uncertainty and encourage them to be proactive
      and self-controllable. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nurse-led psychological
      intervention programmes should be implemented to reduce psychological distress
      and improve quality of life in patients with breast cancer, particularly those at
      a high risk of depression.

PMID- 28557045
TI  - Dermoscopy in assisting the diagnosis of linear porokeratosis.

PMID- 28557046
TI  - Decisions to limit or withdraw treatment in young adults with melanoma.

PMID- 28557044
TI  - Timing of food introduction and development of food sensitization in a
      prospective birth cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of infant feeding practices on the development of food
      allergy remains controversial. We examined the relationship between timing and
      patterns of food introduction and sensitization to foods at age 1 year in the
      Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort study.
      METHODS: Nutrition questionnaire data prospectively collected at age 3, 6, 12,
      18, and 24 months were used to determine timing of introduction of cow's milk
      products, egg, and peanut. At age 1 year, infants underwent skin prick testing to
      cow's milk, egg white, and peanut. Logistic regression models were fitted to
      assess the impact of timing of food exposures on sensitization outcomes, and
      latent class analysis was used to study patterns of food introduction within the
      cohort. RESULTS: Among 2124 children with sufficient data, delaying introduction
      of cow's milk products, egg, and peanut beyond the first year of life
      significantly increased the odds of sensitization to that food (cow's milk adjOR
      3.69, 95% CI 1.37-9.08; egg adjOR 1.89, 95% CI 1.25-2.80; peanut adjOR 1.76, 95%
      CI 1.07-3.01). Latent class analysis produced a three-class model: early, usual,
      and delayed introduction. A pattern of delayed introduction, characterized by
      avoidance of egg and peanut during the first year of life, increased the odds of
      sensitization to any of the three tested foods (adjOR 1.78, 95% CI 1.26-2.49).
      CONCLUSIONS: Avoidance of potentially allergenic foods during the first year of
      life significantly increased the odds of sensitization to the corresponding
      foods.

PMID- 28557047
TI  - Prevention of alloimmunization during pregnancy by prednisone and immunoglobulin
      G-What is the evidence?

PMID- 28557048
TI  - Elucidation of Compatibility Interactions of Traditional Chinese Medicines: In
      Vitro Absorptions Across Caco-2 Monolayer of Coptidis Rhizoma and Euodiae Fructus
      in Zuojin and Fanzuojin Formulas as A Case.
AB  - Traditional Chinese medicines are often combined as formulae and interact with
      each other. As for Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and Euodiae Fructus (EF), the most
      classical compatibilities were Zuojin (ZJF) and Fanzuojin formulas (FZJF) with
      reverse mixture ratios and opposite effects. To compare in vitro absorption
      interactions between CR and EF, bidirectional transports across Caco-2 cell
      monolayer of extracts of two formulas and equivalent single herbs were studied.
      Eighteen alkaloids from CR and EF were determined by liquid chromatography
      coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Parameter apparent permeability coefficient
      (Papp ) and efflux rate (ER) values showed that most alkaloids were well or
      moderately absorbed and six quaternary protoberberine alkaloids from CR had
      obvious efflux. ZJF compatibilities reduced both Papp BL->AP and ER values of
      three indole alkaloids, and increased ER values of two quinolone alkaloids from
      EF. FZJF compatibilities obviously affected the bidirectional Papp values of CR
      alkaloids, weakened ERs of five protoberberines from CR and enlarged ERs of two
      quinolones from EF. Conclusions were drawn that different compatibility ratios of
      CR and EF led to different interactions on the in vitro absorption of alkaloids.
      The results may provide a good reference for interaction studies on the
      compatibilities of traditional Chinese medicines. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley &
      Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28557049
TI  - Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex rTMS in Alleviating MTBI Related Headaches
      and Depressive Symptoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Persistent mild traumatic brain injury related headache (MTBI-HA)
      represents a neuropathic pain state. This study tested the hypothesis that
      repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at the left prefrontal cortex
      can alleviate MTBI-HA and associated neuropsychological dysfunctions. METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: Veterans with MTBI-HA were randomized to receive four sessions of
      either real (REAL group) or sham (SHAM group) high frequency rTMS delivered at 10
      Hz, 80% of resting motor threshold and 2000 pulses per session at >24 and <72
      hours apart. Pre-treatment, post-treatment 1-week and 4-week headache and
      neuropsychological assessments were conducted. RESULTS: Twenty nine out of forty
      four consented subjects completed the study. A two-factor (visit * treatment)
      repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant (p = 0.002, F = 11.63, df = 1)
      interaction for the average daily persistent headache intensity with the REAL
      group exhibiting a significant (p < 0.0001) average reduction (+/-SD) of 25.3 +/-
      16.8% and 23.0 +/- 17.7% reduction in their numerical rating scale at the one
      week and four-week post-treatment assessments in comparison to <1 +/- 11.7% and
      2.3 +/- 14.5% reduction found in the SHAM group. In addition, a significant (p <
      0.01) 50% and 57% reduction was found in the prevalence of persistent headache in
      the REAL group at the one-week and four-week assessments in comparison to 7% and
      20% reduction found in the SHAM group. Furthermore, the REAL group demonstrated a
      significant (p = 0.033) improvement (from 22.3 +/- 6.4 at pre-treatment to 19.0
      +/- 5.0 at post-treatment one-week) in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
      score, while the SHAM group's score remained largely unchanged (from 25.33 +/-
      8.43 to 24.64 +/- 5.03) in the same time frame. This trend of improvement,
      although not statistically significant, continues to the post-treatment four-week
      assessment. CONCLUSION: A short-course rTMS at the left DLPFC can alleviate MTBI
      HA symptoms and provide a transient mood enhancing benefit. Further studies are
      required to establish a clinical protocol balancing both treatment efficacy and
      patient compliance.

PMID- 28557050
TI  - Evaluation of sources of variation on in vitro fermentation kinetics of
      feedstuffs in a gas production system.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different sources of
      variation in gas production technique on the in vitro gas production kinetics of
      feedstuffs. Triplicates of commercial concentrate, grass silage, grass hay and
      grass pasture were incubated in three experiments: experiment 1 assessed two
      agitation methods; experiment 2 evaluated different rumen inocula (pooled or
      different donor cows for each incubation run); and experiment 3 used Goering-Van
      Soest or Mould buffers for media preparation. Gas production data were fitted
      into the Michaelis-Menten model and then subjected to analysis of variance. Gas
      production (GP) at 48 h and asymptote gas production (A) were lower when bottles
      were continuously under horizontal movement. Time to produce half and 75% of A,
      and A were affected by rumen inocula, while buffer type affected time to produce
      half and 25% of A and GP. No interactions between substrates and sources of
      variation were observed, suggesting that the effects of substrates on GP
      parameters were not modified. It is concluded that comparison of numerical data
      from in vitro experiments that follow different protocols must be done carefully.
      However, the ranking of different substrates is more robust and less affected by
      the sources of variation.

PMID- 28557051
TI  - When people with dementia are perceived as witches. Consequences for patients and
      nurse education in South Africa.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe the link between culture and
      dementia care with the focus on the influence of the belief in dementia as
      witchcraft and people with dementia as witches. BACKGROUND: In South Africa,
      especially in townships and rural areas, dementia is often perceived as connected
      to witchcraft rather than to disease. Persons labelled as witches-mostly older
      women-may be bullied, ostracised, beaten, stoned, burned, even killed. METHOD:
      One strand of findings from a larger international study is presented with in
      depth qualitative interviews of one close family member and seven nurses caring
      for patients with severe dementia in nursing homes in Tshwane in South Africa. A
      hermeneutic analytic approach was used. RESULTS: Two main themes are found,
      namely "Belief in witchcraft causing fear of persons with dementia" and "Need of
      knowledge and education." Fear of and violence towards people with dementia are
      based on the belief that they are witches. Some of the nurses had also held this
      belief until they started working with patients with dementia. There is a great
      need for education both among healthcare workers and the populace. DISCUSSION:
      The "witch" belief prevents seeking professional help. As nursing homes tend to
      be private and expensive, professional dementia care is virtually unattainable
      for the poor. Dementia needs a more prominent place in nursing curricula. Nurses
      as educators need to know the local culture and language to be accepted in the
      various communities. They need to visit families affected by dementia, give
      awareness talks in churches, schools and clinics and facilitate support groups
      for carers of people with dementia in the local language. CONCLUSION: Improved
      nurses' education in gerontology and geriatric care is needed. Trained specialist
      nurses may work as mediators and help eradicate the witchcraft beliefs connected
      to severe dementia.

PMID- 28557052
TI  - Investigating the use of tie-over dressing after skin grafting.
AB  - Tie-over bolster dressing after skin grafting can prolong operative time, and
      cause hematoma and seroma formation because of uneven pressure application. To
      describe the possibility of discontinuing the use of tie-over dressing, we
      carried out a retrospective comparative study of patients who underwent skin
      grafting at an institution between January 2009 and December 2014. We
      investigated and compared the take rate, healing period, wound infection rate and
      hematoma formation rate for the tie-over dressing group and the non-tie-over
      dressing group. Among 266 patients, 148 and 118 patients were included in the tie
      over dressing group and non-tie-over dressing group, respectively. There were no
      significant differences between the take rate, healing period, wound infection
      rate and hematoma formation rate for the two groups. Multivariate analysis showed
      that the complete graft take rate was not significantly influenced by tie-over
      dressing, age, sex, graft site, graft procedure and skin graft diameter. Although
      the use of tie-over dressing might remain necessary on sites with a free margin,
      including the eyelids, lips or nostrils, because of the difficulty in using tape
      fixation, the present study showed that alternative dressing with polyurethane
      foam is also useful in most cases of skin grafting.

PMID- 28557054
TI  - Alpha- and Beta-Diastereoisomers of Phenylcobalamin from Cobalt-Arylation with
      Diphenyliodonium Chloride.
AB  - Organometallic aryl-cobalamins are B12 -derivatives featuring properties of
      potential 'B12 antivitamins'. Herein, we describe a new method for the
      preparation of aryl-cobalamins using versatile diaryliodonium salts as arylation
      agents. Formate or sodium borohydride reduction of aquocobalamin in presence of
      diphenyliodonium chloride furnished Cobeta -phenyl-cobalamin PhCbl in a roughly
      3:1 to 1:1 ratio with its coordination isomer alphaPhCbl, a first representative
      'base-off' Coalpha -aryl-cobalamin. The new structures were secured by detailed
      spectroscopic analysis, supplemented by an X-ray crystal structure analysis of
      PhCbl. Both types of coordination isomers of the aryl-cobalamins promise to be
      useful molecular tools in biomedical and biological studies.

PMID- 28557053
TI  - A novel streptococcal cell-cell communication peptide promotes pneumococcal
      virulence and biofilm formation.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a major human pathogen. It is a common
      colonizer of the human respiratory track, where it utilizes cell-cell
      communication systems to coordinate population-level behaviors. We reasoned that
      secreted peptides that are highly expressed during infection are pivotal for
      virulence. Thus, we used in silico pattern searches to define a pneumococcal
      secretome and analyzed the transcriptome of the clinically important PMEN1
      lineage to identify which peptide-encoding genes are highly expressed in vivo. In
      this study, we characterized virulence peptide 1 (vp1), a highly expressed Gly
      Gly peptide-encoding gene in chinchilla middle ear effusions. The vp1 gene is
      widely distributed across pneumococcus as well as encoded in related species.
      Studies in the chinchilla model of middle ear infection demonstrated that VP1 is
      a virulence determinant. The vp1 gene is positively regulated by a transcription
      factor from the Rgg family and its cognate SHP (short hydrophobic peptide). In
      vitro data indicated that VP1 promotes increased thickness and biomass for
      biofilms grown on chinchilla middle ear epithelial cells. Furthermore, the wild
      type biofilm is restored with the exogenous addition of synthetic VP1. We
      conclude that VP1 is a novel streptococcal regulatory peptide that controls
      biofilm development and pneumococcal pathogenesis.

PMID- 28557056
TI  - Spinal SET7/9 may contribute to the maintenance of cancer-induced bone pain in
      mice.
AB  - Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) profoundly influences patients' quality of life.
      Exploring the mechanisms by which CIBP occurs is essential for developing
      efficacious therapies. Various studies have shown that proinflammatory factors
      were involved in CIBP. SET domain containing lysine methyltransferase 7/9
      (SET7/9) may modulate the expression of NF-kappaB-dependent proinflammatory genes
      in vitro. However, whether SET7/9 may participate in the maintenance of CIBP
      remains unknown. In this study, NCTC 2472 cells were inoculated into the
      intramedullary space of the femur to establish a mouse model of CIBP.
      Upregulation of spinal SET7/9 expression was related to pain behaviours in tumour
      inoculated mice. Intrathecal cyproheptadine (10 or 20 nmol) attenuated response
      to painful stimuli in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, there was a concomitant
      decrease in spinal SET7/9 and RANTES expression. The antinociceptive effects of
      cyproheptadine were abolished by pre-intrathecal administration of SET 7/9 (0.2
      MUg) for 30 minutes before intrathecal cyproheptadine (20 nmol) administration.
      These results indicated that spinal SET7/9 may contribute to the maintenance of
      CIBP in mice. Hence, targeting of spinal SET7/9 might be a useful alternative
      therapy for the treatment of CIBP.

PMID- 28557055
TI  - Time-efficient and flexible design of optimized multishell HARDI diffusion.
AB  - PURPOSE: Advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging benefits from collecting
      as much data as is feasible but is highly sensitive to subject motion and the
      risk of data loss increases with longer acquisition times. Our purpose was to
      create a maximally time-efficient and flexible diffusion acquisition capability
      with built-in robustness to partially acquired or interrupted scans. Our
      framework has been developed for the developing Human Connectome Project, but
      different application domains are equally possible. METHODS: Complete flexibility
      in the sampling of diffusion space combined with free choice of phase-encode
      direction and the temporal ordering of the sampling scheme was developed taking
      into account motion robustness, internal consistency, and hardware limits. A
      split-diffusion-gradient preparation, multiband acceleration, and a restart
      capacity were added. RESULTS: The framework was used to explore different
      parameters choices for the desired high angular resolution diffusion imaging
      diffusion sampling. For the developing Human Connectome Project, a high-angular
      resolution, maximally time-efficient (20 min) multishell protocol with 300
      diffusion-weighted volumes was acquired in >400 neonates. An optimal design of a
      high-resolution (1.2 * 1.2 mm2 ) two-shell acquisition with 54 diffusion weighted
      volumes was obtained using a split-gradient design. CONCLUSION: The presented
      framework provides flexibility to generate time-efficient and motion-robust
      diffusion magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions taking into account hardware
      constraints that might otherwise result in sub-optimal choices. Magn Reson Med
      79:1276-1292, 2018. (c) 2017 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published
      by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic
      Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the
      Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
      reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PMID- 28557057
TI  - Unraveling complex molecular transformations of N-beta-alanyldopamine that
      account for brown coloration of insect cuticle.
AB  - RATIONALE: N-beta-Alanyldopamine (NBAD) and N-acetyldopamine (NADA) are
      catecholamines that are used by insects as sclerotizing precursors to harden
      their cuticle. They share a common pathway utilizing the same set of sclerotizing
      enzymes. Yet, cuticles using NBAD are brown, while cuticles using NADA are
      colorless. To identify the cause of this major unresolved color difference,
      molecular transformations of NBAD with cuticular enzymes were investigated.
      METHODS: Reactions of NBAD and NADA with native cuticle isolated from the
      wandering stages of Sarcophaga bullata larvae as well as the reactions of NBAD
      with cuticular sclerotization enzymes - phenoloxidase, quinone isomerase and
      quinone methide isomerase - were investigated using UV-Vis spectroscopy, high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and mass spectrometry (MS). In
      addition, the reactivity of enzymatically generated NBAD quinone was investigated
      by MS. RESULTS: Reactions of NBAD with sclerotizing enzymes isolated from
      Sarcophaga bullata larvae generate colorless products such as N-beta
      alanylnorepinephrine, N-beta-alanylarterenone, dehydro NBAD, the benzodioxan
      dimers of dehydro NBAD and other minor adducts, the same kind of compounds
      generated by NADA reaction with cuticular enzymes. However, oxidation of NBAD
      produces colored quinone adducts, in addition. NADA, which lacks the amino group,
      did not produce these quinone adducts. CONCLUSIONS: LC/MS analysis of the
      reaction mixture of NBAD-cuticular enzyme reactions reveals the novel production
      of colored quinone adducts that are not possible for NADA. Therefore, our results
      suggest that the brown coloration of cuticle formed through NBAD crosslinking is
      likely due to the formation and accumulation of NBAD quinone and its adducts,
      while NADA quinone adducts tend not to form during NADA crosslinking, producing a
      nearly colorless cuticle.

PMID- 28557058
TI  - Thoracic paravertebral blockade in breast surgery: Is pneumothorax an appreciable
      concern? A review of over 1000 cases.
AB  - There has been a substantial increase in ambulatory day-case breast surgery in
      recent decades. This has been largely due to improvements in anesthetic
      procedures and pre-emptive analgesia. Thoracic paravertebral blockade (TPVB) is
      increasing in popularity, though concerns over iatrogenic injury remain,
      especially pneumothorax. The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of the
      incidence of pneumothorax following TPVB prior to breast surgery. Data from of a
      consecutive series of patients having TPVB prior to breast surgery between 2009
      and 2014 were reviewed. TPVB were used prior to unilateral and bilateral
      procedures. Medical records were retrospectively assessed for any complication
      including pleural punctures, pneumothorax, hypotension, bradycardia as well as
      signs and symptoms of local anesthetic toxicity. 1152 patients underwent a total
      of 1322 TPVB injections (982 unilateral and 340 bilateral). Clinically
      significant hypotension and/or bradycardia occurred in 26 patients (2.2%). Two
      patients (0.17%) had a suspected toxicity from the local anesthetic. Incidence of
      pleural puncture was 0.6% (n=9) and pneumothorax 0.26% (n=3). All pneumothoraxes
      were managed conservatively. There was no statistical difference in complication
      rates in those that had unilateral vs bilateral TPVB or those that had ultrasound
      guidance (P=.09). Good pre-emptive analgesia is pertinent to prevent acute
      postoperative pain. TPVB have been shown to be successful in reducing rescue
      analgesia. This study shows TPVB is a well-tolerated procedure, with a low
      associated incidence of iatrogenic injury and complication.

PMID- 28557059
TI  - Effects of taurine on plasma glucose concentration and active glucose transport
      in the small intestine.
AB  - Taurine lowers blood glucose levels and improves hyperglycemia. However, its
      effects on glucose transport in the small intestine have not been investigated.
      Here, we elucidated the effect of taurine on glucose absorption in the small
      intestine. In the oral glucose tolerance test, addition of 10 mmol/L taurine
      suppressed the increase in hepatic portal glucose concentrations. To investigate
      whether the suppressive effect of taurine occurs via down-regulation of active
      glucose transport in the small intestine, we performed an assay using the everted
      sac of the rat jejunum. Addition of taurine to the mucosal side of the jejunum
      suppressed active glucose transport via sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1).
      After elimination of chloride ions from the mucosal solution, taurine did not
      show suppressive effects on active glucose transport. These results suggest that
      taurine suppressed the increase in hepatic portal glucose concentrations via
      suppression of SGLT1 activity in the rat jejunum, depending on chloride ions.

PMID- 28557060
TI  - Epidermal growth factor receptor and anaplastic lymphoma kinase testing and
      mutation prevalence in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer in
      Switzerland: A comprehensive evaluation of real world practices.
AB  - In order to improve outcomes, identification of the epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) genes has become crucial in
      advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of the present study is to
      analyse time trends and frequency of testing, factors affecting testing as well
      as prevalence of mutations in the Swiss population. We analysed EGFR and ALK
      testing in a cohort of patients with newly diagnosed metastasised non-squamous
      NSCLC in the catchment area of the cancer registry Eastern Switzerland in the
      years 2008-2014. We analysed prevalence of mutations and studied
      clinicopathological characteristics and survival of tested and non-tested
      patients and of patients with and without mutations. Among 718 patients
      identified, 11% (51/447) harboured an EGFR mutation in the exons 18, 19 or 21 and
      further 12% (31/265) showed a positive test result for ALK rearrangements. In non
      smokers the proportions of mutations were 31% and 23% respectively. Testing rates
      increased over time and reached 79% in 2014. We observed significantly lower
      testing rates and poorer survival in elderly, patients with limited life
      expectancy and patients treated at hospitals not involved in clinical research.
      Outcomes can be further improved in a considerable proportion of patients with
      advanced non-squamous NSCLC.

PMID- 28557061
TI  - Classification of Involuntary Movements in Dogs: Myoclonus and Myotonia.
AB  - Myoclonus is a sudden brief, involuntary muscle jerk. Of all the movement
      disorders, myoclonus is the most difficult to encapsulate into any simple
      framework. On the one hand, a classification system is required that is
      clinically useful to aid in guiding diagnosis and treatment. On the other hand,
      there is need for a system that organizes current knowledge regarding biological
      mechanisms to guide scientific research. These 2 needs are distinct, making it
      challenging to develop a robust classification system suitable for all purposes.
      We attempt to classify myoclonus as "epileptic" and "nonepileptic" based on its
      association with epileptic seizures. Myotonia in people may be divided into 2
      clinically and molecularly defined forms: (1) nondystrophic myotonias and (2)
      myotonic dystrophies. The former are a group of skeletal muscle channelopathies
      characterized by delayed skeletal muscle relaxation. Many distinct clinical
      phenotypes are recognized in people, the majority relating to mutations in
      skeletal muscle voltage-gated chloride (CLCN1) and sodium channel (SCN4A) genes.
      In dogs, myotonia is associated with mutations in CLCN1. The myotonic dystrophies
      are considered a multisystem clinical syndrome in people encompassing 2
      clinically and molecularly defined forms designated myotonic dystrophy types 1
      and 2. No mutation has been linked to veterinary muscular dystrophies. We detail
      veterinary examples of myotonia and attempt classification according to
      guidelines used in humans. This more precise categorization of myoclonus and
      myotonia aims to promote the search for molecular markers contributing to the
      phenotypic spectrum of disease. Our work aimed to assist recognition for these 2
      enigmatic conditions.

PMID- 28557062
TI  - Substance-related psychopathology and aggressiveness in a nightlife holiday
      resort: Results from a pilot study in a psychiatric inpatient unit in Ibiza.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to describe a sample of subjects admitted to a psychiatric
      unit after the intake of psychoactive substances for recreational purposes.
      METHODS: Between June and September 2015, 49 subjects were included.
      Sociodemographic characteristics and psychopathological aspects were
      investigated, and urine samples for further analysis were collected. Three
      subgroups (cannabinoids, stimulants, and depressors users) were identified,
      according to the structured interview regarding substance use and urinalysis.
      RESULTS: Level of aggressiveness was found to be significantly higher (p < .05)
      in the cannabinoids subgroup. Self-reported symptom severity was comparable among
      groups, but trends could be identified: SCL-90 results showed a prevalence of
      anxiety symptoms among depressors users, hostility or aggression in the
      tetrahydrocannabinol subgroup, and psychoticism in the stimulants subgroup.
      CONCLUSIONS: The use of psychoactive substances was be characterised by poly-use
      of both traditional and novel substances. The presence of aggressiveness emerged
      as a main feature associated with the use of cannabis and other cannabinoids.
      Binge drinking and sleep deprivation also represented a relevant component in
      almost all the evaluated subjects.

PMID- 28557063
TI  - Theory versus practice, bacteriological efficiency versus personal habits: A
      bacteriological and user acceptability evaluation of filtering tools for people
      who inject drugs.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: People who inject drugs (PWID) are exposed to associated
      viral, bacterial and fungal risks. These risks can be reduced by filtration.
      Large disparities in the quality of filtration exist between the various
      available filters. This paper compares both performance and user acceptability of
      three filters for drug injection (cotton filters, Sterifilt(r) and wheel filters)
      by combining epidemiological and bacteriological analyses. DESIGN AND METHODS: A
      cross-sectional epidemiological study (ANRS-Coquelicot) using time-location
      sampling combined with the generalised weight sampling method was conducted among
      985 PWID in France. Two filtration-based bacteriological studies of 0.20- and
      0.45-MUm wheel filters, Sterifilt filters and cotton filters were also conducted.
      RESULTS: The bacteriological study highlighted the value of using wheel filters
      with a porosity of less than 0.5 MUm, as they limit the risk of bacterial and
      fungal infection. The results of this study clearly highlight a distinction
      between the efficiency of Sterifilt and wheel filters, the latter being more
      effective. Our epidemiological study highlighted that the use of cotton filters
      is widespread and routine, but is the subject of much criticism among PWID.
      Sterifilt is not widely used, and its adoption is slow. Finally, the wheel filter
      remains a largely untested tool. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Low product
      retention and ease of use are the two most important factors for filters for
      PWID. Bacterial and fungal risk filtration is less important. It is essential to
      educate PWID about the benefits of wheel filters. [Jauffret-Roustide M, Chollet
      A, Santos A, Benoit T, Pechine S, Duplessy C, Bara J-L, Levi Y, Karolak S, Nefau
      T. Theory versus practice, bacteriological efficiency versus personal habits: A
      bacteriological and user acceptability evaluation of filtering tools for people
      who inject drugs. Drug Alcohol Rev 2018;37:106-115].

PMID- 28557064
TI  - Quantitative assessment of wound healing using high-frequency ultrasound image
      analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to develop a method for quantitative assessment of wound
      healing in ulcerated diabetic feet. METHODS: High-frequency ultrasound (HFU)
      images of 30 wounds were acquired in a controlled environment on post-debridement
      days 7, 14, 21, and 28. Meaningful features portraying changes in structure and
      intensity of echoes during healing were extracted from the images, their
      relevance and discriminatory power being verified by analysis of variance.
      Relative analysis of tissue healing was conducted by developing a features-based
      healing function, optimised using the pattern-search method. Its performance was
      investigated through leave-one-out cross-validation technique and reconfirmed
      using principal component analysis. RESULTS: The constructed healing function
      could depict tissue changes during healing with 87.8% accuracy. The first
      principal component derived from the extracted features demonstrated similar
      pattern to the constructed healing function, accounting for 86.3% of the data
      variance. CONCLUSION: The developed wound analysis technique could be a viable
      tool in quantitative assessment of diabetic foot ulcers during healing.

PMID- 28557065
TI  - Lactate dehydrogenase predicts combined progression-free survival after
      sequential therapy with abiraterone and enzalutamide for patients with castration
      resistant prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An array of clinical issues remains to be resolved for castration
      resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), including the sequence of drug use and drug
      cross-resistance. At present, no clear guidelines are available for the optimal
      sequence of use of novel agents like androgen-receptor axis-targeted (ARAT)
      agents, particularly enzalutamide, and abiraterone. METHODS: This study
      retrospectively analyzed a total of 69 patients with CRPC treated with sequential
      therapy using enzalutamide followed by abiraterone or vice versa. The primary
      outcome measure was the comparative combined progression-free survival (PFS)
      comprising symptomatic and/or radiographic PFS. Patients were also compared for
      total prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-PFS, overall survival (OS), and PSA
      response. The predictors of combined PFS and OS were analyzed with a backward
      stepwise multivariate Cox model. RESULTS: Of the 69 patients, 46 received
      enzalutamide first, followed by abiraterone (E-A group), and 23 received
      abiraterone, followed by enzalutamide (A-E group). The two groups were not
      significantly different with regard to basic data, except for hemoglobin values.
      In a comparison with the E-A group, the A-E group was shown to be associated with
      better combined PFS in Kaplan-Meier analysis (P = 0.043). Similar results were
      obtained for total PSA-PFS (P = 0.049), while OS did not differ between groups (P
      = 0.62). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that pretreatment lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) values and age were significant predictors of longer combined
      PFS (P < 0.05). Likewise, multivariate analysis demonstrated that pretreatment
      hemoglobin values and performance status were significant predictors of longer OS
      (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggested the A-E sequence had
      longer combined PSA and total PSA-PFS compared to the E-A sequence in patients
      with CRPC. LDH values in sequential therapy may serve as a predictor of longer
      combined PFS.

PMID- 28557066
TI  - Purification and functional characterization of lectin with phenoloxidase
      activity from the hemolymph of cockroach, Periplaneta americana.
AB  - Lectins also identified as hemagglutinins are multivalent proteins and on account
      of their fine sugar-binding specificity play an important role in immune system
      of invertebrates. The present study was carried out on the hemolymph lectin of
      cockroach, Periplaneta americana with appropriate screening and purification to
      understand its molecular as well as functional nature. The lectin from the
      hemolymph was purified using ion-exchange chromatography. The approximate
      molecular weight of purified lectin was 340 kDa as determined by FPLC analysis.
      Rabbit erythrocytes were highly agglutinated with purified lectin from the
      hemolymph of P. americana. The hemagglutination activity (HA) of lectin was
      specifically inhibited by fucose. Glycoproteins also inhibited the HA activity of
      lectin. The amino acid sequences of the purified lectin revealed homology with
      amino acid sequences of allergen proteins from P. americana. Purified lectin
      showed the highest phenoloxidase activity against dopamine. The activators such
      as exogenous proteases and LPS from Escherichia coli and Salmonella minnesota
      significantly enhanced the PO activity of the purified lectin. Besides, the
      presence of copper and hemocyanin conserved domain in the purified lectin
      provided a new facet that insects belonging to the ancient clade such as
      cockroaches retained some traces of evolutionary resemblance in possessing lectin
      of ancient origin.

PMID- 28557067
TI  - Anxiety and depression in Spanish-speaking Latina cancer patients prior to
      starting chemotherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Anxiety and depression can substantially impact the life of a cancer
      patient, but literature on emotional distress in the Hispanic cancer population
      is sparse. Additionally, the influence of psychosocial variables including age,
      acculturation, and spiritual well-being on emotional distress in this population
      remains unclear. The purpose of the present report was to assess the prevalence
      of anxiety and depression in Spanish-speaking Latina cancer patients preparing to
      begin chemotherapy and to explore the predictors and correlates of these
      outcomes. METHODS: Participants were 198 Spanish-speaking Latina cancer patients
      who completed measures of anxiety, depression, acculturation, and spiritual well
      being prior to starting chemotherapy. RESULTS: Prevalence of clinically
      significant anxious symptomatology was 52%, and prevalence of clinically
      significant depressive symptomatology was 27%. Longer time since diagnosis and
      less acculturation predicted more severe anxiety, while longer time since
      diagnosis, less acculturation, and older age predicted more severe depression (Ps
      < .05). In multivariable analyses, only time since diagnosis emerged as a
      significant predictor of anxiety and depression when accounting for the influence
      of other variables. Greater spiritual well-being was correlated with both less
      severe anxiety and less severe depression (Ps < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The present
      findings document the high prevalence of emotional distress, particularly
      anxiety, in this patient population prior to chemotherapy initiation and identify
      several demographic and clinical factors associated with increased risk for
      heightened distress. Additionally, these findings suggest that interventions to
      address distress in this patient population would benefit from including
      components that seek to improve patients' spiritual well-being.

PMID- 28557069
TI  - On the long-range relativistic effects in the 15 N NMR chemical shifts of
      halogenated azines.
AB  - Long-range beta- and gamma-relativistic effects of halogens in 15 N NMR chemical
      shifts of 20 halogenated azines (pyridines, pyrimidines, pyrazines, and 1,3,5
      triazines) are shown to be unessential for fluoro-, chloro-, and bromo
      derivatives (1-2 ppm in average). However, for iodocontaining compounds, beta-
      and gamma-relativistic effects are important contributors to the accuracy of the
      15 N calculation. Taking into account long-range relativistic effects slightly
      improves the agreement of calculation with experiment. Thus, mean average errors
      (MAE) of 15 N NMR chemical shifts of the title compounds calculated at the non
      relativistic and full 4-component relativistic levels in gas phase are
      accordingly 7.8 and 5.5 ppm for the range of about 150 ppm. Taking into account
      solvent effects within the polarizable continuum model scheme marginally improves
      agreement of computational results with experiment decreasing MAEs from 7.8 to
      7.4 ppm and from 5.5 to 5.3 ppm at the non-relativistic and relativistic levels,
      respectively. The best result (MAE: 5.3 ppm) is achieved at the 4-component
      relativistic level using Keal and Tozer's KT3 functional used in combination with
      Dyall's relativistic basis set dyall.av3z with taking into account solvent
      effects within the polarizable continuum solvation model. The long-range
      relativistic effects play a major role (of up to dozen of parts per million) in
      15 N NMR chemical shifts of halogenated nitrogen-containing heterocycles, which
      is especially crucial for iodine derivatives. This effect should apparently be
      taken into account for practical purposes.

PMID- 28557068
TI  - Purification of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from rat (Rattus norvegicus)
      erythrocytes and inhibition effects of some metal ions on enzyme activity.
AB  - Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is the first enzyme on which the pentose
      phosphate pathway was checked. In this study, purification of a G6PD enzyme was
      carried out by using rat erythrocytes with a specific activity of 13.7 EU/mg and
      a yield of 67.7 and 155.6-fold by using 2',5'-ADP Sepharose-4B affinity column
      chromatography. For the purpose of identifying the purity of enzyme and molecular
      mass of the subunit, a sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
      was carried out. The molecular mass of subunit was calculated 56.5 kDa
      approximately. Then, an investigation was carried out regarding the inhibitory
      effects caused by various metal ions (Fe2+ , Pb2+ , Cd2+ , Ag+ , and Zn2+ ) on
      G6PD enzyme activities, as per Beutler method at 340 nm under in vitro
      conditions. Lineweaver-Burk diagrams were used for estimation of the IC50 and Ki
      values for the metals. Ki values for Pb+2 , Cd+2 , Ag+ , and Zn+2 were 113.3,
      215.2, 19.4, and 474.7 MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28557070
TI  - Color and Power Doppler Sonography for Pneumothorax Detection.
AB  - The use of B- and M-mode sonography for detection of pneumothorax has been well
      described and studied. It is now widely incorporated by sonographers, emergency
      physicians, trauma surgeons, radiologists, and critical care specialists
      worldwide. Lung sonography can be performed rapidly at the bedside or in the
      prehospital setting. It is more sensitive, specific, and accurate than plain
      chest radiography. The use of color and power Doppler sonography as an adjunct to
      B- and M-mode imaging for detection of pneumothorax has been described in a small
      number of studies and case reports but is much less widely known or used. Color
      and power Doppler imaging may be used for confirmation of the presence or absence
      of lung sliding detected with B-mode sonography. In this article, we examine the
      physics behind Doppler sonography as it applies to the lung, technique, an actual
      case, and the past literature describing the use of color and power Doppler
      sonography for the detection of pneumothorax.

PMID- 28557072
TI  - An anthropogenetic study on the Oromo and Amhara of central Ethiopia.
AB  - Blood samples from members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups of central
      Ethiopia were tested for 10 erythrocyte protein systems: ACP1, ADA, AK1, CA2,
      ESD, G6PD, GLO1, HBbeta, PGD, and PGM1. Differences between the two samples were
      relatively slight and not statistically significant. Gene frequency distributions
      were then analyzed in the context of the genetics of the African and Arabian
      peoples. Considering the erythrocyte enzyme data, the Oromo and Amhara appear
      quite similar to Europoids (particularly to the South Arabians) and considerably
      different from the Negritic peoples. There is evidence for close genetic affinity
      among the Cushitic- and Semitic-speaking population groups of the Horn. Admixture
      between Europoid and Negritic populations seems to have been the main
      microevolutionary factor in generating the present day Cushitic (and Semitic)
      speaking group of eastern Africa. The results are consistent with the hypothesis,
      supported by historical and linguistic evidence, for a common origin of these
      groups from a Cushitic-speaking group living in eastern Africa. (c) 1996 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557071
TI  - Single-step isolation of embelin using high-performance countercurrent
      chromatography and determination of the fatty acid composition of seeds of
      Embelia schimperi.
AB  - Embelin (2,5-dihydroxy-3-undecyl-p-benzoquinone) is known for its potent
      anthelmintic activity, but also for wound-healing, antidiabetic, anticonvulsant,
      antitumour, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, hepatoprotective, antioxidant,
      antibacterial and antispermatogenic activities. A high-performance countercurrent
      chromatography method was developed for the purification of embelin from an
      extract of the seeds of Embelia schimperi fruit. The optimized solvent system (n
      hexane-ethylacetate-ethanol-water, 7:3:7:3) resulted in the isolation of 13.9 mg
      of embelin, directly from 100 mg of crude extract, in a single step within a
      short time (40 min). Although the compound appeared to be completely pure when
      analysed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with photo diode array
      detection, the purity was established as ~90% by UPLC-mass spectrometry.
      Furthermore, we report the fatty acid composition of the seeds of E. schimperi
      fruit. Nine fatty acids were quantified from the fruit seed extract by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry, with linoleic (46.4%), palmitic (21.5%) and
      oleic (19.6%) acids making up the largest proportions.

PMID- 28557073
TI  - Fat areas on the extremities in normal weight and overweight children and
      adolescents: Comparison between age-related and weight-related changes in
      adiposity.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to compare changes in fat distribution in
      association with obesity and puberty in adolescent boys and girls. Fat areas at
      the ulnar, triceps, thigh, and calf regions were measured in normal weight
      prepubertal children (P) and adolescents (N), and overweight adolescents (O).
      There were significant differences in fat areas at the four sites between N and O
      of both sexes, especially in the proximal extremities (triceps, thigh) in boys.
      On the other hand, fat areas on the extremities of N boys and girls were not
      significantly different from those of P children except for thigh fat area in
      girls. It is suggested that pubertal maturation in girls, but not in boys, is
      associated with increased adiposity on the legs, particularly in the proximal
      regions, and that there are sex differences between changes in fat distribution
      associated with puberty and obesity. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557074
TI  - Relationship between behavior and energy expenditure in 12-week-old infants.
AB  - In order to apply current international recommendations of basing energy
      requirements on energy expenditures (FAO/WHO/UNU [1985] Energy and Protein
      Requirements WHO: Geneva) to infants, it is first necessary to ascertain which
      aspects of infant physical activity significantly influence energy expenditure.
      The relationship between behavioral activity and energy expenditure was,
      therefore, investigated in 12 week infants. Behavior was assessed using activity
      diaries, temperament questionnaires, and actometers. Total energy expenditure and
      the energy cost of physical activity were estimated using the doubly labelled
      water method and indirect calorimetry. Certain aspects of behavior correlated
      significantly with the energy cost of physical activity. Behavior thus exerts a
      significant effect on energy expenditure in 12 week infants. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557075
TI  - Maximal aerobic power in children and adolescents of Beijing, China.
AB  - The maximal aerobic power of 463 Chinese children and adolescents, 10-19 years,
      is described. The absolute values of maximal oxygen intake (VO2 max) in boys and
      girls were 1.75-3.26 and 1.44-2.10 L/min, respectively. Relative values of VO2
      max per unit stature (VO2 max/stature) were 12.35-19.42 ml/cm.min for boys and
      10.18-13.42 ml/cm.min for girls, values per unit weight (VO2 max/weight) were
      48.60-56.59 ml/kg.min for boys and 39.34-45.56 ml/kg.min for girls, and values
      per estimated unit lean body mass (VO2 max/lean-body-mass) were 58.98-65.28
      ml/kg.min for boys and 54.90-59.04 ml/kg.min for girls. Maximal values of oxygen
      pulse (VO2 max/HRmax) were 8.58-16.67 ml/beat for boys and 6.88-10.35 ml/beat for
      girls. In early adolescence, VO2 max, VO2 max/stature, and VO2 max/HRmax
      increased with chronological age, but the increment was less in girls. In
      contrast, VO2 max/weight and VO2 max/LBM did not increase with age in boys and
      girls. All indicators of VO2 max were lager in boys than in girls. (c) 1996 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557076
TI  - Relationship between adult stature and timing of the pubertal growth spurt.
AB  - Various literature report that little or no correlation exists between adult
      stature (AS) and the timing of the pubertal growth spurt in stature. No direct
      linear relationship between AS and age at peak height velocity (PHV) was evident
      in the Hiroshima Growth Study sample. However, the partial correlation between AS
      and age at PHV was negative when stature at PHV was controlled. That is, AS and
      age at PHV negatively correlate with each other so that the older the age at PHV,
      the lower the AS when stature at PHV is statistically controlled. This is clearly
      shown by the scatter diagrams of AS and age at PHV. There is a similar
      relationship between AS and age at takeoff (or age at minimum height velocity).
      The stature increment during adolescence negatively correlates with age at PHV,
      and the stature increment highly correlates with length of adolescence. (c) 1996
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557077
TI  - Age at menarche in Peruvian girls at sea level and at high altitude: Effect of
      ethnic background and socioeconomic status.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to determine median age at menarche using
      the status quo method and the independent effects of ethnic background and
      socioeconomic status on the age at menarche in Peruvian girls from two distinct
      levels at altitude: Lima (150 m) and Cerro de Pasco (4,340 m). The sample
      included 503 girls from Lima and 625 girls from Cerro de Pasco, ages 10-18 years.
      Ethnic background was determined by four parental surnames. Subjects were
      classified as Quechua when one or more surnames were from Quechua origin and
      Spanish when four surnames were from Spanish origin. Socioeconomic status was
      determined using a socioeconomic index score and subjects were classified as
      belonging to the middle-low, low, or very low class. Median age at menarche was
      calculated by survival analysis using the Life Table Method with a 95% Confidence
      Interval (CI). Among Quechua and Spanish girls, age at menarche occurred later at
      high altitude than at sea level. Median ages at menarche for the overall groups
      were 13.08 (12.91-13.25, 95% CI) years in Lima and 14.33 (14.17-14.48, 95% CI)
      years in Cerro de Pasco (P < 0.0001). Socioeconomic status had no significant
      effect on menarcheal age (P > 0.05). Controlling socioeconomic status in the
      design, median age at menarche was still higher at high altitude than at sea
      level (P < 0.05). After logistic regression analysis, an effect on age at
      menarche of chronological age and place of residence was observed, but not by
      ethnic background, socioeconomic status and not by interactions of age and place
      of residence, age and socioeconomic status, place of residence and socioeconomic
      status, place of residence and ethnic background, or socioeconomic status and
      ethnic background. Thus later age at menarche observed in girls at high altitude
      is not due the differences in ethnicity or socioeconomic status. (c) 1996 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557079
TI  - Familial aggregation of subcutaneous fat patterning: Principal components of
      skinfolds in the Quebec family study.
AB  - Familial resemblance was examined for each of the principal components arising
      from an analysis of six skinfolds (triceps, biceps, subscapular, abdominal,
      suprailiac, and medial calf) measured in 1,237 participants of the Quebec Family
      Study. Most of the phenotypic variance among the skinfolds (83%) was accounted
      for by the first two principal components. Examination of the skinfold loadings
      on each principal component, as well as intraindividual cross-trait correlations
      with other body composition and fat pattern measures (body mass index; total fat
      mass and fat-free mass estimated from body density obtained through underwater
      weighing; the sum of six skinfolds; and the ratio of trunk to extremity
      skinfolds) support the interpretation of the first component as a general measure
      of adiposity and the second component as a trunk-extremity contrast. Parent-child
      and sibling correlations for each of the two principal components indicate that
      familial effects reach 46% (general) and 52% (trunk-extremity). Although the
      eigenvalues for the remaining four principal components (accounting for 17% of
      the variance) are <1.0, it is noteworthy that each exhibits significant familial
      resemblance (31-60%). Further, the intraindividual correlations for the
      additional four components with the other body size indicators are quite low,
      suggesting that they capture somewhat different aspects of relative fat
      distribution. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557078
TI  - Conicity: A new index of body fat distribution-what does it tell us?
AB  - "Conicity" (C) is an index of body fat distribution which expresses an
      individuals waist circumference relative to the circumference of a cylinder
      generated with that persons weight and height assuming a constant for body
      density (Valdez [1991] J. Clin. Epidemiol. 44:955-956). The more central a person
      is in fat distribution, the higher the value of C. In a pilot study of
      cardiovascular reactivity and dimensions of anger and hostility in 60 African-,
      Anglo-, and Hispanic-American adolescents, anthropometry and sexual maturation
      were determined to assess their mediating influence on the relation between anger
      and cardiovascular risk. The concurrent validity of three indices of body fat
      distribution was explored: conicity(C), waist/hip ratio (WHR), and
      central/peripheral skinfold ratio (C/P) by assessing their association with
      cardiovascular variables (CV) and other anthropometrics. Anthropometry included
      height, weight, fat mass estimated from bioelectrical impedance, four
      circumferences, and skinfolds. Maturation variables included menarche in girls,
      testes size in boys, and pubic hair in both sexes. Cardiovascular variables
      included resting diastolic and systolic blood pressures and heart rate, and the
      same three variables after recovery from a step test. The boys and girls were 15
      16 years of age, and there were equal numbers in each sex/ethnic group. Partial
      correlations accounting for height (which was affected by ethnicity) and
      maturation stratified by gender are reported. C was more strongly related to CV
      risk in boys and girls than the other indices or the body mass index. Least
      related to CV risk was C/P, correlated only weakly to central skinfold fat. C and
      WHR are highly related (0.85) yet differ in important respects in both sexes: C
      is more closely related to body fat (0.62-0.66) and fat mass (0.53-0.77) than the
      WHR (respective correlations: 0.54-0.55 and 0.43-0.66). Thus, C relates not only
      to body shape but also to body fat. Indices of central fat such as circumference
      and skinfold ratios, may "over-correct" for total fatness and thus miss important
      aspects of risk prediction. Conicity may be a useful indicator of body fat
      distribution in studies of adolescents. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557080
TI  - Kinship by isonymy and by gene frequencies: A comparison of population structures
      at different hierarchical population levels.
AB  - A comparison of population structures based on isonymy and on gene frequencies
      (ABO, Rh, Kell) was conducted for a sample of 28,205 individuals residing in
      three different provinces (Lucca, Massa Carrara, La Spezia) in northwest Italy,
      on the basis of both chronological and spatial subgroupings. Relationships
      between and within population subsamples were measured by means of kinship
      coefficients. The aim of this study was focused on kinship decay with geographic
      distance, associated with the great difference in location and variability
      between isonymic and genetic data. The analysis was carried out by Rst statistics
      and regression analysis to test the fit of the isolation by distance models.
      Further, the R matrices were converted into a distance measure, and Mantel's
      permutation test was used to assess the correlation across isonymy, genetic, and
      geographic matrices. Whereas estimates of Rst and isolation by distance
      parameters obtained from genetic and surname data pointed to a roughly comparable
      basic pattern of spatial differentiation in both chronological periods, the
      absolute values differ substantially. Both Rst and a isolation by distance
      parameters estimated from genetic data were higher than those from surnames,
      indicating greater local isolation by genetic analysis. The standard errors of b
      obtained from surname data were much smaller than those computed from genetic
      data, indicating that the kinship by isonymy coefficients fit Malecot's model
      better than the kinship coefficients estimated by the genetic data. Squared
      correlation coefficients among geographic, surname, and genetic distance matrices
      supported the above interpretations. The strong localization of surnames, the
      different level of variability in surname and gene frequency data, and random
      variations (due to the number of alleles considered) seem to be the main reasons
      for the observed differences between the two data sets. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557081
TI  - Admixture and relationships of the population of Jacobina, Bahia, Brazil.
AB  - As part of the Cornell-Bahia project on leishmaniasis, the people of Jacobina in
      the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil were studied for five genetic
      polymorphisms: ABO blood groups, hemoglobin variants, PGM1, 6PGD, and adenylate
      kinase. A maximum likelihood method of calculation of frequency of genes for
      these traits indicates that the ancestry of the people is 45% African, 43%
      Portuguese, and 12% Brazilian Indian. This estimate is similar to previous
      estimates of admixture in the people of northeastern Brazil, except for more
      African and less Caucasian ancestry. Previous distance relationships, based upon
      physical traits only, showed the population of Jacobina to be similar to Seminole
      Indians of Florida and equally distant from Whites and Blacks. While not strictly
      comparable, the genetic and morphologic pictures of relationships are compatible
      and show concordance with surnames. The presence of Hemoglobin C and the
      frequencies of alleles of PGM1 and 6PGD in the Jacobina population are consistent
      with the greater importation of Africans into Brazil from Costa de Mina on the
      Guinea Coast than from Angola. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557082
TI  - Activity reduction as an adaptive response to seasonal hunger.
AB  - This paper investigates whether physical activity and productive work effort are
      reduced in response to nutritional stress during hunger seasons by examining
      patterns of association between nutritional status and both physical activity and
      behavior patterns among Lese horticulturists of northeast Zaire. Three
      predictions are derived and tested: (1) reduction of physical activity will not
      occur until after significant depletion of body energy stores, (2) reduction of
      physical activity will be correlated with weight loss and with loss of lean body
      mass, and (3) less essential activities will be curtailed prior to more essential
      activities. Anthropometric dimensions and behavioral observations were taken
      during the 31/2 month 1991 Lese hunger season. Among men with a BMI <18.5 kg/m2
      and among men with summed skinfolds (SSF) below the median, physical activity
      level was negatively correlated with percentage loss of body weight and
      percentage loss of upper arm muscle area (UAMA), while there were no significant
      correlations in men above these thresholds, supporting predictions 1 and 2. Among
      women, there was no significant association between nutritional stress and
      physical activity level. However, patterns of association between nutritional
      stress and activity budgets suggested that activities that were not essential for
      short-term survival were curtailed in response to nutritional stress. Among men
      with SSF below the median, farmwork was negatively correlated with percentage
      loss of UAMA and positively correlated with minimum SSF, supporting a cycle model
      of seasonal hunger. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557083
TI  - Path analysis of risk factors leading to premature birth.
AB  - The present study tested whether various sociodemographic, anthropometric,
      behavioral, and medical/physiological factors act in a direct or indirect manner
      on the risk of prematurity using path analysis on a sample of Israeli births. The
      path model shows that medical complications, primarily toxemia, chorioammionitis,
      and a previous low birth weight delivery directly and significantly act on the
      risk of prematurity as do low maternal pregnancy weight gain and ethnicity. Other
      medical complications, including chronic hypertension, preclampsia, and placental
      abruption, although significantly correlated with prematurity, act indirectly on
      prematurity through toxemia. The model further shows that the commonly accepted
      sociodemographic, anthropometric, and behavioral risk factors act by modifying
      the development of medical complications that lead to prematurity as opposed to
      having a direct effect on premature delivery. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557084
TI  - Cytogenetics of autosomal fragile sites: A Basque population study.
AB  - Population cytogenetic data on autosomal fragile sites show differences among
      different ethnic groups. The Basques are an ancient population; their origin is
      not exactly known and many studies using several traits have shown peculiarities
      in the Basques. This is the first study about the incidence of autosomal fragile
      sites in a healthy Basque sample. The results show interindividual variability,
      no sex differences at a global level, but differences for some fragile sites.
      Compared with other populations, a higher incidence of rare autosomal fragile
      sites has been demonstrated (8%). (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557085
TI  - Ulceration on an old cervical operative scar: Post-surgical pyoderma gangrenosum
      induced by recent mastectomy.

PMID- 28557086
TI  - Secular changes in the stature and weight of Taiwanese children, 1964-1988.
AB  - Secular changes in mean statures and body weights of nationally representative
      samples of school children from Taiwan, republic of china, between 1964 and 1988
      are described. The trend is for continuous increase in both measures from 1964
      through 1988, and the more recent data suggest that the positive secular trend is
      continuing more so in males than in females. Estimated ages at peak height
      velocity (PHV) and peak weight velocity (PWV), based on the Preece-Baines model I
      applied to the cross-sectional means, decline linearly in both sexes at about
      0.04 yr/yr and 0.05 yr/yr, respectively. Chinese children in Taiwan, Republic of
      China, are, on average, heavier than Chinese children from the People's Republic
      of china, but differences in mean statures are negligible. Chinese children in
      Taiwan mature about 0.5 to 0.7 year earlier (estimated ages at PHV) than those in
      the People's Republic of China. Estimated rates of secular change in stature tend
      to be slightly greater in chinese children from the People's Republic of China
      between the 1950s and 1985 than in Chinese children from Taiwan, Republic of
      China, between 1964 and 1988. In contrast, estimated rates of secular change in
      body weight are greater in children from Taiwan than in children from the
      People's Republic of China. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557087
TI  - Demography in biological anthropology: Human population structure and evolution.
AB  - The fact of human evolution is evident in the biological variation caused by the
      pattern of lines of descent. Theories of human evolution are the explanations of
      the fertility and mortality differentials that determine patterns of variation at
      the subspecific level. Migrations also influence the patterns. Because human
      beings plan migrations and marriages, theories relying solely on selective
      advantage and gene diffusion do not fully account for the observed patterns.
      These patterns can be interpreted through time and space as dense thickets of
      descent lines, often clustered into local fascicles held together by inbreeding.
      The patterns of descent lines are thus punctuated by births, sometimes ended by
      extinction of lines, but marked also by rich interconnections of the fascicles by
      filaments that represent marital migration. The patterns are neither solely of
      racial isolates nor of simple diffusion, but are the result of the complex
      sociocultural events that influence genetic demography, a field of study that
      some of Ed Hunt's work foreshadowed. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557088
TI  - Dissociation between skinfold thickness changes and growth of adipose tissue
      volume in children and youth.
AB  - The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there is a divergence
      in the relationship between skinfold thickness and an adipose tissue volume (ATV)
      corresponding to the same segment of the body during growth. Anthropometric data
      from the cross-sectional Coquitlam Growth Study (COGRO) were used to estimate the
      ATV of the arm, calf, thigh, and trunk in 6- to 18 years old girls (n = 458) and
      boys (n = 487). Assuring a cylindrical shape for body segments, ATV was
      calculated by subtracting an inner cylinder of muscle, bone, and residual from
      the total cylindrical volume of a given segment. Combined graphical analysis of
      both skinfold growth and growth of ATV reveals that a decrease in skinfold can
      occur without a concomitant decrease in its corresponding regional ATV. This
      happens more dramatically in boys than in girls, and in the limbs than in the
      trunk. This suggests that exaggerated growth in length and/or muscle girth cause
      a "spreading" and "thinning" of the adipose tissue layer, which does not
      necessarily reflect fat loss. The meaning of changes in skinfold thicknesses
      during growth thus needs evaluation. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557089
TI  - Sexual dimorphism in modern Japanese crania.
AB  - The Japanese population has gone through significant micro-evolutionary changes
      during the last half century. One approach to quantify these changes is an
      osteometric analysis of sexual variation in the skeleton. The present study
      evaluates sexual dimorphism in modern Japanese cranial dimensions. Comprehensive
      osteometric data were obtained from 84 modern Japanese skeletons of known sex and
      age at death from the dissecting room collection at Jikei Medical University,
      Tokyo. The remains were macerated between 1960 and 1970 and thus are from
      individuals who lived through World War II. A total of 16 cranial dimensions were
      subjected to SPSS-X discriminant function analysis. Using 11 measurements of the
      cranium, five dimensions were selected by the stepwise discriminant methods,
      including bigonial breadth. In a second stepwise function using 11 cranial
      measurements, seven contributed to the function. In both functions, mastoid
      height was selected first and prediction accuracy averaged 84%. Because of its
      significant contribution, a function was calculated from mastoid height alone.
      This produced an average of 74% prediction accuracy. In general, width dimensions
      better reflected differences between the sexes. The accuracy of correct
      classification from the Jikei sample was slightly lower than those of earlier
      Japanese populations. The results of this study also suggested that sexual
      dimorphism in Japanese crania may have decreased as a result of an increase in
      size of females. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557090
TI  - A special tribute in honor of Edward Eyre Hunt, Jr.

PMID- 28557091
TI  - Growth in stature in early, average, and late maturing children of the Caracas
      mixed-longitudinal study.
AB  - A sample of 113 boys and 101 girls of the Caracas Mixed-Longitudinal Study was
      grouped into early, average, and late maturers according to selected cut-off
      points of the 10th and 90th centiles for age at peak height velocity (APHV).
      Individual curves were fitted with the cubic spline function, in which height
      velocity corresponds to the first derivative. Age at menarche (AM) was estimated
      by recall in a longitudinal context. Differences between groups were assessed
      with F and t-tests. Girls were approximately 2 years earlier than boys in APHV
      and thus significantly shorter; their estimated PHV was also significantly lower.
      APHV in boys and girls occurred 0.4-0.6 years earlier than in European children,
      which is consistent with a faster tempo of growth of Venezuelan youth. The three
      maturity groups differed significantly in timing, stature, and AM. Early maturers
      were taller than average maturers, and the latter were taller than late maturers
      with maximal differences between the extreme groups at ages 13-14 in boys and 11
      12 in girls. Early maturers grew at a faster rate than average maturers, and the
      latter grew at a faster rate than late maturers up to 13 years in boys and 10-11
      years in girls. Despite difficulties encountered in the analysis of mixed-linked
      longitudinal data, meaningful growth differences were found between maturity
      groups of urban Venezuelan children. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557092
TI  - Associations between maternal and fetal serum levels of immune activation markers
      and fetal growth.
AB  - During pregnancy, signs of maternal immunologic sensitization to fetal HLA and
      other fetoplacental alloantigens are often detectable in peripheral blood.
      Presumbly, this in part reflects immune activity at the maternal-fetal interface.
      This response may involve activation of maternal T cells, which stimulate
      placental growth via lymphokine production. To shed light on this mechanism, data
      on placental weight, neonatal anthropometry, gestational age, fetomaternal HLA
      relationships (reflecting a potential for HLA allosensitization), and serum
      levels of three immune activation markers in maternal and cord blood were
      collected in a sample of 61 primiparous women and their neonates. The activation
      markers were soluble CD8 antigen (sCD8), interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R), and
      beta-2 microglobulin (beta2 m). Mean fetal and maternal sCD8 and beta2 m levels,
      and mean fetal sIL-2R levels were significantly higher than published norms.
      Fetal means for all three markers exceeded maternal means, and both sIL-2R and
      beta2 m were highly correlated between mother and fetus. This suggests that fetal
      sIL-2R and beta2 m levels result in part from transport or diffusion from the
      maternal compartment. No associations were found between fetomaternal HLA
      relationships, activation markers, and placental weight. The difference between
      the fetal and maternal beta2 m value was significantly correlated with birth
      weight, controlling for chest circumference and crown-heel length. Associations
      between birth weight and fetomaternal HLA relationships could not be interpreted
      with certainty. These findings suggest that maternal immune activation and
      diffusion or transport of beta2 m into fetal compartment enhances fetal growth in
      fat-free body mass. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557093
TI  - Stature and stature distribution in recent West German and historic samples of
      Italian and Dutch conscripts.
AB  - Based on the standard for the natural distribution of stature obtained from
      11,851,168 West German conscripts (born in 1938-1971), stature and stature
      distribution were investigated in historic samples of Italian (born 1854-1963)
      and Dutch (drafts of 1863-1970) conscripts. Both stature and stature distribution
      in the historic Italian and Dutch samples showed a variety of characteristic
      deviations from the natural stature distribution of the modern populations, which
      strongly suggest that there are at least two developmental periods that are
      sensitive to socioeconomic events with regard to final stature. Environmental
      disasters during pregnancy and the first year of life lead to a ubiquitous
      reduction of mean stature in the total cohort affected. This is obvious in
      Italians born in 1945, who are 3.7 mm shorter than those born in 1944, and 7.9 mm
      shorter than those born in 1946. An even stronger suppression of final stature by
      more than 12 mm is obvious in Italians born in 1899 and 1900. Stature
      distribution, however, is influenced by environmental factors during adolescence.
      Particularly small persons become numerous during periods of war and economic
      depression. This is evident in the 19th century Dutch and Italian samples, and
      during the early 1920s. Changes in developmental tempo seem unlikely to cause
      these effects. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557094
TI  - Effects of religion, economics, and geography on genetic structure of Fogo
      Island, Newfoundland.
AB  - The population structure of Fogo Island, Newfoundland is described using
      geography, religious affiliation, economic factors (such as the presence of a
      fish-packing plant), and genetic markers. Five different analytic methods, R
      matrix analysis, rii VS. mean per locus heterozygosity, predicted kinship (phi),
      mean first passage time, and Mantel matrix comparisons, were applied to the Fogo
      Island genetic and demographic data. The results suggest that geography plays a
      role on Fogo Island in the distribution of genes, while religion, ethnicity, and
      economic factors play less significant roles. The communities with fish-packing
      plants and tourism serve as migratory "sinks" for Fogo islanders seeking
      employment. Reproductively, the most isolated village on Fogo Island is Tilting,
      and this is reflected in its genetic uniqueness, initially caused by Irish
      settlement and subsequently the action of stochastic processes. (c) 1995 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557095
TI  - Secular changes in the stature, weight, and age at maximum growth increments of
      urban Chinese girls from the 1950s to 1985.
AB  - This study focuses on changes in the stature, weight, and age at maximum
      increments in Chinese urban girls 7-17 years of age between the 1950s and 1985.
      The data come from anthropometric surbeys in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1985 in
      17 Chinese cities. An overall increasing trend is apparent for stature and
      weight. The average increments are 1.91 cm and 0.57 kg per decade for 7 year
      olds, 3.43 cm per decade for 11 year olds, 2.11 kg per decade for 13 year olds,
      and 1.27 cm and 0.73 kg per decade for 17 year olds. Girls in 1985 attained peak
      growth earlier, by 1.08 years or 0.04 year/decade, than girls in the generation
      30 years earlier. Specific comprisons of changes in body size and age at maximum
      increments during 1950-1960, 1960-1970, and 1970-1985 are also reported, and the
      results are compared with those of other countries or groups. (c) 1995 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557096
TI  - Secular changes in the stature and mass of Western Australian secondary school
      children.
AB  - Anthropometric data for 4,683 Western Australian secondary school chidren from
      the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia, were compared with figures
      compiled in 1940 from the same area. In the 44 year period, the average stature
      of 12- to 18-year-old males increased by approximately 4% in each 1 year age band
      and average body mass increased by 15%. Over the same period, girls of similar
      age showed stature increases with a mean value of 2% for each 1 year age group
      and average mass increases of 11%. The magnitude of the secular increase declined
      with age from 12 to 17 years. Standard deviations for the 1940 data were not
      presented; hence, the statistical significance of any difference between mean
      values could not be established. The body mass index (BMI) estimates from 1940
      were lower at all ages for both sexes than the actual BMI data from 1984. (c)
      1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557097
TI  - Sex ratio of livebirths in Micronesia.
AB  - A growing body of data extends Hunt's earlier findings from Yap to suggest a
      characteristic Micronesian pattern of highly masculinized secondary sex ratios.
      Using materials from an extensive family record register for pre-World War II
      Guam, it is now possible to examine parental age and birth order effects in a
      Micronesian population in which the overall sex ratio of livebirths to 3,406
      formally wed and fertile couples was 109.6. In contrast to the results of most
      studies among Euroamerican groups, secondary sex ratios on Guam were
      significantly higher for higher order births and for paternal age at last
      recorded birth to older couples. This apparent anomaly is resolved, however, and
      James' hypothesis of human sex ratio determination is supported when
      universalistic assumptions of declinin coital frequencies with spousal age and
      marital duration are replaced by more appropriate and population-specific
      ethnodemographic information. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557098
TI  - Subsistence patterns and blood pressure variation in two rural Caboclo
      communities of Marajo Island, Para, Brazil.
AB  - Blood pressure (BP) increases with age in westernized societies, is higher in
      men, and is correlated with the body mass index (BMI). Traditional societies
      present more variable patterns of BP. In 1991, BP and anthropometric data from
      two "Caboclo" (rural populations of mixed ancestry) groups from Marajo Island,
      Brazil, were collected: The Paricatuba group, (N = 20;12 women), with a
      subsistence base of fishing, collection of palm fruits, and traditional
      gardening; and the Praia Grande group (N = 26; 14 women), where subsistence is
      based on mechanized agriculture. In Paricatuba, mean BP is 109/74 mmHg in men and
      101/70 mmHg in women. There are no significant differences between BP of men and
      women, and systolic blood pressure (SBP) increases with age. Both SBP and
      diastolic blood pressure (DBP) are associated with weight, but only DBP is
      associated with the BMI, while SBP is associated with stature. In Praia Grande,
      mean BP is 120/76 mmHg in men and 118/70 mmHg in women, with no significant
      differences between the sexes. In Praia Grande, SBP is higher than in Paricatuba,
      and both SBP and DBP are associated with age. Compared with urban groups, both
      Caboclo samples have low BP. Still, differences in BP and body habitus between
      the two groups support a hypothesis that degree of westernization influences mean
      levels of BP in rural Amazonian populations. Further, the results also may be
      interpreted as suggesting that associations of sex, age, and BMI with BP,
      commonly reported in urban samples, are a byproduct of westernization rather than
      a result of genetic factors. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557099
TI  - Age assessment of the Spitalfields cemetery population by rib phase analysis.
AB  - Accurate paleodemographic reconstruction depends in large part on the ability to
      estimate age at death from the skeleton. Thus, it is important to evaluate the
      reliability of standards utilized for this assessment. The rib phase technique
      has proven to be one of the most consistently reliable means of determining age
      in modern human adults. A recent study also demonstrated that this method can be
      applied to Neandertals because they exhibit the same pattern of age-related
      change. However, the efficacy of the rib phases in aging archaeological
      populations of anatomically modern humans has not been systematically examined.
      Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine if ribs from the 16th to
      18th century Spitalfields cemetery population (with church records of age at
      death) manifest a morphological aging pattern similar to that found in the recent
      specimens upon which the rib phase standards are based. Age was assessed on a
      sample of 87 individuals using only the sternal ends of the ribs without access
      to the rest of the skeleton or records of age and sex. Results indicated that
      Spitalfields ribs exhibit essentially the same aging patterns found in the ribs
      of modern Whites. Overall, the demographic profile generated from the ribs
      produced a good approximation of this sample in both range and distribution.
      Error was in the direction of underaging, and results for males were better than
      for females. The present findings indicate that the rib can be considered a
      reliable site for age estimation in archaeological populations. (c) 1995 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557100
TI  - Staff perspectives: What is the function of adult mental health day hospital
      programs?
AB  - : WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Psychiatric day hospital (DH) treatment has been
      offered since the 1930s and is appropriate for individuals experiencing intense
      psychiatric symptoms without requiring 24-hour inpatient care. No empirical
      research has examined the specific purpose of DH treatment from the perspectives
      of healthcare providers within these programs. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING
      KNOWLEDGE?: This study was the first to address the question of the purpose and
      function of DH treatment from the outlook of frontline workers within this
      setting, and confirmed anecdotal observations that DH treatment provides an
      alternative to intensive psychiatric care, and also operates as "bridge" between
      these intensive services and purely outpatient treatment. Additional information
      emerged, such as the importance of the name of DH programs avoiding connotations
      of illness, the benefits and skills that draw patients to these programs, and
      challenges that staff and patients experience within DH programs (e.g. short
      length of treatment, barriers to treatment access). WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR
      PRACTICE?: This information can enhance curriculum development within these
      settings. For example, given the importance of skill building, it is essential to
      integrate the provision of skill building and coping strategies within these
      settings. In addition, given that the name of the setting can impact staff (and
      perhaps service users as well), ensuring that the name of such program highlight
      wellness and recovery may enable a different type of therapeutic community to
      develop within these settings. ABSTRACT: Introduction Despite the benefits of
      psychiatric day hospitals (DH), research has not addressed staff perspectives of
      these programs' effectiveness and barriers. Aim To elucidate staff perceptions of
      Adult Mental Health DH programs at two hospitals in Canada, allowing for improved
      programming, enhanced structure and increased understanding of DH settings within
      the continuum of care. Method Twenty-five DH staff members completed semi
      structured qualitative interviews. Two independent coders applied content
      analysis to achieve data saturation. Results Four major themes emerged: (1)
      program purpose and function, (2) what is in a name, (3) perceived patient
      motivation, and (4) room for improvement. Discussion Findings highlighted the
      importance of a multidisciplinary team delivering education and skill-focused
      interventions. Services were cited as "bridging" different mental health
      settings. Challenges included barriers to treatment access and inadequate length
      of treatment. Implications for Practice Understanding the function and purpose of
      this treatment service may enhance service delivery by enabling programs to
      integrate identified key ingredients. Providers can also note treatment duration
      and consider how to best use that time. Finally, language used within a DH
      setting appears to impact staff delivering services, and may also alter patients'
      understanding of the services they will receive and purpose of the program.

PMID- 28557101
TI  - The association between interval from acceptance to first-time donation, missed
      first appointment and future donation behaviour.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We examined the association of the interval between
      the date an individual is accepted for blood donation and the date of first
      donation (IFD-interval, index-to-first-time donation interval) and missed first
      appointment with future donation behaviour among new donors. These two variables
      have not been analysed in previous studies of donation behaviour among new
      donors. METHODS: Categories were generated for age (18-29 vs 30-65 years), missed
      appointment status (no-show vs same-day cancellation) and the IFD-interval [short
      (<=median time) vs long (>median time)]. Accepted donors (n = 807) were followed
      for 19 months. Outcome measures were first-appointment attendance rates, return
      rates among first-time donors and the proportion of experienced donors, defined
      as those who gave >=5 donations. RESULTS: In logistic regression analyses, high
      no-show rates were significantly associated with decreased likelihood of first
      time donation. Long IFD-intervals were significantly associated with decreased
      likelihood of returning for a second donation among first-time donors.
      Experienced donors, compared to novice donors, were more likely to be male than
      female, older than younger and with shorter vs longer IFD-intervals. CONCLUSIONS:
      No-show and long IFD-intervals may be behavioural markers of low levels of
      motivation for making the first donation and for returning for a second donation,
      respectively.

PMID- 28557102
TI  - Oncologic safety of cervical nerve preservation in neck dissection for head and
      neck cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the functional merits of preserving cervical nerves in neck
      dissection for head and neck cancer have been reported, the oncologic safety has
      not yet been determined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      safety of cervical nerve preservation. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was
      performed on patients with head and neck cancer who had been treated by neck
      dissection between 2009 and 2014 at Kyoto Medical Center. Management of cervical
      nerves and clinical results were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 335 sides of neck
      dissection had been performed in 222 patients. Cervical nerves were preserved in
      175 neck sides and resected in 160 sides. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate
      calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 71%. The 5-year neck control rate was
      95% in cervical nerve preserved sides and 89% in cervical nerve resected sides.
      CONCLUSION: Preserving cervical nerves in neck dissection is oncologically safe
      in selected cases.

PMID- 28557103
TI  - Family involvement in timely detection of changes in health of nursing homes
      residents: A qualitative exploratory study.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore family perspectives on their involvement in the
      timely detection of changes in their relatives' health in UK nursing homes.
      BACKGROUND: Increasingly, policy attention is being paid to the need to reduce
      hospitalisations for conditions that, if detected and treated in time, could be
      managed in the community. We know that family continue to be involved in the care
      of their family members once they have moved into a nursing home. Little is
      known, however, about family involvement in the timely detection of changes in
      health in nursing home residents. DESIGN: Qualitative exploratory study with
      thematic analysis. METHODS: A purposive sampling strategy was applied. Fourteen
      semi-structured one-to-one interviews with family members of people living in 13
      different UK nursing homes. Data were collected from November 2015-March 2016.
      RESULTS: Families were involved in the timely detection of changes in health in
      three key ways: noticing signs of changes in health, informing care staff about
      what they noticed and educating care staff about their family members' changes in
      health. Families suggested they could be supported to detect timely changes in
      health by developing effective working practices with care staff. CONCLUSION:
      Families can provide a special contribution to the process of timely detection in
      nursing homes. Their involvement needs to be negotiated, better supported, as
      well as given more legitimacy and structure within the nursing home. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: Families could provide much needed support to nursing home
      nurses, care assistants and managers in timely detection of changes in health.
      This may be achieved through communication about their preferred involvement on a
      case-by-case basis as well as providing appropriate support or services.

PMID- 28557104
TI  - Large variability in CO2 and N2 O emissions and in 15 N site preference of N2 O
      from reactions of nitrite with lignin and its derivatives at different pH.
AB  - RATIONALE: Chemodenitrification is an important N2 O source in soil; however,
      knowledge about the production of CO2 and N2 O from abiotic nitrite-SOM
      reactions, especially the N2 O isotopic signatures (intramolecular 15 N site
      preference (SP), and delta15 Nbulk and delta18 O values), is quite limited at
      present. METHODS: N2 O and CO2 emissions from chemical reactions of nitrite with
      lignin products were determined with gas chromatography, and their response
      surfaces as a function of pH from 3 to 6 and nitrite concentration from 0.1 to
      0.5 mM were explored with polynomial regression. The intramolecular 15 N
      distribution of N2 O, as well as delta15 Nbulk and delta18 O values, were
      measured with an isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled to an online pre
      concentration unit. The variability in N2 O SP values was tested from pH 3 to 5,
      and for nitrite concentrations from 0.3 to 0.5 mM. RESULTS: Both CO2 and N2 O
      emissions varied largely with pH and the structure of lignin products. The
      highest N2 O emission occurred at pH 4-5 in 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde
      and 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid treatments, and at pH 3 in the treatments
      with lignin, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid, 4
      hydroxybenzaldehyde, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. A wide range of N2 O SP values
      (11.9-37.40/00), which was pH dependent and not distinguishable from microbial
      pathways, was observed at pH 3-5. The delta15 Nbulk and delta18 O values of N2 O
      were both in a similar range to that reported for fungal denitrification and
      bacterial denitrification. CONCLUSIONS: These results present the first
      characterization of the isotopic composition of N2 O from chemodenitrification in
      pure chemical assays. Chemical reactions of nitrite with lignin are pH-dependent
      and associated with substantial CO2 and N2 O emissions. The SP values of N2 O
      derived from chemodenitrification were neither distinguishable from the biotic
      pathways nor remained stable with varying pH. Therefore, the use of N2 O isotopic
      signatures for source partitioning is restricted when chemodenitrification is
      contributing significantly to N2 O emission.

PMID- 28557105
TI  - Major response to pembrolizumab in two patients with locally advanced cutaneous
      squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28557106
TI  - Clinical feasibility of pre-operative neurodevelopmental assessment of infants
      undergoing open heart surgery.
AB  - AIM: Assessing the neurodevelopmental status of infants with congenital heart
      disease before surgery provides a means of identifying those at heightened risk
      of developmental delay. This study aimed to investigate factors impacting
      clinical feasibility of pre-operative neurodevelopmental assessment of infants
      undergoing early open heart surgery. METHODS: Infants who underwent open heart
      surgery prior to 4 months of age participated in this cross-sectional study. The
      Test of Infant Motor Performance and Prechtl's Assessment of General Movements
      were undertaken on infants pre-operatively. When assessments could not be
      undertaken, reasons were ascribed to either infant or environmental
      circumstances. Demographic data and Aristotle scores were compared between groups
      of infants who did or did not undergo assessment. Binary logistic regression was
      used to explore associations. RESULTS: A total of 60 infants participated in the
      study. Median gestational age was 38.78 weeks (interquartile range: 36.93-39.72).
      Of these infants, 37 (62%) were unable to undergo pre-operative assessment.
      Twenty-four (40%) could not complete assessment due to infant-related factors and
      13 (22%) due to environmental-related factors. For every point increase in the
      Aristotle Patient-Adjusted Complexity score, the infants likelihood of being
      unable to undergo assessment increased by 35% (odds ratio: 0.35; 95% confidence
      interval: 1.03-1.77, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Over half of the infants undergoing
      open heart surgery were unable to complete pre-operative neurodevelopmental
      assessment. The primary reason for this was infant-related medical instability.
      Findings suggest further research is warranted to investigate whether the
      Aristotle Patient-Adjusted Complexity score might serve as an indicator to inform
      developmental surveillance with this medically fragile cohort.

PMID- 28557107
TI  - Case of linear immunoglobulin A/immunoglobulin G bullous dermatosis showing
      immunoglobulin G reactivity with the 120-kDa LAD-1.

PMID- 28557108
TI  - Thromboelastography (TEG) or thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to monitor haemostatic
      treatment versus usual care in adults or children with bleeding.

PMID- 28557109
TI  - Identification of two secondary acyltransferases of lipid A in Pseudomonas putida
      KT2442.
AB  - AIMS: Identify the secondary acyltransferases of lipid A in Pseudomonas putida.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Two homologues of Escherichia coli acyltransferase LpxL,
      encoded by PP_0063 and PP_1735, exist in P. putida. Pseudomonas putida mutant
      strains KWZ001 and KWZ002 were constructed by deleting the genes PP_0063 and
      PP_1735 respectively. Lipid A species were isolated from P. putidaKT2442, KWZ001
      and KWZ002, respectively, and analysed by using electrospray ionization/mass
      spectrometry (ESI/MS). The results suggest that both PP_0063 and PP_1735 encode
      secondary acyltransferase of lipid A in P. putida. To further study the site
      specificity of these two acyltransferases, PP_0063, PP_1735 and Escherichia coli
      lpxL were overexpressed in KWZ001 and KWZ002 respectively. Lipid A species
      isolated from these recombinant strains were analysed by using ESI/MS, and the
      results suggest that the acyltransferase encoded by PP_0063 catalyses the
      addition of the 2-OH-C12:0 chain at the 2-position and the acyltransferase
      encoded by PP_1735 catalyses the addition of the C12:0 chain to the 2'-position
      of lipid A in P. putida. CONCLUSION: The two acyltransferases encoded by PP_0063
      and PP_1735, respectively, are responsible for the site-specific additions of the
      two secondary acyl chains at the 2- and 2'-positions of lipid A in P. putida.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Understanding the lipid A structure
      variation in P. putida might provide new clues for the survival of P. putida
      under various stress conditions.

PMID- 28557111
TI  - Tetranitromethane: A Nightmare of Molecular Flexibility in the Gaseous and Solid
      States.
AB  - After numerous attempts over the last seven decades to obtain a structure for the
      simple, highly symmetric molecule tetranitromethane (C(NO2 )4 , TNM) that is
      consistent with results from diffraction experiments and spectroscopic analysis,
      the structure has now been determined in the gas phase and the solid state. For
      the gas phase, a new approach based on a four-dimensional dynamic model for
      describing the correlated torsional dynamics of the four C-NO2 units was
      necessary to describe the experimental gas-phase electron diffraction
      intensities. A model describing a highly disordered high-temperature crystalline
      phase was also established, and the structure of an ordered low-temperature phase
      was determined by X-ray diffraction. TNM is a prime example of molecular
      flexibility, bringing structural methods to the limits of their applicability.

PMID- 28557110
TI  - Dose-escalation study evaluating pegylated interferon alpha-2a in patients with
      cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This open-label, multicenter, dose-escalation study evaluated the
      safety, tolerability, and efficacy of subcutaneous pegylated (40 kD) interferon
      alpha-2a (PEG-IFN alpha-2a) in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: PEG-IFN alpha-2a was administered subcutaneously at 180 (n
      = 4), 270 (n = 6), or 360 MUg (n = 3) once weekly for 12 weeks. Efficacy was
      assessed by the proportion of patients with complete response (CR) or partial
      response (PR). RESULTS: PEG-IFN alpha-2a was generally well tolerated, with a
      moderate number of reductions or withholding of doses because of adverse events
      (AEs) (25% (n = 1), 66% (n = 4), and 0% (n = 0) in the 180-, 270-, and 360
      MUg/week groups, respectively). The only dose-limiting toxicity was a grade 3
      elevation of liver enzymes in the 270-MUg dose group. The most common AEs were
      fatigue, acute flu-like symptoms, and hepatic toxicity. The major response rate
      (CR or PR) was 50% in the 180-MUg group (CR, 50%; PR, 0%), 83% in the 270-MUg
      group (CR, 67%; PR, 17%), and 66% in the 360-MUg group (CR, 33%; PR, 33%).
      CONCLUSION: PEG-IFN alpha-2a at doses up to 360 MUg once weekly was well
      tolerated in patients with CTCL up to the highest dose group and showed good
      response rates. Due to their good tolerance even in high doses, they might be an
      option for patients not tolerating standard IFN-alpha preparations. However, for
      this purpose and to evaluate comparability between standard and PEG-IFN larger
      clinical trials are needed, alone and in combination with oral photochemotherapy
      (PUVA).

PMID- 28557113
TI  - Governing citizens and health professionals at a distance: A critical discourse
      analysis of policies of intersectorial collaboration in Danish health-care.
AB  - It is widely recognised that the delivery of services across health-care sectors
      faces multiple challenges related to incoherence in patient pathways. There are
      multiple reasons for this incoherence, which are often dealt with through
      national legislation and policy-making. This paper discusses policies as powerful
      actors and explores how effects of a concrete policy are adapted for
      intersectorial collaboration in Danish health-care. The paper is based on a
      critical discourse analysis of a central policy document in Danish health-care
      known as the 'Health Agreements'. Using Fairclough's three-dimensional model for
      discourse analysis, we explored the document to clarify the construction of
      actors participating in intersectorial collaboration. The analysis revealed the
      Health Agreement as a 'negotiated text', appearing as an overriding document
      legitimising one possible discourse regarding the premises of intersectorial
      collaboration. The premises of intersectorial collaboration are maintained
      through a specific presentation of actors leaving little room for discussion,
      where professionals are constructed as actors who are expected to develop ways of
      collaborating according to the Triple Aim approach in order to promote
      productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, this presentation constructs citizens
      and patients as active, participating individuals who consciously prioritise and
      act with the purpose of controlling their life situation.

PMID- 28557112
TI  - Effect of androgen deprivation therapy on sexual function and bother in men with
      prostate cancer: A controlled comparison.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The adverse sexual effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) on
      men with prostate cancer have been well described. Less well known is the
      relative degree of sexual dysfunction and bother associated with ADT compared to
      other primary treatment modalities such as radical prostatectomy. We sought to
      describe the trajectory and relative magnitude of changes in sexual function and
      bother in men on ADT and to examine demographic and clinical predictors of ADT's
      adverse sexual effects. METHODS: Prostate cancer patients treated with ADT (n =
      60) completed assessments of sexual function and sexual bother 3 times during a 1
      year period after the initiation of ADT. Prostate cancer patients treated with
      radical prostatectomy only and not receiving ADT (n = 85) and men with no history
      of cancer (n = 86) matched on age and education completed assessments at similar
      intervals. RESULTS: Androgen deprivation therapy recipients reported worsening
      sexual function and increasing bother over time compared to controls. Effect
      sizes for the differences in sexual function were large to very large, and for
      bother were small to very large. Age younger than 83 years predicted relatively
      poorer sexual function, and age younger than 78 years predicted greater sexual
      bother at 12 months in men on ADT compared to men not on ADT. CONCLUSIONS: Most
      men on ADT for prostate cancer will never return to baseline levels of sexual
      function. Interventions focused on sexual bother over function and designed to
      help couples build and maintain satisfying relationship intimacy are likely to
      more positively affect men's psychological well-being while on ADT than medical
      or sexual aids targeting sexual dysfunction.

PMID- 28557114
TI  - Herpes zoster-related aseptic meningitis and encephalomeningitis: A single
      faculty retrospective case study.

PMID- 28557115
TI  - James A. Gavan (1916-1994).

PMID- 28557116
TI  - Age at menarche as an indicator of the socioeconomic situation of rural girls in
      Poland in 1967, 1977, and 1987.
AB  - Village girls, 9.5-18.5 years of age, inhabiting various regions of Poland, were
      surveyed in 1967 (n = 7,886), 1977 (n = 7,771), and 1987 (n = 11,479). Based on
      the source of income of the families, three groups were identified: farmers,
      farmer-workers, and nonfarmers. The girls were also divided on the basis of the
      number of children in the family and education of their fathers. In all three
      surveys, the earliest age at menarche was observed in girls from the nonfarmer
      group and the latest in girls from the farmer group. In 1987 the ages at menarche
      were 13.27 +/- 0.03 years and 13.58 +/- 0.04 years, respectively. The rapid
      acceleration of menarcheal age (0.64 year) between 1967 and 1977 was halted, and
      perhaps, reversed from 1977 to 1987 (-0.06 year), reflecting the severe social
      and economic crisis in Poland. The later menarcheal ages observed in the last
      decade occur mainly among girls from families with four and five children. Girls
      from better educated rural families were more affected by the crisis than girls
      from families in which fathers have only an elementary or vocational training
      education. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557117
TI  - Inbreeding effects on reproductive outcome among seven tribes of Andhra Pradesh,
      India.
AB  - The effects of inbreeding on reproductive outcome in terms of fertility and
      mortality were analyzed in seven tribal populations from Andhra Pradesh, India.
      The effect on mortality at both prenatal and prereproductive postnatal stages was
      further verified after estimating genetic load by an exponential regression
      model. Relatively higher fertility and mortality rates were recorded among
      consanguineous marriages than nonconsanguineous unions in the majority of tribes.
      The regression analysis indicated a positive, nonsignificant association between
      inbreeding and mortality in five tribes. Low B/A ratios were found in five
      tribes. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557118
TI  - Effect of drink pattern and solar radiation on thermoregulation and fluid balance
      during exercise in chronically heat acclimatized children.
AB  - The purposes of this study were to examine the thermoregulatory and body fluid
      balance responses in chronically heat acclimatized children, i.e., indigenous to
      a tropical climate, during exercise in four outdoor conditions and the effects of
      dehydration on their thermoregulatory response. Nine children (age = 13.3 +/- 1.9
      yr, VO2 max = 45.5 +/- 9.2 ml . kg-1 . min-1 ) cycled at 60% VO2 max each under
      four conditions: sun exposure voluntary drinking (SuVD), sun exposure forced
      drinking (SuFD), shaded voluntary drinking (ShVD), and shaded forced drinking
      (ShFD). Exercise sessions consisted of four 20-min exercise bouts alternating
      with 25-min rest periods. Globe temperature and the WBGT index were higher during
      SuVD and SuFD compared to ShVD and ShFD (P < 0.05). The change in rectal
      temperature, metabolic heat production, and heat storage did not differ among the
      conditions. Total water intake (% IBW) was higher during SuFD (4.1 +/- 0.01) and
      ShFD (3.7 +/- 0.1) compared to SuVD (2.1 +/- 0.1) and ShVD (1.0 +/- 0.1) and
      during SuVD compared to ShVD (P < 0.05). Sweating rate (L . hr-1 ) was higher
      during SuFD (0.7 +/- 0.1) and ShFD (0.6 +/- 0.1) compared to SuVD (0.5 +/- 0.1)
      and ShVD (0.4 +/- 0.1) (P < 0.05). Total fluid loss did not differ among
      conditions (SuVD = 1.7 +/- 0.4; SuFD = 1.5 +/- 0.4; ShVD = 2.1 +/- 0.2; ShFD =
      1.3 +/- 0.3). Results indicate that when exercising in a tropical climate,
      chronically heat acclimatized children demonstrate mild voluntary dehydration and
      adequate heat dissipation. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557119
TI  - Stability of somatotypes: A longitudinal study of Belgian children age 6 to 17
      years.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of somatotypes in
      Belgian children and adolescents, 52 boys and 30 girls, followed longitudinally
      from 6 to 17 years of age. The anthropometric Heath-Carter somatotypes, with a
      stature correction for endomorphy, were estimated at 1-year intervals. Mean
      somatotypes were most different between the earliest and oldest ages in both boys
      and girls. For boys, the means from 9 to 13 years and from 14 to 17 years did not
      differ. Means were 2-4-21/2, 21/2-4-4, and 2-4-4 at 6, 12, and 17 years,
      respectively. The scatter of somatotypes about their means was smallest at 6-8
      years and greatest at 11-13 years in both boys and girls (P <0.05). For girls,
      the mean somatotypes from 8 or 9 years through adolescence were not different,
      although they tended to become more meso-endomorphic. Means were 2-41/2-21/2, 3-4
      31/2, and 31/2-31/2-3 at 6, 12, and 17 years, respectively. The average migratory
      distance for boys was 6.4 (range = 3.7-12.9) and 7.8 (3.9-21.8) for girls. Many
      subjects had changes that were three to four times greater than others. Boys were
      lower in ectomorphy at 6-8 years than at older ages, while girls were higher in
      mesomorphy at 6 than at 12-17 years (P <.05). Interage partial correlations for
      each component were highest (r2 ? .49) between adjacent years, but were poor to
      moderate as time intervals increased. The findings of this longitudinal study
      confirm and further define the instability of somatotypes previously observed in
      cross-sectional studies of Belgian children and adolescents. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557120
TI  - Precision of the one- versus two-handed method of skinfold measurement in the
      obese.
AB  - Skinfolds at five anatomic sites were measured on 47 subjects in a study of
      gallbladder disease in Starr County, Texas, by two methods, one and two handed. A
      comparison was made of the two methods as to bias and precision. There were
      statistically significant but biologically unimportant differences (on the order
      of 1-2 mm) at four of the five sites. At three of these, the two-handed method
      gave larger values (lower thigh, triceps, and subscapular), and at the other site
      (medial calf) this method produced smaller values on average. Measurement
      precision was improved using the two-handed method at three of the five sites,
      significantly so for the triceps skinfold. Measuring skinfolds with two hands
      improves the precision of measurement for some skinfold sites in obese
      individuals. It does not introduce important and systematic biases across
      skinfold sites. Adoption of this technique should be used when circumstances
      outweigh the cost of involving an extra observer in the measurement of skinfold
      thickness, such as when precision is very important and when subjects are obese.
      (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557122
TI  - Sickle cell gene in Central India: Kinship and geography.
AB  - A wide range of variation (0.00-0.14) in the frequencies of the HbS allele has
      been observed among 16 tribes of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. A
      significant excess of SS individuals over that expected under Hardy-Weinberg
      equilibrium was observed among 6 of 16 populations. These populations belong to
      three linguistic groups and have history of heterogeneous origins. A geographical
      cline of increase in HbS allele frequency from east to west is apparent. This
      pattern can largely be explained by differential migration. The kinship
      coefficient (rij ) and paired FST do not show any significant correleation up to
      250 km of geographical distance but beyond this distance they show an inverse
      releationship with increasing geographic distance. Hemoglobin levels between
      individuals with betaS allele and with normal HbA individuals do not differ in
      these. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557121
TI  - Relationships of physical fitness, fatness, and lifestyle indicators with blood
      iron in children and adults.
AB  - The associations between physical fitness, fatness, activity level, dietary
      intake and smoking, with indicators of blood iron status are considered in 1,216
      children and adults of the Quebec Family Study, 612 males and 604 females,
      classified into six age groups: 10-14, 15-19, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, and 50-54
      years. Physical fitness was determined as power output at a heart rate of 150
      beats per min on a cycle ergometer (PWC150 ) and as strength of the knee extensor
      muscles. Fatness was estimated with the body mass index (BMI) and the sum of six
      skinfolds. Activity level and dietary intake were assessed with three-day
      records. Hemoglobin concentration (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), and serum ferritin of
      males were greater (P < 0.001) than those of females in all age groups except 10
      14 years. Serum ferritin of boys and girls (10-19 years) was significantly lower
      than in adults. There were no clear relationships between Hb, Hct, and serum
      ferritin with activity level, physical fitness and body composition. However,
      smoking was positively correlated with Hb (P < 0.01) and Hct (P < 0.001) in all
      age groups, except adult females 35-39 years. Using a multiple correlation
      procedure, the independent variables of the study accounted for about 9% (adult
      males), 11% (boys), 11% (adult females), and 5% (girls) of the variance in serum
      ferritin. Thus, activity level, nutritional intake, physical fitness and body fat
      are only marginally related to blood iron status in this population. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557123
TI  - Coca chewing among high altitude natives: Work and muscular efficiencies of
      nonhabitual chewers.
AB  - The leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum sp.) have long been chewed by natives
      of the highland Andes. Folk belief is that the mild stimulant effect is
      indispensable as an ergogenic aid for strenuous work activities in a high
      altitude environment. This study explored the exercise responses of 23
      nonhabitual coca chewing males who were asked to pedal a bicycle ergometer
      through a series of submaximal and maximal workloads both with and without coca
      chewing. The protocol of the exercise test was specifically designed to allow for
      the determination of work and muscular efficiencies during to submaximal work.
      The subjects showed no differences between the coca and control work protocols
      for VO2 max (1/min), VCO2 max (1/min), or maximal work output (watts). Further,
      there were no differences between coca and control work protocols in oxygen
      saturation (%), pulmonary ventilation (1/min), or respiratory exchange ratio
      (VCO2 /VO2 ) at any level of work. Coca chewing caused subjects to have a higher
      heart rate (bpm) and lower oxygen pulse (ml/beat) for most submaximal workloads
      and higher ventilatory equivalents (VE/VO2 and VE/VCO2 ) above 50% of VO2 max.
      Although there was a tendency for higher gross efficiencies (GE) during the coca
      exercise test at lower relative work levels, between 30-40% of the VO2 max, this
      difference did not reach significance. Mean net efficiency (NE) was higher
      (P=0.018) at a relative work level of ~32% of the VO2 max for exercise with coca
      (23.2% vs. 20.8%). This difference was not apparent at any other work level. The
      mean delta efficiency (DE) was significantly lower (P = 0.012) for exercise with
      coca (26.7%) than for exercise without coca (28.2%). These efficiency differences
      suggest a muscle metabolic effect for coca chewing at low workloads whereby less
      oxygen is consumed by the muscle to perform a given work task. Howeve, given the
      difficulty of interpreting efficiency values, it is not entirely clear if the
      differences are indicative of a work performance benefit for coca chewing. (c)
      1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557124
TI  - A comparison of physical fitness between Igloolik inuit and Volochanka nGanasan.
AB  - Physical characteristics, muscle strength, and predicted aerobic power were
      compared in two circumpolar populations aged 20-49 years at different stages in
      acculturation to a "modern" sedentary life-style: the Inuit of Igloolik (110
      males, 80 females tested in 1989-90) and the nGanasan of Volochanka (29 males, 25
      females tested in 1992-3). Both populations show short stature but normal body
      mass. Skinfold thicknesses (average of triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac) of
      the male Inuit (mean 10-11 mm, rising with age to 15 mm) are now much greater
      than in previous surveys, reflecting adoption of a mechanized, sedentary life
      style. Recent estimates from Siberia suggest continuing substantial daily energy
      expenditures by the men but not the women of this region, and averaged values for
      the three skinfolds in the nGanasan males (mean 7-8 mm) are still low. In women,
      both Inuit (mean skinfolds 15 mm, rising to 29 mm with age) and nGanasan (mean 19
      mm, rising to 25 mm) are now relatively obese. Compared to the nGanasan, male
      Inuit have greater handgrip force (probably due to snowmobile operation), but
      poorer knee extension strength (probably because they now do little walking
      through snow). In contrast, older nGanasan women have less knee extension
      strength than the Inuit (probably because the latter still carry babies on their
      backs). The aerobic power of both Inuit and nGanasan (mean of 48, declining with
      age to 38-40ml/[kg.min] in males, mean of 38-45 declining with age to 33-37
      ml/[kg.min] in females) still corresponds to that of a moderately active urban
      population. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557126
TI  - Parity, adiposity, and body fat distribution among Hispanic women.
AB  - The relationship between parity and body fat distribution was investigated in a
      sample of 1,590 Mexican American, 411 Cuban American, and 657 Puerto Rican women,
      aged 20-74 years. Participants were interviewed and examined as part of the
      Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a cross-sectional study of a
      representative sample of Hispanic populations residing in the United States. In
      each ethnic group, there was an increase with greater parity in overall body fat
      (body mass index [BMI], or triceps plus subscapular skinfolds), central vs.
      peripheral skinfold thicknesses (subscapular/triceps ratio), and upper vs. lower
      body skinfold thicknesses (subscapular/calf ratio). These positive associations
      remained after adjusting for age, income, marital status, smoking, menopausal
      status, and education. They were statistically significant only in the Mexican
      American group. After controlling for the BMI, the association between parity and
      the subscapular/ calf ratio remained significant in Mexican Americans, suggesting
      a relationship between parity and upper body fat distribution independent of body
      size. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557125
TI  - Comparative study of statural growth in Spanish populations.
AB  - Regional differences in the growth of Spanish children were studied by fitting
      the Preece-Baines Model I to cross-sectional stature data. The function
      parameters and derived biological variables were used to compare children from
      seven different studies. Regional differences in growth are interpreted as a
      result of a geographic variation among Spanish provinces in demographic, public
      health and nutritional conditions. There are differences between urban samples
      depending on region. Adult stature (h1 ) and the pattern of growth differ between
      urban and rural populations from the interior lands. Males from urban
      Extremadura, Barcelona and the Basque Country show the tallest adult statures.
      Adult statures of males from Segovia, Extremadura emigrants and Cuenca are not
      only the lowest, but the growth pattern shows delay in estimated ages at take-off
      and PHV compared to the other populations. Estimated age at PHV is later for all
      male samples compared to Vizcaya, except for the sample of Barcelona-I. Females
      from Barcelona-II, Segovia and the Basque Country show the tallest adult statures
      (h1 ). All of the female samples, except that of urban Extremadura, have an
      earlier estimated age at PHV compared to the sample from Vizcaya. (c) 1995 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557127
TI  - Fourteen year changes in adiposity and blood pressure in American Samoan adults.
AB  - A cohort of 194 American Samoan adults with no history of antihypertensive
      treatment was seen at two times, 14 years apart, 1976 and 1990. Anthropometric
      and blood pressure (BP) data in 1976 and 1990, and the chages, were described and
      correlated within age (<40 and ?40 years) and sex groups. These Samoans are
      characterized by massive adiposity and body mass, as well as high prevalence and
      incidence of overweight and hypertension. The younger group had a notable mean
      increase in the body mass index (BMI) and fatness over 14 years, whereas only
      younger females had BP increases. Among older females there were small negative
      mean chages, and in older males small positive mean changes in BMI and skinfolds.
      In both older males and females, systolic BP increased markedly with little mean
      change in diastolic BP. There was substantial heterogeneity around the mean
      chages in all sex-age groups. Adiposity in 1976, assessed by the BMI and
      skinfolds, was positively related to follow-up BP in all groups except older
      males. Chages in adiposity were positively related to chages in BP in all groups.
      Multiple regression analyses showed that change in BMI and age were positively
      related to 1990 BP after adjustment for baseline BP. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557129
TI  - Recreational stimulants, herbal, and spice cannabis: The core psychobiological
      processes that underlie their damaging effects.
AB  - AIMS: Recreational drugs are taken for their positive mood effects, yet their
      regular usage damages well-being. The psychobiological mechanisms underlying
      these damaging effects will be debated. METHODS: The empirical literature on
      recreational cannabinoids and stimulant drugs is reviewed. A theoretical
      explanation for how they cause similar types of damage is outlined. RESULTS: All
      psychoactive drugs cause moods and psychological states to fluctuate. The acute
      mood gains underlie their recreational usage, while the mood deficits on
      withdrawal explain their addictiveness. Cyclical mood changes are found with
      every central nervous system stimulant and also occur with cannabis. These mood
      state changes provide a surface index for more profound psychobiological
      fluctuations. Homeostatic balance is altered, with repetitive disturbances of the
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and disrupted cortisol-neurohormonal
      secretions. Hence, these drugs cause increased stress, disturbed sleep,
      neurocognitive impairments, altered brain activity, and psychiatric
      vulnerability. Equivalent deficits occur with novel psychoactive stimulants such
      as mephedrone and artificial "spice" cannabinoids. These psychobiological
      fluctuations underlie drug dependency and make cessation difficult.
      Psychobiological stability and homeostatic balance are optimally restored by
      quitting psychoactive drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Recreational stimulants such as cocaine
      or MDMA (3.4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and sedative drugs such as cannabis
      damage human homeostasis and well-being through similar core psychobiological
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28557128
TI  - Detection of gastric atrophy by circulating pepsinogens: A comparison of three
      assays.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Circulating levels of pepsinogens have been used in high gastric
      cancer-risk Asian and European populations to triage endoscopic evaluation for
      more severe pathology. There are different analytic methods with uncertain
      correlations. We therefore compared diagnostic performance of three commonly used
      pepsinogen assays to detect histologically confirmed gastric atrophy. METHODS: We
      tested plasma samples from adult patients with (n=50) and without (n=755)
      moderate or severe gastric corpus atrophy, as determined histologically by
      consensus of three expert pathologists. A single laboratory measured pepsinogens
      I (PgI) and II (PgII) using commercially available assays: two ELISA assays
      produced by Biohit (Finland) and Vector Best (Russia), and a latex agglutination
      assay from Eiken (Japan). Quantitative correlations were assessed by Spearman
      statistics. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves vs histological
      diagnosis were calculated using both the manufacturers' and optimized cutoffs.
      RESULTS: Pepsinogen levels were highly correlated among the assays (pairwise
      Rhos: PgI>=0.84, PgII>=0.87; all P-values<.01). Based on manufacturers' cutoffs,
      sensitivities, specificities and areas under the ROC curve for detecting moderate
      to severe histological corpus atrophy by PgI/PgII were 44%/91%/0.70,
      56%/84%/0.76, and 52%/90%/0.77 for Biohit, Vector Best and Eiken, respectively.
      Cutoffs optimized by ROC or data mining analyses did not substantially improve
      test performance. CONCLUSIONS: Commercial assays for pepsinogen have good
      relative agreement but are imperfect tests for clinical diagnosis of gastric
      atrophy. IMPACT: Pepsinogen testing alone does not provide sufficient information
      for gastric cancer risk stratification. Future investigations should focus on
      other potential markers, in combination with pepsinogens.

PMID- 28557130
TI  - Female sexual pain: Epidemiology and genetic overlap with chronic widespread
      pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased tender spots and lowered general pain thresholds have been
      observed in patients with dyspareunia. Based on this, the aim of the study was to
      compare the co-occurrence of female sexual pain across various pain populations
      and to further explore the aetiological structure underlying sexual pain by
      dissecting the genetic and environmental covariation among sexual pain, chronic
      widespread pain (CWP) and the previously reported psychological correlates of
      anxiety sensitivity and depression. METHODS: A multivariate twin study including
      1489 female twin individuals (246 full MZ pairs, 187 full DZ pairs and 623 whose
      co-twin did not participate). Main outcomes measures included self-reported
      diagnosis of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and validated
      questionnaires for the assessment of sexual pain, CWP, depression and anxiety
      sensitivity. RESULTS: Sexual pain showed a small but statistically significant
      correlation with CWP (r = 0.08; p < 0.05), anxiety sensitivity (r = 0.15, p <
      0.001) and depression (r = 0.09, p < 0.01). The heritability of sexual pain was
      found to be 31%. Multivariate variance component analysis revealed a genetic
      factor common among CWP, depression, anxiety sensitivity and sexual pain, and a
      second genetic factor shared between anxiety sensitivity and sexual pain only. We
      further detected genetic and environmental factors unique to sexual pain,
      explaining 24.01% and 67.24%, respectively, of the phenotypic variance.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest some overlap between sexual pain and CWP and
      point towards a shared but complex psychophysiological aetiology underlying
      sexual pain. Results further highlight the influence of specific environmental
      and contextual stressors in the development and maintenance of sexual pain.
      SIGNIFICANCE: Sexual pain shares a common genetic aetiology with chronic
      widespread pain and the frequently reported psychological comorbidities of
      depression and anxiety. Overall this suggests a complex psychophysiological
      aetiology underlying chronic pain conditions. The high proportion of variance in
      sexual pain explained by environmental factors further highlights the importance
      of specific environmental and contextual stressors in the development and
      maintenance of the condition.

PMID- 28557131
TI  - Tuberous breast and predisposition to breast deformity in consanguineous.
AB  - Tuberous breast deformity is a pathologic condition of the breast consisting of a
      constricting ring at the breast base, reduction in the volume of the breast
      parenchyma, and herniation of breast tissue through the nipple-areola complex
      with areola enlargement. This pathology is generally congenital and has an
      unknown etiopathogenesis. We report the first observation of tuberous breast
      deformity in consanguineous. This report suggests the potential role of a genetic
      base in the development of this deformity. Between May 2008 and March 2011, we
      observed six female patients from two different families, aged between 18 and 55
      years, affected by tuberous breast deformity. The breast deformity was
      characterized by breast asymmetry in all six cases. Four patients underwent
      surgery to correct the deformity. Standardized objective measurements of breast
      and chest were taken. A Visual Analog Scale was used to evaluate patients' and
      physicians' satisfaction. The first three patients were consanguineous; two were
      first cousins, and the third was second cousin with one of the above. The other
      three patients were also from the same family: two sisters and their mother.
      According to Von Heimburg's classification, the patients presented different
      degrees of breast deformity. In all operated cases, a good esthetic result with a
      high satisfaction (average visual analog scale score 9) was achieved. The results
      remained stable over time and no revisions were needed after the 1-year follow
      up. The possibility of a parental consanguinity for breast deformities such
      tuberous breast has never been described in the literature. This report suggests
      the possible genetic role in the development of tuberous breast deformity.
      Further studies and genetic tests are required to prove this hypothesis.

PMID- 28557132
TI  - Playing it safe: Patron safety strategies and experience of violence in night
      time entertainment districts.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Incidences of violence are elevated in night-time
      entertainment districts. Research suggests that safety-related behavioural
      strategies adopted while drinking can reduce negative alcohol-related outcomes.
      The current study investigates the use of safety strategies and its association
      with experiences of violence among patrons from the general population. DESIGN
      AND METHODS: Patron interviews (N = 3949) were conducted in and around licenced
      venues in Newcastle (New South Wales) and Geelong (Victoria) during peak trading
      hours (Friday and Saturday, 21:00-01:00 h). Participants (mean age = 24.3, SD =
      5.8; male 54.4%) were asked to report what measures, if any, they used to keep
      safe when drinking and whether they had been involved in a violent incident in
      the last 12 months. RESULTS: After controlling for patron demographics and
      location, the use of multiple (more than one) safety strategies was significantly
      associated with reduced odds of involvement in a violent incident (odds ratio =
      0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.49-0.85, P = 0.002). Significant gender
      differences were observed in the number and type of safety strategies reported.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the number of safety-related behaviours
      during drinking occasions is associated with a small but significant reduction in
      experiencing alcohol-related harms, such as violence. [Zhou J, Droste N, Curtis
      A, Zinkiewicz L, Miller P. Playing it safe: Patron safety strategies and
      experience of violence in night-time entertainment districts.

PMID- 28557133
TI  - Pharmacological and Toxicological Effects of Catha edulis F. (Khat).
AB  - Khat chewing is deeply rooted in the culture and tradition of communities in khat
      belt countries, and its consumption is spread to other countries through the
      suitcase trade. The aim of this article is to review current knowledge on the
      chemistry, social, pharmacology and toxicology of khat and its use. Khat produces
      effect invariably in every system, which is harmful or beneficial in some
      instances. Harmful effects are observed in heavy users, although firm evidence is
      lacking. Chewing khat acutely elicits states of euphoria, which is followed by
      low mood. Khat contains alkaloids with psychostimulant properties, but the effect
      cannot be totally explained by these alkaloids. It is also not clear whether the
      effect produced in some organs like liver could be attributed to khat or
      pesticides sprayed during farming. Although the evidence indicates that khat has
      adverse effects in most organs, our understanding of the complex interaction
      between use and effect is incomplete, and causal relationships have not yet been
      described. Moreover, khat has positioned itself well in the social, economic and
      political arena. Thus, a multidisciplinary research is required to understand the
      different dimensions and come up with ways that maximize the benefit while
      minimizing the risk. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28557134
TI  - TGFbeta pathway deregulation and abnormal phospho-SMAD2/3 staining in hereditary
      cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis-Dutch type.
AB  - Hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis-Dutch type (HCHWA-D) is an early
      onset hereditary form of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) pathology, caused by
      the E22Q mutation in the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide. Transforming growth factor
      beta1 (TGFbeta1) is a key player in vascular fibrosis and in the formation of
      angiopathic vessels in transgenic mice. Therefore, we investigated whether the
      TGFbeta pathway is involved in HCHWA-D pathogenesis in human postmortem brain
      tissue from frontal and occipital lobes. Components of the TGFbeta pathway were
      analyzed with quantitative RT-PCR. TGFbeta1 and TGFbeta Receptor 2 (TGFBR2) gene
      expression levels were significantly increased in HCHWA-D in comparison to the
      controls, in both frontal and occipital lobes. TGFbeta-induced pro-fibrotic
      target genes were also upregulated. We further assessed pathway activation by
      detecting phospho-SMAD2/3 (pSMAD2/3), a direct TGFbeta down-stream signaling
      mediator, using immunohistochemistry. We found abnormal pSMAD2/3 granular
      deposits specifically on HCHWA-D angiopathic frontal and occipital vessels. We
      graded pSMAD2/3 accumulation in angiopathic vessels and found a positive
      correlation with the CAA load independent of the brain area. We also observed
      pSMAD2/3 granules in a halo surrounding occipital vessels, which was specific for
      HCHWA-D. The result of this study indicates an upregulation of TGFbeta1 in HCHWA
      D, as was found previously in AD with CAA pathology. We discuss the possible
      origins and implications of the TGFbeta pathway deregulation in the
      microvasculature in HCHWA-D. These findings identify the TGFbeta pathway as a
      potential biomarker of disease progression and a possible target of therapeutic
      intervention in HCHWA-D.

PMID- 28557135
TI  - Labor prediction based on the expression patterns of multiple genes related to
      cervical maturation in human term pregnancy.
AB  - PROBLEM: This study explored the possibility of evaluating cervical maturation
      using swabbed cervical cell samples at term pregnancy, and aimed to develop a
      novel approach to predict labor onset. METHOD OF STUDY: Women with uncomplicated
      pregnancies (n=117 from 62 women at term pregnancy) were recruited. Messenger RNA
      expression levels of cervical cells for ten genes were quantified by qPCR.
      Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted, and principal components that
      significantly contributed to the prediction of days to delivery were determined.
      RESULTS: PCA demonstrated that 76% of the expression information from the ten
      genes can be represented by three principal components (PC1-3). By the multiple
      regression analysis, PC2 and Bishop score but not PC1 or PC3 were significant
      variables in the prediction of days to delivery. CONCLUSION: These findings
      support the concurrent assessment of multiple gene activities in cervical cells
      as a promising approach to predict the initiation of labor.

PMID- 28557136
TI  - Rhodium-Catalyzed Silylative and Germylative Cyclization with Dehydrogenation
      Leading to 9-Sila- and 9-Germafluorenes: A Combined Experimental and
      Computational Mechanistic Study.
AB  - Stoichiometric amounts of oxidants are widely used as promoters (hydrogen
      acceptors) in dehydrogenative silylation of C-H bonds. However, the present study
      demonstrates that silylative and germylative cyclization with dehydrogenation can
      proceed efficiently, even without hydrogen acceptors. The combination of
      [RhCl(cod)]2 and PPh3 was effective for both transformations, and allowed a
      reduction in reaction temperature compared with our previous report. Monitoring
      of the reactions revealed that both transformations had an induction period for
      the early stage, and that the rate constant of dehydrogenative germylation was
      greater than that of dehydrogenative silylation. Competitive reactions in the
      presence of 3,3-dimethyl-1-butene indicated that the ratio of dehydrogenative
      metalation and hydrometalation was affected by reaction temperature when a
      hydrosilane or hydrogermane precursor was used. Further mechanistic insights of
      oxidant-free dehydrogenative silylation, including the origin of these unique
      reactivities, were obtained by density functional theory studies.

PMID- 28557137
TI  - Modulation of CD11c+ lung dendritic cells in respect to TGF-beta in experimental
      pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a deadly, progressive lung disease with
      very few treatment options till now. Bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis (BIPF)
      is a commonly used mice model in IPF research. TGF-beta1 has been shown to play a
      key role in pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Dendritic cell (DC) acts as a bridge between
      innate and adaptive immune systems. The coexistence of chronic inflammation
      sustained by mature DCs with fibrosis suggests that inflammatory phenomenon has
      key importance in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we investigated
      the modulation of DCs phenotypic maturation, accumulation in lung tissue, and
      expression of other lung DC subsets in respect to TGF-beta in PF. First, we
      established BIPF model in mice and blocked TGF-beta expression by the use of
      inhibitor SB431542. Accumulation of lung CD11c+ DCs is significantly higher in
      both inflammatory and fibrotic phases of the disease but that percentages got
      reduced in the absence of TGF-beta. TGF-beta initiates up-regulation of
      costimulatory molecules CD86 and CD80 in the inflammatory phases of the disease
      but not so at fibrotic stage. Expression of lung DC subset CD11c+CD103+ is
      significantly increased in inflammatory phase and also in fibrotic phase of BIPF.
      Blocking of TGF-beta causes decreased expression of CD11c+CD103+ DCs. Another
      important lung DC subset CD11c+CD11b+ expression is suppressed by the absence of
      TGF-beta after bleomycin administration. CD11c+CD103+ DCs might have anti
      inflammatory as well as anti-fibrotic nature in PF. All these data demonstrate
      differential modulation of CD11c+ lung DCs by TGF-beta in experimental PF.

PMID- 28557138
TI  - Multiple placental surface cysts with intracystic hemorrhaging: A case report and
      review of the literature.
AB  - A placental surface cyst is a cystic mass arising from the surface of the
      placenta. It is seldom complicated by intracystic hemorrhaging and the clinical
      importance of this kind of case is unclear. Therefore, we present a case of a
      placental surface cyst with intracystic hemorrhaging. A 29-year-old multiparous
      woman was diagnosed with multiple placental surface cysts with threatened preterm
      birth and fetal growth restriction on ultrasonography at 26 gestational weeks
      (GW). At 31 GW, the hemorrhage was identified inside the cyst. At 32 GW, she
      presented with placental abruption, and emergency cesarean section was performed.
      Both the mother and her baby survived. Placental surface cysts up to 77 * 65 mm
      in diameter containing old hemorrhages were discovered, and pathological
      examination revealed hemosiderin and fibrin deposition. Pregnancy with a
      placental surface cyst with intracystic hemorrhaging may have the potential for
      severe obstetric complications.

PMID- 28557139
TI  - Functional assignment of multiple ESCRT-III homologs in cell division and budding
      in Sulfolobus islandicus.
AB  - The archaea Sulfolobus utilizes the ESCRT-III-based machinery for cell division.
      This machinery comprises three proteins: CdvA, Eukaryotic-like ESCRT-III and
      Vps4. In addition to ESCRT-III, Sulfolobus cells also encode three other ESCRT
      III homologs termed ESCRT-III-1, -2 and -3. Herein, we show that ESCRT-III-1 and 
      2 in S. islandicus REY15A are localized at midcell between segregating
      chromosomes, indicating that both are involved in cell division. Genetic analysis
      reveals that escrt-III-2 is indispensable for cell viability and cells with
      reduced overall level of ESCRT-III-1 exhibit growth retardation and cytokinesis
      defect with chain-like cell morphology. In contrast, escrt-III-3 is dispensable
      for cell division. We show that S. islandicus REY15A cells generate buds when
      infected with S. tengchongensis spindle shaped-virus 2 (STSV2) or when ESCRT-III
      3 is over-expressed. Interestingly, Deltaescrt-III-3 cells infected with STSV2 do
      not produce buds. These results suggest that ESCRT-III-3 plays an important role
      in budding. In addition, cells over-expressing the C-terminal truncated mutants
      of ESCRT-III, ESCRT-III-1 and ESCRT-III-2 are maintained predominantly at the
      early, late, and membrane abscission stages of cell division respectively,
      suggesting a crucial role of the ESCRTs at different stages of membrane
      ingression. Intriguingly, intercellular bridge and midbody-like structures are
      observed in cells over-expressing MIM2-truncated mutant of ESCRT-III-2.

PMID- 28557140
TI  - Diet quality of children post-liver transplantation does not differ from healthy
      children.
AB  - Little has been studied regarding the diets of children following LTX. The study
      aim was to assess and compare dietary intake and DQ of healthy children and
      children post-LTX. Children and adolescents (2-18 years) post-LTX (n=27) and
      healthy children (n=28) were studied. Anthropometric and demographic data and two
      24-hour recalls (one weekend; one weekday) were collected. Intake of added sugar,
      HFCS, fructose, GI, and GL was calculated. DQ was measured using three validated
      DQ indices: the HEI-C, the DGI-CA, and the DQI-I. Although no differences in
      weight-for-age z-scores were observed between groups, children post-LTX had lower
      height-for-age z-scores than healthy children (P<.01). With the exception of
      vitamin B12, no significant differences in energy and macronutrient (protein,
      carbohydrate, and fat), added sugar, HFCS, fructose, GI, GL, and micronutrient
      intakes and DQ indices (HEI-C, DGI-CA, and DQI-I) between groups were observed
      (P>.05). The majority of children in both groups (>40%) had low DQ scores. No
      significant interrelationships between dietary intake, anthropometric, and
      demographic were found (P>.05). Both healthy and children post-LTX consume diets
      with poor DQ. This has implications for risk of obesity and metabolic
      dysregulation, particularly in transplant populations on immunosuppressive
      therapies.

PMID- 28557141
TI  - Evaluating the accuracy of theoretical one-bond 13 C?13 C scalar couplings and
      their ability to predict structure in a natural product.
AB  - This study explores the feasibility of using a combination of experimental and
      theoretical 1-bond 13 C?13 C scalar couplings (1 JCC ) to establish structure in
      organic compounds, including unknowns. Historically, n JCC and n JCH studies have
      emphasized 2 and 3-bond couplings, yet 1 JCC couplings exhibit significantly
      larger variations. Moreover, recent improvements in experimental measurement and
      data processing methods have made 1 JCC data more available. Herein, an approach
      is evaluated in which a collection of theoretical structures is created from a
      partial nuclear magnetic resonance structural characterization. Computed 1 JCC
      values are compared to experimental data to identify candidates giving the best
      agreement. This process requires knowledge of the error in theoretical methods,
      thus the B3LYP, B3PW91, and PBE0 functionals are evaluated by comparing to 27
      experimental values from INADEQUATE. Respective errors of +/-1.2, +/-3.8, and +/
      2.3 Hz are observed. An initial test of this methodology involves the natural
      product 5-methylmellein. In this case, only a single candidate matches
      experimental data with high statistical confidence. This analysis establishes the
      intramolecular hydrogen-bonding arrangement, ring heteroatom identity, and
      conformation at one position. This approach is then extended to hydroheptelidic
      acid, a natural product not fully characterized in prior studies. The
      experimental/theoretical approach proposed herein identifies a single best-fit
      structure from among 26 candidates and establishes, for the first time, 1
      configuration and 3 conformations to complete the characterization. These results
      suggest that accurate and complete structural characterizations of many
      moderately sized organic structures (<800 Da) may be possible using only 1 JCC
      data.

PMID- 28557142
TI  - Reaction Acceleration in Thin Films with Continuous Product Deposition for
      Organic Synthesis.
AB  - Thin film formats are used to study the Claisen-Schmidt base-catalyzed
      condensation of 6-hydroxy-1-indanone with substituted benzaldehydes and to
      compare the reaction acceleration relative to the bulk. Relative acceleration
      factors initially exceeded 103 and were on the order of 102 at steady state,
      although the confined volume reaction was not electrostatically driven.
      Substituent effects were muted compared to those in the corresponding bulk and
      microdroplet reactions and it is concluded that the rate-limiting step at steady
      state is reagent transport to the interface. Conditions were found that allowed
      product deposition from the thin film to occur continuously as the reaction
      mixture was added and as the solvent evaporated. Yields of 74 % and production
      rates of 98 mg h-1 were reached in a very simple experimental system that could
      be multiplexed to greater scales.

PMID- 28557143
TI  - Liver stiffness reduction correlates with histological characteristics of
      hepatitis C patients with sustained virological response.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: We investigated the correlation between histological
      characteristics and changes in liver stiffness (LS) in patients with sustained
      virological response (SVR) using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI)
      elastography. METHODS: In this prospective study, we enrolled 176 hepatitis C
      patients with SVR who underwent ARFI elastography and liver biopsy before
      antiviral treatment, and serial ARFI elastography at the end of treatment (EOT)
      and at 24 weeks after the EOT. To compare the long-term changes in LS in patients
      with SVR using ARFI elastography, another group of 140 patients who had undergone
      paired biopsy after achieving SVR was included. RESULTS: Mean LS values were
      1.60+/-0.63 m/s, 1.48+/-0.56 m/s and 1.37+/-0.62 m/s at baseline, EOT and 24
      weeks after EOT, respectively, P<.001. Higher inflammatory activity at baseline
      was associated with an improvement in LS at the EOT, with an odds ratio of 1.940.
      Significant fibrosis at baseline was associated with an improvement in LS at 24
      weeks after the EOT, with an odds ratio of 2.617. Among patients in the paired
      biopsy group with baseline fibrosis stage identical to the ARFI group, LS values
      at 24 weeks after the EOT did not show any difference with values at 5 years
      after EOT. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-treatment histological characteristics influence LS
      reduction after SVR is achieved.

PMID- 28557144
TI  - Cross-cultural variation in the association between family's socioeconomic status
      and adolescent alcohol use.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: This study estimates cross-country variation in
      socioeconomic disparities in adolescent alcohol use and identifies country-level
      characteristics associated with these disparities. DESIGN AND METHODS: The
      association between socioeconomic status (family wealth and parental education)
      and alcohol use (lifetime use and episodic heavy drinking) of 15- to 16-year-olds
      from 32 European countries was investigated. Country-level characteristics were
      national income, income inequality and per capita alcohol consumption. Multilevel
      modelling was applied. RESULTS: Across countries, lifetime use was lower in
      wealthy than in less wealthy families (odds ratio [OR](girls)  = 0.95, OR(boys) 
      = 0.94). The risk of episodic heavy drinking, in contrast, was higher for
      children from wealthier families (OR(girls)  = 1.04, OR(boys)  = 1.08) and lower
      when parents were highly educated (ORs = 0.95-0.98). Socioeconomic disparities
      varied substantially between countries. National wealth and income inequality
      were associated with cross-country variation of disparities in lifetime use in
      few comparisons, such that among girls, the (negative) effect of family wealth
      was greatest in countries with unequally distributed income (OR = 0.86). Among
      boys, the (negative) effect of family wealth was greatest in low-income countries
      (OR = 1.00), and the (positive) effect of mothers' education was greatest in
      countries with high income inequality (OR = 1.11). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
      Socioeconomic disparities in adolescent alcohol use vary across European
      countries. Broad country-level indicators can explain this variation only to a
      limited extent, but results point towards slightly greater socioeconomic
      disparities in drinking in countries of low national income and countries with a
      high income inequality. [Gomes de Matos E, Kraus L, Hannemann T-V, Soellner R,
      Piontek D. Cross-cultural variation in the association between family's
      socioeconomic status and adolescent alcohol use.

PMID- 28557146
TI  - Coordination-Supported Imidazolate Networks: Water- and Heat-Stable Mesoporous
      Polymers for Catalysis.
AB  - The poor water stability of most porous coordination polymers (PCPs) or metal
      organic frameworks (MOFs) is widely recognized as a barrier hampering their
      practical applications. Here, a facile and scalable route to prepare metal
      containing polymers with a good stability in boiling water (100  degrees C, 24 h)
      and air (up to 390  degrees C) is presented. The bifunctional 1-vinylimidazole
      (VIm) with a coordinating site and a polymerizable organic group is introduced as
      the building block. This core strategy includes the synthesis of a rigid monomer
      with four VIm branches through a coordination process at room temperature,
      followed by a radical polymerization. We refer to this material as coordination
      supported imidazolate networks (CINs). Interestingly, CINs are composed of rich
      mesopores from 2-15 nm, as characterized by low-energy (60 kV) STEM-HAADF images.
      In particular, the stable CINs illustrate a high turnover frequency (TOF) of 779
      h-1 in the catalytic oxidation of phenol with H2 O as the green solvent.

PMID- 28557145
TI  - Salvage surgery for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas: A retrospective study
      from 2005 to 2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the case of a locoregional recurrence of oropharyngeal squamous
      cell carcinoma, the curative standard of care is surgery. Our main purpose of
      this study was to determine the preoperative prognostic factors that would allow
      us to select the patients on whom we could expect good results with salvage
      surgery. METHODS: We conducted a monocentric retrospective study from 2005 to
      2013. It included all patients treated for a recurrence of oropharyngeal squamous
      cell carcinoma with surgery. Their initial treatment included radiotherapy.
      RESULTS: Fifty-two patients were included. Poor prognostic factors for survival
      were the cT status (P = .0039) and local recurrences versus secondary
      localizations in irradiated areas (P = .016) and a relapse less than a year after
      the end of the initial treatment (P = .050). Recurrence-free survival was 19% at
      5 years. Twenty-nine percent of patients presented local complications, which
      were mainly fistulas and hemorrhaging at the surgical site. CONCLUSION: According
      to the high morbimortality, it is important to carefully select the right
      patients for surgery.

PMID- 28557147
TI  - Promoting a patient-centred approach in clinical consultations: Summary of a
      Cochrane review.

PMID- 28557149
TI  - A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the peptide characteristics of
      microwave- and ultrasound-assisted digestion in discovery and targeted proteomic
      analyses.
AB  - RATIONALE: Fast digestion methods can dramatically accelerate enzyme digestion
      and increase the throughput of proteomic analysis. However, the peptide
      characteristics of fast digestion methods and their performance in discovery and
      targeted proteomic analysis must be systematically evaluated. METHODS: Three
      digestion methods, including overnight digestion, microwave-assisted protein
      enzymatic digestion (MAPED), and high-intensity focused ultrasonic-assisted
      enzymatic digestion (HIFUSAED), in trypsin or in trypsin/Lys-C were
      comprehensively compared in both discovery and targeted proteomics analysis using
      the HeLa cell proteome. In discovery proteomic analysis, the highest numbers of
      peptides and proteins were identified when the sample was digested via the MAPED
      method with trypsin/Lys-C. RESULTS: The fast digestion methods showed a higher
      mis-cleavage rate and a lower semi-tryptic rate than the overnight digestion
      method. In both label-free quantitative analysis and targeted proteomic analysis,
      both fully cleaved peptides (FCPs) and mis-cleaved peptides (MCPs) from the fast
      digestion methods and the overnight digestion method showed good reproducibility
      if they showed good abundance. CONCLUSIONS: When both the FCPs and MCPs were
      included in the analysis, the MAPED with trypsin/Lys-C method showed the best
      results for both discovery proteomic analysis and relative quantitative targeted
      proteomic analysis. These results will be beneficial for the application of fast
      digestion methods to proteomics.

PMID- 28557148
TI  - The impact of recipient BKV shedding before transplant on BKV viruria, DNAemia,
      and nephropathy post-transplant: A prospective study.
AB  - We previously demonstrated that detectable BKV replication in donor urine
      pretransplant was significantly associated with post-transplant recipient BKV
      viremia. In this 4-year prospective study, we assessed whether recipient BKV
      replication pretransplant was associated with post-transplant viremia/BKV
      nephropathy. We studied 220 primary adult and pediatric organ transplant
      recipients for 490 person-years and 2100 clinical visits. BKV viruria was
      detectable in 28 (16%), 26 adults and two children; and viremia in none
      pretransplant. Post-transplant viruria occurred in all recipients with
      pretransplant BKV viruria, significantly more than in recipients without
      pretransplant viruria on univariate (P<.005) and multivariate analysis including
      type of organ transplanted and immunosuppression type (P .008). Time to post
      transplant viruria was significantly shorter in recipients with pretransplant
      viruria (P .01). By univariate and multivariate analysis, BKV viruria in
      recipients pretransplant did not impact post-transplant BKV viremia (P=.97 and
      .97, respectively) even when stratified by type of organ transplant (kidney P=.6;
      liver P=.5). The peak serum and urine BKV PCR post-transplant were not
      significantly different in patients with pretransplant BKV viruria and no one
      developed BK nephropathy. In conclusion, recipient BKV viruria prior to
      transplant predicts post-transplant viruria but not viremia or BKV nephropathy.

PMID- 28557150
TI  - Characterization of CD34-deficient myofibroblastomas of the breast.
AB  - Mammary myofibroblastoma is a benign spindle cell tumor that can show variable
      morphologic patterns and lines of differentiation. Diffuse and strong
      immunohistochemical expression of CD34 is a characteristic of myofibroblastoma
      and greatly aids in confirming a diagnosis. Myofibroblastoma has been shown to
      belong to a family of CD34-positive tumors with similar morphology that show a
      deletion of 13q14, which includes RB1 and FOXO1A genes. The purpose of this study
      was to better understand a subset of myofibroblastomas that is characteristically
      CD34-deficient by immunohistochemistry. Six myofibroblastomas were studied by
      immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for RB1.
      Patients included five women and one man, aged 41-85 years (median, 52.5). Tumor
      size ranged from 0.4 to 1.5 cm (mean, 0.95). Tumors showed spindle cell
      morphology in five cases and epithelioid features in one case. Two tumors showed
      complete lack of CD34 staining. The remaining showed weak focal or weak patchy
      CD34 staining. Dichotomous staining was seen in one case with CD34-positive
      spindle cell areas and CD34-negative myxoid areas. All six tumors showed ER
      expression, five of six showed desmin expression, and four of six showed bcl-2
      positivity. Two of six (33.3%) tumors showed deletion of RB1 by FISH, including
      one that showed loss of Rb immunohistochemical staining. Myofibroblastomas
      uncommonly show absent/focal expression of CD34, a potential diagnostic pitfall,
      particularly in small samples. Characteristic staining with other
      immunohistochemical markers is seen which can aid in confirming the diagnosis.
      These tumors may harbor deletion of RB1, similar to CD34-positive
      myofibroblastomas, and this deletion may not correlate with loss of Rb by
      immunohistochemistry.

PMID- 28557151
TI  - Feeding regulation by neuropeptide Y on Asian corn borer Ostrinia furnacalis.
AB  - The Asian Corn Borer Ostrinia furnacalis is a major agricultural pest. In this
      study, a full-length neuropeptide Y (npy) gene in O. furnacalis was sequenced and
      cloned from cDNA library, which contains an ORF of 273 bp by encoding 90 amino
      acid residues. The mature OfurNPY is composed of 29 amino acids with amidation in
      C-terminal. The spatiotemporal expression analysis showed that npy highest
      expression level was in the midgut of the fifth instar larvae (the gluttony
      period). When the expression of npy was knocked down by feeding or injecting
      dsNPY, larval food consumption, body size, and body weight were significantly
      inhibited compared to controls. These results indicate that NPY is an important
      regulator in the control of feeding of O. furnacalis.

PMID- 28557152
TI  - Quantified discordant placental echogenicity in twin anemia-polycythemia sequence
      (TAPS) and middle cerebral artery peak systolic velocity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To quantify sonographic placental echogenicity in twin anemia
      polycythemia sequence (TAPS) and to correlate it with middle cerebral artery peak
      systolic velocity (MCA-PSV) measurements. METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      search for consecutive TAPS cases between 16 and 36 weeks of gestation (MCA-PSV >
      1.5 multiples of the median (MoM) in the anemic donor and < 1.0 MoM in the
      polycythemic recipient) in our database of monochorionic twin gestations from
      January 2007 until December 2016. In cases for which ultrasound images showing
      the donor's and the recipient's part of the placenta were available, echogenicity
      for both twins was quantified by image processing. MCA-PSV Doppler values of both
      fetuses were correlated to their respective placental echogenicity. Placental
      thickness of both twins was also measured. RESULTS: Of 756 cases with MCA-PSV
      measurements identified from the database, 36 (4.8%) had TAPS; of these, 23 had
      TAPS combined with twin-twin transfusion syndrome and 13 showed isolated TAPS.
      Placental echogenicity could be quantified in 28 pregnancies. Mean +/- SD
      placental echogenicity of donor twins was significantly higher than that of
      recipients (138.7 +/- 22.8 vs 77.9 +/- 37.0; P < 0.0001). Furthermore, a
      significant positive correlation was found between placental echogenicity and MCA
      PSV MoM (R = 0.67, P < 0.0001). Mean placental thickness of donor twins (n = 20)
      was significantly higher than that of recipients (49.3 mm +/- 13.4 vs 25.4 mm +/-
      10.1; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Echogenicity of the placental share in recipient
      and donor twins with TAPS correlates with MCA-PSV values. Quantification of
      sonographic placental echogenicity may help to determine the severity of TAPS in
      monochorionic twins. Copyright (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons
      Ltd.

PMID- 28557153
TI  - Genomic evaluation using SNP- and haplotype-based genomic relationship matrices
      in a closed line of Duroc pigs.
AB  - A simulation analysis and real phenotype analysis were performed to evaluate the
      impact of three different relationship matrices on heritability estimation and
      prediction accuracy in a closed-line breeding of Duroc pigs. The numerator
      relationship matrix (NRM), single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genomic
      relationship matrix (GRM) (GS ), and haplotype-based GRM (GH ) were applied in
      this study. We used PorcineSNP60 genotype array data (38 114 SNPs) of 831 Duroc
      pigs with four selection traits. In both heritability estimation and prediction
      accuracy, the accuracy depended on the number of animals with records. For
      heritability estimation, a large difference in the results among three
      relationship matrices was not shown, but the trend of the estimated
      heritabilities between GRMs, that is GS  < GH , was shown in this population. For
      the accuracy of prediction values in test animals, the accuracies of prediction
      values obtained by two GRMs were higher than that by the NRM in this population.
      The accuracies obtained by GRMs using animals with no records were lower than
      that by the NRM using animals with their performance records, but were close to
      that by the NRM using animals with full-sib testing records.

PMID- 28557155
TI  - Tumour-stage mycosis fungoides regressing with milia and pustules after total
      skin electron beam therapy.

PMID- 28557156
TI  - Toward Hyperpolarized 19 F Molecular Imaging via Reversible Exchange with
      Parahydrogen.
AB  - Fluorine-19 has high NMR detection sensitivity-similar to that of protons-owing
      to its large gyromagnetic ratio and high natural abundance (100 %). Unlike
      protons, however, fluorine-19 (19 F) has a negligible occurrence in biological
      objects, as well as a more sensitive chemical shift. As a result, in vivo 19 F
      NMR spectroscopy and MR imaging offer advantages of negligible background signal
      and sensitive reporting of the local molecular environment. Here we report on NMR
      hyperpolarization of 19 F nuclei using reversible exchange reactions with
      parahydrogen gas as the source of nuclear spin order. NMR signals of 3
      fluoropyridine were enhanced by ~100 fold, corresponding to 0.3 % 19 F nuclear
      spin polarization (at 9.4 T), using about 50 % parahydrogen. While future
      optimization efforts will likely significantly increase the hyperpolarization
      levels, we already demonstrate the utility of 19 F hyperpolarization for high
      resolution hyperpolarized 19 F imaging and hyperpolarized 19 F pH sensing.

PMID- 28557157
TI  - Validation of methods for predicting adult stature in Turkish girls.
AB  - The original or revised methods for prediction of adult stature of Tanner
      Whitehouse (TW), Roche-Wainer-Thissen (RWT), and Bayley-Pinneau (BP) were
      validated in a mixed longitudinal study of Turkish girls, 9-14 years of age.
      Comparison of 727 estimations of 102 girls showed that the RWT'93 revision is an
      improvement over the original method by reducing the standard deviation, and
      absolute median and mean of residuals. The TW'83 (3v) method, by dropping the
      variable midparent stature, was reduced in accuracy before age 12. The addition
      of the previous annual increment in stature improved the predictions, while
      further addition of the increment in skeletal age did not. In relation to overall
      accuracy and reliability, BP (0.75) and TW'75 (0.73) had the highest R2 values,
      while RWT'75 had the lowest (0.55). Regarding individual consistency of multiple
      predictions, the RWT methods ranked best and TW'83 relatively poorest. Systematic
      errors found in Turkish girls were similar to those found in French, Swiss, and
      Finnish girls. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557154
TI  - A meta-analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic status and executive
      function performance among children.
AB  - The relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and executive
      function (EF) has recently attracted attention within psychology, following
      reports of substantial SES disparities in children's EF. Adding to the importance
      of this relationship, EF has been proposed as a mediator of socioeconomic
      disparities in lifelong achievement and health. However, evidence about the
      relationship between childhood SES and EF is mixed, and there has been no
      systematic attempt to evaluate this relationship across studies. This meta
      analysis systematically reviewed the literature for studies in which samples of
      children varying in SES were evaluated on EF, including studies with and without
      primary hypotheses about SES. The analysis included 8760 children between the
      ages of 2 and 18 gathered from 25 independent samples. Analyses showed a small
      but statistically significant correlation between SES and EF across all studies
      (rrandom  = .16, 95% CI [.12, .21]) without correcting for attenuation owing to
      range restriction or measurement unreliability. Substantial heterogeneity was
      observed among studies, and a number of factors, including the amount of SES
      variability in the sample and the number of EF measures used, emerged as
      moderators. Using only the 15 studies with meaningful SES variability in the
      sample, the average correlation between SES and EF was small-to-medium in size
      (rrandom  = .22, 95% CI [.17, .27]). Using only the six studies with multiple
      measures of EF, the relationship was medium in size (rrandom  = .28, 95% CI [.18,
      .37]). In sum, this meta-analysis supports the presence of SES disparities in EF
      and suggests that they are between small and medium in size, depending on the
      methods used to measure them.

PMID- 28557159
TI  - Growth faltering and catch-up growth in relation to environmental change in
      children of a disadvantaged community from Guatemala City.
AB  - The extent and persistence of stunting and growth status across a 10-year period,
      and their relationship to changes in the home environment, have been analyzed
      using data from a 10-year longitudinal study of three birth cohorts, seen
      initially at 3, 5, and 7 years and examined annually thereafter. The children
      came from an economically disadvantaged community located on the periphery of
      Guatemala City. The sample used in the analysis consisted of 271 subjects with
      complete growth and SES data over a 10-year period. Stunting was high initially,
      with 43.5% of the sample displaying USNCHS height z-scores < -2.0 at the first
      examination. Growth status at the first visit was a significant predictor of
      status after 10 years. The odds ratio for stunting in adolescence if stunted in
      early childhood was 18.39. Characteristics of the household at the first visit
      were a significant determinant of height, weight, estimated arm muscle, the
      triceps skinfold, and the BMI at the last visit, after adjusting for confounding
      variables. Changes in household status between the first and last visits were
      associated with greater growth increments in height and weight but not in the
      BMI, triceps skinfold, or estimated arm muscle circumference. These analyses have
      demonstrated that improved growth status during adolescence relative to status 10
      years earlier (a form of catch-up growth) was attributable to two factors: first,
      for the sample as a whole there was a general improvement in growth status with a
      mean change in height-and weight-for-age z-scores of 0.218 and 0.420,
      respectively; second, the change in household score from first to last visit was
      a significant determinant of growth increment over that period, but only in the
      case of height and weight. Thus, while the early environment is a powerful
      determinant of later growth status, some catch-up growth can be identified both
      as a general systemic response as well as a response to changing environmental
      conditions. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557158
TI  - Red cell enzymes and plasma protein polymorphisms in the population of Cabo Verde
      (West Africa).
AB  - The genetic polymorphism of six red cell enzymes (ADA, AK1, ALAD, ESD, GLO1, and
      PGD) and 10 plasma proteins (AHSG, BF, F13A, F13B, GC, HP, ORM, PLG, TBG, and TF)
      is analyzed in a sample of 268 unrelated individuals from Cabo Verde (West
      Africa). The population of Cabo Verde was founded in the 15th century (1462), on
      the basis of a great number of slaves brought from the West African coast and a
      few Europeans, mainly from Portugal. The frequencies found in Cabo Verde for the
      majority of the markers are intermediate between those reported for Africans and
      Europeans. Further, the presence of alleles which are rarely or never seen in
      Blacks, but are common in Caucasians, suggest a substantial contribution of
      Europeans to the gene pool of the population of Cabo Verde. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557160
TI  - The human biology association.

PMID- 28557161
TI  - Rate of skeletal maturation in relation to secondary sexual development during
      female adolescence.
AB  - The relationship between rate of skeletal maturation (interval from capping of
      hand epiphyses to fusion of radius) and rate of secondary sexual development was
      studied in a longitudinal sample of 76 normal Turkish girls. The interval from
      capping to fusion correlated inversely and significantly with the stage of
      secondary sexual development (SSD) attained at capping. It is concluded that the
      rate of skeletal maturation and expected growth after the onset of capping are
      not constant and depend on the stage of secondary sexual characteristic
      development, the former being shorter with more advanced sexual maturation. (c)
      1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557162
TI  - Comparative study of physiological and anthropometric characteristics of high and
      low productivity workers in northern West Bengal, India.
AB  - Lung functiion, selected hematological traits, blood pressures, and
      anthropometric dimensions were measured on adult Oraon tea garden laborers of
      both sexes from two tea gardens of Jaipaiguri district, northern West Bengal,
      India. The laborers were classified into two groups on the basis of work output
      or productivity, measured in terms of the quantity of green leaves plucked per
      day. The groups were similar in income, dietary pattern, and self-reported
      morbidity. Relationships between the measured variables and productivity were
      evaluated. The results show several significant relationships, but do not
      conclusively demonstrate that the independent variables under study have any
      effects on work output. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557163
TI  - Basal metabolic rate of inuit.
AB  - Basal metabolic rates (BMR) at the end of the winter of 1981-1982 were determined
      in both Inuit and subjects of European ancestry resident in Igloolik, N.W.T. (69
      degrees 40'N, 81 degrees W). Values for the Inuit sample (22 females, 14-53
      years, and 30 males, 14-70 years) exceeded published body surface area norms by
      some 16-18%; they also exceeded the body mass norms of Schofield (1985) by 9-10%.
      In contrast, readings on the six subjects of European ancestry, obtained by the
      same observer, using the same Douglas bag technique, agreed closely with both
      sets of published norms. When data were expressed per unit of lean body mass,
      values were again 10-12% higher in the Inuit. Concomitant recordings of heart
      rate did not suggest that the BMRs of the Inuit subjects were increased by
      anxiety. Contrary to findings in the subjects of European ancestry, BMRs appeared
      to be higher in the elderly than in young and middle-age Inuit. This could
      reflect two consequences of a more traditional lifestyle among the older members
      of the Igloolik population: greater exposure to a very cold external environment,
      and greater consumption of "country" foods rich in protein and fat. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557164
TI  - Human biology association 1994/1995 members list.

PMID- 28557165
TI  - Anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and level of mortality.
AB  - The strength of the relationship between several anthropometric indicators of
      nutritional status, or more generally, standard of living, with overall mortality
      at the population level is compared. The anthropometic indicators examined
      include height, weight, weight-for-height, and weight-for-height2 at various
      ages. The results demonstrate that height is most closely associated with the
      level of mortality. Weight-for height2 , in contrast, has the weakest association
      with mortality. Of the ages examined, age 6 consistently has the strongest
      relationship with the level of mortality, whereas birthweight and adult measures
      have the lowest associations with the overall level of mortality, although the
      results for birthweight may be an artifact of biased data. Curiously, there is
      little or no sex difference in the slope of the relationship between
      anthropometric measure and level of mortality after correcting for smaller size
      and longer life expectancies of females compared to males. Overall, the
      anthropometric indicators are very highly correlated with mortality, exceeding
      0.85 in some cases. This suggests that anthropometric dimensions may be a useful
      source of corroborative information when attempting to estimate demographic rates
      for populations where the demographic data are suspect. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557167
TI  - Haptoglobin and birth weight in a Bengalee population.
AB  - A close relationship between birth weight and synthesis of haptoglobin was found
      in a study of cord blood derived from newborns. Newborn infants with detectable
      haptoglobin types showed, on average, significantly higher birth weight than
      those without detectable haptoglobin types under normal conditions. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557166
TI  - Genetic estimation of the humoral responses to several infectious agents.
AB  - Heritabilities of antibody levels to measles, rubella, and mumps were estimated
      in 88 MZ and DZ twin pairs. The contribution of genetic factors in phenotypic
      antibody levels to measles was somewhat lower than environmental factors in both
      sexes (h2 = 0.450 and 0.459). A significantly stronger genetic than environmental
      control of anti-mumps antibody levels was evident in both sexes, but more so in
      females (h2 = 0.882) than in males (h2 = 0.626). The genetic determination of
      anti-rubella antibodies was also significantly higher in girls (h2 = 0.833),
      while environmental determination was greater in boys (h2 = 0.350). (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557168
TI  - Age at menarche: Relationships to socioeconomic status, growth rate in stature
      and weight, and skeletal and sexual maturation.
AB  - A sample of 114 girls from low-middle and highest socioeconomic levels of
      Istanbul were followed at 6-month intervals for 7-9 years during adolescence.
      Results pertaining to age of menarche and its relationship to growth and
      maturation are presented. No significant difference was found for the occurrence
      of menarche in relation to season. The age of menarche was 6.6 months earlier in
      daughters compared to their mothers, but the variation between mothers and
      daughters was great. In the lower socioeconimic class, age of menarche was
      significantly later, 12.5 years in the high and 13.4 years in the lower class.
      Later menarche in the lower class was related to lower rates of growth in stature
      and weight, and of skeletal and sexual maturation. There was no significant
      correlation between age at menarche and stature and weight attained at menarche.
      Those with a faster rate of growth reached menarche early and the height velocity
      continued to be faster. The median stages of secondary sexual characteristics at
      menarche were 4 for breast and pubic hair, and 3 for axillary hair. The stage of
      development at menarche did not differ significantly with age of menarche and
      social class. Menarche occurred 2.4 years after the appearance of pubic hair, 2.0
      years after the appearance of the breast bud, and 1.4 years after the appearance
      of axillary hair, and the ages at which the secondary sexual characters appeared
      correlated significantly with the age of menarche. Skeletal age at menarche was
      13.0 +/- 0.69 years. Age of menarche correlated best with the age at which fusion
      of the second and first distal phalanges occurred. The percentage of adult height
      attained at menarche correlated significantly with the age of menarche.
      Regression equations and standard errors are presented to aid in the prediction
      of the age at menarche from other variables related to menarche.

PMID- 28557169
TI  - Delicate changes of bioapatite mineral in pig femur with addition of dietary
      xylooligosaccharide: Evidences from Raman spectroscopy and ICP.
AB  - Bone mineral is strongly correlated with performance and health of animal bodies.
      The mineral bioapatite (BAp) is the dominant component in bone tissue. This study
      investigated mineralogical changes of BAp in pig femur by Raman spectroscopy and
      inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The pigs had
      been raised with various xylooligosaccharide (XOS) additions at two stages of
      growth (growing and fattening periods). The results show that XOS can decrease
      the degree of carbonate substitution for PO4 in BAp mineral and improve the
      mineral's crystallinity. ICP data is consistent with the Raman results, that is
      the low solubility of bone BAp for pigs fed with XOS. Additionally, the effect of
      XOS is much better in the growing period (before 65 kg) than in the fattening
      period (after 65 kg). Moreover, the high addition of XOS (within the range of 0.1
      0.5 g/kg) would be appropriate to improve the crystallinity of bone BAp. This
      study sheds light on applying Raman and ICP techniques to investigate the
      delicate changes of mineral in pig bones undergoing different managements.

PMID- 28557170
TI  - Phenolic compounds inhibit the aldose reductase enzyme from the sheep kidney.
AB  - Aldose reductase (AR) is the key enzyme for the polyol pathway and responsible
      for sorbitol accumulation during the hyperglycemia. The present article focuses
      on the role of phenol, pyrogallol, hydroquinone, resorcinol, catechol, and
      phloroglucinol in in vitro inhibition of AR. For this purpose, AR was purified
      from the sheep kidney with 5.33 EU mg-1 specific activity and 0.64% yield using
      several chromatographic methods. Various concentrations of the compounds were
      tested on in vitro AR activity. IC50 values were found for phenol, pyrogallol,
      hydroquinone, resorcinol, catechol, and phloroglucinol as 6.5, 1.13, 5.45, 2.21,
      1.8, and 2.09 mM, respectively, and their Ki constant was calculated as 3.45 +/-
      0.92, 0.96 +/- 0.28, 3.07 +/- 0.46, 1.59 +/- 0.43, 2.5 +/- 0.35, and 2.54 +/-
      0.45 mM, respectively. Pyrogallol showed better inhibitory effect compared to the
      other compounds. The inhibition mechanisms of all compounds were noncompetitive.
      In the presents study, in vitro AR inhibition was examined by the phenolic
      compounds.

PMID- 28557171
TI  - Efficacy and feasibility of antidepressants for the prevention of migraine in
      adults: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Migraine has greatly impacted the quality of life for
      migraineurs and was ranked as the seventh highest specific cause of disability
      worldwide in 2012. Because of the role of serotonin in migraine mechanisms,
      antidepressants have been used in the prevention of migraine. However, the role
      of antidepressants for migraine prophylaxis in adults has not been completely
      established. Our aim was systematically to assess the efficacy and feasibility of
      antidepressants for the prevention of migraine in adults based on currently
      available literature. METHODS: A comprehensive search of databases was conducted
      including the Cochrane, PubMed, Web of Science and Embase databases from
      inception to July 2016. Randomized controlled trials that assigned adults with a
      clinical diagnosis of migraine to antidepressant or placebo treatment were
      included. The primary outcome was the reduction of migraine frequency or index.
      RESULTS: Overall, 16 randomized controlled trials including 1082 participants
      were identified. Antidepressants had a significant advantage over placebo in
      reducing the migraine frequency or index of adults with a standardized mean
      difference of -0.79 [95% confidence interval (CI) -1.13 to -0.45, P < 0.00001].
      Patients receiving antidepressant therapy were more likely to experience an at
      least 50% reduction of headache burden than those receiving placebo (28.9% vs.
      20.2%; risk ratio 1.40; 95% CI 0.97-2.02; P = 0.07). However, antidepressants
      were less well tolerated than placebo because of some adverse events (risk ratio
      1.74, 95% CI 1.05-2.89, P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Antidepressants are effective in
      the prophylaxis of migraine in adults, but the level of evidence for
      antidepressants except for amitriptyline seems to be quite shaky.

PMID- 28557172
TI  - Deubiquitinase Usp18 prevents cellular apoptosis from oxidative stress in liver
      cells.
AB  - Deubiquitinases (DUBs) deconjugate ubiquitin (UBQ) from ubiquitylated substrates
      to regulate their activity and stability. They play different cellular functions
      such as cell cycle regulation, DNA repair, and early embryogenesis. Additionally,
      studies have demonstrated that some DUBs are the signaling targets of cellular
      stress such as oxidative stress. Reactive oxygen species are generated during
      normal mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and proper cellular mechanism could
      protect the cell from the oxidative stress. However, there are limited studies
      that specifically focus on the role of DUBs in oxidative stress, and thus the
      underlying protective mechanism by DUBs is not yet known. The report here, for
      the first time, applied the mouse-specific DUB RT2 Profiler PCR array to identify
      DUBs that are responsive to oxidative stress. Out of the tested 83 DUBs, 15 of
      them were found to be differentially expressed. Among them, Usp18 was found to be
      induced with a dose- and time-dependent manner of oxidative stress. In functional
      studies, depletion of Usp18 could stimulate the p53 and caspase 3 protein levels.
      In addition, knockdown of Usp18 could lead to the reduced cell viability and
      increased in apoptotic cell death under oxidative stress. Collectively, Usp18
      protects the cells from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis which may be through
      the regulation of p53 and caspase 3.

PMID- 28557174
TI  - Polyunsaturated C-Glycosidic 4-Hydroxy-2-pyrone Derivatives: Total Synthesis
      Shows that Putative Orevactaene Is Likely Identical with Epipyrone A.
AB  - Orevactaene and epipyrone A were previously thought to comprise the same
      polyunsaturated tail but notably different C-glycosylated 4-hydroxy-2-pyrone head
      groups. Total synthesis now shows that the signature bicyclic framework assigned
      to orevactaene is a chimera; the compound is almost certainly identical with
      epipyrone A, whose previously unknown stereochemistry has also been established
      during this study. Key to success was the ready formation of the bicyclic core of
      putative orevactaene by a sequence of two alkyne cycloisomerization reactions
      using tungsten and gold catalysis. Equally important was the flexibility in the
      assembly process gained by the use of heterobimetallic polyunsaturated modules
      whose termini could be selectively and consecutively addressed in a practical one
      pot cross-coupling sequence.

PMID- 28557173
TI  - A Fluorescent RNA Forced-Intercalation Probe as a Pan-Selective Marker for
      Influenza A Virus Infection.
AB  - The influenza A virus (IAV) genome is segmented into eight viral
      ribonucleoproteins, each expressing a negatively oriented viral RNA (vRNA). Along
      the infection cycle, highly abundant single-stranded small viral RNAs (svRNA) are
      transcribed in a segment-specific manner. The sequences of svRNAs and of the vRNA
      5'-ends are identical and highly conserved among all IAV strains. Here, we
      demonstrate that these sequences can be used as a target for a pan-selective
      sensor of IAV infection. To this end, we used a complementary fluorescent forced
      intercalation RNA (IAV QB-FIT) probe with a single locked nucleic acid
      substitution to increase brightness. We demonstrated by fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH) that this probe is suitable and easy to use to detect
      infection of different cell types by a broad variety of avian, porcine, and human
      IAV strains, but not by other influenza virus types. IAV QB-FIT also provides a
      useful tool to characterize different infection states of the host cell.

PMID- 28557175
TI  - Psoriasis in patients with mycosis fungoides: a clinicopathological study of 25
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been reported that patients with psoriasis are at increased
      risk for developing lymphoma including cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL).
      However, the comorbidity and the histopathologic correlation of psoriasis and
      mycosis fungoides (MF) have been less studied. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study was to investigate the relation between MF and psoriasis. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed and re-evaluated all MF cases diagnosed and followed in
      a 16-year period who carried both MF and psoriasis diagnoses. RESULTS: Forty-one
      of 321 MF patients was the rate of psoriasis' comorbidity according to medical
      records. Twenty-five patients (7.8%) finally met the inclusion criteria. The rest
      were excluded due to inadequate evidence. Twenty patients had psoriatic lesions
      at the time of MF diagnosis. In 23 patients, there was histological confirmation
      of both diseases. Six patients (24%) were diagnosed with folliculotropic MF, two
      were diagnosed with pustular psoriasis, and six patients were affected by
      palmoplantar and nail psoriasis. In four patients, there was a very short time
      interval between MF and psoriasis diagnosis. Fourteen patients with psoriasis had
      been previously treated with immunomodulatory regimens. Interestingly, in eight
      patients, typical histological findings of both diseases were detected in the
      same biopsy specimen. CONCLUSION: Our results support the opinion that the
      association between psoriasis and MF does exist. It is most possibly related to
      the chronic lymphocyte stimulation that occurs during psoriasis that eventually
      leads to a dominant clone and the evolution to CTCL. Our study suggests that
      apart from cases of early MF, which are being indeed misdiagnosed as psoriasis,
      there is another group of patients, where psoriasis truly coexists with - or even
      progresses to - MF.

PMID- 28557178
TI  - Impact of etiology and duration of pain on pharmacological treatment effects in
      painful polyneuropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pharmacological treatments for painful polyneuropathy have not
      changed much for more than a decade, and less than half of the patients obtain
      adequate pain relief with first line treatments. Therefore, patient-specific
      factors which could predict drug response are searched for. METHODS: We analysed
      data from four published, randomized, controlled trials of drugs in painful
      polyneuropathy to see if diabetic etiology and duration of neuropathic pain had
      an impact on drug efficacy. The studies had a cross-over design, and had nearly
      similar outcome recordings as well as a thorough baseline registration of
      symptoms, signs and quantitative sensory testing. 244 patient records of drug
      effect distributed over treatments with three antidepressants (imipramine,
      venlafaxine, escitalopram) and two anticonvulsants (pregabalin, oxcarbazepine)
      were analysed. RESULTS: Diabetes as etiology of polyneuropathy had no impact on
      the effect of antidepressants (imipramine, venlafaxine, escitalopram), but there
      was a significant interaction with treatment effect on anticonvulsants with
      better effects in diabetics (0.86 NRS points, p = 0.021) with most pronounced
      interaction for oxcarbazepine (1.47 NRS points, p = 0.032). There was an
      interaction between duration of neuropathic pain and treatment with
      antidepressants with better effect with duration less than 3 years (0.62 NRS
      points, p = 0.036), whereas anticonvulsants tended to work best with duration of
      pain for more than 3 years. CONCLUSION: Despite the small sample size and limited
      number of drugs included this study suggests that diabetic etiology of
      polyneuropathy may impact on the efficacy of anticonvulsants, and duration of
      neuropathic pain may impact on the efficacy of antidepressants. SIGNIFICANCE:
      This study found that duration of pain appears to have an impact on the effect of
      antidepressants in neuropathic pain and that diabetes as etiology for painful
      polyneuropathy appears to influence pain relief obtained with anticonvulsants.

PMID- 28557177
TI  - Dealing with end of life-New graduated nurse experiences.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This article explores the perceptions of new graduate nurses
      around their readiness for practice when faced with death and dying within the
      workplace, particularly in rural hospital and community nursing settings.
      BACKGROUND: An essential consideration for nurses in the care of people with life
      limiting illness is the extent of their preparation for this area of practice.
      Nurses need to be aware of a multitude of compounding factors that will influence
      how and where the person is cared for. Despite significant literature about how
      to provide end of life education to undergraduate nurses there is little in the
      literature that explores the experiences of new graduate nurses. DESIGN: This
      paper reports on a qualitative interpretative study with data collected in seven
      semi-structured interviews. METHOD: Participants were invited to be interviewed
      with an online mail-out to Alumni who had graduated between 1-2 years earlier. A
      thematic analysis of the interviews was then conducted. RESULTS: Four themes
      emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews. These were; the role of the
      new graduate in palliative care, preparation for palliative care in undergraduate
      nursing curricula, readiness for dealing with death and dying, and gaps in
      educational preparation. CONCLUSIONS: While palliative care is viewed as an
      important aspect of undergraduate nursing education, it is recognised as an area
      of practice that undergraduate nurses feel they are not adequately prepared for.
      This study identifies the need to incorporate skills such as having conversations
      and communicating effectively with patients and families experiencing end of life
      issues. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Graduate nurses feel they are not
      adequately prepared for end of life care which demonstrates the need for quality
      end of life care education in undergraduate nursing curricula.

PMID- 28557176
TI  - Genetic variations at the human growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene locus are
      associated with idiopathic short stature.
AB  - GH plays an essential role in the growing child by binding to the growth hormone
      receptor (GHR) on target cells and regulating multiple growth promoting and
      metabolic effects. Mutations in the GHR gene coding regions result in GH
      insensitivity (dwarfism) due to a dysfunctional receptor protein. However,
      children with idiopathic short stature (ISS) show growth impairment without GH or
      GHR defects. We hypothesized that decreased expression of the GHR gene may be
      involved. To test this, we investigated whether common genetic variants
      (microsatellites, SNPs) in regulatory regions of the GHR gene region were
      associated with the ISS phenotype. Genotyping of a GT-repeat microsatellite in
      the GHR 5'UTR in a Montreal ISS cohort (n = 37 ISS, n = 105 controls) revealed
      that the incidence of the long/short (L/S) genotype was 3.3* higher in ISS
      children than controls (P = 0.04, OR = 3.85). In an Italian replication cohort (n
      = 143 ISS, n = 282 controls), the medium/short (M/S) genotype was 1.9* more
      frequent in the male ISS than controls (P = 0.017, OR = 2.26). In both ISS
      cohorts, logistic regression analysis of 27 SNPs showed an association of ISS
      with rs4292454, while haplotype analysis revealed specific risk haplotypes in the
      3' haploblocks. In contrast, there were no differences in GT genotype frequencies
      in a cohort of short stature (SS) adults versus controls (CARTaGENE: n = 168 SS,
      n = 207 controls) and the risk haplotype in the SS cohort was located in the most
      5' haploblock. These data suggest that the variants identified are potentially
      genetic markers specifically associated with the ISS phenotype.

PMID- 28557179
TI  - Cancer patients' perceptions of quality-of-care attributes-Associations with age,
      perceived health status, gender and education.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the associations
      between patients' gender, education, health status in relation to assessments of
      patient-centred quality and individuality in care and trust in nurses for those
      <65 (working age) and >=65 years (older people). BACKGROUND: Patients'
      assessments of the quality of care they receive are essential for the development
      of the provision of patient care and services. Previous studies have revealed age
      of the patient is associated with their assessment of care quality attributes.
      DESIGN: The study employed a cross-sectional, multicultural comparative survey
      design. METHODS: The data were collected using questionnaires among hospitalised
      cancer patients (N = 876, n = 599, 68%) in four European countries: Greece,
      Cyprus, Sweden and Finland. The data were divided into two subgroups based on age
      (cut point 65 years) and were analysed statistically. RESULTS: Cancer patients'
      age, gender and level of education were not related to their assessments of care
      quality attributes: person-centred care quality, individuality in care and trust
      in nurses. Subgroup analysis of the older adults and those of working age showed
      clear associations with patients' assessments of quality-of-care attributes and
      perceived health status. The lower the perceived health status, the lower the
      assessment of care quality attributes. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that the
      cancer itself is the strongest determinant of the care delivered, rather than any
      patient characteristics, such as age, education or gender. Perceived health
      status, in association with cancer patient assessments of care quality
      attributes, may be useful in the development of patient-centred, individualised
      care strategies alongside a stronger focus on people instead of cancer-care
      related processes and duties. CONCLUSIONS: Health status was the only factor
      associated with cancer patients' assessments of care quality attributes. Cancer
      itself may be the strongest determinant of the care quality perceptions, rather
      than any patient characteristics. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The findings of
      this study have implications for cancer care professionals in terms of patient
      assessment and care planning. The measures may be useful in assessing quality of
      cancer nursing care.

PMID- 28557181
TI  - "I don't want to look like an AIDS victim": A New Zealand case study of facial
      lipoatrophy.
AB  - The development of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to treat HIV has turned what was
      once a death sentence into a chronic disorder. However, a focus on absence of
      disease in the form of an undetectable viral load and the dismissal of the so
      called "cosmetic" complications of the disease ignores perceptions of health and
      well-being of those living with HIV. Facial lipoatrophy is a stigmatising side
      effect of treatment for HIV as it betrays the presence of the virus within the
      body. The study took a longitudinal qualitative approach, interviewing 11 people
      twice over a period of 1 year on their experience of living with HIV. Two
      participants were given cameras and asked to take photos which represented what
      it was like for them to live with this condition and were interviewed four times
      at four monthly intervals. This paper looks at one man's struggle to conceal or
      veil his facial lipoatrophy. His story is presented in the form of "selfies" and
      extracts from in-depth interviews. It tells of an emotional (ongoing) journey of
      frustration, anger, excitement, depression and resignation which had a profound
      effect on his sense of social and psychological well-being. This suggests a more
      holistic approach to treating people living with HIV is needed. While an
      undetectable viral load is indeed vital, it should not be seen as the only
      essential outcome of treatment.

PMID- 28557182
TI  - Large Stokes Shift Ionic-Liquid Dye.
AB  - We have incorporated the dye N-methyl-6-oxyquinolone [6MQz] in its protonated
      form as a cation into an ionic liquid (IL) and thus to synthesize an IL dye. The
      IL dye N-methyl-6-hydroxyquinolinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide
      [6MQc][NTf2 ] was characterized by NMR, ATR IR spectroscopy and X-ray
      crystallography. The fluorescence of the IL dye has a large Stokes shift of
      Deltalambda=116 nm and a quantum yield of phiF =0.56 in acetonitrile.
      Characteristic solvent dependent shifts can be detected in the emission spectra.
      In other ILs, acetonitrile and THF we observe a bathochromic shift of up to 28 nm
      compared to the pure IL dye at 467 nm. For stronger polar solvents the
      fluorescence signals are strongly red-shifted to 650 nm indicating proton
      transfer to the solvent molecules in the excited state. This underlines the
      importance of the IL building block [MQc]+ as photo acid.

PMID- 28557180
TI  - Targeting G Protein-Coupled Receptors by Capture Compound Mass Spectrometry: A
      Case Study with Sertindole.
AB  - Unbiased chemoproteomic profiling of small-molecule interactions with endogenous
      proteins is important for drug discovery. For meaningful results, all protein
      classes have to be tractable, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
      These receptors are hardly tractable by affinity pulldown from lysates. We report
      a capture compound (CC)-based strategy to target and identify GPCRs directly from
      living cells. We synthesized CCs with sertindole attached to the CC scaffold in
      different orientations to target the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) heterologously
      expressed in HEK 293 cells. The structure-activity relationship of sertindole for
      DRD2 binding was reflected in the activities of the sertindole CCs in radioligand
      displacement, cell-based assays, and capture compound mass spectrometry (CCMS).
      The activity pattern was rationalized by molecular modelling. The most-active CC
      showed activities very similar to that of unmodified sertindole. A concentration
      of DRD2 in living cells well below 100 fmol used as an experimental input was
      sufficient for unambiguous identification of captured DRD2 by mass spectrometry.
      Our new CCMS workflow broadens the arsenal of chemoproteomic technologies to
      close a critical gap for the comprehensive characterization of drug-protein
      interactions.

PMID- 28557185
TI  - Chemically Tailoring the Dopant Emission in Manganese-Doped CsPbCl3 Perovskite
      Nanocrystals.
AB  - Doping in perovskite nanocrystals adopts different mechanistic approach in
      comparison to widely established doping in chalcogenide quantum dots. The fast
      formation of perovskites makes the dopant insertions more competitive and
      challenging. Introducing alkylamine hydrochloride (RNH3 Cl) as a promoting
      reagent, precise controlled doping of MnII in CsPbCl3 perovskite nanocrystals is
      reported. Simply, by changing the amount of RNH3 Cl, the Mn incorporation and
      subsequent tuning in the excitonic as well as Mn d-d emission intensities are
      tailored. Investigations suggested that RNH3 Cl acted as the chlorinating source,
      controlled the size, and also helps in increasing the number of particles. This
      provided more opportunity for Mn ions to take part in reaction and occupied the
      appropriate lattice positions. Carrying out several reactions with varying
      reaction parameters, the doping conditions are optimized and the role of the
      promoting reagent for both doped and undoped systems are compared.

PMID- 28557184
TI  - Electronic Structure and Magnetic Anisotropy of an Unsaturated Cyclopentadienyl
      Iron(I) Complex with 15 Valence Electrons.
AB  - The 15 valence-electron iron(I) complex [CpAr Fe(IiPr2 Me2 )] (1, CpAr =C5 (C6 H4
      -4-Et)5 ; IiPr2 Me2 =1,3-diisopropyl-4,5-dimethylimidazolin-2-ylidene) was
      synthesized in high yield from the FeII precursor [CpAr Fe(MU-Br)]2 . 57 Fe
      Mossbauer and EPR spectroscopic data, magnetic measurements, and ab initio ligand
      field calculations indicate an S= 3/2 ground state with a large negative zero
      field splitting. As a consequence, 1 features magnetic anisotropy with an
      effective spin-reversal barrier of Ueff =64 cm-1 . Moreover, 1 catalyzes the
      dehydrogenation of N,N-dimethylamine-borane, affording tetramethyl-1,3-diaza-2,4
      diboretane under mild conditions.

PMID- 28557183
TI  - Extracellular vesicles do not contribute to higher circulating levels of soluble
      LRP1 in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) is a frequent cause of heart
      transplantation. Potentially valuable blood markers are being sought, and low
      density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) has been linked to the
      underlying molecular basis of the disease. This study compared circulating levels
      of soluble LRP1 (sLRP1) in IDCM patients and healthy controls and elucidated
      whether sLRP1 is exported out of the myocardium through extracellular vesicles
      (EVs) to gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease. LRP1
      alpha chain expression was analysed in samples collected from the left ventricles
      of explanted hearts using immunohistochemistry. sLRP1 concentrations were
      determined in platelet-free plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Plasma
      derived EVs were extracted by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and
      characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis and cryo-transmission electron
      microscopy. The distributions of vesicular (CD9, CD81) and myocardial (caveolin
      3) proteins and LRP1 alpha chain were assessed in SEC fractions by flow
      cytometry. LRP1 alpha chain was preferably localized to blood vessels in IDCM
      compared to control myocardium. Circulating sLRP1 was increased in IDCM patients.
      CD9- and CD81-positive fractions enriched with membrane vesicles with the
      expected size and morphology were isolated from both groups. The LRP1 alpha chain
      was not present in these SEC fractions, which were also positive for caveolin-3.
      The increase in circulating sLRP1 in IDCM patients may be clinically valuable.
      Although EVs do not contribute to higher sLRP1 levels in IDCM, a comprehensive
      analysis of EV content would provide further insights into the search for novel
      blood markers.

PMID- 28557186
TI  - The role of intrinsically disordered C-terminal region of FliK in substrate
      specificity switching of the bacterial flagellar type III export apparatus.
AB  - The bacterial flagellar export switching machinery consists of a ruler protein,
      FliK, and an export switch protein, FlhB and switches substrate specificity of
      the flagellar type III export apparatus upon completion of hook assembly. An
      interaction between the C-terminal domain of FliK (FliKC ) and the C-terminal
      cytoplasmic domain of FlhB (FlhBC ) is postulated to be responsible for this
      switch. FliKC has a compactly folded domain termed FliKT3S4 (residues 268-352)
      and an intrinsically disordered region composed of the last 53 residues, FliKCT
      (residues 353-405). Residues 301-350 of FliKT3S4 and the last five residues of
      FliKCT are critical for the switching function of FliK. FliKCT is postulated to
      regulate the interaction of FliKT3S4 with FlhBC , but it remains unknown how.
      Here we report the role of FliKCT in the export switching mechanism. Systematic
      deletion analyses of FliKCT revealed that residues of 351-370 are responsible for
      efficient switching of substrate specificity of the export apparatus. Suppressor
      mutant analyses showed that FliKCT coordinates FliKT3S4 action with the
      switching. Site-directed photo-cross-linking experiments showed that Val-302 and
      Ile-304 in the hydrophobic core of FliKT3S4 bind to FlhBC . We propose that
      FliKCT may induce conformational rearrangements of FliKT3S4 to bind to FlhBC .

PMID- 28557187
TI  - Automated high throughput analysis of antiretroviral drugs in dried blood spots.
AB  - For therapeutic drug monitoring in remote settings, dried blood spots (DBS) are
      particularly advantageous, as blood sample collection and handling is
      uncomplicated. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an automated
      extraction method for the analysis of nevirapine, efavirenz and lopinavir in DBS
      samples. Automated extraction was performed with methanol : water (70 : 30 v/v),
      using a DBS-MS 500 autosampler coupled to a liquid chromatography tandem mass
      spectrometry system. The autosampler used digital images of each DBS to position
      the extraction head, sprayed 10 MUl of internal standard onto each DBS and
      extracted a 4-mm disc (O) from the centre of each spot by unilateral flow using
      25-MUl extraction solvent. The analytes were baseline separated on a
      pentafluorophenyl column and analysed by using electrospray ionization with
      multiple reaction monitoring in positive polarity mode for nevirapine and
      lopinavir and in negative mode for efavirenz. The method was linear between 10
      and 10 000 ng/ml for all analytes. Automated sample extraction resulted in
      consistent recoveries (nevirapine: 70 +/- 6%, efavirenz: 63 +/- 11% and
      lopinavir: 60 +/- 10%) and matrix effects between different donors and
      concentration levels. Intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision deviations
      were <=15%. Manual and automated extractions of DBS samples collected within the
      framework of an adherence assessment study in rural Tanzania showed good
      agreements with deviations of less than 10%. Our study highlights that
      therapeutic drug monitoring samples obtained in the resource-constrained setting
      of rural Africa can be reliably determined by automated extraction of DBS.
      Overall, automatization improved method sensitivity and facilitates analysis of
      large sample numbers. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28557188
TI  - Descending aorta to right atrial fistula.
AB  - Here, we report a four-day old neonate presenting with cardiovascular collapse
      secondary to a descending aorta to right atrial fistula. Echocardiography was
      suggestive of the diagnosis and confirmed with computed tomographic (CT) imaging.
      The fistula was successfully occluded via cardiac catheterization using an
      Amplatzer Vascular Plug II implanted from the right atrial aspect. This report
      includes the first CT imaging of this extremely rare congenital defect as well as
      detailing the first successful transcatheter occlusion of this particular lesion.

PMID- 28557189
TI  - Phage applications for improving food safety and infection control in Egypt.
AB  - AIMS: The study investigated the use of bacteriophages to control bacterial
      contamination of chicken skin, eggs, tomatoes and meat. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Experiments were performed to test the host ranges and killing potential of two
      isolated phages, ZCSE1 and ZCEC1, with hosts Salmonella and Escherichia coli
      respectively. The efficacy of both phages was determined by comparing the viable
      counts of recovered bacteria from treatment and phage-free control samples. In
      vitro experiments showed that phage ZCSE1 was able to reduce the numbers of
      Salmonella enterica ATCC 25566 to below 4.0 log10 CFU per ml (3.4 log10 CFU per
      ml reduction) in 240 min postinfection and phage ZCEC1 reduced the number of E.
      coli ATCC 8739 to undetectable levels (6.45 log10 CFU per ml reduction) during
      the first hour of infection at 37 degrees C. When applied to chicken skin and the
      surface of eggs, phage ZCSE1 treatment reduced the number of S. enterica ATCC
      25566 by 2 log10 and to undetectable levels (<2.0 log10 CFU per ml), for skin and
      eggs respectively (P < 0.005). The administration of ZCEC1 phage to meat and
      tomatoes reduced the number of E. coli to below 2.0 log10 CFU per ml 1 day after
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The administration of these phages to meat and tomatoes
      reduced the numbers of E. coli and Salmonella significantly in tested foods.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The results suggest that phages could be
      effective treatments for pathogenic bacteria in food relevant contexts in Egypt.

PMID- 28557190
TI  - Utility of the maximum standardized uptake value on positron emission tomography
      for predicting therapeutic effect in recurrent gynecological malignancies: A
      preliminary study.
AB  - AIM: The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of primary tumors in positron
      emission tomography can be used to predict prognosis in various cancers, but its
      significance in recurrent tumors remains unclear. In the present study, we
      evaluated the utility of the SUVmax for predicting therapeutic effects in
      recurrent gynecological malignancies. METHODS: From February 2012 to July 2014,
      patients with recurrent gynecological cancer who were treated with chemotherapy
      or radiotherapy were enrolled in this study. The SUVmax of recurrent lesions
      before treatment were compared to the therapeutic effects. RESULTS: Fifty
      patients with recurrent gynecological cancer were enrolled. The mean SUVmax was
      significantly higher in patients with stable disease/progressive disease than in
      patients who achieved complete remission/partial remission (13.24 +/- 9.78 vs
      8.61 +/- 5.34, P = 0.039). In patients who were administered chemotherapy, the
      SUVmax was significantly higher in those with stable disease/progressive disease
      than in those who achieved complete remission/partial remission (13.24 +/- 9.78
      vs 8.61 +/- 5.34, P = 0.0392) as well as those administered radiotherapy or
      concurrent chemoradiation therapy (18.15 +/- 3.25 vs 11.33 +/- 3.98, P = 0.0073).
      In ovarian cancer patients administered chemotherapy, when the cut-off value of
      the SUVmax was set as 6.94, the sensitivity and specificity of predicting
      therapeutic effects were 0.75 and 0.846, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although the
      number of enrolled cases was small, our study revealed that the SUVmax in
      recurrent gynecological tumors might predict therapeutic effects. If the SUVmax
      is relatively high, multimodal therapy, including surgical removal, should be
      considered.

PMID- 28557192
TI  - The Quebec experience in promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing obesity: how
      can we do better?
AB  - Over the last years, many actions have been implemented in the Canadian province
      of Quebec to prevent health issues related to diet, physical activity and
      obesity. As a new public health programme is being launched, the 'How can we do
      better?' project aimed to identify priority areas for further action. An
      exhaustive search led to identify 166 interventions rolled out in Quebec between
      2006 and 2014. We compared it with evidence-based recommendations. Findings were
      challenged during a 2-d deliberative forum gathering 25 key stakeholders. At the
      crossroads of these analyses, 50 proposals emerged to sustain/bolster current
      efforts or to implement new initiatives. Specific improvements were recommended,
      e.g. about food supply quality monitoring, healthy food accessibility and
      affordability, physical activity promotion through land use policies, schools and
      childcare facilities retrofit and urban planning. Crosscutting proposals stress
      the importance to implement a new governmental prevention strategy and to
      reinforce evaluation at all levels. This call for action takes place at a
      critical period for political commitment and should be maintained until and after
      curbing the prevalence of obesity and related diseases. Although Quebec-focused,
      'How can we do better?' project outcomes may be informative for other
      jurisdictions, and the methods may be inspiring for those interested in combining
      knowledge syntheses and deliberative processes to inform decision makers in a
      limited time frame.

PMID- 28557191
TI  - Effect of increasing monensin sodium levels in diets with virginiamycin on the
      finishing of Nellore cattle.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of increasing levels of monensin sodium (MON) in
      diets with virginiamycin (VM) on the finishing of feedlot cattle. Two hundred and
      eighty intact male Nellore cattle (348 +/- 32 kg body weight, 22 months) received
      one of the following five diets: control diet (without additives); diet
      containing VM (25 mg per kg dry matter) combined with 0 (MON0), 10 (MON10), 20
      (MON20) or 30 (MON30) mg MON per kg dry matter. During adaptation (28 days), the
      MON0 diet increased dietary net energy for maintenance and gain compared to the
      control diet (P = 0.04). The combination of additives linearly reduced dry matter
      intake, body weight and average daily gain (P < 0.01). Considering the total
      study period (110 days), there was a trend of greater net energy intake for
      maintenance (P = 0.09) and hot carcass weight (P = 0.06) for animals fed MON0
      compared to the control diet. The combination of additives linearly reduced dry
      matter intake (P = 0.04) and linearly increased gain : feed and dietary net
      energy for maintenance and gain (P < 0.01). The combination of VM with MON at a
      dose of 30 mg/kg dry matter is recommended for Nellore feedlot cattle because it
      improves the efficiency of energy utilization.

PMID- 28557193
TI  - Binary Encoding of Random Peptide Sequences for Selective and Differential
      Antimicrobial Mechanisms.
AB  - Binary encoding of peptide sequences into differential antimicrobial mechanisms
      is reported. Such sequences are random in composition, but controllable in chain
      length, are assembled from the same two amino acids, but differ in the
      stereochemistry of one. Regardless of chirality, the sequences lyse bacteria
      including the "superbugs" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and
      vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE). Sequences with the same chirality, so
      called homochiral sequences, assemble into antimicrobial pores and form
      contiguous helices that are biologically promiscuous and hemolytic. By contrast,
      heterochiral sequences that lack such persistence selectively attack bacterial
      membranes without oligomerizing into visible pores. These results offer a
      mechanistic rationale for designing membrane-selective and sequence-independent
      antimicrobials.

PMID- 28557194
TI  - alpha-Quaternary Mannich Bases through Copper-Catalyzed Amination-Induced 1,2
      Rearrangement of Allylic Alcohols.
AB  - A novel copper-catalyzed amination-induced 1,2-rearrangement reaction of allylic
      alcohols has been developed under simple and mild conditions. The commercially
      available N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) is employed as an amination reagent.
      In this transformation, not only alkyl, but also aryl substituents can
      efficiently undergo 1,2-carbon atom migration, thereby providing an efficient and
      powerful route to prepare a wide range of alpha-quaternary Mannich bases. The
      reaction features a broad substrate scope, operational simplicity, and excellent
      practicality.

PMID- 28557195
TI  - Allelopathic Effects, Physiological Responses and Phenolic Compounds in Litter
      Extracts of Juniperus rigidaSieb. et Zucc.
AB  - The allelopathic effects of Juniperus rigida litter aqueous extract (LE) on wheat
      and Pinus tabuliformis were studied, as well as the physiological responses to
      the extract. High concentration LE (0.10 g Dw/ml) significantly inhibited the
      seed germination and seedling growth in receptor plants. The chlorophyll content
      and root activity in the wheat seedlings were reduced significantly across all
      treatments; however, those were more prominently reduced at high concentration
      (0.10 g Dw/ml) but received little stimulation at low concentration (0.025 g
      Dw/ml) in P. tabuliformis. The content of malonaldehyde (MDA) increased with
      increasing concentrations of LE, except at 0.025 g Dw/ml. Activities of
      antioxidant enzymes (POD, CAT and SOD) in receptor plants were all significantly
      inhibited at high concentrations but stimulated at low concentrations. These
      results demonstrate that the aqueous extract from J. rigida litter has
      allelopathic potential. Various phenolic compounds were identified in litter
      aqueous extract and litter ethanol extract by HPLC. The phenolic compound content
      in the aqueous extract was significantly lower than that in the ethanol extract.
      Chlorogenic acid and podophyllotoxin were the predominant phenolic compounds in
      both types of litter extracts. These findings suggest that the seed germination
      and seedling growth of P. tabuliformis and wheat would be inhibited when planted
      near large amounts J. rigida litter.

PMID- 28557196
TI  - The influence of pubertal maturation on antisaccade performance.
AB  - Adolescence is a period characterized by continued improvements in inhibitory
      control, and this persisting immaturity is believed to interact with
      affective/motivational behavior to generate the impulsive and risk-taking
      behavior evidenced at this time. Puberty is a central event of adolescence that
      has been shown to influence affective/motivational behavior. However, despite
      plausible mechanisms by which puberty might influence inhibitory control,
      researchers have yet to test this possibility rigorously. Thus, we designed a
      study to examine the unique role of pubertal maturation, independent of age, in
      the development of inhibitory control. In order to minimize age-related
      variability while maximizing pubertal status variability, we recruited 78
      participants (34 F) whose ages narrowly spanned the mean age of gonadarche for
      each sex (F: ages 11-13, M: ages 12-14). Two complementary measures were used to
      assess pubertal status: (1) circulating blood serum testosterone and estradiol
      levels reflecting internal manifestations of pubertal maturation, and (2) Tanner
      staging by a trained nurse reflecting pubertal maturation's external
      manifestations. Inhibitory control was assessed using the antisaccade task, and
      findings were adjusted for the potential effect of age. Results revealed no
      association between testosterone levels and error rates or response latencies in
      either sex. In girls, estradiol levels were not associated with error rates, but
      were associated with faster response latencies. There was similarly no
      association between Tanner status and error rates, although girls in more
      advanced pubertal stages showed faster response latencies. Power analyses
      indicate that findings of a lack of association did not reflect limited
      statistical power. Thus, in a study designed to isolate the effects of pubertal
      maturation independent of age, both external and internal indices of pubertal
      maturation converged to indicate that age-related improvements in cold
      antisaccade performance are independent of pubertal maturation.

PMID- 28557197
TI  - Impaired immune function in children and adults with Fanconi anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by
      genome instability, bone marrow failure, and cancer predisposition. Previously,
      small studies have reported heterogeneous immune dysfunction in FA. PROCEDURE: We
      performed a detailed immunologic assessment in a large FA cohort who have not
      undergone bone marrow transplantation or developed malignancies. Comprehensive
      quantitative and functional immunologic assessment of 29 FA individuals was
      compared to healthy age-matched controls. RESULTS: Compared to non-FA persons of
      similar ages, FA individuals showed lower absolute total B cells (P < 0.001),
      lower memory B cells (P < 0.001), and decreased IgM (P < 0.001) but normal IgG.
      NK cells (P < 0.001) and NK cytotoxicity (P < 0.001) were decreased. CD4+ T cells
      were decreased (P = 0.022), while CD8+ T cell and absolute T-cell numbers were
      comparable. Cytotoxic T cells (P < 0.003), and antigen proliferation response to
      tetanus (P = 0.019) and candida (P = 0.019), were diminished in FA.
      Phytohemagglutinin responses and plasma cytokines were normal. Within FA
      subjects, adults and older children (>=10 years) exhibited higher CD8+ T cells
      than younger children (P = 0.004). Documented atypical infections were
      infrequent, although oral human papilloma virus (HPV) prevalence was higher (31%
      positive) in FA. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these results demonstrate a high rate of
      significant humoral and cellular immune dysfunction. Continued longitudinal study
      of immune function is critical to understand evolution with age, bone marrow
      failure, and cancer development.

PMID- 28557199
TI  - Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic: Hepatic and mesenteric aneurysms with biloma
      formation.

PMID- 28557200
TI  - Gastrointestinal: An unusual opportunistic infection mimicking lymphoma in a
      patient receiving Infliximab for Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28557201
TI  - Gastrointestinal: Crohn's disease in the terminal ileum with an ileo-ileal
      fistula: Radiologic-pathologic correlation.

PMID- 28557202
TI  - Gastrointestinal: Multiparametric hybrid 18-FDG PET/MRI evaluation of gastric
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28557203
TI  - Gastrointestinal: Unusual spontaneous esophageal intramural dissection.

PMID- 28557198
TI  - Genetic engineering of grass cell wall polysaccharides for biorefining.
AB  - Grasses represent an abundant and widespread source of lignocellulosic biomass,
      which has yet to fulfil its potential as a feedstock for biorefining into
      renewable and sustainable biofuels and commodity chemicals. The inherent
      recalcitrance of lignocellulosic materials to deconstruction is the most crucial
      limitation for the commercial viability and economic feasibility of biomass
      biorefining. Over the last decade, the targeted genetic engineering of grasses
      has become more proficient, enabling rational approaches to modify lignocellulose
      with the aim of making it more amenable to bioconversion. In this review, we
      provide an overview of transgenic strategies and targets to tailor grass cell
      wall polysaccharides for biorefining applications. The bioengineering efforts and
      opportunities summarized here rely primarily on (A) reprogramming gene regulatory
      networks responsible for the biosynthesis of lignocellulose, (B) remodelling the
      chemical structure and substitution patterns of cell wall polysaccharides and (C)
      expressing lignocellulose degrading and/or modifying enzymes in planta. It is
      anticipated that outputs from the rational engineering of grass cell wall
      polysaccharides by such strategies could help in realizing an economically
      sustainable, grass-derived lignocellulose processing industry.

PMID- 28557204
TI  - Anti-adhesive effects of a newly developed two-layered gelatin sheet in dogs.
AB  - AIM: Adhesion after pelvic surgery causes infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and
      ileus or abdominal pain. The materials currently available for clinical use are
      insufficient. The purpose of this study was to develop an anti-adhesive material
      that overcomes the limitations of conventional anti-adhesive agents. METHODS: The
      adhesion prevention effects of three methods - a two-layered sheet composed of
      gelatin film and gelatin sponge, Seprafilm and INTERCEED - were evaluated in 37
      dogs. Anti-adhesive effects were investigated macroscopically and microscopically
      in a cauterized uterus adhesion model. Cell growth on the materials in vitro
      using human peritoneal mesothelial cells, fibroblasts and uterine smooth muscle
      cells were also evaluated. RESULTS: The two-layered gelatin sheet had
      significantly superior anti-adhesive effects compared to the conventional
      materials (Seprafilm and INTERCEED). A single-cell layer of mature mesothelium
      formed three weeks after surgery in the gelatin group. Peritoneum regeneration in
      the Seprafilm and INTERCEED groups was delayed and incomplete in the early phase.
      Little inflammation around the materials occurred and cell growth was
      significantly proliferated with the gelatin sheet. CONCLUSION: The anti-adhesive
      effects of a two-layered gelatin sheet were superior to conventional agents in a
      cauterized canine uterus model, demonstrating early regeneration of the
      peritoneum, little inflammation and material endurance. The newly developed two
      layered gelatin sheet is a useful option as an anti-adhesive agent for deeply
      injured and hemorrhagic sites.

PMID- 28557205
TI  - Stereochemical Alignment in Triphospha[3]ferrocenophanes.
AB  - A series of triphospha[3]ferrocenophanes of the type Fe(C5 H4 -PtBu)2 PX with
      X=H, F, Cl, Br, I, NEt2 , tBu has been prepared and characterized by
      heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Despite having three
      stereogenic centers, the selective formation of a reduced number of diastereomers
      (either one or two) has been observed for these ferrocenophanes. Theoretical
      calculations revealed that the inversion of the central stereogenic center
      inverts the frontier orbital sequence leading to either an iron or a phosphorus
      centered HOMO depending on the respective diastereomer. CV measurements supported
      these results. For the all-tert-butyl substituted [3]ferrocenophane Fe(C5 H4 )2
      (PtBu)3 a chiral staggered conformation has been found in the solid state which
      differs substantially from the only other all-organo substituted
      [3]ferrocenophane, Fe(C5 H4 )2 (PPh)3 .

PMID- 28557206
TI  - Anthropological approaches to the study of sex differences in blood pressure.

PMID- 28557207
TI  - Usefulness of a stature-based standard of skinfold thickness, especially for
      short children.
AB  - Skinfold thicknessess (SFT) were measured at ulnar, triceps, subscapular and
      suprailiac sites in 730 boys and 724 girls (age 3-12 years) whose stature ranged
      from 100 to 150 cm and whose weight was within +/-20% of the average. Means and
      standard deviation (SD) were calculated after logarithmic transformation of the
      original skinfold readings to demonstrate stature-based standards of SFT in
      Japanese children. The means of SFT exhibited nadirs (boys/ girls: ulnar 5.1/5.9
      mm, triceps 7.9/9.5 mm, subscapular 4.9/6.1 mm, suprailiac 4.5/6.2 mm) in
      subjects 110-115 cm tall except for ulnar SFT in girls. SFT values increased as
      children increased in stature. Standard deviations of SFT at the four sites in
      short children (staturte < mean -1 SD) were estimated using the stature-based
      standard as well as an age-based standard. Susms of the SDs assessed by the age
      based standard were significantly smaller than those assessed by the stature
      based standard in boys (P < 0.05) and girls (P < 0.01) with short stature,
      suggesting that SFT in short children was falsely understimated by the age-based
      standard. Thus, the stature-based standard is beneficial for the assessment of
      SFT, especially in children whose stature is below the mean --1 SD. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557208
TI  - High altitude and hypertension during pregnancy.
AB  - Hypertensive complications of pregnancy are more common at high than low
      altitudes. Hypertension in pregnancy is associated with increased maternal and
      fetal morbidity and mortality; thus natural selection may be operating against
      women who develop the disorder and their infants. It has long been hypothesized
      that chronic hypoxia due to residence at high altitude predisposes women to
      develop hypertension during pregnancy. Prior studies indicate that maternal
      adaptation to pregnancy is altered by residence at high altitude such that some
      physiological characteristics of women pregnant at high altitude resemble those
      of women who develop hypertension during pregnancy at low altitude. This paper
      reviews data from studies, conducted over the past decade, which support a
      relationship between chronic hypoxia and hypertension during pregnancy. The
      results suggest that both the requirements for successful adaptation to high
      altitude, as well as the effect of lowered PO2 during pregnancy, may contribute
      to the development of hypertension during pregnancy. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557209
TI  - Use of cortisol as a stress marker: Practical and theoretical problems.
AB  - Human biologists have shown increasing interest in the use of cortisol as an
      objective marker of stress in recent years. This paper reviews both practical and
      theoretical problems raised by this approach. The methodology of cortisol
      assessment using urine, saliva, and plasma is considered. There are many
      practical problems involved in obtaining good measures of cortisol, although the
      availability of salivary assays offers a promising way forward. Theoretical
      issues are of greater concern. Results of laboratory studies led to the
      hypothesis that cortisol is elevated when an individual is distressed. However,
      relatively little work has been done on cortisol variation in "real life," and
      the results of such studies do not, in general, conform to this hypothesis. It is
      concluded that the determinants of cortisol variation are not well understood.
      For example, cortisol level may be as much influenced by positive emotions as by
      negative emotions usually identified with stress. Further documentation of
      cortisol variation in everyday life is needed, and at present it is premature to
      use cortisol level as a marker of stress. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557210
TI  - Plasma lipids in two indigenous Arctic populations with low risk for
      cardiovascular diseases.
AB  - The distribution of plasma lipids and their sociodemographic and metabolic
      correlates were investigated in two Arctic indigenous populations based on two
      health surveys conducted during 1990-1991 among adults in eight Inuit communities
      in the Keewatin region of the Northwest Territories, Canada (n = 387), and in
      four communities in the Chukotka region in the Russian Far North (n = 362). For
      comparison, data from the Canadian Heart Health Survey were used. The age-sex
      specific mean total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol levels among
      Inuit in northern Canada either do not differ significantly from the Canadian
      national population, or, in the case of younger Inuit women, are higher than in
      Canadians. This represents a temporal change from the results of earlier studies.
      Chukotka Natives tend to have the lowest total cholesterol (TC) and LDL values of
      the three populations. The two indigenous populations still enjoy considerably
      lower levels of triglycerides (TG) and higher levels of high density lipoprotein
      (HDL) cholesterol than observed in Canada, with the exception of younger Inuit
      women whose mean TG levels are not significantly different from those of
      Canadians. The proportion of individuals at risk for ischemic heart disease
      because of high TG (>=2.3 mmol/L) is 20% among Canadian men but only 2% and 0%
      among the Arctic Natives, and 11% among Canadian women compared to 6% and 3% in
      the Keewatin and Chukotka regions, respectively. Such sociodemographic factors as
      education and marital status do not have a substantial and consistent effect on
      plasma lipid levels. Women with higher education have lower HDL (in Keewatin) and
      higher TG (in Chukotka), significant only at the 0.10 level. Among Chukotka men
      those who reported a lineage without nonindigenous admixture have a higher HDL
      level (P = 0.048). No difference between the admixed and nonadmixed can be found
      in the Keewatin. Smoking status has no significant effect on any of the lipid
      fractions in either population. The two Arctic populations demonstrate an
      association of some plasma lipids with blood pressure and indices of obesity and
      central fat patterning commonly observed in other populations. However, plasma
      glucose does not increase in tandem with increasing levels of lipids, contrary to
      that observed in the general Canadian population. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557211
TI  - Body fat and fat distribution in relation to sex differences in blood pressure.
AB  - The extent to which the relationship between body fat and blood pressure either
      differs by sex or explains sex differences in blood pressure is examined.
      Estimates of the relationship of blood pressure to several measures of adiposity
      in men and women were obtained from a systematic review of the literature and
      tests of whether these relationships differ by sex were performed. Analysis of
      covariance (controlling for age and race) was used for both casual and ambulatory
      blood pressure in the Cornell Worksite Blood Pressure Study (N = 276). In
      general, most adiposity measures were significantly related to casual and
      ambulatory blood pressure in men and women. Subscapular skinfold thickness and
      body mass index exhibited the strongest associations. The vast majority of
      adiposity/blood pressure associations were not significantly different for men
      and women. Finally, sex differences in adiposity did not account for much of the
      sex difference observed in blood pressure. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557212
TI  - Head circumference for Mexican American infants and young children from the
      Hispanic health and nutrition examination survey (HHANES 1982-1984): Comparisons
      with Whites and Blacks from NHANES II (1976-1980).
AB  - This study presents descriptive statistics for head circumference in Mexican
      American children 6 months to 7 years of age using data from the Hispanic Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES, 1982-1984) and compares these
      statistics with national estimates of head circumference for non-Hispanic White
      children and non-Hispanic Black children from the Second National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II, 1976-1980). Head circumference was
      measured in the same standardized fashion in the two surveys. The patterns of
      change with age in means and in empirical percentiles were similar for both
      genders and for all three ethnic groups. Values for head circumference increased
      with age, but the rate of increase became less as age advanced. Analyses
      indicated that at 1, 2, and 4 years of age, mean values for head circumferences
      for non-Hispanic White boys were significantly larger than those for Mexican
      American boys. The differences in mean values for head circumferences ranged from
      0.7 to 1.1 cm. Because ethnic differences in head circumferences are small in
      magnitude, ethnic-specific sets of reference data for head circumference are not
      needed for clinical evaluation of Mexican Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, and non
      Hispanic Blacks. Further analyses may be necessary when additional information
      from NHANES III allows the calculation of the 5th and 95th percentiles for Black
      and Mexican American children with small confidence limits. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557213
TI  - Thoughts on gender-related research: Models, myths, and medicine.
AB  - Gender-related research directed to hypertension and coronary artery disease
      (CAD) is discussed in terms of the one-sex and two-sex models. Gender "blind"
      research on the two conditions has resulted in questionable treatment regimes for
      women. In addition, the biomedical myth of CAD as a male disease has also
      perpetuated less-than-optimal treatment. Finally, the role of amount and
      distribution of body fat in the development of hypertension and CAD should be
      considered within an evolutionary framework. Body fatness in women has been of
      evolutionary survival value and current standards for ideal weight and risk for
      disease have to take this into account. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557214
TI  - Prevalence of hepatitis B virus markers in several institutions for the mentally
      handicapped in the autonomous community of Madrid.
AB  - In order to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers, 400
      patients were studied: 134 residents of an institution (RI) for the mentally
      retarded and 266 under non-residential care (NRC). In the residential
      institutions, all markers were absent in 69 (65.7%) of 105 patients with Down
      syndrome and 20 (69.0%) of 29 clients without Down syndrome. In the NRC clients,
      167 (85.6%) of 195 patients with Down syndrome and 65 (91.5%) of 71 clients with
      other mental defects (psychologically and physically handicapped, autism) had
      negative tests for HBV markers. The prevalence of the hepatitis B surface antigen
      (HBsAg) was higher in institutionalized mentally retarded (RI) and older patients
      (21+ years). Examination of 195 Down patients revealed a higher frequency (1.4
      times) of surface antigen carriers as strictly matched non-Down syndrome cases
      (point prevalences 14.2% and 10.3%, respectively). The higher prevalence in
      affected cases appears to be primarily associated with a longer persistence of
      antigenemia. Results related to the sex of the patients were less clear. Neither
      affected nor non-affected patients showed significant differences in prevalence
      among males and females. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557215
TI  - Sex differences in the response of blood pressure to modernization.
AB  - Sex and age differences in the incidence of hypertension and blood pressure (BP)
      levels and their concomitants are examined among the Manus of Papua New Guinea in
      the context of modernization. For Manus men, BP increases directly with both
      degree of modernization and duration of migration to the local towns and larger
      cities of Papua New Guinea, accompanied by similar increases in body mass and
      subcutaneous fat. For Manus women, however, although body mass and fatness
      increase along the modernization continuum, BP does not. Risk for hypertension
      (140/90 mm Hg) was increased fourfold among men who resided in town (adjusted
      odds ratio [AOR] = 4.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5-13.2) and also among
      those who were in the highest tertile of fatness (AOR = 4.1, 95% CI 1.6-10.4).
      Among women, older age (>=45) alone significantly increased risk tenfold (AOR =
      10.5, 95% CI 1.7-66.8). Using a Mantel-Haenszel chi2 , a meta-analysis of sex and
      age differences in relative risk for hypertension (160/95 mm Hg) among 20 Pacific
      populations, 9 traditional living and 11 undergoing modernization, was performed.
      While young men showed increased risk in modernizing populations (summary
      relative risk [SRR] = 1.34, 95% CI 1.12-1.60), older men had significantly
      reduced risk for hypertension compared with women in both traditional (SRR =
      0.46, 95% CI 0.33-0.64) and modernizing groups (SRR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.59-0.84).
      This crossover between the sexes with advancing age is also evident for BP levels
      in a larger sample of societies and suggests a biological basis for hypertension
      risk. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557216
TI  - Re-examination of secular change in adult Irish stature.
AB  - Data from a large cross-sectional study conducted in the 1930s were used to
      examine secular changes in adult stature in post-Famine Ireland. The sample
      consists of 4061 males and 804 females, who were 30 years of age or older at the
      time of measurement (mostly in 1935). The Himes-Mueller method was used to adjust
      stature for the effects of aging so that secular change could be assessed. The
      linear regression of adjusted stature on year of birth was significant for both
      males and females, and there was no significant difference in slopes between the
      sexes. These results show an increase in stature of approximately 0.35-0.40 cm
      per decade, which is not that different from increases found in other studies of
      19th century European populations. No significant curvilinearity was detected.
      These results show that an earlier analysis of a much smaller portion of the
      sample was biased due to small numbers. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557217
TI  - Long-term pharmacologic treatment of women with hypertension.
AB  - As reviewed in "Hypertension in Women: What is Really Known?" (Women's Caucus
      Working Group on Women's Health of the Society of General Internal Medicine
      [1991] Ann Intern Med 115:287-293), the published literature reveals that
      hypertension frequently occurs in women and that only some prospective studies
      have defined specific benefits and risks of long-term pharmacologic treatment.
      Major U.S. epidemiologic studies show the incidence of hypertension to very
      between 20% and 50% of the population. It is more common among Afro-Americans
      than White Americans. Frequency increases with aging. Several studies of at least
      3 years duration that have focused on the use of diuretics and B blockers are
      reviewed: Hypertension Detection and Follow-Up Program (HDFP), Medical Research
      Council (MRC), MRC trial in the treatment of older adults (MRC-Older), and
      isolated systolic hypertension in the elderly (SHEP). Both diuretics and B
      blockers generally lower blood pressure, and decrease stroke incidence and
      mortality. Diuretics seem to be more effective and better tolerated than B
      blockers. Long-term studies of newer antihypertensive agents do not yet exist.
      The sexual side effects of drugs have only been studied to a limited degree in
      women. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557218
TI  - Racial admixture in a Mestizo population from Mexico City.
AB  - Seven genetic systems were used to investigate the racial composition of a sample
      from a low-income Mexico City Mestizo group, finding estimates of 0.590, 0.348,
      and 0.062 of Indian, White, and Black ancestry, respectively. The results are
      similar to another Mexico City group studied previously and to several Mestizo
      populations from different parts of the country. The one thing in common in all
      these groups is low socioeconomic status. There is only one report suggesting
      that Mexico City Mestizos have around 70% White ancestry, and there is reason to
      believe the sample was taken from a high socioeconomic group. It is suggested
      that low socioeconomic Mexican Mestizo groups are characterized by a high Indian
      ancestry, above 50%. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557219
TI  - Effects of sex, age, weight, and heredity on blood pressure in baboons.
AB  - Using data on a population of 498 pedigreed baboons, the effects of several
      covariates, including sex, age, weight, and subspecies, on arterial blood
      pressures were studied. Females had significantly higher systolic and diastolic
      arterial blood pressure than males. Both systolic and diastolic arterial blood
      pressures increased significantly with increasing weight, and for diastolic
      pressure, the increase was significantly greater in females than in males.
      Systolic arterial blood pressure significantly decreased with increasing age and
      the decrease was larger in males. There were significant differences in arterial
      blood pressures that corresponded with degree of subspecies admixture. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557220
TI  - Maternal/offspring birth month concordance in a Pacific island population.
AB  - Analyses of 13,863 births occurring on Guam before 1942 reveal statistically
      significant concordance of maternal and offspring birth months, accounting for
      over 17% of recorded births. A secular change by maternal birth year in month of
      highest concordance level coincides with changing public health measures over
      this historical period. Together with observed birth order effects, showing
      decreasing concordance values with increasing birth order rank, these findings
      suggest an immunological component of observed birth seasonality patterns. The
      potential effects of maternal-fetal immunological interactions merit greater
      consideration in birth seasonality studies among historical and anthropological
      populations. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557221
TI  - Gender differences and similarities in effects of nonpharmacologic approaches to
      the treatment of mild hypertension.
AB  - TAIM, the Trial of Antihypertensive Interventions and Management, studied the
      effects of dietary sodium restriction or weight reduction, alone and in
      combination with low-dose diuretic or beta blocker on blood pressure after 6
      months. The responses to these interventions of men compared to women are
      presented for those persons randomized to placebo drug. Men undergoing a weight
      reduction intervention were able to lose more weight (5.9 kg) than women (3.1
      kg), P ? 05. Men also had a greater percentage of wright loss and a greater
      reduction in body mass index (BMI), although not significantly so. Weight loss
      was correlated to a decrease in triglycerides (r = 0.37), but not in cholesterol.
      The weight-reduction intervention lowered triglycerides more in men (-81 mg/dl)
      than in women(-21 mg/dl; P = .008). There were no sex differences in abiility to
      reduce sodium or increase potassium for those in the sodium restriction group.
      Both men and women decreased their sodium to the same extent by 36 mmol/day and
      25 mmol, respectively, and increased their potassium by 13 mmol and 11 mmol,
      respectively. Blood pressure response at 6 months was greater in men than in
      women on weight reduction (a drop in diastolic pressure of -11 mmHg in men and 7
      mmHg in women, P =.04). Sodium restriction had a similar effect on blood pressure
      in both sexes, and among men resulted in a significantly smaller reduction in
      blood pressure than did weight reduction. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557222
TI  - Distal versus proximal electrode placement in the prediction of total body water
      and extracellular water from multifrequency bioelectrical impedance.
AB  - In 48 normal weight subjects, 25 females and 23 males, body impedance was
      measured at multiple frequencies. Two different electrode placements were used,
      one the commonly used distal electrode placement, in which the source electrodes
      are on the dorsal sides of the hand and foot and the sensor electrodes are on
      ankle and wrist, and a second placement, in which the sensor electrodes are
      placed more proximally, at the knee and elbow. Theoretically a proximal electrode
      placement could result in more precise estimates of body water compartments.
      Total body water (TBW) and extracellular water (ECW) were determined using
      deuterium oxide dilution and bromide dilution, respectively. The aim of the study
      was to investigate whether proximal electrode placement results in a more precise
      estimation of TBW and ECW using multifrequency impedance analysis. Correlation
      coefficients of impedance and the impedance index stature2 /impedance) with TBW
      and ECW were not or were only slightly higher using proximal impedance values,
      resulting in slight improvement of the estimation error for TBW (0.13 kg) and ECW
      (0.04 kg). The differences between measured and predicted values (residuals) of
      TBW and ECW were not correlated with TBW and ECW, but they were correlated with
      body fat and body water distribution (ECW/TBW). These correlations did not differ
      between distal and proximal impedance measurements. It is concluded that proximal
      impedance measurements do not substantially improve the prediction of body water
      compartments. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557224
TI  - China productivity project: General description and analysis of productivity.
AB  - The amount of work that people do is a focal point of human life, an outcome with
      extraordinarily complex roots. The physical task itself, the natural setting,
      biological work capacity, and behavioral patterns presumably condition
      productivity. This paper presents a model by which work output of Chinese cycle
      haulers was investigated, and outlines investigative techniques including work
      physiology, health assessment, cold response, and ethnography of the workplace
      and home. The objective is to explain variation in work done on a daily, monthly,
      and seasonal basis. This paper also quantifies work output, or productivity,
      using long-term pay records as measures of productivity. While pay records, which
      show statistically normal distributions, serve as the primary dependent variable
      in the analysis, field observations and experiments offer supplementary data on
      the behaviors that produce work output. In a sample of 48 men, various measures
      of biological capacity and behaviors, such as motivation, predict overall
      productivity regardless of season. Since mean daily pay and monthly pay have
      different predictors, there is much individual choice in how many days per month
      one works. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557225
TI  - Frequency of haplotypes in the beta globin gene cluster in a selected sample of
      the mexican population.
AB  - Five polymorphic restriction enzyme sites in the beta globin gene cluster
      (HindIII Ggamma-Hind III Agamma-, Ava IIINV-2 beta-and Hpa I and Bam HI 3'beta
      globin gene) were studied in individuals from 13 families: 13 homozygote patients
      for sickle cell anemia, two double heterozygotes (one SC and one S/betaThal ), 35
      AS heterozygotes (23 parents and 12 siblings), one father (A/betaThal ), and
      three normal siblings. In addition, 17 normal unrelated Mexican subjects were
      studied. All subjects were from the state of Veracruz on the coast of the Gulf of
      Mexico. The Southern blot technique was used. Fifteen haplotypes were identified
      in the 142 chromosomes. Five were the most frequent: two haplotypes, (+-+++)
      (52.4%) and (--+-+) (19.0%) were associated with betaS chromosomes; two
      haplotypes, (--+++) (38.2%) and (---++) (19.7%), were linked with betaA
      chromosomes, and the fifth (--++-) was present in both types of chromosomes.
      Haplotype (+-+++) corresponded to the Bantu or Senegal type. With Hinc II
      analysis after PCR amplification in both the 5' and 3' regions of the psibeta
      globin gene, it was possible to distinguish between these African types, as in
      the former both restriction sites are absent. This analysis was done in 23 betaS
      and 10 betaA subjects. All betaS chromosomes disclosed the Bantu type, while
      betaA were similar to Caucasians. Bantu and Benin haplotypes have been found with
      high frequency in African populations, indicating the great influence of African
      genes in the population of the Mexican coasts. In addition, two previously
      unidentified haplotypes were found: (++--+) and (-++++). These can be explainded
      by crossing-over events and/or by new mutations. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557226
TI  - 20th Annual Meeting Human Biology Council.

PMID- 28557227
TI  - Relationship between frame size and fatness in children and adolescents.
AB  - In order to evaluate variation in body fatness by category of frame size (small,
      medium, and large) during growth, a sample of 7,286 Cuban children and
      adolescents (3,721 males, 3,565 females) 5-20 years was surveyed. Fatness was
      estimated from skinfold thicknesses at four sites: subscapular, triceps,
      suprailiac, and posterior calf. Elbow breadth was used as an estimate of frame
      size. Generally, the larger the frame size, the greater the amount of
      subcutaneous fat regardless of age and sex. The results suggest that in the
      assessment of obesity and its associated risk, in children and youth, frame size,
      given by categories of elbow breadth, should be taken into account. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557228
TI  - Do type B women have more offspring?: An instance of asymmetrical selection at
      the ABO blood group locus.

PMID- 28557229
TI  - Bio-impedance analysis for estimation of total body potassium, total body water,
      and fat-free mass in white, black, and Asian adults.
AB  - Bio-impedance analysis (BIA) measurements have been used to predict components of
      body composition. Their validation is required for populations varying in race,
      sex, and age. In 371 Whites, 182 Blacks and 225 Asians, single-frequency BIA at
      50 kHz (RJL-100) resistance and reactance measurements were correlated with same
      day measurements of total body water (TBW) by THO dilution, total body potassium
      (TBK) by whole body 40 K counting, and fat-free mass (FFM) by dual-photon
      absorptiometry. BIA correlation coefficients with TBW, TBK, FFM, and fat varied
      by sex and race for all measured body composition components. The highest
      correlation was for FFM, and the lowest was for fat mass. Prediction equations
      were further improved by including age, stature, and weight for each of the study
      cohorts. The SEE for predictions were in the ranges of 5-6, 6-8, and 7-10% of
      measured FFM, TBW, and TBK, respectively. BIA was effective in predicting body
      composition when subjects are specified by age, sex, stature, weight, and race
      for subjects from 18 to 94 years of age. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557230
TI  - Gene frequencies and admixture estimates for ABO, Rho (D), and MN blood groups in
      persons with mono- and polyphletic surnames in monterrey, N.L., Mexico.
AB  - A sample of 3,211 males and females insured by the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro
      Social (I.M.S.S.) residing in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA), northeastern
      Mexico, were selected by their monophyletic or polyphyletic surnames. ABO, Rho
      (D), and MN blood groups were determined, and phenotype and gene frequencies were
      estimated to study the genetic variation among populations with these surnames,
      to estimate the genetic contribution from their most important ancestral
      populations, both Spanish and Mexican Indians, and to compare genetic structure
      with other populations that have been reported from this MMA and other urban
      centers in Mexico with the hypothesis that the persons with monophyletic surnames
      are the closest descendants of the founders, who colonized the MMA between 1577
      and 1596, and that they still conserve some degree of genetic isolation. The
      results indicate that the selected persons with monophyletic surnames are the
      closest to the Spanish, supporting the above hypothesis; on the other hand,
      persons with polyphyletic surnames are the closet to other Mestizo populations
      from central Mexico and the Mexican Indians. Hybrid persons with one monophyletic
      and one polyphyletic surname are closer to the monophyletics due to the fact that
      90% of these polyphyletics originated in northeastern Mexico. It is concluded
      that, at present, the Mestizo population from the MMA is integrated by two
      subpopulations, one with monophyletic and the other with polyphyletic surnames.
      It is suggested that due to an increase in migration in Mexico, the Mestizo
      genetic structure of the MMA population will slowly become more uniform. (c) 1995
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557231
TI  - Energy cost of physical activity in twelve week old infants.
AB  - The energy cost of physical activity has long remained the component of energy
      expenditure most difficult to quantify. Measurement of total energy expenditure
      (TEE) in free-living infants by the doubly-labelled water method permits a new
      approach. The energy cost of activity was estimated in 12 week infants as the
      difference between TEE and the sum of minimal metabolic rate, the energy cost of
      tissue synthesis, and thermogenesis. No differences were found between the sexes
      or between breast-fed and formula-fed infants. However, the cost of activity was
      substantially higher than previously assumed. The approach is more suitable for
      use with groups rather than individuals. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557232
TI  - Worker motivation and productivity in chinese (beijing) tricycle haulers:
      Integrating social and biological variables.
AB  - Ethnographic assessment of worker lifestyle and motivation was paired with
      measurement of health, maximum oxygen uptake, anthropometry, and cold response to
      predict productivity in order to determine how well behavioral ratings and
      biological rankings of worker capacity predict actual productivity. The subjects
      were Chinese laborers hauling heavy loads on a cycle by human power during a
      Beijing winter. Worker productivity was measured as pay for unit of work done.
      This paper reports the ethnographic methods and results. Worker health was
      assessed through a physical examination including vital signs, echocardiogram
      (ECG), nutrition, hemoglobin, and hematocrit. Worker motivation was assessed
      during 10 weeks of participant observation, extensive interview, and a visit to
      the worker's household. Motivation was rated using a rank-order comparison of all
      50 workers from lowest to highest. Other observational ratings (household assets,
      demands on worker, and health of household members) were completed at the time of
      the home visit using five-point scales. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557233
TI  - Genetic affinities between the migrant and parental populations of fishermen,
      East coast, India.
AB  - Genetic affinities between the migrant groups of fishermen from Puri and their
      parental counterparts in the Southern areas were examined using 11 genetic loci:
      four blood groups, five red cell enzymes, and two serum proteins. The samples for
      the parental populations (about 430 subjects) were drawn from 34 villages spread
      along the 400 km coast in Ganjam district of Orissa and the contiguous
      Srikakulam, Vishakhapatnam, and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh.
      Significant departures between the migrant groups and their parental counterparts
      were observed at some loci, although the configuration of interpopulation
      distances among the migrants mimicked that of the parental populations. While the
      observed differences may be due to a founder effect and subsequent random genetic
      drift in at least two of the three small populations, given high child mortality
      and the systematic nature of differences observed, the role of selection cannot
      be totally ruled out. (c) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557234
TI  - Manuscript reviewers.

PMID- 28557235
TI  - Modulating the Kinetics of Nanoparticle Adsorption for Simple and High-Yield
      Fabrication of Plasmonic Heterostructures as SERS Substrates.
AB  - This work reports scalable, low-cost, and simple fabrication of plasmonic
      heterostructures consisting of gold nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes to
      generate intense hot-pots over large areas to serve as substrates for molecular
      sensing in SERS applications. Our approach involves assembly of massively
      available colloidal gold NPs on substrates functionalized with end-grafted
      poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) brushes without need for any sophisticated tools and
      post-modification of the particles and substrates. From real-time monitoring of
      the adsorption process by using a quartz crystal microbalance, we identified that
      the cyclic deposition of citrate-stabilized gold NPs on PEG brushes is an
      effective approach to modulate the kinetics of particle adsorption and greatly
      improves the surface coverage leading to reduced inter-particle distances. Cyclic
      deposition of NPs differing in size leads to placement of the small particles in
      close proximity of the large ones, yielding hot-spots as a consequence of the
      unique type of interaction between PEG chains and gold NPs. Assembly of
      heterostructures (60 nm+40 nm and 60 nm+20 nm) at optimized conditions resulted
      in strong SERS effects with enhancement factors as high as ~2.0*106 and enabled
      detection of rhodamine 6G molecules in concentrations as low as 1 nm. The cyclic
      deposition of NPs also results in increase of the water contact angle without
      need for any post-modification of the substrate, resulting in ~30 fold increase
      in the Raman intensity of aqueous molecules. The insights gained on the
      adsorption of gold NPs together with the simplicity of the presented approach
      show great promise for surface assembly of colloidal NPs for a broad range of
      applications.

PMID- 28557236
TI  - Using action research to develop midwives' skills to support women with perinatal
      mental health needs.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the research was to identify and develop
      midwives' skills to support women with mental health needs during pregnancy,
      using an action research approach. BACKGROUND: A review of perinatal mental
      health services in a large Dublin maternity unit revealed a high number of
      referred women who 'did not attend' the perinatal mental health service with few
      guidelines in place to support midwives in identifying and referring women for
      specialist help. DESIGN: Action research using cooperative inquiry involved a
      mental health nurse specialist and a team of midwives, who were drawn to each
      other in mutual concern about an area of practice. METHODS: Data were gathered
      from three Cooperative Inquiry meetings, which incorporated one main Action
      Research Cycle of constructing, planning, taking and evaluating action. Data were
      analysed using a thematic content analysis framework. RESULTS: Participants
      experienced varying levels of uncertainty about how to support women with
      perinatal mental health needs. Cooperative inquiry supported participants in
      making sense of how they understood perinatal mental health and how they managed
      challenges experienced when caring for women with perinatal mental health issues.
      Participants developed a referral pathway, highlighted the significance of
      education to support women with perinatal mental health issues and identified the
      value of using open questions to promote conversation with pregnant women about
      mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Midwives value education and support to identify and
      refer women at risk of perinatal mental health issues. Cooperative inquiry, with
      a focus on action and shared reflection, facilitated the drawing together of two
      professional groups with diverse knowledge bases to work together to develop
      practice in an area of mutual concern. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Perinatal
      mental health is a significant public health issue and midwives need support to
      make psychosocial assessments and to negotiate access to specialist services
      where available and when required.

PMID- 28557238
TI  - An integrated review of the correlation between critical thinking ability and
      clinical decision-making in nursing.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore whether there is a correlation between critical
      thinking ability and clinical decision-making among nurses. BACKGROUND: Critical
      thinking is currently considered as an essential component of nurses'
      professional judgement and clinical decision-making. If confirmed, nursing
      curricula may be revised emphasising on critical thinking with the expectation to
      improve clinical decision-making and thus better health care. DESIGN: Integrated
      literature review. METHODS: The integrative review was carried out after a
      comprehensive literature search using electronic databases Ovid, EBESCO MEDLINE,
      EBESCO CINAHL, PROQuest and Internet search engine Google Scholar. Two hundred
      and 22 articles from January 1980 to end of 2015 were retrieved. All studies
      evaluating the relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision
      making, published in English language with nurses or nursing students as the
      study population, were included. No qualitative studies were found investigating
      the relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision-making, while 10
      quantitative studies met the inclusion criteria and were further evaluated using
      the Quality Assessment and Validity Tool. As a result, one study was excluded due
      to a low-quality score, with the remaining nine accepted for this review.
      RESULTS: Four of nine studies established a positive relationship between
      critical thinking and clinical decision-making. Another five studies did not
      demonstrate a significant correlation. The lack of refinement in studies' design
      and instrumentation were arguably the main reasons for the inconsistent results.
      CONCLUSIONS: Research studies yielded contradictory results as regard to the
      relationship between critical thinking and clinical decision-making; therefore,
      the evidence is not convincing. Future quantitative studies should have
      representative sample size, use critical thinking measurement tools related to
      the healthcare sector and evaluate the predisposition of test takers towards
      their willingness and ability to think. There is also a need for qualitative
      studies to provide a fresh approach in exploring the relationship between these
      variables uncovering currently unknown contributing factors. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: This review confirmed that evidence to support the existence
      of relationships between critical thinking and clinical decision-making is still
      unsubstantiated. Therefore, it serves as a call for nurse leaders and nursing
      academics to produce quality studies in order to firmly support or reject the
      hypothesis that there is a statistically significant correlation between critical
      thinking and clinical decision-making.

PMID- 28557239
TI  - The neuroprotective effect of mesenchymal stem cells on an experimentally induced
      model for multiple sclerosis in mice.
AB  - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune demyelinating neurodegenerative
      central nervous system disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate
      the prophylactic effect exerted by the one-time intraperitoneal injection of
      mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) 1 * 106 and 14-day intraperitoneal injection of
      methylprednisolone (MP) 40 mg/kg in an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
      (EAE). EAE was induced by intradermal injection of rat spinal cord homogenate
      with complete Freund's adjuvant in Swiss mice. Results of MSCs and MP-treated
      mice showed a significantly milder disease and fewer clinical scores compared to
      control mice. They suppressed tumor necrosis factor-alpha and myeloperoxidase and
      increased interleukin 10, whereas thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and
      nitric oxide brain contents were reduced to comparable levels between treatment
      groups. Brain content of GSH was significantly higher in MSCs-treated mice than
      control mice. It is evident that MSCs have relevant prophylactic effect in an
      animal model of MS and might represent a valuable tool for stem cell based
      therapy in MS.

PMID- 28557237
TI  - Disorders of sex development (DSD): Clinical service delivery in the United
      States.
AB  - Following the principles of care recommended in the 2006 Consensus Statement on
      Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), along with input from representatives of peer
      support and advocacy groups, this study surveyed DSD clinical management
      practices at healthcare facilities in the United States. DSD are congenital
      conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sex is
      atypical. Facilities providing care for patients with DSD were targeted for
      participation. Specialty providers completed a survey with questions in six broad
      categories: Institution Information, Nomenclature and Care Guidelines,
      Interdisciplinary Services, Staff and Community Education, DSD Management, and
      Research. Twenty-two of 36 targeted sites (61%) participated. Differences were
      observed between sites with regard to what conditions were considered to be DSD.
      All sites reported some degree of involvement of pediatric urology and/or surgery
      and pediatric endocrinology in the care of DSD patients. Gynecology and
      neonatology were most frequently not represented. Wide variation was observed
      across sites in continuing education standards, obtaining informed consent for
      clinical procedures, and in specific clinical management practices. This survey
      is the first to assess DSD clinical management practices in the United States.
      The findings establish a baseline of current practices against which providers
      delivering care to these patients and their families can benchmark their efforts.
      Such surveys also provide a practical framework for collaboration in identifying
      opportunities for change that enhance health and quality of life outcomes for
      patients and families affected by DSD.

PMID- 28557240
TI  - Selective outcome reporting in obesity clinical trials: a cross-sectional review.
AB  - Selective outcome reporting is a form of bias resulting from discrepancies
      between outcomes presented in a trial's registration and the published report. We
      investigate this selective bias in obesity clinical trials. A PubMed search was
      conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in four
      obesity journals from 2013 to 2015. Primary, secondary and tertiary outcomes were
      recorded for each trial and compared to pre-specified outcomes in each trial's
      registration. Of the 392 identified articles, 142 were included in the final
      analysis; 22 (15%) RCTs demonstrated major outcome discrepancies between
      registration and publication: No primary outcomes were demoted to a secondary or
      tertiary outcome; 14 (36.84%) primary outcomes were omitted; 14 (36.84%) primary
      outcomes were added: 5 (13.16%) secondary outcomes were upgraded to primary
      outcomes; and timing of assessment for a primary outcome changed 5 (13.16%)
      times. Out of the 63 prospectively registered studies, 53 had no discrepancies. A
      total of 76 of the studies (29.80%) were unregistered or did not have an
      associated registration number. Our results suggest that selective outcome
      reporting may be a concern in obesity clinical trials. As selective outcome
      reporting may distort clinical findings and limit outcomes in systematic reviews,
      we encourage trialists and journal editors to work towards solutions to mitigate
      this issue.

PMID- 28557241
TI  - Enantioselective Reaction of 2H-Azirines with Phosphite Using Chiral
      Bis(imidazoline)/Zinc(II) Catalysts.
AB  - The first highly enantioselective nucleophilic addition reaction of phosphites
      with 2H-azirines has been developed. The reaction was applied to various 3
      substituted 2H-azirines using novel chiral bis(imidazoline)/ZnII catalysts to
      afford products in good yield with high enantioselectivity. The transformation of
      the obtained optically active aziridines showed that 2H-azirines act as either
      alpha,beta- or beta,beta-dicarbocationic amine synthons.

PMID- 28557242
TI  - Unexpected Complications of Novel Deep Brain Stimulation Treatments: Ethical
      Issues and Clinical Recommendations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Innovative neurosurgical treatments present a number of known risks,
      the natures and probabilities of which can be adequately communicated to patients
      via the standard procedures governing obtaining informed consent. However, due to
      their novelty, these treatments also come with unknown risks, which require an
      augmented approach to obtaining informed consent. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to
      discuss and provide concrete procedural guidance on the ethical issues raised by
      serious unexpected complications of novel deep brain stimulation treatments.
      APPROACH: We illustrate our analysis using a case study of the unexpected
      development of recurrent stereotyped events in patients following the use of deep
      brain stimulation (DBS) to treat severe chronic pain. Examining these unexpected
      complications in light of medical ethical principles, we argue that serious
      complications of novel DBS treatments do not necessarily make it unethical to
      offer the intervention to eligible patients. However, the difficulty the
      clinician faces in determining whether the intervention is in the patient's best
      interests generates reasons to take extra steps to promote the autonomous
      decision making of these patients. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: We conclude
      with clinical recommendations, including details of an augmented consent process
      for novel DBS treatment.

PMID- 28557243
TI  - The use of electronic health records for psychiatric phenotyping and genomics.
AB  - The widespread adoption of electronic health record (EHRs) in healthcare systems
      has created a vast and continuously growing resource of clinical data and
      provides new opportunities for population-based research. In particular, the
      linking of EHRs to biospecimens and genomic data in biobanks may help address
      what has become a rate-limiting study for genetic research: the need for large
      sample sizes. The principal roadblock to capitalizing on these resources is the
      need to establish the validity of phenotypes extracted from the EHR. For
      psychiatric genetic research, this represents a particular challenge given that
      diagnosis is based on patient reports and clinician observations that may not be
      well-captured in billing codes or narrative records. This review addresses the
      opportunities and pitfalls in EHR-based phenotyping with a focus on their
      application to psychiatric genetic research. A growing number of studies have
      demonstrated that diagnostic algorithms with high positive predictive value can
      be derived from EHRs, especially when structured data are supplemented by text
      mining approaches. Such algorithms enable semi-automated phenotyping for large
      scale case-control studies. In addition, the scale and scope of EHR databases
      have been used successfully to identify phenotypic subgroups and derive
      algorithms for longitudinal risk prediction. EHR-based genomics are particularly
      well-suited to rapid look-up replication of putative risk genes, studies of
      pleiotropy (phenomewide association studies or PheWAS), investigations of genetic
      networks and overlap across the phenome, and pharmacogenomic research. EHR
      phenotyping has been relatively under-utilized in psychiatric genomic research
      but may become a key component of efforts to advance precision psychiatry.

PMID- 28557244
TI  - Acetazolamide Inhibits the Level of Tyrosinase and Melanin: An Enzyme Kinetic, In
      Vitro, In Vivo, and In Silico Studies.
AB  - Melanin is the major factor that determines skin color and protects from
      ultraviolet radiation. In present study we evaluated the anti-melanogenesis
      effect of acetazolamide (ACZ) using four different approaches: enzyme kinetic, in
      vitro, in vivo and in silico. ACZ demonstrated significant inhibitory activity
      (IC50 7.895 +/- 0.24 MUm) against tyrosinase as compared to the standard drug
      kojic acid (IC50 16.84 +/- 0.64 MUm) and kinetic analyses showed that ACZ is a
      non-competitive inhibitor without cytotoxic effect. In in vitro experiments, A375
      human melanoma cells were treated with 20 or 40 MUm of ACZ with or without 50 MUm
      of l-DOPA. Western blot results showed that ACZ significantly (P < 0.05)
      decreased the expression level of tyrosinase at 40 MUm. Zebrafish embryos were
      treated with 10, 20 or 40 MUm of ACZ and of positive control kojic acid. At 72 h
      of treatment with ACZ and kojic acid, ACZ significantly (P < 0.001) decreased the
      embryos pigmentation to 40.8% of untreated embryos at the dose of 40 MUm of ACZ
      while kojic acid decreased only 25.0% of pigmentation at the same dose of kojic
      acid. In silico docking were performed against tyrosinase using PyRx tool.
      Docking studies suggested that His244, Asn260 and His85 are the major interacting
      residues in the binding site of the protein. In conclusion, our results suggest
      that ACZ is a good candidate for the inhibition of melanin and it could be used
      as a lead for developing the drugs for hyperpigmentary disorders and skin
      whitening.

PMID- 28557245
TI  - Everolimus in pregnancy: Case report and literature review.
AB  - There have been few reports on the effects of everolimus on the fetus, but none
      of six infants with documented everolimus exposure in utero had congenital
      malformations. A 32-year-old nulliparous woman on everolimus (5.0 mg/day) for
      renal angiomyolipoma (AML) due to tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) was found to
      be pregnant at gestational week (GW) 7-5/7, at which time everolimus was
      withheld. To control AML in this patient, transarterial embolization was
      performed in the right and left kidneys at GW 21 and 24, respectively, and
      everolimus was reinitiated at GW 25. The patient gave birth at GW 37 to a
      normally formed infant weighing 3057 g, but who had cardiac tumors thought to be
      rhabdomyomas due to inherited TSC. Thus, although data are still limited,
      everolimus may be promising with respect to teratogenicity. Everolimus
      concentration in the maternal and umbilical cord blood at birth was 1.1 ng/mL and
      1.0 ng/mL, respectively.

PMID- 28557248
TI  - Ponatinib-induced widespread ichthyosiform eruption.

PMID- 28557246
TI  - Extended calorie restriction suppresses overall and specific food cravings: a
      systematic review and a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple studies have concluded that calorie restriction for at least
      12 weeks is associated with reduced food cravings, while others have shown that
      calorie restriction may increase food cravings. We addressed this ambiguity in a
      systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: We searched for studies conducted
      on subjects with obesity, implemented calorie restriction for at least 12 weeks
      and measured food cravings pre-intervention and post-intervention. Our final
      eight studies mostly used the Food Craving Inventory. Other comparable methods
      were converted to a similar scale. We used the duration >=12 weeks, but closest
      to 16 weeks for studies with multiple follow-ups and performed DerSimonian-Laird
      random-effects meta-analyses using the 'metafor' package in r software. RESULTS:
      Despite heterogeneity across studies, we observed reductions in pooled effects
      for overall food cravings (-0.246 [-0.490, -0.001]) as well as cravings for sweet
      (-0.410 [-0.626, -0.194]), high-fat (-0.190 [-0.343, -0.037]), starchy (-0.288 [
      0.517, -0.058]) and fast food (-0.340 [-0.633, -0.048]) in the meta-analysis.
      Baseline body weight, type of intervention, duration, sample size and percentage
      of female subjects explained the heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: Calorie restriction
      is associated with reduced food cravings supporting a de-conditioning model of
      craving reductions. Our findings should ease the minds of clinicians concerned
      about increased cravings in patients undergoing calorie restriction
      interventions.

PMID- 28557247
TI  - European consensus on the concepts and measurement of the pathophysiological
      neuromuscular responses to passive muscle stretch.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To support clinical decision-making in central
      neurological disorders, a physical examination is used to assess responses to
      passive muscle stretch. However, what exactly is being assessed is expressed and
      interpreted in different ways. A clear diagnostic framework is lacking.
      Therefore, the aim was to arrive at unambiguous terminology about the concepts
      and measurement around pathophysiological neuromuscular response to passive
      muscle stretch. METHODS: During two consensus meetings, 37 experts from 12
      European countries filled online questionnaires based on a Delphi approach,
      followed by plenary discussion after rounds. Consensus was reached for agreement
      >=75%. RESULTS: The term hyper-resistance should be used to describe the
      phenomenon of impaired neuromuscular response during passive stretch, instead of
      for example 'spasticity' or 'hypertonia'. From there, it is essential to
      distinguish non-neural (tissue-related) from neural (central nervous system
      related) contributions to hyper-resistance. Tissue contributions are elasticity,
      viscosity and muscle shortening. Neural contributions are velocity dependent
      stretch hyperreflexia and non-velocity dependent involuntary background
      activation. The term 'spasticity' should only be used next to stretch
      hyperreflexia, and 'stiffness' next to passive tissue contributions. When joint
      angle, moment and electromyography are recorded, components of hyper-resistance
      within the framework can be quantitatively assessed. CONCLUSIONS: A conceptual
      framework of pathophysiological responses to passive muscle stretch is defined.
      This framework can be used in clinical assessment of hyper-resistance and will
      improve communication between clinicians. Components within the framework are
      defined by objective parameters from instrumented assessment. These parameters
      need experimental validation in order to develop treatment algorithms based on
      the aetiology of the clinical phenomena.

PMID- 28557249
TI  - Dendritic Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for pH-Stimuli-Responsive Drug Delivery
      of TNF-Alpha.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a pleiotropic immune stimulatory
      cytokine and natural endotoxin that can induce necrosis and regression in solid
      tumors. However, systemic administration of TNF-alpha is not feasible due to its
      short half-life and acute toxicity, preventing its widespread use in cancer
      treatment. Dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSN) are used coated with
      a pH-responsive block copolymer gate system combining charged hyperbranched
      polyethylenimine and nonionic hydrophilic polyethylenglycol to encapsulate TNF
      alpha and deliver it into various cancer cell lines and dendritic cells. Half
      maximal effective concentration (EC50 ) for loaded TNF-alpha is reduced by more
      than two orders of magnitude. Particle stability and premature cargo release are
      assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. TNF-alpha-loaded particles are
      stable for up to 5 d in medium. Tumor cells are grown in vitro as 3D fluorescent
      ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator spheroids that mimic in vivo tumor
      architecture and microenvironment, allowing real-time cell cycle imaging. DMSN
      penetrate these spheroids, release TNF-alpha from its pores, preferentially
      affect cells in S/G2/M phase, and induce cell death in a time- and dose-dependent
      manner. In conclusion, DMSN encapsulation is demonstrated, which is a promising
      approach to enhance delivery and efficacy of antitumor drugs, while minimizing
      adverse side effects.

PMID- 28557250
TI  - Decreased endothelial function and increased subclinical heart failure in women
      several years after pre-eclampsia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is associated with both postpartum endothelial
      dysfunction and asymptomatic structural heart alterations consistent with heart
      failure Stage B (HF-B). In this study, we assessed the relationship between
      endothelial function, measured by flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and HF-B in women
      with a history of PE. METHODS: This was an observational study in which 67
      formerly pre-eclamptic women (>= 4 years postpartum) and 37 healthy parous
      controls were assessed ultrasonographically for cardiac function and geometry, as
      well as for endothelial function by means of brachial artery FMD. HF-B was
      diagnosed as left ventricular hypertrophy (left ventricular mass index (LVMi) >
      95 g/m2 ), concentric remodeling (relative wall thickness > 0.42 and LVMi <= 95
      g/m2 ), mild systolic dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction > 40% and <
      55%) or asymptomatic valvular disease. Cardiovascular and metabolic syndrome
      variables were compared between women with history of PE and controls, as well as
      between those in the formerly pre-eclamptic group who had HF Stage A, HF-B or no
      HF. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the associations of FMD
      with PE, metabolic syndrome risk factors and obstetric parameters. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of HF-B amongst formerly pre-eclamptic women was three-fold higher
      than that observed for controls (25% vs 8%, P < 0.05), while FMD was lower in
      formerly pre-eclamptic women compared with controls (6.12% vs 8.22%, P < 0.01);
      history of PE remained associated independently with lower FMD after adjusting
      for metabolic syndrome risk factors and obstetric parameters (beta, -1.88; 95%
      CI, -3.59 to -0.18). However, HF-B did not relate to low FMD in formerly pre
      eclamptic women. CONCLUSIONS: Years after pregnancy, formerly pre- eclamptic
      women have lower FMD and have HF-B more often compared with healthy parous
      controls. Nonetheless, HF-B was not related to reduced FMD. Copyright (c) 2017
      ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28557251
TI  - Evidence for the association of Epstein-Barr Virus in breast cancer in Indian
      patients using in-situ hybridization technique.
AB  - Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is etiologically linked to Burkitt lymphoma (BL),
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma, post-transplant lymphomas, Hodgkin disease, and
      possibly other tumors. However, the association of oncogenic EBV with breast
      carcinoma (BC) is still controversial and a matter of debate. We aimed to study
      the presence of EBV genome in BC cases in Indian patients and its association
      with the clinicopathological features. The formalin fixed paraffin embedded
      tissues from 83 women with primary invasive BC were studied for the presence of
      EBV by in-situ hybridization (ISH) technique for Epstein-Barr Virus Encoded RNA
      (EBER) with appropriate controls. Correlation of EBER-ISH positivity with
      clinicopathological features was performed using Fisher exact test and P<.05 was
      considered as significant. Eighty-three BC cases were comprised of 47 (56.5%)
      triple negative breast cancers (TNBC), 17 (20.5%) hormone positive and 19 (22.9%)
      HER2 positive cases. Of 83 cases, 25 cases (30.1%) were positive for EBER-ISH
      test. The positivity was restricted to the tumor cells and not seen in the
      surrounding breast lobules. EBER-ISH positivity was statistically associated with
      larger tumor size (52.6% in >5 cm tumors vs 19.3% in <=5 cm; P=.014) and with
      TNBCs (21/47 [44.7%] in TNBCs vs 4/36 [11.1%] in non-TNBCs; P=.001). A possible
      causal association of EBV in BC cases in Indian patients is suggested by high
      frequency of EBER-ISH positivity noted in our study. This might have therapeutic
      significance because of the possible role of EBV specific cytotoxic T cells in
      targeting EBV associated tumor cells and can be considered as a potential
      targeted therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study from
      India to address this issue using EBER-ISH technique.

PMID- 28557252
TI  - A case study integrating CBT with narrative therapy externalizing techniques with
      a child with OCD: How to flush away the Silly Gremlin. A single-case experimental
      design.
AB  - PROBLEM: Evidence exists for the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
      combined with externalizing techniques from narrative therapy for pediatric
      obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); however, no research gives a detailed
      account of what the externalizing process looks like in session or how it is
      incorporated into conceptualization. Literature is appraised with respect to the
      referral, assessment, formulation, intervention and outcome. METHODS: The case
      describes a 10-year-old boy who was referred with severe OCD. The evidence-based
      CBT model for OCD in child and adolescent populations was applied to the case.
      This was integrated with the externalizing technique from narrative therapy.
      Using these models, a shared formulation of the difficulties was developed, and
      created a new narrative. The intervention was assessed using the single-case
      experimental design. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: On all but one routine outcome
      measure positive clinically significant changes were made, and the young person
      managed to reach his therapeutic goals. Gains maintained over a month follow-up
      period. The use of externalizing was an effective and developmentally appropriate
      intervention and is discussed further. The case highlighted the need for more
      research detailing externalizing processes.

PMID- 28557253
TI  - Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in three Brazilian Indian tribes.
AB  - The first 360 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) major noncoding region
      from 82 individuals affiliated with the Brazilian Xavante, Zoro and Gaviao tribes
      were sequenced. A total of 14 different lineages were observed, the largest
      number (8) being found among the Zoro. The latter share five lineages with the
      Gaviao (who are their neighbors and are culturally similar to them), but only one
      with the Xavante. The lineages can be grouped into four clusters, previously
      identified by other authors. The 9 base pair deletion characteristic of Asian and
      Pacific populations occurs in 32% of the individuals, whose mtDNA was classified
      in five lineages, all grouped in one of the four clusters. Nucleotide diversity,
      as evaluated by three indices, are not much different from those observed in
      Indians from Central and North America, despite the fact that the Xavante
      consistently show lower numbers. These results do not confirm previous
      generalizations about the genetic diversity of Amerindians, and the need for
      additional studies in this system is stressed. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557254
TI  - Changes in somatotype during growth in Chinese youth 7-18 years of age.
AB  - Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotypes were calculated for 7,710 Chinese youths
      (4,434 boys and 3,276 girls), 7-18 years of age in the context of sex and age
      differences in distributions during adolescence. Age-specific trends are
      characterized by a consistent increase in endomorphy in girls and generally
      stable mesomorphy in boys. Somatotypes are consistently dominant in mesomorphy in
      boys and in endomorphy in girls across all ages. Somatotype distributions in the
      13 somatotype categories of Heath-Carter somatochart appear to be broader in
      girls than in boys, and is more influenced by age in girls than in boys.
      Comparisons with other Asian samples and with Canadian youth suggest
      racial/ethnic variation in somatotype. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557255
TI  - Dermatoglyphics of inhabitants of Alberche/Tormes valley (Sierra de Gredos
      Central Spain): I. Finger pattern types and pattern intensity.
AB  - The incidence of dermatoglyphic finger patterns and pattern intensity in a sample
      of school children from the Alberche/Tormes valley (northern slope of the Sierra
      de Gredos, Central Spain) are described. Significant bilateral differences for
      the overall finger pattern incidence are found in both sexes. The differences
      between sexes are also statistically significant, except for the left hand. The
      Pattern Intensity Index significantly differs between hands of males only, and
      the sex differences are not significant. Variation ranges for fingertip patterns
      and pattern intensity were constructed using published data of 69 male and 62
      female series drawn from the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. The overall
      incidence of fingertip patterns and the Pattern Intensity Index locate the
      studied population near the middle of the corresponding variation ranges. The
      only exception is the case of arches, for which Alberche/Tormes is close to the
      minimum value of the range of variation. A more detailed comparison of 10 male
      and 10 female series from the Spanish northern and southern plateaus and from the
      Spanish region of Extremadura was done with R-matrix analysis. The series
      compared include those from the northern slope (Alberche/Tormes valley, this
      study) and the southern slope (Tietar valley) of the Sierra de Gredos. The
      observed degree of dermatoglyphic differentiation between these two series may be
      explained by taking into account both the role of the Sierra de Gredos as a
      biological barrier limiting gene flow and the evolutionary stability of
      dermatoglyphics. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557257
TI  - Energy expenditure at rest and during activities: A comparison between young and
      elderly women.
AB  - Energy expenditure at rest (resting metabolic rate, RMR) and during several
      activities was measured in 20 young (age 19-27 years) and 19 elderly (age 65-78
      years) females. Fat-free mass (FFM) was estimated by means of a four compartment
      model which accounted for variability in water and bone mineral in the FFM. RMR
      was lower (P < 0.05) in the elderly (mean +/- SE 3.55 +/- 0.05 kJ/min) compared
      to the younger females (3.92 +/- 0.09 kJ/min). However, after correction for
      differences in FFM between the groups, RMR was 3.71 +/- 0.07 kJ/min and 3.77 +/-
      0.06 kJ/min for the elderly and young, respectively, and the difference was not
      significant. Energy expenditure (EE) during several activities, standing with arm
      movement, bicycling at 25 Watts, and walking at 3 km/h, were not different
      between the two groups. However, the physical activity ratios (PAR) for the
      activities were higher (P < 0.05) in the elderly (1.61 +/- 0.03, 3.29 +/- 0.07,
      4.11 +/- 0.16, respectively) than in the young (1.47 +/- 0.03, 2.93 +/- 0.05,
      3.58 +/- 0.14, respectively). EE due to physical activity alone (total EE minus
      RMR) was significantly higher for all activities in the elderly, except for
      walking at fixed speed of 3 km/h. After correction for the lower relative FFM in
      the elderly, differences between age groups disappeared. EE for walking 500 m at
      an individually selected speed was higher in the elderly, although they selected
      a lower walking speed. Differences between young and elderly decreased when step
      frequency was taken into account. It is concluded that EE due to physical
      activity in elderly women is higher than in younger females, but that the
      differences in EE due to physical activity are largely attributable to
      differences in body composition. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557256
TI  - Biologic risk factors for low birthweight in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
AB  - A prospective study of biological factors for low birthweight (LBW) among UAE
      nationals in the Al Ain Medical District was undertaken from 15 January 1992 to
      14 January 1993, using a case control method. All 293 mothers of LBW infants and
      an equal number of mothers of the next normal weight infants born after the LBW
      infant were studied. Of the 3,485 live births, 293 (8.4%) were LBW (less than
      2,500 g). Maternal age less than 25 years, lighter weight at booking,
      nulliparity, first cousin marriage and short interpregnancy interval (IPI) of 3
      months or less significantly increased the risk of LBW in this population. After
      adjusting for other biologic confounders, only low maternal weight and short IPI
      significantly increased the risk of LBW. Modification of these biologic risk
      factors would help to reduce the incidence of LBW among the UAE population. (c)
      1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557258
TI  - Reference data for arm muscle and arm adipose tissue areas in Mexican Americans
      from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination survey (HHANES 1982-1984):
      Comparisons with whites and blacks from NHANES II (1976-1980).
AB  - Data for arm muscle area (AMA) and arm adipose tissue area (AATA) from 3695
      Mexican American children 6 months to 18 years of age included in HHANES (1982
      1984) were used to obtain age-and gender-specific means and selected percentiles.
      These statistics were compared with those for non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic
      black children from NHANES II (1976-1980). In comparison with non-Hispanic white
      and non-Hispanic black children, the Mexican American children tended to have
      smaller means and percentile values for AMA but larger values for AATA. There was
      considerable sexual dimorphism in AMA and AATA. Within each population, boys
      tended to have larger means and percentile values for AMA than girls, and girls
      tended to have larger values for AATA than boys. Within each population of boys,
      there was a prepubescent gain in AATA, followed by a midpubescent loss, and then
      an increase near the middle of the second decade. This "fat wave" pattern was not
      noticeable in girls. Population differences in age- and gender-specific mean
      values for AMA and AATA were small. Few statistically significant differences
      were observed; these were no more common than would occur by chance. Therefore,
      population-specific reference data for AMA and AATA may not be needed for the
      clinical evaluation of Mexican Americans, non-Hispanic blacks, and non-Hispanic
      whites. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557259
TI  - Prediction of total body water and fatness from anthropometry: Importance of
      skinfold measurements.
AB  - Prediction equations for total body water (TBW) generally use weight and height
      as predictors, but their ability may be limited because they implicitly assume a
      constancy of TBW among individuals of similar body size. The objective of this
      study was to evaluate the relative importance of anthropometric dimensions in
      predicting TBW and body composition. TBW determined by doubly labeled water (DLW)
      dilution techniques was used as the frame of reference in 23 healthy Aymara
      subjects, 4-65 years, in a rural community of the Bolivian Andes. Predictive
      performances of anthropometric variables for TBW were examined with multiple
      regression analyses. The generated equations were tested for cross-validity,
      using published data for U.S. adults. The resulting errors were compared with
      those of the published prediction equations of Mellits and Cheek (M&C) and Durnin
      and Womersley (D&W). The simplified prediction equation using weight and the
      triceps skinfold (Eq-A1:R2 = 0.989, SEE = 1.041 L) and that using weight and the
      triceps and subscapular skinfolds (Eq-A2: R2 = 0.990, SEE = 1.020 L) had better
      R2 and smaller SEE than those using any combination of variables, weight, height,
      age, and sex. In the cross-validation sample, Eq-A1 and Eq-A2 demonstrated higher
      precision than the D&W and M&C equations. Evaluated by the method of Bland and
      Altman (mean difference +/- 2SD), prediction errors for fat mass and fat percent
      were 0.2 +/- 2.8 kg and 0.4 +/- 5.2% in Eq-A2, 1.1 +/- 3.5 kg, and 1.8 +/- 6.1%
      in Eq-A1, -2.4 +/- 3.6 kg and -3.4 +/- 5.1% in D&W, and -2.3 +/- 7.6 kg and -2.6
      +/- 10.3% in M&C. Significant underestimation of fat mass and sex differences in
      the biases were observed with D&W and M&C (P < 0.05), but not with Eq-A2. By
      including skinfold measurements, a single prediction equation for TBW was valid
      for males and females across different population samples. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557260
TI  - Growth studies in Jena, Germany: Historical background and secular changes in
      stature and weight in children 7-14 years.
AB  - Anthropological investigations have been performed on Jena school children since
      1880. The report summarizes the background of the surveys and then considers
      secular changes in stature and body weight since 1880. The stature of Jena school
      children shows a major increase over 105 years, ranging from 9.7% to 12.8% in
      girls and from 9.4% to 14.6% in boys. Changes in estimated growth rates are
      evident, especially in the preschool ages. Corresponding secular increases in
      weight between 1880 and 1985 range from 20.7% to 50.4%. Data during and after
      times of war suggest that females appear to react to changing living conditions
      more quickly than boys. On the other hand, the smaller variation in the stature
      of girls suggests more homogeneous and perhaps better buffered growth in girls.
      Estimated semiannual increments in stature and weight between 1880 and 1985
      indicate an increase in the intensity of growth during school age in both sexes
      and acceleration of the pubertal growth spurt, especially in boys. The average
      decrease in weight in both sexes between 1932 and 1944 should be emphasized. This
      is the result of the poor nutritional conditions during the Second World War.
      Girls show a greater reduction in mean values than boys. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557261
TI  - Precision of measuring body fat distribution in adolescent African American girls
      from the 'healthy growth study'.
AB  - Precision estimates are given for anthropometric assessment of body fat
      distribution in participants (n = 86) of the Healthy Growth Study (total n =
      154). This five year longitudinal study explored the psychosocial and biologic
      influences on activity levels in urban adolescent African American girls. The
      basic anthropometric data include height, weight, four body and limb
      circumferences, and five skinfold measurements. It is proposed that ratio indices
      of body fat distribution are likely to have poorer precisions than the single
      variables which they comprise, and that ratios based on skinfolds may be
      particularly sensitive to this problem. The precision of the body mass index
      (BMI) and principal components of skinfold fatness and fat distribution are also
      considered. Precisions were greater than 0.95 (intraclass correlation from a
      random-effects analysis of variance) for most anthropometric dimensions and
      indices, including the BMI and the first principal component of fatness. However,
      three of the five skinfolds had lower precisions (0.84-0.93). In contrast, the
      precisions of all indices of body fat distribution were 0.90 or less (range: 0.57
      0.87 skinfold ratios; 0.83-0.90 circumference ratios). Of the ratios, conicity
      was most stable at 0.90 for repeated measures by both the same and different
      observers. A second principal component of central fat did not have precisions
      noticeably better than skinfold ratios (0.79-0.82). Indices of fat distribution
      may have lower reliabilities than the single variables that they comprise,
      because errors may be compounded when dividing one variable by another or in
      linear combinations of measurements other than the first principal component.
      This problem should be taken into account in clinical and epidemiologic
      investigations of body fat distribution. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557262
TI  - Basal metabolic rate and dietary seasonality among Tibetan nomads.
AB  - The results of 51 overnight measurements of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in a
      sample of pastoral nomads resident permanently in Phala, Tibet Autonomous Region,
      China, are reported. Past studies demonstrated a culturally driven seasonality of
      diet, with very low summer and very high winter caloric intake. The study was
      designed to test the hypothesis that the ability of Phala nomads to subsist on
      low caloric intake for several summer months without signs of malnutrition is
      explained by lower summer BMR. However, BMR measurements of 40 nomads 13-69 years
      of age during the summer and remeasurement of 11 nomads during the winter of 1993
      provide no evidence for low summer BMR to compensate for the low summer caloric
      intake. BMR in both seasons is within the normal range predicted by international
      equations. The BMR of males does not differ from that of females, and the BMR of
      females averages 7% higher than predicted. Anthropometric evidence reveals that
      the Phala nomads accumulate body fat during the winter. It is inferred that this
      may buffer the summer period of low intake. The pattern of subcutaneous fat
      accumulation in winter, moreover, may afford slight improvement in physiological
      cold insulation during the severe winters as a consequence of depositing winter
      fat on the trunk rather than on the periphery. Thus, the dietary seasonality in
      Phala is a stress that elicits fluctuation in fat energy stores but not BMR. (c)
      1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557263
TI  - Double-Layered Plasmonic-Magnetic Vesicles by Self-Assembly of Janus Amphiphilic
      Gold-Iron(II,III) Oxide Nanoparticles.
AB  - Janus nanoparticles (JNPs) offer unique features, including the precisely
      controlled distribution of compositions, surface charges, dipole moments, modular
      and combined functionalities, which enable excellent applications that are
      unavailable to their symmetrical counterparts. Assemblies of NPs exhibit coupled
      optical, electronic and magnetic properties that are different from single NPs.
      Herein, we report a new class of double-layered plasmonic-magnetic vesicle
      assembled from Janus amphiphilic Au-Fe3 O4 NPs grafted with polymer brushes of
      different hydrophilicity on Au and Fe3 O4 surfaces separately. Like liposomes,
      the vesicle shell is composed of two layers of Au-Fe3 O4 NPs in opposite
      direction, and the orientation of Au or Fe3 O4 in the shell can be well
      controlled by exploiting the amphiphilic property of the two types of polymers.

PMID- 28557264
TI  - Duration of dual antiplatelet therapy following drug-eluting stent implantation:
      A systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials with longer
      follow up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long term efficacy and safety of long duration DAPT (L
      DAPT) compared to short duration DAPT (S-DAPT) after drug-eluting stent (DES)
      implantation. METHODS: We searched Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register
      of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
      assessing the clinical impact of L-DAPT versus S-DAPT after DES and have mean
      follow up period of at least 2 years or longer. Primary end point was stent
      thrombosis (ST). Secondary endpoints were all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality,
      myocardial infarction (MI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), thrombolysis
      in myocardial infarction (TIMI) major bleeding and stroke. Event rates were
      compared using a random effects model. RESULTS: We identified five RCTs in which
      19,760 patients were randomized to S-DAPT (N = 9,810) and L-DAPT (n = 9,950),
      respectively. Compared with L-DAPT, S-DAPT was associated with higher rate of MI
      (odds ratio [OR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.04, 2.10]). There were no
      significant differences between S-DAPT and L-DAPT in terms of all cause
      mortality, cardiac mortality, ST, TVR or stroke (OR 0.90, 95% CI [0.73, 1.12]; OR
      1.02, 95% CI [0.80, 1.30]; OR 1.59, 95% CI [0.77, 3.27]; OR 0.87 95% CI [0.67,
      1.14]; and OR 1.08 95% CI [0.81, 1.46], respectively). However, rate of TIMI
      major bleeding was significantly lower with S-DAPT compared to L-DAPT (OR 0.64,
      95% CI [0.41, 0.99]). CONCLUSIONS: In the present analysis of RCTs with longer
      follow up (2 years or longer), S-DAPT compared with L-DAPT, was associated with
      higher rate of MI and lower rate of major bleeding without any significant
      difference in the rates of all cause mortality, cardiac mortality, ST, TVR, and
      stroke.

PMID- 28557266
TI  - Human biology association guide to graduate programs and graduate training in
      human biology.
AB  - The Human Biology Council Executive Committee decided at its 1993 meeting that a
      guide to graduate programs in human biology would be very useful for students
      seeking graduate training and for faculty advising such students. Therefore,
      information on graduate training opportunities was requested from each member of
      the Human Biology Council in Fall 1993 and followup requests were made in spring
      1994. The responses summarized below attest to the multidisciplinary nature and
      the international scope of the discipline. The Human Biology Association
      (formerly, the Human Biology Council) plans to update the guide periodically.
      Please contact the compiler of this version, Prof. Cynthia M. Beall with
      additions and comments. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557265
TI  - Pharmacokinetic Properties of Memantine after a Single Intraperitoneal
      Administration and Multiple Oral Doses in Euploid Mice and in the Ts65Dn Mouse
      Model of Down's Syndrome.
AB  - Memantine is a drug approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's
      disease (AD), and there is ongoing research on the potential expansion of its
      clinical applicability. Published data on the pharmacokinetics of memantine in
      the mouse are still incomplete, particularly for chronic administration regimens
      and mouse models of specific genetic disorders. Down's syndrome (DS) is a genetic
      disorder known to affect multiple organs and systems, with the potential to alter
      significantly drug pharmacokinetics. Here, we describe a simple, efficient and
      sensitive GC/MS-based procedure for the determination of memantine concentrations
      in murine blood and tissue samples. We analysed pharmacokinetic properties of
      memantine, particularly its distribution in blood, brain and liver in the Ts65Dn
      mouse model of DS and euploid F1 hybrid mice after single intraperitoneal
      administrations of increasing doses of this drug. We also determined steady-state
      memantine concentrations in plasma, brain and liver after chronic oral
      administration of this drug in adult male Ts65Dn mice, euploid littermate
      controls and nursing or pregnant Ts65Dn mice. Our results revalidated the acute
      dose of memantine used in previously published work, determined the appropriate
      amount of memantine to be mixed into mouse chow to achieve steady and
      pharmacologically relevant plasma and tissue levels of this drug and demonstrated
      that memantine can be transferred from mother to offspring via maternal milk and
      placenta. Most of these findings are potentially applicable not only to the study
      of DS but also to other neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28557268
TI  - Abstracts of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Human Biology Association Durham,
      North Carolina April 8-10, 1996.

PMID- 28557267
TI  - Baseline dietary intake and physical activity of Japanese American men in
      relation to glucose tolerance at 5-year follow-up.
AB  - Japanese American men (n = 124), with normal glucose tolerance (NGT, n = 69) or
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n = 55) at baseline, were studied for effects of
      baseline dietary intake and physical activity on glucose tolerance at baseline
      and at 5-year follow-up. At baseline, both NGT and IGT men with positive family
      history of diabetes (FH) showed high intakes of animal fat and protein, but only
      the NGT men countered this with high levels of energy expenditure. In the total
      sample at 5-year follow-up, 2-hour plasma glucose was significantly related to
      intake of animal fat (AF), partial correlation r = 0.32, P < 0.001, adjusted for
      total energy intake, age, self-reported health, body mass index, FH, and baseline
      glucose tolerance category. Energy expenditure (EE) was not related to 5-year 2
      hour plasma glucose in the total sample, but displayed a relationship with 5-year
      2-hour plasma glucose in those IGT (r = -0.27, P < 0.05), but not in those NGT at
      baseline, and in those with positive FH (r = -0.33, P < 0.05), but not in those
      with negative FH. Additionally, AF showed a relationship to 5-year 2-hour plasma
      glucose only for those in the lowest (r = 0.37, P < 0.05) and middle (r = 0.33, P
      < 0.05) tertiles, but not in the highest tertile of EE. For baseline IGT men, 5
      year 2-hour plasma glucose was related to "high vs. low risk" categories of AF
      intake and EE, but only in men with a positive FH (AF >= 25 vs. < 25 g/day: 180.1
      +/- 38.6 vs. 143.6 +/- 39.7 mg/dl, P = 0.048; EE <= 2,000 kcal/week vs. > 2,000
      kcal/week, 189.9 +/- 39.2 vs. 150.8 +/- 37.4 mg/dl, P = 0.028; with risk
      categories combined, i.e., both high, mixed, both low: 192.0 +/- 41.3, 165.4 +/-
      28.4, 139.4 +/- 40.9 mg/dl, P = 0.045, linear trend, P = 0.014). Thus, high AF
      intake and low EE may have long-range detrimental effects on glucose tolerance,
      especially for those with IGT and positive FH. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557269
TI  - Early childhood growth of Chachi Amerindians and Afro-Ecuadorians in Northwest
      Ecuador.
AB  - This study compares the growth of Chachi Amerindian and Afro-Ecuadorian children
      living in the tropical forest of northwest Ecuador. Measurements of height and
      weight were taken on 148 Chachi and 148 Afro-Ecuadorian children under 5 years of
      age. Triceps and subscapular skinfolds, arm circumference, chest circumference,
      and sitting height were measured on a subsample of children. Socioeconomic
      information was collected from the households of 145 children, and a general
      socioeconomic index was derived. Afro-Ecuadorian children are substantially
      taller than Chachi children, with significant differences in height for age z
      scores in most age groups. On the other hand, Chachi children tend to have
      greater weight for height z-scores, with significant differences in some age
      groups. The greater weight for height of Chachi children may be related to their
      larger trunks. Estimates of body composition suggest that Afro-Ecuadorian
      children may have somewhat better nutritional status than Chachi children, but
      this does not appear to fully account for the greater height of Afro-Ecuadorian
      children. The socioeconomic index is positively correlated with all
      anthropometric dimensions, but even after controlling for the socioeconomic
      index, Afro-Ecuadorian children are significantly taller than Chachi children.
      These findings raise the possibility of genetic differences in growth potential
      between the two groups. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557270
TI  - Human biology association abstracts.

PMID- 28557271
TI  - Growth of postmenarcheal girls from three ethnic groups.
AB  - Documentation of normal growth in late adolescence has been limited to a few
      studies using largely white participants. Annual growth rates of 668 high school
      girls who had already achieved menarche were determined for stature, sitting
      height, and knee height measured using the Knee Height Measuring Device (KHMD),
      an instrument with superior reliability. The sample was 61.4% white, 16.8% Puerto
      Rican, 15.7% African American, and 6.1% girls of other ethnic backgrounds. Median
      growth rate was 1.5 cm/year for stature, 1.1 cm/year for sitting height, and 2.7
      mm/year for knee height in the first full year after menarche, and >80% of all
      girls grew in at least one dimension. Growth in stature (>=1 cm) continued for
      64% of girls 1 full year after menarche and for 31% of girls 2 years after
      menarche, and growth in knee height (>=1 mm) continued in >45% of girls up to 5
      completed years past menarche. Whites, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans
      showed small but significant differences in amounts of postmenarcheal growth in
      the dimensions measured. African-American girls grew less in stature and sitting
      height than other groups, whereas Puerto Rican girls grew significantly more in
      sitting height and significantly less in knee height than other ethnic groups.
      These findings demonstrate that, as documented in other studies of postmenarcheal
      growth, there is substantial growth after menarche in most girls. The most
      sensitive measures indicate that small amounts of growth persist >5 years after
      menarche. Appreciation of this phenomenon needs to be communicated to clinicians
      who generally assume that growth ceases at/or just after menarche. (c) 1996 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557272
TI  - Further genetic variability of the VNTR D1S80 (pMCT118): Correspondence analysis
      studies.
AB  - A population genetic study of the VNTR D1S80 (pMCT118 locus) in 206 individuals
      from the Galician population in Spain was carried out. PCR amplified DNA were
      electrophoresed in horizontal polyacrylamide gels and subsequently were
      visualized by silver staining. Up to 19 alleles in 56 different genotypes were
      found. This report describes a new allele tentatively named T11 that defines the
      lower limit of repeats reported for this VNTR. A family study demonstrates
      autosomal codominant inheritance of this allele. Levels of heterozygosity indexes
      are about 80%. No significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were
      observed, using the allele binning method (P > 0.3 in all cases). Correspondence
      analysis shows the usefulness of D1S80 alleles in the genetic profiling of human
      populations, with the alleles 16, 17, 21, 29, and 31 being of particular interest
      at different levels of analysis. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557273
TI  - Determinants of growth in body length from birth to 6 years of age: A
      longitudinal study of Lublin children.
AB  - The effect of determinants of growth in body length from birth to 6 years of age
      were studied in a longitudinal sample of 59 male and 70 female infants from
      Lublin, Poland. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to study the effects
      of gender of the child, occupation of the parents, the educational level of the
      parents, per capita income, the stature of the parents, and the weight of the
      mother on body length at birth and at 1, 2, 3, and 6 years of age. Significant
      sex differences in length were observed at birth and during the first 2 years of
      postnatal life, but not in the period between 3 and 6 years of age. Socioeconomic
      status (SES), expressed as a latent variable in the SEM, was not related to body
      length at birth but was significantly related to body length during infancy and,
      to a lesser extent, to body length during childhood. Paternal stature was not
      related to body length at birth and during infancy, but was significantly related
      to body length from 3 years onwards. Maternal stature was significantly related
      to body length at birth and at 1 year of age, but not thereafter, while maternal
      weight was significantly related to body length at birth only. (c) 1996 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557274
TI  - Fat-free mass as a determinant of left ventricular mass in children: The
      Muscatine Study.
AB  - To assess the relationship of somatic growth to heart growth, associations were
      examined among body composition, blood pressure, androgens, sexual maturation,
      and left ventricular mass (LVM) during early puberty in 123 children, 7-12 years
      of age. All subjects underwent anthropometry, random-zero blood pressure
      measurements, hormone determination of androgens, physician's examination to
      determine sexual maturation, and echocardiographic examinations. Subjects then
      repeated these procedures 1 year later. Data were examined cross-sectionally
      (year 1, year 2) and longitudinally (Delta = year 2 minus year 1). The strongest
      correlations with LVM were among weight and fat-free mass (FFM) (r = 0.60 to
      0.83). In males, cross-sectional predictors of LVM were FFM and stage of sexual
      maturation (r2 = 0.49 to 0.65). Delta LVM was best predicted in males by Delta
      testosterone and Delta weight (r2 = 0.22). In females, FFM was the strongest
      cross-sectional predictor of LVM (r2 = 0.70). Delta LVM was best predicted in
      females by Delta FFM and Delta height (r2 = 0.27). When males and females were
      pooled, gender did not predict LVM in any of the models. The results suggest that
      FFM is an important predictor of LVM in circumpubertal children. Boys and girls
      do not significantly differ in LVM once normalized for FFM. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557275
TI  - Four-year comparative effectiveness of bare-metal and everolimus-eluting stents
      in New York.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To study four-year outcomes for patients receiving either bare-metal
      stents (BMS) or everolimus-eluting stents (EES) and to evaluate the comparative
      effectiveness of BMS versus EES in six "off-label" and two "high-risk" patient
      subgroups. BACKGROUND: BMS and EES (a second generation of drug-eluting stent)
      are used in contemporary practice to treat coronary artery disease. However,
      little is known about long-term comparative effectiveness between BMS and EES.
      METHODS: Using the New York State (NYS) cardiac registries, statewide hospital
      discharge data, the National Death Index, and the U.S. Census file, we assessed
      four-year outcomes of BMS versus EES in patients receiving either BMS or EES from
      July 2008 through December 2009. The outcomes included all-cause mortality, acute
      myocardial infarction (AMI), target-lesion PCI (TLPCI), and target-vessel
      coronary artery bypass graft (TVCABG) surgery for a follow-up period of four
      years (median follow-up of 3.6 years). We compared 9,290 propensity score matched
      pairs with further adjustment using Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS:
      Compared with patients receiving BMS, patients receiving EES had a lower rate of
      four-year mortality (adjusted hazard ratio <AHR>: 0.58, 95% confidence interval
      <CI>: 0.54-0.63), AMI (AHR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.61-0.76), TLPCI (AHR: 0.67, 95% CI:
      0.60-0.75), and TVCABG (AHR, 0.53, 95% CI: 0.43-0.65). For "off-label" and "high
      risk" subgroups, EES was associated with decreased mortality and generally better
      AMI, TLPCI, and TVCABG outcomes relative to BMS. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with BMS
      use, EES use was associated with better four-year outcomes.

PMID- 28557276
TI  - Evolving trends in head and neck cancer epidemiology: Ontario, Canada 1993-2010.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the dramatic changes in global head and neck cancer
      epidemiology, the purpose of this study was to present the findings of our
      investigation on patterns of head and neck cancer incidence/survival within the
      province of Ontario, Canada. METHODS: Temporal variations in age/sex adjusted
      incidence and survival were analyzed for all incident head and neck cancer cases
      (n = 20 781) managed within Ontario from 1993-2010. RESULTS: From 1993-2010, the
      incidence of oropharyngeal (average annual percentage change [AAPC] 4.56%; P <
      .001) and salivary gland (AAPC 4.99%; P < .001) carcinomas increased, whereas
      oral cavity (AAPC -1.44%; P < .001) and laryngeal/hypopharyngeal (AAPC -3.20%; P
      < .001) carcinomas declined, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remained static
      (AAPC 0.28%; P = .72). A general trend for improved 5-year overall survival (OS),
      was observed for all tumor sites. CONCLUSION: Consistent with previous studies,
      our results suggest a simultaneous decline in tobacco-associated and increase in
      human papillomavirus (HPV)-mediated carcinomas. The rising incidence of salivary
      malignancy and improvement in 5-year OS are novel findings, in need of future
      investigation.

PMID- 28557277
TI  - Rumen microbiota and dietary fat: a mutual shaping.
AB  - Although fat content in usual ruminant diets is very low, fat supplements can be
      given to farm ruminants to modulate rumen activity or the fatty acid (FA) profile
      of meat and milk. Unsaturated FAs, which are dominant in common fat sources for
      ruminants, have negative effects on microbial growth, especially protozoa and
      fibrolytic bacteria. In turn, the rumen microbiota detoxifies unsaturated FAs
      (UFAs) through a biohydrogenation (BH) process, transforming dietary UFAs with
      cis geometrical double-bonds into mainly trans UFAs and, finally, into saturated
      FAs. Culture studies have provided a large amount of data regarding bacterial
      species and strains that are affected by UFAs or involved in lipolysis or BH,
      with a major focus on the Butyrivibrio genus. More recent data using molecular
      approaches to rumen microbiota extend and challenge these data, but further
      research will be necessary to improve our understanding of fat and rumen
      microbiota interactions.

PMID- 28557278
TI  - Auditory access, language access, and implicit sequence learning in deaf
      children.
AB  - Developmental psychology plays a central role in shaping evidence-based best
      practices for prelingually deaf children. The Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis
      (Conway et al., 2009) asserts that a lack of auditory stimulation in deaf
      children leads to impoverished implicit sequence learning abilities, measured via
      an artificial grammar learning (AGL) task. However, prior research is confounded
      by a lack of both auditory and language input. The current study examines
      implicit learning in deaf children who were (Deaf native signers) or were not
      (oral cochlear implant users) exposed to language from birth, and in hearing
      children, using both AGL and Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. Neither deaf nor
      hearing children across the three groups show evidence of implicit learning on
      the AGL task, but all three groups show robust implicit learning on the SRT task.
      These findings argue against the Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis, and suggest
      that implicit sequence learning may be resilient to both auditory and language
      deprivation, within the tested limits. A video abstract of this article can be
      viewed at: https://youtu.be/EeqfQqlVHLI [Correction added on 07 August 2017,
      after first online publication: The video abstract link was added.].

PMID- 28557279
TI  - Development of a novel hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction based on oil-in
      salt and its comparison with conventional one.
AB  - A novel hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction based on oil-in-salt was
      proposed and introduced for the simultaneous extraction and enrichment of the
      main active compounds of hesperidin, honokiol, shikonin, magnolol, emodin, and
      beta,beta'-dimethylacrylshikonin in a formula of Zi-Cao-Cheng-Qi decoction and
      the single herb, Fructus Aurantii Immaturus, Cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, Radix
      et Rhizoma, and Lithospermum erythrorhizon, composing the formula prior to their
      analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography. The results obtained by the
      proposed procedure were compared with those obtained by conventional hollow-fiber
      liquid-phase microextraction, and the proposed procedure mechanism was described.
      In the procedure, a hollow-fiber segment was first immersed in organic solvent to
      fill the solvent in the fiber lumen and wall pore, and then the fiber was again
      immersed into sodium chloride solution to cover a thin salt membrane on the fiber
      wall pore filling organic solvent. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment
      factors of the analytes were 0.6-109.4, linearities were 0.002-12 MUg/mL with r2 
      >= 0.9950, detection limits were 0.6-12 ng/mL, respectively. The results showed
      that oil-in-salt hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction is a simple and
      effective sample pretreatment procedure and suitable for the simultaneous
      extraction and concentration of trace-level active compounds in traditional
      Chinese medicine.

PMID- 28557280
TI  - CD8 expression in B chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A case of immuno-phenotypic
      aberrancy.
AB  - : Immuno-phenotyping forms an integral part of laboratory work up of Chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Aberrant antigen expressions are a known phenomenon
      in leukemic blasts, however cross lineage antigen expression is rarely seen in
      mature B cell leukemia, the reported percentages varying from 1% to 3% in Europe
      and North America. CASE DETAILS: We report a case of Rai stage 1 CLL showing
      aberrant expression of CD8 on flow cytometry. The patient had stable disease at a
      follow up of 9 months with no requirement of initiation of treatment. DISCUSSION:
      CD8 expression in CLL is rare and approximately 120 cases have been reported from
      Western population. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case to be
      reported from India. The prognostic significance has been variably reported from
      favorable to poor. At present, our case reflects the phenotypic heterogeneity of
      leukemia. Long term follow up and evaluation of more cases is required to predict
      the prognostic role in our patient population. (c) 2017 International Clinical
      Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28557281
TI  - AgHalo: A Facile Fluorogenic Sensor to Detect Drug-Induced Proteome Stress.
AB  - Drug-induced proteome stress that involves protein aggregation may cause adverse
      effects and undermine the safety profile of a drug. Safety of drugs is regularly
      evaluated using cytotoxicity assays that measure cell death. However, these
      assays provide limited insights into the presence of proteome stress in live
      cells. A fluorogenic protein sensor is reported to detect drug-induced proteome
      stress prior to cell death. An aggregation prone Halo-tag mutant (AgHalo) was
      evolved to sense proteome stress through its aggregation. Detection of such
      conformational changes was enabled by a fluorogenic ligand that fluoresces upon
      AgHalo forming soluble aggregates. Using 5 common anticancer drugs, we
      exemplified detection of differential proteome stress before any cell death was
      observed. Thus, this sensor can be used to evaluate drug safety in a regime that
      the current cytotoxicity assays cannot cover and be generally applied to detect
      proteome stress induced by other toxins.

PMID- 28557282
TI  - Delayed diagnosis of subcutaneous dirofilariasis following a mosquito bite
      sustained in Germany.

PMID- 28557283
TI  - Halogen-Bonding-Mediated and Controlled Cationic Polymerization of Isobutyl Vinyl
      Ether: Expanding the Catalytic Scope of 2-Iodoimidazolium Salts.
AB  - Metal-free initiating systems for living cationic polymerizations are desirable
      from the viewpoint of environmentally benign polymer synthesis. We describe here
      the development of a halogen-bonding-mediated and controlled cationic
      polymerization of isobutyl vinyl ether (IBVE) using 2-iodoimidazolium salts as an
      organocatalyst. Due to the ionic nature of the catalysts, the polymerization
      should be performed in CH2 Cl2 . The HCl-adduct of IBVE was the most suitable
      initiator, and the polymerization was carried out at -10  degrees C under the
      catalyst concentration of 10 mm to suppress alcohol elimination from the polymer
      chain. The addition of a small amount of nBu4 NCl (0.02 equivalent) was effective
      to accomplish the controlled cationic polymerization and obtain polyIBVE, having
      the molecular weight distribution below 1.3.

PMID- 28557285
TI  - Annular atrophic lichen planus: a rare clinical entity.

PMID- 28557284
TI  - RPA3 is a potential marker of prognosis and radioresistance for nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma.
AB  - Radioresistance-induced residual and recurrent tumours are the main cause of
      treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Thus, the mechanisms of NPC
      radioresistance and predictive markers of NPC prognosis and radioresistance need
      to be investigated and identified. In this study, we identified RPA3 as a
      candidate radioresistance marker using RNA-seq of NPC samples. In vitro studies
      further confirmed that RPA3 affected the radiosensitivity of NPC cells.
      Specifically, the overexpression of RPA3 enhanced radioresistance and the
      capacity for DNA repair of NPC cells, whereas inhibiting RPA3 expression
      sensitized NPC cells to irradiation and decreased the DNA repair capacity.
      Furthermore, the overexpression of RPA3 enhanced RAD51 foci formation in NPC
      cells after irradiation. Immunohistochemical assays in 104 NPC specimens and 21
      normal epithelium specimens indicated that RPA3 was significantly up-regulated in
      NPC tissues, and a log-rank test suggested that in patients with NPC, high RPA3
      expression was associated with shorter overall survival (OS) and a higher
      recurrence rate compared with low expression (5-year OS rates: 67.2% versus
      86.2%; 5-year recurrence rates: 14.8% versus 2.3%). Moreover, TCGA data also
      indicated that high RPA3 expression correlated with poor OS and a high recurrence
      rate in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) after
      radiotherapy. Taken together, the results of our study demonstrated that RPA3
      regulated the radiosensitivity and DNA repair capacity of NPC cells. Thus, RPA3
      may serve as a new predictive biomarker for NPC prognosis and radioresistance to
      help guide the diagnosis and individualized treatment of patients with NPC.

PMID- 28557286
TI  - Incidence and predictors of massive bleeding in children undergoing liver
      transplantation: A single-center retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation represents a major surgery involving a highly
      vascular organ. Reports defining the scope of bleeding in pediatric liver
      transplants are few. AIMS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of liver
      transplants performed at our pediatric tertiary care center to quantify blood
      loss, blood product utilization, and to determine predictors for massive
      intraoperative bleeding. METHODS: Pediatric patients who underwent isolated liver
      transplantation at Boston Children's Hospital between 2011 and 2016 were
      included. The amount of blood product transfused in the perioperative period and
      the incidence of postoperative complications were reported. Univariable and
      multivariable logistic regressions were used to determine predictors for massive
      bleeding, defined as estimated blood loss exceeding one circulating blood volume
      within 24 hours. RESULTS: Sixty-eight children underwent liver transplantation
      during the study period and were included in the analysis. Multivariable logistic
      regression analysis identified the following independent predictors of massive
      bleeding: preoperative hemoglobin level <8.5 g/dL (OR 11.09, 95% CI 1.87-65.76),
      INR >1.5 (OR 11.62, 95% CI 2.36-57.26), platelet count <100 109 /L (OR 7.92, 95%
      CI 1.46-43.05), and surgery duration >600 minutes (OR 6.97, 95% CI 0.99-48.92).
      CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric liver transplantation is associated with substantial blood
      loss and a significant blood product transfusion burden. A 43% incidence of
      massive bleeding is reported. Further efforts are needed to improve bleeding
      management in this high-risk population.

PMID- 28557287
TI  - Epidemiology and clinical features of inflammatory retinal vascular occlusions:
      pooled data from two tertiary-referral institutions.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: In a subset of patients with retinal vasculitis, there is occlusion
      of blood flow through the retinal vessels. These eyes are at high risk of sight
      threatening complications. BACKGROUND: To characterize epidemiology, clinical
      course, treatment and outcomes of occlusive retinal vasculitis (ORV). DESIGN:
      Retrospective study PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-seven uveitis patients with ORV at two
      large tertiary-care institutions (the USA and India). METHODS: Out of 2438
      patients screened, 346 patients were diagnosed with retinal vasculitis of which
      77 patients (96 eyes) were diagnosed with ORV. Patients with ORV (capillary,
      arteriolar and/or venular) were further analysed. Diagnostic criteria for
      occlusive vasculitis included (i) absence of blood flow in vessels (arterioles,
      venules and/or capillaries), (ii) capillary non-perfusion areas and/or arteriolar
      venous anastomosis and (iii) intraretinal haemorrhages, cotton-wool spots or
      vitreous haemorrhage. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Best-corrected visual acuity,
      treatment and complications. RESULTS: The mean age was 32.09 +/- 13.51 years.
      Most common aetiologies were tuberculosis and Adamantiades-Behcet's disease in
      India and systemic lupus erythematosus in the USA. Best-corrected visual acuity
      improved from 0.38 +/- 0.30 logMAR (20/48 Snellen equivalent) (baseline) to 0.25
      +/- 0.30 (20/35 Snellen equivalent) at final visit (P < 0.0001). Vitreous
      haemorrhage was seen in 31.08% eyes. Pars plana vitrectomy was performed in
      12.16% eyes. Therapy with systemic steroids was required in 78.48% patients. In
      addition, 46.75% patients required immunomodulators and/or biologics.
      CONCLUSIONS: Occlusive retinal vasculitis is caused by heterogeneous group of
      uveitides depending upon the geographic location. It is imperative to identify
      eyes with ORV as they are predisposed to complications requiring aggressive
      therapy.

PMID- 28557289
TI  - How do late terminations of pregnancy affect comparisons of stillbirth rates in
      Europe? Analyses of aggregated routine data from the Euro-Peristat Project.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe how terminations of pregnancy at gestational ages at or
      above the limit for stillbirth registration are recorded in routine statistics
      and to assess their impact on comparability of stillbirth rates in Europe.
      DESIGN: Analysis of aggregated data from the Euro-Peristat project. SETTING:
      Twenty-nine European countries. POPULATION: Births and late terminations in 2010.
      METHODS: Assessment of terminations as a proportion of stillbirths and derivation
      of stillbirth rates including and excluding terminations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Stillbirth rates overall and excluding terminations. RESULTS: In 23 countries, it
      is possible to assess the contribution of terminations to stillbirth rates either
      because terminations are rare occurrences or because they can be distinguished
      from spontaneous stillbirths. Where terminations were reported, they accounted
      for less than 1.5% of stillbirths at 22+ weeks in Denmark, between 13 and 22% in
      Germany, Italy, Hungary, Finland and Switzerland, and 39% in France. Proportions
      were much lower at 24+ weeks, with the exception of Switzerland (7.4%) and France
      (39.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Terminations represent a substantial proportion of
      stillbirths at 22+ weeks of gestation in some countries. Countries where
      terminations occur at 22+ weeks should publish rates with and without
      terminations in order to improve international comparisons and the policy
      relevance of stillbirth statistics. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: For valid comparisons of
      stillbirth rates, data about late terminations of pregnancy are needed.

PMID- 28557288
TI  - The EF-1alpha promoter maintains high-level transgene expression from episomal
      vectors in transfected CHO-K1 cells.
AB  - In our previous study, we demonstrated that episomal vectors based on the
      characteristic sequence of matrix attachment regions (MARs) and containing the
      cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter allow transgenes to be maintained episomally in
      Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. However, the transgene expression was unstable
      and the number of copies was low. In this study, we focused on enhancers, various
      promoters and promoter variants that could improve the transgene expression
      stability, expression magnitude (level) and the copy number of a MAR-based
      episomal vector in CHO-K1 cells. In comparison with the CMV promoter, the
      eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1alpha, gene symbol EEF1A1)
      promoter increased the transfection efficiency, the transgene expression, the
      proportion of expression-positive clones and the copy number of the episomal
      vector in long-term culture. By contrast, no significant positive effects were
      observed with an enhancer, CMV promoter variants or CAG promoter in the episomal
      vector in long-term culture. Moreover, the high-expression clones harbouring the
      EF-1alpha promoter tended to be more stable in long-term culture, even in the
      absence of selection pressure. According to these findings, we concluded that the
      EF-1alpha promoter is a potent regulatory sequence for episomal vectors because
      it maintains high transgene expression, transgene stability and copy number.
      These results provide valuable information on improvement of transgene stability
      and the copy number of episomal vectors.

PMID- 28557290
TI  - Repetitive ventricular tachycardia in a syncopal child: Cause or incidental
      finding ?
AB  - A 15-year-old girl suffered recurrent syncopal episodes during 7 years. Events
      were precipitated by exercise or emotional stress, leading to the diagnosis of
      reflex syncope. Exercise testing induced recurrent salvos of nonsustained right
      ventricular outflow tract tachycardia. This arrhythmia is often asymptomatic,
      reflex syncope is very frequent and both causes are related to the same
      triggering situations. It was therefore essential to obtain recordings during
      syncopal events and to observe the clinical evolution under effective treatment
      in order to make the right diagnosis.

PMID- 28557291
TI  - Single-Site Active Cobalt-Based Photocatalyst with a Long Carrier Lifetime for
      Spontaneous Overall Water Splitting.
AB  - An active and stable photocatalyst to directly split water is desirable for solar
      energy conversion. However, it is difficult to accomplish overall water splitting
      without sacrificial electron donors. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy via
      constructing a single site to simultaneously promote charge separation and
      catalytic activity for robust overall water splitting. A single Co1 -P4 site
      confined on g-C3 N4 nanosheets was prepared by a facile phosphidation method, and
      identified by electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. This
      coordinatively unsaturated Co site can effectively suppress charge recombination
      and prolong carrier lifetime by about 20 times relative to pristine g-C3 N4 , and
      boost water molecular adsorption and activation for oxygen evolution. This single
      site photocatalyst exhibits steady and high water splitting activity with H2
      evolution rate up to 410.3 MUmol h-1  g-1 , and quantum efficiency as high as 2.2
      % at 500 nm.

PMID- 28557292
TI  - In Response: The Contribution of the Emergency Department to Opioid Pain Reliever
      Misuse and Diversion: A Critical Review.

PMID- 28557293
TI  - Does Confinement Always Lead to Thermodynamically and/or Kinetically Favorable
      Reactions? A Case Study using Diels-Alder Reactions within ExBox+4 and CB[7].
AB  - The impact of geometrical confinement on the thermodynamic as well as kinetic
      aspects of a model cycloaddition reaction between 1,3-butadiene and ethylene have
      been investigated based on density functional theory calculations. To this end,
      organic hosts ExBox+4 and cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) were used to impose confinement
      effects on the reactants, transition state (TS), and product involved in the
      reaction. The results suggest that the shape of the host and thereby the nature
      of the confining regime dictates the thermodynamic outcome of the reaction. The
      reaction becomes thermodynamically more spontaneous inside CB[7] as compared with
      that in either ExBox+4 or in the "unconfined" gaseous state. Furthermore, the
      rate constant associated with the reaction increases manifold inside CB[7]. Atoms
      in a-molecule, noncovalent interaction, natural bond orbital, as well as energy
      decomposition analyses suggest that the close geometrical proximity of the
      reactants inside CB[7] as well as extra stabilization of the TS in the
      encapsulated state may dictate the outcome.

PMID- 28557294
TI  - A mechanism for NaV 1.5 downregulation and sodium current decrease in heart
      failure.

PMID- 28557295
TI  - Study of the inhibitory effects on TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB activation of
      IMD0354 analogs.
AB  - Nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) is an important nuclear transcription factor
      which regulates pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-6. Its role as
      immunoregulatory mediator makes it an attractive target in the development of
      treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In this study, we
      synthesized derivatives of IMD0354, a known inhibitor for NF-kappaB, in attempt
      to understand the effect of benzanilide substitutions on its activity. The
      inhibition of these analogs on NF-kappaB activation was analyzed by luciferase
      assay. The inhibition of IKKbeta phosphorylation and pro-inflammatory cytokines
      was determined by Western blot and real-time PCR. The structure activity
      relationships showed that the hydroxyl group on IMD0354 is a critical moiety that
      resulting in the inhibition of NF-kappaB. Derivatives 1m, 2b, and 2c were shown
      to inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine production at low concentration. These newly
      synthesized compounds may be useful for the treatment of chronic inflammatory
      disorders or for cancer prevention.

PMID- 28557296
TI  - Bottom-Up Construction of Porous Organic Frameworks with Built-In TEMPO as a
      Cathode for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
AB  - Two redox-active porous organic frameworks (POFs) with a built-in radical moiety
      (TEMPO) and hierarchical porous structures were synthesized through a facile
      bottom-up strategy and studied as cathode materials for lithium-sulfur (Li-S)
      batteries. The sulfur loading in these two POFs reached 61 %, benefitting from
      their large pore volumes. Owing to the highly dense docking sites of TEMPO,
      sulfur could be covalently immobilized within the porous networks and efficiently
      inhibit the shuttle effect, thereby significantly improving the cycling
      performance. The composites TPE-TEMPO-POF-S (TPE=tetraphenylethene) deliver a
      capacity in excess of 470 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles with a coulombic efficiency of
      around 100 % at a current rate of 0.1 C. Furthermore, TEMPO-POFs with sulfur
      embedded showed excellent rate capability with limited capacity loss at rates of
      0.1-1 C.

PMID- 28557298
TI  - The insights of a visually impaired student.

PMID- 28557297
TI  - Correlation of Cup Inclination Angle with Liner Wear for Metal-on-polyethylene in
      Hip Primary Arthroplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The relationship between cup inclination angle and liner wear is
      controversial. Most authors in the published literature agree that the ideal cup
      inclination is associated with lower inner wear; however, some disagree. All
      previous studies did not control for femoral head diameter and inclination, so it
      is difficult to assess the relative or synergistic effects of cup angle on
      outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 154 patients (171 hips) with
      primary total hip arthroplasties performed from 2001 to 2004. All surgeries had
      been performed by the same physician team. A posterior approach was applied in
      all patients. All prostheses were non-cemented cups with a 28-mm metal head.
      Inclusion criteria included that the radiographic material was not completed or
      lost for primary or last follow up. Patients were divided into four groups
      according to different cup inclination angle. There were 108 hips with
      inclination angles below 50 degrees ; 35 hips with angles between 50 degrees  and
      55 degrees ; 17 hips with angles between 55 degrees  and 60 degrees ; and 11 hips
      with angles greater than 60 degrees . An immediate postoperative radiograph was
      compared with a follow-up radiograph. Clinical and radiographic data were
      collected on standardized hip evaluation forms preoperatively, 6 months after
      surgery and at yearly follow-up visits. Radiographs were digitized and enlarged
      100%. After the radiographs were digitized, polyethylene wear rates and
      acetabular cup abduction were measured on all patients with Cavas 15.0 software.
      The results were analyzed using Student's two-tailed paired t-test with SPSS
      11.5. RESULTS: The preoperative mean Harris hip score improved from 45.36 to 93.5
      points 10 years after surgery. No acetabular component was revised for aseptic
      loosening. Three patients (three hips) had to undergo bone grafting and a lined
      arthroplasty for severe osteolysis around the acetabular component. The rate of
      implant survival at 10 years with respect to loosening was 100%. The mean liner
      wear rate was 0.135 mm/year in cups with inclination angles below 50 degrees ,
      0.144 mm/year between 50 degrees  and 55 degrees , 0.260 mm/year between 55
      degrees  and 60 degrees , and 0.403 mm/year when the angle was greater than 60
      degrees . Liner wear increased when the cup angle was larger than 55 degrees  (P
      < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For metal-on-polyethylene prostheses, liner wear correlates
      with cup inclination angle larger than 55 degrees . The ideal abduction angle for
      metal-on-polyethylene prostheses is less than 55 degrees .

PMID- 28557299
TI  - Internet-based guided self-help for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD):
      Randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are numerous barriers that limit access to evidence-based
      treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Internet-based guided self
      help is a treatment option that may help widen access to effective intervention,
      but the approach has not been sufficiently explored for the treatment of PTSD.
      METHODS: Forty two adults with DSM-5 PTSD of mild to moderate severity were
      randomly allocated to internet-based self-help with up to 3 h of therapist
      assistance, or to a delayed treatment control group. The internet-based program
      included eight modules that focused on psychoeducation, grounding, relaxation,
      behavioural activation, real-life and imaginal exposure, cognitive therapy, and
      relapse prevention. The primary outcome measure was reduction in clinician-rated
      traumatic stress symptoms using the clinician administered PTSD scale for DSM-V
      (CAPS-5). Secondary outcomes were self-reported PTSD symptoms, depression,
      anxiety, alcohol use, perceived social support, and functional impairment.
      RESULTS: Posttreatment, the internet-based guided self-help group had
      significantly lower clinician assessed PTSD symptoms than the delayed treatment
      control group (between-group effect size Cohen's d = 1.86). The difference was
      maintained at 1-month follow-up and dissipated once both groups had received
      treatment. Similar patterns of difference between the two groups were found for
      depression, anxiety, and functional impairment. The average contact with treating
      clinicians was 21/2 h. CONCLUSIONS: Internet-based trauma-focused guided self
      help for PTSD is a promising treatment option that requires far less therapist
      time than current first line face-to-face psychological therapy.

PMID- 28557300
TI  - Diversity and ecology of and biomineralization by magnetotactic bacteria.
AB  - Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) biomineralize intracellular, membrane-bounded
      crystals of magnetite (Fe3 O4 ) and/or greigite (Fe3 S4 ) called magnetosomes.
      MTB play important roles in the geochemical cycling of iron, sulfur, nitrogen and
      carbon. Significantly, they also represent an intriguing model system not just
      for the study of microbial biomineralization but also for magnetoreception,
      prokaryotic organelle formation and microbial biogeography. Here we review
      current knowledge on the ecology of and biomineralization by MTB, with an
      emphasis on more recent reports of unexpected ecological and phylogenetic
      findings regarding MTB. In this study, we conducted a search of public
      metagenomic databases and identified six novel magnetosome gene cluster
      containing genomic fragments affiliated with the Deltaproteobacteria and
      Gammaproteobacteria classes of the Proteobacteria phylum, the Nitrospirae phylum
      and the Planctomycetes phylum from the deep subseafloor, marine oxygen minimum
      zone, groundwater biofilm and estuary sediment, thereby extending our knowledge
      on the diversity and distribution of MTB as well deriving important information
      as to their ecophysiology. We point out that the increasing availability of
      sequence data will facilitate researchers to systematically explore the ecology
      and biomineralization of MTB even further.

PMID- 28557301
TI  - Factors influencing the quality of life of haemodialysis patients according to
      symptom cluster.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To identify the characteristics in each symptom cluster and
      factors influencing the quality of life of haemodialysis patients in Korea
      according to cluster. BACKGROUND: Despite developments in renal replacement
      therapy, haemodialysis still restricts the activities of daily living due to pain
      and impairs physical functioning induced by the disease and its complications.
      DESIGN: Descriptive survey. Two hundred and thirty dialysis patients aged >18
      years. They completed self-administered questionnaires of Dialysis Symptom Index
      and Kidney Disease Quality of Life instrument-Short Form 1.3. METHODS: To
      determine the optimal number of clusters, the collected data were analysed using
      polytomous variable latent class analysis in R software (poLCA) to estimate the
      latent class models and the latent class regression models for polytomous outcome
      variables. Differences in characteristics, symptoms and QOL according to the
      symptom cluster of haemodialysis patients were analysed using the independent t
      test and chi-square test. The factors influencing the QOL according to symptom
      cluster were identified using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. RESULTS:
      Physical and emotional symptoms were significantly more severe, and the QOL was
      significantly worse in Cluster 1 than in Cluster 2. The factors influencing the
      QOL were spouse, job, insurance type and physical and emotional symptoms in
      Cluster 1, with these variables having an explanatory power of 60.9%. Physical
      and emotional symptoms were the only influencing factors in Cluster 2, and they
      had an explanatory power of 37.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Mitigating the symptoms
      experienced by haemodialysis patients and improving their QOL require educational
      and therapeutic symptom management interventions that are tailored according to
      the characteristics and symptoms in each cluster. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE:
      The findings of this study are expected to lead to practical guidelines for
      addressing the symptoms experienced by haemodialysis patients, and they provide
      basic information for developing nursing interventions to manage these symptoms
      and improve the QOL of these patients.

PMID- 28557304
TI  - Device-associated thrombus formation after left atrial appendage occlusion.

PMID- 28557302
TI  - Dynamic changes and prognostic value of pulmonary congestion by lung ultrasound
      in acute and chronic heart failure: a systematic review.
AB  - AIMS: Pulmonary congestion is an important finding in patients with heart failure
      (HF) that can be quantified by lung ultrasound (LUS). We conducted a systematic
      review to describe dynamic changes in LUS findings of pulmonary congestion (B
      lines) in HF and to examine the prognostic utility of B-lines in HF. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We searched online databases for studies conducted in patients with
      chronic or acute HF that used LUS to assess dynamic changes or the prognostic
      value of pulmonary congestion. We included studies in adult populations,
      published in English, and conducted in >=25 patients. Of 1327 identified studies,
      13 (25-290 patients) met the inclusion criteria: six reported on dynamic changes
      in LUS findings (438 patients) and seven on the prognostic value of B-lines in HF
      (953 patients). In acute HF, B-line number changed within as few as 3 h of HF
      treatment. In acute HF, >=15 B-lines on 28-zone LUS at discharge identified
      patients at a more than five-fold risk for HF readmission or death. Similarly, in
      ambulatory patients with chronic HF, >=3 B-lines on five- or eight-zone LUS
      marked those at a nearly four-fold risk for 6-month HF hospitalization or death.
      CONCLUSIONS: Lung ultrasound findings change rapidly in response to HF therapy.
      This technique may represent a useful and non-invasive method to track dynamic
      changes in pulmonary congestion. Furthermore, residual congestion at the time of
      discharge in acute HF or in ambulatory patients with chronic HF may identify
      those at high risk for adverse events.

PMID- 28557303
TI  - Simultaneous fermentation of cellulose and current production with an enriched
      mixed culture of thermophilic bacteria in a microbial electrolysis cell.
AB  - An enriched mixed culture of thermophilic (60 degrees C) bacteria was assembled
      for the purpose of using cellulose to produce current in thermophilic microbial
      electrolysis cells (MECs). Cellulose was fermented into sugars and acids before
      being consumed by anode-respiring bacteria (ARB) for current production. Current
      densities (j) were sustained at 6.5 +/- 0.2 A m-2 in duplicate reactors with a
      coulombic efficiency (CE) of 84 +/- 0.3%, a coulombic recovery (CR) of 54 +/- 11%
      and without production of CH4 . Low-scan rate cyclic voltammetry (LSCV) revealed
      a mid-point potential (Eka ) of -0.17 V versus SHE. Pyrosequencing analysis of
      the V4 hypervariable region of 16S rDNA and scanning electron microscopy present
      an enriched thermophilic microbial community consisting mainly of the phylum
      Firmicutes with the Thermoanaerobacter (46 +/- 13%) and Thermincola (28 +/- 14%)
      genera occupying the biofilm anode in high relative abundance and Tepidmicrobium
      (38 +/- 6%) and Moorella (11 +/- 8%) genera present in high relative abundance in
      the bulk medium. The Thermoanaerobacter (15 +/- 16%) and Brevibacillus (21 +/-
      30%) genera were also present in the bulk medium; however, their relative
      abundance varied by reactor. This study indicates that thermophilic consortia can
      obtain high CE and CR, while sustaining high current densities from cellulose in
      MECs.

PMID- 28557305
TI  - Diversity of Polyhydroxynaphthoquinone Pigments in North Pacific Sea Urchins.
AB  - Using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection and mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-DAD/MS) we investigated the composition of
      polyhydroxynaphthoquinone (PHNQ) pigments from sea urchins Strongylocentrotus
      pallidus, St. polyacanthus, St. droebachiensis, Brisaster latifrons and
      Echinarachnius parma, collected in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.
      Identification of PHNQ pigments from sea urchins St. polyacanthus, B. latifrons,
      and E. parma was performed for the first time. Among the usual PHNQ pigments,
      mono- and dimethoxy derivatives of spinochrome E, not previously found in other
      sea urchins, were discovered in St. polyacanthus and St. droebachiensis. In St.
      droebachiensis, two monomethoxy derivatives of echinochrome A were detected,
      isolated previously from only tropical sea urchins. It was found that the
      composition and total content of pigments of St. droebachiensis depends on the
      collection area of the sea urchins and its depth and varies from 88 to 331 MUg/g
      of dry shells. Sea urchins St. pallidus, B. latifrons and E. parma had average
      values for PHNQ pigment content, approximately 30 MUg/g, and St. polyacanthus had
      a low PHNQ content, 13 MUg/g.

PMID- 28557307
TI  - Pervasive yet nonuniform contributions of Dcp2 and Cnot7 to maternal mRNA
      clearance in zebrafish.
AB  - mRNA degradation is a fundamental biological process that erases transcribed
      genetic information from cells. During maternal-to-zygotic transition of animal
      development, thousands of maternal mRNAs are degraded by multiple mechanisms
      including microRNAs and codon-mediated decay. Enzymatic requirements for maternal
      mRNA clearance, however, are not fully understood. Here, we analyzed a
      contribution of the decapping enzyme Dcp2 to maternal mRNA clearance in zebrafish
      by over-expressing catalytically inactive Dcp2 and performing RNA-seq analysis.
      As expected, Dcp2 had a widespread role in maternal mRNA clearance.
      Interestingly, each mRNA showed differential dependency on Dcp2-mediated
      decapping and Cnot7-mediated deadenylation for degradation. Correlation analysis
      identified several mRNA features that were associated with the observed
      differential dependency. Our results show pervasive yet nonuniform contributions
      of the decapping enzyme Dcp2 and the deadenylase Cnot7 to maternal mRNA
      clearance.

PMID- 28557308
TI  - Discovery of a new intravacuolar protein required for the autophagy, development
      and virulence of Beauveria bassiana.
AB  - High proportions of hypothetical proteins exist in genomic databases of fungi,
      including putative secretory proteins (PSPs) likely involved in fungal invasion
      and virulence. Here we characterize one of many PSPs revealed in the previous
      transcriptome of Beauveria bassiana (a fungal insect pathogen) infecting a global
      lepidopteran pest and name it vacuole-localized protein 4 (VLP4) because this
      small, domain-lacking protein (22.96 kDa) was specifically localized in the
      vacuoles of hyphal cells. Deletion of VLP4 resulted in repression of almost all
      genes acting in autophagy and central development pathways. Consequently, the
      deletion mutant formed no autophagosome in hyphal vacuoles and displayed severe
      defects in aerial conidiation. conidial hydrophobicity to the insect surface, and
      secretion of cuticle-degrading Pr1 proteases required for normal cuticle
      infection. Blastospore formation was inhibited in the submerged mutant culture
      mimic to insect haemolymph, and formation of hyphal bodies in vivo was delayed.
      The fungal virulence was attenuated in the absence of VLP4. These phenotypic
      defects were well restored by targeted gene complementation. Our findings unveil
      a vital role of VLP4 in B. bassiana and call attention to many more PSPs for new
      insights into the interactions of fungal insect pathogens with insects.

PMID- 28557309
TI  - Dermatoscopy of confluent and reticulated papillomatosis (Gougerot-Carteaud
      syndrome).

PMID- 28557306
TI  - SK4 channels modulate Ca2+ signalling and cell cycle progression in murine breast
      cancer.
AB  - Oncogenic signalling via Ca2+ -activated K+ channels of intermediate conductance
      (SK4, also known as KCa 3.1 or IK) has been implicated in different cancer
      entities including breast cancer. Yet, the role of endogenous SK4 channels for
      tumorigenesis is unclear. Herein, we generated SK4-negative tumours by crossing
      SK4-deficient (SK4 KO) mice to the polyoma middle T-antigen (PyMT) and epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2 (cNeu) breast cancer models in which oncogene expression
      is driven by the retroviral promoter MMTV. Survival parameters and tumour
      progression were studied in cancer-prone SK4 KO in comparison with wild-type (WT)
      mice and in a syngeneic orthotopic mouse model following transplantation of SK4
      negative or WT tumour cells. SK4 activity was modulated by genetic or
      pharmacological means using the SK4 inhibitor TRAM-34 in order to establish the
      role of breast tumour SK4 for cell growth, electrophysiological signalling, and
      [Ca2+ ]i oscillations. Ablation of SK4 and TRAM-34 treatment reduced the SK4
      generated current fraction, growth factor-dependent Ca2+ entry, cell cycle
      progression and the proliferation rate of MMTV-PyMT tumour cells. In vivo, PyMT
      oncogene-driven tumorigenesis was only marginally affected by the global lack of
      SK4, whereas tumour progression was significantly delayed after orthotopic
      implantation of MMTV-PyMT SK4 KO breast tumour cells. However, overall survival
      and progression-free survival time in the MMTV-cNeu mouse model were
      significantly extended in the absence of SK4. Collectively, our data from murine
      breast cancer models indicate that SK4 activity is crucial for cell cycle
      control. Thus, the modulation of this channel should be further investigated
      towards a potential improvement of existing antitumour strategies in human breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28557310
TI  - Larynx motion considerations in partial larynx volumetric modulated arc therapy
      for early glottic cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To assess laryngeal motion in early glottic cancer in order to
      determine safe margins for partial larynx volumetric modulated arc therapy (PL
      VMAT), and to quantify dosimetric advantages of PL-VMAT. METHODS: This
      prospective study included T1-2N0 glottic cancers treated with whole larynx VMAT
      (WL-VMAT). Pre- and mid-treatment 4D-computed tomography (4D-CT) and dynamic
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allowed for assessment of larynx swallowing and
      respiratory motion. For 10 patients with lateralized lesions, PL-VMAT plans were
      calculated using margins derived from 4D-CT analysis. RESULTS: Twenty patients
      were accrued from 2014 to 2016. Mean amplitude of larynx swallowing excursion was
      23 mm and 6 mm in the superior and anterior directions, respectively. Mean
      respiratory motion reached 4 mm and 2 mm in superior-inferior and antero
      posterior directions, respectively. Pre-treatment 4D-CT analysis identified one
      patient with planning CT acquired during swallowing. Mid-treatment 4D-CT revealed
      larynx shift relative to vertebrae in 30% of cases. PL-VMAT allowed for
      significant reduction of mean doses to ipsilateral carotid, contralateral
      carotid, thyroid gland, contralateral arytenoid and larynx. Using 8 mm internal
      margin for PL-VMAT, swallowing resulted in clinical target volume excursion
      beyond 95% isodose line during <=1.5% of total treatment time in all patients.
      CONCLUSION: Although swallowing motion is rare, rapid and easily suppressed by
      patients, there is a risk of systematic miss-targeting if planning CT is acquired
      during swallowing. Larynx position shift relative to vertebrae occurs in 1/3 of
      patients over the course of radiotherapy. With soft-tissue image guidance and
      margins accounting for respiratory motion, PL-VMAT allows safe reduction of dose
      to organs at risk.

PMID- 28557311
TI  - Late Incomplete stent apposition is associated with late/very late stent
      thrombosis: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a lingering controversy in the current literature about the
      impact of late incomplete stent apposition (LISA) on clinical outcomes,
      especially stent thrombosis (ST). Therefore, we aimed to synthesize the available
      evidence evaluating the association between LISA and adverse clinical outcomes.
      METHODS: We systematically searched electronic databases for studies reporting
      clinical outcomes in patients with and without LISA. Relevant study
      characteristics and clinical outcomes were extracted. Incidence rate ratios (IRR)
      and 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were computed. Sensitivity analyses were done.
      RESULTS: Sixteen studies with 4,946 patients; 666 patients with 20,035 patient
      months follow up with LISA and 4,280 patients with 121,855 patient-months follow
      up without LISA were included. The estimated prevalence of LISA at follow up was
      16% (95% CI 12-20%). The incidences of late/very late ST (IRR = 4.81, 95% CI 2.68
      8.62) and myocardial infarction (MI) (IRR = 3.09, 95% CI 1.72-5.55) were
      significantly higher in the LISA group compared to patients without LISA. Subset
      analysis of studies reporting Academic Research Consortium definitive/probable ST
      (IRR = 4.98; 95% CI 2.51-9.89) and acquired LISA (IRR = 3.67, 95% CI 1.5-9.0)
      similarly showed increased risk of late/very late ST. The results of sensitivity
      analyses were consistent. There was no difference in cardiac death and target
      lesion revascularization. CONCLUSION: The presence of LISA at a follow up of 6-18
      months after stent implantation is associated with a higher risk of late/very
      late ST and MI. Additional studies are required to establish a cause and effect,
      and inform the management strategy. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28557313
TI  - Efficacy of radiation dose reduction due to real-time monitoring and
      visualization of peak skin dose during coronary angiography and percutaneous
      coronary intervention.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study assessed that the use of real-time monitoring and
      visualization of peak skin dose could reduce radiation dose during coronary
      angiography (CAG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND:
      Exposure to ionizing radiation has dose related effects including skin damage.
      Reducing the radiation exposure is important during CAG and PCI. The skin dose
      tracking system (DTS) has a real-time monitor of radiation peak skin dose.
      METHODS: A total of 323 consecutive patients who underwent CAG and PCI between
      September 2014 and June 2015 were enrolled. Patients were classified into with
      DTS group (CAG alone in 104 and PCI in 57 patients) or without DTS group (CAG
      alone in 106 and PCI in 56 patients). RESULTS: There was no significant
      difference in reference air kerma between CAG alone with and without DTS groups.
      Reference air kerma with DTS group during PCI was lower than without DTS group
      (204.6 +/- 141.1 mGy vs. 294.2 +/- 237.4 mGy, P = 0.016). Moreover, kerma area
      product (17.8 +/- 13.0 Gycm2 vs. 25.2 +/- 19.3 Gycm2 , P = 0.019) and number of
      cine runs (12.8 +/- 5.0 vs. 15.5 +/- 6.5, P = 0.013) with DTS group were lower
      than without DTS group. Multiple regression analysis showed increased reference
      air kerma was associated with male gender, body mass index and type B2/C lesion.
      Conversely, DTS correlated with decreased reference air kerma. CONCLUSIONS: The
      use of DTS could reduce radiation dose during PCI. Real-time radiation monitoring
      and visualization of peak skin dose was effective for the patients with PCI.

PMID- 28557312
TI  - A novel HLA-G allele, HLA-G*01:01:01:07, was identified in a Chinese patient with
      Posner-Schlossman syndrome.
AB  - A novel HLA-G allele, HLA-G*01:01:01:07, was identified in a Chinese patient with
      Posner-Schlossman syndrome.

PMID- 28557314
TI  - Estradiol and progesterone influence on influenza infection and immune response
      in a mouse model.
AB  - PROBLEM: Influenza infection severity may be mediated by estradiol and/or
      progesterone. METHOD OF STUDY: An exploratory study was designed to evaluate 17
      beta-estradiol and progesterone on influenza infection and examine immune
      mediated response in a mouse model. Inoculation with placebo or mouse-adapted
      H1N1 influenza virus occurred. Treatment groups included 17-beta-estradiol,
      progesterone, ovariectomy, and pregnancy. Mice were assessed for morbidity and
      mortality. Toll-like receptor gene studies and airspace cell differentials were
      performed. RESULTS: Onset of morbidity was earlier and morbidity duration greater
      for progesterone. Absence of morbidity/mortality and overall survival was greater
      for 17-beta-estradiol. Airspace cell differentials suggest improved immune cell
      recruitment for 17-beta-estradiol. Pregnant mouse data demonstrate significant
      mortality during the period of increased progesterone. Select immune cell markers
      demonstrate patterns of regulation that may promote proper immune response to
      influenza infection for 17-beta-estradiol. CONCLUSION: Estradiol may play a
      protective and progesterone a detrimental role in the pathophysiology of
      influenza infection.

PMID- 28557316
TI  - Role of disease in energy balance in children.
AB  - Nutritional stress can be caused by increased energy demands or inadequate
      caloric intake. In the absence of food shortage, disease is often a significant
      contributory factor in promoting nutritional stress. In children, the interaction
      of nutrition and disease is more difficult to assess than in adults because
      deficits in growth and development have both a determining and consequential role
      in defining energy needs. This paper presents a framework for examining the role
      of disease in energy balance in children and gives three examples of disease
      energy balance interactions. Resting and total energy expenditure (REE and TEE)
      and growth and body composition were measured in children with spastic
      quadriplegic cerebral palsy (SQCP) and cystic fibrosis (CF) and compared to
      normal children. Different patterns of energy balance emerged, with REE and TEE
      being lower in children with SQCP, and REE being higher in children with CF
      compared to controls. Clinical evaluations of REE in patients evaluated for
      failure-to-thrive and obesity indicated substantial variability in energy
      requirements relative to predicted values. These disease models demonstrate that
      the effect of disease on energy balance in children is diverse. Further studies
      quantifying the components of energy balance are needed to understand the
      mechanisms of nutritional adaptation during growth and development under the
      broad range of human conditions. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557317
TI  - Energetics and population ecology of Siberian herders.
AB  - Methodological advances now permit human biologists to more effectively monitor
      energy dynamics in traditional societies. This study examines the nutritional
      ecology and energetics of semisubsistence herders of Siberia (Evenki) during a
      single season of their annual cycle (late summer). Total energy expenditure (TEE)
      among adults, as measured by daily heart-rate monitoring, is greater in Evenki
      men (TEE = 11.9 +/- 2.8 MJ/d in men and 8.8 +/- 2.1 MJ/d in women; P < 0.001), a
      pattern that reflects the current division of labor under collectivized herding
      systems. Energy intakes are also greater among men (13.4 +/- 5.6 vs. 8.5 +/- 3.4
      MJ/d; P < 0.01), and are, on average, sufficient to meet daily needs in both
      sexes. The Evenki appear to be in energy balance at the population level during
      the late summer (per capita energy intake = 9.0 +/- 5.5 MJ/person/d; per capita
      requirements = 8.6 MJ/person/d); however, only small changes in food availability
      and/or energy expenditure are necessary to shift the population into negative
      balance during the winter. Primary sources of dietary energy include reindeer
      meat and other animal products (25-30%), foraged plant foods (10-15%), and
      nonlocal products (55-65%), such as flour, rice, and sugar. The anthropometric
      data indicate that the Evenki grow slowly and have small adult body size. Women
      are relatively heavier and fatter than men, and show a centripetal pattern of fat
      distribution. Evenki males appear to be undergoing a secular trend in stature,
      while no such increases are evident in females. These gender differences may
      reflect the differential impact to the changes associated with collectivization.
      Reduced metabolic requirements (due to declining activity and fertility levels),
      along with greater food availability, are likely to be responsible for the higher
      rates of obesity among Evenki women. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557318
TI  - Energetics, lifestyles, and nutritional adaptation: An introduction.

PMID- 28557315
TI  - Salience network response to changes in emotional expressions of others is
      heightened during early adolescence: relevance for social functioning.
AB  - Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the salience of social and
      emotional information becomes particularly pronounced. Although this increased
      sensitivity to social and emotional information has frequently been considered
      with respect to risk behaviors and psychopathology, evidence suggests that
      increased adolescent sensitivity to social and emotional cues may confer
      advantages. For example, greater sensitivity to shifts in the emotions of others
      is likely to promote flexible and adaptive social behavior. In this study, a
      sample of 54 children and adolescents (age 8-19 years) performed a delayed match
      to-sample task for emotional faces while undergoing fMRI scanning. Recruitment of
      the anterior cingulate and anterior insula when the emotion of the probe face did
      not match the emotion held in memory followed a quadratic developmental pattern
      that peaked during early adolescence. These findings indicate meaningful
      developmental variation in the neural mechanisms underlying sensitivity to
      changes in the emotional expressions. Across all participants, greater activation
      of this network for changes in emotional expression was associated with less
      social anxiety and fewer social problems. These results suggest that the
      heightened salience of social and emotional information during adolescence may
      confer important advantages for social behavior, providing sensitivity to others'
      emotions that facilitates flexible social responding.

PMID- 28557319
TI  - Total energy expenditure in young children.
AB  - Measurement of total energy expenditure (TEE) in young children is now possible
      without interfering with or influencing lifestyle. Such data allow direct
      comparison with recommendations for energy requirements which have hitherto been
      based on measurements of energy intake. Evaluation of the current world data of
      measured TEE in children aged 1-6 years shows a consistent pattern despite
      originating from different laboratories. Data from 225 children reveal that
      energy expenditure is, on average, about 20% below current international
      recommendations. It is postulated that the reduction is probably due to changes
      in levels of habitual activity, which may have potentially important effects on
      health, and which need to be monitored carefully. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557320
TI  - Physical activity, energy stores, and seasonal energy balance among men and women
      in Nepali households.
AB  - The relationships among initial energy stores (body mass index), energy turnover
      (physical activity levels), and seasonal energy balance (weight changes) were
      examined in subsistence agropastoralists in rural Nepal. The population
      experiences no actual food shortage, but has a seasonal increase in physical
      activity levels, which are moderately heavy in early winter and very heavy in the
      monsoon season [men, 1.88 and 2.22 * basal metabolic rate (BMR); women, 1.77 and
      2.01 * BMR in the respective seasons]. Repeated anthropometry in 1982 (29 men and
      34 women), 1983 (29 men and 29 women), 1991 (22 men and 48 women), and 1993 (48
      men and 72 women) showed a consistent interannual pattern of significant but
      modest seasonal weight change (<4% of initial values) and remarkable
      interindividual variation (men, -5.6 to 5.6 kg; women, -5.6 to 4.8 kg). Thinner
      individuals showed no significant change in body weight or workloads, and
      sustained high levels of total energy expenditure throughout the year. Heavier
      individuals lost weight (men -2.7 kg, women -0.9 kg) and increased total energy
      expenditure by 23% over the same period. Elements of lifestyle, especially during
      the season of less constraining workloads, allow for the continuation of hard
      work or taking a respite for nutritional recovery. The nature of household labor
      organization, featuring a highly flexible distribution of tasks, also contributes
      to the relatively short-term, reversible changes in energy balance in this
      population. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557321
TI  - Physical activity and correlates of estimated energy expenditure in Taiwanese
      adolescents 12-14 years of age.

PMID- 28557322
TI  - Energetics, adaptation, and adaptability.
AB  - Energy capture and conversion are fundamental to human existence, and over the
      past three decades biological anthropologists have used a number of approaches
      which incorporate energetics measures in studies of human population biology.
      Human groups can vary enormously in their energy expenditure. This review
      considers evidence for genetic adaptation and presents models for physiological
      adaptability to reduced physiological energy availability and/or negative energy
      balance. In industrialized populations, different aspects of energy expenditure
      have been shown to have a genetic component, including basal metabolic rate,
      habitual physical activity level, mechanical efficiency of work performance, and
      thermic effect of food. Metabolic adaptation to low energy intakes has been
      demonstrated in populations in both developing and industrialized nations.
      Thyroid hormone-related effects on energy metabolic responses to low
      physiological energy availability are unified in a model, linking energetic
      adaptability in physical activity and maintenance metabolism. Negative energy
      balance has been shown to be associated with reduced reproductive function in
      women experiencing seasonal environments in some developing countries. Existing
      models relating negative energy balance to menstrual or ovulatory function are
      largely descriptive, and do not propose any physiological mechanisms for this
      phenomenon. A model is proposed whereby reduced physiological energy availability
      could influence ovulatory function via low serum levels of the amino acid
      aspartate and reduced sympathetic nervous system activity. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28557323
TI  - Physical activity patterns and anthropometric changes in Senegalese women
      observed over a complete seasonal cycle.
AB  - This study describes the habitual physical activity of a group of women in
      Northern Senegal who are involved in a hydroagricultural development program and
      assesses its consequences for their nutritional status. A group of 30 women was
      followed on three occasions during a complete agricultural cycle. At each visit,
      activities were observed and timed over periods of 3 and 2 consecutive days.
      Anthropometric dimensions were taken at each visit, with a follow-up 1 year
      later. The women were divided into three groups according to reproductive status:
      pregnant (P), lactating (L), and nonpregnant, nonlactating (NPNL). The P group
      showed a gain in weight and body mass index only starting with the second
      trimester of pregnancy. During the postpartum stage, indices of arm muscle mass
      were lower than those measured prior to pregnancy. The L and NPNL groups did not
      show any changes in anthropometric indices during the cycle. Activity intensity
      levels among the women did not change from one visit to another. The levels could
      be classified as moderate to heavy intensity according to the FAO/WHO/UNU
      criteria. Overall the NPNL group was more active than the P group, with the
      latter increasing rest time and light activity at the onset of pregnancy. The
      time spent on subsistence activities outside of the household varied from one
      visit to the next according to the demand for agricultural labor. Estimated
      energy expenditure of the women was compatible with their physiological state;
      however, increased participation of P and L women in agricultural work,
      especially work related to rice cultivation, could have a negative impact on
      their nutritional status. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557324
TI  - Behavioral quality and caloric intake in Malagasy children relative to
      international growth references.
AB  - Anthropometric, 3-day food weighing, and 2-day time allocation surveys were used
      in the 1990-1991 dry and wet seasons to examine the recommended international
      child growth references for weight/height (W/H). The sample included forty 6- to
      9-year-old girls and boys from a slash-and-burn horticultural community near
      Ranomafana National Park in the southeastern Malagasy rain forest. Positional
      behavior, location, and various productive and social activities were related to
      anthropometric status, caloric intake, and gender. Sitting activities increased
      while energetic manual chores and prone activity decreased when W/H was below -1
      to -1.5 SD of the international NCHS reference. However, running play and some of
      the locations that children use decreased more when W/H approached -2.5 or -3 SD,
      or when caloric intake was below about one half of the international
      recommendation. The latter anthropometric and dietary levels did not necessarily
      occur in the same children, suggesting that anthropometric surveillance alone may
      not identify children at risk. Moral thresholds of socially tolerable behavior
      relative to growth status and common statistically based cutoffs for growth
      status vary, which prompts questions about the appropriate level at which to
      target health programs. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557325
TI  - Issues in the measurement of energy intake for free-living human populations.
AB  - Energy intake is the most difficult component of energy balance to measure. All
      known methods are subject to considerable error, both random error and bias. High
      variability within and between subjects means that sampling is important to
      increase reliability. Further, the fact that true intakes are unknown means that
      some outside measure of validity is desirable as a check on the accuracy of
      recording of habitual intake. This report examines food intake for populations
      where expenditure has been measured by doubly labeled water. For 21 populations
      where aggregate data have been reported, intake came within one megajoule (MJ) of
      expenditure in about one-half of the cases. In seven populations where individual
      intake and expenditure were noted, reported intakes did not differ from measured
      expenditure for four groups, but differed significantly for two groups of African
      farm women and one group of obese volunteers. Individuals also differed in
      ranking of intake and expenditure, with intake able to predict the rank of
      expenditure only for one group of German students. Energy intake data are
      important for both ecological and epidemiological studies but are poor measures
      to use in estimating energy balance. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557326
TI  - Energy expenditures of urban Colombian girls and women.
AB  - Anthropometry, basal metabolic rate (BMR), and resting energy expenditure (RMR)
      measured by indirect calorimetry and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) by the
      minute-by-minute heart rate (HR) method have been studied in 52 school-aged girls
      6-16 years and 46 nonpregnant, nonlactating women 19-43 years of age. BMR, RMR,
      and TDEE increased with age in children, reaching approximate adult values by 15
      years. TDEE averaged 9.29 +/- 2.32 MJ/d in women 19-43 years. The ratio RMR/BMR
      averaged 1.27 +/- 0.29 across all age groups. TDEE/BMR varied from 1.41 +/- 0.28
      to 1.62 +/- 0.37 in the girls and averaged 1.78 +/- 0.43 in adults. Application
      of empirical equations to estimates of BMR showed that those of Schofield gave
      values of +3.1% (P = 0.03) and of Henry and Rees -3.8% (P = 0.052) of measured
      BMR (Schofield [1985] Hum Nutr Clin Nutr 39C [Suppl 1]:5-41; Henry and Rees
      [1991] Eur J Clin Nutr 45:177-185). The pattern of daily energy expenditure is
      highly variable across age groups during the awake portion of the day (0700-2000
      hours). In the averaged data of women at home, there is a gradual increase in the
      morning, a decline at noon, followed by some increase in the early afternoon and
      decline in late afternoon and early evening. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557327
TI  - Energy intake and energy expenditure in the elderly.
AB  - This review briefly examines the effects of aging on resting metabolic rate,
      thermic effect of a meal, and the energy expenditure of physical activity.
      Thereafter, the effects of advancing age on total daily energy expenditure as
      assessed from doubly labeled water studies are examined. The paucity of studies
      in this area and the small sample sizes preclude definitive conclusions regarding
      daily energy requirements in the elderly. The rationale underlying measurement of
      daily energy expenditure to determine energy requirements in older individuals is
      presented. Evidence is provided that older individuals frequently underreport
      daily energy intake, and this underreporting is more pronounced in older women
      with higher levels of body fat. The effects of aerobic and resistance training on
      resting metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure are then examined. Both
      forms of training increase resting metabolic rate due to increases in sympathetic
      nervous system activity. Lastly, procedures to normalize body size dependent data
      are discussed. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557328
TI  - The biology of everyday living.
AB  - The need for documenting details of lifestyle is argued, particularly from the
      results of studying the everyday life of Oxfordshire villagers. Relationships
      between lifestyle and well-being are sought through examination of
      characteristics of sleep and stress hormone excretion. It is concluded that
      although epinephrine and cortisol outputs show many relationships with lifestyle
      in various populations, they are poor measures of well-being. Sleep latency,
      however, seems to be a component of well-being. Well-being is seen as an
      important component of health and thus of the quality-of-life history. (c) 1996
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557329
TI  - Measurement and interpretation issues in laboratory and field studies of energy
      expenditure.
AB  - The methods for measuring energy expenditure in the laboratory and the field are
      described and critically appraised and the criteria for reliable and valid
      measurements identified. Variation and adaptation in the energy costs of
      activities and the total daily energy expenditure are considered in the context
      of discriminating between what is variation and adaptation and what is honest
      error. This involves issues of comparative energetics and standardization and
      oxygen uptake kinetics, which are frequently neglected or ignored. The energetics
      of physical work, where many of the problems arise, are examined. It is
      technically feasible to measure energy expenditure with high accuracy, but the
      methods required, calorimeter rooms and doubly labelled water, are not widely
      available or applicable. The field methods, the factorial method of diary record
      of activities and their energy costs, and the heart rate methods are of
      acceptable accuracy for groups but less so for individuals. When using energy
      costs from the literature, as has been common in human biology, several problems
      arise. The sample sizes are small and of unknown provenance, and there is no
      information on variability or on whether the values are based on continuous or
      intermittent work. The problem of how to allow for differences in size and
      composition has been tackled with convenience rather than concepts. It is
      recommended that isometric scaling, using kcal/kg, be avoided and allometric
      scaling by, e.g., analysis of covariance, be used to remove the effects of size
      and composition. In investigations of variation and adaptation in the efficiency
      of work, the effects of oxygen uptake kinetics and of anaerobic metabolism must
      be considered. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28557330
TI  - Predicting the Solvent Effect on Esterification Kinetics.
AB  - It is well known that solvents influence reaction kinetics. The classical
      concentration-based kinetic modeling is unable to describe these effects. In this
      work, the reaction kinetics was studied for the esterifications of acetic acid
      and propionic acid with ethanol at 303.15 K. It was found that the reactant ratio
      as well as the applied solvents (acetonitrile, tetrahydrofurane,
      dimethylformamide) significantly affect the reaction rate. The thermodynamic
      model PC-SAFT was applied to account for the interactions between the reacting
      species and the solvents via activity coefficients. This allowed the
      identification of solvent-independent kinetic constants and the prediction of the
      solvent effect on reaction kinetics in almost quantitative agreement with
      experimental data. The presented approach shows the importance of taking into
      account thermodynamic non-idealities and significantly reduces experimental
      effort for finding the best solvent candidate for a given target reaction.

PMID- 28557331
TI  - Understanding the Effect of Surface Chemistry of Mesoporous Silica Nanorods on
      Their Vaccine Adjuvant Potency.
AB  - Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are reported as adjuvants in nanovaccines in
      generating robust antigen-specific immunity. However, the effect of surface
      chemistry in initiating and modulating the immune response remains largely
      unexplored. In this study, mesoporous silica nanorods (MSNRs) are modified with
      ?NH2 and ?C18 groups to investigate the influence of surface functional groups
      (?OH, ?NH2 , and ?C18 ) on their adjuvant efficacy. It is found that compared to
      ?OH and ?NH2 groups, the hydrophobic ?C18 modification significantly enhances
      antigen uptake by antigen presenting cells and endosomal-lysosomal escape in
      vitro, dendritic cells, and macrophages maturation ex vivo, and elicits secretion
      of interferon-gamma level and antibody response in immunized mice. Moreover, bare
      MSNR and MSNR?NH2 exhibit T-helper 2 biased immune response, while MSNR?C18 shows
      a T-helper 1 biased immune response. These findings suggest that the surface
      chemistry of nanostructured adjuvants has profound impact on the immune response,
      which provides useful guidance for the design of effective nanomaterial based
      vaccines.

PMID- 28557332
TI  - Impact of contrast exposure from computed tomography angiography on acute kidney
      injury after neonatal cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication after
      cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP) for cardiac surgery in neonates. It is unclear if
      exposure to computed tomography angiography (CTA) in the preoperative period
      increases the risk of AKI. We hypothesized a short interval between CTA and CPB
      surgery would be associated with higher rates of AKI in infants. DESIGN: In this
      single center retrospective review of patients between 2012 and 2015, neonates
      less than one month old were analyzed if they had CTA prior to cardiac surgery
      with CPB. Baseline, demographic, fluid balance, and laboratory data was analyzed.
      AKI was staged according to KDIGO criteria. RESULTS: Fifty-six neonates were
      analyzed. AKI developed in 42 (75%) of patients; severe AKI (KDIGO stages 2 and
      3) occurred in 18 (32%). Patient characteristics were similar at baseline and at
      time of CTA between those with and without severe AKI. Patients with severe AKI
      had longer CPB time, lower postoperative urine output, higher peak serum
      creatinine, and longer hospital length of stay. When considering intervals
      between CTA and CPB surgery <=1 day (n = 19), <=3 days (n = 28), and >3 days (n =
      28); there was no difference in AKI incidence nor postoperative outcomes among
      these three interval cohorts. CONCLUSION: Routine exposure to CTA and CPB surgery
      in close succession does not appear to increase the risk of AKI after neonatal
      cardiac surgery. Though other risks need to be weighed (eg, sedation, intubation,
      radiation exposure), this result may enable more liberal utilization of CTA for
      preoperative surgical planning of congenital heart operations in patients with
      unclear or complex anatomy.

PMID- 28557333
TI  - Controlling the alpha/gamma-Reactivity of Vinylogous Ketone Enolates in
      Organocatalytic Enantioselective Michael Reactions.
AB  - The first regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselective direct Michael reaction of
      beta,gamma-unsaturated ketones with nitroolefins is enabled by Bronsted
      base/hydrogen-bonding bifunctional catalysis. A squaramide-substituted tertiary
      amine catalyzes the reaction of a broad range of beta,gamma-unsaturated ketones
      to proceed at the alpha-site exclusively, giving rise to adducts with two
      consecutive tertiary carbon stereocenters in diastereomeric ratios of up to >20:1
      and enantioselectivities generally in the 90-98 % ee range.

PMID- 28557335
TI  - Identification, evolution and functional characterization of two Zn CDF-family
      transporters of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus luteus.
AB  - Two genes, SlZnT1 and SlZnT2, encoding Cation Diffusion Facilitator (CDF) family
      transporters were isolated from Suillus luteus mycelium by genome walking. Both
      gene models are very similar and phylogenetic analysis indicates that they are
      most likely the result of a recent gene duplication event. Comparative sequence
      analysis of the deduced proteins predicts them to be Zn transporters. This
      function was confirmed by functional analysis in yeast for SlZnT1. SlZnT1 was
      able to restore growth of the highly Zn sensitive yeast mutant Deltazrc1 and
      localized to the vacuolar membrane. Transformation of Deltazrc1 yeast cells with
      SlZnT1 resulted in an increased accumulation of Zn compared to empty vector
      transformed Deltazrc1 yeast cells and equals Zn accumulation in wild type yeast
      cells. We were not able to express functional SlZnT2 in yeast. In S. luteus, both
      SlZnT genes are constitutively expressed whatever the external Zn concentrations.
      A labile Zn pool was detected in the vacuoles of S. luteus free-living mycelium.
      Therefore we conclude that SlZnT1 is indispensable for maintenance of Zn
      homeostasis by transporting excess Zn into the vacuole.

PMID- 28557334
TI  - Pleiotrophin, a target of miR-384, promotes proliferation, metastasis and
      lipogenesis in HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection plays a crucial role and is a major cause of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China. microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key
      players in hepatic steatosis and carcinogenesis. We found that down-regulation of
      miR-384 expression was a common event in HCC, especially HBV-related HCC.
      However, the possible function of miR-384 in HBV-related HCC remains unclear. The
      oncogene pleiotrophin (PTN) was a target of miR-384. HBx inhibited miR-384,
      increasing PTN expression. The PTN receptor N-syndecan was highly expressed in
      HCC. PTN induced by HBx acted as a growth factor via N-syndecan on hepatocytes
      and further promoted cell proliferation, metastasis and lipogenesis. PTN up
      regulated sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c) through the N
      syndecan/PI3K/Akt/mTORC1 pathway and the expression of lipogenic genes, including
      fatty acid synthesis (FAS). PTN-mediated de novo lipid synthesis played an
      important role in HCC proliferation and metastasis. PI3K/AKT and an mTORC1
      inhibitor diminished PTN-induced proliferation, metastasis and lipogenesis. Taken
      together, these data strongly suggest that the dysregulation of miR-384 could
      play a crucial role in HBV related to HCC, and the target gene of miR-384, PTN,
      represents a new potential therapeutic target for the prevention of hepatic
      steatosis and further progression to HCC after chronic HBV infection.

PMID- 28557337
TI  - A reappraisal of the proposed metabolic and antioxidant actions of butylated
      hydroxytoluene (BHT) in the liver.
AB  - Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was investigated for its metabolic actions in the
      perfused rat liver. Contrary to what is expected from an uncoupler, BHT up to 500
      MUM did not stimulate oxygen uptake nor did it inhibit gluconeogenesis from
      lactate. Transformation of fructose into glucose was also not affected by BHT;
      only lactate production was slightly increased at the concentration of 100 MUM.
      The uncoupling effect of BHT in isolated mitochondria was confirmed, but only at
      concentrations above 10 MUM; uncoupling at lower concentrations, 10-9 to 10-6  M,
      could not be confirmed. BHT, however, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      production in isolated mitochondria, starting at the concentration of 10-8  M.
      This is the opposite of what can be expected from a compound with proven ex vivo
      antioxidant action. One cannot exclude the possibility that, in mitochondria,
      stimulation of ROS production rather than uncoupling could be the most
      significant effect of BHT.

PMID- 28557336
TI  - In response to Sharing different perspectives to understand asbestos-induced
      carcinogenesis: A comment to Jiang et al. (2016) by Alessandro Francesco
      Gualtieri (2017).

PMID- 28557339
TI  - Direct Zinc(II)-Catalyzed Enantioconvergent Additions of Terminal Alkynes to
      alpha-Keto Esters.
AB  - The addition of terminal alkynes to racemic beta-stereogenic alpha-keto esters
      was achieved in high levels of stereoselectivity, affording versatile tertiary
      propargylic alcohols containing two stereocenters. This environmentally benign
      enantioconvergent reaction proceeds with perfect atom economy, requires no
      solvent, and is catalyzed by a non-toxic zinc salt. The alkyne moiety can be
      leveraged in downstream transformations including hydrogenation to the
      corresponding saturated tertiary alcohol, which represents the product of a
      formal enantioconvergent aliphatic nucleophile addition.

PMID- 28557338
TI  - Coronary sinus lead delay index for optimization of coronary sinus lead
      placement.
AB  - AIM: Optimization of coronary sinus (CS) lead position to the latest activated
      left ventricular (LV) area is important to increase cardiac resynchronization
      therapy (CRT) response. We aimed to detect the relationship between coronary
      sinus lead delay index (CSDI) and echocardiographic, electrocardiographic
      response to CRT treatment. METHODS: We prospectively included 137 consecutive
      patients with heart failure (HF) diagnosis, QRS >= 120 ms, left bundle branch
      block (LBBB), New York Heart Association score (NYHA) II-IV, LV ejection fraction
      (LVEF) <35% and scheduled for CRT (84 male, 53 female; mean age 65.1 +/- 10.1
      years). Echocardiographic CRT response was defined as >=15% reduction in LV end
      systolic volume (LVESV). CS lead sensing delay was calculated as the time
      interval from the onset of surface QRS wave to the onset of depolarization wave
      recorded from the CS lead by using the CS pacing lead as a bipolar electrode.
      CSDI was calculated by dividing the CS lead sensing delay by the QRS duration.
      RESULTS: LVESV reduction was associated with baseline QRS width (r = .257, p =
      .002), QRS narrowing (r = .396, p < .001), CSDI (r = .357, p < .001), and NT
      proBNP (r = -0.213, p = .022) in bivariate analysis. In logistic regression
      analysis, CSDI was found to be only independent parameter for predicting
      significant LVESV reduction (Beta = 0.318, p < .001). CSDI was also found to be
      significantly associated with LVEF increase (r = .244, p = .004) and QRS
      narrowing (r = .178, p = .046). CONCLUSION: CSDI may be used as a marker to
      predict the favorable response to CRT. It may be useful to integrate CSDI to CRT
      implantation procedure in order to minimize nonresponders.

PMID- 28557341
TI  - Over-expression of mutated ZmDA1 or ZmDAR1 gene improves maize kernel yield by
      enhancing starch synthesis.
AB  - Grain weight and grain number are important crop yield determinants. DA1 and DAR1
      are the ubiquitin receptors that function as the negative regulators of cell
      proliferation during development in Arabidopsis. An arginine to lysine mutant at
      amino acid site 358 could lead to the da1-1 phenotype, which results in an
      increased organ size and larger seeds. In this study, the mutated ZmDA1 (Zmda1)
      and mutated ZmDAR1 (Zmdar1) driven by the maize ubiquitin promoter were
      separately introduced into maize elite inbred line DH4866. The grain yield of the
      transgenic plants was 15% greater than that of the wild-type in 3 years of field
      trials due to improvements in the grain number, weight and starch content.
      Interestingly, the over-expression of Zmda1 and Zmdar1 promoted kernel
      development, resulting in a more developed basal endosperm transfer cell layer
      (BETL) than WT and enhanced expression of starch synthase genes. This study
      suggests that the over-expression of the mutated ZmDA1 or ZmDAR1 genes improves
      the sugar imports into the sink organ and starch synthesis in maize kernels.

PMID- 28557343
TI  - Progression of early repolarization patterns at a four year follow-up in a female
      flight crew population: Implications for aviation medicine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To assess the prevalence, the appearance, and the distribution, as
      well as the fluctuation over time of early repolarization patterns after four
      years in a female population derived from the French aviation sector. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective longitudinal study from 1998 to 2010 of a population of
      female employees who received a full clinical examination and an
      electrocardiogram (ECG) upon their recruitment and after a period of four years.
      RESULTS: A total of 306 women were included (average of 25.87 +/- 3.3 years of
      age). The prevalence of early repolarization was 9.2%. The most common appearance
      was J-point slurring for 64.3% (i.e. 20/28 subjects) that occurred in the
      inferior leads for 28.6% (i.e. 8/28 subjects). After four years, the prevalence
      was 7.5%, with a regression of this aspect in five of the subjects. There were no
      changes in the ECG in terms of the distribution and the appearance among the 23
      subjects for whom the aspect persisted. Over the course of this four year period
      all of the subjects remained asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: Early repolarization in
      this largely physically inactive female population was common, and it fluctuated
      over time. At present, no particular restrictions can be placed on asymptomatic
      flight crew who exhibit this feature in the absence of a prior medical history
      for heart disease.

PMID- 28557340
TI  - TrkA is a binding partner of NPM-ALK that promotes the survival of ALK+ T-cell
      lymphoma.
AB  - Nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase-expressing (NPM-ALK+ ) T-cell lymphoma
      is an aggressive neoplasm that is more commonly seen in children and young
      adults. The pathogenesis of NPM-ALK+ T-cell lymphoma is not completely
      understood. Wild-type ALK is a receptor tyrosine kinase that is physiologically
      expressed in neural tissues during early stages of human development, which
      suggests that ALK may interact with neurotrophic factors. The aberrant expression
      of NPM-ALK results from a translocation between the ALK gene on chromosome 2p23
      and the NPM gene on chromosome 5q35. The nerve growth factor (NGF) is the first
      neurotrophic factor attributed to non-neural functions including cancer cell
      survival, proliferation, and metastasis. These functions are primarily mediated
      through the tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA). The expression and role of
      NGF/TrkA in NPM-ALK+ T-cell lymphoma are not known. In this study, we tested the
      hypothesis that TrkA signaling is upregulated and sustains the survival of this
      lymphoma. Our data illustrate that TrkA and NGF are expressed in five NPM-ALK+ T
      cell lymphoma cell lines and TrkA is expressed in 11 of 13 primary lymphoma
      tumors from patients. In addition, we found evidence to support that NPM-ALK and
      TrkA functionally interact. A selective TrkA inhibitor induced apoptosis and
      decreased cell viability, proliferation, and colony formation of NPM-ALK+ T-cell
      lymphoma cell lines. These effects were associated with downregulation of cell
      survival regulatory proteins. Similar results were also observed using specific
      knockdown of TrkA in NPM-ALK+ T-cell lymphoma cells by siRNA. Importantly, the
      inhibition of TrkA signaling was associated with antitumor effects in vivo,
      because tumor xenografts in mice regressed and the mice exhibited improved
      survival. In conclusion, TrkA plays an important role in the pathogenesis of NPM
      ALK+ T-cell lymphoma, and therefore, targeting TrkA signaling may represent a
      novel approach to eradicate this aggressive neoplasm.

PMID- 28557342
TI  - Morphologic characterization of residual DNA methylation in the gastric mucosa
      after Helicobacter pylori eradication.
AB  - Residual DNA methylation in the gastric mucosa after Helicobacter pylori (H.
      pylori) eradication may have a role in gastric carcinogenesis. We examined the
      association between morphologic features and promoter methylation status of non
      neoplastic gastric mucosa especially after H. pylori eradication. A total of 140
      gastric specimens from 99 participants who had at least 6 months of post
      eradication period were examined. The magnifying narrow-band imaging (NBI)
      endoscopic feature of gastric mucosa was divided into two types: restored-small,
      round pits, accompanied with honeycomb-like subepithelial capillary networks;
      atrophic-well-demarcated oval or tubulovillous pits with clearly visible coiled
      or wavy vessels. Methylation status of five candidate genes (MYOD1, SLC16A12,
      IGF2, RORA, and PRDM5) were examined by bisulfite pyrosequencing. The atrophic
      type, informative endoscopic features of intestinal metaplasia, demonstrated
      higher methylation levels in all five genes compared to the restored type (all P
      < 0.0001). In the restored type, methylation levels were significantly lower
      among the samples with longer post-eradication period (for all genes, P <
      0.0001), which was not observed in atrophic type (for all genes, P > 0.1).
      Multivariate analysis demonstrated that atrophic type or presence of intestinal
      held an independent factor for hyper methylation (odds ratio: 24.69, 95%
      confidence interval: 6.95-87.76, P < 0.0001). The atrophic type by the magnifying
      NBI and presence of intestinal metaplasia are the morphologic characteristics of
      residual DNA methylation of after H. pylori eradication, regardless of the post
      eradication period and it might be considered as the epigenetic irreversible
      point with H. pylori eradication.

PMID- 28557344
TI  - Transseptal transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve: A step by step guide from
      preprocedural planning to postprocedural care.
AB  - Transcatheter mitral valve replacement has been successfully performed with the
      use of aortic transcatheter heart valves in hundreds of patients worldwide with
      severe dysfunction of a degenerated mitral bioprosthesis and high surgical risk
      for repeat operation. The delivery approach in the vast majority of the mitral
      valve-in-valve procedures has been transapical. Although the transseptal approach
      may be more technically challenging, it is less invasive and may be preferred by
      patients. Data from case series and a large international registry suggest that
      patients treated with transseptal mitral valve-in-valve have faster recovery,
      more improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction and possibly lower
      mortality compared with patients treated with transapical approach. A prospective
      clinical trial, the MITRAL trial (Mitral Implantation of TRAnscatheter vaLves) is
      evaluating the safety and feasibility of transvenous transseptal mitral valve-in
      valve. The experience from this trial has allowed us to improve our procedural
      approach. In anticipation of a wider adoption of the transseptal approach for
      mitral valve-in-valve, we describe our current method step-by-step from planning
      the procedure through postprocedural management. This is an evolving technique
      that has changed with experience and the transition to newer generation
      transcatheter heart valve devices. We discuss the use of cardiac computed
      tomography for planning the procedure including transseptal puncture and valve
      size selection, provide procedural and technical tips, and discuss postprocedural
      care.

PMID- 28557345
TI  - Maintaining quality of care for very influential patients.

PMID- 28557346
TI  - Do the nodules detected in chest X-rays always indicate a disease of lung
      parenchyma?

PMID- 28557347
TI  - In vitro site-specific recombination mediated by the tyrosine recombinase XerA of
      Thermoplasma acidophilum.
AB  - In organisms with circular chromosomes, such as bacteria and archaea, an odd
      number of homologous recombination events can generate a chromosome dimer. Such
      chromosome dimers cannot be segregated unless they are converted to monomers
      before cell division. In Escherichia coli, dimer-to-monomer conversion is
      mediated by the paralogous XerC and XerD recombinases at a specific dif site in
      the replication termination region. Dimer resolution requires the highly
      conserved cell division protein/chromosome translocase FtsK, and this site
      specific chromosome resolution system is present or predicted in most bacteria.
      However, most archaea have only XerA, a homologue of the bacterial XerC/D
      proteins, but no homologues of FtsK. In addition, the molecular mechanism of XerA
      mediated chromosome resolution in archaea has been less thoroughly elucidated
      than those of the corresponding bacterial systems. In this study, we identified
      two XerA-binding sites (dif1 and dif2) in the Thermoplasma acidophilum
      chromosome. In vitro site-specific recombination assays showed that dif2, but not
      dif1, serves as a target site for XerA-mediated chromosome resolution. Mutational
      analysis indicated that not only the core consensus sequence of dif2, but also
      its flanking regions play important roles in the recognition and recombination
      reactions mediated by XerA.

PMID- 28557348
TI  - The toxic mode of action of cyclic lipodepsipeptide fusaricidins, produced by
      Paenibacillus polymyxa, toward mammalian cells.
AB  - AIMS: Toxigenic strains of Paenibacillus polymyxa were isolated from buildings
      connected with the symptoms of ill health. Our aim was to identify the toxic
      compounds of Paenibacillus polymyxa and to describe their toxic actions. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: The toxins of Paenibacillus polymyxa were purified and analysed by
      HPLC and mass spectrometry. Toxic fusaricidins A and B, and LI-F05a with mass
      ions at m/z 883.7, 897.6 and 897.6, respectively, were found. The cytotoxicity of
      purified fusaricidins A and B was measured using boar sperm, porcine tubular
      kidney epithelial cells and murine fibroblasts. The ion channel forming
      properties of fusaricidins were studied using the black lipid membrane (BLM)
      technique. Fusaricidins A and B depolarized the mitochondria of boar sperm,
      porcine tubular kidney epithelial cells and murine fibroblasts at concentrations
      of 0.5-1 MUg ml-1 and caused nuclear fragmentation and induced apoptosis at
      concentrations of 2.5-5 MUg ml-1 . Furthermore, fusaricidins A and B induced K+
      permeating single channels. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that fusaricidins were
      toxic to mitochondria and induced apoptosis in mammalian cells. It was proposed
      that the observed toxicity of fusaricidins is due their ion channel forming
      properties. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This paper revealed, for the
      first time, the mode of action of Paenibacillus polymyxa fusaricidins toxins
      towards mammalian cells. Fusaricidins, due to their potassium ionophoricity and
      mitochondria depolarizing impacts, may have contributed to the health damage
      observed at sites where the producer strains were isolated at high density.

PMID- 28557349
TI  - Synthesis and Deprotection of Biodegradably and Thermally Protected Dinucleoside
      2',5'-Monophosphate Prodrug Model of 2-5A.
AB  - Protected dinucleoside-2',5'-monophosphate has been prepared to develop a prodrug
      strategy for 2-5A. The removal of enzymatically and thermally labile 4
      (acetylthio)-2-(ethoxycarbonyl)-3-oxo-2-methylbutyl phosphate protecting group
      and enzymatically labile 3'-O-pivaloyloxymethyl group was followed at pH 7.5 and
      37  degrees C by HPLC from the fully protected dimeric adenosine-2',5'
      monophosphate 1 used as a model compound for 2-5A. The desired unprotected 2',3'
      O-isopropylideneadenosine-2',5'-monophosphate (9) was observed to accumulate as a
      major product. Neither the competitive isomerization of 2',5'- to a 3',5'-linkage
      nor the P-O5' bond cleavage was detected. The phosphate protecting group was
      removed faster than the 3'-O-protection and, hence, the attack of the
      neighbouring 3'-OH on phosphotriester moiety did not take place.

PMID- 28557350
TI  - Interactive effects of seasonal drought and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide
      concentration on prokaryotic rhizosphere communities.
AB  - Global change models indicate that rainfall patterns are likely to shift towards
      more extreme events concurrent with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide
      concentration ([CO2 ]). Both changes in [CO2 ] and rainfall regime are known to
      impact above- and belowground communities, but the interactive effects of these
      global change drivers have not been well explored, particularly belowground. In
      this experimental study, we examined the effects of elevated [CO2 ] (ambient +
      240 ppm; [eCO2 ]) and changes in rainfall patterns (seasonal drought) on soil
      microbial communities associated with forest ecosystems. Our results show that
      bacterial and archaeal communities are highly resistant to seasonal drought under
      ambient [CO2 ]. However, substantial taxa specific responses to seasonal drought
      were observed at [eCO2 ], suggesting that [eCO2 ] compromise the resistance of
      microbial communities to extreme events. Within the microbial community we were
      able to identify three types of taxa specific responses to drought: tolerance,
      resilience and sensitivity that contributed to this pattern. All taxa were
      tolerant to seasonal drought at [aCO2 ], whereas resilience and sensitivity to
      seasonal drought were much greater in [eCO2 ]. These results provide strong
      evidence that [eCO2 ] moderates soil microbial community responses to drought in
      forests, with potential implications for their long-term persistence and
      ecosystem functioning.

PMID- 28557351
TI  - The highly pleiotropic gene SLC39A8 as an opportunity to gain insight into the
      molecular pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
AB  - There is a long way from the initial discovery of a genome-wide significant
      signal to mechanistic understanding of the association. Identification of the
      gene and causal polymorphism usually requires an extensive additional effort. The
      schizophrenia genome-wide significant locus at 4q24 may be a rare exception to
      this pattern. As discussed in this review, the association at this locus is most
      probably driven by a functional missense variant at the metal cations transporter
      SLC39A8. The variant, rs13107325, is almost exclusive of European populations and
      is one of the most pleiotropic variants of the genome, being associated at genome
      wide significant level with several additional traits, such as body mass index,
      Crohn's disease, blood pressure related-traits, and serum levels of manganese, N
      terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and HDL-cholesterol. SLC39A8 seems to be
      subject to recent natural selection in Europeans. It is almost ubiquitously
      expressed and its physiological role is beginning to be elucidated, mainly in
      relation to immunity. This manuscript presents arguments in favor of the
      rs13107325 variant as the functional variant responsible for the association of
      this locus with schizophrenia, reviews the genetic associations with this gene,
      the evidences of natural selection on the gene, and the known aspects about its
      structure and physiological functions. Finally, some hypotheses about putative
      mechanisms for its association with schizophrenia are presented based on this
      knowledge, including impaired immunity/inflammation, interference with
      glutamatergic neurotransmission, homeostasis of essential metals in brain, such
      as iron, zinc or manganese, or neurotoxicity by heavy metals, such as cadmium or
      lead.

PMID- 28557352
TI  - Effect of N-acetylcysteine on motivation, seeking and relapse to ethanol self
      administration.
AB  - Alcohol use disorder is a chronic and highly relapsing disorder, characterized by
      a loss of control over alcohol consumption and craving. Several studies suggest a
      key role of glutamate in this disorder. In recent years, the modulation of
      cystine/glutamate exchange via the xc- system has emerged as a new therapeutic
      alternative for reducing the excitatory glutamatergic transmission observed after
      ethanol self-administration in both rats and humans. The objective of this study
      was to determine whether a treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a cystine
      prodrug, could reduce ethanol self-administration, ethanol-seeking behavior and
      reacquisition of ethanol self-administration. Male Long Evans rats were trained
      to self-administer 20 percent ethanol in operant cages for several weeks. Once
      the consumption surpassed 1 g of ethanol/kg body weight/15 minutes, the effect of
      an acute intraperitoneal injection of NAC (0, 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg) 1 hour before
      the beginning of each test was evaluated on different aspects of the operant self
      administration behavior. We demonstrated antimotivational properties of NAC (100
      mg/kg), as ethanol-reinforced responding was reduced in a fixed ratio (-35
      percent) and in a progressive ratio schedule (-81 percent). NAC also reduced
      ethanol-seeking behavior (-77 percent) evaluated as extinction responding in a
      single extinction session. NAC was able to reduce reacquisition in rats that were
      abstinent for 17 days, while NAC had no effect on ethanol relapse in rats
      previously exposed to six extinction sessions. Overall, our results demonstrate
      that NAC limits motivation, seeking behavior and reacquisition in rats, making it
      a potential new treatment for the maintenance of abstinence.

PMID- 28557354
TI  - Modeling liver electrical conductivity during hypertonic injection.
AB  - Metastases in the liver frequently grow as scattered tumor nodules that neither
      can be removed by surgical resection nor focally ablated. Previously, we have
      proposed a novel technique based on irreversible electroporation that may be able
      to simultaneously treat all nodules in the liver while sparing healthy tissue.
      The proposed technique requires increasing the electrical conductivity of healthy
      liver by injecting a hypersaline solution through the portal vein. Aiming to
      assess the capability of increasing the global conductivity of the liver by means
      of hypersaline fluids, here, it is presented a mathematical model that estimates
      the NaCl distribution within the liver and the resulting conductivity change. The
      model fuses well-established compartmental pharmacokinetic models of the organ
      with saline injection models used for resuscitation treatments, and it considers
      changes in sinusoidal blood viscosity because of the hypertonicity of the
      solution. Here, it is also described a pilot experimental study in pigs in which
      different volumes of NaCl 20% (from 100 to 200 mL) were injected through the
      portal vein at different flow rates (from 53 to 171 mL/minute). The in vivo
      conductivity results fit those obtained by the model, both quantitatively and
      qualitatively, being able to predict the maximum conductivity with a 14.6%
      average relative error. The maximum conductivity value was 0.44 second/m, which
      corresponds to increasing 4 times the mean basal conductivity (0.11 second/m).
      The results suggest that the presented model is well suited for predicting on
      liver conductivity changes during hypertonic saline injection.

PMID- 28557353
TI  - Generation of carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 reporter cell lines for the
      assessment of ammonia metabolism.
AB  - Both primary hepatocytes and stem cells-derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) are
      major sources for bioartificial liver (BAL). Maintenance of hepatocellular
      functions and induction of functional maturity of HLCs are critical for BAL's
      support effect. It remains difficult to assess and improve detoxification
      functions inherent to hepatocytes, including ammonia clearance. Here, we aim to
      assess ammonia metabolism and identify ammonia detoxification enhancer by
      developing an imaging strategy. In hepatoma cell line HepG2, and immortalized
      hepatic cell line LO2, carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) gene, the first
      enzyme of ammonia-eliminating urea cycle, was labelled with fluorescence protein
      via CRISPR/Cas9 system. With the reporter-based screening approach, cellular
      detoxification enhancers were selected among a collection of 182 small molecules.
      In both CPS1 reporter cell lines, the fluorescence intensity is positively
      correlated with cellular CPS1 mRNA expression, ammonia elimination and secreted
      urea, and reflected ammonia detoxification in a dose-dependent manner.
      Surprisingly, high-level CPS1 reporter clones also reserved many other critical
      hepatocellular functions, for example albumin secretion and cytochrome 450
      metabolic functions. Sodium phenylbutyrate and resveratrol were identified to
      enhance metabolism-related gene expression and liver-enriched transcription
      factors C/EBPalpha, HNF4alpha. In conclusion, the CPS1-reporter system provides
      an economic and effective platform for assessment of cellular metabolic function
      and high-throughput identification of chemical compounds that improve
      detoxification activities in hepatic lineage cells.

PMID- 28557355
TI  - Screening methods for obstructive sleep apnoea in severely obese pregnant women.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is an often-overlooked diagnosis, more prevalent
      in the obese population. Screening method accuracy, uptake and hence diagnosis is
      variable. There is limited data available regarding the obese pregnant
      population; however, many studies highlight potential risks of apnoeic episodes
      to mother and foetus, including hypertension, diabetes and preeclampsia. A total
      of 162 women with a body mass index (BMI) >= 35 were recruited from a tertiary
      referral hospital in the northwest of England. They were invited to attend three
      research antenatal clinics, completing an Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS)
      questionnaire at each visit. A monitor measuring the apnoea hypopnoea index (AHI)
      was offered at the second visit. Data taken from consent forms, hospital notes
      and hospital computer records were collated and anonymized prior to statistical
      analysis. A total of 12.1% of women had an ESS score of >10, suggesting possible
      OSA. Rates increased throughout pregnancy, although unfortunately, the attrition
      rate was high; 29.0% of women used the RUSleeping (RUS) meter, and only one
      (2.1%) met pre-specified criteria for OSA (AHI >= 15). This individual had OSA
      categorized as severe and underwent investigations for preeclampsia, eventually
      delivering by emergency caesarean section due to foetal distress. The accuracy of
      the ESS questionnaire, particularly the RUS monitor, to screen for OSA in the
      pregnant population remains unclear. Further research on a larger sample size
      using more user-friendly technology to confidently measure AHI would be
      beneficial. There are currently no guidelines regarding screening for OSA in the
      obese pregnant population, yet risks to both mother and foetus are well
      researched.

PMID- 28557356
TI  - Enabling Fast Pseudo-2D NMR Spectral Acquisition for Broadband Homonuclear
      Decoupling: The EXACT NMR Approach.
AB  - Pseudo-2D NMR spectroscopy provides a means of acquiring broadband homonuclear
      decoupled spectra useful for structural characterization of complex molecules.
      However, data points concatenated in the direct dimension in these experiments
      are acquired over incremented time periods-leading to long acquisition times with
      no sensitivity benefits due to the absence of signal averaging between scans.
      Herein, the concept of EXACT NMR spectroscopy ("burst" non-uniform sampling of
      data points) is explored in pseudo-2D experiments with results revealing little
      or no loss in spectral quality or signal intensity despite the acceleration of
      acquisition-up to 400 % in some cases.

PMID- 28557358
TI  - Evidence for Central Sensitization in Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders:
      A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Several authors have evaluated different pain measurements, including
      quantitative sensory testing (QST), temporal summation (TS), and conditioned pain
      modulation (CPM) in order to determine the presence of central sensitization (CS)
      and its influence on patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Since there
      are no convincing studies about this topic, the purpose of this study was to
      conduct a review of the studies involving CS-related measures in TMD patients.
      METHODS: A meta-analysis of case-control and cohort/cross sectional studies was
      conducted. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)
      were calculated for relevant QST outcomes and pooled in a meta-analysis using the
      random effects model. Twenty-two studies (eleven case-control and eleven cross
      sectional studies) met the inclusion criteria; eight were included in the meta
      analysis (five cross-sectional and three case-control). Patients with TMD had
      decreased pressure pain thresholds in both trigeminal (five studies; n = 1,985;
      SMD = -1.55, 95% CI -2.23 to -0.77; P < 0.01) and remote areas (five studies; n =
      1,985; SMD = -1.92, 95% CI -2.95 to -0.89; P < 0.01). When analyzing for thermal
      hyperalgesia (hot and cold pain thresholds), differences were not found in
      trigeminal areas or remote areas in patients with TMD. The TS qualitative
      analysis showed strong evidence of spinal hyperexcitability for mechanically
      evoked pain. CONCLUSION: These meta-analyses support the existence of differences
      in widespread pressure pain sensitivity in patients with TMD when compared with
      asymptomatic subjects. Spinal and central hyperexcitability can be found in TMD
      patients as shown by an increase in mechanical TS.

PMID- 28557357
TI  - Imaging Endogenous Metal Ions in Living Cells Using a DNAzyme-Catalytic Hairpin
      Assembly Probe.
AB  - DNAzymes are a promising platform for metal ion detection, and a few DNAzyme
      based sensors have been reported to detect metal ions inside cells. However,
      these methods required an influx of metal ions to increase their concentrations
      for detection. To address this major issue, the design of a catalytic hairpin
      assembly (CHA) reaction to amplify the signal from photocaged Na+ -specific
      DNAzyme to detect endogenous Na+ inside cells is reported. Upon light activation
      and in the presence of Na+ , the NaA43 DNAzyme cleaves its substrate strand and
      releases a product strand, which becomes an initiator that trigger the subsequent
      CHA amplification reaction. This strategy allows detection of endogenous Na+
      inside cells, which has been demonstrated by both fluorescent imaging of
      individual cells and flow cytometry of the whole cell population. This method can
      be generally applied to detect other endogenous metal ions and thus contribute to
      deeper understanding of the role of metal ions in biological systems.

PMID- 28557359
TI  - Aromatic-Imide-Based Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials for
      Highly Efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes.
AB  - Aromatic-imide-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials
      with a twisted donor-acceptor-donor skeleton were efficiently synthesized and
      exhibited excellent thermal stability and high photoluminescence quantum yields.
      The small DeltaEST value (<0.1 eV) along with the clear temperature-dependent
      delayed component of their transient photoluminescence (PL) spectra demonstrated
      their excellent TADF properties. Moreover, the performance of organic light
      emitting diodes in which TADF materials AI-Cz and AI-TBCz were used as dopants
      were outstanding, with external quantum efficiencies up to 23.2 and 21.1 %,
      respectively.

PMID- 28557360
TI  - Success of capture of toads improved by manipulating acoustic characteristics of
      lures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Management of invasive vertebrates is a crucial component of
      conservation. Trapping reproductive adults is often effective for control, and
      modification of traps may greatly increase their attractiveness to such
      individuals. Cane toads (Rhinella marina) are invasive, and males use
      advertisement vocalisations to attract reproductive females. In amphibians,
      including toads, specific structural parameters of calls (e.g. dominant frequency
      and pulse rate) may be attractive to females. Some cane toad traps use an
      artificial advertisement vocalisation to attract toads. We determined whether
      variation of the call's parameters (volume, dominant frequency and pulse rate)
      could increase the capture rate of gravid females. RESULTS: Overall, traps
      equipped with loud calls (80 dB at 1 m) caught significantly more toads, and
      proportionally more gravid females, than traps with quiet calls (60 dB at 1 m),
      and traps with low dominant frequency calls caught more gravid females than traps
      with median frequency calls. Traps with high pulse rate calls attracted more
      females than traps with low pulse rate calls. Approximately 91% of the females
      trapped using a low frequency and high pulse rate combination call were gravid,
      whereas in traps using a call with population median parameters only
      approximately 75% of captured females were gravid. CONCLUSION: Calls that
      indicated large-bodied males (low frequency) with high energy reserves (high
      pulse rate) are often attractive to female anurans and were effective lures for
      female toads in our study. The design of future trapping regimes should account
      for behavioural preferences of the target sex. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28557361
TI  - Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Porphyrin Based Conjugated Polymers for Ambipolar Field
      Effect Transistors.
AB  - Porphyrin-based molecules have been widely used in dye-sensitized solar cells and
      bulk heterojunction solar cells, but their application in field-effect
      transistors (FETs) is limited. In this work, two conjugated polymers based on
      diketopyrrolopyrrole and porphyrin units were developed for FETs. The polymers
      exhibit extra-low band gap with energy levels close to -4.0 eV and -5.0 eV due to
      the strong electron-donating and withdrawing ability of porphyrin and
      diketopyrrolopyrrole. With additionally high crystalline properties, ambipolar
      charge carrier transports with a hole mobility of 0.1 cm2  V-1  s-1 in FETs were
      realized in these polymers, representing the highest performance in solution
      processed FETs based on porphyrin unit.

PMID- 28557362
TI  - Longitudinal study of quality of life in advanced cancer patients on home
      parenteral nutrition.
AB  - Since there is little knowledge regarding the quality of life (QoL) of cancer
      patients on home parenteral nutrition (HPN), we planned a prospective,
      longitudinal, double-center study to investigate the changes of QoL in these
      patients. One hundred and eleven adult cancer patients who were candidates for
      HPN following the indications of the European guidelines were consecutively
      enrolled. For QoL analysis, EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaires were filled at the HPN
      start and after 1, 2, 3, and 4 months, and scores changes over time were analyzed
      according to the univariate mixed-effects linear model for repeated measures.
      Most patients had gastrointestinal cancers, were severely malnourished, and were
      in stage IV; two-thirds were still receiving oncologic treatments. Median weight
      loss over 3 months and body mass index were 11.7% and 20.7, respectively. Median
      survival was 4.7 (1-42) months; 67 and 34% of patients survived 3 and 6 months,
      respectively. Global QoL, physical functioning, role functioning, emotional
      functioning, appetite loss, and fatigue scores had a statistically significant
      trend over time (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.007, P < 0.001, P = 0.004, P =
      0.022, respectively). At the univariate analyses, the determinants significantly
      associated with changes in trend over time for physical, role, and emotional
      functioning were oncologic treatments (P < 0.001, P = 0.014, P = 0.040,
      respectively) and for appetite loss they were weight loss and Karnofsky
      performance status (P = 0.003, P = 0.023, respectively). Global QoL, physical,
      role, and emotional functioning improved during HPN even in advanced cancer
      patients on oncologic treatments.

PMID- 28557363
TI  - Localized Chemical Remodeling for Live Cell Imaging of Protein-Specific
      Glycoform.
AB  - Live cell imaging of protein-specific glycoforms is important for the elucidation
      of glycosylation mechanisms and identification of disease states. The currently
      used metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) technology permits routinely
      global chemical remodeling (GCM) for carbohydrate site of interest, but can exert
      unnecessary whole-cell scale perturbation and generate unpredictable metabolic
      efficiency issue. A localized chemical remodeling (LCM) strategy for efficient
      and reliable access to protein-specific glycoform information is reported. The
      proof-of-concept protocol developed for MUC1-specific terminal galactose/N
      acetylgalactosamine (Gal/GalNAc) combines affinity binding, off-on switchable
      catalytic activity, and proximity catalysis to create a reactive handle for
      bioorthogonal labeling and imaging. Noteworthy assay features associated with LCM
      as compared with MOE include minimum target cell perturbation, short reaction
      timeframe, effectiveness as a molecular ruler, and quantitative analysis
      capability.

PMID- 28557365
TI  - Carotid artery stenting in clinical practice depending on patient age.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The age-dependent outcome of carotid artery stenting (CAS) outside of
      randomized controlled trials is largely unknown. Therefore, we assessed acute and
      long-term results of CAS in a single-center real-world registry. METHODS: All
      symptomatic and asymptomatic patients who consecutively underwent CAS were
      enrolled into the present analysis. The population was divided into three groups
      dependent on patients' age (<65, 65-74, and >=75 years). RESULTS: Between 1999
      and 2015, a total of 878 patients (24%, <65 years; 40%, 65-74 years; and 36%,
      >=75 years) underwent CAS. The rate of the primary endpoint (30-day composite of
      death, stroke, and myocardial infarction [MACCE] plus long-term ipsilateral
      stroke) was higher in patients aged >=75 years compared to the middle-age group
      (hazard ratio [HR] 2.30, confidence interval [CI] 1.22-4.36; P = 0.001).
      Similarly, the rate of the stroke endpoint (30-day any stroke plus long-term
      ipsilateral stroke) was higher in patients aged >=75 years compared to patients
      aged 65-74 years (HR 2.03, CI 1.01-4.10; P = 0.04). There was no significant age
      dependent difference of the primary endpoint and stroke endpoint in the subset of
      asymptomatic patients. Furthermore, age had no influence on the risk of stroke
      beyond the periprocedural period. CONCLUSIONS: Patients aged >=75 years had
      poorer outcomes after CAS compared to younger patients. Importantly, age did not
      influence the outcome in asymptomatic patients and the risk for stroke beyond the
      periprocedural period.

PMID- 28557364
TI  - Supine awake oximetry as a screening tool for daytime hypercapnia in super-obese
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence-based screening tools are required for detection of daytime
      hypercapnia in high-risk patient populations. AIMS: To determine the validity of
      supine awake oximetry as a test for daytime hypercapnia and severe sleep
      disordered breathing (SDB) in super-obese patients. METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional diagnostic test evaluation of super-obese adults (body mass index >50
      kg/m2 ) presenting to Liverpool Hospital, Australia, between 2009 and 2015 for
      diagnostic polysomnography (PSG) and arterial blood gas measurement. Supine awake
      oxygen saturation (SpO2 ) was determined using oximetry measurements from the
      first three awake epochs of raw PSG data. Sensitivity and specificity of SpO2 for
      detecting patients with daytime hypercapnia (PaCO2 >45 mmHg) and severe SDB
      (respiratory disturbance index (RDI) >30 events/h) were assessed at various cut
      off points and displayed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
      Area under the ROC curve and positive and negative predictive values (PPV and
      NPV) in the present patient population were derived. RESULTS: Of 52 patients, 23
      (44%) had daytime hypercapnia. SpO2 measured awake in the supine position was
      associated with the presence of daytime hypercapnia but not with the presence of
      severe SDB. Overall, awake supine SpO2 <91.2% had 34.8% sensitivity, 96.6%
      specificity and 88.8% PPV, and SpO2 <96.7% had 87.0% sensitivity, 20.7%
      specificity and 66.7% NPV for the presence of daytime hypercapnia. CONCLUSION:
      Awake supine oximetry is an easily performed test that may have novel use in
      identifying patients at high risk of respiratory failure. Future studies are
      required to evaluate prospectively its role in screening patients at risk of
      daytime hypercapnia.

PMID- 28557367
TI  - Septic keratitis in dogs, cats, and horses in Switzerland: associated bacteria
      and antibiotic susceptibility.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the most common bacterial pathogens associated with septic
      keratitis in veterinary patients from Switzerland. The second objective was to
      analyze antibiotic susceptibility test results of the identified bacterial
      pathogens. The third objective was to evaluate potential breed predispositions to
      septic keratitis. PROCEDURES: Two hundred and fifty-five cultures and antibiotic
      susceptibility reports from dogs, cats, and horses with septic keratitis that
      were presented to the University of Zurich Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
      between 2009 and 2013 were reviewed. Odds ratios for the risk of having a septic
      keratitis were estimated for all dog and cat breeds compared to the general
      nonbrachycephalic hospital population. RESULTS: Ninety-six, 29, and 31 positive
      cultures were obtained from 89 canine, 28 feline, and 29 equine eyes,
      respectively. Repeat sampling accounted for the differences in numbers. Negative
      culture results were obtained in 50, 31, and 18 cases. Staphylococci and
      streptococci accounted for 66% of the isolates in dogs and 80% of the isolates in
      cats and horses. Staphylococcus spp. had a higher percentage of fluoroquinolone
      resistant isolates compared to previous reports. Brachycephalic breeds had
      elevated odds ratios for the presence of septic keratitis. CONCLUSION: Identified
      bacterial pathogens and their prevalence as well as the elevated odds ratios for
      septic keratitis in brachycephalics are roughly consistent with previous studies.
      Based on systemic breakpoint data, resistance to commonly used topical
      antibiotics, including the second-generation fluoroquinolones, was found.

PMID- 28557366
TI  - Radiosensitization by BRAF inhibitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased skin toxicity during combination therapy with a BRAF
      inhibitor and radiation therapy has recently been reported. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      We present seven melanoma patients with non-resectable stage III or IV disease
      and concomitant treatment with a BRAF inhibitor and radiation therapy. RESULTS:
      In all patients, combination therapy yielded a good local response. Only two
      patients, both on vemurafenib, showed severe radiation dermatitis (CTCAE grade
      3/4) after one and two weeks, respectively, resulting in interruption of BRAF
      inhibitor treatment. The respective cumulative radiation dose was 10 Gy and 35
      Gy. The remaining vemurafenib patients displayed only mild radiation dermatitis
      CTCAE grade 2; the only dabrafenib patient CTCAE grade 1. In one patient, recall
      dermatitis was diagnosed 14 days after completion of radiation therapy with a
      cumulative dose of 30 Gy. CONCLUSIONS: Severe skin toxicity caused by BRAF
      inhibitor-induced radiosensitization is not common and usually amenable to
      treatment. Thus, combination treatment should remain a therapeutic option,
      especially in melanoma patients characterized by aggressive tumor growth.
      Although there is an increased risk of skin toxicity during combination therapy,
      it is usually well tolerated by most patients. Sequential - instead of
      simultaneous - treatment does not seem to prevent such toxicity reactions.

PMID- 28557368
TI  - Strategic framework improves access to stroke reperfusion across the state of
      Victoria Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2010, rapid access to stroke thrombolysis centres was limited in
      some regional areas in the Australian state of Victoria. These results, and
      planning for endovascular clot retrieval (ECR), have led to the implementation of
      strategies by the Victorian Stroke Clinical Network, the Victorian Stroke
      Telemedicine Program and local health services to improve state-wide access.
      AIMS: To examine whether access to stroke reperfusion services (thrombolysis and
      ECR) in regional Victoria have subsequently improved. METHODS: The locations of
      suspected stroke patients attended by ambulance in 2015 were mapped, and drive
      times to the nearest reperfusion services were calculated. We then calculated the
      proportion of cases with transport times within: (i) 60 min to thrombolysis
      centres; and (ii) 180 min to two ECR centres designated to receive regional
      patients. Statistical comparisons to existing 2010 data were made. RESULTS: In
      2015, Ambulance Victoria attended 16 418 cases of suspected stroke (2.9% of all
      emergency calls), of whom 4597 (28%) were located in regional Victoria. Compared
      to 2010, a greater proportion of regional suspected stroke patients in 2015 were
      located within 60 min of a thrombolysis centre by road (77-95%, P < 0.001). A 3-h
      road travel time to the two ECR centres is currently possible for 88% of regional
      patients. CONCLUSION: A strategic and region-specific approach has resulted in
      improved access by road transport to reperfusion therapies for stroke patients
      across Victoria.

PMID- 28557369
TI  - Medical mishap as a cause of non-resolving pneumonia.
AB  - A 15-year old boy was referred for evaluation of fever, productive cough, and
      recurrent/persistent right lower lobe (RLL) pneumonia of 1-month duration. Chest
      computed tomography scan showed RLL consolidation, with minimal pleural effusion
      and a liver abscess with sharp borders, containing a solid calcification in the
      lower portion. History revealed acute appendicitis with laparoscopic appendectomy
      6 months prior to presentation, during which a fecalith dropped to the peritoneal
      cavity. Following laparoscopically guided drainage of the abscess the patient
      improved. Herein we describe a rare case of non-resolving RLL pneumonia secondary
      to pyogenic liver abscess caused by dropped appendicolith.

PMID- 28557370
TI  - Hybrid and fully-etched surface implants in periodontally healthy patients: A
      comparative retrospective study on marginal bone loss.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human studies on implants with the same design but with different
      surfaces are lacking at the present time. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to
      compare the survival rate of and marginal bone loss (MBL) around 2 types of
      implants with the same design, but with different surfaces: fully "sandblasted
      and double-etched" (SDE) implants and hybrid (H) implants, with an apical SDE
      surface and a coronal machined-surface. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SDE- and H
      surfaces were previously analyzed under SEM and profilometer. Implants were
      placed in partially edentulous periodontally healthy patients requiring single
      implant-restoration, in either mandible or maxilla, with cement-retained
      prosthetic restoration. Twelve months after prosthetic loading, MBL in relation
      to prosthetic abutment height (AH), calculated radiographically, was
      statistically analyzed. RESULTS: SEM and profilometer analyses revealed no
      differences between the SDE-surfaces of either SDE- or H-implants. Transverse
      ridges and grooves characterized the machined portion of H-implants, clearly
      influencing the profilometer analysis. In 75 patients, 37 SDE and 38 H-implants
      were placed and all functioned completely after 12 months. In both SDE- and H
      groups, MBL had a significant inverse relationship with AH, with greater
      intercept and negative slope for SDE-group and intersection of the 2 regression
      lines at AH = 2 mm. CONCLUSIONS: A 100% survival rate was recorded for SDE- and H
      implants placed in pristine bone of periodontally healthy patients; MBL was
      limited and similar in both SDE- and H-groups; the higher the prosthetic AH, the
      lesser the MBL around implants; H-implants could reduce bone loss most
      effectively with abutments lower than 2 mm, realistically exploitable on thin
      biotypes; SDE-implants could reduce bone loss most effectively with abutments
      greater than 2 mm, realistically exploitable on thick biotypes.

PMID- 28557372
TI  - Laparoscopic sigmoidectomy combined with uterus excision for colouterine fistula
      caused by sigmoid colon diverticulitis: A case report.
AB  - A case of colouterine fistula caused by colonic diverticulitis that was
      successfully treated laparoscopically is presented. A 74-year-old woman visited
      us with lower abdominal discomfort and vaginal excretion with minor fecal
      contamination. Mild tenderness was observed in her lower abdomen. Blood
      examinations revealed elevated white blood cell count and C-reactive protein.
      Sigmoid colon diverticulitis was revealed on CT, and her condition was diagnosed
      as colouterine fistula. Hinchey classification was stage I. After 2 weeks of
      conservative therapy, her symptoms were reduced, and the white blood cell count
      and C-reactive protein level decreased. However, fecal contaminated vaginal
      excretion continued. The patient underwent laparoscopic sigmoidectomy combined
      with uterus excision, and she has been in good health for the 3 years since the
      operation. Although colouterine fistula is usually treated with open surgery,
      patients with controlled and well-localized inflammation may be good candidates
      for a laparoscopic approach.

PMID- 28557374
TI  - Introduction: 2016 Rumelhart Prize Issue Honoring Dedre Gentner.

PMID- 28557373
TI  - PTEN inhibits replicative senescence-induced MMP-1 expression by regulating NOX4
      mediated ROS in human dermal fibroblasts.
AB  - The biological function of NADPH oxidase (NOX) is the generation of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS). ROS, primarily arising from oxidative cell metabolism, play
      a major role in both chronological ageing and photoageing. ROS in extrinsic and
      intrinsic skin ageing may be assumed to induce the expression of matrix
      metalloproteinases. NADPH oxidase is closely linked with phosphatidylinositol 3
      OH kinase (PI3K) signalling. Protein kinase C (PKC), a downstream molecule of
      PI3K, is essential for superoxide generation by NADPH oxidase. However, the
      effect of PTEN and NOX4 in replicative-aged MMPs expression has not been
      determined. In this study, we confirmed that inhibition of the PI3K signalling
      pathway by PTEN gene transfer abolished the NOX-4 and MMP-1 expression. Also, NOX
      4 down-expression of replicative-aged skin cells abolished the MMP-1 expression
      and ROS generation. These results suggest that increase of MMP-1 expression by
      replicative-induced ROS is related to the change in the PTEN and NOX expression.

PMID- 28557375
TI  - Identifying metrics of success for transitional care practices in childhood
      cancer survivorship: A qualitative study of survivorship providers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long-term survival in childhood cancer is excellent. Most survivors
      will have a therapy-related chronic condition, yet very few receive survivor
      focused care as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The purpose
      of this study is to identify indicators of success in current transitional care
      practices for young adult survivors of childhood cancer as defined by all members
      of survivorship care teams. PROCEDURE: An exploratory, phenomenologic qualitative
      study was conducted with key informants from medical teams involved in
      transitional care of childhood cancer survivors. Data were collected through
      phone interviews with providers from both pediatric and adult care settings.
      RESULTS: A multidisciplinary study sample of 29 participants from three
      institutions identified two major themes with multiple subthemes. The first major
      theme was that providers must be good communicators, and it emphasized the
      importance of having good relationships throughout the transition of care to
      optimize effective communication. The second major theme was that models of care
      must include well-established partners throughout the healthcare system that
      promote accessible subspecialty care with streamlined referrals and patient
      navigation services. CONCLUSIONS: From the perspective of experienced pediatric-
      and adult-centered providers at three different institutions delivering life-long
      transitional care for childhood cancer survivors, the optimal model of care must
      be built around facilitating communication among all key stakeholders and
      emphasizing patient-friendly services that minimize patient stressors.

PMID- 28557371
TI  - Genetic engineering of Trichoderma reesei cellulases and their production.
AB  - Lignocellulosic biomass, which mainly consists of cellulose, hemicellulose and
      lignin, is the most abundant renewable source for production of biofuel and
      biorefinery products. The industrial use of plant biomass involves mechanical
      milling or chipping, followed by chemical or physicochemical pretreatment steps
      to make the material more susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis. Thereby the cost
      of enzyme production still presents the major bottleneck, mostly because some of
      the produced enzymes have low catalytic activity under industrial conditions
      and/or because the rate of hydrolysis of some enzymes in the secreted enzyme
      mixture is limiting. Almost all of the lignocellulolytic enzyme cocktails needed
      for the hydrolysis step are produced by fermentation of the ascomycete
      Trichoderma reesei (Hypocreales). For this reason, the structure and mechanism of
      the enzymes involved, the regulation of their expression and the pathways of
      their formation and secretion have been investigated in T. reesei in considerable
      details. Several of the findings thereby obtained have been used to improve the
      formation of the T. reesei cellulases and their properties. In this article, we
      will review the achievements that have already been made and also show promising
      fields for further progress.

PMID- 28557377
TI  - Wet-AMD on a Chip: Modeling Outer Blood-Retinal Barrier In Vitro.
AB  - Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)
      choroid complex constituting outer blood retinal barrier (oBRB) is a critical
      pathological step in various ophthalmic diseases, which results in blindness,
      such as wet type age-related macula degeneration. Current in vitro experimental
      models using petri dishes or transwell are unable to study CNV morphogenesis.
      Here, a unique organotypic eye-on-a-chip model is described that mimics the RPE
      choroid complex in vitro. This model consists of an RPE monolayer and adjacent
      perfusable blood vessel network, which is supporting barrier function of oBRB.
      The intact barrier function of the RPE-choroid complex is reconstituted while
      maintaining important structural features. Further, this model can successfully
      mimic the pathogenesis of CNV especially in terms of morphogenesis, which is
      penetrating angiogenic sprouts from pre-existing choroidal vessels that result in
      breakdown of RPE monolayer. The alleviation of the pathological angiogenesis can
      be modeled with bevacizumab, a clinical drug for CNV treatment. It is believed
      that this model can be used to aid in the development of advanced in vitro eye
      drug evaluation in conjunction with animal models.

PMID- 28557376
TI  - Comparison between tapered and cylindrical implants in the posterior regions of
      the mandible: A prospective, randomized, split-mouth clinical trial focusing on
      implant stability changes during early healing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Companies affirm that tapered implants show adequate initial
      stability, while their installation in the lower arch is uncommon in clinical
      practice. PURPOSE: To compare the clinical outcomes of tapered and cylindrical
      implants and to study their effect on bone site characteristics and peri-implant
      health during healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The implant site dimensions were
      assessed by linear measurements using CBCT prior to the installation of 40
      implants in the posterior mandible (20 tapered and 20 cylindrical). The bone type
      was registered during drilling via the surgeon's tactile perception, following
      the classification of Lekholm and Zarb. Primary stability (PS) was determined by
      the insertion torque (IT) and the implant stability quotient (ISQ). Secondary
      stability (SS) and the peri-implant health was monitored for 3 months through the
      visible plaque index (VPI), the peri-implant inflammation (PI), the probing depth
      index (PDI), and the gingival bleeding index (GBI). Significant differences were
      investigated with t-tests for independent samples, chi-square tests or Fisher's
      exact test. Pearson's correlation test was used to investigate the relationship
      between the bone site characteristics and PS (IT and ISQ), as well as the
      relationships between IT and ISQ for each implant type. RESULTS: Tapered and
      cylindrical implants showed no significant differences for any outcome variable
      (P > .05). A significant decrease in ISQ was observed after 7 days of healing (P
      = .0002), followed by a gradual increase beginning at 21 days (P = .0010) until
      the last follow-up time at 90 days (P = .0319). The cortical height was
      correlated with IT; while medullary bone dimensions were correlated with the PS
      as evidenced by the ISQ values. The insertion torque was significantly correlated
      with the PS only for the cylindrical dental implants. CONCLUSIONS: Tapered and
      cylindrical implants have similar biological behavior during the healing process.
      Bone site characteristics can influence insertion torque and implant stability.

PMID- 28557378
TI  - Lasting effects of early life stress in mice: interaction of maternal environment
      and infant genes.
AB  - In the mouse, a powerful paradigm of early life stress, infant maternal
      separation (IMS), can trigger emotional and cognitive dysfunctions in adulthood
      similar to those found in humans with a history of childhood adversity. The
      magnitude of IMS effects differs among diverse inbred strains suggesting an
      interaction between the genetic background of pups and the maternal care they
      received. Here, we investigated this interaction with studies on reciprocal F1
      hybrid mice of the stress-susceptible Balb/c and the resilient C57Bl/6 strains
      that were either raised by Balb/c mothers (low maternal care) or by C57Bl/6
      mothers (higher maternal care) with or without IMS exposure. The ultrasonic
      vocalization response to isolation was recorded from infant F1 pups, and their
      emotional, executive cognitive and epigenetic phenotypes were assessed in
      adulthood. These studies showed that, regardless of the maternal care received,
      the emotional phenotype of F1 hybrids was not significantly affected by IMS
      exposure. However, F1 pups raised by Balb/c (but not C57Bl/6) mothers during IMS
      exposure exhibit deficits in working memory and attention-set-shifting in
      adulthood. They also exhibit reduced histone deacetylase 1 levels at promotors of
      brain-derived neurotrophic factor and early growth response 2 genes, and
      abnormally high induction of expression of these genes during cognitive testing.
      As one of affected genes was previously shown to associate with the Balb/c and
      the other with the C57Bl/6 genetic background, these findings indicate that both
      parental alleles interact with the maternal environment to modulate the cognitive
      and epigenetic phenotypes of F1 mice exposed to the IMS.

PMID- 28557380
TI  - Lipid and Phenolic Constituents from Seeds of Hypericum perforatum L. and
      Hypericum tetrapterum Fr. and their Antioxidant Activity.
AB  - Seeds of Hypericum perforatum and H. tetrapterum were extracted with
      dichloromethane and methanol and investigated by chromatographic and mass
      spectrometric methods. Both species yielded a fatty oil fraction amounting to
      30.5% and 18.0% of the seed weight, respectively. Linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) was
      shown to be the predominant fatty acid constituent. Moreover, xanthone
      derivatives, i.e. tetrahydroxyxanthones (THX), xanthone-glycosides and xanthone
      sulfonates, were assigned in methanolic extracts. For structure elucidation, one
      representative xanthone, namely 1,3,6,7-THX, was synthesized and analyzed via
      HPLC-DAD/MSn and GC/MS. Total THX contents were quantitated applying a validated
      HPLC-DAD method, resulting in 1.25 g/kg (H. perforatum) and 0.27 g/kg (H.
      tetrapterum), respectively. Moreover, the free radical scavenging capacity of the
      methanol extracts was tested using the DPPH antioxidant assay. Both, H.
      perforatum (IC50 = 8.7 mg/l) and 1,3,6,7-THX (IC50 = 3.0 mg/l), exhibited good
      DPPH free radical scavenging activity compared to Trolox (IC50 = 6.6 mg/l).

PMID- 28557381
TI  - Predicting frequent emergency department visits among children with asthma using
      EHR data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: For children with asthma, emergency department (ED) visits are common,
      expensive, and often avoidable. Though several factors are associated with ED use
      (demographics, comorbidities, insurance, medications), its predictability using
      electronic health record (EHR) data is understudied. METHODS: We used a
      retrospective cohort study design and EHR data from one center to examine the
      relationship of patient factors in 1 year (2013) and the likelihood of frequent
      ED use (>=2 visits) in the following year (2014), using bivariate and
      multivariable statistics. We applied and compared several machine-learning
      algorithms to predict frequent ED use, then selected a model based on accuracy,
      parsimony, and interpretability. RESULTS: We identified 2691 children. In
      bivariate analyses, future frequent ED use was associated with demographics, co
      morbidities, insurance status, medication history, and use of healthcare
      resources. Machine learning algorithms had very good AUC (area under the curve)
      values [0.66-0.87], though fair PPV (positive predictive value) [48-70%] and poor
      sensitivity [16-27%]. Our final multivariable logistic regression model contained
      two variables: insurance status and prior ED use. For publicly insured patients,
      the odds of frequent ED use were 3.1 [2.2-4.5] times that of privately insured
      patients. Publicly insured patients with 4+ ED visits and privately insured
      patients with 6+ ED visits in a year had >=50% probability of frequent ED use the
      following year. The model had an AUC of 0.86, PPV of 56%, and sensitivity of 23%.
      CONCLUSION: Among children with asthma, prior frequent ED use and insurance
      status strongly predict future ED use.

PMID- 28557379
TI  - Exploring bacterial interspecific interactions for discovery of novel
      antimicrobial compounds.
AB  - Recent studies indicated that the production of secondary metabolites by soil
      bacteria can be triggered by interspecific interactions. However, little is known
      to date about interspecific interactions between Gram-positive and Gram-negative
      bacteria. In this study, we aimed to understand how the interspecific interaction
      between the Gram-positive Paenibacillus sp. AD87 and the Gram-negative
      Burkholderia sp. AD24 affects the fitness, gene expression and the production of
      soluble and volatile secondary metabolites of both bacteria. To obtain better
      insight into this interaction, transcriptome and metabolome analyses were
      performed. Our results revealed that the interaction between the two bacteria
      affected their fitness, gene expression and the production of secondary
      metabolites. During interaction, the growth of Paenibacillus was not affected,
      whereas the growth of Burkholderia was inhibited at 48 and 72 h. Transcriptome
      analysis revealed that the interaction between Burkholderia and Paenibacillus
      caused significant transcriptional changes in both bacteria as compared to the
      monocultures. The metabolomic analysis revealed that the interaction increased
      the production of specific volatile and soluble antimicrobial compounds such as
      2,5-bis(1-methylethyl)-pyrazine and an unknown Pederin-like compound. The
      pyrazine volatile compound produced by Paenibacillus was subjected to bioassays
      and showed strong inhibitory activity against Burkholderia and a range of plant
      and human pathogens. Moreover, strong additive antimicrobial effects were
      observed when soluble extracts from the interacting bacteria were combined with
      the pure 2,5-bis(1-methylethyl)-pyrazine. The results obtained in this study
      highlight the importance to explore bacterial interspecific interactions to
      discover novel secondary metabolites and to perform simultaneously metabolomics
      of both, soluble and volatile compounds.

PMID- 28557382
TI  - Parental pre-pregnancy obesity and the risk of offspring weight and body mass
      index change from childhood to adulthood.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to examine the association of parental pre
      pregnancy weight and body mass index (BMI) on offspring weight and BMI change
      from childhood to adulthood. We analysed BMI data from a subsample of parents (n
      = 1494) from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy cohort that
      started in the early 1980s in Brisbane, Australia: data were collected at pre
      pregnancy and then also for offspring at 5, 14 and 21-year follow-ups. Multiple
      regression for continuous outcomes and multinomial regression for categorical
      outcomes were performed. A total of 14.7% of offspring experienced BMI change
      from normal at 5 years to overweight or obese (OW/OB) at 14 years, 15.3% of
      normal at 14 years to OW/OB at 21 years and 22.8% from normal at 5 years to OW/OB
      at 21 years. Overall, the strength of the association of parental BMI with
      offspring BMI was stronger as offspring become older. Pre-pregnancy parental BMI
      differentially impacts offspring OW/OB across the life course. For every unit
      increase in paternal and maternal BMI z-score, offspring BMI z-score increased,
      on average, by between 0.15% (kg m-2 ) and 0.24% (kg m-2 ) throughout all three
      stages of life when both parents were OW/OB; these associations were stronger
      than with one parent. Parental pre-pregnancy BMI and OW/OB is a strong predictor
      of offspring weight and BMI change from early life to adulthood.

PMID- 28557383
TI  - Editorial for Issue 2 in 2017.

PMID- 28557384
TI  - [Transcription factor p53 and skin aging].
AB  - The review is devoted to an actual problem of cosmetics in gerontology, one of
      molecular aspects of skin aging. Cell renewal processes slow down with aging, and
      the proliferation apoptosis ratio shifts towards cell death. One of the most
      pivotal apoptotic markers is the transcription factor p53. p53 protein expression
      in the skin keratinocytes increases under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.
      Wherein when exposed to ultraviolet radiation mutant forms of p53 have been
      revealed in 70 % of keratinocytes. On the one hand, suppression of p53 expression
      decreases apoptosis in skin cells that slows down the process of aging. On the
      other hand, it promotes the development of tumors in the skin. Thus, maintaining
      the physiological balance of p53 expression in skin cells is important for the
      basic and practical cosmetic medicine in gerontology. In addition, p53 protein
      may be used as a functionality marker of skin cells when administered with
      geroprotective cosmetic means and instrumental cosmetology methods.

PMID- 28557385
TI  - [Telomere-telomerase system in aging, norm and pathology (literature review)].
AB  - This literature review presents results of research showing association between
      functional activity of the telomere-telomerase system and mental cognitive and
      emotional processes in normal and various pathological states: chronic stress,
      depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, mild cognitive impairment and
      dementia in aging. It also refers to age-specific, psycho-social, economic,
      immunological, genetic and epigenetic factors that influence these relationships.

PMID- 28557386
TI  - [Studying of the factors influencing biological age of long-livers of Almaty].
AB  - The article presents the results of a study of centenarians (25 patients older
      than 90 years) residents of Almaty, suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD)
      of different severity, for the purpose of definition of biological age of CAD and
      identify factors influencing aging process. Significant positive correlation
      between the thickness of an intragastric partition and indexes of chronological
      age, due biological age was defined. We assume that the hypertrophy of walls of a
      left ventricle (LV) is the main morphological indicator of an aging of
      cardiovascular system.

PMID- 28557387
TI  - [Metabolic and hormonal indices in rats with prolonged model of metabolic
      syndrome induced by high-carbohydrate and high-fat diet].
AB  - To develop the approaches for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome
      (MS), a pathological state widespread in modern population, that involves a
      complex of metabolic and functional disorders, appropriate animal models of MS
      are required. One of these models is induced by the consumption of combined high
      carbohydrate and high-fat (HC/HF) diet consisting of excess amount of easily
      digestible carbohydrates and saturated fats. At the same time, the character,
      temporal dynamics and severity of metabolic abnormalities in MS induced by HC/HF
      diet are still poorly understood. The aim of work was the characterization of
      metabolic changes in Wistar rats with MS induced by 10- and 15-week HC/HF diet
      that includes the consumption of 30% sucrose solution (instead of drinking water)
      and food rich in saturated fats. Rats that received HC/HF diet for 15 weeks had a
      number of features characteristic of MS, such as increased body weight and
      content of abdominal fat, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinaemia, impaired glucose
      tolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, as well as the markers of impaired
      function of the cardiovascular system (hyperhomocysteinemia, the reduced level of
      vasodilator nitric oxide, the increased concentration of vasoconstrictor
      endothelin 1). In rats, which were on the diet for 10 weeks, the metabolic
      abnormalities were less pronounced, indicating an insufficiency of 10-week
      duration of HC/HF diet for MS induction. Thus, the model of MS induced by 15-week
      HC/HF diet has the characteristic features that allow for extrapolation of the
      obtained data to similar pathologic changes in human, and can be used to study
      the etiology and pathogenesis of MS and the search of effective ways of MS
      prevention and treatment.

PMID- 28557388
TI  - [Effect of genetically coded amino acids and their precursors carboxylic acids on
      the cellular proliferation in the organotypic culture of spleen in young and old
      rats].
AB  - Effect of carboxylic acids - structurally related to amino acids, on the
      proliferation activity of the cells in organotypic cultures of rat spleen was
      first studied. It was found that almost all aliphatic carboxylic acids have
      stimulating effects on proliferative activity of cells in young and old rats. In
      contrast only 3 from 14 active amino acids in young rats were able stimulate
      proliferation, but 11 amino acids inhibited it. In the old rats a number of the
      active amino acids was decreased until 4, an inhibiting effect was observed in 3
      of them. Thus, the carboxylic acids are able to stimulate the regeneration
      processes in the immune tissue both in the young and old organisms. This fact can
      be a base for the research of new medical substances for the stimulation of the
      immunogenesis by the aging.

PMID- 28557389
TI  - [Role of ceramide in reduction of the cardiolipin content in the heart during
      aging].
AB  - The close correlation between ceramide accumulation and cardiolipin content
      decrease in cardiomyocytes, mitochondrial dysfunction and heart failure was well
      documented. Taking into account that ceramide can alter the cardiolipin
      metabolism the purpose of the present study was to determine the role of ceramide
      in age-dependent decline of cardiolipin content in rat heart tissue. In the
      present work the puberty young, adult and old (3-, 12-, 24-, 30- and 34-month
      old) Wistar male rats were used. It has been shown, that cardiolipin content
      significantly decreased, while content of cardiolipin precursor, phosphatidic
      acid, increased during aging. Doxorubicin injection to the rats or isolated heart
      perfusion with the C16-ceramide-conteined buffer induced ceramide accumulation
      and cardiolipin level drop in the heart of 3-month-old rats. Treatment of 24
      month-old rats with inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase, melipramine and
      zoledronic acid, decreased the ceramide level and increased the cardiolipin
      content in the heart. The results obtained clearly demonstrated that the age
      related ceramide accumulation is closely associated with the loss of cardiolipin
      content and may lead to mitochondrial dysfunction in the heart at old age. Acid
      sphingomyelinase and cardiolipin metabolism can be important targets for
      treatment of age-dependent heart pathology.

PMID- 28557390
TI  - [The battery of tests for behavioral phenotyping of aging animals in the
      experiment].
AB  - The purpose of the study was to develop a battery of tests to study social and
      cognitive impairments for behavioral phenotyping of aging experimental animals
      with physiological neurodegeneration. Object of the study were outbred CD1 mice
      in the following groups: 1st group - 12-month old male mice (physiological
      aging); 2nd group - 2-month old male mice (control group). Social recognition
      test, elevated plus maze test (EPM), open field test, light-dark box test, and
      Fear conditioning protocol were used to estimate the neurological status of
      experimental animals. We found that aging male mice in a contrast to young ones
      have demonstrated lower social interest to female mice in the social recognition
      task. EPM and light-dark box tests showed increased level of anxiety in the group
      of aged mice comparing to the control group. Fear conditioning protocol revealed
      impairment of associative learning and memory in the group of aged mice,
      particularly, fear memory consolidation was dramatically suppressed. Analysis of
      behavioral factors, social interactions and anxiety level in the experimental
      mice has confirmed age-related neurodegeneration in the 1st group. We found that
      the most informative approach to identifying neurological impairments in aging
      mice (social interaction deficit, limitation of interests, increased level of
      anxiety) should be based on the open field test light-dark box test, and Fear
      conditioning protocol. Such combination allows obtaining new data on behavioral
      alterations in the age-associated of neurodegeneration and to develop novel
      therapeutic strategies for the treatment of age-related brain pathology.

PMID- 28557391
TI  - [Age features peripheral link erythron rats and its status with experimental
      cardiosclerosis].
AB  - Studied the performance of the peripheral unit erythrone rats aged 4 months (1st
      group) 12 months (2nd group) and 24 months (3rd group). Each age group (n=20)
      consisted of 10 intact animals and 10 animals c postinfarction cardiosclerosis
      (PICS). In the group of animals 24 months of age was showed an increase in the
      number of erythrocytes in the absence of difference in the amount of
      reticulocytes. Expressed anisocytosis and decrease in hemoglobin synthesis in
      animals of this age group suggests that the age-related disorders maturation of
      erythroid cells. The development of post-infarction myocardial remodeling has not
      affected polycythemia typical for animals of older age group. At the same time a
      significant increase in the reticulocyte count of peripheral blood smears was
      observed for this group of animals. Development of PICS for animals extreme age
      groups leads to a smoothing interage differences, noted in the animals in the
      intact condition.

PMID- 28557392
TI  - [Melatonin as a molecular marker of age-related pathologies].
AB  - The review has described melatonin as a prognostic marker of invasive and non
      invasive diagnostic of organism aging time and age-related pathology. Decreasing
      of melatonin level in buccal cells has correlated with patient age. Melatonin
      level in patients with Alzheimer disease has decreased. Melatonin level in blood
      plasma has correlated with severity of menopausal syndrome. Melatonin secretion
      in enterocytes increased during gastric ulcer. In oncology patients was described
      changes of 6-COMT - metabolite of melatonin in urine in dependent of histology
      type and stage of disease. Thus, melatonin is the molecular marker, which
      characterized integral processes in neuro-immuno-endocrine system and can be
      verified by non-invasive methods in peripheral tissues and biological fluids of
      organism.

PMID- 28557393
TI  - [Melatonin as a marker of the grade of cardiac disorders during cachexia
      development in oncological patients of different ages].
AB  - We have examined 103 patients at the age from 28 to 78 with the newly diagnosed
      oncological disease at stages II-IV before the beginning of anticancer treatment.
      The identification of the signs of the cachexia syndrome and its stage (pre
      cachexia, cachexia) were carried out in the accordance with the CASCO criteria
      (2011) and taking into the account the age of the patients. The cardiovascular
      infringements were found to be comorbid to the oncological disease significantly
      more often in patients with signs of cachexia syndrome on the pre-cachexia stage
      and the total index of cardiovascular disorders in oncological patients increases
      with the severity of cachexia. In the course of the cachexia symptoms development
      the significant decline of melatonin excretion level (evaluated by the excretion
      of its main metabolite 6-sulfatoximelatonin level - aMT6s) in oncological
      patients was noted. The lowest changes in aMT6s levels were observed in patients
      older than 60 years, referred to the group of pre-cachexia, which may indicate
      the heterogeneity of the investigated groups as a result of the combination of
      manifestations of geriatric syndromes and cancer pathology. The possibility of
      false-positive diagnosis of pre-cachexia due to a combination of polygenic
      metabolic and age-related changes in elderly patients should be taken into
      account. Therefore, evaluation of melatonin excretion can be recommended as an
      additional marker in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of cachexia syndrome
      particularly in geriatric patients. A significant correlation between the
      occurrence and/or worsening of cardiac disease in cancer patients, cachexia
      symptoms and reduced level of aMT6s were revealed.

PMID- 28557394
TI  - [Age-related changes of peripheral nerve system and muscles of the limbs in
      healthy persons].
AB  - Our aim was to present and analyze age-related changes of peripheral nerves and
      muscles of limbs on a huge population of healthy persons of different ages.
      Persons aged from 2 months to 87 years were studied by conduction studies (EMG)
      during the period 2009-2016 years in Scientific Research Institute of Children's
      Infection. Data of those 1 121confirmed healthy was included in our study.
      Conduction along n. Medianus, n. Ulnaris, n. Musculocutaneus, n. Axillaris, n.
      Facialis, n. Tibialis, n. Peroneus et n. Femoralis was registered, with latency
      and amplitude of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) being analyzed. There
      were significant differences on latencies and amplitudes of CMAPs between
      different age groups. Significant lengthening of CMAP latency was registered in
      older age groups. We marked CMAP amplitude increase from the early childhood
      until adolescence and later it dropped in persons aged 55 years old and older.
      These changes may reflect, concerning latency, the lengthening of the peripheral
      nerves in the age 0-25 years, and later on age-related slowing of conduction
      starting from 55 years. Amplitude of CMAP may rise with the growing of muscles
      and drop in later life with age-related muscle atrophy and fibrous changes.

PMID- 28557395
TI  - [Analysis of the clinical efficacy of fasetoplasty method for the treatment of
      facet syndrome at lumbar spine in patients with middle and old age group].
AB  - The aim of the study was to analyze results of using of fasetoplasty method in
      the treatment of facet-syndrome at lumbar spine in patients with middle and old
      age groups. The study included 227 patients older than 65 years with degenerative
      dystrophic diseases of the lumbosacral spine and the clinical manifestations in
      the form of a facet syndrome, which in the period from 2010 to 2013 years made
      fasetoplasty prosthesis of synovial fluid. To assess the clinical effectiveness
      of using a visual analogue scale of pain (VAS) and a questionnaire for patients
      with back problems in Oswestry. The dynamic assessment was performed within the
      time frame to 30 months after surgery. The study found that the puncture facet
      joints with intra-articular injections of the prosthesis of the synovial fluid -
      "fasetoplasty" is an effective minimally invasive treatment for facet syndrome,
      caused by degenerative-dystrophic lesions facet joints of lumbar spine, allowing
      early and late postoperative periods to conduct sustained a significant decrease
      in the level of pain and improve the quality of life in a group of elderly
      patients.

PMID- 28557396
TI  - [Age peculiarities in prostate cancer detection based on the prostate-specific
      antigen and its alterations control].
AB  - Data on epidemiology of a prostate cancer are presented in article, high
      prevalence and body height of a case rate cause relevance of researches on this
      oncopathology. It is shown that the number augmentation for the first time of the
      taped cases is bound including to the program of a screening of inspection of men
      by determination of level of prostates-specific antigen (PSA). Modern diagnostic
      methods of identification of modifications of PSA, possessing larger sensitivity
      and specificity concerning a prostate cancer are lit. The attention to change of
      level of PSA depending on age is focused that needs to be considered at
      diagnostics of malignant neoplasms of a prostate.

PMID- 28557397
TI  - [Study into ratios of mineral metabolism in patients of different age groups
      suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee].
AB  - A study has been made into indicators of electrolyte composition and phosphatase
      activity of blood serum, urine and synovial fluid of the patients belonging to
      different age groups and going through compensated, subcompensated and
      decompensated stages of osteoarthritis of the knee. Changes in parameters of
      mineral metabolism have been detected related to the progress of the disease. The
      most obvious alteration was discovered in patients of the second age group having
      the subcompensated osteoarthritis stage. Elderly patients at the decompensated
      stage showed shifts of indicators of the bone remodeling.

PMID- 28557398
TI  - [Characteristic of the cognitive evoked potentials at elderly people with
      cognitive decline].
AB  - Results of research of cognitive visual evoked potentials at elderly women with
      various level of cognitive decline are shown in article. Both relevance of the
      early diagnostics of cognitive disorders and expedience of using of methods of
      functional neurovisualization to reveal higher cortical dysfunctions are shown
      also. To appraise cognitive functions we applied express-method of evaluating of
      cognitive functions during normal aging. According to results of this test two
      groups were created: the 1st - women without cognitive disorders, the 2nd - with
      mild cognitive impairment. The evoked potentials were registered for all
      participants with using of 128-channel system GES-300. Latency of P300-wave and
      reaction time were calculated. According to temporary characteristics of P300
      wave it has been revealed that the group with cognitive decline differed in
      longer latent period in centro-temporo-parietal area of the left hemisphere, and
      also longer reaction time. However, latency of P300 in central-parietal areas of
      the right hemisphere was less than one at persons of the control group. These
      changes reflect dysfunction of structures of a medial temporal lobe which is
      expressed mainly by the memory disorders.

PMID- 28557399
TI  - [The role of free-radical oxidation for patogenesis of chronic generalization
      periodontitis in elderly age patients].
AB  - In old aged patients with chronic generalized periodontitis and cardiovascular
      diseases the level lipoperoxidation increased and antioxidation protection
      decreased in saliva and blood. After the course of treatment myocardial ischemia
      and diseases chronic periodontal inflammation the level of lipoperoxidation was
      changed insignificant accompanied with decreased of TBK-active substance in
      saliva and blood. Change of nitric oxide after by treatment was depended it
      initial level before treatment and often had an opposite orientation.

PMID- 28557400
TI  - [The effectiveness of hearing aids in elderly people].
AB  - The analysis of factors which influence on the hearing aid efficacy in elderly
      with presbycusis is presented in the article. 125 patients from 60 to 90 years
      old with moderate to severe hearing loss, hearing aid users, were examined. The
      audiology examination included standard methods as well as tests evaluating
      central auditory pathways processing. According to the results of speech
      audiometry in free field low efficacy of hearing aid is revealed in 21 %
      patients. The main factor that decreases hearing aid benefit is the presence of
      central auditory processing disorders, the additional one is poor technical
      characteristics of a hearing aid. To increase hearing aid benefit in elderly the
      correction of central auditory processing disorders, rational hearing aid fitting
      according to individual features of auditory system and help in adaptation to
      hearing aid using are required.

PMID- 28557401
TI  - [Personal response to disease at paresthesia oral mucosa].
AB  - A study related to the disease in 39 (7 men and 32 women) people aged 61-86
      years, suffering from paresthesia oral mucous membranes (POMM). To determine the
      type of relationship to the patient's illness was used clinical test method which
      employs a clinical-psychological typology of relationship to the patient's
      illness. It was found that for patients with middle and old age (69,2 %),
      suffering from severe and moderate POMM severity of pathology characteristic
      intrapsychic focus of personal response to the disease, is caused due to the
      presence of a constant burning sensation in the mouth, often accompanied by the
      syndrome of "dry mouth" violation of social adaptation of patients. For the older
      age groups suffering POMM, which proceeded in a light, at least moderate disease
      severity (28,2 %) is characteristic orientation interpsychic personal response to
      the disease, also causes disturbances of social adaptation of patients. The
      obtained information about the type of relationship the patients of elderly and
      senile age, suffering POMM show that to achieve a positive therapeutic outcome
      and successful rehabilitation is necessary to change their existing inadequate
      response to disease, it is possible by attracting clinical pharmacologist and
      (or) the therapist.

PMID- 28557403
TI  - [Improved management of patients in the detection of fluid in the uterine cavity
      during ultrasound examination of small pelvis in postmenopausal women].
AB  - In carrying out preventive ultrasound in postmenopausal often reveals the
      presence of fluid in the uterine cavity and exhibiting as serozometra, whereby
      the patient is sent to the gynecological hospital to perform hysteroscopy. The
      analysis of 55 case histories of patients with serozometra treated in
      gynecological departments of Volgograd 2013-2015 years. The findings suggest that
      serozometra the majority (82,4 %) of the cases is not accompanied by endometrial
      pathology , thus intrauterine intervention was performed unfounded. In
      identifying serozometra advisable dynamic observation, followed by the need to
      address the issue of hysteroscopy.

PMID- 28557402
TI  - [Dosed walking efficacy in the complex correction of cognitive impairment in
      elderly patients].
AB  - The dosed walking efficacy with including the cognitive training as the component
      of complex therapy of mild and moderate dementia was examined in elderly patients
      with the probable Alzheimer's disease and mixed dementia. It was stated that
      dosed walking with cognitive training interventions improved cognitive
      performance in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease to a greater extent as
      compared to a single medical therapy and patients with mixed dementia probably
      due to severe structural changes of the brain. Female patients showed more
      advantageous health outcome.

PMID- 28557404
TI  - [The presence of anti-allergic antihistamines for consumers in older age groups].
AB  - The work investigated the availability of the antihistamines for consumers aged
      45 years and older. The main factors reducing accessibility: self-healing, low
      frequency of references to the doctor if you have allergic reactions, failure to
      comply with medical appointments, low level of awareness about the use and side
      effects.

PMID- 28557405
TI  - [Indicators of comorbidity in chronic broncho-obstructive pathology].
AB  - We studied the problem of comorbidity in hospitalized patients with chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchial asthma (control group). When
      conducting correlation and regression analysis also showed the existence of a
      close direct relationship between the comorbidity index and age in patients with
      chronic broncho-obstructive pathology. Summary comorbidity index, patients with
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease significantly more than in 2 times differ
      from those of the comparison group. There was revealed the increase of the
      comorbidity index with an increase in the severity of chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease, as well as the weighting of the forecast mortality within 3
      years in COPD compared with bronchial asthma.

PMID- 28557411
TI  - Initiation of Targeted Nanodrug Delivery in Vivo by a Multifunctional Magnetic
      Implant.
AB  - Implant-mediated targeted drug delivery without an external magnetic field is
      very challenging. In this work, we report targeted nanodrug delivery initiated by
      a Fe3O4/poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) implant scaffold with high magnetism. The
      implant scaffold is biocompatible and durable. It effectively attracts nanodrugs
      to its surface, thus killing cancer cells. These findings provide a proof of
      concept for the magnetic implant-directed nanodrug targeting without the need for
      an external magnetic field. This approach may further facilitate more precise
      medical treatments.

PMID- 28557412
TI  - Image-Guided Hydrogen Gas Delivery for Protection from Myocardial Ischemia
      Reperfusion Injury via Microbubbles.
AB  - Cardiomyocyte death induced by ischemia-reperfusion is a major cause of morbidity
      and mortality worldwide. Hydrogen (H2), as an antioxidant, has been shown to have
      great potential in preventive and therapeutic applications against lethal injury
      that occurs from ischemia-reperfusion. However, H2 is sparingly soluble in water,
      resulting in its poor bioavailability in blood and damaged tissues. Here, we have
      developed an ultrasound-visible H2 delivery system by loading H2 inside
      microbubbles (H2-MBs) to prevent myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. Using
      this system, the concentration of H2 in unit volume can be greatly improved under
      normal temperature and pressure conditions. H2-MBs can be visually tracked with
      ultrasound imaging systems and can effectively release their therapeutic gas. In
      vivo systemic delivery of H2-MBs in myocardial ischemic rats at the start of
      reperfusion resulted in a significant reduction of infarct size and pathological
      remodeling. Further analysis showed that this approach markedly inhibited
      cardiomyocyte apoptosis and reduced myocardial inflammation and oxidant damage in
      myocardial ischemia-reperfusion rats. These results indicate that H2-MBs are a
      promising visual delivery system for H2-based therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28557413
TI  - Manufacturing Te/PEDOT Films for Thermoelectric Applications.
AB  - In this work, flexible Te films have been synthesized by electrochemical
      deposition using PEDOT [poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)] nanofilms as working
      electrodes. The Te electrodeposition time was varied to find the best
      thermoelectric properties of the Te/PEDOT double layers. To show the high quality
      of the Te films grown on PEDOT, the samples were analyzed by Raman spectroscopy,
      showing the three Raman active modes of Te: E1, A1, and E2. The X-ray diffraction
      spectra also confirmed the presence of crystalline Te on top of the PEDOT films.
      The morphology of the Te/PEDOT films was studied using scanning electron
      microscopy, showing a homogeneous distribution of Te along the film. Also an
      atomic force microscope was used to analyze the quality of the Te surface.
      Finally, the electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient of the Te/PEDOT
      films were measured as a function of the Te deposition time. The films showed an
      excellent thermoelectric behavior, giving a maximum power factor of about 320 +/-
      16 MUW m-1 K-2 after 2.5 h of Te electrochemical deposition, a value larger than
      that reported for thin films of Te. Qualitative arguments to explain this
      behavior are given in the discussion.

PMID- 28557414
TI  - Enhanced Cycle Stability of Rechargeable Li-O2 Batteries by the Synergy Effect of
      a LiF Protective Layer on the Li and DMTFA Additive.
AB  - Li metal is an ideal anode for rechargeable Li-O2 batteries because of its large
      theoretical capacity (3860 mAh g-1). However, problems with the growth of
      dendrites and reaction with electrolytes and moisture during cycling have
      prevented its practical application. Herein, we report that the use of a 2 wt %
      N,N-dimethyltrifluoroacetamide (DMTFA) additive in a dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)
      electrolyte with a LiF layer on the Li anode allows for good cycling performance
      in Li-O2 batteries. Indeed, a Li-O2 cell with a multiwalled carbon nanotube
      (MWCNT) cathode, 1.0 M LiNO3/DMTFA + DMSO (2:98 v/v) electrolyte, and a LiF layer
      on the Li anode could be cycled 92 times at a current density of 1000 mA g-1 with
      a 1000 mAh g-1.

PMID- 28557415
TI  - Ab Initio Modeling of Electrolyte Molecule Ethylene Carbonate Decomposition
      Reaction on Li(Ni,Mn,Co)O2 Cathode Surface.
AB  - Electrolyte decomposition reactions on Li-ion battery electrodes contribute to
      the formation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers. These SEI layers are
      one of the known causes for the loss in battery voltage and capacity over
      repeated charge/discharge cycles. In this work, density functional theory (DFT)
      based ab initio calculations are applied to study the initial steps of the
      decomposition of the organic electrolyte component ethylene carbonate (EC) on the
      (1014) surface of a layered Li(Nix,Mny,Co1-x-y)O2 (NMC) cathode crystal, which is
      commonly used in commercial Li-ion batteries. The effects on the EC reaction
      pathway due to dissolved Li+ ions in the electrolyte solution and different NMC
      cathode surface terminations containing adsorbed hydroxyl -OH or fluorine -F
      species are explicitly considered. We predict a very fast chemical reaction
      consisting of an EC ring-opening process on the bare cathode surface, the rate of
      which is independent of the battery operation voltage. This EC ring-opening
      reaction is unavoidable once the cathode material contacts with the electrolyte
      because this process is purely chemical rather than electrochemical in nature.
      The -OH and -F adsorbed species display a passivation effect on the surface
      against the reaction with EC, but the extent is limited except for the case of 
      OH bonded to a surface transition metal atom. Our work implies that the possible
      rate-limiting steps of the electrolyte molecule decomposition are the reactions
      on the decomposed organic products on the cathode surface rather than on the bare
      cathode surface.

PMID- 28557416
TI  - Hot-Chemistry Structural Phase Transformation in Single-Crystal Chalcogenides for
      Long-Life Lithium Ion Batteries.
AB  - Tuned chalcogenide single crystals rooted in sulfur-doped graphene were prepared
      by high-temperature solution chemistry. We present a facile route to synthesize a
      rod-on-sheet-like nanohybrid as an active anode material and demonstrate its
      superior performance in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). This nanohybrid contains a
      nanoassembly of one-dimensional (1D) single-crystalline, orthorhombic SnS onto
      two-dimensional (2D) sulfur-doped graphene. The 1D nanoscaled SnS with the
      rodlike single-crystalline structure possesses improved transport properties
      compared to its 2D hexagonal platelike SnS2. Furthermore, we blend this hybrid
      chalcogenide with biodegradable polymer composite using water as a solvent. Upon
      drying, the electrodes were subjected to heating in vacuum at 150  degrees C to
      induce polymer condensation via formation of carboxylate groups to produce a
      mechanically robust anode. The LIB using the as-developed anode material can
      deliver a high volumetric capacity of ~2350 mA h cm-3 and exhibit superior cycle
      stability over 1500 cycles as well as a high capacity retention of 85% at a 1 C
      rate. The excellent battery performance combined with the simplistic, scalable,
      and green chemistry approach renders this anode material as a very promising
      candidate for LIB applications.

PMID- 28557417
TI  - Pseudocapacitive Characteristics of Low-Carbon Silicon Oxycarbide for Lithium-Ion
      Capacitors.
AB  - Lithium-ion capacitors (LICs) and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are important
      energy storage devices. As a material with good mechanical, thermal, and chemical
      properties, low-carbon silicon oxycarbide (LC-SiOC), a kind of silicone oil
      derived SiOC, is of interest as an anode material, and we have examined the
      electrochemical behavior of LC-SiOC in LIB and LIC devices. We found that the
      lithium storage mechanism in LC-SiOC, prepared by pyrolysis of phenyl-rich
      silicon oil, depends on an oxygen-driven rather than a carbon-driven mechanism
      within our experimental scope. An investigation of the electrochemical
      performance of LC-SiOC in half- and full-cell LIBs revealed that LC-SiOC might
      not be suitable for full-cell LIBs because it has a lower capacity (238 mAh g-1)
      than that of graphite (290 mAh g-1) in a cutoff voltage range of 0-1 V versus
      Li/Li+, as well as a substantial irreversible capacity. Surprisingly, LC-SiOC
      acts as a pseudocapacitive material when it is tested in a half-cell
      configuration within a narrow cutoff voltage range of 0-1 V versus Li/Li+.
      Further investigation of a "hybrid" supercapacitor, also known as an LIC, in
      which LC-SiOC is coupled with an activated carbon electrode, demonstrated that a
      power density of 156 000 W kg-1 could be achieved while maintaining an energy
      density of 25 Wh kg-1. In addition, the resulting capacitor had an excellent
      cycle life, holding ~90% of its energy density even after 75 000 cycles. Thus, LC
      SiOC is a promising active material for LICs in applications such as heavy-duty
      electric vehicles.

PMID- 28557418
TI  - Enhancing Photocatalytic Activity of Graphitic Carbon Nitride by Codoping with P
      and C for Efficient Hydrogen Generation.
AB  - The generation of clean hydrogen gas from photocatalytic water splitting by using
      graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) as the photocatalyst has attracted considerable
      research interest. For practical applications, however, the photocatalytic
      activity of g-C3N4 needs to be further improved by, for example, band gap
      engineering through heteroatom doping. In this study, we found that doping of
      carbon nitride with carbon and phosphorus (P) could tune energy level of the
      conduction band. Subsequent hydrothermal treatment led to an increase in the
      specific surface area from 24.9 up to 141.1 m2 g-1, which was accompanied by
      increasing C concentration of the resultant C, P-doped g-C3N4 to reduce the hole
      electron recombination and enhance the conductivity. Consequently, the C, P
      codoped g-C3N4 (i.e., CPCN-1*) exhibited a much enhanced photocatalytic activity
      for efficient generation of H2 by photocatalytic water splitting under visible
      light irradiation (1493.3 MUmol g-1 h-1-about 9.7 times enhancement from that of
      bulk g-C3N4).

PMID- 28557420
TI  - Enhancing the Properties of Conductive Polymer Hydrogels by Freeze-Thaw Cycles
      for High-Performance Flexible Supercapacitors.
AB  - We report that a postsynthesis physical process (freeze-thaw cycles) can reform
      the microstructure of conductive polymer hydrogels from clustered nanoparticles
      to interconnected nanosheets, leading to enhanced mechanical and electrochemical
      properties. The polyaniline-poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel after five freeze-thaw
      cycles (PPH-5) showed remarkable tensile strength (16.3 MPa), large elongation at
      break (407%), and high electrochemical capacitance (1053 F.g-1). The flexible
      supercapacitor based on PPH-5 provided a large capacitance (420 mF.cm-2 and 210
      F.g-1) and high energy density (18.7 W.h.kg-1), whose robustness was demonstrated
      by its 100% capacitance retention after 1000 galvanostatic charge-discharge
      cycles or after 1000 mechanical folding cycles. The outstanding performance
      enables PPH-5 based supercapacitor as a promising power device for flexible
      electronics, which also demonstrates the merit of freeze-thaw cycles for
      enhancing the performance of functional hydrogels.

PMID- 28557419
TI  - PEGylated GdF3:Fe Nanoparticles as Multimodal T1/T2-Weighted MRI and X-ray CT
      Imaging Contrast Agents.
AB  - Contrast agents for multimodal imaging are in high demand for cancer diagnosis.
      To date, integration of T1/T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray
      computed tomography (CT) imaging capabilities in one system to obtain an accurate
      diagnosis still remains challenging. In this work, biocompatible PEGylated
      GdF3:Fe nanoparticles (PEG-GdF3:Fe NPs) were reasonable designed and synthesized
      as multifunctional contrast agents for efficient T1/T2-weighted MRI and X-ray CT
      multimodal imaging. Owing to the enhanced permeability and retention effect in
      vivo, strong T1 contrast, evident T2 contrast, and X-ray CT signals in a tumor
      lesion can be observed after intravenous injection of PEG-GdF3:Fe NPs. Therefore,
      PEG-GdF3:Fe NPs could be used as potential multimodal contrast agents for cancer
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28557422
TI  - Guest Induced Strong Cooperative One- and Two-Step Spin Transitions in Highly
      Porous Iron(II) Hofmann-Type Metal-Organic Frameworks.
AB  - The synthesis, crystal structure, magnetic, calorimetric, and Mossbauer studies
      of a series of new Hofmann-type spin crossover (SCO) metal-organic frameworks
      (MOFs) is reported. The new SCO-MOFs arise from self-assembly of FeII, bis(4
      pyridyl)butadiyne (bpb), and [Ag(CN)2]- or [MII(CN)4]2- (MII = Ni, Pd).
      Interpenetration of four identical 3D networks with alpha-Po topology are
      obtained for {Fe(bpb)[AgI(CN)2]2} due to the length of the rod-like
      bismonodentate bpb and [Ag(CN)2]- ligands. The four networks are tightly packed
      and organized in two subsets orthogonally interpenetrated, while the networks in
      each subset display parallel interpenetration. This nonporous material undergoes
      a very incomplete SCO, which is rationalized from its intricate structure. In
      contrast, the single network Hofmann-type MOFs {Fe(bpb)[MII(CN)4]}.nGuest (MII =
      Ni, Pd) feature enhanced porosity and display complete one-step or two-step
      cooperative SCO behaviors when the pores are filled with two molecules of
      nitrobenzene or naphthalene that interact strongly with the pyridyl and cyano
      moieties of the bpb ligands via pi-pi stacking. The lack of these guest molecules
      favors stabilization of the high-spin state in the whole range of temperatures.
      However, application of hydrostatic pressure induces one- and two-step SCO.

PMID- 28557423
TI  - Systematic Investigation of Controlled Nanostructuring of Mn12 Single-Molecule
      Magnets Templated by Metal-Organic Frameworks.
AB  - This is the first systematic study exploring metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as
      platforms for the controlled nanostructuring of molecular magnets. We report the
      incorporation of seven single-molecule magnets (SMMs) of general composition
      [Mn12O12(O2CR)16(OH2)4], with R = CF3 (1), (CH3)CCH2 (2), CH2Cl (3), CH2Br (4),
      CHCl2 (5), CH2But (6), and C6H5 (7), into the hexagonal channel pores of a
      mesoporous MOF host. The resulting nanostructured composites combine the key SMM
      properties with the functional properties of the MOF. Synchrotron-based powder
      diffraction with difference envelope density analysis, physisorption analysis
      (surface area and pore size distribution), and thermal analyses reveal that the
      well-ordered hexagonal structure of the host framework is preserved, and magnetic
      measurements indicate that slow relaxation of the magnetization, characteristic
      of the corresponding Mn12 derivative guests, occurs inside the MOF pores.
      Structural host-guest correlations including the bulkiness and polarity of
      peripheral SMM ligands are discussed as fundamental parameters influencing the
      global SMM@MOF loading capacities. These results demonstrate that employing MOFs
      as platforms for the nanostructuration of SMMs is not limited to a particular
      host-guest system but potentially applicable to a multitude of other molecular
      magnets. Such fundamental findings will assist in paving the way for the
      development of novel advanced spintronic devices.

PMID- 28557421
TI  - Cu(I) Disrupts the Structure and Function of the Nonclassical Zinc Finger Protein
      Tristetraprolin (TTP).
AB  - Tristetraprolin (TTP) is a nonclassical zinc finger (ZF) protein that plays a key
      role in regulating inflammatory response. TTP regulates cytokines at the mRNA
      level by binding to AU-rich sequences present at the 3'-untranslated region,
      forming a complex that is then degraded. TTP contains two conserved CCCH domains
      with the sequence CysX8CysX5CysX3His that are activated to bind RNA when zinc is
      coordinated. During inflammation, copper levels are elevated, which is associated
      with increased inflammatory response. A potential target for Cu(I) during
      inflammation is TTP. To determine whether Cu(I) binds to TTP and how Cu(I) can
      affect TTP/RNA binding, two TTP constructs were prepared. One construct contained
      just the first CCCH domain (TTP-1D) and serves as a peptide model for a CCCH
      domain; the second construct contains both CCCH domains (TTP-2D) and is
      functional (binds RNA) when Zn(II) is coordinated. Cu(I) binding to TTP-1D was
      assessed via electronic absorption spectroscopy titrations, and Cu(I) binding to
      TTP-2D was assessed via both absorption spectroscopy and a spin
      filter/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) assay. Cu(I) binds
      to TTP-1D with a 1:1 stoichiometry and to TTP-2D with a 3:1 stoichiometry. The CD
      spectrum of Cu(I)-TTP-2D did not exhibit any secondary structure, matching that
      of apo-TTP-2D, while Zn(II)-TTP-2D exhibited a secondary structure. Measurement
      of RNA binding via fluorescence anisotropy revealed that Cu(I)-TTP-2D does not
      bind to the TTP-2D RNA target sequence UUUAUUUAUUU with any measurable affinity,
      while Zn(II)-TTP-2D binds to this site with nanomolar affinity. Similarly,
      addition of Cu(I) to the Zn(II)-TTP-2D/RNA complex resulted in inhibition of RNA
      binding. Together, these data indicate that, while Cu(I) binds to TTP-2D, it does
      not result in a folded or functional protein and that Cu(I) inhibits Zn(II)-TTP
      2D/RNA binding.

PMID- 28557424
TI  - Carbon Dioxide as a Traceless Caramelization Promotor: Preparation of Prebiotic
      Difructose Dianhydrides (DFAs)-Enriched Caramels from d-Fructose.
AB  - Activation of a concentrated solution of d-fructose with carbonic acid, generated
      from carbon dioxide, induces the formation of difructose dianhydrides (DFAs) and
      their glycosylated derivatives (glycosyl-DFAs), a family of prebiotic
      oligosaccharides. Under optimized conditions, up to 70% of the active DFA species
      were obtained from a highly concentrated solution of fructose, avoiding the
      filtration step and contamination risk associated with the current procedures
      that employ heterogeneous catalysis with acid ion-exchange resins. The optimized
      CO2-promoted preparation of DFA-enriched caramel described here has been already
      successfully scaled up to 150 kg of d-fructose for nutritional studies, showing
      that implementation of this process is possible at a larger scale.

PMID- 28557425
TI  - Crystal Structure and Lithium Diffusion Pathways of a Potential Positive
      Electrode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries: Li2VIII(H0.5PO4)2.
AB  - A new potentially interesting material as a positive electrode for lithium-ion
      batteries, Li2VIII(H0.5PO4)2, was obtained by hydrothermal synthesis. Its crystal
      structure was solved thanks to single-crystal X-ray diffraction. This material is
      isostructural to Li2FeIII(PO4)(HPO4) and also closely related to Li2FeII(SO4)2.
      It can be described as a VO6 octahedron sharing corners with six PO4 tetrahedra
      to form a 3D framework. One oxygen atom of each phosphate group is unshared with
      a vanadium octahedron and as such linked to a hydrogen atom. The arrangement of
      these polyhedra generates large channels running along [100] in which lithium
      cations are located. The close structural relationship between
      Li2FeIII(PO4)(HPO4) and Li2FeII(SO4)2 allows one to investigate, by comparison,
      the effect of the hydrogen atoms lying on lithium diffusion pathways.

PMID- 28557426
TI  - Sodium Diisopropylamide: Aggregation, Solvation, and Stability.
AB  - The solution structures, stabilities, physical properties, and reactivities of
      sodium diisopropylamide (NaDA) in a variety of coordinating solvents are
      described. NaDA is stable for months as a solid or as a 1.0 M solution in N,N
      dimethylethylamine (DMEA) at -20  degrees C. A combination of NMR spectroscopic
      and computational studies show that NaDA is a disolvated symmetric dimer in DMEA,
      N,N-dimethyl-n-butylamine, and N-methylpyrrolidine. Tetrahydrofuran (THF) readily
      displaces DMEA, affording a tetrasolvated cyclic dimer at all THF concentrations.
      Dimethoxyethane (DME) and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine quantitatively
      displace DMEA, affording doubly chelated symmetric dimers. The trifunctional
      ligands N,N,N',N",N"-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine and diglyme bind the dimer as
      bidentate rather than tridentate ligands. Relative rates of solvent
      decompositions are reported, and rate studies for the decomposition of THF and
      DME are consistent with monomer-based mechanisms.

PMID- 28557427
TI  - Metabolomics Approach To Evaluate a Baltic Sea Sourced Diet for Cultured Arctic
      Char (Salvelinus alpinus L.).
AB  - Aqua feeds traditionally rely on fishmeal as a protein source, which is costly
      and unsustainable. A new feed was formulated in the study with Baltic Sea sourced
      decontaminated fishmeal, Mytilus edulis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and given
      to Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) for ten months. The diet-induced changes on
      metabolic profile in fish plasma, liver, and muscle were studied relative to a
      fishmeal-based standard diet by using a 1H NMR-based metabolomics approach. Fish
      fed the test diet had higher content of betaine and lower levels of
      trimethylamine-N-oxide and aromatic amino acids in plasma or tissues, which were
      mainly caused by the diet. The metabolomics results are useful to understand the
      mechanism of lower body mass, smaller Fulton's condition factor, and a tendency
      of less lipid content observed in fish fed the test diet. Thus, modifications on
      the dietary levels of these compounds in the feed are needed to achieve better
      growth performance.

PMID- 28557428
TI  - Oxime-Based and Catalyst-Free Dynamic Covalent Polyurethanes.
AB  - Polyurethanes (PUs) have many applications resulting from their preeminent
      properties, but being commonly used toxic catalysts, and the lack of
      processability for PU thermosets cause limitations. Herein, we report a new class
      of the PU-like dynamic covalent polymers, poly(oxime-urethanes) (POUs), which are
      prepared from the uncatalyzed polyaddition of multifunctional oximes and
      hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) at ambient temperature. Kinetics studies reveal
      that almost complete polymerization (~99% conversion) can be achieved in 3 h at
      30  degrees C in dichloromethane (DCM), the most effective among the solvents
      evaluated, producing linear POUs with comparable molecular weights to the
      catalyzed PUs. We find that the oxime-carbamate structures are reversible at
      about 100  degrees C through oxime-enabled transcarbamoylation via a thermally
      dissociative mechanism. The cross-linked POUs based on oxime-carbamate bonds show
      efficient catalyst-free healable/recyclable properties. Density functional theory
      (DFT) calculations suggest that the fast oxime-urethanation and the mild
      thermoreversible nature are mediated by the characteristic nitrone tautomer of
      the oxime. Given widespread urethane-containing materials, POUs are of promising
      potential in applications because of the excellent mechanical performances,
      facile preparation, and dynamic property without using catalysts.

PMID- 28557429
TI  - Comparative Proteome Analysis between High Lipid-Producing Strain Mucor
      circinelloides WJ11 and Low Lipid-Producing Strain CBS 277.49.
AB  - Mucor circinelloides is one of few oleaginous fungi that produces a useful oil
      rich in gamma-linolenic acid, but it usually only produces <25% total lipid.
      Nevertheless, we isolated a new strain WJ11 that can produce up to 36% lipid of
      cell dry weight. In this study, we have systematically analyzed the global
      changes in protein levels between the high lipid-producing strain WJ11 and the
      low lipid-producing strain CBS 277.49 (15%, lipid/cell dry weight) at lipid
      accumulation phase through comparative proteome analysis. Proteome analysis
      demonstrated that the branched-chain amino acid and lysine metabolism, glycolytic
      pathway, and pentose phosphate pathway in WJ11 were up-regulated, while the
      activities of tricarboxylic acid cycle and branch point enzyme for synthesis of
      isoprenoids were retarded compared with CBS 277.49. The coordinated regulation at
      proteome level indicate that more acetyl-CoA and NADPH are provided for fatty
      acid biosynthesis in WJ11 compared with CBS 277.49.

PMID- 28557431
TI  - Probabilistic Generation of Mass Spectrometry Molecular Abundance Variance for
      Case and Control Replicates.
AB  - Shotgun differential mass spectrometry, the untargeted discovery of statistically
      significant differences between two or more samples, is a popular application
      with potential to advance biomarker detection, disease diagnostics, and other
      health objectives. Although many methods have been proposed, few have been
      quantitatively evaluated. The lack of ground truth data for shotgun difference
      detection limits quantitative evaluation and algorithmic advancement. While
      public mass-spectrometry data sets of single samples abound, data sets with more
      than one sample are rare, and data sets with the thousands of samples necessary
      to capture the complexity of real world populations are nonexistent due to
      technological and cost limitations. We present MSabundanceSIM, novel software for
      simulating any number of molecular samples based on one or a few real world data
      sets. The software uses a probabilistic model to generate case and control
      populations, with intuitive user parameters for tuning. We demonstrate
      variability by comparing to a real world data set over a range of abundances with
      differing biological and experimental variation coefficients. MSabundanceSIM is
      implemented in Ruby, is freely available, requires no external dependencies, and
      is suitable for a range of applications.

PMID- 28557430
TI  - Identification of a Water-Soluble Indirubin Derivative as Potent Inhibitor of
      Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor through Structural Modification of the
      Parent Natural Molecule.
AB  - Indirubins have been identified as potent ATP-competitive protein kinase
      inhibitors. Structural modifications in the 5- and 3'-position have been
      extensively investigated, but the impact of substituents in 5'-position is not
      equally well-studied. Here, we report the synthesis of new indirubin 3'- and 5'
      derivatives in the search of water-soluble indirubins by introducing basic
      centers. Antiproliferative activity of all compounds in tumor cells was evaluated
      along with kinase inhibition of selected compounds. The results show the 3'
      position to tolerate large substituents without compromising activity, whereas
      bulk and rigid substituents in 5'-position appear unfavorable. Screening
      molecular targets of water-soluble 3'-oxime ethers revealed 6ha as preferential
      inhibitor of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) in a panel of 22
      protein kinases and in cells. Consistently, 6ha inhibited tumor cell growth in
      the NCI 60 cell line panel and induced apoptosis. The results indicate that the
      5'-position provides limited space for chemical modifications and identify 6ha as
      a potent water-soluble indirubin-based IGF-1R inhibitor.

PMID- 28557432
TI  - Self-Assembled TEMPO Cellulose Nanofibers: Graphene Oxide-Based Biohybrids for
      Water Purification.
AB  - Nanocellulose, graphene oxide (GO), and their combinations there off have
      attracted great attention for the application of water purification recently
      because of their unique adsorption capacity, mechanical characteristics,
      coordination with transition metal ions, surface charge density, and so on. In
      the current study, (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxylradical) (TEMPO)-mediated
      oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TOCNF) and GO sheets or graphene oxide nanocolloid
      (nanoGO) biohybrids were prepared by vacuum filtration method to obtain self
      assembled adsorbents and membranes for water purification. The porous biohybrid
      structure, studied using advanced microscopy techniques, revealed a unique
      networking and self-assembling of TOCNF, GO, and nanoGO, driven by the morphology
      of the GO phase and stabilized by the intermolecular H-bonding between carboxyl
      groups and hydroxyl groups. The biohybrids exhibited a promising adsorption
      capacity toward Cu(II) due to TOCNF and formed a unique "arrested state" in water
      because of ionic cross-linking between adsorbed Cu(II) and the negatively charged
      TOCNF and GO phase. The mechanical performance of the freestanding biohybrid
      membranes investigated using PeakForce Quantative NanoMechanics characterization
      confirmed the enhanced modulus of the hybrid membrane compared to that of the
      TOCNF membrane. Besides, the TOCNF+nanoGO membrane shows unique hydrolytic
      stability and recyclability even under several cycles of adsorption and
      desorption and strong sonication. This study shows that TOCNF and nanoGO hybrids
      can generate new water-cleaning membranes with synergistic properties because of
      their high adsorption capacity, flexibility, hydrolytic stability, and mechanical
      robustness.

PMID- 28557433
TI  - Ligand-Mediated and Enzyme-Directed Precise Targeting and Retention for the
      Enhanced Treatment of Glioblastoma.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most lethal cancers, remains as a hard task to
      handle. The major hurdle of nanostructured therapeutic agents comes from the
      limited retention at the GBM site and poor selectivity. In this study, we
      reported dual-functional gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to figure out the biological
      barrier and improve their accumulation in GBM. The nanoparticles, AuNP-A&C-R,
      were composed of two functional particles: one was Ala-Ala-Asn-Cys-Asp (AK) and
      R8-RGD-comodified AuNPs (AuNP-AK-R) and the other was 2-cyano-6-amino
      benzothiazole and R8-RGD-comodified AuNPs (AuNP-CABT-R). AuNP-A&C-R could
      aggregate in the presence of legumain, resulting in a size increase from 41.4 +/-
      0.6 to 172.9 +/- 10.2 nm after 8 h incubation. After entering the circulatory
      system, AuNP-A&C-R actively targeted the integrin alphavbeta3 receptor on blood
      brain barrier (BBB), mediated transcytosis of particles across BBB, and then
      targeted the receptor on the GBM cells. Once AuNP-A&C-R entered into GBM, they
      formed further aggregates with increased size extracellularly or intracellularly
      because of the overexpressed legumain, which in turn blocked their backflow to
      the bloodstream or limited their exocytosis by cells. In vivo optical imaging
      demonstrated that AuNP-A&C-R were efficiently delivered to the GBM site and
      retained with high selectivity. We further confirmed that AuNP-A&C-R acquired a
      higher accumulation at the GBM site than AuNP-A&C and AuNP-R because of the
      synergistic effect. More importantly, the doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded AuNP-A&C-R
      showed an improved chemotherapeutic effect to C6 GBM-bearing mice, which
      significantly prolonged the median survival time by 1.22-fold and 1.27-fold
      compared with the DOX-loaded AuNP-A&C and the DOX-loaded AuNP-R, respectively.
      These results suggested that the dual-functional nanoplatform is promising for
      the GBM treatment.

PMID- 28557435
TI  - Cross-linked Collagen Hydrogel Matrix Resisting Contraction To Facilitate Full
      Thickness Skin Equivalents.
AB  - Full-thickness skin equivalents are gathering increased interest as skin grafts
      for the treatment of large skin defects or chronic wounds or as nonanimal test
      platforms. However, their fibroblast-mediated contraction and poor mechanical
      stability lead to disadvantages toward their reproducibility and applicability in
      vitro and in vivo. To overcome these pitfalls, we aimed to chemically cross-link
      the dermal layer of a full-thickness skin model composed of a collagen type I
      hydrogel. Using a noncytotoxic four-arm succinimidyl glutarate polyethylene
      glycol (PEG-SG), cross-linking could be achieved in cell seeded collagen
      hydrogels. A concentration of 0.5 mg of PEG-SG/mg of collagen led to a viability
      comparable to non-cross-linked collagen hydrogels and no increased release of
      intracellular lactate dehydrogenase. Cross-linked collagen hydrogels were more
      mechanically stable and less prone to enzymatic degradation via collagenase when
      compared with non-cross-linked collagen hydrogels. Remarkably, during 21 days,
      cross-linked collagen hydrogels maintain their initial surface area, whereas
      standard dermal models contracted up to 50%. Finally, full-thickness skin
      equivalents were generated by seeding human epidermal keratinocytes on the
      surface of the equivalents and culturing these equivalents at an air-liquid
      interface. Immunohistochemical stainings of the cross-linked model revealed well
      defined epidermal layers including an intact stratum corneum and a dermal part
      with homogeneously distributed human dermal fibroblasts. These results indicate
      that cross-linking of collagen with PEG-SG reduces contraction of collagen
      hydrogels and thus increases the applicability of these models as an additional
      tool for efficacy and safety assessment or a new generation of skin grafts.

PMID- 28557436
TI  - Highly Sensitive Telomerase Assay Insusceptible to Telomerase and Polymerase
      Chain Reaction Inhibitors for Cervical Cancer Screening Using Scraped Cells.
AB  - A sensitive telomerase assay based on asymmetric-polymerase chain reaction (A
      PCR) on magnetic beads and subsequent application of cycling probe technology,
      STAMC, which is insusceptible to DNase and PCR inhibitors, was for the first time
      applied to clinical specimens in addition to a conventional telomeric repetitive
      amplification protocol (TRAP). The electrophoresis results showed that an
      increase in scraped cervical cancer cells not only reduced TRAP products but also
      increased smaller products, suggesting the unreliability of TRAP for clinical
      samples. To achieve the required sensitivity of STAMC for clinical application,
      the sequence and concentration conditions were explored for the forward and
      reverse primers for A-PCR, which resulted in a detection limit of only two HeLa
      cells with 1 MUM TS primer (5'-AATCCGTCGAGCAGAGTT-3') and 0.04 MUM ACX primer (5'
      GCGCGGCTTACCCTTACCCTTACCCTAACC-3'). Under the same primer conditions, the
      fluorescence signal of STAMC increased as scraped cervical cancer cells increased
      despite showing a negligible intensity for benign tumors. Furthermore, STAMC
      showed no signal for a cervical cancer patient treated with irradiation therapy.
      These results indicate that STAMC is useful for not only cervical cancer
      screening but also investigating the effect of cancer treatments such as
      radiation therapy and drug administration.

PMID- 28557434
TI  - Dual Targeting of WEE1 and PLK1 by AZD1775 Elicits Single Agent Cellular
      Anticancer Activity.
AB  - Inhibition of the WEE1 tyrosine kinase enhances anticancer chemotherapy efficacy.
      Accordingly, the WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 (previously MK-1775) is currently under
      evaluation in clinical trials for cancer in combination with chemotherapy.
      AZD1775 has been reported to display high selectivity and is therefore used in
      many studies as a probe to interrogate WEE1 biology. However, AZD1775 also
      exhibits anticancer activity as a single agent although the underlying mechanism
      is not fully understood. Using a chemical proteomics approach, we here describe a
      proteome-wide survey of AZD1775 targets in lung cancer cells and identify several
      previously unknown targets in addition to WEE1. In particular, we observed polo
      like kinase 1 (PLK1) as a new target of AZD1775. Importantly, in vitro kinase
      assays showed PLK1 and WEE1 to be inhibited by AZD1775 with similar potency.
      Subsequent loss-of-function experiments using RNAi for WEE1 and PLK1 suggested
      that targeting PLK1 enhances the pro-apoptotic and antiproliferative effects
      observed with WEE1 knockdown. Combination of RNAi with AZD1775 treatment
      suggested WEE1 and PLK1 to be the most relevant targets for mediating AZD1775's
      anticancer effects. Furthermore, disruption of WEE1 by CRISPR-Cas9 sensitized
      H322 lung cancer cells to AZD1775 to a similar extent as the potent PLK1
      inhibitor BI-2536 suggesting a complex crosstalk between PLK1 and WEE1. In
      summary, we show that AZD1775 is a potent dual WEE1 and PLK1 inhibitor, which
      limits its use as a specific molecular probe for WEE1. However, PLK1 inhibition
      makes important contributions to the single agent mechanism of action of AZD1775
      and enhances its anticancer effects.

PMID- 28557437
TI  - Differentiating Physicochemical Properties between Addictive and Nonaddictive
      ADHD Drugs Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulation Studies.
AB  - Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed
      mental disorder of children and adolescents. Although psychostimulants are
      currently the first-line drugs for ADHD, their highly addictive profile raises
      great abuse concerns. It is known that psychostimulants' addictiveness is largely
      attributed to their interaction with dopamine transporter (DAT) and their binding
      modes in DAT can thus facilitate the understanding of the mechanism underlining
      drugs' addictiveness. However, no DAT residue able to discriminate ADHD drugs'
      addictiveness is identified, and the way how different drug structures affect
      their abuse liability is still elusive. In this study, multiple computational
      methods were integrated to differentiate binding modes between approved
      psychostimulants and ADHD drugs of little addictiveness. As a result, variation
      in energy contribution of 8 residues between addictive and nonaddictive drugs was
      observed, and a reduction in hydrophobicity of drugs' 2 functional groups was
      identified as the indicator of drugs' addictiveness. This finding agreed well
      with the physicochemical properties of 8 officially reported controlled
      substances. The identified variations in binding mode can shed light on the
      mechanism underlining drugs' addictiveness, which may thus facilitate the
      discovery of improved ADHD therapeutics with reduced addictive profile.

PMID- 28557438
TI  - Anti-inflammatory and Antibacterial Effects of Covalently Attached Biomembrane
      Mimic Polymer Grafts on Gore-Tex Implants.
AB  - Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), also known as Gore-Tex, is widely used
      as an implantable biomaterial in biomedical applications because of its favorable
      mechanical properties and biochemical inertness. However, infection and
      inflammation are two major complications with ePTFE implantations, because
      pathogenic bacteria can inhabit the microsized pores, without clearance by host
      immune cells, and the limited biocompatibility can induce foreign body reactions.
      To minimize these complications, we covalently grafted a biomembrane-mimic
      polymer, poly(2-methacryloyloxylethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC), by partial
      defluorination followed by UV-induced polymerization with cross-linkers on the
      ePTFE surface. PMPC grafting greatly reduced serum protein adsorption as well as
      fibroblast adhesion on the ePTFE surface. Moreover, the PMPC-grafted ePTFE
      surface exhibited a dramatic inhibition of the adhesion and growth of
      Staphylococcus aureus, a typical pathogenic bacterium in ePTFE implants, in the
      porous network. On the basis of an analysis of immune cells and inflammation
      related factors, i.e., transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and
      myeloperoxidase (MPO), we confirmed that inflammation was efficiently alleviated
      in tissues around PMPC-grafted ePTFE plates implanted in the backs of rats.
      Covalent PMPC may be an effective strategy for promoting anti-inflammatory and
      antibacterial functions in ePTFE implants and to reduce side effects in
      biomedical applications of ePTFE.

PMID- 28557439
TI  - Spin-Polarized Tunneling through Chemical Vapor Deposited Multilayer Molybdenum
      Disulfide.
AB  - The two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has attracted
      widespread attention for its extraordinary electrical-, optical-, spin-, and
      valley-related properties. Here, we report on spin-polarized tunneling through
      chemical vapor deposited multilayer MoS2 (~7 nm) at room temperature in a
      vertically fabricated spin-valve device. A tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of 0.5
      2% has been observed, corresponding to spin polarization of 5-10% in the measured
      temperature range of 300-75 K. First-principles calculations for ideal junctions
      result in a TMR up to 8% and a spin polarization of 26%. The detailed
      measurements at different temperature, bias voltages, and density functional
      theory calculations provide information about spin transport mechanisms in
      vertical multilayer MoS2 spin-valve devices. These findings form a platform for
      exploring spin functionalities in 2D semiconductors and understanding the basic
      phenomena that control their performance.

PMID- 28557440
TI  - Construction of Injectable Double-Network Hydrogels for Cell Delivery.
AB  - Herein we present a unique method of using dynamic cross-links, which are dynamic
      covalent bonding and ionic interaction, for the construction of injectable double
      network (DN) hydrogels, with the objective of cell delivery for cartilage repair.
      Glycol chitosan and dibenzaldhyde capped poly(ethylene oxide) formed the first
      network, while calcium alginate formed the second one, and in the resultant DN
      hydrogel, either of the networks could be selectively removed. The moduli of the
      DN hydrogel were significantly improved compared to that of the parent single
      network hydrogels and were tunable by changing the chemical components. In situ
      3D cell encapsulation could be easily performed by mixing cell suspension to the
      polymer solutions and transferred through a syringe needle before sol-gel
      transition. Cell proliferation and mediated differentiation of mouse chondrogenic
      cells were achieved in the DN hydrogel extracellular matrix.

PMID- 28557441
TI  - Tyrosinase-Mediated Surface Coimmobilization of Heparin and Silver Nanoparticles
      for Antithrombotic and Antimicrobial Activities.
AB  - Thrombus and infections are the most common causes for the failure of medical
      devices, leading to higher hospitalization costs and, in some cases, patient
      morbidity. It is, therefore, necessary to develop novel strategies to prevent
      thrombosis and infection caused by medical devices. Herein, we report a simple
      and a highly efficient strategy to impart antithrombotic and antimicrobial
      properties to substrates, by simultaneously immobilizing heparin and in situ
      synthesized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) via a tyrosinase-catalyzed reaction.
      This consists of tyrosinase-oxidized phenolic groups of a heparin derivative
      (heparin-grafted tyramine, HT) to catechol groups, followed by immobilizing
      heparin and inducing the in situ Ag NP formation onto poly(urethane) (PU)
      substrates. The successful immobilization of both heparin and in situ Ag NPs on
      the substrates was confirmed by analyses of water contact angles, XPS, SEM, and
      AFM. The sustained silver release and the surface stability were observed for 30
      days. Importantly, the antithrombotic potential of the immobilized surfaces was
      demonstrated by a reduction in fibrinogen absorption, platelet adhesion, and
      prolonged blood clotting time. Additionally, the modified PU substrates also
      exhibited remarkable antibacterial properties against both Gram-positive and Gram
      negative bacteria. The results of this work suggest a useful, effective, and time
      saving method to improve simultaneous antithrombotic and antibacterial
      performances of a variety of substrate materials for medical devices.

PMID- 28557442
TI  - Dry and Direct Deposition of Aerosol-Synthesized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
      by Thermophoresis.
AB  - Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) show great potential as an active
      material in electronic and photonic devices, but their applicability is currently
      limited by shortcomings in existing deposition methods. SWCNTs can be dispersed
      from liquid solutions; however, their poor solubility requires the use of
      surfactants and ultrasonication, causing defects and degradation in device
      performance. Likewise, the high temperatures required by their chemical vapor
      deposition growth limit substrates on which SWCNTs can be directly grown. Here,
      we present a systematic study of the direct deposition of pristine, aerosol
      synthesized SWCNTs by thermophoresis. The density of the deposited nanotube film
      can be continuously adjusted from individual, separated nanotubes to multilayer
      thin films by changing the deposition time. Depending on the lateral flow inside
      the thermophoretic precipitator, the angular distribution of the deposited SWCNT
      film can be changed from uniform to nonuniform. Because the substrate is kept at
      nearly ambient temperature, deposition can be thus carried out on practically any
      flat substrate with high efficiencies close to unity. The thermophoretic terminal
      velocity of SWCNTs, determined by aerosol loss measurements, is found to be
      approximately one-third of the usual prediction in the free molecular regime and
      shows a weak dependence on the nanotube diameter. As a demonstration of the
      applicability of our technique, we have used thermophoretic deposition in the
      fabrication of carbon nanotube thin-film transistors with uniform electrical
      properties and a high, over 99.5%, yield.

PMID- 28557443
TI  - Synthesis of Heterocycle-Containing 9,9-Diarylfluorenes Using Superelectrophiles.
AB  - A superacid-promoted method for the synthesis of 9,9-diarylfluorenes is
      described. The chemistry involves cyclizations and arylations with biphenyl
      substituted heterocyclic ketones and a mechanism is proposed involving
      superelectrophilic intermediates. The key reactive intermediates-dicationic and
      trication fluorenyl cations have been observed by low-temperature NMR and the
      mechanism has been further studied using DFT calculations.

PMID- 28557444
TI  - Complex and Hierarchical 2D Assemblies via Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly
      of Poly(l-lactide) Homopolymers with Charged Termini.
AB  - Poly(l-lactide) (PLLA)-based nanoparticles have attracted much attention with
      respect to applications in drug delivery and nanomedicine as a result of their
      biocompatibility and biodegradability. Nevertheless, the ability to prepare PLLA
      assemblies with well-defined shape and dimensions is limited and represents a key
      challenge. Herein we report access to a series of monodisperse complex and
      hierarchical colloidally stable 2D structures based on PLLA cores using the
      seeded growth, "living-crystallization-driven self-assembly" method.
      Specifically, we describe the formation of diamond-shaped platelet micelles and
      concentric "patchy" block co-micelles by using seeds of the charge-terminated
      homopolymer PLLA24[PPh2Me]I to initiate the sequential growth of either
      additional PLLA24[PPh2Me]I or a crystallizable blend of the latter with the block
      copolymer PLLA42-b-P2VP240, respectively. The epitaxial nature of the growth
      processes used for the creation of the 2D block co-micelles was confirmed by
      selected area electron diffraction analysis. Cross-linking of the P2VP corona of
      the peripheral block in the 2D block co-micelles using Pt nanoparticles followed
      by dissolution of the interior region in good solvent for PLLA led to the
      formation of novel, hollow diamond-shaped assemblies. We also demonstrate that,
      in contrast to the aforementioned results, seeded growth of the unsymmetrical
      PLLA BCPs PLLA42-b-P2VP240 or PLLA20-b-PAGE80 alone from 2D platelets leads to
      the formation of diamond-fiber hybrid structures.

PMID- 28557446
TI  - Total Synthesis of Isohericerin, Isohericenone, and Erinacerin A: Development of
      a Copper-Catalyzed Methylboronation of Terminal Alkynes.
AB  - Efficient and concise approaches for the synthesis of three bioactive natural
      products, isohericerin, isohericenone, and erinacerin A, are described in this
      paper. The key reactions employed include a Mannich reaction with commercially
      available hydroxybenzoate and subsequent one-pot lactamization to afford the
      common precursor isoindolinone in 3 steps and a Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction
      to connect geranyl side chains to the isoindolinone core. In addition, the mild
      and efficient synthesis of the C5'-oxidized geranyl side unit of isohericenone is
      enabled by developing a highly regioselective and efficient method for the Cu
      catalyzed methylboronation of functionalized terminal alkynes.

PMID- 28557445
TI  - Discovery of the Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Stimulator Vericiguat (BAY 1021189)
      for the Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure.
AB  - The first-in-class soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator riociguat was
      recently introduced as a novel treatment option for pulmonary hypertension.
      Despite its outstanding pharmacological profile, application of riociguat in
      other cardiovascular indications is limited by its short half-life, necessitating
      a three times daily dosing regimen. In our efforts to further optimize the
      compound class, we have uncovered interesting structure-activity relationships
      and were able to decrease oxidative metabolism significantly. These studies
      resulting in the discovery of once daily sGC stimulator vericiguat (compound 24,
      BAY 1021189), currently in phase 3 trials for chronic heart failure, are now
      reported.

PMID- 28557447
TI  - Use of a 700 MHz NMR Microcryoprobe for the Identification and Quantification of
      Exogenous Carbon in Compounds Purified by Preparative Capillary Gas
      Chromatography for Radiocarbon Determinations.
AB  - Preparative capillary gas chromatography (PCGC) is the central technique used for
      the purification of volatile or semivolatile organic compounds for radiocarbon
      analysis using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). While thicker film columns
      offer efficient separations, cyclic poly(dimethylsiloxanes) (PDMS) derived from
      the column's stationary phase have been highlighted as a potential source of
      contaminant carbon in "trapped" compounds. The PDMS CH3 groups are of "infinite"
      radiocarbon age due to the fossil carbon origin of the feedstock used in
      production. Hence, column bleed, if present at sufficiently high concentrations,
      would shift the radiocarbon ages of trapped compounds to older ages.
      Quantification of the column bleed in trapped samples, however, is extremely
      challenging and up to now has only been achieved through indirect 14C
      determinations of chromatographic blanks, which are used for post 14C
      determination "corrections". As part of wider investigations aimed at better
      understanding the chemical nature of contamination in compound-specific 14C
      determinations, herein, we report a rigorous approach to column bleed
      identification and quantification. Using reference fatty acid methyl esters
      (FAMEs), 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), employing a 700 MHz
      instrument equipped with a 1.7 mm microcryoprobe optimized for 1H observation,
      was able to detect low submicrogram amounts of low molecular weight compounds
      (<500 Da). Direct quantification of PCGC "trapped" FAMEs was achieved based on
      the recorded 1H NMR spectra. Gravimetrically prepared calibration mixtures of
      cyclic PMDSs and FAMEs showed column bleed abundance to be below 0.03% w/w of the
      "trapped" FAMEs, which would lead to a maximum shift in radiocarbon age of <3
      years toward older values. We therefore conclude that column bleed contamination
      has a negligible effect on the 14C determination of FAMEs prepared using the
      chromatographic method described. The 1H NMR analysis also revealed the absence
      of other protonated carbon-containing components that would affect radiocarbon
      determinations at the precisions achievable by AMS.

PMID- 28557448
TI  - Nonclassical Single-State Reactivity of an Oxo-Iron(IV) Complex Confined to
      Triplet Pathways.
AB  - C-H bond activation mediated by oxo-iron (IV) species represents the key step of
      many heme and nonheme O2-activating enzymes. Of crucial interest is the effect of
      spin state of the FeIV(O) unit. Here we report the C-H activation kinetics and
      corresponding theoretical investigations of an exclusive tetracarbene ligated oxo
      iron(IV) complex, [LNHCFeIV(O)(MeCN)]2+ (1). Kinetic traces using substrates with
      bond dissociation energies (BDEs) up to 80 kcal mol-1 show pseudo-first-order
      behavior and large but temperature-dependent kinetic isotope effects (KIE 32 at 
      40  degrees C). When compared with a topologically related oxo-iron(IV) complex
      bearing an equatorial N-donor ligand, [LTMCFeIV(O) (MeCN)]2+ (A), the
      tetracarbene complex 1 is significantly more reactive with second order rate
      constants k'2 that are 2-3 orders of magnitude higher. UV-vis experiments in
      tandem with cryospray mass spectrometry evidence that the reaction occurs via
      formation of a hydroxo-iron(III) complex (4) after the initial H atom transfer
      (HAT). An extensive computational study using a wave function based
      multireference approach, viz. complete active space self-consistent field
      (CASSCF) followed by N-electron valence perturbation theory up to second order
      (NEVPT2), provided insight into the HAT trajectories of 1 and A. Calculated free
      energy barriers for 1 reasonably agree with experimental values. Because the
      strongly donating equatorial tetracarbene pushes the Fe-dx2-y2 orbital above dz2,
      1 features a dramatically large quintet-triplet gap of ~18 kcal/mol compared to
      ~2-3 kcal/mol computed for A. Consequently, the HAT process performed by 1 occurs
      on the triplet surface only, in contrast to complex A reported to feature two
      state-reactivity with contributions from both triplet and quintet states. Despite
      this, the reactive FeIV(O) units in 1 and A undergo the same electronic-structure
      changes during HAT. Thus, the unique complex 1 represents a pure "triplet-only"
      ferryl model.

PMID- 28557450
TI  - Does Synergism in Microscopic Polarity Correlate with Extrema in Macroscopic
      Properties for Aqueous Mixtures of Dipolar Aprotic Solvents?
AB  - Aqueous mixtures of dipolar aprotic solvents (acetonitrile, gamma-valerolactone,
      gamma-butyrolactone, tetrahydrofuran, 1,4-dioxane, acetone, pyridine, N-methyl-2
      pyrrolidone, N,N-dimethylformamide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, and dimethyl
      sulfoxide) show synergism in microscopic polarity and extrema in macroscopic
      viscosity (eta) and molar excess enthalpy (HE) in water-rich compositions that
      correlate with solvent functional group electrostatic basicity (beta2H).
      Microscopic polarities of aqueous solvent mixtures were estimated by measuring
      the spectral shift (lambdamax) of 4-nitroaniline with UV-vis spectroscopy at 25 
      degrees C. Dynamic viscosities (eta) and densities were measured for eight
      aqueous dipolar aprotic mixtures over the full range of compositions at (25 to
      45)  degrees C. The lambdamax, eta, and HE values of the aqueous mixtures showed
      a linear trend with increasing electrostatic basicity of the solvent functional
      groups that is attributed to the size and strength of the hydration shell of
      water. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed for 1:3
      complexes (solvent: (H2O)3) and it was found that aqueous mixtures with high
      basicity have high binding energies and short hydrogen bonding distances implying
      that the size and strength of the hydration shell of water is proportional to
      functional group basicity. Consideration of functional group basicity of dipolar
      aprotic solvents allows one to relate synergism in microscopic polarity to
      extrema in macroscopic properties for a wide range of aqueous dipolar aprotic
      solvent mixtures.

PMID- 28557449
TI  - Antimalarial Activities of Alkyl Cyclohexenone Derivatives Isolated from the
      Leaves of Poupartia borbonica.
AB  - Bioactivity-guided fractionation of the ethyl acetate extract of the leaves of
      Poupartia borbonica led to the isolation of three new alkyl cyclohexenone
      derivatives 1-3, and named Poupartone A-C. The structures of the new compounds
      were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data analysis and MS, whereas
      calculated and experimental ECD spectra were used to define the absolute
      configurations. These compounds were active against 3D7 and W2 Plasmodium
      falciparum strains with IC50 values between 0.55 and 1.81 MUM. In vitro
      cytotoxicity against WI38 human fibroblasts and the human cervical cancer cell
      line HeLa (WST-1 assay) showed that these compounds were also cytotoxic, but no
      hemolytic activity was observed for the extract and pure compounds. An in vivo
      antimalarial assay was performed on the major cyclohexenone using P. berghei
      infected mice at a dose of 15 mg/kg/day ip. The assay revealed growth inhibition
      of 59.1 and 69.5% at days 5 and 7 postinfection, respectively, although some
      toxicity was observed. Zebrafish larvae were used as a model to determine the
      type of toxicity, and the results showed cardiac toxicity. The methanol extract
      was also studied, and it displayed moderate antiplasmodial properties in vitro.
      This extract contained the known flavonoids, quercetin, 3'-O
      hydroxysulfonylquercetin, quercitrin, and isoquercitrin as well as ellagic acid,
      which showed high to low activity against the 3D7 P. falciparum strain.

PMID- 28557451
TI  - Enantioselective Cycloaddition of Styrenes with Aldimines Catalyzed by a Chiral
      Magnesium Potassium Binaphthyldisulfonate Cluster as a Chiral Bronsted Acid
      Catalyst.
AB  - A chiral magnesium potassium binaphthyldisulfonate cluster, as a chiral Bronsted
      acid catalyst, was shown to catalyze an enantioselective cycloaddition of
      styrenes with aldimines for the first time. The strong Bronsted acidity of the
      catalyst precursors, which might dissolve drying agents and take up the leached
      Mg2+ and K+, serendipitously led to good enantioselectivity. Mechanistic aspects
      were supported by X-ray and ESI-MS analysis of the catalyst and a kinetics study
      of the reaction. Useful transformations to optically active 1,3-amino alcohols on
      a gram scale were also demonstrated.

PMID- 28557452
TI  - Photoreactions of Porphyrins Initiated by Deep Ultraviolet Single Photons.
AB  - The newly built 177 nm all-solid-state deep ultraviolet (DUV) laser
      photoionization mass spectrometer finds a unique advantage to identify porphyrins
      that bear ionization energies close to 7.0 eV. We observed dramatic selectivity
      of tetraphenylporphyrins (TPPs) pertaining to varied photochemical processes
      initiated by the DUV laser excitation. Single-photon ionization was found
      dominant for 2H-TPP resulting in a fragmentation-free mass spectrum; photoinduced
      dehydrogenation was observed for zinc TPP, but both dehydrogenation and
      demetalation are noted for copper TPP. Along with first-principle calculations,
      we demonstrate how the photoinduced reactions vary with residual energies of
      photoionization, highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular
      orbital gaps, donor-acceptor orbital overlaps, single-step barriers, and whether
      or not there is a major process of structural rearrangement. It is demonstrated
      that the rotation of benzene ring under proper laser radiation prompts
      dehydrogenation process; also, metallo-TPPs do not support direct demetalation,
      but it is selectively accomplishable along with dehydrogenation and successive
      hydrogenation processes. These findings not only provide insights into the
      hydrogen atom transfer in porphyrins initiated by ultraviolet laser but also
      suggest promising applications of the DUV laser in designed synthesis and
      chemical modification of porphyrins.

PMID- 28557453
TI  - Coating Nanoparticles with Plant-Produced Transferrin-Hydrophobin Fusion Protein
      Enhances Their Uptake in Cancer Cells.
AB  - The encapsulation of drugs to nanoparticles may offer a solution for targeted
      delivery. Here, we set out to engineer a self-assembling targeting ligand by
      combining the functional properties of human transferrin and fungal hydrophobins
      in a single fusion protein. We showed that human transferrin can be expressed in
      Nicotiana benthamiana plants as a fusion with Trichoderma reesei hydrophobins
      HFBI, HFBII, or HFBIV. Transferrin-HFBIV was further expressed in tobacco BY-2
      suspension cells. Both partners of the fusion protein retained their
      functionality; the hydrophobin moiety enabled migration to a surfactant phase in
      an aqueous two-phase system, and the transferrin moiety was able to reversibly
      bind iron. Coating porous silicon nanoparticles with the fusion protein resulted
      in uptake of the nanoparticles in human cancer cells. This study provides a proof
      of-concept for the functionalization of hydrophobin coatings with transferrin as
      a targeting ligand.

PMID- 28557454
TI  - Galvanic Corrosion of Lead by Iron (Oxyhydr)Oxides: Potential Impacts on Drinking
      Water Quality.
AB  - Lead exposure via drinking water remains a significant public health risk; this
      study explored the potential effects of upstream iron corrosion on lead mobility
      in water distribution systems. Specifically, galvanic corrosion of lead by iron
      (oxyhydr)oxides was investigated. Coupling an iron mineral cathode with metallic
      lead in a galvanic cell increased lead release by 531 MUg L-1 on average-a 9-fold
      increase over uniform corrosion in the absence of iron. Cathodes were composed of
      spark plasma sintered Fe3O4 or alpha-Fe2O3 or field-extracted Fe3O4 and alpha
      FeOOH. Orthophosphate immobilized oxidized lead as insoluble hydroxypyromorphite,
      while humic acid enhanced lead mobility. Addition of a humic isolate increased
      lead release due to uniform corrosion by 81 MUg L-1 and-upon coupling lead to a
      mineral cathode-release due to galvanic corrosion by 990 MUg L-1. Elevated lead
      in the presence of humic acid appeared to be driven by complexation, with 208Pb
      and UV254 size-exclusion chromatograms exhibiting strong correlation under these
      conditions (R2average = 0.87). A significant iron corrosion effect was consistent
      with field data: lead levels after lead service line replacement were greater by
      factors of 2.3-4.7 at sites supplied by unlined cast iron distribution mains
      compared with the alternative, lined ductile iron.

PMID- 28557455
TI  - Host-Guest Interaction between Corona[n]arene and Bisquaternary Ammonium
      Derivatives for Fabricating Supra-Amphiphile.
AB  - The interactions between a host, water-soluble corona[n]arene (S6-CAP), and a
      series of guests, bisquaternary ammonium derivatives (CnDAs), in water, were
      investigated. The host and guest can form 1:1 host-guest complex. Their binding
      constants decrease as the alkyl length of CnDAs increases, which can be tunable
      ranging from 103 to 106 M-1. The binding processes are mainly entropy-driven,
      while the enthalpy changes also play an important role in enhancing the host
      guest interactions. In addition, a supra-amphiphile was fabricated with S6-CAP
      and a normal surfactant bearing bisquaternary ammonium (C4R). The S6-CAP.C4R
      complex forms micellar aggregates in water, and the system possesses better
      assembling activity and dilution stability than its building block C4R. This
      study enriches the families of supra-amphiphiles with a new architecture, and
      employing such a supra-amphiphile in biofunctional materials is highly
      anticipated.

PMID- 28557456
TI  - Met349 Mutations Enhance the Activity of 1,4-alpha-Glucan Branching Enzyme from
      Geobacillus thermoglucosidans STB02.
AB  - 1,4-alpha-Glucan branching enzyme (GBE, EC 2.4.1.18) is used to increase the
      number of alpha-1,6 branch points in starch and glycogen. On the basis of a
      multiple sequence alignment of the GBEs from a variety of bacteria, residue 349
      (Geobacillus thermoglucosidans STB02 numbering) in region III is generally
      methionine in bacteria with higher identity, while it is threonine or serine in
      bacteria with lower identity. Four mutants (M349T, M349S, M349H, and M349Y) were
      constructed by site-directed mutagenesis and characterized. M349T and M349S
      showed 24.5% and 21.1% increases in specific activity compared with that of wild
      type GBE, respectively. In addition, M349T and M349S displayed 24.2% and 17.6%
      enhancements in the alpha-1,6-glycosidic linkage ratio of potato starch samples,
      respectively. However, M349Y displayed a significant reduction in activity.
      Moreover, the mutations at M349 have a negligible effect on substrate
      specificity. Thus, M349T and M349S are more suitable for industrial applications
      than wild-type GBE.

PMID- 28557457
TI  - Oxazolidinones and 2,5-Dihydrofurans via Zinc-Catalyzed Regioselective
      Allenylation Reactions of l-alpha-Amino Aldehydes.
AB  - The simultaneous control of diastereoselectivity and regioselectivity in Zn
      catalyzed allenylation reactions of N-protected l-alpha-amino aldehydes is
      reported. A reversal in diastereoselectivity could be realized by variation of
      the alpha-amino aldehyde protecting groups. A range of 1-allenyl-2-amino alcohols
      were obtained with excellent regioselectivity and converted to oxazolidinones and
      dihydrofurans. Many of which could be isolated as single diastereoisomers and
      without significant erosion of ee, making this a practical catalytic synthesis of
      highly functionalized heterocycles.

PMID- 28557459
TI  - Phonon-Assisted Two-Photon Interference from Remote Quantum Emitters.
AB  - Photonic quantum technologies are on the verge of finding applications in
      everyday life with quantum cryptography and quantum simulators on the horizon.
      Extensive research has been carried out to identify suitable quantum emitters and
      single epitaxial quantum dots have emerged as near-optimal sources of bright, on
      demand, highly indistinguishable single photons and entangled photon-pairs. In
      order to build up quantum networks, it is essential to interface remote quantum
      emitters. However, this is still an outstanding challenge, as the quantum states
      of dissimilar "artificial atoms" have to be prepared on-demand with high fidelity
      and the generated photons have to be made indistinguishable in all possible
      degrees of freedom. Here, we overcome this major obstacle and show an
      unprecedented two-photon interference (visibility of 51 +/- 5%) from remote
      strain-tunable GaAs quantum dots emitting on-demand photon-pairs. We achieve this
      result by exploiting for the first time the full potential of a novel phonon
      assisted two-photon excitation scheme, which allows for the generation of highly
      indistinguishable (visibility of 71 +/- 9%) entangled photon-pairs (fidelity of
      90 +/- 2%), enables push-button biexciton state preparation (fidelity of 80 +/-
      2%) and outperforms conventional resonant two-photon excitation schemes in terms
      of robustness against environmental decoherence. Our results mark an important
      milestone for the practical realization of quantum repeaters and complex
      multiphoton entanglement experiments involving dissimilar artificial atoms.

PMID- 28557458
TI  - Design and Discovery of N-(2-Methyl-5'-morpholino-6'-((tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4
      yl)oxy)-[3,3'-bipyridin]-5-yl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)benzamide (RAF709): A Potent,
      Selective, and Efficacious RAF Inhibitor Targeting RAS Mutant Cancers.
AB  - RAS oncogenes have been implicated in >30% of human cancers, all representing
      high unmet medical need. The exquisite dependency on CRAF kinase in KRAS mutant
      tumors has been established in genetically engineered mouse models and human
      tumor cells. To date, many small molecule approaches are under investigation to
      target CRAF, yet kinase-selective and cellular potent inhibitors remain
      challenging to identify. Herein, we describe 14 (RAF709) [ Aversa , Biaryl amide
      compounds as kinase inhibitors and their preparation . WO 2014151616, 2014 ], a
      selective B/C RAF inhibitor, which was developed through a hypothesis-driven
      approach focusing on drug-like properties. A key challenge encountered in the
      medicinal chemistry campaign was maintaining a balance between good solubility
      and potent cellular activity (suppression of pMEK and proliferation) in KRAS
      mutant tumor cell lines. We investigated the small molecule crystal structure of
      lead molecule 7 and hypothesized that disruption of the crystal packing would
      improve solubility, which led to a change from N-methylpyridone to a
      tetrahydropyranyl oxy-pyridine derivative. 14 proved to be soluble, kinase
      selective, and efficacious in a KRAS mutant xenograft model.

PMID- 28557460
TI  - Unveiling the Catalytic Origin of Nanocrystalline Yttrium Ruthenate Pyrochlore as
      a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Zn-Air Batteries.
AB  - Zn-air batteries suffer from the slow kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)
      and/or oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Thus, the bifunctional electrocatalysts
      are required for the practical application of rechargeable Zn-air batteries. In
      terms of the catalytic activity and structural stability, pyrochlore oxides
      (A2[B2-xAx]O7-y) have emerged as promising candidates. However, a limited use of
      A-site cations (e.g., lead or bismuth cations) of reported pyrochlore catalysts
      have hampered broad understanding of their catalytic effect and structure. More
      seriously, the catalytic origin of the pyrochlore structure was not clearly
      revealed yet. Here, we report the new nanocrystalline yttrium ruthenate (Y2[Ru2
      xYx]O7-y) with pyrochlore structure. The prepared pyrochlore oxide demonstrates
      comparable catalytic activities in both ORR and OER, compared to that of
      previously reported metal oxide-based catalysts such as perovskite oxides.
      Notably, we first find that the catalytic activity of the Y2[Ru2-xYx]O7-y is
      associated with the oxidations and corresponding changes of geometric local
      structures of yttrium and ruthenium ions during electrocatalysis, which were
      investigated by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in real-time. Zn-air
      batteries using the prepared pyrochlore oxide achieve highly enhanced charge and
      discharge performance with a stable potential retention for 200 cycles.

PMID- 28557461
TI  - Perfluoropolyethers: Development of an All-Atom Force Field for Molecular
      Simulations and Validation with New Experimental Vapor Pressures and Liquid
      Densities.
AB  - A force field for perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) based on the general optimized
      potentials for liquid simulations all-atom (OPLS-AA) force field has been derived
      in conjunction with experiments and ab initio quantum mechanical calculations.
      Vapor pressures and densities of two liquid PFPEs, perfluorodiglyme (CF3-O-(CF2
      CF2-O)2-CF3) and perfluorotriglyme (CF3-O-(CF2-CF2-O)3-CF3), have been measured
      experimentally to validate the force field and increase our understanding of the
      physical properties of PFPEs. Force field parameters build upon those for related
      molecules (e.g., ethers and perfluoroalkanes) in the OPLS-AA force field, with
      new parameters introduced for interactions specific to PFPEs. Molecular dynamics
      simulations using the new force field demonstrate excellent agreement with ab
      initio calculations at the RHF/6-31G* level for gas-phase torsional energies
      (<0.5 kcal mol-1 error) and molecular structures for several PFPEs, and also
      accurately reproduce experimentally determined densities (<0.02 g cm-3 error) and
      enthalpies of vaporization derived from experimental vapor pressures (<0.3 kcal
      mol-1). Additional comparisons between experiment and simulation show that
      polyethers demonstrate a significant decrease in enthalpy of vaporization upon
      fluorination unlike related molecules (e.g., alkanes and alcohols). Simulation
      suggests this phenomenon is a result of reduced cohesion in liquid PFPEs due to a
      reduction in localized associations between backbone oxygen atoms and neighboring
      molecules.

PMID- 28557462
TI  - Coherent Interlayer Tunneling and Negative Differential Resistance with High
      Current Density in Double Bilayer Graphene-WSe2 Heterostructures.
AB  - We demonstrate gate-tunable resonant tunneling and negative differential
      resistance between two rotationally aligned bilayer graphene sheets separated by
      bilayer WSe2. We observe large interlayer current densities of 2 and 2.5 MUA/MUm2
      and peak-to-valley ratios approaching 4 and 6 at room temperature and 1.5 K,
      respectively, values that are comparable to epitaxially grown resonant tunneling
      heterostructures. An excellent agreement between theoretical calculations using a
      Lorentzian spectral function for the two-dimensional (2D) quasiparticle states,
      and the experimental data indicates that the interlayer current stems primarily
      from energy and in-plane momentum conserving 2D-2D tunneling, with minimal
      contributions from inelastic or non-momentum-conserving tunneling. We demonstrate
      narrow tunneling resonances with intrinsic half-widths of 4 and 6 meV at 1.5 and
      300 K, respectively.

PMID- 28557463
TI  - Synthesis of Dual-Size Cellulose-Polyvinylpyrrolidone Nanofiber Composites via
      One-Step Electrospinning Method for High-Performance Air Filter.
AB  - Dual-size nanofibers consisting of a random mixture of nano- and submicron-size
      nanofibers are promising structures for specific applications such as air filters
      because of their increased specific surface area and low pressure drop. Synthesis
      of dual-size nanofibers using one-step electrospinning was reported here for the
      first time. The formation of well-mixed nano- and submicron-size cellulose
      polyvinylpyrrolidone nanofiber composites was accomplished utilizing the physical
      properties of TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (i.e., high thixotropy and high
      magnitude of zeta potential) and tuning the charge of the polymer jet, which
      influences the formation and shape of Taylor cone, and Coulombic explosion. The
      dual-size nanofibers were then spun on the surface of a HEPA filter to obtain a
      multilayer air filter. Aerosol filtration measurements show that this multilayer
      air filter has an incredibly high performance, shown by the high quality factor
      (Qf), 0.117 Pa-1, which is 10 times the Qf of commercial HEPA filters.

PMID- 28557464
TI  - Halide Ion-Induced Switching of Gold Nanozyme Activity Based on Au-X
      Interactions.
AB  - The influence of halide ion on the peroxidase activity of protein-modified gold
      nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been explored, based on the Au-X interaction directed
      binding of halide ion to AuNPs. Due to different Au-X interactions, halide has
      been demonstrated to display different switching behaviors to the catalytic
      activity of protein-modified AuNPs. Presented is the finding that iodide can
      rapidly inhibit the enzyme activity of CM-AuNP nanozyme effectively. Iodide
      mediated irreversible inhibition is due not to I--induced aggregation of AuNP but
      to the Au-I bond-induced blocking of active sites of AuNP nanozyme. I- switching
      efficiency was found to be strongly dependent on the surface density of modifiers
      and the intrinsic property of the modifier. Similar to iodide, bromide can also
      inhibit the enzyme activity effectively, but its inhibition behavior is
      reversible. Due to the weak Au-Cl interaction, chloride has no influence on the
      enzyme activity of CM-AuNP at low ion concentration and exhibits weak activity
      inhibition at high ion concentration. Fluoride shows no influence on the activity
      of gold nanozyme due to the absence of Au-F interaction. Our results have
      improved a profound understanding of anion-mediated AuNP nanozyme activity
      because of their interfacial interaction and provided guidance in the further
      utilization of nanozyme in numerous areas.

PMID- 28557465
TI  - Inverted Hysteresis in CH3NH3PbI3 Solar Cells: Role of Stoichiometry and Band
      Alignment.
AB  - J-V hysteresis in perovskite solar cells is known to be strongly dependent on
      many factors ranging from the cell structure to the preparation methods. Here we
      uncover one likely reason for such sensitivity by linking the stoichiometry in
      pure CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) perovskite cells with the character of their hysteresis
      behavior through the influence of internal band offsets. We present evidence
      indicating that in some cells the ion accumulation occurring at large forward
      biases causes a temporary and localized increase in recombination at the
      MAPbI3/TiO2 interface, leading to inverted hysteresis at fast scan rates.
      Numerical semiconductor models including ion accumulation are used to propose and
      analyze two possible origins for these localized recombination losses: one based
      on band bending and the other on an accumulation of ionic charge in the
      perovskite bulk.

PMID- 28557466
TI  - A fully conditional specification approach to multilevel imputation of
      categorical and continuous variables.
AB  - Specialized imputation routines for multilevel data are widely available in
      software packages, but these methods are generally not equipped to handle a wide
      range of complexities that are typical of behavioral science data. In particular,
      existing imputation schemes differ in their ability to handle random slopes,
      categorical variables, differential relations at Level-1 and Level-2, and
      incomplete Level-2 variables. Given the limitations of existing imputation tools,
      the purpose of this manuscript is to describe a flexible imputation approach that
      can accommodate a diverse set of 2-level analysis problems that includes any of
      the aforementioned features. The procedure employs a fully conditional
      specification (also known as chained equations) approach with a latent variable
      formulation for handling incomplete categorical variables. Computer simulations
      suggest that the proposed procedure works quite well, with trivial biases in most
      cases. We provide a software program that implements the imputation strategy, and
      we use an artificial data set to illustrate its use. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557467
TI  - Thanks coefficient alpha, we'll take it from here.
AB  - Empirical studies in psychology commonly report Cronbach's alpha as a measure of
      internal consistency reliability despite the fact that many methodological
      studies have shown that Cronbach's alpha is riddled with problems stemming from
      unrealistic assumptions. In many circumstances, violating these assumptions
      yields estimates of reliability that are too small, making measures look less
      reliable than they actually are. Although methodological critiques of Cronbach's
      alpha are being cited with increasing frequency in empirical studies, in this
      tutorial we discuss how the trend is not necessarily improving methodology used
      in the literature. That is, many studies continue to use Cronbach's alpha without
      regard for its assumptions or merely cite methodological articles advising
      against its use to rationalize unfavorable Cronbach's alpha estimates. This
      tutorial first provides evidence that recommendations against Cronbach's alpha
      have not appreciably changed how empirical studies report reliability. Then, we
      summarize the drawbacks of Cronbach's alpha conceptually without relying on
      mathematical or simulation-based arguments so that these arguments are accessible
      to a broad audience. We continue by discussing several alternative measures that
      make less rigid assumptions which provide justifiably higher estimates of
      reliability compared to Cronbach's alpha. We conclude with empirical examples to
      illustrate advantages of alternative measures of reliability including omega
      total, Revelle's omega total, the greatest lower bound, and Coefficient H. A
      detailed software appendix is also provided to help researchers implement
      alternative methods. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557469
TI  - Using implicit association tests in age-heterogeneous samples: The importance of
      cognitive abilities and quad model processes.
AB  - Implicit association tests (IATs) are increasingly used to indirectly assess
      people's traits, attitudes, or other characteristics. In addition to measuring
      traits or attitudes, IAT scores also reflect differences in cognitive abilities
      because scores are based on reaction times (RTs) and errors. As cognitive
      abilities change with age, questions arise concerning the usage and
      interpretation of IATs for people of different age. To address these questions,
      the current study examined how cognitive abilities and cognitive processes (i.e.,
      quad model parameters) contribute to IAT results in a large age-heterogeneous
      sample. Participants (N = 549; 51% female) in an age-stratified sample (range =
      12-88 years) completed different IATs and 2 tasks to assess cognitive processing
      speed and verbal ability. From the IAT data, D2-scores were computed based on
      RTs, and quad process parameters (activation of associations, overcoming bias,
      detection, guessing) were estimated from individual error rates. Substantial IAT
      scores and quad processes except guessing varied with age. Quad processes AC and
      D predicted D2-scores of the content-specific IAT. Importantly, the effects of
      cognitive abilities and quad processes on IAT scores were not significantly
      moderated by participants' age. These findings suggest that IATs seem suitable
      for age-heterogeneous studies from adolescence to old age when IATs are
      constructed and analyzed appropriately, for example with D-scores and process
      parameters. We offer further insight into how D-scoring controls for method
      effects in IATs and what IAT scores capture in addition to implicit
      representations of characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557470
TI  - The visibility of social class from facial cues.
AB  - Social class meaningfully impacts individuals' life outcomes and daily
      interactions, and the mere perception of one's socioeconomic standing can have
      significant ramifications. To better understand how people infer others' social
      class, we therefore tested the legibility of class (operationalized as monetary
      income) from facial images, finding across 4 participant samples and 2 stimulus
      sets that perceivers categorized the faces of rich and poor targets significantly
      better than chance. Further investigation showed that perceivers categorize
      social class using minimal facial cues and employ a variety of stereotype-related
      impressions to make their judgments. Of these, attractiveness accurately cued
      higher social class in self-selected dating profile photos. However, only the
      stereotype that well-being positively relates to wealth served as a valid cue in
      neutral faces. Indeed, neutrally posed rich targets displayed more positive
      affect relative to poor targets and perceivers used this affective information to
      categorize their social class. Impressions of social class from these facial cues
      also influenced participants' evaluations of the targets' employability,
      demonstrating that face-based perceptions of social class may have important
      downstream consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557468
TI  - Differentiating the everyday emotion dynamics of borderline personality disorder
      from major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.
AB  - A major barrier to the understanding of emotion dynamics in borderline
      personality disorder (BPD) lies in its substantial comorbidity with major
      depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Whereas BPD has often been
      characterized in terms of dynamic emotional processes, including instability,
      reactivity, and inertia, its substantial comorbidity with MDD and BD makes it
      difficult to discern the specificity of these dynamics. To differentiate the
      emotion dynamics of BPD from those of MDD and BD, an experience sampling study of
      38 participants with BPD, 15 participants with MDD, 14 participants with BD, and
      62 healthy controls obtained reports of interpersonal challenges and emotions 5
      times daily for 2 weeks. Interpersonal challenges included rejection, betrayal,
      abandonment, offense, disappointment, and self-image challenge; emotions included
      anger, excitement, guilt, happiness, irritability, and shame. Multilevel analyses
      revealed that heightened interpersonal reactivity of guilt and shame and
      heightened inertia of shame were relatively specific to BPD. These findings could
      not be accounted for by the presence of current MDD or BD. By contrast,
      heightened instability of anger and irritability and heightened inertia of
      irritability appeared to be largely transdiagnostic. Implications for clinical
      assessment, research, and theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557471
TI  - The double-edged sword of leader charisma: Understanding the curvilinear
      relationship between charismatic personality and leader effectiveness.
AB  - This study advanced knowledge on charisma by (a) introducing a new personality
      based model to conceptualize and assess charisma and by (b) investigating
      curvilinear relationships between charismatic personality and leader
      effectiveness. Moreover, we delved deeper into this curvilinear association by
      (c) examining moderation by the leader's level of adjustment and by (d) testing a
      process model through which the effects of charismatic personality on
      effectiveness are explained with a consideration of specific leader behaviors.
      Study 1 validated HDS charisma (Hogan Development Survey) as a useful trait-based
      measure of charisma. In Study 2 a sample of leaders (N = 306) were assessed in
      the context of a 360-degree development center. In line with the too-much-of-a
      good-thing effect, an inverted U-shaped relationship between charismatic
      personality and observer-rated leader effectiveness was found, indicating that
      moderate levels are better than low or high levels of charisma. Study 3 (N = 287)
      replicated this curvilinear relationship and further illustrated the moderating
      role of leader adjustment, in such a way that the inflection point after which
      the effects of charisma turn negative occurs at higher levels of charisma when
      adjustment is high. Nonlinear mediation modeling further confirmed that strategic
      and operational leader behaviors fully mediate the curvilinear relationship.
      Leaders low on charisma are less effective because they lack strategic behavior;
      highly charismatic leaders are less effective because they lack operational
      behavior. In sum, this work provides insight into the dispositional nature of
      charisma and uncovers the processes through which and conditions under which
      leader charisma translates into (in)effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557472
TI  - Openness to experience and culture-openness transactions across the lifespan.
AB  - We examined the life span development of openness to experience and tested
      whether change in this personality trait was associated with change in cultural
      activity, such as attending the opera or visiting museums. Data came from the
      Dutch Longitudinal Internet Study for the Social Sciences panel, which includes 5
      personality assessments across a 7-year period of a nationally representative
      sample of 7,353 individuals, aged 16 to 95 years. Latent growth curve analyses
      indicated that on average, openness remained relatively stable in emerging
      adulthood before declining in midlife and old age. At each stage of life, there
      were significant individual differences in openness development, and changes in
      openness were correlated with changes in cultural activity. Autoregressive cross
      lagged analyses indicated that increases in cultural activity precipitated
      increases in openness, and vice versa. These culture-openness transactions held
      across different age and education groups and when controlling for household
      income. We found less consistent codevelopmental associations between cultural
      activity and the other Big Five traits. We discuss the implications of these
      results for personality development theory and the role of cultural investment in
      personality trait change. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557473
TI  - Vocational interests by gender and race 10 years after spinal cord injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine and compare vocational interests as a function of gender
      and race among 247 participants with spinal cord injury (SCI) approximately 10
      years after SCI onset utilizing the 2004 edition of the Strong Interest Inventory
      (SII). RESEARCH METHOD: For this cross-sectional analysis nested within a
      prospective cohort study, data were collected via mail and analyzed at a medical
      university in the Southeastern United States. Among the 563 adults with traumatic
      SCI initially enrolled during inpatient rehabilitation at a specialty hospital,
      247 met current study eligibility criteria and completed the SII approximately 10
      years postinjury. The SII is a 291-item measure of vocational interests. RESULTS:
      Male participants scored highest on the Realistic theme and females scored
      highest on the Social theme. White participants scored highest on the Realistic
      theme, whereas Black participants scored highest on the Conventional theme.
      Differences in vocational interests by gender were seen on two of the six General
      Occupational Themes (GOT; Realistic and Social) and 12 of the 30 Basic Interest
      Scales (BIS). Race differences were observed on the Enterprising and Conventional
      GOT and 11 of 30 BIS. CONCLUSIONS: For both female and Black participants,
      interests are more physically compatible with employment post-SCI than male and
      White participants. Yet, employment rates in White males with SCI are greater
      than those of female and Black individuals with SCI. These data suggest further
      research on factors influencing gender and racial disparities in employment among
      those with SCI is indicated. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557474
TI  - Adolescents' body image trajectories: A further test of the self-equilibrium
      hypothesis.
AB  - The self-equilibrium hypothesis underlines the importance of having a strong core
      self, which is defined as a high and developmentally stable self-concept. This
      study tested this hypothesis in relation to body image (BI) trajectories in a
      sample of 1,006 adolescents (Mage = 12.6, including 541 males and 465 females)
      across a 4-year period. The results supported the self-equilibrium hypothesis
      among 3 profiles of adolescents, all characterized by matching BI levels and
      stability: (a) High (48.0%); (b) Increasing (34.1%); and (c) Decreasing (17.9%).
      Boys presented higher levels of BI, and the quality of relationships with peers
      and parents predicted initially more desirable trajectories across gender. By the
      end of the study, more positive academic outcomes were associated with the
      Decreasing profile, lower internalizing problems with the High profile, and lower
      externalizing problems with the High and the Increasing profiles. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557476
TI  - Repeated computerized cognitive testing: Performance shifts and test-retest
      reliability in healthy young adults.
AB  - Many longitudinal studies entail repeated computerized cognitive testing.
      However, few of the measures frequently employed for assessing cognitive changes
      have been examined for within- and between-day retest effects over multiple time
      points. To address gaps in the repeated cognitive assessment literature, in the
      current study 20 male undergraduate students completed a computerized cognitive
      battery 6 times over 3 testing days, each 1 week apart. Performance shifts and
      test-retest reliability (TRR) varied for different measured variables. Reaction
      times (RTs) on tasks designed to measure inhibition, switching, and selective
      attention generally showed good TRR, and few or only gradual improvements over
      time, suggesting that these measures are suitable for use in repeated testing,
      and that the inclusion of brief familiarization periods sufficed to resolve
      initial practice effects. Similar findings were observed for both accuracy and
      speed on a 2-back working memory task. In contrast, RTs on a basic visuomotor
      task showed worsening performance across time (likely reflecting boredom effects)
      and poor TRR, suggesting unsuitability for measuring change in cognitive
      performance. Cost scores designed to assess inhibition, switching, and selective
      attention showed poor TRR, as did scoring metrics from visuospatial short-term
      and working memory tasks (Corsi block paradigm). This low reliability suggests
      that these scores may not be suitable for use in repeated assessment, and calls
      into question their validity as measures of the specified cognitive functions.
      Researchers planning studies entailing computerized assessment of cognitive
      functioning in healthy young adults should consider the current results when
      selecting suitable cognitive tasks and measures. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557475
TI  - Early social behaviors and the trajectory of peer victimization across the school
      years.
AB  - Research has established that long-term exposure to peer victimization is
      associated with higher levels of emotional and behavioral maladjustment. Yet,
      relatively little is known regarding predictors of stable versus declining
      victimization across extended periods of time. To fill this knowledge gap, the
      present study used latent growth curve modeling to examine the separate and
      unique contributions of 3 early social behaviors in 2nd grade (aggression,
      anxious solitude, and prosocial behavior) to victimization across 2nd to 8th
      grade. Five hundred and 76 youth (M = 7.96 years, SD = .34) reported their level
      of exposure to victimization once a year from 2nd to 8th grade, and their
      teachers rated each youth on the 3 social behaviors in 2nd grade. When examined
      separately, the analyses revealed that (a) all 3 social behaviors contributed to
      2nd-grade victimization; (b) anxious solitude and prosocial behavior contributed
      to the trajectory of victimization differently for boys and girls; and (c)
      aggression and anxious solitude contributed to significantly different levels of
      8th-grade victimization in girls. Of interest, some effects were stronger in boys
      during elementary school and others were stronger in girls after the transition
      to middle school. When examined simultaneously, aggression remained the only
      significant predictor of 2nd-grade victimization; both anxious solitude and
      prosocial behavior uniquely predicted the trajectory of victimization, and
      aggression and anxious solitude uniquely predicted 8th-grade victimization in
      girls. Results are discussed with regard to prevention of prolonged
      victimization, with attention to gender differences. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557477
TI  - Multivariate normative comparisons for neuropsychological assessment by a
      multilevel factor structure or multiple imputation approach.
AB  - Neuropsychologists administer neuropsychological tests to decide whether a
      patient is cognitively impaired. This clinical decision is made by comparing a
      patient's scores to those of healthy participants in a normative sample. In a
      multivariate normative comparison, a patient's entire profile of scores is
      compared to scores in a normative sample. Such a multivariate comparison has been
      shown to improve clinical decision making. However, it requires a multivariate
      normative data set, which often is unavailable. To obtain such a multivariate
      normative data set, the authors propose to aggregate healthy control group data
      from existing neuropsychological studies. As not all studies administered the
      same tests, this aggregated database will contain substantial amounts of missing
      data. The authors therefore propose two solutions: multiple imputation and factor
      modeling. Simulation studies show that factor modeling is preferred over multiple
      imputation, provided that the factor model is adequately specified. This factor
      modeling approach will therefore allow routine use of multivariate normative
      comparisons, enabling more accurate clinical decision making. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28557478
TI  - Assessment of emotion processing skills in acquired brain injury using an ability
      based test of emotional intelligence.
AB  - Social and emotional problems are commonly reported after moderate to severe
      acquired brain injury (ABI) and pose a significant barrier to rehabilitation.
      However, progress in assessment of emotional skills has been limited by a lack of
      validated measurement approaches. This study represents the first formal
      psychometric evaluation of the use of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional
      Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) V2.0 as a tool for assessing skills in perceiving,
      using, understanding and managing emotions following ABI. The sample consisted of
      82 participants aged 18-80 years in the postacute phase of recovery (2 months-7
      years) after moderate to severe ABI. Participants completed the MSCEIT V2.0 and
      measures of cognition and mood. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were
      collated from participant interview and medical files. Results revealed deficits
      across all MSCEIT subscales (approximately 1 SD below the normative mean).
      Internal consistency was adequate at overall, area, and branch levels, and MSCEIT
      scores correlated in expected ways with key demographic, clinical, cognitive, and
      mood variables. MSCEIT performance was related to injury severity and clinician
      rated functioning after ABI. Confirmatory factor analysis favored a 3-factor
      model of EI due to statistical redundancy of the Using Emotions branch. Overall,
      these findings suggest that the MSCEIT V2.0 is sensitive to emotion processing
      deficits after moderate to severe ABI, and can yield valid and reliable scores in
      an ABI sample. In terms of theoretical contributions, our findings support a
      domain-based, 3-factor approach for characterizing emotion-related abilities in
      brain-injured individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557479
TI  - Development and validation of an Overreporting Scale for the Personality
      Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5).
AB  - Our aim in the current study was to develop a validity scale for the Personality
      Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) to detect noncredible overreported responding. To
      this end, we used a rare symptoms approach and identified extreme response
      options on PID-5 items that were infrequently endorsed by students in 3 different
      university samples (N = 1,370) and in a psychiatric patient sample (N = 194). The
      resulting 10-item scale (the PID-5-ORS) produced adequate-to-good estimates of
      internal reliability and was significantly correlated with the Minnesota
      Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructued Form (MMPI-2-RF) overreporting
      validity scales, providing evidence of concurrent validity. The criterion
      validity of the PID-5-ORS was demonstrated in an analog simulation design study.
      More specifically, university students instructed to overreport (n = 80) scored
      substantially higher on the PID-5-ORS relative to both a group of genuine
      psychiatric patients and students instructed to complete the PID-5 under standard
      (honest) instructions (n = 161); the effect size magnitudes associated with these
      differences were large. Classification accuracy analyses further revealed that
      high scores on the PID-5-ORS were associated with high specificity (and thus, low
      rates of false positive classifications) in differentiating overreporters from
      genuine patients, with sensitivity being somewhat weaker. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28557481
TI  - A within-person examination of the ideal-point response process.
AB  - Ideal-point processes assume that individuals engage in introspective comparisons
      when responding to self-reported typical traits such as personality, affect, and
      attitudes. Although this type of response process is fundamentally a within
      person phenomenon, past research has relied on between-person data using item
      response theory (IRT) model comparisons to draw inferences about the
      appropriateness of ideal-point response processes. However, between-person data
      may not necessarily be indicative of within-person processes. Across 2 studies,
      the authors used a paired comparison paradigm to examine whether within-person
      responses conform to an ideal-point response process (vs. a dominance response
      process). The authors found that an ideal-point response process more accurately
      describes within-person responses to personality, attitude, and affect constructs
      compared to a dominance response process. They additionally found that verbal
      ability and conscientiousness moderate both ideal and dominance response
      processes; individuals high on conscientiousness or high on verbal ability are
      more likely to engage in more precise introspective comparisons. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557480
TI  - Patient-reported outcome measures in Huntington disease: Quality of life in
      neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL) social functioning measures.
AB  - Social functioning is an essential but poorly understood component of health
      related quality of life (HRQOL) for people with Huntington disease (HD). We
      report on the psychometric properties of 2 Neuro-QoL patient-reported outcome
      measures to assess social functioning in HD. Persons with prodromal (n = 198) or
      manifest HD (n = 195 early and n = 117 late) completed Neuro-QoL Ability to
      Participate in Social Roles and Activities, and Satisfaction with Social Roles
      and Activities. Items from 2 generic HRQOL patient-reported outcome measures were
      used to create a social functioning composite score; items from the Unified
      Huntington's Disease Rating Scale and Problem Behaviors Assessment Scale were
      used to create a clinician-rated composite score of social function. Internal
      consistencies for the scores on the Neuro-QoL measures were excellent (> .88).
      Computer adaptive test administration had some advantages over computer
      administered static Short Forms. Validity was supported by significant
      associations between the scores on the Neuro-QoL measures and other self- and
      clinician-reports of social function. Individuals with prodromal HD had better
      social functioning than the manifest HD groups; individuals with late-HD had less
      satisfaction and ability to participate in social roles and activities than the
      other 2 groups. Neuro-QoL provides brief, reliable scores of social functioning
      that measure ability to participate in, and satisfaction with, social roles and
      activities in persons with prodromal and manifest HD. In addition, test score
      interpretations of these measures support their validity in people with prodromal
      and manifest HD. These measurement tools add breadth to treatment outcome
      measures in HD and can increase understanding of the social implications of
      living with HD. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557482
TI  - Assessing hyperactivation and deactivation strategies of the caregiving
      behavioral system: Psychometric studies of the Portuguese version of the
      Caregiving System Scale.
AB  - According to attachment theory, the main goal of the caregiving behavioral system
      is to relieve others' distress and promote their health and welfare. This is
      accomplished through a set of caregiving behaviors that are the primary strategy
      of this system. However, some individuals develop nonoptimal or secondary
      strategies (hyperactivation or deactivation). The Caregiving System Scale (CSS)
      is a self-report measure that assesses these nonoptimal caregiving strategies.
      This study examined the factor structure of the Portuguese version of the CSS
      using a bifactor model and a 2-factor correlated model; it also examined validity
      evidence for CSS scores in relation to other relevant variables. The sample
      comprised 417 women from the general population who completed the CSS, with a
      subsample of 124 women completing additional measures of attachment, mental
      representations of caregiving, compassion, and difficulties in emotional
      regulation. The bifactor model showed the best fit to the data, supporting an
      orthogonal and reliable 2-factor structure (Hyperactivation and Deactivation).
      This model also suggested that the Hyperactivation scale is multidimensional.
      With regard to the validity evidence for the CSS, the results showed that
      individuals engaged in volunteering activities presented lower levels of
      deactivation than those who were not engaged in these activities. The CSS scores
      also correlated as expected with the other measures. In conclusion, this study
      supports the utilization of Deactivation and Hyperactivation subscales as 2
      statistically distinct constructs and demonstrates that the Portuguese version is
      an adequate measure of nonoptimal caregiving strategies. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28557483
TI  - Emotional flexibility: Development and application of a scale in adolescent
      earthquake survivors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Coping flexibility is strongly associated with individuals' well-being
      when coping with trauma. However an instrument to measure emotional flexibility,
      a specific type of coping flexibility, is yet to be developed. The present study
      reported the development and validation of a Self-Administered Inventory on
      emotional flexibility. The study also explored the relationship between emotional
      flexibility and psychological well-being in adolescents who had experienced the
      2008 Sichuan earthquake in China. METHOD: A sample of 327 adolescents from
      Beijing was recruited for item development and preliminary validation. Another
      sample of 941 middle school students from areas affected by the Sichuan
      earthquake was recruited for further validation and examination of its
      relationship with psychological well-being. Exploratory factor analysis and
      confirmatory factor analysis were used to examine the construct validity of the
      scale. The criterion validity of the measure was assessed using Pearson's
      correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The Emotional Flexibility Scale comprises 10
      items covering 3 dimensions, namely tuning of positive emotions, emotion
      communication, and tuning of negative emotions. Emotional flexibility was
      positively correlated with cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being.
      CONCLUSIONS: The Emotional Flexibility Scale provides a brief, reliable, and
      valid measure of emotion regulation ability of adolescents faced with disasters.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557484
TI  - Understanding the early support needs of survivors of traumatic events: The
      example of severe injury survivors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In the aftermath of a potentially traumatic event, people may
      experience a range of mental health outcomes, including subclinical symptoms and
      distress. There is growing evidence that trauma survivors with subclinical
      symptoms are at increased risk of developing later psychiatric disorders, and
      this is especially the case with severe injury survivors. There is a need to
      develop evidence-based, early, brief interventions for those who are at risk of
      developing trauma-related psychopathology. To date, interventions for this at
      risk group have largely been derived from expert consensus. This study therefore
      aimed to understand the early psychosocial difficulties and perceived needs from
      the perspective of trauma survivors to further inform intervention development.
      METHOD: Forty-three survivors of a serious injury, identified as high risk for
      developing trauma-related psychopathology, were interviewed and qualitative
      methods (Thematic Analysis) were used to synthesize the data gathered. RESULTS:
      Participants described 5 main stressors: trauma-related psychological reactions,
      relationship stress, unsatisfactory services and support systems, reduced
      functioning, and negative thoughts and emotions in relation to recovery. In
      addition, participants described 3 main factors that were helpful in recovery:
      positive coping, professional support, and social support. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings can inform posttrauma intervention development for those at risk of
      later psychological symptoms. In particular, the results support approaches
      focusing on promoting activity, supporting social relationships, stress and
      arousal management, and cognitive restructuring. In addition, future
      interventions might helpfully target rumination, worry, and reexperiencing
      symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557485
TI  - Positive adaptations for trauma and healing (PATH), a pilot study of group
      therapy with Latino youth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of
      Positive Adaptations for Trauma and Healing (PATH), a manualized treatment for
      Latino youth and their caregivers. PATH is a culturally adapted program that
      incorporates a trauma model, positive psychology, and resilience. METHOD: Latino
      youth (N = 16) recruited from an urban community clinic participated in PATH with
      their caregiver. Pre- and postintervention measures on trauma symptoms,
      resilience, depression, caregiver's view of their youth's well-being, and
      positive and negative emotions were gathered. Following the intake meetings (1 to
      3), the families participated in 10 90-minute weekly group sessions (total of 3
      groups). Caregiver groups were conducted in Spanish, and youth in English.
      RESULTS: At pretest, 56% of the youth endorsed clinically significant symptoms on
      the UCLA PTSD Index (M = 34.2, SD = 11.2); the percentage dropped to 0% at
      posttest (M = 17.3, SD = 7.6). Youth reported pre- to posttest reductions on the
      Child Depression Inventory (mean difference [Mdiff] = 7.3; p = .004) and
      externalizing (Mdiff = 6.1; p < .001) and internalizing (Mdiff = 9.4; p < .001)
      behaviors on the caregiver-reported Child Behavior Checklist. Overall, there was
      high treatment engagement (93% attendance over 10 weeks). CONCLUSION: This novel
      treatment engaged a community-based Latino sample. The results suggest high
      acceptability and significant reduction in trauma symptoms and associated
      symptoms. This study included a small number of participants and results should
      be interpreted with caution. Future iterations will target larger number of
      participants to further assess feasibility. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557486
TI  - Memory consolidation of attended information is optional: Comment on Jiang et al.
      (2016).
AB  - Attribute amnesia is a phenomenon in which information about a stimulus that was
      just recently used to perform a task is poorly remembered in a surprise test
      (Chen & Wyble, 2015a). In a recent article by Jiang, Shupe, Swallow, and Tan
      (2016), this effect was replicated but with an additional priming measure that
      revealed some carryover memory for the information that participants had trouble
      explicitly reporting on the surprise trial. Their work invites a discussion of
      the underlying cause of attribute amnesia by suggesting that the surprise
      question caused an overwriting of working memory contents. Although we agree that
      overwriting may be partially responsible for the inability to report, data from
      other experiments have suggested that a failure to consolidate a robust memory of
      the attended information is a major cause of the amnesia. We discuss experimental
      evidence supporting the theory that memory consolidation of attended information
      is an optional process that can be selectively evoked by task requirements.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557487
TI  - How memory is tested influences what is measured: Reply to Wyble and Chen (2017).
AB  - In this response to Wyble and Chen's (2017) commentary on attribute amnesia, we
      hope to achieve several goals. First, we clarify how our view diverges from that
      described by Wyble and Chen. We argue that because the surprise memory test is
      disruptive, it is an insensitive tool for measuring the persistence of recently
      attended target attributes in memory. Second, we identify points of agreement
      between our view and that of Wyble and Chen. Like them, we believe that the
      strength of a mental representation is a critical factor in determining whether
      the representation persists long enough to be used in a surprise recognition
      task. We also agree that consolidation is one means of strengthening this
      representation. Finally, we suggest questions that should be addressed to clarify
      the factors that determine whether attended information can be reported in a
      surprise memory test. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557488
TI  - Lying upside-down: Alibis reverse cognitive burdens of dishonesty.
AB  - The cognitive processes underlying dishonesty, especially the inhibition of
      automatic honest response tendencies, are reflected in response times and other
      behavioral measures. Here we suggest that explicit false alibis might have a
      considerable impact on these cognitive operations. We tested this hypothesis in a
      controlled experimental setup. Participants first performed several tasks in a
      preexperimental mission (akin to common mock crime procedures) and received a
      false alibi afterward. The false alibi stated alternative actions that the
      participants had to pretend to have performed instead of the actually performed
      actions. In a computer-based inquiry, the false alibi did not only reduce, but it
      even reversed the typical behavioral effects of dishonesty on response initiation
      (Experiment1) and response execution (Experiment 2). Follow-up investigations of
      response activation via distractor stimuli suggest that false alibis automatize
      either dishonest response retrieval, the inhibition of the honest response, or
      both (Experiments 3 and 4). This profound impact suggests that false alibis can
      override actually performed activities entirely and, thus, documents a severe
      limitation for cognitive approaches to lie detection. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557489
TI  - Beyond opponent coding of facial identity: Evidence for an additional channel
      tuned to the average face.
AB  - Face identity can be represented in a multidimensional space centered on the
      average. It has been argued that the average acts as a perceptual norm, with the
      norm coded implicitly by balanced activation in pairs of channels that respond to
      opposite extremes of face dimensions (two-channel model). In Experiment 1 we used
      face identity aftereffects to distinguish this model from a narrow-band
      multichannel model with no norm. We show that as adaptors become more extreme,
      aftereffects initially increase sharply and then plateau. Crucially there is no
      decrease, ruling out narrow-band multichannel coding, but consistent with a two
      channel norm-based model. However, these results leave open the possibility that
      there may be a third channel, tuned explicitly to the norm (three-channel model).
      In Experiment 2 we show that alternating adaptation widens the range identified
      as the average whereas adaptation to the average narrows the range, consistent
      with the three-channel model. Explicit modeling confirmed the three-channel model
      as the best fit for the combined data from both experiments. However, a two
      channel model with decision criteria allowed to vary between adapting conditions,
      also provided a very good fit. These results support opponent, norm-based coding
      of face identity with additional explicit coding of the norm. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28557490
TI  - Combined effects of form- and meaning-based predictability on perceived clarity
      of speech.
AB  - The perceptual clarity of speech is influenced by more than just the acoustic
      quality of the sound; it also depends on contextual support. For example, a
      degraded sentence is perceived to be clearer when the content of the speech
      signal is provided with matching text (i.e., form-based predictability) before
      hearing the degraded sentence. Here, we investigate whether sentence-level
      semantic coherence (i.e., meaning-based predictability), enhances perceptual
      clarity of degraded sentences, and if so, whether the mechanism is the same as
      that underlying enhancement by matching text. We also ask whether form- and
      meaning-based predictability are related to individual differences in cognitive
      abilities. Twenty participants listened to spoken sentences that were either
      clear or degraded by noise vocoding and rated the clarity of each item. The
      sentences had either high or low semantic coherence. Each spoken word was
      preceded by the homologous printed word (matching text), or by a meaningless
      letter string (nonmatching text). Cognitive abilities were measured with a
      working memory test. Results showed that perceptual clarity was significantly
      enhanced both by matching text and by semantic coherence. Importantly, high
      coherence enhanced the perceptual clarity of the degraded sentences even when
      they were preceded by matching text, suggesting that the effects of form- and
      meaning-based predictions on perceptual clarity are independent and additive.
      However, when working memory capacity indexed by the Size-Comparison Span Test
      was controlled for, only form-based predictions enhanced perceptual clarity, and
      then only at some sound quality levels, suggesting that prediction effects are to
      a certain extent dependent on cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557491
TI  - The average facial expression of a crowd influences impressions of individual
      expressions.
AB  - People can accurately assess the "mood of a crowd" by rapidly extracting the
      average intensity of all the individual expressions, when the crowd consists of a
      set of faces comprising different expressions of the same individual. Here, we
      investigate the processes involved when people judge the expression intensity of
      individual faces that appear in the context of a more naturalistic crowd of
      different individuals' faces. We show that judgments of the intensity of happy
      and angry expressions for individual faces are biased toward the group mean
      expression intensity, even when the faces are all different individuals. In a
      second experiment, we demonstrate that this bias is not due to a generic tendency
      to endorse intermediate intensity expressions more frequently than more extreme
      intensity expressions. Together, these findings suggest that people integrate
      ensemble information about the group average expression when they make judgments
      of individual faces' expressions. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557492
TI  - Decision-making training reduces the attentional blink.
AB  - Practice or training on a particular task often yields gains for the trained
      task; however, the extent to which these benefits generalize to other
      stimuli/tasks is contentious. It has been suggested that behavioral decision
      making/response selection training may enhance temporal visual attention, as
      measured using the attentional blink (AB) paradigm. Here, we show that AB can
      indeed be reduced through response selection training, which requires repeatedly
      performing a speeded decision-making task. Training gains garnered by this
      approach transferred to distinct AB measures, but not to unrelated measures of
      visual search and multitasking ability. Moreover, these changes were still
      evident 2 weeks after training completion. Crucially, training on 2 active
      control tasks-visual search and motion discrimination-did not elicit similar
      gains. Such malleability of temporal visual attention via response selection
      training offers tantalizing prospects for future cognitive enhancement endeavors.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557493
TI  - Are goal states represented during kinematic imitation?
AB  - A number of studies have shown that observation of another person's actions can
      modulate one's own actions, such as when 2 individuals cooperate in order to
      complete a joint task. However, little is known about whether or not direct
      matching of specific movements is modulated by the goals of the actions observed.
      In a series of 7 experiments, we employed an action observation paradigm in which
      2 coactors sat opposite each other and took turns to reach out to targets
      presented on a shared workspace. Importantly, coactors performed either the same
      goal at the reached-to location or a different goal. Although results
      consistently showed that the reaching action of 1 individual slows the observer's
      reaching action to the same spatial location, the effect was not modulated
      according to the adopted goals of coactors. These findings challenge the notion
      that the processes involved in the imitation of specific movements code for the
      action goals of those movements. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557494
TI  - Identifying the locus of compatibility-based backward crosstalk: Evidence from an
      extended PRP paradigm.
AB  - The backward crosstalk effect (BCE) in dual tasking means that characteristics of
      Task 2 of 2 subsequently performed tasks influence Task 1 performance. This
      observation indicates that certain features of the second response are already
      activated to some degree before the first response is selected. Therefore, the
      BCE challenges bottleneck models, which assume that Task 2 response selection
      does not begin until Task 1 response selection is finished. Instead, an extended
      model with a capacity-unlimited response activation stage prior to the bottleneck
      as the locus of the BCE was suggested. To determine the exact locus of the BCE
      within the stages of task processing, 5 experiments were carried out. Experiments
      1 to 4 were psychological refractory period-like experiments with 3 subsequent
      tasks. A prebottleneck locus of the BCE was ruled out in Experiments 1 to 3 by
      using the locus of slack logic. Additionally, a postbottleneck locus of the BCE
      was ruled out in Experiment 4 by using the effect propagation logic. To further
      support this latter conclusion, Experiment 5 applied a go-signal manipulation.
      Taken together, the results of all 5 experiments strongly suggest that the BCE
      has its locus in the capacity-limited stage, which contradicts the widely
      accepted notion that a capacity-unlimited stage of response activation preceding
      response selection proper is the locus of the BCE. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557495
TI  - Working memory load and the retro-cue effect: A diffusion model account.
AB  - Retro-cues (i.e., cues presented between the offset of a memory array and the
      onset of a probe) have consistently been found to enhance performance in working
      memory tasks, sometimes ameliorating the deleterious effects of increased memory
      load. However, the mechanism by which retro-cues exert their influence remains a
      matter of debate. To inform this debate, we applied a hierarchical diffusion
      model to data from 4 change detection experiments using single item, location
      specific probes (i.e., a local recognition task) with either visual or verbal
      memory stimuli. Results showed that retro-cues enhanced the quality of
      information entering the decision process-especially for visual stimuli-and
      decreased the time spent on nondecisional processes. Further, cues interacted
      with memory load primarily on nondecision time, decreasing or abolishing load
      effects. To explain these findings, we propose an account whereby retro-cues act
      primarily to reduce the time taken to access the relevant representation in
      memory upon probe presentation, and in addition protect cued representations from
      visual interference. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557496
TI  - Perceptual surprise aides inhibitory motor control.
AB  - Neurophysiological studies of cortico-motor excitability have shown that
      unexpected sounds are followed by motor inhibition. In a recent study, Leiva,
      Parmentier, Elchlepp, and Verbruggen (2015) derived a prediction from these
      findings: unexpected, task-irrelevant sounds should increase the ability to
      withhold motor responses in a Go/NoGo task. Contrary to that prediction, they
      found that playing unexpected sounds before NoGo-stimuli decreased the likelihood
      of successful motor inhibition. However, we here argue that the relative timing
      of unexpected events relative to NoGo-related motor activity is key. Cortico
      motor inhibition can be found only until ~150 ms after the onset of unexpected
      sounds. Therefore, since Leiva et al. (2015) placed their sounds 200 ms prior to
      NoGo-stimuli, the inhibitory influence of unexpected sounds may have fully abated
      before the critical inhibitory period. Consequently, we here repeated their
      study, with 1 key change: task-irrelevant sounds were presented 50 ms after NoGo
      stimulus onset, which ensures that cortico-motor inhibition takes place when
      motor inhibition is needed. Across 4 experiments, this changed timing produced
      the results predicted by the previous cortico-motor suppression findings: More
      responses were successfully withheld after unexpected sounds. These data provide
      new evidence for the fact that unexpected events can engage an inhibitory control
      process and benefit motor inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557497
TI  - You said you would! The predictability of other's behavior from their intentions
      determines predictive biases in action perception.
AB  - The perception of an action is shifted farther along the observed trajectory if
      the observer has prior knowledge of the actor's intention. This intention-action
      prediction effect is explained by predictive perception models, wherein sensory
      input is interpreted in light of expectancies. This study altered the precision
      of the prediction by varying the predictability of the action from the intention,
      to increase/decrease the predictive perceptual bias. Participants heard an actor
      state an intention ("I'll take it"/"I'll leave it") before the actor reached or
      withdrew from an object, thus confirming or contradicting the intention. The
      intention was predictive of the action (75% congruency) for one group and
      counterpredictive (25%) for another. The action disappeared midmovement and
      participants estimated the disappearance position. The intention-action
      prediction effect was greater if the intention was predictive than if
      counterpredictive. However, participants needed to explicitly know the
      predictability rates (Experiments 1 and 3). No group differences emerged when
      both groups believed the intention was nonpredictive (Experiment 2a), nor when a
      nonpredictive intention was believed to be (counter)predictive (Experiment 2b).
      The perception of others behavior is determined by its predictability from their
      intentions, and the precision of our social predictions is adapted to individual
      differences in behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557498
TI  - Perceived control and voice handicap in patients with voice disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to replicate and extend previous research
      on the relation between perceived present control and voice handicap and to
      further examine the psychometric properties of a present control scale adapted
      for patients with voice disorders (Misono, Meredith, Peterson, & Frazier, 2016).
      METHOD: Sample 1 consisted of 1,129 patients recruited from a voice disorder
      clinic who completed measures of perceived present control, distress, and voice
      handicap in the clinic. Sample 2 consisted of 62 patients from the same clinic
      who completed measures of present control, distress, voice handicap, and general
      control beliefs online at baseline and measures of present control and voice
      handicap again 3 weeks later (n = 59). RESULTS: With regard to the psychometric
      properties of the voice-adapted present control scale, alpha coefficients were
      above .80 and the 3-week test-reliability coefficient was .69. There was mixed
      support for the hypothesized 1-factor structure of the scale. In Sample 1,
      present control was more strongly associated with lower voice handicap than was
      distress and accounted for significant variance in voice handicap controlling for
      distress. In Sample 2, present control at baseline predicted later voice
      handicap, controlling for general control beliefs and distress. CONCLUSIONS:
      Present control appears to be a promising target for adjunctive interventions for
      patients with voice disorders. An evidence-based online present control
      intervention (Hintz, Frazier, & Meredith, 2015) is being adapted for this patient
      population. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557500
TI  - Do the effects of working memory training depend on baseline ability level?
AB  - There is a debate about the ability to improve cognitive abilities such as fluid
      intelligence through training on tasks of working memory capacity. The question
      addressed in the research presented here is who benefits the most from training:
      people with low cognitive ability or people with high cognitive ability? Subjects
      with high and low working memory capacity completed a 23-session study that
      included 3 assessment sessions, and 20 sessions of training on 1 of 3 training
      regiments: complex span training, running span training, or an active-control
      task. Consistent with other research, the authors found that training on 1
      executive function did not transfer to ability on a different cognitive ability.
      High working memory subjects showed the largest gains on the training tasks
      themselves relative to the low working memory subjects-a finding that suggests
      high spans benefit more than low spans from training with executive function
      tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557499
TI  - The Dietary Inflammatory Index, shift work, and depression: Results from NHANES.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Abnormal physiology (e.g., inflammation), brought on by environmental
      exposures (e.g., diet or shift work [SW]), can affect numerous bodily systems,
      including the brain, and may be associated with depressive symptomatology. The
      study examined the associations between SW and depressive symptoms and diet
      related inflammation (estimated by the Dietary Inflammatory Index [DII]) and
      depressive symptoms. Additionally, diet was examined as a mediator between SW and
      depressive symptoms. METHOD: Data were obtained from the U.S. National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Survey (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013).
      SW data were based on self-report. Dietary data were collected using 24-hr
      dietary recalls for DII calculation. Depressive symptoms were defined using a cut
      point of 10 (moderate) on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Logistic
      regression was used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI)
      for depressive symptoms by SW and DII quartiles. RESULTS: DII scores were
      associated with depressive symptoms among women. Women in DII quartile 4 were 30%
      more likely to report depressive symptoms than women in quartile 1 (95% CI [1.00
      1.68]). There was no association between symptoms and SW when using a PHQ-9 cut
      point of 10. When using a cut-point of 5 (mild depressive symptoms), those
      working any form of SW were more likely to suffer from mild symptoms than day
      workers (odds ratio = 1.22; 95% CI [1.04-1.43]). There was some evidence for
      mediation by the DII between SW and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Future
      longitudinal studies should examine effects of reductions in inflammation through
      diet on depressive symptoms, especially among shift workers, to elucidate the
      role of diet on depression among these groups. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557501
TI  - Support from the morphological family when unembedding the stem.
AB  - Recent research investigating embedded stem priming effects with the masked
      priming paradigm and pseudoword primes (e.g., quickify-quick) has shown that
      priming effects can be obtained even when the embedded target word is followed by
      a non-morphological ending (e.g., quickald-quick). Here we examine the specific
      nature of such priming effects by testing whether they are modulated by
      morphological family size. We reasoned that if the effects are driven by pre
      lexical orthographic processing then they should not be influenced by the family
      size of the embedded target word. On the contrary, we found that embedded words
      having several morphologically related family members (e.g., serpentoche-SERPENT
      [English: snakerel-SNAKE]-serpents, serpentin, serpentine, serpenter, serpentant)
      generated greater priming than embedded words having only the plural form in the
      morphological family (e.g., dauphingri-DAUPHIN [English: dolphinald-DOLPHIN]). We
      therefore conclude that embedded stem priming is at least partly driven by
      processing at the level of lexical and morpho-semantic representations. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557502
TI  - Common modality effects in immediate free recall and immediate serial recall.
AB  - In 2 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 2 and 12
      words for either immediate free recall (IFR) or immediate serial recall (ISR).
      Auditory recall advantages at the end of the list (modality effects) and visual
      recall advantages early in the list (inverse modality effects) were observed in
      both tasks and the extent and magnitude of these effects were dependent upon list
      length. Both tasks displayed modality effects with short lists that were large in
      magnitude but limited to the final serial position, consistent with those
      observed in the typically short lists used in ISR, and both tasks displayed
      modality effects with longer lists that were small in magnitude and more extended
      across multiple end-of-list positions, consistent with those observed in the
      typically longer lists used in IFR. Inverse modality effects were also observed
      in both tasks at early list positions on longer lengths. Presentation modality
      did not affect where recall was initiated, but modality effects were greatest on
      trials where participants initiated recall with the first item. We argue for a
      unified account of IFR and ISR. We also assume that the presentation modality
      affects the encoding of all list items, and that modality effects emerge due to
      the greater resistance of auditory items to output interference. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557503
TI  - Fast or frugal, but not both: Decision heuristics under time pressure.
AB  - Heuristics are simple, yet effective, strategies that people use to make
      decisions. Because heuristics do not require all available information, they are
      thought to be easy to implement and to not tax limited cognitive resources, which
      has led heuristics to be characterized as fast-and-frugal. We question this
      monolithic conception of heuristics by contrasting the cognitive demands of two
      popular heuristics, Tallying and Take-the-Best. We contend that heuristics that
      are frugal in terms of information usage may not always be fast because of the
      attentional control required to implement this focus in certain contexts. In
      support of this hypothesis, we find that Take-the-Best, while being more frugal
      in terms of information usage, is slower to implement and fares worse under time
      pressure manipulations than Tallying. This effect is then reversed when search
      costs for Take-the-Best are reduced by changing the format of the stimuli. These
      findings suggest that heuristics are heterogeneous and should be unpacked
      according to their cognitive demands to determine the circumstances a heuristic
      best applies. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557504
TI  - Does the acquisition of spatial skill involve a shift from algorithm to memory
      retrieval?
AB  - Performance on verbal and mathematical tasks is enhanced when participants shift
      from using algorithms to retrieving information directly from memory (Siegler,
      1988a). However, it is unknown whether a shift to retrieval is involved in
      dynamic spatial skill acquisition. For example, do athletes mentally extrapolate
      the trajectory of the ball, or do they retrieve the future location from memory?
      To examine this question, 2 experiments were conducted using a task paradigm
      similar to the game Pong-a ball was launched from 1 side of the screen and
      participants attempted to position a paddle to intercept the ball. In Experiment
      1, participants responded to a limited number of repeated trajectories. During
      the learning phase, the response deadline was near the paddle. During the
      difficult phase, the response deadline was closer to the launch point. During the
      critical phase, novel trajectories were introduced at the difficult response
      deadline. If participants are using a retrieval strategy by the critical phase,
      performance should be significantly worse on the novel trajectories, whereas if
      they are using an algorithmic strategy, performance on the novel trials should be
      similar to performance on the repeated trajectories. In Experiment 2, half the
      participants followed an experimental paradigm similar to Experiment 1 and half
      experienced all novel trajectories throughout the task. Our results were
      consistent with a shift from algorithmic processing to retrieval-participants
      performed significantly better on repeated trajectories relative to novel
      trajectories. Furthermore, retrieval strategies enhance performance above and
      beyond what is gained by practicing the algorithm alone. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28557505
TI  - Interaction between social categories in the composite face paradigm.
AB  - The composite face paradigm (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987) is widely used to
      demonstrate holistic perception of faces (Rossion, 2013). In the paradigm, parts
      from different faces (usually the top and bottom halves) are recombined. The
      principal criterion for holistic perception is that responses involving the
      component parts of composites in which the parts are aligned into a face-like
      configuration are slower and less accurate than responses to the same parts in a
      misaligned (not face-like) format. This is often taken as evidence that seeing a
      whole face in the aligned condition interferes with perceiving its separate
      parts, but it remains unclear to what extent the composite face effect also
      reflects contributions from other potential sources of interference. We present a
      new variant of the paradigm involving composites created from top and bottom
      parts of familiar faces drawn from orthogonal social categories of gender and
      occupation. This allows us to examine the contributions of differences in
      relatively visual properties (gender) or relatively semantic properties
      (occupation) to composite interference and to measure whether variation in a task
      irrelevant category (e.g., differences in gender across the parts of the
      composite when the task is to categorize the occupation of one of the parts) will
      influence the size of the composite effect. Our findings show that the composite
      face effect can be modulated by task-irrelevant social categories and that this
      interference is primarily visual in nature because the influence of face gender
      is more direct and more consistent than the influence of occupation. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557506
TI  - "A psychometric investigation of gender differences and common processes across
      borderline and antisocial personality disorders": Correction to Chun et al.
      (2017).
AB  - Reports an error in "A psychometric investigation of gender differences and
      common processes across borderline and antisocial personality disorders" by
      Seokjoon Chun, Alexa Harris, Margely Carrion, Elizabeth Rojas, Stephen Stark,
      Carl Lejuez, William V. Lechner and Marina A. Bornovalova (Journal of Abnormal
      Psychology, 2017[Jan], Vol 126[1], 76-88). In the article, there were two errors
      in the article's supplemental material. The supplemental material stated, "In
      each case, if the relaxed model fit significantly better than the baseline model
      (i.e., DeltaX2> 3.84, Deltadf =2), then the item under investigation was flagged
      as noninvariant; otherwise the item was marked as invariant." The value for
      DeltaX2 should have been 5.99. The supplemental material also stated, "If there
      was no decrement in fit as a function of constraining a given item, the item in
      question was flagged as noninvariant." It should have stated that these items
      were flagged as invariant. The online version of this article has been corrected.
      (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2016-53090
      001.) The comorbidity between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and
      antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is well-established, and the 2 disorders
      share many similarities. However, there are also differences across disorders:
      most notably, BPD is diagnosed more frequently in women and ASPD in men. We
      investigated if (a) comorbidity between BPD and ASPD is attributable to 2
      discrete disorders or the expression of common underlying processes, and (b) if
      the model of comorbidity is true across sex. Using a clinical sample of 1,400
      drug users in residential substance abuse treatment, we tested 3 competing models
      to explore whether the comorbidity of ASPD and BPD should be represented by a
      single common factor, 2 correlated factors, or a bifactor structure involving a
      general and disorder-specific factors. Next, we tested whether our resulting
      model was meaningful by examining its relationship with criterion variables
      previously reported to be associated with BPD and ASPD. The bifactor model
      provided the best fit and was invariant across sex. Overall, the general factor
      of the bifactor model significantly accounted for a large percentage of the
      variance in criterion variables, whereas the BPD and AAB specific factors added
      little to the models. The association of the general and specific factor with all
      criterion variables was equal for men and women. Our results suggest common
      underlying vulnerability accounts for both the comorbidity between BPD and AAB
      (across sex), and this common vulnerability drives the association with other
      psychopathology and maladaptive behavior. This in turn has implications for
      diagnostic classification systems and treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557507
TI  - Structural learning difficulties implicate altered hippocampal functioning in
      adults with autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - Structural learning is fundamental to the formation of cognitive maps that are
      necessary for learning, memory, and spatial navigation. It also enables
      successful navigation of the social world, which is something that individuals
      with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) find particularly difficult. To master these
      situations, a person needs to bind pieces of information to one another and to
      consider the context in which experiences happen. Such binding is a capacity of
      the hippocampus. Although altered hippocampal function has for long been
      suspected to play a role in the etiology of ASD, the relevant evidence has
      remained inconclusive because few behavioral tests that are known to specifically
      necessitate preserved hippocampal function have been employed in studies of ASD.
      To address this gap in the literature, a total sample of 57 pairs of age and
      ability matched ASD and comparison participants was divided into 3 subsamples who
      were asked either to complete structural learning, or 1 of 2 configural learning
      control tasks (biconditional discrimination and transverse patterning) drawn from
      animal research. As predicted, ASD adults demonstrated specific difficulty with
      structural learning but not with other forms of configural learning. These
      differences were not attributable to decreased attentional shifting or increased
      perseveration, which would have indicated atypical frontal modulation of
      hippocampal processes. Instead, the observations implicate atypical hippocampal
      functioning as the source of structural learning difficulties in ASD. The data
      suggest that disturbances in domain-general cognitive processes such as
      structural learning, caused by altered hippocampal function, play a critical role
      in the etiology of ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557509
TI  - Insomnia symptoms drive changes in suicide ideation: A latent difference score
      model of community adults over a brief interval.
AB  - Insomnia is robustly associated with suicidal behavior, but methodological
      limitations in existing studies hinder nuanced understanding of this
      relationship. The current study addressed these limitations by utilizing a
      longitudinal design and advanced statistical modeling. Participants who endorsed
      lifetime experience of suicidal behavior were recruited through Amazon's
      Mechanical Turk (N = 589) and completed self-report online surveys at 6 time
      points over a 15-day period. Latent difference score modeling was utilized to
      investigate whether levels and/or changes in insomnia symptoms drive subsequent
      changes in suicide ideation, or vice versa. Results revealed that previous level
      of insomnia symptoms was predictive of positive changes in suicide ideation
      (i.e., level of insomnia symptoms predicted lagged increases in suicide
      ideation). This relationship was not bidirectional (i.e., suicide ideation
      exerted no effects on insomnia symptoms). Additionally, only previous level, and
      not previous changes, in insomnia symptoms were predictive of changes in suicide
      ideation. Our results help clarify the nature of the relationship between
      insomnia symptoms and suicide ideation as one that is unidirectional, thereby
      offering evidence of insomnia symptoms as a variable risk factor for suicide
      ideation. These findings yield clinical implications, including the importance of
      screening for insomnia symptoms, and provide support for exploring the potential
      effectiveness of insomnia treatments to target suicide ideation. Moreover, our
      study design and methodology establish a foundation for more rigorous and nuanced
      investigations of imminent suicide risk in future studies, which can ultimately
      promote better clinical practice in the reduction of suicidal behavior. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28557510
TI  - Endorsing help for others that you oppose for yourself: Mind perception alters
      the perceived effectiveness of paternalism.
AB  - How people choose to help each other can be just as important as how much people
      help. Help can come through relatively paternalistic or agentic aid.
      Paternalistic aid, such as banning certain foods to encourage weight loss or
      donating food to alleviate poverty, restricts recipients' choices compared with
      agentic aid, such as providing calorie counts or donating cash. Nine experiments
      demonstrate that how people choose to help depends partly on their beliefs about
      the recipient's mental capacities. People perceive paternalistic aid to be more
      effective for those who seem less mentally capable (Experiments 1 and 2), and
      people therefore give more paternalistically when others are described as
      relatively incompetent (Experiment 3). Because people tend to believe that they
      are more mentally capable than are others, people also believe that paternalistic
      aid will be more effective for others than for oneself, effectively treating
      other adults more like children (Experiments 4a-5b). Experiencing a personal
      mental shortcoming-overeating on Thanksgiving-therefore increased the perceived
      effectiveness of paternalism for oneself, such that participants thought
      paternalistic antiobesity policies would be more effective when surveyed the day
      after Thanksgiving than the day before (Experiment 6). A final experiment
      demonstrates that the link between perceived effectiveness of aid and mental
      capacity is bidirectional: Those receiving paternalistic aid were perceived as
      less mentally capable than those receiving relatively agentic aid (Experiment 7).
      Beliefs about how best to help someone in need are affected by subtle inferences
      about the mind of the person in need. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557511
TI  - The heart trumps the head: Desirability bias in political belief revision.
AB  - Understanding how individuals revise their political beliefs has important
      implications for society. In a preregistered study (N = 900), we experimentally
      separated the predictions of 2 leading theories of human belief revision
      desirability bias and confirmation bias-in the context of the 2016 U.S.
      presidential election. Participants indicated who they desired to win, and who
      they believed would win, the election. Following confrontation with evidence that
      was either consistent or inconsistent with their desires or beliefs, they again
      indicated who they believed would win. We observed a robust desirability bias
      individuals updated their beliefs more if the evidence was consistent (vs.
      inconsistent) with their desired outcome. This bias was independent of whether
      the evidence was consistent or inconsistent with their prior beliefs. In
      contrast, we found limited evidence of an independent confirmation bias in belief
      updating. These results have implications for the relevant psychological theories
      and for political belief revision in practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557508
TI  - Neural markers of emotional face perception across psychotic disorders and
      general population.
AB  - There is considerable variation in negative and positive symptoms of psychosis,
      global functioning, and emotional face perception (EFP), not only in
      schizophrenia but also in other psychotic disorders and healthy individuals.
      However, EFP impairment and its association with worse symptoms and global
      functioning have been examined largely in the domain of schizophrenia. The
      present study adopted a dimensional approach to examine the association of
      behavioral and neural measures of EFP with symptoms of psychosis and global
      functioning across individuals with schizophrenia spectrum (SZ; N = 28) and other
      psychotic (OP; N = 29) disorders, and never-psychotic participants (NP; N = 21).
      Behavioral and functional MRI data were recorded as participants matched
      emotional expressions of faces and geometrical shapes. Lower accuracy and
      increased activity in early visual regions, hippocampus, and amygdala during
      emotion versus shape matching were associated with higher negative, but not
      positive, symptoms and lower global functioning, across all participants. This
      association remained even after controlling for group-related (SZ, OP, and NP)
      variance, dysphoria, and antipsychotic medication status, except in amygdala.
      Furthermore, negative symptoms mediated the relationship between behavioral and
      brain EFP measures and global functioning. This study provides some of the first
      evidence supporting the specific relationship of EFP measures with negative
      symptoms and global functioning across psychotic and never-psychotic samples, and
      transdiagnostically across different psychotic disorders. Present findings help
      bridge the gap between basic EFP-related neuroscience research and clinical
      research in psychosis, and highlight EFP as a potential symptom-specific marker
      that tracks global functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557513
TI  - Shocking action: Facilitative effects of punishing electric shocks on action
      control.
AB  - Four experiments examined motivational effects of response-contingent electric
      shocks on action initiation. Although the shock was unambiguously aversive for
      the individual in line with subjective and functional criteria, results showed
      that the shock-producing action was initiated faster relative to a response
      producing no shock. However, no facilitation effect was found when strong shocks
      were delivered, ruling out increased emotional arousal as an explanation. The
      action was initiated faster even when the response discontinued to generate a
      shock. Furthermore, a control experiment with affectively neutral vibrotactile
      stimulations at homologous sites showed an analogous response facilitation
      effect. Overall, the results contradict the widespread belief that a contingency
      with a punishing response effect is sufficient for a response suppression.
      Instead, the results suggest that punishing action effects can facilitate action
      initiation via anticipatory feedback processes. Implications for theories and
      applications of punishment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557512
TI  - The nature-disorder paradox: A perceptual study on how nature is disorderly yet
      aesthetically preferred.
AB  - Natural environments have powerful aesthetic appeal linked to their capacity for
      psychological restoration. In contrast, disorderly environments are aesthetically
      aversive, and have various detrimental psychological effects. But in our
      research, we have repeatedly found that natural environments are perceptually
      disorderly. What could explain this paradox? We present 3 competing hypotheses:
      the aesthetic preference for naturalness is more powerful than the aesthetic
      aversion to disorder (the nature-trumps-disorder hypothesis); disorder is trivial
      to aesthetic preference in natural contexts (the harmless-disorder hypothesis);
      and disorder is aesthetically preferred in natural contexts (the beneficial
      disorder hypothesis). Utilizing novel methods of perceptual study and diverse
      stimuli, we rule in the nature-trumps-disorder hypothesis and rule out the
      harmless-disorder and beneficial-disorder hypotheses. In examining perceptual
      mechanisms, we find evidence that high-level scene semantics are both necessary
      and sufficient for the nature-trumps-disorder effect. Necessity is evidenced by
      the effect disappearing in experiments utilizing only low-level visual stimuli
      (i.e., where scene semantics have been removed) and experiments utilizing a rapid
      scene-presentation procedure that obscures scene semantics. Sufficiency is
      evidenced by the effect reappearing in experiments utilizing noun stimuli which
      remove low-level visual features. Furthermore, we present evidence that the
      interaction of scene semantics with low-level visual features amplifies the
      nature-trumps-disorder effect-the effect is weaker both when statistically
      adjusting for quantified low-level visual features and when using noun stimuli
      which remove low-level visual features. These results have implications for
      psychological theories bearing on the joint influence of low- and high-level
      perceptual inputs on affect and cognition, as well as for aesthetic design.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28557514
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of a statewide falls prevention program in Pennsylvania:
      Healthy Steps for Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pennsylvania's Department of Aging has offered a falls prevention
      program, "Healthy Steps for Older Adults" (HSOA), since 2005, with about 40,000
      older adults screened for falls risk. In 2010 to 2011, older adults 50 years or
      older who completed HSOA (n = 814) had an 18% reduction in falls incidence
      compared with a comparison group that attended the same senior centers (n =
      1019). We examined the effect of HSOA on hospitalization and emergency department
      (ED) treatment, and estimated the potential cost savings. STUDY DESIGN: Decision
      tree analysis. METHODS: The following were included in a decision-tree model
      based on a prior longitudinal cohort study: costs of the intervention, number of
      falls, frequency and costs of ED visits and hospitalizations, and self-reported
      quality of life of individuals in each outcome condition. A Monte Carlo
      probabilistic sensitivity analysis assigned appropriate distributions to all
      input parameters and evaluated model results over 500 iterations. The model
      included all ED and hospitalization episodes rather than just episodes linked to
      falls. RESULTS: Over 12 months of follow-up, 11.3% of the HSOA arm and 14.8% of
      the comparison group experienced 1 or more hospitalizations (P = .04). HSOA
      participants had less hospital care when matched for falls status. Observed
      values suggest expected costs per participant of $3013 in the HSOA arm and $3853
      in the comparison condition, an average savings of $840 per person. Results were
      confirmed in Monte Carlo simulations ($3164 vs $3882, savings of $718).
      CONCLUSIONS: The savings of $718 to $840 per person is comparable to reports from
      other falls prevention economic evaluations. The advantages of HSOA include its
      statewide reach and integration with county aging services.

PMID- 28557515
TI  - Connected Care: improving outcomes for adults with serious mental illness.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of Connected Care-a care coordination
      effort of physical and behavioral health managed care partners in Pennsylvania-on
      acute service use among adult Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness
      (SMI). STUDY DESIGN: We examined changes in service utilization using a
      difference-in-differences model, comparing study group with a comparison group,
      and conducted key informant interviews to better understand aspects of program
      implementation. METHODS: We compared the difference in service use rates between
      baseline year and 2-year intervention period for the Connected Care group (n =
      8633) with the difference in rates for the comparison group (n = 10,514),
      confirming results using a regression adjustment. RESULTS: Mental health
      hospitalizations (per 1000 members per month) decreased for the Connected Care
      group from 41.1 to 39.6, while increasing for the comparison group from 33.8 to
      37.2 (P = .04). All-cause readmissions within 30 days decreased nearly 10% for
      Connected Care while increasing slightly for the comparison group (P < .01), with
      a similar pattern observed for 60- and 90-day all-cause readmissions. No
      differences were observed in physical health hospitalizations, drug and alcohol
      admissions, or ED use. Data from qualitative stakeholder interviews illuminated
      facilitators and barriers of implementing Connected Care. CONCLUSIONS: Payer
      level healthcare information sharing can help identify members who could benefit
      from care coordination services, inform care management activities, and assist
      with pharmacy management. Results can inform state, health plan, and provider
      efforts around integration of care for individuals with SMI and improve care
      efficiencies and quality, which is especially important in this time of Medicaid
      expansion.

PMID- 28557516
TI  - Patients' success in negotiating out-of-network bills.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Out-of-network (OON) care is one area where patients might be more
      likely to challenge their healthcare bills due to the high out-of-pocket costs
      and unexpected charges related to emergency care or hospital-affiliated
      providers. We aimed to determine whether, and under what circumstances, patients
      negotiate with either insurers or providers when services are billed OON and how
      often patients that do engage in negotiation are successful. STUDY DESIGN:
      Internet-based survey. METHODS: We conducted a 2011 Internet survey on OON care
      on a nationally representative sample of privately insured adults (n = 721). We
      considered whether patients would be more likely to negotiate OON charges by
      demographic characteristics and under several scenarios: emergency visits, bills
      from hospital-affiliated OON providers at in-network hospitals, and balance
      bills. RESULTS: We found patients negotiated 19% of OON bills, were successful in
      lowering their costs 56% of the time, and were more likely to be successful
      negotiating with providers compared with insurers (63% vs 37%; P <.01). Men were
      more likely than women to be successful in lowering their costs (76% vs 50%; P
      <.05). OON bills for emergencies, providers at in-network hospitals, and with a
      balance bill were more likely to be negotiated, although bills from providers at
      in-network hospitals and with balance bills were less likely to be successfully
      negotiated. CONCLUSIONS: Patients had low rates of success in negotiating OON
      bills for emergency care and for OON providers at in-network hospitals. Policy
      makers aiming to protect patients under these scenarios should consider policies
      that allow for an easily accessible, formal, and unbiased mediation process.

PMID- 28557517
TI  - Economic value of pharmacist-led medication reconciliation for reducing
      medication errors after hospital discharge.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Medication discrepancies at the time of hospital discharge are common
      and can harm patients. Medication reconciliation by pharmacists has been shown to
      prevent such discrepancies and the adverse drug events (ADEs) that can result
      from them. Our objective was to estimate the economic value of nontargeted and
      targeted medication reconciliation conducted by pharmacists and pharmacy
      technicians at hospital discharge versus usual care. STUDY DESIGN: Discrete-event
      simulation model. METHODS: We developed a discrete-event simulation model to
      prospectively model the incidence of drug-related events from a hospital payer's
      perspective. The model assumptions were based on data published in the peer
      reviewed literature. Incidences of medication discrepancies, preventable ADEs,
      emergency department visits, rehospitalizations, costs, and net benefit were
      estimated. RESULTS: The expected total cost of preventable ADEs was estimated to
      be $472 (95% credible interval [CI], $247-$778) per patient with usual care.
      Under the base-case assumption that medication reconciliation could reduce
      medication discrepancies by 52%, the cost of preventable ADEs could be reduced to
      $266 (95% CI, $150-$423), resulting in a net benefit of $206 (95% CI, $73-$373)
      per patient, after accounting for intervention costs. A medication reconciliation
      intervention that reduces medication discrepancies by at least 10% could cover
      the initial cost of intervention. Targeting medication reconciliation to high
      risk individuals would achieve a higher net benefit than a nontargeted
      intervention only if the sensitivity and specificity of a screening tool were at
      least 90% and 70%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that
      implementing a pharmacist-led medication reconciliation intervention at hospital
      discharge could be cost saving compared with usual care.

PMID- 28557518
TI  - Benchmarking health-related quality-of-life data from a clinical setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important clinical
      outcome, yet there is little guidance for its interpretation in clinical
      settings. One approach would use benchmarking to contextualize HRQoL results. Our
      objective was to construct a nationally representative HRQoL benchmark for use
      with a clinical sample. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of HRQoL scores
      from: 1) the 2011 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS), a representative
      sample of the noninstitutionalized US population; and 2) outpatient academic and
      community cardiology clinics within a large health system in 2012 and 2013.
      METHODS: The 2011 MEPS includes 21,959 adults who completed the HRQoL measures;
      414 reported visiting a cardiologist. Of 1945 outpatient index visits during the
      study period that were not for outpatient cardiac catheterization, 1434 patients
      completed the HRQoL measures. The primary outcome was the Short Form 6-Dimension
      questionnaire (SF-6D). The secondary outcomes were the Mental Component Summary
      score and the Physical Component Summary score. RESULTS: The local cardiology
      clinic sample was 42% female with a mean Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score
      of 1.74. The MEPS subsample of cardiology patients more closely matched the local
      cardiology clinic sample (43% female; mean CCI score of 1.57) than the entire
      MEPS sample (52% female; mean CCI score of 0.62). SF-6D scores for the local
      cardiology clinic sample were significantly better, statistically and clinically,
      in 4 of 5 age strata than the MEPS subsample of cardiology patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      HRQoL benchmarks can be created from current public datasets. Subgroups in
      national samples may provide more valid benchmarks for clinical populations.

PMID- 28557519
TI  - Does Medicare Managed Care reduce racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes
      preventive care and healthcare expenditures?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Large and persistent racial/ethnic disparities exist in diabetes
      care. Considering the rapid rate of growth of Medicare Managed Care (MMC) plans
      among minority populations, our aim was to investigate whether disparities in
      diabetes management and healthcare expenditures are smaller in MMC versus
      Medicare fee-for-service (MFFS) plans. We hypothesized that racial/ethnic
      disparities in diabetes care and in health expenditures would be less pronounced
      in MMC compared with MFFS plans. STUDY DESIGN: Nationally representative data
      from the 2006 to 2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey on white, African
      American, and Hispanic seniors with diabetes were analyzed. METHODS: We examined
      4 measures of diabetes care-regular foot check, eye exam, cholesterol check, and
      flu vaccine-and total and out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditures. We
      implemented the Institute of Medicine's definition of disparity, applied
      propensity score weighting to adjust for potential differential selection, and
      used a difference-in-differences generalized linear framework to estimate outcome
      measures. RESULTS: For African Americans, MMC was associated with a $1183 (P
      <.036) reduction and a $547 (P <.001) increase in disparities in total and OOP
      healthcare expenditures, respectively. For Hispanics, disparities in foot exam,
      flu shot, and cholesterol check decreased by 5, 10, and 7 percentage points (P
      <.001); additionally, disparities in total and OOP healthcare expenditures were
      reduced by $3588 and $276 (P <.001), respectively. MMC plans spend less on
      everyone, including whites. CONCLUSIONS: Hispanic/white disparities in diabetes
      management and healthcare expenditures were smaller in MMC than in MFFS plans.
      African American/white disparities were not consistently larger in 1 setting than
      the other.

PMID- 28557521
TI  - Mortality following hip fracture in Chinese, Japanese, and Filipina women.

PMID- 28557522
TI  - Estimating the social value of G-CSF therapies in the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To provide a comprehensive estimate of the total social value (TSV)
      delivered by granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) therapies in the
      United States in 2014. STUDY DESIGN: Estimation of the TSV of G-CSF, based on a
      targeted literature review of pivotal studies. METHODS: A literature review was
      conducted to obtain estimates of the adverse outcomes associated with
      myelosuppressive chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN) and the positive
      impacts of G-CSFs. We monetized each outcome into a set of mutually exclusive
      value components that were aggregated to estimate the TSV. To estimate the share
      of TSV captured by manufacturers, we estimated 2014 profits from G-CSF using
      measures of industry revenues and operating costs. RESULTS: In 2014,
      approximately 314,440 patients received G-CSFs. Compared with what they would
      have experienced without G-CSFs, these patients were less likely to be
      hospitalized or die from FN, incur reductions in chemotherapy relative dose
      intensity, receive antibiotics, miss work, or experience reduced health-related
      quality of life. We estimated the social value from fewer FN hospitalizations to
      be $770 million; from fewer FN-related deaths, $2.65 billion; from fewer deaths
      due to higher effective chemotherapy doses, $4.83 billion; from reductions in
      antibiotics, $2.3 million; from reductions in indirect costs, $230 million; and
      from improvements in health-related quality of life, $1.9 million. The estimated
      2014 US TSV of G-CSFs was $8.5 billion. Industry profits associated with G-CSFs
      were estimated at $1.3 billion, accounting for approximately 15% of the TSV.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on our calculations, the TSV generated by G-CSFs in the United
      States in 2014 was substantial, with the majority of this value accruing to
      patients.

PMID- 28557520
TI  - Periodic health examinations and missed opportunities among patients likely
      needing mental health care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Periodic health examinations (PHEs) are the most common reason adults
      see primary care providers. It is unknown if PHEs serve as a "safe portal" for
      patients with mental health needs to initiate care. We examined how physician
      communication styles impact mental health service delivery in PHEs. STUDY DESIGN:
      Retrospective observational study using audio-recordings of 255 PHEs with
      patients likely to need mental health care. METHODS: Mixed-methods examined the
      timing of a mental health discussion (MHD), its quality, and the relationship
      between MHD quality and physician practice styles. MHD quality was measured
      against evidence-based practices as a 3-level variable (evidence-based,
      perfunctory, or absent). Physician practice styles were measured by: visit
      length, verbal dominance, and elicitation of a patient's agenda. A generalized
      ordered logit model was used. RESULTS: Many patients came with mental health
      concerns, as over 50% of the MHDs occurred in the first 5 minutes of the visit.
      One-third of the 255 patients had an evidence-based MHD, another third had a
      perfunctory MHD, and the remaining had no MHD. MHD quality was significantly
      associated with physician communication styles. Visits with physicians who tend
      to spend more time with patients, fully elicit patients' agendas, and let
      patients talk (instead of being verbally dominant) were more likely to deliver
      evidence-based MHD. CONCLUSIONS: If done well, PHEs could be a safe portal for
      patients to seek mental health care, but most PHEs fell short. Improving PHE
      quality may require reimbursement for longer visits and coaching for physicians
      to more fully elicit patients' agendas and to listen more attentively.

PMID- 28557523
TI  - Postdischarge telephone calls by hospitalists as a transitional care strategy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether treating hospitalists can identify and address
      early postdischarge problems through a structured telephone call. STUDY DESIGN:
      Prospective cohort study. METHODS: We studied patients insured through a managed
      care program who were discharged from a general internal medicine service of a
      university-affiliated public safety net hospital (Denver Health Medical Center)
      between March 1, 2012, and October 31, 2013. The hospitalist who treated the
      patient during their hospitalization contacted them 48 to 72 hours after
      discharge and completed a structured telephone assessment. We assessed the type
      and frequency of problems identified, the proportion of calls in which problems
      were independently addressed by the hospitalist, the proportion referred for
      additional managed care services, and the duration of calls and subsequent care
      coordination. RESULTS: Treating hospitalists identified 1 or more problems in 74
      of the 131 patients (56%) contacted. The most common categories of problems were:
      new or worsening symptoms (41%), difficulty accessing recommended follow-up care
      (21%), and medication issues (20%). Hospitalists independently managed the
      problems identified in 68% of the calls; additional services were required in
      32%. Median time spent per call was 8 minutes (interquartile range, 5-12).
      CONCLUSIONS: Treating hospitalists identified problems in over half of patients
      contacted by telephone shortly after discharge, the largest proportion of which
      were new or worsening symptoms. Hospitalists were able to address the majority of
      problems identified through the single, brief telephone encounter without
      utilizing additional resources.

PMID- 28557524
TI  - A call for a statewide medication reconciliation program.
AB  - In the outpatient setting, it is exceedingly difficult to know what medications
      our patients have been prescribed and are taking. Each encounter with a
      specialist, hospital, or pharmacy can generate a change to a patient's list of
      medications, and in most systems, this information is not communicated back to
      the primary care practice's electronic health record-the exception being opiate
      prescriptions. Prescription drug monitoring programs in 48 states list every
      opiate prescription, the name of the prescriber, and the date and location the
      prescription was picked up. We propose that policy makers act to expand these
      programs to all medications, thus improving the likelihood that any provider
      prescribing a new medication would know what medicines their patient is already
      taking.

PMID- 28557526
TI  - Molecular Profiling of Malignant Pleural Effusion in Metastatic Non-Small-Cell
      Lung Carcinoma. The Effect of Preanalytical Factors.
AB  - RATIONALE: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-associated malignant pleural
      effusions (MPEs) are sometimes the only available specimens for molecular
      analysis. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates diagnostic yield of NSCLC-associated
      MPE, its adequacy for molecular profiling and the potential influence of MPE
      volume/cellularity on the analytic sensitivity of our assays. METHODS: Molecular
      results of 50 NSCLC-associated MPE cases during a 5-year period were evaluated.
      Molecular profiling was performed on cell blocks and consisted of fluorescent in
      situ hybridization (FISH) for ALK gene rearrangements and the following
      sequencing platforms: Sanger sequencing (for EGFR) and high-throughput
      pyrosequencing (for KRAS and BRAF) during the first 4 years of the study period,
      and targeted next-generation sequencing performed thereafter. RESULTS: A total of
      50 NSCLC-associated MPE cases were identified where molecular testing was
      requested. Of these, 17 cases were excluded: 14 cases (28%) due to inadequate
      tumor cellularity and 3 cases due to unavailability of the slides to review. A
      total of 27 out of 50 MPE cases (54%) underwent at least EGFR and KRAS sequencing
      and FISH for ALK rearrangement. Of the 27 cases with molecular testing results
      available, a genetic abnormality was detected in 16 cases (59%). The most common
      genetic aberrations identified involved EGFR ( 9 ) and KRAS ( 7 ). Six cases had
      ALK FISH only, of which one showed rearrangement. MPE volume was not associated
      with overall cellularity or tumor cellularity (P = 0.360). CONCLUSIONS: Molecular
      profiling of MPE is a viable alternative to testing solid tissue in NSCLC. This
      study shows successful detection of genetic aberrations in 59% of samples with
      minimal risk of false negative.

PMID- 28557527
TI  - Return to Play After Shoulder Instability Surgery in National Collegiate Athletic
      Association Division I Intercollegiate Football Athletes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent attention has focused on the optimal surgical treatment for
      recurrent shoulder instability in young athletes. Collision athletes are at a
      higher risk for recurrent instability after surgery. PURPOSE: To evaluate
      variables affecting return-to-play (RTP) rates in Division I intercollegiate
      football athletes after shoulder instability surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Case series;
      Level of evidence, 4. METHODS: Invitations to participate were made to select
      sports medicine programs that care for athletes in Division I football
      conferences (Pac-12 Conference, Southeastern Conference [SEC], Atlantic Coast
      Conference [ACC]). After gaining institutional review board approval, 7 programs
      qualified and participated. Data on direction of instability, type of surgery,
      time to resume participation, and quality and level of play before and after
      surgery were collected. RESULTS: There were 168 of 177 procedures that were
      arthroscopic surgery, with a mean 3.3-year follow-up. Overall, 85.4% of players
      who underwent arthroscopic surgery without concomitant procedures returned to
      play. Moreover, 15.6% of athletes who returned to play sustained subsequent
      shoulder injuries, and 10.3% sustained recurrent instability, resulting in
      reduction/revision surgery. No differences were noted in RTP rates in athletes
      who underwent anterior labral repair (82.4%), posterior labral repair (92.9%),
      combined anterior-posterior repair (84.8%; P = .2945), or open repair (88.9%; P =
      .9362). Also, 93.3% of starters, 95.4% of utilized players, and 75.7% of rarely
      used players returned to play. The percentage of games played before the injury
      was 49.9% and rose to 71.5% after surgery ( P < .0001). Athletes who played in a
      higher percentage of games before the injury were more likely to return to play;
      91% of athletes who were starters before the injury returned as starters after
      surgery. Scholarship status significantly correlated with RTP after surgery ( P =
      .0003). CONCLUSION: The majority of surgical interventions were isolated
      arthroscopic stabilization procedures, with no statistically significant
      difference in RTP rates when concomitant arthroscopic procedures or open
      stabilization procedures were performed. Athletes who returned to play often
      played in a higher percentage of games after surgery than before the injury, and
      many played at the same or a higher level after surgery.

PMID- 28557528
TI  - Airway Closure in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: An Underestimated and
      Misinterpreted Phenomenon.

PMID- 28557525
TI  - Human Milk Provision Experiences, Goals, and Outcomes for Teen Mothers with Low
      Birth-Weight Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Breastfeeding rates are virtually unknown for teen mothers whose
      low-birth-weight (LBW; <2500 gm) infants are hospitalized in the neonatal
      intensive care unit (NICU). The objective was to examine the infant feeding
      experiences, goals, and outcomes of teen mothers of LBW infants. METHODS: We
      conducted a multimethod study using a qualitative research design, survey, and
      infant medical records. The primary data source was individual interviews
      conducted with teen mothers of LBW infants hospitalized in a tertiary NICU.
      Content analysis and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. RESULTS:
      All 15 teen mothers (12 black, 3 Hispanic) wanted what was best for their infants
      and initiated lactation by breast pump. However, maintaining lactation was
      challenging and the following barriers were identified: fear of being judged;
      body image issues; influence of the maternal grandmother; and disorganized
      thought processes about combining pumping with returning to school or work.
      Despite these barriers, 50% of the teen mothers met their goals for human milk
      provision at NICU discharge. CONCLUSION: Most of the teen mothers' lactation
      barriers reflected their adolescent developmental stage. Potential interventions
      are identified and include focus groups with teen mothers and maternal
      grandmothers and lactation support by NICU-based teen breastfeeding peer
      counselors.

PMID- 28557529
TI  - Oak wine barrel as an active vessel: A critical review of past and current
      knowledge.
AB  - We review the role of the oak barrel as an active vessel for wine maturation. We
      present a historical background to highlight that previously established aspects
      of processes occurring with wine inside the oak barrel are still without
      confirmation. We argue that recently published new findings on the topic are
      determining factors in defining the manner in which the oak barrel works with
      wine. Several studies have been published reviewing how the wine barrel functions
      as an active vessel that releases chemical compounds into the wine, improving its
      physical, chemical, and sensory properties. Nevertheless, there are hardly any
      studies that describe how a wine barrel functions as an active vessel. The
      present review details the main factors affecting the gas exchange capacity of
      the barrel, such as the pressure drop generated within the barrel, the formation
      of a headspace, the effect of wood anatomy, the different oxygen entry routes,
      the role of wood moisture content and soluble ellagitannins, and the effect of
      barrel toasting on cooperage. Finally, a hypothesis is proposed regarding the
      function of the barrel as an active vessel, which determines the manner in which
      it interacts with the wine that it contains during aging.

PMID- 28557530
TI  - Minding the Mind-Body Literature: Focusing on Veterans.

PMID- 28557531
TI  - Importance of short-term continuing care plan adherence on long-term outcomes
      among patients discharged from residential substance use treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients adherent to their recommended treatment regimen demonstrate
      favorable outcomes. However, it is unclear whether there are specific short-term
      continuing care performance variables indicative of better long-term prognosis.
      OBJECTIVE: This study determined the impact of attendance at an outpatient
      appointment within 7 days post-discharge from residential treatment on 12-month
      outcomes. METHOD: Data were abstracted from electronic medical records for 275
      patients (58.9% male) discharged from a single residential treatment program. All
      discharge plans included a 7-day outpatient appointment with a provider in their
      home community. Patients were dichotomized based on their attendance at the
      initial appointment to yield a re-engagement variable. Twelve-month outcomes
      included past 30-day and continuous abstinence rates, quality of life, and long
      term adherence to continuing care plans. RESULTS: Patients attending their
      initial outpatient appointment within 7 days of discharge evidenced better long
      term outcomes relative to patients who did not with respect to continuous
      abstinence (75.4% vs. 37.3%), past-30-day abstinence (92.0% vs. 70.6%), quality
      of life (94.2% vs. 78.4%), and adherence (66.4% vs. 9.8%). Re-engagement remained
      a significant predictor of continuous abstinence and quality of life at 12 months
      after controlling for 12-month adherence and relevant demographic
      characteristics. CONCLUSION: Treatment providers are encouraged to emphasize the
      relative importance of attending initial post-discharge appointments in achieving
      successful long-term outcomes. Allocation of resources to enhance engagement
      during residential treatment may be justified in that there may be value in
      actively encouraging patients to participate in continuing care activities,
      particularly shortly following discharge.

PMID- 28557532
TI  - An Experimental Model to Study the Impact of Lipid Oxidation on Contact Lens
      Deposition In Vitro.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study was to establish a controlled in vitro test system to study
      the effect of lipid oxidation on lipid deposition on contact lenses. METHODS:
      Fatty acids with varying degree of unsaturation were oxidized using the Fenton
      reaction. The degree of lipid oxidation and the lipid moieties formed during the
      oxidation were identified and estimated by various lipid staining techniques
      following separation with thin-layer chromatography, and by measuring
      thiobarbituric acid reactive substances or peroxides in solution. Two different
      silicone hydrogel-based contact lenses (Balafilcon A and Senofilcon A) were
      incubated with fatty acids laced with radioactive tracer oxidized to varying
      degrees, and the amount of lipid deposition was measured using unoxidized lipid
      samples as controls. RESULTS: The Fenton reaction together with the analytical
      methods to analyze the lipid oxidation can be used to control oxidation of lipids
      to a desired amount. In general, saturated fatty acids are not oxidized, the
      monounsaturated oleic acid produced peroxides while poly-unsaturated lipids
      initially produced peroxides and then fragmented into reactive aldehydes.
      Incubation with mildly oxidized lipids (most likely lipid peroxides) resulted in
      increased lipid deposition on Balafilcon A lenses compared to unoxidized lipids,
      but this was not observed for Senofilcon A lenses. Further oxidation of the
      lipids (carbon chain breakup) on the other hand resulted in diminished lipid
      deposition for both contact lens types. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a method
      for inducing and controlling lipid oxidation so that the effect of lipid
      oxidation on contact lens binding can be compared. It could be shown that the
      degree of lipid oxidation has different effects on the lipid deposition on
      different contact lens types.

PMID- 28557533
TI  - Induced Cell Turnover: A Novel Therapeutic Modality for In Situ Tissue
      Regeneration.
AB  - Induced cell turnover (ICT) is a theoretical intervention in which the targeted
      ablation of damaged, diseased, and/or nonfunctional cells is coupled with
      replacement by partially differentiated induced pluripotent stem cells in a
      gradual and multiphasic manner. Tissue-specific ablation can be achieved using
      pro-apoptotic small molecule cocktails, peptide mimetics, and/or tissue-tropic
      adeno-associated virus-delivered suicide genes driven by cell type-specific
      promoters. Replenishment with new cells can be mediated by systemic
      administration of cells engineered for homing, robustness, and even enhanced
      function and disease resistance. Otherwise, the controlled release of cells can
      be achieved using implanted biodegradable scaffolds, hydrogels, and polymer
      matrixes. In theory, ICT would enable in situ tissue regeneration without the
      need for surgical transplantation of organs produced ex vivo, and addresses non
      transplantable tissues (such as the vasculature, lymph nodes, and the nervous
      system). This article outlines several complimentary strategies for overcoming
      barriers to ICT in an effort to stimulate further research at this promising
      interface of cell therapy, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28557534
TI  - The Influence of Information Appraisals and Information Behaviors on the
      Acceptance of Health Information: A Study of Television Medical Talk Shows in
      South Korea.
AB  - As television medical talk shows have become an increasingly popular source of
      health information, it is important to understand the processes by which people
      come to accept, at times unconditionally, the information presented by these
      shows. Based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this study explores the way
      by which individuals process health information from television medical talk
      shows. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between information
      exposure, information appraisals (e.g., appropriateness and incoherence),
      information behaviors (e.g., information seeking and sharing), and unconditional
      acceptance of health information. Results from a survey of 588 women in South
      Korean indicate that an individual's appraisal of information as being
      appropriate or incoherent influences unconditional acceptance of health
      information. Both types of information appraisals are positively associated with
      information seeking, which is negatively associated with unconditional acceptance
      of information. In contrast, neither of these appraisals have an impact on
      unconditional acceptance via information sharing. Notably, when information
      appraisals are not considered, information exposure is positively associated with
      information sharing, which is then positively associated with unconditional
      acceptance. Implications for health information consumers and practitioners are
      discussed.

PMID- 28557535
TI  - Peripapillary Atrophy in High Myopia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate peripapillary atrophy (PPA) in high myopia (HM) as a
      function of extent of myopia, axial length (AL), and age. METHODS: Medical
      records from patients (n = 88) seen in the Ophthalmology Department of the Third
      Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China, and
      diagnosed with high myopia (HM)-defined as spherical equivalent (SE) of >6.00
      diopters (D) of myopia in either eye-were included in this study. Eyes were
      classified according to SE and age. For the SE classification, individual eyes (n
      = 169) were arranged as follows: groups A1 (SE -6.00to -9.00D), A2 (-9.25 to 
      16.50D), and A3 (-16.75 to -27.00D). For the age classification, eyes (n = 154)
      were arranged as follows: groups B1 (5-18 years old), B2 (18.1-40 years old), and
      B3 (40.1-69 years old). Outcome measures included correlation of areas of optic
      nerve head (ONH), PPA, and peripapillary chorioretinal atrophy (PCA) with SE,
      age, and AL. Morphological parameters were measured using the 1000-edition
      program of 3D-OCT 2000 ( http://eyecare.topcon.com.cn/index.php?optionid =
      748&autoid = 8 ) clinical auto-analyzer module. RESULTS: Average areas-ONH (PPA,
      PCA)-in groups A1, A2, and A3 were 1.95 (2.05, 0.42), 2.42 (4.44, 1.39), and 2.52
      (7.19, 3.64) mm2, respectively; average areas were 1.99 (1.40, 0.03), 2.49 (4.68,
      1.92), and 2.28 (5.99, 2.78) mm2 in groups B1, B2, and B3, respectively. There
      were statistically significant differences among groups A1, A2, and A3 (F = 6.03,
      18.91, 13.86, all p < 0.01), and among B1, B2, and B3 (F = 5.46, 21.89, 13.06,
      all p < 0.01). ONH correlated only with SE (r = -0.30, p < 0.01). PPA and PCA
      correlated with SE, age, and AL (PPA: r = -0.53, 0.47, 0.61; PCA: r = -0.42,
      0.46, 0.48; all p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: PPA and PCA correlated with SE, age, and
      AL; ONH correlated with SE, may be with age.

PMID- 28557536
TI  - Preoperative Hand Decontamination in Ophthalmic Surgery: A Comparison of the
      Removal of Bacteria from Surgeons' Hands by Routine Antimicrobial Scrub versus an
      Alcoholic Hand Rub.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of this experiment was to evaluate and compare the
      antimicrobial efficacy of routine preoperative hand washing using commercial
      medicated sponge brushes versus an alcoholic hand rub, by comparing bacterial
      growth on ophthalmic surgeons' hands after application of each of these methods.
      METHODS: Twenty ophthalmic surgeons were recruited at the Hadassah-Hebrew
      University Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Samples were collected twice from
      the hands of each surgeon after hand decontamination using two different
      protocols during routine surgical practice. The routine preparation consisted of
      a 3-minute surgical scrub using commercial brush-sponges incorporating either 4%
      chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) or 1% povidone-iodine (PVP-I) formulations with
      detergent, followed by drying the hands with a sterile towel, while the 70%
      ethanol solution was applied for 60-seconds and allowed to air dry. Half of the
      group was randomly assigned to provide samples first after the routine method and
      the alcoholic solution a week later, and the other half of the group was sampled
      in the reverse order. Viable counts of bacteria were evaluated using a modified
      glove juice method. Bacterial colonies were enumerated after incubation for 24
      hours and expressed as colony forming units (CFU)/mL for each pair of hands.
      RESULTS: Geometric mean counts were 1310 and 39 CFU/mL, in the routine and
      alcohol rub groups, respectively, representing a mean log10 reduction in 1.53.
      The difference between the paired bacterial counts for the routine versus the
      alcohol rub was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). There was no
      statistically significant difference between log10 reductions for CHG and PVP-I
      (p = 0.97). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that an alcohol rub
      protocol is more effective in reducing bacterial counts on hands than routine
      surgical hand preparation with PVP-I and CHG in a population of practicing
      ophthalmic surgeons in the operative clinical setting. Thus, it provides a safe
      alternative as a preoperative hand disinfection method.

PMID- 28557538
TI  - Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Adult
      Patients With Primary Restless Legs Syndrome: Different Phenotypes of the Same
      Disease?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms in adult
      patients with primary restless legs syndrome (RLS) and to determine the iron
      biological correlates of these comorbidities. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: We
      obtained demographic and clinical data from consecutive 105 outpatients with
      idiopathic RLS who answered validated questionnaires designed to assess the
      presence of ADHD and OCD symptoms. In these patients, iron blood parameters were
      routinely checked. RESULTS: Of the total sample, 42.86% of the patients with RLS
      showed symptoms reminiscent either of ADHD or OCD. Prevalence of ADHD and OCD
      symptoms was 27.62% and 7.62%, respectively. Compared to other groups, a
      significantly higher percentage of RLS patients with ADHD symptoms was on
      antidepressant (p = 0.012); and women with ADHD symptoms, either alone or
      combined with OCD symptoms, showed significant reduced ferritin concentrations
      compared to men with either isolated ADHD symptoms or with combined ADHD and OCD
      symptoms (p = 0.028 and p = 0.025, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      highlight the high prevalence of ADHD and OCD symptoms in adult patients with
      primary RLS and independently of serum iron stores decrease, except for women
      with ADHD symptoms either alone or in combination with OCD symptoms. This may
      suggest an overlapping neurobiological dopaminergic and serotoninergic
      dysfunction in ADHD, OCD, and RLS, and question the expression of different RLS
      phenotypes. The efficacy of dopamine agonists in these groups of patients should
      be questioned in future studies.

PMID- 28557537
TI  - Respectable Gentlemen and Street-Savvy Men: HIV Vulnerability in Sri Lanka.
AB  - In this article, I investigate how particular discourses surrounding class
      specific understandings of sexual behavior and female morality shape awareness
      and views of the disease and personal vulnerability. Although both groups belong
      to the working class, those employed by the transportation board consider
      themselves government servants and, therefore, "respectable gentlemen."
      Construction workers identify easily with their class position, recognizing and
      sometimes trying to live up to the stereotypes of free sexuality. These different
      perceptions directly affect their concern and awareness of risk factors for
      sexually transmissible infections and safe-sex practices. While the "respectable
      gentlemen" consider themselves invulnerable, the "street-savvy men" learned about
      risks and took precautions to prevent STIs.

PMID- 28557539
TI  - Construction and temporal behaviour study of multi RLC intense light pulses for
      dermatological applications.
AB  - Driving a flash lamp in an intense pulsed light system requires a high-voltage DC
      power supply, capacitive energy storage and a flash lamp triggering unit. Single,
      double, triple and quadruple-mesh discharge and triggering circuits were
      constructed to provide intense light pulses of variable energy and time
      durations. The system was treated as [Formula: see text] circuit in some cases
      and [Formula: see text] circuit in others with a light pulse profile following
      the temporal behaviour of the exciting current pulse. Distributing the energy
      delivered to one lamp onto a number of LC meshes permitted longer current pulses,
      and consequently increased the light pulse length. Positive results were obtained
      when using the system to treat skin wrinkles.

PMID- 28557540
TI  - Prediction of long-term survival in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal
      stromal tumor: analysis of a large, single-institution cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A subset of patients with metastatic GIST become long-term survivors,
      and a more precise prediction of outcome could improve clinical decision-making.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: One-hundred and thirty-three patients diagnosed with
      metastatic GIST from 1995 to 2013 were identified from the sarcoma database at
      Oslo University Hospital. Clinical data prospectively registered in the database
      were supplemented with retrospective review of medical records. Factors
      associated with survival were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves, log-rank test,
      univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. RESULTS: One-hundred and
      fifteen patients with metastatic GIST were included in the final study cohort.
      Median overall survival (OS) was 6.9 years (95% CI 5.6-8.3). Factors associated
      with long-term survival in univariate analysis were good baseline performance
      status (ECOG <=1; p < .001), young age (p = .022), oligometastatic disease (OMD)
      (<=3 metastases; p < .001), maximum tumor diameter <5 cm (p < .001), surgery for
      metastatic disease (p = .005), surgery of the primary tumor (p < .001), normal
      baseline hemoglobin level (p = .05), normal baseline albumin level (p = .001) and
      normal baseline neutrophil count (p = .03). On multivariate analysis, good
      performance status, small tumor diameter and, OMD were the factors associated
      with long-term survival. Five and 10-year OS for patients with OMD were 89% and
      71%, respectively, compared to 38% and 20% for patients with polymetastatic
      disease (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In this single-institution cohort of patients,
      OMD was as a strong prognostic factor in patients with metastatic GIST. Patients
      with OMD had an outcome similar to patients with high-risk localized disease, and
      should be regarded as a separate category among patients with metastatic GIST.

PMID- 28557541
TI  - Tracking SBRT for liver tumors with a gimbaled linac system: a single institution
      experience.

PMID- 28557542
TI  - The efficacy of fractional carbon dioxide (CO2) laser combined with terbinafine
      hydrochloride 1% cream for the treatment of onychomycosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although systemic and topical antifungal agents are widely used to
      treat onychomycosis, oral medications can cause adverse effects and the efficacy
      of topical agents is not satisfying. Currently, laser treatment has been studied
      for its efficacy in the treatment of onychomycosis. Our study was aimed to
      evaluate the efficacy of fractional carbon dioxide (CO2) laser treatment combined
      with terbinafine cream for 6 months in the treatment of onychomycosis and to
      analyze the influencing factors. METHODS: A total of 30 participants (124 nails)
      with clinical and mycological diagnosis of onychomycosis received fractional CO2
      laser treatment at 2-week interval combined with terbinafine cream once daily for
      6 months. The clinical efficacy rate (CER) was assessed from the percentage of
      fully normal-appearing nails or nails with <=5% abnormal appearance, and the
      mycological clearance rate (MCR) was assessed from the percentage of nails with
      negative fungal microscopy. RESULTS: The CER was evaluated at 3 time points: at
      the end of treatment (58.9%), at 1 month after the last treatment (63.5%), and at
      3 months after the last treatment (68.5%). The MCRs at 1 month and 3 months after
      the last treatment were 77.4 and 74.2%, respectively. The evaluation of
      influencing factors showed significantly higher CER (p < 0.05) in nails of
      participants with age <50 years, distal lateral subungual onychomycosis (DLSO),
      superficial white onychomycosis (SWO), nail thickness <2 mm, affected first-to
      fourth finger/toenails, Trichophyton rubrum, and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. All
      participants experienced tolerable mild burning sensation during laser treatment,
      but there were no other adverse reactions reported. CONCLUSIONS: Fractional CO2
      laser treatment combined with terbinafine cream for 6 months was an effective and
      safe method for the treatment of onychomycosis. There were 5 factors that
      positively influenced the treatment outcome: age, clinical type of onychomycosis,
      nail thickness, involved nail, and species of fungus.

PMID- 28557544
TI  - Safety Assessment of Oil from Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.): Evaluation of
      the Potential Genotoxic and Clastogenic Effects.
AB  - Genotoxic data of medicinal plants and functional foods are required as part of
      the risk assessment by international regulatory agencies. Due to its food
      consumption and ethnopharmacological relevance, pequi oil (Caryocar brasiliense
      Camb.) is one of these compounds to be studied. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and clastogenic effects of the oil from the
      pulp of C. brasiliense (OPCB) in vivo and in vitro. Initially, the Artemia salina
      in vitro assay was conducted to determine the cells viability rate of different
      doses of the OPCB. Subsequently, comet assay (Organization for Economic
      Cooperation and Development, OECD 489) and micronucleus test (OECD 474) were
      performed in blood and bone marrow of Wistar rats treated orally with a 125, 250,
      500, or 1000 mg/kg/bw of the OPCB for 4 weeks. The chemical analysis indicated
      the presence of beta-carotene and lycopene in the oil. In the A. salina test, all
      OPCB doses maintained cell viability rates statistically similar to the negative
      control. The in vivo tests performed showed that OPCB did not show significant
      genotoxic or clastogenic effects in cells analyzed with the four doses tested.
      Altogether, these results indicate that, under our experimental conditions, C.
      brasiliense fruit oil did not reveal genetic toxicity in rat cells.

PMID- 28557543
TI  - Impaired Mitochondrial Microbicidal Responses in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
      Disease Macrophages.
AB  - RATIONALE: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by
      impaired clearance of pulmonary bacteria. OBJECTIVES: The effect of COPD on
      alveolar macrophage (AM) microbicidal responses was investigated. METHODS: AMs
      were obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage from healthy donors or patients with
      COPD and challenged with opsonized serotype 14 Streptococcus pneumoniae. Cells
      were assessed for apoptosis, bactericidal activity, and mitochondrial reactive
      oxygen species (mROS) production. A transgenic mouse line in which the CD68
      promoter ensures macrophage-specific expression of human induced myeloid leukemia
      cell differentiation protein Mcl-1 (CD68.hMcl-1) was used to model the molecular
      aspects of COPD. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: COPD AMs had elevated levels of
      Mcl-1, an antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 family member, with selective reduction
      of delayed intracellular bacterial killing. CD68.hMcl-1 AMs phenocopied the
      microbicidal defect because transgenic mice demonstrated impaired clearance of
      pulmonary bacteria and increased neutrophilic inflammation. Murine bone marrow
      derived macrophages and human monocyte-derived macrophages generated mROS in
      response to pneumococci, which colocalized with bacteria and phagolysosomes to
      enhance bacterial killing. The Mcl-1 transgene increased oxygen consumption rates
      and mROS expression in mock-infected bone marrow-derived macrophages but reduced
      caspase-dependent mROS production after pneumococcal challenge. COPD AMs also
      increased basal mROS expression, but they failed to increase production after
      pneumococcal challenge, in keeping with reduced intracellular bacterial killing.
      The defect in COPD AM intracellular killing was associated with a reduced ratio
      of mROS/superoxide dismutase 2. CONCLUSIONS: Up-regulation of Mcl-1 and chronic
      adaption to oxidative stress alter mitochondrial metabolism and microbicidal
      function, reducing the delayed phase of intracellular bacterial clearance in
      COPD.

PMID- 28557545
TI  - Sexual Risk and Protective Behaviors Among Reproductive-Aged Women in the United
      States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2014, women represented 19% of HIV diagnoses in the United States.
      Of these, 78% were among black women and Latinas. Sexual risk behaviors-for
      example concurrent sex partnerships, nonmonogamous sex partners, and inconsistent
      condom use-are associated with increased HIV transmission and prevalence; these
      behaviors have been understudied, collectively, in women. METHODS: To examine HIV
      related sexual risk behaviors among sexually active women aged 18-44 years by
      race/ethnicity and over time, we used data from the 2006-2008, 2008-2010, and
      2011-2013 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth. We estimated weighted
      percentages and performed logistic regression to measure adjusted prevalence
      ratios (aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between selected
      behaviors and sociodemographic covariates. RESULTS: Among 13,588 women, 1.1%
      reported concurrent sex partnerships, 10.3% reported male partners whom they
      perceived were nonmonogamous, and 21.1% reported using a condom at either last
      vaginal or anal sex. Black women (aPR = 1.52; CI = 1.36-1.71) and Latinas (aPR =
      1.29; CI = 1.14-1.47) were more likely to report condom use at either last
      vaginal or anal sex compared with white women. However, black women were also
      more likely to report concurrent opposite-sex partnerships (aPR = 2.44; CI = 1.57
      3.78) and perceived nonmonogamous sex partners (aPR = 1.33; CI = 1.14-1.56)
      compared with white women. CONCLUSIONS: Improved HIV behavioral risk-reduction
      strategies are needed for women. Black women could benefit from interventions
      that address partnership concurrency. For black women and Latinas, who are more
      likely to use condoms, further examination of broader social and structural
      factors as contributors to racial/ethnic gaps are warranted and vital for
      understanding and decreasing HIV-related disparities.

PMID- 28557547
TI  - Readiness to Use Psychoactive Substances Among Second-Generation Adolescent
      Immigrants and Perceptions of Parental Immigration-Related Trauma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This research explores the relationship between parental immigration
      related trauma and second-generation adolescent substance abuse. To examine this
      relationship, we focused on Ethiopian adolescents in Israel who are at risk for
      substance abuse. Many immigrants from Ethiopia experienced severe immigration
      trauma and research indicates the existence of transgenerational trauma
      transmission. The current research focuses on the connection between Ethiopian
      adolescents' perceptions of their parents' immigration trauma and their readiness
      to use psychoactive substances. DESIGN: Five hundred and ten second-generation
      Ethiopian adolescents (Israeli-born children of Ethiopian immigrants) filled out
      questionnaires examining socio-demographic characteristics, immigration impact
      and readiness to consume alcoholic beverages and use illegal drugs. RESULTS: Our
      findings show that readiness levels among Ethiopian adolescents to use
      psychoactive substances are relatively low, and that parental trauma only affects
      the readiness to consume alcohol. The levels of readiness to consume drugs were
      partially related to parental trauma. Conclusions/Importance: Transgenerational
      trauma transmission should be considered when implementing alcohol and substance
      abuse treatment and prevention policies among second generation immigrants. This
      should be done on all levels including personal, interpersonal and community
      levels.

PMID- 28557546
TI  - Inflammation-associated DNA methylation patterns in epithelium of ulcerative
      colitis.
AB  - Aberrant DNA methylation patterns have been reported in inflamed tissues and may
      play a role in disease. We studied DNA methylation and gene expression profiles
      of purified intestinal epithelial cells from ulcerative colitis patients,
      comparing inflamed and non-inflamed areas of the colon. We identified 577
      differentially methylated sites (false discovery rate <0.2) mapping to 210 genes.
      From gene expression data from the same epithelial cells, we identified 62
      differentially expressed genes with increased expression in the presence of
      inflammation at prostate cancer susceptibility genes PRAC1 and PRAC2. Four genes
      showed inverse correlation between methylation and gene expression; ROR1, GXYLT2,
      FOXA2, and, notably, RARB, a gene previously identified as a tumor suppressor in
      colorectal adenocarcinoma as well as breast, lung and prostate cancer. We
      highlight targeted and specific patterns of DNA methylation and gene expression
      in epithelial cells from inflamed colon, while challenging the importance of
      epithelial cells in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation.

PMID- 28557549
TI  - Clinician-Targeted Mobile Apps in Palliative Care: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The availability of smartphone applications has increased rapidly
      including applications related to palliative care. The scope of these available
      apps has not been synthesized. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to
      identify and review available palliative care-related smartphone applications for
      clinicians. DESIGN: Smartphone application platform stores, for example, App
      Store iOS, Google Play Store, Windows App-Microsoft Store, and Blackberry World
      App store were searched (December 2016) using relevant key words. RESULTS: Forty
      six palliative care applications targeting clinicians were identified, including
      clinical guidelines (n = 17), advance care planning (n = 9), training materials
      in palliative care (n = 7), and pharmaceutical tools (n = 7), and platforms for
      distributing current palliative care news, articles, and opinions (n = 6). The
      majority of the applications were free and available in English. The most common
      platforms were Android and iOS. CONCLUSIONS: The number of palliative care apps
      targeting clinicians has increased dramatically for the past five years. However,
      many apps did not report adequate information to judge the evidence upon which
      the apps were based.

PMID- 28557548
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of a Chewable Methylphenidate Extended-Release Tablet in
      Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This phase 3, laboratory classroom study assessed the efficacy and
      safety of methylphenidate hydrochloride extended-release chewable tablets (MPH
      ERCT) compared with placebo in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Following a 6-week, open-label, dose-optimization
      period, children 6-12 years of age (n = 90) with ADHD were randomly assigned to
      double-blind MPH ERCT at the final optimized dose (20-60 mg/day) or placebo.
      After 1 week of double-blind treatment, efficacy was assessed predose and 0.75,
      2, 4, 8, 10, 12, and 13 hours postdose in a laboratory classroom setting. The
      primary efficacy measure was the average of postdose Swanson, Kotkin, Agler, M
      Flynn, and Pelham (SKAMP) Rating Scale-Combined scores, analyzed using a mixed
      model, repeated-measures analysis. Secondary efficacy measures included Permanent
      Product Measure of Performance (PERMP) total number of problems attempted and
      total number of problems correct. Safety assessments included adverse event (AE)
      monitoring and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). RESULTS: MPH
      ERCT treatment statistically significantly reduced the average of all postdose
      SKAMP-Combined scores versus placebo (least-squares mean difference [95%
      confidence interval], -7.0 [-10.9, -3.1]; p < 0.001). Statistically significant
      treatment differences in SKAMP-Combined scores were observed at 2 hours postdose
      through 8 hours postdose (p-values <0.001). Statistically significant differences
      between MPH ERCT and placebo in PERMP total number of problems attempted and
      total number of problems correct were observed at 0.75 hours postdose through 8
      hours postdose (p-values <=0.049). Common AEs in the open-label period (>=5%)
      were decreased appetite, upper abdominal pain, mood swings, irritability,
      insomnia, upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), dysgeusia, and headache; URTI
      was the only AE reported by >1 subject receiving MPH ERCT in the double-blind
      period (placebo: URTI, contusion, wound, and initial insomnia). No suicidal
      ideation or behavior was reported on the C-SSRS at baseline or at any
      postbaseline assessment. CONCLUSIONS: MPH ERCT 20-60 mg significantly improved
      ADHD symptoms compared with placebo at 2 hours postdose through at least 8 hours
      postdose. MPH ERCT was generally safe and well tolerated, with a safety profile
      consistent with other MPH ER formulations. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT01654250. www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01654250 .

PMID- 28557550
TI  - Identifying "Hitting Bottom" Among Individuals with Alcohol Problems: Development
      and Evaluation of the Noteworthy Aspects of Drinking Important to Recovery
      (NADIR).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a costly public health concern; yet,
      many individuals with AUD never receive formal treatment. Prior studies have
      identified that "hitting bottom" may be an important factor in seeking treatment
      for AUD) and the notion that "hitting bottom" is necessary for recovery is
      commonly portrayed in the popular media. Yet, "hitting bottom" has never been
      formally operationalized. OBJECTIVES: The present article aimed to operationalize
      "hitting bottom." METHODS: A multiphase process was used to develop a measure of
      hitting bottom among individuals experiencing alcohol problems: The Noteworthy
      Aspects of Drinking Important to Recovery (NADIR). Psychometric evaluation of the
      measure was conducted using online data collected from individuals who identified
      as moderate to heavy drinkers (N = 597). RESULTS: The NADIR included five lower
      order dimensions and one higher-order dimension ("hitting bottom"), had strong
      concurrent validity with measures of alcohol use severity and alcohol-related
      problems, and was found to have excellent internal consistency reliability (alpha
      > 0.90). An overall summary score on the NADIR of 50+ (factor scores>0)
      differentiated individuals who had previously sought treatment for AUD and
      reported more excessive alcohol use compared to those with no treatment history
      and lower levels of alcohol use. Thus, the NADIR with a cutoff of 50 may be a
      good starting point for future researchers to test as a method to identify
      individuals who have hit bottom. Conclusions/Importance: The NADIR provides a
      viable operational definition of hitting bottom. Future research should evaluate
      the predictive validity of the NADIR.

PMID- 28557551
TI  - MAP-IT: A Practical Tool for Planning Complex Behavior Modification
      Interventions.
AB  - Health research often aims to prevent noncommunicable diseases and to improve
      individual and public health by discovering intervention strategies that are
      effective in changing behavior and/or environments that are detrimental to one's
      health. Ideally, findings from original research support practitioners in
      planning and implementing effective interventions. Unfortunately, interventions
      often fail to overcome the translational block between science and practice. They
      often ignore theoretical knowledge, overlook empirical evidence, and underrate
      the impact of the environment. Accordingly, sustainable changes in individual
      behavior and/or the environment are difficult to achieve. Developing theory
      driven and evidence-based interventions in the real world is a complex task.
      Existing implementation frameworks and theories often do not meet the needs of
      health practitioners. The purpose of this article is to synthesize existing
      frameworks and to provide a tool, the Matrix Assisting Practitioner's
      Intervention Planning Tool (MAP-IT), that links research to practice and helps
      practitioners to design multicomponent interventions. In this article, we use
      physical activity of older adults as an example to explain the rationale of MAP
      IT. In MAP-IT, individual as well as environmental mechanisms are listed and
      behavior change techniques are linked to these mechanisms and to intervention
      components. MAP-IT is theory-driven and evidence-based. It is time-saving and
      helpful for practitioners when planning complex interventions.

PMID- 28557552
TI  - Family Discord After Completion of an Outpatient Community Treatment Program
      Predicts Greater Substance Use During Follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is reasonable to consider family discord after treatment as a
      potential target for a next-step intervention, since family discord is often
      comorbid with substance use disorders. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated family
      discord after completing an initial course of treatment as a predictor of
      substance use and retention in the community treatment program during follow-up.
      METHOD: Patients were from two multisite randomized clinical trials implemented
      through the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
      There were 315 participants from Study 1 (12-week posttreatment follow-up) and
      295 participants from Study 2 (8-week posttreatment follow-up). Negative binomial
      and logistic regression were used to estimate days of substance use and odds of
      retention in the community treatment program at follow-up, respectively, from
      family discord status. RESULTS: Family discord was significantly associated with
      more days of substance use during the posttreatment follow-up period than those
      without family discord in both Study 1 (9.12 vs. 2.89 days, p =.0001) and Study 2
      (5.58 vs. 2.83 days, p =.0062). Family discord was significantly associated with
      lower retention in the community treatment program at follow-up than those not
      reporting family discord in Study 1 (47.6% vs. 60.6%; p =.03), but not in Study 2
      (55.3% vs. 64.9%; p =.11). CONCLUSION: Family discord after an initial course of
      treatment might be a clinically relevant predictor of substance use. There is
      mixed support for a conclusion that family discord is associated with lower
      retention in the community treatment program at follow-up.

PMID- 28557553
TI  - Decreased Odds of Injection Risk Behavior Associated With Direct Versus Indirect
      Use of Syringe Exchange: Evidence From Two California Cities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While there is substantial evidence that syringe exchange programs
      (SEPs) are effective in preventing HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID),
      nearly all the evidence comes from PWID who obtain syringes from an SEP directly.
      Much less is known about the benefits of secondary exchange to PWID who get
      syringes indirectly from friends or acquaintances who visit an SEP for them.
      OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the effectiveness of direct versus indirect syringe
      exchange in reducing HIV-related high-risk injecting behavior among PWID in two
      separate studies conducted in Sacramento and San Jose, California, cities with
      quite different syringe exchange models. METHODS: In both studies associations
      between direct and indirect syringe exchange and self-reported risk behavior were
      examined with multivariable logistic regression models. Study 1 assessed effects
      of a "satellite" home-delivery syringe exchange in Sacramento, while Study 2
      evaluated a conventional fixed-site exchange in San Jose. RESULTS: Multivariable
      analyses revealed 95% and 69% reductions, respectively, in high-risk injection
      associated with direct use of the SEPs in Sacramento and San Jose, and a 46%
      reduction associated with indirect use of the SEP in Sacramento.
      Conclusions/Importance: The very large effect of direct SEP use in Sacramento was
      likely due in part to home delivery of sterile syringes. While more modest
      effects were associated with indirect use, such use nevertheless is valuable in
      reducing the risk of HIV transmission of PWID who are unable or unwilling to
      visit a syringe exchange.

PMID- 28557555
TI  - Effect of obstructive sleep apnea on the response to hypertension therapy.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often precedes cardiovascular disease, partly due
      to treatment resistant hypertension. The nocturnal apneas of OSA trigger
      increased sympathetic nervous discharge during both sleep and wakefulness. Apneas
      also trigger cardiac release of the endogenous diuretic atrial natriuretic
      peptide. We hypothesized that treatment of the excess sympathetic nervous
      activity of OSA with a beta1 blocker would lower 24 h blood pressure (BP) more
      than diuretic therapy. Subjects with OSA associated hypertension received 2 weeks
      of placebo followed by the beta1 blocker nebivolol or hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ)
      for 6 weeks in a blinded crossover study. BP, baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), heart
      rate variability (HRV), arterial reactivity, and stiffness were measured after
      placebo and each treatment. The beta1 blocker lowered clinic BP by -11/-8 mmHg,
      more than the -3/-1 effect of HCTZ (P < 0.01). The beta1 blocker lowered 24 h
      diastolic blood pressure (DBP) more than HCTZ. Although given at bedtime, neither
      drug increased BP dipping. Nebivolol increased HRV in the high-frequency band.
      Nebivolol did not alter BRS while HCTZ significantly diminished BRS compared to
      nebivolol (P < 0.01). Nebivolol increased flow-mediated brachial artery dilation
      when compared to HCTZ and slowed pulse wave velocity, indicating a decrease in
      arterial stiffness. Diuretic therapy failed to lower BP in OSA subjects and this
      might account for the frequent association of OSA with treatment resistant
      hypertension. However, blockade of the excess sympathetic nervous activity of OSA
      with a beta1 blocker lowered both clinic and 24 h DBP.

PMID- 28557554
TI  - Ten-Year Review of Perioperative Complications After Transurethral Resection of
      Bladder Tumors: Analysis of Monopolar and Plasmakinetic Bipolar Cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the rate of perioperative complications after
      plasmakinetic bipolar and monopolar transurethral resection of bladder tumor
      (BTURB and MTURB). In addition, the study identifies patient and procedure
      characteristics associated with early complications. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective review was conducted on patients undergoing transurethral resection
      of bladder tumor procedures at a single institution from 2003 to 2013 to assess
      the 30-day complication rates associated with BTURB and MTURB. RESULTS: Four
      hundred twenty-seven patients met inclusion criteria and underwent 586 procedures
      (379 BTURB and 207 MTURB). Baseline patient demographics, tumor stage, and tumor
      grade were similar in BTURB and MTURB cohorts. The overall complication rate was
      34.3% for MTURB and 26.7% for BTURB. The most frequent complications were acute
      urinary retention (AUR) 11%, hematuria 8%, and urinary tract infection (UTI) 7%.
      There was no statistical difference in rates of AUR, hematuria, UTI, or
      readmission for continuous bladder irrigation or hemostasis procedures between
      BTURB and MTURB cohorts. There was a trend toward lower perforation rate during
      BTURB (2.6% vs 5.8%). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, MTURB, male
      gender, and large resections were predictive of overall complications. Male
      gender was associated with hematuria and AUR. Large bladder tumor resection size
      was also associated with increased risk of overall complications and AUR.
      CONCLUSION: BTURB was associated with a lower risk of overall complications, but
      there was no difference in the rate of hematuria in the two cohorts. Male gender
      and large tumor size are associated with higher risk of early complications.

PMID- 28557556
TI  - Regulating the Regulators in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Genetic
      Association Study of microRNA Biogenesis Pathways.
AB  - Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent
      complex psychiatric disorders in children as well as adults. ADHD impacts not
      only the affected individuals but also their families and social and professional
      networks. The clinical and diagnostic criteria for ADHD remain imprecise, in
      part, due to lack of robust biomarkers. ADHD comprises multiple subsets of
      diseases that present a shared set of downstream clinical findings, while
      displaying extensive molecular heterogeneity. This calls for innovation in
      diagnostic strategies that can help establish an ADHD diagnosis unequivocally as
      well as guiding precision medicine in this common mental health disorder. No
      study has examined, to the best of our knowledge, the upstream regulation of
      miRNAs that impact the downstream final ADHD phenotype. The latter focus on
      putative genetic biomarkers that regulate the regulators and can be tested
      empirically, for example, through genetic association analyses of the biogenesis
      pathways for miRNAs that impact the ADHD phenotype. Hence, we report here
      polymorphic variation in 10 miRNA biogenesis pathway candidate genes, including
      RNASEN, DGCR8, XPO5, RAN, DICER1, TARBP2, AGO1, AGO2, GEMIN3, and GEMIN4, in a
      large sample from the Eastern Mediterranean region (N = 355; 191 cases and 164
      controls). We found that AGO1 rs595961 was significantly associated with ADHD
      susceptibility (p < 0.05). While polymorphic variation in other miRNA biogenesis
      pathway genes did not display a significant association in the present sample,
      the observations reported herein on miRNA biogenesis variation offer a new avenue
      of research for innovation in biomarker discovery concerning ADHD and other
      complex psychiatric diseases with major global health burden.

PMID- 28557559
TI  - Aggressive Antimicrobial Initiation for Suspected Intensive Care Unit-Acquired
      Infection Is Associated with Decreased Long-Term Survival after Critical Illness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The long-term significance of early and prolonged antibiotic use in
      critically ill patients is yet to be described. Several studies suggest that
      antimicrobial exposure may have as yet unrecognized long-term effects on
      clinically meaningful outcomes. Our group previously conducted a quasi
      experimental, before and after observational cohort study of hemodynamically
      stable surgical patients suspected of having an intensive care unit-acquired
      infection. This study demonstrated that aggressive initiation of antimicrobial
      therapy was associated with increased 30-day deaths. In a follow-up survival
      analysis, we hypothesized that aggressive antimicrobial treatment would not be a
      significant predictor of long-term death. METHODS: Survival data for the 201
      patients included in the initial study were obtained from our clinical data
      repository. Univariable analysis, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox proportional hazards
      models were used. Survival was evaluated at one and four years. Age, gender,
      Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, and co
      morbidities were chosen a priori for potential inclusion in the model. Variables
      that met the model assumptions after testing were included in the final model.
      RESULTS: Follow-up data were available for 190 patients (95 in each group)
      representing 94.5% of the initial cohort. Twenty-four (25.3%) patients in the
      aggressive group had initial APACHE II scores of less than 15 compared with 13
      (13.7%) patients in the conservative group (p = 0.04). There was a trend toward
      higher deaths in the aggressive group at four years (41.1% vs. 30.5%; p = 0.13).
      Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a difference in survival at one year but not
      at four years. The Cox proportional hazards model showed a higher long-term death
      for patients in the aggressive antimicrobial group at both one and four years
      (hazard rate: 2.26 and 1.70, respectively). CONCLUSION: Aggressive initiation of
      antimicrobial therapy is independently associated with decreased long-term
      survival after critical illness. While further work is needed to confirm these
      findings, waiting for evidence of infection before initiation of antibiotic
      agents may be beneficial.

PMID- 28557560
TI  - A Retrospective Study of Peroral Endoscopic Full-Thickness Myotomy in Patients
      with Severe Achalasia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Selective circular myotomy (CM) is recommended in peroral endoscopic
      myotomy (POEM) for achalasia, but completeness of myotmoy is the prerequisite for
      excellent long-term results of conventional surgical myotomy. The aim of our
      study was to compare the efficacy and safety between peroral endoscopic full
      thickness and simple CM for the treatment of severe achalasia. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 123 severe achalasia patients who underwent POEM from August
      2011 to May 2013 were included. They were divided into circular or full-thickness
      myotomy (FTM) groups according to the depth of myotomy. Demographics, Eckardt
      score, procedure-related parameters, perioperative adverse events, pre- and
      postoperative esophageal diameter, esophageal manometry, and follow-up results
      were retrospectively collected and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: All
      the 123 patients underwent POEM successfully, and the mean operation time was
      significantly shorter in FTM group compared with CM group (57.4 +/- 8.2 minutes
      versus 63.2 +/- 12.3 minutes, P < .05). There was no significant difference
      between the two groups in terms of treatment success, pre- and postoperative
      Eckardt score, esophageal diameter, esophageal manometry, and perioperative
      adverse events (P > .05). Twenty-four-hour pH monitoring was performed in 19
      patients (11 in FTM, 8 in CM). Although no statistical difference was detected in
      rate of abnormal esophageal acid exposure between groups, this rate was higher in
      FTM group than CM group (60% versus 40%, P > .05). CONCLUSION: Treatment efficacy
      in short-to-medium term are comparable between circular or FTM. FTM significantly
      reduce the operative duration, but it may increase potential risk of
      gastroesophageal reflux disease incidence.

PMID- 28557558
TI  - A Social Media Peer Group for Mothers To Prevent Obesity from Infancy: The
      Grow2Gether Randomized Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have addressed obesity prevention among low-income
      families whose infants are at increased obesity risk. We tested a Facebook peer
      group intervention for low-income mothers to foster behaviors promoting healthy
      infant growth. METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 87 pregnant women
      (Medicaid insured, BMI >=25 kg/m2) were randomized to the Grow2Gether
      intervention or text message appointment reminders. Grow2Gether participants
      joined a private Facebook group of 9-13 women from 2 months before delivery until
      infant age 9 months. A psychologist facilitated groups featuring a curriculum of
      weekly videos addressing feeding, sleep, parenting, and maternal well-being.
      Feasibility was assessed using the frequency and content of participation, and
      acceptability using surveys. Maternal beliefs and behaviors and infant growth
      were assessed at birth, 2, 4, 6, and 9 months. Differences in infant growth
      between study arms were explored. We conducted intention-to-treat analyses using
      quasi-least-squares regression. RESULTS: Eighty-eight percent (75/85) of
      intervention participants (42% (36/85) food insecure, 88% (75/85) black) reported
      the group was helpful. Participants posted 30 times/group/week on average. At 9
      months, the intervention group had significant improvement in feeding behaviors
      (Infant Feeding Style Questionnaire) compared to the control group (p = 0.01,
      effect size = 0.45). Intervention group mothers were significantly less likely to
      pressure infants to finish food and, at age 6 months, give cereal in the bottle.
      Differences were not observed for other outcomes, including maternal feeding
      beliefs or infant weight-for-length. CONCLUSIONS: A social media peer-group
      intervention was engaging and significantly impacted certain feeding behaviors in
      families with infants at high risk of obesity.

PMID- 28557561
TI  - In vivo anti-inflammatory activity of aqueous extract of Teucrium polium against
      carrageenan-induced inflammation in experimental models.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of Teucrium
      polium (TP). Rats were divided into four groups: group 1 controls received
      standard diet; group 2 inflamed by carrageenan (Carr) (1% Carr); group 3 as
      reference inflamed with Carr and treated with Indometacine (Ind) (150 mg/kg bw)
      and group 4 inflamed with Carr and pre0treated with TP (5 g/L). Oedema volume was
      measured 1 h to 5 h after injection. Administration of TP or Ind decreased the
      levels of hematology parameters relative to Carr and reduced the volume of rats
      induced by Carr. TP reduced levels of CRP, fibrinogen compared to treated, a
      decrease in oxidative stress (LP) and AOPP with an increase in the levels of SOD,
      CAT, GPx and Vit C in skin and erythrocytes. Carr increased the levels of lipid
      peroxidation and decreased levels of antioxidant enzymatic and Vit C. Our results
      were confirmed by histological sections of skin.

PMID- 28557557
TI  - Subsequent Surgery After Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction:
      Rates and Risk Factors From a Multicenter Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) can
      be performed to restore knee stability and improve patient activity levels,
      outcomes after this surgery are reported to be inferior to those after primary
      ACLR. Further reoperations after revision ACLR can have an even more profound
      effect on patient satisfaction and outcomes. However, there is a current lack of
      information regarding the rate and risk factors for subsequent surgery after
      revision ACLR. PURPOSE: To report the rate of reoperations, procedures performed,
      and risk factors for a reoperation 2 years after revision ACLR. STUDY DESIGN:
      Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. METHODS: A total of 1205 patients who
      underwent revision ACLR were enrolled in the Multicenter ACL Revision Study
      (MARS) between 2006 and 2011, composing the prospective cohort. Two-year
      questionnaire follow-up was obtained for 989 patients (82%), while telephone
      follow-up was obtained for 1112 patients (92%). If a patient reported having
      undergone subsequent surgery, operative reports detailing the subsequent
      procedure(s) were obtained and categorized. Multivariate regression analysis was
      performed to determine independent risk factors for a reoperation. RESULTS: Of
      the 1112 patients included in the analysis, 122 patients (11%) underwent a total
      of 172 subsequent procedures on the ipsilateral knee at 2-year follow-up. Of the
      reoperations, 27% were meniscal procedures (69% meniscectomy, 26% repair), 19%
      were subsequent revision ACLR, 17% were cartilage procedures (61% chondroplasty,
      17% microfracture, 13% mosaicplasty), 11% were hardware removal, and 9% were
      procedures for arthrofibrosis. Multivariate analysis revealed that patients aged
      <20 years had twice the odds of patients aged 20 to 29 years to undergo a
      reoperation. The use of an allograft at the time of revision ACLR (odds ratio
      [OR], 1.79; P = .007) was a significant predictor for reoperations at 2 years,
      while staged revision (bone grafting of tunnels before revision ACLR) (OR, 1.93;
      P = .052) did not reach significance. Patients with grade 4 cartilage damage seen
      during revision ACLR were 78% less likely to undergo subsequent operations within
      2 years. Sex, body mass index, smoking history, Marx activity score, technique
      for femoral tunnel placement, and meniscal tearing or meniscal treatment at the
      time of revision ACLR showed no significant effect on the reoperation rate.
      CONCLUSION: There was a significant reoperation rate after revision ACLR at 2
      years (11%), with meniscal procedures most commonly involved. Independent risk
      factors for subsequent surgery on the ipsilateral knee included age <20 years and
      the use of allograft tissue at the time of revision ACLR.

PMID- 28557562
TI  - Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as Anti-Inflammatory and Regenerative Mediators for
      Donor Kidneys During Normothermic Machine Perfusion.
AB  - There is great demand for transplant kidneys for the treatment of end-stage
      kidney disease patients. To expand the donor pool, organs from older and comorbid
      brain death donors, so-called expanded criteria donors (ECD), as well as donation
      after circulatory death donors, are considered for transplantation. However, the
      quality of these organs may be inferior to standard donor organs. A major issue
      affecting graft function and survival is ischemia/reperfusion injury, which
      particularly affects kidneys from deceased donors. The development of hypothermic
      machine perfusion has been introduced in kidney transplantation as a preservation
      technique and has improved outcomes in ECD and marginal organs compared to static
      cold storage. Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) is the most recent evolution
      of perfusion technology and allows assessment of the donor organ before
      transplantation. The possibility to control the content of the perfusion fluid
      offers opportunities for damage control and reparative therapies during machine
      perfusion. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have been demonstrated to possess
      potent regenerative properties via the release of paracrine effectors. The
      combination of NMP and MSC administration at the same time is a promising
      procedure in the field of transplantation. Therefore, the MePEP consortium has
      been created to study this novel modality of treatment in preparation for human
      trials. MePEP aims to assess the therapeutic effects of MSC administered ex vivo
      by NMP in the mechanisms of injury and repair in a porcine kidney
      autotransplantation model.

PMID- 28557563
TI  - Comparison of Support for Breastfeeding Beyond 12 Months of Age from Conventional
      and Alternative Pediatric Primary Care Providers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Conventional medicine pediatric care providers (e.g., pediatricians)
      have been shown to be influential in women's decisions to initiate and sustain
      breastfeeding. Alternative pediatric care providers (e.g., naturopaths and
      chiropractors) may also provide breastfeeding support, but this has not been the
      subject of prior research. Our objective was to compare breastfeeding mothers'
      perceptions of support from these two provider types in a large sample of women
      who breastfed for more than 12 months. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional
      study of 49,091 U.S. women through online questionnaire distributed through peer
      breastfeeding groups. We used log-binomial regression to compare those who used
      an alternative pediatric healthcare provider to care for their child to those who
      used a conventional provider on perceptions of support and key factors
      influencing the decision to breastfeed for more than 12 months. RESULTS: Those
      who used an alternative provider were more likely to discuss breastfeeding (Adj
      RR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.17-1.33), feel comfortable discussing breastfeeding (Adj RR =
      1.17; 95% CI 1.15-1.19), and feel supported by the provider (Adj RR = 1.25; 95%
      CI 1.23-1.28). However, providers' recommendations were not important factors in
      these women's decision to breastfeed beyond 12 months of age. CONCLUSIONS:
      Mothers who used an alternative care provider as their child's primary source of
      healthcare rated the provider's breastfeeding support more favorable than those
      who used a conventional provider (usually a pediatrician). Improving
      breastfeeding support may be one way to retain families in conventional pediatric
      primary care, and thereby, ensure children receive comprehensive, evidence-based
      care.

PMID- 28557564
TI  - Metabolic Syndrome Among Leukemia Survivors: Still Delineating the Risk.

PMID- 28557565
TI  - Contemporary Trends in Utilization and Perioperative Outcomes of Percutaneous
      Nephrolithotomy in the United States from 2003 to 2014.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the contemporary trends and perioperative outcomes of
      percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) by using a population-based cohort. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Using the Premier Healthcare Database, we identified 225,321
      patients in whom kidney/ureteral calculi were diagnosed and who underwent PCNL at
      447 different hospitals across the United States from 2003 to 2014. Outcomes
      included 90-day postoperative complications (as classified by the Clavien-Dindo
      system), prolonged hospital length of stay, operating room time, blood
      transfusions, and direct hospital costs. Temporal trends were quantified by
      estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) by using least-squares linear
      regression analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify
      predictors of outcomes. RESULTS: PCNL utilization rates initially increased from
      6.7% (2003) to 8.9% (2008) (EAPC: +5.60%, p = 0.02), before plateauing at 9.0%
      (2008-2011), and finally declining to 7.2% in 2014 (EAPC: -4.37%, p = 0.02).
      Overall (Clavien >=1) and major complication (Clavien >=3) rates rose
      significantly (EAPC: +12.2% and +16.4%, respectively, both p < 0.001).
      Overall/major complication and blood transfusion rates were 23.1%/4.8% and 3.3%,
      respectively. Median operating room time and 90-day costs were 221 minutes
      (interquartile range [IQR] 4) and $12,734 (IQR $9419), respectively. Significant
      predictors of overall complications include higher Charlson comorbidity index
      (CCI) (CCI >=2: odds ratio [OR] 2.08, p < 0.001) and more recent year of surgery
      (2007-2010: OR 3.20, 2011-2014: OR 4.39, both p < 0.001). Higher surgeon volume
      was significantly associated with decreased overall (OR 0.992, p < 0.001) and
      major (OR 0.991, p = 0.01) complications. CONCLUSIONS: Our contemporary analysis
      shows a decrease in the utilization of PCNL in recent years, along with an
      increase in complication rates. Numerous patient, hospital, and surgical
      characteristics affect complication rates.

PMID- 28557566
TI  - Psychosocial Factors Are Associated with Quality of Life After Laparoscopic
      Antireflux Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic antireflux surgery (LARS) is the gold standard treatment
      for refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Traditional surgical
      outcomes following LARS are well described, but limited data exist regarding
      patient-reported outcomes. We aimed to identify preoperative characteristics that
      were independently associated with a high GERD health-related quality of life
      (GERD-HRQL) following LARS. METHODS: Clinical data from our single institution
      foregut surgery database were used to identify all patients with GERD who
      underwent primary LARS from June 2010 to November 2015. Electronic health record
      data were reviewed to extract patient characteristics, diagnostic study
      characteristics, and operative data. Postoperative GERD-HRQL data were obtained
      through telephone follow-up. Variables hypothesized a priori to be associated
      with high GERD-HRQL after LARS, which were significant at P <= .2 on bivariate
      analysis, were entered into a multivariable linear regression model with GERD
      HRQL as the outcome. RESULTS: The study included 248 patients; 69.0% were female,
      56.9% were married, and 58.1% had concurrent atypical symptoms. The most commonly
      performed fundoplications were Nissen (44.8%), Toupet (41.3%), and Dor (14.1%),
      respectively. The median follow-up interval was 3.4 years. The telephone response
      rate was 60.1%. GERD-HRQL scores improved from 24.8 (SD +/-11.4) preoperatively
      to 3.0 (SD +/-5.9) postoperatively. 79.9% of patients were satisfied with their
      condition at follow-up. On multivariable analysis, being married (P = .04) and
      absence of depression (P = .02) were independently associated with a higher
      postoperative QoL. CONCLUSIONS: Strong social support and psychiatric well-being
      appear to be important predictors of a higher QoL following LARS. Optimizing
      social support and treating depression preoperatively and postoperatively may
      improve QoL outcomes for LARS patients.

PMID- 28557567
TI  - Gene expression of the concentration-sensitive sodium channel is suppressed in
      lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice.
AB  - PURPOSE: The concentration-sensitive sodium channel (NaC) is expressed in
      alveolar type II epithelial cells and pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells
      in mouse lungs. We recently reported that NaC contributes to amiloride
      insensitive sodium transport in mouse lungs (Respiratory Physiology &
      Neurobiology, 2016). However, details regarding its physiological role in the
      lung remain unknown. To examine whether NaC is involved in alveolar fluid
      clearance during an acute lung injury (ALI), we analyzed the relationship between
      NaC gene expression in the lung and the development of pulmonary edema in
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI mice. METHODS: LPS-induced ALI mice were
      prepared by the intratracheal administration of LPS. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)
      neutrophils and lung water content (LWCs) were used as a marker of ALI and
      pulmonary edema, respectively. NaC protein production in the lung was detected by
      immunoblotting and immunofluorescence. The gene expressions of NaC and the
      epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) of LPS-induced ALI mice were examined by
      quantitative RT-PCR over a time course of 14 days. RESULTS: The BAL neutrophil
      count increased until day 2 after LPS administration and had nearly recovered by
      day 6. LWCs in LPS-induced mice gradually increased until day 8 and had recovered
      by day 14. The expression of the NaC protein in the lungs of LPS-induced mice
      dramatically decreased from day 2 to day 6, but recovered by day 8. The mRNA
      expression of NaC decreased in the lung, as well as those for alpha-, beta-, and
      gamma-ENaC during ALI. Thus, NaC expression is suppressed during the development
      stage of pulmonary edema and then recovers in the convalescent phase. CONCLUSION:
      Our results suggest that suppression of the gene expression of NaC is involved in
      the development of pulmonary edema in ALI.

PMID- 28557568
TI  - A Grid-Based Nucleus Counting Method for Estimates of the Density of Superficial
      Conjunctival Cells from Impression Cytology Samples Taken from Normal Healthy
      Human Eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop and validate an easily procured objective estimate of the
      cell density of the superficial epithelial cells of the normal bulbar conjunctiva
      using conjunctival impression cytology (CIC). METHODS: From 20 healthy non
      contact lens-wearing young adults, CIC was undertaken off the nasal aspect of the
      exposed bulbar conjunctiva, the filters stained with Giemsa, and images taken at
      200* that only included an all-but-contiguous monolayer of epithelial cells.
      These images were projected at 1000* magnification and an overlay drawn of the
      location of the stained nuclei, from which two types of analysis were undertaken
      using either 100 micron circular or square regions of interest (ROI). From the
      former, the distances between all nuclei were measured and the number of
      nuclei/circle calculated to establish uniformity of cell nuclei distribution as a
      necessary prerequisite to using a grid-based counting method. From the latter,
      the number of nuclei in each square grid was manually counted and the grid-by
      grid variability assessed. RESULTS: The average inter-nucleus distance was
      16.1+/3.5 microns, with predictable positioning to successive nuclei in the
      circular ROI to give an estimated numerical density of 1944 +/- 237/sq mm.
      Counting of nuclei in grid squares yielded numbers between 12 and 42 to yield an
      estimated cell density of 2390 +/ 330 /sq mm, with repeat counts off grid square
      ROIs being predictably within +/-15%. CONCLUSIONS: These studies indicate that it
      should be fairly easy to use carefully selected CIC samples to make estimates of
      the density of the superficial conjunctival cells. Such a method should be useful
      and offer advantage over the subjective assignment of morphological grades to CIC
      samples which have been shown to be highly variable.

PMID- 28557569
TI  - The Global End-Diastolic Volume (GEDV) Could Be More Appropiate to Fluid
      Management Than Central Venous Pressure (CVP) During Closed Hyperthermic
      Intrabdominal Chemotherapy with CO2 Circulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Closed hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) may increase
      abdominal pressure and effects of hemodynamic changes due to maintenance
      hyperthermia. Our aim was to analyze the safety and effectiveness of our closed
      technique with CO2 circulation in management fluid status and hemodynamic
      parameters by means of cardiac preload control measured by Global End Diastolic
      Values (GEDV) and a gas exchanger. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A Pilot Clinical Study
      that included 18 advanced ovarian cancer patients undergoing citoreductive
      surgery and HIPEC. We used a closed-perfusion system (PRS Combat(r)) that
      includes CO2 circulation and a gas exchanger. Transpulmonary thermodilutions and
      hemodynamic measurements (PiCCO2(r)) were performed after citoreductive surgery
      (Pre-HIPEC); At half time of the HIPEC (Intra-HIPEC); After HIPEC (Post-HIPEC).
      RESULTS: No significant hemodynamic measurements changes in the three
      thermodilutions values of Cardiac Index (CI) (p = 0.227), Global End Diastolic
      Values (GEVD) (p = 0.966), Stroke Volume Variation (SVV) (p = 0,884) and Systemic
      Vascular Resistance Index (SVRI) (p = 0.082). No correlation between central
      venous pressure (CVP) and GEDV (Pre-HIPEC: r = 0.164, p = 0.211; Intra-HIPEC: r =
      0.015, p = 0.900; Post-HIPEC: r = 0.018, p = 0.890). There was better correlation
      between GEDV and CI (Pre-HIPEC: r = 0.432, p = 0.071; Intra-HIPEC: r = 0.418, p =
      0.074; Post-HIPEC: r = 0.411, p = 0.080). CONCLUSIONS: Closed intrabdominal
      chemotherapy with CO2 circulation model may be a safe model for HIPEC by means of
      a gas exchanger. GEDV and its changes significantly correlated to CI, and not
      observed for CVP. GEDV values may be more appropriate for monitoring cardiac
      preload, blood loss limitation and to predict changes in intravascular volume
      status during intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

PMID- 28557570
TI  - Childhood Maltreatment, Emotional Lability, and Alcohol Problems in Young Adults
      At-Risk for ADHD: Testing Moderation and Moderated Moderation.
AB  - Childhood maltreatment and alcohol problems are common among young adults with
      attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, little is known about
      the degree to which maltreatment and alcohol problems are associated; potential
      pertinent mediating or moderating mechanisms, such as emotional lability; and
      whether this association varies by sex. We examined, in a sample of adults at
      risk for ADHD (N = 122, 37% male), the association between childhood maltreatment
      and alcohol problems, whether emotional lability mediated or moderated this
      association, and whether either role of emotional lability differed between men
      and women. Emotional lability moderated the association between emotional neglect
      and alcohol problems; maltreatment increased risk for alcohol problems for those
      scoring high tovery high on emotional lability, but not for those with very low
      moderate levels. The association between emotional abuse and alcohol problems
      depended both on emotional lability and sex; emotional abuse decreased the risk
      for alcohol problems among men very low/low on emotional lability, but not for
      men who were moderate to very high on emotional lability, or for women. These
      findings have implications for the way in which targeting maltreatment and
      emotional lability may be incorporated into prevention and intervention programs
      to prevent alcohol problems among men and women at risk for ADHD.

PMID- 28557571
TI  - In Vivo Efficacy of an Injectable Microsphere-Hydrogel Ocular Drug Delivery
      System.
AB  - PURPOSE: Demonstrate in vivo that controlled and extended release of a low dose
      of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) from a microsphere
      hydrogel drug delivery system (DDS) has a therapeutic effect in a laser-induced
      rat model of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). METHODS: Anti-VEGF (ranibizumab
      or aflibercept) was loaded into poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microspheres that
      were then suspended within an injectable poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based thermo
      responsive hydrogel DDS.The DDS was shown previously to release bioactive anti
      VEGF for ~200 days. CNV was induced using an Ar-green laser. The four
      experimental groups were as follows: (i) non-treated, (ii) drug-free DDS, (iii)
      anti-VEGF-loaded DDS, and (iv) bolus injection of anti-VEGF. CNV lesion areas
      were measured based on fluorescein angiograms and quantified using a multi-Otsu
      thresholding technique. Intraocular pressure (IOP) and dark-adapted
      electroretinogram (ERG) were also obtained pre- and post-treatment (1, 2, 4, 8,
      and 12 weeks). RESULTS: The anti-VEGF-loaded DDS group had significantly smaller
      (60%) CNV lesion areas than non-treated animals throughout the study. A small
      transient increase in IOP was seen immediately after injection; however, all IOP
      measurements at all time points were within the normal range. There were no
      significant changes in ERG maximal response compared to pre-treatment
      measurements for the drug-loaded DDS, which suggests no adverse effects on
      retinal cellular function. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrates that the
      DDS can effectively decrease laser-induced CNV lesions in a murine model.
      Controlled and extended release from our DDS achieved greater treatment efficacy
      using an order of magnitude less drug than what is required with bolus
      administration. This suggests that our DDS may provide a significant advantage in
      the treatment of posterior segment eye diseases.

PMID- 28557573
TI  - Putative mechanisms of kiwifruit on maintenance of normal gastrointestinal
      function.
AB  - Kiwifruit are recognized as providing relief from constipation and symptoms of
      constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C). However, the
      underlying mechanisms, specifically in regards to gastrointestinal transit time
      and motility, are still not completely understood. This review provides an
      overview on the physiological and pathophysiological processes underlying
      constipation and IBS-C, the composition of kiwifruit, and recent advances in the
      research of kiwifruit and abdominal comfort. Additionally, gaps in the research
      are highlighted and scientific studies of other foods with known effects on the
      gastrointestinal tract are consulted to find likely mechanisms of action. While
      the effects of kiwifruit fiber are well documented, observed increases in
      gastrointestinal motility caused by kiwifruit are not fully characterized. There
      are a number of identified mechanism that may be activated by kiwifruit
      compounds, such as the induction of motility via protease-activated signaling,
      modulation of microflora, changes in colonic methane status, bile flux, or
      mediation of inflammatory processes.

PMID- 28557572
TI  - Novel Assay Assessment of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Patients with
      Keratoconus: Thiol-Disulfide Homeostasis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate systemic oxidative stress by evaluating thiol-disulfide
      homeostasis using a novel automated homeostasis assay in keratoconus patients.
      METHODS: Twenty-eight patients with keratoconus and 30 control subjects of a
      similar age and gender were enrolled in the present study. The native thiol,
      total thiol, and disulfide levels and the disulfide-native thiol, disulfide-total
      thiol, and native thiol-total thiol ratios were analyzed and compared between the
      keratoconus and control groups using a novel automatized spectrophotometric
      assay. RESULTS: The median serum native thiol value was 441.5 (362.6-488.1) in
      the keratoconus group and 467.8 (401.8-564.6) in the control subjects. The median
      serum total thiol value was 467.9 (375-580.6) in the keratoconus group and 503.3
      (437.7-578.5) in the control subjects. The median serum disulfide value was 20.1
      (6.2-46.3) in the keratoconus patients and 16.7 (1.1-20.8) in the controls. There
      were significant differences between the native thiol, total thiol, and disulfide
      levels of the keratoconus patients and controls (p = 0.001, p = 0.04, and p =
      0.03, respectively) and the disulfide-native thiol, disulfide-total thiol, and
      native thiol-total thiol ratios of these two groups (p = 0.02, p = 0.01, and p =
      0.001, respectively). We found no significant correlation between age and any of
      the thiol-disulfide parameters (p > 0.05 for all values). CONCLUSIONS: There is
      an imbalance in the systemic thiol-disulfide homeostasis in KC patients. This
      metabolic imbalance may play an important role in the pathogenesis of
      keratoconus; thus, it can be discussed in terms of the prevention, diagnosis, and
      the possible treatment for keratoconus.

PMID- 28557575
TI  - Key concepts in the national guidelines: "Suicide exposure" and "levels of care".
AB  - This article is an extended excerpt from the document Responding to Grief,
      Trauma, and Distress After a Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines, rewritten to
      emphasize, expand upon, and clarify two key, interrelated concepts introduced in
      the Guidelines. First, everyone exposed to a suicide fatality, regardless of
      their relationship to the deceased, may require support services to ameliorate
      the effects of that exposure. Second, a systemic response to suicide ought to be
      organized around three levels of care, designed and implemented strategically to
      meet people's immediate needs, their need for ongoing support, and any clinical
      treatment needs that arise from their exposure to the fatality.

PMID- 28557574
TI  - Hydrophobic Effect from Conjugated Chemicals or Drugs on In Vivo Biodistribution
      of RNA Nanoparticles.
AB  - Liver or other organ accumulation of drugs is one of the major problems that
      leads to toxicity and side effects in therapy using chemicals or other
      macromolecules. It has been shown that specially designed RNA nanoparticles can
      specifically target cancer cells, silence oncogenic genes, and stop cancer growth
      with little or no accumulation in the liver or other vital organs. It is well
      known that physical properties of nanoparticles such as size, shape, and surface
      chemistry affect biodistribution and pharmacokinetic profiles in vivo. This study
      examined how the hydrophobicity of chemicals conjugated to RNA nanoparticles
      affect in vivo biodistribution. Weaker organ accumulation was observed for
      hydrophobic chemicals after they were conjugated to RNA nanoparticles, revealing
      RNA's ability to solubilize hydrophobic chemicals. It was found that different
      chemicals conjugated to RNA nanoparticles resulted in the alteration of RNA
      hydrophobicity. Stronger hydrophobicity induced by chemical conjugates resulted
      in higher accumulation of RNA nanoparticles in vital organs in mice. This study
      provides new insights for handling drug insolubility, therapeutic toxicity, and
      organ clearance in drug development.

PMID- 28557576
TI  - Clinical work with suicide loss survivors: Implications of the U.S. postvention
      guidelines.
AB  - The loss of a loved one to suicide can present difficult challenges for suicide
      loss survivors (people bereaved by suicide) as well as for clinicians who would
      seek to help them. Building on the recommendations in the new document Responding
      to Grief, Trauma, and Distress after a Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines, this
      article provides an overview of clinical work with suicide loss survivors. It
      includes discussions of the common themes of suicide bereavement, the
      psychological tasks for integration of a suicide loss, and the options for
      providing grief therapy after a suicide. The article will be of value to
      caregivers who work with suicide loss survivors in counseling or therapeutic
      context.

PMID- 28557577
TI  - The next chapter for group B meningococcal vaccines.
AB  - The majority of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in the developed world is
      caused by capsular group B Neisseria meningitidis, however success with
      vaccination against organisms bearing this capsule has previously been restricted
      to control of geographically limited clonal outbreaks. As we enter a new era,
      with the first routine program underway to control endemic group B meningococcal
      disease for infants in the UK, it is timely to review the key landmarks in group
      B vaccine development, and discuss the issues determining whether control of
      endemic group B disease will be achieved. Evidence of a reduction in carriage
      acquisition of invasive group B meningococcal strains, after vaccination among
      adolescents, is imperative if routine immunization is to drive population control
      of disease beyond those who are vaccinated (i.e. through herd immunity). The need
      for multiple doses to generate a sufficiently protective response and
      reactogenicity remain significant problems with the new generation of vaccines.
      Despite these limitations, early data from the UK indicate that new group B
      meningococcal vaccines have the potential to have a major impact on meningococcal
      disease, and to provide new insight into how we might do better in the future.

PMID- 28557578
TI  - Pediatric Nurses' Perceptions of Medication Safety and Medication Error: A Mixed
      Methods Study.
AB  - This study aims to outline the current workplace culture of medication practice
      in a pediatric medical ward. The objective is to explore the perceptions of
      nurses in a pediatric clinical setting as to why medication administration errors
      occur. As nurses have a central role in the medication process, it is essential
      to explore nurses' perceptions of the factors influencing the medication process.
      Without this understanding, it is difficult to develop effective prevention
      strategies aimed at reducing medication administration errors. Previous studies
      were limited to exploring a single and specific aspect of medication safety. The
      methods used in these studies were limited to survey designs which may lead to
      incomplete or inadequate information being provided. This study is phase 1 on an
      action research project. Data collection included a direct observation of nurses
      during medication preparation and administration, audit based on the medication
      policy, and guidelines and focus groups with nursing staff. A thematic analysis
      was undertaken by each author independently to analyze the observation notes and
      focus group transcripts. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyze the
      audit data. The study was conducted in a specialized pediatric medical ward. Four
      key themes were identified from the combined quantitative and qualitative data:
      (1) understanding medication errors, (2) the busy-ness of nurses, (3) the
      physical environment, and (4) compliance with medication policy and practice
      guidelines. Workload, frequent interruptions to process, poor physical
      environment design, lack of preparation space, and impractical medication
      policies are identified as barriers to safe medication practice. Overcoming these
      barriers requires organizations to review medication process policies and engage
      nurses more in medication safety research and in designing clinical guidelines
      for their own practice.

PMID- 28557579
TI  - Postvention is prevention-The case for suicide postvention.
AB  - There is now convincing empirical evidence that exposure to suicide increases the
      risk of subsequent suicide, as well as other negative mental health sequelae, in
      those who have been exposed. This article provides a review of this empirical
      evidence. It also concludes that this substantial evidence base makes the
      compelling case that all suicide prevention programs need to include postvention
      services as a direct form of suicide prevention with a population of people known
      to be at heightened risk for suicide themselves: suicide loss survivors.

PMID- 28557580
TI  - Assessment of Optic Nerve Head Pallor in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Patients and
      Healthy Subjects.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate optic nerve head (ONH) pallor quantitatively in patients
      with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and in healthy subjects, and to examine
      the relationship to mean deviation in perimetry (MD), cup-disk ratio (CDR), and
      diameters of retinal vessels. METHODS: A total of 89 POAG patients (67.6 +/- 11.1
      years) and 48 healthy subjects (63.3 +/- 14 years) were included. A dual-bandpass
      transmission filter was introduced in the illumination path of the fundus camera
      of the Dynamic Vessel Analyzer (Imedos Systems UG) and two monochromatic images
      at different wavelenghts (548 +/- 10 and 610 +/- 10 nm) were recorded
      simultaneously. ONH pallor was defined as the quotient of light reflection in
      both spectral channels. Pallor values were averaged over four fields which were
      positioned on the ONH. The mean of these measurements was calculated. In 47 of 89
      POAG patients diameters of retinal vessels were determined peripapillary.
      RESULTS: In POAG, the ONH showed a significantly higher pallor value compared to
      healthy subjects (82.34 +/- 19.28 vs. 62.67 +/- 10.41, p < 0.001). ONH pallor was
      correlated to indicators used to estimate disease severity: MD (r = -0.565, p <
      0.001) and CDR (r = 0.561, p < 0.001). The pallor value was associated to
      diameters of retinal arterioles (r = -0.313, p = 0.032) and venules (r = -0.397,
      p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Pallor determined by this method was higher in POAG
      patients than in healthy subjects and increased in patients with advanced
      disease. ONH pallor might result from a reduced blood perfusion of the ONH or
      tissue atrophy accompanied by vessel obliteration in POAG. By measuring ONH
      pallor additional diagnostic information about the vitality of the neuroretinal
      rim might be gained in glaucoma patients.

PMID- 28557581
TI  - Quality of Life in Youth With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) Treated
      With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Improvement is sought for youth with obstructive sleep
      apnea syndrome (OSAS) who have poor quality of life (QoL), which resolves
      somewhat following treatment. One mitigating factor in improved QoL following
      treatment may be adherence to the CPAP protocol, which presents a barrier to most
      youth. This study explored relations between CPAP adherence and QoL in youth with
      OSAS. PARTICIPANTS: We recruited 42 youth-caregiver dyads in which youth between
      the ages of 8 and 16 years were diagnosed with OSAS and required CPAP use as part
      of their treatment plan. METHODS: Following diagnosis of OSAS requiring treatment
      with CPAP therapy, caregivers completed baseline measures of OSAS-specific QoL.
      The OSAS-specific QoL domains assessed included sleep disturbance, physical
      symptoms, emotional distress, daytime function, and caregiver concern. Families
      received routine CPAP care for three months, after which caregivers again
      completed measures of OSAS-specific QoL. Adherence data were collected from
      smartcards within the CPAP machine after three months of treatment. RESULTS:
      Fifteen youth were adherent to CPAP therapy and 10 were not adherent. CPAP
      adherent youth demonstrated significant changes in two domains of OSAS-specific
      QoL when compared to nonadherent youth: decreased sleep disturbance and decreased
      caregiver concern. CONCLUSIONS: CPAP adherence appears to be associated with
      positive changes in OSAS-specific QoL domains. It will be important for future
      research and clinical work to examine strategies for improving CPAP adherence in
      youth with OSAS.

PMID- 28557582
TI  - Surgeon Performance Predicts Early Continence After Robot-Assisted Radical
      Prostatectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is limited, yet compelling evidence supporting the role of
      surgeon technical performance in influencing patient outcomes. To date, this
      concept has been underexplored in endourologic procedures. We hypothesized that a
      surgeon's technical performance plays a role in predicting an early return to
      continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, matched case-control analysis of
      prospectively collected unedited RARP endoscopic videos performed by a single
      surgeon. A blinded observer with expertise in intraoperative video analysis
      evaluated clinically relevant steps of RARP using the global evaluative
      assessment of robotic skill (GEARS) and the generic error rating tool (GERT). The
      primary outcome was continence status at 3 months postoperatively, defined as
      patient use of less than or equal to a single precautionary pad. Mann-Whitney U
      tests examined differences in predictor variables between cases and controls, and
      multivariate analysis was conducted using binary logistic regression models.
      RESULTS: Twenty-four incontinent patients were matched for age, body mass index,
      preoperative International Prostate Symptoms Score, use of posterior/anterior
      hitch, prostate weight, and learning curve position. No statistically significant
      difference in errors between groups was observed using the GERT. On multivariate
      analysis, overall case GEARS score was independently predictive of 3-month
      continence status (odds ratios [OR] = 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33
      0.91), as were urethrovesical anastomosis (OR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.50-0.97) and
      bladder neck GEARS scores (OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.51-0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      generates the hypothesis that there may be a link between surgeon technical
      performance and functional outcomes in RARP. This relationship may have
      implications for the accreditation and training of future urologists and warrants
      further investigation.

PMID- 28557583
TI  - Human identity versus gender identity: The perception of sexual addiction among
      Iranian women.
AB  - This qualitative study was conducted to explore the images of personal identity
      from the perspective of women with sexual addiction. The data required for the
      study were collected through 31 in-depth interviews. Sensing a threat to personal
      identity, dissatisfaction with gender identity, dissociation with the continuum
      of identity, and identity reconstruction in response to threat were four of the
      experiences that were common among women with sexual addiction. Painful emotional
      experiences appear to have created a sense of gender and sexual conflict or
      weakness in these women and thus threatened their personal identity and led to
      their sexual addiction.

PMID- 28557584
TI  - NHS Gene Mutations in Ashkenazi Jewish Families with Nance-Horan Syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe ocular and extraocular abnormalities in two Ashkenazi Jewish
      families with infantile cataract and X-linked inheritance, and to identify their
      underlying mutations. METHODS: Seven affected members were recruited. Medical
      history, clinical findings, and biometric measurements were recorded. Mutation
      analysis of the Nance-Horan syndrome (NHS) gene was performed by direct
      sequencing of polymerase chain reaction-amplified exons. RESULTS: An unusual
      anterior Y-sutural cataract was documented in the affected male proband. Other
      clinical features among examined patients included microcorneas, long and narrow
      faces, and current or previous dental anomalies. A nonsense mutation was
      identified in each family, including a previously described 742 C>T, p.(Arg248*)
      mutation in Family A, and a novel mutation 2915 C>A, p.(Ser972*) in Family B.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study expands the repertoire of NHS mutations and the related
      phenotype, including newly described anterior Y-sutural cataract and dental
      findings.

PMID- 28557585
TI  - PET-CT guided SIB-IMRT combined with concurrent 5-FU/MMC for the treatment of
      anal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate local control (LC), survival and toxicity in anal cancer
      patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and concurrent
      chemotherapy at a single institution. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From August 2010 to
      May 2015, 26 patients were treated at our institution with IMRT and concurrent 5
      fluorouracil/mitomycin-C (5-FU/MMC) for localized squamous cell carcinoma of the
      anal canal (SCCAC). Radiotherapy (RT) with 50.4-60 Gy was delivered with a
      sequential boost in 31%, and a simultaneous-integrated boost (SIB-IMRT) in 69% of
      cases. Initial staging was based on PET-CT and MRI. Clinical measures of interest
      were the influence of PET-CT on staging and treatment planning, LC, disease free
      survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), colostomy free survival (CFS) and
      toxicities. RESULTS: Median age was 61 years, 22 patients (85%) were female, and
      no patient was HIV-positive. The proportion of patients with stage I, II, IIIA
      and IIIB disease was 15%, 35%, 23% and 27%, respectively. PET-CT modified the
      extent of nodal disease in 9/23 cases (39%) and lead to major changes in
      treatment planning in 4/23 patients (17%). MRI was more accurate at identifying
      T4 disease. RT was delivered at full dose in 26 patients (100%) and chemotherapy
      in 22/26 patients (85%). Two patients (7.7%) required RT breaks. Median follow-up
      was 35 months [IQR: 19-52]. The 2-year LC, DFS, OS and CFS were 100%, 100%, 100%
      and 92%. Acute grade >=3 dermatitis and diarrhea occurred in 73% and 8% of cases,
      respectively. Grade 3-4 neutropenia was seen in 10/23 patients (43%). Four
      patients (15%) developed chronic grade 2 GI toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: PET-CT
      provided additional information leading to major changes in treatment planning
      for 17% of patients. Considering our excellent outcomes, routine use of PET-CT as
      standard staging modality and IMRT planning procedure appears justified for
      patients with SCCAC.

PMID- 28557587
TI  - The Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Receiving Concurrent Controlled
      Substance Prescriptions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Controlled substance prescription (CSP) use and abuse in the United
      States has become a public health epidemic. One common and dangerous indicator of
      abuse involves obtaining CSPs concurrently. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study was to identify the prevalence and factors associated with individuals
      receiving potentially inappropriate concurrent CSPs. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective, cohort analysis using data from the 2013-2014 Texas prescription
      drug monitoring program (PDMP). Descriptive statistics and a multiple logistic
      regression analysis were conducted to examine the individual-level and
      prescription utilization factors associated with individuals obtaining concurrent
      CSPs. RESULTS: Among Texas residents, 1,640,015 individuals (6.10% of all Texas
      residents and 15.99% of all CSP utilizers) were identified with at least one
      concurrent CSP combination. Concurrent opioid prescriptions were found to be the
      most prevalent concurrent use combination (n = 1,574,572). Having prescriptions
      for opioids, being >=18 years of age, utilizing CSPs for >30 days, utilizing
      greater than one CSP, having a multiple provider episode, and traveling >25 miles
      to obtain CSPs were all statistically significant predictors of utilizing
      concurrent CSPs. CONCLUSION: The study findings indicate a high prevalence of
      individuals utilizing concurrent CSPs. This practice is concerning when
      considering that many overdose deaths result from the concurrent use of CSPs.
      Prescribers should utilize PDMPs to ensure that aberrant prescription drug
      behaviors, such as the use of concurrent opioids and benzodiazepines do not
      readily occur.

PMID- 28557586
TI  - Qualitative Study of Patients' and Caregivers' Perceptions and Information
      Preferences About Hospice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to assess perceptions about hospice among
      patients with metastatic cancer and their caregivers (i.e., family and/or
      friends). DESIGN AND SETTING: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16
      adult patients with a prognosis <=12 months and 7 of their caregivers. The
      interviews focused on perceptions, knowledge, and information preferences about
      hospice. Two raters coded interviews independently (kappa > 0.85). We used a
      framework approach for data analysis. RESULTS: Participants showed variable gaps
      in understanding about hospice, including who would benefit from hospice care and
      the extent of services provided. They all perceived that hospice involves a
      psychological transition to accepting imminent death and often referred to
      hospice from a relatively cognitive distance, using hypothetical scenarios of
      others for whom hospice would be more relevant. Participants' attitudes about
      hospice reflected their concerns about suffering, loss of dignity, and death, as
      well as their perceived understanding of hospice services. These attitudes along
      with the psychological barriers to projecting a need for hospice and lack of
      knowledge were all perceived as important barriers to hospice utilization. All
      participants felt they needed more information about hospice, yet they were mixed
      regarding the optimal timing of this information. CONCLUSIONS: Study participants
      had misunderstandings about hospice and perceived end-of-life (EOL) concerns such
      as fear of suffering, loss of dignity, and death, as well as lack of knowledge as
      the main barriers to hospice utilization. Interventions are needed to educate
      patients and their families about hospice and to address their EOL concerns.

PMID- 28557588
TI  - The Impact of Respondent Burden on Current Drinker Rates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing response burden in alcohol surveys combined with filter
      questions to exclude abstainers, results in systematically missing data in
      questions on alcohol consumption as abstainers are not required to answer them.
      OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current study is to assess the impact of responder
      burden on current drinker rates in a large scale Australian survey. METHOD:
      23,855 Australian adults completed the National Drug Strategy Household Survey in
      2013 and answered increasingly complex questions on alcohol consumption. RESULTS:
      Although 80% of respondents stated that they had consumed alcohol in the past 12
      months, the current drinker rate appears to be 78% excluding, or 74% including
      missing data if taken from the quantity frequency measure. When respondents are
      then asked to give more detailed responses in a graduated frequency measure,
      current drinker rates appear to be at 75% or 73%, excluding or including missing
      data. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of abstention in alcohol survey research is
      artificially inflated when more complex survey methods are used. Excluding
      missing data only partially corrects for this. Given that more sensitive analyses
      are usually performed on more detailed survey questions, rates of abstention and
      consumption should be adjusted to account for systematically missing data.

PMID- 28557589
TI  - Comparison of Intraocular Lens Position Change Following Two Different
      Implantation Techniques.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the decentration and tilt of one-piece foldable acrylic
      intraocular lens following two different intraocular lens implantation
      techniques. METHODS: This prospective, randomized clinical study conducted on 102
      eyes of 91 patients who underwent cataract surgery between September 2015 and May
      2016 at Ulucanlar Eye Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. Intraocular
      lens implantations were performed with the help of an ophthalmic viscosurgical
      device or a hydroimplantation technique during surgery. The main outcomes, which
      were evaluated one day and one month after surgery, were corrected distant visual
      acuity, intraocular lens tilt, and decentration at the vertical and horizontal
      meridians. All outcomes were compared between and within implantation technique
      groups. RESULTS: Angle of tilt and decentration of intraocular lens at the
      vertical and horizontal meridians showed no significant change within the
      ophthalmic viscosurgical device and hydroimplantation groups during follow-up (p
      > 0.05 for all). However, intraocular lens at both meridians were significantly
      lower in the hydroimplantation group (Vertical: p = 0.004, Horizontal: p =
      0.015), and intraocular lens decentration tilt at both meridians were
      significantly lower in the hydroimplantation group than in the ophthalmic
      viscosurgical device group (Vertical: p = 0.004, Horizontal: p = 0.039).
      Postoperative corrected distant visual acuity outcomes showed no difference
      between and within the groups during follow-up (p > 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS:
      The intraocular lens implantation technique had an important effect on
      intraocular lens position. The hydroimplantation technique induces central
      placement of one-piece foldable acrylic intraocular lenses postoperatively by
      reducing decentration and the angle of tilt.

PMID- 28557590
TI  - The Cannabis Information Helpline: Assessing Interest in the Medicinal Use of
      Cannabis in Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of Australians support a change in legislation to allow
      the use of cannabis for medical purposes. Despite strong public support, very
      little is known about the patterns of medicinal cannabis use among Australians.
      OBJECTIVES: This study aims to gain a better understanding of Australian
      medicinal cannabis users and their patterns of use. METHODS: The nature of calls
      to the Cannabis Information and Helpline (N = 15701), a free national service for
      Australians with concerns regarding cannabis use, were investigated to determine
      the number of calls made by those who inquired about the medicinal use of
      cannabis (N = 275) and the implied reasons for use among those who identify using
      cannabis in this way. RESULTS: The majority of medicinal cannabis inquirers
      mentioned cannabis to alleviate pain. Further, compared to other callers,
      medicinal cannabis inquirers were more likely to be male, unemployed, older, and
      have recently started using cannabis. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the
      need for future research to better understand the issues faced by Australians
      regarding the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and how they may be
      meaningfully addressed. Particular focus should be placed toward older,
      unemployed males.

PMID- 28557592
TI  - Ameloblastic Fibro-Odontoma of the Maxilla in a Pierre-Robin Sequence Patient.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pierre Robin sequence (PRS) is a rare disorder classically observed
      as a triad of features including micrognathia, glossoptosis, and upper airway
      obstruction. It is associated with a syndrome in about 60% of cases. While
      odontogenic tumors are common findings in patients with familial adenomatous
      polyposis and nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndromes, PRS has not been found to be
      consistently associated with any tumors of the jaw. CASE REPORT: The current
      report aims to describe a patient with PRS who presented with an extensive
      ameloblastic fibro-odontoma (AFO) of the maxilla. CONCLUSION: Continued
      observation for odontogenic tumors in PRS is necessary.

PMID- 28557593
TI  - Effects of low-level laser therapy on the modulation of tissue temperature and
      hyperalgesia following a partial Achilles tendon injury in rats.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of low-level laser
      therapy (LLLT) on the modulation of tissue temperature and hyperalgesia following
      a partial injury to the Achilles tendon in rats. Forty-five rats were randomly
      divided into three groups: a control group, a group treated with LLLT at a dose
      of 1.4 J (808 nm, 50 mW, 1.4 J), and a group treated with LLLT at a dose of 2.1 J
      (808 nm, 50 mW, 2.1 J). LLLT was administered to a single point immediately
      following the partial injury of the Achilles tendon. Tissue temperature and
      hyperalgesia were evaluated 6, 24, and 48 hours following the injury. Thus, a
      significant group-versus-time interaction was found for tissue temperature (F =
      4.097, p = 0.001) and hyperalgesia (F = 106.605, p < 0.001), with a greater
      reduction in theses outcomes in the group that received LLLT at a dose of 2.1 J
      evaluated 48 hours after the injury. Therefore, LLLT at a wavelength of 808 nm
      and dose of 2.1 J administered immediately following a partial injury to the
      Achilles tendon led to a reduction in tissue temperature and hyperalgesia at the
      injury site in rats, especially 48 hours after injury.

PMID- 28557591
TI  - CD36 gene is associated with intraocular pressure elevation after intravitreal
      application of anti-VEGF agents in patients with age-related macular
      degeneration: Implications for the safety of the therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is
      characterized by pathological vascularization of the outer retinal layers. The
      condition responds to treatment with antibodies against vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF), but the patients receiving such anti-VEGF therapy sometimes
      show undesirable acute short-term increases in the intraocular pressure (IOP).
      The cause of this adverse effect is unknown, and here, we are testing a
      hypothesis that it is related to CD36 gene polymorphisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A group of 134 patients with AMD were given three therapeutic doses of anti-VEGF
      antibody (ranibizumab) at monthly intervals. Their IOP was measured immediately
      before and 30 min after each injection. Patients' DNA was analyzed, and the
      changes in IOP were matched against seven polymorphisms of the CD36 gene.
      RESULTS: Three polymorphisms were found to be associated with increases in IOP:
      rs1049673 (p = 0.006), rs3211931 (p = 0.01), and rs1761667 (p = 0.043) at the
      time of the third injection only. Pronounced elevations (IOP > 25 mmHg) were
      associated with rs1049673 polymorphism: GC genotype (p < 0.01) and CC genotype (p
      < 0.05); both increasing the risk 2.6-fold, the presence of C-allele conferring a
      1.5-fold greater risk and with rs3211931 polymorphism: AG genotype (p < 0.01) and
      GG genotype (p < 0.05); increasing the risk 2.6-fold (AG) and 2.7-fold (GG).
      CONCLUSIONS: CD36 receptor may be involved in mediating the effects of VEGF on
      IOP. The findings will help to identify the patients at risk of acutely elevated
      IOP following the anti-VEGF therapy.

PMID- 28557594
TI  - Inhalant Use and Mental Health Problems in Russian Juvenile Delinquents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhalant use by children and adolescents has been linked to an
      increased risk of multiple drug use, mental health problems and antisocial
      behavior. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the association
      between the frequency of inhalant use and psychiatric diagnoses among
      incarcerated delinquent youths in Russia. METHODS: A total of 370 incarcerated
      delinquents from a juvenile correction center in Northern Russia were assessed by
      means of a semi-structured psychiatric interview and by self-reports. RESULTS:
      Compared to non-users (N = 266), inhalant users (N = 104) reported higher rates
      of PTSD, early onset conduct disorder, ADHD, alcohol abuse and dependence, as
      well as higher levels of antisocial behavior, impulsiveness and more psychopathic
      traits. Frequent inhalant users also reported the highest rates of co-occurring
      psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that inhalant use in
      delinquents is frequent and may require additional clinical measures to address
      the issue of psychiatric comorbidity.

PMID- 28557596
TI  - The Next Generation of Molecular Pathology is Here: Validation of Next-Generation
      Sequencing Technology for Clinical Molecular Testing Across Multiple Different
      Disciplines.

PMID- 28557595
TI  - Chondroblastoma: An Update.
AB  - Chondroblastoma is a rare primary bone tumor of young people that typically
      arises in the ends of the long bones. Radiologic investigations show a small,
      circumscribed, lytic lesion. The tumor is characterized histologically by the
      proliferation of chondroblasts along with areas of mature cartilage, giant cells,
      and occasionally, secondary aneurysmal bone cyst formation. Chondroblastoma,
      however, may also present with atypical features, such as prominent hemosiderin
      deposition, numerous giant cells, or the presence of a large aneurysmal bone cyst
      component. Malignant entities such as clear cell chondrosarcoma and
      chondroblastic osteosarcoma must also be considered. Recently,
      immunohistochemical stains such as DOG1 and SOX9 have been described in
      chondroblastoma, and K36M mutations in either the H3F3A or H3F3B genes have also
      been identified. While generally regarded as a benign entity, chondroblastoma
      manifests an intermediate type of behavior, given its ability to recur locally,
      and rarely, metastasize.

PMID- 28557597
TI  - Medicare's New Quality Payment Program Has Started-Are You Ready?

PMID- 28557598
TI  - Gastric Angiolipoma: A Rare Entity.
AB  - Angiolipoma is a benign tumor composed of adipose tissue and proliferating blood
      vessels that is commonly found in the subcutaneous tissue of the trunk and
      extremities. Gastric angiolipoma is a rare entity, and to the best of our
      knowledge, only 4 cases have been reported in the English-language literature
      thus far. These tumors may present as gastrointestinal bleeding and anemia or
      with obstructive symptoms. Accurate preoperative diagnosis is challenging because
      of nonspecific clinical symptoms and lack of specific findings on imaging
      studies. The correct diagnosis is usually made by histopathologic examination.
      The clinical significance lies in being aware of this rare entity in the stomach
      and distinguishing it from other benign and malignant gastric neoplasms that may
      be in the differential diagnosis. We herein discuss the clinical presentation,
      radiologic and histopathologic features, ancillary studies, differential
      diagnosis, and treatment and prognosis of this rare entity.

PMID- 28557600
TI  - Integration of Technical, Bioinformatic, and Variant Assessment Approaches in the
      Validation of a Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Panel for Myeloid
      Malignancies.
AB  - CONTEXT: - Detection of variants in hematologic malignancies is increasingly
      important because of a growing number of variants impacting diagnosis, prognosis,
      and treatment response, and as potential therapeutic targets. The use of next
      generation sequencing technologies to detect variants in hematologic malignancies
      in a clinical diagnostic laboratory setting allows for efficient identification
      of routinely tested markers in multiple genes simultaneously, as well as the
      identification of novel and rare variants in other clinically relevant genes.
      OBJECTIVE: - To apply a systematic approach to evaluate and validate a
      commercially available next-generation sequencing panel (TruSight Myeloid
      Sequencing Panel, Illumina, San Diego, California) targeting 54 genes. In this
      manuscript, we focused on the parameters that were used to evaluate assay
      performance characteristics. DATA SOURCES: - Analytical validation was performed
      using samples containing known variants that had been identified previously.
      Cases were selected from different disease types, with variants in a range of
      genes. Panel performance characteristics were assessed and genomic regions
      requiring additional analysis or wet-bench approaches identified. CONCLUSIONS: -
      We validated the performance characteristics of a myeloid next-generation
      sequencing panel for detection of variants. The TruSight Myeloid Sequencing Panel
      covers more than 95% of target regions with depth greater than 500*. However,
      because of unique variant types such as large insertions or deletions or genomic
      regions of high GC content, variants in CEBPA, FLT3, and CALR required
      supplementation with non-next-generation sequencing assays or with informatics
      approaches to address deficiencies in performance. The use of multiple
      bioinformatics approaches (2 variant callers and informatics scripts) allows for
      maximizing calling of true positives, while identifying limitations in using
      either method alone.

PMID- 28557599
TI  - Validation of OncoPanel: A Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Assay for the
      Detection of Somatic Variants in Cancer.
AB  - CONTEXT: - The analysis of somatic mutations across multiple genes in cancer
      specimens may be used to aid clinical decision making. The analytical validation
      of targeted next-generation sequencing panels is important to assess accuracy and
      limitations. OBJECTIVE: - To report the development and validation of OncoPanel,
      a custom targeted next-generation sequencing assay for cancer. DESIGN: -
      OncoPanel was designed for the detection of single-nucleotide variants,
      insertions and deletions, copy number alterations, and structural variants across
      282 genes with evidence as drivers of cancer biology. We implemented a validation
      strategy using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, fresh or frozen samples
      compared with results obtained by clinically validated orthogonal technologies.
      RESULTS: - OncoPanel achieved 98% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the
      detection of single-nucleotide variants, and 84% sensitivity and 100% specificity
      for the detection of insertions and deletions compared with single-gene assays
      and mass spectrometry-based genotyping. Copy number detection achieved 86%
      sensitivity and 98% specificity compared with array comparative genomic
      hybridization. The sensitivity of structural variant detection was 74% compared
      with karyotype, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and polymerase chain
      reaction. Sensitivity was affected by inconsistency in the detection of FLT3 and
      NPM1 alterations and IGH rearrangements due to design limitations. Limit of
      detection studies demonstrated 98.4% concordance across triplicate runs for
      variants with allele fraction greater than 0.1 and at least 50* coverage.
      CONCLUSIONS: - The analytical validation of OncoPanel demonstrates the ability of
      targeted next-generation sequencing to detect multiple types of genetic
      alterations across a panel of genes implicated in cancer biology.

PMID- 28557601
TI  - FDA Oversight of Laboratory-Developed Tests: Where Are We Now?

PMID- 28557602
TI  - Systemic Steroid Sparing Effect of Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant in Chronic
      Noninfectious Uveitic Macular Edema.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness and the systemic corticosteroid sparing
      effect of a single intravitreal dexamethasone (DEX) implant in patients with
      chronic noninfectious uveitic macular edema (UME). METHODS: Data from 22 eyes
      treated with DEX implant for UME related to systemic or ocular-confined
      noninfectious diseases were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The mean systemic
      prednisone (or equivalent) dosage significantly decreased at 3- and 6-month
      follow-up evaluations compared to baseline (P = 0.002 and P = 0.01,
      respectively). Compared to baseline, central macular thickness values
      significantly decreased at 1-, 3-, and 6-month evaluations after the implantation
      (P < 0.0001). The mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) value gradually
      improved at 1-, 3-, and 6-month visits compared to baseline (P = 0.009, P =
      0.0004, and P = 0.0001, respectively). At fluorescein angiography, active retinal
      vasculitis was identified in 11 (50%) eyes at baseline, 3 (13.6%) eyes at 1- and
      3-month follow-up, and in 2 (9.1%) eyes at the last visit. Regarding side
      effects, 3/22 (13.6%) eyes presented a newly recognized intraocular hypertension
      at 1-month follow-up; however, intraocular pressure reverted to normal values
      within the 6-month follow-up in all cases. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with
      intravitreal DEX implant in noninfectious uveitis allowed a significant
      corticosteroid sparing effect, a significant improvement in BCVA, and a prompt
      resolution of UME and vasculitis. No safety issues were observed.

PMID- 28557603
TI  - Genome-wide Methyl-Seq analysis of blood-brain targets of glucocorticoid
      exposure.
AB  - Chronic exposure to glucocorticoids (GCs) can lead to psychiatric complications
      through epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation (DNAm). We sought to
      determine whether epigenetic changes in a peripheral tissue can serve as a
      surrogate for those in a relatively inaccessible tissue such as the brain. DNA
      extracted from the hippocampus and blood of mice treated with GCs or vehicle
      solution was assayed using a genome-wide DNAm platform (Methyl-Seq) to identify
      differentially methylated regions (DMRs) induced by GC treatment. We observed
      that ~70% of the DMRs in both tissues lost methylation following GC treatment. Of
      the 3,095 DMRs that mapped to the same genes in both tissues, 1,853 DMRs
      underwent DNAm changes in the same direction. Interestingly, only 209 DMRs (<7%)
      overlapped in genomic coordinates between the 2 tissues, suggesting tissue
      specific differences in GC-targeted loci. Pathway analysis showed that the DMR
      associated genes were members of pathways involved in metabolism, immune
      function, and neurodevelopment. Also, changes in cell type composition of blood
      and brain were examined by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Separation of the
      cortex into neuronal and non-neuronal fractions and the leukocytes into T-cells,
      B-cells, and neutrophils showed that GC-induced methylation changes primarily
      occurred in neurons and T-cells, with the blood tissue also undergoing a shift in
      the proportion of constituent cell types while the proportion of neurons and glia
      in the brain remained stable. From the current pilot study, we found that despite
      tissue-specific epigenetic changes and cellular heterogeneity, blood can serve as
      a surrogate for GC-induced changes in the brain.

PMID- 28557604
TI  - Dapsone hydroxylamine-mediated alterations in human red blood cells from
      endometriotic patients.
AB  - Endometriosis, an estrogen-dependent chronic gynecological disease in women of
      reproductive age, is characterized by a systemic inflammation status involving
      also red blood cells (RBCs). In this study, we evaluated how the protein
      oxidative status could be involved in the worsening of RBC conditions due to
      dapsone intake in endometriotic women in potential treatment for skin or
      infection diseases. Blood samples from two groups of volunteers, control group
      (CG) and endometriosis patient group (PG), were analyzed for their content of
      band 3 tyrosine phosphorylation (Tyr-P) and high molecular weight aggregate
      (HMWA) in membranes, and glutathione (GSH) content and carbonic anhydrase (CA)
      activity in cytosol. In endometriotic patients, RBC showed the highest level of
      oxidative-related alterations both in membrane and cytosol. More interestingly,
      the addition of dapsone hydroxylamine (DDS-NHOH) could induce further increase of
      both membranes and cytosol markers, with an enhancement of CA activity reaching
      about 66% of the total cell enzyme amount. In conclusion, in PG the systemic
      inflammatory status leads to the inability of counteracting adjunctive oxidative
      stress, with a potential involvement of CA-related pathologies, such as glaucoma.
      Hence, the importance of the evaluation of therapeutic approaches worsening
      oxidative imbalance present in PG RBC is underlined.

PMID- 28557606
TI  - Decomposition of postural movements in individuals with mild TBI while reaching
      to intercept a moving virtual target.
AB  - The study analyzed postural and arm movement coordinations in patients with
      traumatic brain injury (TBI) while standing and reaching for a target moving in a
      3D virtual environment. Thirteen individuals with mild TBI and 13 height, sex,
      and age-matched healthy control individuals were involved. While standing in
      front of the screen, the participants interacted with the projected environment
      by reaching for virtual targets. Coordination was analyzed as the percentage of
      reach-to-intercept cycle time during which their movement toward the target was
      decomposed with 0% indicating simultaneous motion in three planes or 100%
      indicating motion in one or two planes only. Decomposition was calculated for the
      postural movements (DIp), arm movements (DIa), and arm-postural coordination (DIa
      p). The latter index represented the percentage of reach-to-intercept cycle time
      during which either the posture or arm moved alone. DIp and DIa-p were larger in
      the TBI group compared to the control group (p < 0.01). In the TBI group, DIp and
      DIa-p correlated negatively with postural stability (r = - 0.71 and r = - 0.60; p
      < 0.01). Results suggest that individuals with TBI decompose postural and arm
      postural coordinations during a reach-to-intercept task. This may be either a
      result of impaired postural control or an effort to compensate for instability.
      These abnormalities should be taken into consideration while planning physical
      therapy programs for individuals after brain injury.

PMID- 28557605
TI  - Blood Glucose Control and Related Factors at a Camp for Korean Children and
      Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes.
AB  - Data about Asian children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes are sparse. This
      study's objectives were to describe blood glucose (BG) levels and related factors
      at a camp for Korean children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. This
      descriptive study was conducted January 8-10, 2015. The participants, 24 children
      and adolescents, were recruited for a 3-day residential diabetes camp. Data on 24
      campers were analyzed. Their mean age was 13.4 (+/- 1.7) years; 44.4% were boys,
      and mean HgbA1c was 8.5% (+/- 1.4%). Results revealed that BG levels were
      maintained safely: The mean BG level during the 3-day stay was 171.1 (+/- 33.3)
      mg/dl. Multiple regression analysis showed that insulin adjustment for
      hyperglycemia (standardized beta = .426; t = 2.431; p = .030) and snacks for
      hypoglycemia (standardized beta = -.719; t = -3.723; p = .003) at the camp were
      the only independent contributors to mean BG levels during the 3-day study
      period. No demographic or clinical factor was found to be associated with the
      mean BG level. This is the first study of its kind to be conducted in an Asian
      population, presumably because the prevalence of type 1 diabetes in Asia is low
      and diabetes camps are a novel concept. Further research is recommended to assess
      the characteristics of campers (e.g., diet, activity levels, and cultural
      background) and to determine how the health outcomes of children and adolescents
      with type 1 diabetes are affected by camp programs.

PMID- 28557607
TI  - A Poisson Log-Normal Model for Constructing Gene Covariation Network Using RNA
      seq Data.
AB  - Constructing expression networks using transcriptomic data is an effective
      approach for studying gene regulation. A popular approach for constructing such a
      network is based on the Gaussian graphical model (GGM), in which an edge between
      a pair of genes indicates that the expression levels of these two genes are
      conditionally dependent, given the expression levels of all other genes. However,
      GGMs are not appropriate for non-Gaussian data, such as those generated in RNA
      seq experiments. We propose a novel statistical framework that maximizes a
      penalized likelihood, in which the observed count data follow a Poisson log
      normal distribution. To overcome the computational challenges, we use Laplace's
      method to approximate the likelihood and its gradients, and apply the alternating
      directions method of multipliers to find the penalized maximum likelihood
      estimates. The proposed method is evaluated and compared with GGMs using both
      simulated and real RNA-seq data. The proposed method shows improved performance
      in detecting edges that represent covarying pairs of genes, particularly for
      edges connecting low-abundant genes and edges around regulatory hubs.

PMID- 28557608
TI  - Substantial underreporting of anastomotic leakage after anterior resection for
      rectal cancer in the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The causes and effects of anastomotic leakage after anterior
      resection are difficult to study in small samples and have thus been evaluated
      using large population-based national registries. To assess the accuracy of such
      research, registries should be validated continuously. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Patients who underwent anterior resection for rectal cancer during 2007-2013 in
      15 different hospitals in three healthcare regions in Sweden were included in the
      study. Registry data and information from patient records were retrieved.
      Registered anastomotic leakage within 30 postoperative days was evaluated, using
      all available registry data and using only the main variable anastomotic
      insufficiency. With the consensus definition of anastomotic leakage developed by
      the International Study Group on Rectal Cancer as reference, validity measures
      were calculated. RESULTS: Some 1507 patients were included in the study. The
      negative and positive predictive values for registered anastomotic leakage were
      96 and 88%, respectively, while the kappa-value amounted to 0.76. The false
      negative rate was 29%, whereas the false-positive rate reached 1.3% (the vast
      majority consisting of actual leaks, but occurring after postoperative day 30).
      Using the main variable anastomotic insufficiency only, the false-negative rate
      rose to 41%. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable underreporting of anastomotic
      leakage after anterior resection for rectal cancer in the Swedish Colorectal
      Cancer Registry. It is probable that this causes an underestimation of the true
      effects of leakage on patient outcomes, and further quality control is needed.

PMID- 28557609
TI  - Myeloma-Derived Light Chain Paired with a Diagnostic Monoclonal Antibody Hinders
      Immunoassay Performance.
AB  - Monoclonal antibodies are widely used as the capture and detection reagents in
      diagnostic immunoassays. In the past, myeloma fusion partners expressing
      endogenous heavy and/or light chains were often used to generate hybridoma cell
      lines. As a result, mixed populations of antibodies were produced that can cause
      inaccurate test results, poor antibody stability, and significant lot-to-lot
      variability. We describe one such scenario where the P3U1 (P3X63Ag8U.1) myeloma
      fusion partner was used in the generation of a hybridoma producing protein
      induced vitamin K absence/antagonist-II (PIVKA II) antibody. The hybridoma
      produces three subpopulations of immunoglobulin as determined by ion exchange
      (IEx) chromatography that exhibit varying degrees of immunoreactivity (0%, 50%,
      or 100%) to the target antigen as determined by Surface Plasmon Resonance. To
      produce an antibody with the highest possible sensitivity and specificity, the
      antigen-specific heavy and light chain variable domains (VH and VL) were cloned
      from the hybridoma and tethered to murine IgG1 and kappa scaffolds. The resulting
      recombinant antibody was expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells and is
      compatible for use in a diagnostic immunoassay.

PMID- 28557610
TI  - Genome Sequence of a Novel HIV-1 Circulating Recombinant Form (CRF79_0107)
      Identified from Shanxi, China.
AB  - We report a novel HIV-1 circulating recombinant form (CRF79_0107) from three
      epidemiologically unlinked patients through sexual contact in Shanxi province of
      China. This is the first second-generation circulating recombinant form
      identified in China. The breakpoint analysis of recombinants showed that
      CRF79_0107 was composed of CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC, with three CRF07_BC segments
      inserted into the CRF01_AE backbone. The emergence of CRF79_0107 increases the
      complexity of the HIV epidemic in China.

PMID- 28557612
TI  - Admittance to specialized palliative care (SPC) of patients with an assessed
      need: a study from the Danish palliative care database (DPD).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Admittance to specialized palliative care (SPC) has been discussed in
      the literature, but previous studies examined exclusively those admitted, not
      those with an assessed need for SPC but not admitted. The aim was to investigate
      whether admittance to SPC for referred adult patients with cancer was related to
      sex, age, diagnosis, geographic region or referral unit. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      register-based study with data from the Danish Palliative Care Database (DPD).
      From DPD we identified all adult patients with cancer, who died in 2010-2012 and
      who were referred to and assessed to have a need for SPC (N = 21,597).The
      associations were investigated using logistic regression models, which also
      evaluated whether time from referral to death influenced the associations.
      RESULTS: In the adjusted analysis, we found that admittance was higher for
      younger patients [e.g., 50-59 versus 80 + years: odds ratio (OR) = 2.03; 1.78
      2.33]. There was lower odds of admittance for patients with hematological
      malignancies and patients from two regions: Capital Region of Denmark and Region
      of Southern Denmark. Lower admittance among men and patients referred from
      hospital departments was explained by later referral. CONCLUSIONS: In this first
      nationwide study of admittance to SPC among patients with a SPC need, we found
      difference in admittance according to age, diagnosis and region. This indicates
      that prioritization of the limited resources means that certain subgroups with a
      documented need have reduced likelihood of admission to SPC.

PMID- 28557611
TI  - Lamin A and microtubules collaborate to maintain nuclear morphology.
AB  - Lamin A (LA) is a critical structural component of the nuclear lamina. Mutations
      within the LA gene (LMNA) lead to several human disorders, most striking of which
      is Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a premature aging disorder. HGPS
      cells are best characterized by an abnormal nuclear morphology known as nuclear
      blebbing, which arises due to the accumulation of progerin, a dominant mutant
      form of LA. The microtubule (MT) network is known to mediate changes in nuclear
      morphology in the context of specific events such as mitosis, cell polarization,
      nucleus positioning and cellular migration. What is less understood is the role
      of the microtubule network in determining nuclear morphology during interphase.
      In this study, we elucidate the role of the cytoskeleton in regulation and
      misregulation of nuclear morphology through perturbations of both the lamina and
      the microtubule network. We found that LA knockout cells exhibit a crescent shape
      morphology associated with the microtubule-organizing center. Furthermore, this
      crescent shape ameliorates upon treatment with MT drugs, Nocodazole or Taxol.
      Expression of progerin, in LA knockout cells also rescues the crescent shape,
      although the response to Nocodazole or Taxol treatment is altered in comparison
      to cells expressing LA. Together these results describe a collaborative effort
      between LA and the MT network to maintain nuclear morphology.

PMID- 28557613
TI  - Sustainable Development of Pathology in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Example From
      Ghana.
AB  - CONTEXT: - Pathology services are poorly developed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Komfo
      Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, asked for help from the pathology
      department of the University Hospital of North Norway, Tromso. OBJECTIVE: - To
      reestablish surgical pathology and cytology in an African pathology department in
      which these functions had ceased completely, and to develop the department into a
      self-supporting unit of good international standard and with the capacity to
      train new pathologists. DESIGN: - Medical technologists from Kumasi were trained
      in histotechnology in Norway, they were returned to Kumasi, and they produced
      histologic slides that were temporarily sent to Norway for diagnosis. Two
      Ghanaian doctors received pathology training for 4 years in Norway. Mutual visits
      by pathologists and technologists from the 2 hospitals were arranged for the
      introduction of immunohistochemistry and cytology. Pathologists from Norway
      visited Kumasi for 1 month each year during 2007-2010. Microscopes and
      immunohistochemistry equipment were provided from Norway. Other laboratory
      equipment and a new building were provided by the Ghanaian hospital. RESULTS: -
      The Ghanaian hospital had a surgical pathology service from the first project
      year. At 11 years after the start of the project, the services included autopsy,
      surgical pathology, cytopathology, frozen sections, and limited use of
      immunohistochemistry, and the department had 10 residents at different levels of
      training. CONCLUSIONS: - A Ghanaian pathology department that performed autopsies
      only was developed into a self-supported department with surgical pathology,
      cytology, immunohistochemistry, and frozen section service, with an active
      residency program and the capacity for further development that is independent
      from assistance abroad.

PMID- 28557615
TI  - Trends in Diagnosis of Gleason Score 2 Through 4 Prostate Cancer in the National
      Cancer Database, 1990-2013.
AB  - CONTEXT: - The incidence of prostate cancer with Gleason scores 2 through 4 has
      been decreasing for decades, largely because of evolving criteria for Gleason
      scores, including the 2005 International Society of Urological Pathology
      recommendation that scores of 2 through 4 should rarely, if ever, be diagnosed
      based on needle biopsy. Whether trends in assigning Gleason scores 2 through 4
      vary by facility type and patient characteristics is unknown. OBJECTIVE: - To
      assess trends in prostate cancer grading among various categories of treatment
      facilities. DESIGN: - Analyses of National Cancer Database records from 1990
      through 2013 for 434 612 prostate cancers diagnosed by core needle biopsy,
      including multivariable regression for 106 331 patients with clinical T1c disease
      diagnosed from 2004 through 2013. RESULTS: - The proportion of prostate core
      needle biopsies with Gleason scores 2 through 4 declined from 11 476 of 53 850
      (21.3%) (1990-1994) to 96 of 43 566 (0.2%) (2010-2013). The proportions of
      American Joint Committee on Cancer category T1c needle biopsies assigned Gleason
      scores 2 through 4 were 416 of 12 796 (3.3%) and 9 of 7194 (0.1%) during 2004 and
      2013, respectively. Declines occurred earliest at National Cancer Institute
      designated programs and latest at community programs. A multivariable logistic
      model adjusting for patient demographic and clinical variables and restricted to
      T1c cancers diagnosed in needle biopsies from 2004 through 2013 showed that
      facility type is independently associated with the likelihood of cancers in such
      specimens being assigned Gleason scores of 2 through 4, with community centers
      having a statistically significant odds ratio of 5.99 relative to National Cancer
      Institute-designated centers. CONCLUSIONS: - These results strongly suggest
      differences in Gleason grading by pathologists practicing in different facility
      categories and variations in their promptness of adopting International Society
      of Urological Pathology recommendations.

PMID- 28557616
TI  - Analytic Validation of Immunohistochemistry Assays: New Benchmark Data From a
      Survey of 1085 Laboratories.
AB  - CONTEXT: - A cooperative agreement between the College of American Pathologists
      (CAP) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was
      undertaken to measure laboratories' awareness and implementation of an evidence
      based laboratory practice guideline (LPG) on immunohistochemical (IHC) validation
      practices published in 2014. OBJECTIVE: - To establish new benchmark data on IHC
      laboratory practices. DESIGN: - A 2015 survey on IHC assay validation practices
      was sent to laboratories subscribed to specific CAP proficiency testing programs
      and to additional nonsubscribing laboratories that perform IHC testing. Specific
      questions were designed to capture laboratory practices not addressed in a 2010
      survey. RESULTS: - The analysis was based on responses from 1085 laboratories
      that perform IHC staining. Ninety-six percent (809 of 844) always documented
      validation of IHC assays. Sixty percent (648 of 1078) had separate procedures for
      predictive and nonpredictive markers, 42.7% (220 of 515) had procedures for
      laboratory-developed tests, 50% (349 of 697) had procedures for testing cytologic
      specimens, and 46.2% (363 of 785) had procedures for testing decalcified
      specimens. Minimum case numbers were specified by 85.9% (720 of 838) of
      laboratories for nonpredictive markers and 76% (584 of 768) for predictive
      markers. Median concordance requirements were 95% for both types. For initial
      validation, 75.4% (538 of 714) of laboratories adopted the 20-case minimum for
      nonpredictive markers and 45.9% (266 of 579) adopted the 40-case minimum for
      predictive markers as outlined in the 2014 LPG. The most common method for
      validation was correlation with morphology and expected results. Laboratories
      also reported which assay changes necessitated revalidation and their minimum
      case requirements. CONCLUSIONS: - Benchmark data on current IHC validation
      practices and procedures may help laboratories understand the issues and
      influence further refinement of LPG recommendations.

PMID- 28557614
TI  - The Gold Standard Paradox in Digital Image Analysis: Manual Versus Automated
      Scoring as Ground Truth.
AB  - CONTEXT: - Novel therapeutics often target complex cellular mechanisms.
      Increasingly, quantitative methods like digital tissue image analysis (tIA) are
      required to evaluate correspondingly complex biomarkers to elucidate subtle
      phenotypes that can inform treatment decisions with these targeted therapies.
      These tIA systems need a gold standard, or reference method, to establish
      analytical validity. Conventional, subjective histopathologic scores assigned by
      an experienced pathologist are the gold standard in anatomic pathology and are an
      attractive reference method. The pathologist's score can establish the ground
      truth to assess a tIA solution's analytical performance. The paradox of this
      validation strategy, however, is that tIA is often used to assist pathologists to
      score complex biomarkers because it is more objective and reproducible than
      manual evaluation alone by overcoming known biases in a human's visual evaluation
      of tissue, and because it can generate endpoints that cannot be generated by a
      human observer. OBJECTIVE: - To discuss common visual and cognitive traps known
      in traditional pathology-based scoring paradigms that may impact characterization
      of tIA-assisted scoring accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. DATA SOURCES: -
      This manuscript reviews the current literature from the past decades available
      for traditional subjective pathology scoring paradigms and known cognitive and
      visual traps relevant to these scoring paradigms. CONCLUSIONS: - Awareness of the
      gold standard paradox is necessary when using traditional pathologist scores to
      analytically validate a tIA tool because image analysis is used specifically to
      overcome known sources of bias in visual assessment of tissue sections.

PMID- 28557617
TI  - Analytic Validation of Immunohistochemical Assays: A Comparison of Laboratory
      Practices Before and After Introduction of an Evidence-Based Guideline.
AB  - CONTEXT: - Laboratories must demonstrate analytic validity before any test can be
      used clinically, but studies have shown inconsistent practices in
      immunohistochemical assay validation. OBJECTIVE: - To assess changes in
      immunohistochemistry analytic validation practices after publication of an
      evidence-based laboratory practice guideline. DESIGN: - A survey on current
      immunohistochemistry assay validation practices and on the awareness and adoption
      of a recently published guideline was sent to subscribers enrolled in one of 3
      relevant College of American Pathologists proficiency testing programs and to
      additional nonsubscribing laboratories that perform immunohistochemical testing.
      The results were compared with an earlier survey of validation practices.
      RESULTS: - Analysis was based on responses from 1085 laboratories that perform
      immunohistochemical staining. Of 1057 responses, 65.4% (691) were aware of the
      guideline recommendations before this survey was sent and 79.9% (550 of 688) of
      those have already adopted some or all of the recommendations. Compared with the
      2010 survey, a significant number of laboratories now have written validation
      procedures for both predictive and nonpredictive marker assays and specifications
      for the minimum numbers of cases needed for validation. There was also
      significant improvement in compliance with validation requirements, with 99% (100
      of 102) having validated their most recently introduced predictive marker assay,
      compared with 74.9% (326 of 435) in 2010. The difficulty in finding validation
      cases for rare antigens and resource limitations were cited as the biggest
      challenges in implementing the guideline. CONCLUSIONS: - Dissemination of the
      2014 evidence-based guideline validation practices had a positive impact on
      laboratory performance; some or all of the recommendations have been adopted by
      nearly 80% of respondents.

PMID- 28557619
TI  - Correction to: Gillies, N. A., et al., Fasting levels of insulin and amylin after
      acute pancreatitis are associated with pro-inflammatory cytokines.

PMID- 28557618
TI  - Microenvironment Tumor Metabolic Interactions Highlighted by qMSI: Application to
      the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Pathway in Immuno-Oncology.
AB  - Inhibition of NK and effector T-cell functions and activation of regulatory cell
      populations are the main immunosuppressive effects of indoleamine-2,3
      dioxygenase1 (IDO1). By converting tryptophan (Trp) into kynurenine (Kyn), IDO1
      is involved in the immune response homeostasis, and its dysregulated expression
      is described in immune-related pathologies, as tumors that hijack it to evade
      immune destruction. Thereby, IDO1 inhibitors are being developed to stimulate
      antitumor immune responses. Existing and standard quantitation methods of IDO1
      substrate and metabolite(s) are based on the total level of Trp and its
      metabolites determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis
      in human plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, and brain. Here, we describe the detection,
      localization, and absolute quantitation of Trp and Kyn by quantitative mass
      spectrometry imaging (qMSI) in transfected murine tumor models expressing various
      levels of IDO1. Myeloid, glycolysis metabolic signatures, and correlation between
      IDO1 expression and Trp to Kyn conversion are also shown. High-definition IDO1
      and GCN2 immunostainings overlaid with Kyn molecular images underline the tumor
      metabolism and heterogeneity. The development of immunotherapies such as IDO1
      inhibitors requires a deep understanding of the immune system, the interplay of
      cancer cells, and biomarker characterization. Our data underline that qMSI allows
      the study of the spatial distribution and quantitation of endogenous immune
      metabolites for biology and pharmacology studies.

PMID- 28557620
TI  - The Rapid Recovery Progression Measure: A Brief Assessment of Biopsychosocial
      Functioning During Substance Use Disorder Recovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is debate in the literature around how to measure outcomes in
      treatment and recovery from substance use disorder (SUD). Various constructs have
      been suggested as appropriate including "recovery capital" and "treatment
      progression."  To contribute to this debate, the construct of "recovery
      progression"  has been suggested by the authors, and a psychometric assessment,
      the Recovery Progression Measure (RPM). Although published psychometrics data
      have demonstrated the RPM to be reliable, at 36-item long, it may be too lengthy
      to complete in clinic environments. Therefore, a shorter version has been
      developed, the Rapid RPM. OBJECTIVES: To examine reliability, validity,
      sensitivity and specificity of the Rapid RPM via data from 9208 service users.
      METHODS: Data were collected from service users accessing the Breaking Free
      Online (BFO) treatment and recovery program, which has within its baseline
      assessment the six-item, 11-point Likert scale Rapid RPM. Psychometric properties
      were examined. RESULTS: Internal reliability of the Rapid RPM was excellent,
      alpha =.92. The Rapid RPM also had good concurrent and predictive validity, with
      baseline scores, and changes in scores to follow-up, being significantly
      associated with scores on standardized measures of common mental health sequela,
      severity of substance dependence and quality of life, and changes in self
      reported substance use. The Rapid RPM was also able to differentiate between
      participants scoring above thresholds on these measures for clinically relevant
      substance dependence and mental health difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      provides data to support reliability, validity, sensitivity and specificity of
      the Rapid RPM, indicating potential as a clinical tool.

PMID- 28557621
TI  - Military personnel compared to multiple suicide attempters: Interpersonal theory
      of suicide constructs.
AB  - The current study aimed to address the discrepancy between suicide rates in the
      military and general population by comparing facets of the interpersonal theory
      of suicide between civilians with multiple suicide attempts and U.S. military
      personnel. Military personnel exhibited higher levels of capability for suicide
      but lower levels of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness than
      civilian multiple attempters. When comparing only personnel endorsing ideation
      and civilian multiple attempters, the significant difference for capability
      remained, but the differences for perceived burdensomeness and thwarted
      belongingness became nonsignificant. Results suggest the emergence of ideation
      places personnel at a greater risk for suicide than many civilian multiple
      attempters.

PMID- 28557622
TI  - Efficacy of seat-mounted thoracic side airbags in the German vehicle fleet.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Thoracic side airbags (tSABs) deploy within close proximity to the
      occupant. Their primary purpose is to provide a protective cushion between the
      occupant and the intruding door. To date, various field studies investigating
      their injury mitigation has been limited and contradicting. The research develops
      efficacy estimations associated for seat-mounted tSABs in their ability to
      mitigate injury risk from the German collision environment. METHODS: A matched
      cohort study using German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS) data was implemented
      and aims to investigate the efficacy of seat-mounted tSAB units in preventing
      thoracic injury. Inclusion in the study required a nearside occupant involved in
      a lateral collision where the target vehicle exhibited a design year succeeding
      1990. Collisions whereby a tSAB deployed were matched on a 1:n basis to
      collisions of similar severity where no airbag was available in the target
      vehicle. The outcome of interest was an incurred bodily or thoracic regional
      injury. Through conditional logistic regression, an estimated efficacy value for
      the deployed tSAB was determined. RESULTS: A total of 255 collisions with the
      deployed tSAB matched with 414 collisions where no tSAB was present. For the
      given sample, results indicated that the deployed tSAB was not able to provide an
      unequivocal benefit to the occupant thoracic region, because individuals exposed
      to the deployed tSAB were at equal risk of injury (Thorax Maximum Abbreviated
      Injury Scale (Tho.MAIS)2+ odds ratio [OR] = 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI],
      0.41-2.62; Tho.MAIS3+ OR = 1.15, 95% CI, 0.41-3.18). When attempting to isolate
      an effect for skeletal injuries, a similar result was obtained. Yet, when the
      tSAB was coupled with a head curtain airbag, a protective effect became apparent,
      most noticeable for head/face/neck (HFN) injuries (OR = 0.59, 95% CI, 0.21-1.65).
      CONCLUSION: The reduction in occupant HFN injury risk associated with the coupled
      tSAB and curtain airbag may be attributable to its ability to provide coverage
      over previous mechanisms of injury. Yet, the sole presence of the tSAB showed no
      ability to provide additional benefit for the occupant's thoracic region. Future
      work should identify mechanisms of injury in tSAB cases and attempt to quantify
      improvements in the vehicle's ability to resist intrusion.

PMID- 28557623
TI  - Developmental Competence and Epigenetic Profile of Porcine Embryos Produced by
      Two Different Cloning Methods.
AB  - The "Dolly" based cloning (classical nuclear transfer, [CNT]) and the handmade
      cloning (HMC) are methods that are nowadays routinely used for somatic cloning of
      large domestic species. Both cloning protocols share several similarities, but
      differ with regard to the required in vitro culture, which in turn results in
      different time intervals until embryo transfer. It is not yet known whether the
      differences between cloned embryos from the two protocols are due to the cloning
      methods themselves or the in vitro culture, as some studies have shown
      detrimental effects of in vitro culture on conventionally produced embryos. The
      goal of this study was to unravel putative differences between two cloning
      methods, with regard to developmental competence, expression profile of a panel
      of developmentally important genes and epigenetic profile of porcine cloned
      embryos produced by either CNT or HMC, either with (D5 or D6) or without (D0) in
      vitro culture. Embryos cloned by these two methods had a similar morphological
      appearance on D0, but displayed different cleavage rates and different quality of
      blastocysts, with HMC embryos showing higher blastocyst rates (HMC vs. CNT: 35%
      vs. 10%, p < 0.05) and cell numbers per blastocyst (HMC vs. CNT: 31 vs. 23 on D5
      and 42 vs. 18 on D6, p < 0.05) compared to CNT embryos. With regard to histone
      acetylation and gene expression, CNT and HMC derived cloned embryos were similar
      on D0, but differed on D6. In conclusion, both cloning methods and the in vitro
      culture may affect porcine embryo development and epigenetic profile. The two
      cloning methods essentially produce embryos of similar quality on D0 and after 5
      days in vitro culture, but thereafter both histone acetylation and gene
      expression differ between the two types of cloned embryos.

PMID- 28557624
TI  - RNA-Guided Activation of Pluripotency Genes in Human Fibroblasts.
AB  - Specific activation of endogenous genes can be achieved by programmable
      artificial transcription factors (ATFs). In this study, we compared two
      artificial, programmable, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic
      repeats (CRISPR)-based, ubiquitous transcription factors: deficient CRISPR
      associated protein 9 (dCas9)-VP64 (CRISPRa) alone, or a combination of dCas9-VP64
      and MS2-P65-HSF1 [synergistic activation mediator (SAM) system] mediated
      activation of five pluripotency genes: KLF4 (K), LIN28 (L), MYC (M), OCT4 (O),
      and SOX2 (S) in human cells (HEK293T, HeLa, HepG2, and primary fibroblasts).
      Activation potential was monitored using a luciferase reporter system and we
      found that both CRISPRa and SAM can efficiently activate the proximal promoter of
      all five genes. We also observed that the guide RNA (gRNA) target sites and
      number of gRNAs have a major effect on gRNA-guided activation efficiency.
      Furthermore, increased activation efficiency (>3-folds) could be achieved by the
      SAM system compared to CRISPRa. In addition, we discovered that only the SAM
      system could efficiently activate LIN28, OCT4, and SOX2 expression (up to 100
      folds compared to coexpression with a scrambled gRNA) in primary human
      fibroblasts. This SAM-mediated activation of LOS can be stably maintained for
      over 20 days in fibroblasts cultured in either fibroblasts or stem cell medium.
      However, when attempting to use the SAM-LOS activation as an approach for induced
      pluripotent stem cells-reprogramming, no embryonic stem-like colonies could be
      obtained from these SAM fibroblasts. In conclusion, our study showed that
      CRISPR/Cas9-based ATFs are potent to activate and maintain transcription of
      endogenous human pluripotent genes. However, future improvements of the system
      are still required to improve activation efficiency and cellular reprogramming
      using ATFs.

PMID- 28557626
TI  - Response Characteristics and Retinal Origin of the Photopic Negative Response of
      the Electroretinogram in Dogs.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the response characteristics and retinal origin of the
      photopic negative response (PhNR) of the electroretinograms (ERGs) in dogs.
      METHODS: Photopic ERGs were elicited by white flash stimuli of different
      intensities under a steady white background illumination in four anesthetized
      dogs. These ERGs were also recorded in the same manner after intravitreal
      injection of tetrodotoxin (TTX). Additionally, retinal localization of voltage
      gated sodium channel Nav 1.6 was assessed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The
      amplitude of the a-wave and the PhNR was increased as the stimulus intensity was
      raised, while the amplitude of the b-wave was peaked at the moderate stimulus
      intensity of 3.09 cd.s/m2. TTX greatly attenuated the PhNR, while the reduction
      in the b-waves and a-wave was mild or insignificant. Nav 1.6-expression was
      specifically detected on the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results are consistent with the PhNR primarily derived from the inner retina
      including RGCs in dogs, suggesting that the PhNR can be used to monitor function
      of these retinal components in dogs.

PMID- 28557625
TI  - A home-based body weight supported treadmill training program for children with
      cerebral palsy: A case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Contemporary approaches to the treatment of cerebral
      palsy (CP) advocate a task-specific approach that emphasizes repetition and
      practice of specific tasks. Recent studies suggest that body-weight-supported
      treadmill training (BWSTT) programs may be beneficial in clinical settings. The
      purposes of this case series were to explore the outcomes and feasibility of a
      home-based BWSTT program for three children with CP. CASE DESCRIPTION: Three
      children with CP at Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) Levels III
      or IV participated in this case series. Examination included the Functional
      Assessment Questionnaire (FAQ), the 10-meter walk test, the Gross Motor Function
      Measure (GMFM-66), and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Computer
      Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT). A harness system was used to conduct the BWSTT program
      over an 8-12 week period. OUTCOMES: All of the families reported enjoying the
      BWSTT program and found the harness easy to use. Participant 2 increased from a 2
      to a 4 on the FAQ, while Participant 3 increased from a 6 to a 7. DISCUSSION: Two
      of the participants demonstrated post-intervention improvements in functional
      mobility. In addition to mobility outcomes, future research should explore the
      potential health benefits of a home-based BWSTT program.

PMID- 28557627
TI  - A Nonresponse Bias Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey
      (HINTS).
AB  - We conducted a nonresponse bias analysis of the Health Information National
      Trends Survey (HINTS) 4, Cycles 1 and 3, collected in 2011 and 2013,
      respectively, using three analysis methods: comparison of response rates for
      subgroups, comparison of estimates with weighting adjustments and external
      benchmarks, and level-of-effort analysis. Areas with higher concentrations of low
      socioeconomic status, higher concentrations of young households, and higher
      concentrations of minority and Hispanic populations had lower response rates.
      Estimates of health information seeking behavior were higher in HINTS compared to
      the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The HINTS estimate of doctors always
      explaining things in a way that the patient understands was not significantly
      different from the same estimate from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
      (MEPS); however, the HINTS estimate of health professionals always spending
      enough time with the patient was significantly lower than the same estimate from
      MEPS. A level-of-effort analysis found that those who respond later in the survey
      field period were less likely to have looked for information about health in the
      past 12 months, but found only small differences between early and late
      respondents for the majority of estimates examined. There is some evidence that
      estimates from HINTS could be biased toward finding higher levels of health
      information seeking.

PMID- 28557628
TI  - Identification of endothelin-converting enzyme-2 as an autoantigen in autoimmune
      polyendocrine syndrome type 1.
AB  - Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS1) is a rare monogenic autoimmune
      disorder caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. High titer
      autoantibodies are a characteristic feature of APS1 and are often associated with
      particular disease manifestations. Pituitary deficits are reported in up to 7% of
      all APS1 patients, with immunoreactivity to pituitary tissue frequently reported.
      We aimed to isolate and identify specific pituitary autoantigens in patients with
      APS1. Immunoscreening of a pituitary cDNA expression library identified
      endothelin-converting enzyme (ECE)-2 as a potential candidate autoantigen.
      Immunoreactivity against ECE-2 was detected in 46% APS1 patient sera, with no
      immunoreactivity detectable in patients with other autoimmune disorders or
      healthy controls. Quantitative-PCR showed ECE-2 mRNA to be most abundantly
      expressed in the pancreas with high levels also in the pituitary and brain. In
      the pancreas ECE-2 was co-expressed with insulin or somatostatin, but not
      glucagon and was widely expressed in GH producing cells in the guinea pig
      pituitary. The correlation between immunoreactivity against ECE-2 and the major
      recognized clinical phenotypes of APS1 including hypopituitarism was not
      apparent. Our results identify ECE-2 as a specific autoantigen in APS1 with a
      restricted neuroendocrine distribution.

PMID- 28557630
TI  - The Exploitation of Low-Energy Electrons in Cancer Treatment.
AB  - Given the distinct characteristics of low-energy electrons (LEEs), particularly
      at energies less than 30 eV, they can be applied to a wide range of therapeutic
      modalities to improve cancer treatment. LEEs have been shown to efficiently
      produce complex molecular damage resulting in substantial cellular toxicities.
      Since LEEs are produced in copious amounts from high-energy radiation beam,
      including photons, protons and ions; the control of LEE distribution can
      potentially enhance the therapeutic radio of such beams. LEEs can play a
      substantial role in the synergistic effect between radiation and chemotherapy,
      particularly halogenated and platinum-based anticancer drugs. Radiosensitizing
      entities containing atoms of high atomic number such as gold nanoparticles can be
      a source of LEE production if high-energy radiation interacts with them. This can
      provide a high local density of LEEs in a cell and produce cellular toxicity.
      Auger-electron-emitting radionuclides also create a high number of LEEs in each
      decay, which can induce lethal damage in a cell. Exploitation of LEEs in cancer
      treatment, however, faces a few challenges, such as dosimetry of LEEs and
      selective delivery of radiosensitizing and chemotherapeutic molecules close to
      cellular targets. This review first discusses the rationale for utilizing LEEs in
      cancer treatment by explaining their mechanism of action, describes theoretical
      and experimental studies at the molecular and cellular levels, then discusses
      strategies for achieving modification of the distribution and effectiveness of
      LEEs in cancerous tissue and their associated clinical benefit.

PMID- 28557629
TI  - Comparative analysis of 12 different kits for bisulfite conversion of circulating
      cell-free DNA.
AB  - Blood circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is becoming popular in the search of
      promising predictive and prognostic biomarkers. Among these biomarkers, cfDNA
      methylation markers have especially gained considerable attention. A significant
      challenge in the utilization of cfDNA methylation markers is the limited amount
      of cfDNA available for analyses; reportedly, bisulfite conversion (BSC) reduce
      cfDNA amounts even further. Nevertheless, few efforts have focused on ensuring
      high cfDNA conversion efficiency and recovery after BSC. To compare cfDNA
      recovery of different BSC methods, we compared 12 different commercially
      available BSC kits. We tested whether DNA recovery was affected by the molecular
      weight and/or quantity of input DNA. We also tested BSC efficiency for each kit.
      We found that recovery varied for DNA fragments of different lengths: certain
      kits recovered short fragments better than others, and only 3 kits recovered DNA
      fragments of <100 bp well. In contrast, DNA input amount did not seem to affect
      DNA recovery: for quantities spanning between 820 and ~25,000 genome equivalents
      per BSC, a linear relation was found between input and recovery amount. Overall,
      mean recovery ranged between 9 and 32%, with BSC efficiency of 97-99.9%. When
      plasma cfDNA was used as input for BSC, recovery varied from 22% for the poorest
      and 66% for the best performing kits, while conversion efficiency ranged from 96
      to 100% among different kits. In conclusion, clear performance differences exist
      between commercially available BSC kits, both in terms of DNA recovery and
      conversion efficiency. The choice of BSC kit can substantially impact the amount
      of converted cfDNA available for downstream analysis, which is critical in a
      cfDNA methylation marker setting.

PMID- 28557632
TI  - An exploratory analysis of the notable activities of U.S. child death review
      teams.
AB  - Child death review teams (CDRTs) focus on the prevention of child deaths, but a
      comprehensive understanding of their activities is lacking. This exploratory
      study addressed this gap through a qualitative analysis of reported CDRT
      activities using the "spectrum of prevention" framework. We collected state-level
      CDRT reports published 2006-2015, recorded their activities (n = 193), and coded
      them using the "spectrum of prevention" framework. The highest percentage (64.2%)
      of activities was categorized under "fostering coalitions and networks." We
      recommend that CDRTs increase their reporting of activities so others can better
      understand their potential impact on preventing child deaths.

PMID- 28557631
TI  - The daily progress system: A proof of concept pilot study of a recovery support
      technology tool for outpatient substance abuse treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Illicit substance use remains highly prevalent in the US, and
      epidemiological surveillance surveys estimate that in 2015, over 27 million
      individuals (10.1% of the US population) 12 years of age or older used illicit
      drugs in the past 30 days.1 Outpatient treatment delivered in community-based
      settings is the dominant modality for addiction treatment, typically involving
      weekly psychosocial counseling sessions in an individual and/or group format.2,3
      Unfortunately, relapse and premature treatment discontinuation are quite common
      in outpatient treatment.3-5 Objectives: This is a pilot proof of concept
      feasibility study involving clients presenting for outpatient SUD treatment. This
      study sought to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the Daily Progress
      System (DPS), a telephone-based software program, using interactive voice
      response (IVR), designed to enhance quality care and improve client outcomes.
      METHODS: Individuals who presented at the participating treatment clinic, who met
      study eligibility criteria, and who provided written informed consent to
      participate were included in the study (N = 15; 53.3% females). Incentives were
      paid to participants for calls completed. RESULTS: Participants completed 65% of
      scheduled daily call-ins, representing 273 person-days of data on client
      cravings, mood, substance use, and involvement in recovery support activities.
      The average call duration was approximately 2 minutes and 42 seconds. There was a
      high degree of client and counselor acceptance and satisfaction using the system.
      Conclusions and Clinical Significance: Findings suggest that the DPS appears to
      be a feasible means of potentially addressing relapse and treatment engagement
      issues based on client and counselor engagement and satisfaction with the system.

PMID- 28557633
TI  - Implementing a School-Based Sleep Intervention in the First Year of Elementary
      School: Voices of the School Nurses as Intervention Deliverers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Elementary school nurses are an important component of
      health care systems. However, translational research of their role in
      interventions is limited. This study aimed to determine the feasibility,
      acceptability and sustainability of training the school nursing workforce to
      deliver a brief behavioral sleep intervention and the associated delivery costs.
      PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four primary school nurses from the Victorian Department of
      Education and Training, Melbourne, Australia, involved in delivering the school
      based sleep intervention as part of the Sleep Well - Be Well trial participated
      in three surveys and a focus group over 30 months. METHODS: An embedded mixed
      methods design utilizing quantitative and qualitative data sources was used.
      RESULTS: Qualitative and quantitative evidence demonstrated training school
      nurses to deliver a brief sleep intervention was feasible and acceptable.
      Competence and confidence levels were maintained 12 months after the completion
      of intervention delivery demonstrating sustainability for this low cost model.
      Benefits of school nurses' participation in translational research projects were
      also identified. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the potential for
      utilizing school nurses directly in interventions at the health and education
      interface. Further research is required to address the challenges of intervention
      implementation and to identify policy implications for other intervention
      opportunities which may exist.

PMID- 28557634
TI  - School Nurses on the Front Lines of Medicine: Uppers and Downers: The Approach to
      the Student With Altered Mental Status.
AB  - Although a student presenting with altered mental status due to substance use may
      occur infrequently in the school setting, it is of utmost importance to develop a
      differential diagnosis and to initiate stabilization of the student. This article
      describes the initial assessment and management of a student presenting with
      altered mental status, focusing on the differential diagnosis of altered mental
      status, on the varying presentations associated with common intoxications and
      ingestions, and on the screening tools available for the detection of depression
      and substance use.

PMID- 28557635
TI  - Adolescent Vaccines: Latest Recommendations, Addressing Barriers, and Improving
      Vaccine Rates.
AB  - The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that the Tdap, HPV,
      and meningitis vaccines be administered to youth beginning between the ages of 11
      and 12. The school nurse, knowledgeable about vaccine schedules and the rationale
      for the schedules, is in a unique position to advocate for all adolescent
      vaccines and their timely administration through addressing parent-guardian
      concerns and supporting other healthcare providers in completing the adolescent
      vaccines. This article reviews current recommendations for adolescent
      vaccinations and the actions needed to improve vaccination rates with a focus on
      Human Papillomavirus vaccine, the vaccine with the lowest completion rates among
      this age group. Additionally, school nurses are introduced to Middle School
      Health Starts Here, a program for school nurses designed to address the whole
      child as students progress from 5th grade to middle school. Public policy issues
      including school mandates, along with possible barriers to vaccine completion in
      adolescents, are discussed.

PMID- 28557636
TI  - Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management.

PMID- 28557638
TI  - Essentials in Return to Work Issues: A Tale of Two Shoulders.
AB  - Musculoskeletal disorders are common in the workplace and often respond to first
      aid treatment. Worker education combined with precise management of precautionary
      restrictions by occupational health nurses can decrease employees' recovery time
      and lower risk of complications.

PMID- 28557637
TI  - Situational Factors Associated With Burnout Among Emergency Department Nurses.
AB  - Emergency departments are high-stress environments for patients and clinicians.
      As part of the clinical team, nurses experience this stress daily and are subject
      to high levels of burnout, which has been shown to lead to hypertension,
      depression, and anxiety. Presence of these diseases may also contribute to
      burnout, creating a cycle of stress and illness. This prospective qualitative
      study used a phenomenological approach to better understand factors associated
      with burnout among emergency department nurses. Burnout manifests itself in
      multiple modes, can affect nurses' decisions to leave the profession, and must be
      addressed to mitigate the phenomenon.

PMID- 28557640
TI  - Workplace Violence Training Programs for Health Care Workers: An Analysis of
      Program Elements.
AB  - Commercial workplace violence (WPV) prevention training programs differ in their
      approach to violence prevention and the content they present. This study reviews
      12 such programs using criteria developed from training topics in the
      Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Guidelines for Preventing
      Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers and a review of the
      WPV literature. None of the training programs addressed all the review criteria.
      The most significant gap in content was the lack of attention to facility
      specific risk assessment and policies. To fill this gap, health care facilities
      should supplement purchased training programs with specific training in
      organizational policies and procedures, emergency action plans, communication,
      facility risk assessment, and employee post-incident debriefing and monitoring.
      Critical to success is a dedicated program manager who understands risk
      assessment, facility clinical operations, and program management and evaluation.

PMID- 28557641
TI  - Implementation of Activity Sensor Equipment in the Homes of Chronic Obstructive
      Pulmonary Disease Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine care models for managing advanced chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) may benefit from the addition of motion sensing,
      spirometry, and tablet-based symptom diary tracking. METHODS: We conducted a
      feasibility study of telemedicine in the home setting using multiple activity
      sensor monitoring equipment. Deployment and monitoring were supported by home
      health nurses with technical advice from the equipment makers as needed. Data
      analytics for motion sensing was provided by the research sponsor, but was not
      used for care decisions. On study intake, a health risk assessment, Quality of
      Life (SF-36) survey, and the St. George Respiratory Questionnaire were
      administered to assess patients' self-perception of quality of life, activities
      of daily life function, and difficulty living with COPD. RESULTS: Twenty-eight
      patients were enrolled and data were gathered for a minimum of 6 months and
      maximum of 9 months. The researchers demonstrated that augmentation of
      traditional telemedicine methods with motion sensing, spirometry, and symptom
      diaries appears feasible. The technical, process, logistics barriers, and
      solutions required for system deployment are described. The researchers
      demonstrated that augmentation of traditional telemedicine methods with motion
      sensing, spirometry, and symptom diaries appears feasible. CONCLUSIONS: Further
      exploration will be needed to determine the value of this information in
      preventing outcomes relevant to patients.

PMID- 28557642
TI  - Comparing the efficiency of Er,Cr:YSGG laser and diode laser on human beta
      defensin-1 and IL-1beta levels during the treatment of generalized aggressive
      periodontitis and chronic periodontitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to determine the suitability of the
      Er,Cr:YSGG and 940 +/- 15-nm diode laser for the treatment of generalized
      aggressive periodontitis and chronic periodontitis by measuring the levels of
      human beta-defensin-1 and IL-1beta. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 26 patients
      were included in this study. The study was designed as a "split-mouth"
      experiment. We performed scaling and root planing in the right maxillary
      quadrant, scaling and root planning + Er,Cr:YSGG laser in the left maxillary
      quadrant, scaling and root planning + 940 +/- 15-nm diode laser in the left
      mandibular quadrant, and only scaling and root planing in the right mandibular
      quadrant. The presence of human beta-defensin-1 and IL-1beta was analyzed with an
      ELISA. RESULTS: When the baseline and post-treatment human beta-defensin-1 levels
      and IL-1beta levels of the study groups were evaluated, a decrease in human beta
      defensin-1 and IL-1beta were observed in the quadrant where the Er,Cr:YSGG laser
      was applied in both the generalized aggressive periodontitis group and the
      chronic periodontitis group. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the Er,Cr:YSGG laser at non
      surgical periodontal treatment decreased both IL-1beta and human beta-defensin-1
      levels. It is likely that Er,Cr:YSGG laser is more suitable for the treatment of
      generalized aggressive periodontitis and chronic periodontitis.

PMID- 28557643
TI  - Trends in the Prevalence of Severe Obesity and Bariatric Surgery Access: A State
      Level Analysis from 2011 to 2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding what proportion of the eligible population is
      undergoing bariatric surgery at the state level provides critical insight into
      characterizing bariatric surgery access. We sought to describe statewide trends
      in severe obesity demographics and report bariatric surgery volume in Wisconsin
      from 2011 to 2014. METHODS: Self-reported data from the Behavioral Risk Factor
      Surveillance System (BRFSS) were used to calculate prevalence rates of severe
      obesity (class II and III) in Wisconsin. Bariatric surgery volume data were
      analyzed from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. A survey was sent to all
      American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery member bariatric surgeons in
      Wisconsin to assess perspectives on bariatric surgery access, insurance coverage,
      and referral processes. RESULTS: The prevalence of severe obesity in Wisconsin
      increased by 30% from 2011 to 2014 (10.4%-13.2%; P = .035); the odds of severe
      obesity nearly doubled for adults age 20-39 (odds ratio [OR] 1.9, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.3-3.0). During this time, the volume of bariatric surgery
      declined by 4.2%; (1432 to 1372; P < .001), whereas the rates of bariatric
      surgery per 1000 persons with severe obesity declined by 25.7% (3.5 to 2.6/1000).
      A majority (72%) of bariatric surgeon respondents felt bariatric surgery access
      either worsened or remained the same over the last 4 years. CONCLUSIONS: Severe
      obesity increased significantly in Wisconsin over a 4-year period, whereas
      bariatric surgery rates among severely obese persons have remained largely
      unchanged and are substantially below the national average. Combining the state
      level obesity survey data and bariatric surgery administrative data may be a
      useful approach for tracking bariatric surgery access throughout the United
      States.

PMID- 28557645
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28557644
TI  - Dietary and Supplemental Vitamin C and D on Symptom Severity and Physical
      Function in Knee Osteoarthritis.
AB  - Vitamins C and D have been associated with decreasing pain and increasing
      function but these associations are not definitive. This cross-sectional study
      explores what relationships supplemental and dietary intake of vitamins C and D
      have on pain severity and physical function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
      Using data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, we performed regression analyses
      to examine relationships between vitamins C and D, pain, and function. Dietary
      vitamin D and dietary vitamin C were divided into >90th, 50th-90th, and <50th
      percentile. The high percentile group for supplemental vitamin D was divided into
      >85th percentile, whereas the high percentile group for supplemental vitamin C
      was divided into >90th percentile. We found the 90th/85th percentile levels of
      dietary and supplemental vitamin D to be positively associated with pain (beta =
      0.180; p = 0.028) and inversely related to physical function (beta = -0.150, p =
      0.028), respectively. Daily intake of vitamin C showed no statistical
      significance. We found that supplementary vitamin D was strongly associated with
      lessened disability for knee OA patients. The unexpected finding that associated
      dietary vitamin D with greater knee pain merits further study.

PMID- 28557646
TI  - Spontaneous Blinking Kinematics in Patients Who Have Undergone Autogeneous Fascia
      Frontalis Suspension.
AB  - PURPOSE: To measure spontaneous blink metrics and brow motion in patients with
      congenital ptosis operated with frontalis slings with autogenous fascia lata.
      METHODS: An infrared three-dimensional video motion analyzer was employed to
      simultaneously measure brow motion and spontaneous blinks of 17 patients with
      congenital ptosis who underwent frontalis sling with autogenous fascia lata and a
      control group of equal number of healthy subjects. A customized software
      identified and quantified the amplitude and maximum velocity spontaneous blinks
      eyelid and brown motion during a 5-minute observation of a commercial movie. The
      corneal status of the patients with and without lagophthamos was evaluated with
      slit-lamp biomicroscopy with fluorescein staining. RESULTS: Lagophthalmos was
      detected on 13 (76.5%) patients. Out of these 3 (23%) showed signs of inferior
      superficial keratopathy despite the presence of normal (upwards) Bell's
      phenomenon in all of them. Blink rate was significantly diminished in the
      patients. The distribution of interblink time was similar in both groups. The
      mean amplitude of the down-phase of the patients' blinks was only 38% of the
      controls. The main sequence slope of the patients' blinks was abnormally low. In
      controls brow motion was a minute and random event no related to blinks. In the
      patients, the mean brow amplitude was five times higher than in controls reaching
      45% of the blink amplitude. CONCLUSIONS: Spontaneous blink amplitude and velocity
      are severely impaired in patients with fascia lata autogenous slings. After
      surgery blinking amplitude is linearly related to the amplitude of brow motion.

PMID- 28557647
TI  - Epidermolysis Bullosa with Pyloric Atresia and Aplasia Cutis in a Newborn Due to
      Homozygous Mutation in ITGB4.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidermolysis bullosa with pyloric atresia (EB-PA) is an autosomal
      recessive disorder due to mutations in ITGA6 and/or ITGB4, resulting in altered
      expression of alpha6beta4 integrin. EB-PA can also occur with aplasia cutis. CASE
      REPORT: We present a newborn with EB-PA and aplasia cutis, born of consanguineous
      parents, with a homozygous c.3793+1G>A mutation affecting ITGB4, previously
      described only in the heterozygous state with other mutations. CONCLUSION: The
      previously unreported homozygous c.3793+1G>A mutation affecting ITGB4 causes a
      severe form of junctional epidermolysis bullosa with pyloric atresia and aplasia
      cutis.

PMID- 28557648
TI  - Ventral Hernia Repair: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: From the patient's perspective, a ventral hernia (VH) can cause pain,
      adversely affect function, increase size, cosmetically distort the abdomen, and
      incarcerate/strangulate abdominal contents. The only known "cure" for a VH is
      surgical repair. The aim of this study was to review systematically the published
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of the surgical care of VH. METHOD: A search
      of the Ovid, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases was performed to obtain
      reports of RCTs on the use of mesh reinforcement in abdominal wall hernia repair.
      The outcomes assessed were hernia recurrence and surgical site infection (SSI).
      The overall quality of evidence was assessed using Grading of Recommendations
      Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). When feasible, based on
      assessment of heterogeneity, data were pooled and analyzed in a meta-analysis.
      RESULTS: Of the 10,349 titles screened, 25 articles (23 studies) met the search
      criteria. Evidence indicates that mesh reinforcement in clean cases can decrease
      hernia recurrence (number needed to treat = 7.9) but increase risk of SSI (number
      needed to harm = 27.8). Placing mesh in the sublay position (as opposed to the
      onlay or underlay position) may decrease the risk of hernia recurrence and SSI.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mesh reinforcement is recommended for all VH repairs in a clean case
      (high grade of evidence). Sublay mesh location may result in fewer recurrences
      and SSIs than onlay or inlay placement, but further study is needed to confirm
      this hypothesis (moderate grade of evidence).

PMID- 28557650
TI  - A pilot study of the efficacy of the POLARGEN(r) ultrahigh-frequency electric
      field (40.68 MHz) radiofrequency device in the treatment of facial contouring.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various radiofrequency (RF) devices are used to treat skin laxity and
      face contouring, but few studies have examined ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) electric
      field (40.68 MHz) RF devices. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a
      UHF electric field (40.68 MHz) RF device for skin tightening and face contouring.
      METHODS: Ten patients each underwent four sessions of UHF electric field RF
      device treatment at 2-week intervals. Clinical improvement was evaluated with the
      patient satisfaction score using a six-point scale, and clinical photographs
      taken at every visit and 2 months after the RF treatment were assessed. Skin
      biopsies were obtained from one patient before the first treatment and
      immediately after the last treatment. Adverse reactions were recorded at every
      follow-up visit. RESULTS: All patients were women with a mean age of 51.7 +/- 7.2
      years. The mean satisfaction score was 4.5 +/- 0.9 immediately after the last
      treatment session. Cheek, jawline, and neck enhancement and tightening were
      apparent in all patients. Side effects were minimal, and there were no burns or
      major complications. CONCLUSIONS: The UHF electric field RF device was effective
      for skin tightening and facial contouring, without significant adverse reactions.

PMID- 28557649
TI  - Sustained release docetaxel-incorporated lipid nanoparticles with improved
      pharmacokinetics for oral and parenteral administration.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop docetaxel-incorporated lipid nanoparticles
      (DTX-NPs) to improve the pharmacokinetic behaviour of docetaxel (DTX) after oral
      and parenteral administration via sustained release. DTX-NPs were prepared by
      nanotemplate engineering technique with palmityl alcohol as a solid lipid and
      Tween-40/Span-40/Myrj S40 as a surfactants mixture. Spherical DTX-NPs below 100
      nm were successfully prepared with a narrow particle size distribution, 96% of
      incorporation efficiency and 686 times increase in DTX solubility. DTX-NPs showed
      a sustained release over 24 h in phosphate-buffered saline and simulated gastric
      and intestinal fluids, while DTX-micelles released DTX completely within 12 h.
      The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of DTX-NPs against human breast
      cancer MCF-7 cells was 1.9 times lower than that of DTX-micelles and DTX
      solution. DTX-NPs demonstrated 3.7- and 2.8-fold increase in the area under the
      plasma concentration-time curve compared with DTX-micelles after oral and
      parenteral administration, respectively.

PMID- 28557651
TI  - Effects of a New Hospital-Wide Surgical Consultation Protocol in Patients with
      Clostridium difficile Colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fulminant Clostridium difficile colitis (fCDC) occurs in 2%-8% of
      patients with CDC and carries a high death rate. Prompt operation may reduce
      death. Our aim was to determine whether a standardized hospital-wide protocol for
      surgical referral in CDC would result in earlier surgical consultation, earlier
      identification of patients who could benefit from surgical therapy, and reduced
      deaths from fCDC. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team developed consensus criteria
      for surgical consultation. Compliance was evaluated by prospective review of all
      inpatient CDC cases. Outcomes of the prospective cohort (POST) were compared to
      an historic control group (PRE). RESULTS: From November 1, 2010 to October 31,
      2012, we identified 1,106 inpatients with CDC; 339 patients matched the
      consultation criteria, of whom 213 received a surgical consultation, resulting in
      an overall compliance rate of 62.8%. All those with fCDC received a surgical
      consultation, with a median time to surgical referral of three hours. Of 46
      patients with fCDC, 11 (23.9%) died, compared with 34.8% in the historical
      control group (p = 0.15). The death rate was 14.7% in the POST group, when
      excluding patients with limitations of care and those transferred to our
      institution in a fulminant state. There was a shorter interval between admission
      and surgical intervention for those who required operation in the POST group
      three (1-11) days versus 1.5 (0-3) days, respectively, in the PRE and POST groups
      (p = 0.018), and a shorter adjusted median hospital length of stay (adjusted
      difference 9.0, 95% CI 2.2-12.3, p = 0.007) Conclusions: A hospital-wide protocol
      with established criteria for surgical consultation resulted in faster
      intervention and a shorter adjusted median hospital length of stay. The overall
      death rate for fCDC patients without limitations of life-sustaining treatment who
      presented to our emergency department or in whom fCDC developed while they were
      admitted to our hospital was 14.7%.

PMID- 28557652
TI  - Comparison of clomiphene citrate and letrozole for ovulation induction in women
      with polycystic ovary syndrome: a prospective randomized trial.
AB  - To compare the therapeutic efficacy of clomiphene citrate (CC) and letrozole (LE)
      on ovulation, pregnancy, and live birth in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
      (PCOS); and to ensure if LE can replace CC as the first-line therapy for
      ovulation induction in these women. This is a prospectively, randomized,
      controlled trial in the tertiary hospital. Two-hundred and sixty-eight
      anovulatory PCOS patients were treated by CC or CC plus metformin and LE or LE
      plus metformin for three continuous cycles or conception; their ovulation rates,
      pregnancy rates, and live birth rates were calculated and compared. No
      significant difference was noted among the four groups regarding to the baseline
      data of clinical manifestations, serum sex hormone levels, and serum insulin
      levels. A total of 240 patients completed the therapies. The ovulation rate was
      significantly higher in the group LE than the group CC; however, no significant
      difference was noted between the groups LE and CC, CC, and CC + MET, or LE and LE
      + MET in the pregnancy rate, abortion rate, and live birth rate. No birth defect
      was found in the total of 63 newborns. CC regimen was still recommended to be the
      first-line therapy of ovulation induction for PCOS.

PMID- 28557654
TI  - Executive summary and goals and objectives of the U.S. National Postvention
      Guidelines.
AB  - This preparatory article to a special issue of Death Studies on Responding to
      Grief, Trauma and Distress After a Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines reproduces
      the document's Executive Summary and Goals and Objectives.

PMID- 28557653
TI  - Efficient Transduction of Zebrafish Melanoma Cell Lines and Embryos Using
      Lentiviral Vectors.
AB  - The establishment of in vitro cultures of zebrafish cancer cells has expanded the
      potential of zebrafish as a disease model. However, the lack of effective methods
      for gene delivery and genetic manipulation has limited the experimental
      applications of these cultures. To overcome this barrier, we tested and optimized
      vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G) pseudotyped lentiviral and
      retroviral vector transduction protocols. We show that lentivirus successfully
      and efficiently transduced zebrafish melanoma cell lines in vitro, allowing
      antibiotic selection, fluorescence-based sorting, and in vivo
      allotransplantation. In addition, injection of concentrated lentiviral particles
      into embryos and tumors established the feasibility of in vivo gene delivery.

PMID- 28557655
TI  - Tear Film Stability in Sjogren Syndrome Patients Treated with Hyaluronic Acid
      Versus Crosslinked Hyaluronic Acid-Based Eye Drops.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the stability of the tear film after instillation of eye
      drops containing hyaluronic acid (HA) or crosslinked hyaluronic acid (CLHA)-based
      in patients with Sjogren syndrome-related dry eye (SSDE). METHODS: Forty subjects
      were included in this study and were divided into 2 groups: the first group
      (control group) consisted of 20 healthy volunteers; the second group (study
      group) constituted of 20 suffering from SSDE; before and 5, 30, and 60 min after
      instillation of eye drops the surface regularity index (SRI) and surface
      asymmetry index (SAI) were registered. RESULTS: Comparing HA and CLHA, in the
      control group, SAI show statistically significant difference in the time 0 and in
      time 5, whereas there is no a statistically significant difference after 30 and
      60 min from instillation. For SRI there is no statistically significant
      difference at any time. In SSDE group there is no statistically significant
      difference in the time 0 and 5, whereas there is a statistically significant
      difference after 60 min for SAI, and after 30 and 60 min for SRI from
      instillation. Both SRI and SAI in dry eyes were significantly greater than in
      control eyes (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study showed a better efficacy of CLHA
      compared with HA in maintaining the stability of the tear film in a patient
      suffering from SSDE.

PMID- 28557656
TI  - Type I membranous anomaly in Stickler syndrome.

PMID- 28557657
TI  - Off-Campus Residence as a Risk Factor for Heavy Drinking Among College Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: College student alcohol use is a public health problem. OBJECTIVES:
      The aim of this study was to examine associations between residence and drinking
      behaviors among college students. We hypothesized that living off-campus
      independently or with peers would be associated with riskier drinking than living
      on-campus, and living with parents would be associated with less risky drinking
      than living on-campus. METHODS: We analyzed data from two separate studies
      conducted at two four-year universities in the Northeast. Study 1 examined data
      from 1286 students (57% female) attending a private university. In Study 2,
      analyses were replicated and extended with 2408 students (67% female) from a
      public university. We conducted regression analyses that controlled for age,
      race, gender, and class year to determine the unique association of residence on
      typical and peak drinking, frequency of heavy drinking, and alcohol-related
      consequences. RESULTS: In both samples, students living off-campus without
      parents reported more frequent alcohol consumption, larger drinking quantities,
      more frequent heavy drinking, and a greater number of alcohol-related
      consequences than students living on-campus (ps <.001). In Study 2, students
      living off-campus with their parents exhibited significantly fewer risky drinking
      behaviors than those living on-campus (ps <.001). CONCLUSIONS: Living off-campus 
      either independently or with peers - is a risk factor for heavy drinking and
      consequences. This group exhibits more risky drinking behaviors and alcohol
      related consequences than students living on-campus, independent of age and class
      year. Therefore, students moving off-campus may be appropriate targets for
      alcohol misuse prevention programs.

PMID- 28557658
TI  - Distance Learning Course for Healthcare Professionals: Continuing Education in
      Tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Continuing education of healthcare workers (HCWs) is an essential
      strategy for the control of tuberculosis (TB) transmission, enabling HCWs in
      early detection and appropriate treatment of TB cases. METHODS: We developed a
      distance learning (DL) course on TB for nurses. We conducted a quasi-experimental
      before and after study to evaluate the DL community at the participant's learning
      level. In addition, to evaluate the DL community at the level of participant
      satisfaction, a cross-sectional study was carried out after the course. Nurses
      involved in active inpatient or outpatient care of patients were recruited to
      participate in the study. RESULTS: Sixty-six participants started and completed
      the course and they were included in the analysis. The overall mean pretest and
      post-test scores were 10.3 +/- 2.2 and 11.4 +/- 2.7, respectively. Participants
      increased their knowledge to a statistically significant degree (p < 0.0001). At
      baseline, the frequency of correct answers was very low in some questions: number
      of people infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the world (10.6%); number of
      TB cases in Brazil (36.4%); contagiousness of latent TB infection (LTBI) (28.8%);
      and definition of active case finding (45.5%). Course feedback was mostly
      positive, with majority of users saying they were satisfied or totally satisfied.
      CONCLUSIONS: A brief DL course on TB was associated with some improvement in
      knowledge among nurses. The baseline knowledge was low regarding TB epidemiologic
      data, concepts on LTBI, and active case finding. This finding emphasizes the need
      to further improve the competencies and knowledge of nurses.

PMID- 28557659
TI  - Geminin Participates in Differentiation Decisions of Adult Neural Stem Cells
      Transplanted in the Hemiparkinsonian Mouse Brain.
AB  - Neural stem cells have been considered as a source of stem cells that can be used
      for cell replacement therapies in neurodegenerative diseases, as they can be
      isolated and expanded in vitro and can be used for autologous grafting. However,
      due to low percentages of survival and varying patterns of differentiation,
      strategies that will enhance the efficacy of transplantation are under scrutiny.
      In this article, we have examined whether alterations in Geminin's expression, a
      protein that coordinates the balance between self-renewal and differentiation,
      can improve the properties of stem cells transplanted in 6-OHDA hemiparkinsonian
      mouse model. Our results indicate that, in the absence of Geminin, grafted cells
      differentiating into dopaminergic neurons were decreased, while an increased
      number of oligodendrocytes were detected. The number of proliferating multipotent
      cells was not modified by the absence of Geminin. These findings encourage
      research related to the impact of Geminin on transplantations for
      neurodegenerative disorders, as an important molecule in influencing
      differentiation decisions of the cells composing the graft.

PMID- 28557660
TI  - Diagnosing Primary Squamous Cell Cancer of the Rectum in a Patient With HIV: A
      Case Report.

PMID- 28557661
TI  - Opioids in Cancer Pain: Right or Privilege?
AB  - Opioid analgesia is a mainstay of the treatment of cancer pain. Treatment of pain
      in patients with cancer with an ongoing substance abuse disorder can be
      difficult. We report the ethical challenges of treating a patient with cancer
      with a concomitant substance abuse disorder in an outpatient palliative care
      setting. We present an analysis of ethical considerations for the palliative care
      physician and strategies to aid in the successful treatment of such patients. We
      argue that there are select patients with cancer for whom exclusion from
      treatment with opioid therapy is warranted if their health is endangered by
      prescription of these medications.

PMID- 28557662
TI  - Trends Across the Night in Patronage, Intoxication, and Licensed Venue
      Characteristics in Five Australian Cities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While alcohol-related harm is reportedly greater on weekend evenings,
      research investigating trends in the intoxication levels of patrons and factors
      that increase risk of harm over the night is lacking. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to
      observe trends over the course of the night for patron demographics, venue
      characteristics and patron intoxication. METHODS: Observations of licensed venues
      and patrons in night-time entertainment districts of five Australian cities were
      conducted. In total, 798 observations occurred between 9 pm and 2 am on Friday
      and Saturday nights across 61 unique bars, nightclubs, and pubs. Patron
      characteristics such as gender and percentage of patrons under 25 years of age
      were estimated. Measures of venue characteristics included number of patrons,
      percentage venue capacity, ease of patron movement, bar crowding, and time to
      service. Measures of intoxication included the percentage of patrons showing any
      signs of alcohol intoxication, percentage of patrons too intoxicated to remain in
      the venue, overall level of intoxication, and percentage of patrons showing signs
      of drug use. RESULTS: Patron capacity increased across the night, peaking at 11
      pm in bars, and 1 am in nightclubs. Patron intoxication measures increased for
      all venue types across the night. Patrons showed more signs of drug use in
      nightclubs than other venue types. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing intoxication and
      decreasing patron numbers later in the night provides support for restricted
      trading hours and improved responsible service of alcohol policies. Specific
      venue types should be targeted to reduce drug use in the night-time economy.

PMID- 28557663
TI  - Dietary Supplement Intake and Associated Factors Among Gym Users in a University
      Community.
AB  - Dietary supplement intake and associated factors among gym users in a university
      community in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), were assessed using a
      structured, self-administered questionnaire in this cross-sectional study. Adults
      (N = 320) from five gyms in the University City of Sharjah participated in this
      cross-sectional study. The prevalence of dietary supplement intake was 43.8%.
      Statistically significant associations were found between the use of dietary
      supplements and sex (47.7% males, 28.1% females; p = .006), as well as weight
      lifting (88.6% taking supplements vs. 11.4% not taking supplements; p < .001),
      favoring male gym users. The reasons attributed to the use of dietary supplements
      varied between the sexes. Male exercisers used supplements to increase or
      maintain muscles mass, strength, and power and to boost exercise recovery.
      Females mainly used dietary supplements to increase energy, maintain their
      health, and prevent nutrition deficiency. Overall, protein supplements (whey
      proteins [48.6%] and protein powder [45.7%]) were among the most-consumed dietary
      supplements, followed by multivitamins (38.6%), branched-chain amino acids
      (36.4%), caffeine (35.0%), and creatine (29.3%). A widespread use of Internet
      driven, self-prescribed dietary supplement intake was reported among gym users
      (60.7%). Only 12.8% of dietary supplement users sought information from
      dietitians. Practical implications suggest that gym instructors and coaches
      should be sufficiently trained to be able to provide accurate and scientifically
      sound information on dietary supplements to the exercisers in gyms in the
      university environment.

PMID- 28557664
TI  - Efficacy of Laser Photobiomodulation on Morphological and Functional Repair of
      the Facial Nerve.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the efficacy of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on
      qualitative, quantitative, and functional aspects in the facial nerve
      regeneration process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-two male Wistar rats were
      used, randomly divided into a control group (CG; n = 10), in which the facial
      nerve without lesion was collected, and four experimental groups: (1) suture
      experimental group (SEG) and (2) fibrin experimental group (FEG), consisting of
      16 animals in which the buccal branch of the facial nerve was sectioned on both
      sides of the face; an end-to-end epineural suture was performed on the right
      side, and a fibrin sealant was used on the left side for coaptation of the
      stumps; and (3) laser suture experimental group (LSEG) and (4) laser fibrin
      experimental group (LFEG), consisting of 16 animals that underwent the same
      surgical procedures as SEG and FEG with the addition of laser application at
      three different points along the surgical site (pulsed laser of 830 nm
      wavelength, optical output power of 30 mW, power density of 0.2586 W/cm2, energy
      density of 6.2 J/cm2, beam area of 0.116 cm2, exposure time of 24 sec per point,
      total energy per session of 2.16 J, and cumulative dose of 34.56 J). The animals
      were submitted to functional analysis (subjective observation of whisker
      movement) and the data obtained were compared using Fisher's exact test.
      Euthanasia was performed at 5 and 10 weeks postoperative. The total number and
      density of regenerated axons were analyzed using the unpaired t-test (p < 0.05).
      RESULTS: Laser therapy resulted in a significant increase in the number and
      density of regenerated axons. The LSEG and LFEG presented better scores in
      functional analysis in comparison with the SEG and FEG. CONCLUSIONS: LLLT
      enhanced axonal regeneration and accelerated functional recovery of the whiskers,
      and both repair techniques allowed the growth of axons.

PMID- 28557665
TI  - Contribution of physiologists to the identification of the humoral component of
      immunity in the 19th century.
AB  - The history of antimicrobial humoral immunity usually focuses on the works of the
      German school at the end of the 19th century, born in the tradition of chemistry
      and disinfection. Starting from an old quarrel of priority about serotherapy
      between Emil von Behring (1854-1917) and the French physiologists Charles Richet
      (1850-1935) and Jules Hericourt (1850-1938), we first confirm that the latter
      stated the principle of serotherapy in 1888 and put it into practice before the
      seminal Behring's article in 1890, observing several adverse effects of this new
      immunotherapy. We also find that researchers who can be considered heirs of the
      French school of Physiology founded by Claude Bernard (1813-1878) also
      investigated the field of humoral immunity in the 1870-1880s. Maurice Raynaud
      (1834-1881), Auguste Chauveau (1827-1917), and eventually Charles Richet applied
      the experimental method of Claude Bernard to the young field of microbiology,
      illustrating a movement called by Jacques Leonard "physiologization of the
      pasteurism." However, the contribution of physiologists in this field started
      before Louis Pasteur, leading to the conclusion that physiologists and chemists
      synergistically contributed to the birth of bacteriology and immunology.

PMID- 28557667
TI  - Real-Life Experience with Aflibercept and Ranibizumab in the Treatment of Newly
      Diagnosed Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration over 24 Months.
AB  - PURPOSE: Comparative data appertaining to the long-term effects of Aflibercept or
      Ranibizumab in newly diagnosed cases of neovascular age-related macular
      degeneration (nAMD) over follow-up periods exceeding 12 months in clinical
      routine are scarce. METHODS: In this retrospective comparative analysis, a case
      series of patients with treatment-naive nAMD and requiring anti-vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy in a routine clinical setting were
      treated with either Aflibercept [Afl (n = 106)] or Ranibizumab [Ran (n = 47)].
      During the drug-loading phase, 3 monthly injections were administered.
      Thereafter, a treat-and-extend protocol was pursued for a maximum of 24 months.
      Ran was administered predominantly in eyes with classical lesions; Afl was
      administered in all others. The primary outcome parameters included anatomical
      and functional stability after 24 months. RESULTS: Patients were comparable
      regarding age, gender distribution, and lens status. Fewer patients presented
      with intraretinal fluid in the Afl- than in the Ran group at diagnosis (46.2% vs.
      67.4%; P = 0.02), but not after the drug-loading phase. After the drug-loading
      phase, visual acuity [-4.2 letters (Afl) vs. -4.5 letters (Ran); P = 0.78] and
      the central foveal thickness remained stable. Linked to the lesion type, the
      number of scheduled clinical visits during the course of 24 months was higher for
      the Ran- than for the Afl group [11.9 +/- 4.7 visits (Ran) vs. 8.4 +/- 3.1 visits
      (Afl); P = 0.0005]. However, the total number of injections was similar [10.5 +/-
      2.8 (Ran) vs. 11.7 +/- 3.6 (Afl); P = 0.06]. CONCLUSIONS: Based on tailoring
      according to the lesion type in cases of nAMD, the anatomical and the functional
      outcomes of treatment with either Afl or Ran were comparable for a maximum of 2
      years.

PMID- 28557668
TI  - Dynamic interaction of a downward plane jet and a cough jet with respect to
      particle transmission: An analytical and experimental study.
AB  - A cough jet can travel beyond the breathing zone of the source person, and thus,
      infectious viral- and bacterial-laden particles can be transported from the
      source person to others in close proximity. To reduce the interpersonal
      transmission of coughed particles, the objective of this study was to
      analytically and experimentally investigate the performance of downward plane
      jets with various discharge velocities. Chamber measurements were conducted to
      examine the interaction between a transient cough jet (discharge velocities of 12
      m/sec and 16 m/sec) and a steady downward plane jet (discharge velocities from
      1.0-8.5 m/sec) with respect to the transport of and human exposure to coughed
      particles. The results show that a relatively high-speed cough can easily
      penetrate a downward plane jet with a discharge velocity of less than 6 m/sec. A
      downward plane jet with a discharge velocity of 8.5 m/sec can bend the cough jet
      to a certain extent. In this study, momentum comparison of the cough jet and the
      downward plane jet shows that the value of personal exposure to coughed particles
      depends on the ratio of jet momentums. The results show that when the two
      momentums are equivalent or if the downward plane jet has a greater momentum, the
      cough jet is deflected downward and does not reach the breathing zone of the
      target thermal dummy. Using the ratio of the two momentums, it may be estimated
      whether the transmission of a cough jet can be controlled. A trajectory model was
      developed based on the ratio of the two momentums of a cough jet and a downward
      jet and was validated using the experimental data. In addition, the predicted
      trajectory of the cough jet agreed well with the results from smoke visualization
      experiments. This model can be used to guide the design of downward plane jet
      systems for protection of occupants from coughed particles.

PMID- 28557669
TI  - Pedestrian fatality and impact speed squared: Cloglog modeling from French
      national data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present study estimates pedestrians' risk of death according to
      impact speed when hit by a passenger car in a frontal collision. METHODS: Data
      were coded for all fatal crashes in France in 2011 and for a random sample of
      1/20th of all road injuries for the same year and weighted to take into account
      police underreporting of mild injury. A cloglog model was used to optimize risk
      adjustment for high collision speeds. The fit of the model on the data was also
      improved by using the square of the impact speed, which best matches the energy
      dissipated in the collision. RESULTS: Modeling clearly demonstrated that the risk
      of death was very close to 1 when impact speeds exceeded 80 km/h. For speeds less
      than 40 km/h, because data representative of all crashes resulting in injury were
      used, the estimated risk of death was fairly low. However, although the curve
      seemed deceptively flat below 50 km/h, the risk of death in fact rose 2-fold
      between 30 and 40 km/h and 6-fold between 30 and 50 km/h. For any given speed,
      the risk of death was much higher for more elderly subjects, especially those
      over 75 years of age. These results concern frontal crashes involving a passenger
      car. Collisions involving trucks are far less frequent, but half result in the
      pedestrian being run over, incurring greater mortality. CONCLUSIONS: For impact
      speeds below 60 km/h, the shape of the curve relating probability of death to
      impact speed was very similar to those reported in recent rigorous studies. For
      higher impact speeds, the present model allows the curve to rise ever more
      steeply, giving a much better fit to observed data. The present results confirm
      that, when a pedestrian is struck by a car, impact speed is a major risk factor,
      thus providing a supplementary argument for strict speed limits in areas where
      pedestrians are highly exposed.

PMID- 28557671
TI  - Surviving suicide: A psychiatrist's journey.
AB  - This article is a personal narrative by Diane Roston, M.D. of the suicide of her
      husband, David, in 2008. It is a powerful and intimate recounting of her
      thoughts, emotions, and behaviors from the day of her husband's death, up to the
      present time, as she tries to cope with the shock, trauma, confusion, horror, and
      intense grief produced by this life-changing event. It also includes her
      thoughtful reflections on how this experience has changed her personal and her
      professional life and has led to a hard-won sense of meaning and acceptance of
      the death.

PMID- 28557670
TI  - Validity and reliability of the Moxy oxygen monitor during incremental cycling
      exercise.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Moxy is a novel, cutaneously placed muscle oxygen monitor which
      claims to measure local oxygen saturation (SmO2) and total haemoglobin (THb)
      using near-infrared spectroscopy. If shown to be reliable, its data storage and
      telemetric capability will be useful for assessing localised O2 usage during
      field-based exercise. This study investigated the reliability of the Moxy during
      cycling and assessed the correlations between its measurements, whole-body O2
      consumption (VO2) and heart rate (HR). METHODS: Ten highly trained cyclists
      performed an incremental, step-wise cycling protocol on two occasions while
      wearing the Moxy. SmO2, THb, VO2 and HR were recorded in the final minute of each
      five-minute stage. Data were analysed using Spearman's Order-Rank Coefficient
      (SROC), Intraclass Correlation (ICC), and Coefficient of Variance (COV).
      Significance was set at p <= .05. RESULTS: SmO2 showed a 'strong' or 'very large'
      correlation between trials (SROC: r = 0.842-0.993, ICC: r = 0.773-0.992, p <=
      .01) and was moderately correlated with VO2 and HR (r = -0.71-0.73, p <= .01).
      SmO2 showed a moderate to high reliability at low intensities, but this decreased
      as relative exercise intensity increased. THb showed poor correlations between
      tests and with the other measured variables, but was highly reliable at all power
      outputs. CONCLUSIONS: The Moxy is a reliable device to measure SmO2 at low to
      moderate intensities, but at higher intensities, greater variation in
      measurements occurs, likely due to tissue ischaemia or increased movement
      artefacts due to more frequent muscular contractions. THb has low variation
      during exercise, and does not appear to be a valid indicator of muscle
      oxygenation.

PMID- 28557666
TI  - Factors Released from Endothelial Cells Exposed to Flow Impact Adhesion,
      Proliferation, and Fate Choice in the Adult Neural Stem Cell Lineage.
AB  - The microvasculature within the neural stem cell (NSC) niche promotes self
      renewal and regulates lineage progression. Previous work identified endothelial
      produced soluble factors as key regulators of neural progenitor cell (NPC) fate
      and proliferation; however, endothelial cells (ECs) are sensitive to local
      hemodynamics, and the effect of this key physiological process has not been
      defined. In this study, we evaluated adult mouse NPC response to soluble factors
      isolated from static or dynamic (flow) EC cultures. Endothelial factors generated
      under dynamic conditions significantly increased neuronal differentiation, while
      those released under static conditions stimulated oligodendrocyte
      differentiation. Flow increases EC release of neurogenic factors and of heparin
      sulfate glycosaminoglycans that increase their bioactivity, likely underlying the
      enhanced neuronal differentiation. Additionally, endothelial factors, especially
      from static conditions, promoted adherent growth. Together, our data suggest that
      blood flow may impact proliferation, adhesion, and the neuron-glial fate choice
      of adult NPCs, with implications for diseases and aging that reduce flow.

PMID- 28557673
TI  - College student grief, grief differences, family communication, and family
      satisfaction.
AB  - Although family grief communication has received solid research attention, few
      studies have examined how communication about grief differences among family
      members may relate to college students' grief experiences and family
      satisfaction. Online survey data were collected from emerging adults attending
      college (n = 335) at a large Midwestern university and analyzed using
      hierarchical multiple regressions. Findings indicated that family communication
      about grief differences was positively associated with family satisfaction but
      was not related to individual grief reactions. This study contributes to the
      understanding of family grief communication among college students and offers
      implications for student affairs personnel working with grieving college
      students.

PMID- 28557672
TI  - The Road to Language Learning Is Not Entirely Iconic: Iconicity, Neighborhood
      Density, and Frequency Facilitate Acquisition of Sign Language.
AB  - Iconic mappings between words and their meanings are far more prevalent than once
      estimated and seem to support children's acquisition of new words, spoken or
      signed. We asked whether iconicity's prevalence in sign language overshadows two
      other factors known to support the acquisition of spoken vocabulary: neighborhood
      density (the number of lexical items phonologically similar to the target) and
      lexical frequency. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, we reanalyzed 58
      parental reports of native-signing deaf children's productive acquisition of 332
      signs in American Sign Language (ASL; Anderson & Reilly, 2002) and found that
      iconicity, neighborhood density, and lexical frequency independently facilitated
      vocabulary acquisition. Despite differences in iconicity and phonological
      structure between signed and spoken language, signing children, like children
      learning a spoken language, track statistical information about lexical items and
      their phonological properties and leverage this information to expand their
      vocabulary.

PMID- 28557675
TI  - Guest Editorial.

PMID- 28557674
TI  - Self-Hypnosis Classes to Enhance the Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients.
AB  - The Healing Skills Project, consisting of five, four-session self-hypnosis
      classes, was a pilot-study to evaluate the impact of self-hypnosis on the quality
      of life for breast cancer patients. The impact of self-hypnosis in women with
      breast cancer was measured using a self-report instrument, the Functional
      Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast, pre- and post-intervention (Brady, et al.,
      1997; Maratia, Cedillo, & Rejas, 2016). After employing the self-hypnosis
      interventions, statistically significant changes were noted on 16 of the 36
      items, despite the small sample size (N = 23). In summary, participants reported
      significantly less trouble meeting the needs of their family; less side effects;
      felt less ill, sad, and nervous; had less worry about dying and their condition
      getting worse; less shortness of breath; less swelling or tenderness in their
      arms; and less worry about the effects of stress on their illness. Participants
      also reported being significantly more able to enjoy life and sleep well; enjoy
      the usual things they do for fun; more content with their quality of life;
      feeling more attractive and more like a woman. Additionally, on a brief
      evaluation of the intervention form 86% of the participants indicated that the
      self-hypnosis classes were very useful and 100% indicated that it contributed to
      a noticeably improved quality of life. The pilot study offers support for the
      value of teaching self-hypnosis to breast cancer patients. This article includes
      an outline of the protocol for the four-session self-hypnosis classes.

PMID- 28557676
TI  - Hypnosis Attitudes: Treatment Effects and Associations With Symptoms in
      Individuals With Cancer.
AB  - Attitudes about hypnosis are associated with hypnotic responsiveness. However,
      little is known about how hypnosis attitudes change with treatment and if those
      changes are associated with better outcomes. This study examined whether an
      intervention based on the Valencia Model of Waking Hypnosis combined with
      Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy changed attitudes about hypnosis in a sample of
      patients with a history of cancer. The results indicated that the intervention
      improved attitudes toward hypnosis, relative to a control intervention, and the
      improvements remained stable at 3-month follow-up. Analyses also showed that
      changes in some attitudes were associated with treatment-related improvements.
      The findings are consistent with the idea that attitudes about hypnosis play a
      role in hypnosis treatment outcome, supporting the importance of addressing such
      beliefs at the onset of and throughout treatment.

PMID- 28557677
TI  - Staying the Course: Using Hypnosis to Help Cancer Patients Navigate Their
      Illness.
AB  - Although sometimes maligned and often misunderstood, clinical hypnosis can be
      utilized as a powerful adjunct for the treatment of mind-body conditions,
      including cancer. Unlike customary medical regimens that treat diseases of the
      body and psychotherapies that address disorders of the psyche, hypnosis is a
      uniquely customizable multi-tool that can augment the treatment of both physical
      and emotional disorders as well as their complex interactions. This article
      presents a longitudinal, phase-oriented, clinical model that uses hypnosis in a
      series of sequential interventions that incorporate targeted suggestions to
      address the unfolding phases of the cancer continuum. Five such phases of the
      cancer patient's trajectory, along with their associated medical and
      psychological challenges, are conceptualized. Each phase is illustrated by case
      examples from the author's clinical practice and by a discussion of relevant
      hypnotic approaches. On the somatic level, the intrinsic capacities of hypnotic
      phenomena, paired with suggestions, can be harnessed to effect perceptual and
      functional changes to offer symptom relief, re-establishment of systemic
      homeostasis, amelioration of cellular chemistry, and the acceleration of tissue
      healing. In the psychological realm, hypnotic strategies can be used to provide a
      much needed continuity of emotional support, a sense of mastery and self-agency,
      emotional regulation, and behavioral change.

PMID- 28557679
TI  - Review of the International Literature.

PMID- 28557678
TI  - Cancer Palliation: Layered Hypnotic Approaches Mending Symptoms, Minding Hope,
      and Meaning.
AB  - Advanced cancer often produces significant symptoms such as pain, anxiety,
      insomnia, nausea, and cachexia; many symptoms require medication adjustments in
      dose and route of administration, and most patients have significant symptom
      burdens near the end of life. Treatment strategies that integrate mind-body
      approaches, such as hypnosis, to improve symptoms are increasingly being studied
      and utilized. The current article addresses the role for adjunctive hypnotic
      approaches to relieve suffering from pain and other symptoms, while fostering
      hope, even in the midst of advancing illness, similar to Snyder's (2002)
      metaphorical painting of "a personal rainbow of the mind" (p. 269). We describe
      specific clinical indications, technical modifications, and imagistic language
      used in formulating hypnotic suggestions in the face of illness progression.
      Furthermore, we specifically describe formulation of layered hypnotic suggestions
      with intent to intentionally weave suggestions to modify symptoms and link to
      suggestions to enhance hope and alter time perception. This approach offers the
      opportunity to transform an experience often defined by its losses to one in
      which hidden opportunities for growth and change emerge within this transitional
      life experience.

PMID- 28557680
TI  - Psychological Effects of Group Hypnotherapy on Breast Cancer Patients During
      Chemotherapy.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of group hypnotherapy on
      anxiety, depression, stress, self-esteem, optimism, and social support during
      chemotherapy, in patients with breast cancer, compared with a control group with
      standard medical care. Hypnotherapy consisted of 24 sessions that included
      suggestions to encourage relaxation, self-esteem, the resolution of past
      traumatic events, physical healing, and optimism. Results show that the
      hypnotherapy group significantly decreased anxiety, distress, increased self
      esteem, and optimism in the first 12 sessions. However, at the end of the 24
      sessions, only self-esteem and optimism remained significant compared with the
      control group. The convenience of using hypnotherapy to encourage optimism and
      self-esteem in patients with breast cancer during chemotherapy treatment is
      discussed given its protective effect on health.

PMID- 28557681
TI  - Hypnosis in Cancer Care.
AB  - Cancer affects a growing proportion of the population as survival improves. The
      illness and its treatment brings a substantial burden of symptoms, including
      pain, anxiety, insomnia, and grief. Here, the uses of hypnosis in the treatment
      of these cancer-related problems will be reviewed. The utility of measuring
      hypnotizability in the clinical setting will be discussed. The current
      neurobiology of hypnotizability and hypnosis will be reviewed. Methods and
      results of using hypnosis for pain control in acute and chronic settings will be
      presented. Effects of hypnotic analgesia in specific brain regions associated
      with pain reduction, notably the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the
      somatosensory cortex, underlies its utility as a potent and side-effect free
      analgesic. Methods for helping those with cancer to better manage their anxiety,
      insomnia, and grief will be described. These involve facing disease-related
      stressors while dissociating the experience from somatic arousal. Given the
      serious complications of medications widely used to treat pain, anxiety, and
      insomnia, this article provides methods and an evidence base for wider use of
      techniques involving hypnosis in cancer care. Altering patients' perception of
      pain, disease-related stress, and anxiety can help change the reality of their
      life with cancer.

PMID- 28557682
TI  - An infant presenting with failure to thrive and hyperkalaemia owing to transient
      pseudohypoaldosteronism: case report.
AB  - A 3-month-old boy presented with failure to thrive and a history of a prenatally
      detected unilateral hydroureteronephrosis which was confirmed after birth. His
      growth and developmental milestones had been normal during the first 2 months but
      in the third month his appetite was poor with reduced intake but no vomiting. At
      presentation, his temperature was normal, there was mild dehydration and there
      was weight loss (his weight had decreased by 270 g in the past month).
      Haemoglobin was 11.9 g/dL, total white cell count 20.2 * 109/L (7-15)
      [neutrophils 30% (39-75) and lymphocytes 61% (16-47)], platelets 702 * 109/L (150
      450), BUN12.1 mmol/L (2.1-16.1), serum creatinine 35.4 MUmol/L (15.0-37.1),
      sodium 126 mmol/L (135-144), potassium 6.8 mmol/L (3.6-4.8), chloride 88 mmol/L
      (98-106) and bicarbonate 14 mmol/L (19-24). Intravenous rehydration with sodium
      chloride 0.9% solution was commenced and he was transferred to the paediatric
      intensive care unit. A salt-wasting syndrome was suspected and a differential
      diagnosis included adrenal insufficiency, pseudohypoaldosteronism and congenital
      adrenal hyperplasia (owing to 21-hydroxylase deficiency). Urinalysis confirmed a
      urinary tract infection. Serum aldosterone was 3608 ng/dL (3.7-43.2), plasma
      renin activity > 38.9 pmol/L (<0.85), random cortisol 459 nmol/L (74-289),
      adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) 6.01 pmol/L (1.32-6.60) and 17
      hydroxyprogesterone 4.01 nmol/L (<3.2). Treatment of the urinary tract infection
      was followed by normalisation of serum electrolytes and other biochemical
      abnormalities, return of appetite and normal growth, which confirmed the
      diagnosis of transient pseudohypoaldosteronsim (TPHA). TPHA is discussed and
      insight provided to enable early recognition and adequate treatment of this rare
      clinical entity.

PMID- 28557683
TI  - Is There a Dose-Response Relationship between Tea Consumption and All-Cause, CVD,
      and Cancer Mortality?
AB  - BACKGROUND: A small change in tea consumption at population level could have
      large impact on public health. However, the health benefits of tea intake among
      Americans are inconclusive. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between tea
      consumption and all-causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in
      the Aerobics Center Longitudinal study (ACLS). METHODS: 11808 participants (20-82
      years) initially free of CVD and cancers enrolled in the ACLS and were followed
      for mortality. Participants provided baseline self-report of tea consumption
      (cups/day). During a median follow-up of 16 years, 842 participants died. Of
      others, 250 died from CVD, and 345 died from cancer, respectively. A Cox
      proportional hazard model was used to produce hazard ratio (HR) and 95%
      confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Compared with participants consuming no tea,
      tea drinkers had a survival advantage ( Log-2 = 10.2, df = 3, P = 0.017);
      however, the multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause mortality for those
      drinking 1-7, 8-14, and >14 cups/week were 0.95 (95% CI, 0.81-1.12), 1.00 (95%
      CI, 0.82-1.22), and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.76-1.25), respectively (P for linear trend =
      0.83). The multivariate HR were 1.16 (95% CI, 0.86-1.56), 1.22 (95% CI, 0.85
      1.76), and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.56-1.54) for CVD mortality (P for linear trend =
      0.47), and 0.97 (95% CI, 0.75-1.25), 0.85 (95% CI, 0.60-1.16), and 0.94 (95% CI,
      0.64-1.38) for cancer mortality (P for trend = 0.62). CONCLUSIONS: There were
      week or null relationships between tea consumption and mortality due to all
      cause, CVD disease or cancer were observed in ACLS.

PMID- 28557685
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28557684
TI  - Summaries of the Micronutrient Symposium of the 2016 Meeting of the American
      College of Nutrition.

PMID- 28557686
TI  - What Health Care Professionals Should Know about the Regulation and Safety of
      Dietary Supplements.

PMID- 28557687
TI  - Relating Therapist Characteristics to Client Engagement and the Therapeutic
      Alliance in an Adolescent Custodial Group Substance Misuse Treatment Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Client engagement in substance misuse treatment programs is directly
      associated with positive treatment outcomes. The nature of these programs means
      there are often difficulties engaging and retaining clients, but authors have
      consistently found a strong therapeutic alliance is associated with client
      engagement. While research has focused on the association between the alliance
      and engagement, the factors that influence the therapeutic alliance have received
      less attention. OBJECTIVE: To examine therapists' characteristics, namely
      therapists' stress and empathy levels, as potential predictors of client
      engagement and the therapeutic alliance, within an adolescent substance misuse
      group treatment program. METHOD: The sample included 84 adolescent clients and 14
      therapists from a Secure Training Centre in England. Client engagement in the
      treatment program was observed, while self-reporting measures assessed the
      therapeutic alliance (client and therapist-rated), and therapists' stress and
      empathy levels. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis revealed that therapists'
      stress levels negatively influenced the therapeutic alliance and had a
      curvilinear relationship with client engagement, indicating that stress is not
      exclusively negatively related to engagement. Although stress was found to
      negatively impact both cognitive and affective empathy, neither cognitive nor
      affective empathy were significantly related to client engagement or the
      therapeutic alliance. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the importance of
      therapist characteristics on client engagement and the therapeutic alliance.
      Within practice stress can have a positive impact on clients' engagement.
      Nevertheless, therapists may need additional support to deal with stress
      effectively. Therapists' empathy may too be fundamental to client engagement, but
      only it if is perceived by clients.

PMID- 28557688
TI  - Learning Recruits Neurons Representing Previously Established Associations in the
      Corvid Endbrain.
AB  - Crows quickly learn arbitrary associations. As a neuronal correlate of this
      behavior, single neurons in the corvid endbrain area nidopallium caudolaterale
      (NCL) change their response properties during association learning. In crows
      performing a delayed association task that required them to map both familiar and
      novel sample pictures to the same two choice pictures, NCL neurons established a
      common, prospective code for associations. Here, we report that neuronal tuning
      changes during learning were not distributed equally in the recorded population
      of NCL neurons. Instead, such learning-related changes relied almost exclusively
      on neurons which were already encoding familiar associations. Only in such
      neurons did behavioral improvements during learning of novel associations
      coincide with increasing selectivity over the learning process. The size and
      direction of selectivity for familiar and newly learned associations were highly
      correlated. These increases in selectivity for novel associations occurred only
      late in the delay period. Moreover, NCL neurons discriminated correct from
      erroneous trial outcome based on feedback signals at the end of the trial,
      particularly in newly learned associations. Our results indicate that task
      relevant changes during association learning are not distributed within the
      population of corvid NCL neurons but rather are restricted to a specific group of
      association-selective neurons. Such association neurons in the multimodal
      cognitive integration area NCL likely play an important role during highly
      flexible behavior in corvids.

PMID- 28557689
TI  - Functional Mechanisms Encoding Others' Direction of Gaze in the Human Nervous
      System.
AB  - The direction of others' gaze is a strong social signal to their intentions and
      future behavior. Pioneering electrophysiological research identified cell
      populations in the primate visual cortex that are tuned to specific directions of
      observed gaze, but the functional architecture of this system is yet to be
      precisely specified. Here, we develop a computational model of how others' gaze
      direction is flexibly encoded across sensory channels within the gaze system. We
      incorporate the divisive normalization of sensory responses-a computational
      mechanism that is thought to be widespread in sensory systems but has not been
      examined in the context of social vision. We demonstrate that the operation of
      divisive normalization in the gaze system predicts a surprising and distinctive
      pattern of perceptual changes after sensory adaptation to gaze stimuli and find
      that these predictions closely match the psychophysical effects of adaptation in
      human observers. We also find that opponent coding, broadband multichannel, and
      narrowband multichannel models of sensory coding make distinct predictions
      regarding the effects of adaptation in a normalization framework and find
      evidence in favor of broadband multichannel coding of gaze. These results reveal
      the functional principles that govern the neural encoding of gaze direction and
      support the notion that divisive normalization is a canonical feature of nervous
      system function. Moreover, this research provides a strong foundation for testing
      recent computational theories of neuropsychiatric conditions in which gaze
      processing is compromised, such as autism and schizophrenia.

PMID- 28557690
TI  - Consistent Neural Activity Patterns Represent Personally Familiar People.
AB  - How does the brain encode and organize our understanding of the people we know?
      In this study, participants imagined personally familiar others in a variety of
      contexts while undergoing fMRI. Using multivoxel pattern analysis, we
      demonstrated that thinking about familiar others elicits consistent fine-grained
      patterns of neural activity. Person-specific patterns were distributed across
      many regions previously associated with social cognition, including medial
      prefrontal, medial parietal, and lateral temporoparietal cortices, as well as
      other regions including the anterior and mid-cingulate, insula, and precentral
      gyrus. Analogous context-specific patterns were observed in medial parietal and
      superior occipital regions. These results suggest that medial parietal cortex may
      play a particularly central role in simulating familiar others, as this is the
      only region to simultaneously represent both person and context information.
      Moreover, within portions of medial parietal cortex, the degree to which person
      specific patterns were typically instated on a given trial predicted subsequent
      judgments of accuracy and vividness in the mental simulation. This suggests that
      people may access neural representations in this region to form metacognitive
      judgments of confidence in their mental simulations. In addition to fine-grained
      patterns within brain regions, we also observed encoding of both familiar people
      and contexts in coarse-grained patterns spread across the independently defined
      social brain network. Finally, we found tentative evidence that several
      established theories of person perception might explain the relative similarity
      between person-specific patterns within the social brain network.

PMID- 28557691
TI  - Different Electrophysiological Correlates of Visual Awareness for Detection and
      Identification.
AB  - Detecting the presence of an object is a different process than identifying the
      object as a particular object. This difference has not been taken into account in
      designing experiments on the neural correlates of consciousness. We compared the
      electrophysiological correlates of conscious detection and identification
      directly by measuring ERPs while participants performed either a task only
      requiring the conscious detection of the stimulus or a higher-level task
      requiring its conscious identification. Behavioral results showed that, even if
      the stimulus was consciously detected, it was not necessarily identified. A
      posterior electrophysiological signature 200-300 msec after stimulus onset was
      sensitive for conscious detection but not for conscious identification, which
      correlated with a later widespread activity. Thus, we found behavioral and neural
      evidence for elementary visual experiences, which are not yet enriched with
      higher-level knowledge. The search for the mechanisms of consciousness should
      focus on the early elementary phenomenal experiences to avoid the confounding
      effects of higher-level processes.

PMID- 28557692
TI  - The Role of the Primary Sensory Cortices in Early Language Processing.
AB  - The results of this magnetoencephalography study challenge two long-standing
      assumptions regarding the brain mechanisms of language processing: First, that
      linguistic processing proper follows sensory feature processing effected by
      bilateral activation of the primary sensory cortices that lasts about 100 msec
      from stimulus onset. Second, that subsequent linguistic processing is effected by
      left hemisphere networks outside the primary sensory areas, including Broca's and
      Wernicke's association cortices. Here we present evidence that linguistic
      analysis begins almost synchronously with sensory, prelinguistic verbal input
      analysis and that the primary cortices are also engaged in these linguistic
      analyses and become, consequently, part of the left hemisphere language network
      during language tasks. These findings call for extensive revision of our
      conception of linguistic processing in the brain.

PMID- 28557693
TI  - Magnocellular Bias in Exogenous Attention to Biologically Salient Stimuli as
      Revealed by Manipulating Their Luminosity and Color.
AB  - Exogenous attention is a set of mechanisms that allow us to detect and reorient
      toward salient events-such as appetitive or aversive-that appear out of the
      current focus of attention. The nature of these mechanisms, particularly the
      involvement of the parvocellular and magnocellular visual processing systems, was
      explored. Thirty-four participants performed a demanding digit categorization
      task while salient (spiders or S) and neutral (wheels or W) stimuli were
      presented as distractors under two figure-ground formats:
      heterochromatic/isoluminant (exclusively processed by the parvocellular system,
      Par trials) and isochromatic/heteroluminant (preferentially processed by the
      magnocellular system, Mag trials). This resulted in four conditions: SPar, SMag,
      WPar, and WMag. Behavioral (RTs and error rates in the task) and
      electrophysiological (ERPs) indices of exogenous attention were analyzed.
      Behavior showed greater attentional capture by SMag than by SPar distractors and
      enhanced modulation of SMag capture as fear of spiders reported by participants
      increased. ERPs reflected a sequence from magnocellular dominant (P1p, ?120 msec)
      to both magnocellular and parvocellular processing (N2p and P2a, ?200 msec).
      Importantly, amplitudes in one N2p subcomponent were greater to SMag than to SPar
      and WMag distractors, indicating greater magnocellular sensitivity to saliency.
      Taking together, results support a magnocellular bias in exogenous attention
      toward distractors of any nature during initial processing, a bias that remains
      in later stages when biologically salient distractors are present.

PMID- 28557695
TI  - Evidence- and practice-informed approach to implementing peer grief support after
      suicide systematically in the USA.
AB  - The landmark report, Responding to Grief, Trauma, and Distress After a Suicide:
      U.S. National Guidelines, identifies the suicide bereaved as an underserved
      population and recommends systematic development of peer grief support to help
      meet the needs of survivors of suicide loss. A widespread array of peer grief
      support after suicide (PGSS) services exists nationally, but only as a
      decentralized network of autonomous programs. Some research indicates that peer
      support is generally helpful to the suicide bereaved, a finding that is
      reinforced by a large body of emerging research showing that peer support is
      effective in mental illness and substance abuse recovery. The practice, study,
      growth, and refinement of peer support in those fields have generated viable
      ideas about the elements and principles of effective peer support-for individual
      practitioners and for programs and organizations-that could be used to guide the
      systematic implementation of PGSS. In addition, a comprehensive PGSS program
      (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) that currently serves a large
      population-survivors of suicide in the military-could be a model for national
      PGSS systems development. Finally, there are several frameworks for systems
      development-zero suicide, consumer-operated services, recovery-oriented systems
      of care, and the consumer action research model-that could guide the expansion
      and increased effectiveness of PGSS in keeping with the Guidelines'
      recommendation.

PMID- 28557694
TI  - Targeted Temperature Management Effectiveness in the Elderly: Insights from a
      Large Registry.
AB  - Targeted temperature management (TTM) is recommended for all comatose adult out
      of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients with shockable first documented
      rhythm. However, studies examining the use and benefits of TTM among patients
      aged 75 and older are lacking. Using the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance
      Survival (CARES) dataset registry from 2013 to 2015. Study criteria included
      being 75 years of age or older, survival to hospital admission, and known in
      hospital mortality and CPC (Cerebral Performance Categories Scale) Scores. The
      study outcomes were in-hospital mortality and poor neurologic outcomes (CPC
      Scores 3 or 4) at hospital discharge among survivors. Hierarchical logistic
      regression and propensity score matching were used for multivariable adjustment.
      Two thousand nine hundred eighty-two patients met study inclusion criteria. One
      thousand three hundred fifty-seven (45.5%) received TTM in the admitting
      hospital. Receipt of TTM was more likely among men, those with a shockable first
      documented rhythm, and those with their event witnessed. There was no significant
      association with TTM and in-hospital mortality among patients with ventricular
      fibrillation (odds ratio [OR] = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.62-1.25]),
      p = 0.487 within the cohort. However, patients with a nonshockable first rhythm
      receiving TTM had higher odds of in-hospital mortality (p < 0.001). Propensity
      score results showed a modest association with TTM and increased mortality (OR) =
      1.22, 95% CI [1.01-1.47]; p = 0.036 and no association with poor neurologic
      outcome (OR = 1.18; 95% CI [0.82-1.69]; p = 0.379) in the elderly. TTM is often
      provided to OHCA patients over age 75 though the benefits, particularly among
      nonshockable first documented rhythm patients are unclear. A randomized trial is
      needed to definitively answer who among OHCA event survivors aged 75 and older
      should receive this treatment.

PMID- 28557696
TI  - Comparative Cytogenetics of the Black Ghost Knifefish (Gymnotiformes:
      Apteronotidae): Evidence of Chromosomal Fusion and Pericentric Inversions in
      Karyotypes of Two Apteronotus Species.
AB  - The karyotype and chromosomal characteristics of Apteronotus albifrons and
      Apteronotus caudimaculosus collected from populations of two different large
      Brazilian river basins were analyzed by conventional and molecular cytogenetic
      techniques, to contribute to the differentiation and identification of the
      species in this genus. The diploid chromosome number was 2n = 24 for A.
      albifrons, but with difference in the karyotype structure and fundamental number
      values between two populations under study. In A. caudimaculosus, the diploid
      chromosome number was 2n = 26, which was classified as 22 metacentric (m), 2
      submetacentric (sm), and 2 acrocentric (a) chromosomes. Heterochromatins were
      preferentially located in pericentromeric regions for both species. However,
      there are more C-banded chromosomes in A. caudimaculosus than A. albifrons. The
      sites of 18S DNA as revealed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in the
      karyotypes of both species corresponded to sites revealed by Ag impregnation,
      although some additional 18S rDNA sites were observed in the genome of A.
      caudimaculosus. FISH with 5S rDNA-probe revealed interstitial sites on the m pair
      No. 1 for individuals of both A. albifrons populations, and in pericentromeric
      regions on the long arm of pair Nos. 5 and 9 in those of A. caudimaculosus. The
      karyotypes of A. albifrons and A. caudimaculosus indicated a reduction of 2n
      resulting from chromosomal fusion, as could be hypothesized from the presence of
      an interstitial telomere sequence in two chromosome pairs in karyotype of A.
      caudimaculosus. Thus, the present study demonstrated species-specific cytogenetic
      markers of otherwise morphologically very similar species A. albifrons and A.
      caudimaculosus.

PMID- 28557697
TI  - Bufotenine.

PMID- 28557698
TI  - The Herbal Connection: Herbs, Drug Abuse & Holistic Health.

PMID- 28557699
TI  - Peyote: The Divine Cactus.

PMID- 28557700
TI  - Marijuana Botany. An Advanced Study: The Propagation and Breeding of Distinctive
      Cannabis.

PMID- 28557701
TI  - Drugs, Alcohol and Sex.

PMID- 28557702
TI  - Cannabis in Costa Rica. A Study of Chronic Marijuana Use.

PMID- 28557703
TI  - Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years.

PMID- 28557704
TI  - Putative Effects of Sex Hormones on Urinary Tract Infection.
AB  - Urinary tract infections affect mostly females. The infection and possible
      consequent ascent of bacteria is enhanced by various risk factors. Sex hormones
      regulate gene transcription implicated in immune cell development and maturation,
      in regulation of immune responses and immune signalling pathways. Limited
      knowledge is available; however, recent findings underline the importance of
      understanding the interactions between sex hormones and urinary tract infection
      to diminish the occurrence of complications related to this infection. This
      review summarizes and discusses the current knowledge on the correlation and
      impact of sex hormones on urinary tract infections.

PMID- 28557705
TI  - Moringa olifeira Lam. Stimulates Activation of the Insulin-Dependent Akt Pathway.
      Antidiabetic Effect in a Diet-Induced Obesity (DIO) Mouse Model.
AB  - We investigated the antidiabetic effect of Moringa olifeira Lam. in a diet
      induced obesity (DIO) mouse model. Six mice were randomly selected as normal
      controls. Moringa olifeira Lam. leaf extract at a dose of 200, 400 or 600 mg/kg
      body weight, glibenclamide (Glib) at the dose of 10 mg/kg (positive control) and
      distilled water at 10 ml/kg (control group) were administered orally by gastric
      intubation, and each group consisted of six mice. Insulinsensitive tissues
      (liver, skeletal muscle) were collected to investigate antidiabetic effects and
      examine the plant's molecular mechanisms. Moringa olifeira Lam. leaf extract
      prevented weight gain. It also reduced blood glucose in DIO mice. Glib and
      Moringa olifeira Lam. leaf extract, 400 mg/kg, treatments restored insulin levels
      towards normal values (P < 0.05 versus diabetic control group). Western
      immunoblot analysis of different tissues, collected at the end of the study,
      demonstrated that Moringa olifeira Lam. stimulated activation of the insulin
      dependent Akt pathway and increased the protein content of Glut 4 in skeletal
      muscle. The improvement of hepatic steatosis observed in DIO-treated mice was
      associated with a decrease in the hepatic content of SREBP-1, a transcription
      factor involved in de novo lipogenesis. The hepatic PPARalpha protein content in
      the plant extract- treated mice remained significantly higher than those of the
      control group (P < 0.05). In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence
      for direct action of Moringa olifeira Lam. on pancreatic beta-cells, enhancing
      glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. This correlated with hypoglycaemic effects
      in diabetic mice associated with restored levels of plasma insulin.

PMID- 28557706
TI  - Downregulation of p68 RNA Helicase (DDX5) Activates a Survival Pathway Involving
      mTOR and MDM2 Signals.
AB  - The DEAD box p68 RNA helicase (DDX5) is required to manipulate RNA structures
      implicated in mRNA/rRNA processing and transcript export, and acts as a co
      activator for a range of transcription factors. Previous research has indicated
      that p68 RNA helicase may also be important in tumour development. Wild-type HeLa
      and stable HeLa (clone 13) cell cultures containing RNAi-mediated depletion of
      p68 RNA helicase induced by doxycycline (DOX) were used to study how the p68 RNA
      helicase affects the mTOR cell signalling pathway. Relevant results were repeated
      using transient transfection with pSuper/pSuper-p68 RNA helicase, containing RNAi
      mediated depletion of p68 RNA helicase, to avoid DOX interference. Here we
      provide strong evidence for the participation of p68 RNA helicase in mTOR
      regulation. In detail, depletion of this helicase decreases cell growth and
      activates the mTOR/MDM2 cell survival mechanism, which ultimately leads to
      inhibition of the pro-apoptotic activity. p68 RNA helicase downregulation
      strongly stimulates 4E-BP1 phosphorylation, thereby provoking activation of cap
      dependent translation. In contrast, the IRES-dependent translation of c-myc is
      reduced when p68 RNA helicase is depleted, thus indicating that at least this
      specific translation requires p68 RNA helicase activity to manipulate the complex
      5' end of this mRNA. Interestingly, p68 RNA helicase depletion decreases cell
      growth while activating the mTOR/MDM2 cell survival mechanism. As MDM2 is a known
      negative regulator of p53, we infer that the activation of the cell survival
      mechanism may result in inhibition of the pro-apoptotic factor p53. Finally, p68
      RNA helicase depletion activates capdependent translation and inhibits c-MYC IRES
      mediated translation.

PMID- 28557707
TI  - Novel Mutation (T273R) in Thyroid Hormone Receptor beta Gene Provides Further
      Insight into Cryptic Negative Regulation by Thyroid Hormone.
AB  - Production of thyroid hormone is precisely regulated in a negative feed-back
      mechanism that depends critically on thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRbeta). This
      mechanism decreases production of thyrotropin- releasing hormone (TRH) and
      thyrotropin (TSH) in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in response to high
      levels of circulating thyroid hormones (TH). Despite the wealth of accumulated
      knowledge, it is still not clear how exactly this negative regulation is
      executed. The syndrome of resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH), in which the
      levels of TH are not properly sensed, represents naturally occurring situations
      in which molecular components of this regulation are displayed and may be
      uncovered. TRbeta, which is central to this regulation, is in the majority of RTH
      cases mutated in a way that preserves some functions of the receptor.
      Approximately 150 different mutations in TRbeta have been identified to date.
      Here, we hypothesized that additional pathogenic mutations in TRbeta are likely
      to exist in human population and analysed clinical cases with suspected RTH. In
      keeping with our prediction, analysis of 17 patients from nine families led to
      identification of four presumed pathogenic mutations of TRbeta, including a
      previously unknown mutation, T273R. This suggests that threonine 273 is likely to
      be critical for the normal function of TRbeta, possibly due to its role in helix
      12 mobility and interaction with coactivators, and thus supports the concept that
      TRbeta-dependent trans-activating function is necessary for the inhibition of TRH
      and TSH expression in response to elevated levels of TH.

PMID- 28557708
TI  - Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat Chromosome 2 with Mutant Connexin 50 Triggers
      Divergent Effects on Metabolic Syndrome Components.
AB  - Metabolic syndrome is a frequent condition with multifactorial aetiology.
      Previous studies indicated the presence of genetic determinants of metabolic
      syndrome components on rat chromosome 2 (RNO2) and syntenic regions of the human
      genome. Our aim was to further explore these findings using novel rat models. We
      derived the BN-Dca and BN-Lx.Dca congenic strains by introgression of a limited
      RNO2 region from a spontaneously hypertensive rat strain carrying a mutation in
      the Gja8 gene (SHR-Dca, dominant cataract) into the genomic background of Brown
      Norway strain and congenic strain BN-Lx, respectively. We compared morphometric,
      metabolic and cytokine profiles of adult male BN-Lx, BN-Dca and BN-Lx.Dca rats.
      We performed in silico comparison of the DNA sequences throughout RNO2
      differential segments captured in the new congenic strains. Both BN-Dca and BN
      Lx.Dca showed lower total triacylglycerols and cholesterol concentrations
      compared to BN-Lx. Fasting insulin in BN-Dca was higher than in BN-Lx.Dca and BN
      Lx. Concentrations of several proinflammatory cytokines were elevated in the BN
      Dca strain, including IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IFN-gamma and MCP-1. In silico
      analyses revealed over 740 DNA variants between BN-Lx and SHR genomes within the
      differential segment of the congenic strains. We derived new congenic models that
      prove that a limited genomic region of SHR-Dca RNO2 significantly affects lipid
      levels and insulin sensitivity in a divergent fashion.

PMID- 28557709
TI  - Influence of Cytochrome P450, ABC and SLC Gene Polymorphisms on Imatinib Therapy
      Outcome of Patients with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours (GIST).
AB  - The efficacy of imatinib-based therapy depends on the proteins involved in its
      metabolism and transportation. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate
      the possible correlation of selected P450, ABC and SLC polymorphic variants and
      the outcome of imatinib therapy. A total of 101 patients with advanced,
      KIT/PDGFRA(+) GIST treated with imatinib were enrolled to the study. DNA was
      extracted from peripheral blood samples and genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP
      and direct sequencing. Deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was only
      observed for rs2740574. None of the studied SNPs was associated with GIST time to
      progression. No significant correlation between any specific variant and time to
      progression was found in the group with KIT exon 11 mutation. However,
      individuals of at least three potentially unfavourable genotypes presented
      significantly shorter time to progression in comparison to patients with two or
      less unfavourable genotypes.

PMID- 28557710
TI  - A Case-Control Study of Maternal Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether (PBDE) Exposure
      and Cryptorchidism in Canadian Populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame retardants found in
      North American household products during the past four decades. These chemicals
      leach out in dust as products age, exposing individuals daily through inhalation
      and ingestion. Animal studies suggest that PBDEs disrupt sex hormones and
      adversely affect development of the reproductive system. OBJECTIVES: In the
      present study, we examined whether there is a link between maternal hair PBDE
      concentrations and the risk of cryptorchidism (undescended testes) in male
      infants; testis descent is known to be dependent on androgens. METHODS: Full-term
      male infants were recruited through clinics in Montreal, Toronto, and London,
      Canada. Boys with cryptorchidism at 3-18 months of age (n=137) were identified by
      pediatric urologists and surgeons; similar-aged controls (n=158) had no
      genitourinary abnormalities as assessed by pediatricians. Eight BDE congeners
      (BDE-28, -47, -99, -100, -153, -154, -183, -209) were measured by GC-MS (gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry) in maternal hair samples collected at the time
      of recruitment. RESULTS: The ?PBDE geometric mean for maternal hair was 45.35
      pg/mg for controls and 50.27 pg/mg for cases; the concentrations of three BDEs
      (BDE-99, -100, and -154) were significantly higher in cases than controls in
      unadjusted models. In adjusted models, every 10-fold increase in the
      concentration of maternal hair BDE-99 [OR=2.53 (95% CI: 1.29, 4.95) or BDE-100 
      [OR=2.45 (95% CI: 1.31, 4.56)] was associated with more than a doubling in the
      risk of cryptorchidism. BDE-154 [OR=1.88 (95% CI: 1.08, 3.28) was also
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that maternal exposure to BDE-99, 
      100, and -154 may be associated with abnormal migration of testes in the male
      fetus. This may be due to the anti-androgenic properties of the PBDEs.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP522.

PMID- 28557711
TI  - Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticide Use and IQ in 7-Year-Old
      Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Residential proximity to agricultural pesticide use has been
      associated with neural tube defects and autism, but more subtle outcomes such as
      cognition have not been studied. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the relationship
      between prenatal residential proximity to agricultural use of potentially
      neurotoxic pesticides and neurodevelopment in 7-year-old children. METHODS:
      Participants included mothers and children (n=283) living in the agricultural
      Salinas Valley of California enrolled in the Center for the Health Assessment of
      Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) study. We estimated agricultural
      pesticide use within 1 km of maternal residences during pregnancy using a
      geographic information system, residential location, and California's
      comprehensive agricultural Pesticide Use Report data. We used regression models
      to evaluate prenatal residential proximity to agricultural use of five
      potentially neurotoxic pesticide groups (organophosphates, carbamates,
      pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, and manganese fungicides) and five individual
      organophosphates (acephate, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, malathion, and oxydemeton
      methyl) and cognition in 7-year-old children. All models included prenatal
      urinary dialkyl phosphate metabolite concentrations. RESULTS: We observed a
      decrease of 2.2 points [95% confidence interval (CI): -3.9, -0.5] in Full-Scale
      IQ and 2.9 points (95% CI: -4.4, -1.3) in Verbal Comprehension for each standard
      deviation increase in toxicity-weighted use of organophosphate pesticides. In
      separate models, we observed similar decrements in Full-Scale IQ with each
      standard deviation increase of use for two organophosphates (acephate and
      oxydemeton-methyl) and three neurotoxic pesticide groups (pyrethroids,
      neonicotinoids, and manganese fungicides). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified
      potential relationships between maternal residential proximity to agricultural
      use of neurotoxic pesticides and poorer neurodevelopment in children.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP504.

PMID- 28557712
TI  - An Integrated Chemical Environment to Support 21st-Century Toxicology.
AB  - SUMMARY: Access to high-quality reference data is essential for the development,
      validation, and implementation of in vitro and in silico approaches that reduce
      and replace the use of animals in toxicity testing. Currently, these data must
      often be pooled from a variety of disparate sources to efficiently link a set of
      assay responses and model predictions to an outcome or hazard classification. To
      provide a central access point for these purposes, the National Toxicology
      Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological
      Methods developed the Integrated Chemical Environment (ICE) web resource. The ICE
      data integrator allows users to retrieve and combine data sets and to develop
      hypotheses through data exploration. Open-source computational workflows and
      models will be available for download and application to local data. ICE
      currently includes curated in vivo test data, reference chemical information, in
      vitro assay data (including Tox21TM/ToxCastTM high-throughput screening data),
      and in silico model predictions. Users can query these data collections focusing
      on end points of interest such as acute systemic toxicity, endocrine disruption,
      skin sensitization, and many others. ICE is publicly accessible at
      https://ice.ntp.niehs.nih.gov. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1759.

PMID- 28557713
TI  - Effects of Prenatal PM10 Exposure on Fetal Cardiovascular Malformations in
      Fuzhou, China: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with
      an increased risk of congenital heart defects in offspring; however, the results
      are inconsistent. OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether there is an association
      between prenatal exposure to particulate matter with diameter <=10MUm (PM10)
      during early pregnancy and fetal cardiovascular malformations. METHODS: The
      gravidae from a hospital-based case-control study in Fuzhou, China, during 2007
      2013 were assigned 10-d or 1-mo averages of daily PM10 using an air monitor-based
      inverse distance weighting method during early pregnancy. A total of 662 live
      birth or selectively terminated cases and 3,972 live-birth controls were
      enrolled. The exposure was considered as a categorical variable. A multivariable
      logistic regression model was constructed to quantify the adjusted odds ratios
      (aORs) of the exposure to PM10 and the risks of fetal cardiovascular
      malformations. RESULTS: PM10 levels were positively associated with the risks of
      atrial septal defect (aORs ranging from 1.29 to 2.17), patent ductus arteriosus
      [aORs = 1.54, 1.63; 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 1.17, 2.23; 1.06, 3.24],
      overall fetal cardiovascular malformations (aOR = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.61),
      ventricular septal defect (aOR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.43), and tetralogy of
      Fallot (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.19) in the various observed periods scaled by
      10 d or 1 mo in the first and second gestation months. The strongest associations
      were observed for exposure to PM10 in the second quartile, whereas the
      associations were attenuated when higher concentrations of PM10 in the third and
      fourth quartiles of the exposure were evaluated. No correlations of PM10 levels
      with these cardiovascular malformations in the other time periods of gestation
      were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest some positive associations
      between maternal exposure to ambient PM10 during the first two months of
      pregnancy and fetal cardiovascular malformations. 
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP289.

PMID- 28557714
TI  - Innovative Use of the Electronic Health Record to Support Harm Reduction Efforts.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Awareness of the impact of preventable harm on
      patients and families has resulted in extensive efforts to make our health care
      systems safer. We determined that, in our hospital, patients experienced 1 of 9
      types of preventable harm approximately every other day. In an effort to expedite
      early identification of patients at risk and provide timely intervention, we used
      the electronic health record's (EHR) documentation to enable decision support,
      data capture, and auditing and implemented reporting tools to reduce rates of
      harm. METHODS: Harm reduction strategies included aggregating data to generate a
      risk profile for hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) for all inpatients. The
      profile includes links to prevention bundles and available care guidelines.
      Additionally, lists of patients at risk for HACs autopopulate electronic audit
      tools contained within Research Electronic Data Capture, and data from
      observational audits and EHR documentation populate real-time dashboards of
      bundle compliance. Patient population summary reports promote the discussion of
      relevant HAC prevention measures during patient care and unit leadership rounds.
      RESULTS: The hospital has sustained a >30% reduction in harm for 9 types of HAC
      since 2012. In 2014, the number of HACs with >80% bundle adherence doubled
      coincident with the progressive rollout of these EHR-based interventions.
      CONCLUSIONS: Existing EHR documentation and reporting tools may be effective
      adjuncts to harm reduction initiatives. Additional study should include an
      evaluation of scalability across organizations, ongoing bundle adherence, and
      individual tests of change to isolate interventions with the highest impact on
      our results.

PMID- 28557715
TI  - Amyloidosis Cutis Dyschromica, a Rare Cause of Hyperpigmentation: A New Case and
      Literature Review.
AB  - Amyloidosis cutis dyschromica is a rare form of primary cutaneous amyloidosis
      without systemic involvement and characterized by asymptomatic, progressive hyper
      and hypopigmentation. We present the first case of a patient with amyloidosis
      cutis dyschromica diagnosed previously elsewhere as having Addison disease with
      generalized hyperpigmentation of the skin. This case suggests that in patients
      presenting with asymptomatic cutaneous dyschromia a skin biopsy for
      histopathological examination should be considered.

PMID- 28557716
TI  - Unusual Fungal Lesion Presenting as a Neoplastic Pediatric Tongue Mass.
AB  - Tongue lesions in the pediatric population are rare. The differential diagnosis
      of these lesions is broad, and rapid growth of the lesion is concerning for a
      neoplastic process. We present a rare case of a fungal lesion mimicking a
      neoplastic growth in a 22-month-old girl. She underwent complete excision
      successfully. Full evaluation for benign and malignant neoplasms was negative.
      Tissue culture demonstrated growth of a rare Candida species to be the cause of
      the lesion. Postoperatively, she continues to do well, without regrowth 6 months
      later. This case reinforces the role of tissue culture when histology fails to
      demonstrate a diagnosis and emphasizes the need for efficient communication
      between the pediatrician, otolaryngologist, and pathologist for timely excision.

PMID- 28557717
TI  - Race and Obesity in Adolescent Hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The overall prevalence of essential hypertension in
      adolescents may be growing. Differences in blood pressure (BP) are well
      established in adults, but are less clear in adolescents. We hypothesize that the
      prevalence of hypertension differs by race/ethnicity among adolescents at school
      based screenings. METHODS: We performed school-based BP screening in over 20 000
      adolescents from 2000 to 2015. Race/ethnicity was self-reported. Height and
      weight were measured to determine BMI, and BP status was confirmed on 3 occasions
      to diagnose sustained hypertension according to Fourth Working Group Report
      criteria. RESULTS: We successfully screened 21 062 adolescents aged 10 to 19
      years (mean, 13.8 years). The final prevalence of sustained hypertension in all
      subjects was 2.7%. Obesity rates were highest among African American (3.1%) and
      Hispanic (2.7%) adolescents. The highest rate of hypertension was seen in
      Hispanic (3.1%), followed by African American (2.7%), white (2.6%), and Asian
      (1.7%) adolescents (P = .019). However, obese white adolescents had the highest
      prevalence of sustained hypertension (7.4%) compared with obese African American
      adolescents (4.5%, P < .001). At lower BMI percentiles (<60th percentile),
      Hispanic adolescents actually had the lowest predicted prevalence of hypertension
      among the 4 groups. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of hypertension varies among
      different race/ethnicities. Although obesity remains the strongest predictor of
      early hypertension, the strength of this relationship is intensified in Hispanic
      and white adolescents, whereas it is lessened in African American adolescents.

PMID- 28557718
TI  - Combination Clearance Therapy and Barbiturate Coma for Severe Carbamazepine
      Overdose.
AB  - A 15-year-old female subject presented comatose, in respiratory failure and
      shock, after the intentional ingestion of ~280 extended-release 200-mg
      carbamazepine tablets with a peak serum concentration of 138 ug/mL (583.74
      umol/L). The patient developed clinical seizures and an EEG pattern of stimulus
      induced rhythmic, periodic, or ictal discharges, suggestive of significant
      cortical dysfunction. Due to the extremely high drug serum concentration and
      clinical instability, a combination of therapies was used, including lipid
      emulsion therapy, plasmapheresis, hemodialysis, continuous venovenous
      hemodiafiltration, and endoscopic intestinal decontamination. The patient's
      elevated serum lactate level with a high mixed venous saturation suggested
      possible mitochondrial dysfunction, prompting treatment with barbiturate coma to
      reduce cerebral metabolic demand. The serum carbamazepine concentration declined
      steadily, with resolution of lactic acidosis, no long-term end-organ damage, and
      return to baseline neurologic function. The patient was eventually discharged in
      her usual state of health. In the laboratory, we demonstrated in vitro that the
      active metabolite of carbamazepine hyperpolarized the mitochondrial membrane
      potential, supporting the hypothesis that the drug caused mitochondrial
      dysfunction. We thus successfully treated a life-threatening carbamazepine
      overdose with a combination of modalities. Future studies are required to
      validate this aggressive approach. The occurrence of mitochondrial dysfunction
      must be confirmed in patients with carbamazepine toxicity and the need to treat
      it validated.

PMID- 28557719
TI  - Community Poverty and Child Abuse Fatalities in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Child maltreatment remains a problem in the United
      States, and individual poverty is a recognized risk factor for abuse. Children in
      impoverished communities are at risk for negative health outcomes, but the
      relationship of community poverty to child abuse fatalities is not known. Our
      objective was to evaluate the association between county poverty concentration
      and rates of fatal child abuse. METHODS: This was a retrospective, cross
      sectional analysis of child abuse fatalities in US children 0 to 4 years of age
      from 1999 to 2014 by using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
      Compressed Mortality Files. Population and poverty statistics were obtained from
      US Census data. National child abuse fatality rates were calculated for each
      category of community poverty concentration. Multivariate negative binomial
      regression modeling assessed the relationship between county poverty
      concentration and child abuse fatalities. RESULTS: From 1999 to 2014, 11 149
      children 0 to 4 years old died of child abuse; 45% (5053) were <1 year old, 56%
      (6283) were boys, and 58% (6480) were white. The overall rate of fatal child
      abuse was 3.5 per 100 000 children 0 to 4 years old. In the multivariate model,
      counties with the highest poverty concentration had >3 times the rate of child
      abuse fatalities compared with counties with the lowest poverty concentration
      (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 3.03; 95% confidence interval, 2.4-3.79).
      CONCLUSIONS: Higher county poverty concentration is associated with increased
      rates of child abuse fatalities. This finding should inform public health
      officials in targeting high-risk areas for interventions and resources.

PMID- 28557721
TI  - Enriched Medical Home Intervention Using Community Health Worker Home Visitation
      and ED Use.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Community health workers (CHWs) have great potential
      to extend medical home services and reduce emergent health care use, but evidence
      in pediatrics is scarce. We evaluated the impact of an existing enriched medical
      home intervention (EMHI) that directly integrates CHWs into emergency department
      (ED) visits and hospitalizations for pediatric ambulatory care-sensitive
      conditions (ACSCs). METHODS: The EMHI group in this prospective cohort study
      received home visits from trained CHWs to support adherence to recommended care;
      the comparison group received usual care (UC). Sociodemographic characteristics
      were compiled from the EMHI database, and ED and hospitalization information was
      extracted for study participants from a statewide database. The Wilcoxon signed
      rank test was used to compare ED data and the Wald test was used to compare
      hospitalization use for ACSCs between the intervention and UC groups after
      adjusting for different characteristics between groups by using propensity score
      matching method. RESULTS: The study sample included 922 children (225
      intervention, 697 UC). After propensity score matching, the analytic sample
      included 450 children (225 intervention, 225 UC). After propensity score
      matching, the intervention group was significantly less likely than the UC group
      to visit the ED for an ACSC (18.2% vs 35.1%; P = .004). We found no differences
      in ACSC hospitalizations between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest
      that EMHIs using trained CHWs may be a cost-effective model to reduce preventable
      ED utilization, especially among vulnerable children.

PMID- 28557720
TI  - A Family-Centered Rounds Checklist, Family Engagement, and Patient Safety: A
      Randomized Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Family-centered rounds (FCRs) have become standard of
      care, despite the limited evaluation of FCRs' benefits or interventions to
      support high-quality FCR delivery. This work examines the impact of the FCR
      checklist intervention, a checklist and associated provider training, on
      performance of FCR elements, family engagement, and patient safety. METHODS: This
      cluster randomized trial involved 298 families. Two hospital services were
      randomized to use the checklist; 2 others delivered usual care. We evaluated the
      performance of 8 FCR checklist elements and family engagement from 673 pre- and
      postintervention FCR videos and assessed the safety climate with the Children's
      Hospital Safety Climate Questionnaire. Random effects regression models were used
      to assess intervention impact. RESULTS: The intervention significantly increased
      the number of FCR checklist elements performed (beta = 1.2, P < .001).
      Intervention rounds were significantly more likely to include asking the family
      (odds ratio [OR] = 2.43, P < .05) or health care team (OR = 4.28, P = .002) for
      questions and reading back orders (OR = 12.43, P < .001). Intervention families'
      engagement and reports of safety climate were no different from usual care.
      However, performance of specific checklist elements was associated with changes
      in these outcomes. For example, order read-back was associated with significantly
      more family engagement. Asking families for questions was associated with
      significantly better ratings of staff's communication openness and safety of
      handoffs and transitions. CONCLUSIONS: The performance of FCR checklist elements
      was enhanced by checklist implementation and associated with changes in family
      engagement and more positive perceptions of safety climate. Implementing the
      checklist improves delivery of FCRs, impacting quality and safety of care.

PMID- 28557722
TI  - Improving Self-Regulation for Obesity Prevention in Head Start: A Randomized
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of an intervention to improve emotional and
      behavioral self-regulation in combination with an obesity-prevention program on
      the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related behaviors in preschoolers. METHODS:
      This was a cluster-randomized intervention trial in Head Start (HS) classrooms
      conducted in each of 4 academic years from 2011 to 2015. Participants (697
      children; 49% boys; mean age: 4.1 +/- 0.5 years; 48% white, 30% African American,
      12% Hispanic) were randomly assigned by classroom to 1 of 3 intervention arms:
      (1) HS + Preschool Obesity Prevention Series (POPS) + Incredible Years Series
      (IYS) (HS enhanced by the POPS [program targeting evidence-based obesity
      prevention behaviors] and the IYS [program to improve children's self
      regulation]), (2) HS+POPS, or (3) HS. Primary outcomes were changes in prevalence
      of obesity, overweight/obesity, BMI z score, and teacher-reported child emotional
      and behavioral self-regulation; secondary outcomes were dietary intake, outdoor
      play, screen time, and parent nutrition knowledge and nutrition self-efficacy.
      RESULTS: HS+POPS+IYS improved teacher-reported self-regulation compared with
      HS+POPS (P < .001) and HS (P < .001), but there was no effect on the prevalence
      of obesity (16.4% preintervention to 14.3% postintervention in HS+POPS+IYS versus
      17.3% to 14.4% in HS+POPS [P = .54] versus 12.2% to 13.0% in HS [P = .33]). There
      was no effect of HS+POPS compared with HS alone (P = .16). There was no effect on
      other outcomes except for sugar-sweetened beverage intake (HS+POPS+IYS resulted
      in a greater decline than HS; P = .005). CONCLUSIONS: An intervention for parents
      and children to improve HS preschoolers' emotional and behavioral self-regulation
      in combination with an obesity-prevention curriculum did not reduce obesity
      prevalence or most obesity-related behaviors.

PMID- 28557723
TI  - Microcystic Lymphatic Malformation Successfully Treated With Topical Rapamycin.
AB  - Microcystic lymphatic malformations (MLM) are low-flow vascular malformations
      composed of multiple small cysts. MLM usually affect deep-lying structures, which
      makes their treatment even more difficult and complex. A novel and interesting
      treatment is rapamycin, a mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor that when
      orally administrated has offered favorable results. However, until recently,
      topical rapamycin had not been used in the treatment of MLM. Case 1 is a girl
      aged 13 years with extensive MLM affecting the muscles in the right buttock. The
      patient had received frequent cycles of cryotherapy, but they had failed to
      control the associated symptoms. In the previous 12 months, the patient had
      reported greater discomfort, swelling, exudate, and superinfection of the
      affected region. Because no specific treatment has yet been approved for MLM, and
      as a step before the use of aggressive systemic or intralesional treatments, it
      was decided to initiate treatment with 1% rapamycin ointment. After 4 months of
      treatment, the patient presented a marked improvement, with a significant
      reduction of associated complications and no major side effects. Case 2 is a boy
      aged 5 years who underwent surgery for an intergluteal lipoblastoma at 3 weeks of
      life and developed a MLM on the scar 6 months afterward. The lesion showed slow
      growth and continuous exudation with frequent episodes of superinfection.
      Treatments with laser multiplex and intralesional bleomycin were performed
      unsuccessfully. In the previous 4 months, the patient had been treated with 1%
      rapamycin ointment with significant improvement and no side effects.

PMID- 28557725
TI  - Reduced Radiation in Children Presenting to the ED With Suspected Ventricular
      Shunt Complication.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ventricular shunt complications in children can be severe and life
      threatening if not identified and treated in a timely manner. Evaluation for
      shunt obstruction is not without risk, including lifetime cumulative radiation as
      patients routinely receive computed tomography (CT) scans of the brain and shunt
      series (multiple radiographs of the skull, neck, chest, and abdomen). METHODS: A
      multidisciplinary team collaborated to develop a clinical pathway with the goal
      of standardizing the evaluation and management of patients with suspected shunt
      complication. The team implemented a low-dose CT scan, specifically tailored for
      the detection of hydrocephalus and discouraged routine use of shunt series with
      single-view radiographs used only when specifically indicated. RESULTS: There was
      a reduction in the average CT effective dose (millisievert) per emergency
      department (ED) encounter of 50.6% (confidence interval, 46.0-54.9; P <= .001)
      during the intervention period. There was a significant reduction in the number
      of shunt surveys obtained per ED encounter, from 62.4% to 5.32% (P < .01). There
      was no significant change in the 72-hour ED revisit rate or CT scan utilization
      rate after hospital admission. There were no reports of inadequate patient
      evaluations or serious medical events. CONCLUSIONS: A new clinical pathway has
      rapidly reduced radiation exposure, both by reducing the radiation dose of CT
      scans and eliminating or reducing the number of radiographs obtained in the
      evaluation of patients with ventricular shunts without compromising clinical
      care.

PMID- 28557724
TI  - Implementation of "Helping Babies Breathe": A 3-Year Experience in Tanzania.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This first-ever country-level study assesses the implementation of
      the Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) program in 15 of Tanzania's mainland regions by
      measuring coverage, adoption and retention of provider skills, acceptability
      among providers, and barriers and challenges to at-scale implementation. METHODS:
      Longitudinal facility-level follow-up visits assessed provider resuscitation
      knowledge and skills in using objective structured clinical examinations and
      readiness of facilities to resuscitate newborns, in terms of birth attendants
      trained and essential equipment available and functional. Focus group discussions
      were held with providers to determine the acceptability, challenges, and barriers
      to implementation of the HBB program. RESULTS: Immediately after HBB training,
      87.1% of providers passed the objective structured clinical examination. This
      number dropped to 79.4% at 4 to 6 weeks and 55.8% at 4 to 6 months (P < .001).
      Noting this fall-off in skills, the program implemented structured on-the-job
      training and supportive supervisory visits, which were associated with an
      improvement in skill retention. At long-term follow-up, >90% of facilities had
      bag-mask devices available to all beds in the labor and delivery ward, and 96%
      were functional. Overall, providers were highly satisfied with the HBB program
      but thought that the 1-day training used in Tanzania was too short, so they would
      welcome additional training and follow-up visits to reinforce skills.
      CONCLUSIONS: The HBB program in Tanzania has gained acceptability and shown
      success in equipping providers with neonatal resuscitation knowledge, skills, and
      supplies. However, assessing the program's impact on neonatal mortality has
      proven challenging.

PMID- 28557726
TI  - Modifiable Resilience Factors to Childhood Adversity for Clinical Pediatric
      Practice.
AB  - Childhood adversity is highly prevalent and associated with risk for poor health
      outcomes in childhood and throughout the life course. Empirical literature on
      resilience over the past 40 years has identified protective factors for
      traumatized children that improve health outcomes. Despite these empirical
      investigations of resilience, there is limited integration of these findings into
      proactive strategies to mitigate the impact of adverse childhood experiences. We
      review the state of resilience research, with a focus on recent work, as it
      pertains to protecting children from the health impacts of early adversity. We
      identify and document evidence for 5 modifiable resilience factors to improve
      children's long- and short-term health outcomes, including fostering positive
      appraisal styles in children and bolstering executive function, improving
      parenting, supporting maternal mental health, teaching parents the importance of
      good self-care skills and consistent household routines, and offering
      anticipatory guidance about the impact of trauma on children. We conclude with 10
      recommendations for pediatric practitioners to leverage the identified modifiable
      resilience factors to help children withstand, adapt to, and recover from
      adversity. Taken together, these recommendations constitute a blueprint for a
      trauma-informed medical home. Building resilience in pediatric patients offers an
      opportunity to improve the health and well-being of the next generation, enhance
      national productivity, and reduce spending on health care for chronic diseases.

PMID- 28557727
TI  - Barriers to Pediatric Health Information Exchange.

PMID- 28557728
TI  - Improving Recruitment and Retention Rates in a Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - High recruitment and retention rates in randomized controlled trials are
      essential to ensure validity and broad generalizability. We used quality
      improvement methods, including run charts and intervention cycles, to achieve and
      sustain high recruitment and retention rates during the Hospital-To-Home Outcomes
      randomized controlled trial. This study is examining the effects of a single
      nurse-led home health care visit after discharge for an acute pediatric
      hospitalization. A total of 1500 participants were enrolled in the 15-month study
      period. For study recruitment, we assessed the percentage of patients who
      enrolled in the study among those randomly selected to approach (goal >=50%) and
      the percentage of patients who refused to enroll from those randomly selected to
      approach (goal <=30%). For intervention completion, we examined the percentage of
      patients who completed the home visit intervention among those randomized to
      receive the intervention (goal >=95%) were examined. Follow-up rates were tracked
      as the percentage of patients who completed the 14-day follow-up telephone survey
      (goal >=95%). The study goals for 2 of the 4 metrics were met and sustained, with
      statistically significant improvements over time in 3 metrics. The median
      enrollment rate increased from 50% to 59%, and the median refusal rate decreased
      from 37% to 32%. The median intervention completion rate remained unchanged at
      88%. The 14-day follow-up completion median rate increased from 94% to 96%. These
      results indicate that quality improvement methods can be used within the scope of
      a large research study to achieve and sustain high recruitment and retention
      rates.

PMID- 28557729
TI  - Early Prediction Model of Patient Hospitalization From the Pediatric Emergency
      Department.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emergency departments (EDs) in the United States are
      overcrowded and nearing a breaking point. Alongside ever-increasing demand, one
      of the leading causes of ED overcrowding is the boarding of hospitalized patients
      in the ED as they await bed placement. We sought to develop a model for early
      prediction of hospitalizations, thus enabling an earlier start for the placement
      process and shorter boarding times. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort
      analysis of all visits to the Boston Children's Hospital ED from July 1, 2014 to
      June 30, 2015. We used 50% of the data for model derivation and the remaining 50%
      for validation. We built the predictive model by using a mixed method approach,
      running a logistic regression model on results generated by a naive Bayes
      classifier. We performed sensitivity analyses to evaluate the impact of the model
      on overall resource utilization. RESULTS: Our analysis comprised 59 033 patient
      visits, of which 11 975 were hospitalized (cases) and 47 058 were discharged
      (controls). Using data available within the first 30 minutes from presentation,
      our model identified 73.4% of the hospitalizations with 90% specificity and 35.4%
      of hospitalizations with 99.5% specificity (area under the curve = 0.91).
      Applying this model in a real-time setting could potentially save the ED 5917
      hours per year or 30 minutes per hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: This approach can
      accurately predict patient hospitalization early in the ED encounter by using
      data commonly available in most electronic medical records. Such early
      identification can be used to advance patient placement processes and shorten ED
      boarding times.

PMID- 28557730
TI  - Evaluating Serial Strategies for Preventing Wrong-Patient Orders in the NICU.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NICU patients have characteristics believed to increase their risk
      for wrong-patient errors; however, little is known about the frequency of wrong
      patient errors in the NICU or about effective interventions for preventing these
      errors. We conducted a quality improvement study to evaluate the frequency of
      wrong-patient orders in the NICU and to assess the effectiveness of an ID reentry
      intervention and a distinct naming convention (eg, "Wendysgirl") for reducing
      these errors, using non-NICU pediatric units as a comparator. METHODS: Using a
      validated measure, we examined the rate of wrong-patient orders in NICU and non
      NICU pediatric units during 3 periods: baseline (before implementing
      interventions), ID reentry intervention (reentry of patient identifiers before
      placing orders), and combined intervention (addition of a distinct naming
      convention for newborns). RESULTS: We reviewed >850 000 NICU orders and >3.5
      million non-NICU pediatric orders during the 7-year study period. At baseline,
      wrong-patient orders were more frequent in NICU than in non-NICU pediatric units
      (117.2 vs 74.9 per 100 000 orders, respectively; odds ratio 1.56; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.34-1.82). The ID reentry intervention reduced the frequency of errors
      in the NICU to 60.2 per 100 000 (48.7% reduction; P < .001). The combined ID
      reentry and distinct naming interventions yielded an additional decrease to 45.6
      per 100 000 (61.1% reduction from baseline; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of
      wrong-patient orders in the NICU was significantly higher than in non-NICU
      pediatric units. Implementation of a combined ID reentry intervention and
      distinct naming convention greatly reduced this risk.

PMID- 28557731
TI  - The Concordance of Parent and Child Immunization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A substantial body of work has related survey-based parental vaccine
      hesitancy to noncompliant childhood immunization. However little attention has
      been paid to the connection between parents' own immunization behavior and the
      immunizations their children receive. METHODS: Using the Oregon ALERT
      Immunization Information System, we identified adult caregiver-child pairs for
      children between 9 months and 17 years of age. The likelihood of adult-child
      concordance of influenza immunization per influenza season from 2010-2011 through
      2014-2015 was assessed. The utility of adult immunization as a predictor was also
      assessed for other, noninfluenza recommended immunizations for children and
      adolescents. RESULTS: A total of 450 687 matched adult caregiver-child pairs were
      included in the study. The children of immunizing adults were 2.77 times more
      likely to also be immunized for seasonal influenza across all seasons (95%
      confidence interval, 2.74-2.79), with similar results applying within each
      season. Adult immunization status was also significantly associated with the
      likelihood of children and adolescents getting other noninfluenza immunizations,
      such as the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV). When adults improved their own
      behavior from nonimmunizing to immunizing across influenza seasons, their
      children if not immunized in the previous season were 5.44 times (95% confidence
      interval, 5.35-5.53) more likely to become immunized for influenza. CONCLUSIONS:
      Children's likelihood of following immunization recommendations is associated
      with the immunization behavior of their parents. Encouraging parental
      immunization is a potential tool for increasing children's immunization rates.

PMID- 28557733
TI  - A 9-Day-Old With Weight Loss and Diarrhea.
AB  - A 9-day-old infant girl presented with diarrhea and weight loss of 19% since
      birth. She was born via spontaneous vaginal delivery at 39 weeks' gestation to a
      mother positive for group B Streptococcus who received adequate intrapartum
      prophylaxis. The infant was formula-fed every 2 to 3 hours with no reported
      issues with feeding or swallowing. The infant had nonmucoid watery stools ~5 to
      15 times per day. Her family history was significant for hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy in several of her family members. Her initial vital signs and
      physical examination were normal. Laboratory data on hospital admission showed a
      normal complete blood cell count, but her chemistry analysis revealed significant
      hypernatremia, hyperkalemia, metabolic acidosis, and acute kidney injury. Her
      hypernatremia was resistant to fluid management. In this article, we discuss the
      infant's hospital course, our clinical thought process, and how we arrived at our
      final diagnosis.

PMID- 28557732
TI  - Validation of the Pediatric Sedation State Scale.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Development and validation of the Pediatric Sedation State Scale
      (PSSS) is intended to specifically meet the needs of pediatric procedural
      sedation providers to measure effectiveness and quality of care. METHODS: The
      PSSS content was developed through Delphi methods utilizing leading pediatric
      sedation experts and published guidelines on procedural sedation in children.
      Video clips were created and presented to study participants, who graded the
      state of patients during procedures by using the PSSS to evaluate inter- and
      intrarater reliability by determining the intraclass correlation coefficient. We
      also compared the PSSS to the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress-revised
      during 4 clinically relevant phases of a laceration repair procedure. RESULTS:
      Six sedation states were defined for the PSSS. Each state was assigned a
      numerical value with higher numbers for increasing activity states. We included
      behaviors associated with adequate and inadequate sedation and adverse events
      associated with excessive sedation. Analysis of interrater and intrarater
      reliability revealed an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.994 (95%
      confidence interval: 0.986-0.998) and 0.986 (95% confidence interval: 0.970
      0.995), respectively. Criterion validity was confirmed with respect to the
      Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress-revised (Spearman r = 0.96). Construct
      validity was indicated by significant differences in PSSS scores (P < .001)
      between 4 phases of a procedure, each having a different degree of painful or
      distressing stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: The PSSS is a 6-point scale that is a valid
      measure of the effectiveness and quality of procedural sedation in children
      within the limits of the testing method used in this study.

PMID- 28557734
TI  - Disparities in Diagnosis and Treatment of Autism in Latino and Non-Latino White
      Families.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare barriers to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis and
      current ASD-related service use among non-Latino white (NLW) families and Latino
      families with English proficiency (L-EP) or limited English proficiency (L-LEP).
      METHODS: We conducted a mixed-mode survey of families of children with confirmed
      ASD seen at specialty clinics in 3 United States cities. Bivariate and
      multivariate analyses compared barriers to ASD diagnosis, current service use,
      and unmet therapy need among NLW, L-EP, and L-LEP families. RESULTS: Overall,
      barriers to ASD diagnosis were prevalent: families (n = 352) experienced a mean
      of 8 of 15 barriers to ASD diagnosis. The most prevalent barriers overall were
      "stress of diagnostic process," "parent knowledge about ASD," and "understanding
      medical system." Compared with NLW families, L-LEP families were more likely to
      experience barriers related to knowledge about ASD and trust in providers.
      Children in L-LEP families also had fewer current therapy hours and more unmet
      therapy needs than children in NLW families. L-EP families' barriers and
      treatment services use profile was more similar to NLW than to L-LEP families.
      CONCLUSIONS: English proficiency was an important marker for barriers to ASD
      diagnosis and treatment in Latinos. Increasing ASD-related knowledge and provider
      trust may decrease disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of ASD among US
      Latinos.

PMID- 28557735
TI  - Inpatient Hospital Factors and Resident Time With Patients and Families.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To define hospital factors associated with proportion of time spent
      by pediatric residents in direct patient care. METHODS: We assessed 6222 hours of
      time-motion observations from a representative sample of 483 pediatric-resident
      physicians delivering inpatient care across 9 pediatric institutions. The primary
      outcome was percentage of direct patient care time (DPCT) during a single
      observation session (710 sessions). We used one-way analysis of variance to
      assess a significant difference in the mean percentage of DPCT between hospitals.
      We used the intraclass correlation coefficient analysis to determine within-
      versus between-hospital variations. We compared hospital characteristics of
      observation sessions with >=12% DPCT to characteristics of sessions with <12%
      DPCT (12% is the DPCT in recent resident trainee time-motion studies). We
      conducted mixed-effects regression analysis to allow for clustering of sessions
      within hospitals and accounted for correlation of responses across hospital.
      RESULTS: Mean proportion of physician DPCT was 13.2% (SD = 8.6; range, 0.2%
      49.5%). DPCT was significantly different between hospitals (P < .001). The
      intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.25, indicating more within-hospital than
      between-hospital variation. Observation sessions with >=12% DPCT were more likely
      to occur at hospitals with Magnet designation (odds ratio [OR] = 3.45, P = .006),
      lower medical complexity (OR = 2.57, P = .04), and higher patient-to-trainee
      ratios (OR = 2.48, P = .05). CONCLUSIONS: On average, trainees spend <8 minutes
      per hour in DPCT. Variation exists in DPCT between hospitals. A less complex case
      mix, increased patient volume, and Magnet designation were independently
      associated with increased DPCT.

PMID- 28557736
TI  - Change of School Playground Environment on Bullying: A Randomized Controlled
      Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether increasing risk and challenge in primary school
      playgrounds influences interactions between children. METHODS: In a 2-year
      cluster-randomized controlled trial, 8 control schools were asked to not change
      their play environment, whereas 8 intervention schools increased opportunities
      for risk and challenge (eg, rough-and-tumble play), reduced rules, and added
      loose parts (eg, tires). Children (n = 840), parents (n = 635), and teachers (n =
      90) completed bullying questionnaires at baseline, 1 (postintervention), and 2
      (follow-up) years. RESULTS: Intervention children reported higher odds of being
      happy at school (at 2 years, odds ratio [OR]: 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]:
      1.20-2.25) and playing with more children (at 1 year, OR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.29
      2.15) than control children. Although intervention children indicated they were
      pushed/shoved more (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.03-1.71), they were less likely to tell a
      teacher (OR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.52-0.92) at 2 years. No significant group
      differences were observed in parents reporting whether children had "ever" been
      bullied at school (1 year: P = .23; 2 years: P = .07). Intervention school
      teachers noticed more bullying in break time at 1 year (difference in scores:
      0.20; 95% CI: 0.06-0.34; P = .009), with no corresponding increase in children
      reporting bullying to teachers (both time points, P >= .26). CONCLUSIONS: Few
      negative outcomes were reported by children or parents, except for greater
      pushing/shoving in intervention schools. Whether this indicates increased
      resilience as indicated by lower reporting of bullying to teachers may be an
      unanticipated benefit.

PMID- 28557737
TI  - Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Urinary Tract Infection-Related Renal Scarring: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Acute pyelonephritis may result in renal scarring. Recent prospective
      studies have shown a small benefit of antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing
      symptomatic and febrile urinary tract infections (UTIs), while being underpowered
      to detect any influence in prevention of renal damage. OBJECTIVES: Review of the
      literature and a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of antibiotic prophylaxis
      on UTI-related renal scarring. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, and Cochrane
      Controlled Trials Register electronic databases were searched for studies
      published in any language and bibliographies of identified prospective randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs) performed and published between 1946 and August 2016.
      STUDY SELECTION: Subjects 18 years of age or younger with symptomatic or febrile
      UTIs, enrolled in prospective RCTs of antibiotic prophylaxis where 99mTc
      dimercaptosuccinic acid scans were performed at entry into the study and at late
      follow-up to detect new scar formation. DATA EXTRACTION: The literature search,
      study characteristics, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and risk of bias
      assessment were independently evaluated by 2 authors. RESULTS: Seven RCTs (1427
      subjects) were included in the meta-analysis. Our results show no influence of
      antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing renal scarring (pooled risk ratio, 0.83; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.55-1.26) as did a subanalysis restricted to those subjects
      with vesicoureteral reflux (pooled risk ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval,
      0.51-1.24). LIMITATIONS: Limitations include the small number of studies, short
      duration of follow-up, and insufficient children with high-grade dilating reflux
      and/or renal dysplasia enrolled in the studies. CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic
      prophylaxis is not indicated for the prevention of renal scarring after a first
      or second symptomatic or febrile UTI in otherwise healthy children.

PMID- 28557738
TI  - Cross-Sex Hormones and Metabolic Parameters in Adolescents With Gender Dysphoria.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Endocrine Society states that adolescents with
      gender dysphoria may start cross-sex hormones. The goal of this study was to
      identify patterns in metabolic parameters in transgender adolescents receiving
      cross-sex hormones. METHODS: Data from adolescents aged 14 to 25 years seen in 1
      of 4 clinical sites between 2008 and 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Subjects
      were divided into affirmed male (female-to-male) patients taking testosterone and
      affirmed female (male-to-female) patients taking estrogen. Previously recorded
      measurements of blood pressure, BMI, testosterone, estradiol, prolactin, lipids,
      electrolytes, liver function tests, hemoglobin/hematocrit, and hemoglobin A1c
      were reviewed. These values were obtained from before the start of therapy, at 1
      to 3 months after initiation, at 4 to 6 months, and at 6 months and beyond.
      Repeated measures analysis of variance models were used to evaluate changes over
      time. RESULTS: One hunderd and sixteen adolescents were included (72 female-to
      male subjects and 44 male-to-female subjects). Of the 72 subjects taking
      testosterone, a significant increase in hemoglobin/hematocrit levels and BMI, as
      well as a decrease in high-density lipoprotein level, was recorded at each visit.
      No significant changes in any other parameter tested were found. Of the 44
      subjects taking estrogen, no statistically significant changes were noted in the
      measured metabolic parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Testosterone use was associated with
      increased hemoglobin and hematocrit, increased BMI, and lowered high-density
      lipoprotein levels; estrogen was associated with lower testosterone and alanine
      aminotransferase levels. Otherwise, cross-sex hormone administration in
      adolescents was not associated with significant differences in the selected
      metabolic parameters over time.

PMID- 28557739
TI  - Epidemiology of Cerebrospinal Fluid Cultures and Time to Detection in Term
      Infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although meningitis is rare in previously healthy term infants,
      lumbar puncture is often performed to evaluate for source of illness. This study
      was performed to determine the time to detection for positive cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) cultures and to provide an update on the current epidemiology of bacterial
      meningitis in term infants. METHODS: This study was a multicenter, retrospective
      review of positive CSF cultures in infants <=90 days of age. Specimens were drawn
      in the emergency department or inpatient setting between January 2000 and
      December 2013. Cultures were deemed true pathogens or contaminant species based
      on the attending physician's treatment plan. Cultures from premature infants, an
      operative source, or those with significant medical history were excluded.
      RESULTS: A total of 410 positive CSF culture results were included, with 53
      (12.9%) true pathogens and 357 (87.1%) contaminant species. The mean +/- SD time
      to detection for true pathogens was 28.6 +/- 16.8 hours (95% confidence interval,
      24-33.2); for contaminant species, it was 68.1 +/- 36.2 hours (95% confidence
      interval, 64.3-71.9). Forty-three true-positive cases (81.1%) were positive in
      <=36 hours. The most common pathogen was group B Streptococcus (51%), followed by
      Escherichia coli (13%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (9%). CONCLUSIONS: The
      majority of pathogenic bacteria in CSF exhibit growth within 36 hours. Most
      growth from CSF cultures in febrile infants is treated as contamination. The
      epidemiology of meningitis has remained constant, with group B Streptococcus as
      the predominant pathogen, despite changes noted in the epidemiology of bacteremia
      in this population.

PMID- 28557740
TI  - Validation of the Rapid Estimate for Adolescent Literacy in Medicine Short Form
      (REALM-TeenS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was designed to develop and validate a brief adolescent
      health literacy assessment tool (Rapid Estimate of Adolescent Literacy in
      Medicine Short Form [REALM-TeenS]). METHODS: We combined datasets from 2 existing
      research studies that used the REALM-Teen (n = 665) and conducted an item
      response theory analysis. The correlation between scores on the original 66-item
      REALM-Teen and the proposed REALM-TeenS was calculated, along with the decision
      consistency across forms with respect to grade level assignment of each
      adolescent and coefficient alpha. The proposed REALM-TeenS was validated with
      original REALM-Teen data from a third independent study (n = 174). RESULTS: Items
      with the largest discriminations across the scale, from low to high health
      literacy, were selected for inclusion in REALM-TeenS. From those, a set of 10
      items was selected that maintained a reasonable level of SE across ability
      estimates and correlated highly (r = 0.92) with the original REALM-Teen scores.
      The coefficient alpha for the 10-item REALM-TeenS was .82. There was no evidence
      of model misfit (root mean square error of approximation < 0.001). In the
      validation sample, REALM-TeenS scores correlated highly with scores on the
      original REALM-Teen (r = 0.92), and the decision consistency across both forms
      was 80%. In pilot testing, administration took ~20 seconds. CONCLUSIONS: The
      REALM-TeenS offers researchers and clinicians a brief validated screening tool
      that can be used to assess adolescent health literacy in a variety of settings.
      Scoring guidelines ensure that reading level assessment is appropriate by age and
      grade.

PMID- 28557741
TI  - An Innovative Collaborative Model of Care for Undiagnosed Complex Medical
      Conditions.

PMID- 28557742
TI  - Viral Features and Testing for Streptococcal Pharyngitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends
      that clinicians forego testing for group A Streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis in
      patients with clinical features of viral illness. The prevalence of viral
      features in patients tested for GAS pharyngitis is not known. The objectives of
      this study were as follows: to describe the prevalence of viral features in
      pediatric patients for whom rapid antigen detection tests (RADTs) for GAS
      pharyngitis are performed; and to compare the prevalence of GAS and the
      sensitivity of the RADT in patients with and without viral features. METHODS:
      This secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study included children
      aged 3 to 21 years for whom RADTs were performed for sore throat in an urban
      tertiary care emergency department. The primary outcome was the prevalence of
      viral features, defined as cough, rhinorrhea, oral ulcers/vesicles, and/or
      conjunctival injection. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of GAS and
      sensitivity of the RADT; these outcomes were compared between patients with and
      without viral features. RESULTS: Overall, 63% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 57%
      68%) of patients had at least 1 viral feature. The prevalence of GAS pharyngitis
      was higher in patients without viral features (42% [95% CI: 33%-51%]) than in
      patients with viral features (29% [95% CI: 23%-35%]) (P = .01). The sensitivity
      of the RADT was 84% (95% CI: 77%-91%) and was not significantly different in
      patients with and without viral features. CONCLUSIONS: Because many asymptomatic
      children are carriers of GAS, judicious use of laboratory testing for GAS
      pharyngitis remains an important target for antimicrobial stewardship.

PMID- 28557743
TI  - Understanding the Category B Recommendation for Serogroup B Meningococcal
      Vaccine.

PMID- 28557744
TI  - Beyond the Label: Steering the Focus Toward Safe and Effective Prescribing.

PMID- 28557745
TI  - Current Workforce of Pediatric Subspecialists in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Concerns exist regarding the adequacy of the pediatric subspecialty
      workforce in the United States. Data on practice patterns and job characteristics
      are necessary to help develop policies to ensure availability. METHODS: We
      performed survey data analysis of all pediatric subspecialists enrolled in
      Maintenance of Certification in 2013 and 2014, assessing demographic information,
      characteristics of current positions, plans for retirement, and satisfaction with
      allocation of professional and clinical responsibilities. Four logistic
      regression models examined the independent association of demographic variables
      collected along with variables of practice ownership and academic appointment
      with the outcome variables of pediatric subspecialists reporting match of desired
      with current actual professional duties, match of desired with current actual
      clinical responsibilities, current part-time employment, and expected age of
      retirement <65 years of age. RESULTS: Data from 5100 subspecialists were analyzed
      (response rate 87.2%). Most (83%; N = 4251) reported their current allocation of
      professional time was what they desired in their current position; similarly, 93%
      (N = 4755) reported likewise for clinical responsibilities. Differences by gender
      and years in subspecialty were evident, with women much more likely to work part
      time than men (odds ratio 6.22); those >20 years in practice were less likely to
      retire before the age of 65 compared with those <10 years in practice (odds ratio
      0.33). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the largest to date of practicing pediatric
      subspecialists. Variation in work patterns found between genders, with time in
      practice, and between subspecialties suggests that future research should focus
      on these issues.

PMID- 28557746
TI  - Ethical Conduct of Research in Children: Pediatricians and Their IRB (Part 1 of
      2).
AB  - As human experimentation continues to grow into an ever more complex and
      sophisticated endeavor, the relevant ethical and regulatory structures become
      more intricate. When pediatricians and general practitioners are invited by
      pharmaceutical companies to enroll their offices in a clinical trial or a
      multicenter observational study or when they develop their own research
      questions, they frequently find themselves at a loss in the human research
      environment. The legal and regulatory complexity may have an unintended deterring
      effect at a time when office-based high quality pediatric research is urgently
      needed to support evidence-based medicine. Unfortunately, in many instances,
      unaware practitioners become involved in low-risk research activities without
      knowing it and become entangled in legal, auditing, and compliance procedures.
      This paper, written in 2 parts, aims at providing a general guidance on the
      principles that regulate human research with a focus on pediatrics. Part 1
      discusses the history, the legal framework, and the consent process and
      highlights some practical aspects of initial protocol submission, continued
      review, and institutional review board determinations with the main focus on
      multicenter clinical trials (industry-sponsored research). Part 2 focuses on
      pediatric research regulation, also known as subpart-D, and minimal risk
      research, which encompasses many research activities aimed at addressing
      questions that may emerge in pediatricians' practices (investigator-initiated
      research).

PMID- 28557747
TI  - Supplemental Iodide for Preterm Infants and Developmental Outcomes at 2 Years: An
      RCT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The recommendation for enteral iodide intake for preterm infants is
      30 to 40 MUg/kg per day and 1 MUg/kg per day for parenteral intake. Preterm
      infants are vulnerable to iodide insufficiency and thyroid dysfunction. The
      hypothesis tested whether, compared with placebo, iodide supplementation of
      preterm infants improves neurodevelopment. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial
      of iodide supplementation versus placebo in infants <31 weeks' gestation. Trial
      solutions (sodium iodide or sodium chloride; dose 30 MUg/kg per day) were given
      within 42 hours of birth to the equivalent of 34 weeks' gestation. The only
      exclusion criterion was maternal iodide exposure during pregnancy or delivery.
      Whole blood levels of thyroxine, thyrotropin, and thyroid-binding globulin were
      measured on 4 specific postnatal days. The primary outcome was neurodevelopmental
      status at 2 years of age, measured by using the Bayley Scales of Infant
      Development-III. The primary analyses are by intention-to-treat, and data are
      presented also for survivors. RESULTS: One thousand two hundred seventy-three
      infants (637 intervention, 636 placebo) were recruited from 21 UK neonatal units.
      One hundred thirty-one infants died, and neurodevelopmental assessments were
      undertaken in 498 iodide and 499 placebo-supplemented infants. There were no
      significant differences between the intervention and placebo groups in the
      primary outcome: mean difference cognitive score, -0.34, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) -2.57 to 1.89; motor composite score, 0.21, 95% CI -2.23 to 2.65; and
      language composite score, -0.05, 95% CI -2.48 to 2.39. There was evidence of weak
      interaction between iodide supplementation and hypothyroxinemic status in the
      language composite score and 1 subtest score. CONCLUSIONS: Overall iodide
      supplementation provided no benefit to neurodevelopment measured at 2 years of
      age.

PMID- 28557748
TI  - The Next 7 Great Achievements in Pediatric Research.
AB  - The "7 Great Achievements in Pediatric Research" campaign noted discoveries in
      the past 40 years that have improved child and adult health in the United States
      and around the globe. This article predicts the next 7 great pediatric research
      advancements, including new immunizations, cancer immunotherapy, genomic
      discoveries, identification of early antecedents of adult health, impact of
      specific social-environmental influences on biology and health, quality
      improvement science, and implementation and dissemination research to reduce
      global poverty. It is an extraordinary time of new research tools that include
      electronic health records, technological ability to manage big data and measure
      "omics," and new functional and structural imaging modalities. These tools will
      discern mechanisms leading to health and disease with new prevention targets and
      cures. This article further discusses the challenges and opportunities to
      accelerate these exciting pediatric research discoveries to improve the lives of
      children and the adults they will become.

PMID- 28557749
TI  - Cancer Risk After Pediatric Solid Organ Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effects of pediatric solid organ transplantation on cancer risk
      may differ from those observed in adult recipients. We described cancers in
      pediatric recipients and compared incidence to the general population. METHODS:
      The US transplant registry was linked to 16 cancer registries to identify cancer
      diagnoses among recipients <18 years old at transplant. Standardized incidence
      ratios (SIRs) were estimated by dividing observed cancer counts among recipients
      by expected counts based on the general population rates. Cox regression was used
      to estimate the associations between recipient characteristics and non-Hodgkin's
      lymphoma (NHL) risk. RESULTS: Among 17 958 pediatric recipients, 392 cancers were
      diagnosed, of which 279 (71%) were NHL. Compared with the general population,
      incidence was significantly increased for NHL (SIR = 212, 95% confidence interval
      [CI] = 188-238), Hodgkin's lymphoma (SIR = 19, 95% CI = 13-26), leukemia (SIR =
      4, 95% CI = 2-7), myeloma (SIR = 229, 95% CI = 47-671), and cancers of the liver,
      soft tissue, ovary, vulva, testis, bladder, kidney, and thyroid. NHL risk was
      highest during the first year after transplantation among recipients <5 years old
      at transplant (SIR = 313), among recipients seronegative for Epstein-Barr virus
      (EBV) at transplant (SIR = 446), and among intestine transplant recipients (SIR =
      1280). In multivariable analyses, seronegative EBV status, the first year after
      transplantation, intestine transplantation, and induction immunosuppression were
      independently associated with higher NHL incidence. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric
      recipients have a markedly increased risk for many cancers. NHL constitutes the
      majority of diagnosed cancers, with the highest risk occurring in the first year
      after transplantation. NHL risk was high in recipients susceptible to primary EBV
      infection after transplant and in intestine transplant recipients, perhaps due to
      EBV transmission in the donor organ.

PMID- 28557750
TI  - Incidence and Prevalence of Childhood Epilepsy: A Nationwide Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Epilepsy affects 0.5% to 1% of children and is the
      most frequent chronic neurologic condition in childhood. Incidence rates appear
      to be declining in high-income countries. The validity of epilepsy diagnoses from
      different data sources varies, and contemporary population-based incidence
      studies are needed. METHODS: The study was based on the Norwegian Mother and
      Child Cohort Study. Potential epilepsy cases were identified through registry
      linkages and parental questionnaires. Cases were validated through medical record
      reviews and telephone interviews of parents. RESULTS: The study population
      included 112 744 children aged 3 to 13 years (mean 7.4 years) at end of registry
      follow-up (December 31, 2012). Of these, 896 had registry recordings and/or
      questionnaire reports of epilepsy. After validation, 587 (66%) met the criteria
      for an epilepsy diagnosis. The incidence rate of epilepsy was 144 per 100 000
      person-years in the first year of life and 58 per 100 000 for ages 1 to 10 years.
      The cumulative incidence of epilepsy was 0.66% at age 10 years, with 0.62% having
      active epilepsy. The 309 children (34%) with erroneous reports of epilepsy from
      the registry and/or the questionnaires had mostly been evaluated for nonepileptic
      paroxysmal events, or they had undergone electroencephalography examinations
      because of other developmental or neurocognitive difficulties. CONCLUSIONS:
      Approximately 1 out of 150 children is diagnosed with epilepsy during the first
      10 years of life, with the highest incidence rate observed during infancy.
      Validation of epilepsy diagnoses in administrative data and cohort studies is
      crucial because reported diagnoses may not meet diagnostic criteria for epilepsy.

PMID- 28557751
TI  - Grief and Burnout in the PICU.
AB  - Doctors and nurses who work in PICUs often deal with emotionally difficult
      events. These events take a toll. They can cause long-term psychological problems
      that, if not addressed, can impair the ability of doctors and nurses to care for
      patients in a competent and compassionate manner. Furthermore, effective
      treatment is available. But there is a paradox. To get treatment, one must
      acknowledge the problem. Acknowledgment of the problem may not be encouraged, or
      may be discouraged and stigmatized, in the intensive care culture. This article
      describes a case in which a physician has classic signs of overwhelming grief and
      burnout, and it discusses the appropriate response.

PMID- 28557752
TI  - Effectiveness of Vaccination During Pregnancy to Prevent Infant Pertussis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vaccination against pertussis during pregnancy is recommended to
      protect newborns, yet there is limited information about the effectiveness of
      maternal tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, acellular pertussis (Tdap)
      vaccine before the first infant dose of diphtheria, tetanus and acellular
      pertussis (DTaP) vaccine and during the first year of life in infants who have
      received DTaP. METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study of infants born at Kaiser
      Permanente Northern California from 2010 to 2015, we estimated the effectiveness
      of maternal pertussis vaccination for protecting newborns against pertussis in
      the first 2 months of life and in the first year of life accounting for each
      infant DTaP dose. RESULTS: Among 148 981 newborns, the vaccine effectiveness of
      maternal Tdap was 91.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 19.5 to 99.1) during the
      first 2 months of life and 69.0% (95% CI, 43.6 to 82.9) during the entire first
      year of life. The vaccine effectiveness was 87.9% (95% CI, 41.4 to 97.5) before
      infants had any DTaP vaccine doses, 81.4% (95% CI, 42.5 to 94.0) between doses 1
      and 2, 6.4% (95% CI, -165.1 to 66.9) between doses 2 and 3, and 65.9% (95% CI,
      4.5 to 87.8) after infants had 3 DTaP doses. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal Tdap
      vaccination was highly protective against infant pertussis, especially in the
      first 2 months of life. Even after infant DTaP dosing, there was evidence of
      additional protection from maternal Tdap vaccination for the first year of life.
      This study strongly supports the United States' current recommendation to
      administer Tdap during each pregnancy.

PMID- 28557753
TI  - Oral Corticosteroid Prescribing for Children With Asthma in a Medicaid Managed
      Care Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Short courses of oral corticosteroid (OCS) medication
      are recommended for treatment of moderate to severe asthma exacerbations. Concern
      has been raised about OCS overuse. Our objective is to describe rates of OCS
      dispensing among children with asthma and factors associated with variation in
      OCS dispensing. METHODS: Claims data for children 1 to <18 years of age with an
      asthma diagnosis between January 2011 and January 2016 were extracted from the
      computerized databases of Texas Children's Health Plan. RESULTS: In the years
      2011 to 2015, 17.1% to 21.8% of children had an asthma diagnosis. In each of
      these years 42.1% to 44.2% of these children had >=1 OCS dispensing. OCS
      dispensing rates were higher for the children 1 to 4 years of age compared with
      older children. Repeated OCS dispensing was common, and was most common for
      children 1 to 4 years of age. Most children with an OCS dispensing (81%-83%) did
      not have other utilization suggesting poor asthma control (excessive beta-agonist
      refills, emergency department visit, or hospitalization for asthma). OCSs were
      less commonly prescribed to patients whose primary care provider was a board
      certified pediatrician compared with other types of primary care providers. There
      was large variation in OCS prescribing rates among pediatricians (15%-86%). There
      were minimal differences in asthma emergency department visits and no differences
      in hospitalization rates by the pediatrician's OCS dispensing rate quartile.
      CONCLUSIONS: The patterns of dispensing observed suggest substantial
      overprescribing of OCS for children with an asthma diagnosis.

PMID- 28557754
TI  - Implementing Education to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in Low-Resource Environments.

PMID- 28557755
TI  - Validation of New Quality Measures for Transitions Between Sites of Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Assessing and improving the quality of transitions to
      home from the emergency department (ED) or hospital is critical for patient
      safety. Our objective was to validate 8 newly developed caregiver-reported
      measures of transition quality. METHODS: This prospective observational study
      included 1086 caregiver survey respondents whose children had an ED visit (n =
      523) or hospitalization (n = 563) at Seattle Children's Hospital in 2014.
      Caregivers were contacted to complete 2 surveys. The first survey included the
      newly developed transition quality measures and multiple validation measures
      including modified versions of Child Hospital Consumer Assessments of Healthcare
      Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) composites, assessing communication and discharge
      planning. The second survey (administered 30 days later) included questions about
      follow-up appointments and ED return visits and readmissions. Using multivariate
      regression, we examined associations between the newly developed transition
      quality measures and each validation measure. RESULTS: All transition quality
      measures were significantly associated with >=1 validation measures. The hospital
      to-home transition measure assessing whether discharge instructions were easy to
      understand, were useful, and contained necessary follow-up information had the
      largest association with the Child HCAHPS nurse-parent and doctor-parent
      communication composites (beta = 55.6; 95% confidence interval, 43 to 68.3; and
      beta = 48.3; 95% confidence interval, 36.3 to 60.3, respectively, scaled to
      reflect change associated with a 0 to 100 change in the transition measure
      score). CONCLUSIONS: Newly developed quality measures for pediatric ED- and
      hospital-to-home transitions were significantly and positively associated with
      previously validated measures of caregiver experience. These new measures may be
      useful for assessing and improving on the quality of ED- and hospital-to-home
      transitions.

PMID- 28557756
TI  - Factors Associated With Provider Burnout in the NICU.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NICUs vary greatly in patient acuity and volume and represent a wide
      array of organizational structures, but the effect of these differences on NICU
      providers is unknown. This study sought to test the relation between provider
      burnout prevalence and organizational factors in California NICUs. METHODS:
      Provider perceptions of burnout were obtained from 1934 nurse practitioners,
      physicians, registered nurses, and respiratory therapists in 41 California NICUs
      via a validated 4-item questionnaire based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The
      relations between burnout and organizational factors of each NICU were evaluated
      via t-test comparison of quartiles, univariable regression, and multivariable
      regression. RESULTS: Overall burnout prevalence was 26.7% +/- 9.8%. Highest
      burnout prevalence was found among NICUs with higher average daily admissions
      (32.1% +/- 6.4% vs 17.2% +/- 6.7%, P < .001), higher average occupancy (28.1% +/-
      8.1% vs 19.9% +/- 8.4%, P = .02), and those with electronic health records (28%
      +/- 11% vs 18% +/- 7%, P = .03). In sensitivity analysis, nursing burnout was
      more sensitive to organizational differences than physician burnout in
      multivariable modeling, significantly associated with average daily admissions,
      late transfer proportion, nursing hours per patient day, and mortality per 1000
      infants. Burnout prevalence showed no association with proportion of high-risk
      patients, teaching hospital distinction, or in-house attending presence.
      CONCLUSIONS: Burnout is most prevalent in NICUs with high patient volume and
      electronic health records and may affect nurses disproportionately. Interventions
      to reduce burnout prevalence may be of greater importance in NICUs with >=10
      weekly admissions.

PMID- 28557758
TI  - Mid-Childhood Bone Mass After Exposure to Repeat Doses of Antenatal
      Glucocorticoids: A Randomized Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Treatment of women at risk for preterm birth with
      repeat doses of glucocorticoids reduces neonatal morbidity, but could have
      adverse effects on skeletal development. We assessed whether exposure to repeat
      antenatal betamethasone alters bone mass in children whose mothers participated
      in the Australasian Collaborative Trial of Repeat Doses of Corticosteroids.
      METHODS: Women were randomized to a single dose of betamethasone or placebo, >=7
      days after an initial course of glucocorticoids, repeated each week that they
      remained at risk for preterm birth at <32 weeks' gestation. In this follow-up
      study, children underwent whole-body dual-energy radiograph absorptiometry at 6
      to 8 years' corrected age. RESULTS: Of 212 eligible childhood survivors, 185 were
      studied (87%; 91 repeat betamethasone group; 94 placebo [single course] group).
      Children exposed to repeat antenatal betamethasone and those exposed to placebo
      had similar whole-body bone mineral content (median repeat betamethasone: 553 g,
      interquartile range: 442-712 g; placebo: 567 g, interquartile range: 447-750 g;
      geometric mean ratio: 0.99; 95% confidence interval: 0.94-1.03, P = .55) and bone
      area (median repeat betamethasone 832 cm2, interquartile range: 693-963 cm2;
      placebo: 822 cm2, interquartile range: 710-1020 cm2; geometric mean ratio: 0.99,
      95% confidence interval: 0.92-1.07, P = .75). CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to repeat
      doses of antenatal betamethasone compared with a single course of glucocorticoids
      does not alter bone mass in mid-childhood.

PMID- 28557757
TI  - Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against Pediatric Deaths: 2010-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Surveillance for laboratory-confirmed influenza
      associated pediatric deaths since 2004 has shown that most deaths occur in
      unvaccinated children. We assessed whether influenza vaccination reduced the risk
      of influenza-associated death in children and adolescents. METHODS: We conducted
      a case-cohort analysis comparing vaccination uptake among laboratory-confirmed
      influenza-associated pediatric deaths with estimated vaccination coverage among
      pediatric cohorts in the United States. Case vaccination and high-risk status
      were determined by case investigation. Influenza vaccination coverage estimates
      were obtained from national survey data or a national insurance claims database.
      We estimated odds ratios from logistic regression comparing odds of vaccination
      among cases with odds of vaccination in comparison cohorts. We used Bayesian
      methods to compute 95% credible intervals (CIs) for vaccine effectiveness (VE),
      calculated as (1 - odds ratio) * 100. RESULTS: From July 2010 through June 2014,
      358 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported
      among children aged 6 months through 17 years. Vaccination status was determined
      for 291 deaths; 75 (26%) received vaccine before illness onset. Average
      vaccination coverage in survey cohorts was 48%. Overall VE against death was 65%
      (95% CI, 54% to 74%). Among 153 deaths in children with underlying high-risk
      medical conditions, 47 (31%) were vaccinated. VE among children with high-risk
      conditions was 51% (95% CI, 31% to 67%), compared with 65% (95% CI, 47% to 78%)
      among children without high-risk conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Influenza vaccination
      was associated with reduced risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated
      pediatric death. Increasing influenza vaccination could prevent influenza
      associated deaths among children and adolescents.

PMID- 28557759
TI  - Assessing Child Lead Poisoning Case Ascertainment in the US, 1999-2010.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare prevalence estimates for blood lead level >=10.0 MUg/dL
      (elevated blood lead level [EBLL]) with numbers reported to the Centers for
      Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for children 12 months to 5 years of age
      from 1999 to 2010 on a state-by-state basis. METHODS: State-specific prevalence
      estimates were generated based on the continuous NHANES according to newly
      available statistical protocols. Counts of case reports were based on the 39
      states (including the District of Columbia) reporting to the CDC Childhood Lead
      Poisoning Prevention Program during the study period. Analyses were conducted
      both including and excluding states and years of nonreporting to the CDC.
      RESULTS: Approximately 1.2 million cases of EBLL are believed to have occurred in
      this period, but 607 000 (50%) were reported to the CDC. Including only states
      and years for which reporting was complete, the reporting rate was 64%. Pediatric
      care providers in 23 of 39 reporting states identified fewer than half of their
      children with EBLL. Although the greatest numbers of reported cases were from the
      Northeast and Midwest, the greatest numbers based on prevalence estimates
      occurred in the South. In southern and western states engaged in reporting,
      roughly 3 times as many children with EBLL were missed than were diagnosed.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on the best available estimates, undertesting of blood lead
      levels by pediatric care providers appears to be endemic in many states.

PMID- 28557760
TI  - Prophylactic Early Erythropoietin for Neuroprotection in Preterm Infants: A Meta
      analysis.
AB  - CONTEXT: Recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) is a promising pharmacological
      agent for neuroprotection in neonates. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether
      prophylactic rhEPO administration in very preterm infants improves
      neurodevelopmental outcomes in a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
      (RCTs). DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials were searched in December 2016 and complemented by other
      sources. STUDY SELECTION: RCTs investigating the use of rhEPO in preterm infants
      versus a control group were selected if they were published in a peer-reviewed
      journal and reported neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 to 24 months' corrected
      age. DATA EXTRACTION: Data extraction and analysis followed the standard methods
      of the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group. The primary outcome was the number of
      infants with a Mental Developmental Index (MDI) <70 on the Bayley Scales of
      Infant Development. Secondary outcomes included a Psychomotor Development Index
      <70, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, and hearing impairment. RESULTS: Four
      RCTs, comprising 1133 infants, were included in the meta-analysis. Prophylactic
      rhEPO administration reduced the incidence of children with an MDI <70, with an
      odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.51 (0.31-0.81), P < .005. The number
      needed to treat was 14. There was no statistically significant effect on any
      secondary outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic rhEPO improved the cognitive
      development of very preterm infants, as assessed by the MDI at a corrected age of
      18 to 24 months, without affecting other neurodevelopmental outcomes. Current and
      future RCTs should investigate optimal dosing and timing of prophylactic rhEPO
      and plan for long-term neurodevelopmental follow-up.

PMID- 28557762
TI  - Maintenance of Certification and the Challenge of Professionalism.
AB  - Board certification has been part of the social contract in which physicians
      commit to maintaining up-to-date scientific knowledge and improving the quality
      of patient care. However, the maintenance of certification program has been
      controversial. This review summarizes the philosophical underpinnings, published
      literature, recent improvements, and future directions of the American Board of
      Pediatrics maintenance of certification program.

PMID- 28557761
TI  - Celiac Disease and Anorexia Nervosa: A Nationwide Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests an association of celiac
      disease (CD) with anorexia nervosa (AN), but data are mostly limited to case
      reports. We aimed to determine whether CD is associated with the diagnosis of AN.
      METHODS: Register-based cohort and case-control study including women with CD (n
      = 17 959) and sex- and age-matched population-based controls (n = 89 379). CD
      (villous atrophy) was identified through the histopathology records of Sweden's
      28 pathology departments. Inpatient and hospital-based outpatient records were
      used to identify AN. Hazard ratios for incident AN diagnosis were estimated by
      using stratified Cox regression with CD diagnosis as a time-dependent exposure
      variable. In the secondary analyses, we used conditional logistic regression to
      estimate odds ratios for being diagnosed with AN before CD. RESULTS: Median age
      of CD diagnosis was 28 years. During 1 174 401 person-years of follow-up, 54
      patients with CD were diagnosed with AN (27/100 000 person-years) compared with
      180 matched controls (18/100 000 person-years). The hazard ratio for later AN was
      1.46 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.98) and 1.31 beyond the first year
      after CD diagnosis (95% CI, 0.95-1.81). A previous AN diagnosis was also
      associated with CD (odds ratio, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.45-3.29). Estimates remained
      largely unchanged when adjusted for socioeconomic characteristics and type 1
      diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: The bidirectional association between AN diagnosis and CD
      warrants attention in the initial assessment and follow-up of these conditions
      because underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of these disorders likely cause
      protracted and unnecessary morbidity.

PMID- 28557763
TI  - No Surprise: The Rate of Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities Is Related to
      Poverty.

PMID- 28557765
TI  - Young Adults With Chronic Illness: How Can We Improve Transitions to Adult Care?

PMID- 28557764
TI  - The Promise of Early Childhood Self-Regulation for Obesity Prevention.

PMID- 28557766
TI  - Re: Time to Change NRP.

PMID- 28557767
TI  - The Importance of Contextual and Temporal Accuracy When Studying Novel Tobacco
      Products.

PMID- 28557768
TI  - Authors' Response.

PMID- 28557769
TI  - We Agree on the Importance of Contextual and Temporal Accuracy When Studying
      Novel Tobacco Products.

PMID- 28557770
TI  - Disaster Preparedness in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.
AB  - Disasters disproportionally affect vulnerable, technology-dependent people,
      including preterm and critically ill newborn infants. It is important for health
      care providers to be aware of and prepared for the potential consequences of
      disasters for the NICU. Neonatal intensive care personnel can provide specialized
      expertise for their hospital, community, and regional emergency preparedness
      plans and can help develop institutional surge capacity for mass critical care,
      including equipment, medications, personnel, and facility resources.

PMID- 28557771
TI  - Transplanting One Problem for Another.

PMID- 28557772
TI  - Celiac Disease and Anorexia Nervosa-An Association Well Worth Considering.

PMID- 28557773
TI  - Corticosteroids and Asthma: Too Much or Too Little?

PMID- 28557774
TI  - The Primary Care Pediatrician and the Care of Children With Cleft Lip and/or
      Cleft Palate.
AB  - Orofacial clefts, specifically cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P), are among
      the most common congenital anomalies. CL/P vary in their location and severity
      and comprise 3 overarching groups: cleft lip (CL), cleft lip with cleft palate
      (CLP), and cleft palate alone (CP). CL/P may be associated with one of many
      syndromes that could further complicate a child's needs. Care of patients with
      CL/P spans prenatal diagnosis into adulthood. The appropriate timing and order of
      specific cleft-related care are important factors for optimizing outcomes;
      however, care should be individualized to meet the specific needs of each patient
      and family. Children with CL/P should receive their specialty cleft-related care
      from a multidisciplinary cleft or craniofacial team with sufficient patient and
      surgical volume to promote successful outcomes. The primary care pediatrician at
      the child's medical home has an essential role in making a timely diagnosis and
      referral; providing ongoing health care maintenance, anticipatory guidance, and
      acute care; and functioning as an advocate for the patient and a liaison between
      the family and the craniofacial/cleft team. This document provides background on
      CL/P and multidisciplinary team care, information about typical timing and order
      of cleft-related care, and recommendations for cleft/craniofacial teams and
      primary care pediatricians in the care of children with CL/P.

PMID- 28557776
TI  - The Breastfeeding-Friendly Pediatric Office Practice.
AB  - The landscape of breastfeeding has changed over the past several decades as more
      women initiate breastfeeding in the postpartum period and more hospitals are
      designated as Baby-Friendly Hospitals by following the evidence-based Ten Steps
      to Successful Breastfeeding. The number of births in such facilities has
      increased more than sixfold over the past decade. With more women breastfeeding
      and stays in the maternity facilities lasting only a few days, the vast majority
      of continued breastfeeding support occurs in the community. Pediatric care
      providers evaluate breastfeeding infants and their mothers in the office setting
      frequently during the first year of life. The office setting should be conducive
      to providing ongoing breastfeeding support. Likewise, the office practice should
      avoid creating barriers for breastfeeding mothers and families or unduly
      promoting infant formula. This clinical report aims to review practices shown to
      support breastfeeding that can be implemented in the outpatient setting, with the
      ultimate goal of increasing the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and the
      continuation of any breastfeeding.

PMID- 28557775
TI  - Nonemergency Acute Care: When It's Not the Medical Home.
AB  - The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) affirms that the optimal location for
      children to receive care for acute, nonemergency health concerns is the medical
      home. The medical home is characterized by the AAP as a care model that "must be
      accessible, family centered, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated,
      compassionate, and culturally effective." However, some children and families use
      acute care services outside the medical home because there is a perceived or real
      benefit related to accessibility, convenience, or cost of care. Examples of such
      acute care entities include urgent care facilities, retail-based clinics, and
      commercial telemedicine services. Children deserve high-quality, appropriate, and
      safe acute care services wherever they access the health care system, with timely
      and complete communication with the medical home, to ensure coordinated and
      continuous care. Treatment of children under established, new, and evolving
      practice arrangements in acute care entities should adhere to the core principles
      of continuity of care and communication, best practices within a defined scope of
      services, pediatric-trained staff, safe transitions of care, and continuous
      improvement. In support of the medical home, the AAP urges stakeholders,
      including payers, to avoid any incentives (eg, reduced copays) that encourage
      visits to external entities for acute issues as a preference over the medical
      home.

PMID- 28557777
TI  - An assessment of residents' and fellows' personal finance literacy: an unmet
      medical education need.
AB  - Objectives: This study aimed to assess residents' and fellows' knowledge of
      finance principles that may affect their personal financial health. Methods: A
      cross-sectional, anonymous, web-based survey was administered to a convenience
      sample of residents and fellows at two academic medical centers.  Respondents
      answered 20 questions on personal finance and 28 questions about their own
      financial planning, attitudes, and debt. Questions regarding satisfaction with
      one's financial condition and investment-risk tolerance used a 10-point Likert
      scale (1=lowest, 10=highest).  Of 2,010 trainees, 422 (21%) responded (median age
      30 years; interquartile range, 28-33). Results: The mean quiz score was 52.0% (SD
      = 19.1). Of 299 (71%) respondents with student loan debt, 144 (48%) owed over
      $200,000.  Many respondents had other debt, including 86 (21%) with credit card
      debt. Of 262 respondents with retirement savings, 142 (52%) had saved less than
      $25,000. Respondents' mean satisfaction with their current personal financial
      condition was 4.8 (SD = 2.5) and investment-risk tolerance was 5.3 (SD = 2.3).
      Indebted trainees reported lower satisfaction than trainees without debt (4.4 vs.
      6.2, F (1,419) = 41.57, p < .001).   Knowledge was moderately correlated with
      investment-risk tolerance (r=0.41, p < .001), and weakly correlated with
      satisfaction with financial status (r=0.23, p < .001). Conclusions: Residents and
      fellows had low financial literacy and investment-risk tolerance, high debt, and
      deficits in their financial preparedness.  Adding personal financial education to
      the medical education curriculum would benefit trainees.  Providing education in
      areas such as budgeting, estate planning, investment strategies, and retirement
      planning early in training can offer significant long-term benefits.

PMID- 28557778
TI  - PreScription: United States Pharmacopeia Chapter <800> Comments and Alternatives.

PMID- 28557779
TI  - Adventures in the Environmental World and Environmental Microbiology Sampling of
      Air for Pharmaceutical Sterile Compounding.
AB  - Chapter <797> issued by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc. is the
      standard for sterile compounding. It is designed to reduce the number of patient
      infections due to contaminated pharmaceutical preparation. This regulation
      applies to all staff who prepare compounded sterile preparations and all places
      where they are produced, including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and
      physician's offices. This article provides the history of environmental
      microbiology and provides a discussion on environmental microbiology sampling of
      air for pharmaceutical sterile compounding.

PMID- 28557780
TI  - Microbiologic Testing for 503A Sterile-Compounding Pharmacies.
AB  - Compounding pharmacists must ensure that the sterile preparations they dispense
      are free of microbiologic contamination. Working in a cleanroom under controlled
      conditions (proper differential air pressure, temperature, and humidity;
      acceptable levels of viable and nonviable airborne particles and surface counts,
      etc.) and testing the efficacy of cleaning and disinfecting practices via
      environmental monitoring (viable-air and surface testing, glove-fingertip-thumb
      testing, etc.) are essential to preparing contamination-free medications. Sterile
      compounding pharmacists must understand how to monitor their cleanroom
      environment and, if they perform testing in house, to interpret the results of
      simple microbiologic tests (a skill helpful even when tests are outsourced to a
      contract laboratory). In this article, which pertains to 503A sterile
      compounding, and is based on the current version of United States Pharmacopeia
      (USP) Chapter <797>, basic concepts in microbiology and the microbial tests that
      can be performed and interpreted in house and those that must be outsourced are
      discussed. Streamlining communication with contract laboratory personnel is
      reviewed. Requirements for an inhouse microbiology laboratory are presented, and
      the advantages and disadvantages of inhouse and outsourced testing are examined.
      A list of suggested reading is provided for easy reference. In a subsequent
      article, environmental monitoring and analysis will be addressed in detail.

PMID- 28557781
TI  - Management of Psoriasis with a XemaTop Topical Compounded Formula: A Case Report.
AB  - Skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema negatively impact the patient's
      quality of life; the primary goal of topical treatments is to minimize the
      disease-specific symptoms. This case report discusses the management of two
      refractory psoriasis skin lesions in an adult male using a topical compounded
      formula. The psoriasis symptoms were assessed quantitatively using two validated
      research instruments, the Psoriasis Symptom Inventory, and an adapted Numeric
      Rating Scale. A qualitative assessment was also performed by evaluating the
      digital photographs taken by the patient during the course of treatment. The
      compounded formula containing zinc pyrithione, clobetasol propionate, and
      cyanocobalamin in the Professional Compounding Centers of America's proprietary
      base PCCA XemaTop, applied topically for three weeks, significantly reduced the
      patient's self-reported psoriasis symptoms and improved his overall condition by
      81.2%. This successful case report is important evidence for healthcare
      professionals when considering new, innovative topical compounded formulas for
      managing skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema.

PMID- 28557782
TI  - International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists Legislative/Regulatory Update.

PMID- 28557783
TI  - Basics of Compounding: 3D Printing--Pharmacy Applications, Part 2.
AB  - 3D printing is a standard tool in the automotive, aerospace, and consumer goods
      in industry and is gaining traction in pharmaceutical manufacturing, which has
      introduced a new element into dosage-form development. This article, which
      represents part 2 of a 3-part article on the topic of 3D printing, discusses the
      different technologies available for 3D printing.

PMID- 28557784
TI  - Basics of Sterile Compounding: Manipulating Peptides and Proteins.
AB  - Biopharmaceuticals contain primary and secondary structure, which offer few
      problems. It is the tertiary structure that causes problems, resulting in both
      physical and chemical stability issues. The thrust of this article is to share
      briefly what can be done to minimize these problems.

PMID- 28557785
TI  - Updated Stability Data for Midazolam, Oseltamivir Phosphate, and Propranolol
      Hydrochloride in SyrSpend SF and Minoxidil in Espumil.

PMID- 28557786
TI  - Absorption of Transdermal Fluoxetine Compounded in a Lipoderm Base Compared to
      Oral Fluoxetine in Client-owned Cats.
AB  - The objective of this study was to compare serum concentrations of transdermal
      fluoxetine compounded in Lipoderm base versus commercially available oral
      fluoxetine tablets. Sixteen clinically healthy, client-owned cats that were at
      least one year of age were enrolled. Cats weighed between three and seven
      kilograms, had no comorbidities, and were behavior medication naive. Cats were
      recruited from January 2016 through April 2016. Eight cats were assigned to each
      medication group based on owner preference. The cats received either oral (1
      mg/kg) or transdermal (5 mg/kg; maximum 25 mg daily) fluoxetine compounded in a
      transdermal base (PCCA Lipoderm), administered daily for 60 days. Serum levels of
      fluoxetine and norfluoxetine were assessed as a surrogate for relative efficacy.
      Serum was collected and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry/mass spectrometry at baseline and days 5, 10, 30, 45, and 60 post
      drug start. Adverse effects were monitored during physical exams, speaking with
      owners, and laboratory analysis of liver function tests at baseline and days 5,
      30, and 60 post-drug start. Serum fluoxetine concentrations significantly
      differed between the treatment groups at days 45 and 60 post-drug start.
      Norfluoxetine concentrations significantly differed at days 30, 45, and 60 post
      drug start. Blood concentrations of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine significantly
      differed between oral and transdermal routes after 30 days of treatment. Oral
      fluoxetine concentrations were consistently higher. Transdermal fluoxetine
      appeared to be well-tolerated, but a lack of knowledge regarding effective blood
      levels makes it unclear if a clinical effective response would be obtained at the
      blood concentrations achieved.

PMID- 28557787
TI  - Warfarin Personalized Dosage: Re-compounding for a More Suitable Therapy and
      Better Compliance.
AB  - Warfarin is still the most prescribed oral anticoagulant prescribed for the
      prophylaxis and treatment of thromboembolic events such as stroke, heart attack,
      embolism, and deep vein thrombosis. It is administered orally in the form of
      sodium salt as a tablet with a typical strength of 5 mg. The molecule has a
      narrow therapeutic index. As a consequence, the dosage must be individualized for
      each patient based on the patient response in terms of time of coagulation. Thus,
      warfarin represents an example of a drug whose dose needs to be tailored to
      individual requirements that are often changing and, therefore, constitute a
      paramount illustration of personalized medicine. The aim of the present work was
      to investigate to what extent the manual division of a warfarin tablet by the
      patient represents an issue in terms of dose accuracy and precision. A second
      goal was to demonstrate that possible problems stemming from the manual division
      of the warfarin tablet could be overcome by compounding a solid dosage form
      (e.g., a capsule) starting from the commercially available warfarin product. The
      results of the present study put into evidence the great inhomogeneity and
      discrepancy from the target dose obtained when commercially available warfarin
      tablets are manually divided in four parts. This represents a potential source of
      inefficacy of the anticoagulant activity, with increased risk of either bleeding
      or thromboembolic events. The proposed solution is effective and yet simple and
      economically affordable, in particular considering the cost of the possible
      hospitalizations related to therapy failure.

PMID- 28557788
TI  - Stability of Extemporaneously Prepared Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate 25-mg/mL
      Suspensions in Plastic Bottles and Syringes.
AB  - This study evaluated the stability of the antimalarial and anti-rheumatic drug
      hydroxychloroquine sulfate in two commercially available suspension vehicles,
      Oral Mix and Oral Mix SF (Medisca Pharmaceutique Inc.). Hydroxychloroquine
      sulfate (25 mg/mL) suspension was prepared, packaged in amber 50-mL polyethylene
      terephthalate bottles and amber 3-mL syringes, and stored at room temperature or
      at 4 degrees C. Samples were collected and analyzed over a 16-week period by high
      performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection at 340 nm.
      Approximately 99.8% of the hydroxychloroquine remained at the conclusion of the
      study, with no observable difference between room temperature and refrigerated
      storage. Hydroxychloroquine sulfate is stable for at least 90 days in Medisca
      Oral Mix or Oral Mix SF suspension media at 25 degrees C and 4 degrees C.

PMID- 28557789
TI  - Stability of Alprazolam, Atropine Sulfate, Glutamine, Levofloxacin, Metoprolol
      Tartrate, Nitrofurantoin, Ondansetron Hydrochloride, Oxandrolone, Pregabaline,
      and Riboflavin in SyrSpend SF pH4 Oral Suspensions.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the stability of 10 commonly used
      active pharmaceutical ingredients compounded in oral suspensions using an
      internationally used suspending vehicle (SyrSpend SF PH4): alprazolam 1.0 mg/mL,
      atropine sulfate 0.1 mg/mL, glutamine 250.0 mg/mL, levofloxacin 50.0 mg/mL,
      metoprolol tartrate 10.0 mg/mL, nitrofurantoin 2.0 mg/mL, ondansetron
      hydrochloride 0.8 mg/mL, oxandrolone 3.0 mg/mL, pregabaline 20.0 mg/mL,
      riboflavin 10.0 mg/mL. All suspensions were stored at both controlled
      refrigeration (2 degrees C to 8 degrees C) and controlled room temperature (20
      degrees C to 25 degrees C). Stability was assessed by measuring the percent
      recovery at varying time points throughout a 90-day period. Active pharmaceutical
      ingredients quantification was performed by high-performance liquid
      chromatography via a stability-indicating method. Given the percentage of
      recovery of the active pharmaceutical ingredients within the suspensions, the
      beyond-use date of the final products (active pharmaceutical ingredients +
      vehicle) was at least 90 days for all suspensions with regard to both
      temperatures. This suggests that the vehicle is stable for compounding active
      pharmaceutical ingredients from different pharmacological classes.

PMID- 28557791
TI  - Packing in protein cores.
AB  - Proteins are biological polymers that underlie all cellular functions. The first
      high-resolution protein structures were determined by x-ray crystallography in
      the 1960s. Since then, there has been continued interest in understanding and
      predicting protein structure and stability. It is well-established that a large
      contribution to protein stability originates from the sequestration from solvent
      of hydrophobic residues in the protein core. How are such hydrophobic residues
      arranged in the core; how can one best model the packing of these residues, and
      are residues loosely packed with multiple allowed side chain conformations or
      densely packed with a single allowed side chain conformation? Here we show that
      to properly model the packing of residues in protein cores it is essential that
      amino acids are represented by appropriately calibrated atom sizes, and that
      hydrogen atoms are explicitly included. We show that protein cores possess a
      packing fraction of [Formula: see text], which is significantly less than the
      typically quoted value of 0.74 obtained using the extended atom representation.
      We also compare the results for the packing of amino acids in protein cores to
      results obtained for jammed packings from discrete element simulations of
      spheres, elongated particles, and composite particles with bumpy surfaces. We
      show that amino acids in protein cores pack as densely as disordered jammed
      packings of particles with similar values for the aspect ratio and bumpiness as
      found for amino acids. Knowing the structural properties of protein cores is of
      both fundamental and practical importance. Practically, it enables the assessment
      of changes in the structure and stability of proteins arising from amino acid
      mutations (such as those identified as a result of the massive human genome
      sequencing efforts) and the design of new folded, stable proteins and protein
      protein interactions with tunable specificity and affinity.

PMID- 28557793
TI  - Stationary nano-SQUID: theoretical investigation and feasibility analysis.
AB  - The standard operation of a dc SQUID leads to oscillatory electric fields that
      emit electromagnetic radiation. We estimate the effect that this radiation could
      have on the measured sample. A stationary SQUID could be advantageous if the
      oscillation contribution to back action on the measured sample has to be avoided.
      We study a superconducting loop that encloses a magnetic flux, connected to a
      superconducting and to a normal electrode, when a fixed electric current between
      the electrodes flows across the loop. The considered circuit does not contain
      Josephson junctions. We find that in a very broad range of parameters the current
      flow converges to a stationary regime, i.e. the densities of normal current and
      of supercurrent become functions of position only, independent of time. The
      potential difference between the electrodes depends on the magnetic flux, so that
      measuring this voltage would provide information on the enclosed flux. The
      influence of thermal noise was estimated. The sizes of the voltage and of the
      power dissipation could be appropriate for the design of a practical fluxmeter.
      We found narrow ranges of flux at which the voltage varies sharply with the flux.

PMID- 28557792
TI  - The approximate entropy concept extended to three dimensions for calibrated,
      single parameter structural complexity interrogation of volumetric images.
AB  - Reconstructive volumetric imaging permeates medical practice because of its
      apparently clear depiction of anatomy. However, the tell tale signs of
      abnormality and its delineation for treatment demand experts work at the
      threshold of visibility for hints of structure. Hitherto, a suitable assistive
      metric that chimes with clinical experience has been absent. This paper develops
      the complexity measure approximate entropy (ApEn) from its 1D physiological
      origin into a three-dimensional (3D) algorithm to fill this gap. The first 3D
      algorithm for this is presented in detail. Validation results for known test
      arrays are followed by a comparison of fan-beam and cone-beam x-ray computed
      tomography image volumes used in image guided radiotherapy for cancer. Results
      show the structural detail down to individual voxel level, the strength of which
      is calibrated by the ApEn process itself. The potential for application in
      machine assisted manual interaction and automated image processing and
      interrogation, including radiomics associated with predictive outcome modeling,
      is discussed.

PMID- 28557794
TI  - Disentangling electron- and electric-field-induced ring-closing reactions in a
      diarylethene derivative on Ag(1 1 1).
AB  - Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy we investigate the
      adsorption properties and ring-closing reaction of a diarylethene derivative (C5F
      4Py) on a Ag(1 1 1) surface. We identify an electron-induced reaction mechanism,
      with a quantum yield varying from 10-14-10-9 per electron upon variation of the
      bias voltage from 1-2 V. We ascribe the drastic increase in switching efficiency
      to a resonant enhancement upon tunneling through molecular orbitals.
      Additionally, we resolve the ring-closing reaction even in the absence of a
      current passing through the molecule. In this case the electric-field can modify
      the reaction barrier, leading to a finite switching probability at 4.8 K. A
      detailed analysis of the switching events shows that a simple plate-capacitor
      model for the tip-surface junction is insufficient to explain the distance
      dependence of the switching voltage. Instead, describing the tip as a sphere is
      in agreement with the findings. We resolve small differences in the adsorption
      configuration of the closed isomer, when comparing the electron- and field
      induced switching product.

PMID- 28557795
TI  - Odd-frequency superconductivity induced in topological insulators with and
      without hexagonal warping.
AB  - We study the effect of the Fermi surface anisotropy on the odd-frequency spin
      triplet pairing component of the induced pair potential. We consider a
      superconductor/ ferromagnetic insulator (S/FI) hybrid structure formed on the 3D
      topological insulator (TI) surface. In this case three ingredients ensure the
      possibility of the odd-frequency pairing: (1) the topological surface states, (2)
      the induced pair potential, and (3) the magnetic moment of a nearby ferromagnetic
      insulator. We take into account the strong anisotropy of the Dirac point in
      topological insulators when the chemical potential lies well above the Dirac cone
      and its constant energy contour has a snowflake shape. Within this model, we
      propose that the S/FI boundary should be properly aligned with respect to the
      snowflake constant energy contour to have an odd-frequency symmetry of the
      corresponding pairing component and to insure the Majorana bound state at the
      S/FI boundary. For arbitrary orientation of the boundary, the Majorana bound
      state is absent. This provides a selection rule to the realization of Majorana
      modes in S/FI hybrid structures, formed on the topological insulator surface.

PMID- 28557796
TI  - Geometric decoherence of valley excitons in monolayer transition metal
      dichachogenides.
AB  - We study the effects of the Berry phases of the valley excitons in the monolayer
      transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) when the valley excitons are manipulated
      by an external terahertz field. We find that the decoherence of the valley degree
      of freedom of the valley excitons is spontaneously induced because of the
      different Berry phases of valley excitons accumulated along the opposite
      trajectories under the manipulation of the external field. It is called the
      geometric decoherence because it completely results from the geometric phases.
      The obvious phenomenon related to such spontaneous decoherence is the gradual
      decrement of the dipole moment matrix element of the valley exciton and
      consequently the decrement of the emitted signals after the valley excitons are
      recombined. Moreover, another effect due to the Berry phases is the giant Faraday
      rotation of the polarization of the emitted photons. Such imperfection of the
      valley degree of freedom is supposed to provide the potential limits of the
      valleytronics based on the TMDs optoelecronic devices.

PMID- 28557797
TI  - Pressure-induced insulator-metal transition in EuMnO3.
AB  - We study the influence of external pressure on the electronic and magnetic
      structure of EuMnO3 from first-principles calculations. We find a pressure
      induced insulator-metal transition at which the magnetic order changes from A
      type antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic with a strong interplay with Jahn-Teller
      distortions. In addition, we find that the non-centrosymmetric E *-type
      antiferromagnetic order can become nearly degenerate with the ferromagnetic
      ground state in the high-pressure metallic state. This situation can be exploited
      to promote a magnetically-driven realization of a non-centrosymmetric
      (ferroelectric-like) metal.

PMID- 28557798
TI  - Thermal ablation of a confluent lesion in the porcine kidney with a clinically
      available MR-HIFU system.
AB  - : The incidence of small renal masses (SRMs) sized  <4 cm has increased over the
      decades (as co-findings/or due to introduction of cross sectional imaging).
      Currently, partial nephrectomy (PN) or watchful waiting is advised in these
      patients. Ultimately, 80-90% of these SRMs require surgical treatment and PN is
      associated with a 15% complication rate. In this aging population, with possible
      comorbidities and poor health condition, both PN and watchful waiting are non
      ideal treatment options. This resulted in an increased need for early, non
      invasive treatment strategies such as MR-guided high intensity focused ultrasound
      (MR-HIFU). (i) To investigate the feasibility of creating a confluent lesion in
      the kidney using respiratory-gated MR-HIFU under clinical conditions in a pre
      clinical study and (ii) to evaluate the reproducibility of the MR-HIFU ablation
      strategy. Healthy pigs (n  =  10) under general anesthesia were positioned on a
      clinical MR-HIFU system with integrated cooling. A honeycomb pattern of seven
      overlapping ablation cells (4  *  4  *  10 mm3, 450 W, <30 s) was ablated
      successively in the cortex of the porcine kidney. Both MR thermometry and
      acoustic energy delivery were respiratory gated using a pencil beam navigator on
      the contralateral kidney. The non-perfused volume (NPV) was visualized after the
      last sonication by contrast-enhanced (CE) T 1-weighted MR (T 1 w) imaging. Cell
      viability staining was performed to visualize the extent of necrosis. RESULTS: a
      median NPV of 0.62 ml was observed on CE-T 1 w images (IQR 0.58-1.57 ml, range
      0.33-2.75 ml). Cell viability staining showed a median damaged volume of 0.59 ml
      (IQR 0.24-1.35 ml, range 0-4.1 ml). Overlooking of the false rib, shivering of
      the pig, and too large depth combined with a large heat-sink effect resulted in
      insufficient heating in 4 cases. The NPV and necrosed volume were confluent in
      all cases in which an ablated volume could be observed. Our results demonstrated
      the feasibility of creating a confluent volume of ablated kidney cortical tissue
      in vivo with MR-HIFU on a clinically available system using respiratory gating
      and near-field cooling and showed its reproducibility.

PMID- 28557799
TI  - Repeatability of dose painting by numbers treatment planning in prostate cancer
      radiotherapy based on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - Dose painting by numbers (DPBN) refers to a voxel-wise prescription of radiation
      dose modelled from functional image characteristics, in contrast to dose painting
      by contours which requires delineations to define the target for dose escalation.
      The direct relation between functional imaging characteristics and DPBN implies
      that random variations in images may propagate into the dose distribution. The
      stability of MR-only prostate cancer treatment planning based on DPBN with
      respect to these variations is as yet unknown. We conducted a test-retest study
      to investigate the stability of DPBN for prostate cancer in a semi-automated MR
      only treatment planning workflow. Twelve patients received a multiparametric MRI
      on two separate days prior to prostatectomy. The tumor probability (TP) within
      the prostate was derived from image features with a logistic regression model.
      Dose mapping functions were applied to acquire a DPBN prescription map that
      served to generate an intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment
      plan. Dose calculations were done on a pseudo-CT derived from the MRI. The TP and
      DPBN map and the IMRT dose distribution were compared between both MRI sessions,
      using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to quantify repeatability of
      the planning pipeline. The quality of each treatment plan was measured with a
      quality factor (QF). Median ICC values for the TP and DPBN map and the IMRT dose
      distribution were 0.82, 0.82 and 0.88, respectively, for linear dose mapping and
      0.82, 0.84 and 0.94 for square root dose mapping. A median QF of 3.4% was found
      among all treatment plans. We demonstrated the stability of DPBN radiotherapy
      treatment planning in prostate cancer, with excellent overall repeatability and
      acceptable treatment plan quality. Using validated tumor probability modelling
      and simple dose mapping techniques it was shown that despite day-to-day
      variations in imaging data still consistent treatment plans were obtained.

PMID- 28557801
TI  - A comprehensive model for x-ray projection imaging system efficiency and image
      quality characterization in the presence of scattered radiation.
AB  - This work proposes a method for assessing the detective quantum efficiency (DQE)
      of radiographic imaging systems that include both the x-ray detector and the
      antiscatter device. Cascaded linear analysis of the antiscatter device efficiency
      (DQEASD) with the x-ray detector DQE is used to develop a metric of system
      efficiency (DQEsys); the new metric is then related to the existing system
      efficiency parameters of effective DQE (eDQE) and generalized DQE (gDQE). The
      effect of scatter on signal transfer was modelled through its point spread
      function (PSF), leading to an x-ray beam transfer function (BTF) that multiplies
      with the classical presampling modulation transfer function (MTF) to give the
      system MTF. Expressions are then derived for the influence of scattered radiation
      on signal-difference to noise ratio (SDNR) and contrast-detail (c-d)
      detectability. The DQEsys metric was tested using two digital mammography
      systems, for eight x-ray beams (four with and four without scatter), matched in
      terms of effective energy. The model was validated through measurements of
      contrast, SDNR and MTF for poly(methyl)methacrylate thicknesses covering the
      range of scatter fractions expected in mammography. The metric also successfully
      predicted changes in c-d detectability for different scatter conditions. Scatter
      fractions for the four beams with scatter were established with the beam stop
      method using an extrapolation function derived from the scatter PSF, and
      validated through Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Low-frequency drop of the MTF
      from scatter was compared to both theory and MC calculations. DQEsys successfully
      quantified the influence of the grid on SDNR and accurately gave the break-even
      object thickness at which system efficiency was improved by the grid. The DQEsys
      metric is proposed as an extension of current detector characterization methods
      to include a performance evaluation in the presence of scattered radiation, with
      an antiscatter device in place.

PMID- 28557800
TI  - Lateral variations of radiobiological properties of therapeutic fields of 1H,
      4He, 12C and 16O ions studied with Geant4 and microdosimetric kinetic model.
AB  - As known, in cancer therapy with ion beams the relative biological effectiveness
      (RBE) of ions changes in the course of their propagation in tissues. Such changes
      are caused not only by increasing the linear energy transfer (LET) of beam
      particles with the penetration depth towards the Bragg peak, but also by nuclear
      reactions induced by beam nuclei leading to the production of various secondary
      particles. Although the changes of RBE along the beam axis have been studied
      quite well, much less attention has been paid to the evolution of RBE in the
      transverse direction, perpendicular to the beam axis. In order to fill this gap,
      we simulated radiation fields of 1H, 4He, 12C and 16O nuclei of 20 mm in diameter
      by means of a Geant4-based Monte Carlo model for heavy-ion therapy connected with
      the modified microdosimetric kinetic model to describe the response of normal
      ([Formula: see text] Gy) and early-responding ([Formula: see text] Gy) tissues.
      Depth and radial distributions of saturation-corrected dose-mean lineal energy,
      RBE and RBE-weighted dose are investigated for passive beam shaping and active
      beam scanning. The field of 4He has a small lateral spread as compared with 1H
      field, and it is characterised by a modest lateral variation of RBE suggesting
      the use of fixed RBE values across the field transverse cross section at each
      depth. Reduced uncertainties of RBE on the boundary of a 4He treatment field can
      be advantageous in a specific case of an organ at risk located in lateral
      proximity to the target volume. It is found that the lateral distributions of RBE
      calculated for 12C and 16O fields demonstrate fast variations in the radial
      direction due to changes of dose and composition of secondary fragments in the
      field penumbra. Nevertheless, the radiation fields of all four projectiles at
      radii larger than 20 mm can be characterized by a common RBE value defined by
      tissue radiosensitivity. These findings can help, in particular, in accessing the
      transverse homogeneity of radiation fields of ions used in studies in vitro.

PMID- 28557802
TI  - Negative differential resistance in armchair silicene nanoribbons.
AB  - Due to dimensional confinement of carriers and non-trivial changes in the
      electronic structure, novel tunable transport properties manifest in nanoscale
      materials. Here, we report using first-principles density functional theory and
      non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, the occurrence of negative
      differential resistance (NDR) in armchair silicene nanoribbons (ASNRs).
      Interestingly, NDR manifests only in pristine [Formula: see text] ASNRs, where
      [Formula: see text]. We show that the origin of such a novel transport phenomenon
      lies in the bias-induced changes in the density of states of this particular
      family of nanoribbons. With increasing width of the nanoribbons belonging to this
      family, the peak-to-valley ratios of current decrease due to the increase in the
      number of sub-bands leading to a reduction in NDR. NDR is possible not only in
      [Formula: see text] ASNRs, but also in mixed configurations of armchair and
      zigzag silicene nanoribbons. This universality of NDR along with its
      unprecedented width-induced tunability can be useful for silicene-based low-power
      logic and memory applications.

PMID- 28557803
TI  - Grueneisen-approach for the experimental determination of transient spin and
      phonon energies from ultrafast x-ray diffraction data: gadolinium.
AB  - We study gadolinium thin films as a model system for ferromagnets with negative
      thermal expansion. Ultrashort laser pulses heat up the electronic subsystem and
      we follow the transient strain via ultrafast x-ray diffraction. In terms of a
      simple Grueneisen approach, the strain is decomposed into two contributions
      proportional to the thermal energy of spin and phonon subsystems. Our analysis
      reveals that upon femtosecond laser excitation, phonons and spins can be driven
      out of thermal equilibrium for several nanoseconds.

PMID- 28557804
TI  - Enhancing the stiffness of vertical graphene sheets through ion beam irradiation
      and fluorination.
AB  - Many applications of graphene can benefit from the enhanced mechanical robustness
      of graphene-based components. We report how the stiffness of vertical graphene
      (VG) sheets is affected by the introduction of defects and fluorination, both
      separately and combined. The defects were created using a high-energy ion beam
      while fluorination was performed in a XeF2 etching system. After ion bombardment
      alone, the average effective reduced modulus (E r), equal to ~4.9 MPa for the as
      grown VG sheets, approximately doubled to ~10.0 MPa, while fluorination alone
      almost quadrupled it to ~18.4 MPa. The maximum average E r of ~32.4 MPa was
      achieved by repeatedly applying fluorination and ion bombardment. This increase
      can be explained by the formation of covalent bonds between the VG sheets due to
      ion bombardment, as well as the conversion from sp2 to sp3 and increased
      corrugation due to fluorination.

PMID- 28557805
TI  - Cancer cell death pathways caused by photothermal and photodynamic effects
      through gold nanoring induced surface plasmon resonance.
AB  - The different death pathways of cancer cells under the conditions of the
      photothermal (PT), effect, photodynamic (PD) effect, and their combination are
      evaluated. By incubating cells with Au nanoring (NRI) either linked with the
      photosensitizer, AlPcS, or not, the illumination of a visible continuous laser
      for exciting the photosensitizer or an infrared femtosecond laser for exciting
      the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au NRI, leads to various PT and PD
      conditions for study. Three different staining dyes are used for identifying the
      cell areas of different damage conditions at different temporal points of
      observation. The cell death pathways and apoptotic evolution speeds under
      different cell treatment conditions are evaluated based on the calibration of the
      threshold laser fluences for causing early-apoptosis (EA) and necrosis (NE) or
      late-apoptosis (LA). It is found that with the PT effect only, strong cell NE is
      generated and the transition from EA into LA is faster than that caused by the PD
      effect when the EA stage is reached within 0.5 h after laser illumination. By
      combining the PT and PD effects, in the first few hours, the transition speed
      becomes lower, compared to the case of the PT effect only, when both Au NRIs
      internalized into cells and adsorbed on cell membrane exist. When the Au NRIs on
      cell membrane is removed, in the first few hours, the transition speed becomes
      higher, compared to the case of the PD effect only.

PMID- 28557806
TI  - Analytical study of the edge states in the bosonic Haldane model.
AB  - We investigate the properties of magnon edge states in a ferromagnetic honeycomb
      spin lattice with a Dzialozinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). We derive analytical
      expressions for the energy spectra and wavefunctions of the edge states localized
      on the boundaries. By introducing an external on-site potential at the outermost
      sites, we show that the bosonic band structure is similar to that of the
      fermionic graphene. We investigate the region in the momentum space where the
      bosonic edge states are well defined and we analyze the width of the edge state
      and their dependence with the DMI strength. Our findings extend the predictions
      using topological arguments and they allow size-dependent confirmation from
      possible experiments.

PMID- 28557807
TI  - Halide perovskite solar cells using monocrystalline TiO2 nanorod arrays as
      electron transport layers: impact of nanorod morphology.
AB  - This is the first report of a 17.6% champion efficiency solar cell architecture
      comprising monocrystalline TiO2 nanorods (TNRs) coupled with perovskite, and
      formed using facile solution processing without non-routine surface conditioning.
      Vertically oriented TNR ensembles are desirable as electron transporting layers
      (ETLs) in halide perovskite solar cells (HPSCs) because of potential advantages
      such as vectorial electron percolation pathways to balance the longer hole
      diffusion lengths in certain halide perovskite semiconductors, ease of
      incorporating nanophotonic enhancements, and optimization between a high contact
      surface area for charge transfer (good) versus high interfacial recombination
      (bad). These advantages arise from the tunable morphology of hydrothermally grown
      rutile TNRs, which is a strong function of the growth conditions. Fluorescence
      lifetime imaging microscopy of the HPSCs demonstrated a stronger quenching of the
      perovskite PL when using TNRs as compared to mesoporous/compact TiO2 thin films.
      Due to increased interfacial contact area between the ETL and perovskite with
      easier pore filling, charge separation efficiency is dramatically enhanced.
      Additionally, solid-state impedance spectroscopy results strongly suggested the
      suppression of interfacial charge recombination between TNRs and perovskite
      layer, compared to other ETLs. The optimal ETL morphology in this study was found
      to consist of an array of TNRs ~300 nm in length and ~40 nm in width. This work
      highlights the potential of TNR ETLs to achieve high performance solution
      processed HPSCs.

PMID- 28557808
TI  - Electrostatic wrapping of doxorubicin with curdlan to construct an efficient pH
      responsive drug delivery system.
AB  - The development of environmentally responsive drug delivery systems for the
      treatment of cancer has attracted particular interest in recent years. However,
      the enhancement of drug loading capacity and realization of pH-responsive drug
      delivery remain challenging. Herein, we employ carboxymethyl curdlan as a
      hydrophilic carrier to wrap doxorubicin (DOX) directly via electrostatic
      interaction. The sizes of the formed nanoparticles can be simply tuned by
      changing their feeding ratios. In particular, the nanoparticles are highly stable
      in aqueous solution without size variation. In vitro drug release and
      cytotoxicity assays illustrate that this delivery system can release DOX
      differentially under various environmental conditions and transport it into cell
      nuclei efficiently, with comparable therapeutic effect to the free drug. These
      results suggest that the carrying of antitumor drugs by polysaccharide via
      electrostatic interaction is a simple but effective way to construct a pH
      dependent drug delivery platform.

PMID- 28557809
TI  - Thermal isomerization of azobenzenes: on the performance of Eyring transition
      state theory.
AB  - The thermal [Formula: see text] (back-)isomerization of azobenzenes is a
      prototypical reaction occurring in molecular switches. It has been studied for
      decades, yet its kinetics is not fully understood. In this paper, quantum
      chemical calculations are performed to model the kinetics of an experimental
      benchmark system, where a modified azobenzene (AzoBiPyB) is embedded in a metal
      organic framework (MOF). The molecule can be switched thermally from cis to
      trans, under solvent-free conditions. We critically test the validity of Eyring
      transition state theory for this reaction. As previously found for other
      azobenzenes (albeit in solution), good agreement between theory and experiment
      emerges for activation energies and activation free energies, already at a
      comparatively simple level of theory, B3LYP/6-31G* including dispersion
      corrections. However, theoretical Arrhenius prefactors and activation entropies
      are in qualitiative disagreement with experiment. Several factors are discussed
      that may have an influence on activation entropies, among them dynamical and
      geometric constraints (imposed by the MOF). For a simpler model-[Formula: see
      text] isomerization in azobenzene-a systematic test of quantum chemical methods
      from both density functional theory and wavefunction theory is carried out in the
      context of Eyring theory. Also, the effect of anharmonicities on activation
      entropies is discussed for this model system. Our work highlights capabilities
      and shortcomings of Eyring transition state theory and quantum chemical methods,
      when applied for the [Formula: see text] (back-)isomerization of azobenzenes
      under solvent-free conditions.

PMID- 28557810
TI  - Using Quick Response Codes in the Classroom: Quality Outcomes.
AB  - With smart device technology emerging, educators are challenged with redesigning
      teaching strategies using technology to allow students to participate dynamically
      and provide immediate answers. To facilitate integration of technology and to
      actively engage students, quick response codes were included in a medical
      surgical lecture. Quick response codes are two-dimensional square patterns that
      enable the coding or storage of more than 7000 characters that can be accessed
      via a quick response code scanning application. The aim of this quasi
      experimental study was to explore quick response code use in a lecture and
      measure students' satisfaction (met expectations, increased interest, helped
      understand, and provided practice and prompt feedback) and engagement (liked
      most, liked least, wanted changed, and kept involved), assessed using an
      investigator-developed instrument. Although there was no statistically
      significant correlation of quick response use to examination scores, satisfaction
      scores were high, and there was a small yet positive association between how
      students perceived their learning with quick response codes and overall
      examination scores. Furthermore, on open-ended survey questions, students
      responded that they were satisfied with the use of quick response codes,
      appreciated the immediate feedback, and planned to use them in the clinical
      setting. Quick response codes offer a way to integrate technology into the
      classroom to provide students with instant positive feedback.

PMID- 28557812
TI  - Two patients with 19p13.2 deletion (Malan syndrome) involving NFIX and CACNA1A
      with overgrowth, developmental delay, and epilepsy.

PMID- 28557813
TI  - Diabetic Ketoacidosis as an Immune-related Adverse Event from Pembrolizumab in
      Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - Programmed cell death protein 1 pathway inhibitors are now routinely administered
      to patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and prompt recognition of immune
      related adverse events is critical to managing serious drug toxicities. Here, we
      describe a 66-year-old man with no known history of diabetes who presented with
      diabetic ketoacidosis after receiving 3 doses of pembrolizumab for lung
      adenocarcinoma. Autoimmune diabetes is a rare but potentially life-threatening
      complication of programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitors.

PMID- 28557811
TI  - The Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Primary Care: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After participating in this activity, learners should be
      better able to:* Determine the prevalence of clinician-diagnosed posttraumatic
      stress disorder (PTSD) in primary care patients* Identify the prevalence of
      questionnaire-ascertained PTSD symptoms in primary care patients OBJECTIVE:
      Determine the prevalence of clinician-diagnosed PTSD and questionnaire
      ascertained PTSD symptoms in primary care patients. METHODS: A systematic review
      of the literature using the PRISMA method, searching MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane
      Database, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and relevant book chapter
      bibliographies. Studies that reported on the prevalence, including point or
      lifetime prevalence, of PTSD ascertained using diagnostic interviews or self
      report questionnaires, or from administrative data, among patients seen in
      primary care were deemed eligible for inclusion. We abstracted data on the PTSD
      assessment tool, the mean questionnaire scores/cutoff scores, the time period of
      PTSD symptoms, and PTSD prevalence reported. RESULTS: Of 10,614 titles screened,
      41 studies were eligible for inclusion. The included studies assessed PTSD in a
      total of 7,256,826 primary care patients. The median point prevalence of PTSD
      across studies was 12.5%. The median point prevalence in the civilian population
      was 11.1%; in the special-risk population, 12.5%; and in veterans, 24.5%. The
      point prevalence of diagnostic interview-ascertained PTSD ranged from 2% to
      32.5%, and the point prevalence of questionnaire-based substantial PTSD symptoms
      ranged from 2.9% to 39.1%. Lifetime prevalence of diagnostic interview
      ascertained PTSD ranged from 14.5% to 48.8%. The prevalence of PTSD in
      administrative data-based studies ranged from 3.5% to 29.2%. CONCLUSIONS: PTSD is
      common in primary care settings. Additional research on effective and
      generalizable interventions for PTSD in primary care is needed.

PMID- 28557815
TI  - Use of Paley Classification and SUPERankle Procedure in the Management of Fibular
      Hemimelia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fibular hemimelia is the most common deficiency involving the long
      bones. Paley classification is based on the ankle joint morphology, identifies
      the basic pathology, and helps in planning the surgical management.
      Reconstruction surgery encompasses foot deformity correction and limb length
      equalization. The SUPERankle procedure is a combination of bone and soft tissue
      procedures that stabilizes the foot and addresses all deformities. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed 29 consecutive patients (29 limb segments), surgically
      treated between December 2000 and December 2014. Among the 29 patients, 27 were
      treated with reconstructive procedures. Type 1 (8 patients) cases were treated
      with only limb lengthening, and correction of tibial deformities. Type 2 (7
      patients) cases were treated by distal tibial medial hemiepiphysiodesis or
      supramalleolar varus osteotomy. In type 3 (10 patients) cases, the foot deformity
      was corrected using the SUPERankle procedure. Type 4 (2 patients) cases were
      treated with supramalleolar osteotomy along with posteromedial release and
      lateral column shortening. In a second stage, limb lengthening was performed,
      using the Ilizarov technique. In the remaining 2 patients (type 3A and type 3C),
      amputation was performed using Syme technique as a first choice of treatment.
      RESULTS: The results were evaluated using Association for the Study and
      Application of Methods of Ilizarov scoring. Excellent results were obtained in 15
      of 27 (55%) patients. Six (22%) patients had good results, 4 (14.8%) had fair
      results, and 2 (7%) had poor results. Mean limb length discrepancy at initial
      presentation was 3.55 cm (range: 2 to 5.5 cm) which significantly improved to
      1.01 cm (range: 0 to 3 cm) after treatment (P=0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      and a review of the literature clearly suggest that limb reconstruction according
      to Paley classification, is an excellent option in the management of fibular
      hemimelia. Our 2-staged procedure (SUPERankle procedure followed by limb
      lengthening) helps in reducing the complications of limb lengthening and
      incidence of ankle stiffness. Performing the first surgery at an earlier age
      (below 5 y) plays a significant role in preventing recurrent foot deformities.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV.This is an open-access article distributed under the
      terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License
      4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided
      it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially
      without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc
      nd/4.0/.

PMID- 28557814
TI  - Significance of Frequencies, Compositions, and/or Antileukemic Activity of (DC
      stimulated) Invariant NKT, NK and CIK Cells on the Outcome of Patients With AML,
      ALL and CLL.
AB  - Invariant natural killer T (iNKT)/natural killer (NK)/cytokine-induced killer
      (CIK) cells are important for immune surveillance. (I) Novel combinations of
      antibody 6B11 (targeting the Valpha24-Jalpha18-invariant T-cell receptor) with
      CD4/CD8/CD1d/Valpha24 for iNKT subset detection and "T/NK cell-like"-iNKT subsets
      were defined. Compared with healthy peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNC)
      (significantly) lower proportions of iNKT cells (6B11/6B11CD3/6B11CD161), NK
      cells (CD3CD56/CD3CD161), and CIK cells (CD3CD56/CD3CD161) were found in
      peripheral blood MNC from acute myeloid (AML)/acute myeloid, lymphoid
      (ALL)/chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL) patients in acute disease stages. Subtyping
      of iNKT cells revealed (significantly) higher proportions of CD3 T cells and
      CD161 NK cells in AML/ALL/CLL expressing 6B11 compared with healthy MNC.
      Prognostic evaluations showed higher proportions of iNKT/NK/CIK cells in
      favorable AML subgroups (younger age, primary, no extramedullary disease,
      achievement/maintenance of complete remission) or adult ALL and CLL patients.
      (II) iNKT/NK/CIK cell frequencies increased after (vs. before) mixed lymphocyte
      cultures of T-cell-enriched immune reactive cells stimulated with MNC/whole blood
      with or without pretreatment with "cocktails" (dendritic cells generating
      methods/kits inducing blasts' conversion to leukemia-derived dendritic cells from
      AML patients). Individual "cocktails" leading to "highest" iNKT cell frequencies
      could be defined. Antileukemic blast lytic activity correlated significantly with
      frequencies of iNKT/NK/CIK cells. In summary healthy MNC show significantly more
      iNKT/NK/CIK cells compared with AML/ALL/CLL MNC, a shift in the iNKT cell
      composition is seen in healthy versus leukemic samples and iNKT/NK/CIK cell
      proportions in AML/ALL/CLL MNC samples correlate with prognosis. "Cocktail"
      treated AML blasts lead to higher iNKT/NK/CIK cell frequencies and samples with
      antileukemic activity show significantly higher frequencies of iNKT/NK/CIK cells.
      Proportions of iNKT/NK/CIK cells should regularly be evaluated in AML/ALL/CLL
      diagnosis panels for quantitative/prognostic estimation of individual patients'
      antileukemic potential and their role in dendritic cells/leukemia-derived
      dendritic cells triggered immune surveillance.

PMID- 28557816
TI  - Predicting Perioperative Transfusion in Elective Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: A
      Validated Predictive Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preoperative anemia is a significant predictor of perioperative
      erythrocyte transfusion in elective arthroplasty patients. However, interactions
      with other patient and procedure characteristics predicting transfusion
      requirements have not been well studied. METHODS: Patients undergoing elective
      primary total hip arthroplasty or total knee arthroplasty at a tertiary hospital
      in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, from January 2010 to June 2014 were used
      to identify preoperative predictors of perioperative transfusion. A logistic
      regression model was developed and externally validated with an independent data
      set from three other hospitals in Adelaide. RESULTS: Altogether, 737 adult
      patients in the derivation group and 653 patients in the validation group were
      included. Binary logistic regression modeling identified preoperative hemoglobin
      (odds ratio, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.59; P < 0.001 for each 1 g/dl increase),
      total hip arthroplasty (odds ratio, 3.56; 95% CI, 2.39 to 5.30; P < 0.001), and
      females 65 yr of age and older (odds ratio, 3.37; 95% CI, 1.88 to 6.04; P = 0.01)
      as predictors of transfusion in the derivation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Using a
      combination of patient-specific preoperative variables, this validated model can
      predict transfusion in patients undergoing elective hip and knee arthroplasty.
      The model may also help to identify patients whose need for transfusion may be
      decreased through preoperative hemoglobin optimization.

PMID- 28557818
TI  - Posterior-only Hemivertebra Resection With Anterior Structural Reconstruction
      With Titanium Mesh Cage and Short Segmental Fusion for the Treatment of
      Congenital Scoliokyphosis: The Indications and Preliminary Results.
AB  - : MINI: Posterior hemivertebra resection with anterior structural reconstruction
      and short segmental fusion may be a reliable procedure for selected patients with
      scoliokyphosis due to a hemivertebra, providing good correction both on the
      coronal and sagittal planes, saving mobile segments with lower risk of implants
      failures. STUDY DESIGN: Perspective study. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate indications
      and preliminary results of posterior hemivertebra resection with anterior
      structural reconstruction with titanium mesh cage and short segmental fusion.
      SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There exist a lot of reports on posterior
      hemivertebra resection for the early surgical intervention of congenital
      scoliosis because of hemivertebra. However, a few reports describe the procedure
      of the anterior structural reconstruction after posterior hemivertebra resection.
      METHODS: In this study, 18 selected children of mean age 5.4 years (range, 2-12
      yrs) with scoliokyphosis because of hemivertebra were treated with posterior
      hemivertebra resection with anterior structural reconstruction and short
      segmental fusion. They were followed for an average of 37.1 (24-85) months.
      Radiograghs, operative reports, and patient charts were studied to evaluate the
      correction and complications. RESULTS: Average fused segments were 1.67 (1-3).
      The segmental scoliosis was 40.1 degrees  before surgery, 4.1 degrees 
      postsurgery, and 5.7 degrees  at the latest the follow up. Moreover, the
      segmental kyphosis (difference to normal segmental alignment) was improved from
      27.6 degrees  to 3.9 degrees . The correction of the compensatory cranial and
      caudal curve was 74.7% and 82.4%. The trunk shift improved from 17.7 mm to 5.3
      mm. No complications occurred until the latest follow up. CONCLUSION: Posterior
      hemivertebra resection with anterior structural reconstruction and short
      segmental fusion is a reliable procedure for selected patients with
      scoliokyphosis because of hemivertebra. A structural reconstruction is essential
      to the avoidance of overcorrection of the segmental scoliosis and resultant
      postoperative coronal imbalance with limited fused levels in some patients,
      increasing chances of short segmental fusion and saving mobile segments. As a
      fulcrum, anterior reconstruction with a titanium mesh cage could help to improve
      the correction of segmental kyphosis. Furthermore, the cage may help to stabilize
      the level of hemivertebra resection like a structural autograft, enhancing the
      postoperative stability and decreasing the stress of the pedicle and implants.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28557817
TI  - Accuracy of Capillary and Arterial Whole Blood Glucose Measurements Using a
      Glucose Meter in Patients under General Anesthesia in the Operating Room.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a glucose meter with
      surgical patients under general anesthesia in the operating room. METHODS:
      Glucose measurements were performed intraoperatively on 368 paired capillary and
      arterial whole blood samples using a Nova StatStrip (Nova Biomedical, USA)
      glucose meter and compared with 368 reference arterial whole blood glucose
      measurements by blood gas analyzer in 196 patients. Primary outcomes were median
      bias (meter minus reference), percentage of glucose meter samples meeting
      accuracy criteria for subcutaneous insulin dosing as defined by Parkes error grid
      analysis for type 1 diabetes mellitus, and accuracy criteria for intravenous
      insulin infusion as defined by Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute
      guidelines. Time under anesthesia, patient position, diabetes status, and other
      variables were studied to determine whether any affected glucose meter bias.
      RESULTS: Median bias (interquartile range) was -4 mg/dl (-9 to 0 mg/dl), which
      did not differ from median arterial meter bias of -5 mg/dl (-9 to -1 mg/dl; P =
      0.32). All of the capillary and arterial glucose meter values met acceptability
      criteria for subcutaneous insulin dosing, whereas only 89% (327 of 368) of
      capillary and 93% (344 of 368) arterial glucose meter values met accuracy
      criteria for intravenous insulin infusion. Time, patient position, and diabetes
      status were not associated with meter bias. CONCLUSIONS: Capillary and arterial
      blood glucose measured using the glucose meter are acceptable for intraoperative
      subcutaneous insulin dosing. Whole blood glucose on the meter did not meet
      accuracy guidelines established specifically for more intensive (e.g.,
      intravenous insulin) glycemic control in the acute care environment.

PMID- 28557819
TI  - The Scholarly Influence of Orthopaedic Research According to Conventional and
      Alternative Metrics: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Researchers are experiencing an innovative shift toward online
      distribution of their work, and metrics related to online scholarly influence are
      gaining importance. Our objectives were to determine which types of online
      activity are most prevalent in orthopaedics, to identify associated factors, and
      to explore a complementary approach to measuring overall scholarly influence
      using online activity and conventional citations. METHODS: We performed a
      systematic review of randomized controlled trials of surgical or nonsurgical
      interventions in participants with, or at specific risk for, injuries and
      diseases of the musculoskeletal system. We collected data on online activity in
      social media, mainstream media, blogs, forums, and other sources from a
      commercial provider of alternative metric data for medical journals. We tested
      associations with use of negative binomial regression. RESULTS: We identified
      1,697 trials, published between 2011 and 2014, that had a total of 12,995
      conventional citations and 15,068 online mentions. The median number of online
      mentions of each trial was 2 (interquartile range, 0 to 5). Twitter (82%) and
      Facebook (13%) mentions were the most prevalent types of online activity. Counts
      of online mentions correlated with conventional citations (r = 0.11, p < 0.01)
      but accumulated more rapidly. Higher total counts of online mentions were
      consistently associated with longer time since publication, higher journal impact
      factor, higher author h-index values, and less risk of bias (p < 0.01 for each).
      We found the best model fit for a complementary approach by weighting citations
      and online mentions equally. CONCLUSIONS: Online activity in orthopaedics is
      dominated by activity on Twitter and Facebook and is associated with increasing
      time since publication, journal impact factor, and author h-index values, and
      less risk of bias. Institutions, publishers, funding agencies, and clinicians may
      consider a complementary approach to measuring scholarly influence that weights
      online mentions and conventional citations equally.

PMID- 28557820
TI  - Features of Resting-State Electroencephalogram Theta Coherence in Somatic Symptom
      Disorder Compared With Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) often co-occurs with major depressive
      disorder (MDD). Both conditions share common psychobiological and biobehavioral
      characteristics, but little is known about differential patterns in brain
      function. In this study, we compared resting-state functional brain connectivity
      between SSD and MDD using quantitative electroencephalography. METHODS: Fifteen
      patients with SSD (SSD group), 15 patients with MDD (MDD group), and 15 healthy
      volunteers (healthy control [HC] group) participated in this study. Participants
      were assessed with quantitative electroencephalography using a 21-channel
      electroencephalogram system. Electroencephalogram coherence in the theta
      frequency range (3.5-7.5 Hz) was assessed between the following seven electrode
      pairs: Fp1 and Fp2, F7 and T3, F8 and T4, T5 and P3, P4 and T6, P3 and Pz, and Pz
      and P4. Differences in coherence between groups were analyzed using analysis of
      variance. RESULTS: Theta coherence between the F7 and T3 electrodes was lower in
      the SSD group than the MDD and HC groups (F(2,42) = 6.67, p = .0030). Theta
      coherence between the T5 and P3 electrodes was lower in the SSD and MDD groups
      than the HC group (F(2,42) = 5.65, p = .0067). Theta coherence between the Pz and
      P4 electrodes was lower in the SSD group than the MDD group (F(2,42) = 6.41, p =
      .0037). CONCLUSIONS: Both SSD and MDD patients commonly showed decreased
      functional connectivity within the left temporoparietal junction, which has
      neurophysiological implications for cognitive-attentional processing and social
      interaction. Frontostriatal circuit dysfunction affects processes that control
      perception and emotion, as well as misperception of somatosensory data in the
      parietal somatosensory area, and is more likely to be a neuropathology of SSD
      than MDD.

PMID- 28557822
TI  - Gut Microbiota and the Gut-Brain Axis: New Insights in the Pathophysiology of
      Metabolic Syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Emerging preclinical evidence has shown that the bidirectional
      signaling between the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the brain, the so-called
      gut-brain axis, plays an important role in both host metabolism and behavior. In
      this review, we discuss the potential mechanisms of the brain-gut axis in
      relation to the pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome. METHODS: A selective
      literature review was conducted to evaluate GI and brain interactions. RESULTS:
      Evidence suggests reduced microbial diversity in obesity and metabolic
      dysregulation. However, findings of microbiota composition in obese individuals
      are inconsistent, and the investigation of causality between gut microbiota and
      energy homeostasis is complex because multiple variables contribute to the gut
      microbiota composition. The microbial metabolites short chain fatty acids are
      found to exert numerous physiologic effects, including energy homeostasis through
      the regulation of GI hormones such as cholecystokinin, glucagon-like peptide 1,
      peptide tyrosine-tyrosine, and leptin. Preclinical studies show that modifying
      rodents' microbiota through fecal transplantation results in alterations of these
      GI hormones and subsequently an altered metabolism and behavior. However, whether
      and to what extent preclinical findings translate to human metabolism is unclear.
      CONCLUSIONS: One of the major limitations and challenges in this field of
      research is interindividual variability of the microbiome. Future research needs
      to combine recent insights gained into tracking the dynamics of the microbiome as
      well as the metabolic responses. Furthermore, advanced mapping of the human
      microbiome is required to investigate the metabolic implications of the gut-brain
      axis to develop targeted interventions for obesity and metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28557823
TI  - Effect of the Eye Tracking System on the Reproducibility of Measurements Obtained
      With Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the eye tracking
      system (ETS) improved the reproducibility of a single circle peripapillary
      retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurement acquired with spectral-domain
      optical coherence tomography (OCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample comprised
      205 individuals divided into 2 groups according to intraocular pressure and
      visual field outcomes. A total of 100 healthy individuals and 105 patients with
      open-angle glaucoma underwent imaging of the optic nerve head with OCT 3 times
      during the same session and 2 additional times in subsequent sessions (30 days
      apart). Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation, and
      test-retest variability were calculated for the RNFL thickness acquired with and
      without the ETS enabled, and compared. RESULTS: The glaucoma group mainly
      comprised patients with moderate glaucoma (mean deviation of standard automated
      perimetry, -6.73+/-6.2 dB). The RNFL thicknesses did not differ between
      acquisitions with or without the ETS activated and disabled. All ICCs were >0.9
      in the control and glaucoma groups with or without the ETS activated. The best
      parameter in the intersession analysis (with ETS activated) was global RNFL
      thickness (ICC, 0.95; coefficient of variation, 2.7%; and test-retest
      variability, 2.87 MUm). The reproducibility and repeatability of RNFL
      measurements did not differ significantly between acquisitions with or without
      the ETS in either group. CONCLUSIONS: The reproducibility of peripapillary RNFL
      thicknesses acquired with OCT was excellent. The variability between OCT
      measurements did not decrease with the ETS activated.

PMID- 28557824
TI  - Orbital Cellulitis Following Uncomplicated Aqueous Shunt Surgery.

PMID- 28557825
TI  - Suture of Symptomatic YAG Laser Peripheral Iridotomies Following Phakic
      Intraocular Lens Implantation.
AB  - A 45-year-old woman complained of glare and photophobia after iris-fixated phakic
      intraocular lens (IFPIOL) implantation in her left eye. The patient underwent
      prophylactic laser peripheral iridotomies (LPIs) 2 days before surgery. The
      uncorrected visual acuity after surgery was 20/20 and the intraocular pressure
      was 14 mm Hg. The slit-lamp examination showed a well-centered IFPIOL and 2 LPIs
      at 10 and 2 o'clock partially covered by the upper lid. Twenty days after IFPIOL
      implantation, as symptoms persisted and were intolerable to the patient, we
      decide to suture iridotomies using a modified Siepser slip-knot technique.
      Postoperatively, visual acuity remains 20/20 and patient reported a complete
      disappearance of symptoms. No intraoperative and postoperative complications were
      noted. Experiencing glare and photophobia is a rare side effect due to LPI.
      Suture of iridotomies using a modified Siepser slip-knot technique can be
      considered a safe and effective procedure to solve this annoying complication.

PMID- 28557826
TI  - Intracorneal Hematoma After Ahmed Glaucoma Valve Implant Surgery.
AB  - Intracorneal hematoma or hemorrhagic descemet detachment is a rare phenomenon. It
      has been previously described after nonpenetrating glaucoma surgeries such as
      canaloplasty, viscocanalostomy, and deep sclerectomy. In this report, we describe
      a rare case of intracorneal hematoma as a yet nondocumented complication after
      Ahmed glaucoma valve implant surgery.

PMID- 28557828
TI  - Vitreous Occlusion of a Glaucoma Drainage Implant-Surgical Management.
AB  - Vitreous occlusion of a glaucoma drainage implant (GDI) can lead to failure of
      the device and severely elevated intraocular pressure. The pathophysiology of
      tube obstruction is related to central and anterior displacement of vitreous that
      is drawn into and condenses within the proximal lumen of the tube. This can occur
      from days to years following GDI surgery. Successful management of vitreous-tube
      obstruction generally requires manual removal of the condensed vitreous plug with
      end-grasping forceps. This technique achieves reversal of tube blockage and
      restoration of GDI function. Amputation of the incarcerated vitreous alone with
      vitrectomy or neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet vitreolysis does not consistently
      restore GDI function and risks persistent intraluminal tube obstruction.

PMID- 28557830
TI  - Evaluation of the Efficacy and Safety of the New Susanna Glaucoma Drainage Device
      in Refractory Glaucomas: Short-term Results.

PMID- 28557829
TI  - Progressive Decrease of Peripapillary Angioflow Vessel Density During Structural
      and Visual Field Progression in Early Primary Open-angle Glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To present a case of early primary open-angle glaucoma in which retinal
      nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT), ganglion cell complex (GCC), and visual
      field progression were accompanied with significant progression of peripapillary
      angioflow vessel density (PAFD) measured with optical coherence tomographic
      angiography. METHODS: A 68-year-old female patient who was under topical
      intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering medication for 20 years for ocular
      hypertension of the right and preperimetric primary open-angle glaucoma of the
      left eye (with reproducible inferotemporal and superotemporal neuroretinal rim
      and RNFL loss) was prospectively imaged with the AngioVue OCT for RNFLT, GCC
      thickness, and PAFD, and investigated with the Octopus Normal G2 visual field
      test on the same days at 6-month intervals for 18 months, while the IOP of the
      left eye escaped from control. RESULTS: IOP of the left eye fluctuated between 14
      and 30 mm Hg in the study period. RNFLT, GCC thickness, and peripapillary PAFD
      all decreased significantly (linear regression analysis, P=0.030, 0.040, and
      0.020, respectively), and a significant 2.1 dB/y progression was seen for a
      superior visual field cluster. The RNFLT, peripapillary PAFD, and visual field of
      the right eye remained normal and unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: In our case IOP
      elevation, glaucomatous visual field conversion, and structural progression were
      accompanied with significant progressive decrease of peripapillary PAFD. The
      simultaneous thinning of RNFLT and GCC and decrease of peripapillary PAFD suggest
      that PAFD may potentially be an additional indicator of early progression in
      primary open-angle glaucoma.

PMID- 28557831
TI  - Female exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals and fecundity: a review.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been known for
      their ability to interfere with aspects of hormone action resulting in adverse
      health consequences among animals and humans; however, the effects of EDCs on
      human fecundity have shown inconsistent findings. This review summarizes the most
      recent epidemiologic literature from humans on the potential effects of female
      exposure to nonpersistent EDCs, specifically bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates,
      parabens, and triclosan, on fecundity, measured by markers of reproductive
      hormones, markers of ovulation or ovarian reserve, IVF outcomes, and time-to
      pregnancy. RECENT FINDINGS: Although the epidemiologic literature on this topic
      is growing, the evidence supporting an association between female urinary
      concentrations of BPA, phthalates, parabens and triclosan, and fecundity remains
      unclear. The heterogeneous results could be due to methodological differences in
      recruitment populations (fertile vs. subfertile), study designs (prospective vs.
      retrospective), assessment of exposure (including differences in the number and
      timing of urine samples and differences in the analytical methods used to assess
      the urinary concentrations), residual confounding due to diet or other lifestyle
      factors, and coexposures to other chemicals. SUMMARY: At present, there is
      limited evidence to conclude that female exposure to nonpersistent EDCs affect
      fecundity in humans. Further studies focusing on exposure to mixtures of EDCs are
      needed.

PMID- 28557832
TI  - Serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A as a Prognostic Biomarker for
      Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab, which targets vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      A, has recently been proven to be effective for the treatment of epithelial
      ovarian cancer (EOC). Thus, interest in VEGF-A has increased. There are few
      reports on concomitant detection of both ligands and its soluble receptors in
      serum samples, and the significance of serum VEGF-A in EOC is unclear, unlike the
      situation with tissue samples. We conducted the present study to explore the
      levels of serum VEGF family and its receptors and to evaluate their utility as
      prognostic biomarkers. METHODS: A total of 128 patients with EOC, who were
      consecutively treated at Tottori University Hospital between 2006 and 2012, were
      included. Blood samples were collected before initial surgery. Serum
      concentrations of VEGF-A, VEGF-C, VEGFR-1, and VEGFR-2 were analyzed by enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay. We also examined the mRNA and protein expression of
      VEGF-A in tumor tissue from 30 cases by real-time reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The levels of VEGF-A
      in patients with stage III/IV disease were significantly higher than those with
      stage I/II disease (P = 0.0036). On the other hand, the level of VEGFR-2 in stage
      III/IV was significantly lower than that in stage I/II (P = 0.0026). With the
      cutoff value of VEGF/VEGFRs at the median level, the overall survival (OS) for
      patients with high VEGF-A levels was significantly lower than those with low
      levels (P = 0.015). Patients with high VEGFR-2 levels showed better prognosis
      than those with low VEGFR-2 levels (P = 0.023). Multivariate analysis revealed
      that International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and serum VEGF-A
      were independent prognostic factors for OS [hazard ratio 2.01, 95% confidence
      interval (1.13-3.63), P = 0.017]. There was no significant correlation between
      mRNA or protein expression and serum levels of VEGF-A. CONCLUSIONS: Serum VEGF-A
      is an independent prognostic factor for OS in patients with EOC, implying that
      serum VEGF-A is a prognostic biomarker for EOC. Further study to validate the
      data is needed.

PMID- 28557833
TI  - Lymphovascular Space Invasion for Endometrial Cancer: Undertreatment and
      Overtreatment Risks: A Survey of the Spanish Gynecologic Oncology Group.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to asses the impact of lymphovascular
      space invasion (LVSI) present in early-stage endometrial cancer, regarding its
      therapeutic management and prognosis knowledge, based on a survey among Spanish
      oncologic gynecologist. METHODS/MATERIALS: Between October and November 2014, the
      Young Spanish Onco-gynecologist Group carried out a survey to perform a cross
      sectional study about the management of LVSI. All active members in the oncology
      field of the Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics were invited to
      participate in the survey. RESULTS: Most respondents consider LVSI a bad
      prognosis factor for endometrial cancer (66%) and also consider that it should be
      included in the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
      classification (56%). Seventy-five percent of all gynecologists did not modify
      their surgical treatment. Regarding follow-up, 38% of the respondents do not
      change their surveillance, 28% modify it, and 31% reported any change only with
      additional factors. Forty-seven percent of respondents advise systemic treatment
      with chemotherapy.Data were dichotomized between less than or equal to 20 versus
      greater than 20 years of OB-GYN specialist and less than or equal to 5 versus
      greater than 5 years of main dedication to gynecology oncology, but it was not
      possible to show any significant differences among the groups. The response rate
      (34 individuals) was too low to expect any significant differences. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results suggest that LVSI remains a controversial issue in the management of
      patients with endometrial cancer. Acquiring a deeper knowledge and uniform
      criteria could avoid the risk of undertreatment and overtreatment in this group
      of patients with early-stage endometrial cancer. The identification of vascular
      pseudoinvasion is recommended, although the clinical and prognostic implications
      still need to be determined.

PMID- 28557834
TI  - Preoperative Serum Human Epididymis Protein 4 Levels in Early Stage Endometrial
      Cancer: A Prospective Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic value of human
      epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and cancer antigen 125 markers with pathological
      prognostic factor to complete the preoperative clinical panel and help the
      treatment planning. METHODS: This prospective multicenter study was conducted in
      2 gynecologic oncology centers between 2012 and 2014 (Institute for Maternal and
      Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo in Trieste and Catholic University of the
      Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy). We enrolled 153 patients diagnosed with clinical
      early (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages I-II) type I
      endometrial cancer. RESULTS: Human epididymis protein 4 levels seemed to be
      strictly related to age (P < 0.001) and menopausal status (P < 0.002). Compared
      with myometrial invasion (MI), the HE4 values were significantly higher in case
      of invasion of greater than 50% of the thickness: MI of greater than 50%, median
      of 94.85 pmol/L (38.3-820.8 pmol/L), versus MI of less than 50%, median of 65.65
      pmol/L (25.1-360.2 pmol/L), (P < 0.001). The HE4 levels increase significantly
      with increasing tumor size: diameter of larger than 2 cm, median of 86.9 pmol/L
      (35.8-820.8 pmol/L), versus diameter of smaller than 2 cm, median of 52.2 pmol/L
      (33.3-146.8 pmol/L), (P < 0.001). In our population, HE4 did not correlate with
      the histological grade, endometrial cancer type I versus type II (P = 0.86), the
      lymphovascular infiltration (P = 0.12), and the cervical invasion (P = 0.6). We
      established a new variable, considering 3 high-risk tumor features: MI of greater
      than 50% and/or histological G3 and/or type II. Human epididymis protein 4 levels
      significantly increase in high-risk tumors (high risk HE4, 93.6 pmol/L vs low
      medium risk, 65.5 pmol/L; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A preoperative HE4 evaluation
      could help stratify patients with deep invasion and/or metastatic disease and is
      correlated with other relevant prognostic factors to be considered to tailor an
      adequate surgical strategy.

PMID- 28557835
TI  - Giant Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia Wrapping Whole Cornea.
AB  - We present a giant ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN) measuring
      approximately 20*18 mm arising from the fornix and wrapping the entire 12 clock
      hours of the cornea. The surgical excision was performed with preservation of the
      corneal surface. A 3-mm clear margin was obtained all around the mass. The
      histopathology confirmed as moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma
      with clear margins. The postoperative period was uneventful, and a clear cornea
      without a residual scar with best corrected visual acuity of 20/20 was attained.
      A giant OSSN can demonstrate corneal invasion, making surgical excision both
      challenging and associated with complications such as subsequent scarring.
      Extended surgical intervention, chemotherapy, chemoreduction, and immunotherapy
      have been reported in giant OSSNs. However, we report a giant OSSN wrapping the
      entire 12 clock hours of the cornea that was managed with single surgery with
      complete corneal restoration.

PMID- 28557836
TI  - Histopathology of Failed Descemet Membrane Endothelial Transfer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the postmortem histologic features after an unsuccessful
      Descemet membrane endothelial transfer (DMET) and assess any potential clinical
      implications. METHODS: Postmortem, an eye from a patient who previously underwent
      unsuccessful DMET for pseudophakic bullous keratopathy (PPBK) was harvested and
      processed for morphologic evaluation. RESULTS: Clinically and histologically, the
      host cornea showed evidence of diffuse stromal edema. Although the edges of the
      surgical descemetorhexis were well visualized, there was no evidence of
      endothelial migration or repopulation of the posterior stroma from any direction.
      A multilayered, retrocorneal membrane was present that appeared to originate from
      the trabecular meshwork. CONCLUSIONS: Descemet membrane endothelial transfer and
      "descemetorhexis alone" may be insufficient treatment for eyes operated on for
      PPBK, that is, eyes with a significantly depleted or dysfunctional endothelium.

PMID- 28557840
TI  - John J. Bonica: born 100 years ago.

PMID- 28557837
TI  - Unraveling the pathogenesis of periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis,
      and cervical adenitis through genetic, immunologic, and microbiologic
      discoveries: an update.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical
      adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome is considered the most common periodic fever syndrome
      of childhood. Although it was first described three decades ago, the pathogenesis
      has been poorly understood. Recent studies on the heritability and immunology of
      the disorder have begun to shed light into the mechanisms of this
      autoinflammatory disorder. This review will focus on the pathogenesis of PFAPA,
      especially as it pertains to the genetic susceptibility, tonsillar immunology,
      and the role of the microbiome. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent literature provides
      insights into the heritability, potential genetic modifiers, and the immunologic
      and microbiological profile of the tonsils in this syndrome. SUMMARY: Evidence is
      mounting that PFAPA is inherited as a complex genetic disease. Furthermore,
      tonsillectomy is curative in the majority of patients, including those who do not
      meet the complete clinical criteria for PFAPA. The tonsils in PFAPA patients may
      exhibit unique immunologic and microbiological features. The goal of this review
      is to outline these new developments.

PMID- 28557842
TI  - Appropriate Use of Drug Testing in Clinical Addiction Medicine.

PMID- 28557844
TI  - Child deaths of undetermined intent: An analysis of circumstances using Illinois
      Violent Death Reporting System data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is little information available about the circumstances
      surrounding the deaths of children aged 0 to 14 years in which the manner of
      death is of undetermined intent. METHODS: We analyzed data collected in the
      Illinois Violent Death Reporting System to describe victim demographics, location
      of injury, seasonality, day of week, and circumstances surrounding the victims'
      deaths. RESULTS: From 2005 to 2010 in Cook County, Illinois, 192 cases were
      identified of children aged 0 to 14 years, in which the manner of death was of
      undetermined intent. The majority of cases were younger than 1 year (81%), male
      (62%), and non-Hispanic black (66%); occurred in the City of Chicago (65%); and
      also occurred most frequently during the months of May (15%) and July (13%) and
      on Sunday (19%). Circumstances of note were having information on the location of
      death available for the victim (90%); scene investigation was not
      performed/unknown/not documented (81%); and the victim not presenting with red
      petechiae (84%). By ethnicity, a lower proportion of Hispanic victims had
      parental drug information available compared with non-Hispanic victims (17% and
      40%, respectively; p = 0.017); Hispanic victims were more likely than non
      Hispanic victims to have a documented acute illness at the time of injury leading
      to death (57% and 33%, respectively; p = 0.015). The availability of scene
      information and the successful contact of one or both parents of the victim
      following the victim's death varied by location. CONCLUSIONS: No public health
      surveillance system exists for the collection of this type of death. There is not
      enough information provided to develop an effective intervention. The systematic,
      thorough collection of information surrounding these deaths is necessary to
      pinpoint possible contributing mechanisms of death for these children. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Epidemiologic, level IV.

PMID- 28557843
TI  - Increased Reporting Accuracy of Alzheimer Disease Symptoms in Caribbean Hispanic
      Informants.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Informant report of symptoms is essential for diagnosing and
      characterizing Alzheimer disease (AD). Differences in the perception and
      experience of dementia across ethnicities may influence informant report.
      Understanding such differences is critical given that among those with AD,
      Hispanics are disproportionately affected. METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses
      examined informant report of cognitive and functional symptoms in mild AD across
      white (n=107) and Caribbean Hispanic (n=71) informants. To explore its accuracy,
      informant report of symptoms was compared against objective measures of patient
      performance. RESULTS: Adjusted analyses revealed Hispanics reported more symptoms
      than white informants. Informant report of symptoms was inversely correlated with
      patients' global cognition in both ethnic groups. Only Hispanic report of
      symptoms was significantly associated with memory and language performance.
      DISCUSSION: Informant report of symptoms was associated with patients' global
      cognition, reflecting relatively accurate informant reports in both ethnic
      groups, and was stronger in Hispanics when examining memory and language. Such
      differences may reflect cultural caregiving practices and perceptions of
      dementia, having implications for diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28557845
TI  - Pediatric injury prevention programs: Identifying markers for success and
      sustainability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Injury is the leading cause of death in children. Although many
      pediatric hospitals and trauma centers provide injury prevention (IP)
      programming, there is no national standard. This study aims to identify
      characteristics of a sustainable and successful IP program by querying programs
      affiliated with the Injury Free Coalition for Kids (IFCK). METHODS: The IFCK
      sites were sent a 30-question survey via e-mail. Questions focused on
      demographics, scope of IP activities, self-efficacy, and outcome measures
      including finances, academic productivity, and legislative advocacy. Counts and
      frequencies were calculated and compared using chi tests. RESULTS: The survey was
      completed by 38 (90.4%) of 42 sites. The majority were associated with a
      freestanding children's hospital (57.9%) and Level I pediatric trauma center
      (86.8%). Most programs (79%) had at least one dedicated full-time equivalent
      (FTE) staff. Research was most common on child passenger safety and teen driving.
      Nearly 30% of programs offered educational curricula to health care providers;
      these sites were more likely to have FTE support (p = 0.036). Steady sources of
      funding were identified for 60.5% of programs, with 47.8% citing their hospital
      as the primary source; 73% of respondents were confident in their program's
      capacity to sustain activities; these were more likely to be larger programs (p =
      0.001) with steady sources of funding (p < 0.001). Despite 73.7% of sites having
      academic affiliations, 60.5% had 5 or fewer publications over the previous 5
      years. In the prior 2 years, 55.3% of programs impacted legislative or policy
      changes. Funding, size of program, and FTE had no statistical correlation with
      research productivity or number of legislative/policy contributions. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study characterizes the variation among pediatric IP programs within IFCK
      sites, while highlighting the association between financial and FTE support from
      programs' institutions with sustainable IP programming. These results can assist
      programs in identifying differences in relation to their peers.

PMID- 28557846
TI  - Adolescent motor vehicle crash prevention through a trauma center-based
      intervention program.
AB  - : Traumatic injuries account for millions of emergency room visits and hospital
      admissions annually. Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) remain a leading cause of
      mortality between the ages of 1 and 44 years. With the popularity of smart
      devices, drivers are ever more distracted on the road. Programs that educate
      drivers on safe actions and to raise awareness of the perils of drunk and
      distracted driving exist, but there are few data that demonstrate a reduction in
      motor vehicle injury rates. We sought to determine if the implementation of such
      a program in our community would impact the rates of MVCs. Assessing the
      effectiveness of the Save A Life Tour, a risk reduction program, this
      intervention was instituted at a single area high school. The numbers of
      adolescent drivers aged 16 to 21 years involved in MVCs treated at the regional
      Level I trauma center were compared over two time intervals and between two
      adjoining counties. The time intervals consisted of preintervention and
      postintervention surveillance, each over a period of 3 years. Using our trauma
      registry, we compared the incidence of MVC between the two counties and between
      the two age groups. The data were also compared with the incidence among these
      populations nationally. In the preintervention period, the number of adolescent
      MVCs treated from the catchment area was 166, and the number in the
      postintervention period was 105. This represented a risk reduction of 37% (p <
      0.05). During the same intervals, the incidence in the nonintervention control
      catchment area increased by 12%. There was no significant change in the
      population aged 16 to 21 years over the time intervals in either area. These
      results suggest that ongoing educational intervention programs aimed at
      adolescent drunk and distracted driving can have an impact on these life
      threatening behaviors and on the incidence of MVCs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapy,
      level IV.

PMID- 28557847
TI  - Two lives, one REBOA: Hemorrhage control for urgent cesarean hysterectomy in a
      Jehovah's Witness with placenta percreta.

PMID- 28557849
TI  - Monitoring Resistance Exercise Intensity Using Ratings of Perceived Exertion in
      Previously Untrained Patients With Prostate Cancer Undergoing Androgen
      Deprivation Therapy.
AB  - Fairman, CM, LaFountain, RL, Lucas, AR, and Focht, BC. Monitoring resistance
      exercise intensity using ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) in previously
      untrained patients with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy.
      J Strength Cond Res 32(5): 1360-1365, 2018-Exercise has been shown to be safe and
      effective for patients with prostate cancer (PrCa). The monitoring of resistance
      exercise (RE) intensity is an emerging area of interest in RE prescription.
      Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) is one of the most commonly used methods but
      has not yet been validated in this population. Thus, the purpose of this study
      was to examine the relationship between RPE and RE intensity in PrCa. Data for
      this study were abstracted from baseline upper- and lower-body strength
      assessments from 2 previous trials (Individual Diet and Exercise Adherence Pilot
      Trial; Livestrong, Austin, TX, USA) in our laboratory investigating functional
      outcomes in patients with PrCa undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). A
      total of 75 participants from both trials were included in this study. Ratings of
      perceived exertion corresponding to 50, 70, and 90% 1 repetition maximum (1RM)
      were extracted from the results of participants' upper- and lower-body 1RM
      strength tests. The changes in RPE across increasing intensities were assessed
      using separate univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). For each ANOVA, RPE was
      used as the dependent variable and intensity (50, 70, and 90%) used as the fixed
      factor. A univariate ANOVA revealed a significant difference (p <= 0.05) among
      the RPE values for each intensity for both upper- and lower-body lifts. The
      results of our analyses suggest that RPE values rise linearly in response to
      increases in exercise intensity. Our study supports the concept that RPE may be a
      practical training tool to accurately estimate RE intensity in PrCa survivors
      undergoing ADT. Practitioners may consider using RPE to monitor and adjust RE
      intensity in this population.

PMID- 28557850
TI  - Compensatory Muscle Activation During Unstable Overhead Squat Using a Water
      filled Training Tube.
AB  - Glass, SC, and Albert, RW. Compensatory muscle activation during unstable
      overhead squat using a water-filled training tube. J Strength Cond Res 32(5):
      1230-1237, 2018-The purpose of this study was to assess compensatory muscle
      activation of core and support muscle during an overhead squat using a water
      filled training tube. Eleven experienced weightlifting (age = 20.10 +/- 0.99,
      mass 89.17 +/- 6.88 kg) men completed 3, 30-second trials of an overhead squat
      using an 11.4 kg tube that was partially filled with water. A central valve
      allowed 3 conditions of water movement: 50% open, 100% open, and a stable(S),
      closed valve condition. Subjects completed 8-10 repetitions within each
      condition. Electromyographic (EMG) electrodes were placed over the belly of the
      vastus lateralis, deltoid, rectus abdominus, and paraspinal muscles and recorded
      during concentric and eccentric (ECC) phases. Integrated EMG were computed and
      converted to percent maximal voluntary contraction (%MVC). Compensatory
      activation was assessed using the natural log of the coefficient of variation of
      %MVC across repetitions. A 1-way repeated-measures analysis of variance across
      (phase, condition) was used. Significant compensatory muscle activation was seen
      in the deltoid muscle during ECC (100% open = 3.60 +/- 0.50 > stable LogCV = 3.06
      +/- 0.45). In addition, paraspinal muscle activity was also more variable during
      the ECC phase (50% open LogCv = 3.28 +/- 0.26 > stable = 2.77 +/- 0.67). We
      conclude that the water-filled training tube induces compensatory muscle
      activation in the deltoid and paraspinal muscles during the ECC phase of the
      overhead squat.

PMID- 28557851
TI  - Decrements in Neuromuscular Performance and Increases in Creatine Kinase Impact
      Training Outputs in Elite Soccer Players.
AB  - Malone, S, Mendes, B, Hughes, B, Roe, M, Devenney, S, Collins, K, and Owen, A.
      Decrements in neuromuscular performance and increases in creatine kinase impact
      training outputs in elite soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 32(5): 1342-1351,
      2018-The aim of the current investigation was to understand the impact of
      pretraining neuromuscular performance and creatine kinase (CK) status on
      subsequent training performance in elite soccer players. Thirty soccer players
      (age: 25.3 +/- 3.1 years; height: 183 +/- 7 cm; mass: 72 +/- 7 kg) were involved
      in this observational study. Each morning before training, players completed
      assessments for neuromuscular performance (countermovement jump; CMJ) and CK
      levels. Global positioning technology provided external load: total distance,
      high-speed distance, sprint distance, accelerations, decelerations, average
      metabolic power, explosive distance, and high metabolic power distance (>25.5
      W.kg). Mixed-effect linear models revealed significant effects for CK and CMJ Z
      score on total high-speed distance, very high-speed distance, accelerations,
      decelerations, explosive distance, and maximal velocity. Effects are reported
      with 90% confidence limits. A CK Z-score of +1 corresponded to a -5.5 +/- 1.1, 
      3.9 +/- 0.5, -4.3 +/- 2.9%, -4.1 +/- 2.9%, -3.1 +/- 2.9%, and -4.6 +/- 1.9%,
      reduction in total high-speed distance, very high-speed distance, accelerations,
      decelerations, explosive distance, and maximal velocity, respectively.
      Countermovement jump Z-score of -1 corresponded to a -3.5 +/- 1.1, -2.9 +/- 0.5, 
      2.1 +/- 1.4, -5.3 +/- 2.9%, -3.8 +/- 2.9%, -1.1 +/- 2.9%, and -5.6 +/- 1.2%
      reduction in these external load measures. Magnitude-based analysis revealed that
      the practical size of the effect of a pretraining CMJ Z-score of -1 and CK Z
      score of +1 would have on total high-speed distance, very high-speed distance,
      high metabolic power distance (>25.5 W.kg), accelerations, decelerations,
      explosive distance, and maximal velocity was likely negative. The results of this
      study suggest that systematic pretraining monitoring of neuromuscular and muscle
      stress within soccer cohorts can provide coaches with information about the
      training output that can be expected from individual players during a training
      session.

PMID- 28557852
TI  - Analysis of High-Intensity Skating in Top-Class Ice Hockey Match-Play in Relation
      to Training Status and Muscle Damage.
AB  - Lignell, E, Fransson, D, Krustrup, P, and Mohr, M. Analysis of high-intensity
      skating in top-class ice hockey match-play in relation to training status and
      muscle damage. J Strength Cond Res 32(5): 1303-1310, 2018-We examined high
      intensity activities in a top-class ice-hockey game and the effect of training
      status. Male ice-hockey players (n = 36) from the National Hockey League
      participated. Match analysis was performed during a game and physical capacity
      was assessed by a submaximal Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Ice-hockey test, level 1
      (YYIR1-IHSUB). Venous blood samples were collected 24-hour post-game to determine
      markers of muscle damage. Players performed 119 +/- 8 and 31 +/- 3 m.min of high
      intensity and sprint skating, respectively, during a game. Total distance covered
      was 4,606 +/- 219 m (2,260-6,749 m), of which high-intensity distance was 2042 +/
      97 m (757-3,026 m). Sprint-skating speed was 5-8% higher (p <= 0.05) in periods
      1 and 2 vs. period 3 and overtime. Defensemen (D) covered 29% more (p <= 0.05)
      skating in total than forwards (F) and were on the ice 47% longer. However, F
      performed 54% more (p <= 0.05) high-intensity skating per minute than defensemen.
      Plasma creatine kinase (CK) was 338 +/- 45 (78-757) U.L 24-hour post-game. Heart
      rate loading during YYIR1-IHSUB correlated inversely (p <= 0.05) to the frequency
      of high-intensity skating bouts (r = -0.55) and V[Combining Dot Above]O2max (r = 
      0.85) and positively to post-game CK (r = 0.49; p <= 0.05). In conclusion, ice
      hockey is a multiple-sprint sport that provokes fatigue in the latter half of a
      game. Forwards perform more intense skating than defensemen. Moreover, high
      intensity game activities during top-class ice hockey are correlated with
      cardiovascular loading during a submaximal skating test. Taken together, training
      of elite ice-hockey players should improve the ability for repeated high
      intensity skating, and testing should include the YYIR1-IHSUB test as an
      indicator for ice-hockey-specific physical match performance.

PMID- 28557853
TI  - Influence of Maturation Stage on Agility Performance Gains After Plyometric
      Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Asadi, A, Arazi, H, Ramirez-Campillo, R, Moran, J, and Izquierdo, M. Influence of
      maturation stage on agility performance gains after plyometric training: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 31(9): 2609-2617, 2017
      Although plyometric training (PT) improves change of direction (COD) ability, the
      influence of age on COD gains after PT is unclear. Therefore, the aim of this
      systematic review was to identify the age-related pattern of improvement in COD
      ability after PT in youths. A computerized search within 6 databases was
      performed, selecting studies based on specific inclusion criteria: experimental
      trials published in English-language journals, PT focused on the lower-body, COD
      ability measurements reported before and after training, and male participants
      aged 10 to 18 years. Sixteen articles with a total of 30 effect sizes (ESs) in
      the experimental groups and 13 ESs in the control groups were included. For the
      analyses, subjects were categorized into 3 age groups: 10-12.9 years of age
      (PRE), 13-15.9 years of age (MID), and 16-18 years of age (POST). Independent of
      age, PT improved COD ability in youths (ES = 0.86, time gains [TG = -0.61]).
      However, a tendency toward greater COD ability gains was observed in older
      subjects (MID, ES = 0.95; POST, ES = 0.99) compared with younger subjects (PRE,
      ES = 0.68). Pearson product-moment correlation (r) indicated that 2-weekly
      sessions of PT-induced meaningful COD ability gains (for ES, r = 0.436; for TG, r
      = -0.624). A positive relationship was found between training intensity and ES (r
      = 0.493). In conclusion, PT improves COD ability in youths, with meaningfully
      greater effects in older youths. Two PT sessions per week, with 1,400 moderate
      intensity jumps for 7 weeks, seems to be an adequate dose.

PMID- 28557854
TI  - Short Term Effects of Resistance Training Modalities on Performance Measures in
      Male Adolescents.
AB  - This study compared the effects of seven weeks of bodyweight, mobility and
      resistance training programs on strength, power, and sprint times. Thirty-nine
      male adolescents (aged 14-15 years) were randomly assigned to one of two groups;
      bodyweight and mobility training (BMT) (n=25) or combined bodyweight, mobility
      and free weights training (CBT) (n=14). A physical education class (n=23) of
      similar age constituted a control group (CON). Both training groups performed two
      bodyweight and mobility training sessions per week and the CBT group performed
      two additional free-weight resistance exercise training sessions. Pre-testing and
      post-testing consisted of vertical and horizontal jump tests, 5- and 20-m sprint
      tests, 2 kg medicine ball throw test and maximal number of press ups. Small
      significant improvements (p <= 0.01) between pre-post measures were observed in
      the CBT group for 20 m (?2.4%; ES = -0.45) sprint time and horizontal jump
      distance (?4.2%; ES = 0.43). No significant differences existed between the
      groups when the mean changes were compared. Effect sizes demonstrated training
      improvements were in favour of the CBT group (for sprint times, horizontal jump
      distance and maximal press ups; ES = 0.35 to -1.35) compared to the BMT and CON
      groups and in favour of the BMT group (for sprint times and horizontal jump
      distance; ES =-0.33 to 0.34) compared to the CON group. Seven weeks of BMT and
      CBT can be beneficial for the development of physical performance capacities in
      untrained male adolescents. Increased training frequency with the addition of
      free-weights provided greatest training effects.

PMID- 28557855
TI  - Mean Velocity vs. Mean Propulsive Velocity vs. Peak Velocity: Which Variable
      Determines Bench Press Relative Load With Higher Reliability?
AB  - Garcia-Ramos, A, Pestana-Melero, FL, Perez-Castilla, A, Rojas, FJ, and Haff, GG.
      Mean velocity vs. mean propulsive velocity vs. peak velocity: which variable
      determines bench press relative load with higher reliability? J Strength Cond Res
      32(5): 1273-1279, 2018-This study aimed to compare between 3 velocity variables
      (mean velocity [MV], mean propulsive velocity [MPV], and peak velocity [PV]): (a)
      the linearity of the load-velocity relationship, (b) the accuracy of general
      regression equations to predict relative load (%1RM), and (c) the between-session
      reliability of the velocity attained at each percentage of the 1-repetition
      maximum (%1RM). The full load-velocity relationship of 30 men was evaluated by
      means of linear regression models in the concentric-only and eccentric-concentric
      bench press throw (BPT) variants performed with a Smith machine. The 2 sessions
      of each BPT variant were performed within the same week separated by 48-72 hours.
      The main findings were as follows: (a) the MV showed the strongest linearity of
      the load-velocity relationship (median r = 0.989 for concentric-only BPT and
      0.993 for eccentric-concentric BPT), followed by MPV (median r = 0.983 for
      concentric-only BPT and 0.980 for eccentric-concentric BPT), and finally PV
      (median r = 0.974 for concentric-only BPT and 0.969 for eccentric-concentric
      BPT); (b) the accuracy of the general regression equations to predict relative
      load (%1RM) from movement velocity was higher for MV (SEE = 3.80-4.76%1RM) than
      for MPV (SEE = 4.91-5.56%1RM) and PV (SEE = 5.36-5.77%1RM); and (c) the PV showed
      the lowest within-subjects coefficient of variation (3.50%-3.87%), followed by MV
      (4.05%-4.93%), and finally MPV (5.11%-6.03%). Taken together, these results
      suggest that the MV could be the most appropriate variable for monitoring the
      relative load (%1RM) in the BPT exercise performed in a Smith machine.

PMID- 28557856
TI  - CrossFit-based High Intensity Power Training Improves Maximal Aerobic Fitness and
      Body Composition: Retraction.

PMID- 28557857
TI  - Consumption of a 5-mg Melatonin Supplement Does Not Affect 32.2-km Cycling Time
      Trial Performance.
AB  - Brandenberger, KJ, Ingalls, CP, Rupp, JC, and Doyle, JA. Consumption of a 5-mg
      melatonin supplement does not affect 32.2-km cycling time trial performance. J
      Strength Cond Res 32(10): 2872-2877, 2018-Some studies suggest that exogenous
      melatonin supplementation may improve athletic performance in hot humid
      environments because of its precooling effect. However, melatonin is also
      consumed as a sleep aid for its depressive effects on the central nervous system
      (CNS), which may hinder performance. Therefore, this study was conducted to
      determine whether consuming a 5-mg supplement of melatonin would affect
      performance in a laboratory-simulated 32.2-km cycling time trial. The time trial
      was conducted in a thermoneutral environment to separate CNS depressive effects
      of the melatonin from the cooling effects. Trained male subjects (n = 10;
      V[Combining Dot Above]O2max = 62.7 +/- 6.3 ml.kg.min; age = 25.1 +/- 4.0 years;
      mass = 69.9 +/- 9.1 kg; height = 176.0 +/- 7.1 cm) performed three 32.2-km time
      trials on an electronically braked cycle ergometer. The first trial was a
      familiarization. During the 2 experimental trials, subjects received in a random
      order either a placebo or a 5-mg melatonin supplement 15 minutes before exercise
      in a double-blind, crossover design. Variables were measured before exercise and
      at 8-km intervals. The mean 32.2-km time trial completion times for the melatonin
      (64.94 +/- 5.95 minutes) and placebo (65.26 +/- 6.85 minutes) trials were not
      different (p = 0.682). The mean time trial power output for the melatonin (190.4
      +/- 40.4 watts) and placebo (190.0 +/- 45.7 watts) trials was not different (p =
      0.927). Rectal temperature was not significantly different for melatonin compared
      with placebo (p = 0.827). These results suggest that a 5-mg melatonin supplement
      administered 15 minutes before exercise does not measurably impact the
      performance of a 32.2-km cycling time trial in a thermoneutral environment.

PMID- 28557858
TI  - Effects of Combined Strength and Sprint Training on Lean Mass, Strength, Power
      and Sprint Performance in Masters Road Cyclists.
AB  - Strength and sprint training exercises are integral part of training in many
      younger endurance cyclists to improve cycling efficiency and sprinting ability.
      This study was undertaken to examine whether muscle and performance
      characteristics could be improved in endurance-trained masters cyclist by adding
      strength and sprint training stimuli into their training regimen. Twenty five
      masters road cyclists were assigned to a combined strength and sprint training
      group (CT; n=9, 53.5 +/- 9.3 years), a sprint training group (ST, n=7, 49.4 +/-
      4.8 years) or a control group (CG, n=9, 56.9 +/- 8.6 years). Before and after the
      12 week intervention, whole body lean mass (WBLM), total lower limb lean mass
      (LLLM), countermovement jump height (CMJ), peak isometric torque of quadriceps
      (QPT) and hamstring (HPT) muscles were examined. For evaluation of sport-specific
      performance, 10 second sprint cycling peak power (PP10), total 30 second work
      (TW), peak power output (PPO) and flying 200 meter time trial performance (TT)
      were assessed. No pre-training differences were observed between CT, ST and CG
      groups for any of the dependant variables. After training, a significant (p<0.05)
      between group difference was observed in TW between CT and CG groups. A
      significant effect of time (p<0.05) was observed for LLLM in CT and ST groups,
      and for TT in the CT group. These results suggest including strength and sprint
      exercises in training can increase lower limb lean mass and sprint performance in
      endurance trained masters road cyclists. Further research is warranted to find
      out an ideal pattern of training to maintain aerobic capabilities along with
      sprint performance in aging road cyclists.

PMID- 28557859
TI  - Beta-2 Adrenergic Receptor Genotype Influences Power Output in Healthy Subjects.
AB  - Kelley, EF, Johnson, BD, and Snyder, EM. Beta-2 adrenergic receptor genotype
      influences power output in healthy subjects. J Strength Cond Res 31(8): 2053
      2059, 2017-The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of ADRB2
      genotypes on muscle function (absolute power and relative power) in healthy
      subjects. We performed genotyping of the ADRB2 (amino acid 16) and high
      intensity, steady-state exercise on 77 healthy subjects (AA = 18, AG = 25, GG =
      34). There were no differences between genotype groups in age, height, weight, or
      body mass index (BMI) (age = 28.9 +/- 5.7 years, 27.9 +/- 5.7 years, 29.2 +/- 5.9
      years, height = 170.7 +/- 8.6 cm, 174.9 +/- 8.7 cm, 173.4 +/- 9.6 cm, weight =
      68.5 +/- 13.0 kg, 75.0 +/- 12.9 kg, 74.4 +/- 12.9 kg, and BMI = 23.4 +/- 3.9,
      24.4 +/- 2.9, 24.7 +/- 3.4, for AA, AG, and GG, respectively). The genotype
      groups differed significantly in watts, and watts/V[Combining Dot Above]O2 with
      heavy exercise (watts = 186.3 +/- 54.6, 237.8 +/- 54.4, 219.4 +/- 79.5,
      watts/V[Combining Dot Above]O2 = 0.08 +/- 0.006, 0.09 +/- 0.005, 0.08 +/- 0.006).
      There was a trend toward significance (p = 0.058) for W.kg (2.7 +/- 0.4, 3.2 +/-
      0.5, 2.9 +/- 0.8, for AA, AG, and GG, respectively). These data suggest that
      genetic variation of the ADRB2 may influence relative strength in healthy
      subjects and may become an important genetic determinant of muscular strength and
      functional capacity in patients with diseases that result in a loss of muscle
      strength.

PMID- 28557860
TI  - Applying the ACSM Preparticipation Screening Algorithm to U.S. Adults: National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2004.
AB  - PURPOSE: For most people, the benefits of physical activity far outweigh the
      risks. Research has suggested that exercise preparticipation questionnaires might
      refer an unwarranted number of adults for medical evaluation before exercise
      initiation, creating a potential barrier to adoption. The new American College of
      Sports Medicine (ACSM) prescreening algorithm relies on current exercise
      participation; history and symptoms of cardiovascular, metabolic, or renal
      disease; and desired exercise intensity to determine referral status. Our purpose
      was to compare the referral proportion of the ACSM algorithm to that of previous
      screening tools using a representative sample of U.S. adults. METHODS: On the
      basis of responses to health questionnaires from the 2001-2004 National Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey, we calculated the proportion of adults 40 yr or
      older who would be referred for medical clearance before exercise participation
      based on the ACSM algorithm. Results were stratified by age and sex and compared
      with previous results for the ACSM/American Heart Association Preparticipation
      Questionnaire and the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire. RESULTS: On the
      basis of the ACSM algorithm, 2.6% of adults would be referred only before
      beginning vigorous exercise and 54.2% of respondents would be referred before
      beginning any exercise. Men were more frequently referred before vigorous
      exercise, and women were more frequently referred before any exercise. Referral
      was more common with increasing age. The ACSM algorithm referred a smaller
      proportion of adults for preparticipation medical clearance than the previously
      examined questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS: Although additional validation is needed to
      determine whether the algorithm correctly identifies those at risk for
      cardiovascular complications, the revised ACSM algorithm referred fewer
      respondents than other screening tools. A lower referral proportion may mitigate
      an important barrier of medical clearance from exercise participation.

PMID- 28557861
TI  - HeartMate 3 in Lowest INTERMACS Profile Cohort: The Swiss Experience.
AB  - New generation devices for long-term mechanical circulatory support are
      centrifugal pumps having fully magnetically levitated rotors to reduce blood
      trauma. Recently, the novel HeartMate 3 was cleared for clinical application in
      Switzerland. In two Swiss University Hospitals part of the "Lausanne-Geneva
      Transplantation Network," 10 consecutive patients in end-stage heart failure
      received the HeartMate 3 (Thoratec Corporation, Pleasanton, CA). Device
      implantation criteria were persistent low output syndrome despite optimal medical
      treatment. The primary end-point of the study was survival or transplantation to
      90 days on the device. Five patients (50%) were in Interagency Registry for
      Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) class 1 and 2 (two were
      under venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [VA-ECMO]), and five were
      in class 3 and 4. The indication was bridge-to-transplant in seven patients, and
      destination therapy in three. Two patients (20%) received concomitant aortic
      valve surgery. Four patients (40%) required temporary right ventricle support
      (tRVAD) for a mean of 8 +/- 1.5 days. Bleeding requiring surgical revision
      occurred in five (50%) patients, two during the tRVAD support. At the 90 day end
      point, survival was 90%, one (10%) died due to respiratory failure. Three (30%)
      experienced critical illness polyneuropathy. Two had body temperature over 38.5
      degrees C for more than 7 days after implant, without infections. Two (20%) had
      late driveline infection. The pump allowed rapid improvement of patients'
      clinical conditions even in severely compromised patients. Postoperative bleeding
      occurred in the setting of anticoagulation. No hemolysis or pump thrombosis
      occurred. Fever occurred frequently but was not associated with mortality.
      Hemodynamic support was consistent over time without significant adverse events.

PMID- 28557862
TI  - Quantification of Postmembrane Gaseous Microembolization During Venoarterial
      Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Prolonged use of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA ECMO) may
      be complicated by end-organ dysfunction. Although gaseous microemboli (GME) are
      thought to damage end organs during cardiopulmonary bypass, patient exposures to
      GME have not been well characterized during VA ECMO. We therefore performed an
      observational study of GME in adult VA ECMO patients, with correlation to
      clinical events during routine patient care. After institutional review board
      (IRB) approval, we used two Doppler probes to detect GME noninvasively in
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits on four patients for 15 hours
      total while also recording patient care events. We then conducted in vitro trials
      to compare Doppler signals with gold-standard measurements using an Emboli
      Detection and Classification EDAC quantifier (Luna Innnovations, Inc. Roanoke,
      VA) (Terumo Cardiovascular, Ann Arbor, MI) during simulated clinical
      interventions. Correlations between Doppler and EDAC data were used to estimate
      GME counts and volumes represented by clinical Doppler data. A total of 503
      groups of Doppler peaks representing GME showers were observed, including 194
      statistically larger showers during patient care activities containing 92% of
      total Doppler peaks. Intravenous injections accounted for an estimated 68% of GME
      and 88% of GME volume, whereas care involving movement accounted for an estimated
      6% of GME and 3% of volume. Overall estimated embolic rates of 24,000 GME
      totaling 4 MUl/hr rivals reported GME rates during cardiopulmonary bypass.
      Numerous GME are present in the postmembrane circuit during VA ECMO, raising
      concern for effects on microcirculation and organ dysfunction. Strategies to
      detect and minimize GME may be warranted to limit embolic exposures experienced
      by VA ECMO patients.

PMID- 28557864
TI  - STELLATE NONHEREDITARY IDIOPATHIC FOVEOMACULAR RETINOSCHISIS: RESPONSE TO TOPICAL
      DORZOLAMIDE THERAPY.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the clinical course of a patient presenting with stellate
      nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis (SNIFR) in response to
      topical Dorzolamide treatment. METHODS: Case report, with multimodal imaging
      findings, including spectral domain optical coherence tomography and fluorescein
      angiography. Topical Dorzolamide Hydrochloride 2% drops were used three times per
      day in the affected eye. RESULTS: We identified a 27-years-old male patient who
      presented with 1-week history of decreased vision in his left eye. Spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography of the affected eye showed macular splitting
      of the inner plexiform layer and outer plexiform layer involving the fovea with
      no other evidence of a hereditary or acquired predisposing condition. The patient
      was started on the topical treatment for 6 months with visual improvement from
      20/40 to 20/30 in the left eye, after which the decision to stop topical
      dorzolamide therapy was made. On 3 months of follow-up, visual acuity decreased
      back to 20/40 in the left eye with an increase in retinal thickening on spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography. Topical dorzolamide was restarted three
      times per day in the left eye. At 1-year point after restarting treatment, visual
      acuity was 20/20 in the left eye, with resolved inner plexiform layer and outer
      plexiform layer splitting on spectral domain optical coherence tomography in the
      left eye. CONCLUSION: Stellate nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular
      retinoschisis can be a devastating problem causing decrease in vision. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first case in the literature to report the
      complete resolution of SNIFR in response to topical dorzolamide hydrochloride 2%
      therapy. Further prospective studies are vital to better elucidate our
      understanding of this new disease identity.

PMID- 28557863
TI  - Pediatric Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry International Report
      2016.
AB  - The purpose of this report is to describe the international growth, outcomes,
      complications, and technology used in pediatric extracorporeal life support
      (ECLS) from 2009 to 2015 as reported by participating centers in the
      Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO). To date, there are 59,969
      children who have received ECLS in the ELSO Registry; among those, 21,907
      received ECLS since 2009 with an overall survival to hospital discharge rate of
      61%. In 2009, 2,409 ECLS cases were performed at 157 centers. By 2015, that
      number grew to 2,992 cases in 227 centers, reflecting a 24% increase in patients
      and 55% growth in centers. ECLS delivered to neonates (0-28 days) for respiratory
      support was the largest subcategory of ECLS among children <18-years old.
      Overall, 48% of ECLS was delivered for respiratory support and 52% was for
      cardiac support or extracorporeal life support to support cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation (ECPR). During the study period, over half of children were
      supported on ECLS with centrifugal pumps (51%) and polymethylpentene oxygenators
      (52%). Adverse events including neurologic events were common during ECLS, a fact
      that underscores the opportunity and need to promote quality improvement work.

PMID- 28557865
TI  - The emerging role of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type-9 inhibition in
      secondary prevention: from clinical trials to real-world experience.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The recent advent of a highly efficacious class of low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering agents, the proprotein convertase
      subtilisin/kexin type-9 (PCSK9) inhibitors, has transformed dyslipidaemia
      management in patients with cardiovascular disease as well as those with familial
      hypercholesterolemia. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent positive results of the landmark
      Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with
      Elevated Risk cardiovascular outcome trial with evolocumab as an add-on to statin
      therapy demonstrate further reduction of cardiovascular events. Additional safety
      outcomes from this large randomized trial, as well as the EBBINGHAUS substudy,
      allay fears of neurocognitive disorder as an adverse effect of achieving very low
      LDL-C levels with these agents. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS: Widespread clinical
      adoption of PCSK9 inhibitors will depend on the results from ongoing and planned
      cardiovascular efficacy and safety trials with PCSK9 inhibitors. In addition,
      understanding the practical challenges and barriers to usage of these injectable
      agents by high cardiovascular risk patients will also affect clinical adoption of
      this class of agents. Analysis of cost-benefit models, along with anticipated
      updates to practice guidelines for dyslipidaemia management are likely to
      strengthen the clinical utility of PCSK9 inhibitors. Importantly, the potency of
      this new class of agents provides a huge opportunity to extend further the 'lower
      LDL-C is better' hypothesis in an effort to reduce rates of cardiovascular
      morbidity and mortality on a population level.

PMID- 28557866
TI  - Imaging adult patients with discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Distinction between discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis and
      other causes of left ventricular outflow obstruction has important implications
      for predicting natural history and guiding the timing and type of intervention.
      Imaging, primarily transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), plays a pivotal role in
      the diagnosis and management of adults with subvalvar aortic stenosis. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Most systematic research on imaging of subvalvar aortic stenosis has
      focused on echocardiography. TTE, especially two-dimensional imaging with color
      and spectral Doppler, remains the main modality for delineation of the anatomic
      and hemodynamic features of subvalvar stenosis, associated anomalies and
      involvement of accessory mitral valve attachments to the subaortic septum or
      abnormally placed papillary muscles. Transesophageal echocardiography may provide
      more detailed definition of left ventricular outflow tract anatomy, including the
      presence and extension of the obstructive subaortic fibroelastic tissue onto the
      aortic or mitral valve, especially in patients with poor transthoracic windows.
      The clinical role for advanced imaging technologies, including three-dimensional
      echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance and computed tomography, is evolving
      but, largely because of the adequacy of established imaging with TTE, remains
      relatively limited. SUMMARY: In the absence of other congenital heart defects or
      alternative indications (e.g. coronary angiography), TTE is usually adequate for
      the assessment of discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis in the adult. In specific
      clinical situations, supplemental imaging modalities can play an integral role in
      clinical decision making.

PMID- 28557867
TI  - Rapid Communication: Solution for the MEEK Glue Transfer Problem.
AB  - Meek micrografting permits wide expansion of skin grafts in true ratios from 3:1
      to 9:1, as well as the utilization of poor donor sites. The proprietary glue
      critical to successful skin transference is unavailable in the United States.
      While the technique is widely employed worldwide, alternative glues resulted in
      poor skin transfer and frustrated use in American burn centers. The authors
      present their protocol resulting in effective MEEK skin transfer using
      Mastisol(r) adhesive: "The Rule of Sevens." 1) Soak the corks in normal saline
      for 7 minutes. 2) Then spread the grafts on the corks and mince with the MEEK
      machine. 3) Spray the epidermal surface of the micrograft-covered corks
      thoroughly with 7 pumps of Mastisol(r) from a distance of 7 inches (17.7 cm). 4)
      Allow the Mastisol(r) to dry for 7 minutes on the micrografts. 5) Apply the corks
      with the Mastisol(r)-imbued skin to the gauzes. Press firmly for 7 seconds. 6)
      Allow the skin to transfer from cork to gauze undisturbed for 7 minutes. Next,
      carefully remove the corks and expand the gauzes. Apply the micrograft-covered
      gauzes to excised and prepared wound beds and staple into position. 7) After 7
      days, remove the gauzes, though the authors have left them in place for up to 21
      days. This novel protocol provides reliable skin transfer and permits the
      modified MEEK technique to be a consistent part of our practice. The authors
      present this rapid communication to allow others to utilize this technique
      without the frustration of adhesive failure resulting in lost grafts.

PMID- 28557868
TI  - Application of Three - dimensional Wound Analyzer in the Small Wound Area
      Measurement during the Process of Wound Healing.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determinate the reliability of 3-dimensional
      wound analyzer (3-DWMD) in the wound area measurement for animal small area in
      the process of wound healing. Seven Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish
      the skin defect model. And the wound area and time consumption were measured on
      days 0, 5, 10, 15 using 3-DWMD, investigators, and planimetry method. The
      measurement results using 3-DWMD and investigators were analyzed comparative with
      that using planimetry method separately. A total 46 wounds, including 32
      irregular wounds and regular 14 wounds, were measured. No matter calculating the
      irregular wounds or the regular wounds, there was no significant difference
      between 3-DWMD group and planimetry group in measuring wound area (P > 0.05).
      However, a statistically significant difference was found in time-consuming for
      measuring wound area between 3-DWMD group and planimetry group (P < 0.001). The
      same result was found between investigator group and planimetry group (P <
      0.001). The 3-DWMD would quickly and accurately obtain the wound area, and its
      measurement results were consistent with planimetry method. Therefore, such
      measuring equipment has clinical reference value for measuring precision area of
      the wound in the process of wound healing.

PMID- 28557870
TI  - In Situ Delivery of Fibrin-Based Hydrogels Prevents Contraction and Reduces
      Inflammation.
AB  - While early excision and grafting has revolutionized burn wound care, autologous
      split-thickness skin grafts are sometimes unavailable. Tissue-engineered skin
      substitutes have generated great interest but have proven inadequate. Therefore,
      the development of novel biomaterials to replace/augment skin grafting could
      improve burn patient outcomes. Herein, we establish the effects of debridement on
      deep-partial thickness burns and subsequently examine the effects of 3 different
      hydrogels on healing. Burns were created on the dorsum of pigs and 4 days after,
      the eschar was either left intact or debrided for treatment with collagen,
      PEGylated fibrinogen (PEG-fibrin) or PEGylated autologous platelet-free plasma
      (PEG-PFP) hydrogels. Wounds were photographed, scored, and biopsied for histology
      on postburn days 7, 10, 14, and 28. Compared with nondebrided wounds, debridement
      improved wound color and suppleness but accelerated contraction. Debridement also
      significantly reduced the number of neutrophils in the wound bed at days 10 and
      14 postburn. Treatment with any hydrogel transiently mitigated contraction, with
      the PEG-fibrin group displaying less contraction on day 28. All hydrogels were
      visible histologically for up to 10 days, with significant cellular and blood
      vessel infiltration observed in PEG-fibrin hydrogels. Collagen and PEG-fibrin
      hydrogels reduced neutrophils and macrophages in surrounding granulation tissue
      on day 7, while PEG-fibrin hydrogels contained less immune cells. These data
      suggest that a single hydrogel application at the time of debridement has
      immunomodulatory properties that aid in wound healing. Ultimately, these
      hydrogels may be combined with other biomaterials, cells, or biologics for
      replacing/augmenting skin substitutes.

PMID- 28557869
TI  - A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Trial Comparing the Outpatient Treatment of
      Pediatric and Adult Partial-Thickness Burns with Suprathel or Mepilex Ag.
AB  - Modern treatment of partial-thickness burns follows the paradigm of less frequent
      dressing changes to allow for undisturbed reepithelialization of the burn wound.
      We compared Mepilex Ag (M), a silver-impregnated foam dressing, and Suprathel
      (S), a DL-lactid acid polymer, in the outpatient treatment of partial-thickness
      burns in pediatric and adult patients. Patients were enrolled in a randomized,
      controlled, prospective clinical trial. We monitored time to reepithelialization,
      wound pain, discomfort during dressing changes, and treatment cost. Objective
      scar characteristics (elasticity, transepidermal water loss, hydration, and
      pigmentation) and subjective assessments (Patient and Observer Scar Assessment
      Scale) were measured at 1 month post burn. Data are presented as mean +/- SEM,
      and significance was accepted at P < 0.05. Sixty-two patients (S n = 32; M n =
      30) were enrolled; age, sex, and burn size were comparable between the groups.
      Time to reepithelialization was not different between the groups (12 days; P =
      0.75). Pain ratings were significantly reduced during the first 5 days after burn
      in the Suprathel group in all patients (P = 0.03) and a pediatric subgroup (P <
      0.001). Viscolelasticity of burned skin was elevated compared with unburned skin
      in the Mepilex Ag group at 1 month post burn. Patients treated with Suprathel
      reported better overall scar quality (S: 2; M: 4.5; P < 0.001). The cost of
      treatment per square centimeter for Mepilex Ag was considerably lower than that
      of Suprathel. Both dressings are feasible and efficacious for the outpatient
      treatment of minor and selected moderate partial-thickness burns. Reduced pain,
      especially in a pediatric patient population, may be advantageous, despite
      increased treatment cost.

PMID- 28557871
TI  - Epidemiology and Outcomes of Auricular Burn Injuries.
AB  - Auricular burns represent a unique type of injury. The acute management and
      clinical course of these injuries can be different from other facial burns. There
      is a paucity of literature pertaining to the epidemiology and acute management of
      auricular burns. Most studies focus on deformity reconstruction. The aim of this
      study was to characterize the epidemiology, treatment, and outcomes of auricular
      burns. Data from all patients presenting to a regional burn center in a 4-year
      period were reviewed and those with auricular burns were identified. Demographic
      data, burn mechanism, insurance status, method of treatment, need for skin
      grafting, percentage graft-take, time to reepithelialization and incidence of
      deformity were reviewed. During the study period, 593 facial burns were evaluated
      and 132 (22%) sustained burns to the auricle. The most common mechanisms of
      injury were flame (65.1%) and scalding (22.5%). Auricular burns were mostly
      second degree (88%), involved both ears in 44%, and involved only the ventral
      aspect of the ear in 57%. The majority of patients healed well with conservative
      management; none suffered from chondritis. Of the 89 patients followed to
      healing, 1 patient (1.1%) received full-thickness skin grafts to the auricle,
      resulting in excellent graft-take. All other patients were managed
      nonoperatively, and none suffered from ear deformities. Auricular burns occur
      with surprising frequency in patients presenting to burn centers. Careful acute
      management of these injuries can eliminate development of chondritis and minimize
      the rate of deformity and need for reconstruction. The majority of wounds heal
      with conservative management, but time to reepithelialization can be prolonged.

PMID- 28557872
TI  - Learn to Focus in a World of Multitasking.
AB  - Case managers' days are hectic and unpredictable. This Editorial describes why
      multitasking may not be the best choice and identifies techniques and attitudes
      for smoothing out hectic days.

PMID- 28557873
TI  - Utilization of the Health Care System of Community Case Management Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE OF STUDY: The has reduced payments to hospitals that have excessive
      readmissions. This mandate has made it imperative for hospitals to implement a
      plan to manage readmissions and transitions of care for patients they serve. The
      purpose of this study was to ascertain whether an advanced practice, nurse-led,
      community-based model is effective in reducing acute health care utilization.
      PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING: The community case management (CCM) program was created
      more than 20 years ago to assess and manage care of patients demanding frequent
      emergency department (ED) visits and frequent hospitalizations, by providing in
      home visits and care coordination by an advanced practice nurse or masters
      prepared nurse. METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLE: The charts of 307 patients who were
      referred to CCM were reviewed to assess their utilization of the health care
      system after referral. There were 2 groups of patients: those who accepted CCM
      services (N = 151) and those who refused CCM services (N = 156) upon referral.
      RESULTS: It was found that if patients accepted CCM services, they had 55% fewer
      visits to the ED and 61% fewer hospital admissions than patients who refused CCM
      services. Utilization of urgent care was decreased by 47% in the patients who
      accepted CCM services, but this decline was not statistically significant.
      IMPLICATION FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: The results of this study indicate that
      CCM is effective in decreasing hospital admissions and ED visits for the patients
      using CCM services. Implementing a CCM program could be an effective method for
      decreasing utilization of the hospital and ED by adult patients with at least 1
      chronic disease.

PMID- 28557874
TI  - Partnerships in Transitions: Acute Care to Skilled Nursing Facility.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: Older adults, in particular those discharged to skilled
      nursing facilities (SNFs), are at high risk for readmission. As part of a
      multifaceted approach to reduce readmissions, a community hospital initiated a 3
      prong approach (Collaboration, Communication, and Competency) and partnered with
      regional SNFs. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: El Camino Hospital, an independent,
      locally owned, not-for-profit district, acute care hospital in Northern
      California, and 11 participating SNFs in the same region. FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS:
      Collaboration: The combined leadership team developed a case report form and
      instituted regular reviews of 7-day readmissions. Communication: Standardized
      form for transferring patients to SNFs, form for transfer from SNF to emergency
      department, and consent form to enable SNFs to administer antipsychotic
      medications were developed. Regular phone and video conferencing between
      clinicians at the hospital and receiving SNF were instituted. Competency:
      Educational series to recognize and intervene to prevent readmission, and mutual
      exchange of best practices among hospital and SNF staff, were instituted.
      Continued work among ECH and the participating SNFs has improved the flow of
      information in both directions; favorable results from the broader study to
      reduce readmissions hospital-wide provide support for these efforts. IMPLICATIONS
      FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: Initiating collaboration with the SNFs is
      imperative in the changing health care landscape. Because of the complexity of
      the problem, acute care facilities and SNFs need to create a partnership to
      ensure smooth patient transition. Communication between care settings is
      essential in achieving optimum patient outcomes.

PMID- 28557875
TI  - Supporting the Support System: How Assessment and Communication Can Help Patients
      and Their Support Systems.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: The benefits of having a support system, such as social
      relationships with close friends and family, have been well documented for
      patients with serious health issues. As scientific evidence has shown,
      individuals who have the lowest level of involvement in social relationships face
      a greater mortality risk. Support systems, however, are not infallible.
      Relationship stress can have a negative impact on people-patient and caregiver
      alike-behaviorally, psychosocially, and physiologically. The purpose of this
      article is to encourage case managers who take a patient-centered approach to
      also consider the existence and extent of the support system, as well as any
      stresses or tensions that are observable within the support system. Although the
      case manager is ethically obliged to advocate for the individual receiving case
      management services, that advocacy can be extended to the support system for the
      good of all. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: This discussion applies to numerous case
      management practices and work settings including (but not limited to) hospital
      based case management, home health, geriatrics, catastrophic case management,
      mental health, palliative care, and end of life/hospice. FINDING/CONCLUSIONS: As
      part of the assessment phase of the case management process, case managers
      determine the extent of the patient's support system or social support network
      such as family and close friends. Although their advocacy is primarily for the
      patient receiving case management services, case managers also become aware of
      the needs of the support system members as they face their loved one's serious
      illness, severe injury, geriatric care demands, or end of life. Case managers can
      use their communication skills, especially motivational interviewing, with
      patients and their support systems to identify stresses and issues that can
      impact the pursuit of health goals. In addition, case managers ensure that
      individuals and their support systems are kept informed such as about the health
      condition, stage of disease, plan of care, treatment options, and care transition
      plan. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT: Professional case managers expand their
      role as advocates, serving primarily the patients ("clients") who receive case
      management services and also members of the support system. By becoming more
      aware and sensitive to the needs of the support system, case managers help reduce
      stress on the support system, which can contribute to positive outcomes for
      patients ("clients").

PMID- 28557876
TI  - Case Management Competence: Reframing What Defines Practice Excellence.

PMID- 28557877
TI  - Case Managers Facing Legal Challenges: Application of the Standards of Practice.

PMID- 28557878
TI  - Addressing the Needs of the Support System.

PMID- 28557879
TI  - Improving Patient Self-Care and Reducing Readmissions Through an Outpatient Heart
      Failure Case Management Program.

PMID- 28557882
TI  - General Psychiatric Management for Suicidal Patients, With Remarks on Chronicity:
      Contending With the Angel of Death.
AB  - Assessing, managing, and treating suicidal patients, particularly those with
      chronic suicidality, challenge clinical decision making and emotional self
      management in trainees and seasoned practitioners. Educators and trainees have
      noted needs for additional teaching materials in these areas. This article
      assists in addressing these gaps. We reviewed diagnostic and phenomenological
      characteristics encountered in acutely and chronically suicidal patients, their
      comprehensive assessment, general approaches to management, risk mitigation and
      safety planning, and psychological and biological interventions. Integrating
      information from research and clinical experience-based literature, we offer
      concise guidance on comprehensive psychiatric management for the varieties of
      acutely and chronically suicidal patients encountered in practice. By actively
      engaging suicidal patients and their families, systematically attending to
      warning signs, conducting risk mitigation and safety planning, and using
      psychological and biological treatments as indicated, clinicians are likely to
      reduce suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts in patients and might reduce
      completed suicides.

PMID- 28557883
TI  - Pancreatic Cancer and Depression: A Narrative Review.
AB  - Depression is a common concomitant of pancreatic cancer, and, because it often
      occurs before the cancer is diagnosed, its occurrence is likely to be intrinsic
      to the condition rather than a reaction to such a diagnosis. Because pancreatic
      cancer is associated with a very high mortality, its early detection is a key
      task. We therefore review relevant literature to determine whether the depression
      is prototypically distinctive and whether its identification might lead to
      earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. We report on the epidemiology and
      prognosis of pancreatic cancer and on the prevalence, description, and possible
      mechanisms involved for the occurrence of any associated depressive state, before
      reviewing the comparative utility of depression in relation to other risk factors
      in aiding diagnosis. Published studies fail to identify any distinct depressive
      prototypic phenotype to depression associated with pancreatic cancer. Although it
      is a relatively common concomitant of pancreatic cancer, the utility of
      depression as a marker of the condition is not suggested from a key study
      evaluating its contribution in relation to other symptoms and risk factors.

PMID- 28557884
TI  - From Whom Do Student Veterans Seek Help?: Understanding the Roles of
      Professional, Informal, and Religious Sources.
AB  - The purpose of this brief report was to ascertain student veterans' patterns of
      help-seeking from professional, informal, and religious sources. In total, 350
      veterans from an academic institution on the Gulf Coast completed assessments of
      help-seeking intentions from a range of potential sources in their communities.
      Analyses revealed that veterans had a neutral probability to seek help from
      professional sources (e.g., physicians and psychologists) but were likely to
      pursue informal sources (e.g., partner/spouse, friend) in a
      psychological/emotional crisis. However, when compared with their nonclinical
      counterparts, veterans with a probable need for treatment for PTSD and/or
      depression generally reported less probability to seek help from informal and
      religious sources. In addition, sex, ethnicity, and religious background each
      contributed a significant influence in shaping preferences for seeking help for
      psychological or emotional concerns. Given unmet mental health needs of student
      veterans, findings highlight the importance attending to help-seeking preferences
      in this growing population.

PMID- 28557886
TI  - Extrasensory Perception Experiences and Childhood Trauma.

PMID- 28557885
TI  - Patient, Provider, and System Factors Contributing to Patient Safety Events
      During Medical and Surgical Hospitalizations for Persons With Serious Mental
      Illness.
AB  - This study aimed to explore patient-, provider-, and system-level factors that
      may contribute to elevated risk of patient safety events among persons with
      serious mental illness (SMI). We conducted a medical record review of
      medical/surgical admissions in Maryland hospitals from 1994 to 2004 for a
      community-based sample of adults with SMI (N = 790 hospitalizations). We
      estimated the prevalence of multiple patient, provider, and system factors that
      could influence patient safety among persons with SMI. We conducted a case
      crossover analysis to examine the relationship between these factors and adverse
      patient safety events. Patients' mental status, level of consciousness, disease
      severity, and providers' lack of patient monitoring, delay/failure to seek
      consultation, lack of trainee supervision, and delays in care were positively
      associated with adverse patient safety events (p < 0.05). Efforts to reduce SMI
      related patient safety risks will need to be multifaceted and address both
      patient- and provider-level factors.

PMID- 28557887
TI  - Commentary on "Extrasensory Perception Experiences and Childhood Trauma".

PMID- 28557888
TI  - Foreword.

PMID- 28557889
TI  - Introduction to the Anatomy and Physiology of Pulmonary Circulation.
AB  - In the United States, venous thromboembolism is associated with high mortality
      and morbidity affecting as many as 900 000 people (1-2 per 1000) each year.
      Estimates suggest that 60 000 to 100 000 Americans die of deep venous
      thrombosis/pulmonary embolism and 10% to 30% die within 1 month of diagnosis,
      with sudden death being the first symptom in approximately 25% of population with
      pulmonary embolism. One-half of the patients with deep venous thrombosis will
      have postthrombotic syndrome, which includes swelling, pain, discoloration, and
      scaling in the affected limb. Approximately 33% of patients will have a
      recurrence within 10 years. It is important to understand the anatomy of the
      pulmonary circulation and the pathophysiology of the disease as it leads to
      understanding of the potential devastating clinical consequences.

PMID- 28557890
TI  - Pathogenesis and Epidemiology of Venous Thromboembolic Disease.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism is the formation of a blood clot in the vein. It mainly
      consists of 2 life-threatening conditions-deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary
      embolism. Deep venous thrombosis is a potentially dangerous condition with grave
      sequelae, the worst of which is pulmonary embolism. Venous thromboembolism can
      also lead to multiple other conditions with significant morbidity and mortality
      that include extension of thrombi, pulmonary hypertension, recurrence, and
      postthrombotic syndrome. An update on the epidemiology, etiology, and
      pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism will be reviewed in this article.

PMID- 28557891
TI  - Clinical Presentation and Risk Factors of Venous Thromboembolic Disease.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) has a wide range of clinical presentations. Deep
      venous thrombosis may occur in upper or lower extremities or in visceral veins.
      Extremity deep venous thrombosis usually manifests with unilateral painful
      swelling in the limb, while visceral deep venous thrombosis manifestations vary
      on the basis of the involved organ. Pulmonary embolism classically manifests with
      sudden pleuritic chest pain and unexplained dyspnea. Superficial thrombophlebitis
      usually presents with acute inflammation around a palpable thrombosed superficial
      vein. Risk factors of VTE are either inherited or acquired. The inherited causes
      of VTE tend to be familial and more common in younger patients. The common
      acquired risk factors of VTE include previous history of venous thrombosis,
      immobilization, recent surgery or trauma, malignancy, and pregnancy. Identifying
      high-risk patients for VTE based on these risk factors is the cornerstone to
      provide the prophylactic treatment to prevent thrombotic events.

PMID- 28557892
TI  - Diagnostic Considerations of Venous Thromboembolic Disease.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) includes deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary
      embolism (PE). The clinical presentation of VTE is nonspecific and requires
      confirmatory testing. The most common diagnostic tool for DVT is duplex
      ultrasonography since it is a noninvasive test with high accuracy. Contrast
      venography is considered the gold standard modality to diagnose DVT, but it is an
      invasive test. Magnetic resonance venography and computed tomography venography
      are alternative diagnostic methods for DVT, which can be helpful in certain
      circumstances. Pulmonary embolism is commonly diagnosed by computed tomography
      pulmonary angiography. Ventilation perfusion scanning is an alternative imaging
      to diagnose PE in patients who cannot receive intravenous contrast. Pulmonary
      angiography is still the gold standard in the diagnosis of PE and is usually
      needed in specific conditions. D-dimer assay can be utilized in ruling VTE out in
      low-risk patients. Estimating the pretest clinical probability for having VTE is
      the key step in guiding the clinicians and nurses to the appropriate diagnostic
      method for patients with suspected DVT or PE.

PMID- 28557893
TI  - Prophylaxis for Venous Thromboembolism.
AB  - Venous thromboembolisms are major risk factors for many of our hospitalized
      patients. These events, however, can be prevented with prophylactic measurements
      when administered appropriately and on a timely basis. As patients are admitted,
      discharged, transferred, and scheduled for procedures on an hourly basis,
      anticoagulation and deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis are held or discontinued in
      anticipation for possible procedures. This results in delay of care and intervals
      where patients may not be covered with any prophylactic measurements. Similarly,
      alterations in clinical status can quickly change such as an increase in
      creatinine levels or the development of a new bleed, thus requiring a revision in
      their deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. Nurses, therefore, play an integral role
      in not only administering the medicine but also routinely assessing the patients'
      clinical status and, therefore, their deep vein thrombosis prophylactic regimens
      as well. This article will review the indications, scoring systems, common
      prophylactic methods, and special populations at increased risks for venous
      thromboembolisms.

PMID- 28557894
TI  - Deep Venous Thrombosis of the Upper and Lower Extremity.
AB  - Upper and lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is defined as a blood clot
      within the deep veins of the affected extremities. These blood clots can either
      occur spontaneously or be associated with specific risk factors. Regardless of
      the cause, DVT is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and has the
      potential for lethal complications. The most notable complication is the
      potential for development of pulmonary embolism from a lower extremity DVT. As
      studies have reported, more than 90% of acute pulmonary emboli arise from the
      proximal veins. Venous thromboembolism is also associated with a significant
      economic burden on the health care system and the individual patient. In this
      article, we review DVT of the upper and lower extremity including risk factors,
      signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and management.

PMID- 28557895
TI  - Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Embolism Response Teams: An Overview.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism is a common disease with a wide array of signs and
      symptoms. It has been cited as the third leading cause of cardiovascular death,
      and if left untreated, it leads to death in 1 in 4 patients. Sophisticated
      diagnostic tools have allowed physician to become more accurate in diagnosing
      pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. The advent of new oral
      anticoagulants, the emergence of pulmonary embolism response teams, and protocols
      demonstrate recent achievements in the management of venous thromboembolism. The
      focus of this article is to discuss the treatment of venous thromboembolism.

PMID- 28557896
TI  - Advanced Therapies in Venous Thromboembolism.
AB  - Advanced therapies are available for both deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary
      embolism when anticoagulation alone is not sufficient to improve clinical
      outcomes. In some cases, clinical deterioration ensues despite anticoagulation,
      and this requires unique techniques that can ameliorate the clinical course. Such
      advancements are described in this upcoming article.

PMID- 28557897
TI  - Consequences of Venous Thromboembolism, Including Chronic Thromboembolic
      Pulmonary Hypertension.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism includes both deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
      They pose a significant risk for morbidity and mortality. In an appropriate
      clinical setting, invasive interventions, including administration of
      thrombolytics, anticoagulation, and placement of vena cava filter, are warranted.
      Bleeding, postthrombotic syndrome, recurrence, and filter-associated
      complications are few of the complications of this disease. More recently,
      chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension has gained clinical interest in
      patients with pulmonary embolism and has warranted close follow-up.

PMID- 28557898
TI  - Special Circumstances and Populations.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism is a condition that includes both deep venous thrombosis
      and pulmonary embolism. Venous thromboembolism disease can result because of a
      combination of risk factors, including patient-related, treatment-related, and,
      more specifically, cancer-related factors. It is not disease-specific or a
      population-specific disorder, but it is more prevalent in certain specialty
      populations. This article will cover those specialty populations including
      cancer, pregnancy, and athletes.

PMID- 28557899
TI  - Prognosis and Monitoring of VTE.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can present in a variety of different clinical
      settings and in a diverse, comorbid patient population, both of which will guide
      the clinician toward the appropriate therapeutic response. Patients who present
      with pulmonary embolism are at risk for hemodynamic instability, recurrence of
      VTE, cardiac comorbidities, and increased risk of overall mortality.
      Prognostication models have been clinically validated for risk stratification and
      prediction of mortality. Similar to pulmonary embolism, patients with deep vein
      thrombosis carry a higher risk of VTE recurrence and cardiac comorbidities.
      Consequently, VTE can be treated by a variety of methods such as anticoagulants
      or inferior vena cava filters, which bear their own risks and benefits. It is
      imperative that clinicians monitor patients for complications from VTE and the
      chosen therapy.

PMID- 28557900
TI  - Controversies in Venous Thromboembolism.
AB  - Numerous controversies exist in the diagnosis of venous thromboembolism despite
      all the guidelines that are currently available. Screening of malignancy in
      venous thromboembolism has been a debated issue, as it has not been shown to
      change mortality. Calf vein thrombosis is also a controversial topic, but
      evidence points to risk stratifying those patients. Overdiagnosis, most notably
      from the finding of subsegmental pulmonary embolism, ultimately requires
      evaluating the risk and benefit for each patient. In addition, treatment of upper
      extremity deep vein thrombosis is a challenging scenario that is quite common in
      clinical practice. Finally, postthrombotic syndrome may be reduced by graduated
      compression stockings, but their use has not been validated for preventive use at
      this time and is still being discussed.

PMID- 28557901
TI  - IMPROVING THE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION CONSTRUCT: A New Classification
      System.
AB  - Previous models of disease in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were
      incomplete in that they did not encompass subretinal drusenoid deposits
      (pseudodrusen), subtypes of neovascularization, and polypoidal choroidal
      vasculopathy. In addition, Type 3 neovascularization starts in the retina and may
      not necessarily involve the choroid. As such, the term choroidal
      neovascularization is not appropriate for these eyes. The new aspects in the AMD
      construct are to include specific lipoprotein extracellular accumulations, namely
      drusen and subretinal drusenoid deposits, as early AMD. The deposition of
      specific types of deposit seems to be highly correlated with choroidal thickness
      and topographical location in the macula. Late AMD includes macular
      neovascularization or atrophy. The particular type of extracellular deposit is
      predictive of the future course of the patient. For example, eyes with subretinal
      drusenoid deposits have a propensity to develop outer retinal atrophy, complete
      outer retinal and retinal pigment epithelial atrophy, or Type 3
      neovascularization as specific forms of late AMD. Given Type 3 neovascularization
      may never involve the choroid, the term macular neovascularization is suggested
      for the entire spectrum of neovascular disease in AMD. In contrast to older
      classification systems, the proposed system encompasses the relevant
      presentations of disease and more precisely predicts the future course of the
      patient. In doing so, the concept was developed that there may be genetic risk
      alleles, which are not necessarily the same alleles that influence disease
      expression.

PMID- 28557902
TI  - Cryopreserved Amniotic Membrane Improves Clinical Outcomes Following
      Microdiscectomy.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, randomized controlled trial. OBJECTIVE: To compare
      pain, physical/mental functional recovery and recurrent herniation for patients
      following lumbar microdiscectomy with and without the use of a cryopreserved
      amniotic tissue graft. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Although microdiscectomy
      procedures are routinely successful for patients with lumbar radiculopathy due to
      herniated disc disease, residual low back pain, and recurrent herniation remain
      unsolved clinical problems. METHODS: Following Investigated Review Board
      approval, 80 subjects were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either receive
      cryopreserved amniotic (cAM) tissue or no tissue following elective lumbar
      microdiscectomy surgery. cAM grafts were applied to the annular defect at the
      conclusion of the procedure. Patients provided preoperative and postoperative
      clinical assessment data out to 24 months using the Oswestry Disability Index
      (ODI), Short Form-12 (SF-12) Health Survey, and Visual Analog Pain Scale for back
      and leg pain. Patients with symptomatic recurrent disc herniation were recorded.
      RESULTS: In total, 48 males and 32 females with an average age of 47.2 years were
      included. Mean ODI scores for subjects treated with cAM graft demonstrated
      statistically greater improvement at 6 weeks (14.49 vs. 21.82; P=0.05) and 24
      months (6.62 vs. 14.40; P=0.02) compared with controls. Similarly, SF-12 Physical
      Component Scores demonstrated statistically greater gains in the cAM group at
      both the 6 weeks and 24 months. None of the subjects in the cAM graft group
      sustained a recurrent herniation at the same surgical level, whereas 3 patients
      in the control group sustained a recurrent herniation at the same surgical level,
      with 2 requiring fusion to manage persistent pain. CONCLUSIONS: The data
      demonstrate statistically superior clinical outcomes following lumbar
      microdiscectomy as measured by ODI and SF-12 (physical composite scale) and a
      lower rate of recurrent herniation with the use of a cAM tissue graft compared
      with traditional microdiscectomy.

PMID- 28557903
TI  - Functional Recovery Following Early Kyphoplasty Versus Conservative Management in
      Stable Thoracuolumbar Fractures in Parachute Jumpers: A Randomized Clinical
      Trial.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A randomized clinical trial. OBJECTIVE: To compare the functional
      recovery between early kyphoplasty and conservative care in paratroopers with
      stable thoracolumbar fractures. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Treatment of
      traumatic stable thoracolumbar fractures in young individuals is still a debate.
      Conservative management and kyphoplasty are options of therapy. But enough data
      are not available for supporting each. METHODS: We included 70 paratroopers with
      stable thoracolumbar fractures (A1 and A2 classification according to AOSpine
      thoracolumbar spine injury classification system) presenting <60 days after
      trauma and hyperintensity in T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Old
      fractures and those requiring fixation were excluded. Patients were randomly
      assigned to 2 study groups to undergo percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty (n=34) or
      conservative care (n=36) by applying orthosis for 2 months. Patients were
      followed for 12 months and were evaluated clinically using visual analogue scale
      (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI). RESULTS: The baseline characteristics
      were comparable between 2 study groups. The VAS score and ODI decreased
      significantly in both study groups after 12 months of treatment. The VAS score
      was significantly lower in kyphoplasty group after the intervention (P<0.001), 1
      month (P<0.001), 3 months (P<0.001), 6 months (P<0.001), and 12 months (P<0.001)
      after the intervention. In addition, the ODI was significantly lower after the
      intervention (P<0.001), 1 month (P<0.001), 3 months (P<0.001), 6 months
      (P<0.001), and 12 months (P<0.001) after the intervention. Kyphoplasty was
      associated with shorter duration of returning to parachuting (P<0.001) and
      shorter duration of absence from work (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Early kyphoplasty
      in stable thoracolumbar fractures after parachute jumping is associated with less
      pain, better functional recovery, less days of absence from work, and shorter
      duration of returning to parachuting.

PMID- 28557904
TI  - Characteristics of EEG Seizure-Onset Patterns Recorded From Subdural Electrodes
      Over MRI-Visible Frontal Focal Cortical Dysplasia Type IIb Lesions.
AB  - PURPOSE: Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is intrinsically epileptogenic, and an
      MRI-visible lesion typically constitutes the core part of the epileptogenic zone.
      We aimed to identify ictal EEG patterns that represent the epileptogenic zone by
      using subdural electrodes placed over the MRI-visible FCD lesion. METHODS: We
      selected seven patients with frontal lobe epilepsy caused by pathologically
      proven FCD type IIb who underwent preoperative intracranial EEG evaluation with
      subdural electrodes followed by resection surgery with seizure-free outcome. The
      characteristics of ictal EEG patterns, interictal/ictal high-frequency
      oscillations, and ictal direct current shifts from intracranial electrodes placed
      over the MRI-visible lesion were analyzed. RESULTS: Two seizure-onset patterns
      (low voltage fast activity and fast spike activity) were identified. Low voltage
      fast activity was seen in all patients with a lateral frontal lesion, and it was
      always preceded by preictal spikes. Fast spike activity occurred only in patients
      with a mesial frontal lesion. Interictal/ictal high-frequency oscillations and
      ictal direct current shifts were seen in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: The
      epileptogenic zone of frontal FCD type IIb may be characterized by EEG seizure
      onset patterns consisting of low voltage fast activity and fast spike activity
      accompanied by ictal high-frequency oscillations and ictal direct current shifts.
      Further study is needed to determine whether other seizure-onset patterns exist
      in patients with FCD type IIb.

PMID- 28557905
TI  - SSEP in Therapeutic Hypothermia Era.
AB  - PURPOSE: The reliability of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) in predicting
      outcome in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest treated with therapeutic
      hypothermia (TH) has been questioned. We investigated whether the absence of
      cortical (N20) responses was a reliable predictor of a nonawakening in the
      setting of TH. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted in cardiac arrest
      survivors treated with TH admitted to a single tertiary care hospital from April,
      2010 to March, 2013 who underwent SSEP testing at various time points after
      cardiac arrest. N20 responses were categorized as normal, present but abnormal,
      bilaterally absent, or inadequate for interpretation. Neurologic outcome was
      assessed at discharge by the Cerebral Performance Category Scale (CPC). RESULTS:
      Ninety-three SSEP studies were performed in 73 patients. Fourteen patients had
      absent N20 responses; all had poor outcome (CPC 4-5). Eleven patients had absent
      N20 s during hypothermia, three of whom had follow-up SSEPs after rewarming and
      cortical responses remained absent. Fifty-seven patients had N20 peaks identified
      and had variable outcomes. Evaluation of 1 or more N20 peaks was limited or
      inadequate in 11.4% of SSEPs performed during the cooling because of artifact.
      CONCLUSIONS: Somatosensory evoked potentials remain a reliable prognostic
      indicator in patients undergoing TH. The limited sample size of patients who had
      SSEP performed during TH and repeated after normothermia added to the effect of
      self-fulfilling prophecy limit the interpretation of the reliability of this
      testing when performed during cooling. Further prospective, multicenter, large
      scale studies correlating cortical responses in SSEPs during and after TH are
      warranted. Technical challenges are commonplace during TH and caution is advised
      in the interpretation of suboptimal recordings.

PMID- 28557907
TI  - Assessment Reconsidered: Finding the Balance Between Patient Safety, Student
      Ranking, and Feedback for Improved Learning.

PMID- 28557906
TI  - Ultrasound Imaging of Median Nerve Conduit in a Patient With Persistent Median
      Nerve Symptoms.
AB  - Peripheral nerve injury can be reconstructed using composite polymer nerve
      autografts, but the sonographic appearance of nerve wraps and conduits have not
      been well documented. This case report describes the sonographic findings in a 42
      year-old woman with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome status post nerve repair
      with a conduit. The cross-sectional area of the left median nerve was 24 mm at
      the carpal tunnel inlet and 5 mm at the forearm. The wrist to forearm ratio was
      4.8. There was a hypoechoic space surrounding the nerve that was 1.8 to 1.9 mm
      thick and bordered by a thin, hyperechoic outer rim. On review of the operative
      record and consultation with her surgeon (DR), it was determined that this
      represented the 2-mm nerve wrap used in the last surgery. Inclusion of these
      structures with the median nerve measured a total area of 52 mm at its maximum.
      In describing this image, we hope to lay the foundation for describing the
      sonographic appearance of peripheral nerve repair.

PMID- 28557908
TI  - Emphasizing Primary Prevention in the Curriculum to Mitigate Prescription Drug
      Abuse.

PMID- 28557909
TI  - In Reply to Manion and Khan.

PMID- 28557910
TI  - Moving Towards a Mixed-Method Approach to Educational Assessments.

PMID- 28557911
TI  - More on Emotions in Medical Education and Practice.

PMID- 28557912
TI  - More on Emotions in Medical Education and Practice.

PMID- 28557913
TI  - It's Time to Increase Community Hospital-Based Health Research.

PMID- 28557914
TI  - Secondary Medical School Applications Place an Unfair Financial Burden on Middle-
      and Lower-Income Applicants.

PMID- 28557915
TI  - Using Video-Conference Interviews in the Residency Application Process.

PMID- 28557916
TI  - Streamlining the Medical School Admissions Process for Couples.

PMID- 28557917
TI  - The Ugly Truth About Multiple Mini-Interviews in Medical School Admissions.

PMID- 28557918
TI  - SOAP for Everyone: An Evolutionary Development of the Match.

PMID- 28557919
TI  - Medical School Admissions: An LGBTQ Perspective.

PMID- 28557921
TI  - Less Fantasy, More Reality: A Call for Humanistic Change in Medical School
      Admissions.

PMID- 28557920
TI  - The Match: A Numbers Game.

PMID- 28557922
TI  - Who Is a Medical Scientist Training Program Student? Interviewing for an MD-PhD
      as a "Nontraditional" Researcher.

PMID- 28557923
TI  - USMLE Step 1 "Score Creep" Adversely Affects Dual-Degree Students.

PMID- 28557924
TI  - New Medical Student Performance Evaluation Standards: Laudable but Inadequate.

PMID- 28557925
TI  - Assessment in Medical Education Focuses Too Narrowly on Test Scores.

PMID- 28557926
TI  - Clinical Skills in the Age of Google: A Call for Reform and Expansion of the
      USMLE Step 2 CS.

PMID- 28557927
TI  - Incorporating Formative Assessments Into the Preclerkship Lecture.

PMID- 28557928
TI  - Do "Good" Medical Students Really Make Good Doctors?

PMID- 28557929
TI  - Medical Students Call for Single-Payer National Health Insurance.

PMID- 28557930
TI  - Is It Time for Entrustable Professional Activities for Residency Program
      Directors?
AB  - Residency program directors (PDs) play an important role in establishing and
      leading high-quality graduate medical education programs. However, medical
      educators have failed to codify the position on a national level, and PDs are
      often not recognized for the significant role they play. The authors of this
      Commentary argue that the core entrustable professional activities (EPAs)
      framework may be a mechanism to further this work and define the roles and
      responsibilities of the PD position. Based on personal observations as PDs and
      communications with others in the academic medicine community, the authors used
      work in competency-based medical education to define a list of potential EPAs for
      PDs. The benefits of developing these EPAs include being able to define
      competencies for PDs using a deconstructive process, highlighting the
      increasingly important role PDs play in leading high-quality graduate medical
      education programs, using EPAs as a framework to assess PD performance and
      provide feedback, allowing PDs to focus their professional development efforts on
      the most important areas for their work, and helping guide the PD recruitment and
      selection processes.

PMID- 28557932
TI  - Humbled.

PMID- 28557931
TI  - What Matters More About the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Jefferson
      Scale of Empathy? Their Underlying Constructs or Their Relationships With
      Pertinent Measures of Clinical Competence and Patient Outcomes?
AB  - In their study published in this issue of Academic Medicine, Costa and colleagues
      confirmed the underlying constructs of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
      and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) in medical students. The authors of this
      Commentary propose that in comparing two instruments that both purport to measure
      empathy, researchers or test users must pay close attention to the target
      populations, the conceptualizations of empathy, and the validity evidence in
      relation to pertinent criterion measures. The Commentary's authors draw attention
      to the fact that the IRI was developed for administration to the general
      population, whereas the JSE was developed specifically for administration to
      students and practitioners of health professions. Also, the author of the IRI
      conceptualized empathy as a combination of cognitive and emotional attributes,
      whereas the authors of the JSE defined empathy as a predominantly cognitive
      attribute. These differences are reflected in the content of the items, which
      determines the underlying constructs of the two instruments. The Commentary
      authors suggest that any empathy-measuring instrument in the context of health
      professions education and patient care requires the crucial evidence of
      significant relationships with indicators of clinical competence and positive
      patient outcomes. Such validity evidence is readily available for the JSE, and
      the Commentary authors recommend that researchers make efforts to provide
      pertinent validity support for any other instrument measuring empathy in health
      professionals-in-training and in-practice.

PMID- 28557933
TI  - Transforming Medical Assessment: Integrating Uncertainty Into the Evaluation of
      Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education.
AB  - In an age where practicing physicians have access to an overwhelming volume of
      clinical information and are faced with increasingly complex medical decisions,
      the ability to execute sound clinical reasoning is essential to optimal patient
      care. The authors propose two concepts that are philosophically paramount to the
      future assessment of clinical reasoning in medicine: assessment in the context of
      "uncertainty" (when, despite all of the information that is available, there is
      still significant doubt as to the best diagnosis, investigation, or treatment),
      and acknowledging that it is entirely possible (and reasonable) to have more than
      "one correct answer." The purpose of this article is to highlight key elements
      related to these two core concepts and discuss genuine barriers that currently
      exist on the pathway to creating such assessments. These include acknowledging
      situations of uncertainty, creating clear frameworks that define progressive
      levels of clinical reasoning skills, providing validity evidence to increase the
      defensibility of such assessments, considering the comparative feasibility with
      other forms of assessment, and developing strategies to evaluate the impact of
      these assessment methods on future learning and practice. The authors recommend
      that concerted efforts be directed toward these key areas to help advance the
      field of clinical reasoning assessment, improve the clinical care decisions made
      by current and future physicians, and have positive outcomes for patients. It is
      anticipated that these and subsequent efforts will aid in reaching the goal of
      making future assessment in medical education more representative of current-day
      clinical reasoning and decision making.

PMID- 28557934
TI  - Using Contribution Analysis to Evaluate Competency-Based Medical Education
      Programs: It's All About Rigor in Thinking.
AB  - Competency-based medical education (CBME) aims to bring about the sequential
      acquisition of competencies required for practice. Although it is being adopted
      in centers of medical education around the globe, there is little evidence
      concerning whether, in comparison with traditional methods, CBME produces
      physicians who are better prepared for the practice environment and contributes
      to improved patient outcomes. Consequently, the authors, an international group
      of collaborators, wrote this article to provide guidance regarding the evaluation
      of CBME programs.CBME is a complex service intervention consisting of multiple
      activities that contribute to the achievement of a variety of outcomes over time.
      For this reason, it is difficult to apply traditional methods of program
      evaluation, which require conditions of control and predictability, to CBME. To
      address this challenge, the authors describe an approach that makes explicit the
      multiple potential linkages between program activities and outcomes. Referred to
      as contribution analysis (CA), this theory-based approach to program evaluation
      provides a systematic way to make credible causal claims under conditions of
      complexity. Although CA has yet to be applied to medical education, the authors
      describe how a six-step model and a postulated theory of change could be used to
      examine the link between CBME, physicians' preparation for practice, and patient
      care outcomes.The authors argue that adopting the methods of CA, particularly the
      rigor in thinking required to link program activities, outcomes, and theory, will
      serve to strengthen understanding of the impact of CBME over time.

PMID- 28557936
TI  - Nutella.

PMID- 28557935
TI  - Constructing a Shared Mental Model for Faculty Development for the Core
      Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency.
AB  - In 2014, the Association of American Medical Colleges identified 13 Core
      Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency (Core EPAs), which are
      activities that entering residents might be expected to perform without direct
      supervision. This work included the creation of an interinstitutional concept
      group focused on faculty development efforts, as the processes and tools for
      teaching and assessing entrustability in undergraduate medical education (UME)
      are still evolving. In this article, the authors describe a conceptual framework
      for entrustment that they developed to better prepare all educators involved in
      entrustment decision making in UME. This framework applies to faculty with
      limited or longitudinal contact with medical students and to those who contribute
      to entrustment development or render summative entrustment decisions.The authors
      describe a shared mental model for entrustment that they developed, based on a
      critical synthesis of the EPA literature, to serve as a guide for UME faculty
      development efforts. This model includes four dimensions for Core EPA faculty
      development: (1) observation skills in authentic settings (workplace-based
      assessments), (2) coaching and feedback skills, (3) self-assessment and
      reflection skills, and (4) peer guidance skills developed through a community of
      practice. These dimensions form a conceptual foundation for meaningful faculty
      participation in entrustment decision making.The authors also differentiate
      between the UME learning environment and the graduate medical education learning
      environment to highlight distinct challenges and opportunities for faculty
      development in UME settings. They conclude with recommendations and research
      questions for future Core EPA faculty development efforts.

PMID- 28557938
TI  - Live and Let Live.

PMID- 28557937
TI  - Implementing an Entrustable Professional Activities Framework in Undergraduate
      Medical Education: Early Lessons From the AAMC Core Entrustable Professional
      Activities for Entering Residency Pilot.
AB  - In 2014, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) published a list of
      13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency (Core EPAs)
      that medical school graduates might be expected to perform, without direct
      supervision, on the first day of residency. Soon after, the AAMC commissioned a
      five-year pilot with 10 medical schools across the United States, seeking to
      implement the Core EPA framework to improve the transition from undergraduate to
      graduate medical education.In this article, the pilot team presents the
      organizational structure and early results of collaborative efforts to provide
      guidance to other institutions planning to implement the Core EPA framework. They
      describe the aims, timeline, and organization of the pilot as well as findings to
      date regarding the concepts of entrustment, assessment, curriculum development,
      and faculty development. On the basis of their experiences over the first two
      years of the pilot, the authors offer a set of guiding principles for
      institutions intending to implement the Core EPA framework. They also discuss the
      impact of the pilot, its limitations, and next steps, as well as how the pilot
      team is engaging the broader medical education community. They encourage ongoing
      communication across institutions to capitalize on the expertise of educators to
      tackle challenges related to the implementation of this novel approach and to
      generate common national standards for entrustment. The Core EPA pilot aims to
      better prepare medical school graduates for their professional duties at the
      beginning of residency with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

PMID- 28557939
TI  - Greener, Brighter.

PMID- 28557940
TI  - Commentary on "Greener, Brighter".

PMID- 28557941
TI  - Finding a Path to Entrustment in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Progress
      Report From the AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering
      Residency Entrustment Concept Group.
AB  - PROBLEM: To better prepare graduating medical students to transition to the
      professional responsibilities of residency, 10 medical schools are participating
      in an Association of American Medical Colleges pilot to evaluate the feasibility
      of explicitly teaching and assessing 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities
      for Entering Residency. The authors focused on operationalizing the concept of
      entrustment as part of this process. APPROACH: Starting in 2014, the Entrustment
      Concept Group, with representatives from each of the pilot schools, guided the
      development of the structures and processes necessary for formal entrustment
      decisions associated with students' increased responsibilities at the start of
      residency. OUTCOMES: Guiding principles developed by the group recommend that
      formal, summative entrustment decisions in undergraduate medical education be
      made by a trained group, be based on longitudinal performance assessments from
      multiple assessors, and incorporate day-to-day entrustment judgments by workplace
      supervisors. Key to entrustment decisions is evidence that students know their
      limits (discernment), can be relied on to follow through (conscientiousness), and
      are forthcoming despite potential personal costs (truthfulness), in addition to
      having the requisite knowledge and skills. The group constructed a developmental
      framework for discernment, conscientiousness, and truthfulness to pilot a model
      for transparent entrustment decision making. NEXT STEPS: The pilot schools are
      studying a number of questions regarding the pathways to and decisions about
      entrustment. This work seeks to inform meaningful culture change in undergraduate
      medical education through a shared understanding of the assessment of trust and a
      shared trust in that assessment.

PMID- 28557942
TI  - Beyond Selection: The Use of Situational Judgement Tests in the Teaching and
      Assessment of Professionalism.
AB  - PROBLEM: Professionalism is a critical attribute of medical graduates. Its
      measurement is challenging. The authors sought to assess final-year medical
      students' knowledge of appropriate professional behavior across a broad range of
      workplace situations. APPROACH: Situational judgement tests (SJTs) are used
      widely in applicant selection to assess judgement or decision making in work
      related settings as well as attributes such as empathy, integrity, and
      resilience. In 2014, the authors developed three 40-item SJTs with scenarios
      relevant to interns (first-year junior doctors) and delivered the tests to final
      year medical students to assess aspects of professionalism. As preparation,
      students discussed SJT-style scenarios; after the tests they completed an
      evaluation. The authors applied the Angoff method for the standard-setting
      process, delivered electronic individualized feedback reports to students post
      test, and provided remediation for students failing to meet the cut score.
      OUTCOMES: Evaluation revealed that the tests positively affected students'
      learning and that students accepted them as an assessment tool. Validity and
      reliability were acceptable. Implementation costs were initially high but will be
      recouped over time. NEXT STEPS: Recent improvements include changes to pass
      requirements, question revision based on reliability testing, and provision of
      detailed item-level feedback. Work is currently under way to expand the item bank
      and to introduce tests earlier in the course. Future research will explore
      correlation of SJT performance with other measures of professionalism and focus
      on the impact of SJTs on professionalism and interns' ability to deal with
      challenging workplace situations.

PMID- 28557943
TI  - Artist's Statement: Icon.

PMID- 28557944
TI  - Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors' Views of the Core Entrustable
      Professional Activities for Entering Residency: An Opportunity to Enhance
      Communication of Competency Along the Continuum.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine internal medicine (IM) residency program directors' (PDs')
      perspectives on the Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering
      Residency (Core EPAs)-introduced into undergraduate medical education to further
      competency-based assessment-and on communicating competency-based information
      during transitions. METHOD: A spring 2015 Association of Program Directors in
      Internal Medicine survey asked PDs of U.S. IM residency programs for their
      perspectives on which Core EPAs new interns must or should possess on day 1,
      which are most essential, and which have the largest gap between expected and
      observed performance. Their views and preferences were also requested regarding
      communicating competency-based information at transitions from medical school to
      residency and residency to fellowship/employment. RESULTS: The response rate was
      57% (204/361 programs). The majority of PDs felt new interns must/should possess
      12 of the 13 Core EPAs. PDs' rankings of Core EPAs by relative importance were
      more varied than their rankings by the largest gaps in performance. Although
      preferred timing varied, most PDs (82%) considered it important for medical
      schools to communicate Core EPA-based information to PDs; nearly three-quarters
      (71%) would prefer a checklist format. Many (60%) would be willing to provide
      competency-based evaluations to fellowship directors/employers. Most (> 80%)
      agreed that there should be a bidirectional communication mechanism for
      programs/employers to provide feedback on competency assessments. CONCLUSIONS:
      The gaps identified in Core EPA performance may help guide medical schools'
      curricular and assessment tool design. Sharing competency-based information at
      transitions along the medical education continuum could help ensure production of
      competent, practice-ready physicians.

PMID- 28557945
TI  - How Entrustment Is Informed by Holistic Judgments Across Time in a Family
      Medicine Residency Program: An Ethnographic Nonparticipant Observational Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Entrustment has mainly been conceptualized as delegating discrete
      professional tasks. Because residents provide most of their patient care
      independently, not all resident performance is visible to supervisors; the
      entrustment process involves more than granting discrete tasks. This study
      explored how supervisors made entrustment decisions based on residents'
      performance in a long-term family medicine training program. METHOD: A
      qualitative nonparticipant observational study was conducted in 2014-2015 at
      competency-based family medicine residency programs in the Netherlands. Seven
      supervisor-resident pairs participated. During two days, one researcher observed
      first-year residents' patient encounters, debriefing sessions, and supervisor
      resident educational meetings and interviewed them separately afterwards. Data
      were collected and analyzed using iterative, phenomenological inductive research
      methodology. RESULTS: The entrustment process developed over three phases.
      Supervisors based their initial entrustment on prior knowledge about the
      resident. In the ensuing two weeks, entrustment decisions regarding independent
      patient care were derived from residents' observed general competencies necessary
      for a range of health problems (clinical reasoning, decision making, relating to
      patients); medical knowledge and skills; and supervisors' intuition. Supervisors
      provided supervision during and after encounters. Once residents performed
      independently, supervisors kept reevaluating their decisions, informed by
      residents' overall growth in competencies rather than by adhering to a predefined
      set of tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Supervisors in family medicine residency training took
      a holistic approach to trust, based on general competencies, knowledge, skills,
      and intuition. Entrustment started before training and developed over time.
      Building trust is a mutual process between supervisor and resident, requiring a
      good working relationship.

PMID- 28557946
TI  - A Patient-Centered Approach to Developing Entrustable Professional Activities.
AB  - PURPOSE: The medical education community is rapidly accepting the use of
      entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as a means of assessing residents.
      Stakeholder engagement is advised in developing EPAs, but no studies have
      investigated the role of patient input. In this qualitative study, the authors
      investigated what patient input may add to designing a patient-centered EPA.
      METHOD: The authors chose "management of acute low back pain (LBP)" as a common,
      important clinical task on which to base the patient-centered EPA. In 2015, 14
      patients who presented to a teaching hospital with acute LBP participated in
      semistructured interviews exploring their illness experience and expectations of
      doctors. Clinicians representing multiple disciplines participated in a focus
      group. The authors used the Framework Method to analyze data, identifying and
      developing themes, similarities, and differences between patient and clinician
      input. They used the findings to develop the EPA. Through an iterative procedure
      of data review and tracking data sources, they determined how patient and
      clinician input informed each EPA descriptor. RESULTS: Drawing from their
      firsthand experience of LBP, patients described unique expectations of trainees
      which directly informed EPA descriptors. For example, the authors primarily used
      patients' detailed descriptions of desirable and observable trainee behaviors to
      inform the required attitudes descriptor. CONCLUSIONS: Patients can provide
      unique contributions, complementary to those of clinicians, to EPAs.
      Consultations with patients led to the development of a patient-centered EPA,
      which aligned best clinical practice with patient expectations. Educators seeking
      to apply patient-centered care to EPA development could adopt a similar approach.

PMID- 28557947
TI  - Validity Evidence From Ratings of Pediatric Interns and Subinterns on a Subset of
      Pediatric Milestones.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate evidence for validity of faculty members' pediatric
      milestone (PM) ratings of interns (first-year residents) and subinterns (fourth
      year medical students) on nine subcompetencies related to readiness to serve as a
      pediatric intern in the inpatient setting. METHOD: The Association of Pediatric
      Program Directors Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (APPD
      LEARN) and the National Board of Medical Examiners collaborated to investigate
      the utility of assessments of the PMs for trainees' performance. Data from 32
      subinterns and 179 interns at 17 programs were collected from July 2012 through
      April 2013. Observers used several tools to assess learners. At each site, a
      faculty member used these data to make judgments about the learner's current
      developmental milestone in each subcompetency. Linear mixed models were fitted to
      milestone judgments to examine their relationship with learner's rank and
      subcompetency. RESULTS: On a 5-point developmental scale, mean milestone levels
      for interns ranged from 3.20 (for the subcompetency Work effectively as a member
      of a team) to 3.72 (Humanism) and for subinterns from 2.89 (Organize and
      prioritize care) to 3.61 (Professionalization). Mean milestone ratings were
      significantly higher for the Professionalism competency (3.59-3.72) for all
      trainees compared with Patient Care (2.89-3.24) and Personal and Professional
      Development (3.33-3.51). Mean intern ratings were significantly higher than mean
      subintern ratings for all nine subcompetencies except Professionalization,
      Humanism, and Trustworthiness. CONCLUSIONS: The PMs had a coherent internal
      structure and could distinguish between differing levels of trainees, which
      supports their validation for documenting developmental progression of pediatric
      trainees.

PMID- 28557948
TI  - Critical Deficiency Ratings in Milestone Assessment: A Review and Case Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
      requires programs to report learner progress using specialty-specific milestones.
      It is unclear how milestones can best identify critical deficiencies (CDs) in
      trainee performance. Specialties developed milestones independently of one
      another; not every specialty included CDs within milestones ratings. This study
      examined the proportion of ACGME milestone sets that include CD ratings, and
      describes one residency program's experiences using CD ratings in assessment.
      METHOD: The authors reviewed ACGME milestones for all 99 specialties in November
      2015, determining which rating scales contained CDs. The authors also reviewed
      three years of data (July 2012-June 2015) from the University of Cincinnati
      Medical Center (UCMC) internal medicine residency assessment system based on
      observable practice activities mapped to ACGME milestones. Data were analyzed by
      postgraduate year, assessor type, rotation, academic year, and core competency.
      The Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test was used to test for changes over time.
      RESULTS: Specialties demonstrated heterogeneity in accounting for CDs in ACGME
      milestones, with 22% (22/99) of specialties having no language describing CDs in
      milestones assessment. Thirty-three percent (63/189) of UCMC internal medicine
      residents received at least one CD rating, with CDs accounting for 0.18%
      (668/364,728) of all assessment ratings. The authors identified CDs across
      multiple core competencies and rotations. CONCLUSIONS: Despite some specialties
      not accounting for CDs in milestone assessment, UCMC's experience demonstrates
      that a significant proportion of residents may be rated as having a CD during
      training. Identification of CDs may allow programs to develop remediation and
      improvement plans.

PMID- 28557949
TI  - Surgical Trainee Feedback-Seeking Behavior in the Context of Workplace-Based
      Assessment in Clinical Settings.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate surgical trainee feedback-seeking behaviors-directly
      asking for feedback (inquiry) and observing and responding to situational clues
      (monitoring)-in the context of workplace-based assessment (WBA). METHOD: A
      hypothetical model of trainee feedback-seeking behavior was developed using
      existing literature. A questionnaire, incorporating previously validated
      instruments from organizational psychology, was distributed to general surgical
      trainees at 23 U.K. hospitals in 2012-2013. Statistical modeling techniques
      compared the data with 12 predetermined hypothetical relationships between
      feedback-seeking behaviors and predictive variables (goal orientation,
      supervisory style) through mediating variables (perceptions of personal benefits
      and costs of feedback) to develop a final model. RESULTS: Of 235 trainees
      invited, 178 (76%) responded. Trainees completed 48 WBAs/year on average, and 73%
      reported receiving feedback via WBA. The final model was of good fit (chi
      square/degree of freedom ratio = 1.620, comparative fit index = 0.953, root mean
      square error of approximation = 0.059). Modeled data showed trainees who perceive
      personal benefits to feedback use both feedback inquiry and monitoring to engage
      in feedback interactions. Trainees who seek feedback engage in using WBA.
      Trainees' goal orientations and perceptions of trainers' supervisory styles as
      supportive and instrumental are associated with perceived benefits and costs to
      feedback. CONCLUSIONS: Trainees actively engage in seeking feedback and using
      WBA. Their perceptions of feedback benefits and costs and supervisory style play
      a role in their feedback-seeking behavior. Encouraging trainees to actively seek
      feedback by providing specific training and creating a supportive environment for
      feedback interactions could positively affect their ability to seek feedback.

PMID- 28557950
TI  - Are Female Applicants Rated Higher Than Males on the Multiple Mini-Interview?
      Findings From the University of Calgary.
AB  - PURPOSE: The multiple mini-interview (MMI) improves reliability and validity of
      medical school interviews, and many schools have introduced this in an attempt to
      select individuals more skilled in communication, critical thinking, and ethical
      decision making. But every change in the admissions process may produce
      unintended consequences, such as changing intake demographics. In this article,
      two studies exploring gender differences in MMI ratings are reported. METHOD:
      Cumulative meta-analysis was used to compare MMI ratings for female and male
      applicants to the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine between 2010
      and 2014. Multiple linear regression was then performed to explore gender
      differences in MMI ratings after adjusting for other variables, followed by a
      sensitivity analysis of the impact of varying the weight given to MMI ratings on
      the odds of females being ranked in the top 150 applicants for 2014. RESULTS:
      Females were rated higher than male applicants (standardized mean difference
      0.21, 95% CI [0.11, 0.30], P < .001). After adjusting for other explanatory
      variables, there was a positive association between female applicant and MMI
      rating (regression coefficient 0.23 [0.14, 0.33], P < .001). Increasing weight
      assigned to MMI ratings was associated with increased odds of females being
      ranked in the top 150 applicants. CONCLUSIONS: In this single-center study,
      females were rated higher than males on the MMI, and the odds of a female
      applicant being offered a position increased as more weight was given to MMI
      ratings. Further studies are needed to confirm and explain gender differences in
      MMI ratings.

PMID- 28557951
TI  - Are Scores From NBME Subject Examinations Valid Measures of Knowledge Acquired
      During Clinical Clerkships?
AB  - PURPOSE: The National Board of Medical Examiners' Clinical Science Subject
      Examinations are a component used by most U.S. medical schools to determine
      clerkship grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of this
      practice. METHOD: This was a retrospective cohort study of medical students at
      the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine who completed clerkships
      in 2012 through 2014. Linear regression was used to determine how well United
      States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores predicted Subject Examination
      scores in seven clerkships. The authors then substituted each student's Subject
      Examination standard scores with his or her Step 1 standard score. Clerkship
      grades based on the Step 1 substitution were compared with actual grades with the
      Wilcoxon rank test. RESULTS: A total of 2,777 Subject Examination scores from 432
      students were included in the analysis. Step 1 scores significantly predicted
      between 23% and 44% of the variance in Subject Examination scores, P < .001 for
      all clerkship regression equations. Mean differences between expected and actual
      Subject Examination scores were small (<= 0.2 points). There was a match between
      73% of Step 1 substituted final clerkship grades and actual final clerkship
      grades. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that performance on Step 1
      can be used to identify and counsel students at risk for poor performance on the
      Subject Examinations. In addition, these findings call into the question the
      validity of using scores from Subject Examinations as a high-stakes assessment of
      learning in individual clerkships.

PMID- 28557952
TI  - Measuring Medical Students' Empathy: Exploring the Underlying Constructs of and
      Associations Between Two Widely Used Self-Report Instruments in Five Countries.
AB  - PURPOSE: Understanding medical student empathy is important to future patient
      care; however, the definition and development of clinical empathy remain unclear.
      The authors sought to examine the underlying constructs of two of the most widely
      used self-report instruments-Davis's Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the
      Jefferson Scale of Empathy version for medical students (JSE-S)-plus, the
      distinctions and associations between these instruments. METHOD: Between 2007 and
      2014, the authors administered the IRI and JSE-S in three separate studies in
      five countries, (Brazil, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, and the United Kingdom).
      They collected data from 3,069 undergraduate medical students and performed
      exploratory factor analyses, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression
      analyses. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis yielded identical results in each
      country, confirming the subscale structures of each instrument. Results of
      correlation analyses indicated significant but weak correlations (r = 0.313)
      between the total IRI and JSE-S scores. All intercorrelations of IRI and JSE-S
      subscale scores were statistically significant but weak (range r = -0.040 to
      0.306). Multiple linear regression models revealed that the IRI subscales were
      weak predictors of all JSE-S subscale and total scores. The IRI subscales
      explained between 9.0% and 15.3% of variance for JSE-S subscales and 19.5% for
      JSE-S total score. CONCLUSIONS: The IRI and JSE-S are only weakly related,
      suggesting that they may measure different constructs. To better understand this
      distinction, more studies using both instruments and involving students at
      different stages in their medical education, as well as more longitudinal and
      qualitative studies, are needed.

PMID- 28557953
TI  - Using In-Training Evaluation Report (ITER) Qualitative Comments to Assess Medical
      Students and Residents: A Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: In-training evaluation reports (ITERs) constitute an integral component
      of medical student and postgraduate physician trainee (resident) assessment. ITER
      narrative comments have received less attention than the numeric scores. The
      authors sought both to determine what validity evidence informs the use of
      narrative comments from ITERs for assessing medical students and residents and to
      identify evidence gaps. METHOD: Reviewers searched for relevant English-language
      studies in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and ERIC (last search June 5, 2015), and in
      reference lists and author files. They included all original studies that
      evaluated ITERs for qualitative assessment of medical students and residents.
      Working in duplicate, they selected articles for inclusion, evaluated quality,
      and abstracted information on validity evidence using Kane's framework
      (inferences of scoring, generalization, extrapolation, and implications).
      RESULTS: Of 777 potential articles, 22 met inclusion criteria. The scoring
      inference is supported by studies showing that rich narratives are possible, that
      changing the prompt can stimulate more robust narratives, and that comments vary
      by context. Generalization is supported by studies showing that narratives reach
      thematic saturation and that analysts make consistent judgments. Extrapolation is
      supported by favorable relationships between ITER narratives and numeric scores
      from ITERs and non-ITER performance measures, and by studies confirming that
      narratives reflect constructs deemed important in clinical work. Evidence
      supporting implications is scant. CONCLUSIONS: The use of ITER narratives for
      trainee assessment is generally supported, except that evidence is lacking for
      implications and decisions. Future research should seek to confirm implicit
      assumptions and evaluate the impact of decisions.

PMID- 28557954
TI  - Correlation of 18F-FDG PET/CT with pathological features and survival in primary
      breast cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between the
      primary tumor (PT) maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and breast cancer
      prognostic factors, overall survival, and relapse-free survival on the basis of
      histopathological and molecular characteristics. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this
      retrospective study, 436 female patients with breast cancer were evaluated
      following a pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT scan. The PT SUVmax and
      histopathological/molecular characteristics were determined from primary tumor
      tissues and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS:
      The median SUVmax of 436 PT was 10.1 (1.7-72). The PT SUVmax values were higher
      in ER- versus ER+ (P=0.001), PR- versus PR+ (P=0.001), Her2+ versus Her2-
      (P=0.01), Ki-67% of at least 20 versus Ki-67% of less than 20 (P<0.001),
      histological grade 3 versus grade 1-2 (P<0.001), nuclear pleomorphism score 3
      versus score 1-2 (P<0.001), and mitotic score 3 versus score 1-2 patients
      (P<0.001). The lowest SUVmax levels were observed in the LumA group and the
      highest SUVmax levels were observed in the Her2 group (P<0.001). LumA patients
      with PR values greater than 20% had lower PT SUVmax values than the patients with
      PR values of 20% or less (P=0.023). The PT SUVmax was higher in patients with
      recurrence (P=0.03) and died related to disease (P<0.001) independent of time.
      CONCLUSION: The PT SUVmax showed a significant correlation with most of the
      prognostic factors and histopathological subtypes as a noninvasive tool. It is
      also usable in the prediction of tumor-related deaths or relapse independent of
      time. Our results could guide future studies to provide new histopathologic
      subtype definitions on the basis of new PR criteria.

PMID- 28557956
TI  - "Model for Early Allograft Function" Outperforms "Early Allograft Dysfunction" as
      a Predictor of Transplant Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Model of Early Allograft Function (MEAF) grades the severity of
      liver graft dysfunction. Unlike the categorical early allograft dysfunction (EAD)
      classification, MEAF is a continuous score, based on bilirubin, international
      normalized ratio, and alanine aminotransferase within 3 days posttransplant.
      METHODS: Multivariable regression models were used to validate the MEAF score in
      660 liver-only transplants performed between 2000 and 2014. MEAF performance for
      prediction of transplant survival was compared with that of EAD in univariable
      and multivariable models by means of Harrell's c-indices, integrated
      discrimination improvement, and net reclassification improvement. RESULTS: Median
      donor and recipient age was 52 years (interquartile range [IQR], 41-62 years) and
      58 years (IQR, 50-64 years), respectively. Model for End-Stage Liver Disease
      score was 15 (IQR, 11-21); cold ischemia time, 8.0 hours (IQR, 6.4-9.7 hours);
      MEAF, 4 (IQR, 3-6). EAD occurred in 182 (27.6%) cases. Transplant survival was
      93%, 90%, and 88% at 3, 6, and 12 months. Both MEAF and EAD were independent
      predictors of transplant survival within 3, 6, and 12 months. MEAF outperformed
      EAD as predictor of transplant survival, either when used as a standalone
      parameter or when corrected for additional independent predictors of transplant
      survival. CONCLUSIONS: MEAF is a more accurate predictor of transplant loss than
      the commonly used EAD classification. As a continuous score grading graft
      dysfunction, MEAF provides additional, granulated information that could be used
      both clinically and as a surrogate endpoint of transplant survival in clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28557957
TI  - Plasma Exosomes From HLA-Sensitized Kidney Transplant Recipients Contain mRNA
      Transcripts Which Predict Development of Antibody-Mediated Rejection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sensitization to HLA remains a significant immunologic barrier to
      successful transplantation. Identifying immune mechanisms responsible for
      antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is an important goal. Here, we explored the
      possibility of predicting the risk for AMR by measuring mRNA transcripts of AMR
      associated genes in plasma exosomes from kidney transplant patients. METHODS:
      Total RNA was extracted from exosomes purified from 152
      ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-plasma samples of 64 patients (18 AMR, 8 cell
      mediated rejection [CMR], 38 no rejection in desensitized [DES] and non-DES
      control groups) for reverse transcription into cDNA, preamplification and then
      real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for 21 candidate genes.
      The mRNA transcript levels of each gene were calculated. Comparisons were made
      among 4 patient groups for each gene and also for a gene combination score based
      on selected genes. RESULTS: Among 21 candidate genes, we identified multiple
      genes (gp130, CCL4, TNFalpha, SH2D1B, CAV1, atypical chemokine receptor 1 [duffy
      blood group]) whose mRNA transcript levels in plasma exosomes significantly
      increased among AMR compared with CMR and/or control patients. A gene combination
      score calculated from 4 genes of gp130, SH2D1B, TNFalpha, and CCL4 was
      significantly higher in the AMR than the CMR (P < 0.0001) and no rejection
      control groups (P < 0.01 vs DES control, P < 0.05 vs non-DES control).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that plasma exosomes may contain information
      indicating clinical conditions of kidney transplant patients. mRNA transcript
      profiles based on gp130, SH2D1B, TNFalpha, and CCL4 in plasma exosomes may be
      used to predict on-going and/or imminent AMR.

PMID- 28557955
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of alphaCD40 (2C10R4) and alphaCD154 (5C8H1 and IDEC-131)
      in a Nonhuman Primate Cardiac Allotransplant Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Specific blockade of T cell costimulation pathway is a promising
      immunomodulatory approach being developed to replace our current clinical
      immunosuppression therapies. The goal of this study is to compare results
      associated with 3 monoclonal antibodies directed against the CD40/CD154 T cell
      costimulation pathway. METHODS: Cynomolgus monkey heterotopic cardiac allograft
      recipients were treated with either IDEC-131 (humanized alphaCD154, n = 9), 5C8H1
      (mouse-human chimeric alphaCD154, n = 5), or 2C10R4 (mouse-rhesus chimeric
      alphaCD40, n = 6) monotherapy using a consistent, comparable dosing regimen for 3
      months after transplant. RESULTS: Relative to the previously reported IDEC-131
      treated allografts, median survival time (35 +/- 31 days) was significantly
      prolonged in both 5C8H1-treated (142 +/- 26, P < 0.002) and 2C10R4-treated (124
      +/- 37, P < 0.020) allografts. IDEC-131-treated grafts had higher cardiac
      allograft vasculopathy severity scores during treatment relative to either 5C8H1
      (P = 0.008) or 2C10R4 (P = 0.0002). Both 5C8H1 (5 of 5 animals, P = 0.02) and
      2C10R4 (6/6, P = 0.007), but not IDEC-131 (2/9), completely attenuated IgM
      antidonor alloantibody (alloAb) production during treatment; 5C8H1 (5/5) more
      consistently attenuated IgG alloAb production compared to 2C10R4 (4/6) and IDEC
      131 (0/9). All evaluable explanted grafts experienced antibody-mediated
      rejection. Only 2C10R4-treated animals exhibited a modest, transient drop in CD20
      lymphocytes from baseline at day 14 after transplant (-457 +/- 152 cells/MUL)
      compared with 5C8H1-treated animals (16 +/- 25, P = 0.037), and the resurgent B
      cells were primarily of a naive phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: In this model, CD154/CD40
      axis blockade using IDEC-131 is an inferior immunomodulatory treatment than 5C8H1
      or 2C10R4, which have similar efficacy to prolong graft survival and to delay
      cardiac allograft vasculopathy development and antidonor alloAb production during
      treatment.

PMID- 28557958
TI  - Appropriate Use of Drug Testing in Clinical Addiction Medicine.
AB  - : Biological drug testing is a tool that provides information about an
      individual's recent substance use. Like any tool, its value depends on using it
      correctly; that is, on selecting the right test for the right person at the right
      time. This document is intended to clarify appropriate clinical use of drug
      testing in addiction medicine and aid providers in their decisions about drug
      testing for the identification, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery of patients
      with, or at risk for, addiction. The RAND Corporation (RAND)/University of
      California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Appropriateness Method (RAM) process for combining
      scientific evidence with the collective judgment of experts was used to identify
      appropriate clinical practices and highlight areas where research is needed.
      Although consensus panels and expert groups have offered guidance on the use of
      drug testing for patients with addiction, very few addressed considerations for
      patients across settings and in different levels of care. This document will
      focus primarily on patients in addiction treatment and recovery, where drug
      testing is used to assess patients for a substance use disorder, monitor the
      effectiveness of a treatment plan, and support recovery. Inasmuch as the scope
      includes the recognition of addiction, which often occurs in general healthcare
      settings, selected special populations at risk for addiction visiting these
      settings are briefly included.

PMID- 28557959
TI  - How to Deliver a More Persuasive Message Regarding Addiction as a Medical
      Disorder.
AB  - : Many members of our field are frustrated that the public does not see addiction
      as a legitimate medical disorder which should be compassionately addressed as a
      health problem rather than a criminal justice problem. Although some attribute
      the disconnect to the public's lack of scientific knowledge or attachment to
      outdated moral views regarding substance use, this commentary suggests that the
      problem may well be our own messaging. We would be more persuasive if we
      acknowledged that addiction is different from most medical disorders because of
      its high negative externalities, and that this understandably makes the public
      more scared of and angry about addiction than they are about conditions like
      asthma, type II diabetes, and hypertension. Relatedly, because of the amount of
      violence and other crimes associated with addiction, we should acknowledge that
      the public's belief that law enforcement has an important role to play in
      responding to addiction has a rational basis.

PMID- 28557960
TI  - Accuracy of Diagnosis and International Classification of Diseases; Tenth
      Revision Coding for Alcohol Dependence, Alcohol Withdrawal, and Alcohol
      withdrawal Delirium Among Inpatients at a University Hospital.

PMID- 28557961
TI  - Urine Drug Testing in a Family Medicine Residency Practice.

PMID- 28557962
TI  - Response to Urine Drug Testing in a Family Residency Practice.

PMID- 28557963
TI  - [Inflammatory processes in the pathogenesis of acute coronary syndromes].
AB  - Cardiovascular diseases, including acute coronary syndromes (ACS), are one of the
      most serious problems of modern medicine and therefore every year 4 million
      Europeans have died. It is now believed that elevated levels of inflammatory
      factors in the blood promotes the development cardiovascular events and chronic
      inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Intensively
      conducted research in many centers in the world can confirm the desirability of
      introducing anti-inflammatory therapy to standard drug therapy. The balance
      between pro- and anti-inflammatory processes affect the risk of developing ACS.

PMID- 28557964
TI  - Sex differences in venous stenosis and occlusion in patients with endocardial
      leads.
AB  - : Venous stenosis and occlusion (VSO) in the presence of endocardial leads
      constitute one of the complications of permanent cardiac pacing. At present there
      are no scientific reports on the influence of sex on the incidence of VSO. AIM:
      The aim of the study was to examine the influence of sex on the incidence of VSO
      in patients with earlier implanted endocardial leads in a single-center
      retrospective analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The material consists of 284
      records of consecutive patients admitted to hospital to undergo electrotherapy
      procedures. In all patients a contrast venography for ipsilateral venous
      confluence was performed before the procedure. Patients were divided into two
      groups according to sex criterion. Groups were compared concerning following
      parameters: demographic characteristics, cardiac implantable electronic device
      (CIED) characteristics, comorbidities, CHA2DS2-VASc score, selected risk factors
      for VSO. RESULTS: Group I consist of 101 females, whereas group II consist of 183
      males. Both groups did not differ significantly for age, number of implanted
      endocardial leads and lead dwell time. In the cohort males were with
      significantly greater burden of morbidity, reflected by the mean result of
      CHA2DS2-VASc (P=0.0098). In males there was significantly more often chronic
      heart failure (P<0.0001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (P=0.0450) and
      tobacco use (P=0.0159). Males had more ICD implanted than females (P=0.0270). In
      the examine cohort 88 patients (31%) had VSO. There was no statistically
      significant difference in terms of presence of VSO between females and males
      (P=0.4685). The detailed analysis of the patients with VSO divided according to
      sex revealed higher morbidity in males. CONCLUSIONS: The equality of VSO
      incidence in groups of males and females along with the predominance of factors
      protecting against VSO in group of males support the assumption that female
      gender is a protective factor against the development of VSO, equally as known
      protective factors in males.

PMID- 28557965
TI  - The assessment of renal function in patients with newly diagnosed hypertension -
      the role of hyperuricemia as a risk factor for chronic kidney disease -
      preliminary study.
AB  - : For the last few years, the role of uric acid in the pathogenesis of the
      hypertension and chronic kidney disease has drawn attention due to the increasing
      prevalence of the aforementioned states. Uric acid (UA), formed as a result of
      purine metabolism, is subject in the renal proximal tubule to filtration,
      reabsorption and secretion. The mechanisms of deleterious effect of UA on the
      kidney involve endothelial damage and the increment of hydrostatic pressure in
      the glomerulus which in turn lead to hypertrophy and glomerulosclerosis.
      Moreover, abnormally elevated levels of uric acid results in the activation of
      renin-angiotensinaldosterone system and thus it may be associated with
      disturbances of water and electrolyte balance and the appearance of hypertension.
      AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of hyperuricemia in
      patients with newly diagnosed hypertension and its effect on renal function.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study including 315 hypertensive
      patients (157 women - 49.8% and 158 men - 50.2%, aged 39.3 +/- 14.0 years)
      hospitalized in the Department of Nephrology, Hypertension and Family Medicine,
      WAM University Hospital of Lodz (study group) and 181 individuals without
      hypertension (103 women - 56.9% and 78 men - 43.1%, aged 42.4 +/- 14.0) (control
      group). RESULTS: Hyperuricemia was observed in 6.7% of patients with newly
      diagnosed hypertension. A positive correlation between serum creatinine and uric
      acid (Spearman coefficient 0.426, p<0.0001) and negative correlation between uric
      acid and eGFR (Spearman coefficient -0.116, p =0.068) were demonstrated in this
      study. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with newly diagnosed hypertension have higher levels
      of uric acid in comparison to control group. Elevated levels of uric acid can
      influence the development of hypertension and aggravate hypertension-associated
      renal damage.

PMID- 28557967
TI  - [The assessment of the impact of rehabilitation on the pain intensity level in
      patients with herniated nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc].
AB  - : Back pain may be caused by many factors. In many cases it is difficult to
      unambiguously determine a cause of the pathology, which can involve various
      structures in the spine. In this paper we will discuss the symptoms associated
      with the degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc, which involve, among
      others, its bulging, dislocation and pressure on the surrounding structures.
      These problems require an adequate clinical and imaging diagnostics in order to
      implement an appropriate treatment. In the first place, it should be based on the
      conservative methods (such as: pharmacotherapy, rehabilitation and lifestyle
      changes). Only in the absence of improvement it is recommended to consider a
      surgical treatment. AIM: The aim of the study is to assess the impact of
      rehabilitation on the pain intensity level in patients with herniated nucleus
      pulposus of the intervertebral disc. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was
      performed in 46 patients (age range: 19-85), including 26 women and 20 men. On
      the basis of imaging, all patients showed the presence of a slipped disc with
      disc herniation. The patients were treated conservatively. For pain assessment
      was used the The Laitinen Modified Questionnaire Indicators of Pain and The
      Visual- Analogue Scale. The results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The
      results clearly demonstrate the analgesic efficacy of specialized rehabilitation
      in the spinal pain syndrome in a discopathy with a spinal disc herniation of an
      intervertebral disc. CONCLUSIONS: The rehabilitation of patients with a back pain
      due to the presence of herniated nucleus pulposus has a significant analgesic
      effect. In the case of a presence of the herniated nucleus pulposus, the
      rehabilitation should be considered in a first place. If no improvement, a
      possible surgery should be considered. An important element of a conservative
      treatment is an effective rehabilitation, which is of vital economic importance,
      because a therapy including surgery usually requires subsequent rehabilitation
      and is much more expensive.

PMID- 28557966
TI  - [The usefulness of the scale before exercise and exercise to identify coronary
      artery disease by physiotherapists].
AB  - : Myocardial ischemia can be assessed by ECG at rest or doing the stress test,
      which also serves to evaluate the results of cardiac rehabilitation. AIM: The aim
      of this study was to determine the usefulness of the scale before exercise and
      exercise to assess the risk of coronary heart disease and recognition by
      physiotherapists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included three groups of
      people: 1. 65 patients with stable coronary heart disease (IHD), including 45 men
      and 20 women, ranging in age from 33 to 79 years, an average of 60.18 +/- 9.43
      years who exercise test was positive; 2. 24 patients after myocardial infarction
      undergoing subsequent rehabilitation, including 20 men and 4 women, aged from 42
      to 78 years, an average of 58.75 +/- 8.45 years; 3. 70 healthy subjects without
      ischemic heart disease, including 34 men and 36 women, ranging in age from 24 to
      70 years, an average of 56.24 +/- 12.33 years. All healthy people and patients
      were hospitalized in the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiac
      Rehabilitation, University Hospital im. WAM in Lodz. The study groups were
      assessed risk of coronary heart disease based on the result obtained in the scale
      before exercise and exercise. The results were statistically analyzed using
      Statistica version 12 (StatSoft, Poland). For the statistically significant level
      of p<0.05. RESULTS: Compared to healthy individuals in both the ischemic heart
      disease (p=0.04) and in the group treated with rehabilitation (p=0.03) results in
      a scale before stress was significant higher. Compared to healthy individuals,
      both in the group of ischemic heart disease (p <0.001) and in the group treated
      with rehabilitation (p<0.001) The results on a scale of exercise were
      significantly higher. CONCLUSIONS: The use of scale before exercise to assess the
      risk of coronary heart disease is useful for physical therapists in their
      professional practice. There legitimacy of the use of scale exercise for the
      initial diagnosis of coronary artery disease without knowing the interpretation
      of the ECG stress test.

PMID- 28557968
TI  - Medicine and Physiotherapy students: are they physically active? Comparative
      research on Spanish and German population.
AB  - : Despite the fact that regular physical activity is beneficial to human life,
      there are still more and more overweight and obese people throughout the world
      today. Healthy habits taken from home or socioeconomic situation are factors
      which might influence on regular physical activity. People who lead a healthy
      lifestyle in childhood are also active during adulthood. On the other hand
      academic life might promote less healthy lifestyle. AIM: The aim of the study was
      to assess and compare the level of physical activity of both German and Spanish
      students of Medicine and Physiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study involved
      100 Spanish and 100 German students aged from 19 to 24 years. Based on
      Eurobarometer 72.3, the respondents were asked a set of questions regarding
      physical activity. The chi-squared test (chi2) and Mann-Whitney U test were used
      for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The vast majority of students presented a
      normal BMI value, but it was not related to high physical activity. More than one
      third of all students seldom practised any sports. The Spanish students usually
      did some form of physical activity outdoors, whereas the German students
      exercised in a fitness centre. Lack of time was to the Medicine and Physiotherapy
      students the most significant factor that did not allow them to be more
      physically active. CONCLUSIONS: Medicine and Physiotherapy students should be
      more physically active in order to promote a good, healthy lifestyle model to
      society and there should be more physical activity education to encourage more
      students to practise sports.

PMID- 28557969
TI  - [Metabolic safety of antidepressant medicines].
AB  - : Metabolic syndrome is a very serious health issue, not only from internal
      medicine's point of view. Patients suffering from overweight, arterial
      hypertension, lipids and carbohydrates metabolism disorders are also in the
      circle of interest of other areas of medicine, including psychiatry. Currently,
      one of key problems of pharmacotherapy is a comorbidity of metabolic syndrome and
      mental disorder. Depression is more common than schizophrenia. Despite the fact
      that in everyday clinical practice there are more patients with depression than
      schizophrenia, there is a bigger interest among scientists for metabolic syndrome
      after antipsychotic drugs than as an effect of use of antidepressant agents. AIM:
      The aim of an analysis was to review literature committed to influence of
      depression pharmacotherapy on development of metabolic syndrome. 169 results were
      provided, including 18 original publications. Final analysis consists of 9 that
      investigate correlation between antidepressive medicines use and metabolic
      syndrome development (but not its each individual component). RESULTS: In
      general, antidepressant pharmacotherapy is associated not only with increased
      risk of metabolic syndrome occurrence but also their worsening. However, it needs
      to be emphasized that there is a difference between antidepressants groups -
      tricyclic antidepressive medicines are the most commonly associated with risk of
      developing metabolic disorders, but also SNRIs and SSRIs are mentioned as
      significant contributors. Mechanisms of aforementioned changes are still unclear.
      However, their influence on histamine and serotonin pathways, which take part in
      regulation of i.e. food intake, is suggested. The search for mechanisms that are
      precisely responsible for metabolic changes continues, in hope of finding a way
      to avoid adverse effects of antidepressant medicines use.

PMID- 28557970
TI  - [The use of fascial distorsion model (FDM) in patient with limited mobility in
      the shoulder joint - a case report].
AB  - : FDM is the anatomical model in which clinical signs in conjunction with the
      patient's body language allow to diagnose one or more of the six specific
      distortions of the fascial system described by the creator of the concept of FDM
      and doctor-osteopath Stephen Typaldos. AIM: The aim of the study is to present
      the use of therapy Fascial Distorsion Model to patient with limited mobility in
      the shoulder joint. A CASE REPORT: Here we report a 32 year old female patient
      with painful limitation of motion in the shoulder joint right continuing for
      three weeks. The patient is an office worker, three times a week swims. Pain
      appears periodicaly and only in certain ranges of motion of the right upper limb.
      In the functional study by FDM it is continuum distortion and triggerband
      distortion. Then the appropriate therapeutic techniques were used. CONCLUSIONS:
      The patient regained full range of motion in the shoulder joint after using FDM
      techniques without pain that prevented her making a move. During the test, the
      patient performed functional movements in the full range of movement without
      pain. Techniques of the FDM are an interesting complement workshop therapy which
      is treating limits in the range of motion and pain in the joints.

PMID- 28557971
TI  - [Travels and spreading of multi-resistant bacteria].
AB  - The increasing number of international travel for tourism, business and for
      medical reasons rises the risk of spreading of multi-resistant bacteria. It has
      been shown that an intercontinental travel, mainly to Asia (Indian Subcontinent),
      promotes a colonization of the digestive tract, mainly by multi-resistant
      Enterobacteriaceae (MRE) and increases the risk of symptomatic infections caused
      by these agents. The colonization of the digestive tract by MRE is reported in 29
      88% of travelers. It sustains 3 to 12 months, respectively in 10% and 2% of
      travelers. Risk factors for the acquisition of colonization with MRE include:
      travel duration and destination, treatment with betalactam antibiotics during the
      travel, the use of local medical services, including hospitalization, presence of
      gastrointestinal symptoms during the travel (mainly diarrhea), age >65 years. The
      need of the hospitalization during the travel increases the risk of colonization,
      but is not a prerequisite factor for the acquisition of the colonization, as
      cases of the MRE carriage are reported in patients who had never used medical
      services outside the country. It indicates other possible transmission routes,
      including food. In order to reduce the risk of MRE spreading, it is recommended
      to ask patients about a history of travel and treatment within the last 12
      months. All patient who report such events and require hospitalization in their
      home countries should be microbiologically screened. Hospitalized patients
      colonized with multiple resistant bacteria require an isolation or cohortation.
      Educational activities related to the hand hygiene compliance should be
      performed. The risk of the home transmission of MRE is not high, it lasts for a
      short period (up to 3 months). Routine microbiological testing for all persons
      returning from an international or intercontinental travel is not recommended,
      neither microbiological screening among their households.

PMID- 28557972
TI  - High Expression of Phosphorylated Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK1/2)
      is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Multiple
      Myeloma.
AB  - BACKGROUND Previous research has demonstrated that the extracellular signal
      regulated kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling
      pathway is commonly activated in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. However, the
      prognostic value of activation of the MEK/ERK signaling pathway in newly
      diagnosed patients with MM has not been reported. MATERIAL AND METHODS Expression
      levels of p-ERK1/2 protein in bone marrow biopsy specimens obtained from 60 newly
      diagnosed patients with MM were analyzed using immunohistochemistry, and
      classified into 3 groups: high p-ERK1/2 expression, low p-ERK1/2 expression, and
      negative group. Correlations between clinicopathological characteristics,
      including expression levels of p-ERK1/2 protein, progression-free survival (PFS),
      and overall survival (OS), were analyzed using univariate and multivariate
      analysis. RESULTS Phosphorylated-ERK1/2 protein was positive in 47 bone marrow
      specimens, including 19 specimens with high p-ERK1/2 expression and 28 specimens
      with low p-ERK1/2 expression. Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that in
      newly diagnosed patients with MM, high p-ERK1/2 expression, high ISS staging,
      serum creatinine (Scr) >=177 MUmol/l, serum beta2-microglobulin (beta2-MG) >=5.5
      MUmol/l, and serum calcium (Ca) >=2.75 mmol/l were significantly associated with
      shorter OS and PFS. Additionally, high ECOG scores (score 2-4) were associated
      with shorter PFS in newly diagnosed patients with MM. Multivariate Cox regression
      analysis showed that in newly diagnosed patients with MM, high p-ERK1/2
      expression was significantly associated with shorter OS and PFS. Additionally, in
      newly diagnosed patients with MM, serum Ca >=2.75 mmol/l was significantly
      associated with shorter PFS, and serum beta2-MG >=5.5 MUmol/l was significantly
      associated with shorter OS. CONCLUSIONS High p-ERK1/2 expression is an
      independent factor for poor prognosis in newly diagnosed patients with MM.

PMID- 28557973
TI  - Cerebrospinal Fluid Dissemination and Neoplastic Meningitis in Primary Brain
      Tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neoplastic meningitis, also known as leptomeningeal disease, affects
      the entire neuraxis. The clinical manifestations of the disease may affect the
      cranial nerves, cerebral hemispheres, or the spine. Because of the extent of
      disease involvement, treatment options and disease staging should involve all
      compartments of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and subarachnoid space. Few studies
      of patients with primary brain tumors have specifically addressed treatment for
      the secondary complication of neoplastic meningitis. Therapy for neoplastic
      meningitis is palliative in nature and, rarely, may have a curative intent.
      METHODS: A review of the medical literature pertinent to neoplastic meningitis in
      primary brain tumors was performed. The complication of neoplastic meningitis is
      described in detail for the various types of primary brain tumors. RESULTS:
      Treatment of neoplastic meningitis is complicated because determining who should
      receive aggressive, central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapy is difficult.
      In general, the therapeutic response of neoplastic meningitis is a function of
      CSF cytology and, secondarily, of the clinical improvement in neurological
      manifestations related to the disease. CSF cytology may manifest a rostrocaudal
      disassociation; thus, consecutive, negative findings require that both lumbar and
      ventricular cytological testing are performed to confirm the complete response.
      Based on data from several prospective, randomized trials extrapolated to primary
      brain tumors, the median rate of survival for neoplastic meningitis is several
      months. Oftentimes, therapy directed at palliation may improve quality of life by
      protecting patients from experiencing continued neurological deterioration.
      CONCLUSIONS: Neoplastic meningitis is a complicated disease in which response to
      therapy varies by histology. Thus, survival rates after CNS-directed therapy will
      differ by the underlying primary tumor. Optimal therapy of neoplastic meningitis
      is poorly defined, and few guidelines exist to guide clinicians on the most
      appropriate choice of therapy.

PMID- 28557974
TI  - Oncolytic alphavirus SFV-VA7 efficiently eradicates subcutaneous and orthotopic
      human prostate tumours in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite recent therapeutic and diagnostic advances, prostate cancer
      remains the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the
      Western world. Oncolytic viruses that replicate selectively in tumour cells
      represent a novel treatment candidate for these malignancies. METHODS: We
      analysed infectivity of avirulent Semliki Firest virus SFV-VA7 in human prostate
      cancer cell lines VCaP, LNCaP and 22Rv1 and in nonmalignant prostate epithelial
      cell line RWPE-1. Therapeutic potency of SFV-VA7 was evaluated in subcutaneous
      and orthotopic mouse LNCaP xenograft models. RESULTS: SFV-VA7 infected and killed
      the tested human prostate cancer cell lines irrespective of their hormone
      response status, while the nonmalignant prostate epithelial cell line RWPE-1
      proved highly virus resistant. Notably, a single peritoneal dose of SFV-VA7 was
      sufficient to eradicate all subcutaneous and orthotopic LNCaP tumours.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that SFV-VA7 is a novel, promising therapeutic
      virus against prostate cancer warranting further testing in early clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28557975
TI  - The differential expression of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid metabolising
      enzymes in colorectal cancer and its prognostic significance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is a common malignancy and one of the leading
      causes of cancer-related deaths. The metabolism of omega fatty acids has been
      implicated in tumour growth and metastasis. METHODS: This study has characterised
      the expression of omega fatty acid metabolising enzymes CYP4A11, CYP4F11, CYP4V2
      and CYP4Z1 using monoclonal antibodies we have developed. Immunohistochemistry
      was performed on a tissue microarray containing 650 primary colorectal cancers,
      285 lymph node metastasis and 50 normal colonic mucosa. RESULTS: The differential
      expression of CYP4A11 and CYP4F11 showed a strong association with survival in
      both the whole patient cohort (hazard ratio (HR)=1.203, 95% CI=1.092-1.324,
      chi2=14.968, P=0.001) and in mismatch repair-proficient tumours (HR=1.276, 95%
      CI=1.095-1.488, chi2=9.988, P=0.007). Multivariate analysis revealed that the
      differential expression of CYP4A11 and CYP4F11 was independently prognostic in
      both the whole patient cohort (P=0.019) and in mismatch repair proficient tumours
      (P=0.046). CONCLUSIONS: A significant and independent association has been
      identified between overall survival and the differential expression of CYP4A11
      and CYP4F11 in the whole patient cohort and in mismatch repair-proficient
      tumours.

PMID- 28557977
TI  - Akt as a target for cancer therapy: more is not always better (lessons from
      studies in mice).
AB  - The PI3K/Akt signalling pathway is one of the most frequently altered signalling
      networks in human cancers and has become an attractive target in anticancer
      therapy. Several drugs targeting this pathway are currently in different phases
      of clinical trials. However, accumulating reports suggest that adverse effects
      such as hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia accompany treatment with pan-PI3K
      and pan-Akt inhibitors. Thus, understanding the consequences of the systemic
      deletion or inhibition of Akt activity in vivo is imperative. Three Akt isoforms
      may individually affect different cancer cells in culture to varying degrees that
      could suggest specific targeting of different Akt isoforms for different types of
      cancer. However, the results obtained in cell culture do not address the
      consequences of Akt isoform inhibition at the organismal level and consequently
      fail to predict the feasibility of targeting these isoforms for cancer therapy.
      This review summarises and discusses the consequences of genetic deletions of Akt
      isoforms in adult mice and their implications for cancer therapy. Whereas
      combined Akt1 and Akt2 rapidly induced mortality, hepatic Akt inhibition induced
      liver injury that promotes hepatocellular carcinoma. These findings may explain
      some of the side effects exerted by pan-PI3K and pan-Akt inhibitors and suggest
      that close attention must be paid when targeting all Akt isoforms as a
      therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28557976
TI  - Mutations in TP53 and JAK2 are independent prognostic biomarkers in B-cell
      precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL), the
      identification of additional genetic alterations associated with poor prognosis
      is still of importance. We determined the frequency and prognostic impact of
      somatic mutations in children and adult cases with B-ALL treated with Spanish
      PETHEMA and SEHOP protocols. METHODS: Mutational status of hotspot regions of
      TP53, JAK2, PAX5, LEF1, CRLF2 and IL7R genes was determined by next-generation
      deep sequencing in 340 B-ALL patients (211 children and 129 adults). The
      associations between mutation status and clinicopathological features at the time
      of diagnosis, treatment outcome and survival were assessed. Univariate and
      multivariate survival analyses were performed to identify independent prognostic
      factors associated with overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS) and
      relapse rate (RR). RESULTS: A mutation rate of 12.4% was identified. The
      frequency of adult mutations was higher (20.2% vs 7.6%, P=0.001). TP53 was the
      most frequently mutated gene (4.1%), followed by JAK2 (3.8%), CRLF2 (2.9%), PAX5
      (2.4%), LEF1 (0.6%) and IL7R (0.3%). All mutations were observed in B-ALL without
      ETV6-RUNX1 (P=0.047) or BCR-ABL1 fusions (P<0.0001). In children, TP53mut was
      associated with lower OS (5-year OS: 50% vs 86%, P=0.002) and EFS rates (5-year
      EFS: 50% vs 78.3%, P=0.009) and higher RR (5-year RR: 33.3% vs 18.6% P=0.037),
      and was independently associated with higher RR (hazard ratio (HR)=4.5; P=0.04).
      In adults, TP53mut was associated with a lower OS (5-year OS: 0% vs 43.3%,
      P=0.019) and a higher RR (5-year RR: 100% vs 61.4%, P=0.029), whereas JAK2mut was
      associated with a lower EFS (5-year EFS: 0% vs 30.6%, P=0.035) and a higher RR (5
      year RR: 100% vs 60.4%, P=0.002). TP53mut was an independent risk factor for
      shorter OS (HR=2.3; P=0.035) and, together with JAK2mut, also were independent
      markers of poor prognosis for RR (TP53mut: HR=5.9; P=0.027 and JAK2mut: HR=5.6;
      P=0.036). CONCLUSIONS: TP53mut and JAK2mut are potential biomarkers associated
      with poor prognosis in B-ALL patients.

PMID- 28557979
TI  - Cas9 in action: no more known unknowns?

PMID- 28557980
TI  - E-scape: interactive visualization of single-cell phylogenetics and cancer
      evolution.

PMID- 28557978
TI  - Prevalence of somatic mitochondrial mutations and spatial distribution of
      mitochondria in non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mitochondria are considered relevant players in many tumour entities
      and first data indicate beneficial effects of mitochondria-targeted antioxidants
      in both cancer prevention and anticancer therapies. To further dissect the
      potential roles of mitochondria in NSCLC we comprehensively analysed somatic
      mitochondrial mutations, determined the spatial distribution of mitochondrial DNA
      within complete tumour sections and investigated the mitochondrial load in a
      large-scale approach. METHODS: Whole mitochondrial genome sequencing of 26
      matched tumour and non-neoplastic tissue samples extended by reviewing published
      data of 326 cases. Systematical stepwise real-time PCR quantification of
      mitochondrial DNA covering 16 whole surgical tumour sections. Immunohistochemical
      determination of the mitochondrial load in 171 adenocarcinoma and 145 squamous
      cell carcinoma. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate very low recurrences (max. 1.7%)
      and a broad distribution of 456 different somatic mitochondrial mutations. Large
      inter- and intra-tumour heterogeneity were seen for mitochondrial DNA copy
      numbers in conjunction with a correlation to the predominant histological growth
      pattern. Furthermore, tumour cells had significantly higher mitochondrial level
      compared to adjacent stroma, whereas differences between tumour entities were
      negligible. CONCLUSIONS: Non-evident somatic mitochondrial mutations and highly
      varying mitochondrial DNA level delineate challenges for the approach of
      mitochondria-targeted anticancer therapies in NSCLC.

PMID- 28557981
TI  - Unexpected mutations after CRISPR-Cas9 editing in vivo.

PMID- 28557982
TI  - Digenome-seq web tool for profiling CRISPR specificity.

PMID- 28557983
TI  - Organoids: a better in vitro model.

PMID- 28557984
TI  - AEDT: A new concept for ecological dynamics in the ever-changing world.
AB  - The important concept of equilibrium has always been controversial in ecology,
      but a new, more general concept, an asymptotic environmentally determined
      trajectory (AEDT), overcomes many concerns with equilibrium by realistically
      incorporating long-term climate change while retaining much of the predictive
      power of a stable equilibrium. A population or ecological community is predicted
      to approach its AEDT, which is a function of time reflecting environmental
      history and biology. The AEDT invokes familiar questions and predictions but in a
      more realistic context in which consideration of past environments and a future
      changing profoundly due to human influence becomes possible. Strong applications
      are also predicted in population genetics, evolution, earth sciences, and
      economics.

PMID- 28557985
TI  - Adaptation towards scale-free dynamics improves cortical stimulus discrimination
      at the cost of reduced detection.
AB  - Fundamental to the function of nervous systems is the ability to reorganize to
      cope with changing sensory input. Although well-studied in single neurons, how
      such adaptive versatility manifests in the collective population dynamics and
      function of cerebral cortex remains unknown. Here we measured population neural
      activity with microelectrode arrays in turtle visual cortex while visually
      stimulating the retina. First, we found that, following the onset of stimulation,
      adaptation tunes the collective population dynamics towards a special regime with
      scale-free spatiotemporal activity, after an initial large-scale transient
      response. Concurrently, we observed an adaptive tradeoff between two important
      aspects of population coding-sensory detection and discrimination. As adaptation
      tuned the cortex toward scale-free dynamics, stimulus discrimination was
      enhanced, while stimulus detection was reduced. Finally, we used a network-level
      computational model to show that short-term synaptic depression was sufficient to
      mechanistically explain our experimental results. In the model, scale-free
      dynamics emerge only when the model operates near a special regime called
      criticality. Together our model and experimental results suggest unanticipated
      functional benefits and costs of adaptation near criticality in visual cortex.

PMID- 28557987
TI  - Study of 2-aminoquinolin-4(1H)-one under Mannich and retro-Mannich reaction.
AB  - 2-Aminoquinolin-4(1H)-one was reacted with various primary/secondary amines and
      paraformaldehyde under Mannich reaction conditions. In the case of secondary
      amines, the reaction in N,N-dimethylformamide yielded expected Mannich products
      accompanied with 3,3'-methylenebis(2-aminoquinolin-4(1H)-one). Except these main
      products, the pyrimido[4,5-b]quinolin-5-one derivative was also identified as co
      product. The reaction with primary amines led to the formation of pyrimido[4,5
      b]quinolin-5-ones. The Mannich reaction products were thermally unstable and
      afforded a mixture of bis-(2-aminoquinolin-4(1H)-one) and tris-(2-aminoquinolin
      4(1H)-one) derivative, probably via reactive methylene species. This retro
      Mannich reaction was tested in reaction with indole and thiophenole as
      nucleophilles, and appropriate conjugates were formed. The mechanism of above
      discussed reactions in which 2-aminoquinolinone displays the nucleophilicity on
      C3 carbon as well as N2 nitrogen is discussed.

PMID- 28557986
TI  - Epitope mapping of recombinant Leishmania donovani virulence factor A2
      (recLdVFA2) and canine leishmaniasis diagnosis using a derived synthetic bi
      epitope.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leishmaniasis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases spread
      in Latin America. Since many species are involved in dog infection with different
      clinical manifestations, the development of specific diagnostic tests is
      mandatory for more accurate disease control and vaccine strategies.
      METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Seventy-five 15-mer peptides covering the
      sequence of recombinant Leishmania donovani virulence factor A2 (recLdVFA2)
      protein were prepared by Spot synthesis. Membrane-bound peptides immunoreactivity
      with sera from dogs immunized with recLdVFA2 and with a specific anti-recLdVFA2
      monoclonal antibody allowed mapping of continuous B-cell epitopes. Five epitopes
      corresponding to the N-terminal region of recLdVFA2 (MKIRSVRPLVVLLVC,
      RSVRPLVVLLVCVAA, RPLVVLLVCVAAVLA, VVLLVCVAAVLALSA and LVCVAAVLALSASAE, region 1
      28) and one located within the repetitive units (PLSVGPQAVGLSVG, regions 67-81
      and 122-135) were identified. A 34-mer recLdVFA2-derived bi-epitope containing
      the sequence MKIRSVRPLVVLLVC linked to PLSVGPQAVGLSVG by a Gly-Gly spacer was
      chemically synthesized in its soluble form. The synthetic bi-epitope was used as
      antigen to coat ELISA plates and assayed with dog sera for in vitro diagnosis of
      canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL). The assay proved to be highly sensitive
      (98%) and specific (99%). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our work suggests that
      synthetic peptide-based ELISA strategy may be useful for the development of a
      sensitive and highly specific serodiagnosis for CVL or other parasitic diseases.

PMID- 28557988
TI  - Synergy of circulating miR-212 with markers for cardiovascular risks to enhance
      estimation of atherosclerosis presence.
AB  - Synergy of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) with cardiovascular risk factors to
      estimate atherosclerosis presence in ischemic stroke patients has not been
      investigated. The present study aimed to identify atherosclerosis-related
      circulating miRNAs and to evaluate interaction with other cardiovascular markers
      to improve the estimation of atherosclerosis presence. We performed a miRNA
      profiling study using serum of 15 patients with acute ischemic stroke who were
      classified by the presence of no (n = 8) or severe (n = 7) stenosis on
      intracranial and extracranial vessels, which identified miR-212, -372, -454, and 
      744 as miRNAs related with atherosclerosis presence. Of the 4 miRNAs, only miR
      212 showed a significant increase in expression in atherosclerosis patients in a
      validation study (atherosclerotic patients, n = 32, non-atherosclerotic patients,
      n = 33). Hemoglobin A1c, a high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and
      lipoprotein(a), both established risk markers, were independently related with
      atherosclerosis presence in the validation population. miR-212 enhanced the
      accuracy of atherosclerosis presence by the three existing markers (three
      markers, 78.5%; three markers+miR-212, 84.6%, P<0.05) and significantly added to
      the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (three markers,
      0.8258; three markers+miR-212, 0.8646, P<0.05). The inclusion of miR-212
      increased the reclassification index calculated using net reclassification
      improvement (0.4527, P<0.05) and integrated discrimination improvement (0.0737,
      P<0.05). We identified circulating miR-212 as a novel marker of atherosclerosis.
      miR-212 enhanced the estimation of atherosclerosis presence in combination with
      hemoglobin A1c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and lipoprotein(a). Thus,
      miR-212 is expected to improve the estimation of atherosclerosis using peripheral
      blood of patients.

PMID- 28557990
TI  - On the effects of alternative optima in context-specific metabolic model
      predictions.
AB  - The integration of experimental data into genome-scale metabolic models can
      greatly improve flux predictions. This is achieved by restricting predictions to
      a more realistic context-specific domain, like a particular cell or tissue type.
      Several computational approaches to integrate data have been proposed-generally
      obtaining context-specific (sub)models or flux distributions. However, these
      approaches may lead to a multitude of equally valid but potentially different
      models or flux distributions, due to possible alternative optima in the
      underlying optimization problems. Although this issue introduces ambiguity in
      context-specific predictions, it has not been generally recognized, especially in
      the case of model reconstructions. In this study, we analyze the impact of
      alternative optima in four state-of-the-art context-specific data integration
      approaches, providing both flux distributions and/or metabolic models. To this
      end, we present three computational methods and apply them to two particular case
      studies: leaf-specific predictions from the integration of gene expression data
      in a metabolic model of Arabidopsis thaliana, and liver-specific reconstructions
      derived from a human model with various experimental data sources. The
      application of these methods allows us to obtain the following results: (i) we
      sample the space of alternative flux distributions in the leaf- and the liver
      specific case and quantify the ambiguity of the predictions. In addition, we show
      how the inclusion of l1-regularization during data integration reduces the
      ambiguity in both cases. (ii) We generate sets of alternative leaf- and liver
      specific models that are optimal to each one of the evaluated model
      reconstruction approaches. We demonstrate that alternative models of the same
      context contain a marked fraction of disparate reactions. Further, we show that a
      careful balance between model sparsity and metabolic functionality helps in
      reducing the discrepancies between alternative models. Finally, our findings
      indicate that alternative optima must be taken into account for rendering the
      context-specific metabolic model predictions less ambiguous.

PMID- 28557989
TI  - Association between expansion of primary healthcare and racial inequalities in
      mortality amenable to primary care in Brazil: A national longitudinal analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Universal health coverage (UHC) can play an important role in
      achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10, which addresses reducing
      inequalities, but little supporting evidence is available from low- and middle
      income countries. Brazil's Estrategia de Saude da Familia (ESF) (family health
      strategy) is a community-based primary healthcare (PHC) programme that has been
      expanding since the 1990s and is the main platform for delivering UHC in the
      country. We evaluated whether expansion of the ESF was associated with
      differential reductions in mortality amenable to PHC between racial groups.
      METHODS AND FINDINGS: Municipality-level longitudinal fixed-effects panel
      regressions were used to examine associations between ESF coverage and mortality
      from ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) in black/pardo (mixed race) and
      white individuals over the period 2000-2013. Models were adjusted for socio
      economic development and wider health system variables. Over the period 2000
      2013, there were 281,877 and 318,030 ACSC deaths (after age standardisation) in
      the black/pardo and white groups, respectively, in the 1,622 municipalities
      studied. Age-standardised ACSC mortality fell from 93.3 to 57.9 per 100,000
      population in the black/pardo group and from 75.7 to 49.2 per 100,000 population
      in the white group. ESF expansion (from 0% to 100%) was associated with a 15.4%
      (rate ratio [RR]: 0.846; 95% CI: 0.796-0.899) reduction in ACSC mortality in the
      black/pardo group compared with a 6.8% (RR: 0.932; 95% CI: 0.892-0.974) reduction
      in the white group (coefficients significantly different, p = 0.012). These
      differential benefits were driven by greater reductions in mortality from
      infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies and anaemia, diabetes, and
      cardiovascular disease in the black/pardo group. Although the analysis is
      ecological, sensitivity analyses suggest that over 30% of black/pardo deaths
      would have to be incorrectly coded for the results to be invalid. This study is
      limited by the use of municipal-aggregate data, which precludes individual-level
      inference. Omitted variable bias, where factors associated with ESF expansion are
      also associated with changes in mortality rates, may have influenced our
      findings, although sensitivity analyses show the robustness of the findings to
      pre-ESF trends and the inclusion of other municipal-level factors that could be
      associated with coverage. CONCLUSIONS: PHC expansion is associated with
      reductions in racial group inequalities in mortality in Brazil. These findings
      highlight the importance of investment in PHC to achieve the SDGs aimed at
      improving health and reducing inequalities.

PMID- 28557992
TI  - Seasonal monitoring of deep-sea megabenthos in Barkley Canyon cold seep by
      internet operated vehicle (IOV).
AB  - Knowledge of the processes shaping deep-sea benthic communities at seasonal
      scales in cold-seep environments is incomplete. Cold seeps within highly dynamic
      regions, such as submarine canyons, where variable current regimes may occur, are
      particularly understudied. Novel Internet Operated Vehicles (IOVs), such as
      tracked crawlers, provide new techniques for investigating these ecosystems over
      prolonged periods. In this study a benthic crawler connected to the NEPTUNE
      cabled infrastructure operated by Ocean Networks Canada was used to monitor
      community changes across 60 m2 of a cold-seep area of the Barkley Canyon, North
      East Pacific, at ~890 m depth within an Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ). Short video
      transects were run at 4-h intervals during the first week of successive calendar
      months, over a 14 month period (February 14th 2013 to April 14th 2014). Within
      each recorded transect video megafauna abundances were computed and changes in
      environmental conditions concurrently measured. The responses of fauna to
      environmental conditions as a proxy of seasonality were assessed through analysis
      of abundances in a total of 438 video-transects (over 92 h of total footage).
      7698 fauna individuals from 6 phyla (Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Arthropoda,
      Echinodermata, Mollusca, and Chordata) were logged and patterns in abundances of
      the 7 most abundant taxa (i.e. rockfish Sebastidae, sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria,
      hagfish Eptatretus stoutii, buccinids (Buccinoidea), undefined small crabs,
      ctenophores Bolinopsis infundibulum, and Scyphomedusa Poralia rufescens) were
      identified. Patterns in the reproductive behaviour of the grooved tanner crab
      (Chionnecetes tanneri) were also indicated. Temporal variations in biodiversity
      and abundance in megabenthic fauna was significantly influenced by variabilities
      in flow velocity flow direction (up or down canyon), dissolved oxygen
      concentration and month of study. Also reported here for the first time are
      transient mass aggregations of grooved tanner crabs through these depths of the
      canyon system, in early spring and likely linked to the crab's reproductive
      cycle.

PMID- 28557991
TI  - Socioeconomic indicators in epidemiologic research: A practical example from the
      LIFEPATH study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several social indicators have been used in epidemiological research
      to describe socioeconomic position (SEP) of people in societies. Among SEP
      indicators, those more frequently used are education, occupational class and
      income. Differences in the incidence of several health outcomes have been
      reported consistently, independently from the indicator employed. Main objectives
      of the study were to present the socioeconomic classifications of the social
      indicators which will be employed throughout the LIFEPATH project and to compare
      social gradients in all-cause mortality observed in the participating adult
      cohorts using the different SEP indicators. METHODS: Information on the available
      social indicators (education, own and father's occupational class, income) from
      eleven adult cohorts participating in LIFEPATH was collected and harmonized.
      Mortality by SEP for each indicator was estimated by Poisson regression on each
      cohort and then evaluated using a meta-analytical approach. RESULTS: In the meta
      analysis, among men mortality was significantly inversely associated with both
      occupational class and education, but not with father's occupational class; among
      women, the increase in mortality in lower social strata was smaller than among
      men and, except for a slight increase in the lowest education category, no
      significant differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: Among men, the proposed three
      level classifications of occupational class and education were found to predict
      differences in mortality which is consistent with previous research. Results on
      women suggest that classifying them through their sole SEP, without considering
      that of their partners, may imply a misclassification of their social position
      leading to attenuation of mortality differences.

PMID- 28557993
TI  - Local introduction and heterogeneous spatial spread of dengue-suppressing
      Wolbachia through an urban population of Aedes aegypti.
AB  - Dengue-suppressing Wolbachia strains are promising tools for arbovirus control,
      particularly as they have the potential to self-spread following local
      introductions. To test this, we followed the frequency of the transinfected
      Wolbachia strain wMel through Ae. aegypti in Cairns, Australia, following
      releases at 3 nonisolated locations within the city in early 2013. Spatial spread
      was analysed graphically using interpolation and by fitting a statistical model
      describing the position and width of the wave. For the larger 2 of the 3 releases
      (covering 0.97 km2 and 0.52 km2), we observed slow but steady spatial spread, at
      about 100-200 m per year, roughly consistent with theoretical predictions. In
      contrast, the smallest release (0.11 km2) produced erratic temporal and spatial
      dynamics, with little evidence of spread after 2 years. This is consistent with
      the prediction concerning fitness-decreasing Wolbachia transinfections that a
      minimum release area is needed to achieve stable local establishment and spread
      in continuous habitats. Our graphical and likelihood analyses produced broadly
      consistent estimates of wave speed and wave width. Spread at all sites was
      spatially heterogeneous, suggesting that environmental heterogeneity will affect
      large-scale Wolbachia transformations of urban mosquito populations. The
      persistence and spread of Wolbachia in release areas meeting minimum area
      requirements indicates the promise of successful large-scale population
      transformation.

PMID- 28557994
TI  - The societal cost of heroin use disorder in the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Heroin use in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. The
      objective of this paper is to estimate the annual societal cost of heroin use
      disorder in the United States in 2015 US dollars. METHODS: An analytic model was
      created that included incarceration and crime; treatment for heroin use disorder;
      chronic infectious diseases (HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Tuberculosis) and
      their treatments; treatment of neonatal abstinence syndrome; lost productivity;
      and death by heroin overdose. RESULTS: Using literature-based estimates to
      populate the model, the cost of heroin use disorder was estimated to be $51.2
      billion in 2015 US dollars ($50,799 per heroin user). One-way sensitivity
      analyses showed that overall cost estimates were sensitive to the number of
      heroin users, cost of HCV treatment, and cost of incarcerating heroin users.
      CONCLUSION: The annual cost of heroin use disorder to society in the United
      States emphasizes the need for sustained investment in healthcare and non
      healthcare related strategies that reduce the likelihood of abuse and provide
      care and support for users to overcome the disorder.

PMID- 28557995
TI  - Preparation and characterization of a novel silicon-modified nanobubble.
AB  - Nanobubbles (NBs) opened a new field of ultrasound imaging. There is still no
      practical method to control the diameter of bubbles. In this study, we developed
      a new method to control the size by incorporating of silicon hybrid lipids into
      the bubble membrane. The range of particle size of resulting NBs is between
      523.02 +/- 46.45 to 857.18 +/- 82.90, smaller than the conventional microbubbles.
      The size of resulting NBs increased with the decrease in amount of silicon hybrid
      lipids, indicating the diameter of NBs can be regulated through modulating the
      ratio of silicon hybrid lipids in the bubble shell. Typical harmonic signals
      could be detected. The in vitro and in vivo ultrasound imaging experiments
      demonstrated these silicon-modified NBs had significantly improved ultrasound
      contrast enhancement abilities. Cytotoxicity assays revealed that these NBs had
      no obvious cytotoxicity to the 293 cell line at the tested bubble concentration.
      Our results showed that the novel NBs could use as nanoscale ultrasound contrast
      agents, providing the foundation for NBs in future applications including
      contrast-enhanced imaging and drug/gene delivery.

PMID- 28557997
TI  - How genetic variation is affected by geographic environments and ploidy level in
      Erianthus arundinaceus?
AB  - Erianthus arundinaceus is not only a candidate plant for sugarcane breeding
      programs, but also a potential bioenergy grass. Genetic variation that is
      affected by geographic environments and ploidy level is very important for the
      utilization of Erianthus arundinaceus. In this study, effects of geographic
      environments and ploidy level on genetic variation were studied through analyzing
      the genetic diversity, genetic similarity and cluster analysis of 46 E.
      arundinaceus materials from natural habitats in China by using 7 ISSRs and 15
      SSRs. Results showed that: 1) Seven ISSRs generated total 66 bands, of which 77%
      were polymorphic bands, the Nei's genetic similarity coefficient of tested
      materials ranged from 0.642 to 0.904 with an average value of 0.765. Fifteen SSRs
      generated 138 bands, of which 81% were polymorphic bands, the Nei's genetic
      similarity coefficient of tested materials ranged from 0.634 to 0.963 with an
      average value of 0.802. The results indicated great genetic diversity existed in
      the tested materials. 2)The tested materials were clustered into 3 groups and 7
      subgroups, which demonstrated a strong geographic effect on variation of the
      local E. arundinaceus, and weak relationship was found between genetic distance
      and geographic distance. Five tetraploid materials were not clustered together,
      and were clustered together with materials from similar geographical location. 3)
      The genetic variation and cluster results were affected by geographic landforms
      and environments, the gene flow was blocked by Ocean and mountains, and promoted
      by river. The effect of ploidy level on genetic variation was little.

PMID- 28557998
TI  - Hard real-time closed-loop electrophysiology with the Real-Time eXperiment
      Interface (RTXI).
AB  - The ability to experimentally perturb biological systems has traditionally been
      limited to static pre-programmed or operator-controlled protocols. In contrast,
      real-time control allows dynamic probing of biological systems with perturbations
      that are computed on-the-fly during experimentation. Real-time control
      applications for biological research are available; however, these systems are
      costly and often restrict the flexibility and customization of experimental
      protocols. The Real-Time eXperiment Interface (RTXI) is an open source software
      platform for achieving hard real-time data acquisition and closed-loop control in
      biological experiments while retaining the flexibility needed for experimental
      settings. RTXI has enabled users to implement complex custom closed-loop
      protocols in single cell, cell network, animal, and human electrophysiology
      studies. RTXI is also used as a free and open source, customizable
      electrophysiology platform in open-loop studies requiring online data
      acquisition, processing, and visualization. RTXI is easy to install, can be used
      with an extensive range of external experimentation and data acquisition
      hardware, and includes standard modules for implementing common electrophysiology
      protocols.

PMID- 28557996
TI  - The cell non-autonomous function of ATG-18 is essential for neuroendocrine
      regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan.
AB  - Dietary restriction (DR) and reduced insulin growth factor (IGF) signaling extend
      lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans and other eukaryotic organisms. Autophagy, an
      evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, has emerged as a central
      pathway regulated by various longevity signals including DR and IGF signaling in
      promoting longevity in a variety of eukaryotic organisms. However, the mechanism
      remains unclear. Here we show that the autophagy protein ATG-18 acts cell non
      autonomously in neuronal and intestinal tissues to maintain C. elegans wildtype
      lifespan and to respond to DR and IGF-mediated longevity signaling. Moreover, ATG
      18 activity in chemosensory neurons that are involved in food detection
      sufficiently mediates the effect of these longevity pathways. Additionally, ATG
      18-mediated cell non-autonomous signaling depends on the release of
      neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. Interestingly, our data suggest that
      neuronal and intestinal ATG-18 acts in parallel and converges on unidentified
      neurons that secrete neuropeptides to regulate C. elegans lifespan through the
      transcription factor DAF-16/FOXO in response to reduced IGF signaling.

PMID- 28557999
TI  - Treatment of AKI in developing and developed countries: An international survey
      of pediatric dialysis modalities.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common cause of morbidity and
      mortality worldwide, with a pediatric incidence ranging from 19.3% to 24.1%.
      Treatment of pediatric AKI is a source of debate in varying geographical regions.
      Currently CRRT is the treatment for pediatric AKI, but limitations due to cost
      and accessibility force use of adult equipment and other therapeutic options such
      as peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD). It was hypothesized that more
      cost-effective measures would likely be used in developing countries due to
      lesser resource availability. METHODS: A 26-question internet-based survey was
      distributed to 650 pediatric Nephrologists. There was a response rate of 34.3%
      (223 responses). The survey was distributed via pedneph and pcrrt email servers,
      inquiring about demographics, technology, resources, pediatric-specific supplies,
      and preference in renal replacement therapy (RRT) in pediatric AKI. The main
      method of analysis was to compare responses about treatments between
      nephrologists in developed countries and nephrologists in developing countries
      using difference-of-proportions tests. RESULTS: PD was available in all centers
      surveyed, while HD was available in 85.1% and 54.1% (p = 0.00), CRRT was
      available in 60% and 33.3% (p = 0.001), and SLED was available in 20% and 25% (p
      = 0.45) centers of developed and developing world respectively. In developing
      countries, 68.5% (p = 0.000) of physicians preferred PD to costlier therapies,
      while in developed countries it was found that physicians favored HD (72%, p =
      0.00) or CRRT (24%, p = 0.041) in infants. CONCLUSIONS: Lack of availability of
      resources, trained physicians and funds often preclude standards of care in
      developing countries, and there is much development needed in terms of meeting
      higher global standards for treating pediatric AKI patients. PD remains the main
      modality of choice for treatment of AKI in infants in developing world.

PMID- 28558000
TI  - Working memory training in healthy young adults: Support for the null from a
      randomized comparison to active and passive control groups.
AB  - Training of working memory as a method of increasing working memory capacity and
      fluid intelligence has received much attention in recent years. This burgeoning
      field remains highly controversial with empirically-backed disagreements at all
      levels of evidence, including individual studies, systematic reviews, and even
      meta-analyses. The current study investigated the effect of a randomized six week
      online working memory intervention on untrained cognitive abilities in a
      community-recruited sample of healthy young adults, in relation to both a
      processing speed training active control condition, as well as a no-contact
      control condition. Results of traditional null hypothesis significance testing,
      as well as Bayesian factor analyses, revealed support for the null hypothesis
      across all cognitive tests administered before and after training. Importantly,
      all three groups were similar at pre-training for a variety of individual
      variables purported to moderate transfer of training to fluid intelligence,
      including personality traits, motivation to train, and expectations of cognitive
      improvement from training. Because these results are consistent with experimental
      trials of equal or greater methodological rigor, we suggest that future research
      re-focus on: 1) other promising interventions known to increase memory
      performance in healthy young adults, and; 2) examining sub-populations or
      alternative populations in which working memory training may be efficacious.

PMID- 28558002
TI  - Electroencephalogram-based decoding cognitive states using convolutional neural
      network and likelihood ratio based score fusion.
AB  - Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based decoding human brain activity is challenging,
      owing to the low spatial resolution of EEG. However, EEG is an important
      technique, especially for brain-computer interface applications. In this study, a
      novel algorithm is proposed to decode brain activity associated with different
      types of images. In this hybrid algorithm, convolutional neural network is
      modified for the extraction of features, a t-test is used for the selection of
      significant features and likelihood ratio-based score fusion is used for the
      prediction of brain activity. The proposed algorithm takes input data from
      multichannel EEG time-series, which is also known as multivariate pattern
      analysis. Comprehensive analysis was conducted using data from 30 participants.
      The results from the proposed method are compared with current recognized feature
      extraction and classification/prediction techniques. The wavelet transform
      support vector machine method is the most popular currently used feature
      extraction and prediction method. This method showed an accuracy of 65.7%.
      However, the proposed method predicts the novel data with improved accuracy of
      79.9%. In conclusion, the proposed algorithm outperformed the current feature
      extraction and prediction method.

PMID- 28558001
TI  - Reverse epitope mapping of the E2 glycoprotein in antibody associated hepatitis C
      virus.
AB  - The humoral immune system responds to chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection
      by producing neutralising antibodies (nAb). In this study we generated three HCV
      pseudoparticles in which E1E2 glycoprotein sequence was targeted by the host
      humoral immune system. We used patient derived virus free Fabs (VF-Fabs) obtained
      from HCV genotype 1a (n = 3), genotype 1b (n = 7) and genotype 3a (n = 1) for
      neutralisation of HCVpp produced in this study both individually and in
      combination. Based on the available anti-HCV monoclonal nAb mapping information
      we selected amino acid region 384-619 for conformational epitope mapping. Amongst
      our notable findings, we observed significant reduction in HCVpp infectivity
      (p<0.05) when challenged with a combination of inter genotype and subtype VF
      Fabs. We also identified five binding motifs targeted by patient derived VF-Fab
      upon peptide mapping, of which two shared the residues with previously reported
      epitopes. One epitope lies within an immunodominant HVR1 and two were novel. In
      summary, we used a reverse epitope mapping strategy to identify preferred
      epitopes by the host humoral immune system. Additionally, we have combined
      different VF-Fabs to further reduce the HCVpp infectivity. Our data indicates
      that combining the antigen specificity of antibodies may be a useful strategy to
      reduce (in-vitro) infectivity.

PMID- 28558003
TI  - The genetic diversity of commensal Escherichia coli strains isolated from non
      antimicrobial treated pigs varies according to age group.
AB  - This is the first report on the genetic diversity of commensal E. coli from pigs
      reared in an antibiotic free production system and belonging to different age
      groups. The study investigated the genetic diversity and relationship of 900
      randomly collected commensal E. coli strains from non-antimicrobial treated pigs
      assigned to five different age groups in a Danish farm. Fifty-two unique REP
      profiles were detected suggesting a high degree of diversity. The number of
      strains per pig ranged from two to 13. The highest and the lowest degree of
      diversity were found in the early weaners group (Shannon diversity index, H' of
      2.22) and piglets (H' of 1.46) respectively. The REP profiles, R1, R7 and R28,
      were the most frequently observed in all age groups. E. coli strains representing
      each REP profile and additional strains associated with the dominant profiles
      were subjected to PFGE and were assigned to 67 different genotypes. Whole genome
      sequence analysis of 52 isolates leading to unique REP profiles identified a high
      level of sequence variation. Six and six strains were assigned to sequence type
      ST10 and sequence type ST58, respectively. Virulence and antimicrobial resistance
      genes, as well as, genes associated with mobile genetic elements were commonly
      found among these commensal E. coli strains. Interestingly, strains yielding the
      three most common REP profiles clustered together in the SNPs phylogenetic tree,
      and such strains may represent the archetypal commensal E. coli in Danish pigs.

PMID- 28558004
TI  - Diagnostic potential of multimodal neuroimaging in posttraumatic stress disorder.
AB  - Despite accumulating evidence of physiological abnormalities related to
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the current diagnostic criteria for PTSD
      still rely on clinical interviews. In this study, we investigated the diagnostic
      potential of multimodal neuroimaging for identifying posttraumatic symptom
      trajectory after trauma exposure. Thirty trauma-exposed individuals and 29 trauma
      unexposed healthy individuals were followed up over a 5-year period. Three waves
      of assessments using multimodal neuroimaging, including structural magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI, were performed. Based on
      previous findings that the structural features of the fear circuitry-related
      brain regions may dynamically change during recovery from the trauma, we employed
      a machine learning approach to determine whether local, connectivity, and network
      features of brain regions of the fear circuitry including the amygdala,
      orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC), hippocampus, insula,
      and thalamus could distinguish trauma-exposed individuals from trauma-unexposed
      individuals at each recovery stage. Significant improvement in PTSD symptoms was
      observed in 23%, 52%, and 88% of trauma-exposed individuals at 1.43, 2.68, and
      3.91 years after the trauma, respectively. The structural features of the
      amygdala were found as major classifiers for discriminating trauma-exposed
      individuals from trauma-unexposed individuals at 1.43 years after the trauma, but
      these features were nearly normalized at later phases when most of the trauma
      exposed individuals showed clinical improvement in PTSD symptoms. Additionally,
      the structural features of the OMPFC showed consistent predictive values
      throughout the recovery period. In conclusion, the current study provides a
      promising step forward in the development of a clinically applicable predictive
      model for diagnosing PTSD and predicting recovery from PTSD.

PMID- 28558006
TI  - Pulse Doppler ultrasound as a tool for the diagnosis of chronic testicular
      dysfunction in stallions.
AB  - Testicular function is particularly susceptible to vascular insult, resulting in
      a negative impact on sperm production and quality of the ejaculate. A prompt
      diagnosis of testicular dysfunction enables implementation of appropriate
      treatment, hence improving fertility forecasts for stallions. The present
      research aims to: (1) assess if Doppler ultrasonography is a good tool to
      diagnose stallions with testicular dysfunction; (2) to study the relationship
      between Doppler parameters of the testicular artery and those of sperm quality
      assessed by flow cytometry and (3) to establish cut off values to differentiate
      fertile stallions from those with pathologies causing testicular dysfunction. A
      total of 10 stallions (n: 7 healthy stallions and n: 3 sub-fertile stallions)
      were used in this study. Two ejaculates per stallion were collected and preserved
      at 5 degrees C in a commercial extender. The semen was evaluated at T0, T24 and
      T48h by flow cytometry. Integrity and viability of sperm (YoPro(r)-1/EthD-1),
      mitochondrial activity (MitoTracker(r) Deep Red FM) and the DNA fragmentation
      index (Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay) were assessed. Doppler parameters were
      measured at three different locations on the testicular artery (Supratesticular
      artery (SA); Capsular artery (CA) and Intratesticular artery (IA)). The Doppler
      parameters calculated were: Resistive Index (RI), Pulsatility Index (PI), Peak
      Systolic Velocity (PSV), End Diastolic Velocity (EDV), Time Average Maximum
      Velocity (TAMV), Total Arterial Blood Flow (TABF) and TABF rate. The capsular
      artery was the most reliable location to carry out spectral Doppler assessment,
      since blood flow parameters of this artery were most closely correlated with
      sperm quality parameters. Significant differences in all the Doppler parameters
      studied were observed between fertile and subfertile stallions (p <= 0.05). The
      principal components analysis assay determined that fertile stallions are
      characterized by high EDV, TAMV, TABF and TABF rate values (high vascular
      perfusion). In contrast, subfertile stallions tend to present high values of PI
      and RI (high vascular resistance). The ROC curves revealed that the best Doppler
      parameters to predict sperm quality in stallions were: Doppler velocities (PSV,
      EDV and TAMV), the diameter of the capsular artery and TABF parameters (tissue
      perfusion parameters). Cut off values were established using a Youden's Index to
      identify fertile stallions from stallions with testicular dysfunction. Spectral
      Doppler ultrasound is a good predictive tool for sperm quality since correlations
      were determined among Doppler parameters and markers of sperm quality. Doppler
      ultrasonography could be a valuable diagnostic tool for use by clinical
      practitioners for the diagnosis of stallions with testicular dysfunction and
      could be a viable alternative to invasive procedures traditionally used for
      diagnosis of sub-fertility disorders.

PMID- 28558005
TI  - The pathogenic role of interleukin-22 and its receptor during UVB-induced skin
      inflammation.
AB  - Recent studies show that IL-22, a cytokine produced by activated CD4+ T cells and
      NK cells, plays a pathogenic role in acute and chronic skin diseases. While IL-22
      is produced by immune cells, the expression of IL-22Ralpha, the functional
      subunit of IL-22R, is mostly restricted to non-hematopoietic cells in organs such
      as the skin and pancreas. Although it is well known that ultraviolet B (UVB)
      radiation induces skin inflammation, there have been no reports regarding the
      effect of UVB on the expression of IL-22Ralpha. This study investigated IL
      22Ralpha expression and IL-22-mediated proliferation and pro-inflammatory
      cytokine production by UVB-irradiated keratinocytes. IL-22Ralpha was increased in
      HaCaT and primary human keratinocytes after UVB irradiation through the
      translocation of IL-22Ralpha from the cytosol to the membrane. This increase in
      the expression of IL-22Ralpha was mediated by the PI3K/Akt pathway. Moreover, the
      suppression of keratinocyte proliferation by UVB irradiation was inhibited by
      treatment with IL-22. At the same time, IL-22 increased the production of IL
      1alpha, IL-6, and IL-18 in UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells and primary human
      keratinocytes. Finally, IL-22Ralpha expression was increased in UVB-irradiated
      human and mouse skin by immunohistochemistry. The increased expression of IL
      22Ralpha therefore promotes keratinocyte proliferation and pro-inflammatory
      cytokine production during UVB-induced skin inflammation, suggesting that UVB
      facilitates skin inflammation by increasing the responsiveness of keratinocytes
      to IL-22. This study provides a new insight into UVB-induced skin inflammation
      and the regulation of related inflammatory skin diseases.

PMID- 28558007
TI  - The clinical significance of accompanying NME on preoperative MR imaging in
      breast cancer patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the significance of accompanying NME in invasive ductal
      carcinoma (IDC) on preoperative MR imaging and assess the factors affecting the
      significance. METHODS: Between January 2015 and February 2016, 163 consecutive
      patients with IDC who underwent preoperative MR imaging and subsequent surgery
      were enrolled and reviewed. Index cancer mass size and total extent with
      accompanying NME on MR images was measured and compared with pathologic size.
      Positive NME was defined as pathological result of IDC or DCIS. To identify
      affecting factors associated with frequency of accompanying NME on MR and
      positive pathologic result, clinicopathologic features were compared between
      breast cancers with NME and without NME, and between breast cancers with positive
      NME and negative NME using the Student t-test or Chi-square test. RESULTS: Of the
      163 invasive breast cancers, 123(75.5%) cancers presented as only mass feature
      and 40(24.5%) cancers had accompanying NME around the index mass. Of the 40
      accompanying NME, 22 (55%) had positive pathologic results and 18 (45%) had
      negative results. The HER2 positive status was significantly associated with
      positive pathologic results of accompanying NME (P = .016). CONCLUSION:
      Accompanying NME on preoperative MR imaging showed malignant pathologic results
      in 55%. The HER2 positive IDC was more frequently accompanied by malignant NME.

PMID- 28558008
TI  - Expression of anaesthetic and analgesic drug target genes in excised breast
      tumour tissue: Association with clinical disease recurrence or metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retrospective analyses suggest anaesthetic-analgesics technique
      during cancer surgery may affect recurrence/metastasis. This could involve direct
      effects of anaesthetic-analgesic drugs on cancer cells. While MU-opioid receptor
      over-expression in lung tumours is associated with greater metastasis, other
      anaesthetic-analgesic receptor targets in cancer recurrence/metastasis remain
      unexplored. Therefore, we evaluated the association between genetic expression of
      anaesthetic-analgesic receptor targets and recurrence/metastasis, using a
      repository of breast cancer gene expression and matching clinical data. METHODS:
      A list of 23 genes encoding for the most prominent anaesthetic-analgesic receptor
      targets was compiled. This was processed through BreastMark- an algorithm
      integrating gene expression data from ~17,000 samples and clinical data from
      >4,500 breast cancer samples. Gene expression data was dichotomized using disease
      free survival (survival without recurrence) and distant disease-free survival
      (survival without metastasis) as end points. Hazard ratios were calculated by Cox
      regression analysis. Enrichment for prognostic markers was determined by randomly
      choosing 23-member gene lists from all available genes, calculating how often >5
      significant markers were observed and adjusting p-values for multiple testing.
      This was repeated 10,000 times and an empirical p-value calculated. RESULTS: Of
      23 selected genes, 9 were significantly associated with altered rates of
      metastasis and 4 with recurrence on univariate analysis. Adjusting for multiple
      testing, 5 of these 9 genes remained significantly associated with metastasis,
      non with recurrence. This ratio of genes (5/23) was not significantly enriched
      for markers of metastasis (p = 0.07). CONCLUSION: Several anaesthetic-analgesic
      receptor genes were associated with metastatic spread in breast cancer. Overall
      there was no significant enrichment in prognostic markers of metastasis, although
      a trend was observed.

PMID- 28558009
TI  - Association between aqueous humor and vitreous fluid levels of Th17 cell-related
      cytokines in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - Inflammation is known to be involved in the progression of diabetic retinopathy.
      We have recently reported that vitreous levels of IL-4, IL-17A, IL-22, IL-31, and
      TNFalpha are higher than the respective serum levels in proliferative diabetic
      retinopathy (PDR) patients, and that vitreous levels of these cytokines are
      higher in PDR than in other non-inflammatory vitreoretinal diseases or uveitis
      associated with sarcoidosis. In the present study, we investigated inflammatory
      cytokines including Th17 cell-related cytokines in aqueous humor samples obtained
      from eyes with PDR, and analyzed the association between the aqueous humor and
      vitreous fluid levels of individual cytokines. The study group consisted of 31
      consecutive type 2 diabetic patients with PDR who underwent cataract surgery and
      vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage and/or tractional retinal detachment.
      Undiluted aqueous humor was collected during cataract surgery, and then vitreous
      fluid was obtained using a 25G vitreous cutter inserted into the mid-vitreous
      cavity at the beginning of vitrectomy. IL-1beta, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IL
      17F, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23, IL-25, IL-31, IL-33, IFN-gamma, soluble CD40 ligand
      (sCD40L), and TNFalpha levels in the aqueous humor and vitreous fluid were
      measured using a beads-array system. Although IL-17A was detected in the aqueous
      humor of eyes with PDR and the level correlated with IL-17A level in the vitreous
      fluid, both percent detectable and level of IL-17A in the aqueous humor were
      significantly lower than those in the vitreous fluid. Vitreous IL-17A level was
      related significantly to IL-10, IL-22, and TNFalpha levels in aqueous humor as
      well as in vitreous fluid, On the other hand, aqueous IL-17A level was not
      related significantly to aqueous or vitreous levels of IL-10, IL-22 or TNFalpha
      level. The present study demonstrated that IL-17A level and detectable rate in
      the aqueous humor of patients with PDR are markedly lower than those in the
      vitreous fluid and aqueous IL-17A does not correlate with vitreous levels of
      other cytokines, and hence should not be used as a surrogate for IL-17A in the
      vitreous fluid.

PMID- 28558010
TI  - Effect of meteorological factors and geographic location on methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci colonization in the
      US.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the effect of meteorological conditions and
      geographical location on bacterial colonization rates particularly of antibiotic
      resistant Gram-positive bacteria. We aimed to evaluate the effect of season,
      meteorological factors, and geographic location on methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
      colonization. METHODS: The prospective cohort included all adults admitted to 20
      geographically-dispersed ICUs across the US from September 1, 2011 to October 4,
      2012. Nasal and perianal swabs were collected at admission and tested for MRSA
      and VRE colonization respectively. Poisson regression models using monthly
      aggregated colonization counts as the outcome and mean temperature, relative
      humidity, total precipitation, season, and/or latitude as predictors were
      constructed for each pathogen. RESULTS: A total of 24,704 ICU-admitted patients
      were tested for MRSA and 24,468 for VRE. On admission, 10% of patients were
      colonized with MRSA and 12% with VRE. For MRSA and VRE, a 10% increase in
      relative humidity was associated with approximately a 9% increase in prevalence
      rate. Southerly latitudes in the US were associated with higher MRSA
      colonization, while northerly latitudes were associated with higher VRE
      colonization. In contrast to MRSA, the association between VRE colonization and
      latitude was observed only after adjusting for relative humidity, which
      demonstrates how this effect is highly driven by this meteorological factor.
      CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, we are the first to study the effect of
      meteorological factors and geographical location/latitude on MRSA and VRE
      colonization in adults. Increasing humidity was associated with greater MRSA and
      VRE colonization. Southerly latitudes in the US were associated with greater MRSA
      and less VRE. The effect of these factors on MRSA and VRE rates has the potential
      not only to inform patient management and treatment, but also infection
      prevention interventions.

PMID- 28558012
TI  - Simulation and experimental research on trans-media vehicle water-entry motion
      characteristics at low speed.
AB  - The motion characteristics of trans-media vehicles during the water-entry process
      were explored in this study in an effort to obtain the optimal water-entry
      condition of the vehicle for developing a novel, single control strategy
      integrating underwater non-control and in-air control. A water-entry dynamics
      model is established by combining the water-entry motion characteristics of the
      vehicle in uncontrolled conditions at low speed with time-varying parameters
      (e.g. buoyancy, added mass). A water-entry experiment is designed to confirm the
      effectiveness of the established model. After that, by comparing the experimental
      results with the simulated results, the model is further modified to more
      accurately reflect water-entry motion. The change laws of the vehicle's attitude
      and position during the water-entry process are also obtained by analyzing the
      simulation of the modified model under different velocity, angle, and angle of
      attack conditions. The results presented here have guiding significance for the
      future realization of reaching the stable underwater navigation state of the
      vehicle after water-entry process.

PMID- 28558011
TI  - Conserved properties of Drosophila Insomniac link sleep regulation and synaptic
      function.
AB  - Sleep is an ancient animal behavior that is regulated similarly in species
      ranging from flies to humans. Various genes that regulate sleep have been
      identified in invertebrates, but whether the functions of these genes are
      conserved in mammals remains poorly explored. Drosophila insomniac (inc) mutants
      exhibit severely shortened and fragmented sleep. Inc protein physically
      associates with the Cullin-3 (Cul3) ubiquitin ligase, and neuronal depletion of
      Inc or Cul3 strongly curtails sleep, suggesting that Inc is a Cul3 adaptor that
      directs the ubiquitination of neuronal substrates that impact sleep. Three
      proteins similar to Inc exist in vertebrates-KCTD2, KCTD5, and KCTD17-but are
      uncharacterized within the nervous system and their functional conservation with
      Inc has not been addressed. Here we show that Inc and its mouse orthologs exhibit
      striking biochemical and functional interchangeability within Cul3 complexes.
      Remarkably, KCTD2 and KCTD5 restore sleep to inc mutants, indicating that they
      can substitute for Inc in vivo and engage its neuronal targets relevant to sleep.
      Inc and its orthologs localize similarly within fly and mammalian neurons and can
      traffic to synapses, suggesting that their substrates may include synaptic
      proteins. Consistent with such a mechanism, inc mutants exhibit defects in
      synaptic structure and physiology, indicating that Inc is essential for both
      sleep and synaptic function. Our findings reveal that molecular functions of Inc
      are conserved through ~600 million years of evolution and support the hypothesis
      that Inc and its orthologs participate in an evolutionarily conserved
      ubiquitination pathway that links synaptic function and sleep regulation.

PMID- 28558014
TI  - Correction: Retinoic acid exacerbates chlorpyrifos action in ensuing adipogenic
      differentiation of C3H10T1/2 cells in a GSK3beta dependent pathway.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173031.].

PMID- 28558013
TI  - Downregulation of SIRT1 signaling underlies hepatic autophagy impairment in
      glycogen storage disease type Ia.
AB  - A deficiency in glucose-6-phosphatase-alpha (G6Pase-alpha) in glycogen storage
      disease type Ia (GSD-Ia) leads to impaired glucose homeostasis and metabolic
      manifestations including hepatomegaly caused by increased glycogen and neutral
      fat accumulation. A recent report showed that G6Pase-alpha deficiency causes
      impairment in autophagy, a recycling process important for cellular metabolism.
      However, the molecular mechanism underlying defective autophagy is unclear. Here
      we show that in mice, liver-specific knockout of G6Pase-alpha (L-G6pc-/-) leads
      to downregulation of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) signaling that activates autophagy via
      deacetylation of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins and forkhead box O (FoxO)
      family of transcriptional factors which transactivate autophagy genes.
      Consistently, defective autophagy in G6Pase-alpha-deficient liver is
      characterized by attenuated expressions of autophagy components, increased
      acetylation of ATG5 and ATG7, decreased conjugation of ATG5 and ATG12, and
      reduced autophagic flux. We further show that hepatic G6Pase-alpha deficiency
      results in activation of carbohydrate response element-binding protein, a
      lipogenic transcription factor, increased expression of peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma), a lipid regulator, and suppressed
      expression of PPAR-alpha, a master regulator of fatty acid beta-oxidation, all
      contributing to hepatic steatosis and downregulation of SIRT1 expression. An
      adenovirus vector-mediated increase in hepatic SIRT1 expression corrects
      autophagy defects but does not rectify metabolic abnormalities associated with
      G6Pase-alpha deficiency. Importantly, a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV)
      vector-mediated restoration of hepatic G6Pase-alpha expression corrects metabolic
      abnormalities, restores SIRT1-FoxO signaling, and normalizes defective autophagy.
      Taken together, these data show that hepatic G6Pase-alpha deficiency-mediated
      down-regulation of SIRT1 signaling underlies defective hepatic autophagy in GSD
      Ia.

PMID- 28558015
TI  - Effects of TiO2 nanoparticles on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings
      cultivated under super-elevated and normal CO2 conditions.
AB  - Concerns over the potential risks of nanomaterials to ecosystem have been raised,
      as it is highly possible that nanomaterials could be released to the environment
      and result in adverse effects on living organisms. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of
      the main greenhouse gases. The level of CO2 keeps increasing and subsequently
      causes a series of environmental problems, especially for agricultural crops. In
      the present study, we investigated the effects of TiO2 NPs on wheat seedlings
      cultivated under super-elevated CO2 conditions (5000 mg/L CO2) and under normal
      CO2 conditions (400 mg/L CO2). Compared to the normal CO2 condition, wheat grown
      under the elevated CO2 condition showed increases of root biomass and large
      numbers of lateral roots. Under both CO2 cultivation conditions, the abscisic
      acid (ABA) content in wheat seedlings increased with increasing concentrations of
      TiO2 NPs. The indolepropioponic acid (IPA) and jasmonic acid (JA) content notably
      decreased in plants grown under super-elevated CO2 conditions, while the JA
      content increased with increasing concentrations of TiO2 NPs. Ti accumulation
      showed a dose-response manner in both wheat shoots and roots as TiO2 NPs
      concentrations increased. Additionally, the presence of elevated CO2
      significantly promoted Ti accumulation and translocation in wheat treated with
      certain concentrations of TiO2 NPs. This study will be of benefit to the
      understanding of the joint effects and physiological mechanism of high-CO2 and
      nanoparticle to terrestrial plants.

PMID- 28558016
TI  - High mortality due to sepsis in Native Hawaiians and African Americans: The
      Multiethnic Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Sepsis is a severe systemic response to infection with a
      high mortality rate. A higher incidence has been reported for older people, in
      persons with a compromised immune system including cancer patients, and in ethnic
      minorities. We analyzed sepsis mortality and its predictors by ethnicity in the
      Multiethnic Cohort (MEC). SUBJECTS/METHODS: Among 191,561 white, African
      American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, and Latino cohort members, 49,347
      deaths due to all causes and 345 deaths due to sepsis were recorded during follow
      up from 1993-96 until 2010. Cox proportional hazard ratios (HRs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and adjusted for relevant confounders.
      In addition, national death rates were analyzed to compare mortality by state.
      RESULTS: Age-adjusted rates of sepsis death were 5-times higher for Hawaii than
      Los Angeles (14.4 vs. 2.7 per 100,000). By ethnicity, Native Hawaiians had the
      highest rate in Hawaii (29.0 per 100,000) and African Americans in Los Angeles
      (5.2 per 100,000). In fully adjusted models, place of residence was the most
      important predictor of sepsis mortality (HR = 7.18; 95%CI: 4.37-11.81 Hawaii vs.
      Los Angeles). African Americans showed the highest risk (HR = 2.08; 95% CI: 1.16
      3.75) followed by Native Hawaiians (HR = 1.88; 95% CI: 1.34-2.65) as compared to
      whites. Among cohort members with cancer (N = 49,794), the 2-fold higher sepsis
      mortality remained significant in Native Hawaiians only. The geographic and
      ethnic differences in the MEC agreed with results for national death data.
      CONCLUSIONS: The finding that African Americans and Native Hawaiians experience a
      higher mortality risk due to sepsis than other ethnic groups suggest ethnicity
      related biological factors in the predisposition of cancer patients and other
      immune-compromising conditions to develop sepsis, but regional differences in
      health care access and death coding may also be important.

PMID- 28558018
TI  - Yellow-Leaf 1 encodes a magnesium-protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester cyclase,
      involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis in rice (Oryza sativa L.).
AB  - Magnesium-protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester cyclase (MPEC) catalyzes the
      conversion of MPME to divinyl protochlorophyllide (DVpchlide). This is an
      essential enzyme during chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis but details of its
      function in rice are still lacking. Here, we identified a novel rice mutant
      yellow-leaf 1 (yl-1), which showed decreased Chl accumulation, abnormal
      chloroplast ultrastructure and attenuated photosynthetic activity. Map-based
      cloning and over-expression analysis suggested that YL-1 encodes a subunit of
      MPEC. The YL-1 protein localizes in chloroplasts, and it is mainly expressed in
      green tissues, with greatest abundance in leaves and young panicles. Results of
      qRT-PCR showed that Chl biosynthesis upstream genes were highly expressed in the
      yl-1 mutant, while downstream genes were compromised, indicating that YL-1 plays
      a pivotal role in the Chl biosynthesis. Furthermore, the expression levels of
      photosynthesis and chloroplast development genes were also affected. RNA-seq
      results futher proved that numerous membrane-associated genes, including many
      plastid membrane-associated genes, have altered expression pattern in the yl-1
      mutant, implying that YL-1 is required for plastid membrane stability. Thus, our
      study confirms a putative MPME cyclase as a novel key enzyme essential for Chl
      biosynthesis and chloroplast membrane stability in rice.

PMID- 28558019
TI  - Overexpression of the human DEK oncogene reprograms cellular metabolism and
      promotes glycolysis.
AB  - The DEK oncogene is overexpressed in many human malignancies including at early
      tumor stages. Our reported in vitro and in vivo models of squamous cell carcinoma
      have demonstrated that DEK contributes functionally to cellular and tumor
      survival and to proliferation. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms
      remain poorly understood. Based on recent RNA sequencing experiments, DEK
      expression was necessary for the transcription of several metabolic enzymes
      involved in anabolic pathways. This identified a possible mechanism whereby DEK
      may drive cellular metabolism to enable cell proliferation. Functional metabolic
      Seahorse analysis demonstrated increased baseline and maximum extracellular
      acidification rates, a readout of glycolysis, in DEK-overexpressing keratinocytes
      and squamous cell carcinoma cells. DEK overexpression also increased the maximum
      rate of oxygen consumption and therefore increased the potential for oxidative
      phosphorylation (OxPhos). To detect small metabolites that participate in
      glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) that supplies substrate for
      OxPhos, we carried out NMR-based metabolomics studies. We found that high levels
      of DEK significantly reprogrammed cellular metabolism and altered the abundances
      of amino acids, TCA cycle intermediates and the glycolytic end products lactate,
      alanine and NAD+. Taken together, these data support a scenario whereby
      overexpression of the human DEK oncogene reprograms keratinocyte metabolism to
      fulfill energy and macromolecule demands required to enable and sustain cancer
      cell growth.

PMID- 28558020
TI  - Assessment of psychological pain in suicidal veterans.
AB  - Psychological pain is a relatively understudied and potentially important
      construct in the evaluation of suicidal risk. Psychological pain also referred to
      as 'mental pain' or 'psychache' can be defined as an adverse emotional reaction
      to a severe trauma (e.g., the loss of a child) or may be associated with an
      illness such as depression. When psychological pain levels reach intolerable
      levels, some individuals may view suicide as the only and final means of escape.
      To better understand psychological pain, we previously developed and validated a
      brief self-rating 10-item scale, Mee-Bunney Psychological Pain Assessment Scale
      [MBP] in depressed patients and non-psychiatric controls. Our results showed a
      significant increase in psychological pain in the depressed patients compared to
      controls. We also observed a significant linear correlation between psychological
      pain and suicidality in the depressed patient cohort. The current investigation
      extends our study of psychological pain to a diagnostically heterogeneous
      population of 57 US Veterans enrolled in a suicide prevention program. In
      addition to the MBP, we administered the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale
      (C-SSRS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and
      the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Suicidal patients scoring above a
      predetermined threshold for high psychological pain also had significantly
      elevated scores on all the other assessments. Among all of the evaluations,
      psychological pain accounted for the most shared variance for suicidality (C
      SSRS). Stepwise regression analyses showed that impulsiveness (BIS) and
      psychological pain (MBP) contributed more to suicidality than any of the other
      combined assessments. We followed patients for 15 months and identified a
      subgroup (24/57) with serious suicide events. Within this subgroup, 29% (7/24)
      had a serious suicidal event (determined by the lethality subscale of the C
      SSRS), including one completed suicide. Our results build upon our earlier
      findings and recent literature supporting psychological pain as a potentially
      important construct. Systematically evaluating psychological pain along with
      additional measures of suicidality could improve risk assessment and more
      effectively guide clinical resource allocation toward prevention.

PMID- 28558017
TI  - A dual-strategy expression screen for candidate connectivity labels in the
      developing thalamus.
AB  - The thalamus or "inner chamber" of the brain is divided into ~30 discrete nuclei,
      with highly specific patterns of afferent and efferent connectivity. To identify
      genes that may direct these patterns of connectivity, we used two strategies.
      First, we used a bioinformatics pipeline to survey the predicted proteomes of
      nematode, fruitfly, mouse and human for extracellular proteins containing any of
      a list of motifs found in known guidance or connectivity molecules. Second, we
      performed clustering analyses on the Allen Developing Mouse Brain Atlas data to
      identify genes encoding surface proteins expressed with temporal profiles similar
      to known guidance or connectivity molecules. In both cases, we then screened the
      resultant genes for selective expression patterns in the developing thalamus.
      These approaches identified 82 candidate connectivity labels in the developing
      thalamus. These molecules include many members of the Ephrin, Eph-receptor,
      cadherin, protocadherin, semaphorin, plexin, Odz/teneurin, Neto, cerebellin,
      calsyntenin and Netrin-G families, as well as diverse members of the
      immunoglobulin (Ig) and leucine-rich receptor (LRR) superfamilies, receptor
      tyrosine kinases and phosphatases, a variety of growth factors and receptors, and
      a large number of miscellaneous membrane-associated or secreted proteins not
      previously implicated in axonal guidance or neuronal connectivity. The diversity
      of their expression patterns indicates that thalamic nuclei are highly
      differentiated from each other, with each one displaying a unique repertoire of
      these molecules, consistent with a combinatorial logic to the specification of
      thalamic connectivity.

PMID- 28558021
TI  - Interactions of sclerostin with FGF23, soluble klotho and vitamin D in renal
      transplantation.
AB  - Relationships of Sclerostin, a bone anti-anabolic protein, with biomarkers of
      mineral bone disorders in chronic kidney disease are still unsettled, in
      particular in kidney transplant (KTR). In 80 KTR patients (31F/49M, 54.7+/-10.3
      years) we studied the relationships of serum Sclerostin with eGFR, Calcium,
      Phosphate, Alkaline Phosphatase (AP), intact Parathyroid hormone (iPTH), soluble
      alpha-Klotho (sKlotho), intact Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (iFGF23), 25
      hydroxyvitamin D(25D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D). Thirty healthy
      subjects (35.0+/-12.4 years, eGFR 109.1+/-14.1 ml /min/1,73m2) served as control
      for Sclerostin, iFGF23 and sKlotho. With a median eGFR of 46.3 mL/min/1.73m2
      (IQR, 36.2-58.3) our KTR had median Sclerostin levels of 23.7 pmol/L (IQR: 20.8
      32.8), not different from controls (26.6 pmol/L, IQR: 22.0-32.2; p = n.s).
      Sclerostin correlated negatively with AP (r = -.251; p = 0.023) and positively
      with iFGF23 (r = .227; p = 0.017) and 25D (r = .214; p = 0.025). Age-adjusted
      multiple regression analysis identified AP and 1,25D as negative and 25D and
      sKlotho as positive best predictors of Sclerostin. No correlation was evident
      with eGFR. The negative correlation with AP confirms the direct anti-anabolic
      role of Sclerostin. The associations either negative or positive with iFGF23,
      sKlotho, and vitamin D metabolites suggest also a modulatory role in mineral
      homeostasis. In particular, the associations with iFGF23 (positive) and 1,25D
      (negative) underline the relevant inhibitory action of Sclerostin on vitamin D
      activation. In conclusion, Sclerostin levels in KTR are normal and influenced
      more by bone turnover than by eGFR. Its involvement with other hormones of
      mineral homeostasis (FGF23/Klotho and Vitamin D) is part of the sophisticated
      cross-talk between bone and the kidney.

PMID- 28558023
TI  - Structural and functional dissection reveals distinct roles of Ca2+-binding sites
      in the giant adhesin SiiE of Salmonella enterica.
AB  - The giant non-fimbrial adhesin SiiE of Salmonella enterica mediates the first
      contact to the apical site of epithelial cells and enables subsequent invasion.
      SiiE is a 595 kDa protein composed of 53 repetitive bacterial immunoglobulin
      (BIg) domains and the only known substrate of the SPI4-encoded type 1 secretion
      system (T1SS). The crystal structure of BIg50-52 of SiiE revealed two distinct
      Ca2+-binding sites per BIg domain formed by conserved aspartate or glutamate
      residues. In a mutational analysis Ca2+-binding sites were disrupted by aspartate
      to serine exchange at various positions in the BIg domains of SiiE. Amounts of
      secreted SiiE diminish with a decreasing number of intact Ca2+-binding sites. BIg
      domains of SiiE contain distinct Ca2+-binding sites, with type I sites being
      similar to other T1SS-secreted proteins and type II sites newly identified in
      SiiE. We functionally and structurally dissected the roles of type I and type II
      Ca2+-binding sites in SiiE, as well as the importance of Ca2+-binding sites in
      various positions of SiiE. Type I Ca2+-binding sites were critical for efficient
      secretion of SiiE and a decreasing number of type I sites correlated with reduced
      secretion. Type II sites were less important for secretion, stability and surface
      expression of SiiE, however integrity of type II sites in the C-terminal portion
      was required for the function of SiiE in mediating adhesion and invasion.

PMID- 28558024
TI  - Maternal age and severe maternal morbidity: A population-based retrospective
      cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals of 2000 was
      to reduce maternal mortality by 75% in 15 y; however, this challenge was not met
      by many industrialized countries. As average maternal age continues to rise in
      these countries, associated potentially life-threatening severe maternal
      morbidity has been understudied. Our primary objective was to examine the
      associations between maternal age and severe maternal morbidities. The secondary
      objective was to compare these associations with those for adverse fetal/infant
      outcomes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This was a population-based retrospective cohort
      study, including all singleton births to women residing in Washington State, US,
      1 January 2003-31 December 2013 (n = 828,269). We compared age-specific rates of
      maternal mortality/severe morbidity (e.g., obstetric shock) and adverse
      fetal/infant outcomes (e.g., perinatal death). Logistic regression was used to
      adjust for parity, body mass index, assisted conception, and other potential
      confounders. We compared crude odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted ORs (AORs) and risk
      differences and their 95% CIs. Severe maternal morbidity was significantly higher
      among teenage mothers than among those 25-29 y (crude OR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.5-1.6)
      and increased exponentially with maternal age over 39 y, from OR = 1.2 (95% CI
      1.2-1.3) among women aged 35-39 y to OR = 5.4 (95% CI 2.4-12.5) among women aged
      >=50 y. The elevated risk of severe morbidity among teen mothers disappeared
      after adjustment for confounders, except for maternal sepsis (AOR = 1.2, 95% CI
      1.1-1.4). Adjusted rates of severe morbidity remained increased among mothers
      >=35 y, namely, the rates of amniotic fluid embolism (AOR = 8.0, 95% CI 2.7-23.7)
      and obstetric shock (AOR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.3-6.6) among mothers >=40 y, and renal
      failure (AOR = 15.9, 95% CI 4.8-52.0), complications of obstetric interventions
      (AOR = 4.7, 95% CI 2.3-9.5), and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (AOR = 4.8,
      95% CI 2.0-11.9) among those 45-49 y. The adjusted risk difference in severe
      maternal morbidity compared to mothers 25-29 y was 0.9% (95% CI 0.7%-1.2%) for
      mothers 40-44 y, 1.6% (95% CI 0.7%-2.8%) for mothers 45-49 y, and 6.4% for
      mothers >=50 y (95% CI 1.7%-18.2%). Similar associations were observed for fetal
      and infant outcomes; neonatal mortality was elevated in teen mothers (AOR = 1.5,
      95% CI 1.2-1.7), while mothers over 29 y had higher risk of stillbirth. The rate
      of severe maternal morbidity among women over 49 y was higher than the rate of
      mortality/serious morbidity of their offspring. Despite the large sample size,
      statistical power was insufficient to examine the association between maternal
      age and maternal death or very rare severe morbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal age
      specific incidence of severe morbidity varied by outcome. Older women (>=40 y)
      had significantly elevated rates of some of the most severe, potentially life
      threatening morbidities, including renal failure, shock, acute cardiac morbidity,
      serious complications of obstetric interventions, and ICU admission. These
      results should improve counselling to women who contemplate delaying childbirth
      until their forties and provide useful information to their health care
      providers. This information is also useful for preventive strategies to lower
      maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in developed countries.

PMID- 28558025
TI  - Doxycycline potentiates antitumor effect of 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated
      photodynamic therapy in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor cells.
AB  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most common neurocutaneous
      disorders. Some NF1 patients develop benign large plexiform neurofibroma(s) at
      birth, which can then transform into a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor
      (MPNST). There is no curative treatment for this rapidly progressive and easily
      metastatic neurofibrosarcoma. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been developed as an
      anti-cancer treatment, and 5-aminolevulinic (ALA) mediated PDT (ALA-PDT) has been
      used to treat cutaneous skin and oral neoplasms. Doxycycline, a tetracycline
      derivative, can substantially reduce the tumor burden in human and animal models,
      in addition to its antimicrobial effects. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate the effect and to investigate the mechanism of action of combined
      doxycycline and ALA-PDT treatment of MPNST cells. An 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)
      2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed that the combination of ALA
      PDT and doxycycline significantly reduce MPNST survival rate, compared to cells
      treated with each therapy alone. Isobologram analysis showed that the combined
      treatment had a synergistic effect. The increased cytotoxic activity could be
      seen by an increase in cellular protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) accumulation.
      Furthermore, we found that the higher retention of PpIX was mainly due to
      increasing ALA uptake, rather than activity changes of the enzymes
      porphobilinogen deaminase and ferrochelatase. The combined treatment inhibited
      tumor growth in different tumor cell lines, but not in normal human Schwann cells
      or fibroblasts. Similarly, a synergistic interaction was also found in cells
      treated with ALA-PDT combined with minocycline, but not tetracycline. In summary,
      doxycycline can potentiate the effect of ALA-PDT to kill tumor cells. This
      increased potency allows for a dose reduction of doxycycline and photodynamic
      radiation, reducing the occurrence of toxic side effects in vivo.

PMID- 28558027
TI  - Capacity value of energy storage considering control strategies.
AB  - In power systems, energy storage effectively improves the reliability of the
      system and smooths out the fluctuations of intermittent energy. However, the
      installed capacity value of energy storage cannot effectively measure the
      contribution of energy storage to the generator adequacy of power systems. To
      achieve a variety of purposes, several control strategies may be utilized in
      energy storage systems. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of
      different energy storage control strategies on the generation adequacy. This
      paper presents the capacity value of energy storage to quantitatively estimate
      the contribution of energy storage on the generation adequacy. Four different
      control strategies are considered in the experimental method to study the
      capacity value of energy storage. Finally, the analysis of the influence factors
      on the capacity value under different control strategies is given.

PMID- 28558022
TI  - Different features of Vdelta2 T and NK cells in fatal and non-fatal human Ebola
      infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human Ebola infection is characterized by a paralysis of the immune
      system. A signature of alphabeta T cells in fatal Ebola infection has been
      recently proposed, while the involvement of innate immune cells in the
      protection/pathogenesis of Ebola infection is unknown. Aim of this study was to
      analyze gammadelta T and NK cells in patients from the Ebola outbreak of 2014
      2015 occurred in West Africa, and to assess their association with the clinical
      outcome. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Nineteen Ebola-infected patients were
      enrolled at the time of admission to the Ebola Treatment Centre in Guinea.
      Patients were divided in two groups on the basis of the clinical outcome. The
      analysis was performed by using multiparametric flow cytometry established by the
      European Mobile Laboratory in the field. A low frequency of Vdelta2 T-cells was
      observed during Ebola infection, independently from the clinical outcome.
      Moreover, Vdelta2 T-cells from Ebola patients massively expressed CD95 apoptotic
      marker, suggesting the involvement of apoptotic mechanisms in Vdelta2 T-cell
      loss. Interestingly, Vdelta2 T-cells from survivors expressed an effector
      phenotype and presented a lower expression of the CTLA-4 exhaustion marker than
      fatalities, suggesting a role of effector Vdelta2 T-cells in the protection.
      Furthermore, patients with fatal Ebola infection were characterized by a lower NK
      cell frequency than patients with non fatal infection. In particular, both
      CD56bright and CD56dim NK frequency were very low both in fatal and non fatal
      infections, while a higher frequency of CD56neg NK cells was associated to non
      fatal infections. Finally, NK activation and expression of NKp46 and CD158a were
      independent from clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCES: Altogether, the
      data suggest that both effector Vdelta2 T-cells and NK cells may play a role in
      the complex network of protective response to EBOV infection. Further studies are
      required to characterize the protective effector functions of Vdelta2 and NK
      cells.

PMID- 28558026
TI  - Identification of function-regulating antibodies targeting the receptor protein
      tyrosine phosphatase sigma ectodomain.
AB  - Receptor tyrosine phosphatase sigma (RPTPsigma) plays an important role in the
      regulation of axonal outgrowth and neural regeneration. Recent studies have
      identified two RPTPsigma ligands, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) and
      heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPG), which can modulate RPTPsigma activity by
      affecting its dimerization status. Here, we developed a split luciferase assay to
      monitor RPTPsigma dimerization in living cells. Using this system, we demonstrate
      that heparin, an analog of heparan sulfate, induced the dimerization of
      RPTPsigma, whereas chondroitin sulfate increased RPTPsigma activity by inhibiting
      RPTPsigma dimerization. Also, we generated several novel RPTPsigma IgG monoclonal
      antibodies, to identify one that modulates its activity by inducing/stabilizing
      dimerization in living cells. Lastly, we demonstrate that this antibody promotes
      neurite outgrowth in SH-SY5Y cells. In summary, we demonstrated that the split
      luciferase RPTPsigma activity assay is a novel high-throughput approach for
      discovering novel RPTPsigma modulators that can promote axonal outgrowth and
      neural regeneration.

PMID- 28558028
TI  - Kidney volume measurement methods for clinical studies on autosomal dominant
      polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), total kidney
      volume (TKV) is regarded as an important biomarker of disease progression and
      different methods are available to assess kidney volume. The purpose of this
      study was to identify the most efficient kidney volume computation method to be
      used in clinical studies evaluating the effectiveness of treatments on ADPKD
      progression. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We measured single kidney volume (SKV) on two
      series of MR and CT images from clinical studies on ADPKD (experimental dataset)
      by two independent operators (expert and beginner), twice, using all of the
      available methods: polyline manual tracing (reference method), free-hand manual
      tracing, semi-automatic tracing, Stereology, Mid-slice and Ellipsoid method.
      Additionally, the expert operator also measured the kidney length. We compared
      different methods for reproducibility, accuracy, precision, and time required. In
      addition, we performed a validation study to evaluate the sensitivity of these
      methods to detect the between-treatment group difference in TKV change over one
      year, using MR images from a previous clinical study. Reproducibility was higher
      on CT than MR for all methods, being highest for manual and semiautomatic
      contouring methods (planimetry). On MR, planimetry showed highest accuracy and
      precision, while on CT accuracy and precision of both planimetry and Stereology
      methods were comparable. Mid-slice and Ellipsoid method, as well as kidney length
      were fast but provided only a rough estimate of kidney volume. The results of the
      validation study indicated that planimetry and Stereology allow using an
      importantly lower number of patients to detect changes in kidney volume induced
      by drug treatment as compared to other methods. CONCLUSIONS: Planimetry should be
      preferred over fast and simplified methods for accurately monitoring ADPKD
      progression and assessing drug treatment effects. Expert operators, especially on
      MR images, are required for performing reliable estimation of kidney volume. The
      use of efficient TKV quantification methods considerably reduces the number of
      patients to enrol in clinical investigations, making them more feasible and
      significant.

PMID- 28558029
TI  - Association of anterior cruciate ligament injury with knee osteoarthritis and
      total knee replacement: A retrospective cohort study from the Taiwan National
      Health Insurance Database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to support the potential protective role of anterior
      cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction against the development of osteoarthritis
      (OA). METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, the long-term results of ACL
      reconstruction in Taiwan were evaluated based on data from the National Health
      Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). In total, 8,769 eligible cases were included
      from 11,921 ACL-injured patients. The cumulative incidence rates of OA and total
      knee replacement (TKR) were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. Cox
      proportional hazards models were applied to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and
      95% confidence intervals (CIs) of OA. RESULTS: There was a lower cumulative
      incidence of OA among ACL-reconstructed patients (271, 33.1%) than among non
      reconstructed patients (1,874, 40.3%; p < 0.001). Patients who underwent ACL
      reconstruction had a lower cumulative incidence of TKR during the follow-up
      period (0.6%) than the non-reconstructed patients (4.6%, p < 0.001). After
      adjusting for covariates, ACL-injured patients who underwent reconstruction
      within one month after ACL injury showed a significantly lower risk of OA than
      those who never underwent reconstruction (adjusted HR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.69
      0.99). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that ACL reconstruction might not
      provide complete protection from OA development after traumatic knee injury but
      does yield a lower cumulative incidence of OA development and TKR. Moreover,
      based on the present study, ACL-injured patients should undergo reconstruction as
      early as possible (within one month) to lower the risk of OA.

PMID- 28558031
TI  - The G2 checkpoint inhibitor CBP-93872 increases the sensitivity of colorectal and
      pancreatic cancer cells to chemotherapy.
AB  - CBP-93872 suppresses maintenance of DNA double-stranded break-induced G2
      checkpoint, by inhibiting the pathway between ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM)
      and ATM- and Rad3-related (ATR) activation. To examine the potential use of CBP
      93872 for clinical applications, we analyzed the synergistic effects of platinum
      containing drugs, oxaliplatin and cisplatin, pyrimidine antimetabolites,
      gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), in combination with CBP-93872, on cell
      lethality in colorectal and pancreatic cancer cell lines. Treatment with CBP
      93872 significantly increased cancer cell sensitivities to various
      chemotherapeutic agents tested through suppression of checkpoint activation. Our
      results thus reveal that combination treatment of CBP-93872 with known
      chemotherapeutic agents inhibits phosphorylation of ATR and Chk1, and induces
      cell death.

PMID- 28558032
TI  - The association of mannose-binding lectin 2 polymorphisms with outcome in very
      low birth weight infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Studies on the influence of mannose-binding lectin (MBL) deficiency
      on infection susceptibility in preterm infants have yielded controversial
      results. We investigated the association of genotype-based MBL levels with
      outcome in very-low-birth weight infants (VLBWI). METHODS: We genotyped 3 genetic
      variants of MBL2 (rs1800450, rs1800451, rs5030737) in 6878 VLBWI. MBL plasma
      levels were categorized as normal (wild type, A/A), low (heterozygotes, A/O) or
      undetectable (homozygotes, O/O). Primary outcome was the effect of genotype-based
      MBL2 levels on blood-culture proven and clinical sepsis during primary stay in
      hospital. We also evaluated burden of infection within 24 months after discharge.
      RESULTS: We found no association between MBL levels and sepsis risk in the whole
      cohort. Infants without measurable MBL levels born between 32 0/7 to 36 6/7 weeks
      of gestation, however, had a higher rate of Gram-negative sepsis than infants
      with normal or reduced MBL levels. In a follow-up investigation at 24 months (n =
      1070 infants), infants without measurable MBL levels suffered more frequently
      from stomatitis and urinary tract infection. CONCLUSIONS: In a large cohort of
      VLBWI MBL2 deficiency had no major impact on infection risk unless children were
      born between 32 0/7 and 36 6/7 weeks of gestation.

PMID- 28558030
TI  - Fine-scale variation in microclimate across an urban landscape shapes variation
      in mosquito population dynamics and the potential of Aedes albopictus to transmit
      arboviral disease.
AB  - Most statistical and mechanistic models used to predict mosquito-borne disease
      transmission incorporate climate drivers of disease transmission by utilizing
      environmental data collected at geographic scales that are potentially coarser
      than what mosquito populations may actually experience. Temperature and relative
      humidity can vary greatly between indoor and outdoor environments, and can be
      influenced strongly by variation in landscape features. In the Aedes albopictus
      system, we conducted a proof-of-concept study in the vicinity of the University
      of Georgia to explore the effects of fine-scale microclimate variation on
      mosquito life history and vectorial capacity (VC). We placed Ae. albopictus
      larvae in artificial pots distributed across three replicate sites within three
      different land uses-urban, suburban, and rural, which were characterized by high,
      intermediate, and low proportions of impervious surfaces. Data loggers were
      placed into each larval environment and in nearby vegetation to record daily
      variation in water and ambient temperature and relative humidity. The number of
      adults emerging from each pot and their body size and sex were recorded daily. We
      found mosquito microclimate to significantly vary across the season as well as
      with land use. Urban sites were in general warmer and less humid than suburban
      and rural sites, translating into decreased larval survival, smaller body sizes,
      and lower per capita growth rates of mosquitoes on urban sites. Dengue
      transmission potential was predicted to be higher in the summer than the fall.
      Additionally, the effects of land use on dengue transmission potential varied by
      season. Warm summers resulted in a higher predicted VC on the cooler, rural
      sites, while warmer, urban sites had a higher predicted VC during the cooler fall
      season.

PMID- 28558033
TI  - sourceR: Classification and source attribution of infectious agents among
      heterogeneous populations.
AB  - Zoonotic diseases are a major cause of morbidity, and productivity losses in both
      human and animal populations. Identifying the source of food-borne zoonoses (e.g.
      an animal reservoir or food product) is crucial for the identification and
      prioritisation of food safety interventions. For many zoonotic diseases it is
      difficult to attribute human cases to sources of infection because there is
      little epidemiological information on the cases. However, microbial strain typing
      allows zoonotic pathogens to be categorised, and the relative frequencies of the
      strain types among the sources and in human cases allows inference on the likely
      source of each infection. We introduce sourceR, an R package for quantitative
      source attribution, aimed at food-borne diseases. It implements a Bayesian model
      using strain-typed surveillance data from both human cases and source samples,
      capable of identifying important sources of infection. The model measures the
      force of infection from each source, allowing for varying survivability,
      pathogenicity and virulence of pathogen strains, and varying abilities of the
      sources to act as vehicles of infection. A Bayesian non-parametric (Dirichlet
      process) approach is used to cluster pathogen strain types by epidemiological
      behaviour, avoiding model overfitting and allowing detection of strain types
      associated with potentially high "virulence". sourceR is demonstrated using
      Campylobacter jejuni isolate data collected in New Zealand between 2005 and 2008.
      Chicken from a particular poultry supplier was identified as the major source of
      campylobacteriosis, which is qualitatively similar to results of previous studies
      using the same dataset. Additionally, the software identifies a cluster of 9
      multilocus sequence types with abnormally high 'virulence' in humans. sourceR
      enables straightforward attribution of cases of zoonotic infection to putative
      sources of infection. As sourceR develops, we intend it to become an important
      and flexible resource for food-borne disease attribution studies.

PMID- 28558036
TI  - Correction: Blood type, ABO genetic variants, and ovarian cancer survival.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175119.].

PMID- 28558035
TI  - Oscillating PDF in termini of circadian pacemaker neurons and synchronous
      molecular clocks in downstream neurons are not sufficient for sustenance of
      activity rhythms in constant darkness.
AB  - In Drosophila, neuropeptide Pigment Dispersing Factor (PDF) is expressed in small
      and large ventral Lateral Neurons (sLNv and lLNv), among which sLNv are critical
      for activity rhythms in constant darkness. Studies show that this is mediated by
      rhythmic accumulation and likely secretion of PDF from sLNv dorsal projections,
      which in turn synchronises molecular oscillations in downstream circadian
      neurons. Using targeted expression of a neurodegenerative protein Huntingtin in
      LNv, we evoke a selective loss of neuropeptide PDF and clock protein PERIOD from
      sLNv soma. However, PDF is not lost from sLNv dorsal projections and lLNv. These
      flies are behaviourally arrhythmic in constant darkness despite persistence of
      PDF oscillations in sLNv dorsal projections and synchronous PERIOD oscillations
      in downstream circadian neurons. We find that PDF oscillations in sLNv dorsal
      projections are not sufficient for sustenance of activity rhythms in constant
      darkness and this is suggestive of an additional component that is possibly
      dependent on sLNv molecular clock and PDF in sLNv soma. Additionally, despite
      loss of PERIOD in sLNv, their activity rhythms entrain to light/dark cycles
      indicating that sLNv molecular clocks are not necessary for entrainment. Under
      constant light, these flies lack PDF from both soma and dorsal projections of
      sLNv, and when subjected to light/dark cycles, show morning and evening
      anticipation and accurately phased morning and evening peaks. Thus, under
      light/dark cycles, PDF in sLNv is not necessary for morning anticipation.

PMID- 28558034
TI  - MicroRNA 26a (miR-26a)/KLF4 and CREB-C/EBPbeta regulate innate immune signaling,
      the polarization of macrophages and the trafficking of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      to lysosomes during infection.
AB  - For efficient clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), macrophages tilt
      towards M1 polarization leading to the activation of transcription factors
      associated with the production of antibacterial effector molecules such as nitric
      oxide (NO) and proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta (IL-1beta)
      and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). At the same time, resolution of
      inflammation is associated with M2 polarization with increased production of
      arginase and cytokines such as IL-10. The transcriptional and post
      transcriptional mechanisms that govern the balance between M1 and M2
      polarization, and bacteria-containing processes such as autophagy and trafficking
      of Mtb to lysosomes, are incompletely understood. Here we report for the first
      time, that the transcription factor KLF4 is targeted by microRNA-26a (miR-26a).
      During Mtb infection, downregulation of miR-26a (observed both ex vivo and in
      vivo) facilitates upregulation of KLF4 which in turn favors increased arginase
      and decreased iNOS activity. We further demonstrate that KLF4 prevents
      trafficking of Mtb to lysosomes. The CREB-C/EBPbeta signaling axis also favors M2
      polarization. Downregulation of miR-26a and upregulation of C/ebpbeta were
      observed both in infected macrophages as well as in infected mice. Knockdown of
      C/ebpbeta repressed the expression of selected M2 markers such as Il10 and Irf4
      in infected macrophages. The importance of these pathways is substantiated by
      observations that expression of miR-26a mimic or knockdown of Klf4 or Creb or
      C/ebpbeta, attenuated the survival of Mtb in macrophages. Taken together, our
      results attribute crucial roles for the miR-26a/KLF4 and CREB-C/EBPbetasignaling
      pathways in regulating the survival of Mtb in macrophages. These studies expand
      our understanding of how Mtb hijacks host signaling pathways to survive in
      macrophages, and open up new exploratory avenues for host-targeted interventions.

PMID- 28558038
TI  - Impact of cigarette smoking on early complications after liver transplantation: A
      single-center experience and a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While studies have shown that cigarette smoking has negative
      implications on the long-term outcome following liver transplantation, its role
      in early complications is inconclusive. METHODS: The clinical data of 162
      consecutive adult patients who underwent elective liver transplantation from
      January, 2012 to March, 2016 were analyzed. Patients were defined as active
      smokers, ex-smokers, or non-smokers on the basis of documentation at the time of
      liver transplantation. The overall complications following liver transplantation
      were expressed as the comprehensive complication index (CCI). The specific
      complications such as the incidence of hepatic artery thrombosis, biliary
      complications, acute kidney injury were also assessed. A meta-analysis was
      carried out based on results from the present study and 11 published studies.
      RESULTS: We found that cigarette smoking was not associated with higher CCI
      scores and smokers did not have a higher risk for developing hepatic artery
      thrombosis, biliary complications, acute kidney injury after liver
      transplantation. Meta-analysis confirmed the null association between cigarette
      smoking and an increased incidence of hepatic artery thrombosis or biliary
      complications in liver transplant recipients. However, the pooled results showed
      a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and de-novo malignancies
      in smokers following liver transplantation. CONCLUSION: There is not enough
      evidence supporting an association between cigarette smoking and early mortality
      and morbidity after liver transplantation. However, smokers should still be
      encouraged to quit before and after liver transplantation due to the long-term
      health benefits of smoking cessation.

PMID- 28558037
TI  - Inhibition of chronic prostate inflammation by hyaluronic acid through an
      immortalized human prostate stromal cell line model.
AB  - Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common urologic disease among
      elderly men. A well-established in vitro cell model is required to determine the
      therapeutic mechanism of BPH inflammation. In this study, we attempted to
      establish an immortalized human prostate stromal cell line by transfecting with
      HPV-16 E6/E7 and designated as ihPSC. No significant difference was found in
      fibroblast-like morphology between primary hPSC and ihPSC. The ihPSC possessed a
      significantly higher cell proliferation rate than primary hPSC. The prostate
      specific markers and proteins including cytoskeleton (alpha-SMA and vimentin) and
      smooth muscle (calponin), especially the androgen receptor (AR) were also
      examined in ihPSC, almost identical to the primary hPSC. To create an in vitro
      model featuring chronic prostatic inflammation, ihPSC was stimulated with IFN
      gamma+IL-17 and then treated with the high molecular weight hyaluronic acid hylan
      G-F 20 as an alternative strategy for inhibiting BPH inflammation. Hylan G-F 20
      could dose-dependently diminish the inflammation-induced proliferation in ihPSC.
      The enhanced expressions of inflammatory molecules including IL-1beta, IL-6, IL
      8, cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2), inducible nitrogen oxide synthase (iNOS), and Toll
      like receptor 4 (TLR4) were all abolished by hylan G-F 20. For inflammatory
      signaling, hylan G-F 20 can also diminish the IFN-gamma+IL-17-increased
      expression of iNOS and p65 in ihPSC. These findings suggest that ihPSC could
      provide a mechanism-based platform for investigating prostate inflammation. The
      hylan G-F 20 showed strong anti-inflammatory effects by decreasing inflammatory
      cytokines and signalings in the ihPSC, indicating its therapeutic potentials in
      BPH treatment in the future.

PMID- 28558039
TI  - Dynamic decomposition of spatiotemporal neural signals.
AB  - Neural signals are characterized by rich temporal and spatiotemporal dynamics
      that reflect the organization of cortical networks. Theoretical research has
      shown how neural networks can operate at different dynamic ranges that correspond
      to specific types of information processing. Here we present a data analysis
      framework that uses a linearized model of these dynamic states in order to
      decompose the measured neural signal into a series of components that capture
      both rhythmic and non-rhythmic neural activity. The method is based on stochastic
      differential equations and Gaussian process regression. Through computer
      simulations and analysis of magnetoencephalographic data, we demonstrate the
      efficacy of the method in identifying meaningful modulations of oscillatory
      signals corrupted by structured temporal and spatiotemporal noise. These results
      suggest that the method is particularly suitable for the analysis and
      interpretation of complex temporal and spatiotemporal neural signals.

PMID- 28558040
TI  - MicroRNA319-regulated TCPs interact with FBHs and PFT1 to activate CO
      transcription and control flowering time in Arabidopsis.
AB  - The transcription factor CONSTANS (CO) is a central component that promotes
      Arabidopsis flowering under long-day conditions (LDs). Here, we show that the
      microRNA319-regulated TEOSINTE BRANCHED/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) transcription factors
      promote photoperiodic flowering through binding to the CO promoter and activating
      its transcription. Meanwhile, these TCPs directly interact with the flowering
      activators FLOWERING BHLH (FBHs), but not the flowering repressors CYCLING DOF
      FACTORs (CDFs), to additively activate CO expression. Furthermore, both the TCPs
      and FBHs physically interact with the flowering time regulator PHYTOCHROME AND
      FLOWERING TIME 1 (PFT1) to facilitate CO transcription. Our findings provide
      evidence that a set of transcriptional activators act directly and additively at
      the CO promoter to promote CO transcription, and establish a molecular mechanism
      underlying the regulation of photoperiodic flowering time in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28558041
TI  - Earlier occurrence and increased explanatory power of climate for the first
      incidence of potato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans in Fennoscandia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans) is a devastating
      potato disease that has been found to occur earlier in the season over the last
      decades in Fennoscandia. Up until now the reasons for this change have not been
      investigated. Possible explanations for this change are climate alterations,
      changes in potato production or changes in pathogen biology, such as increased
      fitness or changes in gene flow within P. infestans populations. The first
      incidence of late blight is of high economic importance since fungicidal
      applications should be typically applied two weeks before the first signs of late
      blight and are repeated on average once a week. METHODS: We use field
      observations of first incidence of late blight in experimental potato fields from
      five sites in Sweden and Finland covering a total of 30 years and investigate
      whether the earlier incidence of late blight can be related to the climate.
      RESULTS: We linked the field data to meteorological data and found that the
      previous assumption, used in common late blight models, that the disease only
      develops at relative humidity levels above 90% had to be rejected. Rather than
      the typically assumed threshold relationship between late blight disease
      development and relative humidity we found a linear relationship. Our model
      furthermore showed two distinct responses of late blight to climate. At the
      beginning of the observation time (in Sweden until the early 90s and in Finland
      until the 2000s) the link between climate and first incidence was very weak.
      However, for the remainder of the time period the link was highly significant,
      indicating a change in the biological properties of the pathogen which could for
      example be a change in the dominating reproduction mode or a physiological change
      in the response of the pathogen to climate. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that
      models used in decision support systems need to be checked and re-parametrized
      regularly to be able to capture changes in pathogen biology. While this study was
      performed with data from Fennoscandia this new pathogen biology and late blight
      might spread to (or already be present at) other parts of the world as well. The
      strong link between climate and first incidence together with the presented model
      offers a tool to assess late blight incidence in future climates.

PMID- 28558042
TI  - Relationships of growth factors, proinflammatory cytokines, and anti-inflammatory
      cytokines with long-term clinical results of autologous bone marrow mononuclear
      cell transplantation in STEMI.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis suggesting that the pre
      intervention levels of proinflammatory cytokines, anti-inflammatory cytokines,
      and angiogenic growth factors predict the long-term clinical results of
      autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell (ABMMC) transplantation in
      patients with primary ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). METHODS AND
      RESULTS: From 2003 to 2006, a total of 62 patients with primary STEMI were
      enrolled in an open randomized study registered under the title ESTABOMA.
      Patients were randomized into two groups: group 1 included patients treated with
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and ABMMC transplantation (n = 28);
      group 2 comprised patients treated only with PCI (n = 34). Follow-up study was
      performed 7.96 +/- 0.96 years after STEMI and involved physical examination, six
      minute walk test, echocardiography, and determination of brain natriuretic
      peptide (BNP) levels. The total and cardiovascular mortality rates were higher in
      group 1 compared with group 2: 36% (n = 10) vs. 12% (n = 4) (p = 0.02) and 29% (n
      = 8) vs. 6% (n = 2) (p = 0.03), respectively. Lower levels of proinflammatory
      cytokines were observed in group 1 after PCI and ABMMC transplantation. Serum
      levels of FGF, VEGF, and IL-10, determined before PCI and ABMMC transplantation
      were prognostically significant long-term indicators of unfavorable course of CAD
      after STEMI.

PMID- 28558044
TI  - Correction: Creativity associated with the application of a motivational
      intervention programme for the teaching of dance at school and its effect on the
      both genders.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174393.].

PMID- 28558043
TI  - Vaccination with a Leishmania infantum HSP70-II null mutant confers long-term
      protective immunity against Leishmania major infection in two mice models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The immunization with genetically attenuated Leishmania cell lines
      has been associated to the induction of memory and effector T cell responses
      against Leishmania able to control subsequent challenges. A Leishmania infantum
      null mutant for the HSP70-II genes has been described, possessing a non-virulent
      phenotype. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The L. infantum attenuated parasites
      (LiDeltaHSP70-II) were inoculated in BALB/c (intravenously and subcutaneously)
      and C57BL/6 (subcutaneously) mice. An asymptomatic infection was generated and
      parasites diminished progressively to become undetectable in most of the analyzed
      organs. However, inoculation resulted in the long-term induction of parasite
      specific IFN-gamma responses able to control the disease caused by a challenge of
      L. major infective promastigotes. BALB/c susceptible mice showed very low lesion
      development and a drastic decrease in parasite burdens in the lymph nodes
      draining the site of infection and internal organs. C57BL/6 mice did not show
      clinical manifestation of disease, correlated to the rapid migration of
      Leishmania specific IFN-gamma producing T cells to the site of infection.
      CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Inoculation of the LiDeltaHSP70-II attenuated line
      activates mammalian immune system for inducing moderate pro-inflammatory
      responses. These responses are able to confer long-term protection in mice
      against the infection of L. major virulent parasites.

PMID- 28558045
TI  - A technique system for the measurement, reconstruction and character extraction
      of rice plant architecture.
AB  - This study developed a technique system for the measurement, reconstruction, and
      trait extraction of rice canopy architectures, which have challenged functional
      structural plant modeling for decades and have become the foundation of the
      design of ideo-plant architectures. The system uses the location-separation
      measurement method (LSMM) for the collection of data on the canopy architecture
      and the analytic geometry method for the reconstruction and visualization of the
      three-dimensional (3D) digital architecture of the rice plant. It also uses the
      virtual clipping method for extracting the key traits of the canopy architecture
      such as the leaf area, inclination, and azimuth distribution in spatial
      coordinates. To establish the technique system, we developed (i) simple tools to
      measure the spatial position of the stem axis and azimuth of the leaf midrib and
      to capture images of tillers and leaves; (ii) computer software programs for
      extracting data on stem diameter, leaf nodes, and leaf midrib curves from the
      tiller images and data on leaf length, width, and shape from the leaf images;
      (iii) a database of digital architectures that stores the measured data and
      facilitates the reconstruction of the 3D visual architecture and the extraction
      of architectural traits; and (iv) computation algorithms for virtual clipping to
      stratify the rice canopy, to extend the stratified surface from the horizontal
      plane to a general curved surface (including a cylindrical surface), and to
      implement in silico. Each component of the technique system was quantitatively
      validated and visually compared to images, and the sensitivity of the virtual
      clipping algorithms was analyzed. This technique is inexpensive and accurate and
      provides high throughput for the measurement, reconstruction, and trait
      extraction of rice canopy architectures. The technique provides a more practical
      method of data collection to serve functional-structural plant models of rice and
      for the optimization of rice canopy types. Moreover, the technique can be easily
      adapted for other cereal crops such as wheat, which has numerous stems and leaves
      sheltering each other.

PMID- 28558046
TI  - Alfalfa virus S, a new species in the family Alphaflexiviridae.
AB  - A new species of the family Alphaflexiviridae provisionally named alfalfa virus S
      (AVS) was discovered in alfalfa samples originating from Sudan. A complete
      nucleotide sequence of the viral genome consisting of 8,349 nucleotides excluding
      the 3' poly(A) tail was determined by high throughput sequencing (HTS) on an
      Illumina platform. NCBI BLAST searches revealed that the virus shares the
      greatest degree of sequence identity with members of the family
      Alphaflexiviridae, genus Allexivirus. The AVS genome contains six computationally
      predicted open reading frames (ORF) encoding viral replication protein, triple
      gene block protein 1 (TGB1), TGB2, TGB3-like protein, unknown 38.4 kDa protein
      resembling serine-rich 40 kDa protein characteristic for allexiviruses, and coat
      protein (CP). AVS lacks a clear 3' proximal ORF that encodes a nucleic acid
      binding protein typical for allexiviruses. The identity of the virus was
      confirmed by RT-PCR with primers derived from the HTS-generated sequence, dot
      blot hybridization with DIG-labeled virus-specific RNA probes, and Western blot
      analysis with antibodies produced against a peptide derived from the CP sequence.
      Transmission electron microscopic observations of the infected tissues showed the
      presence of filamentous particles similar to allexiviruses in their length and
      appearance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the
      identification of a putative allexivirus in alfalfa (Medicago sativa). The genome
      sequence of AVS has been deposited in NCBI GenBank on 03/02/2016 as accession No
      KY696659.

PMID- 28558047
TI  - Age-related changes in hand dominance and functional asymmetry in older adults.
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate fine motor performance and ascertain age
      related changes in laterality between the dominant and non-dominant hand. A
      representative sample of 635 adults (144 males and 491 females) aged 50 years and
      over completed a test battery MLS (Motor Performance Series) to assess a broad
      range of hand functions. Functional asymmetry was observed in all four motor
      tests (postural tremor, aiming, tapping, and inserting long pins). Significant
      differences between the dominant and non-dominant hand were obtained in both
      sexes across all age groups, except in the oldest female group (age >70) for the
      aiming (number of hits and errors) and postural tremor (number of errors) tasks.
      These differences in age-related changes may be attributed to hemispheric
      asymmetry, environmental factors, or use-dependent plasticity. Conflicting
      evidence in the literature warrants additional research to better explain age
      related alterations of hand dominance and manual performance in old age.

PMID- 28558049
TI  - Tobacco control: Developing an innovative and effective global strategy.
AB  - In this month's editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss the campaign for
      World No Tobacco Day 2017.

PMID- 28558048
TI  - DEK protein level is a biomarker of CD138positive normal and malignant plasma
      cells.
AB  - Overexpression of DEK oncogene is associated with increased proliferation of
      carcinoma cells and it is observed in several solid tumors due to the
      amplification of the 6p22.3 chromosomal region where DEK locates. Although the
      same chromosomal amplification occurs in multiple myeloma (MM), a plasma cell
      neoplasm, whether the expression and the copy number of the DEK gene are affected
      in MM remains elusive. We show that despite the increased copy number in
      CD138positive MM cells (4 out of 41 MM samples), DEK mRNA expression was down
      regulated compared with that in CD138negative bone marrow (BM) cells of the same
      patients (P<0.0001). DEK protein was not detectable by immunohistochemistry (IHC)
      in CD138positive normal plasma cells or in malignant plasma cells of MM patients
      (n = 56) whereas it was widely expressed in normal and neoplastic B-cells. Stable
      knockdown or overexpression of DEK in CD138positive MM cell lines did not affect
      the proliferation and viability of the cells profoundly in the presence or
      absence of chemotherapeutic agent melphalan whereas knockdown of DEK moderately
      but significantly increased the expression level of CD138 (p<0.01). Decreased DEK
      expression in plasma cells suggests a potential role of this gene in plasma cell
      development and lack of detectable DEK protein by IHC could be used as a
      biomarker for normal and malignant plasma cells.

PMID- 28558050
TI  - Citizen science: A new perspective to advance spatial pattern evaluation in
      hydrology.
AB  - Citizen science opens new pathways that can complement traditional scientific
      practice. Intuition and reasoning often make humans more effective than computer
      algorithms in various realms of problem solving. In particular, a simple visual
      comparison of spatial patterns is a task where humans are often considered to be
      more reliable than computer algorithms. However, in practice, science still
      largely depends on computer based solutions, which inevitably gives benefits such
      as speed and the possibility to automatize processes. However, the human vision
      can be harnessed to evaluate the reliability of algorithms which are tailored to
      quantify similarity in spatial patterns. We established a citizen science project
      to employ the human perception to rate similarity and dissimilarity between
      simulated spatial patterns of several scenarios of a hydrological catchment
      model. In total, the turnout counts more than 2500 volunteers that provided over
      43000 classifications of 1095 individual subjects. We investigate the capability
      of a set of advanced statistical performance metrics to mimic the human
      perception to distinguish between similarity and dissimilarity. Results suggest
      that more complex metrics are not necessarily better at emulating the human
      perception, but clearly provide auxiliary information that is valuable for model
      diagnostics. The metrics clearly differ in their ability to unambiguously
      distinguish between similar and dissimilar patterns which is regarded a key
      feature of a reliable metric. The obtained dataset can provide an insightful
      benchmark to the community to test novel spatial metrics.

PMID- 28558051
TI  - The disease burden of congenital toxoplasmosis in Denmark, 2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) causes a substantial disease burden
      worldwide. The aim of this study was to estimate the disease burden of CT in
      Denmark, a developed country with free public healthcare and nationwide data
      available. METHODS: Using data primarily from two public health surveillance
      programmes conducted between 1992 and 2007, we estimated the incidence,
      occurrence of sequelae, mortality and the burden of disease in terms of
      disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of CT in Denmark in 2014. FINDINGS: We
      estimated that 14 children were born with CT in 2014, of which six will have
      developed sequelae by the age of 12. CT resulted in a total disease burden of 123
      DALYs (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 100-148), of which 78 (95% UI, 64-94) were
      due to foetal loss and 2 (95% UI, 1-3) were due to neonatal death; the remaining
      burden was due to moderate to severe life-long sequelae. A comparison of the
      estimated incidence of CT with the number of reported CT cases in 2008-2014
      indicated that for each reported CT case, at least five other CT cases could be
      expected to have occurred and gone unreported. INTERPRETATION: Early onset,
      severity, and life-long duration of sequelae have a major effect on the disease
      burden of CT. Our data suggest that CT is under-diagnosed or under-reported in
      Denmark. The estimated disease burden and public health impact in Denmark is
      lower than in other European countries, highlighting the need for country
      specific studies.

PMID- 28558052
TI  - Pleistocene to holocene expansion of the black-belt cichlid in Central America,
      Vieja maculicauda (Teleostei: Cichlidae).
AB  - The distributions of many Northern Hemisphere organisms have been influenced by
      fluctuations in sea level and climatic conditions during Pleistocene interglacial
      periods. These cycles are associated with range contraction and refugia for
      northern-distributed organisms as a response to glaciers. However, lower sea
      levels in the tropics and sub-tropics created available habitat for expansion of
      the ranges of freshwater organisms. The goal of this study was to use ecological
      niche modeling to test the hypothesis of north to south range expansion of Vieja
      maculicauda associated with Pleistocene glacial cycles. Understanding the
      biogeography of this widespread species may help us better understand the geology
      and interconnectivity of Central American freshwaters. Occurrence data for V.
      maculicauda was based on georeferencing of all museum records of specimens
      recovered from FishNet2. General patterns of phylogeographic structure were
      assessed with mtDNA. Present day niche models were generated and subsequently
      projected onto paleoclimatic maps of the region during the Last Interglacial,
      Last Glacial Maximum, and mid-Holocene. Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequence
      data showed no phylogeographic structure throughout the range of this widespread
      species. Present day niche models were congruent with the observed distribution
      of V. maculicauda in Central America. Results showed a lack of suitable
      freshwater habitat in northern Central America and Mexico during the Last
      Interglacial, with greatest range expansion during the Last Glacial Maximum and
      mid-Holocene. Results support the hypothesis of a north to south range expansion
      of V. maculicauda associated with glacial cycles. The wide distribution of this
      species compared to other closely related cichlids indicates the latter did not
      respond to the degree of V. maculicauda in expansion of their distributions.
      Future work aimed at comparisons with other species and modeling of future
      climatic scenarios will be a fruitful area of investigation.

PMID- 28558054
TI  - Correction: New function of aldoxime dehydratase: Redox catalysis and the
      formation of an expected product.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175846.].

PMID- 28558053
TI  - Novel mRNA-specific effects of ribosome drop-off on translation rate and polysome
      profile.
AB  - The well established phenomenon of ribosome drop-off plays crucial roles in
      translational accuracy and nutrient starvation responses during protein
      translation. When cells are under stress conditions, such as amino acid
      starvation or aminoacyl-tRNA depletion due to a high level of recombinant protein
      expression, ribosome drop-off can substantially affect the efficiency of protein
      expression. Here we introduce a mathematical model that describes the effects of
      ribosome drop-off on the ribosome density along the mRNA and on the concomitant
      protein synthesis rate. Our results show that ribosome premature termination may
      lead to non-intuitive ribosome density profiles, such as a ribosome density which
      increases from the 5' to the 3' end. Importantly, the model predicts that the
      effects of ribosome drop-off on the translation rate are mRNA-specific, and we
      quantify their resilience to drop-off, showing that the mRNAs which present
      ribosome queues are much less affected by ribosome drop-off than those which do
      not. Moreover, among those mRNAs that do not present ribosome queues, resilience
      to drop-off correlates positively with the elongation rate, so that sequences
      using fast codons are expected to be less affected by ribosome drop-off. This
      result is consistent with a genome-wide analysis of S. cerevisiae, which reveals
      that under favourable growth conditions mRNAs coding for proteins involved in the
      translation machinery, known to be highly codon biased and using preferentially
      fast codons, are highly resilient to ribosome drop-off. Moreover, in
      physiological conditions, the translation rate of mRNAs coding for regulatory,
      stress-related proteins, is less resilient to ribosome drop-off. This model
      therefore allows analysis of variations in the translational efficiency of
      individual mRNAs by accounting for the full range of known ribosome behaviours,
      as well as explaining mRNA-specific variations in ribosome density emerging from
      ribosome profiling studies.

PMID- 28558055
TI  - Plasma levels of high-mobility group box 1 and soluble receptor for advanced
      glycation end products in primary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Many studies have demonstrated elevated circulating levels of high
      mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and decreased circulating levels of soluble receptor
      for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) in patients with autoimmune diseases.
      In the present study, we investigated plasma levels of both HMGB1 and sRAGE in
      primary antiphospholipid syndrome (pAPS) patients. METHODS: We prospectively
      recruited 11 pAPS patients, 17 antiphospholipid antibody (APA)-positive SLE
      patients without APS manifestations (APA+SLE) and 12 SLE patients with secondary
      APS (APS+SLE). We also recruited 10 healthy controls (HCs). Plasma levels of
      HMGB1 and sRAGE were determined using sandwich ELISA kits. In addition, plasma
      levels of HMGB1 were also determined using Western blot in 6 pAPS patients and 6
      HCs. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in plasma levels of HMGB1
      measured by ELISA among subgroups of the enrolled subjects. In addition, there
      was no significant difference in plasma levels of HMGB1 measured by Western blot
      between pAPS patients and HCs. On the other hand, we observed a trend toward
      lower plasma levels of sRAGE in APA+SLE or APS+SLE patients when compared with
      HCs. However, there was no significant difference in plasma levels of sRAGE
      between pAPS patients and HCs, or between APA+SLE patients and APS+SLE patients.
      CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in plasma levels of sRAGE or
      HMGB1 between pAPS patients and HCs. Plasma levels of sRAGE/HMGB1 could not be
      utilized to differentiate between APA+SLE and APS+SLE patients.

PMID- 28558057
TI  - New thermoluminescence age estimates for the Nyos maar eruption (Cameroon
      Volcanic Line).
AB  - Nyos maar is located in the Cameroon Volcanic Line and generates a multitude of
      primary and secondary hazards to the local population. For risk assessment and
      hazard mitigation, the age of the Nyos maar eruption provides some vital
      information. Since previous dating efforts using a range of techniques resulted
      in vastly varying eruption ages, we applied thermoluminescence (TL) methods to
      obtain independent and direct chronological constraints for the time of maar
      formation. Target minerals were granitic quartz clasts contained in pyroclastic
      surge deposits. Thermoluminescence plateau results prove that heat and/or
      pressure during the phreatomagmatic eruption was sufficient to reset the
      inherited luminescence signal of granitic bedrock quartz. Parallel application of
      three TL measurement protocols to one of the two samples gave consistent
      equivalent doses for the quartz ultra-violet emission. Despite the robustness of
      our dose estimates, the assessment of the dose rate was accompanied by
      methodological challenges, such as estimation of the original size distribution
      of quartz grains in the pyroclastic deposits. Considering results from additional
      laboratory analyses to constrain these uncertainties, we calculate an average
      maximum TL age of 12.3 +/- 1.5 ka for the Nyos maar eruption. Based on these new
      data, a more solid risk assessment can be envisaged.

PMID- 28558058
TI  - Correction: A Long-Term Assessment of the Variability in Winter Use of Dense
      Conifer Cover by Female White-Tailed Deer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065368.].

PMID- 28558056
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha is a poor prognostic factor and potential
      therapeutic target in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) is a rare soft tissue
      sarcoma with poor prognosis. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) plays a crucial
      role in the cellular response to hypoxia and regulates the expression of multiple
      genes involved in tumor progression in various cancers. However, the importance
      of the expression of HIF-1alpha in MPNSTs is unclear. METHODS: The expression of
      HIF-1alpha was examined immunohistochemically in 82 MPNST specimens. Cell culture
      assays of human MPNST cells under normoxic and hypoxic conditions were used to
      evaluate the impact of anti-HIF-1alpha-specific siRNA inhibition on cell
      survival. A screening kit was employed to identify small molecules that inhibited
      HIF-1alpha. RESULTS: The nuclear expression of HIF-1alpha was positive in 75.6%
      of MPNST samples (62/82 cases). Positivity for HIF-1alpha was a significant poor
      prognostic factor both in univariate (P = 0.048) and multivariate (P <= 0.0001)
      analyses. HIF-1alpha knockdown abrogated MPNST cell growth, inducing apoptosis.
      Finally, chetomin, an inhibitor of HIF-1alpha, effectively inhibited the growth
      of MPNST cells and induced their apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of HIF-1alpha
      signaling is a potential treatment option for MPNSTs.

PMID- 28558059
TI  - Multivalent peptidic linker enables identification of preferred sites of
      conjugation for a potent thialanstatin antibody drug conjugate.
AB  - Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are no longer an unknown entity in the field of
      cancer therapy with the success of marketed ADCs like ADCETRIS and KADCYLA and
      numerous others advancing through clinical trials. The pursuit of novel cytotoxic
      payloads beyond the mictotubule inhibitors and DNA damaging agents has led us to
      the recent discovery of an mRNA splicing inhibitor, thailanstatin, as a potent
      ADC payload. In our previous work, we observed that the potency of this payload
      was uniquely tied to the method of conjugation, with lysine conjugates showing
      much superior potency as compared to cysteine conjugates. However, the ADC field
      is rapidly shifting towards site-specific ADCs due to their advantages in
      manufacturability, characterization and safety. In this work we report the
      identification of a highly efficacious site-specific thailanstatin ADC. The site
      of conjugation played a critical role on both the in vitro and in vivo potency of
      these ADCs. During the course of this study, we developed a novel methodology of
      loading a single site with multiple payloads using an in situ generated multi
      drug carrying peptidic linker that allowed us to rapidly screen for optimal
      conjugation sites. Using this methodology, we were able to identify a double
      cysteine mutant ADC delivering four-loaded thailanstatin that was very
      efficacious in a gastric cancer xenograft model at 3mg/kg and was also shown to
      be efficacious against T-DM1 resistant and MDR1 overexpressing tumor cell lines.

PMID- 28558060
TI  - Genomic structure, expression pattern, and functional characterization of
      transcription factor E2F-2 from black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon).
AB  - Transcription factor E2F-2 is a regulator of cell cycle. Researchers identified
      E2F-2 genes from yeasts to humans, but few reports investigated E2F-2 gene from
      black tiger shrimp. In the present study, we cloned E2F-2 gene from black tiger
      shrimp (Penaeus monodon). Full-length PmE2F-2 complementary DNA sequence measures
      3,189 bp with an open reading frame of 1,371 bp. Complete PmE2F-2 genomic
      sequence (17,305 bp) of P. monodon contains nine exons, which are separated by
      eight introns. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)
      analysis indicated that PmE2F-2 is highly expressed in hepatopancreas and ovaries
      of P. monodon. Highest PmE2F-2 expression levels were observed in stage III
      ovarian development of P. monodon. PmE2F-2 expression levels were significantly
      augmented in ovaries of P. monodon after 5-hydroxytryptamine injection and
      eyestalk ablation. RNA interference experiments were conducted to examine PmE2F
      2, PmCDK2, and PmCyclin E expression profiles. PmE2F-2 was successfully knocked
      down in ovaries and hepatopancreas via double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-E2F-2
      injection. In the same organs, PmE2F-2 expression localization and level were
      investigated through in situ hybridization, which revealed consistent results
      with those of qRT-PCR. After dsRNA-E2F-2 injection, gonadosomatic index of shrimp
      was significantly lower than those following dsRNA-GFP and phosphate-buffered
      solution injections. Therefore, PmE2F-2 may be involved in ovarian maturation in
      P. monodon.

PMID- 28558061
TI  - Low versus high dose of antimony for American cutaneous leishmaniasis: A
      randomized controlled blind non-inferiority trial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although high dose of antimony is the mainstay for treatment of
      American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL), ongoing major concerns remain over its
      toxicity. Whether or not low dose antimony regimens provide non-inferior
      effectiveness and lower toxicity has long been a question of dispute. METHODS: A
      single-blind, non-inferiority, randomized controlled trial was conducted
      comparing high dose with low dose of antimony in subjects with ACL treated at a
      referral center in Rio de Janeiro, an endemic area of Leishmania (Viannia)
      braziliensis transmission. The primary outcome was clinical cure at 360 days of
      follow-up in the modified-intention-to-treat (mITT) and per-protocol (PP)
      populations. Non-inferiority margin was 15%. Secondary objectives included
      occurrence of epithelialization, adverse events and drug discontinuations. This
      study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01301924. RESULTS: Overall, 72
      patients were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment arms during October
      2008 to July 2014. In mITT, clinical cure was observed in 77.8% of subjects in
      the low dose antimony group and 94.4% in the high dose antimony group after one
      series of treatment (risk difference 16.7%; 90% CI, 3.7-29.7). The results were
      confirmed in PP analysis, with 77.8% of subjects with clinical cure in the low
      dose antimony group and 97.1% in the high dose antimony group (risk difference
      19.4%; 90% CI, 7.1-31.7). The upper limit of the confidence interval exceeded the
      15% threshold and was also above zero supporting the hypothesis that low dose is
      inferior to high dose of antimony after one series of treatment. Nevertheless,
      more major adverse events, a greater number of adverse events and major adverse
      events per subject, and more drug discontinuations were observed in the high dose
      antimony group (all p<0.05). Interestingly, of all the subjects who were
      originally allocated to the low dose antimony group and were followed up after
      clinical failure, 85.7% achieved cure after a further treatment with local
      therapy or low dose of antimony. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with high dose, low dose
      of antimony was inferior at the pre-specified margin after one series of
      treatment of ACL, but was associated with a significantly lower toxicity. While
      high dose of antimony should remain the standard treatment for ACL, low dose
      antimony treatment might be preferred when toxicity is a primary concern.

PMID- 28558062
TI  - Safety and efficacy of short course combination regimens with AmBisome,
      miltefosine and paromomycin for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in
      Bangladesh.
AB  - BACKGROUND: AmBisome therapy for VL has an excellent efficacy and safety profile
      and has been adopted as a first-line regimen in Bangladesh. Second-line treatment
      options are limited and should preferably be given in short course combinations
      in order to prevent the development of resistant strains. Combination regimens
      including AmBisome, paromomycin and miltefosine have proved to be safe and
      effective in the treatment of VL in India. In the present study, the safety and
      efficacy of these same combinations were assessed in field conditions in
      Bangladesh. METHODS: The safety and efficacy of three combination regimens: a 5
      mg/kg single dose of AmBisome + 7 subsequent days of miltefosine (2.5 mg/kg/day),
      a 5 mg/kg single dose of AmBisome + 10 subsequent days of paromomycin (15
      mg/kg/day) and 10 days of paromomycin (15 mg/kg/day) + miltefosine (2.5
      mg/kg/day), were compared with a standard regimen of AmBisome 15 mg/kg given in 5
      mg/kg doses on days 1, 3 and 5. This was a phase III open label, individually
      randomized clinical trial. Patients from 5 to 60 years with uncomplicated primary
      VL were recruited from the Community Based Medical College Bangladesh (CBMC,B)
      and the Upazila Health Complexes of Trishal, Bhaluka and Fulbaria (all located in
      Mymensingh district), and randomly assigned to one of the treatments. The
      objective was to assess safety and definitive cure at 6 months after treatment.
      RESULTS: 601 patients recruited between July 2010 and September 2013 received
      either AmBisome monotherapy (n = 158), AmBisome + paromomycin (n = 159), AmBisome
      + miltefosine (n = 142) or paromomycin + miltefosine (n = 142). At 6 months post-
      treatment, final cure rates for the intention-to-treat population were 98.1%
      (95%CI 96.0-100) for AmBisome monotherapy, 99.4% (95%CI 98.2-100) for the
      AmBisome + paromomycin arm, 94.4% (95%CI 90.6-98.2) for the AmBisome +
      miltefosine arm, and 97.9% (95%CI 95.5-100) for paromomycin + miltefosine arm.
      There were 12 serious adverse events in the study in 11 patients that included 3
      non-study drug related deaths. There were no relapses or PKDL up to 6 months
      follow-up. All treatments were well tolerated with no unexpected side effects.
      Adverse events were most frequent during treatment with miltefosine +
      paromomycin, three serious adverse events related to the treatment occurred in
      this arm, all of which resolved. CONCLUSION: None of the combinations were
      inferior to AmBisome in both the intention-to-treat and per-protocol populations.
      All the combinations demonstrated excellent overall efficacy, were well tolerated
      and safe, and could be deployed under field conditions in Bangladesh. The trial
      was conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
      (ICDDR,B) and the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College (ShSMC), Dhaka, in
      collaboration with the trial sites and sponsored by the Drugs for Neglected
      Diseases initiative (DNDi). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01122771.

PMID- 28558064
TI  - Multispectral image fusion for illumination-invariant palmprint recognition.
AB  - Multispectral palmprint recognition has shown broad prospects for personal
      identification due to its high accuracy and great stability. In this paper, we
      develop a novel illumination-invariant multispectral palmprint recognition
      method. To combine the information from multiple spectral bands, an image-level
      fusion framework is completed based on a fast and adaptive bidimensional
      empirical mode decomposition (FABEMD) and a weighted Fisher criterion. The FABEMD
      technique decomposes the multispectral images into their bidimensional intrinsic
      mode functions (BIMFs), on which an illumination compensation operation is
      performed. The weighted Fisher criterion is to construct the fusion coefficients
      at the decomposition level, making the images be separated correctly in the
      fusion space. The image fusion framework has shown strong robustness against
      illumination variation. In addition, a tensor-based extreme learning machine
      (TELM) mechanism is presented for feature extraction and classification of two
      dimensional (2D) images. In general, this method has fast learning speed and
      satisfying recognition accuracy. Comprehensive experiments conducted on the PolyU
      multispectral palmprint database illustrate that the proposed method can achieve
      favorable results. For the testing under ideal illumination, the recognition
      accuracy is as high as 99.93%, and the result is 99.50% when the lighting
      condition is unsatisfied.

PMID- 28558063
TI  - Amino acid metabolites that regulate G protein signaling during osmotic stress.
AB  - All cells respond to osmotic stress by implementing molecular signaling events to
      protect the organism. Failure to properly adapt can lead to pathologies such as
      hypertension and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Mitogen-activated protein kinases
      (MAPKs) are activated in response to osmotic stress, as well as by signals acting
      through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). For proper adaptation, the action of
      these kinases must be coordinated. To identify second messengers of stress
      adaptation, we conducted a mass spectrometry-based global metabolomics profiling
      analysis, quantifying nearly 300 metabolites in the yeast S. cerevisiae. We show
      that three branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolites increase in response to
      osmotic stress and require the MAPK Hog1. Ectopic addition of these BCAA
      derivatives promotes phosphorylation of the G protein alpha subunit and dampens G
      protein-dependent transcription, similar to that seen in response to osmotic
      stress. Conversely, genetic ablation of Hog1 activity or the BCAA-regulatory
      enzymes leads to diminished phosphorylation of Galpha and increased
      transcription. Taken together, our results define a new class of candidate second
      messengers that mediate cross talk between osmotic stress and GPCR signaling
      pathways.

PMID- 28558065
TI  - Prediabetes is associated with the modulation of antigen-specific Th1/Tc1 and
      Th17/Tc17 responses in latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with the down modulation of Th1, Th2
      and Th17 responses in latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection but the role of
      prediabetes (PDM) in this setting is not well understood. To examine the role of
      CD4+ and CD8+ T cell cytokines in latent tuberculosis (LTB) with coincident PDM,
      we studied the baseline, mycobacterial, control antigen and mitogen-stimulated T
      cell cytokine responses in LTB individuals with (LTB-PDM; n = 20) or without (LTB
      NDM; n = 20) concomitant prediabetes. LTB-PDM is characterized by diminished
      frequencies of mono-and dual-functional CD4+ Th1 and Th17 cells and mono
      functional Th2 cells at baseline and/or following mycobacterial-antigen
      stimulation in comparison to LTB-NDM. LTB-PDM is also characterized by diminished
      frequencies of mono-functional CD8+ Tc1, Tc2 and Tc17 cells at baseline and/or
      following mycobacterial-antigen stimulation in comparison to LTB-NDM. LTB-PDM is
      therefore characterized by diminished frequencies of antigen-specific Th1/Tc1 and
      Th17/Tc17 cells, indicating that PDM is associated with alterations of the immune
      response in latent TB associated with compromised CD4+ and CD8+ T cell function.

PMID- 28558066
TI  - Gene expression analysis of rocket salad under pre-harvest and postharvest
      stresses: A transcriptomic resource for Diplotaxis tenuifolia.
AB  - Diplotaxis tenuifolia L. is of important economic value in the fresh-cut industry
      for its nutraceutical and sensorial properties. However, information on the
      molecular mechanisms conferring tolerance of harvested leaves to pre- and
      postharvest stresses during processing and shelf-life have never been
      investigated. Here, we provide the first transcriptomic resource of rocket by de
      novo RNA sequencing assembly, functional annotation and stress-induced expression
      analysis of 33874 transcripts. Transcriptomic changes in leaves subjected to
      commercially-relevant pre-harvest (salinity, heat and nitrogen starvation) and
      postharvest stresses (cold, dehydration, dark, wounding) known to affect quality
      and shelf-life were analysed 24h after stress treatment, a timing relevant to
      subsequent processing of salad leaves. Transcription factors and genes involved
      in plant growth regulator signaling, autophagy, senescence and glucosinolate
      metabolism were the most affected by the stresses. Hundreds of genes with unknown
      function but uniquely expressed under stress were identified, providing
      candidates to investigate stress responses in rocket. Dehydration and wounding
      had the greatest effect on the transcriptome and different stresses elicited
      changes in the expression of genes related to overlapping groups of hormones.
      These data will allow development of approaches targeted at improving stress
      tolerance, quality and shelf-life of rocket with direct applications in the fresh
      cut industries.

PMID- 28558067
TI  - Impact of insurance coverage on utilization of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV
      prevention.
AB  - Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can reduce U.S. HIV incidence. We assessed
      insurance coverage and its association with PrEP utilization. We reviewed patient
      data at three PrEP clinics (Jackson, Mississippi; St. Louis, Missouri;
      Providence, Rhode Island) from 2014-2015. The outcome, PrEP utilization, was
      defined as patient PrEP use at three months. Multivariable logistic regression
      was performed to determine the association between insurance coverage and PrEP
      utilization. Of 201 patients (Jackson: 34%; St. Louis: 28%; Providence: 28%), 91%
      were male, 51% were White, median age was 29 years, and 21% were uninsured; 82%
      of patients reported taking PrEP at three months. Insurance coverage was
      significantly associated with PrEP utilization. After adjusting for Medicaid
      expansion and individual socio-demographics, insured patients were four times as
      likely to use PrEP services compared to the uninsured (OR: 4.49, 95% CI: 1.68
      12.01; p = 0.003). Disparities in insurance coverage are important considerations
      in implementation programs and may impede PrEP utilization.

PMID- 28558069
TI  - Impact of environmental variables on Dubas bug infestation rate: A case study
      from the Sultanate of Oman.
AB  - Date palm cultivation is economically important in the Sultanate of Oman, with
      significant financial investment coming from both the government and from private
      individuals. However, a global infestation of Dubas bug (Ommatissus lybicus
      Bergevin) has impacted the Middle East region, and infestations of date palms
      have been widespread. In this study, spatial analysis and geostatistical
      techniques were used to model the spatial distribution of Dubas bug infestations
      to (a) identify correlations between Dubas bug densities and different
      environmental variables, and (b) predict the locations of future Dubas bug
      infestations in Oman. Firstly, we considered individual environmental variables
      and their correlations with infestation locations. Then, we applied more complex
      predictive models and regression analysis techniques to investigate the
      combinations of environmental factors most conducive to the survival and spread
      of the Dubas bug. Environmental variables including elevation, geology, and
      distance to drainage pathways were found to significantly affect Dubas bug
      infestations. In contrast, aspect and hillshade did not significantly impact on
      Dubas bug infestations. Understanding their distribution and therefore applying
      targeted controls on their spread is important for effective mapping, control and
      management (e.g., resource allocation) of Dubas bug infestations.

PMID- 28558068
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR for small hypervascular
      hepatocellular carcinoma and the concordance rate of Liver Imaging Reporting and
      Data System (LI-RADS).
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: To assess diagnostic accuracy of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR
      for small hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detected by C-arm CT and
      concordance rate of Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS). METHODS:
      In this retrospective study, we recruited 4,544 patients suspected of having HCC
      underwent C-arm CT from November 2008 to May 2013. Among these patients,
      gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR was performed in 167 patients with HCC (n = 379; 257 >
      1 cm, 122 <= 1 cm). HCC was confirmed by MR, CT, or follow-up images. Two
      radiologists graded likelihood of HCC and assessed MR features. Jackknife
      alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic (JAFROC) analysis was
      performed. All HCCs were evaluated concordance rate of LI-RADS. RESULTS: Mean
      JAFROC figure of merit for large (>1-cm) HCC was 0.948, while that for small HCC
      was 0.787 with fair agreement (kappa = 0.409). Mean sensitivity and positive
      predictive value (PPV) were 91% and 90% for large HCC versus 63.0% and 79% for
      small HCC, respectively. Seventeen of 122 small HCCs (13.9%) were not visible on
      MR. Among 379 HCCs, 99 met LR-5, and 259 met LR-4. Common features for small HCC
      included arterial enhancement (81.9%), hepatobiliary phase hypointensity (80.3%),
      and delayed washout (72.9%). CONCLUSION: Diagnostic accuracy of gadoxetic acid
      enhanced MR imaging for small, hypervascular HCCs (Mean figure of merit = 0.787)
      was still low compared with large HCC (Mean figure of merit = 0.948). LR-5 and LR
      4 covered 94% (358/379) of the HCCs.

PMID- 28558070
TI  - Vocalizations during post-conflict affiliations from victims toward aggressors
      based on uncertainty in Japanese macaques.
AB  - We investigated the use of vocalizations called "grunts," "girneys," and "coos"
      accompanied by post-conflict affiliative interaction between former opponents
      (reconciliation) in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata). Although reconciliation
      functions to repair bonds, such interactions sometimes entail risks of receiving
      further aggression. Vocalizations can be used at a distance from the former
      opponent; thus, we predict that vocalizations are used particularly by victims of
      a conflict, and are frequently used in situations of uncertainty when it is
      difficult for them to estimate whether the former opponent will resume
      aggression. In addition, we predict that vocalizations are effective in
      preventing further aggression. To test these hypotheses, we conducted
      observations of post-conflict and matched-control situations in female Japanese
      macaques living in a free-ranging group. We found that former opponents tended to
      be attracted to each other within the first minute following a conflict, thus
      demonstrating reconciliation behavior. Vocalizations were more frequently used by
      the victims in post-conflict interactions than under control situations; however,
      this tendency was not found in aggressors. When affiliation with the former
      opponent occurred, victims were more likely to use vocalizations towards less
      familiar opponents. These findings suggest that Japanese macaques used
      vocalizations more often when interacting with less predictable former opponents.
      Victims were more likely to receive aggression from former aggressors when
      engaged in affiliations with them than under no such affiliations. No significant
      differences were found in the probability of the victims receiving aggression,
      regardless of whether they used vocalizations; thus, whether the victim benefits
      from using vocalizations in these contexts remains unclear. Japanese macaques
      form despotic societies and therefore, further aggression was inevitable, to some
      degree, after a conflict. The use of vocalizations by a victim was found to
      depend on the nature of their relationship with the aggressor; however, the
      effectiveness of this behavior requires further investigation.

PMID- 28558071
TI  - Gene expression patterns induced at different stages of rhinovirus infection in
      human alveolar epithelial cells.
AB  - Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the common virus that causes acute respiratory
      infection (ARI) and is frequently associated with lower respiratory tract
      infections (LRTIs). We aimed to investigate whether HRV infection induces a
      specific gene expression pattern in airway epithelial cells. Alveolar epithelial
      cell monolayers were infected with HRV species B (HRV-B). RNA was extracted from
      both supernatants and infected monolayer cells at 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours post
      infection (hpi) and transcriptional profile was analyzed using Affymetrix
      GeneChip and the results were subsequently validated using quantitative Real-time
      PCR method. HRV-B infects alveolar epithelial cells which supports implication of
      the virus with LRTIs. In total 991 genes were found differentially expressed
      during the course of infection. Of these, 459 genes were up-regulated whereas 532
      genes were down-regulated. Differential gene expression at 6 hpi (187 genes up
      regulated vs. 156 down-regulated) were significantly represented by gene
      ontologies related to the chemokines and inflammatory molecules indicating
      characteristic of viral infection. The 75 up-regulated genes surpassed the down
      regulated genes (35) at 12 hpi and their enriched ontologies fell into discrete
      functional entities such as regulation of apoptosis, anti-apoptosis, and wound
      healing. At later time points of 24 and 48 hpi, predominated down-regulated genes
      were enriched for extracellular matrix proteins and airway remodeling events. Our
      data provides a comprehensive image of host response to HRV infection. The study
      suggests the underlying molecular regulatory networks genes which might be
      involved in pathogenicity of the HRV-B and potential targets for further
      validations and development of effective treatment.

PMID- 28558072
TI  - Regulation of PI3K/Akt dependent apoptotic markers during b virus infection of
      human and macaque fibroblasts.
AB  - B virus (Macacine herpesvirus 1), a simplex virus endemic in macaques, causes
      encephalitis, encephalomyelitis, and death in 80% of untreated zoonotically
      infected humans with delayed or no treatment. Here we report a significant
      difference in PI3K/Akt-dependent apoptosis between B virus infected human and
      macaque dermal fibroblasts. Our data show that B virus infection in either human
      or macaque fibroblasts results in activation of Akt via PI3K and this activation
      does not require viral de novo protein synthesis. Inhibition of PI3K with
      LY294002 results in a significant reduction of viral titers in B virus infected
      macaque and human fibroblasts with only a modest difference in the reduction of
      virus titers between the two cell types. We, therefore, tested the hypothesis
      that B virus results in the phosphorylation of Akt (S473), which prevents
      apoptosis, enhancing virus replication in B virus infected macaque dermal
      fibroblasts. We observed markers of intrinsic apoptosis when PI3K activation of
      Akt was inhibited in B virus infected macaque cells, while, these apoptotic
      markers were absent in B virus infected human fibroblasts under the same
      conditions. From these data we suggest that PI3K activates Akt in B virus
      infected macaque and human fibroblasts, but this enhances virus replication in
      macaque fibroblast cells by blocking apoptosis.

PMID- 28558073
TI  - Hepatitis E virus persists in the presence of a type III interferon response.
AB  - The RIG-I-like RNA helicase (RLR)-mediated interferon (IFN) response plays a
      pivotal role in the hepatic antiviral immunity. The hepatitis A virus (HAV) and
      the hepatitis C virus (HCV) counter this response by encoding a viral protease
      that cleaves the mitochondria antiviral signaling protein (MAVS), a common
      signaling adaptor for RLRs. However, a third hepatotropic RNA virus, the
      hepatitis E virus (HEV), does not appear to encode a functional protease yet
      persists in infected cells. We investigated HEV-induced IFN responses in human
      hepatoma cells and primary human hepatocytes. HEV infection resulted in
      persistent virus replication despite poor spread. This was companied by a type
      III IFN response that upregulated multiple IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), but type
      I IFNs were barely detected. Blocking type III IFN production or signaling
      resulted in reduced ISG expression and enhanced HEV replication. Unlike HAV and
      HCV, HEV did not cleave MAVS; MAVS protein size, mitochondrial localization, and
      function remained unaltered in HEV-replicating cells. Depletion of MAVS or MDA5,
      and to a less extent RIG-I, also diminished IFN production and increased HEV
      replication. Furthermore, persistent activation of the JAK/STAT signaling
      rendered infected cells refractory to exogenous IFN treatment, and depletion of
      MAVS or the receptor for type III IFNs restored the IFN responsiveness.
      Collectively, these results indicate that unlike other hepatotropic RNA viruses,
      HEV does not target MAVS and its persistence is associated with continuous
      production of type III IFNs.

PMID- 28558074
TI  - Individual expression features of GPX2, NQO1 and SQSTM1 transcript variants
      induced by hydrogen peroxide treatment in HeLa cells.
AB  - Pathway activity assessment-based approaches are becoming highly influential in
      various fields of biology and medicine. However, these approaches mostly rely on
      analysis of mRNA expression, and total mRNA from a given locus is measured in the
      majority of cases. Notably, a significant portion of protein-coding genes
      produces more than one transcript. This biological fact is responsible for
      significant noise when changes in total mRNA transcription of a single gene are
      analyzed. The NFE2L2/AP-1 pathway is an attractive target for biomedical
      applications. To date, there is a lack of data regarding the agreement in
      expression of even classical target genes of this pathway. In the present paper
      we analyzed whether transcript variants of GPX2, NQO1 and SQSTM1 were
      characterized by individual features of expression when HeLa cells were exposed
      to pro-oxidative stimulation with hydrogen peroxide. We found that all the
      transcripts (10 in total) appeared to be significantly individually regulated
      under the conditions tested. We conclude that individual transcripts, rather than
      total mRNA, are best markers of pathway activation. We also discuss here some
      biological roles of individual transcript regulation.

PMID- 28558075
TI  - A never-ending story: the steadily growing family of the FA and FA-like genes.
AB  - Among the chromosome fragility-associated human syndromes that present cancer
      predisposition, Fanconi anemia (FA) is unique due to its large genetic
      heterogeneity. To date, mutations in 21 genes have been associated with an FA or
      an FA-like clinical and cellular phenotype, whose hallmarks are bone marrow
      failure, predisposition to acute myeloid leukemia and a cellular and chromosomal
      hypersensitivity to DNA crosslinking agents exposure. The goal of this review is
      to trace the history of the identification of FA genes, a history that started in
      the eighties and is not yet over, as indicated by the cloning of a twenty-first
      FA gene in 2016.

PMID- 28558076
TI  - Functional Effects of Hyperthyroidism on Cardiac Papillary Muscle in Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperthyroidism is currently recognized to affect the cardiovascular
      system, leading to a series of molecular and functional changes. However, little
      is known about the functional influence of hyperthyroidism in the regulation of
      cytoplasmic calcium and on the sodium/calcium exchanger (NCX) in the cardiac
      muscle. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the functional changes in papillary muscles
      isolated from animals with induced hyperthyroidism. METHODS: We divided 36 Wistar
      rats into a group of controls and another of animals with hyperthyroidism induced
      by intraperitoneal T3 injection. We measured in the animals' papillary muscles
      the maximum contraction force, speed of contraction (+df/dt) and relaxation (
      df/dt), contraction and relaxation time, contraction force at different
      concentrations of extracellular sodium, post-rest potentiation (PRP), and
      contraction force induced by caffeine. RESULTS: In hyperthyroid animals, we
      observed decreased PRP at all rest times (p < 0.05), increased +df/dt and -df/dt
      (p < 0.001), low positive inotropic response to decreased concentration of
      extracellular sodium (p < 0.001), reduction of the maximum force in caffeine
      induced contraction (p < 0.003), and decreased total contraction time (p <
      0.001). The maximal contraction force did not differ significantly between groups
      (p = 0.973). CONCLUSION: We hypothesize that the changes observed are likely due
      to a decrease in calcium content in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, caused by calcium
      leakage, decreased expression of NCX, and increased expression of a-MHC and
      SERCA2.

PMID- 28558077
TI  - Prenatal Diagnosis of Intracardiac Tumors.

PMID- 28558078
TI  - Testosterone and Voluntary Exercise, Alone or Together Increase Cardiac
      Activation of AKT and ERK1/2 in Diabetic Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Impaired angiogenesis in cardiac tissue is a major complication of
      diabetes. Protein kinase B (AKT) and extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK)
      signaling pathways play important role during capillary-like network formation in
      angiogenesis process. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effects of testosterone and
      voluntary exercise on levels of vascularity, phosphorylated Akt (P- AKT) and
      phosphorylated ERK (P-ERK) in heart tissue of diabetic and castrated diabetic
      rats. METHODS: Type I diabetes was induced by i.p injection of 50 mg/kg of
      streptozotocin in animals. After 42 days of treatment with testosterone
      (2mg/kg/day) or voluntary exercise alone or in combination, heart tissue samples
      were collected and used for histological evaluation and determination of P-AKT
      and P-ERK levels by ELISA method. RESULTS: Our results showed that either
      testosterone or exercise increased capillarity, P-AKT, and P-ERK levels in the
      heart of diabetic rats. Treatment of diabetic rats with testosterone and exercise
      had a synergistic effect on capillarity, P-AKT, and P-ERK levels in heart.
      Furthermore, in the castrated diabetes group, capillarity, P-AKT, and P-ERK
      levels significantly decreased in the heart, whereas either testosterone
      treatment or exercise training reversed these effects. Also, simultaneous
      treatment of castrated diabetic rats with testosterone and exercise had an
      additive effect on P-AKT and P-ERK levels. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that
      testosterone and exercise alone or together can increase angiogenesis in the
      heart of diabetic and castrated diabetic rats. The proangiogenesis effects of
      testosterone and exercise are associated with the enhanced activation of AKT and
      ERK1/2 in heart tissue.

PMID- 28558079
TI  - Prognostic Value of a New Marker of Ventricular Repolarization in Cirrhotic
      Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is still debate about the relationship between changes in
      ventricular repolarization on the surface electrocardiogram and cirrhosis
      severity. OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between variables related to
      ventricular repolarization and the clinical severity of the cirrhotic disease.
      METHODS: We selected 79 individuals with hepatic cirrhosis, classified according
      to the Child-Pugh-Turcotte criteria (Child A, B, and C). We measured the QT and
      corrected QT (QTc) intervals, and the interval between the peak and the end of
      the T wave (TpTe), and we identified their minimum, maximum, and mean values in
      the 12-lead electrocardiogram. We also calculated the dispersion of the QT (DQT)
      and QTc (DQTc) intervals. RESULTS: In 12 months of clinical follow-up, nine
      subjects underwent hepatic transplantation (Child A: 0 [0%]; Child B: 6 [23.1%];
      Child C: 3 [18.8%]; p = 0.04) and 12 died (Child A: 3 [12.0%]; Child B: 4
      [15.4%]; Child C: 5 [31.3%]; p = 0.002). No significant differences were observed
      between the cirrhotic groups related to the minimum, maximum, and mean values for
      the QT, QTc, TpTe, DQT, and DQTc intervals. A minimum TpTe interval <= 50 ms was
      a predictor for the composite endpoints of death or liver transplantation with a
      sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 57% (p = 0.005). In the Cox multivariate
      analysis, the Child groups and a minimum TpTe of <= 50 ms were independent
      predictors of the composite endpoints. CONCLUSION: The intervals QT, QTc, DQT,
      DQTc, and TpTe have similar distributions between different severity stages in
      cirrhotic disease. The TpTe interval proved to be a prognostic marker in subjects
      with cirrhosis, regardless of disease severity (NCT01433848).

PMID- 28558080
TI  - The Relation between Epicardial Fat Thickness and Prognostic Risk Scores.

PMID- 28558082
TI  - Analysis of the Use of Extracorporeal Circulation on the In-Hospital Outcomes of
      Dialytic Patients Who Underwent Myocardial Revascularization Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myocardial revascularization surgery is the best treatment for
      dyalitic patients with multivessel coronary disease. However, the procedure still
      has high morbidity and mortality. The use of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) can
      have a negative impact on the in-hospital outcomes of these patients. OBJECTIVES:
      To evaluate the differences between the techniques with ECC and without ECC
      during the in-hospital course of dialytic patients who underwent surgical
      myocardial revascularization. METHODS: Unicentric study on 102 consecutive,
      unselected dialytic patients, who underwent myocardial revascularization surgery
      in a tertiary university hospital from 2007 to 2014. RESULTS: Sixty-three
      patients underwent surgery with ECC and 39 without ECC. A high prevalence of
      cardiovascular risk factors was found in both groups, without statistically
      significant difference between them. The group "without ECC" had greater number
      of revascularizations (2.4 vs. 1.7; p <0.0001) and increased need for blood
      components (77.7% vs. 25.6%; p <0.0001) and inotropic support (82.5% vs 35.8%; p
      <0.0001). In the postoperative course, the group "without ECC" required less
      vasoactive drugs, (61.5% vs. 82.5%; p = 0.0340) and shorter time of mechanical
      ventilation (13.0 hours vs. 36,3 hours, p = 0.0217), had higher extubation rates
      in the operating room (58.9% vs. 23.8%, p = 0.0006), lower infection rates (7.6%
      vs. 28.5%; p = 0.0120), and shorter ICU stay (5.2 days vs. 8.1 days; p = 0.0054)
      as compared with the group with ECC surgery. No difference in mortality was found
      between the groups. CONCLUSION: Myocardial revascularization with ECC in patients
      on dialysis resulted in higher morbidity in the perioperative period in
      comparison with the procedure without ECC, with no difference in mortality
      though.

PMID- 28558081
TI  - Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation: Focus on Latin America.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, with an
      estimated prevalence of 1-2% in North America and Europe. The increased
      prevalence of AF in Latin America is associated with an ageing general
      population, along with poor control of key risk factors, including hypertension.
      As a result, stroke prevalence and associated mortality have increased
      dramatically in the region. Therefore, the need for effective anticoagulation
      strategies in Latin America is clear. The aim of this review is to provide a
      contemporary overview of anticoagulants for stroke prevention. The use of vitamin
      K antagonists (VKAs, eg, warfarin) and aspirin in the prevention of stroke in
      patients with AF in Latin America remains common, although around one fifth of
      all AF patients receive no anticoagulation. Warfarin use is complicated by a lack
      of access to effective monitoring services coupled with an unpredictable
      pharmacokinetic profile. The overuse of aspirin is associated with significant
      bleeding risks and reduced efficacy for stroke prevention in this patient group.
      The non-VKA oral anticoagulants (NOACbs) represent a potential means of
      overcoming many limitations associated with VKA and aspirin use, including a
      reduction in the need for monitoring and a reduced risk of hemorrhagic events.
      The ultimate decision of which anticoagulant drug to utilize in AF patients
      depends on a multitude of factors. More research is needed to appreciate the
      impact of these factors in the Latin American population and thereby reduce the
      burden of AF-associated stroke in this region.

PMID- 28558083
TI  - Obesity and its Association with Food Consumption, Diabetes Mellitus, and Acute
      Myocardial Infarction in the Elderly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity affects a large part of elderly individuals worldwide and is
      considered a risk predictor for the development of chronic diseases such as
      cardiac diseases, the leading causes of death in the elderly population.
      OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of obesity and associated factors, with
      emphasis on the occurrence of other diseases and on food consumption in elderly
      individuals treated at the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Unico de
      Saude, SUS). METHODS: Cross-sectional sampling study performed in the city of
      Goiania (Brazil) including elderly individuals (>= 60 years) receiving primary
      care. During home visits, we performed anthropometric measurements and applied a
      structured, standardized, and pre-tested questionnaire assessing socioeconomic,
      demographic and lifestyle conditions, occurrence of diseases, and food
      consumption. We performed multiple Poisson regression analysis using a
      hierarchical model and adopting a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: We evaluated
      418 elderly patients with a mean age of 70.7 +/- 7 years. Their body mass indices
      had a mean value of 27.0 kg/m2 and were higher in women than in men (27.4 kg/m2
      versus 26.1 kg/m2, respectively, p = 0.017). Obesity had a prevalence of 49.0%, a
      risk 1.87 times higher between the ages of 60-69 years and 70-79 years, and a
      rate 1.4 times higher among individuals with more than four morbidities. On
      multivariate analysis, the factors associated with obesity were age 60-69 and 70
      79 years, inadequate consumption of whole-wheat grains and adequate consumption
      of fruit, musculoskeletal diseases, diabetes mellitus, and acute myocardial
      infarction. CONCLUSIONS: Obesity had a high prevalence in the evaluated elderly
      population and was associated with food consumption, musculoskeletal disease,
      diabetes mellitus, and acute myocardial infarction.

PMID- 28558084
TI  - Stent Placement in a Neonate with Sano Modification of the Norwood using Semi
      Elective Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a well-established tool of
      cardiopulmonary circulatory support for cardiopulmonary failure in children and
      adults. It has been used as a supportive strategy during interventional
      procedures in neonates with congenital heart disease. Herein, we describe a
      neonate with hypoplastic left heart syndrome who underwent stenting of the Sano
      shunt and left pulmonary artery after Norwood Sano operation using intra
      procedural ECMO support. The use of ECMO as a bridge to recovery might be a
      feasible and reasonably safe adjunctive approach in the treatment of
      complications in selective case of neonates having undergone the Norwood Sano
      procedure.

PMID- 28558085
TI  - Complete Treatment Versus Residual Lesion - Long-Term Evolution After Acute
      Coronary Syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A recently published study raised doubts about the need for
      percutaneous treatment of nonculprit lesions in patients with acute coronary
      syndromes (ACS). METHODS: Retrospective, unicentric, observational study.
      OBJECTIVE: To analyze the long-term outcomes in patients undergoing treatment of
      the culprit artery, comparing those who remained with significant residual
      lesions in nonculprit arteries (group I) versus those without residual lesions in
      other coronary artery beds (group II). The study included 580 patients (284 in
      group I and 296 in group II) between May 2010 and May 2013. We obtained
      demographic and clinical data, as well as information regarding the coronary
      treatment administered to the patients. In the statistical analysis, the primary
      outcome included combined events (reinfarction/angina, death, heart failure, and
      need for reintervention). The comparison between groups was performed using the
      chi-square test and ANOVA. The long-term analysis was conducted with the Kaplan
      Meier method, with a mean follow-up of 9.86 months. RESULTS: The mean ages were
      63 years in group I and 62 years in group II. On long-term follow-up, there was
      no significant difference in combined events in groups I and II (31.9% versus
      35.6%, respectively, p = 0.76). CONCLUSION: The strategy of treating the culprit
      artery alone seems safe. In this study, no long-term differences in combined
      endpoints were observed between patients who remained with significant lesions
      compared with those without other obstructions.

PMID- 28558086
TI  - Acute Heart Failure Registry: Risk Assessment Model in Decompensated Heart
      Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a highly prevalent syndrome. Although the long
      term prognostic factors have been identified in chronic HF, this information is
      scarcer with respect to patients with acute HF. despite available data in the
      literature on long-term prognostic factors in chronic HF, data on acute HF
      patients are more scarce. OBJECTIVES: To develop a predictor of unfavorable
      prognostic events in patients hospitalized for acute HF syndromes, and to
      characterize a group at higher risk regarding their clinical characteristics,
      treatment and outcomes. METHODS: cohort study of 600 patients admitted for acute
      HF, defined according to the European Society of Cardiology criteria. Primary
      endpoint for score derivation was defined as all-cause mortality and / or
      rehospitalization for HF at 12 months. For score validation, the following
      endpoints were used: all-cause mortality and / or readmission for HF at 6, 12 and
      24 months. The exclusion criteria were: high output HF; patients with acute
      myocardial infraction, acute myocarditis, infectious endocarditis, pulmonary
      infection, pulmonary artery hypertension and severe mitral stenosis. RESULTS: 505
      patients were included, and prognostic predicting factors at 12 months were
      identified. One or two points were assigned according to the odds ratio (OR)
      obtained (p < 0.05). After the total score value was determined, a 4-point cut
      off was determined for each ROC curve at 12 months. Two groups were formed
      according to the number of points, group A < 4 points, and group B = 4 points.
      Group B was composed of older patients, with higher number of comorbidities and
      predictors of the combined endpoint at 6, 12 and 24 months, as linearly
      represented in the survival curves (Log rank). CONCLUSIONS: This risk score
      enabled the identification of a group with worse prognosis at 12 months.

PMID- 28558088
TI  - Case 6 / 2016 - Heart Failure in a 23-Year-Old Male with a History of Illicit
      Drug Use.

PMID- 28558087
TI  - Executive Summary of the II Brazilian Guidelines for Atrial Fibrillation.

PMID- 28558090
TI  - Confusing Terminology-Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome vs Malignant Hyperthermia.

PMID- 28558091
TI  - Long-Acting Reversible Contraception for Adolescents: A Review.
AB  - Importance: Adolescents have higher rates of unintended pregnancies than any
      other age group. Contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs) are long
      acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) that are known to be highly effective in
      preventing pregnancy. New devices have recently been approved for use in
      adolescents, yet pediatricians may be less familiar with how to counsel
      adolescents about implants and IUDs. Observations: LARC methods should be
      described in basic terms to adolescents, including hormone dose, method of
      insertion, and method of pregnancy prevention. Clinicians should appreciate the
      developmental stages of adolescents, discuss the most effective methods of
      contraception, and ensure confidentiality from their parents. Short-acting
      contraception methods (eg, oral contraceptives) can be used as a temporary bridge
      to provide coverage until a LARC method can be placed. The most common adverse
      effect of LARC is nuisance bleeding, which can be managed with short courses of
      oral contraceptives or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Conclusions and
      Relevance: LARC devices constitute first-line contraceptive methods for
      adolescents. All clinicians, including pediatricians, can counsel about LARC even
      before suggesting an oral contraceptive or another less effective contraceptive
      method. Effective, confidential communication with sensitive language to inform
      adolescents of the different types of LARC is necessary to normalize offering
      LARC as a contraceptive option and improve its uptake among adolescents. Special
      clinical populations can also be offered appropriate contraceptive options
      inclusive of LARC.

PMID- 28558092
TI  - Linking Amyloid-beta and Tau Deposition in Alzheimer Disease.

PMID- 28558089
TI  - Analysis of Heart Rate Variability Before and During Tilt Test in Patients with
      Cardioinhibitory Vasovagal Syncope.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardioinhibitory vasovagal response is uncommon during the tilt test
      (TT). Heart rate variability (HRV) by use of spectral analysis can distinguish
      patients with that response. OBJECTIVE: To compare the HRV in patients with
      cardioinhibitory vasovagal syncope (case group - G1) with that in patients
      without syncope and with negative response to TT (control group - G2). METHODS:
      64 patients were evaluated (mean age, 36.2 years; 35 men) and submitted to TT at
      70 degrees, under digital Holter monitoring. The groups were paired for age and
      sex (G1, 40 patients; G2, 24). RESULTS: In G1, 21 patients had a type 2A response
      and 19 had type 2B, with mean TT duration of 20.4 minutes. There was a greater
      low frequency (LF) component (11,6 versus 4,5 ms2, p=0.001) and a lower low/high
      frequency ratio in the supine position (3,9 versus 4,5 ms2, p=0.008) in G1, with
      no difference during TT between the groups. Applying the receiver operating
      characteristic curve for cardioinhibitory response, the area under the curve was
      0.74 for the LF component in the supine position (p = 0.001). The following were
      observed for the cutoff point of 0.35 ms(2) for the LF component: sensitivity,
      97.4%; specificity, 83.3%; positive predictive value, 85.3%; negative predictive
      value, 96.9%; and positive likelihood ratio, 5.8. CONCLUSION: HRV in the supine
      position allowed identifying patients with syncope and cardioinhibitory response
      with a high negative predictive value and likelihood ratio of 5.8.

PMID- 28558093
TI  - Variation in Emergency Department vs Internal Medicine Excess Charges in the
      United States.
AB  - Importance: Uninsured and insured but out-of-network emergency department (ED)
      patients are often billed hospital chargemaster prices, which exceed amounts
      typically paid by insurers. Objective: To examine the variation in excess charges
      for services provided by emergency medicine and internal medicine physicians.
      Design, Setting, and Participants: Retrospective analysis was conducted of
      professional fee payment claims made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
      Services for all services provided to Medicare Part B fee-for-service
      beneficiaries in calendar year 2013. Data analysis was conducted from January 1
      to July 31, 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures: Markup ratios for ED and internal
      medicine professional services, defined as the charges submitted by the hospital
      divided by the Medicare allowable amount. Results: Our analysis included 12 337
      emergency medicine physicians from 2707 hospitals and 57 607 internal medicine
      physicians from 3669 hospitals in all 50 states. Services provided by emergency
      medicine physicians had an overall markup ratio of 4.4 (340% excess charges),
      which was greater than the markup ratio of 2.1 (110% excess charges) for all
      services performed by internal medicine physicians. Markup ratios for all ED
      services ranged by hospital from 1.0 to 12.6 (median, 4.2; interquartile range
      [IQR], 3.3-5.8); markup ratios for all internal medicine services ranged by
      hospital from 1.0 to 14.1 (median, 2.0; IQR, 1.7-2.5). The median markup ratio by
      hospital for ED evaluation and management procedure codes varied between 4.0 and
      5.0. Among the most common ED services, laceration repair had the highest median
      markup ratio (7.0); emergency medicine physician review of a head computed
      tomographic scan had the greatest interhospital variation (range, 1.6-27.7).
      Across hospitals, markups in the ED were often substantially higher than those in
      the internal medicine department for the same services. Higher ED markup ratios
      were associated with hospital for-profit ownership (median, 5.7; IQR, 4.0-7.1), a
      greater percentage of uninsured patients seen (median, 5.0; IQR, 3.5-6.7 for
      >=20% uninsured), and location (median, 5.3; IQR, 3.8-6.8 for the southeastern
      United States). Conclusions and Relevance: Across hospitals, there is wide
      variation in excess charges on ED services, which are often priced higher than
      internal medicine services. Our results inform policy efforts to protect
      uninsured and out-of-network patients from highly variable pricing.

PMID- 28558096
TI  - Folic Acid for the Prevention of Neural Tube Defects.

PMID- 28558094
TI  - Hierarchical Organization of Tau and Amyloid Deposits in the Cerebral Cortex.
AB  - Importance: Abnormal accumulation of tau and amyloid-beta (Abeta) proteins in the
      human brain are 2 pathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer disease (AD). Because
      pathologic processes begin decades before the onset of the clinical
      manifestations, the study of the cortical distribution of early-stage pathologic
      alterations is critical in understanding the underpinnings of the disease.
      Objectives: To identify the in vivo brain spatial distributions of tau and Abeta
      deposits in a sample of cognitively normal participants in the Harvard Aging
      Brain Study, determine spatial patterns of pathologic alterations, and provide
      means for improved individual in vivo staging. Design, Setting, and Participants:
      Eighty-eight individuals from the general community underwent flortaucipir 18
      T807 (18F-T807) and carbon 11-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B (11C-PiB) positron
      emission tomographic (PET) imaging. A voxel-level hierarchical clustering
      approach was used to obtain the main clustering partitions corresponding to the
      cortical distribution maps of 18F-T807 and 11C-PiB. Hierarchical relationships
      between areas of distinctive pathologic deposits were then studied. Using
      cerebellar gray reference, 18F-T807 data were expressed as standardized uptake
      value ratio, and 11C-PiB were given as distribution volume ratio. Main Outcomes
      and Measures: Main in vivo and hierarchically organized tau and Abeta deposits in
      the elderly brain. Results: Of the 88 study participants, 39 (44%) were men, with
      a mean (SD) age of 76.2 (6.2) years. The tau and Abeta maps both displayed
      optimal cortical partitions at 4 clusters. The tau deposits were grouped in the
      temporal lobe, distributed in heteromodal areas, medial and visual regions, and
      primary somatomotor cortex; the Abeta deposits were clustered in the heteromodal
      areas and rather patchy in distributed regions involving the primary cortices,
      medial structures, and temporal areas. Moreover, tau deposits in the temporal
      lobe and distributed heteromodal areas were tightly nested. Conclusions and
      Relevance: Tau and Abeta deposits in the elderly brain generally display well
      defined hierarchical cortical relationships as well as overlaps between the
      principal clusters of both pathologic alterations in the heteromodal association
      regions. These findings represent systematic, large-scale mechanisms of early AD
      pathology.

PMID- 28558097
TI  - Effectiveness of Childhood Obesity Treatment Through 20 Group Education Sessions
      Over 6 Months: Does the Attendance of a Child Matter?

PMID- 28558095
TI  - Economic Evaluation of Quality Improvement Interventions Designed to Prevent
      Hospital Readmission: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: Quality improvement (QI) interventions can reduce hospital
      readmission, but little is known about their economic value. Objective: To
      systematically review economic evaluations of QI interventions designed to reduce
      readmissions. Data Sources: Databases searched included PubMed, Econlit, the
      Centre for Reviews & Dissemination Economic Evaluations, New York Academy of
      Medicine's Grey Literature Report, and Worldcat (January 2004 to July 2016).
      Study Selection: Dual reviewers selected English-language studies from high
      income countries that evaluated organizational or structural changes to reduce
      hospital readmission, and that reported program and readmission-related costs.
      Data Extraction and Synthesis: Dual reviewers extracted intervention
      characteristics, study design, clinical effectiveness, study quality, economic
      perspective, and costs. We calculated the risk difference and net costs to the
      health system in 2015 US dollars. Weighted least-squares regression analyses
      tested predictors of the risk difference and net costs. Main Outcomes and
      Measures: Main outcomes measures included the risk difference in readmission
      rates and incremental net cost. This systematic review and data analysis is
      reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
      Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Results: Of 5205 articles, 50 unique studies
      were eligible, including 25 studies in populations limited to heart failure (HF)
      that included 5768 patients, 21 in general populations that included 10 445
      patients, and 4 in unique populations. Fifteen studies lasted up to 30 days while
      most others lasted 6 to 24 months. Based on regression analyses, readmissions
      declined by an average of 12.1% among patients with HF (95% CI, 8.3%-15.9%; P <
      .001; based on 22 studies with complete data) and by 6.3% among general
      populations (95% CI, 4.0%-8.7%; P < .001; 18 studies). The mean net savings to
      the health system per patient was $972 among patients with HF (95% CI, -$642 to
      $2586; P = .23; 24 studies), and the mean net loss was $169 among general
      populations (95% CI, -$2610 to $2949; P = .90; 21 studies), reflecting
      nonsignificant differences. Among general populations, interventions that engaged
      patients and caregivers were associated with greater net savings ($1714 vs 
      $6568; P = .006). Conclusions and Relevance: Multicomponent QI interventions can
      be effective at reducing readmissions relative to the status quo, but net costs
      vary. Interventions that engage general populations of patients and their
      caregivers may offer greater value to the health system, but the implications for
      patients and caregivers are unknown.

PMID- 28558100
TI  - Association Between Gender Minority Status and Self-Reported Physical and Mental
      Health in the United States.

PMID- 28558098
TI  - Complex and Dynamic Chromosomal Rearrangements in a Family With Seemingly Non
      Mendelian Inheritance of Dopa-Responsive Dystonia.
AB  - Importance: Chromosomal rearrangements are increasingly recognized to underlie
      neurologic disorders and are often accompanied by additional clinical signs
      beyond the gene-specific phenotypic spectrum. Objective: To elucidate the causal
      genetic variant in a large US family with co-occurrence of dopa-responsive
      dystonia as well as skeletal and eye abnormalities (ie, ptosis, myopia, and
      retina detachment). Design, Setting, and Participants: We examined 10 members of
      a family, including 5 patients with dopa-responsive dystonia and skeletal and/or
      eye abnormalities, from a US tertiary referral center for neurological diseases
      using multiple conventional molecular methods, including fluorescence in situ
      hybridization and array comparative genomic hybridization as well as large-insert
      whole-genome sequencing to survey multiple classes of genomic variations. Of
      note, there was a seemingly implausible transmission pattern in this family due
      to a mutation-negative obligate mutation carrier. Main Outcomes and Measures:
      Genetic diagnosis in affected family members and insight into the formation of
      large deletions. Results: Four members were diagnosed with definite and 1 with
      probable dopa-responsive dystonia. All 5 affected individuals carried a large
      heterozygous deletion encompassing all 6 exons of GCH1. Additionally, all
      mutation carriers had congenital ptosis requiring surgery, 4 had myopia, 2 had
      retinal detachment, and 2 showed skeletal abnormalities of the hands, ie,
      polydactyly or syndactyly or missing a hand digit. Two individuals were reported
      to be free of any disease. Analyses revealed complex chromosomal rearrangements
      on chromosome 14q21-22 in unaffected individuals that triggered the expansion to
      a larger deletion segregating with affection status. The expansion occurred
      recurrently, explaining the seemingly non-mendelian inheritance pattern. These
      rearrangements included a deletion of GCH1, which likely contributes to the dopa
      responsive dystonia, as well as a deletion of BMP4 as a potential cause of
      digital and eye abnormalities. Conclusions and Relevance: Our findings alert
      neurologists to the importance of clinical red flags, ie, unexpected co
      occurrence of clinical features that may point to the presence of chromosomal
      rearrangements as the primary disease cause. The clinical management and
      diagnostics of such patients requires an interdisciplinary approach in modern
      clinical-diagnostic care.

PMID- 28558099
TI  - Association of Longitudinal Cognitive Decline With Amyloid Burden in Middle-aged
      and Older Adults: Evidence for a Dose-Response Relationship.
AB  - Importance: Presently, the clinical standard for reporting the results of an
      amyloid positron emission tomography scan is to assign a dichotomous rating of
      positive or negative for the presence of amyloid. In a 4-year longitudinal study,
      we investigated whether using a continuous measure of the magnitude of baseline
      amyloid burden would provide valuable information about the rate of future
      cognitive decline over the subsequent 4 years compared with a dichotomous measure
      in middle-aged and older adults. Objective: To examine whether a continuous, dose
      response relationship between amyloid burden and cognitive decline was present
      among middle-aged and older adults. Design, Setting, and Participants: This
      cohort study included 174 participants from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study who
      were 40 to 89 years old at the beginning of the study, were cognitively normal at
      baseline (a Mini-Mental State Examination score of 26 or higher) with no history
      of neurological or psychiatric disorders, and had completed amyloid imaging
      ([18F]-florbetapir) at baseline and cognitive assessments at baseline and a 4
      year follow-up. Continuous amyloid burden was measured as the mean cortical
      standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) at baseline. Main Outcomes and Measures:
      Linear mixed models assessed the effect of increasing baseline amyloid over time
      (SUVR * time interaction) on episodic memory, reasoning, processing speed,
      vocabulary, and Mini-Mental State Examination performance. Age, sex, education,
      apolipoprotein epsilon4, and the random effect of intercepts were included as
      covariates. Results: The mean (SD) age for all participants (n = 174) was 66.44
      (11.74) years, and 65 participants (37%) were men. The primary analyses yielded
      significant SUVR * time interactions in episodic memory, processing speed,
      vocabulary, and Mini-Mental State Examination performance, but not in reasoning
      performance. Higher baseline SUVR projected greater cognitive decline over 4
      years. When controlling for variance related to a dichotomized positive/negative
      classification, most effects on cognition remained. Dichotomized amyloid status
      alone yielded fewer significant effects of amyloid on cognitive decline than
      continuous SUVR. Among amyloid-positive participants, increasing baseline SUVR
      predicted an increasing decline in episodic memory, but other effects on
      cognition were more limited. Finally, higher baseline amyloid burden among middle
      aged adults was related to changes in vocabulary, with the effect driven by 3
      apolipoprotein epsilon4 homozygotes. Conclusions and Relevance: These results
      suggest that the magnitude of amyloid burden at baseline is associated with the
      rate of cognitive decline over 4 years and potentially provides important
      information about the rate of future cognitive decline that is not available from
      a dichotomous positive/negative categorization.

PMID- 28558102
TI  - The Troponin Cascade: A Teachable Moment.

PMID- 28558101
TI  - Evolving State-Based Contraceptive and Abortion Policies.

PMID- 28558103
TI  - What to Do Following Fibrinolysis for ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction:
      Reappraising Routine Percutaneous Intervention.

PMID- 28558105
TI  - Confusing Terminology-Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome vs Malignant Hyperthermia
      Reply.

PMID- 28558106
TI  - Characterizing the Source of Text in Electronic Health Record Progress Notes.

PMID- 28558104
TI  - Effect of Attendance of the Child on Body Weight, Energy Intake, and Physical
      Activity in Childhood Obesity Treatment: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Family-based weight loss treatment (FBT) is considered the gold
      standard treatment for childhood obesity and is provided to the parent and child.
      However, parent-based treatment (PBT), which is provided to the parent without
      the child, could be similarly effective and easier to disseminate. Objective: To
      determine whether PBT is similarly effective as FBT on child weight loss over 24
      months. Secondary aims evaluated the effect of these 2 treatments on parent
      weight loss, child and parent dietary intake, child and parent physical activity,
      parenting style, and parent feeding behaviors. Design, Setting, and Participants:
      Randomized 2-arm noninferiority trial conducted at an academic medical center,
      University of California, San Diego, between July 2011 and July 2015.
      Participants included 150 overweight and obese 8- to 12-year-old children and
      their parents. Interventions: Both PBT and FBT were delivered in 20 one-hour
      group meetings with 30-minute individualized behavioral coaching sessions over 6
      months. Treatments were similar in content; the only difference was the
      attendance of the child. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome measure
      was child weight loss (body mass index [BMI] and BMI z score) at 6, 12, and 18
      months post treatment. Secondary outcomes were parent weight loss (BMI), child
      and parent energy intake, child and parent physical activity (moderate to
      vigorous physical activity minutes), parenting style, and parent feeding
      behaviors. Results: One hundred fifty children (mean BMI, 26.4; mean BMI z score,
      2.0; mean age, 10.4 years; 66.4% girls) and their parent (mean BMI, 31.9; mean
      age, 42.9 years; 87.3% women; and 31% Hispanic, 49% non-Hispanic white, and 20%
      other race/ethnicity) were randomly assigned to either FBT or PBT. Child weight
      loss after 6 months was -0.25 BMI z scores in both PBT and FBT. Intention-to
      treat analysis using mixed linear models showed that PBT was noninferior to FBT
      on all outcomes at 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up with a mean difference in
      child weight loss of 0.001 (95% CI, -0.06 to 0.06). Conclusions and Relevance:
      Parent-based treatment was as effective on child weight loss and several
      secondary outcomes (parent weight loss, parent and child energy intake, and
      parent and child physical activity). Parent-based treatment is a viable model to
      provide weight loss treatment to children. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov
      Identifier: NCT01197443.

PMID- 28558107
TI  - Folic Acid for the Prevention of Neural Tube Defects.

PMID- 28558108
TI  - Association of Prescription Drug Price Rebates in Medicare Part D With Patient
      Out-of-Pocket and Federal Spending.
AB  - The increasing cost of prescription drugs is a burden for patients and threatens
      the financial stability of the US health care system. Rebates are a form of price
      concession paid by a pharmaceutical manufacturer to the health plan sponsor or
      the pharmacy benefit manager working on the plan's behalf. Proponents argue that
      rebates result from vigorous negotiations that help lower overall drug costs.
      Critics argue that rebates have perversely increased the costs patients pay out
      of pocket, as well as the costs for Medicare as a whole. This special
      communication discusses how the availability of rebates for drugs covered by the
      Medicare Part D program may raise costs for patients and Medicare while
      increasing the profits of Part D plan sponsors and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
      Two policy alternatives are herein proposed that would reconfigure cost sharing
      to lower patient out-of-pocket costs and reduce cost shifting to Medicare.

PMID- 28558110
TI  - Safety leadership at construction sites: the importance of rule-oriented and
      participative leadership.
AB  - Objectives The construction industry accounted for >20% of all fatal occupational
      accidents in Europe in 2014. Leadership is an essential antecedent to
      occupational safety. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of
      transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented, participative, and laissez
      faire leadership on safety climate, safety behavior, and accidents in the Swedish
      and Danish construction industry. Sweden and Denmark are similar countries but
      have a large difference in occupational accidents rates. Methods A questionnaire
      study was conducted among a random sample of construction workers in both
      countries: 811 construction workers from 85 sites responded, resulting in site
      and individual response rates of 73% and 64%, respectively. Results The results
      indicated that transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented and
      participative leadership predict positive safety outcomes, and laissez-faire
      leadership predict negative safety outcomes. For example, rule-oriented
      leadership predicts a superior safety climate (beta=0.40, P<0.001), enhanced
      safety behavior (beta=0.15, P<0.001), and fewer accidents [odds ratio (OR) 0.78,
      95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.62-0.98]. The effect of rule-oriented
      leadership on workers' safety behavior was moderated by the level of
      participative leadership (beta=0.10, P<0.001), suggesting that when rules and
      plans are established in a collaborative manner, workers' motivation to comply
      with safety regulations and participate in proactive safety activities is
      elevated. The influence of leadership behaviors on safety outcomes were largely
      similar in Sweden and Denmark. Rule-oriented and participative leadership were
      more common in the Swedish than Danish construction industry, which may partly
      explain the difference in occupational accident rates. Conclusions Applying less
      laissez-faire leadership and more transformational, active transactional,
      participative and rule-oriented leadership appears to be an effective way for
      construction site managers to improve occupational safety in the industry.

PMID- 28558111
TI  - Clinical Results of Minimally Invasive Spine Stabilization for Spinal Metastases.
AB  - The goal of the study was to evaluate minimally invasive palliative surgery and
      the effect of postoperative adjuvant therapy for metastatic spinal tumor with a
      limited vital prognosis. Of the 70 patients who underwent palliative surgery for
      metastatic spinal tumor at the authors' hospital between March 2012 and May 2016,
      thirty-three were treated with minimally invasive spine stabilization (MISt)
      using percutaneous pedicle screws (PPSs) and included in the current study. Of
      the 33 patients, 26 were men and 7 were women; mean age at surgery was 68.6
      years. Intraoperatively, posterior decompression and fusion was performed in 17
      (51.5%) patients and fusion only was performed in 16 (48.5%). Mean operative time
      was 202.5 minutes, mean intraoperative blood loss was 331.6 mL, and
      intraoperative blood loss was 1500 mL or greater in 2 (6.1%) patients. Median
      postoperative survival time determined using the Kaplan-Meier method was 11.0
      months (95% confidence interval, 7.3-14.6). Regarding improvement of paralysis,
      neurological deficit was improved by at least 1 Frankel grade for 15 (45.5%)
      patients, and the number of ambulatory patients increased from 22 (66.7%) to 25
      (75.8%). Postoperative adjuvant therapy included chemotherapy in 17 (51.5%)
      patients, radiotherapy in 21 (63.6%), and bone-modifying agent treatment in 25
      (75.8%). The mean Barthel Index for activities of daily living improved from 53.5
      preoperatively to 71.5 postoperatively. Discharge to home was possible for 23
      (69.7%) patients. Activities of daily living for patients with metastatic spinal
      tumor were improved by minimally invasive palliative surgery with MISt using PPSs
      and postoperative adjuvant therapy. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(4):e693-e698.].

PMID- 28558112
TI  - Mid-term Results of Total Hip and Total Knee Arthroplasty in Patients With Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus.
AB  - With antiretroviral therapy, patients who are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
      positive are increasingly becoming candidates for total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Prior reports focus on perioperative
      complications, but longer-term outcomes remain unclear. The authors specifically
      analyzed clinical outcomes, perioperative complications, and survivorship free of
      periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) of THAs and TKAs in HIV-positive patients
      who had extended follow-up. A total of 21 HIV-positive patients who underwent 29
      primary arthroplasties (14 THAs, 15 TKAs) from 1992 to 2012 were retrospectively
      reviewed. Mean age was 43 years and mean follow-up was 8 years. Mean
      perioperative CD4 cell count was 450 cells/mL; only 2 patients had perioperative
      CD4 cell counts less than 200 cells/mL. At mid-term follow-up, THAs and TKAs were
      reliable in improving function (mean postoperative Harris Hip Score: 87, P<.01;
      mean postoperative Knee Society Score: 83, P<.01). The rate of perioperative
      complications was high (17%). Patients with both hemophilia and HIV were at
      particular risk for complications at 33% (P=.04). Survivorship free of deep PJI
      was 100% in THAs at 10 years and 93% in TKAs at 10 years. Only 1 (7%) patient (1
      TKA), who had a perioperative CD4 cell count of less than 200 cells/mL, was
      revised for deep PJI. In HIV-positive patients, both THAs and TKAs are reliable
      in alleviating pain and improving clinical function at mid-term follow-up.
      However, HIV-positive patients are at substantial risk of perioperative
      complications, especially with comorbid hemophilia. With antiretroviral therapy
      and maintained CD4 cell counts above 200 cells/mL, survivorship free of deep PJI
      approaches 100%. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(4):e699-e702.].

PMID- 28558113
TI  - Retrieval Analysis of Porous Titanium Glenoid Posts: An Evaluation of
      Osteointegration.
AB  - Glenoid component loosening is a commonly encountered complication of total
      shoulder replacements. Therefore, focus has been placed on glenoid fixation.
      Porous metal implants, which promote biological fixation through
      osteointegration, have provided an uncemented alternative to the traditional
      cemented implant. In this explantation study, the authors examined the bone
      ingrowth and ongrowth of a specific porous titanium glenoid peg. Six explanted
      polyethylene glenoid components with porous titanium-coated central pegs were
      identified in the authors' implant retrieval program via retrospective review.
      The retrieved implants were sectioned into thirds with a precision saw and
      underwent scanning electron microscopy for analysis of bone ingrowth and
      ongrowth. Bone ingrowth was calculated as bone volume fraction, or the fraction
      of available pore space filled with bone, whereas ongrowth was the percentage of
      the perimeter of the implant covered with bone. The 6 total shoulders included in
      the study were revised at an average of 16.3 months (range, 5-48 months) for
      instability secondary to subscapularis rupture, subscapularis rupture plus
      infection, or other rotator cuff tear. All glenoid components were grossly stable
      on retrieval and had an average of 23% bone ingrowth and 54% ongrowth. The
      preliminary results show that osteointegration into a porous titanium ingrowth
      glenoid component is possible in the short-term, even in the presence of an
      unfavorable biomechanical environment, such as instability and rotator cuff
      dysfunction, as well as infection. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(4):e703-e707.].

PMID- 28558114
TI  - Three-Dimensional Templating for Acetabular Component Alignment During Total Hip
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - Appropriate placement of the acetabular cup is an important determinant of
      implant stability and longevity. Malposition of acetabular cups negatively
      influences prosthesis survival and leads to an increased dislocation rate. The
      objective of the study was to determine the role of 3-dimensional templating in
      obtaining accurate acetabular component placement in total hip arthroplasty. In
      this computed tomography-based study, the authors identified 93 patients who
      underwent primary total hip arthroplasty with computer-assisted navigation. Using
      3-dimensional planning, the authors templated the acetabular component at an
      inclination of 40 degrees  and anteversion of 20 degrees . To classify acetabular
      cup coverage by bone, the acetabulum was used as a clock face with the center of
      the transverse acetabular ligament (TAL) as 6-o'clock. Analyses revealed that 72%
      of cups were uncovered between 9- to 1-o'clock for right hips. On the left side,
      88% of cups were uncovered between 11- to 3-o'clock. Across all hips, 74% of cups
      had a 1-o'clock position at the most lateral aspect. Further analysis revealed
      that 46% of acetabular cups had a teardrop at the same level of the most inferior
      aspect of the cup, whereas only 37% of cups had a teardrop above the inferior
      aspect of the cup. Finally, the acetabular component was aligned with the TAL in
      76% of hips, retroverted to the TAL in 16%, and anteverted to the TAL in 8%. The
      current study demonstrates a useful gross intraoperative reference tool to
      standardize cup position without the need for additional equipment and reliance
      on anatomical landmarks. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(4):e708-e713.].

PMID- 28558115
TI  - Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography Scans of the
      Glenoid Version in Anterior Dislocation of the Shoulder.
AB  - The glenoid version is an important factor in the etiology of anterior
      dislocation of the shoulder and the planning of shoulder surgery. Few reports
      compare the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of the glenoid version
      with those of computed tomography (CT). This study aimed to show that it is
      possible to use MRI instead of CT, which is accepted as the gold standard today
      for the evaluation of the glenoid version. A total of 55 patients with a history
      of 1 nonsurgically treated unilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulder who
      had both MRI and CT records for the dislocated shoulders constituted the study
      group. The glenoid version was measured in the axial plane on MRI and CT. Mean
      glenoid version measured by the observers was -1.6 degrees +/-4.7 degrees  (95%
      confidence interval, -2.3 degrees  to -0.8 degrees ) and -1.8 degrees +/-4.3
      degrees  (95% confidence interval, -2.5 degrees  to -1.2 degrees ) by CT and MRI,
      respectively (P=.126). The evaluation of the CT and MRI measurements made by the
      3 observers (X, Y, and Z) revealed no significant difference, as the P values of
      X CT - X MRI, Y CT - Y MRI, and Z CT - Z MRI were .550, .406, and .238,
      respectively. Interclass correlation among the 3 observers for CT and MRI was
      0.996 and 0.981, respectively. The imaging methods of MRI and CT can be
      interchangeably used in the evaluation of the glenoid version in cases of
      anterior dislocation of the shoulder. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(4):e687-e692.].

PMID- 28558116
TI  - Sentinel Lymph Node Technique in Endometrial Cancer.
AB  - Importance: Endometrial cancer (EMCA) is the most common gynecologic malignancy,
      with an estimated 54,000 new cases and 10,000 deaths in the United States in
      2015. Lymph node metastasis is the most significant prognostic factor in EMCA.
      Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping has become a well-accepted procedure in
      surgical oncology and may strike a balance between the risks and benefits of
      lymphadenectomy. Objective: The aim of this study was to review the current
      literature regarding the history, techniques, and clinical application of SLN
      mapping in EMCA. Evidence Acquisition: Evidence was obtained through systematic
      literature review through PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov. Conclusions: Sentinel
      lymph node biopsy for EMCA is an accepted approach to the staging of this cancer;
      however, a consensus approach to the SLN biopsy technique and pathologic
      assessment is needed. Surgeons newly adopting the technique should proceed with
      caution and care to monitor outcomes.

PMID- 28558117
TI  - Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone-Agonist Triggering and a Freeze-All Approach: The
      Final Step in Eliminating Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome?
AB  - Importance: In vitro fertilization (IVF) has evolved dramatically in recent
      decades; however, clinical practices have been slow to adopt these advancements,
      particularly regarding final oocyte maturation and the timing of embryo transfer.
      Concerns still exist over the ability of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)
      agonists and elective embryo cryopreservation to reduce the risk of ovarian
      hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) without compromising pregnancy outcomes.
      Objective: This review investigates IVF outcomes associated with GnRH-agonist
      triggering and elective embryo cryopreservation. The safety and efficacy of GnRH
      agonist triggering are compared with conventional human chorionic gonadotropin
      triggering, and frozen embryo transfers are weighed against fresh transfers.
      Evidence Acquisition: A literature search was conducted using OVID (MEDLINE) and
      PubMed databases. The search strategy included keywords such as "ovarian
      hyperstimulation syndrome or OHSS," "GnRH-agonist triggering," "cryopreservation
      or freeze-all," and "IVF outcomes." A total of 214 articles were considered for
      review. Results: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist triggering reduces OHSS
      incidence without compromising oocyte retrieval and fertilization rates in donor
      and autologous cycles. However, GnRH-agonist triggering causes a luteal phase
      deficiency in autologous cycles, deleteriously compromising pregnancy rates.
      Elective embryo cryopreservation overcomes this deficiency, reducing the risk of
      OHSS and may improve neonatal and obstetric outcomes. Conclusions: Gonadotropin
      releasing hormone agonist triggering should be considered in all donor cycles. It
      should also be selectively considered in autologous cycles in combination with
      elective cryopreservation of all viable embryos.

PMID- 28558118
TI  - Mosquito-Borne Diseases as a Global Health Problem: Implications for Pregnancy
      and Travel.
AB  - Importance: Mosquitoes are the most common disease vectors worldwide. A
      combination of factors, including changes in public health policy, climate
      change, and global travel, has led to the resurgence and spread of these diseases
      in our modern world. Pregnant women are vulnerable to a number of these
      illnesses, and obstetricians are likely to encounter pregnant travelers who have
      been exposed. Objective: This review was conducted to summarize knowledge of
      mosquito-borne diseases and their relevance in pregnancy. This will allow
      obstetricians to provide proper advice regarding travel and prepare providers to
      recognize manifestations of these illnesses in the pregnant woman. Evidence
      Acquisition: A review of the current literature was performed to summarize the
      various manifestations of mosquito-borne illnesses in pregnant women and discuss
      obstetric outcomes and management of disease in pregnancy. Results: Mosquito
      borne illnesses usually manifest after a period of incubation lasting from days
      to weeks. Symptoms usually include a febrile illness but may be nonspecific and
      may masquerade as pregnancy-specific illnesses such as preeclampsia or HELLP
      (hemolysis, elevated liver enzyme levels, and low platelet levels); a large
      number of patients remain asymptomatic. Pregnancy-related outcomes include
      spontaneous abortion, intrauterine fetal demise, intrauterine transmission to the
      fetus, and congenital anomalies. Management during pregnancy is mainly
      supportive. Precautions against disease include protective clothing and insect
      repellents. Vaccines are either available or in development. Conclusions and
      Relevance: Mosquito-borne disease should be considered in pregnant women who
      present with a febrile illness and a relevant exposure history. Prompt
      recognition can allow supportive treatment to the mother and fetal resuscitation
      and surveillance.

PMID- 28558119
TI  - Structural dissimilarity sampling with dynamically self-guiding selection.
AB  - Structural dissimilarity sampling (SDS) has been proposed as an enhanced
      conformational sampling method for reproducing the structural transitions of a
      given protein. SDS consists of cycles of two steps: (1) Selections of initial
      structures with structural dissimilarities by referring to a measure. (2)
      Conformational resampling by restarting short-time molecular dynamics (MD)
      simulations from the initial structures. In the present study, an efficient
      measure is proposed as a dynamically self-guiding selection to accelerate the
      structural transitions from a reactant state to a product state as an extension
      to the original SDS. In the extended SDS, the inner product (IP) between the
      reactant and the snapshots generated by short-time MD simulations are evaluated
      and ranked according to the IPs at every cycle. Then, the snapshots with low IPs
      are selected as initial structures for the short-time MD simulations. This scheme
      enables one to choose dissimilar and distant initial structures from the
      reactant, and thus the initial structures dynamically head towards the product,
      promoting structural transitions from the reactant. To confirm the conformational
      sampling efficiency, the extended SDS was applied to maltodextrin binding protein
      (MBP), and we successfully reproduced the structural transition from the open to
      closed states with submicrosecond-order simulation times. However, a conventional
      long-time MD simulation failed to reproduce the same structural transition. We
      also compared the performance with that obtained by the ordinary SDS and other
      sampling techniques that have been developed by us to characterize the possible
      utility of the extended SDS for actual applications. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28558120
TI  - Development of a multisite model for Ni(II) ion in solution from thermodynamic
      and kinetic data.
AB  - Force-field parameters are developed for a multisite model of Ni(II) ions to be
      used in molecular dynamics simulations combined to enhanced sampling methods. The
      performances of two charge-partitioning schemes are validated by taking into
      account structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic observables. One of the two
      models, featuring partial charges on the dummy atoms only, matches both Ni(II)
      free energy of solvation and water exchange rates. Such model is particularly
      suited to study complexation events at a fully dynamic description. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28558122
TI  - Morphology-Conserved Transformations of Metal-Based Precursors to Hierarchically
      Porous Micro-/Nanostructures for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage.
AB  - To meet future market demand, developing new structured materials for
      electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems is essential.
      Hierarchically porous micro-/nanostructures are favorable for designing such high
      performance materials because of their unique features, including: i) the
      prevention of nanosized particle agglomeration and minimization of interfacial
      contact resistance, ii) more active sites and shorter ionic diffusion lengths
      because of their size compared with their large-size counterparts, iii)
      convenient electrolyte ingress and accommodation of large volume changes, and iv)
      enhanced light-scattering capability. Here, hierarchically porous micro
      /nanostructures produced by morphology-conserved transformations of metal-based
      precursors are summarized, and their applications as electrodes and/or catalysts
      in rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, and solar cells are discussed.
      Finally, research and development challenges relating to hierarchically porous
      micro-/nanostructures that must be overcome to increase their utilization in
      renewable energy applications are outlined.

PMID- 28558121
TI  - Early-life stress diminishes the increase in neurogenesis after exercise in adult
      female mice.
AB  - Exposure to early-life stress (ES) has long-lasting consequences for later
      cognition and hippocampal plasticity, including adult hippocampal neurogenesis
      (AHN), i.e., the generation of new neurons from stem/progenitor cells in the
      adult hippocampal dentate gyrus. We had previously demonstrated a sex-specific
      vulnerability to ES exposure; female mice exposed to ES from P2-P9 exhibited only
      very mild cognitive changes and no reductions in AHN as adult, whereas ES-exposed
      male mice showed impaired cognition closely associated with reductions in AHN.
      Given the apparent resilience of AHN to ES in females, we here questioned whether
      ES has also altered the capacity to respond to positive stimuli for neurogenesis.
      We therefore investigated whether exercise, known for its strong pro-neurogenic
      effects, can still stimulate AHN in adult female mice that had been earlier
      exposed to ES. We confirm a strong pro-neurogenic effect of exercise in the
      dorsal hippocampus of 8-month-old control female mice, but this positive
      neurogenic response is less apparent in female ES mice. These data provide novel
      insights in the lasting consequences of ES on hippocampal plasticity in females
      and also indicate that ES might lastingly reduce the responsiveness of the
      hippocampal stem cell pool, to exercise, in female mice.

PMID- 28558123
TI  - DLPNO-CCSD(T) scaled methods for the accurate treatment of large supramolecular
      complexes.
AB  - In this work, we present scaled variants of the DLPNO-CCSD(T) method, dubbed as
      (LS)DLPNO-CCSD(T) and (NS)DLPNO-CCSD(T), to obtain accurate interaction energies
      in supramolecular complexes governed by noncovalent interactions. The novel
      scaled schemes are based on the linear combination of the DLPNO-CCSD(T)
      correlation energies calculated with the standard (LoosePNO and NormalPNO) and
      modified (Loose2PNO and Normal2PNO) DLPNO-CCSD(T) accuracy levels. The scaled
      DLPNO-CCSD(T) variants provide nearly TightPNO accuracy, which is essential for
      the quantification of weak noncovalent interactions, with a noticeable saving in
      computational cost. Importantly, the accuracy of the proposed schemes is
      preserved irrespective of the nature and strength of the supramolecular
      interaction. The (LS)DLPNO-CCSD(T) and (NS)DLPNO-CCSD(T) protocols have been used
      to study in depth the role of the CH-pi versus pi-pi interactions in the
      supramolecular complex formed by the electron-donor truxene-tetrathiafulvalene
      (truxTTF) and the electron-acceptor hemifullerene (C30 H12 ). (NS)DLPNO
      CCSD(T)/CBS calculations clearly reveal the higher stability of staggered
      (dominated by CH-pi interactions) versus bowl-in-bowl (dominated by pi-pi
      interactions) arrangements in the truxTTF*C30 H12 heterodimer. Hemifullerene and
      similar carbon-based buckybowls are therefore expected to self-assemble with
      donor compounds in a richer way other than the typical concave-convex pi-pi
      arrangement found in fullerene-based aggregates. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28558124
TI  - Comparison of glass slides and various digital-slide modalities for cytopathology
      screening and interpretation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whole-slide imaging in cytology is limited when glass slides are
      digitized without z-stacks for focusing. Different vendors have started to
      provide z-stacking solutions to overcome this limitation. The Panoptiq imaging
      system allows users to create digital files combining low-magnification panoramic
      images with regions of interest (ROIs) that are imaged with high-magnification z
      stacks. The aim of this study was to compare such panoramic images with
      conventional whole-slide images and glass slides for the tasks of screening and
      interpretation in cytopathology. METHODS: Thirty glass slides, including 10
      ThinPrep Papanicolaou tests and 20 nongynecologic cytology cases, were digitized
      with an Olympus BX45 integrated microscope with an attached Prosilica GT camera.
      ViewsIQ software was used for image acquisition and viewing. These glass slides
      were also scanned on an Aperio ScanScope XT at *40 (0.25 MUm/pixel) with 1 z
      plane and were viewed with ImageScope software. Digital and glass sides were
      screened and dotted/annotated by a cytotechnologist and were subsequently
      reviewed by 3 cytopathologists. For panoramic images, the cytotechnologist
      manually created digital maps and selected representative ROIs to generate z
      stacks at a higher magnification. After 3-week washout periods, panoramic images
      were compared with Aperio digital slides and glass slides. RESULTS: The Panoptiq
      system permitted fine focusing of thick smears and cell clusters. In comparison
      with glass slides, the average screening times were 5.5 and 1.8 times longer with
      Panoptiq and Aperio images, respectively, but this improved with user experience.
      There was no statistical difference in diagnostic concordance between all 3
      modalities. Users' diagnostic confidence was also similar for all modalities.
      CONCLUSIONS: The Aperio whole-slide scanner with 1 z-plane scanning and the
      Panoptiq imaging system with z-stacking are both suitable for cytopathology
      screening and interpretation. However, ROI z-stacks do offer a superior mechanism
      for overcoming focusing problems commonly encountered with digital cytology
      slides. Unlike whole-slide imaging, the acquisition of representative z-stack
      images with the Panoptiq system requires a trained cytologist to create digital
      files. Cancer Cytopathol 2017;125:701-9. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28558127
TI  - Reliability and validity analyses are essential for questionnaire research.

PMID- 28558125
TI  - Privileged Structures Revisited.
AB  - Privileged structures inspire compound library design in medicinal chemistry. We
      performed a comprehensive analysis of 1.4 million bioactive compounds, with the
      aim of assessing the prevalence of certain molecular frameworks. We used the
      Shannon entropy formalism to quantify the promiscuity of the most frequently
      observed atom scaffolds across the annotated target families. This analysis
      revealed an apparent inverse relationship between hydrogen-bond-acceptor count of
      a scaffold and its potential promiscuity. The results further suggest that
      chemically easily accessible scaffolds can serve as templates for the generation
      of bespoke compound libraries with differing degrees of multiple target
      engagement, and heterocyclic, sp3 -rich frameworks are particularly suited for
      target-focused library design. The outcome of our study enables us to place some
      of the many narratives surrounding the concept of privileged structures into a
      critical context.

PMID- 28558126
TI  - Cell wall peptidolipids of Mycobacterium avium: from genetic prediction to exact
      structure of a nonribosomal peptide.
AB  - Mycobacteria have a complex cell wall structure that includes many lipids;
      however, even within a single subspecies of Mycobacterium avium these lipids can
      differ. Total lipids from an M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) ovine strain
      (S-type) contained no identifiable glycopeptidolipids or lipopentapeptide (L5P),
      yet both lipids are present in other M. avium subspecies. We determined the
      genetic and phenotypic basis for this difference using sequence analysis as well
      as biochemical and physico-chemical approaches. This strategy showed that a
      nonribosomal peptide synthase, encoded by mps1, contains three amino acid
      specifying modules in ovine strains, compared to five modules in bovine strains
      (C-type). Sequence analysis predicted these modules would produce the tripeptide
      Phe-N-Methyl-Val-Ala with a lipid moiety, termed lipotripeptide (L3P).
      Comprehensive physico-chemical analysis of Map S397 extracts confirmed the
      structural formula of the native L3P as D-Phe-N-Methyl-L-Val-L-Ala-OMe attached
      in N-ter to a 20-carbon fatty acid chain. These data demonstrate that S-type
      strains, which are more adapted in sheep, produce a unique lipid. There is a dose
      dependent effect observed for L3P on upregulation of CD25+ CD8 T cells from
      infected cows, while L5P effects were static. In contrast, L5P demonstrated a
      significantly stronger induction of CD25+ B cells from infected animals compared
      to L3P.

PMID- 28558128
TI  - Carbon-MEMS-Based Alternating Stacked MoS2 @rGO-CNT Micro-Supercapacitor with
      High Capacitance and Energy Density.
AB  - A novel process to fabricate a carbon-microelectromechanical-system-based
      alternating stacked MoS2 @rGO-carbon-nanotube (CNT) micro-supercapacitor (MSC) is
      reported. The MSC is fabricated by successively repeated spin-coating of MoS2
      @rGO/photoresist and CNT/photoresist composites twice, followed by photoetching,
      developing, and pyrolysis. MoS2 @rGO and CNTs are embedded in the carbon
      microelectrodes, which cooperatively enhance the performance of the MSC. The
      fabricated MSC exhibits a high areal capacitance of 13.7 mF cm-2 and an energy
      density of 1.9 uWh cm-2 (5.6 mWh cm-3 ), which exceed many reported carbon- and
      MoS2 -based MSCs. The MSC also retains 68% of capacitance at a current density of
      2 mA cm-2 (5.9 A cm-3 ) and an outstanding cycling performance (96.6% after 10
      000 cycles, at a scan rate of 1 V s-1 ). Compared with other MSCs, the MSC in
      this study is fabricated by a low-cost and facile process, and it achieves an
      excellent and stable electrochemical performance. This approach could be highly
      promising for applications in integration of micro/nanostructures into
      microdevices/systems.

PMID- 28558130
TI  - Strigolactones, karrikins and beyond.
AB  - The plant hormones strigolactones are synthesized from carotenoids and signal via
      the alpha/beta hydrolase DWARF 14 (D14) and the F-box protein MORE AXILLARY
      GROWTH 2 (MAX2). Karrikins, molecules produced upon fire, share MAX2 for
      signalling, but depend on the D14 paralog KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE 2 (KAI2) for
      perception with strong evidence that the MAX2-KAI2 protein complex might also
      recognize so far unknown plant-made karrikin-like molecules. Thus, the phenotypes
      of the max2 mutants are the complex consequence of a loss of both D14-dependent
      and KAI2-dependent signalling, hence, the reason why some biological roles,
      attributed to strigolactones based on max2 phenotypes, could never be observed in
      d14 or in the strigolactone-deficient max3 and max4 mutants. Moreover, the
      broadly used synthetic strigolactone analog rac-GR24 has been shown to mimic
      strigolactone as well as karrikin(-like) signals, providing an extra level of
      complexity in the distinction of the unique and common roles of both molecules in
      plant biology. Here, a critical overview is provided of the diverse biological
      processes regulated by strigolactones and/or karrikins. These two growth
      regulators are considered beyond their boundaries, and the importance of the yet
      unknown karrikin-like molecules is discussed as well.

PMID- 28558129
TI  - Somatostatin depresses the excitability of subicular bursting cells: Roles of
      inward rectifier K+ channels, KCNQ channels and Epac.
AB  - The hippocampus is a crucial component for cognitive and emotional processing.
      The subiculum provides much of the output for this structure but the modulation
      and function of this region is surprisingly under-studied. The neuromodulator
      somatostatin (SST) interacts with five subtypes of SST receptors (sst1 to sst5 )
      and each of these SST receptor subtypes is coupled to Gi proteins resulting in
      inhibition of adenylyl cyclase (AC) and decreased level of intracellular cAMP.
      SST modulates many physiological functions including cognition, emotion,
      autonomic responses and locomotion. Whereas SST has been shown to depress
      neuronal excitability in the subiculum, the underlying cellular and molecular
      mechanisms have not yet been determined. Here, we show that SST hyperpolarized
      two classes of subicular neurons with a calculated EC50 of 0.1 MUM. Application
      of SST (1 MUM) induced outward holding currents by primarily activating K+
      channels including the G-protein-activated inwardly-rectifying potassium channels
      (GIRK) and KCNQ (M) channels, although inhibition of cation channels in some
      cells may also be implicated. SST-elicited hyperpolarization was mediated by
      activation of sst2 receptors and required the function of G proteins. The SST
      induced hyperpolarization resulted from decreased activity of AC and reduced
      levels of cAMP but did not require the activity of either PKA or PKC. Inhibition
      of Epac2, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor, partially blocked SST-mediated
      hyperpolarization of subicular neurons. Furthermore, application of SST resulted
      in a robust depression of subicular action potential firing and the SST-induced
      hyperpolarization was responsible for its inhibitory action on LTP at the CA1
      subicilum synapses. Our results provide a novel cellular and molecular mechanism
      that may explain the roles of SST in modulation of subicular function and be
      relevant to SST-related physiological functions.

PMID- 28558131
TI  - An association between genetic variation in the glutamatergic system and suicide
      attempts in alcohol-dependent individuals.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pathological alterations of glutamatergic systems were
      observed in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. There is some evidence
      that this system may be involved in the genetic vulnerability to suicide. The aim
      of the present study was to analyze possible relationship between the GRIN2B
      polymorphism and suicidal behavior. We hypothesized that this genetic factor may
      be associated with suicide attempts in alcohol-dependent patients and with death
      by suicide. METHODS: To analyze the relationship between GRIN2B and suicide
      attempts, the selected rs2268115 polymorphism was genotyped in a sample of 345
      alcohol-dependent individuals stratified by the history of suicide attempts. The
      second part of the study concerning suicide was based on a sample of 510 suicide
      victims and 450 controls. RESULTS: The frequency of rs2268115 G allele among
      alcohol-dependent patients with the history of suicide attempts was significantly
      higher than among non-suicidal alcohol-dependent individuals (OR = 1.45, p =
      .033). This association was more significant when analyzing alcohol-dependent
      patients only without co-occurring drug dependence (OR = 1.62, p = .021). The
      analyzed GRIN2B polymorphism was associated with a twofold increase in odds of a
      suicide attempt (OR = 2.01, p = .004). No relationships between rs2268115 and
      death by suicide were identified. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest
      that glutamatergic system influence susceptibility to suicide attempts in alcohol
      dependent individuals. Suicidal behavior and alcohol dependence may share a
      common etiology related to the glutamatergic system. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: The
      major contribution of the present study is a novel finding of the possible
      association between GRIN2B rs2268115 polymorphism and suicide attempts in alcohol
      dependent individuals. (Am J Addict 2017;26:595-601).

PMID- 28558133
TI  - Loops and Cycles at Surfaces: The Unique Properties of Topological Polymer
      Brushes.
AB  - Grafting synthetic polymers to inorganic and organic surfaces to yield polymer
      "brushes" has represented a revolution in many fields of materials science.
      Polymer brushes provide colloidal stabilization to nanoparticles (NPs), prevent
      and/or regulate the adsorption of proteins on biomaterials, and significantly
      reduce friction when applied to two surfaces sheared against each other. Can the
      performance of polymer brushes as steric stabilizers and boundary lubricants be
      improved? The answer to this question encompasses the application of polymer
      grafts presenting different chain topologies, beyond linearity. In particular,
      grafted polymers forming loops and cycles at the surface have been recently
      demonstrated to enable the modulation of interfacial physicochemical properties,
      including nanomechanical and nanotribological, to an extent that is difficultly
      addressed by using their linear counterparts. Loop and cyclic polymer brushes
      provide enhanced steric stabilization to surfaces, increase their biopassivity
      and show superlubricious behavior. Their distinctive structure, the methods
      applied to fabricate them and their application in several technologically
      relevant fields of materials science are reviewed in this contribution.

PMID- 28558134
TI  - A Strategy to Design High-Density Nanoscale Devices utilizing Vapor Deposition of
      Metal Halide Perovskite Materials.
AB  - The demand for high memory density has increased due to increasing needs of
      information storage, such as big data processing and the Internet of Things.
      Organic-inorganic perovskite materials that show nonvolatile resistive switching
      memory properties have potential applications as the resistive switching layer
      for next-generation memory devices, but, for practical applications, these
      materials should be utilized in high-density data-storage devices. Here,
      nanoscale memory devices are fabricated by sequential vapor deposition of
      organolead halide perovskite (OHP) CH3 NH3 PbI3 layers on wafers perforated with
      250 nm via-holes. These devices have bipolar resistive switching properties, and
      show low-voltage operation, fast switching speed (200 ns), good endurance, and
      data-retention time >105 s. Moreover, the use of sequential vapor deposition is
      extended to deposit CH3 NH3 PbI3 as the memory element in a cross-point array
      structure. This method to fabricate high-density memory devices could be used for
      memory cells that occupy large areas, and to overcome the scaling limit of
      existing methods; it also presents a way to use OHPs to increase memory storage
      capacity.

PMID- 28558132
TI  - The ratio of pericardial to subcutaneous adipose tissues is associated with
      insulin resistance.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between pericardial adipose tissue (PAT)
      and the ratio of PAT to subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) with insulin resistance
      in adults with and without type 1 diabetes (T1D). METHODS: Data for this report
      came from a substudy of the Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 1 Diabetes
      cohort (n = 83; 38 with T1D, 45 without T1D). Insulin resistance was measured by
      hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) was used to
      measure visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and SAT. PAT was measured from CT scans of
      the heart. RESULTS: PAT and the ratio of PAT to SAT was higher in males compared
      to females. After adjustment for demographics, diabetes, blood pressure and lipid
      factors, BMI, VAT, and log PAT/SAT ratio, log PAT was positively associated with
      the glucose infusion rate (GIR) in females only (beta = 3.36 +/- 1.96, P = 0.097,
      P for sex interaction = 0.055). Conversely, the log PAT/SAT ratio was
      significantly associated with decreased GIR in both males and females (beta = 
      2.08 +/- 1.03, P = 0.047, P for sex interaction = 0.768). CONCLUSIONS: A
      significant association between the PAT/SAT ratio and insulin resistance was
      found, independent of BMI, VAT, and PAT. These results highlight the importance
      of considering fat distribution independent of volume.

PMID- 28558135
TI  - Sub-Micron Polymeric Stomatocytes as Promising Templates for Confined
      Crystallization and Diffraction Experiments.
AB  - The possibility of using sub-micrometer polymeric stomatocytes is investigated to
      effectuate confined crystallization of inorganic compounds. These bowl-shaped
      polymeric compartments facilitate confined crystallization while their glassy
      surfaces provide their crystalline cargos with convenient shielding from the
      electron beam's harsh effects during transmission electron microscopy
      experiments. Stomatocytes host the growth of a single nanocrystal per nanocavity,
      and the electron diffraction experiments reveal that their glassy membranes do
      not interfere with the diffraction patterns obtained from their crystalline
      cargos. Therefore, it is expected that the encapsulation and crystallization
      within these compartments can be considered as a promising template (nanovials)
      that hold and protect nanocrystals and protein clusters from the direct radiation
      damage before data acquisition, while they are examined by modern crystallography
      methodologies such as serial femtosecond crystallography.

PMID- 28558136
TI  - Multiphoton Direct Laser Writing and 3D Imaging of Polymeric Freestanding
      Architectures for Cell Colonization.
AB  - The realization of 3D architectures for the study of cell growth, proliferation,
      and differentiation is a task of fundamental importance for both technological
      and biological communities involved in the development of biomimetic cell culture
      environments. Here we report the fabrication of 3D freestanding scaffolds,
      realized by multiphoton direct laser writing and seeded with neuroblastoma cells,
      and their multitechnique characterization using advanced 3D fluorescence imaging
      approaches. The high accuracy of the fabrication process (~200 nm) allows a much
      finer control of the micro- and nanoscale features compared to other 3D printing
      technologies based on fused deposition modeling, inkjet printing, selective laser
      sintering, or polyjet technology. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides
      detailed insights about the morphology of both cells and cellular
      interconnections around the 3D architecture. On the other hand, the nature of the
      seeding in the inner core of the 3D scaffold, inaccessible by conventional SEM
      imaging, is unveiled by light sheet fluorescence microscopy and multiphoton
      confocal imaging highlighting an optimal cell colonization both around and within
      the 3D scaffold as well as the formation of long neuritic extensions. The results
      open appealing scenarios for the use of the developed 3D fabrication/3D imaging
      protocols in several neuroscientific contexts.

PMID- 28558137
TI  - Complete assignment of the 1 H NMR data and reassignment of 13 C NMR data of four
      spongian diterpenes.

PMID- 28558138
TI  - A long-term copper exposure in a freshwater ecosystem using lotic mesocosms:
      Invertebrate community responses.
AB  - A lotic mesocosm study was carried out in 20-m-long channels, under continuous,
      environmentally realistic concentrations of copper (Cu) in low, medium, and high
      exposures (nominally 0, 5, 25, and 75 MUg L-1 ; average effective concentrations
      <0.5, 4, 20, and 57 MUg L-1 respectively) for 18 mo. Total abundance, taxa
      richness, and community structure of zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, and
      emerging insects were severely affected at Cu treatment levels of 25 and 75 MUg L
      1 . Some taxa were sensitive to Cu, including gastropods such as Lymnaea spp. and
      Physa sp., crustaceans such as Chydorus sphaericus, Gammarus pulex, and Asellus
      aquaticus, rotifers such as Mytilina sp. and Trichocerca sp., leeches such as
      Erpobdella sp., and the emergence of dipteran insects such as Chironomini. Other
      taxa appeared to be tolerant or favored by indirect effects, as in Chironimidae
      larvae, the emergence of Orthocladiinae, and the zooplankter Vorticella sp.,
      which increased in the 25 and 75 MUg L-1 treatments. After approximately 8 mo of
      Cu exposure, the macroinvertebrate community in the high treatment was decimated
      to the point that few organisms could be detected, with moderate effects in the
      medium treatment, and very slight effects in the low-Cu treatment. Subsequently,
      most taxa in the high-Cu exposure began a gradual and partial recovery. By the
      end of the study at 18 mo, macroinvertebrate taxa richness was similar to control
      richness, although overall abundances remained lower than controls. After 18 mo
      of copper exposure, a no-observed-effect concentration at the community level for
      consumers was set at 5 MUg L-1 (4 MUg L-1 as average effective concentration),
      and a lowest-observed-effect concentration at 25 MUg L-1 (20 MUg L-1 as average
      effective concentration). Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:2698-2714. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28558139
TI  - Safety and tolerability of surfactant nasal irrigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abnormal mucus composition and bacterial biofilms are thought to
      contribute to the pathophysiology of rhinosinusitis. Addition of a mucoactive
      surfactant to saline irrigation solution has been hypothesized to address these
      factors. We evaluated the safety and tolerability of a reformulated surfactant in
      a sample of normal subjects. METHODS: A total of 33 volunteers were randomly
      assigned to receive either surfactant solution or buffered saline at baseline in
      a controlled crossover study design. Each subject underwent rhinoscopic exam and
      in-office smell testing via the 40-question smell identification test (SIT).
      Those with non-normosmic results or active rhinitis symptoms were excluded.
      Subjects were instructed to irrigate twice daily with the selected solution for 1
      week while keeping a daily diary. For week 2, treatment was stopped. During week
      3, each group switched to the other treatment. Exam, SIT, and degree of
      congestion were assessed after each phase. RESULTS: Use of surfactant led to a
      marginal reduction in mean SIT score of 1.5 points, which was statistically
      significant (p = 0.012). A clinically meaningful reduction in SIT score, defined
      as >=4 points, was observed in 18% (6/33) of subjects after surfactant vs 3%
      (1/33) after saline (p = 0.046). During the surfactant phase, moderate or severe
      congestion was reported in 29% (8/28) of subjects completing the diary. In
      contrast, only 6% (2/32) of subjects reported moderate congestion after the
      saline phase (p = 0.021). CONCLUSION: In normal volunteers, surfactant nasal
      irrigation may be associated with tolerability issues due to congestion. A subset
      may experience reduction in olfactory acuity that appears reversible.

PMID- 28558140
TI  - New oleanane saponins from the roots of Dendrobangia boliviana identified by LC
      SPE-NMR.

PMID- 28558141
TI  - Self-Powered, Flexible, and Solution-Processable Perovskite Photodetector Based
      on Low-Cost Carbon Cloth.
AB  - Flexible perovskite photodetectors are usually constructed on indium-tin-oxide
      coated polymer substrates, which are expensive, fragile, and not resistant to
      high temperature. Herein, for the first time, a high-performance flexible
      perovskite photodetector is fabricated based on low-cost carbon cloth via a
      facile solution processable strategy. In this device, perovskite microcrystal and
      Spiro-OMeTAD (hole transporting material) blended film act as active materials
      for light detection, and carbon cloth serves as both a flexible substrate and a
      conductive electrode. The as-fabricated photodetector shows a broad spectrum
      response from ultraviolet to near-infrared light, high responsivity, fast
      response speed, long-term stability, and self-powered capability. Flexible
      devices show negligible degradation after several tens of bending cycles and at
      the extremely bending angle of 180 degrees . This work promises a new technique
      to construct flexible, high-performance photodetectors with low cost and self
      powered capability.

PMID- 28558142
TI  - Dearomative Intramolecular (4+3) Cycloadditions of Arenes with Epoxy and
      Aziridinyl Enolsilanes.
AB  - An intramolecular (4+3) cycloaddition of epoxy and aziridinyl enolsilanes with
      benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene derivatives is reported. Highly
      functionalized polycyclic alcohols and amines are generated under relatively mild
      reaction conditions with yields up to 89 %. Optically enriched cycloadducts are
      obtained from cycloadditions of enantiomerically pure epoxides and aziridines.

PMID- 28558144
TI  - The Nature of Ion Conduction in Methylammonium Lead Iodide: A Multimethod
      Approach.
AB  - By applying a multitude of experimental techniques including 1 H, 14 N, 207 Pb
      NMR and 127 I NMR/NQR, tracer diffusion, reaction cell and doping experiments, as
      well as stoichiometric variation, conductivity, and polarization experiments,
      iodine ions are unambiguously shown to be the mobile species in CH3 NH3 PbI3 ,
      with iodine vacancies shown to represent the mechanistic centers under
      equilibrium conditions. Pb2+ and CH3 NH3+ ions do not significantly contribute to
      the long range transport (upper limits for their contributions are given),
      whereby the latter exhibit substantial local motion. The decisive electronic
      contribution to the mixed conductivity in the experimental window stems from
      electron holes. As holes can be associated with iodine orbitals, local variations
      of the iodine stoichiometry may be fast and enable light effects on ion
      transport.

PMID- 28558146
TI  - Cyanine based Nanoprobes for Cancer Theranostics.
AB  - Cyanine dyes are greatly accredited in the development of non-invasive therapy
      that can "see" and "treat" tumor cells via imaging, photothermal and photodynamic
      treatment. However, these dyes suffer from poor pharmacokinetics inducing severe
      toxicity to normal cells, insufficient accumulation in tumor regions and rapid
      photobleaching when delivered in free forms. Nanoparticles engineered to
      encapsulate these compounds and delivering them into tumor regions have increased
      rapidly, however, so far, these nanoparticles (NPs) have not proved to be so
      effective to circumvent existing challenges. Newly designed multifunctional smart
      nanocarriers that can improve phototherapeutic properties of these dyes, co
      encapsulate multiple potent therapeutic compounds, and simultaneously overcome
      limitations related to tumor recurrence, metastases, limited intracellular
      uptake, and tumor hypoxia have potential to revolutionize modern paradigm of
      cancer therapy. Such cyanine based multifunctional nanocarriers integrating
      imaging and therapy in a single platform can effectively produce better clinical
      outcomes in cancer treatment. This review briefly summarizes recent advancements
      of cyanine nanoprobes that are currently used as imaging/phototherapeutic agents
      in unimodal/bimodal/trimodal cancer theranostics. Finally, we conclude this
      review by addressing challenges of pre-existing therapeutic systems and designs
      adopted to overcome them with a brief insight assimilating future perspective of
      emerging cyanine-based NPs in cancer theranostics.

PMID- 28558143
TI  - Parsing disease-relevant protein modifications from epiphenomena: perspective on
      the structural basis of SOD1-mediated ALS.
AB  - Conformational change and modification of proteins are involved in many cellular
      functions. However, they can also have adverse effects that are implicated in
      numerous diseases. How structural change promotes disease is generally not well
      understood. This perspective illustrates how mass spectrometry (MS), followed by
      toxicological and epidemiological validation, can discover disease-relevant
      structural changes and therapeutic strategies. We (with our collaborators) set
      out to characterize the structural and toxic consequences of disease-associated
      mutations and post-translational modifications (PTMs) of the cytosolic
      antioxidant protein Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1). Previous genetic studies
      discovered >180 different mutations in the SOD1 gene that caused familial
      (inherited) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS). Using hydrogen-deuterium
      exchange with mass spectrometry, we determined that diverse disease-associated
      SOD1 mutations cause a common structural defect - perturbation of the SOD1
      electrostatic loop. X-ray crystallographic studies had demonstrated that this
      leads to protein aggregation through a specific interaction between the
      electrostatic loop and an exposed beta-barrel edge strand. Using epidemiology
      methods, we then determined that decreased SOD1 stability and increased protein
      aggregation are powerful risk factors for fALS progression, with a combined
      hazard ratio > 300 (for comparison, a lifetime of smoking is associated with a
      hazard ratio of ~15 for lung cancer). The resulting structural model of fALS
      etiology supported the hypothesis that some sporadic ALS (sALS, ~80% of ALS is
      not associated with a gene defect) could be caused by post-translational protein
      modification of wild-type SOD1. We developed immunocapture antibodies and high
      sensitivity top-down MS methods and characterized PTMs of wild-type SOD1 using
      human tissue samples. Using global hydrogen-deuterium exchange, X-ray
      crystallography and neurotoxicology, we then characterized toxic and protective
      subsets of SOD1 PTMs. To cap this perspective, we present proof-of-concept that
      post-translational modification can cause disease. We show that numerous
      mutations (N?D; Q?E), which result in the same chemical structure as the PTM
      deamidation, cause multiple diseases. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28558145
TI  - Prevalence of Vector-Borne Pathogens in Southern California Dogs With Clinical
      and Laboratory Abnormalities Consistent With Immune-Mediated Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies investigating the prevalence of vector-borne pathogens in
      southern California dogs are limited. Occult infections might be misdiagnosed as
      idiopathic immune-mediated disease. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: (1) To determine the
      prevalence of vector-borne pathogens in southern California dogs with compatible
      clinical findings using PCR and serologic panels and (2) to determine whether
      testing convalescent samples and repeating PCR on acute samples using the same
      and different gene targets enhance detection. ANIMALS: Forty-two client-owned
      dogs with clinical signs of vector-borne disease presenting to specialty
      practices in San Diego County. METHODS: Combined prospective and retrospective
      observational study. Forty-two acute and 27 convalescent samples were collected.
      Acute samples were prospectively tested for antibodies to Rickettsia, Ehrlichia,
      Bartonella, Babesia, Borrelia, and Anaplasma species. PCR targeting Ehrlichia,
      Babesia, Anaplasma, hemotropic Mycoplasma, and Bartonella species was also
      performed. Retrospectively, convalescent samples were tested for the same
      organisms using serology, and for Ehrlichia, Babesia, Anaplasma, and Bartonella
      species using PCR. Acute samples were retested using PCR targeting Ehrlichia and
      Babesia species. RESULTS: Evidence of exposure to or infection with a vector
      borne pathogen was detected in 33% (14/42) of dogs. Ehrlichia and Babesia species
      were most common; each was identified in 5 dogs. Convalescent serologic testing,
      repeating PCR, and using novel PCR gene targets increased detection by 30%.
      CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Repeated testing using serology and PCR
      enhances detection of infection by vector-borne pathogens in dogs with clinical
      signs of immune-mediated disease. Larger prevalence studies of emerging vector
      borne pathogens in southern California dogs are warranted.

PMID- 28558147
TI  - Safety and efficacy of a bioabsorbable fluticasone propionate-eluting sinus
      dressing in postoperative management of endoscopic sinus surgery: a randomized
      clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative wound healing after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) in
      patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is an important factor in procedural
      success. Local steroids and separation of opposing mucosa are commonly
      implemented to optimize healing. A bioabsorbable, fluticasone propionate (FP)
      eluting implant, SinuBand FP, was assessed for its safety and efficacy when used
      in patients with CRS and nasal polyps, who were indicated for ESS including
      bilateral anterior and posterior ethmoidectomy. METHODS: A first-in-human,
      randomized, partially double-blind, single-tertiary-referral-center, controlled
      trial enrolling 30 patients receiving 2 of 3 treatments (1 per sinus,
      intrapatient control): SinuBand FP, SinuBand (without FP), or standard nasal pack
      (Merocel(r)). Primary outcome measures were local safety, ocular safety
      (intraocular pressure [IOP], lens opacity), and 24-hour urine cortisol. Secondary
      measures (evaluated by independent review of postoperative video endoscopies)
      were ethmoid inflammation, polyp score, adhesion formation, and Lund-Kennedy
      score. Patient-reported outcomes of postoperative pain, nasal congestion, and
      nasal discharge were collected. RESULTS: Of 30 enrolled patients (used for safety
      analysis), 27 patients completed the trial. SinuBand FP showed local safety,
      ocular safety, and no significant change in 24-hour urine cortisol. SinuBand FP
      showed a trend to do better concerning inflammation. Concerning polyp score
      SinuBand FP did significantly better compared to Merocel (p = 0.03). No
      significance compared to SinuBand without corticosteroids (p = 0.97). Adhesions
      were comparable across treatments. Patient reported pain was nominally lower in
      the SinuBand group. CONCLUSION: SinuBand FP was well tolerated and showed
      evidence of efficacy. A larger study is needed to further evaluate and confirm
      the benefits of SinuBand FP.

PMID- 28558148
TI  - Glucosamine has an antiallergic effect in mice with allergic asthma and rhinitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glucosamine (GlcN) is generally used as a dietary supplement because
      of its antiinflammatory effects. We evaluated the antiallergic effect of GlcN in
      mice with allergic asthma and rhinitis. METHODS: Thirty-two mice were allocated
      equally into 4 groups (n = 8). In group A (control), we performed
      intraperitoneal/intranasal challenge using sterile saline. In group B
      (asthma/rhinitis), we used ovalbumin for intraperitoneal/intranasal challenge to
      induce allergic asthma and rhinitis. In groups C and D (GlcN treatment), mice
      were given 1% and 5% GlcN throughout the period of ovalbumin challenge,
      respectively. We measured serum total and ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin E
      (IgE), cytokine titers (interleukin-1, -4, -5, -6, -10, and -17; tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha; and interferon-gamma), and the number of inflammatory cells
      (eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes) in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. We
      also performed histopathologic examination of the lung and nasal cavity. Finally,
      we performed real-time polymerase chain reaction for the genes Bcl-2, EC-SOD,
      VEGF, caspase-3, Bax, COX-2, Hif-1alpha, and heme oxygenase-1. RESULTS: Compared
      with group B, group D had significant serum total and ovalbumin-specific IgE
      decreases after GlcN treatment (p < 0.05). Titers for IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-17
      in BAL fluid were significantly decreased in group D (p < 0.05). Eosinophils in
      BAL fluid were significantly decreased in group D compared with group B (p <
      0.05). Groups C and D showed significant improvement of inflammation compared
      with group B. Group D had significant downregulation of EC-SOD, Bax, Hif-1alpha,
      and heme oxygenase-1 compared with group B. CONCLUSION: GlcN had a significant
      antiallergic effect in mice with allergic asthma and rhinitis.

PMID- 28558149
TI  - Mandibulofacial dysostosis Bauru type: Refining the phenotype.
AB  - Mandibulofacial dysostosis (MFD) Bauru type (OMIM 604830) is a rare genetic
      condition characterized mainly by malar hypoplasia, orofacial cleft, and
      micrognathia. Here, we describe the clinical and radiographic sings of 13
      individuals (12 female and 1 male) from eight unrelated kindreds with MFD Bauru
      type, including four previously reported cases, treated at the Hospital for
      Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies. The clinical phenotype was
      characterized by severe underdevelopment of mandible, midface hypoplasia,
      orofacial cleft, bitemporal narrowing, mild upper eyelid down slanting, high
      nasal bridge, thick and everted lower lip, minor ears abnormalities, and hearing
      loss. Radiographic aspects included downslanting of zygomatic arch, maxillary
      hypoplasia, microretrognathia, hypoplastic mandibular condyles, and ectopic
      external auditory canal. Recurrence was observed in two of eight families and the
      affected distribution pattern was compatible with autosomal dominant inheritance
      in one and autosomal recessive in another, indicating possible genetic
      heterogeneity for this condition. Clinical and radiographic findings in this
      report contribute to the delineation of this rare MFD.

PMID- 28558151
TI  - Accurate van der Waals force field for gas adsorption in porous materials.
AB  - An accurate van der Waals force field (VDW FF) was derived from highly precise
      quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. Small molecular clusters were used to
      explore van der Waals interactions between gas molecules and porous materials.
      The parameters of the accurate van der Waals force field were determined by QM
      calculations. To validate the force field, the prediction results from the VDW FF
      were compared with standard FFs, such as UFF, Dreiding, Pcff, and Compass. The
      results from the VDW FF were in excellent agreement with the experimental
      measurements. This force field can be applied to the prediction of the gas
      density (H2 , CO2 , C2 H4 , CH4 , N2 , O2 ) and adsorption performance inside
      porous materials, such as covalent organic frameworks (COFs), zeolites and metal
      organic frameworks (MOFs), consisting of H, B, N, C, O, S, Si, Al, Zn, Mg, Ni,
      and Co. This work provides a solid basis for studying gas adsorption in porous
      materials. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28558150
TI  - Sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132), an anti-Trop-2-SN-38 antibody-drug conjugate
      for the treatment of diverse epithelial cancers: Safety and pharmacokinetics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132), an antitrophoblastic cell-surface
      antigen (anti-Trop-2) humanized antibody-SN-38 conjugate, had encouraging
      efficacy in the phase 1 clinical trial. This report further examines the
      pharmacokinetics and safety of multiple cycles of IMMU-132 at doses of 8 or 10
      mg/kg in patients with diverse advanced epithelial cancers. METHODS: Patients who
      had multiple prior therapies received IMMU-132 on days 1 and 8 of 21-day
      treatment cycles. Trop-2 staining of archived tumor specimens, clearance of IMMU
      132 and its constituents (ie, immunoglobulin G [IgG], SN-38 [a camptothecin, the
      active component of irinotecan], and glucuronidated SN-38 [SN-38G]), antibody
      responses, and uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) levels
      were determined. Safety was assessed according to Common Terminology Criteria for
      Adverse Events version 4.0, and responses were assessed using Response Evaluation
      Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1. RESULTS: Patients with diverse metastatic
      cancers who received IMMU-132 at 8 mg/kg (n = 81) and 10 mg/kg (n = 97) were
      examined. Trop-2 was positive in 93% of the available specimens. IMMU-132 cleared
      with a half-life of approximately 11 to 14 hours, reflecting the release of SN-38
      from the conjugate; IgG cleared more slowly (half-life, approximately 103-114
      hours). Most SN-38 in the serum (>95%) was bound to IgG. SN-38G concentrations
      were lower than SN-38 concentrations. Dose-limiting neutropenia after the first
      cycle was not correlated with SN-38 in serum or with UGT1A1 genotype. No antibody
      responses were detected. Objective responses were observed in several
      indications, including metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, confirming that
      10 mg/kg produced an encouraging overall response. CONCLUSIONS: Sacituzumab
      govitecan has a predictable pharmacokinetic profile and manageable toxicity at
      doses of 8 and 10 mg/kg. With objective responses and a good therapeutic index at
      10 mg/kg, this dose was chosen for future development. Cancer 2017;123:3843-3854.
      (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28558152
TI  - Diabetic macular oedema: evidence-based treatment recommendations for Asian
      countries.
AB  - Diabetic macular oedema is the most common cause of diabetic retinopathy-induced
      vision loss. Efficacy of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy in
      diabetic macular oedema has been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials. An
      Asian-specific guideline for diabetic macular oedema treatment is needed as
      patients in Asia tend to present with far more advanced disease than seen
      elsewhere in the world. Previous reviews of diabetic macular oedema management
      lacked a broader assessment of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment
      choices and newer trials. Recent clinical trial data allow head-to-head
      comparisons between the different anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents
      and treatment regimens. This review aims to summarize the clinical evidence
      related to various treatment regimens for clinicians, with a focus on anti
      vascular endothelial growth factor therapies, and to provide guidance on the
      treatment of diabetic macular oedema in Asian patients.

PMID- 28558153
TI  - Quantification of morusin using LC-MS in rat plasma: Application to a
      pharmacokinetic study.
AB  - A sensitive LC-MS method was developed for the quantification of morusin in rat
      plasma using praeruptorin C as internal standard. After extraction with diethyl
      ether, post-treatment samples were chromatographed on a Hypersil C18 column. An
      isocratic mobile phase consisting of methanol-water (70:30, v/v) was applied at a
      flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Detection was performed via electrospray ionization
      source with positive ion mode using selected ion monitoring mode at m/z 443.1 for
      morusin and m/z 451.0 for IS. Acceptable linearity (r2  >= 0.99) was observed
      over the concentration range of 1.5-800 ng/mL. This method was successfully
      applied in the pharmacokinetics study of morusin in rats.

PMID- 28558155
TI  - Rational Design and Synthesis of Extremely Efficient Macroporous CoSe2 -CNT
      Composite Microspheres for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.
AB  - Uniquely structured CoSe2 -carbon nanotube (CNT) composite microspheres with
      optimized morphology for the hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) are prepared by
      spray pyrolysis and subsequent selenization. The ultrafine CoSe2 nanocrystals
      uniformly decorate the entire macroporous CNT backbone in CoSe2 -CNT composite
      microspheres. The macroporous CNT backbone strongly improves the electrocatalytic
      activity of CoSe2 by improving the electrical conductivity and minimizing the
      growth of CoSe2 nanocrystals during the synthesis process. In addition, the
      macroporous structure resulting from the CNT backbone improves the
      electrocatalytic activity of the CoSe2 -CNT microspheres by increasing the
      removal rate of generated H2 and minimizing the polarization of the electrode
      during HER. The CoSe2 -CNT composite microspheres demonstrate excellent catalytic
      activity for HER in an acidic medium (10 mA cm-2 at an overpotential of ~174 mV).
      The bare CoSe2 powders exhibit moderate HER activity, with an overpotential of
      226 mV at 10 mA cm-2 . The Tafel slopes for the CoSe2 -CNT composite and bare
      CoSe2 powders are 37.8 and 58.9 mV dec-1 , respectively. The CoSe2 -CNT composite
      microspheres have a slightly larger Tafel slope than that of commercial carbon
      supported platinum nanoparticles, which is 30.2 mV dec-1 .

PMID- 28558156
TI  - Phosphoribosyl Pyrophosphate: A Molecular Vestige of the Origin of Life on
      Minerals.
AB  - In this contribution, we report the formation under prebiotic conditions of
      phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) as a molecular precursor in the one-pot
      synthesis of a canonical nucleotide, namely adenosine monophosphate (AMP) from
      its building blocks (KH2 PO4 or Pi , adenine, and d-ribose), on a fumed silica
      surface. The on-the-rocks approach has been successfully applied to the
      simultaneous phosphorylation and glycosylation of ribose. The one-pot formation
      mechanism of AMP involves a two-step pathway via an activated intermediate,
      namely PRPP, obtained by multiple ribose phosphorylations upon mild thermal
      activation.

PMID- 28558154
TI  - Theta-paced flickering between place-cell maps in the hippocampus: A model based
      on short-term synaptic plasticity.
AB  - Hippocampal place cells represent different environments with distinct neural
      activity patterns. Following an abrupt switch between two familiar configurations
      of visual cues defining two environments, the hippocampal neural activity pattern
      switches almost immediately to the corresponding representation. Surprisingly,
      during a transient period following the switch to the new environment, occasional
      fast transitions between the two activity patterns (flickering) were observed
      (Jezek, Henriksen, Treves, Moser, & Moser, ). Here we show that an attractor
      neural network model of place cells with connections endowed with short-term
      synaptic plasticity can account for this phenomenon. A memory trace of the recent
      history of network activity is maintained in the state of the synapses, allowing
      the network to temporarily reactivate the representation of the previous
      environment in the absence of the corresponding sensory cues. The model predicts
      that the number of flickering events depends on the amplitude of the ongoing
      theta rhythm and the distance between the current position of the animal and its
      position at the time of cue switching. We test these predictions with new
      analysis of experimental data. These results suggest a potential role of short
      term synaptic plasticity in recruiting the activity of different cell assemblies
      and in shaping hippocampal activity of behaving animals.

PMID- 28558157
TI  - Superacids Based on Pentafluoroorthotellurate Derivatives of Aluminum.
AB  - The new Lewis acid Al(OTeF5 )3 and its acetonitrile adduct CH3 CN->Al(OTeF5 )3
      were obtained by a simple one-step synthesis in batches of up to 15 g. Al(OTeF5
      )3 and the adduct were characterized by vibrational spectroscopy (IR, Raman) and
      quantum-chemical calculations. Furthermore, five different salts of the new
      weakly coordinating anion [Al(OTeF5 )4 ]- were prepared in a two-step procedure.
      [Ph4 P][Al(OTeF5 )4 ], Cs[Al(OTeF5 )4 ], [Ph3 C][Al(OTeF5 )4 ], as well as the
      protonated benzene derivatives [C9 H13 ][Al(OTeF5 )4 ] and [C6 H7 ][Al(OTeF5 )4 ]
      were characterized by low-temperature single-crystal X-ray diffraction and NMR
      spectroscopy. Arenium salts have rarely been characterized in the solid state and
      were synthesized in this work in a simplified fashion.

PMID- 28558158
TI  - Probing Bis-FeIV MauG: Isolation of Highly Reactive Radical Intermediates.
AB  - MauG is a diheme enzyme that utilizes two covalently bound c-type heme centers.
      We report here step-wise oxidations of a synthetic analogue of MauG in which two
      heme centers are bridged covalently through a flexible linker containing a
      pyrrole moiety. One- and two-electron oxidations produce monocation radical and
      dication diradical intermediates, respectively, which, being highly reactive,
      undergo spontaneous intramolecular rearrangement involving the pyrrole bridge
      itself to form indolizinium-fused chlorin-porphyrin and spiro-porphyrinato
      heterodimers. Unlike in MauG, where the two oxidizing equivalents produce the bis
      FeIV redox state, the synthetic analogue of the same, however, stabilizes two
      ferric hemes, each coupled with a porphyrin pi-cation radical. The present study
      highlights the possible role played by the bridge in the electronic
      communication.

PMID- 28558159
TI  - A foundation of ecology rediscovered: 100 years of succession on the William S.
      Cooper plots in Glacier Bay, Alaska.
AB  - Understanding plant community succession is one of the original pursuits of
      ecology, forming some of the earliest theoretical frameworks in the field. Much
      of this was built on the long-term research of William S. Cooper, who established
      a permanent plot network in Glacier Bay, Alaska, in 1916. This study now
      represents the longest-running primary succession plot network in the world.
      Permanent plots are useful for their ability to follow mechanistic change through
      time without assumptions inherent in space-for-time (chronosequence) designs.
      After 100-yr, these plots show surprising variety in species composition, soil
      characteristics (carbon, nitrogen, depth), and percent cover, attributable to
      variation in initial vegetation establishment first noted by Cooper in the 1916
      1923 time period, partially driven by dispersal limitations. There has been
      almost a complete community composition replacement over the century and general
      species richness increase, but the effective number of species has declined
      significantly due to dominance of Salix species which established 100-yr prior
      (the only remaining species from the original cohort). Where Salix dominates,
      there is no establishment of "later" successional species like Picea. Plots
      nearer the entrance to Glacier Bay, and thus closer to potential seed sources
      after the most recent glaciation, have had consistently higher species richness
      for 100 yr. Age of plots is the best predictor of soil N content and C:N ratio,
      though plots still dominated by Salix had lower overall N; soil accumulation was
      more associated with dominant species. This highlights the importance of
      contingency and dispersal in community development. The 100-yr record of these
      plots, including species composition, spatial relationships, cover, and observed
      interactions between species provides a powerful view of long-term primary
      succession.

PMID- 28558161
TI  - 'Printability' of Candidate Biomaterials for Extrusion Based 3D Printing: State
      of-the-Art.
AB  - Regenerative medicine has been highlighted as one of the UK's 8 'Great
      Technologies' with the potential to revolutionize patient care in the 21st
      Century. Over the last decade, the concept of '3D bioprinting' has emerged, which
      allows the precise deposition of cell laden bioinks with the aim of engineering
      complex, functional tissues. For 3D printing to be used clinically, there is the
      need to produce advanced functional biomaterials, a new generation of bioinks
      with suitable cell culture and high shape/print fidelity, to match or exceed the
      physical, chemical and biological properties of human tissue. With the rapid
      increase in knowledge associated with biomaterials, cell-scaffold interactions
      and the ability to biofunctionalize/decorate bioinks with cell recognition
      sequences, it is important to keep in mind the 'printability' of these novel
      materials. In this illustrated review, we define and refine the concept of
      'printability' and review seminal and contemporary studies to highlight the
      current 'state of play' in the field with a focus on bioink composition and
      concentration, manipulation of nozzle parameters and rheological properties.

PMID- 28558160
TI  - Randomized trial reveals that physical activity and energy expenditure are
      associated with weight and body composition after RYGB.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the associations of both physical activity
      time (PA) and energy expenditure (EE) with weight and fat mass (FM) loss in
      patients following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. METHODS: Ninety-six
      nondiabetic patients were included in this analysis. Post-RYGB patients were
      randomized in one of two treatments: A 6-month exercise training program
      (RYBG+EX) or lifestyle educational classes (RYGB). Body composition was assessed
      by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography. Components of PA and
      EE were quantified by a multisensory device. Dose-response relationships of both
      PA and EE with weight loss and body composition were explored according to
      quartiles of change in steps per day. RESULTS: Patients in the highest quartiles
      of steps per day change lost more FM (3rd = -19.5 kg and 4th = -22.7 kg, P <
      0.05) and abdominal adipose tissue (4th = -313 cm2 , P < 0.05), maintained
      skeletal muscle mass (3rd = -3.1 cm2 and 4th = -4.5 cm2 , P <  0.05), and had
      greater reductions in resting metabolic rate. Decreases in sedentary EE and
      increases in light EE and age were significant predictors of both Deltaweight and
      DeltaFM (R2  = 73.8% and R2  = 70.6%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Nondiabetic
      patients who perform higher, yet still modest, amounts of PA following RYGB have
      greater energy deficits and lose more weight and FM, while maintaining higher
      skeletal muscle mass.

PMID- 28558162
TI  - A numerical investigation and experimental verification of size effects in loaded
      bovine cortical bone.
AB  - In this paper, we present 2- and 3-dimensional finite element-based numerical
      models of loaded bovine cortical bone that explicitly incorporate the dominant
      microstructural feature: the vascular channel or Haversian canal system. The
      finite element models along with the representation of the microstructure within
      them are relatively simple: 2-dimensional models, consisting of a structured mesh
      of linear elastic planar elements punctuated by a periodic distribution of
      circular voids, are used to represent beam samples of cortical bone in which the
      channels are orientated perpendicular to the sample major axis, while 3
      dimensional models, using a corresponding mesh of equivalent solid elements,
      represent those samples in which the canals are aligned with the axis. However,
      these models are exploited in an entirely novel approach involving the
      representation of material samples of different sizes and surface morphology. The
      numerical results obtained for the virtual material samples when loaded in
      bending indicate that they exhibit size effects not forecast by either classical
      (Cauchy) or more generalized elasticity theories. However, these effects are
      qualitatively consistent with those that we observed in a series of carefully
      conducted experiments involving the flexural testing of bone samples of different
      sizes. Encouraged by this qualitative agreement, we have identified appropriate
      model parameters, primarily void volume fraction but also void separation and
      matrix modulus by matching the computed size effects to those we observed
      experimentally. Interestingly, the parameter choices that provide the most
      suitable match of these effects broadly concur with those we actually observed in
      cortical bone.

PMID- 28558163
TI  - Arylthio- and Arylseleno-Substituted s-Heptazines.
AB  - In contrast to numerous thio- and selenocyanuric acid derivatives, sulfur- or
      selenium-containing s-heptazines have not been reported so far. Thio- and
      selenocyameluric acid esters were obtained by substitution reactions of s
      heptazine chloride C6 N7 Cl3 with aromatic thiols and selenophenol; the resultant
      white or yellow solids were stable in air. They were comprehensively
      characterized by elemental analysis, 1 H, 13 C NMR, and IR spectroscopy. The
      thiocyameluric acid phenyl ester (1, C6 N7 (S(C6 H5 ))3 ) and the corresponding
      selenium compound (7) formed co-crystals with mesitylene, which were analyzed by
      single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Both structures showed unusually large channels
      of ~12 A diameter. The thermal stability was measured by TGA (thermogravimetric
      analysis), and the flame retardancy of compound 1 was tested in PP by carrying
      out limiting oxygen index (LOI) measurements, which gave promising results.
      Quantum chemical calculations of the title compounds were performed to explain
      the observed properties and structural characteristics.

PMID- 28558164
TI  - Advanced solvent signal suppression for the acquisition of 1D and 2D NMR spectra
      of Scotch Whisky.
AB  - A simple and robust solvent suppression technique that enables acquisition of
      high-quality 1D 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of alcoholic
      beverages on cryoprobe instruments was developed and applied to acquire NMR
      spectra of Scotch Whisky. The method uses 3 channels to suppress signals of water
      and ethanol, including those of 13 C satellites of ethanol. It is executed in
      automation allowing high throughput investigations of alcoholic beverages. On the
      basis of the well-established 1D nuclear Overhauser spectroscopy (NOESY) solvent
      suppression technique, this method suppresses the solvent at the beginning of the
      pulse sequence, producing pure phase signals minimally affected by the
      relaxation. The developed solvent suppression procedure was integrated into
      several homocorrelated and heterocorrelated 2D NMR experiments, including 2D
      correlation spectroscopy (COSY), 2D total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY), 2D
      band-selective TOCSY, 2D J-resolved spectroscopy, 2D 1 H, 13 C heteronuclear
      single-quantum correlation spectroscopy (HSQC), 2D 1 H, 13 C HSQC-TOCSY, and 2D 1
      H, 13 C heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation spectroscopy (HMBC). A 1D
      chemical-shift-selective TOCSY experiments was also modified. The wealth of
      information obtained by these experiments will assist in NMR structure
      elucidation of Scotch Whisky congeners and generally the composition of alcoholic
      beverages at the molecular level.

PMID- 28558165
TI  - Simultaneous Enhancement of Charge Separation and Hole Transportation in a TiO2 
      SrTiO3 Core-Shell Nanowire Photoelectrochemical System.
AB  - Efficient charge separation and transportation are key factors that determine the
      photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting efficiency. Here, a simultaneous
      enhancement of charge separation and hole transportation on the basis of
      ferroelectric polarization in TiO2 -SrTiO3 core-shell nanowires (NWs) is
      reported. The SrTiO3 shell with controllable thicknesses generates a considerable
      spontaneous polarization, which effectively tunes the electrical band bending of
      TiO2 . Combined with its intrinsically high charge mobility, the ferroelectric
      SrTiO3 thin shell significantly improves the charge-separation efficiency
      (etaseparation ) with minimized influence on the hole-migration property of TiO2
      photoelectrodes, leading to a drastically increased photocurrent density ( Jph ).
      Specifically, the 10 nm-thick SrTiO3 shell yields the highest Jph and
      etaseparation of 1.43 mA cm-2 and 87.7% at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen
      electrode, respectively, corresponding to 83% and 79% improvements compared with
      those of pristine TiO2 NWs. The PEC performance can be further manipulated by
      thermal treatment, and the control of SrTiO3 film thicknesses and electric poling
      directions. This work suggests a material with combined ferroelectric and
      semiconducting features could be a promising solution for advancing PEC systems
      by concurrently promoting the charge-separation and hole-transportation
      properties.

PMID- 28558166
TI  - Ordered Single-Crystalline Anatase TiO2 Nanorod Clusters Planted on Graphene for
      Fast Charge Transfer in Photoelectrochemical Solar Cells.
AB  - Achieving efficient charge transport is a great challenge in nanostructured TiO2 
      electrode-based photoelectrochemical cells. Inspired by excellent directional
      charge transport and the well-known electroconductibility of 1D anatase TiO2
      nanostructured materials and graphene, respectively, planting ordered, single
      crystalline anatase TiO2 nanorod clusters on graphene sheets (rGO/ATRCs) via a
      facial one-pot solvothermal method is reported. The hierarchical rGO/ATRCs
      nanostructure can serve as an efficient light-harvesting electrode for dye
      sensitized solar cells. In addition, the obtained high-crystallinity anatase TiO2
      nanorods in rGO/ATRCs possess a lower density of trap states, thus facilitating
      diffusion-driven charge transport and suppressing electron recombination.
      Moreover, the novel architecture significantly enhances the trap-free charge
      diffusion coefficient, which contributes to superior electron mobility
      properties. By virtue of more efficient charge transport and higher energy
      conversion efficiency, the rGO/ATRCs developed in this work show significant
      advantages over conventional rGO-TiO2 nanoparticle counterparts in
      photoelectrochemical cells.

PMID- 28558167
TI  - Microfluidic Production of Biodegradable Microcapsules for Sustained Release of
      Hydrophilic Actives.
AB  - Biodegradable microcapsules with a large aqueous lumen and ultrathin membrane are
      microfluidically designed for sustained release of hydrophilic bioactives using
      water-in-oil-in-water double-emulsion drops as a template. As a shell phase, an
      organic solution of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) is used, which is consolidated
      to form a biodegradable membrane. The encapsulants stored in the lumen are
      released over a long period of time as the membranes degrade. The period can be
      controlled in a range of -three to five months at neutral pH condition by
      adjusting membrane thickness, providing highly sustained release and potentially
      enabling the programed release of multiple drugs. At acidic or basic condition,
      the degradation is accelerated, leading to the release in the period of
      approximately two months. As the membrane is semipermeable, the microcapsules
      respond to the osmotic pressure difference across the membrane. The microcapsules
      are inflated in hypotonic condition and deflated in hypertonic condition. Both
      conditions cause cracks on the membrane, resulting in the fast release of
      encapsulants in a day. The microcapsules implanted in mice also show sustained
      release, despite the period is decreased to a month. It is believed that the
      microcapsules are promising for the in vivo sustained release of drugs for high
      and long-term efficacy.

PMID- 28558168
TI  - Importance of explicit smeared lone-pairs in anisotropic polarizable molecular
      mechanics. Torture track angular tests for exchange-repulsion and charge transfer
      contributions.
AB  - A correct representation of the short-range contributions such as exchange
      repulsion (Erep ) and charge-transfer (Ect ) is essential for the soundness of
      separable, anisotropic polarizable molecular mechanics potentials. Within the
      context of the SIBFA procedure, this is aimed at by explicit representations of
      lone pairs in their expressions. It is necessary to account for their anisotropic
      behaviors upon performing not only in-plane, but also out-of-plane, variations of
      a probe molecule or cation interacting with a target molecule or molecular
      fragment. Thus, Erep and Ect have to reproduce satisfactorily the corresponding
      anisotropies of their quantum chemical (QC) counterparts. A significant
      improvement of the out-of-plane dependencies was enabled when the sp2 and sp
      localized lone-pairs are, even though to a limited extent, delocalized on both
      sides of the plane, above and below the atom bearer but at the closely similar
      angles as the in-plane lone pair. We report calibration and validation tests on a
      series of monoligated complexes of a probe Zn(II) cation with several
      biochemically relevant ligands. Validations are then performed on several
      polyligated Zn(II) complexes found in the recognition sites of Zn
      metalloproteins. Such calibrations and validations are extended to representative
      monoligated and polyligated complexes of Mg(II) and Ca(II). It is emphasized that
      the calibration of all three cations was for each DeltaE contribution done on a
      small training set bearing on a limited number of representative N?, O?, and S?
      monoligated complexes. Owing to the separable nature of DeltaE, a secure
      transferability is enabled to a diversity of polyligated complexes. For these the
      relative errors with respect to the target DeltaE(QC) values are generally < 3%.
      Overall, the article proposes a full set of benchmarks that could be useful for
      force field developers. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28558169
TI  - Flexible and Responsive Chiral Nematic Cellulose Nanocrystal/Poly(ethylene
      glycol) Composite Films with Uniform and Tunable Structural Color.
AB  - The fabrication of responsive photonic structures from cellulose nanocrystals
      (CNCs) that can operate in the entire visible spectrum is challenging due to the
      requirements of precise periodic modulation of the pitch size of the self
      assembled multilayer structures at the length scale within the wavelength of the
      visible light. The surface charge density of CNCs is an important factor in
      controlling the pitch size of the chiral nematic structure of the dried solid CNC
      films. The assembly of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) together with CNCs into
      smaller chiral nematic domains results in solid films with uniform helical
      structure upon slow drying. Large, flexible, and flat photonic composite films
      with uniform structure colors from blue to red are prepared by changing the
      composition of CNCs and PEG. The CNC/PEG(80/20) composite film demonstrates a
      reversible and smooth structural color change between green and transparent in
      response to an increase and decrease of relative humidity between 50% and 100%
      owing to the reversible swelling and dehydration of the chiral nematic structure.
      The composite also shows excellent mechanical and thermal properties,
      complementing the multifunctional property profile.

PMID- 28558170
TI  - Collision-induced dissociation of phenethylamides: role of ion-neutral complexes.
AB  - RATIONALE: Phenethylamides are a large group of naturally occurring molecules
      found both in the plant and animal kingdoms. In addition, they are used as
      intermediates for the synthesis of pharmaceutically important dihydro- and
      tetrahydroisoquinolines. To enable efficient characterization of this class of
      molecules, a detailed mass spectrometric fragmentation study of a broad series of
      analogs was carried out. METHODS: The test compounds were synthesized using
      standard methods for amide bond formation. Low-energy high-resolution tandem mass
      spectra were acquired on a hybrid quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometer
      using positive ion electrospray ionization. RESULTS: A total of 26 analogs were
      investigated in the study. Fragmentation of phenethylamides was found to proceed
      via intermediate ion-neutral complexes. The complexes can break down via multiple
      pathways including dissociation, proton transfer, Friedel-Crafts acylation, and
      single electron transfer. The relative contribution of each of these pathways
      strongly depends on the structure of the coupling amine and acid. CONCLUSIONS: A
      general scheme for the fragmentation of phenethylamides was developed. This study
      further extends the knowledge base of the ion-neutral complex by discovering
      Friedel-Crafts acylation as a novel reaction. The strong influence of minor
      structural modifications on the fragmentation patterns highlights the importance
      of testing many analogs in order to fully predict a fragmentation pattern of a
      particular class of molecules.

PMID- 28558171
TI  - Polynitro-Functionalized Dipyrazolo-1,3,5-triazinanes: Energetic Polycyclization
      toward High Density and Excellent Molecular Stability.
AB  - A new fused N-heterocyclic framework, dipyrazolo-1,3,5-triazinane, was
      synthesized and the physiochemical properties of its derivatives were
      investigated to evaluate the integrated energetic performance. In contrast to
      1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX) featuring a distorted chair confirmation,
      polynitro-functionalized dipyrazolo-1,3,5-triazinanes have nearly planar
      backbones, thereby enhancing the density and thermal stability. Among these new
      energetic tricyclic compounds, 5 a and 12 show favorable crystal densities of
      1.937 g cm-3 and 1.990 g cm-3 at 150 K, respectively, which rank highest in
      triazinane-based energetic compounds. Additionally, this synthetic approach was
      carried out to form seven-membered and eight-membered rings, giving rise to
      tetranitro dipyrazolo-1,3,5-triazepane (5 b) and tetranitro dipyrazolo-1,3,5
      triazocane (5 c), respectively.

PMID- 28558172
TI  - Epoxy Matrices Modified by Green Additives for Recyclable Materials.
AB  - Epoxy-based thermosets are one of the most popular matrix materials in many
      industries, and significant environmental benefits can be obtained by developing
      a recyclable variant of this widely utilized material. Incorporation of a bio
      based disulfide additive within a commercial epoxy system leads to a cross-linked
      material that can be fractionated under mild and environmentally benign
      conditions. The material has been analyzed by FTIR and solid-state NMR.
      Furthermore, modified epoxy matrices with low additive concentrations are
      demonstrated to have similar mechanical and thermal properties compared to
      commercially available benchmarks. Thus, additive formulation and fractionation
      based on green chemistry principles have been demonstrated, and a recyclable
      epoxy matrix has been developed.

PMID- 28558173
TI  - Epidermal bladder cells confer salinity stress tolerance in the halophyte quinoa
      and Atriplex species.
AB  - Epidermal bladder cells (EBCs) have been postulated to assist halophytes in
      coping with saline environments. However, little direct supporting evidence is
      available. Here, Chenopodium quinoa plants were grown under saline conditions for
      5 weeks. One day prior to salinity treatment, EBCs from all leaves and petioles
      were gently removed by using a soft cosmetic brush and physiological, ionic and
      metabolic changes in brushed and non-brushed leaves were compared. Gentle removal
      of EBC neither initiated wound metabolism nor affected the physiology and
      biochemistry of control-grown plants but did have a pronounced effect on salt
      grown plants, resulting in a salt-sensitive phenotype. Of 91 detected
      metabolites, more than half were significantly affected by salinity. Removal of
      EBC dramatically modified these metabolic changes, with the biggest differences
      reported for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), proline, sucrose and inositol,
      affecting ion transport across cellular membranes (as shown in
      electrophysiological experiments). This work provides the first direct evidence
      for a role of EBC in salt tolerance in halophytes and attributes this to (1) a
      key role of EBC as a salt dump for external sequestration of sodium; (2) improved
      K+ retention in leaf mesophyll and (3) EBC as a storage space for several
      metabolites known to modulate plant ionic relations.

PMID- 28558174
TI  - SERS and SERRS Detection of the DNA Lesion 8-Nitroguanine: A Self-Labeling
      Modification.
AB  - Rapid and sensitive methods to detect DNA lesions are essential in order to
      understand their role in carcinogenesis and for potential diagnosis of cancers.
      The 8-nitroguanine DNA lesion, which is closely associated with inflammation
      induced cancers, has been characterized for the first time by surface-enhanced
      Raman spectroscopy (SERS). This lesion has been studied as the free base, as well
      as part of a dinucleotide and oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) at 5 different
      excitation wavelengths in the range 785-488 nm. All nitrated samples produced
      distinctly different spectra from their control guanine counterparts, with nitro
      bands being assigned by DFT calculations. Additional resonance enhancement was
      observed at the shorter excitation wavelengths, these SERRS measurements allowed
      the detection of one nitrated guanine in over 1,300 bases. In addition, SER(R)S
      can be used to detect whether the unstable lesion is covalently attached to the
      ODN or has been released by hydrolytic depurination.

PMID- 28558175
TI  - Capillary-Induced Ge Uniformly Distributed in N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes with
      Enhanced Li-Storage Performance.
AB  - Germanium (Ge) is a prospective anode material for lithium-ion batteries, as it
      possesses large theoretical capacity, outstanding lithium-ion diffusivity, and
      excellent electrical conductivity. Ge suffers from drastic capacity decay and
      poor rate performance, however, owing to its low electrical conductivity and huge
      volume expansion during cycling processes. Herein, a novel strategy has been
      developed to synthesize a Ge@N-doped carbon nanotubes (Ge@N-CNTs) composite with
      Ge nanoparticles uniformly distributed in the N-CNTs by using capillary action.
      This unique structure could effectively buffer large volume expansion. When
      evaluated as an anode material, the Ge@N-CNTs demonstrate enhanced cycling
      stability and excellent rate capabilities.

PMID- 28558176
TI  - Primary Vitreoretinal Lymphoma -- A Review.
AB  - Primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) is the most common intraocular lymphoma
      occurring in the eye. It is a high-grade typically B-cell malignancy, arising in
      the retina, and is often associated with central nervous system (CNS) disease and
      thereby a poor prognosis. It needs to be distinguished from choroidal low-grade B
      cell lymphomas, which do not disseminate to the brain and have a good prognosis.
      Because of the rarity of PVRL, information is lacking regarding its true
      incidence, its geographical or ethnic variation, and underlying risk factors
      apart from immunosuppression associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
      and Epstein Barr virus. PVRL often presents masquerading as other intraocular
      diseases and is therefore often associated with diagnostic delays. This is
      compounded by the fragility of the neoplastic B cells, which hampers vitrectomy
      yields and pathological work-up. The latter includes cytomorphology and
      immunoprofiling, with adjunctive tests such as cytokine analysis, polymerase
      chain reaction for clonality, MYD88 mutational testing, and possibly bespoke next
      generation sequencing. Recent examinations of PVRL and CNS lymphoma (CNSL) using
      whole genome sequencing confirm that these tumors arise from activated
      postgerminal center cells, reflecting their aggressive course in most cases. The
      treatment of PVRL varies between centers and is dependent on presence or absence
      of concomitant CNS disease. The prognosis remains poor, and yet progress is
      steadily being made through international collaborative clinical trials.

PMID- 28558177
TI  - Is Floaterectomy Worth the Risks?

PMID- 28558178
TI  - Retinoblastoma: Update on Current Management.
AB  - Retinoblastoma is a rare cancer in children, where in less than a century of dire
      mortality there has been a cure in industrialized countries. Unfortunately,
      mortality remains high in emerging countries. The evolution of treatment makes it
      possible to go further by preserving the eyeball but this must not be done at the
      cost of the reappearance of metastases. Herein we outline the evolution of
      treatment from the beginning of the 20th century until the last recent
      evolutions, trying to imagine what could be the future treatments. In this
      pathology, the ophthalmologist is a doctor who must cure his patient and
      enucleation is considered a failure. This situation should not lead to
      shizophrenic situations where to keep an eye one would take risks with the life
      of the child. New international classifications, international prospective
      multicentric studies, and the search for blood biomarkers that can predict the
      risk of micrometastases could allow for better stratification of patients.

PMID- 28558179
TI  - Floaterectomy -- Risks, Safety, and Future.

PMID- 28558180
TI  - Neural Tumors of the Orbit -- What Is New?
AB  - Primary neural tumors of the orbit account for approximately 10% of all orbital
      tumors. Different tumor entities include meningiomas, optic nerve gliomas,
      neurofibromas, schwannomas, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, and
      granular cell tumors. This review summarizes current concepts regarding
      epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, pathology, immunohistochemistry,
      prognosis, and treatment for neural tumors of the orbit based on the available
      literature.

PMID- 28558181
TI  - An Update on Intravitreal Aflibercept in Treating Macular Diseases.

PMID- 28558182
TI  - Posterior Pole and Peripheral Retinal Fibrovascular Proliferation in von Hippel
      Lindau Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the occurrence of fibrovascular proliferation (FVP) in the
      retina in von Hippel-lindau (VHl) patients and its association with prior
      treatment. DESIGN: A retrospective study. METHODS: A retrospective study of 101
      VHL patients. Fundus photos were available for 28 patients. FVP was classified
      into peripheral and posterior pole. RESULTS: All 28 patients had retinal
      capillary hemangioblastomas (RCH) in 1 or both eyes; 15 patients were found to
      have FVP (group A), whereas 13 patients did not (group B). Mean age of patients
      in group A was 35 +/- 11.3 years and 36.6 +/- 13.8 in group B (P = 0.74). In
      group A, 27 eyes had RCH; 21 (77.77%) had FVP. In group B, 19 eyes had RCH. The
      number of treated eyes was significantly higher in group A (81.48%) than group B
      (42.1%) (P = 0.007). In group A, FVP was noted in the posterior pole in 9 eyes,
      in the periphery in 5 eyes, and 7 eyes developed both posterior pole and
      peripheral FVP. CONCLUSIONS: FVP can occur in the peripheral retina and in the
      posterior pole. There is a significant association between prior treatment of RCH
      and the occurrence of FVP.

PMID- 28558183
TI  - Ultrahigh Energy Density in SrTiO3 Film Capacitors.
AB  - Solid-state dielectric film capacitors with high-energy-storage density will
      further promote advanced electronic devices and electrical power systems toward
      miniaturization, lightweight, and integration. In this study, the influence of
      interface and thickness on energy storage properties of SrTiO3 (STO) films grown
      on La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) electrode are systematically studied. The cross
      sectional high resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals an ion
      interdiffusion layer and oxygen vacancies at the STO/LSMO interface. The
      capacitors show good frequency stability and increased dielectric constant with
      increasing STO thickness (410-710 nm). The breakdown strength (Eb) increases with
      decreasing STO thickness and reaches 6.8 MV/cm. Interestingly, the Eb under
      positive field is enhanced significantly and an ultrahigh energy density up to
      307 J/cm3 with a high efficiency of 89% is realized. The enhanced Eb may be
      related to the modulation of local electric field and redistribution of oxygen
      vacancies at the STO/LSMO interface. Our results should be helpful for potential
      strategies to design devices with ultrahigh energy density.

PMID- 28558184
TI  - Dopamine Receptor D1 Agonism and Antagonism Using a Field-Effect Transistor
      Assay.
AB  - The field-effect transistor (FET) has been used in the development of diagnostic
      tools for several decades, leading to high-performance biosensors. Therefore, the
      FET platform can provide the foundation for the next generation of analytical
      methods. A major role of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is in the transfer
      of external signals into the cell and promoting human body functions; thus, their
      principle application is in the screening of new drugs. The research community
      uses efficient systems to screen potential GPCR drugs; nevertheless, the need to
      develop GPCR-conjugated analytical devices remains for next-generation new drug
      screening. In this study, we proposed an approach for studying receptor agonism
      and antagonism by combining the roles of FETs and GPCRs in a dopamine receptor D1
      (DRD1)-conjugated FET system, which is a suitable substitute for conventional
      cell-based receptor assays. DRD1 was reconstituted and purified to mimic native
      binding pockets that have highly discriminative interactions with DRD1
      agonists/antagonists. The real-time responses from the DRD1-nanohybrid FET were
      highly sensitive and selective for dopamine agonists/antagonists, and their
      maximal response levels were clearly different depending on their DRD1
      affinities. Moreover, the equilibrium constants (K) were estimated by fitting the
      response levels. Each K value indicates the variation in the affinity between
      DRD1 and the agonists/antagonists; a greater K value corresponds to a stronger
      DRD1 affinity in agonism, whereas a lower K value in antagonism indicates a
      stronger dopamine-blocking effect.

PMID- 28558185
TI  - Formation of Triboelectric Series via Atomic-Level Surface Functionalization for
      Triboelectric Energy Harvesting.
AB  - Triboelectric charging involves frictional contact of two different materials,
      and their contact electrification usually relies on polarity difference in the
      triboelectric series. This limits the choices of materials for triboelectric
      contact pairs, hindering research and development of energy harvest devices
      utilizing triboelectric effect. A progressive approach to resolve this issue
      involves modification of chemical structures of materials for effectively
      engineering their triboelectric properties. Here, we describe a facile method to
      change triboelectric property of a polymeric surface via atomic-level chemical
      functionalizations using a series of halogens and amines, which allows a wide
      spectrum of triboelectric series over single material. Using this method, tunable
      triboelectric output power density is demonstrated in triboelectric generators.
      Furthermore, molecular-scale calculation using density functional theory unveils
      that electrons transferred through electrification are occupying the PET group
      rather than the surface functional group. The work introduced here would open the
      ability to tune triboelectric property of materials by chemical modification of
      surface and facilitate the development of energy harvesting devices and sensors
      exploiting triboelectric effect.

PMID- 28558186
TI  - Li Electrochemical Tuning of Metal Oxide for Highly Selective CO2 Reduction.
AB  - Engineering active grain boundaries (GBs) in oxide-derived (OD) electrocatalysts
      is critical to improve the selectivity in CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), which
      is becoming an increasingly important pathway for renewable energy storage and
      usage. Different from traditional in situ electrochemical reduction under CO2RR
      conditions, where some metal oxides are converted into active metallic phases but
      with decreased GB densities, here we introduce the Li electrochemical tuning
      (LiET) method to controllably reduce the oxide precursors into interconnected
      ultrasmall metal nanoparticles with enriched GBs. By using ZnO as a case study,
      we demonstrate that the LiET-Zn with freshly exposed GBs exhibits a CO2-to-CO
      partial current of ~23 mA cm-2 at an overpotential of -948 mV, representing a 5
      fold improvement from the OD-Zn with GBs eliminated during the in situ electro
      reduction process. A maximal CO Faradaic efficiency of ~91.1% is obtained by LiET
      Zn on glassy carbon substrate. The CO2-to-CO mechanism and interfacial chemistry
      are further probed at the molecular level by advanced in situ
      spectroelectrochemical technique, where the reaction intermediate of carboxyl
      species adsorbed on LiET-Zn surface is revealed.

PMID- 28558187
TI  - Compound Quantum Dot-Perovskite Optical Absorbers on Graphene Enhancing Short
      Wave Infrared Photodetection.
AB  - Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) combined with a graphene charge transducer promise
      to provide a photoconducting platform with high quantum efficiency and large
      intrinsic gain, yet compatible with cost-efficient polymer substrates. The
      response time in these devices is limited, however, and fast switching is only
      possible by sacrificing the high sensitivity. Furthermore, tuning the QD size
      toward infrared absorption using conventional organic capping ligands
      progressively reduces the device performance characteristics. Here we demonstrate
      methods to couple large QDs (>6 nm in diameter) with organometal halide
      perovskites, enabling hybrid graphene phototransistor arrays on plastic foils
      that simultaneously exhibit a specific detectivity of 5 * 1012 Jones and high
      video-frame-rate performance. PbI2 and CH3NH3I co-mediated ligand exchange in PbS
      QDs improves surface passivation and facilitates electronic transport, yielding
      faster charge recovery, whereas PbS QDs embedded into a CH3NH3PbI3 matrix produce
      spatially separated photocarriers leading to large gain.

PMID- 28558188
TI  - Porous Iron-Carboxylate Metal-Organic Framework: A Novel Bioplatform with
      Sustained Antibacterial Efficacy and Nontoxicity.
AB  - Sustained drug release plays a critical role in targeting the therapy of local
      diseases such as bacterial infections. In the present work, porous iron
      carboxylate metal-organic framework [MOF-53(Fe)] nanoparticles (NPs) were
      designed to entrap the vancomycin (Van) drugs. This system exhibited excellent
      chemical stability under acidic conditions (pH 7.4, 6.5, and 5.5) and much higher
      drug-loading capability because of the high porosity and large surface area of
      MOF NPs. The results showed that the drug-loading ratio of Van could reach 20 wt
      % and that the antibacterial ratio of the MOF-53(Fe)/Van system against
      Staphylococcus aureus could reach up to 90%. In addition, this MOF-53(Fe)/Van
      system exhibited excellent biocompatibility because of its chemical stability and
      sustained release of iron ions. Hence, these porous MOF NPs are a promising
      bioplatform not only for local therapy of bacterial infections but also for other
      biomedical therapies for tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28558189
TI  - Blending Homopolymers for Controlling the Morphology Transitions of Block
      Copolymer Nanorods Confined in Cylindrical Nanopores.
AB  - The microphase separation of block copolymers in confined geometries has been
      widely investigated over the last few decades. The controllability and
      versatility of the confinement-induced morphologies, however, are still difficult
      to be achieved because of the limited experimental parameters in the process of
      fabricating the confined nanostructures. In this work, we study the morphology
      transitions of lamellae-forming polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane (PS-b
      PDMS) nanorods confined in the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)
      templates. The nanorods are formed by solvent-assisted template wetting, and the
      morphologies are compared to those in the bulk state. By blending PS-b-PDMS with
      homopolystyrene (hPS), the morphologies of the nanorods can be controlled because
      of the changes of the effective volume fractions. Special morphology transitions
      from concentric lamellar morphology, to multihelical morphology, and finally to
      spherical-like morphology are observed by increasing the weight ratios of hPS.
      hPS with different molecular weights is also applied to investigate the effect of
      hPS on the morphologies of the PS-b-PDMS/hPS blend nanostructures. The unusual
      morphologies are further confirmed by a selective removal process, which also
      generates nanochannels for possible refilling with functional materials.

PMID- 28558190
TI  - Broadband Cooling Spectra of Hot Electrons and Holes in PbSe Quantum Dots.
AB  - Understanding cooling of hot charge carriers in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs)
      is of fundamental interest and useful to enhance the performance of QDs in
      photovoltaics. We study electron and hole cooling dynamics in PbSe QDs up to high
      energies where carrier multiplication occurs. We characterize distinct cooling
      steps of hot electrons and holes and build up a broadband cooling spectrum for
      both charge carriers. Cooling of electrons is slower than of holes. At energies
      near the band gap we find cooling times between successive electronic energy
      levels in the order of 0.5 ps. We argue that here the large spacing between
      successive electronic energy levels requires cooling to occur by energy transfer
      to vibrational modes of ligand molecules or phonon modes associated with the QD
      surface. At high excess energy the energy loss rate of electrons is 1-5 eV/ps and
      exceeds 8 eV/ps for holes. Here charge carrier cooling can be understood in terms
      of emission of LO phonons with a higher density-of-states in the valence band
      than the conduction band. The complete mapping of the broadband cooling spectrum
      for both charge carriers in PbSe QDs is a big step toward understanding and
      controlling the cooling of hot charge carriers in colloidal QDs.

PMID- 28558192
TI  - Tunable Magnetism and Transport Properties in Nitride MXenes.
AB  - Two-dimensional materials with intrinsic and robust ferromagnetism and half
      metallicity are of great interest to explore the exciting physics and
      applications of nanoscale spintronic devices, but no such materials have been
      experimentally realized. In this study, we predict several M2NTx nitride MXene
      structures that display these characteristics based on a comprehensive study
      using a crystal field theory model and first-principles simulations. We
      demonstrate intrinsic ferromagnetism in Mn2NTx with different surface
      terminations (T = O, OH, and F), as well as in Ti2NO2 and Cr2NO2. High magnetic
      moments (up to 9 MUB per unit cell), high Curie temperatures (1877 to 566 K),
      robust ferromagnetism, and intrinsic half-metallic transport behavior of these
      MXenes suggest that they are promising candidates for spintronic applications,
      which should stimulate interest in their synthesis.

PMID- 28558193
TI  - Influence of Size and Shape on the Anatomical Distribution of Endotoxin-Free Gold
      Nanoparticles.
AB  - The transport and the delivery of drugs through nanocarriers is a great challenge
      of pharmacology. Since the production of liposomes to reduce the toxicity of
      doxorubicin in patients, a plethora of nanomaterials have been produced and
      characterized. Although it is widely known that elementary properties of
      nanomaterials influence their in vivo kinetics, such interaction is often poorly
      investigated in many preclinical studies. The present study aims to evaluate the
      actual effect of size and shape on the biodistribution of a set of gold
      nanoparticles (GNPs) after intravenous administration in mice. To this goal,
      quantitative data achieved by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and
      observational results emerging from histochemistry (autometallography and
      enhanced dark-field hyperspectral microscopy) were combined. Since the immune
      system plays a role in bionano-interaction we used healthy immune-competent mice.
      To keep the immune surveillance on the physiological levels we synthesized
      endotoxin-free GNPs to be tested in specific pathogen-free animals. Our study
      mainly reveals that (a) the size and the shape greatly influence the kinetics of
      accumulation and excretion of GNPs in filter organs; (b) spherical and star-like
      GNPs showed the same percentage of accumulation, but a different localization in
      liver; (c) only star-like GNPs are able to accumulate in lung; (d) changes in the
      geometry did not improve the passage of the blood brain barrier. Overall, this
      study can be considered as a reliable starting point to drive the synthesis and
      the functionalization of potential candidates for theranostic purposes in many
      fields of research.

PMID- 28558194
TI  - Adaptive Chitosan Hollow Microspheres as Efficient Drug Carrier.
AB  - Smart drug carrier with function-oriented adaptations is highly desired due to
      its unique properties in medical applications. Herein, adaptive chitosan hollow
      microspheres (CHM) are fabricated by employing interfacial Schiff-base bonding
      reaction. Hydrophilic macromolecules of glycol chitosan are fixed at the
      oil/water interface through numerous hydrophobic small molecules of borneol 4
      formylbenzoate, forming the CHM with a positively charged surface and lipophilic
      cavity. These CHM have an average size of 400-1000 nm after passing through the
      0.22 MUm apertures of filter paper. This phenomenon combined with SEM
      measurements demonstrates its remarkable shape-adaptive behavior. Furthermore,
      the CHM present a pH-dependence of structural stability. When pH value reduces
      from 7.06 to 5.01, the CHM begin to lose their integrity. All those
      characteristics make the CHM an intelligent drug carrier, especially for water
      insoluble anticancer drugs, paclitaxel (PTX) in particular. Both cell uptake and
      cell cytotoxicity assays suggest that the PTX-loaded CHM are highly efficient on
      HepG2 and A549 cells. Therefore, rather than most of the traditional materials,
      these adaptive CHM show great potential as a novel drug carrier.

PMID- 28558195
TI  - "In Water": Organocatalyzed Diastereoselective Multicomponent Reactions toward 2
      Azapyrrolizidine Alkaloid Scaffolds.
AB  - Synthesis of the 2-aza analogues of pyrrolizidine and spirooxindole-2
      azapyrrolizidine hybrid, a spiro-tetracyclic scaffold possessing multiple
      contiguous stereocenters, by an exclusive regio-, chemo-, and diastereoselective
      multicomponent reaction in water is reported. This logical and didactical tactic
      has integrated the principles of an ideal organic synthesis, privileged
      substructure-based diversity-oriented synthesis, and biology-oriented synthesis
      to access hybrid heterocyclic scaffolds.

PMID- 28558196
TI  - Supersnowflakes: Stepwise Self-Assembly and Dynamic Exchange of Rhombus Star
      Shaped Supramolecules.
AB  - With the goal of increasing the complexity of metallo-supramolecules, two rhombus
      star-shaped supramolecular architectures, namely, supersnowflakes, were designed
      and assembled using multiple 2,2':6',2"-terpyridine (tpy) ligands in a stepwise
      manner. In the design of multicomponent self-assembly, ditopic and tritopic
      ligands were bridged through Ru(II) with strong coordination to form metal
      organic ligands for the subsequent self-assembly with a hexatopic ligand and
      Zn(II). The combination of Ru(II)-organic ligands with high stability and Zn(II)
      ions with weak coordination played a key role in the self-assembly of giant
      heteroleptic supersnowflakes, which encompassed three types of tpy-based organic
      ligands and two metal ions. With such a stepwise strategy, the self-sorting of
      individual building blocks was prevented from forming the undesired assemblies,
      e.g., small macrocycles and coordination polymers. Furthermore, the intra- and
      intermolecular dynamic exchange study of two supersnowflakes by NMR and mass
      spectrometry revealed the remarkable stability of these giant supramolecular
      complexes.

PMID- 28558197
TI  - Evolution of Luminescent Supramolecular Lanthanide M2nL3n Complexes from
      Helicates and Tetrahedra to Cubes.
AB  - Lanthanide-containing molecules have many potential applications in material
      science and biology, that is, luminescent sensing/labling, MRI, magnetic
      refrigeration, and catalysis among others. Coordination-directed self-assembly
      has shown great power in the designed construction of well-defined supramolecular
      systems. However, application of this strategy to the lanthanide edifices is
      challenging due to the complicated and greatly labile coordination numbers and
      geometries for lanthanides. Here we demonstrate a sensitive structural switching
      phenomenon during the stereocontrolled self-assembly of a group of Ln2nL3n (Ln
      for lanthanides, L for organic ligands, and n = 1, 2, 4) compounds. Systematic
      variation of the offset distances between the two chelating arms on the
      bis(tridentate) ligands dictated the final outcomes of the lanthanide assembly,
      ranging from Ln2L3 helicates and Ln4L6 tetrahedra to Ln8L12 cubes. Remarkably,
      the borderline case leading to the formation of a mixture of the helicate and the
      tetrahedron was clearly revealed. Moreover, the concentration-dependent self
      assembly of an unprecedented cubic Ln8L12 complex was also confirmed. The
      luminescent lanthanide cubes can serve as excellent turn-off sensors in
      explosives detection, featuring high selectivity and sensitivity toward picric
      acid. All complexes were confirmed by NMR, ESI-TOF-MS, and single crystal X-ray
      diffraction studies. Our results provide valuable design principles for the
      coordination self-assembly of multinuclear functional lanthanide architectures.

PMID- 28558198
TI  - Engineered CRISPR Systems for Next Generation Gene Therapies.
AB  - An ideal in vivo gene therapy platform provides safe, reprogrammable, and precise
      strategies which modulate cell and tissue gene regulatory networks with a high
      temporal and spatial resolution. Clustered regularly interspaced short
      palindromic repeats (CRISPR), a bacterial adoptive immune system, and its CRISPR
      associated protein 9 (Cas9), have gained attention for the ability to target and
      modify DNA sequences on demand with unprecedented flexibility and precision. The
      precision and programmability of Cas9 is derived from its complexation with a
      guide-RNA (gRNA) that is complementary to a desired genomic sequence. CRISPR
      systems open-up widespread applications including genetic disease modeling,
      functional screens, and synthetic gene regulation. The plausibility of in vivo
      genetic engineering using CRISPR has garnered significant traction as a next
      generation in vivo therapeutic. However, there are hurdles that need to be
      addressed before CRISPR-based strategies are fully implemented. Some key issues
      center on the controllability of the CRISPR platform, including minimizing
      genomic-off target effects and maximizing in vivo gene editing efficiency, in
      vivo cellular delivery, and spatial-temporal regulation. The modifiable
      components of CRISPR systems: Cas9 protein, gRNA, delivery platform, and the form
      of CRISPR system delivered (DNA, RNA, or ribonucleoprotein) have recently been
      engineered independently to design a better genome engineering toolbox. This
      review focuses on evaluating CRISPR potential as a next generation in vivo gene
      therapy platform and discusses bioengineering advancements that can address
      challenges associated with clinical translation of this emerging technology.

PMID- 28558199
TI  - Global Kinetic Mechanism of Microsomal Glutathione Transferase 1 and Insights
      into Dynamic Enzyme Activation.
AB  - Microsomal glutathione transferase 1 (MGST1) has a unique ability to be
      activated, <=30-fold, by modification with sulfhydryl reagents. MGST1 exhibits
      one-third-of-the-sites reactivity toward glutathione and hence heterogeneous
      binding to different active sites in the homotrimer. Limited turnover stopped
      flow kinetic measurements of the activated enzyme allowed us to more accurately
      determine the KD for the "third" low-affinity GSH binding site (1.4 +/- 0.3 mM).
      The rate of thiolate formation, k2 (0.77 +/- 0.06 s-1), relevant to turnover,
      could also be determined. By deriving the steady-state rate equation for a random
      sequential mechanism for MGST1, we can predict KM, kcat, and kcat/KM values from
      these and previously determined pre-steady-state rate constants (all determined
      at 5  degrees C). To assess whether the pre-steady-state behavior can account for
      the steady-state kinetic behavior, we have determined experimental values for
      kinetic parameters at 5  degrees C. For reactive substrates and the activated
      enzyme, data for the microscopic steps account for the global mechanism of MGST1.
      For the unactivated enzyme and more reactive electrophilic substrates, pre-steady
      state and steady-state data can be reconciled only if a more active subpopulation
      of MGST1 is assumed. We suggest that unactivated MGST1 can be partially activated
      in its unmodified form. The existence of an activated subpopulation
      (approximately 10%) could be demonstrated in limited turnover experiments. We
      therefore suggest that MSGT1 displays a preexisting dynamic equilibrium between
      high- and low-activity forms.

PMID- 28558200
TI  - Multiplexed Lipid Bilayers on Silica Microspheres for Analytical Screening
      Applications.
AB  - Most druggable targets are membrane components, including membrane proteins and
      soluble proteins that interact with ligands or receptors embedded in membranes.
      Current target-based screening and intermolecular interaction assays generally do
      not include the lipid membrane environment in presenting these targets, possibly
      altering their native structure and leading to misleading or incorrect results.
      To address this issue, an ideal assay involving membrane components would (1)
      mimic the natural membrane environment, (2) be amenable to high-throughput
      implementation, and (3) be easily multiplexed. In a step toward developing such
      an ideal target-based analytical assay for membrane components, we present
      fluorescently indexed multiplexed biomimetic membrane assays amenable to high
      throughput flow cytometric detection. We build fluorescently multiplexed
      biomimetic membrane assays by using varying amounts of a fluorescently labeled
      lipid, NBD-DOPE [1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-(7-nitro-2-1,3
      benzoxadiazol-4-yl)], incorporated into a phospholipid membrane bilayer supported
      on 3 MUm silica microspheres. Using flow cytometry, we demonstrate this
      multiplexed approach by measuring specific affinity of two well-characterized
      systems, the fluorescently labeled soluble proteins cholera toxin B subunit-Alexa
      647 and streptavidin-PE/Cy5, to membranes containing different amounts of ligand
      targets of these proteins, GM1 and biotin-DOPE, respectively. This work will
      enable future efforts in developing highly efficient biomimetic assays for
      interaction analysis and drug screening involving membrane components.

PMID- 28558201
TI  - Geochemical Interactions of Plutonium with Opalinus Clay Studied by Spatially
      Resolved Synchrotron Radiation Techniques.
AB  - Plutonium plays an important role within nuclear waste materials because of its
      long half-life and high radiotoxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate
      with high spatial resolution the reactivity of the more oxidized forms of
      Pu(V,VI) within Opalinus Clay (OPA) rock, a heterogeneous, natural argillaceous
      rock considered as a potential repository host. A combination of synchrotron
      based X-ray microprobe and bulk techniques was used to study the spatial
      distribution and molecular speciation of Pu within OPA after diffusion and
      sorption processes. Microscopic chemical images revealed a pronounced impact of
      geochemical heterogeneities concerning the reactivity of the natural barrier
      material. Spatially resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy documented a reduction
      of the highly soluble Pu(V,VI) to the less mobile Pu(IV) within the argillaceous
      rock material, while bulk investigations showed second-shell scattering
      contributions, indicating an inner-sphere sorption of Pu on OPA components.
      Microdiffraction imaging identified the clay mineral kaolinite to play a key role
      in the immobilization of the reduced Pu. The findings provide strong evidence
      that reduction and immobilization do not occur as linked processes on a single
      reactive phase but as decoupled, subsequent, and spatially separated reactions
      involving different phases of the OPA.

PMID- 28558202
TI  - Effect of MultiSubstitution on the Thermoelectric Performance of the Ca11
      xYbxSb10-yGez (0 <= x <= 9; 0 <= y <= 3; 0 <= z <= 3) System: Experimental and
      Theoretical Studies.
AB  - The Zintl phase solid-solution Ca11-xYbxSb10-yGez (0 <= x <= 9; 0 <= y <= 3; 0 <=
      z <= 3) system with the cationic/anionic multisubstitution has been synthesized
      by molten Sn metal flux and arc-melting methods. The crystal structure of the
      nine title compounds were characterized by both powder and single-crystal X-ray
      diffractions and adopted the Ho11Ge10-type structure with the tetragonal space
      group I4/mmm (Z = 4, Pearson Code tI84). The overall isotypic structure of the
      nine title compounds can be illustrated as an assembly of three different types
      of cationic polyhedra sharing faces with their neighboring polyhedra and the
      three-dimensional cage-shaped anionic frameworks consisting of the dumbbell
      shaped Sb2 units and the square-shaped Sb4 or (Sb/Ge)4 units. During the
      multisubstitution trials, interestingly, we observed a metal-to-semiconductor
      transition as the Ca and Ge contents increased in the title system from Yb11Sb10
      to Ca9Yb2Sb7Ge3 (nominal compositions) on the basis of a series of thermoelectric
      property measurements. This phenomenon can be elucidated by the suppression of a
      bipolar conduction of holes and electrons via an extra hole-carrier doping. The
      tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital calculations using four hypothetical
      structural models nicely proved that the size of a pseudogap and the magnitude of
      the density of states at the Fermi level are significantly influenced by
      substituting elements as well as their atomic sites in a unit cell. The observed
      particular cationic/anionic site preferences, the historically known
      abnormalities of atomic displacement parameters, and the occupation deficiencies
      of particular atomic sites are further rationalized by the QVAL value criterion
      on the basis of the theoretical calculations. The results of SEM, EDS, and TGA
      analyses are also provided.

PMID- 28558203
TI  - beta-Cyclodextrin Polymer Network Sequesters Perfluorooctanoic Acid at
      Environmentally Relevant Concentrations.
AB  - Per- and poly fluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs), notably perfluorooctanoic
      acid (PFOA), contaminate many ground and surface waters and are environmentally
      persistent. The performance limitations of existing remediation methods motivate
      efforts to develop effective adsorbents. Here we report a beta-cyclodextrin (beta
      CD)-based polymer network with higher affinity for PFOA compared to powdered
      activated carbon, along with comparable capacity and kinetics. The beta-CD
      polymer reduces PFOA concentrations from 1 MUg L-1 to <10 ng L-1, at least 7
      times lower than the 2016 U.S. EPA advisory level (70 ng L-1), and was
      regenerated and reused multiple times by washing with MeOH. The performance of
      the polymer is unaffected by humic acid, a component of natural organic matter
      that fouls activated carbons. These results are promising for treating PFOA
      contaminated water and demonstrate the versatility of beta-CD-based adsorbents.

PMID- 28558204
TI  - Development and Application of Synthetic Affinity Ligands for the Purification of
      Ferritin-Based Influenza Antigens.
AB  - A recently developed novel recombinant influenza antigen vaccine has shown great
      success in preclinical studies in ferrets and mice. It provides broader
      protection, and is efficient to manufacture compared to the conventional
      trivalent influenza vaccines (TIV). Each strain of the recombinant antigen has a
      constant self-assembled bacterial ferritin core which, if used as a target for
      affinity chromatography, could lead to a universal purification method. Ferritin
      in silico models were used to explore potential target binding sites against
      ligands synthesized by the four-component Ugi reaction. Two ligands, SJ047 and
      SJ055, were synthesized in solution, characterized by 1H, 13C, and 2D NMR
      spectroscopy, and subsequently immobilized on the PEG-functionalized beads.
      Ligands SJ047 and SJ055 displayed apparent Kd values of 2.04 * 10-7 M and 1.91 *
      10-8 M, respectively, against the ferritin. SJ047 and SJ055-functionalized resins
      were able to purify hemagglutinin (New Caledonia)-ferritin expressed in a crude
      Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK) cell supernatant in a single step to a purity of 85
      +/- 0.5% (97 +/- 1% yield) and 87.5 +/- 0.5% (95.5 +/- 1.5% yield), respectively.
      Additionally, SJ047 and SJ055-functionalized resins purified the recombinant
      antigens when spiked at known concentrations into HEK supernatants. All three
      strains, hemagglutinin (New Caledonia)-ferritin, hemagglutinin (California)
      ferritin, and hemagglutinin (Singapore)-ferritin were purified, thereby offering
      an ideal alternate platform for affinity chromatography. Following elution from
      the affinity adsorbents, absorbance at 350 nm showed that there was no
      aggregation of the recombinant antigens and dynamic light scattering studies
      further confirmed the structural integrity of the recombinant antigen. The use of
      Ugi ligands coupled to a PEG-spacer arm to target the ferritin core of the strain
      is entirely novel and provides an efficient purification of these recombinant
      antigens. This approach represents a potentially universal method to purify any
      ferritin-based vaccine.

PMID- 28558205
TI  - Ruthenium-Catalyzed Urea Synthesis by N-H Activation of Amines.
AB  - Activation of the N-H bond of amines by a ruthenium pincer complex operating via
      "amine-amide" metal-ligand cooperation is demonstrated. Catalytic formyl C-H
      activation of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) is observed in situ, which resulted in
      the formation of CO and dimethylamine. The scope of this new mode of bond
      activation is extended to the synthesis of urea derivatives from amines using DMF
      as a carbon monoxide (CO) surrogate. This catalytic protocol allows the synthesis
      of simple and functionalized urea derivatives with liberation of hydrogen, devoid
      of any stoichiometric activating reagents, and avoids the direct use of fatal CO.
      The catalytic carbonylation occurred at low temperature to provide the formamide;
      a formamide intermediate was isolated. The consecutive addition of different
      amines provided unsymmetrical urea compounds. The reactions are proposed to
      proceed via N-H activation of amines followed by CO insertion from DMF and with
      liberation of dihydrogen.

PMID- 28558206
TI  - Inhibition Potential of Cycloartane-Type Glycosides from the Roots of Cimicifuga
      dahurica against Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase.
AB  - A phytochemical assay-guided fractionation of the 95% ethanol extract of
      Cimicifuga dahurica roots afforded 29 9,19-cycloartane triterpenoid glycosides,
      including the new cimiricasides A-F (1-6). The structures of 1-6 were established
      using contemporary NMR methods and from the HRESIMS data, and the sugar moiety in
      each case was confirmed by acid hydrolysis and subsequent GC/MS analysis.
      Compounds 2, 4, 5, 7-9, 18, 25, and 29 showed soluble epoxide hydrolase
      inhibitory effects with IC50 values of 0.4 +/- 0.1 to 24.0 +/- 0.2 MUM. The
      compounds were analyzed by enzyme kinetic studies to explore the binding mode
      between the ligand and receptor. Compounds 4 (mixed type), 8, 18, and 29
      (noncompetitive type) bound to a preferred allosteric site, while compounds 2, 5,
      7, 9, and 25 had competitive interactions at the active site. The binding
      mechanism of selected inhibitors was investigated using molecular docking and
      dynamics simulations.

PMID- 28558207
TI  - Structure and Stability of a Copper(II) Lactate Complex in Alkaline Solution: a
      Case Study by Energy-Dispersive X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy.
AB  - Energy-dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy was applied, aimed at solving the
      problem of the structure and stability of a copper(II) lactate complex in
      alkaline solution, used as a precursor for the electrodeposition of Cu2O. The
      application of multiple scattering calculations to the simulation of the X-ray
      absorption near-edge structure part of the spectra allowed an accurate resolution
      of the structure: the copper(II) cation is surrounded by four lactate ions in a
      distorted tetrahedral environment, with the lactate anions acting as monodentate
      ligands. This results in an atomic arrangement where copper is surrounded by four
      oxygen atoms located at quite a short distance (ca. 1.87 A) and four oxygen atoms
      located quite far apart (ca. 3.1-3.2 A). The complex was finally found to be
      stable in a wide range of applied potentials.

PMID- 28558208
TI  - Design and Characterization of DNA Strand-Displacement Circuits in Serum
      Supplemented Cell Medium.
AB  - The functional stability and lifetimes of synthetic molecular circuits in
      biological environments are important for long-term, stable sensors or
      controllers of cell or tissue behavior. DNA-based molecular circuits, in
      particular DNA strand-displacement circuits, provide simple and effective
      biocompatible control mechanisms and sensors, but are vulnerable to digestion by
      nucleases present in living tissues and serum-supplemented cell culture. The
      stability of double-stranded and single-stranded DNA circuit components in serum
      supplemented cell medium and the corresponding effect of nuclease-mediated
      degradation on circuit performance were characterized to determine the major
      routes of degradation and DNA strand-displacement circuit failure. Simple circuit
      design choices, such as the use of 5' toeholds within the DNA complexes used as
      reactants in the strand-displacement reactions and the termination of single
      stranded components with DNA hairpin domains at the 3' termini, significantly
      increase the functional lifetime of the circuit components in the presence of
      nucleases. Simulations of multireaction circuits, guided by the experimentally
      measured operation of single-reaction circuits, enable predictive realization of
      multilayer and competitive-reaction circuit behavior. Together, these results
      provide a basic route to increased DNA circuit stability in cell culture
      environments.

PMID- 28558209
TI  - Aminopolymer Mobility and Support Interactions in Silica-PEI Composites for CO2
      Capture Applications: A Quasielastic Neutron Scattering Study.
AB  - Composite gas sorbents, formed from an active polymer phase and a porous support,
      are promising materials for the separation of acid gases from a variety of gas
      streams. Significant changes in sorption performance (capacity, rate, stability
      etc.) can be achieved by tuning the properties of the polymer and the nature of
      interactions between polymer and support. Here we utilize quasielastic neutron
      scattering (QENS) and coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to
      characterize the dynamic behavior of the most commonly reported polymer in such
      materials, poly(ethylenimine) (PEI), both in bulk form and when supported in a
      mesoporous silica framework. The polymer chain dynamics (rotational and
      translational diffusion) are characterized using two neutron backscattering
      spectrometers that have overlapping time scales, ranging from picoseconds to a
      few nanoseconds. Two modes of motion are detected for the PEI molecule in QENS.
      At low energy transfers, a "slow process" on the time scale of ~200 ps is found
      and attributed to jump-mediated, center-of-mass diffusion. A second, "fast
      process" at ~20 ps scale is also found and is attributed to a locally confined,
      jump-diffusion. Characteristic data (time scale and spectral weight) of these
      processes are compared to those characterized by MD, and reasonable agreement is
      found. For the nanopore-confined PEI, we observe a significant reduction in the
      time scale of polymer motion as compared to the bulk. The impacts of silica
      surface functionalization and of polymer fill fraction in the silica pores
      (controlling the portion of polymer molecules in contact with the pore walls),
      are both studied in detail. Hydrophobic functionalization of the silica leads to
      an increase of the PEI mobility above that in native silanol-terminated silica,
      but the dynamics are still slower than those in bulk PEI. Sorbents with faster
      PEI dynamics are also found to be more efficient for CO2 capture, possibly
      because sorption sites are more accessible than those in systems with slower PEI
      dynamics. Thus, this work supports the existence of a link between the affinity
      of the support for PEI and the accessibility of active sorbent functional groups.

PMID- 28558210
TI  - Excited-State Dynamics of 2-(2'-Hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole: Ultrafast Proton
      Transfer and Internal Conversion.
AB  - One of the most widely studied model systems for excited-state proton transfer
      (ESPT) is the 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole (HBT) molecule. This compound
      undergoes ultrafast ESPT followed by internal conversion to return to the ground
      state. In the present work, we simulate the nonadiabatic photochemistry of HBT
      using ab initio multiple spawning (AIMS) nuclear dynamics and a complete active
      space configuration interaction (CASCI) method in conjunction with wave function
      in-DFT embedding to obtain ground- and excited-state potential surfaces on-the
      fly. Our simulation predicts ultrafast ESPT with a time constant of 48-54 fs and
      an excited-state lifetime of 1.7-1.8 ps. Following proton transfer, HBT becomes
      trapped in a metastable keto structure on the S1 state. Eventually, the molecule
      begins to twist and proceeds toward a seam of intersection with the ground state
      where internal conversion is highly efficient.

PMID- 28558211
TI  - Coumarin-Appended Stable Fluorescent Self-Complementary Quadruple-Hydrogen-Bonded
      Molecular Duplexes.
AB  - In this paper we report a coumarin-conjugated self-assembling system adorned with
      valuable features such as high duplex stability and a built-in fluorophore, which
      would augment its application potential. This system forms a highly stable
      molecular duplex in a nonpolar solvent (Kdim > 1.9 * 107 M-1 in CDCl3). Due to
      the fluorescent property of coumarin, these new structural motifs may find
      potential application in material chemistry and supramolecular chemistry.

PMID- 28558212
TI  - Thermal Decomposition Mechanism for Ethanethiol.
AB  - The thermal decomposition of ethanethiol was studied using a 1 mm * 2 cm pulsed
      silicon carbide microtubular reactor, CH3CH2SH + Delta -> Products. Unlike
      previous studies these experiments were able to identify the initial ethanethiol
      decomposition products. Ethanethiol was entrained in either an Ar or a He carrier
      gas, passed through a heated (300-1700 K) SiC microtubular reactor (roughly <=100
      MUs residence time) and exited into a vacuum chamber. Within one reactor diameter
      the gas cools to less than 50 K rotationally, and all reactions cease. The
      resultant molecular beam was probed by photoionization mass spectroscopy and IR
      spectroscopy. Ethanethiol was found to undergo unimolecular decomposition by
      three pathways: CH3CH2SH -> (1) CH3CH2 + SH, (2) CH3 + H2C?S, and (3) H2C?CH2 +
      H2S. The experimental findings are in good agreement with electronic structure
      calculations.

PMID- 28558213
TI  - Phthalocyanines and Tetrapyrazinoporphyrazines with Two Cationic Donuts: High
      Photodynamic Activity as a Result of Rigid Spatial Arrangement of Peripheral
      Substituents.
AB  - High photodynamic activity was observed for hexadeca-cationic zinc, magnesium,
      and metal-free phthalocyanines (Pcs) and tetrapyrazinoporphyrazines with EC50
      values as low as 5 nM (MCF-7 cells) for the best compound; this activity was
      several times better than that of clinically established photosensitizers
      verteporfin, temoporfin, S3AlOHPc, or protoporphyrin IX. This lead compound was
      characterized by low dark toxicity (TC50 = 369 MUM), high efficiency against
      other cell lines (HCT 116 and HeLa), and possible activation by light above 680
      nm. The excellent photodynamic activity resulted from the rigid spatial
      arrangement of the quaternized triazole moieties above and below the Pc core, as
      confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The triazole moieties thus formed two
      "cationic donuts" that protected the hydrophobic core against aggregation in
      water. The lysosomes were found to be the site of subcellular localization and
      were consequently the primary targets of photodynamic injury, resulting in
      predominantly necrotic cell death.

PMID- 28558214
TI  - Substitution Effects on the Photoinduced Charge-Transfer Properties of Novel
      Perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic Acid Derivatives.
AB  - We report here the synthesis and photophysical study of a series of electron
      donor-acceptor molecules, in which electron-donating 4-methoxyphenoxy groups are
      attached to the 1,7-bay positions of four different perylene tetracarboxylic acid
      derivatives, namely, perylene tetraesters 1, perylene monoimide diesters 2,
      perylene bisimides 3, and perylene monobenzimidazole monoimides 4. These perylene
      derivatives are used because of their increasing order of electron-accepting
      capability upon moving from 1 to 4. Two additional donor-acceptor molecules are
      synthesized by linking electron-donating 4-methoxyphenyl groups to the imide
      position of perylene monoimide diester 2 and perylene bisimide 3. The motivation
      for this study is to achieve a good control over the photoinduced charge-transfer
      (CT) process in perylene-based systems by altering the position of electron
      donors and tuning the electron deficiency of perylene core. A comprehensive study
      of the photophysical properties of these molecules has shown a highly systematic
      trend in the magnitude of CT as a function of increased electron deficiency of
      the perylene core and solvent polarity. Importantly, just by changing the
      attachment of electron-donating group from "bay" to "imide" position, we are able
      to block the CT process. This implies that the positioning of the electron donor
      at the perylene core strongly influences the kinetics of the photoinduced CT
      process. In these compounds, the CT process is characterized by the quenching of
      fluorescence and singlet excited-state lifetimes as compared to model compounds
      bearing non-electron-donating 4-tert-butylphenoxy groups. Transient absorption
      spectroscopy did not reveal spectra of CT states. This most likely implies that
      the CT state is not accumulated, because of the faster charge recombination.

PMID- 28558215
TI  - Effect of Different Silage Storing Conditions on the Oxygen Concentration in the
      Silo and Fermentation Quality of Rice.
AB  - We investigated the effects of different silage storing conditions on the oxygen
      concentration in the silo and fermentation quality of rice (Oryza sativa L.).
      Forage rice was ensiled in bottles (with or without space at the bottlemouth,
      with solid or pinhole cap, and with oxygen scavenger, ethanol transpiration
      agent, oxygen scavenger and ethanol transpiration agent, or no adjuvant) and
      stored for 57 days. The oxygen concentration decreased with the addition of the
      oxygen scavenger and increased with that of the ethanol transpiration agent. The
      oxygen scavenger facilitated silage fermentation and fungus generation, whereas
      the ethanol transpiration agent suppressed silage fermentation and fungus
      generation. However, the combined use of the oxygen scavenger and ethanol
      transpiration agent facilitated silage fermentation and also suppressed fungus
      generation. Overall, this study revealed the negative effects of oxygen on the
      internal silo and the positive effects of the combined use of the oxygen
      scavenger and ethanol transpiration agent on silage fermentation quality.

PMID- 28558216
TI  - Effect of Substituents on the Bond Strength of Air-Stable Dicyanomethyl Radical
      Thermochromes.
AB  - A series of substituted aryl dicyanomethyl radicals were synthesized, and the
      bonding thermodynamic parameters for self-dimerization were determined from van't
      Hoff plots obtained from variable-temperature electron paramagnetic resonance and
      ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. At low temperatures, the radicals dimerize, but
      the colored, air-stable free radicals return upon heating. Heating and cooling
      cycles (5-95  degrees C) can be repeated without radical degradation and with
      striking thermochromic behavior. We find a linear free energy relationship
      between the Hammett para substituent parameter and the dimerization equilibrium
      constant, with para electron-donating substituents leading to a weaker bond and
      electron-withdrawing substituents leading to stronger bonds, following a
      captodative effect. Density functional theory investigations [B98D/6-31+G(d,p)]
      reveal that the dimers prefer a slip-stacked geometry and feature elongated
      bonds.

PMID- 28558217
TI  - Probing Co-Assembly of Supramolecular Photocatalysts and Polyelectrolytes Using
      Isothermal Titration Calorimetry.
AB  - The creation of renewable fuels to replace dwindling fossil energy resources is
      one of the greatest challenges facing the scientific community. Generating H2
      fuel from water is a carbon-neutral strategy that demonstrates great promise.
      Photocatalysts of the molecular architecture [{(TL)2Ru(BL)}2RhX2]5+ (BL =
      bridging ligand, TL = terminal ligand, X = halide) catalyze the formation of H2
      in deoxygenated organic solvents but are limited by poor performance in air
      saturated aqueous solutions. Addition of the water-soluble polyelectrolyte
      poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) was recently shown as being a promising new
      strategy to increase efficiency and stability of H2 evolving photocatalysts in
      air-saturated aqueous solutions. Herein we investigate intermolecular
      interactions between Ru,Rh,Ru photocatalysts and water-soluble polyelectrolytes
      using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). ITC studies provide insight into
      the thermodynamic forces that drive assembly of PSS-photocatalyst aggregates and
      give new evidence for the intermolecular forces that lead to increased
      photocatalytic efficiency.

PMID- 28558218
TI  - Catalytic Aerobic Chemoselective alpha-Oxidation of Acylpyrazoles en Route to
      alpha-Hydroxy Acid Derivatives.
AB  - Catalytic aerobic chemoselective alpha-oxidation of acylpyrazoles is described.
      Acylpyrazoles, carboxylic acid oxidation state substrates, were efficiently
      oxidized under aerobic conditions using TEMPO as an oxygenating agent. The mild
      catalytic conditions of the present catalysis were amenable to late-stage alpha
      oxidation of various pharmaceutical agents and natural products, leading to
      previously unreported alpha-hydroxy acid derivatives in short steps. Preliminary
      mechanistic studies revealed that in situ generated copper(II) peroxo species
      served as a Lewis acid/Bronsted base cooperative catalyst.

PMID- 28558219
TI  - Correction to "New Insights into Peptide-Silver Nanoparticle Interaction:
      Deciphering the Role of Cysteine and Lysine in the Peptide Sequence".

PMID- 28558220
TI  - Carboxylate Anions Accelerate Pyrrolidinopyridine (PPy)-Catalyzed Acylation:
      Catalytic Site-Selective Acylation of a Carbohydrate by in Situ Counteranion
      Exchange.
AB  - Acylpyridinium ions have been known as catalytically active species in acylation
      reactions catalyzed by 4-dimethylaminopyridine and its analogues. Acylpyridinium
      carboxylates were found to be 800-1300 times more reactive than the corresponding
      acylpyridinium chlorides. A catalytic cycle was developed, in which
      acylpyridinium carboxylates were generated by in situ counteranion exchange from
      the acylpyridinium chlorides. A catalyst loading as low as 0.01 mol % and
      catalyst turnover number of up to 6700 were achieved for site-selective acylation
      of a carbohydrate.

PMID- 28558221
TI  - Magnesium Catalysis Mediated Tetrazoles in Desymmetrization Reaction of
      Aziridines.
AB  - A magnesium-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening reaction of aziridines with
      substituted tetrazoles is reported. The current protocol proceeds smoothly and
      gives the corresponding desymmetrization products in high yields and good
      enantioselectivities. A new chiral ligand was synthesized from azetidine and (R)
      BINOL and was employed in the current in situ generated magnesium catalyst. The
      Mg(II)-mediated desymmetrization reaction could be performed on gram scale under
      mild conditions and was transformed to chiral alkyl amines by a deprotection
      process.

PMID- 28558222
TI  - Structural Contraction of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks: Membrane Application
      on Porous Metallic Hollow Fibers for Gas Separation.
AB  - Positive thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) of 52 * 10-6 and 35 * 10-6 K-1
      were experimentally calculated in the -116 to 250  degrees C range for the III
      phases of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF) ZIF-9(Co) and ZIF-7(Zn),
      respectively, by means of the unit cell dimensions and volume of the materials in
      the monoclinic crystal system calculated from the XRD patterns. The unit cell
      dimensions and volume showed a significant expansion phenomenon as the
      temperature increased, by as much as 5.5% for ZIF-9-III in the studied range. To
      exploit the advantages of such thermal behavior, a new approach to the
      fabrication of ZIF-9-III membranes on thin, flexible, and highly porous nickel
      hollow fiber (Ni HF) supports by a versatile and easy-controllable microfluidic
      setup is herein reported. These Ni HF supports result from the sintering of 25
      MUm Ni particles and display very positive mechanical properties and bending
      resistance. As compared to the traditional polymer-based HF membranes, the ZIF
      metal-supported membrane exhibited good durability and robustness throughout its
      operation in a wide temperature range and after heating and cooling cycles. These
      benefits derive from (1) the pore-plugging membrane configuration resulting from
      the high porosity of the support and (2) the similarity between the TECs of the
      ZIF and the metallic support, both positive, which enhances their mutual
      compatibility. An increase in the H2/CO2 separation selectivity at low
      temperatures (as high as 22.2 at -10  degrees C, along with 102 GPU permeance of
      H2) was achieved, in agreement with the structural variations observed in the ZIF
      material.

PMID- 28558223
TI  - Engineered Assimilation of Exogenous and Endogenous Formate in Escherichia coli.
AB  - Decoupling biorefineries from land use and agriculture is a major challenge. As
      formate can be produced from various sources, e.g., electrochemical reduction of
      CO2, microbial formate-assimilation has the potential to become a sustainable
      feedstock for the bioindustry. However, organisms that naturally grow on formate
      are limited by either a low biomass yield or by a narrow product spectrum. The
      engineering of a model biotechnological microbe for growth on formate via
      synthetic pathways represents a promising approach to tackle this challenge.
      Here, we achieve a critical milestone for two such synthetic formate-assimilation
      pathways in Escherichia coli. Our engineering strategy involves the division of
      the pathways into metabolic modules; the activity of each module-providing at
      least one essential building block-is selected for in an appropriate auxotrophic
      strain. We demonstrate that formate can serve as a sole source of all cellular C1
      compounds, including the beta-carbon of serine. We further show that by
      overexpressing the native threonine cleavage enzymes, the entire cellular glycine
      requirement can be provided by threonine biosynthesis and degradation. Together,
      we confirm the simultaneous activity of all pathway segments of the synthetic
      serine-threonine cycle. We go beyond the formate bioeconomy concept by showing
      that, under anaerobic conditions, formate produced endogenously by pyruvate
      formate-lyase can replace exogenous formate. The resulting prototrophic strain
      constitutes a substantial rewiring of central metabolism in which C1, glycine,
      and serine metabolism proceed via a unique set of pathways. This strain can serve
      as a platform for future metabolic-engineering efforts and could further pave the
      way for investigating the plasticity of metabolic networks.

PMID- 28558224
TI  - Designed Tetrapeptide Interacts with Tubulin and Microtubule.
AB  - Microtubules regulate eukaryotic cell functions, which have tremendous
      implication in tumor progression. Thus, the design of novel approaches for
      controlling microtubule function is extremely important. In this manuscript, a
      novel tetrapeptide Ser-Leu-Arg-Pro (SLRP) has been designed and synthesized from
      a small peptide library consisting of 14 tetrapeptides, which perturbs
      microtubule function through interaction in the "anchor region". We have studied
      the role of peptides on microtubule function on a chemically functionalized 2D
      platform. Interestingly, we have found that SLRP binds with tubulin and inhibits
      the kinesin-driven microtubule motility on a kinesin-immobilized chemically
      functionalized 2D platform. Further, this peptide modulator interacts with
      intracellular tubulin/microtubule and depolymerizes the microtubule networks.
      These interesting findings of perturbation of microtubule function both on
      engineered platforms and inside the cell by this small peptide modulator inspired
      us to study the effect of this tetrapeptide on cancer cell proliferation. We
      found that the novel tetrapeptide modulator causes moderate cytotoxicity to the
      human breast cancer cell (MCF-7 cell), induces the apoptotic death of MCF-7 cell,
      and activates the tumor suppressor proteins p53 and cyclin-dependent kinase
      inhibitor 1 (p21). To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest peptide
      discovered, which perturbs microtubule function both on an engineered 2D platform
      and inside the cell.

PMID- 28558225
TI  - Can CF3-Functionalized La@C60 Be Isolated Experimentally and Become
      Superconducting?
AB  - Superconducting behavior even under harsh ambient conditions is expected to occur
      in La@C60 if it could be isolated from the primary metallofullerene soot when
      functionalized by CF3 radicals. We use ab initio density functional theory
      calculations to compare the stability and electronic structure of C60 and the
      La@C60 endohedral metallofullerene to their counterparts functionalized by CF3.
      We found that CF3 radicals favor binding to C60 and La@C60 and have identified
      the most stable isomers. Structures with an even number m of radicals are
      energetically preferred for C60 and structures with odd m for La@C60 due to the
      extra charge on the fullerene. This is consistent with a wide HOMO-LUMO gap in
      La@C60(CF3)m with odd m, causing extra stabilization in the closed-shell
      electronic configuration. CF3 radicals are both stabilizing agents and molecular
      separators in a metallic crystal, which could increase the critical temperature
      for superconductivity.

PMID- 28558226
TI  - Boosting Biexciton Collection Efficiency at Quantum Dot-Oxide Interfaces by Hole
      Localization at the Quantum Dot Shell.
AB  - Harvesting multiexcitons from semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) has been proposed
      as a path toward photovoltaic efficiencies beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit.
      Although multiexciton generation efficiencies have been quantified extensively in
      QD structures, the challenge of actually collecting multiple excitons at
      electrodes-a prerequisite for high-efficiency solar cell devices-has received
      less attention. Here, we demonstrate that multiexciton collection (MEC) at the
      PbS QD/mesoporous SnO2 interface can be boosted 5-fold from ~15 to reach ~80%
      quantum yield, by partial localization of holes in a QD molecular capping shell.
      The resulting weakened Coulombic interactions give rise to reduced Auger
      recombination rates within the molecularly capped QDs, so that biexciton Auger
      relaxation, competing with MEC, is strongly suppressed. These results not only
      highlight the importance of surface chemistry and energetics at QD/ligand
      interfaces for multiexciton extraction but also provide clear design principles
      for realizing the benefits of MEG in sensitized systems exploited in solar cells
      and fuel geometries.

PMID- 28558227
TI  - Imidazolium Ionic Liquid Mediates Black Phosphorus Exfoliation while Preventing
      Phosphorene Decomposition.
AB  - Forthcoming applications in electronics and optoelectronics make phosphorene a
      subject of vigorous research efforts. Solvent-assisted exfoliation of phosphorene
      promises affordable delivery in industrial quantities for future applications. We
      demonstrate, using equilibrium, steered and umbrella sampling molecular dynamics,
      that the 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [EMIM][BF4] ionic liquid
      is an excellent solvent for phosphorene exfoliation. The presence of both
      hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties, as well as substantial shear viscosity,
      allows [EMIM][BF4] simultaneously to facilitate separation of phosphorene sheets
      and to protect them from getting in direct contact with moisture and oxygen. The
      exfoliation thermodynamics is moderately unfavorable, which indicates that an
      external stimulus is necessary. Unexpectedly, [EMIM][BF4] does not coordinates
      phosphorene by pi-electron stacking with the imidazole ring. Instead, the
      solvation proceeds via hydrophobic side chains, while polar imidazole rings form
      an electrostatically stabilized protective layer. The simulations suggest that
      further efforts in solvent engineering for phosphorene exfoliation should
      concentrate on use of weakly coordinating ions and grafting groups that promote
      stronger dispersion interactions and on elongation of nonpolar chains.

PMID- 28558228
TI  - Switchable Complexation between (O-Methyl)6-2,6-helic[6]arene and Protonated
      Pyridinium Salts Controlled by Acid/Base and Photoacid.
AB  - Complexation between (O-methyl)6-2,6-helic[6]arene and protonated pyridinium
      salts was investigated by 1H NMR, ESI-MS, and calculations. It was found that the
      host and the tested guests could form stable complexes and the binding and
      release process of the guests in the complexes could be reversibly controlled by
      acid-base stimulus. Notably, the switchable complexation could also be
      efficiently controlled by light stimulus in the presence of protonated
      merocyanine 1-MEH.

PMID- 28558229
TI  - Catalytic Dyad in the SGNH Hydrolase Superfamily: In-depth Insight into
      Structural Parameters Tuning the Catalytic Process of Extracellular Lipase from
      Streptomyces rimosus.
AB  - SrLip is an extracellular enzyme from Streptomyces rimosus (Q93MW7) exhibiting
      lipase, phospholipase, esterase, thioesterase, and tweenase activities. The
      structure of SrLip is one of a very few lipases, among the 3D-structures of the
      SGNH superfamily of hydrolases, structurally characterized by synchrotron
      diffraction data at 1.75 A resolution (PDB: 5MAL ). Its crystal structure was
      determined by molecular replacement using a homology model based on the crystal
      structure of phospholipase A1 from Streptomyces albidoflavus (PDB: 4HYQ ). The
      structure reveals the Rossmann-like 3-layer alphabetaalpha sandwich fold typical
      of the SGNH superfamily stabilized by three disulfide bonds. The active site
      shows a catalytic dyad involving Ser10 and His216 with Ser10
      OgammaH...NepsilonHis216, His216-NdeltaH...O?C-Ser214, and Gly54-NH...Ogamma
      Ser10 hydrogen bonds essential for the catalysis; the carbonyl oxygen of the
      Ser214 main chain acts as a hydrogen bond acceptor ensuring the orientation of
      the His216 imidazole ring suitable for a proton transfer. Molecular dynamics
      simulations of the apoenzyme and its complex with p-nitrophenyl caprylate were
      used to probe the positioning of the substrate ester group within the active site
      and its aliphatic chain within the binding site. Quantum-mechanical calculations
      at the DFT level revealed the precise molecular mechanism of the SrLip catalytic
      activity, demonstrating that the overall hydrolysis is a two-step process with
      acylation as the rate-limiting step associated with the activation free energy of
      DeltaG?ENZ = 17.9 kcal mol-1, being in reasonable agreement with the experimental
      value of 14.5 kcal mol-1, thus providing strong support in favor of the proposed
      catalytic mechanism based on a dyad.

PMID- 28558230
TI  - Synthesis, Characterization, and Reactivity of Thermally Stable Anhydrous
      Quaternary Ammonium Fluorides.
AB  - The synthesis and properties of a new class of anhydrous quaternary ammonium
      fluorides, based on the rigid skeleton azabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, is described.
      Compounds 2a-d were easily prepared by passing the corresponding ammonium iodides
      over fluoride-based resin followed by drying their hydrated form at 100 or 140 
      degrees C under reduced pressure. The stability (experimental and theoretical
      study), solubility, reactivity, and characterization by solution and solid-state
      MAS NMR are discussed.

PMID- 28558232
TI  - Transparent Carbon Ultramicroelectrode Arrays for the Electrochemical Detection
      of a Bacterial Warfare Toxin, Pyocyanin.
AB  - Pyocyanin is a virulence factor produced as a secondary metabolite by the
      opportunistic human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Fast and direct detection
      of pyocyanin is of importance as it could provide important insights regarding P.
      aeruginosa's virulence mechanisms. Here, we present an electrochemical sensing
      platform of redox-active pyocyanin using transparent carbon ultramicroelectrode
      arrays (T-CUAs), which were made using a previously reported simple fabrication
      process ( Duay et al. Anal. Chem. 2015 , 87 , 10109 ). Square-wave voltammetry
      was used to quantify pyocyanin concentrations on T-CUAs with and without chitosan
      gold nanoparticles (CS/GNP) and planar transparent macroelectrodes (T-Macro). The
      response time (RT), limit of detection (LOD), and linear dynamic range (LDR)
      differ for each electrode type due to subtle influences in how the detectable
      signal varies in relation to the charging time and resistive and capacitive
      noise. In general lower LODs can be achieved at the consequence of smaller LDRs.
      The LOD for T-Macro was 0.75 +/- 0.09 MUM with a LDR of 0.75-25 MUM, and the LOD
      for the CS/GNP 1.54 T-CUA was determined to be 1.6 +/- 0.2 MUM with a LDR of 1
      100 MUM, respectively. The LOD for the 1.54T-CUA with a larger LDR of 1-250 MUM
      was 1.0 +/- 0.3 MUM. These LODs and LDRs fall within the range of PYO
      concentrations for a variety of in vitro and in vivo cellular environments and
      offer promise of the application of T-CUAs for the quantitative study of
      biotoxins, quorum sensing, and pathogenesis. Finally, we demonstrate the
      successful use of T-CUAs for the electrochemical detection of pyocyanin secreted
      from P. aeruginosa strains while optically imaging the cells. The secreted
      pyocyanin levels from two bacterial strains, PA11 and PA14, were measured to have
      concentrations of 45 +/- 5 and 3 +/- 2 MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28558233
TI  - Cationic Copper Hydride Clusters Arising from Oxidation of (Ph3P)6Cu6H6.
AB  - Transfer of the first electron from (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 to Cp*2Fe+ is fast (k > 106
      L.mol-1.s-1). Transfer of a second electron to the same oxidant has a much lower
      thermodynamic driving force and is considerably slower, with k = 9.29(4) * 103
      L.mol-1.s-1. The second oxidation leads to the formation of [(Ph3P)6Cu6H5]+. The
      structure of [(Ph3P)6Cu6H5]+ has been confirmed by its conversion back to
      (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 and by microanalysis; X-ray diffraction shows that the complex is a
      bitetrahedron in the solid state. [(Ph3P)6Cu6H5]+ can also be prepared by
      treating (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 with MeOTf. With less than 1 equiv of Cp*2Fe+ as oxidant,
      (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 gives [(Ph3P)7Cu7H6]+ as the major product; X-ray diffraction shows
      a Cu6 octahedron with one face capped by an additional Cu. [(Ph3P)7Cu7H6]+ can
      also be prepared by treating (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 with [Cu(CH3CN)4]+ (along with 1 equiv
      of Ph3P), and can be converted back to (Ph3P)6Cu6H6 with base/H2.

PMID- 28558234
TI  - Sulfur-Driven Iron Reduction Coupled to Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation.
AB  - A new biogeochemical pathway has been suggested to be present in terrestrial
      ecosystems, linking the nitrogen and iron cycles via ferric iron reduction
      coupled to anaerobic ammonium oxidation. However, the underlying microbiological
      process has not been demonstrated to date. Here we report a stable consortium, HJ
      4, composed of Anaerospora hongkongensis (85%) and facultative anaerobe,
      Comamonadaceae (15%), which can process ferrihydrite reduction coupled to
      anaerobic ammonium oxidation driven by sulfur redox cycling. In this process, A.
      hongkongensis reduces elemental sulfur, sulfite, and polysulfides to sulfide,
      which fuels ferrihydrite reduction. Sulfide, elemental sulfur, sulfite, and
      polysulfides serve as electron shuttles, completing the sulfur cycle between A.
      hongkongensis and ferrihydrite. In addition, Comamonadaceae shows ammonium
      oxidation potential under aerobic conditions, with nitrite as the main product.
      We inferred that Comamonadaceae mediates simultaneous nitrification
      denitrification coupled to iron redox cycling through nitrate/nitrite-dependent
      ferrous oxidation under anaerobic conditions. Hence, we discovered a novel
      pathway for ferric iron reduction coupled to ammonium oxidation, highlighting the
      key role of electron shuttles and nitrate/nitrite-dependent ferrous oxidation in
      this process. The biogeochemical cycling of sulfur, iron, and nitrogen could be
      coupled in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

PMID- 28558235
TI  - Tissue Uptake, Distribution, and Elimination of Perfluoroalkyl Substances in
      Juvenile Perch through Perfluorooctane Sulfonamidoethanol Based Phosphate Diester
      Dietary Exposure.
AB  - Perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol based phosphate diester (SAmPAP) is a
      potential perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) precursor. To examine whether SAmPAP
      exposure would result in fish contamination by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl
      substances (PFASs), juvenile Eurasian perch were dietarily exposed to this
      compound (dosed group) or exposed to the same tank water but fed control feed
      (control group). SAmPAP and metabolites were monitored in the muscle, liver, and
      serum during the 45-day exposure phase and 35-day depuration phase. SAmPAP was
      only detected in the dosed group and the absorption efficiency (0.04-2.25%) was
      very low, possibly related to its low bioavailability in the gastrointestinal
      tract, steric constraints in crossing biological membranes, and clearing by
      enterohepatic circulation. Although SAmPAP was biotransformed and eliminated at a
      slow rate (t1/2 > 18 days), its biomagnification factor was low. The observed
      metabolites in fish were N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid,
      perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid, perfluorooctane sulfonamide, and PFOS.
      Considering that SAmPAP was the only source of PFASs in the tanks, the occurrence
      of metabolites indicates that SAmPAP could be biotransformed in fish and
      contribute to PFOS bioaccumulation. However, levels of metabolites were not
      significantly different in the dosed and control groups, indicating that
      metabolite excretion followed by re-exposure to these metabolites from water was
      the main uptake route.

PMID- 28558237
TI  - Meeting Proceedings, 2017 Cornell University Baker Symposium-Quo Vadis: The
      Boundless Trajectories of Chemical Biology.

PMID- 28558238
TI  - Analysis of the Magnetic Exchange Interactions in Yttrium(III) Complexes
      Containing Nitronyl Nitroxide Radicals.
AB  - We report a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the exchange
      interactions governing the magnetic behavior of a series of nitronyl nitroxide
      (NIT)-based Y(III) complexes, i.e., Y(hfac)3(NIT-R)2 with R = PhOPh (1), PhOEt
      (2), and PhOMe (3a, 3b). Even though some of these complexes or their Dy(III)
      parents were previously described in the literature [ Zhao et al. Transition Met.
      Chem. 2006 , 31 , 593 ; Bernot et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009 , 131 , 5573 ],
      their synthesis procedure as well as their structural and magnetic properties
      were completely reconsidered. Depending on the nature of R and the
      crystallization conditions, Y(hfac)3(NIT-R)2 units can be organized as
      supramolecular dimers or linear or orthogonal chains. Such structural diversity
      within the series induces extremely different magnetic behaviors. The observed
      behaviors are rationalized by state-of-the-art wave function-based quantum
      chemical approaches (CASSCF/DDCI) that demonstrate the existence of not only
      effective intramolecular interactions between the NIT-R radical ligands of an
      isolated Y(hfac)3(NIT-R)2 molecule but also intermolecular interactions between
      NIT-R moieties belonging to different Y(hfac)3(NIT-R)2 units. These results are
      supported by the use of spin Hamiltonian models going beyond the basic Bleaney
      Bowers formalism to properly fit the experimental magnetic data. Finally, the
      microscopic mechanisms behind the evidenced intramolecular exchange interactions
      are elucidated through the inspection of the calculated wave functions. In
      particular, whereas the role of Y orbitals was already proposed, we herein
      demonstrate the contribution of the hfac- ancillary ligands in mediating the
      magnetic interactions between the NIT radicals.

PMID- 28558231
TI  - X-ray Scattering Studies of Protein Structural Dynamics.
AB  - X-ray scattering is uniquely suited to the study of disordered systems and thus
      has the potential to provide insight into dynamic processes where diffraction
      methods fail. In particular, while X-ray crystallography has been a staple of
      structural biology for more than half a century and will continue to remain so, a
      major limitation of this technique has been the lack of dynamic information.
      Solution X-ray scattering has become an invaluable tool in structural and
      mechanistic studies of biological macromolecules where large conformational
      changes are involved. Such systems include allosteric enzymes that play key roles
      in directing metabolic fluxes of biochemical pathways, as well as large, assembly
      line type enzymes that synthesize secondary metabolites with pharmaceutical
      applications. Furthermore, crystallography has the potential to provide
      information on protein dynamics via the diffuse scattering patterns that are
      overlaid with Bragg diffraction. Historically, these patterns have been very
      difficult to interpret, but recent advances in X-ray detection have led to a
      renewed interest in diffuse scattering analysis as a way to probe correlated
      motions. Here, we will review X-ray scattering theory and highlight recent
      advances in scattering-based investigations of protein solutions and crystals,
      with a particular focus on complex enzymes.

PMID- 28558236
TI  - Identification of a Conserved Histidine As Being Critical for the Catalytic
      Mechanism and Functional Switching of the Multifunctional Proline Utilization A
      Protein.
AB  - Proline utilization A from Escherichia coli (EcPutA) is a multifunctional
      flavoenzyme that oxidizes proline to glutamate through proline dehydrogenase
      (PRODH) and Delta1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH) activities,
      while also switching roles as a DNA-bound transcriptional repressor and a
      membrane-bound catabolic enzyme. This phenomenon, termed functional switching,
      occurs through a redox-mediated mechanism in which flavin reduction triggers a
      conformational change that increases EcPutA membrane binding affinity. Structural
      studies have shown that reduction of the FAD cofactor causes the ribityl moiety
      to undergo a crankshaft motion, indicating that the orientation of the ribityl
      chain is a key element of PutA functional switching. Here, we test the role of a
      conserved histidine that bridges from the FAD pyrophosphate to the backbone amide
      of a conserved leucine residue in the PRODH active site. An EcPutA mutant (H487A)
      was characterized by steady-state and rapid-reaction kinetics, and cell-based
      reporter gene experiments. The catalytic activity of H487A is severely diminished
      (>50-fold) with membrane vesicles as the electron acceptor, and H487A exhibits
      impaired lipid binding and in vivo transcriptional repressor activity. Rapid
      reaction kinetic experiments demonstrate that H487A is 3-fold slower than wild
      type EcPutA in a conformational change step following reduction of the FAD
      cofactor. Furthermore, the reduction potential (Em) of H487A is ~40 mV more
      positive than that of wild-type EcPutA, and H487A has an attenuated ability to
      catalyze the reverse PRODH chemical step of reoxidation by P5C. In this process,
      significant red semiquinone forms in contrast to the same reaction with wild-type
      EcPutA, in which facile two-electron reoxidation occurs without the formation of
      a measurable amount of semiquinone. These results indicate that His487 is
      critically important for the proline/P5C chemical step, conformational change
      kinetics, and functional switching in EcPutA.

PMID- 28558240
TI  - Mitsunobu Reaction Using Basic Amines as Pronucleophiles.
AB  - A novel protocol for extending the scope of the Mitsunobu reaction to include
      amine nucleophiles to form C-N bonds through the utilization of N-heterocyclic
      phosphine-butane (NHP-butane) has been developed. Both aliphatic alcohols and
      benzyl alcohols are suitable substrates for C-N bond construction. Various acidic
      nucleophiles such as benzoic acids, phenols, thiophenol, and secondary
      sulfonamide also provide the desired products of esters, ethers, thioether, and
      tertiary sulfonamide with 43-93% yields. Importantly, C-N bond-containing
      pharmaceuticals, Piribedil and Cinnarizine, have been synthesized in one step
      from the commercial amines under this Mitsunobu reaction system.

PMID- 28558239
TI  - L-Pyroglutamic Sulphonamide as Hydrogen-Bonding Organocatalyst: Enantioselective
      Diels-Alder Cyclization to Construct Carbazolespirooxindoles.
AB  - Hydrogen-bonding organocatalysts L-pyroglutamic sulphonamides were readily
      synthesized for the first time by fully exploiting the potentials of L
      pyroglutamic acid. The newly designed catalyst was successfully applied in
      catalyzing asymmetric Diels-Alder cyclization of methyleneindolinones with 2
      vinyl-1H-indoles to efficiently assemble carbazolespirooxindoles in excellent
      stereoselectivity (up to 99% ee, >20:1 dr) and yields (up to 99%). Mechanistic
      studies disclosed that the well-designed hydrogen-bonding modes between L
      pyroglutamic sulphonamide and substrates were crucial for stereocontrol in the
      cyclization.

PMID- 28558241
TI  - Diastereoselectivity of Azido-Ugi Reaction with Secondary Amines. Stereoselective
      Synthesis of Tetrazole Derivatives.
AB  - The diastereoselectivity of azido-Ugi reaction with cyclic amines was
      investigated. It was found that the reaction with alpha-substituted five- to
      seven-membered cyclic amines proceeds very efficiently to provide high control of
      diastereoselectivity (<=100% de) under mild conditions. Target tetrazole-derived
      products were isolated in excellent yields (<=98%). The reaction has a broad
      scope in terms of its amine, aldehyde, and isocyanide nature. It was found that
      the diastereoselectivity of the reaction depends on the ring size of the starting
      cyclic amines. More rigid piperidines provided the highest selectivity of the
      reaction. Using benzyl isocyanide, the prepared N-benzyl tetrazoles can be
      deprotected by hydrogenolysis to form the corresponding NH tetrazoles in high
      yields.

PMID- 28558242
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Cross-Dehydrogenative N2-Coupling of NH-1,2,3-Triazoles with N,N
      -Dialkylamides: N-Amidoalkylation of NH-1,2,3-Triazoles.
AB  - An efficient copper-catalyzed C-N bond formation by N-H/C-H cross-dehydrogenative
      coupling (CDC) between NH-1,2,3-triazoles and N,N-dialkylamides has been
      developed. The method provided N-amidoalkylated 1,2,3-triazoles with moderate to
      high yields, and the reactions showed high N2-selectivities when 4,5
      disubstituted NH-1,2,3-triazoles served as the substrates.

PMID- 28558243
TI  - Ion Transport Mechanisms in Liquid-Liquid Interface.
AB  - Interfacial liquid-liquid ion transport is of crucial importance to biotechnology
      and industrial separation processes including nuclear elements and rare earths. A
      water-in-oil microemulsion is formulated here with density and dimensions
      amenable to atomistic molecular dynamics simulation, facilitating convergent
      theoretical and experimental approaches to elucidate interfacial ion transport
      mechanisms. Lutetium(III) cations are transported from the 5 nm diameter water
      pools into the surrounding oil using an extractant (a lipophilic ligand). Changes
      in ion coordination sphere and interactions between the interfacial components
      are studied using a combination of synchrotron X-ray scattering, spectroscopy,
      and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Contrary to existing hypotheses,
      our model system shows no evidence of interfacial extractant monolayers, but
      rather ions are exchanged through water channels that penetrate the surfactant
      monolayer and connect to the oil-based extractant. Our results highlight the
      dynamic nature of the oil-water interface and show that lipophilic ion shuttles
      need not form flat monolayer structures to facilitate ion transport across the
      liquid-liquid interface.

PMID- 28558244
TI  - Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed Annulation of Pyridinones with Alkynes via Double C-H
      Activation: A Route to Functionalized Quinolizinones.
AB  - A Rh(III)-catalyzed oxidative annulation of pyridin-2(1H)-ones with alkynes via
      double C-H activation to produce highly functionalized 4H-quinolizin-4-ones is
      disclosed. This reaction features easily available starting materials, simple
      manipulation, a relatively wide substrate scope, and good functional group
      tolerance. The application of this protocol is demonstrated by the synthesis of a
      known fluorescent quinolizino[3,4,5,6-ija]quinolinium salt.

PMID- 28558245
TI  - Electron to Adsorbate Energy Transfer in Nanoparticles: Adsorption Site, Size,
      and Support Matter.
AB  - Confinement of hot electrons in metal nanoparticles (NPs) is expected to lead to
      increased reactivity in heterogeneous catalysis. NP size as well as support may
      influence molecule-NP coupling. Here, we use ultrafast nonlinear vibrational
      spectroscopy to follow energy transfer from hot electrons generated in Pd
      NP/MgO/Ag(100) to chemisorbed CO. Photoexcitation and photodesorption occur on an
      ultrashort time scale and are selective according to adsorption site. When the
      MgO layer is thick enough, it becomes NP size-dependent. Hot electron confinement
      within NPs is unfavorable for photodesorption, presumably because its dominant
      effect is to increase relaxation to phonons. An avenue of research is open where
      NP size and support thickness, photon energy, and molecular electronic structure
      will be tuned to obtain either molecular stability or reactivity in response to
      photon excitation.

PMID- 28558247
TI  - Sublimation Entropy and Dissociation Constants Prediction by Quantitative
      Evaluation of Molecular Mobility in Crystals.
AB  - Prediction of binding free energies (or dissociation constants) is a crucial
      challenge for computational biochemistry. One of the main problems here consists
      in fast and accurate evaluation of binding entropy, which is far more time
      consuming than evaluation of binding enthalpy. Here, we offer a fast and rather
      accurate approach to evaluate the sublimation entropy (i.e., entropy of binding
      of a vapor molecule to a crystal, taken with the opposite sign) from the average
      range of molecular movements in the solid state. To estimate this range (and the
      corresponding amplitude), we considered equilibrium sublimation of small organic
      molecules from molecular crystals. The calculations were based on experimental
      data on the sublimation enthalpy, pressure of saturated vapor, and structural
      characteristics of the molecule in question. The resulting average amplitude
      (0.17 +/- 0.01 A) of molecular movements in crystals was used to predict
      sublimation entropies and dissociation constants for sublimation of 28 molecular
      crystals. The results of these predictions are in close agreement with
      experimental values.

PMID- 28558246
TI  - Buffers Strongly Modulate Fibrin Self-Assembly into Fibrous Networks.
AB  - Fibrin is a plasma protein with a central role in blood clotting and wound
      repair. Upon vascular injury, fibrin forms resilient fibrillar networks (clots)
      via a multistep self-assembly process, from monomers, to double-stranded
      protofibrils, to a branched network of thick fibers. In vitro, fibrin self
      assembly is sensitive to physicochemical conditions like the solution pH and
      ionic strength, which tune the strength of the noncovalent driving forces. Here
      we report a surprising finding that the buffer-which is necessary to control the
      pH and is typically considered to be inert-also significantly influences fibrin
      self-assembly. We show by confocal microscopy and quantitative light scattering
      that various common buffering agents have no effect on the initial assembly of
      fibrin monomers into protofibrils but strongly hamper the subsequent lateral
      association of protofibrils into thicker fibers. We further find that the
      structural changes are independent of the molecular structure of the buffering
      agents as well as of the activation mechanism and even occur in fibrin networks
      formed from platelet-poor plasma. This buffer-mediated decrease in protofibril
      bundling results in a marked reduction in the permeability of fibrin networks but
      only weakly influences the elastic modulus of fibrin networks, providing a useful
      tuning parameter to independently control the elastic properties and the
      permeability of fibrin networks. Our work raises the possibility that fibrin
      assembly in vivo may be regulated by variations in the acute-phase levels of
      bicarbonate and phosphate, which act as physiological buffering agents of blood
      pH. Moreover, our findings add a new example of buffer-induced effects on
      biomolecular self-assembly to recent findings for a range of proteins and lipids.

PMID- 28558248
TI  - Ruthenium(II)-Catalyzed C-H Alkynylation of Weakly Coordinating Benzoic Acids.
AB  - C-H alkynylations with weakly coordinating acids were accomplished by the aid of
      an expedient ruthenium(II) catalysis manifold. The user-friendly C-H alkynylation
      occurred under mild conditions with the weak base K2CO3. The versatility of the
      ruthenium(II) catalysis was reflected by providing step-economical access to
      phthalides as well as enabling unprecedented decarboxylative ortho-C-H
      alkynylations.

PMID- 28558249
TI  - Reaction Mechanism of Cu(I)-Mediated Reductive CO2 Coupling for the Selective
      Formation of Oxalate: Cooperative CO2 Reduction To Give Mixed-Valence Cu2(CO2*-)
      and Nucleophilic-Like Attack.
AB  - A dinuclear, Cu(I)-catalyzed reductive CO2 coupling reaction was recently
      developed to selectively yield a metal-oxalate product through electrochemical
      means, instead of the usual formation of carbonate and CO ( Science 2010 , 327 ,
      313 ). To shed light on the mechanism of this important and unusual reductive
      coupling reaction, extensive and systematic density functional theory (DFT)
      calculations on several possible pathways and spin states were performed in which
      a realistic system up to 164 atoms was adopted. Our calculations support the
      observation that oxalate formation is energetically more favorable than the
      formation of carbonate and CO products in this cationic Cu(I) complex. Spatial
      confinement of the realistic catalyst (a long metal-metal distance) was found to
      further destabilize the carbonate formation, whereas it slightly promotes oxalate
      formation. Our study does not support the proposed diradical coupling mechanism.
      Instead, our calculations suggest a new mechanism in which one CO2 molecule is
      first reduced cooperatively by two Cu(I) metals to give a new, fully delocalized
      mixed-valence Cu2I/II(CO2*-) radical anion intermediate (analogues to Type 4 Cu
      center, CuA), followed by further partial reduction of the metal-ligated CO2
      molecule and (metal-mediated) nucleophilic-like attack on the carbon atom of an
      incoming second CO2 molecule to afford the dinuclear Cu(II)-oxalate product.
      Overall, our proposed reaction mechanism involves a closed-shell reactant as well
      as two open-shell transition states and products. The effects of size, charge,
      and catalyst metal on the oxalate formation were also investigated and compared.

PMID- 28558250
TI  - Direct NMR Monitoring of Phase Separation Behavior of Highly Supersaturated
      Nifedipine Solution Stabilized with Hypromellose Derivatives.
AB  - We investigated the phase separation behavior and maintenance mechanism of the
      supersaturated state of poorly water-soluble nifedipine (NIF) in hypromellose
      (HPMC) derivative solutions. Highly supersaturated NIF formed NIF-rich
      nanodroplets through phase separation from aqueous solution containing HPMC
      derivative. Dissolvable NIF concentration in the bulk water phase was limited by
      the phase separation of NIF from the aqueous solution. HPMC derivatives
      stabilized the NIF-rich nanodroplets and maintained the NIF supersaturation with
      phase-separated NIF for several hours. The size of the NIF-rich phase was
      different depending on the HPMC derivatives dissolved in aqueous solution,
      although the droplet size had no correlation with the time for which NIF
      supersaturation was maintained without NIF crystallization. HPMC acetate and HPMC
      acetate succinate (HPMC-AS) effectively maintained the NIF supersaturation
      containing phase-separated NIF compared with HPMC. Furthermore, HPMC-AS
      stabilized NIF supersaturation more effectively in acidic conditions. Solution 1H
      NMR measurements of NIF-supersaturated solution revealed that HPMC derivatives
      distributed into the NIF-rich phase during the phase separation of NIF from the
      aqueous solution. The hydrophobicity of HPMC derivative strongly affected its
      distribution into the NIF-rich phase. Moreover, the distribution of HPMC-AS into
      the NIF-rich phase was promoted at lower pH due to the lower aqueous solubility
      of HPMC-AS. The distribution of a large amount of HPMC derivatives into NIF-rich
      phase induced the strong inhibition of NIF crystallization from the NIF-rich
      phase. Polymer distribution into the drug-rich phase directly monitored by
      solution NMR technique can be a useful index for the stabilization efficiency of
      drug-supersaturated solution containing a drug-rich phase.

PMID- 28558251
TI  - Omega-3 Use in Psychiatry: Evidence-Based or Elegance-Based?
AB  - Use of omega-3 in psychiatric practice is on the rise. It has been used in
      diverse indications, notably mood disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, borderline
      personality, and neurodevelopmental disorders, with varying levels of evidence
      base. Here, the author sheds some light on the therapeutic potential of omega-3
      as an appealing addition to psychopharmacological armamentarium.

PMID- 28558252
TI  - The effect of exercise intensity and excess postexercise oxygen consumption on
      postprandial blood lipids in physically inactive men.
AB  - Reductions in postprandial lipemia have been observed following aerobic exercise
      of sufficient energy expenditure. Increased excess postexercise oxygen
      consumption (EPOC) has been documented when comparing high- versus low-intensity
      exercise. The contribution of EPOC energy expenditure to alterations in
      postprandial lipemia has not been determined. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate the effects of low- and high-intensity exercise on postprandial lipemia
      in healthy, sedentary, overweight and obese men (age, 43 +/- 10 years; peak
      oxygen consumption, 31.1 +/- 7.5 mL.kg-1.min-1; body mass index, 31.8 +/- 4.5
      kg/m2) and to determine the contribution of EPOC to reductions in postprandial
      lipemia. Participants completed 4 conditions: nonexercise control, low-intensity
      exercise at 40%-50% oxygen uptake reserve (LI), high-intensity exercise at 70%
      80% oxygen uptake reserve (HI), and HI plus EPOC re-feeding (HI+EERM), where the
      difference in EPOC energy expenditure between LI and HI was re-fed in the form of
      a sports nutrition bar (Premier Nutrition Corp., Emeryville, Calif., USA). Two
      hours following exercise participants ingested a high-fat (1010 kcals, 99 g sat
      fat) test meal. Blood samples were obtained before exercise, before the test
      meal, and at 2, 4, and 6 h postprandially. Triglyceride incremental area under
      the curve was significantly reduced following LI, HI, and HI+EERM when compared
      with nonexercise control (p < 0.05) with no differences between the exercise
      conditions (p > 0.05). In conclusions, prior LI and HI exercise equally
      attenuated postprandial triglyceride responses to the test meal. The extra energy
      expended during EPOC does not contribute significantly to exercise energy
      expenditure or to reductions in postprandial lipemia in overweight men.

PMID- 28558253
TI  - Sugar sulfates are not hydrolyzed by the acid-inducible sulfatase AslA from
      Salmonella enterica Enteritidis NalR and Kentucky 3795 at pH 5.5.
AB  - The open reading frames SEN0085 and SeKA_A4361, from Salmonella enterica serovar
      Enteritidis NalR and serovar Kentucky 3795, respectively, corresponding to the
      acid-inducible sulfatase gene aslA from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium,
      were previously suggested by microarray analysis to be differentially expressed
      under acid conditions. However, growth and enzyme activity tests in the present
      study demonstrated that both wild-type strains exhibited sulfatase activity with
      4-nitrophenyl sulfate and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3 indolyl sulfate at pH 5.5. The acid
      sulfatase does not appear to be involved in sugar sulfate, tyrosine sulfate, 4
      hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglycol sulfate, heparin sulfate, or chondroitin sulfate
      hydrolysis at pH 5.5. Adhesion and invasion assays did not reveal differences
      between the serotypes and their corresponding aslA deletion mutants. Thus, the
      role and substrate(s) of AslA, a protein unique to salmonella and encoded in all
      sequenced Salmonella strains, remain elusive.

PMID- 28558254
TI  - Sensing the cold: TRP channels in thermal nociception.

PMID- 28558255
TI  - Anti-Inflammatory Subfractions Separated from Acidified Chloroform Fraction of
      Fenugreek Seeds (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.).
AB  - Considering the side effects of current anti-inflammatory drugs, novel
      therapeutic agents are desired. We have succeeded in separating flavonoid-rich
      fractions with anti-inflammatory effect from fenugreek seeds (Trigonella foenum
      graecum L.). In this work, we aimed to carry out further fractionation to find
      active anti-inflammatory subfractions. Trigonelline content of the plant was
      determined by spectrophotometric method. Fenugreek seeds were extracted
      consecutively with petroleum ether, acidified chloroform (ACC), alkaline
      chloroform (AKC), methanol, and water. ACC fraction, which had exhibited the
      highest anti-inflammatory effect, was further fractionated using column
      chromatography. Obtained subfractions were evaluated using carrageenan-induced
      paw edema (CIPE) method. Animals were pretreated by test compounds, and after 30
      minutes edema was induced by subcutaneous injection of 100 ul of 1% w/v
      carrageenan into the right paw of animals. Volume difference of both paws was
      measured at different times after carrageenan injection. The concentration of
      trigonelline was determined as 16.2%. ACC fraction inhibited paw edema
      significantly in comparison to control (p < .05). Four subfractions (dry weight
      percentage basis) were selected for pharmacological study. F3 subfraction
      exhibited the greatest inhibition at 15 mg/kg (p < .001). ACC fraction and F4
      significantly inhibited paw edema at doses of 5, 10, and 15 mg/kg (p < .001).
      Phytochemical studies indicated the presence of flavonoids in ACC and active
      subfractions. Further separation can lead to finding active components from
      active subfractions, which probably belong to flavonoid phytochemicals.
      Considering the gastroprotective effect of fenugreek, we hope the separated
      fractions also would be free of gastrointestinal side effects.

PMID- 28558256
TI  - [Case Formulation in Early Psychosis: What are the Tools for Teamwork?]

PMID- 28558257
TI  - Selection and Evaluation of Indexes Commonly Used to Determine Contamination with
      T-2 Toxin in Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei by the Grey Relational
      Method.
AB  - The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the effects of different
      concentrations of the mycotoxin T-2 toxin in feed on muscle performance in the
      Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, evaluate indexes of physiological
      variables that indicate T-2 toxin contamination in the shrimp using the grey
      relational method, and determine the dose-response relationships between T-2
      toxin and the indexes. Of the 6 physical, 7 biochemical, and 17 nutritional
      indexes examined, the values of the grey relational coefficients were highest for
      the hepatopancreas: body weight ratio (HBR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
      activity, and serine (SER) content (0.83, 0.68, and 0.82, respectively).
      Therefore, the HBR, ALT activity, and SER content were selected as appropriate
      indexes for contamination of Pacific white shrimp muscle with T-2 toxin. Based on
      their dose-response relationship curves, mean effective doses of 1.45, 1.69, and
      1.33 mg of T-2 toxin/kg of feed were obtained for the HBR, ALT activity, and SER
      content, respectively. These results offer technical reference points for the
      evaluation and control of T-2 toxin in shrimp feed. Received April 28, 2016;
      accepted April 9, 2017.

PMID- 28558258
TI  - Antitumoral effect of vanadium compounds in malignant melanoma cell lines.
AB  - In this study we evaluated the anticancer activity against malignant melanoma
      (MM) of four different vanadium species: the inorganic anion vanadate(V)
      (indicated with VN), and three oxidovanadium(IV) complexes, [VIVO(dhp)2] where
      dhp- is the anion 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinonate (indicated with VS2),
      [VIVO(mpp)2] where mpp- is 1-methyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinonate (indicated with
      VS3), and [VIVO(ppp)2] where ppp- is 1-phenyl-2-methyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)
      pyridinonate (indicated with VS4). The antitumor effects of these compounds were
      studied against two different MM cell lines (A375 and CN-mel) and a fibroblast
      cell line (BJ) as normal control. All tested V compounds exert antiproliferative
      activity on MM cells in a dose dependent manner (IC50 ranges from 2.4MUM up to
      14MUM) being A375 the most sensitive cell line. VN and VS2 were the two most
      active compounds against A375 (IC50 of 4.7 and 2.6MUM, respectively), causing
      apoptosis and cell cycle block. The experimental data indicate that the cell
      cycle arrest occurs at different phases for the two V species analyzed (G2
      checkpoint for VN and G0/G1 for VS2), showing the importance of the chemical form
      in determining their mechanism of action. These results add more insights into
      the landscape of vanadium versatility in biological systems and into its role as
      a potential cancer therapeutic agent.

PMID- 28558259
TI  - Exploring the concept of continuous midwifery-led care and its dimensions in the
      prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods in Iran (Kashan).
AB  - AIM: to explore the concept of continuous care and its dimensions in the
      prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods based on the experiences of midwives,
      gynaecologists, obstetricians, pregnant women and their husbands. DESIGN: a
      qualitative study that was part of a large scale action research which aimed to
      develop, use and test a continuous midwifery-led care model. Data collection and
      analysis were performed concurrently through undertaking semi-structured
      interviews and using the conventional content analysis approach. SETTING:
      healthcare centres and hospitals affiliated to Kashan University of Medical
      Sciences, Kashan, Iran. PARTICIPANTS: 21 women following a recent pregnancy, five
      husbands, 18 midwives, and five physicians who had different official positions.
      FINDINGS: the participants' experiences revealed five concepts for continuous
      midwifery-led care which included continuity, the process of care, education and
      informing, management, and professionalism. Each of these five concepts consisted
      of several categories. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: according to the
      study participants, continuous midwifery-led prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal
      care is a multidimensional and important concept. Given the differences in the
      health infrastructures of different countries as well as the unique
      characteristics of pregnancy, higher priorities are recommended to be given to
      continuous midwifery-led care and its dimensions.

PMID- 28558260
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance and plasmid replicons in Yersinia enterocolitica strains
      isolated in Brazil in 30 years.
AB  - Some studies evaluated the resistance profile of the Y. enterocolitica strains
      isolated in diverse countries. However, in Brazil the isolation and the study of
      Y. enterocolitica are not common and therefore information about the
      antimicrobial resistance profile of this species in this country is scarce.
      Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance of
      Y. enterocolitica of biotypes 1A, 2 and 4 isolated from clinical and non-clinical
      sources between 1979 and 2012, in Brazil. This study showed that some Yersinia
      enterocolitica of different biotypes remain susceptible to antimicrobials used
      for gastroenteritis treatment. Moreover, neither acquired resistance genes nor
      diversity of plasmids replicons were found; however, variation in the in vitro
      intrinsic resistant pattern was detected, except the non-resistance to cefoxitin
      in all strains. Notwithstanding, due to epidemiological link between Y.
      enterocolitica and the pork production chain, monitoring plasmid acquired
      resistance in Y. enterocolitica could also be considered for antimicrobial
      resistance control purposes and food safety measures.

PMID- 28558261
TI  - Regulating urban surface runoff through nature-based solutions - An assessment at
      the micro-scale.
AB  - Urban development leads to changes of surface cover that disrupt the hydrological
      cycle in cities. In particular, impermeable surfaces and the removal of
      vegetation reduce the ability to intercept, store and infiltrate rainwater.
      Consequently, the volume of stormwater runoff and the risk of local flooding
      rises. This is further amplified by the anticipated effects of climate change
      leading to an increased frequency and intensity of heavy rain events. Hence,
      urban adaptation strategies are required to mitigate those impacts. A nature
      based solution, more and more promoted in politics and academia, is urban green
      infrastructure as it contributes to the resilience of urban ecosystems by
      providing services to maintain or restore hydrological functions. However, this
      poses a challenge to urban planners in deciding upon effective adaptation
      measures as they often lack information on the performance of green
      infrastructure to moderate surface runoff. It remains unclear what type of green
      infrastructure (e.g. trees, green roofs), offers the highest potential to reduce
      discharge volumes and to what extent. Against this background, this study
      provides an approach to gather quantitative evidence on green infrastructure's
      regulation potential. We use a micro-scale scenario modelling approach of
      different variations of green cover under current and future climatic conditions.
      The scenarios are modelled with MIKE SHE, an integrated hydrological simulation
      tool, and applied to a high density residential area of perimeter blocks in
      Munich, Germany. The results reveal that both trees and green roofs increase
      water storage capacities and hence reduce surface runoff, although the main
      contribution of trees lies in increasing interception and evapotranspiration,
      whereas green roofs allow for more retention through water storage in their
      substrate. With increasing precipitation intensities as projected under climate
      change their regulating potential decreases due to limited water storage
      capacities. The performance of both types stays limited to a maximum reduction of
      2.4% compared to the baseline scenario, unless the coverage of vegetation and
      permeable surfaces is significantly increased as a 14.8% reduction is achieved by
      greening all roof surfaces. We conclude that the study provides empirical support
      for the effectiveness of urban green infrastructure as nature-based solution to
      stormwater regulation and assists planners and operators of sewage systems in
      selecting the most effective measures for implementation and estimation of their
      effects.

PMID- 28558262
TI  - The short-term effect of particulate matter on cardiorespiratory drug
      prescription, as a proxy of mild adverse events.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: The association between particulate matter < 10um in
      aerodynamic diameter (PM10) and mild disease episodes, not leading to
      hospitalization or death, has been rarely investigated. We studied the short-term
      effect of PM10 on purchases of specific cardiorespiratory medications, as proxies
      of mild episodes, in 7 small- and medium-sized cities of Northern Italy, during
      2005-2006. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We extracted information on purchased
      prescriptions from healthcare administrative databases, and we obtained daily
      PM10 concentrations from fixed monitoring stations. We applied a time-stratified
      case-crossover design, using the time-series of antidiabetic drugs purchases to
      control for confounding due to irregularities in daily purchase frequencies.
      RESULTS: During the warm season, we estimated a delayed (lags 2-6) increased risk
      of buying glucocorticoid (4.53%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.62, 6.48) and
      adrenergic inhalants (1.66%, 95% CI: 0.10, 3.24), following an increment
      (10MUg/m3) in PM10 concentration. During the cold season, we observed an
      immediate (lags 0-1) increased risk of purchasing antiarrhythmics (0.76%; 95% CI:
      0.16, 1.36) and vasodilators (0.72%; 95% CI: 0.30, 1.13), followed by a risk
      reduction (lags 2-6), probably due to harvesting. CONCLUSIONS: Focusing on drug
      purchases, we reached sufficient statistical power to study PM10 effect outside
      large urban areas and conclude that short-term increments in PM10 concentrations
      might cause mild cardiorespiratory disease episodes.

PMID- 28558264
TI  - Positive Expression of Programmed Death Ligand 1 in Peritumoral Liver Tissue is
      Associated with Poor Survival after Curative Resection of Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recurrence or metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is mainly
      intrahepatic after curative resection, demonstrating that the peritumoral
      environment is important but often neglected. Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)
      in intratumoral liver tissues is a poor prognosis factor whose impact is removed
      after curative resection. However, PD-L1 expression remains in the peritumoral
      liver tissues and its distribution and prognostic value are still not clear.
      METHODS: We assessed the expression of PD-L1 by immunohistochemistry in
      peritumoral liver tissues from 90 HCC patients who underwent curative
      hepatectomy. The results were validated in an independent cohort of additional 90
      HCC patients. RESULTS: We found PD-L1 positive expression in 31.11% (28/90) of
      peritumoral tissues. Peritumoral PD-L1 expression was associated with a
      significantly worse overall survival (OS) (P=.000) and disease-free survival
      (DFS) (P=.001) compared to the negative expression group. Additionally,
      peritumoral PD-L1 positivity significantly correlated with vascular invasion and
      a lower albumin level (<=35 g/L). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression
      models both revealed peritumoral PD-L1 as an independent prognostic factor for OS
      (HR=2.853, P=.002) and DFS (HR=2.362, P=.003). The prognostic value of PD-L1
      positivity was validated in the independent data set. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggest PD-L1 expression in peritumoral hepatocytes is an independent prognostic
      factor for OS and DFS. This implies that future anti-cancer therapy should target
      not only residual tumor cells but also the "soil" for promoting tumor growth.
      Peritumoral PD-L1 could be a good target for adjuvant therapy after hepatectomy.

PMID- 28558263
TI  - The role of traffic noise on the association between air pollution and children's
      lung function.
AB  - Although it has been shown that traffic-related air pollution adversely affects
      children's lung function, few studies have examined the influence of traffic
      noise on this association, despite both sharing a common source. Estimates of
      noise exposure (Ldn, dB), and freeway and non-freeway emission concentrations of
      oxides of nitrogen (NOx, ppb) were spatially assigned to children in Southern
      California who were tested for forced vital capacity (FVC, n=1345), forced
      expiratory volume in 1s, (FEV1, n=1332), and asthma. The associations between
      traffic-related NOx and these outcomes, with and without adjustment for noise,
      were examined using mixed effects models. Adjustment for noise strengthened the
      association between NOx and reduced lung function. A 14.5mL (95% CI -40.0,
      11.0mL) decrease in FVC per interquartile range (13.6 ppb) in freeway NOx was
      strengthened to a 34.6mL decrease after including a non-linear function of noise
      (95% CI -66.3, -2.78mL). Similarly, a 6.54mL decrease in FEV1 (95% CI -28.3,
      15.3mL) was strengthened to a 21.1mL decrease (95% CI -47.6, 5.51) per
      interquartile range in freeway NOx. Our results indicate that where possible,
      noise should be included in epidemiological studies of the association between
      traffic-related air pollution on lung function. Without taking noise into
      account, the detrimental effects of traffic-related pollution may be
      underestimated.

PMID- 28558265
TI  - Preparation and Identification of HER2 Radioactive Ligands and Imaging Study of
      Breast Cancer-Bearing Nude Mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A micro-molecule peptide TP1623 of 99mTc-human epithelial growth
      factor receptor 2 (HER2) was prepared and the feasibility of using it as a HER2
      positive molecular imaging agent for breast cancer was evaluated. METHODS: TP1623
      was chemically synthesized and labeled with 99mTc. The labeling ratio and
      stability were detected. HER2 expression levels of breast cancer cells (SKBR3 and
      MDA-MB-231) and cell binding activity were measured. Biodistribution of 99mTC
      TP1623 in normal mice was detected. SKBR3/MDA-MB-231-bearing nude mice models
      with high/low expressions of HER2 were established. Tumor tissues were stained
      with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and measured by immunohistochemistry to confirm the
      formation of tumors and HER2 expression. SPECT imaging was conducted for HER2
      overexpressing SKBR3-bearing nude mice. The T/NT ratio was calculated and
      compared with that of MDA-MB-231-bearing nude mice with low HER2 expression. The
      competitive inhibition image was used to discuss the specific binding of 99mTc-
      TP1623 and the tumor. RESULTS: The labeling ratio of 99mTc-TP1623, specific
      activity, and radiochemical purity (RCP) after 6 h at room temperature were
      (97.39 +/- 0.23)%, (24.61 +/- 0.06) TBq/mmol, and (93.25 +/- 0.06)%,
      respectively. HER2 of SKBR3 and MDA-MB-231 cells showed high and low expression
      levels by immunohistochemistry, respectively. The in vitro receptor assays
      indicated that specific binding of TP1623 and HER2 was retained. Radioactivity in
      the brain was always at the lowest level, while the clearance rate of blood and
      the excretion rate of the kidneys were fast. HE staining showed that tumor cells
      were observed in SKBR3- and MDA-MB-231-bearing nude mice, with significant
      heteromorphism and increased mitotic count. The imaging of mice showed that
      targeted images could be made of 99mTc-TP1623 in high HER2-expressing tumors,
      while no obvious development was shown in tumors in low HER2-expressing nude
      mice. No development was visible in tumors in competitive inhibition of imaging,
      which indicates the combination of 99mTc-TP1623 and tumor was mediated by HER2.
      CONCLUSION: High labeling ratio and specific activity of 99mTc-TP1623 is
      successfully prepared; it is a molecular imaging agent for HER2-positive tumors
      that has potential applicative value.

PMID- 28558266
TI  - Neurobiological mechanisms of state-dependent learning.
AB  - State-dependent learning (SDL) is a phenomenon relating to information storage
      and retrieval restricted to discrete states. While extensively studied using
      psychopharmacological approaches, SDL has not been subjected to rigorous
      neuroscientific study. Here we present an overview of approaches historically
      used to induce SDL, and highlight some of the known neurobiological mechanisms,
      in particular those related to inhibitory neurotransmission and its regulation by
      microRNAs (miR). We also propose novel cellular and circuit mechanisms as
      contributing factors. Lastly, we discuss the implications of advancing our
      knowledge on SDL, both for most fundamental processes of learning and memory as
      well as for development and maintenance of psychopathology.

PMID- 28558268
TI  - Identification of in situ flower volatiles from kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis
      var. deliciosa) cultivars and their male pollenisers in a New Zealand orchard.
AB  - In situ flower volatiles from six kiwifruit cultivars (Actinidia chinensis var.
      deliciosa); 'Hayward', 'Chieftain', 'M56', 'Zes007' (Green11), 'M36', and 'M43'
      were collected by dynamic headspace sampling. Forty-five compounds were detected
      in the headspace of the flowers, with straight chain hydrocarbons and terpenes
      accounting for >98% of the volatiles emitted quantitatively across the six
      cultivars. Of these hydrocarbons, (3Z,6Z,9Z)-heptadecatriene is reported for the
      first time from a floral source while (8Z)-hexadecene and (9Z)-nonadecene are
      reported for the first time from kiwifruit flowers. All three hydrocarbons were
      verified by synthesis. Quantitative comparison of the six honey bee perceived
      compounds from the headspace of the cultivars showed that the males 'M36' and
      'M43' closely matched the female cultivar Green11 that they are used to
      pollinate. Males 'M56' and 'Chieftain' were not as closely matched to the female
      cultivar 'Hayward' that they are used to pollinate. The male 'M56' in particular
      differed significantly from the female 'Hayward' in four of the six honey bee
      perceived compounds.

PMID- 28558269
TI  - White matter pathways mediate parental effects on children's reading precursors.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that the link between parental and offspring's
      reading is mediated by the cognitive system of the offspring, yet information
      about the mediating role of the neurobiological system is missing. This family
      study includes cognitive and diffusion MRI (dMRI) data collected in 71 pre
      readers as well as parental reading and environmental data. Using sequential path
      analyses, which take into account the interrelationships between the different
      components, we observed mediating effects of the neurobiological system. More
      specifically, fathers' reading skills predicted reading of the child by operating
      through a child's left ventral white matter pathway. For mothers no clear
      mediating role of the neural system was observed. Given that our study involves
      children who have not yet learned to read and that environmental measures were
      taken into account, the paternal effect on a child's white matter pathway is
      unlikely to be only driven by environmental factors. Future intergenerational
      studies focusing on the genetic, neurobiological and cognitive level of parents
      and offspring will provide more insight in the relative contribution of parental
      environment and genes.

PMID- 28558267
TI  - Neural immunoglobulin superfamily interaction networks.
AB  - The immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) encompasses hundreds of cell surface
      proteins containing multiple immunoglobulin-like (Ig) domains. Among these are
      neural IgCAMs, which are cell adhesion molecules that mediate interactions
      between cells in the nervous system. IgCAMs in some vertebrate IgSF subfamilies
      bind to each other homophilically and heterophilically, forming small interaction
      networks. In Drosophila, a global 'interactome' screen identified two larger
      networks in which proteins in one IgSF subfamily selectively interact with
      proteins in a different subfamily. One of these networks, the 'Dpr-ome', includes
      30 IgSF proteins, each of which is expressed in a unique subset of neurons.
      Recent evidence shows that one interacting protein pair within the Dpr-ome
      network is required for development of the brain and neuromuscular system.

PMID- 28558270
TI  - Ictal ipsilateral sweating in focal epilepsy.

PMID- 28558272
TI  - Emotion dysregulation and peer drinking norms uniquely predict alcohol-related
      problems via motives.
AB  - This study examined the relationships between emotion dysregulation, peer
      drinking norms, drinking motives, and alcohol-related outcomes among 435 college
      students. We examined the mediating roles of drinking motives when predicting
      alcohol consumption and related problems from the subscales of the Difficulties
      in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer, 2004) via negative and
      positive reinforcement models. First, we hypothesized that individuals who lack
      in emotion regulation strategies or have difficulties in accepting negative
      emotions are more likely to drink to cope. Additionally, we hypothesized that
      individuals who act impulsively or become distracted when upset as well as those
      with higher peer drinking norms are more likely to drink for social and
      enhancement motives. The results of the path model indicated that limited access
      to emotion regulation strategies significantly predicted alcohol-related problems
      via both depression and anxiety coping motives, but did not predict alcohol
      consumption. Nonacceptance of emotional responses was not significantly
      associated with coping motives. Impulsivity had a significant direct relationship
      with alcohol problems. Difficulty in engaging in goal-directed behaviors
      predicted both enhancement and social motives, but only enhancement motives in
      turn predicted consumption. Norms indirectly predicted problems via enhancement
      motives and consumption. The results indicated that using alcohol to reduce
      negative or to increase positive emotions increases alcohol consumption and
      alcohol-related problems. Overall, results advance our understanding of the
      mechanisms of increased alcohol use and problems among college students.

PMID- 28558271
TI  - The effects of social contact on cocaine intake in female rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies conducted in male rats report that social contact can either
      facilitate or inhibit drug intake depending on the behavior of social partners.
      The purpose of the present study was to: (1) examine the effects of social
      contact on cocaine intake in female rats, (2) examine the behavioral mechanisms
      by which social contact influences cocaine intake, and (3) examine whether the
      estrous cycle moderates the effects of social contact on cocaine intake. METHODS:
      Female rats were assigned to either isolated or pair-housed conditions in which a
      social partner either had access to cocaine (cocaine partner) or did not have
      access to cocaine (abstinent partner). Pair-housed rats were tested in custom
      built operant conditioning chambers that allowed both rats to be tested
      simultaneously in the same chamber. RESULTS: Rats housed with a cocaine partner
      self-administered more cocaine than isolated rats and rats housed with an
      abstinent partner. A behavioral economic analysis indicated that these
      differences were driven by a greater intensity of cocaine demand (i.e., greater
      intake at lower unit prices) in rats housed with a cocaine partner. Multivariate
      modeling revealed that the estrous cycle did not moderate the effects of social
      contact on cocaine intake. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that: (1) social
      contact influences cocaine self-administration in females in a manner similar to
      that reported in males, (2) these effects are due to differences in the effects
      of social contact on the intensity of cocaine demand, and (3) these effects are
      consistent across all phases of the estrous cycle.

PMID- 28558273
TI  - Evolution of multiple quantum coherences with scaled dipolar Hamiltonian.
AB  - In this article, we introduce a pulse sequence which allows the monitoring of
      multiple quantum coherences distribution of correlated spin states developed with
      scaled dipolar Hamiltonian. The pulse sequence is a modification of our previous
      Proportionally Refocused Loschmidt echo (PRL echo) with phase increment, in order
      to verify the accuracy of the weighted coherent quantum dynamics. The experiments
      were carried out with different scaling factors to analyze the evolution of the
      total magnetization, the time dependence of the multiple quantum coherence
      orders, and the development of correlated spins clusters. In all cases, a strong
      dependence between the evolution rate and the weighting factor is observed.
      Remarkably, all the curves appeared overlapped in a single trend when plotted
      against the self-time, a new time scale that includes the scaling factor into the
      evolution time. In other words, the spin system displayed always the same quantum
      evolution, slowed down as the scaling factor decreases, confirming the high
      performance of the new pulse sequence.

PMID- 28558274
TI  - Active control of the spatial MRI phase distribution with optimal control theory.
AB  - This paper investigates the use of Optimal Control (OC) theory to design Radio
      Frequency (RF) pulses that actively control the spatial distribution of the MRI
      magnetization phase. The RF pulses are generated through the application of the
      Pontryagin Maximum Principle and optimized so that the resulting transverse
      magnetization reproduces various non-trivial and spatial phase patterns. Two
      different phase patterns are defined and the resulting optimal pulses are tested
      both numerically with the ODIN MRI simulator and experimentally with an agar gel
      phantom on a 4.7T small-animal MR scanner. Phase images obtained in simulations
      and experiments are both consistent with the defined phase patterns. A practical
      application of phase control with OC-designed pulses is also presented, with the
      generation of RF pulses adapted for a Magnetic Resonance Elastography experiment.
      This study demonstrates the possibility to use OC-designed RF pulses to encode
      information in the magnetization phase and could have applications in MRI
      sequences using phase images.

PMID- 28558275
TI  - Heat and mortality for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in 12 cities of Jiangsu
      Province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little evidence exists on the relationship between heat and subtypes
      of stroke mortality, especially in China. Moreover, few studies have reported the
      effect modification by individual characteristics on heat-related stroke
      mortality. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of heat exposure on
      total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke mortality and its individual modifiers in
      12 cities in Jiangsu Province, China during 2009 to 2013. METHODS: We first used
      a distributed lag non-linear model with quasi-Poisson regression to examine the
      city-specific heat-related total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke mortality
      risks at 99th percentile vs. 75th percentile of daily mean temperature in the
      whole year for each city, while adjusting for long-term trend, season, relative
      humidity, and day of the week. Then, we used a random-effects meta-analysis to
      pool the city-specific risk estimates. We also considered confounding by air
      pollution and effect modification by gender, age, education level, and death
      location. RESULTS: Overall, the heat-related mortality risk in 12 Jiangsu cities
      was 1.54 (95%CI: 1.44 to 1.65) for total stroke, 1.63 (95%CI: 1.48 to 1.80) for
      ischemic stroke, and 1.36 (95%CI: 1.26 to 1.48) for hemorrhagic stroke,
      respectively. Estimated total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke mortality risks
      were higher for women versus men, older people versus younger people, those with
      low education levels versus high education levels, and deaths that occurred
      outside of hospital. Air pollutants did not significantly influence the heat
      related stroke mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS: Heat exposure significantly increased
      both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke mortality risks in Jiangsu Province, China.
      Females, the elderly, and those with low education levels are particularly
      vulnerable to this effect.

PMID- 28558276
TI  - Next-generation sequencing identification of pathogenic bacterial genes and their
      relationship with fecal indicator bacteria in different water sources in the
      Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.
AB  - Bacteriological analysis of drinking water leads to detection of only
      conventional fecal indicator bacteria. This study aimed to explore and
      characterize bacterial diversity, to understand the extent of pathogenic
      bacterial contamination, and to examine the relationship between pathogenic
      bacteria and fecal indicator bacteria in different water sources in the Kathmandu
      Valley, Nepal. Sixteen water samples were collected from shallow dug wells
      (n=12), a deep tube well (n=1), a spring (n=1), and rivers (n=2) in September
      2014 for 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing. A total of 525 genera were
      identified, of which 81 genera were classified as possible pathogenic bacteria.
      Acinetobacter, Arcobacter, and Clostridium were detected with a relatively higher
      abundance (>0.1% of total bacterial genes) in 16, 13, and 5 of the 16 samples,
      respectively, and the highest abundance ratio of Acinetobacter (85.14%) was
      obtained in the deep tube well sample. Furthermore, the blaOXA23-like genes of
      Acinetobacter were detected using SYBR Green-based quantitative PCR in 13 (35%)
      of 37 water samples, including the 16 samples that were analyzed for next
      generation sequencing, with concentrations ranging 5.3-7.5logcopies/100mL. There
      was no sufficient correlation found between fecal indicator bacteria, such as
      Escherichia coli and total coliforms, and potential pathogenic bacteria, as well
      as the blaOXA23-like gene of Acinetobacter. These results suggest the limitation
      of using conventional fecal indicator bacteria in evaluating the pathogenic
      bacteria contamination of different water sources in the Kathmandu Valley.

PMID- 28558277
TI  - Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of anticancer drug residues and their mixtures in
      experimental model with zebrafish liver cells.
AB  - Anticancer drugs enter aquatic environment predominantly via hospital and
      municipal wastewater effluents where they may, due to their genotoxic potential,
      cause adverse environmental effects even at very low doses. In this study we
      evaluated cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of two widely used anticancer drugs,
      cyclophosphamide (CP) and ifosfamide (IF) as individual compounds and in a
      complex mixture together with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (CDDP) because
      these four drugs have been frequently detected in an oncological ward effluents.
      As an experimental model we used zebrafish liver cell (ZFL) line. The
      cytotoxicity was determined with the MTS assay and genotoxicity with the comet
      assay and cytokinesis block micronucleus (CBMN) assay that measure the formation
      of DNA strand breaks and genomic instability, respectively. CP and IF exerted low
      cytotoxicity towards ZFL cells. Both compounds induced DNA strand breaks and
      genomic instability, however at relatively high concentrations that are not
      relevant for the contamination of aquatic environment. The mixture of CP, IF, 5
      FU and CDDP was tested at maximal detected concentrations of each drug as
      determined in the effluents from the oncological ward. The mixture was not
      cytotoxic and did not induce genomic instability, but it induced significant
      increase in the formation of DNA strand breaks at concentrations of individual
      compounds that were several orders of magnitude lower from those that were
      effective when tested as individual compounds. The results indicate that such
      mixtures of anticancer drugs may pose a threat to aquatic organisms at
      environmentally relevant concentrations and contribute to the accumulating
      evidence that it is not always possible to predict adverse effects of complex
      mixtures based on the toxicological data for individual compounds.

PMID- 28558278
TI  - Mayfly and fish species identification and sex determination in bleak (Alburnus
      alburnus) by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.
AB  - Besides food quality control of fish or cephalopods, the novel mass spectrometry
      (MS) approaches could be effective and beneficial methods for the investigation
      of biodiversity in ecological research. Our aims were to verify the applicability
      of MALDI-TOF MS in the rapid identification of closely related species, and to
      further develop it for sex determination in phenotypically similar fish focusing
      on the low mass range. For MALDI-TOF MS spectra analysis, ClinProTools software
      was applied, but our observed classification was also confirmed by Self
      Organizing Map. For verifying the wide applicability of the method, brains from
      invertebrate and vertebrate species were used in order to detect the species
      related markers from two mayflies and eight fish as well as sex-related markers
      within bleak. Seven Ephemera larvae and sixty-one fish species related markers
      were observed and nineteen sex-related markers were identified in bleak. Similar
      patterns were observed between the individuals within one species. In contrast,
      there were markedly diverse patterns between the different species and sexes
      visualized by SOMs. Two different Ephemera species and male or female fish were
      identified with 100% accuracy. The various fish species were classified into 8
      species with a high level of accuracy (96.2%). Based on MS data, dendrogram was
      generated from different fish species by using ClinProTools software. This MS
      based dendrogram shows relatively high correspondence with the phylogenetic
      relationships of both the studied species and orders. In summary, MALDI-TOF MS
      provides a cheap, reliable, sensitive and fast identification tool for
      researchers in the case of closely related species using mass spectra acquired in
      a low mass range to define specific molecular profiles. Moreover, we presented
      evidence for the first time for determination of sex within one fish species by
      using this method. We conclude that it is a powerful tool that can revolutionize
      ecological and environmental research.

PMID- 28558279
TI  - Incidence of gastrointestinal illness following wet weather recreational
      exposures: Harmonization of quantitative microbial risk assessment with an
      epidemiologic investigation of surfers.
AB  - We modeled the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) illness associated with recreational
      exposures to marine water following storm events in San Diego County, California.
      We estimated GI illness risks via quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA)
      techniques by consolidating site specific pathogen monitoring data of stormwater,
      site specific dilution estimates, literature-based water ingestion data, and
      literature based pathogen dose-response and morbidity information. Our water
      quality results indicated that human sources of contamination contribute viral
      and bacterial pathogens to streams draining an urban watershed during wet weather
      that then enter the ocean and affect nearshore water quality. We evaluated a
      series of approaches to account for uncertainty in the norovirus dose-response
      model selection and compared our model results to those from a concurrently
      conducted epidemiological study that provided empirical estimates for illness
      risk following ocean exposure. The preferred norovirus dose-response approach
      yielded median risk estimates for water recreation-associated illness (15 GI
      illnesses per 1000 recreation events) that closely matched the reported
      epidemiological results (12 excess GI illnesses per 1000 wet weather recreation
      events). The results are consistent with norovirus, or other pathogens associated
      with norovirus, as an important cause of gastrointestinal illness among surfers
      in this setting. This study demonstrates the applicability of QMRA for
      recreational water risk estimation, even under wet weather conditions and
      describes a process that might be useful in developing site-specific water
      quality criteria in this and other locations.

PMID- 28558280
TI  - Parameter estimation of hydrologic models using a likelihood function for
      censored and binary observations.
AB  - Observations of a hydrologic system response are needed to accurately model
      system behaviour. Nevertheless, often very few monitoring stations are operated
      because collecting such reference data adequately and accurately is laborious and
      costly. It has been recently suggested to use observations not only from
      dedicated flow meters but also from simpler sensors, such as level or event
      detectors, which are available more frequently but only provide censored
      information. Binary observations can be considered as extreme censoring. It is
      still unclear, however, how to use censored observations most effectively to
      learn about model parameters. To this end, we suggest a formal likelihood
      function that incorporates censored observations, while accounting for model
      structure deficits and uncertainty in input data. Using this likelihood function,
      the parameter inference is performed within the Bayesian framework. We
      demonstrate the implementation of our methodology on a case study of an urban
      catchment, where we estimate the parameters of a hydrodynamic rainfall-runoff
      model from binary observations of combined sewer overflows. Our results show,
      first, that censored observations make it possible to learn about model
      parameters, with an average decrease of 45% in parameter standard deviation from
      prior to posterior. Second, the inference substantially improves model
      predictions, providing higher Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. Third, the gain in
      information largely depends on the experimental design, i.e. sensor placement.
      Given the advent of Internet of Things, we foresee that the plethora of censored
      data promised to be available can be used for parameter estimation within a
      formal Bayesian framework.

PMID- 28558281
TI  - Optimization of sulfate removal from brackish water by membrane capacitive
      deionization (MCDI).
AB  - Removal of sulfate from water is an environmental challenge faced by many
      industrial sectors as most existing options are inefficient, costly or
      unsustainable. The situation is further complicated by the typical coexistence of
      other ions. In this work, the feasibility of sulfate removal from brackish water
      by single-pass constant-current membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) under
      reverse-current desorption was investigated. Results revealed that sulfate is
      preferentially removed from the aqueous solution by MCDI compared to chloride.
      Equivalent circuits of the MCDI system during adsorption and desorption were
      proposed and the dynamic variation of cell voltage and charging voltage at
      different adsorption currents was satisfactorily elucidated. Optimization studies
      were conducted with attention given to discussing the effects of four operating
      parameters, i.e., adsorption current, pump flow rate, ending cell voltage and
      desorption current, on three performance indicators (i.e., water recovery, energy
      consumption and sorption ratio of sulfate to chloride) on the premise of
      maintaining the effluent sulfate concentration below the specified threshold of
      300 mg L-1. Water recovery-energy consumption mapping and sorption ratio of
      sulfate to chloride-energy consumption mapping indicated that the combination of
      a lower adsorption current and a lower matching pump flow rate which reduced the
      effluent sulfate concentration to 300 mg L-1 was more favorable in practical
      applications. An appropriately small ending cell voltage was advantageous while a
      trade-off between water recovery and energy cost was required in optimizing the
      desorption current.

PMID- 28558282
TI  - Can stress biomarkers predict preterm birth in women with threatened preterm
      labor?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is a major paediatric challenge difficult to prevent
      and with major adverse outcomes. Prenatal stress plays an important role on
      preterm birth; however, there are few stress-related models to predict preterm
      birth in women with Threatened Preterm Labor (TPL). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      work is to study the influence of stress biomarkers on time until birth in TPL
      women. METHODS: Eligible participants were pregnant women between 24 and 31
      gestational weeks admitted to the hospital with TPL diagnosis (n=166). Stress
      related biomarkers (alpha-amylase and cortisol) were determined in saliva samples
      after TPL diagnosis. Participants were followed-up until labor. A parametric
      survival model was constructed based on alpha-amylase, cortisol), TPL gestational
      week, age, parity, and multiple pregnancy. The model was adjusted using a
      logistic distribution and it was implemented as a nomogram to predict the labor
      probability at 7- and 14-day term. RESULTS: The time until labor was associated
      with cortisol (p=0.001), gestational week at TPL diagnosis (p=0.004), and age
      (p=0.02). Importantly, high cortisol levels at TPL diagnosis were predictive of
      latency to labor. Validation of the model yielded an optimum corrected AUC value
      of 0.63. CONCLUSIONS: High cortisol levels at TPL diagnosis may have an important
      role in the preterm birth prediction. Our statistical model implemented as a
      nomogram provided accurate predictions of individual prognosis of pregnant women.

PMID- 28558283
TI  - Potassium and zinc increase tolerance to salt stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum
      L.).
AB  - Potassium and zinc are essential elements in plant growth and metabolism and
      plays a vital role in salt stress tolerance. To investigate the physiological
      mechanism of salt stress tolerance, a pot experiment was conducted. Potassium and
      zinc significantly minimize the oxidative stress and increase root, shoot and
      spike length in wheat varieties. Fresh and dry biomass were significantly
      increased by potassium followed by zinc as compared to control C. The
      photosynthetic pigment and osmolyte regulator (proline, total phenolic, and total
      carbohydrate) were significantly enhanced by potassium and zinc. Salt stress
      increases MDA content in wheat varieties while potassium and zinc counteract the
      adverse effect of salinity and significantly increased membrane stability index.
      Salt stress decreases the activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide
      dismutase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase) while the exogenous application of
      potassium and zinc significantly enhanced the activities of these enzymes. A
      significant positive correlation was found of spike length with proline (R2 =
      0.966 ***), phenolic (R2 = 0.741*) and chlorophyll (R2 = 0.853**). The MDA
      content showed significant negative correlation (R2 = 0.983***) with MSI. It is
      concluded that potassium and zinc reduced toxic effect of salinity while its
      combine application showed synergetic effect and significantly enhanced salt
      tolerance.

PMID- 28558284
TI  - Characterization of PM2.5 exposure concentration in transport microenvironments
      using portable monitors.
AB  - Recently, portable monitors have been increasingly used to quantify air pollutant
      concentrations at high spatiotemporal resolution. A sampling campaign was
      conducted to measure the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO)
      exposure concentrations in transport microenvironments (TMEs) in Hong Kong in
      January and June 2015 using TSI DustTrak and Q-Trak portable monitors. The
      objectives were to: (1) calibrate DustTrak and Q-Trak; (2) evaluate variability
      between seasons and microenvironments; (3) estimate indoor/outdoor relationships;
      and (4) determine minimum sample size. Calibration equations, obtained through
      side-by-side measurement against stationary reference methods in winter and
      summer, were applied to correct the measured PM2.5 data set. In general, PM2.5
      concentrations in all TMEs were significantly higher in winter than in summer.
      The mean PM2.5 concentration in winter was lower for underground sections of the
      Mass Transit Railway (MTR) metro system (31 MUg/m3) than for other TMEs, whereas
      in summer TMEs had mean PM2.5 concentrations in the range of 10-15 MUg/m3, with
      above-ground MTR train as an exception, at 23 MUg/m3. PM2.5 concentrations
      measured in TMEs were strongly correlated with nearby air quality monitoring
      stations (AQMSs) measurements in winter, but in summer there was little
      correlation. The minimum sample size estimates varied more among TMEs in summer
      versus winter because of the differences in PM2.5 concentration distributions
      related to changes in ambient PM2.5 concentrations and ventilation practices.
      This study provides a feasible protocol on the calibration and application of
      portable monitors in TME air quality measurement and develops a method for
      estimating minimum sample size.

PMID- 28558285
TI  - Enhancing the interpretation of in vitro bioaccessibility data by using computer
      controlled scanning electron microscopy (CCSEM) at the individual particle level.
AB  - The adverse health effects resulting from exposure to contaminated soil on
      internally displaced populations in Mitrovica, Kosovo can be determined by how
      the potentially harmful elements are bound in the soils. Certainly this was the
      case for Pb, present at concentrations ranging from 624 to 46,900 mg/kg, and at
      bioaccessibilities ranging <5% to nearly 90%. To assess why the soil Pb might
      differ so markedly in terms of its bioaccessibility, computer controlled scanning
      electron microscopy (CCSEM) was employed to determine how the Pb was associated
      with other elements at the individual particle (IP) level in soils from the area.
      It was found that the Pb-bearing particle types were, for the most part,
      different in each sample. We consider these differences as the main control on Pb
      bioaccessibility in these soils. Pb solubility at the IP level was evaluated by
      examining Pb-particles from these soils in the electron microscope before and
      after successive immersions in a simulated gastric fluid. This analysis
      (differential IP analysis) confirmed the CCSEM characterization that Pb
      associated with other higher atomic number elements (Fe, Zn, Cu and Ni) was less
      soluble than when it was present as isolated phases (e.g., as carbonate) or when
      it was bound with lower atomic number elements (Na, Al, Si, K, Ca). The
      heterogeneity in solubility and composition of the Pb-particles suggested that
      the Pb originated from a range of different anthropogenic activities. The nature
      of these different anthropogenic activities created the wide differences in Pb
      bioaccessibilty by producing Pb bound in many different forms in the soil
      particles. This type of Pb-particle characterization highlights the role CCSEM
      analysis, and IP acid extraction, can play in providing supporting evidence
      alongside bioaccessibility data for applications in human health risk assessment
      and management of contaminated soil.

PMID- 28558286
TI  - Interactions between polystyrene microplastics and marine phytoplankton lead to
      species-specific hetero-aggregation.
AB  - To understand the fate and impacts of microplastics (MP) in the marine
      ecosystems, it is essential to investigate their interactions with phytoplankton
      as these may affect MP bioavailability to marine organisms as well as their fate
      in the water column. However, the behaviour of MP with marine phytoplanktonic
      cells remains little studied and thus unpredictable. The present study assessed
      the potential for phytoplankton cells to form hetero-aggregates with small micro
      polystyrene (micro-PS) particles depending on microalgal species and
      physiological status. A prymnesiophycea, Tisochrysis lutea, a dinoflagellate,
      Heterocapsa triquetra, and a diatom, Chaetoceros neogracile, were exposed to
      micro-PS (2 MUm diameter; 3.96 MUg L-1) during their growth culture cycles. Micro
      PS were quantified using an innovative flow-cytometry approach, which allowed the
      monitoring of the micro-PS repartition in microalgal cultures and the distinction
      between free suspended micro-PS and hetero-aggregates of micro-PS and microalgae.
      Hetero-aggregation was observed for C. neogracile during the stationary growth
      phase. The highest levels of micro-PS were "lost" from solution, sticking to
      flasks, with T. lutea and H. triquetra cultures. This loss of micro-PS sticking
      to the flask walls increased with the age of the culture for both species. No
      effects of micro-PS were observed on microalgal physiology in terms of growth and
      chlorophyll fluorescence. Overall, these results highlight the potential for
      single phytoplankton cells and residual organic matter to interact with
      microplastics, and thus potentially influence their distribution and
      bioavailability in experimental systems and the water column.

PMID- 28558287
TI  - FIB based fabrication of an operative Pt/HfO2/TiN device for resistive switching
      inside a transmission electron microscope.
AB  - Recent advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based chips for in situ
      transmission electron microscopy are opening exciting new avenues in nanoscale
      research. The capability to perform current-voltage measurements while
      simultaneously analyzing the corresponding structural, chemical or even
      electronic structure changes during device operation would be a major
      breakthrough in the field of nanoelectronics. In this work we demonstrate for the
      first time how to electrically contact and operate a lamella cut from a resistive
      random access memory (RRAM) device based on a Pt/HfO2/TiN metal-insulator-metal
      (MIM) structure. The device was fabricated using a focused ion beam (FIB)
      instrument and an in situ lift-out system. The electrical switching
      characteristics of the electron-transparent lamella were comparable to a
      conventional reference device. The lamella structure was initially found to be in
      a low resistance state and could be reset progressively to higher resistance
      states by increasing the positive bias applied to the Pt anode. This could be
      followed up with unipolar set/reset operations where the current compliance
      during set was limited to 400 uA. FIB structures allowing to operate and at the
      same time characterize electronic devices will be an important tool to improve
      RRAM device performance based on a microstructural understanding of the switching
      mechanism.

PMID- 28558288
TI  - Pulsed-voltage atom probe tomography of low conductivity and insulator materials
      by application of ultrathin metallic coating on nanoscale specimen geometry.
AB  - We present a novel approach for analysis of low-conductivity and insulating
      materials with conventional pulsed-voltage atom probe tomography (APT), by
      incorporating an ultrathin metallic coating on focused ion beam prepared needle
      shaped specimens. Finite element electrostatic simulations of coated atom probe
      specimens were performed, which suggest remarkable improvement in uniform voltage
      distribution and subsequent field evaporation of the insulated samples with a
      metallic coating of approximately 10nm thickness. Using design of experiment
      technique, an experimental investigation was performed to study physical vapor
      deposition coating of needle specimens with end tip radii less than 100nm. The
      final geometries of the coated APT specimens were characterized with high
      resolution scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, and
      an empirical model was proposed to determine the optimal coating thickness for a
      given specimen size. The optimal coating strategy was applied to APT specimens of
      resin embedded Au nanospheres. Results demonstrate that the optimal coating
      strategy allows unique pulsed-voltage atom probe analysis and 3D imaging of
      biological and insulated samples.

PMID- 28558289
TI  - Toxicity of triphenyltin on the development of retinal axons in zebrafish at low
      dose.
AB  - The impacts of triphenyltin (TPT) on ecological health are of particular concern
      due to the unexpectedly high levels found in wild fish around the world. Here,
      zebrafish embryos were exposed to TPT via in ovo nano-injection to study its
      toxicity on the development of retinal axons in fish. Lipophilic dye labeling
      revealed obvious defects in retinal axon development in larvae with normally
      shaped eyes, with incidences of 0, 1.08%, 2.66%, 4.26%, and 6.85% observed in the
      control, 0.8, 4.0, 20.0, and 100ng TPT-Cl/g wet weight (ww) exposure groups,
      respectively, showing a dose-dependent increase. Since the lowest observable
      effective concentration of TPT to induce retinal axon development defects was
      0.8ng TPT-Cl/g ww, which is lower than the concentrations in wild fish eggs, this
      defect would occur in wild fish larvae. Alterations in the expressions of pax6
      and ephrinBs, which regulate the establishment of retinal polarity, were
      correlated with defect incidence. Expression levels of the CYP26A1 gene and
      protein were significantly up-regulated in all exposure groups compared with the
      control, which may lead to significant decreases in concentrations of all-trans
      retinoic acid (atRA). Such a disruption of RA metabolism would, at least partly,
      contribute to the incidence of developmental defects in retinal axons. This study
      is the first to report that TPT can interfere with development of retinal axons
      in fish at low dose.

PMID- 28558290
TI  - Nitrogen/sulfur-doping of graphene with cysteine as a heteroatom source for
      oxygen reduction electrocatalysis.
AB  - Heteroatom-doped graphene have encouraged intensive research as promising metal
      free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts but the correlation between
      the precursor material and final ORR activity remains unclear. In this work a
      serial of nitrogen/sulfur (N/S)-doped graphene catalysts were synthesized by
      modifying graphene oxide (GO) with cysteine as a N/S source and sequential
      thermal annealing. It is disclosed that the cysteine-GO reaction time shows a
      significant influence on the ORR activity of N/S-doped graphene. A unique process
      of oxidation-induced in situ disulfide formation is further found to be involved
      in the synthesis of optimal N/S-doped graphene, which displays ORR activity
      superior to commercial Pt/C in alkaline media. This work suggests that the
      heteroatom source itself and careful optimization of reaction conditions are
      critical to obtain high performance doped-graphene electrocatalyst.

PMID- 28558291
TI  - Versatile polyvinylidene fluoride hybrid ultrafiltration membranes with superior
      antifouling, antibacterial and self-cleaning properties for water treatment.
AB  - Novel ultrafiltration membranes with both superior antibacterial and self
      cleaning properties were fabricated. By using a non-solvent induced phase
      separation method (NIPS), N-halamine epoxide and siloxane were grafted onto the
      multi-walled carbon nanotubes (N-Si-MWNTs) to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride
      (PVDF) hybrid membranes. The membrane morphology was observed under a field
      emission scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that the PVDF
      hybrid membranes had an asymmetrical structure, and their hydraulic permeability
      was evidently enhanced with the addition of modified MWNTs. When compared with
      the primitive PVDF membrane, the hybrid membranes presented improved surface
      hydrophilicity. After three ultrafiltration-regeneration cycles with bovine serum
      albumin as model biofoulant and pure water as detergent, the PVDF hybrid
      membranes exhibited a high flux recovery ratio (FRR). Furthermore, when compared
      with other membranes, the membrane containing N-Si-MWNTs displayed the highest
      FRR value of above 96.5% after the entire fouling and cleaning experiment. The
      fabricated PVDF/N-Si-MWNTs hybrid membranes had excellent antibacterial efficacy,
      presenting maximum antibacterial efficacy of 98.0% and 95.6% against
      Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively. Thus, the PVDF/N-Si
      MWNTs membranes fabricated in this study are environment-friendly with both
      benign antibacterial and self-cleaning properties.

PMID- 28558292
TI  - Tunable adhesion of superoleophilic/superhydrophobic poly (lactic acid) membrane
      for controlled-release of oil soluble drugs.
AB  - Superhydrophobic membranes with tunable adhesion have attracted intense interests
      for various engineering applications. In this work, superhydrophobic sustainable
      poly (lactic acid) (PLA) porous membrane with tunable adhesive force from 101MUN
      to 29MUN was successfully fabricated via one-step phase separation method. The
      incorporation of Perfluoro-1-decene (PFD) into the PLLA/PDLA membrane via the in
      situ polymerization can facilely tune the PLLA/PDLA stereocomplex crystallization
      during phase inversion, which consequently caused the unique morphology blooming
      evolution from bud to full-blown state. The resulted membrane showed tunable pore
      size, porosity, surface area, surface roughness and superhydrophobicity, which
      enabled the membrane with controlled-release of oil soluble drugs.

PMID- 28558294
TI  - Justification bias in self-reported disability: New evidence from panel data.
AB  - The relationship between health and work is frequently investigated using self
      assessments of disability from social surveys. The complication is that
      respondents may overstate their level of disability to justify non-employment and
      welfare receipt. This study provides new evidence on the existence and magnitude
      of justification bias by exploiting a novel feature of a large longitudinal
      survey: each wave respondents are asked identical disability questions twice;
      near the beginning and end of the face-to-face interview. Prior to answering the
      second disability question, respondents are asked a series of questions that
      increase the salience of their employment and welfare circumstances.
      Justification bias is identified by comparing the variation between the two
      measures within-individuals over time, with the variation in employment status
      over time. Results indicate substantial and statistically significant
      justification bias; especially for men and women who receive disability pensions.

PMID- 28558293
TI  - Blood-brain barrier peptide shuttles.
AB  - Brain delivery is hampered by the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a
      natural defence of the brain that protects it and allows the entrance of
      nutrients by several mechanisms. Taking advantage of these mechanisms is an
      opportunity to treat brain related diseases. Among the different alternatives,
      BBB peptide shuttles are gaining attention to increase brain delivery of
      therapeutics. The most recent advances in the field are analysed here.

PMID- 28558295
TI  - The effect of spending cuts on teen pregnancy.
AB  - In recent years, English local authorities have been forced to make significant
      cuts to devolved expenditure. In this paper, we examine the impact of reductions
      in local expenditure on one particular public health target: reducing rates of
      teen pregnancy. Contrary to predictions made at the time of the cuts, panel data
      estimates provide no evidence that areas which reduced expenditure the most have
      experienced relative increases in teenage pregnancy rates. Rather, expenditure
      cuts are associated with small reductions in teen pregnancy rates, a result which
      is robust to a number of alternative specifications and tests for causality.
      Underlying socio-economic factors such as education outcomes and alcohol
      consumption are found to be significant predictors of teen pregnancy.

PMID- 28558296
TI  - Corrigendum to "LNA aptamer based multi-modal, Fe3O4-saturated lactoferrin (Fe3O4
      bLf) nanocarriers for triple positive (EpCAM, CD133, CD44) colon tumour targeting
      and NIR, MRI and CT imaging" [Biomaterials 71C (2015) 84-99].

PMID- 28558297
TI  - MRI-sensitive contrast agent with anticoagulant activity for surface camouflage
      of transplanted pancreatic islets.
AB  - Pancreatic islet implantation in the liver is a promising approach for diabetes
      therapy. However, 70% of the islet mass fails to be engrafted in the liver due to
      the instant blood-mediated inflammatory reactions (IBMIR) resulting from direct
      contact between islet cells and the bloodstream. To overcome this issue, direct
      monitoring is very important for establishing prognosis after islet cell therapy.
      Here we established a new type of MR contrast agent with anticoagulant activity
      via heparin-immobilized superparamagnetic iron oxide (HSPIO). The HSPIO was
      chemically conjugated onto islet surface ex vivo without damage of their
      viability and functionality. The conjugated HSPIO nanoparticles onto islet
      surface could attenuate IBMIR in vitro and in vivo. The HSPIO-conjugated islets
      could cure the blood glucose levels of diabetes animals after implantation. In
      addition, the HSPIO nanoparticles were well maintained on the transplanted islets
      for a long time during modulation of inflammation. Also, they allowed for stable
      visualization of the implanted islet cells for more than 150 days without
      reduction of the MRI signal. Furthermore, when HSPIO itself was intraportally
      injected, it was rapidly eliminated without accumulation in the liver, suggesting
      that HSPIO nanoparticles could only track the immobilized islet. Collectively,
      this HSPIO nanoparticle having MRI sensitivity and anticoagulant activity could
      be utilized for successful islet implantation.

PMID- 28558298
TI  - Facile endothelium protection from TNF-alpha inflammatory insult with surface
      topography.
AB  - Adverse events triggered by the direct contact between blood and synthetic
      materials constitute a sincere shortcoming of cardiovascular implant technology.
      A well-connected autologous endothelium, generated through the process of
      endothelialization, impedes such interaction and endows the implant luminal
      interface with optimal protection. The endothelialization of artificial
      substrates is the result of a complex interplay between endothelial cells (ECs),
      surface topography, and flow-generated wall shear stress (WSS). This is however
      tainted by the pro-inflammatory signaling, typical of cardiovascular patients,
      which compromises endothelial integrity and survival. Here, we challenge human
      endothelial monolayers with the pro-inflammatory factor TNF-alpha under realistic
      WSS conditions. In these experimental settings we demonstrate that the simple
      contact between ECs and an optimized surface geometry can inhibit NF-kB
      activation downstream of TNF-alpha yielding increased stability of VE-Cadherin
      mediated cell-to-cell junctions and of focal adhesions. Therefore the here
      presented topographic modification can be implemented on a range of artificial
      substrates enabling their endothelialization under supra-physiological flow and
      in the presence of pro-inflammatory insults. These new findings constitute an
      important step toward achieving the full hemocompatibility of cardiovascular
      implants.

PMID- 28558299
TI  - Ligands of toll-like receptors 2/4 differentially alter markers of inflammation,
      adhesion and angiogenesis by monocytes from women with pre-eclampsia in co
      culture with endothelial cells.
AB  - Pre-eclampsia (PE) is characterized by an exaggerated systemic inflammatory
      response and generalized endothelial dysfunction. We have recently demonstrated
      that fibrinogen, an endogenous ligand of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, activates
      monocytes from women with pre-eclampsia (Al-ofi et al., 2014). Using an
      experimental co-culture model of primary human monocytes (derived from 9 women
      with PE (GA=33.18+/-5.8) and 9 normotensive pregnant women, NP (GA=33.15+/-4.0))
      and human umbilical venous endothelial cells (HUVECs), we compared the effects of
      fibrinogen and lipopolysaccharide (LPS, bacterial ligand to TLR4) on the
      expression levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-1beta), chemokines (IL-8
      and MCP-1), and anti-angiogenic factor (soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1,sFLT
      1), as well as the soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1).
      Cytokines, VEGF and sVCAM-1 were measured in the supernatant media by cytometric
      array. The levels of sFLT-1 were measured by ELISA. Fibrinogen induced greater
      expression levels of IL-1beta and VCAM-1 from PE HUVEC-monocyte co-culture than
      from NP HUVEC-monocyte co-culture (P<0.05), similar to the effects of LPS. In
      contrast, unlike LPS, fibrinogen suppressed IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1 and sFLT-1
      production by co-cultures that included PE monocytes compared to those with NP
      monocytes (P<0.05). In conclusion, fibrinogen promotes monocyte-endothelial cell
      adhesion and angiogenesis and suppresses the expression of some inflammatory
      markers in pre-eclampsia. Although the physiological implications of these
      intriguing observations are unclear our findings suggest that fibrinogen
      contributes to the regulation of cell adhesion, angiogenesis and inflammation by
      mechanisms not wholly dependent on TLR4 stimulation.

PMID- 28558300
TI  - Urine cadmium levels and albuminuria in a general population from Spain: A gene
      environment interaction analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The interaction of cadmium with genes involved in oxidative stress,
      cadmium metabolism and transport pathways on albuminuria can provide biological
      insight on the relationship between cadmium and albuminuria at low exposure
      levels. OBJECTIVES: We tested the hypothesis that specific genotypes in candidate
      genes may confer increased susceptibility to cadmium exposure. METHODS: Cadmium
      exposure was estimated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) in
      urine from 1397 men and women aged 18-85years participating in the Hortega Study,
      a representative sample of a general population from Spain. Urine albumin was
      measured by automated nephelometric immunochemistry. Abnormal albuminuria was
      defined as urine albumin greater than or equal to 30mg/g. RESULTS: The weighted
      prevalence of abnormal albuminuria was 6.3%. The median level of urine cadmium
      was 0.39 (IQR, 0.23-0.65) MUg/g creatinine. Multivariable-adjusted geometric mean
      ratios of albuminuria comparing the two highest to the lowest tertile of urine
      cadmium were 1.62 (95% CI, 1.43-1.84) and 2.94 (95% CI, 2.58-3.35), respectively.
      The corresponding odds ratios of abnormal albuminuria were 1.58 (0.83, 3.02) and
      4.54 (2.58, 8.00). The association between urine cadmium and albuminuria was
      observed across all participant subgroups evaluated including participants
      without hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. We observed Bonferroni
      corrected statistically significant interactions between urine cadmium levels and
      polymorphisms in gene SLC30A7 and RAC1. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing urine cadmium
      concentrations were cross-sectionally associated with increased albuminuria in a
      representative sample of a general population from Spain. Genetic variation in
      oxidative stress and cadmium metabolism and transport genes may confer
      differential susceptibility to potential cadmium effects.

PMID- 28558301
TI  - Crop bioaccumulation and human exposure of perfluoroalkyl acids through multi
      media transport from a mega fluorochemical industrial park, China.
AB  - Significant quantities of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are released to the
      environment from fluorochemical manufacturing processes through wastewater
      discharge and air emission in China, which may lead to human exposure and health
      risks through crop bioaccumulation from PFAAs-contaminated soil and irrigation
      water. This paper systematically studied the distribution and transport of PFAAs
      in agricultural soil, irrigation water and precipitation, followed by crop
      bioaccumulation and finally human exposure of PFAAs within a 10km radius around a
      mega-fluorochemical industrial park (FIP). Hotspots of contamination by PFAAs
      were found near the FIP and downstream of the effluent discharge point with the
      maximum concentrations of 641ng/g in agricultural soil, 480ng/g in wheat grain,
      58.8ng/g in maize grain and 4,862ng/L in precipitation. As the distance increased
      from the FIP, PFAAs concentrations in all media showed a sharp initial decrease
      followed by a moderate decline. Elevated PFAA concentrations in soil and grains
      were still present within a radius of 10 km of the FIP. The soil contamination
      was associated with the presence of PFAAs in irrigation water and precipitation,
      and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was the dominant PFAA component in soil.
      However, due to bioaccumulation preference, short-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic
      acids (PFCAs), especially perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), became the major PFAA
      contaminants in grains of wheat and maize. The bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) for
      both grains showed a decrease with increasing chain length of PFAAs
      (approximately 0.5 log decrease per CF2 group). Compared to maize grain, wheat
      grain showed higher BAFs, possibly related to its higher protein content. The
      PFCA (C4-C8) concentrations (on a log10 basis) in agricultural soil and grain
      were found to show a linear positive correlation. Local human exposure of PFOA
      via the consumption of contaminated grains represents a health risk for local
      residents, especially for toddlers and children.

PMID- 28558302
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effect of epigallocatechin gallate in a mouse model of
      ovalbumin-induced allergic rhinitis.
AB  - Currently, a variety of studies have demonstrated that green tea has anti
      allergic properties, and the major polyphenolic compound, epigallocatechin
      gallate (EGCG), plays a significant role. Some research indicates that EGCG
      reduces the production and expression of allergy-related substances. Therefore,
      EGCG has a potential effect of reducing allergic rhinitis (AR). In this study,
      the effect of EGCG on allergic rhinitis in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced mouse model
      was investigated. After administration of EGCG, the number of sneezes and the
      occurrence of nasal rubbing were significantly decreased, the concentrations of
      immunoglobulin E (IgE) and histamine were suppressed in AR mouse serum, the
      levels of interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-4, and IL-6 were reduced in AR mice nasal
      lavage fluid (NLF), and the nasal mucosa mRNA and protein expression of
      cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2), IL-1beta, IL-4, and IL-6 were inhibited. The data
      indicate that EGCG has a beneficial effect of reducing allergic rhinitis.

PMID- 28558304
TI  - Sedentary behavior and musculoskeletal pain: a five-year longitudinal Icelandic
      study.

PMID- 28558303
TI  - Colorectal tumors are enriched with regulatory plasmablasts with capacity in
      suppressing T cell inflammation.
AB  - Inflammation plays a critical role in the initiation of colorectal cancer but is
      also required to mediate antitumor immunity in established tumors. Therefore,
      identifying the cellular and molecular components in colorectal tumors is
      necessary for the understanding of tumor progression and the development of novel
      treatment strategies. In this study, we demonstrated that a specific subtype of
      regulatory B cells, the CD19loCD27hi plasmablasts, was enriched in the colorectal
      tumor microenvironment. This CD19loCD27hi plasmablast subset presented high
      interleukin 10 (IL-10) expression but not transforming growth factor-beta (TGF
      beta) secretion. Phenotypically, the tumor-infiltrating IL-10+ CD19loCD27hi
      plasmablasts presented lower CD24, CD38, and IgA, and higher Tim-1 and IgG
      expression compared to the IL-10- CD19loCD27hi plasmablasts. The tumor
      infiltrating IL-10+ CD19loCD27hi plasmablasts were found to be gut-homing due to
      their higher expression of alpha4beta7 while peripheral blood B cells did not
      show the same characteristic. When cocultured with autologous T cells,
      CD19loCD27hi plasmablasts demonstrated potent activity in suppressing interferon
      gamma (IFN-gamma) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) expression but did
      not promote Foxp3 expression. Overall, this study demonstrate that in colorectal
      cancer, CD19loCD27hi plasmablasts make up a large percentage in tumor
      infiltrating lymphocytes and possess potent immunoregulatory functions, and thus
      could be utilized in future therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28558305
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of metal oxides (CeO2, CuO, NiO, Mn3O4, SnO2 and
      ZnO) nanoparticles as photo catalysts for degradation of textile dyes.
AB  - The progress of the enriched photocatalytic degradation predominantly depends on
      materials fabrication. In the recent times, the outcomes of nanomaterials show
      extraordinary efficiency due to its shape and size. In this connection, the
      present work concentrates on the fabrication of single digit metal oxides (CeO2,
      CuO, NiO, Mn3O4, SnO2 and ZnO) through precipitation method. The structural
      information of different metal oxides (MOs) and their crystallite size were
      estimated via XRD analysis and their consistent results revealed that the
      crystalline sizes of the prepared metal oxide were exhibited in nano size. The
      morphology and dimension of the synthesized MOs were identified through FE-SEM
      and TEM techniques. The FE-SEM images were apparently defined that the actual
      morphology of each metal oxide expresses different dimension due to nucleation
      and growth process. The result of UV-vis absorption spectra was helped to
      identify the band gap of MOs and a suitable light for photocatalytic irradiation.
      Additionally, the synthesized single digit MOs nanoparticles were magnificently
      applied for the degradation of methyl orange and methylene blue under UV light
      irradiation.

PMID- 28558306
TI  - User fees across ecosystem boundaries: Are SCUBA divers willing to pay for
      terrestrial biodiversity conservation?
AB  - While ecological links between ecosystems have been long recognised, management
      rarely crosses ecosystem boundaries. Coral reefs are susceptible to damage
      through terrestrial run-off, and failing to account for this within management
      threatens reef protection. In order to quantify the extent to that coral reef
      users are willing to support management actions to improve ecosystem quality, we
      conducted a choice experiment with SCUBA divers on the island of Bonaire,
      Caribbean Netherlands. Specifically, we estimated their willingness to pay to
      reduce terrestrial overgrazing as a means to improve reef health. Willingness to
      pay was estimated using the multinomial, random parameter and latent class logit
      models. Willingness to pay for improvements to reef quality was positive for the
      majority of respondents. Estimates from the latent class model determined
      willingness to pay for reef improvements of between $31.17 - $413.18/year,
      dependent on class membership. This represents a significant source of funding
      for terrestrial conservation, and illustrates the potential for user fees to be
      applied across ecosystem boundaries. We argue that such across-ecosystem-boundary
      funding mechanisms are an important avenue for future investigation in many
      connected systems.

PMID- 28558307
TI  - Electrophysiological signals associated with fluency of different levels of
      processing reveal multiple contributions to recognition memory.
AB  - Processing fluency appears to influence recognition memory judgements, and the
      manipulation of fluency, if misattributed to an effect of prior exposure, can
      result in illusory memory. Although it is well established that fluency induced
      by masked repetition priming leads to increased familiarity, manipulations of
      conceptual fluency have produced conflicting results, variously affecting
      familiarity or recollection. Some recent studies have found that masked
      conceptual priming increases correct recollection (Taylor & Henson, 2012), and
      the magnitude of this behavioural effect correlates with analogous fMRI BOLD
      priming effects in brain regions associated with recollection (Taylor, Buratto, &
      Henson, 2013). However, the neural correlates and time-courses of masked
      repetition and conceptual priming were not compared directly in previous studies.
      The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify and compare
      the electrophysiological correlates of masked repetition and conceptual priming
      and investigate how they contribute to recognition memory. Behavioural results
      were consistent with previous studies: Repetition primes increased familiarity,
      whereas conceptual primes increased correct recollection. Masked repetition and
      conceptual priming also decreased the latency of late parietal component (LPC).
      Masked repetition priming was associated with an early P200 effect and a later
      parietal maximum N400 effect, whereas masked conceptual priming was only
      associated with a central-parietal maximum N400 effect. In addition, the
      topographic distributions of the N400 repetition priming and conceptual priming
      effects were different. These results suggest that fluency at different levels of
      processing is associated with different ERP components, and contributes
      differentially to subjective recognition memory experiences.

PMID- 28558308
TI  - Age predicts cytokine kinetics and innate immune cell activation following
      intranasal delivery of IFNgamma and GM-CSF in a mouse model of RSV infection.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract
      infections in young children and is further associated with increased healthcare
      utilization and cost of care in the first years of life. Severe RSV disease
      during infancy has also been linked to the later development of allergic asthma,
      yet there remains no licensed RSV vaccine or effective treatment. Pre-clinical
      and clinical studies have shown that disease severity and development of allergic
      asthma are associated with differences in cytokine production. As a result,
      stimulation of the innate host immune response with immune potentiators is
      gaining attention for their prospective application in populations with limited
      immune responses to antigenic stimuli or against pathogens for which vaccines do
      not exist. Specifically, macrophage-activating cytokines such as interferon gamma
      (IFNgamma) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) are commercially
      available immune potentiators used to prevent infections in patients with chronic
      granulomatous disease and febrile neutropenia, respectively. Moreover, an
      increasing number of reports describe the protective function of IFNgamma and GM
      CSF as vaccine adjuvants. Although a positive correlation between cytokine
      production and age has previously been reported, little is known about age
      dependent cytokine metabolism or immune activating responses in infant compared
      to adult lungs. Here we use a non-compartmental pharmacokinetic model in naive
      and RSV-infected infant and adult BALB/c mice to determine the effect of age on
      IFNgamma and GM-CSF elimination and innate cell activation following intranasal
      delivery.

PMID- 28558310
TI  - Estimating sibling spillovers in health: Evidence on symptoms.
AB  - This paper estimates the sibling spillover effect in health symptoms using a
      sample of US adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
      Health dataset. The research design of this paper is to restrict the sample to
      sibling pairs who are separated between schools, where one enters high school and
      the other middle school. Because of school separation, sibling pairs face
      independent health shocks from own school peers. The identification strategy
      further exploits variations in individual health across symptoms to control for
      unobserved individual heterogeneity, which flexibly partials out family
      correlated effects. Estimation results show that the sibling spillover effect is
      large as a one-standard-deviation increase in one sibling's frequency of
      developing a stomach ache or a loss of appetite increases the other sibling's
      frequency of having the same symptom by about 55% of a standard deviation.
      Further investigation suggests that the effect is not due to spillovers in
      drinking alcohol or depression, but probably due to the spread of contagious
      illnesses like the stomach flu.

PMID- 28558311
TI  - Prevalence of the number of cusps and occlusal groove patterns of the mandibular
      molars in a Saudi Arabian population.
AB  - A dental trait in humans can be a valuable diagnostic tool in anthropological
      studies for classifying and characterizing different ethnic groups. Many studies
      have attempted to relate the prevalence of dental morphologies with different
      factors. Several variations, such as variations in the size, number of cusps, and
      groove pattern, have been observed in the mandibular molars of diverse
      populations. The morphological features of the occlusal surfaces of the
      mandibular molars have been described by Gregory and Hellman. To date, no studies
      have been reported in the literature regarding the frequency and expression of
      different types of cusps and the occlusal groove patterns in a Saudi Arabian
      population. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of different
      occlusal morphologies (number of cusps and occlusal groove patterns) of the
      permanent mandibular first and second molar in a Saudi population and to
      correlate its importance in forensics, if any. The results of this study showed
      that the most frequent occlusal configurations were the 5-cusp pattern seen in
      85% (136 teeth) and the 4-cusp pattern seen in 11% (18 teeth) of the mandibular
      first molars, bilaterally. Regarding the mandibular second molars, the 4-cusp
      form was the most common occlusal configuration, seen in 82% (132 teeth),
      followed by the 5-cusps type, seen in approximately 16% (26 teeth), bilaterally.
      Statistically significant (P value = 0.001) differences were noted for the
      permanent mandibular first and second molars between male and female subjects in
      all cusp and groove patterns ("Y" and "+" patterns). Similarly, significant
      differences (P value = 0.001) were found between the unilateral and bilateral
      presence of different cusp and groove patterns, both in the mandibular first and
      second molars. The present study showed that the groove pattern in the mandibular
      first molars was very different when compared to other populations. The cusp and
      groove patterns of the mandibular second molars were similar to those of the East
      African and Iranian populations. The results of this study may be used in
      forensics. Thus, the outcomes of this study may be helpful in both
      anthropological and clinical dental research.

PMID- 28558309
TI  - Reduced frequency of murine cytomegalovirus retinitis in C57BL/6 mice correlates
      with low levels of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)1 and SOCS3 expression
      within the eye during corticosteroid-induced immunosuppression.
AB  - AIDS-related human cytomegalovirus retinitis remains a leading cause of blindness
      worldwide. We compared two C57BL/6 mouse models of experimental murine
      cytomegalovirus (MCMV) retinitis for intraocular expression of suppressors of
      cytokine signaling (SOCS)1 and SOCS3, host proteins that are inducible negative
      feedback regulators of cytokine signaling. These mouse models differed in method
      of immune suppression, one by retrovirus-induced immune suppression (MAIDS) and
      the other by corticosteroid-induced immune suppression. Following subretinal
      injection of MCMV to induce retinitis, intraocular SOCS1 and SOCS3 were only
      mildly stimulated, and often without significance, within MCMV-infected eyes
      during the progression of MCMV retinitis in corticosteroid-immunosuppressed mice,
      contrary to MCMV-infected eyes of mice with MAIDS that showed significant high
      stimulation of SOCS1 and SOCS3 expression in agreement with previous findings.
      Frequency and severity of retinitis as well as amounts of intraocular infectious
      MCMV in corticosteroid-immunosuppressed mice were also unexpectedly lower than
      values previously reported for MAIDS animals during MCMV retinitis. These data
      reveal a major difference between two mouse models of experimental MCMV retinitis
      and suggest a possible link between the amplitude of SOCS1 and SOCS3 stimulation
      and severity of disease in these models.

PMID- 28558312
TI  - Distinct influences of affective and cognitive factors on children's non-verbal
      and verbal mathematical abilities.
AB  - Individual differences in children's math performance have been associated with
      math anxiety, attention problems, working memory (WM), and reading skills, but
      the mechanisms by which these factors jointly contribute to children's math
      achievement are unknown. Here, we use structural equation modeling to
      characterize the relation between these factors and their influence on non-verbal
      Numerical Operations (NO) and verbal Math Reasoning (MR) in 330 children
      (M=8.34years). Our findings indicate that WM plays a central role in both non
      verbal NO and verbal MR, whereas math anxiety and reading comprehension have
      unique and more pronounced influences on MR, compared to NO. Our study elucidates
      how affective and cognitive factors distinctly influence non-verbal and verbal
      mathematical problem solving.

PMID- 28558313
TI  - Fertility affects asymmetry detection not symmetry preference in assessments of
      3D facial attractiveness.
AB  - Consistent with theories from evolutionary psychology, facial symmetry correlates
      with attractiveness. Further, the preference for symmetrical faces appears to be
      affected by fertility in women. One limitation of previous research is that faces
      are often symmetrically lit front-views and so symmetry can be assessed using 2D
      pictorial information. Another limitation is that two-alternative-forced-choice
      (2afc) tasks are often used to assess symmetry preference and these cannot
      distinguish between differences in preference for symmetry and differences in
      ability of asymmetry detection. The current study used three tasks to assess the
      effects of facial symmetry: attractiveness ratings, 2afc preference and asymmetry
      detection. To break the link between 2D pictorial symmetry and facial symmetry,
      3D computer generated heads were used with asymmetrical lighting and yaw
      rotation. Facial symmetry correlated with attractiveness even under more
      naturalistic viewing conditions. Path analysis indicates that the link between
      fertility and 2afc symmetry preference is mediated by asymmetry detection not
      increased preference for symmetry. The existing literature on symmetry preference
      and attractiveness is reinterpreted in terms of differences in asymmetry
      detection.

PMID- 28558314
TI  - Flexion synergy overshadows flexor spasticity during reaching in chronic moderate
      to severe hemiparetic stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pharmaceutical intervention targets arm flexor spasticity with an
      often-unsuccessful goal of improving function. Flexion synergy is a related motor
      impairment that may be inadvertently neglected. Here, flexor spasticity and
      flexion synergy are disentangled to determine their contributions to reaching
      dysfunction. METHODS: Twenty-six individuals participated. A robotic device
      systematically modulated shoulder abduction loading during ballistic reaching.
      Elbow muscle electromyography data were partitioned into windows delineated by
      elbow joint velocity allowing for the separation of synergy- and spasticity
      related activation. RESULTS: Reaching velocity decreased with abduction loading
      (p<0.001) such that velocity was 30% slower when lifting the arm at 50% of
      abduction strength compared to when arm weight was supported. Abnormal flexion
      synergy increased with abduction loading (p<0.001) such that normalized
      activation ranged from a median (interquartile range) of 0.07 (0.03-0.12) when
      arm weight was supported to 0.19 (0.12-0.40) when actively lifting (large effect
      size, d=0.59). Flexor spasticity was detected during reaching (p=0.016) but only
      when arm weight was supported (intermediate effect size, d=0.33). CONCLUSION:
      Flexion synergy is the predominant contributor to reaching dysfunction while
      flexor spasticity appears only relevant during unnaturally occurring passively
      supported movement. SIGNIFICANCE: Interventions targeting flexion synergy should
      be leveraged in future stroke recovery trials.

PMID- 28558315
TI  - Macrodactylia lipomatosa with fibrolipomatous hamartomas: Macroscopic and
      ultrasound clues.

PMID- 28558316
TI  - Heart rate changes according to the complexity of motor events in REM sleep
      behavior disorder.

PMID- 28558317
TI  - Changes in resting-state directed connectivity in cortico-subcortical networks
      correlate with cognitive function in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease (PD)
      related cognitive decline and conversion to PD dementia are poorly understood. In
      the healthy human brain, stable patterns of posterior-to-anterior cortical
      information flow have recently been demonstrated in the higher frequency bands
      using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In this study we estimated PD-related changes
      in information flow patterns, as well as the contribution of subcortical regions.
      METHODS: Resting-state MEG recordings were acquired in moderately advanced PD
      patients (n=34; mean Hoehn and Yahr-stage 2.5) and healthy controls (n=12). MEG
      signals were projected to both cortical and subcortical brain regions, following
      which we estimated the balance between incoming and outgoing information flow per
      region. RESULTS: In PD patients, compared to controls, preferential beta band
      information outflow was significantly higher for the basal ganglia and
      frontotemporal cortical regions, and significantly lower for parieto-occipital
      regions. In addition, in patients, low preferential information outflow from
      occipital regions correlated with poor global cognitive performance. CONCLUSION:
      In the PD brain, a shift in balance towards more anterior-to-posterior beta band
      information flow takes place and is associated with poorer cognitive performance.
      SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that a reversal of the physiological posterior
      to-anterior information flow may be an important mechanism in PD-related
      cognitive decline.

PMID- 28558318
TI  - A new near-lossless EEG compression method using ANN-based reconstruction
      technique.
AB  - Compression algorithm is an essential part of Telemedicine systems, to store and
      transmit large amount of medical signals. Most of existing compression methods
      utilize fixed transforms such as discrete cosine transform (DCT) and wavelet and
      usually cannot efficiently extract signal redundancy especially for non
      stationary signals such as electroencephalogram (EEG). In this paper, we first
      propose learning-based adaptive transform using combination of DCT and artificial
      neural network (ANN) reconstruction technique. This adaptive ANN-based transform
      is applied to the DCT coefficients of EEG data to reduce its dimensionality and
      also to estimate the original DCT coefficients of EEG in the reconstruction
      phase. To develop a new near lossless compression method, the difference between
      the original DCT coefficients and estimated ones are also quantized. The
      quantized error is coded using Arithmetic coding and sent along with the
      estimated DCT coefficients as compressed data. The proposed method was applied to
      various datasets and the results show higher compression rate compared to the
      state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28558319
TI  - Spotting L3 slice in CT scans using deep convolutional network and transfer
      learning.
AB  - In this article, we present a complete automated system for spotting a particular
      slice in a complete 3D Computed Tomography exam (CT scan). Our approach does not
      require any assumptions on which part of the patient's body is covered by the
      scan. It relies on an original machine learning regression approach. Our models
      are learned using the transfer learning trick by exploiting deep architectures
      that have been pre-trained on imageNet database, and therefore it requires very
      little annotation for its training. The whole pipeline consists of three steps:
      i) conversion of the CT scans into Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) images, ii)
      prediction from a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) applied in a sliding window
      fashion over the MIP image, and iii) robust analysis of the prediction sequence
      to predict the height of the desired slice within the whole CT scan. Our approach
      is applied to the detection of the third lumbar vertebra (L3) slice that has been
      found to be representative to the whole body composition. Our system is evaluated
      on a database collected in our clinical center, containing 642 CT scans from
      different patients. We obtained an average localization error of 1.91+/-2.69
      slices (less than 5 mm) in an average time of less than 2.5 s/CT scan, allowing
      integration of the proposed system into daily clinical routines.

PMID- 28558320
TI  - Raman evidence for presence of high-temperature ferromagnetic clusters in
      magnetodielectric compound Ba-doped La2NiMnO6.
AB  - Magnetodielectric ferromagnetic semiconductors are key materials because of their
      applications in spintronic devices; they can be used to control the magnetic
      properties by applying electric fields. La2NiMnO6 emerged as an important
      magnetodielectric ferromagnetic semiconductor because of its high Curie
      temperature near room temperature. Recently Ba doped was successfully used to
      improve magnetic properties in La2NiMnO6, originating partially ordered systems
      with different ordering degrees but presenting same Tc=280K. However, the
      influence of Ba doping on the temperature dependent vibrational properties of the
      system was not investigated. To investigate the Ba doping influence on
      temperature dependent phonon spectra in La2NiMnO6, we used Raman Spectroscopy to
      probe the symmetric stretching mode behavior in the range from 10 to 600K.
      Remarkable softenings were detected in the phonon behavior due to spin phonon
      coupling, at several different temperatures, much above Tc. The FWHM dependence
      with temperature rules out magnetostriction effects. The phonon softenings are
      the largest reported so far for the RE2NiMnO6 systems and also indicate that Ba
      doping induces ordering in the Ni/Mn sites. The temperature discordance in
      characteristic softening onset of the spin phonon coupling are related to
      ferromagnetic short range clusters due the presence of Ni3+, Mn3+ oxidation
      states.

PMID- 28558321
TI  - Raman spectroscopy for the evaluation of the effects of different concentrations
      of Copper on the chemical composition and biological activity of basil essential
      oil.
AB  - The present study is performed to evaluate the effect of different concentrations
      of Cu as fertilizer on the chemical composition of basil essential oil and its
      biological activity including antioxidant and antifungal activities by employing
      Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the effect of Cu is also determined on the
      vegetative growth and essential oil yield. Both, antifungal and antioxidant
      activities were found to be maximum with essential oils obtained at 0.04mg/l
      concentration of Cu fertilizer. The results of the GC-MS and Raman spectroscopy
      have revealed that the linalool and estragole are found to be as a major chemical
      compound in basil essential oil. The Raman spectral changes associated with these
      biological components lead to the conclusion that estragole seems to have
      dominating effect in the biological activities of the basil essential oil as
      compared to linalool although the latter is observed in greater concentration.

PMID- 28558322
TI  - Spectroscopic properties of Sm3+ ions doped Alkaliborate glasses for photonics
      applications.
AB  - A new series of Sm3+ doped alkaliborate glasses have been prepared by melt
      quenching technique and their structural and spectroscopic properties were
      analysed employing XRD, FTIR, optical absorption, photoluminescence and decay
      spectral measurements in order to explore their suitability for photonic
      applications. The amorphous nature have been confirmed through XRD analysis and
      the FTIR spectra reveal the presence of fundamental stretching and bending
      vibrations of the borate networks in the prepared glasses. From the absorption
      peak positions, bonding parameter (delta) values were calculated to examine the
      nature of the metal-ligand bond. The optical band gap (Eopt) corresponds to the
      direct and indirect allowed transitions and the Urbach energies (DeltaE) were
      calculated from the absorption spectra to understand the electronic band
      structure of the studied glasses. The Judd-Ofelt (JO) intensity parameters
      Omegalambda (lambda=2, 4 and 6) were determined to explore the symmetry of the
      ligand environment around the Sm3+ ions in the studied glasses. The luminescence
      spectra exhibit four emission bands in the visible region due to the 4G5/2
      >6H5/2, 6H7/2, 6H9/2 and 6H11/2 transitions. The radiative parameters such as
      transition probability (A), stimulated emission cross-section (sigmaPE),
      branching ratios (betaR) and radiative lifetime (tauR) have been determined from
      the luminescence spectra using JO theory to ensure the suitability of the studied
      glasses for optoelectronic applications. The luminescence spectra were
      characterized through CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram to examine the dominant
      emission color of the studied glasses. The lifetime values of the Sm3+ doped
      studied glasses pertaining to the 4G5/2 excited level have been determined
      through decay curve measurements and the non-exponential decay curves were fitted
      to the Inokuti-Hirayama model to analyze the energy transfer mechanism between
      the nearby Sm3+ ions. The obtained results were discussed and compared with the
      similar reported glasses.

PMID- 28558323
TI  - "A boy, being a victim, nobody really buys that, you know?": Dynamics of sexual
      violence against boys.
AB  - The aim of this study was to present the dynamics of sexual violence against
      boys. Interviews were conducted with four male victims of sexual abuse between
      the ages of six and 10, as well as four psychologists employed in the health care
      system and involved in the treatment of sexually abused boys. Results were
      examined using thematic content analysis, based on six deductively identified
      themes corresponding to the following stages of sexual violence against children
      and adolescents: preparation, episodes, silencing, narratives, repression and
      overcoming. The results suggested that proximity between victims and offenders,
      who were mostly adolescent boys, was a facilitator of abuse. The interviews also
      revealed that victims faced significant levels of disbelief and discrimination.
      Lastly, the findings pointed to the importance of protective actions and of the
      system itself, though all practitioners perceived the latter as flawed and
      unprepared to handle cases involving sexually abused boys. These findings
      underscore the social invisibility of sexual violence against boys, due to the
      low number of referrals as well as the disbelief and discrimination, which
      permeates the management of these cases.

PMID- 28558324
TI  - Coping styles in youth exposed to maltreatment: Longitudinal patterns reported by
      youth in foster care.
AB  - Coping styles in youth living in foster care with a history of maltreatment were
      examined to determine the nature and stability of self-reported coping behavior
      over time. Participants included 542 (time 1), 377 (time 2), and 299 (time 3)
      youth ages 8-22 years (M=13.28years, SD=3.04). Using the Behavioral Inventory of
      Strategic Control, a dimensional, continuous measure of coping, across four
      possible coping styles endorsed in reference to specific potentially stressful
      situations, the results indicated that direct action coping was the most
      frequently endorsed or preferred style for more than 50% of the sample at each
      time point. A number of youth endorsed using more than one coping style,
      indicating some flexibility in the approach to coping when problems occur.
      Although most youth endorsed a preferred style, coping style endorsed did vary
      somewhat over time. The coping style endorsed also varied depending on the type
      of problem referenced, but no statistically significant differences were noted
      across situations, including social, academic, general, and foster-specific
      situations. Effects for age were also examined and the results indicated no
      significant differences across the age range for type of coping most commonly
      endorsed. The present study is the first large-scale, longitudinal assessment of
      coping styles in youth in foster care and the results suggest that coping is not
      a simple, categorical-only construct and the implications for the endorsement of
      the direct approach for youth in foster care along with the other findings are
      discussed.

PMID- 28558325
TI  - Migration and arsenic adsorption study of starch-modified Fe-Ce oxide on a
      silicon-based micromodel observation platform.
AB  - Iron materials have shown great potential to remediate arsenic (As) contaminated
      sites. It's very important to reveal the reaction process between iron materials
      and As from the perspective of pore scale, but relevant research was inadequate.
      In order to directly investigate the migration and As adsorption mechanism of
      starch-modified Fe-Ce oxide in pore scale, a silicon-based micromodel observation
      platform was established in this study. The results of Charge coupled Device
      images showed that the sedimentation surface area of SFC occupied about 57.02% of
      the large porosity zone, but only 23.27% of the small porosity zone. To further
      reveal the 3D distribution of Fe and As elements inside the pore network, Laser
      Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy was introduced. The results revealed that less As
      was adsorbed as less SFC intruded in the small porosity zone. When the large
      porosity zone was blocked by SFC, a permeability barrier was created to adsorb As
      from upstream. This study also explored the effect of particle size reduction on
      SFC migration, and found it might be a better candidate for more SFC penetrated
      into small porosity zone. Combined with various high-resolution and sensitivity
      detection methodologies, more colloidal migration mechanisms can be investigated
      using this technology in the future.

PMID- 28558326
TI  - Preparation, characterization and thermal risk evaluation of dihydroxylammonium
      5, 5'-bistetrazole-1, 1'-diolate based polymer bonded explosive.
AB  - Dihydroxylammonium 5,5'- bistetrazole-1,1'-diolate (TKX-50) was used to prepare
      TKX-50-based polymer bonded explosive (PBX) for the first time in this study. The
      thermal stabilities and the kinetic parameters of TKX-50 and TKX-50-based PBX
      were compared via Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermal Gravity
      Differential Thermal Gravity (TG-DTG) and Accelerating Rate Calorimeter (ARC).
      Furthermore, in order to know about their thermal safeties comprehensively, an
      advanced thermal analysis program based on Friedman method was employed to
      calculate the thermal safety parameters for TKX-50 and its PBX. With its help,
      two important safety parameters (time to maximum rate under adiabatic conditions
      (TMRad) and self-accelerating decomposition temperature (SADT)) for the two
      energetic materials were calculated and discussed. Finally, based on the safety
      parameters, effects of storage conditions and ambient temperatures on the thermal
      explosions of TKX-50 and TKX-50-based PBX were further studied by using finite
      element analysis (FEA).

PMID- 28558327
TI  - d-Alanine 2, Leucine 5 Enkephaline (DADLE)-mediated DOR activation augments human
      hUCB-BFs viability subjected to oxidative stress via attenuation of the UPR.
AB  - Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) although being potent in repairing injured
      or ischemic tissues, their success regarding tissue-regenerative approaches are
      hindered by the paucity in their viability. The elevated levels of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) in damaged sites provoke the pernicious effects of donor MSC
      survival. In the present study, the effect of delta-opioid receptor (DOR)
      activation on human umbilical cord-blood borne fibroblasts (hUCB-BFs) survival
      under oxidative stress (H2O2) was evaluated. Oxidative stress which is known to
      trigger pathological conditions of the unfolded protein response (UPR) leads to
      endoplasmic reticulum stress. Upon its activation by D-Alanine 2, Leucine 5
      Enkephaline (DADLE, selective DOR agonist) in hUCB-BFs under oxidative stress, a
      significant down regulation (~2 folds) of key UPR genes was observed as
      determined by qPCR, Thioflavin-T protein aggregation assay and western blot
      analysis. Concomitantly, the oxidative stress-mediated cell-death was ameliorated
      and the viable-cells' percentage was enhanced following DOR activation. The
      intracellular ROS production upon H2O2 treatment as determined by CM-H2DCFDA
      staining was repressed, the anti-apoptotic marker Bcl-2 was upregulated along
      with a significant suppression in the expression levels of pro-apoptotic proteins
      Bax and Bad upon DOR activation. Upon subsequent treatment with naltrindole, the
      effects of DADLE-induced cytoprotection were reverted significantly. These
      results propound the role of DADLE-mediated DOR-activation on improvement of the
      viability, which might succour successful hUCB-BFs transplants and greatly
      absolve the inefficacy of tissue-specific engineered transplants.

PMID- 28558328
TI  - Microscopic evaluation of the ventricular tissue using stereological and Voronoi
      tessellation methods: Application on doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats.
AB  - There is limited quantitative microscopic information concerning the three
      dimensional arrangement of cardiomyocytes and microvessels in cardiotoxic
      condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cardiac tissue of rats under
      different experimental conditions using modern second-order stereology and
      Voronoi tessellation techniques to show the spatial arrangement of the
      cardiomyocytes and microvessels. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into
      two groups (n=6). The control group received PBS and the doxorubicin (DOX) group
      received 4mg/kg DOX on days 1, 8, 15, and 22. On the 24th day, the left ventricle
      was sectioned and prepared according to the "orientator" method for
      microscopically evaluations. The "covariance functions" were plotted using
      "linear dipole probes". Polygonal tessellation of the ventricles was also
      diagrammed using ImageJ software. The plotting the covariance curves of the
      cardiomyocytes and microvessels forming the "gaps" by slopped down, crossing the
      reference line and rose again. In the control group, the gaps were placed at 35
      40MUm and 14-16MUm for the cardiomyocytes and microvessels, respectively. In the
      cardiotoxic group, the curves demonstrated larger gaps in comparison with the
      normal hearts, indicating repulsion of these structures. The curves of the cross
      correlation function of the cardiomyocytes-microvessels also demonstrated the
      cardiomyocytes and microvessels were not normally correlated after the toxicity.
      Evaluation of Voronoi tessellations for the cardiomyocytes nuclei and
      microvessels in the normal and cardiotoxic groups showed that the areas of
      polygons in the normal heart were placed in the smaller range, while the areas
      fell in a larger range in the cases of cardiotoxicity. Stereological and Voronoi
      Tessellation methods showed that ventricular tissue lost its normal spatial
      arrangement in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats.

PMID- 28558329
TI  - Risk stratification of women with false-positive test results in mammography
      screening based on mammographic morphology and density: A case control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The long-term risk of breast cancer is increased in women with false
      positive (FP) mammography screening results. We investigated whether mammographic
      morphology and/or density can be used to stratify these women according to their
      risk of future breast cancer METHODS: We undertook a case-control study nested in
      the population-based screening programme in Copenhagen, Denmark. We included 288
      cases and 288 controls based on a cohort of 4743 women with at least one FP-test
      result in 1991-2005 who were followed up until 17 April 2008. Film-based
      mammograms were assessed using the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI
      RADS) density classification, the Tabar classification, and two automated
      techniques quantifying percentage mammographic density (PMD) and mammographic
      texture (MTR), respectively. The association with breast cancer was estimated
      using binary logistic regression calculating Odds Ratios (ORs) and the area under
      the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUCs) adjusted for birth year
      and age and invitation round at the FP-screen RESULTS: Significantly increased
      ORs were seen for BI-RADS D(density)2-D4 (OR 1.94; 1.30-2.91, 2.36; 1.51-3.70 and
      4.01; 1.67-9.62, respectively), Tabar's P(pattern)IV (OR 1.83; 1.16-2.89), PMD
      Q(quartile)2-Q4 (OR 1.71; 1.02-2.88, 1.97; 1.16-3.35 and 2.43; 1.41-4.19,
      respectively) and MTR Q4 (1.97; 1.12-3.46) using the lowest/fattiest category as
      reference CONCLUSION: All four methods, capturing either mammographic morphology
      or density, could segregate women with FP-screening results according to their
      risk of future breast cancer - using already available screening mammograms. Our
      findings need validation on digital mammograms, but may inform potential future
      risk stratification and tailored screening strategies.

PMID- 28558330
TI  - Spray-dried adjunct cultures of autochthonous non-starter lactic acid bacteria.
AB  - Spray-drying of lactic cultures provides direct-to-vat starters, which facilitate
      their commercialization and use. However, this process may alter the metabolic
      activity and deteriorate technological features. In this work, we assessed the
      influence of spray-drying on the survival and aroma production of two strains of
      mesophilic lactobacilli: Lactobacillus paracasei 90 and Lactobacillus plantarum
      91, which have already been characterized as good adjunct cultures. The spray
      drying was carried out using a laboratory scale spray and the dried cultures were
      monitored during the storage for the survival rate. The dried cultures were
      applied to two cheese models: sterile cheese extract and miniature soft cheese.
      The influence on the carbohydrate metabolism and the production of organic acids
      and volatile compounds was determined. Both strains retained high levels of
      viable counts in the powder after drying and during the storage at 5 degrees C
      for twelve months. In addition, they also remained at high level in both cheese
      models during incubation or ripening. Similar profiles of carbohydrate
      fermentation and bioformation of volatile compounds were observed in the cheese
      extracts for each of the strains when tested as both fresh and dried cultures. In
      addition, the ability of Lb. paracasei 90 to increase the production of acetoin
      and diacetyl remarkably in cheese models was also confirmed for the spray-dried
      culture.

PMID- 28558331
TI  - Impact of thistle rennet from Carlina acanthifolia All. subsp. acanthifolia on
      bacterial diversity and dynamics of a specialty Italian raw ewes' milk cheese.
AB  - Caciofiore della Sibilla is an Italian specialty soft cheese manufactured with
      Sopravissana raw ewes' milk and thistle rennet prepared with young fresh leaves
      and stems of Carlina acanthifolia All. subsp. acanthifolia, according to an
      ancient tradition deeply rooted in the territory of origin (mountainous
      hinterland of the Marche region, Central Italy). In this study, the impact of
      thistle rennet on the bacterial dynamics and diversity of Caciofiore della
      Sibilla cheese was investigated by applying a polyphasic approach based on
      culture and DNA-based techniques (Illumina sequencing and PCR-DGGE). A control
      cheese manufactured with the same batch of ewes' raw milk and commercial animal
      rennet was analyzed in parallel. Overall, a large number of bacterial taxa were
      identified, including spoilage, environmental and pro-technological bacteria,
      primarily ascribed to Lactobacillales. Thistle rennet was observed clearly to
      affect the early bacterial dynamics of Caciofiore della Sibilla cheese with
      Lactobacillus alimentarius/paralimentarius and Lactobacillus
      plantarum/paraplantarum/pentosus being detected in the phyllosphere of C.
      acanthifolia All., thistle rennet and curd obtained with thistle rennet. Other
      bacterial taxa, hypothetically originating from the vegetable coagulant
      (Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus delbrueckii,
      Leuconostoc mesenteroides/pseudomesenteroides), were exclusively found in
      Caciofiore della Sibilla cheese by PCR-DGGE. At the end of the maturation period,
      Illumina sequencing demonstrated that both cheeses were dominated by
      Lactobacillales; however curd and cheese produced with thistle rennet were co
      dominated by Lactobacillus and Leuconostoc, whereas Lactoccous prevailed in curd
      and cheese produced with commercial animal rennet followed by Lactobacillus.
      Differences in the bacterial composition between the two cheeses at the end of
      their maturation period were confirmed by PCR-DGGE analysis.

PMID- 28558332
TI  - Nitrate simultaneously enhances lipid and protein accumulation in developing
      yellow lupin cotyledons cultured in vitro, but not under field conditions.
AB  - The research was conducted on yellow lupin (Lupinus luteus L.) mature seeds,
      developing cotyledons, developing pods, and seedlings. The main storage compound
      in yellow lupin seeds is protein, whose content may reach up to 45%. Oil content
      in seeds of yellow lupin is about 6%. In such protein-storing seeds there is a
      strong negative relationship between accumulation of storage lipid and protein.
      An increase in protein content causes a decrease in lipid level, and vice versa.
      However, simultaneous increase in lipid and protein content is possible in
      developing lupin cotyledons (the main storage organs of lupin seeds) cultured in
      vitro. Such an effect was obtained by feeding the cotyledons with nitrate (35mM).
      The same positive relationship in storage lipid and protein accumulation was also
      obtained in developing lupin pods fed with nitrate (35mM), detached from the
      mother plant, and maintained under quasi in vitro conditions. Fertilization of
      lupin plants with nitrate under field conditions (40 or 80kgNha-1 applied before
      sowing, at the nodulation stage or at the flowering and pod formation stage) did
      not cause significant changes in lipid and protein contents in mature seeds.
      Experiments performed on lupin seedlings cultivated hydroponically showed that
      nitrate added to the medium was accumulated mainly in roots, and at a remarkably
      lower level in shoots. We hypothesize that the lack of stimulatory effect of
      nitrate on storage lipid and protein accumulation in seeds under field conditions
      is due to inefficient transport of nitrate from the root to developing pods in
      lupin plants. This causes that the level of nitrate inside the developing lupin
      seeds is not elevated under field conditions.

PMID- 28558333
TI  - Novel NO-releasing plumbagin derivatives: Design, synthesis and evaluation of
      antiproliferative activity.
AB  - A series of plumbagin/NO donor hybrids were designed, synthesized and evaluated
      in vitro against triple negative breast cancer (MDA-MB-231), hepatocellular
      (HepG2) and lung (A549) carcinoma cells. Most furoxan-based plumbagin derivatives
      exhibited significantly superior potency compared to their parent compound.
      Noticeably, MDA-MB-231 cells are the most sensitive to these furoxan-based
      plumbagin derivatives as evidenced by IC50 values ranging from 1.24 to 5.20 MUM.
      Besides, NO released amounts detection of all hybrids suggested that in most
      cases, the antiproliferative activities were positively correlated with the
      levels of intracellular NO release in MDA-MB-231 cells. The most active compound
      (11a) also possessed higher chemical stability at different pHs (6.0, 7.4 and
      8.0) than plumbagin. Together, the above promising results warrant the future
      potential of plumbagin/NO hybrids as the lead compounds against triple negative
      breast cancer deserving further research.

PMID- 28558334
TI  - Design, synthesis and evaluation of aromatic heterocyclic derivatives as potent
      antifungal agents.
AB  - To further enhance the anti-Aspergillus efficacy of our previously discovered
      antifungal lead compounds (1), a series of aromatic heterocyclic derivatives were
      designed, synthesized and evaluated for in vitro antifungal activity. Many of the
      target compounds showed good inhibitory activity against Candida albicans and
      Cryptococcus neoformans. In particular, the isoxazole nuclei were more suited for
      improving the activity against Aspergillus spp. Among these compounds, 2-F
      substituted analogues 23g and 23h displayed the most remarkable in vitro activity
      against Candida spp., C. neoformans, A. fumigatus and fluconazole-resistant
      C.alb. strains, which is superior or comparable to the activity of the reference
      drugs fluconazole and voriconazole. Notably, the compounds 23g and 23h exhibited
      low inhibition profiles for various isoforms of human cytochrome P450 and
      excellent blood plasma stability.

PMID- 28558336
TI  - Psychometric properties of the Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale.
AB  - To develop a consensus on the definition and measurement of Internet gaming
      disorder (IGD), several recent studies have used the DSM-5's proposed criteria
      for IGD as the basis in scale construction. This study contributes to this
      emerging consensus by developing and validating a new Chinese Internet Gaming
      Disorder Scale (C-IGDS) based on the DSM-5 criteria. A representative sample of
      Hong Kong community adults (n=502, 50% men, mean age=37.1, age range=18-60) was
      recruited for a telephone survey with random digit dialing. Various statistical
      techniques were used to assess the psychometric properties of the C-IGDS. The C
      IGDS had good reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.91) and structural validity (CFA
      model fit: RMSEA=0.027, CFI=0.991, TLI=0.988) in our sample. Moderate to
      moderately strong correlations with depressive symptoms (r=0.617, p<0.001),
      social anxiety symptoms (r=0.366, p<0.001), and gaming hours (r=0.412, p<0.001)
      supported the criterion validity of the C-IGDS. In addition, the C-IGDS exhibited
      strict measurement invariance for sex and at least strong measurement invariance
      for age. In addition to providing the first Chinese scale for measuring IGD based
      on the DSM-5's proposed criteria, this study provides empirical support for the
      validity of these diagnostic criteria as the basis for a universal measure of
      IGD. Most important, this study is the first to reveal the criteria's measurement
      invariance, thereby indicating their suitability for use with diverse demographic
      groups.

PMID- 28558335
TI  - Risk is still relevant: Time-varying associations between perceived risk and
      marijuana use among US 12th grade students from 1991 to 2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perceived risk of harm has long been a key preventive factor for
      adolescent marijuana use. However, in recent years, perceived risk has decreased
      markedly and marijuana use has increased only slightly, leading to new questions
      about their association. This study investigates the magnitude and stability of
      the US adolescent marijuana risk/use association from 1991 to 2016, overall and
      by gender and race/ethnicity. METHODS: Self-reported data on past 12-month
      marijuana use, perceived risk of regular marijuana use, gender, and
      race/ethnicity were obtained from 275,768 US 12th grade students participating in
      the nationally representative Monitoring the Future study. Time-varying effect
      modeling (TVEM) was used to examine the marijuana risk/use association over time.
      RESULTS: Both before and after controlling for gender and race/ethnicity,
      perceived risk was a strong protective factor against adolescent marijuana use.
      The magnitude of the great risk/use association strengthened for Hispanic
      students; remained generally stable over time for 12th graders overall, males,
      females, and White students; and weakened for Black students. The magnitude of
      the moderate risk/use association strengthened for 12th graders overall, males,
      females, White and Hispanic students, but did not continue to strengthen for
      Black students from 2005 onwards. In general, marijuana use prevalence decreased
      over time within all levels of perceived risk. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived risk
      remains a strong protective factor for adolescent marijuana use, and the
      protective association for moderate risk (vs. no/slight risk) is actually
      increasing over time. Results suggest that accurate and credible information on
      the risks associated with marijuana use should remain a key component of
      prevention efforts.

PMID- 28558337
TI  - Relationship between substance use and attitudes towards seeking professional
      psychological help among veterans filing PTSD claims.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Veterans in distress often do not seek mental health treatment,
      even when such services are available. Substance use may further undermine
      treatment-seeking, given its association with negative treatment views. This
      study examined attitudes towards seeking psychological help in a sample of
      veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with and without co
      occurring substance use disorders (SUD). METHODS: Altogether, 143 male OEF/OIF
      veterans filing service-connected benefits claims for PTSD completed the
      Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF)
      and other baseline assessments. Treatment attitudes were compared among veterans
      with (n=34) and without (n=109) SUD using ANCOVA, controlling for demographic
      covariates. Post-hoc ANCOVA compared means on the two ATSPPH-SF subscales:
      Openness to Seeking Treatment, and Value/Need in Seeking Treatment. RESULTS:
      Overall, ATSPPH-SF scores were similar to those reported in other samples of
      young men. Controlling for demographic covariates, veterans with co-occurring SUD
      held significantly less favorable attitudes towards seeking help than veterans
      without comorbid SUD. In subscale analyses, valuation of treatment was
      significantly lower among veterans with SUDs, but openness towards treatment was
      not. CONCLUSIONS: Substance-using veterans' lower valuation of treatment may
      reflect opinions that problems resolve on their own, psychotherapy is
      ineffective, or concerns that SUDs complicate treatment. Thus an approach towards
      engaging these veterans in treatment that addresses a general skepticism towards
      the value of psychological help is warranted.

PMID- 28558339
TI  - Regulation the morphology of cationized gold nanoparticles for effective gene
      delivery.
AB  - Recent research indicated that the morphology of nanoparticles could result in
      distinct biological behaviors, thus played an important role in designing
      efficient gene delivery systems. Among them, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with
      various shapes were widely studied due to the good biocompatibility and easy
      modification ability. Our recent research indicated that polyethyleneimine-g
      bovine serum albumin (BSA-PEI) as non-viral gene vector showed good colloid
      stability and high transfection efficiency. In this work, BSA-PEI was utilized to
      modify gold nanospheres (AuNSs) and gold nanorods (AuNRs) to investigate the
      influence of the morphology on gene delivery. Both AuNS@BSA-PEI and AuNR@BSA-PEI
      nanoparticles condensed DNA effectively at N/P ratio above 5 and maintained
      spherical or rod-like morphology respectively. Due to the higher surface charge
      density at the tips, the rod-like gene complexes were prone to use the tips to
      contact with cell membrane, which facilitated to be uptaked by HepG2 cells. The
      endocytosis inhibition experiments showed some differences in the endocytic
      pathway. Gene transfection experiment showed that the rod-like complexes had
      almost 100-fold higher of transfection level than that of spherical complexes at
      the N/P ratio of 20. This work provided a potential strategy for further design
      of gene vectors with improved transfection results by adjusting the morphology of
      gene vectors.

PMID- 28558338
TI  - The challenge of sustainability in healthcare systems: Frequency and cost of
      inappropriate patterns of breast cancer care (the E.Pic.A study).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In a context of decreasing economic health resources and a rise in
      health needs, it is urgent to face this sustainability crisis through the
      analysis of healthcare expenditures. Wastages, deriving from inappropriate
      interventions, erode resources which could be reallocated to high-value
      activities. To identify these areas of wastages, we developed a method for
      combining and analyzing data from multiple sources. Here we report the
      preliminary results of a retrospective cohort study evaluating the performance of
      breast cancer (BC) care at IRST, an Italian cancer institute. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Four data sources gathered in a real-world setting (a clinical database,
      two administrative databases and a cancer registry) were linked. Essential Key
      Performance Indexes (KPIs) in the pattern of BC diagnosis (KPI 1 and 2) and
      treatment (KPI 3 and 4) based on current guidelines were developed by a board of
      professionals. The costs of inappropriate examinations were associated with the
      diagnostic KPIs. RESULTS: We found that 2798 patients treated at IRST from
      January 2010 to June 2016 received a total of 2516 inappropriate examinations
      accounting for ? 573,510.80. Linkage from multiple routine healthcare data
      sources is feasible: it allows the measurement of important KPIs specifically
      designed for BC care, and the identification of areas of low-value use of the
      resources. CONCLUSION: If systematically applied, this method could help provide
      a complete picture of inappropriateness and waste, redirect these resources to
      higher-value interventions for patients, and fill the gap between proper use of
      the resources and the best clinical results.

PMID- 28558340
TI  - Dynamic changes of flavonoids in Abelmoschus manihot different organs at
      different growth periods by UPLC-MS/MS.
AB  - Abelmoschus manihot (Linn.) Medicus has been clinically used to treat chronic
      kidney disease, oral ulcers, burns, and dysmenorrhea in China for many centuries.
      The major pharmacologically-active components of A. manihot are flavonoids. In
      this study, a rapid and highly sensitive UPLC-MS/MS analysis method was
      established and successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of five
      major flavonoids (rutin, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, quercetin, and myricetin) in
      different parts of A. manihot harvested at ten growth periods. Under the
      optimized chromatographic conditions, good separation for five target components
      was obtained on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column within 18min. The total contents
      of the five investigated flavonoids in A. manihot roots, stems, leaves and
      flowers ranged from 2.86 to 123.7MUg/g, 46.39 to 141.0MUg/g, 929.4 to 3096MUg/g,
      and 10,150 to 19,390MUg/g, respectively, indicating that the total flavonoids in
      the four parts could be mainly arranged in a decreasing order as
      flower>leaf>stem>root. The peak of total flavonoids in flowers and leaves
      appeared at G8 and G9, respectively. These results will be helpful for the
      determination of the suitable harvest time of A. manihot and the improvement of
      the utility value of the disused parts.

PMID- 28558341
TI  - Understanding the GPCR biased signaling through G protein and arrestin complex
      structures.
AB  - G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of cell surface
      receptors and are important drug targets for many human diseases. The
      determination of the 3-D structure of GPCRs and their signaling complexes has
      promoted our understanding of GPCR biology and provided templates for structure
      based drug discovery. In this review, we focus on the recent structure work on
      GPCR signaling complexes, the beta2-adrenoreceptor-Gs and the rhodopsin-arrestin
      complexes in particular, and highlight the structural features of GPCR complexes
      involved in G protein- and arrestin-mediated signal transduction. The crystal
      structures reveal distinct structural mechanisms by which GPCRs recruit a G
      protein and an arrestin. A comparison of the two complex structures provides
      insight into the molecular mechanism of functionally selective GPCR signaling,
      and a structural basis for the discovery of G protein- and arrestin-biased
      treatments of human diseases related to GPCR signal transduction.

PMID- 28558342
TI  - The measurement properties of pediatric observational pain scales: A systematic
      review of reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Valid observational pain scales are needed to assess pain and ensure
      sufficient treatment of pain in children that lack the verbal ability to self
      report pain. Published reviews attempt to synthesize results from primary studies
      validating these scales and based on the findings recommendations may be given,
      for example which pain scales are the most appropriate for use in different
      pediatric populations. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this review were to describe how
      systematic reviews have evaluated and recommended observational pain scales for
      use in children aged 0-18 years and appraise the evidence underlying these
      recommendations. DESIGN: Systematic review of reviews. DATA SOURCES: The Cochrane
      Library, PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PsychINFO were searched from
      inception to September 2016. Reference lists and gray literature were searched
      for additional studies. REVIEW METHODS: Study selection and data extraction were
      performed by two reviewers independently with a disagreement procedure in place.
      Methodological quality or study validity was measured using the Assessment of
      Multiple Systematic Reviews checklist and risk of bias or internal validity was
      measured using the Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews tool. The review protocol
      was registered with PROSPERO: registration number CRD42016035264. RESULTS: Twelve
      reviews met the inclusion criteria. Together; they included 65 different
      observational pain scales for use in children, of which 28 were recommended at
      least once. Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability/revised version of Face,
      Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability, COMFORT/COMFORT behavioral scale and
      Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale were evaluated and recommended
      most frequently. Few of the included reviews assessed the methodological quality
      of the studies included in the review. The narrative analysis consisted mostly of
      a reiteration of the results from the primary studies. In general, more recent
      reviews showed a lower risk of bias than older ones. CONCLUSIONS: Included
      reviews exhibited low quality of evidence; thus, their recommendations regarding
      pain scales for use in clinical practice or research with children that lack the
      verbal ability to self-report pain should be interpreted with caution.

PMID- 28558344
TI  - Experimental study and biomechanical characterization for the passive small
      intestine: Identification of regional differences.
AB  - This article reports regional differences in the inflation/extension properties
      and the no-load and zero-stress geometry, serving as the reference state for
      defining the multiaxial response, within and across the individual duodenum,
      jejunum, and ileum of the small intestine of middle-aged rats in the normal
      condition. The descriptive/predictive capacity of three phenomenological models,
      regularly appearing in the biomechanics literature, to characterize the
      anisotropic response of intestinal tissue was investigated in terms of best-fit
      parameters. Our inflation/extension results showed that the pressure-radius
      relationship was nonlinear, dissimilar to the near-constant, linear force
      pressure relationship at all axial stretches, suggesting an energetically
      favorable response in the entire loading range. The geometrical results showed
      that small intestinal dimensions were greatest in the proximal duodenum and
      smallest in the proximal jejunum, unlike the opening angle and circumferential
      residual strains that were less spatially variable; contrasting previous findings
      on relatively immature animals. The quadratic and exponential model was the most
      suitable descriptor of the passive pseudo-elastic response for the entire loading
      range from all regions, while the four- and seven-parameter exponential models
      afforded good data representations at the physiologic loading range primarily.
      The stress-strain and material characterization results showed progressive
      softening in the axial direction within the duodenum and jejunum, unlike the
      ileum that stiffened axially towards the caecum. Much remains to be learned as
      regards regional variations in biomechanical properties and the adaptive response
      during aging, but the reported data provide input for a quantitative analysis of
      physiological functions, mechanobiology, and clinical interventions, e.g. small
      intestine-repair device interaction.

PMID- 28558343
TI  - Interconnectivity imaged in three dimensions: Nano-particulate silica-hydrogel
      structure revealed using electron tomography.
AB  - We have used Electron Tomography (ET) to reveal the detailed three-dimensional
      structure of particulate hydrogels, a material category common in e.g. controlled
      release, food science, battery and biomedical applications. A full understanding
      of the transport properties of these gels requires knowledge about the pore
      structure and in particular the interconnectivity in three dimensions, since the
      transport takes the path of lowest resistance. The image series for ET were
      recorded using High-Angle Annular Dark Field Scanning Transmission Electron
      Microscopy (HAADF-STEM). We have studied three different particulate silica
      hydrogels based on primary particles with sizes ranging from 3.6nm to 22nm and
      with pore-size averages from 18nm to 310nm. Here, we highlight the nanostructure
      of the particle network and the interpenetrating pore network in two and three
      dimensions. The interconnectivity and distribution of width of the porous
      channels were obtained from the three-dimensional tomography studies while they
      cannot unambiguously be obtained from the two-dimensional data. Using ET, we
      compared the interconnectivity and accessible pore volume fraction as a function
      of pore size, based on direct images on the nanoscale of three different
      hydrogels. From this comparison, it was clear that the finest of the gels
      differentiated from the other two. Despite the almost identical flow properties
      of the two finer gels, they showed large differences concerning the accessible
      pore volume fraction for probes corresponding to their (two-dimensional) mean
      pore size. Using 2D pore size data, the finest gel provided an accessible pore
      volume fraction of over 90%, but for the other two gels the equivalent was only
      10-20%. However, all the gels provided an accessible pore volume fraction of 30
      40% when taking the third dimension into account.

PMID- 28558345
TI  - Post-operative unilateral internuclear ophthalmoplegia following basilar
      pneumocephalus after resection of C1 intradural extramedullary tumor.

PMID- 28558346
TI  - Incidental gastric accessory spleen during laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bariatric surgery has shown to produce the most predictable and
      tangible results for weight loss, with laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy's being
      the most popular one of them. However, the occurrence of previously undiagnosed
      diseases can be encountered during bariatric operations. The work has been
      reported in line with the SCARE criteria. CASE PRESENTATION: This is the case of
      a 54year old morbidly obese female, presenting to our hospital for a laparoscopic
      sleeve gastrectomy. During her procedure, it was discovered that she has an
      accessory spleen on the fundus of her stomach. The decision was made to resect it
      with the specimen of the stomach for histopathalogical examination. CONCLUSION:
      Incidental findings during routine bariatric surgery are a common occurance, and
      therefore prompt and effective intra-op management is key to the prognosis of the
      patient. Accessory spleens, although uncommon, tend to be asymptomatic. However,
      if undiagnosed, could present with dangerous consequences.

PMID- 28558347
TI  - Total hip prosthesis complication, periprosthetic infection with external
      fistulizing due to Enterobacter cloacae complex multiple drugs resistance: A
      clinical case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Enterobacter cloacae is a microorganism found in the intestinal
      flora of the majority of animals, including humans. Primary infections caused by
      E. cloacae are rare in immunocompetent patients, but are very common in hospital
      settings in newborns and immunocompromised patients, and can be aggravated by the
      insurgence of antibiotic resistance. The incidence of periprosthetic hip
      infections is just below 2%. CASE PRESENTATION: A 76year old woman with multiple
      comorbidities underwent surgical implantation of intermediary total hip
      prosthesis of the left hip, in a different health facility, in February 2014,
      after the basicervical fracture of the upper femur extremity due to trauma. After
      an episode of dislocation of the prosthetic implant, in September 2014, she
      underwent a surgical operation to implant the acetabular component. A month later
      not in our facility, following a re-hospitalization for the dislocation of the
      arthroprosthesis, an infection from E. cloacae complex was discovered. After 2
      years of chronic infection she came to our attention; the clinical picture
      featured coxalgia and secreting fistula in the surgical wound. Following a
      specific antibiotic therapy, carried out intravenously over the course of a
      month, we decided to intervene removing the left hip arthroprosthesis and placing
      an antibiotic spacer following the direction deduced from the antibiogram study
      of August 2016. CONCLUSION: The patient was hospitalized in our facility and 2
      months later she underwent another operation to remove the antibiotic spacer and
      to place a new total hip arthroprosthesis. Multiple swabs showed the complete
      healing from the infection, which was confirmed a couple of months later.

PMID- 28558348
TI  - A pilot-scale study on the start-up of partial nitrification-anammox process for
      anaerobic sludge digester liquor treatment.
AB  - Treatment of sludge digester liquor was successfully accomplished using a pilot
      scale partial nitrification-anammox (PN/A) reactor with a nitrogen removal rate
      (NRR) of 1.23kgN/m3/d. A stable and efficient PN process was attained by
      controlling the concentration of free ammonia (0.7-8.4mg/L) and free nitrous acid
      (0.02-1.0mg/L). The application of hydroxylamine played a vital role in the
      reactivation of anammox bacteria. The bacteria exhibited improved granule
      properties at a specific input power between 0.065 and 0.097kW/m3, and achieved a
      specific anammox activity (SAA) of 1.01kgN/kgVSS/d on day 148. From day 0 to 120,
      the heme c content in the granules increased from 0.42+/-0.1 to 5.77+/
      1.0umol/gVSS, with a corresponding increase in NRRs and SAAs. High-throughput
      sequencing techniques revealed that the dominant anammox bacterial genus was
      Candidatus Brocadia. These conclusions provide valuable information for the full
      scale treatment of sludge digester liquor.

PMID- 28558349
TI  - Role and multi-scale characterization of bamboo biochar during poultry manure
      aerobic composting.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to study the changes in compost particle
      and its relationship with other physicochemical process during aerobic composting
      employing 5%, 10%, 20% or 0% biochar. Changes of physicochemical and biological
      parameters and gases emissions indicated that appropriate biochar addition
      improved both degradation rate and final degree of the organic matter and
      simultaneously reduced CO2, CH4, N2O and NH3 emissions. Beneficial properties
      like stability and high porosity of biochar could optimize composting
      environment, accelerate the process of composting and facilitate microbial growth
      during the thermophilic composting stage, with increases of 1.3*1010 to
      1.5*1011cfu/g. Analysis of microstructure characterization of the changes in
      compost particle indicated that biochar amended contributed to better degradation
      of compost particle with smaller sizes and a higher degree of looseness.
      Ultimately, 10% biochar addition optimized organic matter degradation, while
      reducing ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions and costs.

PMID- 28558350
TI  - Phosphate adsorption and precipitation on calcite under calco-carbonic
      equilibrium condition.
AB  - Phosphate (PO43-) removal on calcite often entails two processes: adsorption and
      precipitation. Separating these two processes is of great importance for
      assessment of PO43- stability after removal. Thus, this study was aimed at
      finding a critical range of conditions for separating these two processes in
      calco-carbonic equilibrium, by adjusting PO43- concentration, reaction time and
      pH. PO43- removal kinetic results showed that: (I) At pH7.7, PO43- removal was
      mainly by adsorption at initial PO43- concentration <=2.2 mg L-1 and reaction
      time <=24 h, with dominant precipitation occurring at initial PO43- concentration
      >=3 mg L-1 after 24 h reaction; (II) At pH8.3, adsorption was the key removal
      process at initial PO43- concentration <=7.5 mg L-1 and reaction time <=24 h,
      whereas precipitation was observed at initial PO43- concentration of 10 mg L-1
      after 24 h reaction, (III) At pH 9.1 and 10.1, PO43- removal mechanism was mainly
      by adsorption at initial PO43- concentration <=10 mg L-1 within 24 h reaction.
      Based on the kinetic results, it is suggested that PO43- precipitation will occur
      after 24 h reaction when saturation index of amorphous calcium phosphate is
      between 1.97 and 2.19. Besides, increasing PO43- concentration does not cause a
      continuous decline of PO43- removal percentage. Moreover, experimental removal
      data deviated largely from the theoretical adsorption value by CD-MUSIC model.
      These indicate occurrence of precipitation which is in agreement with the kinetic
      result. Therefore our study will provide fundamental reference information for
      better understanding of phosphorous stabilization after removal by calcite.

PMID- 28558351
TI  - Spatio-temporal variations of PM2.5 emission in China from 2005 to 2014.
AB  - With the rapid development of economy, air pollution has become increasingly
      serious nowadays in China, especially for the PM2.5. In this paper, the Spatio
      temporal variations of PM2.5 emission over the past decade, from 2005 to 2014,
      were researched by cartograms. Meanwhile, a complex network technology was
      adopted to study the spatial auto-correlation of PM2.5 emission. The results
      showed that every province in China suffered a disparate increment in PM2.5
      emission during the past ten years and also indicated that provinces in the same
      region had a huge influence on each other. There were three sectors including the
      thermal power, biomass burning and building materials that constituted the major
      sources of PM2.5 emission and they had different changing trends. There existed a
      dramatic difference in the east and west of China considering that the amount of
      PM2.5 was closely related to gross domestic product (GDP) and population. With
      higher GDP and population, eastern provinces emitted the most amount of PM2.5.
      Normalization results proposed that most of the provinces were PM2.5 exporting
      provinces in the southeast of China while most in the northwest were importing
      provinces. This study can help the policy-makers understand the distribution
      characteristics of PM2.5 emission and propose the effective strategy to mitigate
      the pollution of haze.

PMID- 28558352
TI  - Humic supramolecular structures have polar surfaces and unpolar cores in native
      soil.
AB  - It was the aim of our study to prove the hypothesis that humic substances (HS) in
      native soil are spatially arranged in descending order of polarity, meaning that
      highly polar supramolecular subunits shield less polar subunits against the free
      soil solution and form layers of descending polarity. To address this aim, we
      consecutively extracted humic substances from soil with 8 M (HS1), 4 M (HS2), 2 M
      (HS3), 1 M (HS4) and 0.5 M LiCl (HS5) solution in 0.2 M LiOH after Cu2+
      adsorption in batch soil column experiments. Adsorption was performed for 1, 10
      and 60 min with concentrations ranging from 9.5 to 110 mg L-1 Cu2+ in 0.02 M
      CaCl2 solution. We assumed that high ionic strength facilitates extraction of
      most polar organic compounds, with polarity of the extracted HS decreasing with
      decreasing ionic strength, and that Cu extracted together with the successive HS
      solely formed coordination complexes, facilitating its use as a tracer for
      organic matter studies. We hypothesized a delayed Cu adsorption on the less polar
      fractions in case of spatial shielding due to interception on overlying
      fractions, and a concurrent Cu adsorption in case of random spatial arrangement.
      It was concluded that humic substances are shielded against each other in the
      order of descending polarity of the supramolecular subunits (free soil solution |
      HS1 | HS2 | HS3 | HS4 | HS5).

PMID- 28558353
TI  - Antiangiogenic activity of PLGA-Lupeol implants for potential intravitreal
      applications.
AB  - Uncontrolled angiogenesis is directly associated with ocular diseases such as
      macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Implantable polymeric drug
      delivery systems have been proposed for intravitreal applications and in the
      present work, we evaluated the antiangiogenic potential of PLGA ocular implants
      loaded with the triterpene lupeol using in vitro and in vivo models. The
      drug/polymer physiochemical properties of the lupeol-loaded PLGA were validated
      as functionally similar using differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Interestingly,
      in an in vitro culture system, lupeol (100MUg/mL and 250MUg/mL) was capable to
      inhibited the proliferation as well as the migration of Human Umbilical Vein
      Endothelial Cells (HUVEC), without interfering in cell viability, promoting a
      significant reduction in the percentage of vessels (39.41% and 44.12%,
      respectively), compared with the control group. In vivo test, by using the
      chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model, lupeol-loaded PLGA ocular implants showed
      antiangiogenic activity comparable to the FDA-approved anti-VEGF antibody
      Bevacizumab. Overall, our results suggest lupeol-loaded PLGA ocular implants were
      able to inhibit the angiogenic process by impairing both proliferation and
      migration of endothelial cells.

PMID- 28558354
TI  - Anthocyanin-rich Riceberry bran extract attenuates gentamicin-induced
      hepatotoxicity by reducing oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in rats.
AB  - Liver plays an important role in the detoxification and metabolic elimination of
      various drugs and harmful substances. The damaging effects on the liver tissue
      treated with gentamicin are multi-factorial and their mechanisms remain unclear.
      This study aimed to investigate the possible protective effects of anthocyanin
      rich Riceberry bran extract on gentamicin-induced hepatotoxicity in rats.
      Riceberry bran extract was given by oral administration 30min before gentamicin
      injection for 15 consecutive days. Serum levels of liver marker enzymes, AST and
      ALT, were significantly elevated and the total serum protein level was markedly
      reduced in gentamicin-treated rats. Gentamicin injection led to the significant
      increase in hepatic MDA level and decrease SOD expression. Liver inflammation and
      apoptosis were observed in gentamicin-treated rats as indicated by the increases
      in NF-kappaB, TNF-alphaR1, COX2, and iNOS, caspase-3, Bax, and decrease in Bcl-XL
      expressions. Riceberry bran extract significantly prevented gentamicin-induced
      the elevations of serum AST, ALT and the reduction of serum total protein. These
      were related to the inhibition of oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in
      Riceberry bran extract treatment. These findings suggest that anthocyanin-rich
      Riceberry bran extract can prevent liver dysfunction and damage induced by
      gentamicin, possibly through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti
      apoptotic effects.

PMID- 28558356
TI  - Puerarin suppresses LPS-induced breast cancer cell migration, invasion and
      adhesion by blockage NF-kappaB and Erk pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic inflammation is a major risk factor for the development and
      metastatic progression of breast cancer. Puerarin has long been used as
      traditional Chinese medicine, which possesses manifold physiological activities,
      including anti-inflammation and anti-cancer activities. However, its anti-cancer
      metastasis activity in breast cancer cell inflammation-mediated have not been
      studied. METHODS: Cell viability was detected with Cell Counting Kit (CCK)-8.
      Transwell migration and invasion assay were performed to evaluate cell migration
      and invasion, respectively. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was
      conducted to analysis the expression of inflammatory factor. In addition, mRNA
      and protein levels of related cytokines were determined by qRT- PCR assay and
      western blot analysis, respectively. RESULTS: In this study, puerarin
      significantly inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231
      cell migration, invasion and adhesion. The mRNA and protein levels revealed that
      puerarin treatment effectively negated the expression of CCR7, CXCR4, MMP-2, MMP
      9, ICAM and VCAM in LPS- activated MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Further, the
      expression of inflammatory factor TNF-alpha and IL-6 in cell culture supernatant
      remarkably reduced. Finally, the result indicated that puerarin abrogated the NF
      kappaB activation in breast cancer cells stimulated by LPS, which is mediated
      through inhibition of phosphorylation of p65 and IkappaBalpha. Also, puerarin
      inhibited phosphorylation of Erk in breast cancer cells LPS-induced. CONCLUSIONS:
      This present study revealed that puerarin might be a novel therapeutic drug for
      breast cancer treatment.

PMID- 28558355
TI  - Apocynin prevented inflammation and oxidative stress in carbon tetra chloride
      induced hepatic dysfunction in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver fibrosis is a leading pathway to cirrhosis and a global
      clinical issue. Oxidative stress mediated tissue damage is one of the prime
      causes of hepatic dysfunction and fibrosis. Apocynin is one of many strong
      antioxidants. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of apocynin in the CCl4
      administered hepatic dysfunction in rats. METHODS: Female Long Evans rats were
      administered with CCl4 orally (1mL/kg) twice a week for 2 weeks and were treated
      with apocynin (100mg/kg). Both plasma and liver tissues were analyzed for alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase
      activities. Oxidative stress parameters were also measured by determining
      malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), myeloperoxidase (MPO), advanced protein
      oxidation product (APOP). In addition, antioxidant enzyme activities such as
      superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities in plasma and liver tissues
      were analyzed. Moreover, inflammation and tissue fibrosis were confirmed by
      histological staining of liver tissue sections. RESULTS: Apocynin significantly
      reduced serum AST, ALT, and ALP activities in carbon tetrachloride treated rats.
      It also exhibited a considerable reduction of the oxidative stress markers (MDA,
      MPO, NO, and APOP level) which was elevated due to CCl4 administration in rats.
      Apocynin treatment also restored the catalase and superoxide dismutase activity
      in CCl4 treated rats. Histological analysis of liver sections revealed that
      apocynin prevented inflammatory cells infiltration and fibrosis in CCl4
      administered rats. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that apocynin protects liver
      damage induced by CCl4 by inhibiting lipid peroxidation and stimulating the
      cellular antioxidant system.

PMID- 28558357
TI  - Long non-coding RNA HOXA11-AS functions as a competing endogenous RNA to regulate
      ROCK1 expression by sponging miR-124-3p in osteosarcoma.
AB  - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been strongly associated with various types
      of cancer. this study was to explore the critical role of lncRNA HOXA11-AS in
      osteosarcoma (OS) progression. Briefly, we should that the expression of HOXA11
      AS was upregulated in OS tissues and cell lines. The high expression of HOXA11-AS
      was associated with advanced clinical stage, distant metastasis and poor overall
      survival of OS. In addition, We found that HOXA11-AS silencing suppressed OS
      cells proliferation, invasion and induced cell arrest in G0/G1 phase.
      Furthermore, our data showed that HOXA11-AS acts as an endogenous sponge by
      directly binding miR-124-3p, and decreasing the expression of miR-124-3p.
      Moreover, we found that HOXA11-AS may regulate tumor progression by affecting miR
      124-3p targets, and ROCK1 expression. To conclude, our study helps to elucidate
      the effectiveness of HOXA11-AS promotion on OS cell proliferation and metastasis.
      A better understanding of interaction mechanism between HOXA11-AS-miR-124-3p
      ROCK1 signaling axis may be a step forward in the development of new therapeutic
      strategies for the treatment of OS.

PMID- 28558358
TI  - SCL-90-R emotional distress ratings in substance use and impulse control
      disorders: One-factor, oblique first-order, higher-order, and bi-factor models
      compared.
AB  - To fully understand the dimensionality of an instrument in a certain population,
      rival bi-factor models should be routinely examined and tested against oblique
      first-order and higher-order structures. The present study is among the very few
      studies that have carried out such a comparison in relation to the Symptom
      Checklist-90-R. In doing so, it utilized a sample comprising 2593 patients with
      substance use and impulse control disorders. The study also included a test of a
      one-dimensional model of general psychological distress. Oblique first-order
      factors were based on the original a priori 9-dimensional model advanced by
      Derogatis (1977); and on an 8-dimensional model proposed by Arrindell and Ettema
      (2003)-Agoraphobia, Anxiety, Depression, Somatization, Cognitive-performance
      deficits, Interpersonal sensitivity and mistrust, Acting-out hostility, and Sleep
      difficulties. Taking individual symptoms as input, three higher-order models were
      tested with at the second-order levels either (1) General psychological distress;
      (2) 'Panic with agoraphobia', 'Depression' and 'Extra-punitive behavior'; or (3)
      'Irritable-hostile depression' and 'Panic with agoraphobia'. In line with
      previous studies, no support was found for the one-factor model. Bi-factor models
      were found to fit the dataset best relative to the oblique first-order and higher
      order models. However, oblique first-order and higher-order factor models also
      fit the data fairly well in absolute terms. Higher-order solution (2) provided
      support for R.F. Krueger's empirical model of psychopathology which distinguishes
      between fear, distress, and externalizing factors (Krueger, 1999). The higher
      order model (3), which combines externalizing and distress factors (Irritable
      hostile depression), fit the data numerically equally well. Overall, findings
      were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that the prevalent forms of
      symptomatology addressed have both important common and unique features.
      Proposals were made to improve the Depression subscale as its scores represent
      more of a very common construct as is measured with the severity (total) scale
      than of a specific measure that purports to measure what it should assess
      symptoms of depression.

PMID- 28558359
TI  - Large-scale assessment of myxomatosis prevalence in European wild rabbits
      (Oryctolagus cuniculus) 60years after first outbreak in Spain.
AB  - Myxomatosis is a viral disease that affects European rabbits (Oryctolagus
      cuniculus) worldwide. In Spain, populations of wild rabbits drastically decreased
      in the 1950s after the first outbreak of myxomatosis. Since that first
      appearance, it seems to be an annual epizootic in Spain with periodic outbreaks,
      predominantly in summer and autumn. Taking into account rabbit population
      structure, abundance, and genetic lineage, this paper attempts to make a large
      scale characterization of myxomatosis seroprevalence based on the immune status
      of 29 rabbit populations distributed throughout Spain, where O. cuniculus
      cuniculus and O. c. algirus, the two known rabbit subspecies, naturally inhabit.
      A total of 654 samples were collected between 2003 and 2009, and seroprevalence
      of antibodies against Myxoma virus (MYXV) was determined. Overall, our results
      revealed that 53% of the rabbit samples were positive to antibodies against MYXV.
      Newborn and juvenile rabbits were the most susceptible animals to the virus, with
      19% and 16% seropositivity for newborn and juveniles, respectively, while adult
      rabbits were the most protected, with 65% of seropositive samples. This suggests
      that prevalence is negatively related to the proportion of newborn and juvenile
      rabbits in a population. Our results also showed that seroprevalence against MYXV
      tended to be higher in high-abundance populations. In contrast, no differences
      were detected in seroprevalence between rabbit subspecies. This study confirms
      that >60years since first outbreak, myxomatosis is an endemic disease in Spain.
      Based on the results, the establishment of a myxomatosis surveillance protocol is
      proposed.

PMID- 28558361
TI  - Speciation of heavy metals in different grain sizes of Jiaozhou Bay sediments:
      Bioavailability, ecological risk assessment and source analysis on a centennial
      timescale.
AB  - Heavy metal contamination is an essential indicator of environmental health. In
      this work, one sediment core was used for the analysis of the speciation of heavy
      metals (Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) in Jiaozhou Bay sediments with
      different grain sizes. The bioavailability, sources and ecological risk of heavy
      metals were also assessed on a centennial timescale. Heavy metals were enriched
      in grain sizes of < 63um and were predominantly present in residual phases.
      Moreover, the mobility sequence based on the sum of the first three phases (for
      grain sizes of < 63um) was Mn > Pb > Cd > Zn > Cu >Ni > Cr > As. Enrichment
      factors (EF) indicated that heavy metals in Jiaozhou Bay presented from no
      enrichment to minor enrichment. The potential ecological risk index (RI)
      indicated that Jiaozhou Bay had been suffering from a low ecological risk and
      presented an increasing trend since 1940s owing to the increase of anthropogenic
      activities. The source analysis indicated that natural sources were primary
      sources of heavy metals in Jiaozhou Bay and anthropogenic sources of heavy metals
      presented an increasing trend since 1940s. The principal component analysis (PCA)
      indicated that Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu and Pb were primarily derived from natural sources
      and that Zn and Cd were influenced by shipbuilding industry. Mn, Cu, Zn and Pb
      may originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources. As may be influenced
      by agricultural activities. Moreover, heavy metals in sediments of Jiaozhou Bay
      were clearly influenced by atmospheric deposition and river input.

PMID- 28558360
TI  - Transfer of lead (Pb) in the soil-plant-mealybug-ladybird beetle food chain, a
      comparison between two host plants.
AB  - Contamination of soil with heavy metals has become an issue of concern on global
      scale. This study investigates the translocation of lead (Pb) along the soil -
      plant (eggplant and tomato) - mealybug (Dysmicoccus neobrevipes) - ladybird
      beetle (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) food chain. Soil amendments used for this
      study were adjusted to 0, 25, 50 and 100mg/kg of Pb (w/w). The results revealed
      significantly higher transfer of Pb in tomato when compared to eggplant. Bio
      magnification of Pb (2-4 times) was observed for soil - root transfer whereas Pb
      was bio-minimized in later part of food chain (shoot - mealybug - ladybird
      transfer). A dose dependent increase in transfer of Pb across the multi-trophic
      food chain was observed for both host plants. A decrease in coefficients of Pb
      transfer (from root - shoot and shoot - mealybug) was observed with increase in
      Pb concentrations. Our results also showed removal of Pb from the bodies of
      ladybird beetle during metamorphosis. Further studies are required to explain the
      mechanisms or physiological pathways involved in the bio-minimization of Pb
      across the food chain.

PMID- 28558362
TI  - Node-controlled allocation of mineral elements in Poaceae.
AB  - Mineral elements taken up by the roots will be delivered to different organs and
      tissues depending on their requirements. In Poaceae, this selective distribution
      is mainly mediated in the nodes, which have highly developed and fully organized
      vascular systems. Inter-vascular transfer of mineral elements from enlarged
      vascular bundles to diffuse vascular bundles is required for their preferential
      distribution to developing tissues and reproductive organs. A number of
      transporters involved in this inter-vascular transfer processes have been
      identified mainly in rice. They are localized at the different cell layers and
      form an efficient machinery within the node. Furthermore, some these transporters
      show rapid response to the environmental changes of mineral elements at the
      protein level. In addition to the node-based transporters, distinct nodal
      structures including enlarged xylem area, folded plasma membrane of xylem
      transfer cells and presence of an apoplastic barrier are also required for the
      efficient inter-vascular transfer. Manipulation of node-based transporters will
      provide a novel breeding target to improve nutrient use efficiency, productivity,
      nutritional value and safety in cereal crops.

PMID- 28558363
TI  - Lifetime anxiety disorder and current anxiety symptoms associated with hastened
      depressive recurrence in bipolar disorder.
AB  - AIMS: To assess differential relationships between lifetime anxiety
      disorder/current anxiety symptoms and longitudinal depressive severity in bipolar
      disorder (BD). METHODS: Stanford BD Clinic outpatients enrolled during 2000-2011
      were assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD (STEP-BD)
      Affective Disorders Evaluation and followed with the STEP-BD Clinical Monitoring
      Form while receiving naturalistic treatment for up to two years. Baseline
      unfavorable illness characteristics/current mood symptoms and times to depressive
      recurrence/recovery were compared in patients with versus without lifetime
      anxiety disorder/current anxiety symptoms. RESULTS: Among 105 currently recovered
      patients, lifetime anxiety disorder was significantly associated with 10/27
      (37.0%) demographic/other unfavorable illness characteristics/current mood
      symptoms/current psychotropics, hastened depressive recurrence (driven by earlier
      onset age), and a significantly (> two-fold) higher Kaplan-Meier estimated
      depressive recurrence rate, whereas current anxiety symptoms were significantly
      associated with 10/27 (37.0%) demographic/other unfavorable illness
      characteristics/current mood symptoms/current psychotropics and hastened
      depressive recurrence (driven by lifetime anxiety disorder), but only a
      numerically higher Kaplan-Meier estimated depressive recurrence rate. In
      contrast, among 153 currently depressed patients, lifetime anxiety
      disorder/current anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated with time to
      depressive recovery or depressive recovery rate. LIMITATIONS: American tertiary
      BD clinic referral sample, open naturalistic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Research is
      needed regarding differential relationships between lifetime anxiety disorder and
      current anxiety symptoms and hastened/delayed depressive recurrence/recovery -
      specifically whether lifetime anxiety disorder versus current anxiety symptoms
      has marginally more robust association with hastened depressive recurrence, and
      whether both have marginally more robust associations with hastened depressive
      recurrence versus delayed depressive recovery, and related clinical implications.

PMID- 28558364
TI  - Structural and functional correlates of serum soluble IL-6 receptor level in
      patients with bipolar disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Inflammation is reported to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis
      of bipolar disorder (BD). Higher serum levels of soluble interleukin-6 receptor
      (sIL-6R), which forms a ligand-receptor complex with the potent proinflammatory
      cytokine IL-6, have been consistently observed in patients with BD. However, the
      effect of sIL-6R on neural structure and function remains unclear. This study
      investigated the association between serum sIL-6R levels and the structural and
      functional connectivity (FC) of the brain in patients with BD. METHODS: Seventy
      four stable patients with BD-I or BD-II were enrolled from the outpatient clinic.
      Structural and resting functional MRI and clinical evaluations were performed in
      all participants, and serum sIL-6R levels were measured. We used an automated
      surface-based method (FreeSurfer) to measure cortical thickness and a seed-based
      FC analysis to derive the FC map of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key
      region implicated in the fronto-limbic disconnection hypothesis of BD. Brain-wise
      regression analyses of cortical thickness and FC mapping on IL-6 levels were
      performed using a general linear model. RESULTS: Higher sIL-6R levels were
      associated with a thinner cortex in the right middle temporal gyrus. Furthermore,
      higher sIL-6R levels were associated with increased FC between the mPFC and
      amygdala, pallidum, putamen, and insula and decreased FC between the mPFC and
      subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and frontal pole. CONCLUSION: The results
      evidence that higher serum inflammatory marker levels are associated with a
      severer deficit in structural and connectivity abnormalities implicated in BD.

PMID- 28558365
TI  - Reward anticipation revisited- evidence from an fMRI study in euthymic bipolar I
      patients and healthy first-degree relatives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Symptomatic phases in bipolar disorder (BD) are hypothesized to
      result from a hypersensitive behavioral activation system (BAS) being sensitive
      to potential rewards. However, studies on the neuronal underpinnings of reward
      anticipation in BD are scarce with contradictory findings and possibly confounded
      by effects of dopaminergic medication, necessitating further research on
      dysfunctional motivation in BD. Moreover, its role as vulnerability marker for BD
      is unclear. METHODS: Functional imaging was conducted in 16 euthymic BD-I
      patients free from dopaminergic medication and 19 healthy first-degree relatives
      using a monetary incentive delay task and compared to parallelized control
      groups. Further, reward proneness, using the BIS/BAS questionnaire, and its
      relationship to neural reward anticipation was investigated. RESULTS: BD-I
      patients displayed greater anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity during reward
      anticipation and higher BIS total scores compared to controls, with a positive
      relationship between the two measures. There were no neural or self-report group
      differences between relatives and controls. LIMITATIONS: Due to the experimental
      design, the role of the ACC during receipt of reward remains unknown, sample
      sizes were rather small, and patients were not naive to dopaminergic drugs,
      making an exclusion of medication effects on findings impossible. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings give new insights on reward anticipation in BD. BD-I patients rated
      themselves as more risk avoidant and showed larger recruitment of the ACC rather
      than ventral striatum compared to controls during reward anticipation, possibly
      to down-regulate hyperactive limbic reward regions. This activation seems to be a
      consequence of rather than a vulnerability marker for the disorder.

PMID- 28558366
TI  - Antidepressant-induced hypomania/mania in patients with major depression:
      Evidence from the BRIDGE-II-MIX study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The issue of antidepressant-induced mood switches to hypomania,
      mania, or mixed states within the course of mayor depressive disorder (MDD) has
      been a controversial topic. The present post-hoc analysis of the BRIDGE-II-MIX
      study focuses on the clinical features of patients with history of antidepressant
      induced hypomania/mania (AIHM) in a large international sample of patients with
      major depressive episode (MDE). METHODS: 2811 subjects with major depression were
      enrolled in this multicentre cross-sectional study. Current mixed symptoms, socio
      demographic and other clinical variables were collected and compared among MDD
      AIHM, MDD and BD patients. RESULTS: 475 patients out of 2811 had history of AIHM
      (16.90%). In the MDD-AIHM group, familiarity for BD and rates of atypical
      features and comorbid anxiety, eating and borderline personality disorders were
      similar to BD and significantly more frequent compared to MDD group. MDD-AIHM
      patients had more frequently more than 3 episodes and reported higher rates of
      treatment resistance, mood lability and irritability following treatment with
      antidepressants. Frequencies of depression with mixed features and (hypo)manic
      symptoms were similar in patients of MDD-AIHM and BD groups and significantly
      higher in both groups than in MDD. LIMITATIONS: there were widely varying rates
      of hospitalized patients across countries and the participating centres were not
      randomly selected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results strongly support the DSM-5 inclusion
      of MDD patients with AIHM within the rubric of bipolar disorder. Differences with
      other MDD and BD were also observed suggesting the possibility that MDD-AIHM may
      represent a specific sub-population, particularly sensitive to exogenous input
      from antidepressants.

PMID- 28558367
TI  - [Wirksamkeit und Vertraglichkeit eines homoopathischen Komplexmittels (Sinusitis
      Hevert SL) bei akuter, unkomplizierter Rhinosinusitis: Eine multizentrische,
      randomisierte, doppelblinde, placebokontrollierte Studie an erwachsenen
      Patienten].
AB  - Hintergrund: In der vorliegenden Studie wurden die Wirksamkeit und
      Vertraglichkeit des homoopathischen Arzneimittels Sinusitis Hevert SL an
      Patienten mit akuter Rhinosinusitis untersucht. Methoden: In einer
      randomisierten, placebokontrollierten klinischen Studie wurden 314 Patienten mit
      bis zu 3 Tagen bestehenden Symptomen, leichtem bis moderatem Gesichtsschmerz und
      einem Major Rhinosinusitis Symptom Score (MRSS) >= 8 und <= 14 fur 15 Tage (Tag 0
      erster Arztbesuch plus 14 Tage Behandlung) eingeschlossen und mit Sinusitis
      Hevert SL oder Placebo behandelt. Den primaren Endpunkt bildeten die
      Responderrate im MRSS (Reduktion >= 50%) bei der Abschlussvisite sowie die Rate
      der Remissionen (komplettes Abklingen aller 5 Hauptsymptome). Sekundare
      Zielkriterien bildeten die Einschatzung der Wirksamkeit durch den Prufer (auf
      einer 4-Punkte-Skala) und der Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 20 German Adapted Version
      (SNOT-20 GAV; Selbsterhebung durch die Patienten). Ergebnisse: 314 Patienten
      wurden in die Studie eingeschlossen. Davon wurden 308 mit der Studienmedikation
      behandelt: 153 mit Sinusitis Hevert SL und 155 mit Placebo. 265 Patienten
      schlossen die Studie vollstandig und valide ab (Valid Completers). Die MRSSpat
      Responderrate aller Patienten war fur Sinusitis Hevert SL nicht signifikant
      besser (85,6% vs. 80,6%; p = 0,243), die Rate der Remissionen war mit 31,4% fur
      Sinusitis Hevert SL und 37,4% fur Placebo in beiden Gruppen nicht signifikant
      unterschiedlich (p = 0,2641). In der sekundaren Completer-Analyse zeigte sich
      eine signifikante Differenz der Responderraten von 92,1% versus 83,5% zugunsten
      von Sinusitis Hevert SL (p = 0,032). Weiter war die Zeit bis zur Verbesserung der
      Rhinorrhoe signifikant kurzer (4,0 vs. 6,0 Tage; p = 0,040). Vor allem relevante
      nasale Symptome des SNOT-20 und die Lebensqualitat verbesserten sich unter
      Behandlung mit Sinusitis Hevert SL signifikant deutlicher. Schlussfolgerungen: Es
      zeigte sich in dieser Studie bei akuter Rhinosinusitis und hoher Placebo
      Ansprechrate keine Uberlegenheit fur Sinusitis Hevert SL in der Gesamtresponder-
      und Remissionsrate. Es fand sich ein Nutzen von Sinusitis Hevert SL in der
      Auswertung der Valid Completers fur die Response sowie fur spezifische
      Verbesserungen klinisch relevanter Symptome und die Abheilungsgeschwindigkeit der
      akuten Rhinosinusitis bei guter Vertraglichkeit.

PMID- 28558368
TI  - Molecular Imaging of Inducible VEGF Expression and Tumor Progression in a Breast
      Cancer Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor derived vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can stimulate
      proliferation and migration of endothelial cells and recruit endothelial
      progenitor cells into tumors for vascular formation via a paracrine manner. Now
      increasing evidence suggests that VEGF also serves as an autocrine factor
      promoting cell survival and tumor angiogenesis. Real time visualization of VEGF
      activity in the early stages of tumor formation using molecular imaging will
      provide unprecedented insight into the biological processes of cancer. METHODS:
      The mouse breast cancer cell line 4T1 was transfected with an inducible,
      bidirectional tetracycline (Bi-Tet) promoter driving VEGF and renilla luciferase
      (Rluc). This was used to quantitatively image conditional switching of VEGF by
      bioluminescence imaging (BLI) under the control of systemic administration of
      doxycycline. Simultaneously, 4T1 cells were labelled with the double fusion
      reporter gene (Fluc-eGFP) to establish a breast cancer model. RESULTS: We found
      that inducible VEGF could promote proliferation and attenuate apoptosis due to
      oxidative stress in an autocrine manner in vitro. In vivo studies revealed that
      induction of VEGF expression during early tumor development not only dramatically
      enhanced tumor growth but also increased tumor angiogenesis as visualized by BLI.
      Finally, immunohistochemistry staining confirmed that inducing VEGF expression
      promoted cell survival and tumor neovascularization. CONCLUSION: Together the
      inducible bidirectional tetracycline (Bi-Tet) co-expression system combined with
      the dual bioluminescence imaging (BLI) system provides a platform to investigate
      a target gene's role in the pathologic process of cancer and facilitates
      noninvasive monitoring of biological responses in real time.

PMID- 28558369
TI  - Long Non-Coding RNA Expression Profiling in Obesity Mice with Folic Acid
      Supplement.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Obesity is a major contributor to the growing prevalence of
      metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. This study was designed to investigate the
      effect of folic acid (FA) on obese mice by detecting the genome-wide expression
      profile of lncRNAs and mRNAs in the heart. METHODS: Heart samples were collected
      from mice fed with standard diet (SD), high-fat diet (HFD) and high-fat diet with
      FA intake (HFDF). LncRNAs and mRNAs between HFD and HFDF group were analyzed by
      lncRNA microarray. Nine lncRNAs and mRNAs were validated using quantitative
      reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Bioinformatics
      prediction was used to investigate the potential function of these differentially
      expressed lncRNAs. Co-expresson analysis was used to determine the
      transcriptional regulatory relationship of differentially expressed lncRNAs and
      mRNAs between two groups. RESULTS: The expression of 58,952 lncRNAs and 20,145
      mRNAs in HFD and HFDF groups was profiled by using microarrays. Gene Ontology and
      pathway analyses indicated that the biological functions of differentially
      expressed mRNAs were related to inflammation, energy metabolism, and cell
      differentiation. Co-expression networks composed of lncRNAs and mRNAs were also
      constructed to investigate the potential regulatory roles of differentially
      expressed lncRNAs on mRNAs. LncRNAs, namely, NONMMUT033847, NONMMUT070811, and
      NONMMUT015327, were validated through qRT-PCR, and these lncRNAs may be important
      factors regulating inflammation, energy metabolism, and cell differentiation. The
      expression levels of Dnajb1, Egr2, Hba-a1, Il1beta, Cxcl2, and Tnfsf9 were
      significantly different between HFD and HFDF. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggested that
      FA may improve the cardiovascular function of obesity and contribute to those
      lncRNAs associated with inflammation and cell differentiation. In a nutshell, the
      present study identified a panel of lncRNAs and mRNAs that may be potential
      biomarkers or drug targets relevant to the high-fat diet related obesity.

PMID- 28558370
TI  - Genetic Polymorphisms and the Phenotypic Characterization of Individuals with
      Early Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
AB  - PURPOSE: While the importance of risk polymorphisms for the pathogenesis of age
      related macular degeneration (AMD) is well established, their impact on
      morphological and functional phenotypes is largely unclear. We aimed to
      characterize individual phenotypes in patients who were either homozygous for a
      risk allele in the CFH gene, ARMS2 gene, or both as compared to non-carriers.
      METHODS: Patients with early AMD (n = 85) were assessed during a follow-up
      examination of a prospective study (MARS) with multimodal diagnostics including
      SD-OCT and microperimetry. RESULTS: Compared to non-carriers, OCT scans revealed
      lower retinal thickness in patients homozygous for CFH or ARMS2, which was caused
      by a significantly reduced photoreceptor layer. The number and ultrastructure of
      drusen were also significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate
      that patients with risk alleles demonstrate distinct phenotypic differences of
      morphology and function as compared to non-carriers. In particular in the CFH
      group, a loss of photoreceptors occurred concomitantly with reduced retinal
      sensitivity. Further studies might help to better understand the pathophysiology.

PMID- 28558371
TI  - Early Effects of Dexamethasone Implant on Macular Morphology and Visual Function
      in Patients with Diabetic Macular Edema.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the early effects of dexamethasone implant in patients with
      diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODS: Eyes with DME were prospectively included
      in the study. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) measurement, complete
      ophthalmic evaluation, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography were
      performed at baseline and 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 60, and 90 days after
      treatment. RESULTS: Twenty-three eyes of 20 patients were included in the study.
      Mean central retinal thickness (CRT) decreased rapidly after treatment (p <
      0.0001, repeated measures ANOVA) from 511 MUm at baseline to 469 MUm after 1 day
      (p < 0.05), and 275 MUm (p < 0.01) at the end of the follow-up. BCVA gain (p <
      0.0001, repeated measures ANOVA) was on average +2 ETDRS letters at day 1 (not
      significant), +9 letters from day 28 to day 90 (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION:
      Intravitreal dexamethasone implant showed an early and fast effect in reducing
      CRT and improving BCVA in DME patients.

PMID- 28558373
TI  - Joint CHEST-SGP Congress 2017. Basel, Switzerland, 7-9 June 2017: Abstracts.

PMID- 28558374
TI  - Development of an in vitro Test Procedure to Determine the Direct Infrared A
      Protection of Sunscreens and Non-Cosmetic Samples.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Every day human skin is exposed to infrared A (IRA) radiation as part
      of the natural sun rays. As IRA radiation accounts for around one third of the
      solar radiation, it has gained great attention concerning its effects on the
      human body and skin. In the past few years it has been discussed controversially
      whether IRA radiation (of solar origin) is harmful or not. Nonetheless, there are
      several sunscreens on the German market that claim IRA protection for themselves.
      AIMS: The present study seeks to find an experimental set-up and a test procedure
      for the determination and quantification of direct IRA protection (realized via
      reflection or absorption of the IRA radiation), since to our knowledge these do
      not yet exist. METHODS: In this study we proved the usability of a set-up
      consisting of a light source, an IRA-transmissible filter system and a sensor
      unit, for the determination and quantification of the IRA protection of cosmetic
      and non-cosmetic samples. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: The applicability of the IRA
      emission of the light source, the spectral detector, transmissivity of the filter
      systems and the sample carriers could be validated. This experimental set-up can
      be used as an in vitro test procedure for the determination of direct IRA
      protection.

PMID- 28558372
TI  - Dosage Calculation for Intravenous Thrombolysis of Ischemic Stroke: To Weigh or
      to Estimate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Estimation is a widely used method of assessing the weight of
      patients with acute stroke. Because the dosage of tissue plasminogen activator
      (tPA) is weight-dependent, errors in estimation lead to incorrect dosing.
      METHODS: We installed a ground-level scale in the computed tomography (CT) suite
      of our hospital and also integrated a scale into the CT table of our Mobile
      Stroke Unit in order to prospectively assess the differences between reported,
      estimated, and measured weights of acute stroke patients. An independent rater
      asked patients to report their weight. The patients' weights were also estimated
      by the treating physician and measured with a scale. Differences between
      reported, estimated, and measured weights were analyzed statistically. RESULTS:
      For 100 consecutive patients, weighing was possible without treatment delays.
      Weights estimated by the physician diverged from measured weights by 10% or more
      for 27 patients and by 20% or more for 6 patients. Weights reported by the
      patient diverged from measured weights by 10% or more for 12 patients. Weights
      reported by the patients differed significantly less from measured weights (mean,
      4.1 +/- 3.1 kg) than did weights estimated by the physician (5.7 +/- 4.4 kg; p =
      0.003). CONCLUSION: This first prospective study of weight assessment in acute
      stroke shows that the use of an easily accessible scale makes it feasible to
      weigh patients with acute stroke without the treatment delay associated with
      additional patient transfers. Physicians' estimates of patients' weights
      demonstrated substantial aberrations from measured weights. Avoiding these
      deviations would improve the accuracy of tPA dosage.

PMID- 28558375
TI  - The Determinants of Quality of Life of Nursing Home Residents with Young-Onset
      Dementia and the Differences between Dementia Subtypes.
AB  - AIMS: The aims of this study are to (1) explore the determinants of quality of
      life (QoL) in nursing home residents with young-onset dementia (YOD), (2)
      investigate whether there are differences between dementia subtypes (Alzheimer
      dementia, vascular/mixed dementia, frontotemporal dementia, other) regarding
      these determinants, and (3) compare QoL profiles of YOD nursing home residents
      across dementia subtypes. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 207
      nursing home residents. Multilevel modeling was used to determine the
      relationships between QoL and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), dementia severity,
      psychotropic drug use (PDU), dementia subtype, age, and gender. Additional
      multilevel models were used to compare aspects of QoL between dementia subtypes.
      RESULTS: Residents' QoL was negatively associated with advanced dementia, PDU,
      and NPS. In general, the relationships between the determinants and QoL were
      similar across the dementia subtypes. Aspects of QoL differed by dementia
      subtype. Residents with frontotemporal dementia showed less negative emotions,
      accepted more help and experienced better quality of relationships with
      professional caregivers, had a more positive self-image, felt more comfortable in
      the nursing home environment, and experienced lower quality of social
      relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the high rates of NPS and PDU in YOD
      residents and their negative associations with QoL, we recommend emphasizing
      services to manage and reduce NPS and PDU in nursing home residents with YOD.
      Furthermore, our findings suggest accounting for differences in aspects of QoL by
      dementia subtype to address specific needs and thereby improve QoL.

PMID- 28558377
TI  - Addendum.

PMID- 28558376
TI  - Long-Term Outcomes of Patients with Central Precocious Puberty due to
      Hypothalamic Hamartoma after GnRHa Treatment: Anthropometric, Metabolic, and
      Reproductive Aspects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) represents the commonest cause of organic
      central precocious puberty (CPP). Follow-up of these patients in adulthood is
      scarce. OBJECTIVE: To describe the anthropometric, metabolic, and reproductive
      parameters of patients with CPP due to HH before and after treatment with
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog (GnRHa). METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective and cross-sectional study in a single tertiary center including 14
      patients (7 females) with CPP due to HH. RESULTS: The mean duration of GnRHa
      treatment was 7.7 +/- 2.4 years in boys and 7.9 +/- 2.1 years in girls. GnRHa
      treatment was interrupted at the mean chronological age (CA) of 12.1 +/- 1.1
      years in boys and 10.7 +/- 0.5 years in girls. At the last visit, the mean CA of
      the male and female patients was 21.5 +/- 3.2 and 24 +/- 3.9 years, respectively.
      Eleven of the 14 patients reached normal final height (FH) (standard deviation
      score -0.6 +/- 0.9 for males and -0.6 +/- 0.5 for females), all of them within
      the target height (TH) range. The remaining 3 patients had predicted height
      within the TH range. The mean body mass index and the percentage of body fat mass
      was significantly higher in females, with a higher prevalence of metabolic
      disorders. All patients presented normal gonadal function in adulthood, and 3
      males fathered a child. CONCLUSION: All patients with CPP due to HH reached
      normal FH or near-FH. A higher prevalence of overweight/obesity and
      hypercholesterolemia was observed in the female patients. Finally, no
      reproductive disorder was identified in both sexes, indicating that HH per se has
      no deleterious effect on the gonadotropic axis in adulthood.

PMID- 28558378
TI  - Pial Arteriovenous Fistula and Capillary Malformation-Arteriovenous Malformation
      Associated with RASA1 Mutation: 2 Pediatric Cases with Successful Surgical
      Management.
AB  - We present case reports of 2 pediatric patients who were both found to have pial
      arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) with subsequent genetic analysis revealing
      mutations in the RASA1 gene. Considering their family history of distinct
      cutaneous lesions, these mutations were likely inherited as opposed to de novo
      mutations. Patient 1 had large capillary malformations on the left side of the
      face and neck, associated with macrocephaly, and presented at the age of 32
      months with speech delay, right-sided weakness, and focal seizures involving the
      right side of the body. Patient 2 presented with proptosis at the age of 9
      months, but was otherwise neurologically intact. Given the chance for definitive
      single-stage control of vascular shunt (obviating chances for radiation exposure
      with endovascular treatment) and surgically accessible location of these
      intracranial lesions, both patients were treated with surgery with excellent
      clinical and radiological outcome. In general, given the high mortality secondary
      to severe congestive heart failure when treated conservatively, the goal of
      treatment in cortical AVF in young children, even when asymptomatic, is rapid
      control of the shunt. This was achieved successfully in our cases - both patients
      experienced significant symptomatic improvement following surgery and remained
      neurologically stable in the subsequent follow-up visits.

PMID- 28558379
TI  - SLC25A46 Mutations Associated with Autosomal Recessive Cerebellar Ataxia in North
      African Families.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias (ARCA) are a complex group of
      neurodegenerative disorders with high clinical and genetic heterogeneity. In most
      cases, the cerebellar ataxia is not pure, and complicating clinical features such
      as pyramidal signs or extraneurological features are found. OBJECTIVE: To
      identify the genetic origin of the cerebellar ataxia for 3 consanguineous North
      African families presenting with ARCA. METHODS: Genome-wide high-density SNP
      genotyping and whole-exome sequencing were performed followed by Sanger
      sequencing for mutation confirmation. RESULTS: Two variants were identified in
      SLC25A46. Mutations in this gene have been previously associated with Charcot
      Marie-Tooth type 2 and optic atrophy. While the previously reported variant
      p.Arg340Cys seems to be consistently associated with the same clinical features
      such as childhood onset, optic atrophy, gait and speech difficulties, and wasting
      of the lower limbs, the patient with the novel mutation p.Trp160Ser did not
      present with optic atrophy and his ocular abnormalities were limited to nystagmus
      and saccadic pursuit. CONCLUSION: In this study, we report a novel variant
      (p.Trp160Ser) in SLC25A46 and we broaden the phenotypic spectrum associated with
      mutations in SLC25A46.

PMID- 28558380
TI  - Circulating Tumor Cells as a Biomarker in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are valuable in both basic
      research and clinical application for cancer management. In the current study, we
      evaluated the diagnostic value of CTCs in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
      (PDAC). METHODS: In total, 143 blood samples from 95 consecutively diagnosed PDAC
      patients and 48 healthy donors were collected. Combined data from immunostaining
      of CD45, DAPI and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with chromosome 8
      centromere (CEP8) probe were used to identify CTCs. Cells with features of CD45
      /DAPI+/CEP8>2 were detected as CTCs. RESULTS: CTCs were classified as triploid,
      tetraploid and multiploid based on chromosome 8 copy number. CTC subtype
      composition was significantly different among groups. Both subtype number and
      total CTC number were significantly increased in PDAC patients, compared to
      healthy controls. Total CTC number had 75.8% sensitivity and 68.7% specificity at
      a cutoff value of 2 cells/3.2 mL. This study is the first to report that CTC
      subtype number is also useful in cancer diagnosis. Sensitivity was 53.7% and
      specificity was 85.4% at a cutoff point of 2 CTC subtypes. The diagnostic value
      of both total CTC number and CTC subtype number was a little poorer than CA199.
      CONCLUSIONS: Both CTC subtype and total CTC number may serve as potential
      biomarkers for PDAC.

PMID- 28558381
TI  - Aldolase B Overexpression is Associated with Poor Prognosis and Promotes Tumor
      Progression by Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glycolysis is considered to be the root of cancer development and
      progression, which involved a multi-step enzymatic reaction. Our study aimed at
      figuring out which glycolysis enzyme participates in the development of
      colorectal cancer and its possible mechanisms. METHODS: We firstly screened out
      Aldolase B (ALDOB) by performing qRT-PCR arrays of glycolysis-related genes in
      five paired liver metastasis and primary colorectal tissues, and further detected
      ALDOB protein with immunohistochemistry in tissue microarray (TMA) consisting of
      229 samples from stage I-III colorectal cancer patients. CRISPR-Cas9 method was
      adopted to create knock out colon cancer cell lines (LoVo and SW480) of ALDOB.
      The effect of ALDOB on cell proliferation and metastasis was examined in vitro
      using colony formation assay as well as transwell migration and invasion assay,
      respectively. RESULTS: In TMA, there was 64.6% of samples demonstrated strong
      intensity of ALDOB. High ALDOB expression were associated with poor overall
      survival and disease-free survival in both univariate and multivariate regression
      analyses (P<0.05). In vitro functional studies of CCK-8 demonstrated that
      silencing ALDOB expression significantly (P<0.05) inhibited proliferation,
      migration and invasion of colon cancer cells. Mechanically, silencing ALDOB
      activated epithelial markers and repressed mesenchymal markers, indicating
      inactivation of ALDOB may lead to inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition
      (EMT). CONCLUSION: Upregulation of ALDOB promotes colorectal cancer metastasis by
      facilitating EMT and acts as a potential prognostic factor and therapeutic target
      in colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28558382
TI  - ZNF750 Expression as a Novel Candidate Biomarker of Chemoradiosensitivity in
      Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: ZNF750, an epidermal differentiation regulator, has been suggested to
      act as a tumor suppressor of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Although
      a correlation between the epidermal differentiation gene and resistance to
      chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has been posited, no data regarding the ZNF750 status in
      ESCC have been reported. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the
      relationship between ZNF750 expression and response to CRT in ESCC. METHODS:
      Eighty-seven patients who had been pathologically diagnosed with ESCC were
      evaluated in the present study. All patients underwent neoadjuvant CRT, followed
      by curative esophagectomy. The expression of ZNF750 in pretreatment biopsy
      samples was immunohistochemically investigated and compared to the
      histopathological effectiveness of CRT in surgical specimens. RESULTS: High
      expression of ZNF750 was closely correlated with good sensitivity to CRT (p =
      0.016). A univariate analysis showed that high/intermediate expression of ZNF750
      was a significant predictive factor for good sensitivity to CRT (p = 0.006).
      High/intermediate expression of ZNF750 (30% or more) remained an independent
      predictive factor for sensitivity to CRT in a multivariate analysis (p = 0.033).
      CONCLUSIONS: ZNF750 expression predicts sensitivity to CRT and can be a biomarker
      that reliably predicts the response of ESCC to CRT.

PMID- 28558383
TI  - Successful Liver Transplantation for Transient Abnormal Myelopoiesis-Associated
      Liver Failure.
AB  - Infants with Down syndrome (DS) are at risk of developing a transient abnormal
      myelopoiesis (TAM). TAM occasionally involves liver fibrosis, which can be fatal.
      The management of liver disease in TAM has not yet been established and is mainly
      supportive. We report an infant with DS and TAM who developed end-stage liver
      failure. Liver dysfunction progressed even after blast cells disappeared from the
      circulation. He underwent a living-donor liver transplantation at 56 days of life
      without surgical complications. The explanted liver showed atrophy and severe
      fibrosis without leukemic cell infiltration. The posttransplant course was
      favorable with no hematological abnormality. He is doing well 8 months after
      transplantation. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first showing
      that liver transplantation might be a treatment option for TAM-related liver
      failure.

PMID- 28558384
TI  - Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Different Single Doses of Intravenous
      Paracetamol for Placement of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters in Preterm
      Infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The availability of a safe and effective pharmacological therapy to
      reduce procedural pain in preterm infants is limited. The effective analgesic
      single dose of intravenous paracetamol in preterm infants is unknown. Comparative
      studies on efficacy of different paracetamol doses in preterm infants are
      lacking. OBJECTIVES: To determine the analgesic effects of different single
      intravenous paracetamol doses on pain from peripherally inserted central catheter
      (PICC) placement in preterm infants. METHODS: In a blinded randomized controlled
      trial, the analgesic effects of 10-, 15-, and 20-mg/kg single-dose intravenous
      paracetamol before PICC placement were compared in neonates with a gestational
      age <32 weeks. Secondly, a separate age-matched nonrandomized control group
      receiving oral sucrose was included. Pain was assessed with the Premature Infant
      Pain Profile (PIPP) and the COMFORTneo score. Peak plasma concentrations of
      paracetamol were determined. RESULTS: A total of 60 patients were included in the
      paracetamol dose groups (median gestational age = 27.8, IQR: 25.7-29.2 weeks).
      PIPP scores were comparable: median = 8 (IQR: 6-10.5), 7 (IQR: 6-9), and 8 (IQR:
      6-10) for the 10-, 15-, and 20-mg/kg paracetamol groups, respectively (p = 0.94).
      COMFORTneo scores were not statistically different between the different
      paracetamol dose groups (p = 0.35). All randomized subjects, except for 3 who
      received 10 mg/kg of paracetamol, had peak paracetamol concentrations >9 mg/L.
      PIPP (p = 0.78) and COMFORTneo (p = 0.08) scores were also comparable between
      paracetamol- and sucrose-treated patients. CONCLUSIONS: We found no analgesic
      benefit from intravenous paracetamol studied in different single doses over
      sucrose for PICC placement in preterm infants. Paracetamol is not a suitable
      analgesic for this procedure in preterm infants.

PMID- 28558385
TI  - Risk Factors for Overall Survival Outcome in Surgically Treated Human
      Papillomavirus-Negative and Positive Patients with Oropharyngeal Cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study reports the oncological outcome of a non-selected series
      of patients with human papillomavirus(HPV)-positive and -negative oropharyngeal
      squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) preferentially managed with upfront surgery.
      METHODS: Consecutive OSCC cases (n = 378) diagnosed from 2000 to 2010 in our
      department were evaluated for risk factors, HPV association, therapy and overall
      survival (OS). HPV status was determined by combined DNA and p16 testing, and
      treatment was defined as the first course of treatment with any kind of surgery
      (upfront surgery) or primary chemoradiotherapy. OS of HPV-associated and HPV
      negative patients was compared using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox
      regression analyses. RESULTS: The majority of OSCC patients (215 of 361; 69.5%)
      received upfront surgery as first-line treatment in curative intent. The 5-year
      OS rate in patients with HPV-positive and HPV-negative tumors were 81.1 and
      39.7%, respectively. Upfront surgery in HPV-negative (p < 0.001) and HPV-positive
      patients (p = 0.05) resulted in improved OS only in advanced stages. Multivariate
      analysis for patients revealed age in HPV-associated OSCC as an independent
      predictor for improved survival, and age, performance, N status and therapy as
      independent predictors in HPV-negative OSCC. CONCLUSIONS: Non-selected OSCC
      patients amenable to curative therapy show poor 5-year OS. The benefit of upfront
      surgery remains unclear. A younger patient age was the main factor for a better
      outcome in patients with HPV-associated OSCC.

PMID- 28558391
TI  - Breaking object correspondence across saccades impairs object recognition: The
      role of color and luminance.
AB  - Rapid saccadic eye movements bring the foveal region of the eye's retina onto
      objects for high-acuity vision. Saccades change the location and resolution of
      objects' retinal images. To perceive objects as visually stable across saccades,
      correspondence between the objects before and after the saccade must be
      established. We have previously shown that breaking object correspondence across
      the saccade causes a decrement in object recognition (Poth, Herwig, & Schneider,
      2015). Color and luminance can establish object correspondence, but it is unknown
      how these surface features contribute to transsaccadic visual processing. Here,
      we investigated whether changing the surface features color-and-luminance and
      color alone across saccades impairs postsaccadic object recognition. Participants
      made saccades to peripheral objects, which either maintained or changed their
      surface features across the saccade. After the saccade, participants briefly
      viewed a letter within the saccade target object (terminated by a pattern mask).
      Postsaccadic object recognition was assessed as participants' accuracy in
      reporting the letter. Experiment A used the colors green and red with different
      luminances as surface features, Experiment B blue and yellow with approximately
      the same luminances. Changing the surface features across the saccade
      deteriorated postsaccadic object recognition in both experiments. These findings
      reveal a link between object recognition and object correspondence relying on the
      surface features colors and luminance, which is currently not addressed in
      theories of transsaccadic perception. We interpret the findings within a recent
      theory ascribing this link to visual attention (Schneider, 2013).

PMID- 28558386
TI  - Periodic Mechanical Stress INDUCES Chondrocyte Proliferation and Matrix Synthesis
      via CaMKII-Mediated Pyk2 Signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Periodic mechanical stress can promote chondrocyte proliferation
      and matrix synthesis to improve the quality of tissue-engineered cartilage.
      Although the integrin beta1-ERK1/2 signal cascade has been implicated in periodic
      mechanical stress-induced mitogenic effects in chondrocytes, the precise
      mechanisms have not been fully established. The current study was designed to
      probe the roles of CaMKII and Pyk2 signaling in periodic mechanical stress
      mediated chondrocyte proliferation and matrix synthesis. METHODS: Chondrocytes
      were subjected to periodic mechanical stress, proliferation was assessed by
      direct cell counting and CCK-8 assay; gene expressions were analyzed using
      quantitative real-time PCR, protein abundance by Western blotting. RESULTS:
      Mechanical stress, markedly enhanced the phosphorylation levels of Pyk2 at Tyr402
      and CaMKII at Thr286. Both suppression of Pyk2 with Pyk2 inhibitor PF431396 or
      Pyk2 shRNA and suppression of CaMKII with CaMKII inhibitor KN-93 or CaMKII shRNA
      blocked periodic mechanical stress-induced chondrocyte proliferation and matrix
      synthesis. Additionally, either pretreatment with KN-93 or shRNA targeted to
      CaMKII prevented the activation of ERK1/2 and Pyk2 under conditions of periodic
      mechanical stress. Interestingly, in relation to periodic mechanical stress, in
      the context of Pyk2 inhibition with PF431396 or its targeted shRNA, only the
      phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 were abrogated, while CaMKII signal activation
      was not affected. Moreover, the phosphorylation levels of CaMKII- Thr286 and Pyk2
      Tyr402 were abolished after pretreatment with blocking antibody against
      integrinbeta1 exposed to periodic mechanical stress. CONCLUSION: Our results
      collectively indicate that periodic mechanical stress promotes chondrocyte
      proliferation and matrix synthesis through the integrinbeta1-CaMKII-Pyk2-ERK1/2
      signaling cascade.

PMID- 28558393
TI  - Effect of allocentric landmarks on primate gaze behavior in a cue conflict task.
AB  - The relative contributions of egocentric versus allocentric cues on goal-directed
      behavior have been examined for reaches, but not saccades. Here, we used a cue
      conflict task to assess the effect of allocentric landmarks on gaze behavior. Two
      head-unrestrained macaques maintained central fixation while a target flashed in
      one of eight radial directions, set against a continuously present visual
      landmark (two horizontal/vertical lines spanning the visual field, intersecting
      at one of four oblique locations 11 degrees  from the target). After a 100-ms
      delay followed by a 100-ms mask, the landmark was displaced by 8 degrees  in one
      of eight radial directions. After a second delay (300-700 ms), the fixation point
      extinguished, signaling for a saccade toward the remembered target. When the
      landmark was stable, saccades showed a significant but small (mean 15%) pull
      toward the landmark intersection, and endpoint variability was significantly
      reduced. When the landmark was displaced, gaze endpoints shifted significantly,
      not toward the landmark, but partially (mean 25%) toward a virtual target
      displaced like the landmark. The landmark had a larger influence when it was
      closer to initial fixation, and when it shifted away from the target, especially
      in saccade direction. These findings suggest that internal representations of
      gaze targets are weighted between egocentric and allocentric cues, and this
      weighting is further modulated by specific spatial parameters.

PMID- 28558392
TI  - Illumination discrimination in real and simulated scenes.
AB  - Characterizing humans' ability to discriminate changes in illumination provides
      information about the visual system's representation of the distal stimulus. We
      have previously shown that humans are able to discriminate illumination changes
      and that sensitivity to such changes depends on their chromatic direction.
      Probing illumination discrimination further would be facilitated by the use of
      computer-graphics simulations, which would, in practice, enable a wider range of
      stimulus manipulations. There is no a priori guarantee, however, that results
      obtained with simulated scenes generalize to real illuminated scenes. To
      investigate this question, we measured illumination discrimination in real and
      simulated scenes that were well-matched in mean chromaticity and scene geometry.
      Illumination discrimination thresholds were essentially identical for the two
      stimulus types. As in our previous work, these thresholds varied with
      illumination change direction. We exploited the flexibility offered by the use of
      graphics simulations to investigate whether the differences across direction are
      preserved when the surfaces in the scene are varied. We show that varying the
      scene's surface ensemble in a manner that also changes mean scene chromaticity
      modulates the relative sensitivity to illumination changes along different
      chromatic directions. Thus, any characterization of sensitivity to changes in
      illumination must be defined relative to the set of surfaces in the scene.

PMID- 28558394
TI  - Disentangling vision and attention in multiple-object tracking: How crowding and
      collisions affect gaze anchoring and dual-task performance.
AB  - Previous studies of multiple-object tracking have shown that gaze behavior is
      affected by target collisions and target-distractor crowding. Therefore, in order
      to experimentally disentangle this collision-crowding confound, we examined
      events of target collisions with the bordering frame and crowding with
      distractors. We hypothesized that collisions are particularly demanding for
      covert attentional processing, whereas crowding particularly challenges
      peripheral vision. Results show that gaze is located closer to targets when they
      are crowded, as would be expected to reduce negative crowding effects by
      utilizing the higher spatial acuity of foveal vision. However, saccades, which
      interrupt visual information processing, were instead initiated as a function of
      target collisions with the bordering frame. Consequently, in a dual-task
      condition that required the detection of target changes, participants more
      frequently missed changes if they occurred in time intervals around a collision.
      Based on these results, superior performance should be expected if foveal gaze is
      optimally anchored among crowded targets and if potential target changes are
      monitored with peripheral vision. In addition to the implications for further
      laboratory research of multiple-object tracking, these findings are relevant to a
      multitude tasks that require the monitoring of several targets and the
      simultaneous detection of certain events in the visual periphery, as it is
      commonly the case, for instance, in sports.

PMID- 28558395
TI  - The perception of hazy gloss.
AB  - Most previous work on gloss perception has examined the strength and sharpness of
      specular reflections in simple bidirectional reflectance distribution functions
      (BRDFs) having a single specular component. However, BRDFs can be substantially
      more complex and it is interesting to ask how many additional perceptual
      dimensions there could be in the visual representation of surface reflectance
      qualities. To address this, we tested materials with two specular components that
      elicit an impression of hazy gloss. Stimuli were renderings of irregularly shaped
      objects under environment illumination, with either a single Ward specular BRDF
      component (Ward, 1992), or two such components, with the same total specular
      reflectance but different sharpness parameters, yielding both sharp and blurry
      highlights simultaneously. Differently shaped objects were presented side by side
      in matching, discrimination, and rating tasks. Our results show that observers
      mainly attend to the sharpest reflections in matching tasks, but they can indeed
      discriminate between single-component and two-component specular materials in
      discrimination and rating tasks. The results reveal an additional perceptual
      dimension of gloss-beyond strength and sharpness-akin to "haze gloss" (Hunter &
      Harold, 1987). However, neither the physical measurements of Hunter and Harold
      nor the kurtosis of the specular term predict perception in our tasks. We suggest
      the visual system may use a decomposition of specular reflections in the
      perception of hazy gloss, and we compare two possible candidates: a physical
      representation made of two gloss components, and an alternative representation
      made of a central gloss component and a surrounding halo component.

PMID- 28558396
TI  - [German Guideline for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis - Update on Pharmacological
      Therapies 2017].
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a severe and often fatal disease with a
      median survival of 2 - 4 years after diagnosis. Since the publication of the
      German IPF guideline in 2013 new treatment trials have been published,
      necessitating an update of the pharmacological therapy of IPF. Different from the
      previous guideline, the GRADE system was discarded and replaced by the Oxford
      evidence classification system which allows a more differentiated judgement. The
      following pharmacological therapies were rated not suitable for the treatment of
      IPF patients (recommendation A; evidence 1-b): triple therapy with prednisolone,
      azathioprine and acetyl-cysteine; imatinib; ambrisentan; bosentan; macitentan. A
      less clear but still negative recommendation (B, 1-b) was attributed to the
      treatment of IPF with the phosphodiesterase-5-inhibitor sildenafil and acetyl
      cysteine monotherapy. In contrast to the international guideline antacid therapy
      as a general treatment for IPF was rated negative, based on conflicting results
      of recent analyses (recommendation C; evidence 4). An unanimous positive
      recommendation was granted for the antifibrotic drugs nintedanib and pirfenidone
      for the treatment of IPF (A, 1-a). For some open questions in the management of
      IPF patients for which firm evidence is lacking the guideline also offers
      recommendations based on expert consensus.

PMID- 28558397
TI  - [Endobronchial Dissemination of Metastatic Melanoma without Apparent Primary
      Tumor].

PMID- 28558398
TI  - [Guidelines in Practice: The New S3 Guideline "Sleeping Disorders - Sleep-Related
      Abnormal Breathing"].
AB  - Sleep related breathing disorders include central sleep apnea (CSA), obstructive
      sleep apnea (OSA), sleep-related hypoventilation, and sleep-related hypoxia.
      These disorders are frequent and growing in clinical relevance. The related
      chapter of the S3 guideline "Non-restorative sleep/Sleep disorders", published by
      the German Sleep Society (DGSM), has recently been updated in November 2016.
      Epidemiology, diagnostics, therapeutic procedures, and classification of sleep
      related disorders have been revised. Concerning epidemiology, a considerably
      higher mortality rate among pregnant women with OSA has been emphasized. With
      regards to diagnostics, the authors point out that respiratory polygraphy may be
      sufficient in diagnosing OSA, if a typical clinical condition is given. For CSA,
      recommendations were changed to diagnose CSA with low apnea rates present.
      Significant changes for treating CSA in patients with left ventricular
      dysfunction have been introduced. In addition, there is now to be differentiated
      between sleep-related hypoventilation and sleep-related hypoxaemia. Obesity
      hypoventilation syndrome is discussed in more detail. This article sums up and
      comments on the published changes.

PMID- 28558399
TI  - [Applicability of the Therapeutic Nursing Theory in Neurological (Early-)
      Rehabilitation into Nursing Practice - A Case Study].
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of the study is to describe how the theory of therapeutic
      nursing in neurological (early) rehabilitation can be transferred into nursing
      practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The theory was developed using the method of
      grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss. Open participatory observations (n=92) and
      episodic interviews (n=10) with nursing professionals and nursing auxiliaries
      were conducted in 5 inpatient rehabilitation clinics. Data analysis was performed
      using the constant comparative method by Glaser and Strauss. RESULTS: By means of
      a case study, the applicability of the theory into nursing practice with regard
      to the following care situations is described: (1) training for personal care,
      (2) therapeutic positioning, (3) oral hygiene, (4) training of sensory-motor
      perception and (5) counseling relatives. Consequently, the categories of the
      theory: (1) nursing care, (2) observation/perception, (3) communication, (4)
      autonomy and individual needs of patients and their relatives, (5) multi
      professional team and (6) prerequisites are transferred into the case scenario.
      CONCLUSIONS: The case study demonstrates how the therapeutic nursing theory in
      neurological (early-) rehabilitation can be transferred into nursing practice and
      reveals the complexity of nursing interventions.

PMID- 28558400
TI  - Transgastric retrograde endoscopic ultrasound sampling of a mediastinal mass in a
      patient with radiation-induced trismus.

PMID- 28558401
TI  - Endoscopic full-thickness resection of a non-lifting large laterally spreading
      flat colonic polyp.

PMID- 28558402
TI  - The use of clip anchoring to ensure safe transgastric puncture during endoscopic
      ultrasound-guided transmural drainage.

PMID- 28558403
TI  - First report of successful treatment of splenic artery pseudoaneurysm with
      endoscopic ultrasound-guided coil and glue.

PMID- 28558404
TI  - A benign colorectal lesion with amorphous pit (Kudo Vn) and avascular pattern
      (Sano's 3b): differential diagnosis with deep invasive adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28558405
TI  - Endoscopic removal of an eroded magnetic sphincter augmentation device.

PMID- 28558406
TI  - West meets East: dynamic ERCP characterization of pancreaticobiliary maljunction
      without biliary dilation underlying extensive biliary tract cancer.

PMID- 28558407
TI  - Novel unroofing approach for incipient suprapapillary stone perforation causing
      papillary invagination ("the crescent sign").

PMID- 28558408
TI  - Focusing on Patient Subcategories: When Could We Expect a Suboptimal Late Result
      after Coronary Endarterectomy?

PMID- 28558409
TI  - Reply by the Authors of the Original Article.

PMID- 28558410
TI  - French comment on article Extending magnifying NBI diagnosis of intestinal
      metaplasia in the stomach: the white opaque substance marker.

PMID- 28558411
TI  - French comment on article Risk factors for inadequate bowel preparation: a
      validated predictive score.

PMID- 28558412
TI  - French comment on article Dedicated Barrett's surveillance sessions managed by
      trained endoscopists improve dysplasia detection rate.

PMID- 28558413
TI  - Treatment of newly diagnosed Neuroblastoma after the end of clinical trials.

PMID- 28558414
TI  - Cystic Fibrosis Patient's best friend? Potential Transmission of Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa from a Dog.

PMID- 28558415
TI  - Obstacles to reducing plasma levels of uremic solutes by hemodialysis.
AB  - More intensive hemodialysis has provided limited clinical benefit. The lack of
      benefit may be due in part to the failure of intensive dialysis to reduce uremic
      solute levels in plasma. Two well-described factors limiting the reduction in
      these levels are the intermittency of dialysis treatment and the distribution of
      solutes in multiple body compartments. Efforts to increase the clearance of large
      solutes and protein-bound solutes have revealed two other considerations-the
      presence of nonrenal clearance and increases in solute generation. For beta2
      microglobulin, a commonly measured large solute, nonrenal clearance limits
      reduction in its levels. For the bound solute p-cresol sulfate, an increase in
      generation appears to limit its reduction. A variety of factors likely determine
      the behavior of different solutes. More data on solute toxicity are needed as is
      better knowledge of solute kinetics. We will then be better able to design
      optimal therapeutic interventions. A combination of dialytic and nondialytic
      strategies may well be needed to reduce the plasma levels of toxic solutes and
      improve patients' health.

PMID- 28558416
TI  - Fast ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and mass
      spectrometry method for determination of tadalafil drug substance and its
      impurities.
AB  - Tadalafil is used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Its related patents
      expired in 2016, and so related generic drug production is predicted to be
      increased. This work is focused on developing a fast ultra-high-performance
      liquid chromatography with diode array detection and/or mass spectrometry
      detection for the separation and determination of tadalafil and its impurities in
      pharmaceutical samples. A modern reversed-phase stationary phase with sub-2 MUm
      particle size, Zorbax StableBond Rapid Resolution High Definition with
      octylsilane chemically bonded phase to totally porous silica particles, was used
      for the solving this problem. Column temperature was set at 40 +/- 0.1 degrees C.
      A mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and aqueous solution of 0.1% (v/v)
      trifluoroacetic acid for diode array detection detection and 0.05% (v/v) formic
      acid, both running at a flow rate of 0.62 mL/min, were used to achieve the
      required separation of all components within a 5 min run. The limit of detection
      was 3.5 MUg/L and the limit of quantification was 10.0 MUg/L for the method for
      both UV and MS detectors. Accurate mass spectra of tadalafil's related impurities
      are shown for advanced confirmation. The method is directly transferable to
      routine analysis of tadalafil in pharmaceutical and control laboratories.

PMID- 28558417
TI  - Imaging of Parathyroid Glands in End Stage Renal Disease.
AB  - Secondary hyperparathyroidism from chronic renal failure often requires a
      parathyroidectomy for correction. A successful parathyroidectomy often relies
      upon localization of all parathyroid tumors. Although most of the tumors are
      localized during a neck exploration, preoperative localization studies can help
      identify ectopic and supernumerary tumors. Three of the most common localization
      studies are radionuclide imaging, ultrasound, and CT scanning. Utility of these
      studies is strongly dependent on local institutional practice.

PMID- 28558418
TI  - Retraction statement: Mathematical-based modeling and prediction of the effect of
      external stimuli on human gait.

PMID- 28558419
TI  - Generation of recombinant bovine interferon tau in the human embryonic kidney
      cell line and its biological activity.
AB  - The objective of this study was to generate recombinant bovine interferon tau
      (rbIFNT) in mammalian hosts. The complementary DNA encoding bovine IFNT2 was
      cloned for the construction of pRcRSV-bIFNT2 expression vector. The expression
      vector was transfected to 293 cells. Transfected cells harboring expression
      vector were selected with G418. Highly expressing clonal line was adapted to
      serum-free suspension culture in a spinner flask. The recombinant protein had 24
      kDa apparent molecular mass, suggesting being expressed as a glycoprotein, and
      was purified from serum-free conditioned medium by the combination of
      Diethylaminoethanol Sepharose ion exchange and Sephacryl S-200 HR gel filtration.
      A total of 7.3 mg rbIFNT was obtained from 13.5 L conditioned medium. Generated
      rbIFNT was biologically active in terms of antiviral activity measured by the
      plaque inhibition assay with Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells and the vesicular
      stomatitis virus. The recombinant protein was also utilized for immunization to
      raise antibodies in the rabbit. The generated antibody was capable of use in both
      Western blotting and the binding assay. The results in the present study suggest
      that a certain amount of rbIFNT is raised in mammalian hosts by using
      conventional plasmid vector and its antibody provides useful tools for studies in
      the biology of bovine IFNT.

PMID- 28558420
TI  - Understanding the drivers of extensive plant damage in boreal and Arctic
      ecosystems: Insights from field surveys in the aftermath of damage.
AB  - The exact cause of population dieback in nature is often challenging to identify
      retrospectively. Plant research in northern regions has in recent decades been
      largely focussed on the opposite trend, namely increasing populations and higher
      productivity. However, a recent unexpected decline in remotely-sensed estimates
      of terrestrial Arctic primary productivity suggests that warmer northern lands do
      not necessarily result in higher productivity. As large-scale plant dieback may
      become more frequent at high northern latitudes with increasing frequency of
      extreme events, understanding the drivers of plant dieback is especially urgent.
      Here, we report on recent extensive damage to dominant, short, perennial heath
      and tundra plant populations in boreal and Arctic Norway, and assess the
      potential drivers of this damage. In the High-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, we
      recorded that 8-50% of Cassiope tetragona and Dryas octopetala shoots were dead,
      and that the ratios of dead shoots increased from 2014 to 2015. In boreal Norway,
      38-63% of Calluna vulgaris shoots were dead, while Vaccinium myrtillus had damage
      to 91% of shoots in forested sites, but was healthy in non-forested sites.
      Analyses of numerous sources of environmental information clearly point towards a
      winter climate-related reason for damage to three of these four species. In
      Svalbard, the winters of 2011/12 and 2014/15 were documented to be unusually
      severe, i.e. insulation from ambient temperature fluctuation by snow was largely
      absent, and ground-ice enforced additional stress. In boreal Norway, the 2013/14
      winter had a long period with very little snow combined with extremely low
      precipitation rates, something which resulted in frost drought of uncovered
      Calluna plants. However, extensive outbreaks of a leaf-defoliating geometrid moth
      were identified as the driver of Vaccinium mortality. These results suggest that
      weather and biotic extreme events potentially have strong impacts on the
      vegetation state of northern lands.

PMID- 28558422
TI  - Reflections on a boom: Perceptions of energy development impacts in the Bakken
      oil patch inform environmental science & policy priorities.
AB  - Ecosystems worldwide have been subject to new or intensified energy development
      facilitated by technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing,
      activity that has generated concern for air, water, biotic, and social resources.
      Application of these technologies in the development of the Bakken oil patch has
      made it one of the most productive petroleum plays in North America, causing
      unprecedented landscape industrialization of otherwise rural, agricultural
      counties in western North Dakota. The region is isolated, and development impacts
      have not been well-studied. To identify concerns of citizens of the Bakken and
      determine how research and policy might support them, we conducted a two-part
      study: First, we held focus groups with resource management and community leaders
      in three major oil-producing counties. Second, we used an outline of the major
      concerns expressed by focus group members as a survey for landowners and
      farm/ranch operators. We found little relationship between survey respondents'
      reported categorization of energy impacts and actual land area impacted,
      suggesting factors such as attitude towards development, degree of compensation,
      and level of disturbance are relevant. Landowners agreed with focus groups on the
      nature of relationships between energy companies and locals and development
      impacts on infrastructure and communities; those reporting greater impacts tended
      to agree more strongly. But many specific problems described in focus groups were
      not widely reported in the survey, suggesting energy-community relationships can
      be improved through state-level public policy and respect from energy companies
      for locals and their way of life. Consideration of these concerns in future
      energy policy-both in the Bakken and worldwide-could reduce social tension,
      lessen environmental impact, and increase overall social, economic, and
      environmental efficiency in energy development.

PMID- 28558421
TI  - Phthalate metabolites in Norwegian mothers and children: Levels, diurnal
      variation and use of personal care products.
AB  - Exposure to phthalates has been associated with reproductive and developmental
      toxicity. Data on levels of these compounds in the Norwegian population is
      limited. In this study, urine samples were collected from 48 mothers and their
      children in two counties in Norway. Eleven different phthalate metabolites
      originating from six commonly used phthalates in consumer products were
      determined. Concentrations of phthalate metabolites were significantly higher in
      children compared to mothers except for mono-ethyl phthalate (MEP). The mothers
      provided several urine samples during 24hours (h) and diurnal variation showed
      that the concentrations in the morning urine samples (24-8h) were significantly
      higher than at other time-periods for most of the phthalate metabolites.
      Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for 24-hour time-period were in the
      range of 0.49-0.81. These moderate to high ICCs indicate that one spot urine
      sample can be used to estimate the exposure to phthalates. Since a significant
      effect of time of day was observed, it is still advisable to standardize the
      collection time point to reduce the variation. For the mothers, the use of
      personal care products (PCPs) were less associated with morning urine samples
      than early day (8-12h) and evening (16-24h) urine samples. The use of perfume and
      hair products were positively associated with the urinary concentrations of low
      molecular weight phthalates. Use of shower soap and shampoo were positively
      associated with urinary concentration of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)
      metabolites. For children, face cream use was positively associated with
      phthalate metabolites in the morning samples, and hand soap use was negatively
      associated with concentration of urinary DEHP metabolites in afternoon/evening
      samples. Since different PCPs were associated with the urinary phthalate
      metabolites in different time-periods during a day, more than one spot urine
      sample might be required to study associations between urinary phthalate
      metabolites and the use of PCPs.

PMID- 28558423
TI  - Public environmental awareness of water pollution from urban growth: The case of
      Zarjub and Goharrud rivers in Rasht, Iran.
AB  - Rivers in urban areas have been associated with water quality problems because of
      the practice of discharging untreated domestic and industrial waste into the
      water bodies. However, to what extent the public can identify specific
      environmental problems and whether people are ready to cope with potential risks
      is to a great extent unknown. Public environmental awareness of factors
      underpinning the pollution of rivers and approaches for reducing it were studied
      in Rasht City of Guilan Province in northern Iran, with Zarjub and Goharrud
      rivers as a case study. Data were collected from residents on the banks of the
      studied rivers using a questionnaire. Industrial areas, hospitals, and poultry
      farms were perceived as the main factors deteriorating water pollution of Zarjub
      and Goharrud rivers in Guilan Province. The discharge of urban sewage into the
      rivers was the second most important polluting factor. Most residents on the
      banks of Zarjub and Goharrud rivers showed high interest in the conservation of
      the environment. Overall, 62.7% of the residents had moderate, 20% had high, and
      4% had very high environmental awareness. Families and mass media (TV and radio)
      were perceived of being the most important sources of information of family
      members concerning environmental awareness. According to the residents, the main
      approach for alleviating the pollution of Zarjub and Goharrud rivers were
      creating green spaces, dredging the rivers, establishing a water purifying
      system, and establishing a waste incinerator with a separation system (based on
      municipal planning). The public in the study area appeared well prepared to cope
      with the risks of water pollution, but further improving environmental awareness
      of the community can be a first step for preventing environmental degradation.
      The positive attitudes of the residents towards environmental conservation, the
      use of proper information sources, and practical training in the context of
      extension services can be effective in conserving water resources in urban areas.

PMID- 28558424
TI  - On the biophysical mechanism of sensing atmospheric discharges by living
      organisms.
AB  - Atmospheric electrical discharges during thunderstorms, and the related
      electromagnetic fields (EMFs)/waves called sferics, can be sensed by humans at
      long distances through a variety of symptoms, mainly headache, fatigue, etc. Up
      to today there is no explanation for this association. Sferics consist of
      partially polarized electromagnetic pulses with an oscillating carrier signal in
      the very low frequency (VLF) band and a pulse repetition frequency in the
      extremely low frequency (ELF) band. Their ELF intensity may reach ~5mV/m at
      global ranges, and ~0.5V/m at ~1000km from the lightning. The health symptoms
      associated with sferics are also associated with antennas of mobile telephony
      base stations and handsets, which emit radio frequency (RF) radiation pulsed on
      ELF, and expose humans at similar or stronger electric field intensities with
      sferics. According to the Ion Forced-Oscillation mechanism, polarized ELF EMFs of
      intensities down to 0.1-1mV/m are able to disrupt any living cell's
      electrochemical balance and function by irregular gating of electro-sensitive ion
      channels on the cell membranes, and thus initiate a variety of health symptoms,
      while VLF EMFs need to be thousands of times stronger in order to be able to
      initiate health effects. We examine EMFs from sferics in terms of their
      bioactivity on the basis of this mechanism. We introduce the hypothesis that
      stronger atmospheric discharges may reasonably be considered to be ~70% along a
      straight line, and thus the associated EMFs (sferics) ~70% polarized. We find
      that sferics mainly in the ELF band have adequate intensity and polarization to
      cause biological/health effects. We provide explanation for the effects of
      sferics on human/animal health on the basis of this mechanism.

PMID- 28558425
TI  - Production and consumption-based water dynamics: A longitudinal analysis for the
      EU27.
AB  - This paper investigates the relationship between economic development and water
      pressures using a global Multiregional Input-Output model (MRIO) dataset that
      takes into account the increasingly connected global supply chains underlying the
      economic systems. In particular, we analyse differences in water indicator
      outcomes by income level among European Union countries (EU27) from 1995 to 2008,
      focusing specifically on production and consumption-based water metrics for the
      member states. We use panel fixed effects regressions to study the dynamics of
      adjustment of water resources alongside controlling for individual country
      heterogeneity. Our main results indicate that the effects differ substantially
      depending on the approach used for measurement, especially when we conditioned on
      the country economic development, indicating opposite trajectories of water
      consumption and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, the
      analysis of the main components associated to water indicators highlight the role
      of water embodied in trade flows as the transmission mechanisms of the main
      effects. In particular, our estimates suggest that the growth path followed by
      the most developed areas in the EU27 is based on the externalisation of the
      environmental burden over the less developed European partners, and external
      developing countries. On the policy front, our findings call for the
      implementation of integrated water resources management, technological specific
      policies and the corresponding environmental regulation to combine the
      conservation of water ecosystems and sustainable economic growth at the national,
      supranational and global levels.

PMID- 28558426
TI  - Insights into mercury deposition and spatiotemporal variation in the glacier and
      melt water from the central Tibetan Plateau.
AB  - Long-term monitoring of global pollutant such as Mercury (Hg) in the cryosphere
      is very essential for understanding its bio-geochemical cycling and impacts in
      the pristine environment with limited emission sources. Therefore, from May 2015
      to Oct 2015, surface snow and snow-pits from Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier and glacier
      melt water were sampled along an elevation transect from 5410 to 5678m a.s.l. in
      the central Tibetan Plateau (TP). The concentration of Hg in surface snow was
      observed to be higher than that from other parts of the TP. Unlike the southern
      parts of the TP, no clear altitudinal variation was observed in the central TP.
      The peak Total Hg (HgT) concentration over the vertical profile on the snow pits
      corresponded with a distinct yellowish-brown dust layer supporting the fact that
      most of the Hg was associated with particulate matter. It was observed that only
      34% of Hg in snow was lost when the surface snow was exposed to sunlight
      indicating that the surface snow is less influenced by the post-depositional
      process. Significant diurnal variation of HgT concentration was observed in the
      river water, with highest concentration observed at 7pm when the discharge was
      highest and lowest concentration during 7-8am when the discharge was lowest. Such
      results suggest that the rate of discharge was influential in the concentration
      of HgT in the glacier fed rivers of the TP. The estimated export of HgT from
      Dongkemadi river basin is 747.43gyr-1, which is quite high compared to other
      glaciers in the TP. Therefore, the export of global contaminant Hg might play
      enhanced role in the Alpine regions as these glaciers are retreating at an
      alarming rate under global warming which may have adverse impact on the ecosystem
      and the human health of the region.

PMID- 28558427
TI  - A data-driven approach for the study of coagulation phenomena in waste lubricant
      oils and its relevance in alkaline regeneration treatments.
AB  - Coagulation phenomena can occur in certain types of waste lubricant oils (WLO)
      during regeneration processes involving alkaline treatments, causing plant
      shutdowns. In this context, this study addresses the nature of the compounds
      responsible for the coagulation phenomena after the alkaline treatment. For such,
      an empirical test was developed to assess the coagulation behaviour of WLO,
      consisting in the addition of KOH to the WLO followed by heating under stirring
      conditions. This test was performed on 133 samples and four coagulation classes
      were identified: A; B1; B2 and C. Moreover, a physicochemical characterization of
      WLO was carried out regarding viscosity at 40 degrees C, saponification number
      (SN), total acid number (TAN), surface tension, water content, elemental analysis
      and functional groups (FTIR). 56 samples of fresh lubricant oils for different
      applications were also characterized and their properties assessed and compared.
      Multivariate methods were applied to WLO to discriminate among coagulation
      classes based on FTIR spectra. It was found that coagulation classes A and B1
      exhibit statistically similar patterns for all properties determined. Spectral
      discriminating analysis did not reveal discriminant peaks for class B1 samples,
      and the presence of specific additives was pointed as the possible factor
      underlying the increase in viscosity in this oils. Class B2 presents the absence
      of additives and oxidation products as differentiating features. In addition, B2
      samples showed lower TAN SN, and lower concentration of some elements. Lubricants
      from gear or hydraulic applications can give rise to this class of WLO. Oils of
      Class C are mainly composed by synthetic ester type base oils, which hamper
      regeneration processes using alkaline pretreatments. In future studies, WLO type
      A and B1 can be classified as a single class. The coagulation phenomena
      classification becomes A - negative, B - precipitate formation and C - positive.

PMID- 28558428
TI  - Occurrence, abundance, and distribution of sulfonamide and tetracycline
      resistance genes in agricultural soils across China.
AB  - The prevalence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been
      identified as an emerging contaminant of concern and a crucial threat to public
      health worldwide. In this study, we carried out a nation-wide sampling campaign
      across China to investigate the distribution and abundances of 8 major ARGs in
      agricultural soils. The levels of sulfonamide (sul) and tetracycline (tet)
      resistance genes in China's agricultural soils ranged from 10-6-10-2 to 10-8-10-2
      gene copies/16S rRNA gene copies, respectively. Northeast China is the hot-spot
      of ARGs, likely due to long-term wastewater irrigation in the area. Redundancy
      analysis was further performed to assess the influences of environmental
      variables on ARG abundances. Sulfonamide resistance genes displayed strong
      correlations with meteorological parameters (mean annual precipitation and
      temperature), and decreased from north to south. In comparison, tetracycline
      resistance genes were more closely related to soil organic matter and pH. Co
      selection between heavy metals and ARGs was significant among Cu, Hg and
      sulfonamide resistance genes. This study highlighted the current status of ARG
      contamination and their influencing factors in China's agricultural soils.
      Findings are valuable to identify effective management options for reducing the
      release of antibiotics and control ARG spread in the agriculture sector across
      the world.

PMID- 28558429
TI  - Workplace exposure and release of ultrafine particles during atmospheric plasma
      spraying in the ceramic industry.
AB  - Atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) is a frequently used technique to produce
      enhanced-property coatings for different materials in the ceramic industry. This
      work aimed to characterise and quantify the impact of APS on workplace exposure
      to airborne particles, with a focus on ultrafine particles (UFPs, <100nm) and
      nanoparticles (<50nm). Particle number, mass concentrations, alveolar lung
      deposited surface area concentration, and size distributions, in the range 10nm
      20MUm were simultaneously monitored at the emission source, in the potential
      worker breathing zone, and in outdoor air. Different input materials (known as
      feedstock) were tested: (a) micron-sized powders, and (b) suspensions containing
      submicron- or nano-sized particles. Results evidenced significantly high UFP
      concentrations (up to 3.3*106/cm3) inside the spraying chamber, which impacted
      exposure concentrations in the worker area outside the spraying chamber (up to
      8.3*105/cm3). Environmental release of UFPs was also detected (3.9*105/cm3,
      outside the exhaust tube). Engineered nanoparticle (ENP) release to workplace air
      was also evidenced by TEM microscopy. UFP emissions were detected during the
      application of both micron-sized powder and suspensions containing submicron- or
      nano-sized particles, thus suggesting that emissions were process- (and not
      material-) dependent. An effective risk prevention protocol was implemented,
      which resulted in a reduction of UFP exposure in the worker area. These findings
      demonstrate the potential risk of occupational exposure to UFPs during
      atmospheric plasma spraying, and raise the need for further research on UFP
      formation mechanisms in high-energy industrial processes.

PMID- 28558430
TI  - Spatiotemporal characteristics of PM2.5 and PM10 at urban and corresponding
      background sites in 23 cities in China.
AB  - Air pollution episodes in China are frequent and a more comprehensive
      understanding of pollution sources and impacts is needed to design appropriate
      strategies and set emission reduction targets. This study analyzes PM2.5 and PM10
      concentrations measured in 23 cities at 178 urban sites and at 23 corresponding
      "urban contrast" sites in China with the goals of understanding spatial and
      temporal trends and quantifying the regional component of PM pollution. The
      contrast sites, located an average of 29km from cities in the upwind direction,
      are intended to represent "background" levels. Using daily measurements from
      April 2013 to March 2014, we assess compliance with air quality standards,
      PM2.5/PM10 ratios and urban "increments," defined as the increase in PM levels in
      the city compared to the contrast site. Spatial and temporal patterns at daily,
      monthly and annual levels are shown using distributions, correlations, spatial
      autocorrelation, and factor analyses. At the contrast sites, PM2.5 and PM10
      concentrations averaged 56+/-26 and 91+/-44MUgm-3, respectively, and China's
      daily and annual average air quality standards were frequently exceeded. PM2.5
      and PM10 concentrations in most cities exceeded levels at the corresponding
      contrast sites, but by an average of only 14+/-14 and 26+/-27MUgm-3,
      respectively. Seasonal changes in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations and urban
      increments were striking, e.g., levels increased 2 to 3-fold in winter at several
      sites. The significance of exurban and regional sources of PM2.5 is demonstrated
      by the small urban increments, the strong correlations across broad regions, and
      the correlation between daily levels at city and contrast sites. These sources
      will require control to achieve air quality goals, in particular, the PM10 and
      PM2.5 targets announced by the Chinese government in 2013.

PMID- 28558431
TI  - Physiological and biochemical effects of nanoparticulate copper, bulk copper,
      copper chloride, and kinetin in kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) plants.
AB  - It is essential to understand the interactions of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs)
      with additives used in agriculture and their impacts on crop plants. In this
      study, kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) plants were grown in potting soil amended
      with either nano copper (nCu), bulk copper (bCu), or copper chloride (CuCl2) at
      0, 50, and 100mg/kg, combined with 0, 10, or 100MUM of kinetin (KN). Plant
      growth, Cu, micro and macroelement concentrations, chlorophyll content, and
      enzymatic activity were examined in 55-day old plants. Results showed that root
      Cu content was at least 10-fold higher, compared to other tissues. Accumulation
      of Cu in roots was decreased by 100MUM KN up to 25%. A concentration-dependent
      increase of Cu content in leaves by Cu*KN was observed. Chlorophyll production
      was diminished by CuCl2+KN between 22 and 30%, showing a hormetic response.
      Catalase activity was repressed by 65% to 82% in bCu and CuCl2 treatments. From
      all essential elements, Ca, Mn, and P were reduced by 33% to 97% in bCu, CuCl2,
      and CuCl2+KN treatments. However, this did not impact stem elongation and tissue
      biomass that increased up to 55% under exposure to bCu and CuCl2. Our results
      demonstrate that KN combined with ionic Cu could have negative implications in
      kidney bean plants, since this combination impacted chlorophyll production and
      nutrient element accumulation.

PMID- 28558432
TI  - Bioaerosol sampling and detection methods based on molecular approaches: No pain
      no gain.
AB  - Bioaerosols are among the less studied particles in the environment. The lack of
      standardization in sampling procedures, difficulties related to the effect of
      sampling processes on the integrity of microorganisms, and challenges associated
      with the application of environmental microbiology analyses and molecular and
      culture methods frighten many young scientists. Every microorganism has its own
      particularities and acts differently when aerosolized in various conditions.
      Because the air is an extremely biologically diluted environment, it is necessary
      to concentrate its content before any analysis is performed. Challenges faced
      when applying molecular methods to air samples reveal the need for a better
      standardization of approaches for cell and nucleic acid recovery, the choice of
      genetic markers, and interpretation of data. This paper presents a few of the
      limits and difficulties tackled when molecular methods are applied to
      bioaerosols, suggests some improvements by specifying the critical stages that
      should be considered when studying the microbial ecology of bioaerosols, and
      provides thoughtful insights on how to overcome the challenges encountered.

PMID- 28558433
TI  - Testing the usefulness of 222Rn to complement conventional hydrochemical data to
      trace groundwater provenance in complex multi-layered aquifers. Application to
      the Ubeda aquifer system (Jaen, SE Spain).
AB  - The Ubeda aquifer system is a multi-layered aquifer intensively exploited for
      irrigation. It covers 1100km2 and consists of piled up sedimentary aquifer and
      aquitard layers from Triassic sandstones and clays at the bottom, to Jurassic
      carbonates (main exploited layer) in the middle, and Miocene sandstones and marls
      at the top. Flow network modification by intense exploitation and the existence
      of deep faults favour vertical mixing of waters from different layers and with
      distinct chemical composition. This induces quality loss and fosters risk of
      quantity restrictions. To support future groundwater abstraction management, a
      hydrogeochemical (major and some minor solutes) and isotopic (222Rn) study was
      performed to identify the chemical signatures of the different layers and their
      mixing proportions in mixed samples. The study of 134 groundwater samples allowed
      a preliminary identification of hydrochemical signatures and mixtures, but the
      existence of reducing conditions in the most exploited sector prevents the
      utility of sulphate as a tracer of Triassic groundwater in the Jurassic
      boreholes. The potential of 222Rn to establish isotopic signatures and to trace
      groundwater provenance in mixtures was tested. 222Rn was measured in 48 samples
      from springs and boreholes in most aquifer layers. At first, clear correlations
      were observed between 222Rn, Cl and SO4 in groundwater. Afterwards, very good
      correlations were observed between 222Rn and the chemical facies of the different
      layers established with End Member Mixing Analysis (EMMA). Using 222Rn as part of
      the signatures, EMMA helped to identify end-member samples, and to quantify the
      mixing proportions of water from the Triassic and the Deep Miocene layers in
      groundwater pumped by deep agricultural wells screened in the Jurassic. The
      incorporation of 222Rn to the study also allowed identifying the impact of
      irrigation returns through the association of moderate NO3, Cl, and Br contents
      with very low 222Rn activities.

PMID- 28558435
TI  - Tutorials and workshops.
AB  - Provides an abstract for each of the tutorial presentations and a brief
      professional biography of each presenter. The complete presentations were not
      made available for publication as part of the conference proceedings.

PMID- 28558434
TI  - Leaching of propellant compounds from munition residues may be controlled by
      sorption to nitrocellulose.
AB  - Sustainable management of military ranges requires effective assessment of
      surface mobility and leaching potential of propellant compounds (PCs). Previous
      studies have focused mostly on PCs' dissolution from fired residues and their
      sorption to soil components. This work investigated the potential role of
      nitrocellulose, a major component in propellants, in the binding of PCs to
      propellant residues. Sorption isotherms of military grade nitrocellulose for
      dissolved nitroglycerine (NG) or 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) was measured in
      batch experiments and were determined to be SNG=102.39(+/-0.05)CNG0.916(+/-0.032)
      and S2,4-DNT=103.08(+/-0.01)C2,4-DNT0.668(+/-0.010) (S and C in
      mg/kgnitrocellulose and mg/Lwat, respectively). Solid-to-water partitioning for
      NG and 2,4-DNT was 100 times greater in propellant residues than in typical
      military ranges soils. Since nitrocellulose can sorb NG and 2,4-DNT up to 23 and
      5% of its mass, respectively, it can slow down, through retarded diffusion, the
      leaching of PCs from fired residues over the typical composition ranges of common
      propellants. The slow leaching of PCs from propellant grains in column studies
      can be better interpreted by considering their sorptive interaction with
      nitrocellulose in addition to dissolution kinetics. With nitrocellulose as the
      carrying matrix, residue-bound PCs may migrate farther and persist longer in
      subsurface environment.

PMID- 28558436
TI  - Feature extraction employing fuzzy-morphological decomposition for detection and
      classification of mass on mammograms.
AB  - Mathematical Morphology is a theory of nonlinear processing extensively used in
      digital image processing. The computation effort, however, associated to
      Mathematical Morphology is usually large mainly because of high occurrence of
      conditional branches, due to use of intersection and union set operations. In
      terms of processing, it means the occurrence of maximum and minimum calculation.
      Mathematical Morphology, despite a relative large computational cost, is suitable
      to biomedical images applications, where both form and texture are essential in
      order to study anatomical deformities. We use detection and classification of
      mass in mammograms as a case study. The reason is that breast cancer is the
      leading cause of adult women by cancer worldwide. We propose a method inspired by
      series of wavelets for fuzzy-morphological decomposition in regions of interest
      on mammograms. Our decomposition employs nonlinear low-pass and high-pass filters
      based on openings and closings operations, which employ fuzzy-approximations.
      They replace conditional branches by arithmetic operators of subtraction and
      multiplication, computationally more efficient. We used 355 images of fatty
      breast tissue of IRMA database, with 233 normal instances, 66 benign, and 56
      malignant cases. Classification was performed using SVM and ELM networks with
      modified kernels, in order to optimize accuracy rates, reaching 93.18%.

PMID- 28558437
TI  - Study Break: Precision Medicine: A New Revolution in Healthcare System

PMID- 28558439
TI  - Accuracy of Soluble Endoglin for Diagnosis of Preeclampsia and its Severity
AB  - Background: The use of biomarkers for diagnosis of Preeclampsia (PE), a life
      threatening pregnancy disorder, could reduce serious complications of this
      disease. In this study, we investigated dysregulation of endoglin (Eng)
      expression and diagnostic accuracy of soluble endoglin (sEng) in PE patients.
      Methods: For this case-control study, 26 mild and 15 severe preeclamptic women
      along with 20 normotensive controls were recruited. The expression level of Eng
      (the co-receptor of TGF-beta1) was evaluated using qRT-PCR. Also, the serum
      concentration of soluble Eng and expression of membranous Eng were determined by
      ELISA and immunohistochemistry. Results: A significant up-regulation in Eng mRNA
      and sEng levels was observed in PE patients versus normal controls.
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) showed up-regulation of membranous Eng staining in
      syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast cells of PE patients. The serum levels of
      sEng were significantly increased in all patients (mild, sever, early- and late
      onset) as compared to healthy pregnant women (P?0.001). Receiver-operating
      characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that sEng had the highest accuracy
      in distinguishing PE from normal pregnancies with cut-off value of 20.4,
      sensitivity of 92.1%, specificity of 90%, and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.94
      (95% CI: 0.88-1.00). Conclusion: Our data showed that the up-regulation of Eng
      mRNA along with its membranous and soluble form in PE patients leads to defect in
      angiogenesis pathway. Also, the results of this study revealed sEng potential as
      a marker for diagnosis of PE and its severity.

PMID- 28558440
TI  - Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activities of Iranian Propolis
AB  - Background: With considering the importance of natural products for their
      remedial and therapeutic value, this research was aimed to analyze the chemical
      compositions and antimicrobial activity of four propolis samples from different
      areas of Iran (Chenaran, Taleghan, Morad Beyg, and Kalaleh) with various climates
      and flora. Methods: Ethanolic (70% EtOH) and dichlromethane (DCM) extracts of
      Iranian propolis were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
      methods, and antimicrobial activity was evaluated against Candida albicans,
      Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus using disk diffusion antimicrobial
      method. Results: The results of GC-MS analysis showed the presence of fatty
      acids, flavonoids, terpenes, aromatic-aliphatic acids, and their related esters.
      The total flavonoids in DCM extract of Chenaran, Taleghan, Morad Beyg, and
      Kalaleh propolis were pinocembrin and pinostrobin chalcone. The common phenolic
      and terpene compounds detected in all four tested EtOH extracts were P-cumaric
      acid and dimethyl -1,3,5,6-tetramethyl-[1,3-(13C2)] bicycloce [5.5.0] dodeca
      1,3,5,6,8,10-hexaene-9,10-dicarboxylate, respectively. The highest inhibitory
      diameter zone of the Iranian propolis against C. albicans, E. coli, and S. aureus
      was for DCM extract of Kalaleh propolis (13.33 mm), Morad Beyg propolis (12 mm),
      and Kalaleh (11.67 mm), respectively. Conclusion: Iranian propolis showed
      antimicrobial activities against C. albicans, E. coli, and S. aurous, perhaps due
      to the presence of flavonoids, phenolic acids, and terpenes as active components
      that can be used alone or in combination with the selected antibiotics to
      synergize antibiotic effect, as well as to prevent microbial resistance to
      available antimicrobial drugs.

PMID- 28558441
TI  - Validity of the InBody 520TM to predict metabolic rate in apparently healthy
      adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study seeks to assess the validity of the InBody 520TM
      device to predict RMR in apparently healthy adults relative to a metabolic cart
      (the standard, yet time-intensive, method for determining resting metabolic
      rate). METHODS: Twenty-six apparently healthy adults participated in the study.
      Predicted RMR (pRMR) was calculated by the InBody 520TM and measured RMR (mRMR)
      was determined by 30-minute gas analysis and ventilated hood system. Of the 78
      measurement trials conducted, 64 yielded acceptable measurement trials. RESULTS:
      A Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine the relationship
      between pRMR and mRMR (r=0.87, P<0.001). No significant difference existed
      between the pRMR (1650.89+/-295.96 kcal) and mRMR (1675.36+/-278.69 kcal) values
      (P=0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Study findings suggest that the InBody520TM provides valid
      measurements of RMR in apparently healthy adults and can be an effective and
      efficient method for collecting data in a clinical setting.

PMID- 28558442
TI  - Specific physiological and biomechanical performance in elite, sub-elite and in
      non-elite male team handball players.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Team handball is a dynamic sport game that is played professionally
      in numerous countries. However, knowledge about training and competition is based
      mostly on practical experience due to limited scientific studies. Consequently,
      the aims of our study were to compare specific physiological and biomechanical
      performance in elite, sub-elite and in non-elite male team handball players.
      METHODS: Thirty-six elite, sub-elite and non-elite male team handball players
      performed a game based performance test, upper-body and lower-body strength
      tests, 30-m sprint test, counter movement jump test and an incremental treadmill
      running test. RESULTS: Significant differences (P<0.05) were found for the peak
      oxygen uptake, heart rate, offense and defense time, jump height and ball
      velocity during the jump throw in the game based performance test, maximal oxygen
      uptake in the incremental treadmill running test as well as in maximal leg
      strength and leg explosive strength in the isometric strength test. CONCLUSIONS:
      Elite male players have an enhanced specific agility, a better throwing
      performance, a higher team handball specific oxygen uptake and higher leg
      strength compared to sub-elite and non-elite players. Based on these results we
      recommend that training in team handball should focus on game based training
      methods to improve performance in specific agility, endurance and technique.

PMID- 28558443
TI  - Effects of different durations of aerobic exercise on the cardiovascular health
      in untrained women: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Women's cardiovascular health is a hot topic. Exercise intervention
      is an effective method to improve the cardiovascular functions. The aim of this
      study was to systematically assess effects of aerobic exercise at different
      durations on the cardiovascular health of untrained women. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION:
      Published articles from January 1989 to March 2016 were identified using
      electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase and Web of Science) for
      randomized controlled trials. Weighted mean differences and 95% confidence
      intervals (CI) were calculated using fixed-effects and random-effects models.
      Meta-regression and subgroup analysis were performed to explore the possible
      heterogeneity. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Data from 26 published studies with a total of
      518 untrained women were identified. The subgroup analysis and meta-regression
      were performed according to age (under 40, and from 41 to 60 years old) and
      exercise durations. Maximal oxygen consumption significantly increased at short
      duration exercise (95% CI: -2.51 to -1.57; I2=0%) and mid-duration exercise (95%
      CI: -8.23 to -5.18; I2=0%). While HR (95% CI: 4.72 to 5.60; I2=0%) and SBP (95%
      CI: 5.55 to 7.52; I2=0%) significantly decreased at mid-duration exercise. Total
      cholesterol (N.=242, 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.16, I2=13%), HDL-C (N.=242, 95% CI: -0.11
      to -0.06, I2=11%) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (N.=238, 95% CI:
      0.07 to 0.16, I2=37%) significantly improved with short-duration, mid-duration
      and long-duration. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement of cardiovascular functions decreases
      with age in untrained women. Short-duration exercise has significant effects on
      aerobic capacity. Mid-duration exercise significantly improves on aerobic
      capacity, heart rate and systolic blood pressure. All the different durations of
      aerobic exercise improve the cholesterol metabolism.

PMID- 28558444
TI  - Blood flow patterns during incremental and steady-state aerobic exercise.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endothelial shear stress (ESS) is a physiological stimulus for
      vascular homeostasis, highly dependent on blood flow patterns. Exercise-induced
      ESS might be beneficial on vascular health. However, it is unclear what type of
      ESS aerobic exercise (AX) produces. The aims of this study are to characterize
      exercise-induced blood flow patterns during incremental and steady-state AX. We
      expect blood flow pattern during exercise will be intensity-dependent and
      bidirectional. METHODS: Six college-aged students (2 males and 4 females) were
      recruited to perform 2 exercise tests on cycle-ergometer. First, an 8-12-min
      incremental test (test 1) where oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), blood
      pressure (BP), and blood lactate (La) were measured at rest and after each 2-min
      step. Then, at least 48-hr. after the first test, a 3-step steady state exercise
      test (test 2) was performed measuring VO2, HR, BP, and La. The three steps were
      performed at the following exercise intensities according to La: 0-2 mmol/L, 2-4
      mmol/L, and 4-6 mmol/L. During both tests, blood flow patterns were determined by
      high-definition ultrasound and Doppler on the brachial artery. These measurements
      allowed to determine blood flow velocities and directions during exercise.
      RESULTS: On test 1 VO2, HR, BP, La, and antegrade blood flow velocity
      significantly increased in an intensity-dependent manner (repeated measures
      ANOVA, P<0.05). Retrograde blood flow velocity did not significantly change
      during test 1. On test 2 all the previous variables significantly increased in an
      intensity-dependent manner (repeated measures ANOVA, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These
      results support the hypothesis that exercise-induced ESS might be increased in an
      intensity-dependent way and blood flow patterns during incremental and steady
      state exercises include both antegrade and retrograde blood flows.

PMID- 28558445
TI  - The effect of beach volleyball training on muscle performance of indoor
      volleyball players.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Beach volleyball is frequently used as a conditioning activity for
      indoor volleyball players, but little information exists regarding any
      performance benefits when transitioning from sand to hard court. The present
      study examined the effect of 12 weeks beach volleyball training on muscle
      performance of indoor volleyball players. METHODS: Eleven athletes who completed
      an indoor volleyball season and were willing to train and compete at beach
      volleyball, participated in the study. Muscle endurance of knee extensors and
      plantar flexors (torque at 120 degrees .s-1 following 40 contractions), muscle
      strength of knee extensors/ flexors (60, 180, 300 degrees .s-1), dorsi/plantar
      flexors (torque at 60, 120, 180 degrees .s-1) trunk flexors (60, 90, 180 degrees
      .s-1) and power (squat [SJ] and countermovement [CMJ] jumps performed on sand and
      hard court surfaces) were assessed pre- and post-12 weeks of beach volleyball
      training. RESULTS: Knee extensors and plantar flexors endurance was higher post
      12 weeks, as less torque decrease was found after 40 contractions for both muscle
      groups at post-12-week-time points. Knee extensors strength was higher post-12
      weeks for 60 and 300 degrees .s-1, while dorsi flexors strength was higher post
      12 weeks for all speeds. SJ and CMJ vertical jump height was improved when
      measured on sand and on hard court. CONCLUSIONS: Twelve weeks of systematic
      training and competition at beach volleyball can improve muscular endurance of
      lower limbs and jumping height in indoor volleyball players. More importantly,
      these improvements are transferrable to hard court, making beach volleyball a
      very attractive alternative for conditioning indoor volleyball players during the
      off-indoor volleyball season.

PMID- 28558446
TI  - Predicting playing status in professional water polo players: analysis by gender.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, to identify the
      characteristics of water polo players that discriminate between women and men
      based on specific playing positions; and secondly to develop a predicting model
      to identify the characteristics that are best suited to a given playing position
      based on gender. METHODS: The study included 130 professional water polo players.
      Anthropometric characteristics and throwing velocity were analyzed in different
      situations: no defender or goalkeeper, goalkeeper only and the players made three
      rapid arm movements and then threw the ball at maximum speed without further
      feinting with goalkeeper. Measured variables were compared according to gender
      and player position using discriminant analysis. RESULTS: The predictive model
      accurately classifies 71.1% of the male players using three variables (arm span,
      muscle mass Lee and penalty without goalkeeper), and 64.7% of the female players
      using three variables (triceps skinfold, biceps skinfold and anteroposterior
      chest breadth). CONCLUSIONS: The anthropometric characteristics and throwing
      velocity play an important role in identifying the different specific positions
      in male and female water polo players. In female players, the variables that were
      determinant in the predictive model, were those associated with body composition.

PMID- 28558447
TI  - Physical characteristics associated with neck pain and injury in rugby union
      players.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neck pain and injury are common in rugby union. Physical
      characteristics predisposing players to neck injury are largely unknown. This
      study aimed to determine physical characteristics associated with neck pain and
      injury in rugby union players. METHODS: Semi-professional rugby union players
      (N.=142) underwent pre-season measurements including cervical active range of
      motion (AROM), strength, sensorimotor proprioception (joint position error), and
      anthropometry. A structured interview established previous neck injury history,
      current symptoms, playing position, competition level, age, and years playing
      rugby. Team physiotherapists and player telephone interviews identified players
      sustaining a neck injury during the competitive season (defined as any reported
      neck pain or neck injury). T-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests determined differences
      between neck injured and non-injured players. Logistic regression determined
      factors associated with neck injury history and incidence. RESULTS: Sixty-five
      (46%) players reported a previous neck injury; 11 (8%) sustained a neck injury
      during the competitive season. Player age (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.03-1.25, P=0.009)
      was associated with neck injury history. Pre-season lateral flexion AROM was less
      in players sustaining a neck injury or reporting neck pain during the season
      (median left 23.6 degrees , IQR 21.8-26.2 degrees ; right 27.9 degrees , 23.6
      32.5 degrees ) than in other players (left 34.8 degrees , 28.8-41.0 degrees ,
      P<0.01; right 39.1 degrees , 28.9-48.1 degrees , P=0.03). Lateral flexion AROM
      was associated with increased risk of neck pain or injury (OR 0.82, 95%CI 0.71
      0.94, P=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased cervical lateral flexion AROM may
      contribute to neck injury risk in rugby union players. However, few physical
      characteristics predicted neck injury incidence, suggesting additional factors
      should be explored to determine injury risk.

PMID- 28558448
TI  - [Transoral microsurgery for the treatment of pharyngeal and laryngeal
      malignancy].

PMID- 28558449
TI  - [Transoral radiofrequency coblation surgery for the treatment of hypopharyngeal
      carcinoma].
AB  - Objective: To explore the feasibility and effectiveness of transoral surgery
      (TOS) for the treatment of hypopharyngeal carcinoma by means of the
      radiofrequency coblation(RFC). Methods: Twenty-two patients with hypopharyngeal
      carcinoma who were treated with TOS using RFC during the years of 2010-2016 were
      enrolled. Among these patients, 15 suffered from pyriform sinus carcinoma, 4
      suffered from postcricoid carcinoma, and 3 suffered from posterior hypopharyngeal
      wall carcinoma. According to the AJCC 2002 guideline, the tumor stages were
      T1N0M0 for 3 patients, T2N0M0 for 9 patients, T1N1M0 for 1 patient, T1N2M0 for 1
      patient, T2N1M0 for 4 patients, and T2N2M0 for 4 patients respectively. All
      patients with N+ underwent concurrent neck dissection; 2 patients underwent
      concurrent prophylactic tracheotomy; 17 underwent post-operative radiotherapy for
      50-66 Gy. The follow-up time was 6-72 months with a median 35 months.Two patients
      were lost to follow-up. Results: All patients except 2 underwent the TOS
      successfully, while the two patients were treated with open approach surgery due
      to unsure safe margin. Most patients returned to oral feeding within one week.
      Among the 18 patients with complete follow up data, 3 had the local recurrence of
      the tumor (16.7%) and one died due to local recurrence, multiple primary
      esophageal carcinoma, and distant metastasis 4 years after surgery (5.6%).
      According to the Kaplan-Meier method, the 5-years local control rate and survival
      rate were 57.8% and 67.5% respectively. All patients had no disorders in speech,
      swallowing and respiration during the follow up. Conclusions: The RFC can be
      applied in TOS for the treatments of hypopharyngeal carcinoma with high cutting
      efficiency and better control of intraoperative hemorrhage, which is useful in
      lowering the operation difficulty. The oncologic results are comparable to the
      open surgery with satisfactory postoperative organ function preservation.

PMID- 28558450
TI  - [Transoral coblation-assisted endoscopic minimally invasive surgery for
      superficial tongue base tumours].
AB  - Objective: To introduce the method of transoral coblation-assisted endoscopic
      minimally invasive surgery for superficial tongue base tumour. Methods: A total
      of 15 patients treated with transoral coblation-assisted endoscopic minimally
      invasive surgery from Mar. 2006 to Aug. 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. There
      were 9 patients with malignant tumors, 6 patients with benign neoplasms. Adjuvant
      postoperative radiation therapy was applied in three cases of squamous cell
      carcinoma, neck was performed in four cases of cancer. One case of non-Hodgkin
      lymphoma received postoperative chemotherapy. Results: One case with ectopic
      thyroid gland was treated by subtotal resection and one case with squamous cell
      carcinoma changed into open surgery because of major lingual artery bleeding. The
      En bloc resection under edoscope was achieved in 92.86%(13/14)of patients.
      Fifteen cases of neoplasms were followed-up for 8-50 months(median 20 months),
      one patient with Cowden syndrome was lost to follow-up because of appendical
      carcinoid combined pulmonary metastasis, one patient with non-Hodgkin lymphoma
      died of recurrence in other head neck areas 2 years after chemotherapy.
      Conclusion: Transoral coblation-assisted endoscopic surgery can successfully
      treat for the patients with superficial tongue base tumours.

PMID- 28558451
TI  - [Treatment of glottic cancer involving the anterior commissure by transoral CO(2)
      laser surgery].
AB  - Objective: To study the clinical outcome of transoral CO(2) laser surgery for
      glottic cancer involving the anterior commissure. Methods: Thirty-two cases of
      glottic cancer involving the anterior commissure treated by transoral CO(2) laser
      surgery between March 2009 and December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Among
      these cases, 27 were T1bM0M0, 5 were T2N0M0. All cases were followed-up for more
      than 3 years. Results: All the 32 cases were successfully treated. Perioperative
      complications included injuries in the soft palate mucosa(13/32, 40.63%), loose
      incisors(3/32, 9.38%) and subcutaneous emphysema in the neck(2/32, 6.25%). During
      the follow-up period, granulation was found in all cases. Three cases had local
      recurrence. Two patients treated by a secondary transoral CO(2) laser surgery and
      the other case had total laryngectomy, all three cases were followed up for 5
      years without recurrence. Two cases had regional recurrence but no primary site
      recurrence. One patient was treated by neck dissection, and followed up for 5
      years without recurrence. The other patient died of supraclavicular and
      mediastinal lymph node metastasis and lung metastasis 40 months after operation.
      The overall 5-year survival rate was 90.6%. There was no significant difference
      in survival rate between T1bN0M0(92.6%) and T2N0M0(80.0%) (Log Rank chi(2)=0.788,
      P=0.375). The overall 5-year local regional control rate was 84.4%. In T1bN0M0
      lesions, the 5-year local regional control rate was 92.6%, which was
      significantly higher than that in T2N0M0 lesions(40.0%) (Log Rank chi(2)=9.504,
      P=0.002). Conclusion: With appropriate surgical indication, detailed preoperative
      evaluation, good surgical skill, transoral CO(2) laser surgery may achieve
      satisfactory outcome in the treatment of glottic cancer involving the anterior
      commissure.

PMID- 28558452
TI  - [Preliminary analysis of the effects of tailor-made notched music therapy on
      chronic idiopathic tinnitus].
AB  - Objective: Tailor-made notched music was applied to alleviate the symptoms of
      chronic idiopathic tinnitus and compared its effectiveness with other existing
      sound treatment of tinnitus. Methods: Subjects (n=43; ears=75 )were recruited
      during June 2015 to October 2016 from the out-patients of our hospital. These
      patients had chronic (longer than 6months) and idiopathic tinnitus, with or
      without significant sensorineural hearing loss. In the prospective design, the
      patients were randomly divided into group A (treated with tailor-made notched
      music) and group B (treated with analogous sound masking), and received the
      treatment for 3 months. The tinnitus scale, tinnitus questionnaire and
      audiological findings were evaluated before treatment, and at one month and three
      months after treatment started. Results: After onemonth of treatment, the
      effective rate between the two groups was 40.9% and 42.9%, there was no
      significant difference between the two groups (chi(2)= 0.017, P=0.897). The
      average VAS for patients in group A showed more decrease in group A than in group
      B(VAS: 1.8 vs. 0.8, the percentage : 29.5% vs. 13.6%), but there was no
      significant difference between the two groups (t=-1.450, P=0.155). After 3 months
      of treatment, the effective rates were 68.2% and 23.8%, respectively. There was
      significant difference between the two groups (chi(2)= 8.503, P=0.004). The
      difference of the VAS scores between the two groups was statistically significant
      (t=-3.263, P=0.002), and the VAS score of group A was less.After 3 months of
      treatment, there was significant decreaseinthe average tinnitus loudness for
      patients in group A(t=5.569, P<0.01), and there was no significant changein group
      B(t=-0.953, P=0.374). There was also significant decreasein the scores of
      tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) (F=7.334, P<0.05), loudness visual analog scale
      (VAS) (F=20.48, P<0.001), and the proportion of patients with moderate to severe
      tinnitus(chi(2)=11.289, P<0.05) in the group A, and there was no significant
      change in group B(F=2.198, F=0.989, chi(2)=1.651; P=0.120, P=0.378,
      P=0.438>0.05). Conclusions: Our resultssuggest that long-term normalized
      listening to tailor-made notched music, can significantly reduce the perceived
      tinnitus loudness in varying degrees and improve the quality of life of patients.
      The effects and possible mechanism of this method were discussedin this paper.

PMID- 28558453
TI  - [Effects of noise competition on monosyllabic and disyllabic word perception in
      children].
AB  - Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of
      noise competition on word perception in normal hearing (NH) children and children
      with cochlear implantation (CI). Methods: To estimate the contribution of noise
      competition on speech perception, word perception in speech-shaped noise(SSN)and
      4-talker babble noise(BN) with Mandarin Lexical Neighborhood Test were performed
      in 80 NH children and 89 children with CI. Corrected perception percentages were
      acquired in each group. Results: Both signal to noise ratio (SNR) and noise type
      influenced the word perception. In NH group, corrected percentages of disyllabic
      word perception in SSN were 24.2%, 55.9%, 77.1%, 85.1% and 88.9% at -8, -4, 0, 4
      and 8 dB SNR, corresponding corrected percentages of monosyllabic word were
      13.9%, 39.5%, 60.1%, 68.8% and 80.1%, respectively. In BN noise, corrected
      percentages of disyllabic word were 2.4%, 24.3%, 55.6%, 74.3% and 86.2%,
      corresponding monosyllabic word were 2.3%, 20.8%, 47.2%, 61.1% and 74.8%,
      respectively. In CI group, corrected percentages of dissyllabic word in SSN and
      BN at 10 dB SNR were 65.5% and 58.1%, respectively. Corresponding monosyllabic
      word were 49.0% and 41.0%. For SNR=5 dB, corrected percentages of disyllabic word
      in SSN and BN were 50.0% and 38.1%, corresponding corrected percentages of
      monosyllabic word were 40.8% and 25.1%, respectively. Analysis indicated that the
      masking effect were significantly higher in BN compared with SSN. Conclusions:
      Noise competition influence word perception performance significantly. In
      specific, the influence of noise on word perception is bigger in children with CI
      than in NH children. The masking effect is higher in BN noise when compared with
      SSN.

PMID- 28558454
TI  - [Changing analysis of allergic rhinitis inhalant allergen spectrum in Xinjiang
      region].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the aeroallergen spectrum in allergic rhinitis in
      Xinjiang area and analyze its relating factors. Methods: Skin prick test was
      carried out in 480 cases with allergic rhinitis using 20 inhaled allergens. The
      major change in recent years with allergic rhinitis and allergen distribution was
      compared.SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the data. Results: Among 480
      cases, 406 showed positive reaction. The most common allergens found in patients
      were chenopodium (61.6%) and mugwort (44.1%), followed by willow(37.7%),
      maple(37.7%), poplar(30.3%), house dust mite(30.3%), plantain(29.8%),
      acacia(25.9%), dust mite maple(25.4%), and so on. The rate of positive reaction
      to only one allergen was 9.6%, of which 21 were mite allergens. The positiverate
      to allergensin male and female were 84.2% and 85.1%, the distribution of
      allergens in both sexes did not differ(chi(2)=0.001, P=0.978). The positiverate
      to allergens in patients aged 21 to 35 years old was 88.6%, in patients aged 36
      to 54 years old was 78.4%, the difference was statistically
      significant(chi(2)=0.258, P<0.01). The positive rate to allergens in Kazakhs was
      slightly higher than that in other ethnic groups (91.7%). The positive rates to
      allergens in the Han, Uygur and other ethnic groups were 84.8%, 86.4% and 63.3%
      respectively, the difference was statistically significant(chi(2)=9.779,
      P=0.044). Seventy-five point four percent of all allergen-positive patients(306
      cases) combined with asthma. Conclusions: The major allergen with allergic
      rhinitis is chenopodium. Among them, Kazakh allergic positive rate is higher than
      other ethnic groups.

PMID- 28558455
TI  - [Effect of intranasal excision on nasal vestibular cyst under nasal endoscopy].
AB  - Objective: To observe the clinical effects of intranasal excision on nasal
      vestibular cyst under nasal endoscopy. Methods: Forty-two cases of nasal
      vestibular cyst diagnosed in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck
      Surgery, Tianjin Third Central Hospital between Feb. 2011 and Jan. 2016 were
      treated by intranasal excision under nasal endoscope. Results: All the 42
      patients were cured without any complication. The rate of complete stripping was
      78.6% (33/42), with operating time of (21.31+/-4.04) min and bleeding amount of
      (10.26+/-2.13) ml. During follow-up ranged from 6 months to 5 years, with the
      median follow-up time being 19.6 months, no post-operative recurrence and
      complication were found. Conclusion: Intranasal excision for nasal vestibular
      cyst under nasal endoscopy is an effective method, which can be widely used in
      hospitals.

PMID- 28558456
TI  - [Clinical efficacy of endoscopic nasopharyngectomy for initially diagnosed
      advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma].
AB  - Objective: To explore the clinical efficacy in patients who underwent endoscopic
      nasopharyngectomy for primary advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods:
      Forty-five patients who underwent endoscopic nasopharyngectomy for primary
      advanced NPC encountered between Aug. 2007 and Sep. 2015 were retrospectively
      reviewed. Twenty-seven patients were male (60.0%), and 18 patients were female
      (40.0%), the ratio of male to female was 3?2. The median age was 53 years old
      (ranged from 13 to 75 years old). The median onset time was 5 months (ranged from
      1 to 72 months). TNM stage: 16 cases were at stage III (35.6%), 29 at stage IV
      (64.4%); T3 16 cases (35.6%), T4 29 cases (64.4%); N0 38 cases (84.4%), N2 7
      cases (15.6%). No patients were found to have distance metastasis. All patients
      underwent endoscopic resection of lesions. Postoperatively all the patients were
      treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Using SPSS 19.0 software, Kaplan
      Meier and Log-rank test were done for the assessmen of survival rate; Cox
      proportional hazards model was used for the univariate analysis of prognostic
      factors. Results: The median follow-up was 36 months (ranged from 6 to 97
      months), with 36 cases surviving (80.0%), 9 cases died (20.0%); 15 cases relapsed
      (33.3%). The overall 1 year survival rates (SR), 3 year SR, 5 year SR was 90.6%,
      81.0%, 76.0%, respectively. The survival univariate analysis indicated the
      recurrence and metastasis were correlated with the survival (chi(2) value was
      16.644, 6.451, respectively, all P<0.05). Conclusion: The patients who undergo
      endoscopic nasopharyngectomy for primary advanced NPC have better survival rate
      with lower recurrent rate and metastatic rate.

PMID- 28558457
TI  - [Diagnostic value of enhanced CT/MRI for thyroid cartilage invasion by malignant
      tumor].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the values of enhanced CT and MRI for the diagnosis of
      thyroid cartilage invasion by laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer. Methods: One
      hundred and ninety-seven patients with primary laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer
      treated with surgery between January 2013 and December 2014 were included in this
      study. All patients underwent enhanced CT and MRI before surgery. With MRI using
      the techniques of fast recovery fast spin echo (FRFSE), spin echo echo planar
      imaging (SE-EPI) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), thyroid cartilage invasion
      was evaluated and the results of postoperative histopathological examination was
      used as a gold standard for the determination of thyroid cartilage invasion. The
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value
      of enhanced CT or MRI in detecting thyroid cartilage invasion by laryngeal and
      hypopharyngeal cancer were evaluated. Data were analyzed with SPSS17.0 software.
      Results: Among 197 patients, there were 35 cases with supraglottic laryngeal
      cancer, 92 cases with glottic laryngeal cancer, 9 cases with subglottic laryngeal
      cancer, and 61 cases with hypopharyngeal cancer. Postoperative pathologycal
      examinations showed that 63 (32.0%) of 197 patients had thyroid cartilage
      invasion by tumor. Based on TNM classification of AJCC (American Joint Commission
      for Cancer, 2010), there were 36 cases at T2 stage, 109 cases at T3 and 52 cases
      at T4; 117 cases with N0, 46 cases with N1 and 34 cases with N2. The sensitivity,
      specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of CT for
      the detection of thyroid cartilage invasion were respectively 57%, 86%, 65% and
      81%, and those of MRI were respectively 94%, 87%, 78% and 97%. Kappa values were
      0.45 for CT and 0.77 for MRI in diagnosis of thyroid cartilage invasion, with
      statistically significant difference (chi(2)=6.78, P<0.05). Conclusion: MRI
      (FRFSE and SE-EPI DWI) has more advantages than CT in the diagnosis of thyroid
      cartilage invasion by laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer.

PMID- 28558458
TI  - [Clinical characteristics in children with cleft palate associated with middle
      ear cholesteatoma].
AB  - Objective: To summarize the characteristics of children diagnosed as cleft palate
      associated with middle ear cholesteatoma. Methods: There were five middle ear
      cholesteatoma cases who had previously received cleft palate repairment surgery.
      All of the patients were followed up for 17 to 47 months. Median follow-up time
      was 31 months. Results: There were three males and two females with three to
      eleven years old , and the average of age was seven years and ten months. The
      time of cleft palate repairment surgery was from six months to four years, and
      the average age was one year and nine months. No history of grommet insertion.
      Three cases were unilateral choleateatoma (right ear in two cases and left ear in
      one case, of which two cases of contralateral ear with secretory otitis media)
      and two cases were bilateral choleateatoma. Five cases(seven ears) received
      surgeries. Radical mastoidectomy + canal wall down tympanoplasty were performed
      in three ears, in which we found stapes disappeared. Radical mastoidectomy +
      canal wall up tympanoplasty were performed in four ears, in which we found intact
      foot plate, with recurrence occurred in one case nine months after the first
      surgery. No recurrence occurred after the second canal wall down tympanoplasty.
      The postoperative average hearing thresholds of air conduction were improved in
      different degrees. Conclusions: There may be a relationship between cleft palate
      associated with middle ear cholesteatoma and no grommet insertion history. The
      incidence of bilateral cases is relatively high, and otitis media with effusion
      may occur because of poor Eustachian tube function in the unilateral cases.
      Choice of surgical methods should be decided basing on combination of decreasing
      the recrudescence and improving the hearing.

PMID- 28558459
TI  - [Clinical and pathological analyses of 154 patients with white lesion of vocal
      cord].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the clinical and pathological features and prognosis of
      white lesion of vocal cord. Methods: One hundred and fifty-four cases of white
      lesion of vocal cord from January 2009 to February 2016 were retrospectively
      analysed. All the patients had undergone the resection of white lesion of vocal
      cord resection through retaining laryngoscope under general anesthesia with the
      specimens pathologically examined. Results: There were 148 males and 6 females in
      this study. The ages ranged from 36 to 83 years, and the median age was
      54.5.There were 103(66.88%) long-term smokers, and 64(41.56%) long-term drinkers.
      Postoperative pathology showed that chronic mucosal inflammation in 19 cases
      (12.34%), squamous epithelial hyperplasia in 56 cases(36.36%), mild dysplasia in
      25 cases(16.23%), moderate dysplasia in 34 cases(22.08%), severe dysplasia in 12
      cases(7.79%), carcinoma in situ in 6 cases(3.90%), and invasive carcinoma in 2
      cases(1.30%). The recurrence rate and canceration rate of chronic mucosal
      inflammation were 0. The recurrence rate of squamous epithelial hyperplasia was
      10.71%, the canceration rate was 0.The recurrence rate of mild dysplasia was
      8.00%, the canceration rate was 0. The recurrence rate of moderate dysplasia was
      20.59%, the canceration rate was 8.82%. The recurrence rate of severe dysplasia
      was 25.00%, the canceration rate was 16.67%. Conclusions: White lesion of vocal
      cord is a predominantly male disease. Long-term smokering and drinking are one of
      common causes. The final diagnosis of white lesion of vocal cord relies on the
      pathology. Closed observation is necessary for theses dysplasia cases. The
      majority of which are benign, the operation effect is good.

PMID- 28558460
TI  - [Clinic features of laryngeal carcinosarcoma and sarcomatoid carcinoma].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the clinic feature, pathology, therapy and prognosis of
      the sarcomatoid caricinoma or carcinosarcoma of the larynx. Methods: We reviewed
      the clinical records of 7 patients with laryngeal carcinosarcoma /sarcomatoid
      caricinoma who were treated at our hospital between June 1996 and August 2016.
      All patients were men (mean age, 65.9 years; range, 52 to 94 years). Among 7
      patients, 6 had a history of smoking; 2 underwent radiotherapy; and 5 patients
      who didn't undergo radiotherapy complained of hoarseness. The glottis was the
      most frequent site of involvement. Most tumors exhibited a polypold or
      pedunculated gross morphology. Among the 5 patients who didn't undergo a
      radiotherapy, 2 were in stage I, 2 in stageII, and 1 in stage III. The other 2
      cases underwent surgeries and radiotherapy were staged. Results: All 7 patients
      received surgeries, without lymph node metastasis. All the tumors were
      pathologically carcinosarcoma/sarcomatoid carcinoma. With immunohistochemistry
      examination, Vimetin was positive in all tumors, SMA positive in 3 tumors, S-100
      positive in 1 tumors, but CD-68, HMB-45 or Myglobin was negative in all tumors.
      With follows-up from 3 months to 20 years, of 7 patients, 4 survived without
      recurrent, 1 dead, and 2 lost connection. Conclusions: Both of the carcinosarcoma
      and the sarcomatoid carcinoma of larynx contain pathologically carcinoma and
      sarcoma. Surgery is the best choice for laryngeal sarcomatoid carcinoma, and
      these patients without a undergoing radiotherapy before surgery or these with
      little sarcoma in tumors show better prognosis.

PMID- 28558461
TI  - [One case of conductive deafness caused by pulsatile tinnitus].

PMID- 28558462
TI  - [Primary intraosseous squamous cell carcinoma arising from dentigerous cyst: a
      case report].

PMID- 28558463
TI  - [Two cases of bronchogenic cyst].

PMID- 28558464
TI  - [Use of minimally invasive surgical approach in the pharyngolaryngology].

PMID- 28558465
TI  - Understanding Rate Acceleration and Stereoinduction of an Asymmetric Giese
      Reaction Mediated by a Chiral Rhodium Catalyst.
AB  - The surprising acceleration of the addition of electron-rich radicals to
      alpha,beta-unsaturated 2-acyl imidazoles by a chiral-at-metal rhodium catalyst is
      investigated. M06/Lanl2DZ (Rh),6-31G(d) calculations reproduce the observed rate
      acceleration and shed light on a catalyst design where a rigid chiral pocket with
      a steric interaction >5 A from the chiral metal center leads to the observed high
      stereoinduction. Analysis of the molecular orbitals of two key addition
      transition states emphasize the role of the catalyst as a Lewis acid without
      significant charge transfer.

PMID- 28558466
TI  - Regioselective Base-Mediated Cyclizations of Mono-N-acylpropargylguanidines.
AB  - A regioselective base-mediated cyclization of mono-N-acylpropargylguanidines is
      reported. A related Ag(I)-catalyzed hydroamination strategy was recently employed
      to yield N3-Cbz-protected ene-guanidines, which found utility in the synthesis of
      naamidine A. Herein, we report the base-catalyzed hydroamination of mono-N
      acylpropargylguanidines, which proceeds with the opposite regiochemistry to
      deliver isomerized N2-acyl-2-aminoimidazoles with broad substrate scope,
      circumventing the problematic regiospecific acylation of free 2-aminoimidazoles.

PMID- 28558467
TI  - Alginate Microcapsules Incorporating Hyaluronic Acid Recreate Closer in Vivo
      Environment for Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - The potential clinical application of alginate cell microencapsulation has
      advanced enormously during the past decade. However, the 3D environment created
      by alginate beads does not mimic the natural extracellular matrix surrounding
      cells in vivo, responsible of cell survival and functionality. As one of the most
      frequent macromolecules present in the extracellular matrix is hyaluronic acid,
      we have formed hybrid beads with alginate and hyaluronic acid recreating a closer
      in vivo cell environment. Our results show that 1% alginate-0.25% hyaluronic acid
      microcapsules retain 1.5% alginate physicochemical properties. Moreover,
      mesenchymal stem cells encapsulated in these hybrid beads show enhanced viability
      therapeutic protein release and mesenchymal stem cells' potential to
      differentiate into chondrogenic lineage. Although future studies with additional
      proteins need to be done in order to approach even more the extracellular matrix
      features, we have shown that hyaluronic acid protects alginate encapsulated
      mesenchymal stem cells by providing a niche-like environment and remaining them
      competent as a sustainable drug delivery system.

PMID- 28558468
TI  - Honeycomb Boron Allotropes with Dirac Cones: A True Analogue to Graphene.
AB  - We propose a series of planar boron allotropes with honeycomb topology and
      demonstrate that their band structures exhibit Dirac cones at the K point, the
      same as graphene. In particular, the Dirac point of one honeycomb boron sheet
      locates precisely on the Fermi level, rendering it as a topologically equivalent
      material to graphene. Its Fermi velocity (vf) is 6.05 * 105 m/s, close to that of
      graphene. Although the freestanding honeycomb B allotropes are higher in energy
      than alpha-sheet, our calculations show that a metal substrate can greatly
      stabilize these new allotropes. They are actually more stable than alpha-sheet
      sheet on the Ag(111) surface. Furthermore, we find that the honeycomb borons form
      low-energy nanoribbons that may open gaps or exhibit strong ferromagnetism at the
      two edges in contrast to the antiferromagnetic coupling of the graphene
      nanoribbon edges.

PMID- 28558469
TI  - Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by a Homogeneous Copper Catalyst Disfavors
      Single-Site Mechanisms.
AB  - Deployment of solar fuels derived from water requires robust oxygen-evolving
      catalysts made from earth abundant materials. Copper has recently received much
      attention in this regard. Mechanistic parallels between Cu and single-site
      Ru/Ir/Mn water oxidation catalysts, including intermediacy of terminal Cu
      oxo/oxyl species, are prevalent in the literature; however, intermediacy of late
      transition metal oxo species would be remarkable given the high d-electron count
      would fill antibonding orbitals, making these species high in energy. This may
      suggest alternate pathways are at work in copper-based water oxidation. This
      report characterizes a dinuclear copper water oxidation catalyst, {[(L)Cu(II)]2
      (MU-OH)2}(OTf)2 (L = Me2TMPA = bis((6-methyl-2-pyridyl)methyl)(2
      pyridylmethyl)amine) in which water oxidation proceeds with high Faradaic
      efficiency (>90%) and moderate rates (33 s-1 at ~1 V overpotential, pH 12.5). A
      large kinetic isotope effect (kH/kD = 20) suggests proton coupled electron
      transfer in the initial oxidation as the rate-determining step. This species
      partially dissociates in aqueous solution at pH 12.5 to generate a mononuclear
      {[(L)Cu(II)(OH)]}+ adduct (Keq = 0.0041). Calculations that reproduce the
      experimental findings reveal that oxidation of either the mononuclear or
      dinuclear species results in a common dinuclear intermediate, {[LCu(III)]2-(MU
      O)2}2+, which avoids formation of terminal Cu(IV)?O/Cu(III)-O* intermediates.
      Calculations further reveal that both intermolecular water nucleophilic attack
      and redox isomerization of {[LCu(III)]2-(MU-O)2}2+ are energetically accessible
      pathways for O-O bond formation. The consequences of these findings are discussed
      in relation to differences in water oxidation pathways between Cu catalysts and
      catalysts based on Ru, Ir, and Mn.

PMID- 28558470
TI  - Flexible, Ultrathin, and High-Efficiency Electromagnetic Shielding Properties of
      Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride)/Carbon Composite Films.
AB  - In this study, we fabricated conductive poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/carbon
      composites simply by dispersing multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and
      graphene nanoplatelets into a PVDF solution. The electrical conductivity and the
      electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding of the PVDF/carbon composites were
      increased by increasing the conductive carbon filler amounts. Moreover, we also
      found that the EMI shielding properties of the PVDF/CNT/graphene composites were
      higher than those of PVDF/CNT and PVDF/graphene composites. The mean EMI
      shielding values of PVDF/5 wt %-CNT, PVDF/10 wt %-graphene, and PVDF/CNT/graphene
      composite films with a thickness of 0.1 mm were 22.41, 18.70, and 27.58 dB,
      respectively. An analysis of the shielding mechanism showed that the main
      contribution to the EMI shielding came from the absorption mechanism, and that
      the EMI shielding could be tuned by controlling the films' thickness. The total
      shielding of the PVDF/CNT/graphene films increased from 21.90 to 36.46 dB as the
      thickness was increased from 0.06 mm to 0.25 mm. In particular, the PVDF/carbon
      composite films, with a thickness of 0.1 mm, achieved the highest specific
      shielding values of 1 310 dB cm2/g for the PVDF/5 wt %-CNT composite and 1 557 dB
      cm2/g for the PVDF/CNT/graphene composite, respectively. This was due to the
      ultrathin thickness. Our study provides the groundwork for an effective way to
      design flexible, ultrathin conductive polymer composite film for application in
      miniaturized electronic devices.

PMID- 28558471
TI  - Dual Recognition Element Lateral Flow Assay Toward Multiplex Strain Specific
      Influenza Virus Detection.
AB  - Different influenza virus strains have caused a number of recent outbreaks
      killing scores of people and causing significant losses in animal farming.
      Simple, rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of particular strains, such as a
      pandemic strain versus a previous seasonal influenza, plays a crucial role in the
      monitoring, controlling, and management of outbreaks. In this paper we describe a
      dual recognition element lateral flow assay (DRELFA) which pairs a nucleic acid
      aptamer with an antibody for use as a point-of-care platform which can detect
      particular strains of interest. The combination is used to overcome the
      individual limitations of antibodies' cross-reactivity and aptamers' slow binding
      kinetics. In the detection of influenza viruses, we show that DRELFA can
      discriminate a particular virus strain against others of the same subtype or
      common respiratory diseases while still exhibiting fast binding kinetic of the
      antibody-based lateral flow assay (LFA). The improvement in specificity that
      DRELFA exhibits is an advantage over the currently available antibody-based LFA
      systems for influenza viruses, which offer discrimination between influenza virus
      types and subtypes. Using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), it showed that
      the DRELFA is very effective in localizing the analyte to the test line
      (consistently over 90%) and this is crucial for the sensitivity of the device. In
      addition, color intensities of the test lines showed a good correlation between
      the DRELFA and the qRT-PCR over a 50-fold concentration range. Finally, lateral
      flow strips with a streptavidin capture test line and an anti-antibody control
      line are universally applicable to specific detection of a wide range of
      different analytes.

PMID- 28558473
TI  - Theory of Mind and Empathy in Children With ADHD.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The current study compared empathy and theory of mind (ToM) between
      children with ADHD and healthy controls, and assessed changes in ToM among
      children with ADHD following administration of methylphenidate (MPH). METHOD:
      Twenty-four children with ADHD (mean age = 10.3 years) were compared with 36
      healthy controls. All children completed the interpersonal reactivity index
      (IRI), a self-reported empathy questionnaire, and performed the "faux-pas"
      recognition task (FPR). Children with ADHD performed the task with and without
      MPH. RESULTS: Children with ADHD showed significantly lower levels of self
      reported empathy on most IRI subscales. FPR scores were significantly lower in
      children with ADHD and were improved, following the administration of MPH, to a
      level equal to that found in healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Children with ADHD
      show impaired self-reported empathy and FPR when compared with healthy controls.
      Stimulants improve FPR in children with ADHD to a level equal to that in healthy
      controls.

PMID- 28558474
TI  - Development and Testing of a Measure of Caregiver Confidence in Medical
      Sign/Symptom Management.
AB  - Evaluation of efforts to support family caregivers of people with dementia in
      their daily medical management responsibilities requires a measure of caregiver
      self-efficacy (confidence). This article describes the development and
      psychometric properties of the Caregiver Confidence in Sign/Symptom Management
      (CCSM) scale, the only available instrument in this area. Measurement development
      included literature and expert panel review, cognitive testing, and field
      testing. The CCSM is a 25-item measure (alpha = .92) composed of confidence in
      relation to 4 subscales: knowledge of signs/symptoms (alpha = .83), management of
      cognitive signs/symptoms (alpha = .85), management of medical signs/symptoms
      (alpha = .87), and general medication management/responsiveness (alpha = .85),
      all of which relate to caregiver role strain. The CCSM is a reliable and valid
      instrument to assess caregiver confidence in sign/symptom management and is
      useful to determine caregiver needs and outcomes of related interventions.
      Additionally, it furthers understanding of the role of self-efficacy in caregiver
      quality of life.

PMID- 28558475
TI  - Protective effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Pistacia vera against gentamicin
      induced nephrotoxicity in rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: Pistacia vera is a plant of the family Anacardiaceae found in Central
      and West Asia. P. vera nut (Pistachio) possess multiple pharmacological effects
      such as antimicrobial, anti-hyperlipidemia, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
      This study is designed to evaluate the protective effect of the hydroalcoholic
      extract of pistachio on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats. METHODS:
      Nephrotoxicity was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of gentamicin
      (100 mg/kg/day for 7 days). Hydroalcoholic extract of pistachio (10, 50 and 100
      mg/kg/p.o) was administered for 7 days. The nephroprotective activity was
      evaluated by determining creatinine clearance, serum creatinine, urine volume,
      urine glucose and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. The kidneys were processed
      for histopathological examinations and all specimens were examined for
      morphologic parameters involving tubular degeneration, tubular necrosis and
      tubule interstitial nephritis. RESULTS: Results showed a significant increase in
      the levels of serum creatinine, urine volume, urine glucose and BUN and decrease
      of creatinine clearance by gentamicin (GA) administration. Co-administration with
      pistachio extract showed reduction in the levels of serum creatinine, urine
      volume, urine glucose and BUN and increase of creatinine clearance in all doses
      but the most significant alteration was observed in doses of 100 mg/kg. Also, the
      nephroprotective effect of the GA was confirmed by the histological examination
      of the kidneys. CONCLUSION: The study revealed the nephroprotective effect of the
      hydroalcoholic extract of pistachio. These findings suggest that pistachio
      treatment may attenuate renal dysfunction and structural damage through the
      reduction of oxidative stress and inflammation in the kidney.

PMID- 28558477
TI  - Mitochondrial Glutathione: Regulation and Functions.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: Mitochondrial glutathione fulfills crucial roles in a number of
      processes, including iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis and peroxide
      detoxification. Recent Advances: Genetically encoded fluorescent probes for the
      glutathione redox potential (EGSH) have permitted extensive new insights into the
      regulation of mitochondrial glutathione redox homeostasis. These probes have
      revealed that the glutathione pools of the mitochondrial matrix and intermembrane
      space (IMS) are highly reduced, similar to the cytosolic glutathione pool. The
      glutathione pool of the IMS is in equilibrium with the cytosolic glutathione pool
      due to the presence of porins that allow free passage of reduced glutathione
      (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) across the outer mitochondrial membrane. In
      contrast, limited transport of glutathione across the inner mitochondrial
      membrane ensures that the matrix glutathione pool is kinetically isolated from
      the cytosol and IMS. CRITICAL ISSUES: In contrast to the situation in the
      cytosol, there appears to be extensive crosstalk between the mitochondrial
      glutathione and thioredoxin systems. Further, both systems appear to be
      intimately involved in the removal of reactive oxygen species, particularly
      hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), produced in mitochondria. However, a detailed
      understanding of these interactions remains elusive. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: We
      postulate that the application of genetically encoded sensors for glutathione in
      combination with novel H2O2 probes and conventional biochemical redox state
      assays will lead to fundamental new insights into mitochondrial redox regulation
      and reinvigorate research into the physiological relevance of mitochondrial redox
      changes. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 1162-1177.

PMID- 28558478
TI  - Bacteria on Urine Microscopy Is Not Associated with Systemic Infection in
      Patients with Obstructing Urolithiasis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Determining whether bacterial presence in urine microscopy
      represents infection is important as ureteral stent placement is indicated in
      patients with obstructing urolithiasis and infection. We aim to investigate
      whether the presence of bacteria on urine microscopy is associated with other
      markers of infection in patients with obstructing urolithiasis presenting to the
      emergency room. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study of 199 patients
      with obstructing urolithiasis and divided patients into two groups according to
      the presence of bacteria on urine microscopy. The primary outcome was serum white
      blood cell count and secondary outcomes were objective fever, subjective fever,
      tachycardia, pyuria, and final urine culture. Univariate and multivariate
      analysis were used to assess whether the presence of bacteria on microscopy was
      associated with other markers of infection. RESULTS: The study included 72
      patients in the bacteriuria group and 127 without bacteriuria. On univariate
      analysis, the presence of bacteria was not associated with leukocytosis,
      objective fever, or subjective fever, but it was associated with gender (p <
      0.001), pyuria (p < 0.001), positive nitrites (p = 0.001), positive leukocyte
      esterase (p < 0.001), and squamous epithelial cells (p = 0.002). In a multilinear
      regression model including the presence of squamous cells, age, and sex, the
      presence of bacteriuria was not related to serum white blood cell count
      (coefficient -0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI] -1.1, 0.2; p = 0.17), heart rate
      (coefficient 0.85; 95% CI -2.5, 4.2; p = 0.62), presence of subjective or
      objective fever (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 0.8, 3.1; p = 0.18), or the presence
      of squamous epithelial cells (coefficient -4.4; 95% CI -10, 1.2; p = 0.12).
      However, the presence of bacteriuria was related to only the degree of pyuria
      (coefficient 16.4; 95% CI 9.6, 23.3; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Bacteria on urine
      microscopy is not associated with other markers of systemic infection and may
      largely represent a contaminant. Renal colic may be a risk factor for providing a
      contaminated urine specimen.

PMID- 28558476
TI  - Evaluation of Touchscreen Chambers To Assess Cognition in Adult Mice: Effect of
      Training and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Cognitive impairments are often experienced after a mild traumatic brain injury
      (mTBI). In the clinical arena, neuropsychological assessments are used frequently
      to detect cognitive deficits. Animal models of mTBI, however, rely on an
      assortment of behavioral tasks to assess cognitive outcome. Computer-based
      touchscreen systems have been developed for rodents and are hypothesized to offer
      a translational approach to evaluate cognitive function because of the
      similarities of tasks performed in rodents to those implemented in humans. While
      these touchscreen systems have been used in pre-clinical models of
      neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders, their use in assessing
      cognitive impairment after mTBI has not been investigated. We hypothesized that
      mTBI would result in impaired cognitive performance on touchscreen tasks,
      particularly those with hippocampal-based learning components, including the
      paired associate learning (PAL) task and the location discrimination (LD) task.
      Adult male, C57BL/6 mice received a single impact-acceleration mTBI. We found
      that training mice before injury to perform to criteria is arduous and that
      performance is sensitive to many environmental variables. Despite extensive
      optimization and training, mice failed to perform better than chance in the PAL
      paradigm. Alternatively, mice demonstrated some capacity to learn in the LD
      paradigm, but only with the easier stages of the task. The mTBI did not affect
      performance in the LD paradigm, however. Thus, we concluded that under the
      conditions presented here, the PAL and LD touchscreen tasks are not robust
      outcome measures for the evaluation of cognitive performance in C57BL/6 mice
      after a single impact-acceleration mTBI.

PMID- 28558479
TI  - Mechanisms of Mitochondrial Redox Signaling in Psychosocial Stress-Responsive
      Systems: New Insights into an Old Story.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: Psychosocial stress is associated with alterations in serum
      glucocorticoids and cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1beta, which
      functionally interact. However, the molecular mechanisms and physiological
      relationship between the two systems within the context of stress exposure are
      not well characterized. Recent Advances: Extracellular IL-6, which stimulates the
      release of cortisol from the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex, mediates its
      intracellular effects by tyrosine phosphorylation of the transcription factor
      signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Mitochondrial
      electron transfer reactions are involved in both STAT3-driven ATP production in
      oxidative respiration and adrenocortical steroid biosynthesis. CRITICAL ISSUES:
      The role of STAT3 in oxidative respiration and steroidogenesis suggests that it
      integrates both nuclear and mitochondrial actions, thereby preserving main steps
      of glucocorticoid biosynthesis in the adrenal gland under psychosocial stress.
      This review discusses the notion that these two pathways are together
      simultaneously involved in protection against chronic stressors. FUTURE
      DIRECTIONS: Linking the function of cytokines and main components of the
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to molecular mechanisms of
      mitochondrial redox signaling will be essential for a better understanding of the
      relevant stress-responsive systems engaged in stress vulnerability. Antioxid.
      Redox Signal. 28, 760-772.

PMID- 28558480
TI  - Anorexia Nervosa and Functional Motor Symptoms: Two Faces of the Same Coin?
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare anorexia nervosa (AN) patients and
      functional motor symptoms (FMS) patients by assessing their variability in
      demographic and clinical characteristics, risk factors, precipitators, and family
      history. The authors assessed levels of depression and anxiety, alexithymia,
      dissociation, body awareness, self-objectification, and interoception in the two
      groups, using 20 healthy controls (HCs) as a control group for psychometric
      assessment and for interoception. Unexpectedly, no differences in the three
      groups were observed for the measures related to awareness of physical state,
      including body awareness, self-objectification, and interoceptive ability via the
      heartbeat task. However, the AN and FMS groups were not different from each other
      but were different from the HC group with regard to anxiety, depression,
      alexithymia, and dissociation. In light of the similarities found, these data
      support the hypothesis of a common etiology involving emotional dysfunction in
      both disorders. These findings suggest that AN and FMS may be disorders belonging
      to the same spectrum (where emotional dysregulation is a key feature) and that
      there exist potential opportunities for collaborative, integrated investigations
      of etiology, diagnosis, and management of these disorders.

PMID- 28558482
TI  - Low-Frequency rTMS Ameliorates Akathisia During Pregnancy.

PMID- 28558481
TI  - Correlates and Prevalence of Aggression at Six Months and One Year After First
      Time Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Few studies have examined clinical correlates of aggression after first-time
      traumatic brain injury (TBI) within the first year after injury. The authors
      aimed to identify the rates of aggression at 6 and 12 months post-TBI and
      establish clinical and demographic correlates. A total of 103 subjects with first
      time TBI were seen within 12 months postinjury and evaluated for aggression. Post
      TBI social functioning and new-onset depression (within 3 months of the TBI) may
      serve as particularly important predictors for aggression within the first year
      of TBI, as these factors may afford intervention and subsequent decreased risk of
      aggression.

PMID- 28558483
TI  - Hydrogen Sulfide and Polysulfide Signaling.
AB  - Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been demonstrated to have physiological roles such as
      neuromodulation, vascular tone regulation, cytoprotection, oxygen sensing,
      inflammatory regulation, and cell growth. Recently, hydrogen polysulfides (H2Sn)
      have been found to be produced by 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase and to
      regulate the activity of ion channels, tumor suppressers, and protein kinases.
      Furthermore, some of the effects previously reported to be mediated by H2S are
      now ascribed to H2Sn. Cysteine persulfide and cysteine polysulfide may also be
      involved in cellular redox regulation. The chemical interaction between H2S and
      nitric oxide (NO) can also produce H2Sn, nitroxyl, and nitrosopersulfide,
      suggesting their involvement in the reactions previously thought to be mediated
      by NO alone. This Forum focuses on and critically discusses the recent progress
      in the study of H2Sn, H2S, and NO as well as other per- or polysulfide species.
      Antioxid. Redox Signal. 00, 000-000.

PMID- 28558484
TI  - Confidence of IRB/REC Members in Their Assessments of Human Research Risk: A
      Study of IRB/REC Decision Making in Action.
AB  - Understanding how institutional review boards/research ethics committees
      (IRBs/RECs) perform risk/benefit assessment is important to help improve their
      function. In environmental ethics, uncertainty about potential outcomes and the
      precautionary principle play important roles in regulatory oversight but have
      received little attention in the context of human research ethics. We carried out
      an empirical study to gain insight into uncertainty by asking IRB/REC members
      about confidence in their risk assessments immediately after discussion of new
      protocols under review. Based on 12 meetings carried out by four IRBs/RECs over a
      6-month period, we found a robust, inverse relationship between risk and
      confidence. As risk increased, confidence decreased. We detected different
      patterns of consensus between different IRBs/RECs and their members. Our study
      introduces a novel and relatively easy to implement approach to begin to
      understand IRB/REC decision making in real time that can be used within or across
      institutions.

PMID- 28558485
TI  - Intravenous alprostadil treatment compared to oral pentoxifylline treatment in
      outpatients with intermittent claudication - results of a randomised clinical
      trial.

PMID- 28558486
TI  - A Higher Ratio of Estradiol to Testosterone Is Associated with Autoimmune Thyroid
      Disease in Males.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is highly prevalent. Although AITD
      is less common in males, it is unclear whether estradiol (E2) combined with total
      testosterone (T) contributes to the prevalence of AITD. This study evaluated the
      association between the E2/T ratio and the prevalence of AITD in males. METHODS:
      The data were obtained from a cross-sectional population-based study, the SPECT
      China study, 2014-2015. A total of 4109 males >=18 years of age were enrolled in
      this study. Participants underwent several checkups, which included assays of
      serum E2, T, thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), and thyroglobulin antibody
      (TgAb) levels, as well as thyroid ultrasonography (US). AITD was defined based on
      the presence of TPOAb and TgAb levels, and the presence of thyroid US findings.
      RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of positivity for TPOAb and/or TgAb
      (TPO/TgAb[+]) was 11.02%, and the positivity for TPOAb and/or TgAb together with
      US (TPO/TgAb[+] and US[+]) was 4.58%. The E2/T ratio levels were significantly
      higher in the TPO/TgAb(+) group and the TPO/TgAb(+) and US(+) group (7.91 +/-
      8.03 vs. 7.19 +/- 10.30, p = 0.003; 8.78 +/- 11.26 vs. 7.19 +/- 10.30, p = 0.001)
      compared to the TPO and TgAb(-) group. The prevalence of TPO/TgAb(+) and US(+)
      significantly increased with an increasing E2/T ratio (p = 0.013). Binary
      logistic analysis showed that increased E2/T ratio levels were associated with an
      increased risk of AITD (TPO/TgAb[+]: odds ratio = 1.35, p = 0.002; TPO/TgAb[+]
      and US[+]: odds ratio = 1.48, p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: AITD is highly prevalent
      in males in China. Higher E2/T ratios were significantly associated with AITD
      among males. Further studies will be needed to assess whether there is a causal
      relationship between E2/T ratios and AITD.

PMID- 28558487
TI  - Irreversible Electroporation Ablation of an Unresectable Fibrous Sarcoma With 2
      Electrodes: A Case Report.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore the safety and efficacy of irreversible electroporation
      ablation in unresectable fibrous sarcoma with 2 electrodes. METHODS: A 74-year
      old woman with unresectable retroperitoneal malignant fibrous sarcoma was treated
      with percutaneous irreversible electroporation. Four ablations were performed on
      the mass, which measured 7.3 * 7.0 * 7.5 cm, with 2 electrodes. RESULTS: A
      contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan 2 months postoperatively showed that
      the tumor had reduced to 5.1 * 4.0 * 5.2 cm, without obvious enhancement. Any
      adverse reactions were evaluated as level 1. CONCLUSION: In the short term, the
      treatment with 2 electrodes for fibrous sarcoma appears to be safe and effective.

PMID- 28558489
TI  - Ethical dilemmas during cardiac arrest incidents in the patient's home.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority (70%) of cardiac arrests in Sweden are experienced in
      the patient's home. In these situations, the ambulance nurses may encounter
      several ethical dilemmas. AIM: The aim was to investigate Swedish specialist
      ambulance nurses' experiences of ethical dilemmas associated with cardiac arrest
      situations in adult patients' homes. METHODS: Nine interviews were conducted with
      specialist ambulance nurses at four different ambulance stations in the southeast
      region of Sweden. Data were analysed using content analysis. Ethical
      considerations: Ethical principles mandated by the Swedish Research Council were
      carefully followed during the whole process. FINDINGS: Two main themes with six
      sub-themes were identified: The scene - creating a sheltered space for caring and
      Ethical decision-making. The results showed that ethical dilemmas might occur
      when trying to create a sheltered space to preserve the patients' integrity and
      dignity. A dilemma could be whether or not to invite significant others to be
      present during the medical treatment. Ethical decision-making was dependent on
      good communication and ethical reasoning among all parties. In certain
      situations, decisions were made not to commence or to terminate care despite
      guidelines. The decision was guided by combining the medical/nursing perspectives
      and ethical competence with respect to the human being's dignity and a will to do
      good for the patient. The nurses followed the voice of their heart and had the
      courage to be truly human. CONCLUSION: The ambulance nurses were guided by their
      ethos, including the basic motive to care for the patient, to alleviate
      suffering, to confirm the patient's dignity and to serve life and health.

PMID- 28558488
TI  - Psychoeducational intervention focused on healthy living improves
      psychopathological severity and lifestyle quality in psychiatric patients:
      preliminary findings from a controlled study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with psychiatric disorders incur an increased risk of
      morbidity and mortality, with higher prevalence of cardio-metabolic risk factors
      s largely contributing to a significant reduction in life expectancy. OBJECTIVES:
      The aim of the present study was at evaluating the clinical effectiveness of an
      educational intervention targeting lifestyle habits in patients with mood and
      psychotic disorders. METHODS: Patients (n = 32) were randomly assigned to
      receive, in addition to the pharmacological treatment, either five sessions of
      group psychoeducation focused on healthy lifestyle or five sessions of a control
      group therapy. RESULTS: Both psychopathological severity (i.e. the brief
      psychiatric rating scale) and lifestyle quality (i.e. physical activity, sleep
      quality and adherence to the Mediterranean diet) improved significantly over time
      in patients who underwent specific psychoeducational sessions but not in the
      controls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings add to the accumulating evidence that
      educational interventions focused on lifestyle habits can ameliorate general and
      mental health in patients with psychiatric disorders and suggest that educational
      programs represent an effective non-pharmacological intervention to manage drug
      induced cardiometabolic disturbances.

PMID- 28558490
TI  - Changing Attitudes and Knowledge Toward SNAP Application.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine effectiveness of an educational intervention on attitude and
      knowledge related to accessing and qualifying for the Supplemental Nutrition
      Assistance Program (SNAP). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Community
      sites (38) in North Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: Low-income adult participants who
      provided data (n = 558). INTERVENTION: Participants completed pre- and
      postsurveys for the 45-minute program. MEASURES: Theoretically based surveys
      measured knowledge requisite to the decision to apply for SNAP benefits.
      ANALYSIS: Paired sample t tests tested the hypothesis of "no difference" in
      postintervention knowledge. RESULTS: Knowledge gains were statistically
      significant on all questions ( P < .01) including the amount of food a minimum
      benefit could purchase, how to apply for SNAP, how the electronic benefit
      transfer card and benefits work, eligibility restrictions, and how to receive
      application assistance. Subsequent percentage change analyses revealed the
      strongest intervention effects to be how to apply and accessing application
      assistance. CONCLUSION: Effective theory-based programs can improve knowledge and
      dispel myths concerning SNAP participation among low-income participants.

PMID- 28558491
TI  - Vitamin D Status and Supplementation in Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the response to information about vitamin D status by
      participants enrolled in employer-sponsored wellness programs. DESIGN: A self
      reported health risk assessment questionnaire was used to categorize vitamin D
      supplementation. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 50 209 participants of 12 employer
      sponsored wellness programs that included vitamin D testing and services provided
      by Quest Diagnostics in 2014 and 2015. MEASURES: Vitamin D status based on
      laboratory testing results and responses to vitamin D supplementation in a health
      risk assessment questionnaire for initial and subsequent years. RESULTS: Among 50
      209 participants, 29% had deficient and 37% had suboptimal levels of vitamin D.
      Many participants appeared to act counter to their informed vitamin D status by
      starting supplements when vitamin D level was initially optimal (20%) or
      discontinuing supplements when vitamin D level was initially deficient (36%).
      Three-quarters of participants who had deficient or suboptimal vitamin D levels
      and were not taking supplements in 2014 continued not taking supplements in 2015.
      CONCLUSION: Deficient and suboptimal vitamin D levels remain prevalent in a
      working-age population. Many participants do not seem to be taking appropriate
      actions after receiving vitamin D testing results. Accordingly, employer
      sponsored wellness programs have an opportunity to better educate participants.

PMID- 28558492
TI  - E-Cigarette Advice to Patients From Physicians and Dentists in the United States.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report on adults' recall of discussion by physicians and dentists
      about e-cigarettes. DESIGN: A nationally representative cross-sectional survey
      (Internet and random digit dialing) in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Adults
      who ever used e-cigarettes. MEASURES: Participant-reported discussion about the
      potential benefits and harms of e-cigarettes with their doctor, dentist, or
      child's doctor in the past 12 months. ANALYSIS: Fisher exact test for the
      analysis between benefits and harms for each type of provider and for rates of
      advice between provider types. RESULTS: Among the 3030 adults who completed the
      survey, 523 (17.2%) had ever used e-cigarettes. Of those who had seen their
      doctor, dentist, or child's doctor in the last year, 7.3%, 1.7%, and 10.1%,
      respectively, reported discussing potential harms of e-cigarettes. Conversely,
      5.8%, 1.7%, and 9.3% of patients who had seen their doctor, dentist, or child's
      doctor in the last year reported that the clinician discussed the potential
      benefits of e-cigarettes. Each clinician type was as likely to discuss harms as
      benefits. Rates of advice were similar between doctors and child's doctors but
      lower for dentists. Rates were comparable when the analysis was limited to
      current e-cigarette users, participants with children, or those who reported
      using both e-cigarettes and combusted tobacco. CONCLUSIONS: Few physicians and
      dentists discuss either the harms or benefits of e-cigarettes with their
      patients. These data suggest an opportunity to educate, train, and provide
      resources for physicians and dentists about e-cigarettes and their use.

PMID- 28558494
TI  - Core Values of NAHN's Membership Committee.

PMID- 28558493
TI  - A Review of the Efficacy and Safety of Genvoya(r) (Elvitegravir, Cobicistat,
      Emtricitabine, and Tenofovir Alafenamide) in the Management of HIV-1 Infection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This review evaluates the efficacy and safety of Genvoya(r)
      (elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide
      [EVG/c/TAF/FTC]), a single-tablet regimen used for the management of HIV-1
      infection. Phase II and III randomized clinical trials evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of EVG/c/TAF/FTC and tenofovir disoproxil fumerate (TDF)-containing arms;
      renal impairment, bone mineral density, metabolic effects, and other adverse
      events are topics explored within this review. METHODS: A MEDLINE with full text
      and PubMed literature search was conducted for the past 5 years, up to April
      2016. RESULTS: Virologic suppression was similar between the EVG/c/TAF/FTC and
      TDF-containing groups (<50 copies/mL) at week 48. The bone mineral density in the
      hip and spine showed a significant reduction in the TDF-containing groups. The
      glomerular filtration rate increased in patients in the EVG/c/TAF/FTC arm and
      there were significant differences in total proteinuria, albuminuria, and tubular
      proteinuria in patients switching to EVG/c/TAF/FTC. The most common adverse
      events were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. DISCUSSION: The coformulated Genvoya
      regimen is well tolerated and effective in treatment-naive and virologically
      suppressed patients. Data seem to suggest it may also be effective and safe in
      patients with mild to moderate renal impairment. The lower-dosed single-tablet
      regimen has significantly reduced bone and renal side effects.

PMID- 28558496
TI  - Health Disparities and Hispanics.

PMID- 28558495
TI  - "It Feels Good to Know That Someone Cares".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetes is the leading cause of death in Hispanic communities.
      Self-management is an important part of diabetes care, and diabetes self
      management education (DSME) aims to teach the skills necessary for preventing and
      delaying complication. However, DSME is underutilized. The purpose of this study
      was to explore Hispanic adults' motivations for attending a DSME class to
      identify effective strategies for promoting class participation and retention.
      METHOD: Nineteen adults participated in seven focus groups conducted in Spanish.
      Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated. Transcripts were
      content coded by two coders to create a thematic coding scheme. RESULTS: Five
      main themes emerged as motivations for attendance: (1) frustration with
      physiological changes, (2) desire to "do better" because of family experience
      with death/complications from diabetes, (3) free access to information that is
      unattainable elsewhere, (3) a way to take control, and (4) group setting offered
      valued emotional and informational support as well as peer support for those who
      were uncomfortable discussing diabetes with family or lived with family who do
      not support lifestyle changes. CONCLUSIONS: Gaining diabetes self-management
      knowledge only partly explains the perceived value of classes. Culturally
      relevant content and appealing to the social supportive aspects of groups may
      encourage participation.

PMID- 28558497
TI  - NAHN.

PMID- 28558498
TI  - From Systematic Review to Call for Action.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health and
      criminal justice concern with significant impacts; especially high rates are seen
      among rural Hispanic American (HA) communities, the fastest growing population in
      the United States. They experience additional barriers to care including extreme
      poverty, lesser education, gender norms, and language and immigration issues.
      METHOD: A systematic literature review was conducted using Cooper's framework to
      identify evidence supporting associations between interventions and prevention,
      reduction, and elimination of IPV among rural HA women. Searches conducted on
      databases including CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, Women's Studies International,
      MedicLatina, and JSTOR used the MeSH terms Hispanic Americans (Latino/a and
      Hispanic), domestic violence, and intimate partner violence. Selected studies
      were published between January 1, 2000, and January 1, 2014. RESULTS: Of the 617
      yielded articles, only 6 met the inclusion criteria. Of these, none closely
      examined rurality or provided valid and reliable measures of outcomes, instead
      reporting program descriptions and suggested interventions. We identify key
      findings to guide program, screening, and tool development. CONCLUSION: Our study
      identifies a gap in knowledge, research, and effective practices and issues a
      call for action to create evidence-based tools to prevent, reduce, and eliminate
      IPV in these underserved populations.

PMID- 28558499
TI  - Parental Feeding Style and Pediatric Obesity in Latino Families.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pediatric obesity has become an epidemic in the United States.
      Previous research has shown that parenting factors related to feeding style
      affect child weight and that Latino families are especially at risk for pediatric
      obesity. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between
      parental feeding style and child body mass index (BMI) in Latino families.
      METHOD: Latino parents of children between the ages of 2 and 8 ( N = 124)
      completed a survey on parental feeding styles, acculturation, and demographics.
      The outcome variable was child BMI. RESULTS: Among respondents, 89% were mothers,
      72% were overweight or obese, and 40% reported an indulgent feeding style.
      Children had a mean age of 59 months ( SD = 23.8) and a mean BMI z score of 0.77
      ( SD = 1.14). A demanding parental feeding style was associated with lower child
      BMI z score, r = -.179, p < .05, and higher acculturation level, r = .213, p <
      .05. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the current study can be used to inform health
      care practitioners of the need to use culturally sensitive interventions that
      consider parents' feeding behaviors. Future research is warranted in the area of
      ethnic variations of parenting and how these affect feeding and obesity in this
      highly vulnerable population.

PMID- 28558500
TI  - Influencing College and Higher Education Choices in Disadvantaged Hispanic High
      School Students Through a School-Based Health Club.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Statistics representing professional health care providers do not
      adequately reflect the shift in the nation's diverse population. Latinos are
      significantly underrepresented at all levels of appropriate academic programs
      critical for entry to health profession careers. This project describes the
      implementation of a student-run, faculty-facilitated Future Nurse and Health Club
      at a school (with majority Latino students) to emphasize the importance of higher
      education in health care. Demographic and psychosocial profiles of club members
      were also developed to understand community needs. METHOD: The Future Nurse and
      Health Club was established in partnership with faculty and researchers
      representing a university-based nursing program, school officials, and community
      leaders. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from club members
      and their parents using a variety of techniques including questionnaires and
      focus groups. RESULTS: The findings of the study highlighted a variety of student
      and parent-related factors including poor lifestyle habits and perceptions of
      support that could potentially influence Latino high school students' interest
      and progress in health care-related higher education. CONCLUSION: A school-based
      health career club involving active participation of parents and students with
      support from health care professionals such as academic nursing faculty has the
      potential to simultaneously raise student interest in health-related careers and
      health needs of their community.

PMID- 28558501
TI  - Views on Exercise.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a large prevalence of asthma, particularly among Hispanic
      children. Although physical activity is a good way to manage asthma, more
      Hispanic children with asthma lack activity than their healthy classmates. Given
      this, the purpose of this study was to explore the development of exercise
      perceptions in Hispanic children with asthma and to further develop an existing
      explanatory theory. METHOD: Grounded theory was the approach for the study.
      Grounded theory illuminated components of exercise perceptions from participants.
      Participants included Hispanic children with asthma, their families, and
      professionals who work with Hispanic children with asthma ( n = 29). RESULTS:
      Findings from this study supported the previously identified grounded theory
      called The Process of Creating Perceptions of Exercise. In addition, two new
      concepts ( cultural and peer influences) were identified that further explain the
      category of exercise influences. CONCLUSION: The revised theory can be used to
      assist in developing nursing interventions aimed at increasing exercise
      participation among Hispanic children with asthma.

PMID- 28558503
TI  - Hispanic Health Care International Author Guidelines.

PMID- 28558502
TI  - Six-Month Results From the Initial Randomized Study of the Ranger Paclitaxel
      Coated Balloon in the Femoropopliteal Segment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of the Ranger paclitaxel-coated balloon vs
      uncoated balloon angioplasty for femoropopliteal lesions. METHODS: Between
      January 2014 and October 2015, the prospective, randomized RANGER SFA study (
      ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02013193) enrolled 105 patients with symptomatic
      lower limb ischemia (Rutherford category 2-4) and stenotic lesions in the
      nonstented femoropopliteal segment at 10 European centers. Seventy-one patients
      (mean age 68+/-8 years; 53 men) were enrolled in the Ranger drug-coated balloon
      (DCB) arm and 34 patients (mean age 67+/-9 years; 23 men) were assigned to the
      control group. Six-month analysis included angiographic late lumen loss and
      safety and clinical outcomes assessments. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics of
      the DCB and control groups were similar, as were lesion lengths (68+/-46 vs 60+/
      48 mm; p=0.731), severity of calcification (p=0.236), and the prevalence of
      occlusions (34% vs 34%; p>0.999). At 6 months, late lumen loss was significantly
      less for the DCB group vs controls (-0.16+/-0.99 vs 0.76+/-1.4; p=0.002). The DCB
      group had significantly greater freedom from binary restenosis (92% vs 64%;
      p=0.005) and primary patency rates (87% vs 60%; p=0.014). Target lesion
      revascularization rates were 5.6% in the DCB group and 12% in the control group
      (p=0.475). No target limb amputations or device-related deaths occurred in either
      group. CONCLUSION: Six-month results suggest that Ranger DCB treatment
      effectively inhibited restenosis in symptomatic femoropopliteal disease,
      resulting in improved vessel patency and a low revascularization rate in the
      short term compared with uncoated balloon angioplasty.

PMID- 28558505
TI  - Chapter Presidents.

PMID- 28558504
TI  - 2016 Council of Business Advisor Members.

PMID- 28558506
TI  - Nursing Research: Contributions to Universal Health Care.

PMID- 28558507
TI  - How NAHN Nurses Advocate and Lead Change.

PMID- 28558508
TI  - Association Executive Board and Board of Directors.

PMID- 28558509
TI  - Examining Fall Recurrence Risk of Homebound Hispanic Older Adults Receiving Home
      Care Services.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Unintentional falls and injuries is a major problem among older
      adults and the fourth cause of death in the United States. A previous fall event
      doubles the risk of recurrence and lessens the person's quality of life. Hispanic
      older adults have higher rates of disability and lower independent functioning
      due to poor medical health and risk for fall recurrence. Most fall studies focus
      on fall risk with few studies on fall recurrence in older adults receiving home
      health care services unrelated to fall incident. METHOD: A descriptive pilot
      study of 30 homebound Hispanic older adults receiving home care services who
      reported a fall within 3 months was conducted by a multidisciplinary team to
      evaluate risk of fall recurrence. RESULTS: A heightened risk for fall recurrence
      was identified with high number of chronic illnesses, high intake of medications,
      vision problems, and prevalence of urinary incontinence. CONCLUSION: Findings
      highlight significant number of intrinsic factors for fall risk recurrence and
      injuries in a Hispanic older adults population that is homebound and receiving
      home care services. A multidisciplinary evaluation and culturally appropriate
      interventions to lessen the risk of fall recurrence are recommended.

PMID- 28558511
TI  - HIV Testing Behaviors Among Latina Women Tested for HIV in Florida, 2012.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Latina women in the United States (US) are not only
      disproportionately affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection but
      also underuse HIV prevention services, such as HIV testing. METHOD: HIV testing
      events were examined to describe the HIV testing behaviors and test results among
      Latinas tested in 2012 at publicly funded sites in Florida, United States.
      Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the demographic
      characteristics associated with reports of previous testing and positive HIV test
      results. RESULTS: Of the 184,037 testing events, 87,569 (45.6%) were among non
      Hispanic Blacks (NHBs), 47,926 (26.0%) non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs), 41,117 (22.3%)
      Latinas, 5,672 (3.1%) those with unknown race/ethnicity, and 1,753 (1.0%) other
      racial/ethnic groups. Compared to NHW and NHB women, Latinas testing for HIV were
      older (mean age = 32.1, NHW = mean age 30.3, NHB = mean age 30.0; p < .0001).
      Results indicated that women who reported previous HIV testing had decreased odds
      of being Latina (adjusted odds ratio = 0.90; 95% confidence interval [0.87,
      0.94]). CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that Latinas are underusing HIV
      testing, and efforts are needed to increase the proportion of Latinas, especially
      younger Latinas, tested for HIV in Florida.

PMID- 28558510
TI  - Improving Family Communication.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: TeenSmart International harnesses the power and flexibility of
      technology to empower youth to take personal responsibility for their health and
      lifestyle choices. Access to the Internet via mobile phones is often cheaper than
      paying to connect to a wired broadband service, and in rural areas, mobile
      networks may be the only means of accessing the Internet. This study assessed the
      feasibility, acceptability, and impact of "cues to action" or brief motivating
      cell phone text messages to improve adolescent family communication and
      relationships. METHOD: A quasi-experimental design using a voluntary sample of
      100 Nicaraguan youth at high risk for poor family communication participated. Pre
      and posttest quantitative measures using Student t statistical analysis, a focus
      group, and a participant testimony provided the evaluation evidence. RESULTS:
      Findings suggest that there are economic and motivational barriers to the use of
      text messages, but when barriers are eliminated, the behavioral results are
      positive. Youth who received two weekly text messages over a 6-month period
      demonstrated statistically significant improvements in family communication
      perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, strengthening their family communications
      and relationships. CONCLUSION: Brief and personalized text messaging "cues to
      action" may be a cost-effective intervention to improve adolescent healthy
      lifestyle behaviors.

PMID- 28558512
TI  - Maternal Health of Undocumented Women With and Without Medicaid Access in
      Nebraska, 2007-2011.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Four million infants are born in the United States to undocumented
      mothers. Nebraska granted Medicaid access to undocumented pregnant women from
      1996 to 2010 and then discontinued access from 2010 to 2012. However, little is
      known about the maternal health of these undocumented women. The purpose of this
      study was to compare maternal health of undocumented women with and without
      access to Medicaid in Nebraska from 2007 to 2011. METHOD: A retrospective,
      longitudinal cohort design was conducted with 2007 to 2011 Nebraska birth
      certificate data. Study participants were 6,262 undocumented women. Groups of
      measures were created for demographics, prenatal, pregnancy, and delivery
      characteristics. Descriptive statistics were calculated and comparisons were
      conducted between women with and without access to Medicaid using chi-square and
      Student t tests. RESULTS: More than 60% of undocumented women had access to
      Medicaid, while 32% had no access to Medicaid. Undocumented women were
      predominately Hispanic (73.32%) and did not have a high school education
      (68.77%). The comparison of undocumented women with and without Medicaid revealed
      that women with Medicaid access had more than adequate prenatal care (17.86% vs.
      14.80%) and a higher frequency of infant born with abnormal conditions (6.26% vs.
      8.03%). Women without access to Medicaid more often had inadequate prenatal care
      (10.28% vs. 6.94%) and were obese prior to pregnancy (19.37% vs. 17.37%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Undocumented women who are prenatally obese and lack access to
      prenatal care may be at increased risk for poor maternal outcomes.

PMID- 28558513
TI  - Cues to Cervical Cancer Screening Among U.S. Hispanic Women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hispanic women's cervical cancer rates are disproportionately high.
      Cues to cervical cancer screening (Cues to Action) are strategies to activate the
      decision-making process to get screened for cervical cancer. This study used the
      health belief model to examine which cues prompt Hispanic women to undergo
      cervical cancer screening and how perceptions could be potentiated by cues to
      cervical cancer screening. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among
      Hispanic women 18 to 65 years old ( n = 220). Generalized linear modeling was
      used. RESULTS: Spanish media and reminders by mother and doctors were relevant
      cues. Generalized linear modeling showed cues to action modified significantly
      the predictive effect of Perceived Threats (i.e., Susceptibility, Severity),
      benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy on Hispanic women's cervical cancer
      screening behavior. "Mother told me" and Spanish media messages were significant
      covariates. CONCLUSION: Cues to Action influenced Hispanic's women participation
      in cervical cancer screening. Cues to Action increased the strength of the health
      belief model as an explanatory model, and must be considered in designing
      culturally appropriate cervical cancer screening interventions.

PMID- 28558514
TI  - In-vivo analysis of ankle joint movement for patient-specific kinematic
      characterization.
AB  - In this article, a method for the experimental in-vivo characterization of the
      ankle kinematics is proposed. The method is meant to improve personalization of
      various ankle joint treatments, such as surgical decision-making or design and
      application of an orthosis, possibly to increase their effectiveness. This
      characterization in fact would make the treatments more compatible with the
      specific patient's joint physiological conditions. This article describes the
      experimental procedure and the analytical method adopted, based on the
      instantaneous and mean helical axis theories. The results obtained in this
      experimental analysis reveal that more accurate techniques are necessary for a
      robust in-vivo assessment of the tibio-talar axis of rotation.

PMID- 28558515
TI  - Social Context and Value-Based Care: A Capabilities Approach for Addressing
      Health Disparities.
AB  - Racial disparities in health are persistent and pervasive in the United States.
      Researchers and policymakers have known for decades that access to health care is
      not sufficient for addressing health disparities because of the socially situated
      roots of the disparities. We argue that the lack of progress in alleviating
      health disparities is the result of a lack of overarching framework to guide both
      policymakers and researchers in their efforts. We propose Amartya Sen's
      capabilities approach as a theoretical framework that is expansive enough to
      address both the social context in which health occurs as well as the quality of
      health care provided. In this article, we use a subset of veterans receiving care
      from the Veterans Health Administration to review the theoretical concepts that
      link social inequalities with health disparities. Next, we provide empirical
      evidence of disparities in health based on race within the Veterans Health
      Administration, and we then provide a theoretical explanation for those
      disparities that exist at a system level. We close with a detailed examination of
      the applicability of the capabilities approach in addressing health disparities
      in the United States.

PMID- 28558516
TI  - Nurses Improve Their Communities' Health Where They Live, Learn, Work, and Play.
AB  - Nurses are often recognized for their volunteer efforts following disasters and
      international humanitarian crises. However, little attention is paid to the
      activities of nurses who promote a culture of health in their communities through
      local volunteer work. In this article, we describe nurses' perceptions of how
      they promote health in their communities through formal and informal volunteer
      work. Using 315 written responses to an open-ended question included in a 2016
      survey of the career patterns of nurses in the U.S., we utilized conventional
      content analysis methods to code and thematically synthesize responses. Two broad
      categories of nurse involvement in volunteer activities arose from the
      participants' responses to the open-ended question, "Please tell us what you have
      done in the past year to improve the health of your community": 17% identified
      job-related activities, and 74% identified non-job-related activities. 9% of
      respondents indicated they do not participate in volunteer work. Job-related
      activities included patient education, educating colleagues, and "other" job
      related activities. Non-job-related activities included health-related community
      volunteering, volunteering related to a specific population or disease, family
      related volunteering, church activities, health fairs, raising or donating money,
      and travelling abroad for volunteer work. Nurses are committed to promoting a
      culture of health in their communities both at work and in their daily lives.
      Leveraging nurses' interest in volunteer work could improve the way nurses engage
      with their communities, expand the role of nurses as public health professionals,
      and foster the social desirability of healthful living.

PMID- 28558517
TI  - Nurse-Performed Endoscopy: Implications for the Nursing Profession in Australia.
AB  - Increasing demands for health care globally often lead to discussions about
      expanding the involvement of nurses in a range of nontraditional roles. Several
      countries have introduced nurse endoscopists as a means of easing the burden of
      demand for a range of endoscopic procedures. A shortage of medical staff in
      Australia combined with increasing demand for endoscopy led to the implementation
      of nurse endoscopists as a pilot program in the state of Queensland, where a
      nurse practitioner model was implemented, and Victoria, where an advanced
      practice model was used. This article will discuss the implementation of and
      responses from the nursing, medical, and policy community to nurse-performed
      endoscopy in this country. Regarding health policy, access to cancer screening
      may be improved by providing nurses with advanced training to safely perform
      endoscopy procedures. Moreover, issues of nurse credentialing and payment need to
      be considered appropriate to each country's health system model.

PMID- 28558518
TI  - Students' Beliefs About and Perceived Effectiveness of a Tobacco-Free Campus
      Policy.
AB  - Tobacco-free (TF) college campus policies have potential to be a high-impact
      tobacco control strategy. The purposes of the study presented here were to (a)
      determine the demographic and personal characteristics associated with students'
      beliefs about and perceived effectiveness of a TF campus policy and (b) assess
      whether tobacco use status and exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) predicted
      beliefs and perceived effectiveness. Five thousand randomly selected students
      from a large southeastern university were invited by e-mail to participate in an
      online survey in April 2013, three and a half years after policy implementation.
      Students held positive beliefs about the policy (average rating 84% of the
      maximum possible score). Sixty-one percent believed that the policy was
      successful at reducing SHS exposure; and 40% thought the policy encouraged
      quitting. Males were less likely than females to believe the policy was effective
      in reducing SHS exposure and encouraging quitting. Lower undergraduates were more
      likely to perceive the policy as less effective in reducing SHS exposure;
      international students were more likely than domestic students to perceive the
      policy as more effective at encouraging quitting. Students most exposed to SHS
      were less likely to perceive the policy was effective. Compared with nonusers,
      those who smoked cigarettes were less likely to perceive the policy as effective
      in encouraging quitting. Tailored messaging regarding policy benefits are
      necessary. Perceived effectiveness of TF policies may be related to compliance
      with the policy and should be further investigated. Objective measures of
      effectiveness and tobacco use behaviors are needed to fully measure the success
      of TF campus policies.

PMID- 28558519
TI  - Medicaid for Newly Resettled Legal Immigrants.

PMID- 28558520
TI  - A Staged Approach to Educating Nurses in Health Policy.
AB  - Nurse leaders and health-care experts agree that nurses have a responsibility to
      address the health problems facing the nation by participating in health policy
      development. However, nurses have not fully realized their potential when it
      comes to engaging in health policy advocacy and leadership. Nurse leaders,
      professional nursing organizations, accrediting bodies, and the Institute of
      Medicine have all identified the need to educate nurses in heath policy. Valuable
      recommendations for content and learning activities in health policy have been
      made. We argue that nursing education in health policy and the many
      recommendations offered have been broad and overly ambitious. This article
      presents a proposal for a staged approach to educating nurses. This approach
      would tailor content to the role of the nurse at each level of nursing education.
      The focus of health policy content would progress from the organizational level
      to local, state, and finally national level health policies. The goal of this
      approach is to better prepare all levels of nursing students to participate in
      shaping effective health policies.

PMID- 28558521
TI  - What Is Known and Unknown About the Association Between Endometriosis and Sexual
      Functioning: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
AB  - It is well known that endometriosis is associated with an increase in the risk of
      deep dyspareunia, with potential negative effects on global female sexual
      functioning and couple relationship. The aims of this study were to review the
      literature on the impact of endometriosis on female sexual functioning and to
      suggest new avenues for future research and treatment strategies. An electronic
      database research was performed to identify all the studies on the relation
      between endometriosis and sexual functioning published in the period 2000 to
      2016. This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting
      Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. After the screening
      process, a total of 9 studies investigating the relation between endometriosis
      and female sexual functioning were considered. Overall, these studies indicated
      that around two thirds of women with endometriosis have some form of sexual
      dysfunction not limited to deep dyspareunia. These findings suggest that the
      global sexual impact of endometriosis requires further investigation, focusing
      not only on pain during intercourse but also on psychological and relational
      dimensions, including partner's sexual functioning. Because sexual functioning is
      a complex, multidimensional phenomenon, the ideal treatment for endometriosis
      related sexual dysfunctions should be conducted by a multidisciplinary team
      composed of gynecologists, sexologists, and psychologists/psychotherapists.

PMID- 28558522
TI  - Saponin Extracts Induced Apoptosis of Endometrial Cells From Women With
      Endometriosis Through Modulation of miR-21-5p.
AB  - Among the several components in Korean red ginseng, the saponin components are
      known to have various pharmacologic activities. The objective of this study was
      to evaluate therapeutic effects of saponin extracts from Korean red ginseng on
      endometriosis and to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with saponin
      treatment. This is an in vitro study which used human endometrial stromal cells
      (HESCs) obtained from patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for
      endometriosis and other benign conditions. Human endometrial stromal cells were
      treated with saponin extracts, and microarray profiling was performed. Human
      endometrial stromal cells were then transfected with miRNAs identified in the
      profiling. After the saponin extract treatment, the expression of caspase 3 was
      significantly increased in HESCs. Microarray profiling revealed several miRNAs
      that were differentially expressed, and miR-21-5p was further validated.
      Expression of miR-21-5p was significantly upregulated in the endometrium of
      patients with endometriosis, compared with controls. Transfection of a miR-21-5p
      inhibitor significantly increased caspase 3 expression in HESCs. The apoptotic
      potential of saponin extracts and the miR-21-5p inhibitor were further validated
      in HESCs using flow cytometry analysis. In conclusions, treatment with saponin
      extracts significantly decreased the expression of miR-21-5p in HESCs from
      patients with endometriosis. Inhibition of miR-21-5p effectively increased the
      apoptotic potential of HESCs. These findings suggest that saponin extract
      treatment may have therapeutic potential for endometriosis via modulation of
      specific miRNAs.

PMID- 28558524
TI  - Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Meditation.
AB  - An experiment involving 115 undergraduate students (74.8% females; mean age =
      20.5 years, SD = 4.3) was conducted to explore effects of meditation on social
      connectedness, nature connectedness, and affect. Participants listened to one of
      three brief guided meditation Mp3 recordings via the internet, which involved
      mindfulness meditation (MM), loving-kindness meditation (LKM), or progressive
      muscle relaxation (active control group). Participants in the MM and LKM groups
      reported greater social and nature connectedness at post-test than those in the
      control group. There were no significant differences in connectedness between the
      MM and LKM groups, suggesting they are both effective for enhancing
      connectedness. There were no significant changes in negative or positive affect
      at post-test due to the interventions. Recommendations for future research are
      provided.

PMID- 28558525
TI  - Does Mind Wandering Mediate the Association Between Mindfulness and Negative
      Mood? A Preliminary Study.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between trait mindfulness
      and mood and to examine whether the relationship is mediated by mind wandering.
      Eighty-two individuals ( M age = 24.27 years, SD = 5.64, 18 men, 22%) completed a
      series of measures including the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the
      Profile of Mood States Questionnaire, and Meditation Breath Attention Exercise.
      Results showed that the level of mindfulness was significantly correlated with
      positive and negative mood, and the association between mindfulness and negative
      mood was mediated by mind wandering. This study indicated the important role of
      mind wandering in the relation between mindfulness and negative mood. Limitations
      and future research directions are discussed.

PMID- 28558523
TI  - Melatonin Treatment May Be Able to Restore Menstrual Cyclicity in Women With
      PCOS: A Pilot Study.
AB  - The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of 6 months of
      melatonin administration on clinical, endocrine, and metabolic features of women
      affected by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This is a prospective cohort study
      including 40 normal-weight women with PCOS between January and September 2016,
      enrolled in an academic research environment. Ultrasonographic pelvic
      examinations, hirsutism score evaluation, hormonal profile assays, oral glucose
      tolerance test, and lipid profile at baseline and after 6 months of melatonin
      administration were performed. Melatonin treatment significantly decreased
      androgens levels (free androgen index: P < .05; testosterone: P < .01; 17
      hydroxyprogesterone: P < .01). Follicle-stimulating hormone levels significantly
      raised ( P < .01), and anti-Mullerian hormone serum levels significantly dropped
      after 6 months of melatonin treatment ( P < .01). No significant changes occurred
      in glucoinsulinemic and lipid parameters after treatment except a significant
      decrease of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Almost 95% of participants
      experienced an amelioration of menstrual cycles. Until now, only few data have
      been published about the role of melatonin in women with PCOS. This is the first
      study focused on the effects of exogenous oral melatonin administration on the
      clinical, endocrine, and metabolic characteristics of patients with PCOS. After 6
      months of treatment, melatonin seems to improve menstrual irregularities and
      biochemical hyperandrogenism in women with PCOS through a direct, insulin
      independent effect on the ovary. Based on our results, melatonin could be
      considered a potential future therapeutic agent for women affected by PCOS.

PMID- 28558526
TI  - Profiles of Coping Strategies in Resilient Adolescents.
AB  - To understand how resilient adolescents adapt to adverse situations, this study
      examined resilient adolescents and their coping strategies. Resilience is the
      phenomenon characterized by good outcomes despite serious threats to adaptation
      and/or development. The current study aimed to identify the coping strategy
      profiles that distinguish a resilient group from three other groups-struggling,
      competent, and vulnerable-specifically to differentiate the resilient group from
      the competent group. Descriptive discriminant analysis results indicated that
      resilient adolescents simultaneously utilized not only problem-focused but also
      the emotion-focused coping strategies. The competent group primarily used problem
      focused coping, while the struggling group primarily used emotion-focused
      strategies. Finally, the vulnerable adolescents used neither problem-focused nor
      emotion-focused strategies. Practical implications of the results were discussed
      to guide professionals.

PMID- 28558527
TI  - Framing Effect in the Trolley Problem and Footbridge Dilemma.
AB  - The present study investigated the effect of dilemma type, framing, and number of
      saved lives on moral decision making. A total of 591 undergraduates, with a mean
      age of 20.56 (SD = 1.37) were randomly assigned to 12 groups on the basis of a
      grid of two dilemma types (the trolley problem or the footbridge dilemma) by
      three frames (positive, neutral, or negative frame) by two different numbers of
      workers (5 or 15 people). The main effects of dilemma type, frame, and number of
      saved workers were all significant. The interaction of dilemma type and number of
      saved workers and the interaction of the three independent factors were
      significant. Results indicated that moral judgment is affected by framing.
      Specifically, people were more inclined to utilitarianism in the positive or
      neutral frame and more inclined to intuitionism in the negative frame.
      Furthermore, this effect can be moderated by dilemma type and number of saved
      lives. Implications of our results are discussed.

PMID- 28558528
TI  - Are Sex Effects on Ethical Decision-Making Fake or Real? A Meta-Analysis on the
      Contaminating Role of Social Desirability Response Bias.
AB  - A meta-analysis of 143 studies was conducted to explore how the social
      desirability response bias may influence sex effects on ratings on measures of
      ethical decision-making. Women rated themselves as more ethical than did men;
      however, this sex effect on ethical decision-making was no longer significant
      when social desirability response bias was controlled. The indirect questioning
      approach was compared with the direct measurement approach for effectiveness in
      controlling social desirability response bias. The indirect questioning approach
      was found to be more effective.

PMID- 28558529
TI  - Equivalence and Bias in the South African Substance Use Contextual Risk
      Instrument.
AB  - This article forms part of a larger study that sought to develop and validate a
      scale to measure individual and contextual factors associated with adolescent
      substance use in low-socio-economic status South African communities. The scale
      was developed to inform the process of designing preventative interventions in
      these communities. This study assessed the construct equivalence and item bias
      across different language versions of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis,
      equality of reliabilities, and the Tucker's phi coefficient of congruence were
      employed to assess whether the two language versions were equivalent at a scale
      level. Differential item functioning analysis was conducted using ordinal
      logistic regression and the Mantel-Haenszel method at an item level. The findings
      revealed that there are significant differences between the two groups at a scale
      level. Items were flagged as presenting with moderate to large differential item
      functioning. The biased items have to be closely examined in order to decide how
      to address the bias.

PMID- 28558530
TI  - A Multisample Analysis of Psychometric Properties for the Malaysian Adapted Sport
      Anxiety Scale-2 Among Youth Athletes.
AB  - This study examined psychometric properties of a Malaysian-language Sport Anxiety
      Scale-2 (SAS-2) in three separate studies. Study 1 examined the criterion
      validity and internal consistency of SAS-2 among 119 developmental hockey
      players. Measures of trait anxiety and mood states along with digit vigilance,
      choice reaction time, and depth perception tests were administered. Regression
      analysis revealed that somatic anxiety and concentration disruption were
      significantly associated with sustained attention. Worry was significantly
      associated with depth perception but not sustained attention. Pearson correlation
      coefficients also revealed significant relationships between SAS-2 subscales and
      negative mood state dimensions. Study 2 examined the convergent and discriminant
      validity of SAS-2 by correlating it with state anxiety measured by the CSAI-2R.
      Significant positive relationships were obtained between SAS-2 subscales and
      somatic and cognitive state anxiety. Conversely, state self-confidence was
      negatively related to SAS-2 subscales. In addition, significant differences were
      observed between men and women in somatic anxiety. Study 3 examined the factorial
      validity of the Malaysian SAS-2 using confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of
      539 young athletes. Confirmatory factor analysis results provided strong support
      for the SAS-2 factor structure. Path loadings exceeding 0.5 indicated convergent
      validity among the subscales, and low to moderate subscale intercorrelations
      provided evidence of discriminant validity. Overall, the results supported the
      criterion and construct validity of this Malaysian-language SAS-2 instrument.

PMID- 28558531
TI  - Psychometric Properties of the Multi-Affect Indicator in a Chinese Worker Sample.
AB  - The Multi-Affect Indicator is a new measure that assesses the core affect at work
      with 16 items. The current study examined the scale's psychometric properties in
      terms of internal consistency and composite reliability, factorial validity,
      convergent validity, and discriminant validity with a Chinese sample of 370 full
      time workers. The results demonstrated that Multi-Affect Indicator has high
      internal consistency and composite reliability and a correlated four-quadrant
      structure. Furthermore, three of its four subscales show adequate convergent
      validity. Thus, the Chinese version of the Multi-Affect Indicator behaves
      consistently with the original and can be used in future studies of core
      workplace affect in Chinese context.

PMID- 28558532
TI  - Development of a Short Self-Report Disability Questionnaire for Health
      Conditions.
AB  - For use in mental epidemiological survey research, a short self-report
      questionnaire measuring current disability is needed to assess the severity of
      health symptoms of respondents. A questionnaire, measuring current disability at
      the somatic, mental, and social domains in the environments of work, family
      (social) life, and leisure time was made along guidelines issued at the 54th
      World Health Assembly regarding the acceptance of the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. This article presents the
      reliability and validity of the Self-Report Disability Questionnaire (SRDQ). A
      short self-report questionnaire was designed and completed by an adult population
      sample of a Dutch health region, participating in a mental health survey. The
      SRDQ measures current disability independent from disorder entity. The data show
      good reliability. Study outcomes confirm the validity of the SRDQ. Positive
      correlations were found between the score on the SRDQ and amount of medical and
      mental health consumption, as well as evidence for divergent validity. Positive
      correlations emerged with the number of symptoms on various mental health
      measures and psychiatric comorbidity. Nonretired respondents dependent on social
      services, elderly respondents, and low-educated respondents are populations
      commonly at risk, scoring higher on the SRDQ than other populations. The SRDQ is
      usable both as a disability screener and as an effect instrument for treatments
      and community interventions because its reliability and validity are found to be
      good. The combined use of the SRDQ with specific symptom screeners downsizes the
      proportion of persons who actually need help.

PMID- 28558533
TI  - Relationships Among Stress, Burnout, Athletic Identity, and Athlete Satisfaction
      in Students at Korea's Physical Education High Schools.
AB  - We tested the structural relationships between stress, burnout, athletic
      identity, and athlete satisfaction in student athletes attending Korea's physical
      education high schools and analyzed the differences between paths by ego
      resilience. Data were collected from student athletes at three Korean physical
      education high schools. Before data collection, each instruments' content
      validity was confirmed, and after data collection, construct validity was tested
      using factor analysis. The results were derived using reliability testing,
      descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and structural equation modeling.
      After testing the final research model, the following results were obtained: (a)
      high levels of stress had a strong correlation with burnout and high levels of
      burnout was negatively related to athletic identity and athlete satisfaction; (b)
      in our model, burnout showed full mediation of the relationship between stress
      and athlete identity/athletic satisfaction; and

PMID- 28558534
TI  - Negative Life Events, Social Support, and Self-Efficacy in Anxious Adolescents.
AB  - Purpose To examine the prevalence and correlates of anxiety in a community sample
      of adolescents. Knowing the prevalence and characteristics of anxious adolescents
      is valuable to improve anxiety prevention strategies and interventions. Design
      Cross-sectional data about anxiety were collected via a school survey from a
      community sample of Norwegian adolescents aged 12-17 ( N = 1719). Methods Based
      on scores from the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, the adolescents were
      categorized as not anxious or anxious. Logistic regression analysis was performed
      to access the impact of each factor on the likelihood that participants would
      report an elevated level of anxiety. Results A total of 22% of the adolescents
      were categorized as anxious. Female gender, experienced negative life events, low
      social support, and low self-efficacy were associated with elevated level of
      anxiety. Conclusions The high prevalence of anxiety in adolescents demonstrates
      the importance of improved prevention interventions targeting anxious
      adolescents. We argue that addressing is the responsibility of not only the
      individual adolescents and their families but also schools, school health
      services, and policy makers. School-based interventions that increase social
      support and self-efficacy would probably be particularly beneficial for anxious
      adolescents.

PMID- 28558535
TI  - Unpacking the Gender Differences on Mental Health.
AB  - Mental health studies show that women are likely to score higher on subjective
      well-being and higher on depression than men. To verify this, the present study
      collected a sample of 5648 undergraduates in 55 universities in China. Results
      showed that women reported higher optimism, gratitude, subjective well-being, and
      depression than men, and that optimism and gratitude mediated the relationship
      between gender and mental health (subjective well-being and depression). By its
      implication, women were more likely to be optimistic and grateful, and as such
      they tended to experience higher subjective well-being and depression
      simultaneously. This also implies that gender differences on mental health could
      also be a dispositional issue as well as a socialization one.

PMID- 28558536
TI  - Diverging Influences of Money Priming on Choice.
AB  - Prior research on money priming has suggested two seemingly contradicting
      findings. On the one hand, money has been shown to highlight the importance of
      cost saving, leading to the choice of a low-quality/low-price option. On the
      other hand, individuals primed with money as a symbol of social status, and
      capabilities may focus on social value of money, e.g., higher spending symbolizes
      higher status and prefer an option with high quality/high price. Current research
      proposes and demonstrates that whether money priming will lead different choices
      depends on the nature of the consumption context. Specifically, when the product
      is to be consumed privately, money priming will highlight the importance of cost,
      thus increasing the preference for lower price at a lower quality. However, when
      the product is to be consumed publicly, reversed pattern of consumer preference
      will be found.

PMID- 28558537
TI  - Self-Compassion and Confucian Coping as a Predictor of Depression and Anxiety in
      Impoverished Chinese Undergraduates.
AB  - The ability of self-compassion and Confucian coping to predict anxiety and
      depression were examined in impoverished Chinese undergraduate students. Three
      hundred and thirty impoverished undergraduates completed measures of self
      compassion, Confucian coping, depression, and anxiety. Results showed that higher
      self-compassion predicted lower depression and anxiety in impoverished
      undergraduates. Higher pro-setback thinking and responsibility thinking of
      Confucian coping were related with lower depression and anxiety. Higher fate
      thinking of Confucian coping was related with higher depression and anxiety. The
      predictive ability for depression and anxiety of self-compassion combined with
      fate thinking was better than self-compassion alone. Intervention to enhance self
      compassion and reduce fate thinking may be beneficial to mental health in
      impoverished undergraduates.

PMID- 28558538
TI  - Assessment of Undergraduates' Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in
      Everyday Situations.
AB  - Critical thinking is a kind of "good" thinking that integrates a set of cognitive
      skills and dispositions to use those skills with knowledge to increase the
      chances of success in academic settings, job market, and daily life. The impact
      of critical thinking on life events, in face of everyday decisions and
      challenges, is still unclear, and further research is needed. In this exploratory
      study, a sample of 230 first-year students of a Bachelor's Degree or a Master's
      Degree in Portugal completed an experimental Portuguese version of the Real-World
      Outcomes, a self-report inventory measuring everyday negative life events that
      are mediated by a lack of critical thinking. Based on exploratory factor analysis
      results and theoretical premises, changes were made to the Portuguese version of
      the inventory that was administered, and items were aggregated into six
      dimensions, creating a new version that is more familiar to Portuguese young
      adults in college. This original proposal of the inventory presents six types of
      negative life events resulting from a lack of critical thinking: health neglect,
      mismanagement, slackness, poor impulse control, academic negligence, and
      rashness. Both limitations and future potentialities of this version are
      presented.

PMID- 28558539
TI  - Effects of Experience Abroad and Language Proficiency on Self-Efficacy Beliefs in
      Language Learning.
AB  - Experience abroad has been recognized as one of the best investments for second
      or foreign language learning. A lot of research has examined its impact on
      language learning from linguistic as well as non-linguistic perspectives.
      Nonetheless, literature on the relationships between and among experience abroad,
      language proficiency, and self-efficacy beliefs in language learning seems to
      still be cursory and thus the present study chose to focus on these aspects in
      more detail. To do so, 259 Korean English as a foreign language students answered
      the Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy as well as completed a background
      questionnaire. Statistical analyses identified two underlying factors of self
      efficacy beliefs-production and comprehension-that helped analyze the data from a
      new perspective. Using this two-factor structure of self-efficacy, it was found
      that the combination of experience abroad and English proficiency were indeed
      related to these self-efficacy factors. In addition, the results indicate that
      students may have benefitted most in self-efficacy formation in production and
      comprehension aspects when they have four to six months of experience abroad.

PMID- 28558540
TI  - Full and Short Versions of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and
      Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised.
AB  - Inadequate problem solving is associated with recidivism in sex offenders.
      However, the psychometric properties of two of the most widely used coping self
      report questionnaires, the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised and Coping
      Inventory for Stressful Situations, have not been established for outpatient sex
      offenders. Using structural equation modeling, the present study aims to
      contribute to an empirically based decision as to which version of the Coping
      Inventory for Stressful Situations or Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised is
      best suited to use with forensic outpatient sex offenders. The sample consisted
      of 530 Dutch sex offenders treated in an outpatient forensic facility. Results
      support the use of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations-Short Form 20
      for identifying problem-solving deficits among outpatient sex offenders,
      consequently facilitating the assessment of treatment needs.

PMID- 28558541
TI  - Predictors of Mental Health Symptoms, Automatic Thoughts, and Self-Esteem Among
      University Students.
AB  - University youth is a risk group regarding mental health, and many mental health
      problems are frequent in this group. Sociodemographic factors such as level of
      income and familial factors such as relationship with father are reported to be
      associated with mental health symptoms, automatic thoughts, and self-esteem.
      Also, there are interrelations between mental health problems, automatic
      thoughts, and self-esteem. The extent of predictive effect of each of these
      variables on automatic thoughts, self-esteem, and mental health symptoms is not
      known. We aimed to determine the predictive factors of mental health symptoms,
      automatic thoughts, and self-esteem in university students. Participants were 530
      students enrolled at a university in Turkey, during 2014-2015 academic year. Data
      were collected using the student information form, the Brief Symptom Inventory,
      the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Mental
      health symptoms, self-esteem, perception of the relationship with the father, and
      level of income as a student significantly predicted automatic thoughts.
      Automatic thoughts, mental health symptoms, participation in family decisions,
      and age had significant predictive effects on self-esteem. Finally, automatic
      thoughts, self-esteem, age, and perception of the relationship with the father
      had significant predictive effects on mental health symptoms. The predictive
      factors revealed in our study provide important information to practitioners and
      researchers by showing the elements that need to be screened for mental health of
      university students and issues that need to be included in counseling activities.

PMID- 28558542
TI  - Examining the Temporal Development of Phonetic and Lexical Learning in Second
      Language.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate how second-language (L2) learners
      lexically encode confusable phonemes. Given the inconsistency of previous studies
      on whether and if so how learners can establish separate lexical representations
      of confusable categories, we examined (1) how phonetic categorization and lexical
      encoding abilities were developed at the early stage of learning and (2) whether
      there are any differences in those abilities between the words with a sound pair
      from a corresponding native language (L1)-dominant category and those lacking
      such category. Native speakers of Korean learned Arabic words with these two
      types of sound pairs for four days and then their phonetic categorization and
      lexical processing abilities were evaluated in AXB discrimination and lexical
      decision tasks, respectively. The results showed that phonetic categorization of
      the words with a sound pair from an L1-dominant category developed very early.
      With success in their discrimination abilities, L2 learners began to overcome
      lexical competition from the words with such a sound pair. By contrast, learners
      showed poor sound discrimination and lexical encoding skills for words with a
      sound pair lacking an L1-dominant category. This suggests that (1) L2 learners'
      accurate phonetic categorization abilities are prerequisite to success in L2
      lexical encoding and (2) lexical representations of the L2 words with confusable
      phonemes depend on the distinct types of sound category matchup between L1 and
      L2.

PMID- 28558543
TI  - Socializing Agents for Sport and Physical Activities in Teenage Students:
      Comparative Studies in Samples From Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain.
AB  - The aim of this study is to analyze a set of socializing agents for sport and
      physical activities and to establish their relationship with leisure time sport
      and physical activities behaviors and practice patterns in samples of teenage
      students with different sociocultural backgrounds. The sample included 2168
      students in their first year of secondary education, 423 of them being from Costa
      Rica, 408 from Mexico, and 1337 from Spain (1052 male students, 1037 female
      students, and 79 students who did not specify gender) aged 11-16 years old ( M =
      12.49; SD = .81). A validated questionnaire with questions about leisure time
      sport and physical activities and socializing agents was used. Descriptive,
      inferential, and multinomial logistic regression analyses were carried out with
      SPSS 17.0 to compare all three countries. Costa Rica had the most active
      students, best friends' inactivity, and unsupportive parents being the agents
      predicting inactivity and a low level of sport and physical activities. Mexico
      has a high dropout rate and inactive students exceed active ones; no agent
      predicts inactivity or sport and physical activities pattern. Spain has the
      highest level of sport and physical activities practice, and parents, siblings,
      and friends are predicting agents of inactivity together with unsupportive
      parents and friends.

PMID- 28558544
TI  - Differences in Young Children's Peer Preference by Inhibitory Control and Emotion
      Regulation.
AB  - This study investigated differences in young children's peer preference by
      inhibitory control and emotion regulation. In Study 1, 66 preschoolers ( M = 5
      years 11 months) were assessed for inhibitory control (IC), emotion regulation
      (ER), and peer preference. Stroop-like tasks (the black-white task and shine-rain
      task), the disappointing gift task, and a positive nomination measure were used
      as measures of IC, ER, and peer preference, respectively. The results of Study 1
      showed that participants with high IC or high ER were popular with their peers in
      comparison to participants with low IC or low ER. Study 2 measured young
      children's ( N = 43, M = 6 years 1 month) ER by comparing social judgment between
      a condition that induces negative emotion and a condition that does not. The
      results of Study 2 showed that participants with high IC or high ER (who could
      select appropriate behaviors, even when negative emotion was induced) had many
      mutual relations with friends compared to participants with low IC or low ER.
      These data indicate the role of inhibitory control and emotion regulation in
      young children's peer preference.

PMID- 28558545
TI  - Development and Validation of a Comprehensive Work-Related Needs Measure.
AB  - In a work context, employees tend to gravitate toward situations that are most
      conducive to meeting their needs. The purpose of this research is threefold.
      First, we define and specify the psychological needs under investigation, briefly
      highlight extant research, and differentiate needs from other individual
      difference variables. Second, we demonstrate the limitations of one of the most
      highly cited psychological needs instruments and introduce a new needs model.
      Third, we develop and evaluate a multi-dimensional needs inventory using a multi
      study design. The strengths and limitations of the proposed and tested model are
      discussed, as are implications for future research.

PMID- 28558546
TI  - Experiencing Instigations and Trait Aggression Contribute to Harsh Parenting
      Behaviors.
AB  - Three studies (total N = 1777 parents) examined whether harsh parenting behaviors
      would increase when parents experienced an instigation and whether this increase
      would be especially pronounced for parents who were high in trait aggression.
      These predictions were tested both when parents' experience of an instigation was
      manipulated (Studies 1 and 2) and when parents' perceptions of their child's
      instigating behavior was reported (Study 3). Further, these predictions were
      tested across a variety of measures of parents' harsh behaviors: (1) asking
      parents to report their likelihood of behaving harshly (Study 1), (2) using proxy
      tasks for parents' inclinations to behave harshly (Study 2), and (3) having
      parents report their past child-directed behaviors, some of which were harsh
      (Study 3). Both child instigations and parents' trait aggression were
      consistently associated with parents' child-directed harsh behaviors. However,
      parents' trait aggression only moderated the extent to which the instigation was
      associated with their harsh parenting for self-reported physical harsh behaviors
      (Study 1). The results of the current studies demonstrate that both situational
      factors, such as experiencing an instigation, and individual difference
      variables, such as trait aggression, affect parents' likelihood to exhibit harsh
      behaviors, but found little evidence these factors interact.

PMID- 28558547
TI  - Examining the Priority Heuristic in Conditions of Resource Need Levels.
AB  - Within the domain of risky decision making, there are a number of predictive
      models which are consistent with the hypothesis that human minds are molded for
      specific behavioral patterns based on environmental cues. Two models are the
      priority heuristic and risk sensitive foraging. Using a modified version of the
      traditional risky choice gambles paradigm, a study was designed to tease apart
      specific predictions made by each of these two models. It was discovered that the
      best explanation for choice behavior was consistent with risk sensitive foraging.
      This was true for risky preferences in gambles. Also, decision time predictions
      from the priority heuristic were not supported. Collectively, this may show
      additional support for risk-sensitivity driving some human behaviors. It may also
      carve out the boundaries for the proper "ecology" of the priority heuristic.

PMID- 28558548
TI  - The Spanish Adaptation of the Sport Motivation Scale-II in Adolescent Athletes.
AB  - The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Spanish version of the Sport
      Motivation Scale-II (S-SMS-II) in adolescent athletes. The sample included 766
      Spanish adolescents (263 females and 503 males; average age = 13.71 +/- 1.30
      years old). The methodological steps established by the International Test
      Commission were followed. Four measurement models were compared employing the
      maximum likelihood estimation (with six, five, three, and two factors). Then,
      factorial invariance analyses were conducted and the effect sizes were
      calculated. Finally, the reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha,
      omega, and average variance extracted coefficients. The five-factor S-SMS-II
      showed the best indices of fit (Cronbach's alpha .64 to .74; goodness of fit
      index .971, root mean square error of approximation .044, comparative fit index
      .966). Factorial invariance was also verified across gender and between sport
      federated athletes and non-federated athletes. The proposed S-SMS-II is discussed
      according to previous validated versions (English, Portuguese, and Chinese).

PMID- 28558549
TI  - What About the Different Shortened Versions of the Mindful Attention Awareness
      Scale?
AB  - Given the mixed conclusions on the psychometric properties of the Mindful
      Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the variety of subsets of items identified
      as abbreviated forms, the current study aimed to (a) further investigate the
      performance of single items and different combinations of items of the MAAS from
      within an Item Response Theory framework, (b) to expand upon existing knowledge
      about the coverage of the construct of the scale and its shortened versions. A
      sample of 914 participants (67.6% women; mean age 23.28, SD = 4.77) completed the
      MAAS. To fulfill the second aim of the study, of the total sample, two subsamples
      ( N = 156 and N = 158, respectively) were administered a battery of self-report
      questionnaires. Analyses attested that four items of the MAAS have weak
      psychometric properties and that the reliability of the scale remains unchanged
      when these items are excluded. The relationships with several constructs
      (consciousness, present-time attitude, emotional intelligence, alexithymia,
      emotion regulation strategies, behavioral inhibition and activation, affect,
      anxiety, and depression) provided evidence that the scale adequately reflects the
      operationalization of the construct, although some facets of the construct are
      only partially covered. The current findings confirm that the MAAS might be
      slightly shortened without reducing its reliability and validity, but drastically
      abbreviated forms, such as the proposed five-item version, fail to maintain
      adequate psychometric properties.

PMID- 28558550
TI  - Lack of empathy from GPs could delay cancer diagnosis.
AB  - Older people with cancer symptoms are more likely to seek advice if their GP is a
      good listener, and doctors need to improve this skill, a study suggests.

PMID- 28558551
TI  - Pathophysiology, assessment and treatment of coronary heart disease in women.
AB  - Despite improvements in mortality rates, coronary heart disease (CHD) continues
      to be a leading cause of death in the UK. It has a long-standing reputation as a
      'male disease', and although there has been an increased interest in and
      awareness of the disease, CHD in women remains understudied, under-diagnosed and
      undertreated. This article discusses the apparent disparity in pathophysiology,
      symptom presentation, risk factor profile, assessment, management and outcomes
      between men and women in relation to CHD and acute coronary syndrome, which is an
      acute manifestation of CHD.

PMID- 28558552
TI  - The patient who transformed motor neurone disease care.
AB  - In March 2015, Nursing Standard published a feature about a remarkable young man
      called Gordon Aikman. He had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) the
      previous year, aged 29, while working as director of research for the Better
      Together campaign, ahead of the Scottish independence referendum. The Scot,
      pictured, knew the prognosis wasn't good, and was determined to make the most of
      the time he had left.

PMID- 28558553
TI  - Year-long weight-loss classes could prevent more illnesses.
AB  - Offering year-long programmes of weight loss classes could prevent hundreds of
      additional cases of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

PMID- 28558555
TI  - Scientists map precise timings for the spread of cancer.
AB  - Scientists have established precise timings in the development of a patient's
      cancer for the first time, dating the stages of the disease's progression.

PMID- 28558554
TI  - Election 2017 Party policies and the future of the NHS.
AB  - Isn't this meant to be the Brexit election? Where does health fit in? Polls
      suggest the NHS is one of the key areas of concern for voters - possibly even
      more than Brexit. Labour would love this election to be all about the NHS, and
      has produced a raft of policies that should appeal to people working in it,
      including free car parking and an end to pay restraint. Labour leader Jeremy
      Corbyn has put the NHS at the heart of his campaign, promising an extra L37
      billion for it by 2022.

PMID- 28558556
TI  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - A new report on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by the British Lung
      Foundation criticises the lack of progress in tackling lung disease.

PMID- 28558557
TI  - Promoting healthy sleep.
AB  - What was the nature of the CPD activity, practice-related feedback and/or event
      and/or experience in your practice? The article discussed the stages of sleep,
      the factors that may influence quality of sleep, and the effects of suboptimal
      sleep on patients and nurses.

PMID- 28558558
TI  - Three cups of espresso a day may halve prostate cancer risk.
AB  - Drinking more than three cups of Italian-style espresso coffee every day could
      halve the risk of prostate cancer in men.

PMID- 28558559
TI  - 'Keep everything in perspective'.
AB  - Sue Morgan MBE trained at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff as a
      general nurse and then as a sick children's nurse. She was a ward sister before
      becoming a Macmillan clinical nurse specialist for teenagers and young adults
      with cancer.

PMID- 28558560
TI  - Learning how to manage perinatal mental illness.
AB  - With more than one in ten women developing a mental health problem during
      pregnancy or in the first year afterwards, healthcare professionals need the
      skills to be able to support them effectively.

PMID- 28558564
TI  - RCN invites applications for credentialing scheme.
AB  - The RCN is launching its new credentialing programme for nurses working at an
      advanced level of practice, following a successful five-month trial.

PMID- 28558566
TI  - Nurse describes caring for Manchester bomb victims.
AB  - A senior surgical ward sister has spoken of the emotional night shift caring for
      those injured in the Manchester Arena attack.

PMID- 28558567
TI  - 'PJ paralysis' campaign gets patients up and trusts moving.
AB  - The aims of the #EndPJparalysis campaign are simple: get patients out of bed and
      dressed during the day, and then into chairs, activity rooms or to dining rooms
      for meals. Increased activity can help recovery, reduce muscle wastage, maintain
      independence and lead to patients being discharged sooner.

PMID- 28558569
TI  - Tracking devices could cut anxiety.
AB  - Leading nurse dementia expert June Andrews has revealed she has asked her family
      to put a tracking device under her skin if she develops symptoms in later years.

PMID- 28558571
TI  - Nurse used online translator to communicate during nursing home shifts.
AB  - A nurse with 'little understanding' of English relied on Google's online
      translator service while working at a nursing home in Wales, inspectors found.

PMID- 28558572
TI  - Student life - More prizes than pitfalls in organising a conference.
AB  - Most students and nurses will attend conferences but far fewer will tackle
      arranging and presenting one.

PMID- 28558573
TI  - Readers' panel - Does negative media coverage put young people off nursing?
AB  - Our experts consider a hot topic of the day.

PMID- 28558574
TI  - 'Nursing is at the heart of me'.
AB  - My path to mental health nursing started with some of my earliest memories of my
      family. As a young girl, we lived in a small village where my mother was
      everyone's best friend and a person to go to in difficult times.

PMID- 28558575
TI  - Keep unfit drivers off the road.
AB  - 'He'd be better off on a horse,' the patient's son told me. 'At least the horse
      can see where it's going.'

PMID- 28558577
TI  - Every country must commit to improving working conditions.
AB  - Global institutions understand the importance of the health workforce in
      improving healthcare and are worried about staff shortages.

PMID- 28558576
TI  - Age of uncertainty.
AB  - The impact of Brexit on the NHS and on nursing remains a 'known unknown'. We all
      agree it will have an impact, but we cannot agree yet what that impact will be.
      The 28 April report on Brexit by the Commons health committee does a good job of
      sorting out the facts from the speculation. The committee points to two other
      'known unknowns' that complicate an assessment of UK nursing numbers after the
      referendum vote to leave the European Union (EU) last June.

PMID- 28558578
TI  - Look after yourself.
AB  - Nurses in all sectors are under pressure as they respond to the rising number of
      patients, often with multiple problems, and the complexities of care. It is
      therefore important to look after yourself, both in and outside of work.

PMID- 28558579
TI  - 'Cringeworthy' adverts proposed for recruitment campaign cause a stir.
AB  - Nurses expressed outrage at 'outdated stereotypes' used in adverts proposed for a
      recruitment campaign, after they were released in error.

PMID- 28558580
TI  - Assessing an individual's fitness to be interviewed in police custody.
AB  - Nurses working in police custody settings may be called on to assess a detainee's
      fitness to be interviewed by police, for example where the person is thought to
      have a mental disorder or vulnerability. This article outlines the role of the
      custody nurse in the fitness-to-interview assessment. This assessment is complex
      and multifaceted. It requires custody nurses to assess a detainee's medical,
      mental health, educational and social history, as well as any substance misuse.
      It should include a mental state examination and, where appropriate, a physical
      examination. Fitness-to-interview decisions should be rigorous to prevent
      miscarriages of justice or significant harm to detainees. Custody nurses should
      advocate for detainees who are mentally vulnerable and ensure appropriate
      safeguards are in place, where necessary. Further work is required to reduce the
      subjectivity of the fitness-to-interview assessment, along with increased
      investment in appropriate adult services. Equally, custody nurses working at this
      advanced level of practice require relevant postgraduate knowledge and skills.

PMID- 28558581
TI  - Dementia may affect care.
AB  - RCN Congress has resolved that nurses who have dementia should be allowed to
      continue working (news, 24 May).

PMID- 28558582
TI  - Problem Solving Through Precision Oncology Copson Ellen R Problem Solving Through
      Precision Oncology 256pp L39.95 Clinical Publishing 9781846921117 1846921112
      [Formula: see text].
AB  - Offering an interesting insight into cutting-edge cancer management, this book is
      timely given the focus on personalised medicine and the increasing number of
      targeted anti-cancer agents in development and clinical practice.

PMID- 28558583
TI  - Dementia nurses can carry on.
AB  - If the person with dementia feels they want to continue and their role can be
      supported, why not?

PMID- 28558585
TI  - BECCA.
AB  - Created by charity Breast Cancer Care, this app aims to help people with breast
      cancer adapt to life after hospital treatment ends.

PMID- 28558586
TI  - Nurse who encouraged patients to pray was 'rightfully dismissed', tribunal rules.
AB  - A nurse who told a patient he would have a better chance of surviving an
      operation if he prayed was rightly dismissed by her trust, an employment tribunal
      has ruled.

PMID- 28558587
TI  - It's unfair to push your beliefs.
AB  - It was right to dismiss Sarah Kuteh as she had been warned about pushing her
      views on people and patients had complained about her.

PMID- 28558588
TI  - No time to chat.
AB  - Patients do often say 'the nurses are always at the nurses' station chatting and
      not doing anything' (Hospital visitors' experiences at the nurses' station,
      evidence & practice, 19 April) but this is because they don't understand that so
      much has to be done on the computer, such as ordering blood tests, X-rays,
      documenting care and much more.

PMID- 28558589
TI  - Poor service is not acceptable.
AB  - The public perception of the nurses' station should not be dismissed. We need to
      look at this as a profession and work out how we can improve patients' and their
      relatives' experience in our own areas.

PMID- 28558590
TI  - Nurses go above and beyond.
AB  - The nurses who cared for people injured in the Manchester Arena attack dug deep
      and pulled together just like we always do and will continue to do.

PMID- 28558591
TI  - Throwing money at services is not enough.
AB  - The general election is an opportunity for a frank public debate on the future of
      our health and care system, which includes addressing the pressing issue of
      funding services adequately over the next few years.

PMID- 28558592
TI  - Develop your leadership style.
AB  - Nursing has evolved from the days when doctors directed nurses' every move. As a
      registered nurse, you now make autonomous decisions and are professionally
      accountable for your actions and omissions.

PMID- 28558593
TI  - Learning through leadership.
AB  - Almost 800,000 nasogastric tubes are used in the NHS each year. They are used
      regularly in children's nursing, particularly on neonatal units and children's
      wards over the winter bronchiolitis season.

PMID- 28558594
TI  - Manchester response reveals the spirit of our NHS staff.
AB  - As they always do in the nation's hour of need, nurses came to the rescue last
      week by responding so impressively to the terrorist attack in Manchester. Staff
      at eight hospitals were directly involved in caring for victims, while many more
      played their part by providing care and emotional support to the wider community
      of north-west England and beyond.

PMID- 28558595
TI  - Prayer is part of holistic care.
AB  - How very sad that Sarah Kuteh was dismissed for telling a patient with cancer he
      would have a better chance of surviving an operation if he prayed ( see news ).
      We say similar things all the time in the United States. I have been a nurse for
      more than 20 years and have never heard anything so sad. Holistic care should
      include physical, social, psychological and spiritual care.

PMID- 28558596
TI  - Chance meeting.
AB  - A nursing student who had cancer as a child has been reunited with the nurse who
      helped save her life.

PMID- 28558597
TI  - 'These nurses have made a terrible situation more bearable'.
AB  - I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in June last year. Unbelievably, my
      husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer in July. We had married that March.
      Now we both have just months to live.

PMID- 28558598
TI  - Body cameras could improve safety for staff and patients.
AB  - Violence, aggression and use of restraint could be reduced by equipping nursing
      staff with body-worn cameras, according to a study at a psychiatric unit.

PMID- 28558599
TI  - NMC's education plan swaps mentors for two new roles.
AB  - Mentors for nursing students could be replaced with supervisors and assessors as
      part of the 'radical' overhaul of nurse education by the Nursing and Midwifery
      Council (NMC).

PMID- 28558600
TI  - Bullying Policies across the Lifespan.

PMID- 28558601
TI  - Conducting Nursing Research to Advance and Inform Health Policy.
AB  - The primary roles of nurse scientists in conducting health policy research are to
      increase knowledge in the discipline and provide evidence for informing and
      advancing health policies with the goal of improving the health outcomes of
      society. Health policy research informs, characterizes, explains, or tests
      hypotheses by employing a variety of research designs. Health policy research
      focuses on improving the access to care, the quality and cost of care, and the
      efficiency with which care is delivered. In this article, we explain how nurses
      might envision their research in a policy process framework, describe research
      designs that nurse researchers might use to inform and advance health policies,
      and provide examples of research conducted by nurse researchers to explicate key
      concepts in the policy process framework. Health policies are well informed and
      advanced when nurse researchers have a good understanding of the political
      process. The policy process framework provides a context for improving the focus
      and design of research and better explicating the connection between research
      evidence and policy. Nurses should focus their research on addressing problems of
      importance that are on the healthcare agenda, work with interdisciplinary teams
      of researchers, synthesize, and widely disseminate results.

PMID- 28558602
TI  - How Activism Features in the Career Lives of Four Generations of Canadian Nurses.
AB  - Recent nursing research using a critical feminist lens challenges the prevailing
      view of political inertia in nursing. This comparative life history study using a
      critical feminist lens explores the relevance of activism with four generations
      of Canadian nurses. Purposeful sampling of Ontario nurses resulted in 40
      participants who were diverse in terms of generation, practice setting, and
      activist practice. Interviews and focus groups were completed with the sample of
      Ontario registered nurses or undergraduate and graduate nursing students: 8
      Generation X, 9 Generation Y (Millennials), 20 Boomers, and 3 Overboomers.
      Factors such as professional norms and personal and organizational supports
      shaped contradictory nursing activist identities, practices, and impacts.
      Gendered norms, organizational dynamics, and the political landscape influenced
      the meanings nurses attributed to critical incidents and influences that prompted
      activism inside and outside the workplace, shaping the transformative potential
      of nursing. Despite its limitations, the study has implications for creating
      professional and organizational supports for consideration of health politics and
      policy, and spaces for dialogue to support practice and research aligned with
      social justice goals.

PMID- 28558603
TI  - Social Media Awareness and Implications in Nursing Leadership.
AB  - Many nursing professionals-may be reluctant to engage in or are confused about
      appropriate use of social media in a clinical, research, or policy context. To
      address this issue, we developed a study to enhance nurse leaders' facility with
      social media in the context of a national professional meeting. This study
      examined a social media campaign at the 2015 American Academy of Nursing
      conference. The campaign was intended to bridge the gap between active social
      media users and nonusers attending the conference. Following a targeted social
      media campaign at the American Academy of Nursing 2015 Transforming Health,
      Driving Policy Conference, responses to the conference evaluation questions about
      social media were reviewed and analyzed. Overall, evaluations were positive about
      the campaign; however, some conference attendees were not aware of its various
      components. Despite perceived barriers to its use, there is significant curiosity
      about social media use among nurse leaders. With the engagement of these leaders,
      there may be opportunities to enhance social media use at professional meetings
      and to make broader use of this valuable tool throughout the nursing profession.

PMID- 28558605
TI  - Gender, Attitudes Toward War, and Masculinities in Japan.
AB  - Previous studies have argued that masculinity is linked to war. We conducted a
      web-based survey to examine relationships between gender, attitudes toward war,
      and masculinities within a sample of Japanese adults of both sexes ( N = 366).
      Our results indicated that while men were more likely than women to accept war,
      the relationship between attitudes toward war and masculinities was inconclusive.
      Moreover, the results suggested that favorable attitudes toward war among men
      could be attenuated by interpersonal orientations. Based on our findings, we
      recommend a reexamination of attitudes toward war within the Japanese population.

PMID- 28558604
TI  - Hospitals Known for Nursing Excellence Perform Better on Value Based Purchasing
      Measures.
AB  - It is well-established that hospitals recognized for good nursing care - Magnet
      hospitals - are associated with better patient outcomes. Less is known about how
      Magnet hospitals compare to non-Magnets on quality measures linked to Medicare
      reimbursement. The purpose of this study was to determine how Magnet hospitals
      perform compared to matched non-Magnet hospitals on Hospital Value Based
      Purchasing (VBP) measures. A cross-sectional analysis of three linked data
      sources was performed. The sample included 3,021 non-federal acute care hospitals
      participating in the VBP program (323 Magnets; 2,698 non-Magnets). Propensity
      score matching was used to match Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals with similar
      hospital characteristics. After matching, linear and logistic regression models
      were used to examine the relationship between Magnet status and VBP performance.
      After matching and adjusting for hospital characteristics, Magnet recognition
      predicted higher scores on Total Performance (Regression Coefficient [RC] = 1.66,
      p < 0.05), Clinical Processes (RC = 3.85; p < 0.01), and Patient Experience (RC =
      6.33; p < 0.001). The relationships between Magnet recognition and the Outcome
      and Efficiency domains were not statistically significant. Magnet hospitals known
      for nursing excellence perform better on Hospital VBP measures. As healthcare
      systems adapt to evolving incentives that reward value, attention to nurses at
      the front lines may be central to ensuring high-value care for patients.

PMID- 28558606
TI  - Prevalence of Personality Disorders in a General Population Among Men and Women.
AB  - The aim of the present study is to establish the prevalence of personality
      disorders (PDs) in a healthy (nonclinical) Polish population, to examine sex
      difference in PDs, and to show the structure of clusters which PDs form with
      regard to men and women. A large sample of 1460 individuals of age between 18 and
      65 years was examined. The Structured Clinical Interview for Axis II was used to
      obtain information on PDs, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to
      obtain information on other disorders, and an interview to record demographic
      data. Results show that approximately 9% of the sample had at least one PD (the
      overall rate is 8.9%) and rates on sex differences in PDs are similar to other
      European and North American countries. The most prevalent PDs are obsessive
      compulsive (9.6%), narcissistic (7%), and borderline (7%). Results show the
      considerable comorbidity of PDs which means that about 9% of the adult population
      have at least one PD and in fact they display features of many specific PDs. A
      factor analysis revealed that 12 PDs form different clusters in men and women.

PMID- 28558607
TI  - Presence of Meaning in Life and Search for Meaning in Life and Relationship to
      Health Anxiety.
AB  - The present study explored presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in
      life, and their correlation with health anxiety. The Meaning in Life
      Questionnaire and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory were completed by 753
      individuals. Results indicated higher presence of meaning in life was associated
      with lower health anxiety, while the opposite was observed for search for meaning
      in life. Results also revealed an interaction between presence of meaning in life
      and search for meaning in life, where individuals with high search for meaning in
      life and high presence of meaning in life had lower health anxiety than those
      with high search for meaning in life and low presence of meaning in life. These
      findings suggest that presence of meaning in life and search for meaning in life
      are correlates of health anxiety.

PMID- 28558609
TI  - Reliability and Construct Validity of the Portuguese Version of the Psychological
      Capital Questionnaire.
AB  - The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) is the most commonly used measure
      for assessing psychological capital in work settings. Although several studies
      confirmed its factorial validity, most validation studies only examined the four
      factor structure preconized by Luthans, Youssef, and Avolio, not attending to
      empirical evidence on alternative factorial structures. The present study aimed
      to test the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the PCQ, by
      using two independent samples (NS1 = 542; NS2 = 115) of Portuguese employees. We
      conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses and found that, unlike
      previous findings, a five-factor solution of the PCQ best fitted the data. The
      evidence obtained also supported the existence of a second-order factor,
      psychological capital. The coefficients of internal consistency, as measured by
      Cronbach's alpha, were adequate and test-retest reliability suggested that the
      PCQ presented a lower stability than personality factors. Convergent validity,
      assessed with average variance extracted, revealed problems in the optimism
      subscale. The discriminant validity of the PCQ was confirmed by its correlations
      with Positive and Negative Affect and Big Five personality factors. Hierarchical
      regression analyses showed that this measure has incremental validity over
      personality and affect when predicting job performance.

PMID- 28558608
TI  - Impacts of Maximizing Tendencies on Experience-Based Decisions.
AB  - Previous research on risky decisions has suggested that people tend to make
      different choices depending on whether they acquire the information from
      personally repeated experiences or from statistical summary descriptions. This
      phenomenon, called as a description-experience gap, was expected to be moderated
      by the individual difference in maximizing tendencies, a desire towards
      maximizing decisional outcome. Specifically, it was hypothesized that maximizers'
      willingness to engage in extensive information searching would lead maximizers to
      make experience-based decisions as payoff distributions were given explicitly. A
      total of 262 participants completed four decision problems. Results showed that
      maximizers, compared to non-maximizers, drew more samples before making a choice
      but reported lower confidence levels on both the accuracy of knowledge gained
      from experiences and the likelihood of satisfactory outcomes. Additionally,
      maximizers exhibited smaller description-experience gaps than non-maximizers as
      expected. The implications of the findings and unanswered questions for future
      research were discussed.

PMID- 28558610
TI  - Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in
      Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables.
AB  - The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic
      variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to
      communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language
      learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in
      Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety
      Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the
      Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness
      to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with
      Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in
      China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor
      for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to
      Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese
      Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency
      level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely
      determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in
      China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and
      intercultural communication sensitivity level.

PMID- 28558611
TI  - Self-Punishment Promotes Forgiveness in the Direct and Indirect Reciprocity
      Contexts.
AB  - Most previous studies regarding self-punishment have focused on the correlation
      between moral emotion and self-punishment. Only a few studies have attempted to
      understand self-punishment from the perspective of seeking forgiveness, and no
      study has yet directly tested whether wrongdoers' self-punishment promotes others
      to forgive the wrongdoers. In three studies, the participants judged the
      wrongdoers' self-punishment behaviors following an unfair allocation and reported
      the extent to which they forgave the wrongdoers. The results demonstrated that
      self-punishment did promote forgiveness in both the direct (Studies 1 and 2) and
      indirect reciprocity (Study 3) contexts. Consistent with costly signaling theory,
      the costlier the self-punishment was, the stronger the effect it had on
      forgiveness. Moreover, communicative self-punishment had a better effect than
      silent self-punishment when the cost was relatively high in the direct
      reciprocity studies. These findings can guide us regarding how to address a
      damaged relationship via self-punishment when compensation is not feasible or
      acceptable.

PMID- 28558612
TI  - Recognition of Facial Expressions by Urban Internet-Addicted Left-Behind Children
      in China.
AB  - Internet addition affects facial expression recognition of individuals. However,
      evidences of facial expression recognition from different types of addicts are
      insufficient. The present study addressed the question by adopting eye-movement
      analytical method and focusing on the difference in facial expression recognition
      between internet-addicted and non-internet-addicted urban left-behind children in
      China. Sixty 14-year-old Chinese participants performed tasks requiring absolute
      recognition judgment and relative recognition judgment. The results show that the
      information processing mode adopted by the internet-addicted involved earlier
      gaze acceleration, longer fixation durations, lower fixation counts, and uniform
      extraction of pictorial information. The information processing mode of the non
      addicted showed the opposite pattern. Moreover, recognition and processing of
      negative emotion pictures were relatively complex, and it was especially
      difficult for urban internet-addicted left-behind children to process negative
      emotion pictures in fine judgment and processing stage of recognition on
      differences as demonstrated by longer fixation duration and inadequate fixation
      counts.

PMID- 28558613
TI  - Work Engagement in South Korea.
AB  - This study aims to validate Korean versions of the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement
      Scale, testing for its factor pattern validity through Exploratory Factor
      Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, reliability, and convergent and
      discriminant validity. The 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale was translated
      according to the guidelines of the International Test Commission and tested with
      two Korean samples. First, the Exploratory Factor Analysis found that both two
      factor and three-factor solutions were viable options with the first sample.
      Second, comparison validations of these two solutions were tested by confirming
      the dimensionality of their structures through the Confirmatory Factor Analyses
      with the second sample, with the conclusion that the three-factor model solution
      was the most parsimonious model. Finally, the three-factor model of the 9-item
      Utrecht Work Engagement Scale was demonstrated to have good discriminant validity
      and convergent validity, as well as internal consistency of its subscales.

PMID- 28558614
TI  - Differentiating Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Voters Using Facets of
      Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social-Dominance Orientation.
AB  - Historically, much of the research on right-wing authoritarianism and social
      dominance orientation has proceeded from the assumption that they are
      unidimensional. Recently, researchers have begun to seriously consider the
      possibility that they are multidimensional in nature and should be measured as
      such. Several studies have examined the unique relationships between right-wing
      authoritarianism and social dominance orientation facets and social and political
      outcome measures of interest. However, there have been no efforts to include the
      full slate of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation facets
      as predictors in the same model. This is problematic when investigating the
      discriminant validity of these facets, given the potential empirical overlap
      among the facets both within and across scales. We included facets of right-wing
      authoritarianism and social dominance orientation as predictors of U.S. voters'
      intentions to vote for Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump in the 2016
      Presidential Election. Data were collected in September 2016. We found evidence
      for the discriminant validity of several of the right-wing authoritarianism and
      social dominance orientation facets.

PMID- 28558615
TI  - Religious Fundamentalism, Humor, and Treatment Outcomes in Individuals in Court
      Mandated Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment.
AB  - The relationship between religious fundamentalism, humor, and psychological well
      being was examined with a sample of individuals ( n = 109) being treated for drug
      abuse in a court-mandated AA outpatient program. Three separate factors of
      religious fundamentalism were found through exploratory factor analysis of the
      Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, and these were named Righteous-Evil
      Worldview, True Religion, and Scriptural Literalism. Psychological well-being of
      individuals in court-mandated outpatient substance abuse treatment was found to
      be correlated with high levels of humor but not religious fundamentalism.
      Psychological well-being and humor were found to be related to satisfaction with
      services; no relationship was found between religious fundamentalism and
      satisfaction with services. One factor of religious fundamentalism, Scriptural
      Literalism, was found to be associated with high levels of depression and
      paranoia/hostility. Implications of these relationships for treatment and
      understanding of religious fundamentalism and psychological well-being are
      discussed.

PMID- 28558616
TI  - A Mediation Model for Ideas of Reference.
AB  - Ideas of reference are common in human beings, but they are frequent in certain
      psychopathological disorders, mainly those concerning the psychotic spectrum. The
      purpose of this study was to attempt to construct a model predicting the
      appearance of ideas of reference and to test the relationship of personality
      (based on the Gray model), emotional, and self-consciousness variables. Five
      hundred and seventy-four participants (287 patients with several different
      psychopathological diagnoses) filled in the Referential Thinking Scale (REF), the
      GHQ-28, the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS-R), and the SPSRQ Scale. The resulting
      model found full mediation of sensitivity to punishment, sensitivity to reward,
      depression, and public self-consciousness between anxiety and ideas of reference,
      regardless of the group they were in (patients vs. nonpatients). This result,
      based on the appearance of anxiety symptomatology, explains 43% of the variance
      in scores, showing the presence of ideas of reference and therefore enables
      prediction of a set of vulnerabilities (established with self-reports) which
      could lead to a psychological state of high general pathological risk and
      proneness to psychosis in particular.

PMID- 28558617
TI  - Social Media Use and Episodic Heavy Drinking Among Adolescents.
AB  - : Objectives Little is known about the consequences of adolescent social media
      use. The current study estimated the association between the amount of time
      adolescents spend on social media and the risk of episodic heavy drinking.
      Methods A school-based self-report cross-sectional study including 851 Norwegian
      middle and high school students (46.1% boys). MEASURES: frequency and quantity of
      social media use. Frequency of drinking four or six (girls and boys,
      respectively) alcoholic drinks during a single day (episodic heavy drinking). The
      MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale -
      Brief, the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9
      items for Adolescents, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Peer
      Relationship problems scale, gender, and school grade. Results Greater amount of
      time spent on social media was associated with greater likelihood of episodic
      heavy drinking among adolescents ( OR = 1.12, 95% CI (1.05, 1.19), p = 0.001),
      even after adjusting for school grade, impulsivity, sensation seeking, symptoms
      of depression, and peer relationship problems. Conclusion The results from the
      current study indicate that more time spent on social media is related to greater
      likelihood of episodic heavy drinking among adolescents.

PMID- 28558618
TI  - Mechanisms Linking Ethical Leadership to Ethical Sales Behavior.
AB  - This study investigated the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical
      sales behavior. A total of 248 matched surveys with participant responses from
      insurance agents and their customers were collected. The insurance agents were
      asked to rate the ethical leadership of their leaders, the ethical climate in
      their organization, and their individual moral identity. Customers were asked to
      rate the perceived ethical sales behavior of the insurance agents. This empirical
      study utilized moderated mediation techniques to analyze the data. Results
      indicated that ethical climate mediated the relationship between ethical
      leadership and ethical sales behavior when moral identity was high, however, did
      not when moral identity was low. The research framework including contextual
      effects (i.e., ethical climate) and individual differences in moral judgment
      (i.e., moral identity) can provide a comprehensive picture of how ethical
      leadership influences ethical sales behavior. Theoretical and practical
      implications of these findings are also discussed.

PMID- 28558619
TI  - Mental Toughness in South African Youth.
AB  - Young people are particularly vulnerable to health risk behaviors and
      interpersonal violence, stimulating scholars' attention towards identifying
      factors that may reduce the likelihood that these actions will occur. Associated
      with positive outcomes in a variety of domains, mental toughness in young people
      might protect them from engaging in potentially deleterious interpersonal or
      health-risk behaviors, while potentially promoting positive psychological
      behaviors. Within this framework, the present study investigated the
      relationships between mental toughness, attitudes towards physical and
      psychological risk-taking, and trait forgiveness in a sample of 123 (males = 54,
      females = 69) South African youth ( M age = 23.97 years, SD = 4.46). Univariate
      and multivariate analyses indicated higher levels of mental toughness were
      associated with being more forgiving, ([Formula: see text] = .036), perceiving
      physical risk-taking more positively ([Formula: see text] = .062), but having
      more negative attitudes towards psychological risk-taking ([Formula: see text] =
      .036). These findings give credence to mental toughness as a psychological
      characteristic involved in youth risk-taking perceptions and interpersonal
      functioning. Future research might explore the integration of mental toughness
      into the development of future youth risk behavior interventions.

PMID- 28558620
TI  - Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder.
AB  - This study tested the effect of task-specific training of a perceptual ability
      for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) compared to control
      children. A manual matching task (target location and pointing task) was used,
      which required the children to locate target pins either visually (seen target)
      or proprioceptively (felt target), while matching to the located target was
      always carried out without vision. Thirty-one children (11-12 years) were
      selected based on teacher statements regarding everyday motor skill performance,
      the DSM-IV criteria, and the Movement ABC test. Based on this, 10 children with
      obvious motor problems were placed in the DCD group (Trg-DCD), 9 children with no
      identified motor problems were placed in a training group (Trg-N), and 12
      children also with no identified motor problems were placed in a control group.
      All the children were tested pre and post to training on a manual matching task.
      In the pretest, the children in the DCD group were significantly inferior to the
      control groups in the proprioceptive condition with both the preferred and
      nonpreferred hands. In the posttest, after the training periode was completed,
      the DCD subjects showed significant improvement in the proprioceptive condition
      for both preferred and nonpreferred hands. For the other groups, no significant
      training effects were observed across the training period. It is concluded that
      children in the DCD group may benefit from specific training of perceptual
      abilities, because they have motor control resources not exploited due to a lack
      of relevant experience.

PMID- 28558621
TI  - Physical Activity Levels and Well-Being in Older Adults.
AB  - The objective of this study was to identify the interconnectedness of different
      intensity levels of physical activity and psychological (life satisfaction and
      positive affect) and physical (physical health) well-being. Participants were
      from the National Study of Midlife in the United States with assessments in 2004
      and aged 25 to 74 living in the United States were included in the analyses. We
      conducted bivariate correlations to examine significant relationships among the
      study variables. In addition, after multicollinearity among the independent
      variable was checked, a series of hierarchical regression analyses with physical
      health, positive affect, and life satisfaction as criterion variables were
      conducted. The results showed that light physical activities were positively
      associated with physical health and life satisfaction in summer, whereas light
      physical activities and all dependent variables were positively correlated in
      winter. Furthermore, engaging in moderate physical activities was positively
      related only with physical health. Meanwhile, vigorous physical activities were
      not associated with life satisfaction, physical health, and positive affect in
      summer and winter.

PMID- 28558622
TI  - Translation and Initial Validation of the Japanese Version of the Self-Beliefs
      Related to Social Anxiety Scale.
AB  - Cognitive models of social anxiety posit that there are several types of
      maladaptive beliefs responsible for persistent social anxiety. Although these
      beliefs are theoretically important, currently there is no validated measure of
      these beliefs in Japan. In the present study, we translated into Japanese a well
      validated measure of these beliefs, the Self-Beliefs Related to Social Anxiety
      (SBSA) Scale. The psychometric properties of the scale were also examined in two
      nonclinical samples ( ns = 401 and 30). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the
      Japanese version of the SBSA was found to have a correlated three-factor
      structure that consisted of "conditional beliefs," "unconditional beliefs," and
      "high standard beliefs." In addition, the Japanese version of the SBSA and its
      subscales demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and test-retest
      reliability. The Japanese version of the SBSA also demonstrated good convergent
      and divergent validity. Future applications of the Japanese version of the SBSA
      are discussed.

PMID- 28558623
TI  - Is Trypophobia a Phobia?
AB  - In the past 10 years, thousands of people have claimed to be affected by
      trypophobia, which is the fear of objects with small holes. Recent research
      suggests that people do not fear the holes; rather, images of clustered holes,
      which share basic visual characteristics with venomous organisms, lead to
      nonconscious fear. In the present study, both self-reported measures and the
      Preschool Single Category Implicit Association Test were adapted for use with
      preschoolers to investigate whether discomfort related to trypophobic stimuli was
      grounded in their visual features or based on a nonconsciously associated fear of
      venomous animals. The results indicated that trypophobic stimuli were associated
      with discomfort in children. This discomfort seemed to be related to the typical
      visual characteristics and pattern properties of trypophobic stimuli rather than
      to nonconscious associations with venomous animals. The association between
      trypophobic stimuli and venomous animals vanished when the typical visual
      characteristics of trypophobic features were removed from colored photos of
      venomous animals. Thus, the discomfort felt toward trypophobic images might be an
      instinctive response to their visual characteristics rather than the result of a
      learned but nonconscious association with venomous animals. Therefore, it is
      questionable whether it is justified to legitimize trypophobia.

PMID- 28558624
TI  - Contribution of Analyses on Triadic Relationships to Diagnostics and Treatment
      Planning in Developmental Psychopathology.
AB  - Recent clinical and theoretical research in the field of developmental
      psychopathology has focused on the importance of interactions in a child's
      development. The literature has investigated how children's early relationships
      contribute to the structure and expression of any subsequent psychological
      problems. The main focus of this pilot study is the application of the Lausanne
      Trilogue Play paradigm as part of psychodiagnostic assessments to elucidate
      family functioning in clinical settings. The research aims particularly to
      observe the characteristics of a family's interactions in the light of their
      child's psychopathological symptoms, based on a sample of 38 families with school
      age children referred to a Neuropsychiatry Unit for Children and Adolescents for
      emotional or behavioral problems. The children's psychopathological symptoms were
      assessed by administering the Child Behavior Check List to their parents. Triadic
      family interactions were observed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play procedure.
      Statistically significant relationships emerged between the family's interaction
      patterns and the child's externalizing and internalizing problems, suggesting an
      interdependence between these relational and individual factors in the
      development of the young person's psychopathology. The clinical and therapeutic
      implications of these findings are discussed.

PMID- 28558625
TI  - The Effects of Writing Anxiety and Motivation on EFL College Students' Self
      Evaluative Judgments of Corrective Feedback.
AB  - Feedback is regarded as a way to foster students' motivation and to ensure
      linguistic accuracy. However, mixed findings are reported in the research on
      written corrective feedback because of its multifaceted nature and its
      correlations with learners' individual differences. It is necessary, therefore,
      to conduct further research on corrective feedback from the student's perspective
      and to examine how individual differences in terms of factors such as writing
      anxiety and motivation predict learners' self-evaluative judgments of both
      teacher-corrected and peer-corrected feedback. For this study, 158 Taiwanese
      college sophomores participated in a survey that comprised three questionnaires.
      Results demonstrated that intrinsic motivation and different types of writing
      anxiety predicted English as foreign language learners' evaluative judgments of
      teacher and peer feedback. The findings have implications for English-writing
      instruction.

PMID- 28558626
TI  - An Update on Using the Range to Estimate sigma When Determining Sample Sizes.
AB  - In this research, we develop a strategy for using a range estimator of sigma when
      determining a sample size for estimating a mean. Previous research by Rhiel is
      extended to provide dn values for use in calculating a range estimate of sigma
      when working with sampling frames up to size 1,000,000. This allows the use of
      the range estimator of sigma with "big data." A strategy is presented for using
      the range estimator of sigma for determining sample sizes based on the dn values
      developed in this study.

PMID- 28558627
TI  - Interest Rate Demands and Television Viewing-Is a Single Exposure More
      Influential Than Routine Viewing?
AB  - This study examined the impact of media consumption, and particularly exposure to
      television, on decisions regarding interest rate demands. One hundred and fifty
      four participants were randomly divided into two groups: in the manipulation
      group, participants were exposed to a news clip about an Iranian nuclear attack
      on Israel, whereas in the control group, the participants were not exposed to the
      film. Both groups filled a questionnaires regarding their interest rate
      requirements in different situations, their media conception behaviors, and
      demographic questionnaires. Frequent routine viewing increased the interest rate
      demands only among participants in the manipulation group, but the manipulation
      itself did not have a significant effect on interest rate demands. The results
      are explained in terms of cultivation theory.

PMID- 28558628
TI  - The HEXACO Model of Personality and Risky Driving Behavior.
AB  - This research tested the association between the HEXACO personality model and
      risky driving behavior as well as the predictive power of the HEXACO model in
      explaining risky driving behavior compared with the Big Five model. In Sample 1,
      227 undergraduate students completed measures of the HEXACO personality model,
      the Big Five model, and driving aggression. In Sample 2, 244 community
      respondents completed measures of the HEXACO personality model, the Big Five
      model, and driving styles. Results showed that the Honesty-Humility factor is an
      important addition to personality models that aim to explain risky driving
      behavior as being related to all forms of driving aggression as well as to
      maladaptive and adaptive driving styles and having incremental validity in
      predicting verbally aggressive expression, risky driving, high-velocity driving,
      and careful driving. Moreover, compared with the Big Five model, the HEXACO model
      had better predictive power of aggressive driving.

PMID- 28558629
TI  - Quinoline, Coumarin and Other Heterocyclic Analogs Based HIV-1 Integrase
      Inhibitors.
AB  - Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integrase or HIV-1 integrase (IN) is a 288
      amino acid protein that incorporates the retrotranscribed viral DNA into the host
      chromosomal DNA. Over the past 30 years, large number of derivatives have been
      evaluated for their inhibitory potential against IN. There is vast literature
      available which need to be collated to help scientists plan the future drug
      design. This review discusses the reports of past 25 years on analogs of
      quinoline, coumarin and other related heterocycles, which exhibit low micromolar
      inhibitory potency against IN.

PMID- 28558630
TI  - Leukopenia Associated with Risperidone Treatment.
AB  - Risperidone is an atypical antipsychotic agent that was originally approved by
      the United States Food and Drug Adminstration for the treatment of schizophrenia.
      There are many side effects that are frequently associated with the use of
      risperidone. These include weight gain, anxiety, extra-pyramidal side effects,
      and elevated prolactin levels. More infrequently, the use of risperidone has been
      linked to leukopenia. We will now present the case of a 66-year-old gentleman who
      developed leukopenia after the initiation of risperidone to control agitation due
      to delirium. We will review the previous cases of leukopenia associated with
      risperidone, and will review possible risk factors for the development of
      leukopenia, based on the reported cases.

PMID- 28558631
TI  - Ursolic Acid Mediates Hepatic Protection through Enhancing of anti-aging
      Biomarkers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Age-associated loss of liver function has been recognized for
      decades. But, the mechanism driving liver regeneration and its decline with age
      remains elusive. OBJECTIVE: Hence, to support of our previous studies about anti
      aging effects of Ursolic Acid (UA), a compound which is extensively present in
      apple peels. The aim of this study is to address whether UA might alter sensors
      of the cell metabolic state such as SIRT1, SIRT6, PGC-1beta and Klotho proteins.
      METHODS: To evaluate the effect of UA on hepatic indicated proteins, mice were
      administrated with UA twice daily for 7 days. The involvements of these proteins
      in the UA-mediated effect harmony hepatic protection were investigated by
      immunofluorescence microscopy technique. RESULTS: Our findings clearly
      illustrated that UA enhanced SIRT1 (~ 5 +/- 0.2 folds) and SIRT6 (~ 8 +/- 0.5
      folds) proteins levels in hepatic, p<0.001. In addition, the data showed that UA
      increased PGC-1beta (~ 7 +/- 0.4 folds) protein overexpression, p<0.001.
      Moreover, we showed that UA upregulated Klotho (~ 3.5 +/- 0.2 folds) protein in
      order to improve hepatic performance, p<0.01. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest
      that UA through increasing of SIRT1 up-regulation ameliorate reverse cholesterol
      transport, fatty acid use and oxidative stress defense. In addition, it seems
      that UA by enhancing of SIRT6 expression promotes cholesterol homeostasis through
      repressing SREBP1 and SREBP2. Reciprocally, UA might be involved in VLDL
      synthesis and exportation through PGC-1beta up-regulation. Finally, UA might be
      as key regulators of mineral homeostasis and bile acid/cholesterol metabolism, by
      inducing Klotho overexpression.

PMID- 28558632
TI  - Thyroglobulin Determination in Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy Washout of
      Suspicious Lymph Nodes in Thyroid Carcinoma Follow up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTCs) account for about 1% of all
      human malignancies. Cervical lymph nodes metastases and recurrences in the
      thyroid bed frequently occur. Furthermore, about 10-15% of patients develop
      distant metastases. Therefore, patients must undergo life-long follow-up.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of Thyroglobulin
      measurement in FNAB washout (FNAB-Tg) in the detection of local metastasis in
      patients affected by or evaluated for thyroid cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a
      3-year period, a total of 83 consecutive patients coming to our attention at the
      Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) Outpatients Service of the National Cancer Research Center
      &quot;Istituto Tumori Giovanni Paolo II&quot; of Bari, Italy, because of the
      finding of one or more cervical lymph node(s), were enrolled in the study. After
      collection of the cytological specimen, the needle used for performing FNAB was
      then washed in 1 ml of normal saline. 89 FNAB washouts were collected from the
      same number of lymph nodes and subsequently investigated for Thyroglobulin levels
      using a sequential chemiluminescent-immunometric assay. RESULTS: Comparing the
      cytological or, when performed, histological diagnoses with the results of FNAB
      Tg, we found that in 24 cases of lymph node metastases from PTC (19 lymph nodes
      from patients at the first diagnoses and 5 lymph nodes from PTC patients in
      follow up) the mean level of Thyroglobulin was 1840.11 ng/ml; range: <0,2 to
      11440 ng/ml. In the group of PTC patients (27 lymph nodes) with lymph nodes
      negative for metastatic involvement at cytology (i.e. no lymph node recurrence at
      follow-up), as well as in the cases of subjects without PTC and submitted to FNAB
      because of the appearance of lymph node(s) classified as reactive at cytology (37
      lymph nodes), FNAB-Tg was lower than or equal to 0.2 ng/ml. As expected, the
      Thyroglobulin level was not detectable (< 0.2 ng/ml) also in a lymph node FNAB
      from a case of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. CONCLUSION: In our study, FNAB-Tg
      was not detectable in all node negative patients showing, when considering
      together all the lymph node metastases, a 96% sensitivity and 100% specificity.

PMID- 28558633
TI  - Impact of Drug Metabolism/Pharmacokinetics and their Relevance Upon Salviabased
      Drug Discovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salvia is the largest genus of family Lamiaceae and has nearly 1000
      species. This genus produces several representative phytometabolites, e.g.,
      diterpenoids and phenolic acids. The traditional uses in ethnomedicine and
      contemporary experimental studies have corroborated extensive therapeutic
      efficacy of Salvia plants. Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic (DMPK) studies of
      Salvia natural products and their derivatives are indispensable in the
      optimization of lead compounds. New chemical entity with improved DMPK profiles
      is preferred. So far, there are few summaries concerning about the DMPK features
      of Salvia derived medicinal compounds. Tanshinones and Salvianolic acids raise
      concerns of herb-drug interaction. DMPK studies of various Salvia species,
      especially Salvia miltiorrhiza, are swiftly increasing. OBJECTIVE: Here, the
      latest awareness, as well as the gaps of the DMPK issues in drug development and
      clinical usage of Salvia compounds, was highlighted. CONCLUSION: Herb-herb
      interactions of Salvia-containing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) medicine
      pair/formula significantly impact the PK/pharmacodynamic performance of compounds
      thereof, which may inspire researchers to develop novel herbal formula. While the
      absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxicity (ADME/T) of some
      tanshinones and Salvianolic acids have been outlined, DMPK studies should be
      extended to more compounds, Salvia species, and Salvia-containing formulations.
      In the context of systems pharmacology, the DMPK knowledgebase is expected to
      streamline the Salvia-based drug discovery and development.

PMID- 28558635
TI  - Recent Technology Development for the Biosynthesis of Human Milk Oligosaccharide.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is a third most abundant component
      in breast milk. HMOs are molecules naturally tailored to the need of an infant.
      They protect infants from diseases, foster healthy gastrointestinal systems,
      reinforce fledgling immune function, and promote early brain development.
      Supplement HMOs to infant formula, which lack this critical element, would
      substantially improve the function of formula. Overwhelming evidence also
      indicate that HMOs can be used for the treatment of arthritis and related
      autoimmune disease, and inhibition of bacteria adhesion or as potential
      prebiotics. The prospect of using HMO in these applications has stimulated
      worldwide interest in developing synthesis technology for these valuable
      products. METHODS: As the quantities extracted from human milk are limited, and
      chemical synthesis methods are time-consuming, costly, and complex,
      biotechnological approach, involving either enzyme catalysis or metabolically
      engineered bacteria is preferred. In this review, we highlight the most recent
      advances in the synthesis technologies, as disclosed in patents and patent
      applications, and analyze these technologies against those reported in
      literatures. CONCLUSION: Significant progress has been made over the past decade,
      especially in whole-cell biocatalysis for smaller HMOs. Significant challenges
      remain for larger and more complex HMOs.

PMID- 28558636
TI  - beta-Amyloid Upregulates Intracellular Clusterin but not Secretory Clusterin in
      Primary Cultured Neurons and APP Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that the expression of Abeta and
      clusterin is positively correlated. However, the causal relationship between
      Abeta and clusterin has not been exactly clarified. METHODS: In this study,
      primary hippocampal neurons were treated with Abeta42; clusterin mRNA and protein
      expression was assessed. Furthermore, we evaluated Abeta and clusterin protein
      expression in the brains of APP/PSEN1 mice, as well as serum clusterin
      concentration. RESULTS: We observed here that the exposure of primary hippocampal
      neurons to Abeta42 induced an overexpression of intracellular clusterin, but the
      level of clusterin in supernatants was not changed. Moreover, in APP/PSEN1 mice,
      there was a significant increase in intracellular clusterin in cortex and
      hippocampus, compared to age-matched WT mice, while serum clusterin level in
      APP/PSEN1 mice and in WT mice has no significant difference. CONCLUSION: Abeta42
      upregulated intracellular clusterin, but secretory clusterin did not change.
      These findings reveal that clusterin is upregulated by Abeta and is responsive to
      AD pathology, although plasma clusterin concentration is not evidenced to be a
      stand-alone biomarker for AD.

PMID- 28558638
TI  - Heart Rate Variability Indexes in Dementia: A Systematic Review with a
      Quantitative Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decreased heart rate variability (HRV) indexes indicate low vagal
      activity and may be associated with development of dementia. The
      neurodegenerative process is associated with the cardiovascular autonomic
      control. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the
      effect size (ES) magnitude of the HRV indexes in the evaluation of autonomic
      dysfunction in older persons with dementia. METHODS: PubMed (Medline), Web of
      Science, Scopus, Scielo, Lilacs, and APA Psycnet were consulted. Complete
      original articles published in English or Portuguese, investigating the
      association between autonomic dysfunction and dementia, using the HRV indexes
      were included. RESULTS: The search identified 97 potentially relevant articles.
      After screening the full text, eight articles were included in the qualitative
      analysis and six were included in the quantitative analysis. Almost all indexes
      showed a negative ES for all types of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. The
      most common frequency band of the power spectrum density function was the high
      frequency, which was reported by six studies. The meta-analysis of high frequency
      power in Alzheimer's disease group showed high heterogeneity and inconsistent
      results. CONCLUSION: The negative effect size suggests an autonomic dysfunction
      in all types of dementia as well as mild cognitive impairment. However, further
      analysis is necessary to support these results.

PMID- 28558637
TI  - The Cognitive Effects of Wearable Cameras in Mild Alzheimer Disease - An
      Experimental Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wearable cameras are a new type of intervention aimed at stimulating
      memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Such passive external memory aids have
      started to be considered as alternatives to both more active external aids (such
      as writing in diaries, journals, and timetables) and to internal cognitive
      strategies (such as spaced retrieval, errorless learning). OBJECTIVE: In order to
      understand the benefits of these innovative devices for memory compensation, the
      present experiment examined the effectiveness of two memory training strategies:
      SenseCam, a wearable camera, a passive external memory aid and a memory training
      programme (MEMO+) created from tasks known to stimulate memory, in comparison
      with a control condition, a personal written diary. METHOD: Fifty-one patients
      with mild AD were randomly assigned to one of these three groups. Training lasted
      for six consecutive weeks, two sessions a week, one hour each, for all groups.
      Patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment at baseline, after treatment
      and at follow up (six months later). RESULTS: Groups showed non-significant
      differences at baseline. After treatment and at follow up, the SenseCam group had
      a superior autobiographical memory (AM) performance, compared to the Memo+ and
      Diary groups. The SenseCam and the Memo+ groups both showed improved episodic and
      semantic memory, and somewhat improved executive function. CONCLUSION: Our
      results suggest that passive memory training with SenseCam is a promising
      alternative to traditional memory training programs to help AD patients with
      autobiographical memory performance.

PMID- 28558634
TI  - Differential Regulation of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 and its Implication in Drug
      Discovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer cells use several mechanisms to resist the cytotoxic effects
      of drugs, resulting in tumor progression and invasion. One such mechanism
      capitalizes on the body's natural defense against xenobiotics by increasing the
      rate of xenobiotic efflux and metabolic inactivation. Xenobiotic metabolism
      typically involves conversion of parent molecules to more soluble and easily
      excreted derivatives in reactions catalyzed by Phase I and Phase II drug
      metabolizing enzymes. METHODS: We performed a structured search of peer-reviewed
      literature on P450 (CYP) 3A, with a focus on CYP3A4 and CYP3A5. RESULTS: Recent
      reports indicate that components of the xenobiotic response system are
      upregulated in some diseases, including many cancers. Such components include the
      pregnane X receptor (PXR), CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 enzymes. The CYP3A enzymes are a
      subset of the numerous enzymes that are transcriptionally activated following the
      interaction of PXR and many ligands. CONCLUSION: Intense research is ongoing to
      understand the functional ramifications of aberrant expression of these
      components in diseased states with the goal of designing novel drugs that can
      selectively target them.

PMID- 28558639
TI  - EDITORIAL: Current Views on Neurodegeneration: Computational to Clinical
      Research.

PMID- 28558640
TI  - Biosensors for Screening Kinase Inhibitors.
AB  - For successful drug discovery it is important to understand the fundamentals of
      the underlying causes and consequences of the diseases for which the drug is
      being developed. One such physiological process in eukaryotic cells is protein
      phosphorylation, which is the main post-translational modification of proteins
      responsible for the onset or progression of Alzheimer&#039;s disease, diabetes
      and various cancers. Protein phosphorylation is facilitated by kinases and
      inhibitors of kinases act as drugs in controlling or curing these diseases by
      reducing protein phosphorylation. This review discusses the technologies capable
      of detecting kinase activity and screening candidate compounds to identify novel
      inhibitors of protein kinases.

PMID- 28558641
TI  - High Incidence of Infections in HIV-positive Patients Treated for
      Lymphoproliferative Disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphoproliferative disorders are frequently diagnosed in HIV
      positive patients and severe infections may occur during antineoplastic
      treatments: the incidence and impact of such events are not well-characterized.
      OBJECTIVE: To describe the occurrence and mortality of incident infections in HIV
      positive individuals treated for lymphoproliferative disorders. METHODS: A
      retrospective study in HIV-positive adults with lymphoproliferative disorders
      (2000- 2012) who were hospitalised to receive antineoplastic chemotherapy;
      antimicrobial prophylaxis with alternate day co-trimoxazole (800/160 mg) was
      administered to all individuals. RESULTS: 103 patients were included: mostly
      males (81, 78.6%), Caucasians (101, 98.1%), with a median age of 43 years (39
      51). Fifty-eight (56.3%) patients had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), thirty-two
      (29.1%) had Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and ten patients (9.7%) had Burkitt's
      lymphoma (BL). Five year survival was 63.1%: the best survival rates were
      reported in HL (78.1%), followed by NHL (58.6%) and BL (50%). Forty-four patients
      (42.7%) developed 82 infections during follow up: identified causative agents
      were bacteria (35, 42.7%), viruses (28, 34.1%), mycobacteria (7, 8.5%), protozoa
      (7, 8.5%) and fungi (5, 6.1%). Cytomegalovirus infections (n=17, including 5
      endorgan diseases) emerged 53 days after the diagnosis: multivariate analysis
      showed CD4+ cell count <100/uL as the only independently associated factor
      (p<0.001, aOR=23.5). Two factors were associated with mortality risk: an IPI/IPS
      score of >2 (p=0.004, aOR=6.55) and the presence of CMV disease (p=0.032,
      aOR=2.73). CONCLUSION: HIV positive patients receiving treatment for
      lymphoproliferative disorders suffer from a high incidence of infections and
      associated mortality risk. Tailored prophylactic strategies need to be considered
      in this setting.

PMID- 28558642
TI  - Ethanolic Extract of Berberis Vulgaris Fruits Inhibits the Proliferation of MCF-7
      Breast Cancer Cell Line Through Induction of Apoptosis
AB  - BACKGROUND: As it is obvious, there is much documentation that shows the
      importance of breast cancer treatment in patients. High expressions of P53 and
      Bcl-2 are associated with breast cancer, which are reliable factors to follow up
      thebreast cancer. Berberis vulgaris is used as a traditional medicine in cancer.
      Despite of the fact that many researches have demonstrated its anti-cancer
      properties, there are no scientific documents to show its efficacy in detail in
      breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: Because of traditional use of B. vulgaris and little
      knowledge about its effects, our research was focused on determining the efficacy
      and toxicity of B. vulgaris. For this reason, we determined the efficacy of B.
      vulgaris on breast cancer cells. METHOD: As described in Method section, standard
      protocols including MTT assay and qPCR were performed to identify the effect of
      B. vulgaris ethanolic extract against breast cancer cells. RESULTS: Our results
      clearly demonstrated that 35 mg/ml had IC50 against 3t3 normal cells, and 9 mg/ml
      of B. vulgaris was effective against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The results
      demonstrated that even at only 1 mg/ml concentration of B. vulgaris, crude
      extract was effective, 9 mg/ml and 12 mg/ml of extract had better anti-cancer
      activity compared with doxorubicin. CONCLUSION: Despite that the role of
      anticancer properties of B. vulgaris was clearly defined in some patents, our
      results demonstrated the potency of B. vulgaris against breast cancer, but
      further analysis should be performed to candidate this herb as an anti-breast
      cancer drug.

PMID- 28558643
TI  - Expression of Major Efflux Pumps in Fluconazole-Resistant Candida albicans.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Resistance to azole antifungals is considered as a significant
      problem in Candida albicans infections. Several molecular mechanisms of
      fluconazole resistance including alterations in the gene encoding the target
      enzyme ERG11 or overexpression of efflux pump genes including CDR1, CDR2, MDR1,
      MDR2 and FLU1 have been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate
      overexpression of efflux pump genes including CDR1, CDR2, MDR1, MDR2 and FLU1 in
      fluconazole- resistant C. albicans. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, a total
      of 97 clinical isolates of C. albicans were isolated from hospitalized children
      in Children medical center, an Iranian referral hospital. Fluconazole
      susceptibility testing of C. albicans was performed using the broth microdilution
      method according to the CLSI guideline. Expression of CDR1, CDR2, MDR1, MDR2 and
      FLU1 genes was measured using quantitative real-time reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 18SrRNA gene was used as a housekeeping
      gene. RESULTS: Among 97 C. albicans isolates, 5 strains were categorized as
      fluconazoleresistant. Overexpression of CDR1, CDR2 and MDR2 genes was found in
      all isolates. MDR1 overexpression was observed in four resistant isolates. None
      of the resistant strains displayed increases in FLU1 transcript levels.
      CONCLUSION: Overexpression of the CDR1, CDR2, MDR1 and MDR2 genes might play an
      important role in fluconazole-resistant C. albicans. No link between expression
      of FLU1 and fluconazole resistance was found.

PMID- 28558644
TI  - A Case of Subcutaneous Phaeohyphomycosis Associated with Leprosy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis is an infection caused by melanized
      fungi and is increasingly reported among immunosuppressive patients. The most
      commonly cited etiologic agent is Exophiala jeanselmei, followed by Alternaria
      spp. We present a case of subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis in a 48-yearold woman,
      with a history of lepromatous leprosy, using corticosteroid in immunosuppressive
      doses due to a type 2 repetitive reaction leprosy outbreak. RESULT AND
      DISCUSSION: The diagnosis was confirmed by fine-needle aspiration of the
      secretion, with subsequent direct mycological observations, culture and molecular
      analysis. The species agent was identified by culture and nucleotide sequences of
      ribosomal DNA as Exophiala dermatitidis.

PMID- 28558645
TI  - EDITORIAL: Recent Contributions of Medicinal Chemistry to Nano Drug Delivery
      Systems and Bio-Conjugates.

PMID- 28558646
TI  - Microevolution of the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) in the Southern Balkan
      Peninsula.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) displays a complex historical
      and contemporary genetic status in Europe. The species divergence has been shaped
      by geological events (i.e. Pleistocene glaciations) and humanly induced impacts
      (i.e. translocations, pollution, etc.) on its populations due to species
      commercial value and its niche degradation. Until now, limited genetic
      information has been procured for the Balkan area and especially for the
      southernmost distribution of this species (i.e. Greece). It is well known that
      the rich habitat diversity of the Balkan Peninsula offers suitable conditions for
      genetically diversified populations. Thus, the present manuscript revisits the
      phylogenetic relationships of the noble crayfish in Europe and identifies the
      genetic make-up and the biogeographical patterns of the species in its southern
      range limit. RESULTS: Mitochondrial markers (i.e. COI and 16S) were used in order
      to elucidate the genetic structure and diversity of the noble crayfish in Europe.
      Two of the six European haplotypic lineages, were found exclusively in Greece.
      These two lineages exhibited greater haplotypic richness when compared with the
      rest four (of "Central European" origin) while they showed high genetic
      diversity. Divergence time analysis identified that the majority of this
      divergence was captured through Pleistocene, suggesting a southern glacial
      refugium (Greece, southern Balkans). Furthermore, six microsatellite markers were
      used in order to define the factors affecting the genetic structure and
      demographic history of the species in Greece. The population structure analysis
      revealed six to nine genetic clusters and eight putative genetic barriers.
      Evidence of bottleneck effects in the last ~5000 years (due to climatic and
      geological events and human activities) is also afforded. Findings from several
      other research fields (e.g. life sciences, geology or even archaeology) have been
      utilized to perceive the genetic make-up of the noble crayfish. CONCLUSIONS: The
      southernmost part of Balkans has played a major role as a glacial refugium for A.
      astacus. Such refugia have served as centres of expansion to northern regions.
      Recent history of the noble crayfish in southern Balkans reveals the influence of
      environmental (climate, geology and/or topology) and anthropogenic factors.

PMID- 28558647
TI  - Hapl-o-Mat: open-source software for HLA haplotype frequency estimation from
      ambiguous and heterogeneous data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knowledge of HLA haplotypes is helpful in many settings as disease
      association studies, population genetics, or hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation. Regarding the recruitment of unrelated hematopoietic stem cell
      donors, HLA haplotype frequencies of specific populations are used to optimize
      both donor searches for individual patients and strategic donor registry
      planning. However, the estimation of haplotype frequencies from HLA genotyping
      data is challenged by the large amount of genotype data, the complex HLA
      nomenclature, and the heterogeneous and ambiguous nature of typing records.
      RESULTS: To meet these challenges, we have developed the open-source software
      Hapl-o-Mat. It estimates haplotype frequencies from population data including an
      arbitrary number of loci using an expectation-maximization algorithm. Its key
      features are the processing of different HLA typing resolutions within a given
      population sample and the handling of ambiguities recorded via multiple allele
      codes or genotype list strings. Implemented in C++, Hapl-o-Mat facilitates
      efficient haplotype frequency estimation from large amounts of genotype data. We
      demonstrate its accuracy and performance on the basis of artificial and real
      genotype data. CONCLUSIONS: Hapl-o-Mat is a versatile and efficient software for
      HLA haplotype frequency estimation. Its capability of processing various forms of
      HLA genotype data allows for a straightforward haplotype frequency estimation
      from typing records usually found in stem cell donor registries.

PMID- 28558648
TI  - Geographical structure of endosymbiotic bacteria hosted by Bathymodiolus mussels
      at eastern Pacific hydrothermal vents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chemolithoautotrophic primary production sustains dense invertebrate
      communities at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps. Symbiotic
      bacteria that oxidize dissolved sulfur, methane, and hydrogen gases nourish
      bathymodiolin mussels that thrive in these environments worldwide. The mussel
      symbionts are newly acquired in each generation via infection by free-living
      forms. This study examined geographical subdivision of the thiotrophic
      endosymbionts hosted by Bathymodiolus mussels living along the eastern Pacific
      hydrothermal vents. High-throughput sequencing data of 16S ribosomal RNA encoding
      gene and fragments of six protein-coding genes of symbionts were examined in the
      samples collected from nine vent localities at the East Pacific Rise, Galapagos
      Rift, and Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. RESULTS: Both of the parapatric sister
      species, B. thermophilus and B. antarcticus, hosted the same numerically dominant
      phylotype of thiotrophic Gammaproteobacteria. However, sequences from six protein
      coding genes revealed highly divergent symbiont lineages living north and south
      of the Easter Microplate and hosted by these two Bathymodiolus mussel species.
      High heterogeneity of symbiont haplotypes among host individuals sampled from the
      same location suggested that stochasticity associated with initial infections was
      amplified as symbionts proliferated within the host individuals. The mussel
      species presently contact one another and hybridize along the Easter Microplate,
      but the northern and southern symbionts appear to be completely isolated.
      Vicariance associated with orogeny of the Easter Microplate region, 2.5-5.3
      million years ago, may have initiated isolation of the symbiont and host
      populations. Estimates of synonymous substitution rates for the protein-coding
      bacterial genes examined in this study were 0.77-1.62%/nucleotide/million years.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our present study reports the most comprehensive population genetic
      analyses of the chemosynthetic endosymbiotic bacteria based on high-throughput
      genetic data and extensive geographical sampling to date, and demonstrates the
      role of the geographical features, the Easter Microplate and geographical
      distance, in the intraspecific divergence of this bacterial species along the mid
      ocean ridge axes in the eastern Pacific. Altogether, our results provide insights
      into extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting the dispersal and evolution of
      chemosynthetic symbiotic partners in the hydrothermal vents along the eastern
      Pacific Ocean.

PMID- 28558649
TI  - Long-term leukocyte reconstitution in NSG mice transplanted with human cord blood
      hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Humanized mice (hu mice) are based on the transplantation of
      hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells into immunodeficient mice and have become
      important pre-clinical models for biomedical research. However, data about their
      hematopoiesis over time are scarce. We therefore characterized leukocyte
      reconstitution in NSG mice, which were sublethally irradiated and transplanted
      with human cord blood-derived CD34+ cells at newborn age, longitudinally in
      peripheral blood and, for more detailed analyses, cross-sectionally in peripheral
      blood, spleen and bone marrow at different time points. RESULTS: Human cell
      chimerism and absolute human cell count decreased between week 16 and 24 in the
      peripheral blood of hu mice, but were stable thereafter as assessed up to 32
      weeks. Human cell chimerism in spleen and bone marrow was maintained over time.
      Notably, human cell chimerism in peripheral blood and spleen as well as bone
      marrow positively correlated with each other. Percentage of B cells decreased
      between week 16 and 24, whereas percentage of T cells increased; subsequently,
      they levelled off with T cells clearly predominating at week 32. Natural killer
      cells, monocytes and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (DCs) as well as CD1c + and
      CD141+ myeloid DCs were all present in hu mice. Proliferative responses of
      splenic T cells to stimulation were preserved over time. Importantly, the
      percentage of more primitive hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in bone marrow was
      maintained over time. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, leukocyte reconstitution was
      maintained up to 32 weeks post-transplantation in our hu NSG model, possibly
      explained by the maintenance of HSCs in the bone marrow. Notably, we observed
      great variation in multi-lineage hematopoietic reconstitution in hu mice that
      needs to be taken into account for the experimental design with hu mice.

PMID- 28558650
TI  - Isolation, characterization and transcriptome analysis of a novel Antarctic
      Aspergillus sydowii strain MS-19 as a potential lignocellulosic enzyme source.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the growing demand for fossil fuels and the severe energy
      crisis, lignocellulose is widely regarded as a promising cost-effective renewable
      resource for ethanol production, and the use of lignocellulose residues as raw
      material is remarkable. Polar organisms have important value in scientific
      research and development for their novelty, uniqueness and diversity. RESULTS: In
      this study, a fungus Aspergillus sydowii MS-19, with the potential for
      lignocellulose degradation was screened out and isolated from an Antarctic
      region. The growth profile of Aspergillus sydowii MS-19 was measured, revealing
      that Aspergillus sydowii MS-19 could utilize lignin as a sole carbon source. Its
      ability to synthesize low-temperature lignin peroxidase (Lip) and manganese
      peroxidase (Mnp) enzymes was verified, and the properties of these enzymes were
      also investigated. High-throughput sequencing was employed to identify and
      characterize the transcriptome of Aspergillus sydowii MS-19. Carbohydrate-Active
      Enzymes (CAZyme)-annotated genes in Aspergillus sydowii MS-19 were compared with
      those in the brown-rot fungus representative species, Postia placenta and
      Penicillium decumbens. There were 701CAZymes annotated in Aspergillus sydowii MS
      19, including 17 cellulases and 19 feruloyl esterases related to lignocellulose
      degradation. Remarkably, one sequence annotated as laccase was obtained, which
      can degrade lignin. Three peroxidase sequences sharing a similar structure with
      typical lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase were also found and annotated
      as haem-binding peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase-peroxidase.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the fungus Aspergillus sydowii MS-19 was isolated and
      shown to synthesize low-temperature lignin-degrading enzymes: lignin peroxidase
      (Lip) and manganese peroxidase (Mnp). These findings provide useful information
      to improve our understanding of low-temperature lignocellulosic enzyme production
      by polar microorganisms and to facilitate research and applications of the novel
      Antarctic Aspergillus sydowii strain MS-19 as a potential lignocellulosic enzyme
      source.

PMID- 28558652
TI  - Salivary epidermal growth factor correlates with hospitalization length in
      rotavirus infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The IFI27 interferon gene expression has been found to be largely
      increased in rotavirus (RV)-infected patients. IFI27 gene encodes for a protein
      of unknown function, very recently linked to epidermal proliferation and related
      to the epidermal growth factor (EGF) protein. The EGF is a low-molecular-weight
      polypeptide that is mainly produced by submandibular and parotid glands, and it
      plays an important physiological role in the maintenance of oro-esophageal and
      gastric tissue integrity. Our aim was to determine salivary EGF levels in RV
      infected patients in order to establish its potential relationship with IFI27
      increased expression and EGF-mediated mucosal protection in RV infection.
      METHODS: We conducted a prospective comparative study using saliva samples from
      27 infants infected with RV (sampled at recruitment during hospital admission and
      at convalescence, i.e. at least 3 months after recovery) and from 36 healthy
      control children. RESULTS: Median (SD) EGF salivary concentration was 777 (529)
      pg/ml in RV-infected group at acute phase and 356 (242) pg/m at convalescence,
      while it was 337 (119) pg/ml in the healthy control group. A significant
      association was found between EGF levels and hospitalization length of stay (P
      value = 0.022; r2 = -0.63). CONCLUSIONS: The salivary levels of EGF are
      significantly increased during the acute phase of natural RV infection, and
      relate to length of hospitalization. Further assessment of this non-invasive
      biomarker in RV disease is warranted.

PMID- 28558651
TI  - A user-friendly mathematical modelling web interface to assist local decision
      making in the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis.
AB  - Multidrug-resistant and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) represent
      an important challenge for global tuberculosis (TB) control. The high rates of
      MDR/RR-TB observed among re-treatment cases can arise from diverse pathways: de
      novo amplification during initial treatment, inappropriate treatment of
      undiagnosed MDR/RR-TB, relapse despite appropriate treatment, or reinfection with
      MDR/RR-TB. Mathematical modelling allows quantification of the contribution made
      by these pathways in different settings. This information provides valuable
      insights for TB policy-makers, allowing better contextualised solutions. However,
      mathematical modelling outputs need to consider local data and be easily
      accessible to decision makers in order to improve their usefulness. We present a
      user-friendly web-based modelling interface, which can be used by people without
      technical knowledge. Users can input their own parameter values and produce
      estimates for their specific setting. This innovative tool provides easy access
      to mathematical modelling outputs that are highly relevant to national TB control
      programs. In future, the same approach could be applied to a variety of modelling
      applications, enhancing local decision making.

PMID- 28558653
TI  - Genome-wide association study of salt tolerance at the seed germination stage in
      rice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improving the salt tolerance of direct-seeding rice at the seed
      germination stage is a major breeding goal in many Asian rice-growing countries,
      where seedlings must often establish in soils with a high salt content. Thus, it
      is important to understand the genetic mechanisms of salt tolerance in rice and
      to screen for germplasm with salt tolerance at the seed germination stage. Here,
      we investigated seven seed germination-related traits under control and salt
      stress conditions and conducted a genome-wide association study based on the re
      sequencing of 478 diverse rice accessions. RESULTS: The analysis used a mixed
      linear model and was based on 6,361,920 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 478
      rice accessions grouped into whole, indica, and non-indica panels. Eleven loci
      containing 22 significant salt tolerance-associated single nucleotide
      polymorphisms were identified based on the stress-susceptibility indices (SSIs)
      of vigor index (VI) and mean germination time (MGT). From the SSI of VI, six
      major loci were identified, explaining 20.2% of the phenotypic variation. From
      the SSI of MGT, five major loci were detected, explaining 26.4% of the phenotypic
      variation. Of these, seven loci on chromosomes 1, 5, 6, 11, and 12 were close to
      six previously identified quantitative gene loci/genes related to tolerance to
      salinity or other abiotic stresses. The strongest association region for the SSI
      of MGT was identified in a ~ 13.3 kb interval (15450039-15,463,330) on chromosome
      1, near salt-tolerance quantitative trait loci controlling the Na+: K+ ratio,
      total Na+ uptake, and total K+ concentration. The strongest association region
      for the SSI of VI was detected in a ~ 164.2 kb interval (526662-690,854) on
      chromosome 2 harboring two nitrate transporter family genes (OsNRT2.1 and
      OsNRT2.2), which affect gene expression under salt stress. The haplotype analysis
      indicated that OsNRT2.2 was associated with subpopulation differentiation and its
      minor/rare tolerant haplotype was detected. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide
      valuable information for salt tolerance-related gene cloning and for
      understanding the genetic mechanisms of salt tolerance at the seed germination
      stage. This information will be useful to improve the salt tolerance of direct
      seeding rice varieties by genomic selection or marker-assisted selection.

PMID- 28558654
TI  - A pragmatic multi-center trial of goal-directed fluid management based on pulse
      pressure variation monitoring during high-risk surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intraoperative fluid therapy guided by mechanical ventilation-induced
      pulse-pressure variation (PPV) may improve outcomes after major surgery. We
      tested this hypothesis in a multi-center study. METHODS: The patients were
      included in two periods: a first control period (control group; n = 147) in which
      intraoperative fluids were given according to clinical judgment. After a training
      period, intraoperative fluid management was titrated to maintain PPV < 10% in 109
      surgical patients (PPV group). We performed 1:1 propensity score matching to
      ensure the groups were comparable with regard to age, weight, duration of
      surgery, and type of operation. The primary endpoint was postoperative hospital
      length of stay. RESULTS: After matching, 84 patients remained in each group.
      Baseline characteristics, surgical procedure duration and physiological
      parameters evaluated at the start of surgery were similar between the groups. The
      volume of crystalloids (4500 mL [3200-6500 mL] versus 5000 mL [3750-8862 mL]; P =
      0.01), the number of blood units infused during the surgery (1.7 U [0.9-2.0 U]
      versus 2.0 U [1.7-2.6 U]; P = 0.01), the fraction of patients transfused (13.1%
      versus 32.1%; P = 0.003) and the number of patients receiving mechanical
      ventilation at 24 h (3.2% versus 9.7%; P = 0.027) were smaller postoperatively in
      PPV group. Intraoperative PPV-based improved the composite outcome of
      postoperative complications OR 0.59 [95% CI 0.35-0.99] and reduced the
      postoperative hospital length of stay (8 days [6-14 days] versus 11 days [7-18
      days]; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In high-risk surgeries, PPV-directed volume
      loading improved postoperative outcomes and decreased the postoperative hospital
      length of stay. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier;
      retrospectively registered- NCT03128190.

PMID- 28558656
TI  - Dissection of additive, dominance, and imprinting effects for production and
      reproduction traits in Holstein cattle.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although genome-wide association and genomic selection studies have
      primarily focused on additive effects, dominance and imprinting effects play an
      important role in mammalian biology and development. The degree to which these
      non-additive genetic effects contribute to phenotypic variation and whether QTL
      acting in a non-additive manner can be detected in genetic association studies
      remain controversial. RESULTS: To empirically answer these questions, we analyzed
      a large cattle dataset that consisted of 42,701 genotyped Holstein cows with
      genotyped parents and phenotypic records for eight production and reproduction
      traits. SNP genotypes were phased in pedigree to determine the parent-of-origin
      of alleles, and a three-component GREML was applied to obtain variance
      decomposition for additive, dominance, and imprinting effects. The results showed
      a significant non-zero contribution from dominance to production traits but not
      to reproduction traits. Imprinting effects significantly contributed to both
      production and reproduction traits. Interestingly, imprinting effects contributed
      more to reproduction traits than to production traits. Using GWAS and imputation
      based fine-mapping analyses, we identified and validated a dominance association
      signal with milk yield near RUNX2, a candidate gene that has been associated with
      milk production in mice. When adding non-additive effects into the prediction
      models, however, we observed little or no increase in prediction accuracy for the
      eight traits analyzed. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our results suggested that non
      additive effects contributed a non-negligible amount (more for reproduction
      traits) to the total genetic variance of complex traits in cattle, and detection
      of QTLs with non-additive effect is possible in GWAS using a large dataset.

PMID- 28558657
TI  - Genome-wide identification of markers for selecting higher oil content in oil
      palm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) is the most important source of
      edible oil. The improvement of oil yield is currently slow in conventional
      breeding programs due to long generation intervals. Marker-assisted selection
      (MAS) has the potential to accelerate genetic improvement. To identify DNA
      markers associated with oil content traits for MAS, we performed quantitative
      trait loci (QTL) mapping using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) in a breeding
      population derived from a cross between Deli Dura and Ghana Pisifera, containing
      153 F1 trees. RESULTS: We constructed a high-density linkage map containing 1357
      SNPs and 123 microsatellites. The 16 linkage groups (LGs) spanned 1527 cM, with
      an average marker space of 1.03 cM. One significant and three suggestive QTL for
      oil to bunch (O/B) and oil to dry mesocarp (O/DM) were mapped on LG1, LG8, and
      LG10 in a F1 breeding population, respectively. These QTL explained 7.6-13.3% of
      phenotypic variance. DNA markers associated with oil content in these QTL were
      identified. Trees with beneficial genotypes at two QTL for O/B showed an average
      O/B of 30.97%, significantly (P < 0.01) higher than that of trees without any
      beneficial QTL genotypes (average O/B of 28.24%). QTL combinations showed that
      the higher the number of QTL with beneficial genotypes, the higher the resulting
      average O/B in the breeding population. CONCLUSIONS: A linkage map with 1480 DNA
      markers was constructed and used to identify QTL for oil content traits.
      Pyramiding the identified QTL with beneficial genotypes associated with oil
      content traits using DNA markers has the potential to accelerate genetic
      improvement for oil yield in the breeding population of oil palm.

PMID- 28558655
TI  - The common transcriptional subnetworks of the grape berry skin in the late stages
      of ripening.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wine grapes are important economically in many countries around the
      world. Defining the optimum time for grape harvest is a major challenge to the
      grower and winemaker. Berry skins are an important source of flavor, color and
      other quality traits in the ripening stage. Senescent-like processes such as
      chloroplast disorganization and cell death characterize the late ripening stage.
      RESULTS: To better understand the molecular and physiological processes involved
      in the late stages of berry ripening, RNA-seq analysis of the skins of seven wine
      grape cultivars (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir,
      Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon) was performed. RNA-seq analysis
      identified approximately 2000 common differentially expressed genes for all seven
      cultivars across four different berry sugar levels (20 to 26  degrees Brix).
      Network analyses, both a posteriori (standard) and a priori (gene co-expression
      network analysis), were used to elucidate transcriptional subnetworks and hub
      genes associated with traits in the berry skins of the late stages of berry
      ripening. These independent approaches revealed genes involved in photosynthesis,
      catabolism, and nucleotide metabolism. The transcript abundance of most
      photosynthetic genes declined with increasing sugar levels in the berries. The
      transcript abundance of other processes increased such as nucleic acid
      metabolism, chromosome organization and lipid catabolism. Weighted gene co
      expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified 64 gene modules that were
      organized into 12 subnetworks of three modules or more and six higher order gene
      subnetworks. Some gene subnetworks were highly correlated with sugar levels and
      some subnetworks were highly enriched in the chloroplast and nucleus. The petal R
      package was utilized independently to construct a true small-world and scale-free
      complex gene co-expression network model. A subnetwork of 216 genes with the
      highest connectivity was elucidated, consistent with the module results from
      WGCNA. Hub genes in these subnetworks were identified including numerous members
      of the core circadian clock, RNA splicing, proteolysis and chromosome
      organization. An integrated model was constructed linking light sensing with
      alternative splicing, chromosome remodeling and the circadian clock. CONCLUSIONS:
      A common set of differentially expressed genes and gene subnetworks from seven
      different cultivars were examined in the skin of the late stages of grapevine
      berry ripening. A densely connected gene subnetwork was elucidated involving a
      complex interaction of berry senescent processes (autophagy), catabolism, the
      circadian clock, RNA splicing, proteolysis and epigenetic regulation. Hypotheses
      were induced from these data sets involving sugar accumulation, light, autophagy,
      epigenetic regulation, and fruit development. This work provides a better
      understanding of berry development and the transcriptional processes involved in
      the late stages of ripening.

PMID- 28558658
TI  - Therapeutic outcomes of endoscopic papillectomy for ampullary neoplasms:
      retrospective analysis of a multicenter study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic papillectomy (EP) is reported to be a relatively safe and
      reliable procedure for complete resection of ampullary neoplasms. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the therapeutic outcomes and complications of EP for
      ampullary neoplasms. METHODS: A retrospective multicenter study was conducted
      with 5 participating centers from January 2007 to July 2014. A total of 104
      patients who underwent EP for ampullary neoplasms were reviewed retrospectively.
      EP was performed by snare resection with or without submucosal lifting of the
      lesion. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 60.5 +/- 12.1 years, and the male
      to-female ratio was 2.0:1. En bloc resection was possible in 94 patients (90.3%).
      A biliary and a pancreatic stent were placed after EP in 42 patients and in 60
      patients, respectively. A pathologically incomplete resection was noted in 11
      cases (10.6%), and 5 of these patients were treated with additional endoscopic
      procedure. Histology of resected specimens was as follows: low grade adenoma
      (43.2%), high grade adenoma (14.4%), adenocarcinoma (16.3%), hyperplastic polyp
      (7.7%), and others (18.4%). Of the 75 cases with low grade adenoma on biopsy
      specimen, 21.3% turned out to have high grade adenoma (12%) or adenocarcinoma
      (9.3%). Procedure-related complications occurred in 33 patients (31.7%); bleeding
      (18 cases, 17.3%), pancreatitis (16 cases, 15.4%), and perforation (8 cases,
      7.7%). Pre-EP ERCP, saline lifting, sphincterotomy, biliary stenting, pancreatic
      stenting, specimen size, and cauterization were not related to post EP
      complications. Surgery was performed in 6 cases with pathological incomplete
      resection and 2 cases with complications after EP, and there were 2 cases of
      mortality due to complications. During follow-up endoscopy after initial success
      of EP, remnant tumors were found in 7 patients, one of whom underwent surgery and
      the others were treated endoscopically. Consequently, the overall endoscopic
      success rate of EP was 89.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic papillectomy appears to be
      an effective treatment for ampullary neoplasms, and can be considered as an
      alternative to surgery. However, relatively high risk of procedure related
      complications is a problem that must be considered.

PMID- 28558660
TI  - Pneumonia caused by extensive drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii among
      hospitalized patients: genetic relationships, risk factors and mortality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clonal spread of multiple drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
      is an emerging problem in China. We analysed the molecular epidemiology of
      Acinetobacter baumanni isolates at three teaching hospitals and investigated the
      risk factors, clinical features, and outcomes of hospital-acquired pneumonia
      caused by extensive drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (XDRAB) infection in
      Guangzhou, China. METHODS: Fifty-two A. baumannii isolates were collected.
      Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to assess the genetic relationships
      among the isolates. The bla OXA-51-like gene was amplified using polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) and sequencing. The resistance phenotypes were determined using
      the disc diffusion method. A retrospective case-control study was performed to
      determine factors associated with XDRAB pneumonia. RESULTS: Most of the 52 A.
      baumannii isolates (N = 37, 71.2%) were collected from intensive care units
      (ICUs). The respiratory system was the most common bodily site from which A.
      baumannii was recovered (N = 45, 86.5%). Disc diffusion classified the isolates
      into 17 multidrug-resistant (MDR) and 35 extensively drug-resistant (XDR)
      strains. MLST grouped the A. baumannii isolates into 5 existing sequence types
      (STs) and 7 new STs. ST195 and ST208 accounted for 69.2% (36/52) of the isolates.
      The clonal relationship analysis showed that ST195 and ST208 belonged to clonal
      complex (CC) 92. According to the sequence-based typing (SBT) of the bla OXA-51
      like gene, 51 A. baumannii isolates carried OXA-66 and the rest carried OXA-199.
      There were no significant differences with respect to the resistance phenotype
      between the CC92 and non-CC92 strains (P = 0.767). The multivariate analysis
      showed that the APACHE II score, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
      cardiac disease were independent risk factors for XDRAB pneumonia (P < 0.05). The
      mortality rate of XDRAB pneumonia was high (up to 42.8%), but pneumonia caused by
      XDRAB was not associated with in-hospital mortality (P = 0.582). CONCLUSIONS:
      ST195 may be the most common ST in Guangzhou, China, and may serve as a severe
      epidemic marker. SBT of bla OXA-51-like gene variants may not result in
      sufficient dissimilarities to type isolates in a small-scale, geographically
      restricted study of a single region. XDRAB pneumonia was strongly related to
      systemic illnesses and the APACHE II score but was not associated with in
      hospital mortality.

PMID- 28558661
TI  - Uterus preserving surgery versus hysterectomy in the treatment of refractory
      postpartum haemorrhage in two tertiary maternity units in Cameroon: a cohort
      analysis of perioperative outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little evidence exists on the efficacy and safety of the different
      surgical techniques used in the treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). We
      aimed to compare uterus preserving surgery (UPS) versus hysterectomy for
      refractory PPH in terms of perioperative outcomes in a sub-Saharan African
      country with a known high maternal mortality ratio due to PPH. METHODS: This was
      a retrospective cohort study comparing the perioperative outcomes of all women
      managed by UPS (defined as surgical interventions geared at achieving haemostasis
      while conserving the uterus) versus hysterectomy (defined as surgical resection
      of the uterus to achieve haemostasis) for PPH refractory to standard medical
      management in two tertiary hospitals in Cameroon from January 2004 to December
      2014. We excluded patients who underwent hysterectomy after failure of UPS.
      Comparison was done using the Chi-square test or Fisher exact test where
      appropriate. Bonferroni adjustment of the p-value was performed in order to
      reduce the chance of obtaining false-positive results. RESULTS: We included 24
      cases of UPS against 36 cases of hysterectomy. The indications of surgery were
      dominated by uterine rupture and uterine atony in both groups. Types of UPS
      performed were seven bilateral hypogastric artery ligations, seven
      hysterorraphies, six bilateral uterine artery ligations, three B-Lynch sutures
      and one Tsirulnikov triple ligation with an overall uterine salvage rate of
      83.3%. Types of hysterectomies were 26 subtotal hysterectomies and 10 total
      hysterectomies. UPS was associated with maternal deaths (RR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.38
      3.93.; p: 0.0015) and postoperative infections (RR: 1.96; 95% CI: 1.1-3.49; p:
      0.0215). The association of UPS with maternal death was not attenuated after
      Bonferroni correction. Hysterectomy had no statistically significant adverse
      outcome. CONCLUSION: Hysterectomy is safer than UPS in the management of
      intractable PPH in our setting. The choice of UPS as first-line surgical
      management of PPH in resource-limited settings should entail diligent
      anticipation of these adverse maternal outcomes in order to lessen the
      perioperative burden of PPH.

PMID- 28558659
TI  - The Cyprinodon variegatus genome reveals gene expression changes underlying
      differences in skull morphology among closely related species.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the genetic and developmental origins of phenotypic
      novelty is central to the study of biological diversity. In this study we
      identify modifications to the expression of genes at four developmental stages
      that may underlie jaw morphological differences among three closely related
      species of pupfish (genus Cyprinodon) from San Salvador Island, Bahamas.
      Pupfishes on San Salvador Island are trophically differentiated and include two
      endemic species that have evolved jaw morphologies unlike that of any other
      species in the genus Cyprinodon. RESULTS: We find that gene expression differs
      significantly across recently diverged species of pupfish. Genes such as Bmp4 and
      calmodulin, previously implicated in jaw diversification in African cichlid
      fishes and Galapagos finches, were not found to be differentially expressed among
      species of pupfish. Instead we find multiple growth factors and
      cytokine/chemokine genes to be differentially expressed among these pupfish taxa.
      These include both genes and pathways known to affect craniofacial development,
      such as Wnt signaling, as well as novel genes and pathways not previously
      implicated in craniofacial development. These data highlight both shared and
      potentially unique sources of jaw diversity in pupfish and those identified in
      other evolutionary model systems such as Galapagos finches and African cichlids.
      CONCLUSIONS: We identify modifications to the expression of genes involved in Wnt
      signaling, Igf signaling, and the inflammation response as promising avenues for
      future research. Our project provides insight into the magnitude of gene
      expression changes contributing to the evolution of morphological novelties, such
      as jaw structure, in recently diverged pupfish species.

PMID- 28558662
TI  - Evaluation of gene xpert for routine diagnosis of HIV-associated tuberculosis in
      Nigeria: A prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Xpert MTB/Rif (Xpert) is described as a game changer in tuberculosis
      (TB) control. We evaluated the impact of Xpert on diagnosis, time to treatment,
      and treatment outcome among patients with HIV associated TB in Nigeria. METHODS:
      Adults with HIV being evaluated for pulmonary TB (PTB) were consecutively
      enrolled into the study cohort. At baseline, expectorated sputa were examined
      using Xpert and smear microscopy for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and acid
      fast bacilli, respectively. Patients diagnosed with TB were followed-up until 6
      months post TB diagnosis. TB was defined as sputum positive by smear microscopy,
      Xpert detection of MTB (bacteriologically confirmed case), or clinician diagnosed
      TB with initiation of full TB treatment (clinical diagnosis). Time to treatment
      was time from first clinic presentation for TB evaluation to initiation of TB
      treatment. We examined the proportion PTB patients with a positive Xpert result
      and compared time to TB treatment and outcome of TB treatment in patients based
      on sputum test results. RESULTS: A total of 310 adults with HIV were enrolled.
      The median CD4 cell count was 242 (interquartile range (IQR) 120-425) cells/mm3
      and 88.1% were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). PTB was diagnosed in 76
      (24.5%) patients, with 71 (93.4%) being bacteriologically confirmed. Among
      patients with PTB, 56 (73.7%) were Xpert positive. Median time to treatment was 5
      (IQR 2-8) days and 12 (IQR 5-35) days in patient with and without Xpert positive
      results, respectively; p = 0.005. Overall 73.1% had symptom free survival at 6
      months post PTB treatment initiation with no significant differences observed
      based on TB test method. 10 (14.9%) died within 6 months of TB treatment
      initiation. In analysis adjusted for age, sex, and mode of diagnosis (Xpert
      positive or negative), only ART use independently predicted mortality (AOR 0.10;
      95% CI 0.01-0.93). CONCLUSION: The use of Xpert for routine care reduced time to
      PTB treatment, but did not improve survival in patients with HIV treated for
      susceptible PTB.

PMID- 28558663
TI  - Reasons for never and intermittent completion of colorectal cancer screening
      after receiving multiple rounds of mailed fecal tests.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long-term adherence to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is
      particularly important for fecal testing. Some U.S. studies report that only 25%
      of individuals repeat fecal testing annually. The purpose of this qualitative
      study was to identify barriers and facilitators reported by patients with
      suboptimal screening adherence to refine interventions for starting ongoing
      adherence to CRC screening. We also explored whether participants, particularly
      never screeners, would be willing to do a CRC screening blood test. METHODS:
      Forty-one patients who previously enrolled in the Systems of Support to Increase
      CRC Screening (SOS) trial were interviewed 4-5 years later. Participants were
      purposively selected to include men and women with diverse race/ethnicities who
      had either been inconsistent screeners or had never screened during the first
      three years of SOS despite receiving at least two rounds of mailed fecal tests.
      Two interviewers conducted 30-min telephone interviews using a semi-structured
      interview guide. An iterative thematic analysis approach was used. RESULTS:
      Themes related to screening barriers were more pervasive among never screeners
      including: (1) Avoidance (inattention, procrastination) (2) Concerns about
      handling stool; (3) Health concerns; (4) Fear of a cancer diagnosis or positive
      test results. Themes related to screening facilitators were more often mentioned
      by participants who screened at least once including: (1) Use of a simpler 1
      sample fecal test; (2) Convenience of mailings and doing the test at home; (3)
      Salience of prevention, especially as one got older; and (4) Influence of
      recommendations from providers, family and friends. Participants had diverse
      preferences for the number (3 on average) and types (phone, mail, text) of
      screening reminders. Some participants did not prefer e-mail links to the patient
      shared electronic health record because of difficulties remembering their
      password. It was acceptable for a nurse or medical assistant not from their
      clinic to call them as long as that person was knowledgeable about their records
      and could communicate with their physician. Participants, especially never
      screeners, were generally very enthusiastic about the potential option of a CRC
      screening blood test. CONCLUSION: Future CRC screening programs should be
      designed to minimize these barriers and maximize facilitators to improve long
      term screening adherence. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Primary Funding Agency: The
      National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (R01CA121125).
      Registered at clinicaltrials.gov NCT00697047 .

PMID- 28558664
TI  - Numerical integration methods and layout improvements in the context of dynamic
      RNA visualization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: RNA visualization software tools have traditionally presented a
      static visualization of RNA molecules with limited ability for users to interact
      with the resulting image once it is complete. Only a few tools allowed for
      dynamic structures. One such tool is jViz.RNA. Currently, jViz.RNA employs a
      unique method for the creation of the RNA molecule layout by mapping the RNA
      nucleotides into vertexes in a graph, which we call the detailed graph, and then
      utilizes a Newtonian mechanics inspired system of forces to calculate a layout
      for the RNA molecule. The work presented here focuses on improvements to jViz.RNA
      that allow the drawing of RNA secondary structures according to common drawing
      conventions, as well as dramatic run-time performance improvements. This is done
      first by presenting an alternative method for mapping the RNA molecule into a
      graph, which we call the compressed graph, and then employing advanced numerical
      integration methods for the compressed graph representation. RESULTS: Comparing
      the compressed graph and detailed graph implementations, we find that the
      compressed graph produces results more consistent with RNA drawing conventions.
      However, we also find that employing the compressed graph method requires a more
      sophisticated initial layout to produce visualizations that would require minimal
      user interference. Comparing the two numerical integration methods demonstrates
      the higher stability of the Backward Euler method, and its resulting ability to
      handle much larger time steps, a high priority feature for any software which
      entails user interaction. CONCLUSION: The work in this manuscript presents the
      preferred use of compressed graphs to detailed ones, as well as the advantages of
      employing the Backward Euler method over the Forward Euler method. These
      improvements produce more stable as well as visually aesthetic representations of
      the RNA secondary structures. The results presented demonstrate that both the
      compressed graph representation, as well as the Backward Euler integrator,
      greatly enhance the run-time performance and usability. The newest iteration of
      jViz.RNA is available at https://jviz.cs.sfu.ca/download/download.html .

PMID- 28558665
TI  - The association between genetic polymorphisms of the interleukin-23 receptor gene
      and susceptibility to uveitis: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uveitis is an eye inflammatory disease, which is sometimes associated
      with underlying systemic disease. Interleukin-23 plays an important role in
      autoimmune disease. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the association
      between the interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) and susceptibility to uveitis.
      METHODS: Published literature from PUBMED and EMBASE were retrieved. Seven
      studies were included in this meta-analysis, covering a total of 1309 cases of
      uveitis and 2400 controls. Meta-analyses were conducted on the associations
      between uveitisand rs7517847, rs17375018, and rs11209032 polymorphisms in the IL
      23R gene. RESULTS: There were no significant associations between IL-23R
      polymorphisms and uveitis with regard to the following alleles: for G allele vs.
      T allele of rs7517847, OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.92-1.12, P = 0.83; for A allele vs. G
      allele of rs17375018, OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.47-0.99, P = 0.05; rs11209032 OR 1.12,
      95% CI 0.84-1.51, P = 0.43. In contrast, there were significant associations
      between the AA + AG gene versus GG gene of rs17375018 and the AA gene versus AG +
      GG gene of rs11209032 polymorphism with uveitis (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.35-0.99, P =
      0.04; OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.10-1.59, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis
      suggests that each allele of IL-23R, including rs7519847, rs17375018 and
      rs11209032 was negatively associated with uveitis. However, homozygote models,
      including the rs17375018 GG genotype and rs11209032 AA genotype, were
      significantly associated with uveitis.

PMID- 28558666
TI  - Erratum to: gamma probe and ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration cytology of
      the sentinel node (GULF) trial - overview of the literature, pilot and study
      protocol.

PMID- 28558667
TI  - The meaning of labour pain: how the social environment and other contextual
      factors shape women's experiences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of women experience pain during labour and childbirth,
      however not all women experience it in the same way. In order to develop a more
      complete understanding of labour pain, this study aimed to examine women's
      experiences within the perspective of modern pain science. A more complete
      understanding of this phenomenon can then guide the development of interventions
      to enhance women's experiences and potentially reduce their need for
      pharmacological intervention. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted using
      phenomenology as the theoretical framework. Data were collected from 21
      nulliparous women, birthing at one of two large maternity services, through face
      to-face interviews and written questionnaires. Data were analysed using an
      Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach. RESULTS: The data from this
      study suggest that a determining factor of a woman's experience of pain during
      labour is the meaning she ascribes to it. When women interpret the pain as
      productive and purposeful, it is associated with positive cognitions and
      emotions, and they are more likely to feel they can cope. Alternatively, when
      women interpret the pain as threatening, it is associated with negative
      cognitions and emotions and they tend to feel they need help from external
      methods of pain control. The social environment seems particularly important in
      shaping a woman's pain experience by influencing her interpretation of the
      context of the pain, and in doing so can change its meaning. The context and
      social environment are dynamic and can also change throughout labour. CONCLUSION:
      A determining factor in a woman's experience of pain during labour is its
      perceived meaning which can then influence how the woman responds to the pain.
      The meaning of the pain is shaped by the social environment and other contextual
      factors within which it is experienced. Focussed promotion of labour pain as a
      productive and purposeful pain and efforts to empower women to utilise their
      inner capacity to cope, as well as careful attention to women's cognitions and
      the social environment around them may improve women's experiences of labour pain
      and decrease their need for pain interventions.

PMID- 28558670
TI  - Retirement and mental health: dose social participation mitigate the association?
      A fixed-effects longitudinal analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Empirical evidence investigating heterogeneous impact of retirement
      on mental health depending on social backgrounds is lacking, especially among
      older adults. METHODS: We examined the impact of changes in working status on
      changes in mental health using Japanese community-dwelling adults aged >=65 years
      participating in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study between 2010 and 2013
      (N = 62,438). Between-waves changes in working status ("Kept working", "Retired",
      "Started work", or "Continuously retired") were used to predict changes in
      depressive symptoms measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale. First-difference
      regression models were stratified by gender, controlling for changes in time
      varying confounding actors including equivalised household income, marital
      status, instrumental activities of daily living, incidence of serious illnesses
      and family caregiving. We then examined the interactions between changes in
      working status and occupational class, changes in marital status, and post
      retirement social participation. RESULTS: Participants who transitioned to
      retirement reported significantly increased depressive symptoms (beta = 0.33, 95%
      CI: 0.21-0.45 for men, and beta = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13-0.45 for women) compared to
      those who kept working. Men who were continuously retired reported increased
      depressive symptoms (beta = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.05-0.20), whereas males who started
      work reported decreased depressive symptoms (beta = -0.20, 95% CI: -0.38--0.02).
      Men from lower occupational class (compared to men from higher class) reported
      more increase in depressive symptoms when continuously retired (beta = -0.16, 95%
      CI: -0.25--0.08). Those reporting recreational social participation after
      retirement appeared to be less influenced by transition to retirement.
      CONCLUSIONS: Retirement may increase depressive symptoms among Japanese older
      adults, particularly men from lower occupational class backgrounds. Encouraging
      recreational social participation may mitigate the adverse effects of retirement
      on mental health of Japanese older men.

PMID- 28558668
TI  - Combination of Helicobacter pylori infection and the interleukin 8 -251 T > A
      polymorphism, but not the mannose-binding lectin 2 codon 54 G > A polymorphism,
      might be a risk factor of gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) acts in the innate immune response to
      Helicobacter pylori. Interleukin 8 (IL-8) is a potent cytokine produced by
      gastric epithelial cells in response to H. pylori. We aimed to investigate
      whether polymorphisms in MBL2 and IL-8 influence susceptibility to H. pylori
      infection, and the associations of these polymorphisms with the risk of
      gastroduodenal diseases in a Korean population. METHODS: We consecutively
      enrolled 176 H. pylori-negative control subjects, 221 subjects with H. pylori
      positive non-atrophic gastritis, 52 mild atrophic gastritis (AG), 61 severe AG,
      175 duodenal ulcer, and 283 gastric cancer (GC). Allele-specific PCR-RFLP was
      conducted for polymorphisms in MBL2 exon 1 (codon 52, 54, and 57) and IL-8 -251 T
      > A. IL-8 levels in gastric mucosal tissues and serum MBL levels were measured by
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: MBL2 exon 1 polymorphic variants were
      found only in codon 54, and the allele frequencies did not differ significantly
      between the control and disease groups. Although serum MBL levels in codon 54 A/A
      mutants were markedly low, it did not influence susceptibility to H. pylori
      infection or the risk of gastroduodenal diseases. IL-8 levels were significantly
      different between T/T wild type, T/A heterozygote, and A/A mutant genotypes. IL-8
      -251 A allele carriers (A/A + T/A) showed increased IL-8 levels, and were
      significantly associated with the risk of severe AG and GC. CONCLUSIONS: We
      suggest that a combination of H. pylori infection and the IL-8 -251 T > A
      polymorphism might increase the risk of severe AG and GC in a Korean population.

PMID- 28558669
TI  - Calretinin as a blood-based biomarker for mesothelioma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a deadly cancer mainly caused by
      previous exposure to asbestos. With a latency period up to 50 years the incidence
      of MM is still increasing, even in countries that banned asbestos. Secondary
      prevention has been established to provide persons at risk regular health
      examinations. An earlier detection with tumor markers might improve therapeutic
      options. Previously, we have developed a new blood-based assay for the protein
      marker calretinin. Aim of this study was the verification of the assay in an
      independent study population and comparison with the established marker
      mesothelin. METHODS: For a case-control study in men, a total of 163 cases of
      pleural MM and 163 controls were available from Australia, another 36 cases and
      72 controls were recruited in Germany. All controls had asbestosis and/or
      plaques. Calretinin and mesothelin were determined by ELISA (enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay) in serum or plasma collected prior to therapy. We estimated
      the performance of both markers and tested factors potentially influencing marker
      concentrations like age, sample storage time, and MM subtype. RESULTS: Calretinin
      was able to detect all major subtypes except for sarcomatoid MM. Calretinin
      showed a similar performance in Australian and German men. At a pre-defined
      specificity of 95% the sensitivity of calretinin reached 71% and that of
      mesothelin 69%, when excluding sarcomatoid MM. At 97% specificity, the
      combination with calretinin increased the sensitivity of mesothelin from 66% to
      75%. Sample storage time did not influence the results. In controls the
      concentrations of calretinin increased 1.87-fold (95% CI 1.10-3.20) per 10 years
      of age and slightly more for mesothelin (2.28, 95% CI 1.30-4.00). CONCLUSIONS:
      Calretinin could be verified as a blood-based marker for MM. The assay is robust
      and shows a performance that is comparable to that of mesothelin. Retrospective
      analyses would not be limited by storage time. The high specificity supports a
      combination of calretinin with other markers. Calretinin is specific for
      epithelioid and biphasic MM but not the rarer sarcomatoid form. Molecular markers
      like calretinin and mesothelin are promising tools to improve and supplement the
      diagnosis of MM and warrant further validation in a prospective study.

PMID- 28558671
TI  - Prevalence and determinants of unintended pregnancies amongst women attending
      antenatal clinics in Pakistan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unintended pregnancies are a global public health concern and
      contribute significantly to adverse maternal and neonatal health, social and
      economic outcomes and increase the risks of maternal deaths and neonatal
      mortality. In countries like Pakistan where data for the unintended pregnancies
      is scarce, studies are required to estimate its accurate prevalence and
      predictors using more specific tools such as the London Measure of Unplanned
      Pregnancies (LMUP). METHODS: We conducted a hospital based cross sectional survey
      in two tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan. We used a pre tested structured
      questionnaire to collect the data on socio-demographic characteristics,
      reproductive history, awareness and past experience with contraceptives and
      unintended pregnancies using six item the LMUP. We used Univariate and
      multivariate analysis to explore the association between unintended pregnancies
      and predictor variables and presented the association as adjusted odds ratios. We
      also evaluated the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of the LMUP.
      RESULTS: Amongst 3010 pregnant women, 1150 (38.2%) pregnancies were reported as
      unintended. In the multivariate analysis age < 20 years (AOR 3.5 1.1-6.5), being
      illiterate (AOR 1.9 1.1-3.4), living in a rural setting (1.7 1.2-2.3), having a
      pregnancy interval of = < 12 months (AOR 1.7 1.4-2.2), having a parity of >2 (AOR
      1.4 1.2-1.8), having no knowledge about contraceptive methods (AOR 3.0 1.7-5.4)
      and never use of contraceptive methods (AOR 2.3 1.4-5.1) remained significantly
      associated with unintended pregnancy. The Urdu version of the LMUP scale was
      found to be acceptable, valid and reliable with the Cronbach's alpha of 0.85.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study explores a high prevalence of unintended pregnancies and
      important factors especially those related to family planning. Integrated
      national family program that provides contraceptive services especially the
      modern methods to women during pre-conception and post-partum would be beneficial
      in averting unintended pregnancies and their related adverse outcomes in
      Pakistan.

PMID- 28558672
TI  - Distinct genetic differentiation and species diversification within two marine
      nematodes with different habitat preference in Antarctic sediments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dispersal ability, population genetic structure and species
      divergence in marine nematodes are still poorly understood, especially in remote
      areas such as the Southern Ocean. We investigated genetic differentiation of
      species and populations of the free-living endobenthic nematode genera Sabatieria
      and Desmodora using nuclear 18S rDNA, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA, and
      mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences. Specimens were collected
      at continental shelf depths (200-500 m) near the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc
      and eastern side of the Weddell Sea. The two nematode genera co-occurred at all
      sampled locations, but with different vertical distribution in the sediment. A
      combination of phylogenetic (GMYC, Bayesian Inference, Maximum Likelihood) and
      population genetic (AMOVA) analyses were used for species delimitation and
      assessment of gene flow between sampling locations. RESULTS: Sequence analyses
      resulted in the delimitation of four divergent species lineages in Sabatieria,
      two of which could not be discriminated morphologically and most likely
      constitute cryptic species. Two species were recognised in Desmodora, one of
      which showed large intraspecific morphological variation. Both genera comprised
      species that were restricted to one side of the Weddell Sea and species that were
      widely spread across it. Population genetic structuring was highly significant
      and more pronounced in the deeper sediment-dwelling Sabatieria species, which are
      generally less prone to resuspension and passive dispersal in the water column
      than surface Desmodora species. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that gene flow
      is restricted at large geographic distance in the Southern Ocean, which casts
      doubt on the efficiency of the Weddell gyre and Antarctic Circumpolar Current in
      facilitating circum-Antarctic nematode species distributions. We also show that
      genetic structuring and cryptic speciation can be very different in nematode
      species isolated from the same geographic area, but with different habitat
      preferences (surface versus deeper sediment layers).

PMID- 28558673
TI  - A randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a geo-specific poster
      compared to a general poster for effecting change in perceived threat and
      intention to avoid drowning 'hotspots' among children of migrant workers:
      evidence from Ningbo, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drowning among children of migrant workers is a major, though
      neglected public health issue in China. METHODS: A randomised controlled trial
      was used to examine the potential impact of viewing a preventive health poster
      with/without geo-located drowning events on perceptions of drowning risk among
      Chinese migrant children. A total of 752 children from three schools in Jiangbei
      district were selected by multi-stage sampling and randomly assigned to the
      intervention (n = 380) or control (n = 372). Multilevel models were used to
      analyse changes in responses to the following questions after viewing the
      assigned poster for 10 min: (1) "Do you believe that drowning is a serious health
      problem in Ningbo city?"; (2) "Do you believe that there are lots of drowning
      risk waters around you?"; (3) "Do you believe that the likelihood of your
      accessing a drowning-risk water is great?"; and (4) "Would you intend to avoid
      accessing to those drowning-risk waters when being exposed?" RESULTS: At baseline
      there were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups
      in perceptions of drowning risk or covariates. Following the intervention,
      participants that viewed the geo-specific poster were more likely to respond more
      favourably to the first three questions (p < 0.001) than those who viewed the
      standard poster. However, there was no substantive difference between the geo
      specific or standard poster in terms of changing intentions to avoid drowning
      hotspots (p = 0.214). CONCLUSIONS: Use of 'geo-located' information added value
      to the effectiveness of a drowning prevention poster for enhancing awareness of
      drowning hotspots among children of migrant workers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese
      Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR-IOR-16008979 (Retrospectively registered) (The
      date of trial registration: Aug 5, 2016, the date of enrolment of the first
      participant: Nov 10, 2015).

PMID- 28558674
TI  - Learning rule sets from survival data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Survival analysis is an important element of reasoning from data.
      Applied in a number of fields, it has become particularly useful in medicine to
      estimate the survival rate of patients on the basis of their condition,
      examination results, and undergoing treatment. The recent developments in the
      next generation sequencing open new opportunities in survival study as they allow
      vast amount of genome-, transcriptome-, and proteome-related features to be
      investigated. These include single nucleotide and structural variants,
      expressions of genes and microRNAs, DNA methylation, and many others. RESULTS: We
      present LR-Rules, a new algorithm for rule induction from survival data. It works
      according to the separate-and-conquer heuristics with a use of log-rank test for
      establishing rule body. Extensive experiments show LR-Rules to generate models of
      superior accuracy and comprehensibility. The detailed analysis of rules rendered
      by the presented algorithm on four medical datasets concerning leukemia as well
      as breast, lung, and thyroid cancers, reveals the ability to discover true
      relations between attributes and patients' survival rate. Two of the case studies
      incorporate features obtained with a use of high throughput technologies showing
      the usability of the algorithm in the analysis of bioinformatics data.
      CONCLUSIONS: LR-Rules is a viable alternative to existing approaches to survival
      analysis, particularly when the interpretability of a resulting model is crucial.
      Presented algorithm may be especially useful when applied on the genomic and
      proteomic data as it may contribute to the better understanding of the background
      of diseases and support their treatments.

PMID- 28558677
TI  - Measurement of special access to home visit nursing services among Japanese
      disabled elderly people: using GIS and claim data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Home care service demands are increasing in Japan; this necessitates
      improved service allocation. This study examined the relationship between home
      visit nursing (HVN) service use and the proportion of elderly people living
      within 10 min' travel of HVN agencies. METHODS: The population of elderly people
      living within reach of HVN agencies for each of 17 municipalities in one low
      density prefecture was calculated using public data and geographic information
      systems. Multilevel logistic analysis for 2641 elderly people was conducted using
      medical and long-term care insurance claims data from October 2010 to examine the
      association between the proportion of elderly people reachable by HVNs and
      service usage in 13 municipalities. Municipality variables included HVN agency
      allocation appropriateness. Individual variables included HVN usage and
      demographic variables. RESULTS: The reachable proportion of the elderly
      population ranged from 0.0 to 90.2% in the examined municipalities. The reachable
      proportion of the elderly population was significantly positively correlated with
      HVN use (odds ratio: 1.938; confidence interval: 1.265-2.967). CONCLUSIONS:
      Residents living in municipalities with a lower reachable proportion of the
      elderly population are less likely to use HVN services. Public health
      interventions should increase the reachable proportion of the elderly population
      in order to improve HVN service use.

PMID- 28558675
TI  - Development of plant-produced protein body vaccine candidates for bluetongue
      virus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bluetongue is a disease of domestic and wild ruminants caused by
      bluetongue virus serotypes (BTV), which have caused serious outbreaks worldwide.
      Commercially available vaccines are live-attenuated or inactivated virus strains:
      these are effective, but there is the risk of reversion to virulence or
      reassortment with circulating strains for live virus, and residual live virus for
      the inactivated vaccines. The live-attenuated virus vaccines are not able to
      distinguish naturally infected animals from vaccinated animals (DIVA compliant).
      Recombinant vaccines are preferable to minimize the risks associated with these
      vaccines, and would also enable the development of candidate vaccines that are
      DIVA-compliant. RESULTS: In this study, two novel protein body (PB) plant
      produced vaccines were developed, Zera(r)-VP2ep and Zera(r)-VP2. Zera(r)-VP2ep
      contained B-cell epitope sequences of multiple BTV serotypes and Zera(r)-VP2
      contained the full-length BTV-8 VP2 codon-optimised sequence. In addition to
      fulfilling the DIVA requirement, Zera(r)-VP2ep was aimed at being multivalent
      with the ability to stimulate an immune response to several BTV serotypes. Both
      these candidate vaccines were successfully made in N. benthamiana via transient
      Agrobacterium-mediated expression, and in situ TEM analysis showed that the
      expressed proteins accumulated within the cytoplasm of plant cells in dense
      membrane-defined PBs. The peptide sequences included in Zera(r)-VP2ep contained
      epitopes that bound antibodies produced against native VP2. Preliminary murine
      immunogenicity studies showed that the PB vaccine candidates elicited anti-VP2
      immune responses in mice without the use of adjuvant. CONCLUSIONS: These proof of
      concept results demonstrate that Zera(r)-VP2ep and Zera(r)-VP2 have potential as
      BTV vaccines and their development should be further investigated.

PMID- 28558676
TI  - Association of calf circumference with insulin resistance and non-alcohol fatty
      liver disease: the REACTION study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The feature of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is
      pathological excessive liver lipid accumulation of subjects who without history
      of alcohol abuse. Calf circumference is a proxy for lower-body fat and screening
      method for the identification of subjects with acatastatic lipid accumulation.
      The objective of this study was to examine the association between calf
      circumference and NAFLD. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional analysis
      including 8850 middle-aged and elderly individuals. NAFLD was examined by hepatic
      ultrasound and without alcohol abuse and other liver diseases. Calf circumference
      was measured on the lower right leg at the point of maximal circumference.
      RESULTS: The mean of calf circumference were 35.7 cm for male and 34.6 cm for
      female (P < 0.001), respectively. Compared with the lowest calf circumference
      quartile, the odds ratio for NAFLD in the highest quartile was 2.73 (95% CI 2.34
      3.19, P trend <0.001) after adjusted for potential cofounders. There were also
      significant positive correlation between calf circumference and HOMA-IR, liver
      enzyme levels and triglycerides. In addition, we found significant positive
      correlation of calf circumference with the HOMA-IR and fasting insulin level in
      overweight and obese subjects (BMI >= 24 kg/m2) but not in lean subjects (test
      for interaction: P both less than 0.001 for insulin and HOMA-IR). CONCLUSION:
      High calf circumference is significantly associated with elevated prevalence of
      NAFLD and increasing insulin resistance.

PMID- 28558678
TI  - High prevalence of sarcopenia among binge drinking elderly women: a nationwide
      population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption is considered a risk factor for sarcopenia, but
      the association between alcohol consumption and the prevalence of sarcopenia has
      not been evaluated in detail. This study was to identify the relationship between
      alcohol drinking patterns and the prevalence of sarcopenia in the elderly Korean
      population. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was performed using data from the
      Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were
      excluded if they were under the age of 65, or if data was not available regarding
      skeletal muscle mass or dietary intake. After these exclusions, a total of 4020
      participants (men: 1698; women: 2322) were analyzed in the present study.
      Sarcopenia is defined according to the criteria for the Asia Working Group for
      Sarcopenia (AWGS). Binge drinking was defined as consuming >=5 standard alcoholic
      drinks (>=4 drinks for women) consecutively on one occasion. This data was
      subcategorized into two groups based on presence of binge drinking: Social
      drinking (<=1 time/month) and binge drinking (>1 time/month). RESULTS: Women
      binge drinkers with weekly or daily consumption had 2.8 times higher prevalence
      of sarcopenia than social drinkers (Odds Ratio [OR] = 2.84; 95% Confidence
      Interval [CI] = 1.12-7.29). However, there were no associations between binge
      drinkers and sarcopenia in men. After adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI),
      energy intake, moderate physical activity, and energy intake, women binge
      drinkers with weekly or daily alcohol consumption had 3.9 times higher prevalence
      of sarcopenia than social drinkers (OR = 3.88; 95% CI = 1.33-11.36). CONCLUSIONS:
      The prevalence of sarcopenia in elderly women was related to binge drinking
      frequency and amounts of drinking after adjusting for covariates. Elderly Korean
      women who binge drink once or more per week may be associated with sarcopenia, as
      seen with the observed 3.9 times higher prevalence compared to social drinkers.

PMID- 28558679
TI  - Demonstration of biological activities of extracts from Isodon rugosus Wall. Ex
      Benth: Separation and identification of bioactive phytoconstituents by GC-MS
      analysis in the ethyl acetate extract.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since long, natural sources have been explored for possible
      managements of various diseases. In this context, the study is designed to
      evaluate Isodon rugosus Wall. ex Benth for biological potentials including
      antibacterial, anthelmintic, insecticidal, anti-termites and anti-Pharaoh
      activities followed by GC-MS analysis of active fraction to identify various
      bioactive compounds. METHODS: I. rugosus was investigated against eight bacterial
      strains using well diffusion method and microdilution method with ceftriaxone as
      positive control. Similarly, the insecticidal activity was carried out against
      Tribolium castaneum, Rhyzopertha dominica, Monomorium pharaonis and Heterotermis
      indicola following contact toxicity method. Likewise, anthelmintic activity was
      performed against Ascaridia galli and Pherethima posthuma using albendazole as
      positive control, in which the paralysis and death times of the worms were
      observed. The GC-MS analysis of the most active solvent fraction was performed
      for identifications of various bioactive compounds. RESULTS: Among the tested
      samples of I. rugosus, flavonoids and ethyl acetate fraction exhibited high
      antibacterial activities. The crude saponins showed highest anthelmintic activity
      against Pherethima posthuma and Ascaridia galli with death times of 27.67 and
      29.22 min respectively at concentrations of 40 mg/ml. In insecticidal activity,
      chloroform fraction and saponins exhibited notable results against R. dominica
      (60 and 70%) and T. castaneum (70 and 76%) at concentration of 200 mg/ml. In anti
      termite assay, all the plant samples showed overwhelming results, i.e. all the 25
      termites were killed on the 3rd day. Similarly, in anti-Pharaoh activity, the
      chloroform, ethyl acetate and saponins fractions were most potent, each
      exhibiting LD50 of <0.1 mg/ml. In GC-MS analysis, total of 57 compounds were
      identified. Some of the bioactive compounds identified in GC-MS analysis are
      palmitic acid, hinokiol, alpha-amyrin, phytol, ethyl linolate, cyclohexanone,
      hinokione, methyl palmitate, ethyl palmitate and stigmasterol acetate.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on our current results, it can be concluded that I. rugosus
      possess strong antibacterial, insecticidal and anthelmintic potentials having
      crude saponins and ethyl acetate as the most active fractions. The GC-MS analysis
      and biological assays reveal that ethyl acetate fraction is a suitable target for
      the isolation of diverse array of bioactive compounds.

PMID- 28558681
TI  - Enhanced knowledge of spontaneous reporting with structured educational programs
      in Korean community pharmacists: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While spontaneous reporting (SR) is one of the important public
      health activities for community pharmacists to guard patients' safety, very few
      studies examined educational activities and its effects on knowledge about the SR
      system in Korea. This study described the association between knowledge of SR and
      educational activities targeting community pharmacists in Korea. METHODS: Self
      administered questionnaires were collected between September 1, 2014 and November
      25, 2014. The questionnaires addressed sources of SR knowledge (structured
      educational programs, personal access to educational resources, and information
      by social network services) and knowledge about the Regional Pharmacovigilance
      Center designated for community pharmacists, the legal responsibility clause on
      the serious event reporting, and the reportable items. The association between
      the knowledge of SR and the educational activities was evaluated using analysis
      of variance or chi-squared tests. RESULTS: Overall, 766 questionnaires
      demonstrated that mean age and length of career in community pharmacies was 45.7
      years and 15.9 years, respectively. A structured educational program was used in
      63.1% of the participants followed by a personal access to educational resources
      (56.3%). An educational program offered by the Korean Pharmaceutical Association
      was the most frequently mentioned program (56.8%), and no regional disparity in
      the program between the metropolitan and rural areas was observed. Pharmacists
      who had personal access to educational resources identified SR knowledge contents
      less correctly than those who used a structured educational program or both (p <
      0.01). In general, pharmacists' knowledge on reportable items was significantly
      lower with non-prescription drugs, nutritional supplements, and personal hygiene
      products as compared to their knowledge on prescription drugs, regardless of the
      type of education (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge regarding SR was more likely
      to increase when a structured educational program was used alone or in
      combination with other educational methods. Knowledge on reportable items should
      be reinforced during the continuing education process.

PMID- 28558680
TI  - Arginine supplementation modulates pig plasma lipids, but not hepatic fatty
      acids, depending on dietary protein level with or without leucine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the present study, the effect of arginine and leucine
      supplementation, and dietary protein level, were investigated in commercial
      crossbred pigs to clarify their individual or combined impact on plasma
      metabolites, hepatic fatty acid composition and mRNA levels of lipid sensitive
      factors. The experiment was conducted on fifty-four entire male pigs (Duroc *
      Pietrain * Large White * Landrace crossbred) from 59 to 92 kg of live weight.
      Each pig was randomly assigned to one of six experimental treatments (n = 9). The
      treatments followed a 2 * 3 factorial arrangement, providing two levels of
      arginine supplementation (0 vs. 1%) and three levels of basal diet (normal
      protein diet, NPD; reduced protein diet, RPD; reduced protein diet with 2% of
      leucine, RPDL). RESULTS: Significant interactions between arginine
      supplementation and protein level were observed across plasma lipids. While
      dietary arginine increased total lipids, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL
      cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerols in NPD, the inverse effect was
      observed in RPD. Overall, dietary treatments had a minor impact on hepatic fatty
      acid composition. RPD increased 18:1c9 fatty acid while the combination of
      leucine and RPD reduced 18:0 fatty acid. Arginine supplementation increased the
      gene expression of FABP1, which contributes for triacylglycerols synthesis
      without affecting hepatic fatty acids content. RPD, with or without leucine
      addition, upregulated the lipogenic gene CEBPA but downregulated the fat
      oxidation gene LPIN1. CONCLUSIONS: Arginine supplementation was responsible for a
      modulated effect on plasma lipids, which is dependent on dietary protein level.
      It consistently increased lipaemia in NPD, while reducing the correspondent
      metabolites in RPD. In contrast, arginine had no major impact, neither on hepatic
      fatty acids content nor on fatty acid composition. Likewise, leucine
      supplementation of RPD, regardless the presence of arginine, promoted no changes
      on total fatty acids in the liver. Ultimately, arginine, leucine and dietary
      protein reduction seem to be unrelated with fatty liver development.

PMID- 28558682
TI  - Anti-proliferative potential of Glucosamine in renal cancer cells via inducing
      cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common types of cancer
      in urological system worldwide. Recently, the anticancer role of Glucosamine has
      been studied in many types of cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the effects of Glucosamine on RCC. METHODS: The effects of Glucosamine on RCC
      cell proliferation and apoptosis were investigated by MTT assay and Annexin V
      FITC Apoptosis assay, respectively in vitro. Cell cycle was detected by flow
      cytometry after treatment with Glucosamine. Protein levels of several cell cycle
      associated markers were examined by Western Blot. RESULTS: Our data showed that
      Glucosamine significantly inhibited the proliferation of renal cancer 786-O and
      Caki-1 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, Glucosamine treatment resulted
      in cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase in both cell lines. Meanwhile, the expression
      of several regulators that contribute to G1/S phased transition, such as Cyclin
      D1, CDK4 and CDK6, were significantly down-regulated with the up-regulation of
      cell cycle inhibitors, p21 and p53, after treatment with glucosamine. However,
      the apoptosis rate of RCC cells was down-regulated when treatment with
      Glucosamine at 1 mM and 5 mM, while up-regulated at 10 mM. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings indicated that Glucosamine inhibited the proliferation of RCC cells by
      promoting cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase, but not promoting apoptosis. The
      present results suggested that Glucosamine might be a potential therapeutic agent
      in RCC treatment in the future.

PMID- 28558683
TI  - Inhibition of biofilm formation in Mycobacterium smegmatis by Parinari
      curatellifolia leaf extracts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious public health problem worldwide.
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) grows as drug tolerant pellicles.
      Agents that inhibit biofilm formation in M. tuberculosis have the potential to
      reduce the disease treatment period and improve the quality of tuberculosis
      chemotherapy. Parinari curatellifolia (P. curatellifolia) leaf extracts are
      claimed to treat symptoms similar to tuberculosis in ethnomedicinal practices.
      Mycobacterium smegmatis (M. smegmatis) is a surrogate organism used in
      antimycobacterial drug discovery assays. In this study, the effect of the leaf
      extracts of P. curatellifolia on M. smegmatis growth and biofilm formation was
      investigated in order to determine the basis of its use in traditional medicinal
      use. METHODS: Phytochemicals from P. curatellifolia leaves were prepared using a
      mixture of 50% dichloromethane (DCM): 50% methanol and by serial exhaustive
      extraction using different solvents of decreasing polarity. The solvents were
      used in the following order, hexane > dichloromethane > ethyl acetate > acetone
      >ethanol > methanol > water. The micro-broth dilution method was used as an
      antimycobacterial susceptibility test to screen for the extract that effectively
      inhibited M. smegmatis growth and biofilm formation. Biofilm quantification was
      performed by staining the biofilms with crystal violet and determining the amount
      of the stain using a spectrophotometer. In addition, the effects of combining the
      most active extract with kanamycin were also investigated. RESULTS: The minimum
      inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the extracts were found to be 6.2 MUg/ml for
      the acetone extract, 12.5 MUg/ml for both the ethanol and the total extract and
      50 MUg/ml for both the methanol and ethyl acetate extracts. The ethanol extract,
      dichloromethane extract and water extract were the only extracts that effectively
      inhibited biofilm formation in M. smegmatis. Combining the ethanol extract with
      kanamycin enhanced the effect of the ethanol extract in terms of inhibition of
      biofilm formation. CONCLUSIONS: P. curatellifolia leaves contain phytochemicals
      that have the potential to be used both as antimycobacterial and anti-biofilm
      formation compounds.

PMID- 28558685
TI  - Predictors of survival outcomes in native sub Saharan black men newly diagnosed
      with metastatic prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Though it is well established that black men are at higher risk of
      prostate cancer (PCa) very little is known about the disease in native sub
      Saharan black men. Newly diagnosed metastatic PCa patients treated with primary
      androgen deprivation therapy were identified and predictors of progression-free
      survival (PFS) assessed. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with metastatic PCa between
      2010 and 2015 in a sub Saharan black population were included in the study.
      Primary outcome measure was PFS defined as time from primary androgen deprivation
      therapy to clinical progression or death. Demographic, clinical and PSA kinetic
      variables were evaluated for their prognostic power using Cox proportional hazard
      regression models. RESULTS: Seventy-nine patients met the eligibility criteria
      and were analyzed. Median age, median overall survival and PFS was 69 years, 40
      months and 27 months respectively. A PSA nadir >4 ng/mL was found to predict an
      earlier clinical progression. Median PFS was shorter in those with PSA nadir >4
      ng/mL (15 months) compared to those with PSA nadir <=4 ng/mL (29 months); log
      rank p value = 0.003. CONCLUSIONS: The PSA nadir achieved following primary
      androgen deprivation therapy predicts progression-free survival in sub Saharan
      black men newly diagnosed with metastatic PCa. PSA nadir >4 ng/mL was found to be
      associated with a more rapid clinical progression.

PMID- 28558684
TI  - Evaluating the accuracy of amplicon-based microbiome computational pipelines on
      simulated human gut microbial communities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microbiome studies commonly use 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to
      characterize microbial communities. Errors introduced at multiple steps in this
      process can affect the interpretation of the data. Here we evaluate the accuracy
      of operational taxonomic unit (OTU) generation, taxonomic classification, alpha-
      and beta-diversity measures for different settings in QIIME, MOTHUR and a pplacer
      based classification pipeline, using a novel software package: DECARD. RESULTS:
      In-silico we generated 100 synthetic bacterial communities approximating human
      stool microbiomes to be used as a gold-standard for evaluating the colligative
      performance of microbiome analysis software. Our synthetic data closely matched
      the composition and complexity of actual healthy human stool microbiomes. Genus
      level taxonomic classification was correctly done for only 50.4-74.8% of the
      source organisms. Miscall rates varied from 11.9 to 23.5%. Species-level
      classification was less successful, (6.9-18.9% correct); miscall rates were
      comparable to those of genus-level targets (12.5-26.2%). The degree of miscall
      varied by clade of organism, pipeline and specific settings used. OTU generation
      accuracy varied by strategy (closed, de novo or subsampling), reference database,
      algorithm and software implementation. Shannon diversity estimation accuracy
      correlated generally with OTU-generation accuracy. Beta-diversity estimates with
      Double Principle Coordinate Analysis (DPCoA) were more robust against errors
      introduced in processing than Weighted UniFrac. The settings suggested in the
      tutorials were among the worst performing in all outcomes tested. CONCLUSIONS:
      Even when using the same classification pipeline, the specific OTU-generation
      strategy, reference database and downstream analysis methods selection can have a
      dramatic effect on the accuracy of taxonomic classification, and alpha- and beta
      diversity estimation. Even minor changes in settings adversely affected the
      accuracy of the results, bringing them far from the best-observed result. Thus,
      specific details of how a pipeline is used (including OTU generation strategy,
      reference sets, clustering algorithm and specific software implementation) should
      be specified in the methods section of all microbiome studies. Researchers should
      evaluate their chosen pipeline and settings to confirm it can adequately answer
      the research question rather than assuming the tutorial or standard-operating
      procedure settings will be adequate or optimal.

PMID- 28558686
TI  - Global identification, structural analysis and expression characterization of
      bHLH transcription factors in wheat.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs), which are
      widely distributed in eukaryotic organisms, play crucial roles in plant
      development. However, no comprehensive analysis of the bHLH family in wheat
      (Triticum aestivum L.) has been undertaken previously. RESULTS: In this study,
      225 bHLH TFs predicted from wheat using genomic and RNA sequencing data were
      subjected to identification, classification, phylogenetic reconstruction,
      conserved motif characterization, chromosomal distribution determination and
      expression pattern analysis. One basic region, two helix regions and one loop
      region were found to be conserved in wheat bHLH TFs. The bHLH proteins could be
      separated into four categories based on sequences in their basic regions.
      Neighbor-joining-based phylogenetic analysis of conserved bHLH domains from
      wheat, Arabidopsis and rice identified 26 subfamilies of bHLH TFs, of which 23
      were found in wheat. A total of 82 wheat bHLH genes had orthologs in Arabidopsis
      (27 TFs), rice (28 TFs) and both of them (27 TFs). Seven tissue-specific bHLH TF
      clusters were identified according to their expression patterns in endosperm,
      aleurone, seedlings, heading-stage spikes, flag leaves, shoots and roots.
      Expression levels of six endosperm-specifically expressed TFs measured by qPCR
      and RNA-seq showed a good correlation. CONCLUSION: The 225 bHLH transcription
      factors identified from wheat could be classed into 23 subfamilies, and those
      members from the same subfamily with similar sequence motifs generally have
      similar expression patterns.

PMID- 28558687
TI  - Bibliometric analysis of worldwide scientific literature in mobile - health: 2006
      2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The advancement of mobile technology had positively influenced
      healthcare services. An emerging subfield of mobile technology is mobile health
      (m-Health) in which mobile applications are used for health purposes. The aim of
      this study was to analyze and assess literature published in the field of m
      Health. METHODS: SciVerse Scopus was used to retrieve literature in m-Health. The
      study period was set from 2006 to 2016. ArcGIS 10.1 was used to present
      geographical distribution of publications while VOSviewer was used for data
      visualization. Growth of publications, citation analysis, and research
      productivity were presented using standard bibliometric indicators. RESULTS:
      During the study period, a total of 5465 documents were published, giving an
      average of 496.8 documents per year. The h-index of retrieved documents was 81.
      Core keywords used in literature pertaining to m-Health included diabetes
      mellitus, adherence, and obesity among others. Relative growth rate and doubling
      time of retrieved literature were stable from 2009 to 2015 indicating exponential
      growth of literature in this field. A total of 4638 (84.9%) documents were multi
      authored with a mean collaboration index of 4.1 authors per article. The United
      States of America ranked first in productivity with 1926 (35.2%) published
      documents. India ranked sixth with 183 (3.3%) documents while China ranked
      seventh with 155(2.8%) documents. VA Medical Center was the most prolific
      organization/institution while Journal of Medical Internet Research was the
      preferred journal for publications in the field of m-Health. Top cited articles
      in the field of m-Health included the use of mobile technology in improving
      adherence in HIV patients, weight loss, and improving glycemic control in
      diabetic patients. CONCLUSION: The size of literature in m-Health showed a
      noticeable increase in the past decade. Given the large volume of citations
      received in this field, it is expected that applications of m-Health will be seen
      into various health aspects and health services. Research in m-Health needs to be
      encouraged, particularly in the fight against AIDS, poor medication adherence,
      glycemic control in Africa and other low income world regions where technology
      can improve health services and decrease disease burden.

PMID- 28558688
TI  - High-quality genetic mapping with ddRADseq in the non-model tree Quercus rubra.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) has the potential
      to be a broadly applicable, low-cost approach for high-quality genetic linkage
      mapping in forest trees lacking a reference genome. The statistical inference of
      linear order must be as accurate as possible for the correct ordering of sequence
      scaffolds and contigs to chromosomal locations. Accurate maps also facilitate the
      discovery of chromosome segments containing allelic variants conferring
      resistance to the biotic and abiotic stresses that threaten forest trees
      worldwide. We used ddRADseq for genetic mapping in the tree Quercus rubra, with
      an approach optimized to produce a high-quality map. Our study design also
      enabled us to model the results we would have obtained with less depth of
      coverage. RESULTS: Our sequencing design produced a high sequencing depth in the
      parents (248*) and a moderate sequencing depth (15*) in the progeny. The digital
      normalization method of generating a de novo reference and the SAMtools SNP
      variant caller yielded the most SNP calls (78,725). The major drivers of map
      inflation were multiple SNPs located within the same sequence (77% of SNPs
      called). The highest quality map was generated with a low level of missing data
      (5%) and a genome-wide threshold of 0.025 for deviation from Mendelian
      expectation. The final map included 849 SNP markers (1.8% of the 78,725 SNPs
      called). Downsampling the individual FASTQ files to model lower depth of coverage
      revealed that sequencing the progeny using 96 samples per lane would have yielded
      too few SNP markers to generate a map, even if we had sequenced the parents at
      depth 248*. CONCLUSIONS: The ddRADseq technology produced enough high-quality SNP
      markers to make a moderately dense, high-quality map. The success of this project
      was due to high depth of coverage of the parents, moderate depth of coverage of
      the progeny, a good framework map, an optimized bioinformatics pipeline, and
      rigorous premapping filters. The ddRADseq approach is useful for the construction
      of high-quality genetic maps in organisms lacking a reference genome if the
      parents and progeny are sequenced at sufficient depth. Technical improvements in
      reduced representation sequencing (RRS) approaches are needed to reduce the
      amount of missing data.

PMID- 28558689
TI  - Mortality in patients with HIV-1 and tuberculosis co-infection in Rio de Janeiro,
      Brazil - associated factors and causes of death.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is the most frequent opportunistic infection and the
      leading cause of death among persons living with HIV in several low and middle
      income countries. Mortality rates during tuberculosis treatment and death causes
      among HIV-1/TB co-infected patients may differ based on the immunosuppression
      severity, timing of diagnosis and prompt initiation of tuberculosis and
      antiretroviral therapy. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study
      conducted in the clinical cohort of patients with HIV-1/Aids of the National
      Institute of Infectious Diseases Evandro Chagas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All HIV
      1 infected patients who started combination antiretroviral therapy up to 30 days
      before or within 180 days after the start of tuberculosis treatment from 2000 to
      2010 were eligible. Causes of death were categorized according to the "Coding
      Causes of Death in HIV" (CoDe) protocol. The Cox model was used to estimate the
      hazard ratio (HR) of selected mortality variables. RESULTS: A total of 310
      patients were included. Sixty-four patients died during the study period.
      Mortality rate following tuberculosis treatment initiation was 44 per 100 person
      years within the first 30 days, 28.1 per 100 person-years within 31 and 90 days,
      6 per 100 person-years within 91 and 365 days and 1.6 per 100 person-years after
      365 days. Death probability within one year from tuberculosis treatment
      initiation was approximately 13%. In the adjusted analysis the associated factors
      with mortality were: CD4 <= 50 cells/mm3 (HR: 3.10; 95% CI: 1.720 to 5.580; p =
      0.00); mechanical ventilation (HR: 2.81; 95% CI: 1.170 to 6.760; p = 0.02); and
      disseminated tuberculosis (HR: 3.70; 95% CI: 1.290 to 10.590, p = 0.01). Invasive
      bacterial disease was the main immediate cause of death (46.9%). CONCLUSION: Our
      results evidence the high morbidity and mortality among patients co-infected with
      HIV-1 and tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the first year following
      tuberculosis diagnosis, mortality was the highest within the first 3 months,
      being invasive bacterial infection the major cause of death. In order to
      successfully intervene in this scenario, it is utterly necessary to address the
      social determinants of health contributing to the inequitable health care access
      faced by this population.

PMID- 28558691
TI  - The development and use of a molecular model for soybean maturity groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Achieving appropriate maturity in a target environment is essential
      to maximizing crop yield potential. In soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], the time
      to maturity is largely dependent on developmental response to dark periods. Once
      the critical photoperiod is reached, flowering is initiated and reproductive
      development proceeds. Therefore, soybean adaptation has been attributed to
      genetic changes and natural or artificial selection to optimize plant development
      in specific, narrow latitudinal ranges. In North America, these regions have been
      classified into twelve maturity groups (MG), with lower MG being shorter season
      than higher MG. Growing soybean lines not adapted to a particular environment
      typically results in poor growth and significant yield reductions. The objective
      of this study was to develop a molecular model for soybean maturity based on the
      alleles underlying the major maturity loci: E1, E2, and E3. RESULTS: We
      determined the allelic variation and diversity of the E maturity genes in a large
      collection of soybean landraces, North American ancestors, Chinese cultivars,
      North American cultivars or expired Plant Variety Protection lines, and private
      company lines. The E gene status of accessions in the USDA Soybean Germplasm
      Collection with SoySNP50K Beadchip data was also predicted. We determined the E
      allelic combinations needed to adapt soybean to different MGs in the United
      States (US) and discovered a strong signal of selection for E genotypes released
      in North America, particularly the US and Canada. CONCLUSIONS: The E gene
      maturity model proposed will enable plant breeders to more effectively transfer
      traits into different MGs and increase the overall efficiency of soybean breeding
      in the US and Canada. The powerful yet simple selection strategy for increasing
      soybean breeding efficiency can be used alone or to directly enhance genomic
      prediction/selection schemes. The results also revealed previously unrecognized
      aspects of artificial selection in soybean imposed by soybean breeders based on
      geography that highlights the need for plant breeding that is optimized for
      specific environments.

PMID- 28558690
TI  - Profile and functional analysis of small RNAs derived from Aspergillus fumigatus
      infected with double-stranded RNA mycoviruses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycoviruses are viruses that naturally infect and replicate in fungi.
      Aspergillus fumigatus, an opportunistic pathogen causing fungal lung diseases in
      humans and animals, was recently shown to harbour several different types of
      mycoviruses. A well-characterised defence against virus infection is RNA
      silencing. The A. fumigatus genome encodes essential components of the RNA
      silencing machinery, including Dicer, Argonaute and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase
      (RdRP) homologues. Active silencing of double-stranded (ds)RNA and the generation
      of small RNAs (sRNAs) has been shown for several mycoviruses and it is
      anticipated that a similar mechanism will be activated in A. fumigatus isolates
      infected with mycoviruses. RESULTS: To investigate the existence and nature of A.
      fumigatus sRNAs, sRNA-seq libraries of virus-free and virus-infected isolates
      were created using Scriptminer adapters and compared. Three dsRNA viruses were
      investigated: Aspergillus fumigatus partitivirus-1 (AfuPV-1, PV), Aspergillus
      fumigatus chrysovirus (AfuCV, CV) and Aspergillus fumigatus tetramycovirus-1
      (AfuTmV-1, NK) which were selected because they induce phenotypic changes such as
      coloration and sectoring. The dsRNAs of all three viruses, which included two
      conventionally encapsidated ones PV and CV and one unencapsidated example NK,
      were silenced and yielded characteristic vsiRNAs together with co-incidental
      silencing of host fungal genes which shared sequence homology with the viral
      genomes. CONCLUSIONS: Virus-derived sRNAs were detected and characterised in the
      presence of virus infection. Differentially expressed A. fumigatus microRNA-like
      (miRNA-like) sRNAs and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were detected and
      validated. Host sRNA loci which were differentially expressed as a result of
      virus infection were also identified. To our knowledge, this is the first study
      reporting the sRNA profiles of A. fumigatus isolates.

PMID- 28558692
TI  - The feasibility and efficacy of implementing a focused cardiac ultrasound course
      into a medical school curriculum.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Teaching cardiac ultrasound to medical students in a brief course is
      a challenge. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of teaching large groups of
      medical students the acquisition and interpretation of cardiac ultrasound images
      using a pocket ultrasound device (PUD) in a short, specially designed course.
      METHODS: Thirty-one medical students in their first clinical year participated in
      the study. All were novices in the use of cardiac ultrasound. The training
      consisted of 4 hours of frontal lectures and 4 hours of hands-on training.
      Students were encouraged to use PUD for individual practice. Finally, the
      students' proficiency in the acquisition of ultrasound images and their ability
      to recognize normal and pathological states were evaluated. RESULTS: Sixteen of
      27 (59%) students were able to demonstrate all main ultrasound views
      (parasternal, apical, and subcostal views) in a six-minute test. The most
      obtainable view was the parasternal long-axis view (89%) and the least obtainable
      was the subcostal view (58%). Ninety-seven percent of students correctly
      differentiated normal from severely reduced left ventricular function, 100%
      correctly differentiated a normal right ventricle from a severely hypokinetic
      one, 100% correctly differentiated a normal mitral valve from a rheumatic one,
      and 88% correctly differentiated a normal aortic valve from a calcified one,
      while 95% of them correctly identified the presence of pericardial effusion.
      CONCLUSIONS: Training of medical students in cardiac ultrasound during the first
      clinical year using a short, focused course is feasible and enables students with
      modest ability to acquire the main transthoracic ultrasound views and gain
      proficiency in the diagnosis of a limited number of cardiac pathologies.

PMID- 28558693
TI  - Scrambling for access: availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of
      healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexual orientation and gender identity are social determinants of
      health for people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT),
      and health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations are
      increasingly well understood. Although the South African constitution guarantees
      sexual and gender minority people the right to non-discrimination and the right
      to access to healthcare, homo- and transphobia in society abound. Little is known
      about LGBT people's healthcare experiences in South Africa, but anecdotal
      evidence suggests significant barriers to accessing care. Using the framework of
      the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General
      Comment 14, this study analyses the experiences of LGBT health service users
      using South African public sector healthcare, including access to HIV
      counselling, testing and treatment. METHODS: A qualitative study comprised of 16
      semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with LGBT health
      service users, and 14 individual interviews with representatives of LGBT
      organisations. Data were thematically analysed within the framework of the UN
      International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment
      14, focusing on availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of care.
      RESULTS: All interviewees reported experiences of discrimination by healthcare
      providers based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Participants
      recounted violations of all four elements of the UN General Comment 14: 1)
      Availability: Lack of public health facilities and services, both for general and
      LGBT-specific concerns; 2) Accessibility: Healthcare providers' refusal to
      provide care to LGBT patients; 3) Acceptability: Articulation of moral judgment
      and disapproval of LGBT patients' identity, and forced subjection of patients to
      religious practices; 4) Quality: Lack of knowledge about LGBT identities and
      health needs, leading to poor-quality care. Participants had delayed or avoided
      seeking healthcare in the past, and none had sought out accountability or
      complaint mechanisms within the health system. CONCLUSION: Sexual orientation and
      gender identity are important categories of analysis for health equity, and lead
      to disparities in all four dimensions of healthcare access as defined by General
      Comment 14. Discriminatory and prejudicial attitudes by healthcare providers,
      combined with a lack of competency and knowledge are key reasons for these
      disparities in South Africa.

PMID- 28558694
TI  - Accurate characterization of the IFITM locus using MiSeq and PacBio sequencing
      shows genetic variation in Galliformes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interferon inducible transmembrane (IFITM) proteins are effectors of
      the immune system widely characterized for their role in restricting infection by
      diverse enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. The chicken IFITM (chIFITM) genes
      are clustered on chromosome 5 and to date four genes have been annotated, namely
      chIFITM1, chIFITM3, chIFITM5 and chIFITM10. However, due to poor assembly of this
      locus in the Gallus Gallus v4 genome, accurate characterization has so far proven
      problematic. Recently, a new chicken reference genome assembly Gallus Gallus v5
      was generated using Sanger, 454, Illumina and PacBio sequencing technologies
      identifying considerable differences in the chIFITM locus over the previous
      genome releases. METHODS: We re-sequenced the locus using both Illumina MiSeq and
      PacBio RS II sequencing technologies and we mapped RNA-seq data from the European
      Nucleotide Archive (ENA) to this finalized chIFITM locus. Using SureSelect probes
      capture probes designed to the finalized chIFITM locus, we sequenced the locus of
      a different chicken breed, namely a White Leghorn, and a turkey. RESULTS: We
      confirmed the Gallus Gallus v5 consensus except for two insertions of 5 and 1
      base pair within the chIFITM3 and B4GALNT4 genes, respectively, and a single base
      pair deletion within the B4GALNT4 gene. The pull down revealed a single amino
      acid substitution of A63V in the CIL domain of IFITM2 compared to Red Jungle fowl
      and 13, 13 and 11 differences between IFITM1, 2 and 3 of chickens and turkeys,
      respectively. RNA-seq shows chIFITM2 and chIFITM3 expression in numerous tissue
      types of different chicken breeds and avian cell lines, while the expression of
      the putative chIFITM1 is limited to the testis, caecum and ileum tissues.
      CONCLUSIONS: Locus resequencing using these capture probes and RNA-seq based
      expression analysis will allow the further characterization of genetic diversity
      within Galliformes.

PMID- 28558695
TI  - Azithromycin and risk of COPD exacerbations in patients with and without
      Helicobacter pylori.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection is associated with reduced lung
      function and systemic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) patients. Azithromycin (AZ) is active against HP and reduces the risk of
      COPD exacerbation. We determined whether HP infection status modifies the effects
      of AZ in COPD patients. METHODS: Plasma samples from 1018 subjects with COPD who
      participated in the Macrolide Azithromycin (MACRO) in COPD Study were used to
      determine the HP infection status at baseline and 12 months of follow-up using a
      serologic assay. Based on HP infection status and randomization to either AZ or
      placebo (PL), the subjects were divided into 4 groups: HP+/AZ, HP-/AZ, HP+/PL,
      and HP-/PL. Time to first exacerbation was compared across the 4 groups using
      Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and a Cox proportional hazards model. The rates of
      exacerbation were compared using both the Kruskal-Wallis test and negative
      binomial analysis. Blood biomarkers at enrolment and at follow-up visits 3, 12,
      and 13 (1 month after treatment was stopped) months were measured. RESULTS: One
      hundred eighty one (17.8%) patients were seropositive to HP. Non-Caucasian
      participants were nearly three times more likely to be HP seropositive than
      Caucasian participants (37.4% vs 13.6%; p < 0.001). The median time to first
      exacerbation was significantly different across the four groups (p = 0.001) with
      the longest time in the HP+/AZ group (11.2 months, 95% CI; 8.4-12.5+) followed by
      the HP-/AZ group (8.0 months, 95% CI; 6.7-9.7). Hazard ratio (HR) for
      exacerbations was lowest in the HP+/AZ group after adjustment for age, sex,
      smoking status, ethnicity, history of peptic ulcer, dyspnea, previous hospital
      admission, GOLD grade of severity, and forced vital capacity (HR, 0.612; 95% CI,
      0.442-0.846 vs HR, 0.789; 95% CI, 0.663-0.938 in the HP-/AZ group). Circulating
      levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-75 were reduced only in the
      HP+/AZ group after 3 months of AZ treatment (-0.87 +/- 0.31 MUg/L; p = 0.002);
      levels returned to baseline after discontinuing AZ. CONCLUSIONS: AZ is effective
      in preventing COPD exacerbations in patients with HP seropositivity, possibly by
      modulating TNF pathways related to HP infection.

PMID- 28558697
TI  - Does an electronic cognitive aid have an effect on the management of severe
      gynaecological TURP syndrome? A prospective, randomised simulation study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lack of familiarity with the content of current guidelines is a major
      factor associated with non-compliance by clinicians. It is conceivable that
      cognitive aids with regularly updated medical content can guide clinicians' task
      performance by evidence-based practices, even if they are unfamiliar with the
      actual guideline. Acute hyponatraemia as a consequence of TURP syndrome is a rare
      intraoperative event, and current practice guidelines have changed from slow
      correction to rapid correction of serum sodium levels. The primary objective of
      this study was to compare the management of a simulated severe gynaecological
      transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) syndrome under spinal anaesthesia
      with either: an electronic cognitive aid, or with management from memory alone.
      The secondary objective was to assess the clinical relevance and participant
      perception of the usefulness of the cognitive aid. METHODS: Anaesthetic teams
      were allocated to control (no cognitive aid; n = 10) or intervention (cognitive
      aid provided; n = 10) groups. We identified eight evidence-based management tasks
      for severe TURP syndrome from current guidelines and subdivided them into acute
      heart failure (AHF)/pulmonary oedema tasks (5) and acute hyponatraemia tasks (3).
      Implementation of the treatment steps was measured by scoring task items in a
      binary fashion (yes/no). To assess whether or not the cognitive aid had prompted
      a treatment step, participants from the cognitive aid group were questioned
      during debriefing on every single treatment step. At the end of the simulation,
      session participants were asked to complete a survey. RESULTS: Teams in the
      cognitive aid group considered evidence-based treatment steps significantly more
      often than teams of the control group (96% vs. 50% for 'AHF/pulmonary oedema' p <
      0.001; 79% vs. 12% for 'acute hyponatraemia' p < 0.001). Without the cognitive
      aid, performance would have been comparable across both groups. Nurses, trainees,
      and consultants derived equal benefit from the cognitive aid. CONCLUSIONS: The
      cognitive aid improved the implementation of evidence-based practices in a
      simulated intraoperative scenario. Cognitive aids with current medical content
      could help to close the translational gap between guideline publication and
      implementation in acute patient care. It is important that the cognitive aid
      should be familiar, in a format that has been used in practice and training.

PMID- 28558696
TI  - In-depth genome characterization of a Brazilian common bean core collection using
      DArTseq high-density SNP genotyping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Common bean is a legume of social and nutritional importance as a
      food crop, cultivated worldwide especially in developing countries, accounting
      for an important source of income for small farmers. The availability of the
      complete sequences of the two common bean genomes has dramatically accelerated
      and has enabled new experimental strategies to be applied for genetic research.
      DArTseq has been widely used as a method of SNP genotyping allowing comprehensive
      genome coverage with genetic applications in common bean breeding programs.
      RESULTS: Using this technology, 6286 SNPs (1 SNP/86.5 Kbp) were genotyped in
      genic (43.3%) and non-genic regions (56.7%). Genetic subdivision associated to
      the common bean gene pools (K = 2) and related to grain types (K = 3 and K = 5)
      were reported. A total of 83% and 91% of all SNPs were polymorphic within the
      Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools, respectively, and 26% were able to
      differentiate the gene pools. Genetic diversity analysis revealed an average H E
      of 0.442 for the whole collection, 0.102 for Andean and 0.168 for Mesoamerican
      gene pools (F ST  = 0.747 between gene pools), 0.440 for the group of cultivars
      and lines, and 0.448 for the group of landrace accessions (F ST  = 0.002 between
      cultivar/line and landrace groups). The SNP effects were predicted with
      predominance of impact on non-coding regions (77.8%). SNPs under selection were
      identified within gene pools comparing landrace and cultivar/line germplasm
      groups (Andean: 18; Mesoamerican: 69) and between the gene pools (59 SNPs),
      predominantly on chromosomes 1 and 9. The LD extension estimate corrected for
      population structure and relatedness (r2SV) was ~ 88 kbp, while for the Andean
      gene pool was ~ 395 kbp, and for the Mesoamerican was ~ 130 kbp. CONCLUSIONS: For
      common bean, DArTseq provides an efficient and cost-effective strategy of
      generating SNPs for large-scale genome-wide studies. The DArTseq resulted in an
      operational panel of 560 polymorphic SNPs in linkage equilibrium, providing high
      genome coverage. This SNP set could be used in genotyping platforms with many
      applications, such as population genetics, phylogeny relation between common bean
      varieties and support to molecular breeding approaches.

PMID- 28558699
TI  - Incidence of and factors associated with catheter-related bloodstream infection
      in patients with advanced solid tumors on home parenteral nutrition managed using
      a standardized catheter care protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) are associated with
      high morbidity and mortality as well as increased medical costs. Cancer patients,
      who are often immunocompromised, are susceptible to CRBSI while receiving home
      parenteral nutrition (HPN). We evaluated the incidence of and factors associated
      with CRBSIs in cancer patients undergoing HPN managed using a standardized
      catheter care protocol. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of 335
      cancer patients receiving HPN between January 2012 and July 2015. The primary
      outcome of interest was the incidence of CRBSI expressed as events per 1000 HPN
      days. HPN days were calculated from the start date with the home infusion
      provider until the discontinuation of HPN, or the removal of the venous access
      device (VAD), or the death of the patient. The VADs used were either peripherally
      inserted central catheters (PICCs) or a subcutaneous implanted port or tunneled
      central catheters (TCCs). Univariate Poisson regression analyses were used to
      determine the variables associated with CRBSIs. RESULTS: Of 335 patients, 193
      were females and 142 were males. The most common cancer types were colorectal,
      pancreatic, ovarian and stomach. A total of 408 VADs in 335 patients were
      studied, covering a total of 29,403 HPN days. Of 408 VADs, 206 (50.5%) were
      ports, 191 (46.8%) were PICCs, and 7 (2.7%) were TCCs. The median duration of HPN
      was 54 days. A total of 16 CRBSI episodes were recorded (8 in ports, 7 in PICCs
      and 1 in TCCs). The median duration from the start of HPN to the development of
      CRBSI episodes was 43.5 days. The overall incidence of CRBSI per 1000 HPN days
      was 0.54 (95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.86). Upon univariate analysis, no
      variables were found to be statistically significantly associated with CRBSI
      incidence. CONCLUSIONS: We found a low rate of CRBSI following a standardized
      catheter maintenance protocol in a high-risk oncology population undergoing HPN.

PMID- 28558698
TI  - Role of human rhinovirus in triggering human airway epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Structural changes in the airways, collectively referred to as airway
      remodeling, are a characteristic feature of asthma, and are now known to begin in
      early life. Human rhinovirus (HRV)-induced wheezing illnesses during early life
      are a potential inciting stimulus for remodeling. Increased deposition of matrix
      proteins causes thickening of the lamina reticularis, which is a well-recognized
      component of airway remodeling. Increased matrix protein deposition is believed
      to be due to the presence of increased numbers of activated mesenchymal cells
      (fibroblasts/myofibroblasts) in the subepithelial region of asthmatic airways.
      The origin of these increased mesenchymal cells is not clear, but one potential
      contributor is the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We
      hypothesized that HRV infection may help to induce EMT. METHODS: We used the BEAS
      2B human bronchial epithelial cells line, which uniformly expresses the major
      group HRV receptor, to examine the effects of stimulation with HRV alone,
      transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), alone, and the combination, on
      induction of changes consistent with EMT. Western blotting was used to examine
      expression of epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypic marker proteins and selected
      signaling molecules. Cell morphology was also examined. RESULTS: In this study,
      we show that two different strains of HRV, which use two different cellular
      receptors, are each capable of triggering phenotypic changes consistent with EMT.
      Moreover, both HRV serotypes synergistically induced changes consistent with EMT
      when used in the presence of TGF-beta1. Morphological changes were also most
      pronounced with the combination of HRV and TGF-beta1. Viral replication was not
      essential for phenotypic changes. The synergistic interactions between HRV and
      TGF-beta1 were mediated, at least in part, via activation of mitogen activated
      protein kinase pathways, and via induction of the transcription factor SLUG.
      CONCLUSIONS: These data support a role for HRV in the induction of EMT, which may
      contribute to matrix protein deposition and thickening of the lamina reticularis
      in airways of patients with asthma.

PMID- 28558700
TI  - Punicic acid: A striking health substance to combat metabolic syndromes in
      humans.
AB  - Punicic acid, a bioactive compound of pomegranate seed oil has gained wide
      attention for their therapeutic potential. Different studies conducted on animal
      and human models have revealed that punicic acid is very effective against
      various chronic diseases. Substantial laboratory works has been carried out to
      elaborate punicic acid effectiveness and mechanism of action in animals. The
      intention of this review article is to explore the facts about the clinical
      trials of punicic acid and to discuss different future strategies that can be
      employed to use it in human clinical trials. Although punicic acid may represent
      a novel therapeutic unconventional approach for some disorders, still further
      experimental studies are required to demonstrate its effects in human beings.

PMID- 28558701
TI  - Rapid reduction of malaria following introduction of vector control interventions
      in Tororo District, Uganda: a descriptive study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2012, Tororo District had the highest malaria burden in Uganda
      with community Plasmodium prevalence of 48%. To control malaria in the district,
      the Ministry of Health introduced universal distribution of long lasting
      insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) in 2013 and added indoor residual spraying (IRS)
      in 2014. This study assessed malaria incidence, test positivity rates and
      outpatient (OPD) attendance due to malaria before and after vector control
      interventions. METHODS: This study was based on analysis of Health Management
      Information System (HMIS) secondary malaria surveillance data of 2,727,850
      patient records in OPD registers of 61 health facilities from 2012 to 2015. The
      analysis estimated monthly malaria incidence for the entire population and also
      separately for <5- and >=5-year-olds before and after introduction of vector
      control interventions; determined laboratory test positivity rates and annual
      percentage of malaria cases in OPD. Chi square for trends was used to analyse
      annual change in malaria incidence and logistic regression for monthly reduction.
      RESULTS: Following universal LLINs coverage, the annual mean monthly malaria
      incidence fell from 95 cases in 2013 to 76 cases per 1000 in 2014 with no
      significant monthly reduction (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.96-1.01, P = 0.37). Among
      children <5 years, the malaria incidence reduced from 130 to 100 cases per 1000
      (OR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-1.00, P = 0.08) when LLINs were used alone in 2014, but
      declined to 45 per 1000 in 2015 when IRS was combined with LLINs (OR = 0.94, 95%
      CI 0.91-0.996, P < 0.0001). Among individuals aged >=5 years, mean monthly
      malaria incidence reduced from 59 to 52 cases per 1000 (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.97
      1.02, P = 0.8) when LLINs were used alone in 2014, but reduced significantly to
      25 per 1000 in 2015 (OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.88-0.94, P < 0.0001). Malaria test
      positivity rate reduced from 57% in 2013 to 30% (Chi = 15, P < 0.0001) in 2015.
      Slide positivity rate reduced from 45% in 2013 to 21% in 2015 (P = 0.004) while
      RDT positivity declined from 69 to 40%. CONCLUSIONS: A rapid reduction in malaria
      incidence was observed in Tororo District following the introduction of IRS in
      addition to LLINs. There was no significant reduction in malaria incidence
      following universal distribution of LLINs to communities before introduction of
      IRS.

PMID- 28558702
TI  - Background anaesthetic agents do not influence the impact of arginine vasopressin
      on haemodynamic states and cerebral oxygenation during shoulder surgery in the
      beach chair position: a prospective, single-blind study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Administration of arginine vasopressin (AVP) is associated with
      reducing jugular venous (SjvO2) and regional cerebral (rScO2) oxygen saturation
      under propofol-remifentanil (P/R) anaesthesia. We determined whether background
      anaesthetics modulate the effect of AVP on cerebral oxygenation and
      haemodynamics. METHODS: We randomly allocated 60 adult patients scheduled for
      shoulder surgery in the beach chair position (BCP) into 4 groups, to receive
      either an intravenous bolus of saline (groups PR-S and SN-S) or 0.05 U/kg AVP
      (groups PR-AVP and SN-AVP) under P/R or sevoflurane-nitrous oxide (S/N)
      anaesthesia (n = 15 each). Haemodynamic variables, SjvO2 and rScO2 were measured.
      RESULTS: AVP significantly increased mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and
      decreased rScO2 in either anaesthetic group. AVP also decreased SjvO2 in the P/R
      groups but not in the S/N groups. The AVP-treated groups showed higher MAP and
      cerebral desaturation (>20% rScO2 decrease from baseline), along with lower HR
      and rScO2 in the BCP than those in the saline-treated groups. In contrast, AVP
      did not affect SjvO2 values or the incidence of SjvO 2  < 50%. Baseline SjvO2 was
      lower and the magnitude of its reduction in the BCP was greater in the PR-AVP
      group than in the SN-AVP group, and the lowest SjvO2 values were 37 +/- 6 and 57
      +/- 8%, respectively (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The choice of anaesthetic regimen
      did not affect cerebral oxygenation or haemodynamics of AVP in the BCP. However,
      the negative effect of AVP on cerebral oxygenation should be considered,
      especially under P/R anaesthesia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov
      identifier: NCT01687894 , registered on September 18, 2012.

PMID- 28558703
TI  - "Fibromyalgia and quality of life: mapping the revised fibromyalgia impact
      questionnaire to the preference-based instruments".
AB  - BACKGROUND: The revised version of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR)
      is one of the most widely used specific questionnaires in FM studies. However,
      this questionnaire does not allow calculation of QALYs as it is not a preference
      based measure. The aim of this study was to develop mapping algorithm which
      enable FIQR scores to be transformed into utility scores that can be used in the
      cost utility analyses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted. One
      hundred and 92 Spanish women with Fibromyalgia were asked to complete four
      general quality of life questionnaires, i.e. EQ-5D-5 L, 15D, AQoL-8D and SF-12,
      and one specific disease instrument, the FIQR. A direct mapping approach was
      adopted to derive mapping algorithms between the FIQR and each of the four multi
      attribute utility (MAU) instruments. Health state utility was treated as the
      dependent variable in the regression analysis, whilst the FIQR score and age were
      predictors. RESULTS: The mean utility scores ranged from 0.47 (AQoL-8D) to 0.69
      (15D). All correlations between the FIQR total score and MAU instruments utility
      scores were highly significant (p < 0.0001) with magnitudes larger than 0.5.
      Although very slight differences in the mean absolute error were found between
      ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator and generalized linear model (GLM), models
      based on GLM were better for EQ-5D-5 L, AQoL-8D and 15D. CONCLUSION: Mapping
      algorithms developed in this study enable the estimation of utility values from
      scores in a fibromyalgia specific questionnaire.

PMID- 28558705
TI  - Disseminated cryptococcosis with recurrent multiple abscesses in an
      immunocompetent patient: a case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cryptococcus neoformans is frequently present as an opportunistic
      pathogen mainly affecting immunocompromised populations. Disseminated C.
      neoformans infection in immunocompetent population is rare and usually involves
      lung and central nerve system. Cryptococcus from biologic samples can easily grow
      on routine fungal and bacterial culture media. Besides, cryptococcal latex
      agglutination test has been established as a reliable diagnostic tool with
      overall sensitivities of 93-100%. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a rare
      disseminated cryptococcosis case which presented with chronic recurrent multiple
      abscess in an immunocompetent male involving skin, lung, spine and iliac fossa
      without evidence of central nerve system involving. The results of serum
      cryptococcal latex agglutination tests and standard microbial cultures were
      negative. The patient underwent empirical anti-bacterial and anti-tuberculosis
      therapy which turned out to be effectless. Finally, bedside inoculation of the
      pus was carried out and revealed Cryptococcus neoformans, which was confirmed by
      polymerase chain reaction. After the administration of anti-fungal drugs
      including liposomal amphotericin B, the patient recovered from fever and
      paraplegia. CONCLUSIONS: This case reveals an uncommon pattern of disseminated C.
      neoformans infection in immunocompetent population presented with chronic
      multiple abscess and without central nerve system involving. Negative routine
      microbial cultures may not necessarily rule out cryptococcosis, especially in
      early stage. Besides, cryptococcal latex agglutination test does have a chance of
      false negative, which might be related with "capsule-deficiency". Moreover, this
      phenomenon could be related with low-grade virulence and relative long illness
      duration.

PMID- 28558704
TI  - Genome-wide network-based pathway analysis of CSF t-tau/Abeta1-42 ratio in the
      ADNI cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of total tau (t-tau) and Abeta1
      42 are potential early diagnostic markers for probable Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      The influence of genetic variation on these CSF biomarkers has been investigated
      in candidate or genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, the
      investigation of statistically modest associations in GWAS in the context of
      biological networks is still an under-explored topic in AD studies. The main
      objective of this study is to gain further biological insights via the
      integration of statistical gene associations in AD with physical protein
      interaction networks. RESULTS: The CSF and genotyping data of 843 study subjects
      (199 CN, 85 SMC, 239 EMCI, 207 LMCI, 113 AD) from the Alzheimer's Disease
      Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) were analyzed. PLINK was used to perform GWAS on
      the t-tau/Abeta1-42 ratio using quality controlled genotype data, including
      563,980 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with age, sex and diagnosis as
      covariates. Gene-level p-values were obtained by VEGAS2. Genes with p-value <=
      0.05 were mapped on to a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network (9,617 nodes,
      39,240 edges, from the HPRD Database). We integrated a consensus model strategy
      into the iPINBPA network analysis framework, and named it as CM-iPINBPA. Four
      consensus modules (CMs) were discovered by CM-iPINBPA, and were functionally
      annotated using the pathway analysis tool Enrichr. The intersection of four CMs
      forms a common subnetwork of 29 genes, including those related to tau
      phosphorylation (GSK3B, SUMO1, AKAP5, CALM1 and DLG4), amyloid beta production
      (CASP8, PIK3R1, PPA1, PARP1, CSNK2A1, NGFR, and RHOA), and AD (BCL3, CFLAR,
      SMAD1, and HIF1A). CONCLUSIONS: This study coupled a consensus module (CM)
      strategy with the iPINBPA network analysis framework, and applied it to the GWAS
      of CSF t-tau/Abeta1-42 ratio in an AD study. The genome-wide network analysis
      yielded 4 enriched CMs that share not only genes related to tau phosphorylation
      or amyloid beta production but also multiple genes enriching several KEGG
      pathways such as Alzheimer's disease, colorectal cancer, gliomas, renal cell
      carcinoma, Huntington's disease, and others. This study demonstrated that
      integration of gene-level associations with CMs could yield statistically
      significant findings to offer valuable biological insights (e.g., functional
      interaction among the protein products of these genes) and suggest high
      confidence candidates for subsequent analyses.

PMID- 28558706
TI  - Electronic applications for the CFQ-R scoring.
AB  - Patient reported outcomes (PROs) have become widely accepted outcome measures in
      cystic fibrosis (CF) and other respiratory diseases. The Cystic Fibrosis
      Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R) is the best validated and most widely used PRO for
      CF. Data collection can be time-intensive, and electronic platforms would greatly
      facilitate the feasibility, utility and accuracy of administration of the CFQ-R.
      Given that the CFQ-R is utilized in virtually all clinical trials worldwide and
      is increasingly integrated into clinical practice, we developed a software
      application that will help users to administer, score and save CFQ-R data for all
      versions. All codes are open access, which will enable other PRO users to design
      similar applications for other respiratory diseases, such as primary ciliary
      dyskinesia and non-CF bronchiectasis.

PMID- 28558707
TI  - Effect of the 2014 Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute urine-specific
      breakpoints on cefazolin susceptibility rates at a community teaching hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enterobacteriaceae, which include Escherichia coli, Klebsiella
      pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis, are identified as the infectious etiology in
      the majority of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in community hospitals across the
      United States. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is a useful tool when
      choosing an appropriate antibacterial agent. Recent changes to the 2014 Clinical
      and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines included reporting a urine
      specific cefazolin breakpoint for enterobacteriaceae (susceptible <=16 mcg/mL).
      The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical and financial impact of
      implementing the 2014 CLSI urine-specific breakpoints for cefazolin in a
      community-based teaching hospital in the Southern U.S.A. METHODS: A retrospective
      review of patients hospitalized from January 1, 2010 through October 1, 2014 was
      performed. Patients that met inclusion criteria had a documented initial clinical
      isolate of E. coli, K. pneumoniae, or P. mirabilis from urine cultures during
      each year. Descriptive statistics and two-proportion test of hypothesis were used
      in the analysis to compare susceptibility rates before and after implementation
      of the updated CLSI breakpoints for cefazolin. RESULTS: A total of 190 clinical
      isolates from patients were included in the study. E. coli was the most common
      organism isolated (63.7%), followed by K. pneumoniae (22.1%), and P. mirabilis
      (14.2%). 86% of the included isolates were susceptible to cefazolin using the
      2010 breakpoints. Implementation of the 2014 breakpoints did not significantly
      impact susceptibility results for E. coli, K. pneumoniae, or P. mirabilis.
      CONCLUSION: Modification of breakpoints did not significantly impact
      susceptibility rates of cefazolin. Substituting cefazolin may decrease the
      overall drug cost by 77.5%. More data is needed to correlate in vitro findings
      with clinical outcomes using cefazolin for UTIs.

PMID- 28558709
TI  - Beneficiaries' perceptions and reported use of unconditional cash transfers
      intended to prevent acute malnutrition in children in poor rural communities in
      Burkina Faso: qualitative results from the MAM'Out randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute malnutrition is a public health issue worldwide, and
      particularly in the Eastern region of Burkina Faso. Following a needs assessment,
      unconditional seasonal, multiannual cash transfers were implemented as a safety
      net to prevent childhood undernutrition. The objectives of this study were to
      explore the types of purchases made by beneficiaries of this cash transfer
      program and to understand the perceived effects of and changes induced by regular
      cash transfers in the daily lives of women, and at the household and community
      level. METHODS: The design of this study was a two-arm cluster randomized
      controlled trial. Qualitative data were collected each month during the cash
      transfer period for two years, leading to a total of more than 300 interviews and
      focus group discussions with various participants: beneficiary mothers, heads of
      households, mothers-in-law, co-wives, key members of the community, and
      participants of the control group. RESULTS: The two main types of expenses
      reported were food and health care for the child and the whole family. The
      program was also associated with positive perceived changes at the household
      level, mainly related to gender equality and improvement of women's status, and
      has promoted an increase in dignity and social integration of the poorest at the
      community level through cash sharing. Unexpected effects of this program included
      some women planning new pregnancies and some individuals not expecting the
      transfers to end. CONCLUSION: Although the transfers were unconditional, the cash
      was mainly used to improve the children's and households' food security and
      health, which correspond to two main underlying causes of undernutrition.
      Therefore, spending mainly in these areas can help to prevent undernutrition in
      children. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov , identifier: NCT01866124 ,
      registered May 7, 2013.

PMID- 28558708
TI  - Circulating blood levels of IL-6, IFN-gamma, and IL-10 as potential diagnostic
      biomarkers in gastric cancer: a controlled study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastric adenocarcinoma is the third most common cause of cancer
      associated death worldwide. Helicobacter pylori infection activates a signaling
      cascade that induces production of cytokines and chemokines involved in the
      chronic inflammatory response that drives carcinogenesis. We evaluated
      circulating cytokines and chemokines as potential diagnostic biomarkers for
      gastric cancer. METHODS: We included 201 healthy controls and 162 patients with
      distal gastric cancer who underwent primary surgical resection between 2009 and
      2012 in Mexico City. The clinical and pathological data of patients were recorded
      by questionnaire, and the cancer subtype was classified as intestinal or diffuse.
      Pathological staging of cancer was based on the tumor-node-metastasis staging
      system of the International Union Against Cancer. Concentrations of IL-1beta, IL
      6, TNF-alpha, IL-10, and MCP-1 in serum were measured using multiplex analyte
      profiling technology and concentrations of IL-8, IFN-gamma, and TGF-beta in
      plasma were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Levels of
      IL-1beta, IL-6, IFN-gamma, and IL-10 were significantly higher and that of MCP-1
      was lower in gastric cancer patients compared with controls. No differences in IL
      8 or TNF-alpha levels were observed between gastric cancer and controls. IFN
      gamma and IL-10 were significantly higher in both intestinal and diffuse gastric
      cancer, whereas IL-1beta and IL-6 were higher and TGF-beta lower only in
      intestinal gastric cancer; MCP-1 was lower only in diffuse gastric cancer. IFN
      gamma and IL-10 levels were significantly higher in early (I/II) and late stage
      (III/IV) gastric cancer; IL-1beta and IL-8 were higher and MCP-1 was lower only
      in late stage (IV) patients. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed
      that for diagnosis of GC, IL-6 had high specificity (0.97) and low sensitivity
      (0.39), IL-10 had moderate specificity (0.82) and low sensitivity (0.48), and IL
      1beta and IFN-gamma showed low specificity (0.43 and 0.53, respectively) and
      moderate sensitivity (0.76 and 0.71, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Increased levels
      of IL-6, IFN-gamma, and IL-10 might be useful as diagnostic biomarkers for GC;
      however, this needs to be confirmed with larger number of patients and with
      control groups other than blood donors, properly age paired. IL-1beta, IL-6, MCP
      1, and TGF-beta differentiate intestinal from diffuse GC. IFN-gamma and IL-10
      might be useful for diagnosis of early stage GC, and IL-1beta, IL-8, and MCP-1
      for late stages of the disease.

PMID- 28558710
TI  - A metabolomic analytical approach permits identification of urinary biomarkers
      for Plasmodium falciparum infection: a case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently available diagnostic techniques of Plasmodium falciparum
      infection are not optimal for non-invasive, population-based screening for
      malaria. It was hypothesized that a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach
      could identify urinary biomarkers of falciparum malaria. METHODS: The study used
      a case-control design, with cases consisting of 21 adults in central Ethiopia
      with a diagnosis of P. falciparum infection confirmed with microscopy, and 25
      controls of adults with negative blood smears for malaria matched on age and sex.
      Urinary samples were collected from these individuals during presentation at the
      clinic, and a second sample was collected from both cases and controls 4 weeks
      later, after the cases had received anti-malarial medication. The urine samples
      were screened for small molecule urinary biomarkers, using mass spectrometry
      based metabolomics analyses followed by multivariate analysis using principal
      component analysis and orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis. The
      chemical identity of statistically significant malaria biomarkers was confirmed
      using tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The urinary metabolic profiles of cases
      with P. falciparum infection were distinct from healthy controls. After treatment
      with anti-malarial medication, the metabolomic profile of cases resembled that of
      healthy controls. Significantly altered levels of 29 urinary metabolites were
      found. Elevated levels of urinary pipecolic acid, taurine, N-acetylspermidine, N
      acetylputrescine and 1,3-diacetylpropane were identified as potential biomarkers
      of falciparum malaria. CONCLUSION: The urinary biomarkers of malaria identified
      have potential for the development of non-invasive and rapid diagnostic test of
      P. falciparum infection.

PMID- 28558711
TI  - Sarcoidosis as a rare cause for symmetrical giant bullous disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sarcoidosis presents with typical clinic-radiological findings and
      shows histologically non-caseating granulomas. Pulmonary manifestations of
      sarcoidosis can be diverse, involving the intrathoracic lymph nodes and pulmonary
      parenchyma. CASE PRESENTATION: We here describe a case of a 35-year-old patient
      who presented with a history of exertion dyspnoea and coughing for the past 20
      years. At the age of 15, she was exposed to smoke emanating from a fire. Later,
      she had exposure to mold for two years, and during her childhood, she had animals
      such as a cockatiel, dog, cat, gecko, and turtle. Computed tomography of the
      chest revealed symmetrical apical giant bullous lesions. Histology of the
      resected bullae showed prominent peribronchial fibrosis with non-necrotizing, non
      caseating granulomas and collaps of pulmonary lobules adjacent to the bulla. The
      absence of granulomatous infection and a markedly elevated CD4:CD8 ratio in
      bronchoalveolar lavage analysis suggested that the underlying process was
      sarcoidosis. CONCLUSION: In very rare cases, sarcoidosis can be associated with
      bilateral symmetrical apical giant bullous disease due to fibrotic and
      granulomatous changes resulting in a restriction of lung tissue.

PMID- 28558712
TI  - Molecular and immunological analyses of confirmed Plasmodium vivax relapse
      episodes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relapse infections resulting from the activation hypnozoites produced
      by Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale represent an important obstacle to the
      successful control of these species. A single licensed drug, primaquine is
      available to eliminate these liver dormant forms. To date, investigations of
      vivax relapse infections have been few in number. RESULTS: Genotyping, based on
      polymorphic regions of two genes (Pvmsp1F3 and Pvcsp) and four microsatellite
      markers (MS3.27, MS3.502, MS6 and MS8), of 12 paired admission and relapse
      samples from P. vivax-infected patients were treated with primaquine, revealed
      that in eight of the parasite populations in the admission and relapse samples
      were homologous, and heterologous in the remaining four patients. The patients'
      CYP2D6 genotypes did not suggest that any were poor metabolisers of primaquine.
      Parasitaemia tended to be higher in the heterologous as compared to the
      homologous relapse episodes as was the IgG3 response. For the twelve pro- and
      anti-inflammatory cytokine levels measured for all samples, only those of IL-6
      and IL-10 tended to be higher in patients with heterologous as compared to
      homologous relapses in both admission and relapse episodes. CONCLUSIONS: The data
      from this limited number of patients with confirmed relapse episodes mirror
      previous observations of a significant proportion of heterologous parasites in
      relapses of P. vivax infections in Thailand. Failure of the primaquine treatment
      that the patients received is unlikely to be due to poor drug metabolism, and
      could indicate the presence of P. vivax populations in Thailand with poor
      susceptibility to 8-aminoquinolines.

PMID- 28558713
TI  - Understanding why cancer patients accept or turn down psycho-oncological support:
      a prospective observational study including patients' and clinicians'
      perspectives on communication about distress.
AB  - BACKGROUND: International standards prioritize introducing routine emotional
      distress screening in cancer care to accurately identify patients who most need
      psycho-oncological treatment, and ensure that patients can access appropriate
      supportive care. However, only a moderate proportion of distressed patients
      accepts referrals to or uses psycho-oncological support services. Predictors and
      barriers to psycho-oncological support service utilization are under-studied. We
      know little about how patients and oncologists perceive the discussions when
      oncologists assess psychosocial distress with a screening instrument. We aim to
      1) assess the barriers and predictors of uptake of in-house psycho-oncological
      support along the distress screening pathway in cancer patients treated at a
      University Oncology Outpatient Clinic and, 2) determine how patients and
      clinicians perceive communication about psychosocial distress after screening
      with the Distress Thermometer. METHODS: This is a quantitative prospective
      observational study with qualitative aspects. We will examine medical and
      demographic variables, cancer patient self-reports of various psychological
      measures, and aspects of the patient-clinician communication as variables that
      potentially predict uptake of psycho-oncological support service. We will also
      assess the patients' reasons for accepting or refusing psycho-oncological support
      services. We assess at three points in time, based on paper-and-pencil
      questionnaires and two patient interviews during the study period. We will
      monitor outcomes (psycho-oncology service uptake) four months after study entry.
      DISCUSSION: The study will improve our understanding of characteristics of
      patients who accept or refuse psycho-oncological support, and help us understand
      how patients' and oncologists perceive communication about psychosocial distress,
      and referral to a psycho-oncologist. We believe this is the first study to focus
      on factors that affect uptake or rejection of psycho-oncological support services
      along the screening and referral pathway. The study 1) combines standard
      assessment with qualitative data collection, 2) embraces patient and oncologist
      perspectives, and, 3) focuses on patient-clinician communication about
      psychosocial issues raised by a standard screening instrument. Our results may
      improve routine practices and eliminate barriers to adequate health care, and
      make it easier to recognize patients with high distress levels who underuse the
      service.

PMID- 28558714
TI  - Feasibility and efficacy of a multi-factorial intervention to prevent falls in
      older adults with cognitive impairment living in residential care (ProF-Cog). A
      feasibility and pilot cluster randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Falls are common in people with dementia living in residential care.
      The ProF-Cog intervention was developed to address fall risk factors specific to
      this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, acceptability,
      and feasibility of the intervention and provide an estimate of its efficacy.
      METHODS: This was a cluster randomised controlled pilot study undertaken in care
      homes in London, UK. All permanent residents living in participating homes who
      were not terminally ill were invited to participate. The intervention included an
      assessment of falls risk factors followed by a tailored intervention which could
      include dementia care mapping, comprehensive geriatric assessment, occupational
      therapy input and twice-weekly exercise for 6 months as required to target
      identified risk factors. The control group received usual care without a falls
      risk assessment. Standing balance was the primary outcome. This and other outcome
      measures were collected at baseline and after 6 months. Falls were recorded for
      this period using incident reports. Changes were analysed using multi-level
      modelling. Adherence to the interventions, adverse events and trial feasibility
      were recorded. RESULTS: Nine care homes enrolled in the study with a total 191
      participants (51% of those eligible); five homes allocated to the intervention
      with 103 participants, and four homes to the usual care control group with 88
      participants. The intervention was safe with only one reported fall whilst
      undertaking exercise. Adherence to agreed recommendations on activity and the
      environment was modest (21 and 45% respectively) and to exercise was poor (41%).
      Balance scores (score range 0-49) analysed on 100 participants decreased by a
      mean of 3.9 in the control and 5.1 in the intervention groups, a non-significant
      difference (p = 0.9). In other measures, both groups declined equally and there
      was no difference in falls rates (IRR = 1.59 95%, CI 0.67-3.76). CONCLUSION: The
      intervention was safe but not clinically effective. Poor adherence suggests it
      was not an acceptable or feasible intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ISRCTN00695885 . Registered 26th March 2013.

PMID- 28558715
TI  - Modern peptide biomarkers and echocardiography in cardiac healthy haemodialysis
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this prospective study, we aimed to assess the haemodynamic
      changes before and after haemodialysis (HD) in cardiac healthy subjects on
      chronic HD by imaging methods and endocrine markers of fluid balance. METHODS:
      Mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), N-terminal prohormone of
      brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), vasopressin (AVP) and copeptin (CT
      proAVP), metanephrines and normetanephrines, renin and aldosterone, standard
      transthoracic echocardiography and diameter of vena cava inferior (VCID) were
      performed in 20 patients with end stage renal disease (CKD5D) before and after HD
      and were stratified in residual excretion (RE, less or more 0.5 l) and
      ultrafiltration rate (UF, less or more 2 l). RESULTS: Copeptin was significantly
      higher in patients before HD. Copeptin was inversely correlated with
      haemodialysis treatment adequacy (KT/v), RE and UF, but was not significantly
      influenced by age, gender and body mass index (BMI). MR-proANP was significantly
      reduced by haemodialysis by 27% and was inversely correlated with KT/v, but there
      was a significant influence by UF, RE, age, gender and BMI. NT-proBNP was
      significantly higher in patients before HD and was not influenced by RE and UF.
      Renin, aldosterone, metanephrines and normetanephrines did not demonstrate
      significant differences. Echocardiographic parameters and VCID were significantly
      correlated with RE, UF and copeptin. CONCLUSION: Modern biomarkers will provide
      cardiovascular risk assessment, but elimination (UF), RE and other factors may
      influence the serum concentrations, e.g. in patients with renal impairment. The
      interpretation will be limited by altered reference ranges, and will be
      restricted to individual courses combined with clinical and echocardiographic
      data.

PMID- 28558716
TI  - Development and validation of a Score for Preoperative Prediction of Obstructive
      Sleep Apnea (SPOSA) and its perioperative outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative respiratory complications (PRCs) are associated with
      significant morbidity, mortality, and hospital costs. Obstructive sleep apnea
      (OSA), often undiagnosed in the surgical population, may be a contributing
      factor. Thus, we aimed to develop and validate a score for preoperative
      prediction of OSA (SPOSA) based on data available in electronic medical records
      preoperatively. METHODS: OSA was defined as the occurrence of an OSA diagnostic
      code preceded by a polysomnography procedure. A priori defined variables were
      analyzed by multivariable logistic regression analysis to develop our score.
      Score validity was assessed by investigating the score's ability to predict non
      invasive ventilation. We then assessed the effect of high OSA risk, as defined by
      SPOSA, on PRCs within seven postoperative days and in-hospital mortality.
      RESULTS: A total of 108,781 surgical patients at Partners HealthCare hospitals
      (2007-2014) were studied. Predictors of OSA included BMI >25 kg*m-2 and
      comorbidities, including pulmonary hypertension, hypertension, and diabetes. The
      score yielded an area under the curve of 0.82. Non-invasive ventilation was
      significantly associated with high OSA risk (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.22-1.69). Using a
      dichotomized endpoint, 26,968 (24.8%) patients were identified as high risk for
      OSA and 7.9% of these patients experienced PRCs. OSA risk was significantly
      associated with PRCs (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.19-1.43). CONCLUSION: SPOSA identifies
      patients at high risk for OSA using electronic medical record-derived data. High
      risk of OSA is associated with the occurrence of PRCs.

PMID- 28558717
TI  - Timing of commencement of maintenance dialysis and mortality in young and older
      adults in Singapore.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The benefit of early dialysis initiation remains controversial with a
      paucity of data in Asians. Therefore, we undertook this study to investigate the
      association between timing of initiation of dialysis and mortality in Singapore.
      METHODS: The study used data from the Singapore Renal Registry database on 3286
      patients with incident end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who commenced maintenance
      dialysis between January 2008 and December 2011. The data was further linked with
      the National Death Registry to acquire survival information until December 2013.
      We classified serum creatinine-based, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
      by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation at
      the start of dialysis into 3 categories: Early (>=10 ml/min/1.73m2), intermediate
      (5 to <10 ml/min/1.73m2) and late (<5 ml/min/1.73m2). RESULTS: In the unadjusted
      analysis, both early and intermediate dialysis initiation groups were at greater
      risk of death relative to late dialysis (Early: HR = 2.47; Intermediate: HR =
      1.54). In the multivariate model, a significant interaction was detected between
      age and eGFR at dialysis initiation (p = 0.04). Adjusted mortality risk
      progressively increased with earlier initiation of dialysis for patients aged 18
      54 years (p = 0.006) and aged 55 to 64 years (p < 0.001), and no statistically
      significant difference was observed for patients aged 65 years or older (p =
      0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Early versus later initiation of dialysis was associated with
      significantly higher risk of mortality in Singapore's non-elderly population, and
      appeared to offer no survival advantage among the elderly.

PMID- 28558718
TI  - Lactic-fermented egg white reduced serum cholesterol concentrations in mildly
      hypercholesterolemic Japanese men: a double-blind, parallel-arm design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lactic-fermented egg white (LE), produced by lactic acid fermentation
      of egg white, is an easy-to-consume form of egg white. Here we assessed the
      effect of daily consumption of LE for 8 weeks on serum total cholesterol (TC)
      levels. METHODS: The study followed a double-blind, parallel-arm design and
      included 88 adult men with mild hypercholesterolemia (mean +/- standard error)
      serum TC levels, 229 +/- 1.6 mg/dL; range, 204-259 mg/dL). The subjects were
      randomly divided into three groups, which consumed LE containing 4, 6, or 8 g of
      protein daily for 8 weeks. Blood samples were collected before starting LE
      consumption (baseline) and at 4 and 8 weeks to measure serum TC and low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. RESULTS: After 8 weeks of consumption,
      serum TC levels in the 8 g group decreased by 11.0 +/- 3.7 mg/dL, a significant
      decrease compared to baseline (p < 0.05) and a significantly greater decrease
      than for the 4 g group (3.1 +/- 3.4 mg/dL; p < 0.05). Serum LDL-C levels in the 8
      g group decreased by 13.7 +/- 3.1 mg/dL, again a significant decrease compared
      with baseline (p < 0.05) and a significantly greater decrease than that for the 4
      g group (2.1 +/- 2.9 mg/dL; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Consumption of LE for 8 weeks
      at a daily dose of 8 g of proteins reduced serum TC and LDL-C levels in men with
      mild hypercholesterolemia, suggesting this may be effective in helping to prevent
      arteriosclerotic diseases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This clinical trial was
      retrospectively registered with the Japan Medical Association Center for Clinical
      Trials, (JMA-IIA00279; registered on 13/03/2017;
      https://dbcentre3.jmacct.med.or.jp/JMACTR/App/JMACTRE02_04/JMACTRE02_04.aspx?kbn=
      &seqno=6530 ).

PMID- 28558719
TI  - Treatment adherence and perception in patients on maintenance hemodialysis: a
      cross - sectional study from Palestine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adherence to diet recommendations, fluid restriction, prescribed
      medications, and attendance at hemodialysis (HD) sessions are essential for
      optimal and effective treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease. No data
      regarding this issue are available from Palestine. Therefore, this study was
      carried out to assess adherence to diet, fluid restriction, medications, and HD
      sessions. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of HD patients at An-Najah National
      University Hospital was carried out during summer, 2016. Self-reported adherence
      behavior was obtained using a valid and reliable questionnaire (End-Stage Renal
      Disease Adherence Questionnaire: ESRD-AQ). Predialytic serum levels of potassium
      and phosphate were obtained as clinical indicator of diet and medication
      adherence respectively. In addition, interdialytic body weight (IDW) was also
      obtained from medical records and analyzed in relation to reported adherence of
      fluid restriction. RESULTS: A total of 220 patients answered all questions
      pertaining to ESRD-AQ. The mean age +/- standard deviation of participants was
      56.82 +/- 14.51 years. Dietary adherence was observed in 24% while that of fluid
      restriction adherence was observed in 31% of studied patients. Reported adherence
      to HD sessions was 52% while that for medications was 81%. Overall, 122 (55.5%)
      patients had good adherence, 89 (40.5%) had moderate adherence, and 9 (4.1%) had
      poor adherence behavior. Male patients had significantly higher overall adherence
      scores than females (p = 0.034). A significant correlation between reported diet
      adherence and serum pre-HD potassium level (p < 0.01) was observed. A significant
      correlation between reported fluid restriction adherence and IDW (p < 0.01) was
      also found. However, no significant correlation between reported adherence and
      pre-HD phosphate level. There was significant correlation between overall
      perception and overall adherence score (p < 0.001). Counselling of patients
      regarding importance of adherence modalities was lowest for "staying for the
      entire dialysis time". Multivariate analysis indicated that elderly male patients
      who were city residents had higher odds of having higher adherence score.
      CONCLUSIONS: There was a good percentage of patients who had overall moderate or
      poor adherence. ESRD-AQ could be used to assess some aspects of HD adherence.
      Counselling and education of patients on HD are important to improve therapeutic
      outcome.

PMID- 28558720
TI  - Associations between transition to retirement and changes in dietary intakes in
      French adults (NutriNet-Sante cohort study).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have focused on the influence of retirement on dietary
      behaviors. Our study aimed at assessing the associations between transition to
      retirement and changes in dietary intake in French adults, particularly according
      to spousal retirement and baseline income. METHODS: This prospective study
      included 577 French participants from the NutriNet-Sante cohort who retired over
      a 5-year follow-up (2009-2014 or 2010-2015). At baseline and every year, dietary
      intakes were assessed using 24 h records. Repeated measures of dietary intake
      were analysed using mixed models adjusted for energy with random effects of time
      and period (before and after retirement) to assess changes following retirement
      for each gender. RESULTS: After retirement, intakes of saturated fatty acids and
      sodium increased in both genders. Women showed specific changes after retirement:
      decrease in the score of adherence to recommendations and in intakes of fruits,
      proteins, vitamins; increase in intakes of fatty sweet products. In men with the
      lowest income at baseline, specific changes in intake were associated with
      retirement such as decrease in intake of dairy products and increase in intake of
      lipids. CONCLUSIONS: Transition to retirement was associated with unhealthier
      dietary intakes. These results may help defining interventions during this
      vulnerable life-period. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was conducted according to
      guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures were
      approved by the Institutional Review Board of the French Institute for Health and
      Medical Research (IRB Inserm No. 0000388FWA00005831) and the French Data
      Protection Authority (Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertes No. 908450
      and No. 909216). Electronic informed consents were obtained from all
      participants.

PMID- 28558721
TI  - Extracellular heat shock protein 90alpha mediates HDM-induced bronchial
      epithelial barrier dysfunction by activating RhoA/MLC signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The disruption and hyperpermeability of bronchial epithelial barrier
      are closely related to the pathogenesis of asthma. House dust mite (HDM), one of
      the most important allergens, could increase the airway epithelial permeability.
      Heat shock protein (Hsp) 90alpha is also implicated in the lung endothelial
      barrier dysfunction by disrupting RhoA signaling. However, the effect of
      extracellular Hsp90alpha (eHsp90alpha) on the bronchial epithelial barrier
      disruption induced by HDM has never been reported. METHODS: To investigate the
      involvement of eHsp90alpha in the bronchial epithelial barrier disruption induced
      by HDM, normal human bronchial epithelial cell line 16HBE14o- (16HBE) cells were
      treated by HDM, human recombinant (hr) Hsp90alpha and hrHsp90beta respectively
      and pretreated by1G6-D7, a specific anti-secreted Hsp90alpha monoclonal antibody
      (mAb). Hsp90alpha-silencing cells were also constructed. To further evaluate the
      role of RhoA signaling in this process, cells were pretreated by inhibitors of
      Rho kinase, GSK429286A and Y27632 2HCl. Transepithelial electrical resistance
      (TEER) and FITC-dextran flux (FITC-DX) were examined as the epithelial barrier
      function. Expression and localization of adherens junctional proteins E-cadherin
      and beta-catenin were evaluated by western blotting and immunofluorescence
      respectively. The level of eHsp90alpha was investigated by concentration and
      purification of condition media. RhoA activity was determined by using a Rho G
      LISA(r) RhoA activation assay kitTM biochem kit, and the phosphorylation of
      myosin light chain (MLC), the downstream signal molecule of RhoA, was assessed by
      western blotting. RESULTS: The epithelial barrier disruption and the loss of
      adherens junctional proteins E-cadherin and beta-catenin in cytomembrane were
      observed in HDM-treated 16HBE cells, paralleled with the increase of eHsp90alpha
      secretion. All of which were rescued in Hsp90alpha-silencing cells or by
      pretreating 16HBE cells with 1G6-D7. Also, 1G6-D7 suppressed RhoA activity and
      MLC phosphorylation induced by HDM. Furthermore, inhibitors of Rho kinase
      prevented and restored the airway barrier disruption. Consistently, it was
      hrHsp90alpha instead of hrHsp90beta that promoted barrier dysfunction and
      activated RhoA/MLC signaling in 16HBE cells. CONCLUSIONS: The eHsp90alpha
      mediates HDM-induced human bronchial epithelial barrier dysfunction by activating
      RhoA/MLC signaling, suggesting that eHsp90alpha is a potential therapeutic target
      for treatment of asthma.

PMID- 28558722
TI  - Phylogenomic analyses of Crassiclitellata support major Northern and Southern
      Hemisphere clades and a Pangaean origin for earthworms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Earthworms (Crassiclitellata) are a diverse group of annelids of
      substantial ecological and economic importance. Earthworms are primarily
      terrestrial infaunal animals, and as such are probably rather poor natural
      dispersers. Therefore, the near global distribution of earthworms reflects an old
      and likely complex evolutionary history. Despite a long-standing interest in
      Crassiclitellata, relationships among and within major clades remain unresolved.
      METHODS: In this study, we evaluate crassiclitellate phylogenetic relationships
      using 38 new transcriptomes in combination with publicly available transcriptome
      data. Our data include representatives of nearly all extant earthworm families
      and a representative of Moniligastridae, another terrestrial annelid group
      thought to be closely related to Crassiclitellata. We use a series of
      differentially filtered data matrices and analyses to examine the effects of data
      partitioning, missing data, compositional and branch-length heterogeneity, and
      outgroup inclusion. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We recover a consistent, strongly
      supported ingroup topology irrespective of differences in methodology. The
      topology supports two major earthworm clades, each of which consists of a
      Northern Hemisphere subclade and a Southern Hemisphere subclade. Divergence time
      analysis results are concordant with the hypothesis that these north-south splits
      are the result of the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results support several recently proposed revisions to the classical
      understanding of earthworm phylogeny, reveal two major clades that seem to
      reflect Pangaean distributions, and raise new questions about earthworm
      evolutionary relationships.

PMID- 28558723
TI  - Body composition impacts appetite regulation in middle childhood. A prospective
      study of Norwegian community children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research suggests a role for both fat mass and muscle mass in
      appetite regulation, but the longitudinal relationships between them have not yet
      been examined in children. The present study therefore aimed to explore the
      prospective relationships between fat mass, muscle mass and the appetitive traits
      food responsiveness and satiety responsiveness in middle childhood. METHODS: Food
      responsiveness and satiety responsiveness were measured using the parent-reported
      Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire in a representative sample of Norwegian
      6 year olds, followed up at 8 and 10 years of age (n = 807). Body composition was
      measured by bioelectrical impedance. RESULTS: Applying a structural equation
      modeling framework we found that higher fat mass predicted greater increases in
      food responsiveness over time, whereas greater muscle mass predicted decreases in
      satiety responsiveness. This pattern was consistent both from ages 6 to 8 and
      from ages 8 to 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to reveal that fat
      mass and muscle mass predict distinct changes in different appetitive traits over
      time. Replication of findings in non-European populations are needed, as are
      studies of children in other age groups. Future studies should also aim to reveal
      the underlying mechanisms.

PMID- 28558724
TI  - Feature selection for elderly faller classification based on wearable sensors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wearable sensors can be used to derive numerous gait pattern features
      for elderly fall risk and faller classification; however, an appropriate feature
      set is required to avoid high computational costs and the inclusion of irrelevant
      features. The objectives of this study were to identify and evaluate smaller
      feature sets for faller classification from large feature sets derived from
      wearable accelerometer and pressure-sensing insole gait data. METHODS: A
      convenience sample of 100 older adults (75.5 +/- 6.7 years; 76 non-fallers, 24
      fallers based on 6 month retrospective fall occurrence) walked 7.62 m while
      wearing pressure-sensing insoles and tri-axial accelerometers at the head,
      pelvis, left and right shanks. Feature selection was performed using correlation
      based feature selection (CFS), fast correlation based filter (FCBF), and Relief-F
      algorithms. Faller classification was performed using multi-layer perceptron
      neural network, naive Bayesian, and support vector machine classifiers, with
      75:25 single stratified holdout and repeated random sampling. RESULTS: The best
      performing model was a support vector machine with 78% accuracy, 26% sensitivity,
      95% specificity, 0.36 F1 score, and 0.31 MCC and one posterior pelvis
      accelerometer input feature (left acceleration standard deviation). The second
      best model achieved better sensitivity (44%) and used a support vector machine
      with 74% accuracy, 83% specificity, 0.44 F1 score, and 0.29 MCC. This model had
      ten input features: maximum, mean and standard deviation posterior acceleration;
      maximum, mean and standard deviation anterior acceleration; mean superior
      acceleration; and three impulse features. The best multi-sensor model sensitivity
      (56%) was achieved using posterior pelvis and both shank accelerometers and a
      naive Bayesian classifier. The best single-sensor model sensitivity (41%) was
      achieved using the posterior pelvis accelerometer and a naive Bayesian
      classifier. CONCLUSIONS: Feature selection provided models with smaller feature
      sets and improved faller classification compared to faller classification without
      feature selection. CFS and FCBF provided the best feature subset (one posterior
      pelvis accelerometer feature) for faller classification. However, better
      sensitivity was achieved by the second best model based on a Relief-F feature
      subset with three pressure-sensing insole features and seven head accelerometer
      features. Feature selection should be considered as an important step in faller
      classification using wearable sensors.

PMID- 28558725
TI  - Benefits of local tumor excision and pharyngectomy on the survival of
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients: a retrospective observational study based on
      SEER database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is ongoing debate about surgery of primary site in
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. METHODS: 3919 patients with nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma identified in the SEER registry between 2004 and 2013. The benefit of
      surgery of primary nasopharynx tumor site on overall and cancer-specific survival
      was assessed by risk-adjusted multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression and
      propensity score matching modeling. RESULTS: Surgery was marginally associated
      with better overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.816, 95% CI 0.656-1.015, p =
      0.07) and cancer-specific survival (HR = 0.749, 95% CI 0.552-1.018, p = 0.06) in
      the propensity score model. Among 398 cases who underwent primary site surgery,
      282 (70.85%) received local tumor excision and 79 (20.31%) received
      pharyngectomy. Local tumor excision and pharyngectomy had almost the same effect
      on survival in propensity score matching analysis. The benefit was significant in
      subgroups of white, age <60 year, and patients with T3, N1, M0, AJCC stage III,
      or moderately differentiated tumors. Further survival analysis showed surgery to
      promote survival in both radiotherapy and non-radiotherapy patients. CONCLUSION:
      This is the first population-based analysis using propensity score model to
      provide evidence of a positive impact of surgery on survival in nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma. Moreover, surgery demonstrated the significant benefit in subgroups of
      patients with specific clinical characteristics.

PMID- 28558726
TI  - Development and application of triple antibody sandwich enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays for begomovirus detection using monoclonal antibodies
      against Tomato yellow leaf curl Thailand virus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tomato yellow leaf curl Thailand virus, TYLCTHV, is a begomovirus
      that causes severe losses of tomato crops in Thailand as well as several
      countries in Southeast and East Asia. The development of monoclonal antibodies
      (MAbs) and serological methods for detecting TYLCTHV is essential for
      epidemiological studies and screening for virus-resistant cultivars. METHODS: The
      recombinant coat protein (CP) of TYLCTHV was expressed in Escherichia coli and
      used to generate MAbs against TYLCTHV through hybridoma technology. The MAbs were
      characterized and optimized to develop triple antibody sandwich enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays (TAS-ELISAs) for begomovirus detection. The efficiency of
      TAS-ELISAs for begomovirus detection was evaluated with tomato, pepper, eggplant,
      okra and cucurbit plants collected from several provinces in Thailand. Molecular
      identification of begomoviruses in these samples was also performed through PCR
      and DNA sequence analysis of the CP gene. RESULTS: Two MAbs (M1 and D2) were
      generated and used to develop TAS-ELISAs for begomovirus detection. The results
      of begomovirus detection in 147 field samples indicated that MAb M1 reacted with
      2 begomovirus species, TYLCTHV and Tobacco leaf curl Yunnan virus (TbLCYnV),
      whereas MAb D2 reacted with 4 begomovirus species, TYLCTHV, TbLCYnV, Tomato leaf
      curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) and Squash leaf curl China virus (SLCCNV).
      Phylogenetic analyses of CP amino acid sequences from these begomoviruses
      revealed that the CP sequences of begomoviruses recognized by the narrow-spectrum
      MAb M1 were highly conserved, sharing 93% identity with each other but only 72
      81% identity with MAb M1-negative begomoviruses. The CP sequences of
      begomoviruses recognized by the broad-spectrum MAb D2 demonstrated a wider range
      of amino acid sequence identity, sharing 78-96% identity with each other and 72
      91% identity with those that were not detected by MAb D2. CONCLUSIONS: TAS-ELISAs
      using the narrow-specificity MAb M1 proved highly efficient for the detection of
      TYLCTHV and TbLCYnV, whereas TAS-ELISAs using the broad-specificity MAb D2 were
      highly efficient for the detection of TYLCTHV, TbLCYnV, ToLCNDV and SLCCNV. Both
      newly developed assays allow for sensitive, inexpensive, high-throughput
      detection of begomoviruses in field plant samples, as well as screening for virus
      resistant cultivars.

PMID- 28558727
TI  - Examining differences in cognitive and affective theory of mind between persons
      with high and low extent of somatic symptoms: an experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medically unexplained somatic symptoms are common, associated with
      disability and strongly related to depression and anxiety disorders. One
      interesting, but to date rarely tested, hypothesis is that deficits in both
      theory of mind (ToM) and emotional awareness may undergird the phenomenon of
      somatization. This study sought to investigate whether or not differences in ToM
      functioning and self-reported emotional awareness are associated with somatic
      symptoms in a sample from the general population. METHODS: The sample consisted
      of 50 healthy participants (37 females, 13 males) aged between 22 and 64 years
      (46.8 +/- 11.7) of whom 29 reported a high extent of somatic symptoms (HSR),
      whereas 21 reported a low extent of somatic symptoms (LSR) based on the 30
      highest and lowest percentiles of the Symptom List norms. The participants'
      affective and cognitive ToM were assessed with two experimental paradigms by
      experimenters who were blind to the participants' group membership. In addition,
      self-reports regarding emotional awareness, alexithymia, depressive and anxiety
      symptoms and current affect were collected. RESULTS: In the experimental tasks,
      HSR showed lower affective ToM than LSR but the groups did not differ in
      cognitive ToM. Although HSR reported lower emotional awareness than LSR in the
      self-report measure, this group difference vanished when we controlled for
      anxiety and depression. Depression, anxiety, emotional awareness and alexithymia
      were correlated positively. CONCLUSIONS: The data supported the hypothesis that
      deficits in affective ToM are related to somatic symptoms. Neither cognitive ToM
      nor self-reported emotional awareness were associated with somatic symptoms. Self
      reported emotional awareness, alexithymia and symptoms of depression and anxiety
      shared a considerable amount of variance.

PMID- 28558728
TI  - The validity and psychometric properties of the Japanese version of the
      Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prolonged Internet use is often associated with reduced social
      involvement and comorbid psychopathologies, including depression, anxiety,
      attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
      Asian countries where Internet access is widely available have high reported
      levels of Internet addiction. As Internet use has changed drastically since
      concerns about Internet addiction were first raised, the results of recent
      studies may be inaccurate because the scales they employed to measure Internet
      addiction were formulated for different Internet usage from the present. It is
      thus necessary to develop more-up-to-date scales to assess problematic private
      use of the Internet. METHODS: The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) was
      translated into Japanese. An online sample whose ages and sexes reflected that of
      the national population of Internet users was recruited to test the scale's
      reliability and validity. Correlations between the scale and Internet-related
      parameters (such as time spent online, motivation for going online, and
      applications used) and psychosocial factors (such as psychological distress
      symptoms and loneliness) were examined. Psychometric properties were examined by
      the split-half method using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
      Model fits were compared across gender. RESULTS: CIUS was found to have a high
      reliability and good concurrent, correlation and construct validity. Both
      exploratory and confirmatory factors revealed that the one-factor solution
      yielded a satisfactory result across gender. However, the three-factor structural
      model in which compulsiveness was gauged by "excessive absorption", "difficulty
      in setting priorities", and "mood regulation" gave the best fit of the model for
      the general population as well as across gender. CONCLUSIONS: Compulsive Internet
      behavior in Japan can be assessed in terms of absorption, priorities, and mood.
      CIUS is a valid scale for screening compulsive Internet behavior in the general
      Japanese population regardless of age and gender.

PMID- 28558729
TI  - High-throughput validation of ceRNA regulatory networks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play multiple roles in tumor biology.
      Interestingly, reports from multiple groups suggest that miRNA targets may be
      coupled through competitive stoichiometric sequestration. Specifically,
      computational models predicted and experimental assays confirmed that miRNA
      activity is dependent on miRNA target abundance, and consequently, changes in the
      abundance of some miRNA targets lead to changes to the regulation and abundance
      of their other targets. The resulting indirect regulatory influence between miRNA
      targets resembles competition and has been dubbed competitive endogenous RNA
      (ceRNA). Recent studies have questioned the physiological relevance of ceRNA
      interactions, our ability to accurately predict these interactions, and the
      number of genes that are impacted by ceRNA interactions in specific cellular
      contexts. RESULTS: To address these concerns, we reverse engineered ceRNA
      networks (ceRNETs) in breast and prostate adenocarcinomas using context-specific
      TCGA profiles, and tested whether ceRNA interactions can predict the effects of
      RNAi-mediated gene silencing perturbations in PC3 and MCF7 cells._ENREF_22 Our
      results, based on tests of thousands of inferred ceRNA interactions that are
      predicted to alter hundreds of cancer genes in each of the two tumor contexts,
      confirmed statistically significant effects for half of the predicted targets.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the expression of a significant fraction of
      cancer genes may be regulated by ceRNA interactions in each of the two tumor
      contexts.

PMID- 28558730
TI  - Statutory retirement and changes in self-reported leisure-time physical activity:
      a follow-up study with three time-points.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retirement is a key life event, which is associated with changes in
      physical activity, however, there is limited evidence with regard to changes in
      physical activity that take place in post-retirement years. The aim of this study
      was to examine how leisure-time physical activity changes shortly after the
      transition to retirement and during the post-retirement years. METHODS: The phase
      1 data were collected in 2000-2002 (n = 8960, response rate 67%) among 40-60-year
      old employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. Phase 2 was carried out in 2007
      (n = 7332, response rate 83%) and phase 3 in 2012 (n = 6814, response rate 79%).
      Disability retirees and those under the age of 50 at baseline were excluded. This
      yielded 2902 participants. Most of the participants (79%) were women. The mean
      age of the participants was 54.4 in phase 1. Negative binomial models for
      repeated measurements with generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to
      calculate the incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
      These indicated the changes in time spent in self-reported leisure-time physical
      activity among the retired compared with the continuously employed. RESULTS: Of
      the participants, 851 retired on the grounds of old age during the first period
      (phases 1-2), and 948 during the second period (phases 2-3). Change in physical
      activity was positive among those who retired during the first (IRR = 1.10, 95%
      CI 1.04-1.17) and second (IRR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.04-1.16) periods compared to the
      continuously employed. During the second period, there was little difference
      between those who had retired during the first one (IRR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.91-1.02)
      and the continuously employed. CONCLUSIONS: The transition to statutory
      retirement was associated with an immediate increase in leisure-time physical
      activity, which nevertheless diminished during post-retirement years.

PMID- 28558731
TI  - Integration and activity of hospital-based palliative care consultation teams:
      the INSIGHT multicentric cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital-based Palliative Care Consultation Teams (PCCTs) have a
      consulting role to specialist services at their request. Referral of patients is
      often late. Early palliative care in oncology has shown its effectiveness in
      improving quality of life, thereby questioning the "on request" model of PCCTs.
      Whether this evidence changed practice is unknown. This multicentre prospective
      cohort study aims to describe the activity and integration of PCCTs at the
      patient level. METHODS: For consecutive patients newly referred to participating
      PCCTs, the team collected the following data: circumstances of first referral,
      problems identified, number of interventions, patient's survival after first
      evaluation and place of death. RESULTS: Seventeen PCCTs based in university
      hospitals in Paris area, recruited 744 newly referred adult patients, aged 72 +/-
      15 years, 52% males, and 504(68%) with cancer as primary diagnosis. After 6
      months, 548(74%) had died. At first evaluation, 12% patients were outpatients,
      88% were inpatients. Symptoms represented the main reasons for referral and
      problems identified; 79% of patients had altered performance status; 24%
      encountered the PCCT only once. Median survival (1st-3rd quartile) after first
      evaluation by the PCCT was 22 (5-82) days for overall patients, and respectively
      31 (8-107) days and 9 (3-34) days for cancer versus noncancer patients (p <
      0.0001). Place of death was acute care hospital for 51.7% patients, and home or
      Palliative Care Unit for 35%. Patients referred earlier died more often in PCU.
      CONCLUSION: The study provides original data showing a still late referral to the
      PCCTs in France. Cancer patients represent their predominant activity. The
      integrated palliative care model seems to emerge besides the "on request" model
      which originally characterised their missions.

PMID- 28558732
TI  - Safety and tolerability of Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis EVC001
      supplementation in healthy term breastfed infants: a phase I clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Historically, bifidobacteria were the dominant intestinal bacteria in
      breastfed infants. Still abundant in infants in developing nations, levels of
      intestinal bifidobacteria are low among infants in developed nations. Recent
      studies have described an intimate relationship between human milk and a specific
      subspecies of Bifidobacterium, B. longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis), yet
      supplementation of breastfed, healthy, term infants with this organism, has not
      been reported. The IMPRINT Study, a Phase I clinical trial, was initiated to
      determine the safety and tolerability of supplementing breastfed infants with B.
      infantis (EVC001). METHODS: Eighty mother-infant dyads were enrolled in either
      lactation support plus B. infantis supplementation (BiLS) or lactation support
      alone (LS). Starting with Day 7 postnatal, BiLS infants were fed 1.8-2.8 * 1010
      CFU B. infantis EVC001 daily in breast milk for 21 days. Mothers collected fecal
      samples, filled out health questionnaires, and kept daily logs about their
      infants' feeding and gastrointestinal symptoms from birth until Day 61 postnatal.
      Safety and tolerability were determined from maternal reports. RESULTS: There
      were no differences in the mean gestational age at birth, weight 1 and 2 months
      postnatal, and breast milk intake between groups. The mean Log10 change in fecal
      Bifidobacterium from Day 6 to Day 28 was higher (p = 0.0002) for BiLS (6.6 +/-
      2.8 SD) than for LS infants (3.5 +/- 3.5 SD). Daily stool number was higher (p <
      0.005) for LS and lower (p < 0.05) for BiLS infants during supplementation than
      at Baseline. During supplementation, watery stools decreased and soft stools
      increased by 36% over baseline in BiLS infants (p < 0.05) with no significant
      changes in stool consistency for the LS infants. None of the safety and
      tolerability endpoints, including flatulence, bloody stool, body temperature,
      ratings of gastrointestinal symptoms, use of antibiotics or gas-relieving
      medications, infant colic, jaundice, number of illnesses, sick doctor visits, or
      diagnoses of eczema were different for the groups at any point. CONCLUSIONS: The
      B. infantis EVC001 supplement was safely consumed and well-tolerated. Stools were
      fewer and better formed in infants in the BiLS group compared with LS group.
      Adverse events were those expected in healthy infants and not different between
      groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02457338 . Registered May 27,
      2015.

PMID- 28558734
TI  - The effects of arthritis gloves on people with Rheumatoid Arthritis or
      Inflammatory Arthritis with hand pain: a study protocol for a multi-centre
      randomised controlled trial (the A-GLOVES trial).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arthritis gloves are regularly provided as part of the management of
      people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and undifferentiated (early) inflammatory
      arthritis (IA). Usually made of nylon and elastane (i.e. Lycra(r)), these
      arthritis gloves apply pressure with the aims of relieving hand pain, stiffness
      and improving hand function. However, a systematic review identified little
      evidence supporting their use. We therefore designed a trial to compare the
      effectiveness of the commonest type of arthritis glove provided in the United
      Kingdom (Isotoner gloves) (intervention) with placebo (control) gloves (i.e.
      larger arthritis gloves providing similar warmth to the intervention gloves but
      minimal pressure only) in people with these conditions. METHODS: Participants
      aged 18 years and over with RA or IA and persistent hand pain will be recruited
      from National Health Service Trusts in the United Kingdom. Following consent,
      participants will complete a questionnaire booklet, then be randomly allocated to
      receive intervention or placebo arthritis gloves. Within three weeks, they will
      be fitted with the allocated gloves by clinical specialist rheumatology
      occupational therapists. Twelve weeks (i.e. the primary endpoint) after
      completing the baseline questionnaire, participants will complete a second
      questionnaire, including the same measures plus additional questions to explore
      adherence, benefits and problems with glove-wear. A sub-sample of participants
      from each group will be interviewed at the end of their participation to explore
      their views of the gloves received. The clinical effectiveness and cost
      effectiveness of the intervention, compared to placebo gloves, will be evaluated
      over 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure is hand pain during activity.
      Qualitative interviews will be thematically analysed. DISCUSSION: This study will
      evaluate the commonest type of arthritis glove (Isotoner) provided in the NHS
      (i.e. the intervention) compared to a placebo glove. The results will help
      occupational therapists, occupational therapy services and people with arthritis
      make informed choices as to the value of arthritis gloves. If effective,
      arthritis gloves should become more widely available in the NHS to help people
      with RA and IA manage hand symptoms and improve performance of daily activities,
      work and leisure. If not, services can determine whether to cease supplying these
      to reduce service costs. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry: ISRCTN25892131
      Registered 05/09/2016.

PMID- 28558733
TI  - Towards a consensus definition of maternal sepsis: results of a systematic review
      and expert consultation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a need for a clear and actionable definition of maternal
      sepsis, in order to better assess the burden of this condition, trigger timely
      and effective treatment and allow comparisons across facilities and countries.
      The objective of this study was to review maternal sepsis definitions and
      identification criteria and to report on the results of an expert consultation to
      develop a new international definition of maternal sepsis. METHODS: All original
      and review articles and WHO documents, as well as clinical guidelines providing
      definitions and/or identification criteria of maternal sepsis were included. A
      multidisciplinary international panel of experts was surveyed through an online
      consultation in March-April 2016 on their opinion on the existing sepsis
      definitions, including new definition of sepsis proposed for the adult population
      (2016 Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock) and
      importance of different criteria for identification of maternal sepsis. The
      definition was agreed using an iterative process in an expert face-to-face
      consensus development meeting convened by WHO and Jhpiego. RESULTS: Standardizing
      the definition of maternal sepsis and aligning it with the current understanding
      of sepsis in the adult population was considered a mandatory step to improve the
      assessment of the burden of maternal sepsis by the expert panel. The literature
      review and expert consultation resulted in a new WHO consensus definition
      "Maternal sepsis is a life-threatening condition defined as organ dysfunction
      resulting from infection during pregnancy, child-birth, post-abortion, or post
      partum period". Plans are in progress to validate the new WHO definition of
      maternal sepsis in a large international population. CONCLUSION: The
      operationalization of the new maternal sepsis definition requires generation of a
      set of practical criteria to identify women with sepsis. These criteria should
      enable clinicians to focus on the timely initiation of actionable elements of
      care (administration of antimicrobials and fluids, support of vital organ
      functions, and referral) and improve maternal outcomes.

PMID- 28558735
TI  - Differential expression of microRNAs following cardiopulmonary bypass in children
      with congenital heart diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at high risk for
      myocardial failure after operative procedures with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).
      Recent studies suggest that microRNAs (miRNA) are involved in the development of
      CHDs and myocardial failure. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine
      alterations in the miRNA profile in heart tissue after cardiac surgery using CPB.
      METHODS: In total, 14 tissue samples from right atrium were collected from
      patients before and after connection of the CPB. SurePrintTM 8 * 60K Human v21
      miRNA array and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT
      qPCR) were employed to determine the miRNA expression profile from three patients
      before and after connection of the CPB. Enrichment analyses of altered miRNA
      expression were predicted using bioinformatic tools. RESULTS: According to miRNA
      array, a total of 90 miRNAs were significantly altered including 29 miRNAs with
      increased and 61 miRNAs with decreased expression after de-connection of CPB (n =
      3) compared to before CPB (n = 3). Seven miRNAs had been validated using RT-qPCR
      in an independent cohort of 11 patients. Enrichment analyses applying the KEGG
      database displayed the highest correlation for signaling pathways, cellular
      community, cardiovascular disease and circulatory system. CONCLUSION: Our result
      identified the overall changes of the miRNome in right atrium tissue of patients
      with CHDs after CPB. The differentially altered miRNAs lay a good foundation for
      further understanding of the molecular function of changed miRNAs in regulating
      CHDs and after CPB in particular.

PMID- 28558736
TI  - Scoping review of indicators and methods of measurement used to evaluate the
      impact of dog population management interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dogs are ubiquitous in human society and attempts to manage their
      populations are common to most countries. Managing dog populations is achieved
      through a range of interventions to suit the dog population dynamics and dog
      ownership characteristics of the location, with a number of potential impacts or
      goals in mind. Impact assessment provides the opportunity for interventions to
      identify areas of inefficiencies for improvement and build evidence of positive
      change. METHODS: This scoping review collates 26 studies that have assessed the
      impacts of dog population management interventions. RESULTS: It reports the use
      of 29 indicators of change under 8 categories of impact and describes variation
      in the methods used to measure these indicators. CONCLUSION: The relatively few
      published examples of impact assessment in dog population management suggest this
      field is in its infancy; however this review highlights those notable exceptions.
      By describing those indicators and methods of measurement that have been reported
      thus far, and apparent barriers to efficient assessment, this review aims to
      support and direct future impact assessment.

PMID- 28558737
TI  - Improving active case finding for tuberculosis in South Africa: informing
      innovative implementation approaches in the context of the Kharitode trial
      through formative research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious killer worldwide, with
      approximately 1.8 million deaths in 2015. While effective treatment exists,
      implementation of active case finding (ACF) methods to identify persons with
      active TB in a timely and cost-effective manner continues to be a major challenge
      in resource-constrained settings. Limited qualitative work has been conducted to
      gain an in-depth understanding of implementation barriers. METHODS: Qualitative
      research was conducted to inform the development of three ACF strategies for TB
      to be evaluated as part of the Kharitode cluster-randomised trial being conducted
      in a rural province of South Africa. This included 25 semi-structured in-depth
      interviews among 8 TB patients, 7 of their household members and 10 clinic health
      workers, as well as 4 focus group discussions (2 rural and 2 main town locations)
      with 6-8 participants each (n = 27). Interviews and focus group discussions
      explored the context, advantages and limitations, as well as the implications of
      three ACF methods. Content analysis was utilised to document salient themes
      regarding their feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness. RESULTS:
      Study participants (TB patients and community members) reported difficulty
      identifying TB symptoms and seeking care in a timely fashion. In turn, all
      stakeholder groups felt that more proactive case finding strategies would be
      beneficial. Clinic-based strategies (including screening all patients regardless
      of visit purpose) were seen as the most acceptable method based on participants'
      preference ranking of the ACF strategies. However, given the resource constraints
      experienced by the public healthcare system in South Africa, many participants
      doubted whether it would be the most effective strategy. Household outreach and
      incentive-based strategies were described as promising, but participants reported
      some concerns (e.g. stigma in case of household-based and ethical concerns in the
      case of incentives). Participants offered insights into how to optimise each
      strategy, tailoring implementation to community needs (low TB knowledge) and
      realities (financial constraints, transport, time off from work). CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings suggest different methods of TB ACF are likely to engage different
      populations, highlighting the utility of a comprehensive approach. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT02808507 ). Registered June 1, 2016.  The
      participants in this formative study are not trial participants.

PMID- 28558738
TI  - Understanding knee osteoarthritis from the patients' perspective: a qualitative
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No studies of Health Coach Interventions for knee OA sufferers that
      include patients' perspectives have been published. The study assesses current
      clinical practice and primary care professionals' advice from the patients'
      perspective, in order to obtain a participative design for a complex intervention
      based on coaching psychology. Moreover, wants to analyse the experiences,
      perceptions, cognitive evaluation, values, emotions, beliefs and coping
      strategies of patients with knee osteoarthritis, and secondly the impact of these
      factors in the Self-management of this condition. METHODS: It is an
      interpretative qualitative study. The study included patients with diagnosis of
      knee osteoarthritis (OA) from 4 primary health care centres in Barcelona. A
      theoretical sampling based on a prior definition of participants' characteristics
      was carried out. Ten semi-structured interviews with knee OA patients were
      carried out. A content thematic analysis was performed following a mixed-strategy
      text codification in Lazarus framework and in emerging codes from the data.
      RESULTS: The results are structured in two blocks: Experiences and perceptions of
      informants and Experiences of knee osteoarthritis according to the Lazarus model.
      Regarding experiences and perceptions of informants: Some participants reported
      that the information was mostly provided by health professionals. Informants know
      which food they should eat to lose weight and the benefits of weight loss.
      Moreover, participants explained that they like walking but that sometimes it is
      difficult to put into practice. Regarding experiences of knee osteoarthritis
      according Lazarus model: Cognitive evaluation is influenced by cognitive
      distortions such as obligation, guilt, dramatization and catastrophism. VALUES:
      Family is the value most associated with wellbeing. Helping others is another
      recurring value. Emotions: Most participants explain that they feel anxiety,
      irritability or sadness. Beliefs: To some, physiotherapy helps them feel less
      pain. However, others explain that it is of no use to them. Participants are
      aware of the association overweight- pain. Coping strategies: The strategies for
      coping with emotions aim to reduce psychological distress (anxiety, sadness,
      anger) and some are more active than others. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights
      that patients with knee osteoarthritis require a person-centered approach that
      provides them with strategies to overcome the psychological distress caused by
      this condition.

PMID- 28558739
TI  - Similar cardiometabolic effects of high- and moderate-intensity training among
      apparently healthy inactive adults: a randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) increases the risk of morbidity and
      mortality from cardiovascular disease, and exercise training is an important
      factor in the treatment and prevention of the clinical components of MetS.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim was to compare the effects of high-intensity interval training
      and steady-state moderate-intensity training on clinical components of MetS in
      healthy physically inactive adults. METHODS: Twenty adults were randomly
      allocated to receive either moderate-intensity continuous training [MCT group; 60
      80% heart rate reserve (HRR)] or high-intensity interval training (HIT group; 4 *
      4 min at 85-95% peak HRR interspersed with 4 min of active rest at 65% peak HRR).
      We used the revised International Diabetes Federation criteria for MetS. A MetS Z
      score was calculated for each individual and each component of the MetS. RESULTS:
      In intent-to-treat analyses, the changes in MetS Z-score were 1.546 (1.575) in
      the MCT group and -1.249 (1.629) in the HIT group (between-groups difference, P =
      0.001). The average number of cardiometabolic risk factors changed in the MCT
      group (-0.133, P = 0.040) but not in the HIT group (0.018, P = 0.294), with no
      difference between groups (P = 0.277). CONCLUSION: Among apparently healthy
      physically inactive adults, HIT and MCT offer similar cardiometabolic protection
      against single MetS risk factors but differ in their effect on average risk
      factors per subject. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02738385 registered
      on March 23, 2016.

PMID- 28558740
TI  - Experiences with VHA care: a qualitative study of U.S. women veterans with self
      reported trauma histories.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women veterans in the United States, particularly those with
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a history of military sexual assault,
      have unique health care needs, but their minority status in the US Veterans
      Health Administration (VHA) has led to documented healthcare disparities when
      compared to men. This study's objective was to obtain a richer understanding of
      the challenges and successes encountered by women veterans with self-reported
      service-related trauma histories (particularly those with a history of military
      sexual assault and/or posttraumatic stress symptomology) receiving VHA care.
      METHODS: Thirty-seven female Vietnam and post-Vietnam (1975-1998) era veterans
      were randomly selected from a cohort of PTSD disability benefit applicants to
      complete semi-structured interviews in 2011-2012. Grounded-theory informed
      procedures were used to identify interview themes; differences between veterans
      with and without a history of military sexual assault were examined through
      constant comparison. RESULTS: At the time of the interviews, many women believed
      that VHA was falling short of meeting women veterans' needs (e.g., lack of women
      only mental health programming). Also common, but particularly among those with a
      military sexual assault history, was the perception that VHA's environment was
      unwelcoming; being "surrounded by men" yielded emotions ranging from discomfort
      and mistrust to severe anxiety. A few veterans reported recent positive changes
      and offered additional suggestions for improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest
      that while at the time of the interviews gains had been made in the delivery of
      gender-sensitive outpatient medical care, women veterans with a history of
      military sexual assault and/or posttraumatic stress symptomology perceived that
      they were not receiving the same quality of care as male veterans.

PMID- 28558741
TI  - Brain-Computer Interface application: auditory serial interface to control a two
      class motor-imagery-based wheelchair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Certain diseases affect brain areas that control the movements of the
      patients' body, thereby limiting their autonomy and communication capacity.
      Research in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces aims to provide patients with
      an alternative communication channel not based on muscular activity, but on the
      processing of brain signals. Through these systems, subjects can control external
      devices such as spellers to communicate, robotic prostheses to restore limb
      movements, or domotic systems. The present work focus on the non-muscular control
      of a robotic wheelchair. METHOD: A proposal to control a wheelchair through a
      Brain-Computer Interface based on the discrimination of only two mental tasks is
      presented in this study. The wheelchair displacement is performed with discrete
      movements. The control signals used are sensorimotor rhythms modulated through a
      right-hand motor imagery task or mental idle state. The peculiarity of the
      control system is that it is based on a serial auditory interface that provides
      the user with four navigation commands. The use of two mental tasks to select
      commands may facilitate control and reduce error rates compared to other
      endogenous control systems for wheelchairs. RESULTS: Seventeen subjects initially
      participated in the study; nine of them completed the three sessions of the
      proposed protocol. After the first calibration session, seven subjects were
      discarded due to a low control of their electroencephalographic signals; nine out
      of ten subjects controlled a virtual wheelchair during the second session; these
      same nine subjects achieved a medium accuracy level above 0.83 on the real
      wheelchair control session. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that more extensive
      training with the proposed control system can be an effective and safe option
      that will allow the displacement of a wheelchair in a controlled environment for
      potential users suffering from some types of motor neuron diseases.

PMID- 28558742
TI  - Generalised joint hypermobility and shoulder joint hypermobility, - risk of upper
      body musculoskeletal symptoms and reduced quality of life in the general
      population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Generalised Joint Hypermobility (GJH) is a hereditary condition with
      an ability to exceed the joints beyond the normal range. The prevalence of GJH in
      the adult population and its impact on upper body musculoskeletal health and
      quality of life has mostly been studied in selected populations. The aims of this
      study were therefore, firstly to study the prevalence of GJH and GJH including
      shoulder hypermobility (GJHS), in the general Danish adult population; secondly
      to test the associations between GJH or GJHS and upper body musculoskeletal
      symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: The study was cross
      sectional where 2072 participants, aged 25-65, randomly extracted from the Danish
      Civil Registration System), were invited to answer a questionnaire battery (Five
      Part Questionnaire for classification of GJH, Standardised Nordic Questionnaire
      for musculoskeletal symptoms, EuroQoL-5D for HRQoL). RESULTS: Totally 1006 (49%)
      participants responded. The prevalence of GJH and GJHS were 30% (n = 300) and 5%
      (n = 51), respectively. Compared with Non GJH (NGJH), participants with GJH and
      GJHS had Odds Ratio (OR) of 1.5-3.5 for upper body musculoskeletal symptoms
      within the last 12 months (mostly shoulders and hands/wrists). GJH and GJHS also
      had OR 1.6-4.4 for being prevented from usual activities, mostly due to shoulder
      and neck symptoms. Furthermore, GJH and GJHS had OR 2.2-3.1 for upper body
      musculoskeletal symptoms lasting for more than 90 days (neck, shoulders,
      hand/wrists), and 1.5-3.5 for reduced HRQoL (all dimensions, but
      anxiety/depression) compared with NGJH. Generally, most OR for GJHS were about
      twice as high as for those having GJH alone. CONCLUSIONS: GJH and GJHS are
      frequently self-reported musculoskeletal conditions in the Danish adult
      population. Compared with NGJH, GJH and especially GJHS, present with higher OR
      for upper body musculoskeletal symptoms, more severe symptoms and decreased
      HRQoL.

PMID- 28558743
TI  - Clinical and genetic characteristics of chinese patients with Birt-Hogg-Dube
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome (BHD) is an autosomal dominant disorder, the
      main manifestations of which are fibrofolliculomas, renal tumors, pulmonary cysts
      and recurrent pneumothorax. The known causative gene for BHD syndrome is the
      folliculin (FLCN) gene on chromosome 17p11.2. Studies of the FLCN mutation for
      BHD syndrome are less prevalent in Chinese populations than in Caucasian
      populations. Our study aims to investigate the genotype spectrum in a group of
      Chinese patients with BHD. METHODS: We enrolled 51 patients with symptoms highly
      suggestive of BHD from January 2014 to February 2017. The FLCN gene was examined
      using PCR and Sanger sequencing in every patient, for those whose Sanger
      sequencing showed negative mutation results, multiplex ligation-dependent probe
      amplification (MLPA) testing was conducted to detect any losses of large
      segments. MAIN RESULTS: Among the 51 patients, 27 had FLCN germline mutations. In
      total, 20 mutations were identified: 14 were novel mutations, including 3 splice
      acceptor site mutations, 2 different deletions, 6 nonsense mutations, 1 missense
      mutation, 1 small insertion, and 1 deletion of the whole exon 8. CONCLUSIONS: We
      found a similar genotype spectrum but different mutant loci in Chinese patients
      with BHD compared with European and American patients, thus providing stronger
      evidence for the clinical molecular diagnosis of BHD in China. It suggests that
      mutation analysis of the FLCN gene should be systematically conducted in patients
      with cystic lung diseases.

PMID- 28558744
TI  - Tocilizumab in the treatment of twelve cases with aa amyloidosis secondary to
      familial mediterranean fever.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is no established treatment of AA amyloidosis, a long-term
      complication of various chronic inflammatory diseases associated with increased
      mortality, such as familial Mediterranian fever (FMF). Recently there are few
      reports pointing out that tocilizumab(TCZ), an anti IL-6 agent may be effective
      in AA amyloidosis resistant to conventional treatments. We report our data on the
      effect of TCZ in patients with FMF complicated with AA amyloidosis. METHODS: FMF
      patients with histologically proven AA amyloidosis, treated with TCZ (8 mg/kg per
      month) were followed monthly and the changes in creatinine, creatinine clearance,
      the amount of 24-hour urinary protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C
      reactive protein (CRP) were noted throughout the treatment period. Adverse
      effects of the treatment were closely monitored. RESULTS: TCZ was given to 12
      patients (6 F, 6 M) who also continued to receive colchicine (1.9 +/- 0.4
      mg/day). Coexisting diseases were ankylosing spondylitis(4) and Crohn's
      disease(1). The mean age was 35.2 +/- 10.0 years and the mean follow-up on TCZ
      was 17.5 +/- 14.7 months. The renal functions remained stable (mean creatinine
      from 1.1 +/- 0.9 mg/dl to 1.0 +/- 0.6 mg/dl), while a significant decrease in
      acute phase response (the mean CRP from 18.1 +/- 19.5 mg/L to 5.8 +/- 7.1 mg/L
      and ESR from 48.7 +/- 31.0 mm/h to 28.7 +/- 28.3 mm/h) was observed and the mean
      24-hour urinary protein excretion reduced from 6537.6 +/- 6526.0 mg/dl to 4745.5
      +/- 5462.7 mg/dl. Two patients whose renal functions were impaired prior to TCZ
      therapy improved significantly on this regimen. No infusion reaction was
      observed. None of the patients experienced any FMF attack under TCZ treatment
      with the exception of 2, one of whom had less frequent attacks while the other
      had episodes of erysipelas-like erythema. CONCLUSiON: Tocilizumab improved the
      acute phase response and the renal function in this group of patients and was
      generally well tolerated. Besides improving the renal function TCZ seemed to
      control the recurrence of FMF attacks too. Further studies are warrented to test
      the efficacy and safety of TCZ in AA amyloidosis secondary to FMF as well as
      other inflammatory conditions.

PMID- 28558745
TI  - Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to dietary salt among adults in the
      state of Victoria, Australia 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Information on consumer's knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (KABs)
      related to salt can be used to inform awareness and education campaigns and serve
      as a baseline measure to monitor changes in KABs over time. The aim of this study
      was to determine KABs related to salt intake among Victorian adults. METHODS:
      Cross-sectional survey conducted in Victorian adults aged 18-65 years.
      Participants were recruited from shopping centres located in Melbourne and
      Geelong and via online methods (Facebook and Consumer Research Panel) to complete
      an online survey assessing KABs related to dietary salt. Descriptive statistics
      (mean (SD) or n (%)) were used to report survey findings. RESULTS: A total of
      2398 participants provided a valid survey (mean age 43 years (SD 13), 57%
      female). The majority (80%) were born in Australia and 63% were the main
      household grocery shopper. The majority (89%) were aware of the health risks
      associated with a high salt intake. Eighty three percent believed that
      Australians eat too much salt. Three quarters (75%) correctly identified salt
      from processed foods as being the main source of salt in the diet. Less than a
      third (29%) of participants believed their own individual salt intake exceeded
      dietary recommendations and only 28% could correctly identify the maximum
      recommended daily intake for salt. Just under half (46%) of participants were
      concerned about the amount of salt in food. Almost two thirds (61%) of
      participants believed that there should be laws which limit the amount of salt
      added to manufactured foods and 58% agreed that it was difficult to find lower
      salt options when eating out. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study serve as a
      baseline assessment of KABs related to salt intake in Victorian adults and can be
      used to assess changes in salt related KABs over time. Public concern about salt
      is low as many people remain unaware of their own salt intake. An increased
      awareness of the excessive amount of salt consumed and increased availability of
      lower salt foods are likely to reduce population salt intake.

PMID- 28558746
TI  - Characteristics of therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and
      occupational therapy practice: a scoping review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most conventional treatment for musculoskeletal conditions continue
      to show moderate effects, prompting calls for ways to increase effectiveness,
      including drawing from strategies used across other health conditions.
      Therapeutic alliance refers to the relational processes at play in treatment
      which can act in combination or independently of specific interventions. Current
      evidence guiding the use of therapeutic alliance in health care arises largely
      from psychotherapy and medicine literature. The objective of this review was to
      map out the available literature on therapeutic alliance conceptual frameworks,
      themes, measures and determinants in musculoskeletal rehabilitation across
      physiotherapy and occupational therapy disciplines. METHODS: A scoping review of
      the literature published in English since inception to July 2015 was conducted
      using Medline, EMBASE, PsychINFO, PEDro, SportDISCUS, AMED, OTSeeker, AMED and
      the grey literature. A key search term strategy was employed using
      "physiotherapy", "occupational therapy", "therapeutic alliance", and
      "musculoskeletal" to identify relevant studies. All searches were performed
      between December 2014 and July 2015 with an updated search on January 2017. Two
      investigators screened article title, abstract and full text review for articles
      meeting the inclusion criteria and extracted therapeutic alliance data and
      details of each study. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty articles met the inclusion
      criteria including quantitative (33%), qualitative (39%), mixed methods (7%) and
      reviews and discussions (23%) and most data came from the USA (23%). Randomized
      trials and systematic reviews were 4.6 and 2.3% respectively. Low back pain
      condition (22%) and primary care (30.7%) were the most reported condition and
      setting respectively. One theory, 9 frameworks, 26 models, 8 themes and 42
      subthemes of therapeutic alliance were identified. Twenty-six measures were
      identified; the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) was the most utilized measure
      (13%). Most of the therapeutic alliance themes extracted were from patient
      perspectives. The relationship between adherence and therapeutic alliance was
      examined by 26 articles of which 57% showed some correlation between therapeutic
      alliance and adherence. Age moderated the relationship between therapeutic
      alliance and adherence with younger individuals and an autonomy support
      environment reporting improved adherence. Prioritized goals, autonomy support and
      motivation were facilitators of therapeutic alliance. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic
      Alliance has been studied in a limited extent in the rehabilitation literature
      with conflicting frameworks and findings. Potential benefits described for
      enhancing therapeutic alliance might include better exercise adherence. Several
      knowledge gaps have been identified with a potential for generating future
      research priorities for therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal rehabilitation.

PMID- 28558747
TI  - Weather and children's physical activity; how and why do relationships vary
      between countries?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally most children do not engage in enough physical activity. Day
      length and weather conditions have been identified as determinants of physical
      activity, although how they may be overcome as barriers is not clear. We aim to
      examine if and how relationships between children's physical activity and weather
      and day length vary between countries and identify settings in which children
      were better able to maintain activity levels given the weather conditions they
      experienced. METHODS: In this repeated measures study, we used data from 23,451
      participants in the International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD). Daily
      accelerometer-measured physical activity (counts per minute; cpm) was matched to
      local weather conditions and the relationships assessed using multilevel
      regression models. Multilevel models accounted for clustering of days within
      occasions within children within study-cities, and allowed us to explore if and
      how the relationships between weather variables and physical activity differ by
      setting. RESULTS: Increased precipitation and wind speed were associated with
      decreased cpm while better visibility and more hours of daylight were associated
      with increased cpm. Models indicated that increases in these variables resulted
      in average changes in mean cpm of 7.6/h of day length, -13.2/cm precipitation,
      10.3/10 km visibility and -10.3/10kph wind speed (all p < 0.01). Temperature
      showed a cubic relationship with cpm, although between 0 and 20 degrees C the
      relationship was broadly linear. Age showed interactions with temperature and
      precipitation, with the associations larger among younger children. In terms of
      geographic trends, participants from Northern European countries and Melbourne,
      Australia were the most active, and also better maintained their activity levels
      given the weather conditions they experienced compared to those in the US and
      Western Europe. CONCLUSIONS: We found variation in the relationship between
      weather conditions and physical activity between ICAD studies and settings.
      Children in Northern Europe and Melbourne, Australia were not only more active on
      average, but also more active given the weather conditions they experienced.
      Future work should consider strategies to mitigate the impacts of weather
      conditions, especially among young children, and interventions involving changes
      to the physical environment should consider how they will operate in different
      weather conditions.

PMID- 28558748
TI  - Use of ranitidine is associated with infections in newborns hospitalized in a
      neonatal intensive care unit: a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The inhibition of gastric acid secretion with ranitidine is
      frequently prescribed off-label to newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care
      units (NICU). Some studies show that the use of inhibitors of gastric acid
      secretion (IGAS) may predispose to infections and necrotising enterocolitis
      (NEC), but there are few data to confirm this association. This study aimed to
      compare the rates of neonatal infections and NEC among preterm infants (<37 weeks
      gestation) hospitalised in a NICU exposed or not to treatment with ranitidine.
      METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted with all consecutive preterm
      newborns admitted to a NICU between August-2014 and October-2015. The rates of
      infection, NEC, and death of newborns exposed or not to ranitidine were recorded.
      RESULTS: A total of 300 newborns were enrolled, of which 115 had received
      ranitidine and 185 had not. The two groups were similar with regard to the main
      demographic and clinical characteristics. Forty-eight (41.7%) of the 115 infants
      exposed to ranitidine and 49 (26.5%) of the 185 infants not exposed were infected
      (RR = 1.6, 95%CI 1.1-2.2, p = 0.006). The late onset (>48 h) blood culture
      positive infection rate was higher in the group exposed to ranitidine than in the
      untreated group (13.0% vs. 3.8%, p = 0.001). There was no significant association
      between the use of ranitidine and NEC (Bell stage >II) (p = 0.36). The mortality
      rate risk was 4-fold higher in infants receiving ranitidine (16.5% vs. 8.6%, p <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: Ranitidine use in neonates was associated with an increased
      risk of infections and mortality, but not with NEC.

PMID- 28558749
TI  - A novel zoonotic Anaplasma species is prevalent in small ruminants: potential
      public health implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tick-borne diseases currently represent an important issue for global
      health. A number of emerging tick-transmitted microbes continue to be discovered,
      and some of these are already identified as the cause of human infections. Over
      the past two decades, Anaplasma phagocytophilum is considered to be mainly
      responsible for human anaplasmosis. However, a novel zoonotic pathogen
      provisionally named "Anaplasma capra" has recently been identified in China. In
      this study, we did an active surveillance of A. capra in goats and sheep in
      different geographical regions of China. METHODS: The presence of A. capra was
      determined by nested PCR in 547 blood samples collected from goats and sheep from
      24 counties distributed in 12 provinces in China. The molecular characterization
      of A. capra isolates in sheep and goats was achieved based on four conventional
      genetic markers (16S rRNA, gltA, groEL and msp4 genes). RESULTS: Anaplasma capra
      was identified in 75 of 547 animals, with an overall prevalence of 13.7%. The
      infection rates in the survey sites ranged from 0 to 78.6%, and were
      significantly different (P < 0.01). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the
      isolates obtained from goats, sheep, Ixodes persulcatus ticks and humans create a
      separate clade within the genus Anaplasma and distinct from other recognized
      Anaplasma species. These findings indicated that these A. capra isolates possess
      the same molecular characteristics, suggesting that this organism could be a
      substantial health threat to both animals and humans. CONCLUSIONS: Anaplasma
      capra is an emerging tick-transmitted zoonotic pathogen. This novel Anaplasna
      species is widespread across China with an overall prevalence of 13.7% in goats
      and sheep with isolates indistinguishable from those found in humans. These
      findings warrant increased public health awareness for human anaplasmosis.

PMID- 28558750
TI  - Approach selection of radiofrequency catheter ablation for ventricular
      arrhythmias originating from the left ventricular summit: potential relevance of
      Pseudo Delta wave, Intrinsicoid deflection time, maximal deflection index.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) originating from the left ventricular
      summit is a challenge for radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). The present
      study aimed to investigate the appropriate RFCA strategy for VAs originating from
      the left ventricular summit. METHODS: Forty-five consecutive patients with VAs
      arising from the left ventricular summit were successfully ablated at our cardiac
      electrophysiology center and reviewed in the study. RESULTS: Thirty-two cases of
      VAs were eliminated in the left ventricular endocardium by retrograde transaortic
      (n = 22, 22/45, 48.9%) or antegrade transseptal (n = 10, 10/45, 22.2%)
      approaches, the other 13 cases were eliminated in the left ventricular epicardium
      by distal great cardiac vein (DGCV) approach (n = 13, 13/45, 28.9%). Though these
      VAs were similar in electrocardiographic (ECG) morphology, the pseudo delta waves
      (PDW), intrinsicoid deflection time (IDT), maximal deflection index (MDI)
      differed among them, PDW >53 ms, IDT > 74 ms, MDI > 0.45 strongly indicated that
      ablating left ventricular summit VAs by DGCV approach. During mean follow-up of
      19.5 +/- 13.2 (range, 3-60) months, 2 (4.4%) patients experienced VAs recurrence.
      CONCLUSION: This retrospective study showed that VAs of left ventricular summit
      origin can be effectively cured with RFCA. For these VAs, prolonged PdW, IDT, MDI
      indicating RFCA by DGCV approach can be attempted firstly.

PMID- 28558751
TI  - A 14-day limit for bioethics: the debate over human embryo research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This article explores the reasons in favour of revising and extending
      the current 14-day statutory limit to maintaining human embryos in culture. This
      limit is enshrined in law in over a dozen countries, including the United
      Kingdom. In two recently published studies (2016), scientists have shown that
      embryos can be sustained in vitro for about 13 days after fertilisation. Positive
      reactions to these results have gone hand in hand with calls for revising the 14
      day rule, which only allows embryo research until the 14th day after
      fertilisation. MAIN TEXT: The article explores the most prominent arguments in
      favour of and against the extension of the 14-day limit for conducting research
      on human embryos. It situates these arguments within the history of the 14-day
      limit. I start by discussing the history of the 14-day limit in the United
      Kingdom and the reasons behind the decision to opt for a compromise between
      competing moral views. I then analyse the arguments that those who are generally
      in favour of embryo research put forward in support of extending the 14-day rule,
      namely (a) the argument of the beneficence of research and (b) the argument of
      technical feasibility (further explained in the article). I then show how these
      two arguments played a role in the recent approval of two novel techniques for
      the replacement of faulty mitochondrial DNA in the United Kingdom. Despite the
      popularity and widespread use of these arguments, I argue that they are
      ultimately problematic and should not be straightforwardly accepted (i.e.
      accepted without further scrutiny). I end by making a case for respecting value
      pluralism in the context of embryo research, and I present two reasons in favour
      of respecting value pluralism: the argument of public trust and the argument of
      democracy. CONCLUSION: I argue that 14-day limit for embryo research is not a
      valuable tool despite being a solution of compromise, but rather because of it.
      The importance of respecting value pluralism (and of respecting different views
      on embryo research) needs to be considered in any evaluation concerning a
      potential change to the 14-day rule.

PMID- 28558753
TI  - Medical students' career choices, preference for placement, and attitudes towards
      the role of medical instruction in Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Ethiopia, the health care delivery and the system of medical
      education have been expanding rapidly. However, in spite of the expansion, no
      studies have been carried out among medical students to identify their career
      choices and attitudes towards the medical instruction. Therefore, this study
      aimed to fill the gap in evidence in these specific areas. METHODS: Pretested
      questionnaire was self-administered among fifth and sixth year medical students
      in six government owned medical schools in Ethiopia. A total of 959 students were
      involved in the study with a response rate of 82.2%. Career choices, intention
      where to work just after graduation, and attitudes towards medical instruction
      were descriptively presented. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to
      identify factors associated with the intention of medical students to work in
      rural and remote areas. RESULTS: Majority, (70.1%) of the medical students wanted
      to practice in clinical care settings. However, only a small proportion of them
      showed interest to work in rural and remote areas (21% in zonal and 8.7% in
      district/small towns). For most, internal medicine was the first specialty of
      choice followed by surgery. However, students showed little interest in
      obstetrics and gynecology, as well as in pediatrics and child health as their
      first specialty of choice. Medical students' attitudes towards their school in
      preparing them to work in rural and remote areas, to pursue their career within
      the country and to specialize in medical disciplines in which there are shortages
      in the country were low. The binary logistic regression model revealed that a
      significantly increased odds of preference to work in rural and remote areas was
      observed among males, those who were born in rural areas, the medical students of
      Addis Ababa University and those who had the desire to serve within the country.
      CONCLUSION: This study showed that Ethiopian medical schools are training medical
      workforce with preferences not to work in rural and remote places, and not to
      specialize in disciplines where there are shortages in the country. Thus,
      attention should be given to influence medical students' attitude to work in
      rural and remote locations and to specialize in diverse clinical specialties.

PMID- 28558752
TI  - Epigenomic and functional analyses reveal roles of epialleles in the loss of
      photoperiod sensitivity during domestication of allotetraploid cottons.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Polyploidy is a pervasive evolutionary feature of all flowering
      plants and some animals, leading to genetic and epigenetic changes that affect
      gene expression and morphology. DNA methylation changes can produce meiotically
      stable epialleles, which are transmissible through selection and breeding.
      However, the relationship between DNA methylation and polyploid plant
      domestication remains elusive. RESULTS: We report comprehensive epigenomic and
      functional analyses, including ~12 million differentially methylated cytosines in
      domesticated allotetraploid cottons and their tetraploid and diploid relatives.
      Methylated genes evolve faster than unmethylated genes; DNA methylation changes
      between homoeologous loci are associated with homoeolog-expression bias in the
      allotetraploids. Significantly, methylation changes induced in the interspecific
      hybrids are largely maintained in the allotetraploids. Among 519 differentially
      methylated genes identified between wild and cultivated cottons, some contribute
      to domestication traits, including flowering time and seed dormancy. CONSTANS
      (CO) and CO-LIKE (COL) genes regulate photoperiodicity in Arabidopsis. COL2 is an
      epiallele in allotetraploid cottons. COL2A is hypermethylated and silenced, while
      COL2D is repressed in wild cottons but highly expressed due to methylation loss
      in all domesticated cottons tested. Inhibiting DNA methylation activates COL2
      expression, and repressing COL2 in cultivated cotton delays flowering.
      CONCLUSIONS: We uncover epigenomic signatures of domestication traits during
      cotton evolution. Demethylation of COL2 increases its expression, inducing
      photoperiodic flowering, which could have contributed to the suitability of
      cotton for cultivation worldwide. These resources should facilitate epigenetic
      engineering, breeding, and improvement of polyploid crops.

PMID- 28558754
TI  - Urinary TIMP-2 and IGFBP7 for the prediction of acute kidney injury following
      cardiac surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery is common and
      associated with poor patient outcomes. Early risk assessment for development of
      AKI remains a challenge. The combination of urinary tissue inhibitor of
      metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP-2) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7
      (IGFBP7) has been shown to be an excellent predictor of AKI following cardiac
      surgery, but reported studies are for predominately non-Asian populations.
      METHODS: Adult patients were prospectively enrolled at Zhongshan hospital in
      Shanghai, China. The primary analysis was prediction of AKI and stage 2-3 AKI by
      [TIMP-2]*[IGFBP7] measured 4 h after postoperative ICU admission assessed using
      receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Kinetics of [TIMP
      2]*[IGFBP7] following ICU admission were also examined. RESULTS: We prospectively
      enrolled 57 cardiac surgery patients, of which 20 (35%) developed AKI and 6 (11%)
      developed stage 2-3 AKI. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of [TIMP-2]*[IGFBP7]
      at 4 h after ICU admission was 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.68-0.91) for
      development of AKI and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.69-0.96) for development of stage 2-3 AKI.
      Urinary [TIMP-2]*[IGFBP7] values at 4 h after ICU admission were significantly (P
      < 0.001) higher in patients who developed AKI than in patients who did not
      develop AKI (mean (standard error) of 1.08 (0.34) (ng/mL)2/1000 and 0.29 (0.05)
      (ng/mL)2/1000, respectively). The time-profile of [TIMP-2]*[IGFBP7] suggests the
      markers started to elevate by the time of ICU admission in patients who developed
      AKI and either decreased or remained flat in patients without AKI. CONCLUSION:
      The combination of urinary TIMP-2 and IGFBP7 4 h after postoperative ICU
      admission identifies patients at risk for developing AKI, not just stage 2-3 AKI
      following cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28558755
TI  - Evaluation of a species-specific C-reactive protein assay for the dog on the ABX
      Pentra 400 clinical chemistry analyzer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A canine-specific immunoturbidimetric CRP assay, Gentian Canine CRP
      Immunoassay) with species-specific controls and calibrators was introduced and
      recently evaluated on the clinical chemistry analyzer Abbott Architect c4000 as
      well as on the Olympus AU600. Aims of our study were 1) to independently evaluate
      the canine-specific CRP assay on the ABX Pentra 400 clinical chemistry analyzer
      in comparison to the previously validated human-based immunoturbidimetric assay
      (Randox Canine CRP assay) and 2) to assess the impact of different sample types
      (serum versus heparinized plasma) on the results. Imprecision, accuracy,
      interference and the prozone effect were determined using samples from healthy
      and diseased dogs (n = 278). The Randox Canine CRP assay calibrated with canine
      specific control calibration material served as a reference method. Additionally,
      the impact of the sample type (serum and lithium heparin) was evaluated based on
      samples of healthy and diseased dogs (n = 49) in a second part of the study.
      RESULTS: Linearity was present for CRP concentrations ranging from 4 to 281 mg/l.
      For clinically relevant CRP concentrations of 7-281 mg/l, recovery ranged between
      90 and 105% and intra- and inter-assay CVs ranged between 0.68% - 12.12% and
      0.88% - 7.84%, respectively. CV was thus lower than 12.16%, i.e. the desired CV%
      based on biological variation. Interference was not present up to a concentration
      of 5 g/l hemoglobin, 800 mg/l bilirubin and 10 g/l triglycerides. No prozone
      effect occurred up to 676 mg/l CRP. Method comparison study revealed a Spearman's
      rank correlation coefficient of rs = 0.98 and a mean constant bias of 5.2%. The
      sample type had a significant (P = 0.008) but clinically not relevant impact on
      the results (median CRP of 30.9 mg/l in lithium heparin plasma versus 31.4 mg/l
      in serum). CONCLUSIONS: The species-specific Gentian Canine CRP Immunoassay
      reliably detects canine CRP on the ABX Pentra 400 clinical chemistry analyzer
      whereby both serum and heparin plasma can be used. The quality criteria reached
      on the Abbott Architect c4000 and Olympus AU600 could be met.

PMID- 28558756
TI  - Comparison of methods to identify long term care nursing home residence with
      administrative data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To compare different methods for identifying a long term care (LTC)
      nursing home stay, distinct from stays in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), to
      the method currently used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
      We used national and Texas Medicare claims, Minimum Data Set (MDS), and Texas
      Medicaid data from 2011-2013. METHODS: We used Medicare Part A and B and MDS data
      either alone or in combination to identify LTC nursing home stays by three
      methods. One method used Medicare Part A and B data; one method used Medicare
      Part A and MDS data; and the current CMS method used MDS data alone. We validated
      each method against Texas 2011 Medicare-Medicaid linked data for those with dual
      eligibility. RESULTS: Using Medicaid data as a gold standard, all three methods
      had sensitivities > 92% to identify LTC nursing home stays of more than 100 days
      in duration. The positive predictive value (PPV) of the method that used both MDS
      and Medicare Part A data was 84.65% compared to 78.71% for the CMS method and
      66.45% for the method using Part A and B Medicare. When the patient population
      was limited to those who also had a SNF stay, the PPV for identifying LTC nursing
      home was highest for the method using Medicare plus MDS data (88.1%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Using both Medicare and MDS data to identify LTC stays will lead to
      more accurate attribution of CMS nursing home quality indicators.

PMID- 28558757
TI  - Multiscalar cellular automaton simulates in-vivo tumour-stroma patterns
      calibrated from in-vitro assay data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The tumour stroma -or tumour microenvironment- is an important
      constituent of solid cancers and it is thought to be one of the main obstacles to
      quantitative translation of drug activity between the preclinical and clinical
      phases of drug development. The tumour-stroma relationship has been described as
      being both pro- and antitumour in multiple studies. However, the causality of
      this complex biological relationship between the tumour and stroma has not yet
      been explored in a quantitative manner in complex tumour morphologies. METHODS:
      To understand how these stromal and microenvironmental factors contribute to
      tumour physiology and how oxygen distributes within them, we have developed a
      lattice-based multiscalar cellular automaton model. This model uses principles of
      cytokine and oxygen diffusion as well as cell motility and plasticity to describe
      tumour-stroma landscapes. Furthermore, to calibrate the model, we propose an
      innovative modelling platform to extract model parameters from multiple in-vitro
      assays. This platform provides a novel way to extract meta-data that can be used
      to complement in-vivo studies and can be further applied in other contexts.
      RESULTS: Here we show the necessity of the tumour-stroma opposing relationship
      for the model simulations to successfully describe the in-vivo stromal patterns
      of the human lung cancer cell lines Calu3 and Calu6, as models of clinical and
      preclinical tumour-stromal topologies. This is especially relevant to drugs that
      target the tumour microenvironment, such as antiangiogenics, compounds targeting
      the hedgehog pathway or immune checkpoint inhibitors, and is potentially a key
      platform to understand the mechanistic drivers for these drugs. CONCLUSION: The
      tumour-stroma automaton model presented here enables the interpretation of
      complex in-vitro data and uses it to parametrise a model for in-vivo tumour
      stromal relationships.

PMID- 28558758
TI  - FGF2/FGFR1 regulates autophagy in FGFR1-amplified non-small cell lung cancer
      cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autophagy is a conserved catabolic process to degrade cellular
      organelles. The role of autophagy in cancer development is complex. Amplification
      of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) is one of the most frequent
      targets in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SQCC). Whether fibroblast growth factor
      2 (FGF2)/FGFR1 contributes to the regulation of autophagy remains elusive.
      METHODS: Autophagic activity was evaluated by immunoblotting for microtubule
      associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), formation of GFP-LC3 puncta, and
      monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining. The effect of autophagy inhibition on cell
      survival was assessed by cell viability and apoptosis assays. RESULTS: We
      elucidated that FGFR1 activation suppressed autophagy. Pharmacological or genetic
      inhibition of FGFR1 by AZD4547 or FGFR1 short hairpin RNA (shRNA) induced
      autophagy in FGFR1-amplified non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, H1581 and
      H520 cells. Mechanistic study revealed that the induction of autophagy by FGFR1
      inhibition was mediated through inhibiting the ERK/MAPK pathway not by AKT
      pathway, accompanied by upregulation of beclin-1. Furthermore, activation of
      ERK/MAPK by transfection with a constitutively active MEK1 (caMEK1) construct or
      knockdown of beclin-1 by RNAi could attenuate autophagy induced by FGFR1
      inhibition. Beclin-1 expression was inversely correlated with MEK1
      phosphorylation. Inhibition of autophagy by beclin-1 silencing could enhance
      apoptosis after AZD4547 treatment in H1581 and H520 cells. High levels of LC3B
      mRNA was a marker of poor prognosis in NSCLC patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      Simultaneously inhibiting FGFR1 and autophagy could enhance cell death which
      should be further explored in vivo.

PMID- 28558759
TI  - The danish regions pediatric triage model has a limited ability to detect both
      critically ill children as well as children to be sent home without treatment - a
      study of diagnostic accuracy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Danish Regions Pediatric Triage model (DRPT) was introduced in
      2012 and subsequent implemented in most Danish acute pediatric departments. The
      aim was to evaluate the validity of DRPT as a screening tool to detect both the
      most serious acute conditions and the non-serious conditions in the acute
      referred patients in a pediatric department. METHOD: The study was prospective
      observational, with follow-up on all children with acute referral to pediatric
      department from October to December 2015. The DRPT was evaluated by comparison to
      a predefined reference standard and to the actual clinical outcomes: critically
      ill children and children returned to home without any treatment. The
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value,
      accuracy and likelihood for positive and negative test were calculated. RESULTS:
      Five hundred fifty children were included. The DRPT categorized 7% very urgent,
      28% urgent, 29% standard and 36% non-urgent. The DRPT was equal to the reference
      standard in 31% of the children (CI: 27-35%). DRPT undertriaged 55% of the
      children (CI: 51-59%) and overtriaged 14% of the children (CI: 11-17%). For the
      most urgent patients the sensitivity of DRPT was 31% (CI: 20-48%) compared to the
      reference standard and 20% (CI: 7-41) for critically ill. For children with non
      urgent conditions the specificity of DRPT was 66% (CI: 62-71%) compared to the
      reference standard and 68% (CI: 62-75%) for the children who went home with no
      treatment. In none of the analyses, the likelihood ratio of the negative test was
      less than 0.7 and the positive likelihood ratio only reached more than 5 in one
      of the analyses. DISCUSSION: This study is the first to evaluate the DRPT triage
      system. From the very limited validity studies of other well-established triage
      systems, it is difficult to judge whether the DRPT performs better or worse than
      the alternatives. The DRPT errs to the undertriage side. If the sensitivity is
      low, a number of the sickest children are undetected and this is a matter of
      concern. CONCLUSION: The DRPT is a triage tool with limited ability to detect the
      critically ill children as well as the children who can be returned to home
      without any treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not relevant.

PMID- 28558760
TI  - Ecological parameters of the (S)-9-methylgermacrene-B population of the Lutzomyia
      longipalpis complex in a visceral leishmaniasis area in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an important public health challenge
      in Brazil because of the high number of human and canine cases reported annually.
      Leishmania infantum is the etiological agent of VL and Lutzomyia longipalpis is
      its main vector. However, evidence suggests that this taxon constitutes a species
      complex. In Sao Paulo state, there are two populations of Lu. longipalpis, each
      secreting distinct pheromones, (S)-9-methylgermacrene-B and Cembrene 1; both have
      been associated with different patterns of VL transmission. The aim of the
      present study was to investigate the temporal distribution and natural infection
      of the (S)-9-methylgermacrene-B population of the Lu. longipalpis complex in a
      highly VL endemic area of Sao Paulo state to obtain information that may
      contribute to the surveillance of this zoonosis and to the planning of preventive
      and control measures. METHODS: The study was carried out in Panorama
      municipality, Sao Paulo State. Captures were made during 24 months in seven
      domiciles. The relation between sand fly abundance and climatic variables,
      temperature and humidity, was analyzed and natural infection by Leishmania spp.
      in sand fly females was investigated by nested PCR. RESULTS: A total of 4120 sand
      flies, with predominance of Lu. longipalpis (97.2%) were captured. The highest
      averages of sand flies/night/trap occurred in the rainy season (November-March)
      and a positive, significant correlation between sand fly abundance and the
      temperature and humidity 20 days before the capture days was found. Leishmania
      infantum DNA was detected in three out of 250 pools of females analyzed, giving
      an estimated minimum infection rate of 1.2%. CONCLUSION: The identification of
      the climatic association between the high abundance of the vector in this highly
      endemic VL focus constitutes a fundamental point for evaluating future vector and
      dog control measures and this information increases the data of VL foci in Sao
      Paulo state that could contribute to the public health authorities in planning
      prevention and control measures. The identification of natural infection by Le.
      infantum in Lu. longipalpis specimens reinforces the importance of entomological
      surveillance activities in this municipality.

PMID- 28558761
TI  - Production, characterization, and antifungal activity of a biosurfactant produced
      by Rhodotorula babjevae YS3.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sophorolipids are one of the most promising glycolipid biosurfactants
      and have been successfully employed in bioremediation and various other
      industrial sectors. They have also been described to exhibit antimicrobial
      activity against different bacterial species. Nevertheless, previous literature
      pertaining to the antifungal activity of sophorolipids are limited indicating the
      need for further research to explore novel strains with wide antimicrobial
      activity. A novel yeast strain, Rhodotorula babjevae YS3, was recently isolated
      from an agricultural field in Assam, Northeast India. This study was primarily
      emphasized at the characterization and subsequent evaluation of antifungal
      activity of the sophorolipid biosurfactant produced by R. babjevae YS3. RESULTS:
      The growth kinetics and biosurfactant production by R. babjevae YS3 was evaluated
      by cultivation in Bushnell-Haas medium containing glucose (10% w/v) as the sole
      carbon source. A reduction in the surface tension of the culture medium from 70
      to 32.6 mN/m was observed after 24 h. The yield of crude biosurfactant was
      recorded to be 19.0 g/l which might further increase after optimization of the
      growth parameters. The biosurfactant was characterized to be a heterogeneous
      sophorolipid (SL) with both lactonic and acidic forms after TLC, FTIR and LC-MS
      analyses. The SL exhibited excellent oil spreading and emulsifying activity
      against crude oil at 38.46 mm2 and 100% respectively. The CMC was observed to be
      130 mg/l. The stability of the SL was evaluated over a wide range of pH (2-10),
      salinity (2-10% NaCl) and temperature (at 120  degrees C for time intervals of 30
      up to 120 min). The SL was found to retain surface-active properties under the
      extreme conditions. Additionally, the SL exhibited promising antifungal activity
      against a considerably broad group of pathogenic fungi viz. Colletotrichum
      gloeosporioides, Fusarium verticilliodes, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi,
      Corynespora cassiicola, and Trichophyton rubrum. CONCLUSIONS: The study reports,
      for the first time, the biosurfactant producing ability of R. babjevae, a
      relatively lesser studied yeast. The persistent surface active properties of the
      sophorolipid in extreme conditions advocates its applicability in diverse
      environmental and industrial sectors. Further, antifungal activities against
      plant and human pathogens opens up possibilities for development of efficient and
      eco-friendly antifungal agents with agricultural and biomedical applications.

PMID- 28558762
TI  - Unmanipulated haploidentical stem cell transplantation in adults with acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia: a study on behalf of the Acute Leukemia Working Party of
      the EBMT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is the
      most effective post-remission treatment for adults with high-risk acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The aim of the study was to analyze results of
      unmanipulated haploidentical allo-SCT (haplo-SCT) for adults with ALL and to
      identify prognostic factors. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis on
      208 adults transplanted in EBMT centers from 2007 to 2014. RESULTS: Median age at
      haplo-SCT was 32 years and median follow-up, 31 months. Forty-four percent of the
      patients were in first complete remission (CR1). Stem cell source was the bone
      marrow (BM) for 43% and peripheral blood (PB) for 57% of patients. Myeloablative
      conditioning (MAC) was used for 66% and reduced intensity regimen (RIC) for 34%
      of patients. GVHD prophylaxis was based on post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PT
      Cy) for 118 (57%) or on anti-thymocyte-globulin (ATG) for 90 (43%) plus standard
      prophylaxis. One hundred eighty-four (92%) patients achieved engraftment.
      Cumulative incidence (CI) of grade II-IV acute-graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD)
      was 31%, grade III-IV 11%, and chronic GVHD 29%. Non-relapse mortality (NRM) and
      relapse-incidence (RI) were 32 and 37%, respectively. Overall survival (OS),
      leukemia-free survival (LFS), and GVHD-free, relapse-free-survival (GRFS) at 3
      years were 33, 31, and 26%. For patients in CR1, OS, LFS, and GRFS were 52, 47,
      and 40%, respectively. Disease status was the main factor associated with
      transplant outcomes. Use of BM was independently associated with improvement in
      NRM, acute GVHD, GRFS, LFS, and OS. CONCLUSIONS: Unmanipulated haplo-SCT may be
      considered a valid option for adult patients with high-risk ALL lacking HLA
      identical donor preferably in early disease status.

PMID- 28558763
TI  - An analysis of policy success and failure in formal evaluations of Australia's
      national mental health strategy (1992-2012).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heightened fiscal constraints, increases in the chronic disease
      burden and in consumer expectations are among several factors contributing to the
      global interest in evidence-informed health policy. The present article builds on
      previous work that explored how the Australian Federal Government applied five
      instruments of policy, or policy levers, to implement a series of reforms under
      the Australian National Mental Health Strategy (NMHS). The present article draws
      on theoretical insights from political science to analyse the relative successes
      and failures of these levers, as portrayed in formal government evaluations of
      the NMHS. METHODS: Documentary analysis of six evaluation documents corresponding
      to three National Mental Health Plans was undertaken. Both the content and
      approach of these government-funded, independently conducted evaluations were
      appraised. RESULTS: An overall improvement was apparent in the development and
      application of policy levers over time. However, this finding should be
      interpreted with caution due to variations in evaluation approach according to
      Plan and policy lever. Tabulated summaries of the success and failure of each
      policy initiative, ordered by lever type, are provided to establish a resource
      that could be consulted for future policy-making. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis
      highlights the complexities of health service reform and underscores the
      limitations of narrowly focused empirical approaches. A theoretical framework is
      provided that could inform the evaluation and targeted selection of appropriate
      policy levers in mental health.

PMID- 28558764
TI  - Elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Tajikistan.
AB  - Malaria was eliminated in Tajikistan by the beginning of the 1960s. However,
      sporadic introduced cases of malaria occurred subsequently probably as a result
      of transmission from infected mosquito Anopheles flying over river the Punj from
      the border areas of Afghanistan. During the 1970s and 1980s local outbreaks of
      malaria were reported in the southern districts bordering Afghanistan. The
      malaria situation dramatically changed during the 1990s following armed conflict
      and civil unrest in the newly independent Tajikistan, which paralyzed health
      services including the malaria control activities and a large-scale malaria
      epidemic occurred with more than 400,000 malaria cases. The malaria epidemic was
      contained by 1999 as a result of considerable financial input from the Government
      and the international community. Although Plasmodium falciparum constituted only
      about 5% of total malaria cases, reduction of its incidence was slower than that
      of Plasmodium vivax. To prevent increase in P. falciparum malaria both in terms
      of incidence and territory, a P. falciparum elimination programme in the Republic
      was launched in 200, jointly supported by the Government and the Global Fund for
      control of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The main activities included the use
      of pyrethroids for the IRS with determined periodicity, deployment of mosquito
      nets, impregnated with insecticides, use of larvivorous fishes as a biological
      larvicide, implementation of small-scale environmental management, and use of
      personal protection methods by population under malaria risk. The malaria
      surveillance system was strengthened by the use of ACD, PCD, RCD and selective
      use of mass blood surveys. All detected cases were timely epidemiologically
      investigated and treated based on the results of laboratory diagnosis. As a
      result, by 2009, P. falciparum malaria was eliminated from all of Tajikistan, one
      year ahead of the originally targeted date. Elimination of P. falciparum also
      contributed towards speedy reduction of P. vivax incidence in Tajikistan.

PMID- 28558765
TI  - Sustentacular screw placement with guidance during ORIF of calcaneal fracture: an
      anatomical specimen study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The sustentacular screw is essential to maintain the stability of the
      subtalar joint during ORIF (open reduction with internal fixation) of calcaneal
      fractures. Currently, the screw is still inserted based on surgeons' anatomical
      experiences and nearly 40% of screws are misplaced from the sustentaculum.
      Previous studies demonstrated some methods of sustentacular screw placement
      through anatomical measurements or navigation system. The purposes of this study
      are to design an assistant guidance device that can effectively improve the
      accuracy of sustentacular screw placement and to compare the accuracy of this
      technique with traditional screw placement based on experience. METHODS: A
      customized guidance device is designed, aiming to improve the accuracy of
      sustentacular screw placement. Twenty cadaveric specimens are used in the present
      study. Ten specimens are allocated into the guidance-assisted group, and others
      are included in the traditional screw insertion group. A total of 40
      sustentacular screw placements are performed in each group. Fluoroscopic images
      are obtained after each screw placement. Only the screw that captures the
      sustentaculum both on the lateral and axial X-ray views was regarded as an
      accurate placement. RESULTS: The accuracy rate in the guidance-assisted group is
      87.5% (35 out of 40 times of insertions) while in the traditional screw insertion
      group, the accuracy rate is 65% (26 out of 40 times of insertions). A significant
      difference is found between the two groups (p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: The guidance
      assisted technique is a convenient approach that can effectively improve the
      accuracy of sustentacular screw placement during the ORIF of calcaneal fractures.
      This study provides a novel technique that significantly facilitates
      sustentacular screw insertion and improves its accuracy.

PMID- 28558766
TI  - Prognostic analysis of radiation pneumonitis: carbon-ion radiotherapy in patients
      with locally advanced lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is a promising treatment for locally
      advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, especially for patients with inoperable lung
      cancer. Although the incidence of CIRT-induced radiation pneumonitis (RP) >=
      grade 2 ranges from 2.5 to 9.9%, the association between CIRT-induced RP and
      dosimetric parameters is not clear. Herein, we identified prognostic factors
      associated with symptomatic RP after CIRT for patients with non-small-cell lung
      cancer. METHODS: Clinical results of 65 patients treated with CIRT between 2000
      and 2015 at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences were retrospectively
      analyzed. Clinical stage II B disease (TNM classification) was the most common
      stage among the patients (45%). The median radiation dose was 72 Gy (68-76)
      relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in 16 fractions. In cases involving
      metastatic lymph nodes, prophylactic irradiation of mediastinal lymph nodes was
      performed at a median dose of 49.5 Gy (RBE). The median follow-up was 22 months.
      RESULTS: Grade 2 and grade 3 RP occurred in 6 and 3 patients (9 and 5%),
      respectively. No patients developed grade 4 or 5 RP. Using univariate analysis,
      vital capacity as a percentage of predicted (%VC), forced expiratory volume in 1
      s (FEV1), mean lung dose (MLD), volume of lung receiving >=5 Gy (RBE) (V5), V10,
      V20 and V30 were determined to be the significant predictive factors for >= grade
      2 RP. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed the cutoff
      values for %VC, FEV1, MLD, V5, V10, V20 and V30 for >= grade 2 RP, which were
      86.9%, 1.16 L, 12.5 Gy (RBE), 28.8, 29.9, 20.1 and 15.0%, respectively. In
      addition, the multivariate analysis revealed that %VC <86.9% (odds ratio = 13.7;
      p = 0.0041) and V30 >= 15% (odds ratio = 6.1; p = 0.0221) were significant risk
      factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated the risk factors for >= grade 2 RP
      after carbon-ion radiotherapy for patients with locally advanced lung cancer.

PMID- 28558767
TI  - Combination of paclitaxel, bevacizumab and MEK162 in second line treatment in
      platinum-relapsing patient derived ovarian cancer xenografts.
AB  - Advanced ovarian cancer is very responsive to first line platinum therapy,
      however almost invariably it relapses with a resistant disease. We have reported
      that patient derived ovarian xenografts (PDXs), independently from the degree of
      the initial response to cisplatin (DDP), show a significantly lower response to a
      second DDP cycle. We here report the effect of new combination regimens
      containing a MEK inhibitor (MEK), bevacizumab (BEV) and paclitaxel (PTX) as
      second line therapy in platinum-relapsing PDXs.We selected three DDP-relapsing
      PDX models based on the presence of activation of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK axis,
      mutated p53, lack of PTEN expression and activation of the PI3K pathway. In all
      the selected xenograft models, the antitumor efficacy of the doublets can be
      summarized as PTX/BEV > BEV/MEK > PTX/MEK and the antitumor activity of the
      triple combination was higher than any double combination. All the different
      combinations were well tolerated. The present data corroborate the activity of
      bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of relapsing
      ovarian tumors and suggest that the addition of another targeted agents (MEK
      inhibitor) can further increase the antitumor activity without any increase in
      toxicity. PDX models represent a useful model to test second line therapy after
      failure of DDP first line.

PMID- 28558769
TI  - A photoacoustic imaging reconstruction method based on directional total
      variation with adaptive directivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In photoacoustic tomography (PAT), total variation (TV) based
      iteration algorithm is reported to have a good performance in PAT image
      reconstruction. However, classical TV based algorithm fails to preserve the edges
      and texture details of the image because it is not sensitive to the direction of
      the image. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a new PAT
      reconstruction algorithm to effectively solve the drawback of TV. METHODS: In
      this paper, a directional total variation with adaptive directivity (DDTV) model
      based PAT image reconstruction algorithm, which weightedly sums the image
      gradients based on the spatially varying directivity pattern of the image is
      proposed to overcome the shortcomings of TV. The orientation field of the image
      is adaptively estimated through a gradient-based approach. The image gradients
      are weighted at every pixel based on both its anisotropic direction and another
      parameter, which evaluates the estimated orientation field reliability. An
      efficient algorithm is derived to solve the iteration problem associated with
      DDTV and possessing directivity of the image adaptively updated for each
      iteration step. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Several texture images with various
      directivity patterns are chosen as the phantoms for the numerical simulations.
      The 180-, 90- and 30-view circular scans are conducted. Results obtained show
      that the DDTV-based PAT reconstructed algorithm outperforms the filtered back
      projection method (FBP) and TV algorithms in the quality of reconstructed images
      with the peak signal-to-noise rations (PSNR) exceeding those of TV and FBP by
      about 10 and 18 dB, respectively, for all cases. The Shepp-Logan phantom is
      studied with further discussion of multimode scanning, convergence speed,
      robustness and universality aspects. In-vitro experiments are performed for both
      the sparse-view circular scanning and linear scanning. The results further prove
      the effectiveness of the DDTV, which shows better results than that of the TV
      with sharper image edges and clearer texture details. Both numerical simulation
      and in vitro experiments confirm that the DDTV provides a significant quality
      improvement of PAT reconstructed images for various directivity patterns.

PMID- 28558768
TI  - Search for OIE-listed ruminant mycoplasma diseases in Afghanistan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the occurrence of important diseases of
      ruminants in Afghanistan because of the conflict affecting the country over the
      last 40 years. To address this discrepancy, ruminant herds in Afghanistan were
      screened for OIE-listed mycoplasma diseases, contagious bovine (CBPP) and caprine
      pleuropneumonias (CCPP). RESULTS: Of the 825 samples from 24 provinces tested for
      serological evidence of CBPP caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subsp.mycoides, 20
      (3.4%) had ELISA values greater than the positive threshold of 50% though all
      were less than 55%. Repeat testing of these suspect sera gave values below 50. A
      smaller number of sera (330) from cattle in nine provinces were also tested by
      the rapid latex agglutination test (LAT) for CBPP, 10 of which were considered
      suspect. However, no positive bands were seen when immunoblotting was carried out
      on all sera that gave suspect results. Serological evidence of Mycoplasma bovis
      was detected in half of 28 herds in eight provinces. The cause of CCPP, M.
      capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae was not detected in any of the 107 nasal swabs
      and lung tissue collected from goats in seven provinces though sample handling
      and storage were not optimal. However, strong serological evidence was detected
      in goat herds in several villages near Kabul some of which were over 50%
      seropositive by LAT and ELISAs for CCPP; immunoblotting confirmed positive
      results on a selection of these sera. CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here
      provide a first assessment of the occurrence of the two OIE listed mycoplasma
      diseases in Afghanistan. From the results of the testing bovine sera from the
      majority of provinces there is no evidence of the presence of CBPP in
      Afghanistan. However the samples tested represented only 0.03% of the cattle
      population so a larger survey is required to confirm these findings. Serological,
      but not bacterial, evidence was produced during this investigation to show that
      CCPP is highly likely to be present in parts of Afghanistan.

PMID- 28558770
TI  - Leishmania LABCG1 and LABCG2 transporters are involved in virulence and oxidative
      stress: functional linkage with autophagy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The G subfamily of ABC (ATP-binding cassette) transporters of
      Leishmania include 6 genes (ABCG1-G6), some with relevant biological functions
      associated with drug resistance and phospholipid transport. Several studies have
      shown that Leishmania LABCG2 transporter plays a role in the exposure of
      phosphatidylserine (PS), in virulence and in resistance to antimonials. However,
      the involvement of this transporter in other key biological processes has not
      been studied. METHODS: To better understand the biological function of LABCG2 and
      its nearly identical tandem-repeated transporter LABCG1, we have generated
      Leishmania major null mutant parasites for both genes (DeltaLABCG1-2). NBD-PS
      uptake, infectivity, metacyclogenesis, autophagy and thiols were measured.
      RESULTS: Leishmania major DeltaLABCG1-2 parasites present a reduction in NBD-PS
      uptake, infectivity and virulence. In addition, we have shown that DeltaLABCG1-2
      parasites in stationary phase growth underwent less metacyclogenesis and
      presented differences in the plasma membrane's lipophosphoglycan composition.
      Considering that autophagy is an important process in terms of parasite virulence
      and cell differentiation, we have shown an autophagy defect in DeltaLABCG1-2
      parasites, detected by monitoring expression of the autophagosome marker RFP
      ATG8. This defect correlates with increased levels of reactive oxygen species and
      higher non-protein thiol content in DeltaLABCG1-2 parasites. HPLC analysis
      revealed that trypanothione and glutathione were the main molecules accumulated
      in these DeltaLABCG1-2 parasites. The decrease in non-protein thiol levels due to
      preincubation with buthionine sulphoximide (a gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase
      inhibitor) restored the autophagy process in DeltaLABCG1-2 parasites, indicating
      a relationship between autophagy and thiol content. CONCLUSIONS: LABCG1-2
      transporters from Leishmania could be considered as phosphatidylserine and non
      protein thiol transporters. They probably accomplish transportation in
      conjunction with other molecules that are involved in oxidative stress,
      autophagy, metacyclogenesis and infectivity processes. The overall conclusion is
      that LABCG1-2 transporters could play a key role in Leishmania cell survival and
      infectivity.

PMID- 28558771
TI  - Assessment of the burden on caregivers of patients with mental disorders in
      Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mental disorders are considered important public health problems not
      only to people with mental illness but also their caregivers. As is the case in
      many countries, the deinstitutionalization of mental health services in Saudi
      Arabia, has meant that informal caregivers are shouldering responsibilities for
      which they are not usually prepared; therefore, the current study was aimed at
      assessment of the burden on caregivers of people with mental illness. METHODS:
      Through a cross-sectional design, a sample of the caregivers of people with
      mental illness (n = 377) was selected randomly from a psychiatric hospital in
      Jeddah. An Arabic version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ) was
      used for collection of data. The data were analyzed on the subscale scores and
      the 27 items in two ways. First, we used the summed scores for the subscales
      based on the Likert scale (0-4) for univariate and multivariate statistical
      analyses, as recommended. We also used parametric statistics (t-tests, one-way
      ANOVA) because the IEQ subscale scores were fairly normally distributed. RESULTS:
      Males constituted more than one-half of the participating caregivers (55%), with
      a mean age of 36.6, SD = 11.4 years. As reported by the caregivers, most of the
      patients were males (62.7%) with a mean age of 33.8, SD = 13.7 years and a range
      of 17-90 years old. The total mean IEQ burden score of the caregivers was 38.4,
      SD = 17.5. "Tension" was significantly prominent among younger caregivers aged
      <=30 years. "Worrying" was significantly higher among caregivers living with
      their spouse and children and those living in families with relatively fewer
      members (<6 members). "Urging" was significantly higher among caregivers who are
      living with the patient in the same household and those who had been in close
      contact with the patient for 28 days in the four weeks prior to the study (13.4,
      SD = 6.8) p < 0.05. Meanwhile, "Urging" was also significantly higher among
      caregivers caring for mentally ill females (13.5, SD = 6.6) and those not
      receiving any kind of professional support (12.8, SD = 6.7). The overall burden
      and the subscale scores were highest among caregivers caring for a close relative
      such as a parent (44.1, SD = 17.6), son/daughter (39.1, SD = 12.9), sibling
      (37.1, SD = 18.6), or spouse (37.1, SD = 18.6) p < 0.05. CONCLUSION: Care for
      people with mental illness is burdensome for their caregivers, the magnitude of
      burden is potentially augmented by factors related to the patients and
      households. These factors should be considered when planning for preparing
      caregivers to cope with people with mental illness in Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28558772
TI  - Predictive value of preoperative peripheral blood neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio for
      lymph node metastasis in patients of resectable pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors:
      a nomogram-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is one of the systemic
      inflammation markers, which has prognostic values in many types of tumor.
      However, hardly any research has reported the relationship between NLR and
      pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs). In this study, we aimed to evaluate
      the predictive value of the preoperative peripheral blood NLR on the clinical
      outcomes in patients of resectable PanNETs. METHODS: Ninety-five cases of PanNETs
      registered in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University between March
      2009 and May 2016 and underwent pancreatic surgery were included in this study.
      Univariate and multivariate analyses were applied to identify the prognostic
      factors for PanNETs. Prognostic nomogram and its calibration curve then used R
      (version 3.3.2) to predict lymph node (LN) metastasis. RESULTS: Among these 95
      patients, 52 (54.7%) patients were diagnosed as grade 1 (G1) NET (mitotic count
      <2/10 HPF, Ki-67 <=2%), 32 (33.7%) as G2 NET (mitotic count 2-20/10 HPF, Ki-67 3
      20%), and 11 (11.6%) as G3 NEC (mitotic count >20/10 HPF, Ki-67 >20%). Increased
      NLR was found to relate with advanced T stage, LN metastasis, tumor thrombus
      formation, and advanced grade (p < 0.05 for all). Multivariate logistic
      regression was performed and indicated that NLR (HR 6.74; p = 0.02) was an
      independent prognostic factor for LN metastasis. Furthermore, we developed a
      nomogram based on the combination of NLR, T stage, and grade for LN metastasis
      with a good discrimination ability with the AUC (area under the curve) of 0.885.
      This nomogram showed larger AUC than those using NLR (0.725), T stage (0.808), or
      grade (0.708) alone as a prognostic factor, which means this system achieved a
      more optional performance in predicting clinical outcomes. Finally, the Kaplan
      Meier curve indicated that the recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with
      high NLR (NLR >1.40, RFS 61.1 +/- 4.4 months) decreased significantly as compared
      with those of low NLR (NLR <=1.40, RFS 63.8 +/- 2.9 month, p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The preoperative NLR is a potential independent predictor for LN
      metastasis and RFS. Our nomogram highlighted the important role of NLR in
      prognosis, which might be considered as a convenient indicator for lymph node
      metastasis, especially during the initial diagnosis for resectable PanNETs.

PMID- 28558773
TI  - Magnetic inductive phase shift: a new method to differentiate hemorrhagic stroke
      from ischemic stroke on rabbit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The major therapy for ischemic stroke is thrombolytic treatment, but
      severe consequences occur when this method is used to treat hemorrhagic stroke.
      Currently, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are used to
      differentiate between two types of stroke, but these two methods are ineffective
      for pre-hospital care. METHODS: We developed a new brain diagnostic device for
      rabbits based on electromagnetic induction to non-invasively differentiate two
      types of stroke. The device includes two coils and a phase difference measurement
      system that detects the magnetic inductive phase shift (MIPS) value to reflect
      the tissue's condition. The hemorrhage model was established through the
      injection of autologous blood into the internal capsule of a rabbit's brain.
      Ischemia was induced in the brain of a rabbit by bilateral carotid artery
      occlusion. Two types of animal models were measured with our device. RESULTS: The
      MIPS value gradually decreased with increasing injected blood and increased with
      ischemia time. The MIPS changes induced by the two types of strokes were exact
      opposites, and the absolute values of MIPS variation in the hemorrhagic and the
      ischemic groups were significantly larger than those of the normal control group
      (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The tested technique can differentiate ischemic stroke
      from hemorrhagic stroke on rabbit brain in a non-invasive, continuous, and bulk
      monitoring manner by using a simple and inexpensive apparatus.

PMID- 28558774
TI  - Gender-based disparities in the impact of adverse childhood experiences on adult
      health: findings from a national study in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been linked to an increased
      risk of health and social problems throughout life. Studies on gender differences
      from developing countries are scarce. In this paper, we will examine gender
      variations in the types of reported ACEs and gender-specific relationships
      between cumulative ACEs and physical and mental health, and Risky Health
      Behaviors (RHB) in adulthood in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). METHODS: A
      cross sectional national study was conducted in all of the 13 regions in KSA in
      2013 using the ACE- International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ). We used multivariate
      logistic regression to examine the relationship between 4 + ACEs and physical,
      mental health and RHBs for both men and women separately after adjusting for age,
      education, marital status and current employment. RESULTS: The total number of
      participants was 10,156 and women comprised 48% of the sample. The majority of
      respondents (80%) reported at least one ACE. Women had higher percentages of < =2
      ACEs (65% vs 55%; p <0.05) while men were more likely to have 4+ ACEs (33% vs
      25%; p < 0.05). When compared to participants with 0 ACE, men who reported 4+
      ACEs were associated with the highest likelihood of using drugs (OR = 9.7; 95%
      CI: 6.4-14.5) and drinking alcohol (OR = 9.2; 95% CI: 6.3-13.6). On the other
      hand, women who experienced 4+ ACEs were associated with the highest likelihood
      of depression (OR = 7.0; 95% CI: 5.2-9.4), anxiety (OR = 6.4; 95% CI: 5.0-8.2)
      and other mental illnesses (OR = 7.4; 95% CI: 5.2-10.6). As for chronic diseases,
      abused men and women in childhood showed similarly a twofold increased risk of
      developing diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and obesity when
      compared to non-abused participants. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the need to
      consider gender specific differences in the development of preventive strategies
      to address ACEs in KSA.

PMID- 28558775
TI  - Fat content, fatty acid pattern and iron content in livers of turkeys with
      hepatic lipidosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The so-called "hepatic lipidosis" in turkeys is an acute progressive
      disease associated with a high mortality rate in a very short time. Dead animals
      show a massive fatty degeneration of the liver. The cause is still unclear.
      Previous findings suggest that there may be parallels to human non-alcoholic
      fatty liver disease. The object of the study was to examine the changes in the
      fat contents, the fatty acid composition and the iron content in livers of
      animals, which have died from hepatic lipidosis. METHODS: The conspicuous livers
      (n = 85) were collected from 20 flocks where the phenomenon of massive increased
      animal losses accompanied by marked macroscopically visible pathological liver
      steatosis suddenly occurred. For comparison and as a reference, livers (n = 16)
      of two healthy flocks were taken. Healthy and diseased flocks were fed identical
      diets concerning official nutrient recommendations and were operating under
      standardized, comparable conventional conditions. RESULTS: Compared to livers of
      healthy animals, in the livers of turkeys died from hepatic lipidosis there were
      found massively increased fat levels (130 +/- 33.2 vs. 324 +/- 101 g/kg dry
      matter-DM). In all fatty livers, different fatty acids concentrations were
      present in significantly increased concentrations compared to controls (palmitic
      acid: 104 g/kg DM, +345%; palmitoleic acid: 18.0 g/kg DM, + 570%; oleic acid: 115
      g/kg DM, +437%). Fatty acids concentrations relevant for liver metabolism and
      inflammation were significantly reduced (arachidonic acid: 2.92 g/kg DM, -66.6%;
      eicosapentaenoic acid: 0.141 g/kg DM, -78.3%; docosahexaenoic acid: 0.227 g/kg
      DM, -90.4%). The ratio of certain fatty acids to one another between control and
      case livers changed analogously to liver diseases in humans (e.g.: C18:0/C16:0 -
      0.913 against 0.311; C16:1n7/C16:0 - 0.090 against 0.165; C18:1/C18:0 - 0.938
      against 4.03). The iron content in the liver tissue also increased massively (271
      +/- 51.5 vs 712 +/- 214 mg/kg DM). CONCLUSION: The hepatic lipidosis has a
      massive impact on the lipid content, the lipid composition and the iron content
      in the liver. The character of the metabolic disorder includes parallels to the
      non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in humans.

PMID- 28558776
TI  - Association between Epicondylitis and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Pooled
      Occupational Cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of lateral epicondylitis (LE) is unclear. Recent
      evidence suggests some common musculoskeletal disorders may have a basis in
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Thus, we examined CVD risks as
      potential LE risks. METHODS: Workers (n = 1824) were enrolled in two large
      prospective studies and underwent structured interviews and physical examinations
      at baseline. Analysis of pooled baseline data assessed the relationships
      separately between a modified Framingham Heart Study CVD risk score and three
      prevalence outcomes of: 1) lateral elbow pain, 2) positive resisted wrist or
      middle finger extension, and 3) a combination of both symptoms and at least one
      resisted maneuver. Quantified job exposures, personal and psychosocial
      confounders were statistically controlled. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% Confidence
      Intervals (CIs) were calculated. RESULTS: There was a strong relationship between
      CVD risk score and lateral elbow symptoms, resisted wrist or middle finger
      extension and LE after adjustment for confounders. The adjusted ORs for symptoms
      were as high as 3.81 (95% CI 2.11, 6.85), for positive examination with adjusted
      odds ratios as high as 2.85 (95% CI 1.59, 5.12) and for combined symptoms and
      physical examination 6.20 (95% CI 2.04, 18.82). Relationships trended higher with
      higher CVD risk scores. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a potentially modifiable
      disease mechanism for LE.

PMID- 28558777
TI  - Incidence of influenza virus infection among pregnant women: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers pregnant women to be a
      risk group for severe influenza disease. We conducted a systematic review to
      evaluate influenza disease incidence in pregnant women in order to inform
      estimates of influenza vaccine impact for low-resource countries. METHODS: We
      performed electronic literature searches, targeting studies on the following
      outcomes in pregnant women: attack rate, hospitalization rate, intensive care
      unit admission rate, mortality rate, and disability-adjusted life years lost.
      Only original studies published in peer-reviewed journals that had laboratory
      confirmation for influenza virus infection and included population-based
      incidence rates with denominator data were included. We summarized study
      characteristics in descriptive tables and outcome-specific Forest plots. We
      generated summary incidence rates using random effects models and assessed
      statistical heterogeneity by visual examination of Forest plots, and by chi 2 and
      I2 tests. RESULTS: We identified 1543 articles, of which nine articles met the
      study inclusion criteria. Five were case series, three were cohort studies, and
      one was a randomized controlled trial. Eight studies were from high-income
      countries, and one was from an upper middle-income country. Six studies reported
      results for pandemic influenza, and three reported seasonal influenza.
      Statistical heterogeneity was high for all outcomes, and methodologies and
      duration of surveillance varied considerably among studies; therefore, we did not
      perform meta-analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Study quality was very low according to GRADE
      criteria. More data on influenza disease incidence in pregnant women,
      particularly in low- and middle-income countries and for seasonal influenza
      disease, are needed to inform public health decision-making.

PMID- 28558778
TI  - Test-retest reliability of mandibular morphology measurements on cone-beam
      computed tomography-synthesized cephalograms with random head positioning errors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cephalometric radiography has been used for orthodontic and surgical
      treatment planning and assessment, and for quantifying mandibular growth.
      However, it remains unclear how head positioning errors and the level of examiner
      experience affect the reliability of such morphometric measurements. The current
      study aimed to bridge the gap by determining the intra-, inter-rater, and inter
      session reliability of measurements of mandibular morphology with random head
      positioning errors as measured by a junior and a senior dentist. METHODS: Cone
      beam computed tomography data of twelve mandibles were obtained with each rotated
      randomly away from the neutral position within the range of +3 and -3 degrees 
      along each of the anatomical axes to simulate six imaging trials. A synthetic
      cephalogram for each trial was obtained via a digitally reconstructed radiography
      (DRR) technique and eleven landmarks for twelve morphological parameters on the
      cephalogram were identified manually six times by a junior and a senior dentist.
      The procedure was repeated on another day within 5 days. Test-retest reliability
      was assessed in terms of an intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) using a two
      way mixed-effects model. RESULTS: Good to very good intra-rater (senior: ICC >
      0.92; junior: ICC > 0.78), inter-rater (ICC > 0.70 for most parameters) and inter
      session reliability (senior: ICC > 0.84; junior: ICC > 0.62) were found. Bland &
      Altman plots of inter-rater comparisons show that there were systematical biases
      between the examiners on most parameters, except for the distance between Gonion
      and Pogonion. CONCLUSIONS: The current results suggest that good to very good
      intra-rater, inter-rater and inter-session reliability can be achieved for most
      parameters with randomized head positioning errors; higher inter-session
      reliability can be achieved by more experienced examiners; and that long-term
      monitoring of mandibular growth based on cephalographic measurements should be
      made by the same more experienced examiner. The current DRR-based approach can be
      used to evaluate individual factors that affect the morphological measurements.

PMID- 28558779
TI  - "Are Thai children and youth sufficiently active? prevalence and correlates of
      physical activity from a nationally representative cross-sectional study".
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children and youth gain multiple health benefits from regular
      participation in physical activity (PA). However, in Thailand there is limited
      national data on children and youth's PA behaviors and recent reports suggest
      that Thai children and youth have low levels of PA. Furthermore, there is almost
      no data on the factors associated with inactivity to support the development of a
      Thai National PA Plan. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Thai children
      and youth's participation in PA and its correlates across sociodemographic
      characteristics and different PA domains. METHODS: This study applied a cross
      sectional study design with a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling. A national
      representative sample of 13,255 children and youth aged 6-17 years were used for
      data analysis. A previously validated questionnaire was used to assess PA
      prevalence. Logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationships of
      socio-demographic factors, and participation in different PA domains with overall
      PA. RESULTS: Only 23.4% of Thai children and youth met recommended levels of PA
      and there were large gender and regional differences. PA levels generally
      declined with age, although the level observed in the 10-13 year group was
      slightly higher than other year groups. A majority of children and youth engaged
      in a large number of different activities across PA domains. Sex, age, BMI,
      geographical regions, organized sports, participation in sport and recreational
      activities were significant predictors of meeting the global PA guidelines,
      whereas participation in physical education, active transport, and the number of
      screen time activities had no association. Girls were less likely to achieve
      sufficient PA levels (OR = 0.49, 95%CI; 0.45-0.54, p < 0.001), as were obese
      children (OR = 0.78, 95%CI; 0.64-0.94, p = 0.01), children living in the West (OR
      = 0.47, 95%CI; 0.38-0.59, p < 0.001), and those who did no participation in
      organized sports and sport/exercise activities, or minimal participation (1-2
      activities) in recreational activities (OR = 0.79, 95%CI; 0.68-0.90, p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence estimate of meeting the recommended guideline of
      sufficient PA in Thai children and youth is low, despite the high levels of
      engagement in a large number of PA. The results indicate that policy and
      interventions aimed at increasing PA are needed with special attention required
      to address specific groups less likely to meet the PA guideline. Strategies to
      promote a large volume of participation in all possible types of PA as part of
      Thai children and youth's daily life should be considered.

PMID- 28558780
TI  - Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma of the external anal sphincter: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma (LGFMS) is a rare soft tissue tumor
      that has a tendency to grow in the deep soft tissue of the trunk and extremities.
      Despite its benign appearance, the tumor has a high recurrence rate and
      metastatic potential. LGFMS in the perineal space is rare, and only a few cases
      have been reported. We present the first case of LGFMS to be located at the
      external anal sphincter. CASE PRESENTATION: A 27-year-old male patient admitted
      to our Surgical Department with perianal pain and swollen for a year. The digital
      rectal examination revealed a perianal mass. Oral metronidazole and analgesia
      were prescribed on suspicion of perianal abscess failed to alleviate the symptom;
      hence, the patient was scheduled for surgery. Intraoperative diagnosis revealed
      an encapsulated tumor in the external anal sphincter that extended from the
      perianal region orally to the pararectal space. The results of
      immunohistochemistry (MUC4 staining) and FUS gene rearrangement by fluorescence
      in situ hybridization confirmed the diagnosis of LGFMS. CONCLUSIONS: This case is
      unique in terms of the location of the rare soft tissue tumor. Although LGFMS is
      considered low grade, its unpredictable behavior necessitates a long-term follow
      up.

PMID- 28558781
TI  - Reducing occupational sitting: Workers' perspectives on participation in a multi
      component intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Office workers spend much of their time sitting, which is now
      understood to be a risk factor for several chronic diseases. This qualitative
      study examined participants' perspectives following their involvement in a
      cluster randomised controlled trial of a multi-component intervention targeting
      prolonged workplace sitting (Stand Up Victoria). The intervention incorporated a
      sit-stand workstation, individual health coaching and organisational support
      strategies. The aim of the study was to explore the acceptability of the
      intervention, barriers and facilitators to reducing workplace sitting, and
      perceived effects of the intervention on workplace culture, productivity and
      health-related outcomes. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (n = 21
      participants) and two focus groups (n = 7) were conducted with intervention
      participants at the conclusion of the 12 month trial and thematic analysis was
      used to analyse the data. Questions covered intervention acceptability, overall
      impact, barriers and facilitators to reducing workplace sitting, and perceived
      impact on productivity and workplace culture. RESULTS: Overall, participants had
      positive intervention experiences, perceiving that reductions in workplace
      sitting were associated with improved health and well-being with limited negative
      impact on work performance. While sit-stand workstations appeared to be the
      primary drivers of change, workstation design and limited suitability of standing
      for some job tasks and situations were perceived as barriers to their use. Social
      support from team leaders and other participants was perceived to facilitate
      behavioural changes and a shift in norms towards increased acceptance of standing
      in the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Multi-component interventions to reduce workplace
      sitting, incorporating sit-stand workstations, are acceptable and feasible;
      however, supportive social and environmental conditions are required to support
      participant engagement. Best practice approaches to reduce workplace sitting
      should address the multiple levels of influence on behaviour, including factors
      that may act as barriers to behavioural change.

PMID- 28558782
TI  - Systematic literature review of reproductive outcome associated with residential
      proximity to polluted sites.
AB  - This study aims to assess the evidence on adverse pregnancy outcome associated
      with living close to polluted industrial sites, and identify the strengths and
      weaknesses of published epidemiological studies. A systematic literature search
      has been performed on all epidemiological studies published in developed
      countries since 1990, on the association between residential proximity to
      industrial sites (hazardous waste sites, industrial facilities and landfill
      sites) and adverse pregnancy outcome (low birth weight, preterm birth, small for
      gestational age, intrauterine growth retardation, infant mortality, congenital
      malformation). Based on 41 papers, our review reveals an excess risk of
      reproductive morbidity. However, no studies show significant excess risk of
      mortality including fetal death, neonatal or infant mortality and stillbirth. All
      published studies tend to show an increased risk of congenital abnormalities, yet
      not all are statistically significant. All but two of these studies revealed an
      excess risk of low birth weight. Results for preterm birth, small for gestational
      age and intrauterine growth retardation show the same pattern. There is
      suggestive evidence from the post-1990 literature that residential proximity to
      polluted sites (including landfills, hazardous waste sites and industrial
      facilities) might contribute to adverse reproductive outcomes, especially
      congenital malformations and low birth weight-though not mortality. This body of
      evidence has limitations that impede the formulation of firm conclusions, and
      new, well-focused studies are called for. The review findings suggest that
      continued strengthening of rules governing industrial emissions as well as
      industrial waste management and improved land use planning are needed.

PMID- 28558783
TI  - Clinical characteristics, predictors of immune reconstitution inflammatory
      syndrome and long-term prognosis in patients with Kaposi sarcoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictive factors for the development of Kaposi
      sarcoma-related immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (KS-IRIS) and long
      term prognosis in patients starting combined antiretroviral therapy (cART).
      METHODS: We studied a retrospective-cohort of consecutive antiretroviral-naive
      patients with KS initiating cART from January 2005 to December 2011 and followed
      through June 2013. KS-IRIS was defined as >=2 of the following: abrupt increase
      in number of KS lesions, appearance or exacerbation of lung-opacities or
      lymphedema, concomitantly with an increase in CD4+ cell-count >=50 cells/mm3 and
      a decrease of >1 log in viral-load once started cART. We compared individuals who
      met KS-IRIS criteria with those that did not and described the long-term follow
      up. RESULTS: We included 89 patients, 88 males; 35 (39%) developed KS-IRIS at a
      median of 10 weeks (IQR 4-16). KS-IRIS patients had more pulmonary-involvement
      (60% vs. 16.6% of patients; p < 0.0001), eight died attributed to pulmonary-KS.
      Thrombocytopenia <100,000/mm3 at follow-up occurred in 36% of KS-IRIS vs. 4% in
      non-KS-IRIS patients (p = 0.0002), 45% KS-IRIS patients with thrombocytopenia
      died, non without KS-IRIS. Chemotherapy (bleomicyn-vincristine) was more
      frequently prescribed in KS-IRIS patients (88.6% vs. 29.6%) with no differences
      in outcome; 80% of all patients achieve KS complete remission, 52% of them never
      received chemotherapy. No difference between groups in the long-term follow-up
      (mean 52.4 +/- 27.4 months) was found, only one patient developed a secondary
      malignancy (1.12%). CONCLUSIONS: Lung-involvement was predictive of IRIS
      development. Thrombocytopenia in KS-IRIS patients at week 12 follow-up after cART
      initiation was associated with high mortality. Over a third of patients with KS
      achieve remission without chemotherapy. Individuals that survive the initial
      period of KS-IRIS adhere to cART had a good long-term prognosis.

PMID- 28558784
TI  - Hesperetin-5,7,3'-O-triacetate suppresses airway hyperresponsiveness in ovalbumin
      sensitized and challenged mice without reversing xylazine/ketamine-induced
      anesthesia in normal mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We recently reported that hesperetin-5,7,3'-O-triacetate (HTA) dually
      inhibited phosphodiesterase (PDE)3/4 with a therapeutic ratio of 20.8. The
      application and development of PDE4 inhibitors for treating asthma or COPD are
      limited by their side effects, such as nausea, vomiting and gastric
      hypersecretion. PDE4 inhibitors were reported to reverse xylazine/ketamine
      induced anesthesia in rats and triggered vomiting in ferrets. Thus the reversing
      effect of HTA on xylazine/ketamine-induced anesthesia in mice was studied to
      assess emetic effect of HTA. The aim of this study was to prove the therapeutic
      effect of HTA without vomiting effect at an effective dose for treating COPD.
      METHODS: Ten female BALB/c mice in each group were sensitized by ovalbumin (OVA)
      on days 0 and 14. On day 21, these mice were emphasized the sensitization by
      Freund's complete adjuvant. Mice were challenged by 1% OVA nebulization on days
      28, 29, and 30. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was assessed on day 32 in each
      group, using the FlexiVent system to determine airway resistance (RL) and lung
      dynamic compliance (Cdyn) in anesthetized ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and
      challenged mice. Each group was orally administered HTA (10 ~ 100 MUmol/kg),
      roflumilast (1 and 5 mg/kg) or vehicles (controls) 2 h before and 6 and 24 h
      after OVA provocation. For comparison, sham-treated mice were challenged with
      saline instead of 1% OVA. The ability to reverse xylazine/ketamine-induced
      anesthesia by HTA or roflumilast for 3 h was determined in normal mice. We used
      roflumilast, a selective PDE4 inhibitor and bronchodilator for severe COPD
      approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, as a reference drug. RESULTS: In
      the results, HTA (100 MUmol/kg, p.o.) or roflumilast (5 mg/kg, p.o.)
      significantly suppressed all RL values of MCh at 0.78 ~ 25 mg/mL and enhanced
      Cdyn values of MCh at 3.125 ~ 25 mg/mL compared to OVA-sensitized and -challenged
      control mice. Orally administered 1, 3 or 10 mg/kg roflumilast, but not 30 or 100
      MUmol/kg HTA, significantly reversed xylazine/ketamine-induced anesthesia.
      CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to roflumilast, HTA may ameliorate COPD but induce few
      side effects of nausea, vomiting and gastric hypersecretion at an effective dose
      for treating COPD, because HTA did not reverse xylazine/ketamine-induced
      anesthesia in mice.

PMID- 28558785
TI  - Clinical decisions surrounding genomic and proteomic testing among United States
      veterans treated for lung cancer within the Veterans Health Administration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current clinical guidelines recommend epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) mutational testing in patients with metastatic non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) to predict the benefit of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      erlotinib as first-line treatment. Proteomic (VeriStrat) testing is recommended
      for patients with EGFR negative or unknown status when erlotinib is being
      considered. Departure from this clinical algorithm can increase costs and may
      result in worse outcomes. We examined EGFR and proteomic testing among patients
      with NSCLC within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We explored adherence
      to guidelines and the impact of test results on treatment decisions and cost of
      care. METHODS: Proteomic and EGFR test results from 2013 to 2015 were merged with
      VA electronic health records and pharmacy data. Chart reviews were conducted.
      Cases were categorized based on the appropriateness of testing and treatment.
      RESULTS: Of the 69 patients with NSCLC who underwent proteomic testing, 33 (48%)
      were EGFR-negative and 36 (52%) did not have documented EGFR status. We analyzed
      138 clinical decisions surrounding EGFR/proteomic testing and erlotinib
      treatment. Most decisions (105, or 76%) were concordant with clinical practice
      guidelines. However, for 24 (17%) decisions documentation of testing or
      justification of treatment was inadequate, and 9 (7%) decisions represented clear
      departures from guidelines. CONCLUSION: EGFR testing, the least expensive
      clinical intervention analyzed in this study, was significantly underutilized or
      undocumented. The records of more than half of the patients lacked information on
      EGFR status. Our analysis illustrated several clinical scenarios where the timing
      of proteomic testing and erlotinib diverged from the recommended algorithm,
      resulting in excessive costs of care with no documented improvements in health
      outcomes.

PMID- 28558786
TI  - Lost in plasmids: next generation sequencing and the complex genome of the tick
      borne pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi sensu lato, including the tick-transmitted
      agents of human Lyme borreliosis, have particularly complex genomes, consisting
      of a linear main chromosome and numerous linear and circular plasmids. The number
      and structure of plasmids is variable even in strains within a single
      genospecies. Genes on these plasmids are known to play essential roles in
      virulence and pathogenicity as well as host and vector associations. For this
      reason, it is essential to explore methods for rapid and reliable
      characterisation of molecular level changes on plasmids. In this study we used
      three strains: a low passage isolate of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto strain B31(
      NRZ) and two closely related strains (PAli and PAbe) that were isolated from
      human patients. Sequences of these strains were compared to the previously
      sequenced reference strain B31 (available in GenBank) to obtain proof-of
      principle information on the suitability of next generation sequencing (NGS)
      library construction and sequencing methods on the assembly of bacterial
      plasmids. We tested the effectiveness of different short read assemblers on
      Illumina sequences, and of long read generation methods on sequence data from
      Pacific Bioscience single-molecule real-time (SMRT) and nanopore (Oxford Nanopore
      Technologies) sequencing technology. RESULTS: Inclusion of mate pair library
      reads improved the assembly in some plasmids as did prior enrichment of plasmids.
      While cp32 plasmids remained refractory to assembly using only short reads they
      were effectively assembled by long read sequencing methods. The long read SMRT
      and nanopore sequences came, however, at the cost of indels (insertions or
      deletions) appearing in an unpredictable manner. Using long and short read
      technologies together allowed us to show that the three B. burgdorferi s.s.
      strains investigated here, whilst having similar plasmid structures to each other
      (apart from fusion of cp32 plasmids), differed significantly from the reference
      strain B31-GB, especially in the case of cp32 plasmids. CONCLUSION: Short read
      methods are sufficient to assemble the main chromosome and many of the plasmids
      in B. burgdorferi. However, a combination of short and long read sequencing
      methods is essential for proper assembly of all plasmids including cp32 and thus,
      for gaining an understanding of host- or vector adaptations. An important
      conclusion from our work is that the evolution of Borrelia plasmids appears to be
      dynamic. This has important implications for the development of useful research
      strategies to monitor the risk of Lyme disease occurrence and how to medically
      manage it.

PMID- 28558788
TI  - Comparison of the fecal bacterial microbiota of healthy and diarrheic foals at
      two and four weeks of life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diarrhea in foals affects up to 60% of foals during the first six
      months of life. The effect of diarrhea on the fecal bacterial microbiota in foals
      has not been investigated. Little is known on the fecal bacterial microbial
      richness and diversity of foals at a young age. The objective was to compare the
      fecal bacterial microbiota of healthy foals to foals with diarrhea at two and
      four weeks of life. METHODS: Fecal samples were collected from foals (n = 20) at
      1-14 (T1) and 15-28 (T2) days of age and analyzed using high throughput
      sequencing. Differences in relative abundance of bacterial taxa, alpha diversity
      and beta diversity indices were assessed between age-matched foals with diarrhea
      (n = 9) and healthy foals (n = 11), and between time points. RESULTS: Differences
      in microbial community composition based on time point and health status were
      observed on all taxonomic levels. Of 117 enriched species in healthy foals at T2,
      50 (48%) were Lachnospiraceae or Ruminococcaceae. The Chao richness index was
      increased in healthy foals at T2 compared to T1 (p = 0.02). Foals with diarrhea
      had a significantly lower richness index than non-diarrheic foals at T2 (p =
      0.04). Diarrhea had an inconsistent effect, while time point had a consistent
      effect on microbial community structure. CONCLUSIONS: Preventative and
      therapeutic measures for diarrhea should focus on maintaining bacterial
      microbiota richness. Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae were underrepresented in
      foals with diarrhea. These should be evaluated further as potential therapeutic
      options.

PMID- 28558787
TI  - Airway exposure to multi-walled carbon nanotubes disrupts the female reproductive
      cycle without affecting pregnancy outcomes in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) is increasing due to
      a growing use in a variety of products across several industries. Thus,
      occupational exposure is also of increasing concern, particularly since airway
      exposure to MWCNTs can induce sustained pulmonary acute phase response and
      inflammation in experimental animals, which may affect female reproduction. This
      proof-of-principle study therefore aimed to investigate if lung exposure by
      intratracheal instillation of the MWCNT NM-400 would affect the estrous cycle and
      reproductive function in female mice. RESULTS: Estrous cycle regularity was
      investigated by comparing vaginal smears before and after exposure to 67 MUg of
      NM-400, whereas reproductive function was analyzed by measuring time to delivery
      of litters after instillation of 2, 18 or 67 MUg of NM-400. Compared to normal
      estrous cycling determined prior to exposure, exposure to MWCNT significantly
      prolonged the estrous cycle during which exposure took place, but significantly
      shortened the estrous cycle immediately after the exposed cycle. No consistent
      effects were seen on time to delivery of litter or other gestational or litter
      parameters, such as litter size, sex ratio, implantations and implantation loss.
      CONCLUSION: Lung exposure to MWCNT interfered with estrous cycling. Effects
      caused by MWCNTs depended on the time of exposure: the estrous stage was
      particularly sensitive to exposure, as animals exposed during this stage showed a
      higher incidence of irregular cycling after exposure. Our data indicates that
      MWCNT exposure may interfere with events leading to ovulation.

PMID- 28558789
TI  - Repetitive reaching training combined with transcranial Random Noise Stimulation
      in stroke survivors with chronic and severe arm paresis is feasible: a pilot,
      triple-blind, randomised case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Therapy that combines repetitive training with non-invasive brain
      stimulation is a potential avenue to enhance upper limb recovery after stroke.
      This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of transcranial Random Noise
      Stimulation (tRNS), timed to coincide with the generation of voluntary motor
      commands, during reaching training. METHODS: A triple-blind pilot RCT was
      completed. Four stroke survivors with chronic (6-months to 5-years) and severe
      arm paresis, not taking any medications that had the potential to alter cortical
      excitability, and no contraindications to tRNS or MRI were recruited.
      Participants were randomly allocated to 12 sessions of reaching training over 4
      weeks with active or sham tRNS delivered over the lesioned hemisphere motor
      representation. tRNS was triggered to coincide with a voluntary movement attempt,
      ceasing after 5-s. At this point, peripheral nerve stimulation enabled full range
      reaching. To determine feasibility, we considered adverse events, training
      outcomes, clinical outcomes, corticospinal tract (CST) structural integrity, and
      reflections on training through in-depth interviews from each individual case.
      RESULTS: Two participants received active and two sham tRNS. There were no
      adverse events. All training sessions were completed, repetitive practice
      performed and clinically relevant improvements across motor outcomes
      demonstrated. The amount of improvement varied across individuals and appeared to
      be independent of group allocation and CST integrity. CONCLUSION: Reaching
      training that includes tRNS timed to coincide with generation of voluntary motor
      commands is feasible. Clinical improvements were possible even in the most
      severely affected individuals as evidenced by CST integrity. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      This study was registered on the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials
      Registry (ANZCTR) http://www.ANZCTR.org.au/ACTRN12614000952640.aspx .
      Registration date 4 September 2014, first participant date 9 September 2014.

PMID- 28558790
TI  - Challenges in transitioning adolescents and young adults with rheumatologic
      diseases to adult Care in a Developing Country - the Brazilian experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transition guidelines and recommendations for developing countries
      are limited and best transition practices in young patients with chronic medical
      conditions have been poorly examined. This study evaluates transition practices
      from pediatric to adult rheumatology care in Brazil. METHODS: Practicing
      pediatric rheumatologists registered in the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology
      were e-surveyed with SurveyMonkey(r) using the Chira et al. questionnaire that
      had been used previously to evaluate transition practices of pediatric
      rheumatologists from the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance
      (CARRA) in the USA and Canada. The questionnaire was modified to better address
      specific issues pertaining to the Brazilian health care system. RESULTS: Seventy
      six of 112 (68%) pediatric rheumatologists responded. Only 13% of the respondents
      reported that they had a well-established transition program and only 14% were
      satisfied with their current transition process. Eighty percent did not use any
      specific tools to assess transition readiness. While 43% of respondents
      considered 18 as the ideal transition age, only a third effectively transitioned
      their patients at that age while 48% did later. Major hurdles for a successful
      transition cited by the respondents included emotional attachment to the patients
      (95%) insufficient training in transition practice (87%), lack of devoted time
      for transition preparation and process (80%), lack of assistance by pediatric
      generalists, (77%), and lack of available adult subspecialists (75%). Sixty-seven
      percent of respondents stated that their program would need more tools/resources
      to facilitate transition and 59% believed that the development of specific
      guidelines would be useful to standardize and help with the transition process.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that the identified challenges pertaining to
      transition in Brazilian patients are similar to those reported by pediatric
      rheumatologists in the United States and Canada. However, the current financial
      economic pressures affecting Brazil's health care system may force physicians to
      deprioritize non emergent care such as transition. A comprehensive understanding
      of transition issues specific to youth in developing countries and educating not
      only patients but also health care providers about the importance of a seamless
      transition process will support the development of transition guidelines and
      ensure better outcomes of pediatric subspecialty patients.

PMID- 28558791
TI  - Receptor tyrosine kinases play a significant role in human oligodendrocyte
      inflammation and cell death associated with the Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia
      burgdorferi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In previous studies, human oligodendrocytes were demonstrated to
      undergo apoptosis in the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi under an inflammatory
      milieu. Subsequently, we determined that the MEK/ERK pathway played a significant
      role in triggering downstream inflammation as well as apoptosis. However, the
      identity of receptors triggered by exposure to B. burgdorferi and initiating
      signaling events was unknown. METHODS: In this study, we explored the role of
      several TLR and EGFR/FGFR/PDGFR tyrosine kinase pathways in inducing inflammation
      in the presence of B. burgdorferi, using siRNA and/or inhibitors, in MO3.13 human
      oligodendrocytes. Cell death and apoptosis assays were also carried out in the
      presence or absence of specific receptor inhibitors along with the bacteria to
      determine the role of these receptors in apoptosis induction. The expression
      pattern of specific receptors with or without B. burgdorferi was also determined.
      RESULTS: TLRs 2 and 5 had a minimal role in inducing inflammation, particularly
      IL-6 production. Rather, their effect was mostly inhibitory, with TLR2
      downregulation significantly upregulating CXCL8, and CXCL (1,2,3) levels, and
      TLR5 likely having a similar role in CXCL8, CXCL(1,2,3), and CCL5 levels. TLR4
      contributed mostly towards CCL5 production. On the other hand, inhibition of all
      three EGF/FGF/PDGF receptors significantly downregulated all five of the
      inflammatory mediators tested even in the presence of B. burgdorferi. Their
      inhibition also downregulated overall cell death and apoptosis levels. The
      expression pattern of these receptors, as assessed by immunohistochemistry
      indicated that the PDGFRbeta receptor was the most predominantly expressed
      receptor, followed by FGFR, although no significant differences were discernible
      between presence and absence of bacteria. Interestingly, inhibition of individual
      EGFR, FGFR, or PDGFR receptors did not indicate an individual role for any of
      these receptors in the overall downregulation of pathogenesis. Contrarily,
      suppression of FGFR signaling alone in the presence of bacteria significantly
      upregulated inflammatory mediator levels indicating that it might control an
      inhibitory pathway when triggered individually. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike TLRs,
      EGF/FGF/PDGF receptors collectively play a significant role in the inflammation
      and apoptosis of human oligodendrocytes as mediated by B. burgdorferi. It is
      likely that these three receptors need to be triggered simultaneously to achieve
      this effect.

PMID- 28558792
TI  - A diet change from dry food to beef induces reversible changes on the faecal
      microbiota in healthy, adult client-owned dogs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diet has a major influence on the composition of the gut microbiota,
      whose importance for gut health and overall well-being is increasingly
      recognized. Knowledge is limited regarding health implications, including effects
      on the faecal microbiota, of feeding a diet with high content of red meat to
      dogs, despite some owners' apparent preference to do so. The aim of this study
      was to evaluate how a diet change from commercial dry food to one with a high
      content of boiled minced beef and vice versa influenced the faecal microbiota,
      and short chain fatty acid profile in healthy, adult, client-owned dogs. RESULTS:
      The diet change influenced the faecal microbiota composition and diversity
      (Shannon diversity index). The most abundant OTUs in samples of dogs fed the dry
      food and high minced beef were affiliated with the species Faecalibacterium
      prausnitzii and Clostridia hiranonis respectively. The high minced beef diet
      apparently also influenced the short chain fatty acid profile, with increased
      isovaleric acid, as well as an increase in faecal pH. These effects were reversed
      when the commercial dry food was reintroduced in weeks 6 and 7. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results of this study can aid in the understanding of how diet changes influence
      the faecal microbiota and metabolite content on a short-term basis. Long-term
      studies are required to investigate potential implications for canine gut and
      general health.

PMID- 28558793
TI  - Is unemployment in young adulthood related to self-rated health later in life?
      Results from the Northern Swedish cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many studies have reported that unemployment has a negative effect on
      health. However, little is known about the long-term effect for those who become
      unemployed when they are young adults. Our aim was to examine how unemployment is
      related to long-term self-rated health among 30 year olds, with an emphasis on
      how health differs in relation to education level, marital status, previous
      health, occupation, and gender. METHODS: In the Northern Swedish Cohort, 1083
      teenagers (~16 years old) were originally invited in 1981. Of these, 1001
      participated in the follow-up surveys in 1995 and 2007. In our study, we included
      participants with either self-reported unemployment or activity in the labor
      force during the previous three years in the 1995 follow-up so long as they had
      no self-reported unemployment between the follow-up surveys. Labor market status
      was studied in relation to self-reported health in the 2007 follow-up.
      Information from the 1995 follow-up for education level, marital status, self
      reported health, and occupation were part of the statistical analyses. Analyses
      were stratified for these variables and for gender. Analyses were performed with
      logistic regression, G-computation, and a method based on propensity scores.
      RESULTS: Poor self-rated health in 2007 was reported among 43 of the 98 (44%)
      unemployed and 159 (30%) of the 522 employed subjects. Unemployment had a long
      term negative effect on health (odds ratio with logistic regression 1.74 and
      absolute difference estimates of 0.11 (G-computation) and 0.10 (propensity score
      method)). At the group level, the most pronounced effects on health were seen in
      those with upper secondary school as their highest education level, those who
      were single, low-level white-collar workers, and women. CONCLUSIONS: Even among
      those becoming unemployed during young adulthood, unemployment is related to a
      negative long-term health effect. However, the effect varies among different
      groups of individuals. Increased emphasis on understanding the groups for whom
      unemployment is most strongly related to ill health is important for future
      research so that efforts can be put towards those with the biggest need. Still,
      our results can be used as the basis for deciding which groups should be
      prioritized for labor-market interventions.

PMID- 28558794
TI  - Assessment of physical activity, capacity and nutritional status in elderly
      peritoneal dialysis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of sedentarism, and to
      assess physical capacity and nutritional status in a cohort of older patients on
      peritoneal dialysis (PD), with respect to age-matched non-dialysis CKD
      population, using highly accessible, simple methods, namely the Rapid Assessment
      of Physical activity (RAPA) test and the 30" Sit-to-stand (STS) test. METHODS:
      This cross-sectional multicenter study included 151 renal patients older than 60
      years; 71 pts. (44 m, age 72 +/- 7 yrs) were on PD and 80 pts. (63 m, age 74 +/-
      7 yrs) were affected by 3-4 stage CKD. RESULTS: The prevalence of
      sedentary/underactive patients was double of that of the active patients as
      assessed by RAPA test, both in the PD (65.3%) and in the CKD (67.5%) cohort. The
      30"STS test showed a reduced physical performance in both groups: 84.5% of PD
      patients and 87.5% of CKD patients did not reach the expected number of stands by
      age and gender. A malnutrition-inflammation score (MIS) >= 6 occurred in 37 % of
      PD patients and in 2.5 % of CKD patients. In PD patients, an independent
      significant association was observed between 30"STS test and MIS (beta -0.510, p
      = 0.013), as well as between RAPA and MIS (beta -0.544, p = 003) and phase angle
      (beta -0.506, p = 0.028). CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of low- performance
      capacity and sedentarism has been detected among elderly patients on PD or with
      CKD stage 3-4. Apart from age, a condition of malnutrition-inflammation was the
      major determinant of poor physical activity and capacity in PD patients. Better
      body composition seems to be positively associated with physical activity in PD
      and with physical capacity in CKD patients. Routine clinical management should
      include a close evaluation of nutritional status and evaluation of physical
      activity and capacity which can be easily assessed by RAPA and 30"STS tests.

PMID- 28558795
TI  - Non-caloric sweetener provides magnetic resonance imaging contrast for cancer
      detection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Image contrast enhanced by exogenous contrast agents plays a crucial
      role in the early detection, characterization, and determination of the precise
      location of cancers. Here, we investigate the feasibility of using a non
      nutritive sweetener, sucralose (commercial name, Splenda), as magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) contrast agent for cancer studies. METHODS: High-resolution nuclear
      magnetic-resonance spectroscopy and MR studies on sucralose solution phantom were
      performed to detect the chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) property of
      sucralose hydroxyl protons with bulk water (sucCEST). For the animal experiments,
      female Fisher rats (F344/NCR) were used to generate 9L-gliosarcoma model. MRI
      with CEST experiments were performed on anesthetized rats at 9.4 T MR scanner.
      Following the baseline CEST scans, sucralose solution was intravenously
      administered in control and tumor bearing rats. CEST acquisitions were continued
      during and following the administration of sucralose. Following the sucCEST,
      Gadolinium-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid was injected to perform Gd
      enhanced imaging for visualizing the tumor. RESULTS: The sucCEST contrast in
      vitro was found to correlate positively with the sucralose concentration and
      negatively with the pH, indicating the potential of this technique in cancer
      imaging. In a control animal, the CEST contrast from the brain was found to be
      unaffected following the administration of sucralose, demonstrating its blood
      brain barrier impermeability. In a 9L glioma model, enhanced localized sucCEST
      contrast in the tumor region was detected while the unaffected brain region
      showed unaltered CEST effect implying the specificity of sucralose toward the
      tumorous tissue. The CEST asymmetry plots acquired from the tumor region before
      and after the sucralose infusion showed elevation of asymmetry at 1 ppm, pointing
      towards the role of sucralose in increased contrast. CONCLUSIONS: We show the
      feasibility of using sucralose and sucCEST in study of preclinical models of
      cancer. This study paves the way for the potential development of sucralose and
      other sucrose derivatives as contrast agents for clinical MRI applications.

PMID- 28558797
TI  - Expression of signaling adaptor proteins predicts poor prognosis in pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adaptor proteins bridge the gap between cell surface receptors and
      their downstream signaling elements. The clinicopathological and prognostic
      values of adaptor proteins remain poorly understood. The purpose of the present
      study was to explore the expression and prognostic value of three adaptor
      proteins: GRB2-associated binding protein 2 (GAB2), CRK-like protein (CRKL) and
      fibroblast growth factor receptor substrate 2 (FRS2) in pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma (PDAC). METHODS: The expression of GAB2, CRKL, and FRS2 in 77
      formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples from 77 PDAC patients, along with
      three paired fresh PDAC and matched normal tissues from 3 PDAC patients was
      analyzed by immunohistochemistry and western blot, respectively. The association
      between the expression of the three proteins and the clinicopathological factors
      of PDAC was assessed by chi 2 test. The correlation between the expression levels
      of the three proteins was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation analyses; Kaplan
      Meier survival analyses were also performed. RESULTS: IHC was successful in 75,
      76, and 77 cases for GAB2, CRKL, and FRS2, respectively. Of which, the positive
      rate of GAB2, CRKL, and FRS2 protein expression was 40.00% (30/75), 53.95%
      (41/76) and 35.06% (27/77), respectively. The positive rate of GAB2, CRKL and
      FRS2 co-expression was 16.88% (13/77). Though there was no association between
      GAB2 expression, CRKL expression, FRS2 expression, GAB2/CRKL/FRS2 co-expression
      and the clinicopathological parameters of PDAC, positive correlations were
      observed between the expressions of the three proteins. Further, univariate
      survival analysis showed that positive expression of GAB2, CRKL and FRS2 and co
      expression of GAB2/CRKL/FRS2 of PDAC predicted poor clinical outcomes, and
      multivariate survival analysis suggested that positive expression of GAB2 and
      positive co-expression of GAB2/CRKL/FRS2 were independent prognostic factors for
      disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS), respectively. CONCLUSION:
      In conclusion, GAB2, CRKL, and FRS2 may be potential prognosticators and
      therapeutic targets for PDAC patients.

PMID- 28558796
TI  - Systems-based approach to examine the cytokine responses in primary mouse lung
      macrophages infected with low pathogenic avian Influenza virus circulating in
      South East Asia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Influenza A virus (IAV) is a major public health concern,  being 
      responsible for the death of approximately half a million people each year.
      Zoonotic transmissions of the virus from swine and avian origin have occurred in
      the past, and can potentially lead to the em gergence of new IAV stains  in fut
      ure pandemics. Pulmonary macrophages have been implicated in disease severity in
      the lower airway, and understanding the host response  of macrophages infected
      with avian influenza viruses should provide new therapeutic strategies. RESULTS:
      We used a systems-based approach to investigate the transcriptome response of
      primary murine lung macrophages (PMF) infected with the mouse-adapted H1N1/WSN
      virus and low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses H5N2 and H5N3. The
      results showed that the LPAI viruses H5N2 and H5N3 can infect PMF with similar
      efficiency to the H1N1/WSN virus. While all viruses induced antiviral responses,
      the H5N3 virus infection resulted in higher expression levels of cytokines and
      chemokines associated with inflammatory responses. CONCLUSIONS: The LPAI H5N2 and
      H5N3 viruses are able to infect murine lung macrophages. However, the H5N3 virus
      was associated with increased expression of pro -inflammatory mediators. A
      lthough  the H5N3 virus it is capable of inducing high levels of cytokines that
      are associated with inflammation , this property is disti nct from its inability
      to  efficiently replicate in a mammalian host.

PMID- 28558798
TI  - Effect of concrete slats, three mat types and out-wintering pads on performance
      and welfare of finishing beef steers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective was to investigate the effect of placing mats on
      concrete slatted floors on performance, behaviour, hoof condition, dirt scores,
      physiological and immunological variables of beef steers, and to compare
      responses with animals on out-wintering pads. Continental crossbred beef steers
      [n = 360; mean (+/-SD) initial live weight 539 kg (42.2)] were blocked by breed
      and live weight and randomly assigned to one of five treatments; (1) Concrete
      slats alone, (2) Mat 1 (Natural Rubber structure) (Durapak Rubber Products), (3)
      Mat 2 (Natural rubber structure) (EasyFix), (4) Mat 3 (modified ethylene vinyl
      acetate (EVA) foam structure) and (5) Out-wintering pads (OWP's). RESULTS:
      Animals on the OWPs had a greater (P < 0.05) live weight gain (P < 0.05) compared
      with the slat and Mat 2 treatments: results for Mat 1 and Mat 3 were the same (P
      > 0.05) as the other treatments. Animals on the OWPs had reduced lying percentage
      time compared with all the other treatments. Dry matter (DM) intake was greater
      for animals on the OWPs compared with all the other treatments. Carcass weight,
      kill out proportion, carcass fat score, carcass composition score, FCR and
      physiological responses were similar (P > 0.05) among treatments. No incidence of
      laminitis was observed among treatments. The number of hoof lesions was greater
      on all mat types (P < 0.05) compared with concrete slats and OWP treatments. Dirt
      scores were greater (P < 0.05) for animals on OWPs when measured on days 42, 84,
      105, 126 and 150 compared with animals on slats. CONCLUSIONS: Under the
      conditions adopted for the present study, there was no evidence to suggest that
      animals housed on bare concrete slats were disadvantaged in respect of animal
      welfare compared with animals housed on other floor types. It is concluded that
      the welfare of steers was not adversely affected by slats compared with different
      mat types or OWPs.

PMID- 28558799
TI  - Propagation of Tau aggregates.
AB  - Since 2009, evidence has accumulated to suggest that Tau aggregates form first in
      a small number of brain cells, from where they propagate to other regions,
      resulting in neurodegeneration and disease. Propagation of Tau aggregates is
      often called prion-like, which refers to the capacity of an assembled protein to
      induce the same abnormal conformation in a protein of the same kind, initiating a
      self-amplifying cascade. In addition, prion-like encompasses the release of
      protein aggregates from brain cells and their uptake by neighbouring cells. In
      mice, the intracerebral injection of Tau inclusions induced the ordered assembly
      of monomeric Tau, followed by its spreading to distant brain regions. Short
      fibrils constituted the major species of seed-competent Tau. The existence of
      several human Tauopathies with distinct fibril morphologies has led to the
      suggestion that different molecular conformers (or strains) of aggregated Tau
      exist.

PMID- 28558801
TI  - Astroglial-mediated remodeling of the interhemispheric midline during
      telencephalic development is exclusive to eutherian mammals.
AB  - The corpus callosum forms the major interhemispheric connection in the human
      brain and is unique to eutherian (or placental) mammals. The developmental events
      associated with the evolutionary emergence of this structure, however, remain
      poorly understood. A key step in callosal formation is the prior remodeling of
      the interhemispheric fissure by embryonic astroglial cells, which then
      subsequently act as a permissive substrate for callosal axons, enabling them to
      cross the interhemispheric midline. However, whether astroglial-mediated
      interhemispheric remodeling is unique to eutherian mammals, and thus possibly
      associated with the phylogenetic origin of the corpus callosum, or instead is a
      general feature of mammalian brain development, is not yet known. To investigate
      this, we performed a comparative analysis of interhemispheric remodeling in
      eutherian and non-eutherian mammals, whose lineages branched off before the
      evolution of the corpus callosum. Whole brain MRI analyses revealed that the
      interhemispheric fissure is retained into adulthood in marsupials and monotremes,
      in contrast to eutherians (mice), in which the fissure is significantly remodeled
      throughout development. Histological analyses further demonstrated that, while
      midline astroglia are present in developing marsupials, these cells do not
      intercalate with one another through the intervening interhemispheric fissure, as
      they do in developing mice. Thus, developing marsupials do not undergo astroglial
      mediated interhemispheric remodeling. As remodeling of the interhemispheric
      fissure is essential for the subsequent formation of the corpus callosum in
      eutherians, our data highlight the role of astroglial-mediated interhemispheric
      remodeling in the evolutionary origin of the corpus callosum.

PMID- 28558800
TI  - The influence of quality maternity waiting homes on utilization of facilities for
      delivery in rural Zambia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Residential accommodation for expectant mothers adjacent to health
      facilities, known as maternity waiting homes (MWH), is an intervention designed
      to improve access to skilled deliveries in low-income countries like Zambia where
      the maternal mortality ratio is estimated at 398 deaths per 100,000 live births.
      Our study aimed to assess the relationship between MWH quality and the likelihood
      of facility delivery in Kalomo and Choma Districts in Southern Province, Zambia.
      METHODS: We systematically assessed and inventoried the functional capacity of
      all existing MWH using a quantitative facility survey and photographs of the
      structures. We calculated a composite score and used multivariate regression to
      quantify MWH quality and its association with the likelihood of facility delivery
      using household survey data collected on delivery location in Kalomo and Choma
      Districts from 2011-2013. RESULTS: MWH were generally in poor condition and
      composite scores varied widely, with a median score of 28.0 and ranging from 12
      to 66 out of a possible 75 points. Of the 17,200 total deliveries captured from
      2011-2013 in 40 study catchment area facilities, a higher proportion occurred in
      facilities where there was either a MWH or the health facility provided space for
      pregnant waiting mothers compared to those with no accommodations (60.7% versus
      55.9%, p <0.001). After controlling for confounders including implementation of
      Saving Mothers Giving Life, a large-scale maternal health systems strengthening
      program, among women whose catchment area facilities had an MWH, those women with
      MWHs in their catchment area that were rated medium or high quality had a 95%
      increase in the odds of facility delivery than those whose catchment area MWHs
      were of poor quality (OR: 1.95, 95% CI 1.76, 2.16). CONCLUSIONS: Improving both
      the availability and the quality of MWH represents a potentially useful strategy
      to increasing facility delivery in rural Zambia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The Zambia
      Chlorhexidine Application Trial is registered at Clinical Trials.gov (identifier:
      NCT01241318).

PMID- 28558802
TI  - Serum micro-rna profiles in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney
      disease according to hypertension and renal function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a common
      hereditary disorder with unclear disease mechanism. Currently, overt hypertension
      and increased renal volume are the best predictors of renal function. In this
      study, we assessed the usefulness of selected circulating microRNAs (miRs) to
      predict disease progress in a cohort with ADPKD. METHODS: Eighty ADPKD patients
      (44.6 +/- 12.7 years, 40% female, 65% hypertensive) and 50 healthy subjects (HS;
      45.4 +/- 12.7, 44% female) were enrolled in the study. Serum levels of 384 miRs
      were determined by Biomark Real Time PCR. Groups were compared using the limma
      method with multiple-testing correction as proposed by Smyth (corrected p < 0.01
      considered significant). RESULTS: Comparing ADPKD to HS, we found significant
      differences in blood levels of 18 miRs (3 more and 15 less abundant). Of these,
      miR-3907, miR-92a-3p, miR-25-3p and miR-21-5p all rose while miR-1587 and miR
      3911 decreased as renal function declined in both cross-sectional and
      longitudinal analysis. Using ROC analysis, an increased baseline miR-3907 in the
      circulation predicted a > 10% loss of GFR over the following 12 months (cut-off
      >2.2 AU, sensitivity 83%, specificity 78%, area 0.872 [95% CI: 0.790-0.953, p <
      0.001]). Adjusting for age and starting CKD stage using multiple binary logistic
      regression analysis did not abrogate the predictive value. CONCLUSION: Increased
      copy numbers of miR-3907 in the circulation may predict ADPKD progression and
      suggest pathophysiological pathways worthy of further study.

PMID- 28558803
TI  - Cross-cultural measurement invariance in the satisfaction with food-related life
      scale in older adults from two developing countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nutrition is one of the major determinants of successful aging. The
      Satisfaction with Food-related Life (SWFL) scale measures a person's overall
      assessment regarding their food and eating habits. The SWFL scale has been used
      in older adult samples across different countries in Europe, Asia and America,
      however, there are no studies that have evaluated the cross-cultural measurement
      invariance of the scale in older adult samples. Therefore, we evaluated the
      measurement invariance of the SWFL scale across older adults from Chile and
      Ecuador. METHODS: Stratified random sampling was used to recruit a sample of
      older adults of both genders from Chile (mean age = 71.38, SD = 6.48, range = 60
      92) and from Ecuador (mean age = 73.70, SD = 7.45, range = 60-101). Participants
      reported their levels of satisfaction with food-related life by completing the
      SWFL scale, which consists of five items grouped into a single dimension.
      Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine cross-cultural measurement
      invariance of the SWFL scale. RESULTS: Results showed that the SWFL scale
      exhibited partial measurement invariance, with invariance of all factor loadings,
      invariance in all but one item's threshold (item 1) and invariance in all items'
      uniqueness (residuals), which leads us to conclude that there is a reasonable
      level of partial measurement invariance for the CFA model of the SWFL scale, when
      comparing the Chilean and Ecuadorian older adult samples. The lack of invariance
      in item 1 confirms previous studies with adults and emerging adults in Chile that
      suggest this item is culture-sensitive. We recommend revising the wording of the
      first item of the SWFL in order to relate the statement with the person's life.
      CONCLUSIONS: The SWFL scale shows partial measurement invariance across older
      adults from Chile and Ecuador. A 4-item version of the scale (excluding item 1)
      provides the basis for international comparisons of satisfaction with food
      related life in older adults from developing countries in South America.

PMID- 28558804
TI  - Metofluthrin: investigations into the use of a volatile spatial pyrethroid in a
      global spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metofluthrin reduces biting activity in Aedes aegypti through the
      confusion, knockdown, and subsequent kill of a mosquito. A geographical spread in
      dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses, increases intervention demands. Response
      to a Zika outbreak may require a different strategy than dengue, as high-risk
      individuals, specifically pregnant women, need to be targeted. METHODS: In semi
      field conditions within a residential property in Cairns, Queensland, the impacts
      of metofluthrin on biting behaviour of free-flying Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti
      were evaluated. RESULTS: Mortality in Ae. aegypti exposed to metofluthrin over a
      22 h period was 100% compared to 2.7% in an untreated room. No biting activity
      was observed in mosquitoes up to 5 m from the emanator after 10 min of
      metofluthrin exposure. Use of metofluthrin reduced biting activity up to 8 m,
      regardless of the host's proximity (near or far) to a dark harbourage area (HA)
      (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.006), respectively. In the presence or absence of the
      metofluthrin emanator, the host was most likely bitten when located immediately
      next to a HA (within 1 m) versus 8 m away from the HA (P = 0.006). The addition
      of a ceiling fan (0.8 m/s airflow) prevented all biting activity after 10 min of
      metofluthrin exposure. Previously unexposed Ae. aegypti were less likely to reach
      the host in a metofluthrin-treated room [Formula: see text]= 31%) compared to an
      untreated room ([Formula: see text]) (P < 0.0001). In a treated room, if the
      mosquito had not reached the host within 30 s, they never would. Upon activation,
      the time required for metofluthrin to infiltrate protected locations within a
      room causing knockdown in caged mosquitoes, required more time than exposed
      locations (P < 0.003); however exposed and protected locations do eventually
      reach equilibrium, affecting mosquitoes equally throughout the room. CONCLUSION:
      Metofluthrin is effective in interrupting indoor host-seeking in Ae. aegypti.
      Metofluthrin's efficacy is increased by centrally locating the emanator in the
      room, and by using a fan to increase airflow. Newly treated rooms may require a
      period of 2-4 h for sufficient distribution of the metofluthrin into protected
      locations where mosquitoes may be resting.

PMID- 28558806
TI  - A critical age: can we reliably measure frailty in critical care?

PMID- 28558805
TI  - Development of a 12-item short version of the HIV stigma scale.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Valid and reliable instruments for the measurement of enacted,
      anticipated and internalised stigma in people living with HIV are crucial for
      mapping trends in the prevalence of HIV-related stigma and tracking the
      effectiveness of stigma-reducing interventions. Although longer instruments
      exist, e.g., the commonly used 40-item HIV Stigma Scale by Berger et al., a
      shorter instrument would be preferable to facilitate the inclusion of HIV stigma
      in more and broader surveys. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a
      substantially shorter, but still valid, version of the HIV Stigma Scale. METHODS:
      Data from a psychometric evaluation of the Swedish 40-item HIV Stigma Scale were
      reanalysed to create a short version with 12 items (three from each of the four
      stigma subscales: personalised stigma, disclosure concerns, concerns with public
      attitudes and negative self-image). The short version of the HIV stigma scale was
      then psychometrically tested using data from a national survey investigating
      stigma and quality of life among people living with HIV in Sweden (n = 880, mean
      age 47.9 years, 26% female). RESULTS: The hypothesized factor structure of the
      proposed short version was replicated in exploratory factor analysis without
      cross loadings and confirmatory factor analysis supported construct validity with
      high standardised effects (>0.7) of items on the intended scales. The chi2 test
      was statistically significant (chi2 = 154.2, df = 48, p < 0.001), but alternate
      fit measures indicated acceptable fit (comparative fit index: 0.963, Tucker-Lewis
      index: 0.950 and root mean square error of approximation: 0.071). Corrected item
      total correlation coefficients were >0.4 for all items, with a variation
      indicating that the broadness of the concept of stigma had been captured. All but
      two aspects of HIV-related stigma that the instrument is intended to cover were
      captured by the selected items in the short version. The aspects that did not
      lose any items were judged to have acceptable psychometric properties. The short
      version of the instrument showed higher floor and ceiling effects than the full
      length scale, indicating a loss of sensitivity in the short version. Cronbach's
      alpha for the subscales were all >0.7. CONCLUSIONS: Although being less sensitive
      in measurement, the proposed 12-item short version of the HIV Stigma Scale has
      comparable psychometric properties to the full-length scale and may be used when
      a shorter instrument is needed.

PMID- 28558808
TI  - Gender differences in discharge dispositions of emergency department visits
      involving drug misuse and abuse-2004-2011.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug use-related visits to the emergency department (ED) can
      undermine discharge planning and lead to recurrent use of acute services. Yet,
      little is known about where patients go post discharge. We explored trends in
      discharge dispositions of drug-involved ED visits, with a focus on gender
      differences. METHODS: We extracted data from the 2004-2011 Drug Abuse Warning
      Network, a national probability sample of drug-related visits to hospital EDs in
      the U.S. We computed weighted multinomial logistic regression models to estimate
      discharge dispositions over time and to examine associations between gender and
      the relative risk of discharge dispositions, controlling for patient
      characteristics. RESULTS: The final pooled sample included approximately 1.2
      million ED visits between 2004 and 2011. Men accounted for more than half (57.6%)
      of all ED visits involving drug misuse and abuse. Compared with women, men had a
      greater relative risk of being released to the police/jail, being referred to
      outpatient detox or other treatment, and leaving against medical advice than
      being discharged home. The relative risk of being referred to outpatient
      detox/drug treatment than discharged home increased over time for men versus
      women. CONCLUSIONS: Greater understanding of gender-based factors involved in
      substance-related ED visits and treatment needs may inform discharge planning and
      preventive interventions.

PMID- 28558807
TI  - Genome-wide DNA methylation at birth in relation to in utero arsenic exposure and
      the associated health in later life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In utero arsenic exposure may alter fetal developmental programming
      by altering DNA methylation, which may result in a higher risk of disease in
      later life. We evaluated the association between in utero arsenic exposure and
      DNA methylation (DNAm) in cord blood and its influence in later life. METHODS:
      Genome-wide DNA methylation in cord blood from 64 subjects in the Taiwanese
      maternal infant and birth cohort was analyzed. Robust regressions were applied to
      assess the association of DNA methylation with in utero arsenic exposure.
      Multiple testing was adjusted by controlling false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.05.
      The DAVID bioinformatics tool was implemented for functional annotation analyses
      on the detected CpGs. The identified CpGs were further tested in an independent
      cohort. For the CpGs replicated in the independent cohort, linear mixed models
      were applied to assess the association of DNA methylation with low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) at different ages (2, 5, 8, 11 and 14 years). RESULTS: In
      total, 579 out of 385,183 CpGs were identified after adjusting for multiple
      testing (FDR = 0.05), of which ~60% were positively associated with arsenic
      exposure. Functional annotation analysis on these CpGs detected 17 KEGG pathways
      (FDR = 0.05) including pathways for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes
      mellitus. In the independent cohort, about 46% (252 out of 553 CpGs) of the
      identified CpGs showed associations consistent with those in the study cohort. In
      total, 11 CpGs replicated in the independent cohort were in the pathways related
      to CVD and diabetes mellitus. Via longitudinal analyses, we found at 5 out of the
      11 CpGs methylation was associated with LDL over time and interactions between
      DNA methylation and time were observed at 4 of the 5 CpGs, cg25189764 (coeff =
      0.157, p-value = 0.047), cg04986899 (coeff. For interaction [coeff.int] = 0.030,
      p-value = 0.024), cg04903360 (coeff.int = 0.026, p-value = 0.032), cg08198265
      (coeff.int = -0.063, p-value = 0.0021), cg10473311 (coeff.int = -0.021, p-value =
      0.027). CONCLUSION: In utero arsenic exposure was associated with cord blood DNA
      methylation at various CpGs. The identified CpGs may help determine pathological
      epigenetic mechanisms linked to in utero arsenic exposure. Five CpGs (cg25189764,
      cg04986899, cg04903360, cg08198265 and cg10473311) may serve as epigenetic
      markers for changes in LDL later in life.

PMID- 28558809
TI  - Genetic variation of mitochondrial genes among Echinococcus multilocularis
      isolates collected in western China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening human disease
      caused by Echinococcus multilocularis transmitted between rodents and dogs/foxes
      in the Northern Hemisphere. The study aims to identify the genetic variation of
      the parasite in AE patients from China. METHODS: E. multilocularis isolates were
      collected from wild small mammals (n = 6) and AE patients (n = 56) from western
      China. Genomic DNA was extracted from different tissue samples including paraffin
      tissue blocks, ethanol fixed tissues and frozen tissues surgically removed. Two
      mitochondrial gene fragments (526 bp for cob and 474 bp for nad2) of E.
      multilocularis were amplified and sequenced. RESULTS: The parasite fragment
      sequences of cob fragments from AE patients showed two haplotypes, and nad2 gene
      fragment sequences had four haplotypes. The gene sequences from Microtus sp. were
      100% identical to the sequences of some isolates from AE patients. These
      haplotypes were distributed in both Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces. Alignment
      analysis with the sequences from the GenBank databases showed five genotypes
      including three Asian genotypes, one from Europe and one from North America.
      CONCLUSIONS: Most AE patients harbored the Asian genotype 1 which may be an
      indication of its relative frequency in the definitive hosts and the environment
      or of its pathogenicity to humans, which calls for further research.

PMID- 28558810
TI  - Varicella associated pneumoniae in a pediatric population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Varicella pneumonia has been studied extensively in adults; it may
      also affect children and may require hospitalization. METHODS: We examined
      pneumonia complications in children hospitalized for varicella, over a 13 year
      period. RESULTS: Pneumonia occurred in 8.2% of children hospitalized for
      varicella. The median length of hospitalization was 6 days. No statistically
      significant difference in length of stay was detected between immunodepressed
      children and previously healthy children. The hospitalization was on average
      shorter in patients who started antiviral therapy within 24 h of varicella onset.
      None of the included patients had been previously immunized for varicella.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the need for increased awareness of current
      varicella prevention recommendations among both immunocompetent and
      immunodepressed individuals. In children affected by varicella, prompt antiviral
      therapy may be indicated to reduce the number of days of hospitalization.

PMID- 28558811
TI  - Focal necrosis mimicking breast cancer following coronary bypass grafting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer can be diagnosed easily in most cases. However,
      occasionally, we are faced with some conditions that can mimic it. These may
      include inflammations, benign tumors, cysts, hematomas, or, more rarely, focal
      necrosis. CASE PRESENTATION: This report presents a case of focal breast necrosis
      following myocardial revascularization with the left internal mammary artery,
      which is a very rare condition, with only few cases described in the literature.
      The necrosis becomes usually apparent a few days or weeks after the surgery and
      is often coincidental with the dehiscence of sternotomy with necrosis of wound
      edges. As it mostly affects the skin, it can be easily recognized. Also, our
      patient developed a dehisced sternotomy shortly after the surgery but there were
      no obvious objective changes on the breast. The condition was first dominated
      only by non-specific subjective symptom-pain. Later, a lump in the breast
      occurred, when the sternotomy had already healed. Moreover, an enlarged lymph
      node was palpable in the axilla. Because of non-typical symptoms, the condition
      was suggestive of breast cancer for a relatively long time. The patient had
      suffered from a very strong pain until she was treated by mastectomy with a good
      clinical result. CONCLUSIONS: Mammary necrosis following the coronary artery
      bypass is rare. In most cases, it manifests on the skin shortly after the surgery
      concurrently with dehisced sternotomy, so it can be easily diagnosed. However, in
      sporadic cases, the symptoms may occur later and may mimic breast cancer. Our
      objective is to raise awareness of this rare condition.

PMID- 28558812
TI  - Introducing onsite antenatal syphilis screening in Burkina Faso: implementation
      and evaluation of a feasibility intervention tailored to a local context.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the advantages of introducing point of care testing for
      syphilis in antenatal care (ANC) are well documented, there is little evidence on
      how to address structural issues within health systems. A better understanding of
      how these interventions work in a range of settings and contexts is needed in
      order to overcome bottlenecks at health system level. To better understand the
      relationships between implementation and context we developed and implemented an
      intervention focused on integrating a rapid screening test for syphilis in ANC
      services in rural primary health care facilities in Burkina Faso. This manuscript
      describes the intervention and reports on feasibility and acceptability of the
      intervention, the facilitators and barriers to the implementation of this
      intervention and the likelihood that point of care test for syphilis will become
      routinely incorporated in practice. METHODS: In Kaya Health and Demographic
      Surveillance System (Kaya HDSS), all 7 primary healthcare facilities were
      selected for intervention in 2013. A participatory approach was used to design
      and implement an antenatal syphilis screening intervention. The Normalization
      Process Model (NPM) proposed by May et al. was adapted in order to identify
      barriers and facilitators and to explore the likelihood to become routinely
      incorporated in practice. Registers, Observations (n = 14 ANC 1) of interactions
      between patients and health workers during ANC and interviews with health workers
      (n = 14) were our data sources. RESULTS: An intervention that included onsite
      training, provision of supplies and medicines, quality control and supervision
      was implemented in 7 health facilities in 2013. Rapid syphilis test and treatment
      were delivered during ANC within the examination room with no specific additional
      mechanism regarding staff organization. The perceived barriers were lack of
      training of all staff, workload, stock-outs of consumables and lack of motivation
      of staff. Key facilitators included political environment, ease of use of test
      and acceptability to pregnant women. CONCLUSIONS: Onsite testing for antenatal
      syphilis is a feasible and acceptable intervention in ANC at primary health
      facility in Burkina Faso. The point-of care test for syphilis is more likely to
      be acceptable by health workers as routine service and incorporated as a normal
      practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was retrospectively registered on
      ClinicalTrials.gov under the Trial Registration Number NCT03156751 .

PMID- 28558814
TI  - Approach to growth hormone therapy in children with chronic kidney disease varies
      across North America: the Midwest Pediatric Nephrology Consortium report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growth impairment remains common in children with chronic kidney
      disease (CKD). Available literature indicates low level of recombinant human
      growth hormone (rhGH) utilization in short children with CKD. Despite efforts at
      consensus guidelines, lack of high-level evidence continues to complicate rhGH
      therapy decision-making and the level of practice variability in rhGH treatment
      by pediatric nephrologists is unknown. METHODS: Cross-sectional online survey
      electronically distributed to pediatric nephrologists through the Midwest
      Pediatric Nephrology Consortium and American Society of Pediatric Nephrology.
      RESULTS: Seventy three pediatric nephrologists completed the survey. While the
      majority (52.1%) rarely involve endocrinology in rhGH management, 26.8% reported
      that endocrinology managed most aspects of rhGH treatment in their centers. The
      majority of centers (68.5%) have a dedicated renal dietitian, but 20.6% reported
      the nephrologist as the primary source of nutritional support for children with
      CKD. Children with growth failure did not receive rhGH most commonly because of
      family refusal. Differences in initial work-up for rhGH therapy include variable
      use of bone age (95%), thyroid function (58%), insulin-like growth factor-1
      (40%), hip/knee X-ray (36%), and ophthalmologic evaluation (7%). Most pediatric
      nephrologists (95%) believe that rhGH treatment improves quality of life, but
      only 24% believe that it improves physical function; 44% indicated that rhGH
      improves lean body mass. CONCLUSIONS: There is substantial variation in pediatric
      nephrology practice in addressing short stature and rhGH utilization in children
      with CKD. Hence, there may be opportunities to standardize care to study and
      improve growth outcomes in short children with CKD.

PMID- 28558816
TI  - Intraoperative electromyographic monitoring to optimize safe lumbar pedicle screw
      placement - a retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The foremost concern of a surgeon during pedicle screw fixation is
      safety. Assistive modalities, especially intraoperative electromyographic
      monitoring (EMG) can function as an essential tool to recognize screw malposition
      that compromise neural integrity, so that the screws can be repositioned
      immediately rather than later. We intend to study the efficacy of intraoperative
      EMG monitoring to detect potential pedicle breach and evaluate whether
      reoperation rates were significantly reduced. METHODS: Retrospectively, patients
      who underwent posterior stabilization with pedicle screws for various pathologies
      were analysed and those with screws among L1-S1 levels were shortlisted. They
      were divided into two groups. Group 1 included patients in whom trigger EMG (t
      EMG) was used to confirm appropriate screw placement and Group 2 included those
      in whom it was not used. Responses to t-EMG and corresponding stimulation
      thresholds were recorded for Group 1 patients. The sensitivity and specificity of
      the test was calculated. Reoperation rates due to postoperative neurologic
      compromise caused by malpositioned screws were compared between both the groups.
      RESULTS: A total of 518 patients had 3112 pedicle screws between L1-S1 levels.
      Among Group 1 [n = 296; Screws = 1856], 145 screws (7.8%) showed a positive
      response for t-EMG at stimulation thresholds ranging between 2.6 to 19.8 mA. The
      sensitivity and specificity of t-EMG to diagnose potential pedicle breach was
      found to be 93.33% and 92.88% respectively. Only one patient among Group 1
      required reoperation. However, among Group 2 [n = 222; screws = 1256], six
      patients required reoperation. This indicated a significant decrease in the
      number of malpositioned screws that caused neurological compromise [p = 0.02],
      leading to subsequent decrease in reoperation rates [p = 0.04] among Group 1
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: Trigger EMG is well efficient in detecting potential
      pedicle screw breaches that might endanger neural integrity. In combination with
      palpatory and radiographic assessment, it will certainly aid safe and secure
      pedicle screw placement. It can also efficiently reduce reoperation rates due to
      neurologic compromise provoked by a malpositioned screw.

PMID- 28558815
TI  - Pathophysiology of chronic subdural haematoma: inflammation, angiogenesis and
      implications for pharmacotherapy.
AB  - Chronic subdural haematoma (CSDH) is an encapsulated collection of blood and
      fluid on the surface of the brain. Historically considered a result of head
      trauma, recent evidence suggests there are more complex processes involved.
      Trauma may be absent or very minor and does not explain the progressive, chronic
      course of the condition. This review focuses on several key processes involved in
      CSDH development: angiogenesis, fibrinolysis and inflammation. The characteristic
      membrane surrounding the CSDH has been identified as a source of fluid exudation
      and haemorrhage. Angiogenic stimuli lead to the creation of fragile blood vessels
      within membrane walls, whilst fibrinolytic processes prevent clot formation
      resulting in continued haemorrhage. An abundance of inflammatory cells and
      markers have been identified within the membranes and subdural fluid and are
      likely to contribute to propagating an inflammatory response which stimulates
      ongoing membrane growth and fluid accumulation. Currently, the mainstay of
      treatment for CSDH is surgical drainage, which has associated risks of recurrence
      requiring repeat surgery. Understanding of the underlying pathophysiological
      processes has been applied to developing potential drug treatments. Ongoing
      research is needed to identify if these therapies are successful in controlling
      the inflammatory and angiogenic disease processes leading to control and
      resolution of CSDH.

PMID- 28558813
TI  - Genome annotation for clinical genomic diagnostics: strengths and weaknesses.
AB  - The Human Genome Project and advances in DNA sequencing technologies have
      revolutionized the identification of genetic disorders through the use of
      clinical exome sequencing. However, in a considerable number of patients, the
      genetic basis remains unclear. As clinicians begin to consider whole-genome
      sequencing, an understanding of the processes and tools involved and the factors
      to consider in the annotation of the structure and function of genomic elements
      that might influence variant identification is crucial. Here, we discuss and
      illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of approaches for the annotation and
      classification of important elements of protein-coding genes, other genomic
      elements such as pseudogenes and the non-coding genome, comparative-genomic
      approaches for inferring gene function, and new technologies for aiding genome
      annotation, as a practical guide for clinicians when considering pathogenic
      sequence variation. Complete and accurate annotation of structure and function of
      genome features has the potential to reduce both false-negative (from missing
      annotation) and false-positive (from incorrect annotation) errors in causal
      variant identification in exome and genome sequences. Re-analysis of unsolved
      cases will be necessary as newer technology improves genome annotation,
      potentially improving the rate of diagnosis.

PMID- 28558817
TI  - Effects of exercise on brain activity during walking in older adults: a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity may preserve neuronal plasticity, increase synapse
      formation, and cause the release of hormonal factors that promote neurogenesis
      and neuronal function. Previous studies have reported enhanced neurocognitive
      function following exercise training. However, the specific cortical regions
      activated during exercise training remain largely undefined. In this study, we
      quantitatively and objectively evaluated the effects of exercise on brain
      activity during walking in healthy older adults. METHODS: A total of 24 elderly
      women (75-83 years old) were randomly allocated to either an intervention group
      or a control group. Those in the intervention group attended 3 months of biweekly
      90-min sessions focused on aerobic exercise, strength training, and physical
      therapy. We monitored changes in regional cerebral glucose metabolism during
      walking in both groups using positron emission tomography (PET) and
      [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). RESULTS: All subjects completed the 3-month
      experiment and the adherence to the exercise program was 100%. Compared with the
      control group, the intervention group showed a significantly greater step length
      in the right foot after 3 months of physical activity. The FDG-PET assessment
      revealed a significant post-intervention increase in regional glucose metabolism
      in the left posterior entorhinal cortex, left superior temporal gyrus, and right
      superior temporopolar area in the intervention group. Interestingly, the control
      group showed a relative increase in regional glucose metabolism in the left
      premotor and supplemental motor areas, left and right somatosensory association
      cortex, and right primary visual cortex after the 3-month period. We found no
      significant differences in FDG uptake between the intervention and control groups
      before vs. after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Exercise training increased
      activity in specific brain regions, such as the precuneus and entorhinal
      cortices, which play an important role in episodic and spatial memory. Further
      investigation is required to confirm whether alterations in glucose metabolism
      within these regions during walking directly promote physical and cognitive
      performance. TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN-CTR ( UMIN000021829 ). Retrospectively
      registered 10 April 2016.

PMID- 28558818
TI  - MicroRNA-101a regulates microglial morphology and inflammation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microglia, as well as other tissue-resident macrophages, arise from
      yolk sac progenitors. Thus, it is likely that the central nervous system
      environment is critical for the acquisition of a distinct microglial phenotype.
      Several microRNAs that are enriched in the brain play crucial roles in brain
      development and may also play a role in the differentiation of microglia.
      METHODS: To track the differentiation of hematopoietic cells into microglia,
      lineage-negative bone marrow cells were co-cultured with astrocytes in the
      absence or presence of microRNAs or their inhibitors. Microglia-like cells were
      identified as small, round cells that were immunopositive for CD11b, Iba1,
      CX3CR1, and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM)-2. RESULTS:
      Five microRNAs (miR-101a, miR-139-3p, miR-214*, miR-218, and miR-1186) were
      identified as modifiers of the differentiation of bone marrow-derived microglia
      like cells. Among them, miR-101a facilitated the differentiation of bone marrow
      cells into microglia-like cells most potently. Small, round cells expressing
      CD11b, Iba1, CX3CR1, and TREM-2 were predominant in cells treated by miR-101a.
      miR-101a was abundantly expressed in non-microglial brain cells. Transfection of
      miR-101a into microglia significantly increased the production of IL-6 in
      response to LPS. Finally, miR-101a downregulated the expression of MAPK
      phosphatase-1. CONCLUSIONS: miR-101a, which is enriched in the brain, promotes
      the differentiation of bone marrow cells into microglia-like cells.

PMID- 28558819
TI  - Erratum to: Factors associated with hand joint destruction in Chinese patients
      with rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28558820
TI  - Patients' views and needs about systemic sclerosis and its management: a
      qualitative interview study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic connective-tissue disease
      responsible for reduced life expectancy, disability and a decreased quality of
      life. In order to optimize patients-physicians relationship and care strategy we
      aimed to survey views of patients on SSc and its management to reveal potential
      hurdles and improve health care strategies. METHODS: A qualitative study combined
      semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and a direct observation of an
      information session was performed between November 2008 and January 2009.
      RESULTS: Twenty-five patients with SSc were included. They encounter difficulties
      to have a clear representation of their disease. Physical, psychological, and
      social repercussions of SSc may lead to a psychological distress and different
      coping strategies, which widely differ among interviewed patients. Patients'
      views on their therapeutic journey and the management of their disease
      highlighted strong expectations about patient-physician relationship. These
      expectations were numerous, complex and sometimes ambivalent. Patients expected
      physicians to be human and attentive but also involved in research in the field
      and to provide psychological and affective support to help them to accept the
      uncertainty of disease evolution and lack of curative treatment. They also
      expected more individualized management, improvements in diagnosis and follow-up
      organization, more efforts in education and information, comprehensive behaviors
      and support from working colleagues and relatives, and increased funding from the
      health care system. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that SSc management could be
      optimized, particularly with more attention to the patient-practitioner
      relationship. Patient profiles should be more precisely defined in terms of
      coping strategies and treatment preferences to propose more individualized
      options.

PMID- 28558821
TI  - Comparative evaluation of insertion torque and mechanical stability for self
      tapping and self-drilling orthodontic miniscrews - an in vitro study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between
      insertion torque and stability of miniscrews in terms of resistance against
      dislocation, then comparing a self-tapping screw with a self-drilling one.
      METHODS: Insertion torque was measured during placement of 30 self-drilling and
      31 self-tapping stainless steel miniscrews (Leone SpA, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)
      in synthetic bone blocks. Then, an increasing pulling force was applied at an
      angle of 90 degrees  and 45 degrees , and the displacement of the miniscrews was
      recorded. RESULTS: The statistical analysis showed a statistically significant
      difference between the mean Maximum Insertion Torque (MIT) observed in the two
      groups and showed that force angulation and MIT have a statistically significant
      effect on miniscrews stability. For both the miniscrews, an angle of 90 degrees 
      between miniscrew and loading force is preferable in terms of stability.
      CONCLUSIONS: The tested self-drilling orthodontic miniscrews showed higher MIT
      and greater resistance against dislocation than the self-tapping ones.

PMID- 28558823
TI  - First study conducted in Northern India that identifies group C rotavirus as the
      etiological agent of severe diarrhea in children in Delhi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Group C Rotavirus (RVC) is an enteric pathogen responsible for acute
      gastroenteritis in children and adults globally. At present there are no
      surveillance studies on group C Rotaviruses in India and therefore their
      prevalence in India remains unknown. The present study aimed to evaluate group C
      rotavirus infection among <5 years old children hospitalized with acute
      gastroenteritis in New Delhi. METHODS: A total of 350 fecal specimens were
      collected during September 2013 to November 2014 from <5 years old diarrheal
      patients admitted at KSCH hospital, Delhi. The samples found negative for group A
      rotavirus (N = 180) by Enzyme immunoassay were screened for group C rotavirus by
      RT-PCR with VP6, VP7 and VP4 gene specific primers. The PCR products were further
      sequenced (VP6, VP7, VP4) and analyzed to ascertain their origin and G and P
      genotypes. RESULTS: Six out of 180 (group A rotavirus negative) samples were
      found positive for group C rotavirus by VP6 gene specific RT-PCR, of which 3 were
      also found positive for VP7 and VP4 genes. Phylogenetic analysis of VP7 and VP4
      genes of these showed them to be G4 and P[2] genotypes. Overall, the nucleotide
      sequence data (VP6, VP7 and VP4) revealed a close relationship with the human
      group C rotavirus with no evidence of animal ancestry. Interestingly, the
      nucleotide sequence analysis of various genes also indicated differences in their
      origin. While the identity matrix of VP4 gene (n = 3) showed high amino acid
      sequence identity (97.60 to 98.20%) with Korean strain, the VP6 gene (n = 6)
      showed maximum identity with Nigerian strain (96.40 to 97.60%) and VP7 gene (n =
      3) with Bangladeshi and USA strains. This is true for all analyzed samples.
      CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the group C rotavirus as the cause of severe
      diarrhea in young children in Delhi and provides insights on the origin of group
      C rotavirus genes among the local strains indicating their source of
      transmission. Our study also highlights the need for a simple and reliable
      diagnostic test that can be utilized to determine the disease burden due to group
      C rotavirus in India.

PMID- 28558822
TI  - Do outcomes reported in randomised controlled trials of joint replacement surgery
      fulfil the OMERACT 2.0 Filter? A review of the 2008 and 2013 literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is not known, whether outcome reporting in trials of total joint
      arthroplasty in the recent years is adequate or not. Our objective was to assess
      whether outcomes reported in total joint replacement (TJR) trials fulfil the
      Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Filter 2.0. METHODS: We systematically
      reviewed all TJR trials in adults, published in English in 2008 or 2013. Searches
      were conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE,
      and EMBASE. Two authors independently applied the inclusion criteria for the
      studies, and any disagreement was resolved with a third review author. All
      outcome measures were abstracted using a pre-piloted standardised data extraction
      form and assessed for whether they mapped to one of the three OMERACT Filter 2.0
      core areas: pathophysiological, life impact, and death. RESULTS: From 1635 trials
      identified, we included 70 trials (30 in 2008 and 40 in 2013) meeting the
      eligibility criteria. Twenty-two (31%) trials reported the three essential
      OMERACT core areas. Among the 27 hip replacement surgery trials and 39 knee
      replacement surgery trials included, 11 hip (41%) and nine knee (23%) trials
      reported all three essential OMERACT core areas. The most common outcome
      domains/measures were pain (20/27, 74%) and function (23/27, 85%) in hip trials
      and pain (26/39, 67%) and function (27/39, 69%) in knee trials. Results were
      similar for shoulder and hand joint replacement trials. CONCLUSIONS: We
      identified significant gaps in the measurement of OMERACT core outcome areas in
      TJR trials, despite the majority reporting outcome domains of pain and function.
      An international consensus of key stakeholders is needed to develop a core domain
      set for reporting of TJR trials. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO
      CRD42014009216.

PMID- 28558824
TI  - The cruciferous Diplotaxis simplex: Phytochemistry analysis and its protective
      effect on liver and kidney toxicities, and lipid profile disorders in alloxan
      induced diabetic rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a prevalent systemic disease affecting an
      important proportion of the population worldwide. It has been suggested that
      excessive reactive oxygen species generation and therefore development of an
      oxidative stress status is a key factor leading to diabetic complications.
      Accordingly, it seems that medicinal plants can offer a wide range of new
      antidiabetic drugs. Diplotaxis simplex (Viv.) Spreng. (Brassicaceae) is an edible
      plant largely distributed in the Mediterranean region. D. simplex flowers display
      important in vitro antioxidant potential and inhibitory activity of the alpha
      glucosidase, a key enzyme linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this paper, the
      antihyperglycemic potential of D. simplex flowers on diabetic rats were
      investigated. METHODS: Bioactive substances were determined by liquid
      chromatography-high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC
      HRESIMS) analysis. Animals were divided into four groups of six rats each: a
      normal control group, a diabetic control group, a diabetic group receiving
      flowers extract (200 mg/kg body mass) and a diabetic group receiving acarbose (10
      mg/kg body mass) as standard drug. RESULTS: Many glycosides of rhamnetin,
      isorhamnetin, quercetin and kaempferol compounds were identified in the ethanolic
      flowers extract. Alloxan induced hyperglycemia, manifested by a significant (p <
      0.05) increase in the blood glucose level as well as in serum alpha-amylase
      activity. Furthermore, diabetic rats exhibited oxidative stress, as evidenced by
      a decrease in antioxidant enzymes activities and an increase in lipid
      peroxidation level of the pancreas, liver and kidneys. Interestingly, the oral
      administration of D. simplex flowers extract during 30 days restored the
      glycemia, alpha-amylase activity, serum lipid profile and antioxidant enzymes.
      Moreover, the flowers extract exhibited a renal protective role by decreasing the
      urea and creatinine levels in diabetic rats serum. CONCLUSIONS: D. simplex
      flowers contained bioactive compounds that possess important antioxidant and
      hypoglycemic properties and protected pancreas, liver and kidneys against
      hyperglycemia damage.

PMID- 28558825
TI  - Does an 8-week home-based exercise program affect physical capacity, quality of
      life, sick leave, and use of psychotropic drugs in patients with pulmonary
      embolism? Study protocol for a multicenter randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The existing evidence base in pulmonary embolism (PE) is primarily
      focused on diagnostic methods, medical treatment, and prognosis. Only a few
      studies have investigated how everyday life is affected by PE, although many
      patients are negatively affected both physically and emotionally after hospital
      discharge. Currently, no documented rehabilitation options are available for
      these patients. We aim to examine whether an 8-week home-based exercise
      intervention can influence physical capacity, quality of life, sick leave, and
      use of psychotropic drugs in patients medically treated for PE. METHODS: One
      hundred forty patients with incident first-time PE will be recruited in five
      hospitals. After inclusion, patients will be randomly allocated to either the
      control group, receiving usual care, or the intervention group, who will be
      exposed to an 8-week home-based exercise program in addition to usual care. The
      intervention includes an initial individual exercise planning session with a
      physiotherapist, leading to a recommended exercise program of a minimum of three
      weekly training sessions of 30-60 minutes' duration. The patients have regular
      telephone contact with the physiotherapist during the 8-week program. At the time
      of inclusion, after 2 months, and after 6 months, the patients' physical capacity
      is measured using the Incremental Shuttle Walk test. Furthermore the patients'
      quality of life, sick leave, and use of psychotropic drugs is measured using self
      reported questionnaires. In both randomization arms, all follow-up measurements
      and visits will take place at the hospital from which the patient was discharged.
      Levels of eligibility, consent, adherence, and retention will be used as
      indicators of study feasibility. DISCUSSION: We expect that the home-based
      exercise program will improve the physical capacity and quality of life for the
      patients in the intervention group. The study will furthermore contribute
      significantly to the limited knowledge about the optimal rehabilitation of PE
      patients, and may thereby form the basis of future recommendations in this field.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02684721 . Registered on 20 January
      2016.

PMID- 28558826
TI  - Critical care at the end of life: a population-level cohort study of cost and
      outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the high cost associated with ICU use at the end of life,
      very little is known at a population level about the characteristics of users and
      their end of life experience. In this study, our goal was to characterize
      decedents who received intensive care near the end of life and examine their
      overall health care use prior to death. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort
      study that examined all deaths in a 3-year period from April 2010 to March 2013
      in Ontario, Canada. Using population-based health administrative databases, we
      examined healthcare use and cost in the last year of life. RESULTS: There were
      264,754 individuals included in the study, of whom 18% used the ICU in the last
      90 days of life; 34.5% of these ICU users were older than 80 years of age and
      53.0% had more than five chronic conditions. The average cost of stay for these
      decedents was CA$15,511 to CA$25,526 greater than for those who were not admitted
      to the ICU. These individuals also died more frequently in hospital (88.7% vs
      36.2%), and spent more time in acute-care settings (18.7 days vs. 10.5 days).
      CONCLUSIONS: We showed at a population level that a significant proportion of
      those with ICU use close to death are older, multi-morbid individuals who incur
      significantly greater costs and die largely in hospital, with higher rates of
      readmission, longer lengths of stay and higher rates of aggressive care.

PMID- 28558827
TI  - Early anti-inflammatory intervention ameliorates axial disease in the
      proteoglycan-induced spondylitis mouse model of ankylosing spondylitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is characterised by immune-mediated
      arthritis and osteoproliferation, ultimately leading to joint ankylosis. Whether
      inflammation is necessary for osteoproliferation is controversial, fuelled by the
      unclear efficacy of anti-inflammatory treatments on radiographic progression. In
      proteoglycan-induced spondylitis (PGISp), a mouse model of AS, inflammation is
      the prerequisite for osteoproliferation as osteoproliferation was only observed
      following inflammation-driven intervertebral disc (IVD) destruction. We
      hypothesised that early intervention with a potent anti-inflammatory therapy
      would protect IVD integrity and consequently alter disease progression. METHODS:
      PGISp mice received vehicle or a combination of etanercept (ETN) plus
      prednisolone (PRD) therapy for 2 or 6 weeks initiated at an early disease stage.
      Peripheral arthritis was scored longitudinally. Spinal disease was assessed using
      a semi-quantitative histological scoring regimen including inflammation, joint
      destruction and excessive tissue formation. RESULTS: ETN + PRD therapy
      significantly delayed the onset of peripheral arthritis. IVD integrity was
      significantly protected when treatment was commenced in early disease. Six-weeks
      of treatment resulted in trends towards reductions in intervertebral joint damage
      and excessive tissue formation. IVD score distribution was dichotomized, likely
      reflecting the extent of axial disease at initiation of therapy. In the sub-group
      of mice with high IVD destruction scores, ETN + PRD treatment significantly
      reduced IVD destruction severity, inflammation and bone erosion and reduced
      cartilage damage and excessive tissue formation. CONCLUSIONS: Early intervention
      with anti-inflammatory treatment not only improved inflammatory symptoms but also
      ameliorated structural damage of spine in PGISp mice. This preclinical
      observation suggests that early anti-inflammatory intervention may slow
      radiographic progression in AS patients.

PMID- 28558828
TI  - Eprinomectin pour-on (EPRINEX(r) Pour-on, Merial): efficacy against
      gastrointestinal and pulmonary nematodes and pharmacokinetics in sheep.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The anthelmintic efficacy of the 0.5% w/v topical formulation of
      eprinomectin (EPN), EPRINEX(r) Pour-on (Merial) when administered at 1 mg/kg body
      weight was evaluated in sheep in two dose confirmation laboratory studies and one
      multicenter field study. In addition, the pharmacokinetics of EPN when
      administered at that dosage to adult sheep was determined. RESULTS: In the two
      dose confirmation studies, which included 10 sheep each, sheep treated with
      topical EPN had significantly (p < 0.05) fewer of the following nematodes than
      the untreated sheep with overall reduction of nematode counts by >99%: adult
      Dictyocaulus filaria, Haemonchus contortus, Teladorsagia
      circumcincta(pinnata/trifurcata), Trichostrongylus axei, T. colubriformis, T.
      vitrinus, Cooperia curticei, Nematodirus battus, Strongyloides papillosus,
      Chabertia ovina and Oesophagostomum venulosum, and inhibited fourth-stage
      Teladorsagia larvae. A total of 196 sheep harboring naturally acquired
      gastrointestinal nematode infections were included in the field efficacy study at
      two sites each in Germany (48 Merino x Ile de France lambs, 52 adult Merino
      females) and in Italy (adult male and female Bagnolese, Lacaune, Lacaune x
      Bagnolese, Bagnolese x Sarda sheep; 48 animals per site). Animals were blocked on
      pre-treatment body weight and within each block, one animal was randomly assigned
      to the control (untreated) group and three animals were randomly assigned to be
      treated with topical EPN. Examination of feces 14 days after treatment
      demonstrated that, relative to the controls, topical EPN-treated sheep had
      significantly (p < 0.0001) lower strongylid egg counts. Reduction was >=97% at
      each site and 98.6% across all sites. Pharmacokinetics of EPN following single
      treatment with topical EPN were determined in eight ~4.5 year old female Merino
      cross sheep based on the analysis of plasma samples which were collected from two
      hours to 21 days following treatment. The main pharmacokinetic parameters were:
      Cmax 6.20 +/- 1.71 ng/mL, AUClast 48.8 +/- 19.2 day*ng/mL, Tmax 3.13 +/- 2.99
      days and T1/2 6.40 +/- 2.95 days. No treatment-related health problems or adverse
      drug events were observed in any study. CONCLUSION: These studies demonstrated
      0.5% w/v EPN administered topically at 1 mg/kg body weight to be highly
      efficacious against a broad range of ovine gastrointestinal nematodes and D.
      filaria lungworms and well tolerated by sheep of different ages, breeds, gender
      and physiological status.

PMID- 28558829
TI  - Which bronchodilator reversibility criteria can predict severe acute exacerbation
      in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether various bronchodilator reversibility (BDR)
      criteria affect the prognosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
      The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of positive BDR defined according
      to various BDR criteria on the risk of severe acute exacerbation (AE) in COPD
      patients. METHODS: Patients from four prospective COPD cohorts in South Korea who
      underwent follow-up for at least 1 year were enrolled in this study. The assessed
      BDR criteria included the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease
      (GOLD), American Thoracic Society (ATS), American College of Chest Physicians,
      (ACCP), major criteria of the Spanish definition of asthma-COPD overlap syndrome
      (ACOS), criteria compatible with ACOS in the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA),
      and European Respiratory Society (ERS). The rate of patients with severe AE who
      required hospitalization within 1 year due to BDR results according to each set
      of criteria was analyzed using logistic regression models. RESULTS: Among a total
      of 854 patients, the BDR-positive cases varied according to the criteria used.
      There was a 3.5% positive BDR rate according to GINA and a 29.9% rate according
      to the ATS criteria. Positive BDR according to the GOLD criteria was
      significantly associated with a decreased risk of severe AE (adjusted odds ratio
      (aOR) = 0.38; 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 0.15-0.93). This result remained
      statistically significant even in a sensitivity analysis that included only
      participants with a smoking history of at least 10 pack-years and in the analysis
      for the propensity score-matched participants. CONCLUSIONS: Among different
      criteria for positive BDR, the use of the GOLD ones was significantly associated
      with a decreased risk of severe AE in COPD patients. Increase use of ICS/LABA may
      have affected this relationship.

PMID- 28558831
TI  - Genetic diversity of Glossina fuscipes fuscipes along the shores of Lake Victoria
      in Tanzania and Kenya: implications for management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) are sole vectors for
      trypanosomiasis, which affect human health and livestock productivity in Africa.
      Little is known about the genetic diversity of Glossina fuscipes fuscipes, which
      is an important species in Tanzania and Kenya. The main objective of the study
      was to provide baseline data to determine the genetic variability and divergence
      of G. f. fuscipes in the Lake Victoria basin of Tanzania and Kenya in order to
      guide future vector control efforts in the region. FINDINGS: Two hundred and
      seventy five G. f. fuscipes from 8 sites along the shores of Lake Victoria were
      screened for genetic polymorphisms at 19 microsatellite loci. Samples were
      collected from two sites in Kenya and six sites in Tanzania. Four of the
      Tanzanian sites were located in the Rorya district, on the eastern shores of Lake
      Victoria, while the other two sites were from Ukerewe and Bukoba districts from
      the southern and western Lake Victoria shores, respectively. Four genetically
      distinct allopatric clusters were revealed by microsatellite analysis, which
      sorted the sampling sites according to geography, with sites separated by as
      little as ~65 km belonging to distinct genetic clusters, while samples located
      within ~35 km from each other group in the same cluster. CONCLUSION: Our results
      suggest that there is ongoing genetic admixture within sampling sites located ~35
      km from each other, while sites located ~65 km apart are genetically isolated
      from each other. Similar patterns emerged from a parallel study on G. f. fuscipes
      analyzed from the Lake Victoria Uganda shores. From a control perspective these
      results suggest that for sites within the same genetic cluster, control efforts
      should be carried out in a coordinated fashion in order to avoid re-invasions.
      Future work should focus on better quantifying the extent and spatial patterns of
      the observed genetic discontinuities of the G. f. fuscipes populations along the
      Tanzanian shores. This will aid in their control by providing guidelines on the
      geographical extent of the area to be treated at the same time.

PMID- 28558832
TI  - In vitro quality evaluation of leading brands of ciprofloxacin tablets available
      in Bangladesh.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ciprofloxacin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that acts against a
      number of bacterial infections. The study was carried out to examine the in vitro
      quality control tests for ten leading brands of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride 500
      mg tablet formulation, registered in Bangladesh by Directorate General of Drug
      Administration. The quality control parameters of ten different brands of
      ciprofloxacin hydrochloride 500 mg tablets were determined by weight variation,
      friability, hardness, disintegration, dissolution and assay tests. All the
      tablets were evaluated for conformity with United States Pharmacopoeia-National
      Formulary (USP-NF) and British Pharmacopoeia (BP) standards. RESULTS: Among ten
      brands of tablets Brand C had lower mean weight variation of 1.59% and Brand E
      had highest mean weight variation of 3.32%. For friability test Brand F had
      lowest mean friability (0.27%) and Brand G had highest mean friability (0.54%).
      Among ten brands mean lowest and highest hardness were founded in Brand G (4.49
      kg/cm2) and Brand F (7.13 kg/cm2) respectively. The disintegration time for ten
      brands of ciprofloxacin tablet obtained were in the subsequent order: Brand G
      (8.19 min) < Brand C (9.25 min) < Brand E (9.61 min) < Brand D (10.11 min) <
      Brand B (11.07 min) < Brand A (12.15 min) < Brand H (13.68 min) < Brand I (14.59
      min) < Brand J (16.32 min) < Brand F (17.49 min). Among ten brands for
      dissolution test mean percentages of drug release were not less than 80% in 45
      min for four tablets (Brand E, 81.52%; Brand D, 86.44%; Brand G, 86.82% and Brand
      C, 94.12%), consequently they met BP standard and as per USP-NF standard six
      brands (Brand B, 75.62%; Brand A, 76.18%; Brand E, 81.52%; Brand D, 86.44%; Brand
      G, 86.82% and Brand C, 94.12%) had released not less than 75% drugs, so they also
      complied with the standard. The percentages of the drug content of the ten brands
      of ciprofloxacin tablet were obtained in the following sequence: Brand H (96.84%)
      < Brand J (97.34%) < Brand D (98.15%) < Brand I (98.47%) < Brand E (99.37%) <
      Brand F (100.28%) < Brand B (100.38%) < Brand A (100.54%) < Brand G (101.39%) <
      Brand C (101.46%). All of the brands met the BP and USP-NF specifications for
      assay. First-order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetics model fit for all of
      the mentioned ten brands. CONCLUSION: The present study revealed that all of the
      leading brands of this tablet met the quality control parameters as per
      pharmacopoeial specifications except dissolution test for four brands (Brand J,
      Brand H, Brand I, and Brand F).

PMID- 28558830
TI  - LincIN, a novel NF90-binding long non-coding RNA, is overexpressed in advanced
      breast tumors and involved in metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent genome-wide profiling by sequencing and distinctive chromatin
      signatures has identified thousands of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) species (>200
      nt). LncRNAs have emerged as important regulators of gene expression, involving
      in both developmental and pathological processes. While altered expression of
      lncRNAs has been observed in breast cancer development, their roles in breast
      cancer progression and metastasis are still poorly understood. METHODS: To
      identify novel breast cancer-associated lncRNA candidates, we employed a high
      density SNP array-based approach to uncover intergenic lncRNA genes that are
      aberrantly expressed in breast cancer. We first evaluated the potential value as
      a breast cancer prognostic biomarker for one breast cancer-associated lncRNA,
      LincIN, using a breast cancer cohort retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas
      (TCGA) Data Portal. Then we characterized the role of LincIN in breast cancer
      progression and metastasis by in vitro invasion assay and a mouse tail vein
      injection metastasis model. To study the action of LincIN, we identified LincIN
      interacting protein partner(s) by RNA pull-down experiments followed with protein
      identification by mass spectrometry. RESULTS: High levels of LincIN expression
      are frequently observed in tumors compared to adjacent normal tissues, and are
      strongly associated with aggressive breast cancer. Importantly, analysis of TCGA
      data further suggest that high expression of LincIN is associated with poor
      overall survival in patients with breast cancer (P = 0.044 and P = 0.011 after
      adjustment for age). The functional experiments demonstrate that knockdown of
      LincIN inhibits tumor cell migration and invasion in vitro, which is supported by
      the results of transcriptome analysis in the LincIN-knockdown cells. Furthermore,
      knockdown of LincIN diminishes lung metastasis in a mouse tail vein injection
      model. We also identified a LincIN-binding protein, NF90, through which
      overexpression of LincIN may repress p21 protein expression by inhibiting its
      translation, and upregulation of p21 by LincIN knockdown may be associated with
      less aggressive metastasis phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies provide clear
      evidence to support LincIN as a new regulator of tumor progression-metastasis at
      both transcriptional and translational levels and as a promising prognostic
      biomarker for breast cancer.

PMID- 28558833
TI  - Reduction in clinically important deterioration in chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease with aclidinium/formoterol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 'Clinically important deterioration' (CID) is a composite endpoint
      measuring worsening of the key clinical features of chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease (COPD), namely lung function, patient-reported outcomes, and
      exacerbations. ACLIFORM and AUGMENT were two 24-week, randomized, double-blind,
      phase III studies assessing twice-daily (BID) aclidinium bromide (AB) 400
      MUg/formoterol fumarate (FF) 12 MUg. This pooled post-hoc analysis assessed the
      effects of AB/FF 400/12 MUg on both first and sustained CID events versus placebo
      and monotherapies in patients with moderate to severe COPD. METHODS: A first CID
      event was defined as the occurrence of a moderate/severe exacerbation or the
      worsening from baseline in >=1 of the following: trough forced expiratory volume
      in 1 second (FEV1; >=100 mL), Transition Dyspnea Index (TDI) focal score (>=1
      unit), or St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) total score (>=4 units). A
      'sustained' CID was defined as a worsening maintained at all subsequent visits
      from appearance to week 24 or a moderate/severe exacerbation at any time. CID
      events were assessed at three visits (weeks 4, 12, and 24); trough FEV1 was also
      measured at weeks 1 and 18. RESULTS: AB/FF 400/12 MUg reduced the risk of a first
      CID event by 45% versus placebo (hazard ratio [HR] 0.55, p < 0.001), 18% versus
      FF 12 MUg (HR 0.82, p < 0.01), and 15% versus AB 400 MUg (HR 0.85, p < 0.05).
      Similarly, AB/FF 400/12 MUg reduced the risk of a sustained CID event by 48%
      versus placebo (HR 0.52, p < 0.001) and 22% versus FF 12 MUg (HR 0.78, p < 0.01).
      AB/FF 400/12 MUg reduced the risk of a first or sustained CID event for all four
      components versus placebo (trough FEV1 and TDI, first and sustained CID, all p <
      0.001; SGRQ first CID p < 0.001; SGRQ sustained CID, p < 0.01; exacerbations
      first and sustained CID, both p < 0.05) and TDI and SGRQ versus FF 12 MUg (TDI,
      first and sustained CID both p < 0.05; SGRQ first CID p < 0.01), and SGRQ versus
      AB 400 MUg (first CID, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: AB/FF 400/12 MUg BID may provide
      greater airway stability and fewer exacerbations or deteriorations in lung
      function, health status, or dyspnea compared with placebo or monotherapies. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01462942 (ACLIFORM); registered 26 October
      2011. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01437397 (AUGMENT); registered 19 September 2011.

PMID- 28558834
TI  - Erratum to: Metazoan parasite communities: support for the biological invasion of
      Barbus barbus and its hybridization with the endemic Barbus meridionalis.

PMID- 28558835
TI  - A muscle-driven approach to restore stepping with an exoskeleton for individuals
      with paraplegia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional neuromuscular stimulation, lower limb orthosis, powered
      lower limb exoskeleton, and hybrid neuroprosthesis (HNP) technologies can restore
      stepping in individuals with paraplegia due to spinal cord injury (SCI). However,
      a self-contained muscle-driven controllable exoskeleton approach based on an
      implanted neural stimulator to restore walking has not been previously
      demonstrated, which could potentially result in system use outside the laboratory
      and viable for long term use or clinical testing. In this work, we designed and
      evaluated an untethered muscle-driven controllable exoskeleton to restore
      stepping in three individuals with paralysis from SCI. METHODS: The self
      contained HNP combined neural stimulation to activate the paralyzed muscles and
      generate joint torques for limb movements with a controllable lower limb
      exoskeleton to stabilize and support the user. An onboard controller processed
      exoskeleton sensor signals, determined appropriate exoskeletal constraints and
      stimulation commands for a finite state machine (FSM), and transmitted data over
      Bluetooth to an off-board computer for real-time monitoring and data recording.
      The FSM coordinated stimulation and exoskeletal constraints to enable functions,
      selected with a wireless finger switch user interface, for standing up, standing,
      stepping, or sitting down. In the stepping function, the FSM used a sensor-based
      gait event detector to determine transitions between gait phases of double
      stance, early swing, late swing, and weight acceptance. RESULTS: The HNP restored
      stepping in three individuals with motor complete paralysis due to SCI. The
      controller appropriately coordinated stimulation and exoskeletal constraints
      using the sensor-based FSM for subjects with different stimulation systems. The
      average range of motion at hip and knee joints during walking were 8.5 degrees 
      20.8 degrees  and 14.0 degrees -43.6 degrees , respectively. Walking speeds
      varied from 0.03 to 0.06 m/s, and cadences from 10 to 20 steps/min. CONCLUSIONS:
      A self-contained muscle-driven exoskeleton was a feasible intervention to restore
      stepping in individuals with paraplegia due to SCI. The untethered hybrid system
      was capable of adjusting to different individuals' needs to appropriately
      coordinate exoskeletal constraints with muscle activation using a sensor-driven
      FSM for stepping. Further improvements for out-of-the-laboratory use should
      include implantation of plantar flexor muscles to improve walking speed and power
      assist as needed at the hips and knees to maintain walking as muscles fatigue.

PMID- 28558836
TI  - Extraction of a specimen through an umbilical zigzag incision during laparoscopic
      surgery for endometrial cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Though laparoscopic surgery has recently been applied in the
      treatment of early-stage endometrial cancer, the presence of a large uterus is a
      hindrance to specimen extraction from the abdominal cavity. We describe a
      laparoscopic surgical technique for endometrial cancer involving the extraction
      of the resected specimen through an umbilical zigzag incision. CASE PRESENTATION:
      A 63-year-old woman with endometrial cancer underwent a total hysterectomy and
      bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy that was performed laparoscopically. The surgical
      specimen was extracted through an umbilical zigzag incision. This umbilical
      zigzag incision created a larger fascial and peritoneal opening, facilitating the
      removal of the specimen. The final histopathologic results revealed stage 1A G1
      endometrioid adenocarcinoma and multiple uterine leiomyomas. Three months after
      surgery, the wound in the umbilical region was inconspicuous, along with the
      inward movement of the umbilicus. CONCLUSIONS: A laparoscopic surgical technique
      for endometrial cancer involving the extraction of the specimen through an
      umbilical zigzag incision seems to reduce the difficulties associated with
      laparoscopic surgery and maintains cosmesis. Further analyses involving larger
      numbers of cases and long-term follow-up periods are warranted to evaluate this
      surgical method.

PMID- 28558837
TI  - Long-term clinical outcomes following treatment with alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor
      for COPD associated with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency: a look at the evidence.
AB  - Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a common hereditary disorder caused by
      mutations in the SERPINA1 gene, which encodes alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT; also
      known as alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor, A1-PI). An important function of A1-PI in
      the lung is to inhibit neutrophil elastase, one of various proteolytic enzymes
      released by activated neutrophils during inflammation. Absence or deficiency of
      A1-PI leads to an imbalance between elastase and anti-elastase activity, which
      results in progressive, irreversible destruction of lung tissue, and ultimately
      the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with early-onset
      emphysema. AATD is under-diagnosed, patients can experience long delays before
      obtaining an accurate diagnosis, and the consequences of delayed diagnosis or
      misdiagnosis can be severe. Currently, A1-PI therapy is the only available
      treatment that addresses disease etiology in patients with AATD; however,
      demonstrating clinical efficacy of A1-PI therapy is challenging. In order to show
      therapeutic efficacy with traditional endpoints such as forced expiratory volume
      in one second and mortality, large sample sizes and longer duration trials are
      required. However, AATD is a rare, slow progressive disease, which can take
      decades to manifest clinically and recruiting sufficient numbers of patients into
      prolonged placebo-controlled trials remains a significant obstacle. Despite this,
      the Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of augmentation therapy in Alpha 1
      Proteinase Inhibitor Deficiency (RAPID) and RAPID Extension trial, the largest
      clinical program completed to date, utilized quantitative chest computed
      tomography as a sensitive and specific measure of the extent of emphysema.
      Findings from the RAPID/RAPID Extension program definitively confirmed the
      benefits of A1-PI therapy in slowing disease progression and provided evidence of
      a disease-modifying effect of A1-PI therapy in patients with AATD. These findings
      suggest that the early introduction of treatment in patients with severe
      emphysema-related AATD may delay the time to death, lung transplantation or
      crippling respiratory complaints. In addition, there is now limited evidence that
      A1-PI therapy provides a gain of more than five life-years, supporting previous
      observations based on registry data. With the clinical efficacy of A1-PI therapy
      now demonstrated, further studies are required to assess long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28558838
TI  - Towards understanding the drivers of policy change: a case study of infection
      control policies for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Explaining policy change is one of the central tasks of contemporary
      policy analysis. In this article, we examine the changes in infection control
      policies for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in South Africa from the
      time the country made the transition to democracy in 1994, until 2015. We focus
      on MDR-TB infection control and refer to decentralised management as a form of
      infection control. Using Kingdon's theoretical framework of policy streams, we
      explore the temporal ordering of policy framework changes. We also consider the
      role of research in motivating policy changes. METHODS: Policy documents
      addressing MDR-TB in South Africa over the period 1994 to 2014 were extracted.
      Literature on MDR-TB infection control in South Africa was extracted from PubMed
      using key search terms. The documents were analysed to identify the changes that
      occurred and the factors driving them. RESULTS: During the period under study,
      five different policy frameworks were implemented. The policies were meant to
      address the overwhelming challenge of MDR-TB in South Africa, contextualised by
      high prevalence of HIV infection, that threatened to undermine public health
      programmes and the success of antiretroviral therapy rollouts. Policy changes in
      MDR-TB infection control were supported by research evidence and driven by the
      high incidence and complexity of the disease, increasing levels of
      dissatisfaction among patients, challenges of physical, human and financial
      resources in public hospitals, and the ideologies of the political leadership.
      Activists and people living with HIV played an important role in highlighting the
      importance of MDR-TB as well as exerting pressure on policymakers, while the mass
      media drew public attention to infection control as both a cause of and a
      solution to MDR-TB. CONCLUSION: The critical factors for policy change for
      infection control of MDR-TB in South Africa were rooted in the socioeconomic and
      political environment, were supported by extensive research, and can be framed
      using Kingdon's policy streams approach as an interplay of the problem of the
      disease, political forces that prevailed and alternative proposals.

PMID- 28558839
TI  - NLRP3 inflammasome activation in murine macrophages caused by Neospora caninum
      infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neospora caninum is an intracellular parasite that causes significant
      economic losses in cattle industry. Understanding the host resistance mechanisms
      in the innate immune response to neosporosis could facilitate the exploration of
      approaches for controlling N. caninum infection. The NLR inflammasome is a
      multiprotein platform in the cell cytoplasm and plays critical roles in the host
      response against microbes. METHODS: Neospora caninum-infected wild-type (WT)
      macrophages and Nlrp3 -/- macrophages, and inhibitory approaches were used to
      investigate inflammasome activation and its role in N. caninum infection.
      Inflammasome RT Profiler PCR Arrays were used to identify the primary genes
      involved in N. caninum infection. The expression of the sensor protein NLRP3,
      processing of caspase-1, secretion of IL-1beta and cell death were detected.
      Neospora caninum replication in macrophages was also assessed. RESULTS: Many NLR
      molecules participated in the recognition of N. caninum, especially the sensor
      protein NLRP3, and further study revealed that the NLRP3 distribution became
      punctate in the cell cytoplasm, which facilitated inflammasome activation.
      Inflammasome activation-mediated caspase-1 processing and IL-1beta cleavage in
      response to N. caninum infection were observed and were correlated with the time
      of infection and number of infecting parasites. LDH-related cell death was also
      observed, and this death was regarded as beneficial for the clearance of N.
      caninum. Treatment of N. caninum-infected macrophages with caspase-1, pan-caspase
      and NLRP3 inhibitors led to the impaired release of active IL-1beta and a failure
      to restrict parasite replication. And Neospora caninum infected peritoneal
      macrophages from Nlrp3-deficient mice displayed greatly decreased release of
      active IL-1beta and the failure of caspase-1 cleavage. CONCLUSIONS: The NLRP3
      inflammasome can be activated in N. caninum-infected macrophages, and plays a
      protective role in the host response to control N. caninum.

PMID- 28558840
TI  - Health professionals' job satisfaction and associated factors at public health
      centers in West Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human resources are vital for delivering health services, and health
      systems cannot function effectively without sufficient numbers of skilled,
      motivated, and well-supported health workers. Job satisfaction of health workers
      is important for motivation and efficiency, as higher job satisfaction improves
      both employee performance and patient satisfaction. Even though several studies
      have addressed job satisfaction among healthcare professionals in different part
      of the world, there are relatively few studies on healthcare professionals' job
      satisfaction in Ethiopia. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was
      conducted among health professionals working in health centers in April 2015
      using self-administered structured questionnaires. All 322 health professionals
      working in 23 randomly selected public health centers were included. Factor
      scores were computed for the identified items by varimax rotation to represent
      satisfaction. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed, and the
      effect of independent variables on the regression factor score quantified.
      RESULTS: Three hundred eight respondents participated with a response rate of
      95.56%. The overall level of job satisfaction was 41.46%. Compensation (benefits)
      (beta 0.448 [95% CI 0.341 to 0.554]), recognition by management (beta 0.132 [95%
      CI 0.035 to 0.228]), and opportunity for development (beta 0.123 [95% CI 0.020 to
      0.226]) were associated with job satisfaction. A unit increase in salary and
      incentives and recognition by management scores resulted in 0.459 (95% CI 0.356
      to 0.561) and 0.156 (95% CI 0.065 to 0.247) unit increases in job satisfaction
      scores, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The overall level of job satisfaction in
      health professionals was low. Salary and incentives, recognition by management,
      developmental opportunities, and patient appreciation were strong predictors of
      job satisfaction.

PMID- 28558841
TI  - Physical pain is common and associated with nonmedical prescription opioid use
      among people who inject drugs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People who inject drugs (PWID) often have poor health and lack access
      to health care. The aim of this study was to examine whether PWID engage in self
      treatment through nonmedical prescription opioid use (NMPOU). We describe the
      prevalence and features of self-reported physical pain and its association with
      NMPOU. METHODS: PWID (N = 702) in San Francisco, California (age 18+) were
      recruited to complete interviewer administered surveys between 2011 and 2013.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the
      associations among self-reported pain dimensions (past 24-h average pain, pain
      interference with functional domains) and NMPOU, controlling for age, sex,
      psychiatric illness, opioid substitution treatment, homelessness, street heroin
      use and unmet healthcare needs. RESULTS: Almost half of the sample reported pain,
      based on self-reported measures in the 24 h before their interview. The most
      common pain locations were to their back and lower extremities. Past 24-h NMPOU
      was common (14.7%) and associated with past 24 h average pain intensity on a 10
      point self-rating scale (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.15, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.21-3.80), and past 24 h pain interference with general activity
      (AOR 1.82 [95% CI 1.04-3.21]), walking ability (AOR 2.52 [95% CI 1.37-4.63]),
      physical ability (AOR 2.01 [95% CI 1.16-3.45]), sleep (AOR 1.98 [95% CI 1.13
      3.48]) and enjoyment of life (AOR 1.79 [95% CI 1.02-3.15]). CONCLUSION: Both pain
      and NMPOU are common among PWID, and highly correlated in this study. These
      findings suggest that greater efforts are needed to direct preventive health and
      services toward this population.

PMID- 28558842
TI  - Natriuretic peptides improve the developmental competence of in vitro cultured
      porcine oocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Natriuretic peptides (NPs), brain and C type NPs (BNP and CNP), were
      involved in the maintenance of porcine oocyte meiotic arrest. The present study
      investigated the effects of NPs on developmental competence of immature porcine
      oocytes with follicles of different sizes. METHODS: Follicular fluid NP levels
      were examined by radioimmunoassay. The developmental competence of porcine
      oocytes was evaluated by cleavage and blastocyst developmental rates after in
      vitro fertilization (IVF) or parthenogenetic activation (PA) of cumulus oocyte
      complexes (COCs), which were recovered from follicle with different sizes. NP
      levels were examined and classified according to the cleavage potential after IVF
      with COCs released from these follicles. RESULTS: The BNP and CNP concentrations
      were increased with follicular size in follicular fluid and sustained at the set
      ranges of 3.0 - 6.0 mm follicles compared to 6.1 - 8.0 mm follicles. The oocytes
      developed from 3.0 to 6.0 mm follicles demonstrated increased embryo cleavage and
      blastocyst ratios after IVF, with an increased follicle size (P < 0.05).
      Moreover, BNP and CNP significantly promoted the blastocyst developmental rates
      of 3.0 - 6.0 mm follicles, but could not improve the developmental competence of
      oocytes from 6.1 to 8.0 mm follicles due to low NP levels. The COCs from 3.0 to
      4.0 mm follicles were pre-incubated in 100 ng/ml of BNP and CNP media for 20 h
      before regular in vitro maturation, which demonstrated 2 to 3 folds higher
      developmental competencies in both PA and IVF groups compared to respective
      controls (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The effects of BNP and CNP supplementation in
      the pre-maturation culture media (PMC) on porcine developmental competence from
      COCs in follicles of different sizes were different and improved the
      developmental competence of porcine oocytes from small antral follicle in vitro.

PMID- 28558843
TI  - The effectiveness of a de-implementation strategy to reduce low-value blood
      management techniques in primary hip and knee arthroplasty: a pragmatic cluster
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perioperative autologous blood salvage and preoperative
      erythropoietin are not (cost) effective to reduce allogeneic transfusion in
      primary hip and knee arthroplasty, but are still used. This study aimed to
      evaluate the effectiveness of a theoretically informed multifaceted strategy to
      de-implement these low-value blood management techniques. METHODS: Twenty-one
      Dutch hospitals participated in this pragmatic cluster-randomized trial. At
      baseline, data were gathered for 924 patients from 10 intervention and 1040
      patients from 11 control hospitals undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty. The
      intervention included a multifaceted de-implementation strategy which consisted
      of interactive education, feedback on blood management performance, and a
      comparison with benchmark hospitals, aimed at orthopedic surgeons and
      anesthesiologists. After the intervention, data were gathered for 997 patients
      from the intervention and 1096 patients from the control hospitals. The
      randomization outcome was revealed after the baseline measurement. Primary
      outcomes were use of blood salvage and erythropoietin. Secondary outcomes
      included postoperative hemoglobin, length of stay, allogeneic transfusions, and
      use of local infiltration analgesia (LIA) and tranexamic acid (TXA). RESULTS: The
      use of blood salvage (OR 0.08, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.30) and erythropoietin (OR 0.30,
      95% CI 0.09 to 0.97) reduced significantly over time, but did not differ between
      intervention and control hospitals (blood salvage OR 1.74 95% CI 0.27 to 11.39,
      erythropoietin OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.26 to 6.84). Postoperative hemoglobin levels
      were significantly higher (beta 0.21, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.34) and length of stay
      shorter (beta -0.36, 95% CI -0.64 to -0.09) in hospitals receiving the
      multifaceted strategy, compared with control hospitals and after adjustment for
      baseline. Transfusions did not differ between the intervention and control
      hospitals (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.78). Both LIA (OR 0.0, 95% CI 0.0 to 0.0)
      and TXA (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.5) were significantly associated with the
      reduction in blood salvage over time. CONCLUSIONS: Blood salvage and
      erythropoietin use reduced over time, but not differently between intervention
      and control hospitals. The reduction in blood salvage was associated with
      increased use of local infiltration analgesia and tranexamic acid, suggesting
      that de-implementation is assisted by the substitution of techniques. The
      reduction in blood salvage and erythropoietin did not lead to a deterioration in
      patient-related secondary outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.trialregister.nl,
      NTR4044.

PMID- 28558844
TI  - Radiation-related lymphopenia is associated with spleen irradiation dose during
      radiotherapy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The decrease in peripheral blood lymphocytes induced by radiation
      lessens the antitumour effect of the immune response, which might cause
      immunosuppression. We aimed to investigate the correlation between the decrease
      in peripheral blood lymphocytes during radiotherapy (RT) and the spleen
      irradiation dose in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The
      subjects were 59 patients with HCC who had received RT from 2005 to 2014. The Min
      ALC (minimum value of absolute counts for peripheral blood lymphocytes) was
      collected from the routine workup for each patient prior to RT and weekly during
      RT. Spleen dose-volume variables, including the percentage of the organ volume
      receiving >= n Gy (Vn) and the mean spleen dose (MSD), were calculated using
      Eclipse treatment planning. Potential associations between dosimetric variables
      and the Min ALC were assessed by multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS:
      Peripheral lymphocytes decreased during RT (P < 0.001). The Min ALC correlated
      with the MSD (P = 0.005), spleen V5 (P = 0.001), spleen V25 (P = 0.026) and
      spleen V30 (P = 0.018). Controlling for the Karnofsky performance status (KPS),
      sex, age, Child-Pugh grade, total dose and tumour stage, a multiple linear
      regression model with bootstrap analysis of 1000 replicates showed that only the
      spleen V5 was correlated with the decrease in the Min ALC (P < 0.05). According
      to the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the predictive
      cutoff values of the MSD, V5, V25 and V30 of the spleen for the Min ALC were
      227.72 cGy, 17.84, 0.98 and 0.42%, respectively (P = 0.002, P = 0.004, P = 0.007
      and P = 0.002, respectively). Furthermore, an MSD >= 227.72 cGy (OR = 14.39; 95%
      CI, 12.18 to 16.60) and V5 (OR = 7.99; 95% CI, 6.91 to 9.07) of the spleen
      significantly predicted the Min ALC. CONCLUSIONS: Higher spleen irradiation doses
      were significantly correlated with lower Min ALC during RT for HCC. V5 should be
      limited in clinical practice. Maximum sparing for spleen irradiation during RT is
      recommended to preserve peripheral blood lymphocytes, which may decrease
      immunosuppression.

PMID- 28558845
TI  - Metformin is not associated with lactic acidosis in patients with diabetes
      undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a case control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metformin associated lactic acidosis (MALA) is a rare but lethal
      complication. There is no consensus regarding when to stop and resume metformin
      in patients who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). This study aimed
      to determine if uninterrupted metformin administration in patients with diabetes
      undergoing CABG increases the risk of lactic acidosis. METHODS: Over a span of 12
      months (2015-2016), 127 patients with type 2 diabetes underwent isolated CABG. Of
      those, 41 patients (32%) continued taking metformin and 86 patients (68%) took
      other antidiabetic agents. Patients taking metformin took the drug until the day
      of surgery and resumed taking it 3 h after extubation. RESULTS: There were no
      differences in clinical outcomes or complications between groups. Serial
      measurement of cardiac, liver, and kidney biomarkers were similar between groups.
      The mean peak lactic acid level was significantly higher in the non-metformin
      users (5.4 +/- 2.6 vs. 7.4 +/- 4.1 mmol/l; P = 0.001). Multivariable logistic
      regression analysis identified the need for vasopressor administration as an
      independent predictor of lactic acidosis (odds ratio: 7.3, 95% confidence
      interval: 2.5-20.6; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In the absence of risk factors
      associated with persistent lactic acidosis, such as shock or acute kidney or
      liver injury, continued peri-operative metformin administration was not
      associated with the occurrence of lactic acidosis in patients undergoing CABG.
      Elevated lactic acid levels seem to be directly related to tissue anoxia caused
      by escalating vasopressor support after surgery.

PMID- 28558846
TI  - Perioperative antibiotics in pediatric cardiac surgery: protocol for a systematic
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-operative infections in pediatric cardiac surgery are an ongoing
      clinical challenge, with rates between 1 and 20%. Perioperative antibiotics
      remain the standard for prevention of surgical-site infections, but the type of
      antibiotic and duration of administration remain poorly defined. Current levels
      of practice variation through informal surveys are very high. Rates of antibiotic
      resistant organisms are increasing steadily around the world. METHODS/DESIGN: We
      will identify all controlled observational studies and randomized controlled
      trials examining prophylactic antibiotic use in pediatric cardiac surgery. Data
      sources will include MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, and proceedings from recent
      relevant scientific meetings. For each included study, we will conduct duplicate
      independent data extraction, risk of bias assessment, and evaluation of quality
      of evidence using the GRADE approach. DISCUSSION: We will report the results of
      this review in agreement with the PRISMA statement and disseminate our findings
      at relevant critical care and cardiology conferences and through publication in
      peer-reviewed journals. We will use this systematic review to inform clinical
      guidelines, which will be disseminated in a separate stand-alone publication.
      STUDY REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42016052978C.

PMID- 28558847
TI  - Ultrasound characteristics of the mid-portion of the Achilles tendon in runners:
      a systematic review protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Achilles tendinopathy is one of the most common overuse injuries in
      recreational and competitive runners, yet the clinical significance and frequency
      of abnormal sonographic characteristics in runners remains unclear. This paper
      presents a protocol for a systematic review which aims to assess existing
      literature which has employed ultrasonography to evaluate characteristics of the
      mid-portion of the Achilles tendon in runners. METHODS: An electronic literature
      search will be conducted using the following electronic databases: MEDLINE,
      CINAHL and SPORTDiscus. Studies published in English will be included if they
      evaluate ultrasound characteristics associated with mid-portion Achilles
      tendinopathy in runners. Methodological quality will be assessed using a scale
      adapted from the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. DISCUSSION: This will be the first
      systematic review to summarise the existing evidence on ultrasound
      characteristics of the mid-portion of the Achilles tendon in recreational
      runners. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016050509.

PMID- 28558848
TI  - [Erythema nodosum as a reaction pattern: a broad spectrum of underlying causes].
AB  - Erythema nodosum is a skin disorder that is characterised by the presence of
      painful erythematous nodules and plaques, mainly located on the shins. This
      disorder is associated with comorbidities and can be considered as an aspecific
      reaction pattern to a broad range of causes. However, an idiopathic variant also
      exists, which occurs in 22-72% of cases. Erythema nodosum is pre-eminently a skin
      disease which, due to its multifactorial pathogenesis, occurs in a wider field
      than dermatology alone. Therefore, knowledge of this disorder is important for
      all practicing physicians. To illustrate this we describe three patients with
      erythema nodosum attributable to different causes.

PMID- 28558849
TI  - [Characterisation of breast lesions with VTIQ elastography: a new elastography
      method to evaluate the stiffness of tissues].
AB  - B-mode ultrasound is used as an adjunct to mammography to differentiate between
      benign and malignant breast lesions. An additional ultrasound technique is
      elastography which can evaluate the stiffness of tissues. It is believed that
      malignant lesions are generally stiffer than benign lesions. Virtual touch tissue
      Quantification (VTIQ) is a new elastography method for measuring the stiffness of
      tissue. Because this method does not depend on the degree of compression,
      measurements are reliable and reproducible. VTIQ - in combination with
      ultrasonography - has the potential to characterise abnormalities in more detail.
      Adding elastography to regular B-mode ultrasound improves the diagnostic
      specificity without loss of sensitivity. This suggests that VTIQ might change
      patient management and avoid unnecessary biopsies. However, further research
      involving a greater variety of abnormalities and larger study populations is
      indicated.

PMID- 28558850
TI  - [A girl with abdominal pain and haematomas on the belly].
AB  - A 14-year-old girl with anorexia nervosa was referred to our paediatric hospital.
      She had a five-day history of severe abdominal pain. On abdominal sonography and
      MRI a duodenal wall hematoma was seen, correlating anatomically to abdominal
      bruises found on physical examination. The girl admitted to self-injury related
      to her eating disorder.

PMID- 28558851
TI  - [New biopsy at lung cancer progression: rational treatment of resistant lung
      cancer].
AB  - Nowadays, patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer harbouring a driver
      mutation undergo targeted treatment. This results in profound tumour responses
      but inevitably induces resistance after approximately 9 to 12 months. In this
      article we consider the importance and clinical implications of taking new
      biopsies to retrieve information regarding resistance mechanisms. There is a
      shift in the use of other modalities such as radiotherapy and surgery in patients
      with oligometastatic disease, producing long-lasting responses. This is
      illustrated by three different patient cases: one with an EGFR exon 21 mutation,
      obtaining a T790M mutation upon treatment; another with a BRAF V600 mutation
      initially treated with chemotherapy and later with targeted therapy; and,
      finally, a patient with an ALK translocation with progression on crizotinib
      treatment, responding to subsequent alectinib therapy. The latter developed
      oligometastatic disease that was treated with radiotherapy, resulting in a
      complete response for at least 2 years.

PMID- 28558852
TI  - [No glucocorticoids for treatment of sepsis; unless...].
AB  - Steroids influence the immune response and blood pressure in patients with septic
      shock. Many trials have evaluated a putative positive effect of steroids as an
      adjuvant therapy in patients with sepsis and septic shock, with contradictory
      outcomes. As a consequence, the use of steroids in sepsis patients varies widely.
      A recently published randomized clinical trial has demonstrated that treatment
      with hydrocortisone does not delay or prevent progress to septic shock in
      patients with sepsis. Based on the current available data, the use of steroids in
      sepsis should be reserved for those patients who remain severely hemodynamic
      unstable after fluid resuscitation and vasopressor therapy, or those with a
      separate indication for steroid therapy. A corticotropin stimulation test to
      evaluate adrenal insufficiency is not useful.

PMID- 28558853
TI  - [Effectiveness of influenza vaccine in the Netherlands: predominant circulating
      virus type and vaccine match are important conditions].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between circulating influenza virus A
      types and subtypes and influenza B lineages, their match with the vaccine and the
      effectiveness of the influenza vaccine (IVE). DESIGN: Test negative case control
      study. METHOD: We used data from the Dutch Sentinel Practices of the Netherlands
      Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) Primary Care Database.
      Participating general practitioners took nose and throat swabs for viral studies
      from patients with influenza-like illness or another acute respiratory infection.
      Cases were those patients whose samples were positive for an influenza virus and
      controls were those whose samples were negative for influenza virus. We
      determined the IVE of 11 influenza seasons 2003/2004 to 2013/2014, for all
      seasons together and stratified by influenza virus type and to vaccine match or
      mismatch. RESULTS: Over all seasons, the IVE was 29% (95% CI:11-43). In seven of
      the 11 seasons there was a mismatch between vaccine and circulating virus type.
      The IVE was 40% (95% CI: 18-56) for those seasons in which there was a vaccine
      match, and 20% (95% CI: - 5-38) for seasons with a mismatch. When the influenza
      A/H3N2 virus was dominant, the IVE was 38% (95% CI: 14-55). The IVE against the
      influenza virus A/H1N1, A/H1N1/pdm09 and against both influenza B lineages was
      77% (95% CI: 37-92), 47% (95% CI: 22-64) and 64% (95% CI: 50-74), respectively.
      CONCLUSION: The IVE was particularly low when there was a mismatch between the
      vaccine and the circulating virus type and when A/H3N2 was the dominant influenza
      subtype.

PMID- 28558854
TI  - Probiotic yogurt and acidified milk similarly reduce postprandial inflammation
      and both alter the gut microbiota of healthy, young men.
AB  - Probiotic yogurt and milk supplemented with probiotics have been investigated for
      their role in 'low-grade' inflammation but evidence for their efficacy is
      inconclusive. This study explores the impact of probiotic yogurt on metabolic and
      inflammatory biomarkers, with a parallel study of gut microbiota dynamics. The
      randomised cross-over study was conducted in fourteen healthy, young men to test
      probiotic yogurt compared with milk acidified with 2 % d-(+)-glucono-delta
      lactone during a 2-week intervention (400 g/d). Fasting assessments, a high-fat
      meal test (HFM) and microbiota analyses were used to assess the intervention
      effects. Baseline assessments for the HFM were carried out after a run-in during
      which normal milk was provided. No significant differences in the inflammatory
      response to the HFM were observed after probiotic yogurt compared with acidified
      milk intake; however, both products were associated with significant reductions
      in the inflammatory response to the HFM compared with the baseline tests
      (assessed by IL6, TNFalpha and chemokine ligand 5) (P<0.001). These observations
      were accompanied by significant changes in microbiota taxa, including decreased
      abundance of Bilophila wadsworthia after acidified milk (log 2-fold-change (FC)=
      1.5, P adj=0.05) and probiotic yogurt intake (FC=-1.3, P adj=0.03), increased
      abundance of Bifidobacterium species after acidified milk intake (FC=1.4, P
      adj=0.04) and detection of Lactobacillus delbrueckii spp. bulgaricus (FC=7.0, P
      adj<0.01) and Streptococcus salivarius spp. thermophilus (FC=6.0, P adj<0.01)
      after probiotic yogurt intake. Probiotic yogurt and acidified milk similarly
      reduce postprandial inflammation that is associated with a HFM while inducing
      distinct changes in the gut microbiota of healthy men. These observations could
      be relevant for dietary treatments that target 'low-grade' inflammation.

PMID- 28558855
TI  - High-quality fish oil has a more favourable effect than oxidised fish oil on
      intermediate-density lipoprotein and LDL subclasses: a randomised controlled
      trial.
AB  - Fish oil (FO) supplementation reduces the risk of CVD. However, it is not known
      if FO of different qualities have different effects on lipoprotein subclasses in
      humans. We aimed at investigating the effects of oxidised FO and high-quality FO
      supplementation on lipoprotein subclasses and their lipid concentrations in
      healthy humans. In all, fifty-four subjects completed a double-blind randomised
      controlled intervention study. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive
      high-quality FO (n 17), oxidised FO (n 18) or high-oleic sunflower oil capsules
      (HOSO, n 19) for 7 weeks. The concentration of marine n-3 fatty acids was equal
      in high-quality FO and oxidised FO (1.6 g EPA+DHA/d). The peroxide value (PV) and
      anisidine value (AV) were 4 mEq/kg and 3 in high-quality FO and HOSO, whereas the
      PV and AV in the oxidised FO were 18 mEq/kg and 9. Blood samples were collected
      at baseline and end of study. NMR spectroscopy was applied for the analysis of
      lipoprotein subclasses and their lipid concentrations. High-quality FO reduced
      the concentration of intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL) particles and large,
      medium and small LDL particles, as well as the concentrations of total lipids,
      phospholipids, total cholesterol, cholesteryl esters and free cholesterol in IDL
      and LDL subclasses compared with oxidised FO and HOSO. Hence, high-quality FO and
      oxidised FO differently affect lipid composition in lipoprotein subclasses, with
      a more favourable effect mediated by high-quality FO. In future trials, reporting
      the oxidation levels of FO would be useful.

PMID- 28558856
TI  - Incidence and Risk Factors for Community and Hospital Acquisition of Clostridium
      difficile Infection in the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.
AB  - OBJECTIVES To estimate the incidence and identified risk factors for community
      acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA) Clostridium difficile infection (CDI)
      METHODS We conducted 2 parallel case-control studies at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical
      Center from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2014. We identified persons with
      CDI, determined whether infection was community or hospital acquired, and
      calculated incidence rates from 2007 to 2014. We collected demographic, clinical,
      and epidemiological information for CDI cases and hospitalized control cases and
      estimated the odds ratio with 95% confidence interval using conditional logistic
      regression. RESULTS In total, 1,563 CDI cases were identified in the study. The
      incidence rate of CA-CDI and HA-CDI increased by 1.6-fold and 1.2-fold,
      respectively, during 2012-2014. However, the incidence rate of CA-CDI was 0.84
      per 100,000 (95% CI, 0.52-1.30), the rate for HA-CDI was 4.7 per 10,000 patient
      days (95% CI, 4.08-5.38), respectively, in 2014. We identified several factors as
      independent variables significantly associated with HA-CDI: functional
      disability, presence of nasogastric tube, antibiotic use, chemotherapy, infection
      by extended-spectrum beta-lactamases, and mean of albumin values. Risk factors
      independently associated with CA-CDI were close contact with a family member who
      had been hospitalized in the previous 6 months, inflammatory bowel disease, and
      home density index (adjusted odds ratio, 25.7; 95% confidence interval, 3.99
      165.54; P=.001). CONCLUSIONS The identification of the main modifiable risk
      factors for HA-CDI (antibiotic exposure and hypoalbuminemia) and for CA-CDI
      (close contact with a family member who had been hospitalized in the previous 6
      months) is likely to optimize prevention efforts; these factors are critical in
      preventing the spread of CDI. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:912-920.

PMID- 28558857
TI  - How's Your Health at Home: Frail Homebound Patients Reported Health Experience
      and Outcomes.
AB  - We used a web-based mixed methods survey (HowsYourHealth - Frail) to explore the
      health of frail older (78% age 80 or older) adults enrolled in a home-based
      primary care program in Vancouver, Canada. Sixty per cent of eligible respondents
      participated, representing over one quarter (92/350, 26.2%) of all individuals
      receiving the service. Despite high levels of co-morbidity and functional
      dependence, 50 per cent rated their health as good, very good, or excellent.
      Adjusted odds ratios for positive self-rated health were 7.50, 95 per cent CI
      [1.09, 51.81] and 4.85, 95 per cent CI [1.02, 22.95] for absence of bothersome
      symptoms and being able to talk to family or friends respectively. Narrative
      responses to questions about end of life and living with illness are also
      described. Results suggest that greater focus on symptom management, and
      supporting social contact, may improve frail seniors' health.

PMID- 28558858
TI  - Adolescents from upper middle class communities: Substance misuse and addiction
      across early adulthood.
AB  - In this prospective study of upper middle class youth, we document frequency of
      alcohol and drug use, as well as diagnoses of abuse and dependence, during early
      adulthood. Two cohorts were assessed as high school seniors and then annually
      across 4 college years (New England Study of Suburban Youth younger cohort [NESSY
      Y]), and across ages 23-27 (NESSY older cohort [NESSY-O]; ns = 152 and 183 at
      final assessments, respectively). Across gender and annual assessments, results
      showed substantial elevations, relative to norms, for frequency of drunkenness
      and using marijuana, stimulants, and cocaine. Of more concern were psychiatric
      diagnoses of alcohol/drug dependence: among women and men, respectively, lifetime
      rates ranged between 19%-24% and 23%-40% among NESSY-Os at age 26; and 11%-16%
      and 19%-27% among NESSY-Ys at 22. Relative to norms, these rates among NESSY-O
      women and men were three and two times as high, respectively, and among NESSY-Y,
      close to one among women but twice as high among men. Findings also showed the
      protective power of parents' containment (anticipated stringency of repercussions
      for substance use) at age 18; this was inversely associated with frequency of
      drunkenness and marijuana and stimulant use in adulthood. Results emphasize the
      need to take seriously the elevated rates of substance documented among
      adolescents in affluent American school communities.

PMID- 28558860
TI  - Outil de sensibilisation des proches a la conduite automobile des aines.
AB  - This study aimed to explore the impact of an awareness tool for relatives of
      older drivers (OSCARPA) on i) their interest, openness and knowledge, ii) changes
      of abilities required for safe driving, and iii) utilization of compensatory
      strategies. A pre-experimental design with pretest (T0) and post-test (T1) eight
      to ten weeks after the intervention was realized with 45 relatives in contact
      with an older driver of 65 years old or older and who was driving at least once a
      week. Overall, the results demonstrated that OSCARPA increased i) interest,
      openness and knowledge of relatives (p<0.001), as well as their perceptions of
      ii) changes of abilities of older drivers (p=0.02), and iii) their utilization of
      compensatory strategies (p=0.001). Future studies would be relevant to further
      evaluate and increase the effectiveness of OSCARPA.

PMID- 28558859
TI  - Acute memory and psychotomimetic effects of cannabis and tobacco both 'joint' and
      individually: a placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cannabis and tobacco have contrasting cognitive effects. Smoking
      cannabis with tobacco is prevalent in many countries and although this may well
      influence cognitive and mental health outcomes, the possibility has rarely been
      investigated in human experimental psychopharmacological research. METHOD: The
      individual and interactive effects of cannabis and tobacco were evaluated in 24
      non-dependent cannabis and tobacco smokers in a randomized, placebo-controlled,
      double-blind, 2 (cannabis, placebo) * 2 (tobacco, placebo) crossover design.
      Verbal memory (prose recall), working memory (WM) performance including
      maintenance, manipulation and attention (N-back), psychotomimetic, subjective and
      cardiovascular measures were recorded on each of four sessions. RESULTS: Cannabis
      alone impaired verbal memory. A priori contrasts indicated that tobacco offset
      the effects of cannabis on delayed recall. However, this was not supported by
      linear mixed model analysis. Cannabis load-dependently impaired WM. By contrast,
      tobacco improved WM across all load levels. The acute psychotomimetic effects and
      ratings of 'stoned' and 'dizzy' induced by cannabis were not altered by tobacco.
      Cannabis and tobacco had independent effects on increasing heart rate and
      interacting effects on increasing diastolic blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Relative
      to placebo, acute cannabis impaired verbal memory and WM. Tobacco enhanced
      performance on WM, independently of cannabis. Moreover, we found some preliminary
      evidence that tobacco may offset the effects of cannabis on delayed, but not
      immediate, verbal recall. In contrast, the psychotomimetic and subjective effects
      of cannabis were unaffected by tobacco co-administration. By reducing the
      cognitive impairment from cannabis, tobacco co-administration may perpetuate use
      despite adverse health consequences.

PMID- 28558861
TI  - Animal Board Invited Review: Comparing conventional and organic livestock
      production systems on different aspects of sustainability.
AB  - To sustainably contribute to food security of a growing and richer world
      population, livestock production systems are challenged to increase production
      levels while reducing environmental impact, being economically viable, and
      socially responsible. Knowledge about the sustainability performance of current
      livestock production systems may help to formulate strategies for future systems.
      Our study provides a systematic overview of differences between conventional and
      organic livestock production systems on a broad range of sustainability aspects
      and animal species available in peer-reviewed literature. Systems were compared
      on economy, productivity, environmental impact, animal welfare and public health.
      The review was limited to dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs, broilers and laying
      hens, and to Europe, North America and New Zealand. Results per indicators are
      presented as in the articles without performing additional calculations. Out of
      4171 initial search hits, 179 articles were analysed. Studies varied widely in
      indicators, research design, sample size and location and context. Quite some
      studies used small samples. No study analysed all aspects of sustainability
      simultaneously. Conventional systems had lower labour requirements per unit
      product, lower income risk per animal, higher production per animal per time
      unit, higher reproduction numbers, lower feed conversion ratio, lower land use,
      generally lower acidification and eutrophication potential per unit product,
      equal or better udder health for cows and equal or lower microbiological
      contamination. Organic systems had higher income per animal or full time
      employee, lower impact on biodiversity, lower eutrophication and acidification
      potential per unit land, equal or lower likelihood of antibiotic resistance in
      bacteria and higher beneficial fatty acid levels in cow milk. For most
      sustainability aspects, sometimes conventional and sometimes organic systems
      performed better, except for productivity, which was consistently higher in
      conventional systems. For many aspects and animal species, more data are needed
      to conclude on a difference between organic and conventional livestock production
      systems.

PMID- 28558862
TI  - First Results of the Swiss National Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Program:
      Who Seeks Shall Find.
AB  - OBJECTIVES To report on the results of the Swiss national surgical site infection
      (SSI) surveillance program, including temporal trends, and to describe
      methodological characteristics that may influence SSI rates DESIGN Countrywide
      survey of SSI over a 4-year period. Analysis of prospectively collected data
      including patient and procedure characteristics as well as aggregated SSI rates
      stratified by risk categories, type of SSI, and time of diagnosis. Temporal
      trends were analyzed using stepwise multivariate logistic regression models with
      adjustment of the effect of the duration of participation in the surveillance
      program for confounding factors. SETTING The study included 164 Swiss public and
      private hospitals with surgical activities. RESULTS From October 2011 to
      September 2015, a total of 187,501 operations performed in this setting were
      included. Cumulative SSI rates varied from 0.9% for knee arthroplasty to 14.4%
      for colon surgery. Postdischarge follow-up was completed in >90% of patients at 1
      month for surgeries without an implant and in >80% of patients at 12 months for
      surgeries with an implant. High rates of SSIs were detected postdischarge, from
      20.7% in colon surgeries to 93.3% in knee arthroplasties. Overall, the impact of
      the duration of surveillance was significantly and independently associated with
      a decrease in SSI rates in herniorraphies and C-sections but not for the other
      procedures. Nevertheless, some hospitals observed significant decreases in their
      rates for various procedures. CONCLUSIONS Intensive post-discharge surveillance
      may explain high SSI rates and cause artificial differences between programs.
      Surveillance per se, without structured and mandatory quality improvement
      efforts, may not produce the expected decrease in SSI rates. Infect Control Hosp
      Epidemiol 2017;38:697-704.

PMID- 28558863
TI  - Later School Start Times: What Informs Parent Support or Opposition?
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVES: To investigate parental knowledge about adolescent sleep needs,
      and other beliefs that may inform their support for or objection to later school
      start times. METHODS: In 2014, we conducted a cross-sectional, Internet-based
      survey of a nationally representative sample of parents as part of the C.S. Mott
      Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Parents with teens aged
      13-17 years reported their children's sleep patterns and school schedules, and
      whether the parents supported later school start times (8:30 am or later).
      Responses associated with parental support of later school start times were
      examined with logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 88% of parents
      reported school start times before 8:30 am, and served as the analysis sample (n
      = 554). In this group, 51% expressed support for later school start times.
      Support was associated with current school start times before 7:30 am (odds ratio
      [OR] = 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2, 8.4]); parental opinion that their
      teen's current school start time was "too early" (OR = 3.8 [1.8, 7.8]); and
      agreement with American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations about school start
      times (OR = 4.7 [2.2, 10.1]). Support also was associated with anticipation of
      improved school performance (OR = 3.0 [1.5, 5.9]) or increased sleep duration (OR
      = 4.0 [1.8, 8.9]) with later school start times. Conversely, parents who
      anticipated too little time for after-school activities (OR = 0.5 [0.3, 0.9]) and
      need for different transportation plans (OR = 0.5 [0.2, 0.9]) were often less
      supportive. CONCLUSIONS: Parental education about healthy sleep needs and
      anticipated health benefits may increase their support for later school start
      times. Educational efforts should also publicize the positive experiences of
      communities that have made this transition, with regard to limited adverse effect
      on after-school activity schedules and transportation.

PMID- 28558865
TI  - Early Onset of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Two Children With SEPN1-Related
      Myopathies.
AB  - ABSTRACT: Selenoprotein-related myopathy (SEPN1-RM) is a rare disease with a
      variable clinical presentation. The selenoprotein N1 gene (SEPN1) mutation
      causing this congenital muscular dystrophy was identified in 2001. Sleep
      disordered breathing (SDB) may occur in young patients with SEPN1-RM who are
      still able to walk. We report the cases of two children with SEPN1-RM who
      presented with SDB at the ages of 7 and 12 years and for whom long-term nocturnal
      noninvasive ventilation yielded significant improvement. Based on literature
      review and our current cases, it seems that there is no obvious relationship
      between the time since SDB onset and outcome of pulmonary function tests or limb
      muscle weakness. We therefore suggest that SDB should be systematically screened
      for in patients with SEPN1-RM, at regular intervals using nocturnal
      polysomnography.

PMID- 28558864
TI  - A Randomized Crossover Trial Comparing Autotitrating and Continuous Positive
      Airway Pressure in Subjects With Symptoms of Aerophagia: Effects on Compliance
      and Subjective Symptoms.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVES: To assess the benefit and tolerance of autotitrating positive
      airway pressure (APAP) versus continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in
      subjects who experience aerophagia. METHODS: This is the report of a prospective,
      two-week, double-blinded, randomized crossover trial set in an Australian
      clinical sleep laboratory in a tertiary hospital. Fifty-six subjects who reported
      symptoms of aerophagia that they attributed to CPAP were recruited. Full face
      masks were used by 39 of the 56 subjects recruited. Subjects were randomly and
      blindly allocated to either CPAP at their treatment recommended pressure or APAP
      6-20 cm H2O, in random order. Subjects spent two weeks on each therapy mode.
      Therapy usage hours, 95th centile pressure, maximum pressure, 95th centile leak,
      and residual apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) were reported at the end of each two-week
      treatment period. Functional Outcome of Sleepiness Questionnaire, Epworth
      Sleepiness Scale, and visual analog scale to measure symptoms of aerophagia were
      also completed at the end of each 2-week treatment arm. RESULTS: The median
      pressure (P < .001) and 95th centile pressure (P < .001) were reduced with APAP
      but no differences in compliance (P = .120) and residual AHI were observed. APAP
      reduced the symptoms of bloating (P = .011), worst episode of bloating (P =
      .040), flatulence (P = .010), and belching (P = .001) compared to CPAP. There
      were no differences in Epworth Sleepiness Scale or Functional Outcome of
      Sleepiness Questionnaire outcomes between CPAP and APAP. CONCLUSIONS: APAP
      therapy reduces the symptoms of aerophagia while not affecting compliance when
      compared with CPAP therapy. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian and New
      Zealand Clinical Trials Registry at https://www.anzctr.org.au, trial number
      ACTRN12611001250921. COMMENTARY: A commentary on this article appears in this
      issue on page 859.

PMID- 28558866
TI  - Potential Clinical Utility and Feasibility of Combined Left Atrial Appendage
      Closure and Positioning of Miniaturized Pacemaker Through a Single Right Femoral
      Vein Access.
AB  - This study assessed the clinical utility and feasibility of concomitant of
      combined left atrial appendage (LAA) closure and positioning of miniaturized
      pacemaker (Micra TPS). All consecutive patients who underwent VVI-PM implant from
      November 2015 to October 2016 were considered. VVI-PM implant was conducted
      either using transvenous approach or by positioning Micra TPS. In selected
      patients with concomitant contraindication to OAC, Micra TPS was combined with
      LAA occlusion ("combined approach"), performed in general anesthesia and guided
      by multimodality imaging; procedural and follow-up data of these specific
      patients were registered. Sixty patients were treated with VVI-PM implant. Six
      patients (10.0%) presented OAC contraindication, of which 4 (6.7%) were eligible
      for the "combined procedure"; 2 of 4 of these patients presented chronic
      hemodialysis-dependent renal failure. The combined approach was successful in all
      4 patients without intra- or periprocedural complications. No adverse events
      linked to the combined approach occurred during mid-term follow-up (7.5,
      interquartile range 5.0 to 7.9 months). In conclusion, VVI-PM indication and
      concomitant contraindication to OAC is not uncommon; in selected patients,
      combined LAA closure and positioning of Micra TPS may be a feasible therapeutic
      option.

PMID- 28558867
TI  - Apigenin's anticancer properties and molecular mechanisms of action: Recent
      advances and future prospectives.
AB  - Cancer is a major health concern and leading burden on economy worldwide. An
      increasing effort is devoted to isolation and development of plant-derived
      dietary components as effective chemo-preventive products. Phytochemical
      compounds from natural resources such as fruits and vegetables are responsible
      for decreasing the risk of certain cancers among the consuming populations.
      Apigenin, a flavonoid phytochemical found in many kinds of fruits and vegetables,
      has been shown to exert significant biological effects, such as anti-oxidant,
      anti-inflammatory and most particularly anti-neoplastic properties. This review
      is intended to summarize the most recent advances in the anti-proliferative and
      chemo-preventive effects of apigenin in different cancer models. Analysis of the
      data from the studied cancer models has revealed that apigenin exerts its anti
      proliferative effects through multiple and complex pathways. This guided us to
      discover some controversial results about the exact role of certain molecular
      pathways such as autophagy in the anticancer effects of apigenin. Further, there
      were cumulative positive evidences supporting the involvement of certain pathways
      such as apoptosis, ROS and DNA damage and repair. Apigenin possesses a high
      potential to be used as a chemosensitizing agent through the up-regulation of DR5
      pathway. According to these preclinical findings we recommend that further robust
      unbiased studies should consider the possible interactions between different
      molecular pathways.

PMID- 28558868
TI  - Anti-hyperuricemic and anti-inflammatory actions of vaticaffinol isolated from
      Dipterocarpus alatus in hyperuricemic mice.
AB  - The present study was designed to examine the anti-hyperuricemic and anti
      inflammatory effects and possible mechanisms of vaticaffinol, a resveratrol
      tetramer isolated from ethanol extracts of Dipterocarpus alatus, in oxonate
      induced hyperuricemic mice. At 1 h after 250 mg.kg-1 potassium oxonate was given,
      vaticaffinol at 20, 40, and 60 mg.kg-1 was intragastrically administered to
      hyperuricemic mice once daily for seven consecutive days. Vaticaffinol
      significantly decreased serum uric acid levels and improved kidney function in
      hyperuricemic mice. It inhibited hepatic activity of xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH)
      and xanthine oxidase (XOD), regulated renal mRNA and protein levels of urate
      transporter 1 (URAT1), glucose transporter 9 (GLUT9), organic anion transporter 1
      (OAT1), organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1), OCT2, organic cation/carnitine
      transporter 1 (OCTN1), and OCTN2 in hyperuricemic mice. Moreover, vaticaffinol
      markedly down-regulated renal protein levels of NOD-like receptor 3 (NLRP3),
      apoptosis-associated speck-like (ASC), and Caspase-1, resulting in the reduction
      of interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-18, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF
      alpha) levels in this animal model. Additionally, HPLC and LC-MS analyses clearly
      testified the presence of vaticaffinol in the crude extract. These results
      suggest that vaticaffinol may be useful for the prevention and treatment of
      hyperuricemia with kidney inflammation.

PMID- 28558869
TI  - Triptolide reduces prostate size and androgen level on testosterone-induced
      benign prostatic hyperplasia in Sprague Dawley rats.
AB  - Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is an age-related disease of unknown etiology,
      characterized by prostatic enlargement coincident with distinct alterations in
      tissue histology. In the present study, we investigated whether triptolide can
      prevent testosterone-induced prostatic hyperplasia in rats. Castration was
      performed via the scrotal route after urethane aesthesia. BPH was induced in
      experimental groups by daily subcutaneous injections of testosterone propionate
      (TP) for two weeks. Triptolide was administered daily by oral gavage at a dose of
      100 and 50 MUg.kg-1 for 2 weeks, along with the TP injections. On day 14, the
      animals were humanely killed by cervical dislocation after aesthesia. Prostates
      were excised, weighed, and used for histological studies. Testosterone and
      dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels in serum and prostate were measured. The results
      showed that triptolide significantly reduced the prostate weight, and the
      testosterone and DHT levels in both the serum and prostate. Histopathological
      examination also showed that triptolide treatment suppressed TP-induced prostatic
      hyperplasia. In conclusion, triptolide effectively inhibits the development of
      BPH induced by testosterone in a rat model.

PMID- 28558870
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of 2-cyano-3, 12-dioxooleana-1, 9(11)-en-28-oate-13beta,
      28-olide as a potent anti-inflammatory agent for intervention of LPS-induced
      acute lung injury.
AB  - The present study was designed to synthesize 2-Cyano-3, 12-dioxooleana-1, 9(11)
      en-28-oate-13beta, 28-olide (1), a lactone derivative of oleanolic acid (OA) and
      evaluate its anti-inflammatory activity. Compound 1 significantly diminished
      nitric oxide (NO) production and down-regulated the mRNA expression of iNOS, COX
      2, IL-6, IL-1beta, and TNF-alpha in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7
      cells. Further in vivo studies in murine model of LPS-induced acute lung injury
      (ALI) showed that 1 possessed more potent protective effects than the well-known
      anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone by inhibiting myeloperoxidase (MPO)
      activity, reducing total cells and neutrophils, and suppressing inflammatory
      cytokines expression, and thus ameliorating the histopathological conditions of
      the injured lung tissue. In conclusion, compound 1 could be developed as a
      promising anti-inflammatory agent for intervention of LPS-induced ALI.

PMID- 28558871
TI  - A lipophilic prodrug of Danshensu: preparation, characterization, and in vitro
      and in vivo evaluation.
AB  - Danshensu [3-(3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl) lactic acid, DSS], one of the significant
      cardioprotective components, is extracted from the root of Salvia miltiorrhiza.
      In the present study, an ester prodrug of Danshensu (DSS), palmitoyl Danshensu
      (PDSS), was synthesized with the aim to improve its oral bioavailability and
      prolong its half-life. The in vitro experiments were carried out to evaluate the
      physicochemical properties and stability of PDSS. Although the solubility of PDSS
      in water was only 0.055 mg.mL-1, its solubility in FaSSIF and FeSSIF reached 4.68
      and 9.08 mg.mL-1, respectively. Octanol-water partition coefficient (log P) was
      increased from -2.48 of DSS to 1.90 of PDSS. PDSS was relatively stable in the
      aqueous solution in pH range from 5.6 to 7.4. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics
      in rats was evaluated after oral administration of PDSS and DSS. AUC and t1/2 of
      PDSS were enhanced up to 9.8-fold and 2.2-fold, respectively, compared to that of
      DSS. Cmax was 1.67 +/- 0.11 MUg.mL-1 for PDSS and 0.81 +/- 0.06 MUg.mL-1 for DSS.
      Thus, these results demonstrated that PDSS had much higher oral bioavailability
      and longer circulation time than its parent drug.

PMID- 28558872
TI  - Nuclear magnetic resonance based metabolomic differentiation of different
      Astragali Radix.
AB  - Astragali Radix (AR) is one of the most popular herbal medicines in traditional
      Chinese medicine (TCM). Wild AR is believed to be of high quality, and
      substitution with cultivated AR is frequently encountered in the market. In the
      present study, two types of ARs (wild and cultivated) from Astragalus
      membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. and A. membranaceus var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao,
      growing in different regions of China, were analyzed by NMR profiling coupled
      with multivariate analysis. Results showed that both could be differentiated
      successfully and cultivation patterns or growing years might have greater impact
      on the metabolite compositions than the variety; the metabolites responsible for
      the separation were identified. In addition, three extraction methods were
      compared and the method (M1) was used for further analysis. In M1, the extraction
      solvent composed of water, methanol, and chloroform in the ratio of 1 : 1 : 2 was
      used to obtain the aqueous methanol (upper layer) and chloroform (lower layer)
      fractions, respectively, showing the best separation. The differential
      metabolites among different methods were also revealed. Moreover, the
      sucrose/glucose ratio could be used as a simple index to differentiate wild and
      cultivated AR. Meanwhile, the changes of correlation pattern among the
      differential metabolites of the two varieties were found. The work demonstrated
      that NMR-based non-targeted profiling approach, combined with multivariate
      statistical analysis, can be used as a powerful tool for differentiating AR of
      different cultivation types or growing years.

PMID- 28558873
TI  - Mechanism for ginkgolic acid (15 : 1)-induced MDCK cell necrosis: Mitochondria
      and lysosomes damages and cell cycle arrest.
AB  - Ginkgolic acids (GAs), primarily found in the leaves, nuts, and testa of ginkgo
      biloba, have been identified with suspected allergenic, genotoxic and cytotoxic
      properties. However, little information is available about GAs toxicity in
      kidneys and the underlying mechanism has not been thoroughly elucidated so far.
      Instead of GAs extract, the renal cytotoxicity of GA (15 : 1), which was isolated
      from the testa of Ginkgo biloba, was assessed in vitro by using MDCK cells. The
      action of GA (15 : 1) on cell viability was evaluated by the MTT and neutral red
      uptake assays. Compared with the control, the cytotoxicity of GA (15 : 1) on MDCK
      cells displayed a time- and dose-dependent manner, suggesting the cells
      mitochondria and lysosomes were damaged. It was confirmed that GA (15 : 1)
      resulted in the loss of cells mitochondrial trans-membrane potential (DeltaPsim).
      In propidium iodide (PI) staining analysis, GA (15 : 1) induced cell cycle arrest
      at the G0/G1 and G2/M phases, influencing on the DNA synthesis and cell mitosis.
      Characteristics of necrotic cell death were observed in MDCK cells at the
      experimental conditions, as a result of DNA agarose gel electrophoresis and
      morphological observation of MDCK cells. In conclusion, these findings might
      provide useful information for a better understanding of the GA (15 : 1) induced
      renal toxicity.

PMID- 28558874
TI  - Identification of C-geranylated flavonoids from Paulownia catalpifolia Gong Tong
      fruits by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS and their anti-aging effects on 2BS cells induced by
      H2O2.
AB  - The fruits of Paulownia catalpifolia Gong Tong are used as a Chinese folk herbal
      medicine for the treatment of enteritis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, and dysentery,
      etc. Our previous study has identified new C-geranylated flavanones with obvious
      anti-proliferative effects in lung cancer A549 cells. In the present study, a new
      C-geranylated flavone, paucatalinone C (1) and five known C-geranylated
      flavanones (2-6) were isolated. In addition, a total of 34 C-geranylated
      flavonoids were detected by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS coupling techniques from the
      CH2Cl2 extract of P. catalpifolia. Futhermore, anti-aging effects of isolated
      compounds were evaluated in vitro with premature senescent 2BS cells induced by
      H2O2. Phytochemical results indicated that P. catalpifolia was a natural resource
      of abundant C-geranylated flavonoids. Diplacone (3) and paucatalinone A (5) were
      the potent anti-aging agents in the premature senescent 2BS cells induced by H2O2
      and the C-geranyl substituent may be an important factor because of its
      lipophilic character.

PMID- 28558875
TI  - Characterization and quantitation of aristolochic acid analogs in different parts
      of Aristolochiae Fructus, using UHPLC-Q/TOF-MS and UHPLC-QqQ-MS.
AB  - Aristolochiae Fructus, a Chinese herbal medicine derived from the fruit of
      Aristolochia contorta Bge., contains nephrotoxic aristolochic acid analogues
      (AAAs). According to ancient medical texts, various medicinal parts of the fruit
      of A. contorta were ever used. In order to reveal which part could be safely and
      effectively used, it is necessary to analyze the chemical profiles of different
      medicinal parts. Herein we compared the chemical compositions and determined
      aristolochic acid I (AA-I) and aristolochic acid II (AA-II) in the four parts
      viz. outer pericarp, inner pericarp, septum, and seed. Ultra-high performance
      liquid chromatography equipped with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry
      (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) was applied for chemical profiling. Ultra-high performance liquid
      coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QqQ-MS) was employed to
      quantify AA-I and AA-II in different parts. It was found that the chemical
      compositions of the four parts varied both qualitatively and quantitatively. A
      total of 10 AAAs, including 5 aristolochic acids and 5 aristolactams, together
      with 3 alkaloids, were unambiguously or tentatively identified by UHPLC-QTOF-MS.
      The quantitatively analytical results obtained by UHPLC-QqQ-MS showed that AA-I
      and AA-II exclusively accumulate in the seeds of A. contorta. These findings
      provide supporting data for the rational selection of medicinal parts.

PMID- 28558876
TI  - Chaotic home environment is associated with reduced infant processing speed under
      high task demands.
AB  - Early adversity has profound long-term consequences for child development across
      domains. The effects of early adversity on structural and functional brain
      development were shown for infants under 12 months of life. However, the causal
      mechanisms of these effects remain relatively unexplored. Using a visual
      habituation task we investigated whether chaotic home environment may affect
      processing speed in 5.5 month-old infants (n=71). We found detrimental effects of
      chaos on processing speed for complex but not for simple visual stimuli. No
      effects of socio-economic status on infant processing speed were found although
      the sample was predominantly middle class. Our results indicate that chaotic
      early environment may adversely affect processing speed in early infancy, but
      only when greater cognitive resources need to be deployed. The study highlights
      an attractive avenue for research on the mechanisms linking home environment with
      the development of attention control.

PMID- 28558877
TI  - mHealth for mental health in the Middle East: Need, technology use, and readiness
      among Palestinians in the West Bank.
AB  - Palestinians in the West Bank are at heightened risk for mental health problems.
      Limited availability of clinicians and a host of geopolitical, topographical, and
      infrastructural challenges create significant regional barriers to clinic-based
      care. The objective of this study was to examine whether mHealth approaches that
      leverage mobile phones for remote mental health treatment may be viable
      alternatives. We surveyed 272 Palestinian adults in urban, rural, and refugee
      camp settings. Most participants (93.4%) reported owning mobile phones. The
      penetration of mobile devices was high across all study sites. Males and females
      did not differ in their access to this resource. Among mobile phone owners, 79.9%
      had smartphones, 32.2% had basic mobile phones, and 12.2% owned both. Respondents
      reported having reliable access to electricity (99.6%) and Wi-Fi (80.9%). Almost
      all mobile phone owners (99.6%) reported using social media such as Facebook,
      WhatsApp, or Twitter. When asked to estimate the prevalence of mental health
      problems in the region, 61.4% of participants reported that over half of the
      people in their communities struggled with depression, posttraumatic stress, or
      auditory hallucinations. Most participants indicated that they would personally
      be interested in mHealth for Mental Health options such as bi-directional texting
      with clinicians (68.8%), smartphone applications (66.5%), unidirectional support
      texts (64.7%), or web-based interventions (64.0%). Given the Palestinian
      populations' broad access to technology and technological infrastructure, need
      for care, and openness to engage in mobile interventions, mHealth should be
      considered a promising strategy for mental health services in the West Bank.

PMID- 28558878
TI  - The neurobiology of depression: An integrated view.
AB  - Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most common and debilitating mental
      disorders; however, its etiology remains unclear. This paper aims to summarize
      the major neurobiological underpinnings of depression, synthesizing the findings
      into a comprehensive integrated view. A literature review was conducted using
      Pubmed. Search terms included "depression" or "MDD" AND "biology",
      "neurobiology", "inflammation", "neurogenesis", "monoamine", and "stress".
      Articles from 1995 to 2016 were reviewed with a focus on the connection between
      different biological and psychological models. Some possible pathophysiological
      mechanisms of depression include altered neurotransmission, HPA axis
      abnormalities involved in chronic stress, inflammation, reduced neuroplasticity,
      and network dysfunction. All of these proposed mechanisms are integrally related
      and interact bidirectionally. In addition, psychological factors have been shown
      to have a direct effect on neurodevelopment, causing a biological predisposition
      to depression, while biological factors can lead to psychological pathology as
      well. The authors suggest that while it is possible that there are several
      different endophenotypes of depression with distinct pathophysiological
      mechanisms, it may be helpful to think of depression as one united syndrome, in
      which these mechanisms interact as nodes in a matrix. Depressive disorders are
      considered in the context of the RDoC paradigm, identifying the pathological
      mechanisms at every translational level, with a focus on how these mechanisms
      interact. Finally, future directions of research are identified.

PMID- 28558879
TI  - Psychosis and catatonia as presenting features of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (anti
      NMDA) receptor encephalitis.

PMID- 28558880
TI  - Cultural considerations in the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia: A case
      example from India.
AB  - Culture plays an important role in the presentation, help seeking, treatment and
      outcomes of psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia. We report a case of
      paranoid schizophrenia in a 35-year-old lady, from South India, whose clinical
      presentation was influenced by various sociocultural factors. These cultural
      constructs were taken into consideration to formulate an acceptable and effective
      management plan. A detailed case description using a cultural formulation to
      highlight the etic and emic perspectives and challenges in treatment and
      management are discussed.

PMID- 28558881
TI  - Social anxiety and Internet socialization in Indian undergraduate students: An
      exploratory study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a globally prevalent, chronic,
      debilitating psychiatric disorder affecting youth. With comorbidities including
      major depression, substance abuse, lower educational and work attainment, and
      increased suicide risk, it has a significant public health burden. The objective
      of this study was to estimate the prevalence of SAD in urban Indian undergraduate
      students and to study their Facebook (FB) usage patterns. METHODS: In this
      exploratory cross-sectional study, 316 undergraduate students were screened for
      social anxiety using validated instruments, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale
      (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS), and divided into two groups based on scores
      obtained. The groups were then compared with regards to behaviors and attitudes
      toward Facebook, obtained from a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS: SAD was
      estimated to be a significant, prevalent (7.8%) disorder in otherwise productive
      youth, and showed female preponderance. Higher specific social phobia scores were
      associated with the inability to reduce Facebook use, urges toward increasing
      use, spending more time thinking about Facebook, negative reactions to
      restricting use, and using it to forget one's problems. CONCLUSIONS: SAD was
      estimated to have a prevalence of 7.8% in our study, and was associated with
      stronger FB usage attitudes and patterns. We recommend that the relationship
      between social anxiety and Internet use be explored further, to study the
      possibility of Internet-based screening and intervention strategies having wider
      reach and appeal in socially anxious individuals.

PMID- 28558882
TI  - Validation of the Persian version of the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale
      (SCoRS) in patients with schizophrenia.
AB  - The Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS) is an interview-based assessment
      of cognition that involves interviews with patients and informants. The SCoRS has
      shown good reliability, validity, and sensitivity to cognitive impairment in
      schizophrenia, with the advantage of brief administration and scoring time. The
      present study aimed to test the concurrent validity of the Persian version of the
      SCoRS. A group of 35 patients with schizophrenia and a group of 35 healthy
      controls received the Persian-SCoRS in the first session, and a standardized
      performance-based cognitive battery, the Brief Assessment of Cognition in
      Schizophrenia (BACS), in the second session.Our results indicated that the
      Persian version of the SCoRS was sensitive to cognitive impairment in the
      patients. The Persian SCoRS global rating was significantly associated with the
      composite score generated from the Persian version of the BACS and predicted
      functional outcomes as measured by Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and
      World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHO QOL). A Persian version of the
      SCoRS, an interview based measure of cognition that included informants, is
      related to cognitive performance and global functioning.

PMID- 28558883
TI  - Traumatic dimensions of hikikomori: A Foucauldian note.

PMID- 28558884
TI  - Exploring suicide risk factors among Japanese individuals: The largest case
      control psychological autopsy study in Japan.
AB  - This case-control psychological autopsy study explored suicide risk factors among
      Japanese individuals. We targeted 102 suicide completers over 20 years of age and
      334 living controls matched to suicide cases by gender, age, and residential
      municipality in Japan. After controlling for other factors, we found significant
      associations between suicide and mental disorders, sleeping problems, and verbal
      communication of one's own death. We discuss the importance of sensitive
      responses to verbal expressions of suicidal ideation.

PMID- 28558885
TI  - Cortical surface area hyperexpansion in infants: A promising biomarker for autism
      spectrum disorder.

PMID- 28558886
TI  - Lipids, aggression, suicidality and impulsivity in drug-naive/drug-free patients
      of schizophrenia.
AB  - AIM: Present study aimed at determining lipid profiles in acutely symptomatic
      drug-naive/drug-free patients of schizophrenia, comparing them with healthy
      controls and exploring relationships between various lipid fractions, aggression,
      suicidality and impulsivity in this population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a
      cross-sectional hospital-based study, comparing patients with schizophrenia
      (M=46, F=14; mean age 32.40+/-6.6 years; 48 drug-free for 10.50+/-9.2 weeks) with
      60 age-sex matched healthy controls. Upon recruitment, fasting venous blood
      samples of all subjects were analysed for total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, VLDL and
      TG levels, and patients were rated on PANSS for symptom severity, Modified Overt
      Aggression Scale for aggression, Impulsivity Rating Scale for impulsivity and
      Scale for Suicide Ideation for suicidality. RESULTS: The socio-demographic
      characteristics of the patients were comparable to controls. In patients, total
      cholesterol, HDL and LDL levels were found to be significantly lower (p<0.01)
      than the control group. When explored further in patients, lower total
      cholesterol and LDL levels showed significant negative correlations with scores
      on impulsivity (p<0.01) and suicidality (p<0.05); and TG level showed a negative
      correlation with impulsivity (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to a growing
      literature on a complex relationship between lipid fractions and impulsivity,
      suicidality and aggression in schizophrenia; providing interesting insights into
      the biochemical basis of human behaviour and confirming these in a developing
      world population. The implications are many, including a need to review
      judiciously the promotion of weight loss and cholesterol reduction programmes in
      constitutionally vulnerable population, at least during their acutely-symptomatic
      states.

PMID- 28558887
TI  - Treatment retention of risperidone long-acting injection in patients with early
      onset schizophrenia in Japan.

PMID- 28558888
TI  - Prevalence of metabolic syndrome among patients with depressive disorder admitted
      to a psychiatric inpatient unit: A comparison with healthy controls.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS)
      among inpatients with depressive disorders and matched healthy controls. METHOD:
      One hundred fifty eight patients with depressive disorders and 52 age and gender
      matched healthy controls were assessed for the prevalence of MS using Common
      Criteria for MS. RESULTS: Prevalence of Metabolic syndrome among inpatients with
      depressive disorders was 44.3%, which was significantly higher than the healthy
      control group (17.3%). Increased waist circumference was the most common
      abnormality in both the groups. Prevalence of MS among patients with recurrent
      depression disorder (60.3%) was almost double that seen among those with first
      episode depression (32.6%). Compared to healthy controls, significantly greater
      proportion of patients with depressive disorders had increased blood pressure,
      abnormal fasting blood sugar, and HDL levels. Besides the prevalence of MS in
      44.3% of patients with depressive disorders, another 46% of patients fulfilled
      one or two criteria of MS. Significant predictors of MS were being married,
      obese, greater age, higher weight, higher body mass index, and multiple episodes
      of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly two-fifth of depressed patients have MS and
      another two-fifth of patients had one or two abnormalities in the MS criteria.
      The prevalence of MS among patients with depressive disorders is significantly
      higher than the healthy controls. Hence, patients with depressive disorders
      should be regularly evaluated for the presence of MS and other cardiovascular
      risk factors and appropriate management strategies must be instituted at the
      earliest.

PMID- 28558889
TI  - Strengthening American psychiatry - Diversity, leadership and Asian applicants
      for residency.

PMID- 28558890
TI  - Family accommodation in somatoform disorders-its effects on diagnosis and
      management: A case report.

PMID- 28558891
TI  - Mirror neuron activity in schizophrenia may remain unaffected by duration of
      untreated psychosis.

PMID- 28558892
TI  - Functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) in schizophrenia: A review.
AB  - The research on the alterations in functional connectivity in schizophrenia has
      been facilitated by development of an array of functional neuroimaging
      techniques. Functional Near Infra Red Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a novel diffuse
      optical neuromonitring method with its own advantages and limitations. The
      advantages of fNIRS have made it to be frequently used as a research tool by
      medical community in different settings. In fNIRS the property of haemoglobin to
      absorb near infrared light is used to measure brain activity. It provides the
      indirect measurement of the neuronal activity in the areas of interest. The
      advantage of fNIRS being less restrictive has made it to be used more commonly in
      the research of psychiatric disorders in general, schizophrenia in particular.
      The fNIRS studies on patients with schizophrenia have shown haemodynamic hypo
      activation primarily in the prefrontal cortex during various cognitive tasks. In
      this review, initially we have briefly explained the basic principles of fNIRS
      followed by detailed review of fNIRS findings in patients with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28558893
TI  - Are there differences in the mental health status of adolescents in Puducherry?
AB  - The present study assessed the mental health of adolescents in Puducherry, India.
      This cross-sectional study was conducted on 291 students (121 male and 170
      female) in the 14-17year old age group, grades IX and XI. The students were
      recruited from private, public, co-ed and single sex schools. Along with a
      Structured Questionnaire, the Mental Health Inventory was administered. We sought
      to investigate as to whether there would be differences in mental health status
      of adolescents based on age, class, gender and other demographic variables. There
      were significant age differences with respect to global mental health,
      psychological distress, anxiety and loss of behavioural/emotional control. Family
      type-wise significant differences in global mental health, life satisfaction and
      loss of behavioural/emotional control were also found. Significant differences
      were observed with respect to global mental health, psychological well-being,
      positive effects, psychological distress and depression across socio-economic
      groups. Number of siblings also accounted for differences in anxiety and
      emotional ties. However, no significant gender differences were observed across
      mental health sub-scales. Results suggest the need for promotion of mental health
      awareness and intervention programs for adolescents, their parents and teachers.
      There is also a need for advocacy in children and adolescent rights regarding
      welfare, well-being and protection from violence. The objective is to enhance
      psychological well-being and reduce psychological distress in students across
      different social strata.

PMID- 28558894
TI  - Depression severity and quality of life of qualified and unqualified patients
      with a mood disorder for a research study targeting anhedonia in a clinical
      sample.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the depression severity and quality of life of
      qualified and unqualified patients with a mood disorder for a research study
      based on anhedonia severity. METHODS: Diagnosis of major depressive disorder
      (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BPD) was ascertained with the MINI International
      Neuropsychiatric Interview. The severity of depression was measured with the 16
      item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self-Report (QIDS-16-SR), and
      Item 5, "feeling sad (sadness)," QIDS-16-SR Item 13, "change in general
      interest," was used to measure the severity of anhedonia. The quality of life was
      measured with the Quality of Life, Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q
      LES-Q). RESULTS: Of 96 patients with MDD and 147 with bipolar I or II disorder,
      the severity rating on sadness and anhedonia was similar. The severities of
      anhedonia and sadness were highly correlated with R2 of >=0.91. Without
      considering depressive severity, 55% of patients would be eligible for a study
      if>=mild anhedonia was used as a severity criterion, but only 26% of patients
      eligible for a study if>=moderate anhedonia was used without considering
      substance use and medical comorbidities. If patients with >= moderate overall
      depressive symptoms were considered, 88.1% of patients would be eligible if>=mild
      anhedonia was required for a study, and 45.2% of patients would be eligible for a
      study if>=moderate anhedonia was required. For those who were unqualified for the
      study based on>=moderate anhedonia, about 1/3 had>=moderate overall depressive
      symptoms and less than 40% of maximum possible scores of Q-LES-Q. If only
      patients in remission based on overall depressive symptom severity were
      considered for a study of anhedonia, no patient would be eligible for the study.
      CONCLUSION: Depressive mood and anhedonia are highly correlated. Screening
      patients with a mood disorder and an overall moderate depressive severity is a
      cost-effective approach for a study targeting anhedonia, especially for a study
      requiring>=moderate severity of anhedonia. However, 1/3 of the unqualified
      patients will have>=moderate overall depressive symptoms and poor quality of
      life.

PMID- 28558895
TI  - Prevalence of depression and past suicide attempt in primary care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is known that persons who die by suicide commonly visit a primary
      care physician (PCP) shortly before the fatal act.There is little information on
      history of suicide attempt in depressed patients who consult PCPs for non-mental
      health indications.This information is important because past history of suicide
      attempt is a known predictor of future suicide risk. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the
      prevalence of depression among outpatients in primary care and to determine the
      prevalence and determinants of past suicide attempt among them. METHOD: This
      cross-sectional study was conducted in six primary care settings, both public and
      private, in Kerala, India. A psychiatrist evaluated adult outpatients (n=827),
      diagnosed depression using ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research, and elicited
      history of suicide attempt. RESULTS: Overall depression prevalence was 27.2% and
      was higher in women. Past suicide attempt was identified in 6.9% (95% CI, 5.17
      8.63%) of all outpatients; higher in women (9.2%) than men (3.6%). Among the
      depressed, 21.3% had previously attempted suicide; while this figure was 1.5% in
      the non-depressed. The prevalence of current depression was 81% (severe
      depression, 61%) in patients reporting past suicide attempts. In univariate
      analyses, female gender, perceived financial stress, and being depressed were
      significantly associated with past suicide attempts. In multivariate analysis,
      current depression was the largest predictor of past suicide attempt (adjusted
      odds ratio, 14.3; 95% CI, 6.60-31.07). CONCLUSION: Depression and suicide attempt
      are both common in primary care. Depression is the single most important
      predictor of suicide attempt.

PMID- 28558896
TI  - Aripiprazole-induced neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

PMID- 28558897
TI  - A systematic review and quality assessment of psychological, pharmacological, and
      family-based interventions for hoarding disorder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hoarding disorder (HD) affects at least 1.5% of the population and
      is considered to be hard to treat. The current study aimed to systematically
      review the treatments designed to improve HD symptoms and family impact. METHOD:
      Searches of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science were undertaken.
      Studies were included if: (i) the study evaluated an intervention for hoarding
      problems; (ii) outcome measures were reported; and (iii) study results were
      published in an indexed journal or were a published abstract from a
      professional/research conference. The quality of the studies was assessed using
      the Clinical Trials Assessment Measure (CTAM). RESULTS: Twenty studies,
      comprising 492 participants with clinically significant hoarding symptoms or HD
      and 21 relatives of individuals with HD, met inclusion criteria. Treatments
      reviewed included cognitive-behavior therapy, medication, cognitive remediation,
      and multi-component interventions for relatives. Most studies yielded
      statistically significant improvements in hoarding symptoms, although reductions
      were generally modest and many participants remained in the clinical range after
      treatment. According to the CTAM, most studies were judged to be of low
      methodological quality. CONCLUSIONS: HD is a chronic and highly burdensome
      condition for which efficacious treatments are needed. The current evidence base
      is somewhat limited and of low quality. Further research is needed to improve
      treatments, identify mechanisms of change, and increase the availability of
      evidence-based interventions for this group.

PMID- 28558899
TI  - Hyperprolactinemia with low dose of risperidone in a young female.

PMID- 28558898
TI  - Aripiprazole and impulse-control disorders in high-risk patients.
AB  - A case study demonstrating the association between aripiprazole and impulse
      control disorders and a call for caution when prescribing aripiprazole to high
      risk patients.

PMID- 28558900
TI  - Effect of CLU and PICALM polymorphisms on AD risk: A study from south India.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To study the association of apolipoprotein E (APOE), Clusterin (CLU)
      and phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein (PICALM) polymorphisms
      in Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects compared to cognitively normal control
      subjects in an Indian population. METHODS: The study subjects included persons
      with AD (N=243) and age group matched healthy controls (N=164). All the AD
      subjects were evaluated using a standard protocol. DNA was isolated from whole
      blood. APOE (rs7412, rs429358), CLU (rs11136000) and PICALM (rs3851179) were
      genotyped. General linear model was used to test the association between the
      individual risk genotypes and AD. RESULTS: The presence of APOE epsilon4 was
      associated with AD after adjusting for age and gender (p<0.0001). There was no
      association observed with AD at both rs11136000 CLU (p=0.25) and rs3851179 PICALM
      (p=0.54). CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed a significant association of APOE
      epsilon4 carrier status with AD. No association was observed for CLU and PICALM
      with AD. This might be due to a different genetic background. There are no
      previous reports of these polymorphisms in an Indian cohort. Future Indian AD
      studies should investigate additional SNPs in a larger sample size in these
      genes.

PMID- 28558901
TI  - Associations of number and severity of depressive episodes with C-reactive
      protein and Interleukin-6.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many researchers have found that the inflammatory process in the body
      and the brain may result in psychiatric disorders. Meta-analyses of cross
      sectional studies have reported increase in inflammatory markers in depression.
      However, the direction of the association remains unclear. AIMS: To compare the
      levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) in depressed and
      healthy controls. To study the associations of these biomarkers with severity and
      number of depressive episodes. METHODS: A total of 72 subjects with major
      depression and 60 healthy controls were studied. CRP and IL-6 were measured in
      all subjects. RESULTS: No significant differences were noted between depressed
      patients and healthy controls with regard to CRP (p=0.29) and IL-6 (p=0.50).
      Those who were suffering from severe depression based on Beck's Depressive
      Inventory (BDI), were positively correlated with raised CRP (p=0.011) in
      comparison to patients with mild to moderate depression. Single and recurrent
      depressive disorder (RDD) were not associated with significant rise in CRP
      (p=0.866) and IL-6 (p=0.531). CONCLUSIONS: Severity of depression is correlated
      with elevated CRP but not with IL-6. No association found between number of
      depressive episodes and levels of CRP and IL-6. It is possible that immune
      dysregulation is not generally present in depression, but might be restricted to
      particular subgroups of depressed patients. Several factors that could influence
      the depression and inflammation relationship need further investigation.

PMID- 28558902
TI  - The prevalence of phantom vibration/ringing syndromes and their related factors
      in Iranian' students of medical sciences.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Mobile phone abuse can cause pathologic stress that may lead
      to addictive behavior such as Phantom Vibration Syndrome (PVS) and Phantom
      Ringing Syndrome (PRS). The current study aimed to determine the PVS and PRS due
      to mobile phone use in students of Qom University of medical Sciences in Iran.
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were 380 students
      selected by proportional stratified random sampling method in each stratum.
      MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire and
      analyzed by descriptive and analytic statistical methods including t-test, chi
      square and analysis of variance. FINDINGS: The prevalence of PVS and PRS due to
      mobile phones in students of medical sciences was estimated to be 54.3% and
      49.3%, respectively. PVS was higher in female students than in males while the
      PRS was higher in male students. There was a significant relationship between PVS
      and using social networks such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Line. In addition, a
      significant association was observed between PVS and friend-finding, chatting and
      entertainment. CONCLUSION: Studies should be done in the future to assess the
      long-term complication of overusing mobile phones. In the current study, the
      prevalence of PVS and PRS in half of students is considerable.

PMID- 28558903
TI  - Exploration of food addiction in people living with schizophrenia.
AB  - The term food addiction (FA) denotes a concept among researchers and lay
      consumers as a behavioural phenotype related to excessive food consumption. In
      this study we examined the prevalence of FA using the validated Yale Food
      Addiction Scale (YFAS) as well as the dimensional symptom count. In addition, we
      explored associations between participant characteristics and FA diagnosis.
      Outpatients attending a clozapine clinic and possessing a diagnosis of
      schizophrenia were invited to complete an anonymous survey using the YFAS. Ninety
      three surveys were used to calculate the diagnostic YFAS criteria for FA. The
      prevalence of FA found in this sample was 26.9%. Among individuals who did not
      meet "diagnostic" criteria FA, 77.4% endorsed 3 or more symptoms but did not
      report distress or impairment. The most common food addiction symptom was a
      persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down consumption
      (97.9%). The significant finding in association between individual's
      characteristics and diagnosis of FA was employment. Several factors related to
      reported results are postulated and discussed. The current study has found the
      prevalence of FA amongst people living with schizophrenia to be higher than the
      general populations but not as high as populations with disordered eating.

PMID- 28558904
TI  - Depression in diabetes mellitus-A comprehensive systematic review of literature
      from an Indian perspective.
AB  - : Diabetes and depression are rapidly growing chronic health conditions that have
      significant negative impact upon the physical, psychological, social and
      occupational functioning, quality of life and often leads to socio-economic
      burden. Presence of both these comorbid diseases results in various short term
      and long term complications and increases the mortality as compared to those with
      depression or diabetes alone. OBJECTIVES: Systematic review of the
      epidemiological data, risk factors and relationship between depression and
      glycaemic control among the Indian studies. METHODS: We searched Pubmed, Pubmed
      Central, Google Scholar and Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) databases to
      identify relevant Indian studies. RESULTS: Substantial variation in the
      prevalence of depression in people with diabetes was found across the 41 selected
      studies; according to this review the range is 2% to 84% (T1DM - 2-7%; T2DM - 8%
      84%). Correlates of depression in diabetic patients are advancing age, female
      gender, low literacy rate, burden of being from a lower socioeconomic status,
      rural domicile, marriage and duration of diabetes of >2years, diabetes related
      complications and poor glycaemic control. Sedentary life without adequate
      physical activities, lack of self-care are often the factors that precipitates
      depression in a T2DM patient and vice versa. CONCLUSION: According to this
      review, among Indian population there is a significant association between
      depression and diabetes.

PMID- 28558905
TI  - Correlates and predictors of antipsychotic drug polypharmacy in real-life
      settings: Results from a nationwide cohort study.
AB  - Reasons for using antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) in routine clinical practice,
      despite a potentially unfavorable risk-benefit ratio, are poorly understood. This
      research aimed to determine (1) if severe courses of schizophrenia were
      associated with APP and (2) if a schizophrenia-related acute event would predict
      a switch to APP in the short term. Observational prospective data (at baseline
      and 6months) were drawn from a French nationwide cohort ("Cohorte Generale
      Schizophrenie"), which included 1859 inpatients and outpatients with
      schizophrenia. APP was defined as the prescription of >=2 antipsychotic drugs
      (there being different active substances). Early-onset schizophrenia, legal
      guardianship, higher lifetime maximal severity of illness and comorbid antisocial
      personality were used as proxies for severe courses of schizophrenia.
      Schizophrenia-related acute events included hospitalization and recent suicide
      attempts. Logistic regression models were used to determine (1) whether the use
      of APP at baseline (vs. monotherapy) was associated with a severe course of
      schizophrenia or not, independent of acute events, and (2) if a switch to APP at
      6months (vs. remaining on monotherapy) was associated with acute events,
      independent of severe courses of schizophrenia. Increased odds of APP use at
      baseline were independently associated with legal guardianship (OR=1.6;
      95%CI=1.3, 2.0) and higher lifetime maximum severity of illness (OR=1.3;
      95%CI=1.2, 1.5). A switch to APP at 6months was predicted by a hospitalization
      occurring since baseline (OR=6.1; 95%CI=3.9, 9.4). In routine clinical practice,
      APP is more likely prescribed to patients with severe courses of illness,
      possibly indicating the difficulty to manage these patients.

PMID- 28558906
TI  - Carbamoylated azithromycin incorporated zirconia hybrid monolith for
      enantioseparation of acidic chiral drugs using non-aqueous capillary
      electrochromatography.
AB  - Carbamoylated derivatives of two antibiotics, namely, clindamycin phosphate
      (CLIP) and erythromycin (ERY) were successfully employed as co-precursors, in
      combination of zirconium tetrabutoxide as a precursor, to prepare chiral organic
      zirconia hybrid monoliths (i.e., CLIP-ZHMs and ERY-ZHMs, respectively) via a
      single-step in-situ sol-gel approach in our previous works. Their superiority
      over chiral organic-zirconia/silica monoliths, prepared by post-modification
      approach, in terms of better enantioresolution and enhanced stability inspired us
      to prepare ZHMs based on an another antibiotic, azithromycin (i.e., AZI-ZHMs).
      Monolithic columns were employed for capillary electrochromatographic
      enantioseparation of acidic chiral drugs in mobile phases consisting of
      acetonitrile (ACN) and methanol (MeOH) as organic modifiers, and acetic acid
      (AcOH) and triethylamine (TEA) as electrolytes. The effects of composition of
      mobile phase and applied voltage on chiral separation were investigated by using
      ketoprofen as a representative analyte. Baseline resolutions were obtained for
      six acidic drugs in mobile phase consisting of 80/20 (v/v) ACN/MeOH with 300mM
      AcOH and 10mM TEA at a 10kV applied voltage and 25 degrees C capillary
      temperature. The relative standard deviations for resolution values regarding
      column to column and batch to batch repeatability were less than 2.5% (for n=3)
      under optimized conditions, indicating satisfactory stability of the columns and
      reproducibility of the column preparation process.

PMID- 28558907
TI  - Cold-induced aqueous acetonitrile phase separation: A salt-free way to begin
      quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe.
AB  - Cooling a 1:1 (v/v) solution of acetonitrile and water at -16 degrees  C is known
      to result in two clear phases. We will refer to this event as "cold-induced
      aqueous acetonitrile phase separation (CIPS)". On a molar basis, acetonitrile is
      71.7% and 13.6% in the upper and lower phases, respectively, in our study. The
      phase separation proceeds as a descending cloud of microdroplets. At the
      convenient temperature (typical freezer) employed here the lower phase is rather
      resistant to solidification, although it emerges from the freezer as a solid if
      various insoluble matter is present at the outset. In a preliminary way, we
      replaced the initial (salting-out) step of a representative QuEChERS procedure
      with CIPS, applying this modified procedure ("CIPS-QuEChERS") to a homogenate of
      salmon (and partly to beef). Three phases resulted, where only the upper,
      acetonitrile-rich phase is a liquid (that is completely clear). The middle phase
      comprises ice and precipitated lipids, while the lower phase is the residual
      matrix of undissolved salmon or meat. Treating the upper phase from salmon, after
      isolation, with anhydrous MgSO4 and C18-Si (typical QuEChERS dispersive solid
      phase extraction sorbents), and injecting into a GC-MS in a nontargeted mode,
      gives two-fold more preliminary hits for chemicals, and also number of spiked
      pesticides recovered, relative to that from a comparable QuEChERS method. In
      part, this is because of much higher background signals in the latter case.
      Further study of CIPS-QuEChERS is encouraged, including taking advantage of other
      QuERChERS conditions.

PMID- 28558909
TI  - Introduction to the special issue on human competition.

PMID- 28558908
TI  - State-level geographic variation in prompt access to care for children after
      motor vehicle crashes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are a principal cause of death in
      children; fatal MVCs and pediatric trauma resources vary by state. We sought to
      examine state-level variability in and predictors of prompt access to care for
      children in MVCs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using the 2010-2014 Fatality Analysis
      Reporting System, we identified passengers aged <15 y involved in fatal MVCs
      (crashes on US public roads with >=1 death, adult or pediatric, within 30 d). We
      included children requiring transport for medical care from the crash scene with
      documented time of hospital arrival. Our primary outcome was transport time to
      first hospital, defined as >1 or <=1 h. We used multivariable logistic regression
      to establish state-level variability in the percentage of children with transport
      time >1 h, adjusting for injury severity (no injury, possible injury, suspected
      minor injury, suspected severe injury, fatal injury, and unknown severity), mode
      of transport (emergency medical services [EMS] air, EMS ground, and non-EMS), and
      rural roads. RESULTS: We identified 18,116 children involved in fatal MVCs from
      2010 to 2014; 10,407 (57%) required transport for medical care. Median transport
      time was 1 h (interquartile range: [1, 1]; range: [0, 23]). The percent of
      children with transport time >1 h varied significantly by state, from 0% in
      several states to 69% in New Mexico. Children with no injuries identified at the
      scene and crashes on rural roads were more likely to have transport times >1 h.
      CONCLUSIONS: Transport times for children after fatal MVCs varied substantially
      across states. These results may inform state-level pediatric trauma response
      planning.

PMID- 28558910
TI  - The PPII-to-alpha-helix transition of poly-l-lysine in methanol/water solvent
      mixtures accompanied by fibrillar self-aggregation: An influence of fluphenazine
      molecules.
AB  - Fourier-transform infrared, vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy and
      transmission electron microscopy are used to follow the structural changes of
      pure and fluphenazine (FPh)-mixed poly-l-lysine (PLL) triggered by variations of
      the methanol to water ratio in solvent mixtures. FPh molecules are used as an
      effective psychotic drug but with a strong Parkinson's-related side effect. To
      answer the question whether FPh molecules can modify the fibril development, the
      PLL polypeptide was used as a model of alpha-helix- and PPII-rich fibrils. It was
      stated that the presence of FPh molecules did not inhibit the creation of both
      types of PLL fibrils with clustering features. The methanol-poor aqueous
      solutions promote the formation of extended polyproline II (PPII) helices;
      however, the methanol-rich aqueous solutions induce the development of alpha
      helices of both pure and FPh-mixed PLL. Unpredicted and interesting features of
      PLL fibrillogenesis are evidenced by the formation of uncommon fibrillar
      aggregates, which are developed in methanol/water solvents from PLL molecules
      rich in either alpha-helix or PPII structures. Possibility of PLL molecules to
      form beta-sheet-, alpha-helix- and PPII-rich fibrils demonstrating that
      fibrillogenesis is a common phenomenon, and fibrillar aggregates can be based on
      all of the basic protein secondary structures.

PMID- 28558911
TI  - Main photophysical properties of oxyblepharismin.
AB  - Oxyblepharismin is the photo-oxidized form of blepharismin, the chromophore
      responsible for the photophobic response of heterotrich ciliate Blepharisma
      japonicum, and represents a nice model for the study of photo-transduction. In
      this work, we focused on the photophysical characterization of OxyBP, in view of
      highlighting the main features related to excitation and emission. By a combined
      experimental and computational approach we identified the main features of
      absorption and fluorescence emission of the molecule in solvents of different
      properties, identifying the nature of transitions as well as the possible
      heterogeneity at ground/excited state. The thorough photophysical
      characterization of OxyBP is meant to provide the starting point for the
      elucidation of the photo-transduction pathway in vivo.

PMID- 28558912
TI  - Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex Caused by Distal Truncation of BPAG1-e: An
      Intermediate Generalized Phenotype with Prurigo Papules.

PMID- 28558914
TI  - Numerical investigation of the early flight phase in ski-jumping.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to develop a numerical methodology based on real
      data from wind tunnel experiments to investigate the effect of the ski jumper's
      posture and speed on aerodynamic forces in a wide range of angles of attack. To
      improve our knowledge of the aerodynamic behavior of the ski jumper and his
      equipment during the early flight phase of the ski jump, we applied CFD
      methodology to evaluate the influence of angle of attack (alpha=14 degrees , 21.5
      degrees , 29 degrees , 36.5 degrees  and 44 degrees ) and speed (u=23, 26 and
      29m/s) on aerodynamic forces in the situation of stable attitude of the ski
      jumper's body and skis. The standard k-omega turbulence model was used to
      investigate both the influence of the ski jumper's posture and speed on
      aerodynamic performance during the early flight phase. Numerical results show
      that the ski jumper's speed has very little impact on the lift and drag
      coefficients. Conversely, the lift and drag forces acting on the ski jumper's
      body during the early flight phase of the jump are strongly influenced by the
      variations of the angle of attack. The present results suggest that the greater
      the ski jumper's angle of inclination, with respect to the relative flow, the
      greater the pressure difference between the lower and upper parts of the skier.
      Further studies will focus on the dependency of the parameters with both the
      angle of attack alpha and the body-ski angle beta as control variables. It will
      be possible to test and optimize different ski jumping styles in different ski
      jumping hills and investigate different environmental conditions such as
      temperature, altitude or crosswinds.

PMID- 28558913
TI  - The International TREatment of ATopic Eczema (TREAT) Registry Taskforce: An
      Initiative to Harmonize Data Collection across National Atopic Eczema Photo- and
      Systemic Therapy Registries.

PMID- 28558915
TI  - Distal skeletal tibia assessed by HR-pQCT is highly correlated with femoral and
      lumbar vertebra failure loads.
AB  - Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the standard for assessing fragility
      fracture risk using areal bone mineral density (aBMD), but only explains 60-70%
      of the variation in bone strength. High-resolution peripheral quantitative
      computed tomography (HR-pQCT) provides 3D-measures of bone microarchitecture and
      volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), but only at the wrist and ankle. Finite
      element (FE) models can estimate bone strength with 86-95% precision. The purpose
      of this study is to determine how well vBMD and FE bone strength at the wrist and
      ankle relate to fracture strength at the hip and spine, and to compare these
      relationships with DXA measured directly at those axial sites. Cadaveric samples
      (radius, tibia, femur and L4 vertebra) were compared within the same body. The
      radius and tibia specimens were assessed using HR-pQCT to determine vBMD and FE
      failure load. aBMD from DXA was measured at the femur and L4 vertebra. The femur
      and L4 vertebra specimens were biomechanically tested to determine failure load.
      aBMD measures of the axial skeletal sites strongly correlated with the
      biomechanical strength for the L4 vertebra (r=0.77) and proximal femur (r=0.89).
      The radius correlated significantly with biomechanical strength of the L4
      vertebra for vBMD (r=0.85) and FE-derived strength (r=0.72), but not with femur
      strength. vBMD at the tibia correlated significantly with femoral biomechanical
      strength (r=0.74) and FE-estimated strength (r=0.83), and vertebral biomechanical
      strength for vBMD (r=0.97) and FE-estimated strength (r=0.91). The higher
      correlations at the tibia compared to radius are likely due to the tibia's weight
      bearing function.

PMID- 28558916
TI  - Microbiological diagnosis of biofilm-related infections.
AB  - Biofilm-related infections represent a serious health problem, accounting for 65-
      80% of all infections. The infections are generally chronic and characterized by
      the persistence of the microorganism, due to the increased resistance of biofilms
      to both the immune system and antimicrobials. Biofilms can be located to almost
      every human body tissue and on exogenous devices such as catheters, pacemakers,
      prosthetic material, implants, urinary catheters, etc. Traditional antimicrobial
      susceptibility studies in clinical microbiology laboratories have lied on the
      study of planktonic form of microorganisms. However, this approach might lead to
      miss the biofilm characteristics and to a treatment failure. Microbiological
      diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility studies of biofilm-related infections
      are complex and, nowadays, represent a challenge that clinicians and
      microbiologists have to address as a team in the absence of consensus or
      standardized protocols.

PMID- 28558917
TI  - Urinary F2-isoprostanes and the risk of hypertension.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is strong biological plausibility for a causal role of reactive
      oxygen species in vascular pathology but no direct epidemiological evidence
      linking elevated reactive oxygen species levels to hypertension development. We
      examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between oxidative status
      (urinary F2-isoprostanes) and hypertension in the Insulin Resistance
      Atherosclerosis Study cohort (n = 831). METHODS: The cohort included non-Hispanic
      white, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic black individuals, with 252 (30%) having
      prevalent hypertension and 579 participants normotensive at baseline, 122 (21%)
      of whom developed hypertension during the 5-year follow-up. Four urinary F2
      isoprostane isomers were quantified in baseline specimens using LC/MS-MS and were
      summarized as a composite index. Examined outcomes included hypertension status
      (yes/no), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP),
      and mean arterial pressure (MAP). RESULTS: Prevalent and incident hypertension
      were associated with greater age, Black race, impaired glucose tolerance, and
      greater BMI. F2-IsoP levels were lower among men and among non-Hispanic Blacks,
      were inversely associated with age, and were directly associated with BMI. No
      cross-sectional association was found between F2-isoprostanes and hypertension
      status (OR = 0.93, 0.77-0.12). Among the continuous measures of blood pressure
      only PP was associated with F2-isoprostanes at baseline (beta-coefficient = 0.99,
      0.11-1.86). No prospective association was found between F2-isoprostanes and
      incident hypertension: OR = 0.98, 0.77-1.25. No prospective associations were
      found for systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, and pulse
      pressure. Mean arterial pressure showed an inverse association (beta-coefficient
      = -0.16, -0.31 to -0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated F2-isoprostane levels do not
      increase the risk of hypertension.

PMID- 28558918
TI  - General phytoplasma detection by a q-PCR method using mycoplasma primers.
AB  - Phytoplasmas and mycoplasmas are bacteria belonging to the class Mollicutes. In
      this study, a fine tuning of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with a
      universal mycoplasma primer pair (GPO3F/MGSO) targeting the 16S rRNA gene was
      carried out on phytoplasmas. The dissociation curves of DNAs from Catharanthus
      roseus phytoplasma-infected micropropagated shoots and from phytoplasma field
      infected plant samples showed a single peak at 82.5  degrees C (+/-0.5)
      specifically detecting phytoplasmas belonging to several ribosomal groups. Assay
      specificity was determined with DNA of selected bacteria: 'Candidatus
      Liberibacter solanacearum', Xylella fastidiosa, Ralstonia solanacearum and
      Clavibacter michiganensis. No amplification curves were observed with any of
      these tested bacteria except 'Ca. L. solanacearum' that was amplified with a
      melting temperature at 85  degrees C. Absolute quantification of phytoplasma
      titer was calculated using standard curves prepared from serial dilutions of
      plasmids containing the cloned fragment GPO3F/MGSO from European stone fruit
      yellows phytoplasma. Phytoplasma copy number ranged from 106 to 103 according
      with the sample. The sensitivity evaluated comparing plasmid serial dilutions
      resulted 10-6 for conventional PCR and 10-7 for qPCR. The latter method resulted
      therefore able to detect very low concentrations of phytoplasma in plant
      material.

PMID- 28558919
TI  - Corrigendum to "Electric injury-induced Purkinje cell apoptosis in rat
      cerebellum: Histological and immunohistochemical stud" [J. Chem. Neuroanat., 81
      (2017) 87-96].

PMID- 28558920
TI  - Corrigendum to "Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in twelve European
      countries: Results of the European Cardiac Rehabilitation Registry" [Int. J.
      Cardiol. 228 (2017) 58-67].

PMID- 28558921
TI  - Bronchial mucous gland adenoma: A rare tumor.

PMID- 28558922
TI  - The Role of Computed Tomography in the Diagnosis of Relapsing Polychondritis.

PMID- 28558923
TI  - Uncommon Variant of Scimitar Syndrome.

PMID- 28558924
TI  - The Future of Biololgical Markers in COPD.

PMID- 28558925
TI  - Core-needle biopsy in the diagnosis of lung cancer.

PMID- 28558926
TI  - Using PICO Methodology to Answer Questions About Smoking in COPD Patients.
AB  - The ALAT and SEPAR Treatment and Control of Smoking Groups have collaborated in
      the preparation of this document which attempts to answer, by way of PICO
      methodology, different questions on health interventions for helping COPD
      patients to stop smoking. The main recommendations are: (i)moderate-quality
      evidence and strong recommendation for performing spirometry in COPD patients and
      in smokers with a high risk of developing the disease, as a motivational tool
      (particularly for showing evidence of lung age), a diagnostic tool, and for
      active case-finding; (ii)high-quality evidence and strong recommendation for
      using intensive dedicated behavioral counselling and drug treatment for helping
      COPD patients to stop smoking; (iii)high-quality evidence and strong
      recommendation for initiating interventions for helping COPD patients to stop
      smoking during hospitalization with improvement when the intervention is
      prolonged after discharge, and (iv)high-quality evidence and strong
      recommendation for funding treatment of smoking in COPD patients, in view of the
      impact on health and health economics.

PMID- 28558927
TI  - In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of the Combination of Oscillating Positive
      Expiratory Pressure and Nebulization: A Randomized Cross-Over Study.

PMID- 28558928
TI  - NeuN immunoreactivity in the brain of Xenopus laevis.
AB  - Neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN), discovered in mice brain cell nuclei by Mullen
      et al. (1992), is used as an excellent marker of post-mitotic neurons in
      vertebrates. In this study, the expression pattern of NeuN was examined in the
      Xenopus brain to explore phylogenetic differences in NeuN expression. Anti-NeuN
      antibody showed selective staining in mouse and Xenopus brain extracts, but the
      number and molecular weight of the bands differed in Western blotting analysis.
      In immunostaining, anti-NeuN antibody showed selective staining of neurons, but
      not glial cells, in the Xenopus brain. Most neurons, including olfactory bulb
      mitral cells and cerebellar Purkinjie cells, which show no immunoreactivity in
      birds/mammals, showed NeuN immunoreactivity in Xenopus. This study revealed that
      anti-NeuN antibody is a useful marker of post-mitotic neurons in amphibians, but
      it also stains neurons that show no reactivity in more derived animals.

PMID- 28558929
TI  - Agreement between heart failure patients and providers in assessing New York
      Heart Association functional class.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uncertainty persists regarding whether patient assessment of New York
      Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification should be preferred over
      provider assessment among patients with heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES: To
      compare patient against provider NYHA assessments, and both to distance walked on
      a 6-minute walk test (6MWT) among patients with HF. METHODS: In this prospective
      study, we enrolled 101 HF patients who self-assessed NYHA classification. Health
      care providers who were blinded to patient ratings of NYHA also rated NYHA.
      Patients completed a 6MWT according to a standardized protocol. We used Spearman
      coefficients (rs) to evaluate the correlations between variables. RESULTS:
      Patient- and provider-determined NYHA class were poorly correlated, but the
      relationship was statistically significant (rs = 0.40, p < 0.001). Patients
      consistently reported better NYHA class (class I: 72% vs 15%) than providers.
      Provider-determined NYHA had a stronger correlation with 6MWT distance (rs = 
      0.36, p < 0.001 vs. rs = -0.22, p = 0.03). Providers assigned a worse class to
      older patients who had comorbidity; patients with dyspnea and longer HF duration
      assigned themselves a worse class. CONCLUSION: Patients and providers exhibited
      poor agreement in NYHA assignment.

PMID- 28558931
TI  - Freeze-responsive regulation of MEF2 proteins and downstream gene networks in
      muscles of the wood frog, Rana sylvatica.
AB  - The wood frog survives frigid North American winters by retreating into a state
      of suspended animation characterized by the freezing of up to 65% of total body
      water as extracellular ice and displaying no heartbeat, breathing, brain
      activity, or movement. Physiological and biochemical adaptations are in place to
      facilitate global metabolic depression and protect against the consequences of
      whole body freezing. This study examined the myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2)
      transcription factor family, proteins responsible for coordinating selective gene
      expression of a myriad of cellular functions from muscle development and
      remodelling to various stress responses. Immunoblotting, subcellular
      localization, and RT-PCR were used to analyze the regulation of MEF2A and MEF2C
      transcription factors and selected downstream targets under their control at
      transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels in skeletal and
      cardiac muscles from control, frozen and thawed frogs. Both MEF2A/C proteins were
      freeze-responsive in skeletal muscle, displaying increases of 1.7-2 fold for
      phosphorylated MEF2AThr312 and MEF2CThr300 during freezing with an enrichment of
      nuclear phosphorylated MEF2 proteins (by 1.7-2.1 fold) observed as early as 4h
      post-freezing. Despite the reduced response of total and phosphorylated MEF2A/C
      protein levels observed in cardiac muscle, the MEF2 downstream gene targets
      (glucose transporter-4, calreticulin, and creatine kinase brain and muscle
      isozymes) displayed similar increases in transcript levels (1.7-4.8 fold) after
      24h freezing in both muscle types. This study describes a novel freeze-responsive
      function for MEF2 transcription factors and further elaborates our understanding
      of the molecular mechanisms underlying natural freeze tolerance. This novel
      freeze-responsive regulation suggests a role for MEF2s and downstream genes in
      cryoprotectant glucose distribution, calcium homeostasis, and maintenance of
      energy reserves vital for successful freeze tolerance.

PMID- 28558930
TI  - The learning curve with a new cephalomedullary femoral nail.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Cephalomedullary Nail (CMN) (Zimmer, Warsaw) was introduced in
      2010 as part of a multicenter trial to evaluate its performance. At one year the
      CMN had results in keeping with other intramedullary devices with good union
      rates and low complication rates. In the second and third years of use an
      increased rate of implant failure was observed, towards the higher end of the 1
      5% nail breakage rate seen in other studies. This study aims to evaluate if there
      any common features in this cohort of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a
      retrospective cohort study looking at patients who underwent femoral fracture
      fixation using the cephalomedullary nail between January 2011 and June 2014. The
      primary outcome measure was implant failure; secondary outcomes were; fracture
      reduction and bisphosphonate use. RESULTS: 201 patients were included (135
      female, 66 male) with an average age of 81 years. Ten (5%) nail breakages
      occurred in the study period at an average of 39 weeks (24-92); 9 were 125
      degrees  nails 1 was a 130 degrees  nail and all fractured at the lag screw
      junction. CONCLUSIONS: Implant failure is a recognised complication of
      intramedullary nailing in cases of non-union. The increased rate of implant
      failure in our department required a change to a 130 degrees  CMN implant and a
      3.2mm diameter guide wire for placement of the lag screw. We continue to monitor
      this difficult group of patients very closely.

PMID- 28558932
TI  - Bama miniature pigs' liver possess great heat tolerance through upregulation of
      Nrf2-mediated antioxidative enzymes.
AB  - The liver is one of the most crucial organs affected by high ambient temperature.
      Bama miniature pig show a heat tolerance in hot summer months. However, the
      physiological condition of liver under high ambient temperature has not been well
      elucidated in Bama miniature pig. Here we performed an experiment to investigate
      the effects of high ambient temperature on liver function, redox status and Nrf2
      antioxidant pathway in Bama miniature pigs. Twelve pigs were randomly divided
      into two groups and separately exposed to the neutral temperature (NT, 25 degrees
      C) and high temperature (HT, 40 degrees C) for 8 days. The hepatic damage marker,
      such as total bilirubin (TBIL), alkaline phosphatase (AKP), gamma-glutamyl
      transpeptidas (gamma-GT), alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartase transminase
      (AST), didn't reach statistical significance between NT and HT group. Moreover,
      abnormal observation of hepatic histology and hepatocyte ultrastructure were not
      detected in HT group. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione
      peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) as well as glutathione (GSH) content, were
      dramatically increased after heat exposure. Heat treatment didn't increase
      hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations. The expression
      of Nrf2-regulated genes, such as nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2
      (Nrf2), NAD(P)H: quinine oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1),
      heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and glutamate cysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC),
      were significantly increased in HT group. Nrf2 protein was accumulated in HT
      group through immunohistochemical analysis. The current data provide clear
      evidence that Bama miniature pigs' liver possess great capacity of heat
      tolerance, which related to activation of Nrf2 antioxidant pathway.

PMID- 28558934
TI  - Variation in rhinarium temperature indicates sensory specializations in placental
      mammals.
AB  - The rhinarium, a specialized nose-tip characterized by an area of naked and wet
      skin around the nostrils, is a typical mammalian structure. The type and amount
      of innervation suggests a sensory role and morphological diversity implies so far
      unidentified species-specific functional specializations. Rhinaria also vary in
      temperature and this may be related to the functions of these sensory organs. We
      performed a comparative study on rhinarium temperature in order to learn more
      about possible correlations with phylogeny and ecology. We have concentrated on
      terrestrial carnivorans and large herbivores, but also investigated a number of
      other species, some of them lacking typical rhinaria. We used infrared (IR)
      thermography to determine nose skin temperatures from safe distances and without
      interfering with the animals' behavior. In all groups studied, the temperature of
      the rhinarium/nose-tip decreased with decreasing ambient temperature. At all
      ambient temperatures, rhinarium temperature was lower, by 9-17 degrees C, in
      carnivorans compared to herbivores. Glires (rodents and lagomorphs), haplorrhine
      primates, and omnivorous Perisso- and Artiodactyla were intermediate. In
      strepsirrhine primates, rhinarium temperature was similar to ambient temperature.
      Our findings in Strepsirrhini are consistent with the hypothesis that their
      rhinaria have an indirect role in chemical communication. Warm rhinaria in
      herbivores suggest a tactile function, while the low skin temperatures on
      carnivoran rhinaria may make the skin particularly sensitive to warming.

PMID- 28558933
TI  - Effect of temperature and social environment on worker size in the ant
      Temnothorax nylanderi.
AB  - Warm temperatures decrease insect developmental time and body size. Social life
      could buffer external environmental variations, especially in large social
      groups, either through behavioral regulation and compensation or through specific
      nest architecture. Mean worker size and distribution of worker sizes within
      colonies are important parameters affecting colony productivity as worker size is
      linked to division of labor in insect societies. In this paper, we investigate
      the effect of stressful warm temperatures and the role of social environment
      (colony size and size of nestmate workers) on the mean size and size variation of
      laboratory-born workers in the small European ant Temnothorax nylanderi. To do
      so, we reared field-collected colonies under medium or warm temperature
      treatments after having marked the field-born workers and removed the brood
      except for 30 first instar larvae. Warm temperature resulted in the production of
      fewer workers and a higher adult mortality, confirming that this regime was
      stressful for the ants. T. nylanderi ants followed the temperature size rule
      observed in insects, with a decreased developmental time and mean size under warm
      condition. Social environment appeared to play an important role as we observed
      that (i) larger colonies buffered the effect of temperature better than smaller
      ones (ii) colonies with larger workers produced larger workers whatever the
      rearing temperature and (iii) the coefficient of variation of worker size was
      similar in the field and under medium laboratory temperature. This suggests that
      worker size variation is not primarily due to seasonal environmental fluctuations
      in the field. Finally, we observed a higher coefficient of variation of worker
      size under warm temperature. We propose that this results from a disruption of
      social regulation, i.e. the control of nestmate workers over developing larvae
      and adult worker size, under stressful conditions.

PMID- 28558935
TI  - Local muscle cooling does not impact expression of mitochondrial-related genes.
AB  - : Recovery that takes place in a cold environment after endurance exercise
      elevates PGC-1alpha mRNA whereas ERRalpha and NRF2 mRNA expression are inhibited.
      However, the effect of local skeletal muscle cooling on mitochondrial-related
      gene expression is unknown. PURPOSE: To determine the impact of local skeletal
      muscle cooling during recovery from an acute bout of exercise on mitochondrial
      related gene expression. METHODS: Recreationally-trained male cyclists (n=8, age
      25+/-3 y, height 181+/-6cm, weight 79+/-8kg, 12.8+/-3.6% body fat, VO2peak 4.52+/
      0.88L.min-1 protocol) completed a 90-min variable intensity cycling protocol
      followed by 4h of recovery. During recovery, ice was applied intermittently to
      one leg (ICE) while the other leg served as a control (CON). Intramuscular
      temperature was recorded continuously. Muscle biopsies were taken from each
      vastus lateralis at 4h post-exercise for the analysis of mitochondrial-related
      gene expression. RESULTS: Intramuscular temperature was colder in ICE (26.7+/-1.1
      degrees C) than CON (35.5+/-0.1 degrees C) throughout the 4h recovery period
      (p<0.001). There were no differences in expression of PGC-1alpha, TFAM, NRF1,
      NRF2, or ERRalpha mRNA between ICE and CON after the 4h recovery period.
      CONCLUSION: Local muscle cooling after exercise does not impact the expression of
      mitochondrial biogenesis-related genes compared to recovery from exercise in
      control conditions. When these data are considered with previous research, the
      stimuli for cold-induced gene expression alterations may be related to factors
      other than local muscle temperature. Additionally, different intramuscular
      temperatures should be examined to determine dose-response of mitochondrial
      related gene expression.

PMID- 28558936
TI  - Mitigating thermal effect of behaviour and microhabitat on the intertidal snail
      Littorina saxatilis (Olivi) over summer.
AB  - High shore intertidal ectotherms must withstand temperatures which are already
      close, at or beyond their upper physiological thermal tolerance. Their behaviour
      can provide a relief under heat stress, and increase their survival through
      thermoregulation. Here, we used infrared imaging to reveal the thermoregulatory
      behavioural strategies used by the snail Littorina saxatilis (Olivi) on different
      microhabitats of a high shore boulder field in Finistere (western France) in
      summer. On our study site, substrate temperature is frequently greater than L.
      saxatilis upper physiological thermal limits, especially on sun exposed
      microhabitats. To maintain body temperatures within their thermal tolerance
      window, withdrawn snails adopted a flat posture, or elevated their shells and
      kept appended to the rock on the outer lip of their aperture with dried mucous
      (standing posture). These thermal regulatory behaviours lowered snail body
      temperatures on average by 1-2 degrees C. Aggregation behaviour had no
      thermoregulatory effect on L. saxatilis in the present study. The occupation of
      biogenic microhabitats (barnacles) was associated with a 1 degrees C decrease in
      body temperatures. Barnacles and microhabitats that experienced low sun exposure,
      low thermal fluctuations and low thermal maxima, could buffer the heat extremes
      encountered at high shore level especially on sun exposed microhabitats.

PMID- 28558937
TI  - Numerical simulation of time fractional dual-phase-lag model of heat transfer
      within skin tissue during thermal therapy.
AB  - In this paper, we investigated the thermal behavior in living biological tissues
      using time fractional dual-phase-lag bioheat transfer (DPLBHT) model subjected to
      Dirichelt boundary condition in presence of metabolic and electromagnetic heat
      sources during thermal therapy. We solved this bioheat transfer model using
      finite element Legendre wavelet Galerkin method (FELWGM) with help of block pulse
      function in sense of Caputo fractional order derivative. We compared the obtained
      results from FELWGM and exact method in a specific case, and found a high
      accuracy. Results are interpreted in the form of standard and anomalous cases for
      taking different order of time fractional DPLBHT model. The time to achieve
      hyperthermia position is discussed in both cases as standard and time fractional
      order derivative. The success of thermal therapy in the treatment of metastatic
      cancerous cell depends on time fractional order derivative to precise prediction
      and control of temperature. The effect of variability of parameters such as time
      fractional derivative, lagging times, blood perfusion coefficient, metabolic heat
      source and transmitted power on dimensionless temperature distribution in skin
      tissue is discussed in detail. The physiological parameters has been estimated,
      corresponding to the value of fractional order derivative for hyperthermia
      treatment therapy.

PMID- 28558938
TI  - Effect of water temperature on reproductive performance and offspring quality of
      rare minnow, Gobiocypris rarus.
AB  - Water temperature plays a significant role in the reproductive processes of
      temperate fishes. In the present study, the effects of water temperature on the
      reproductive performance and offspring quality of rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus)
      were evaluated by cultured parent fish at different temperature (18~30C) in a 2
      month trial. The results revealed that rare minnows could spawn continuously
      within the range from 18C to 30C, and these at 24C and 27C spawned every 3-4
      days. Batch size of rare minnow increased with increasing water temperature,
      while egg production increased with increasing water temperature and then
      decreased at 30C. High water temperature (30C) had significantly adverse effects
      on fertilization rate and hatching rate (P<0.05). It was found that the oocyte
      growth at 18C, 21C, and 30C were slower than those at 24C and 27C. Histologic
      analysis further showed that low temperature (18C and 21C) slowed down
      vitellogenesis and oocyte maturation, while high temperature (30C) had
      suppressive effects on oocyte maturation and ovulation. Based on present results,
      it was concluded that 24-27C was optimal breeding temperature for rare minnows
      and water temperature higher than 30C resulting from climate change would pose a
      threat to its wild populations.

PMID- 28558939
TI  - The Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) Rete Tibiotarsale - A supreme
      biological heat exchanger.
AB  - Humans are unable to survive low temperature environments without custom designed
      clothing and support systems. In contrast, certain penguin species inhabit
      extremely cold climates without losing substantial energy to self-heating
      (emperor penguins ambient temperature plummets to as low as -45 degrees C).
      Penguins accomplish this task by relying on distinct anatomical, physiological
      and behavioral adaptations. One such adaptation is a blood vessel heat exchanger
      called the 'Rete Tibiotarsale' - an intermingled network of arteries and veins
      found in penguins' legs. The Rete existence results in blood occupying the foot
      expressing a lower average temperature and thus the penguin loosing less heat to
      the ground. This study examines the Rete significance for the species thermal
      endurance. The penguin anatomy (leg and main blood vessels) is reconstructed
      using data chiefly based on the Humboldt species. The resulting model is
      thermally analyzed using finite element (COMSOL) with the species environment
      used as boundary conditions. A human-like blood vessel configuration, scaled to
      the penguin's dimensions, is used as a control for the study. Results indicate
      that the Rete existence facilitates upkeep of 25-65% of the species total
      metabolic energy production as compared with the human-like configuration; thus
      making the Rete probably crucial for penguin thermal endurance. Here, we
      quantitatively link for the first time the function and structure of this
      remarkable physiological phenotype.

PMID- 28558940
TI  - Hyperthermia enhances bortezomib-induced apoptosis in human white blood cancer
      cells.
AB  - At present, the current therapeutic strategy for apoptosis induction mainly
      relies on the administration of pharmacological apoptotic modulators. Apart from
      that, apoptosis can be induced by various external stimuli such as hyperthermia,
      ionizing radiation, and electric fields. Despite advantages, both physical and
      pharmacological approaches bear some limitations as well. The rationale of this
      study was to overcome the limitations by combining hyperthermia and apoptotic
      modulator 'bortezomib' (Velcade). Two types of human blood cancer cell lines were
      utilized: human leukemic monocyte lymphoma cell U937 line and peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells (PMBCs) derived from the patient diagnosed with acute myeloid
      leukemia. Prior to apoptosis experiments, cytotoxicity tests were performed at
      three types of temperature regimes (40 degrees , 42 degrees  and 44 degrees C).
      We observed a gradual inhibition of cell viability correlating with an increase
      of temperature and drug concentration in both cell lines. However, there was no
      significant difference between sham group and groups of leukemic PMBCs treated by
      high temperature (44 degrees C) and bortezomib. In U937 cells, combined treatment
      by heat shock and bortezomib led to an increase the number of cells underwent the
      late apoptosis stage. At the same time, similar treatment of PMBCs resulted in
      the stimulation of early apoptosis. Our data suggest that combination of
      bortezomib and hyperthermia enhances apoptosis induction in human cancer white
      blood cells, indicating a therapeutic potential for blood cancer therapy.

PMID- 28558941
TI  - Effects of aripiprazole versus risperidone on brain activation during planning
      and social-emotional evaluation in schizophrenia: A single-blind randomized
      exploratory study.
AB  - Impaired function of prefrontal brain networks may be the source of both negative
      symptoms and neurocognitive problems in psychotic disorders. Whereas most
      antipsychotics may decrease prefrontal activation, the partial dopamine D2
      receptor agonist aripiprazole is hypothesized to improve prefrontal function.
      This study investigated whether patients with a psychotic disorder would show
      stronger activation of prefrontal areas and associated regions after treatment
      with aripiprazole compared to risperidone treatment. In this exploratory
      pharmacological neuroimaging study, 24 patients were randomly assigned to either
      aripiprazole or risperidone. At baseline and after nine weeks treatment they
      underwent an interview and MRI session. Here we report on brain activation
      (measured with arterial spin labeling) during performance of two tasks, the Tower
      of London and the Wall of Faces. Aripiprazole treatment decreased activation of
      the middle frontal, superior frontal and occipital gyrus (ToL) and medial
      temporal and inferior frontal gyrus, putamen and cuneus (WoF), while activation
      increased after risperidone. Activation increased in the ventral anterior
      cingulate and posterior insula (ToL), and superior frontal, superior temporal and
      precentral gyrus (WoF) after aripiprazole treatment and decreased after
      risperidone. Both treatment groups had increased ventral insula activation (ToL)
      and middle temporal gyrus (WoF), and decreased occipital cortex, precuneus and
      caudate head activation (ToL) activation. In conclusion, patients treated with
      aripiprazole may need less frontal resources for planning performance and may
      show increased frontotemporal and frontostriatal reactivity to emotional stimuli.
      More research is needed to corroborate and extend these preliminary findings.

PMID- 28558942
TI  - Bone Margin Analysis for Benign Odontogenic Tumors.
AB  - With the potential exception of the case of ameloblastoma, information relevant
      to the exact tumor-bone interface and extent of bone invasion by the commonly
      encountered odontogenic tumors is lacking. These tumors are rare. Treatment
      rendered varies significantly. Although commonly accepted practices are
      recommended, scientific evidence is relatively lacking. Prospective multicenter
      studies from tertiary treatment centers are required for evidence-based
      guidelines. Until studies are available, the proposed linear bone resection
      margin for odontogenic tumors and the evaluation of its adequacy in tumor
      eradication will be based on the limited data available.

PMID- 28558943
TI  - Reply to Jae Heon Kim and Benjamin I. Chung's Letter to the Editor re: Julien
      Dagenais, Matthew J. Maurice, Pascal Mouracade, Onder Kara, Ercan Malkoc, Jihad
      J. Kaouk. Excisional Precision Matters: Understanding the Influence of Excisional
      Volume Loss on Renal Function After Partial Nephrectomy. Eur Urol 2017;72:168-70.

PMID- 28558944
TI  - What is a "Diagnostic Test Reference Range" Good for?

PMID- 28558945
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28558946
TI  - A Mouse Model of Cardiomyopathy Induced by Mutations in the Hemochromatosis HFE
      Gene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The heart is 1 of the organs most affected by hereditary
      hemochromatosis (HH). The clinical impact of cardiomyopathy in patients with HH
      requires a particular diagnosis and less invasive treatments. We developed a
      model of cardiomyopathy in knockout (KO) mice for the high-Fe (HFE) gene and
      assessed left ventricular (LV) function and structure from 7-20 months. METHODS:
      Male wild-type (WT) heterozygous and KO SV129 mice for the HFE gene were used in
      this study. Twenty-four mice were used to assess LV function and structure by
      echocardiography at 7, 14, 18, and 20 months. Evaluations of LV function and
      structure and myocardial fibrosis were performed at 7 and 20 months. RESULTS: The
      percent decrease of LV thickness-to-radius ratio between 7 and 20 months was
      higher in KO mice compared with WT mice (-30.2% +/- 5.3% vs -10.5% +/- 4.9%; P <
      0.01). The LV diameters were higher in old mice compared with young mice (+13% at
      end-diastole; +33% at end-systole; P < 0.001). The LV ejection fraction values
      were lower in KO mice compared with WT mice between 7 and 20 months. The highest
      difference was found at 14 months (60.0% +/- 7.6% vs 78.1% +/- 3.5%; P < 0.001).
      Myocardial fibrosis was higher in old KO mice compared with old WT mice (+55%; P
      < 0.001), and myocardial iron deposition was slightly increased in old KO mice
      compared with old WT mice (1.31% +/- 0.33% vs 0.84% +/- 0.22%; P = 0.056).
      CONCLUSIONS: The present mouse model has the potential to allow the determination
      of underlying mechanisms involved in the cardiomyopathy induced by HFE-related
      hemochromatosis.

PMID- 28558947
TI  - Hemochromatosis Protein (HFE) Knockout Mice As a Novel Model of Hemochromatosis:
      Implications for Study and Management of Iron-Overload Cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28558948
TI  - Ultrasonic-assisted incorporation of nano-encapsulated omega-3 fatty acids to
      enhance the fatty acid profile of pork meat.
AB  - In this study, ultrasound was employed to enhance the diffusion of
      microencapsulated fatty acids into pork meat. Nanovesicles of fish oil composed
      of 42% EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and 16% DHA (docosahexanoic acid) were prepared
      using two different commercial Pronanosome preparations (Lipo-N and Lipo-CAT;
      which yield cationic and non-cationic nanovesicles, respectively). The thin film
      hydration (TFH) methodology was employed for encapsulation. Pork meat (Musculus
      semitendinosus) was submerged in the nanovesicles suspension and subjected to
      ultrasound (US) treatment at 25kHz for either 30 or 60min. Samples were analysed
      for fatty acid composition using gas chromatography-flame ionisation (GC-FID).
      The content of long-chain PUFAs, especially omega-3, was found to increase
      following the US treatment which was higher for Lipo-CAT compared to Lipo-N
      nanovesicles. Samples subjected to Lipo-N had higher atherogenic and thrombogenic
      indices, indicating higher levels of saturated fatty acids compared to the Lipo
      CAT. The omega-6/omega-3 ratio in pork meat was significantly reduced following
      the US treatment, thus indicating an improved fatty acid profile of pork.

PMID- 28558949
TI  - Moderate statin treatment reduces prebeta-1 high-density lipoprotein levels in
      dyslipidemic patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated plasma levels of prebeta-1 high-density lipoprotein (HDL),
      the principal acceptor of cholesterol effluxed from macrophages, are associated
      with increased risk of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease and myocardial
      infarction. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the effects on
      prebeta-1 HDL levels of 6-week moderate-dose statin treatment. METHODS: We
      studied 101 patients (mean age 52.7 years; 53.5% female; 63 with primary
      hypercholesterolemia; 38 with combined hyperlipidemia) before and after treatment
      with statins. Mean atorvastatin potency equivalence was 23.6 mg/d. Prebeta-1 HDL
      plasma levels were measured by immunofixation of agarose gels using anti
      apolipoprotein A-1 antibody. RESULTS: We observed a 42.0% reduction of low
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (181 +/- 56 vs 105 mg/dL, P < .001). Triglyceride
      (TG) levels decreased by 22.3% (157 vs 122 mg/dL, P < .001), HDL cholesterol
      levels remained similar (56.0 vs 57.1, P = NS). Levels of prebeta-1 HDL were
      significantly reduced by 17.9% after statin treatment (mean 11.4 vs 9.4 mg apoA
      1/dL, P < .001). The magnitude of this decrease was similar with each of 3
      statins (atorvastatin, simvastatin, and rosuvastatin). The decrease in prebeta-1
      HDL was strongly associated with the decline in TG, but not with the decline in
      low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. CONCLUSIONS: The association of high prebeta
      1 HDL with coronary heart disease identifies it as an inferential measure of the
      rate of cholesterol efflux from the artery wall. Our observations demonstrate a
      reduction of prebeta-1 HDL with statin therapy, partially reflecting the reduced
      TGs, and probably reflecting a direct beneficial impact on cholesterol efflux.

PMID- 28558950
TI  - Complement in renal transplantation: The road to translation.
AB  - Renal transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage
      renal disease. The vital role of the complement system in renal transplantation
      is widely recognized. This review discusses the role of complement in the
      different phases of renal transplantation: in the donor, during preservation, in
      reperfusion and at the time of rejection. Here we examine the current literature
      to determine the importance of both local and systemic complement production and
      how complement activation contributes to the pathogenesis of renal transplant
      injury. In addition, we dissect the complement pathways involved in the different
      phases of renal transplantation. We also review the therapeutic strategies that
      have been tested to inhibit complement during the kidney transplantation. Several
      clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate the therapeutic potential of
      complement inhibition for the treatment of brain death-induced renal injury,
      renal ischemia-reperfusion injury and acute rejection. We conclude that it is
      expected that in the near future, complement-targeted therapeutics will be used
      clinically in renal transplantation. This will hopefully result in improved renal
      graft function and increased graft survival.

PMID- 28558951
TI  - Relationship among age, insulin resistance, and blood pressure.
AB  - The effect of age to modify the relationship between insulin resistance and
      hypertension is unclear. In this retrospective, cross-sectional study, median age
      was used to create two age groups (<52 vs. >=52 years), and comparisons were made
      of metabolic characteristics, including steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG)
      concentrations measured during the insulin suppression test to quantify insulin
      resistance. Individuals were stratified into SSPG tertiles and categorized as
      having normal blood pressure (BP), prehypertension, or hypertension. SSPG
      concentrations were similar in the two age groups (161 vs. 164 mg/dL). In the
      most insulin-resistant tertile, distribution of normal BP, prehypertension, and
      hypertension was equal in those aged <52 years, whereas in those aged >=52 years,
      prevalence of hypertension was increased approximately fivefold compared with
      those with normal BP. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated significant
      interaction between age and SSPG in predicting systolic BP (P = .023). In
      stratified analysis, SSPG, but not age, was an independent predictor of systolic
      BP and diastolic BP in >=52 years group, whereas the reverse was true in the
      younger group. The adverse impact of insulin resistance on BP was accentuated in
      older individuals and may have a greater impact than further aging.

PMID- 28558952
TI  - Intra- and inter-rater reliability of neutral head position and target head
      position tests in patients with and without neck pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cervical proprioception is a common term used in neck rehabilitation,
      and it is examined using neutral head position (NHP) and target head position
      (THP) tests. OBJECTIVE: To investigate intra- and inter-rater reliability of the
      NHP and THP tests in patients with neck pain and in healthy controls. METHODS:
      The intra-rater (between-day) and inter-rater (within-day) reliability of the NHP
      and THP tests were assessed in 36 patients with neck pain and 33 healthy
      subjects. NHP testing was evaluated in cervical extension, while THP testing was
      evaluated in six directions of cervical motion: cervical flexion, extension, side
      bending right, side bending left, rotation right, and rotation left. RESULTS: The
      intra-rater reliability for the NHP tests had intraclass correlation coefficient
      (ICC) values of 0.74-0.78 and a standard error of measurement (SEM) of 1.78-1.88;
      the THP tests had ICC values of 0.70-0.83 and SEM of 1.45-2.45. Likewise, inter
      rater reliability for NHP had ICC values of 0.74-0.79 and SEM of 1.79-1.87. For
      the THP test, the inter-rater reliability had ICC values of 0.62-0.84 and SEM of
      1.50-2.23. CONCLUSION: Intra- and inter-rater reliability ranged from good to
      very good agreement both for NHP and for THP tests of cervical proprioception.

PMID- 28558953
TI  - Are heart rate dynamics in the transition from rest to submaximal exercise
      related to maximal cardiorespiratory responses in COPD?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Poor exercise capacity is an important negative prognostic marker in
      patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Heart rate
      variability (HRV) responses can indicate alterations in cardiac autonomic
      control. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether these abnormalities are related
      to cardiorespiratory responses to exercise in these patients. OBJECTIVE: To
      evaluate whether HRV at rest and submaximal exercise are related to impaired
      cardiopulmonary responses to exercise in COPD patients. METHODS: Fifteen men
      (66.2+/-8.7 years) with COPD (FEV1: 55.1+/-19.2%) were assessed. The R-R interval
      (RRi) data collection was performed at rest (stand position) and during the six
      minute walk test (6MWT). All patients performed a symptom-limited cardiopulmonary
      exercise test on a cycle ergometer. The HRV changes from rest to submaximal
      exercise (Delta rest-6MWT) were calculated. RESULTS: We found significant
      correlations between low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) Delta rest-6MWT
      with Delta oxyhemoglobin saturation by pulse oximetry (r=-0.64 and r=0.65,
      respectively; p<0.05), minute ventilation/carbon dioxide output relationship from
      beginning to peak exercise (r=-0.52 and r=0.53, p<0.05), and exercise ventilatory
      power (r=0.52 and r=-0.53, p<0.05). Interestingly, there was a strong positive
      correlation (r=0.82, p<0.05) between six-minute walk distance (6MWD) and Delta
      LF/HF from rest to exercise. CONCLUSION: HRV analysis in the transition from rest
      to submaximal exercise is associated with exercise ventilatory and hemodynamic
      abnormalities in COPD patients. Rehabilitative strategies to improve HRV
      responses may provide an important tool to clinical practice in these patients.

PMID- 28558954
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy and cost analysis of the AlereTM i Influenza A&B near-patient
      test using throat swabs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical diagnostic sensitivity alone is inadequate in the diagnosis
      of influenza. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is sensitive but the
      inherent delays in result availability potentially prolong time to isolation and
      treatment. Until recently no near-patient test (NPT) has demonstrated adequate
      sensitivity for routine clinical use. AIM: To evaluate diagnostic accuracy, time
      to result availability, clinical impact, and cost consequences of AlereTM i
      Influenza A&B NPT (Alere Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) using off-label throat swabs.
      METHODS: Prospective, multi-centre [four UK National Health Service (NHS)
      hospitals], diagnostic accuracy cohort study with cost modelling. Throat swab
      samples from suspected influenza patients were tested for influenza using the
      reference standard of PCR; a second throat swab was tested using NPT. FINDINGS: A
      total of 827 participants were recruited; 589 were suitable for analysis:
      sensitivity was 75.8% [95% confidence interval (CI): 67.0-84.6]; specificity was
      96.8% (95% CI: 95.2-98.3). Sensitivity varied between Sheffield (Northern General
      Hospital: 82.1%; Royal Hallamshire Hospital: 83.3%) and other sites (Doncaster
      Royal Infirmary: 71.4%; Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary: 50.0%) whereas
      specificity was high (92-100%). Positive predictive value (PPV) was 81.2% (95%
      CI: 72.9-89.5) with negative predictive value 95.6% (95% CI: 93.9-97.4) with
      observed prevalence of 15.4%. Median time to result for PCR was 1.1 days (on-site
      laboratories) and 5.2 days (remote laboratories). Isolation findings: 75%
      influenza positive not isolated; 69% of isolated participants did not have
      influenza. For a cohort of 1000 participants, annual estimated non-diagnostic
      cost savings with NPT are L215,040. CONCLUSION: This first prospective study of
      the Alere i NPT using throat swabs demonstrates high specificity, high PPV during
      seasonal epidemics, and rapid result availability which could lead to substantial
      cost savings.

PMID- 28558956
TI  - Association between plasma BMP-2 and in-stent restenosis in patients with
      coronary artery disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the association between plasma bone
      morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) level and in-stent restenosis in patients with
      coronary artery disease. METHODS: A total of 96 patients who underwent
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and were followed up after PCI were
      enrolled in this study. 47 patients diagnosed with in-stent restenosis (ISR) were
      recruited to ISR group and 49 patients without ISR were recruited to Control
      group according to the results of coronary angiography (CAG). Baseline
      characteristic data were collected, and plasma BMP-2 level was evaluated. The
      results were analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: There were 47 patients
      in the ISR group and 49 patients in the Control group. Plasma levels of BMP-2
      were higher in the ISR group than in the non-ISR group [20.96 (18.44, 27.05)
      pg/ml vs. 29.53 (25.03, 34.07) pg/ml, P<0.01]. Furthermore, the ISR group had
      significantly longer stent lengths and lower stent diameters than the Control
      group (P<0.01 and P<0.01, respectively). In multivariate analysis, BMP-2 level,
      diabetes, stent length and stent diameter were independently associated with ISR
      [odds ratio (OR)=1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.03-1.18, P<0.01; OR=4.75,
      95% CI=(1.44-15.61), P=0.01; OR=1.06, 95% CI=(1.02-1.11), P<0.01; and OR=0.15,
      95% CI=(0.02-0.95), P=0.04, respectively]. CONCLUSIONS: Increased BMP-2 levels
      were independently associated with ISR in patients with coronary artery disease.
      Plasma BMP-2 may be useful in predicting ISR.

PMID- 28558957
TI  - Maternal nutrition knowledge and child nutritional outcomes in urban Kenya.
AB  - We examine the link between maternal nutrition knowledge and nutritional outcomes
      of children and adolescents (5-18 years) measured in terms of height-for-age Z
      scores (HAZ). One particular focus is on the role of different types of nutrition
      knowledge. The analysis builds on household-level and individual-level data
      collected in urban Kenya in 2012 and 2015. Various regression models are
      developed and estimated. Results show that maternal nutrition knowledge -
      measured through an aggregate knowledge score - is positively associated with
      child HAZ, even after controlling for other influencing factors such as household
      living standard and general maternal education. However, disaggregation by type
      of knowledge reveals important differences. Maternal knowledge about food
      ingredients only has a weak positive association with child HAZ. For maternal
      knowledge about specific dietary recommendations, no significant association is
      detected. The strongest positive association with child HAZ is found for maternal
      knowledge about the health consequences of not following recommended dietary
      practices. These findings have direct relevance for nutrition and health
      policies, especially for designing the contents of educational campaigns and
      training programs.

PMID- 28558955
TI  - Seizures in Preterm Neonates: A Multicenter Observational Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to characterize seizures among preterm
      neonates enrolled in the Neonatal Seizure Registry, a prospective cohort of
      consecutive neonates with seizures at seven pediatric centers that follow the
      American Clinical Neurophysiology Society's neonatal electroencephalography
      monitoring guideline. STUDY DESIGN: Of 611 enrolled neonates with seizures, 92
      (15%) were born preterm. Seizure characteristics were evaluated by gestational
      age at birth for extremely preterm (<28 weeks, N = 18), very preterm (28 to <32
      weeks, N = 18), and moderate to late preterm (32 to <37 weeks, N = 56) and
      compared with term neonates. RESULTS: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (33%) and
      intracranial hemorrhage (27%) accounted for the etiology in more than half of
      preterm neonates. Hypothermia therapy was utilized in 15 moderate to late preterm
      subjects with encephalopathy. The presence of subclinical seizures, monotherapy
      treatment failure, and distribution of seizure burden (including status
      epilepticus) was similar in preterm and term neonates. However, exclusively
      subclinical seizures occurred more often in preterm than term neonates (24% vs
      14%). Phenobarbital was the most common initial medication for all gestational
      age groups, and failure to respond to an initial loading dose was 63% in both
      preterm and term neonates. Mortality was similar among the three preterm
      gestational age groups; however, preterm mortality was more than twice that of
      term infants (35% vs 15%). CONCLUSIONS: Subclinical seizures were more common and
      mortality was higher for preterm than term neonates. These data underscore the
      importance of electroencephalographic monitoring and the potential for improved
      management in preterm neonates.

PMID- 28558958
TI  - Is Ep-CAM Expression a Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker for Colorectal Cancer?
      A Systematic Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer stem cell (CSC) epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) is
      frequently expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the clinical
      significance of Ep-CAM expression in CRC is not clear. This study evaluated
      whether Ep-CAM provided valuable insight as a molecular biomarker for CRC
      diagnosis and prognosis and the potential of Ep-CAM as a novel therapeutic target
      in CRC. METHODS: Publications were selected online using electronic databases.
      The pooled odds ratios (ORs) or hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence
      intervals (95% CIs), and the combined sensitivity, specificity, and area under
      the curve (AUC) were calculated and summarized. RESULTS: Eleven eligible articles
      published in English involving 4561 cases were analyzed in this study. Ep-CAM
      expression was significantly higher in CRC compared with normal controls, and its
      overexpression was negatively linked to tumor differentiation, tumor stage,
      vascular invasion, depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant
      metastasis, and tumor budding in CRC patients. The loss of Ep-CAM expression
      positively correlated with these characteristics. Multivariate analysis of loss
      of Ep-CAM expression correlated with a poor prognosis in disease-free survival
      (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS). The pooled
      sensitivity, specificity and AUC values of Ep-CAM expression in patients with CRC
      vs. normal controls were 0.93, 0.90, and 0.94, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The
      present findings suggest that Ep-CAM expression may be associated with CRC
      carcinogenesis, while the loss of Ep-CAM expression is correlated with the
      progression, metastasis, and poor prognosis of CRC. Ep-CAM expression may be a
      useful biomarker for the clinical diagnosis of CRC.

PMID- 28558959
TI  - The Transcriptional Landscape of p53 Signalling Pathway.
AB  - Although recent cancer genomics studies have identified a large number of genes
      that were mutated in human cancers, p53 remains as the most frequently mutated
      gene. To further elucidate the p53-signalling network, we performed transcriptome
      analysis on 24 tissues in p53+/+ or p53-/- mice after whole-body X-ray
      irradiation. Here we found transactivation of a total of 3551 genes in one or
      more of the 24 tissues only in p53+/+ mice, while 2576 genes were downregulated.
      p53 mRNA expression level in each tissue was significantly associated with the
      number of genes upregulated by irradiation. Annotation using TCGA (The Cancer
      Genome Atlas) database revealed that p53 negatively regulated mRNA expression of
      several cancer therapeutic targets or pathways such as BTK, SYK, and CTLA4 in
      breast cancer tissues. In addition, stomach exhibited the induction of Krt6,
      Krt16, and Krt17 as well as loricrin, an epidermal differentiation marker, after
      the X-ray irradiation only in p53+/+ mice, implying a mechanism to protect
      damaged tissues by rapid induction of differentiation. Our comprehensive
      transcriptome analysis elucidated tissue specific roles of p53 and its signalling
      networks in DNA-damage response that will enhance our understanding of cancer
      biology.

PMID- 28558961
TI  - A rare case of sarcoidosis in accessory spleen.

PMID- 28558963
TI  - Ecophysiological adaptations to variable salinity environments in the crab
      Hemigrapsus crenulatus from the Southeastern Pacific coast: Sodium regulation,
      respiration and excretion.
AB  - The estuarine crab Hemigrapsus crenulatus is a key benthic species of estuarine
      and intertidal ecosystems of the South Pacific, habitats that experience wide
      fluctuations in salinity. The physiological strategies that allow this crab to
      thrive under variable salinities, and how they change during the benthic stages
      of their life cycle, were evaluated under laboratory conditions. Oxygen
      consumption, ammonia excretion and the regulatory capacity of Na+ through the
      normal range of environmental salinities (i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30) were
      evaluated in three size classes, ranging from juveniles to adults. In all sizes,
      the oxygen consumption, ammonia excretion and regulatory capacity of Na+
      decreased as salinity increased, with the highest values at 5 and the lowest
      values at 30 salinity. Bigger crabs showed a higher capacity to regulate Na+, as
      well as higher respiration and excretion rates compared to smaller crabs,
      suggesting that they are better equipped to exploit areas of the estuary with low
      salinity. Regardless of its size, H. crenulatus is a strong hyper regulator in
      diluted media (i.e. 5-20) while a conformer at salinities higher than 20. The
      regulatory capacity of Na+ was positively related with oxygen consumption and
      ammonia excretion rates. These relationships between sodium regulation,
      respiration and excretion are interpreted as adaptive physiological mechanisms
      that allow H. crenulatus to maintain the osmotic and bioenergetic balance over a
      wide range of environmental salinities.

PMID- 28558962
TI  - Galangin ameliorates cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity by attenuating oxidative
      stress, inflammation and cell death in mice through inhibition of ERK and NF
      kappaB signaling.
AB  - Cisplatin is a chemotherapeutic agent widely used in the treatment of various
      cancers. However, cisplatin can induce nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity, limiting
      its dosage and usage. Galangin, a natural flavonol, has been found to exhibit
      anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in vivo. Here, we investigated the
      effects of galangin on cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) and its
      molecular mechanisms in mice. Galangin administration reduced the cisplatin
      induced oxidative stress by decreasing renal MDA and 3-NT formations. Galangin
      administration also increased renal anti-oxidative enzyme activities (SOD, GPx,
      and CAT) and GSH levels depleted by cisplatin. Furthermore, galangin
      administration inactivated stress-induced Nrf2 protein and its downstream
      products, HO-1 and GCLC. In terms of the inflammatory response, galangin
      administration reduced IkappaBalpha phosphorylation, NF-kappaB phosphorylation
      and nuclear translocation, and then inhibited cisplatin-induced secretions of pro
      inflammatory TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6. In addition, cisplatin-induced ERK and
      p38 phosphorylations were inhibited by galangin administration. In terms of cell
      death, galangin administration reduced levels of p53, pro-apoptotic Bax and
      activated caspase-3 to inhibit the cisplatin-induced apoptosis. Galangin
      administration also reduced the expression levels of RIP1 and RIP3 to inhibit
      cisplatin-induced RIP1/RIP3-dependent necroptosis. Therefore, galangin
      administration significantly ameliorates cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity by
      attenuating oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell death through inhibitions of
      ERK and NF-kappaB signaling pathways. Galangin might be a potential adjuvant for
      clinical cisplatin therapy.

PMID- 28558960
TI  - Targeting PAR1: Now What?
AB  - Protease-activated receptors (PARs) are a ubiquitously expressed class of G
      protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that enable cells to respond to proteases in
      the extracellular environment in a nuanced and dynamic manner. PAR1 is the
      archetypal family member and has been the object of large-scale drug development
      programs since the 1990s. Vorapaxar and drotrecogin-alfa are approved PAR1
      targeted therapeutics, but safety concerns have limited the clinical use of
      vorapaxar and questions regarding the efficacy of drotrecogin-alfa led to its
      withdrawal from the market. New understanding of mechanisms of PAR1 function,
      discovery of improved strategies for modifying PAR1 function, and identification
      of novel indications for PAR1 modulators have provided new opportunities for
      therapies targeting PAR1. In this review, we critically evaluate prospects for
      the next generation of PAR1-targeted therapeutics.

PMID- 28558964
TI  - Unravelling the interaction of pirenzepine, a gastrointestinal disorder drug,
      with calf thymus DNA: An in vitro and molecular modelling study.
AB  - Pirenzepine is an anti-ulcer agent which belongs to the anti-cholinergic group of
      gastrointestinal disorder drugs and functions as an M1 receptor selective
      antagonist. Drug-DNA interaction studies are of great significance as it helps in
      the development of new therapeutic drugs. It provides a deeper understanding into
      the mechanism through which therapeutic drugs control gene expression.
      Interaction of pirenzepine with calf-thymus DNA (Ct-DNA) was determined via a
      series of biophysical techniques. UV-visible absorption and fluorescence
      spectroscopy confirmed the formation of pirenzepine-Ct-DNA complex. The values of
      binding constant from various experiments were calculated to be in the order of
      103 M-1 which is consistent with the groove binding mode. Various
      spectrofluorimetric experiments like competitive displacement of well known dyes
      with drug, iodide quenching experiments and the effect of Ct-DNA denaturation in
      presence of drug confirmed the binding of pirenzepine to the groove of Ct-DNA.
      The binding mode was further established by viscometric, circular dichroic and
      molecular modelling studies. Thermodynamic parameters obtained from isothermal
      titration calorimetric studies suggest that the interaction of pirenzepine with
      Ct-DNA is enthalpically driven. The value of TDeltaS and DeltaH calculated from
      calorimetric studies were found to be 4.3 kcal mol-1 and -2.54 kcal mol-1
      respectively, indicating that pirenzepine-Ct-DNA complex is mainly stabilized by
      hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding. The binding energy calculated was 
      7.5 kcal mol-1 from modelling studies which was approximately similar to that
      obtained by isothermal titration calorimetric studies. Moreover, the role of
      electrostatic interaction in the binding of pirenzepine to Ct-DNA cannot be
      precluded.

PMID- 28558965
TI  - The enzyme: Renalase.
AB  - Within the last two years catalytic substrates for renalase have been identified,
      some 10 years after its initial discovery. 2- and 6-dihydronicotinamide (2- and 6
      DHNAD) isomers of beta-NAD(P)H (4-dihydroNAD(P)) are rapidly oxidized by renalase
      to form beta-NAD(P)+. The two electrons liberated are then passed to molecular
      oxygen by the renalase FAD cofactor forming hydrogen peroxide. This activity
      would appear to serve an intracellular detoxification/metabolite repair function
      that alleviates inhibition of primary metabolism dehydrogenases by 2- and 6-DHNAD
      molecules. This activity is supported by the complete structural assignment of
      the substrates, comprehensive kinetic analyses, defined species specific
      substrate specificity profiles and X-ray crystal structures that reveal ligand
      complexation consistent with this activity. This apparently intracellular
      function for the renalase enzyme is not allied with the majority of the renalase
      research that holds renalase to be a secreted mammalian protein that functions in
      blood to elicit a broad array of profound physiological changes. In this review a
      description of renalase as an enzyme is presented and an argument is offered that
      its enzymatic function can now reasonably be assumed to be uncoupled from whole
      organism physiological influences.

PMID- 28558966
TI  - Advanced Glycation End-Products Are Associated With the Presence and Severity of
      Paratonia in Early Stage Alzheimer Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Paratonia, a distinctive form of hypertonia in patients with dementia,
      causes loss of functional mobility in early stage dementia to severe contractures
      and pain in the late stages. The pathogenesis of paratonia is not well
      understood. Patients in early stage dementia with diabetes mellitus showed a
      significantly higher risk for the development of paratonia. Both Alzheimer
      disease and diabetes mellitus are related to higher concentrations of advanced
      glycation end-products (AGEs). The purpose of this study is to explore the
      association of AGEs with the prevalence and severity of paratonia in patients
      with Alzheimer disease. DESIGN: Observational longitudinal, 1-year follow-up
      cohort study with 3 assessments. SETTING: Day care centers for patients with
      dementia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 144 community-dwelling patients with early
      stage Alzheimer or Alzheimer/vascular disease were recruited from 24 dementia day
      care centers in The Netherlands. MEASUREMENTS: The presence of paratonia
      (Paratonia Assessment Instrument), the severity of paratonia (Modified Ashworth
      Scale for paratonia), and AGE levels (AGE-reader). RESULTS: From the 144
      participants (56.3% female and 43.7% male, with a mean [standard deviation] age
      of 80.7 [7.7] years), 118 participants were available for final follow-up. A
      significant association between AGE levels and the presence of paratonia (odds
      ratio 3.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.87-6.44, P < .001) and paratonia
      severity (beta = 0.17, 95% CI 0.11-0.23, P < .001) was determined. In
      participants who developed paratonia and those with persistent paratonia
      throughout the study the AGE levels (95% CI -0.38 to -0.13, P < .001 and 95% CI 
      0.46 to -0.06, P = .012, respectively) and the severity of paratonia (95% CI 
      0.60 to -0.35, P < .001 and 95% CI -0.38 to -0.12, P < .001, respectively)
      significantly increased, whereas the AGE levels remained stable in those
      participants without paratonia. Notwithstanding, change in AGE levels was not
      significantly (P = .062) related to change in paratonia severity, mixed model
      analyses provided evidence for both a significant time and between participant
      effect of AGEs on paratonia severity. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that
      elevated AGE levels are a contributing factor to paratonia and its severity and
      could be the result of peripheral biomechanical changes reducing elasticity and
      increasing stiffness. These results provide a new perspective on paratonia and
      gives rise to further research whether paratonia could be postponed or movement
      stiffness can be improved by reducing AGE levels.

PMID- 28558967
TI  - The design, synthesis, and anti-inflammatory evaluation of a drug-like library
      based on the natural product valerenic acid.
AB  - The plant natural product, valerenic acid (1) was chosen as a desirable scaffold
      for the generation of a novel screening library due to its drug-like
      physicochemical parameters (such as LogP, hydrogen bond donor/acceptor counts,
      and molecular weight). An 11-membered amide library (2-12) was subsequently
      generated using parallel solution-phase synthesis and Ghosez's reagent. The
      chemical structures of all semi-synthetic analogues (2-12) were elucidated
      following analysis of the NMR, MS, UV and IR data. The structures of compounds 8
      and 11 were also confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. All library
      members were evaluated for their ability to inhibit the release of IL-8 and TNF
      alpha. Six analogues showed moderate activity in the IL-8 assay with IC50 values
      of 2.8-8.3MUM, while none of the tested compounds showed any significant effect
      on inhibiting TNF-alpha release.

PMID- 28558968
TI  - Ratiometric fluorescence imaging of nuclear pH in living cells using Hoechst
      tagged fluorescein.
AB  - Small-molecule fluorescent sensors that allow specific measurement of nuclear pH
      in living cells will be valuable for biological research. Here we report that
      Hoechst-tagged fluorescein (hoeFL), which we previously developed as a green
      fluorescent DNA-staining probe, can be used for this purpose. Upon excitation at
      405nm, the hoeFL-DNA complex displayed two fluorescence bands around 460nm and
      520nm corresponding to the Hoechst and fluorescein fluorescence, respectively.
      When pH was changed from 8.3 to 5.5, the fluorescence intensity ratio (F520/F460)
      significantly decreased, which allowed reliable pH measurement. Moreover, because
      hoeFL binds specifically to the genomic DNA in cells, it was applicable to
      visualize the intranuclear pH of nigericin-treated and intact living human cells
      by ratiometric fluorescence imaging.

PMID- 28558969
TI  - Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines-loaded human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles:
      Preparation, characterization and cytotoxicity evaluation against neuroblastoma
      cell line.
AB  - Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives 1-5, active as c-Src inhibitors, have been
      selected to be formulated as drug-loaded human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles,
      with the aim of improving their solubility and pharmacokinetic properties. The
      present study includes the optimization of a desolvation method-based procedure
      for preparing HSA nanoparticles. First, characterization by HPLC-MS and Dynamic
      Light Scattering (DLS) showed a good entrapment efficacy, a controllable particle
      size (between 100 and 200nm) and an optimal stability over time, confirmed by an
      in vitro drug release assay. Then, 1-4 and the corresponding NPs were tested for
      their antiproliferative activity against neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line.
      Notably, 3-NPs and 4-NPs were identified as the most promising formulation
      showing a profitable balance of stability, small size and a similar activity
      compared to the free drugs in cell-based assays. In addition, albumin
      formulations increase the solubility of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine avoiding the
      use of DMSO as solubilizing agent.

PMID- 28558970
TI  - New merosesquiterpenes from a Vietnamese marine sponge of Spongia sp. and their
      biological activities.
AB  - The investigation of the Vietnamese marine sponge Spongia sp. led to the
      isolation of three new sesquiterpene phenols, langconols A-C (1-3), and one new
      sesquiterpene hydroxyquinone, langcoquinone C (4), together with two known
      meroterpenoids (5 and 6). Their structures were determined on the basis of
      spectroscopic analyses and comparisons with published data. Furthermore, the
      antibacterial assays of the isolates 1-6 suggested that 4 and 6 had significant
      antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus,
      with MICs ranging from 6.25 to 25.0uM, while 1 and 3 possessed significant
      antibacterial activities against B. subtilis with MICs of 12.5 and 25.0uM,
      respectively. In contrast, cytotoxic assays of the isolated compounds 1-6, as
      well as compounds 7-15 previously isolated from this sponge, indicated that 1 and
      the previously reported anti-B. subtilis and anti-S. aureus sesquiterpene phenol
      9 lacked cytotoxic activities against three human cancer cell lines (A549, lung
      cancer; MCF7, breast cancer; HeLa, cervix cancer) and a human normal cell line
      (WI-38 fibroblast).

PMID- 28558971
TI  - Fused bi-heteroaryl substituted hydantoin compounds as TACE inhibitors.
AB  - We have identified a series of hydantoin-derived TNF-a converting enzyme (TACE)
      inhibitors containing a pendant fused bi-heteroaryl group, which demonstrate sub
      nanomolar potency (Ki), excellent activity in human whole blood assay, and
      improved DMPK profiles over prior series.

PMID- 28558973
TI  - Lipemia retinalis in an infant treated for retinopathy of prematurity.
AB  - Lipemia retinalis is an unusual ocular finding associated with
      hypertriglyceridemia. We report the case of an infant treated for retinopathy of
      prematurity who later developed lipemia retinalis, with triglyceride levels of
      4736 mg/dl. There was a paradoxical worsening of hypertriglyceridemia with the
      use of medium chain triglyceride supplement. On discontinuing the supplement, the
      triglycerides level drastically dropped, and retinal vasculature returned to a
      normal hue.

PMID- 28558972
TI  - Structure-based identification of inhibitors targeting obstruction of the HIVgp41
      N-heptad repeat trimer.
AB  - The viral protein HIVgp41 is an attractive and validated drug target that
      proceeds through a sequence of conformational changes crucial for membrane
      fusion, which facilitates viral entry. Prior work has identified inhibitors that
      interfere with the formation of a required six-helix bundle, composed of trimeric
      C-heptad (CHR) and N-heptad (NHR) repeat elements, through blocking association
      of an outer CHR helix or obstructing formation of the inner NHR trimer itself. In
      this work, we employed similarity-based scoring to identify and experimentally
      characterize 113 compounds, related to 2 small-molecule inhibitors recently
      reported by Allen et al. (Bioorg. Med. Chem Lett.2015, 25 2853-59), proposed to
      act via the NHR trimer obstruction mechanism. The compounds were first tested in
      an HIV cell-cell fusion assay with the most promising evaluated in a second, more
      biologically relevant viral entry assay. Of the candidates, compound #11 emerged
      as the most promising hit (IC50=37.81uM), as a result of exhibiting activity in
      both assays with low cytotoxicity, as was similarly seen with the known control
      peptide inhibitor C34. The compound also showed no inhibition of VSV-G
      pseudotyped HIV entry compared to a control inhibitor suggesting it was specific
      for HIVgp41. Molecular dynamics simulations showed the predicted DOCK pose of #11
      interacts with HIVgp41 in an energetic fashion (per-residue footprints) similar
      to the four native NHR residues (IQLT) which candidate inhibitors were intended
      to mimic.

PMID- 28558974
TI  - Computational prediction of immune cell cytotoxicity.
AB  - Immunotoxicity, defined as adverse effects of xenobiotics on the immune system,
      is gaining increasing attention in the approval process of industrial chemicals
      and drugs. In-vivo and ex-vivo experiments have been the gold standard in
      immunotoxicity assessment so far, so the development of in-vitro and in-silico
      alternatives is an important issue. In this paper we describe a widely
      applicable, easy-to use computational approach which can serve as an initial
      immunotoxicity screen of new chemical entities. Molecular fingerprints describing
      chemical structure were used as parameters in a machine-learning approach based
      on the Naive-Bayes learning algorithm. The model was trained using blood-cell
      growth inhibition data from the NCI database and validated externally with
      several in-house and literature-derived data sets tested in cytotoxicity assays
      on different types on immune cells. Both cross-validations and external
      validations resulted in areas under the receiver operator curves (ROC/AUC) of 75%
      or higher. The classification of the validation data sets occurred with excellent
      specificities and fair to excellent selectivities, depending on the data set.
      This means that the probability of actual immunotoxicity is very high for
      compounds classified as immunotoxic, while the fraction of false negative
      predictions might vary. Thus, in a multistep immunotoxicity screening scheme, the
      classification as immunotoxic can be accepted without additional confirmation,
      while compounds classified as not immunotoxic will have to be subjected to
      further investigation.

PMID- 28558975
TI  - Critical review of the current literature on the safety of sucralose.
AB  - Sucralose is a non-caloric high intensity sweetener that is approved globally for
      use in foods and beverages. This review provides an updated summary of the
      literature addressing the safety of use of sucralose. Studies reviewed include
      chemical characterization and stability, toxicokinetics in animals and humans,
      assessment of genotoxicity, and animal and human feeding studies. Endpoints
      evaluated include effects on growth, development, reproduction, neurotoxicity,
      immunotoxicity, carcinogenicity and overall health status. Human clinical studies
      investigated potential effects of repeated consumption in individuals with
      diabetes. Recent studies on the safety of sucralose focused on carcinogenic
      potential and the effect of sucralose on the gut microflora are reviewed.
      Following the discovery of sweet taste receptors in the gut and studies
      investigating the activation of these receptors by sucralose lead to numerous
      human clinical studies assessing the effect of sucralose on overall glycemic
      control. Estimated daily intakes of sucralose in different population subgroups,
      including recent studies on children with special dietary needs, consistently
      find that the intakes of sucralose in all members of the population remain well
      below the acceptable daily intake. Collectively, critical review of the extensive
      database of research demonstrates that sucralose is safe for its intended use as
      a non-caloric sugar alternative.

PMID- 28558976
TI  - Chronic exposure to tumor necrosis factor in vivo induces hyperalgesia,
      upregulates sodium channel gene expression and alters the cellular
      electrophysiology of dorsal root ganglion neurons.
AB  - The goal of these studies was to investigate the links between chronic exposure
      to the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF), hyperalgesia and
      the excitability of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons. We employed
      transgenic mice that constitutively express TNF (TNFtg mice), a well-established
      model of chronic systemic inflammation. At 6 months of age, TNFtg mice
      demonstrated increased sensitivity to both mechanical and thermal heat
      stimulation relative to aged-matched wild-type controls. These increases in
      stimulus-evoked behaviors are consistent with nociceptor sensitization to normal
      physiological stimulation. The mechanisms underlying nociceptor sensitization
      were investigated using single-cell analysis to quantitatively compare gene
      expression in small-diameter (<30MUm) DRG neurons. This analysis revealed the
      upregulation of mRNA encoding for tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) sodium (Na+)
      channels (Nav1.8, Nav1.9), Na+ channel beta subunits (beta1-beta3), TNF receptor
      1 (TNFR1) and p38alpha mitogen-activated protein kinase in neurons of TNFtg mice.
      Whole-cell electrophysiology demonstrated a corresponding increase in TTX-R Na+
      current density, hyperpolarizing shifts in activation and steady-state
      inactivation, and slower recovery from inactivation in the TNFtg neurons.
      Increased overlap of activation and inactivation in the TNFtg neurons produces
      inward Na+ currents at voltages near the resting membrane potential of sensory
      neurons (i.e. window currents). The combination of increased Na+ current
      amplitude, hyperpolarized shifts in Na+ channel activation and increased window
      current predicts a reduction in the action potential threshold and increased
      firing of small-diameter DRG neurons. Together, these data suggest that increases
      in the expression of Nav1.8 channels, regulatory beta1 subunits and TNFR1
      contribute to increased nociceptor excitability and hyperalgesia in the TNFtg
      mice.

PMID- 28558977
TI  - Difference of recovery course of motor weakness according to state of
      corticospinal tract in putaminal hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We investigated differences in recovery course of motor weakness
      according to the state of the corticospinal tract (CST) in putaminal hemorrhage,
      using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). METHODS: We recruited 36 patients with
      complete weakness of the affected extremities at onset. The patients were
      classified into two groups according to the findings of DTT for the CST at
      chronic stage: group A- preserved integrity of the CST around the lesion, and
      group B- discontinued integrity of the CST. Motor function of the affected
      extremities was measured over a six month period using the Motricity Index (MI).
      RESULTS: The MI scores differed significantly each month, except at the onset,
      between group A and group B (p<0.05). In both groups, we observed significant
      increases between onset and one month, between one month and two months, between
      two month and three months, and between three months and four months (p<0.05).
      However, there were no significant increases after four months (p>0.05). The
      degree of difference between months was as follows: onset ~1 month, 1 month
      ~2months, 2 months ~3months, and 3 months ~4months. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with
      preserved integrity of the CST showed better motor function than patients with
      discontinued integrity of the CST. In both groups, significant motor recovery was
      achieved during the first four months after onset. In addition, the most rapid
      motor recovery occurred during the first month and then decreased gradually with
      the passage of time.

PMID- 28558978
TI  - The efficacy and safety of tofacitinib in Asian patients with moderate to severe
      chronic plaque psoriasis: A Phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor. OBJECTIVE: This study
      assessed tofacitinib efficacy and safety vs placebo in Asian patients with
      moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. METHODS: Patients from China
      mainland, Taiwan, and Korea were randomized 2:2:1:1 to tofacitinib 5mg (N=88),
      tofacitinib 10mg (N=90), placebo->5mg (N=44), or placebo->10mg (N=44), twice
      daily (BID) for 52 weeks. Placebo-treated patients advanced to tofacitinib at
      Week 16. Co-primary efficacy endpoints: proportions of patients achieving
      Physician's Global Assessment (PGA) response ('clear' or 'almost clear') and
      proportion achieving >=75% reduction from baseline Psoriasis Area and Severity
      Index (PASI75) at Week 16. RESULTS: At Week 16, more patients achieved PGA and
      PASI75 responses with tofacitinib 5mg (52.3%; 54.6%) and 10mg (75.6%; 81.1%) BID
      vs placebo (19.3%; 12.5%; all p<0.0001). Of patients with a Week 16 response,
      73.6% and 75.0% maintained PGA response, and 76.8% and 84.9% maintained PASI75 to
      Week 52 with tofacitinib 5mg and 10mg BID, respectively. Over 52 weeks, 2.2-4.5%
      of patients across treatment groups experienced serious adverse events, and 1.1
      6.8% discontinued due to adverse events. CONCLUSION: Tofacitinib demonstrated
      efficacy vs placebo at Week 16 in Asian patients with moderate to severe plaque
      psoriasis; efficacy was maintained through Week 52. No unexpected safety findings
      were observed. [NCT01815424].

PMID- 28558980
TI  - Diurnal variation in the pharmacokinetics and brain distribution of morphine and
      its major metabolite.
AB  - The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs are influenced by daily
      fluctuations in physiological processes. The aim of this study was to determine
      the effect of dosing time on the pharmacokinetics and brain distribution of
      morphine. To this end, 4mg/kg morphine was administered intravenously to Wistar
      rats that were either pre-treated with vehicle or tariquidar and probenecid to
      inhibit processes involved in the active transport of morphine. Non-linear mixed
      effects modelling was used to describe the concentration-time profiles of
      morphine and its metabolite M3G in plasma and brain tissue. We found that the
      concentrations of morphine in the brain and of M3G in plasma depended on the time
      of day, which could be quantified by a 24-hour rhythm in the efflux of morphine
      from brain tissue back into the circulation, with the lowest efflux during the
      two light-dark phase transitions with a difference between peak and trough of
      20%. The active processes involved in the clearance of morphine and its
      metabolite M3G from plasma also showed 24-hour variation with the highest value
      in the middle of the dark phase being 54% higher than the lowest value at the
      start of the light phase. Hence, time of day presents a considerable source of
      variation in the pharmacokinetics of morphine, which could be used to optimize
      the dosing strategy of morphine.

PMID- 28558979
TI  - Biocompatibility of hydrogel-based scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.
AB  - Recently, understanding of the extracellular matrix (ECM) has expanded rapidly
      due to the accessibility of cellular and molecular techniques and the growing
      potential and value for hydrogels in tissue engineering. The fabrication of
      hydrogel-based cellular scaffolds for the generation of bioengineered tissues has
      been based on knowledge of the composition and structure of ECM. Attempts at
      recreating ECM have used either naturally-derived ECM components or synthetic
      polymers with structural integrity derived from hydrogels. Due to their
      increasing use, their biocompatibility has been questioned since the use of these
      biomaterials needs to be effective and safe. It is not surprising then that the
      evaluation of biocompatibility of these types of biomaterials for regenerative
      and tissue engineering applications has been expanded from being primarily
      investigated in a laboratory setting to being applied in the multi-billion dollar
      medicinal industry. This review will aid in the improvement of design of non
      invasive, smart hydrogels that can be utilized for tissue engineering and other
      biomedical applications. In this review, the biocompatibility of hydrogels and
      design criteria for fabricating effective scaffolds are examined. Examples of
      natural and synthetic hydrogels, their biocompatibility and use in tissue
      engineering are discussed. The merits and clinical complications of hydrogel
      scaffold use are also reviewed. The article concludes with a future outlook of
      the field of biocompatibility within the context of hydrogel-based scaffolds.

PMID- 28558981
TI  - Natural lipids-based NLC containing lidocaine: from pre-formulation to in vivo
      studies.
AB  - In a nanotechnological approach we have investigated the use of natural lipids in
      the preparation of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC). Three different NLC
      composed of copaiba oil and beeswax, sweet almond oil and shea butter, and sesame
      oil and cocoa butter as structural matrices were optimized using factorial
      analysis; Pluronic(r) 68 and lidocaine (LDC) were used as the colloidal
      stabilizer and model encapsulated drug, respectively. The optimal formulations
      were characterized by different techniques (IR-ATR, DSC, and TEM), and their
      safety and efficacy were also tested. These nanocarriers were able to upload high
      amounts of the anesthetic with a sustained in vitro release profile for 24h. The
      physicochemical stability in terms of size (nm), PDI, zeta potential (mV), pH,
      nanoparticle concentration (particles/mL), and visual inspection was followed
      during 12months of storage at 25 degrees C. The formulations exhibited excellent
      structural properties and stability. They proved to be nontoxic in vitro (cell
      viability tests with Balb/c 3T3 fibroblasts) and significantly improved the in
      vivo effects of LDC, over the heart rate of zebra fish larvae and in the blockage
      of sciatic nerve in mice. The results from this study support that the proper
      combination of natural excipients is promising in DDS, taking advantage of the
      biocompatibility, low cost, and diversity of lipids.

PMID- 28558982
TI  - Decrease in the incidence and in hospital mortality of community-acquired
      pneumonia among children in Spain (2001-2014).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe trends in the incidence and outcomes of community
      acquired pneumonia (CAP) hospitalizations among Spanish children from 2001 to
      2014 and to assess the effect of the pneumococcal vaccination (PCV) coverage in
      this period. METHODS: This study was conducted using the Spanish National
      Hospital Database from 2001 to 2014 including subjects <18years. We selected
      discharges with a primary diagnosis of CAP. Study variable included age, sex,
      comorbid conditions, procedures, isolated pathogens and hospital outcome
      variables. In order to estimate the effect of coverage of pneumococcal
      vaccination in hospitalizations for CAP, we used the number of commercialized
      doses of PCV (PCV7 PCV10, and PCV13) for each year. Incidence rates of admissions
      for CAP were calculated by dividing the number of admissions per year, sex, and
      age group by the corresponding number of people in that population group
      according to the census data. RESULTS: We identified 194,419 admissions for CAP.
      Incidence rate was highest among children younger than 2years and decreased
      significantly by 3.67% per year over the study period in this age group. Among
      children aged 2-4years incidence of CAP seem to decrease after year 2009. S.
      pneumoniae isolations decreased significantly over time but virus isolations
      increased. In children aged <2years and 2-4years increase in PVC was associated
      to a decrease in the incidence of CAP hospitalizations. Overall crude in hospital
      mortality following CAP fell significantly from 4.10/00 in 2001-2003 to 2.80/00
      in 2012-2014. CONCLUSIONS: CAP incidence rates decreased significantly among
      children <2years of age from 2001 to 2014. S. pneumoniae isolations decreased
      significantly over time but virus isolations increased. In hospital mortality
      paralleling CAP fell significantly in children and adolescents from 2001 to 2014.
      Improvement in vaccination coverage seems to have a mitigating effect on
      hospitalizations and outcomes for CAP in children.

PMID- 28558984
TI  - Human immune responses against Shigella and enterotoxigenic E. coli: Current
      advances and the path forward.
AB  - Robust and well-established immunological assays and firm immune correlates of
      protection that can predict disease outcome and/or vaccine efficacy are essential
      to adequately assess human immune responses to infection and vaccination. The
      availability of reagents and calibrated controls is also critically important to
      standardize assays and generate comparable results among different laboratories.
      The workshop "Human Immune Responses against Shigella and ETEC: Current Advances
      and the Path Forward" held during the VASE meeting provided an opportunity to
      disseminate and discuss recent advances in the field of Shigella and ETEC
      immunology, identify research needs, and propose collaborative activities to
      advance the field. Four presentations featured current knowledge on humoral and
      cellular immune responses to Shigella and ETEC during infection and vaccination.
      A discussion followed on immunological methods relevant for clinical studies,
      immune parameters associated with protection, harmonization of assays among
      laboratories, and availability of reagents and standards. Specific
      recommendations proposed to facilitate "the path forward" included supporting
      communication among scientists, harmonization of assays and sharing of protocols,
      the creation of a repository of reagents and calibrated controls and distribution
      of such material to the research community, and expansion of exploratory studies
      to better understand the interactions between these pathogens and the human
      immune system and the ensuing responses.

PMID- 28558986
TI  - Tolerance of Orthotopic Ileal Neobladders to Radiotherapy: A Multi-institutional
      Retrospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present retrospective study analyzed the tolerance of orthotopic
      ileal neobladders to radiotherapy by reviewing the acute and late toxicity in
      patients who underwent postoperative radiotherapy after radical
      cystectomy/cystoprostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multi-institutional
      database was created for patients who had undergone radical
      cystectomy/cystoprostatectomy and neobladder reconstruction, followed by adjuvant
      radiotherapy (RT). The patient and tumor characteristics were recorded. The RT
      data were reviewed to determine the treatment technique used, the radiation dose
      received by the neobladder, and acute and late toxicity evaluated using the
      Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0, scale. RESULTS: A
      total of 25 patients were included, with a median age of 64 years. Of the 25
      patients, 18 received a dose of 45 to 50.4 Gy. The most common reasons for
      postoperative radiotherapy were close or positive surgical margins and pT3-pT4 or
      N+ disease. Ten patients underwent intensity modulated RT. All but 1 patient
      completed the RT course. Of the patients who completed their RT schedule, none
      had grade >= 3 acute gastrointestinal toxicity. One patient who received
      concurrent chemotherapy developed grade 3 acute genitourinary toxicity. Three
      patients reported late grade 1 genitourinary toxicity (frequency of urination,
      mild leakage at night), with no reports of chronic gastrointestinal toxicity.
      None of the patients experienced neobladder perforation, leak, or fistula.
      CONCLUSION: The use of moderate doses of pelvic RT (range, 45-50.4 Gy) was well
      tolerated among the 25 patients who underwent RT after cystoprostatectomy with
      orthotopic neobladder creation. This finding supports the use of postoperative RT
      to moderate doses in this patient population when clinically indicated.

PMID- 28558985
TI  - Factors associated with parental acceptance of seasonal influenza vaccination for
      their children - A telephone survey in the adult population in Germany.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Influenza vaccination of children with underlying chronic diseases
      is currently recommended in Germany, but targeting all children constitutes an
      alternative approach to control seasonal influenza. To inform the modelling of
      vaccination impact and possible communication activities, we aimed to assess
      among parents the acceptance of universal childhood vaccination against seasonal
      influenza and possible modifiers. METHODS: We conducted a telephone survey in
      households in Germany using random digit dialing. We interviewed parents with
      children aged <18 years by constructing three hypothetical scenarios in
      subsequent order: (1) hearing about the influenza vaccination recommendation
      through the media, (2) the vaccine being recommended by a physician, and (3)
      being informed about the availability of the vaccine as a nasal spray. We
      calculated the proportion of parents who would immunize their child and used
      univariable and multivariable logistic regression to identify factors associated
      with influenza vaccination intention. RESULTS: Response was between 22 and 46%.
      Of 518 participants, 74% were female, mean age was 41.3 years. Participants had
      on average 1.6 children with a mean age of 8.9 years. In scenario 1, 52% of
      parents would immunize their child, compared to 64% in scenario 2 (p<0.01) and to
      45% in scenario 3 (p=0.20). Factors independently associated with vaccination
      acceptance in scenario 1 were previous influenza vaccination of the child or
      parent (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.5 and 8.6, respectively), perceived severity
      of influenza (aOR=5.1) and living in eastern Germany (aOR=2.4). CONCLUSION: If
      seasonal influenza vaccination was recommended for all children, more than half
      of the parents would potentially agree to immunize their child. Involving
      physicians in future information campaigns is essential to achieve high uptake.
      As intranasal vaccine administration is non-invasive and easily done, it remains
      unclear why scenario 3 was associated with low acceptance among parents, and the
      underlying reasons should be further explored.

PMID- 28558983
TI  - Enhancing global vaccine pharmacovigilance: Proof-of-concept study on aseptic
      meningitis and immune thrombocytopenic purpura following measles-mumps containing
      vaccination.
AB  - New vaccines designed to prevent diseases endemic in low and middle-income
      countries (LMICs) are now being introduced without prior record of utilization in
      countries with robust pharmacovigilance systems. To address this deficit, our
      objective was to demonstrate feasibility of an international hospital-based
      network for the assessment of potential epidemiological associations between
      serious and rare adverse events and vaccines in any setting. This was done
      through a proof-of-concept evaluation of the risk of immune thrombocytopenic
      purpura (ITP) and aseptic meningitis (AM) following administration of the first
      dose of measles-mumps-containing vaccines using the self-controlled risk interval
      method in the primary analysis. The World Health Organization (WHO) selected 26
      sentinel sites (49 hospitals) distributed in 16 countries of the six WHO regions.
      Incidence rate ratios (IRR) of 5.0 (95% CI: 2.5-9.7) for ITP following first dose
      of measles-containing vaccinations, and of 10.9 (95% CI: 4.2-27.8) for AM
      following mumps-containing vaccinations were found. The strain-specific analyses
      showed significantly elevated ITP risk for measles vaccines containing Schwarz
      (IRR: 20.7; 95% CI: 2.7-157.6), Edmonston-Zagreb (IRR: 11.1; 95% CI: 1.4-90.3),
      and Enders'Edmonston (IRR: 8.5; 95% CI: 1.9-38.1) strains. A significantly
      elevated AM risk for vaccines containing the Leningrad-Zagreb mumps strain (IRR:
      10.8; 95% CI: 1.3-87.4) was also found. This proof-of-concept study has shown,
      for the first time, that an international hospital-based network for the
      investigation of rare vaccine adverse events, using common standardized
      procedures and with high participation of LMICs, is feasible, can produce
      reliable results, and has the potential to characterize differences in risk
      between vaccine strains. The completion of this network by adding large reference
      hospitals, particularly from tropical countries, and the systematic WHO-led
      implementation of this approach, should permit the rapid post-marketing
      evaluation of safety signals for serious and rare adverse events for new and
      existing vaccines in all settings, including LMICs.

PMID- 28558988
TI  - Association of Distance to Treatment Facility With Survival and Quality Outcomes
      After Radical Cystectomy: A Multi-Institutional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We sought to determine the effect of the travel distance on mortality
      and quality outcomes after radical cystectomy in a large multi-institutional
      cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 3957 patients who had undergone radical
      cystectomy for urothelial carcinoma at 6 North American tertiary care
      institutions were included. The association of travel distance with quality-of
      care endpoints, 90-day mortality, and long-term survival were evaluated. RESULTS:
      The median patient age was 69 years (interquartile range, 61-76 years), and most
      patients were men (80%). Most patients had clinical stage T2 (45.2%) and T1
      (24.7%) tumors. The median distance to the treatment facility was 102.9 miles
      (interquartile range, 24-271 miles). Patients residing in the first quartile of
      travel distance to treatment facility (< 24 miles) had lower usage of neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy compared with patients in the fourth distance quartile (adjusted
      odds ratio, 1.58; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-2.05; P = .001). Patients in the
      first distance quartile were also less likely to experience a delay in time to
      cystectomy (> 3 months) compared with patients with a greater travel distance
      (adjusted odds ratio, 0.673; 95% confidence interval, 0.532-0.851). Distance to
      the treatment facility was not associated with 90-day mortality or cancer
      specific or all-cause mortality on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Despite the
      potential health care disparities for bladder cancer patients residing distant to
      a regional surgical oncology facility, the study results suggest that the travel
      distance is not a barrier to appropriate oncologic care at regional tertiary care
      centers.

PMID- 28558987
TI  - Genomic Characterization of Renal Medullary Carcinoma and Treatment Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) is a rare and aggressive type of
      kidney cancer that primarily affects young adults with sickle cell trait;
      outcomes are poor despite treatment. Identifying molecular features of this tumor
      could provide biologic rationale for novel targeted therapies. The objective was
      to report on clinical outcomes with systemic therapy and characterize molecular
      features. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis on 36 patients
      given a pathologic diagnosis of RMC at one institution from 1995 to 2015. Tumors
      were analyzed for expression of SWI/SNF Related, Matrix Associated, Actin
      Dependent Regulator Of Chromatin, Subfamily B, Member 1 (SMARCB1) through
      immunohistochemistry and for genomic alterations with fluorescence in situ
      hybridization for SMARCB1, and targeted next-generation sequencing. Time from
      initiation of therapy to progression of disease and overall survival were
      calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: The median age in the cohort
      was 28 (range, 12-72) years, and all patients tested had sickle cell trait.
      Overall survival was 5.8 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.1-10.9) and for
      12 patients who received platinum-based therapy, median progression-free survival
      was 2.5 months (95% CI, 1.2-not reached). A total of 10 available tumors
      underwent analysis with fluorescence in situ hybridization for SMARCB1; this
      revealed loss of heterozygosity with concurrent translocation in 8, and biallelic
      loss in 2. Next-generation targeted sequencing showed no recurring mutations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Outcome was generally poor in this cohort of patients with RMC.
      Uniform loss of SMARCB1 is a key molecular feature in this tumor and mechanism of
      loss appears to be mostly through translocations and deletions.

PMID- 28558989
TI  - Preoperative Cholesterol Level Is Associated With Worse Pathological Outcomes and
      Postoperative Survival in Localized Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients: A Propensity
      Score-Matched Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lipid metabolism has been suggested to be associated with clinical
      outcomes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In this study, we aimed to investigate
      the relationship between preoperative cholesterol level (PCL) and postoperative
      outcomes of patients with localized RCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively analyzed the data of 5022 patients surgically treated for
      nonmetastatic RCC. According to the receiver operating curve of PCL for cancer
      specific mortality, we stratified the patients into 2 groups by using a cutoff
      value of 161 mg/dL. The propensity scores for having low PCL were calculated, and
      the low PCL group was matched with the high PCL group at a 1:2 ratio. The
      oncological profiles and postoperative survival of patients were compared.
      RESULTS: A low cholesterol level was significantly associated with adverse
      pathologic findings, such as higher pathologic stage (P < .001) and large tumor
      size (P = .002). Furthermore, the low cholesterol group showed significantly
      worse progression-free, cancer-specific, and overall survival (all P values <
      .001) compared with the high cholesterol group. Multivariate analysis exhibited a
      higher PCL as an independent predictor of better progression-free (P < .001),
      cancer-specific (P = .018), and overall survival (P = .001) after matching.
      Subgroup analysis according to tumor histology revealed that PCL had a
      significant relationship with patients' survival in clear cell RCC, but not in
      non-clear cell RCC. CONCLUSION: Decreased PCL was significantly associated with
      worse pathologic outcomes and also inferior postoperative survival in patients
      with localized RCC; however, those relationships were significant only in clear
      cell subtypes.

PMID- 28558990
TI  - Utilization of Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection for Patients With Low-Risk Prostate
      Cancer Treated With Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) is not recommended for low-risk
      prostate cancer (PCa) patients. However, the rate of PLND in this population is
      unknown. METHODS: We queried the National Cancer Data Base for PCa patients who
      underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy from 2010 to 2013 and stratified
      them by D'Amico risk classification. We identified the frequency of PLND in low
      risk patients and identified factors associated with receipt of PLND. Further, we
      determined the number of lymph nodes evaluated (quality) and proportion of
      patients with detected nodal metastatic disease (utility) in each risk group.
      RESULTS: Of 51,971 patients with low-risk PCa who underwent robot-assisted
      radical prostatectomy, 19,059 (36.7%) received PLND. Predictors of PLND in low
      risk patients included rural residence (odds ratio [OR], 1.157; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.009-1.327), treatment at an academic center (OR, 1.492; 95% CI
      1.188-1.874), and high-volume facility (OR, 1.327; 95% CI, 1.078-1.633). The mean
      number of lymph nodes obtained in low-risk patients was lower than in
      intermediate/high-risk patients (4.74 vs. 5.86, P < .0001). Lymph node positivity
      was identified in 0.4% of low-risk patients and 4.6% of intermediate/high-risk
      patients. CONCLUSION: While PLND is not recommended for low-risk PCa by clinical
      practice guidelines, it was performed frequently (36.7%) in a large hospital
      based data set. PLND in this population was of lower quality (nodal yield) and
      had less utility of detecting nodal metastatic disease than PLND in
      intermediate/high-risk PCa. Treatment at a high-volume or academic center was
      associated with increased use of PLND. Reasons for the variation in practice
      patterns should be investigated to improve the value of PCa care.

PMID- 28558991
TI  - Variation in Locoregional Prostate Cancer Care and Treatment Trends at Commission
      on Cancer Designated Facilities: A National Cancer Data Base Analysis 2004 to
      2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contemporary treatment trends for prostate cancer show increased
      rates of active surveillance. However, nationwide applicability of these reports
      is limited. Additionally, the effect of Commission on Cancer facility type on
      prostate cancer treatment patterns is unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We used the
      National Cancer Data Base to identify men diagnosed with prostate cancer, between
      2004 and 2013. Our cohort was stratified on the basis of the National
      Comprehensive Cancer Network prostate cancer risk classes. Cochran-Armitage tests
      were used to evaluate temporal trends. Random effects hierarchical logit models
      were used to assess treatment variation at Commission on Cancer facility and
      institution level. RESULTS: In 825,707 men, utilization of radiation therapy
      declined and utilization of radical prostatectomy increased for all prostate
      cancer risk groups between 2004 and 2013 (P < .0001). Observation for low-risk
      prostate cancer increased from 16.3% in 2004 to 2005 to 32.0% in 2012 to 2013 (P
      < .0001). Significant treatment variation was observed on the basis of Commission
      on Cancer facility type. Across all risk groups, the lowest rates of radical
      prostatectomy and highest rates of external beam radiation therapy were observed
      in community cancer programs. The highest rates of observation for low-risk
      disease were observed in academic centers. Treatment variation according to
      institution ranged from 14% (95% confidence interval, 0.12-0.15) for androgen
      deprivation therapy up to 59% (95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.73) for
      cryotherapy. CONCLUSION: The increased utilization of observation in low-risk
      prostate cancer is an encouraging finding, which appears to be mainly derived by
      a decrease in radiotherapy utilization in this risk group. Regardless of tumor
      characteristics, significant variations in treatment modality exist among
      different facility types and institutions.

PMID- 28558992
TI  - Molecular surveillance of Theileria parasites of livestock in Oman.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Theileriosis is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases of
      livestock in the Arabian Peninsula, and causes high rates of mortality and
      morbidity in sheep and cattle. However, there is a paucity of information on the
      distribution of Theileria spp. over the whole region and their impact on
      different hosts. The present study carried out a country-wide molecular survey
      for Theileria spp. of livestock in Oman across four governorates. The aim of the
      survey was to define the prevalence of Theileria spp. in cattle, sheep and goats,
      highlight risk factors for infection and identify the main tick species involved
      in parasite transmission. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 2020 animals were
      examined in the survey consisting of sheep [n=592], goats [n=981] and cattle
      [n=447]. All three species were raised and co-grazed on the same farms. Theileria
      parasites were detected using PCR-RFLP and RLB of the 18S rRNA gene. Cloning and
      sequencing of the 18S rRNA was carried out on 11 T. lestoquardi isolates from Ash
      Sharqiyah, and Ad-Dhahira governorates, and phylogenetic relationships were
      inferred using additional sequences of T. lestoquardi, T. annulata and T. ovis
      available in GenBank. RESULTS: Theileria spp. prevalence was 72.3%, 36.7% and
      2.7% among cattle, sheep and goats, respectively. Strong similarity in results
      was obtained using RLB and PCR-RFLP for detection of Theileria spp. however, RLB
      detected a higher rate of mixed infection than PCR-RFPL (P<0.001). Theileria
      annulata was the only parasite detected in cattle, while sheep and goats carried
      T. ovis, T. lestoquardi and T. annulata as well as Theileria spp. OT1. Of the
      four Theileria spp. detected in small ruminants, overall T. ovis was most
      prevalent (sheep [33.4%], goats [2.0%]), whereas T. lestoquardi was less
      prevalent (sheep [22.0%], goats [0.5%]). A large proportion of infected sheep
      (19%) carried mixed infection of T. ovis and T. lestoquardi. However, single T.
      lestoquardi infections (3.0%) were less prevalent than T. ovis infections
      (14.5%). Risk of Theileria spp. infection was significantly higher for exotic
      breeds, relative to native breeds, of cattle (p=0.00002) and sheep (p=0.005).
      Phylogenetic analysis placed T. lestoquardi in Oman in the same clade as other T.
      lestoquardi strains isolated from the same regional area (Iraq and Iran). The
      main tick species, identified on the examined animals, Hyalomma anatolicum, was
      widely distributed and was found in all of the surveyed governorates. CONCLUSION:
      Theileria spp. are widespread in Oman with variable prevalence detected in
      different regions. Two economically important hosts, cattle and sheep are at high
      risk from virulent T. annulata and T. lestoquardi, respectively. The survey
      indicates extensive exposure to ticks and transmission of infection that has a
      significant economic impact. The higher prevalence of T. lestoquardi as mixed
      rather than single infection requires further investigation.

PMID- 28558993
TI  - Estradiol modulates the anorexic response to central glucagon-like peptide 1.
AB  - Estrogens suppress feeding in part by enhancing the response to satiation
      signals. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) acts on receptor populations both
      peripherally and centrally to affect food intake. We hypothesized that modulation
      of the central GLP-1 system is one of the mechanisms underlying the effects of
      estrogens on feeding. We assessed the anorexic effect of 0, 1, and 10MUg doses of
      GLP-1 administered into the lateral ventricle of bilaterally ovariectomized (OVX)
      female rats on a cyclic regimen of either 2MUg beta-estradiol-3-benzoate (EB) or
      oil vehicle 30min prior to dark onset on the day following hormone treatment.
      Central GLP-1 treatment significantly suppressed food intake in EB-treated rats
      at both doses compared to vehicle, whereas only the 10MUg GLP-1 dose was
      effective in oil-treated rats. To follow up, we examined whether physiologic-dose
      cyclic estradiol treatment influences GLP-1-induced c-Fos in feeding-relevant
      brain areas of OVX females. GLP-1 significantly increased c-Fos expression in the
      area postrema (AP) and nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), and the presence of
      estrogens may be required for this effect in the paraventricular nucleus of the
      hypothalamus (PVN). Together, these data suggest that modulation of the central
      GLP-1 system may be one of the mechanisms by which estrogens suppress food
      intake, and highlight the PVN as a region of interest for future investigation.

PMID- 28558995
TI  - Cellular uptake of coagulation factor VIII: Elusive role of the membrane-binding
      spikes in the C1 domain.
AB  - Low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) is involved in the
      catabolism of many ligands, including factor VIII (FVIII) and alpha-2
      macroglobulin (alpha2M). Transfer of FVIII to LRP1 is currently believed to be
      preceded by pre-concentration on the cell surface, by interacting with a so far
      unidentified component. In the present study, we used confocal microscopy and
      flow cytometry to compare endocytosis of FVIII and alpha2M using U87MG cells. The
      results show that alpha2M is rapidly internalized and does not compete for LRP1
      mediated internalization of FVIII. FVIII endocytosis did not occur in the
      presence of receptor-associated-protein (RAP), but FVIII remained visible as a
      striated fluorescent pattern at the cell borders. In the presence of Von
      Willebrand Factor (VWF), no FVIII was observed on or within the cells, suggesting
      that VWF blocks interaction with both cell surface and LRP1. The same dual
      inhibition has previously been observed for FVIII C1 domain directed monoclonal
      antibody KM33. Elimination of the KM33 epitope by replacing FVIII C1 residues
      2091-2095 and 2155-2160 for the homologues from factor V (FV), however, did not
      impair FVIII endocytosis. These membrane spikes alone were insufficient for
      cellular uptake, because FV was neither internalized by U87MG cells nor capable
      of effectively competing for FVIII endocytosis. These results show that FVIII
      endocytosis is driven by interaction with LRP1, but at the same time involves the
      spikes in the C1 domain that have been implicated in lipid binding.

PMID- 28558996
TI  - Supramalleolar Osteotomy With Distraction Arthroplasty in Treatment of Varus
      Ankle Osteoarthritis With Large Talar Tilt Angle: A Case Report and Literature
      Review.
AB  - We treated a 57-year-old female with modified Takakura stage 3B varus ankle
      osteoarthritis. Her preoperative talar tilt angle was 21.3 degrees . The patient
      wished to avoid ankle joint arthrodesis or replacement. Therefore, medial opening
      wedge supramalleolar osteotomy with fibular osteotomy was used for her varus
      ankle osteoarthritis. Also, fixed medial distraction arthroplasty was performed
      to improve her talar tilt. After 3 months, the external device was removed, and
      the patient was allowed partial weightbearing and began full weightbearing 4
      months postoperatively after the osteotomy site had reached bony union
      radiographically. At the 3-year follow-up visit, a radiograph showed the medial
      ankle joint space enlargement had been maintained. The talar tilt angle had
      decreased to 3.3 degrees , and the modified Takakura stage had improved to stage
      1. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) Ankle-Hindfoot scale
      score had improved from 26 points preoperatively to 85 points at 3 years
      postoperatively. Our findings suggested that good clinical and radiologic results
      can be achieved with supramalleolar osteotomy combined with distraction
      arthroplasty in the treatment of varus ankle osteoarthritis with a large talar
      tilt angle.

PMID- 28558998
TI  - Open Ankle Dislocation Without Fractures With Tibialis Posterior Tendon
      Interposition Through the Interosseous Space.
AB  - Open ankle dislocations without fracture are rare injuries. Dislocation or
      interposition of adjacent tendons are a rare associated feature of ankle fracture
      dislocation. We report an extremely unusual case of open ankle dislocation
      without fracture with concurrent tibialis posterior tendon interposition through
      the interosseous space that was detected incidentally on computed tomography. We
      highlight the clinical, radiologic, and intraoperative features to avoid missing
      similar diagnoses.

PMID- 28558997
TI  - Onychomatricoma: A Rare and Potentially Underreported Tumor of the Nail Matrix.
AB  - Onychomatricoma is a rare benign neoplasm of the nail matrix first described by
      Baran and Kint in 1992. Fewer than 80 cases of onychomatricoma have been
      described in the literature, 15 of which were initially misdiagnosed and treated
      as onychomycosis. We present the case of a 66-year-old male with thickening and
      linear xanthonychia of the hallux nail plate secondary to an onychomatricoma
      misdiagnosed as onychomycosis. Following biopsy for histopathologic analysis, the
      lesion and proximal nail matrix were surgically excised. At 12 months post
      excision, the patient remains asymptomatic without evidence of recurrence. The
      purpose of the present case report is to make foot and ankle surgeons more
      cognizant of the pathology, highlight the nonspecific clinical and radiologic
      findings, and emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary communication for an
      accurate clinicopathologic correlation and diagnosis of the lesion. Although
      rare, onychomatricoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis for
      patients presenting with onychomycosis failing to respond to antimycologic
      treatment. The clinical index of suspicion for onychomatricoma should increase
      when only a singular dystrophic nail is involved. Following diagnostic
      confirmation by histopathology, complete surgical excision is the treatment of
      choice.

PMID- 28558999
TI  - Massive Osteochondral Lesion of the Talus in a Skeletally Immature Patient
      Associated With a Tarsal Coalition and Valgus Hindfoot.
AB  - Rarely, osteochondral lesions of the talus occur without a history of trauma.
      Accurate interpretation of the mechanical load distributions onto the ankle
      leading to potential atraumatic cartilage damage must always be studied. The
      published data on the optimal treatment of talar osteochondral lesions in
      skeletally immature patients are scarce, especially when the lesions are
      associated with hindfoot malalignment. We describe the case of a pediatric female
      with an atraumatic osteochondral lesion of the talus associated with a
      talocalcaneal coalition and a valgus hindfoot, which we consider the first case
      to be reported. She presented with prolonged bilateral ankle pain and catching
      during gait of approximately 2 years' duration with a restricted range of motion,
      with the pain more excruciating in the right ankle. Radiographs revealed a large
      osteochondral lesion located at the lateral talar dome. The patient underwent
      partial osteochondral allograft transplantation, together with hindfoot
      realignment and coalition resection with a fat graft interposition. At the 2-year
      follow-up examination, the patient was free of pain in her right foot and ankle,
      with no signs of radiologic failure.

PMID- 28558994
TI  - PPARalpha-independent transcriptional targets of perfluoroalkyl acids revealed by
      transcript profiling.
AB  - Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are ubiquitous and persistent environmental
      contaminants. Compounds such as perfluoroocanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane
      sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexane sulfonate
      (PFHxS) are readily found in the tissues of humans and wildlife. While PFOA and
      PFOS have been the subject of numerous studies since they were first described
      over a decade ago, less is known about the biological activity of PFHxS and PFNA.
      Most PFAAs are activators of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha
      (PPARalpha), although the biological effects of these compounds are likely
      mediated by other factors in addition to PPARalpha. To evaluate the effects of
      PFHxS and PFNA, male wild-type and Pparalpha-null mice were dosed by oral gavage
      with PFHxS (3 or 10mg/kg/day), PFNA (1 or 3mg/kg/day), or vehicle for 7days, and
      liver gene expression was evaluated by full-genome microarrays. Gene expression
      patterns were then compared to historical in-house data for PFOA and PFOS in
      addition to the experimental hypolipidemic agent, WY-14,643. While WY-14,643
      altered most genes in a PPARalpha-dependent manner, approximately 11-24% of
      regulated genes in PFAA-treated mice were independent of PPARalpha. The
      possibility that PFAAs regulate gene expression through other molecular pathways
      was evaluated. Using data available through a microarray database, PFAA gene
      expression profiles were found to exhibit significant similarity to profiles from
      mouse tissues exposed to agonists of the constitutive activated receptor (CAR),
      estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha), and PPARgamma. Human PPARgamma and ERalpha
      were activated by all four PFAAs in trans-activation assays from the ToxCast
      screening program. Predictive gene expression biomarkers showed that PFAAs
      activate CAR in both genotypes and cause feminization of the liver transcriptome
      through suppression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5B
      (STAT5B). These results indicate that, in addition to activating PPARalpha as a
      primary target, PFAAs also have the potential to activate CAR, PPARgamma, and
      ERalpha as well as suppress STAT5B.

PMID- 28559000
TI  - Concordant testing results between various human papillomavirus assays in primary
      cervical cancer screening: systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Human papillomavirus (HPV) assays are increasingly used for primary
      cervical screening and HPV-vaccination-effect monitoring. We undertook a
      systematic literature review to determine the concordance in positive test
      results (i.e. detection of HPV infections) between Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) and
      other assays. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase and Scopus for studies of
      primary screening with HC2 and one or more assays, with cross-tabulated testing
      results for the assays. Two authors applied inclusion criteria and three authors
      extracted data from included studies. For each inter-assay comparison, we
      calculated the concordance by comparing the number of concordant samples with the
      number of samples that tested positive on at least one assay. RESULTS: Sixteen
      studies fulfilled inclusion criteria, comparing nine assays to HC2, and including
      392 to 9451 patients each. The calculated concordance varied between 48% and 69%
      for HC2 and APTIMA, Cobas, Abbott RealTime, Cervista, GP5+/6+, CLART, BD HPV
      test, Amplicor and Linear Array, i.e. 31%-52% of all positive tests on any pair
      of compared assays were discordant. Although modest variation in the degree of
      concordance with HC2 was suggested for particular assays, the numbers of studies
      per assay were generally low. No pronounced systematic patterns were observed by
      study (e.g. liquid medium) or population characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: The ten
      commercially available assays do not detect the same HPV infections. Even in the
      most favourable case, the two assays provided discordant test results in 31% of
      all detected infections.

PMID- 28559001
TI  - Characterizing non-linear effects of hospitalisation duration on antimicrobial
      resistance in respiratory isolates: an analysis of a prospective nationwide
      surveillance system.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to systematically study the influence of length of
      hospital stay on bacterial resistance in relevant respiratory tract isolates.
      METHODS: Using prospective epidemiological data from the National Swiss
      Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance System, susceptibility testing results for
      respiratory isolates retrospectively retrieved from patients hospitalised between
      2008 and 2014 were compiled. Generalized additive models were used to illustrate
      resistance rates relative to hospitalisation duration and to adjust for co
      variables. RESULTS: In all, 19 622 isolates of six relevant and predominant
      species were included. Resistance patterns for the predominant species showed a
      species-specific and antibiotic-resistance-specific profile in function of
      hospitalisation duration. The oxacillin resistance profile in Staphylococcus
      aureus isolates was constantly increasing (monophasic). The pattern of resistance
      to cefepime in Pseudomonas aeruginosa was biphasic with a decreasing resistance
      rate for the first 5 days of hospitalisation and an increase for days 6-30. A
      different biphasic pattern occurred in Escherichia coli regarding amoxicillin
      clavulanic acid resistance: odds/day increased for the first 7 days of
      hospitalisation and then remained stable for days 8-30. In the adjusted models
      epidemiological characteristics such as age, ward type, hospital type and
      linguistic region were identified as relevant co-variables for the resistance
      rates. The contribution of these confounders was specific to the individual
      species/antibiotic resistance models. CONCLUSIONS: Resistance rates do not follow
      a dichotomic pattern (early versus late nosocomial) as suggested by current
      hospital-acquired pneumonia treatment guidelines. Duration of hospitalisation
      rather appears to have a more complex and non-linear relationship with bacterial
      resistance in hospital-acquired pneumonia, also depending on host and
      environmental factors.

PMID- 28559003
TI  - Immunogenicity and safety of the 13-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine in 23
      valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine-naive and pre-immunized patients under
      treatment with chronic haemodialysis: a longitudinal quasi-experimental phase IV
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To benchmark the immunogenicity of pneumococcal conjugated vaccine
      (PCV-13) versus pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV-23) in haemodialysis
      patients pre-vaccinated or not with PPV-23. METHODS: The study is a longitudinal
      quasi-experimental phase IV study in chronic haemodialysis patients aged >=50
      years. Total (ELISA) and functional (opsonophagocytic assay) antibodies after
      pneumococcal vaccination were quantified at baseline, and after 28 and 365 days.
      Of 201 eligible patients, 155 were included. Patients were divided in four
      groups. PPV-23 naive patients were randomized to PPV-23 (40) or PCV-13 (40)
      vaccination. PPV-23-pre-vaccinated patients were categorized as being vaccinated
      more (40) or less (35) than 4 years before the study and all received PCV-13.
      RESULTS: Patients among the four groups had a significant ELISA antibody response
      for most serotypes that remained significant up to day 365 versus baseline. In
      PPV-23-naive patients, ELISA antibody titres were significantly higher among PCV
      13 versus PPV-23 recipients for six serotypes (1.85-2.34-fold) after 28 days, and
      remained significantly higher for one serotype (6A, 1.57-fold) after 365 days.
      Following PCV-13 vaccination, increase in ELISA antibody titres was significantly
      higher among PPV-23-naive versus PPV-23-pre-vaccinated patients for 12 serotypes
      after 28 days (1.68-7.74-fold) and remained significantly higher in ten serotypes
      (1.44-3.29-fold) after 365 days. CONCLUSION: Immune response after PPV-23 and PCV
      13 remains significant for at least 1 year in non-PPV-23-pre-vaccinated patients.
      Among vaccine-naive haemodialysis patients PCV-13 seems more immunogenic than PPV
      23. Immune response to PCV-13 is weaker in PPV-23-pre-vaccinated compared with
      vaccine-naive patients.

PMID- 28559002
TI  - Assessment of the automated multiplex-PCR Unyvero i60 ITI(r) cartridge system to
      diagnose prosthetic joint infection: a multicentre study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Prosthetic joint infections (PJI) are responsible for significant
      morbidity and mortality and their number continues to rise. Their management
      remains complex, especially the microbiological diagnosis. Besides 'homemade'
      tests developed by several teams, new molecular biology methods are now available
      with different analytical performance and usability. METHODS: We studied the
      performances of one of these tests: ITI(r) multiplex PCR (mPCR) by the Curetis(r)
      company and compared it to either 'optimized' culture or 16S rRNA PCR. We
      performed a retrospective multicentre study to assess the contributions of mPCR
      in the diagnosis of PJI. We randomly selected 484 intraoperative specimens among
      1252 of various types (biopsy, bone, tissue around the prosthesis, synovial
      fluid) from 251 patients in seven different hospitals. Each sample was treated
      according to the recommendations of the manufacturer. RESULTS: In all, 154 out of
      164 (93.9%) samples negative in culture were negative with the mPCR. Among the
      276 positive samples in culture, 251 (90.9%) were monomicrobial, of which 119
      (47.4%) were positive with the mPCR, and 25 (9.1%) were polymicrobial, of which
      12 (48%) were positive with the mPCR. The concordance rate of mPCR with culture
      was 58.1% (53.6%-62.7%) and the concordance rate with 16S rRNA PCR was 70.1%
      (65.5%-74.6%). CONCLUSION: This new standardized molecular test showed a lack of
      detection when the bacterial inoculum was low (number of positive media per
      sample and number of colonies per media) but can be useful when patients have
      received antibiotic therapy previously.

PMID- 28559004
TI  - The impact of self- and physician-administered cancer treatment on work
      productivity and healthcare utilization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lost productivity in the workplace represents a significant portion
      of the economic burden of cancer in the United States. Cancer treatments have
      historically been physician-administered, while recent innovations have led to
      the development of self-administered, usually oral, agents. Self-administered
      treatments have the potential to reduce healthcare utilization and time away from
      work, but the magnitude of these effects is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To compare the
      effects of self- and physician-administered cancer treatment on work productivity
      and health care utilization. METHODS: Cancer subtypes with self- and physician
      administered treatment options were selected. Patients with female breast, or
      lung or bronchus cancer diagnosed in 2004-2013 were identified in the Truven
      Health Analytics Commercial Claims and Encounters and Health and Productivity
      Management databases. Using multivariate regression models, work productivity and
      healthcare utilization were compared for patients receiving self- versus
      physician-administered treatment in the 12 months after initial diagnosis. Work
      productivity outcomes included the number of sick days and short-term disability
      claims. RESULTS: One month of self- versus physician-administered treatment
      significantly reduced cancer-related outpatient services, doctor visits, and
      infusions in the 12 months after initial diagnosis for both cancers of interest.
      In addition, breast and lung or bronchus cancer patients who received self
      administered treatment were less likely to have short-term disability claims, and
      breast cancer patients with non-metastatic disease who received self-administered
      treatment had significantly fewer sick days. CONCLUSIONS: Self-administered
      cancer treatment was associated with fewer cancer-related outpatient services and
      reduced time away from work compared to physician-administered cancer treatment.

PMID- 28559005
TI  - Tibial insertions of the anterior cruciate ligament and the anterior horn of the
      lateral meniscus: A histological and computed tomographic study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A positional relationship between the anterior cruciate ligament
      (ACL) and the anterior horn of the lateral meniscus (AHLM) has not previously
      been a topic of interest in the literature because the AHLM is already known to
      be obviously adjacent to the ACL and is assumed as a lateral border. The
      objective of this study was to investigate the positional anatomic relationship
      between the ACL and AHLM by histological evaluation of sequential slices and
      computed tomography (CT) of the tibial insertion sites. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The
      ACL has a specific positional relationship with the AHLM and there is an
      identifiable distinct bony border between them. The position of the AHLM could be
      an important and useful landmark for accurate tibial tunnel positioning in
      anatomical ACL reconstruction. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive laboratory study.
      METHODS: Twelve ACL-intact knees from embalmed cadavers were used in this study.
      Six knees were sectioned into four slices for histologic examination in the
      coronal planes parallel to the AHLM alignment. Before sectioning, these knees
      were subjected to three-dimensional (3-D) volume-rendering CT. Each of the four
      slices demonstrated the insertion area of the ACL relative to the position of the
      AHLM. Each histologic slice was compared with the corresponding CT image. Only
      histological examination in the sagittal planes was performed in the other six
      knees. RESULTS: The ACL fibres were broadly attached at the region anterior to
      the AHLM. However, the ACL and AHLM shared a clear border identifiable on the
      coronal CT images and appeared as a prominence of the bony ridge on the 3-D CT
      images. No dense ACL fibres were attached to the region posterior to the AHLM.
      Based on the histological data, the geometry of the ACL tibial insertion was L
      shaped along the AHLM. CONCLUSION: The ACL and AHLM have a specific positional
      relationship not only in the mediolateral direction but also anteroposteriorly.
      The AHLM serves not only as a lateral border, but also as a useful reference in
      an anterioposterior direction for tunnel positioning in ACL reconstruction.
      Specifically, the ACL fibres were found to be broadly attached onto the bony
      surface in the region anterior to the AHLM and there was no firm attachment of
      the ACL in the region posterior to the AHLM on the tibial side, which is useful
      in avoiding posterior tunnel placement.

PMID- 28559007
TI  - Comprehensive Qualitative Assessment of Urethral Stricture Disease: Toward the
      Development of a Patient Centered Outcome Measure.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary objective of this study was to report what patients
      considered to be the most important symptoms, functions and impacts of urethral
      stricture disease. Patient and physician perspectives were correlated. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Patients were involved at each step of patient reported outcome
      measure development. We performed 1) qualitative semistructured concept
      elicitation interviews, 2) cognitive interviews, 3) prioritization interviews and
      4) item prioritization by patients in regard to bother. A total of 22
      reconstructive urologists ranked the items in regard to making treatment
      decisions. RESULTS: Patient qualitative interviews were done until no new
      information was gained (16 interviews) to reach concept saturation. A total of 40
      items were generated from interview data. Urinary items predominated over
      sexually related content (34 vs 6). A review of published patient reported
      outcome measures revealed 10 legacy items that were not derived from the
      qualitative interviews. Two iterative rounds of cognitive interviews were
      performed in a separate cohort of 5 and 4 patients, respectively, to assess
      patient comprehension. Item prioritization was done in a separate cohort of 20
      patients. The final instrument for validation included 31 items, of which 27 were
      new and 4 were legacy items. For the top 15 ranked items there was 53% agreement
      between patients and physicians. Patients were most worried about inability to
      urinate and urinary dribbling. CONCLUSIONS: We found multiple patient generated
      concepts related to urinary and sexual impact, function and symptoms. Patients
      and clinicians had a low agreement rate regarding item importance.

PMID- 28559006
TI  - ACL graft metabolic activity assessed by 18FDG PET-MRI.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To demonstrate the use of 18Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission
      tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in combination (18FDG-PET)
      to assess the metabolic activity of ACL graft tissue and evaluate the utility of
      this technique for ligament imaging. METHODS: Twenty-one knees with intact ACL
      grafts in 19 patients at multiple time points following ACL reconstruction were
      recruited to participate. PET-MRI imaging was performed using a custom device to
      place knees in the same position for both studies. Images were co-registered for
      quantification of 18FDG-PET standardized uptake value (SUV) for the proximal,
      middle, and distal ACL was quantified. Signal in extra-articular muscle tissue in
      the index knee was also recorded as a control. Signal from each location was
      compared based on how far post-operative each knee was from ACL reconstruction
      (<6months, six to 12months, 12-24months, or >24months). RESULTS: Significant
      differences in 18FDG PET SUV between the four time points were observed in the
      proximal (p=0.02), middle (p=0.004), and distal (p=0.007) portions of the ACL
      graft. The greater than 24months group was noted to be different from other
      groups in each case. No difference in PET 18FDG SUV was noted in the extra
      articular muscle in the index knee in each time group (p=0.61). CONCLUSIONS:
      Metabolic activity was noted to be significantly lower in grafts imaged greater
      than two years post-reconstruction relative to those grafts that had been in
      place for shorter periods of time.

PMID- 28559008
TI  - Modelling mass transfer during venting/soil vapour extraction: Non-aqueous phase
      liquid/gas mass transfer coefficient estimation.
AB  - We investigate how the simulation of the venting/soil vapour extraction (SVE)
      process is affected by the mass transfer coefficient, using a model comprising
      five partial differential equations describing gas flow and mass conservation of
      phases and including an expression accounting for soil saturation conditions. In
      doing so, we test five previously reported quations for estimating the non
      aqueous phase liquid (NAPL)/gas initial mass transfer coefficient and evaluate an
      expression that uses a reference NAPL saturation. Four venting/SVE experiments
      utilizing a sand column are performed with dry and non-saturated sand at low and
      high flow rates, and the obtained experimental results are subsequently
      simulated, revealing that hydrodynamic dispersion cannot be neglected in the
      estimation of the mass transfer coefficient, particularly in the case of low
      velocities. Among the tested models, only the analytical solution of a convection
      dispersion equation and the equation proposed herein are suitable for correctly
      modelling the experimental results, with the developed model representing the
      best choice for correctly simulating the experimental results and the tailing
      part of the extracted gas concentration curve.

PMID- 28559009
TI  - Statins for primary prevention in active individuals; risks versus benefits?

PMID- 28559010
TI  - OpenMS - A platform for reproducible analysis of mass spectrometry data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, several mass spectrometry-based omics technologies
      emerged to investigate qualitative and quantitative changes within thousands of
      biologically active components such as proteins, lipids and metabolites. The
      research enabled through these methods potentially contributes to the diagnosis
      and pathophysiology of human diseases as well as to the clarification of
      structures and interactions between biomolecules. Simultaneously, technological
      advances in the field of mass spectrometry leading to an ever increasing amount
      of data, demand high standards in efficiency, accuracy and reproducibility of
      potential analysis software. RESULTS: This article presents the current state and
      ongoing developments in OpenMS, a versatile open-source framework aimed at
      enabling reproducible analyses of high-throughput mass spectrometry data. It
      provides implementations of frequently occurring processing operations on MS data
      through a clean application programming interface in C++ and Python. A collection
      of 185 tools and ready-made workflows for typical MS-based experiments enable
      convenient analyses for non-developers and facilitate reproducible research
      without losing flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: OpenMS will continue to increase its
      ease of use for developers as well as users with improved continuous
      integration/deployment strategies, regular trainings with updated training
      materials and multiple sources of support. The active developer community ensures
      the incorporation of new features to support state of the art research.

PMID- 28559011
TI  - Protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma regulates autoimmune encephalomyelitis
      development.
AB  - Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) play essential roles in regulating signaling
      events in multiple cells by tyrosine dephosphorylation. One of them, PTPsigma,
      appears important in regulating function of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC).
      Here we report that PTPsigma deletion in knockout mice and inhibition with a
      selective antagonist peptide exacerbated symptoms of experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE) by enhancing axon and myelin damage in the spinal cord.
      PTPsigma-/- mice displayed pro-inflammatory profiles in the spinal cord and
      lymphoid organs following MOG peptide immunization. PTPsigma deletion promoted a
      pro-inflammatory phenotype in conventional DCs and directly regulated
      differentiation of CD4+ T cells. It also facilitated infiltration of T
      lymphocytes, activation of macrophages in the CNS and development of EAE.
      Therefore, PTPsigma is a key negative regulator in EAE initiation and
      progression, which acts by regulating functions of DCs, T cells, and other immune
      cells. PTPsigma may become an important molecular target for treating autoimmune
      disorders.

PMID- 28559012
TI  - Establishment and characterization of an oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell
      line from a never-smoking patient.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The rising incidence of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) in
      patients who have never smoked and the paucity of knowledge of its biological
      behavior prompted us to develop a new cell line originating from a never-smoker.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fresh tumor tissue of keratinizing OTSCC was collected
      from a 44-year-old woman who had never smoked. Serum-free media with a low
      calcium concentration were used in cell culture, and a multifaceted approach was
      taken to verify and characterize the cell line, designated UCSF-OT-1109. RESULTS:
      UCSF-OT-1109 was authenticated by STR DNA fingerprint analysis, presence of an
      epithelial marker EpCAM, absence of human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA, and SCC
      specific microscopic appearance. Sphere-forming assays supported its tumorigenic
      potential. Spectral karyotype (SKY) analysis revealed numerical and structural
      chromosomal abnormalities. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) identified 46 non
      synonymous and 13 synonymous somatic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and
      one frameshift deletion in the coding regions. Specifically, mutations of CDKN2A,
      TP53, SPTBN5, NOTCH2, and FAM136A were found in the databases. Copy number
      aberration (CNA) analysis revealed that the cell line loses chromosome 3p and 9p,
      but lacks amplification of 3q and 11q (as does HPV-negative, smoking-unrelated
      OTSCC). It also exhibits four distinctive focal amplifications in chromosome 19p,
      containing 131 genes without SNPs. Particularly, 52 genes showed >3- to 4-fold
      amplification and could be potential oncogenic drivers. CONCLUSION: We have
      successfully established a novel OTSCC cell line from a never-smoking patient.
      UCSF-OT-1109 is potentially a robust experimental model of OTSCC in never
      smokers.

PMID- 28559014
TI  - Comparison cisplatin with cisplatin plus 5FU in head and neck cancer patients
      received postoperative chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the treatment outcomes and toxicity of both cisplatin and
      cisplatin plus 5FU chemotherapy in head and neck cancer patients who have
      received surgery, in addition to postoperative chemoradiotherapy. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: From May 1991 to December 2012, a total of 113 head and neck cancer
      patients who received surgery, along with postoperative chemoradiotherapy were
      analyzed. The primary sites were oral cavity (86), oropharynx (17), hypopharynx
      (4), and larynx (6). Thirty-nine patients received cisplatin (P), while 74
      patients received cisplatin plus 5FU (PF). The endpoints were overall survival
      (OS), local failure-free survival (LFFS), and distant metastasis-free survival
      (DMFS). RESULTS: The median follow up time was 43months, with a range of 4
      222months. The 3-year rates of OS, LFFS, and DMFS were 62.1%, 71.3%, and 82.4%,
      respectively. The 3-year OS for P and PF were 71.3% and 57.5% (p=0.27). A
      multivariate analysis revealed that various chemotherapy regimens displayed no
      statistical difference for OS (Hazard Ratio [HR]=1.81; 95% Confidence Interval
      [CI]=0.963-3.408; p=0.065), LFFS (HR=0.98; 95% CI=0.458-2.127; p=0.973), and DMFS
      (HR=1.25; 95% CI=0.463-3.398; p=0.656). Grade 3 and 4 mucositis for P and PF
      group were 61.5% and 64.9%. A greater than grade 3 dermatitis for P and PF group
      were 7.7% and 14.9%. CONCLUSION: Postoperative chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin
      alone appeared to have higher 3-year OS and lower severe mucositis and dermatitis
      than cisplatin plus 5FU.

PMID- 28559013
TI  - Establishment and genomic characterization of primary salivary duct carcinoma
      cell line.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop and characterize in vitro salivary duct carcinoma as a
      surrogate for functional studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cells were dispersed
      from tumor tissue fragments under sterile conditions in RPMI media. Disassociated
      cells were cultivated, immortalized with hTERT and propagated for more than 100
      passages. Morphologic, linage, cytogenetic and genomic analyses were performed on
      different passages of cell line and primary tumor. Soft agar growth was
      performed. RESULTS: Analysis of cytomorphologic features, growth characteristics
      and lineage specific markers expression confirmed the epithelial derivation and
      the neoplastic nature of the cell line. DNA STRs analysis showed identical match
      of both cell line and primary tumor. Cultivated cells expressed Androgen Receptor
      (AR), PTEN, and EFGR proteins and the AR-V7 isoform transcript. Comparative exome
      sequencing identified common mutated genes in both cell line and primary tumor.
      In-vitro colony formation of late passages is established. CONCLUSION: We report
      the development of the first human salivary duct carcinoma cell line (MDA-SDC-04)
      that retains critical biological and genomic features of the donor tumor.

PMID- 28559015
TI  - HLA traits linked to development of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma affect
      the progression-free survival of patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Personalized medicine and treatment stratification of patients with
      head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) today mostly ignore genetic
      heterogeneity in HNSCC but especially the patient's genetic background. We
      hypothesized that particular human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I (HLA-A, B, Cw)
      and II proteins (DR, DQ) confer susceptibility for and influence development of
      HNSCC and may be prognostic factors for progression-free survival (PFS). METHODS:
      90 consecutive HNSCC patients of the prospective observational cohort study LIFE
      treated between 08/2010 and 05/2011 at the University Leipzig underwent low
      resolution typing of HLA-A, B, Cw, DR, and DQ. Antigen and haplotype frequencies
      were compared to those in German blood donors. Effects on PFS were analyzed using
      Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox models. RESULTS: HNSCC patients had overall altered
      HLA-B frequencies (P<0.05); frequencies of B*44 were lower, those of B*13, B*52,
      and B*57 increased (P<0.05). Almost all other antigen frequencies showed no
      deviation. Homozygous HLA-Cw and DRB4 were frequent and associated with reduced
      PFS (P<0.05). Altered haplotype frequencies were common and particular haplotypes
      accompanied by differing PFS. B*13/Cw*06 carriers had poorest outcome (P=0.011).
      However, multivariate Cox proportional hazard models revealed 3 clinical
      covariates (localization oropharynx, loco-regional metastasis, and T4 category),
      HPV16-DNA positivity, and 10 HLA traits as independent predictors for PFS.
      CONCLUSIONS: The relevance of the genetic background of HNSCC patients calls for
      future research to clarify the role of HLA traits in HNSCC and if PFS depends on
      HLA.

PMID- 28559016
TI  - Critical roles of Wnt5a-Ror2 signaling in aggressiveness of tongue squamous cell
      carcinoma and production of matrix metalloproteinase-2 via DeltaNp63beta-mediated
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We previously showed that DeltaNp63beta, a splicing variant of
      DeltaNp63, mediated EMT and affected cell motility. DNA microarray was thus
      performed to elucidate the mechanism that DeltaNp63beta affects cell motility. As
      the results, Wnt5a was significantly down-regulated by DeltaNp63beta
      overexpression in tongue SCC cell line (SQUU-B) with EMT phenotype. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Seven OSCC cell lines were used. Expression of DeltaNp63, Wnt5a, its
      receptor Ror2, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were analyzed by RT-PCR, real
      time PCR, and western blotting, and gelatin zymography. Furthermore, we examined
      the effects of siRNA for Wnt5a or Ror2 and recombinant human Wnt5a (rhWnt5a) on
      motility of tongue SCC cells. Biopsy specimens from tongue SCC patients were used
      for immunohistochemical staining of Wnt5a and Ror2. RESULTS: Wnt5a and Ror2 were
      expressed only in SQUU-B cells without DeltaNp63 expression, and negatively
      associated with DeltaNp63 expression in other cells. DeltaNp63beta overexpression
      in SQUU-B cells decreased Wnt5a and Ror2 expression. By Wnt5a or Ror2 knockdown,
      cell motility was remarkably inhibited, but EMT markers expression was
      unaffected. MMP-2 expression and the activities inversely correlated with
      DeltaNp63 expression, and were inhibited by Wnt5a or Ror2 knockdown. Cell
      motility and MMP-2 activities were recovered by adding rhWnt5a in the cells with
      Wnt5a knockdown, but not in those with Ror2 knockdown. Moreover,
      immunohistochemical analyses in tongue SCC specimens found that high expression
      of Wnt5a or Ror2 was associated with poorer prognosis. CONCLUSION: Wnt5a-Ror2
      signaling enhanced tongue SCC cell aggressiveness and promoted production of MMP
      2 following DeltaNp63beta-mediated EMT.

PMID- 28559017
TI  - Ten-year survival outcomes for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving
      intensity-modulated radiotherapy: An analysis of 614 patients from a single
      center.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has been applied in
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) for nearly twenty years, while little is known
      about the ten-year survival outcomes. This study aimed at evaluating the 10-year
      survival outcomes for patients with NPC receiving IMRT. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Data on 614 patients with newly diagnosed, non-disseminated NPC treated by IMRT
      between 2004 and 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Survival outcomes stratified
      by tumor stage were compared. RESULTS: The median follow-up duration was
      112.7months (range, 7.6-156.8months) for the entire cohort. The 10-year local
      relapse-free survival rates for T1, T2 and T3 were 94.2%, 92.5% and 91.4%
      (P>0.05), respectively, and significantly higher than that of T4 disease (79.3%,
      P<0.05 for all rates). As N category increased from N0 to N3, the 10-year distant
      metastasis-free survival rates significantly decreased accordingly (P<0.01 for
      all rates). Furthermore, the 10-year overall survival rates were 100%, 87.1%,
      75.5% and 55.6% for stage I, II, III and IV, respectively (P<0.05 except stage I
      and II). Multivariate analysis established tumor stage and age as independent
      prognostic factors. Late toxicities were assessable for 495 (80.6%) patients and
      most were Grade I/II damages. Xerostomia (387 of 489, 79.1%) and hearing
      impairment (212 of 495, 42.8%) remained the most troublesome. CONCLUSION: IMRT
      could achieve satisfactory survival outcomes for NPC patients with acceptable
      late toxicities. However, distant control still remains poor, especially for
      patients with N3 disease.

PMID- 28559018
TI  - Outcome of recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer patients
      after first line platinum and cetuximab therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Second-line chemotherapy in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck
      cancer (r/mHNSCC) patients showed dismal results with limited tumor response and
      reduced life expectancy. Outside of clinical trials, data on efficacy of second
      line treatment after first line anti-EGFR-AB combination therapy are not
      available. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data regarding r/mHNSCC consecutive pts treated
      with cetuximab and platinum from 2009 to 2014 at our center were retrospectively
      collected. The analyses of response, Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Overall
      Survival (OS), each evaluated starting from first and second-line treatment, were
      performed. Survival curves were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method and
      compared using the log-rank test. RESULTS: We identified 117 patients treated
      with first-line platinum and cetuximab-based therapy. Sixty-four (55%) patients
      did not receive second-line treatment due to worsening in performance status, 2
      were not assessable for response thus 51 patients were included for analysis.
      Fifty-six percent were smokers/former smokers and 78% were male. Primary tumor
      sites were oropharynx (39%), oral cavity (31%), larynx/hypopharynx (24%) and
      others (6%). Regimens used in second-line were mostly monotherapies. Twenty-one %
      of the patients were treated within a clinical trial. Response rate (PR, CR) was
      6% with 45% showing SD as best response. Median PFS was 2.2months (95%CI:1.5
      2.8months) and OS 6.1months (95%CI:3.7-7.2months). CONCLUSIONS: Within our single
      center experience only half of the patients with r/mHNSCC were able to receive
      second-line treatment. Response rate was unsatisfactory, but median OS seems
      higher than previously reported in an anti-EGFR-AB naive population (Leon 2005).

PMID- 28559019
TI  - IL6 is associated with response to dasatinib and cetuximab: Phase II clinical
      trial with mechanistic correlatives in cetuximab-resistant head and neck cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Src family kinase (SFK) activation circumvents epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) targeting in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC); dual
      SFK-EGFR targeting could overcome cetuximab resistance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      conducted a Simon two-stage, phase II trial of the SFK inhibitor, dasatinib, and
      cetuximab in biomarker-unselected patients with cetuximab-resistant,
      recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. Pre- and post-treatment serum levels of interleukin-6
      (IL6) were measured by ELISA. HNSCC cell lines were assessed for viability and
      effects of IL6 modulation following dasatinib-cetuximab treatment. RESULTS: In
      the first stage, 13 patients were evaluable for response: 7 had progressive and 6
      had stable disease (SD). Enrollment was halted for futility, and biomarker
      analysis initiated. Low serum IL6 levels were associated with SD (raw p=0.028,
      adjusted p=0.14) and improved overall survival (p=0.010). The IL6 classifier was
      validated in a separate trial of the same combination, but was unable to
      segregate survival risk in a clinical trial of cetuximab and bevacizumab
      suggesting serum IL6 may be specific for the dasatinib-cetuximab combination.
      Enhanced in vitro HNSCC cell death was observed with dasatinib-cetuximab versus
      single agent treatment; addition of IL6-containing media abrogated this effect.
      CONCLUSION: Clinical benefit and overall survival from the dasatinib-cetuximab
      combination were improved among patients with low serum IL6. Preclinical studies
      support IL6 as a modifier of dasatinib-cetuximab response. In the setting of
      clinical cetuximab resistance, serum IL6 is a candidate predictive marker
      specific for combined dasatinib-cetuximab. The trial was modified and redesigned
      as a biomarker-enriched Phase II study enrolling patients with undetectable IL6.

PMID- 28559020
TI  - Establishment and characterization of a clear cell odontogenic carcinoma cell
      line with EWSR1-ATF1 fusion gene.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Clear cell odontogenic carcinoma (CCOC) is a rare malignant
      odontogenic tumor (MOT) characterized by sheets and lobules of vacuolated and
      clear cells. To understand the biology of CCOC, we established a new cell line,
      CCOC-T, with EWSR1-ATF1 fusion gene from a mandible tumor with distant metastasis
      and characterized this cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To detect the EWSR1-ATF1
      fusion gene, we used three CCOC cases, including the present case, by RT-PCR and
      FISH analysis. We characterized established CCOC-T cells by checking cell growth,
      invasion and the expression of odontogenic factors and bone-related factors.
      Moreover, the gene expression profile of CCOC-T cells was examined by microarray
      analysis. RESULTS: Histologically, the primary tumor was comprised of cords and
      nests containing clear and squamoid cells separated by fibrous septa. In
      addition, ameloblastomatous islands with palisaded peripheral cells were
      observed, indicating probable odontogenic origin. This tumor expressed the fusion
      gene EWSR1-ATF1, which underlies the etiology of hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma
      (HCCC) and potentially that of CCOC. We found a breakpoint in the EWSR1-ATF1
      fusion to be the same as that reported in HCCC. Established CCOC-T cells grew
      extremely slowly, but the cells showed highly invasive activity. Moreover, CCOC-T
      cells expressed bone-related molecules, odontogenic factors, and epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related molecules. CONCLUSION: To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first report on the establishment of a CCOC cell line.
      CCOC-T cells serve as a useful in vitro model for understanding the pathogenesis
      and nature of MOT.

PMID- 28559021
TI  - Human papillomavirus genotypes and risk of head and neck cancers: Results from
      the HeNCe Life case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are changing dramatically the
      epidemiologic landscape of head and neck cancers (HNCs). Their role in the
      aetiology of these cancers varies widely among HNCs subsites, sex and
      geographical regions worldwide. We describe HPV prevalence and its association
      with HNCs risk overall and by anatomical subsite in a sample of Canadians.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The HeNCe Life study recruited 460 incident HNCs cases and
      458 controls frequency-matched by age and sex from four Montreal hospitals in
      2005-2013. We tested oral rinse and oral brush specimens for mucosal HPV
      genotypes. HPV positivity was categorized hierarchically as either negative,
      exclusively non-alpha-9 species types, alpha-9 types other than HPV16, and HPV16.
      We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the
      associations between HPV and HNCs using unconditional logistic regression,
      controlling for confounders. RESULTS: The prevalence of HPV infection among
      controls and cases was 14.5% and 41.2% in oral rinse and 3.1% and 24.4% in oral
      brush samples, respectively. HPV16 was the predominant genotype with an oral
      rinse and oral brush prevalence of 26.3% and 16.2% among cases and 2.4% and 0.2%
      among controls, respectively. HPV infection was associated with an increased risk
      of HNCs overall (OR=4.18; 95% CI, 2.94-5.95) and oropharyngeal cancer only
      (OR=10.3; 95% CI, 6.8-15.7). HNCs and oropharyngeal cancer were strongly
      associated with HPV16 (OR=18.1; 95% CI, 9.1-35.8, and OR=47.2; 95% CI, 23.1-96.6,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: HPV infection, particularly HPV16, was associated with
      an increased HNCs risk, most strongly for oropharyngeal cancers.

PMID- 28559023
TI  - The feasibility of contralateral lower neck sparing intensity modulation radiated
      therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with unilateral cervical lymph node
      involvement.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the feasibility of contralateral lower neck sparing
      intensity modulation radiated therapy (IMRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma
      patients (NPC) with unilateral cervical lymph node metastasis. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Retrospective review of 546 patients with unilateral cervical lymph node
      metastasis treated between November 2009 and February 2012 at one institution.
      All patients were staged using magnetic resonance imaging and received radical
      IMRT. Patients were classified into two groups: the inferior border of the
      negative neck irradiation field only covered Levels III to Va in Group 1; the
      inferior border covered entire neck down to Levels IV to Vb in Group 2. RESULTS:
      Median follow-up was 49.9months (range, 1.3-69.2months). Four-year overall
      survival (OS:89.3% vs. 88.9%, P=0.91), disease-free survival (DFS:81.7% vs.
      81.0%, P=0.91), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS:88.2% vs. 87.9%, P=0.95),
      local relapse-free survival (LRFS:96.7% vs. 94.7%, P=0.70) and nodal relapse-free
      survival (NRFS: 96.1% vs. 95.9%, P=0.94) were not significantly different between
      Group 1 and Group 2. Twenty-two patients developed cervical lymph node relapse;
      of whom 20/22 (91.0%) developed unilateral relapse within pretreatment positive
      neck. Only one patient developed out-of-field relapse, though this patient also
      relapsed within the neck irradiation field (Level II). No clinicopathological
      feature tested had significant prognostic value for NRFS in multivariate
      analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In the IMRT and MRI era, contralateral lower neck sparing
      IMRT seems to be feasible for NPC patients with unilateral cervical lymph node
      metastasis.

PMID- 28559022
TI  - Improving accuracy of RNA-based diagnosis and prognosis of oral cancer by using
      noninvasive methods.
AB  - RNA-based diagnosis and prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma has been slow to
      come to the clinic. Improvements in RNA measurement, statistical evaluation, and
      sample preservation, along with increased sample numbers, have not made these
      methods reproducible enough to be used clinically. We propose that, in the case
      of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, a chief source of variability is
      sample dissection, which leads to variable amounts of stroma mixed in with tumor
      epithelium. This heterogeneity of the samples, which requires great care to
      avoid, makes it difficult to see changes in RNA levels specific to tumor cells.
      An evaluation of the data suggests that, paradoxically, brush biopsy samples of
      oral lesions may provide a more reproducible method than surgical acquisition of
      samples for miRNA measurement. The evidence also indicates that body fluid
      samples can show similar changes in miRNAs with oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (OSCC) as those seen in tumor brush biopsy samples - suggesting much of the miRNA
      in these samples is coming from the same source: tumor epithelium. We conclude
      that brush biopsy or body fluid samples may be superior to surgical samples in
      allowing miRNA-based diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC in that they feature a rapid
      method to obtain homogeneous tumor cells and/or RNA.

PMID- 28559024
TI  - Prediction of distant metastases from nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Improved
      diagnostic performance of MRI using nodal volume in N1 and N2 stage disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine if the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head and
      neck can predict distant metastases (DM) from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: MRI examinations of 763 NPC patients were assessed for
      primary tumour stage (T), nodal stage (N), primary tumour volume (PTV) and total
      nodal volume (NV). The association between MRI and clinical parameters were
      examined in DM+ and DM- patients using logistic regression and for distant
      metastases free survival (DMFS) using cox regression. Optimum thresholds were
      assessed by receiver-operating characteristics analysis, and positive predictive
      value (PPV) and odds ratio (OR) calculated. RESULTS: Distant metastases were
      present in 181/763 NPC patients (23.7%). Higher N stage and NV were the
      independent predictors of DM (p<0.001 and 0.018 respectively) and poor DMFS
      (p=0.001 and 0.030 respectively). Addition of NV (threshold>=32.8cm3) to the N
      stage improved the PPVs and ORs for DM in stage N1 (from 18.9% to 31.8% and 5.613
      to 11.133 respectively) and stage N2 (from 40.4% to 60.8% and 16.189 to 36.979
      respectively) but not in stage N3 (68.3% to 68.6% and 51.385 to 52.052
      respectively). CONCLUSION: MRI N stage and NV were independent predictors of DM
      and DMFS. The addition of NV in NPC patients with bulky N1 and N2 disease
      improved the ability of MRI to predict DM.

PMID- 28559025
TI  - Oncological outcome following de-intensification of treatment for stage I and II
      HPV negative oropharyngeal cancers with transoral robotic surgery (TORS): A
      prospective trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This prospective study aimed to see long-term oncological outcome of
      Transoral Robotic Surgery as single modality treatment for cT1-T2 N0 HPV negative
      oropharyngeal malignancies. METHOD: From March 2013 to October 2015, 57 patients
      with early stage oropharyngeal carcinoma underwent Transoral robotic surgery
      (TORS) with neck dissection using daVinci(r) Surgical system. Patients were
      evaluated for disease free survival, overall survival, locoregional and distant
      metastasis. RESULTS: 57 patients (48 males and 9 females) underwent TORS for
      early stage oropharyngeal carcinoma. All patients underwent ipsilateral neck
      dissection and 12 patients underwent bilateral neck dissection. 49 patients with
      final histopathology suggestive of stage I and II disease did not received any
      adjuvant treatment. Mean age at presentation was 59.4years (37-88years). Most
      common site of involvement was the base of tongue (BOT) in 31 (54.8%) patients.
      Twenty-four (42.1%) patients were cT1 and 33 (57.9%) were cT2 at presentation.
      During follow-up, 2 (4.2%) patients recurred locoreginally and 1 (2.1%) patient
      had distant metastasis. Two patients expired due to causes other than malignancy.
      Forty-three (89.6%) patients were disease free on an average follow-up of
      29months with an overall survival of 93.8% at mean follow-up of 29months.
      CONCLUSION: Transoral Robotic Surgery as a single modality treatment is a good
      option for cure in HPV negative early resectable oropharyngeal malignancies which
      are relatively unresponsive to radiation. TORS can be used to de-intensify the
      treatment of early stage oropharyngeal carcinoma and thus avoid the early and
      late toxicities associated with Radiotherapy/Chemoradiotherapy.

PMID- 28559026
TI  - Promotion of oral surgical wound healing using autologous mucosal cell sheets.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Severe oral mucosal and tissue defects can lead to pain, infection,
      and later undesirable healing of scarring and adhesion, resulting in a poor
      quality of life. In vitro-engineered oral mucosal equivalents for covering such
      defects are an alternative to avoiding the donor site morbidity of conventional
      skin or tissue grafts. We examined the efficacy of our newly developed three
      dimensional mucosal cell sheets in an in vivo tongue wound model mimicking the
      surgical extirpation of tongue cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Small oral mucosal
      and autologous fibrin samples were obtained from surgical patients and Sprague
      Dawley rats. The fibrin was mixed with fibroblasts and seeded with keratinocytes
      that had been primarily cultured for in vitro cell expansion. The three
      dimensional autologous cell sheets, cultured in air-lift interface inserts, were
      transplanted into deep wounds of the rat ventral tongue. Gross and microscopic
      findings of the postsurgical wounds were compared between wound control and cell
      sheet groups. RESULTS: The cell sheets were flexible, expandable, and easy to
      transfer, and had histological characteristics similar to that of the normal oral
      mucosa, with high p63 positivity. They promoted oral wound healing with earlier
      re-epithelialization and less fibrosis than that in the wound control. The cell
      sheet-healed tongue had similar histology to that of a normal tongue.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our engineered cell sheets have potential applicability for the
      rapid healing of oral mucosal and soft tissue defects, without scarring,
      adhesion, and functional deficits. CONDENSED ABSTRACT: The efficacy of in vitro
      engineered mucosal equivalents, using completely autologous mucosa and plasma,
      was examined. Transplantation of the autologous cell sheets into deep wounds of
      the rat ventral tongue promoted oral wound healing with earlier re
      epithelialization and less fibrosis than that in controls. Healed and normal
      tongues showed similar histology.

PMID- 28559027
TI  - Small cell carcinoma of the head and neck: An analysis of the National Cancer
      Database.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S): To evaluate treatment trends and overall survival of
      patients with small cell carcinoma of the head and neck region.
      MATERIALS/METHODS: Patients from 2004 to 2012 were identified from the National
      Cancer Database. Patient demographics and overall survival were analyzed.
      Multivariable analysis was used to identify predictors of survival. RESULTS:
      Among 347,252 head and neck patients a total of 1042 (0.3%) patients with small
      cell carcinoma were identified. 17% of patients were diagnosed as stage I/II, 61%
      as stage III/IVA/IVB and 22% as stage IVC disease. The distribution by anatomic
      site was 9% oral cavity, 12% oropharynx, 35% larynx, 4% hypopharynx, 10%
      nasopharynx and 30% nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. The median overall
      survival by anatomical site was 20.8months for oral cavity, 23.7months for
      oropharynx, 17.9months for larynx/hypopharynx, 15.1months for nasopharynx and
      36.4months for nasal cavity primary tumors. On multivariable analysis across
      stage, patients with nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses tumors had the best
      survival and patients with nasopharynx primaries had the worst survival. In stage
      I/II patients, type of treatment delivered resulted in no overall survival
      difference (p=0.78). In patients with locally advanced disease, there was no
      difference in survival between those treated with combined surgery, radiotherapy
      and chemotherapy compared to those treated only with radiotherapy and
      chemotherapy (p=0.46). The addition of radiotherapy to chemotherapy in the
      metastatic setting did not result in improved survival (p=0.14). CONCLUSIONS:
      Small cell carcinoma of the head and neck is a rare malignancy with a poor
      prognosis. The addition of surgery to radiotherapy and chemotherapy did not
      improve survival in patients with locally advanced disease.

PMID- 28559029
TI  - Coming Fast out of the Gate: Pacing and Productivity From a Resident Perspective.

PMID- 28559028
TI  - Establishing and applying nomograms based on the 8th edition of the UICC/AJCC
      staging system to select patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who benefit from
      induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The subgroups of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who
      benefit from induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (IC+CCRT)
      remain unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We established prognostic nomograms for
      overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), and validated the
      nomograms in 1230 patients with NPC and subgroup of 923 patients with
      locoregionally advanced NPC (LANPC). Three well-matched risk groups (i.e., low,
      intermediate and high risk) were created via recursive partitioning and 1-to-1
      propensity score matching; IC+CCRT was compared with CCRT in each risk group.
      RESULTS: Histological type, T category, N category, plasma Epstein-Barr virus
      deoxyribonucleic acid (and the same factors plus age and neutrophil-lymphocyte
      ratio) were included in the nomograms for DFS (and OS). Both nomograms had higher
      c-indexes than the 7th edition staging system in both NPC/LANPC (all P
      values<=0.010). The nomogram for OS also had a higher c-index in LANPC than the
      8th edition staging system (P-value=0.052). OS was significantly different
      between all three risk groups in the individualized risk stratification (all P
      values<0.001), while the 7th and 8th edition staging systems failed to clearly
      separate OS for stage II and III disease (P-value=0.415 and 0.347, respectively).
      IC+CCRT improved OS in intermediate and high risk patients with LANPC compared to
      CCRT alone (P-value<0.001 and P-value=0.002, respectively). CONCLUSION: These
      prognostic nomograms could accurately guide treatment of individual patients with
      NPC. IC+CCRT could improve OS for patients with LANPC at intermediate to high
      risk.

PMID- 28559030
TI  - The Effect of Utilization Review on Emergency Department Operations.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Increasingly, hospitals are using utilization review software to
      reduce hospital admissions in an effort to contain costs. Such practices have the
      potential to increase the number of unsafe discharges, particularly in public
      safety-net hospitals. Utilization review software tools are not well studied with
      regard to their effect on emergency department (ED) operations. We study the
      effect of prospectively used admission decision support on ED operations.
      METHODS: In 2012, Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical
      Center implemented prospective use of computerized admission criteria. After
      implementation, only ED patients meeting primary review (diagnosis-based
      criteria) or secondary review (medical necessity as determined by an on-site
      emergency physician) were assigned inpatient beds. Data were extracted from
      electronic medical records from September 2011 through December 2013. Outcomes
      included operational metrics, 30-day ED revisits, and 30-day admission rates.
      Excluding a 6-month implementation period, monthly summary metrics were compared
      pre- and postimplementation with nonparametric and negative binomial regression
      methods. All adult ED visits, excluding incarcerated and purely behavioral health
      visits, were analyzed. The primary outcomes were disposition rates. Secondary
      outcomes were 30-day ED revisits, 30-day admission rate among return visitors to
      the ED, and estimated cost. RESULTS: Analysis of 245,662 ED encounters was
      performed. The inpatient admission rate decreased from 14.2% to 12.8%. Increases
      in discharge rate (82.4% to 83.4%) and ED observation unit utilization (2.5% to
      3.4%) were found. Thirty-day revisits increased (20.4% to 24.4%), although the 30
      day admission rate decreased (3.2% to 2.8%). Estimated cost savings totaled
      $193.17 per ED visit. CONCLUSION: The prospective application of utilization
      review software in the ED led to a decrease in the admission rate. This was
      tempered by a concomitant increase in ED observation unit utilization and 30-day
      ED revisits. Cost savings suggest that resources should be redirected to the more
      highly affected ED and ED observation unit, although more work is needed to
      confirm the generalizability of these findings.

PMID- 28559031
TI  - A Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent and Caregiver Acceptability of Universally
      Offered Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Screening in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: We qualitatively explore adolescent and parent or guardian
      attitudes about benefits and barriers to universally offered gonorrhea and
      chlamydia screening and modalities for assessing interest in screening in the
      pediatric emergency department (ED). METHODS: A convenience sample of forty 14-
      to 21-year-olds and parents or guardians of adolescents presenting to an urban
      and community pediatric ED with any chief complaint participated in individual,
      semistructured, confidential interviews. Topics included support of universally
      offered gonorrhea and chlamydia screening, barriers and benefits to screening,
      and modalities for assessing interest in screening. Data were analyzed with
      framework analysis. RESULTS: Almost all adolescents (37/40; 93%) and parents
      (39/40; 98%) support offering ED gonorrhea or chlamydia screening. Benefits
      included earlier diagnosis and treatment, convenience and transmission prevention
      (cited by both groups), and improved education and long-term health (cited by
      parents/guardians). Barriers included concerns about confidentiality and cost
      (cited by both groups), embarrassment (cited by adolescents), and nondisclosure
      to parents or guardians (cited by parents/guardians). Adolescents preferred that
      the request for gonorrhea or chlamydia screening be presented in a private room,
      using tablet technology. Both groups noted that the advantages to tablets
      included confidentiality and adolescents' familiarity with technology.
      Adolescents noted that tablet use would address concerns about bringing up
      gonorrhea or chlamydia screening with clinicians, whereas parents or guardians
      noted that tablets might increase screening incidence but expressed concern about
      the lack of personal interaction. CONCLUSION: Universally offered gonorrhea and
      chlamydia screening in a pediatric ED was acceptable to the adolescents and
      parents or guardians in this study. Offering a tablet-based method to assess
      interest in screening may increase participation.

PMID- 28559032
TI  - Rib Fracture Diagnosis in the Panscan Era.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: With increased use of chest computed tomography (CT) in trauma
      evaluation, traditional teachings in regard to rib fracture morbidity and
      mortality may no longer be accurate. We seek to determine rates of rib fracture
      observed on chest CT only; admission and mortality of patients with isolated rib
      fractures, rib fractures observed on CT only, and first or second rib fractures;
      and first or second rib fracture-associated great vessel injury. METHODS: We
      conducted a planned secondary analysis of 2 prospectively enrolled cohorts of the
      National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study chest studies, which evaluated
      patients with blunt trauma who were older than 14 years and received chest
      imaging in the emergency department. We defined rib fractures and other thoracic
      injuries according to CT reports and followed patients through their hospital
      course to determine outcomes. RESULTS: Of 8,661 patients who had both chest
      radiograph and chest CT, 2,071 (23.9%) had rib fractures, and rib fractures were
      observed on chest CT only in 1,368 cases (66.1%). Rib fracture patients had
      higher admission rates (88.7% versus 45.8%; mean difference 42.9%; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 41.4% to 44.4%) and mortality (5.6% versus 2.7%; mean difference
      2.9%; 95% CI 1.8% to 4.0%) than patients without rib fracture. The mortality of
      patients with rib fracture observed on chest CT only was not statistically
      significantly different from that of patients with fractures also observed on
      chest radiograph (4.8% versus 5.7%; mean difference -0.9%; 95% CI -3.1% to 1.1%).
      Patients with first or second rib fractures had significantly higher mortality
      (7.4% versus 4.1%; mean difference 3.3%; 95% CI 0.2% to 7.1%) and prevalence of
      concomitant great vessel injury (2.8% versus 0.6%; mean difference 2.2%; 95% CI
      0.6% to 4.9%) than patients with fractures of ribs 3 to 12, and the odds ratio of
      great vessel injury with first or second rib fracture was 4.4 (95% CI 1.8 to
      10.4). CONCLUSION: Under trauma imaging protocols that commonly incorporate chest
      CT, two thirds of rib fractures were observed on chest CT only. Patients with rib
      fractures had higher admission rates and mortality than those without rib
      fractures. First or second rib fractures were associated with significantly
      higher mortality and great vessel injury.

PMID- 28559033
TI  - Refusal of Emergency Medical Treatment: Case Studies and Ethical Foundations.
AB  - Informed consent is an important component of emergency medical treatment. Most
      emergency department patients can provide informed consent for treatment upon
      arrival. Informed consent should also be obtained for emergency medical
      interventions that may entail significant risk. A related concept to informed
      consent is informed refusal of treatment. Patients may refuse emergency medical
      treatment during their evaluation and treatment. This article addresses important
      considerations for patients who refuse treatment, including case studies and
      discussion of definitions, epidemiology, assessment of decisional capacity,
      information delivery, medicolegal considerations, and alternative care plans.

PMID- 28559034
TI  - Shared Decisionmaking in the Emergency Department: A Guiding Framework for
      Clinicians.
AB  - Shared decisionmaking has been proposed as a method to promote active engagement
      of patients in emergency care decisions. Despite the recent attention shared
      decisionmaking has received in the emergency medicine community, including being
      the topic of the 2016 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference,
      misconceptions remain in regard to the precise meaning of the term, the process,
      and the conditions under which it is most likely to be valuable. With the help of
      a patient representative and an interaction designer, we developed a simple
      framework to illustrate how shared decisionmaking should be approached in
      clinical practice. We believe it should be the preferred or default approach to
      decisionmaking, except in clinical situations in which 3 factors interfere. These
      3 factors are lack of clinical uncertainty or equipoise, patient decisionmaking
      ability, and time, all of which can render shared decisionmaking infeasible.
      Clinical equipoise refers to scenarios in which there are 2 or more medically
      reasonable management options. Patient decisionmaking ability refers to a
      patient's capacity and willingness to participate in his or her emergency care
      decisions. Time refers to the acuity of the clinical situation (which may require
      immediate action) and the time that the clinician has to devote to the shared
      decisionmaking conversation. In scenarios in which there is only one medically
      reasonable management option, informed consent is indicated, with compassionate
      persuasion used as appropriate. If time or patient capacity is lacking, physician
      directed decisionmaking will occur. With this framework as the foundation, we
      discuss the process of shared decisionmaking and how it can be used in practice.
      Finally, we highlight 5 common misconceptions in regard to shared decisionmaking
      in the ED. With an improved understanding of shared decisionmaking, this approach
      should be used to facilitate the provision of high-quality, patient-centered
      emergency care.

PMID- 28559035
TI  - External Defibrillator Damage Associated With Attempted Synchronized Dual-Dose
      Cardioversion.
AB  - The simultaneous use of 2 external defibrillators to administer either dual or
      sequential cardioversion or defibrillation for refractory cardiac arrhythmias is
      increasing in both the out-of-hospital and inhospital settings. Using 2
      defibrillators to administer higher energy levels than can be achieved with a
      single defibrillator is considered off-label and is currently not part of
      published advanced cardiac life support guidelines. We report the first case in
      which the use of dual-dose cardioversion was associated with external
      defibrillator damage. Because defibrillator damage, especially if undetected,
      jeopardizes patient safety and off-label medical product use may void the
      manufacturer's warranty, this case should urge users to proceed with caution when
      contemplating this technique.

PMID- 28559036
TI  - Association of Out-of-Hospital Hypotension Depth and Duration With Traumatic
      Brain Injury Mortality.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Out-of-hospital hypotension has been associated with increased
      mortality in traumatic brain injury. The association of traumatic brain injury
      mortality with the depth or duration of out-of-hospital hypotension is unknown.
      We evaluated the relationship between the depth and duration of out-of-hospital
      hypotension and mortality in major traumatic brain injury. METHODS: We evaluated
      adults and older children with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury in the
      preimplementation cohort of Arizona's statewide Excellence in Prehospital Injury
      Care study. We used logistic regression to determine the association between the
      depth-duration dose of hypotension (depth of systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg
      integrated over duration [minutes] of hypotension) and odds of inhospital death,
      controlling for significant confounders. RESULTS: There were 7,521 traumatic
      brain injury cases included (70.6% male patients; median age 40 years
      [interquartile range 24 to 58]). Mortality was 7.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]
      7.2% to 8.5%) among the 6,982 patients without hypotension (systolic blood
      pressure >=90 mm Hg) and 33.4% (95% CI 29.4% to 37.6%) among the 539 hypotensive
      patients (systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg). Mortality was higher with increased
      hypotension dose: 0.01 to 14.99 mm Hg-minutes 16.3%; 15 to 49.99 mm Hg-minutes
      28.1%; 50 to 141.99 mm Hg-minutes 38.8%; and greater than or equal to 142 mm Hg
      minutes 50.4%. Log2 (the logarithm in base 2) of hypotension dose was associated
      with traumatic brain injury mortality (adjusted odds ratio 1.19 [95% CI 1.14 to
      1.25] per 2-fold increase of dose). CONCLUSION: In this study, the depth and
      duration of out-of-hospital hypotension were associated with increased traumatic
      brain injury mortality. Assessments linking out-of-hospital blood pressure with
      traumatic brain injury outcomes should consider both depth and duration of
      hypotension.

PMID- 28559038
TI  - Nonphysician Out-of-Hospital Rapid Sequence Intubation Success and Adverse
      Events: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Rapid sequence intubation performed by nonphysicians such as
      paramedics or nurses has become increasingly common in many countries; however,
      concerns have been stated in regard to the safe use and appropriateness of rapid
      sequence intubation when performed by these health care providers. The aim of our
      study is to compare rapid sequence intubation success and adverse events between
      nonphysician and physician in the out-of-hospital setting. METHODS: A systematic
      literature search of key databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane
      Library was conducted. Eligibility, data extraction, and assessment of risk of
      bias were assessed independently by 2 reviewers. A bias-adjusted meta-analysis
      using a quality-effects model was conducted for the primary outcomes of overall
      intubation success and first-pass intubation success and for adverse events when
      possible. RESULTS: Eighty-three studies were included in the meta-analysis. There
      was a 2% difference in successful intubation proportion for physicians versus
      nonphysicians, 99% (95% confidence interval [CI] 98% to 99%) versus 97% (95% CI
      95% to 99%). A 10% difference in first-pass rapid sequence intubation success was
      noted between physicians versus nonphysicians, 88% (95% CI 83% to 93%) versus 78%
      (95% CI 65% to 89%). For airway trauma, bradycardia, cardiac arrest,
      endobronchial intubation, hypertension, and hypotension, lower prevalences of
      adverse events were noted for physicians. However, nonphysicians had a lower
      prevalence of hypoxia and esophageal intubations. Similar proportions were noted
      for pulmonary aspiration and emesis. Nine adverse events estimates lacked
      precision, except for endobronchial intubation, and 4 adverse event analyses
      showed evidence of possible publication bias. Consequently, no reliable evidence
      exists for differences between physicians and nonphysicians for adverse events.
      CONCLUSION: This analysis shows that physicians have a higher rapid sequence
      intubation first-pass and overall success, as well as mostly lower rates of
      adverse events for rapid sequence intubation in the out-of-hospital setting.
      Nevertheless, for all success and adverse events no firm conclusion for a
      difference could be drawn because of lack of precision of meta-analytic estimates
      or selective reporting. First-pass success could be an area in which to focus
      quality improvement strategies for nonphysicians.

PMID- 28559040
TI  - Are alpha-Blockers Beneficial for Outpatient Management of Uncomplicated Ureteric
      Stones?

PMID- 28559037
TI  - Repeated Emergency Medical Services Use by Older Adults: Analysis of a
      Comprehensive Statewide Database.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to characterize repeated
      emergency medical services (EMS) transports among older adults across a large and
      socioeconomically diverse region. METHODS: Using the North Carolina Prehospital
      Medical Information System, we analyzed the frequency of repeated EMS transports
      within 30 days of an index EMS transport among adults aged 65 years and older
      from 2010 to 2015. We used multivariable logistic regressions to determine
      characteristics associated with repeated EMS transport. RESULTS: During the 6
      year period, EMS performed 1,711,669 transports for 689,664 unique older adults
      in North Carolina. Of these, 303,099 transports (17.7%) were followed by another
      transport of the same patient within 30 days. The key characteristics associated
      with an increased adjusted odds ratio of repeated transport within 30 days
      include transport from an institutionalized setting (odds ratio [OR] 1.42; 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.38 to 1.47), blacks compared with whites (OR 1.29; 95%
      CI 1.24 to 1.33), a dispatch complaint of psychiatric problems (OR 1.38; 95% CI
      1.25 to 1.52), back pain (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.26 to 1.45), breathing problems (OR
      1.21; 95% CI 1.15 to 1.30), and diabetic problems (OR 1.14; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.22).
      Falls accounted for 15.6% of all transports and had a modest association with
      repeated transports (OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.14). CONCLUSION: More than 1 in 6
      EMS transports of older adults in North Carolina are followed by a repeated
      transport of the same patient within 30 days. Patient characteristics and chief
      complaints may identify increased risk for repeated transport and suggest the
      potential for targeted interventions to improve outcomes and manage EMS use.

PMID- 28559041
TI  - Commentary on "Rehabilitation Outcomes Associated With Foreign Domestic Workers
      as Caregivers".
AB  - The purpose of this commentary is to illuminate the role of foreign domestic
      workers (FDW) as caregivers for patients undergoing rehabilitation in Asia. The
      authors of a published study in this issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine
      and Rehabilitation investigate the association between the characteristics of
      caregivers for patients recovering from sub-acute stroke and the rehabilitation
      outcomes of those patients in Singapore. The investigators examined over 4,000
      caregivers and one of the findings showed that after controlling for
      characteristics of both caregivers and patients, there was a significant and
      negative association between having an FDW as a caregiver, compared to a spouse,
      and patient rehabilitation effectiveness. The inclusion of FDW's in this study is
      an important and understudied group of caregivers in the role of patient
      rehabilitation that is relatively new to the US, but common in other parts of the
      world.

PMID- 28559039
TI  - Geographic Variation in Use of Ambulance Transport to the Emergency Department.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Evidence on variability in emergency medical services use is
      limited. We obtain national evidence on geographic variation in the use of
      ambulance transport to the emergency department (ED) among Medicare enrollees and
      assess the role of health status, socioeconomic status, and provider
      availability. METHODS: We used 2010 Medicare claims data for a random sample of
      999,999 enrollees aged 66 years and older, and identified ambulance transport and
      ED use. The main outcome measures were number of ambulance transports to the ED
      per 100 person-years (ambulance transport rate) and proportion (percentage) of ED
      visits by ambulance transport by hospital referral regions. RESULTS: The national
      ambulance transport rate was 22.2 and the overall proportion of ED visits by
      ambulance was 36.7%. Relative to hospital referral regions in the lowest rate
      quartile, those in the highest quartile had a 75% higher ambulance transport rate
      (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.69 to 1.81) and
      a 15.5% higher proportion of ED visits by ambulance (IRR 1.155; 95% CI 1.146 to
      1.164). Adjusting for health status, socioeconomic status, and provider
      availability reduced quartile 1 versus quartile 4 difference in ambulance
      transport rate by 43% (IRR 1.43; 95% CI 1.38 to 1.48) and proportion of ED visits
      by ambulance by 7% (IRR 1.145; 95% CI 1.135 to 1.155). Among the 3 covariate
      domains, health status was associated with the largest variability in ambulance
      transport rate (30.1%), followed by socioeconomic status (12.8%) and provider
      availability (2.9%). CONCLUSION: Geographic variability in ambulance use is large
      and associated with variation in patient health status and socioeconomic status.

PMID- 28559042
TI  - Self-Assembled Core-Shell-Type Lipid-Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles: Intracellular
      Trafficking and Relevance for Oral Absorption.
AB  - Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (NPs) are advantageous for drug delivery.
      However, their intracellular trafficking mechanism and relevance for oral drug
      absorption are poorly understood. In this study, self-assembled core-shell lipid
      polymer hybrid NPs made of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and various
      lipids were developed to study their differing intracellular trafficking in
      intestinal epithelial cells and their relevance for oral absorption of a model
      drug saquinavir (SQV). Our results demonstrated that the endocytosis and
      exocytosis of hybrid NPs could be changed by varying the kind of lipid. A
      glyceride mixture (hybrid NPs-1) decreased endocytosis but increased exocytosis
      in Caco-2 cells, whereas the phospholipid (E200) (hybrid NPs-2) decreased
      endocytosis but exocytosis was unaffected as compared with PLGA nanoparticles.
      The transport of hybrid NPs-1 in cells involved various pathways, including
      caveolae/lipid raft-dependent endocytosis, and clathrin-mediated endocytosis and
      macropinocytosis, which was different from the other groups of NPs that involved
      only caveolae/lipid raft-dependent endocytosis. Compared with that of the
      reference formulation (nanoemulsion), the oral absorption of SQV-loaded hybrid
      NPs in rats was poor, probably due to the limited drug release and transcytosis
      of NPs across the intestinal epithelium. In conclusion, the intracellular
      processing of hybrid NPs in intestinal epithelia can be altered by adding lipids
      to the NP. However, it appears unfavorable to use PLGA-based NPs to improve oral
      absorption of SQV compared with nanoemulsion. Our findings will be essential in
      the development of polymer-based NPs for the oral delivery of drugs with the
      purpose of improving their oral absorption.

PMID- 28559043
TI  - Protein Adsorption to In-Line Filters of Intravenous Administration Sets.
AB  - Ensuring compatibility of administered therapeutic proteins with intravenous
      administration sets is an important regulatory requirement. A low-dose recovery
      during administration of low protein concentrations is among the commonly
      observed incompatibilities, and it is mainly due to adsorption to in-line
      filters. To better understand this phenomenon, we studied the adsorption of 4
      different therapeutic proteins (2 IgG1s, 1 IgG4, and 1 Fc fusion protein) diluted
      to 0.01 mg/mL in 5% glucose (B. Braun EcoFlac; B. Braun Melsungen AG, Melsungen,
      Germany) or 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl; Freeflex; Fresenius Kabi, Friedberg,
      Germany) solutions to 8 in-line filters (5 positively charged and 3 neutral
      filters made of different polymers and by different suppliers). The results show
      certain patterns of protein adsorption, which depend to a large extent on the
      dilution solution and filter material, and to a much lower extent on the
      proteins' biophysical properties. Investigation of the filter membranes' zeta
      potential showed a correlation between the observed adsorption pattern in 5%
      glucose solution and the filter's surface charge, with higher protein adsorption
      for the strongly negatively charged membranes. In 0.9% NaCl solution, the surface
      charges are masked, leading to different adsorption patterns. These results
      contribute to the general understanding of the protein adsorption to IV infusion
      filters and allow the design of more efficient compatibility studies.

PMID- 28559044
TI  - Aging-associated mitochondrial DNA mutations alter oxidative phosphorylation
      machinery and cause mitochondrial dysfunctions.
AB  - Our previous study generated a series of cybrids containing mitochondria of
      synaptosomes from mice at different ages. The following functional analysis on
      these cybrids revealed an age-dependent decline of mitochondrial function. To
      understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the age-related
      mitochondrial dysfunction, we focused on three cybrids carrying mitochondria
      derived from synaptosomes of the old mice that exhibited severe respiratory
      deficiencies. In particular, we started with a comprehensive analysis of
      mitochondrial genome by high resolution, high sensitive deep sequencing method.
      Compared with young control, we detected a significant accumulation of
      heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations. These mutations included six alterations in main
      control region that has been shown to regulate overall gene-expression, and four
      alterations in protein coding region, two of which led to significant changes in
      complex I subunit ND5 and complex III subunit CytB. Interestingly, a reduced
      mtDNA-encoded protein synthesis was associated with the changes in the main
      control region. Likewise, mutations in ND5 and CytB were associated with defects
      in assembly of respiratory complexes. Altogether, the identified age-dependent
      accumulation of mtDNA mutations in mouse brain likely contributes to the decline
      in mitochondrial function.

PMID- 28559045
TI  - Physical activity and frailty as indicators of cardiorespiratory reserve and
      predictors of surgical prognosis: General and digestive surgery population
      characterization.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Frailty and low physical activity and cardiorespiratory reserve are
      related to higher perioperative morbimortality. The crucial step in improving the
      prognosis is to implement specific measures to optimize these aspects. It is
      critical to know the magnitude of the problem in order to implement preoperative
      optimization programmes. OBJECTIVE: To characterize surgical population in a
      university hospital. METHODS: All patients undergoing preoperative evaluation for
      abdominal surgery with admission were prospectively included during a 3-month
      period. Level of physical activity, functional capacity, frailty and emotional
      state were assessed using score tests. Additionally, physical condition was
      evaluated using 5 Times Sit-to-Stand Test. Demographic, clinical and surgical
      data were collected. RESULTS: One hundred and forty patients were included (60+/
      15yr-old, 56% male, 25% ASA III or IV). Forty-nine percent of patients were
      proposed for oncologic surgery and 13% of which had received neoadjuvant
      treatment. Seventy percent of patients presented a low functional capacity and
      were sedentary. Eighteen percent of patients were considered frail and more than
      50% completed the 5 Times Sit-to-Stand Test at a higher time than the reference
      values adjusted to age and sex. Advanced age, ASA III/IV, sedentarism, frailty
      and a high level of anxiety and depression were related to a lower functional
      capacity. CONCLUSIONS: The surgical population of our area has a low functional
      reserve and a high index of sedentary lifestyle and frailty, predictors of
      postoperative morbidity. It is mandatory to implement preoperative measures to
      identify population at risk and prehabilitation programmes, considered highly
      promising preventive interventions towards improving surgical outcome.

PMID- 28559046
TI  - Ceftazidime-induced thrombocytopenia.
AB  - Ceftazidime is an antibiotic belonging to the group of third generation
      cephalosporins, frequently used in clinical practice for its broad antibacterial
      spectrum. A case report is presented on a 78-year-old man who entered the
      intensive care unit due to respiratory failure secondary to nosocomial pneumonia
      in the postoperative period of a laparoscopic hepatic bisegmentectomy for a
      hepatocarcinoma. It required invasive mechanical ventilation and was treated with
      ceftazidime, developing a progressive decrease in platelet count after the onset
      of this drug and after re-exposure to it, not coinciding with the introduction of
      other drugs. The adverse reaction was reported to the Spanish
      pharmacosurveillance system and according to the Naranjo algorithm the causal
      relationship was probable. Since no case of ceftazidime-induced thrombocytopenia
      was found in the literature, we consider knowledge of it relevant as an adverse
      effect to be taken into account given its potential severity, especially when it
      cannot be explained by other causes.

PMID- 28559047
TI  - Editorial Overview: Sense and react: how the innate immune system detects threats
      and generates protective responses.

PMID- 28559048
TI  - Endometriosis in Adolescent and Young Girls: Report on a Series of 55 Cases.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate
      endometriosis in adolescent and young girls and further to review the menstrual,
      reproductive characteristics, and risk factors. DESIGN AND SETTING: We reviewed
      the medical records of adolescent and young girls with endometriosis from 2
      different countries. Data were collected and analyzed from charts of 900 patients
      with endometriosis. PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Fifty-five female adolescents
      aged between 13 and 21 years (mean age 18.3 years) participated in our series.
      This study was conducted in the Obstetric and Gynecology Department of Venizeleio
      General Hospital of Crete and involved all patients diagnosed with endometriosis
      between 1996 and 2016. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Statistical methods included chi2
      and Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Of 900 patients with endometriosis we found 55
      female adolescents (6.1%). The mean age was 18.3 +/- 2.3 years, significantly
      younger compared with the advanced endometriosis patients (32.7 +/- 7.2; P <
      .001). Regarding the menstrual reproductive and others characteristics, we
      observed several differences in adolescent young girls compared with the advanced
      age endometriosis group. The factors associated with an increased risk for young
      women include age at menarche, dysmenorrhea, history of asthma, and a positive
      family history of endometriosis. Additionally, we report on 16 of 55 (32%)
      adolescent women with endometriosis and congenital malformations (P < .01) and 5
      patients who were diagnosed with dry eye syndrome. CONCLUSION: There is an
      association between endometriosis in adolescent and young women and risk factors
      including early menarche, early onset of dysmenorrhea, history of asthma,
      previous surgical procedures, obstructive genital anomalies, and family history
      of endometriosis.

PMID- 28559049
TI  - Attenuation of thioacetamide-induced hepatocellular injury by short-term repeated
      injections associated with down-regulation of metabolic enzymes and relationship
      with MHC class II-presenting cells.
AB  - The liver is the primary organ participating in the metabolism of xenobiotics and
      is therefore an important target in the safety assessment of drugs, chemicals and
      environmental toxins. Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) has recently become widely
      recognized in human medicine as an adverse event. The progression of DILI often
      involves "damage-associated molecular patterns" (DAMPs) of gene and protein
      expression such as high-mobility group boxes (HMGBs), S100 proteins and heat
      shock proteins (Hsp). DAMPs are released from injured or necrotic cells and are
      bound to Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and modulate inflammatory reactions.
      Previously, in thioacetamide (TAA; 300mg/kg body weight, single injection)
      induced rat liver, we demonstrated that the expressions of DAMPs, TLR4 and major
      histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II were simultaneously increased,
      accompanied with progression of hepatocellular injury and inflammation. Here we
      investigated the association of DILI and DAMPs, TLRs and MHC class II by using
      rat livers repeated injections with TAA (100mg/kg body weight, once, three
      times). Two days after TAA single injection, centrilobular hepatocellular
      necrosis with infiltration of mononuclear cells was observed, being paralleled
      with increase in serum levels of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine
      transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). However, two days after
      duplicate and triplicate injections, only mild degenerative change of hepatocytes
      and slight infiltration of mononuclear cells were seen in the affected
      centrilobular area. Serum levels of AST, ALT and ALP were also decreased to the
      same levels of control. mRNA expressions of DAMPs (HMGBs, S100A4 and Hsp 70-2),
      TLR4 and MHC class II tended to be increased only on single injection, although
      the number of MHC class II-positive cells in the centrilobular area was still
      increased on each examination point. The analysis of enzymes (CYP2E1 and Flavin
      monooxygenase (FMO) 3), which metabolize TAA in hepatocytes, showed a significant
      decrease in FMO3 on the duplicate and triplicate injections. Autophagy and
      regulatory T cells were not significantly changed for the attenuation of
      hepatocyte injury. Collectively, these results suggest that hepatocytes may adapt
      accumulation of the toxicant by changing their enzyme functions; furthermore, MHC
      class II cells, which still showed increased number in the duplicate and
      triplicate injections, may be related with protection from the toxicant.

PMID- 28559050
TI  - In vitro performance of near infrared light transillumination at 780-nm and
      digital radiography for detection of non-cavitated approximal caries.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the ability of a Near Infrared Light Transillumination
      (NILT) device to detect non-cavitated approximal caries lesions; and to compare
      its performance to Digital Radiography (DR). METHODS: Thirty human extracted
      premolars (sound to lesions into the outer one-third of dentin) were selected.
      Lesion depth was confirmed by micro-computed tomography (MU-CT). Teeth were
      mounted in a custom-made device to simulate approximal contact. DR and NILT
      (CariVuTM, DEXIS, LLC, Hatfield, PA, USA) examinations were performed and
      repeated by three trained and calibrated examiners. Sensitivity, specificity,
      area under ROC curve (Az), inter- and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs)
      for each method, and correlation among the methods were determined. RESULTS: ICCs
      for intra-/inter-examiner agreement were substantial for NILT (0.69/0.64), and
      moderate for DR (0.52/0.48). Sensitivity/specificity for NILT and DR were
      0.68/0.93 and 0.50/0.64, respectively. Az for NILT was 0.81, while for DR it was
      0.61. Spearman correlation coefficient with MU-CT for NILT (0.65, p<0.001)
      demonstrated moderate association, while that of DR suggested no association
      (0.19, p=0.289). CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, NILT
      demonstrated a potential for early approximal caries detection. NILT and DR
      performed the same regarding the accuracy for non-cavitated approximal caries
      detection; however, NILT was superior to DR in terms of repeatability, agreement
      and correlation with MU-CT. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A commercial version of NILT
      was recently introduced as a non-irradiative adjunctive caries detection method.
      It uses near infrared (NIR) light at 780-nm to transilluminate teeth and captures
      live images from the occlusal surface. This study demonstrates that NILT can be
      used as an alternative to radiography for non-cavitated approximal caries
      detection.

PMID- 28559051
TI  - 8-Nitro-cGMP promotes bone growth through expansion of growth plate cartilage.
AB  - In endochondral ossification, growth of bones occurs at their growth plate
      cartilage. While it is known that nitric oxide (NO) synthases are required for
      proliferation of chondrocytes in growth plate cartilage and growth of bones, the
      precise mechanism by which NO facilitates these process has not been clarified
      yet. C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) also positively regulate elongation of
      bones through expansion of the growth plate cartilage. Both NO and CNP are known
      to use cGMP as the second messenger. Recently, 8-nitro-cGMP was identified as a
      signaling molecule produced in the presence of NO in various types of cells.
      Here, we found that 8-nitro-cGMP is produced in proliferating chondrocytes in the
      growth plates, which was enhanced by CNP, in bones cultured ex vivo. In addition,
      8-nitro-cGMP promoted bone growth with expansion of the proliferating zone as
      well as increase in the number of proliferating cells in the growth plates. 8
      Nitro-cGMP also promoted the proliferation of chondrocytes in vitro. On the other
      hand, 8-bromo-cGMP enhanced the growth of bones with expansion of hypertrophic
      zone of the growth plates without affecting either the width of proliferating
      zone or proliferation of chondrocytes. These results indicate that 8-nitro-cGMP
      formed in growth plate cartilage accelerates chondrocyte proliferation and bone
      growth as a downstream molecule of NO.

PMID- 28559053
TI  - Peripapillar retinal hamartoma associated with tuberous sclerosis. Case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tuberous sclerosis is a rare multisystemic disease with an
      autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. There are few documented cases in the
      literature of retinal hamartomas (astrocytomas) with aggressive progression in
      the context of this disease. CASE REPORT: A report is presented on a case of a 31
      year-old male with unknown history of ophthalmic or systemic conditions, who
      referred to a history of 6 months of blurred vision in his right eye. This was
      caused by a unilateral retinal hamartoma due to an undiagnosed tuberous
      sclerosis. DISCUSSION: Multidisciplinary management, with the cooperation of
      Internal Medicine and the Oncology Department, is needed in these cases, as well
      as genetic counselling for affected patients. Complications are directly related
      to increased tumour size. Treatment does not seem to have any influence on the
      natural history of the disease.

PMID- 28559052
TI  - The acute toxicity problem with some perfluorooctanes.

PMID- 28559054
TI  - Continuous monitoring of noise levels in the Gulf of Catania (Ionian Sea). Study
      of correlation with ship traffic.
AB  - Acoustic noise levels were measured in the Gulf of Catania (Ionian Sea) from July
      2012 to May 2013 by a low frequency (<1000Hz) hydrophone, installed on board the
      NEMO-SN1 multidisciplinary observatory. NEMO-SN1 is a cabled node of EMSO-ERIC,
      which was deployed at a water depth of 2100m, 25km off Catania. The study area is
      characterized by the proximity of mid-size harbors and shipping lanes. Measured
      noise levels were correlated with the passage of ships tracked with a dedicated
      AIS antenna. Noise power was measured in the frequency range between 10Hz and
      1000Hz. Experimental data were compared with the results of a fast numerical
      model based on AIS data to evaluate the contribution of shipping noise in six
      consecutive 1/3 octave frequency bands, including the 1/3 octave frequency bands
      centered at 63Hz and 125Hz, indicated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive
      (2008/56/EC).

PMID- 28559055
TI  - Determination of sedimentation, diffusion, and mixing rates in coastal sediments
      of the eastern Red Sea via natural and anthropogenic fallout radionuclides.
AB  - The Red Sea is a unique ecosystem with high biodiversity in one of the warmest
      regions of the world. In the last five decades, Red Sea coastal development has
      rapidly increased. Sediments from continental margins are delivered to depths by
      advection and diffusion-like processes which are difficult to quantify yet
      provide invaluable data to researchers. Beryllium-7, lead-210 and ceseium-137
      were analyzed from sediment cores from the near-coast Red Sea near Jeddah, Saudi
      Arabia. The results of this work are the first estimates of diffusion, mixing,
      and sedimentation rates of the Red Sea coastal sediments. Maximum chemical
      diffusion and particle mixing rates range from 69.1 to 380cm-2y-1 and 2.54 to
      6.80cm-2y-1, respectively. Sedimentation rate is constrained to approximately
      0.6cm/yr via multiple methods. These data provide baselines for tracking changes
      in various environmental problems including erosion, marine benthic ecosystem
      silting, and particle-bound contaminant delivery to the seafloor.

PMID- 28559056
TI  - Fate of microplastics and mesoplastics carried by surface currents and wind
      waves: A numerical model approach in the Sea of Japan.
AB  - A numerical model was established to reproduce the oceanic transport processes of
      microplastics and mesoplastics in the Sea of Japan. A particle tracking model,
      where surface ocean currents were given by a combination of a reanalysis ocean
      current product and Stokes drift computed separately by a wave model, simulated
      particle movement. The model results corresponded with the field survey. Modeled
      results indicated the micro- and mesoplastics are moved northeastward by the
      Tsushima Current. Subsequently, Stokes drift selectively moves mesoplastics
      during winter toward the Japanese coast, resulting in increased contributions of
      mesoplastics south of 39 degrees N. Additionally, Stokes drift also transports
      micro- and mesoplastics out to the sea area south of the subpolar front where the
      northeastward Tsushima Current carries them into the open ocean via the Tsugaru
      and Soya straits. Average transit time of modeled particles in the Sea of Japan
      is drastically reduced when including Stokes drift in the model.

PMID- 28559057
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of c-di-4'-thioAMP as an artificial ligand for c-di-AMP
      riboswitch.
AB  - Cyclic-di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) is a bacterial second messenger that
      binds to an RNA receptor called riboswitch and regulates its downstream genes
      involving cell wall metabolism, ion transport, and spore germination. Therefore,
      the c-di-AMP riboswitch can be a novel target of antibiotics. In this study, we
      synthesized c-di-4'-thioAMP (1), which possesses a sulfur atom instead of an
      oxygen atom in the furanose ring, as a candidate of a bioisoster for natural c-di
      AMP. The resulting 1 bound to the c-di-AMP riboswitch with a micromolar affinity
      (34.8MUM), and the phosphodiesterase resistance of 1 was >12-times higher than
      that of c-di-AMP. Thus, 1 can be considered to be a stable ligand against a c-di
      AMP riboswitch.

PMID- 28559058
TI  - Structure-activity relationships for flavone interactions with amyloid beta
      reveal a novel anti-aggregatory and neuroprotective effect of 2',3',4'
      trihydroxyflavone (2-D08).
AB  - Naturally-occurring flavonoids have well documented anti-aggregatory and
      neuroprotective properties against the hallmark toxic protein in Alzheimer's
      disease, amyloid beta (Abeta). However the extensive diversity of flavonoids has
      limited the insight into the precise structure-activity relationships that confer
      such bioactive properties against the Abeta protein. In the present study we have
      characterised the Abeta binding properties, anti-aggregatory and neuroprotective
      effects of a discreet set of flavones, including the recently described novel
      protein sumoylation inhibitor 2',3',4'-trihydroxyflavone (2-D08). Quercetin,
      transilitin, jaceosidin, nobiletin and 2-D08 were incubated with human Abeta1-42
      for 48h in vitro and effects on Abeta fibrillisation kinetics and morphology
      measured using Thioflavin T (ThT) and electron microscopy respectively, in
      addition to effects on neuronal PC12 cell viability. Of the flavones studied,
      only quercetin, transilitin and 2-D08 significantly inhibited Abeta1-42
      aggregation and toxicity in PC12 cells. Of those, 2-D08 was the most effective
      inhibitor. The strong anti-amyloid activity of 2-D08 indicates that extensive
      hydroxylation in the B ring is the most important determinant of activity against
      beta amyloid within the flavone scaffold. The lack of efficacy of jaceosidin and
      nobiletin indicate that extension of B ring hydroxylation with methoxyl groups
      result in an incremental loss of anti-fibrillar and neuroprotective activity,
      highlighting the constraint to vicinal hydroxyl groups in the B ring for
      effective inhibition of aggregation. These findings reveal further structural
      insights into anti-amyloid bioactivity of flavonoids in addition to a novel and
      efficacious anti-aggregatory and neuroprotective effect of the semi-synthetic
      flavone and sumoylation inhibitor 2',3',4'-trihydroxyflavone (2-D08). Such
      modified flavones may facilitate drug development targeting multiple pathways in
      neurodegenerative disease.

PMID- 28559059
TI  - Halogen-substituted catechol bisphosphates are potent and selective inhibitors of
      the transcription factor STAT5b.
AB  - The transcription factor STAT5b is an antitumor target. Recently, we presented
      the small molecules Stafib-1 and Stafib-2 as potent, selective inhibitors of the
      STAT5b SH2 domain. Here we report that halogen substitutions on the terminal
      phenyl ring of Stafib-1 and a close derivative are tolerated and specificity over
      the STAT5a SH2 domain is maintained, albeit with a slight reduction in activity.
      Our data demonstrate that the synthetic methodology used for generating Stafib-1
      and Stafib-2 can be utilized to synthesize a small library of halogen-substituted
      derivatives, and extend the panel of catechol bisphosphate-based submicromolar
      and selective STAT5b inhibitors.

PMID- 28559060
TI  - Searching for novel N1-substituted benzimidazol-2-ones as non-nucleoside HIV-1 RT
      inhibitors.
AB  - Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) represent an integral
      part of the currently available combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)
      contributing to reduce the AIDS-mortality and turned the disease from lethal to
      chronic. In this context we recently reported a series of 6-chloro-1-(3
      methylphenylsulfonyl)-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-ones as potent non-nucleoside
      HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors. In this paper, we describe the design and
      the synthesis of two novel series of benzimidazolone analogues in which the
      linker moiety between the phenyl ring and the sulfonyl group was modified and new
      small lipophilic groups on the benzyl sulfonyl pendant were introduced. All the
      new obtained compounds were evaluated as RT inhibitors and were also tested
      against RTs containing single amino acid mutations. Finally, molecular docking
      studies were performed in order to rationalize the observed activity of the most
      promising compound.

PMID- 28559062
TI  - Inhibitory effect of angiotensin (1-7) on angiotensin III-induced nociceptive
      behaviour in mice.
AB  - We have previously demonstrated that the intrathecal (i.t.) administration of
      angiotensin (Ang) II into mice produces a nociceptive behaviour consisting of
      scratching, biting and licking accompanied by the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK in
      the spinal cord, which was mediated through AT1 receptors. Both the p38 MAPK
      phosphorylation and subsequent nociceptive behaviour were attenuated by the i.t.
      co-administration of Ang (1-7), an N-terminal fragment of Ang II, that acted via
      Mas receptors. On the other hand, a C-terminal fragment of Ang II, namely Ang
      III, was also shown to induce a nociceptive behaviour by acting upon AT1
      receptors on spinal astrocytes and neurons, and was found to be more potent than
      Ang II. However, the inhibitory effect of Ang (1-7) on the Ang III-induced
      nociceptive behaviour remains unclear. Thus, here we examined whether Ang (1-7)
      can attenuate the Ang III-induced nociceptive behaviour and activation of spinal
      p38 MAPK. The i.t. administration of Ang (1-7) (1-100fmol) dose-dependently
      attenuated the Ang III (1pmol)-induced nociceptive behaviour in mice. Moreover,
      the inhibitory effect of Ang (1-7) at a dose of 100fmol was prevented by A779
      (30fmol), a Mas receptor antagonist. Western blot analysis showed that the
      phosphorylation of p38 MAPK induced by the i.t. administration of Ang III (1pmol)
      was also attenuated by Ang (1-7) (100fmol), and this inhibition was prevented by
      A779 (30fmol). Furthermore, we showed that in the lumbar superficial dorsal horn,
      Mas receptors are expressed in neurons and microglia but absent from astrocytes.
      Together, these results suggest that the i.t. administration of Ang (1-7)
      attenuates the nociceptive behaviour and accompanying p38 MAPK phosphorylation
      induced by Ang III, and that this effect is likely mediated through Mas receptors
      on spinal neurons.

PMID- 28559061
TI  - Neuropeptides: A promising target for treating seizures.
AB  - Seizures are serious neurological disorders affecting nearly 50 million people
      worldwide. Seizures are characterized by abnormal, repetitive and synchronised
      firing of the neurons which is produced as a result of imbalance in the levels of
      the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. Neuropeptides are found to
      regulate seizures by rectifying this imbalance. These neuropeptides are stored in
      the dense core synaptic vesicles, and are released on excitation. This review
      focuses on certain neuropeptides which can alleviate both, the effects of
      seizures as well as epileptogenesis. Thus making it an attractive target for the
      management of seizures.

PMID- 28559063
TI  - Natural History of Intracranial Absorbable Gelatin Powder.
AB  - This case report documents the natural history of intracranial absorbable gelatin
      powder. We depict the serial imaging of Surgifoam in the cavity of an
      intracranial hemorrhage cavity after surgical evacuation.

PMID- 28559064
TI  - Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy for the Treatment of Hydrocephalus in a
      Pediatric Population with Myelomeningocele.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydrocephalus develops in up to 90% of patients born with
      myelomeningocele. Although endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is currently
      considered the preferred treatment for obstructive hydrocephalus, its results
      have been inconsistent in patients with myelomeningocele. This study focuses on
      clinical and radiologic outcomes of ETV in children with hydrocephalus related to
      myelomeningocele. METHODS: Medical records of 18 pediatric patients with
      myelomeningocele treated with ETV from 1998 to 2015 at the Centro Hospitalar Sao
      Joao (Porto, Portugal) were reviewed retrospectively. Patients' caregivers were
      contacted to evaluate their clinical manifestations before and after surgery
      regarding signs and symptoms of hydrocephalus and Chiari malformation. Control
      neuroradiologic imaging of 9 patients was obtained and analyzed. Success of ETV
      was defined by clinical resolution and radiologic confirmation. RESULTS: ETV was
      successful in 8 of 18 cases (44.4%). Groups of patients were compared according
      to age at the time of surgery, with a 40% (2/5) success rate in newborns and a
      50% success rate (3/6) in children older than 1 year. Eight patients underwent
      ETV as a first option, with a 37.5% success rate. Ten patients underwent the
      procedure after previous ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS), 5 for malfunction and
      5 for VPS infection with 60% and 40% success rates, respectively. Early
      postoperative complications occurred in 2 patients. CONCLUSIONS: ETV can be
      performed in patients with myelomeningocele and hydrocephalus with success rates
      of almost 50%. Prior VPS or VPS malfunction or infection do not contraindicate
      ETV. If possible, the procedure should be delayed until the patient is at least 1
      month old.

PMID- 28559065
TI  - Primary Pituitary Fibrosarcoma with Previous Adenoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pituitary sarcomas are rare clinical entities most often encountered
      as secondary neoplasms representing late sequelae of radiation therapy to the
      sellar region. Primary pituitary fibrosarcomas (PPFS), in contrast, are
      exceptionally rare tumors with very few cases described in the literature thus
      far. Herein, we present a case of PFFS and describe it in the context of the
      existing literature. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 39-year-old woman presented with 2
      months of headaches and rapidly progressive vision loss. She was found to have a
      2.7-cm pituitary mass and initially underwent transnasal transsphenoidal
      resection from which pathology confirmed a pituitary adenoma. Eight months after
      surgery, she represented with vision changes and a recurrent tumor that
      postoperatively was found to be a primary fibrosarcoma with embedded adenoma
      remnants. On post-hoc examination of her original pathologic specimen, a
      prominent fibrous tissue component was suspected to be the source of her
      fibrosarcoma. CONCLUSIONS: This is a rare case of PFFS that highlights the need
      for close surveillance in affected patients. Through this case, we review the
      existing literature and discuss both surgical management and aggressive adjuvant
      therapy of this rare disease entity.

PMID- 28559066
TI  - Status Epilepticus Secondary to Pseudonodular Hemorragic Occipital Lesion with
      Edema: "Non Semper Ea Sunt, Quae Videntur, Decipit Frons Prima Multos" (Things
      Are Not Always What They Seem; The First Appearance Deceives Many).
AB  - We report a case in which common radiologic images masked a rare case of
      supratentorial hemangioblastoma (HBL). Other peculiarities of this case are the
      clinical presentation with status epilepticus and the occurrence of a
      supratentorial HBL unrelated to von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. Based on clinical and
      radiologic findings, including massive cerebral edema and hemorrhagic
      presentation, our preoperative diagnosis was a cerebral metastasis. In this
      scenario, physicians must take into account the words of the Roman fabulist
      Phaedrus: "Non semper ea sunt, quae videntur, decipit frons prima multos" (things
      are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many).

PMID- 28559067
TI  - Chronic Subdural Hematoma in Women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Sex differences in various diseases recently have been recognized as
      an important factor in the approach to more efficient preventive and therapeutic
      medicine. We clarified sex differences in the clinical characteristics of chronic
      subdural hematoma (CSDH) by comparing men and women with CSDH, as there is a well
      known male predominance in the prevalence of CSDH. METHODS: Clinical factors and
      computed tomography findings were investigated retrospectively in 490 consecutive
      patients admitted to our hospital between 2006 and 2015 who were diagnosed with
      CSDH. RESULTS: On univariate analysis, women were significantly older than men (P
      < 0.05). In women, premorbid impaired activities of daily living, consciousness
      disturbance, acute-to-chronic subdural hematoma, and death as outcomes at
      discharge were significantly more frequent than in men (P < 0.05). In contrast,
      women had less frequent instances of good recovery and less alcohol intake (P <
      0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated female sex as an independent predictor
      of consciousness disturbance at admission. Female sex also was identified as a
      predictor of death at discharge. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated sex differences in
      the clinical characteristics of CSDH. In the future, management of patients with
      CSDH with regard to sex differences in disease characteristics could be expected
      to improve the outcomes of women, which have been worse than in men.

PMID- 28559068
TI  - Vitom-3D for Exoscopic Neurosurgery: Initial Experience in Cranial and Spinal
      Procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors describe the application of a new exoscope that offers 3
      dimensional (3D) visualization in cranial and spinal neurosurgery in detail.
      METHODS: Five cranial and 11 spinal procedures were performed with a 3D exoscope.
      Instrument handling, repositioning of the exoscope, handling of the image control
      unit, the adjustment of magnification and focal length, the depth perception, the
      image quality, the illumination, and the comfort level of the posture during the
      procedure were assessed via a questionnaire. RESULTS: The following procedures
      were performed: Microvascular decompression (n = 1), craniotomy and tumor
      resection (n = 4), anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with cervical plating
      (n = 2), cervical laminectomy and lateral mass fixation (n = 1), shear cervical
      lateral mass osteosynthesis (n = 1), lumbar canal decompression (n = 1),
      transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (n = 2), thoracic intraspinal extradural
      tumor resection (n = 1), and lumbar discectomy (n = 3). Instrument handling, the
      intraoperative repositioning and handling of the VITOM-3D, and the comfort level
      of the intraoperative posture was rated excellent in 100% of procedures. The
      image quality was rated equal to the operating microscope in 68.75% of
      procedures. None of the procedures had to be stopped because of technical
      problems. No surgical complications were noted that could be related to the use
      of the exoscope. CONCLUSIONS: The 3D-exoscopic system is safe and effective tool
      to perform spinal procedures and less demanding cranial procedures. The image
      quality and 3D visualization were comparable with the operating microscope. The
      technique harbors the unique advantage of excellent comfort for the involved
      surgical team during the procedure.

PMID- 28559069
TI  - Potential for Intrathecal Baclofen in Treatment of Essential Tremor.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder of
      adults, affecting an estimated 7 million Americans. Symptoms of ET range from
      slightly noticeable to debilitating, with 1 cohort study finding 15% of patients
      were forced into early retirement. Additionally, depression has also been
      correlated with the severity of disability of ET. Treatment options include
      propranolol and primidone. Current treatment options are not very effective, with
      more than half (56.3%) of patients discontinuing medications because of no
      changes in symptoms. METHODS: Unfortunately, there is a relative void and
      controversy in the literature explaining ET pathophysiology; however, the gamma
      aminobutyric acid (GABA) hypothesis is the strongest. We conducted a PubMed
      search on 30 September 2015 with no time constraints using the search terms
      "essential tremor" and "baclofen," which resulted in a total of 5 articles.
      RESULTS: Neurohistopathologic studies have demonstrated decreased GABA-A and GABA
      B receptors in the cerebellar cortex of ET patients. GABA, the major inhibitory
      neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, is proposed to have an inhibitory
      effect on pacemaker output activity of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway,
      with lower receptors resulting in decreased inhibition of baseline tremors. Tariq
      et al showed delayed onset and intensity of tremor with oral administration of R
      baclofen in a mouse model of ET. CONCLUSION: With a better side-effect profile
      and success in a physiologically related condition, we propose more clinical
      trials and research be carried out on intrathecal baclofen as a potential
      treatment option, especially drug refractory ET, so as to increase the quality of
      life of this patient population.

PMID- 28559070
TI  - Severe Traumatic Brain Injury at a Tertiary Referral Center in Tanzania:
      Epidemiology and Adherence to Brain Trauma Foundation Guidelines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and
      disability worldwide. Prospective TBI data from sub-Saharan Africa are sparse.
      This study examines epidemiology and explores management of patients with severe
      TBI and adherence to Brain Trauma Foundation Guidelines at a tertiary care
      referral hospital in Tanzania. METHODS: Patients with severe TBI hospitalized at
      Bugando Medical Centre were recorded in a prospective registry including
      epidemiologic, clinical, treatment, and outcome data. RESULTS: Between September
      2013 and October 2015, 371 patients with TBI were admitted; 33% (115/371) had
      severe TBI. Mean age was 32.0 years +/- 20.1, and most patients were male
      (80.0%). Vehicular injuries were the most common cause of injury (65.2%).
      Approximately half of the patients (47.8%) were hospitalized on the day of
      injury. Computed tomography of the brain was performed in 49.6% of patients, and
      58.3% were admitted to the intensive care unit. Continuous arterial blood
      pressure monitoring and intracranial pressure monitoring were not performed in
      any patient. Of patients with severe TBI, 38.3% received hyperosmolar therapy,
      and 35.7% underwent craniotomy. The 2-week mortality was 34.8%. CONCLUSIONS:
      Mortality of patients with severe TBI at Bugando Medical Centre, Tanzania, is
      approximately twice that in high-income countries. Intensive care unit care,
      computed tomography imaging, and continuous arterial blood pressure and
      intracranial pressure monitoring are underused or unavailable in the tertiary
      referral hospital setting. Improving outcomes after severe TBI will require
      concerted investment in prehospital care and improvement in availability of
      intensive care unit resources, computed tomography, and expertise in
      multidisciplinary care.

PMID- 28559071
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Findings in Patients with Dural Arteriovenous
      Fistulas: Three Case Reports.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a potentially useful
      modality for evaluating brain metabolites in patients with dural arteriovenous
      fistula (dAVF). Here we describe a different pattern of MRS-based cerebral
      metabolism findings in patients with dAVF. CASE DESCRIPTIONS: We performed MRS in
      3 patients with transverse sigmoid sinus dAVF associated with cortical venous
      reflux. In case 1, which was associated with vasogenic edema on T2-weighted
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), decreased preoperative N-acetylaspartate
      (NAA)/creatine (Cr) and myo-inositol (mIns)/Cr and increased lactate (Lac)/Cr
      ratios improved after treatment. In case 2, a decreased preoperative NAA/Cr ratio
      improved after treatment. These 2 patients presented with seizures. In case 3,
      the patient presented with headache and showed no metabolic changes on
      preoperative or postoperative MRS. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that patients
      with dAVF can be classified based on a combination of metabolic and signal
      changes seen on T2-weighted MRI. MRS may allow significantly expanded evaluation
      of the metabolic changes associated with dAVF for appropriate classification and
      management.

PMID- 28559072
TI  - Risk Factors for Surgical Results of Hirayama Disease: A Retrospective Analysis
      of a Large Cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore risk factors affecting surgical results of Hirayama
      disease. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 210 patients was performed to
      identify risk factors affecting surgical results of Hirayama disease by using
      univariate and multivariate analyses. A receiver operating characteristic curve
      and area under the curve were applied to evaluate the significant results of the
      multivariate analysis and the optimal reference value. RESULTS: The mean follow
      up period was 27.3 months (range, 14-45 months), and 194 patients with clinical
      and radiographic data completed the final follow-up. Multivariate analysis
      identified age of patients (cutoff value 22.5 years), duration of the disease
      (cutoff value 33 months), physiologic reflex, and pathologic reflex as
      independent risk factors for surgical results of Hirayama disease. The receiver
      operating characteristic curve analysis and area under the curve showed that good
      reference value was obtained for the risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Age of patient,
      duration of the disease, physiologic reflex, and pathologic reflex are the main
      risk factors affecting surgical results of Hirayama disease. Receiver operating
      characteristic analysis shows that good reference value was obtained for the risk
      factors.

PMID- 28559073
TI  - A Meta-Analysis on the Clinical Significance of Redundant Nerve Roots in
      Symptomatic Lumbar Spinal Stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), which leads to severe
      socioeconomic consequences and places a heavy burden on global healthcare system,
      is a relatively frequent spine disorder. Redundant nerve roots (RNRs) are a
      relatively common finding in which slender, serpiginous, or tortuous nerve roots
      are found in the subarachnoid space of the lumbar spine. Previous studies that
      evaluated the prognostic assessment of RNRs in patients with symptomatic LSS are
      composed of doubtful results. Therefore, the clinical significance of RNRs in
      symptomatic LSS is still uncertain. The aim of this meta-analysis is a systematic
      assessment of the clinical significance of RNR syndrome in symptomatic LSS.
      METHODS: This study used a highly sensitive search strategy to identify all
      published studies in multiple databases up to January 1, 2017. All identified
      trials were systematically evaluated using specific inclusion and exclusion
      criteria. Cochrane methodology was also applied to the results of this study.
      RESULTS: This study identified 4 relevant studies involving 297 patients.
      Compared with a non-RNR group, the RNR group results included worse clinical
      outcomes that were assessed using the Japanese Orthopedic Association scores
      after surgery (weighted mean difference [WMD], -0.78; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], -1.26 to -0.29; P = 0.002; I2 = 0%), for recovery rate (WMD, -9.87; 95% CI,
      -15.07 to -4.67; P = 0.0002; I2 = 0%), and for older age (WMD, 2.51; 95% CI, 0.45
      4.57; P = 0.02; I2 = 43%). CONCLUSIONS: RNR is an entity in association with
      symptomatic LSS, which may be viewed as a potentially powerful prognostic
      indicator of worse postoperative functional recovery for symptomatic LSS.

PMID- 28559074
TI  - Anterior Column Realignment has Similar Results to Pedicle Subtraction Osteotomy
      in Treating Adults with Sagittal Plane Deformity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Anterior column realignment (ACR) is a minimally invasive surgical
      technique used for the correction of adult sagittal plane deformity. ACR is
      performed via a minimally invasive lateral transpsoas approach with anterior
      longitudinal ligament release and hyperlordotic cage placement. The objective of
      this study was to compare radiographic outcomes and complications in patients
      treated by ACR or Pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO). METHODS: Patients who
      underwent ACR were matched with patients from a retrospective PSO dataset, by
      pelvic incidence, lumbar lordosis, and thoracic kyphosis. Inclusion criteria
      included pelvic incidence and lumbar lordosis mismatch > 10 degrees , pelvic tilt
      > 25 degrees , and/or C7 sagittal vertical axis >5 cm, and minimum 1-year follow
      up. RESULTS: All (n = 17) patients who underwent ACR underwent second-stage open
      posterior instrumented fusion. There were no differences in baseline demographic
      or radiographic parameters. Both groups were found to have significant
      improvement from preoperative to final follow-up for lumbar lordosis, T1
      spinopelvic inclination, and T1 pelvic angle. Pelvic tilt did not improve with
      PSO (31 degrees  to 28 degrees ) at final follow-up but did improve in ACR group
      (34 degrees  to 25 degrees ). No differences were identified at 3-month or final
      follow-up for lumbar lordosis (51 degrees  vs. 47 degrees ), pelvic tilt (25
      degrees  vs. 28 degrees ), and T1 pelvic angle (23 degrees  vs. 24 degrees ). The
      group undergoing PSO achieved greater T1 spinopelvic inclination correction (8
      degrees  vs. 1.9 degrees ). Patients who underwent ACR had significantly less
      estimated blood loss than patients who underwent PSO (1.6 vs. 3.6 L,
      respectively), but no difference in the overall major complication rates was
      found (35.3% vs. 41.2%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: ACR achieved similar
      radiographic results as PSO in a matched cohort with significantly less estimated
      blood loss and similar overall complication rate.

PMID- 28559075
TI  - Impact of Prehospital Transportation on Survival in Skiers and Snowboarders with
      Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prehospital helicopter use and its impact on outcomes in
      snowboarders and skiers incurring traumatic brain injury (TBI) is unknown. The
      present study investigates the association of helicopter transport with survival
      of snowboarders and skiers with TBI, in comparison with ground emergency medical
      services (EMS), by using data derived from the National Trauma Data Bank (2007
      2014). METHODS: Primary and secondary endpoints were defined as in-hospital
      survival and absolute risk reduction based upon number needed to transport
      (treat) respectively. Multivariable regression models including traditional logit
      model, model fitted with generalized estimating equations, and those
      incorporating results from propensity score matching methods were used to
      investigate the association of helicopter transport with survival compared with
      ground EMS. RESULTS: Of the 1018 snowboarders and skiers who met the criteria,
      360 (35.4%) were transported via helicopters whereas 658 (64.6%) via ground EMS
      with a mortality rate of 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. Multivariable log-binomial
      models demonstrated association of prehospital helicopter transport with
      increased survival (odds ratio 8.58; 95% confidence interval 1.09-67.64; P =
      0.041; absolute risk reduction: 10.06%). This finding persisted after propensity
      score matching (odds ratio 24.73; 95% confidence interval 5.74-152.55; P <
      0.001). The corresponding absolute risk reduction implies that approximately 10
      patients need to be transported via helicopter to save 1 life. CONCLUSIONS: Based
      on our robust statistical analysis of retrospective data, our findings suggest
      prehospital helicopter transport improved survival in patients incurring TBI
      after snowboard- or ski-related falls compared with those transported via ground
      EMS. Policies directed at using helicopter services at remote winter resorts or
      ski or snowboarding locations should be implemented.

PMID- 28559076
TI  - Prenatal Diagnosis and Multimodal Neonatal Treatment of a Rare Pial Arteriovenous
      Fistula: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracranial pial arteriovenous fistulas (PAVFs) are direct
      communications between the arterial and venous system of the brain, with the
      characteristic absence of a plexiform nidus, as seen in the classic cerebral
      arteriovenous malformations. These vascular malformations, usually occurring in
      the pediatric population, very rarely are diagnosed in utero, because of a lack
      of understanding of the condition and because they may be hard to visualize. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: We report a rare case of a mass-effect PAVF diagnosed with fetal
      magnetic resonance imaging, involving the right cerebral hemisphere, fed by a
      pericallosal artery and associated with a giant venous dilatation. The PAVF
      initially was managed by the endovascular embolization. The recruitment of a
      middle cerebral artery feeder and the rapidly enlarging size of the venous pouch
      with mass effect required subsequent surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The 2-stage multimodal
      treatment resulted in complete disappearance of the PAVF without complications.

PMID- 28559078
TI  - Risk Factors for Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Dependency in Patients with
      Spontaneous Cerebellar Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydrocephalus is a common complication after spontaneous cerebellar
      hemorrhage (CH). This study focused on predicting ventriculoperitorneal (VP)
      shunt dependency in patients with spontaneous CH. METHODS: Ninety-nine patients
      with spontaneous CH were evaluated in this retrospective study. A comparison
      between patients with and those without VP shunt dependency during
      hospitalization was made. RESULTS: VP shunt-dependent hydrocephalus developed in
      19.2% of the patients (19 of 99). Comparison of neuroimaging findings on
      admission between the 2 patient groups identified large hematoma dimension (P <
      0.001), large hematoma volume (P = 0.001), fourth ventricular degradation (P <
      0.001), development of hydrocephalus (P < 0.001), and obliteration of the basal
      cisterns (P < 0.001) as significant risk factors for VP shunt-dependent
      hydrocephalus. Stepwise logistic regression analysis identified hydrocephalus on
      admission and maximum hematoma diameter on admission as independent risk factors
      for VP shunt dependency (P = 0.006 and 0.020, respectively). The adjusted risk of
      VP shunt dependency for patients with hydrocephalus on admission had an odds
      ratio of 37.04. Furthermore, an increase of 1 mm in the blood clot diameter on
      admission would increase the VP shunt dependency rate by 11.9%. The cutoff value
      of blood clot diameter on presentation was 36.15 mm (sensitivity, 84.2%;
      specificity, 85.0%). CONCLUSIONS: A patient with hydrocephalus on admission and a
      hematoma of larger size and dimension at the time of initial imaging is at
      elevated risk for VP shunt dependency. Repeat neuroimaging studies and careful
      clinical assessment are mandatory for high-risk patients to determine the
      presence of post-CH hydrocephalus.

PMID- 28559077
TI  - Incidence and Risk Factors of Postoperative Adjacent Segment Degeneration
      Following Anterior Decompression and Instrumented Fusion for Degenerative
      Disorders of the Cervical Spine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore incidence and risk factors of postoperative adjacent
      segment degeneration (ASD) following anterior decompression and instrumented
      fusion for degenerative disorders of the cervical spine. METHODS: Medical records
      from January 2005 to September 2011 of 283 patients were retrospectively
      reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on occurrence of ASD at
      follow-up: ASD group and no ASD group. To investigate risk for occurrence of ASD,
      3 sets of factors were analyzed statistically: patient characteristics, surgical
      variables, and radiographic parameters. RESULTS: Postoperative ASD developed in
      68 of 283 patients. There was no statistically significant difference between the
      2 groups in patient characteristics or the surgical variables of surgical
      strategy, surgical time, and blood loss. The number of patients receiving 2-level
      spinal fusion was higher in the ASD group. Upper instrumented vertebra at C5 was
      more common in the ASD group. There was no difference between groups in all but 1
      of the radiographic parameters; the plate-to-disc distance was much smaller in
      the ASD group. Logistic regression analysis revealed that upper instrumented
      vertebra at C5, plate-to-disc distance <3.0 mm, and 2-level anterior cervical
      fusion were independently associated with ASD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with
      degenerative disorders of the cervical spine who receive 2-level cervical fusion
      and with upper instrumented vertebra at C5 are at high potential risk of ASD.

PMID- 28559079
TI  - Respiratory and Swallowing Outcomes Based on Aneurysm Location in 360 Patients
      with Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) may result in abnormal
      respiratory and swallowing function. We analyzed factors that may influence long
      term respiratory and swallowing function in aSAH patients and compared patients
      with anterior and posterior aneurysm locations. METHODS: We retrospectively
      reviewed 360 consecutive aSAH patients. We recorded location of the aneurysm and
      respiratory indices on admission, in-hospital adverse respiratory events, and the
      need for tracheostomy (for respiratory failure) or percutaneous endoscopic
      gastrostomy (PEG) tube (for prolonged dysphagia). Respiratory and swallowing
      function was also reviewed at 1 year and at most recent clinical follow-up.
      RESULTS: Aneurysms consisted of 293 described as anterior circulation (81.4%) and
      67 described as posterior circulation (18.6%), including 31 patients with basilar
      artery aneurysms and 16 with posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA)
      aneurysms. There were no differences in oxygen saturation or PaO2:FiO2 ratio on
      admission, though patients with PICA aneurysms presented significantly more
      commonly with endotracheal intubation. PICA aneurysm patients had higher rates of
      tracheostomy and PEG tube dependence at 1 year in univariate analysis. Higher
      Hunt-Hess grade was a predictor of pneumonia and prolonged intubation, whereas
      older age and prolonged hospitalization were predictors of PEG placement in
      multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Ruptured anterior and posterior circulation
      aneurysms have similar rates of in-hospital respiratory and swallowing
      dysfunction. There was a higher rate of swallowing dysfunction in the posterior
      circulation aneurysm group compared with the anterior group at most recent follow
      up (12% vs. 2%, P = 0.035). Patients with PICA aneurysms demonstrated higher
      rates of tracheostomy and PEG, though the latter did not achieve statistical
      significance.

PMID- 28559080
TI  - Comparison of Stent-Assisted Coil Embolization and the Pipeline Embolization
      Device for Endovascular Treatment of Ophthalmic Segment Aneurysms: A Multicenter
      Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stent-assisted coil embolization and flow diversion with the Pipeline
      embolization device (PED) are both effective endovascular treatment options for
      ophthalmic segment aneurysms (OSAs) of the internal carotid artery. Here we
      present a large comparative cohort study. METHODS: A multicenter, retrospective
      cohort comparison study of consecutively treated OSAs was conducted at 2 academic
      institutions in the United States comparing stent-coiling (between 2007 and 2015)
      and PED (between 2011 and 2016). RESULTS: A total of 62 of OSAs were treated with
      stent-coiling and 106 were treated with the PED. The stent-coiling-treated
      aneurysms were larger, although the maximum diameter was not significantly
      different between the 2 groups (P = 0.05). The median duration of follow-up was
      22.5 months for the stent-coiling group and 8.7 months for the PED group (P =
      0.0002). Complete occlusion at last follow-up was achieved in 75.9% of aneurysms
      in the stent-coiling group and in 81.1% of aneurysms in the PED group (P =
      0.516). The retreatment rate was higher with stent-coiling, but the difference
      did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.062). A good functional outcome was
      achieved in 96.6% of patients in the stent-coiling group and in 94.7% of those in
      the PED group (P = 0.707). The rate of neurologic complications was 4.8% in the
      stent-coiling group and 9.4% in the PED group (P = 0.376). CONCLUSION: Stent
      coiling and the PED were equally effective for treating OSAs. There were no
      significant differences in terms of procedural complications, angiographic,
      functional, and visual outcomes. PED may be more favorable for multiple adjacent
      OSAs.

PMID- 28559082
TI  - Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Parameters Associated with
      Poor Clinical Outcome in Spondylodiscitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prognostic factors for the disease course of patients with
      spondylodiscitis have not been well studied. METHODS: The prognostic value of
      initial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography imaging
      parameters was analyzed in 62 patients (47% women; mean age +/- SD, 71.6 +/- 9.6
      years) with a confirmed diagnosis of spondylodiscitis. The disease course was
      separately evaluated during initial treatment response during hospitalization,
      relapse, and clinical short-term follow-up at 3 months. RESULTS: Overall CT
      findings graded as definitely inflammatory (P = 0.006), reduced disc height on
      MRI (P = 0.044) and fluid-equivalent hyperintensity of discs on T2 short tau
      inversion recovery-weighted sequences (P = 0.047) were associated with poor
      initial treatment response. High initial C-reactive protein value (>10.1 mg/dL)
      was associated with a higher relapse rate (P = 0.038). Risk factors for poor
      outcome were infection with low-virulence bacteria (P = 0.040) and overall MRI
      findings atypical for infection (P = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with MRI, CT
      imaging parameters have a higher prognostic value regarding the disease course.
      Patients infected with low-virulence bacteria and atypical MRI findings are at
      higher risk for poor clinical outcome and thus warrant closer monitoring.

PMID- 28559081
TI  - Stemness Marker Detection in the Periphery of Glioblastoma and Ability of
      Glioblastoma to Generate Glioma Stem Cells: Clinical Correlations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggested glioma stem cells (GSCs) are key
      contributors to therapeutic resistance of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and are
      responsible for GBM recurrence. METHODS: We characterized the phenotype of cancer
      cells in the core and periphery of 20 GBM tumors, correlating clinical outcome to
      the ability to form GSCs and distinguishing survival based on Ki-67 staining.
      RESULTS: Similar levels of methylguanine-deoxyribonucleic acid methyltransferase
      were found in the core and periphery of GBM tumors, whereas Ki-67 was reduced in
      the periphery. Similar levels of stemness markers in the periphery and in the
      core of all GBM cultures were found. Only cells expressing >30% SOX2 levels were
      able to produce neurospheres. Immunophenotypic analysis showed higher levels of
      stemness markers in GSC cultures than in all GBM primary cultures. GSC in vitro
      production and coexpression of Ki-67 >5% negatively correlated with outcome.
      CONCLUSIONS: Not all GBM cultures can generate GSCs, and this capacity is linked
      to >30% SOX2 levels. The ability to form spheres negatively correlated to
      survival, and the detection of >5% Ki-67 levels may be useful to identify
      patients at risk of disease progression. The presence of GSC-/SOX-2-/Ki-67- cells
      may be regarded as a new prognostic factor. The presence of stemness markers and
      methylguanine-deoxyribonucleic acid methyltransferase in the periphery of GBM
      tumors may be the reason for treatment failure and recurrence. Development of
      stem cell-targeted therapies and elaboration of more aggressive treatments
      represent an opportunity to eliminate the GBM source and the nidus of recurrence.

PMID- 28559083
TI  - Superior Petrosal Vein Sacrifice During Microvascular Decompression:
      Perioperative Complication Rates and Comparison with Venous Preservation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate potential effect of sacrifice of the superior petrosal
      vein (SPV) on postoperative complications after microvascular decompression
      (MVD). METHODS: Retrospective review of 98 consecutive patients undergoing MVD of
      cranial nerve V was performed. Frequency of division of the SPV during surgery
      was recorded, and postoperative complications and imaging were recorded and
      analyzed. In patients with complications, the specific anatomic variation of the
      superior petrosal venous complex was noted. RESULTS: Of 98 patients undergoing
      MVD, 83 (84.7%) had sacrifice of the SPV at the time of surgery, 12 (12.2%) had
      the SPV preserved, and 3 (3.1%) were revision operations. Four patients (4.8%)
      had complications deemed to be attributable to venous insufficiency or
      congestion. These included sigmoid sinus thrombosis with coincident cerebellar
      hemorrhage, midbrain and pontine infarction, hemiparesis with midbrain and
      pontine edema, and facial paresis with ischemia in the middle cerebellar
      peduncle. None of the patients with preserved SPV were symptomatic or had imaging
      changes consistent with venous congestion. CONCLUSIONS: Sacrifice of the SPV is
      often performed during MVD. This is associated with a complication rate that is
      significant in frequency and severity compared with preserving the vein. SPV
      sacrifice should be limited to cases where it is deemed absolutely necessary for
      successful cranial nerve decompression.

PMID- 28559084
TI  - Letter to the editor regarding "Quantitative study of voice dysfunction after
      thyroidectomy".

PMID- 28559087
TI  - Not only limbs in atypical restless legs syndrome.
AB  - Restless legs syndrome (RLS) typically affects the limbs, but the involvement of
      other body parts has also been reported. In this essay, we critically review all
      literature reports of atypical RLS cases with unusual localizations. Applying the
      updated diagnostic criteria of the International restless legs syndrome study
      group (IRLSSG), which also consider symptoms localized outside of the lower
      limbs, a few of these atypical cases reported in the previous literature resulted
      in a definitive diagnosis of RLS. We also discuss the relationship between RLS
      and burning mouth syndrome (BMS) or restless genital syndrome (RGS). We conclude
      clinical sleep specialists should be aware of unusual RLS localizations because
      they respond to the usual treatment for RLS. All the IRLSSG diagnostic criteria
      should be applied in every suspected case, in order to establish a correct
      diagnosis of this disabling but treatable condition.

PMID- 28559086
TI  - Laparoscopic Intervention in Acute Crohn's Disease Involving an Ovary.
AB  - Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder that may involve any part
      of the gastrointestinal tract. Acute manifestations in female internal
      reproductive organs are rare and have been described in only a few cases. A 27
      year-old nulligravida woman diagnosed with CD presented with pelvic pain, fever,
      and a palpable mass (confirmed by ultrasound) in the right lower quadrant of the
      abdomen. She underwent diagnostic laparoscopy because of worsening symptoms
      suggestive of a tubo-ovarian abscess. The right adnexa were excised after
      adhesiolysis. Pathologic examination revealed an ovarian granuloma consistent
      with CD. This case shows that a laparoscopic approach is possible for active CD,
      with all the benefits of a minimally invasive approach. Although the involved
      ovary was removed, similar to previous reports using laparotomy, conservative
      therapy should be considered if preoperative diagnosis can be made. Improvements
      in preoperative diagnosis and development of management guidelines is critical
      for ovarian preservation and conservative treatment options.

PMID- 28559088
TI  - Additional value of left atrial appendage geometry and hemodynamics when
      considering anticoagulation strategy in patients with atrial fibrillation with
      low CHA2DS2-VASc scores.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strokes occur in some patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), even
      when the CHA2DS2-VASc (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age >75 years,
      diabetes mellitus, prior stroke or transient ischemic attack, vascular disease,
      age>65 years, female sex) score is low. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the
      factors defining the residual stroke risk in patients with AF and low CHA2DS2
      VASc scores, with a particular focus on the hemodynamics and geometry of the left
      atrial appendage (LAA). METHODS: From February 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012, 66
      consecutive patients with nonvalvular AF and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 or 1
      (except a point for the female sex) were enrolled. All patients were admitted
      with a diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke. The control group consisted of
      patients with nonvalvular AF without a history of stroke. RESULTS: The LAA
      orifice area was larger (4.35 +/- 1.51 cm2 vs 2.83 +/- 0.9 cm2; P < .001) and the
      LAA flow velocity was lower (41.9 +/- 22.7 cm/s vs 54.4 +/- 19.9 cm/s; P < .001)
      in the stroke group than in the control group. Low LAA flow velocity (<40 cm/s)
      and large LAA orifice area (>4 cm2) were independent predictors of stroke.
      Patients with an LAA flow velocity of <40 cm/s and an LAA orifice of >4.0 cm2 had
      a markedly higher odds ratio (odds ratio 10.9; 95% confidence interval 3.0-40.0;
      P < .001) of stroke than did those with preserved LAA flow velocity and smaller
      LAA orifice. CONCLUSION: Even in patients with low CHA2DS2-VASc scores, the
      presence of both decreased LAA flow velocity and increased LAA orifice size was
      associated with a high odds ratio of stroke. Future large prospective studies are
      needed to assess whether these patients should receive anticoagulants.

PMID- 28559085
TI  - Clinically Focused Molecular Investigation of 1000 Consecutive Families with
      Inherited Retinal Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To devise a comprehensive multiplatform genetic testing strategy for
      inherited retinal disease and to describe its performance in 1000 consecutive
      families seen by a single clinician. DESIGN: Retrospective series. PARTICIPANTS:
      One thousand consecutive families seen by a single clinician. METHODS: The
      clinical records of all patients seen by a single retina specialist between
      January 2010 and June 2016 were reviewed, and all patients who met the clinical
      criteria for a diagnosis of inherited retinal disease were included in the study.
      Each patient was assigned to 1 of 62 diagnostic categories, and this clinical
      diagnosis was used to define the scope and order of the molecular investigations
      that were performed. The number of nucleotides evaluated in a given subject
      ranged from 2 to nearly 900 000. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sensitivity and false
      genotype rate. RESULTS: Disease-causing genotypes were identified in 760 families
      (76%). These genotypes were distributed across 104 different genes. More than 75%
      of these 104 genes have coding sequences small enough to be packaged efficiently
      into an adeno-associated virus. Mutations in ABCA4 were the most common cause of
      disease in this cohort (173 families), whereas mutations in 80 genes caused
      disease in 5 or fewer families (i.e., 0.5% or less). Disease-causing genotypes
      were identified in 576 of the families without next-generation sequencing (NGS).
      This included 23 families with mutations in the repetitive region of RPGR exon 15
      that would have been missed by NGS. Whole-exome sequencing of the remaining 424
      families revealed mutations in an additional 182 families, and whole-genome
      sequencing of 4 of the remaining 242 families revealed 2 additional genotypes
      that were invisible by the other methods. Performing the testing in a clinically
      focused tiered fashion would be 6.1% more sensitive and 17.7% less expensive and
      would have a significantly lower average false genotype rate than using whole
      exome sequencing to assess more than 300 genes in all patients (7.1% vs. 128%; P
      < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic testing for inherited retinal disease is now more
      than 75% sensitive. A clinically directed tiered testing strategy can increase
      sensitivity and improve statistical significance without increasing cost.

PMID- 28559089
TI  - Endo-epicardial breakthrough: A tale of 2 sides.

PMID- 28559090
TI  - Effect of air removal with extracorporeal balloon inflation on incidence of
      asymptomatic cerebral embolism during cryoballoon ablation of atrial
      fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic cerebral embolism (ACE) is sometimes detected after
      cryoballoon ablation of atrial fibrillation. The removal of air bubbles from the
      cryoballoon before utilization may reduce the rate of ACE. OBJECTIVE: This study
      aims to compare the incidence of ACE between a conventional and a novel balloon
      massaging method during cryoballoon ablation. METHODS: Of 175 consecutive
      patients undergoing initial cryoballoon ablation of paroxysmal atrial
      fibrillation, 60 (34.3%) patients underwent novel balloon massaging with
      extracorporeal balloon inflation in saline water (group N) before the cryoballoon
      was inserted into the body. The remaining 115 (65.7%) patients underwent
      conventional balloon massaging in saline water while the balloon remained folded
      (group C). Of those, 86 propensity score-matched patients were included. RESULTS:
      The baseline characteristics were similar between the 2 groups. In group N, even
      after balloon massaging in saline water was carefully performed, multiple air
      bubbles remained on the balloon surface when the cryoballoon was inflated in all
      cases. Postprocedural cerebral magnetic resonance imaging detected ACE in 14.0%
      of all patients. The incidence of ACE was significantly lower in group N than in
      group C (4.7% vs 23.3%; P = .01). According to multivariable analysis, the novel
      method was the sole factor associated with the presence of ACE (odds ratio 0.161;
      95% confidence interval 0.033-0.736; P = .02). CONCLUSION: Preliminary removal of
      air bubbles in heparinized saline water with extracorporeal balloon inflation
      reduced the incidence of ACE. Since conventional balloon massaging failed to
      remove air bubbles completely, this novel balloon massaging method should be
      recommended before cryoballoon utilization.

PMID- 28559091
TI  - Triflusal in Patients With Aspirin Hypersensitivity Treated With Coronary Stent
      Implantation.

PMID- 28559092
TI  - Low health literacy and healthcare utilization among immigrants and non
      immigrants in Switzerland.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at investigating the association between functional
      health literacy and knowledge on when to seek medical help for potentially
      harmless (overutilization) or serious (underutilization) situations among
      immigrants and non-immigrants in Switzerland. METHODS: Data was collected among
      three immigrant groups and the native population (N=1146) in the German- and
      Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Health literacy was assessed with the Short
      Test of Functional Health Literacy (S-TOFHLA) and three Brief Health Literacy
      Screeners. Over- and underutilization of healthcare services was assessed with
      items asking participants about when to seek medical help for minor, respectively
      major, physical symptoms. RESULTS: Immigrants were more likely to seek medical
      help when unwarranted (overutilization). Health literacy, when assessed with the
      S-TOFHLA, was significantly associated with over- and underutilization. Yet, once
      controlled for covariates, the association between health literacy and
      overutilization was negative. Immigration background and micro-cultural
      differences emerged as important predictors of utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Results
      suggest that functional health literacy is directly related to healthcare
      utilization. The effects might be amplified by (micro-)cultural differences.
      PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Healthcare providers should be aware of differences in
      health literacy and utilization patterns among different population groups.
      Communication between patients and providers should be literacy and culturally
      sensitive.

PMID- 28559093
TI  - The Lutonix(r) drug-coated balloon: A novel drug delivery technology for the
      treatment of vascular disease.
AB  - Local drug delivery of an anti-proliferative drug from balloon catheter systems
      to the site of arterial injury has been attempted repeatedly over the years with
      limited success in drug uptake and retention. Accessibility of the drug at the
      site is critical to combat the body's response to the procedural trauma of
      angioplasty. Recently, formulations have been designed which achieve delivery of
      therapeutic doses of the anti-proliferative drug paclitaxel to arteries with
      higher efficiency and longer tissue retention. These formulations succeed through
      formation of a drug reservoir in the artery wall enabling release after the
      initial angioplasty procedure. These formulations have become the cornerstone of
      several drug coated balloon (DCB) technologies which have found an initial, broad
      therapeutic application in the treatment of stenosis of the superficial femoral
      artery (SFA). DCBs achieve drug delivery while leaving no implant behind and
      represent a new class of combination products developed at the interface of
      engineering, chemistry and medical science. This review article summarizes the
      development of the LUTONIX(r) drug coated balloon catheter. The introduction of
      DCB technology has provided clinicians and patients with new SFA treatment
      options while ongoing clinical evidence in additional vascular beds is generated.

PMID- 28559094
TI  - [Fear of falling: Validation of a measurement tool in Chilean elderly living in
      the community].
AB  - : INTRODUCCIoN: Fear of falling, with or without previous falls history, is a
      risk factor for decreased mobility, disability, as well as a decreased quality of
      life, and can trigger the self-restriction of activities with loss of
      independence and functionality. Validated tools for measuring the fear of falling
      in the Chilean population is a needed to detect those at risk. There are
      currently no validated instruments to measure this phenomenon in Chile. The aim
      of this study is to validate the Spanish version of the short "Falls Efficacy
      Scale-International" (FES-I) in an elderly population living in the community in
      Chile. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study was performed using
      applications at baseline and 4 weeks. The short FES-I was translated using the
      back-translation method, evaluated by a panel of experts, and piloted in 10 older
      adults. After the pilot study, the final version was applied to a sample of 113
      elderly persons. Data analysis used measures of central tendency, and reliability
      and confirmatory factor analysis was used. RESULTS: The Spanish version of the
      short FES-I showed good reliability and validity in an elderly Chilean
      population. CONCLUSIONS: This falls risks measurement tool can be used by
      clinicians and researchers in order to determine the magnitude of the problem and
      the impact of fear of falling on falls, functionality, and quality of life of the
      elderly who live in the community.

PMID- 28559096
TI  - [Heart failure: Does it matter which speciality treats it?]

PMID- 28559095
TI  - [Anxiety in a representative sample of the Spanish population over 50 years-old].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Anxiety is common throughout the ageing process. The objective of
      this study is to estimate the prevalence of anxiety in a representative sample of
      the Spanish population over 50 years-old. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data of this
      study come from the Pilot Study developed within the Longitudinal Ageing Study in
      Spain (ELES), in which a representative sample of the non-institutionalised
      Spanish population was evaluated. An analysis was performed on the data of 1086
      people who answered the question "I am now going to read a list with a series of
      diseases or health problems. I would like you to tell me if your doctor has
      diagnosed any of them". The tools used were a questionnaire consisting of 218
      questions, along with standardised tests, such as the Spanish version of the Mini
      Mental State Examination. RESULTS: Anxiety was reported to have been diagnosed at
      some time in 14.3% of the sample. The prevalence was higher in women than in men
      (77.8 vs. 22.2%), decreasing with age, and related to different chronic diseases.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the prevalence of anxiety throughout the
      lifespan is noticeable in people over 50 years, and should be taken into account,
      especially in the female population and in those with chronic diseases.

PMID- 28559097
TI  - Von Willebrand Disease type 2 in pregnancy - A critical clinical association.
AB  - Von Willebrand disease (vWD) is the most common inherited bleeding disorder. Its
      association with pregnancy is infrequent. Here we report three cases of vWD
      associated with pregnancy. The clinical features of this combination are very
      suggestive. However, difficulties are still encountered during the diagnosis
      process. The first case was diagnosed for the first time during the patient's
      second pregnancy despite several episodes of vaginal bleeding and suggestive
      clinical symptomatology. The second case was diagnosed during childhood and the
      patient was properly managed during this pregnancy. The third case was diagnosed
      at a pre-anesthesia consult, at 36 weeks gestation, before performing a cesarean
      section on request, despite a clinical suggestive symptomatology. All of the
      cases received prophylactic treatment with Haemate P(r) (CSL Behring, Marburg,
      Germay) 24hours before birth. No serious bleeding episodes were noticed during
      delivery or postpartum period. Two healthy babies were delivered from the cases
      Nos. 2 and 3. It is acknowledged that vaginal bleeding is common during first
      trimester of pregnancy. However, this study indicates that repeated bleeding
      episodes corroborated with a clinical suggestive symptomatology (epistaxis, heavy
      menstrual period, and easy bruising after minor trauma) should orient the
      diagnosis to vWD.

PMID- 28559098
TI  - Oral lichenoid dysplasia and exophytic oral verrucous hyperplasia: Mythical
      entities of oral pathology.

PMID- 28559099
TI  - Forecasting model for Pea seed-borne mosaic virus epidemics in field pea crops in
      a Mediterranean-type environment.
AB  - An empirical model was developed to forecast Pea seed-borne mosaic virus (PSbMV)
      incidence at a critical phase of the annual growing season to predict yield loss
      in field pea crops sown under Mediterranean-type conditions. The model uses pre
      growing season rainfall to calculate an index of aphid abundance in early-August
      which, in combination with PSbMV infection level in seed sown, is used to
      forecast virus crop incidence. Using predicted PSbMV crop incidence in early
      August and day of sowing, PSbMV transmission from harvested seed was also
      predicted, albeit less accurately. The model was developed so it provides
      forecasts before sowing to allow sufficient time to implement control
      recommendations, such as having representative seed samples tested for PSbMV
      transmission rate to seedlings, obtaining seed with minimal PSbMV infection or of
      a PSbMV-resistant cultivar, and implementation of cultural management strategies.
      The model provides a disease forecast risk indication, taking into account
      predicted percentage yield loss to PSbMV infection and economic factors involved
      in field pea production. This disease risk forecast delivers location-specific
      recommendations regarding PSbMV management to end-users. These recommendations
      will be delivered directly to end-users via SMS alerts with links to web support
      that provide information on PSbMV management options. This modelling and decision
      support system approach would likely be suitable for use in other world regions
      where field pea is grown in similar Mediterranean-type environments.

PMID- 28559100
TI  - Identification, transmission and genomic characterization of a new member of the
      family Caulimoviridae causing a flower distortion disease of Rudbeckia hirta.
AB  - A disease of Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan), characterized by severe flower
      deformation, was observed in Minnesota during 2010-2016. A previously undescribed
      virus species, named Rudbeckia flower distortion virus (RuFDV, family
      Caulimoviridae, genus unassigned), was determined to be the causal agent of the
      disease. Symptoms induced by RuFDV infection resemble those characteristic of
      phytoplasma-induced diseases, but no phytoplasmas were detected in RuFDV-infected
      R. hirta. The virus, and the disease were transmitted readily by mechanical
      inoculation and by the aphid Myzus persicae, but only to R. hirta. Virions of
      RuFDV are icosahedral, 42-45nm in diameter, and contain a circular 8222bp dsDNA
      genome containing seven open reading frames (ORFs). The ORFs 2-6 have 28-52%
      amino acid sequence identity to the movement protein (MP), coat protein (CP),
      aspartic protease (AP), reverse transcriptase (RT) and RNase H, and translational
      transactivator (TA) domains of known caulimoviruses. The two remaining ORFs (1
      and 7) have no significant amino acid sequence similarity to known viruses.
      Although the RuFDV ORF 6 is significantly truncated relative to those of other
      known caulimoviruses, neither this nor the concomitant absence of characteristic
      virus-encoded cytoplasmic inclusion bodies appears to adversely affect aphid
      transmission of this virus. Phylogenetic analysis based on the sequence of the RT
      region revealed no close relationship to known members of the family
      Caulimoviridae. Based on sequence similarity, genome organization and
      phylogenetic relatedness, RuFDV appears to be distinct from any currently
      recognized taxonomic grouping in the family Caulimoviridae.

PMID- 28559101
TI  - Bovine enzootic haematuria from consumption of Pteris deflexa and Pteris plumula
      in northwestern Argentina.
AB  - Bovine enzootic haematuria (BEH) is caused by prolonged ingestion of toxic
      principles of bracken fern, essentially by Pteridium spp. In northwestern
      Argentina, this disease has a great economic impact ant it is attributed a
      chronic consumption to Pteridium arachnoideum. This paper describes two endemic
      areas for enzootic hematuria due to the consumption of Pteris deflexa and Pteris
      plumula. Two areas where P. deflexa and P. plumula are endemic, but free of
      Pteridium species, were devised and seven farms were visited. The disease was
      confirmed based on the presence of clinically affected animals. In four
      necropsies bleeding neoplastic lesions were observed in the mucosa of the urinary
      bladder. At phytochemical analysis, both ptaquiloside and pterosin B were found
      in P. deflexa and P. plumula. Thus, the consumption of P. deflexa and P. plumula
      can also cause BEH.

PMID- 28559102
TI  - Biomechanical characteristics of the anatomic rectangular tunnel anterior
      cruciate ligament reconstruction with a bone-patellar tendon-bone graft.
AB  - PURPOSE: To clarify 1) the force sharing between two portions of BTB graft in
      anatomic rectangular tunnel (ART) reconstruction and 2) the knee stability in ART
      technique under anterior tibial load. METHODS: Eleven fresh cadaveric knees were
      used. First, anterior-posterior (A-P) laxity was measured with Knee Laxity
      Tester(r) in response to 134 N of A-P tibial load at 20 degrees  on the normal
      knees. Then ART ACL reconstruction was performed with a BTB graft. For graft, the
      patellar bone plug and tendon portion was longitudinally cut into half as AM and
      PL portions. After the tibial bone plug was fixed at femoral aperture, AM/PL
      portions were connected to the tension-adjustable force gauges at tibial
      tubercle, and were fixed with 10 N to each portion at 20 degrees . Then the
      tension was measured 1) under anterior tibial load of 134 N at 0, 30, 60, and 90
      degrees , and 2) during passive knee extension from 120 to 0 degrees . Next the
      graft tension was set at 0, 10, 20, 30, or 40 N at 20 degrees , and the A-P
      laxity was measured by applying A-P load of 134 N. By comparing the laxity for
      the normal knee, the tension to restore the normal A-P laxity (LMP) was
      estimated. RESULTS: The AM force was significantly smaller at 0 degrees  and
      larger at 90 degrees  than the PL force under anterior load, while the force
      sharing showed a reciprocal pattern. During knee extension motion, the tension of
      both portions gradually increased from around 5 N to 20-30 N with knee extended.
      And the LMP was 1.6 +/- 1.0 N with a range from 0.3 to 3.5 N. CONCLUSION: The
      pattern of force sharing was similar to that in the normal ACL in response to
      anterior tibial load and during passive knee extension motion. LMP in this
      procedure was close to the tension in the normal ACL. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level
      IV, a controlled-laboratory study.

PMID- 28559103
TI  - Comparison of quantitative evaluation between cutaneous and transosseous inertial
      sensors in anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee: A cadaveric study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently several authors have reported on the quantitative evaluation
      of the pivot-shift test using cutaneous fixation of inertial sensors. Before
      utilizing this sensor for clinical studies, it is necessary to evaluate the
      accuracy of cutaneous sensor in assessing rotational knee instability. To
      evaluate the accuracy of inertial sensors, we compared cutaneous and transosseous
      sensors in the quantitative assessment of rotational knee instability in a
      cadaveric setting, in order to demonstrate their clinical applicability. METHODS:
      Eight freshly frozen human cadaveric knees were used in this study. Inertial
      sensors were fixed on the tibial tuberosity and directly fixed to the distal
      tibia bone. A single examiner performed the pivot shift test from flexion to
      extension on the intact knees and ACL deficient knees. The peak overall magnitude
      of acceleration and the maximum rotational angular velocity in the tibial
      superoinferior axis was repeatedly measured with the inertial sensor during the
      pivot shift test. Correlations between cutaneous and transosseous inertial
      sensors were evaluated, as well as statistical analysis for differences between
      ACL intact and ACL deficient knees. RESULTS: Acceleration and angular velocity
      measured with the cutaneous sensor demonstrated a strong positive correlation
      with the transosseous sensor (r = 0.86 and r = 0.83). Comparison between
      cutaneous and transosseous sensor indicated significant difference for the peak
      overall magnitude of acceleration (cutaneous: 10.3 +/- 5.2 m/s2, transosseous:
      14.3 +/- 7.6 m/s2, P < 0.01) and for the maximum internal rotation angular
      velocity (cutaneous: 189.5 +/- 99.6 deg/s, transosseous: 225.1 +/- 103.3 deg/s, P
      < 0.05), but no significant difference for the maximum external rotation angular
      velocity (cutaneous: 176.1 +/- 87.3 deg/s, transosseous: 195.9 +/- 106.2 deg/s,
      N.S). CONCLUSIONS: There is a positive correlation between cutaneous and
      transosseous inertial sensors. Therefore, this study indicated that the cutaneous
      inertial sensors could be used clinically for quantifying rotational knee
      instability, irrespective of the location of utilization.

PMID- 28559104
TI  - Fast co-pyrolysis of waste newspaper with high-density polyethylene for high
      yields of alcohols and hydrocarbons.
AB  - Waste newspaper (WP) was first co-pyrolyzed with high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
      using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to enhance the
      yields of alcohols and hydrocarbons. The effects of WP: HDPE feed ratio (100:0,
      75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100) and temperature (500-800 degrees C) on products
      distribution were investigated and the interaction mechanism during co-pyrolysis
      was also proposed. Maximum yields of alcohols and hydrocarbons reached 85.88%
      (feed ratio 50:50wt.%, 600 degrees C). Hydrogen supplements and deoxidation by
      HDPE and subsequently fragments recombination result in the conversion of
      aldehydes and ketones into branched hydrocarbons. Radicals from WP degradation
      favor the secondary crack for HDPE products resulting in the formation of linear
      hydrocarbons with low carbon number. Hydrocarbons with activated radical site
      from HDPE degradation were interacted with hydroxyl from WP degradation promoting
      the formation of linear long chain alcohols. Moreover, co-pyrolysis significantly
      enhanced condensable oil qualities, which were close to commercial diesel No. 0.

PMID- 28559105
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effect of the monoterpene myrtenol is dependent on the direct
      modulation of neutrophil migration and oxidative stress.
AB  - Myrtenol is a bicyclic monoterpene with anti-inflammatory properties. However,
      the mechanisms involved are partially unknown. Here, we investigated the effect
      of myrtenol during experimental chronic arthritis and the possible modulating
      activity of oxidative stress and neutrophil migration. Complete Freund's Adjuvant
      (CFA)-sensitized rats were treated with vehicle (1 mL/kg, po), myrtenol (12.5, 25
      or 50 mg/kg, po), indomethacin (10 mg/kg, po) or dexamethasone (0.4 mg/kg)
      followed by intra-articular injection of CFA (0.5 mg/mL, 50 MUL per joint). Then,
      paw edema and articular incapacitation (paw elevation time) were evaluated for 14
      days. On the last day, a blood concentration superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
      nitrite was determined. In another experimental setting, human neutrophils were
      incubated with vehicle (sterile saline, 1 mL) or myrtenol (10-100 ng/mL) and the
      in vitro chemotaxis to N-formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) (10-7
      M/well) was evaluated. In addition, antiinflammatory effect of myrtenol was
      investigated in carrageenan-induced peritonitis. We found that CFA induced a
      prominent paw swelling and incapacitation of the joint, which were significantly
      prevented by myrtenol (P < 0.05). In addition, blood accumulation nitrite was
      attenuated by myrtenol when compared with vehicle-treated CFA group (P < 0.05).
      Furthermore, plasma levels of SOD were significantly increased by myrtenol versus
      vehicle-treated CFA group (P < 0.05). Moreover, fMLP-triggered neutrophil
      chemotaxis and carrageenan-induced peritonitis were markedly prevented by
      myrtenol (P < 0.05). Therefore, myrtenol showed anti-inflammatory and
      antinociceptive effects on experimental chronic arthritis, which seems to be
      related to the direct modulation of neutrophil migration and antioxidant
      activity.

PMID- 28559106
TI  - Disregarding hearing loss leads to overestimation of age-related cognitive
      decline.
AB  - Aging is associated with cognitive and sensory decline. While several studies
      have indicated greater cognitive decline among older adults with hearing loss,
      the extent to which age-related differences in cognitive processing may have been
      overestimated due to group differences in sensory processing has remained
      unclear. We addressed this question by comparing younger adults, older adults
      with good hearing, and older adults with poor hearing in several cognitive
      domains: working memory, selective attention, processing speed, inhibitory
      control, and abstract reasoning. Furthermore, we examined whether sensory-related
      cognitive decline depends on cognitive demands and on the sensory modality used
      for assessment. Our results revealed that age-related cognitive deficits in most
      cognitive domains varied as a function of hearing loss, being more pronounced in
      older adults with poor hearing. Furthermore, sensory-related cognitive decline
      was observed across different levels of cognitive demands and independent of the
      sensory modality used for cognitive assessment, suggesting a generalized effect
      of age-related hearing loss on cognitive functioning. As most cognitive aging
      studies have not taken sensory acuity into account, age-related cognitive decline
      may have been overestimated.

PMID- 28559107
TI  - EvoDevo: Changes in developmental controls underlying the evolution of animal
      body plans.

PMID- 28559109
TI  - Real-time visualization of immune cell clearance of Aspergillus fumigatus spores
      and hyphae.
AB  - Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a disease of the immunocompromised host and
      generally caused by the opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.
      While both host and fungal factors contribute to disease severity and outcome,
      there are fundamental features of IA development including fungal morphological
      transition from infectious conidia to tissue-penetrating hyphae as well as host
      defenses rooted in mechanisms of innate phagocyte function. Here we address
      recent advances in the field and use real-time in vivo imaging in the larval
      zebrafish to visually highlight conserved vertebrate innate immune behaviors
      including macrophage phagocytosis of conidia and neutrophil responses post
      germination.

PMID- 28559108
TI  - The nitric oxide donor RuBPY does not induce in vitro cross-tolerance with
      acetylcholine.
AB  - PURPOSE: We have demonstrated that RuBPY induces hypotensive effect in
      hypertensive rats, promotes vasodilation at low concentrations, and presents low
      cytotoxicity. This study aimed to verify whether the NO donor RuBPY synthesized
      in our laboratory induces in vitro tolerance and cross-tolerance to acetylcholine
      (ACh) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in rat cava vein. METHODS: We compared the
      maximum relaxing effect (ME) and potency (pD2) of RuBPY and nitroglycerin (GTN)
      in cava vein rings. Exposure to RuBPY or GTN induced in vitro tolerance. Western
      Blotting helped to evaluate phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase
      (NOS3/eNOS) at the Ser1177 activation site and at the Thr495 inactivation site
      and to determine the ratio between active eNOS dimers and inactive eNOS monomers.
      The NO and ROS ratio was assessed by flow citometry. RESULTS: RuBPY did not
      induce cross-tolerance with ACh, and this NO donor took longer to induce
      tolerance than GTN. Only GTN elicited phosphorylation of eNOS at Ser1177 and
      Thr495. In contrast to results obtained with pre-exposure to GTN, pre-exposure to
      RuBPY did not reduce the formation of NO. The O2- ratio increased in cells
      incubated with GTN. CONCLUSIONS: A major contribution of this work has been to
      evaluate the phenomenon of tolerance induced by GTN and by the new ruthenium
      complex RuBPY in a venous bed. RuBPY is more advantageous than GTN: RuBPY takes
      longer to induce tolerance, does not induce endothelial dysfunction or cross
      tolerance to ACh, and generates lower amount of ROS.

PMID- 28559110
TI  - Protein restriction affects sperm number but not sperm viability in male ants.
AB  - Sperm cells are costly to produce; diet should therefore affect sperm number
      and/or viability. In non-social insects and vertebrates, there is compelling
      evidence that diet influences sperm production. Less is known about this
      relationship in eusocial hymenopterans (all ants and some bees and wasps), whose
      mating systems impose unique selective pressures on sperm production. Males face
      physiological constraints: they acquire all of the resources they will use in
      future reproductive efforts as larvae and emerge from the pupal stage with a
      fixed, non-renewable amount of sperm. Furthermore, males die shortly after
      copulation, but their genetic material persists for years since their spermatozoa
      are stored in their mates' spermathecae. We examined the effects of protein
      restriction during larval development on sperm number and viability in the
      Argentine ant Linepithema humile. We also looked at its impact on male
      development, adult mass, and adult fluctuating asymmetry. We found that protein
      restriction during larval development significantly reduced sperm production, but
      not sperm viability. It did not affect the number of males reared, male mass, or
      male asymmetry. However, males from protein-restricted nests developed much more
      slowly than males from protein-supplemented nests. These results suggest
      investing in sperm quality and in somatic growth, which enhances a male's ability
      to disperse and find a mate, are critical to successful male reproduction.

PMID- 28559111
TI  - Pattern recognition receptors in grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella: I.
      Organization and expression analysis of TLRs and RLRs.
AB  - Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play indispensable roles in the immune
      responses against invading pathogens. In the present study, we systematically
      identified and characterized Toll-like receptors (TLRs), retinoic acid-inducible
      gene I (RIG-I)-like receptors (RLRs) as well as their adaptors in grass carp
      (Ctenopharyngodon idella). A comprehensive analysis of BLAST and other
      bioinformatics methods showed that C. idella TLR family consist of 21 members and
      their adaptors contain four members. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the
      existence of six TLR subfamilies (TLR1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 11 subfamily) in C. idella
      and revealed their homologous relationships with other species. Most C. idella
      TLRs possess three typical structural features of TLR protein family: LRR, TM and
      TIR domains. Meanwhile, RLR family consist of three conserved members (RIG-I,
      MDA5 and LGP2) as well as two adaptors (IPS-1 and STING) in C. idella. mRNA
      expression analyses of TLRs, RLRs and their adaptors indicated that most members
      are sustainably expressed in multiple tissues before and after grass carp
      reovirus (GCRV) or Aeromonas hydrophila infection, while TLR9, TLR20a/b, TLR25,
      TIRAP, SARM1 and STING are transiently expressed in specific tissues. TLRs are
      transmembrane receptors with few introns, while RLRs are cytoplasmic receptors
      with plenty of introns. TLRs and RLRs interact with adaptors to perform their
      functions via various signaling pathways. In conclusion, this study
      systematically explores the characteristics of TLRs and RLRs in C. idella and
      provides evidence for the response patterns after viral and/or bacterial
      infection in vivo. These results contribute to studying the regulation mechanisms
      of TLR and RLR signaling pathways, and deeply understanding fish immune responses
      against pathogen infection.

PMID- 28559112
TI  - Investigation of polymorphic transitions of piracetam induced during wet
      granulation.
AB  - Piracetam was investigated as a model API which is known to exhibit a number of
      different polymorphic forms. It is freely soluble in water so the possibility
      exists for polymorphic transformations to occur during wet granulation. Analysis
      of the polymorphic form present during lab-scale wet granulation, using water as
      a granulation liquid, was studied with powder X-ray diffraction and Raman
      spectroscopy as off-line and inline analysis tools respectively. Different
      excipients with a range of hydrophilicities, aqueous solubilities and molecular
      weights were investigated to examine their influence on these solution-mediated
      polymorphic transitions and experimental results were rationalised using
      molecular modelling. Our results indicated that as an increasing amount of water
      was added to the as-received piracetam FIII, a greater amount of the API
      dissolved which recrystallised upon drying to the metastable FII(6.403) via a
      monohydrate intermediary. Molecular level analysis revealed that the observed
      preferential transformation of monohydrate to FII is linked with a greater
      structural similarity between the monohydrate and FII polymorph in comparison to
      FIII. The application of Raman spectroscopy as a process analytical technology
      (PAT) tool to monitor the granulation process for the production of the
      monohydrate intermediate as a precursor to the undesirable metastable form was
      demonstrated.

PMID- 28559114
TI  - A double blind randomized prospective study comparing prilocaine versus
      ropivacaine in upper eyelid blepharoplasty.

PMID- 28559113
TI  - Decreased contralateral breast volume after mastectomy, adjuvant chemotherapy,
      and anti-estrogen therapy, in particular in breasts with high density.
AB  - Adjuvant chemotherapy and anti-estrogenic therapy can result in decreased volume
      of the contralateral breast, following mastectomy for the treatment of breast
      cancer. However, no data on the effect of adjuvant therapy on contralateral
      breast volume have previously been reported. We aimed to evaluate the extent to
      which adjuvant therapy and differences in breast density contribute to decreased
      breast volume. We conducted a prospective cohort study, selecting 40
      nonconsecutive patients who underwent immediate breast reconstruction with
      mastectomy and expander insertion followed by expander replacement. We measured
      the contralateral breast volume before each procedure. The extent of the change
      was analyzed with respect to adjuvant therapy and breast density measured by
      preoperative mammography. The greatest decrease in breast volume was 135.1 cm3.
      The decrease in breast volume was significantly larger in the adjuvant therapy
      (+) group, particularly in patients with high breast density, than in the
      adjuvant therapy (-) group. Significant differences between the chemotherapy (+),
      tamoxifen (+) group and the chemotherapy (-), tamoxifen (+) group were not found.
      Breast density scores had a range of 2.0-3.3 (mean: 2.8). In breast
      reconstruction, particularly when performed in one stage, preoperative
      mammography findings are valuable to plastic surgeons, and possible decreases in
      the contralateral breast volume due to adjuvant therapy, particularly in patients
      with high breast density, should be considered carefully.

PMID- 28559115
TI  - Methylation dictates PI.f-specific CYP19 transcription in human glial cells.
AB  - CYP19 is the single copy gene encoding for the estrogen synthetic enzyme
      aromatase. Alternate splicing of the promoter is the regulatory mechanism of this
      gene. In the brain, estrogen is synthesized in neuronal and glial cells and the
      gene is mainly regulated by the alternate promoter PI.f. The hormone produced in
      this vicinity has been associated with maintaining normal brain functions.
      Previously, epigenetic regulation has been shown in the promoters PII and I.3 of
      CYP19 in adipocytes. In the present study, the methylation of PI.f in CYP19 was
      examined in glial cells. Treatment of the hypomethylating agent 5-aza
      2'deoxycytidine increased CYP19 mRNA species in U87 MG cells while little changes
      were observed in the other glia cell lines. As PI.f is also chiefly used in T98G
      cells with high expression of CYP19, the methylation statuses of the promoter in
      these two cell models were compared. Our results showed that treating U87 MG
      cells with 10 MUM 5-aza-2'deoxycytidine significantly induced a ~10-fold increase
      in CYP19 transcription and ~80% increase in aromatase activity. In contrast, the
      same treatment did not change either endpoint in T98G cells. Further
      investigation illustrated the CpGs in PI.f were differentially methylated in the
      two cell lines; 63% and 37% of the 14 CpG sites were methylated in U87 MG and
      T98G cells respectively. In conclusion, this study illustrated that the brain
      specific PI.f derived CYP19 expression can be regulated by DNA methylation.

PMID- 28559116
TI  - Uterine ERalpha epigenetic modifications are induced by the endocrine disruptor
      endosulfan in female rats with impaired fertility.
AB  - High ERalpha activity may disrupt the window of uterine receptivity, causing
      defective implantation. We investigated whether implantation failures prompted by
      endosulfan are associated with aberrant ERalpha uterine expression and DNA
      methylation status during the pre-implantation period. ERalpha-dependent target
      genes that play a crucial role in the uterine receptivity for embryo attachment
      and implantation were also investigated. Newborn female rats received corn oil
      (vehicle, Control), 6 MUg/kg/d of endosulfan (Endo6) or 600 MUg/kg/d of
      endosulfan (Endo600) on postnatal days (PND) 1, 3, 5, and 7. On PND90, females
      were made pregnant and on gestational day 5 (GD5, pre-implantation period)
      uterine samples were collected. ERalpha expression was assessed at protein and
      mRNA levels by immunohistochemistry and real time RT-PCR, respectively. ERalpha
      transcript variants mRNA containing alternative 5'-untranslated regions (5'UTRs)
      were also evaluated. We searched for predicted transcription factors binding
      sites in ERalpha regulatory regions and assessed their methylation status by
      Methylation-Sensitive Restriction Enzymes-PCR technique (MSRE-PCR). The
      expression of the ERalpha-dependent uterine target genes, i.e. mucin-1 (MUC-1),
      insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), was
      assessed by real time RT-PCR. Both doses of endosulfan increased the expression
      of ERalpha and its transcript variants ERalpha-OS, ERalpha-O, ERalpha-OT and
      ERalpha-E1. Moreover, a decreased DNA methylation levels were detected in some
      ERalpha regulatory regions, suggesting an epigenetic up-regulation of it
      transcription. ERalpha overexpression was associated with an induction of its
      downstream genes, MUC-1 and IGF-1, suggesting that endosulfan might alter the
      uterine estrogenic pathway compromising uterine receptivity. These alterations
      could account, at least in part, for the endosulfan-induced implantation
      failures.

PMID- 28559117
TI  - Myxoid Adrenocortical Adenoma: A report of two cases and literature review.
AB  - Myxoid adrenocortical adenomas are uncommon. There were only 61 cases reports
      documented, and the tumors are tended to be misdiagnosed in virtue of being rare
      and distinctive histological features. Recently we encountered two myxoid
      adrenocortical adenoma cases of a 31-year-old Chinese woman and a 45-year-old
      Chinese man. The patients did not receive further treatment after surgery and
      were still alive after following up for 20 months. Myxoid adrenocortical adenomas
      is extremely rare. Recognition of this entity would be beneficial for
      pathologists to avoid msidiagnosis, and unnecessary treatment.

PMID- 28559118
TI  - Tumor regression grades, K-RAS mutational profile and c-MET in colorectal liver
      metastases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recently TRG, necrosis grade and the rate of viable cancer cells of
      colorectal liver metastases were correlated with the response to chemotherapy
      treatments, whereas K-RAS mutations and c-MET over-expression were correlated
      with the prognosis. METHODS: 58 resection specimens were assessed for regression
      grades. Patients undergone neo-adjuvant treatments were compared to patients who
      underwent therapy exclusively adjuvantly. We investigated the K-RAS mutational
      profile, the c-MET over-expression along with patients' survivals curves.
      RESULTS: Patients undergone neo-adjuvant treatment presented significant higher
      fibrosis rates and lower rates of viable cells. 36.7% of the patients had a K-RAS
      mutation and the 26.7% presented c-MET over-expression, but these features did
      not correlate with patients' clinical/pathological data. Survival analysis
      documented that K-RAS WT patients presenting c-MET over-expression had worse
      outcomes. CONCLUSION: Fibrosis and the rate of viable cells significantly
      correlate with the response to chemotherapy treatments. c-MET is a promising
      marker in K-RAS WT patients.

PMID- 28559120
TI  - The emerging role of lawyers as addiction 'quasi-experts'.
AB  - This paper examines a discrete set of issues pertaining to the constitution of
      addiction in law. Based on qualitative interviews undertaken with lawyers in
      Australia and Canada, I examine how addiction figures in lawyers' daily practice.
      Drawing on ideas from science and technology studies scholars Sheila Jasanoff,
      Michael Lynch and Bruno Latour, and building on recent research I undertook on
      legal addiction veridiction, I explore the constitution of addiction 'facts' in
      law. I examine how and when lawyers claim to make decisions about addiction in
      the course of their legal practice. Lawyers report playing a central role in the
      making of decisions about addiction, at multiple stages of the legal process
      including: before taking cases on, while running cases in court, and while
      negotiating and/or settling cases. I argue that these decisions can be properly
      described as 'quasi-expert' determinations with important parallels to
      scientific, technological and medical claims often made in legal settings by more
      conventional 'expert witnesses'. I call these 'quasi-expert' decisions because
      they are decisions of the kind that might be assumed to be the purview of
      scientific or medical experts and because they have tangible implications for
      clients. Lawyers uniquely constitute addiction in unique ways, drawing on a
      combination of factors, including their own experience with and observations
      about addiction, the experiences of family members who have experienced alcohol
      and other drug problems, relevant legal concepts and frameworks, popular and
      scientific claims about addiction, emotions and values, including the gender
      politics of alcohol and other drug addiction. These addiction 'facts' can have a
      range of material and discursive effects, including potentially adverse
      implications for people characterised as 'addicts'. I conclude the paper with a
      discussion of some implications of these practices, and with reflections on how
      we might address these issues in future research.

PMID- 28559119
TI  - Clinicopathologic features and prognostic implications of MYBL2 protein
      expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - MYBL2 (B-MYB), a member of the MYB family of transcription factor genes,
      regulates the expression of genes in the process of tumorigenesis. Many studies
      have shown that MYBL2 is high expresssion in several human malignancies including
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, its role in PDAC is still
      unclear. The present study is designed to investigate MYBL2 expression levels and
      prognostic significance in PDAC patients. We assessed MYBL2 expression level by
      immunohistochemistry in tumor tissues from 93 PDAC patients undergoing curative
      resection. The association of MYBL2 expression with clinicopathological
      parameters was evaluated by Pearson's chi-square (chi2) test, Fisher's exact
      test, and Spearman's rank. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional
      hazards models were used to estimate the effect of MYBL2 expression on survival.
      The expression of MYBL2 was significantly higher in PDAC cells compared with
      adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P=0.000). The overexpression of MYBL2 in the
      tumor tissues was significantly correlated with a higher T classification
      (p=0.002), peri-neural invasion (PNI) (p=0.013) and vital status (p=0.045).
      Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high MYBL2 expression was significantly
      associated with shorter overall survival times in PDAC patients. Moreover,
      univariate and multivariate analysis confirmed MYBL2 expression (P=0.010),
      histological grade (P=0.001) as independent prognostic factors in PDAC. These
      results suggested that overexpression of MYBL2 might serve as a novel prognostic
      biomarker in PDAC patients.

PMID- 28559121
TI  - Calpain-2/p35-p25/Cdk5 pathway is involved in the neuronal apoptosis induced by
      polybrominated diphenyl ether-153.
AB  - Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been demonstrated to induce
      neurotoxicity in experimental rats and mice, with neuronal apoptosis as one of
      the major mechanisms, however, the mechanisms underlying PBDEs-induced neuronal
      apoptosis remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of
      calpain/p35-p25/Cdk5 pathway in BDE-153-induced neuronal apoptosis in the
      hippocampus and primary neurons in rats. Results showed that compared to the
      controls, neuronal apoptosis was significantly increased in vivo and ex vivo, as
      manifested by the increased hippocampus TUNEL-positive cell rates, apoptotic
      neurons in Hoechst and AO/EB staining, and the increased LDH activity and
      percentage of Annexin V-positive cells in rat hippocampus and primary neurons.
      Calpain activity was significantly increased in all the BDE-153-treated groups in
      vivo and ex vivo when compared to non-treatment controls. In addition, we showed
      that calpain-2 accounted for the calpain activation instead of calpain-1, as
      demonstrated by the up-regulated mRNA and protein expressions in calpain-2 but
      not calpain-1. Activated calpain truncated p35 into p25, which resulted in the
      p25/Cdk5 formation and activation. Calpain inhibitor PD150606 or p25/Cdk5
      inhibitor Roscovitine relieved neuronal apoptosis mainly via inhibiting the
      p25/Cdk5 activation. Overall, the findings suggested that calpain-2/p35-p25/Cdk5
      pathway was involved in BDE-153-induced neuronal apoptosis, which provides novel
      insight into the mechanisms of PBDE neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28559122
TI  - Reprint of: Overview of avian toxicity studies for the Deepwater Horizon Natural
      Resource Damage Assessment.
AB  - The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 establishes liability for injuries to natural
      resources because of the release or threat of release of oil. Assessment of
      injury to natural resources resulting from an oil spill and development and
      implementation of a plan for the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement or
      acquisition of natural resources to compensate for those injuries is accomplished
      through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. The NRDA process
      began within a week of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred on April
      20, 2010. During the spill, more than 8500 dead and impaired birds representing
      at least 93 avian species were collected. In addition, there were more than 3500
      birds observed to be visibly oiled. While information in the literature at the
      time helped to identify some of the effects of oil on birds, it was not
      sufficient to fully characterize the nature and extent of the injuries to the
      thousands of live oiled birds, or to quantify those injuries in terms of effects
      on bird viability. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed various
      assessment activities to inform NRDA injury determination and quantification
      analyses associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including avian
      toxicity studies. The goal of these studies was to evaluate the effects of oral
      exposure to 1-20ml of artificially weathered Mississippi Canyon 252 oil kg bw-1
      day-1 from one to 28 days or one to five applications of oil to 20% of the bird's
      surface area. It was thought that these exposure levels would not result in
      immediate or short-term mortality but might result in physiological effects that
      ultimately could affect avian survival, reproduction and health. These studies
      included oral dosing studies, an external dosing study, metabolic and flight
      performance studies and field-based flight studies. Results of these studies
      indicated changes in hematologic endpoints including formation of Heinz bodies
      and changes in cell counts. There were also effects on multiple organ systems,
      cardiac function and oxidative status. External oiling affected flight patterns
      and time spent during flight tasks indicating that migration may be affected by
      short-term repeated exposure to oil. Feather damage also resulted in increased
      heat loss and energetic demands. The papers in this special issue indicate that
      the combined effects of oil toxicity and feather effects in avian species, even
      in the case of relatively light oiling, can significantly affect the overall
      health of birds.

PMID- 28559123
TI  - Biological dysrhythm in remitted bipolar I disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent treatment guidelines support treatment of biological rhythm
      abnormalities as a part of treatment of bipolar disorder, but still, literature
      examining various domains (Sleep, Activity, Social, and Eating) of biological
      rhythm and its clinical predictors are less. OBJECTIVES: The main aim of our
      study is to compare various domains of biological rhythm among remitted bipolar I
      subjects and healthy controls. We also explored for any association between
      clinical variables and biological rhythm among bipolar subjects. METHODS: 40
      subjects with Bipolar I disorder and 40 healthy controls who met inclusion and
      exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. Diagnoses were ascertained by a
      qualified psychiatrist using MINI 5.0. Sociodemographic details, biological
      rhythm (BRIAN-Biological Rhythm Interview of assessment in Neuropsychiatry) and
      Sleep functioning (PSQI- Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were assessed in all
      subjects. RESULTS: Mean age of the Bipolar subjects and controls were 41.25+/
      11.84years and 38.25+/-11.25 years respectively. Bipolar subjects experienced
      more biological rhythm disturbance when compared to healthy controls (total BRIAN
      score being 34.25+/-9.36 vs 28.2+/-6.53) (p=0.002). Subsyndromal depressive
      symptoms (HDRS) had significant positive correlation with BRIAN global
      scores(r=0.368, p=0.02). Linear regression analysis showed that number of
      episodes which required hospitalization (beta=0.601, t=3.106, P=0.004), PSQI
      (beta=0.394, t=2.609, p=0.014), HDRS (beta=0.376, t=2.34, t=0.036) explained 31%
      of variance in BRIAN scores in remitted bipolar subjects. CONCLUSION: Biological
      rhythm disturbances seem to persist even after clinical remission of bipolar
      illness. More studies to look into the impact of subsyndromal depressive symptoms
      on biological rhythm are needed.

PMID- 28559124
TI  - Effect of an anaesthetic screening drape on vertical laminar airflow.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effective operating room ventilation is required to reduce the risk
      of surgical site infection. Vertical laminar airflow from above the surgical
      field provides a source of 'ultra-clean' air, carrying contaminants away from the
      operative site. An anaesthetic screening drape is often used to shield the
      operative site from the anaesthetic team, and this defies the principles of
      vertical laminar airflow. METHODS: A mock theatre set-up for a total knee
      replacement was constructed with and without the use of an anaesthetic screening
      drape. A 10*10 grid was set up within the surgical canopy, and the downward air
      velocities were measured using a hot air anemometer. The average velocity and
      range of velocities at each grid point were measured in both set-ups. The range
      was used as the marker of turbulence. FINDINGS: Within the surgical canopy, the
      average downward air velocity was 0.35m/s. With the use of an anaesthetic
      screening drape, the mean downward air velocity in the area above the patient
      decreased from 0.36m/s to 0.29m/s (P=0.02). In the area immediately above the
      drape, the average velocity was 0.18m/s. Turbulent air currents were produced in
      the areas adjacent to the drape near to the mock surgical site. For the area
      above the patient, the range increased from an average of 0.034m/s to 0.05m/s
      (P=0.04). In the area directly above the drape, the average range was 0.08m/s.
      CONCLUSION: Use of an anaesthetic screening drape causes disruption to normal
      vertical laminar airflow.

PMID- 28559125
TI  - Respiratory-syncytial-virus- and rhinovirus-related bronchiolitis in children
      aged <2 years in an English district general hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bronchiolitis is the most common reason for hospitalization in young
      children. In addition to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), other viruses have
      been increasingly implicated. Guidance on testing has also changed. AIMS: To
      compare clinicopathological outcomes in young children admitted with
      bronchiolitis due to RSV in comparison with rhinovirus (RV), and identify
      associated risk/epidemiological factors. METHODS: Children aged less than two
      years admitted to hospital with a clinical diagnosis of bronchiolitis with
      positive results for either RSV or RV were included in this study. Polymerase
      chain-reaction-negative cases using an extended respiratory virus panel served as
      a control group. Retrospective data were collected on sex, risk factors,
      respiratory support, intravenous fluids and antibiotics. Outcomes such as length
      of stay (LOS) and need for transfer to the high-dependency unit/paediatric
      intensive care unit were included. FINDINGS: Two hundred and twenty-seven out of
      437 nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were positive for either RSV (N = 162) or RV
      (N = 65). The median age of cases was three months and 75% had at least one risk
      factor. Risk factors were higher in the RV group (P = 0.004). RV accounted for
      the majority of cases outside the RSV season (P < 0.01). RV-associated
      bronchiolitis had a longer LOS (more than seven days) (P < 0.05) and increased
      need for chest X-rays and/or antibiotics (P < 0.05). Use of intravenous fluids
      and respiratory support were higher in the RV group, but the difference was not
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: RV is the second most common pathogen associated with
      bronchiolitis and is isolated all year round. This may be important in those with
      risk factors resulting in prolonged LOS. Further research is necessary to
      establish the exact role of RV in this common condition, particularly outside the
      traditional RSV season.

PMID- 28559127
TI  - Effects of maternal hypoglycemia on fetal eye and skeleton development in rats.
AB  - The relationship between insulin-induced maternal hypoglycemia and teratogenicity
      was investigated in detail. We injected 4 different forms of insulin (insulin
      human, aspart, glargine, and detemir) subcutaneously at 1 or 2 dose levels to
      Sprague-Dawley rats from Days 6 to 11 of pregnancy, measured blood glucose
      levels, and conducted fetal examination. In the insulin human and aspart (low
      dose) groups, while severe hypoglycemia (approximately 50mg/dL) was seen, it
      lasted only 6h and no fetal anomalies were observed. Fetal axial skeleton
      anomalies were observed in the aspart (high dose) group, which exhibited
      intermediate-duration of severe hypoglycemia (9h). Eye and axial skeleton
      anomalies were observed in the glargine and detemir groups, which exhibited
      continuous severe hypoglycemia (>=9h). These results revealed that insulin
      induced maternal hypoglycemia caused fetal eye and skeleton anomalies and the
      causative key factors were duration of maternal severe hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28559126
TI  - Caring for a patient with rabies: implications of the Milwaukee protocol for
      infection control and public health measures.
AB  - This article discusses the infection control and public health measures taken
      whilst managing a case of laboratory-confirmed rabies, and the challenges faced
      in implementing these measures. Case management requires intensive multi
      disciplinary co-ordination. The Milwaukee protocol, which to date has five
      reported human rabies survivors associated with its use, has been suggested as a
      potential management pathway for human rabies. Consensus among hospital and
      public health clinicians would aid future deployment of this approach in selected
      cases.

PMID- 28559128
TI  - Performance of the modified Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale in identifying
      delirium  in older ED patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delirium in older emergency department (ED) patients is associated
      with severe negative patient outcomes and its detection is challenging for ED
      clinicians. ED clinicians need easy tools for delirium detection. We aimed to
      test the performance criteria of the modified Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale
      (mRASS) in identifying delirium in older ED patients. METHODS: The mRASS was
      applied to a sample of consecutive ED patients aged 65 or older by specially
      trained nurses during an 11-day period in November 2015. Reference standard
      delirium diagnosis was based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
      Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) criteria, and was established by geriatricians. Performance
      criteria were computed. Analyses were repeated in the subsamples of patients with
      and without dementia. RESULTS: Of 285 patients, 20 (7.0%) had delirium and 41
      (14.4%) had dementia. The sensitivity of an mRASS other than 0 to detect delirium
      was 0.70 (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.48; 0.85), specificity 0.93 (95% CI
      0.90; 0.96), positive likelihood ratio 10.31 (95% CI 6.06; 17.51), negative
      likelihood ratio 0.32 (95% CI 0.16; 0.63). In the sub-sample of patients with
      dementia, sensitivity was 0.55 (95% CI 0.28; 0.79), specificity 0.83 (95% CI
      0.66; 0.93), positive likelihood ratio 3.27 (95% CI 1.25; 8.59), negative
      likelihood ratio 0.55 (95% CI 0.28; 1.06). CONCLUSION: The sensitivity of the
      mRASS to detect delirium in older ED patients was low, especially in patients
      with dementia. Therefore its usefulness as a stand-alone screening tool is
      limited.

PMID- 28559129
TI  - One-step cross-genogroup multiplex RT-qPCR with an internal control system for
      the detection of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV).
AB  - Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) causes great losses in fish
      hatcheries world-wide. The detection of IPNV can be challenging in certain
      circumstances, particularly due to low viral load and the genetic variability of
      this RNA virus. For the first time, this project created a quantitative triplex
      real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR), including an endogenous control
      system, for specific, sensitive and rapid detection of IPNV in routine
      diagnostics. Multiple sequence alignment of 46 nucleotide sequences of the
      segment A genome obtained from the NCBI database allowed the design of two RT
      qPCR systems covering the IPNV genogroup 1 and genogroups 2-5, respectively. The
      completed triplex RT-qPCR including a salmonid-specific endogenous control showed
      high specificity and an analytical sensitivity of 20-40 oligonucleotide copies.
      Testing of dilution series of virus-loaded cell culture suspensions proved
      equality of the triplex RT-qPCR with virus detection in cell culture and a higher
      sensitivity than conventional RT-PCR in field samples. In comparative studies of
      a total of 77 field samples tested, 51 showed identical positive and 19 identical
      negative results in cell culture and the triplex RT-qPCR. However, seven other
      samples yielded positive results in the triplex RT-qPCR, but negative results in
      cell culture.

PMID- 28559130
TI  - Cholangiocarcinoma occurring in a patient with type 1 Gaucher disease treated
      with velaglucerase alfa enzyme replacement therapy: First case report.

PMID- 28559131
TI  - Response to gonadotrophins differs for gilts from female- and male-biased
      litters.
AB  - In several species, females masculinised by abnormal androgen exposure in utero
      have poor reproductive performance and gilts born into litters with a male bias
      are likely exposed to greater androgen concentrations prenatally than gilts born
      into female-biased litters. At 24h of age, piglet plasma testosterone
      concentrations in gilts from male-biased litters (>60% male; n=22) or female
      biased litters (>60% female; n=27) were not different. At 18 wks of age, all
      gilts received an injection of 400IU equine chorionic gonadotrophin plus 200IU
      human chorionic gonadotrophin to stimulate oestrus. Two weeks after the injection
      gilts were slaughtered and ovaries collected for determination of numbers of
      corpora lutea (CL). Compared to gilts from female-biased litters, gilts from male
      biased litters were more likely to ovulate (86.0% vs 59.5%, P=0.047) and had more
      CL (13.1+/-1.5 vs 7.2+/-1.7, P=0.015). The present data indicate an effect of
      birth litter sex-bias on pre-pubertal physiological development, possibly
      involving organisational effects at the ovarian cellular level impacting on
      future ovarian function. Potential impacts on subsequent fertility remain to be
      determined.

PMID- 28559132
TI  - Effect of reduced glutathione supplementation in semen extender on tyrosine
      phosphorylation and apoptosis like changes in frozen thawed Hariana bull
      spermatozoa.
AB  - To provide new insights into the mechanisms through which reduced glutathione
      (GSH) is able to protect spermatozoa, we tested the hypothesis that
      cryocapacitation and apoptosis like changes can contribute to the negative effect
      of freezing and thawing on bull spermatozoa, and that GSH prevent this damage.
      Having known protective effects of GSH in terms of a potent antioxidant, we
      evaluated capacitation, tyrosine phosphorylation and apoptosis like changes in
      bull spermatozoa after freezing and thawing in egg yolk tris glycerol extender
      containing (0.5m M-GSH-T1 & 1mM GSH-T2) and without GSH serving as the control
      (C). Forty ejaculates were collected from four Hariana bulls and were pooled due
      to non significant variations among the bull ejaculates for the evaluation of
      sperm attributes. Capacitation like changes, tyrosine phosphorylation,
      localization of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins, apoptosis like changes in terms
      of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and DNA fragmentation after final
      dilution, 4h of equilibration at 4 degrees C and 24h after freezing and thawing
      were evaluated. GSH supplementation at 0.5mM showed significant reduction in B-
      and AR- pattern spermatozoa during all stages of semen freezing and thawing.
      Immunoblot revealed six proteins which were tyrosine phosphorylated and protein
      of 30 and 75kDa (p30, p75) were the major tyrosine phosphorylted proteins. On
      further analysis, the p30 showed differential variation in intensity in all the
      three groups after freezing and thawing. Positive immune reactivity for tyrosine
      phosphorylated proteins was found in neck, middle piece and post-acrosomal
      regions of spermatozoa. Addition of 0.5mM GSH decreased percentage of spermatozoa
      showing fragmented DNA and increased the percentage of spermatozoa having high
      transmembrane mitochondrial potential (P<0.05). This study demonstrates that GSH
      favours survival of bull spermatozoa by interfering with apoptotic and
      cryocapacitation pathways, and thereby protects the spermatozoa from deleterious
      effects of cryopreservation. The findings of the study indicated that GSH at
      0.5mM can be effectively used as an additive in bull semen extender for freezing
      and thawing.

PMID- 28559133
TI  - Medical image classification based on multi-scale non-negative sparse coding.
AB  - With the rapid development of modern medical imaging technology, medical image
      classification has become more and more important in medical diagnosis and
      clinical practice. Conventional medical image classification algorithms usually
      neglect the semantic gap problem between low-level features and high-level image
      semantic, which will largely degrade the classification performance. To solve
      this problem, we propose a multi-scale non-negative sparse coding based medical
      image classification algorithm. Firstly, Medical images are decomposed into
      multiple scale layers, thus diverse visual details can be extracted from
      different scale layers. Secondly, for each scale layer, the non-negative sparse
      coding model with fisher discriminative analysis is constructed to obtain the
      discriminative sparse representation of medical images. Then, the obtained multi
      scale non-negative sparse coding features are combined to form a multi-scale
      feature histogram as the final representation for a medical image. Finally, SVM
      classifier is combined to conduct medical image classification. The experimental
      results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can effectively utilize multi
      scale and contextual spatial information of medical images, reduce the semantic
      gap in a large degree and improve medical image classification performance.

PMID- 28559134
TI  - Exosomes isolated from sera of mice fed Lactobacillus strains affect inflammatory
      cytokine production in macrophages in vitro.
AB  - Orally administered Lactobacillus strains, including L. plantarum No.14 and L.
      rhamnosus GG, reportedly reduce inflammatory cytokine production in mice. The
      present study tested our idea that circulating exosomes mediate the action of
      Lactobacillus strains. The lipopolysaccharide-induced production of TNF-alpha and
      IL-6 in vitro was attenuated in peritoneal exudate cells (PECs) isolated from
      C57BL/6N mice that had been fed L. plantarum No.14. When PECs were cultured for
      24 h with exosomes isolated from the serum of mice fed L. plantarum No.14 or L.
      rhamnosus GG, accumulation of both TNF-alpha and of the corresponding mRNA was
      lowered. Growth in the presence of these exosomes also decreased the production
      of TNF-alpha and IL-6 by the murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7. In contrast,
      supplementation with exosome-depleted serum of mice fed L. plantarum No.14 or L.
      rhamnosus GG failed to affect the production of TNF-alpha and IL-6 by RAW264.7
      cells. When PECs and RAW264.7 cells were cultured for 24 h with PKH67-labeled
      exosomes isolated from murine serum, fluorescent signal was observed inside the
      cells, suggesting that these cells incorporate serum exosomes. We propose that
      the anti-inflammatory activity of orally administered L. plantarum No.14 and L.
      rhamnosus GG is mediated, at least in part, by circulating exosomes.

PMID- 28559135
TI  - The NADPH-oxidase AtRbohI plays a positive role in drought-stress response in
      Arabidopsis thaliana.
AB  - As the major resource of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the NADPH oxidases
      (Rbohs) have been shown to play important roles in plant cells under normal
      growth and stress conditions. Although many family members of Rbohs were studied,
      little is known about the function of RbohI in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we
      report that exogenous ABA application decreases RbohI expression and mannitol
      significantly increases RbohI expression at transcript level. The RbohI
      transcripts were strongly detected in dry seeds and roots. The loss-of-function
      mutant rbohI exhibited sensitivity to ABA and mannitol stress during germination.
      Furthermore, the lateral root growth of rbohI was severely inhibited after
      treatment with mannitol stress. Overexpression of RbohI in Arabidopsis
      significantly improves the drought tolerance. Moreover, more H2O2 accumulated in
      RbohI overexpressors than in wild type plants in response to mannitol stress. Our
      conclusion is that AtRbohI functions in drought-stress response in Arabidopsis
      thaliana.

PMID- 28559136
TI  - Intradiencephalon injection of histamine inhibited the recovery of locomotor
      function of spinal cord injured zebrafish.
AB  - Human spinal cord injury (SCI) usually causes irreversible disability beneath the
      injured site due to poor neural regeneration. On the contrary, zebrafish show
      significant regenerative ability after SCI, thus is usually worked as an animal
      model for studying neuroregeneration. Most of the previous SCI studies focused on
      the local site of SCI, the supraspinal-derived signals were rarely mentioned.
      Here we showed that intradiencephalon injection of histamine (HA) inhibited the
      locomotor recovery in adult zebrafish post-SCI. Immunofluorescence results showed
      that intradiencephalon HA administration increased the activated microglia 3 days
      post injury (dpi), promoted the proliferation of radial glial cells at 7 dpi and
      affected the morphology of radial glial cells at 11 dpi. Furthermore,
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results showed that
      intradiencephalon HA administration also reduced the expression of neurotrophic
      factors including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and insulin-like
      growth factor1 (IGF-1) at the lesion site, however, had no effect on the
      expression of pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta. Hence,
      our data suggested that exogenous intradiencephalon HA retarded locomotor
      recovery in spinal cord injured zebrafish via modulating the repair
      microenvironment.

PMID- 28559137
TI  - Archaeal Lsm rings as stable self-assembling tectons for protein nanofabrication.
AB  - We have exploited the self-assembling properties of archaeal-derived protein
      Lsmalpha to generate new supramolecular forms based on its stable ring-shaped
      heptamer. We show that engineered ring tectons incorporating cysteine sidechains
      on obverse faces of the Lsmalpha7 toroid are capable of forming paired and
      stacked formations. A Cys-modified construct, N10C/E61C-Lsmalpha, appears to
      organize into disulfide-mediated tube formations up to 45 nm in length. We
      additionally report fabrication of cage-like protein clusters through conjugation
      of Cu2+ to His-tagged variants of the Lsmalpha7 tecton. These 400 kDa protein
      capsules are seen as cube particles with visible pores, and are reversibly
      dissembled into their component ring tectons by EDTA. The beta-rich Lsmalpha
      supramolecular assemblies described are amenable to further fusion modifications,
      or for surface attachment, so providing potential for future applications that
      exploit the RNA-binding capacity of Lsm proteins, such as sensing applications.

PMID- 28559138
TI  - Transcription factor FOXO1 promotes cell migration toward exogenous ATP via
      controlling P2Y1 receptor expression in lymphatic endothelial cells.
AB  - Sprouting migration of lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) is a pivotal step in
      lymphangiogenic process. However, its molecular mechanism remains unclear
      including effective migratory attractants. Meanwhile, forkhead transcription
      factor FOXO1 highly expresses in LEC nuclei, but its significance in LEC
      migratory activity has not been researched. In this study, we investigated
      function of FOXO1 transcription factor associated with LEC migration toward
      exogenous ATP which has recently gathered attentions as a cell migratory
      attractant. The transwell membrane assay indicated that LECs migrated toward
      exogenous ATP, which was impaired by FOXO1 knockdown. RT-PCR analysis showed that
      P2Y1, a purinergic receptor, expression was markedly reduced by FOXO1 knockdown
      in LECs. Moreover, P2Y1 blockage impaired LEC migration toward exogenous ATP.
      Western blot analysis revealed that Akt phosphorylation contributed to FOXO1
      dependent LEC migration toward exogenous ATP and its blockage affected LEC
      migratory activity. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assay and ChIP assay
      suggested that FOXO1 directly bound to a conserved binding site in P2RY1 promoter
      and regulated its activity. These results indicated that FOXO1 serves a pivotal
      role in LEC migration toward exogenous ATP via direct transcriptional regulation
      of P2Y1 receptor.

PMID- 28559139
TI  - Effects of phenylpropanoids on human organic anion transporters hOAT1 and hOAT3.
AB  - Human organic anion transporters hOAT1/SLC22A6 and hOAT3/SLC22A8 are highly
      expressed on the basolateral membrane of renal proximal tubules and mediate
      tubular uptake of anionic drugs from blood. They play an important role for drug
      disposition, and therefore close studies of their ligand recognition are
      important for drug therapy and development. In this study, we performed uptake
      experiments using HEK293 and fluorescent anion 6-carboxyfluorescein to asses the
      effects of phenylpropanoids on hOAT1 and hOAT3. We found that phenylpropanoids, 3
      (4'-isopentenyloxyphenyl)-benzoic acid (IBA), 3-(4'-isopentenyloxy-3'
      methoxyphenyl)-benzoic acid (IMBA), and 3-(4'-geranyloxy-3'-methoxy phenyl)
      benzoic acid (GMBA) inhibited hOAT1 and hOAT3. The Ki values for hOAT1 were
      comparable to that of probenecid, a strong inhibitor of hOAT1 and hOAT3. While
      IBA demonstrated competitive inhibition, IMBA and GMBA showed mixed-type
      inhibition. After preincubation and washout, the inhibitory effects remained with
      IMBA and GMBA but not IBA, suggesting that the functional group at 3'-position is
      responsible for these differences. In conclusion, IBA, IMBA, and GMBA are
      inhibitors of hOAT1 and hOAT3.

PMID- 28559140
TI  - Bicarbonate alters cellular responses in respiration assays.
AB  - Metabolic assay buffers often omit bicarbonate, which is susceptible to
      alkalinisation in an open environment. Here, we assessed the effect of including
      bicarbonate in respirometry experiments. By supplementing HEPES-buffered media
      with low concentrations of bicarbonate, we found increased respiration in
      adipocytes and hepatocytes, but not myotubes. This was observed across multiple
      respirometry platforms and was independent of effects on enhanced insulin
      sensitivity, pH drift, or mitochondrial function. Permeabilised cell experiments
      suggest that bicarbonate increases substrate availability, likely by acting as a
      cofactor for carboxylase enzymes. This emphasises the importance of buffer choice
      in experimental biology.

PMID- 28559141
TI  - Establishment of a refined culture method for rat colon organoids.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methods for the artificial three-dimensional (3D) culture of mouse
      and human small-intestinal and large-intestinal stem cells have been established
      with CD24+ or Paneth cell niches. In contrast, no studies have established stable
      3D culture for rat colon stem cells. In this study, we established an advanced
      method for efficient rat colonic stem cell culture. METHODS: Using various tissue
      homogenates, we investigated the colonic organoid forming capacity under the TMDU
      protocol immediately adjacent to Ootani's 3D culture assembly in the same culture
      dish. Next, we examined whether the supernatant from the colon could be replaced
      by a colon homogenate. Finally, we identified the bioactive substances that were
      indispensable for efficient organoid culture using protein purification by three
      step column chromatography and proteomic analysis with a quantitative nanoflow
      liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). RESULTS: By combining
      Ootani's method with the TMDU protocol, we established a refined culture method
      for Lewis rat colon organoids, which we refer to as the modified TMDU protocol.
      Furthermore, we confirmed that PGE2 and galection-4 promoted rat colonic organoid
      formation. CONCLUSIONS: We established efficient rat colonic stem cell cultures
      in vitro. This success will contribute to the study of rat intestinal-disease
      models.

PMID- 28559143
TI  - Rectus femoris muscle atrophy and recovery caused by preoperative pretibial
      traction in femoral shaft fractures-comparison between traction period.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skeletal traction is performed to temporarily stabilize fracture
      sites before surgery in patients with femoral fracture. To date, however, there
      is no study evaluating the difference in the degree of the recovery, of the
      muscle strength, as well as muscle atrophy following skeletal traction. The
      purpose of this study was to compare the degree of recovery of rectus femoris
      muscle strength after surgery in association with muscle atrophy by analyzing the
      duration of preoperative tibial traction, age and sex in patients with femoral
      fracture. HYPOTHESIS: Rectus femoris muscle atrophy will progress depending on
      the duration of preoperative tibial traction, age and sex in patients with
      femoral fracture. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Thirty-one patients who underwent
      preoperative pretibial skeletal traction and intramedullary nailing were divided
      into two groups according to the traction period: group A (n=12) with a duration
      of traction of <7 days (mean: 4.08+/-1.78 days) and group B (n=19) >=7 days
      (mean: 13.63+/-7.17 days). The degree of muscle atrophy and recovery were
      compared between the two groups, according to age and gender. The degree of
      muscle atrophy was measured by the difference in thickness of the rectus femoris
      between pre- and post-traction using ultrasound. The degree of muscle recovery
      was evaluated by the Q-setting and heel off time. Clinical outcome was evaluated
      by the non-union rate and Lysholm score. RESULTS: The degree of muscle atrophy
      was 0.99+/-0.14mm in group A and 2.22+/-0.11mm in group B (P<0.001). The Q
      setting time was 4.83+/-0.94 days in group A and 6.56+/-1.38 days in group B
      (P=0.001). Heel off time was also shorter in group A at 2.58+/-0.90 days, taking
      3.72+/-1.27 days in group B (P=0.012). The recovery rate in the rectus femoris
      was significantly higher in group A than in group B (P<0.001). There was no
      significant difference in non-union rate between group A and B (P=0.672) but the
      mean Lysholm score at the last follow-up was significantly higher in group A than
      in group B (P=0.006). However, no significant differences were detected in the
      mean thickness of the rectus femoris, Q-setting, and heel off time between the
      different age and gender groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The prolonged duration of
      preoperative skeletal traction indicates not only that the resulting disuse
      atrophy would progress further but also that the muscle atrophy would be
      accelerated more rapidly for shorter periods of time, based on a cut-off value of
      7 days. In addition, the rate of rectus femoris muscle recovery and clinical
      outcomes were lower in patients undergoing traction for longer periods of time.
      This indicates that it would be effective for increasing the rate of the recovery
      and minimizing the occurrence of post surgical complications if surgeons could
      perform surgery at the earliest possible opportunity following traction, within
      seven days after the onset of trauma. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, retrospective cohort
      study.

PMID- 28559142
TI  - AG1296 enhances plaque stability via inhibiting inflammatory responses and
      decreasing MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in ApoE-/- mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a chronic process that progresses to unstable
      plaques. Plaque rupture leads to deleterious consequences such as acute coronary
      syndrome, thrombosis and stroke. AG1296 is a potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      which is able to block PDGF-PDGFR signaling pathway. This study aims to assess
      the effect of AG1296 on plaque stability and explore the potential mechanisms.
      METHODS: Atherosclerotic plaques were induced in carotid arteries in ApoE-/- mice
      by perivascular collar placement. All mice were randomly divided into PBS and
      AG1296 groups. 3 weeks after the surgery, the carotid arteries were harvested for
      histological analysis. RESULTS: In AG1296 group, plaque area decreased by 41.5%
      (p = 0.0041) and the contents of macrophages and lipids decreased by 43.5% (p =
      0.0003) and 35.6% (p = 0.0032) respectively. The contents of smooth muscle cells
      increased by 22.3% (p = 0.0214) in AG1296 group. Vulnerable index decreased by
      48.3% (p = 0.0002). The inflammation factors IL-6 and TNF- alpha decreased by
      49.0% (p = 0.0008) and 51.8% (p < 0.0001) and matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and
      MMP-9 decreased by 54.1% (p = 0.0004) and 37.1% (p < 0.0001) in AG1296 group. M1
      macrophage markers (MCP-1) were downregulated by 30.3% (p = 0.0007) and M2
      macrophage markers (ARG-1) were increased by 55.2% (p = 0.0009) in AG1296 group.
      CONCLUSION: AG1296 inhibited the atherosclerotic plaque progression and enhanced
      plaque stability by inhibiting inflammatory responses, reducing the expression of
      matrix metalloproteinases and promoting macrophages from proinflammatory
      phenotype to anti-inflammatory phenotype.

PMID- 28559145
TI  - Fallen eyeball injury.

PMID- 28559144
TI  - Vascularised fibula or induced membrane to treat congenital pseudarthrosis of the
      Tibia: A multicentre study of 18 patients with a mean 9.5-year follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to compare outcomes of two surgical
      techniques used to treat congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia (CPT), the
      induced membrane technique (IM) and the transfer of the contralateral
      vascularised fibula (VF). HYPOTHESIS: The IM technique produces similar outcomes
      to those of VF grafting in terms of healing and function, while being simpler and
      having a lower complication rate. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This retrospective
      multicentre study included 18 patients with a mean age of 2.8 years at surgery.
      Among them, 11 had neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The IM technique was used in
      10 patients and VF grafting in 8 patients. Mean follow-up was 9.5 years (range: 5
      15 years). RESULTS: The two groups showed no significant differences for healing
      or the occurrence of complications such as limb length discrepancy and residual
      malalignment. Two patients required amputation, one in each group. The mean
      number of surgical procedures per patient was 4.7 in the IM group and 5 in the VF
      group. DISCUSSION: Outcomes are similar with the two techniques. Although VF
      grafting theoretically involves a single stage, the mean number of surgical
      procedures was not lower than after the IM technique. The IM technique was
      associated with lower risks of complications and residual donor site
      abnormalities. Regardless of the reconstruction technique, the quality of the
      initial bone resection and internal fixation, particularly regarding alignment,
      is of the utmost importance. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, comparative retrospective
      study.

PMID- 28559146
TI  - Translation and adaptation of the Radiotherapy Edema Rating Scale to Brazilian
      Portuguese.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Internal lymphedema is one of the sequelae of head and neck cancer
      treatment that can lead to varying degrees of swallowing, speech, and respiration
      alterations. The Radiotherapy Edema Rating Scale, developed by Patterson et al.,
      is a tool used to evaluate pharyngeal and laryngeal edema. OBJECTIVE: To
      translate into Brazilian Portuguese, to culturally adapt and test this scale in
      patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer. METHODS: The process
      followed the international guidelines and translation steps by two head and neck
      surgeons and back-translation performed independently by two North-American
      natives. The final version of the test was evaluated based on the assessment of
      18 patients by two head and neck surgeons and two speech therapists using the
      scales in Brazilian Portuguese. RESULTS: The translation and cultural adaptation
      were satisfactorily performed by the members of the committee in charge.
      CONCLUSION: The translation and adaptation into Brazilian Portuguese of the
      Radiotherapy Edema Rating Scale was successfully performed and showed to be easy
      to apply.

PMID- 28559147
TI  - Gluteus medius muscle metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of larynx: a rare
      case.

PMID- 28559148
TI  - Leukocyte Breaching of Endothelial Barriers: The Actin Link.
AB  - Leukocyte transendothelial migration (TEM) takes place across micron-wide gaps in
      specific post-capillary venules generated by the transmigrating leukocyte.
      Because endothelial cells contain a dense cytoskeletal network, transmigrating
      leukocytes must overcome these mechanical barriers as they squeeze their nuclei
      through endothelial gaps and pores. Recent findings suggest that endothelial
      cells are not a passive barrier, and upon engagement by transmigrating leukocytes
      trigger extensive dynamic modifications of their actin cytoskeleton.
      Unexpectedly, endothelial contractility functions as a restrictor of endothelial
      gap enlargement rather than as a facilitator of gap formation as was previously
      suggested. In this review we discuss current knowledge regarding how accurately
      timed endothelial actin-remodeling events are triggered by squeezing leukocytes
      and coordinate leukocyte TEM while preserving blood vessel integrity.

PMID- 28559149
TI  - Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients With Deletion 11q Have a Short Time to
      Requirement of First-Line Therapy, But Long Overall Survival: Results of a
      Population-Based Cohort in British Columbia, Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with 11q22.3 deletion
      (11q-) have an aggressive clinical course, and thus selection of first-line
      therapy in this group is important. This study aimed to improve our understanding
      of real-world practice patterns and outcomes of CLL patients with 11q- in a
      population-based setting. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The British Columbia CLL Database
      was used to identify patients with 11q-. Overall survival (OS) and treatment-free
      survival (TFS) were assessed after adjustment for prognostic factors. RESULTS: Of
      1044 patients in the database, 125 had 11q- (12%). Sixty-nine patients had 11q-
      identified before therapy initiation and had a median OS and TFS of 14.7 (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 11.3-18.1) and 2.5 (95% CI, 1.5-3.6) years. Patient
      with copresence of 11q- and deletion 17p had a markedly worse prognosis, with
      median OS of 4.9 versus 14.7 years (P < .001). Most treated patients (33 of 52)
      received fludarabine with or without rituximab (FR). Patients treated with FR had
      a median OS of 12.8 years (standard error, 1.0), which was not statistically
      different from those treated with alkylator-containing therapy (P = .35).
      CONCLUSION: Although median TFS of 11q- patients in this cohort was short at 2.5
      years, OS remains long at 14.7 years, even when most patients received initial
      treatment without alkylators.

PMID- 28559150
TI  - Viral-induced Hemorrhagic Cystitis After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell
      Transplant.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) is a well-recognized problem that is
      regularly observed after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The
      published data does not report on the potential risk factors for the viral
      induced HC that might require prophylactic treatments. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective analysis of all adult patients who underwent allogeneic
      HSCT at Jules Bordet Institute between 1992 and 2013. Our institutional protocol
      consists in monitoring the patient for signs and symptoms of HC on a daily basis
      during the initial admission for HSCT, then once weekly after discharge until 2
      months thereafter. RESULTS: HC was found in 64 patients, of whom 56 (87.5%) had
      viral-induced HC. The median time between HSCT and HC was 39.5 days (range, 1
      2766 days); the median time between detection of a viral infection and HC was 32
      days (range, 0-2752 days). In multivariate analysis, HC is correlated to the
      infection with the BK virus (hazard ratio, 6.0; 95% confidence interval, 5.03
      6.90; P = .0001) and the adenovirus (hazard ratio, 4.93; 95% confidence interval,
      4.06-5.80; P = .0003). The 5-year overall survival of patients with HC was 36%.
      The 5-year survival rates were not statistically different between patients with
      or without HC (25% vs. 39%; P = .20). CONCLUSION: The presence of the identified
      risk factors should prompt closer follow-up with screening tests and preventive
      measures for BK virus and adenovirus infections in patients undergoing HSCT.

PMID- 28559151
TI  - Generic Imatinib in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Survival of the Cheapest.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The patent expiration of imatinib mesylate (Gleevec; Novartis) on
      February 1, 2016, has brought the focus back on generic versions of the drug, and
      an opportunity to provide a safe and cost-effective alternative. The objective of
      our study was to determine the molecular and cytogenetic responses, survival
      endpoints (event-free survival, failure-free survival, transformation-free
      survival, overall survival), and safety of innovator and generic brands of
      imatinib. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective analysis, data from 1812
      patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with frontline imatinib mesylate
      (innovator/generic) at a single institution between 2008 and 2014 is included. Of
      these, 445 were excluded owing to inadequate data and follow-up, and a further
      156 were excluded as they were in either the accelerated phase or blast crisis at
      diagnosis. Thus, data from 1067 patients who were treated with Gleevec
      (Novartis), and 144 patients with Veenat (NATCO) were available for analysis, and
      included in the study. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in event-free
      survival (P = .05), failure-free survival (P = .07), transformation-free survival
      (P = .12), or overall survival (P = .24) between the 2 groups. The frequency of
      reported nonhematologic adverse events and hematologic adverse events was
      comparable between the study groups. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present
      study showed comparable efficacy and safety of the generic and innovator versions
      of imatinib in the treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

PMID- 28559153
TI  - Valuing and embracing complexity: How an understanding of complex interventions
      needs to shape our evaluation capacities building initiatives.
AB  - This paper describes some of the main challenges of evaluating complex
      interventions, as well as the implications of such challenges for evaluation
      capacity building. It discusses lessons learned from a case study of an
      evaluation of Dancing with Parkinson's, an organization that provides dance
      classes to people with Parkinson's disease in Toronto, Canada. These implications
      are developed from a realist evaluation lens. Key lessons include the need to
      develop skills to understand program mechanisms and contexts, recognize multiple
      models of causality, apply mixed method designs, and ensure the successful
      scaling up and spread of an intervention.

PMID- 28559152
TI  - Anti-apoptotic activity of Japanese encephalitis virus NS5 protein in human
      medulloblastoma cells treated with interferon-beta.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) non-structural protein 5 (NS5)
      exhibits type I interferon (IFN) antagonists, contributing to immune escape, and
      even inducing viral anti-apoptosis. This study investigated the anti-apoptotic
      mechanism of JEV NS5 protein on type I IFN-induced apoptosis of human
      medulloblastoma cells. METHODS: Vector control and NS5-expressing cells were
      treated with IFN-beta, and then harvested for analyzing apoptotic pathways with
      flow cytometry, Western blotting, subcellular localization, etc. RESULTS: Annexin
      V-FITC/PI staining indicated that IFN-beta triggered apoptosis of human
      medulloblastoma cells, but JEV NS5 protein significantly inhibited IFN-beta
      induced apoptosis. Phage display technology and co-immunoprecipitation assay
      identified the anti-apoptotic protein Hsp70 as a NS5-interacting protein. In
      addition, Western blotting demonstrated that NS5 protein up-regulated the Hsp70
      expression, and reduced IFN-beta-induced phosphorylation of ERK2, p38 MAPK and
      STAT1. Hsp70 down-regulation by quercetin significantly recovered IFN-beta
      induced apoptosis of NS5-expressing cells, correlating with the increase in the
      phosphorylation of ERK2, p38 MAPK, and STAT1. Inhibiting the ATPase activity of
      Hsp70 by VER-155008 resulted in the elevated IFN-beta-induced apoptosis in vector
      control and NS5-expressing cells. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated Hsp70 up
      regulation by JEV NS5 not only involved in type I IFN antagonism, but also
      responded to the anti-apoptotic action of JEV NS5 protein through the blocking
      IFN-beta-induced p38 MAPK/STAT1-mediated apoptosis.

PMID- 28559154
TI  - Mechanical CPR in refractory cardiac arrest may be practical, but injuries should
      be monitored: A concise meta-analysis.

PMID- 28559155
TI  - Ventricular fibrillation as initial rhythm in pediatric cardiac arrest by
      suicidal hanging.

PMID- 28559156
TI  - Dietary safety assessment of genetically modified rice EH rich in beta-carotene.
AB  - This 90-day study aimed to assess the dietary safety of transgenic rice EH which
      is rich in beta-carotene. Two experimental groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were fed
      diets containing 45% rice flour of Zhonghua 11 rice and transgenic rice EH rich
      in beta-carotene, respectively. The reference group was fed a diet containing
      standard feed nutrition. During the trial period, each rat was weighed and the
      food intake was recorded twice a week. Their behaviors were observed daily. In
      the end, blood samples were obtained from all anesthetized rats to measure the
      hematologic and serum chemistry indicators. Growth performance, anatomy and
      pathology of all organs in each group were analyzed. Although a few parameters
      were found to be statistically significantly different across groups, they were
      within the normal reference range for this breed and age of rats. Therefore, the
      changes were not considered to be diet related. The results revealed that the
      transgenic rice EH rich in beta-carotene was as nutritious as Zhonghua 11 rice
      and showed a lack of biologically meaningful unintended effects.

PMID- 28559157
TI  - Integrating habits and practices data for soaps, cosmetics and air care products
      into an existing aggregate exposure model.
AB  - In order to accurately assess aggregate exposure to a fragrance material in
      consumers, data are needed on consumer habits and practices, as well as the
      concentration of the fragrance material in those products. The present study
      describes the development of Phase 2 Creme RIFM model by expanding the previously
      developed Phase 1 model to include an additional six product types. Using subject
      matching algorithms, the subjects in the Phase 1 Creme RIFM database were paired
      with subjects in the SUPERB and BodyCare surveys based on age and gender.
      Consumption of the additional products was simulated to create a seven day diary
      allowing full data integration in a consistent format. The inhalation route was
      also included for air care and other products where a fraction of product used is
      inhaled, derived from the RIFM 2-box model. The expansion of the Phase 1 Creme
      RIFM model has resulted in a more extensive and refined model, which covers a
      broader range of product categories and now, includes all relevant routes of
      exposure. An evaluation of the performance of the model has been carried out in
      an accompanying publication to this one.

PMID- 28559158
TI  - Tissue and cellular biomechanics during corneal wound injury and repair.
AB  - : Corneal wound healing is an enormously complex process that requires the
      simultaneous cellular integration of multiple soluble biochemical cues, as well
      as cellular responses to the intrinsic chemistry and biophysical attributes
      associated with the matrix of the wound space. Here, we document how the
      biomechanics of the corneal stroma are altered through the course of wound repair
      following keratoablative procedures in rabbits. Further we documented the
      influence that substrate stiffness has on stromal cell mechanics. Following
      corneal epithelial debridement, New Zealand white rabbits underwent
      phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) on the right eye (OD). Wound healing was
      monitored using advanced imaging modalities. Rabbits were euthanized and corneas
      were harvested at various time points following PTK. Tissues were characterized
      for biomechanics with atomic force microscopy and with histology to assess
      inflammation and fibrosis. Factor analysis was performed to determine any
      discernable patterns in wound healing parameters. The matrix associated with the
      wound space was stiffest at 7days post PTK. The greatest number of inflammatory
      cells were observed 3days after wounding. The highest number of myofibroblasts
      and the greatest degree of fibrosis occurred 21days after wounding. While all
      clinical parameters returned to normal values 400days after wounding, the elastic
      modulus remained greater than pre-surgical values. Factor analysis demonstrated
      dynamic remodeling of stroma occurs between days 10 and 42 during corneal stromal
      wound repair. Elastic modulus of the anterior corneal stroma is dramatically
      altered following PTK and its changes coincide initially with the development of
      edema and inflammation, and later with formation of stromal haze and population
      of the wound space with myofibroblasts. Factor analysis demonstrates strongest
      correlation between elastic modulus, myofibroblasts, fibrosis and stromal haze
      thickness, and between edema and central corneal thickness. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: Tissue biomechanics during the course of corneal wound healing is
      documented for the first time through atomic force microscopy, and is correlated
      with advanced clinical imaging and immunohistochemistry. Parameters obtained from
      the study are applied in a multivariate statistical model to cluster the data for
      better classification and monitor the wound repair process. Elastic modulus of
      the anterior corneal stroma is dramatically altered following wounding and
      correlates initially with the development of edema and inflammation, and later
      with formation of stromal haze and population of the wound space with
      myofibroblasts. Importantly, the occurrence of myofibroblasts is preceded by
      changes in tissue mechanics, which is important to consider in light of
      crosslinking procedures applied to treat corneal diseases.

PMID- 28559159
TI  - HDAC inhibitor TSA ameliorates mechanical hypersensitivity and potentiates
      analgesic effect of morphine in a rat model of bone cancer pain by restoring MU
      opioid receptor in spinal cord.
AB  - Bone cancer pain (BCP) is a common complication with inadequate management in
      patients suffering from advanced cancer. Histone deacetylase inhibitors showed
      significant analgesic effect in multiple inflammatory and neuropathic pain
      models, but their effect in bone cancer pain has never been explored. In this
      study, we utilized a BCP rat model with intra-tibial inoculation of Walker 256
      mammary gland carcinoma cells, which developed progressive mechanical
      hypersensitivity but not thermal hypersensitivity. Intrathecal application of
      trichostatin A (TSA), a classic pan-HDAC inhibitor, ameliorated tactile
      hypersensitivity and enhanced the analgesic effect of morphine in BCP rats. The
      analgesic effect of TSA was blocked by co-administration of CTAP, a specific MOR
      antagonist, confirming the involvement of mu-opioid receptor (MOR). A reduction
      of MOR expression was observed in the lumbar spinal cord of BCP rats and TSA
      treatment was able to partially reverse it. In vitro study in PC12 cells also
      demonstrated the dose-dependent enhancement of MOR expression by TSA treatment.
      Taking all into consideration, we could draw the conclusion that HDAC inhibitor
      TSA ameliorates mechanical hypersensitivity and potentiates analgesic effect of
      morphine in BCP rats, probably by restoring MOR expression in spinal cord.

PMID- 28559160
TI  - Unrevealed part of myosin's powerstroke accounts for high efficiency of muscle
      contraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myosin II, the motor protein driving muscle contraction, uses energy
      of ATP hydrolysis to produce movement along actin. The key step of energy
      transduction is the powerstroke, involving rotation of myosin's lever while
      myosin is attached to actin. Macroscopic measurements indicated high
      thermodynamic efficiency for energy conversion. However, single-molecule
      experiments indicated lower efficiency, provoking a long-standing discrepancy.
      METHODS: Based on the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem, we built a sufficiently
      detailed but low degree-of-freedom model reconstructing the entire
      mechanoenzymatic cycle. RESULTS: We show that a high axial stiffness of the lever
      during an initial, experimentally yet unrevealed part of the powerstroke results
      in a short-time, ratchet-like Kramers effect, and is responsible for the missing
      efficiency. The second part of the powerstroke is an Eyring-like relaxation that
      dominantly contributes to lever rotation, but produces only a minor part of the
      work. CONCLUSIONS: The model reveals the structural background of myosin's
      capability to function as a robust molecular engine and a very precise load
      sensor as well. Our model also suggests an explanation for the malfunction of
      myosins harboring mutations that lead to hypertrophic cardiomyopathies with most
      severe clinical prognosis. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The model explains how a force
      transmitting device within a biological motor can enable high energetic
      efficiency.

PMID- 28559161
TI  - DNA metabarcoding to assess indoor fungal communities: Electrostatic dust
      collectors and Illumina sequencing.
AB  - DNA metabarcoding is increasingly being used to characterize the microbiological
      composition of both the indoor and outdoor environments of dwellings. Our study
      aimed to evaluate metabarcoding and bioinformatic analysis resulting from
      calibrated samples and samples collected by an electrostatic dust collector (EDC)
      in dwellings with no moisture problems. Thus, the fungal communities of 14
      dwellings (eastern France, Franche-Comte region) were analyzed by Illumina MiSeq
      technology after amplification of the ITS2 region. Using the standard samples of
      11 species of yeasts and molds allowed us to validate the Operational taxonomic
      units (OTU) assignment. These calibrated samples also showed a low amplification
      bias, a low rate of sequencing errors and the semi-quantitative nature of the
      technique. Only one species from the calibrated samples (Lichtheimia corymbifera)
      was less amplified probably due to the presence of two mismatches in its3 primer.
      EDC analysis identified 3594OTU with 75% of reads corresponding to 30 genera. The
      main genera are those usually found by culture techniques (Penicillium,
      Aspergillus and Cladosporium), but findings also indicate others less commonly
      isolated in culture such as Epicoccum, the fourth detected genus in our study.
      The type of heating systems was correlated with fungal diversity. We found less
      diversity in the dwellings with wood heating and larger quantities of Epicoccum
      nigrum verified by qPCR. DNA metabarcoding analysis applied to EDC seems
      promising. However, we think that it must be used along with qPCR, to obtain a
      more global view of microbial ecology and relative quantification of species of
      interest within communities.

PMID- 28559162
TI  - Identification of Cronobacter species by matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry with an optimized analysis
      method.
AB  - Rapid and precise identification of Cronobacter species is important for
      foodborne pathogen detection, however, commercial biochemical methods can only
      identify Cronobacter strains to genus level in most cases. To evaluate the power
      of mass spectrometry based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of
      flight (MALDI-TOF MS) for Cronobacter species identification, 51 Cronobacter
      strains (eight reference and 43 wild strains) were identified by both MALDI-TOF
      MS and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Biotyper RTC provided by Bruker identified all
      eight reference and 43 wild strains as Cronobacter species, which demonstrated
      the power of MALDI-TOF MS to identify Cronobacter strains to genus level.
      However, using the Bruker's database (6903 main spectra products) and Biotyper
      software, the MALDI-TOF MS analysis could not identify the investigated strains
      to species level. When MALDI-TOF MS analysis was performed using the combined in
      house Cronobacter database and Bruker's database, bin setting, and unweighted
      pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering, all the 51 strains
      were clearly identified into six Cronobacter species and the identification
      accuracy increased from 60% to 100%. We demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS was
      reliable and easy-to-use for Cronobacter species identification and highlighted
      the importance of establishing a reliable database and improving the current data
      analysis methods by integrating the bin setting and UPGMA clustering.

PMID- 28559163
TI  - A cost-saving strategy for processing isolated uropathogens in community-acquired
      urinary tract infections.
AB  - Outpatient urine samples are among the most commonly processed in a microbiology
      laboratory, which involves a high economic burden. The aim of this study was
      compare cost and efficiency to process uropathogens between MicroScan system
      (2010-2011) versus a chromogenic medium and the disk diffusion method (2013
      2014). In the first period, a total 9918 bacterial populations were isolated from
      urine samples. Annual estimated costs during 2010 and 2011 for processing were
      EUR 53,818 and EUR 57,306, respectively (EUR 111,124 total). In the second
      period, a total 11,728 bacterial isolates were processed, with annual estimated
      costs of EUR 21,078 and EUR 23,248, respectively (EUR 44,326 total). We included
      the cost for a laboratory technician (252h worked per year), estimated at EUR
      2500 per year. The mean estimated savings were EUR 66,797 (60%).The
      identification by chromogenic media and antibiotic susceptibility patterns by
      disk diffusion method was similar to MicroScan in both study periods. Only some
      isolated Citrobacter spp., Enterobacter spp., Morganella morganii, and
      Providencia spp. were misidentified. The strategy reported here did not affect
      the quality of the results and yielded substantial cost savings.

PMID- 28559164
TI  - Pomegranate seed oil influences the fatty acids profile and reduces the activity
      of desaturases in livers of Sprague-Dawley rats.
AB  - The aim of our study was to compare the influence of diet supplementation with
      pomegranate seed oil - as conjugated linolenic acids (CLnA) source, or conjugated
      linoleic acids (CLA) and to examine the mechanism of their activity. The content
      of fatty acids, levels of biomarkers of lipids' oxidation and the activity of key
      enzymes catalyzing lipids metabolism were measured. Obtained results revealed
      that conjugated fatty acids significantly decrease the activity of Delta5
      desaturase (p=0.0001) and Delta6-desaturase (p=0.0008) and pomegranate seed oil
      reduces their activity in the most potent way. We confirmed that diet
      supplementation with pomegranate seed oil - a rich source of punicic acid leads
      to the increase of cis-9, trans-11 CLA content in livers (p=0.0003). Lack of side
      effects and beneficial influence on desaturases activity and fatty acids profile
      claim pomegranate seed oil to become interesting alternative for CLA as
      functional food.

PMID- 28559165
TI  - Protein tentacles.
AB  - Virus structures were among the earliest illustrations of how regulated protein
      assembly can proceed by folding of polypeptide-chain segments into complementary
      sites on partner proteins. I draw on Caspar's image of protein "tentacles" and
      his metaphor of SV40 pentamers as five-legged, aquatic organisms ("pentopuses")
      to suggest a helpful vocabulary. "Tentacular interactions" among component
      subunits organize most subcellular molecular machines. Their selective advantages
      include facile regulation of both assembly and disassembly by modifying enzymes
      and by folding chaperones.

PMID- 28559166
TI  - Cryo-FIB specimen preparation for use in a cartridge-type cryo-TEM.
AB  - Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is a well-established technique for studying
      3D structural details of subcellular macromolecular complexes and organelles in
      their nearly native context in the cell. A primary limitation of the application
      of cryo-ET is the accessible specimen thickness, which is less than the diameters
      of almost all eukaryotic cells. It has been shown that focused ion beam (FIB)
      milling can be used to prepare thin, distortion-free lamellae of frozen
      biological material for high-resolution cryo-ET. Commercial cryosystems are
      available for cryo-FIB specimen preparation, however re-engineering and
      additional fixtures are often essential for reliable results with a particular
      cryo-FIB and cryo-transmission electron microscope (cryo-TEM). Here, we describe
      our optimized protocol and modified instrumentation for cryo-FIB milling to
      produce thin lamellae and subsequent damage-free cryotransfer of the lamellae
      into our cartridge-type cryo-TEM.

PMID- 28559168
TI  - Draft genome sequence of a CTX-M-15-producing Escherichia coli ST345 from
      commercial chicken meat in Brazil.
AB  - Escherichia coli, the main host of the CTX-M-15 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase
      (ESBL) enzyme, is widely distributed and exchanged between the environment,
      animals and humans. Therefore, identification of blaCTX-M-15-positive lineages in
      food has a significant impact on public health. In this regard, until the end of
      1990s, ESBL-producing isolates were mainly associated with hospital-acquired
      infections, with a predominance of SHV- and TEM-type enzymes. In recent years, a
      new trend has been observed among ESBL-producers, where most isolates now harbour
      CTX-M-type, being further isolated from community-acquired infections. Nowadays,
      CTX-M-15 has been recognised as the most important ESBL variant, invading
      virtually all human and animal compartments, leading to a global pandemic. Thus,
      whilst the rapid emergence and dissemination of CTX-M-15 among E. coli isolates
      has generated a large genetic reservoir from which other members of the
      Enterobacteriaceae family can easily acquire this resistance gene, there are an
      increasing number of new reservoirs and transmission mechanisms that must be
      investigated. In this study, we present the draft genome sequence of a CTX-M-15
      producing E. coli ST345 isolated from commercial chicken meat in Brazil. This
      draft genome can be used as a reference sequence for comparative analysis among
      CTX-M-15-producers.

PMID- 28559167
TI  - The stoichiometry of the TMEM16A ion channel determined in intact plasma
      membranes of COS-7 cells using liquid-phase electron microscopy.
AB  - TMEM16A is a membrane protein forming a calcium-activated chloride channel. A
      homodimeric stoichiometry of the TMEM16 family of proteins has been reported but
      an important question is whether the protein resides always in a dimeric
      configuration in the plasma membrane or whether monomers of the protein are also
      present in its native state within in the intact plasma membrane. We have
      determined the stoichiometry of the human (h)TMEM16A within whole COS-7 cells in
      liquid. For the purpose of detecting TMEM16A subunits, single proteins were
      tagged by the streptavidin-binding peptide within extracellular loops accessible
      by streptavidin coated quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles. The labeled proteins were
      then imaged using correlative light microscopy and environmental scanning
      electron microscopy (ESEM) using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)
      detection. The locations of 19,583 individual proteins were determined of which a
      statistical analysis using the pair correlation function revealed the presence of
      a dimeric conformation of the protein. The amounts of detected label pairs and
      single labels were compared between experiments in which the TMEM16A SBP-tag
      position was varied, and experiments in which tagged and non-tagged TMEM16A
      proteins were present. It followed that hTMEM16A resides in the plasma membrane
      as dimer only and is not present as monomer. This strategy may help to elucidate
      the stoichiometry of other membrane protein species within the context of the
      intact plasma membrane in future.

PMID- 28559169
TI  - Spontaneous alternation: A potential gateway to spatial working memory in
      Drosophila.
AB  - Despite their ubiquity in biomedical research, Drosophila have yet to be widely
      employed as model organisms in psychology. Many complex human-like behaviors are
      observed in Drosophila, which exhibit elaborate displays of inter-male aggression
      and female courtship, self-medication with alcohol in response to stress, and
      even cultural transmission of social information. Here, we asked whether
      Drosophila can demonstrate behavioral indices of spatial working memory in a Y
      maze, a classic test of memory function and novelty-seeking in rodents. Our data
      show that Drosophila, like rodents, alternate their visits among the three arms
      of a Y-maze and spontaneously favor entry into arms they have explored less
      recently versus ones they have just seen. These findings suggest that Drosophila
      possess some of the information-seeking and working memory facilities mammals
      depend on to navigate through space and might be relevant models for
      understanding human psychological phenomena such as curiosity.

PMID- 28559170
TI  - Integration of contextual cues into memory depends on "prefrontal" N-methyl-D
      aspartate receptors.
AB  - Every learning event is embedded in a context, but not always does the context
      become an integral part of the memory; however, for extinction learning it
      usually does, resulting in context-specific conditioned responding. The neuronal
      mechanisms underlying contextual control have been mainly investigated for
      Pavlovian fear extinction with a focus on hippocampal structures. However, the
      initial acquisition of novel responses can be subject to contextual control as
      well, although the neuronal mechanisms are mostly unknown. Here, we tested the
      hypothesis that contextual control of acquisition depends on glutamatergic
      transmission underlying executive functions in forebrain areas, e.g. by shifting
      attention to critical cues. Thus, we antagonized N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)
      receptors with 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (AP5) in the pigeon nidopallium
      caudolaterale, the functional analogue of mammalian prefrontal cortex, during the
      concomitant acquisition and extinction of conditioned responding to two different
      stimuli. This paradigm has previously been shown to lead to contextual control
      over extinguished as well as non-extinguished responding. NMDA receptor blockade
      resulted in an impairment of extinction learning, but left the acquisition of
      responses to a novel stimulus unaffected. Critically, when responses were tested
      in a different context in the retrieval phase, we observed that NMDA receptor
      blockade led to the abolishment of contextual control over acquisition
      performance. This result is predicted by a model describing response inclination
      as the product of associative strength and contextual gain. In this model,
      learning under AP5 leads to a change in the contextual gain on the learned
      association, possibly via the modulation of attentional mechanisms.

PMID- 28559171
TI  - Anatomical and technical predictors of perioperative clinical outcomes after
      carotid artery stenting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A few other studies have reported the effects of anatomical and
      technical factors on clinical outcomes of carotid artery stenting (CAS). This
      study analyzed the effect of these factors on perioperative stroke/myocardial
      infarction/death after CAS. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of
      prospectively collected data of 409 of 456 patients who underwent CAS during the
      study period. A logistic regression analysis was used to determine the effects of
      anatomical and technical factors on perioperative stroke, death, and myocardial
      infarction (major adverse events [MAEs]). RESULTS: The MAE rate for the entire
      series was 4.7% (19 of 409), and the stroke rate was 2.2% (9 of 409). The stroke
      rate for asymptomatic patients was 0.46% (1 of 218; P = .01). The MAE rates for
      patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) were 7% (11 of 158) vs 3.2% (8 of
      251) for other indications (P = .077). The stroke rates for heavily calcified
      lesions were 6.3% (3 of 48) vs 1.2% (4 of 332) for mildly calcified/noncalcified
      lesions (P = .046). Differences in stroke and MAE rates regarding other
      anatomical features were not significant. The stroke rate for patients with
      percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) before embolic protection device
      (EPD) insertion was 9.1% (2 of 22) vs 1.8% (7 of 387) for patients without (P =
      .07) and 2.6% (9 of 341) for patients with poststenting PTA vs 0% (0 of 68) for
      patients without. The MAE rate for patients with poststenting PTA was 5.6% (19 of
      341) vs 0% (0 of 68) for patients without (P = .0536). The MAE rate for patients
      with the ACCUNET (Abbott, Abbott Park, Ill) EPD was 1.9% (3 of 158) vs 6.7% (16
      of 240) for others (P = .029). The differences between stroke and MAE rates for
      other technical features were not significant. A regression analysis showed that
      the odds ratio for stroke was 0.1 (P = .031) for asymptomatic indications, 13.7
      (P = .014) for TIA indications, 6.1 (P = .0303) for PTA performed before EPD
      insertion, 1.7 for PTA performed before stenting, and 5.4 (P = .0315) for heavily
      calcified lesions. The MAE odds ratio was 0.46 (P = .0858) for asymptomatic
      indications, 2.1 for PTAs performed before EPD insertion, 2.2 for poststent PTAs,
      and 2.2 (P = .1888) for heavily calcified lesions. A multivariate analysis showed
      that patients with TIA had an odds ratio of stroke of 11.05 (P = .029). Patients
      with PTAs performed before EPD insertion had an OR of 6.15 (P = .062). Patients
      with heavily calcified lesions had an odds ratio of stroke of 4.25 (P = .0871).
      The MAE odds ratio for ACCUNET vs others was 0.27 (P = .0389). CONCLUSIONS:
      Calcific lesions and PTA before EPD insertion or after stenting were associated
      with higher stroke or MAE rates, or both. The ACCUNET EPD was associated with
      lower MAE rates. There was no correlation between other anatomical/technical
      variables and CAS outcome.

PMID- 28559172
TI  - Managing claudication in the community setting.
AB  - Advances made in medical management and treatment options in addressing lower
      extremity claudication and vascular disease have skyrocketed during the last
      decade. Given the recent advances in treatment options, there is often the
      perception within the medical community and general community that to get the
      most "cutting edge" treatment, one must go to an academic center or practitioner.
      The goal of this portion of the discussion is to explore the question of what
      differences in treatment options there are between a community practice and an
      academic practice within those members of the vascular surgery specialty. Are
      there really any differences in the types of treatments offered or availability
      of the different modalities, and what drives us as practitioners to one over the
      other?

PMID- 28559173
TI  - Surgeon, not institution, case volume is associated with limb outcomes after
      lower extremity bypass for critical limb ischemia in the Vascular Quality
      Initiative.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Studies from large administrative databases have demonstrated
      associations between institutional case volume and outcomes after lower extremity
      bypass (LEB). We hypothesized that increased institutional and surgeon volume
      would be associated with improved outcomes after LEB. Using a national,
      prospectively collected clinical database, the objective of this study was to
      determine the effects of both surgeon and institutional volume on outcomes after
      LEB. METHODS: The Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) was queried to identify all
      LEBs for critical limb ischemia or claudication between 2004 and 2014. Average
      annual case volume was calculated by dividing an institution's or surgeon's total
      LEB volume by the number of years they reported to the VQI. Institutional and
      surgeon volumes were analyzed as continuous variables to determine the impact of
      volume on major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), major adverse limb events
      (MALEs), graft patency, and amputation-free survival. Hierarchical regression
      models were used with cases clustered by surgeon and center. Time-dependent
      outcomes were evaluated with multivariable shared frailty Cox proportional
      hazards models. RESULTS: From 2004 to 2014, there were 14,678 LEB operations
      performed at 114 institutions by 587 surgeons. Average annual institutional
      volume ranged from 1.0 to 137.5 LEBs per year, with a median of 26.9
      (interquartile range, 14-45.3). Average annual surgeon volume ranged from 1 to 52
      LEBs per year with a median of 5.7 (interquartile range, 2.5-9.3). Institutional
      LEB volume was not associated with MACEs or MALEs or with loss of patency.
      However, average annual surgeon volume was independently associated with reduced
      MALEs and improved primary patency. Institutional and surgeon volume did not
      predict MACEs. CONCLUSIONS: In contradistinction to previous studies, there was
      no relationship in this study between institutional LEB volume and outcomes after
      LEB. However, greater average annual surgeon volume was associated with improved
      primary patency and decreased risk of MALEs. Open LEB remains a safe and
      effective procedure for limb salvage. Limb-related outcomes in critical limb
      ischemia and claudication will be optimized if surgeons maintain adequate volume
      of LEB.

PMID- 28559175
TI  - Rescue of failed endovascular aortic aneurysm repair using the fenestrated
      Anaconda device.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) with a fenestrated device
      (FEVAR) allows an extension of the proximal sealing zone above the renal arteries
      to an adequate, healthier segment of the aorta. This feature makes FEVAR an
      option to treat patients with a diseased aortic neck or type Ia endoleak after
      EVAR. The aim of this investigation was to present a single-center experience
      with FEVAR for patients with an abdominal aortic endograft in situ compared with
      primary FEVAR. METHODS: A prospectively held database on FEVAR patients treated
      with the fenestrated Anaconda device (Vascutek/Terumo, Inchinnan, Scotland,
      United Kingdom) at our institution was screened for individuals who had
      previously undergone EVAR. RESULTS: Between April 1, 2013, and July 31, 2016, 94
      fenestrated Anaconda devices were implanted at our institution. Twelve patients
      with prior EVAR were treated for pathology of the proximal neck: type I endoleak
      (n = 7), for stent migration with aneurysm progression but no visible endoleak (n
      = 2), and progressive aortic disease at the level of the visceral segment (n =
      3). When redo cases and primary FEVARs were compared, primary technical success
      rates were 58.3% and 87.8% (P = .02) and primary functional success rates were
      91.7% and 95.1%, respectively (P = .62). Perioperative rate of major deployment
      related (14.6% and 16.7%) and systemic complications (8.5% and 8.3%) as well as
      30-day mortality (6.1% and 0%; P = .5) were comparable between groups. After an
      average follow-up interval of 10 months (range, 0-43 months), no late occlusions
      of connecting stents were observed. The late reintervention rates were 11.0% and
      16.7%, respectively (P = .57). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of a failure to cannulate
      one or more visceral arteries through the respective fenestrations was increased
      in patients who had previously undergone EVAR. This is most likely caused by
      increased friction between the fenestrated endograft and the failing graft in
      situ, which may impair the adaption of the unsupported Anaconda device to the
      aortic wall. As a consequence, fenestrations may not line up perfectly at the
      respective openings of the visceral or renal arteries, and folding of the fabric
      may be increased, making cannulation of the fenestrations more difficult.

PMID- 28559174
TI  - Prospective, multicenter study of endovascular repair of aortoiliac and iliac
      aneurysms using the Gore Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The GORE EXCLUDER Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis (IBE; W. L. Gore and
      Associates, Flagstaff, Ariz) is an iliac branch stent graft system designed to
      preserve internal iliac artery perfusion during endovascular repair of aortoiliac
      aneurysms (AIAs) and common iliac artery (CIA) aneurysms (CIAAs). We report the 6
      month primary end point results of the IBE 12-04 United States pivotal trial for
      endovascular treatment of AIAs and CIAAs using the IBE device. METHODS: The trial
      prospectively enrolled 63 patients with AIA or CIAA who underwent implantation of
      the IBE device at 28 centers in the United States from 2013 to 2015. All patients
      underwent placement of a single IBE device. Twenty-two patients (34.9%) with
      bilateral CIAs were enrolled after undergoing staged coil or plug embolization
      (21 of 22) or surgical revascularization (1 of 22) of the contralateral internal
      iliac artery. Follow-up at 30 days and 6 months included clinical assessment and
      computed tomography angiography evaluation as assessed by an independent core
      laboratory. The primary effectiveness end point was freedom from IBE limb
      occlusion and reintervention for type I or III endoleak and >=60% stenosis at 6
      months, and the secondary effectiveness end point was freedom from new onset of
      buttock claudication on the IBE side at 6 months. RESULTS: Mean CIA diameter on
      the IBE side was 41.0 +/- 11.4 mm (range, 25.2-76.3 mm). There were no procedural
      deaths, and technical success, defined as successful deployment and patency of
      all IBE components and freedom from type I or III endoleak, was 95.2% (60 of 63).
      Data for 61 patients were available for primary and secondary effectiveness end
      point analysis. Internal iliac limb patency was 95.1% (58 of 61), and no new type
      I or III endoleaks or device migrations were observed at 6 months. The three
      patients with loss of internal iliac limb patency were asymptomatic, and freedom
      from new-onset buttock claudication on the IBE side was 100% at 6 months. New
      onset buttock claudication occurred on the non-IBE treatment side in six of 21
      patients (28.6%) who underwent staged internal iliac artery coil embolization.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that the IBE device is effective at treating
      CIAAs and AIAs, maintaining blood flow into the internal iliac artery, and
      avoiding complications associated with internal iliac artery sacrifice. Follow-up
      will be continued for 5 years to establish the long-term durability of iliac
      aneurysm repair with the IBE device.

PMID- 28559177
TI  - Discussion.

PMID- 28559176
TI  - Results from multiple prospective single-center clinical trials of the off-the
      shelf p-Branch fenestrated stent graft.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to report prospective data of an off-the
      shelf fenestrated endograft (Zenith p-Branch; Cook Medical, Bloomington, Ind)
      from four centers for the treatment of patients with pararenal abdominal aortic
      aneurysms. METHODS: Data were combined from four single-center investigational
      studies conducted in the United States and Europe. The p-Branch endograft
      consists of a proximal off-the-shelf component incorporating a scallop for the
      celiac artery, a superior mesenteric artery fenestration, and two conical pivot
      fenestrations to preserve flow to the renal vessels. The device is available in
      two configurations, a left renal fenestration at the same (configuration A) or
      lower (configuration B) longitudinal position than the right to accommodate
      varied anatomy of the patients. RESULTS: Between August 2011 and September 2015,
      76 patients (82% male; mean age, 72 years; 65 elective and 11 emergent) were
      enrolled, with 55% implanted with option A and 45% with B. The device was
      deployed successfully in all patients, and stents were placed in all target
      vessels except in three cases (one elective, two emergent): a left kidney was
      sacrificed in one patient, and a right renal artery was left unstented in two
      patients during the index procedure. There was no 30-day mortality. During follow
      up (mean, 25 +/- 13 months), 10 late deaths occurred (6 elective, 4 emergent;
      none related to device or procedure), and there were no ruptures or conversions
      to open repair. Two patients experienced bowel ischemia; one case resolved with
      nonoperative treatment and one required superior mesenteric artery and celiac
      artery angioplasty and stent placement. Renal artery occlusion occurred in eight
      patients (11%) and was deemed procedure related in 63% (5/8) of these patients.
      Four of these were successfully intervened on with preservation of renal
      function. The overall renal insufficiency incidence was 7% (5/76). One patient
      developed renal failure requiring dialysis. CONCLUSIONS: Early results
      incorporating learning curves for physicians with a new device and delivery
      system indicate that the use of the Zenith p-Branch device is feasible and safe.
      Long-term follow-up is needed to assess the effectiveness and durability of this
      treatment strategy and to refine the indications for use.

PMID- 28559178
TI  - Investigation into drivers of cost of stenting for carotid stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify factors associated with cost of carotid artery
      stenting (CAS). METHODS: Patient and hospital characteristics affecting cost of
      admission for CAS were identified using the Vizient national database of hospital
      reported outcomes. Patients who underwent CAS for either asymptomatic or
      symptomatic carotid stenosis were identified using surgical Medicare Severity
      Diagnosis Related Groups and appropriate International Classification of
      Diseases, Ninth Revision and Tenth Revision codes. RESULTS: There were 166
      hospitals that reported outcomes from 7369 inpatient admissions for CAS. Each
      institution reported a mean value for cost related to patient care per admission
      for CAS; the average cost across all reporting institutions was $12,834.14
      (standard error of the mean [SEM], 492.88). Institutions in the lowest 25th
      percentile with respect to frequency of intensive care unit admission after CAS
      had lower cost of admission than institutions above the 75th percentile
      ($10,971.30 [SEM, 460.67] vs $14,992.90 [964.29]; P = .002), without any
      differences in incidence of stroke during admission (2.2% [SEM, 0.3] vs 2.0%
      [0.4]; P = .877) or 30-day readmission (1.9% [SEM, 0.4] vs 2.5 [0.6]; P = .329).
      Admissions for patients with symptomatic stenosis were more expensive than those
      with asymptomatic stenosis ($20,462.10 [SEM, 819.93] vs $11,285.20 [347.11]; P <
      .001). Obesity was also associated with greater costs of admission ($14,176.20
      [SEM, 597.13] vs $12,287.10 [395.73]; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Admission to an
      intensive care unit, symptomatic stenosis, and obesity were associated with
      increased costs in patients undergoing CAS. These data may aid in identifying
      opportunities to improve the cost-effectiveness of this procedure.

PMID- 28559180
TI  - Modulation of synaptic plasticity by short-term aerobic exercise in adult mice.
AB  - Physiological effects of different types, of continuous and interval aerobic
      training, have been largely described and studied in the adult man. It was
      previously indicated that interval training plays an important role in maximizing
      both peripheral muscle and central cardiorespiratory adaptations, permitting
      significant functional improvement even in healthy sedentary subjects. Since the
      outcome of different aerobic training trials on cognitive processes had never
      been evaluated, we compared, on an experimental mouse model, the effects of four
      training exercise protocols, named respectively C100, I100, C50 and I50 depending
      on the volume and on the type of training proposed, continuous or interval
      method. Therefore, to asses quantitative and qualitative functional changes, we
      analyzed several physical parameters before and after 6 weeks training in all
      four groups with respect to the control sedentary animals and we studied synaptic
      plasticity, by extracellular in vitro recordings, in hippocampal mouse slices, a
      region involved in learning and memory processes. We found that all four
      protocols of exercise applied in this study exerted positive effects on both
      physical and training parameters inducing weight augmentation, strength endurance
      and aerobic endurance increase, and potentiation of motor coordination. However,
      the improvement observed failed to induce an enhancement in synaptic plasticity
      in three out of four exercise protocols and only in the slices from mice trained
      with the interval 50% volume exercise the long term potentiation (LTP) increased
      with respect to the sedentary group. These findings suggest that motor activity
      exerts positive effects on cognitive processes provided that certain principles
      are respected, such as the training load and the elements of which it is
      composed, in order to plan the right quantitative and qualitative parameters and
      the appropriate recovery periods.

PMID- 28559179
TI  - Opioid receptors mediate the acquisition, but not the expression of mitragynine
      induced conditioned place preference in rats.
AB  - Mitragynine is the main psychoactive ingredient of the herbal drug preparation
      Kratom (Ketum), derived from the plant Mitragyna speciosa. Kratom is a widely
      abused drug in Southeast Asian and has a psychostimulant profile at low-medium
      doses, while high doses have opioidergic effects. Mitragynine was shown to
      possess opiate receptor affinity. However, its role in the behavioural effects of
      mitragynine is unclear. Here we asked whether the reinforcing effects of
      mitragynine are mediated by opiate receptors using a conditioned place preference
      (CPP) paradigm in rats. In the first experiment we tested the effects of the
      opiate receptor antagonist naloxone (0.1, 0.3 and 1.0mg/kg) on the acquisition of
      mitragynine (10mg/kg)-induced CPP. In the second experiment, we tested the
      involvement of opiate receptors in the expression of mitragynine-induced CPP in
      rats. We found that naloxone suppresses the acquisition of mitragynine-induced
      CPP. This effect was already evident at a dose of naloxone (0.1mg/kg) which, by
      itself, had no conditioned place aversion (CPA) effect. Higher doses of naloxone
      induced a CPA and blocked mitragynine-induced CPP. In contrast, naloxone had no
      effect on the expression of mitragynine-induced CPP. These findings suggest that
      the acquisition, but not the expression of the reinforcing effects of mitragynine
      is mediated by opiate receptors.

PMID- 28559181
TI  - Deletion of one allele of Mthfd1 (methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 1)
      impairs learning in mice.
AB  - The MTHFD1 gene encodes for methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 1, an enzyme
      that has an important role in folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism. In people, a
      single nucleotide polymorphism of this gene (1958G>A; rs2236225) is associated
      with increased risk for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, neural tube and other
      birth defects. Mice homozygous for a loss of Mthfd1 via a gene-trap mutation are
      not viable, and heterozygotes, though they appear healthy, have metabolic
      imbalances in the folate- and choline-mediated 1-carbon metabolic pathways. In
      this study, we evaluated cognitive function in Mthfd1gt/+ male and female mice
      using a behavioral battery composed of eight different tests. We found that these
      mice display impaired cue-conditioned learning, while other behaviors remain
      intact.

PMID- 28559182
TI  - Time dependent effect of chronic embryonic exposure to ethanol on zebrafish:
      Morphology, biochemical and anxiety alterations.
AB  - Exposure to ethanol during critical period of development can cause severe
      impairments in the central nervous system (CNS). This study was conducted to
      assess the neurotoxic effects of chronic embryonic exposure to ethanol in the
      zebrafish, taking into consideration the time dependent effect. Two types of
      exposure regimen were applied in this study. Withdrawal exposure group received
      daily exposure starting from gastrulation until hatching, while continuous
      exposure group received daily exposure from gastrulation until behavioural
      assessment at 6dpf (days post fertilization). Chronic embryonic exposure to
      ethanol decreased spontaneous tail coiling at 24hpf (hour post fertilization),
      heart rate at 48hpf and increased mortality rate at 72hpf. The number of
      apoptotic cells in the embryos treated with ethanol was significantly increased
      as compared to the control. We also measured the morphological abnormalities and
      the most prominent effects can be observed in the treated embryos exposed to
      1.50% and 2.00%. The treated embryos showed shorter body length, larger egg yolk,
      smaller eye diameter and heart edema as compared to the control. Larvae received
      0.75% continuous ethanol exposure exhibited decreased swimming activity and
      increased anxiety related behavior, while withdrawal ethanol exposure showed
      increased swimming activity and decreased anxiety related behavior as compared to
      the respective control. Biochemical analysis exhibited that ethanol exposure for
      both exposure regimens altered proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids
      of the zebrafish larvae. Our results indicated that time dependent effect of
      ethanol exposure during development could target the biochemical processes thus
      leading to induction of apoptosis and neurobehavioral deficits in the zebrafish
      larvae. Thus it raised our concern about the safe limit of alcohol consumption
      for pregnant mother especially during critical periods of vulnerability for
      developing nervous system.

PMID- 28559183
TI  - Using concanavalinA as a spacer for immobilization of E. coli onto magnetic
      nanoparticles.
AB  - ConcanavalinA (conA) is a protein extracted from the concanavalin, which has
      specific recognition through mannose components on bacterial cell surfaces. A
      magnetic nanocarrier with the structure of a dopamine functionalized magnetic
      nanoparticles was grafted with conA, and was used for immobilization of
      recombinant Escherichia coli harboring glycerol dehydrogenase with the specific
      recognition between glycoconjugates and glycoprotein. The effect of various
      factors on the immobilization including temperature, pH, cell concentration and
      immobilization time were investigated. The highest immobilization yield of 91%
      was obtained under the conditions: enzyme/support 1.28mg/mg, pH 8.0,
      immobilization time 2h and temperature 4 degrees C. The obtained immobilized cell
      was characterized and exhibited higher thermal stability compared with the free
      cell. After ten cycles, the immobilized cell remained 62% initial activity. These
      results indicate that the cell immobilized onto conA-grafted nanoparticles by
      specific recognition of glycoconjugates and glycoprotein is a potential method
      for preparation of stable cell, and the immobilized cell showed perspective
      applications in the biocatalysis and biosensors.

PMID- 28559184
TI  - Morinda citrifolia lipid transfer protein 1 exhibits anti-inflammatory activity
      by modulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
AB  - Previous reports have demonstrated that a thermostable lipid transfer protein
      isolated from noni seeds (McLTP1; 9.4kDa) displays anti-nociceptive and anti
      inflammatory activities. This work aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms
      of the anti-inflammatory activity of McLTP1 in mice. The protein was solubilised
      in sterile saline (0.9% NaCl) immediately before the treatment of mice by oral or
      intraperitoneal routes at doses of 8mg/kg. Given orally or intraperitoneally,
      McLTP1 significantly inhibited (p<0.05) cell migration in experimental models of
      carrageenan-induced peritonitis and the formation of paw oedema induced by
      carrageenan and dextran. Additionally, McLTP1 demonstrated the ability to
      significantly inhibit the production of the cytokines IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF
      alpha (p<0.05) and to promote an increase in the production of the anti
      inflammatory cytokine IL-10. The treatment of mice with McLTP1 by the oral or i.p
      route reduced pancreatic injury and activities of amylase, lipase, and
      pancreatitis-associated lung injury. This study suggested that the observed anti
      inflammatory effects of McLTP1 can be related to modulation of pro- and anti
      inflammatory cytokine levels.

PMID- 28559185
TI  - Novel dendritic structure of alginate hybrid nanoparticles for effective anti
      viral drug delivery.
AB  - Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles have recently gathered much attention as
      nanoplatforms for drug delivery applications due to their unique structural
      properties. In this study zidovudine (AZT) loaded hybrid nanoparticles of
      alginate (ALG) and stearic acid- poly ethylene glycol (SA-PEG) were synthesized.
      The structural characterization of drug loaded hybrid nanoparticles were studied
      using FT-IR spectroscopy, DLS and TEM analysis. These hybrid nanoparticles showed
      dendritic morphology and it can be used as an efficient carrier for zidovudine.
      In this drug loaded hybrid system of Alginate -Stearicacid/Poly (ethyleneglycol)
      Nanoparticles (ASNPs), AZT and alginate form the core wherein SA-PEG forms the
      external shell. We observed a dendritic morphology with internal voids and
      channels formed by the core molecule and the external shell forms the closed pack
      surface groups. The optimized formulation achieved a sub micron size of 407.67+/
      19.18nm with drug encapsulation of 83.18+/-1.22%, and surface potential of 
      42.53mV, and has significant stability for six months. Haemolysis and aggregation
      studies revealed that there were no lysis and aggregation in WBC, RBC and
      platelets. In-vitro cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of the nanoparticles in
      Glioma, Neuro2a and Hela cells showed that ASNPs are non toxic. The results
      indicate that the synthesized hybrid nanoparticles represent a potential carrier
      for zidovudine, thus possibly increasing zidovudine's efficiency as an anti-HIV
      drug.

PMID- 28559186
TI  - Multidrug ABC transporter Cdr1 of Candida albicans harbors specific and
      overlapping binding sites for human steroid hormones transport.
AB  - The present study examines the kinetics of steroids efflux mediated by the
      Candida drug resistance protein 1 (Cdr1p) and evaluates their interaction with
      the protein. We exploited our in-house mutant library for targeting the 252
      residues forming the twelve transmembrane helices (TMHs) of Cdr1p. The screening
      revealed 65 and 58 residues critical for beta-estradiol and corticosterone
      transport, respectively. Notably, up to 83% critical residues for corticosterone
      face the lipid interface compared to 54% for beta-estradiol. Molecular docking
      identified a possible peripheral corticosterone-binding site made of 8/14
      critical/non-critical residues between TMHs 3, 4 and 6. beta-estradiol transport
      was severely hampered by alanine replacements of Cdr1p core residues involving
      TMHs 2, 5 and 8, in a binding site made of 10/14 critical residues mainly shared
      with rhodamine 6G with which it competes. By contrast, TMH11 was poorly impacted,
      although being part of the core domain. Finally, we observed the presence of
      several contiguous stretches of 3-5 critical residues in TMHs 2, 5 and 10 that
      points to a rotation motion of these helices during the substrate transport
      cycle. The selective structural arrangement of the steroid-binding pockets in the
      core region and at the lipid-TMD interface, which was never reported before,
      together with the possible rotation of some TMHs may be the structural basis of
      the drug-transport mechanism achieved by these type II ABC transporters.

PMID- 28559187
TI  - Gap junction gene and protein families: Connexins, innexins, and pannexins.
AB  - Gap junction channels facilitate the intercellular exchange of ions and small
      molecules. While this process is critical to all multicellular organisms, the
      proteins that form gap junction channels are not conserved. Vertebrate gap
      junctions are formed by connexins, while invertebrate gap junctions are formed by
      innexins. Interestingly, vertebrates and lower chordates contain innexin
      homologs, the pannexins, which also form channels, but rarely (if ever) make
      intercellular channels. While the connexin and the innexin/pannexin polypeptides
      do not share significant sequence similarity, all three of these protein families
      share a similar membrane topology and some similarities in quaternary structure.
      This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Gap Junction Proteins edited by
      Jean Claude Herve.

PMID- 28559188
TI  - The flexible cytoplasmic loop 3 contributes to the substrate affinity of human
      monocarboxylate transporters.
AB  - Human monocarboxylate transporters (hMCTs/SLC16As) mediate the transport of small
      molecular weight monocarboxylates. Among hMCTs, hMCT1 exhibits high-affinity l
      lactate transport and broad substrate recognition, whereas hMCT4 shows highly
      specific substrate recognition and low-affinity l-lactate transport, indicating
      that hMCT1 and hMCT4 have different roles in the body. However, the molecular
      mechanism of transporter-mediated substrate transport remains unknown. The aim of
      this study is to identify the domain, which determines the substrate selectivity
      and affinity of hMCT1 and hMCT4. We constructed a chimera, hMCT4/1, in which the
      cytoplasmic loop 3 (TM6/7loop) region of hMCT4 was replaced by the corresponding
      region of hMCT1. Xenopus laevis oocyte heterologous expression system was used to
      characterize functional features of the chimera. We have demonstrated that the
      substrate affinity of hMCT1 and hMCT4 depends on the TM6/7loop. Non-conserved
      His237 residue in the TM6/7loop functions as a regulatory moiety of the substrate
      affinity. In contrast, the substrate selectivity of the transporters did not
      depend on the TM6/7loop, suggesting that the domain is not directly involved in
      substrate recognition. Our study provides important insights into the structures
      and functions of hMCT1 and hMCT4 transporters. These findings contribute to the
      development of novel hMCT1 and/or hMCT4 inhibitors as anticancer agents.

PMID- 28559190
TI  - Occipital, parietal, and frontal cortices selectively maintain task-relevant
      features of multi-feature objects in visual working memory.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that information held in visual working memory is
      represented in the occipital, parietal, and frontal cortices. However, less is
      known about whether the mnemonic information of multi-feature objects is
      modulated by task demand in the parietal and frontal regions. To address this
      question, we asked participants to remember either color or orientation of one of
      the two colored gratings for a delay. Using fMRI and an inverted encoding model,
      we reconstructed population-level, feature-selective responses in the occipital,
      parietal and frontal cortices during memory maintenance. We found that not only
      orientation but also color information can be maintained in higher-order parietal
      and frontal cortices as well as the early visual cortex when it was cued to be
      remembered. Conversely, neither the task-irrelevant feature of the cued object,
      nor any feature of the uncued object was maintained in the occipital, parietal,
      or frontal cortices. These results suggest a highly selective mechanism of visual
      working memory that maintains task-relevant features only.

PMID- 28559191
TI  - Hope and the brain: Trait hope mediates the protective role of medial
      orbitofrontal cortex spontaneous activity against anxiety.
AB  - As a central research topic in the field of positive psychology, hope refers to
      an individual's goal-oriented expectations that include both agency thinking
      (i.e., the motivation to initiate and sustain actions to achieve goals) and
      pathway thinking (i.e., the capacity to find ways toward goals). Evidence from
      many previous studies has shown the role of hope in protecting against anxiety.
      However, little is known about the neurobiological basis of hope and the
      underlying mechanism that how hope reduces anxiety in the brain. Here, we
      employed fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) to
      investigate these issues in 231 high school students using resting-state
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI). The whole-brain correlation
      analyses revealed that higher trait hope was related to lower fALFF in the
      bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), which is involved in reward-related
      processing, motivation production, problem solving and goal-directed behaviors.
      Furthermore, mediation analyses suggested that trait hope acted as a mediator in
      the association between mOFC spontaneous activity and anxiety. These results
      persisted even after adjusting for the effects of positive and negative affect.
      Overall, this study provides the first evidence for functional brain substrates
      underlying trait hope and reveals a potential mechanism that trait hope mediates
      the protective role of spontaneous brain activity against anxiety.

PMID- 28559193
TI  - Effect of Stem Size and Fixation Method on Mechanical Failure After Revision
      Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the need for stemmed components is well accepted to improve
      mechanical survival in revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA), the ideal fixation
      method and stem design remain controversial. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective review of 223 patients who underwent revision TKA in whom stemmed
      components had not been used previously and with a mean follow-up of 61.6 months,
      including 108 components with fully cemented stems and 316 components with
      "hybrid" press-fit stems. RESULTS: Based on a time to event model, risk for
      mechanical failure was equivalent for both cemented and hybrid stems (relative
      risk, 0.991; P = .98). Young age was the single greatest risk factor for
      mechanical failure (P = .006). Although there was a trend toward increased
      failure with cemented stems in patients aged <65 years, there was no significant
      difference in risk after accounting for covariates (relative risk, 1.4; P = .50).
      Intramedullary canal fill, not stem length or diameter, was the strongest
      predictor of failure with hybrid stems, and risk was reduced by 41.2% for each
      additional 10% canal fill. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, both cemented and hybrid
      modular stems are viable options in revision TKA. Surgeons should attempt to
      maximize canal filling of hybrid stems to obtain a solid press-fit. In addition,
      further studies are needed to evaluate the long-term survival of cemented stem
      fixation in young patients.

PMID- 28559192
TI  - Spatio-temporal TGV denoising for ASL perfusion imaging.
AB  - In arterial spin labeling (ASL) a perfusion weighted image is achieved by
      subtracting a label image from a control image. This perfusion weighted image has
      an intrinsically low signal to noise ratio and numerous measurements are required
      to achieve reliable image quality, especially at higher spatial resolutions. To
      overcome this limitation various denoising approaches have been published using
      the perfusion weighted image as input for denoising. In this study we propose a
      new spatio-temporal filtering approach based on total generalized variation (TGV)
      regularization which exploits the inherent information of control and label pairs
      simultaneously. In this way, the temporal and spatial similarities of all images
      are used to jointly denoise the control and label images. To assess the effect of
      denoising, virtual ground truth data were produced at different SNR levels.
      Furthermore, high-resolution in-vivo pulsed ASL data sets were acquired and
      processed. The results show improved image quality, quantitative accuracy and
      robustness against outliers compared to seven state of the art denoising
      approaches.

PMID- 28559194
TI  - Comparison of Perioperative Adverse Event Rates After Total Knee Arthroplasty in
      Patients With Diabetes: Insulin Dependence Makes a Difference.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an effective treatment option for
      patients with advanced osteoarthritis and has become one of the most frequently
      performed orthopedic procedures. With the increasing prevalence of diabetes
      mellitus (DM), the burden of its sequela and associated surgical complications
      has also increased. For these reasons, it is important to understand the
      association between DM and the rates of perioperative adverse events after TKA.
      METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the American College of
      Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Patients who
      underwent TKA between 2005 and 2014 were identified and characterized as having
      insulin-dependent DM (IDDM), non-insulin-dependent DM (NIDDM), or not having DM.
      Multivariate Poisson regression was used to control for demographic and comorbid
      factors and to assess the relative risks of multiple adverse events in the
      initial 30 postoperative days. RESULTS: A total of 114,102 patients who underwent
      TKA were selected (IDDM = 4881 [4.3%]; NIDDM = 15,367 [13.5%]; and no DM = 93,854
      [82.2%]). Patients with NIDDM were found to be at greater risk for 2 of 17
      adverse events studied relative to patients without DM. However, patients with
      IDDM were found to be at greater risk for 12 of 17 adverse events studied
      relative to patients without DM. CONCLUSION: In comparison with patients with
      NIDDM, patients with IDDM are at greater risk for many more perioperative adverse
      outcomes relative to patients without DM. These findings have important
      implications for patient selection, preoperative risk stratification, and
      postoperative expectations.

PMID- 28559189
TI  - The role of connexin and pannexin containing channels in the innate and acquired
      immune response.
AB  - Connexin (Cx) and pannexin (Panx) containing channels - gap junctions (GJs) and
      hemichannels (HCs) - are present in virtually all cells and tissues. Currently,
      the role of these channels under physiological conditions is well defined.
      However, their role in the immune response and pathological conditions has only
      recently been explored. Data from several laboratories demonstrates that
      infectious agents, including HIV, have evolved to take advantage of GJs and HCs
      to improve viral/bacterial replication, enhance inflammation, and help spread
      toxicity into neighboring areas. In the current review, we discuss the role of Cx
      and Panx containing channels in immune activation and the pathogenesis of several
      infectious diseases. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Gap
      Junction Proteins edited by Jean Claude Herve.

PMID- 28559196
TI  - Quantifying Pelvic Motion During Total Hip Arthroplasty Using a New Surgical
      Navigation Device.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate cup positioning is one of the most challenging aspects of
      total hip arthroplasty (THA). Undetected movement of the patient during THA
      surgery can lead to inaccuracies in cup anteversion and inclination, increasing
      the potential for dislocation and revision surgery. Investigations into the
      magnitude of patient motion during THA are not well represented in the
      literature. METHODS: We analyzed intraoperative pelvic motion using a novel
      navigation device used to assist surgeons with cup position, leg length, and
      offset during THA. This device uses an integrated accelerometer to measure motion
      in 2 orthogonal degrees of freedom. We reviewed the data from 99 cases completed
      between February and September 2016. RESULTS: The mean amount of pitch recorded
      per patient was 2.7 degrees  (standard deviation, 2.2; range, 0.1 degrees -9.9
      degrees ), whereas mean roll per patient was 7.3 degrees  (standard deviation,
      5.5; range, 0.3 degrees -31.3 degrees ). Twenty-one percent (21 of 99) of
      patients demonstrated pitch of >4 degrees . Sixty-nine percent (68 of 99) of
      patients demonstrated >4 degrees  of roll, and 25% (25 of 99) of patients
      demonstrated roll of >=10 degrees . CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that while
      the majority of intraoperative motion is <4 degrees , many patients experience
      significant roll, with a large proportion rolling >10 degrees . This degree of
      movement has implications for acetabular cup position, as failure to compensate
      for this motion can result in placement of the cup outside the planned safe zone,
      thus, increasing the potential for dislocation. Further study is warranted to
      determine the effect of this motion on cup position, leg length, and offset.

PMID- 28559197
TI  - Anteroposterior Rotational References of the Tibia for Medial Unicompartmental
      Knee Arthroplasty in Japanese Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), there is no consensus
      regarding how to determine the anteroposterior (AP) reference of the tibia. A
      number of surgeons in Japan perform the sagittal saw cut using the medial
      intercondylar ridge (MIR) of the tibia according to surgical manuals. However,
      there is no theoretical basis for this practice. METHODS: Preoperative computed
      tomography data from 32 lower limbs of 31 Japanese patients who received UKA were
      used. First, the angles between the surgical epicondylar axis and the MIR and the
      substitute AP (sAP) line connecting the medial border of the patellar tendon at
      the articular surface level and the medial intercondylar tubercle were measured.
      Next, the mediolateral (ML)/AP ratio of the tibial cut surface was measured when
      cut parallel to the MIR and sAP line. Finally, the ML/AP ratio of the tibial
      component was investigated in 4 contemporary UKA implants. RESULTS: The MIR and
      sAP line were externally rotated 94.9 degrees  +/- 4.1 degrees  and 90.4 degrees 
      +/- 3.6 degrees  relative to the surgical epicondylar axis, respectively.
      Compared with a cut parallel to the MIR, the mean ML/AP ratio of the cut surface
      was significantly larger, and the ML/AP ratio was closer to the ML/AP ratio of
      the components for a cut parallel to the sAP line. CONCLUSION: Obtaining the
      tibial AP orientation is one of the key steps not only in total knee arthroplasty
      but also in UKA. The sagittal cut referencing the sAP line provides better AP
      rotation and fitting of the tibia in UKA than referencing the MIR.

PMID- 28559195
TI  - Magnitude of Deformity Correction May Influence Recovery of Quadriceps Strength
      After Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malalignment of the lower extremity is commonly seen in patients with
      severe osteoarthritis undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and is believed to
      play a role in quadriceps strength loss. Deformity correction is typically
      achieved through surgical techniques to provide appropriate ligamentous
      balancing. Therefore, this study examined the influence of change in lower
      extremity alignment on quadriceps strength outcomes after TKA. METHODS: Seventy
      three participants (36 male; mean age, 62 years; and mean body mass index, 29.7
      kg/m2) undergoing primary unilateral TKA were used in this investigation. Before
      surgery and at 1 and 6 months after surgery, measures of isometric knee extensor
      strength, quadriceps activation, and long-standing plain films were collected.
      Using the films, measures of mechanical axis, distal femoral angle (DFA),
      proximal tibial angle, and patellofemoral angle were performed. Hierarchical
      linear regression was used to evaluate how change in alignment from baseline to 1
      and 6 months influenced the change in quadriceps strength. RESULTS: DFA was found
      to significantly contribute to changes in quadriceps strength at 1 and 6 months
      after TKA above those contributed by associated covariates. None of the other
      measures of lower extremity alignment were found to contribute to quadriceps
      strength in this sample. CONCLUSION: Reductions in quadriceps strength
      experienced after TKA are likely to be influenced by changes in lower extremity
      alignment. Specifically, measures of DFA were found to significantly contribute
      to these changes. Future work is needed to prospectively examine measures of
      lower extremity alignment change and recovery after TKA.

PMID- 28559199
TI  - Commentary on "The effect of social media (#SoMe) on journal impact factor and
      parental awareness in paediatric urology".

PMID- 28559198
TI  - Modified Frailty Index Is an Effective Risk Assessment Tool in Primary Total Hip
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty is described as decreased physiological reserve and typically
      increasing with age. Hospitals are being penalized for reoperations and
      readmissions, which can affect reimbursement. The purpose of this study was to
      determine if the modified frailty index (MFI) could be used as a risk assessment
      tool for preoperative counseling and to make an objective decision on whether to
      perform total hip arthroplasty (THA) on a frail patient. METHODS: The American
      College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was
      queried by Current Procedural Terminology code for primary THA (27130) from 2005
      to 2014. MFI was calculated using 11 variables extracted from the medical record.
      Bivariate analysis was performed for outcomes and complications, and the multiple
      logistic regression model was used to compare MFI with other predictors of
      readmission, any complication, and reoperation. RESULTS: A total of 51,582
      patients underwent primary THA during the study period. MFI was a significant and
      stronger predictor than the American Society of Anesthesiologists class and age
      for readmission (odds ratio [OR], 14.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.95
      31.18; P < .001), any complication (OR, 3.63; 95% CI, 1.64-8.05; P = .002), and
      reoperation (OR, 8.78; 95% CI, 3.67-20.98; P < .001). As MFI increased, adverse
      discharge, any complication, readmission, reoperation, and mortality
      significantly increased (P < .001). Rates of systemic complications and length of
      stay significantly increased with increasing MFI. CONCLUSION: MFI is a simple and
      effective risk assessment tool to preoperatively counsel and make an objective
      decision on whether to perform THA on a frail patient.

PMID- 28559200
TI  - External Validation of the New International Association for the Study of Lung
      Cancer Tumor, Node, and Metastasis 8th Edition Staging System and Updated T
      Descriptors in Determining Prognosis for Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
      Patients With N3 Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to externally validate the 8th Edition
      of the Tumor, Node, and Metastasis staging system and its updated T descriptors
      in patients with non-small cell lung cancer with N3 disease. METHODS: Data were
      extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Chi
      square test, Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression models were used in SPSS
      23.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). RESULTS: A total of 7732 patients with non-small
      cell lung cancer with T1-4N3M0 disease from 1988 to 2013 were identified. A total
      of 1410 patients (18.2%) had T1N3 disease, 2491 patients (32.2%) had T2N3
      disease, 1563 patients (20.2%) had T3N3 disease, and 2268 patients (29.3%) had
      T4N3 disease. The 5-year overall survival (OS) for the entire cohort was 8.4%.
      There was a significant difference in OS concerning T stage (T1N3: 10.8% vs.
      T2N3: 8.3% vs. T3N3: 8.1% vs. T4N3: 7.3%; P < .001). When stratified by the
      median age of patients (66 years), a significant difference in OS by stage of
      disease (IIIB vs. IIIC) was still observed in both the younger (P < .001) and
      older (P < .001) patient populations. A significant difference in disease
      specific survival (DSS) was observed by T stage (T1N3: 14.7% vs. T2N3: 11.6% vs.
      T3N3: 11.3% vs. T4N3: 9.7%; P < .001). On multivariate analysis, T stage, year of
      diagnosis, age, gender, histology, and receipt of radiotherapy remained
      independent prognostic factors for both OS and DSS. CONCLUSIONS: The 8th Edition
      of the Tumor, Node, and Metastasis staging system significantly stratifies both
      overall and DSS between stages IIIB and IIIC among those with N3 disease.
      However, small absolute differences in 5-year outcomes between T stage may
      suggest limited clinical relevance.

PMID- 28559201
TI  - Dysregulated miR-127-5p contributes to type II collagen degradation by targeting
      matrix metalloproteinase-13 in human intervertebral disc degeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a chronic disease
      associated with the degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM). Matrix
      metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 is a major enzyme that mediates the degradation of ECM
      components. MMP-13 has been predicted to be a potential target of miR-127-5p.
      However, the exact function of miR-127-5p in IDD is still unclear. OBJECTIVE: We
      designed this study to evaluate the correlation between miR-127-5p level and the
      degeneration of human intervertebral discs and explore the potential mechanisms.
      METHODS: miR-127-5p levels and MMP-13 mRNA levels were detected by quantitative
      real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). To determine whether MMP-13 is a
      target of miR-127-5p, dual luciferase reporter assays were performed. miR-127-5p
      mimic and miR-127-5p inhibitor were used to overexpress or downregulate miR-127
      5p expression in human NP cells, respectively. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) was
      used to knock down MMP-13 expression in human NP cells. Type II collagen
      expression in human NP cells was detected by qPCR, western blotting, and
      immunofluorescence staining. RESULTS: We confirmed that miR-127-5p was
      significantly downregulated in nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue of degenerative discs
      and its expression was inversely correlated with MMP-13 mRNA levels. We reveal
      that MMP-13 may act as a target of miR-127-5p. Expression of miR-127-5p was
      inversely correlated with type II collagen expression in human NP cells.
      Moreover, suppression of MMP-13 expression by siRNA blocked downstream signaling
      and increased type II collagen expression. CONCLUSION: Dysregulated miR-127-5p
      contributed to the degradation of type II collagen by targeting MMP-13 in human
      IDD. Our findings highlight that miR-127-5p may serve as a new therapeutic target
      in IDD.

PMID- 28559202
TI  - Inhibitory effects of rosmarinic acid on pterygium epithelial cells through redox
      imbalance and induction of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis.
AB  - Pterygium is a common tumor-like ocular disease, which may be related to exposure
      to chronic ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Although the standard treatment for
      pterygium is surgical intervention, the recurrence rate of pterygium is high when
      no effective inhibitory drug is used after surgery. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a
      polyphenol antioxidant with many biological activities, including anti-UV and
      anti-tumor properties. This study aimed to examine the inhibitory effects of RA
      on pterygium epithelial cells (PECs). Methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide
      (MTT) assay was used to examine the cell cytotoxicity of PECs after RA treatment.
      A fluorescent probe, DCFH-DA (2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate), was stained
      with PECs to measure intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels.
      Antioxidant activity assays were used to measure the levels of superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in PECs. Western blot analysis was used to
      determine the protein expression of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2),
      heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), quinone acceptor oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), and apoptosis
      associated proteins. RA significantly reduced the cell viability of the PECs.
      Treatment with RA remarkably increased the Nrf2 protein expression levels in the
      nucleus, HO-1 and NQO1 protein expression levels, and the activities of SOD and
      CAT. As a result, intracellular ROS levels in PECs were decreased. Additionally,
      the induction of extrinsic apoptosis on PECs by RA was associated with increasing
      expressions levels of Fas, Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD), tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and caspase 8 protein. Moreover, the induction
      of intrinsic apoptotic cell death in PECs was confirmed through upregulation of
      cytochrome c, Bax, caspase 9, and caspase 3 and downregulation of Bcl-2 and pro
      caspase 3. Our study demonstrated that RA could inhibit the viability of PECs
      through regulation of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways. Therefore, RA
      may have potential as a therapeutic medication for pterygium.

PMID- 28559203
TI  - Is antimicrobial photodynamic therapy an effective treatment for chronic
      periodontitis in diabetes mellitus and cigarette smokers: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To determine whether treatment with antimicrobial photodynamic
      therapy (aPDT) as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) improves clinical,
      microbiological and immunological outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and
      cigarette smokers with chronic periodontitis (CP). METHODS: Databases (MEDLINE,
      PubMed; Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Cochrane Oral Health
      Group Trials Register) were searched up to and including May 2017. The addressed
      PICO question was: "Does aPDT as an adjunct to SRP improves clinical,
      microbiological and immunological outcomes in T2DM and smokers with CP?" RESULTS:
      Six randomized clinical trials were included. All studies reporting clinical
      periodontal, microbiological, and immunological parameters showed that aPDT was
      effective in the treatment of CP in T2DM and smokers at follow up. When compared
      with SRP alone, none of the studies showed additional benefits of aPDT at follow
      up. Considering the effects of adjunctive aPDT as compared to SRP on clinical
      signs of CP in T2DM and smokers, no difference could be observed for all
      evaluated parameters (PD: Z=-0.81, P=0.41; CAL: Z=-0.19, P=0.84) except IL-1beta
      (Z=4.57, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Due to limited evidence, it remains debatable
      whether aPDT as an adjunct to SRP is effective in improving clinical,
      microbiological and immunological outcomes compared to SRP alone in T2DM and
      smokers with CP. Further well-designed, large-scale clinical trials with
      microbiological parameters and long follow up periods are needed in order to
      assess the efficacy of adjunctive aPDT in T2DM and cigarette smokers with CP.

PMID- 28559204
TI  - Supine posture affects cortical plasticity in elderly but not young women during
      a word learning-recognition task.
AB  - The present research investigated the hypothesis that elderly and horizontal body
      position contribute to impair learning capacity. To this aim, 30 young (mean age:
      23.2 years) and 20 elderly women (mean age: 82.8 years) were split in two equal
      groups, one assigned to the Seated Position (SP), and the other to the horizontal
      Bed Rest position (hBR). In the Learning Phase, participants were shown 60 words
      randomly distributed, and in the subsequent Recognition Phase they had to
      recognize them mixed with a sample of 60 new words. Behavioral analyses showed
      age-group effects, with young women exhibiting faster response times and higher
      accuracy rates than elderly women, but no interaction of body position with age
      group was found. Analysis of the RP component (250-270ms) revealed greater
      negativity in the left Occipital gyrus/Cuneus of both sitting age-groups, but
      significantly left-lateralized RP in left Lingual gyrus only in young bedridden
      women. Elderly hBR women showed a lack of left RP lateralization, the main
      generator being located in the right Cuneus. Young participants had the typical
      old/new effect (450-800ms) in different portions of left Frontal gyri/Uncus,
      whereas elderly women showed no differences in stimulus processing and its
      location. EEG alpha activity analyzed during a 3min resting state, soon after the
      recognition task, revealed greater alpha amplitude (i.e., cortical inhibition) in
      posterior sites of hBR elderly women, a result in line with their inhibited
      posterior RP. In elderly women the left asymmetry of RP was positively correlated
      with both greater accuracy and faster responses, thus pointing to a dysfunctional
      role, rather than a compensatory shift, of the observed right RP asymmetry in
      this group. This finding may have important clinical implications, with
      particular regard to the long-term side-effects of forced Bed Rest on elderly
      patients.

PMID- 28559205
TI  - Behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control in ex-obese
      adults.
AB  - Impaired cognitive control functions have been documented in obesity. It remains
      unclear whether these functions normalize after weight reduction. We compared ex
      obese individuals, who successfully underwent substantial weight loss after
      bariatric surgery, to normal-weight participants on measures of resistance to
      interference, cognitive flexibility and response inhibition, obtained from the
      completion of two Stroop tasks, a Switching task and a Go/NoGo task,
      respectively. To elucidate the underlying brain mechanisms, event-related
      potentials (ERPs) in the latter two tasks were examined. As compared to controls,
      patients were more susceptible to the predominant but task-irrelevant stimulus
      dimension (i.e., they showed a larger verbal Stroop effect), and were slower in
      responding on trials requiring a task-set change rather than a task-set
      repetition (i.e., they showed a larger switch cost). The ERP correlates revealed
      altered anticipatory control mechanisms (switch positivity) and an exaggerated
      conflict monitoring response (N2). The results suggest that cognitive control is
      critical even in ex-obese individuals and should be monitored to promote weight
      loss maintenance.

PMID- 28559207
TI  - Corticosterone regulation in house sparrows invading Senegal.
AB  - What traits help organisms expand their ranges? Several behavioral and life
      history traits have been identified, but physiological and especially
      endocrinological factors have been minimally considered. Here, we asked whether
      steroid hormonal responses to stressors might be important. Previously, we found
      that corticosterone (CORT) responses to a standard restraint stressor were
      stronger at a range edge than at the core of the recent house sparrow (Passer
      domesticus) invasion of Kenya. In related work in the same system, we found that
      various behaviors (exploratory activity, responses to novelty, etc.) that are
      affected by CORT in other systems varied among sparrow populations in a manner
      that would suggest that CORT regulation directly influenced colonization success;
      birds at the range edge were less averse to novelty and more exploratory than
      birds from the core. Here, we asked whether the pattern in CORT regulation we
      observed in Kenya was also detectable in the more recent (~1970) and independent
      invasion of Senegal. We found, as in Kenya, that Senegalese range-edge birds
      mounted stronger CORT responses to restraint than core birds. We also found lower
      baseline CORT in range-edge than core Senegalese birds, but little evidence for
      effects of individual sex, body mass or body size on CORT. Follow-up work will be
      necessary to resolve whether CORT regulation in Senegal (and Kenya) actively
      facilitated colonization success, but our work implicates glucocorticoids as a
      mediator of range expansion success, making stress responses potentially useful
      biomarkers of invasion risk.

PMID- 28559206
TI  - Working hard for oneself or others: Effects of oxytocin on reward motivation in
      social anxiety disorder.
AB  - There is some evidence to suggest that oxytocin promotes social behavior,
      especially for disorders characterized by social dysfunction, such as social
      anxiety disorder (SAD). The goal of this study was to examine the effect of
      oxytocin on reward motivation in SAD. We tested whether oxytocin promotes
      prosocial, or antisocial, self-directed decisions, and whether its effects
      depended on social anxiety severity and attachment. Fifty-two males with SAD
      received 24 international units of oxytocin or placebo, and completed a reward
      motivation task that measured willingness to work for self vs. other monetary
      rewards. Although there was no main drug effect, social anxiety severity
      moderated the effect of oxytocin. Less socially anxious individuals who received
      oxytocin worked harder for other vs. own rewards, compared to high socially
      anxious individuals. Attachment did not moderate this effect. Among people with
      SAD, oxytocin enhances prosocial behaviors in individuals with relatively lower
      levels of social anxiety. National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov
      Registry #NCT01856530.
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01856530?term=oxytocin+pro-social&rank=2.

PMID- 28559208
TI  - Novel splice mutation in LRP4 causes severe type of Cenani-Lenz syndactyly
      syndrome with oro-facial and skeletal symptoms.
AB  - Cenani-Lenz syndactyly syndrome (CLSS; MIM-212780) is a rare autosomal recessive
      limb malformation characterized by complete osseous fusion of all fingers and
      toes, disorganization of phalangeal elements and severe shortening of the radius
      and ulna. It is occasionally associated with renal hypoplasia, oro-facial
      defects, scoliosis of the thoracic spine, hearing loss, and genital anomalies.
      Here we describe a consanguineous Pakistani kindred with a severe form of CLSS
      characterized by complete syndactyly and disorganization of fingers, oligo
      syndactyly of toes, shortening of limbs, frontal bossing, and hypoplasia/agenesis
      of left kidney. The affected individuals were additionally presented with short
      stature, cleft-lip and hypoplastic shoulder joint with restricted upper limb
      movement. A novel splice variant in LRP4 (c.316+1G > A) segregated with the
      phenotype in a five generations family. The mutation is predicted to add 29 non
      native amino acids with a premature termination, resulting in approximately 90%
      length reduction of the wild-type transcript. These findings not only further
      expand the phenotypic variability of CLSS but also indicate that early truncated
      and loss-of-function mutations in LRP4 lead to a more severe CLSS phenotype.

PMID- 28559209
TI  - Short post-weaning social isolation induces long-term changes in the dopaminergic
      system and increases susceptibility to psychostimulants in female rats.
AB  - Childhood and adolescence are sensitive periods of development, marked by high
      brain maturation and plasticity. Exposure to early life stress, such as social
      isolation, is able to prompt changes in sensitive brain circuitries, essentially
      in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and increase the risk for addictive
      behaviors later in life. Post-weaning social isolation can stimulate the
      consumption of rewarding substances, like drugs of abuse and palatable foods.
      However, most studies analyze long periods of social isolation and very little is
      known about the effects of a brief social isolation in a sensitive period of
      development and its association with palatable food on the reward system
      sensitization. Furthermore, females are more susceptible to the reinforcing
      effect of drugs than males. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the
      effects of a short post-weaning social isolation combined with a free access to a
      chronic high sugar diet (HSD) on the dopaminergic system, oxidative status and
      behavioral response to an amphetamine-like drug in adulthood. We used female
      Wistar rats that were socially isolated from post-natal days (PD) 21 to 35 and
      received free access to a HSD until PD 60. On PD 65, animals were submitted to a
      challenge with diethylpropion (DEP), an amphetamine-like drug and different
      responses were analyzed: locomotor activity, immmunocontent of dopamine related
      proteins, and the oxidative status in the striatum, before and after the DEP
      challenge. We showed that a short post-weaning social isolation (SI) increased
      the locomotor response to DEP, when compared with previous saline administration.
      Social isolation also increased dopamine transporter, tyrosine hydroxylase, and
      decreased dopamine D2 receptor immunocontent. Additionally, SI increased the
      overall oxidative status parameters after the challenge with DEP. Interestingly,
      the exposure to a HSD prevented the SI effects on locomotor response, but did not
      interfere in the dopaminergic parameters evaluated, despite having modified some
      oxidative parameters. This study showed for the first time that a short post
      weaning social isolation was able to induce long-term changes in the striatal
      dopaminergic system and increased the response to psychostimulants. These results
      emphasize the importance of stressful experiences during a short period of
      development on programming susceptibility to psychostimulants later in life.

PMID- 28559211
TI  - Effect of orlistat on plasma lipids and body weight: A systematic review and meta
      analysis of 33 randomized controlled trials.
AB  - Orlistat, an inhibitor of intestinal lipase, promotes body weight reduction. The
      lipid-lowering efficacy of orlistat is controversial and the effect of orlistat
      induced body weight reduction on lipid changes has not been explored in meta
      regression analyses. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify
      randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of orlistat on plasma
      total, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,
      triglycerides and lipoprotein(a) levels. Thirty-three studies were included in
      the meta-analysis (5522 and 4210 participants in the orlistat therapy and control
      groups, respectively). Orlistat reduced body weight (weighted mean difference: 
      2.12, p <0.001), total-cholesterol (weighted mean difference: -0.30mmol/L, p
      <0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (weighted mean difference: 
      0.27mmol/L, p <0.001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (weighted mean
      difference: -0.034mmol/L, p <0.001) and triglyceride (weighted mean difference: 
      0.09mmol/L, p <0.001) concentrations, while no effect on lipoprotein(a) was
      observed. Total- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-lowering were associated
      negatively with duration of orlistat treatment and positively with body weight
      changes. In conclusion, Orlistat treatment slightly reduces cholesterol and
      triglyceride levels, but not lipoprotein(a) levels. Total- and low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol levels reductions are more consistent in patients with
      greater body weight reduction and shorter duration of orlistat treatment.

PMID- 28559210
TI  - Cinnamaldehyde in diabetes: A review of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and
      safety.
AB  - Cinnamaldehyde, one of the active components derived from Cinnamon, has been used
      as a natural flavorant and fragrance agent in kitchen and industry. Emerging
      studies have been performed over the past decades to evaluate its beneficial role
      in management of diabetes and its complications. This review highlights recent
      advances of cinnamaldehyde in its glucolipid lowering effects, its
      pharmacokinetics, and its safety by consulting the Pubmed, China Knowledge
      Resource Integrated, China Science and Technology Journal, National Science and
      Technology Library, Wanfang Data, and the Web of Science Databases. For the
      inquiries, keywords such as Cinnamon, cinnamaldehyde, property, synthesis,
      diabetes, obesity, pharmacokinetics, and safety were used in various
      combinations. Accumulating evidence supports the notion that cinnamaldehyde
      exhibits glucolipid lowering effects in diabetic animals by increasing glucose
      uptake and improving insulin sensitivity in adipose and skeletal muscle tissues,
      improving glycogen synthesis in liver, restoring pancreatic islets dysfunction,
      slowing gastric emptying rates, and improving diabetic renal and brain disorders.
      Cinnamaldehyde exerts these effects through its action on multiple signaling
      pathways, including PPARs, AMPK, PI3K/IRS-1, RBP4-GLUT4, and ERK/JNK/p38MAPK,
      TRPA1-ghrelin and Nrf2 pathways. In addition, cinnamaldehyde seems to regulate
      the activities of PTP1B and alpha-amylase. Furthermore, cinnamaldehyde has the
      potential of metalizing into cinnamyl alcohol and methyl cinnamate and cinnamic
      acid in the body. Finally, there is a potential toxicity concern about this
      compound. In summary, cinnamaldehyde supplementation is shown to improve glucose
      and lipid homeostasis in diabetic animals, which may provide a new option for
      diabetic intervention. To this end, further scientific evidences are required
      from clinical trials on its glucose regulating effects and safety.

PMID- 28559212
TI  - Evolution of foraging behaviour: Deep intra-generic genetic divergence between
      territorial and non-territorial southern African patellid limpets.
AB  - Southern Africa is a biodiversity hotspot of patellid limpets, with three genera
      (Helcion, Cymbula and Scutellastra) identified and described in the region.
      Scutellastra is the most diverse and most frequently studied of these and, along
      with Cymbula, includes species with territorial and non-territorial foraging
      behaviours. We used three mitochondrial markers (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA and COI) and
      one nuclear marker (ATPSbeta intron) to assess evolutionary relationships among
      species of Cymbula and Scutellastra with these two foraging behaviours and to
      identify which foraging mode is the more ancient. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian
      Inference phylogenetic analyses revealed that the species sharing a foraging type
      are monophyletic in both genera. Territoriality is a derived character, as the
      clades with this foraging type are nested within a tree that otherwise comprises
      non-territorial taxa. These include Helcion, which was recovered as sister to the
      Cymbula/Scutellastra clade, and the next basal genus, Patella, which is ancestral
      to all southern African patellogastropods. Deep genetic divergence between the
      two foraging traits reflects strong adaptive effects of resource partitioning in
      the evolution of southern African patellid limpets.

PMID- 28559213
TI  - Phylogenomic analysis of integral diiron membrane histidine motif-containing
      enzymes in ciliates provides insights into their function and evolutionary
      relationships.
AB  - The Integral Membrane Histidine Motif-containing Enzymes (IMHME) are a class of
      binuclear non-heme iron proteins widely distributed among prokaryotes and
      eukaryotes. They are characterized by a conserved tripartite motif consisting of
      eight to ten histidine residues. Their known function is the activation of the
      dioxygen moiety to serve as efficient catalysts for reactions of hydroxylation,
      desaturation or reduction. To date most studies on IMHME were carried out in
      metazoan, phototrophic or parasitic organisms, whereas genome-wide analysis in
      heterotrophic free living protozoa, such as the Ciliophora phylum, has not been
      undertaken. In the seven fully sequenced genomes available we retrieved 118
      putative sequences of the IMHME type, albeit with large differences in number
      among the ciliates: 11 sequences in Euplotes octocarinatus, 7 in Ichthyophthirius
      multifiliis, 13 in Oxytricha trifallax, 18 in Stylonychia lemnae, 25 in
      Tetrahymena thermophila, 31 in Paramecium tetraurelia and 13 in Pseudocohnilembus
      persalinus. The pool of putative sequences was classified in 16 orthologous
      groups from which 11 were related to fatty acid desaturase (FAD) and 5 to the
      fatty acid hydroxylase (FAH) superfamilies. Noteworthy, a large diversity on the
      number and type of FAD / FAH proteins were found among the ciliates, a feature
      that, in principle, may be attributed to peculiarities of the evolutionary
      process, such as gene expansion and reduction, but also to horizontal gene
      transfer, as we demonstrate in this work. We identified twelve putative enzymatic
      activities, from which four were newly assigned activities: sphingolipid Delta4
      desaturase, omega3/Delta15 fatty acid desaturase, a large group of alkane 1
      monooxygenases, and acylamide-delta-3(E)-desaturase, although unequivocal
      allocation would require additional experiments. We also combined the
      phylogenetics analysis with lipids analysis, thereby allowing the detection of
      two enzymatic activities not previously reported: a C-5 sterol desaturase in P.
      tetraurelia and a delta-9 fatty acid desaturase in Cohnilembus reniformis. The
      analysis revealed a significant lower number of FAD's sequences in the
      spirotrichea ciliates than in the oligohymenophorea, emphasizing the importance
      of fatty acids trophic transfer among aquatic organisms as a source of variation
      in metabolic activity, individual and population growth rates, and reproduction.

PMID- 28559214
TI  - Novel salicylic acid-based chemically crosslinked pH-sensitive hydrogels as
      potential drug delivery systems.
AB  - In this work, salicylic acid (SA), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, was
      chemically incorporated into hydrogel systems to achieve sustained SA release
      profiles. With its anti-inflammatory properties, sustained release of SA would be
      relevant for treating diseases such as diabetes and cancer. In this work, SA was
      chemically incorporated into hydrogel systems via covalent attachment to an
      itaconate moiety followed by UV-initiated crosslinking using acrylic acid and
      poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate. The chemical composition of the hydrogel system
      was confirmed using FT-IR spectroscopy. The SA-based hydrogels were designed as
      pH-responsive hydrogels, collapsing at acidic pH (1.2) values and swelling at
      higher pH (7.4) values for gastrointestinal-specific delivery. The hydrogel
      systems exhibited a pH-dependent SA release profile: SA release was much slower
      at pH 1.2 compared to pH 7.4. Under acidic pH conditions, 30wt% SA was released
      after 24h, whereas 100wt% SA was released in a sustained manner within 24h in pH
      7.4 PBS buffer. The pore structure of the gel networks were studied using SEM and
      exhibit appropriate pore sizes (15-60MUm) for physically encapsulating drugs. In
      addition, rheological studies of the hydrogels proved that these systems are
      mechanically strong and robust. Mucoadhesive behaviors were confirmed using a
      Texture Analyzer, the work of adhesion for the hydrogels was around 290 g.mm and
      the maximum detachment force was around 135g. The SA-based hydrogels demonstrate
      great potential for oral delivery of bioactives in combination with SA to treat
      serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

PMID- 28559215
TI  - Physicochemical characterization of pH-responsive and fusogenic self-assembled
      non-phospholipid vesicles for a potential multiple targeting therapy.
AB  - In order to obtain nanocarriers suitable for the delivery of drugs in the
      treatment of cancer, pH-responsive nanovesicles capable of facilitating fusion
      (fusogenic nanovesicles) were synthesized and then their physicochemical
      characteristics were modified. These nanovesicles were made by combining
      polysorbates having different physicochemical features with the aim of realizing
      multiple-targeting nanoformulations suitable for in vitro treatment of cancer
      cells. Tween21 and Tween80 were self-assembled at different molar concentrations
      resulting in pH-responsive fusogenic nanovesicles with an average size of less
      than 150nm, and a narrow size distribution (polydispersity index) value of less
      than 0.2. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic fluorescent probes were loaded inside the
      nanovesicles in order to study their pH-responsiveness and fusogenic properties
      and it was noted that this process did not modify their physicochemical features.
      The pH-responsiveness and fusogenic assay demonstrated that the nanovesicles
      containing Tween21 at different molar ratios were pH-responsive and interacted
      with a synthetic model of a biological membrane supplemented with Ca2+ in the
      incubation medium. Fifty percent (molar ratio) of Tween21 was replaced with
      Tween80, since Tween80 can promote the adsorption of apolipoproteins (A-E) onto
      the surfaces of nanovesicles without altering their pH-responsiveness or
      fusogenic properties. In fact this equivalent molar concentration of Tween21 and
      Tween80 also maintained their degree of interaction with the apolipoproteins (A
      E). Doxorubicin hydrochloride-loaded nanovesicles were synthesized and
      physicochemically characterized in order to obtain nanoformulations suitable for
      anticancer treatment. The therapeutic nanovesicles showed physicochemical
      properties similar to those of empty nanoformulations, and maintained pH
      responsiveness, fusogenic properties and targeting versus the apolipoproteins (A
      E). The doxorubicin hydrochloride was loaded into the nanovesicles using both
      passive and pH gradient remote loading procedures. The latter provided the
      nanovesicles with an entrapment efficiency percentage of over 30%, which was much
      higher than the 10% that was obtained using the passive loading procedure. The
      entrapment efficiency improved up to 60% for the nanovesicles made from the same
      molar concentration of Tween21 and Tween80. The anticancer activity of
      doxorubicin hydrochloride-loaded nanovesicles was further tested in vitro using
      human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells which respond to treatment with this
      chemotherapeutic drug, but the nanovesicles carrying it must cross the BBB by
      means of specific receptors before the drug can provide a therapeutic effect in
      vivo. The anticancer activity of these doxorubicin hydrochloride-loaded
      nanovesicles was time- and dosage- dependent, and the surfactant components
      making up the nanoformulations was also a determining factor in the efficiency of
      their activity. These nanovesicles could provide innovative nanotherapeutics for
      potential in vitro multidrug targeting therapy.

PMID- 28559216
TI  - PLGA nanoparticles introduction into mitoxantrone-loaded ultrasound-responsive
      liposomes: In vitro and in vivo investigations.
AB  - A novel ultrasound-responsive liposomal system for tumor targeting was prepared
      in order to increase the antitumor efficacy and decrease serious side effects. In
      this paper, PLGA nanoparticles were used ultrasound-responsive agents instead of
      conventional microbubbles. The PLGA-nanoparticles were prepared by an emulsion
      solvent evaporation method. The liposomes were prepared by a lipid film hydration
      method. Particle size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency and drug loading
      capacity of the liposomes were studied by light scattering analysis and dialysis.
      Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) were
      used to investigate the morphology of liposomes. The release in vitro was carried
      out in the pH 7.4 phosphate buffer solutions, as a result, liposome L3
      encapsulating PLGA-nanoparticles displayed good stability under simulative
      physiological conditions and quickly responsive release under the ultrasound. The
      release in vivo was carried out on the rats, as a result, liposome L3 showed
      higher bioavailability than traditional intravenous injectable administration,
      and liposome L3 showed higher elimination ratio after stimulation by ultrasound
      than L3 without stimulation. Thus, the novel ultrasound-responsive liposome
      encapsulating PLGA-nanoparticles has a potential to be developed as a new drug
      delivery system for anti-tumor drug.

PMID- 28559217
TI  - In vitro and in vivo behavior of ground tadalafil hot-melt extrudates: How the
      carrier material can effectively assure rapid or controlled drug release.
AB  - Different types of ground hot-melt extrudates loaded with 10, 20 or 30 % of the
      poorly water-soluble drug tadalafil were prepared and characterized in vitro and
      in vivo (in rats). Soluplus was used as an amorphous carrier material, whereas
      mannitol and lactitol were studied as crystalline matrix formers. The systems
      were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis
      coupled with quadruple mass spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, X
      ray computed microtomography, in vitro drug release measurements and monitoring
      of drug plasma levels upon oral administration to rats. The pure drug substance
      and physical mixtures of tadalafil with the carrier materials were used as
      references. Importantly, the bioavailability of this poorly water-soluble drug
      could be substantially increased with the proposed formulations, and the in vitro
      and in vivo release rates could be effectively adjusted by choosing the
      appropriate type of carrier material: Whereas mannitol-based ground hot-melt
      extrudates rapidly released the drug and led to an early rise in drug plasma
      concentrations, Soluplus-based systems released tadalafil more slowly, resulting
      in delayed plasma peaks. These behaviors could be explained by the rapid
      disintegration/dissolution of the porous mannitol-based formulations, whereas
      Soluplus significantly swelled and the dissolved drug had to diffuse through the
      polymeric network prior to release. Blending these formulations can be expected
      to allow providing elevated drug concentrations in vivo during prolonged periods
      of time upon one single administration with a rapid onset of drug action.

PMID- 28559218
TI  - Argpyrimidine-tagged rutin-encapsulated biocompatible (ethylene glycol dimers)
      nanoparticles: Application for targeted drug delivery in experimental diabetes
      (Part 2).
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is characterized by hyperglycemia and associated complications.
      However, long-term diabetes control is not often sustained by currently available
      therapeutic approaches. Research on nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery systems
      is in progress. Here we have tested a ligand (argpyrimidine)-tagged drug (rutin)
      encapsulated biocompatible (ethylene glycol dimers) nanoparticle for targeted
      drug delivery in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Argpyrimidine, being an
      advanced glycation end product (AGE), directs the nanoparticles to interact with
      cell surface receptors of AGEs (RAGE) and delivers the drug into the cells. The
      bioflavonoid rutin possesses antihyperglycemic property, and has been used for
      nanocapsulation. Two doses of nanoparticles containing 20mg rutin/kg body weight
      were administered (i.v. at 7days interval) into streptozotocin-induced diabetic
      rats. Compared to free rutin, nanoparticle treatment appears to be significantly
      more effective in controlling the diabetogenic effects - hyperglycemia,
      hyperlipidemia, oxidative stress etc, including heart-associated complications.
      This approach may thus be explored for drug delivery in the treatment of diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28559219
TI  - A Short Note About the Reconsideration of the Image of Bayezid II Darussifa.

PMID- 28559220
TI  - Salivary Gland Choristoma of the Larynx.

PMID- 28559221
TI  - Amoxycillin and Metronidazole Therapy for Helicobacter pylori Eradication: A 10
      Year Trend in Turin, Italy.

PMID- 28559223
TI  - Dropout From an eHealth Intervention for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A
      Qualitative Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adequate self-management is the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes
      treatment, as people make the majority of daily treatment measures and health
      decisions. The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the
      complexity of diabetes self-management demonstrate the need for innovative and
      effective ways to deliver self-management support. eHealth interventions are
      promoted worldwide and hold a great potential in future health care for people
      with chronic diseases such as T2DM. However, many eHealth interventions face high
      dropout rates. This led to our interest in the experiences of participants who
      dropped out of an eHealth intervention for adults with T2DM, based on the Guided
      Self-Determination (GSD) counseling method. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to
      explore experiences with an eHealth intervention based on GSD in general practice
      from the perspective of those who dropped out and to understand their reasons for
      dropping out. To the best of our knowledge, no previous qualitative study has
      focused on participants who withdrew from an eHealth self-management support
      intervention for adults with T2DM. METHODS: A qualitative design based on
      telephone interviews was used to collect data. The sample comprised 12 adults
      with type 2 diabetes who dropped out of an eHealth intervention. Data were
      collected in 2016 and subjected to qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: We
      identified one overall theme: "Losing motivation for intervention participation."
      This theme was illustrated by four categories related to the participants'
      experiences of the eHealth intervention: (1) frustrating technology, (2)
      perceiving the content as irrelevant and incomprehensible, (3) choosing other
      activities and perspectives, and (4) lacking face-to-face encounters.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the eHealth intervention based on GSD
      without face-to-face encounters with nurses reduced participants' motivation for
      engagement in the intervention. To maintain motivation, our study points to the
      importance of combining eHealth with regular face-to-face consultations. Our
      study also shows that the perceived benefit of the GSD eHealth intervention
      intertwined with choosing to focus on other matters in complex daily lives are
      critical aspects in motivation for such interventions. This indicates the
      importance of giving potential participants tailored information about the aim,
      the content, and the effort needed to remain engaged in complex interventions so
      that eligible participants are recruited. Finally, motivation for engagement in
      the eHealth intervention was influenced by the technology used in this study. It
      seems important to facilitate more user-friendly but high-security eHealth
      technology. Our findings have implications for improving the eHealth intervention
      and to inform researchers and health care providers who are organizing eHealth
      interventions focusing on self-management support in order to reduce dropout
      rates.

PMID- 28559222
TI  - Mobile App Design, Development, and Publication for Adverse Drug Reaction
      Assessments of Causality, Severity, and Preventability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) cause significant morbidity and
      mortality. Improved assessment of ADRs to identify the causal relationship, the
      severity, and the preventability will aid ADRs prevention or reduce patient
      burden. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop mobile apps in assisting
      clinical decision in ADR assessments of causality, severity, and preventability
      using validated tools. The usability of the apps was assessed. METHODS: We
      designed mobile apps using validated assessment tools for ADRs. They are the
      Liverpool ADRs Causality Assessment Tool, Hartwig's Severity Assessment Scale,
      and the Modified Schumock and Thronton Preventability Scale. The apps were named
      "Adverse Drug ReactionCausality," "Adverse Drug ReactionSeverity," and "Adverse
      Drug RxnPreventability." A survey was conducted using the System Usability Scale
      (SUS) to assess the usability of the developed apps among health care
      professionals. RESULTS: These apps are available for download through Google Play
      Store for free since January 2015. From the survey, the mean SUS score was 70.9
      based on 26 responses from the pediatric ward of Hospital Ampang, Malaysia.
      CONCLUSIONS: The developed apps received an overall acceptable usability among
      health care professionals. The usage of these apps will improve detection,
      assessment, and avoidance of future ADRs. They will also contribute to future
      research on ADRs, thus increasing drug safety.

PMID- 28559224
TI  - Uptake of an Incentive-Based mHealth App: Process Evaluation of the Carrot
      Rewards App.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Behavioral economics has stimulated renewed interest in financial
      health incentives worldwide. The Carrot Rewards app was developed as part of a
      public-private partnership to reward Canadians with loyalty points (eg, movies
      and groceries) for downloading the app, referring friends, and completing an
      average of 1 to 2 educational health quizzes per week ("micro-learning"), with
      long-term objectives of increasing health knowledge and encouraging healthy
      behaviors. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to evaluate uptake of
      a loyalty points-based mHealth app during the exclusive 3-month launch period in
      British Columbia (BC), Canada. The secondary aims were to describe the health and
      sociodemographic characteristics of users, as well as participation levels (eg,
      proportion of quizzes completed and friends referred). METHODS: The app was
      promoted via loyalty program email campaigns (1.64 million emails). Number of
      downloads and registrations (users enter age, gender, and valid BC postal code to
      register) were collected. Additional sociodemographics were inferred by linking
      postal codes with census data at the local health area (LHA) level. Health risk
      assessments were also deployed. Participation levels were collected over 3 months
      and descriptive data were presented. RESULTS: In 3 months, 67,464 individuals
      downloaded the app; in its first week, Carrot Rewards was the most downloaded
      health app in Canada. Among valid users (n=57,885; at least one quiz completed),
      the majority were female (62.96%; 36,446/57,885) and aged 18 to 34 years (54.34%;
      31,459/57,885). More than half of the users (52.40%; 30,332/57,885) resided in
      LHAs where the median personal income was below the provincial average (Can
      $28,765). Furthermore, 64.42% (37,291/57,885) of users lived in metropolitan (ie,
      urban) LHAs, compared with 56.17% of the general BC population. The most
      prevalent risk factors were "not" meeting physical activity guidelines (72.70%;
      31,765/43,692) and "not" getting the flu shot last year (67.69%; 30,286/44,739).
      Regarding participation, 60.05% (34,761/57,885) of users were classified as "very
      high" engagers (>75% quiz completion rate). CONCLUSIONS: Early results suggest
      that loyalty points may promote mHealth app uptake. The app was downloaded by
      younger females especially, and BC residents from higher and lower income regions
      were equally represented. Loyalty points appear to have driven participation
      throughout the inaugural 3-month period (ie, quiz completion).

PMID- 28559226
TI  - Physician's Perceptions of Telemedicine in HIV Care Provision: A Cross-Sectional
      Web-Based Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Telemedicine, or electronic interactive health care consultation,
      offers a variety of benefits to both patients and primary care clinicians.
      However, little is known about the opinions of physicians using these modalities.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine physician perceptions, including
      challenges, risks, and benefits of the use of telemedicine in human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patient care. METHODS: A Web-based, self
      administered, anonymous, cross-sectional survey was sent to physicians known to
      be providing medical care to patients living with HIV in Ontario, Canada.
      Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to examine physician perceptions
      and characteristics of participants. RESULTS: Among the 51 invited participants,
      48 (94%) completed the survey. Sixty-two percent (29/47) of respondents reported
      that they used some form of telemedicine to care for HIV patients in their
      practice. Of the respondents who identified as having used telemedicine in their
      practice, telephone (86%, 25/29), email (69%, 20/29), and teleconsultation (24%,
      7/29) were listed as frequent modalities used. A significant number of physicians
      (83%, 38/46) agreed that an obstacle to adopting telemedicine is their perception
      that this modality does not allow for a comprehensive assessment of their
      patients' health. In addition, 65% (28/43) of physicians agreed that patients may
      not feel adequately connected to them as a provider if they used telemedicine.
      However, 85% (39/46) of respondents believed that telemedicine could improve
      access and timeliness to care along with increasing the number of times
      physicians can interact with their patients. CONCLUSIONS: From the perceptions of
      physicians, telemedicine shows promise in the care of patients living with HIV.
      More than half of the respondents are already using telemedicine modalities.
      Whereas many physicians are concerned about their ability to fully assess the
      health of a patient via telemedicine, most physicians do see a need for it-to
      reduce patient travel times, reduce exposure to stigma, and improve efficiency
      and timely access to care. Challenges and risks such as technological gaps,
      confidentiality, and medicolegal concerns must be addressed for physicians to
      feel more comfortable using telemedicine.

PMID- 28559225
TI  - Home-Based HIV Testing and Counseling for Male Couples (Project Nexus): A
      Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV prevalence remains high among men who have sex with men (MSM) in
      the United States, yet the majority of research has focused on MSM as
      individuals, not as dyads, and has discussed HIV risks primarily in the context
      of casual sex. Nexus is an online prevention program that combines home-based HIV
      testing and couples HIV testing and counseling (CHTC). It allows partners in
      dyadic MSM relationships to receive HIV testing and care in the comfort of their
      designated residence, via video-based chat. By using video-based technologies
      (eg, VSee video chat), male couples receive counseling and support from a remote
      online counselor, while testing for HIV at home. OBJECTIVE: This randomized
      control trial (RCT) aims to examine the effects of video-based counseling
      combined with home-based HIV testing on couples' management of HIV risk,
      formation and adherence to explicit sexual agreements, and sexual risk-taking.
      METHODS: The research implements a prospective RCT of 400 online-recruited male
      couples: 200 self-reported concordant-negative couples and 200 self-reported
      discordant couples. Couples in the control arm will receive one or two home-based
      HIV self-testing kits and will be asked to report their results via the study's
      website. Couples in the experimental arm will receive one or two home-based HIV
      self-testing kits and will conduct these tests together under the facilitation of
      a remotely located counselor during a prescheduled VSee-based video CHTC session.
      Study assessments are taken at baseline, as well as at 3- and 6-month follow-up
      sessions. RESULTS: Project Nexus was launched in April 2016 and is ongoing. To
      date, 219 eligible couples have been enrolled and randomized. CONCLUSIONS:
      Combining home-based HIV testing with video-based counseling creates an
      opportunity to expand CHTC to male couples who (1) live outside metro areas, (2)
      live in rural areas without access to testing services or LGBTQ resources, or (3)
      feel that current clinic-based testing is not for them (eg, due to fears of
      discrimination associated with HIV and/or sexuality). TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02335138; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02335138
      (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qHxtNIdW).

PMID- 28559227
TI  - Human-Centered Design Study: Enhancing the Usability of a Mobile Phone App in an
      Integrated Falls Risk Detection System for Use by Older Adult Users.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Design processes such as human-centered design (HCD), which involve
      the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be
      crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the
      user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and
      iterative nature of HCD can often conflict with the necessary rapid product
      development life-cycles associated with the competitive connected health
      industry. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to apply a structured HCD
      methodology to the development of a smartphone app that was to be used within a
      connected health fall risk detection system. Our methodology utilizes so called
      discount usability engineering techniques to minimize the burden on resources
      during development and maintain a rapid pace of development. This study will
      provide prospective designers a detailed description of the application of a HCD
      methodology. METHODS: A 3-phase methodology was applied. In the first phase, a
      descriptive "use case" was developed by the system designers and analyzed by both
      expert stakeholders and end users. The use case described the use of the app and
      how various actors would interact with it and in what context. A working app
      prototype and a user manual were then developed based on this feedback and were
      subjected to a rigorous usability inspection. Further changes were made both to
      the interface and support documentation. The now advanced prototype was exposed
      to user testing by end users where further design recommendations were made.
      RESULTS: With combined expert and end-user analysis of a comprehensive use case
      having originally identified 21 problems with the system interface, we have only
      seen and observed 3 of these problems in user testing, implying that 18 problems
      were eliminated between phase 1 and 3. Satisfactory ratings were obtained during
      validation testing by both experts and end users, and final testing by users
      shows the system requires low mental, physical, and temporal demands according to
      the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). CONCLUSIONS: From our observation of older
      adults' interactions with smartphone interfaces, there were some recurring
      themes. Clear and relevant feedback as the user attempts to complete a task is
      critical. Feedback should include pop-ups, sound tones, color or texture changes,
      or icon changes to indicate that a function has been completed successfully, such
      as for the connection sequence. For text feedback, clear and unambiguous language
      should be used so as not to create anxiety, particularly when it comes to saving
      data. Warning tones or symbols, such as caution symbols or shrill tones, should
      only be used if absolutely necessary. Our HCD methodology, designed and
      implemented based on the principles of the International Standard Organizaton
      (ISO) 9241-210 standard, produced a functional app interface within a short
      production cycle, which is now suitable for use by older adults in long term
      clinical trials.

PMID- 28559228
TI  - Who is More Likely to Use the Internet for Health Behavior Change? A Cross
      Sectional Survey of Internet Use Among Smokers and Nonsmokers Who Are Orthopedic
      Trauma Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: eHealth presents opportunities to provide population groups with
      accessible health interventions, although knowledge about Internet access,
      peoples' interest in using the Internet for health, and users' characteristics
      are required prior to eHealth program development. OBJECTIVE: This study surveyed
      hospital patients to examine rates of Internet use, interest in using the
      Internet for health, and respondent characteristics related to Internet use and
      interest in using the Internet for health. For patients who smoke, preferences
      for types of smoking cessation programs for use at home and while in hospital
      were also examined. METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was used to survey
      819 orthopedic trauma patients (response rate: 72.61%, 819/1128) from two public
      hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. Logistic regressions were used to
      examine associations between variables. RESULTS: A total of 72.7% (574/790) of
      respondents had at least weekly Internet access and more than half (56.6%,
      357/631) reported interest in using the Internet for health. Odds of at least
      weekly Internet usage were higher if the individual was born overseas (OR 2.21,
      95% CI 1.27-3.82, P=.005), had a tertiary education (OR 3.75, 95% CI 2.41-5.84,
      P<.001), or was a nonsmoker (OR 3.75, 95% CI 2.41-5.84, P<.001). Interest in
      using the Internet for health increased with high school (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.09
      3.15, P=.02) or tertiary education (OR 2.48, 95% CI 1.66-3.70, P<.001), and if
      household incomes were more than AUS $100,000 (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.25-4.97, P=.009).
      Older individuals were less interested in using the Internet for health (OR 0.98,
      95% CI 0.97-0.99, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Online interventions may be a potential
      tool for health care in this hospitalized population. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12614001147673;
      https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=366829&isReview=
      rue (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qg26u3En).

PMID- 28559230
TI  - Manchester doctors describe aftermath of bomb blast as NHS continues to treat
      casualties.

PMID- 28559231
TI  - Offending in theatre: the case of Ian Paterson.

PMID- 28559232
TI  - Junior doctor is struck off over false research claims.

PMID- 28559229
TI  - Design and Evaluation of a Computer-Based 24-Hour Physical Activity Recall
      (cpar24) Instrument.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Widespread access to the Internet and an increasing number of
      Internet users offers the opportunity of using Web-based recalls to collect
      detailed physical activity data in epidemiologic studies. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      this investigation was to evaluate the validity and reliability of a computer
      based 24-hour physical activity recall (cpar24) instrument with respect to the
      recalled 24-h period. METHODS: A random sample of 67 German residents aged 22 to
      70 years was instructed to wear an ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer for 3 days.
      Accelerometer counts per min were used to classify activities as sedentary (<100
      counts per min), light (100-1951 counts per min), and moderate to vigorous
      (>=1952 counts per min). On day 3, participants were also requested to specify
      the type, intensity, timing, and context of all activities performed during day 2
      using the cpar24. Using metabolic equivalent of task (MET), the cpar24 activities
      were classified as sedentary (<1.5 MET), light (1.5-2.9 MET), and moderate to
      vigorous (>=3.0 MET). The cpar24 was administered twice at a 3-h interval. The
      Spearman correlation coefficient (r) was used as primary measure of concurrent
      validity and test-retest reliability. RESULTS: As compared with accelerometry,
      the cpar24 underestimated light activity by -123 min (median difference, P
      difference <.001) and overestimated moderate to vigorous activity by 89 min (P
      difference <.001). By comparison, time spent sedentary assessed by the 2 methods
      was similar (median difference=+7 min, P difference=.39). There was modest
      agreement between the cpar24 and accelerometry regarding sedentary (r=.54), light
      (r=.46), and moderate to vigorous (r=.50) activities. Reliability analyses
      revealed modest to high intraclass correlation coefficients for sedentary
      (r=.75), light (r=.65), and moderate to vigorous (r=.92) activities and no
      statistically significant differences between replicate cpar24 measurements
      (median difference for sedentary activities=+10 min, for light activities=-5 min,
      for moderate to vigorous activities=0 min, all P difference >=.60). CONCLUSION:
      These data show that the cpar24 is a valid and reproducible Web-based measure of
      physical activity in adults.

PMID- 28559233
TI  - Recommendations for the Use of Mechanical Circulatory Support: Ambulatory and
      Community Patient Care: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart
      Association.

PMID- 28559235
TI  - Going format-free.

PMID- 28559236
TI  - An interview with Hiroshi Hamada.
AB  - Hiroshi Hamada is the Director of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology
      (CDB) in Kobe, Japan. His lab focusses on the establishment of left-right
      asymmetry in the mouse embryo, and the role of cilia in the symmetry-breaking
      event. Hiroshi's work has been recognised by various awards, including the Keio
      Medical Science Prize in 2014, and election as an EMBO Associate Member in 2016.
      We met with Hiroshi on a recent visit to the CDB, to talk about his career and
      current interests, and the prospects for developmental biology in Japan.

PMID- 28559234
TI  - Etiology and clinical presentation of birth defects: population based study.
AB  - Objective To assess causation and clinical presentation of major birth
      defects.Design Population based case cohort.Setting Cases of birth defects in
      children born 2005-09 to resident women, ascertained through Utah's population
      based surveillance system. All records underwent clinical re-review.Participants
      5504 cases among 270 878 births (prevalence 2.03%), excluding mild isolated
      conditions (such as muscular ventricular septal defects, distal hypospadias).Main
      outcome measures The primary outcomes were the proportion of birth defects with a
      known etiology (chromosomal, genetic, human teratogen, twinning) or unknown
      etiology, by morphology (isolated, multiple, minors only), and by pathogenesis
      (sequence, developmental field defect, or known pattern of birth defects).Results
      Definite cause was assigned in 20.2% (n=1114) of cases: chromosomal or genetic
      conditions accounted for 94.4% (n=1052), teratogens for 4.1% (n=46, mostly poorly
      controlled pregestational diabetes), and twinning for 1.4% (n=16, conjoined or
      acardiac). The 79.8% (n=4390) remaining were classified as unknown etiology; of
      these 88.2% (n=3874) were isolated birth defects. Family history (similarly
      affected first degree relative) was documented in 4.8% (n=266). In this cohort,
      92.1% (5067/5504) were live born infants (isolated and non-isolated birth
      defects): 75.3% (4147/5504) were classified as having an isolated birth defect
      (unknown or known etiology).Conclusions These findings underscore the gaps in our
      knowledge regarding the causes of birth defects. For the causes that are known,
      such as smoking or diabetes, assigning causation in individual cases remains
      challenging. Nevertheless, the ongoing impact of these exposures on fetal
      development highlights the urgency and benefits of population based preventive
      interventions. For the causes that are still unknown, better strategies are
      needed. These can include greater integration of the key elements of etiology,
      morphology, and pathogenesis into epidemiologic studies; greater collaboration
      between researchers (such as developmental biologists), clinicians (such as
      medical geneticists), and epidemiologists; and better ways to objectively measure
      fetal exposures (beyond maternal self reports) and closer (prenatally) to the
      critical period of organogenesis.

PMID- 28559237
TI  - Human embryo research and the 14-day rule.
AB  - In many jurisdictions, restrictions prohibit the culture of human embryos beyond
      14 days of development. However, recent reports describing the successful
      maintenance of embryos in vitro to this stage have prompted many in the field to
      question whether the rule is still appropriate. This Spotlight article looks at
      the original rationale behind the 14-day rule and its relevance today in light of
      advances in human embryo culture and in the derivation of embryonic-like
      structures from human pluripotent stem cells.

PMID- 28559238
TI  - Epithelial cell behaviours during neurosensory organ formation.
AB  - Perception of the environment in vertebrates relies on a variety of neurosensory
      mini-organs. These organs develop via a multi-step process that includes placode
      induction, cell differentiation, patterning and innervation. Ultimately, cells
      derived from one or more different tissues assemble to form a specific mini-organ
      that exhibits a particular structure and function. The initial building blocks of
      these organs are epithelial cells that undergo rearrangements and interact with
      neighbouring tissues, such as neural crest-derived mesenchymal cells and sensory
      neurons, to construct a functional sensory organ. In recent years, advances in in
      vivo imaging methods have allowed direct observation of these epithelial cells,
      showing that they can be displaced within the epithelium itself via several
      modes. This Review focuses on the diversity of epithelial cell behaviours that
      are involved in the formation of small neurosensory organs, using the examples of
      dental placodes, hair follicles, taste buds, lung neuroendocrine cells and
      zebrafish lateral line neuromasts to highlight both well-established and newly
      described modes of epithelial cell motility.

PMID- 28559240
TI  - Getting MAD in meiosis.

PMID- 28559241
TI  - Growing a labyrinth with G9a.

PMID- 28559239
TI  - Escort cells generate a dynamic compartment for germline stem cell
      differentiation via combined Stat and Erk signalling.
AB  - Two different compartments support germline stem cell (GSC) self-renewal and
      their timely differentiation: the classical niche provides maintenance cues,
      while a differentiation compartment, formed by somatic escort cells (ECs), is
      required for proper GSC differentiation. ECs extend long protrusions that invade
      between tightly packed germ cells, and alternate between encapsulating and
      releasing them. How ECs achieve this dynamic balance has not been resolved. By
      combining live imaging and genetic analyses in Drosophila, we have characterised
      EC shapes and their dynamic changes. We show that germ cell encapsulation by ECs
      is a communal phenomenon, whereby EC-EC contacts stabilise an extensive meshwork
      of protrusions. We further show that Signal Transducer and Activator of
      Transcription (Stat) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (Egfr) signalling
      sustain EC protrusiveness and flexibility by combinatorially affecting the
      activity of different RhoGTPases. Our results reveal how a complex signalling
      network can determine the shape of a cell and its dynamic behaviour. It also
      explains how the differentiation compartment can establish extensive contacts
      with germ cells, while allowing a continual posterior movement of differentiating
      GSC daughters.

PMID- 28559242
TI  - Wheat domestication: Q is the answer.

PMID- 28559243
TI  - Differential impact of water immersion on arterial blood flow and shear stress in
      the carotid and brachial arteries of humans.
AB  - Arterial shear stress is a potent stimulus to vascular adaptation in humans.
      Typically, increases in retrograde shear have been found to acutely impair
      vascular function while increases in antegrade shear enhance function. We
      hypothesized that blood flow and shear stress through the brachial and carotid
      arteries would change in a similar manner in response to water immersion, an
      intervention which modifies hemodynamics. Nine healthy young male subjects were
      recruited to undergo controlled water immersion in a standing upright position to
      the level of the right atrium in 30 degrees C water. Diameters were continuously
      and simultaneously recorded in the brachial and common carotid arteries along
      with mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), and heart rate before,
      during, and after 10 min of immersion. MAP and CO increased during water
      immersion (baseline vs. 8-10 min; 80 +/- 9 vs. 91 +/- 12 mmHg; and 4.8 +/- 0.7
      vs. 5.1 +/- 0.6 L/min, P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). We observed a
      differential regulation of flow and shear stress patterns in the brachial and
      carotid arteries in response to water immersion; brachial conductance decreased
      markedly in response to immersion (1.25 +/- 0.56 vs. 0.57 +/- 0.30 mL.min/mmHg, P
      < 0.05), whereas it was unaltered in the carotid artery (5.82 +/- 2.14 vs. 5.60
      +/- 1.59). Our findings indicate that adaptations to systemic stimuli and
      arterial adaptation may be vessel bed specific in humans, highlighting the need
      to assess multiple vascular sites in future studies.

PMID- 28559244
TI  - Gene silencing and a novel monoallelic expression pattern in distinct CD177
      neutrophil subsets.
AB  - CD177 presents antigens in allo- and autoimmune diseases on the neutrophil
      surface. Individuals can be either CD177-deficient or harbor distinct CD177neg
      and CD177pos neutrophil subsets. We studied mechanisms controlling subset
      restricted CD177 expression in bimodal individuals. CD177pos, but not CD177neg
      neutrophils, produced CD177 protein and mRNA. Haplotype analysis indicated a
      unique monoallelic CD177 expression pattern, where the offspring stably
      transcribed either the maternal or paternal allele. Hematopoietic stem cells
      expressed both CD177 alleles and silenced one copy during neutrophil
      differentiation. ChIP and reporter assays in HeLa cells with monoallelic CD177
      expression showed that methylation reduced reporter activity, whereas
      demethylation caused biallelic CD177 expression. HeLa cell transfection with c
      Jun and c-Fos increased CD177 mRNA. Importantly, CD177pos human neutrophils, but
      not CD177neg neutrophils, showed a euchromatic CD177 promoter, unmethylated CpGs,
      and c-Jun and c-Fos binding. We describe epigenetic mechanisms explaining the two
      distinct CD177 neutrophil subsets and a novel monoallelic CD177 expression
      pattern that does not follow classical random monoallelic expression or
      imprinting.

PMID- 28559245
TI  - Temporal Transcriptomic and Proteomic Landscapes of Deteriorating Pancreatic
      Islets in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.
AB  - Progressive reduction in beta-cell mass and function comprise the core of the
      pathogenesis mechanism of type 2 diabetes. The process of deteriorating
      pancreatic islets, in which a complex network of molecular events is involved, is
      not yet fully characterized. We used RNA sequencing and tandem mass tag-based
      quantitative proteomics technology to measure the temporal mRNA and protein
      expression changes of pancreatic islets in Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats from 4 to 24
      weeks of age. Our omics data set outlines the dynamics of the molecular network
      during the deterioration of GK islets as two stages: The early stage (4-6 weeks)
      is characterized by anaerobic glycolysis, inflammation priming, and compensation
      for insulin synthesis, and the late stage (8-24 weeks) is characterized by
      inflammation amplification and compensation failure. Further time course analysis
      allowed us to reveal 5,551 differentially expressed genes, a large portion of
      which have not been reported before. Our comprehensive and temporal transcriptome
      and proteome data offer a valuable resource for the diabetes research community
      and for quantitative biology.

PMID- 28559246
TI  - Neprilysin Is Required for Angiotensin-(1-7)'s Ability to Enhance Insulin
      Secretion via Its Proteolytic Activity to Generate Angiotensin-(1-2).
AB  - Recent work has renewed interest in therapies targeting the renin-angiotensin
      system (RAS) to improve beta-cell function in type 2 diabetes. Studies show that
      generation of angiotensin-(1-7) by ACE2 and its binding to the Mas receptor
      (MasR) improves glucose homeostasis, partly by enhancing glucose-stimulated
      insulin secretion (GSIS). Thus, islet ACE2 upregulation is viewed as a desirable
      therapeutic goal. Here, we show that, although endogenous islet ACE2 expression
      is sparse, its inhibition abrogates angiotensin-(1-7)-mediated GSIS. However, a
      more widely expressed islet peptidase, neprilysin, degrades angiotensin-(1-7)
      into several peptides. In neprilysin-deficient mouse islets, angiotensin-(1-7)
      and neprilysin-derived degradation products angiotensin-(1-4), angiotensin-(5-7),
      and angiotensin-(3-4) failed to enhance GSIS. Conversely, angiotensin-(1-2)
      enhanced GSIS in both neprilysin-deficient and wild-type islets. Rather than
      mediating this effect via activation of the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)
      MasR, angiotensin-(1-2) was found to signal via another GPCR, namely GPCR family
      C group 6 member A (GPRC6A). In conclusion, in islets, intact angiotensin-(1-7)
      is not the primary mediator of beneficial effects ascribed to the
      ACE2/angiotensin-(1-7)/MasR axis. Our findings warrant caution for the concurrent
      use of angiotensin-(1-7) compounds and neprilysin inhibitors as therapies for
      diabetes.

PMID- 28559247
TI  - Mortality Associated with Bacteremia Due to Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella
      pneumoniae with High-Level Meropenem Resistance: Importance of Combination
      Therapy without Colistin and Carbapenems.
AB  - Combination therapy including colistin and a carbapenem has been found to be
      associated with lower mortality in the treatment of bloodstream infections (BSI)
      due to KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae when the isolates show a meropenem or
      imipenem MIC of <16 mg/liter. However, the optimal treatment of BSI caused by
      colistin- and high-level carbapenem-resistant KPC-producing K. pneumoniae is
      unknown. A prospective cohort study including episodes of bacteremia caused by
      colistin-resistant and high-level meropenem-resistant (MIC >= 64 mg/liter) KPC
      producing K. pneumoniae diagnosed from July 2012 to February 2016 was performed.
      The impact of combination therapy on crude 30-day mortality was analyzed by Cox
      regression using a propensity score as a covariate to control for indication bias
      and in an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) cohort. The study
      sample comprised 104 patients, of which 32 (30.8%) received targeted monotherapy
      and 72 (69.2%) received targeted combination therapy; none of them received
      either colistin or a carbapenem. The 30-day crude mortality rate was 30.8% (43.8%
      in patients treated with monotherapy and 25% in patients receiving combination
      therapy). In the Cox regression analysis, 30-day mortality was independently
      associated with septic shock at BSI onset (hazard ratio [HR], 6.03; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.65 to 21.9; P = 0.006) and admission to the critical
      care unit (HR, 2.87; 95% CI, 0.99 to 8.27; P = 0.05). Targeted combination
      therapy was associated with lower mortality only in patients with septic shock
      (HR, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.67; P = 0.01). These results were confirmed in the
      Cox regression analysis of the IPTW cohort. Combination therapy is associated
      with reduced mortality in patients with bacteremia due to colistin-resistant KPC
      producing K. pneumoniae with high-level carbapenem resistance in patients with
      septic shock.

PMID- 28559248
TI  - Structural Insights into TMB-1 and the Role of Residues 119 and 228 in Substrate
      and Inhibitor Binding.
AB  - Metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) threaten the effectiveness of beta-lactam
      antibiotics, including carbapenems, and are a concern for global public health.
      beta-Lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations active against class A and
      class D carbapenemases are used, but no clinically useful MBL inhibitor is
      currently available. Tripoli metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (TMB-1) and TMB-2 are
      members of MBL subclass B1a, where TMB-2 is an S228P variant of TMB-1. The role
      of S228P was studied by comparisons of TMB-1 and TMB-2, and E119 was investigated
      through the construction of site-directed mutants of TMB-1, E119Q, E119S, and
      E119A (E119Q/S/A). All TMB variants were characterized through enzyme kinetic
      studies. Thermostability and crystallization analyses of TMB-1 were performed.
      Thiol-based inhibitors were investigated by determining the 50% inhibitory
      concentrations (IC50) and binding using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for
      analysis of TMB-1. Thermostability measurements found TMB-1 to be stabilized by
      high NaCl concentrations. Steady-state enzyme kinetics analyses found
      substitutions of E119, in particular, substitutions associated with the
      penicillins, to affect hydrolysis to some extent. TMB-2 with S228P showed
      slightly reduced catalytic efficiency compared to TMB-1. The IC50 levels of the
      new thiol-based inhibitors were 0.66 MUM (inhibitor 2a) and 0.62 MUM (inhibitor
      2b), and the equilibrium dissociation constant (KD ) of inhibitor 2a was 1.6 MUM;
      thus, both were more potent inhibitors than l-captopril (IC50 = 47 MUM; KD = 25
      MUM). The crystal structure of TMB-1 was resolved to 1.75 A. Modeling of
      inhibitor 2b in the TMB-1 active site suggested that the presence of the W64
      residue results in T-shaped pi-pi stacking and R224 cation-pi interactions with
      the phenyl ring of the inhibitor. In sum, the results suggest that residues 119
      and 228 affect the catalytic efficiency of TMB-1 and that inhibitors 2a and 2b
      are more potent inhibitors for TMB-1 than l-captopril.

PMID- 28559249
TI  - MK-8591 (4'-Ethynyl-2-Fluoro-2'-Deoxyadenosine) Exhibits Potent Activity against
      HIV-2 Isolates and Drug-Resistant HIV-2 Mutants in Culture.
AB  - There is a pressing need to identify more effective antiretroviral drugs for HIV
      2 treatment. Here, we show that the investigational compound MK-8591 (4'-ethynyl
      2-fluoro-2'-deoxyadenosine [EFdA]) is highly active against group A and B
      isolates of HIV-2; 50% effective concentrations [EC50] for HIV-2 were, on
      average, 4.8-fold lower than those observed for HIV-1. MK-8591 also retains
      potent activity against multinucleoside-resistant HIV-2 mutants (EC50 <= 11 nM).
      These data suggest that MK-8591 may have antiviral activity in HIV-2-infected
      individuals.

PMID- 28559251
TI  - Frequent Tn2 Misannotation in the Genetic Background of rmtB.

PMID- 28559250
TI  - Ceftazidime-Avibactam Is Superior to Other Treatment Regimens against Carbapenem
      Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Bacteremia.
AB  - There are no data comparing outcomes of patients treated with ceftazidime
      avibactam versus comparators for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
      infections. At our center, ceftazidime-avibactam treatment of carbapenem
      resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteremia was associated with higher rates of
      clinical success (P = 0.006) and survival (P = 0.01) than other regimens. Across
      treatment groups, there were no differences in underlying diseases, severity of
      illness, source of bacteremia, or strain characteristics (97% produced K.
      pneumoniae carbapenemase). Aminoglycoside- and colistin-containing regimens were
      associated with increased rates of nephrotoxicity (P = 0.002).

PMID- 28559252
TI  - Occurrence of Plasmid- and Chromosome-Carried mcr-1 in Waterborne
      Enterobacteriaceae in China.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of the polymyxin
      resistance gene mcr-1 in Enterobacteriaceae from environmental water sources in
      Hangzhou, China. Colistin-resistant bacteria were isolated from environmental
      water samples using an enrichment broth culture method, were screened for mcr-1,
      and then were analyzed for the location and transferability of mcr-1 Isolates
      positive for mcr-1 were further examined to determine their susceptibility
      profiles and were screened for the presence of additional resistance genes.
      Twenty-three mcr-1-positive isolates (16 Escherichia coli, two Citrobacter
      freundii, two Klebsiella oxytoca, two Citrobacter braakii, and one Enterobacter
      cloacae) were isolated from 7/9 sampling locations; of those, eight mcr-1
      positive isolates also contained beta-lactamase-resistance genes, eight contained
      qnrS, and 10 contained oqx No mcr-2-positive isolates were identified. The
      majority of isolates demonstrated a low to moderate level of colistin resistance.
      Transconjugation was successfully conducted from 14 of the 23 mcr-1-positive
      isolates, and mcr-1 was identified on plasmids ranging from 60 to 220 kb in these
      isolates. Conjugation and hybridization experiments revealed that mcr-1 was
      chromosome-borne in only three isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed
      that the majority of E. coli isolates belonged to different clonal lineages.
      Multilocus sequence typing analysis revealed that sequence type 10 (ST10) was the
      most prevalent, followed by ST181 and ST206. This study demonstrates the utility
      of enrichment broth culture for identifying environmental mcr-1-positive
      isolates. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of responsible agriculture
      and clinical use of polymyxins to prevent further widespread dissemination of
      polymyxin-resistant pathogens.

PMID- 28559253
TI  - Nucleotide Substrate Specificity of Anti-Hepatitis C Virus Nucleoside Analogs for
      Human Mitochondrial RNA Polymerase.
AB  - Nucleoside analog inhibitors (NAIs) are an important class of antiviral agents.
      Although highly effective, some NAIs with activity against hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) can cause toxicity, presumably due to off-target inhibition of host
      mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT). The in vitro nucleotide substrate
      specificity of POLRMT was studied in order to explore structure-activity
      relationships that can facilitate the identification of nontoxic NAIs. These
      findings have important implications for the development of all anti-RNA virus
      NAIs.

PMID- 28559254
TI  - Human Bile Reduces Antimicrobial Activity of Selected Antibiotics against
      Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli In Vitro.
AB  - It has been known from previous studies that body fluids, such as cerebrospinal
      fluid, lung surfactant, and urine, have a strong impact on the bacterial killing
      of many anti-infective agents. However, the influence of human bile on the
      antimicrobial activity of antibiotics is widely unknown. Human bile was obtained
      and pooled from 11 patients undergoing cholecystectomy. After sterilization of
      the bile fluid by gamma irradiation, its effect on bacterial killing was
      investigated for linezolid (LZD) and tigecycline (TGC) against Enterococcus
      faecalis ATCC 29212. Further, ciprofloxacin (CIP), meropenem (MEM), and TGC were
      tested against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. Time-kill curves were performed in
      pooled human bile and Mueller-Hinton broth (MHB) over 24 h. Bacterial counts (in
      CFU per milliliter after 24 h) of bile growth controls were approximately equal
      to MHB growth controls for E. coli and approximately 2-fold greater for E.
      faecalis, indicating a promotion of bacterial growth by bile for the latter
      strain. Bile reduced the antimicrobial activity of CIP, MEM, and TGC against E.
      coli as well as the activity of LZD and TGC against E. faecalis This effect was
      strongest for TGC against the two strains. Degradation of TGC in bile was
      identified as the most likely explanation. These findings may have important
      implications for the treatment of bacterial infections of the gallbladder and
      biliary tract and should be explored in more detail.

PMID- 28559255
TI  - A Phase 1, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Single-Ascending-Dose
      Study To Investigate the Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of an Anti
      Influenza B Virus Monoclonal Antibody, MHAB5553A, in Healthy Volunteers.
AB  - Influenza B can cause significant morbidity and mortality. MHAB5553A, a human
      monoclonal immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) antibody that binds to a highly conserved
      region of the hemagglutinin protein of influenza B virus, is being examined as a
      novel therapeutic for the treatment of influenza B patients with severe disease.
      This phase 1, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-ascending-dose
      study was conducted to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK)
      of MHAB5553A. Twenty-six healthy male and female volunteers of >18 years of age
      were randomized into five cohorts receiving a single intravenous (i.v.) dose of
      120, 1,200, 3,600, 8,400, or 10,800 mg MHAB5553A or placebo (four active:one
      placebo, except for the 120-mg cohort [4:2]). Subjects were followed for 120 days
      after dosing. No subject discontinued the study, no dose-limiting adverse events
      or serious adverse events were reported, and a maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was
      not defined. The most commonly reported adverse events were cold symptoms and
      headache; most were mild and occurred at a similar rate across all cohorts.
      MHAB5553A showed no relevant time- or dose-related changes in laboratory values
      or vital signs compared to the placebo. The observed serum PK was linear and
      generally dose proportional, and the observed nasal PK was nonlinear and
      generally non-dose proportional. MHAB5553A is generally well tolerated in healthy
      volunteers up to at least a single i.v. dose of 10,800 mg and demonstrated linear
      serum PK consistent with those of a human IgG1 antibody lacking known endogenous
      targets in humans. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under
      registration no. NCT02528903.).

PMID- 28559256
TI  - Aerosolized Polymyxin B for Treatment of Respiratory Tract Infections:
      Determination of Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Indices for Aerosolized
      Polymyxin B against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a Mouse Lung Infection Model.
AB  - Pulmonary administration of polymyxins is increasingly used for the treatment of
      respiratory tract infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative
      bacteria, such as those in patients with cystic fibrosis. However, there is a
      lack of pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), and toxicity data of
      aerosolized polymyxin B to inform rational dosage selection. The PK and PD of
      polymyxin B following pulmonary and intravenous dosing were examined in
      neutropenic infected mice, and the data were analyzed by a population PK model.
      Dose fractionation study was performed for total daily doses between 2.06 and
      24.8 mg base/kg of weight against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, PAO1, and
      FADDI-PA022 (MIC of 1 mg/liter for all three strains). Histopathological
      examination of the lung was undertaken at 24 h posttreatment in both healthy and
      neutropenic infected mice. A two-compartment PK model was required for both
      epithelial lining fluid (ELF) and plasma drug exposure. The model consisted of
      central and peripheral compartments and was described by bidirectional first
      order distribution clearance. The ratio of the area under the curve to the MIC
      (AUC/MIC) was the most predictive PK/PD index to describe the antimicrobial
      efficacy of aerosolized polymyxin B in treating lung infections in mice (R2 of
      0.70 to 0.88 for ELF and 0.70 to 0.87 for plasma). The AUC/MIC targets associated
      with bacteriostasis against the three P. aeruginosa strains were 1,326 to 1,506
      in ELF and 3.14 to 4.03 in plasma. Histopathological results showed that
      polymyxin B aerosols significantly reduced lung inflammation and preserved lung
      epithelial integrity. This study highlights the advantageous PK/PD
      characteristics of pulmonary delivery of polymyxin B over intravenous
      administration in achieving high drug exposure in ELF.

PMID- 28559257
TI  - Etest and Sensititre YeastOne Susceptibility Testing of Echinocandins against
      Candida Species from a Single Center in Austria.
AB  - Candida species were tested for susceptibility to caspofungin, anidulafungin, and
      micafungin in order to evaluate the roles of Etest and Sensititre YeastOne in
      antifungal susceptibility testing for daily routines and to survey resistance. A
      total of 104 Candida species isolates detected from blood cultures were
      investigated. With EUCAST broth microdilution as the reference method, essential
      agreement (EA), categorical agreement (CA), very major errors (VME), major errors
      (ME), and minor (MIN) errors were assessed by reading MICs at 18, 24, and 48 h.
      By use of EUCAST broth microdilution and species-specific clinical breakpoints
      (CBPs), echinocandin resistance was not detected during the study period. Using
      EUCAST CBPs, MIC readings at 24 h for the Etest and Sensititre YeastOne resulted
      in CA levels of 99% and 93% for anidulafungin and 99% and 97% for micafungin.
      Using revised CLSI CBPs for caspofungin, CA levels were 92% and 99% for Etest and
      Sensititre YeastOne. The Etest proved an excellent, easy-to-handle alternative
      method for testing susceptibility to anidulafungin and micafungin. Due to
      misclassifications, the Etest is less suitable for testing susceptibility to
      caspofungin (8% of isolates falsely tested resistant). The CA levels of
      Sensititre YeastOne were 93% and 97% for anidulafungin and micafungin (24 h) by
      use of EUCAST CBPs and increased to 100% for both antifungals if CLSI CBPs were
      applied and to 100% and 99% if Sensititre YeastOne epidemiological cutoff values
      (ECOFFs) were applied. No one echinocandin could be demonstrated to be superior
      to another in vitro Since resistance was lacking among our Candida isolates, we
      cannot derive any recommendation from accurate resistance detection by the Etest
      and Sensititre YeastOne.

PMID- 28559258
TI  - In Vitro Efficacy of Moxidectin versus Ivermectin against Sarcoptes scabiei.
AB  - Moxidectin is under consideration for development as a treatment for human
      scabies. As some arthropods show decreased sensitivity to moxidectin relative to
      ivermectin, it was important to assess this for Sarcoptes scabieiIn vitro assays
      showed that the concentration of moxidectin required to kill 50% of mites was
      lower than that of ivermectin (0.5 MUM versus 1.8 MUM at 24 h; P < 0.0001). This
      finding provides further support for moxidectin as a candidate for the treatment
      of human scabies.

PMID- 28559259
TI  - Simkania negevensis, an Example of the Diversity of the Antimicrobial
      Susceptibility Pattern among Chlamydiales.
AB  - In past years, several Chlamydia-related bacteria have been discovered, including
      Simkania negevensis, the founding member of the Simkaniaceae family. We evaluated
      the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of this emerging intracellular
      bacterium and highlighted significant differences, compared with related
      Chlamydiales members. S. negevensis was susceptible to macrolides, clindamycin,
      cyclines, rifampin, and quinolones. Importantly, unlike other Chlamydiales
      members, treatment with beta-lactams and vancomycin did not induce the formation
      of aberrant bodies, leading to a completely resistant phenotype.

PMID- 28559260
TI  - Unusual Escherichia coli PBP 3 Insertion Sequence Identified from a Collection of
      Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Tested In Vitro with a Combination of
      Ceftazidime-, Ceftaroline-, or Aztreonam-Avibactam.
AB  - Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates (n = 110) from health care
      centers in central Indiana (from 2010 to 2013) were tested for susceptibility to
      combinations of avibactam (4 MUg/ml) with ceftazidime, ceftaroline, or aztreonam.
      MIC50/MIC90 values were 1/2 MUg/ml (ceftazidime-avibactam), 0.5/2 MUg/ml
      (ceftaroline-avibactam), and 0.25/0.5 MUg/ml (aztreonam-avibactam.) A beta-lactam
      MIC of 8 MUg/ml was reported for the three combinations against one Escherichia
      coli isolate with an unusual TIPY insertion following Tyr344 in penicillin
      binding protein 3 (PBP 3) as the result of gene duplication.

PMID- 28559261
TI  - The Fluorocycline TP-271 Is Efficacious in Models of Aerosolized Francisella
      tularensis SCHU S4 Infection in BALB/c Mice and Cynomolgus Macaques.
AB  - TP-271 is a novel, fully synthetic fluorocycline in development for complicated
      bacterial respiratory infections. TP-271 was active in vitro against a panel of
      29 Francisella tularensis isolates, showing MICs against 50% and 90% of isolates
      of 0.25 and 0.5 MUg/ml, respectively. In a mouse model of inhalational tularemia,
      animals were exposed by aerosol to 91 to 283 50% lethal doses (LD50)/mouse of F.
      tularensis SCHU S4. Following 21 days of once-daily intraperitoneal dosing with
      TP-271 at 3, 6, 12, and 18 mg/kg of body weight/day, initiating at 24 h
      postchallenge, survival was 80%, 100%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. When
      treatment was initiated at 72 h postchallenge, survival was 89%, 100%, 100%, and
      100% in the 3-, 6-, 12-, and 18-mg/kg/day TP-271 groups, respectively. No mice
      treated with the vehicle control survived. Surviving mice treated with TP-271
      showed little to no relapse during 14 days posttreatment. In a nonhuman primate
      model of inhalational tularemia, cynomolgus macaques received an average aerosol
      exposure of 1,144 CFU of F. tularensis SCHU S4. Once-daily intravenous infusion
      with 1 or 3 mg/kg TP-271, or vehicle control, for 21 days was initiated within 6
      h of confirmed fever. All animals treated with TP-271 survived to the end of the
      study, with no relapse during 14 days after the last treatment, whereas no
      vehicle control-treated animals survived. The protection and low relapse afforded
      by TP-271 treatment in these studies support continued investigation of TP-271
      for use in the event of aerosolized exposure to F. tularensis.

PMID- 28559262
TI  - Metformin Adjunctive Therapy Does Not Improve the Sterilizing Activity of the
      First-Line Antitubercular Regimen in Mice.
AB  - Preliminary preclinical and observational studies suggest the potential utility
      of metformin as an adjunctive, host-directed agent for treatment of tuberculosis
      (TB). In this study, we sought to investigate the bactericidal and sterilizing
      activities of human-like exposures of metformin when given in combination with
      the first-line regimen against chronic tuberculosis in BALB/c mice. Mice
      receiving metformin adjunctive therapy had similar lung bacillary burdens with
      control mice during treatment, and the proportion of mice with microbiological
      relapse was similar between the two groups.

PMID- 28559263
TI  - Efficient Killing of Planktonic and Biofilm-Embedded Coagulase-Negative
      Staphylococci by Bactericidal Protein P128.
AB  - Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the major causative agents of foreign
      body-related infections, including catheter-related bloodstream infections.
      Because of the involvement of biofilms, foreign-body-related infections are
      difficult to treat. P128, a chimeric recombinant phage-derived ectolysin, has
      been shown to possess bactericidal activity on strains of Staphylococcus aureus,
      including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). We tested the killing potential
      of P128 on three clinically significant species of CoNS, S. epidermidis, S.
      haemolyticus, and S. lugdunensis, under a variety of physiological conditions
      representing growing and nongrowing states. The MIC90 and minimum bactericidal
      concentration at which 90% of strains tested are killed (MBC90) of P128 on 62
      clinical strains of CoNS were found to be 16 and 32 MUg/ml (0.58 and 1.16 MUM),
      respectively, demonstrating the bactericidal nature of P128 on CoNS strains.
      Serum showed a potentiating effect on P128 inhibition, as indicated by 4- to 32
      fold lower MIC values observed in serum. P128 caused a rapid loss of viability in
      all CoNS strains tested. Persisters of CoNS that were enriched in the presence of
      vancomycin or daptomycin were killed by P128 at 1* the MIC in a rapid manner. Low
      concentrations of P128 caused a 2- to 5-log reduction in CFU in stationary-phase
      or poorly metabolizing CoNS cultures. P128 at low concentrations eliminated CoNS
      biofilms in microtiter plates and on the surface of catheters. Combinations of
      P128 and standard-of-care (SoC) antibiotics were highly synergistic in inhibiting
      growth in preformed biofilms. Potent activity on planktonic cells, persisters,
      and biofilms of CoNS suggests that P128 is a promising candidate for the clinical
      development of treatments for foreign-body-related and other CoNS infections.

PMID- 28559265
TI  - Hepatitis B Virus Capsid Assembly Modulators, but Not Nucleoside Analogs, Inhibit
      the Production of Extracellular Pregenomic RNA and Spliced RNA Variants.
AB  - The hepatitis B virus (HBV) core protein serves multiple essential functions in
      the viral life cycle, and antiviral agents that target the core protein are being
      developed. Capsid assembly modulators (CAMs) are compounds that target core and
      misdirect capsid assembly, resulting in the suppression of HBV replication and
      virion production. Besides HBV DNA, circulating HBV RNA has been detected in
      patient serum and can be associated with the treatment response. Here we studied
      the effect of HBV CAMs on the production of extracellular HBV RNA using infected
      HepaRG cells and primary human hepatocytes. Representative compounds from the
      sulfonamide carboxamide and heteroaryldihydropyrimidine series of CAMs were
      evaluated and compared to nucleos(t)ide analogs as inhibitors of the viral
      polymerase. The results showed that CAMs blocked extracellular HBV RNA with
      efficiencies similar to those with which they blocked pregenomic RNA (pgRNA)
      encapsidation, HBV DNA replication, and Dane particle production. Nucleos(t)ide
      analogs inhibited viral replication and virion production but not encapsidation
      or production of extracellular HBV RNA. Profiling of HBV RNA from both culture
      supernatants and patient serum showed that extracellular viral RNA consisted of
      pgRNA and spliced pgRNA variants with an internal deletion(s) but still retained
      the sequences at both the 5' and 3' ends. Similar variants were detected in the
      supernatants of infected cells with and without nucleos(t)ide analog treatment.
      Overall, our data demonstrate that HBV CAMs represent direct antiviral agents
      with a profile differentiated from that of nucleos(t)ide analogs, including the
      inhibition of extracellular pgRNA and spliced pgRNA.

PMID- 28559264
TI  - Synergistic Activity between Statins and Bisphosphonates against Acute
      Experimental Toxoplasmosis.
AB  - Bisphosphonates are widely used for the treatment of bone disorders. These drugs
      also inhibit the growth of a variety of protozoan parasites, such as Toxoplasma
      gondii, the etiologic agent of toxoplasmosis. The target of the most potent
      bisphosphonates is the isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway enzyme farnesyl
      diphosphate synthase (FPPS). Based on our previous work on the inhibitory effect
      of sulfur-containing linear bisphosphonates against T. gondii, we investigated
      the potential synergistic interaction between one of these derivatives, 1-[(n
      heptylthio)ethyl]-1,1-bisphosphonate (C7S), and statins, which are potent
      inhibitors of the host 3-hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (3-HMG
      CoA reductase). C7S showed high activity against the T. gondii bifunctional
      farnesyl diphosphate (FPP)/geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) synthase (TgFPPS),
      which catalyzes the formation of FPP and GGPP (50% inhibitory concentration
      [IC50] = 31 +/- 0.01 nM [mean +/- standard deviation]), and modest effect against
      the human FPPS (IC50 = 1.3 +/- 0.5 MUM). We tested combinations of C7S with
      statins against the in vitro replication of T. gondii We also treated mice
      infected with a lethal dose of T. gondii with similar combinations. We found
      strong synergistic activities when using low doses of C7S, which were stronger in
      vivo than when tested in vitro We also investigated the synergism of several
      commercially available bisphosphonates with statins both in vitro and in vivo Our
      results provide evidence that it is possible to develop drug combinations that
      act synergistically by inhibiting host and parasite enzymes in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28559267
TI  - Penicillin Dried Blood Spot Assay for Use in Patients Receiving Intramuscular
      Benzathine Penicillin G and Other Penicillin Preparations To Prevent Rheumatic
      Fever.
AB  - Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains an important global health challenge.
      Administration of benzathine penicillin (BPG) every 3 to 4 weeks is recommended
      as a secondary prophylaxis to prevent recurrent episodes of acute rheumatic fever
      and subsequent RHD. Following intramuscular injection, BPG is hydrolyzed to
      penicillin G (benzylpenicillin). However, little is known of the pharmacokinetics
      (PK) of BPG in pediatric populations at high risk of RHD or of the
      pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship between penicillin exposure and
      clinically relevant outcomes. Dried blood spot (DBS) assays can facilitate PK
      studies in situations where frequent venous blood sampling is logistically
      difficult. A liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy assay for penicillin G in
      plasma and DBS was developed and validated. Application of the DBS assay for PK
      studies was confirmed using samples from adult patients receiving penicillin as
      part of an infection management plan. The limit of quantification for penicillin
      G in DBS was 0.005 mg/liter. Penicillin G is stable in DBS for approximately 12 h
      at room temperature (22 degrees C), 6 days at 4 degrees C, and >1 month at -20
      degrees C. Plasma and DBS penicillin G concentrations for patients receiving BPG
      and penicillin G given via bolus doses correlated well and had comparable time
      concentration profiles. There was poor correlation for patients receiving
      penicillin via continuous infusions, perhaps as a result of the presence of
      residual penicillin in the peripherally inserted central catheter, from which the
      plasma samples were collected. The present DBS penicillin G assay can be used as
      a surrogate for plasma concentrations to provide valid PK data for studies of BPG
      and other penicillin preparations developed to prevent rheumatic fever and RHD.

PMID- 28559266
TI  - An Immunomodulatory Peptide Confers Protection in an Experimental Candidemia
      Murine Model.
AB  - Fungal Candida species are commensals present in the mammalian skin and mucous
      membranes. Candida spp. are capable of breaching the epithelial barrier of
      immunocompromised patients with neutrophil and cell-mediated immune dysfunctions
      and can also disseminate to multiple organs through the bloodstream. Here we
      examined the action of innate defense regulator 1018 (IDR-1018), a 12-amino-acid
      residue peptide derived from bovine bactenecin (Bac2A): IDR-1018 showed weak
      antifungal and antibiofilm activity against a Candida albicans laboratory strain
      (ATCC 10231) and a clinical isolate (CI) (MICs of 32 and 64 MUg . ml-1,
      respectively), while 8-fold lower concentrations led to dissolution of the fungal
      cells from preformed biofilms. IDR-1018 at 128 MUg . ml-1 was not hemolytic when
      tested against murine red blood cells and also has not shown a cytotoxic effect
      on murine monocyte RAW 264.7 and primary murine macrophage cells at the tested
      concentrations. IDR-1018 modulated the cytokine profile during challenge of
      murine bone marrow-derived macrophages with heat-killed C. albicans (HKCA)
      antigens by increasing monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and interleukin
      10 (IL-10) levels, while suppressing tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), IL
      1beta, IL-6, and IL-12 levels. Mice treated with IDR-1018 at 10 mg . kg-1 of body
      weight had an increased survival rate in the candidemia model compared with
      phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)-treated mice, together with a diminished kidney
      fungal burden. Thus, IDR-1018 was able to protect against murine experimental
      candidemia and has the potential as an adjunctive therapy.

PMID- 28559268
TI  - Circulation of blaKPC-3-Carrying IncX3 Plasmids among Citrobacter freundii
      Isolates in an Italian Hospital.
AB  - Colonizations due to carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a source
      of antimicrobial resistance transmission in health care settings. Eleven
      Citrobacter freundii strains producing KPC-3 carbapenemase were isolated from
      rectal swabs during a 3-year surveillance program. blaKPC-3-carrying plasmids
      were found to belong to the IncX3 group in 9 of the 11 strains, and complete
      nucleotide sequences were obtained for 2 of them. Our results highlight the
      possible role of C. freundii as reservoir of resistance genes.

PMID- 28559271
TI  - Prevalence of Invasive Infections Due to Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae
      among Adult Patients in U.S. Hospitals.
AB  - This large-scale retrospective analysis (n = 60,551) of the Premier inpatient
      database (1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014) found an overall prevalence of
      carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae strains of 2.3% (range, 0.9% to 5.8% by
      geographic region) among patients with infections due to Enterobacteriaceae
      Ongoing monitoring and development of decision support tools/algorithms are
      needed for identification of high-risk patients.

PMID- 28559269
TI  - Pharmacokinetic Evidence from the HIRIF Trial To Support Increased Doses of
      Rifampin for Tuberculosis.
AB  - Rifamycins exhibit concentration-dependent killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis;
      higher exposures potentially induce better outcomes. We randomized 180
      tuberculosis patients in Peru to receive rifampin at 10, 15, or 20 mg/kg/day. A
      total of 168 had noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analyses; 67% were sampled
      twice, and 33% were sampled six times. The doses administered were well
      tolerated. The median area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 6 h
      (interquartile range) was 24.9 (17.6 to 32.1), 43.1 (30.3 to 57.5), or 55.5 (35.7
      to 73.2) h . MUg/ml. The median maximum drug concentration in serum in the
      experimental arms reached the target of 8 MUg/ml. Continued investigation of
      higher rifampin doses is warranted. (This study has been registered at
      ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT01408914.).

PMID- 28559270
TI  - Efficacy of Rhesus Theta-Defensin-1 in Experimental Models of Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa Lung Infection and Inflammation.
AB  - Chronic airway infection and inflammation contribute to the progressive loss of
      lung function and shortened survival of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).
      Rhesus theta defensin-1 (RTD-1) is a macrocyclic host defense peptide with
      antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities. Combined with favorable
      preclinical safety and peptide stability data, RTD-1 warrants investigation to
      determine its therapeutic potential for treatment of CF lung disease. We sought
      to evaluate the therapeutic potential of RTD-1 for CF airway infection and
      inflammation using in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models. We evaluated RTD-1's
      effects on basal and Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced inflammation in CF sputum
      leukocytes and CF bronchial epithelial cells. Peptide stability was evaluated by
      incubation with CF sputum. Airway pharmacokinetics, safety, and tolerance studies
      were performed in naive mice. Aerosolized RTD-1 treatment effects were assessed
      by analyzing lung bacterial burdens and airway inflammation using an established
      model of chronic P. aeruginosa endobronchial infection in CF (DeltaF508) mice.
      RTD-1 directly reduces metalloprotease activity, as well as inflammatory cytokine
      secretion from CF airway leukocyte and bronchial epithelial cells. Intrapulmonary
      safety, tolerability, and stability data support the aerosol administration
      route. RTD-1 reduced the bacterial lung burden, airway neutrophils, and
      inflammatory cytokines in CF mice with chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection.
      Collectively, these studies support further development of RTD-1 for treatment of
      CF airway disease.

PMID- 28559272
TI  - An Effective Antiviral Approach Targeting Hepatitis B Virus with NJK14047, a
      Novel and Selective Biphenyl Amide p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase
      Inhibitor.
AB  - Despite recent advances in therapeutic strategies against hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      infection, chronic hepatitis B remains a major global health burden. Recent
      studies have shown that targeting host factors instead of viral factors can be an
      effective antiviral strategy with low risk of the development of resistance.
      Efforts to identify host factors affecting viral replication have identified p38
      mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) as a possible target for antiviral
      strategies against various viruses, including HBV. Here, a series of biphenyl
      amides were synthesized as novel p38 MAPK selective inhibitors and assessed for
      their anti-HBV activities. The suppression of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)
      production by these compounds was positively correlated with p38 MAPK-inhibitory
      activity. The selected compound NJK14047 displayed significant anti-HBV activity,
      as determined by HBsAg production, HBeAg secretion, and HBV production. NJK14047
      efficiently suppressed the secretion of HBV antigens and HBV particles from HBV
      genome-transfected cells and HBV-infected sodium taurocholate cotransporting
      polypeptide-expressing human hepatoma cells. Furthermore, NJK14047 treatment
      resulted in a significant decrease of pregenomic RNA and covalently closed
      circular DNA (cccDNA) of HBV in HBV-harboring cells, indicating its ability to
      inhibit HBV replication. Considering that suppression of HBsAg secretion and
      elimination of cccDNA of HBV are the major aims of anti-HBV therapeutic
      strategies, the results suggested the potential use of these compounds as a novel
      class of anti-HBV agents targeting host factors critical for viral infection.

PMID- 28559273
TI  - First Detection of VIM-2 Metallo-beta-Lactamase-Producing Pseudomonas putida in
      Blattella germanica Cockroaches in an Algerian Hospital.

PMID- 28559274
TI  - A Lower Baseline CD4/CD8 T-Cell Ratio Is Independently Associated with
      Immunodiscordant Response to Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV-Infected Subjects.
AB  - We explored if baseline CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio is associated with immunodiscordant
      response to antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected subjects. Comparing
      immunodiscordant and immunoconcordant subjects matched by pretreatment CD4
      counts, we observed a lower pretreatment CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio in immunodiscordant
      subjects. Furthermore, pretreatment CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio, but not CD4 counts,
      correlated with the main immunological alterations observed in immunodiscordants,
      including increased regulatory T-cell (Treg) frequency and T-cell turnover
      related markers. Then, in a larger cohort, only baseline CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio was
      independently associated with immunodiscordance, after adjusting by the viral
      CXCR4-tropic HIV variants. Our results suggest that the CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio
      could be an accurate biomarker of the subjacent immunological damage triggering
      immunodiscordance.

PMID- 28559275
TI  - Urinary Concentrations of Colistimethate and Formed Colistin after Intravenous
      Administration in Patients with Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacterial
      Infections.
AB  - Limited information is available on the urinary excretion of colistin in infected
      patients. This study aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics of colistimethate
      sodium (CMS) and formed colistin in urine in patients with multidrug-resistant
      (MDR) Gram-negative bacterial infections. A pharmacokinetic study was conducted
      on 12 patients diagnosed with an infection caused by an extremely drug-resistant
      (XDR) P. aeruginosa strain and treated with intravenous CMS. Fresh urine samples
      were collected at 2-h intervals, and blood samples were collected predose (Cmin
      ss) and at the end of the CMS infusion (Cmax ss) for measurement of
      concentrations of CMS and formed colistin using high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC). CMS urinary recovery was determined as the summed amount
      of CMS and formed colistin recovered in urine for each 2-h interval divided by
      the CMS dose. There were 12 enrolled patients, 9 of whom were male (75%). Data
      [median (range)] were as follows: age, 65.5 (37 to 86) years; colistimethate
      urinary recovery 0 to 6 h, 42.6% (2.9% to 72.8%); range of concentrations of
      colistin in urine, <0.1 to 95.4 mg/liter; Cmin ss and Cmax ss of colistin in
      plasma, 0.9 (<0.2 to 1.4) and 0.9 (<0.2 to 1.4) mg/liter, respectively. In 6/12
      (50%) patients, more than 40% of the CMS dose was recovered in the urine within
      the first 6 h after CMS administration. This study demonstrated rapid urinary
      excretion of CMS in patients within the first 6 h after intravenous
      administration. In all but one patient, the concentrations of formed colistin in
      urine were above the MIC for the most predominant isolate of P. aeruginosa in our
      hospital. Future studies are warranted for optimizing CMS dosage regimens in
      urinary tract infection (UTI) patients.

PMID- 28559276
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic Model Linking Plasma and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear
      Cell Concentrations of Efavirenz and Its Metabolite, 8-Hydroxy-Efavirenz, in HIV
      Patients.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to characterize the population pharmacokinetics
      (PK) of efavirenz (EFV) and 8-hydroxy-efavirenz (8OHEFV) in plasma and peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and to explore covariates affecting the PK
      parameters. Fifty-one patients had steady-state 0-to-24-h concentrations of EFV
      and 8OHEFV in plasma with corresponding concentrations in PBMCs, while 261
      patients had one or two sparse concentrations at 16 +/- 1 h postdose at weeks 4
      and/or 16. The pharmacogenetic markers CYP2B6*6, CYP3A5*3, CYP3A5*6, UGT2B7*2,
      ABCB1 (3435C->T, 3842A->G), OATP1B1*1B, and OATP1B1*5, the presence of a rifampin
      based antituberculosis (anti-TB) regimen, baseline body weight and organ function
      values, and demographic factors were explored as covariates. EFV concentration
      data were well described by a two-compartment model with first-order absorption
      (Ka ) and absorption lag time (Alag) (Ka = 0.2 h-1; Alag = 0.83 h; central
      compartment clearance [CLc/F] for CYP2B6*1/*1 = 18 liters/h, for CYP2B6*1/*6 = 14
      liters/h, and for CYP2B6*6/*6 = 8.6 liters/h) and PBMCs as a peripheral
      compartment. EFV transfer from plasma to PBMCs was first order (CLp/F = 32
      liters/h), followed by capacity-limited return (Vmax = 4,400 ng/ml/h; Km = 710
      ng/ml). Similarly, 8OHEFV displayed a first-order elimination and distribution to
      PBMCs, with a capacity-limited return to plasma. No covariate relationships
      resulted in a significant explanation of interindividual variability (IIV) on the
      estimated PK parameters of EFV and 8OHEFV, except for CYP2B6*6 genotypes, which
      were consistent with prior evidence. Both EFV and 8OHEFV accumulated to higher
      concentrations in PBMCs than in plasma and were well described by first-order
      input and Michaelis-Menten kinetics removal from PBMCs. CYP2B6*6 genotype
      polymorphisms were associated with decreased EFV and 8OHEFV clearance.

PMID- 28559278
TI  - The p90 ribosomal S6 kinase-UBR5 pathway controls Toll-like receptor signaling
      via miRNA-induced translational inhibition of tumor necrosis factor receptor
      associated factor 3.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate
      gene expression. For example, miRNAs repress gene expression by recruiting the
      miRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC), a ribonucleoprotein complex that
      contains miRNA-engaged Argonaute (Ago) and the scaffold protein GW182. Recently,
      ubiquitin-protein ligase E3 component N-recognin 5 (UBR5) has been identified as
      a component of miRISC. UBR5 directly interacts with GW182 proteins and
      participates in miRNA silencing by recruiting downstream effectors, such as the
      translation regulator DEAD-box helicase 6 (DDX6) and transducer of ERBB2,1/2,2
      (Tob1/2), to the Ago-GW182 complex. However, the regulation of miRISC-associated
      UBR5 remains largely elusive. In the present study, we showed that UBR5 down
      regulates the levels of TNF receptor-associated factor 3 (TRAF3), a key component
      of Toll-like receptor signaling, via the miRNA pathway. We further demonstrated
      that p90 ribosomal S6 kinase (p90RSK) is an upstream regulator of UBR5. p90RSK
      phosphorylates UBR5 at Thr637, Ser1227, and Ser2483, and this phosphorylation is
      required for the translational repression of TRAF3 mRNA. Phosphorylated UBR5 co
      localized with GW182 and Ago2 in cytoplasmic speckles, which implies that miRISC
      is affected by phospho-UBR5. Collectively, these results indicated that the
      p90RSK-UBR5 pathway stimulates miRNA-mediated translational repression of TRAF3.
      Our work has added another layer to the regulation of miRISC.

PMID- 28559277
TI  - Cryptococcus neoformans ADS lyase is an enzyme essential for virulence whose
      crystal structure reveals features exploitable in antifungal drug design.
AB  - There is significant clinical need for new antifungal agents to manage infections
      with pathogenic species such as Cryptococcus neoformans Because the purine
      biosynthesis pathway is essential for many metabolic processes, such as synthesis
      of DNA and RNA and energy generation, it may represent a potential target for
      developing new antifungals. Within this pathway, the bifunctional enzyme
      adenylosuccinate (ADS) lyase plays a role in the formation of the key
      intermediates inosine monophosphate and AMP involved in the synthesis of ATP and
      GTP, prompting us to investigate ADS lyase in C. neoformans. Here, we report that
      ADE13 encodes ADS lyase in C. neoformans. We found that an ade13Delta mutant is
      an adenine auxotroph and is unable to successfully cause infections in a murine
      model of virulence. Plate assays revealed that production of a number of
      virulence factors essential for dissemination and survival of C. neoformans in a
      host environment was compromised even with the addition of exogenous adenine.
      Purified recombinant C. neoformans ADS lyase shows catalytic activity similar to
      its human counterpart, and its crystal structure, the first fungal ADS lyase
      structure determined, shows a high degree of structural similarity to that of
      human ADS lyase. Two potentially important amino acid differences are identified
      in the C. neoformans crystal structure, in particular a threonine residue that
      may serve as an additional point of binding for a fungal enzyme-specific
      inhibitor. Besides serving as an antimicrobial target, C. neoformans ADS lyase
      inhibitors may also serve as potential therapeutics for metabolic disease; rather
      than disrupt ADS lyase, compounds that improve the stability the enzyme may be
      used to treat ADS lyase deficiency disease.

PMID- 28559280
TI  - Crystal structure of the thioesterification conformation of Bacillus subtilis o
      succinylbenzoyl-CoA synthetase reveals a distinct substrate-binding mode.
AB  - o-Succinylbenzoyl-CoA (OSB-CoA) synthetase (MenE) is an essential enzyme in
      bacterial vitamin K biosynthesis and an important target in the development of
      new antibiotics. It is a member of the adenylating enzymes (ANL) family, which
      reconfigure their active site in two different active conformations, one for the
      adenylation half-reaction and the other for a thioesterification half-reaction,
      in a domain-alternation catalytic mechanism. Although several aspects of the
      adenylating mechanism in MenE have recently been uncovered, its
      thioesterification conformation remains elusive. Here, using a catalytically
      competent Bacillus subtilis mutant protein complexed with an OSB-CoA analogue, we
      determined MenE high-resolution structures to 1.76 and 1.90 A resolution in a
      thioester-forming conformation. By comparison with the adenylation conformation,
      we found that MenE's C-domain rotates around the Ser-384 hinge by 139.5 degrees 
      during domain-alternation catalysis. The structures also revealed a
      thioesterification active site specifically conserved among MenE orthologues and
      a substrate-binding mode distinct from those of many other acyl/aryl-CoA
      synthetases. Of note, using site-directed mutagenesis, we identified several
      residues that specifically contribute to the thioesterification half-reaction
      without affecting the adenylation half-reaction. Moreover, we observed a
      substantial movement of the activated succinyl group in the thioesterification
      half-reaction. These findings provide new insights into the domain-alternation
      catalysis of a bacterial enzyme essential for vitamin K biosynthesis and of its
      adenylating homologues in the ANL enzyme family.

PMID- 28559281
TI  - Uridine monophosphate synthetase enables eukaryotic de novo NAD+ biosynthesis
      from quinolinic acid.
AB  - NAD+ biosynthesis is an attractive and promising therapeutic target for
      influencing health span and obesity-related phenotypes as well as tumor growth.
      Full and effective use of this target for therapeutic benefit requires a complete
      understanding of NAD+ biosynthetic pathways. Here, we report a previously
      unrecognized role for a conserved phosphoribosyltransferase in NAD+ biosynthesis.
      Because a required quinolinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase (QPRTase) is not
      encoded in its genome, Caenorhabditis elegans are reported to lack a de novo NAD+
      biosynthetic pathway. However, all the genes of the kynurenine pathway required
      for quinolinic acid (QA) production from tryptophan are present. Thus, we
      investigated the presence of de novo NAD+ biosynthesis in this organism. By
      combining isotope-tracing and genetic experiments, we have demonstrated the
      presence of an intact de novo biosynthesis pathway for NAD+ from tryptophan via
      QA, highlighting the functional conservation of this important biosynthetic
      activity. Supplementation with kynurenine pathway intermediates also boosted NAD+
      levels and partially reversed NAD+-dependent phenotypes caused by mutation of pnc
      1, which encodes a nicotinamidase required for NAD+ salvage biosynthesis,
      demonstrating contribution of de novo synthesis to NAD+ homeostasis. By
      investigating candidate phosphoribosyltransferase genes in the genome, we
      determined that the conserved uridine monophosphate phosphoribosyltransferase
      (UMPS), which acts in pyrimidine biosynthesis, is required for NAD+ biosynthesis
      in place of the missing QPRTase. We suggest that similar underground metabolic
      activity of UMPS may function in other organisms. This mechanism for NAD+
      biosynthesis creates novel possibilities for manipulating NAD+ biosynthetic
      pathways, which is key for the future of therapeutics.

PMID- 28559279
TI  - The UbiK protein is an accessory factor necessary for bacterial ubiquinone (UQ)
      biosynthesis and forms a complex with the UQ biogenesis factor UbiJ.
AB  - Ubiquinone (UQ), also referred to as coenzyme Q, is a widespread lipophilic
      molecule in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes in which it primarily acts as an
      electron carrier. Eleven proteins are known to participate in UQ biosynthesis in
      Escherichia coli, and we recently demonstrated that UQ biosynthesis requires
      additional, nonenzymatic factors, some of which are still unknown. Here, we
      report on the identification of a bacterial gene, yqiC, which is required for
      efficient UQ biosynthesis, and which we have renamed ubiK Using several methods,
      we demonstrated that the UbiK protein forms a complex with the C-terminal part of
      UbiJ, another UQ biogenesis factor we previously identified. We found that both
      proteins are likely to contribute to global UQ biosynthesis rather than to a
      specific biosynthetic step, because both ubiK and ubiJ mutants accumulated
      octaprenylphenol, an early intermediate of the UQ biosynthetic pathway.
      Interestingly, we found that both proteins are dispensable for UQ biosynthesis
      under anaerobiosis, even though they were expressed in the absence of oxygen. We
      also provide evidence that the UbiK-UbiJ complex interacts with palmitoleic acid,
      a major lipid in E. coli Last, in Salmonella enterica, ubiK was required for
      proliferation in macrophages and virulence in mice. We conclude that although the
      role of the UbiK-UbiJ complex remains unknown, our results support the hypothesis
      that UbiK is an accessory factor of Ubi enzymes and facilitates UQ biosynthesis
      by acting as an assembly factor, a targeting factor, or both.

PMID- 28559282
TI  - The higher plant plastid NAD(P)H dehydrogenase-like complex (NDH) is a high
      efficiency proton pump that increases ATP production by cyclic electron flow.
AB  - Cyclic electron flow around photosystem I (CEF) is critical for balancing the
      photosynthetic energy budget of the chloroplast by generating ATP without net
      production of NADPH. We demonstrate that the chloroplast NADPH dehydrogenase
      complex, a homolog to respiratory Complex I, pumps approximately two protons from
      the chloroplast stroma to the lumen per electron transferred from ferredoxin to
      plastoquinone, effectively increasing the efficiency of ATP production via CEF by
      2-fold compared with CEF pathways involving non-proton-pumping plastoquinone
      reductases. By virtue of this proton-pumping stoichiometry, we hypothesize that
      NADPH dehydrogenase not only efficiently contributes to ATP production but
      operates near thermodynamic reversibility, with potentially important
      consequences for remediating mismatches in the thylakoid energy budget.

PMID- 28559283
TI  - Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the conformational dynamics of Arabidopsis
      thaliana BRI1 and BAK1 receptor-like kinases.
AB  - The structural motifs responsible for activation and regulation of eukaryotic
      protein kinases in animals have been studied extensively in recent years, and a
      coherent picture of their activation mechanisms has begun to emerge. In contrast,
      non-animal eukaryotic protein kinases are not as well understood from a
      structural perspective, representing a large knowledge gap. To this end, we
      investigated the conformational dynamics of two key Arabidopsis thaliana receptor
      like kinases, brassinosteroid-insensitive 1 (BRI1) and BRI1-associated kinase 1
      (BAK1), through extensive molecular dynamics simulations of their fully
      phosphorylated kinase domains. Molecular dynamics simulations calculate the
      motion of each atom in a protein based on classical approximations of interatomic
      forces, giving researchers insight into protein function at unparalleled spatial
      and temporal resolutions. We found that in an otherwise "active" BAK1 the alphaC
      helix is highly disordered, a hallmark of deactivation, whereas the BRI1 alphaC
      helix is moderately disordered and displays swinging behavior similar to numerous
      animal kinases. An analysis of all known sequences in the A. thaliana kinome
      found that alphaC helix disorder may be a common feature of plant kinases.

PMID- 28559286
TI  - Successful treatment of pneumatosis intestinalis with associated pneumoperitoneum
      and ileus with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
AB  - Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI), or the presence of air in the bowel wall, is a
      rare disorder that is associated with a variety of underlying diseases, including
      connective tissue disorders. PI presents on a spectrum from asymptomatic to bowel
      obstruction and acute abdomen. In general, treatment of PI consists of treating
      the underlying disease. Both normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen have been used to
      treat PI directly. Here we report a symptomatic scleroderma-related case of PI
      that responded clinically to hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This report adds to a
      growing body of literature supporting a role for hyperbaric oxygen therapy in
      symptomatic PI.

PMID- 28559284
TI  - The autism-linked UBE3A T485A mutant E3 ubiquitin ligase activates the Wnt/beta
      catenin pathway by inhibiting the proteasome.
AB  - UBE3A is a HECT domain E3 ubiquitin ligase whose dysfunction is linked to autism,
      Angelman syndrome, and cancer. Recently, we characterized a de novo autism-linked
      UBE3A mutant (UBE3AT485A) that disrupts phosphorylation control of UBE3A
      activity. Through quantitative proteomics and reporter assays, we found that the
      UBE3AT485A protein ubiquitinates multiple proteasome subunits, reduces proteasome
      subunit abundance and activity, stabilizes nuclear beta-catenin, and stimulates
      canonical Wnt signaling more effectively than wild-type UBE3A. We also found that
      UBE3AT485A activates Wnt signaling to a greater extent in cells with low levels
      of ongoing Wnt signaling, suggesting that cells with low basal Wnt activity are
      particularly vulnerable to UBE3AT485A mutation. Ligase-dead UBE3A did not
      stimulate Wnt pathway activation. Overexpression of several proteasome subunits
      reversed the effect of UBE3AT485A on Wnt signaling. We also observed that
      subunits that interact with UBE3A and affect Wnt signaling are located along one
      side of the 19S regulatory particle, indicating a previously unrecognized spatial
      organization to the proteasome. Altogether, our findings indicate that UBE3A
      regulates Wnt signaling in a cell context-dependent manner and that an autism
      linked mutation exacerbates these signaling effects. Our study has broad
      implications for human disorders associated with UBE3A gain or loss of function
      and suggests that dysfunctional UBE3A might affect additional proteins and
      pathways that are sensitive to proteasome activity.

PMID- 28559287
TI  - Occult myeloproliferative neoplasms: not so occult any more.
AB  - Non-cirrhotic, non-malignant portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is commonly secondary
      to inherited or acquired prothrombotic states. However, even after extensive
      workup, 25% of patients with PVT have no apparent prothrombotic aetiology
      identified (idiopathic PVT). Inherited conditions include factor V Leiden, PT
      mutation and protein C/S/AT deficiency. Acquired conditions include APS, PNH and
      BCR-ABL 1-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). BCR-ABL-1 negative MPNs
      are the most frequent underlying prothrombotic risk factor for PVT (15%-30%).
      However, peripheral blood counts often remain within normal ranges in these
      patients with MPN because of portal hypertension sequel. Despite suggestive
      features of MPN in bone marrow, these patients lack adequate diagnostic criteria
      and are classified as occult MPN. The discovery of recurrent molecular
      abnormalities such as CALR gene exon 9 mutation presented a crucial advance in
      the diagnosis of occult MPNs. In our patient, the diagnosis of MPN was made on
      this basis, despite lack of peripheral evidence of MPN.

PMID- 28559285
TI  - Hepatitis C virus induces a prediabetic state by directly impairing hepatic
      glucose metabolism in mice.
AB  - Virus-related type 2 diabetes is commonly observed in individuals infected with
      the hepatitis C virus (HCV); however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain
      unknown. Our aim was to unravel these mechanisms using FL-N/35 transgenic mice
      expressing the full HCV ORF. We observed that these mice displayed glucose
      intolerance and insulin resistance. We also found that Glut-2 membrane expression
      was reduced in FL-N/35 mice and that hepatocyte glucose uptake was perturbed,
      partly accounting for the HCV-induced glucose intolerance in these mice. Early
      steps of the hepatic insulin signaling pathway, from IRS2 to PDK1
      phosphorylation, were constitutively impaired in FL-N/35 primary hepatocytes via
      deregulation of TNFalpha/SOCS3. Higher hepatic glucose production was observed in
      the HCV mice, despite higher fasting insulinemia, concomitant with decreased
      expression of hepatic gluconeogenic genes. Akt kinase activity was higher in HCV
      mice than in WT mice, but Akt-dependent phosphorylation of the forkhead
      transcription factor FoxO1 at serine 256, which triggers its nuclear exclusion,
      was lower in HCV mouse livers. These findings indicate an uncoupling of the
      canonical Akt/FoxO1 pathway in HCV protein-expressing hepatocytes. Thus, the
      expression of HCV proteins in the liver is sufficient to induce insulin
      resistance by impairing insulin signaling and glucose uptake. In conclusion, we
      observed a complete set of events leading to a prediabetic state in HCV
      transgenic mice, providing a valuable mechanistic explanation for HCV-induced
      diabetes in humans.

PMID- 28559288
TI  - David Oliver: Should practical quality improvement have parity of esteem with
      evidence based medicine?

PMID- 28559289
TI  - Generating minicorneal organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
AB  - Corneal epithelial stem cells residing within the annular limbal crypts regulate
      adult tissue homeostasis. Autologous limbal grafts and tissue-engineered corneal
      epithelial cell sheets have been widely used in the treatment of various ocular
      surface defects. In the case of bilateral limbal defects, pluripotent stem cell
      (PSC)-derived corneal epithelial cells are now being explored as an alternative
      to allogeneic limbal grafts. Here, we report an efficient method to generate
      complex three-dimensional corneal organoids from human PSCs. The eye field
      primordial clusters that emerged from differentiating PSCs developed into whole
      eyeball-like, self-organized, three-dimensional, miniature structures consisting
      of retinal primordia, corneal primordia, a primitive eyelid-like outer covering
      and ciliary margin zone-like adnexal tissues in a stepwise maturation process
      within 15 weeks. These minicorneal organoids recapitulate the early developmental
      events in vitro and display similar anatomical features and marker expression
      profiles to adult corneal tissues. They offer an alternative tissue source for
      regenerating different layers of the cornea and eliminate the need for
      complicated cell enrichment procedures.

PMID- 28559290
TI  - A role for PFKFB3/iPFK2 in metformin suppression of adipocyte inflammatory
      responses.
AB  - Metformin improves obesity-associated metabolic dysregulation, but has
      controversial effects on adipose tissue inflammation. The objective of the study
      is to examine the direct effect of metformin on adipocyte inflammatory responses
      and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Adipocytes were differentiated from 3T3
      L1 cells and treated with metformin at various doses and for different time
      periods. The treated cells were examined for the proinflammatory responses, as
      well as the phosphorylation states of AMPK and the expression of PFKFB3/iPFK2. In
      addition, PFKFB3/iPFK2-knockdown adipocytes were treated with metformin and
      examined for changes in the proinflammatory responses. The following results were
      obtained from the study. Treatment of adipocytes with metformin decreased the
      effects of lipopolysaccharide on inducing the phosphorylation states of JNK p46
      and on increasing the mRNA levels of IL-1beta and TNFalpha. In addition,
      treatment with metformin increased the expression of PFKFB3/iPFK2, but failed to
      significantly alter the phosphorylation states of AMPK. In PFKFB3/iPFK2-knockdown
      adipocytes, treatment with metformin did not suppress the proinflammatory
      responses as did it in control adipocytes. In conclusion, metformin has a direct
      effect on suppressing adipocyte proinflammatory responses in an AMPK-independent
      manner. Also, metformin increases adipocyte expression of PFKFB3/iPFK2, which is
      involved in the anti-inflammatory effect of metformin.

PMID- 28559292
TI  - Brucella abortus Induces a Warburg Shift in Host Metabolism That Is Linked to
      Enhanced Intracellular Survival of the Pathogen.
AB  - Intracellular bacterial pathogens exploit host cell resources to replicate and
      survive inside the host. Targeting these host systems is one promising approach
      to developing novel antimicrobials to treat intracellular infections. We show
      that human macrophage-like cells infected with Brucella abortus undergo a
      metabolic shift characterized by attenuated tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolism,
      reduced amino acid consumption, altered mitochondrial localization, and increased
      lactate production. This shift to an aerobic glycolytic state resembles the
      Warburg effect, a change in energy production that is well described in cancer
      cells and also occurs in activated inflammatory cells. B. abortus efficiently
      uses lactic acid as its sole carbon and energy source and requires the ability to
      metabolize lactate for normal survival in human macrophage-like cells. We
      demonstrate that chemical inhibitors of host glycolysis and lactate production do
      not affect in vitro growth of B. abortus in axenic culture but decrease its
      survival in the intracellular niche. Our data support a model in which infection
      shifts host metabolism to a Warburg-like state, and B. abortus uses this change
      in metabolism to promote intracellular survival. Pharmacological perturbation of
      these features of host cell metabolism may be a useful strategy to inhibit
      infection by intracellular pathogens.IMPORTANCEBrucella spp. are intracellular
      bacterial pathogens that cause disease in a range of mammals, including
      livestock. Transmission from livestock to humans is common and can lead to
      chronic human disease. Human macrophage-like cells infected with Brucella abortus
      undergo a Warburg-like metabolic shift to an aerobic glycolytic state where the
      host cells produce lactic acid and have reduced amino acid catabolism. We provide
      evidence that the pathogen can exploit this change in host metabolism to support
      growth and survival in the intracellular niche. Drugs that inhibit this shift in
      host cell metabolism inhibit intracellular replication and decrease the survival
      of B. abortus in an in vitro infection model; these drugs may be broadly useful
      therapeutics for intracellular infections.

PMID- 28559291
TI  - Interaction of Mycoplasma hominis PG21 with Human Dendritic Cells: Interleukin-23
      Inducing Mycoplasmal Lipoproteins and Inflammasome Activation of the Cell.
AB  - Mycoplasma hominis lacks a cell wall, and lipoproteins anchored to the
      extracellular side of the plasma membrane are in direct contact with the host
      components. A Triton X-114 extract of M. hominis enriched with lipoproteins was
      shown to stimulate the production of interleukin-23 (IL-23) by human dendritic
      cells (hDCs). The inflammasome activation of the host cell has never been
      reported upon M. hominis infection. We studied here the interaction between M.
      hominis PG21 and hDCs by analyzing both the inflammation-inducing mycoplasmal
      lipoproteins and the inflammasome activation of the host cell. IL-23-inducing
      lipoproteins were determined using a sequential extraction strategy with two
      nondenaturing detergents, Sarkosyl and Triton X-114, followed by SDS-PAGE
      separation and mass spectrometry identification. The activation of the hDC
      inflammasome was assessed using PCR array and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA). We defined a list of 24 lipoproteins that could induce the secretion of
      IL-23 by hDCs, 5 with a molecular mass between 20 and 35 kDa and 19 with a
      molecular mass between 40 and 100 kDa. Among them, lipoprotein MHO_4720 was
      identified as potentially bioactive, and a synthetic lipopeptide corresponding to
      the N-terminal part of the lipoprotein was subsequently shown to induce IL-23
      release by hDCs. Regarding the hDC innate immune response, inflammasome
      activation with caspase-dependent production of IL-1beta was observed. After 24 h
      of coincubation of hDCs with M. hominis, downregulation of the NLRP3-encoding
      gene and of the adaptor PYCARD-encoding gene was noticed. Overall, this study
      provides insight into both protagonists of the interaction of M. hominis and
      hDCs.IMPORTANCEMycoplasma hominis is a human urogenital pathogen involved in
      gynecologic and opportunistic infections. M. hominis lacks a cell wall, and its
      membrane contains many lipoproteins that are anchored to the extracellular side
      of the plasma membrane. In the present study, we focused on the interaction
      between M. hominis and human dendritic cells and examined both sides of the
      interaction, the mycoplasmal lipoproteins involved in the activation of the host
      cell and the immune response of the cell. On the mycoplasmal side, we showed for
      the first time that M. hominis lipoproteins with high molecular mass were
      potentially bioactive. On the cell side, we reported an activation of the
      inflammasome, which is involved in the innate immune response.

PMID- 28559293
TI  - A Conserved Metal Binding Motif in the Bacillus subtilis Competence Protein ComFA
      Enhances Transformation.
AB  - Genetic competence is a process in which cells are able to take up DNA from their
      environment, resulting in horizontal gene transfer, a major mechanism for
      generating diversity in bacteria. Many bacteria carry homologs of the central DNA
      uptake machinery that has been well characterized in Bacillus subtilis It has
      been postulated that the B. subtilis competence helicase ComFA belongs to the
      DEAD box family of helicases/translocases. Here, we made a series of mutants to
      analyze conserved amino acid motifs in several regions of B. subtilis ComFA.
      First, we confirmed that ComFA activity requires amino acid residues conserved
      among the DEAD box helicases, and second, we show that a zinc finger-like motif
      consisting of four cysteines is required for efficient transformation. Each
      cysteine in the motif is important, and mutation of at least two of the cysteines
      dramatically reduces transformation efficiency. Further, combining multiple
      cysteine mutations with the helicase mutations shows an additive phenotype. Our
      results suggest that the helicase and metal binding functions are two distinct
      activities important for ComFA function during transformation.IMPORTANCE ComFA is
      a highly conserved protein that has a role in DNA uptake during natural
      competence, a mechanism for horizontal gene transfer observed in many bacteria.
      Investigation of the details of the DNA uptake mechanism is important for
      understanding the ways in which bacteria gain new traits from their environment,
      such as drug resistance. To dissect the role of ComFA in the DNA uptake
      machinery, we introduced point mutations into several motifs in the protein
      sequence. We demonstrate that several amino acid motifs conserved among ComFA
      proteins are important for efficient transformation. This report is the first to
      demonstrate the functional requirement of an amino-terminal cysteine motif in
      ComFA.

PMID- 28559294
TI  - Bypassing the restriction system to improve transformation of Staphylococcus
      epidermidis.
AB  - Staphylococcus epidermidis is the leading cause of infections on indwelling
      medical devices worldwide. Intrinsic antibiotic resistance and vigorous biofilm
      production have rendered these infections difficult to treat and, in some cases,
      require the removal of the offending medical prostheses. With the exception of
      two widely-passaged isolates RP62A and 1457, the pathogenesis of infections
      caused by clinical S. epidermidis strains is poorly understood due to the strong
      genetic barrier that precludes efficient transformation of foreign DNA into
      clinical isolates. The difficulty in transforming clinical S. epidermidis
      isolates is primarily due to the type I and IV restriction modification systems
      which act as genetic barriers. Here, we showed that efficient plasmid
      transformation of clinical S. epidermidis isolates from clonal complexes 2, 10
      and 89 could be realized by employing a plasmid artificial modification (PAM) in
      E. coli DC10B containing a Deltadcm mutation. This transformative technique
      should facilitate our ability to genetically modify clinical isolates of S.
      epidermidis and hence improve our understanding of its pathogenesis in human
      infections.ImportanceStaphylococcus epidermidis is a source of considerable
      morbidity worldwide. The underlying mechanisms contributing to the commensal and
      pathogenic lifestyles of S. epidermidis are poorly understood. Genetic
      manipulations of clinically relevant strains of S. epidermidis are largely
      prohibited due to the presence of a strong restriction barrier. With the
      introductions of the tools presented here, genetic manipulation has now become
      possible with clinically relevant S. epidermidis isolates, thus improving our
      understanding of S. epidermidis as a pathogen.

PMID- 28559296
TI  - Cysteine Biosynthesis Controls Serratia marcescens Phospholipase Activity.
AB  - Serratia marcescens causes health care-associated opportunistic infections that
      can be difficult to treat due to a high incidence of antibiotic resistance. One
      of the many secreted proteins of S. marcescens is the PhlA phospholipase enzyme.
      Genes involved in the production and secretion of PhlA were identified by
      screening a transposon insertion library for phospholipase-deficient mutants on
      phosphatidylcholine-containing medium. Mutations were identified in four genes
      (cyaA, crp, fliJ, and fliP) that are involved in the flagellum-dependent PhlA
      secretion pathway. An additional phospholipase-deficient isolate harbored a
      transposon insertion in the cysE gene encoding a predicted serine O
      acetyltransferase required for cysteine biosynthesis. The cysE requirement for
      extracellular phospholipase activity was confirmed using a fluorogenic
      phospholipase substrate. Phospholipase activity was restored to the cysE mutant
      by the addition of exogenous l-cysteine or O-acetylserine to the culture medium
      and by genetic complementation. Additionally, phlA transcript levels were
      decreased 6-fold in bacteria lacking cysE and were restored with added cysteine,
      indicating a role for cysteine-dependent transcriptional regulation of S.
      marcescens phospholipase activity. S. marcescenscysE mutants also exhibited a
      defect in swarming motility that was correlated with reduced levels of flhD and
      fliA flagellar regulator gene transcription. Together, these findings suggest a
      model in which cysteine is required for the regulation of both extracellular
      phospholipase activity and surface motility in S. marcescensIMPORTANCESerratia
      marcescens is known to secrete multiple extracellular enzymes, but PhlA is
      unusual in that this protein is thought to be exported by the flagellar transport
      apparatus. In this study, we demonstrate that both extracellular phospholipase
      activity and flagellar function are dependent on the cysteine biosynthesis
      pathway. Furthermore, a disruption of cysteine biosynthesis results in decreased
      phlA and flagellar gene transcription, which can be restored by supplying
      bacteria with exogenous cysteine. These results identify a previously
      unrecognized role for CysE and cysteine in the secretion of S. marcescens
      phospholipase and in bacterial motility.

PMID- 28559298
TI  - Phylogenetic and structural comparisons of the three types of methyl-coenzyme M
      reductase from Methanococcales and Methanobacteriales.
AB  - The phylogenetically diverse family of methanogenic archaea universally use
      methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) for catalyzing the final methane-forming
      reaction step of the methanogenic energy metabolism. Some methanogens of the
      orders Methanobacteriales and Methanococcales contain two isoenzymes.
      Comprehensive phylogenetic analyses on the basis of all three subunits grouped
      MCRs from Methanobacteriales, Methanococcales and Methanopyrales into three
      distinct types: (1) MCRs from Methanobacteriales, (2) MCRs from
      Methanobacteriales and Methanococcales and (3) MCRs from Methanococcales. The
      first and second types contain MCR isoenzyme I and II from Methanothermobacter
      marburgensis, respectively; therefore, they were designated as MCR type I and
      type II and accordingly, the third one was designated as MCR type III. For
      comparison with the known MCR type I and type II structures, we determined the
      structure of MCR type III from Methanotorris formicicus and Methanothermococcus
      thermolithotrophicus As predicted, the three MCR types revealed highly similar
      overall structures and a virtually identical active site architecture reflecting
      the chemically challenging mechanism of methane formation. Pronounced differences
      were found at the protein surface with respect to loop geometries and
      electrostatic properties, which also involve the entrance of the active site
      funnel. In addition, the C-terminal end of the gamma-subunit is prolonged by an
      extra helix after helix gamma8 in MCR type II and type III, which is, however,
      differently arranged in the two MCR types. MCR types I, II and III share most of
      the post-translational modifications which appear to fine-tune the enzymatic
      catalysis. Interestingly, MCR type III lacks the methyl-cysteine but possesses in
      subunit alpha of M. formicicus a 6-hydroxy-tryptophan, which has been, so far,
      only found in the alpha-amanitin toxin peptide but not in proteins.IMPORTANCE
      Methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) represents a prime target for the mitigation of
      methane releases. Phylogenetic analyses of MCR suggested several distinct
      sequence clusters; those from Methanobacteriales and Methanococcales were
      subdivided into three types: MCR type I from Methanobacteriales, MCR type II from
      Methanobacteriales and Methanococcales and the newly designated MCR type III
      exclusively from Methanococcales. We determined the first X-ray structures for an
      MCR type III. Detailed analyses only revealed substantial differences between the
      three types in the peripheral region. Identified subtle modifications and
      electrostatic profiles suggested enhanced substrate binding for MCR type III. In
      addition, MCR type III from Methanotorris formicicus contains 6-hydroxy
      tryptophan, a new post-translational modification that was, so far, only found in
      the alpha-amanitin toxin.

PMID- 28559297
TI  - Characterization of a Novel cis-3-Hydroxy-l-Proline Dehydratase and a trans-3
      Hydroxy-l-Proline Dehydratase from Bacteria.
AB  - Hydroxyprolines, such as trans-4-hydroxy-l-proline (T4LHyp), trans-3-hydroxy-l
      proline (T3LHyp), and cis-3-hydroxy-l-proline (C3LHyp), are present in some
      proteins including collagen, plant cell wall, and several peptide antibiotics. In
      bacteria, genes involved in the degradation of hydroxyproline are often clustered
      on the genome (l-Hyp gene cluster). We recently reported that an aconitase X
      (AcnX)-like hypI gene from an l-Hyp gene cluster functions as a monomeric C3LHyp
      dehydratase (AcnXType I). However, the physiological role of C3LHyp dehydratase
      remained unclear. We here demonstrate that Azospirillum brasilense NBRC 102289,
      an aerobic nitrogen-fixing bacterium, robustly grows using not only T4LHyp and
      T3LHyp but also C3LHyp as the sole carbon source. The small and large subunits of
      the hypI gene (hypIS and hypIL, respectively) from A. brasilense NBRC 102289 are
      located separately from the l-Hyp gene cluster and encode a C3LHyp dehydratase
      with a novel heterodimeric structure (AcnXType IIa). A strain disrupted in the
      hypIS gene did not grow on C3LHyp, suggesting its involvement in C3LHyp
      metabolism. Furthermore, C3LHyp induced transcription of not only the hypI genes
      but also the hypK gene encoding Delta1-pyrroline-2-carboxylate reductase, which
      is involved in T3LHyp, d-proline, and d-lysine metabolism. On the other hand, the
      l-Hyp gene cluster of some other bacteria contained not only the AcnXType IIa
      gene but also two putative proline racemase-like genes (hypA1 and hypA2). Despite
      having the same active sites (a pair of Cys/Cys) as hydroxyproline 2-epimerase,
      which is involved in the metabolism of T4LHyp, the dominant reaction by HypA2 was
      clearly the dehydration of T3LHyp, a novel type of T3LHyp dehydratase that
      differed from the known enzyme (Cys/Thr).IMPORTANCE More than 50 years after the
      discovery of trans-4-hydroxy-l-proline (generally called l-hydroxyproline)
      degradation in aerobic bacteria, its genetic and molecular information has only
      recently been elucidated. l-Hydroxyproline metabolic genes are often clustered on
      bacterial genomes. These loci frequently contain a hypothetical gene(s), whose
      novel enzyme functions are related to the metabolism of trans-3-hydroxyl-proline
      and/or cis-3-hydroxyl-proline, a relatively rare l-hydroxyproline in nature.
      Several l-hydroxyproline metabolic enzymes show no sequential similarities,
      suggesting their emergence by convergent evolution. Furthermore, transcriptional
      regulation by trans-4-hydroxy-l-proline, trans-3-hydroxy-l-proline, and/or cis-3
      hydroxy-l-proline significantly differs between bacteria. The results of the
      present study show that several l-hydroxyprolines are available for bacteria as
      carbon and energy sources and may contribute to the discovery of potential
      metabolic pathways of another hydroxyproline(s).

PMID- 28559295
TI  - Polyvalent Proteins, a Pervasive Theme in the Intergenomic Biological Conflicts
      of Bacteriophages and Conjugative Elements.
AB  - Intense biological conflicts between prokaryotic genomes and their genomic
      parasites have resulted in an arms race in terms of the molecular "weaponry"
      deployed on both sides. Using a recursive computational approach, we uncovered a
      remarkable class of multidomain proteins with 2 to 15 domains in the same
      polypeptide deployed by viruses and plasmids in such conflicts. Domain
      architectures and genomic contexts indicate that they are part of a widespread
      conflict strategy involving proteins injected into the host cell along with
      parasite DNA during the earliest phase of infection. Their unique feature is the
      combination of domains with highly disparate biochemical activities in the same
      polypeptide; accordingly, we term them polyvalent proteins. Of the 131 domains in
      polyvalent proteins, a large fraction are enzymatic domains predicted to modify
      proteins, target nucleic acids, alter nucleotide signaling/metabolism, and attack
      peptidoglycan or cytoskeletal components. They further contain nucleic acid
      binding domains, virion structural domains, and 40 novel uncharacterized domains.
      Analysis of their architectural network reveals both pervasive common themes and
      specialized strategies for conjugative elements and plasmids or (pro)phages. The
      themes include likely processing of multidomain polypeptides by zincin-like
      metallopeptidases and mechanisms to counter restriction or CRISPR/Cas systems and
      jump-start transcription or replication. DNA-binding domains acquired by
      eukaryotes from such systems have been reused in XPC/RAD4-dependent DNA repair
      and mitochondrial genome replication in kinetoplastids. Characterization of the
      novel domains discovered here, such as RNases and peptidases, are likely to aid
      in the development of new reagents and elucidation of the spread of antibiotic
      resistance.IMPORTANCE This is the first report of the widespread presence of
      large proteins, termed polyvalent proteins, predicted to be transmitted by
      genomic parasites such as conjugative elements, plasmids, and phages during the
      initial phase of infection along with their DNA. They are typified by the
      presence of multiple domains with disparate activities combined in the same
      protein. While some of these domains are predicted to assist the invasive element
      in replication, transcription, or protection of their DNA, several are likely to
      target various host defense systems or modify the host to favor the parasite's
      life cycle. Notably, DNA-binding domains from these systems have been transferred
      to eukaryotes, where they have been incorporated into DNA repair and
      mitochondrial genome replication systems.

PMID- 28559299
TI  - The Disulfide Bond Formation Pathway Is Essential for Anaerobic Growth of
      Escherichia coli.
AB  - Disulfide bonds are critical to the stability and function of many bacterial
      proteins. In the periplasm of Escherichia coli, intramolecular disulfide bond
      formation is catalyzed by the two-component disulfide bond forming (DSB) system.
      Inactivation of the DSB pathway has been shown to lead to a number of pleotropic
      effects, although cells remain viable under standard laboratory conditions.
      However, we show here that dsb strains of E. coli reversibly filament under
      aerobic conditions and fail to grow anaerobically unless a strong oxidant is
      provided in the growth medium. These findings demonstrate that the background
      disulfide bond formation necessary to maintain the viability of dsb strains is
      oxygen dependent. LptD, a key component of the lipopolysaccharide transport
      system, fails to fold properly in dsb strains exposed to anaerobic conditions,
      suggesting that these mutants may have defects in outer membrane assembly. We
      also show that anaerobic growth of dsb mutants can be restored by suppressor
      mutations in the disulfide bond isomerization system. Overall, our results
      underscore the importance of proper disulfide bond formation to pathways critical
      to E. coli viability under conditions where oxygen is limited.IMPORTANCE While
      the disulfide bond formation (DSB) system of E. coli has been studied for decades
      and has been shown to play an important role in the proper folding of many
      proteins, including some associated with virulence, it was considered dispensable
      for growth under most laboratory conditions. This work represents the first
      attempt to study the effects of the DSB system under strictly anaerobic
      conditions, simulating the environment encountered by pathogenic E. coli strains
      in the human intestinal tract. By demonstrating that the DSB system is essential
      for growth under such conditions, this work suggests that compounds inhibiting
      Dsb enzymes might act not only as antivirulents but also as true antibiotics.

PMID- 28559300
TI  - Rv3852 (H-NS) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is Not Involved in Nucleoid
      Compaction and Virulence Regulation.
AB  - A handful of nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) regulate the vast majority of
      genes in a bacterial cell. H-NS, the histone-like nucleoid-structuring protein,
      is one of these NAPs and protects Escherichia coli from foreign gene expression.
      Though lacking any sequence similarity with E. coli H-NS, Rv3852 was annotated as
      the H-NS ortholog in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as it resembles human histone
      H1. The role of Rv3852 was thoroughly investigated by immunoblotting, subcellular
      localization, construction of an unmarked rv3852 deletion in the M. tuberculosis
      genome, and subsequent analysis of the resulting Deltarv3852 strain. We found
      that Rv3852 was predominantly present in the logarithmic growth phase with a
      decrease in protein abundance in stationary phase. Furthermore, it was strongly
      associated with the cell membrane and not detected in the cytosolic fraction, nor
      was it secreted. The Deltarv3852 strain displayed no growth defect or
      morphological abnormalities. Quantitative measurement of nucleoid localization in
      the Deltarv3852 mutant strain compared to that in the parental H37Rv strain
      showed no difference in nucleoid position or spread. Infection of macrophages as
      well as severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice demonstrated that loss of
      Rv3852 had no detected influence on the virulence of M. tuberculosis We thus
      conclude that M. tuberculosis Rv3852 is not involved in pathogenesis and is not a
      typical NAP. The existence of an as yet undiscovered Rv3852 ortholog cannot be
      excluded, although this role is likely played by the well-characterized Lsr2
      protein.IMPORTANCEMycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of the lung
      infection tuberculosis, claiming more than 1.5 million lives each year. To
      understand the mechanisms of latent infection, where M. tuberculosis can stay
      dormant inside the human host, we require deeper knowledge of the basic biology
      and of the regulatory networks. In our work, we show that Rv3852, previously
      annotated as H-NS, is not a typical nucleoid-associated protein (NAP) as expected
      from its initial annotation. Rv3852 from M. tuberculosis has neither influence on
      nucleoid shape or compaction nor a role in virulence. Our findings reduce the
      repertoire of identified nucleoid-associated proteins in M. tuberculosis to four
      transcription regulators and underline the importance of genetic studies to
      assign a function to bacterial genes.

PMID- 28559302
TI  - Margaret McCartney: The social care system has become inherently unsafe.

PMID- 28559301
TI  - Functional Interaction between the N and C Termini of NhaD Antiporters from
      Halomonas sp. Strain Y2.
AB  - Two NhaD-type antiporters, NhaD1 and NhaD2, from the halotolerant and
      alkaliphilic Halomonas sp. strain Y2, exhibit different physiological functions
      in regard to Na+ and Li+ resistance, although they share high sequence identity.
      In the present study, the truncation of an additional 4 C-terminal residues from
      NhaD2 or an exchange of 39 N-terminal residues between these proteins resulted in
      the complete loss of antiporter activity. Interestingly, combining 39 N-terminal
      residues and 7 C-terminal residues of NhaD2 (N39D2-C7) partially recovered the
      activity for Na+ and Li+ expulsion, as well as complementary growth following
      exposure to 300 mM Na+ and 100 mM Li+ stress. The recovered activity of chimera
      N39D2-C7 indicated that the N and C termini are structurally dependent on each
      other and function synergistically. Furthermore, fluorescence resonance energy
      transfer (FRET) analysis suggested that the N and C termini are relatively close
      in proximity which may account for their synergistic function in ion
      translocation. In the N-terminal region of N39D2-C7, the replacement of Glu38
      with Pro abolished the recovered complementary and transport activities. In
      addition, this amino acid substitution in NhaD2 resulted in a drastically
      decreased complementation ability in Escherichia coli KNabc (level identical to
      that of NhaD1), as well as decreased activity and an altered pH
      profile.IMPORTANCE Limited information on NhaD antiporters supports speculation
      that these antiporters are important for resistance to high salinity and
      alkalinity. Moreover, only a few functional residues have been identified in NhaD
      antiporters, and there is limited literature on the molecular mechanisms of NhaD
      antiporter activity. The altered antiporter abilities of chimeras and mutants in
      this study implicate the functions of the N and C termini, especially Glu38, in
      pH regulation and ion translocation, and, most importantly, the essential roles
      of this negatively charged residue in maintaining the physiological function of
      NhaD2. These findings further our understanding of the molecular mechanism of
      NhaD antiporters for ion transport.

PMID- 28559303
TI  - TRPC1 is a differential regulator of hypoxia-mediated events and Akt signalling
      in PTEN-deficient breast cancer cells.
AB  - Hypoxia is a feature of the tumour microenvironment that promotes invasiveness,
      resistance to chemotherapeutics and cell survival. Our studies identify the
      transient receptor potential canonical-1 (TRPC1) ion channel as a key component
      of responses to hypoxia in breast cancer cells. This regulation includes control
      of specific epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) events and hypoxia
      mediated activation of signalling pathways such as activation of the EGFR, STAT3
      and the autophagy marker LC3B, through hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha
      (HIF1alpha)-dependent and -independent mechanisms. TRPC1 regulated HIF1alpha
      levels in PTEN-deficient MDA-MB-468 and HCC1569 breast cancer cell lines. This
      regulation arises from effects on the constitutive translation of HIF1alpha under
      normoxic conditions via an Akt-dependent pathway. In further support of the role
      of TRPC1 in EMT, its expression is closely associated with EMT- and metastasis
      related genes in breast tumours, and is enhanced in basal B breast cancer cell
      lines. TRPC1 expression is also significantly prognostic for basal breast
      cancers, particularly those classified as lymph node positive. The defined roles
      of TRPC1 identified here could be therapeutically exploited for the control of
      oncogenic pathways in breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28559304
TI  - Transcription regulation mechanism of the syntaxin 1A gene via protein kinase A.
AB  - Syntaxin 1A (Stx1a) is primarily involved in the docking of synaptic vesicles at
      active zones in neurons. Its gene is a TATA-less gene, with several transcription
      initiation sites, which is activated by the binding of Sp1 and acetylated histone
      H3 (H3) in the core promoter region (CPR) through the derepression of class I
      histone deacetylase (HDAC). In the present study, to clarify the factor
      characterizing Stx1a gene expression via the protein kinase A (PKA) pathway
      inducing the Stx1a mRNA, we investigated whether the epigenetic process is
      involved in the Stx1a gene transcription induced by PKA signaling. We found that
      the PKA activator forskolin induced Stx1a expression in non-neuronal cells, FRSK
      and 3Y1, which do not endogenously express Stx1a, unlike PC12. HDAC8 inhibition
      by shRNA knockdown and specific inhibitors induced Stx1a expression in FRSK. The
      PKA inhibitor H89 suppressed HDAC8-Ser39 phosphorylation, H3 acetylation and
      Stx1a induction by forskolin in FRSK cells. Finally, we also found that forskolin
      led to the dissociation of HDAC8-CPR interaction and the association of Sp1 and
      Ac-H3 to CPR in FRSK. The results of the current study suggest that forskolin
      phosphorylates HDAC8-Ser39 via the PKA pathway and increases histone H3
      acetylation in cells expressing HDAC8, resulting in the induction of the Stx1a
      gene.

PMID- 28559305
TI  - Biochemical and functional characterization of the human tissue kallikrein 9.
AB  - Human tissue kallikrein 9 (KLK9) is a member of the kallikrein-related family of
      proteases. Despite its known expression profile, much less is known about the
      functional roles of this protease and its implications in normal physiology and
      disease. We present here the first data on the biochemical characterization of
      KLK9, investigate parameters that affect its enzymatic activity (such as
      inhibitors) and provide preliminary insights into its putative substrates. We
      show that mature KLK9 is a glycosylated chymotrypsin-like enzyme with strong
      preference for tyrosine over phenylalanine at the P1 cleavage position. The
      enzyme activity is enhanced by Mg2+ and Ca2+, but is reversibly attenuated by
      Zn2+ KLK9 is inhibited in vitro by many naturally occurring or synthetic protease
      inhibitors. Using a combination of degradomic and substrate specificity assays,
      we identified candidate KLK9 substrates in two different epithelial cell lines
      [the non-tumorigenic human keratinocyte cells (HaCaT) and the tumorigenic tongue
      squamous carcinoma cells (SCC9)]. Two potential KLK9 substrates [KLK10 and
      midkine (MDK)] were subjected to further validation. Taken together, our data
      delineate some functional and biochemical properties of KLK9 for future
      elucidation of the role of this enzyme in health and disease.

PMID- 28559306
TI  - A helicase-independent activity of eIF4A in promoting mRNA recruitment to the
      human ribosome.
AB  - In the scanning model of translation initiation, the decoding site and latch of
      the 40S subunit must open to allow the recruitment and migration of messenger RNA
      (mRNA); however, the precise molecular details for how initiation factors
      regulate mRNA accommodation into the decoding site have not yet been elucidated.
      Eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 3j is a subunit of eIF3 that binds to the mRNA
      entry channel and A-site of the 40S subunit. Previous studies have shown that a
      reduced affinity of eIF3j for the 43S preinitiation complex (PIC) occurs on eIF4F
      dependent mRNA recruitment. Because eIF3j and mRNA bind anticooperatively to the
      43S PIC, reduced eIF3j affinity likely reflects a state of full accommodation of
      mRNA into the decoding site. Here, we have used a fluorescence-based anisotropy
      assay to quantitatively determine how initiation components coordinate their
      activities to reduce the affinity of eIF3j during the recruitment of mRNA to the
      43S PIC. Unexpectedly, we show that a full reduction in eIF3j affinity for the
      43S PIC requires an ATP-dependent, but unwinding-independent, activity of eIF4A.
      This result suggests that in addition to its helicase activity, eIF4A uses the
      free energy of ATP binding and hydrolysis as a regulatory switch to control the
      conformation of the 43S PIC during mRNA recruitment. Therefore, our results
      define eIF4A as a universal initiation factor in cap-dependent translation
      initiation that functions beyond its role in RNA unwinding.

PMID- 28559308
TI  - Quantum critical scaling and fluctuations in Kondo lattice materials.
AB  - We propose a phenomenological framework for three classes of Kondo lattice
      materials that incorporates the interplay between the fluctuations associated
      with the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point and those produced by the
      hybridization quantum critical point that marks the end of local moment behavior.
      We show that these fluctuations give rise to two distinct regions of quantum
      critical scaling: Hybridization fluctuations are responsible for the logarithmic
      scaling in the density of states of the heavy electron Kondo liquid that emerges
      below the coherence temperature [Formula: see text], whereas the unconventional
      power law scaling in the resistivity that emerges at lower temperatures below
      [Formula: see text] may reflect the combined effects of hybridization and
      antiferromagnetic quantum critical fluctuations. Our framework is supported by
      experimental measurements on CeCoIn5, CeRhIn5, and other heavy electron
      materials.

PMID- 28559310
TI  - Disparate foundations of scientists' policy positions on contentious biomedical
      research.
AB  - What drives scientists' position taking on matters where empirical answers are
      unavailable or contradictory? We examined the contentious debate on whether to
      limit experiments involving the creation of potentially pandemic pathogens.
      Hundreds of scientists, including Nobel laureates, have signed petitions on the
      debate, providing unique insights into how scientists take a public stand on
      important scientific policies. Using 19,257 papers published by participants, we
      reconstructed their collaboration networks and research specializations. Although
      we found significant peer associations overall, those opposing "gain-of-function"
      research are more sensitive to peers than are proponents. Conversely,
      specializing in fields directly related to gain-of-function research (immunology,
      virology) predicts public support better than specializing in fields related to
      potential pathogenic risks (such as public health) predicts opposition. These
      findings suggest that different social processes might drive support compared
      with opposition. Supporters are embedded in a tight-knit scholarly community that
      is likely both more familiar with and trusting of the relevant risk mitigation
      practices. Opponents, on the other hand, are embedded in a looser federation of
      widely varying academic specializations with cognate knowledge of disease and
      epidemics that seems to draw more heavily on peers. Understanding how scientists'
      social embeddedness shapes the policy actions they take is important for helping
      sides interpret each other's position accurately, avoiding echo-chamber effects,
      and protecting the role of scientific expertise in social policy.

PMID- 28559307
TI  - Cortical neurons multiplex reward-related signals along with sensory and motor
      information.
AB  - Rewards are known to influence neural activity associated with both motor
      preparation and execution. This influence can be exerted directly upon the
      primary motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortical areas via the projections from
      reward-sensitive dopaminergic neurons of the midbrain ventral tegmental areas.
      However, the neurophysiological manifestation of reward-related signals in M1 and
      S1 are not well understood. Particularly, it is unclear how the neurons in these
      cortical areas multiplex their traditional functions related to the control of
      spatial and temporal characteristics of movements with the representation of
      rewards. To clarify this issue, we trained rhesus monkeys to perform a center-out
      task in which arm movement direction, reward timing, and magnitude were
      manipulated independently. Activity of several hundred cortical neurons was
      simultaneously recorded using chronically implanted microelectrode arrays. Many
      neurons (9-27%) in both M1 and S1 exhibited activity related to reward
      anticipation. Additionally, neurons in these areas responded to a mismatch
      between the reward amount given to the monkeys and the amount they expected: A
      lower-than-expected reward caused a transient increase in firing rate in 60-80%
      of the total neuronal sample, whereas a larger-than-expected reward resulted in a
      decreased firing rate in 20-35% of the neurons. Moreover, responses of M1 and S1
      neurons to reward omission depended on the direction of movements that led to
      those rewards. These observations suggest that sensorimotor cortical neurons
      corepresent rewards and movement-related activity, presumably to enable reward
      based learning.

PMID- 28559309
TI  - miR-183/96 plays a pivotal regulatory role in mouse photoreceptor maturation and
      maintenance.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to be essential for retinal maturation and
      functionality; however, the role of the most abundant miRNAs, the miR-183/96/182
      cluster (miR-183 cluster), in photoreceptor cells remains unclear. Here we
      demonstrate that ablation of two components of the miR-183 cluster, miR-183 and
      miR-96, significantly affects photoreceptor maturation and maintenance in mice.
      Morphologically, early-onset dislocated cone nuclei, shortened outer segments and
      thinned outer nuclear layers are observed in the miR-183/96 double-knockout (DKO)
      mice. Abnormal photoreceptor responses, including abolished photopic
      electroretinography (ERG) responses and compromised scotopic ERG responses,
      reflect the functional changes in the degenerated retina. We further identify
      Slc6a6 as the cotarget of miR-183 and miR-96. The expression level of Slc6a6 is
      significantly higher in the DKO mice than in the wild-type mice. In contrast,
      Slc6a6 is down-regulated by adeno-associated virus-mediated overexpression of
      either miR-183 or miR-96 in wild-type mice. Remarkably, both silencing and
      overexpression of Slc6a6 in the retina are detrimental to the
      electrophysiological activity of the photoreceptors in response to dim light
      stimuli. We demonstrate that miR-183/96-mediated fine-tuning of Slc6a6 expression
      is indispensable for photoreceptor maturation and maintenance, thereby providing
      insight into the epigenetic regulation of photoreceptors in mice.

PMID- 28559311
TI  - Characterization of the scrambling domain of the TMEM16 family.
AB  - The TMEM16 protein family has 10 members, each of which carries 10 transmembrane
      segments. TMEM16A and 16B are Ca2+-activated Cl- channels. Several other members,
      including TMEM16F, promote phospholipid scrambling between the inner and outer
      leaflets of a cell membrane in response to intracellular Ca2+ However, the
      mechanism by which TMEM16 proteins translocate phospholipids in plasma membranes
      remains elusive. Here we show that Ca2+-activated, TMEM16F-supported phospholipid
      scrambling proceeds at 4  degrees C. Similar to TMEM16F and 16E, seven TMEM16
      family members were found to carry a domain (SCRD; scrambling domain) spanning
      the fourth and fifth transmembrane segments that conferred scrambling ability to
      TMEM16A. By introducing point mutations into TMEM16F, we found that a lysine in
      the fourth transmembrane segment of the SCRD as well as an arginine in the third
      and a glutamic acid in the sixth transmembrane segment were important for
      exposing phosphatidylserine from the inner to the outer leaflet. However, their
      role in internalizing phospholipids was limited. Our results suggest that TMEM16
      provides a cleft containing hydrophilic "stepping stones" for the outward
      translocation of phospholipids.

PMID- 28559312
TI  - Synchrony affects Taylor's law in theory and data.
AB  - Taylor's law (TL) is a widely observed empirical pattern that relates the
      variances to the means of groups of nonnegative measurements via an approximate
      power law: variance g ~ a [Formula: see text] mean gb , where g indexes the group
      of measurements. When each group of measurements is distributed in space, the
      exponent b of this power law is conjectured to reflect aggregation in the spatial
      distribution. TL has had practical application in many areas since its initial
      demonstrations for the population density of spatially distributed species in
      population ecology. Another widely observed aspect of populations is spatial
      synchrony, which is the tendency for time series of population densities measured
      in different locations to be correlated through time. Recent studies showed that
      patterns of population synchrony are changing, possibly as a consequence of
      climate change. We use mathematical, numerical, and empirical approaches to show
      that synchrony affects the validity and parameters of TL. Greater synchrony
      typically decreases the exponent b of TL. Synchrony influenced TL in essentially
      all of our analytic, numerical, randomization-based, and empirical examples.
      Given the near ubiquity of synchrony in nature, it seems likely that synchrony
      influences the exponent of TL widely in ecologically and economically important
      systems.

PMID- 28559314
TI  - Deciphering the landscape of host barriers to Listeria monocytogenes infection.
AB  - Listeria monocytogenes is a common food-borne pathogen that can disseminate from
      the intestine and infect multiple organs. Here, we used sequence tag-based
      analysis of microbial populations (STAMP) to investigate Lmonocytogenes
      population dynamics during infection. We created a genetically barcoded library
      of murinized Lmonocytogenes and then used deep sequencing to track the pathogen's
      dissemination routes and quantify its founding population (Nb) sizes in different
      organs. We found that the pathogen disseminates from the gastrointestinal tract
      to distal sites through multiple independent routes and that Nb sizes vary
      greatly among tissues, indicative of diverse host barriers to infection.
      Unexpectedly, comparative analyses of sequence tags revealed that fecally
      excreted organisms are largely derived from the very small number of L.
      monocytogenes cells that colonize the gallbladder. Immune depletion studies
      suggest that distinct innate immune cells restrict the pathogen's capacity to
      establish replicative niches in the spleen and liver. Finally, studies in germ
      free mice suggest that the microbiota plays a critical role in the development of
      the splenic, but not the hepatic, barriers that prevent L. monocytogenes from
      seeding these organs. Collectively, these observations illustrate the potency of
      the STAMP approach to decipher the impact of host factors on population dynamics
      of pathogens during infection.

PMID- 28559315
TI  - Historical climate controls soil respiration responses to current soil moisture.
AB  - Ecosystem carbon losses from soil microbial respiration are a key component of
      global carbon cycling, resulting in the transfer of 40-70 Pg carbon from soil to
      the atmosphere each year. Because these microbial processes can feed back to
      climate change, understanding respiration responses to environmental factors is
      necessary for improved projections. We focus on respiration responses to soil
      moisture, which remain unresolved in ecosystem models. A common assumption of
      large-scale models is that soil microorganisms respond to moisture in the same
      way, regardless of location or climate. Here, we show that soil respiration is
      constrained by historical climate. We find that historical rainfall controls both
      the moisture dependence and sensitivity of respiration. Moisture sensitivity,
      defined as the slope of respiration vs. moisture, increased fourfold across a 480
      mm rainfall gradient, resulting in twofold greater carbon loss on average in
      historically wetter soils compared with historically drier soils. The respiration
      moisture relationship was resistant to environmental change in field common
      gardens and field rainfall manipulations, supporting a persistent effect of
      historical climate on microbial respiration. Based on these results, predicting
      future carbon cycling with climate change will require an understanding of the
      spatial variation and temporal lags in microbial responses created by historical
      rainfall.

PMID- 28559313
TI  - Arabidopsis JASMONATE-INDUCED OXYGENASES down-regulate plant immunity by
      hydroxylation and inactivation of the hormone jasmonic acid.
AB  - The phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) is vital in plant defense and development.
      Although biosynthesis of JA and activation of JA-responsive gene expression by
      the bioactive form JA-isoleucine have been well-studied, knowledge on JA
      metabolism is incomplete. In particular, the enzyme that hydroxylates JA to 12-OH
      JA, an inactive form of JA that accumulates after wounding and pathogen attack,
      is unknown. Here, we report the identification of four paralogous 2
      oxoglutarate/Fe(II)-dependent oxygenases in Arabidopsis thaliana as JA
      hydroxylases and show that they down-regulate JA-dependent responses. Because
      they are induced by JA we named them JASMONATE-INDUCED OXYGENASES (JOXs).
      Concurrent mutation of the four genes in a quadruple Arabidopsis mutant resulted
      in increased defense gene expression and increased resistance to the necrotrophic
      fungus Botrytis cinerea and the caterpillar Mamestra brassicae In addition, root
      and shoot growth of the plants was inhibited. Metabolite analysis of leaves
      showed that loss of function of the four JOX enzymes resulted in overaccumulation
      of JA and in reduced turnover of JA into 12-OH-JA. Transformation of the
      quadruple mutant with each JOX gene strongly reduced JA levels, demonstrating
      that all four JOXs inactivate JA in plants. The in vitro catalysis of 12-OH-JA
      from JA by recombinant enzyme could be confirmed for three JOXs. The
      identification of the enzymes responsible for hydroxylation of JA reveals a
      missing step in JA metabolism, which is important for the inactivation of the
      hormone and subsequent down-regulation of JA-dependent defenses.

PMID- 28559316
TI  - Electron localization in rod-shaped triicosahedral gold nanocluster.
AB  - Atomically precise gold nanocluster based on linear assembly of repeating
      icosahedrons (clusters of clusters) is a unique type of linear nanostructure,
      which exhibits strong near-infrared absorption as their free electrons are
      confined in a one-dimensional quantum box. Little is known about the carrier
      dynamics in these nanoclusters, which limit their energy-related applications.
      Here, we reported the observation of exciton localization in triicosahedral Au37
      nanoclusters (0.5 nm in diameter and 1.6 nm in length) by measuring femtosecond
      and nanosecond carrier dynamics. Upon photoexcitation to S1 electronic state,
      electrons in Au37 undergo ~100-ps localization from the two vertexes of three
      icosahedrons to one vertex, forming a long-lived S1* state. Such phenomenon is
      not observed in Au25 (dimer) and Au13 (monomer) consisting of two and one
      icosahedrons, respectively. We have further observed temperature dependence on
      the localization process, which proves it is thermally driven. Two excited-state
      vibration modes with frequencies of 20 and 70 cm-1 observed in the kinetic traces
      are assigned to the axial and radial breathing modes, respectively. The electron
      localization is ascribed to the structural distortion of Au37 in the excited
      state induced by the strong coherent vibrations. The observed electron
      localization phenomenon provides unique physical insight into one-dimensional
      gold nanoclusters and other nanostructures, which will advance their applications
      in solar-energy storage and conversion.

PMID- 28559317
TI  - Structure-guided evolution of antigenically distinct adeno-associated virus
      variants for immune evasion.
AB  - Preexisting neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against adeno-associated viruses
      (AAVs) pose a major, unresolved challenge that restricts patient enrollment in
      gene therapy clinical trials using recombinant AAV vectors. Structural studies
      suggest that despite a high degree of sequence variability, antibody recognition
      sites or antigenic hotspots on AAVs and other related parvoviruses might be
      evolutionarily conserved. To test this hypothesis, we developed a structure
      guided evolution approach that does not require selective pressure exerted by
      NAbs. This strategy yielded highly divergent antigenic footprints that do not
      exist in natural AAV isolates. Specifically, synthetic variants obtained by
      evolving murine antigenic epitopes on an AAV serotype 1 capsid template can evade
      NAbs without compromising titer, transduction efficiency, or tissue tropism. One
      lead AAV variant generated by combining multiple evolved antigenic sites
      effectively evades polyclonal anti-AAV1 neutralizing sera from immunized mice and
      rhesus macaques. Furthermore, this variant displays robust immune evasion in
      nonhuman primate and human serum samples at dilution factors as high as 1:5,
      currently mandated by several clinical trials. Our results provide evidence that
      antibody recognition of AAV capsids is conserved across species. This approach
      can be applied to any AAV strain to evade NAbs in prospective patients for human
      gene therapy.

PMID- 28559318
TI  - A mechanism for lipid binding to apoE and the role of intrinsically disordered
      regions coupled to domain-domain interactions.
AB  - Relative to the apolipoprotein E (apoE) E3 allele of the APOE gene, apoE4
      strongly increases the risk for the development of late-onset Alzheimer's
      disease. However, apoE4 differs from apoE3 by only a single amino acid at
      position 112, which is arginine in apoE4 and cysteine in apoE3. It remains
      unclear why apoE3 and apoE4 are functionally different. Described here is a
      proposal for understanding the functional differences between these two isoforms
      with respect to lipid binding. A mechanism is proposed that is based on the full
      length monomeric structure of the protein, on hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass
      spectrometry data, and on the role of intrinsically disordered regions to control
      protein motions. It is proposed that lipid binds between the N-terminal and C
      terminal domains and that separation of the two domains, along with the presence
      of intrinsically disordered regions, controls this process. The mechanism
      explains why apoE3 differs from apoE4 with respect to different lipid-binding
      specificities, why lipid increases the binding of apoE to its receptor, and why
      specific residues are conserved.

PMID- 28559321
TI  - QnAs with Alta Charo and George Church.

PMID- 28559320
TI  - Visual cortex entrains to sign language.
AB  - Despite immense variability across languages, people can learn to understand any
      human language, spoken or signed. What neural mechanisms allow people to
      comprehend language across sensory modalities? When people listen to speech,
      electrophysiological oscillations in auditory cortex entrain to slow ([Formula:
      see text]8 Hz) fluctuations in the acoustic envelope. Entrainment to the speech
      envelope may reflect mechanisms specialized for auditory perception.
      Alternatively, flexible entrainment may be a general-purpose cortical mechanism
      that optimizes sensitivity to rhythmic information regardless of modality. Here,
      we test these proposals by examining cortical coherence to visual information in
      sign language. First, we develop a metric to quantify visual change over time. We
      find quasiperiodic fluctuations in sign language, characterized by lower
      frequencies than fluctuations in speech. Next, we test for entrainment of neural
      oscillations to visual change in sign language, using electroencephalography
      (EEG) in fluent speakers of American Sign Language (ASL) as they watch videos in
      ASL. We find significant cortical entrainment to visual oscillations in sign
      language <5 Hz, peaking at [Formula: see text]1 Hz. Coherence to sign is
      strongest over occipital and parietal cortex, in contrast to speech, where
      coherence is strongest over the auditory cortex. Nonsigners also show coherence
      to sign language, but entrainment at frontal sites is reduced relative to fluent
      signers. These results demonstrate that flexible cortical entrainment to language
      does not depend on neural processes that are specific to auditory speech
      perception. Low-frequency oscillatory entrainment may reflect a general cortical
      mechanism that maximizes sensitivity to informational peaks in time-varying
      signals.

PMID- 28559319
TI  - Myosin Va's adaptor protein melanophilin enforces track selection on the
      microtubule and actin networks in vitro.
AB  - Pigment organelles, or melanosomes, are transported by kinesin, dynein, and
      myosin motors. As such, melanosome transport is an excellent model system to
      study the functional relationship between the microtubule- and actin-based
      transport systems. In mammalian melanocytes, it is well known that the
      Rab27a/melanophilin/myosin Va complex mediates actin-based transport in vivo.
      However, pathways that regulate the overall directionality of melanosomes on the
      actin/microtubule networks have not yet been delineated. Here, we investigated
      the role of PKA-dependent phosphorylation on the activity of the actin-based
      Rab27a/melanophilin/myosin Va transport complex in vitro. We found that
      melanophilin, specifically its C-terminal actin-binding domain (ABD), is a target
      of PKA. Notably, in vitro phosphorylation of the ABD closely recapitulated the
      previously described in vivo phosphorylation pattern. Unexpectedly, we found that
      phosphorylation of the ABD affected neither the interaction of the complex with
      actin nor its movement along actin tracks. Surprisingly, the phosphorylation
      state of melanophilin was instead important for reversible association with
      microtubules in vitro. Dephosphorylated melanophilin preferred binding to
      microtubules even in the presence of actin, whereas phosphorylated melanophilin
      associated with actin. Indeed, when actin and microtubules were present
      simultaneously, melanophilin's phosphorylation state enforced track selection of
      the Rab27a/melanophilin/myosin Va transport complex. Collectively, our results
      unmasked the regulatory dominance of the melanophilin adaptor protein over its
      associated motor and offer an unexpected mechanism by which filaments of the
      cytoskeletal network compete for the moving organelles to accomplish directional
      transport on the cytoskeleton in vivo.

PMID- 28559322
TI  - Estimating the parameters of background selection and selective sweeps in
      Drosophila in the presence of gene conversion.
AB  - We used whole-genome resequencing data from a population of Drosophila
      melanogaster to investigate the causes of the negative correlation between the
      within-population synonymous nucleotide site diversity (piS ) of a gene and its
      degree of divergence from related species at nonsynonymous nucleotide sites (KA
      ). By using the estimated distributions of mutational effects on fitness at
      nonsynonymous and UTR sites, we predicted the effects of background selection at
      sites within a gene on piS and found that these could account for only part of
      the observed correlation between piS and KA We developed a model of the effects
      of selective sweeps that included gene conversion as well as crossing over. We
      used this model to estimate the average strength of selection on positively
      selected mutations in coding sequences and in UTRs, as well as the proportions of
      new mutations that are selectively advantageous. Genes with high levels of
      selective constraint on nonsynonymous sites were found to have lower strengths of
      positive selection and lower proportions of advantageous mutations than genes
      with low levels of constraint. Overall, background selection and selective sweeps
      within a typical gene reduce its synonymous diversity to ~75% of its value in the
      absence of selection, with larger reductions for genes with high KA Gene
      conversion has a major effect on the estimates of the parameters of positive
      selection, such that the estimated strength of selection on favorable mutations
      is greatly reduced if it is ignored.

PMID- 28559324
TI  - Bacteria exploit a polymorphic instability of the flagellar filament to escape
      from traps.
AB  - Many bacterial species swim by rotating single polar helical flagella. Depending
      on the direction of rotation, they can swim forward or backward and change
      directions to move along chemical gradients but also to navigate their obstructed
      natural environment in soils, sediments, or mucus. When they get stuck, they
      naturally try to back out, but they can also resort to a radically different
      flagellar mode, which we discovered here. Using high-speed microscopy, we
      monitored the swimming behavior of the monopolarly flagellated species Shewanella
      putrefaciens with fluorescently labeled flagellar filaments at an agarose-glass
      interface. We show that, when a cell gets stuck, the polar flagellar filament
      executes a polymorphic change into a spiral-like form that wraps around the cell
      body in a spiral-like fashion and enables the cell to escape by a screw-like
      backward motion. Microscopy and modeling suggest that this propagation mode is
      triggered by an instability of the flagellum under reversal of the rotation and
      the applied torque. The switch is reversible and bacteria that have escaped the
      trap can return to their normal swimming mode by another reversal of motor
      direction. The screw-type flagellar arrangement enables a unique mode of
      propagation and, given the large number of polarly flagellated bacteria, we
      expect it to be a common and widespread escape or motility mode in complex and
      structured environments.

PMID- 28559323
TI  - Contacts between the endoplasmic reticulum and other membranes in neurons.
AB  - Close appositions between the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and
      other intracellular membranes have important functions in cell physiology. These
      include lipid homeostasis, regulation of Ca2+ dynamics, and control of organelle
      biogenesis and dynamics. Although these membrane contacts have previously been
      observed in neurons, their distribution and abundance have not been
      systematically analyzed. Here, we have used focused ion beam-scanning electron
      microscopy to generate 3D reconstructions of intracellular organelles and their
      membrane appositions involving the ER (distance <=30 nm) in different neuronal
      compartments. ER-plasma membrane (PM) contacts were particularly abundant in cell
      bodies, with large, flat ER cisternae apposed to the PM, sometimes with a notably
      narrow lumen (thin ER). Smaller ER-PM contacts occurred throughout dendrites,
      axons, and in axon terminals. ER contacts with mitochondria were abundant in all
      compartments, with the ER often forming a network that embraced mitochondria.
      Small focal contacts were also observed with tubulovesicular structures, likely
      to be endosomes, and with sparse multivesicular bodies and lysosomes found in our
      reconstructions. Our study provides an anatomical reference for interpreting
      information about interorganelle communication in neurons emerging from
      functional and biochemical studies.

PMID- 28559326
TI  - Evidence for self-organization in determining spatial patterns of stream
      nutrients, despite primacy of the geomorphic template.
AB  - Nutrients in freshwater ecosystems are highly variable in space and time.
      Nevertheless, the variety of processes contributing to nutrient patchiness, and
      the wide range of spatial and temporal scales at which these processes operate,
      obfuscate how this spatial heterogeneity is generated. Here, we describe the
      spatial structure of stream nutrient concentration, quantify the relative
      importance of the physical template and biological processes, and detect and
      evaluate the role of self-organization in driving such patterns. We examined
      nutrient spatial patterns in Sycamore Creek, an intermittent desert stream in
      Arizona that experienced an ecosystem regime shift [from a gravel/algae-dominated
      to a vascular plant-dominated (hereafter, "wetland") system] in 2000 when cattle
      grazing ceased. We conducted high-resolution nutrient surveys in surface water
      along a 10-km stream reach over four visits spanning 18 y (1995-2013) that
      represent different successional stages and prewetland stage vs. postwetland
      state. As expected, groundwater upwelling had a major influence on nutrient
      spatial patterns. However, self-organization realized by the mechanism of spatial
      feedbacks also was significant and intensified over ecosystem succession, as a
      resource (nitrogen) became increasingly limiting. By late succession, the effects
      of internal spatial feedbacks and groundwater upwelling were approximately equal
      in magnitude. Wetland establishment influenced nutrient spatial patterns only
      indirectly, by modifying the extent of surface water/groundwater exchange. This
      study illustrates that multiple mechanisms interact in a dynamic way to create
      spatial heterogeneity in riverine ecosystems, and provides a means to detect
      spatial self-organization against physical template heterogeneity as a dominant
      driver of spatial patterns.

PMID- 28559325
TI  - Input timing for spatial processing is precisely tuned via constant synaptic
      delays and myelination patterns in the auditory brainstem.
AB  - Precise timing of synaptic inputs is a fundamental principle of neural circuit
      processing. The temporal precision of postsynaptic input integration is known to
      vary with the computational requirements of a circuit, yet how the timing of
      action potentials is tuned presynaptically to match these processing demands is
      not well understood. In particular, action potential timing is shaped by the
      axonal conduction velocity and the duration of synaptic transmission delays
      within a pathway. However, it is not known to what extent these factors are
      adapted to the functional constraints of the respective circuit. Here, we report
      the finding of activity-invariant synaptic transmission delays as a functional
      adaptation for input timing adjustment in a brainstem sound localization circuit.
      We compared axonal and synaptic properties of the same pathway between two
      species with dissimilar timing requirements (gerbil and mouse): In gerbils (like
      humans), neuronal processing of sound source location requires exceptionally high
      input precision in the range of microseconds, but not in mice. Activity-invariant
      synaptic transmission and conduction delays were present exclusively in fast
      conducting axons of gerbils that also exhibited unusual structural adaptations in
      axon myelination for increased conduction velocity. In contrast, synaptic
      transmission delays in mice varied depending on activity levels, and axonal
      myelination and conduction velocity exhibited no adaptations. Thus, the
      specializations in gerbils and their absence in mice suggest an optimization of
      axonal and synaptic properties to the specific demands of sound localization.
      These findings significantly advance our understanding of structural and
      functional adaptations for circuit processing.

PMID- 28559327
TI  - Deformable and conformal silk hydrogel inverse opal.
AB  - Photonic crystals (PhCs) efficiently manipulate photons at the nanoscale.
      Applying these crystals to biological tissue that has been subjected to large
      deformation and humid environments can lead to fascinating bioapplications such
      as in vivo biosensors and artificial ocular prostheses. These applications
      require that these PhCs have mechanical durability, deformability, and
      biocompatibility. Herein, we introduce a deformable and conformal silk hydrogel
      inverse opal (SHIO); the photonic lattice of this 3D PhC can be deformed by
      mechanical strain. This SHIO is prepared by the UV cross-linking of a liquid
      stilbene/silk solution, to give a transparent and elastic hydrogel. The
      pseudophotonic band gap (pseudo-PBG) of this material can be stably tuned by
      deformation of the photonic lattice (stretching, bending, and compressing). Proof
      of-concept experiments demonstrate that the SHIO can be applied as an ocular
      prosthesis for better vision, such as that provided by the tapeta lucida of
      nocturnal or deep-sea animals.

PMID- 28559328
TI  - Photoactivation mechanism of a carotenoid-based photoreceptor.
AB  - Photoprotection is essential for efficient photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria have
      evolved a unique photoprotective mechanism mediated by a water-soluble carotenoid
      based photoreceptor known as orange carotenoid protein (OCP). OCP undergoes large
      conformational changes in response to intense blue light, and the photoactivated
      OCP facilitates dissipation of excess energy via direct interaction with
      allophycocyanins at the phycobilisome core. However, the structural events
      leading up to the OCP photoactivation remain elusive at the molecular level. Here
      we present direct observations of light-induced structural changes in OCP
      captured by dynamic crystallography. Difference electron densities between the
      dark and illuminated states reveal widespread and concerted atomic motions that
      lead to altered protein-pigment interactions, displacement of secondary
      structures, and domain separation. Based on these crystallographic observations
      together with site-directed mutagenesis, we propose a molecular mechanism for OCP
      light perception, in which the photochemical property of a conjugated carbonyl
      group is exploited. We hypothesize that the OCP photoactivation starts with keto
      enol tautomerization of the essential 4-keto group in the carotenoid, which
      disrupts the strong hydrogen bonds between the bent chromophore and the protein
      moiety. Subsequent structural changes trapped in the crystal lattice offer a high
      resolution glimpse of the initial molecular events as OCP begins to transition
      from the orange-absorbing state to the active red-absorbing state.

PMID- 28559330
TI  - Positive association between population genetic differentiation and speciation
      rates in New World birds.
AB  - An implicit assumption of speciation biology is that population differentiation
      is an important stage of evolutionary diversification, but its significance as a
      rate-limiting control on phylogenetic speciation dynamics remains largely
      untested. If population differentiation within a species is related to its
      speciation rate over evolutionary time, the causes of differentiation could also
      be driving dynamics of organismal diversity across time and space. Alternatively,
      geographic variants might be short-lived entities with rates of formation that
      are unlinked to speciation rates, in which case the causes of differentiation
      would have only ephemeral impacts. By pairing population genetics datasets from
      173 New World bird species (>17,000 individuals) with phylogenetic estimates of
      speciation rate, we show that the population differentiation rates within species
      are positively correlated with their speciation rates over long timescales.
      Although population differentiation rate explains relatively little of the
      variation in speciation rate among lineages, the positive relationship between
      differentiation rate and speciation rate is robust to species-delimitation
      schemes and to alternative measures of both rates. Population differentiation
      occurs at least three times faster than speciation, which suggests that most
      populations are ephemeral. Speciation and population differentiation rates are
      more tightly linked in tropical species than in temperate species, consistent
      with a history of more stable diversification dynamics through time in the
      Tropics. Overall, our results suggest that the processes responsible for
      population differentiation are tied to those that underlie broad-scale patterns
      of diversity.

PMID- 28559329
TI  - Antimalarials inhibit hematin crystallization by unique drug-surface site
      interactions.
AB  - In malaria pathophysiology, divergent hypotheses on the inhibition of hematin
      crystallization posit that drugs act either by the sequestration of soluble
      hematin or their interaction with crystal surfaces. We use physiologically
      relevant, time-resolved in situ surface observations and show that quinoline
      antimalarials inhibit beta-hematin crystal surfaces by three distinct modes of
      action: step pinning, kink blocking, and step bunch induction. Detailed
      experimental evidence of kink blocking validates classical theory and
      demonstrates that this mechanism is not the most effective inhibition pathway.
      Quinolines also form various complexes with soluble hematin, but complexation is
      insufficient to suppress heme detoxification and is a poor indicator of drug
      specificity. Collectively, our findings reveal the significance of drug-crystal
      interactions and open avenues for rationally designing antimalarial compounds.

PMID- 28559331
TI  - The POTRA domains of Toc75 exhibit chaperone-like function to facilitate import
      into chloroplasts.
AB  - Protein trafficking across membranes is an essential function in cells; however,
      the exact mechanism for how this occurs is not well understood. In the
      endosymbionts, mitochondria and chloroplasts, the vast majority of proteins are
      synthesized in the cytoplasm as preproteins and then imported into the organelles
      via specialized machineries. In chloroplasts, protein import is accomplished by
      the TOC (translocon on the outer chloroplast membrane) and TIC (translocon on the
      inner chloroplast membrane) machineries in the outer and inner envelope
      membranes, respectively. TOC mediates initial recognition of preproteins at the
      outer membrane and includes a core membrane channel, Toc75, and two receptor
      proteins, Toc33/34 and Toc159, each containing GTPase domains that control
      preprotein binding and translocation. Toc75 is predicted to have a beta-barrel
      fold consisting of an N-terminal intermembrane space (IMS) domain and a C
      terminal 16-stranded beta-barrel domain. Here we report the crystal structure of
      the N-terminal IMS domain of Toc75 from Arabidopsis thaliana, revealing three
      tandem polypeptide transport-associated (POTRA) domains, with POTRA2 containing
      an additional elongated helix not observed previously in other POTRA domains.
      Functional studies show an interaction with the preprotein, preSSU, which is
      mediated through POTRA2-3. POTRA2-3 also was found to have chaperone-like
      activity in an insulin aggregation assay, which we propose facilitates preprotein
      import. Our data suggest a model in which the POTRA domains serve as a binding
      site for the preprotein as it emerges from the Toc75 channel and provide a
      chaperone-like activity to prevent misfolding or aggregation as the preprotein
      traverses the intermembrane space.

PMID- 28559334
TI  - Response time in economic games reflects different types of decision conflict for
      prosocial and proself individuals.
AB  - Behavioral and neuroscientific studies explore two pathways through which
      internalized social norms promote prosocial behavior. One pathway involves
      internal control of impulsive selfishness, and the other involves emotion-based
      prosocial preferences that are translated into behavior when they evade cognitive
      control for pursuing self-interest. We measured 443 participants' overall
      prosocial behavior in four economic games. Participants' predispositions [social
      value orientation (SVO)] were more strongly reflected in their overall game
      behavior when they made decisions quickly than when they spent a longer time.
      Prosocially (or selfishly) predisposed participants behaved less prosocially (or
      less selfishly) when they spent more time in decision making, such that their SVO
      prosociality yielded limited effects in actual behavior in their slow decisions.
      The increase (or decrease) in slower decision makers was prominent among
      consistent prosocials (or proselfs) whose strong preference for prosocial (or
      proself) goals would make it less likely to experience conflict between prosocial
      and proself goals. The strong effect of RT on behavior in consistent prosocials
      (or proselfs) suggests that conflict between prosocial and selfish goals alone is
      not responsible for slow decisions. Specifically, we found that contemplation of
      the risk of being exploited by others (social risk aversion) was partly
      responsible for making consistent prosocials (but not consistent proselfs) spend
      longer time in decision making and behave less prosocially. Conflict between
      means rather than between goals (immediate versus strategic pursuit of self
      interest) was suggested to be responsible for the time-related increase in
      consistent proselfs' prosocial behavior. The findings of this study are generally
      in favor of the intuitive cooperation model of prosocial behavior.

PMID- 28559333
TI  - Auxin steers root cell expansion via apoplastic pH regulation in Arabidopsis
      thaliana.
AB  - Plant cells are embedded within cell walls, which provide structural integrity,
      but also spatially constrain cells, and must therefore be modified to allow
      cellular expansion. The long-standing acid growth theory postulates that auxin
      triggers apoplast acidification, thereby activating cell wall-loosening enzymes
      that enable cell expansion in shoots. Interestingly, this model remains heavily
      debated in roots, because of both the complex role of auxin in plant development
      as well as technical limitations in investigating apoplastic pH at cellular
      resolution. Here, we introduce 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium
      salt (HPTS) as a suitable fluorescent pH indicator for assessing apoplastic pH,
      and thus acid growth, at a cellular resolution in Arabidopsis thaliana roots.
      Using HPTS, we demonstrate that cell wall acidification triggers cellular
      expansion, which is correlated with a preceding increase of auxin signaling.
      Reduction in auxin levels, perception, or signaling abolishes both the
      extracellular acidification and cellular expansion. These findings jointly
      suggest that endogenous auxin controls apoplastic acidification and the onset of
      cellular elongation in roots. In contrast, an endogenous or exogenous increase in
      auxin levels induces a transient alkalinization of the extracellular matrix,
      reducing cellular elongation. The receptor-like kinase FERONIA is required for
      this physiological process, which affects cellular root expansion during the
      gravitropic response. These findings pinpoint a complex, presumably concentration
      dependent role for auxin in apoplastic pH regulation, steering the rate of root
      cell expansion and gravitropic response.

PMID- 28559332
TI  - Rifamycin action on RNA polymerase in antibiotic-tolerant Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis results in differentially detectable populations.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) encounters stresses during the pathogenesis and
      treatment of tuberculosis (TB) that can suppress replication of the bacteria and
      render them phenotypically tolerant to most available drugs. Where studied, the
      majority of Mtb in the sputum of most untreated subjects with active TB have been
      found to be nonreplicating by the criterion that they do not grow as colony
      forming units (cfus) when plated on agar. However, these cells are viable because
      they grow when diluted in liquid media. A method for generating such
      "differentially detectable" (DD) Mtb in vitro would aid studies of the biology
      and drug susceptibility of this population, but lack of independent confirmation
      of reported methods has contributed to skepticism about their existence. Here, we
      identified confounding artifacts that, when avoided, allowed development of a
      reliable method of producing cultures of >=90% DD Mtb in starved cells. We then
      characterized several drugs according to whether they contribute to the
      generation of DD Mtb or kill them. Of the agents tested, rifamycins led to DD Mtb
      generation, an effect lacking in a rifampin-resistant strain with a mutation in
      rpoB, which encodes the canonical rifampin target, the beta subunit of RNA
      polymerase. In contrast, thioridazine did not generate DD Mtb from starved cells
      but killed those generated by rifampin.

PMID- 28559335
TI  - Spontaneous formation of aligned DNA nanowires by capillarity-induced skin
      folding.
AB  - Although DNA nanowires have proven useful as a template for fabricating
      functional nanomaterials and a platform for genetic analysis, their widespread
      use is still hindered because of limited control over the size, geometry, and
      alignment of the nanowires. Here, we document the capillarity-induced folding of
      an initially wrinkled surface and present an approach to the spontaneous
      formation of aligned DNA nanowires using a template whose surface morphology
      dynamically changes in response to liquid. In particular, we exploit the familiar
      wrinkling phenomenon that results from compression of a thin skin on a soft
      substrate. Once a droplet of liquid solution containing DNA molecules is placed
      on the wrinkled surface, the liquid from the droplet enters certain wrinkled
      channels. The capillary forces deform wrinkles containing liquid into sharp
      folds, whereas the neighboring empty wrinkles are stretched out. In this way, we
      obtain a periodic array of folded channels that contain liquid solution with DNA
      molecules. Such an approach serves as a template for the fabrication of arrays of
      straight or wrinkled DNA nanowires, where their characteristic scales are
      robustly tunable with the physical properties of liquid and the mechanical and
      geometrical properties of the elastic system.

PMID- 28559337
TI  - Identification of the gene that codes for the sigma2 receptor.
AB  - The sigma2 receptor is an enigmatic protein that has attracted significant
      attention because of its involvement in diseases as diverse as cancer and
      neurological disorders. Unlike virtually all other receptors of medical interest,
      it has eluded molecular cloning since its discovery, and the gene that codes for
      the receptor remains unknown, precluding the use of modern biological methods to
      study its function. Using a chemical biology approach, we purified the sigma2
      receptor from tissue, revealing its identity as TMEM97, an endoplasmic reticulum
      resident transmembrane protein that regulates the sterol transporter NPC1. We
      show that TMEM97 possesses the full suite of molecular properties that define the
      sigma2 receptor, and we identify Asp29 and Asp56 as essential for ligand
      recognition. Cloning the sigma2 receptor resolves a longstanding mystery and will
      enable therapeutic targeting of this potential drug target.

PMID- 28559336
TI  - AraC-like transcriptional activator CuxR binds c-di-GMP by a PilZ-like mechanism
      to regulate extracellular polysaccharide production.
AB  - Cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP) has emerged as a key regulatory player in the
      transition between planktonic and sedentary biofilm-associated bacterial
      lifestyles. It controls a multitude of processes including production of
      extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs). The PilZ domain, consisting of an N
      terminal "RxxxR" motif and a beta-barrel domain, represents a prototype c-di-GMP
      receptor. We identified a class of c-di-GMP-responsive proteins, represented by
      the AraC-like transcription factor CuxR in plant symbiotic alpha-proteobacteria.
      In Sinorhizobium meliloti, CuxR stimulates transcription of an EPS biosynthesis
      gene cluster at elevated c-di-GMP levels. CuxR consists of a Cupin domain, a
      helical hairpin, and bipartite helix-turn-helix motif. Although unrelated in
      sequence, the mode of c-di-GMP binding to CuxR is highly reminiscent to that of
      PilZ domains. c-di-GMP interacts with a conserved N-terminal RxxxR motif and the
      Cupin domain, thereby promoting CuxR dimerization and DNA binding. We unravel
      structure and mechanism of a previously unrecognized c-di-GMP-responsive
      transcription factor and provide insights into the molecular evolution of c-di
      GMP binding to proteins.

PMID- 28559339
TI  - Simple nuclear C*-algebras not isomorphic to their opposites.
AB  - We show that it is consistent with Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of
      choice (ZFC) that there is a simple nuclear nonseparable [Formula: see text]
      algebra, which is not isomorphic to its opposite algebra. We can furthermore
      guarantee that this example is an inductive limit of unital copies of the Cuntz
      algebra [Formula: see text] or of the canonical anticommutation relations (CAR)
      algebra.

PMID- 28559340
TI  - Microlayer source of oxygenated volatile organic compounds in the summertime
      marine Arctic boundary layer.
AB  - Summertime Arctic shipboard observations of oxygenated volatile organic compounds
      (OVOCs) such as organic acids, key precursors of climatically active secondary
      organic aerosol (SOA), are consistent with a novel source of OVOCs to the marine
      boundary layer via chemistry at the sea surface microlayer. Although this source
      has been studied in a laboratory setting, organic acid emissions from the sea
      surface microlayer have not previously been observed in ambient marine
      environments. Correlations between measurements of OVOCs, including high levels
      of formic acid, in the atmosphere (measured by an online high-resolution time-of
      flight mass spectrometer) and dissolved organic matter in the ocean point to a
      marine source for the measured OVOCs. That this source is photomediated is
      indicated by correlations between the diurnal cycles of the OVOC measurements and
      solar radiation. In contrast, the OVOCs do not correlate with levels of isoprene,
      monoterpenes, or dimethyl sulfide. Results from box model calculations are
      consistent with heterogeneous chemistry as the source of the measured OVOCs. As
      sea ice retreats and dissolved organic carbon inputs to the Arctic increase, the
      impact of this source on the summer Arctic atmosphere is likely to increase.
      Globally, this source should be assessed in other marine environments to quantify
      its impact on OVOC and SOA burdens in the atmosphere, and ultimately on climate.

PMID- 28559338
TI  - Superresolution microscopy reveals the three-dimensional organization of meiotic
      chromosome axes in intact Caenorhabditis elegans tissue.
AB  - When cells enter meiosis, their chromosomes reorganize as linear arrays of
      chromatin loops anchored to a central axis. Meiotic chromosome axes form a
      platform for the assembly of the synaptonemal complex (SC) and play central roles
      in other meiotic processes, including homologous pairing, recombination, and
      chromosome segregation. However, little is known about the 3D organization of
      components within the axes, which include cohesin complexes and additional
      meiosis-specific proteins. Here, we investigate the molecular organization of
      meiotic chromosome axes in Caenorhabditis elegans through STORM (stochastic
      optical reconstruction microscopy) and PALM (photo-activated localization
      microscopy) superresolution imaging of intact germ-line tissue. By tagging one
      axis protein (HIM-3) with a photoconvertible fluorescent protein, we established
      a spatial reference for other components, which were localized using antibodies
      against epitope tags inserted by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Using 3D averaging,
      we determined the position of all known components within synapsed chromosome
      axes to high spatial precision in three dimensions. We find that meiosis-specific
      HORMA domain proteins span a gap between cohesin complexes and the central region
      of the SC, consistent with their essential roles in SC assembly. Our data further
      suggest that the two different meiotic cohesin complexes are distinctly arranged
      within the axes: Although cohesin complexes containing the kleisin REC-8 protrude
      above and below the plane defined by the SC, complexes containing COH-3 or -4
      kleisins form a central core, which may physically separate sister chromatids.
      This organization may help to explain the role of the chromosome axes in
      promoting interhomolog repair of meiotic double-strand breaks by inhibiting
      intersister repair.

PMID- 28559341
TI  - Early 20th-century Arctic warming intensified by Pacific and Atlantic
      multidecadal variability.
AB  - With amplified warming and record sea ice loss, the Arctic is the canary of
      global warming. The historical Arctic warming is poorly understood, limiting our
      confidence in model projections. Specifically, Arctic surface air temperature
      increased rapidly over the early 20th century, at rates comparable to those of
      recent decades despite much weaker greenhouse gas forcing. Here, we show that the
      concurrent phase shift of Pacific and Atlantic interdecadal variability modes is
      the major driver for the rapid early 20th-century Arctic warming. Atmospheric
      model simulations successfully reproduce the early Arctic warming when the
      interdecadal variability of sea surface temperature (SST) is properly prescribed.
      The early 20th-century Arctic warming is associated with positive SST anomalies
      over the tropical and North Atlantic and a Pacific SST pattern reminiscent of the
      positive phase of the Pacific decadal oscillation. Atmospheric circulation
      changes are important for the early 20th-century Arctic warming. The equatorial
      Pacific warming deepens the Aleutian low, advecting warm air into the North
      American Arctic. The extratropical North Atlantic and North Pacific SST warming
      strengthens surface westerly winds over northern Eurasia, intensifying the
      warming there. Coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations support the constructive
      intensification of Arctic warming by a concurrent, negative-to-positive phase
      shift of the Pacific and Atlantic interdecadal modes. Our results aid attributing
      the historical Arctic warming and thereby constrain the amplified warming
      projected for this important region.

PMID- 28559342
TI  - Follistatin is critical for mouse uterine receptivity and decidualization.
AB  - Embryo implantation remains a significant challenge for assisted reproductive
      technology, with implantation failure occurring in ~50% of in vitro fertilization
      attempts. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying uterine receptivity
      will enable the development of new interventions and biomarkers. TGFbeta family
      signaling in the uterus is critical for establishing and maintaining pregnancy.
      Follistatin (FST) regulates TGFbeta family signaling by selectively binding
      TGFbeta family ligands and sequestering them. In humans, FST is up-regulated in
      the decidua during early pregnancy, and women with recurrent miscarriage have
      lower endometrial expression of FST during the luteal phase. Because global
      knockout of Fst is perinatal lethal in mice, we generated a conditional knockout
      (cKO) of Fst in the uterus using progesterone receptor-cre to study the roles of
      uterine Fst during pregnancy. Uterine Fst-cKO mice demonstrate severe fertility
      defects and deliver only 2% of the number of pups delivered by control females.
      In Fst-cKO mice, the uterine luminal epithelium does not respond properly to
      estrogen and progesterone signals and remains unreceptive to embryo attachment by
      continuing to proliferate and failing to differentiate. The uterine stroma of Fst
      cKO mice also responds poorly to artificial decidualization, with lower levels of
      proliferation and differentiation. In the absence of uterine FST, activin B
      expression and signaling are up-regulated, and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)
      signals are impaired. Our findings support a model in which repression of activin
      signaling by FST enables uterine receptivity by preserving critical BMP
      signaling.

PMID- 28559343
TI  - Mechanistic insights on the reduction of glutathione disulfide by protein
      disulfide isomerase.
AB  - We explore the enzymatic mechanism of the reduction of glutathione disulfide
      (GSSG) by the reduced a domain of human protein disulfide isomerase (hPDI) with
      atomistic resolution. We use classical molecular dynamics and hybrid quantum
      mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations at the mPW1N/6
      311+G(2d,2p):FF99SB//mPW1N/6-31G(d):FF99SB level. The reaction proceeds in two
      stages: (i) a thiol-disulfide exchange through nucleophilic attack of the Cys53
      thiolate to the GSSG-disulfide followed by the deprotonation of Cys56-thiol by
      Glu47-carboxylate and (ii) a second thiol-disulfide exchange between the Cys56
      thiolate and the mixed disulfide intermediate formed in the first step. The Gibbs
      activation energy for the first stage was 18.7 kcal.mol-1, and for the second
      stage, it was 7.2 kcal.mol-1, in excellent agreement with the experimental
      barrier (17.6 kcal.mol-1). Our results also suggest that the catalysis by protein
      disulfide isomerase (PDI) and thiol-disulfide exchange is mostly enthalpy-driven
      (entropy changes below 2 kcal.mol-1 at all stages of the reaction). Hydrogen
      bonds formed between the backbone of His55 and Cys56 and the Cys56-thiol result
      in an increase in the Gibbs energy barrier of the first thiol-disulfide exchange.
      The solvent plays a key role in stabilizing the leaving glutathione thiolate
      formed. This role is not exclusively electrostatic, because an explicit inclusion
      of several water molecules at the density-functional theory level is a requisite
      to form the mixed disulfide intermediate. In the intramolecular oxidation of PDI,
      a transition state is only observed if hydrogen bond donors are nearby the mixed
      disulfide intermediate, which emphasizes that the thermochemistry of thiol
      disulfide exchange in PDI is influenced by the presence of hydrogen bond donors.

PMID- 28559344
TI  - Viral and cellular mRNA-specific activators harness PABP and eIF4G to promote
      translation initiation downstream of cap binding.
AB  - Regulation of mRNA translation is a major control point for gene expression and
      is critical for life. Of central importance is the complex between cap-bound
      eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), eIF4G, and poly(A) tail-binding protein
      (PABP) that circularizes mRNAs, promoting translation and stability. This complex
      is often targeted to regulate overall translation rates, and also by mRNA
      specific translational repressors. However, the mechanisms of mRNA-specific
      translational activation by RNA-binding proteins remain poorly understood. Here,
      we address this deficit, focusing on a herpes simplex virus-1 protein, ICP27. We
      reveal a direct interaction with PABP that is sufficient to promote PABP
      recruitment and necessary for ICP27-mediated activation. PABP binds several
      translation factors but is primarily considered to activate translation
      initiation as part of the PABP-eIF4G-eIF4E complex that stimulates the initial
      cap-binding step. Importantly, we find that ICP27-PABP forms a complex with, and
      requires the activity of, eIF4G. Surprisingly, ICP27-PABP-eIF4G complexes act
      independently of the effects of PABP-eIF4G on cap binding to promote small
      ribosomal subunit recruitment. Moreover, we find that a cellular mRNA-specific
      regulator, Deleted in Azoospermia-like (Dazl), also employs the PABP-eIF4G
      interaction in a similar manner. We propose a mechanism whereby diverse RNA
      binding proteins directly recruit PABP, in a non-poly(A) tail-dependent manner,
      to stimulate the small subunit recruitment step. This strategy may be
      particularly relevant to biological conditions associated with hypoadenylated
      mRNAs (e.g., germ cells/neurons) and/or limiting cytoplasmic PABP (e.g., viral
      infection, cell stress). This mechanism adds significant insight into our
      knowledge of mRNA-specific translational activation and the function of the PABP
      eIF4G complex in translation initiation.

PMID- 28559346
TI  - Increased nitrous oxide emissions from Arctic peatlands after permafrost thaw.
AB  - Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing, exposing large carbon and nitrogen stocks
      for decomposition. Gaseous carbon release from Arctic soils due to permafrost
      thawing is known to be substantial, but growing evidence suggests that Arctic
      soils may also be relevant sources of nitrous oxide (N2O). Here we show that N2O
      emissions from subarctic peatlands increase as the permafrost thaws. In our
      study, the highest postthaw emissions occurred from bare peat surfaces, a typical
      landform in permafrost peatlands, where permafrost thaw caused a fivefold
      increase in emissions (0.56 +/- 0.11 vs. 2.81 +/- 0.6 mg N2O m-2 d-1). These
      emission rates match those from tropical forest soils, the world's largest
      natural terrestrial N2O source. The presence of vegetation, known to limit N2O
      emissions in tundra, did decrease (by ~90%) but did not prevent thaw-induced N2O
      release, whereas waterlogged conditions suppressed the emissions. We show that
      regions with high probability for N2O emissions cover one-fourth of the Arctic.
      Our results imply that the Arctic N2O budget will depend strongly on moisture
      changes, and that a gradual deepening of the active layer will create a strong
      noncarbon climate change feedback.

PMID- 28559345
TI  - Peripheral modifications of [Psi[CH2NH]Tpg4]vancomycin with added synergistic
      mechanisms of action provide durable and potent antibiotics.
AB  - Subsequent to binding pocket modifications designed to provide dual d-Ala-d-Ala/d
      Ala-d-Lac binding that directly overcome the molecular basis of vancomycin
      resistance, peripheral structural changes have been explored to improve
      antimicrobial potency and provide additional synergistic mechanisms of action. A
      C-terminal peripheral modification, introducing a quaternary ammonium salt, is
      reported and was found to provide a binding pocket-modified vancomycin analog
      with a second mechanism of action that is independent of d-Ala-d-Ala/d-Ala-d-Lac
      binding. This modification, which induces cell wall permeability and is
      complementary to the glycopeptide inhibition of cell wall synthesis, was found to
      provide improvements in antimicrobial potency (200-fold) against vancomycin
      resistant Enterococci (VRE). Furthermore, it is shown that this type of C
      terminal modification may be combined with a second peripheral (4
      chlorobiphenyl)methyl (CBP) addition to the vancomycin disaccharide to provide
      even more potent antimicrobial agents [VRE minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
      = 0.01-0.005 MUg/mL] with activity that can be attributed to three independent
      and synergistic mechanisms of action, only one of which requires d-Ala-d-Ala/d
      Ala-d-Lac binding. Finally, it is shown that such peripherally and binding pocket
      modified vancomycin analogs display little propensity for acquired resistance by
      VRE and that their durability against such challenges as well as their
      antimicrobial potency follow now predictable trends (three > two > one mechanisms
      of action). Such antibiotics are expected to display durable antimicrobial
      activity not prone to rapidly acquired clinical resistance.

PMID- 28559347
TI  - Three classes of oxygen-dependent cyclase involved in chlorophyll and
      bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis.
AB  - The biosynthesis of (bacterio)chlorophyll pigments is among the most productive
      biological pathways on Earth. Photosynthesis relies on these modified
      tetrapyrroles for the capture of solar radiation and its conversion to chemical
      energy. (Bacterio)chlorophylls have an isocyclic fifth ring, the formation of
      which has remained enigmatic for more than 60 y. This reaction is catalyzed by
      two unrelated cyclase enzymes using different chemistries. The majority of
      anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria use BchE, an O2-sensitive [4Fe-4S] cluster
      protein, whereas plants, cyanobacteria, and some phototrophic bacteria possess an
      O2-dependent enzyme, the major catalytic component of which is a diiron protein,
      AcsF. Plant and cyanobacterial mutants in ycf54 display impaired function of the
      O2-dependent enzyme, accumulating the reaction substrate. Swapping cyclases
      between cyanobacteria and purple phototrophic bacteria reveals three classes of
      the O2-dependent enzyme. AcsF from the purple betaproteobacterium Rubrivivax
      (Rvi.) gelatinosus rescues the loss not only of its cyanobacterial ortholog,
      cycI, in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, but also of ycf54; conversely, coexpression
      of cyanobacterial cycI and ycf54 is required to complement the loss of acsF in
      Rvi. gelatinosus These results indicate that Ycf54 is a cyclase subunit in
      oxygenic phototrophs, and that different classes of the enzyme exist based on
      their requirement for an additional subunit. AcsF is the cyclase in Rvi.
      gelatinosus, whereas alphaproteobacterial cyclases require a newly discovered
      protein that we term BciE, encoded by a gene conserved in these organisms. These
      data delineate three classes of O2-dependent cyclase in chlorophototrophic
      organisms from higher plants to bacteria, and their evolution is discussed
      herein.

PMID- 28559348
TI  - AP1G mediates vacuolar acidification during synergid-controlled pollen tube
      reception.
AB  - Double fertilization in angiosperms requires the delivery of immotile sperm
      through pollen tubes, which enter embryo sacs to initiate synergid degeneration
      and to discharge. This fascinating process, called pollen tube reception,
      involves extensive communications between pollen tubes and synergids, within
      which few intracellular regulators involved have been revealed. Here, we report
      that vacuolar acidification in synergids mediated by AP1G and V-ATPases might be
      critical for pollen tube reception. Functional loss of AP1G or VHA-A, encoding
      the gamma subunit of adaptor protein 1 or the shared component of two
      endomembrane V-ATPases, respectively, impaired synergid-controlled pollen tube
      reception and caused partial female sterility. AP1G works in parallel to the
      plasma membrane-associated receptor FERONIA in synergids, suggesting that
      synergid-mediated pollen tube reception requires proper sorting of vacuolar
      cargos by AP1G. Although AP1G did not mediate the targeting of V-ATPases, AP1G
      loss of function or the expression of AP1G-RNAi compromised vacuolar
      acidification mediated by V-ATPases, implying their genetic interaction. We
      propose that vacuolar acidification might represent a distinct cell-death
      mechanism specifically adopted by the plant phylum, which is critical for
      synergid degeneration during pollen tube reception.

PMID- 28559349
TI  - Dating rice remains through phytolith carbon-14 study reveals domestication at
      the beginning of the Holocene.
AB  - Phytolith remains of rice (Oryza sativa L.) recovered from the Shangshan site in
      the Lower Yangtze of China have previously been recognized as the earliest
      examples of rice cultivation. However, because of the poor preservation of
      macroplant fossils, many radiocarbon dates were derived from undifferentiated
      organic materials in pottery sherds. These materials remain a source of debate
      because of potential contamination by old carbon. Direct dating of the rice
      remains might serve to clarify their age. Here, we first validate the reliability
      of phytolith dating in the study region through a comparison with dates obtained
      from other material from the same layer or context. Our phytolith data indicate
      that rice remains retrieved from early stages of the Shangshan and Hehuashan
      sites have ages of approximately 9,400 and 9,000 calibrated years before the
      present, respectively. The morphology of rice bulliform phytoliths indicates they
      are closer to modern domesticated species than to wild species, suggesting that
      rice domestication may have begun at Shangshan during the beginning of the
      Holocene.

PMID- 28559350
TI  - Structural basis for ligand binding to an enzyme by a conformational selection
      pathway.
AB  - Proteins can bind target molecules through either induced fit or conformational
      selection pathways. In the conformational selection model, a protein samples a
      scarcely populated high-energy state that resembles a target-bound conformation.
      In enzymatic catalysis, such high-energy states have been identified as crucial
      entities for activity and the dynamic interconversion between ground states and
      high-energy states can constitute the rate-limiting step for catalytic turnover.
      The transient nature of these states has precluded direct observation of their
      properties. Here, we present a molecular description of a high-energy enzyme
      state in a conformational selection pathway by an experimental strategy centered
      on NMR spectroscopy, protein engineering, and X-ray crystallography. Through the
      introduction of a disulfide bond, we succeeded in arresting the enzyme adenylate
      kinase in a closed high-energy conformation that is on-pathway for catalysis. A
      1.9-A X-ray structure of the arrested enzyme in complex with a transition state
      analog shows that catalytic sidechains are properly aligned for catalysis. We
      discovered that the structural sampling of the substrate free enzyme corresponds
      to the complete amplitude that is associated with formation of the closed and
      catalytically active state. In addition, we found that the trapped high-energy
      state displayed improved ligand binding affinity, compared with the wild-type
      enzyme, demonstrating that substrate binding to the high-energy state is not
      occluded by steric hindrance. Finally, we show that quenching of fast time scale
      motions observed upon ligand binding to adenylate kinase is dominated by enzyme
      substrate interactions and not by intramolecular interactions resulting from the
      conformational change.

PMID- 28559352
TI  - Tropical cyclone activity enhanced by Sahara greening and reduced dust emissions
      during the African Humid Period.
AB  - Tropical cyclones (TCs) can have devastating socioeconomic impacts. Understanding
      the nature and causes of their variability is of paramount importance for
      society. However, historical records of TCs are too short to fully characterize
      such changes and paleo-sediment archives of Holocene TC activity are temporally
      and geographically sparse. Thus, it is of interest to apply physical modeling to
      understanding TC variability under different climate conditions. Here we
      investigate global TC activity during a warm climate state (mid-Holocene, 6,000
      yBP) characterized by increased boreal summer insolation, a vegetated Sahara, and
      reduced dust emissions. We analyze a set of sensitivity experiments in which not
      only solar insolation changes are varied but also vegetation and dust
      concentrations. Our results show that the greening of the Sahara and reduced dust
      loadings lead to more favorable conditions for tropical cyclone development
      compared with the orbital forcing alone. In particular, the strengthening of the
      West African Monsoon induced by the Sahara greening triggers a change in
      atmospheric circulation that affects the entire tropics. Furthermore, whereas
      previous studies suggest lower TC activity despite stronger summer insolation and
      warmer sea surface temperature in the Northern Hemisphere, accounting for the
      Sahara greening and reduced dust concentrations leads instead to an increase of
      TC activity in both hemispheres, particularly over the Caribbean basin and East
      Coast of North America. Our study highlights the importance of regional changes
      in land cover and dust concentrations in affecting the potential intensity and
      genesis of past TCs and suggests that both factors may have appreciable influence
      on TC activity in a future warmer climate.

PMID- 28559351
TI  - Positive impacts of early auditory training on cortical processing at an older
      age.
AB  - Progressive negative behavioral changes in normal aging are paralleled by a
      complex series of physical and functional declines expressed in the cerebral
      cortex. In studies conducted in the auditory domain, these degrading physical and
      functional cortical changes have been shown to be broadly reversed by intensive
      progressive training that improves the spectral and temporal resolution of
      acoustic inputs and suppresses behavioral distractors. Here we found older rats
      that were intensively trained on an attentionally demanding modulation-rate
      recognition task in young adulthood substantially retained training-driven
      improvements in temporal rate discrimination abilities over a subsequent 18-mo
      epoch-that is, forward into their older age. In parallel, this young-adult
      auditory training enduringly enhanced temporal and spectral information
      processing in their primary auditory cortices (A1). Substantially greater numbers
      of parvalbumin- and somatostatin-labeled inhibitory neurons (closer to the
      numbers recorded in young vigorous adults) were recorded in the A1 and
      hippocampus in old trained versus untrained age-matched rats. These results show
      that a simple form of training in young adulthood in this rat model enduringly
      delays the otherwise expected deterioration of the physical status and functional
      operations of the auditory nervous system, with evident training impacts
      generalized to the hippocampus.

PMID- 28559353
TI  - The impact of Last Glacial climate variability in west-European loess revealed by
      radiocarbon dating of fossil earthworm granules.
AB  - The characterization of Last Glacial millennial-timescale warming phases, known
      as interstadials or Dansgaard-Oeschger events, requires precise chronologies for
      the study of paleoclimate records. On the European continent, such chronologies
      are only available for several Last Glacial pollen and rare speleothem archives
      principally located in the Mediterranean domain. Farther north, in continental
      lowlands, numerous high-resolution records of loess and paleosols sequences show
      a consistent environmental response to stadial-interstadial cycles. However, the
      limited precision and accuracy of luminescence dating methods commonly used in
      loess deposits preclude exact correlations of paleosol horizons with Greenland
      interstadials. To overcome this problem, a radiocarbon dating protocol has been
      developed to date earthworm calcite granules from the reference loess sequence of
      Nussloch (Germany). Its application yields a consistent radiocarbon chronology of
      all soil horizons formed between 47 and 20 ka and unambiguously shows the
      correlation of every Greenland interstadial identified in isotope records with
      specific soil horizons. Furthermore, eight additional minor soil horizons dated
      between 27.5 and 21 ka only correlate with minor decreases in Greenland dust
      records. This dating strategy reveals the high sensitivity of loess
      paleoenvironments to Northern Hemisphere climate changes. A connection between
      loess sedimentation rate, Fennoscandian ice sheet dynamics, and sea level changes
      is proposed. The chronological improvements enabled by the radiocarbon "earthworm
      clock" thus strongly enhance our understanding of loess records to a better
      perception of the impact of Last Glacial climate changes on European
      paleoenvironments.

PMID- 28559354
TI  - RNA-seq reveals conservation of function among the yolk sacs of human, mouse, and
      chicken.
AB  - The yolk sac is phylogenetically the oldest of the extraembryonic membranes. The
      human embryo retains a yolk sac, which goes through primary and secondary phases
      of development, but its importance is controversial. Although it is known to
      synthesize proteins, its transport functions are widely considered vestigial.
      Here, we report RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data for the human and murine yolk sacs
      and compare those data with data for the chicken. We also relate the human RNA
      seq data to proteomic data for the coelomic fluid bathing the yolk sac.
      Conservation of transcriptomes across the species indicates that the human
      secondary yolk sac likely performs key functions early in development,
      particularly uptake and processing of macro- and micronutrients, many of which
      are found in coelomic fluid. More generally, our findings shed light on
      evolutionary mechanisms that give rise to complex structures such as the
      placenta. We identify genetic modules that are conserved across mammals and
      birds, suggesting these modules are part of the core amniote genetic repertoire
      and are the building blocks for both oviparous and viviparous reproductive modes.
      We propose that although a choriovitelline placenta is never established
      physically in the human, the placental villi, the exocoelomic cavity, and the
      secondary yolk sac function together as a physiological equivalent.

PMID- 28559356
TI  - Thymic epithelial cells require p53 to support their long-term function in
      thymopoiesis in mice.
AB  - Thymic epithelial cells (TECs) provide crucial microenvironments for T-cell
      development and tolerance induction. As the regular function of the thymus
      declines with age, it is of fundamental and clinical relevance to decipher new
      determinants that control TEC homeostasis in vivo. Beyond its recognized tumor
      suppressive function, p53 controls several immunoregulatory pathways. To study
      the cell-autonomous role of p53 in thymic epithelium functioning, we developed
      and analyzed mice with conditional inactivation of Trp53 in TECs (p53cKO). We
      report that loss of p53 primarily disrupts the integrity of medullary TEC (mTEC)
      niche, a defect that spreads to the adult cortical TEC compartment.
      Mechanistically, we found that p53 controls specific and broad programs of mTEC
      differentiation. Apart from restraining the expression and responsiveness of the
      receptor activator of NF-kappaB (RANK), which is central for mTEC
      differentiation, deficiency of p53 in TECs altered multiple functional modules of
      the mTEC transcriptome, including tissue-restricted antigen expression. As a
      result, p53cKO mice presented premature defects in mTEC-dependent regulatory T
      cell differentiation and thymocyte maturation, which progressed to a failure in
      regular and regenerative thymopoiesis and peripheral T-cell homeostasis in the
      adulthood. Lastly, peripheral signs of altered immunological tolerance unfold in
      mutant mice and in immunodeficient mice that received p53cKO-derived thymocytes.
      Our findings position p53 as a novel molecular determinant of thymic epithelium
      function throughout life.

PMID- 28559355
TI  - Assessing human weaning practices with calcium isotopes in tooth enamel.
AB  - Weaning practices differ among great apes and likely diverged during the course
      of human evolution, but behavioral inference from the fossil record is hampered
      by a lack of unambiguous biomarkers. Here, we show that early-life dietary
      transitions are recorded in human deciduous tooth enamel as marked variations in
      Ca isotope ratios (delta44/42Ca). Using a sequential microsampling method along
      the enamel growth axis, we collected more than 150 enamel microsamples from 51
      deciduous teeth of 12 different modern human individuals of known dietary
      histories, as well as nine enamel samples from permanent third molars. We
      measured and reconstructed the evolution of 44Ca/42Ca ratios in enamel from in
      utero development to first months of postnatal development. We show that the
      observed variations of delta44/42Ca record a transition from placental nutrition
      to an adult-like diet and that Ca isotopes reflect the duration of the
      breastfeeding period experienced by each infant. Typically, the delta44/42Ca
      values of individuals briefly or not breastfed show a systematic increase during
      the first 5-10 mo, whereas individuals with long breastfeeding histories display
      no measurable variation in delta44/42Ca of enamel formed during this time. The
      use of Ca isotope analysis in tooth enamel allows microsampling and offers an
      independent approach to tackle challenging questions related to past population
      dynamics and evolution of weaning practices in hominins.

PMID- 28559357
TI  - Bone marrow failure unresponsive to bone marrow transplant is caused by mutations
      in thrombopoietin.
AB  - We report 5 individuals in 3 unrelated families with severe thrombocytopenia
      progressing to trilineage bone marrow failure (BMF). Four of the children
      received hematopoietic stem cell transplants and all showed poor graft function
      with persistent severe cytopenias even after repeated transplants with different
      donors. Exome and targeted sequencing identified mutations in the gene encoding
      thrombopoietin (THPO): THPO R99W, homozygous in affected children in 2 families,
      and THPO R157X, homozygous in the affected child in the third family. Both
      mutations result in a lack of THPO in the patients' serum. For the 2 surviving
      patients, improvement in trilineage hematopoiesis was achieved following
      treatment with a THPO receptor agonist. These studies demonstrate that biallelic
      loss-of-function mutations in THPO cause BMF, which is unresponsive to transplant
      due to a hematopoietic cell-extrinsic mechanism. These studies provide further
      support for the critical role of the MPL-THPO pathway in hematopoiesis and
      highlight the importance of accurate genetic diagnosis to inform treatment
      decisions for BMF.

PMID- 28559362
TI  - Receiving Providers' Perceptions on Information Transmission During Interfacility
      Transfers to General Pediatric Floors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric patients can present to a medical facility and subsequently
      be transferred to a different hospital for definitive care. Interfacility
      transfers require a provider handoff across facilities, posing risks that may
      affect patient outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to describe the
      thoroughness of information transmission between providers during interfacility
      transfers, to describe perceived errors in care at the posttransfer facility, and
      to identify potential associations between thoroughness of information
      transmission and perceived errors in care. METHODS: We performed an exploratory
      prospective cohort study on communication practices and patient outcomes during
      interfacility transfers to general pediatric floors. Data were collected from
      provider surveys and chart review. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize
      survey responses. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association of
      communication deficits with odds of having a perceived error in care. RESULTS: A
      total of 633 patient transfers were reviewed; 218 transport command physician
      surveys and 217 frontline provider surveys were completed. Transport command
      physicians reported higher proportions of key elements being included in the
      verbal handoff compared with frontline providers. The written key element
      transmitted with the lowest frequency was a summary document (65.2%), and 13% of
      transfers had at least 1 perceived error in care. Transfers with many deficits
      were associated with higher odds of having a perceived error in care.
      CONCLUSIONS: Information transmission during pediatric transfers is perceived to
      be inconsistently complete. Deficits in the verbal and written information
      transmission are associated with odds of having a perceived error in care.

PMID- 28559360
TI  - Circadian, Carbon, and Light Control of Expansion Growth and Leaf Movement.
AB  - We used Phytotyping4D to investigate the contribution of clock and light
      signaling to the diurnal regulation of rosette expansion growth and leaf movement
      in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Wild-type plants and clock mutants with a
      short (lhycca1) and long (prr7prr9) period were analyzed in a T24 cycle and in T
      cycles that were closer to the mutants' period. Wild types also were analyzed in
      various photoperiods and after transfer to free-running light or darkness.
      Rosette expansion and leaf movement exhibited a circadian oscillation, with
      superimposed transients after dawn and dusk. Diurnal responses were modified in
      clock mutants. lhycca1 exhibited an inhibition of growth at the end of night and
      growth rose earlier after dawn, whereas prr7prr9 showed decreased growth for the
      first part of the light period. Some features were partly rescued by a matching T
      cycle, like the inhibition in lhycca1 at the end of the night, indicating that it
      is due to premature exhaustion of starch. Other features were not rescued,
      revealing that the clock also regulates expansion growth more directly. Expansion
      growth was faster at night than in the daytime, whereas published work has shown
      that the synthesis of cellular components is faster in the day than at nighttime.
      This temporal uncoupling became larger in short photoperiods and may reflect the
      differing dependence of expansion and biosynthesis on energy, carbon, and water.
      While it has been proposed that leaf expansion and movement are causally linked,
      we did not observe a consistent temporal relationship between expansion and leaf
      movement.

PMID- 28559363
TI  - Introduction: historical contexts to communicating mental health.
AB  - Contemporary discussions around language, stigma and care in mental health, the
      messages these elements transmit, and the means through which they have been
      conveyed, have a long and deep lineage. Recognition and exploration of this
      lineage can inform how we communicate about mental health going forward, as
      reflected by the 9 papers which make up this special issue. Our introduction
      provides some framework for the history of communicating mental health over the
      past 300 years. We will show that there have been diverse ways and means of
      describing, disseminating and discussing mental health, in relation both to
      therapeutic practices and between practitioners, patients and the public.
      Communicating about mental health, we argue, has been informed by the desire for
      positive change, as much as by developments in reporting, legislation and
      technology. However, while the modes of communication have developed, the issues
      involved remain essentially the same. Most practitioners have sought to
      understand and to innovate, though not always with positive results. Some lost
      sight of patients as people; patients have felt and have been ignored or silenced
      by doctors and carers. Money has always talked, for without adequate investment
      services and care have suffered, contributing to the stigma surrounding mental
      illness. While it is certainly 'time to talk' to improve experiences, it is also
      time to change the language that underpins cultural attitudes towards mental
      illness, time to listen to people with mental health issues and, crucially, time
      to hear.

PMID- 28559364
TI  - The presentation of mental disturbance in modern Scottish literature.
AB  - The subject of madness features throughout world literature, but the literature
      of modern Scotland appears to be especially preoccupied with it. This paper gives
      a brief overview of the ways in which madness is represented in modern Scottish
      literature and the different artistic functions it performs. It will consider the
      subject on a thematic basis. First, there are accounts by writers who have
      experienced mental turmoil themselves. Second, there is the theme of the
      'Narrative of personal crisis' which depicts in fictional form an individual's
      journey through madness. Third, there is the theme of the 'Gothic or divided
      selves'. The fourth theme is that of the 'Female voice' and the last is that of
      'Outsiders and holy fools', whose existence is to unsettle the beliefs of a wider
      society.

PMID- 28559361
TI  - Adaptor Protein-3-Dependent Vacuolar Trafficking Involves a Subpopulation of
      COPII and HOPS Tethering Proteins.
AB  - Plant vacuoles are versatile organelles critical for plant growth and responses
      to environment. Vacuolar proteins are transported from the endoplasmic reticulum
      via multiple routes in plants. Two classic routes bear great similarity to other
      phyla with major regulators known, such as COPII and Rab5 GTPases. By contrast,
      vacuolar trafficking mediated by adaptor protein-3 (AP-3) or that independent of
      the Golgi has few recognized cargos and none of the regulators. In search of
      novel regulators for vacuolar trafficking routes and by using a fluorescence
      based forward genetic screen, we demonstrated that the multispan transmembrane
      protein, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) PROTEIN S-ACYL TRANSFERASE10 (PAT10),
      is an AP-3-mediated vacuolar cargo. We show that the tonoplast targeting of PAT10
      is mediated by the AP-3 complex but independent of the Rab5-mediated post-Golgi
      trafficking route. We also report that AP-3-mediated vacuolar trafficking
      involves a subpopulation of COPII and requires the vacuolar tethering complex
      HOPS. In addition, we have identified two novel mutant alleles of AP-3delta,
      whose point mutations interfered with the formation of the AP-3 complex as well
      as its membrane targeting. The results presented here shed new light on the
      vacuolar trafficking route mediated by AP-3 in plant cells.

PMID- 28559365
TI  - 'Trapped in the labyrinth': exploring mental illness through devised theatrical
      performance.
AB  - Mental health difficulties remain a major source of burden and distress for
      individuals, families, health and social care providers with stigma a key target
      for educational campaigns attempting to improve care pathways and access to
      support. Stigma is a multifaceted concept having a range of drivers including
      shame and is thought to act as a barrier to successful help seeking and
      engagement with support services. The current paper explores some of the salient
      themes that emerged from a British university drama project on the impact of
      symptoms and behaviours associated with a severe mental health condition on a
      young couple's relationship and reflects on the opportunities for connection with
      an audience provided by the medium and experience. It is suggested that enabling
      the impact of mental ill health to be explored in a protected environment such as
      theatre can allow for reflection and empathy to develop, with potential for
      positive impact on awareness understanding and stigma. Elements of the drama
      setting and narrative are explored, and analogies are made with the emerging
      literature on post-traumatic growth.

PMID- 28559367
TI  - 'She sits all day in the attitude depicted in the photo': photography and the
      psychiatric patient in the late nineteenth century.
AB  - The links between mental state and art in all its various forms and media have
      long been of interest to historians, critics, artists, patients and doctors.
      Photographs of patients constitute an extensive but largely unexplored archive
      that can be used to recover patient experience in the late nineteenth and early
      twentieth century. The camera and the photograph became tools to communicate
      information about mental ill health between doctors, their patients and their
      colleagues. They were published in textbooks and journals, exhibited, exchanged
      and pasted into medical case books alongside case notes. But they were also used
      by patients to communicate their own experiences, identity and sense of self.
      This article uses published and case book photographs from c. 1885-1910 to
      examine the networks of communication between different stakeholders and
      discourses.

PMID- 28559366
TI  - Heritage and Stigma. Co-producing and communicating the histories of mental
      health and learning disability.
AB  - University engagement with mental health services has traditionally been informed
      by the vocational and pedagogical links between the two sectors. However, a
      growth in the interest in public history and in the history of mental healthcare
      has offered new opportunities for those in the humanities to engage new audiences
      and to challenge perceptions about care in the past. The introduction of the
      'impact agenda' and related funding streams has further encouraged academics to
      contribute to historical debates, and to those concerning current services. One
      such example of this is the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Heritage
      and Stigma project at the University of Huddersfield, which was conceived to
      support mental health and learning disability charities in the exploration and
      dissemination of their own histories. Using this project as a case study, this
      paper will draw on primary source material to reflect on the opportunities and
      challenges of working in partnership with such groups. In particular, it will
      consider the need to address issues of stigma and exclusion in tandem with a
      critical understanding of the moves to 'community care' instigated by landmark
      legislation in the form of the 1959 Mental Health Act. Overall, it provides
      evidence of an inclusive, coproductive model of design and highlights the
      positive contribution to communicating mental health made by those based in the
      humanities.

PMID- 28559368
TI  - A crisis of meaning: can 'schizophrenia' survive in the 21st century?
AB  - Both within clinical and wider societal discourses, the term 'schizophrenia' has
      achieved considerable potency as a signifier, privileging particular conceptual
      frames for understanding and responding to mental distress. However, its status
      has been subject to instability, as it has lacked indisputable biological
      correlates that would anchor its place within the canon of medical diagnosis.
      Informed by a semiotic perspective, this paper focuses on its recent history: how
      'schizophrenia' has been claimed, appropriated and contested-and how this
      connects with its earlier history of signification. It also explores how the
      dominance of this signifier has influenced the ways in which people with the
      diagnosis may find themselves constructed in their interactions with
      professionals, family and wider society, and hence how they may come to see
      themselves. It is argued that, from a point in the 1990s when 'schizophrenia' had
      achieved an almost iconic status, the term is now subject to greater instability,
      with concerns and challenges being raised from both within and outside
      psychiatry. On the one hand, this uncertainty has triggered a 'calls to arms'
      from those within the psychiatric establishment who see diagnoses such as
      'schizophrenia' as crucial to their professional identity and status. On the
      other hand, this has created spaces for new conversations and alliances between
      elements within neurology, psychiatry, social work and other professions, and
      between these and service users. Some of these conversations are casting doubt on
      the validity and utility of 'schizophrenia' as a construct, and are beginning to
      posit alternative regimes of signification.

PMID- 28559369
TI  - If psychosis were cancer: a speculative comparison.
AB  - Recently, health policy in the UK has begun to engage with the concept of 'parity
      of esteem' between physical and mental healthcare. This has led one recent
      initiative to improve service provision for first episode psychosis, which aims
      to bring it into line with some of the principles underpinning good practice in
      cancer care. In this paper, we consider some of the metaphorical consequences of
      likening psychosis to cancer. While we find the comparison unhelpful for clinical
      purposes, we argue that it can be a helpful lens through which to examine service
      provision for psychosis in young people. Through this lens, specialist community
      based services would appear to compare reasonably well. Inpatient care for young
      people with psychosis, on the other hand, suffers very badly by comparison with
      inpatient facilities for teenage cancer care. We note some of the many positive
      features of inpatient cancer care for young adults, and-drawing upon previous
      research on inpatient psychiatric care-observe that many of these are usually
      absent from mental health facilities. We conclude that this metaphor may be a
      helpful rhetorical device for communicating the lack of 'parity of esteem'
      between mental and physical healthcare. This inequity must be made visible in
      health policy, in commissioning, and in service provision.

PMID- 28559371
TI  - Identity, law, policy and Communicating Mental Health.
AB  - This paper reflects on the special edition, Communicating Mental Health, from the
      perspective of a legal academic with an interest in the service user rights and
      in United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is
      argued that the special edition demonstrates the breadth of the medical model but
      also that the medical model remains firmly in place in academic understanding of
      mental disability. The paper questions what this means for identity formation of
      people with lived experience of mental disability and how we should conceptualise
      mental disability in the future.

PMID- 28559370
TI  - Listen and learn: engaging young people, their families and schools in early
      intervention research.
AB  - Recent policy guidelines highlight the importance of increasing the
      identification of young people at risk of developing mental health problems in
      order to prevent their transition to long-term problems, avoid crisis and remove
      the need for care through specialist mental health services or hospitalisation.
      Early awareness of the often insidious behavioural and cognitive changes
      associated with deteriorating mental well-being, however, is difficult, but it is
      vital if young people, their families and those who work with them are to be
      fully equipped with the skills to aid early help-seeking. Our early intervention
      research continues to highlight the necessity of engaging with and listening to
      the voices of young people, families and those who work with children and young
      people, in developing greater understanding of why some young people may be more
      at risk in terms of their mental health, and to provide children and young people
      with the best mental health support we can. Collaborative working with young
      people, their families and those who work with them has been an essential
      dimension of our youth mental health research in Birmingham, UK, enabling us to
      listen to the personal narratives of those with lived experience and to work
      alongside them. This paper highlights some of our key studies and how we have
      endeavoured to make intra-agency working successful at each stage of the research
      process through increasing use of digital and youth-informed resources to engage
      young people: a methodology which continues to inform, guide and develop our
      early intervention research and implementation.

PMID- 28559373
TI  - Correction to "Tramadol Metabolism to O-Desmethyl Tramadol (M1) and N-Desmethyl
      Tramadol (M2) by Dog Liver Microsomes: Species Comparison and Identification of
      Responsible Canine Cytochrome P450s".

PMID- 28559372
TI  - Transforming Growth Factor-beta Receptor III is a Potential Regulator of Ischemia
      Induced Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myocardial infarction (MI) is often accompanied by cardiomyocyte
      apoptosis, which decreases heart function and leads to an increased risk of heart
      failure. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of transforming growth
      factor-beta receptor III (TGFbetaR3) on cardiomyocyte apoptosis during MI.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: An MI mouse model was established by left anterior
      descending coronary artery ligation. Cell viability, apoptosis, TGFbetaR3, and
      mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling were assessed by
      methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay, terminal deoxynucleotidyl
      transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay, immunofluorescence, electron
      microscopy, and Western blotting. Our results demonstrated that TGFbetaR3
      expression in the border region of the heart was dynamically changed during MI.
      After stimulation with H2O2, TGFbetaR3 overexpression in cardiomyocytes led to
      increased cell apoptosis and activation of p38 signaling, whereas TGFbetaR3
      knockdown had the opposite effect. ERK1/2 and JNK1/2 signaling was not altered by
      TGFbetaR3 modulation, and p38 inhibitor (SB203580) reduced the effect of
      TGFbetaR3 on apoptosis, suggesting that p38 has a nonredundant function in
      activating apoptosis. Consistent with the in vitro observations, cardiac
      TGFbetaR3 transgenic mice showed augmented cardiomyocyte apoptosis, enlarged
      infarct size, increased injury, and enhanced p38 signaling upon MI. Conversely,
      cardiac loss of function of TGFbetaR3 by adeno-associated viral vector serotype 9
      TGFbetaR3 short hairpin RNA attenuated the effects of MI in mice. CONCLUSIONS:
      TGFbetaR3 promotes apoptosis of cardiomyocytes via a p38 pathway-associated
      mechanism, and loss of TGFbetaR3 reduces MI injury, which suggests that TGFbetaR3
      may serve as a novel therapeutic target for MI.

PMID- 28559374
TI  - TARP gamma-2 Is Required for Inflammation-Associated AMPA Receptor Plasticity
      within Lamina II of the Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn.
AB  - In the brain, transmembrane AMPAR regulatory proteins (TARPs) critically
      influence the distribution, gating, and pharmacology of AMPARs, but the
      contribution of these auxiliary subunits to AMPAR-mediated signaling in the
      spinal cord remains unclear. We found that the Type I TARP gamma-2 (stargazin) is
      present in lamina II of the superficial dorsal horn, an area involved in
      nociception. Consistent with the notion that gamma-2 is associated with surface
      AMPARs, CNQX, a partial agonist at AMPARs associated with Type I TARPs, evoked
      whole-cell currents in lamina II neurons, but such currents were severely
      attenuated in gamma-2-lacking stargazer (stg/stg) mice. Examination of EPSCs
      revealed the targeting of gamma-2 to be synapse-specific; the amplitude of
      spontaneously occurring miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) was reduced in neurons from
      stg/stg mice, but the amplitude of capsaicin-induced mEPSCs from C-fiber synapses
      was unaltered. This suggests that gamma-2 is associated with AMPARs at synapses
      in lamina II but excluded from those at C-fiber inputs, a view supported by our
      immunohistochemical colabeling data. Following induction of peripheral
      inflammation, a model of hyperalgesia, there was a switch in the current-voltage
      relationships of capsaicin-induced mEPSCs, from linear to inwardly rectifying,
      indicating an increased prevalence of calcium-permeable (CP) AMPARs. This effect
      was abolished in stg/stg mice. Our results establish that, although gamma-2 is
      not typically associated with calcium-impermeable AMPARs at C-fiber synapses, it
      is required for the translocation of CP-AMPARs to these synapses following
      peripheral inflammation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In the brain, transmembrane AMPAR
      regulatory proteins (TARPs) critically determine the functional properties of
      AMPARs, but the contribution of these auxiliary subunits to AMPAR-mediated
      signaling in the spinal cord remains unclear. An increase in the excitability of
      neurons within the superficial dorsal horn (SDH) of the spinal cord is thought to
      underlie heighted pain sensitivity. One mechanism considered to contribute to
      such long-lived changes is the remodeling of the ionotropic AMPA-type glutamate
      receptors that underlie fast excitatory synaptic transmission in the SDH. Here we
      show that the TARP gamma-2 (stargazin) is present in SDH neurons and is necessary
      in a form of inflammatory pain-induced plasticity, which involves an increase in
      the prevalence of synaptic calcium-permeable AMPARs.

PMID- 28559376
TI  - Scopolamine Impairs Appetitive But Not Aversive Trace Conditioning: Role of the
      Medial Prefrontal Cortex.
AB  - The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor is an important modulator of medial
      prefrontal cortex (mPFC) functions, such as the working memory required to bridge
      a trace interval in associative leaning. Aversive and appetitive trace
      conditioning procedures were used to examine the effects of scopolamine (0.1 and
      0.5 mg/kg, i.p.) in male rats. Follow-up experiments tested the effects of
      microinfusion of 0.15 MUg of scopolamine (0.075 MUg of in 0.5 MUl/side) in
      infralimbic (IL) versus prelimbic regions of rat mPFC, in appetitive trace and
      locomotor activity (LMA) procedures. Systemic scopolamine was without effect in
      an aversive trace conditioning procedure, but impaired appetitive conditioning at
      a 2 s trace interval. This effect was demonstrated as reduced responding during
      presentations of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and during the interstimulus
      interval (ISI). There was no such effect on responding during food (unconditioned
      stimulus, US) responding or in the intertrial interval (ITI). In contrast,
      systemic scopolamine dose-relatedly increased LMA. Trace conditioning was
      similarly impaired at the 2 s trace (shown as reduced responding to the CS and
      during the ISI, but not during US presentations or in the ITI) after infusion in
      mPFC, whereas LMA was increased (after infusion in IL only). Therefore, our
      results point to the importance of cholinergic modulation in mPFC for trace
      conditioning and show that the observed effects cannot be attributed to reduced
      activity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Events are very often separated in time, in which
      case working memory is necessary to condition their association in "trace
      conditioning." The present study used conditioning variants motivated aversively
      with foot shock and appetitively with food. The drug scopolamine was used to
      block muscarinic acetylcholine receptors involved in working memory. The results
      show that reduced cholinergic transmission in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
      impaired appetitive trace conditioning at a 2 s trace interval. However,
      scopolamine was without effect in the aversive procedure, revealing the
      importance of procedural differences to the demonstration of the drug effect. The
      finding that blockade of muscarinic receptors in mPFC impaired trace conditioning
      shows that these receptors are critical modulators of short-term working memory.

PMID- 28559375
TI  - Stable and Dynamic Coding for Working Memory in Primate Prefrontal Cortex.
AB  - Working memory (WM) provides the stability necessary for high-level cognition.
      Influential theories typically assume that WM depends on the persistence of
      stable neural representations, yet increasing evidence suggests that neural
      states are highly dynamic. Here we apply multivariate pattern analysis to explore
      the population dynamics in primate lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) during three
      variants of the classic memory-guided saccade task (recorded in four animals). We
      observed the hallmark of dynamic population coding across key phases of a working
      memory task: sensory processing, memory encoding, and response execution.
      Throughout both these dynamic epochs and the memory delay period, however, the
      neural representational geometry remained stable. We identified two
      characteristics that jointly explain these dynamics: (1) time-varying changes in
      the subpopulation of neurons coding for task variables (i.e., dynamic
      subpopulations); and (2) time-varying selectivity within neurons (i.e., dynamic
      selectivity). These results indicate that even in a very simple memory-guided
      saccade task, PFC neurons display complex dynamics to support stable
      representations for WM.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Flexible, intelligent behavior
      requires the maintenance and manipulation of incoming information over various
      time spans. For short time spans, this faculty is labeled "working memory" (WM).
      Dominant models propose that WM is maintained by stable, persistent patterns of
      neural activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, recent evidence suggests
      that neural activity in PFC is dynamic, even while the contents of WM remain
      stably represented. Here, we explored the neural dynamics in PFC during a memory
      guided saccade task. We found evidence for dynamic population coding in various
      task epochs, despite striking stability in the neural representational geometry
      of WM. Furthermore, we identified two distinct cellular mechanisms that
      contribute to dynamic population coding.

PMID- 28559378
TI  - Parallel Regulation of Memory and Emotion Supports the Suppression of Intrusive
      Memories.
AB  - Intrusive memories often take the form of distressing images that emerge into a
      person's awareness, unbidden. A fundamental goal of clinical neuroscience is to
      understand the mechanisms allowing people to control these memory intrusions and
      reduce their emotional impact. Mnemonic control engages a right frontoparietal
      network that interrupts episodic retrieval by modulating hippocampal activity;
      less is known, however, about how this mechanism contributes to affect
      regulation. Here we report evidence in humans (males and females) that stopping
      episodic retrieval to suppress an unpleasant image triggers parallel inhibition
      of mnemonic and emotional content. Using fMRI, we found that regulation of both
      mnemonic and emotional content was driven by a shared frontoparietal inhibitory
      network and was predicted by a common profile of medial temporal lobe
      downregulation involving the anterior hippocampus and the amygdala. Critically,
      effective connectivity analysis confirmed that reduced amygdala activity was not
      merely an indirect consequence of hippocampal suppression; rather, both the
      hippocampus and the amygdala were targeted by a top-down inhibitory control
      signal originating from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This negative
      coupling was greater when unwanted memories intruded into awareness and needed to
      be purged. Together, these findings support the broad principle that retrieval
      suppression is achieved by regulating hippocampal processes in tandem with domain
      specific brain regions involved in reinstating specific content, in an activity
      dependent fashion.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Upsetting events sometimes trigger
      intrusive images that cause distress and that may contribute to psychiatric
      disorders. People often respond to intrusions by suppressing their retrieval,
      excluding them from awareness. Here we examined whether suppressing aversive
      images might also alter emotional responses to them, and the mechanisms
      underlying such changes. We found that the better people were at suppressing
      intrusions, the more it reduced their emotional responses to suppressed images.
      These dual effects on memory and emotion originated from a common right
      prefrontal cortical mechanism that downregulated the hippocampus and amygdala in
      parallel. Thus, suppressing intrusions affected emotional content. Importantly,
      participants who did not suppress intrusions well showed increased negative
      affect, suggesting that suppression deficits render people vulnerable to
      psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28559380
TI  - Crossmodal Classification of Mu Rhythm Activity during Action Observation and
      Execution Suggests Specificity to Somatosensory Features of Actions.
AB  - The alpha mu rhythm (8-13 Hz) has been considered to reflect mirror neuron
      activity because it is attenuated by both action observation and action
      execution. The putative link between mirror neuron system activity and the mu
      rhythm has been used to study the involvement of the mirror system in a wide
      range of socio-cognitive processes and clinical disorders. However, previous
      research has failed to convincingly demonstrate the specificity of the mu rhythm,
      meaning that it is unclear whether the mu rhythm reflects mirror neuron activity.
      It also remains unclear whether mu rhythm suppression during action observation
      reflects the processing of motor or tactile information. In an attempt to assess
      the validity of the mu rhythm as a measure of mirror neuron activity, we used
      crossmodal pattern classification to assess the specificity of EEG mu rhythm
      response to action varying in terms of action type (whole-hand or precision
      grip), concurrent tactile stimulation (stimulation or no stimulation), or object
      use (transitive or intransitive actions) in 20 human participants. The main
      results reveal that above-chance crossmodal classification of mu rhythm activity
      was obtained in the central channels for tactile stimulation and action
      transitivity but not for action type. Furthermore, traditional univariate
      analyses applied to the same data were insensitive to differences between
      conditions. By calling into question the relationship between mirror system
      activity and the mu rhythm, these results have important implications for the use
      and interpretation of mu rhythm activity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The central alpha
      mu rhythm oscillation is a widely used measure of the human mirror neuron system
      that has been used to make important claims concerning cognitive functioning in
      health and in disease. Here, we used a novel multivariate analytical approach to
      show that crossmodal EEG mu rhythm responses primarily index the somatosensory
      features of actions, suggesting that the mu rhythm is not a valid measure of
      mirror neuron activity. Results may lead to the revision of the conclusions of
      many previous studies using this measure, and to the transition toward a theory
      of mu rhythm function that is more consistent with current models of sensory
      processing in the self and in others.

PMID- 28559377
TI  - Calcineurin/NFAT Signaling in Activated Astrocytes Drives Network
      Hyperexcitability in Abeta-Bearing Mice.
AB  - Hyperexcitable neuronal networks are mechanistically linked to the pathologic and
      clinical features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Astrocytes are a primary defense
      against hyperexcitability, but their functional phenotype during AD is poorly
      understood. Here, we found that activated astrocytes in the 5xFAD mouse model
      were strongly associated with proteolysis of the protein phosphatase calcineurin
      (CN) and the elevated expression of the CN-dependent transcription factor nuclear
      factor of activated T cells 4 (NFAT4). Intrahippocampal injections of adeno
      associated virus vectors containing the astrocyte-specific promoter Gfa2 and the
      NFAT inhibitory peptide VIVIT reduced signs of glutamate-mediated
      hyperexcitability in 5xFAD mice, measured in vivo with microelectrode arrays and
      ex vivo brain slices, using whole-cell voltage clamp. VIVIT treatment in 5xFAD
      mice led to increased expression of the astrocytic glutamate transporter GLT-1
      and to attenuated changes in dendrite morphology, synaptic strength, and NMDAR
      dependent responses. The results reveal astrocytic CN/NFAT4 as a key pathologic
      mechanism for driving glutamate dysregulation and neuronal hyperactivity during
      AD.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neuronal hyperexcitability and excitotoxicity are
      increasingly recognized as important mechanisms for neurodegeneration and
      dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Astrocytes are profoundly
      activated during AD and may lose their capacity to regulate excitotoxic glutamate
      levels. Here, we show that a highly active calcineurin (CN) phosphatase fragment
      and its substrate transcription factor, nuclear factor of activated T cells
      (NFAT4), appear in astrocytes in direct proportion to the extent of astrocyte
      activation. The blockade of astrocytic CN/NFAT signaling in a common mouse model
      of AD, using adeno-associated virus vectors normalized glutamate signaling
      dynamics, increased astrocytic glutamate transporter levels and alleviated
      multiple signs of neuronal hyperexcitability. The results suggest that astrocyte
      activation drives hyperexcitability during AD through a mechanism involving
      aberrant CN/NFAT signaling and impaired glutamate transport.

PMID- 28559381
TI  - Learning Enhances Sensory Processing in Mouse V1 before Improving Behavior.
AB  - A fundamental property of visual cortex is to enhance the representation of those
      stimuli that are relevant for behavior, but it remains poorly understood how such
      enhanced representations arise during learning. Using classical conditioning in
      adult mice of either sex, we show that orientation discrimination is learned in a
      sequence of distinct behavioral stages, in which animals first rely on stimulus
      appearance before exploiting its orientation to guide behavior. After confirming
      that orientation discrimination under classical conditioning requires primary
      visual cortex (V1), we measured, during learning, response properties of V1
      neurons. Learning improved neural discriminability, sharpened orientation tuning,
      and led to higher contrast sensitivity. Remarkably, these learning-related
      improvements in the V1 representation were fully expressed before successful
      orientation discrimination was evident in the animals' behavior. We propose that
      V1 plays a key role early in discrimination learning to enhance behaviorally
      relevant sensory information.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Decades of research have
      documented that responses of neurons in visual cortex can reflect the behavioral
      relevance of visual information. The behavioral relevance of any stimulus needs
      to be learned, though, and little is known how visual sensory processing changes,
      as the significance of a stimulus becomes clear. Here, we trained mice to
      discriminate two visual stimuli, precisely quantified when learning happened, and
      measured, during learning, the neural representation of these stimuli in V1. We
      observed learning-related improvements in V1 processing, which were fully
      expressed before discrimination was evident in the animals' behavior. These
      findings indicate that sensory and behavioral improvements can follow different
      time courses and point toward a key role of V1 at early stages in discrimination
      learning.

PMID- 28559379
TI  - Neural Entrainment to the Beat: The "Missing-Pulse" Phenomenon.
AB  - Most humans have a near-automatic inclination to tap, clap, or move to the beat
      of music. The capacity to extract a periodic beat from a complex musical segment
      is remarkable, as it requires abstraction from the temporal structure of the
      stimulus. It has been suggested that nonlinear interactions in neural networks
      result in cortical oscillations at the beat frequency, and that such entrained
      oscillations give rise to the percept of a beat or a pulse. Here we tested this
      neural resonance theory using MEG recordings as female and male individuals
      listened to 30 s sequences of complex syncopated drumbeats designed so that they
      contain no net energy at the pulse frequency when measured using linear analysis.
      We analyzed the spectrum of the neural activity while listening and compared it
      to the modulation spectrum of the stimuli. We found enhanced neural response in
      the auditory cortex at the pulse frequency. We also showed phase locking at the
      times of the missing pulse, even though the pulse was absent from the stimulus
      itself. Moreover, the strength of this pulse response correlated with
      individuals' speed in finding the pulse of these stimuli, as tested in a follow
      up session. These findings demonstrate that neural activity at the pulse
      frequency in the auditory cortex is internally generated rather than stimulus
      driven. The current results are both consistent with neural resonance theory and
      with models based on nonlinear response of the brain to rhythmic stimuli. The
      results thus help narrow the search for valid models of beat
      perception.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans perceive music as having a regular pulse
      marking equally spaced points in time, within which musical notes are temporally
      organized. Neural resonance theory (NRT) provides a theoretical model explaining
      how an internal periodic representation of a pulse may emerge through nonlinear
      coupling between oscillating neural systems. After testing key falsifiable
      predictions of NRT using MEG recordings, we demonstrate the emergence of neural
      oscillations at the pulse frequency, which can be related to pulse perception.
      These findings rule out alternative explanations for neural entrainment and
      provide evidence linking neural synchronization to the perception of pulse, a
      widely debated topic in recent years.

PMID- 28559382
TI  - Axonal Conduction Delays, Brain State, and Corticogeniculate Communication.
AB  - Thalamocortical conduction times are short, but layer 6 corticothalamic axons
      display an enormous range of conduction times, some exceeding 40-50 ms. Here, we
      investigate (1) how axonal conduction times of corticogeniculate (CG) neurons are
      related to the visual information conveyed to the thalamus, and (2) how alert
      versus nonalert awake brain states affect visual processing across the spectrum
      of CG conduction times. In awake female Dutch-Belted rabbits, we found 58% of CG
      neurons to be visually responsive, and 42% to be unresponsive. All responsive CG
      neurons had simple, orientation-selective receptive fields, and generated
      sustained responses to stationary stimuli. CG axonal conduction times were
      strongly related to modulated firing rates (F1 values) generated by drifting
      grating stimuli, and their associated interspike interval distributions,
      suggesting a continuum of visual responsiveness spanning the spectrum of axonal
      conduction times. CG conduction times were also significantly related to visual
      response latency, contrast sensitivity (C-50 values), directional selectivity,
      and optimal stimulus velocity. Increasing alertness did not cause visually
      unresponsive CG neurons to become responsive and did not change the response
      linearity (F1/F0 ratios) of visually responsive CG neurons. However, for visually
      responsive CG neurons, increased alertness nearly doubled the modulated response
      amplitude to optimal visual stimulation (F1 values), significantly shortened
      response latency, and dramatically increased response reliability. These effects
      of alertness were uniform across the broad spectrum of CG axonal conduction
      times.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Corticothalamic neurons of layer 6 send a dense
      feedback projection to thalamic nuclei that provide input to sensory neocortex.
      While sensory information reaches the cortex after brief thalamocortical axonal
      delays, corticothalamic axons can exhibit conduction delays of <2 ms to 40-50 ms.
      Here, in the corticogeniculate visual system of awake rabbits, we investigate the
      functional significance of this axonal diversity, and the effects of shifting
      alert/nonalert brain states on corticogeniculate processing. We show that axonal
      conduction times are strongly related to multiple visual response properties,
      suggesting a continuum of visual responsiveness spanning the spectrum of
      corticogeniculate axonal conduction times. We also show that transitions between
      awake brain states powerfully affect corticogeniculate processing, in some ways
      more strongly than in layer 4.

PMID- 28559385
TI  - miR-214 promotes radioresistance in human ovarian cancer cells by targeting PETN.
AB  - Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of death among gynecological
      malignancies. Increasing evidence indicate that dysregulation of microRNAs
      (miRNAs) plays an important role in tumor radioresistance. The aim of the present
      study is to investigate whether microRNA-214 (miR-214) was involved in
      radioresistance of human ovarian cancer. Here, we showed that miR-214 was
      significantly up-regulated in ovarian cancer tissues and radioresistance ovarian
      cancer cell lines. Transfection of miR-214 agomir in radiosensitive ovarian
      cancer cell lines promoted them for resistance to ionizing radiation, whereas
      transfection of miR-214 antagomir in radioresistance ovarian cancer cell lines
      sensitized them to ionizing radiation again. Furthermore, we found miR-214
      effectively promoted tumor radioresistance in xenograft animal experiment.
      Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR demonstrated that miR-214
      negatively regulated PTEN in radioresistance ovarian cancer cell lines and
      ovarian cancer tissues. Taken together, our data conclude that miR-214
      contributes to radioresistance of ovarian cancer by directly targeting PTEN.

PMID- 28559383
TI  - Spatial Processing Is Frequency Specific in Auditory Cortex But Not in the
      Midbrain.
AB  - The cochlea behaves like a bank of band-pass filters, segregating information
      into different frequency channels. Some aspects of perception reflect processing
      within individual channels, but others involve the integration of information
      across them. One instance of this is sound localization, which improves with
      increasing bandwidth. The processing of binaural cues for sound location has been
      studied extensively. However, although the advantage conferred by bandwidth is
      clear, we currently know little about how this additional information is combined
      to form our percept of space. We investigated the ability of cells in the
      auditory system of guinea pigs to compare interaural level differences (ILDs), a
      key localization cue, between tones of disparate frequencies in each ear. Cells
      in auditory cortex believed to be integral to ILD processing (excitatory from one
      ear, inhibitory from the other: EI cells) compare ILDs separately over restricted
      frequency ranges which are not consistent with their monaural tuning. In
      contrast, cells that are excitatory from both ears (EE cells) show no evidence of
      frequency-specific processing. Both cell types are explained by a model in which
      ILDs are computed within separate frequency channels and subsequently combined in
      a single cortical cell. Interestingly, ILD processing in all inferior colliculus
      cell types (EE and EI) is largely consistent with processing within single,
      matched-frequency channels from each ear. Our data suggest a clear constraint on
      the way that localization cues are integrated: cortical ILD tuning to broadband
      sounds is a composite of separate, frequency-specific, binaurally sensitive
      channels. This frequency-specific processing appears after the level of the
      midbrain.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT For some sensory modalities (e.g.,
      somatosensation, vision), the spatial arrangement of the outside world is
      inherited by the brain from the periphery. The auditory periphery is arranged
      spatially by frequency, not spatial location. Therefore, our auditory perception
      of location must be synthesized from physical cues in separate frequency
      channels. There are multiple cues (e.g., timing, level, spectral cues), but even
      single cues (e.g., level differences) are frequency dependent. The synthesis of
      location must account for this frequency dependence, but it is not known how this
      might occur. Here, we investigated how interaural-level differences are combined
      across frequency along the ascending auditory system. We found that the
      integration in auditory cortex preserves the independence of the different-level
      cues in different frequency regions.

PMID- 28559384
TI  - A Role for Auditory Corticothalamic Feedback in the Perception of Complex Sounds.
AB  - Feedback signals from the primary auditory cortex (A1) can shape the receptive
      field properties of neurons in the ventral division of the medial geniculate body
      (MGBv). However, the behavioral significance of corticothalamic modulation is
      unknown. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of this descending
      pathway in the perception of complex sounds. We tested the ability of adult
      female ferrets to detect the presence of a mistuned harmonic in a complex tone
      using a positive conditioned go/no-go behavioral paradigm before and after the
      input from layer VI in A1 to MGBv was bilaterally and selectively eliminated
      using chromophore-targeted laser photolysis. MGBv neurons were identified by
      their short latencies and sharp tuning curves. They responded robustly to
      harmonic complex tones and exhibited an increase in firing rate and temporal
      pattern changes when one frequency component in the complex tone was mistuned.
      Injections of fluorescent microbeads conjugated with a light-sensitive
      chromophore were made in MGBv, and, following retrograde transport to the
      cortical cell bodies, apoptosis was induced by infrared laser illumination of A1.
      This resulted in a selective loss of ~60% of layer VI A1-MGBv neurons. After the
      lesion, mistuning detection was impaired, as indicated by decreased d' values, a
      shift of the psychometric curves toward higher mistuning values, and increased
      thresholds, whereas discrimination performance was unaffected when level cues
      were also available. Our results suggest that A1-MGBv corticothalamic feedback
      contributes to the detection of harmonicity, one of the most important grouping
      cues in the perception of complex sounds.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Perception of a
      complex auditory scene is based on the ability of the brain to group those sound
      components that belong to the same source and to segregate them from those
      belonging to different sources. Because two people talking simultaneously may
      differ in their voice pitch, perceiving the harmonic structure of sounds is very
      important for auditory scene analysis. Here we demonstrate mistuning sensitivity
      in the thalamus and that feedback from the primary auditory cortex is required
      for the normal ability of ferrets to detect a mistuned harmonic within a complex
      sound. These results provide novel insight into the function of descending
      sensory pathways in the brain and suggest that this corticothalamic circuit plays
      an important role in scene analysis.

PMID- 28559386
TI  - Role of SDF-1alpha/CXCR4 signaling pathway in clinicopathological features and
      prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - The present study aims to explore the role of stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha
      (SDF-1alpha)/stromal cell-derived factor receptor-4 (CXCR4) signaling pathway to
      the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma (NPC). From January 2009 to December 2010, 102 patients with NPC and 80
      patients with chronic nasopharyngitis were enrolled for the study.
      Immunohistochemical staining, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction
      (qRT-PCR), and Western blotting were employed to determine the expressions of SDF
      1alpha and CXCR4 proteins in NPC tissues and chronic nasopharyngitis tissues. Chi
      square test was conducted to analyze the associations of the expressions of SDF
      1alpha and CXCR4 proteins with the clinicopathological features of NPC patients.
      Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between
      the SDF-1alpha protein expression and CXCR4 protein expression. The mRNA and
      protein expressions of SDF-1alpha and CXCR4 in NPC tissues were significantly
      higher than those in chronic nasopharyngitis tissues. The expressions of SDF
      1alpha and CXCR4 proteins showed associations with T staging, N staging, tumor
      node metastasis (TNM) staging, skull base invasion, and cervical lymph node
      metastasis of NPC patients. Compared with NPC patients showing negative
      expressions of SDF-1alpha and CXCR4 proteins, those with positive expressions of
      SDF-1alpha and CXCR4 proteins had a significantly shorter survival time. SDF
      1alpha protein, CXCR4 protein, EBV-IgG status, T staging, N staging, TNM staging,
      skull base invasion, and cervical lymph node metastasis were independent risk
      factors for the prognosis of NPC. The findings indicated that SDF-1alpha/CXCR4
      signaling pathway might be associated with the clinicopathological features and
      prognosis of patients with NPC.

PMID- 28559387
TI  - Haemobilia due to hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm.
AB  - An 83-year-old woman with a history of hepaticoduodenostomy 20 years ago was
      admitted with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Emergency upper gastrointestinal
      endoscopy revealed multiple blood clots over the stomach and first and second
      parts of the duodenum. The cannulation of the biliary tree with a flexible end
      viewing endoscope exposed the presence of blood clot inside biliary lumen and a
      semipedunculated polyp which, at first, appeared to be the cause of haemorrhage.
      A few days after polypectomy, patient was discharged home, however, was admitted
      again with massive bleeding and selective angiography demonstrated a
      pseudoaneurysm of left hepatic artery. Angioembolisation was performed and
      haemorrhage was stopped afterwards.

PMID- 28559388
TI  - Stress testing after percutaneous coronary interventions: a population-based
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine stress testing is commonly used after percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) to detect in-stent restenosis or suboptimal procedure results;
      however, recent studies suggest that such testing is rarely indicated. Our main
      objectives were to assess temporal trends in utilization of stress testing and to
      determine factors associated with its use. METHODS: We conducted an observational
      study involving all patients who had undergone PCI in Ontario, Canada, from Apr.
      1, 2004, to Mar. 31, 2012. The main outcome was stress testing within 2 years
      after PCI. We constructed multivariable logistic regression models to determine
      factors associated with the use of stress tests. RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of
      128 380 patients who underwent PCI procedures. The 2-year rate of stress testing
      declined significantly, from 68.1% among patients who underwent PCI in 2004 to
      60.4% in 2012 (p < 0.001). Similar reductions were observed regardless of
      patients' risk of restenosis and type of stent received. Patients who were older
      or had diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, heart failure or other
      comorbidities were significantly less likely to undergo stress testing. In
      contrast, patients with higher income and those whose PCI was performed in a
      nonteaching hospital were significantly more likely to undergo stress testing.
      INTERPRETATION: We observed a decrease in the use of stress testing after PCI
      procedures over time. However, stress tests were not performed in accordance with
      patients' higher baseline risk of adverse outcomes or risk of restenosis.
      Instead, many nonclinical factors, such as patients' socioeconomic status and
      hospitals' teaching status, were associated with higher use of stress tests.

PMID- 28559389
TI  - Mineralocorticoid Receptor Deficiency in T Cells Attenuates Pressure Overload
      Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy and Dysfunction Through Modulating T-Cell Activation.
AB  - Although antagonists of mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) have been widely used to
      treat heart failure, the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood.
      Recent reports show that T cells play important roles in pathologic cardiac
      hypertrophy and heart failure. However, it is unclear whether and how MR
      functions in T cells under these pathologic conditions. We found that MR
      antagonist suppressed abdominal aortic constriction-induced cardiac hypertrophy
      and decreased the accumulation and activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in mouse
      heart. T-cell MR knockout mice manifested suppressed cardiac hypertrophy,
      fibrosis, and dysfunction compared with littermate control mice after abdominal
      aortic constriction. T-cell MR knockout mice had less cardiac inflammatory
      response, which was illustrated by decreased accumulation of myeloid cells and
      reduced expression of inflammatory cytokines. Less amounts and activation of T
      cells were observed in the heart of T-cell MR knockout mice after abdominal
      aortic constriction. In vitro studies showed that both MR antagonism and
      deficiency repressed activation of T cells, whereas MR overexpression elevated
      activation of T cells. These results demonstrated that MR blockade in T cells
      protected against abdominal aortic constriction-induced cardiac hypertrophy and
      dysfunction. Mechanistically, MR directly regulated T-cell activation and
      modulated cardiac inflammation. Targeting MR in T cells specifically may be a
      feasible strategy for more effective treatment of pathologic cardiac hypertrophy
      and heart failure.

PMID- 28559390
TI  - Long-Standing Problem of beta-Blocker-Elicited Hypoglycemia in Diabetes Mellitus.

PMID- 28559392
TI  - Renal Dysfunction Induced by Kidney-Specific Gene Deletion of Hsd11b2 as a
      Primary Cause of Salt-Dependent Hypertension.
AB  - Genome-wide analysis of renal sodium-transporting system has identified specific
      variations of Mendelian hypertensive disorders, including HSD11B2 gene variants
      in apparent mineralocorticoid excess. However, these genetic variations in
      extrarenal tissue can be involved in developing hypertension, as demonstrated in
      former studies using global and brain-specific Hsd11b2 knockout rodents. To re
      examine the importance of renal dysfunction on developing hypertension, we
      generated kidney-specific Hsd11b2 knockout mice. The knockout mice exhibited
      systemic hypertension, which was abolished by reducing salt intake, suggesting
      its salt-dependency. In addition, we detected an increase in renal membrane
      expressions of cleaved epithelial sodium channel-alpha and T53-phosphorylated Na+
      Cl- cotransporter in the knockout mice. Acute intraperitoneal administration of
      amiloride-induced natriuresis and increased urinary sodium/potassium ratio more
      in the knockout mice compared with those in the wild-type control mice. Chronic
      administration of amiloride and high-KCl diet significantly decreased mean blood
      pressure in the knockout mice, which was accompanied with the correction of
      hypokalemia and the resultant decrease in Na+-Cl- cotransporter phosphorylation.
      Accordingly, a Na+-Cl- cotransporter blocker hydrochlorothiazide significantly
      decreased mean blood pressure in the knockout mice. Chronic administration of
      mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist spironolactone significantly decreased mean
      blood pressure of the knockout mice along with downregulation of cleaved
      epithelial sodium channel-alpha and phosphorylated Na+-Cl- cotransporter
      expression in the knockout kidney. Our data suggest that kidney-specific
      deficiency of 11beta-HSD2 leads to salt-dependent hypertension, which is
      attributed to mineralocorticoid receptor-epithelial sodium channel-Na+-Cl-
      cotransporter activation in the kidney, and provides evidence that renal
      dysfunction is essential for developing the phenotype of apparent
      mineralocorticoid excess.

PMID- 28559393
TI  - Healthy Vascular Aging.

PMID- 28559391
TI  - How Is the Brain Renin-Angiotensin System Regulated?

PMID- 28559394
TI  - Orthostatic Hypotension and Risk of Incident Dementia: Results From a 12-Year
      Follow-Up of the Three-City Study Cohort.
AB  - Several studies indicate a potential link between orthostatic hypotension (OH)
      and incident dementia but without substantial evidence to date. Our objective is
      to study the association between OH and dementia in a cohort of elderly
      individuals. To do so, baseline lying and standing blood pressure measurements
      were taken from 7425 subjects in the Three-City study. These subjects were then
      followed-up for 12 years. Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for potential
      confounders, were used to estimate the risk of incident dementia according to OH
      status. Sensitivity analysis was performed using the so-called illness-death
      model, a specific statistical method which takes into account competitive risk
      with death. OH frequency was found to be around 13%, and 760 cases of dementia
      were diagnosed during follow-up. We observed significant associations between the
      presence of OH at baseline and the occurrence of dementia during the follow-up,
      with an increased risk of at least 25% observed regardless of the OH threshold
      and the statistical method used. In conclusion, there is an association between
      OH and dementia. Considering that OH is a common condition and is easy to
      measure, OH measurements could help to identify subjects with higher risk of
      dementia. Moreover, reducing OH could be a step to prevent conversion to
      dementia.

PMID- 28559395
TI  - Delayed Response to Antihypertension Medication: A Harbinger of Stroke, Heart
      Failure, and Vascular Disease.

PMID- 28559396
TI  - Oliver Smithies: A Remembrance.

PMID- 28559397
TI  - Cyclic Nucleotides Differentially Regulate Cx43 Gap Junction Function in Uterine
      Artery Endothelial Cells From Pregnant Ewes.
AB  - Cell-cell communication is dependent on GJ (gap junction) proteins such as Cx43
      (connexin 43). We previously demonstrated the importance of Cx43 function in
      establishing the enhanced pregnancy vasodilatory phenotype during pregnancy in
      uterine artery endothelial cells from pregnant (P-UAEC) ewes. Cx43 is regulated
      by elevating cAMP and PKA (protein kinase A)-dependent Cx43 S365 phosphorylation
      associated trafficking and GJ open gating, which is opposed by PKC (protein
      kinase C)-dependent S368 phosphorylation-mediated GJ turnover and closed gating.
      However, the role of cyclic nucleotide-mediated signaling mechanisms that control
      Cx43 and GJ function in P-UAECs is unknown. We hypothesize that cAMP will mediate
      increases in S365 phosphorylation, thereby, enhancing GJ trafficking and open
      gating, while cGMP will stimulate S368, but not S365, phosphorylation to enhance
      GJ turnover and closed gating in P-UAECs. Treatment with 8-Bromo (8-Br)-cAMP
      signal significantly (P<0.05) increased nonphosphorylated S365 signal and total
      Cx43 phosphorylation, but not S368 phosphorylation, while 8-Br-cGMP significantly
      (P<0.05) increased Cx43 C-terminus-S365 signal, S368, and total Cx43
      phosphorylation. Inhibition of PKA, but not PKG (protein kinase G), abrogated the
      8-Br-cAMP-stimulated increase in nonphosphorylated S365 and total Cx43
      phosphorylation and inhibited S368 below basal levels, whereas inhibition of PKG
      blocked (P<0.05) the 8-bromo-cGMP-stimulated rises in nonphosphorylated S365,
      total Cx43, and S368 phosphorylation levels in P-UAECs. Functional studies showed
      that 8-Br-cAMP increased dye transfer and sustained calcium bursts, while 8-Br
      cGMP decreased both. Thus, in P-UAECs, only 8-Br-cAMP and not 8-Br-cGMP
      effectively enhances nonphosphorylated S365 and total Cx43 expression that
      correspondingly reduces S368 phosphorylation, allowing increased GJ
      communication. This provides new insights into the regulatory mechanisms behind
      Cx43 function and GJ communication.

PMID- 28559398
TI  - Prevalence, Correlates, and Prognosis of Healthy Vascular Aging in a Western
      Community-Dwelling Cohort: The Framingham Heart Study.
AB  - Hypertension and increased vascular stiffness are viewed as inevitable parts of
      aging. To elucidate whether the age-related decrease in vascular function is
      avoidable, we assessed the prevalence, correlates, and prognosis of healthy
      vascular aging (HVA) in 3196 Framingham Study participants aged >=50 years. We
      defined HVA as absence of hypertension and pulse wave velocity <7.6 m/s (mean+2
      SD of a reference sample aged <30 years). Overall, 566 (17.7%) individuals had
      HVA, with prevalence decreasing from 30.3% in people aged 50 to 59 to 1% in those
      aged >=70 years. In regression models adjusted for physical activity, caloric
      intake, and traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, we observed
      that lower age, female sex, lower body mass index, use of lipid-lowering drugs,
      and absence of diabetes mellitus were cross-sectionally associated with HVA
      (P<0.001 for all). A unit increase in a cardiovascular health score (Life's
      Simple 7) was associated with 1.55-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.38-1.74) age-
      and sex-adjusted odds of HVA. During a follow-up of 9.6 years, 391 CVD events
      occurred. In Cox regression models adjusted for traditional CVD risk factors,
      including blood pressure, HVA was associated with a hazard ratio of 0.45 (95%
      confidence interval, 0.26-0.77) for CVD relative to absence of HVA. Although HVA
      is achievable in individuals acculturated to a Western lifestyle, maintaining
      normal vascular function beyond 70 years of age is challenging. Although our data
      are observational, our findings support prevention strategies targeting
      modifiable factors and behaviors and obesity, in particular, to prevent or delay
      vascular aging and the associated risk of CVD.

PMID- 28559399
TI  - Heterogeneity in Early Responses in ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering
      Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial).
AB  - Randomized trials of hypertension have seldom examined heterogeneity in response
      to treatments over time and the implications for cardiovascular outcomes.
      Understanding this heterogeneity, however, is a necessary step toward
      personalizing antihypertensive therapy. We applied trajectory-based modeling to
      data on 39 763 study participants of the ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid
      Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial) to identify distinct patterns
      of systolic blood pressure (SBP) response to randomized medications during the
      first 6 months of the trial. Two trajectory patterns were identified: immediate
      responders (85.5%), on average, had a decreasing SBP, whereas nonimmediate
      responders (14.5%), on average, had an initially increasing SBP followed by a
      decrease. Compared with those randomized to chlorthalidone, participants
      randomized to amlodipine (odds ratio, 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10
      1.31), lisinopril (odds ratio, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.73-2.03), and doxazosin (odds
      ratio, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.52-1.78) had higher adjusted odds ratios associated with
      being a nonimmediate responder (versus immediate responder). After multivariable
      adjustment, nonimmediate responders had a higher hazard ratio of stroke (hazard
      ratio, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.21-1.84), combined cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio,
      1.21; 95% CI, 1.11-1.31), and heart failure (hazard ratio, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.24
      1.78) during follow-up between 6 months and 2 years. The SBP response
      trajectories provided superior discrimination for predicting downstream adverse
      cardiovascular events than classification based on difference in SBP between the
      first 2 measurements, SBP at 6 months, and average SBP during the first 6 months.
      Our findings demonstrate heterogeneity in response to antihypertensive therapies
      and show that chlorthalidone is associated with more favorable initial response
      than the other medications.

PMID- 28559400
TI  - Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus on beta
      Blockers.
AB  - Although the use of beta-blockers may help in achieving maximum effects of
      intensive glycemic control because of a decrease in the adverse effects after
      severe hypoglycemia, they pose a potential risk for the occurrence of severe
      hypoglycemia. This study aimed to evaluate whether the use of beta-blockers is
      effective in patients with diabetes mellitus and whether its use is associated
      with the occurrence of severe hypoglycemia. Using the ACCORD trial (Action to
      Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) data, we performed Cox proportional
      hazards analyses with a propensity score adjustment. The primary outcome was the
      first occurrence of a cardiovascular event during the study period, which
      included nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina, nonfatal stroke, and
      cardiovascular death. The mean follow-up periods (+/-SD) were 4.6+/-1.6 years in
      patients on beta-blockers (n=2527) and 4.7+/-1.6 years in those not on beta
      blockers (n=2527). The cardiovascular event rate was significantly higher in
      patients on beta-blockers than in those not on beta-blockers (hazard ratio, 1.46;
      95% confidence interval, 1.24-1.72; P<0.001). In patients with coronary heart
      disease or heart failure, the cumulative event rate for cardiovascular events was
      also significantly higher in those on beta-blockers than in those not on beta
      blockers (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.60; P=0.03). The
      incidence of severe hypoglycemia was significantly higher in patients on beta
      blockers than in those not on beta-blockers (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.03-1.64; P=0.02). In conclusion, the use of beta-blockers in patients
      with diabetes mellitus was associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular
      events.

PMID- 28559401
TI  - Association Between Endometriosis and Hypercholesterolemia or Hypertension.
AB  - An altered hormonal or chronic systemic inflammatory milieu characterizing
      endometriosis may result in a higher risk of hypercholesterolemia and
      hypertension. Conversely, elevated low-density lipoprotein in
      hypercholesterolemia and chronic systemic inflammation resulting from
      hypertension may increase the risk of endometriosis. We assessed the association
      of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis with hypercholesterolemia and
      hypertension in a large prospective cohort study. In 1989, 116 430 registered
      female nurses aged 25 to 42 completed the baseline questionnaire and were
      followed for 20 years. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were
      applied. In 1989, there were 4244 women with laparoscopically confirmed
      endometriosis and 91 554 women without. After adjusting for demographic,
      anthropometric, family history, reproductive, dietary, and lifestyle risk factors
      prospectively, comparing women with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis to
      women without, the relative risks were 1.25 (95% confidence interval, 1.21-1.30)
      for development of hypercholesterolemia and 1.14 (95% confidence interval, 1.09
      1.18) for hypertension. Conversely, the relative risks of developing
      laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis were 1.22 (95% confidence interval, 1.15
      1.31) comparing women with hypercholesterolemia to women without and 1.29 (95%
      confidence interval, 1.18-1.41) comparing women with hypertension to women
      without. The strength of associations of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis
      with hypercholesterolemia or hypertension was strongest among women aged <=40 and
      weakened as age increased (P values for interaction <0.001). We observed that
      ~45% of the associations between endometriosis and hypercholesterolemia and
      hypertension could be accounted for by treatment factors after endometriosis
      diagnosis, including greater frequency of hysterectomy/oophorectomy and earlier
      age for this surgery. In this large cohort study, laparoscopically confirmed
      endometriosis was prospectively associated with increased risk of
      hypercholesterolemia and hypertension. Conversely, hypercholesterolemia and
      hypertension were prospectively associated with higher risk of laparoscopically
      confirmed endometriosis.

PMID- 28559402
TI  - Findings May Lead to New Strategies for GVHD.
AB  - A new study in mice demonstrates that activating the RIG-I and STING signaling
      pathways, normally associated with antiviral immunity, can help protect the
      intestinal epithelium from damage caused by chemotherapy and radiation following
      stem cell transplantation. The findings may help in developing strategies to
      prevent graft-versus-host disease in patients with leukemia and other blood
      disorders.

PMID- 28559403
TI  - The Bordetella Bps Polysaccharide Is Required for Biofilm Formation and Enhances
      Survival in the Lower Respiratory Tract of Swine.
AB  - Bordetella bronchiseptica is pervasive in swine populations and plays multiple
      roles in respiratory disease. Additionally, B. bronchiseptica is capable of
      establishing long-term or chronic infections in swine. Bacterial biofilms are
      increasingly recognized as important contributors to chronic bacterial
      infections. Recently the polysaccharide locus bpsABCD has been demonstrated to
      serve a critical role in the development of mature biofilms formed by the
      sequenced laboratory strain of B. bronchiseptica We hypothesized that swine
      isolates would also have the ability to form mature biofilms and the bpsABCD
      locus would serve a key role in this process. A mutant containing an in-frame
      deletion of the bpsABCD structural genes was constructed in a wild-type swine
      isolate and found to be negative for poly-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG)-like
      material by immunoblot assay. Further, the bpsABCD locus was found to be required
      for the development and maintenance of the three-dimensional structures under
      continuous-flow conditions. To investigate the contribution of the bpsABCD locus
      to the pathogenesis of B. bronchiseptica in swine, the KM22Deltabps mutant was
      compared to the wild-type swine isolate for the ability to colonize and cause
      disease in pigs. The bpsABCD locus was found to not be required for persistence
      in the upper respiratory tract of swine. Additionally, the bpsABCD locus did not
      affect the development of anti-Bordetella humoral immunity, did not contribute to
      disease severity, and did not mediate protection from complement-mediated
      killing. However, the bpsABCD locus was found to enhance survival in the lower
      respiratory tract of swine.

PMID- 28559404
TI  - Peripheral T-Cell Reactivity to Heat Shock Protein 70 and Its Cofactor GrpE from
      Tropheryma whipplei Is Reduced in Patients with Classical Whipple's Disease.
AB  - Classical Whipple's disease (CWD) is characterized by the lack of specific Th1
      response toward Tropheryma whipplei in genetically predisposed individuals. The
      cofactor GrpE of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) from T. whipplei was previously
      identified as a B-cell antigen. We tested the capacity of Hsp70 and GrpE to
      elicit specific proinflammatory T-cell responses. Peripheral mononuclear cells
      from CWD patients and healthy donors were stimulated with T. whipplei lysate or
      recombinant GrpE or Hsp70 before levels of CD40L, CD69, perforin, granzyme B,
      CD107a, and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) were determined in T cells by flow
      cytometry. Upon stimulation with total bacterial lysate or recombinant GrpE or
      Hsp70 of T. whipplei, the proportions of activated effector CD4+ T cells,
      determined as CD40L+ IFN-gamma+, were significantly lower in patients with CWD
      than in healthy controls; CD8+ T cells of untreated CWD patients revealed an
      enhanced activation toward unspecific stimulation and T. whipplei-specific
      degranulation, although CD69+ IFN-gamma+ CD8+ T cells were reduced upon
      stimulation with T. whipplei lysate and recombinant T. whipplei-derived proteins.
      Hsp70 and its cofactor GrpE are immunogenic in healthy individuals, eliciting
      effective responses against T. whipplei to control bacterial spreading. The lack
      of specific T-cell responses against these T. whipplei-derived proteins may
      contribute to the pathogenesis of CWD.

PMID- 28559405
TI  - Plasmodium berghei PIMMS2 promotes ookinete invasion of the Anopheles gambiae
      mosquito midgut.
AB  - Mosquito midgut stages of the malaria parasite present an attractive biological
      system to study host-parasite interactions and develop interventions to block
      disease transmission. Mosquito infection ensues upon oocyst development that
      follows ookinete invasion and traversal of the mosquito midgut epithelium. Here,
      we report the characterization of PIMMS2 (Plasmodium Invasion of Mosquito Midgut
      Screen candidate 2), a Plasmodium berghei protein with structural similarities to
      subtilisin-like proteins. PIMMS2 orthologs are present in the genomes of all
      plasmodia and are mapped between the subtilisin-encoding genes SUB1 and SUB3P.
      berghei PIMMS2 is specifically expressed in zygotes and ookinetes and is
      localized on the ookinete surface. Loss of PIMMS2 function through gene
      disruption by homologous recombination leads to normal development of motile
      ookinetes that exhibit severely impaired capacity to traverse the mosquito midgut
      and transform to oocysts. Genetic complementation of the disrupted locus with a
      mutated PIMMS2 allele reveals that amino acid residues corresponding to the
      putative subtilisin-like catalytic triad are important but not essential for the
      protein function. Our data demonstrate that PIMMS2 is a novel ookinete-specific
      protein that promotes parasite traversal of the mosquito midgut epithelium and
      establishment of mosquito infection.

PMID- 28559406
TI  - Efflux Transporter of Siderophore Staphyloferrin A in Staphylococcus aureus
      Contributes to Bacterial Fitness in Abscesses and Epithelial Cells.
AB  - The siderophores staphyloferrin A (SA) and staphyloferrin B (SB) of
      Staphylococcus aureus are essential for iron acquisition in the iron-restricted
      environment of the host, such as in subcutaneous abscesses. SA and SB are
      secreted by SfaA and SbnD transporters, respectively. To assess the further
      function of SfaA and SbnD in S. aureus fitness, we tested its effect on murine
      abscess models and intracellular replication in epithelial cells. Bacterial
      fitness in abscesses and in epithelial cells was studied, by comparing the
      parental strains RN6390 and MW2 and their DeltasfaA and DeltasbnD mutants using
      competition assays in a murine abscess model and invasion and replication assays
      with human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549. In the murine abscess model using
      equal inocula of a DeltasfaA or DeltasbnD mutant and the wild-type RN6390 strain,
      the DeltasfaA mutant exhibited growth defects of 2.2-fold. Additionally,
      replication of the DeltasfaA mutant within A549 cells was decreased 3.0-fold. In
      complementation experiments, the DeltasfaA mutant carrying plasmid-borne sfaA
      restored the growth fitness in abscesses and epithelial cells. The DeltasbnD
      mutant, in contrast, showed no growth defect in either abscesses or epithelial
      cells. Our findings demonstrate that the efflux transporter of the siderophore SA
      contributes to the ability of S. aureus to replicate in abscesses and epithelial
      cells. Furthermore, fitness of S. aureus in these sites of replication is not
      compromised by the absence of transporter SbnD.

PMID- 28559407
TI  - Neutrophil elastase and IL17 expressed in the pig colon during Brachyspira
      hyodysenteriae infection synergistically with the pathogen induce increased mucus
      transport speed and production via MAPK3.
AB  - Brachyspira hyodysenteriae colonizes the pig colon resulting in mucoid hemorragic
      diarrhea and mucus layer changes. These changes are characterized by a
      disorganized mucus structure and a massive mucus induction with de novo
      expression of MUC5AC and increased production of MUC2. To investigate the
      mechanisms behind this altered mucin environment, we quantified the mRNA levels
      of mucin pathway genes and factors from the immune system in the colon of
      infected and control pigs, revealing upregulation of neutrophil elastase, SPDEF,
      FOXA3, MAPK3/ERK1, IL-17A, IL-1beta, IL-6 and IL-8 expression. Colonic mucus
      producing in vitro mucosal surfaces were treated with these factors along with B.
      hyodysenteriae infection and analyzed for their effect on mucin production.
      Neutrophil elastase and infection synergistically induced mucus production and
      transport speed, and IL-17A also had similar effects, both in the presence and
      absence of infection. A MAPK3/ERK1 inhibitor suppressed these effects. Therefore,
      we suggest that the SPDEF, FOXA3, and MAPK3/ERK1 signaling pathways are behind
      the transcriptional program regulating mucin biosynthesis in the colon during B.
      hyodysenteriae infection. In addition to furthering the knowledge of this
      economically important disease, this mechanism may be useful for the development
      of therapies aimed at conditions where enhancing mucus production may be
      beneficial, such as chronic inflammatory disorders of the colon.

PMID- 28559408
TI  - Social Network Structures of Breast Cancer Patients and the Contributing Role of
      Patient Navigators.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Minority women in the U.S. continue to experience inferior breast
      cancer outcomes compared with white women, in part due to delays in care
      delivery. Emerging cancer care delivery models like patient navigation focus on
      social barriers, but evidence demonstrating how these models increase social
      capital is lacking. This pilot study describes the social networks of newly
      diagnosed breast cancer patients and explores the contributing role of patient
      navigators. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five women completed a one hour
      interview about their social networks related to cancer care support. Network
      metrics identified important structural attributes and influential individuals.
      Bivariate associations between network metrics, type of network, and whether the
      network included a navigator were measured. Secondary analyses explored
      associations between network structures and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: We
      identified three types of networks: kin-based, role and/or affect-based, or
      heterogeneous. Network metrics did not vary significantly by network type. There
      was a low prevalence of navigators included in the support networks (25%).
      Network density scores were significantly higher in those networks without a
      navigator. Network metrics were not predictive of clinical outcomes in
      multivariate models. CONCLUSION: Patient navigators were not frequently included
      in support networks, but provided distinctive types of support. If navigators can
      identify patients with poorly integrated (less dense) social networks, or who
      have unmet tangible support needs, the intensity of navigation services could be
      tailored. Services and systems that address gaps and variations in patient social
      networks should be explored for their potential to reduce cancer health
      disparities. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This study used a new method to identify
      the breadth and strength of social support following a diagnosis of breast
      cancer, especially examining the role of patient navigators in providing support.
      While navigators were only included in one quarter of patient support networks,
      they did provide essential supports to some individuals. Health care providers
      and systems need to better understand the contributions of social supports both
      within and outside of health care to design and tailor interventions that seek to
      reduce health care disparities and improve cancer outcomes.

PMID- 28559409
TI  - Association of Pre-Chemotherapy Peripheral Blood Pro-Inflammatory and Coagulation
      Factors with Physical Function in Women with Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pro-inflammatory and coagulation factors serve as biomarkers of aging
      and functional reserve. The purpose of this study was to determine if pro
      inflammatory (interleukin-6 [IL-6], C-reactive protein [CRP]), and coagulation (D
      dimer) factors were associated with pre-chemotherapy functional status in women
      with stage I-III breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Prior to chemotherapy
      initiation in patients with stage I-III breast cancer, the following was
      captured: IL-6, CRP, D-dimer blood levels, and physical function measures
      including activities of daily living (ADL, subscale of Medical Outcomes Study
      Physical Health); instrumental activities of daily living (IADL, subscale of the
      Older Americans Resources and Services Program); Timed Up and Go (TUG); physician
      rated Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS); and self-rated KPS. The association of
      these biomarkers with physical function measures was evaluated. RESULTS: One
      hundred sixty patients (mean age 58.3 years, range 30-81 years) with stage I-III
      breast cancer (stages I [n = 34; 21.5%], II [n = 88; 55.7%], III [n = 36; 22.8%])
      were enrolled. The group with poorest physical function (defined by ADL <70, IADL
      <14, and TUG >=10 seconds) had higher levels of IL-6 (p = .05), D-dimer (p =
      .0004), and CRP (p = .05). There was no significant association between these
      biomarkers and KPS. Patients with at least two biomarkers in the highest quartile
      were more likely to have poorer physical function (odds ration [OR] 18.75, p <
      .001). In multivariate analysis adjusting for age, stage, number of
      comorbidities, and body mass index, the association remained (OR 14.6, p = .002).
      CONCLUSION: Pre-chemotherapy biomarkers of aging are associated with poorer
      physical function among patients with breast cancer across the aging spectrum.
      The Oncologist 2017;22:1189-1196 IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Commonly used
      physical function assessment tools may not reflect the diverse nature of physical
      function and risk for chemotherapy toxicity, particularly in older adults. No
      laboratory test reflects functional reserve. Pro-inflammatory and coagulation
      factors, such as IL-6, CRP, and D-dimer, can serve as biomarkers of aging and
      physical function; however, few studies have evaluated their utility in patients
      with cancer. This study was designed to understand the association between pre
      chemotherapy biomarkers and physical function in women with early stage breast
      cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. Results indicate that elevated pre
      chemotherapy levels in two of the three peripheral biomarkers are associated with
      the poorest physical function among patients with breast cancer across the aging
      spectrum.

PMID- 28559410
TI  - Case Report: Encephalitis, with Brainstem Involvement, Following Checkpoint
      Inhibitor Therapy in Metastatic Melanoma.
AB  - : Checkpoint inhibitors are increasingly being used in the treatment of malignant
      melanoma and other cancers. With the use of such therapies, autoimmune-mediated
      adverse events in the central and peripheral nervous system are likely to occur
      more frequently. We report a unique case of brainstem encephalitis with a sudden
      lethal outcome following ipilimumab and pembrolizumab therapy in a patient with
      malignant melanoma. The autopsy showed a diffuse nodular activation of microglia
      in the whole encephalon with prominent intraparenchymal and perivascular
      lymphocytic infiltration of the brainstem. Non-infectious brainstem encephalitis
      is a well-recognized subset of paraneoplastic encephalitis. Brainstem involvement
      is usually accompanied by a wide spectrum of signs and symptoms, which were not
      observed in this case. The timing of the clinical symptoms as well as the
      histopathological findings suggest an autoimmune-adverse event of ipilimumab and
      pembrolizumab administration rather than a paraneoplastic disorder. In the
      presence of neurological symptoms, immediate cessation of the immunotherapy and
      immunosuppressive therapy may lead to successful therapeutic intervention, as
      described in previous reports. Therefore, it is crucial that physicians are aware
      of the possible side effects of immunotherapies on the nervous system.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Metastatic melanoma patients treated with the anti
      CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab have a high utilization of various types of health
      care services, such as inpatient hospital stays or doctor visits. There are
      differences across countries regarding patterns of health care utilization and
      economic burden of the disease. Health care services are used more frequently
      after patients experience progression of their disease. The study highlights that
      better therapies leading to durable response in patients with metastatic melanoma
      have the potential to decrease health care costs and patient burden in terms of
      hospitalizations and other health care services.

PMID- 28559411
TI  - Predictors of Disruptions in Breast Cancer Care for Individuals with
      Schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia experience markedly increased breast
      cancer mortality, yet reasons for this disparity are poorly understood. We sought
      to characterize disruptions in breast cancer care for patients with schizophrenia
      and identify modifiable predictors of those disruptions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We performed a medical record review of 95 patients with schizophrenia and breast
      cancer treated at an academic cancer center between 1993 and 2015. We defined
      cancer care disruptions as processes that interfere with guideline-concordant
      cancer care, including delays to diagnosis or treatment, deviations from stage
      appropriate treatment, and interruptions in treatment. We hypothesized that lack
      of psychiatric treatment at cancer diagnosis would be associated with care
      disruptions. RESULTS: Half of patients with schizophrenia experienced at least
      one breast cancer care disruption. Deviations in stage-appropriate treatment were
      associated with breast cancer recurrence at 5 years (p = .045). Patients without
      a documented psychiatrist experienced more delays (p = .016), without documented
      antipsychotic medication experienced more deviations (p = .007), and with
      psychiatric hospitalizations after cancer diagnosis experienced more
      interruptions (p < .0001). Independent of stage, age, and documented primary care
      physician, lack of documented antipsychotic medication (odds ratio [OR] = 4.97,
      95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.90, 12.98) and psychiatric care (OR = 4.56, 95%
      CI = 1.37, 15.15) predicted cancer care disruptions. CONCLUSION: Disruptions in
      breast cancer care are common for patients with schizophrenia and are associated
      with adverse outcomes, including cancer recurrence. Access to psychiatric
      treatment at cancer diagnosis may protect against critical disruptions in cancer
      care for this underserved population. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Disruptions in
      breast cancer care are common for patients with schizophrenia, yet access to
      mental health treatment is rarely integrated into cancer care. When oncologists
      documented a treating psychiatrist and antipsychotic medication, patients had
      fewer disruptions in breast cancer care after adjusting for age, cancer stage,
      and access to primary care. Addressing psychiatric comorbidity at breast cancer
      diagnosis may increase the likelihood that patients with schizophrenia receive
      timely, stage-appropriate cancer treatment. Comanagement of schizophrenia and
      breast cancer at cancer diagnosis may be one key strategy to decrease inequities
      in cancer treatment and improve cancer survival in this underserved population.

PMID- 28559412
TI  - Complete Responses to Mitotane in Metastatic Adrenocortical Carcinoma-A New Look
      at an Old Drug.
AB  - PURPOSE: Based largely on reports that predate modern reporting standards,
      mitotane has been considered a systemic treatment option for both hormone control
      and antitumor control of metastatic adrenocortical cancer (ACC), although the
      therapeutic window is narrow. METHODS: We searched electronic medical records to
      identify patients with metastatic ACC treated and prescribed single-agent
      mitotane at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from March 15, 1989-September
      18, 2015. Reference radiologists reviewed all imaging and determined efficacy
      according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors 1.1. Patient
      demographics, toxicities, and treatment outcomes were reviewed. Next-generation
      sequencing was performed in selected cases. RESULTS: Thirty-six patients were
      identified. The mean age was 54 and 50% had functional tumors. Grade 3 or greater
      toxicities were documented in 16 out of 36 patients (44%) and 17% had documented
      long term adrenal insufficiency. Progression of the disease as the best response
      occurred in 30 out of 36 patients (83%) and one patient (3%) experienced clinical
      progression. Three patients achieved a complete response (CR) (8%), one patient
      achieved a partial response (3%), and one patient (3%) had stable disease after
      slow disease progression prior to initiation of therapy (durable for 6 months).
      All responders had nonfunctional tumors. Next-generation sequencing in two of the
      three CR patients was performed and failed to identify any novel alterations.
      CONCLUSION: In this retrospective series, mitotane had a low response rate and
      low tumor control rate; however, a disproportionately high complete response rate
      suggested it should be used in selected individuals. Adrenal insufficiency is
      common with mitotane use and aggressive treatment with steroid supplementation
      should be considered when appropriate to avoid excess toxicities. Biomarkers are
      desperately needed to further define this disease. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:
      This is the first objective report of single-agent mitotane using modern
      objective criteria. Although the vast majority of patients did not respond (and
      toxicity was high), we identified a remarkable 8% complete response rate (i.e.
      cure) in biopsy proven stage IV adrenocortical cancer patients. Biomarkers are
      desperately needed for this rare disease.

PMID- 28559413
TI  - Targeting the Molecular Subtypes of Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Understanding
      the Diversity to Progress the Field.
AB  - : Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) represent 10%-20% of primary breast
      cancers, and despite having greater initial sensitivity to cytotoxic
      chemotherapy, patients with TNBCs have higher rates of distant metastasis and a
      poorer prognosis compared with patients with hormone receptor positive and/or
      human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive disease. TNBC has historically
      been treated as a single disease entity in targeted therapy trials, but advances
      in gene expression profiling and other molecular diagnostic techniques over the
      last decade have revealed considerable biologic heterogeneity within TNBCs,
      including subgroups with distinct, targetable aberrations. Such molecular
      heterogeneity explains, in part, the disappointing performance of targeted
      therapeutics in unselected TNBC. Here we discuss the history of gene expression
      profiling in breast cancer and its application in partitioning TNBCs into
      subtypes that may lead to more consistent therapeutic successes in this
      heterogeneous disease. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Triple negative breast cancers
      (TNBCs) have historically been regarded as a single entity in clinical trial
      design. Over the last decade, molecular characterization has revealed much
      heterogeneity in TNBCs, explaining in part the lackluster performance of targeted
      therapeutics in TNBCs as a group. In this article, we review the history of the
      molecular classification of breast cancer based on gene expression profiling and
      discuss its role in TNBCs.

PMID- 28559415
TI  - Should same day discharge general anaesthesia be a notifiable condition for being
      unfit to drive?

PMID- 28559414
TI  - Attitudes Toward Cancer and Cancer Patients in an Urban Iranian Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of the significant incidence and mortality of cancer in Iran,
      a Comprehensive National Cancer Control Program for the prevention and early
      detection of cancer was launched in 2007. However, cancer awareness and screening
      rates in Iran did not improve. This study aimed to evaluate public attitudes
      toward cancer and cancer patients in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a
      cross-sectional survey among 953 non-institutionalized individuals in Isfahan,
      Iran, from November 2014 to February 2015. We collected data on attitudes toward
      cancer in three domains (impossibility of recovery, cancer stereotypes, and
      discrimination), as well as questions on willingness to disclose a cancer
      diagnosis. RESULTS: Among all participants, 33.9% agreed that it is very
      difficult to regain one's health after a cancer diagnosis, 17.4% felt
      uncomfortable with a cancer patient, and 26.9% said that they would avoid
      marrying people whose family members had cancer. While 88.9% of study
      participants said that cancer patients deserve to be protected in society, 53.3%
      and 48.4% of participants agreed that they would not disclose a cancer diagnosis
      to neighbors and coworkers, respectively. CONCLUSION: Negative attitudes with
      respect to impossibility of recovery and discrimination toward cancer and cancer
      patients were common among urban Iranians. Most people would not disclose a
      cancer diagnosis to others in spite of advancements in cancer diagnosis and
      treatment, reflecting unfavorable attitudes toward cancer and cancer patients in
      society. Successful implementation of cancer awareness and prevention programs in
      Iran may require social changes based on adequate information on cancer and
      cancer patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Public attitudes toward cancer and
      cancer patients are an important factor affecting cancer control programs as well
      as quality of life and recovery of cancer patients. The issue has not been
      studied in Iran and the surrounding countries in the Middle East. This is the
      first report presented on the subject. These findings can be used by health
      policy makers, health managers, and clinicians for better practice.

PMID- 28559419
TI  - Correction to "Antidepressant Potential of (R)-Ketamine in Rodent Models:
      Comparison with (S)-Ketamine".

PMID- 28559418
TI  - Abnormal Global Longitudinal Strain Predicts Future Deterioration of Left
      Ventricular Function in Heart Failure Patients With a Recovered Left Ventricular
      Ejection Fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with recovery of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)
      remain at risk for future deterioration of LVEF. However, there are no tools to
      risk stratify these patients. We hypothesized that global longitudinal strain
      (GLS) could predict sustained recovery within this population. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We retrospectively identified 96 patients with a reduced LVEF <50%
      (screening echocardiogram), whose LVEF had increased by at least 10% and
      normalized (>50%) on evidence-based medical therapies (baseline echocardiogram).
      We examined absolute GLS on the baseline echocardiogram in relation to changes in
      LVEF on a follow-up echocardiogram. Patients with recovered LVEF had a wide range
      of GLS. The GLS on the baseline study correlated with the LVEF at the time of
      follow-up (r=0.33; P<0.001). The likelihood of having an LVEF >50% on follow-up
      increased by 24% for each point increase in absolute GLS on the baseline study
      (odds ratio, 1.24; P=0.001). An abnormal GLS (<=16%) at baseline had a
      sensitivity of 88%, a specificity of 46%, and an accuracy of 0.67 (P<0.001) as a
      predictor of a decrease in LVEF >5% during follow-up. A normal GLS (>16%) on the
      baseline study had a sensitivity of 47%, a specificity of 83%, and an accuracy of
      0.65 (P=0.002) for predicting a stable LVEF (-5% to 5%) on follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: In patients with a recovered LVEF, an abnormal GLS predicts the
      likelihood of having a decreased LVEF during follow-up, whereas a normal GLS
      predicts the likelihood of stable LVEF during recovery.

PMID- 28559416
TI  - In vitro expansion of mouse primordial germ cell-like cells recapitulates an
      epigenetic blank slate.
AB  - The expansion of primordial germ cells (PGCs), the precursors for the oocytes and
      spermatozoa, is a key challenge in reproductive biology/medicine. Using a
      chemical screening exploiting PGC-like cells (PGCLCs) induced from mouse
      embryonic stem cells (ESCs), we here identify key signaling pathways critical for
      PGCLC proliferation. We show that the combinatorial application of Forskolin and
      Rolipram, which stimulate cAMP signaling via different mechanisms, expands PGCLCs
      up to ~50-fold in culture. The expanded PGCLCs maintain robust capacity for
      spermatogenesis, rescuing the fertility of infertile mice. Strikingly, during
      expansion, PGCLCs comprehensively erase their DNA methylome, including parental
      imprints, in a manner that precisely recapitulates genome-wide DNA demethylation
      in gonadal germ cells, while essentially maintaining their identity as sexually
      uncommitted PGCs, apparently through appropriate histone modifications. By
      establishing a paradigm for PGCLC expansion, our system reconstitutes the
      epigenetic "blank slate" of the germ line, an immediate precursory state for
      sexually dimorphic differentiation.

PMID- 28559420
TI  - Incremental Prognostic Use of Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain in
      Asymptomatic/Minimally Symptomatic Patients With Severe Bioprosthetic Aortic
      Stenosis Undergoing Redo Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With improved survival of patients undergoing primary bioprosthetic
      aortic valve replacement (AVR), reoperation to relieve severe prosthetic aortic
      stenosis (PAS) is increasing. Timing of redo surgery in asymptomatic/minimally
      symptomatic patients remains controversial. Left ventricular (LV) global
      longitudinal strain (GLS) is a marker of subclinical LV dysfunction. In
      asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic patients with severe PAS undergoing redo AVR,
      we sought to determine whether LV-GLS provides incremental prognostic use.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 191 patients with severe bioprosthetic PAS (63+/
      16 years, 58% men) who underwent redo AVR between 2000 and 2012 (excluding
      mechanical PAS, severe other valve disease transcatheter AVR, and LV ejection
      fraction <50%). Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was calculated. Standard
      echocardiography data were obtained. LV-GLS was measured on 2-, 3-, and 4-chamber
      views using velocity vector imaging. Severe PAS was defined as aortic valve area
      <0.8 cm2, mean aortic valve gradient >=40 mm Hg, and dimensionless index <0.25. A
      composite outcome of death and congestive heart failure admission was recorded.
      At baseline, mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons score, LV ejection fraction, mean
      aortic valve gradients, and right ventricular systolic pressure were 7+/-6, 58+/
      6%, 54+/-10 mm Hg and 40+/-14 mm Hg, whereas 50% had >2+ aortic regurgitation.
      Median LV-GLS was -14.2% (-11.4, -17.1%). At 4.2+/-3 years, 41 (22%) patients met
      the composite end point (2.5% deaths and 1% strokes at 30 days postoperatively).
      On multivariable Cox survival analysis, LV-GLS was independently associated with
      longer-term composite events (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.10
      1.33), P<0.01. The C statistic for the clinical model (Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons score, degree of aortic regurgitation, and right ventricular systolic
      pressure) was 0.64 (95% confidence interval 0.54-0.79), P<0.001. Addition of LV
      GLS to the clinical model increased the C statistic significantly to 0.71 (95%
      confidence interval 0.58-0.81), P<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: In asymptomatic/minimally
      symptomatic patients with severe bioprosthetic PAS undergoing redo AVR, baseline
      LV-GLS provides incremental prognostic use over established predictors and could
      potentially aid in surgical timing and risk stratification.

PMID- 28559417
TI  - The FTD-like syndrome causing TREM2 T66M mutation impairs microglia function,
      brain perfusion, and glucose metabolism.
AB  - Genetic variants in the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2)
      increase the risk for several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's
      disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Homozygous TREM2 missense mutations,
      such as p.T66M, lead to the FTD-like syndrome, but how they cause pathology is
      unknown. Using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, we generated a knock-in mouse model
      for the disease-associated Trem2 p.T66M mutation. Consistent with a loss-of
      function mutation, we observe an intracellular accumulation of immature mutant
      Trem2 and reduced generation of soluble Trem2 similar to patients with the
      homozygous p.T66M mutation. Trem2 p.T66M knock-in mice show delayed resolution of
      inflammation upon in vivo lipopolysaccharide stimulation and cultured macrophages
      display significantly reduced phagocytic activity. Immunohistochemistry together
      with in vivo TSPO small animal positron emission tomography (MUPET) demonstrates
      an age-dependent reduction in microglial activity. Surprisingly, perfusion
      magnetic resonance imaging and FDG-MUPET imaging reveal a significant reduction
      in cerebral blood flow and brain glucose metabolism. Thus, we demonstrate that a
      TREM2 loss-of-function mutation causes brain-wide metabolic alterations pointing
      toward a possible function of microglia in regulating brain glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28559421
TI  - Challenge of Timing Redo Aortic Valve Replacement: Is There a Potential Role for
      Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain?

PMID- 28559422
TI  - Comparison of corneal dynamic parameters and tomographic measurements using
      Scheimpflug imaging in keratoconus.
AB  - AIM: To compare the diagnostic ability of corneal tomography and corneal dynamic
      response measurements in normal and keratoconus eyes. METHODS: Consecutive
      patients with grade II-III keratoconus and age-matched normal subjects were
      recruited. Corneal imaging was performed using Pentacam (Oculus Optikgerate,
      Wetzlar, Germany) and Corvis (Oculus Optikgerate). A beta version of Corvis
      software was used with three additional parameters: maximal change of arc length,
      deformation amplitude (DA) ratio 1 and DA ratio 2. Diagnostic ability of both
      devices to differentiate normal and keratoconus eyes was evaluated using receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) and
      partial AUC (pAUC) for specificity >=80% for each parameter of Corvis and final D
      value of Belin/Ambrosio Enhanced Ectasia Display (BAD) were compared. RESULTS:
      Forty-two eyes of 42 patients (21 patients with keratoconus and 21 normal
      subjects) were included. Both groups were age matched (p=0.760). The ROC analysis
      showed that the final D value of BAD had the highest AUC (0.994) and pAUC
      (0.194). Maximum inverse radius had the highest AUC (0.954) but a relatively
      lower pAUC (0.158), while DA ratio 2 had the second highest AUC (0.946) together
      with the highest pAUC (0.177) among Corvis parameters. There was no significant
      difference between AUC and pAUC of BAD compared with those of DA ratio 1
      (p>=0.162) and DA ratio 2 (p>=0.208). CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study
      suggest that Corvis measurements have the potential to differentiate keratoconus
      and normal eyes. The diagnostic ability of novel parameters on Corvis was
      comparable to Pentacam.

PMID- 28559423
TI  - Hsc70 chaperone activity is required for the cytosolic slow axonal transport of
      synapsin.
AB  - Soluble cytosolic proteins vital to axonal and presynaptic function are
      synthesized in the neuronal soma and conveyed via slow axonal transport. Our
      previous studies suggest that the overall slow transport of synapsin is mediated
      by dynamic assembly/disassembly of cargo complexes followed by short-range
      vectorial transit (the "dynamic recruitment" model). However, neither the
      composition of these complexes nor the mechanistic basis for the dynamic behavior
      is understood. In this study, we first examined putative cargo complexes
      associated with synapsin using coimmunoprecipitation and multidimensional protein
      identification technology mass spectrometry (MS). MS data indicate that synapsin
      is part of a multiprotein complex enriched in chaperones/cochaperones including
      Hsc70. Axonal synapsin-Hsc70 coclusters are also visualized by two-color
      superresolution microscopy. Inhibition of Hsc70 ATPase activity blocked the slow
      transport of synapsin, disrupted axonal synapsin organization, and attenuated
      Hsc70-synapsin associations, advocating a model where Hsc70 activity dynamically
      clusters cytosolic proteins into cargo complexes, allowing transport.
      Collectively, our study offers insight into the molecular organization of
      cytosolic transport complexes and identifies a novel regulator of slow transport.

PMID- 28559426
TI  - Non-invasive fractional flow reserve using computed tomographic angiography:
      where are we now and where are we going?

PMID- 28559425
TI  - FGF21 ameliorates diabetic cardiomyopathy by activating the AMPK-paraoxonase 1
      signaling axis in mice.
AB  - The aim of the present study is to explore the molecular mechanism of fibroblast
      growth factor 21 (FGF21) in protecting against diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM).
      Streptozotocin/high-fat diet (STZ/HFD) was used to induced diabetes in FGF21
      deficient mice and their wild-type littermates, followed by evaluation of the
      difference in DCM between the two genotypes. Primary cultured cardiomyocytes were
      also used to explore the potential molecular mechanism of FGF21 in the protection
      of high glucose (HG)-induced cardiomyocyte injury. STZ/HFD-induced cardiomyopathy
      was exacerbated in FGF21 knockout mice, which was accompanied by a significant
      reduction in cardiac AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity and paraoxonase
      1 (PON1) expression. By contrast, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated
      overexpression of FGF21 in STZ/HFD-induced diabetic mice significantly enhanced
      cardiac AMPK activity, PON1 expression and its biological activity, resulting in
      alleviated DCM. In cultured cardiomyocytes, treatment with recombinant mouse
      FGF21 (rmFGF21) counteracted HG-induced oxidative stress, mitochondrial
      dysfunction, and inflammatory responses, leading to increased AMPK activity and
      PON1 expression. However, these beneficial effects of FGF21 were markedly
      weakened by genetic blockage of AMPK or PON1. Furthermore, inactivation of AMPK
      also markedly blunted FGF21-induced PON1 expression but significantly increased
      HG-induced cytotoxicity in cardiomyocytes, the latter of which was largely
      reversed by adenovirus-mediated PON1 overexpression. These findings suggest that
      FGF21 ameliorates DCM in part by activation of the AMPK-PON1 axis.

PMID- 28559427
TI  - Effects of altered sagittal trunk orientation on kinetic pattern in able-bodied
      walking on uneven ground.
AB  - Studies of disturbed human locomotion often focus on the dynamics of the gait
      when either posture, movement or surface is perturbed. Yet, the interaction
      effects of variation of trunk posture and ground level on kinetic behaviour of
      able-bodied gait have not been explored. For 12 participants we investigated the
      kinetic behaviour, as well as velocity and contact time, across four steps
      including an unperturbed step on level ground, pre-perturbation, perturbation (10
      cm drop) and post-perturbation steps while walking with normal speed with four
      postures: regular erect, with 30 degrees , 50 degrees  and maximal sagittal trunk
      flexion (70 degrees ). Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs detected significant
      interactions of posture*step for the second peak of the vertical ground reaction
      force (GRF), propulsive impulse, contact time and velocity. An increased trunk
      flexion was associated with a systematic decrease of the second GRF peak during
      all steps and with a decreased contact time and an increased velocity across
      steps, except for the perturbation step. Pre-adaptations were more pronounced in
      the approach step to the drop in regular erect gait. With increased trunk
      flexion, walking on uneven ground exhibited reduced changes in GRF kinetic
      parameters relative to upright walking. It seems that in trunk-flexed gaits the
      trunk is used in a compensatory way during the step-down to accommodate changes
      in ground level by adjusting its angle leading to lower variations in centre of
      mass height. Exploitation of this mechanism resembles the ability of small birds
      in adjusting their zig-zag-like configured legs to cope with changes in ground
      level.

PMID- 28559424
TI  - C-X-C Motif Chemokine Receptor 3 Splice Variants Differentially Activate Beta
      Arrestins to Regulate Downstream Signaling Pathways.
AB  - Biased agonism, the ability of different ligands for the same receptor to
      selectively activate some signaling pathways while blocking others, is now an
      established paradigm for G protein-coupled receptor signaling. One group of
      receptors in which endogenous bias is critical is the chemokine system,
      consisting of over 50 ligands and 20 receptors that bind one another with
      significant promiscuity. We have previously demonstrated that ligands for the
      same receptor can cause biased signaling responses. The goal of this study was to
      identify mechanisms that could underlie biased signaling between different
      receptor splice variants. The C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3) has two
      splice variants, CXCR3A and CXCR3B, which differ by 51 amino acids at its N
      terminus. Consistent with an earlier study, we found that C-X-C motif chemokine
      ligands 4, 9, 10, and 11 all activated G alphai at CXCR3A, while at CXCR3B these
      ligands demonstrated no measurable G alphai or G alphas activity. beta-arrestin
      (betaarr) was recruited at a reduced level to CXCR3B relative to CXCR3A, which
      was also associated with differences in betaarr2 conformation. betaarr2
      recruitment to CXCR3A was attenuated by both G protein receptor kinase (GRK) 2/3
      and GRK5/6 knockdown, while only GRK2/3 knockdown blunted recruitment to CXCR3B.
      Extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 phosphorylation downstream from CXCR3A and
      CXCR3B was increased and decreased, respectively, by betaarr1/2 knockout. The
      splice variants also differentially activated transcriptional reporters. These
      findings demonstrate that differential splicing of CXCR3 results in biased
      responses associated with distinct patterns of betaarr conformation and
      recruitment. Differential splicing may serve as a common mechanism for generating
      biased signaling and provides insights into how chemokine receptor signaling can
      be modulated post-transcriptionally.

PMID- 28559429
TI  - RNA Binding Protein CUGBP1 Inhibits Liver Cancer in a Phosphorylation-Dependent
      Manner.
AB  - Despite intensive investigations, mechanisms of liver cancer are not known. Here,
      we identified an important step of liver cancer, which is the neutralization of
      tumor suppressor activities of an RNA binding protein, CUGBP1. The translational
      activity of CUGBP1 is activated by dephosphorylation at Ser302. We generated
      CUGBP1-S302A knock-in mice and found that the reduction of translational activity
      of CUGBP1 causes development of a fatty liver phenotype in young S302A mice.
      Examination of liver cancer in diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-treated CUGBP1-S302A mice
      showed these mice develop much more severe liver cancer that is associated with
      elimination of the mutant CUGBP1. Searching for mechanisms of this elimination,
      we found that the oncoprotein gankyrin (Gank) preferentially binds to and
      triggers degradation of dephosphorylated CUGBP1 (de-ph-S302-CUGBP1) or S302A
      mutant CUGBP1. To test the role of Gank in degradation of CUGBP1, we generated
      mice with liver-specific deletion of Gank. In these mice, the tumor suppressor
      isoform of CUGBP1 is protected from Gank-mediated degradation. Consistent with
      reduction of CUGBP1 in animal models, CUGBP1 is reduced in patients with
      pediatric liver cancer. Thus, this work presents evidence that de-ph-S302-CUGBP1
      is a tumor suppressor protein and that the Gank-UPS-mediated reduction of CUGBP1
      is a key event in the development of liver cancer.

PMID- 28559428
TI  - Bypass of Activation Loop Phosphorylation by Aspartate 836 in Activation of the
      Endoribonuclease Activity of Ire1.
AB  - The bifunctional protein kinase-endoribonuclease Ire1 initiates splicing of the
      mRNA for the transcription factor Hac1 when unfolded proteins accumulate in the
      endoplasmic reticulum. Activation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ire1 coincides with
      autophosphorylation of its activation loop at S840, S841, T844, and S850. Mass
      spectrometric analysis of Ire1 expressed in Escherichia coli identified S837 as
      another potential phosphorylation site in vivo Mutation of all five potential
      phosphorylation sites in the activation loop decreased, but did not completely
      abolish, splicing of HAC1 mRNA, induction of KAR2 and PDI1 mRNAs, and expression
      of a beta-galactosidase reporter activated by Hac1i Phosphorylation site mutants
      survive low levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress better than IRE1 deletions
      strains. In vivo clustering and inactivation of Ire1 are not affected by
      phosphorylation site mutants. Mutation of D836 to alanine in the activation loop
      of phosphorylation site mutants nearly completely abolished HAC1 splicing,
      induction of KAR2, PDI1, and beta-galactosidase reporters, and survival of ER
      stress, but it had no effect on clustering of Ire1. By itself, the D836A mutation
      does not confer a phenotype. These data argue that D836 can partially substitute
      for activation loop phosphorylation in activation of the endoribonuclease domain
      of Ire1.

PMID- 28559430
TI  - Acetylation of Cavin-1 Promotes Lipolysis in White Adipose Tissue.
AB  - White adipose tissue (WAT) serves as a reversible energy storage depot in the
      form of lipids in response to nutritional status. Cavin-1, an essential component
      in the biogenesis of caveolae, is a positive regulator of lipolysis in
      adipocytes. However, molecular mechanisms of cavin-1 in the modulation of
      lipolysis remain poorly understood. Here, we showed that cavin-1 was acetylated
      at lysines 291, 293, and 298 (3K), which were under nutritional regulation in
      WAT. We further identified GCN5 as the acetyltransferase and Sirt1 as the
      deacetylase of cavin-1. Acetylation-mimetic 3Q mutants of cavin-1 augmented fat
      mobilization in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and zebrafish. Mechanistically, acetylated
      cavin-1 preferentially interacted with hormone-sensitive lipase and recruited it
      to the caveolae, thereby promoting lipolysis. Our findings shed light on the
      essential role of cavin-1 in regulating lipolysis in an acetylation-dependent
      manner in WAT.

PMID- 28559433
TI  - News Feature: Is theory about peopling of the Americas a bridge too far?

PMID- 28559431
TI  - DNA polymerase beta participates in mitochondrial DNA repair.
AB  - We have detected DNA polymerase beta (Polbeta), known as a key nuclear base
      excision repair (BER) protein, in mitochondrial protein extracts derived from
      mammalian tissue and cells. Manipulation of the N-terminal sequence affected the
      amount of Polbeta in the mitochondria. Using Polbeta fragments, mitochondrial
      specific protein partners were identified, with the interactors mainly
      functioning in DNA maintenance and mitochondrial import. Of particular interest
      was the identification of the proteins TWINKLE, SSBP1 and TFAM, all of which are
      mitochondria specific DNA effectors and are known to function in the nucleoid.
      Polbeta directly interacted with, and influenced the activity of, the
      mitochondrial helicase TWINKLE. Human kidney cells with Polbeta knock-out (KO)
      had higher endogenous mtDNA damage. Mitochondrial extracts derived from
      heterozygous Polbeta mouse tissue and KO cells had lower nucleotide incorporation
      activity. Mouse derived Polbeta null fibroblasts had severely affected metabolic
      parameters. Indeed, gene knockout of Polbeta caused mitochondrial dysfunction
      including reduced membrane potential and mitochondrial content. We show that
      Polbeta is a mitochondrial polymerase involved in mtDNA maintenance and is
      required for mitochondrial homeostasis.

PMID- 28559435
TI  - Taking distrust of science seriously: To overcome public distrust in science,
      scientists need to stop pretending that there is a scientific consensus on
      controversial issues when there is not.

PMID- 28559436
TI  - Hepatic FGF21 mediates sex differences in high-fat high-fructose diet-induced
      fatty liver.
AB  - The role of gender in the progression of fatty liver due to chronic high-fat high
      fructose diet (HFFD) has not been studied. The present investigation assessed
      whether HFFD induced hepatic perturbations differently between the sexes and
      examined the potential mechanisms. Male, female, and ovariectomized (OVX) Sprague
      Dawley rats were fed either a control diet or HFFD for 12 wk. Indexes of liver
      damage and hepatic steatosis were analyzed biochemically and histologically
      together with monitoring changes in hepatic gene and protein expression. HFFD
      induced a higher degree of hepatic steatosis in females, with significant
      increases in proteins involved in hepatic lipogenesis, whereas HFFD significantly
      induced liver injury, inflammation, and oxidative stress only in males.
      Interestingly, a significant increase in hepatic fibroblast growth factor 21
      (FGF21) protein expression was observed in HFFD-fed males but not in HFFD-fed
      females. Ovarian hormone deprivation by itself led to a significant reduction in
      FGF21 with hepatic steatosis, and HFFD further aggravated hepatic fat
      accumulation in OVX rats. Importantly, estrogen replacement restored hepatic
      FGF21 levels and reduced hepatic steatosis in HFFD-fed OVX rats. Collectively,
      our results indicate that male rats are more susceptible to HFFD-induced hepatic
      inflammation and that the mechanism underlying this sex dimorphism is mediated
      through hepatic FGF21 expression. Our findings reveal sex differences in the
      development of HFFD-induced fatty liver and indicate the protective role of
      estrogen against HFFD-induced hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28559438
TI  - Article-level assessment of influence and translation in biomedical research.
AB  - Given the vast scale of the modern scientific enterprise, it can be difficult for
      scientists to make judgments about the work of others through careful analysis of
      the entirety of the relevant literature. This has led to a reliance on metrics
      that are mathematically flawed and insufficiently diverse to account for the
      variety of ways in which investigators contribute to scientific progress. An
      urgent, critical first step in solving this problem is replacing the Journal
      Impact Factor with an article-level alternative. The Relative Citation Ratio
      (RCR), a metric that was designed to serve in that capacity, measures the
      influence of each publication on its respective area of research. RCR can serve
      as one component of a multifaceted metric that provides an effective data-driven
      supplement to expert opinion. Developing validated methods that quantify
      scientific progress can help to optimize the management of research investments
      and accelerate the acquisition of knowledge that improves human health.

PMID- 28559439
TI  - Stem cells: the new "model organism".
AB  - Human tissue culture cells have long been a staple of molecular and cell biology
      research. However, although these cells are derived from humans, they have often
      lost considerable aspects of natural physiological function. Here we argue that
      combined advances in genome editing, stem cell production, and organoid
      derivation from stem cells represent a revolution in cell biology. These advances
      have important ramifications for the study of basic cell biology mechanisms, as
      well as for the ways in which discoveries in mechanisms are translated into
      understanding of disease.

PMID- 28559437
TI  - Fibroblast growth factor 21: a regulator of metabolic disease and health span.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a potent endocrine regulator with
      physiological effects on glucose and lipid metabolism and thus garners much
      attention for its translational potential for the management of obesity and
      related metabolic syndromes. FGF21 is mainly expressed in several metabolically
      active tissue organs, such as the liver, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and
      pancreas, with profound effects and therapeutic relevance. Emerging experimental
      and clinical data point to the demonstrated metabolic benefits of FGF21, which
      include, but are not limited to, weight loss, glucose and lipid metabolism, and
      insulin sensitivity. In addition, FGF21 also acts directly through its coreceptor
      beta-klotho in the brain to alter light-dark cycle activity. In this review, we
      critically appraise current advances in understanding the physiological actions
      of FGF21 and its role as a biomarker of various metabolic diseases, especially
      type 2 diabetes mellitus. We also discuss the potentially exciting role of FGF21
      in improving our health and prolonging our life span. This information will
      provide a fuller understanding for further research into FGF21, as well as
      providing a scientific basis for potentially establishing health care guidelines
      for this promising molecule.

PMID- 28559440
TI  - Bitter taste receptors as targets for tocolytics in preterm labor therapy.
AB  - Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity,
      with few prevention and treatment options. Uterine contraction is a central
      feature of PTB, so gaining new insights into the mechanisms of this contraction
      and consequently identifying novel targets for tocolytics are essential for more
      successful management of PTB. Here we report that myometrial cells from human and
      mouse express bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) and their canonical signaling
      components (i.e., G-protein gustducin and phospholipase C beta2). Bitter tastants
      can completely relax myometrium precontracted by different uterotonics. In
      isolated single mouse myometrial cells, a phenotypical bitter tastant
      (chloroquine, ChQ) reverses the rise in intracellular Ca2+ concentration
      ([Ca2+]i) and cell shortening induced by uterotonics, and this reversal effect is
      inhibited by pertussis toxin and by genetic deletion of alpha-gustducin. In human
      myometrial cells, knockdown of TAS2R14 but not TAS2R10 inhibits ChQ's reversal
      effect on an oxytocin-induced rise in [Ca2+]i Finally, ChQ prevents mouse PTBs
      induced by bacterial endotoxin LPS or progesterone receptor antagonist
      mifepristone more often than current commonly used tocolytics, and this
      prevention is largely lost in alpha-gustducin-knockout mice. Collectively, our
      results reveal that activation of the canonical TAS2R signaling system in
      myometrial cells produces profound relaxation of myometrium precontracted by a
      broad spectrum of contractile agonists, and that targeting TAS2Rs is an
      attractive approach to developing effective tocolytics for PTB management.-Zheng,
      K., Lu, P., Delpapa, E., Bellve, K., Deng, R., Condon, J. C., Fogarty, K.,
      Lifshitz, L. M., Simas, T. A. M., Shi, F., ZhuGe, R. Bitter taste receptors as
      targets for tocolytics in preterm labor therapy.

PMID- 28559441
TI  - APMAP interacts with lysyl oxidase-like proteins, and disruption of Apmap leads
      to beneficial visceral adipose tissue expansion.
AB  - Adipocyte plasma membrane-associated protein (APMAP) has been described as an
      adipogenic factor in 3T3-L1 cells with unknown biochemical function; we therefore
      aimed to investigate the physiologic function of APMAP in vivo We generated Apmap
      knockout mice and challenged them with an obesogenic diet to investigate their
      metabolic phenotype. We identified a novel truncated adipocyte-specific isoform
      of APMAP in mice that is produced by alternative transcription. Mice lacking the
      full-length APMAP protein, the only isoform that is expressed in humans, have an
      improved metabolic phenotype upon diet-induced obesity, indicated by enhanced
      insulin sensitivity, preserved glucose tolerance, increased respiratory exchange
      ratio, decreased inflammatory marker gene expression, and reduced adipocyte size.
      At the molecular level, APMAP interacts with the extracellular collagen cross
      linking matrix proteins lysyl oxidase-like 1 and 3. On a high-fat diet, the
      expression of lysyl oxidase-like 1 and 3 is strongly decreased in Apmap-knockout
      mice, paralleled by reduced expression of profibrotic collagens and total
      collagen content in epididymal white adipose tissue, indicating decreased
      fibrotic potential. Together, our data suggest that APMAP is a novel regulator of
      extracellular matrix components, and establish that APMAP is a potential target
      to mitigate obesity-associated insulin resistance.-Pessentheiner, A. R., Huber,
      K., Pelzmann, H. J., Prokesch, A., Radner, F. P. W., Wolinski, H., Lindroos
      Christensen, J., Hoefler, G., Rulicke, T., Birner-Gruenberger, R., Bilban, M.,
      Bogner-Strauss, J. G. APMAP interacts with lysyl oxidase-like proteins, and
      disruption of Apmap leads to beneficial visceral adipose tissue expansion.

PMID- 28559443
TI  - Colorectal cancer-initiating cells caught in the act.

PMID- 28559442
TI  - CXCL12alpha/SDF-1 from perisynaptic Schwann cells promotes regeneration of
      injured motor axon terminals.
AB  - The neuromuscular junction has retained through evolution the capacity to
      regenerate after damage, but little is known on the inter-cellular signals
      involved in its functional recovery from trauma, autoimmune attacks, or
      neurotoxins. We report here that CXCL12alpha, also abbreviated as stromal-derived
      factor-1 (SDF-1), is produced specifically by perisynaptic Schwann cells
      following motor axon terminal degeneration induced by alpha-latrotoxin.
      CXCL12alpha acts via binding to the neuronal CXCR4 receptor. A CXCL12alpha
      neutralizing antibody or a specific CXCR4 inhibitor strongly delays recovery from
      motor neuron degeneration in vivo Recombinant CXCL12alpha in vivo accelerates
      neurotransmission rescue upon damage and very effectively stimulates the axon
      growth of spinal cord motor neurons in vitro These findings indicate that the
      CXCL12alpha-CXCR4 axis plays an important role in the regeneration of the
      neuromuscular junction after motor axon injury. The present results have
      important implications in the effort to find therapeutics and protocols to
      improve recovery of function after different forms of motor axon terminal damage.

PMID- 28559445
TI  - Erratum for the Research Article: "The ASK family kinases differentially mediate
      induction of type I interferon and apoptosis during the antiviral response" by T.
      Okazaki, M. Higuchi, K. Takeda, K. Iwatsuki-Horimoto, M. Kiso, M. Miyagishi, H.
      Yanai, A. Kato, M. Yoneyama, T. Fujita, T. Taniguchi, Y. Kawaoka, H. Ichijo, Y.
      Gotoh.

PMID- 28559444
TI  - T-plastin is essential for basement membrane assembly and epidermal
      morphogenesis.
AB  - The establishment of epithelial architecture is a complex process involving cross
      talk between cells and the basement membrane. Basement membrane assembly requires
      integrin activity but the role of the associated actomyosin cytoskeleton is
      poorly understood. Here, we identify the actin-bundling protein T-plastin (Pls3)
      as a regulator of basement membrane assembly and epidermal morphogenesis. In
      utero depletion of Pls3 transcripts in mouse embryos caused basement membrane and
      polarity defects in the epidermis but had little effect on cell adhesion and
      differentiation. Loss-of-function experiments demonstrated that the apicobasal
      polarity defects were secondary to the disruption of the basement membrane.
      However, the basement membrane itself was profoundly sensitive to subtle
      perturbations in the actin cytoskeleton. We further show that Pls3 localized to
      the cell cortex, where it was essential for the localization and activation of
      myosin II. Inhibition of myosin II motor activity disrupted basement membrane
      organization. Our results provide insights into the regulation of cortical
      actomyosin and its importance for basement membrane assembly and skin
      morphogenesis.

PMID- 28559449
TI  - A little stress is good.
AB  - Acute psychological stress triggers signaling between sympathetic neurons and the
      spleen to protect against ischemic tissue damage.

PMID- 28559450
TI  - New connections: Manipulating NK cell responses.
AB  - Manipulating ligand interactions with the activating receptor NKG2D modulates
      natural killer cell responses.

PMID- 28559451
TI  - A disease-linked ULBP6 polymorphism inhibits NKG2D-mediated target cell killing
      by enhancing the stability of NKG2D ligand binding.
AB  - NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is an activating receptor found on the
      surface of immune cells, including natural killer (NK) cells, which regulates
      innate and adaptive immunity through recognition of the stress-induced ligands
      ULBP1 (UL16 binding protein 1) to ULBP6 and MICA/B. Similar to class I human
      leukocyte antigen (HLA), these NKG2D ligands have a major histocompatibility
      complex-like fold and exhibit pronounced polymorphism, which influences human
      disease susceptibility. However, whereas class I HLA polymorphisms occur
      predominantly in the alpha1alpha2 groove and affect antigen binding, the effects
      of most NKG2D ligand polymorphisms are unclear. We studied the molecular and
      functional consequences of the two major alleles of ULBP6, the most polymorphic
      ULBP gene, which are associated with autoimmunity and relapse after stem cell
      transplantation. Surface plasmon resonance and crystallography studies revealed
      that the arginine-to-leucine polymorphism within ULBP0602 affected the NKG2D
      ULBP6 interaction by generating an energetic hotspot. This resulted in an NKG2D
      ULBP0602 affinity of 15.5 nM, which is 10- to 1000-fold greater than the
      affinities of other ULBP-NKG2D interactions and limited NKG2D-mediated
      activation. In addition, soluble ULBP0602 exhibited high-affinity competitive
      binding for NKG2D and partially suppressed NKG2D-mediated activation of NK cells
      by other NKG2D ligands. These effects resulted in a decrease in a range of NKG2D
      mediated effector functions. Our results reveal that ULBP polymorphisms affect
      the strength of human lymphocyte responses to cellular stress signals and may
      offer opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28559452
TI  - Noise exposure and auditory thresholds of German airline pilots: a cross
      sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The cockpit workplace of airline pilots is a noisy environment. This
      study examines the hearing thresholds of pilots with respect to ambient noise and
      communication sound. METHODS: The hearing of 487 German pilots was analysed by
      audiometry in the frequency range of 125 Hz-16 kHz in varying age groups. Cockpit
      noise (free-field) data and communication sound (acoustic manikin) measurements
      were evaluated. RESULTS: The ambient noise levels in cockpits were found to be
      between 74 and 80 dB(A), and the sound pressure levels under the headset were
      found to be between 84 and 88 dB(A).The left-right threshold differences at 3, 4
      and 6 kHz show evidence of impaired hearing at the left ear, which worsens by
      age.In the age groups <40/>=40 years the mean differences at 3 kHz are 2/3 dB, at
      4 kHz 2/4 dB and at 6 kHz 1/6 dB.In the pilot group which used mostly the left
      ear for communication tasks (43 of 45 are in the older age group) the mean
      difference at 3 kHz is 6 dB, at 4 kHz 7 dB and at 6 kHz 10 dB. The pilots who
      used the headset only at the right ear also show worse hearing at the left ear of
      2 dB at 3 kHz, 3 dB at 4 kHz and at 6 kHz. The frequency-corrected exposure
      levels under the headset are 7-11 dB(A) higher than the ambient noise with an
      averaged signal-to-noise ratio for communication of about 10 dB(A). CONCLUSIONS:
      The left ear seems to be more susceptible to hearing loss than the right ear.
      Active noise reduction systems allow for a reduced sound level for the
      communication signal below the upper exposure action value of 85 dB(A) and allow
      for a more relaxed working environment for pilots.

PMID- 28559453
TI  - Developing a framework for community-based sexual health interventions for youth
      in the rural setting: protocol for a participatory action research study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is limited research examining community-based or multilevel
      interventions that address the sexual health of young people in the rural
      Australian context. This paper describes the Participatory Action Research (PAR)
      project that will develop and validate a framework that is effective for
      planning, implementing and evaluating multilevel community-based sexual health
      interventions for young people aged 16-24 years in the Australian rural setting.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: To develop a framework for sexual health interventions with
      stakeholders, PAR will be used. Three PAR cycles will be conducted, using
      semistructured one-on-one interviews, focus groups, community mapping and
      photovoice to inform the development of a draft framework. Cycle 2 and Cycle 3
      will use targeted Delphi studies to gather evaluation and feedback on the
      developed draft framework. All data collected will be reviewed and analysed in
      detail and coded as concepts become apparent at each stage of the process. ETHICS
      AND DISSEMINATION: This protocol describes a supervised doctoral research
      project. This project seeks to contribute to the literature regarding PAR in the
      rural setting and the use of the Delphi technique within PAR projects. The
      developed framework as a result of the project will provide a foundation for
      further research testing the application of the framework in other settings and
      health areas. This research has received ethics approval from the Curtin
      University Human Research and Ethics Committee (HR96/2015).

PMID- 28559454
TI  - Patient-reported safety incidents in older patients with long-term conditions: a
      large cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence suggests that patient safety is a serious concern
      for older patients with long-term conditions. Despite this, there is a lack of
      research on safety incidents encountered by this patient group. In this study, we
      sought to examine patient reports of safety incidents and factors associated with
      reports of safety incidents in older patients with long-term conditions. METHODS:
      The baseline cross-sectional data from a longitudinal cohort study were analysed.
      Older patients (n=3378 aged 65 years and over) with a long-term condition
      registered in general practices were included in the study. The main outcome was
      patient-reported safety incidents including availability and appropriateness of
      medical tests and prescription of wrong types or doses of medication. Binary
      univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were undertaken to
      examine factors associated with patient-reported safety incidents. RESULTS:
      Safety incidents were reported by 11% of the patients. Four factors were
      significantly associated with patient-reported safety incidents in multivariate
      analyses. The experience of multiple long-term conditions (OR=1.09, 95% CI 1.05
      to 1.13), a probable diagnosis of depression (OR=1.36, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.74) and
      greater relational continuity of care (OR=1.28, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.52) were
      associated with increased odds for patient-reported safety incidents. Perceived
      greater support and involvement in self-management was associated with lower odds
      for patient-reported safety incidents (OR=0.95, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97).
      CONCLUSIONS: We found that older patients with multimorbidity and depression are
      more likely to report experiences of patient safety incidents. Improving
      perceived support and involvement of patients in their care may help prevent
      patient-reported safety incidents.

PMID- 28559455
TI  - Association between childcare educators' practices and preschoolers' physical
      activity and dietary intake: a cross-sectional analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Childcare educators may be role models for healthy eating and
      physical activity (PA) behaviours among young children. This study aimed to
      identify which childcare educators' practices are associated with preschoolers'
      dietary intake and PA levels. METHODS: This cross-sectional analysis included 723
      preschoolers from 50 randomly selected childcare centres in two Canadian
      provinces. All data were collected in the fall of 2013 and 2014 and analysed in
      the fall of 2015. PA was assessed using Actical accelerometers during childcare
      hours for 5 consecutive days. Children's dietary intake was measured at lunch on
      2 consecutive days using weighed plate waste and digital photography. Childcare
      educators' nutrition practices (modelling, nutrition education, satiety
      recognition, verbal encouragement and not using food as rewards) and PA practices
      (informal and formal PA promotion) were assessed by direct observation over the
      course of 2 days, using the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for
      Child Care tool. Associations between educators' practices and preschoolers' PA
      and dietary intake were examined using multilevel linear regressions. RESULTS:
      Overall, modelling of healthy eating was positively associated with children's
      intake of sugar (beta=0.141, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.27), while calorie (beta=-0.456,
      95% CI -1.46 to -0.02) and fibre intake (beta=-0.066, 95% CI -0.12 to -0.01) were
      negatively associated with providing nutrition education. Not using food as
      rewards was also negatively associated with fat intake (beta=-0.144, 95% CI -0.52
      to -0.002). None of the educators' PA practices were associated with children's
      participation in PA. CONCLUSIONS: Modelling healthy eating, providing nutrition
      education and not using food as rewards are associated with children's dietary
      intake at lunch in childcare centres, highlighting the role that educators play
      in shaping preschoolers' eating behaviours. Although PA practices were not
      associated with children's PA levels, there is a need to reduce sedentary time in
      childcare centres.

PMID- 28559456
TI  - Can exercise suppress tumour growth in advanced prostate cancer patients with
      sclerotic bone metastases? A randomised, controlled study protocol examining
      feasibility, safety and efficacy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Exercise may positively alter tumour biology through numerous
      modulatory and regulatory mechanisms in response to a variety of modes and
      dosages, evidenced in preclinical models to date. Specifically, localised and
      systemic biochemical alterations produced during and following exercise may
      suppress tumour formation, growth and distribution by virtue of altered
      epigenetics and endocrine-paracrine activity. Given the impressive ability of
      targeted mechanical loading to interfere with metastasis-driven tumour formation
      in human osteolytic tumour cells, it is of equal interest to determine whether a
      similar effect is observed in sclerotic tumour cells. The study aims to (1)
      establish the feasibility and safety of a combined modular multimodal exercise
      programme with spinal isometric training in advanced prostate cancer patients
      with sclerotic bone metastases and (2) examine whether targeted and supervised
      exercise can suppress sclerotic tumour growth and activity in spinal metastases
      in humans. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A single-blinded, two-armed, randomised,
      controlled and explorative phase I clinical trial combining spinal isometric
      training with a modular multimodal exercise programme in 40 men with advanced
      prostate cancer and stable sclerotic spinal metastases. Participants will be
      randomly assigned to (1) the exercise intervention or (2) usual medical care. The
      intervention arm will receive a 3-month, supervised and individually tailored
      modular multimodal exercise programme with spinal isometric training. Primary
      endpoints (feasibility and safety) and secondary endpoints (tumour morphology;
      biomarker activity; anthropometry; musculoskeletal health; adiposity; physical
      function; quality of life; anxiety; distress; fatigue; insomnia; physical
      activity levels) will be measured at baseline and following the intervention.
      Statistical analyses will include descriptive characteristics, t-tests, effect
      sizes and two-way (group * time) repeated-measures analysis of variance (or
      analysis of covariance) to examine differences between groups over time. The data
      set will be primarily examined using an intention-to-treat approach with multiple
      imputations, followed by a secondary sensitivity analysis to ensure data
      robustness using a complete cases approach. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics
      approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of Edith
      Cowan University and the Sir Charles Gairdner and Osborne Park Health Care Group.
      If proven to be feasible and safe, this study will form the basis of future phase
      II and III trials in human patients with advanced cancer. To reach a maximum
      number of clinicians, practitioners, patients and scientists, outcomes will be
      disseminated through national and international clinical, conference and patient
      presentations, as well as publication in high-impact, peer-reviewed academic
      journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN 12616000179437.

PMID- 28559457
TI  - Violent injury predicts poor psychological outcomes after traumatic injury in a
      hard-to-reach population: an observational cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People who experience physical trauma face a range of psychosocial
      outcomes. These may be overlooked by busy clinicians. While some risk factors are
      understood, understanding of the psychological effects of violent injury remains
      limited, particularly in UK settings. This study compared psychological outcomes
      following interpersonal violence and accidental injury, including the persistence
      of psychological distress. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was carried out at two
      time points of patients admitted to a large teaching hospital in London between
      July 2012 and April 2014. Participants were consecutive adult patients admitted
      to the Royal London Hospital with traumatic injuries, with 219 participants at
      baseline. Follow-up survey was 8  months later (n=109). Standardised measures
      assessed post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) (Acute Stress Disorder Scale and
      PTSD Checklist) and depressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).
      RESULTS: PTSS and depressive symptoms affected 27% and 33%, respectively, at
      baseline. At 8  months, 27% and 31% reported these symptoms for PTSS and
      depressive symptoms, respectively. The repeated measures were assessed with
      multilevel models: after adjusting for demographic factors, patients with violent
      injury showed more PTSS (OR 6.27, 95% CI 1.90 to 20.66) and depressive symptoms
      (OR 3.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 8.99). CONCLUSIONS: There were high levels of
      psychological distress among traumatic injury patients. Violent injuries were
      associated with an increased risk of both post-traumatic and depressive symptoms.
      People vulnerable to distress would benefit from psychological support, and
      hospital admission provides a unique opportunity to engage hard-to-reach groups
      in interventions.

PMID- 28559459
TI  - Tamoxifen Acceptance and Adherence among Patients with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ
      (DCIS) Treated in a Multidisciplinary Setting.
AB  - Tamoxifen and other endocrine agents have proven benefits for women with ductal
      carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but low patient acceptance is widely reported. We
      examined factors associated with tamoxifen acceptance and adherence among DCIS
      patients who received a recommendation for therapy in a multidisciplinary
      setting. Using our institutional database, we identified women diagnosed with
      DCIS, 1998 to 2009, who were offered tamoxifen. We recorded data on demographics,
      tumor and therapy variables, tamoxifen acceptance, and adherence to therapy for
      >=4 years. Univariable and multivariable analyses were conducted using logistic
      regression to identify factors specific to each group that were related to
      acceptance and adherence. A total of 555 eligible women identified, of whom 369
      were offered tamoxifen; 298 (81%) accepted, among whom 214 (72%) were adherent,
      59 of 298 (20%) were nonadherent, and for 25 (8%), adherence was undetermined.
      After stepwise elimination in adjusted logistic regression models, acceptance of
      breast radiotherapy was associated with acceptance of tamoxifen [OR, 2.22; 95%
      confidence interval (CI), 1.26-3.90; P < 0.01], as was a medical oncology
      consultation (OR, 1.76; 95% CI, 0.99-3.15; P = 0.05). Insured patients were more
      likely to adhere to tamoxifen (OR, 6.03; 95% CI, 2.60-13.98; P < 0.01). The
      majority of nonadherent women (n = 38/56, 68%) discontinued the drug during the
      first year of treatment with 48 (86%) citing adverse effect(s) as the reason. In
      a multidisciplinary, tertiary care setting, we observed relatively high rates of
      acceptance and adherence of tamoxifen. Acceptance of tamoxifen and radiotherapy
      were associated, and adherence was influenced by insurance status.Key Message:
      Tamoxifen acceptance and adherence following resection of DCIS of the breast is
      related to acceptance of radiotherapy and may be improved by confirmation of the
      recommendation by a medical oncologist. Despite the low cost of tamoxifen,
      adherence to therapy is significantly impacted by lack of insurance; those who
      discontinue therapy report adverse effects as a major reason. Cancer Prev Res;
      10(7); 389-97. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28559458
TI  - Towards an optimal composition of general practitioners and nurse practitioners
      in out-of-hours primary care teams: a quasi-experimental study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To gain insights into the ability of general practitioners (GPs) and
      nurse practitioners (NPs) to meet patient demands in out-of-hours primary care by
      comparing the outcomes of teams with different ratios of practitioners. DESIGN:
      Quasi-experimental study. SETTING: A GP cooperative (GPC) in the Netherlands.
      INTERVENTION: Team 2 (1 NP, 3 GPs) and team 3 (2 NPs, 2 GPs) were compared with
      team 1 (4 GPs). Each team covered 35 weekend days. PARTICIPANTS: All 9503
      patients who were scheduled for a consultation at the GPC through a nurse triage
      system. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the total number of
      consultations per provider for weekend cover between 10:00 and 18:00 hours.
      Secondary outcomes concerned the numbers of patients outside the NPs' scope of
      practice, patient safety, resource use, direct healthcare costs and GPs'
      performance. RESULTS: The mean number of consultations per shift was lower in
      teams with NPs (team 1: 93.9, team 3: 87.1; p<0.001). The mean proportion of
      patients outside NPs' scope of practice per hour was 9.0% (SD 6.7), and the
      highest value in any hour was 40%. The proportion of patients who did not receive
      treatment within the targeted time period was higher in teams with NPs (team 2,
      5.2%; team 3, 8.3%) compared with GPs only (team 1 3.5%) (p<0.01). Team 3
      referred more patients to the emergency department (14.7%) compared with team 1
      (12.0%; p=0.028). In teams with NPs, GPs more often treated urgent patients (team
      1: 13.2%, team 2: 16.3%, team 3: 21.4%; p<0.01) and patients with digestive
      complaints (team 1: 11.1%, team 2: 11.8%, team 3: 16.7%; p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Primary healthcare teams with a ratio of up to two GPs and two NPs provided
      sufficient capacity to provide care to all patients during weekend cover. Areas
      of concern are the number of consultations, delay in patient care and referrals
      to the emergency department. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02407847.

PMID- 28559460
TI  - Development of a Cancer Risk Prediction Tool for Use in the UK Primary Care and
      Community Settings.
AB  - Several multivariable risk prediction models have been developed to asses an
      individual's risk of developing specific cancers. Such models can be used in a
      variety of settings for prevention, screening, and guiding investigations and
      treatments. Models aimed at predicting future disease risk that contains
      lifestyle factors may be of particular use for targeting health promotion
      activities at an individual level. This type of cancer risk prediction is not yet
      available in the UK. We have adopted the approach used by the well-established
      U.S.-derived "YourCancerRisk" model for use in the UK population, which allow
      users to quantify their individual risk of developing individual cancers relative
      to the population average risk. The UK version of "YourCancerRisk" computes 10
      year cancer risk estimates for 11 cancers utilizing UK figures for prevalence of
      risk factors and cancer incidence. Because the prevalence of risk factors and the
      incidence rates for cancer are different between the U.S. and the UK population,
      this UK model provides more accurate estimates of risks for a UK population.
      Using an example of breast cancer and data from UK Biobank cohort, we demonstrate
      that the individual risk factor estimates are similar for the U.S. and UK
      populations. Assessment of the performance and validation of the multivariate
      model predictions based on a binary score confirm the model's applicability. The
      model can be used to estimate absolute and relative cancer risk for use in
      Primary Care and community settings and is being used in the community to guide
      lifestyle change. Cancer Prev Res; 10(7); 421-30. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28559463
TI  - Development and Testing of a Bubble Bi-Level Positive Airway Pressure System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal respiratory distress results in > 1 million annual deaths
      worldwide. Bubble CPAP is a simple, effective, and widely used therapy for
      infants in respiratory distress. In low-resource settings, more advanced
      respiratory support is limited by cost, technical expertise, and sporadic
      electricity. We sought to develop a safe, inexpensive, and simple solution to
      provide further respiratory support for these infants. METHODS: A standard bubble
      CPAP system was modified to provide 2 levels of positive airway pressure (bi
      level positive airway pressure) by attaching a novel device. To demonstrate
      reliability, the system was run with continuous pressure monitoring on full-term
      and preterm neonatal mannikins with pressure targets of 8/5 cm H2O and 15/5 cm
      H2O to simulate 2 different modes of noninvasive ventilation (NIV). RESULTS: At a
      ventilation rate set between 30 and 45 cycles/min, by adjusting the leak rate of
      the device, the following mean pressures +/- SD were demonstrated: term mannikin
      low-pressure NIV, 7.9 +/- 0.2/5.3 +/- 0.2 cm H2O; term mannikin high-pressure
      NIV, 15.1 +/- 0.1/6.1 +/- 0.1 cm H2O; preterm mannikin low-pressure NIV, 7.9 +/-
      0.2/5.3 +/- 0.2 cm H2O; preterm mannikin high-pressure NIV, 16.5 +/- 0.4/5.1 +/-
      0.1 cm H2O. CONCLUSIONS: The modified bubble CPAP system reliably provided
      alternating pressures similar to bi-level positive airway pressure modes of
      respiratory support in neonatal mannikins. The dual-pressure technology is a
      simple, single connection add-on that can readily be applied to existing bubble
      CPAP systems.

PMID- 28559462
TI  - Expression of Five Neuroblastoma Genes in Bone Marrow or Blood of Patients with
      Relapsed/Refractory Neuroblastoma Provides a New Biomarker for Disease and
      Prognosis.
AB  - Purpose: We determined whether quantifying neuroblastoma-associated mRNAs (NB
      mRNAs) in bone marrow and blood improves assessment of disease and prediction of
      disease progression in patients with relapsed/refractory
      neuroblastoma.Experimental Design: mRNA for CHGA, DCX, DDC, PHOX2B, and TH was
      quantified in bone marrow and blood from 101 patients concurrently with clinical
      disease evaluations. Correlation between NB-mRNA (delta cycle threshold, DeltaCt,
      for the geometric mean of genes from the TaqMan Low Density Array NB5 assay) and
      morphologically defined tumor cell percentage in bone marrow, 123I-meta
      iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) Curie score, and CT/MRI-defined tumor longest diameter
      was determined. Time-dependent covariate Cox regression was used to analyze the
      relationship between DeltaCt and progression-free survival (PFS).Results: NB-mRNA
      was detectable in 83% of bone marrow (185/223) and 63% (89/142) of blood
      specimens, and their DeltaCt values were correlated (Spearman r = 0.67, P <
      0.0001), although bone marrow Ct was 7.9 +/- 0.5 Ct stronger than blood Ct When
      bone marrow morphology, MIBG, or CT/MRI were positive, NB-mRNA was detected in
      99% (99/100), 88% (100/113), and 81% (82/101) of bone marrow samples. When all
      three were negative, NB-mRNA was detected in 55% (11/20) of bone marrow samples.
      Bone marrow NB-mRNA correlated with bone marrow morphology or MIBG positivity (P
      < 0.0001 and P = 0.007). Bone marrow and blood DeltaCt values correlated with PFS
      (P < 0.001; P = 0.001) even when bone marrow was morphologically negative (P =
      0.001; P = 0.014). Multivariate analysis showed that bone marrow and blood
      DeltaCt values were associated with PFS independently of clinical disease and
      MYCN gene status (P < 0.001; P = 0.055).Conclusions: This five-gene NB5 assay for
      NB-mRNA improves definition of disease status and correlates independently with
      PFS in relapsed/refractory neuroblastoma. Clin Cancer Res; 23(18); 5374-83.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28559464
TI  - Smoke, Biomass Exposure, and COPD Risk in the Primary Care Setting: The PUMA
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The evidence indicates that risk factors other than smoking are
      important in the development of COPD. It has been postulated that less
      traditional risk factors (eg, exposure to coal and/or biomass smoke) may interact
      with smoking to further increase COPD risk. This analysis evaluated the effect of
      exposure to biomass and smoking on COPD risk in a primary care setting in Latin
      America. METHODS: Subjects attending routine primary care visits, >=40 y old, who
      were current or former smokers or were exposed to biomass smoke, completed a
      questionnaire and performed spirometry. COPD was defined as post-bronchodilator
      FEV1/FVC < 0.70 and the lower limit of normal. Smoking was defined by pack-years
      (<= 20, 20-30, or > 30), and biomass exposure was defined as an exposure to coal
      or wood (for heating, cooking, or both) for >= 10 y. RESULTS: One thousand seven
      hundred forty-three individuals completed the questionnaire, and 1,540 performed
      spirometry. Irrespective of COPD definition, approximately 40% of COPD subjects
      reported exposure to biomass versus 30% of those without COPD. A higher
      proportion of COPD subjects (post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC < 0.70) than those
      without COPD smoked > 30 pack-years (66% vs 39%); similar results were found with
      the lower limit of normal definition. Analysis of exposure to biomass > 10 y plus
      smoking > 20 pack-years (reference was no exposure) found that tobacco smoking
      (crude odds ratio [OR] 4.50, 95% CI 2.73-7.41; adjusted OR 3.30, 95% CI 1.93
      5.63) and biomass exposure (crude OR 3.66, 95% CI 2.00-6.73; adjusted OR 2.28,
      95% CI 1.18-4.41) were risk factors for COPD, with smoking a possible confounder
      for the association between biomass and COPD (post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC <
      0.70); similar results were found with the lower limit of normal definition.
      CONCLUSIONS: Subjects with COPD from primary care had a higher exposure to
      biomass and smoking compared with non-COPD subjects. Smoking and biomass are both
      risk factors for COPD, but they do not appear to have an additive effect.

PMID- 28559461
TI  - The HGF/c-MET Pathway Is a Driver and Biomarker of VEGFR-inhibitor Resistance and
      Vascular Remodeling in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - Purpose: Resistance to VEGFR inhibitors is a major obstacle in the treatment of
      non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We investigated the cellular mechanisms
      mediating resistance of NSCLCs to VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.Experimental
      Design: We generated murine models of human NSCLC and performed targeted
      inhibition studies with the VEGFR TKIs cediranib and vandetanib. We used species
      specific hybridization of microarrays to compare cancer (human) and stromal
      (mouse) cell transcriptomes of TKI-sensitive and -resistant tumors. We measured
      tumor microvascular density and vessel tortuosity to characterize the effects of
      therapy on the tumor vascular bed. Circulating cytokine and angiogenic factor
      levels in patients enrolled in VEGFR TKI trials were correlated with clinical
      outcomes.Results: Murine xenograft models of human lung adenocarcinoma were
      initially sensitive to VEGFR TKIs, but developed resistance to treatment. Species
      specific microarray analysis identified increased expression of stromal-derived
      hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) as a candidate mediator of TKI resistance and its
      receptor, c-MET, was activated in cancer cells and tumor-associated stroma. A
      transient increase in hypoxia-regulated molecules in the initial response phase
      was followed by adaptive changes resulting in a more tortuous vasculature. Forced
      HGF expression in cancer cells reduced tumor sensitivity to VEGFR TKIs and
      produced tumors with tortuous blood vessels. Dual VEGFR/c-MET signaling
      inhibition delayed the onset of the resistant phenotype and prevented the
      vascular morphology alterations. In patients with cancer receiving VEGFR TKIs,
      high pretreatment HGF plasma levels correlated with poorer survival.Conclusions:
      HGF/c-MET pathway mediates VEGFR inhibitor resistance and vascular remodeling in
      NSCLC. Clin Cancer Res; 23(18); 5489-501. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28559465
TI  - Reducing Unplanned Extubations in the NICU Following Implementation of a
      Standardized Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unplanned extubations (UEs) have been associated with increased
      ventilator days, risk of infection, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and
      resuscitation medication usage. The UE rate in our level 4 NICU is lower than the
      national average. Efforts to further reduce UE events at our institution led an
      interdisciplinary group to define steps to eliminate UEs. Steps included: (1)
      requiring at least 2 care providers at the bedside for movement of an intubated
      subject; (2) standardizing head and endotracheal tube (ETT) position; (3)
      defining a set methodology for ETT securing; (4) introducing a postoperative
      handoff to improve communication; and (5) implementing a post-UE assessment tool.
      METHODS: A quality improvement initiative reviewed subjects and compared UE rates
      before (January 2013 to December 2013) and after (January 2014 to December 2014)
      implementation of UE prevention guidelines. A de-identified data set was used for
      analysis. RESULTS: 67 UE events were identified with 46 UE events at baseline in
      2013 compared with 21 in 2014 post-implementation. This amounted to a 64%
      decrease in total UE events (from 46 to 21) (P < .001). Additionally, monthly UE
      rates decreased 50% (from 3.8 to 1.9), and UE events per 100 ventilator days
      decreased 53% (from 1.15 to 0.54). CONCLUSIONS: The development of standard
      guidelines to prevent UE and a quality review process to track UE provided
      important information for education and practice change. In our NICU, these
      changes have significantly improved the UE rate through improved teamwork,
      accountability, and communication.

PMID- 28559466
TI  - Inhaled Drug Therapy 2016: The Year in Review.
AB  - Some recent salient publications related to inhaled drug therapy are discussed.
      Unexpectedly, a 2.5-MUg once-daily dose of tiotropium (Respimat) had greater
      efficacy than the 5.0-MUg daily dose. Occurrence of a reverse dose response
      serves to caution us that administering more drug is not always beneficial. Small
      airway inflammation contributes to pathogenesis of asthma, especially severe
      asthma. However, there is no conclusive evidence that the use of small-particle
      aerosols to target small airways improves clinical outcomes in controlled
      clinical trials. Clinical outcomes of patients with symptomatic asthma have been
      better in "real-life" studies when fine-particle aerosols were compared with
      conventional (large-particle) aerosols. In subjects with COPD, the FLAME study
      indicates that a long-acting antimuscarinic agent/long-acting beta-agonist
      combination was superior to an inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta-agonist
      combination in preventing exacerbations. Another study in children with asthma
      and adults with asthma or COPD showed that peak inhalation flow must be
      considered in the context of the dry powder inhaler resistance. Investigators
      from the United Kingdom have shown modest success in replacing the defective
      cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator gene in subjects with cystic fibrosis
      with a plasmid encoding the normal cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator gene
      packaged within a non-viral vector. Also, inhaled antibiotics in patients with
      non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis and inhaled interferon-gamma in patients with
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis have shown encouraging results but are
      investigational at this time. Compared to combustion cigarettes, use of e
      cigarettes reduces exposure to carcinogens and volatile organic compounds.
      However, high levels of benzaldehyde in the vapor from cherry-flavored cigarettes
      raise concerns about the safety of some food flavorings in e-cigarettes.

PMID- 28559467
TI  - Effect of ARDS Severity and Etiology on Short-Term Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the outcome of subjects with ARDS in relation to
      etiology and severity in a retrospective cohort study of the ARDS Network
      randomized controlled trials. The primary outcome was 28-d mortality. The
      secondary outcomes were 60-d mortality and ventilator- and ICU-free days. For
      severity of ARDS, subjects were stratified according to PaO2/FIO2. The etiology
      of ARDS was classified into sepsis, pneumonia, aspiration, trauma, and others.
      RESULTS: A total of 2,914 subjects were included in these trials. Outcomes were
      modeled with multivariable regressions adjusted for baseline covariates, age,
      sex, race, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III (APACHE III),
      vasopressor use, modified lung injury score, diabetes mellitus, cancer status,
      body mass index, pre-ICU location, ICU location, and study. There was no
      statistically significant difference in 28-d mortality in relation to ARDS
      severity. Subjects with trauma, compared with other etiologies of ARDS, had
      significantly lower mortality at 28 d (odds ratio [OR] = 0.47, 95% CI 0.26-0.83,
      P = .01). Sixty-day mortality was significantly lower for trauma subjects and
      those with severe ARDS group (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.85, P = .01 and OR = 0.71,
      95% CI 0.52-0.98, P = .034, respectively). There were statistically significantly
      more ICU-free days and ventilator-free days for the aspiration group (OR = 1.09,
      95% CI 1.02-1.17, P = .01 and OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.02-1.16, P = .01,
      respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in ICU-free days
      or ventilator-free days in relation to severity of ARDS. CONCLUSIONS: Severity of
      ARDS based on PaO2/FIO2 did not impact 28-d mortality, ventilator-free days, or
      ICU-free days. Among the etiologies of ARDS, trauma subjects had the lowest 28-
      and 60-d mortality, whereas subjects with aspiration had more ICU-free days and
      ventilator-free days.

PMID- 28559468
TI  - Severity of Hypoxemia and Other Factors That Influence the Response to
      Aerosolized Prostacyclin in ARDS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: ARDS is characterized by decreased functional residual capacity
      (FRC), heterogeneous lung injury, and severe hypoxemia. Tidal ventilation is
      preferentially distributed to ventilated alveoli. Aerosolized prostaglandin I2
      exploits this pathophysiology by inducing local vasodilation, thereby increasing
      ventilation-perfusion matching and reducing hypoxemia. Therefore, aerosolized
      prostaglandin I2 efficacy may depend upon FRC. Both PaO2 /FIO2 and compliance of
      the respiratory system (CRS) are indirect signifiers of FRC and thus may partly
      determine the response to aerosolized prostaglandin I2. METHODS: We reviewed the
      records of 208 ARDS subjects who received aerosolized prostaglandin I2 and had
      arterial blood gases done before and after the initiation of therapy, without
      other ventilator manipulations. Subjects were grouped according to baseline PaO2
      /FIO2 (lowest: < 60, intermediate: 60-90, highest: > 90 mm Hg) and CRS (< 20, 20
      29, 30-39, and >= 40 mL/cm H2O) and by other factors, such as sepsis. Comparisons
      were analyzed by paired t tests, or Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn post-tests.
      Multivariate logistic regression modeling was done to determine which of 18
      clinically relevant factors were most predictive for responding to aerosolized
      prostaglandin I2. alpha was set at .05. RESULTS: Mean PaO2 /FIO2 increased by 33
      mm Hg (42%) upon initiation of prostaglandin I2, with a responder rate of 62%.
      PaO2 /FIO2 increased significantly in all oxygenation groups. The highest
      baseline PaO2 /FIO2 group had the greatest improvement and responder rate (51 +/-
      63 mm Hg, and 82%). In addition, those with sepsis had a smaller improvement in
      PaO2 /FIO2 compared with those without sepsis (18 +/- 35 vs 40 +/- 55 mm Hg, P =
      .002). Both PaO2 /FIO2 and responder rate increased as CRS improved, but between
      group improvements were not as consistent. In the final model, the only factors
      that predicted a positive response to aerosolized prostaglandin I2 were baseline
      PaO2 /FIO2 (odds ratio 1.10 [1.004-1.205], P = .042) and CRS (odds ratio 1.04
      [1.01-1.08], P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: Aerosolized prostaglandin I2 improves
      oxygenation in approximately 60% of ARDS cases. A favorable response was most
      strongly associated with baseline PaO2 /FIO2 and CRS.

PMID- 28559469
TI  - Physiological Requirements to Perform the Glittre Activities of Daily Living Test
      by Subjects With Mild-to-Severe COPD.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Glittre activities of daily living (ADL) test is supposed to
      evaluate the functional capacity of COPD patients. The physiological requirements
      of the test and the time taken to perform it by COPD patients in different
      disease stages are not well known. The objective of this work was to compare the
      metabolic, ventilatory, and cardiac requirements and the time taken to carry out
      the Glittre ADL test by COPD subjects with mild, moderate, and severe disease.
      METHODS: Spirometry, Medical Research Council questionnaire, cardiopulmonary
      exercise test, and 2 Glittre ADL tests were evaluated in 62 COPD subjects. Oxygen
      uptake (VO2 ), carbon dioxide production, pulmonary ventilation, breathing
      frequency, heart rate, SpO2 , and dyspnea were analyzed before and at the end of
      the tests. Maximum voluntary ventilation, Glittre peak VO2 /cardiopulmonary
      exercise test (CPET) peak VO2 , Glittre VE/maximum voluntary ventilation, and
      Glittre peak heart rate/CPET peak heart rate ratios were calculated to analyze
      their reserves. RESULTS: Subjects carried out the Glittre ADL test with similar
      absolute metabolic, ventilatory, and cardiac requirements. Ventilatory reserve
      decreased progressively from mild to severe COPD subjects (P < .001 for Global
      Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [GOLD] 1 vs GOLD 2, P < .001 for
      GOLD 1 vs GOLD 3, and P < .001 for GOLD 2 vs GOLD 3). Severe subjects with COPD
      presented a significantly lower metabolic reserve than the mild and moderate
      subjects (P = .006 and P = .043, respectively) and significantly lower Glittre
      peak heart rate/CPET peak heart rate than mild subjects (P = .01). Time taken to
      carry out the Glittre ADL test was similar among the groups (P = .82 for GOLD 1
      vs GOLD 2, P = .19 for GOLD 1 vs GOLD 3, and P = .45 for GOLD 2 vs GOLD 3).
      CONCLUSIONS: As the degree of air-flow obstruction progresses, the COPD subjects
      present significant lower ventilatory reserve to perform the Glittre ADL test. In
      addition, metabolic and cardiac reserves may differentiate the severe subjects.
      These variables may be better measures to differentiate functional performance
      than Glittre ADL time.

PMID- 28559470
TI  - Flow Decay: A Novel Spirometric Index to Quantify Dynamic Airway Resistance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dynamic airway resistance from obstructive disease causes a concavity
      in the mid-expiratory portion of the spirometric flow-volume loop. We developed a
      simple model to measure the exponential decay in air flow during forced
      exhalation to quantify the extent of dynamic airway obstruction and facilitate
      the detection of obstructive airway diseases clinically. METHODS: We calculated
      flow decay as the slope of volume versus ln(1/flow) in mid-exhalation. We derived
      the normal range in a derivation group of healthy volunteers in whom spirometry
      had been performed repeatedly. We validated the derived upper limit of normal
      (mean + 2 * SD) by using it to distinguish a separate group of healthy subjects
      (n = 25) from subjects with independently diagnosed reversible airway obstruction
      (n = 31) and subjects with obstruction, hyperinflation, and air trapping (n =
      62). RESULTS: In the derivation group (n = 7), the mean +/- SD flow decay was
      0.588 +/- 0.107 L-1 (upper limit of normal = 0.802 L-1). Flow decay in 23 of 25
      healthy subjects in the validation group was below the upper limit of normal. In
      contrast, it was above the upper limit of normal in 29 of 31 subjects with
      reversible airway obstruction (sensitivity 94%, 95% CI 79-99%; specificity 92%,
      95% CI 74-99%) and in 59 of 62 of subjects with obstruction, hyperinflation, and
      air trapping (sensitivity 92%, 95% CI 74-99%; specificity 95%, 95% CI 86-99%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Flow decay distinguished subjects with obstructive lung defects from
      healthy subjects. It is a straightforward representation of spirometry data that
      provides a reproducible index to quantify dynamic airway obstruction.

PMID- 28559471
TI  - Gas Exchange in the Prone Posture.
AB  - The prone posture is known to have numerous effects on gas exchange, both under
      normal conditions and in patients with ARDS. Clinical studies have consistently
      demonstrated improvements in oxygenation, and a multi-center randomized trial
      found that, when implemented within 48 h of moderate-to-severe ARDS, placing
      subjects in the prone posture decreased mortality. Improvements in gas exchange
      occur via several mechanisms: alterations in the distribution of alveolar
      ventilation, redistribution of blood flow, improved matching of local ventilation
      and perfusion, and reduction in regions of low ventilation/perfusion ratios.
      Ventilation heterogeneity is reduced in the prone posture due to more uniform
      alveolar size secondary to a more uniform vertical pleural pressure gradient. The
      prone posture results in more uniform pulmonary blood flow when compared with the
      supine posture, due to an anatomical bias for greater blood flow to dorsal lung
      regions. Because both ventilation and perfusion heterogeneity decrease in the
      prone posture, gas exchange improves. Other benefits include a more uniform
      distribution of alveolar stress, relief of left-lower-lobe lung compression by
      the heart, enhanced secretion clearance, and favorable right-ventricular and
      systemic hemodynamics.

PMID- 28559472
TI  - Spermatogonial deubiquitinase USP9X is essential for proper spermatogenesis in
      mice.
AB  - USP9X (ubiquitin-specific peptidase 9, X chromosome) is the mammalian orthologue
      of Drosophila deubiquitinase fat facets that was previously shown to regulate the
      maintenance of the germ cell lineage partially through stabilizing Vasa, one of
      the widely conserved factors crucial for gametogenesis. Here, we demonstrate that
      USP9X is expressed in the gonocytes and spermatogonia in mouse testes from
      newborn to adult stages. By using Vasa-Cre mice, germ cell-specific conditional
      deletion of Usp9x from the embryonic stage showed no abnormality in the
      developing testes by 1 week and no appreciable defects in the undifferentiated
      and differentiating spermatogonia at postnatal and adult stages. Interestingly,
      after 2 weeks, Usp9x-null spermatogenic cells underwent apoptotic cell death at
      the early spermatocyte stage, and then, caused subsequent aberrant
      spermiogenesis, which resulted in a complete infertility of Usp9x conditional
      knockout male mice. These data provide the first evidence of the crucial role of
      the spermatogonial USP9X during transition from the mitotic to meiotic phases
      and/or maintenance of early meiotic phase in Usp9x conditional knockout testes.

PMID- 28559473
TI  - Prenatal exposure to paracetamol/acetaminophen and precursor aniline impairs
      masculinisation of male brain and behaviour.
AB  - Paracetamol/acetaminophen (N-Acetyl-p-Aminophenol; APAP) is the preferred
      analgesic for pain relief and fever during pregnancy. It has therefore caused
      concern that several studies have reported that prenatal exposure to APAP results
      in developmental alterations in both the reproductive tract and the brain.
      Genitals and nervous system of male mammals are actively masculinised during
      foetal development and early postnatal life by the combined actions of
      prostaglandins and androgens, resulting in the male-typical reproductive
      behaviour seen in adulthood. Both androgens and prostaglandins are known to be
      inhibited by APAP. Through intrauterine exposure experiments in C57BL/6 mice, we
      found that exposure to APAP decreased neuronal number in the sexually dimorphic
      nucleus (SDN) of the preoptic area (POA) in the anterior hypothalamus of male
      adult offspring. Likewise, exposure to the environmental pollutant and precursor
      of APAP, aniline, resulted in a similar reduction. Decrease in neuronal number in
      the SDN-POA is associated with reductions in male sexual behaviour. Consistent
      with the changes, male mice exposed in uteri to APAP exhibited changes in urinary
      marking behaviour as adults and had a less aggressive territorial display towards
      intruders of the same gender. Additionally, exposed males had reduced
      intromissions and ejaculations during mating with females in oestrus. Together,
      these data suggest that prenatal exposure to APAP may impair male sexual
      behaviour in adulthood by disrupting the sexual neurobehavioral programming.
      These findings add to the growing body of evidence suggesting the need to limit
      the widespread exposure and use of APAP by pregnant women.

PMID- 28559474
TI  - A low-fat diet enriched in fish oil increased lipogenesis and fetal outcome of
      C57BL/6 mice.
AB  - There is clear evidence that nutritional strategy employed during pregnancy has
      profound influence on the offspring health outcomes. However, the effect of the
      quality and the quantity of maternal fat intake on maternal metabolic profile
      during different stages of pregnancy and its impact on pregnancy sustainability
      is not known. Female C57BL/6 mice (7 weeks old) were fed diets varying in the
      quantity of fat (5% vs 11%) for two weeks prior to mating and throughout
      pregnancy. The 5% fat diet was enriched with longer chain omega (n)-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from fish oil. Maternal plasma and tissues
      were collected before mating and during pregnancy at days 6.5, 12.5 and 18.5.
      Plasma lipids, glucose, insulin, progesterone and estradiol levels were measured.
      Cholesterol efflux capacity of maternal plasma as well as the mRNA expression of
      placental steroidogenic acute regulatory protein and hepatic lipogenic genes
      (acetyl-CoA carboxylase-1, fatty acid synthase, diacylglycerol acyltransferase-2
      and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1) was determined. Feto-placental weight and fetuses
      sustained throughout gestation were recorded. A low-fat maternal diet enriched
      with n-3 PUFA increased maternal plasma triacylglycerol and the mRNA expression
      of rate-limiting lipogenic enzymes, along with increasing cholesterol efflux
      capacity (P < 0.05), likely to meet fetal lipid demand during pregnancy.
      Furthermore, diet enriched with longer chain n-3 PUFA increased the maternal
      plasma concentration of progesterone and estradiol during pregnancy (P < 0.05),
      which coincides with an increase in the number of fetuses sustained till day
      18.5. These novel findings may be important when designing dietary strategies to
      optimize reproductive capability and pregnancy outcomes.

PMID- 28559475
TI  - Interplay of Plasma Membrane and Vacuolar Ion Channels, Together with BAK1,
      Elicits Rapid Cytosolic Calcium Elevations in Arabidopsis during Aphid Feeding.
AB  - A transient rise in cytosolic calcium ion concentration is one of the main
      signals used by plants in perception of their environment. The role of calcium in
      the detection of abiotic stress is well documented; however, its role during
      biotic interactions remains unclear. Here, we use a fluorescent calcium biosensor
      (GCaMP3) in combination with the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) as a tool to
      study Arabidopsis thaliana calcium dynamics in vivo and in real time during a
      live biotic interaction. We demonstrate rapid and highly localized plant calcium
      elevations around the feeding sites of M. persicae, and by monitoring aphid
      feeding behavior electrophysiologically, we demonstrate that these elevations
      correlate with aphid probing of epidermal and mesophyll cells. Furthermore, we
      dissect the molecular mechanisms involved, showing that interplay between the
      plant defense coreceptor BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE-ASSOCIATED KINASE1 (BAK1),
      the plasma membrane ion channels GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE 3.3 and 3.6 (GLR3.3 and
      GLR3.6), and the vacuolar ion channel TWO-PORE CHANNEL1 (TPC1) mediate these
      calcium elevations. Consequently, we identify a link between plant perception of
      biotic threats by BAK1, cellular calcium entry mediated by GLRs, and
      intracellular calcium release by TPC1 during a biologically relevant interaction.

PMID- 28559476
TI  - Noncanonical Alternative Polyadenylation Contributes to Gene Regulation in
      Response to Hypoxia.
AB  - Stresses from various environmental challenges continually confront plants, and
      their responses are important for growth and survival. One molecular response to
      such challenges involves the alternative polyadenylation of mRNA. In plants, it
      is unclear how stress affects the production and fate of alternative mRNA
      isoforms. Using a genome-scale approach, we show that in Arabidopsis thaliana,
      hypoxia leads to increases in the number of mRNA isoforms with polyadenylated 3'
      ends that map to 5'-untranslated regions (UTRs), introns, and protein-coding
      regions. RNAs with 3' ends within protein-coding regions and introns were less
      stable than mRNAs that end at 3'-UTR poly(A) sites. Additionally, these RNA
      isoforms were underrepresented in polysomes isolated from control and hypoxic
      plants. By contrast, mRNA isoforms with 3' ends that lie within annotated 5'-UTRs
      were overrepresented in polysomes and were as stable as canonical mRNA isoforms.
      These results indicate that the generation of noncanonical mRNA isoforms is an
      important feature of the abiotic stress response. The finding that several
      noncanonical mRNA isoforms are relatively unstable suggests that the production
      of non-stop and intronic mRNA isoforms may represent a form of negative
      regulation in plants, providing a conceptual link with mechanisms that generate
      these isoforms (such as alternative polyadenylation) and RNA surveillance.

PMID- 28559479
TI  - Modeling Human Myocardium Exposure to Doxorubicin Defines the Risk of Heart
      Failure from Low-Dose Doxorubicin.
AB  - The antitumor anthracycline, doxorubicin (DOX), can cause heart failure (HF) upon
      cumulative administration. Lowering the cumulative dose of DOX proved useful to
      minimize HF risk, and, yet, there is a growing concern that HF might occur after
      doses that were thought to be safe. Clinical trials that prospectively address
      such concerns are lacking. Because HF risk correlates with cardiac exposure to
      DOX, cumulative doses associated with HF risk were re-explored by modeling the
      accumulation of anthracycline pools in human myocardium. Ex vivo myocardial
      samples were used in vitro to simulate DOX rapid infusions. The accumulation of
      anthracycline pools was measured and incorporated into equations from which a
      risk versus dose curve was obtained. The experimental curve identified a 5% risk
      dose that was congruent with a previously reported clinical value (380 versus 400
      mg/m2, respectively); however, 1-2% risk occurred after lower doses than
      reported. Simulations of gain-of-function polymorphism of carbonyl reductase 3,
      which converts DOX to its poorly diffusible alcohol metabolite, doxorubicinol
      (DOXOL), expanded anthracycline pools and caused 5% or 1-2% risk doses to
      decrease to 330 or 180-230 mg DOX/m2, respectively. These data show there is no
      safe dose of DOX. Diminishing cardiac exposure to circulating DOX may represent a
      cardioprotective strategy. We show that DOX slow infusions or liposomal DOX,
      which reduce cardiac exposure to DOX, caused formation of smaller anthracycline
      pools, did not generate DOXOL, increased the 5% risk dose to 750-800 mg/m2, and
      prevented HF risk aggravation by carbonyl reductase polymorphism.

PMID- 28559480
TI  - In Vitro and In Silico Characterization of Lemborexant (E2006), a Novel Dual
      Orexin Receptor Antagonist.
AB  - Orexin (hypocretin) neuropeptides have, among others, been implicated in
      arousal/sleep control, and antagonizing the orexin signaling pathway has been
      previously demonstrated to promote sleep in animals and humans. This mechanism
      opens up a new therapeutic approach to curb excessive wakefulness in insomnia
      disorder rather than to promote sleep-related signaling. Here we describe the
      preclinical pharmacological in vitro and in silico characterization of
      lemborexant ((1R,2S)-2-{[(2,4-dimethylpyrimidin-5-yl)oxy]methyl}-2-(3
      fluorophenyl)-N-(5-fluoropyridin-2-yl)cyclopropanecarboxamide)), a dual orexin
      receptor antagonist (DORA), as a novel experimental therapeutic agent for the
      symptomatic treatment of insomnia disorder and compare its properties to two
      other DORAs, almorexant and suvorexant. Lemborexant binds to both orexin
      receptors and functionally inhibits them in a competitive manner with low
      nanomolar potency, without any species difference apparent among human, rat, and
      mouse receptors. Binding and dissociation kinetics on both orexin receptors are
      rapid. Lemborexant is selective for both orexin receptors over 88 other
      receptors, transporters, and ion channels of important physiologic function. In
      silico modeling of lemborexant into the orexin receptors showed that it assumes
      the same type of conformation within the receptor-binding pocket as suvorexant,
      the pi-stacked horseshoe-like conformation.

PMID- 28559481
TI  - Methylation dynamics during folliculogenesis and early embryo development in
      sheep.

PMID- 28559482
TI  - A Screen for rfaH Suppressors Reveals a Key Role for a Connector Region of
      Termination Factor Rho.
AB  - RfaH activates horizontally acquired operons that encode lipopolysaccharide core
      components, pili, toxins, and capsules. Unlike its paralog NusG, which
      potentiates Rho-mediated silencing, RfaH strongly inhibits Rho. RfaH is recruited
      to its target operons via a network of contacts with an elongating RNA polymerase
      (RNAP) and a specific DNA element called ops to modify RNAP into a pause- and
      NusG-resistant state. rfaH null mutations confer hypersensitivity to antibiotics
      and detergents, altered susceptibility to bacteriophages, and defects in
      virulence. Here, we carried out a selection for suppressors that restore the
      ability of a DeltarfaH mutant Escherichia coli strain to grow in the presence of
      sodium dodecyl sulfate. We isolated rho, rpoC, and hns suppressor mutants with
      changes in regions previously shown to be important for their function. In
      addition, we identified mutants with changes in an unstructured region that
      connects the primary RNA-binding and helicase domains of Rho. The connector
      mutants display strong defects in vivo, consistent with their ability to
      compensate for the loss of RfaH, and act synergistically with bicyclomycin (BCM),
      which has been recently shown to inhibit Rho transformation into a translocation
      competent state. We hypothesize that the flexible connector permits the
      reorientation of Rho domains and serves as a target for factors that control the
      motor function of Rho allosterically. Our results, together with the existing
      data, support a model in which the connector segment plays a hitherto overlooked
      role in the regulation of Rho-dependent termination.IMPORTANCE The transcription
      termination factor Rho silences foreign DNA, reduces antisense transcription,
      mediates surveillance of mRNA quality, and maintains genome integrity by
      resolving transcription-replication collisions and deleterious R loops. Upon
      binding to RNA, Rho undergoes a rate-limiting transition from an open "lock
      washer" state to a closed ring capable of processive translocation on, and
      eventually the release of, the nascent transcript. Recent studies revealed that
      Rho ligands, including its cofactor NusG and inhibitor bicyclomycin, control the
      ring dynamics allosterically. In this work, we used a genetic selection for
      suppressors of RfaH, a potent inhibitor of Rho, to isolate a new class of
      mutations in a flexible region that connects the primary RNA-binding and
      ATPase/translocase domains of Rho. We propose that the connector is essential for
      the modulation of Rho activity by different RNA sequences and accessory proteins.

PMID- 28559477
TI  - European Glaucoma Society Terminology and Guidelines for Glaucoma, 4th Edition -
      Chapter 3: Treatment principles and options Supported by the EGS Foundation: Part
      1: Foreword; Introduction; Glossary; Chapter 3 Treatment principles and options.

PMID- 28559483
TI  - Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Caused by Lipoprotein Accumulation Suppresses
      Immunity against Bacterial Pathogens and Contributes to Immunosenescence.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a stress response pathway that is
      activated upon increased unfolded and/or misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER), and enhanced ER stress response prolongs life span and improves
      immunity. However, the mechanism by which ER stress affects immunity remains
      poorly understood. Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we show that
      mutations in the lipoproteins vitellogenins, which are homologs of human
      apolipoprotein B-100, resulted in upregulation of the UPR. Lipoprotein
      accumulation in the intestine adversely affects the immune response and the life
      span of the organism, suggesting that it could be a contributing factor to
      immunosenescence. We show that lipoprotein accumulation inhibited the expression
      of several immune genes encoding proteins secreted by the intestinal cells in an
      IRE-1-independent manner. Our studies provide a mechanistic explanation for
      adverse effects caused by protein aggregation and ER stress on immunity and
      highlight the role of an IRE-1-independent pathway in the suppression of the
      expression of genes encoding secreted proteins.IMPORTANCE Increased accumulation
      of unfolded and/or misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) leads to
      enhanced ER stress. However, the mechanism(s) by which ER stress affects immunity
      remain understudied. Using the nematode C. elegans, we showed that mutations in
      lipoproteins lead to their accumulation in the intestine, causing ER stress and
      adversely affecting the life span of the organisms and their resistance to
      pathogen infection. Our results indicate that the ER stress caused by lipoprotein
      accumulation significantly reduced the levels of expression of genes encoding
      secreted immune effectors, contributing to immunosenescence. It is known that ER
      stress may suppress gene expression via IRE-1, which is a sensor of ER stress.
      The novel mechanism uncovered in our study is IRE-1 independent, which highlights
      the role of a novel process by which ER stress suppresses innate immunity.

PMID- 28559485
TI  - Thermodynamic Basis of Molecular Diffusion through Cyanobacterial Septal
      Junctions.

PMID- 28559484
TI  - Finding the Needle in the Haystack-the Use of Microfluidic Droplet Technology to
      Identify Vitamin-Secreting Lactic Acid Bacteria.
AB  - Efficient screening technologies aim to reduce both the time and the cost
      required for identifying rare mutants possessing a phenotype of interest in a
      mutagenized population. In this study, we combined a mild mutagenesis strategy
      with high-throughput screening based on microfluidic droplet technology to
      identify Lactococcus lactis variants secreting vitamin B2 (riboflavin).
      Initially, we used a roseoflavin-resistant mutant of L. lactis strain MG1363,
      JC017, which secreted low levels of riboflavin. By using fluorescence-activated
      droplet sorting, several mutants that secreted riboflavin more efficiently than
      JC017 were readily isolated from the mutagenesis library. The screening was
      highly efficient, and candidates with as few as 1.6 mutations per million base
      pairs (Mbp) were isolated. The genetic characterization revealed that riboflavin
      production was triggered by mutations inhibiting purine biosynthesis, which is
      surprising since the purine nucleotide GTP is a riboflavin precursor. Purine
      starvation in the mutants induced overexpression of the riboflavin biosynthesis
      cluster ribABGH When the purine starvation was relieved by purine supplementation
      in the growth medium, the outcome was an immediate downregulation of the
      riboflavin biosynthesis cluster and a reduction in riboflavin production.
      Finally, by applying the new isolates in milk fermentation, the riboflavin
      content of milk (0.99 mg/liter) was improved to 2.81 mg/liter, compared with 0.66
      mg/liter and 1.51 mg/liter by using the wild-type strain and the original
      roseoflavin-resistant mutant JC017, respectively. The results obtained
      demonstrate how powerful classical mutagenesis can be when combined with droplet
      based microfluidic screening technology for obtaining microorganisms with useful
      attributes.IMPORTANCE The food industry prefers to use classical approaches,
      e.g., random mutagenesis followed by screening, to improve microorganisms used in
      food production, as the use of recombinant DNA technologies is still not widely
      accepted. Although modern automated screening platforms are widely accessible,
      screening remains as a bottleneck in strain development, especially when a mild
      mutagenesis approach is applied to reduce the chance of accumulating unintended
      mutations, which may cause unwanted phenotypic changes. Here, we incorporate a
      droplet-based high-throughput screening method into the strain development
      process and readily capture L. lactis variants with more efficient vitamin
      secretion from low-error-rate mutagenesis libraries. This study shows that useful
      mutants showing strong phenotypes but without extensive mutations can be
      identified with efficient screening technologies. It is therefore possible to
      avoid accumulating detrimental mutations while enriching beneficial ones through
      iterative mutagenesis screening. Due to the low mutation rates, the genetic
      determinants are also readily identified.

PMID- 28559486
TI  - Mismatch Repair of DNA Replication Errors Contributes to Microevolution in the
      Pathogenic Fungus Cryptococcus neoformans.
AB  - The ability to adapt to a changing environment provides a selective advantage to
      microorganisms. In the case of many pathogens, a large change in their
      environment occurs when they move from a natural setting to a setting within a
      human host and then during the course of disease development to various locations
      within that host. Two clinical isolates of the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus
      neoformans were identified from a collection of environmental and clinical
      strains that exhibited a mutator phenotype, which is a phenotype which provides
      the ability to change rapidly due to the accumulation of DNA mutations at high
      frequency. Whole-genome analysis of these strains revealed mutations in MSH2 of
      the mismatch repair pathway, and complementation confirmed that these mutations
      are responsible for the mutator phenotype. Comparison of mutation frequencies in
      deletion strains of eight mismatch repair pathway genes in C. neoformans showed
      that the loss of three of them, MSH2, MLH1, and PMS1, results in an increase in
      mutation rates. Increased mutation rates enable rapid microevolution to occur in
      these strains, generating phenotypic variations in traits associated with the
      ability to grow in vivo, in addition to allowing rapid generation of resistance
      to antifungal agents. Mutation of PMS1 reduced virulence, whereas mutation of
      MSH2 or MLH1 had no effect on the level of virulence. These findings thus support
      the hypothesis that this pathogenic fungus can take advantage of a mutator
      phenotype in order to cause disease but that it can do so only in specific
      pathways that lead to a mutator trait without a significant tradeoff in
      fitness.IMPORTANCE Fungi account for a large number of infections that are
      extremely difficult to treat; superficial fungal infections affect approximately
      1.7 billion (25%) of the general population worldwide, and systemic fungal
      diseases result in an unacceptably high mortality rate. How fungi adapt to their
      hosts is not fully understood. This research investigated the role of changes to
      DNA sequences in adaption to the host environment and the ability to cause
      disease in Cryptococcus neoformans, one of the world's most common and most
      deadly fungal pathogens. The study results showed that microevolutionary rates
      are enhanced in either clinical isolates or in gene deletion strains with msh2
      mutations. This gene has similar functions in regulating the rapid emergence of
      antifungal drug resistance in a distant fungal relative of C. neoformans, the
      pathogen Candida glabrata Thus, microevolution resulting from enhanced mutation
      rates may be a common contributor to fungal pathogenesis.

PMID- 28559487
TI  - A Toxin Involved in Salmonella Persistence Regulates Its Activity by Acetylating
      Its Cognate Antitoxin, a Modification Reversed by CobB Sirtuin Deacetylase.
AB  - Bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems trigger the onset of a persister state by
      inhibiting essential cellular processes. The TacT toxin of Salmonella enterica is
      known to induce a persister state in macrophages through the acetylation of
      aminoacyl-tRNAs. Here, we show that the TacT toxin and the TacA antitoxin work as
      a complex that modulates TacT activity via the acetylation state of TacA. TacT
      acetylates TacA at residue K44, a modification that is removed by the NAD+
      dependent CobB sirtuin deacetylase. TacA acetylation increases the activity of
      TacT, downregulating protein synthesis. TacA acetylation altered binding to its
      own promoter, although this did not change tacAT expression levels. These claims
      are supported by results from in vitro protein synthesis experiments used to
      monitor TacT activity, in vivo growth analyses, electrophoretic mobility shift
      assays, and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. TacT is
      the first example of a Gcn5-related N-acetyltransferase that modifies nonprotein
      and protein substrates.IMPORTANCE During host infection, pathogenic bacteria can
      modulate their physiology to evade host defenses. Some pathogens use toxin
      antitoxin systems to modulate a state of self-toxicity that can decrease their
      cellular activity, triggering the onset of a persister state. The lower metabolic
      activity of persister cells allows them to escape host defenses and antibiotic
      treatments. Hence a better understanding of the mechanisms used by pathogens to
      ingress and egress the persister state is of relevance to human health.

PMID- 28559488
TI  - Viral DNA Replication Orientation and hnRNPs Regulate Transcription of the Human
      Papillomavirus 18 Late Promoter.
AB  - The life cycle of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is tightly linked to keratinocyte
      differentiation. Although expression of viral early genes is initiated
      immediately upon virus infection of undifferentiated basal cells, viral DNA
      amplification and late gene expression occur only in the mid to upper strata of
      the keratinocytes undergoing terminal differentiation. In this report, we show
      that the relative activity of HPV18 TATA-less late promoter P811 depends on its
      orientation relative to that of the origin (Ori) of viral DNA replication and is
      sensitive to the eukaryotic DNA polymerase inhibitor aphidicolin. Additionally,
      transfected 70-nucleotide (nt)-long single-strand DNA oligonucleotides that are
      homologous to the region near Ori induce late promoter activity. We also found
      that promoter activation in raft cultures leads to production of the late
      promoter-associated, sense-strand transcription initiation RNAs (tiRNAs) and
      splice-site small RNAs (spliRNAs). Finally, a cis-acting AAGTATGCA core element
      that functions as a repressor to the promoter was identified. This element
      interacts with hnRNP D0B and hnRNP A/B factors. Point mutations in the core
      prevented binding of hnRNPs and increased the promoter activity. Confirming this
      result, knocking down the expression of both hnRNPs in keratinocytes led to
      increased promoter activity. Taking the data together, our study revealed the
      mechanism of how the HPV18 late promoter is regulated by DNA replication and host
      factors.IMPORTANCE It has been known for decades that the activity of viral late
      promoters is associated with viral DNA replication among almost all DNA viruses.
      However, the mechanism of how DNA replication activates the viral late promoter
      and what components of the replication machinery are involved remain largely
      unknown. In this study, we characterized the P811 promoter region of HPV18 and
      demonstrated that its activation depends on the orientation of DNA replication.
      Using single-stranded oligonucleotides targeting the replication fork on either
      leading or lagging strands, we showed that viral lagging-strand replication
      activates the promoter. We also identified a transcriptional repressor element
      located upstream of the promoter transcription start site which interacts with
      cellular proteins hnRNP D0B and hnRNP A/B and modulates the late promoter
      activity. This is the first report on how DNA replication activates a viral late
      promoter.

PMID- 28559489
TI  - In Vivo Imaging of Influenza Virus Infection in Immunized Mice.
AB  - Immunization is the cornerstone of seasonal influenza control and represents an
      important component of pandemic preparedness strategies. Using a bioluminescent
      reporter virus, we demonstrate the application of noninvasive in vivo imaging
      system (IVIS) technology to evaluate the preclinical efficacy of candidate
      vaccines and immunotherapy in a mouse model of influenza. Sequential imaging
      revealed distinct spatiotemporal kinetics of bioluminescence in groups of mice
      passively or actively immunized by various strategies that accelerated the
      clearance of the challenge virus at different rates and by distinct mechanisms.
      Imaging findings were consistent with conclusions derived from virus titers in
      the lungs and, notably, were more informative than conventional efficacy
      endpoints in some cases. Our findings demonstrate the reliability of IVIS as a
      qualitative approach to support preclinical evaluation of candidate medical
      countermeasures for influenza in mice.IMPORTANCE Influenza A viruses remain a
      persistent threat to public health. Vaccination and immunotherapy are effective
      countermeasures for the control of influenza but must contend with antigenic
      drift and the risk of resistance to antivirals. Traditional preclinical efficacy
      studies for novel vaccine and pharmaceutical candidates can be time-consuming and
      expensive and are inherently limited in scope. In vivo imaging approaches offer
      the potential to noninvasively track virus replication in real time in animal
      models. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of bioluminescent imaging for
      tracking influenza virus replication in the lungs of immunized mice and also
      identify important factors that may influence the accurate interpretation of
      imaging results. Our findings support the potential of IVIS approaches to enhance
      traditional preclinical efficacy evaluation of candidate vaccines and human
      monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and treatment of influenza.

PMID- 28559492
TI  - Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Reduce Cardiovascular Events, Including the Risk of
      Myocardial Infarction.

PMID- 28559493
TI  - Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Do Not Reduce Risk of Myocardial Infarction,
      Cardiovascular Death, or Total Mortality: Further Evidence for the ARB-MI
      Paradox.

PMID- 28559494
TI  - Common Variants for Cardiovascular Disease: Clinical Utility Confirmed.

PMID- 28559490
TI  - ADAR RNA editing below the backbone.
AB  - ADAR RNA editing enzymes (adenosine deaminases acting on RNA) that convert
      adenosine bases to inosines were first identified biochemically 30 years ago.
      Since then, studies on ADARs in genetic model organisms, and evolutionary
      comparisons between them, continue to reveal a surprising range of pleiotropic
      biological effects of ADARs. This review focuses on Drosophila melanogaster,
      which has a single Adar gene encoding a homolog of vertebrate ADAR2 that site
      specifically edits hundreds of transcripts to change individual codons in ion
      channel subunits and membrane and cytoskeletal proteins. Drosophila ADAR is
      involved in the control of neuronal excitability and neurodegeneration and,
      intriguingly, in the control of neuronal plasticity and sleep. Drosophila ADAR
      also interacts strongly with RNA interference, a key antiviral defense mechanism
      in invertebrates. Recent crystal structures of human ADAR2 deaminase domain-RNA
      complexes help to interpret available information on Drosophila ADAR isoforms and
      on the evolution of ADARs from tRNA deaminase ADAT proteins. ADAR RNA editing is
      a paradigm for the now rapidly expanding range of RNA modifications in mRNAs and
      ncRNAs. Even with recent progress, much remains to be understood about these
      groundbreaking ADAR RNA modification systems.

PMID- 28559491
TI  - Antagonistic actions of two human Pan3 isoforms on global mRNA turnover.
AB  - Deadenylation is a fundamental process that regulates eukaryotic gene expression.
      Mammalian deadenylation exhibits biphasic kinetics, with the Pan2-Pan3 and Ccr4
      Caf1 deadenylase complexes mediating the first and second phase, respectively;
      however, the significance of the biphasic nature of deadenylation in mRNA
      turnover remains unclear. In this study, we discovered that two distinct isoforms
      of human Pan3 display opposing properties necessary for coordinating the two
      phases of deadenylation. The shorter isoform (Pan3S) interacts more strongly with
      PABP than the longer isoform (Pan3L) does. Pan2 deadenylase activity is enhanced
      by Pan3S but suppressed by Pan3L. Knocking down individual Pan3 isoforms has
      opposing effects on the global poly(A) tail length profile, P-body formation, and
      different mRNA decay pathways. Transcriptome-wide analysis of Pan3 knockdown
      effects on mRNA turnover shows that depleting either Pan3 isoform causes profound
      and extensive changes in mRNA stability globally. These results reveal a new
      fundamental step governing mammalian mRNA metabolism. We propose that the first
      phase of deadenylation, coordinated through the interplay among the two Pan3
      isoforms, Pan2, and PABP, represents a cytoplasmic mRNA maturation step important
      for proper mRNA turnover.

PMID- 28559495
TI  - Temporal Trends in Adverse Events After Everolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular
      Scaffold Versus Everolimus-Eluting Metallic Stent Implantation: A Meta-Analysis
      of Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bioresorbable coronary stents have been introduced into clinical
      practice to improve the outcomes of patients treated with percutaneous coronary
      intervention. The everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) is the
      most studied of these stent platforms; however, recent trials comparing BVS with
      everolimus-eluting metallic stents (EES) raised concerns about BVS safety. We
      aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of BVS versus EES in patients undergoing
      percutaneous coronary intervention. METHODS: We searched Medline, Embase, the
      Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, scientific sessions abstracts,
      and relevant Web sites for randomized trials with a follow-up of >=2 years
      investigating percutaneous coronary interventions with BVS versus EES. The
      primary outcomes of our analysis were definite/probable stent thrombosis (ST) and
      target lesion failure (TLF; device-oriented composite end point of cardiac death,
      target vessel myocardial infarction, or ischemia-driven target lesion
      revascularization [TLR]). Secondary outcomes were target vessel myocardial
      infarction, TLR, and cardiac death. We calculated the risk estimates for main
      outcomes according to a fixed-effect model. RESULTS: We included 7 trials
      comprising data for 5583 patients randomized to receive either a BVS (n=3261) or
      an EES (n=2322). Median follow-up was 24 months (range, 24-36 months). Patients
      treated with BVS had a higher risk of definite/probable ST compared with patients
      treated with EES (odds ratio, 3.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.97-5.62;
      P<0.00001). In particular, patients with BVS had a higher risk of subacute, late,
      and very late ST, whereas the risk of acute ST was similar. Patients treated with
      BVS compared with EES had a higher risk at 2 years of TLF (odds ratio, 1.47; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.14-1.90; P=0.003), driven mainly by an increased risk of
      target vessel myocardial infarction (odds ratio, 1.73; 95% confidence interval,
      1.31-2.28; P=0.0001; I2=0%) and of TLR (odds ratio, 1.27; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.00-1.62; P=0.05). Of importance, the risk of TLF and TLR for patients
      with BVS was higher between 1 and 2 years, whereas there was no difference in the
      first year. Risk of cardiac death was similar between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our meta-analysis of randomized trials with a follow-up of >=2 years demonstrated
      a higher risk of ST and of TLF in patients treated with BVS compared with EES. Of
      note, BVS had a higher risk of subacute, late, and very late ST, whereas the risk
      of TLF and TLR was higher between 1 and 2 years.

PMID- 28559497
TI  - Highlights From the Circulation Family of Journals.

PMID- 28559498
TI  - 3D Printers Provide a Window into the Heart.

PMID- 28559499
TI  - The Revised Framingham Stroke Risk Profile in a Primary Prevention Population:
      The Rotterdam Study.

PMID- 28559500
TI  - Letter by Saritas Regarding Article, "Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous
      Connection: The Current Management Strategies in a Pediatric Cohort of 768
      Patients".

PMID- 28559496
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cardiovascular Function and the Brain: Is Dementia
      a Cardiovascular-Driven Disease?
AB  - The proximal aorta acts as a coupling device between heart and brain perfusion,
      modulating the amount of pressure and flow pulsatility transmitted into the
      cerebral microcirculation. Stiffening of the proximal aorta is strongly
      associated with age and hypertension. The detrimental effects of aortic
      stiffening may result in brain damage as well as heart failure. The resulting
      cerebral small vessel disease and heart failure may contribute to early cognitive
      decline and (vascular) dementia. This pathophysiological sequence of events
      underscores the role of cardiovascular disease as a contributory mechanism in
      causing cognitive decline and dementia and potentially may provide a starting
      point for prevention and treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging is well suited to
      assess the function of the proximal aorta and the left ventricle (eg, aortic arch
      pulse wave velocity and distensibility) as well as the various early and late
      manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease (eg, microbleeds and white matter
      hyperintensities in strategically important regions of the brain). Specialized
      magnetic resonance imaging techniques are explored for diagnosing preclinical
      changes in white matter integrity or brain microvascular pulsatility.

PMID- 28559501
TI  - Letter by Ghimire Regarding Article, "Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous
      Connection: The Current Management Strategies in a Pediatric Cohort of 768
      Patients".

PMID- 28559502
TI  - Response by Chen to Letters Regarding Article, "Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous
      Connection: The Current Management Strategies in a Pediatric Cohort of 768
      Patients".

PMID- 28559503
TI  - Letter by Karamasis et al Regarding Article, "Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Segment
      Elevation Myocardial Infarction: An Individual Patient Meta-Analysis:
      Thrombectomy Trialists Collaboration".

PMID- 28559504
TI  - Letter by Jurado-Roman et al Regarding Article, "Thrombus Aspiration in ST
      Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: An Individual Patient Meta-Analysis:
      Thrombectomy Trialists Collaboration".

PMID- 28559505
TI  - Letter by Shah Regarding Article, "Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Segment-Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction: An Individual Patient Meta-Analysis: Thrombectomy
      Trialists Collaboration".

PMID- 28559506
TI  - Response by Jolly et al to Letters Regarding Article, "Thrombus Aspiration in ST
      Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: An Individual Patient Meta-Analysis:
      Thrombectomy Trialists Collaboration".

PMID- 28559507
TI  - In defense of our patients.

PMID- 28559508
TI  - Contextualizing the first-round failure of the AHCA: down but not out.
AB  - On 8 November 2016 the American electorate voted Donald Trump into the Presidency
      and a majority of Republicans into both houses of Congress. Since many
      Republicans ran for elected office on the promise to 'repeal and replace'
      Obamacare, this election result came with an expectation that campaign rhetoric
      would result in legislative action on healthcare. The American Health Care Act
      (AHCA) represented the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable
      Care Act (ACA). Key elements of the AHCA included modifications of Medicaid
      expansion, repeal of the individual mandate, replacement of ACA subsidies with
      tax credits, and a broadening of the opportunity to use healthcare savings
      accounts. Details of the bill and the political issues which ultimately impeded
      its passage are discussed here.

PMID- 28559509
TI  - Aneurysmal wall imaging in a case of cortical superficial siderosis and multiple
      unruptured aneurysms.
AB  - We report a case of interhemispheric and bifrontal cortical superficial siderosis
      in association with two intracranial aneurysms. The patient had no clinical
      history suggestive of aneurysm rupture, no feature of amyloid angiopathy or other
      apparent etiology for cortical siderosis. We performed high resolution brain MRI
      with dark blood T1 sequences before and after IV contrast injection. An anterior
      communicating aneurysm showed partial wall enhancement on the posterior wall
      whereas a left posterior communicating aneurysm did not. In the light of recent
      reports of the association of wall enhancement with unstable aneurysms, we
      considered wall enhancement to be a marker of inflammation and remodeling of the
      aneurysm wall, resulting in chronic hemorrhagic suffusion in the subarachnoid
      spaces. To our knowledge, this is the first report offering proof for a possible
      link between apparently unruptured aneurysms and cortical siderosis.

PMID- 28559510
TI  - Rapid detection of in vitro antituberculous drug resistance among smear-positive
      respiratory samples using microcolony detection-based direct drug susceptibility
      testing method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the rise in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, there is a search
      for newer techniques that will rapidly detect drug-resistant Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis. Although molecular techniques can detect resistance, culture is
      still considered gold standard, especially in resource-limited settings where
      quick, cheap, and easy techniques are needed. The aim of the study was to
      evaluate microcolony method thin layer agar (TLA) for quick detection of
      resistance against the first- and second-line antituberculous drugs in clinical
      isolates. This was a cross-sectional study performed at Aga Khan University
      Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 87 Z-N stain smear-positive pulmonary
      samples were received and indirect drug susceptibility test (ID-DST) was
      performed using Lowenstein-Jensen and mycobacteria growth indicator tube. Direct
      DST was performed using TLA on 7H10 agar. TLA was observed twice weekly under
      microscope for 4 weeks. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were calculated
      for TLA using indirect susceptibility method as the gold standard. Level of
      agreement was calculated using Kappa score. RESULTS: TLA showed sensitivity of
      89% and 95.2% for isoniazid and rifampicin, while for ethionamide, ofloxacin, and
      injectable aminoglycosides, it was 96.6%, 92.1%, and 100%, respectively.
      Specificity for the first-line drugs was >95% while second-line drugs ranged from
      70% to 100%. Mean time to positivity was 10.2 days by TLA as compared to 43.1
      days by ID-DST. CONCLUSIONS: TLA is a quick and reliable method in identifying
      resistance, especially in resource-limited settings. However, additional liquid
      culture can be set up as backup, especially in patients on therapy to avoid false
      negative results.

PMID- 28559511
TI  - Diagnostic performance of genoType(r) MTBDRplus line probe assay in
      bronchoalveolar lavage for pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis in sputum scarce and
      smear-negative patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MTBDRplus line probe assay (LiPA) has been endorsed by the World
      Health Organization for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. However, its value
      for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) detection in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)
      needs exploration. This study determined the diagnostic performance of MTBDRplus
      in BAL for MTB complex detection and isoniazid/rifampicin resistance in smear
      negative and sputum scarce patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective
      evaluation of data (January-December 2013) from patients who underwent
      bronchoscopy was done. Of these, patients with high TB suspicion with available
      data on acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear/culture and MTBDRplus were selected.
      Results of MTBDRplus were compared with AFB smear/culture and drug
      susceptibility. Sensitivity and specificity of MTBDRplus was determined using TB
      culture as gold standard. RESULTS: Data on 383 patients who underwent
      bronchoscopy were collected. Of these, 154 previously untreated TB suspect
      patients that were either smear negative on sputum microscopy or sputum scarce
      were selected. Out of 154 patients, 11 were smear positive and 34 patients were
      AFB culture positive. MTBDRplus detected MTB in 23/34 cases, the sensitivity and
      specificity being 67.6% and 85% (P < 0.001) versus 32.4% and 100% (P < 0.001)
      compared to smear microscopy. All smear-positive cases (n = 11) were detected by
      MTBDRplus. There were no discrepancies between phenotypic drug susceptibility
      testing and LiPA for isoniazid and rifampicin resistance in patients. Two cases
      of multidrug-resistant TB were detected. CONCLUSION: MTBDRplus detected TB more
      rapidly and accurately than smear microscopy with significant accuracy for
      isoniazid and rifampicin resistance. Its use in clinical practice would lead to
      rapid detection and effective management.

PMID- 28559512
TI  - Atlantoaxial tuberculosis: Outcome analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculous (TB) spondylitis occurs in <1% of patients with TB.
      Atlantoaxial involvement is extremely rare amounting to 0.3%-1% cases of TB
      spondylitis. The management of this entity has been fluctuating with time.
      Various classifications and management protocols have also evolved. We present
      our experience in managing this entity in 8 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective follow-up study of eight patients with atlantoaxial TB over 2
      years. They ranged in age from 14 to 33 years with male preponderance. Four
      required surgical intervention on initial presentation, 2 were successfully
      treated conservatively, and 2 had to undergo surgery after a trial of
      conservative management. All of them were started on antituberculous therapy
      (ATT) for 18 months. Patients were followed up for 8-29 months. RESULTS: Neck
      pain and restriction of neck movements were standard presenting features. All
      patients had pulmonary TB confirmed by sputum examination. Radiological
      investigations formed an integral part of the evaluation of disease, treatment
      plan, and prognosis. Improvement in symptoms has been documented in all eight.
      CONCLUSION: The involvement of the most mobile spinal segment and the potential
      cervicomedullary compression makes it a disease of utmost importance. Although
      ATT remains the mainstay of treatment, surgical intervention is needed for
      stabilizing the joint and decompressing the cervicomedullary junction. Strict
      adherence to medical advice and optimum surgical intervention tailored for each
      patient results in the successful management of the disease.

PMID- 28559513
TI  - Extrapulmonary tuberculosis in colombian children: Epidemiological and clinical
      data in a reference hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pediatric population is at increased risk of disseminated and
      extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). There is little information on children
      affected by this entity. The demographic, clinical, and outcome characteristics
      of the treatment of children with extrapulmonary TB, treated at a national
      reference institution between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2016, are
      described and analyzed in this work. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a
      retrospective observational study. Cases of extrapulmonary TB were identified,
      and variables were collected based on each criterion used for diagnosis and
      treatment outcomes. A descriptive analysis of the variables collected was
      performed. RESULTS: Ninety-three cases were identified, of which 32 (34.4%) met
      the criteria for extrapulmonary TB. The mean age was 10.2 years (range 0.8-17
      years), and the most frequent site of extrapulmonary TB was lymph node 40.6%,
      meningeal 21.9%, and ocular 18.8%. Bacteriological confirmation was obtained in 8
      cases (25%) while the remaining 24 cases (75%) were classified as cases of
      clinically diagnosed TB. Two patients (6.2%) died during treatment although their
      decease was not attributable to TB. CONCLUSION: The clinical criterion was
      fundamental to establish the diagnosis. The microbiological isolation rate was
      low. Molecular biology tools increase bacteriological performance although their
      extended use is limited by cost. Regional multicenter studies are required to
      identify the target population and the tools necessary for timely management and
      treatment.

PMID- 28559514
TI  - Molecular typing of Mycobacterium Abscessus isolated from cystic fibrosis
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The possibility of inter-human transmission of Mycobacterium
      abscessus in cystic fibrosis centres has been recently hypothesized suggesting
      the need for the molecular characterization of strains isolated from such
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and forty one isolates of M.
      abscessus grown from sputum samples of 29 patients with cystic fibrosis were
      genotyped resorting to variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) determination and
      whole genome sequencing (WGS). RESULTS: Out of 29 VNTR profiles, 15 were unique
      to the same number of patients while seven were shared by multiple patients. WGS
      showed that only two of the patients sharing common VNTR patterns were indeed
      infected by the same strain. The shared VNTR patterns were mostly present among
      the isolates of M. abscessus subsp. abscessus. CONCLUSION: As expected WGS showed
      a clearly higher discriminatory power in comparison with VNTR and appeared the
      only molecular epidemiology tool suitable to effectively discriminate the
      isolates of M. abscessus subsp. abscessus.

PMID- 28559516
TI  - Cholecalciferol for prophylaxis against antituberculosis therapy-induced liver
      disorders among naive patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: A randomized,
      comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients in countries endemic for chronic viral hepatitis are more
      vulnerable to antituberculosis therapy-induced liver disorders (ATT-LDs). The aim
      of this study was to explore the role of cholecalciferol in prophylaxis against
      ATT-LD among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) receiving ATT. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: We conducted a hospital-based, prospective, randomized, comparative
      study which included 300 consecutive, naive patients with pulmonary TB eligible
      for ATT. The patients were randomly allocated to Group A (150 patients who
      received ATT) and Group B (150 patients who received ATT with cholecalciferol)
      who had clinical evaluation, laboratory investigations, and imaging studies.
      Statistical analysis used student's t-test and Chi-square test were used as
      appropriate to compare the variables between the study groups. RESULTS: The study
      population mean age was 35.6 +/- 15.3 years. The overall incidence rate of ATT-LD
      among the study population was 9.3%; the incidence rate was significantly higher
      among Group A patients compared to those of Group B (13.3 vs. 5.3%;P = 0.001).
      The onset of ATT-LD was significantly earlier among patients of Group A compared
      to those of Group B (31.4 vs. 58.7 days,P = 0.027), while the duration of ATT-LD
      was significantly longer among patients of Group A compared to those of Group B
      (34.8 vs. 16.9 days,P = 0.009). No adverse effects related to cholecalciferol use
      were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant cholecalciferol supplementation may be
      protective against ATT-LD without extra adverse effects. Before recommending the
      routine use of cholecalciferol supplementation for prevention of ATT-LD, larger
      scale studies are recommended.

PMID- 28559515
TI  - In silico structure-based drug screening of novel antimycobacterial
      pharmacophores by DOCK-GOLD tandem screening.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enzymes responsible for cell wall development in Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis are considered as potential targets of anti-tuberculosis (TB)
      agents. Mycobacterial cyclopropane mycolic acid synthase 1 (CmaA1) is essential
      for mycobacterial survival because of its critical role in synthesizing mycolic
      acids. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We screened compounds that were capable of
      interacting with the mycobacterial CmaA1 active site using a virtual compound
      library with an in silico structure-based drug screening (SBDS). Following the
      selection of such compounds, their antimycobacterial activity was examined.
      RESULTS: With the in silico SBDS, for which we also used DOCK-GOLD programs and
      screening methods that utilized the structural similarity between the selected
      active compounds, we identified two compounds with potent inhibitory effects on
      mycobacterial growth. The antimycobacterial effect of the compounds was
      comparable to that of isoniazid, which is used as a first-line anti-TB drug.
      CONCLUSION: The compounds identified through SBDS were expected to be a novel
      class of anti-TB pharmacophores.

PMID- 28559517
TI  - Characterization of pyrazinamide resistance in consecutive multidrug-resistant
      mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in sweden between 2003 and 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The first line anti-tuberculosis drug pyrazinamide (PZA) is important
      when treating PZA susceptible multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Several
      drug resistance surveys have however reported PZA resistance among a significant
      proportion of multidrug-resistant (MDR) cases and this undoubtedly highlights the
      need for accurate and reliable detection of PZA resistance. Unfortunately, the
      testing of PZA susceptibility is associated with technical difficulties and even
      though the introduction of pncA sequencing has helped to address this issue,
      misclassification may still occur. In this study, we determined the prevalence
      and characteristics of PZA resistance in Swedish MDR-TB strains. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: 153 MDR-TB strains isolated in Sweden between 2003 and 2015 were
      analyzed for PZA resistance by considering both phenotypic and genotypic data.
      RESULTS: The phenotypic test showed that 58% of the multidrug-resistant isolates
      were PZA resistant and the correlation between phenotype and genotype was solid,
      although a small number of isolates deviate from the expected phenotypic
      genotypic pattern. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the prevalence of
      pyrazinamide resistance among Swedish MDR cases is increasing.

PMID- 28559518
TI  - Epidemiology of extrapulmonary and disseminated tuberculosis in a tertiary care
      center in Oman.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of extrapulmonary and disseminated tuberculosis (TB)
      cases is increasing worldwide, and this growth significantly impacts TB-related
      morbidity and mortality. Little is known about the host risk factors for
      extrapulmonary and disseminated TB. In this study, we examined those risk
      factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of all TB
      cases admitted to Sultan Qaboos University Hospital from 2006 to 2015. We
      compared extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) cases with pulmonary and disseminated TB cases.
      We evaluated the risk factors associated with the development of extrapulmonary
      and disseminated TB using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: We reviewed 260
      TB cases, of which EPTB comprised 37%, PTB comprised 53%, and disseminated TB
      comprised 10%. The most common sites of infection in the EPTB group were the
      lymph nodes and the abdomen. Disseminated TB and TB meningitis were more common
      in expatriates than in Omanis. Patients with EPTB were less likely to smoke
      compared to a patient with PTB. Patients with disseminated TB had a higher
      mortality when compared to patients with EPTB (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.004;
      95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.001-0.054;P = 0.001) and PTB (adjusted OR,
      0.022; 95% CI: 0.004-0.115;P = 0.001). Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was the
      main risk factor for patients with disseminated TB when compared to patients with
      extrapulmonary and PTB. CONCLUSION: The rates of extrapulmonary and disseminated
      TB in Oman are higher than what has been recognized. Expatriates, patients with
      HIV, and smokers are at high risk for disseminated TB. In these patients,
      suspected extrapulmonary sites should be evaluated and sampled to exclude
      disseminated TB.

PMID- 28559519
TI  - Phenotypic low-level isoniazid resistance as a marker to predict ethionamide
      resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is one of the most prevalent diseases in Pakistan.
      Pakistan has the highest burden of MDR-TB in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
      Ethionamide is an anti-tuberculous drug frequently used to treat MDR-TB. Its drug
      susceptibility testing is not easily available in resource limited settings.
      Since it acts on the same target protein as isoniazid (inhA protein encoded by
      inhA gene), we sought to find out if phenotypic isoniazid resistance can be a
      marker of ethionamide resistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective
      observational study conducted at the Aga Khan University hospital section of
      microbiology. Data was retrieved between 2011 to 2014 for all culture positive
      MTB strains. All culture positive MTB isolates with susceptibilities to isoniazid
      and ethionamide recorded were included in the study. Isoniazid and ethionamide
      susceptibilities were performed using agar proportion method on Middlebrook 7H10
      agar. Rate of Ethionamide resistance between low-level isoniazid resistant, high
      level isoniazid resistant and isoniazid sensitive MTB was compared. RESULTS: A
      total of 11,274 isolates were included in the study. A statistically significant
      association (P < 0.001) was found between Ethionamide resistance and low-level
      isoniazid resistance (26.6%) as compared to high-level isoniazid resistance
      (8.85%) and isoniazid sensitivity (0.71%) in MTB strains. However this
      association was not seen in XDR-TB strains. CONCLUSION: Low level isoniazid
      resistance may be used as marker for phenotypic ethionamide resistance and hence
      guide clinicians' choice of antituberculous agent for MDR-TB in Pakistan. Further
      studies involving detection of genotypic association of isoniazid and ethionamide
      susceptibilities are needed before a final conclusion can be derived.

PMID- 28559520
TI  - Modified rifampin nanoparticles: Increased solubility with slow release Rate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent advances in nanotechnology-based drug delivery system have
      been shown to improve either antibacterial efficacy or pharmacokinetics
      behavior.The aim of this study was to design a rifampin nanoparticle (RIF-NP)
      which has a high loading capacity with the slow release profile. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The designed chitosan/gelatin/lecithin (Chg/L) RIF-NPs were prepared by
      multilamellar vesicle. Thereafter, the particle size, zeta potential, morphology,
      and release rate were investigated. To optimize the loading capacity and release
      profiles, different concentrations of lecithin were used. RESULTS: Our results
      showed a correlation of lecithin concentration with size, zeta potential, and
      loading capacity of RIF-NPs. Increases in lecithin concentration (0.2-2.0 g)
      could cause a significant size reduction in NPs (250-150 nm); the amount of zeta
      potential (from 14 to 49 mV;P < 0.05) and loading capacity increases from 8% to
      20% (P < 0.05). Designed NPs had slow drug release profile which was influenced
      by pH and lecithin concentration. The cumulative percentage of RIF released at pH
      7.4 was approximately 93% up to 12 h. In overall, release profile was better than
      standard drug, even in various pH conditions (pH = 1, 3.4, and 7.4). The Chg/L
      RIF NPs may be considered as a promising drug nanocarrier. CONCLUSIONS: These NPs
      release RIF in slow and constant rate, which effectively might eliminate the
      bacilli and prevent the formation of RIF-resistant bacilli.

PMID- 28559521
TI  - Contribution of putative efflux pump genes to isoniazid resistance in clinical
      isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isoniazid (INH) resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been
      mainly attributed to mutations in katG (64%) and inhA (19%). However, 20%-30%
      resistance to INH cannot be explained by mutations alone. Hence, other mechanisms
      besides mutations may play a significant role in providing drug resistance. Here,
      we explored the role of 24 putative efflux pump genes conferring INH-resistance
      in M. tuberculosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Real-time expression profiling of the
      efflux pump genes was performed in five INH-susceptible and six high-level INH
      resistant clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis exposed to the drug. Isolates were
      also analyzed for mutations in katG and inhA. RESULTS: Four high-level INH
      resistant isolates (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] >=2.5 mg/L) with
      mutations at codon 315 (AGC-ACC) of katG showed upregulation of one of the efflux
      genes Rv1634, Rv0849, efpA, or p55. Another high-level INH-resistant isolate (MIC
      1.5 mg/L), with no mutations at katG or inhA overexpressed 8/24 efflux genes,
      namely, Rv1273c, Rv0194, Rv1634, Rv1250, Rv3823c, Rv0507, jefA, and p55. Five of
      these, namely, Rv0194, Rv1634, Rv1250, Rv0507, and p55 were induced only in
      resistant isolates. CONCLUSION: The high number of efflux genes overexpressed in
      an INH-resistant isolate with no known INH resistance associated mutations,
      suggests a role for efflux pumps in resistance to this antituberculous agent,
      with the role of Rv0194 and Rv0507 in INH resistance being reported for the first
      time.

PMID- 28559522
TI  - pulmonary tuberculosis: A neglected risk factor for deep venous thrombosis.
AB  - A case of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limb in the absence of known
      common risk factors and its link with underlying pulmonary tuberculosis is
      described in a young female patient. Possible underlying mechanisms and awareness
      regarding tuberculosis as a risk factor for DVT is also emphasized.

PMID- 28559523
TI  - The first report of two cases of fatal liver injury due to anti-tuberculosis
      drugs in the presence of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
AB  - Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem. Awareness of liver injury due
      to anti-TB therapy is vital because fulminant hepatic failure is a devastating
      and often fatal condition without liver transplantation. Here, we report for the
      first time, two patients of fatal liver injury due to anti-TB drugs in the
      presence of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Based on the triad of rapid loss in
      hepatocyte function, the onset of hepatic encephalopathy, and absence of a prior
      history of liver disease, the diagnosis of acute liver failure was established.
      Both patients had low levels of serum alpha-1 antitrypsin, consistent with alpha
      1 antitrypsin deficiency. Despite aggressive medical therapy and supportive care,
      patients developed multi-organ failure and died. It seems measuring the serum
      levels of alpha 1-antitrypsin before beginning anti-TB therapies is necessary,
      especially when there is emphysema or bronchiectasis.

PMID- 28559524
TI  - Isolated lytic bone lesion in tuberculosis.
AB  - Causes of lytic bone lesions include benign, malignant, and infectious processes.
      Lytic lesions due to tuberculosis (TB) may closely mimic those due to tumors such
      as bone cyst, osteoblastoma, osteosarcoma, and metastatic bone disease
      radiologically. Histopathology and culture help in definitive diagnosis and
      prompt management. We describe an immunocompetent patient with isolated lytic
      bone lesion in the distal part of ulna due to TB to make the readers aware of
      such unusual presentations of TB.

PMID- 28559525
TI  - Reactivation pulmonary tuberculosis in two patients treated with pirfenidone.
AB  - We report two cases of patients with biopsy-proven idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
      (IPF) who were treated with new antifibrotic agent for pirfenidone for more than
      12 months. Both cases developed cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) proven by
      positive sputum TB culture. Both cases were treated with standard anti-TB drugs
      for 9 months and had complete clinical and radiological resolution. To our
      knowledge, these are the first reported human cases of patients with IPF who have
      been on pirfenidone and developed cavitary pulmonary TB.

PMID- 28559526
TI  - Tenosynovitis: An unusual presentation of leprosy.
AB  - Tenosynovitis is an uncommon presentation of Type 1 reaction in leprosy. Herein,
      we report a case of bilateral tenosynovitis of wrist joints who after being
      unsuccessfully treated by a rheumatologist for several months, was finally
      diagnosed as a case of Hansen's disease (borderline lepromatous) with Type 1
      reaction.

PMID- 28559527
TI  - Death caused by possible unrecognized (too Late Recognized) Mycobacterium
      gordonae infection in a patient with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
AB  - Here, we present possible death caused by Mycobacterium gordonae infection in a
      patient with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. Our patient was severely
      immunocompromised in whom we suspect to an infection, but we did not have
      isolates until she died. After she died, we received a positive sputum culture of
      M. gordonae. We conclude that when having severely immunocompromised patients
      with suspicion of infection but without isolates we should always consider the
      saprophytic mycobacteria. These mycobacteria require a long period of isolation,
      but patients with these mycobacteria are potentially curable if appropriate
      treatment is applied for a sufficiently long period.

PMID- 28559528
TI  - Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex in an immunocompetent host.
AB  - Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (DMAC) has historically been described
      in the immunocompromised. The current epidemiologic research suggests that the
      incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections is increasing. We present a
      case of DMAC infection manifesting as hepatic granulomas in a 35-year-old
      immunocompetent female. This case suggests DMAC infection in a patient without
      traditional epidemiological risk factors.

PMID- 28559529
TI  - Tubercular infection of hydatid cyst.
AB  - Tubercular infection of hydatid cyst of the chest wall in an immunocompetent
      individual is rare. Immune modulation for symbiosis between host cells and the
      parasite - Echinococcus granulosus favors tubercular infection. In this case
      report, we describe a case of both these chronic diseases coexisting together, to
      present as chest wall mass.

PMID- 28559530
TI  - Performance of light-emitting diode-based fluorescence microscopy to diagnose
      tuberculosis in a rural hospital of ethiopia.

PMID- 28559531
TI  - Association between left atrial function assessed by speckle-tracking
      echocardiography and the presence of left atrial appendage thrombus in patients
      with atrial fibrillation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate whether the deformation of
      left atrium (LA) measured by speckle-tracking analysis (STE) is associated with
      the presence of LA appendage thrombus (LAAT) during non-valvular atrial
      fibrillation (AF). METHODS: Eighty-seven patients (mean age 67 years, 59% men)
      were included to retrospective cross-sectional study. On top of standard
      echocardiography we assessed: LA longitudinal systolic strain (LS), systolic
      (LSSR) and early diastolic strain rate (LESR) in four-chamber and twochamber
      apical views. All patients underwent transesophageal echocardiography disclosing
      LAAT in 36 (41%) patients. RESULTS: Subgroups with and without thrombi did not
      differ with regard to clinical characteristics. Univariate factors associated
      with LAAT were as follows: CH2ADS2-VASc Score, left ventricular ejection fraction
      (LVEF), LV mass, and STE measurements. In a multivariate model only LVEF
      (p=0.002), LS (p=0.02), LESR (p=0.008), and LSSR (p=0.045) were independently
      associated with LAAT presence. Moreover, LVEF and LA STE measurements provided
      incremental value over the CH2ADS2-VASc Score. CONCLUSION: Speckle-tracking TTE
      may be used to describe LA reservoir and conduit function during AF, allowing the
      identification of patients with higher risk of LAAT and providing incremental
      value over the CH2ADS2-VASc Score.

PMID- 28559532
TI  - "Desert" gene (Chr9p21) variants as novel markers for coronary artery disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Previous reports have denoted to the possible link of Chr9p21 locus to
      the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD). The entire core of chr9p21 is
      covered by "ANRIL" (Antisense noncoding RNA in INK4 Locus) and lies in a region
      that is free from any coding proteins; therefore, it is called the desert gene.
      The major objectives of this study were to examine the association of rs10757278
      and rs2383206 SNPs on Chr9p21 with the incidence of CAD in the presence and
      absence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Egyptians and to correlate these genetic
      variants with several disease biomarkers (TC, CRP, and HbA1c). METHODS: The study
      subjects consisted of 150 subjects; 50 healthy controls and 100 patients that
      were divided into two groups; CAD patients and CAD T2D patients. The genotyping
      of SNPs was performed using qPCR. RESULTS: Genotype distribution for both SNPs
      were found to be significantly different (p=0.0009 for rs10757278 and p=0.001 for
      rs2383206) between patients and controls. The allele frequency was also different
      for rs10757278. CONCLUSION: The current study showed that rs10757278/rs2383206-G
      allele increases the risk for CAD in Egyptians. Moreover, AA variant appeared as
      a protective genotype. However, SNPs did not noticeably contribute in the
      elevation of TC, hs-CRP, and HbA1c in non-diabetic and diabetic CAD patients.

PMID- 28559533
TI  - Assessment of the association between the presence of fragmented QRS and the
      predicted risk score of sudden cardiac death at 5 years in patients with
      hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: It has been shown that the presence of fragmented QRS (fQRS) is
      associated with poor prognosis in many cardiovascular diseases and in patients
      with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). However, no study has shown an
      association with the absolute risk score of sudden cardiac death. The aim of this
      study was to determine the relationship between QRS and the predicted risk score
      of sudden cardiac death at 5 years (HCM Risk-SCD) in HCM patients. METHODS: In
      total, 115 consecutive HCM patients were included in this prospective
      observational study. The patients were divided into two groups according to the
      presence [fQRS(+) group (n=65)] or absence [fQRS(-) group (n=50)] of fQRS on a 12
      lead electrocardiogram (ECG). RESULTS: The HCM Risk-SCD (%) HCM Risk-SCD (>6%)
      values and some echocardiographic parameters, including ventricular extrasystole,
      ventricular tachycardia, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, implantable cardioverter
      defibrillator implantation, appropriate shock, and heart failure at the time of
      admission, were significantly higher in the fQRS(+) group than in the fQRS(-)
      group (all p<0.05). Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed fQRS and
      New York Heart Association (NYHA) class as independent predictors of HCM Risk
      SCD. In a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, an HCM Risk-SCD
      value of >4 was identified as an effective cut-off point in fQRS for HCM. An HCM
      Risk-SCD value of >4 yielded a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 76%.
      CONCLUSION: fQRS is determined to be an independent high-risk indicator of HCM
      Risk-SCD. It seems to be associated with increased ventricular arrhythmias and
      some echocardiographic parameters.

PMID- 28559534
TI  - Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF) Accelerates Wound Healing in
      Hemorrhagic Shock Rats by Enhancing Angiogenesis and Attenuating Apoptosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND Following severe trauma, treatment of cutaneous injuries is often
      delayed by inadequate blood supply. The aim of the present study was to determine
      whether granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) protects endothelial cells
      (ECs) and enhances angiogenesis in a rat model of hemorrhagic shock (HS) combined
      with cutaneous injury after resuscitation. MATERIAL AND METHODS The HS rats with
      full-thickness defects were resuscitated and randomly divided into a G-CSF group
      (200 MUg/kg body weight), a normal saline group, and a blank control group.
      Histological staining was to used estimate the recovery and apoptosis of skin.
      Apoptosis- and angiogenesis-related factors were analyzed by reverse
      transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot (WB). Scratch
      assay, tube formation, and WB experiments were performed to verify the functional
      effects of G-CSF on HUVECs in vitro. RESULTS H&E staining and Masson trichrome
      staining showed earlier inflammation resolution and collagen synthesis in the G
      CSF-treated group. Angiogenesis-related factors were elevated at mRNA and protein
      levels. TUNEL staining suggested fewer apoptotic cells in the G-CSF group. The
      apoptotic-related factors were down-regulated and anti-apoptotic factors were up
      regulated in the G-CSF-treated group. Scratch assay and tube formation
      experiments revealed that G-CSF facilitated migration ability and angiogenic
      potential of HUVECs. The angiogenic and anti-apoptotic effects were also enhanced
      in vitro. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that G-CSF after resuscitation
      attenuates local apoptosis and accelerates angiogenesis. These findings hold
      great promise for improving therapy for cutaneous injury in severe trauma and
      ischemia diseases.

PMID- 28559535
TI  - Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL): A Case Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND Anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCL) are a rare type of primary
      breast lymphoma. The association between breast implants and ALCL was first
      described in 1997 and since then 34-173 cases have been presented. The annual
      incidence of breast implant-associated ALCL (BI-ALCL) is 0.1-0.3 per 100 000
      women who undergo breast reconstruction, and cases are often underreported due to
      the rarity of these tumors. BI-ALCL arises from the inflammatory T cells
      surrounding the fibrous capsule, and most tumors are in situ. CASE REPORT Here,
      we present the case of a 51-year-old woman with ALCL following bilateral silicone
      breast implants. The patient presented with breast enlargement and tenderness 9
      years following reconstructive surgery. Imagining studies showed fluid collection
      surrounding the affected breast implant. Staging studies and histocytopathology
      examination confirmed the presence BI-ALCL without capsular invasion or
      metastasis. Complete surgical excision was performed. The patient continues to be
      in complete remission. CONCLUSIONS Due to the rarity of these tumors,
      establishing the diagnosis of BI-ALCL can be challenging and requires a
      multidisciplinary approach. Clinicians should be aware of the relationship
      between breast implants and BI-ALCL.

PMID- 28559536
TI  - Office paper decorated with silver nanostars - an alternative cost effective
      platform for trace analyte detection by SERS.
AB  - For analytical applications in portable sensors to be used in the point-of-need,
      low-cost SERS substrates using paper as a base, are an alternative. In this work,
      SERS substrates were produced on two different types of paper: a high porosity
      paper (Whatman no. 1); and a low porosity paper (commercially available office
      paper, Portucel Soporcel). Solutions containing spherical silver nanoparticles
      (AgNPs) and silver nanostars (AgNSs) were separately drop-casted on hydrophilic
      wells patterned on the papers. The porosity of the paper was found to play a
      determinant role on the AgNP and AgNS distribution along the paper fibres, with
      most of the nanoparticles being retained at the illuminated surface of the office
      paper substrate. The highest SERS enhancements were obtained for the office paper
      substrate, with deposited AgNSs. A limit of detection for rhodamine-6G as low as
      11.4 +/- 0.2 pg could be achieved, with an analytical enhancement factor of ~107
      for this specific analyte. The well patterning technique allowed good signal
      uniformity (RSD of 1.7%). Besides, these SERS substrates remained stable after 5
      weeks of storage (RSD of 7.3%). Paper-induced aggregation of AgNPs was found to
      be a viable alternative to the classical salt-induced aggregation, to obtain a
      highly sensitive SERS substrates.

PMID- 28559538
TI  - When agreement-accepting free-riders are a necessary evil for the evolution of
      cooperation.
AB  - Agreements and commitments have provided a novel mechanism to promote cooperation
      in social dilemmas in both one-shot and repeated games. Individuals requesting
      others to commit to cooperate (proposers) incur a cost, while their co-players
      are not necessarily required to pay any, allowing them to free-ride on the
      proposal investment cost (acceptors). Although there is a clear complementarity
      in these behaviours, no dynamic evidence is currently available that proves that
      they coexist in different forms of commitment creation. Using a stochastic
      evolutionary model allowing for mixed population states, we identify non-trivial
      roles of acceptors as well as the importance of intention recognition in
      commitments. In the one-shot prisoner's dilemma, alliances between proposers and
      acceptors are necessary to isolate defectors when proposers do not know the
      acceptance intentions of the others. However, when the intentions are clear
      beforehand, the proposers can emerge by themselves. In repeated games with noise,
      the incapacity of proposers and acceptors to set up alliances makes the emergence
      of the first harder whenever the latter are present. As a result, acceptors will
      exploit proposers and take over the population when an apology-forgiveness
      mechanism with too low apology cost is introduced, and hence reduce the overall
      cooperation level.

PMID- 28559537
TI  - High-dose chemotherapy with autologous haematopoietic stem cell support for
      relapsed or refractory primary CNS lymphoma: a prospective multicentre trial by
      the German Cooperative PCNSL study group.
AB  - To investigate safety and efficacy of high-dose chemotherapy followed by
      autologous stem cell transplantation (HCT-ASCT) in relapsed/refractory (r/r)
      primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), we conducted a single-arm
      multicentre study for immunocompetent patients (<66 years) with PCNSL failing
      high-dose methotrexate)-based chemotherapy. Induction consisted of two courses of
      rituximab (375 mg/m2), high-dose cytarabine (2 * 3 g/m2) and thiotepa (40 mg/m2)
      with collection of stem cells in between. Conditioning for HCT-ASCT consisted of
      rituximab 375 mg/m2, carmustine 400 mg/m2 and thiotepa (4 * 5 mg/kg). Patients
      commenced HCT-ASCT irrespective of response after induction. Patients not
      achieving complete remission (CR) after HCT-ASCT received whole-brain
      radiotherapy. Primary end point was CR after HCT-ASCT. We enrolled 39 patients;
      median age and Karnofsky performance score are 57 years and 90%, respectively.
      About 28 patients had relapsed and 8 refractory disease. About 22 patients
      responded to induction and 32 patients commenced HCT-ASCT. About 22 patients
      (56.4%) achieved CR after HCT-ASCT. Respective 2-year progression-free survival
      (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 46.0% (median PFS 12.4 months) and
      56.4%; median OS not reached. We recorded four treatment-related deaths. Thiotepa
      based HCT-ASCT is an effective treatment option in eligible patients with r/r
      PCNSL. Comparative studies are needed to further scrutinise the role of HCT-ASCT
      in the salvage setting.

PMID- 28559539
TI  - In silico analyses of deleterious missense SNPs of human apolipoprotein E3.
AB  - ApoE3 is the major chylomicron apolipoprotein, binding in a specific liver
      peripheral cell receptor, allowing transport and normal catabolism of
      triglyceride-rich lipoprotein constituents. Point mutations in ApoE3 have been
      associated with Alzheimer's disease, type III hyperlipoproteinemia,
      atherosclerosis, telomere shortening and impaired cognitive function. Here, we
      evaluate the impact of missense SNPs in APOE retrieved from dbSNP through 16
      computational prediction tools, and further evaluate the structural impact of
      convergent deleterious changes using 100 ns molecular dynamics simulations. We
      have found structural changes in four analyzed variants (Pro102Arg, Arg132Ser,
      Arg176Cys and Trp294Cys), two of them (Pro102Arg and Arg176Cys) being previously
      associated with human diseases. In all cases, except for Trp294Cys, there was a
      loss in the number of hydrogen bonds between CT and NT domains that could result
      in their detachment. In conclusion, data presented here could increase the
      knowledge of ApoE3 activity and be a starting point for the study of the impact
      of variations on APOE gene.

PMID- 28559540
TI  - rs9939609 FTO genotype associations with FTO methylation level influences body
      mass and telomere length in an Australian rural population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene influences energy
      homeostasis in humans. Although the obesity-related variant, rs9939609 has been
      replicated across a number of cohort studies, there remains significant variance
      and a low to modest association. Telomere length is another commonly reported
      obesity risk factor. We hypothesize understanding the associations between FTO
      rs9939609 with FTO methylation and telomere length will provide a more accurate
      assessment of obesity risk. METHODS: Overall, 942 participants free of diabetes
      or pre-diabetes were included in the retrospective study. Leukocyte genomic DNA
      was analyzed for rs9939609 genotyping, FTO gene methylation and leukocyte
      telomere length (LTL) measurement. RESULTS: In general linear models, rs9939609
      AA genotypes were associated with increased fat percentage (3.15%, P=0.001), fat
      mass (4.16 kg, P=0.001), body mass index (BMI) (1.38, P=0.006) and waist
      circumference (3.35 cm, P=0.006), but not with FTO methylation or LTL in this
      overall population. However, when participants were stratified into higher and
      lower FTO methylation groups, the AA genotype possesses a 2.04-fold increased
      obesity risk in comparison to TT genotype (95%CI, 1.07-3.89, P=0.031) in
      participants with a higher FTO methylation level, but this association was absent
      in the lower FTO methylation sub-group. Moreover, AT and AA genotype carriers
      were associated with shorter LTL compared to TT carriers (P=0.020 and P=0.111,
      respectively) in the higher FTO methylation level group. However, this
      association was absent in the lower methylation group. Furthermore, FTO gene
      methylation level was significantly associated with LTL in the 942 samples
      (P=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: FTO rs9939609 is associated with obesity risk and LTL in
      this study, where this association is only observed at higher, but not lower, FTO
      methylation levels of participants. Our data suggest association of multiple
      factors, including FTO methylation level, may be involved in one of several
      mechanisms underlying the commonly reported obesity risk of this FTO
      polymorphism.

PMID- 28559541
TI  - Adiponectin deficiency rescues high-fat diet-induced hepatic injury, apoptosis
      and autophagy loss despite persistent steatosis.
AB  - : Background &aims:Low levels of adiponectin (APN), an adipose-derived adipokine,
      are associated with obesity and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis although its role
      in high-fat diet-induced hepatic injury and steatosis remains unclear. Here we
      hypothesized that APN deficiency alters fat diet-induced hepatic function. To
      this end, we examined the effect of APN deficiency on high-fat diet-induced
      hepatic injury, apoptosis and steatosis. METHODS: Adult wild type and APN
      knockout mice were fed a low- or high-fat diet for 20 weeks. Serum levels of
      liver enzymes aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT),
      cholesterol, hepatic triglycerides, steatosis, pro-inflammatory cytokines,
      apoptosis and autophagy were examined. RESULTS: High-fat feeding led to elevated
      body (48.2%) and liver weights (18.8%), increased levels of ALT (87.8%), serum
      cholesterol (104.4%), hepatic triglycerides (305.6%) and hepatic fat deposition
      as evidenced by Oil Red O staining, along with a reduced AST/ALT ratio and
      unchanged AST. Although APN knockout itself did not affect hepatic function and
      morphology, it reconciled fat diet-induced hepatic injury (P<0.05 vs WT-HF group)
      without reversing changes in body and liver weights, serum cholesterol and
      hepatic steatosis. In addition, fat diet intake promoted AMPK phosphorylation,
      p62 accumulation and apoptosis, including elevated Bax and cleaved Caspase-3 and
      downregulated Bcl-2, along with suppressed phosphorylation of Akt, STAT3 and JNK,
      and the autophagy makers Atg7, Beclin-1 and LC3B (P<0.05 vs WT-LF group) without
      affecting hepatic interlelukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels, the
      effects were reversed or significantly attenuated by APN knockout (P<0.05 vs WT
      HF group). In vitro study using HepG2 cells revealed that STAT3 activation
      rescued palmitic acid-induced cell injury whereas STAT3 inhibition nullified APN
      knockdown-offered beneficial effects. CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed that high
      fat diet intake promotes hepatic steatosis, apoptosis and interrupted autophagy.
      APN knockout elicits protective effect against hepatic injury possibly associated
      with autophagy regulation despite persistent hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28559543
TI  - Comparative transcriptomic analysis indicates genes associated with local and
      systemic resistance to Colletotrichum graminicola in maize.
AB  - The hemibiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum graminicola may cause severe damage to
      maize, affecting normal development of the plant and decreasing grain yield. In
      this context, understanding plant defense pathways at the inoculation site and
      systemically in uninoculated tissues can help in the development of genetic
      engineering of resistance against this pathogen. Previous work has discussed the
      molecular basis of maize - C. graminicola interaction. However, many genes
      involved in defense have not yet been exploited for lack of annotation in public
      databases. Here, changes in global gene expression were studied in root, male and
      female inflorescences of maize under local and systemic fungal infection
      treatments, respectively. RNA-Seq with qPCR was used to indicate genes involved
      in plant defense. We found that systemic acquired resistance induction in female
      inflorescences mainly involves accumulation of salicylic acid (SA)-inducible
      defense genes (ZmNAC, ZmHSF, ZmWRKY, ZmbZIP and PR1) and potential genes involved
      in chromatin modification. Furthermore, transcripts involved in jasmonic acid
      (JA) and ethylene (ET) signaling pathways were also accumulated and may
      participate in plant immunity. Moreover, several genes were functionally re
      annotated based on domain signature, indicating novel candidates to be tested in
      strategies involving gene knockout and overexpression in plants.

PMID- 28559544
TI  - Characterization of meta-Cresol Purple for spectrophotometric pH measurements in
      saline and hypersaline media at sub-zero temperatures.
AB  - Accurate pH measurements in polar waters and sea ice brines require pH indicator
      dyes characterized at near-zero and below-zero temperatures and high salinities.
      We present experimentally determined physical and chemical characteristics of
      purified meta-Cresol Purple (mCP) pH indicator dye suitable for pH measurements
      in seawater and conservative seawater-derived brines at salinities (S) between 35
      and 100 and temperatures (T) between their freezing point and 298.15 K (25 
      degrees C). Within this temperature and salinity range, using purified mCP and a
      novel thermostated spectrophotometric device, the pH on the total scale (pHT) can
      be calculated from direct measurements of the absorbance ratio R of the dye in
      natural samples as[Formula: see text] Based on the mCP characterization in these
      extended conditions, the temperature and salinity dependence of the molar
      absorptivity ratios and - [Formula: see text] of purified mCP is described by the
      following functions: e 1 = -0.004363 + 3.598 * 10-5 T, e 3/e 2 = -0.016224 +
      2.42851 * 10-4 T + 5.05663 * 10-5(S - 35), and - [Formula: see text] = -319.8369
      + 0.688159 S -0.00018374 S 2 + (10508.724 - 32.9599 S + 0.059082S 2) T-1 +
      (55.54253 - 0.101639 S) ln T -0.08112151T. This work takes the characterisation
      of mCP beyond the currently available ranges of 278.15 K <= T <= 308.15 K and 20
      <= S <= 40 in natural seawater, thereby allowing high quality pHT measurements in
      polar systems.

PMID- 28559542
TI  - MARCH9-mediated ubiquitination regulates MHC I export from the TGN.
AB  - Given the heterogeneous nature of antigens, major histocompatibility complex
      class I (MHC I) intracellular transport intersects with multiple degradation
      pathways for efficient peptide loading and presentation to cytotoxic T cells. MHC
      I loading with peptides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a tightly regulated
      process, while post-ER intracellular transport is considered to occur by default,
      leading to peptide-bearing MHC I delivery to the plasma membrane. We show here
      that MHC I traffic is submitted to a previously uncharacterized sorting step at
      the trans Golgi network (TGN), dependent on the ubiquitination of its cytoplasmic
      tail lysine residues. MHC I ubiquitination is mediated by the E3 ligase membrane
      associated RING-CH 9 (MARCH9) and allows MHC I access to Syntaxin 6-positive
      endosomal compartments. We further show that MARCH9 can also target the human MHC
      I-like lipid antigen-presentation molecule CD1a. MARCH9 expression is modulated
      by microbial pattern exposure in dendritic cells (DCs), thus revealing the role
      of this ubiquitin E3 ligase in coordinating MHC I access to endosomes and DC
      activation for efficient antigen cross-presentation.

PMID- 28559545
TI  - Positive regulatory role of sound vibration treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana
      against Botrytis cinerea infection.
AB  - Sound vibration (SV), a mechanical stimulus, can trigger various molecular and
      physiological changes in plants like gene expression, hormonal modulation,
      induced antioxidant activity and calcium spiking. It also alters the seed
      germination and growth of plants. In this study, we investigated the effects of
      SV on the resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana against Botrytis cinerea infection.
      The microarray analysis was performed on infected Arabidopsis plants pre-exposed
      to SV of 1000 Hertz with 100 decibels. Broadly, the transcriptomic analysis
      revealed up-regulation of several defense and SA-responsive and/or signaling
      genes. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of selected genes also
      validated the induction of SA-mediated response in the infected Arabidopsis
      plants pre-exposed to SV. Corroboratively, hormonal analysis identified the
      increased concentration of salicylic acid (SA) in the SV-treated plants after
      pathogen inoculation. In contrast, jasmonic acid (JA) level in the SV-treated
      plants remained stable but lower than control plants during the infection. Based
      on these findings, we propose that SV treatment invigorates the plant defense
      system by regulating the SA-mediated priming effect, consequently promoting the
      SV-induced resistance in Arabidopsis against B. cinerea.

PMID- 28559548
TI  - Malignant melanoma: from cause to cure.

PMID- 28559546
TI  - Identification of oral cancer related candidate genes by integrating protein
      protein interactions, gene ontology, pathway analysis and immunohistochemistry.
AB  - In the recent years, bioinformatics methods have been reported with a high degree
      of success for candidate gene identification. In this milieu, we have used an
      integrated bioinformatics approach assimilating information from gene ontologies
      (GO), protein-protein interaction (PPI) and network analysis to predict candidate
      genes related to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). A total of 40973 PPIs were
      considered for 4704 cancer-related genes to construct human cancer gene network
      (HCGN). The importance of each node was measured in HCGN by ten different
      centrality measures. We have shown that the top ranking genes are related to a
      significantly higher number of diseases as compared to other genes in HCGN. A
      total of 39 candidate oral cancer target genes were predicted by combining top
      ranked genes and the genes corresponding to significantly enriched oral cancer
      related GO terms. Initial verification using literature and available
      experimental data indicated that 29 genes were related with OSCC. A detailed
      pathway analysis led us to propose a role for the selected candidate genes in the
      invasion and metastasis in OSCC. We further validated our predictions using
      immunohistochemistry (IHC) and found that the gene FLNA was upregulated while the
      genes ARRB1 and HTT were downregulated in the OSCC tissue samples.

PMID- 28559547
TI  - Comparison of ocular biometric measurements between a new swept-source optical
      coherence tomography and a common optical low coherence reflectometry.
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to compare the measurements between a new
      optical biometer based on swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), the
      OA-2000 (Tomey, Japan), and an optical biometer based on optical low coherence
      reflectometry (OLCR), the Lenstar (Haag-Streit, Switzerland). Ninety-nine eyes of
      99 healthy subjects were included. The axial length (AL), central corneal
      thickness (CCT), anterior chamber depth (ACD), aqueous depth (AD), lens thickness
      (LT), keratometry (K) readings, including flat K (Kf), steep K (Ks), mean K (Km),
      astigmatism vectors J0, J45 at diameters of 2.5 and 3.0 mm, and white-to-white
      diameter (WTW) were measured three times each using both biometer in normal eyes
      by random sequence. Bland-Altman analysis showed good agreement between the SS
      OCT and OLCR devices for AL, AD, ACD, LT, with narrow 95% LoA (-0.05 to 0.07 mm, 
      0.09 to 0.10 mm, -0.10 to 0.09 mm, and -0.06 to 0.22 mm, respectively), and the P
      values of ACD were both >0.05. The CCT, Kf, Ks, Km, J0, J45 and WTW values
      provided by the OA-2000 were in good agreement with the Lenstar, and
      statistically significant differences were detected for some of them but not
      clinical differences. The agreement was excellent especially for AL.

PMID- 28559549
TI  - Re-exposure to nicotine-associated context from adolescence enhances alcohol
      intake in adulthood.
AB  - Alcohol and nicotine are the two most commonly-abused substances and are often
      used together. Nicotine enhances alcohol-drinking behaviors in humans and in
      animals, and was suggested to enhance the reinforcing properties of other
      reinforcers. Here, we show that nicotine-associated environment, rather than
      nicotine itself, enhances alcohol intake in rats. Adolescent rats received
      repeated intermittent injections of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg, i.p., 5 injections,
      every 3rd day) or saline. The injection was paired with their home cage, or with
      the subsequent alcohol self-administration context. Rats were then trained to
      self-administer 20% alcohol. Nicotine given in the home cage did not alter
      subsequent alcohol intake. However, pairing nicotine with the operant chamber
      during adolescence led to a long-lasting increased alcohol self-administration in
      adulthood, compared to nicotine pre-treatment in other contexts. This effect
      persisted 3 months after nicotine cessation, in a relapse test after abstinence.
      Furthermore, re-exposure to the nicotine-associated context in adult rats led to
      a decrease in glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (Gdnf) mRNA expression
      in the ventral tegmental area, an effect that leads to increased alcohol
      consumption, as we  have previously reported. Our findings suggest that retrieval
      of nicotine-associated contextual memories from adolescence may gate alcohol
      intake in adulthood, with a possible involvement of GDNF.

PMID- 28559551
TI  - Ageing: A youthful reminder.

PMID- 28559550
TI  - Metabolic and transcriptional alternations for defense by interfering OsWRKY62
      and OsWRKY76 transcriptions in rice.
AB  - Metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches were used to dissect the enhanced
      disease resistance in the plants harbouring a RNA interfering construct of
      OsWRKY62 and OsWRKY76 (dsOW62/76) genes. The primary metabolic pathways were
      activated in dsOW62/76 compared with wild-type (ZH17) plants, revealed by
      increased accumulation of amino acids and constituents of citric acid cycle etc.
      Contents of phenolic acids derived from phenylpropanoid pathway were elevated in
      dsOW62/76 plants. Importantly, phenolamides, conjugates of the phenolic acids
      with amines, were detected in large number and mostly at higher levels in
      dsOW62/76 compared with ZH17 plants; however, the free pools of flavonoids were
      mostly decreased in dsOW62/76. Salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA)/JA-Ile
      contents were increased in dsOW62/76 and knockout lines of individual OsWRKY62
      and OsWRKY76 genes. Transcription of isochorismate synthase (OsICS1) gene was
      suppressed in dsOW62/76 and in MeJA-treated rice plants, whereas the
      transcription level of cinnamoyl-CoA hydratase-dehydrogenase (OsCHD) gene for
      beta-oxidation in peroxisome was increased. The calli with OsCHD mutation showed
      markedly decreased SA accumulation. These results indicate that OsWRKY62 and
      OsWRKY76 function as negative regulators of biosynthetic defense-related
      metabolites and provide evidence for an important role of phenylpropanoid pathway
      in SA production in rice.

PMID- 28559555
TI  - Zeroing in on neurodegenerative alpha-synuclein.

PMID- 28559557
TI  - Deal watch: Neurokinin 3 receptor antagonist revival heats up with Astellas
      acquisition.

PMID- 28559559
TI  - Birgitte Volck.

PMID- 28559561
TI  - Search for liquid biopsy grail points the way to drug discovery and development
      gems.

PMID- 28559562
TI  - Infectious disease: Peroxin inhibitor treats Trypanosoma infection.

PMID- 28559564
TI  - Efficient Generation of Bispecific Murine Antibodies for Pre-Clinical
      Investigations in Syngeneic Rodent Models.
AB  - Therapeutic concepts exploiting tumor-specific antibodies are often established
      in pre-clinical xenograft models using immuno-deficient mice. More complex
      therapeutic paradigms, however, warrant the use of immuno-competent mice, that
      more accurately capture the relevant biology that is being exploited. These
      models require the use of (surrogate) mouse or rat antibodies to enable optimal
      interactions with murine effector molecules. Immunogenicity is furthermore
      decreased, allowing longer-term treatment. We recently described controlled Fab
      arm exchange (cFAE) as an easy-to-use method for the generation of therapeutic
      human IgG1 bispecific antibodies (bsAb). To facilitate the investigation of dual
      targeting concepts in immuno-competent mice, we now applied and optimized our
      method for the generation of murine bsAbs. We show that the optimized
      combinations of matched point-mutations enabled efficient generation of murine
      bsAbs for all subclasses studied (mouse IgG1, IgG2a and IgG2b; rat IgG1, IgG2a,
      IgG2b, and IgG2c). The mutations did not adversely affect the inherent effector
      functions or pharmacokinetic properties of the corresponding subclasses. Thus,
      cFAE can be used to efficiently generate (surrogate) mouse or rat bsAbs for pre
      clinical evaluation in immuno-competent rodents.

PMID- 28559565
TI  - Anti-Aging Potentials of Methylene Blue for Human Skin Longevity.
AB  - Oxidative stress is the major cause of skin aging that includes wrinkles,
      pigmentation, and weakened wound healing ability. Application of antioxidants in
      skin care is well accepted as an effective approach to delay the skin aging
      process. Methylene blue (MB), a traditional mitochondrial-targeting antioxidant,
      showed a potent ROS scavenging efficacy in cultured human skin fibroblasts
      derived from healthy donors and from patients with progeria, a genetic premature
      aging disease. In comparison with other widely used general and mitochondrial
      targeting antioxidants, we found that MB was more effective in stimulating skin
      fibroblast proliferation and delaying cellular senescence. The skin irritation
      test, performed on an in vitro reconstructed 3D human skin model, indicated that
      MB was safe for long-term use, and did not cause irritation even at high
      concentrations. Application of MB to this 3D skin model further demonstrated that
      MB improved skin viability, promoted wound healing and increased skin hydration
      and dermis thickness. Gene expression analysis showed that MB treatment altered
      the expression of a subset of extracellular matrix proteins in the skin,
      including upregulation of elastin and collagen 2A1, two essential components for
      healthy skin. Altogether, our study suggests that MB has a great potential for
      skin care.

PMID- 28559566
TI  - Chaos as an intermittently forced linear system.
AB  - Understanding the interplay of order and disorder in chaos is a central challenge
      in modern quantitative science. Approximate linear representations of nonlinear
      dynamics have long been sought, driving considerable interest in Koopman theory.
      We present a universal, data-driven decomposition of chaos as an intermittently
      forced linear system. This work combines delay embedding and Koopman theory to
      decompose chaotic dynamics into a linear model in the leading delay coordinates
      with forcing by low-energy delay coordinates; this is called the Hankel
      alternative view of Koopman (HAVOK) analysis. This analysis is applied to the
      Lorenz system and real-world examples including Earth's magnetic field reversal
      and measles outbreaks. In each case, forcing statistics are non-Gaussian, with
      long tails corresponding to rare intermittent forcing that precedes switching and
      bursting phenomena. The forcing activity demarcates coherent phase space regions
      where the dynamics are approximately linear from those that are strongly
      nonlinear.The huge amount of data generated in fields like neuroscience or
      finance calls for effective strategies that mine data to reveal underlying
      dynamics. Here Brunton et al.develop a data-driven technique to analyze chaotic
      systems and predict their dynamics in terms of a forced linear model.

PMID- 28559567
TI  - Functional end-arterial circulation of the choroid assessed by using fat embolism
      and electric circuit simulation.
AB  - The discrepancy in the choroidal circulation between anatomy and function has
      remained unsolved for several decades. Postmortem cast studies revealed extensive
      anastomotic channels, but angiographic studies indicated end-arterial
      circulation. We carried out experimental fat embolism in cats and electric
      circuit simulation. Perfusion defects were observed in two categories. In the
      scatter perfusion defects suggesting an embolism at the terminal arterioles,
      fluorescein dye filled the non-perfused lobule slowly from the adjacent perfused
      lobule. In the segmental perfusion defects suggesting occlusion of the posterior
      ciliary arteries, the hypofluorescent segment became perfused by spontaneous
      resolution of the embolism without subsequent smaller infarction. The
      angiographic findings could be simulated with an electric circuit. Although
      electric currents flowed to the disconnected lobule, the level was very low
      compared with that of the connected ones. The choroid appeared to be composed of
      multiple sectors with no anastomosis to other sectors, but to have its own
      anastomotic arterioles in each sector. Blood flows through the continuous
      choriocapillaris bed in an end-arterial nature functionally to follow a pressure
      gradient due to the drainage through the collector venule.

PMID- 28559569
TI  - A framework for quantifying the extent of impact to plants from linear
      construction.
AB  - We present a novel framework that accurately evaluates the extent of a linear
      project's effect from the variability of the structure of the plant community
      while avoiding interference caused by pioneer species and invasive species. This
      framework was based on the change of dominant species in the plant community
      affected by construction. TWINSPAN classification and variation of the integrated
      importance value (IIV) of each plant species group were used to characterize the
      process of change in the structure of the plant community. Indicator species
      group and its inflection point were defined and used to judge the extent of the
      effects of pipelines. Our findings revealed that dominant species in the working
      area of the pipeline construction were different from the original plant
      communities. With the disturbance decreased, the composition and structure of the
      plant communities gradually changed. We considered the outer limit of the area
      affected by the construction to be the first area in which the plant community
      reached a steady state and was similar to the original community. The framework
      could be used in the post eco-environment impact assessment of linear
      construction to estimate the intensity of disturbance and recovery condition.

PMID- 28559570
TI  - Security of a kind of quantum secret sharing with entangled states.
AB  - We present a new collusion attack to a kind of quantum secret sharing schemes
      with entangled states. Using this attack, an unauthorized set of agents can gain
      access to the shared secret without the others' cooperation. Furthermore, we
      establish a general model for this kind of quantum secret sharing schemes and
      then give some necessary conditions to design a secure quantum secret sharing
      scheme under this model.

PMID- 28559568
TI  - Auxin regulates functional gene groups in a fold-change-specific manner in
      Arabidopsis thaliana roots.
AB  - Auxin plays a pivotal role in virtually every aspect of plant morphogenesis. It
      simultaneously orchestrates a diverse variety of processes such as cell wall
      biogenesis, transition through the cell cycle, or metabolism of a wide range of
      chemical substances. The coordination principles for such a complex orchestration
      are poorly understood at the systems level. Here, we perform an RNA-seq
      experiment to study the transcriptional response to auxin treatment  within gene
      groups of different biological processes, molecular functions, or cell components
      in a quantitative fold-change-specific manner. We find for Arabidopsis thaliana
      roots treated with auxin for 6 h that (i) there are functional groups within
      which genes respond to auxin with a surprisingly similar fold changes and that
      (ii) these fold changes vary from one group to another. These findings make it
      tempting to conjecture the existence of some transcriptional logic orchestrating
      the coordinated expression of genes within functional groups in a fold-change
      specific manner. To obtain some initial insight about this coordinated
      expression, we performed a motif enrichment analysis and found cis-regulatory
      elements TBX1-3, SBX, REG, and TCP/site2 as the candidates conferring fold-change
      specific responses to auxin in Arabidopsis thaliana.

PMID- 28559571
TI  - Sex differences in the clinical characteristics and brain gray matter volume
      alterations in unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder.
AB  - This study was to explore the sex differences in clinical characteristics and
      brain gray matter volume (GMV) alterations in 29 male patients with major
      depressive disorder (MDDm), 53 female patients with MDD (MDDf), and in 29 male
      and 53 female matched healthy controls. Maps of GMV were constructed using
      magnetic resonance imaging data and compared between groups. We evaluated
      clinical symptoms using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and obtained a
      total score and five syndrome scores. A two-factor ANCOVA model was specified
      using SPM8, with sex and diagnosis as the between-subject factors. We found that:
      (1) significant GMV increase in the left cerebellum and GMV reduction in the
      bilateral middle temporal gyrus and left ventral medial prefrontal gyrus occurred
      selectively in male patients, while the GMV reduction in the left lingual gyrus
      and dorsal medial prefrontal gyrus occurred selectively in female patients; (2)
      MDDf may have experienced more severe sleep disturbance than MDDm; and (3) the
      severity of sleep symptom could be predicted by the sex specific brain structural
      alterations in depressions. These findings suggest that sex specific anatomical
      alterations existed in MDD, and these alterations were associated with the
      clinical symptoms.

PMID- 28559573
TI  - Transcription: Paused means poised.

PMID- 28559574
TI  - Cytoplasmic movements outside the living cell.

PMID- 28559572
TI  - C-terminal fragments of the amyloid precursor protein in cerebrospinal fluid as
      potential biomarkers for Alzheimer disease.
AB  - This study assesses whether C-terminal fragments (CTF) of the amyloid precursor
      protein (APP) are present in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and their potential as
      biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Immunoprecipitation and simultaneous
      assay by Western blotting using multiplex fluorescence imaging with specific
      antibodies against particular domains served to characterize CTFs of APP in human
      CSF. We demonstrate that APP-CTFs are detectable in human CSF, being the most
      abundant a 25-kDa fragment, probably resulting from proteolytic processing by eta
      secretase. The level of the 25-kDa APP-CTF was evaluated in three independent CSF
      sample sets of patients and controls. The CSF level of this 25-kDa CTF is higher
      in subjects with autosomal dominant AD linked to PSEN1 mutations, in demented
      Down syndrome individuals and in sporadic AD subjects compared to age-matched
      controls. Our data suggest that APP-CTF could be a potential diagnostic biomarker
      for AD.

PMID- 28559575
TI  - Autophagy: Membrane contacts lend a hand.

PMID- 28559576
TI  - Working Memory Requires a Combination of Transient and Attractor-Dominated
      Dynamics to Process Unreliably Timed Inputs.
AB  - Working memory stores and processes information received as a stream of
      continuously incoming stimuli. This requires accurate sequencing and it remains
      puzzling how this can be reliably achieved by the neuronal system as our
      perceptual inputs show a high degree of temporal variability. One hypothesis is
      that accurate timing is achieved by purely transient neuronal dynamics; by
      contrast a second hypothesis states that the underlying network dynamics are
      dominated by attractor states. In this study, we resolve this contradiction by
      theoretically investigating the performance of the system using stimuli with
      differently accurate timing. Interestingly, only the combination of attractor and
      transient dynamics enables the network to perform with a low error rate. Further
      analysis reveals that the transient dynamics of the system are used to process
      information, while the attractor states store it. The interaction between both
      types of dynamics yields experimentally testable predictions and we show that
      this way the system can reliably interact with a timing-unreliable Hebbian
      network representing long-term memory. Thus, this study provides a potential
      solution to the long-standing problem of the basic neuronal dynamics underlying
      working memory.

PMID- 28559577
TI  - Inhibition of DNA replication in Staphylococcus aureus by tegaserod.

PMID- 28559578
TI  - 5-O-Mycaminosyltylonolide antibacterial derivatives: design, synthesis and
      bioactivity.
AB  - Tylosin is a 16-membered macrolide broad-spectrum antibiotic that has an
      important role in veterinary medicine, active against Gram-positive and a
      restricted range of Gram-negative bacteria. We synthesized 15 types of tylosin
      related derivatives by chemical modification and evaluated them against mastitis
      pathogens. Among them, 20-deoxy-20-{N-methyl-N-[1-(3-quinolyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4
      yl]methylamino}-5-O-mycaminosyltylonolide 2f and 20-deoxy-20-{N-benzyl-N-[1-(3
      quinolyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl]methylamino}-5-O-mycaminosyltylonolide 2k were
      found to not only expand their antibacterial impact to include Gram-negative
      bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, but also to retain
      or increase antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, such as
      Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus uberis in comparison with the parent
      tylosin.

PMID- 28559579
TI  - NC1404, a novel derivative of Bleomycin with modified sugar moiety obtained
      during the preparation of Boningmycin.

PMID- 28559580
TI  - Cladomarine, a new anti-saprolegniasis compound isolated from the deep-sea
      fungus, Penicillium coralligerum YK-247.

PMID- 28559581
TI  - Synthesis and structure-activity relationships of novel lincomycin derivatives.
      Part 4: synthesis of novel lincomycin analogs modified at the 6- and 7-positions
      and their potent antibacterial activities.
AB  - To modify lincomycin (LCM) at the C-6 and the C-7 positions, we firstly prepared
      various substituted proline intermediates (7, 11-15 and 17). These proline
      intermediates were coupled with methyl 1-thio-alpha-lincosamide and tetrakis-O
      trimethylsilylation followed by selective deprotection of the TMS group at the 7
      position gave a wide variety of key intermediates (23-27, 47 and 50). Then, we
      synthesized a variety of novel LCM analogs modified at the 7-position in
      application of the Mitsunobu reaction, an SN2 reaction, and a Pd-catalyzed cross
      coupling reaction. Compounds 34 and 35 (1'-NH derivatives) exhibited enhanced
      antibacterial activities against resistant pathogens with erm gene compared with
      the corresponding 1'-N-methyl derivatives (3 and 37). On the basis of reported
      SAR, we modified the 4'-position of LCM derivatives possessing a 5-(2
      nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl group at the C-7 position. Compound 56 showed
      significantly potent antibacterial activities against S. pneumoniae and S.
      pyogenes with erm gene, and its activities against S. pneumoniae with erm gene
      were improved compared with those of 34 and 57. Although we synthesized novel
      analogs by transformation of a C-7 substituent focusing on the 1'-demethyl
      framework to prepare very potent analogs 73 and 75, it was impossible to generate
      novel derivatives exhibiting stronger antibacterial activities against S.
      pneumoniae with erm gene compared with 56.

PMID- 28559582
TI  - Thalamic Bursts Down-regulate Cortical Theta and Nociceptive Behavior.
AB  - We tested the relation between pain behavior, theta (4-8 Hz) oscillations in
      somatosensory cortex and burst firing in thalamic neurons in vivo. Optically
      induced thalamic bursts attenuated cortical theta and mechanical allodynia. It is
      proposed that thalamic bursts are an adaptive response to pain that de
      synchronizes cortical theta and decreases sensory salience.

PMID- 28559583
TI  - Many-body Tunneling and Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Doublons in Strongly
      Correlated Quantum Dots.
AB  - Quantum tunneling dominates coherent transport at low temperatures in many
      systems of great interest. In this work we report a many-body tunneling (MBT), by
      nonperturbatively solving the Anderson multi-impurity model, and identify it a
      fundamental tunneling process on top of the well-acknowledged sequential
      tunneling and cotunneling. We show that the MBT involves the dynamics of doublons
      in strongly correlated systems. Proportional to the numbers of dynamical
      doublons, the MBT can dominate the off-resonant transport in the strongly
      correlated regime. A T 3/2-dependence of the MBT current on temperature is
      uncovered and can be identified as a fingerprint of the MBT in experiments. We
      also prove that the MBT can support the coherent long-range tunneling of
      doublons, which is well consistent with recent experiments on ultracold atoms. As
      a fundamental physical process, the MBT is expected to play important roles in
      general quantum systems.

PMID- 28559584
TI  - Close linkage between serum uric acid and cardiac dysfunction in patients with
      ischemic heart disease according to covariance structure analysis.
AB  - High serum uric acid (UA) level has been assumed to be a risk factor for left
      ventricular (LV) dysfunction; however, the precise relationship between these
      conditions has not been fully examined because many confounding factors are
      associated with UA level. We herein examined the precise relationship by
      proposing structural equation models. The study population consisted of 1432
      cases with ischemic heart disease who underwent cardiac catheterization. Multiple
      regression analyses and covariance structure analyses were performed to elucidate
      the cause-and-effect relationship between UA level and LV ejection fraction
      (LVEF). A path model exploring the factors contributing to LVEF showed that high
      UA was a significant cause of reduced LVEF (P = 0.004), independent of other
      significant factors. The degree of atherosclerosis, as estimated by the number of
      diseased coronary vessels, was significantly affected by high UA (P = 0.005); and
      the number of diseased coronary vessels subsequently led to reduced LVEF (P <
      0.001). Another path model exploring the factors contributing to UA level showed
      that LVEF was a significant cause of high UA (P = 0.001), while other risk
      factors were also independent contributing factors. This study clearly
      demonstrated that there was a close link between high UA and LV dysfunction,
      which was represented by possible cause-and-effect relationship.

PMID- 28559585
TI  - Ultrahigh-Q optomechanical crystal cavities fabricated in a CMOS foundry.
AB  - Photonic crystals use periodic structures to create frequency regions where the
      optical wave propagation is forbidden, which allows the creation and integration
      of complex optical functionalities in small footprint devices. Such strategy has
      also been successfully applied to confine mechanical waves and to explore their
      interaction with light in the so-called optomechanical cavities. Because of their
      challenging design, these cavities are traditionally fabricated using dedicated
      high-resolution electron-beam lithography tools that are inherently slow,
      limiting this solution to small-scale or research applications. Here we show how
      to overcome this problem by using a deep-UV photolithography process to fabricate
      optomechanical crystals in a commercial CMOS foundry. We show that a careful
      design of the photonic crystals can withstand the limitations of the
      photolithography process, producing cavities with measured intrinsic optical
      quality factors as high as Q i  = (1.21 +/- 0.02) * 106. Optomechanical crystals
      are also created using phononic crystals to tightly confine the GHz sound waves
      within the optical cavity, resulting in a measured vacuum optomechanical coupling
      rate of g 0 = 2pi * (91 +/- 4) kHz. Efficient sideband cooling and amplification
      are also demonstrated since these cavities are in the resolved sideband regime.
      Further improvements in the design and fabrication process suggest that
      commercial foundry-based optomechanical cavities could be used for quantum ground
      state cooling.

PMID- 28559587
TI  - Urban eddy covariance measurements reveal significant missing NOx emissions in
      Central Europe.
AB  - Nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution is emerging as a primary environmental concern
      across Europe. While some large European metropolitan areas are already in breach
      of EU safety limits for NO2, this phenomenon does not seem to be only restricted
      to large industrialized areas anymore. Many smaller scale populated
      agglomerations including their surrounding rural areas are seeing frequent NO2
      concentration violations. The question of a quantitative understanding of
      different NOx emission sources is therefore of immanent relevance for climate and
      air chemistry models as well as air pollution management and health. Here we
      report simultaneous eddy covariance flux measurements of NOx, CO2, CO and non
      methane volatile organic compound tracers in a city that might be considered
      representative for Central Europe and the greater Alpine region. Our data show
      that NOx fluxes are largely at variance with modelled emission projections,
      suggesting an appreciable underestimation of the traffic related atmospheric NOx
      input in Europe, comparable to the weekend-weekday effect, which locally changes
      ozone production rates by 40%.

PMID- 28559586
TI  - Abeta42 pentamers/hexamers are the smallest detectable oligomers in solution.
AB  - Amyloid beta (Abeta) oligomers may play a decisive role in Alzheimer's disease
      related neurodegeneration, but their structural properties are poorly understood.
      In this report, sedimentation velocity centrifugation, small angle neutron
      scattering (SANS) and molecular modelling were used to identify the small
      oligomeric species formed by the 42 amino acid residue long isoform of Abeta
      (Abeta42) in solution, characterized by a sedimentation coefficient of 2.56 S,
      and a radius of gyration between 2 and 4 nm. The measured sedimentation
      coefficient is in close agreement with the sedimentation coefficient calculated
      for Abeta42 hexamers using MD simulations at uM concentration. To the best of our
      knowledge this is the first report detailing the Abeta42 oligomeric species by
      SANS measurements. Our results demonstrate that the smallest detectable species
      in solution are penta- to hexamers. No evidences for the presence of dimers,
      trimers or tetramers were found, although the existence of those Abeta42
      oligomers at measurable quantities had been reported frequently.

PMID- 28559588
TI  - The mobility of small vacancy/helium complexes in tungsten and its impact on
      retention in fusion-relevant conditions.
AB  - Tungsten is a promising plasma facing material for fusion reactors. Despite many
      favorable properties, helium ions incoming from the plasma are known to
      dramatically affect the microstructure of tungsten, leading to bubble growth,
      blistering, and/or to the formation of fuzz. In order to develop mitigation
      strategies, it is essential to understand the atomistic processes that lead to
      bubble formation and subsequent microstructural changes. In this work, we use
      large-scale Accelerated Molecular Dynamics simulations to investigate small (N =
      1,2) V N He M vacancy/helium complexes, which serve as the nuclei for larger
      helium bubble growth, over timescales reaching into the milliseconds under
      conditions typical of the operation of fusion reactors. These complexes can
      interconvert between different I L V N+L He M variants via Frenkel pair
      nucleation (leading to the creation of a additional vacancy/interstitial pair)
      and annihilation events; sequences of these events can lead to net migration of
      these embryonic bubbles. The competition between nucleation and annihilation
      produces a very complex dependence of the diffusivity on the number of heliums.
      Finally, through cluster dynamics simulations, we show that diffusion of these
      complexes provides an efficient pathway for helium release at fluxes expected in
      fusion reactors, and hence that accounting for the mobility of these complexes is
      crucial.

PMID- 28559590
TI  - Gut microbiota: Trust your gut - metformin and diabetes.

PMID- 28559591
TI  - Genetics: Novel causative genes for polycystic liver disease.

PMID- 28559589
TI  - Tuning the photoexcitation response of cyanobacterial Photosystem I via
      reconstitution into Proteoliposomes.
AB  - The role of natural thylakoid membrane housing of Photosystem I (PSI), the
      transmembrane photosynthetic protein, in its robust photoactivated charge
      separation with near unity quantum efficiency is not fundamentally understood. To
      this end, incorporation of suitable protein scaffolds for PSI incorporation is of
      great scientific and device manufacturing interest. Areas of interest include
      solid state bioelectronics, and photoelectrochemical devices that require bio
      abio interfaces that do not compromise the photoactivity and photostability of
      PSI. Therefore, the surfactant-induced membrane solubilization of a negatively
      charged phospholipid (DPhPG) with the motivation of creating biomimetic
      reconstructs of PSI reconstitution in DPhPG liposomes is studied. Specifically, a
      simple yet elegant method for incorporation of PSI trimeric complexes into DPhPG
      bilayer membranes that mimic the natural thylakoid membrane housing of PSI is
      introduced. The efficacy of this method is demonstrated via absorption and
      fluorescence spectroscopy measurements as well as direct visualization using
      atomic force microscopy. This study provides direct evidence that PSI
      confinements in synthetic lipid scaffolds can be used for tuning the
      photoexcitation characteristics of PSI. Hence, it paves the way for development
      of fundamental understanding of microenvironment alterations on photochemical
      response of light activated membrane proteins.

PMID- 28559592
TI  - Gut microbiota: Inulin regulates endothelial function: a prebiotic smoking gun?

PMID- 28559593
TI  - Sonochemical Synthesis of Sulfur Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide Supported CuS
      Nanoparticles for the Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensor Applications.
AB  - Over the present material synthesis routes, the sonochemical route is highly
      efficient and comfortable way to produce nanostructured materials. In this way,
      the copper sulfide (CuS-covellite) and sulfur doped reduced graphene oxide (S
      rGO) nanocomposite was prepared by sonochemical method. Interestingly, the
      structure of the as-prepared S-rGO/CuS was changed from the covellite to digenite
      phase. Herein, the S-rGO was act as a mild oxidizer and liable for the structural
      transformations. These structural changes are sequentially studied by various
      physicochemical characterizations such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy (XPS) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). After scrupulous
      structural evaluations, the transformation of CuS phase was identified and
      documented. This oxidized CuS has an excellent electrocatalytic activity when
      compare to the bulk CuS. This S-rGO/CuS was further used for the determination of
      glucose and acquired good electrocatalytic performances. This S-rGO/CuS was
      exhibited a wide linear concentration range, 0.0001-3.88 mM and 3.88-20.17 mM,
      and a low-level detection limit of 32 nM. Moreover, we have validated the
      practicability of our developed glucose sensor in real biological samples.

PMID- 28559594
TI  - Cassava derivatives in ice cream formulations: effects on physicochemical,
      physical and sensory properties.
AB  - In the present study, the effects of derivatives of cassava, maltodextrin and
      bagasse, on the physicochemical, physical and sensory properties of ice creams
      were investigated. The content of cassava maltodextrin increased significantly
      the content of carbohydrate and total soluble solids and decreased lipids
      content. The effect of cassava bagasse was more pronounced than the maltodextrin
      on physical and sensory parameters. Increased percentage of cassava bagasse in
      formulation led to decrease of overrun, melting and luminosity, but increased
      hardness and unfreezable water. Sensory attributes were mainly influenced by
      cassava bagasse inclusion. The results suggested the potential use of cassava
      derivatives in ice cream formulations. Ice creams with low percentage of cassava
      bagasse (1.5) and intermediate values of cassava maltodextrin (3.65%) had good
      nutritional, technological and sensorial acceptance.

PMID- 28559595
TI  - Sensory, spectrometric (PTR-ToF-MS) and chemometric analyses to distinguish extra
      virgin from virgin olive oils.
AB  - Olive oil samples were obtained from six cultivars grown in different
      environments, and graded by chemical analyses as extra virgin (EVOOs). These were
      evaluated for flavors and off-flavors, and relative VOCs spectrum as determined
      by PTR-ToF-MS. A hierarchical clustering of Panel test data separated olive oil
      in three groups, one including the samples with perceived off-flavor (VOOs),
      regardless of cultivar and environment. The Pearson's correlation coefficients
      between the mass data from PTR-ToF-MS and the sensory characteristics perceived
      by the Panel test were determined. A mass-to-sensory attributes correlation index
      was calculated. A color-coded card was built up based on the intensities (ncps)
      of five selected protonated mass data that was able to distinguish EVOOs from
      VOOs olive oil samples.

PMID- 28559596
TI  - Evaluation of fatty acid profile, color characteristics, oxidative quality and
      stability of common Kilka (Clupeonella cultriventris caspia) oil obtained by
      various extraction techniques.
AB  - This study aimed to evaluate the impact of various oil extraction procedures on
      yield, color properties, fatty acid profile and oxidative stability of common
      Kilka (Clupeonella cultriventris caspia) oil. The supercritical fluid extraction
      (SFE) with carbon dioxide, than other techniques (wet reduction, ammonia and
      enzymatic extractions), showed the highest oil yield (96.94%), the best oxidative
      and color characteristics, with 0.68 mg KOH/g oil, 2.62 meq O2/kg oil, 6.5 and
      5.36 in terms of acid value (AV), peroxide value (PV), yellowness and redness,
      respectively, and have the highest total of unsaturated fatty acids average
      (10.33), especially the omega-3 family. Furthermore, the oil obtained by SFE had
      the best oxidative parameters; AV, PV and thiobarbituric acid values, during the
      whole 90 days of storage time at 4  degrees C. Therefore, the SFE is the most
      effective procedure at obtaining the oil from common Kilka tissue than other
      methods studied in this research.

PMID- 28559597
TI  - The effects of egg albumin incorporation on quality attributes of pale, soft,
      exudative (PSE-like) turkey rolls.
AB  - Pale, soft, exudative (PSE-like) poultry phenomenon has been a growing problem in
      meat industry in terms of quality and economic losses, thus data is required to
      evaluate PSE raw material in product formulations. The aim of our study was to
      investigate the effects of egg albumin (EA) utilization on quality
      characteristics of PSE-like turkey rolls. Turkey Pectoralis major muscles were
      exposed to either 40  degrees C to stimulate typical processing causing PSE or 0 
      degrees C to reduce PSE and keep the muscles "normal". Turkey rolls were prepared
      in nine different formulations; using 100% normal (N), 50% normal + 50% PSE (NP)
      or 100% PSE meat (P). Treatments also included 0, 1 or 2% EA. Addition of EA
      increased protein content of all samples. L*, a* and b* values were affected by
      PSE level. Increased levels of PSE caused decreased processing yields, while EA
      incorporation increased processing yield of the samples. Addition of 1% EA
      increased water-holding capacity (WHC) of the samples, while higher level of EA
      (2%) caused decrement in the same. Addition of either 1% or 2% EA was effective
      in reducing purge loss in P samples. Texture profile analysis showed that EA
      addition rather had considerable effects on N samples. Sensory scores showed that
      1% EA utilization has the potential to increase mostly the mouthfeel of PSE-like
      products. Results showed that EA could be used as a promising ingredient that
      improved overall quality of PSE-like turkey rolls.

PMID- 28559598
TI  - Preparation of mayonnaise from extracted plant protein isolates of chickpea,
      broad bean and lupin flour: chemical, physiochemical, nutritional and therapeutic
      properties.
AB  - This investigation was aimed to study the molecular, physico-chemical, and
      biofunctional health properties of mayonnaise prepared using proteins isolated
      from broad bean, lupin and chickpea flour. Proteins were isolated from chickpea
      (CPPI), broad bean (BBPI) and lupin (LPPI) flour and assessed for molecular,
      physico-chemical, biofunctional, and protein yield. The highest water holding
      capacity, foaming stability, emulsion stability as well as protein yield and
      protein content of 44.0, 70.8, 37.5, 81.2, and 36.4, respectively were observed
      for BBPI. Mayonnaise prepared from the isolated plant proteins was evaluated for
      chemical composition, molecular properties of the protein subunits, and potential
      nutraceutical properties. Preparation of mayonnaise using BBPI or a mixture of
      either BBPI and CPPI or BBPI and LPPI showed superior values for lightness and
      lowered values for redness. Mayonnaise prepared from either BBPI or the BBPI and
      CPPI mixture showed the best antioxidant, antihypertensive and antidiabetic
      properties. The present study results indicated that the use of the BBPI and CPPI
      mixture can be a novel technological approach for the development of a mayonnaise
      with improved health promoting properties.

PMID- 28559599
TI  - The development of low glycemic index cookie bars from foxtail millet (Setaria
      italica), arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) flour, and kidney beans (Phaseolus
      vulgaris).
AB  - Wholegrain foods are becoming increasingly popular as a high fiber dietary
      supplement recommended for people with diabetes. In Indonesia, the incidence of
      diabetes mellitus has almost doubled recently and poses a significant health risk
      with the high prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The present
      research aimed to develop cookie bars from foxtail millet, arrowroot flour, and
      kidney beans. The physical, chemical, and sensory properties were evaluated by
      selecting the best formula to test the glycemic index. Three formulae of cookie
      bars, which had different percentages of foxtail millet, kidney beans, and
      arrowroot flour were evaluated. The results showed that the three formulae (F1,
      F2, F3) had  degrees Hue values of 53.77, 58.46, and 58.31, and breaking force of
      8.37, 10.12, and 5.87 N, respectively. While all other nutritional content were
      significantly different between formulae, the total crude fat was not. The F2
      cookie bar was selected and evaluated for the glycemic index because it has the
      best sensory properties, lowest total sugar and available carbohydrate content.
      F2 cookie bars that contain 15% foxtail millet, 15% arrowroot flour, and 30% of
      kidney beans have a glycemic index of 37.6 hence it could be classified as a low
      glycemic index cookie bar. In conclusion, our findings indicated that F2 cookie
      bars can be further developed as a suitable diabetic food since it has the best
      physico-chemical properties, sensory properties, and low glycemic index.

PMID- 28559601
TI  - Effect of fermented and unfermented buckwheat flour on functional properties of
      gluten-free muffins.
AB  - Selected functional properties of four types of gluten-free muffins made of
      unfermented and fermented (by Lactobacillus plantarum) buckwheat flour in
      comparison with control muffins made using commercial gluten-free corn flour were
      evaluated in this study. The proximate chemical composition, antioxidant capacity
      analysed by ABTS, photochemiluminescence and cyclic voltammetry assays, and
      inhibitory activity against protein glycation in vitro in BSA/Glu systems were
      investigated. The content of the total phenolic compounds, available lysine,
      furosine, free and total FIC, browning index and antioxidant capacity of
      buckwheat-enhanced gluten-free muffins were higher compared to the control
      samples. Gluten-free muffins made of the fermented buckwheat flour showed a
      significantly higher antioxidant capacity, an increased activity against AGEs
      formation and an increased available lysine content, as well as a higher FAST
      index and browning index as compared to the muffins obtained with unfermented
      buckwheat flour. The study showed that buckwheat flour fermented by L. plantarum
      could be used as an ingredient for improving the functional properties of gluten
      free muffins.

PMID- 28559600
TI  - Particularities of Syrah wines from different growing regions of Southern Brazil:
      grapevine phenology and bioactive compounds.
AB  - The aim of this study was to monitor the phenological parameters of grapevine
      (Vitis vinifera) of Syrah variety recently introduced in the region of Marari,
      Agua Doce, Campos Novos and Sao Joaquim, Santa Catarina State (SC), Brazil, and
      to characterize the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of wines
      produced from this variety of the vintages 2010 and 2011. The adaptation of the
      grapevine to climate conditions of these grape growing regions of Southern Brazil
      for this variety has also been assessed. The climate variations occurring between
      the phenological cycles of grapevine of Syrah for each growing region influenced
      the phenological extension and heat accumulation of the grapevine. The wines
      showed significant levels of phenolic compounds and high antioxidant activity,
      while catechin, a potent antioxidant, was the main phenolic compound quantified
      in wines. Positive correlations between the phenolic compounds and antioxidant
      activity were observed. The principal component analysis confirmed the influence
      of the growing region and vintages on the phenolic composition of wines,
      indicating the importance of climate conditions. This study identified possible
      phenolic markers indicative of climatic influence.

PMID- 28559602
TI  - Influence of different flours and starches on gluten-free bread aroma.
AB  - The aim of this research was to study the effect of different gluten-free flours
      (yellow and white corn, rice, oat, teff, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa) and
      starches (wheat, corn and potato) on the generation of volatile compounds in the
      fermented doughs and crumbs. Volatile compounds were analyzed by static headspace
      gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SHS-GC/MS). Nine fermentation and lipid
      oxidation volatile compounds were evaluated, which were found to be the same from
      dough to crumb but vary in levels. Concentrations of compounds produced during
      fermentation were higher in doughs whereas those from lipid oxidation were higher
      in crumbs. The type of flour/starch affected the concentration of these volatile
      compounds. The proportions of ethanol and 2/3-methylbutanol (fermentation
      compounds) were higher in dough from yellow and white corn, rice and oat while
      the proportions of hexanal, 1-pentanol and 2,4-decadienal (lipid oxidation
      compounds) were higher in the doughs made with starches. The proportions of
      ethanol and 2/3-methylbutanol were higher in quinoa and amaranth crumbs whilst
      hexanal, 1-pentanol and 2,4-decadienal were higher in yellow and white corn
      crumbs.

PMID- 28559603
TI  - Octopus vulgaris protein hydrolysates: characterization, antioxidant and
      functional properties.
AB  - Composition, functional properties and in vitro antioxidant activities of octopus
      (Octopus vulgaris) protein hydrolysates (OPHs) were evaluated. OPHs were prepared
      by treatment with commercial Esperase (OPH-Esp), alkaline protease extract from
      Zebra blenny (Salaria basilica) (OPH-ZB) and enzyme preparation from Bacillus
      subtilis A26 (OPH-A26). OPHs showed different degrees of hydrolysis (DH from 17.6
      to 21%), and hydrophobic/hydrophilic peptide ratio. The amino acid profiles of
      OPHs showed a high level of essential amino acids, and Lys was the most abundant
      amino acid. Enzymatic hydrolysis improved solubility significantly as well as
      emulsifying and foaming properties of octopus proteins. The emulsifying activity
      index of OPHs decreased with increasing concentrations. Conversely, the foaming
      abilities increased as the hydrolysate concentrations increased. For the
      antioxidant activities, five different in vitro assay systems were investigated.
      All hydrolysates displayed various degrees and dose dependant antioxidant
      activities. The highest DPPH scavenging activity and reducing power were achieved
      by OPH-A26. OPH-Esp displayed the highest ability to prevent the bleaching of
      beta-carotene, whereas OPH-ZB exhibited the highest protection against hydroxyl
      radical induced DNA breakage. The results suggested that OPHs could be used, as a
      promising source of functional peptides with antioxidant activities, to formulate
      functional foods.

PMID- 28559604
TI  - Effects of tempering (annealing), acid hydrolysis, low-citric acid substitution
      on chemical and physicochemical properties of starches of four yam (Dioscorea
      spp.) cultivars.
AB  - The effects of tempering (annealing), acid hydrolysis and low-citric acid
      substitution on chemical and physicochemical properties of starches of four
      Nigerian yam cultivars were investigated. Crude fat and protein contents of the
      native starches decreased significantly after the modifications, while nitrogen
      free extract increased significantly with acid hydrolysis and citric acid
      substitution. Acid hydrolysis and low-citric acid substitution reduced the least
      concentration for gel formation of the starches from 4 to 2% w/v, but tempering
      had no effect. Swelling power of the starches reduced significantly, and water
      solubility increased significantly at 75 and 85  degrees C, especially with acid
      hydrolysis and low-citric acid substitution. However, tempering significantly
      reduced starch solubility in the four cultivars. Paste clarity of starches of
      white (29.17%), water (18.90%), yellow (30.90%) and bitter (10.57%) yams reduced
      significantly with tempering to 14.43, 11.83, 16.93 and 7.27%, but increased
      significantly with acid hydrolysis to 41.40, 35.37, 28.77 and 32.33%, and low
      citric acid substitution to 36.60, 44.17, 50.67 and 14.33%, respectively. Pasting
      properties such as peak, trough, breakdown, final, and setback viscosities and
      peak time of native starches reduced significantly with acid hydrolysis and low
      citric acid substitution, however, tempering significantly increased their
      pasting temperature, peak time, setback and final viscosities.

PMID- 28559605
TI  - Antioxidant and iron-chelating properties of taxifolin and its condensation
      product with glyoxylic acid.
AB  - The condensation of taxifolin with glyoxylic acid was examined, and the
      properties of the resulting product were compared with those of taxifolin. The
      structure of the product was determined by NMR spectroscopy. The ability of the
      polyphenols to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) was estimated by luminol
      dependent chemiluminescence. The iron-chelating and iron-reducing activities were
      studied using absorption spectrophotometry. It was shown that the condensation
      leads to the formation of a dimer consisting of two taxifolin units linked
      through a carboxymethine bridge at the C-6 and C-8 positions of the A ring. The
      dimer exhibited a somewhat higher ROS scavenging activity than taxifolin. The
      iron-binding capacity of the compounds was proportional to the number of
      polyphenol units. The iron-reducing ability of the dimer was lower than that of
      taxifolin. Thus, the dimer possessed a higher antioxidant activity than the
      parent flavonoid. The data obtained may be useful for a better understanding of
      processes occurring in foods and beverages and in a search for new active
      compounds.

PMID- 28559606
TI  - Enzymatic hydrolysis of whey and its analysis.
AB  - An attempt was made to hydrolyze proteins and lactose in whey to improve the
      nutritive value of this byproduct, and extend its application as an ingredient to
      healthy beverages. Flavourzyme in different concentrations was used at pH 7.0 to
      hydrolyze protein at 50  degrees C. pH stat method, SDS-PAGE and RP HPLC-MS were
      used to evaluate degree of protein hydrolysis, pattern of peptide formation and
      characterize smaller peptides in hydrolysate, respectively. Higher concentration
      of enzymes produced more number of small peptides. Protein hydrolysate was again
      hydrolyzed at 30  degrees C with beta-galactosidase at pH 5.5 to hydrolyze
      lactose. HPLC analysis indicated the degree of lactose hydrolysis and number of
      tri/poly saccharides formed due to varied enzyme concentration. Results from the
      experiment can be utilized to formulate healthy whey beverages for specific
      purpose.

PMID- 28559607
TI  - Seasonal variation in phytochemicals and nutraceutical potential of Begonia
      nelumbiifolia consumed in Puebla, Mexico.
AB  - Begonia nelumbiifolia is a traditional edible plant consumed and commercialized
      in the northern highlands of Puebla, Mexico. The present study reports the
      seasonal variation in proximate analysis as well as organic acids, carotenoids
      and flavonoids content in both leaves and stalks of this plant. The stalks
      contained low concentrations of protein (~3%), fiber (~1.5%) and nitrogen free
      extract (~0.26%) during the time of study. Both organs showed contents of oxalic
      acid (91-103 mg 100 g-1 FW), ascorbic acid (50-65 mg 100 g-1 FW), lutein (1-2.5
      mg 100 g-1 FW), beta-carotene (1-3 mg 100 g-1 FW), quercetin (1.3-2.7 mg 100 g-1
      DW) and rutin (0.5-1.7 mg 100 g-1 DW). Antioxidant activity against DPPH was
      observed by the stalk extracts from 30% methanol (IC50, 0.21-0.37 mg L-1), pure
      methanol (IC50, 0.14-0.21 mg L-1) and hexane: acetone (IC50, 0.77-1.21 mg L-1).
      In vitro anti-HMG-CoA reductase (IC50, 0.07-0.36 mg L-1) and anti-alpha
      glucosidase (IC50, 0.28-0.43 mg L-1) activities were observed in extracts from
      the edible stalks from pure methanol and 30% methanol. The leaf extracts from 30%
      methanol inhibited the growth of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci TBR2004 (MIC,
      254 ug mL-1), P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (MIC, 423 ug mL-1), P. syringae pv.
      glycinea (MIC, 605 ug mL-1) and Clavibacter michiganensis AB299158 (MIC, 162 ug
      mL-1). B. nelumbiifolia contained valuable phytochemicals associated to
      nutraceutical and biological properties. However, the consumption of the fresh
      stalks must be carefully considered because of the high oxalate content.

PMID- 28559608
TI  - The states of water in glutinous rice flour characterized by interpreting
      desorption isotherm.
AB  - Water content of glutinous rice flour were determined after equilibrium at water
      activity (aw) of 0.06-0.98 and temperature of 10, 20 and 30  degrees C.
      Distribution of water in different states and its evolution with aw were
      characterized using four composite models. Interactions of water molecules with
      solid matrix and themselves were further evaluated. The Park model was a more
      realistic and mechanism-based approach for describing water desorption of
      glutinous rice flour. Increased equilibrium water induced by lowering temperature
      existed mostly as strongly bound water with only a few parts as weakly bound
      water. The water-polymer thermodynamic incompatibility predominated the water
      mobility, and resulted in a rapid decrease of diffusion coefficient at aw > ~0.7.
      Water diffusivity behavior with aw suggested water clustering at high aw levels.
      The Zimm-Lundberg theory, Park model and Brown analysis all revealed that
      critical aw of water clustering was of 0.81-0.85, depending on temperature, but
      gave inconsistent prediction about mean cluster size.

PMID- 28559609
TI  - Effect of Opuntia ficus-indica flowers maceration on quality and on heat
      stability of olive oil.
AB  - This study was focused on the evaluation of the quality and the oxidative
      stability of olive oil added with Opuntia ficus-indica flowers. Two different
      amounts of O. ficus-indica flowers were considered 5 and 15% (w/w). The olive
      oils were evaluated towards their quality, fatty acids profile, total phenol
      contents and thermal properties by differential scanning calorimetry. The
      oxidative stability was also monitored by employing the Rancimat and the oven
      test based on accelerating the oxidation process during storage. The addition of
      O. ficus-indica flowers induced an increase in free acidity values and a
      variation in fatty acids profile of olive oils but values remained under the
      limits required for an extra-virgin olive oil. The obtained olive oils were
      nutritionally enriched due to the increase in their phenols content. The
      oxidative stability was generally improved, mainly in olive oil enriched with 5%
      Opuntia ficus-indica flowers. These findings proved that this enriched olive oil
      could be considered as a product with a greater added value.

PMID- 28559610
TI  - Distribution of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity in apples tissues
      during ripening.
AB  - The effect of variety and ripening stage on the distribution of phenolic
      compounds and in vitro antioxidant capacity of Gala, Fuji Suprema and Eva apples
      were evaluated. Hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonoids, flavanols, flavonols,
      dihydrochalcones and antioxidant activity (FRAP and DPPH) were assessed in the
      epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp of three varieties at three ripening stages
      (unripe, ripe and senescent). The Fuji Suprema variety distinguished by its
      content of flavonols at senescent stage, while Eva variety distinguished by its
      content of dihydrochalcones (unripe stage) and anthocyanins (ripe stage). In
      general, phenolic acids and flavonoids decreased with ripening in the epicarp and
      endocarp. However, in the mesocarp, the effect of ripening was related with the
      apple variety. Hierarchical cluster analysis confirmed the influence of ripening
      in the apple tissue. The evolution of these compounds during ripening occurred
      irregularly and it was influenced by the variety.

PMID- 28559611
TI  - A benign alternative process for efficient separation of pure commercially
      important flavonoid nutraceuticals from edible plants.
AB  - The present study signifies the development of a unique, optimized procedure for
      both selective determination and separation of different flavonoid nutraceuticals
      from edible plants. Totally ten different flavonoids were determined (HPLC-DAD)
      and isolated from five different plants using the developed process with a
      remarkable purity of 91-98% and recovery of 88-95%. Box-Behnken experimental
      design model yielded a optimized amount of 40.36 mg/g of AI extract (Pinostrobin)
      and 28.95 mg/g of AI extract (Baicalein) with a high correlation coefficient
      (0.98-0.99), indicating a good fit between the second order regression model and
      the experimental observations. The final purity of compounds through optimized
      process is 97.1% (Pinostrobin) and 93.5% (Baicalein) respectively. The optimized
      yields depicted a total recovery of 92% for pinostrobin, and 89% for Baicalein
      respectively. Thus, the developed process worked as a potential alternative which
      when statistically optimized results in a remarkable recovery of flavonoids from
      various plants. Being an environmentally friendly protocol the process could be
      useful in industrial separation of commercially important flavonoids widely
      applied in food industry.

PMID- 28559612
TI  - Effect of osmotic dehydration pretreatment and glassy state storage on the
      quality attributes of frozen mangoes under long-term storage.
AB  - Changes in the quality of frozen mango cuboids were investigated during long-term
      glassy state storage with and without osmotic dehydration pretreatment. The mango
      cuboids were dehydrated in mixed solutions (sucrose: glucose: fructose in a ratio
      of 3.6:1:3) of different concentrations (30, 40, and 50% (wt/wt)) prior to
      freezing and then stored at -55  degrees C (in the glassy state) for 6 months.
      The results revealed that compared with the untreated samples, osmotic
      pretreatment decreased total color difference (reduced by 15.6-62.3%), drip loss
      (reduced by 8.2-29.5%) and titration acidity (reduced by 1.3-9.4%), while
      increasing hardness (increased by 48.8-82.3%), vitamin C content (increased by
      72.5-120.6%) and total soluble solids (increased by 21.8-53.7%) of frozen mangoes
      after 6 months. Dehydration with a sugar concentration of 40% was considered as
      the optimal pretreatment condition. In addition, a storage temperature of -55 
      degrees C provided better retention of quality than rubbery state storage at -18 
      degrees C. With prolonged storage time, the quality of frozen mangoes continued
      to change, even in the glassy state. However, the changes in quality of the
      osmotic-dehydrated samples were less than those of the untreated samples. The
      current work indicates that osmotic pretreatment and glassy state storage
      significantly improved the quality of frozen mangoes during long-term storage.

PMID- 28559613
TI  - Comparative analyses of prediction models for inactivation of Escherichia coli in
      carrot juice by means of pulsed electric fields.
AB  - This paper reports the prediction capacity of various microbial inactivation
      models to prefigure the bactericidal effect using pulsed electric field (PEF) on
      liquid food. The aim of study was to compare the various inactivation models
      based on accuracy and bias factor to find out the most accurate inactivation
      model for Escherichia coli present in carrot juice treated with PEF. In this
      study, E. coli suspended in carrot juice was treated with varying pulsed electric
      field strength for different intervals. The obtained data were utilized for the
      evaluation of parameters of Bigelow, Peleg, Hulsheger and Weibull inactivation
      models. Furthermore, secondary models were developed for Hulsheger and Weibull to
      predict the microbial inactivation at any level of field strength and treatment
      time. The secondary model for Hulsheger exhibits 5.8% error as compared to the
      Weibull model having 8.5% error in prediction of death kinetics of E. coli
      suspended in carrot juice by means of PEF. The comparative analysis of secondary
      models to forecast the unknown data set unveiled the superior functioning of
      Hulsheger model.

PMID- 28559614
TI  - Harvest date and storage effect on fruit size, phenolic content and antioxidant
      capacity of wild blueberries of NW Ontario, Canada.
AB  - Blueberries are eaten fresh or after storing at room temperature, refrigerator or
      freezer but little is known about changes in food values of wild blueberries due
      to harvest dates and storage conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the effect of harvest date and storage conditions of wild blueberries on berry
      quality and health related chemistry. We analyzed Vaccinium angustifolium, V.
      angustifolium var. nigrum, and V. myrtilloides native to NW Ontario, Canada
      harvested early and late in the season for total phenol (TP), anthocyanin
      contents (AC), and soluble solids to titratable acidity ratio storing at room
      temperature, refrigerator and freezer temperature. We also determined their
      antioxidant content and activity (ORAC). Late harvest and low temperature storage
      significantly increased TP and AC for most genotypes. In V. myrtilloides TP
      increased by 50, 44 and 45% respectively at late harvest, 14 days refrigerator
      and 90 days freezer storage. It also had significantly higher ORAC (22 and 33%)
      than the other two genotypes. Wild blueberry pickers and consumers can optimize
      health benefits and quality attributes of blueberries by customizing harvest
      protocols and choice of cultivar and storage in household fridge and freezer.
      Blueberry storage, at household fridge and freezer temperature, does not reduce
      its health benefits.

PMID- 28559616
TI  - Response surface optimization of extraction protocols to obtain phenolic rich
      antioxidant from sea buckthorn and their potential application into model meat
      system.
AB  - In the present study, processing parameters for the extraction of phenolic rich
      sea buckthorn seed (SBTE) extract were optimised using response surface method
      and subjected for in vitro efficacy viz. total phenolic, ABTS, DPPH and SASA
      activity. The optimised model depicted MeOH as a solvent at 60% concentration
      level with a reaction time of 20 min and extracting temperature of 55  degrees C
      for the highest yield and total phenolic content. The efficacy of different
      concentration of obtained SBT was evaluated in raw ground pork as a model meat
      system on the basis of various physico-chemical, microbiological, sensory quality
      characteristics. Addition of 0.3% SBTE significantly reduced the lipid
      peroxidation (PV, TBARS and FFA) and improved instrumental colour (L*, a*, b*)
      attributes of raw ground pork during refrigerated storage of 9 days. Results
      concluded that SBTE at 0.3% level can successfully improve the oxidative
      stability, microbial, sensory quality attributes in the meat model system.

PMID- 28559617
TI  - Two isoforms of lipoxygenase from mature grains of pearl millet [Pennisetum
      glaucum (L.) R. Br.]: purification and physico-chemico-kinetic characterization.
AB  - This study describes the partial purification and characterization of
      lipoxygenase (LOX) from pearl millet mature grains of inbred HBL 0843-2. Two
      isoforms of LOX, i.e., LOX 1 and LOX 2, were purified using ammonium sulphate
      fractionation, gel filtration chromatography and ion exchange chromatography near
      homogeneity to 56 and 40 folds with yield of 28 and 24%, respectively. LOX 1 and
      LOX 2 having molecular masses of approximately 85 and 79 kDa, respectively were
      purified. LOX 1 and LOX 2 exhibited maximum activity at pH 4.5 and 4.8,
      respectively at 25  degrees C temperature. Both the isoforms, which showed
      thermostability up to 35  degrees C when incubated for 30 min, were stable at a
      pH range of 7-7.8. LOX 1 and LOX 2 had apparent Km value of 0.86 and 0.57 uM,
      respectively. Ascorbic acid and vitamin E inhibited 66-78 and 61-69% activity of
      LOX 1 and LOX 2, respectively but Na+, Zn2+ and K+ strongly inhibited the
      activity of these isozymes. The present information about lipoxygenase enzyme
      might be valuable in drafting the strategies for its inactivation, which in turn
      can obstruct the LOX damaging effects on food products during processing and
      storage.

PMID- 28559615
TI  - Screening of enzymatic activities within different enological non-Saccharomyces
      yeasts.
AB  - Ninety-seven non-Saccharomyces wine yeast strains belonging to ten different
      genera and species (Candida spp. and Criptococcus spp.; Debaryomyces hansenii,
      Lachancea thermotolerans, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Pichia kluyveri,
      Sporidiobolus salmonicolor, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Williopsis pratensis and
      Zygosaccharomyces bailii) were screened for 13 enzymes related to wine aroma,
      color and clarity. Understanding the yeasts' influence in these wine
      characteristics provides a platform for selecting strains for their development
      as starter cultures and for the management of alcoholic fermentation. Most of the
      strains showed the presence of one or more enzymes of biotechnological interest.
      Our screening demonstrated several intraspecific differences within the yeast
      species investigated, indicating that strain selection is of great importance for
      their enological application, and also that some non-Saccharomyces that have not
      been thoroughly explored, may deserve further consideration. This research
      represents the first stage for selecting non-Saccharomyces strains to be used as
      a starter along with Saccharomyces cerevisiae to enhance some particular
      characteristics of wines.

PMID- 28559619
TI  - Evaluation of different hydrocolloids to improve dough rheological properties and
      bread quality of potato-wheat flour.
AB  - The aim of study was to investigate the effect of hydroxylpropylmethylcellulose
      (HPMC), arabic gum (AG), konjac glucomannan (KG) and apple pectin (AP) at 2%
      (w/w, potato-wheat flour basis) on the potato-wheat dough (the mass ratio was
      1:1) rheological, fermentation and bread making properties. The tan delta of
      potato-wheat dough was significantly increased upon addition of adding HPMC which
      was close to wheat dough (0.531). Moreover, dough height during fermentation
      process was significantly improved on addition of hydrocolloids, with the order
      of HPMC (23.1 mm) > AP (19.3 mm) > AG (18.6 mm) > KG (13.6 mm). Protein bands of
      potato-wheat dough were pale in the presence of hydrocolloids, suggesting the
      formation of higher molecular weight aggregates formed between proteins
      hydrocolloids or proteins-proteins after fermentation process. Furthermore, HPMC
      significantly increased specific volume (from 1.45 to 2.22 ml/g), and
      hydrocolloids restricted the retrogradation of starch in potato-wheat breads.

PMID- 28559618
TI  - Identification of food preservative, stress relief compounds by GC-MS and HR-LC/Q
      TOF/MS; evaluation of antioxidant activity of Acalypha indica leaves methanolic
      extract (in vitro) and polyphenolic fraction (in vivo).
AB  - The present paper has been designed to evaluate phytochemical profile, in vitro
      free radical scavenging activity, cytotoxicity of methanolic extract and in vivo
      antioxidant activity of polyphenolic fraction of Acalypha indica leaves.
      Methanolic extract of A. indica leaves (MEAIL) contained rich amount of phenols,
      flavonoids and saponins. The GC-MS analysis of extract revealed 13 compounds,
      whereas HR-LC/Q-TOF/MS showed 87, and all were coincided with functional groups
      identified by FTIR. The extract showed good scavenging activity on DPPH, H2O2,
      hydroxyl radicals and metal ions. The Polyphenolic fraction induced the
      antioxidant enzymes in Diabetic rats. The extract also potentially showed
      cytotoxic (LC50: 140.02 ug/mL) activity against brine shrimp. Based on these
      analytical results, in vitro and in vivo experiments, it was concluded that the
      MEAIL has encompassed rich amount of polyphenols (antioxidants) and cytotoxic
      compounds for their respective activities. Polyphenolic fraction has the
      induction capacity to elevate cellular antioxidant enzymes in diabetic animals.

PMID- 28559620
TI  - Physical, microbiological and rheological properties of probiotic yogurt
      supplemented with grape extract.
AB  - In this study, yogurt was supplemented with 1.5 and 3.0 g L-1 of grape extract,
      inoculated culture containing Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus
      bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bb12 bifidum, fermented
      and stored at 4  degrees C. Acid production, microbial growth, gel strength,
      syneresis, rheological and sensory properties were studied. An increase in grape
      extract concentration extended fermentation time. Bacterial strains were found in
      at least 109 CFU100 g-1 of yogurt showing the possibility of probiotic yogurt
      production with grape extract. Gel strength decreased with increasing
      concentration of grape extract while syneresis increased. The addition of grape
      extract changed the dilatant behavior to a pseudoplastic behavior, decreased
      yield stress, whereas k values increased. Sensory attributes (color, flavor,
      taste, texture and appearance) didn't differ significantly.

PMID- 28559621
TI  - Physico-chemical, microstructural and rheological properties of camel-milk yogurt
      as enhanced by microbial transglutaminase.
AB  - Camel milk produces watery texture when it is processed to yogurt. Despite the
      extensive studies on microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) in dairy research, the
      effect of this enzyme on the properties of yogurt made from camel milk has not
      been studied. This study aims to investigate the impact of MTGase with and
      without bovine skimmed milk powder (SMP), whey protein concentrate (WPC),or beta
      lactoglobulin (beta-lg) on physico-chemical, rheological, microstructural, and
      sensory properties of camel-milk yogurt during 15 days of storage period. MTGase
      treatment markedly reduced the fermentation time of unfortified and SMP-fortified
      camel milk. The fortification of camel milk without MTGase failed to give set
      type yogurt. The treatment of unfortified milk with MTGase enormously improved
      the viscosity and the body of yogurt samples. Fortification of MTGase-treated
      milk impacted positively on the viscosity, the water holding capacity, and the
      density of the protein matrix in the gel microstructure, which were influenced by
      the type of dairy ingredients. All MTGase-treated yogurts differed from each
      other in hardness and adhesiveness values. Electrophoresis results showed that
      the susceptibility of the individual milk proteins to MTGase varied, and there
      were differences among the treatments toward the enzyme. SMP-fortified yogurt was
      the most accepted product. Generally, the addition of MTGase preparation at a
      concentration of 0.4%, simultaneously with starter culture, to fortified camel
      milk was considered an effective tool to solve the challenges of producing set
      type yogurt from this milk.

PMID- 28559622
TI  - The effects of certain enzymes on the rheology of dough and the quality
      characteristics of bread prepared from wheat meal.
AB  - This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of amyloglucosidase, glucose
      oxidase, hemicellulase (mainly consist of endo-1,4-beta-xylanase), cellulase,
      lipase, and the combination of phospholipase and hemicellulase (phospholipase +
      hemicellulase) on the extensographic properties of dough and the quality
      characteristics of bread prepared from wheat meal. The enzymes were added
      separately in two different amounts. The addition of glucose oxidase (at 0.0003
      0.001%) caused a significant decrease in the resistance to extension, ratio of
      resistance to extensibility and energy values of the wheat meal dough compared
      with the control dough. The addition of hemicellulase (at 0.001-0.005%) and
      phospholipase + hemicellulase (at 0.0006-0.0009%) also improved the wheat meal
      dough rheology by reducing the resistance to extension and the ratio of
      resistance to extensibility. Glucose oxidase (at 0.0003-0.001%), hemicellulase
      (at 0.001-0.005%) and phospholipase + hemicellulase (at 0.0006-0.0009%) addition
      improved the specific volume of wheat meal bread compared with the control bread.
      Increasing the dosage of glucose oxidase from 0.0003 to 0.001% caused a further
      increase in the specific volume of wheat meal bread. The addition of
      hemicellulase (at 0.001-0.005%) caused a significant decrease in the baking loss
      and an increase in the moisture content of wheat meal bread compared with the
      control bread. The addition of amyloglucosidase (at 0.000875-0.001%), lipase (at
      0.0002-0.001%) and cellulase (at 0.0003-0.0005%) did not considerably affected
      the dough rheological and the quality characteristics of wheat meal bread.

PMID- 28559623
TI  - Rheological properties of reduced fat ice cream mix containing octenyl
      succinylated pearl millet starch.
AB  - The octenyl succinyl anhydride (OSA) esterified pearl millet (Pennisetum
      typhoides) starch was evaluated as fat replacer in soft serve ice cream in
      comparison to other fat replacers viz. inulin, whey protein concentrate-70 and
      commercial starch. During temperature sweep test, the yield stress and flow
      behaviour index of un-pasteurized ice cream mixes increased as the temperature
      increased from 40 to 80  degrees C, while the consistency index decreased.
      Consistency index of aged ice cream mixes containing 2% fat replacer was higher
      as compared to mixes with 1% level. The aged ice cream mixes exhibited non
      Newtonian behaviour as flow behaviour index values were less than one. Apparent
      viscosity (at 50 s-1 shear rate) of control as well as ice cream mix containing
      1% OSA-esterified pearl millet starch samples was 417 and 415 mPas, respectively
      and did not differ significantly. The overrun of the ice cream (with 5 and 7.5%
      fat) containing 1 and 2% of above fat replacers ranged between 29.7 and 34.3% and
      was significantly lower than control (40.3%). The percent melted ice cream was
      also low for the ice creams containing 2% of above fat replacers at 5% fat
      content as compared to control. However, sensory acceptability and rheological
      characteristics of reduced fat ice creams containing 1.0 and 2.0% OSA-esterified
      pearl millet starch were at par with other fat replacers under the study. Thus,
      OSA-esterified pearl millet starch has potential to be used as fat replacer in
      reduced fat ice cream.

PMID- 28559624
TI  - Characteristics and gelling properties of gelatin from goat skin as affected by
      drying methods.
AB  - Characteristics and gel properties of spray-dried goat skin gelatin (SDGG) and
      freeze-dried counterpart (FDGG) were determined, in comparison with commercial
      bovine gelatin (BG). SDGG gel had the similar gel strength to FDGG gel and their
      gel strengths were higher than that of BG gel. SDGG gel showed slightly higher a*
      and b* values as well as the higher solution turbidity than those of FDGG. Both
      SDGG and FDGG solutions could set at room temperature (25-28  degrees C) within
      18.52-19.30 min and showed the gelling and melting temperatures of 25.14-25.23
      and 34.09-34.18  degrees C, respectively. Gels from SDGG and FDGG had the denser
      structure with smaller voids than that from BG. Therefore, drying methods
      affected the characteristics and gel properties of gelatin from goat skin to some
      degree.

PMID- 28559625
TI  - Effect of soaking and single/two cycle high pressure treatment on water
      absorption, color, morphology and cooked texture of brown rice.
AB  - Water absorption, color, morphology and cooked texture of brown rice were
      evaluated after selected soaking (30-50  degrees C, 30 min) and high pressure
      treatment (HPT) (100-500 MPa; single or two cycle; total holding time 10 min).
      Water absorption ratio and lightness values of brown rice were increased by
      soaking and HPT. Hardness and gumminess values of cooked brown rice were reduced
      while springiness and cohesiveness were elevated by HPT. Scanning electron
      microscopy indicated that HPT improved the texture of brown rice by disrupting
      the structure of rice bran layer, which allowed easier water penetration into the
      rice grain during cooking. Moreover, the two cycle HPT resulted in lighter color
      and softer texture for cooked brown rice than single cycle HPT primarily caused
      by the more severe structural disruption of bran layer. Overall, two cycle HPT
      after soaking could potentially improve the quality of brown rice, taking about
      the same time as the single cycle HPT. Further, the quality improvements with the
      two cycle HPT were facilitated at lower pressure levels thereby providing better
      commercial processing opportunities.

PMID- 28559626
TI  - Optimization of antioxidant efficacy of a deflavored and decolorized rosemary
      extract: effect of carnosol content on the oxidative stability of paprika colored
      beef patties.
AB  - Considering the significance of natural antioxidants to preserve meat, the
      present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of a deflavored and
      decolorised extract of rosemary (StabilRoseTM) for the production and
      preservation of naturally colored fresh meat. Oxidative rancidity of meat and
      color degradation of paprika oleoresin were exploited as model systems and
      compared with butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). The results showed similar efficacy
      for 3% carnosic acid extract and BHA, with further enhancement in efficacy with
      respect to the carnosic acid content. A synergetic antioxidant effect of carnosol
      on carnosic acid content was also noticed to an extent of 1:1 (w/w) ratio, and
      further increase in carnosol content showed no improvement in the antioxidant
      efficacy. Finally, stabilized paprika and optimized rosemary extract containing
      carnosic acid and carnosol in 1:1 (w/w) ratio was successfully applied to produce
      naturally colored meat suitable for storage at 4 +/- 1  degrees C.

PMID- 28559627
TI  - Physico-chemical, functional and rheological properties of milk protein
      concentrate 60 as affected by disodium phosphate addition, diafiltration and
      homogenization.
AB  - Ultrafiltration and diafiltration of skim milk altered delicate salt equilibrium
      and composition of 5* UF retentate (5* UFR), and thus adversely affected the
      reconstitutional and functional properties of milk protein concentrate (MPC)
      powders. It might be due to interaction and aggregation of proteins during spray
      drying. Therefore, this study was envisaged to investigate the effect of disodium
      phosphate (DSP) addition, diafiltration and homogenization of retentates on
      physico-chemical, functional and rheological properties of MPC60 powders.
      Solubility of fresh control powder was significantly lower than MPC60-H powder;
      at par with that of MPC60-DSP and MPC60-Na-K, but remained minimum after 60 days
      of storage at 25 +/- 1  degrees C. The pH (6.6) adjustment of 5* UFR with DSP,
      significantly enhanced the dispersability, wettability, specific surface area
      (SSA), heat coagulation time (HCT), emulsification capacity and stability; buffer
      index of MPC60-DSP powder over control. Diafiltration of 5* UFR with NaCl and
      KCl, significantly (P < 0.05) decreased calcium content, but enhanced pH and
      mineral content of MPC60-Na-K powder. This treatment led to significant
      improvement in dispersability, SSA, emulsification capacity and stability, HCT
      and oil binding properties. Flowability, wettability, dispersability, HCT,
      foaming capacity, emulsification capacity and stability were also improved
      significantly in MPC60-H powder made from homogenized 5* UFR. Rheological
      behavior of reconstituted powder samples exhibited pseudoplastic behavior, best
      explained by Hershel Bulkley model. These MPC60 powders with improved functional
      properties can be used for the improvement of quality attributes of various food
      formulations.

PMID- 28559628
TI  - Responses of fresh-cut products of four mango cultivars under two different
      storage conditions.
AB  - Due to availability of minimally processed products, the consumption of fresh
      produce has increased over recent years. The present study has been undertaken
      with the objective of screening of four mango cultivars ('Kesar', 'Rajapuri',
      'Totapuri' and 'Ladvo') for evaluating the consequences of minimal processing on
      their quality attributes under storage at two different temperatures (5 +/- 1 
      degrees C, 95% RH and 10 +/- 1  degrees C, 87% RH) up to 12 days. The result of
      the study revealed significant impacts of low temperature storage on the quality
      parameters of fresh-cut mango cultivars. The evaluated bioactive compounds such
      as total phenolics, vitamin C and carotenoids were better retained in the samples
      stored at 5  degrees C as compared with that of 10  degrees C. Moreover, the
      storage of fresh-cut mango cultivars at 5  degrees C showed lower water loss and
      microbial contamination. Sensory analyses revealed that the storage of fresh-cut
      mango cultivars at 10  degrees C influenced overall acceptability due to changes
      in their visual perception, though taste, odor and firmness were less affected.
      This study revealed a significant variation in the storability of fresh-cut mango
      cultivars with respect to the storage temperature. Among currently studied four
      cultivars of mango, slices of 'Totapuri' showed comparatively the least change in
      color, firmness and sensory properties during storage at 5 and 10  degrees C and
      it can be a potential cultivar for fresh-cut processing.

PMID- 28559629
TI  - Preparation and characterization of a novel edible film based on Alyssum
      homolocarpum seed gum.
AB  - In this study a novel biodegradable edible film based on Alyssum homolocarpum
      seed gum (AHSG) was fabricated and characterized. Glycerol at three levels (25,
      35, and 45% based on dried AHSG) as plasticizer were added. The microstructure
      and barrier, electromagnetic, mechanical, and thermal properties of the film were
      characterized. Results showed that permeability to both oxygen and water vapor,
      increased as the plasticizer content increased from 25 to 45%. The mechanical
      properties of AHSG films were comparable to those of polysaccharide films.
      Results showed that the glycerol content significantly decreased the glass
      transition temperature of the film. The color measurement indicated that
      increasing the plasticizer content augmented the b* and L* values. Results of the
      field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed a uniform and smooth surface
      morphology and an absence of phase separation among the film compositions. The
      findings demonstrated that AHSG has the potential to fabricate edible films with
      enhanced quality characteristics.

PMID- 28559630
TI  - Investigation of process and product parameters for physicochemical properties of
      rice and mung bean (Vigna radiata) flour based extruded snacks.
AB  - PR 106 and SML 668 cultivars of rice and mung bean respectively, were studied for
      their potential to serve as a nutritious snack with improved protein quality and
      quantity. The effect of extrusion conditions, including feed moisture content (14
      18%), screw speed (400-550 rpm) and barrel temperature (130-170 degrees C) on the
      physicochemical properties (bulk density, water absorption index (WAI), water
      solubility index (WSI) and hardness) was investigated. The replacement of rice
      flour at 30% level with mung bean flour for making extruded snacks was evaluated.
      Pasting temperature increased (84-93  degrees C) while peak viscosity (2768-408
      cP), hold viscosity (2018-369 cP), breakdown (750-39 cP), setback (2697-622 cP)
      and final viscosity (4715-991 cP) decreased with increasing mung bean flour
      addition. Increasing feed moisture lowered the specific mechanical energy (SME),
      WAI and WSI of extrudates whereas increased bulk density and hardness. Higher
      screw speed had linear positive effect on SME of extruder and negative linear
      effect on WAI. Positive curvilinear quadratic effect of screw speed was also
      observed on WSI and density. Higher barrel temperature linearly decreased the
      SME, density and hardness of extrudates. Developed extrusion cooked rice-mung
      bean snacks with increased protein content and improved protein quality along
      with higher dietary fibre and minerals have good potential in effectively
      delivering the nutrition to the population.

PMID- 28559631
TI  - Effect of olive leaf extract rich in oleuropein on the quality of virgin olive
      oil.
AB  - Effect of olive leaf extract rich in oleuropein on the quality of virgin olive
      oil was investigated. After extracting the dried and ground olive leaves with the
      assistance of homogenizer, the dried extract was partially dissolved into the oil
      to increase the oxidative stability of the oil. A face central composite design
      through response surface methodology was used to investigate the effects of
      enrichment conditions (extract content, time and mixing speed) on the responses,
      total phenolic content and oleuropein concentration of the enriched olive oil.
      Furthermore, antioxidant activity of the oil was determined by 2,2'-azino-bis-(3
      ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt method. Additionally,
      oxidative stability of the enriched oil was assessed by the Rancimat method.
      Total carotenoid content, peroxide value, alpha-tocopherol and chlorophyll were
      also measured, respectively. Addition of 0.15% natural antioxidant increased the
      stability of the oil (~46%). The antioxidant capacity of the enriched oil was
      almost 2.5 times higher than that of the untreated oil. Furthermore, olive leaf
      extract improved the quality of the virgin olive oil with respect to tocopherol,
      carotenoid and chlorophyll contents and peroxide value, respectively. The leaf
      sampling was also performed both in the autumn and summer to evaluate the
      possible seasonal effects on phenolic profile in order to be careful for
      selecting the proper harvesting time to apply the extract into the oil.

PMID- 28559632
TI  - Achiote (Bixa orellana L.): a natural source of pigment and vitamin E.
AB  - Commercialization of agricultural products, including seeds and its derived
      products, represents an important economic source for developing countries.
      Natural colorants obtained from the seeds of achiote plant (annatto) have been
      used since pre-Hispanic times. Also, production of this crop has been important
      for Mayan cuisine. Annual world production of achiote seeds is approximately
      14,500 tons (dry weight). Two thirds of the production is commercialized as dried
      seeds and the rest as colorant. Latin America produces 60% of the total world
      production, followed by Africa (27%) and Asia (12%). The main producers in Latin
      America are Peru, Brazil and Mexico. The purpose of the present paper is to
      review the most recent literature on Bixa orellana L. focusing on bixin,
      norbixin, tocotrienols and tocopherols biosynthesis, use and industrial
      applications of annatto extracts, as well as its nutraceutical potential and its
      benefits for human health.

PMID- 28559633
TI  - Studies on chemical composition of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares, Bonnaterre,
      1788) eye.
AB  - Chemical composition viz., fatty acids, amino acids and minerals of yellowfin
      tuna (Thunnus albacares) eye were analyzed for better utilization of fish
      processing discards. Analysis of fatty acids composition by gas chromatography
      mass spectrometry revealed the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids namely
      docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, arachidonic acid and linoleic acid
      at the levels of 37.8, 7.1, 3.6 and 1.4%, respectively. The major available
      monounsaturated fatty acids, palmitoleic acid and oleic acid were present at the
      level of 17.9 and 18.3% respectively. Myristic acid was the dominant saturated
      fatty acid and occupied 2% of the total fatty acids. Amino acid analysis by high
      performance liquid chromatography showed that the tuna eye has a high
      concentration of glycine (19.24 mg/100 g) followed by glutamic acid (16 mg/100 g)
      and aspartic acid (12.76 mg/100 g). Analysis of mineral content of tuna eye
      showed the presence of higher sodium and lower copper content. The results
      revealed that yellowfin tuna eye could be used as a potential source of omega-3
      fatty acids and essential amino acids.

PMID- 28559640
TI  - Is Colombia a Violent Country?

PMID- 28559641
TI  - Self-report health-related quality of life among children and adolescents from
      Bogota, Colombia. The FUPRECOL study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe by self-report the HRQoL among schoolchildren from Bogota,
      Colombia belonging to the FUPRECOL study. METHODS: A cross-sectional study in
      3,245 children and 3,354 adolescents, between 9 and 17.9 years old, participated
      in the study. Spanish version of the EQ-5D-Y was self-assessment. Percentages of
      missing values and reported problems were calculated. The data was analyzed by
      measurement of central tendency stratified by age group, and to compare them to
      international references. RESULTS: A total of 58.3%, (n= 3,848) were women. In
      all ages, the HRQoL was higher in boys than in girls. To compare by sex, the
      dimensions of the EQ-5D-Y "feeling worried, sad or unhappy" and "having pain or
      discomfort", showed the highest frequency among women. Overall, our HRQoL were
      higher than South Africa, Germany and Italy references. CONCLUSION: The HRQoL was
      higher in boys than in girls The HRQoL. The dimensions of the EQ-5D-Y "feeling
      worried, sad or unhappy" and "having pain or discomfort", showed the highest
      frequency. The HRQoL by age and sex may be used in the evaluation of the health
      perceived among schoolchildren from Bogota.

PMID- 28559642
TI  - Metric properties of the "timed get up and go- modified version" test, in risk
      assessment of falls in active women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse the metric properties of the Timed Get up and Go-Modified
      Version Test (TGUGM), in risk assessment of falls in a group of physically active
      women. METHODS: A sample was constituted by 202 women over 55 years of age, were
      assessed through a crosssectional study. The TGUGM was applied to assess their
      fall risk. The test was analysed by comparison of the qualitative and
      quantitative information and by factor analysis. The development of a logistic
      regression model explained the risk of falls according to the test components.
      RESULTS: The TGUGM was useful for assessing the risk of falls in the studied
      group. The test revealed two factors: the Get Up and the Gait with dual task.
      Less than twelve points in the evaluation or runtimes higher than 35 seconds was
      associated with high risk of falling. More than 35 seconds in the test indicated
      a risk fall probability greater than 0.50. Also, scores less than 12 points were
      associated with a delay of 7 seconds more in the execution of the test (p=
      0.0016). CONCLUSIONS: Factor analysis of TGUGM revealed two dimensions that can
      be independent predictors of risk of falling: The Get up that explains between
      64% and 87% of the risk of falling, and the Gait with dual task, that explains
      between 77% and 95% of risk of falling.

PMID- 28559643
TI  - Variability between Clarke's angle and Chippaux-Smirak index for the diagnosis of
      flat feet.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The measurements used in diagnosing biomechanical pathologies vary
      greatly. The aim of this study was to determine the concordance between Clarke's
      angle and Chippaux-Smirak index, and to determine the validity of Clarke's angle
      using the Chippaux-Smirak index as a reference. METHODS: Observational study in a
      random population sample (n= 1,002) in A Coruna (Spain). After informed patient
      consent and ethical review approval, a study was conducted of anthropometric
      variables, Charlson comorbidity score, and podiatric examination (Clarke's angle
      and Chippaux-Smirak index). Descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic
      regression were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of flat feet, using a
      podoscope, was 19.0% for the left foot and 18.9% for the right foot, increasing
      with age. The prevalence of flat feet according to the Chippaux-Smirak index or
      Clarke's angle increases significantly, reaching 62.0% and 29.7% respectively.
      The concordance (kappa I) between the indices according to age groups varied
      between 0.25-0.33 (left foot) and 0.21-0.30 (right foot). The intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC) between the Chippaux-Smirak index and Clarke's
      angle was -0.445 (left foot) and -0.424 (right foot). After adjusting for age,
      body mass index (BMI), comorbidity score and gender, the only variable with an
      independent effect to predict discordance was the BMI (OR= 0.969; 95% CI: 0.940
      0.998). CONCLUSION: There is little concordance between the indices studied for
      the purpose of diagnosing foot arch pathologies. In turn, Clarke's angle has a
      limited sensitivity in diagnosing flat feet, using the Chippaux-Smirak index as a
      reference. This discordance decreases with higher BMI values.

PMID- 28559644
TI  - Severe microscopic polyangiitis with unilateral vocal cord paralysis as initial
      manifestation.
AB  - CASE DESCRIPTION: A 16 year-old female who presented with initial ear, nose and
      throat manifestations who later progressed to severe renal disease, requiring
      hemodialysis after 11 months of unique laryngeal involvement. CLINICAL FINDINGS:
      Unilateral vocal cord paralysis without other symptoms or signs, but with
      positive perinuclear anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) and anti
      myeloperoxidase autoantibodies, followed an unfavorable course months later with
      rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. Renal biopsy confirmed an ANCA-associated
      vasculitis. She was diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis. TREATMENT AND
      OUTCOME: High-dose glucocorticoids, intravenous cyclophosphamide, plasma exchange
      and finally, hemodialysis and renal transplantation. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In
      contrast to granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener), ear, nose and throat
      manifestations in microscopic polyangiitis are uncommon, while involvement of the
      lungs and kidneys are usual. We present a case with an isolated rare involvement,
      which progressed to severe disease. This atypical case warns about laryngeal
      symptoms as initial manifestation of an anti-myeloperoxidase positive systemic
      vasculitides, and emphasizes the relevance of close observation when unexplained
      isolated conditions with accompanying evidence of autoimmunity, in this case high
      levels of specific autoantibodies, are present.

PMID- 28559645
TI  - Comorbidity between HTLV-1-associated adult T-cell lymphoma/leukemia and
      verrucous carcinoma: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adult T-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATLL) is classified as a peripheral
      CD4+ T-cell neoplasm caused by the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV
      1). Typical symptoms are associated with leukemic infiltration; however, atypical
      and exaggerated manifestations of verrucous carcinoma have also been described.
      CASE REPORT: We present here the case of a patient with multiple skin lesions,
      ischemic necrosis in the hallux and lymphadenopathies. Biopsies were taken, which
      showed verrucous epidermal carcinoma and cutaneous lymphoma. Splenomegaly and
      adenopathy in mesentery, retro peritoneum and lymph node chains in the limbs were
      observed. Bone marrow examination showed findings compatible with T-cell
      leukemia/lymphoma; and it was ELISA positive for HTLV-1/2. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME:
      The patient had a good initial response to a CHOP scheme (cyclophosphamide,
      doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone) with filgrastim. However, the patient
      had a relapse and died before the second cycle. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Comorbidity
      could lead to the associated risk factors model. According to this model,
      secondary immunodeficiency caused by HTLV-1 may induce the development of
      verrucous carcinomas; alternatively, the disease could be due to a correlation
      between HTLV-1 and the human papillomavirus (HPV).

PMID- 28559647
TI  - Erratum: Preliminary Characterisation of Cognition and Social Cognition in
      Spinocerebellar Ataxia Types 2, 1, and 7.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.3233/BEN-2010-0270.].

PMID- 28559646
TI  - Assessing Cognitive Ability and Simulator-Based Driving Performance in Poststroke
      Adults.
AB  - Driving is an important activity of daily living, which is increasingly relied
      upon as the population ages. It has been well-established that cognitive
      processes decline following a stroke and these processes may influence driving
      performance. There is much debate on the use of off-road neurological assessments
      and driving simulators as tools to predict driving performance; however, the
      majority of research uses unlicensed poststroke drivers, making the comparability
      of poststroke adults to that of a control group difficult. It stands to reason
      that in order to determine whether simulators and cognitive assessments can
      accurately assess driving performance, the baseline should be set by licenced
      drivers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess differences in cognitive
      ability and driving simulator performance in licensed community-dwelling
      poststroke drivers and controls. Two groups of licensed drivers (37 poststroke
      and 43 controls) were assessed using several cognitive tasks and using a driving
      simulator. The poststroke adults exhibited poorer cognitive ability; however,
      there were no differences in simulator performance between groups except that the
      poststroke drivers demonstrated less variability in driver headway. The
      application of these results as a prescreening toolbox for poststroke drivers is
      discussed.

PMID- 28559648
TI  - Current concepts in the articular cartilage repair and regeneration.

PMID- 28559649
TI  - Tranexamic acid in total hip arthroplasty: A recursive cumulative meta-analysis
      of randomized controlled trials and assessment of publication bias.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: TXA has been evaluated in THA in several randomized controlled
      trials for the past 16 years. We attempted to evaluate the trends in the evidence
      using recursive cumulative meta-analysis and publication bias using Rosenthal and
      'Trim and Fill' methods. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched for
      randomized controlled clinical trials comparing TXA with either placebo (or no
      TXA administration) or TXA, administered through different routes in patients
      with osteoarthritis or osteonecrosis of the hip who underwent THA. We considered
      the total number of patients requiring blood transfusion as the clinical outcome
      for both the analyses and used quality effects model for assessing the changes in
      the pooled estimates with addition of new clinical trial data. We also assessed
      the publication bias by plotting individual study estimates with the standard
      errors using Rosenthal and 'Trim and Fill'methods. RESULTS: A total of 20 studies
      were included. The pooled cumulative meta-analysis indicates that from 2014 the
      addition of estimate from new studies in the following years is only narrowing
      the confidence interval without any significant change in the point estimate.
      Rosenthal fail-safe-N for the comparisons of intravenous bolus TXA, intra
      operative and post-operative intravenous TXA and topical with control groups were
      54, 6 and 16 respectively. Fail-safe-N for the combined intravenous and topical
      TXA with intravenous TXA alone was 13. CONCLUSION: Adequate evidence exists
      supporting the use of intravenous TXA in reducing the need for blood transfusion
      in THA. There is possible existence of small studies with null effects evaluating
      the use of TXA in THA.

PMID- 28559650
TI  - A numerical study on stress distribution across the ankle joint: Effects of
      material distribution of bone, muscle force and ligaments.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to develop a realistic three dimensional FE
      model of intact ankle joint. METHODS: Three dimensional FE model of the intact
      ankle joint was developed using computed tomography data sets. The effect of
      muscle force, ligaments and proper material property distribution of bone on
      stress distribution across the intact ankle joint was studied separately.
      RESULTS: Present study indicates bone material property, ligaments and muscle
      force have influence on stress distribution across the ankle joint. CONCLUSION:
      Proper bone material, ligaments and muscle must be considered in the
      computational model for pre-clinical analysis of ankle prosthesis.

PMID- 28559652
TI  - Mini-Review of the Chin-Shan Community Cardiovascular Cohort Study in Population
      Health Research in Taiwan.
AB  - Preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a growing global
      public health concern, and evidence-based data from population-based health
      studies are needed in order to develop appropriate public health policies for
      controlling NCDs. The Chin-Shan Community Cardiovascular Cohort (CCCC) study is a
      prospective cohort consisting of participants from one community in China in 1990
      1991, and has provided substantial evidence-based data on domestic and global
      health issues in preventive cardiology fields. The present study is a mini-review
      of the CCCC study. In this review, we have described the historical background of
      the cardiovascular disease burden and related risk factors, especially lifestyle
      factors, subclinical disease markers, biomarkers and prediction models, and
      related international collaborative projects. In addition, this mini-review study
      provides a measure of insight into future plans for 21st century epidemiological
      research in cardiovascular diseases, suggesting possible areas of focus for
      future research.

PMID- 28559651
TI  - The 2017 Focused Update of the Guidelines of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology
      (TSOC) and the Taiwan Hypertension Society (THS) for the Management of
      Hypertension.
AB  - Hypertension (HT) is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
      Over the past 25 years, the number of individuals with hypertension and the
      estimated associated deaths has increased substantially. There have been great
      debates in the past few years on the blood pressure (BP) targets. The 2013
      European Society of Hypertension and European Society of Cardiology HT guidelines
      suggested a unified systolic BP target of 140 mmHg for both high-risk and low
      risk patients. The 2014 Joint National Committee report further raised the
      systolic BP targets to 150 mmHg for those aged >= 60 years, including patients
      with stroke or coronary heart disease, and raised the systolic BP target to 140
      mmHg for diabetes. Instead, the 2015 Hypertension Guidelines of the Taiwan
      Society of Cardiology and the Taiwan Hypertension Society suggested more
      aggressive BP targets of < 130/80 mmHg for patients with diabetes, coronary heart
      disease, chronic kidney disease with proteinuria, and atrial fibrillation
      patients on antithrombotic therapy. Based on the main findings from the Systolic
      Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) and several recent meta-analyses, the
      HT committee members of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology and the Taiwan
      Hypertension Society convened and finalized the revised BP targets for management
      of HT. We suggested a new systolic BP target to < 120 mmHg for patients with
      coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease with an eGFR of 20-60 ml/min/1.73
      m2, and elderly patients aged >= 75 years, using unattended automated office BP
      measurement. When traditional office BP measurement is applied, we suggested BP
      target of < 140/90 mmHg for elderly patients with an age >= 75 years. Other BP
      targets with traditional office BP measurement remain unchanged. With these more
      aggressive BP targets, it is foreseeable that the cardiovascular events will
      decrease substantially in Taiwan.

PMID- 28559653
TI  - Clinical Characteristics of Patients Less than Forty Years Old with Coronary
      Artery Disease in Taiwan: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) rarely occurs in young adults. Our
      objective was to investigate the baseline characteristics and outcomes of young
      patients with CAD. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled patients aged < 40 years
      of age who underwent coronary angiography in a tertiary hospital in Taiwan
      between 2002 and 2015. The baseline characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of
      patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and occlusive CAD (stenotic lesions >
      50%) were compared with those of patients without ACS and non-occlusive CAD,
      respectively. RESULTS: We enrolled 245 young patients including 131 (53.5%) with
      ACS and 178 with occlusive CAD. The median age of the patients was 36.08 years
      and the mean follow-up period was 4.84 years. Of all study subjects, 220 (89.8%)
      were men and 140 (57.1%) were current smokers; there was an overall in-hospital
      mortality rate of 3.3%. Furthermore, age, body mass index, smoking, total
      leukocyte count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, total cholesterol, and low
      density lipoprotein were higher in patients with ACS and significant CAD than in
      those without ACS and nonstenotic CAD. Interestingly, triglyceride (TG) levels
      and the TG to high-density lipoprotein ratio were significantly higher in
      patients with ACS and occlusive CAD than in those without ACS and non-occlusive
      CAD. Logistic regression analysis revealed that smoking is an independent
      predictor of ACS and occlusive CAD. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that
      classical risk factors, obesity, and inflammation remain potent contributors to
      occlusive CAD and ACS in young adults in Taiwan. Efforts to prevent or minimize
      these risk factors, such as smoking cessation and aggressive lipid control, are
      necessary in young adults.

PMID- 28559654
TI  - Aortic Arch Calcification Associated with Cardiovascular Events and Death among
      Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To date, it remains unsettled whether aortic arch calcification (AAC)
      has prognostic value in patients with acute coronary syndrome. METHODS: From
      January 1 to December 31, 2013, a total of 225 patients with acute coronary
      syndrome (mean age 72 +/- 26 years, 75% male) were enrolled in this study.
      Patients admitted to the coronary care unit of a tertiary referral medical center
      under the preliminary diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were retrospectively
      investigated. The primary endpoint was composite of long-term major adverse
      cardiovascular events. The secondary endpoints were 30-day and long-term all
      cause mortality. RESULTS: Of the 225 patients enrolled in this study, 143 had
      detectable AAC. Those who had AAC were older, with higher Killip classification
      and thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) score with a lower probability
      of single vessel disease. Acute coronary syndrome patients with AAC had
      significantly higher 30-day mortality (17.3% vs. 7.1%, log-rank p = 0.02). During
      a mean follow-up period of 165 +/- 140 days (maximum 492 days), the calcification
      group had significantly increased cardiovascular deaths (27.6% vs. 11.2%, log
      rank p = 0.002), all-cause mortality (28.3% vs. 11.2%, log-rank p = 0.001) and
      composite endpoint of major adverse cardiovascular events (39.4% vs. 24.6%, log
      rank p = 0.01). After adjusting for age, gender, diabetes mellitus and
      hypertension, AAC was an independent risk factor for primary and secondary
      endpoints among patients with acute coronary syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: AAC provided
      valuable prognostic information on clinical outcomes in patients with acute
      coronary syndrome. However, different treatment strategies would be warranted for
      optimal risk reduction in such a population.

PMID- 28559655
TI  - Everolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold in Real World Practice - A
      Single Center Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug-eluting stents are widely used in coronary artery intervention.
      However, vessel caging and very late thrombotic events are of persistent and
      substantial concern. Bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) were developed to
      deliver vascular reparative therapy, by eliminating permanent mechanical
      restraint. However, data regarding its clinical performance is lacking. METHODS:
      After the BVS implantation procedure received national approval in May 2014,
      patients receiving BVS implantation until November 2014 in National Taiwan
      University Hospital (NTUH) were enrolled. Clinical variables, angiographic data,
      procedural details, and follow-up information were collected and compared with
      those receiving BVS at NTUH as part of the global ABSORB EXTEND trial. RESULTS: A
      total of 35 patients (38 target vessels) with 48 BVS implanted after approval
      were enrolled, as the "real-world practice" group. Data of the 34 patients (34
      target vessels) with 37 BVS implanted in the ABSORB EXTEND trial were also
      obtained. Differences in lesion complexity (0% type B2/C lesion in ABSORB EXTEND,
      versus 23.7% in real-world, p = 0.007) and lesion length (20.9 +/- 6.1 mm in
      ABSORB EXTEND, versus 29.5 +/- 15.9 mm in real-world, p = 0.008) were noted. The
      ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization after an average of 732 days
      follow-up was 11.8% in the ABSORB EXTEND trial. However, there was no ischemia
      driven target lesion revascularization (TLR), no scaffold thrombosis, no
      myocardial infarction (MI), and no patients passed during the follow-up period.
      In real-world patients, there is 5.3% of MI, 2.6% ischemia-driven TLR, and 2.6%
      of non-fatal probable scaffold thrombosis. CONCLUSIONS: The use of BVS in real
      world practice is feasible, with clinical outcomes comparable to those in the
      ABSORB EXTEND trial.

PMID- 28559656
TI  - Local Intracoronary Infusion of Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors via a Perfusion
      Catheter versus Intracoronary Guiding Catheter Injection during Primary
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Pilot Observational Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glycoprotein IIb IIIa inhibitors improved short- and long-term
      outcome when added to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) in
      patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We hypothesized
      that intracoronary eptifibatide infusion via a perfusion catheter improves
      angiographic and clinical outcome of patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI, versus
      conventional intracoronary bolus injection. METHODS: Prospectively, we enrolled
      80 patients with acute STEMI and thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI)
      thrombus grade >= 2. Patients were assigned to receive eptifibatide (180 MUg)
      either via a dedicated coronary perfusion catheter (ClearWayTM) during PPCI
      (group I), or guiding catheter (group II). Assessment of TIMI thrombus grade,
      TIMI flow grade, and TIMI myocardial perfusion (TMP) grade was performed both at
      baseline and post- procedurally. The primary 'angiographic' endpoint was final
      TMP grade 0/1. The primary 'clinical' endpoint was a composite of cardiac death,
      non-fatal re-infarction, target vessel revascularization, and recurrent ischemia
      at 30-day follow-up. RESULTS: Mean age was 52.3 +/- 8.9 years (17.5% females).
      Clearance of visible thrombus (TIMI thrombus grade 0) at final angiogram was more
      frequent in group I. Additionally, both final TIMI flow grade 3 and final TMP
      grade 3 occurred more frequently in group I. The primary angiographic endpoint
      was more frequent in group II versus group I (17.5% versus 0%, respectively, p =
      0.001). The primary clinical endpoint was more frequent in group II (20% versus
      0%, respectively, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with STEMI, intracoronary
      eptifibatide infusion via a perfusion catheter during PPCI improved immediate
      angiographic outcome, and reduced clinical events at 30-day follow-up, versus
      bolus injection via the guiding catheter.

PMID- 28559658
TI  - Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Gene Polymorphisms are Associated
      with Coronary Artery Lesions in the Chronic Stage of Kawasaki Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kawasaki disease is the most common cause of pediatric acquired heart
      disease. The role of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 in the
      inflammatory process has been documented. To date, no report has investigated the
      relationship between coronary artery lesions of Kawasaki disease and platelet
      endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 polymorphisms. METHODS: A total of 114
      Kawasaki disease children with coronary artery lesions and 185 Kawasaki disease
      children without coronary artery lesions were recruited in this study. The TaqMan
      assay was conducted to identify the genotype in this case-control study. RESULTS:
      In three single nucleotide polymorphisms (Leu125Val, Ser563Asn, and Arg670Gly) of
      platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1, we found that the Leu-Ser-Arg
      haplotype was associated with a significantly increased risk for coronary artery
      lesions in the chronic stage (odds ratio 3.05, 95% confidence interval 1.06-8.80,
      p = 0.039), but not for coronary artery lesions in the acute stage. Analysis
      based on the diplotypes of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 also
      showed that Kawasaki disease with one or two alleles of Leu-Ser-Arg had a
      significantly increased risk of chronic coronary artery lesions (odds ratio 3.38,
      95% confidence interval 1.11-10.28, p = 0.032) and had increased platelet counts
      after Kawasaki disease was diagnosed, as compared to those with other diplotypes.
      CONCLUSIONS: The haplotype of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 Leu
      Ser-Arg might be associated with the increased platelet counts and the following
      risk of chronic coronary artery lesions in a dominant manner in Kawasaki disease.

PMID- 28559657
TI  - Epicardial Adipose Tissue Thickness and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in
      Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is well-known that cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality is
      increased in hemodialysis patients. Epicardial fat thickness (EFT), which
      reflects visceral adiposity, has been suggested as a new cardiometabolic risk
      factor. The purpose of this study was to investigate EFT in hemodialysis
      patients. METHODS: A total of 144 consecutive patients (60 hemodialysis patients
      and 84 controls) were enrolled into the study, and patients with diabetes
      mellitus and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were excluded. EFT was measured on the
      free wall of the right ventricle at end-diastole from the parasternal long-axis
      view by standard transthorasic 2D echocardiography. RESULTS: The groups were
      similar in terms of sex distribution, age, blood pressure, heart rate and
      frequencies of CAD risk factors including smoking status, family history of CAD
      and hypertension. There were no significant differences between the hemodialysis
      patients and controls in 2D echocardiographic parameters, including ejection
      fraction and biochemical parameters except low-density lipoprotein, high-density
      lipoprotein and c- reactive protein. Despite having lower body mass index, EFT
      levels were significantly higher in hemodialysis patients compared to the
      controls (8.0 +/- 2.2 mm vs. 5.8 +/- 1.9 mm; p < 0.01). In multivariate linear
      regression analysis we determined that hemodialysis patient status was found to
      be an independent predictor for both EFT (beta = 0. 700, p = 0.014) and carotid
      intima-media thickness (CIMT, beta = 0. 614, p = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS:
      Hemodialysis patients are independently associated with high EFT and CIMT.

PMID- 28559659
TI  - Shen-Yuan-Dan Capsule Inhibiting Inflammatory Reaction by Regulating Insulin
      Receptor Substrate 1/PI3K/Akt/NF-kappaB Signaling Pathway in Apoliprotein E
      Knockout Mice Fed with a High-Fat Diet.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shen-Yuan-Dan Capsule (SYDC), a traditional Chinese medicine, is
      proposed to have the capacity to prevent angina pectoris. However, the effects
      and the related mechanisms of SYDC on atherosclerosis (AS) are still unknown.
      This study was designed to investigate the effects of SYDC on AS and inflammatory
      reaction in the apoliprotein E-knockout (ApoE-/-) mice fed with a high-fat diet.
      METHODS: Thirty eight-week-old male ApoE-/- mice were randomly divided into three
      groups (n = 10) 6 weeks after being fed with a high-fat diet: the control group,
      the lipitor group, and the SYDC group. The hearts were collected for hematoxylin
      and eosin (HE) or Van Gieson (VG) staining, and the aortas were collected for
      quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western
      blotting. RESULTS: The data showed that the levels of total cholesterol (TC),
      triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), atherosclerotic
      indexes (AI) and the corrected areas of atherosclerotic plaque of the mice on
      SYDC group were significantly decreased compared with those of the mice in the
      control group (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). SYDC can significantly increase collagen
      proportion in plaques as compared to the untreated mice (p < 0.01). In addition,
      the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expressions of insulin receptor substrate 1
      (IRS-1), PI3K, Akt, NF-kappaB and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in the
      mice fed with a high-fat diet were significantly reduced by SYDC (p < 0.05, p <
      0.01). CONCLUSIONS: SYDC can exert an anti-atherosclerotic effect on ApoE-/- mice
      fed with a high-fat diet. The action mechanism of SYDC was attributed to its
      ability to inhibit inflammatory reaction by regulating IRS-1/PI3K/Akt/NF-kappaB
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28559660
TI  - Mean Platelet Volume as a Predictor of Heart Failure-Related Hospitalizations in
      Stable Heart Failure Outpatients with Sinus Rhythm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we investigated the relationship between the mean
      platelet volume (MPV) with mortality and heart failure (HF)-related
      hospitalization in stable chronic HF outpatients with reduced ejection fraction
      (HFrEF) and with sinus rhythm (SR). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study
      included 197 consecutive stable chronic HFrEF outpatients with SR, who were
      admitted to our cardiology outpatient clinics for examination between January
      2014 and January 2015. According to the receiver-operating characteristic curve
      analysis, the optimal cut-off value of MPV to predict HF-related hospitalization
      was > 9.1 fL. Patients were classified into two categories according to threshold
      MPV levels, as group I with MPV <= 9.1 fL and group II with MPV > 9.1 fL.
      RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 65 +/- 13 years. The mean follow-up
      duration was 10 +/- 3 months, and 44 patients (22%) succumbed to cardiovascular
      (CV) death. The rate of CV mortality was similar between the two groups (21% vs.
      24%, p = 0.649). However, the rate of patients who experienced HF-related
      hospitalization was lower in group I compared with group II (41% vs. 87%, p <
      0.001, respectively). Univariate analysis demonstrated associations of many
      clinical factors in addition to increased MPV > 9.1 fL with HF-related
      hospitalization; however, In the multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model,
      only increased MPV > 9.1 fL (HR: 2.895, 95% CI: 1.774-4.724, p < 0.001), systolic
      pulmonary artery pressure level (HR: 1.018, 95% CI: 1.001-1.036, p = 0.048) and
      pre-admission beta blocker use (HR: 0.517, 95% CI: 0.305-0.877, p = 0.014)
      remained associated with a risk of HF-related hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: The
      mean platelet volume might be a useful parameter for risk stratification with
      regard to HF-related hospitalization in HFrEF outpatients with SR.

PMID- 28559661
TI  - Potential Screening for Cardiologist?

PMID- 28559662
TI  - The Relationship between Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity and Depressive
      Symptoms among Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Noninvasive brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is an index
      for arterial stiffness in coronary artery disease (CAD). Depression has been
      connected to increased adverse cardiac events and mortality among patients with
      CAD. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between arterial
      stiffness and depressive symptoms among patients with CAD. METHODS: Eighty-six
      patients with CAD were recruited. Demographic characteristics and Beck Depressive
      Inventory II scores were obtained from the study participants, and resting baPWV
      was measured by using a noninvasive device. Thereafter, the participants were
      divided into mild and severe arteriosclerosis groups according to baPWV values.
      RESULTS: After adjusting the age, use of beta-blockers, and left ventricular
      ejection fraction, there were higher somatic symptoms of depression in the severe
      arteriosclerosis group than those in the mild arteriosclerosis group, in
      particular concentration difficulty, changes in appetite, and fatigue. A multiple
      regression analysis indicated that baPWV was related to somatic symptoms of
      depression after adjusting the covariates of CAD risk factors. However, this
      association was not found between baPWV and cognitive symptoms of depression, and
      the total score of depression. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the proposition
      that somatic symptom of depression was related to arterial stiffness among
      patients with CAD.

PMID- 28559663
TI  - Consecutive Sessions of Rescue Balloon Atrial Septostomy for an Idiopathic
      Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Patient with Refractory Right Heart Failure -
      Usefulness of Intracardiac Echocardiography Guidance.
AB  - For idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) patients with end-stage right
      heart failure who received maximal medical therapy, balloon atrial septostomy
      (BAS) is recommended by most guidelines as a palliative therapy or a bridging
      treatment before lung transplantation. In this report, we described a 32-year-old
      woman with idiopathic PAH, who received maximal PAH-specific medical treatment,
      including intravenous prostacyclin, but still suffered from refractory right
      heart failure. The markedly enlarged right atrium (RA), high mean RA pressure of
      23 mmHg, low systemic arterial oxygen saturation of 86% and concomitant
      pancytopenia all increased the patient's risk for BAS. We used intracardiac
      echocardiography (ICE) guidance to facilitate trans-septal puncture, and
      performed graded BAS four times within 7 months to stabilize the patient. Our
      case showed that with dedicated PAH treatment, an experienced structural heart
      interventionist and ICE guidance, BAS could be done safely even in a patient in
      unfavorable clinical and hemodynamic condition.

PMID- 28559664
TI  - How radiological findings can help or hinder patients' recovery in the
      rehabilitation management of patients with low back pain: what can clinicians do?

PMID- 28559665
TI  - Spinal mobilization vs conventional physiotherapy in the management of chronic
      low back pain due to spinal disk degeneration: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to examine the efficacy of spinal
      mobilization in subjects with low back pain (LBP) and associated spinal disk
      degeneration. METHODS: Seventy-five subjects suffering from chronic LBP (>3
      months) were randomly allocated into 3 groups of 25 subjects each. Each group
      received five treatment sessions with the first group receiving manual therapy
      (MT) (spinal mobilization), the second a sham treatment, and the third
      conventional physiotherapy (CP) (stretching exercises, transcutaneous electrical
      nerve stimulation, and massage). Subjects were assessed for their pain intensity
      using the numerical pain rating scale and for their self-reported disability
      using the Oswestry and Roland-Morris Questionnaire at baseline and after the
      completion of the five treatment sessions. RESULTS: Paired t-tests showed a
      significant improvement for all outcome measures in the MT and CP group (p <
      0.05). Analysis of covariance revealed that the MT group had significant
      improvement in all outcome measures in comparison with the sham and CP group (p <
      0.05), whereas no significant difference was observed between the sham and CP
      group (p > 0.05). DISCUSSION: MT is preferable to CP in order to reduce the pain
      intensity and disability in subjects with chronic LBP and associated disk
      degeneration. The findings of this study may lead to the establishment of spinal
      mobilization as one of the most preferable approaches for the management of LBP
      due to disk degeneration. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1b.

PMID- 28559666
TI  - Thrust joint manipulation utilization by U.S. physical therapists.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Online survey study. OBJECTIVE: To determine physical therapists'
      utilization of thrust joint manipulation (TJM) and their comfort level in using
      TJM between the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions of the spine. We
      hypothesized that physical therapists who use TJM would report regular use and
      comfort providing it to the thoracic and lumbar spines, but not so much for the
      cervical spine. BACKGROUND: Recent surveys of first professional physical therapy
      degree programs have found that TJM to the cervical spine is not taught to the
      same degree as to the thoracic and lumbar spines. METHODS: We developed a survey
      to capture the required information and had a Delphi panel of 15 expert
      orthopedic physical therapists review it and provide constructive feedback. A
      revised version of the survey was sent to the same Delphi panel and consensus was
      obtained on the final survey instrument. The revised survey was made available to
      any licensed physical therapists in the U.S.A. using an online survey system,
      from October 2014 through June 2015. RESULTS: Of 1014 responses collected, 1000
      completed surveys were included for analysis. There were 478 (48%) males; the
      mean age of respondents was 39.7 +/- 10.81 years (range 24-92); and mean years of
      clinical experience was 13.6 +/- 10.62. A majority of respondents felt that TJM
      was safe and effective when applied to lumbar (90.5%) and thoracic (91.1%)
      spines; however, a smaller percentage (68.9%) felt that about the cervical spine.
      More therapists reported they would perform additional screening prior to
      providing TJM to the cervical spine than they would for the lumbar and thoracic
      spines. Therapists agreed they were less likely to provide and feel comfortable
      with TJM in the cervical spine compared to the thoracic and lumbar spines.
      Finally, therapists who are male; practice in orthopedic spine setting; are aware
      of manipulation clinical prediction rules; and have manual therapy certification,
      are more likely to use TJM and be comfortable with it in all three regions.
      CONCLUSION: Results indicate that respondents do not believe TJM for the cervical
      spine to be as safe and efficacious as that for the lumbar and thoracic spines.
      Further, they are more likely to perform additional screening, abstain from and
      do not feel comfortable performing TJM for the cervical spine. CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: Our research reveals there is a discrepancy between utilization of TJM
      at different spinal levels. This research provides an opportunity to address
      variability in clinical practice among physical therapists utilizing TJM.

PMID- 28559667
TI  - Inter-rater reliability of the McKenzie System of Mechanical Diagnosis and
      Therapy in the examination of the knee.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The McKenzie System of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) is a
      widely used method of classification and management of musculoskeletal problems.
      Although MDT has been investigated for its reliability and efficacy in the
      management of spinal pain, few studies have evaluated the system when applying it
      to musculoskeletal problems in the extremities, in particular the knee. The
      purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-rater reliability of MDT when
      classifying clinical vignettes describing patients with musculoskeletal knee
      pain. METHODS: This study was divided into two phases. First, 10 clinicians
      experienced in the use of MDT were recruited to write a total of 60 clinical
      vignettes based upon the initial assessment of their past patients with knee
      pain. Second, six different MDT raters were recruited to rate 53 selected
      vignettes and reliability was determined using Fleiss Kappa. RESULTS: There was
      'substantial agreement' among six MDT raters classifying the clinical vignettes
      into one of four categories (kappa = 0.72). There was no statistically
      significant difference between therapists with different levels of training.
      DISCUSSION: MDT demonstrated acceptable reliability among trained raters to
      classify clinical vignettes describing patients with musculoskeletal knee pain.
      To generalize the use of the system to more users, future research should
      continue to investigate the reliability of MDT using raters with lower levels of
      training and experience and assess reliability in real patients. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 5.

PMID- 28559668
TI  - Effect of leg dominance, gender and age on sensory responses to structural
      differentiation of straight leg raise test in asymptomatic subjects: a cross
      sectional study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of
      structural differentiation on sensory responses of asymptomatic individuals to
      standard neurodynamic tests of straight leg raise (SLR) and to evaluate the
      relevance of leg dominance, gender, and age. BACKGROUND: SLR test is a well-known
      neurodynamic test among physical therapists; no studies to date have investigated
      the influence of gender, age, and leg dominance to the sensory responses of this
      neurodynamic test and its structured differentiating maneuver. METHODS: Thirty
      (16 women) asymptomatic individuals enrolled in this study. Dominancy test was
      performed for each participant. Pain intensity using visual analogue scale (VAS),
      symptoms location in a body chart, nature of symptoms evoked, and hip range of
      motion (ROM) were recorded and compared at ankle neutral position (N-SLR) and
      dorsiflexion (DF-SLR) in both legs at the point of pain tolerance during SLR
      (P2). In addition, hip ROM was recorded at the onset of pain (P1). RESULTS: There
      was a statistically significant sex main effect for P1 and P2 between N-SLR and
      DF-SLR (p < 0.05). Mean hip ROM during the SLR was more than 10 degrees  greater
      in women than men. There was no statistically significant interaction between leg
      dominance and age group in N-SLR, DF-SLR, and VAS. Pain intensity was moderate
      for each SLR test. Symptoms most often described were stretch (96.7%), followed
      by tightness (70%) in the posterior thigh and leg. CONCLUSIONS: SLR hip ROM is
      influenced by sex in asymptomatic individuals, leading to a greater hip ROM in
      SLR in women. Age and limb dominance are not relevant to SLR hip ROM or pain
      intensity.

PMID- 28559669
TI  - The effect of spinal position on sciatic nerve excursion during seated neural
      mobilisation exercises: an in vivo study using ultrasound imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research has established that the amount of inherent tension a
      peripheral nerve tract is exposed to influences nerve excursion and joint range
      of movement (ROM). The effect that spinal posture has on sciatic nerve excursion
      during neural mobilisation exercises has yet to be determined. The purpose of
      this research was to examine the influence of different sitting positions (slump
      sitting versus upright-sitting) on the amount of longitudinal sciatic nerve
      movement during different neural mobilisation exercises commonly used in clinical
      practice. METHODS: High-resolution ultrasound imaging followed by frame-by-frame
      cross-correlation analysis was used to assess sciatic nerve excursion. Thirty
      four healthy participants each performed three different neural mobilisation
      exercises in slump-sitting and upright-sitting. Means comparisons were used to
      examine the influence of sitting position on sciatic nerve excursion for the
      three mobilisation exercises. Linear regression analysis was used to determine
      whether any of the demographic data represented predictive variables for
      longitudinal sciatic nerve excursion. RESULTS: There was no significant
      difference in sciatic nerve excursion (across all neural mobilisation exercises)
      observed between upright-sitting and slump-sitting positions (P = 0.26). Although
      greater body mass index, greater knee ROM and younger age were associated with
      higher levels of sciatic nerve excursion, this model of variables offered weak
      predictability (R2 = 0.22). DISCUSSION: Following this study, there is no
      evidence that, in healthy people, longitudinal sciatic nerve excursion differs
      significantly with regards to the spinal posture (slump-sitting and upright
      sitting). Furthermore, although some demographic variables are weak predictors,
      the high variance suggests that there are other unknown variables that may
      predict sciatic nerve excursion. It can be inferred from this research that
      clinicians can individualise the design of seated neural mobilisation exercises,
      using different seated positions, based upon patient comfort and minimisation of
      neural mechanosensitivity with the knowledge that sciatic nerve excursion will
      not be significantly influenced.

PMID- 28559671
TI  - The Contributions of Human Rights to Universal Health Coverage.

PMID- 28559670
TI  - Manual therapy and eccentric exercise in the management of Achilles tendinopathy.
AB  - : Chronic Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is an overuse condition seen among runners.
      Eccentric exercise can decrease pain and improve function for those with chronic
      degenerative tendon changes; however, some individuals have continued pain
      requiring additional intervention. While joint mobilization and manipulation has
      not been studied in the management in Achilles tendinopathy, other chronic tendon
      dysfunction, such as lateral epicondylalgia, has responded well to manual therapy
      (MT). Three runners were seen in physical therapy (PT) for chronic AT. They were
      prescribed eccentric loading exercises and calf stretching. Joint mobilization
      and manipulation was implemented to improve foot and ankle mobility, decrease
      pain, and improve function. Immediate within-session changes in pain, heel raise
      repetitions, and pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were noted following joint
      directed MT in each patient. Each patient improved in self-reported function on
      the Achilles tendon specific Victorian Institute for Sport Assessment
      questionnaire (VISA-A), pain levels, PPT, joint mobility, ankle motion, and
      single-leg heel raises at discharge and 9-month follow-up. The addition of MT
      directed at local and remote sites may enhance the rehabilitation of patients
      with AT. Further research is necessary to determine the efficacy of adding joint
      mobilization to standard care for AT. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Case series. Therapy,
      Level 4.

PMID- 28559672
TI  - Universal Health Coverage: A Return to Alma-Ata and Ottawa.

PMID- 28559673
TI  - Three Case Studies in Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health
      Coverage.
AB  - The goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) can generally be realized
      only in stages. Moreover, resource, capacity, and political constraints mean
      governments often face difficult trade-offs on the path to UHC. In a 2014 report,
      Making fair choices on the path to UHC, the WHO Consultative Group on Equity and
      Universal Health Coverage articulated principles for making such trade-offs in an
      equitable manner. We present three case studies which illustrate how these
      principles can guide practical decision-making. These case studies show how
      progressive realization of the right to health can be effectively guided by
      priority-setting principles, including generating the greatest total health gain,
      priority for those who are worse off in a number of dimensions (including health,
      access to health services, and social and economic status), and financial risk
      protection. They also demonstrate the value of a fair and accountable process of
      priority setting.

PMID- 28559674
TI  - What Do Core Obligations under the Right to Health Bring to Universal Health
      Coverage?
AB  - Can the right to health, and particularly the core obligations of states
      specified under this right, assist in formulating and implementing universal
      health coverage (UHC), now included in the post-2015 Sustainable Development
      Goals? In this paper, we examine how core obligations under the right to health
      could lead to a version of UHC that is likely to advance equity and rights. We
      first address the affinity between the right to health and UHC as evinced through
      changing definitions of UHC and the health domains that UHC explicitly covers. We
      then engage with relevant interpretations of the right to health, including core
      obligations. We turn to analyze what core obligations might bring to UHC,
      particularly in defining what and who is covered. Finally, we acknowledge some of
      the risks associated with both UHC and core obligations and consider potential
      avenues for mitigating these risks.

PMID- 28559675
TI  - Using the Right to Health to Promote Universal Health Coverage: A Better Tool for
      Protecting Non-Nationals' Access to Affordable Health Care?
AB  - Five years ago, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on universal
      health coverage, followed a year later by a resolution from the United Nations
      General Assembly. In these resolutions, states promised to deliver affordable
      health care for everyone, referring to notions of equity and human rights law,
      particularly a human right to health. However, the explosion of migration coupled
      with the post-2008 bleak economic climate have led societies worldwide to
      restrict, or at least challenge, the affordability of access to national health
      systems for non-nationals. It is in this light that the claims of universality
      made by universal health coverage should be challenged. This article, therefore,
      will question the effectiveness of this global health policy in guaranteeing
      access to affordable health care for non-nationals and will ask whether and how
      legal avenues such as the right to health should be used to address potential
      weaknesses.

PMID- 28559676
TI  - Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia.
AB  - This paper explores Colombia's road toward universal health care coverage. Using
      a policy-based approach, we show how, in Colombia, the legal expansion of health
      coverage is not sufficient and requires the development of appropriate and
      effective institutions. We distinguish between formal and material health
      coverage in order to underscore that, despite the rapid legal expansion of health
      care coverage, a considerable number of Colombians-especially those living in
      poor regions of the country-still lack material access to health care services.
      As a result of this gap between formal and material coverage, an individual
      living in a rich region has a much better chance of accessing basic health care
      than an inhabitant of a poor region. This gap between formal and material health
      coverage has also resulted in hundreds of thousands of citizens filing lawsuits
      tutelas-demanding access to medications and treatments that are covered by the
      health system, but that health insurance companies-also known as EPS- refuse to
      provide. We explore why part of the population that is formally insured is still
      unable to gain material access to health care and has to litigate in order to
      access mandatory health services. We conclude by discussing the current policy
      efforts to reform the health sector in order to achieve material, universal
      health care coverage.

PMID- 28559677
TI  - Human Rights and the Political Economy of Universal Health Care: Designing
      Equitable Financing.
AB  - Health system financing is a critical factor in securing universal health care
      and achieving equity in access and payment. The human rights framework offers
      valuable guidance for designing a financing strategy that meets these goals. This
      article presents a rights-based approach to health care financing developed by
      the human right to health care movement in the United States. Grounded in a human
      rights analysis of private, market-based health insurance, advocates make the
      case for public financing through progressive taxation. Financing mechanisms are
      measured against the twin goals of guaranteeing access to care and advancing
      economic equity. The added focus on the redistributive potential of health care
      financing recasts health reform as an economic policy intervention that can help
      fulfill broader economic and social rights obligations. Based on a review of
      recent universal health care reform efforts in the state of Vermont, this article
      reports on a rights-based public financing plan and model, which includes a new
      business tax directed against wage disparities. The modeling results suggest that
      a health system financed through equitable taxation could produce significant
      redistributive effects, thus increasing economic equity while generating
      sufficient funds to provide comprehensive health care as a universal public good.

PMID- 28559678
TI  - Assessing Private Sector Involvement in Health Care and Universal Health Coverage
      in Light of the Right to Health.
AB  - The goal of universal health coverage is to "ensure that all people obtain the
      health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for
      them." There are many connections between this goal and the state's legal
      obligation to realize the human right to health. In the context of this goal, it
      is important to assess private actors' involvement in the health sector. For
      example, private actors may not always have the incentives to deal with
      externalities that affect the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and
      quality of health care services; they may not be in a position to provide "public
      goods"; or they may operate under imperfect information. This paper sets out to
      answer the question, what legal human rights obligations do states have in terms
      of regulating private sector involvement in health care?

PMID- 28559680
TI  - Interpreting the International Right to Health in a Human Rights-Based Approach
      to Health.
AB  - This article tracks the shifting place of the international right to health, and
      human rights-based approaches to health, in the scholarly literature and United
      Nations (UN). From 1993 to 1994, the focus began to move from the right to health
      toward human rights-based approaches to health, including human rights guidance
      adopted by UN agencies in relation to specific health issues. There is a
      compelling case for a human rights-based approach to health, but it runs the risk
      of playing down the right to health, as evidenced by an examination of some UN
      human rights guidance. The right to health has important and distinctive
      qualities that are not provided by other rights-consequently, playing down the
      right to health can diminish rights-based approaches to health, as well as the
      right to health itself. Because general comments, the reports of UN Special
      Rapporteurs, and UN agencies' guidance are exercises in interpretation, I discuss
      methods of legal interpretation. I suggest that the International Covenant on
      Economic, Social and Cultural Rights permits distinctive interpretative methods
      within the boundaries established by the Vienna Convention on the Law of
      Treaties. I call for the right to health to be placed explicitly at the center of
      a rights-based approach and interpreted in accordance with public international
      law and international human rights law.

PMID- 28559679
TI  - Case Study of an Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Service in Australia:
      Universal, Rights-Based, Publicly Funded Comprehensive Primary Health Care in
      Action.
AB  - Universal health coverage provides a framework to achieve health services
      coverage but does not articulate the model of care desired. Comprehensive primary
      health care includes promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative
      interventions and health equity and health as a human right as central goals. In
      Australia, Aboriginal community-controlled health services have pioneered
      comprehensive primary health care since their inception in the early 1970s. Our
      five-year project on comprehensive primary health care in Australia partnered
      with six services, including one Aboriginal community-controlled health service,
      the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress. Our findings revealed more impressive
      outcomes in several areas-multidisciplinary work, community participation,
      cultural respect and accessibility strategies, preventive and promotive work, and
      advocacy and intersectoral collaboration on social determinants of health-at the
      Aboriginal community-controlled health service compared to the other
      participating South Australian services (state-managed and nongovernmental ones).
      Because of these strengths, the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress's
      community-controlled model of comprehensive primary health care deserves
      attention as a promising form of implementation of universal health coverage by
      articulating a model of care based on health as a human right that pursues the
      goal of health equity.

PMID- 28559681
TI  - International Human Rights and the Mistreatment of Women During Childbirth.
AB  - International human rights bodies have played a critical role in codifying,
      setting standards, and monitoring human rights violations in the context of
      sexual and reproductive health and rights. In recent years, these institutions
      have developed and applied human rights standards in the more particular context
      of maternal mortality and morbidity, and have increasingly recognized a critical
      human rights issue in the provision and experience of care during and after
      pregnancy, including during childbirth. However, the international human rights
      standards on mistreatment during facility-based childbirth remain, in an early
      stage of development, focused largely on a discrete subset of experiences, such
      as forced sterilization and lack of access to emergency obstetric care. As a
      consequence, the range of mistreatment that women may experience has not been
      adequately addressed or analyzed under international human rights law.
      Identifying human rights norms and standards related to the full range of
      documented mistreatment is thus a first step towards addressing violations of
      human rights during facility-based childbirth, ensuring respectful and humane
      treatment, and developing a program of work to improve the overall quality of
      maternal care. This article reviews international human rights standards related
      to the mistreatment of women during childbirth in facility settings under
      regional and international human rights law and lays out an agenda for further
      research and action.

PMID- 28559682
TI  - Europe's Shifting Response to HIV/AIDS: From Human Rights to Risk Management.
AB  - Despite a history of championing HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue, and a
      rhetorical commitment to health as a human right, European states and
      institutions have shifted from a rights-based response to a risk management
      approach to HIV/AIDS since the economic recession of 2008. An interdisciplinary
      perspective is applied to analyze health policy changes at the national,
      regional, and global levels by drawing on data from key informant interviews, and
      institutional and civil society documents. It is demonstrated that, in the
      context of austerity measures, member states such as the UK and Greece reduced
      commitments to rights associated with HIV/AIDS; at the regional level, the EU
      failed to develop rights-based approaches to address the vulnerabilities and
      health care needs of key populations affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly migrants
      and sex workers; and at the global level, the EU backtracked on commitments to
      global health and is prioritizing the intellectual property rights of
      pharmaceutical companies over the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.
      The focus within and from the EU is on containment, efficiency, and cost
      reduction. The rights of those most affected are no longer prioritized.

PMID- 28559683
TI  - HIV and the Right to Health in Colombia.
AB  - The first Colombian to claim a judicially enforceable right to health was a gay
      man living with HIV, who in 1992 claimed a violation of his constitutional rights
      on account of being denied antiretroviral therapy. Since then, HIV activists have
      been at the forefront of advancing both the judicialization and social
      reconstruction of health as a human right. However, their role-and its
      implications today-has been sometimes overlooked in the study of Colombia's right
      to health. Based on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, we evaluate
      the HIV movement's effect on the progression of the right to health and resulting
      health care reform, and analyze the reform's success in addressing the needs of
      people living with HIV. While the landmark Constitutional Court decision T-760
      and resulting health care reform are not the result of any one group, the HIV
      movement played a significant role in these developments, and its values are
      largely reflected in the country's new sociopolitical conceptualization of the
      right to health. However, the movement has faced division over the issue of
      generic medication availability and among subpopulations who have not been
      strongly represented or consistent beneficiaries of its successes.

PMID- 28559684
TI  - HIV, Hepatitis C, TB, Harm Reduction, and Persons Deprived of Liberty: What
      Standards Does International Human Rights Law Establish?
AB  - HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and TB in prisons and other places of detention are
      serious public health concerns, with prevalence and incidence considerably higher
      than in the general community because of the overrepresentation of risky
      behavior, substandard conditions, overcrowding, people who inject drugs, and the
      wholly inadequate prevention, care, and treatment of these conditions, including
      the denial of harm reduction services. This is not only a severe public health
      crisis but also a serious human rights concern. This article works to clarify the
      standards established by human rights law with regards to HIV, HCV, TB, and harm
      reduction in prisons by examining international and regional case law, minimum
      standards on the treatment of prisoners and public health, as well as the work of
      UN treaty bodies, Special Rapporteurs, and prison monitoring bodies. It is
      imperative that urgent steps are taken to close the gap between human rights and
      public health standards on the one hand, and effective implementation in prison
      settings on the other.

PMID- 28559685
TI  - Reproductive Health Policy in Tunisia: Women's Right to Reproductive Health and
      Gender Empowerment.
AB  - Although Tunisia is regarded as a pioneer in the Middle East and North Africa in
      terms of women's status and rights, including sexual and reproductive health and
      rights, evidence points to a number of persisting challenges. This article uses
      the Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI) to analyze Tunisia's
      reproductive health policy between 1994 and 2014. It explores the extent to which
      reproductive rights have been incorporated into the country's reproductive health
      policy, the gaps in the implementation of this policy, and the influence of this
      policy on gender empowerment. Our results reveal that progress has been slow in
      terms of incorporating reproductive rights into the national reproductive health
      policy. Furthermore, the implementation of this policy has fallen short, as
      demonstrated by regional inequities in the accessibility and availability of
      reproductive health services, the low quality of maternal health care services,
      and discriminatory practices. Finally, the government's lack of meaningful
      engagement in advancing gender empowerment stands in the way as the main
      challenge to gender equality in Tunisia.

PMID- 28559686
TI  - Health for All? Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Implementation of
      the Right to Access to Health Care in South Africa.
AB  - The framework of health and human rights provides for a comprehensive theoretical
      and practical application of general human rights principles in health care
      contexts that include the well-being of patients, providers, and other
      individuals within health care. This is particularly important for sexual and
      gender minority individuals, who experience historical and contemporary
      systematical marginalization, exclusion, and discrimination in health care
      contexts. In this paper, I present two case studies from South Africa to (1)
      highlight the conflicts that arise when sexual and gender minority individuals
      seek access to a heteronormative health system; (2) discuss the international,
      regional, and national human rights legal framework as it pertains to sexual
      orientation, gender identity, and health; and (3) analyze the gap between
      legislative frameworks that offer protection from discrimination based on sexual
      orientation and gender identity and their actual implementation in health service
      provision. These case studies highlight the complex and intersecting
      discrimination and marginalization that sexual and gender minority individuals
      face in health care in this particular context. The issues raised in the case
      studies are not unique to South Africa, however; and the human rights concerns
      illustrated therein, particularly around the right to health, have wide resonance
      in other geographical and social contexts.

PMID- 28559687
TI  - Australia's Efforts to Improve Food Security for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
      Islander Peoples.
AB  - Australia is a wealthy country; however, available evidence suggests that food
      security among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has not yet been
      achieved. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in remote,
      regional, and urban parts of Australia experience food insecurity for a number of
      reasons that usually include low income and a lack of access to affordable and
      healthy food. The much higher rate of illness and disease that this population
      experiences compared to non-indigenous Australians is directly related to food
      insecurity. This paper examines the food insecurity among Aboriginal and Torres
      Strait Islander peoples and recent Australian government efforts to combat this
      problem. The paper first considers what constitutes a human rights-based approach
      to achieving food security. Second, it describes the food insecurity that
      currently exists among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the
      three pillars of food access, food availability, and food use. Third, the paper
      critically examines recent and current Australian government policy aimed at
      improving food security. The paper concludes with some reflections regarding how
      the Australian government can improve its efforts to achieve food security for
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

PMID- 28559689
TI  - Transforming Policy into Justice: The Role of Health Advocates in Mozambique.
AB  - Despite expanding policy commitments in many poor countries, health care is often
      a failure at the point of delivery. Lack of information, poor enforcement, and
      power dynamics prevent those whose rights have been violated from pursuing
      redress. In Mozambique, grassroots health advocates work to address this gap
      between policy and reality by blending approaches known as legal empowerment and
      social accountability. They raise awareness of health policy, support clients to
      seek redress for grievances, and facilitate problem-solving dialogues between
      communities and health facility staff. In three years we have seen communities
      begin to overcome a culture of silence. Twenty-one advocates and their clients
      have achieved redress to over a thousand grievances across 27 health facilities.
      These cases have resulted in improvements to access, infrastructure, and provider
      performance. Advocates have supported village health committees to transform
      themselves from collections of names on a list into active agents for change.
      Advocates should not be trained and left alone-they are most effective when
      integrated into a vertical team that provides continuous support and supervision,
      and that can engage higher levels of authority to solve tough cases. Aggregate
      data from cases handled by health advocates provides unique insight into how
      health policy is working in practice. We draw on that information to advocate for
      systemic changes that affect the entire country, like better policies for
      combatting bribery and stronger procedures for responding to grievances. We have
      found that legal empowerment and social accountability practices interact
      synergistically. Our preliminary experience suggests that when people are
      equipped to exercise their rights to health, even a poorly resourced system can
      improve.

PMID- 28559688
TI  - The Mental Health of Children and Parents Detained on Christmas Island: Secondary
      Analysis of an Australian Human Rights Commission Data Set.
AB  - This paper describes secondary analysis of previously unreported data collected
      during the 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in
      Immigration Detention. The aim was to examine the mental health of asylum-seeking
      parents and children during prolonged immigration detention and to consider the
      human rights implications of the findings. The average period of detention was
      seven months. Data includes 166 Kessler 10 Scales (K10) and 70 Strengths and
      Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) for children aged 3-17 and parental concerns
      about 48 infants. Extremely high rates of mental disorder in adults and children
      resemble clinical populations. The K10 indicated severe co-morbid depression and
      anxiety in 83% of adults and 85.7% of teenagers. On the SDQ, 75.7% of children
      had a high probability of psychiatric disorder, with lower conduct and
      hyperactivity scores than clinic populations. Sixty-seven percent of parents had
      concerns about their infant's development. Correlations were not found between
      time detained or parent/child distress. Multiple human rights breaches are
      identified, including the right to health. This is further evidence of the
      profound negative consequences for adults and children of prolonged immigration
      detention. Methodological limitations demonstrate the practical and ethical
      obstacles to research with this population and the politicized implications of
      the findings.

PMID- 28559690
TI  - Terminal Patients and the Right to Refuse Medical Treatment in Argentina.
AB  - The right to health has many dimensions. On the one hand, it entails positive
      duties for states to protect the health of individuals. On the other, it
      encompasses patient decision making regarding personal health, an idea which is
      closely linked to the right to autonomy and the right to free development of the
      individual-that is, to dignity.1 This is why the informed consent of the patient
      and her right to make a choice according to her own values should be honored,
      even when her decision may seem irrational or imprudent. When patients are
      incapable of providing informed consent-for example, if the patient is
      unconscious-the law can authorize certain persons to act as a proxy on their
      behalf. In Argentina, the Patients' Rights Act (2009) as amended by the Death
      with Dignity Act (2012) states that if a patient is unable to provide informed
      consent, consent may be provided on her behalf by her close relatives, affinal
      kin, or legal guardian, in this order of preference.2 The Patients' Rights Act
      also permits patients to set up advance directives regarding health decisions to
      be made if they become terminally ill. In 2015, the Argentine Supreme Court of
      Justice discussed the scope of patient autonomy in the case D., M.A. s/
      declaracion de incapacidad.3 This case presented a question that had yet to be
      explored by the court: how can we determine an unconscious patient's will if she
      does not have written advance directives concerning whether a life-sustaining
      medical treatment should be continued? This article examines the grounds of the
      Argentine Supreme Court's decision in D., M.A. First, we describe the case law
      that existed prior to D., M.A. Then, after explaining the facts of the case, we
      discuss the ruling and raise doubts about its scope.4.

PMID- 28559691
TI  - Lessons from Jonathan Mann: The Ten Commandments on Multidrug-Resistant TB.

PMID- 28559692
TI  - Moving the Debate Forward in Right to Health Litigation.

PMID- 28559693
TI  - On the Heterogeneity and Politics of the Judicialization of Health in Brazil.

PMID- 28559694
TI  - Galectin-3: a novel biomarker for the prognosis of heart failure.
AB  - Heart failure (HF) is still a global burden which carries substantial risk of
      morbidity and mortality. Thus, appropriate approach of diagnosis and layering the
      prognosis of HF are of great importance. In this paper we discuss and review a
      novel biomarker, which is called galectin-3 and already approved by Food and
      Drugs Administration (FDA) as a prediction tool for HF. Galectin-3, which is
      secreted by macrophages under the influence of mediators like osteopontin, has
      been known for its significant role in mediating cardiac fibrosis and
      inflammation. Numerous studies have shown galectin-3 as a novel prognostic
      biomarker with high predictive value for cardiovascular mortality and re
      hospitalization in HF patients. However, there are also other contradictive
      studies displayed galectin-3 inferiority against other existed HF prognostic
      biomarkers like NT-proBNP and ST2. Nevertheless, galectin-3 has some advantages
      such as more stability and resistance against hemodynamic loading and unloading
      state, and also it could act as an early indicator of cardiac fibrosis,
      ventricular remodeling, and renal impairment in HF patients.

PMID- 28559695
TI  - Therapy of the postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome: an update.
AB  - After acute infectious gastroenteritis, up to thirty percent of patients present
      prolonged gastrointestinal symptoms and a part of those affected patients can
      have the diagnostic criteria for postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome.
      Treatment is symptom directed rather than curative and includes agents prescribed
      for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome in general. Prophylaxis or early
      treatment of acute bacterial diarrhea may reduce the risk of postinfectious
      irritable bowel syndrome development by reducing the occurrence, duration, and
      severity of the chronic inflammation and mucosal alterations (all these believed
      to play an important role in disease persistence). Probiotic treatment is
      effective in restoring the intestinal microbiota in patients with irritable bowel
      syndrome and in animal models there are improvements of postinfectious irritable
      bowel syndrome. Fecal microbiota transplantation seems to be one of the most
      effective methods of treating the postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome (with
      recurrent episodes) caused by Clostridium difficile.

PMID- 28559696
TI  - The determination factors of left-right asymmetry disorders- a short review.
AB  - Laterality defects in humans, situs inversus and heterotaxy, are rare disorders,
      with an incidence of 1:8000 to 1:10 000 in the general population, and a
      multifactorial etiology. It has been proved that 1.44/10 000 of all cardiac
      problems are associated with malformations of left-right asymmetry and heterotaxy
      accounts for 3% of all congenital heart defects. It is considered that defects of
      situs appear due to genetic and environmental factors. Also, there is evidence
      that the ciliopathies (defects of structure or function) are involved in
      development abnormalities. Over 100 genes have been reported to be involved in
      left-right patterning in model organisms, but only a few are likely to candidate
      for left-right asymmetry defects in humans. Left-right asymmetry disorders are
      genetically heterogeneous and have variable manifestations (from asymptomatic to
      serious clinical problems). The discovery of the right mechanism of left-right
      development will help explain the clinical complexity and may contribute to a
      therapy of these disorders.

PMID- 28559698
TI  - Changes observed in erythrocyte cells exposed to an alternating current.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Appliance of electric pulses induces red blood cells (RBCs)
      membrane poration, membrane aminophospholipid perturbation and alteration of the
      normal flip-flop process, resulting in various shape changes of the RBCs. We
      studied morphological and water permeability changes of RBCs bombarded with
      electrons in an alternating current circuit. METHODS: We used three venous blood
      samples of 100 mL and an alternating current device. The harvested blood was
      divided into four experimental sets to be used for various exposure times: 0
      hours (control RBCs), 0.5h, 3h and 6h (electric-stimulated RBCs). Following the
      electric current each of the four sets were further divided into three samples:
      one for the assessment of the echinocytes/RBCs ratio, another for the electron
      microscopy study of ultrastructural changes induced by the alternating electrical
      current and a larger third one for determining water permeability of RCBs by 1H
      NMR spectroscopy and morphological measurements. RESULTS: There is a small but
      statistically significant effect of the RBC exposure to alternating electric
      current on cell diameters. Exposure to electric current is positively and
      strongly correlated with the percentage of echinocytes in a duration-dependent
      manner. There is a strong and statistically significant correlation between
      electric current exposure and permeability to water as measured by 1H-NMR
      spectroscopy. CONCLUSION: Following interactions between electric current and RBC
      membrane, certain modifications were observed in the erythrocyte structure. We
      attribute the increased cell size to a higher permeability to water and a
      decreased tonicity. This leads to the transformation of the RBCs into
      echinocytes.

PMID- 28559697
TI  - Quality of life in thyroid cancer patients: a literature review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Quality of life (QoL) has received increasing interest in the last
      years, especially in patients with cancer. This article aims to analyze a
      selection of medical research papers regarding the quality of life in patients
      with thyroid carcinoma. We overviewed the main QoL aspects derived from several
      studies and highlighted those less researched issues, which could represent a
      solid base for future clinical studies. METHOD: We used an integrative selection
      method of medical literature, choosing mostly "free access" studies, as it was
      considered that they could be easily viewed, searched and researched including by
      patients. RESULTS: After an integrative literature review, we selected 16
      relevant studies. Patients with thyroid cancer have several factors influencing
      their QoL, with both physical and psychological impact. The decisive factors are
      the quality of the surgical act, radioiodine therapy, follow-up using rh-TSH vs.
      hormonal withdrawal, access to behavioral help and the relationship with their
      physician. CONCLUSION: We must understand the emotional impact of the cancer
      diagnosis on the patient and we must collaborate in order to help the patient
      restore the psychosomatic balance and to recover the quality of life.

PMID- 28559699
TI  - Pulmonary hypertension in patients with hepatic cirrhosis and portal
      hypertension. An echographic study.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the study is to determine the frequency of pulmonary
      hypertension in patients with hepatic cirrhosis and portal hypertension, to
      determine the possibility of an accurate ultrasound diagnosis of the
      characteristics of this complication. METHOD: 347 patients with liver cirrhosis
      consecutively hospitalized at Coltea Clinical Hospital were screened. 61 were
      excluded because of other possible causes of portal or pulmonary hypertension.
      All patients were investigated clinically and by abdominal and cardiac
      ultrasonography. RESULTS: Of the remaining 286 patients, 116 had portal
      hypertension, 27 of them (23%) having pulmonary hypertension. In this group we
      found a higher cardiac index and right atrial volume, higher pressures in the
      right atrium, suggesting a hyperdynamic state. Porto-pulmonary hypertension was
      found in only one patient. CONCLUSION: Echocardiography permits characterization
      of patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension.

PMID- 28559700
TI  - Arterial stiffness: hemodialysis versus hemodiafiltration.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Arterial stiffness seems to be influenced by the dialysis
      method, but studies are sparse and the results discordant. High substitution
      volume online hemodiafiltration appears to have beneficial cardiovascular effects
      in dialysis patients, but its effects on arterial stiffness are not investigated.
      We aimed to analyze arterial stiffness parameters in high substitution volume
      post-dilution online hemodiafiltration and compare results to high-flux
      hemodialysis. METHODS: We studied arterial stiffness parameters using the
      oscillometric method (Arteriograph IrDA, TensioMed, Budapest, Hungary) in 23 non
      diabetic patients on high substitution volume online postdilution
      hemodiafiltration and 23 non-diabetic patients on high-flux hemodialysis.
      Dialysis vintage was at least 6 months in all subjects. RESULTS:
      Hemodiafiltration-treated patients showed a more favorable arterial stiffness
      profile. Pulse wave velocity was significantly higher in hemodialysis compared to
      hemodiafiltration patients (10.39+/-2.29 m/s vs 9.0+/-1.7 m/s, p=0.026).
      Augmentation indexes and the diastolic reflection area were also significantly
      elevated hemodialysis patients compared to hemodiafiltration patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: High substitution volume online postdilution hemodiafiltration could
      have a beneficial effect on arterial stiffness and should be assessed in properly
      sized controlled trials.

PMID- 28559702
TI  - Tubercular abdominal cocoon in children - a single centre study in remote area of
      northern India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amongst the numerous causes of intestinal obstruction listed in the
      literature, sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis also called Abdominal Cocoon
      (AC) is one of the rarest entities. Its characteristic feature is a thick
      fibrotic membrane encasing varying lengths of the small and large gut in a
      cocoon. In India, there is an increasing incidence of tuberculosis, especially in
      the rural areas. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate
      the clinical presentation and evaluate the operative findings of tuberculous AC.
      We also evaluated the outcomes and response to anti tuberculous treatment (ATT)
      in all the patients diagnosed with this condition. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This
      study was carried out at M.M. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research,
      Mullana, Ambala, India between April 2013 - March 2016 in the Department of
      Pediatric Surgery. This is a prospective study. A total of 17 patients diagnosed
      with abdominal cocoon secondary to tuberculosis have been included in the study.
      RESULTS: A total of 17 patients presented to the emergency ward with features of
      acute intestinal obstruction. The average age was 15.3 years (range 9 years to 16
      years). There were 14 females and 3 males. All patients presented with abdominal
      pain, bilious vomiting, constipation and abdominal distention. The patients were
      operated in our hospital and relieved of their obstruction. Based on their
      operative findings and after histopathological confirmation, patients were given
      ATT. In the follow-up, all patients did well, without recurrence of tuberculosis
      or intestinal obstruction. CONCLUSION: Tuberculosis as a cause of childhood AC is
      rather common in developing countries and is potentially a fatal condition. A
      strong clinical suspicion, sonographic and computed tomography scan findings help
      establish a pre-operative diagnosis. Tuberculous AC has a strong prevalence in
      females. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment followed by anti-tuberculous drugs.

PMID- 28559701
TI  - Solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas: clinical-pathological features and
      management of 13 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Solid pseudopapillary tumor (SPT) of the pancreas is a rare
      pathological condition, representing less than 3% of all exocrine pancreatic
      tumors. SPT usually occurs in young females, without notable symptoms, with a low
      malignant potential and excellent prognosis. METHOD: We conducted a retrospective
      study during the period January 2005 - January 2015. SPT patients admitted in our
      institution were reviewed by describing demographic data, clinico-pathologic and
      radiological features, therapeutic management and prognosis records. RESULTS:
      Thirteen patients with SPT were identified (10 females), with a median age of 30
      years. The main clinical presentation was abdominal pain (92.3%). The tumor was
      mostly located in the body or tail of the pancreas (77%), and the mean size was
      8.2 cm. Regarding the surgical approach there were 5 distal pancreatectomies with
      splenectomy, 3 body and tail pancreatectomies, 2 body and tail pancreatectomies
      with splenectomy, 2 pancreato-duodenectomy, 1 partial enucleation and of all only
      2 partial resections. Postoperative hematoxylin- eosin staining and
      immunohistochemistry confirmed the diagnosis in all cases. None of the patients
      had lymph nodes metastases. Only one local invasion. There was one case of death
      due to postoperative complications. Four cases followed adjuvant systemic
      chemotherapy. The mean follow-up was 18 months, without evidence of recurrence
      during this period. CONCLUSION: SPT should always be considered in the
      differential diagnosis in young women with a pancreatic tumor. Complete surgical
      excision is the treatment of choice, and is usually curative. The decision to
      administer systemic therapy must be individualized. Malignant behavior and late
      recurrences mandates long-term follow-up for patients with SPT.

PMID- 28559703
TI  - The value of laboratory tests in the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: In the last decades, the inhabitants of the Romanian region
      known as Jiu Valley underwent changes in their social and economic status which
      determined changes in behaviour and health, which influenced their general health
      condition. One of the consequences was the exacerbation of tuberculosis. In order
      to control this situation, there was a need to increase the efficiency of
      diagnosis. This optimization can be reached by a better detection of
      mycobacterium infection, optimal isolation of strains and identification of the
      resistance of strains to antituberculous drugs. METHODS: In order to identify the
      best diagnostic modality, we compared the efficacy of the classical
      bacteriological diagnosis, still performed in the field, to the modern methods of
      molecular biology. The study included two groups, one represented by 213 patients
      who were investigated using the classical bacteriological methods, and 49 who
      were diagnosed using the PCR method. RESULTS: The tuberculosis patients who have
      been evaluated only with the classical bacteriological methods where diagnosed as
      TB positive and treated according to the national guidelines, which are in
      agreement with the international guidelines. The PCR diagnostic methods had a
      superior diagnostic value compared to the traditional bacteriological method.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results revealed the superiority of the modern molecular biology
      methods based on PCR. However the bacteriological method remains useful in areas
      where PCR cannot be afforded.

PMID- 28559704
TI  - Endobronchial ultrasound - one year of experience in clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is a recent minimally
      invasive, safe examination method for the mediastinum, with a good diagnostic
      precision. This method makes possible real time examination with transbronchial
      fine needle aspiration, diagnostic transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) and
      staging of non-small pulmonary tumors, as well as diagnosis of mediastinal and
      hilar adenopathies of various causes. METHODS: We present the experience of the
      Bronchoscopy Department of the Pulmonology Clinic of Cluj-Napoca with EBUS-TBNA
      as a tool for the diagnosis and staging of tumors in contact with the bronchial
      wall and mediastinal and hilar adenopathies of unknown etiology. During the
      period August 2014 - January 2016 we examined 152 patients with no direct or
      indirect signs of lung tumor in traditional bronchoscopy. Rapid on site
      evaluation (ROSE) was available for all patients. RESULTS: Our study is a
      retrospective study of 152 EBUS-TBNA examinations. The average age of our
      patients was 54.43 years and 64% came from urban and 36% from rural background.
      EBUS-TBNA brought the final histological confirmation (tumors, sarcoidosis,
      limphoma) in 82.8% of the cases. A tumor confirmation was obtained in 95% of the
      patients who were suspected of having tumor. For a better understanding of the
      importance of this method in the daily clinical practice we present a case of
      peripheral pulmonary neoplasm with mediastinal and hilar adenopathies, where the
      contribution of EBUS-TBNA to a rapid diagnosis was essential. CONCLUSION: By the
      introduction of this method in our country one year ago, we can diagnose patients
      with lung and mediastinal tumors, which cannot be diagnosed by traditional
      bronchoscopy. This brings a valuable contribution to the improvement of lung
      cancer staging and diagnostic.

PMID- 28559705
TI  - Choosing the scientific journal for publishing research work: perceptions of
      medical and dental researchers.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: With the increasing demand to publish due to 'publish or
      perish' culture among research and academic institutions, the choice of a journal
      for publishing scientific articles becomes very important. A publication with
      many citations and high impact factor can propel researchers in their academic
      careers. The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of medical and
      dental researchers in India about the important criteria to consider while
      selecting scientific journals for publishing their research. METHODS: 206 faculty
      staff members from three medical and five dental institutions were selected
      through convenience sampling. The study participants completed a questionnaire
      with 24 closed ended questions on various factors related to journal selection
      for publication. Factors such as publication frequency, journal citation,
      indexing, peer-review, impact factor, publication fees, acceptance or rejection
      rate, publishing house, previous submission and online submission process were
      considered. The responses were recorded using a Likert scale. Cronbach's alpha as
      a measure of internal consistency or homogeneity was 0.909. Descriptive
      statistics and Mann-Whitney U test were employed for comparison of responses
      among study participants. RESULTS: The mean weight of 24 criteria on a scale of 0
      to 4 varied between 2.13 and 3.45. The results showed that indexing of journal
      (3.45+/-0.74), online submission (3.24+/-0.83), impact factor (3.11+/-0.91), peer
      review process (3.0+/-1.02) and publication fees (2.99+/-1.11) were among the
      most important criteria to consider in journal selection. CONCLUSIONS: Of the 24
      factors considered by health researchers for journal selection, the most
      important were Journal indexing, online submission, impact factor, peer-review
      and publication fees. Compared to dental researchers, medical researchers
      perceived open access and peer-review process as significantly more important
      criteria.

PMID- 28559706
TI  - Flap surgical techniques for incisional hernia recurrences. A swine experimental
      model.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: In the age of synthetic prostheses most of hernia studies
      include a careful examination of the various types of prosthesis, their
      characteristics and their repair indications. Biological prostheses are also
      beginning to draw attention. But in terms of recurrence especially for poor or
      developing countries, the discussion is different, due to their high cost which
      makes them difficult to afford. In this article we present new flap
      reconstruction techniques for the reconstruction of the abdominal wall versus
      mesh repair, applied on swine models, outline the results of each technique, and
      specify the indications for their use. METHODS: An experimental protocol using
      four swine models (PIC-FII-337 hybrid breed pigs), five months old, was
      conducted. All animal care and operative procedures were studied following the
      protocol approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Medicine and
      Pharmacy resolution no. 281/2014 of the Department of Surgery of the University
      of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine); the study was carried out
      between November 2015 and February 2016. The primary objective was to compare the
      effect of surgical strategies in the treatment of the abdominal wall defect using
      variable flaps versus mesh repair in a large-animal models. Physical examination
      and ultrasound imaging of the abdominal wall repair were done on determined
      periods, during one month. The complications occurring after the abdominal wall
      repair were edema, collections, superficial dehiscence an recurrences. RESULTS:
      No recurrences were reported at one month results, all seromas reported were
      solved over time by natural drainage. Superficial necrosis appeared in two swine
      models and superficial dehiscence occurred in one model, the perforator "plus"
      flap. Mesh infection was detected in the "onlay" swine model. CONCLUSIONS: In
      terms of recurrences, contaminated abdominal wall defects or other
      contraindications to the use of prosthetic materials, biological mesh repair or
      flap surgery are the only surgical options. Based on our findings and considering
      the high cost reported by the biological meshes use, flap surgery becomes the
      suitable treatment for such cases, allowing a good reconstruction of the
      abdominal wall.

PMID- 28559707
TI  - Formulation and evaluation of a water-in-oil cream containing herbal active
      ingredients and ferulic acid.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The main aims of the present study were to formulate an anti
      age cream based on vegetal ingredients and ferulic acid and to evaluate the
      physical characteristics and the efficacy of the cream. METHODS: The active
      ingredients were Centella asiatica oil, Spilanthes acmella oil, Zingiber
      officinale extract and ferulic acid. Formulation 1 (F1) was prepared using
      glyceryl stearate and Ceteareth-25(r) as emulsifiers and Formulation 2 (F2) using
      glyceryl stearate and potassium cetyl phosphate, all other ingredients remaining
      the same. The physical characterization of the creams was performed and the
      following parameters were analyzed: viscosity, oil droplet size, polydispersity
      index; also, texture analysis was performed. The anti-aging effect of the F2 was
      evaluated by assessing the cutaneous density before and after cream application
      using DUB-cutis(r) scanner. RESULTS: The mean diameter of oil drops was 10.26+/
      4.72 mm (F1) and 22.72+/-7.93 mm (F2) and the polydispersity index was 35.4% and
      45.7%, respectively. The mean values for consistency were 594.7+/-10.3 g (F1) and
      300.5+/-14.5 g (F2), the average values for adhesion were 15.61+/-0.8 mJ (F1) and
      22.25+/-4.3 mJ (F2), for firmness were 51.2+/-0.8 g (F1) and 30.3+/-4.3 g (F2)
      and the spreadability had values between 72.63 mm2 (F1) and 73.3 mm2 (F2). In
      vivo study revealed that the mean values of the cutaneous density increased from
      9.21+/-1.39 % to 12.50+/-1.44 % after 8 weeks of cream application. The herbal
      ingredients incorporated in the O/W cream base for the antioxidant activity and
      anti-wrinkle effect, induced changes of the cutaneous density, an important
      parameter which quantifies the regeneration process of the skin. CONCLUSIONS: An
      anti-age cream containing herbal active ingredients and ferulic acid with
      appropriate physical characteristics was obtained. In vivo study of clinical
      efficacy revealed a positive effect on skin density, which increased after 8
      weeks of cream application.

PMID- 28559708
TI  - Effect of injection site pre-cooling on pain perception in patients attending a
      dental camp at Life Line Express: a split mouth interventional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: To determine the effect of pre-cooling injection site on pain
      perception in patients attending a dental camp at lifeline express, Habibganj.
      METHODS: A split mouth interventional study assessed the effect of pre cooling
      the injection site in patients (n=33) requiring bilateral buccal infiltration
      prior to extraction. One side of the patient's mouth received the intervention
      after the injection site was pre cooled with ice for 3 minutes along with topical
      Lidocaine, while the other mouth side of the same patient received only topical
      Lidocaine and served as control group. A structured proforma assessed the
      demographic characteristics and risk factors that influence pain perception in
      patients. Mann-Whitney U tests and Wicoxon rank sum test were used for
      statistical analysis. Statistical significance was defined at P<0.05. RESULTS:
      The results revealed a significant difference in pain perception between control
      and intervention group as assessed using both Heft-Parker Visual Analog Scale
      (median score 3.0 and 1.0) and Sound Eye Motor scale (median score=1.0 and 0.0)
      (P<0.01). For both the scales the assessed and self reported variables Gender,
      Location, Chief Complaint, Region and Arch were found to be statistically
      significant. CONCLUSION: Pre cooling injection site reduced pain perception in
      patients.

PMID- 28559709
TI  - Comparative radiographic assessment of a new bioceramic-based root canal sealer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of this study was to assess the radiopacity of two
      bioceramic-based root canal sealers, the conventional TotalFill BC sealer (FKG
      Dentaire Switzerland) and a new experimental filling material developed in
      collaboration with 'Raluca Ripan' Institute for Research in Chemistry, Cluj
      Napoca. METHODS: Five disc samples were prepared using both materials (10 mm
      diameter * 1 mm thickness), being subjected to digital radiography together with
      aluminum step wedges (1 to 12 mm in thickness), in accordance with ISO 6876:
      2012. Radiopacity was determined by the computer analysis of the images obtained.
      Four different areas were selected for each sample, corresponding to a disk
      sample quadrant. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA. RESULTS: Both
      materials showed a radiopacity that was 3 mm greater than the equivalent
      thickness of aluminum. Total Fill BC showed greater radiopacity than the
      experimental material, but the differences were not statistically significant.
      CONCLUSIONS: Both materials comply with ISO 6876: 2012 recommendations on minimum
      radiopacity.

PMID- 28559710
TI  - Cutaneous nocardiosis manifesting as a frontal mass in a patient with giant cell
      arteritis.
AB  - We report the case of a subcutaneous abscess due to Nocardia spp. mimicking a
      spontaneous hematoma or an aneurysm of the temporal artery branch, in a giant
      cell arteritis patient treated with methylprednisolone and azathioprine.
      Ultrasonography, incision and drainage with cultures helped in the diagnosis.
      This case highlights the importance of considering rare pathogens in
      immunosuppressed patients, besides the more frequent disease complications.

PMID- 28559711
TI  - Biography of Professor Cornel Tiberiu Opris. Professional maturity.
AB  - Professor Cornel Tiberiu Opris was the founder and Chair of the Clinic and
      University Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Cluj, after the
      Education Reform of 1948. The article illustrates how the founder of these
      institutions led a valiant struggle for obtaining and arranging a location for
      the newly established Faculty of Dentistry, within the Institute of Medicine and
      Pharmacy. Professor Cornel Tiberiu Opris established himself as the most
      prodigious researcher at the Faculty for over a quarter-century, until his
      retirement, introducing his original conception in the therapeutic and surgical
      field. He created in Cluj-Napoca a specialist medical school by imposing national
      prestige for the institution that he led.

PMID- 28559712
TI  - Lethal case of vipera bersus bite.

PMID- 28559713
TI  - History of Medicine between tradition and modernity.
AB  - History of medicine is an extensive and very complex science. In a simple and
      classical understanding, it has an informative and associative role. Although it
      is not easy for students to understand the multiple implications of the history
      of medicine, its importance becomes more evident during their academic formation.
      The students must be persuaded particularly about the ethical and cultural values
      that history of medicine has in their training. Furthermore, history of medicine
      participates in creating the necessary perspective for shaping the future of
      medicine in the next decades. This is, perhaps, the most interesting role that
      the history of medicine should play from the modern point of view of students and
      young physicians. This paper presents different ways of understanding the roles
      of the history of medicine regarded from the traditional perspective to the
      contemporary point of view.

PMID- 28559714
TI  - Practice patterns for herpes simplex keratitis: A survey of ophthalmologists in
      Gulf Coast countries.
AB  - PURPOSE: Herpes simplex is a common cause of visual disability, and there are
      published evidence-based guidelines for therapy. This survey aims to determine
      the preferred practice patterns of ophthalmologists in Gulf Coast Countries
      regarding herpetic eye disease, as well as identify areas of controversy or
      barriers to acceptance of evidence-based protocols. METHODS: Anonymous web-based
      survey of ophthalmologists in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates,
      and Oman. RESULTS: There were 48 responses to the survey. For a first episode of
      epithelial dendritic keratitis, 28.2% reported "observation" rather than specific
      therapy. The majority of respondents utilize oral or topical antiviral for
      epithelial keratitis, with oral antiviral being the most popular (43.6%). The
      majority also included a corticosteroid with antiviral for stromal keratitis
      (83.9%) or iritis (70.3%). Over 90% prescribe a prophylactic antiviral after
      keratoplasty for herpetic eye disease, although the length of therapy ranged
      widely from <6 months to indefinite. The perceived risk of recurrent disease was
      ranked as the most important factor when considering antiviral prophylaxis,
      followed by risk of adverse effects. Topical cyclosporine was utilized "never or
      almost never" by 76.9% of respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Most respondents report
      following evidence-based guidelines. There was less consensus in areas where
      there are remaining knowledge gaps, such as the length of antiviral prophylaxis
      after keratoplasty and the potential role for topical cyclosporine.

PMID- 28559715
TI  - Intrasession repeatability of pachymetry measurements with RTVue XR 100 optical
      coherence tomography in normal cornea.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess intra-observer reproducibility and repeatability of corneal
      pachymetry measurements with RTVue XR-100 anterior segment optical coherence
      tomography (AS-OCT) in normal cornea. METHODS: Eighty-four eyes of 84 healthy
      volunteers were enrolled for this study. A single examiner performed 3 successive
      corneal pachymetry mappings with RTVue XR-100 AS -OCT in a single session. One
      eye was randomly selected for the analysis. Intrasession intraexaminer
      reproducibility and repeatability were calculated for the minimum corneal
      thickness (MCT), central corneal thickness (CCT, central 0-2 mm), pericentral (2
      5 mm) and peripheral (5-6 mm) annular zones of cornea, in the pachymetry mapping
      protocol by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation
      and test retest variability. RESULTS: The mean CCT was 497.08 +/- 32.83 um and
      MCT was 490.28 +/- 32.87 um. ICC was 0.994 for CCT and 0.983 for MCT in central 2
      mm zone. ICC in the pericentral 2-5 mm zones and 5-6 mm zone was lower than that
      in central 2 mm zone, but were still over 0.961 in 2-5 mm zone and had ICC of
      0.85 in 5-6 mm zone. CONCLUSION: In normal cornea, corneal thickness measurements
      produced highly repeatable pachymetry measurements at the central and paracentral
      zones (up to 6-mm diameter) which could be because of the high resolution and
      faster image acquisition with RTVue XR-100 OCT.

PMID- 28559716
TI  - Thickness of the retinal photoreceptor outer segment layer in healthy volunteers
      and in patients with diabetes mellitus without retinopathy, diabetic retinopathy,
      or diabetic macular edema.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the severity of
      diabetic disease in the retina is paralleled by changes in the photoreceptor
      layer. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included healthy volunteers (30
      volunteers, 60 eyes) and patients with diabetes (48 patients, 96 eyes). Each
      patient underwent a single session of spectral domain optical coherence
      tomography (OCT) in which each retina was imaged twice. On each OCT image, the
      thickness of the PROS layer was measured at the foveal center and at points 750
      MUm temporal to and nasal to the center. For statistical analyses, OCT images
      were assigned to one of the following groups: healthy, diabetes without
      retinopathy (DM), diabetic retinopathy (DR), or diabetic retinopathy with macular
      edema (DME). RESULTS: The mean PROS thickness at the foveal center in the first
      and second-obtained OCT images was as follows: healthy, 38.5 MUm and 38.6 MUm;
      DM, 38.2 MUm and 38.2 MUm; DR, 35.6 MUm and 36.1 MUm; DME, 32.6 MUm and 32.6 MUm.
      In the first and second-obtained images, significant differences were found
      between the healthy group and DR and DME (p < 0.05 for all), between the DM group
      and the DME (p < 0.05 for all), and between the DR group and the DME group (p <
      0.05 for all). No significant differences between groups were found at the nasal
      and temporal locations. CONCLUSION: The PROS layer at the foveal center was
      thinner in patients who had diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema than
      both the healthy volunteers and diabetic patients without retinopathy.

PMID- 28559717
TI  - Serum vitamin D levels in Indian patients with retinal venous occlusions.
AB  - PURPOSE: To estimate serum vitamin D (25 OH D) level in patients of retinal vein
      occlusion (RVO) and compare it with age-matched controls. METHODS AND MATERIAL:
      Forty patients above 18 years of age with retinal vein occlusion and forty age
      matched controls underwent serum vitamin D (Vit D) level estimation using a
      standard protocol. Student's t test was used to analyse differences between the
      mean of two groups. RESULTS: The mean age in RVO and control group was 60.25 and
      60.73 years respectively. The mean (+/-SD) level of vitamin D in RVO patients was
      13.68 (+/-4.58) ng/mL (range 5.5-24.8), and the 95% CI of mean was 12.21-15.14
      with SD 4.58 while in control group it was 23.03 (+/-2.89) ng/ml (range 18.4
      30.1) with 95% CI of mean being 22.11-23.96 with SD 2.89 (p value of <0.005).
      While comparing the level of Vitamin D based on type of occlusion the mean level
      of Vit D in CRVO patients was 15.36 (SD 5.30) and in BRVO it was 12.77 (SD 3.96)
      which was statistically not significant (p = 0.08). The odds ratio calculated for
      RVO cases versus controls was 133.33 which was statistically significant (P <
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is a paucity of published literature on level of Vit D
      in RVO. This study shows significantly lower levels of serum vitamin D in Indian
      patients with retinal vein occlusion as compared to age matched controls.
      Establishment of this correlation has possible implications for prophylaxis or
      treatment of RVOs.

PMID- 28559718
TI  - Clinical presentation of retinoblastoma in Alexandria: A step toward earlier
      diagnosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma in Alexandria,
      Egypt, correlate the timing of accurate diagnosis with the presence of advanced
      disease and identify causes of delayed presentation. METHODS: Retrospective
      noncomparative single institution study reviews demographic and clinical data of
      all new children with retinoblastoma presenting to Alexandria Main University
      ocular oncology clinic (OOC) from January 2012 to June 2014. Diagnosis time was
      from initial parental complaint to retinoblastoma diagnosis and referral time was
      from retinoblastoma diagnosis to presentation to the Alexandria OCC. Delayed
      Diagnosis and referral were counted if >2 weeks. Advanced presentation is defined
      as clinical TNMH (8th edition) staging of cT2 or cT3 (international intraocular
      retinoblastoma classification group D or E) in at least one eye or the presence
      of extra-ocular disease (cT4). RESULTS: Seventy eyes of 47 children were
      eligible: 52% unilateral, 7% with family history and 96% presented with
      leukocorea. Sixty-four percent of children had advanced intraocular disease and
      none had extra-ocular disease. Delayed presentation occurred in 58% of children
      and was significantly associated with advanced disease in both unilaterally and
      bilaterally affected children (p = 0.003, 0.002 respectively). The delay in
      diagnosis was more in unilateral cases while the delay in referral was more in
      bilateral cases. The main cause of delayed presentation in unilateral
      retinoblastoma was misdiagnosis (30%) while parental shopping for second medical
      opinion (30%) was the main cause in bilateral children. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed
      diagnosis is a problem affecting retinoblastoma management. Better medical
      education and training, health education and earlier screening are recommended to
      achieve earlier diagnosis.

PMID- 28559719
TI  - Age related changes in corneal morphological characteristics of healthy Pakistani
      eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the age related changes in corneal morphological
      characteristics in normal healthy adult Pakistani population. METHODS: Four
      hundred and sixty-four eyes of 232 healthy volunteers with ages between 10 and 80
      years of either gender were included. Corneal endothelial cell density (CED),
      morphology and central corneal thickness (CCT) were evaluated in each subject
      with non-contact specular microscope (SP-3000 P, Topcon Corporation, Japan) and
      average of three readings per eye was used for final analysis. All the findings
      including demographic data, and corneal parameters were endorsed on a pre-devised
      proforma. RESULTS: Mean age of study population was 39.52 +/- 18.09 years with
      123 (53%) males and 109 (47%) females. Mean CED of study population was 2722.67
      +/- 349.67 cells/mm2, while mean CCT was 505.72 +/- 32.82 um. Corneal
      morphological parameters among various age groups showed statistically
      significant difference in all parameters (p < 0.01). Correlation statistics
      revealed that CED (r = -0.497, p < 0.01), CCT (r = -0.216, p < 0.01) and
      hexagonality (r = -0.397, p < 0.01) decreased significantly with increasing age,
      while average cell size (r = 0.492, p < 0.01) and CV of size (r = 0.454, p <
      0.01) increased with age. CONCLUSION: This study showed that CED in Pakistani
      eyes was less than that reported in Chinese eyes, higher than Portuguese, Iranian
      and Indian eyes and comparable to the values in Turkish, Nigerian and Thai eyes.

PMID- 28559720
TI  - Magnitude of diabetes and hypertension among patients with Dry Eye Syndrome at a
      tertiary hospital of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - A case series.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the magnitude of chronic diseases among patients suffering from
      Dry Eye Syndrome (DES) and compare them with published findings in the
      literature. METHODS: Patients diagnosed in 2016 suffering from DES based on
      presenting symptoms and findings of ocular examination were included in this
      study. The demographic information included age and gender. Chronic diseases
      among them were identified through case records, assessment and ongoing
      medications. RESULTS: This case series had 62 patients (58% males) of DES. The
      mean age was 60.2 +/- 16.6 years. The prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemia
      and diabetes among them was 48.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 31.5-65.5), 55.9%
      (95% CI 40.1-71.7) and 47.1% (95% CI 29.8-64.4) respectively. The rate of thyroid
      diseases (16.2%), renal diseases (6.5%), and liver diseases (6.7%) was not
      significant in this series. CONCLUSIONS: This series in central Saudi Arabia
      suggests that the magnitude of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension,
      obesity and dyslipidemia seems to be higher in patients with DES compared to the
      population.

PMID- 28559721
TI  - Non-pharmacological therapies for primary open angle glaucoma: A quasi
      experimental pilot study.
AB  - Purpose: One of the major causes of blindness is Primary open angle glaucoma
      (POAG) and it has only surgical treatment and lifelong use of medication. Hence
      many side effects arise. To overcome this, the drugless approach is in practice
      but the importance of Muscle Energy Technique (MET) and Myofacial (MFR) Release
      is not explored. Hence, our objective was to determine the effectiveness of MET
      and MFR on POAG. Methods: A total of 12 patients with POAG were recruited from
      the tertiary care teaching hospital through criteria based convenience sampling
      for the study. But nine patients with POAG completed the study. The age of the
      patient with POAG ranges from 15 to 30 years. MET and MFR were given to the
      patient for 30 min/day, six days/week for three weeks. Intraocular pressure (IOP)
      was assessed with Tonometer as dependent variable by Ophthalmologist. Pre and
      post treatment IOP change was established. Result: Pre IOP and Post are 23.1 +/-
      1.9 mmHg and Post IOP is 20 +/- 1.4 mmHg respectively. The mean pre-post
      difference is 3.1 +/- 1.9 mmHg with significance difference of p = 0.002.
      Conclusion: MET and MFR reduce IOP. This proves to be one of the feasible and
      cost effective treatments in the management of POAG. Clinical Trial Registry:
      CTRI/2014/09/4986.

PMID- 28559722
TI  - Topical versus subconjunctival anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy
      (Bevacizumab, Ranibizumab and Aflibercept) for treatment of corneal
      neovascularization.
AB  - In order to evaluate the effect of topical and subconjunctival anti-vascular
      endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy, Ranibizumab, Bevacizumab and
      Aflibercept as a therapy for corneal neovascularization (NV) treatment, the aim
      of this study was to review all data related to some of anti-VEGF as a promising
      therapies for corneal NV treatment. Corneal NV is a dangerous condition leading
      to a marked reduction in vision due to angiogenesis of abnormal vessels that
      block light. During the recent years, we have recognized new drug proliferation
      for corneal NV treatment. Recently, anti-VEGF therapies are one of the most
      important drugs used for corneal NV treatment. Several growth factors are
      involved in angiogenesis. The most important growth factor in corneal
      angiogenesis is VEGF. VEGF can be considered as key mediators in corneal
      angiogenesis. It is upregulated during corneal NV. In fact, anti-VEGF therapies
      have shown efficacy in attenuation of corneal NV in both animal models and
      clinical trials. A promising therapeutic success has been achieved using
      antibodies directed against VEGF. Bevacizumab has demonstrated efficacy and
      efficiency in the treatment of different neo-vascular ocular diseases and it has
      partially reduced corneal NV through different routes of administrations:
      topical, subconjunctival, and intraocular application. A similar efficacy to
      bevacizumab profiles in the treatment of neo-vascular age-related macular
      degeneration was induced by ranibizumab. Moreover, at worse levels of initial
      visual acuity of diabetic macular edema, aflibercept was more effective at
      improving vision. Anti-VEGF agents (Bevacizumab, Ranibizumab and Aflibercept)
      seem to have a higher efficiency and efficacy for corneal NV treatment. Both
      subconjunctival therapy and topical therapy of bevacizumab prohibit corneal NV,
      while early treatment with subconjunctival administration of ranibizumab may
      successfully reduce corneal NV. Therefore, establishment of safe doses is highly
      important before these drugs can be involved in the clinical setting. Further
      investigations and studies are highly warranted to adjust the dose and route of
      administration for the antibodies directed against VEGF to be the key therapeutic
      agents in the corneal NV treatment.

PMID- 28559724
TI  - Intra-ocular medulloepithelioma as a masquerade for PHPV and Panophthalmitis: a
      Diagnostic Dilemma.
AB  - A previously diagnosed child of persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (PHPV)
      with painless blind eye remained clinically silent for about 3 years follow-up.
      The child suddenly presented as a case of orbital cellulitis and panopthalmitis
      with meningitis. No definite mass lesion was detected on ultrasonography,
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scan.
      Histopathology of the enucleated eye revealed intra-ocular medulloepithelioma as
      the culprit of sterile panophthalmitis and orbital inflammation.

PMID- 28559723
TI  - Endogenous Brucella endophthalmitis: A case report.
AB  - Brucellosis may be associated with a wide range of ophthalmic manifestations
      including endophthalmitis, which is a sight-threatening condition that needs to
      be rapidly recognized and treated to avoid permanent visual loss. A 26-year-old
      female with a 6-month history of vision loss in the left eye was treated with
      high dose systemic corticosteroids and azathioprine with an initial misdiagnosis
      elsewhere. A dense vitreous haze with opacities at the posterior hyaloid and a
      wide area of retinochoroiditis led to the diagnosis of endogenous endophthalmitis
      at presentation to us. The vitreous sample and blood cultures demonstrated growth
      of Brucella melitensis. She received 6 months of systemic antibiotherapy, which
      resulted in resolution of inflammation; however, visual acuity remained poor due
      to irreversible damage. Infectious etiology, including brucellosis in endemic
      countries, has to be considered in the differential diagnosis before
      administering immunomodulatory therapy in patients with panuveitis of unknown
      origin.

PMID- 28559725
TI  - Green laser induced foveal cyst sustained in a recreational laser light show.
AB  - We report the case of a 9-year-old boy complained of visual loss in his right eye
      after watching green laser light show being hit by a ray of a laser at shopping
      center before five days ago. The laser had a maximum power rating of 30 mW (US
      Food and Drug Administration class IIIB). Best-corrected visual acuity in his
      right eye was 0.2 with Snellen at 5 days after the injury. Dilated fundoscopic
      examination demonstrated a macular hole appearance in the right eye. Spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography (OCT, Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering,
      Heidelberg, Germany) demonstrates a steep fovea contour, a thickening of the
      macular edges, intraretinal cysts, disruption of the photoreceptor inner
      segment/outer segment layer and macular pseudohole formation. Central foveal
      thickness (515 um) was increased. Two months after the injury, the patient's
      visual acuity improved to 0.9 in the right eye without any ocular treatment.
      Spectral domain OCT revealed the closure of the macular hole with the resolution
      of the cystic spaces. At 6-months follow-up, visual function had fully recovered
      and macular assessment was normal.

PMID- 28559726
TI  - Ultra wide field imaging of coats like response in Leber's congenital amaurosis.

PMID- 28559727
TI  - What may lie beneath!

PMID- 28559728
TI  - Editor's Letter.

PMID- 28559730
TI  - General Characteristics and Treatment Possibilities of?Dairy Wastewater - A
      Review.
AB  - The milk processing industry is one of the world's staple industries, thus the
      treatment possibilities of dairy effluents have been attracting more and more
      attention. The purpose of the paper is to review contemporary research on dairy
      wastewater. The origin, categories, as well as liquid by-products and general
      indicators of real dairy wastewater are described. Different procedures applied
      for dairy wastewater management are summarised. Attention is focused on in
      factory treatment technologies with the emphasis on biological processes. Aerobic
      and anaerobic methods with both their advantages and disadvantages are discussed
      in detail. Consecutive anaerobic and aerobic systems are analysed, too. Finally,
      future research niches are identified.

PMID- 28559729
TI  - Biosynthesis of Oxytetracycline by Streptomyces rimosus:?Past, Present and Future
      Directions in the Development?of Tetracycline Antibiotics.
AB  - Natural tetracycline (TC) antibiotics were the first major class of therapeutics
      to earn the distinction of 'broad-spectrum antibiotics' and they have been used
      since the 1940s against a wide range of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative
      pathogens, mycoplasmas, intracellular chlamydiae, rickettsiae and protozoan
      parasites. The second generation of semisynthetic tetracyclines, such as
      minocycline and doxycycline, with improved antimicrobial potency, were introduced
      during the 1960s. Despite emerging resistance to TCs erupting during the 1980s,
      it was not until 2006, more than four decades later, that a third--generation TC,
      named tigecycline, was launched. In addition, two TC analogues, omadacycline and
      eravacycline, developed via (semi)synthetic and fully synthetic routes,
      respectively, are at present under clinical evaluation. Interestingly, despite
      very productive early work on the isolation of a Streptomyces aureofaciens mutant
      strain that produced 6-demethyl-7-chlortetracycline, the key intermediate in the
      production of second- and third-generation TCs, biosynthetic approaches in TC
      development have not been productive for more than 50 years. Relatively slow and
      tedious molecular biology approaches for the genetic manipulation of TC-producing
      actinobacteria, as well as an insufficient understanding of the enzymatic
      mechanisms involved in TC biosynthesis have significantly contributed to the low
      success of such biosynthetic engineering efforts. However, new opportunities in
      TC drug development have arisen thanks to a significant progress in the
      development of affordable and versatile biosynthetic engineering and synthetic
      biology approaches, and, importantly, to a much deeper understanding of TC
      biosynthesis, mostly gained over the last two decades.

PMID- 28559731
TI  - Developing a Molecular Identification Assay of Old Landraces for the Genetic
      Authentication of Typical Agro-Food Products: The Case Study of the Barley
      'Agordino'.
AB  - The orzo Agordino is a very old local variety of domesticated barley (Hordeum
      vulgare ssp. distichum L.) that is native to the Agordo District, Province of
      Belluno, and is widespread in the Veneto Region, Italy. Seeds of this landrace
      are widely used for the preparation of very famous dishes of the dolomitic
      culinary tradition such as barley soup, bakery products and local beer.
      Understanding the genetic diversity and identity of the Agordino barley landrace
      is a key step to establish conservation and valorisation strategies of this local
      variety and also to provide molecular traceability tools useful to ascertain the
      authenticity of its derivatives. The gene pool of the Agordino barley landrace
      was reconstructed using 60 phenotypically representative individual plants and
      its genotypic relationships with commercial varieties were investigated using 21
      pure lines widely cultivated in the Veneto Region. For genomic DNA analysis,
      following an initial screening of 14 mapped microsatellite (SSR) loci, seven
      discriminant markers were selected on the basis of their genomic position across
      linkage groups and polymorphic marker alleles per locus. The genetic identity of
      the local barley landrace was determined by analysing all SSR markers in a single
      multi-locus PCR assay. Extent of genotypic variation within the Agordino barley
      landrace and the genotypic differentiation between the landrace individuals and
      the commercial varieties was determined. Then, as few as four highly informative
      SSR loci were selected and used to develop a molecular traceability system
      exploitable to verify the genetic authenticity of food products deriving from the
      Agordino landrace. This genetic authentication assay was validated using both DNA
      pools from individual Agordino barley plants and DNA samples from Agordino barley
      food products. On the whole, our data support the usefulness and robustness of
      this DNA-based diagnostic tool for the orzo Agordino identification, which could
      be rapidly and efficiently exploited to guarantee the authenticity of local
      varieties and the typicality of food products.

PMID- 28559732
TI  - Effect of Temperature-Shift and Temperature-Constant Cultivation on the Monacolin
      K Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Expression in Monascus sp.
AB  - In this study, the effects of temperature-shift (from 30 to 25  degrees C) and
      temperature-constant (at 30  degrees C) cultivation on the mass of Monascus
      fuliginosus CG-6 mycelia and concentration of the produced monacolin K (MK) were
      monitored. The expression levels of the MK biosynthetic genes of M. fuliginosus
      CG-6 at constant and variable culture temperatures were analysed by real-time
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The total protein was collected
      and determined by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation with tandem mass
      spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Results showed that the maximum mycelial mass in
      temperature-shift cultivation was only 0.477 g of dry cell mass per dish, which
      was lower than that in temperature-constant cultivation (0.581 g of dry cell mass
      per dish); however, the maximum concentration of MK in temperature-shift
      cultivation (34.5 ug/mL) was 16 times higher than that in temperature-constant
      cultivation at 30  degrees C (2.11 ug/mL). Gene expression analysis showed that
      the expression of the MK biosynthetic gene cluster at culture temperature of 25 
      degrees C was higher than that at 30  degrees C, which was similar to the trend
      of the MK concentration, except for individual MK B and MK C genes. Analysis of
      differential protein expression revealed that 2016 proteins were detected by LC
      ESI-MS/MS. The expression level of efflux pump protein coded by the MK I gene
      exhibited the same upregulated trend as the expression of MK I in temperature
      shift cultivation. Temperature-shift cultivation enhanced the expression of
      proteins in the secondary metabolite production pathway, but suppressed the
      expression of proteins involved in the mycelial growth.

PMID- 28559733
TI  - Three New Lactobacillus plantarum Strains in the Probiotic Toolbox against Gut
      Pathogen Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium.
AB  - The benefits of probiotic bacteria have been widely explored. However, fermented
      foods and digestive system of humans and animals are an inexhaustible source of
      new potentially probiotic microorganisms. In this study we present three new
      Lactobacillus plantarum strains isolated from different dairy products: cow's
      cheese, sheep's cheese and whey. In order to determine the antibacterial activity
      of yet unexplored L. plantarum strains against Salmonella enterica serotype
      Typhimurium, in vitro competition and co-culture tests were done. Furthermore,
      adhesion of these strains to Caco-2 cells and their influence on the adhesion of
      Salmonella were tested. Results showed the potential probiotic activity of
      isolated strains. L. plantarum strains survived in the presence of 1% bile salts,
      they possessed acidification ability, antibacterial activity and significantly
      attenuated the growth of S. Typhimurium in brain heart infusion broth. All tested
      L. plantarum strains were able to adhere to Caco-2 cells and significantly impair
      the adhesion of S. Typhimurium. All three L. plantarum strains exhibited
      significant probiotic potential and anti-Salmonella activity; therefore, further
      testing on in vivo models should follow.

PMID- 28559734
TI  - Lactococci of Local Origin as Potential Starter Cultures?for Traditional
      Montenegrin Cheese Production.
AB  - The aim of this study is to characterise and examine the biochemical properties
      of 40 Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from indigenous Montenegrin dairy
      products in order to explore their potential to be used as starter cultures for
      producing typical Montenegrin cheese, such as 'bijeli sir', 'masni sir' and
      'njeguski sir'. Their safety regarding the production of biogenic amines, the
      presence of antimicrobial resistance and the antibacterial activity against
      relevant pathogens and spoilage microorganisms has also been tested. Based on the
      characterisation, all strains belong to L. lactis ssp. lactis. Out of these 40
      strains, 23 displayed rapid acidification ability and proteolysis. However, none
      of the strains exhibited the ability of lipid degradation. Most of the strains
      were not associated with any health risk investigated. Summing up, a large
      percentage (27.5%) of the tested strains showed good properties. These strains
      should be further examined for their possible application as specific starter
      cultures in the production of indigenous cheese in Montenegro.

PMID- 28559735
TI  - The Effect of Autochthonous Starter Culture, Sugars and Temperature on the
      Fermentation of Slavonian Kulen.
AB  - In this study, the effect of an isolated and well-characterised autochthonous
      starter culture, glucose and maltodextrin (w=0.8%) and temperatures of 12 and 20 
      degrees C on fermentation and quality of Slavonian kulen produced using the
      traditional technology and recipe were investigated. Physicochemical and
      microbiological analyses were carried out after 20 days of fermentation. Upon the
      completion of the production process (90 days), a sensory analysis was carried
      out. Furthermore, pH value was continuously measured throughout the twenty-day
      fermentation period. The addition of an autochthonous starter culture and sugars
      and different fermentation temperatures significantly (p<0.05) affected the
      instrumental colour and texture parameters of the Slavonian kulen. The
      fermentation was most intense in the samples with added autochthonous starter
      culture and 0.8% glucose, and fermented at 20  degrees C. Microbiological
      analysis showed that samples with added autochthonous starter culture and
      fermented at higher temperature contained a higher number of lactic acid bacteria
      and coagulase-negative staphylococci and were safe. Sensory evaluation confirmed
      the outcomes of physicochemical and microbiological analyses and showed
      differences among samples fermented at two different temperatures and with added
      glucose or maltodextrin and an autochthonous starter culture.

PMID- 28559736
TI  - Properties and Antioxidant Capacity of Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicholus) By
      Product Protein Films Containing Thyme Essential Oil.
AB  - In this study, some properties and antioxidant capacity of anchovy (Engraulis
      encrasicholus) by-product protein films with added 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% of thyme
      essential oil were investigated. The films with thyme essential oil had higher
      elongation at break, water vapour permeability and oxygen permeability, lower
      solubility and tensile strength than control film (p<0.05). The incorporation of
      thyme essential oil affected transparency values of the films, but only the
      addition of 1.5% of thyme essential oil significantly reduced the transparency
      (p<0.05). In the film matrix, molecular organisation and intermolecular
      interaction were changed by thyme essential oil addition. The films with thyme
      essential oil had a heterogeneous surface and a relatively smooth cross-section
      structure. Slightly higher phase transition and lower glass transition
      temperatures were observed in films with thyme essential oil. The antioxidant
      capacity of the films was improved by incorporating thyme essential oil depending
      on its volume fraction.

PMID- 28559737
TI  - Optimisation of Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)
      Seed Oil and Evaluation ?of Its Physicochemical and Bioactive Properties.
AB  - Pomegranate seed oil was extracted in a closed-vessel high-pressure microwave
      system. The characteristics of the obtained oil, such as fatty acid composition,
      free fatty acidity, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and colour, were
      compared to those of the oil obtained by cold solvent extraction. Response
      surface methodology was applied to optimise extraction conditions: power (176-300
      W), time (5-20 min), particle size (d=0.125-0.800 mm) and solvent to sample ratio
      (2:1, 6:1 and 10:1, by mass). The predicted highest extraction yield (35.19%) was
      obtained using microwave power of 220 W, particle size in the range of d=0.125
      0.450 mm and solvent-to-sample ratio of 10:1 (by mass) in 5 min extraction time.
      Microwave-assisted solvent extraction (MASE) resulted in higher extraction yield
      than that of Soxhlet (34.70% in 8 h) or cold (17.50% in 8 h) extraction. The
      dominant fatty acid of pomegranate seed oil was punicic acid (86%) irrespective
      of the extraction method. Oil obtained by MASE had better physicochemical
      properties, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity than the oil obtained
      by cold solvent extraction.

PMID- 28559738
TI  - Differentiation of Commercial PDO Wines Produced in Istria (Croatia) According to
      Variety and Harvest Year Based on HS-SPME-GC/MS Volatile Aroma Compound
      Profiling.
AB  - To differentiate monovarietal wines made from native and introduced varieties in
      Istria (Croatia), samples of Malvazija istarska, Chardonnay and Muscat yellow
      from two harvest years (2013 and 2014) were subjected to headspace solid-phase
      microextraction and gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis (HS-SPME
      GC/MS) of volatile aroma compounds. Significant effects of variety and harvest
      year were determined, but their interaction complicated the differentiation.
      Particular compounds were consistent as markers of variety in both years: nerol
      for Malvazija, ethyl cinnamate and a tentatively identified isomer of
      dimethylbenzaldehyde for Chardonnay, and terpenes for Muscat yellow. Wines from
      2013 contained higher concentrations of the majority of important volatiles. A
      100% correct differentiation of Malvazija istarska and Chardonnay wines according
      to both variety and harvest year was achieved by stepwise linear discriminant
      analysis.

PMID- 28559739
TI  - Polyphenols from Wine Lees as a Novel Functional Bioactive Compound in the
      Protection Against Oxidative Stress and Hyperlipidaemia.
AB  - The study examines the potential of wine industry by-product, the lees, as a rich
      mixture of natural polyphenols, and its physiological potential to reduce
      postprandial metabolic and oxidative stress caused by a cholesterol-rich diet in
      in vivo model. Chemical analysis of wine lees showed that their total solid
      content was 94.2%. Wine lees contained total phenols, total nonflavonoids and
      total flavonoids expressed in mg of gallic acid equivalents per 100 g of dry
      mass: 2316.6+/-37.9, 1332.5+/-51.1 and 984.1+/-28.2, respectively. The content of
      total anthocyanins expressed in mg of cyanidin-3-glucoside equivalents per 100 g
      of dry mass was 383.1+/-21.6. Antioxidant capacity of wine lees determined by the
      DPPH and FRAP methods and expressed in mM of Trolox equivalents per 100 g was
      259.8+/-1.8 and 45.7+/-1.05, respectively. The experiment lasted 60 days using
      C57BL/6 mice divided in four groups: group 1 was fed normal diet and used as
      control, group 2 was fed normal diet with added wine lees, group 3 was fed high
      cholesterol diet (HCD), i.e. normal diet with the addition of sunflower oil, and
      group 4 was fed HCD with wine lees. HCD increased serum total cholesterol (TC) by
      2.3-fold, triacylglycerol (TAG) by 1.5-fold, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by 3.5
      fold and liver malondialdehyde (MDA) by 50%, and reduced liver superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) by 50%, catalase (CAT) by 30% and glutathione (GSH) by 17.5%
      compared to control. Conversely, treatment with HCD and wine lees reduced TC and
      LDL up to 1.4 times more than with HCD only, with depletion of lipid peroxidation
      (MDA) and restoration of SOD and CAT activities in liver, approximating values of
      the control. HDL levels were unaffected in any group. Serum transaminase activity
      showed no hepatotoxic properties in the treatment with lees alone. In the
      proposed model, wine lees as a rich polyphenol source could be a basis for
      functional food products without alcohol.

PMID- 28559740
TI  - The Anti-Staphylococcus aureus Effect of Combined Echinophora platyloba Essential
      Oil and Liquid Smoke in Beef.
AB  - In the current study, the antibacterial effect of Echinophora platyloba essential
      oil and common liquid smoke (individually and in combination) against
      Staphylococcus aureus in beef meat samples is investigated. Using an automated
      microbiological growth analyser and the turbidimetric technique, the minimum
      inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC)
      of the essential oil and liquid smoke were determined. Anti-S. aureus activity of
      essential oil and liquid smoke (individually and in combination) was defined by
      disk diffusion assay, generation time and cell constituent release. Apart from
      that, the interactions between these two compounds were measured by the
      checkerboard assay and by calculating the fractional inhibitory concentration
      (FIC) indices. Related MIC values of essential oil and smoke were found to be
      7200 and 5500 mg/L, and MBC values were 8500 and 8000 mg/L, respectively. The
      conducted organoleptic assay showed that the addition of 0.05 g of essential oil
      and 0.6 g of liquid smoke to 100 g of meat samples did not have adverse effect on
      the overall acceptance. Weaker antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus
      was observed when only Echinophora platyloba essential oil was used than when it
      was used in combination with liquid smoke.

PMID- 28559741
TI  - An Effective Method of Continuous Production of Erythritol from Glycerol by
      Yarrowia lipolytica MK1.
AB  - This study demonstrates the potential applicability of the UV mutant Yarrowia
      lipolytica MK1 for the valorisation of glycerol and erythritol production in a
      chemostat culture. The aim of this research is to investigate the optimal C:N
      ratio in the feeding medium in order to enhance erythritol production. The
      highest erythritol concentration, at 113.1 g/L with a volumetric erythritol
      production rate of 1.1 g/(L.h) and a yield of 0.57 g/g, was obtained in the
      feeding medium with a C:N ratio of 80:1. Moreover, no residual glycerol was
      observed in the culture broth during cultivation. The chemical composition of the
      biomass was analysed. The contents of lysine and threonine in the biomass protein
      amino acid profile were higher than those required by the FAO/WHO for fodder
      yeast.

PMID- 28559742
TI  - Assessment of Grape, Plum and Orange Synthetic Food Flavourings Using in vivo
      Acute Toxicity Tests.
AB  - The present study evaluates the acute toxicity of synthetic grape, plum and
      orange flavourings in root meristem cells of Allium cepa at the doses of 3.5, 7.0
      and 14.0 mL/kg and exposure times of 24 and 48 h, and in bone marrow erythrocytes
      of mice treated orally for seven days with 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 and 10.0 mL/kg of
      flavouring. The results of the plant test showed that grape, plum and orange
      flavourings, at both exposure times, inhibited cell division and promoted the
      formation of a significant number of micronuclei and mitotic spindle changes.
      These alterations were observed in at least one exposure time analysed,
      demonstrating a significant cytotoxic, genotoxic and mutagenic activity. In mouse
      bioassay, animals treated with 2.0, 5.0 and 10.0 mL/kg of flavouring died before
      the seventh day of treatment. The amounts of 0.5 and 1.0 mL/kg of the three
      additives were cytotoxic to erythrocytes, and treatment with the grape flavouring
      significantly induced the formation of micronucleated cells in the bone marrow of
      animals. Therefore, under the study conditions, the grape, plum and orange
      flavouring additives promoted significant toxicity to cells of the test systems
      used.

PMID- 28559744
TI  - Erratum to: Conference materials. 15th Congress of the Polish Society of
      Experimental and Clinical Immunology. Wroclaw 2014.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. s13 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p.
      s23 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s11 in vol. 39.][This corrects
      the article on p. s19 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s1 in vol.
      39.][This corrects the article on p. s13 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article
      on p. s24 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s24 in vol. 39.][This
      corrects the article on p. s11 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s13
      in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s12 in vol. 39.][This corrects the
      article on p. s12 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article on p. s33 in vol.
      39.][This corrects the article on p. s21 in vol. 39.][This corrects the article
      on p. s22 in vol. 39.].

PMID- 28559743
TI  - Adhesion of Candida spp. and Pichia spp. to Wooden Surfaces.
AB  - Yeast adhesion to and biofilm formation on surfaces is present in many different
      environments. In food industry, biofilms may be a source of contaminations,
      causing food spoilage and reducing quality of products. Candida and Pichia are
      two common yeast genera involved in the spoilage of some food products. The aim
      of this study is to assess the potential of Candida and Pichia species to adhere
      to two types of wooden surfaces (smooth and rough), one of the materials typical
      for the food processing industry, and investigate the influence of surface
      roughness of wood on the degree of yeast adhesion. The adhesion of the cells to
      the wooden surfaces was determined by rinsing them from the surface, followed by
      methylene blue staining, and quantification after imaging under microscope by
      automatic counting of viable cells. The results showed that all Candida and
      Pichia strains were able to adhere to the wooden surfaces in a species- and
      strain-dependent manner. On the other hand, our data indicated that adhesion by
      these yeasts was not significantly affected by the roughness of the wood
      surfaces.

PMID- 28559745
TI  - Cross-sectional examination of the association between shift length and hospital
      nurses job satisfaction and nurse reported quality measures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Twenty-four hour nursing care involves shift work including 12-h
      shifts. England is unusual in deploying a mix of shift patterns. International
      evidence on the effects of such shifts is growing. A secondary analysis of data
      collected in England exploring outcomes with 12-h shifts examined the association
      between shift length, job satisfaction, scheduling flexibility, care quality,
      patient safety, and care left undone. METHODS: Data were collected from a
      questionnaire survey of nurses in a sample of English hospitals, conducted as
      part of the RN4CAST study, an EU 7th Framework funded study. The sample comprised
      31 NHS acute hospital Trusts from 401 wards, in 46 acute hospital sites.
      Descriptive analysis included frequencies, percentages and mean scores by shift
      length, working beyond contracted hours and day or night shift. Multi-level
      regression models established statistical associations between shift length and
      nurse self-reported measures. RESULTS: Seventy-four percent (1898) of nurses
      worked a day shift and 26% (670) a night shift. Most Trusts had a mixture of
      shifts lengths. Self-reported quality of care was higher amongst nurses working
      <=8 h (15.9%) compared to those working longer hours (20.0 to 21.1%). The odds of
      poor quality care were 1.64 times higher for nurses working >=12 h (OR = 1.64,
      95% CI 1.18-2.28, p = 0.003). Mean 'care left undone' scores varied by shift
      length: 3.85 (<=8 h), 3.72 (8.01-10.00 h), 3.80 (10.01-11.99 h) and were highest
      amongst those working >=12 h (4.23) (p < 0.001). The rate of care left undone was
      1.13 times higher for nurses working >=12 h (RR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.06-1.20, p <
      0.001). Job dissatisfaction was higher the longer the shift length: 42.9% (>=12 h
      (OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.17-1.95, p = .001); 35.1% (<=8 h) 45.0% (8.01-10.00 h),
      39.5% (10.01-11.99 h). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings add to the growing international
      body of evidence reporting that >=12 shifts are associated with poor ratings of
      quality of care and higher rates of care left undone. Future research should
      focus on how 12-h shifts can be optimised to minimise potential risks.

PMID- 28559746
TI  - Estimating outcomes and cost effectiveness using a single-arm clinical trial:
      ofatumumab for double-refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ofatumumab (Arzerra(r), Novartis) is a treatment for chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia refractory to fludarabine and alemtuzumab [double refractory
      (DR-CLL)]. Ofatumumab was licensed on the basis of an uncontrolled Phase II
      study, Hx-CD20-406, in which patients receiving ofatumumab survived for a median
      of 13.9 months. However, the lack of an internal control arm presents an obstacle
      for the estimation of comparative effectiveness. METHODS: The objective of the
      study was to present a method to estimate the cost effectiveness of ofatumumab in
      the treatment of DR-CLL. As no suitable historical control was available for
      modelling, the outcomes from non-responders to ofatumumab were used to model the
      effect of best supportive care (BSC). This was done via a Cox regression to
      control for differences in baseline characteristics between groups. This analysis
      was included in a partitioned survival model built in Microsoft(r) Excel with
      utilities and costs taken from published sources, with costs and quality-adjusted
      life years (QALYs) were discounted at a rate of 3.5% per annum. RESULTS: Using
      the outcomes seen in non-responders, ofatumumab is expected to add approximately
      0.62 life years (1.50 vs. 0.88). Using published utility values this translates
      to an additional 0.30 QALYs (0.77 vs. 0.47). At the list price, ofatumumab had a
      cost per QALY of L130,563, and a cost per life year of L63,542. The model was
      sensitive to changes in assumptions regarding overall survival estimates and
      utility values. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the potential of using data
      for non-responders to model outcomes for BSC in cost-effectiveness evaluations
      based on single-arm trials. Further research is needed on the estimation of
      comparative effectiveness using uncontrolled clinical studies.

PMID- 28559747
TI  - Structure-Leveraged Methods in Breast Cancer Risk Prediction.
AB  - Predicting breast cancer risk has long been a goal of medical research in the
      pursuit of precision medicine. The goal of this study is to develop novel
      penalized methods to improve breast cancer risk prediction by leveraging
      structure information in electronic health records. We conducted a retrospective
      case-control study, garnering 49 mammography descriptors and 77 high
      frequency/low-penetrance single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from an existing
      personalized medicine data repository. Structured mammography reports and breast
      imaging features have long been part of a standard electronic health record
      (EHR), and genetic markers likely will be in the near future. Lasso and its
      variants are widely used approaches to integrated learning and feature selection,
      and our methodological contribution is to incorporate the dependence structure
      among the features into these approaches. More specifically, we propose a new
      methodology by combining group penalty and [Formula: see text] (1 <= p <= 2)
      fusion penalty to improve breast cancer risk prediction, taking into account
      structure information in mammography descriptors and SNPs. We demonstrate that
      our method provides benefits that are both statistically significant and
      potentially significant to people's lives.

PMID- 28559748
TI  - A Preliminary Randomized Clinical Trial on the Effect of Cervicothoracic
      Manipulation Plus Supervised Exercises vs a Home Exercise Program for the
      Treatment of Shoulder Impingement.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in pain,
      disability, and range of movement after cervicothoracic manipulation plus
      exercise therapy in individuals with unilateral shoulder impingement syndrome.
      METHODS: Forty-one patients (30 men, 11 women; aged 47 +/- 9) diagnosed with
      unilateral shoulder impingement syndrome attended 10 sessions for 5 weeks (2
      sessions/wk). Eligible patients were randomly allocated to 2 study groups:
      cervicothoracic manipulation plus exercise therapy (n = 21) or home exercise
      program (n = 20). The outcomes measures included the visual analog scale (VAS);
      the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand score; Shoulder Disability
      Questionnaire; subacromial impingement syndrome (Hawkins-Kennedy Test and Neer
      Test); and shoulder active range of motion (movements of flexion, extension,
      rotation, adduction, and abduction). Assessments were applied at baseline and 24
      hours after completing 5 weeks of related interventions. RESULTS: After 5 weeks
      of treatment significant between-group differences were observed in the
      Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand score (P = .012); however, no
      statistically significant differences were achieved for Shoulder Disability
      Questionnaire (P = .061) and pain intensity (P = .859). Both groups improved with
      regard to disability and clinical tests for detecting subacromial impingement
      syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This clinical trial suggests that cervicothoracic
      manipulative treatment with mobilization plus exercise therapy may improve
      intensity of pain and range of motion compared with the home exercise group
      alone; the home exercise group had significant changes for flexion, extension,
      adduction, and abduction, but not for external and internal rotation movement in
      patients with shoulder impingement.

PMID- 28559749
TI  - Effect of Mulligan Concept Lumbar SNAG on Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcomes of adding
      lumbar sustained natural apophyseal glide (SNAG) to a conventional therapy
      program for chronic nonspecific low back pain (LBP). METHODS: Forty-two
      participants with chronic nonspecific LBP were randomly divided into 2 groups.
      The study group (aged 27.1 +/- 8.3, 20 men, 3 women) received a conventional
      physical therapy program consisted of stretching and strengthening exercises plus
      SNAG (based on the Mulligan concept) on the affected lumbar levels, and the
      control group (aged 28.9 +/- 7.7, 13 men, 6 women) received the same conventional
      program without SNAG 3 times per week for 1 month. Outcome measures were
      repositioning error (the primary outcome), pain, and function measured by an
      isokinetic dynamometer, visual analog scale, and the Oswestry Disability Index.
      Measurements were recorded before and after the end of the treatment period.
      RESULTS: The comparison between pretreatment and posttreatment test scores
      indicated that both study and control groups had significant improvement in all
      dependent variables (P > .001). However, adding SNAG to the conventional program
      resulted in higher improvement in terms of repositioning error, pain, and
      function (P = .02, .002, .008) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary study
      indicated improvement in both groups. Adding SNAG to conventional programs in the
      treatment of chronic nonspecific LBP may result in greater improvement of
      repositioning error, pain reduction, and improved function.

PMID- 28559750
TI  - Comparison of Supine and Prone Methods of Leg Length Inequality Assessment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of the current study was to determine the
      reliability between methods of supine and prone leg length inequality (LLI)
      assessment. The secondary objective was to determine if the degree of examiner
      confidence affected the degree of intermethod agreement. METHODS: Two experienced
      doctors of chiropractic assessed 43 participants for LLI, one using a prone and
      the other a supine method. They stated whether they were confident or not
      confident in their findings. RESULTS: Kappa values for intermethod agreement were
      0.16 for the full data set; 0.00 for the n = 20 subgroup with both examiners
      confident; 0.24 for the n = 18 subgroup with 1 examiner confident; and 0.55 for
      the n = 5 subgroup with neither examiner confident. Supine and prone measures
      exhibited slight agreement for the full data set, but no agreement when both
      examiners were confident. The moderate agreement with both examiners not
      confident may be an artifact of small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: This study found
      that supine and prone assessments for leg length inequality were not in
      agreement. Positioning the patient in the prone position may increase, decrease,
      reverse, or offset the observed LLI that is seen in the supine position.

PMID- 28559751
TI  - Analysis of Patient Outcomes Using the MyoKinesthetic System for the Treatment of
      Low Back Pain: A Case Series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case series was to test the feasibility of using
      the MyoKinesthetic (MYK) System as a treatment-based classification system and
      intervention for a sample of patients with low back pain. METHODS: This within
      subject intervention was completed in a university athletic training clinic. Nine
      participants (mean age: 31 years) with a primary complaint of LBP were evaluated
      and included. An athletic trainer performed the initial assessment, which
      contained the following components: patient history, palpation, range of motion
      testing, lower quarter neurologic screening, MYK System posture screen,
      orthopedic special tests, and baseline data for pain intensity, disability, and
      function. All participants were treated with the MYK System. The primary outcomes
      were pain, disability, function, active range of motion, posture, and global
      efficacy of treatment. RESULTS: The mean number of MYK treatments administered
      was 12.11 (SD = 6.25), and the mean number of days until discharge was 28.67 (SD
      = 9.38). A repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed statistically
      significant and clinically meaningful improvements in pain, disability, function,
      and posture from the initial evaluation to discharge and from the initial
      evaluation to a 1-month follow-up (P < .01). CONCLUSION: This study determined
      the feasibility of further evaluation of the MYK System as a treatment-based
      classification system and intervention for patients with low back pain.

PMID- 28559752
TI  - Clinical Validation of Pain Management Manipulative Therapy for Knee
      Osteoarthritis With the Squeeze-Hold Technique: A Case Series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case series was to describe the short-term and
      long-term clinical effects of a manual technique for treating osteoarthritis (OA)
      knee pain. METHODS: This study measured of the immediate effect and long-term
      effect by using a case series of different groups of subjects. Knee OA and
      activity restriction in patients were evaluated by using the Kellgren-Lawrence
      (K/L) Grading Scale and the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM) index. In
      the intervention, lower limb muscles were squeezed by hand for 20 seconds. Each
      squeeze was performed for both lower limbs. Passive range-of-motion (ROM)
      exercise was performed on the knee joint. In one set of cases, immediate effects
      were measured after a one-time treatment with pretreatment and posttreatment
      outcome measures. Eleven people with knee OA participated in the study. On a
      visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, muscle stiffness, and muscular hemodynamics
      for estimation of muscle blood flow were recorded before and after the squeeze
      hold treatment. In another set of cases, the treatment was given to all patients
      once a week for 6 months, and long-term effects were measured. Data on 5 subjects
      with knee OA were collected for 6 months after initial treatment. The VAS for
      pain and JKOM were recorded every month for 6 months. RESULTS: For immediate
      effects, the VAS was 69 +/- 21 mm before treatment and 26 +/- 22 mm after
      treatment. Muscle stiffness was 8.8 +/- 3.6 (absolute number) before treatment
      and 3.5 +/- 2.1 after treatment. Tissue (muscle) oxygen saturation was 60.1 +/-
      5.7% before treatment and 65.3 +/- 4.8% after treatment. Total hemoglobin was
      24.3 +/- 3.3 (absolute number) before treatment and 25 +/- 2.3 after treatment. A
      tendency for reduction in OA knee pain and muscle stiffness was observed, and a
      tendency for increase was observed in the blood flow in the muscle. For long-term
      effects in all 5 participants (any K/L grade, any JKOM score), OA knee pain and
      JKOM score improved gradually through 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: The participants in
      this case series showed improvement in pain and function. These findings indicate
      the feasibility of a larger study on the squeeze-hold intervention for OA knee
      pain.

PMID- 28559753
TI  - Photogrammetric Assessment of Upper Body Posture Using Postural Angles: A
      Literature Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper was to review the literature regarding the
      measurement properties of various angles used for postural assessment of the
      head, neck, shoulder, and thorax and to discuss the utility of these measures.
      METHODS: The inclusion criteria for this literature review were use of postural
      angles to assess posture, measurement of upper body posture, and research studies
      conducted in last 3 decades that had free full-text available online entirely in
      the English language. The exclusion criteria were review articles; studies
      involving subjects having obesity, visual problems, any history of surgery,
      respiratory, cardiovascular, neurologic, or congenital pathology or disease; and
      research studies in which postural angles were measured with respect to vertical
      only. The following databases were searched: PubMed Central, PubMed,
      ResearchGate, Springer Link, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and Scielo through
      February 20, 2016. RESULTS: A total of 21 studies that were found to be best
      suited to explain the craniovertebral (CV) angle, sagittal head tilt, sagittal
      shoulder-C7 angle, coronal head tilt, coronal shoulder angle, and thoracic
      kyphosis angle were included in this review. Craniovertebral angle, sagittal head
      tilt, sagittal shoulder-C7 angle, coronal head tilt, and coronal shoulder angle
      possess moderate to high intrarater reliability. Craniovertebral angle, sagittal
      head tilt, sagittal shoulder-C7 angle and thoracic kyphosis angle possess high
      interrater reliability (except for sagittal head tilt when measured using the
      goniometer). Craniovertebral angle, sagittal head tilt, and sagittal shoulder-C7
      angle have been proved to be valid measures of posture when compared with similar
      angles measured on radiographs. None of the studies reported intrarater
      reliability of thoracic kyphosis angle, interrater reliability of coronal head
      tilt and coronal shoulder angle, and validity of coronal angles and thoracic
      kyphosis angle. CONCLUSIONS: We found several reliable methods to measure the
      postures of the head, neck, shoulder, and thoracic regions by measuring the CV
      angle, sagittal head tilt, sagittal shoulder-C7 angle, and thoracic kyphosis
      angle, respectively. Standardization of methods for angular measurement is
      recommended so that there is uniformity among studies regarding camera height,
      participant-camera distance, and type of software to generate normative data for
      postural angles.

PMID- 28559754
TI  - Effectiveness of Manual Therapy Combined With Physical Therapy in Treatment of
      Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs) to determine the treatment effectiveness of the
      combination of manual therapy (MT) with other physical therapy techniques.
      METHODS: Systematic searches of scientific literature were undertaken on PubMed
      and the Cochrane Library (2004-2014). The following terms were used:
      "patellofemoral pain syndrome," "physical therapy," "manual therapy," and
      "manipulation." RCTs that studied adults diagnosed with patellofemoral pain
      syndrome (PFPS) treated by MT and physical therapy approaches were included. The
      quality of the studies was assessed by the Jadad Scale. RESULTS: Five RCTs with
      an acceptable methodological quality (Jadad >= 3) were selected. The studies
      indicated that MT combined with physical therapy has some effect on reducing pain
      and improving function in PFPS, especially when applied on the full kinetic chain
      and when strengthening hip and knee muscles. CONCLUSIONS: The different
      combinations of MT and physical therapy programs analyzed in this review suggest
      that giving more emphasis to proximal stabilization and full kinetic chain
      treatments in PFPS will help better alleviation of symptoms.

PMID- 28559755
TI  - Multimodal Chiropractic Care for Pain and Disability in a Patient Diagnosed With
      Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility Type: A Case Report.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical response to
      multimodal chiropractic treatment of a patient diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos
      syndrome, hypermobility type (EDS-HT), and chronic pain. CLINICAL FEATURES: A 22
      year-old woman presented with severe chronic neck and low back pain, headaches,
      and bilateral hand pain and stiffness. In addition to these pain complaints, the
      patient had a family history of EDS, weekly or daily recurring joint
      dislocations, and upper and lower extremity joint hypermobility. As a result of
      her significant history and examination findings, which met the Brighton and
      Villefranche criteria, she was diagnosed with EDS-HT. INTERVENTIONS AND OUTCOMES:
      Treatment primarily consisted of low force joint manipulative therapy and soft
      tissue therapy intermittently over 21 months concurrently with conventional and
      complementary medical care. Multiple outcome questionnaires were administered
      pragmatically at follow-up intervals of 3, 51/2, 81/2, 19, and 21 months,
      including but not limited to the Headache and Neck Disability Indices and the
      Oswestry Low Back Questionnaire. The patient had clinically meaningful
      improvements on the Neck Disability Index, the Headache Disability Index, and the
      Revised Oswestry after 3, 51/2, 81/2, and 21 months from baseline. CONCLUSION:
      This patient with EDS-HT had clinically meaningful decreases in disability,
      headache, and spine pain after a course of multimodal chiropractic care combined
      with conventional and complementary medical care.

PMID- 28559756
TI  - Multimodal Care in the Management of a Patient With Chronic Tendinopathy of the
      Biceps Femoris: A Case Report.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case report was to describe the use of dry
      needling in conjunction with auricular acupuncture, core exercises, and light
      aerobic activity for treating chronic tendinopathy of the biceps femoris.
      CLINICAL FEATURES: A 30-year-old white female presented with chronic biceps
      femoris tendinopathy. The injury had occurred 18 months prior while training for
      a triathlon. Active stretching of her right biceps femoris while standing with
      her feet 6 inches apart aggravated the pain at the origin in the right tendon of
      the biceps femoris at 0 degrees of movement. INTERVENTION/OUTCOME: The
      combination of dry needling and auricular acupuncture with core rehabilitation
      exercises and light activity was employed. Alleviation of pain with full range of
      motion was achieved during hip extension, knee flexion, and standing biceps
      femoris stretch at the 11th, 16th, and 18th treatments. In addition, the patient
      also reported improvement in her symptoms, including night sweats, insomnia,
      anxiety, tension, and constipation. CONCLUSIONS: This patient's symptoms and
      function improved after 18 treatments of multimodal care. Dry needling employed
      simultaneously with auricular acupuncture, core exercises, and light activity
      could be considered a possible strategy for treating chronic tendinopathy.

PMID- 28559757
TI  - Validation of the OptoGait System for Monitoring Treatment and Recovery of Post
      Concussion Athletes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study sought to investigate correlations between OptoGait motion
      analysis technology and 2 commonly used concussion assessment instruments, the
      Balance Evaluation Scoring System (BESS) and the Immediate Post-Concussion
      Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) computerized neurocognitive assessment
      software, to see if OptoGait might be a valid concussion assessment tool.
      METHODS: Twenty Division-1 college women varsity soccer players completed trials
      of 8 different conditions of the OptoGait test battery. Then participants
      completed the BESS and ImPACT tests. One hundred twenty-eight total
      spatiotemporal variables were recorded for each trial of OptoGait. Pearson's r
      correlations among these variables and BESS and ImPACT results were calculated,
      and pattern analysis was completed to evaluate for emergent patterns in the data.
      RESULTS: Correlations for the 8 OptoGait mean-score subtests were related to the
      balance double-leg foam test (BESS). Correlations for the 8 OptoGait mean-score
      subtests were related to the balance double-leg foam test (BESS), and
      correlations between OptoGait standard deviation measures and the balance tandem
      hard surface test (BESS) both indicated potentially significant patterns. No
      consistent patterns of correlation existed between the OptoGait variables and the
      ImPACT results. CONCLUSION: OptoGait conditions correlate at higher than
      predicted rates with subtests of the BESS instruments but not the ImPACT
      measures.

PMID- 28559758
TI  - Plasmacytoma of the Cervical Spine: A Case Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case study is to describe the presentation of a
      patient with plasmacytoma. CLINICAL FEATURES: A 49-year-old man presented with
      progressive neck pain, stiffness, and dysphagia to a chiropractic office. A
      radiograph indicated a plasmacytoma at C3 vertebral body. The lesion was
      expansile and caused a mass effect anteriorly on the esophagus and posteriorly on
      the spinal cord. Neurologic compromise was noted with fasciculations and
      hypesthesia in the right forearm. The patient was referred to a neurosurgeon.
      INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME: Surgical resection of the tumor was performed with a
      vertebral body spacer and surrounding titanium cage. Bony fusion was initiated by
      inserting bone grafts from the iliac crests into the titanium cage. Additional
      laboratory analysis and advanced imaging confirmed that the plasmacytoma had
      progressed to multiple myeloma and radiation and chemotherapy were also
      necessary. CONCLUSION: A chiropractor recognized a large, expansile plasmacytoma
      in the C3 vertebral body and referred the patient for surgical care. This case
      suggests that all practitioners of manual medicine should provide a careful
      analysis of the patient's clinical presentation and, if clinically warranted,
      radiographic examination to determine neck or back pain is due to an underlying
      malignant condition.

PMID- 28559759
TI  - Chiropractic Care of a 10-Year-Old Boy With Nonorganic Gait Disorder: A Case
      Report.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case report is to describe the multidisciplinary
      management of a boy with nonorganic gait disorder. CLINICAL FEATURES: A 10-year
      old boy presented to a chiropractic clinic having had a concussion 1 week prior.
      He presented with lower limb muscle weakness and ataxia while weight bearing. He
      was referred immediately to the emergency department, from which he was sent to a
      neurologist at a children's hospital. The neurologist's diagnosis was nonorganic
      gait disorder. INTERVENTION/OUTCOME: Treatment consisted of physiotherapy,
      occupational therapy, and a psychiatric assessment. Chiropractic care including
      manipulative therapy was initiated 6 months after diagnosis. After 1 year, the
      gait disorder was resolved. CONCLUSION: The addition of chiropractic care to
      conventional treatment may have been supportive in the recovery process for this
      patient. The condition required 1 year to resolve, with questions remaining as to
      whether the symptom resolution was a result of treatment or natural history.

PMID- 28559760
TI  - Reply to "Presumptive Late-Onset Ankylosing Spondylitis Simulating Osteoblastic
      Skeletal Metastasis in a Patient With a History of Prostate Carcinoma: A
      Diagnostic Challenge".

PMID- 28559762
TI  - Accurate Measurement of Financial Toxicity Is a Prerequisite to Finding a Remedy.

PMID- 28559763
TI  - Financial Toxicity of Cancer Drugs: Possible Remedies from an Ethical
      Perspective.
AB  - Spiraling costs of cancer treatments have become a major concern for the payers
      in the health care system and for individual patients suffering from the cancer
      drugs' financial toxicity. This article discusses possible solutions from an
      ethical perspective. First, it gives some orientation about what constitutes a
      fair price for innovative anticancer agents. While a definitive answer remains
      difficult, there are good reasons to enter into price negotiations with the
      pharmaceutical companies to align the price with the R&D costs and the added
      value of the product. Information about the drug's cost-effectiveness should be
      available, a fixed threshold, however, seems ethically problematic. Rather, a
      'signal cost-effectiveness threshold' should indicate when the drug price
      requires special justification. Further strategies include an improved benefit
      assessment after market authorization by independent publicly financed studies,
      which will provide a valid basis for price negotiations and clinical decision
      making at the micro level. Last but not least, cancer treatments should be
      tailored not only to the biology of the tumor but also to the preferences of the
      patient. Primarily mandated by the respect for autonomy, promoting patient
      centered care has the potential to improve quality of care and enable a wise use
      of scarce health care resources.

PMID- 28559761
TI  - A systematic review of rye (Secale cereale L.) as a source of resistance to
      pathogens and pests in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).
AB  - Wheat is globally one of the most important crops. With the current human
      population growth rate, there is an increasing need to raise wheat productivity
      by means of plant breeding, along with development of more efficient and
      sustainable agricultural systems. Damage by pathogens and pests, in combination
      with adverse climate effects, need to be counteracted by incorporating new
      germplasm that makes wheat more resistant/tolerant to such stress factors. Rye
      has been used as a source for improved resistance to pathogens and pests in wheat
      during more than 50 years. With new devastating stem and yellow rust pathotypes
      invading wheat at large acreage globally, along with new biotypes of pest
      insects, there is renewed interest in using rye as a source of resistance.
      Currently the proportion of wheat cultivars with rye chromatin varies between
      countries, with examples of up to 34%. There is mainly one rye source, Petkus,
      that has been widely exploited and that has contributed considerably to raise
      yields and increase disease resistance in wheat. Successively, the multiple
      disease resistances conferred by this source has been overcome by new pathotypes
      of leaf rust, yellow rust, stem rust and powdery mildew. However, there are
      several other rye sources reported to make wheat more resistant to various biotic
      constraints when their rye chromatin has been transferred to wheat. There is also
      development of knowledge on how to produce new rye translocation, substitution
      and addition lines. Here we compile information that may facilitate decision
      making for wheat breeders aiming to transfer resistance to biotic constraints
      from rye to elite wheat germplasm.

PMID- 28559764
TI  - Factors Affecting Concordance between Radiological and Histological Findings in
      Invasive Lobular Carcinoma - Experience from a National Cancer Centre.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is characterized by an infiltrative
      discohesive growth pattern, making it difficult to accurately assess both
      clinically and by imaging studies. Despite favourable biological characteristics,
      challenges remain in the surgical treatment of ILC. We aimed to evaluate
      radiology/histology concordance and identify histological and biological
      parameters on core biopsies that may predict final tumour histology and guide
      surgical treatment decisions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The radiology and histology
      reports for all newly diagnosed cases of ILC were analysed. The biopsy and
      resection histological slides for all the surgical cases were reviewed. RESULTS:
      75 new cases of ILC were diagnosed over a 2-year period. 48 patients underwent
      surgery of whom 25% had 2 or more operations. There was discordance between
      radiological and histological tumour focality and tumour size in 35 and 40%,
      respectively. The correlation between radiology/histology discordance and E
      cadherin expression was statistically significant. However, the correlation
      between radiology/histology discordance and menopausal status, breast density,
      pattern of invasion, presence of lobular intraepithelial neoplasia (LIN),
      hormonal status, and Ki67 were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION:
      Histological and biological factors in ILC, with the exception of E-cadherin
      expression, do not seem to play a significant role in radiology/histology
      discordance. However, larger studies are needed to further corroborate these
      findings.

PMID- 28559765
TI  - Value of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis versus Additional Views for the Assessment
      of Screen-Detected Abnormalities - a First Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to countercheck the equivalence of
      single-view digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) or DBT with additional views
      (DBT+AV) compared to traditional standard assessment by additional views (AV) in
      patients with a screen-detected abnormality. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with
      a screen-detected abnormality were consecutively invited to obtain 1 single-view
      wide-angle DBT in addition to the indicated AV. The study was approved by the
      local ethics committee and by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection.
      RESULTS: This study is based on 311 lesions in 285 patients with a follow-up of >
      2 years and/or biopsy. Counting BI-RADS 0 and 3 as positive calls, the
      sensitivity/specificity of DBT+AV versus DBT only versus AV only were 96.4/54.3%,
      96.4/56.6%, and 90.9/42.2%, respectively. The specificities and BI-RADS
      classifications differed significantly (p < 0.01). AV appeared unnecessary in
      88.8% of the cases. CONCLUSION: DBT appeared to be at least equivalent to AV for
      assessing indeterminate screen-detected lesions and could replace AV for most
      lesions. To obtain the extra information appears possible without increasing the
      overall radiation dose. Subsequent blinded reader studies are ongoing.

PMID- 28559766
TI  - Combining Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging and BI-RADS May Improve Solid Breast
      Lesion Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ultrasound elastography (UE) is a novel imaging method. The purpose
      of this study was to determine the utility of Virtual Touch tissue imaging in the
      evaluation of solid breast lesions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 209 breast solid
      lesions in 192 patients that had been evaluated using ultrasound (US) and UE were
      reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive
      predictive value, and negative predictive value for UE, US, and US plus UE in the
      differentiation of malignant from benign breast lesions were 80.8, 75.6, 77.9,
      73.1, and 82.8% for UE, 87.2, 86.1, 86.6, 83.7, and 89.2% for US, and 92.5, 86.9,
      89.5, 85.3, and 93.4% for US plus UE. There were significant differences between
      UE and US plus UE (all p < 0.05). Except for accuracy, there were no significant
      differences between UE and US or US and US plus UE (all p > 0.05). The area under
      the curve obtained from the ROC curve for UE, US, and US plus UE in
      differentiating malignant from benign lesions was 0.845, 0.884, and 0.922,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The UE scoring system is not superior to BI-RADS in the
      sonographic evaluation of solid breast lesions. Combined use may improve the
      performance.

PMID- 28559767
TI  - St. Gallen/Vienna 2017: A Brief Summary of the Consensus Discussion about
      Escalation and De-Escalation of Primary Breast Cancer Treatment.
AB  - For the second time, the St. Gallen Consensus Conference on early breast cancer
      treatment standards took place in Vienna, Austria, where it will remain for the
      foreseeable future (next date: March 20-23, 2019). With the probably most
      prominent line-up of global breast cancer experts and more than 3,000
      participants from over 100 countries, the 2017 St. Gallen/Vienna conference again
      was a huge success. A generation change took place with respect to the Conference
      Co-Chairpersons. Traditionally, the experts from all continents reviewed
      publications from the past 2 years, and discussed whether new diagnostic or
      therapeutic means were ready for routine everyday practice. This year, the
      conference's main theme was 'Escalating and Deescalating Treatment', and the
      traditional panel votings clarified a number of issues in this respect. Several
      subjects of all breast cancer modalities were further de-escalated (surgery: 'no
      ink on tumor' clearly confirmed as standard; resection within new limits after
      neoadjuvant systemic therapy; axillary dissection may also be avoided after
      mastectomy under certain circumstances; radiotherapy: hypofractionation is
      standard of care in breast conserving therapy; chemotherapy: can be avoided in
      low-risk patients). However, others were escalated: surgery: after neoadjuvant
      treatment and after mastectomy a positive sentinel node leads to axillary
      dissection; radiotherapy: regional nodes have to be irradiated in 4+ nodes
      situations; adjuvant therapy: bisphosphonates as standard for postmenopausal
      women. There was no clear panel opinion on the optimal use of multigenomic
      assays. As always, the panel recommendations are strictly opinion-based, and try
      to depict the 'usual' treatment for the 'average' patients. This rapid report by
      the editors-in-chief of Breast Care summarizes the results of the 2017
      international panel votings with respect to loco-regional systemic treatment, and
      does not intend to replace the official St. Gallen Consensus publication.

PMID- 28559768
TI  - Intraoperative Radiotherapy of Breast Cancer and Its Biological Effects.
AB  - Conservative breast cancer surgery followed by radiation therapy is the standard
      treatment for this type of cancer. Numerous studies demonstrate that 90% of local
      recurrences after traditional surgery occur in the same quadrant as the primary
      cancer. The published data suggest that the wound healing process after surgery
      alters the area surrounding the original tumor and the modified microenvironment
      is more favorable for the tumor to recur. The majority of metastases within scar
      initiated much research, and the consequences of these studies led to clinical
      trials aimed at assessing whether localized radiotherapy, such as intraoperative
      radiotherapy (IORT), would be more effective in inhibiting formation of local
      recurrence than the standard postoperative whole breast radiotherapy. IORT
      involves irradiation of diseased tissue directly during surgery. The rationale
      for this approach is the fact that the increase in the radiation dose increases
      local tumor control, which is the primary goal of radiation therapy. The
      biological basis of this process are still not thoroughly understood. Gaining new
      knowledge about the recurrence formation at the molecular level could serve as a
      starting point for further analysis and to create an opportunity to identify new
      targets of therapy, and possibly new therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28559770
TI  - Erratum.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 432 in vol. 11.].

PMID- 28559769
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals a Nonsense Mutation (p.Arg364Ter) in MRE11A
      Gene in an Indian Patient with Familial Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The MRN complex consisting of MRE11A-RAD50-NBS1 proteins is involved
      in the repair of double-strand breaks, and mutations in genes coding for the MRN
      complex have been identified in families with breast and ovarian cancer. CASE
      REPORT: In a BRCA-negative family with positive history of breast and endometrial
      cancer, next-generation sequencing-based panel testing identified a mutation in
      the MRE11A gene (NM_005590 c.1090C>T: p.Arg364Ter). This mutation results in a
      shorter mutated protein lacking 2 DNA binding domains (the GAR domain and the
      RAD50 binding site), abolishing the function of protein. CONCLUSION: This case
      provides insight into the role of the MRE11A gene in causing breast cancer
      susceptibility in families, and supports the use of multigene panel testing in
      cases with hereditary predisposition to breast cancer.

PMID- 28559771
TI  - CDK4/6 Inhibitors in the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer.

PMID- 28559774
TI  - Geriatric Nutrition Risk Index is an Important Predictor of Cancer-Specific
      Survival, but not Recurrence-Free Survival, in Patients Undergoing Surgical
      Resection for Non-Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic value of the
      Geriatric Nutrition Risk Index (GNRI), a simplified, objective screening
      parameter of nutrition-related risk for various pathological conditions, on
      patients with non-metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who underwent surgical
      resection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 432 consecutive patients
      with non-metastatic RCC who received complete surgical resection. The prognostic
      outcomes of these patients were evaluated focusing on the significance of GNRI,
      calculated from serum albumin and the body mass index. RESULTS: Of the 432
      patients, 107 (24.8%) and 325 (75.2%) were classified into low (GNRI <= 98) and
      high (GNRI > 98) nutritional groups, respectively. Both recurrence-free survival
      and cancer-specific survival in the low nutritional group were significantly
      poorer compared with those in the high nutritional group. Despite the lack of
      independent significance as a predictor of recurrence-free survival, GNRI, in
      addition to microvascular invasion, appeared to be independently associated with
      cancer-specific survival on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: A low nutritional
      status evaluated by GNRI may have an unfavorable impact on postoperative cancer
      control, particularly cancer-specific survival, in non-metastatic RCC patients
      who received surgical resection.

PMID- 28559773
TI  - Neuroendocrine Testicular Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to study the main epidemiological,
      clinical, para clinical, pathological, therapeutic, and evolutionary features of
      patients with testicular neuroendocrine tumors (TNET). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Nine case series and sixteen case reports were identified by searching PubMed
      database and qualified for inclusion in this study. We added the data of one case
      treated in the department of urology in Habib Bourguiba Hospital in Sfax, to the
      published cases. RESULTS: A total of 132 cases were collected. Median age at
      diagnosis was 39 years old (range 10- 83 years). The most common presenting
      symptom was either a testicular mass or a swelling in 38.46% of cases. Carcinoid
      syndrome was documented in 10.60% of patients. The clinical examination revealed
      a palpable mass in 44.70% of patients. This mass was painless and firm in most
      cases. Serum tumor markers (beta-gonadotrophine chorionique humaine, alpha-feto
      protein, and lactate dehydrogenase) were within normal limits in all patients
      except in one case. Most testicular neuroendocrine tumors (76.52%) were primary
      and pure. The tumors were positive for chromogranin (100%), synaptophysin (100%)
      and cytokeratin (93.10%). Metastases were detected at time of diagnosis in eight
      cases (6.06%). The main treatment was radical orchiectomy performed in 127
      patients (96.21%). The 5-year overall survival rate was 78.70% and the 5-year
      specific survival rate was 84.30%. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of testicular
      carcinoids is based on the immunohistochemistry study. The treatment of choice
      for these tumors is radical orchiectomy. Somatostatin analogues were reported to
      be effective in patients with carcinoid syndrome.

PMID- 28559772
TI  - Classifying Hydroceles of the Pelvis and Groin: An Overview of Etiology,
      Secondary Complications, Evaluation, and Management.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A hydrocele is defined as the pathological buildup of serous fluid
      in the pelvis and groin due to various etiologies such as diseases or trauma. It
      has distinct clinical manifestations, particularly discomfort and psychosocial
      distress. Understanding the anatomy, embryology, and physiology associated with
      hydrocele formation is crucial to understand its onset and progression. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A MEDLINE(r) search was conducted using keywords for the relevant
      classification of hydrocele and its etiology, complications, sexual barriers,
      evaluation, and management. RESULTS: Appropriately classifying the hydrocele as
      primary, secondary communicating, secondary noncommunicating, microbe-induced,
      inflammatory, iatrogenic, trauma-induced, tumor-induced, canal of Nuck,
      congenital, and giant is important for identifying the underlying etiology. Often
      this process is overlooked when the classification or etiology is too rare. A
      focused evaluation is important for this, so that timely management can be
      provided. We comprehensively review the classifications, etiology, and secondary
      complications of hydrocele. Pitfalls of current diagnostic techniques are
      explored along with recommended methods for accurate diagnosis and current
      treatment options. CONCLUSION: Due to the range of classifications and etiologies
      of hydrocele in the pelvis and groin, a deliberate differential diagnosis is
      essential to avoiding imminent life-threatening complications as well as
      providing the appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28559775
TI  - Post Prostatectomy Vesicourethral Stenosis or Bladder Neck Contracture with
      Concomitant Urinary Incontinence: Our Experience and Recommendations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To present our experience in the management of bladder neck
      contracture with concomitant post prostatectomy incontinence and to provide our
      recommendations based on the updated literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between
      Jan 2010 and June 2015, 37 patients from our cohort of 341 patients with post
      prostatectomy incontinence were evaluated. Patient data were retrospectively
      collected. Patients with bladder neck contracture confirmed on flexible
      cystoscopy underwent subsequent rigid cystoscopy and deep endoscopic bladder neck
      incision (BNI). A follow up flexible cystoscopy would be performed 3 months
      later. If there was no recurrence of the bladder neck contracture, an artificial
      urethral sphincter (AUS) or a male sling was recommended. RESULTS: The mean age
      of patients was 68 years (range 59-77) and the mean BMI was 31 (range 21-41)
      kg/m2. Twenty-five (67.7%) patients had open prostatectomy and 12 (32.4%)
      patients had laparoscopic prostatectomy. Fourteen patients (37.8%) underwent
      adjuvant radiotherapy. Twenty-four (64.8%) patients had one BNI procedure, 8
      (21.6%) patients had two procedures and 5 (13.5%) patients had more than 2
      procedures. Twenty-one (91.3%) patients had AUS implantation and 2 (8.7%)
      patients had male sling placement. Besides, 85.7% of AUS and 50% of male sling
      patients managed to achieve successful outcomes with a mean follow up period of
      13.1 months (range 2-33 months). CONCLUSION: Initial management with aggressive
      BNI followed by implantation of an AUS or male sling when bladder neck is stable
      is essential to achieve a satisfactory urinary continence outcome.

PMID- 28559776
TI  - Association between Serum Testosterone and PSA Levels in Middle-Aged Healthy Men
      from the General Population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association
      between serum testosterone and PSA levels in middle-aged healthy men from the
      general population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on 119 healthy men from the
      general population, total testosterone and PSA levels were measured. Demographic
      data regarding BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, and alcohol consumption were
      also collected. Men were classified into two groups according to testosterone
      levels; hypogonadal (testosterone <= 12 nmol/l), and eugonadal (testosterone > 12
      nmol/l). RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 55 years (range 46-60 years).
      No significant correlation between serum testosterone and PSA levels was found (p
      = 0.60). PSA levels were similar when compared between hypogonadal and eugonadal
      men (1.4 ug/l vs. 1.4 ug/l, p = 0.90). When using a multivariate analysis model
      adjusted for the age of the subjects, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, and
      alcohol consumption, a positive significant association between testosterone and
      PSA levels was found (beta = 0.03, 95 % CI = 0.003-0.062, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION:
      Only after adjusted multivariate analysis, our results indicated that
      testosterone was associated with PSA levels in middle-aged healthy men.

PMID- 28559777
TI  - Microsurgical Subinguinal Varicocele Repair of Grade II-III Lesions Associated
      with Improvements of Testosterone Levels.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The results of reports on the association between varicocele repair
      and testosterone levels were conflicting. The aim of the present study is,
      therefore, to investigate the impact of varicocele repair on testosterone levels.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is based on 20 men who experienced microsurgical
      subinguinal varicoceles repair because of chronic dull scrotal pain. All hormonal
      profiles available in the clinical records were reviewed. Follow-up evaluation
      was done at 1 and 12 months after surgery. Men were classified into groups based
      on the preoperative testosterone levels: euogonadal (serum levels of testosterone
      > 12 nmol/l), hypogonadal men (serum levels of testosterone <= 12 nmol/l).
      RESULTS: Microsurgical subinguinal varicocele repair was associated with a
      significant improvements of testosterone levels at 1 and 12 months after surgery
      as compared to the preoperative levels (13 nmol/l vs. 18 nmol/l, p = 0.03; 13
      nmol/l vs. 15 nmol/l, p = 0.01). The same trend was seen in men who were
      classified as being hypogonadal (7.0 nmol/l vs. 15 nmol/l, p = 0.01; 7.0 nmol/l
      vs. 10 nmol/l, p = 0.02). No significant improvements in testosterone levels were
      observed in euogonadal men (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Microsurgical subinguinal
      varicocele repair was associated with a significant improvements of testosterone
      levels in men with grade II-III lesions and low preoperative testosterone values.

PMID- 28559779
TI  - Periurethral Gland Calculus Discovered on Workup for Dyspareunia.
AB  - A 55-year-old woman with a history of chronic dysuria in the absence of infection
      was found to have an unusual lesion below the urethral meatus. This was
      subsequently determined to be a periurethral gland containing a sizeable
      calculus. Pathologic analysis found the composition to be car bonate apatite
      (dahllite). Only one prior report of a female periurethral calculus has been
      noted in the English peer-reviewed literature.

PMID- 28559778
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Hematospermia: Does It Increase Unnecessary
      Prostate Biopsy?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hematospermia is an uncommon presentation of prostate cancer.
      Following the introduction of MRI for patients with hematospermia we evaluated
      its use and effect on prostate biopsy and cancer detection rates. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Analysis of patients attending our outpatient department over 2 years
      was undertaken. Diagnostic workup included digital rectal examination and PSA.
      Those with abnormal findings or persisting symptoms were offered prostate biopsy.
      In the second year MRI became available for patients with hematospermia. Abnormal
      MRI or persisting symptoms were offered biopsy. We compared the frequency of
      prostate biopsy and cancer detection in patients undergoing MRI and those not
      having imaging. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients were referred with hematospermia.
      Nineteen patients did not undergo MRI; four received prostate biopsy with one
      adenocarcinoma found. Twenty-four patients had an MRI with 17 biopsies
      undertaken. Three biopsies revealed adenocarcinoma. In the MRI group 71% of
      patients underwent prostate biopsy but only 21% from the non-MRI group (p <
      0.05). Prostate cancer detection rate in the MRI group was 18% whilst in the non
      MRI group was 25% (p = 0.7). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that caution
      should be used with MRI as it can lead to an increase in prostate biopsy with no
      change in cancer detection rate.

PMID- 28559780
TI  - Pancreatitis Induced by Cocaine.
AB  - Pancreatitis is one of the commonest diseases of the gastrointestinal tract,
      characterized by epigastric pain of moderate to severe intensity, which radiates
      to the back, elevation of pancreatic lipase and amylase enzymes, and changes in
      pancreatic parenchyma in imaging methods. The most common etiologies vary,
      generally the most frequent being biliary lithiasis and alcohol, followed by
      hypertriglyceridemia. Among the less frequent causes is drug-induced
      pancreatitis. We report a case of acute pancreatitis caused by cocaine, rarely
      described in literature.

PMID- 28559781
TI  - Pancreatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - Pancreatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare event. Here, we present a 56
      year-old man with pancreatic SCC. Imaging methods demonstrated a hypodense mass
      at the head and trunk of the pancreas. Also, some lymphadenopathy has been seen
      around the pancreas and para-aorta. The mass created pressure and encasement on
      the celiac trunk, portal vein, and arteries of the liver and spleen. Endoscopic
      ultrasound showed a mass lesion of 45-37 mm (mixed echoic) at the trunk of the
      pancreas. Histological examination of the endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine
      needle aspiration specimen confirmed the diagnosis of SCC. The disease is highly
      aggressive, most often locally advanced or metastatic at diagnosis, and poorly
      responsive to treatment. It also has generally poor survival rates.

PMID- 28559782
TI  - Cholecystoparietal Fistula Revealed by an Epigastric Abscess.
AB  - Cholecystocutaneous fistula, the ultimate complication of abscessed or overlooked
      acute cholecystitis, is due to perforation of the gallbladder in the abdominal
      wall. The authors report an unusual case of cholecystoparietal fistula revealed
      by an epigastric abscess. Fistulography and modern imaging tools make the
      diagnosis easier. Surgery is the best available treatment.

PMID- 28559783
TI  - Long-Term Results of Serial Transverse Enteroplasty with Neovalve Creation for
      Extreme Short Bowel Syndrome: Report of Two Cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article was to determine whether serial transverse
      enteroplasty (STEP) and the creation of a new ileocecal valve in extreme short
      bowel syndrome (SBS) cases (<45 cm) is effective in intestinal adaptation and
      improvement of nutritional parameters and serum citrulline levels. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We present 2 cases of SBS treated with STEP. Enterectomy was performed
      for massive intestinal ischemia secondary to a gastrointestinal stromal tumor in
      the first case and to catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome in the second. After
      enterectomy, the short residual bowel measured 34 cm in the first patient and 45
      cm in the second. In both cases STEP, cholecystectomy, and gastrostomy were
      performed. In the first case a Brooke neovalve was created, and in the other the
      ileocecal valve was preserved. RESULTS: Both patients could finally be weaned off
      total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and gastrostomy feeding, maintaining a good
      nutritional status 1 year after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: In extreme SBS, a minimum
      length of 80-90 cm of functioning small bowel and an intact ileocecal valve are
      necessary. We plead for the use of STEP with preservation of the ileocecal valve
      or creation of a neovalve using the Brooke technique in order to achieve the
      ultimate goal, which is to wean patients off TPN. After a critical review of
      different surgical techniques, a treatment algorithm is proposed.

PMID- 28559784
TI  - Splenic Injury Following Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography: A Case
      Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Splenic injury following endoscopy is a rare but potentially fatal complication.
      While this has been found to occur more frequently after colonoscopy, splenic
      injury following endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) remains
      highly uncommon since its first reported case in 1989. Indeed, there have been
      only 19 such cases reported in the English, German, and Spanish literature
      collectively over the past 27 years. We report on a 59-year-old woman who
      developed a peri-splenic haematoma diagnosed on abdominal computed tomography the
      day following ERCP and stenting for Mirizzi syndrome. The patient was treated
      conservatively and made a full recovery. We reviewed all cases of post-ERCP
      splenic injuries reported to date and discuss the published opinions on the
      likely mechanism of injury, predisposing factors, presenting features,
      investigation, and treatment options. Ultimately, patient outcome relies on
      clinical suspicion of this rare complication following ERCP.

PMID- 28559785
TI  - An Uncommon Cause of Small Bowel Bleeding from Appendiceal Carcinoma.
AB  - Massive hematochezia caused by a small bowel lesion is a rare entity. Currently,
      video capsule endoscopy and balloon-assisted enteroscopy are effective in
      identifying the source of small intestine bleeding. Herein, we report a case of
      small bowel bleeding caused by a nonmucinous appendiceal adenocarcinoma with
      ileal invasion which was detected by video capsule endoscopy and single-balloon
      endoscopy. Despite the advanced disease stage with hepatic and peritoneal
      metastases, as of September 2016 the patient has had 8 years' disease-free
      survival after surgical resection and chemotherapy.

PMID- 28559786
TI  - Recognition of Extraperitoneal Colonic Perforation following Colonoscopy: A
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - Colon perforation is an uncommon but serious complication of colonoscopy. It may
      occur as either intraperitoneal or extraperitoneal perforation or in combination.
      The majority of colonic perforations are intraperitoneal, causing air and
      intracolonic contents to leak into the peritoneal space. Rarely, colonic
      perforation can be extraperitoneal, leading to the passage of air into the
      retroperitoneal space causing pneumoretroperitoneum, pneumomediastinum,
      pneumopericardium, pneumothorax, and subcutaneous emphysema. A literature review
      revealed that 31 cases of extraperitoneal perforation exist, out of which 20
      cases also reported concomitant intraperitoneal perforation. We report the case
      of a young female with a history of ulcerative colitis who developed combined
      intraperitoneal and extraperitoneal perforation after colonoscopy. We also report
      the duration of onset of symptoms, clinical features, imaging findings, site of
      leak, and treatment administered in previously reported cases of extraperitoneal
      colonic perforation.

PMID- 28559787
TI  - A 3D Computational Model of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for
      Estimating Abeta Tactile Nerve Fiber Excitability.
AB  - Tactile sensory feedback plays an important role in our daily life.
      Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is widely accepted to produce
      artificial tactile sensation. To explore the underlying mechanism of tactile
      sensation under TENS, this paper presented a novel 3D TENS computational model
      including an active Abeta tactile nerve fiber (TNF) model and a forearm finite
      element model with the fine-layered skin structure. The conduction velocity vs.
      fiber diameter and strength-duration relationships in this combined TENS model
      matched well with experimental data. Based on this validated TENS model,
      threshold current variation were further investigated under different stimulating
      electrode sizes with varied fiber diameters. The computational results showed
      that the threshold current intensity increased with electrode size, and larger
      nerve fibers were recruited at lower current intensities. These results were
      comparable to our psychophysical experimental data from six healthy subjects.
      This novel 3D TENS model would further guide the floorplan of the surface
      electrodes, and the stimulating paradigms for tactile sensory feedback.

PMID- 28559788
TI  - Assessment of Motor Control during Three-Dimensional Movements Tracking with
      Position-Varying Gravity Compensation.
AB  - Active movements are important in the rehabilitation training for patients with
      neurological motor disorders, while weight of upper limb impedes movements due to
      muscles weakness. The objective of this study is to develop a position-varying
      gravity compensation strategy for a cable-based rehabilitation robot. The control
      strategy can estimate real-time gravity torque according to position feedback.
      Then, the performance of this control strategy was compared with the other two
      kinds of gravity compensation strategies (i.e., without compensation and with
      fixed compensation) during movements tracking. Seven healthy subjects were
      invited to conduct tracking tasks along four different directions (i.e., upward,
      forward, leftward, and rightward). The performance of movements with different
      compensation strategies was compared in terms of root mean square error (RMSE)
      between target and actual moving trajectories, normalized jerk score (NJS), mean
      velocity ratio (MVR) of main motion direction, and the activation of six muscles.
      The results showed that there were significant effects in control strategies in
      all four directions with the RMSE and NJS values in the following order: without
      compensation > fixed compensation > position-varying compensation and MVR values
      in the following order: without compensation < fixed compensation < position
      varying compensation (p < 0.05). Comparing with movements without compensation in
      all four directions, the activation of muscles during movements with position
      varying compensation showed significant reductions, except the activations of
      triceps and in forward and leftward movements, the activations of upper trapezius
      and middle parts of deltoid in upward movements and the activations of posterior
      parts of deltoid in all four directions (p < 0.05). Therefore, with position
      varying gravity compensation, the upper limb cable-based rehabilitation robotic
      system might assist subjects to perform movements with higher quality and improve
      the participation of robot-aided rehabilitation training. Further studies are
      needed to explore the effectiveness and clinic application across pathologies.

PMID- 28559791
TI  - Photogrammetry-Based Head Digitization for Rapid and Accurate Localization of EEG
      Electrodes and MEG Fiducial Markers Using a Single Digital SLR Camera.
AB  - The performance of EEG source reconstruction has benefited from the increasing
      use of advanced head modeling techniques that take advantage of MRI together with
      the precise positions of the recording electrodes. The prevailing technique for
      registering EEG electrode coordinates involves electromagnetic digitization.
      However, the procedure adds several minutes to experiment preparation and typical
      digitizers may not be accurate enough for optimal source reconstruction
      performance (Dalal et al., 2014). Here, we present a rapid, accurate, and cost
      effective alternative method to register EEG electrode positions, using a single
      digital SLR camera, photogrammetry software, and computer vision techniques
      implemented in our open-source toolbox, janus3D. Our approach uses photogrammetry
      to construct 3D models from multiple photographs of the participant's head
      wearing the EEG electrode cap. Electrodes are detected automatically or semi
      automatically using a template. The rigid facial features from these photo-based
      models are then surface-matched to MRI-based head reconstructions to facilitate
      coregistration to MRI space. This method yields a final electrode coregistration
      error of 0.8 mm, while a standard technique using an electromagnetic digitizer
      yielded an error of 6.1 mm. The technique furthermore reduces preparation time,
      and could be extended to a multi-camera array, which would make the procedure
      virtually instantaneous. In addition to EEG, the technique could likewise capture
      the position of the fiducial markers used in magnetoencephalography systems to
      register head position.

PMID- 28559790
TI  - Non-linear Analysis of Scalp EEG by Using Bispectra: The Effect of the Reference
      Choice.
AB  - Bispectral analysis is a signal processing technique that makes it possible to
      capture the non-linear and non-Gaussian properties of the EEG signals. It has
      found various applications in EEG research and clinical practice, including the
      assessment of anesthetic depth, the identification of epileptic seizures, and
      more recently, the evaluation of non-linear cross-frequency brain functional
      connectivity. However, the validity and reliability of the indices drawn from
      bispectral analysis of EEG signals are potentially biased by the use of a non
      neutral EEG reference. The present study aims at investigating the effects of the
      reference choice on the analysis of the non-linear features of EEG signals
      through bicoherence, as well as on the estimation of cross-frequency EEG
      connectivity through two different non-linear measures, i.e., the cross
      bicoherence and the antisymmetric cross-bicoherence. To this end, four commonly
      used reference schemes were considered: the vertex electrode (Cz), the digitally
      linked mastoids, the average reference, and the Reference Electrode
      Standardization Technique (REST). The reference effects were assessed both in
      simulations and in a real EEG experiment. The simulations allowed to
      investigated: (i) the effects of the electrode density on the performance of the
      above references in the estimation of bispectral measures; and (ii) the effects
      of the head model accuracy in the performance of the REST. For real data, the EEG
      signals recorded from 10 subjects during eyes open resting state were examined,
      and the distortions induced by the reference choice in the patterns of alpha-beta
      bicoherence, cross-bicoherence, and antisymmetric cross-bicoherence were
      assessed. The results showed significant differences in the findings depending on
      the chosen reference, with the REST providing superior performance than all the
      other references in approximating the ideal neutral reference. In conclusion,
      this study highlights the importance of considering the effects of the reference
      choice in the interpretation and comparison of the results of bispectral analysis
      of scalp EEG.

PMID- 28559792
TI  - Open-Source, Low Cost, Free-Behavior Monitoring, and Reward System for
      Neuroscience Research in Non-human Primates.
AB  - We describe a low-cost system designed to document bodily movement and neural
      activity and deliver rewards to monkeys behaving freely in their home cage. An
      important application is to studying brain-machine interface (BMI) systems during
      free behavior, since brain signals associated with natural movement can differ
      significantly from those associated with more commonly used constrained
      conditions. Our approach allows for short-latency (<500 ms) reward delivery and
      behavior monitoring using low-cost off-the-shelf components. This system
      interfaces existing untethered recording equipment with a custom hub that
      controls a cage-mounted feeder. The behavior monitoring system uses a depth
      camera to provide real-time, easy-to-analyze, gross movement data streams. In a
      proof-of-concept experiment we demonstrate robust learning of neural activity
      using the system over 14 behavioral sessions.

PMID- 28559793
TI  - Initial Validation for the Estimation of Resting-State fMRI Effective
      Connectivity by a Generalization of the Correlation Approach.
AB  - Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) is widely used to noninvasively study
      human brain networks. Network functional connectivity is often estimated by
      calculating the timeseries correlation between blood-oxygen-level dependent
      (BOLD) signal from different regions of interest (ROIs). However, standard
      correlation cannot characterize the direction of information flow between
      regions. In this paper, we introduce and test a new concept, prediction
      correlation, to estimate effective connectivity in functional brain networks from
      rs-fMRI. In this approach, the correlation between two BOLD signals is replaced
      by a correlation between one BOLD signal and a prediction of this signal via a
      causal system driven by another BOLD signal. Three validations are described: (1)
      Prediction correlation performed well on simulated data where the ground truth
      was known, and outperformed four other methods. (2) On simulated data designed to
      display the "common driver" problem, prediction correlation did not introduce
      false connections between non-interacting driven ROIs. (3) On experimental data,
      prediction correlation recovered the previously identified network organization
      of human brain. Prediction correlation scales well to work with hundreds of ROIs,
      enabling it to assess whole brain interregional connectivity at the single
      subject level. These results provide an initial validation that prediction
      correlation can capture the direction of information flow and estimate the
      duration of extended temporal delays in information flow between regions of
      interest ROIs based on BOLD signal. This approach not only maintains the high
      sensitivity to network connectivity provided by the correlation analysis, but
      also performs well in the estimation of causal information flow in the brain.

PMID- 28559794
TI  - Possible Function of Molecular Chaperones in Diseases Caused by Propagating
      Amyloid Aggregates.
AB  - The vast majority of neurodegenerative pathologies stem from the formation of
      toxic oligomers and aggregates composed of wrongly folded proteins. These protein
      complexes can be released from pathogenic cells and enthralled by other cells,
      causing the formation of new aggregates in a prion-like manner. By this
      mechanism, migrating complexes can transmit a disorder to distant regions of the
      brain and promote gradually transmitting degenerative processes. Molecular
      chaperones can counteract the toxicity of misfolded proteins. In this review, we
      discuss recent data on the possible cytoprotective functions of chaperones in
      horizontally transmitting neurological disorders.

PMID- 28559789
TI  - The Hsp70/Hsp90 Chaperone Machinery in Neurodegenerative Diseases.
AB  - The accumulation of misfolded proteins in the human brain is one of the critical
      features of many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Assembles of beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide-either soluble (oligomers) or insoluble
      (plaques) and of tau protein, which form neurofibrillary tangles, are the major
      hallmarks of AD. Chaperones and co-chaperones regulate protein folding and client
      maturation, but they also target misfolded or aggregated proteins for refolding
      or for degradation, mostly by the proteasome. They form an important line of
      defense against misfolded proteins and are part of the cellular quality control
      system. The heat shock protein (Hsp) family, particularly Hsp70 and Hsp90, plays
      a major part in this process and it is well-known to regulate protein misfolding
      in a variety of diseases, including tau levels and toxicity in AD. However, the
      role of Hsp90 in regulating protein misfolding is not yet fully understood. For
      example, knockdown of Hsp90 and its co-chaperones in a Caenorhabditis elegans
      model of Abeta misfolding leads to increased toxicity. On the other hand, the use
      of Hsp90 inhibitors in AD mouse models reduces Abeta toxicity, and normalizes
      synaptic function. Stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (STI1), an intracellular co
      chaperone, mediates the transfer of clients from Hsp70 to Hsp90. Importantly,
      STI1 has been shown to regulate aggregation of amyloid-like proteins in yeast. In
      addition to its intracellular function, STI1 can be secreted by diverse cell
      types, including astrocytes and microglia and function as a neurotrophic ligand
      by triggering signaling via the cellular prion protein (PrPC). Extracellular STI1
      can prevent Abeta toxic signaling by (i) interfering with Abeta binding to PrPC
      and (ii) triggering pro-survival signaling cascades. Interestingly, decreased
      levels of STI1 in C. elegans can also increase toxicity in an amyloid model. In
      this review, we will discuss the role of intracellular and extracellular STI1 and
      the Hsp70/Hsp90 chaperone network in mechanisms underlying protein misfolding in
      neurodegenerative diseases, with particular focus on AD.

PMID- 28559795
TI  - Voltage-Dependent Inhibition of Glycine Receptor Channels by Niflumic Acid.
AB  - Niflumic acid (NFA) is a member of the fenamate class of nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs. This compound and its derivatives are used worldwide
      clinically for the relief of chronic and acute pain. NFA is also a commonly used
      blocker of voltage-gated chloride channels. Here we present evidence that NFA is
      an efficient blocker of chloride-permeable glycine receptors (GlyRs) with subunit
      heterogeneity of action. Using the whole-cell configuration of patch-clamp
      recordings and molecular modeling, we analyzed the action of NFA on homomeric
      alpha1DeltaIns, alpha2B, alpha3L, and heteromeric alpha1beta and alpha2beta GlyRs
      expressed in CHO cells. NFA inhibited glycine-induced currents in a voltage
      dependent manner and its blocking potency in alpha2 and alpha3 GlyRs was higher
      than that in alpha1 GlyR. The Woodhull analysis suggests that NFA blocks alpha1
      and alpha2 GlyRs at the fractional electrical distances of 0.16 and 0.65 from the
      external membrane surface, respectively. Thus, NFA binding site in alpha1 GlyR is
      closer to the external part of the membrane, while in alpha2 GlyR it is
      significantly deeper in the pore. Mutation G254A at the cytoplasmic part of the
      alpha1 GlyR pore-lining TM2 helix (level 2') increased the NFA blocking potency,
      while incorporation of the beta subunit did not have a significant effect. The
      Hill plot analysis suggests that alpha1 and alpha2 GlyRs are preferably blocked
      by two and one NFA molecules, respectively. Molecular modeling using Monte Carlo
      energy minimizations provides the structural rationale for the experimental data
      and proposes more than one interaction site along the pore where NFA can suppress
      the ion permeation.

PMID- 28559796
TI  - Presynaptic Membrane Receptors Modulate ACh Release, Axonal Competition and
      Synapse Elimination during Neuromuscular Junction Development.
AB  - During the histogenesis of the nervous system a lush production of neurons, which
      establish an excessive number of synapses, is followed by a drop in both neurons
      and synaptic contacts as maturation proceeds. Hebbian competition between axons
      with different activities leads to the loss of roughly half of the neurons
      initially produced so connectivity is refined and specificity gained. The
      skeletal muscle fibers in the newborn neuromuscular junction (NMJ) are
      polyinnervated but by the end of the competition, 2 weeks later, the NMJ are
      innervated by only one axon. This peripheral synapse has long been used as a
      convenient model for synapse development. In the last few years, we have studied
      transmitter release and the local involvement of the presynaptic muscarinic
      acetylcholine autoreceptors (mAChR), adenosine autoreceptors (AR) and trophic
      factor receptors (TFR, for neurotrophins and trophic cytokines) during the
      development of NMJ and in the adult. This review article brings together
      previously published data and proposes a molecular background for developmental
      axonal competition and loss. At the end of the first week postnatal, these
      receptors modulate transmitter release in the various nerve terminals on
      polyinnervated NMJ and contribute to axonal competition and synapse elimination.

PMID- 28559798
TI  - In situ RT-PCR Optimized for Electron Microscopy Allows Description of
      Subcellular Morphology of Target mRNA-Expressing Cells in the Brain.
AB  - In situ RT-PCR detects and amplifies mRNA (cDNA) while obtaining spatial
      information of gene expression. When the intended use is an ultrastructural
      analysis of morphology, the procedure may be technically challenging and quality
      of tissue dramatically altered by proteolytic digestion and extreme astringency
      and temperature conditions. We describe a low-damaging protocol of in situ RT-PCR
      combined to conventional electron microscopy that preserves fine morphology,
      increases sensitivity, and decreases costs and complexity associated to RNA
      probes.

PMID- 28559797
TI  - Regulation of the Hippocampal Network by VGLUT3-Positive CCK- GABAergic Basket
      Cells.
AB  - Hippocampal interneurons release the inhibitory transmitter GABA to regulate
      excitation, rhythm generation and synaptic plasticity. A subpopulation of
      GABAergic basket cells co-expresses the GABA/glycine vesicular transporters
      (VIAAT) and the atypical type III vesicular glutamate transporter (VGLUT3);
      therefore, these cells have the ability to signal with both GABA and glutamate.
      GABAergic transmission by basket cells has been extensively characterized but
      nothing is known about the functional implications of VGLUT3-dependent glutamate
      released by these cells. Here, using VGLUT3-null mice we observed that the loss
      of VGLUT3 results in a metaplastic shift in synaptic plasticity at Shaeffer's
      collaterals - CA1 synapses and an altered theta oscillation. These changes were
      paralleled by the loss of a VGLUT3-dependent inhibition of GABAergic current in
      CA1 pyramidal layer. Therefore presynaptic type III metabotropic could be
      activated by glutamate released from VGLUT3-positive interneurons. This putative
      presynaptic heterologous feedback mechanism inhibits local GABAergic tone and
      regulates the hippocampal neuronal network.

PMID- 28559799
TI  - The Effect of Serotonin-Targeting Antidepressants on Neurogenesis and Neuronal
      Maturation of the Hippocampus Mediated via 5-HT1A and 5-HT4 Receptors.
AB  - Antidepressant drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
      specifically increase serotonin (5-HT) levels in the synaptic cleft and are
      widely used to treat mood and anxiety disorders. There are 14 established
      subtypes of 5-HT receptors in rodents, each of which has regionally different
      expression patterns. Many preclinical studies have suggested that the
      hippocampus, which contains abundant 5-HT1A and 5-HT4 receptor subtypes in the
      dentate gyrus (DG), is critically involved in the mechanisms of action of
      antidepressants. This review article will analyze studies demonstrating
      regulation of hippocampal functions and hippocampus-dependent behaviors by SSRIs
      and similar serotonergic agents. Multiple studies indicate that 5-HT1A and 5-HT4
      receptor signaling in the DG contributes to SSRI-mediated promotion of
      neurogenesis and increased neurotrophic factors expression. Chronic SSRI
      treatment causes functions and phenotypes of mature granule cells (GCs) to revert
      to immature-like phenotypes defined as a "dematured" state in the DG, and to
      increase monoamine reactivity at the dentate-to-CA3 synapses, via 5-HT4 receptor
      signaling. Behavioral studies demonstrate that the 5-HT1A receptors on mature GCs
      are critical for expression of antidepressant effects in the forced swim test and
      in novelty suppressed feeding; such studies also note that 5-HT4 receptors
      mediate neurogenesis-dependent antidepressant activity in, for example, novelty
      suppressed feeding. Despite their limitations, the collective results of these
      studies describe a potential new mechanism of action, in which 5-HT1A and 5-HT4
      receptor signaling, either independently or cooperatively, modulates the function
      of the hippocampal DG at multiple levels, any of which could play a critical role
      in the antidepressant actions of 5-HT-enhancing drugs.

PMID- 28559800
TI  - Key Metabolic Enzymes Underlying Astrocytic Upregulation of GABAergic Plasticity.
AB  - GABAergic plasticity is recognized as a key mechanism of shaping the activity of
      the neuronal networks. However, its description is challenging because of
      numerous neuron-specific mechanisms. In particular, while essential role of glial
      cells in the excitatory plasticity is well established, their involvement in
      GABAergic plasticity only starts to emerge. To address this problem, we used two
      models: neuronal cell culture (NC) and astrocyte-neuronal co-culture (ANCC),
      where we chemically induced long-term potentiation at inhibitory synapses (iLTP).
      iLTP could be induced both in NC and ANCC but in ANCC its extent was larger.
      Importantly, this functional iLTP manifestation was accompanied by an increase in
      gephyrin puncta size. Furthermore, blocking astrocyte Krebs cycle with
      fluoroacetate (FA) in ANCC prevented enhancement of both mIPSC amplitude and
      gephyrin puncta size but this effect was not observed in NC, indicating a key
      role in neuron-astrocyte cross-talk. Blockade of monocarboxylate transport with
      alpha-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (4CIN) abolished iLTP both in NC and ANCC and
      in the latter model prevented also enlargement of gephyrin puncta. Similarly,
      blockade of glycogen phosphorylase with BAYU6751 prevented enlargement of
      gephyrin puncta upon iLTP induction. Finally, block of glutamine synthetase with
      methionine sulfoxide (MSO) nearly abolished mIPSC increase in both NMDA
      stimulated cell groups but did not prevent enlargement of gephyrin puncta. In
      conclusion, we provide further evidence that GABAergic plasticity is strongly
      regulated by astrocytes and the underlying mechanisms involve key metabolic
      enzymes. Considering the strategic role of GABAergic interneurons, the plasticity
      described here indicates possible mechanism whereby metabolism regulates the
      network activity.

PMID- 28559801
TI  - Parsing Heterogeneous Striatal Activity.
AB  - The striatum is an input channel of the basal ganglia and is well known to be
      involved in reward-based decision making and learning. At the macroscopic level,
      the striatum has been postulated to contain parallel functional modules, each of
      which includes neurons that perform similar computations to support selection of
      appropriate actions for different task contexts. At the single-neuron level,
      however, recent studies in monkeys and rodents have revealed heterogeneity in
      neuronal activity even within restricted modules of the striatum. Looking for
      generality in the complex striatal activity patterns, here we briefly survey
      several types of striatal activity, focusing on their usefulness for mediating
      behaviors. In particular, we focus on two types of behavioral tasks: reward-based
      tasks that use salient sensory cues and manipulate outcomes associated with the
      cues; and perceptual decision tasks that manipulate the quality of noisy sensory
      cues and associate all correct decisions with the same outcome. Guided by
      previous insights on the modular organization and general selection-related
      functions of the basal ganglia, we relate striatal activity patterns on these
      tasks to two types of computations: implementation of selection and evaluation.
      We suggest that a parsing with the selection/evaluation categories encourages a
      focus on the functional commonalities revealed by studies with different animal
      models and behavioral tasks, instead of a focus on aspects of striatal activity
      that may be specific to a particular task setting. We then highlight several
      questions in the selection-evaluation framework for future explorations.

PMID- 28559802
TI  - A CREB1 Gene Polymorphism (rs2253206) Is Associated with Prospective Memory in a
      Healthy Cohort.
AB  - Prospective memory (PM) is generally defined as remembering to perform intended
      actions in the future and is important for functioning in daily life. Cyclic
      adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responsive element binding protein 1 (CREB1) plays
      an important role in cognitive functions. In this study, we hypothesized that
      genetic variation in the CREB1 gene is associated with PM. We genotyped a CREB1
      promoter polymorphism rs2253206 and tested it for association with PM in 619
      healthy subjects. PM performance was measured using the Prospective and
      Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), the Comprehensive Assessment of
      Prospective Memory (CAPM), and the Memory for Intentions Screening Test (MIST).
      Generalized linear model analysis was conducted for each PM test independently
      using different inheritance models to identify any associations (p < 0.05). After
      multiple testing adjustments, a significant association was found between the
      rs2253206 genotype and PM performance for CAPM instrumental activities of daily
      living measure (p = 0.016). These results suggest that the rs2253206 polymorphism
      in the CREB1 gene locus is associated with PM in healthy individuals and
      contributes to knowledge on the genetics of this particular type of memory.

PMID- 28559803
TI  - Aberrant Insula-Centered Functional Connectivity in Psychogenic Erectile
      Dysfunction Patients: A Resting-State fMRI Study.
AB  - Most previous studies exploring the neural mechanism of psychogenic erectile
      dysfunction (pED) focused on brain activity under tasks. We suggest that the
      resting brain activity is equally important in pED studies, in that the patterns
      of spontaneous neural activities is independent of modalities of sensory input,
      therefore providing substantial information regarding the central mechanism of
      pED. Our previous study reported the altered baseline activity in right anterior
      insula (aINS) in pED patients. Also, the insula is a pivotal region in sexual
      behavior, which is suggested to be able to directly mediate erection. Therefore,
      the current study employed resting-state fMRI to examine alterations in
      functional connectivity (FC) of the aINS comparing pED patients with matched
      control subjects. After rigorous participant inclusion procedure, 27 pED patients
      and 27 healthy male controls were enrolled. Our results elucidated the disrupted
      homogeneity within the right aINS and aberrant connection patterns between the
      right aINS and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), as well as the
      right aINS and the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) respectively in pED
      group, as compared with the healthy controls. In conclusion, our results
      demonstrated the aberrant insula-centered FC in pED, which may be related to the
      abnormal representation of internal bodily state or needs in pED patients and
      thus further affect the inhibitory control in the sexual context. We hope that
      these findings may shed new light on the understanding of the central mechanism
      of pED.

PMID- 28559804
TI  - Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Creative Cognition:
      Interactions between Task, Polarity, and Stimulation Site.
AB  - Creative cognition is frequently described as involving two primary processes,
      idea generation and idea selection. A growing body of research has used
      transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine the neural mechanisms
      implicated in each of these processes. This literature has yielded a diverse set
      of findings that vary depending on the location and type (anodal, cathodal, or
      both) of electrical stimulation employed, as well as the task's reliance on idea
      generation or idea selection. As a result, understanding the interactions between
      stimulation site, polarity and task demands is required to evaluate the potential
      of tDCS to enhance creative performance. Here, we review tDCS designs that have
      elicited reliable and dissociable enhancements for creative cognition. Cathodal
      stimulation over the left inferior frontotemporal cortex has been associated with
      improvements on tasks that rely primarily on idea generation, whereas anodal tDCS
      over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and frontopolar cortex has been
      shown to augment performance on tasks that impose high demands on creative idea
      selection. These results highlight the functional selectivity of tDCS for
      different components of creative thinking and confirm the dissociable
      contributions of left dorsal and inferior lateral frontotemporal cortex for
      different creativity tasks. We discuss promising avenues for future research that
      can advance our understanding of the effectiveness of tDCS as a method to enhance
      creative cognition.

PMID- 28559806
TI  - Computer-Based Training Programs for Older People with Mild Cognitive Impairment
      and/or Dementia.
AB  - Currently, due to the demographic trends, the number of aging population groups
      is dramatically rising, especially in developed countries. This trend causes
      serious economic and social issues, but also an increase of aging disorders such
      as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia in older population groups. MCI
      and dementia are connected with deterioration of cognitive functions. The aim of
      this mini review article is therefore to explore whether computer-based training
      programs might be an effective intervention tool for older people with MCI and/or
      dementia or not. The methods include a literature search in the world's
      acknowledged databases: Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, MEDLINE and
      Springer, and consequently, evaluation of the findings of the relevant studies.
      The findings from the selected studies are quite neutral with respect to the
      efficacy of the computer assisted intervention programs on the improvement of
      basic cognitive functions. On the one hand, they suggest that the computer-based
      training interventions might generate some positive effects on patients with MCI
      and/or dementia, such as the improvement of learning and short-term memory, as
      well as behavioral symptoms. On the other hand, these training interventions seem
      to be short-term, with small sample sizes and their efficacy was proved only in
      the half of the detected studies. Therefore more longitudinal randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs) are needed to prove the efficacy of the computer-based
      training programs among older individuals with MCI and/or dementia.

PMID- 28559805
TI  - Semantic Feature Training in Combination with Transcranial Direct Current
      Stimulation (tDCS) for Progressive Anomia.
AB  - We examined the effectiveness of a 2-week regimen of a semantic feature training
      in combination with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for
      progressive naming impairment associated with primary progressive aphasia (N = 4)
      or early onset Alzheimer's Disease (N = 1). Patients received a 2-week regimen
      (10 sessions) of anodal tDCS delivered over the left temporoparietal cortex while
      completing a language therapy that consisted of repeated naming and semantic
      feature generation. Therapy targets consisted of familiar people, household
      items, clothes, foods, places, hygiene implements, and activities. Untrained
      items from each semantic category provided item level controls. We analyzed
      naming accuracies at multiple timepoints (i.e., pre-, post-, 6-month follow-up)
      via a mixed effects logistic regression and individual differences in treatment
      responsiveness using a series of non-parametric McNemar tests. Patients showed
      advantages for naming trained over untrained items. These gains were evident
      immediately post tDCS. Trained items also showed a shallower rate of decline over
      6-months relative to untrained items that showed continued progressive decline.
      Patients tolerated stimulation well, and sustained improvements in naming
      accuracy suggest that the current intervention approach is viable. Future
      implementation of a sham control condition will be crucial toward ascertaining
      whether neurostimulation and behavioral treatment act synergistically or
      alternatively whether treatment gains are exclusively attributable to either tDCS
      or the behavioral intervention.

PMID- 28559807
TI  - EEG and Eye Tracking Signatures of Target Encoding during Structured Visual
      Search.
AB  - EEG and eye tracking variables are potential sources of information about the
      underlying processes of target detection and storage during visual search.
      Fixation duration, pupil size and event related potentials (ERPs) locked to the
      onset of fixation or saccade (saccade-related potentials, SRPs) have been
      reported to differ dependent on whether a target or a non-target is currently
      fixated. Here we focus on the question of whether these variables also differ
      between targets that are subsequently reported (hits) and targets that are not
      (misses). Observers were asked to scan 15 locations that were consecutively
      highlighted for 1 s in pseudo-random order. Highlighted locations displayed
      either a target or a non-target stimulus with two, three or four targets per
      trial. After scanning, participants indicated which locations had displayed a
      target. To induce memory encoding failures, participants concurrently performed
      an aurally presented math task (high load condition). In a low load condition,
      participants ignored the math task. As expected, more targets were missed in the
      high compared with the low load condition. For both conditions, eye tracking
      features distinguished better between hits and misses than between targets and
      non-targets (with larger pupil size and shorter fixations for missed compared
      with correctly encoded targets). In contrast, SRP features distinguished better
      between targets and non-targets than between hits and misses (with average SRPs
      showing larger P300 waveforms for targets than for non-targets). Single trial
      classification results were consistent with these averages. This work suggests
      complementary contributions of eye and EEG measures in potential applications to
      support search and detect tasks. SRPs may be useful to monitor what objects are
      relevant to an observer, and eye variables may indicate whether the observer
      should be reminded of them later.

PMID- 28559808
TI  - Constructing Neuronal Network Models in Massively Parallel Environments.
AB  - Recent advances in the development of data structures to represent spiking neuron
      network models enable us to exploit the complete memory of petascale computers
      for a single brain-scale network simulation. In this work, we investigate how
      well we can exploit the computing power of such supercomputers for the creation
      of neuronal networks. Using an established benchmark, we divide the runtime of
      simulation code into the phase of network construction and the phase during which
      the dynamical state is advanced in time. We find that on multi-core compute nodes
      network creation scales well with process-parallel code but exhibits a
      prohibitively large memory consumption. Thread-parallel network creation, in
      contrast, exhibits speedup only up to a small number of threads but has little
      overhead in terms of memory. We further observe that the algorithms creating
      instances of model neurons and their connections scale well for networks of ten
      thousand neurons, but do not show the same speedup for networks of millions of
      neurons. Our work uncovers that the lack of scaling of thread-parallel network
      creation is due to inadequate memory allocation strategies and demonstrates that
      thread-optimized memory allocators recover excellent scaling. An analysis of the
      loop order used for network construction reveals that more complex tests on the
      locality of operations significantly improve scaling and reduce runtime by
      allowing construction algorithms to step through large networks more efficiently
      than in existing code. The combination of these techniques increases performance
      by an order of magnitude and harnesses the increasingly parallel compute power of
      the compute nodes in high-performance clusters and supercomputers.

PMID- 28559809
TI  - Fuchs Syndrome: Medical Treatment of 1 Case and Literature Review.
AB  - Fuchs syndrome is a particular type of erythema multiforme major; the lesions are
      only found on the mucosae and specifically affect oral, ocular, and genital
      mucosae. The cause is not always immediately apparent, which is why this
      pathology requires a rigorous, detailed clinical examination to eliminate a
      differential diagnosis. The severity of the symptoms, particularly of oral and
      ocular symptoms, requires immediate treatment. The treatment of this pathology
      requires a multiple-drug regime. Through a clinical case study, the objective of
      this work is to help guide practitioners when diagnosing and treating this
      pathology as no current consensus exists on these 2 subjects. The authors present
      the case of a 29-year-old patient who was suffering from a recurring outbreak of
      Fuchs syndrome, suspected of having been triggered by Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
      After completing the treatment program based on colchicine and prednisolone, the
      patient was relieved from pain and has not suffered from any further periodic
      eruptions of erythema multiforme.

PMID- 28559810
TI  - Atypical Clinical and Serological Manifestation of Pemphigus Vegetans: A Case
      Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Pemphigus vegetans (PVeg) is a rare variant of pemphigus vulgaris characterized
      by pustules and/or papillomatous vegetations, preferentially affecting
      intertriginous and periorificial areas. Exceptional manifestations may be
      misdiagnosed resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Diagnosis is confirmed
      by immunofluorescence and detection of anti-desmoglein (Dsg) 3 and/or anti-Dsg1
      antibodies. We herein report an unusual manifestation of PVeg. At the time of
      first presentation, lesions were restricted to the right ring finger's tip.
      Although mucous membranes were initially not affected, high levels of anti-Dsg3
      antibodies were detected while anti-Dsg1 and anti-desmocollin (Dsc) 1, 2, and 3
      antibodies were absent. To compare our immunological findings with previous
      reports, all accessible Anglophone literature published since December 1988 was
      evaluated. We identified 52 patients suffering from PVeg, 7 of these showed anti
      Dsg3 antibodies without any mucous membrane involvement. Notably, the detection
      of anti-Dsg1 and anti-Dsg3 antibodies does not necessarily correlate with the
      involvement of skin and/or mucous membranes. This might be due to more specific
      and complex antibody constellations in nonclassical or atypical pemphigus.

PMID- 28559811
TI  - Isolated Actinic Lichen Planus of the Lower Lip.
AB  - Oral lichen planus (LP) is a common manifestation in patients with LP; however,
      isolated lip LP is rare and may mimic other conditions such as lichenoid drug
      eruptions, actinic cheilitis, and early carcinoma in situ in the absence of
      typical skin lesions. Actinic lichen planus (ALP) is a variant of LP occurring on
      light-exposed areas in patients with dark skin. We report the case of a Chinese
      female with isolated ALP of the lower lip, mimicking herpes simplex infection at
      presentation. The presence of prognathism, involvement of the lower lip, and
      flares associated with sunlight reinforces the role of sun exposure in the
      development of this condition.

PMID- 28559812
TI  - Rapid Involution of Pustules during Topical Steroid Treatment of Acute
      Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis.
AB  - Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is a dramatic generalized
      pustular rash of severe onset, which is considered a serious cutaneous adverse
      reaction to drugs. However, even though the clinical features are impressive and
      are often accompanied by systemic inflammation, it can be controlled quickly and
      safely by topical steroids subsequent to interruption of the offending drug.
      Here, we describe the management of a case and the evolution of the pustular
      rash. An elderly woman consulted with a generalized crop of 2-3 mm, nonfollicular
      pustules on erythematous background. In the 4 preceding weeks, she had been using
      amoxicillin/clavulanic acid for a bacterial implant infection and rivaroxaban.
      The clinical EuroSCAR criteria including the histology confirmed AGEP. Her
      medication was stopped and topical clobetasol propionate was used. Within 24 h,
      the development of new pustules ceased and the patient was discharged after 7
      days of hospitalization with only a faint, diffuse erythema and focal
      desquamation remaining. This and many other cases in the literature suggest that
      topical steroids should be considered as a first-line treatment option,
      especially as systemic steroids themselves can sometimes induce generalized
      pustulosis.

PMID- 28559813
TI  - Interruption of Sneddon-Wilkinson Subcorneal Pustulation with Infliximab.
AB  - Subcorneal pustular dermatosis (SCPD, Sneddon-Wilkinson disease) is a rare
      chronic-relapsing skin disorder that typically manifests as flaccid sterile
      pustules without systemic symptoms. Although the accumulation of neutrophils is
      acknowledged to be a hallmark of SCPD, its exact pathomechanism is still not
      known. Several chemotactic factors have been implicated in neutrophil recruitment
      and invasion, including the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha. These findings
      correspond well with clinical reports of successful off-label use of TNF blocking
      agents in cases that were refractory to first-line therapy, mostly with dapsone.
      We report the case of a 29-year-old male with atypical and severe manifestation
      of SCPD that resolved after a single dose of infliximab. Consolidation was
      observed 1 day after treatment and regression of skin lesions occurred after a
      few days. Residual scarring and postlesional hyperpigmentation was seen at a 2
      month follow-up appointment. The patient was initiated on a daily maintenance
      therapy with dapsone, which led to a drop in hemoglobin and had to be stopped.
      Upon development of small, scaly lesions, a maintenance therapy with infliximab
      was started and the patient has had no recurrence to date. Anti-TNF agents
      present a promising option for patients affected by severe SCPD. We review the
      reports of similar cases in the literature to date.

PMID- 28559814
TI  - The Rare Case of Pemphigus Vegetans in Association with Malnutrition Children in
      the Multidisciplinary Management.
AB  - Pemphigus vegetans is a clinical variant of pemphigus vulgaris, accounting for 1
      2% of all very rare pemphigus cases in children. The involvement of the oral
      mucosa in this disease is usually accompanied by severe pain that aggravates the
      patient's malnourished condition. Conversely, malnutrition may also reduce
      vulnerability towards autoimmune diseases. Although pemphigus vegetans has never
      been reported to develop in a child with marasmus before, we encountered a case
      of pemphigus vegetans in a severely malnourished patient. A 12-year-old boy in
      marasmic condition presented with painful, clear, fluid-filled blisters,
      accompanied by erosions, crusts, and vegetative lesions on almost all parts of
      the body. Histopathological examination of the lesions revealed a suprabasal
      cleft, and direct immunofluorescence staining showed deposits of immunoglobulin G
      in the epidermal intracellular spaces. The patient was treated with a
      multidisciplinary approach, and intravenous corticosteroid was administered for 2
      weeks with an appropriate diet. There were significant improvements in the skin
      lesions and his nutritional status. Although pemphigus vegetans may occur in
      children with malnutrition, the underlying mechanism for the development of
      autoimmune diseases in malnutrition remains unclear.

PMID- 28559815
TI  - Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy Occurring Postpartum Treated
      with Intramuscular Injection of Autologous Whole Blood.
AB  - Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP) is one of the most
      common diseases associated with pregnancy. In most cases, the skin lesions
      develop in the third trimester of primigravidas. There are no systemic
      alterations seen in PUPPP; however, most patients report severe pruritus. A 34
      year-old woman presented 1 week postpartum with typical clinical features of
      PUPPP. The patient showed good response to intramuscular injection of autologous
      whole blood with no adverse effects to the patient or her baby. Presentation of
      PUPPP in the postpartum period is rare. Conservative management with topical
      corticosteroids and oral antihistamines is commonly used to relieve pruritus. In
      severe cases, skin lesions and symptoms are controlled with a brief course of
      systemic corticosteroids. Investigation of new treatment options has been limited
      by patient concerns about the negative effects of medication on the fetus or
      breastfeeding. Intramuscular injection of autologous whole blood could be an
      alternative treatment option for PUPPP, especially for women who worry about the
      use of medications during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

PMID- 28559816
TI  - Pneumothorax during Pazopanib Treatment in Patients with Soft-Tissue Sarcoma: Two
      Case Reports and a Review of the Literature.
AB  - Pazopanib, a multitargeting tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has single-agent activity
      in patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma. Herein, we describe 2 cases of
      pneumothorax that occurred during pazopanib treatment in patients with soft
      tissue sarcoma. These 2 patients had multiple lung metastases. According to
      previous reports and our past experience, the risk of pneumothorax may be higher
      in patients with multiple lung metastases. Although a causal relationship is
      uncertain, the risk of pneumothorax when prescribing pazopanib for these patients
      should be considered.

PMID- 28559818
TI  - Infrared Thermography in Surgery of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme: A
      Technical Case Report.
AB  - Infrared thermography (IRT) is a real-time non-contact diagnostic tool with a
      broad potential for neurosurgical applications. Here we describe the
      intraoperative use of this technique in a single patient with newly diagnosed
      glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). An 86-year-old female was admitted in the clinic
      with a 2-month history of slowly progressing left-sided paresis. Neuroimaging
      studies demonstrated an irregular space-occupying process consistent with a
      malignant glioma in the right fronto-temporo-insular region. An elective surgical
      intervention was performed by using 5-aminolevulinic acid fluorescence (BLUE 400,
      OPMI) and intraoperative IRT brain mapping (LWIR, 1.25 mRad IFOV, 0.05 degrees C
      NETD). After dura opening, the cerebral surface appeared inconspicuous. However,
      IRT revealed a significantly colder area (Deltat degrees  1.01 degrees C), well
      corresponding to the cortical epicenter of the lesion. The underlying tumor was
      partially excised and the histological result was GBM. Intraoperative IRT seems
      to be a useful technique for subcortical convexity brain tumor localization.
      Further studies with a large number of patients are needed to prove the
      reliability of this method in GBM surgery.

PMID- 28559817
TI  - Treatment Outcomes of Locally Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Ethmoid
      Sinus Treated with Anterior Craniofacial Resection or Chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - We retrospectively analyzed 14 patients with locally advanced squamous cell
      carcinoma of ethmoid sinus (LASCC-ES) for the feasibility of anterior
      craniofacial resection (ACFR). Ethmoid cancer treatment comprised alternating
      chemoradiotherapy (ALCRT; n = 1), concomitant radiotherapy and intra-arterial
      cisplatin (RADPLAT; n = 4) and ACFR (n = 9). The 3- and 5-year overall survival
      (OS) rates of patients were 47.6 and 39.6%, respectively. The 3-year local
      control (LC) rates of chemoradiotherapy (CRT; ALCRT and RADPLAT) (n = 5) and ACFR
      (n = 9) groups were 0 and 66.7% (p = 0.012), respectively. The 3-year progression
      free survival (PFS) rate of the CRT and ACFR groups were 0 and 55.6% (p = 0.018),
      respectively. The 3-year OS rate of the CRT and ACFR groups were 0 and 76.2% (p =
      0.005), respectively. Postoperative pathological examinations confirmed positive
      margins in 3 (33%) of 9 cases. The 3-year LC and PFS rates of cases (n = 3) with
      positive surgical margins were significantly poorer than those of cases (n = 6)
      with negative surgical margins. Although ACFR for LASCC-ES is a feasible
      treatment, cases with positive surgical margins were more prone to local relapse.
      Therefore, surgical safety margins should be thoroughly assessed.

PMID- 28559819
TI  - Two-Year Complete Remission of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in an Immunological
      Nonresponder HIV-Infected Patient: Case Report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: HIV-infected patients are affected significantly more frequently by
      all types of lymphoma, with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) as the most
      prevalent histological type. Since the introduction of combination antiretroviral
      therapy (cART) morbidity and mortality of DLBCL has been markedly reduced, which
      is primarily interpreted as a result of the drug-mediated immune reconstitution.
      CASE REPORT: We present a previously healthy, 44-year-old HIV-infected man with
      DLBCL of the oral cavity, treated with immunochemotherapy and cART. During HIV
      directed treatment, despite the successful virologic response, a satisfactory
      immunological response was not achieved. However, the patient had a 2-year
      complete remission after first-line treatment of DLBCL. CONCLUSION: Response to
      cART strongly predicts outcome in patients with DLBCL. Close monitoring of HIV
      directed therapy efficacy, especially as to achievement of successful virologic
      response, independently associated with prolonged survival, is essential for
      estimating future DLBCL treatment strategies.

PMID- 28559820
TI  - Nivolumab Therapy for Synchronous ALK-Positive Lung Cancer and Gastric Cancer.
AB  - Nivolumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor with demonstrated efficacy against
      several malignant tumors. Alterations in driver oncogenes such as EGFR and ALK
      are a poor prognostic factor in nivolumab therapy for non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC), whereas a smoking history is a well-known, favorable prognostic factor.
      However, an efficacy of nivolumab therapy for multiple primary malignant tumors
      (MPMTs) has not been reported, and its efficacy for driver oncogene-positive
      NSCLC in smokers is unclear. Herein, we report the case of a patient with a
      history of heavy smoking who developed synchronous ALK-positive NSCLC and gastric
      cancer that responded to nivolumab therapy. A 76-year-old man who was a heavy
      smoker presented to our hospital with symptoms of hoarseness and dysphagia. He
      was ultimately diagnosed with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC. An ALK inhibitor
      (alectinib) was administered, and the lung cancer lesions showed improvement. The
      alectinib therapy was continued for 5 months. Thereafter, the lesions in the left
      lower lobe of the lung showed regrowth. During the same period, the patient
      experienced epigastric pain. Gastrointestinal endoscopy examination revealed
      gastric cancer. He was administered nivolumab to treat both the lung cancer and
      the gastric cancer. Two months later, both the lung lesions and the gastric
      lesions had diminished in size. Nivolumab therapy might be an effective therapy
      for synchronous MPMTs and NSCLC in heavy smokers, even if the lung cancer
      possesses driver oncogene mutations.

PMID- 28559821
TI  - Successful Treatment of Sudden Hepatitis Induced by Long-Term Nivolumab
      Administration.
AB  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors have drastically changed in the treatment of many
      kinds of malignancies, especially malignant melanoma. The focus of the recent
      experiments has not only been on their efficacy but also immune-related adverse
      events (irAEs). We report a case of fulminant hepatitis due to nivolumab. In this
      case, the patient had undergone long-term nivolumab therapy. He did not complain
      of any symptoms but his liver enzyme levels were extremely elevated (grade 4). We
      promptly decided to start oral corticosteroids in the patient. His liver function
      rapidly improved. The dose of corticosteroids was gradually reduced. Our case
      demonstrates that sudden onset fulminant hepatitis can occur despite the safe use
      of long-term nivolumab therapy. The irAE can improve rapidly with proper
      corticosteroid treatment. This report will be useful for the physicians who
      always use immune checkpoint inhibitors.

PMID- 28559822
TI  - Sarcoidosis-Lymphoma Syndrome Associated with Folliculotropic Peripheral T Cell
      Lymphoma Not Otherwise Specified.
AB  - Sarcoidosis is occasionally accompanied by hematologic malignancies, including
      cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, called sarcoidosis-lymphoma syndrome. Although the
      mechanism underlying the induction of lymphomas is still unknown, understanding
      the immunological background of sarcoidosis could help explain the possible
      mechanisms of the induction of lymphomas. In this report, we describe a case of
      sarcoidosis-lymphoma syndrome associated with folliculotropic peripheral T cell
      lymphoma not otherwise specified, which caused dense infiltration of CD30+ CD163+
      tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) only in the lesional skin. Our present case
      might suggest the significance of TAMs in developing sarcoid-lymphoma syndrome.

PMID- 28559823
TI  - Serum G-CSF May Be a More Valuable Biomarker than Image Evaluation in G-CSF
      Producing Urothelial Carcinoma: A Case Report.
AB  - Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-producing urothelial carcinomas
      (UCs) are rare and have a poor prognosis. According to the literature, treatment
      for G-CSF-producing UCs is very difficult. We experienced 2 cases of UC
      presenting with leukocytosis. In these cases, serum G-CSF levels were higher than
      the reference value with leukocytosis at diagnosis, and the resected specimens
      were positive for anti-G-CSF immunostaining. One case had a good prognosis and
      the other case died after 9 months from diagnosis. A change in serum G-CSF levels
      was reportedly an effective tumor marker in several reports. In the present
      cases, evaluation of serum G-CSF levels was found to be more sensitive than
      computerized tomography. The treatment and outcomes of UC-producing G-CSFs and
      the efficacy of serum G-CSF as a tumor marker are discussed based on our cases
      and a review of the literature.

PMID- 28559824
TI  - Microwave Ablation and Immune Activation in the Treatment of Recurrent Colorectal
      Lung Metastases: A Case Report.
AB  - We present a patient with colorectal metastases confined to the lungs and treated
      with multiple resections until this was not an option anymore, followed by
      stereotactic body radiation therapy until this option was drained. Then, the
      patient was successfully treated with multiple microwave ablations combined with
      immunological activation targeting the programmed cell death 1 receptor (PD-1),
      possibly instigating a powerful abscopal effect. Techniques, doses, and
      radiological findings are presented.

PMID- 28559825
TI  - Testicular Metastasis from Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - Testicular metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are extremely rare. To the
      best of our knowledge, only 33 cases have been described in the literature. Most
      of the reported cases are of unilateral testicular metastasis from RCC. We report
      a case of metachronous ipsilateral testicular metastasis from RCC in a 78-year
      old man 6 years after nephrectomy. Scrotal ultrasonography showed a 4 * 5 cm mass
      in the right testis. Right inguinal orchiectomy was performed for diagnosis.
      Computed tomography revealed liver and lung metastases. First-line therapy with
      sunitinib was started in November 2016 for metastatic RCC.

PMID- 28559826
TI  - Spontaneous Tumor Lysis Syndrome in a Patient with Metastatic Small Cell Lung
      Cancer: A Case Report.
AB  - Tumor lysis syndrome is an oncologic emergency that usually occurs after
      chemotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies. Tumor lysis syndrome is
      rare in cases of solid tumors, especially when it occurs spontaneously. Herein,
      we present a case of spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome in a 55-year-old woman who
      presented with dyspnea and was found to have extensive metastatic small cell lung
      cancer. She developed acute oliguric renal failure and multiple electrolyte
      abnormalities requiring hemodialysis. The findings of this case suggest that
      clinicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for patients with
      malignancies who demonstrate the classic symptom of laboratory abnormalities even
      in the absence of chemotherapy.

PMID- 28559828
TI  - Multisystem Disease, Including Eosinophilia and Progressive Hyper-Creatine-Kinase
      emia over 10 Years, Suggests Mitochondrial Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eosinophilia has not been reported as a manifestation of a
      mitochondrial disorder (MID). Here, we report a patient with clinical features
      suggesting a MID and permanent eosinophilia, multisystem disease, and progressive
      hyper-creatine-kinase (CK)-emia for at least 10 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Methods applied included a clinical exam, blood chemical investigations,
      electrophysiological investigations, imaging, and invasive cardiological
      investigations. The patient was repeatedly followed up over several years. He
      required replacement cardiac surgery. RESULTS: In a 57-year-old male,
      eosinophilia was first detected at the age of 44 years and has remained almost
      constantly present until today. In addition to eosinophilia, he developed
      progressive hyper-CK-emia at the age of 47 years. His history was further
      positive for hepatopathy, hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism, renal insufficiency,
      spontaneous Achilles tendon rupture, double vision, exercise intolerance, muscle
      aching, mild hypoacusis, sensory neuropathy, seizures, and mitral
      insufficiency/stenosis requiring valve replacement therapy, oral anticoagulation,
      and pacemaker implantation. Based on the multisystem nature of his abnormalities
      and permanent hyper-CK-emia, a MID was suspected. CONCLUSION: Eosinophilia can be
      associated with a MID with myopathy, possibly as a reaction to myofiber necrosis.
      If eosinophilia is associated with progressive hyper-CK-emia and multisystem
      disease, a MID should be suspected.

PMID- 28559827
TI  - Pure Amorphagnosia without Tactile Object Agnosia.
AB  - A 54-year-old female showed amorphagnosia without ahylognosia and tactile agnosia
      40 days after the onset of right cerebral infarction. Her basic somatosensory
      functions were normal. The appreciation of substance qualities (hylognosia) was
      preserved, but the patient's inability to recognize the size and shape
      (morphagnosia) was confined to 2- and 3-dimensional shapes (amorphagnosia) in the
      left hand. However, the patient's ability to recognize real daily objects was
      well preserved. Brain MRI after admission showed ischemic lesions confined to the
      right pre- and postcentral gyri and the medial frontal cortex on DWI and FLAIR
      images. An analysis of SPECT images revealed that the most decreased areas were
      localized to the pre- and postcentral gyri, superior and inferior parietal
      lobules, supramarginal gyrus, and angular gyrus. Considering the previous
      reported cases, the responsible lesion for the impaired perception of hylognosia
      and morphagnosia may not necessarily be confined to the right hemisphere. To
      date, 5 reports (6 cases) of tactile agnosia have been published; 4 cases
      presented with both ahylognosia and amorphagnosia, while 1 presented with only
      amorphagnosia, and another showed amorphagnosia and mild ahylognosia. Our case is
      the first to present with only amorphagnosia without tactile agnosia. The
      mechanism for the well-preserved recognition of real objects may depend on the
      preserved hylognosia. Of note, there have been no reports showing only
      ahylognosia without amorphagnosia. Further studies are necessary to clarify
      whether or not patients with preserved hylognosia or morphagnosia retain the
      ability to perceive real objects.

PMID- 28559829
TI  - Early Thrombectomy of a Proximal Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Leading to
      Complete Recovery with No Infarct.
AB  - Many recent trials show the benefit of mechanical thrombectomy in acute ischemic
      stroke caused by thrombi lodged in large arteries. We report the case of a 55
      year-old patient who developed sudden-onset right-sided hemiplegia and aphasia.
      Computed tomography angiography showed a thrombus in the M1 segment of the left
      middle cerebral artery. The thrombus was removed by mechanical thrombectomy 85
      min after the onset of symptoms. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan showed
      no infarct, and the patient was discharged symptom free. To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first report of thrombectomy of a symptomatic proximal
      middle cerebral artery occlusion leading to complete rescue, both clinically and
      radiologically assessed by MRI. Our case report shows that an early thrombectomy
      can provide an excellent outcome.

PMID- 28559830
TI  - Choreoathetosis Is a Possible Adverse Event of a Commonly Used Antibiotic.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Choreoathetosis (CAS) is attributed to a few neuropsychiatric drugs;
      however, it is scarcely reported with commonly used antibiotics. AIMS: To present
      a case of ceftriaxone (CTX)-induced CAS and to perform a literature review.
      SETTING: A medical teaching hospital. CASE HISTORY: An 83-year-old female with
      end stage renal disease was prescribed CTX 2 g/day intravenously and doxycycline
      (DXC) 200 mg/day orally for the treatment of acute community-acquired systemic
      infection. CAS developed 3 days after the administration of both drugs.
      Withdrawal of CTX and DXC yielded complete resolution of the CAS on the following
      day. Neither neurological adverse events related to DXC use nor pharmacological
      interaction between DXC and CTX was reported. Therefore, the CAS development was
      attributed to CTX. CONCLUSION: CTX as well as other beta-lactam antibiotics
      induce glutamate excess in the striatum and cerebral cortex, resulting in
      neurological hyperexcitability disorders. Dosage adjustment of these antibiotics
      in relation to the patients' renal clearance is warranted.

PMID- 28559831
TI  - Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus as a Potential
      Mimicker of Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - The diagnosis of neurological symptoms in patients with systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE) is often challenging, in part because they sometimes mimic
      features of multiple sclerosis (MS). Herein we report a case of a young female
      who presented with relapsing-remitting symptoms of unilateral visual loss and
      motor aphasia. Additionally, radiological findings revealed multiple white matter
      lesions on her brain that led to an initial diagnosis of MS based on the
      established diagnostic criteria. However, she was eventually diagnosed with
      neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE) presenting with extracranial internal carotid artery
      (ICA) occlusion. Her ICA occlusion had not been detected for 2 months until she
      underwent magnetic resonance angiography. Although exact underlying pathological
      mechanisms are unclear, both the ICA occlusion and MS-like brain white matter
      lesions could be attributed to SLE. This case demonstrated that both of these
      lesions can coexist in the same patient, suggesting that NPSLE with ICA occlusion
      can be a potential mimicker of MS, and vice versa. Care must be paid to avoid
      delay in the diagnosis.

PMID- 28559832
TI  - Chronic Autoimmune Meningoencephalitis and Periodic Fever Syndrome Treated with
      Anakinra.
AB  - We report the case of a 63-year-old male diagnosed with chronic autoimmune
      mediated meningoencephalitis and periodic cyclical fever syndrome. After 2 years
      of failed conventional treatment and recurrent hospitalizations, anakinra
      treatment (an interleukin-1 [IL-1] receptor antagonist) was trialed which
      resulted in full recovery. As evidenced by this case, anakinra can be used to
      treat chronic autoimmune meningitis, which can often be refractory to treatment.

PMID- 28559833
TI  - Acute Intravenous Calcium Antagonist for Suspected Hemiplegic Migraine - A Case
      Story.
AB  - Stroke mimics, like attacks of hemiplegic migraine, are challenging in acute
      stroke evaluation. We present a 28-year-old woman with a suspected hemiplegic
      migraine attack with left-sided hemiparalysis. Brain CT with perfusion imaging 1
      h 54 min after symptom onset revealed hypoperfusion in the right hemisphere. The
      patient was treated with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
      (rtPA) with no effect. After a subsequent intravenous verapamil infusion, the
      patient gained full motor function within 10 min. Brain magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) performed 5 h 46 min after symptom onset revealed diffusion
      restriction in the same area as the hypoperfusion on CT. There were no notable
      changes on T2 images. The patient stayed clinically in remission, except for
      reduced sensation for all modalities on the extremities on the left side.
      Although brain CT 24 h after symptom onset revealed an edema in the same area, an
      MRI performed 17 days later showed no new infarctions. Young patients with a
      history of migraine with aura admitted with symptoms of acute ischemic stroke are
      at risk of insufficient treatment. Calcium antagonists might be considered if
      there is no effect of first-line treatment with rtPA.

PMID- 28559834
TI  - Favourable Outcome in a 33-Year-Old Female with Acute Haemorrhagic
      Leukoencephalitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute haemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (AHLE) is a rare and rapidly
      fatal disease of unknown aetiology. There is a paucity of literature on the
      presentation and management of this rare disease. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report the
      case of a 33-year-old female presenting with headache and left-sided apraxia.
      Imaging revealed a right-sided white matter lesion with extensive cytotoxic
      oedema. Pathology was suggestive of AHLE. She underwent an open excisional biopsy
      and was treated with high-dose corticosteroids. Three months since symptom onset
      she remains clinically well with resolving apraxia and radiological appearance.
      CONCLUSION: This case may represent a milder spectrum of AHLE, which responded
      favourably to corticosteroids.

PMID- 28559835
TI  - Cytarabine Induced Acute Cerebellar Syndrome during Hyper-CVAD Treatment for B
      Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - Acute cerebellar syndrome can be caused by high doses of cytarabine, but it has
      not been described in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who
      received hyper-CVAD chemotherapy. Herein, we report two cases with histories of
      positive Philadelphia chromosome B-cell ALL who developed acute cerebellar
      syndrome after the exposure to relatively low doses of cytarabine in the second
      cycle of hyper-CVAD regimen. The cerebellar symptoms were attenuated by
      cytarabine discontinuation and administration of steroids. This case report
      provides detailed discussions on the treatments, the potential role of
      methotrexate in cytarabine-induced cerebellar syndrome, and the importance of
      carefully monitoring renal function during hyper-CVAD treatment.

PMID- 28559836
TI  - Unilateral Posterior Polymorphous Corneal Dystrophy Presented as Anisometropic
      Astigmatism: 3 Case Reports.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD) is typically
      considered bilateral and asymptomatic. However, few case reports on patients with
      unilateral PPCD with asymmetric refractive error have mentioned anisometropic
      amblyopia development. In support of this, we report 3 cases of unilateral PPCD
      that presented as anisometropic astigmatism. Visual prognosis related to
      amblyopia development is discussed. CASE PRESENTATION: All 3 patients had a band
      lesion in the affected eye and a difference of at least 1.5 diopters in
      cylindrical refractive error between their eyes. The affected eye had a greater
      amount of astigmatism in all cases. Two patients (Cases 1 and 2) also had
      amblyopia in the affected eye. Case 1 was a 25-year-old male with a unilateral
      PPCD diagnosis and a band lesion involving the visual axis. Case 2 was an 11-year
      old boy diagnosed with unilateral PPCD. The boy was treated with occlusion and
      atropine therapy over a 2-year period. Case 3 was a 4-year-old girl diagnosed
      with unilateral PPCD. The girl had a 30-month history of corrective spectacle use
      and had no amblyopia. In all cases, the corneal endothelial cell count was lower
      in the affected eye than in the unaffected contralateral eye. CONCLUSIONS:
      Practitioners should closely monitor patients with unilateral PPCD for astigmatic
      anisometropia and amblyopia development. Visual prognosis for patients with
      unilateral PPCD may be related to lesion position, age at diagnosis, astigmatism
      severity, and early-childhood corrective spectacle use.

PMID- 28559837
TI  - Transient Esotropia in the Child: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - The aim of this report is to investigate the possible causes of acute acquired
      onset of transient esotropia (AATE) in children and to help to differentiate
      ophthalmoplegic migraine (OM) from accommodative spasm (AS). A case of an 8-year
      old Caucasian female affected by AATE and diplopia is described. The day before
      AATE onset, the patient complained of slight headache without nausea and
      vomiting, with spontaneous resolution. AATE diagnosis is challenging. The most
      likely ophthalmological causes of AATE are AS and OM. In these cases it is
      important to evaluate the presence of both a familial history of recurrent
      headaches and an AATE associated with migraine, ptosis, nausea, and vomiting. A
      full ophthalmological evaluation and a thorough refractive examination in
      cycloplegia are mandatory to exclude ophthalmological causes.

PMID- 28559838
TI  - Ten-Year Follow-Up after Bilateral Submacular Neovascular Membrane Removal in a
      Case of Autosomal Recessive Bestrophinopathy.
AB  - Herein, we report the case of an 8-year-old girl who presented in December 2000
      with a submacular neovascular membrane in the right eye, with a clinical
      diagnosis of Best disease. At that time, she underwent pars plana vitrectomy
      (PPV) with removal of the subretinal choroidal neovascularization (CNV). Her
      vision improved from 20/200 to 20/25. Four years later, a new CNV developed in
      the other eye. Initially, she underwent unsuccessful photodynamic therapy. As her
      vision worsened, she underwent a second, this time successful, PPV with membrane
      removal in the left eye, with vision improving to 20/30. Ten years later, she
      returned complaining of vision loss over the last year. Her vision was 20/200 OU,
      and optical coherence tomography demonstrated very large intraretinal cystoid
      spaces resembling bilateral macular schisis. Four ranibizumab injections as well
      as dorzolamide eye drops were tried, both without success. Finally, she underwent
      PPV with internal limiting membrane peeling and gas-fluid exchange in the left
      eye. One month later, the macula appeared flat and vision had improved to 20/60.
      The same procedure was performed 1 year later for the right eye, with vision
      improving to 20/80. One year later, mild cystic spaces developed again in both
      eyes, although much smaller than previously observed. Her vision remained stable.

PMID- 28559839
TI  - Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion, Macular Ischemia, and Intravitreal Anti-VEGF
      Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case with ischemic macular edema (ME) due to an acute branch
      retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) which was treated with repeated intravitreal anti
      VEGF injections. METHODS: Retrospective case presentation. RESULTS: A 66-year-old
      female patient was treated with repeated intravitreal anti-VEGF injections due to
      ischemic ME following an acute BRVO. Over a period of 2.5 years best corrected
      visual acuity increased from 0.06 to 0.6 (decimal notation) accompanied by a
      reduction in central retinal thickness from 546 to 292 um. Overall 17 anti-VEGF
      injections were administered to treat repeated recurrence of ME. Macular ischemia
      did not worsen during this profound intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy. CONCLUSION:
      Intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy can be a beneficial treatment strategy even in
      ischemic ME following an acute BRVO.

PMID- 28559840
TI  - Limbal Stem Cell-Sparing Corneoscleroplasty with Peripheral Intralamellar Tuck: A
      New Surgical Technique for Keratoglobus.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the technique of limbal stem cell-sparing corneoscleroplasty
      for the management of advanced keratoglobus. METHODS: A patient with bilateral
      advanced keratoglobus, with best-corrected visual acuity of 20/400 in the right
      eye and 20/200 in the left eye, underwent limbal stem cell-sparing
      corneoscleroplasty of the right eye. Initially, a 360-degree limbal incision with
      200-MUm depth was created, followed by a sublimbal tunnel dissection into the
      sclera, in order to conserve stem cells. Next, a limbus-to-limbus lamellar
      keratectomy at 200-MUm depth was performed. Meanwhile, a donor corneoscleral
      button with preserved endothelium of the central 8 mm was fashioned. Prior to
      suturing the donor corneoscleral graft using a modified suturing technique to
      cover its scleral component, a full-thickness trephination of 8-mm diameter was
      completed in the central host cornea. RESULTS: Reepithelialization occurred
      within the first week. No episodes of rejection, intraocular pressure spikes, or
      epithelial breakdown were observed postoperatively. At the 6-month follow-up, the
      patient had 20/70 best-corrected vision and a smooth cornea with regular
      astigmatism on topography. CONCLUSION: Limbal stem cell-sparing
      corneoscleroplasty is a single-step technique for restoring the structural
      integrity of the cornea in advanced keratoglobus while preserving the host limbal
      stem cells.

PMID- 28559841
TI  - Giant Orbital Melanoma in a Heroin Abuser.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this report was to report a heroin abuser with nondiagnosed
      giant uveal melanoma infiltrating the orbit and prolapsing through the face.
      METHODS: We conducted a case report of the patient with giant melanoma. RESULTS:
      In March 2013, a 39-year-old male with bleeding from the right side of his face
      was taken to the Emergency Center of the University Hospital Bratislava by
      ambulance. The heroin abusing, homeless male who had never been treated before
      reported a 2-year history of a prolapsed, dark colored mass from his eye. Acute
      computed tomography confirmed a solid mass 20 * 20 cm prolapsing from the orbit.
      The patient rejected primary care, accepted only 1 transfusion and left the
      hospital. Two months later, he was admitted to the hospital due to anemia after
      many collapses. Liver metastasis was present. Surgical palliative therapy was not
      possible due to his general status. The patient started fractionated external
      radiotherapy with 8.0 Gy Co60. Histopathological examination of the biopsy
      specimen showed malignant melanoma of the epitheloid type G2-3. The patient died
      in December 2013. CONCLUSION: Extraorbital formation of a melanoma mass may
      progress to a giant volume, and without treatment, led to metastases in the liver
      and to death after 9 months in our patient with anemia.

PMID- 28559842
TI  - Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Effects of CREB1 Genotypes on Individual
      Differences in Memory and Executive Function: Findings from the BLSA.
AB  - Purpose: Previously, we have shown that the SNP rs10932201 genotype of the cyclic
      AMP responsive element binding protein 1 gene (CREB1) contributes to individual
      differences in executive and memory function at the neural system and behavioral
      levels in healthy, young adults. However, longitudinal effects of CREB1 genotypes
      on cognition have not yet been addressed. Furthermore we were interested in
      replicating associations between CREB1 genotypes and human cognition in previous
      cross-sectional studies and explore whether APOE??4 status might modify these
      relations. Materials and Methods: We investigated whether common, independent tag
      SNPs within CREB1 (rs2253206, rs10932201, rs6785) influence individual
      differences in age-related longitudinal change and level of executive function
      and memory performance independent of baseline age, sex, APOE??4 status, and
      education. Our analysis included data from cognitively unimpaired older adults
      participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Eleven measures from
      six cognitive tests (sample sizes range 617-786) were analyzed using linear mixed
      effects and generalized estimating equations models. Mean baseline age ranged
      from 50 to 69 years and mean time of follow-up (interval) ranged from 8 to 22
      years. Results: We found significant effects of all three CREB1 SNPs on
      performance level and/or longitudinal change in performance based on eight
      measures assessing semantic memory, episodic memory, or both executive function
      and semantic memory. SNP rs10932201 showed the most significant and largest
      effect (Cohen's d = -0.70, p < 0.01) on age-related longitudinal decline of
      semantic memory. Additionally, we show interactions between all three CREB1 SNPs
      and APOE??4 status on age-related longitudinal declines and levels of memory and
      executive function. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CREB1 genotypes
      independently and by interactions with APOE??4 status contribute to individual
      differences in cognitive aging.

PMID- 28559843
TI  - Altered Functional Connectivity of Cognitive-Related Cerebellar Subregions in
      Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Previous studies
      have found disrupted resting state functional connectivities (rsFCs) in various
      brain networks in the AD patients. However, few studies have focused on the rsFCs
      of the cerebellum and its sub-regions in the AD patients. In this study, we
      collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data
      including 32 AD patients and 38 healthy controls (HCs). We selected two cognitive
      related subregions of the cerebellum as seed region and mapped the whole-brain
      rsFCs for each subregion. We identified several distinct rsFC patterns of the two
      cognitive-related cerebellar subregions: default-mode network (DMN),
      frontoparietal network (FPN), visual network (VN) and sensorimotor network (SMN).
      Compared with the controls, the AD patients showed disrupted rsFCs in several
      different networks (DMN, VN and SMN), predicting the impairment of the functional
      integration in the cerebellum. Notably, these abnormal rsFCs of the two
      cerebellar subregions were closely associated with cognitive performance.
      Collectively, we demonstrated the distinct rsFCs patterns of cerebellar sub
      regions with various functional networks, which were differentially impaired in
      the AD patients.

PMID- 28559845
TI  - Combating Sale of Counterfeit and Falsified Medicines Online: A Losing Battle.

PMID- 28559844
TI  - Impact of Dendrimers on Solubility of Hydrophobic Drug Molecules.
AB  - Adequate aqueous solubility has been one of the desired properties while
      selecting drug molecules and other bio-actives for product development. Often
      solubility of a drug determines its pharmaceutical and therapeutic performance.
      Majority of newly synthesized drug molecules fail or are rejected during the
      early phases of drug discovery and development due to their limited solubility.
      Sufficient permeability, aqueous solubility and physicochemical stability of the
      drug are important for achieving adequate bioavailability and therapeutic
      outcome. A number of different approaches including co-solvency, micellar
      solubilization, micronization, pH adjustment, chemical modification, and solid
      dispersion have been explored toward improving the solubility of various poorly
      aqueous-soluble drugs. Dendrimers, a new class of polymers, possess great
      potential for drug solubility improvement, by virtue of their unique properties.
      These hyper-branched, mono-dispersed molecules have the distinct ability to bind
      the drug molecules on periphery as well as to encapsulate these molecules within
      the dendritic structure. There are numerous reported studies which have
      successfully used dendrimers to enhance the solubilization of poorly soluble
      drugs. These promising outcomes have encouraged the researchers to design,
      synthesize, and evaluate various dendritic polymers for their use in drug
      delivery and product development. This review will discuss the aspects and role
      of dendrimers in the solubility enhancement of poorly soluble drugs. The review
      will also highlight the important and relevant properties of dendrimers which
      contribute toward drug solubilization. Finally, hydrophobic drugs which have been
      explored for dendrimer assisted solubilization, and the current marketing status
      of dendrimers will be discussed.

PMID- 28559846
TI  - Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Viral Therapy: A Stride toward Selective Targeting of
      Cancer Cells.
AB  - Oncolytic viral therapy, which makes use of replication-competent lytic viruses,
      has emerged as a promising modality to treat malignancies. It has shown
      meaningful outcomes in both solid tumor and hematologic malignancies.
      Advancements during the last decade, mainly genetic engineering of oncolytic
      viruses have resulted in improved specificity and efficacy of oncolytic viruses
      in cancer therapeutics. Oncolytic viral therapy for treating cancer with herpes
      simplex virus-1 has been of particular interest owing to its range of benefits
      like: (a) large genome and power to infiltrate in the tumor, (b) easy access to
      manipulation with the flexibility to insert multiple transgenes, (c) infecting
      majority of the malignant cell types with quick replication in the infected cells
      and (d) as Anti-HSV agent to terminate HSV replication. This review provides an
      exhaustive list of oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 along with their genetic
      alterations. It also encompasses the major developments in oncolytic herpes
      simplex-1 viral therapy and outlines the limitations and drawbacks of oncolytic
      herpes simplex viral therapy.

PMID- 28559847
TI  - High Sensitivity of SIRT3 Deficient Hearts to Ischemia-Reperfusion Is Associated
      with Mitochondrial Abnormalities.
AB  - Aim: Sirtuins are NAD+-dependent deacetylases that regulate cell metabolism
      through protein acetylation/deacetylation, and SIRT3 is the major deacetylase
      among mitochondrial isoforms. Here, we elucidated the possible role of
      acetylation of cyclophilin D, a key regulator of the mitochondrial permeability
      transition pore (mPTP), in mitochondria-mediated cardiac dysfunction induced by
      ischemia-reperfusion (IR) in wild type (WT) and SIRT3 knockout (SIRT3-/-) mice.
      Materials and Methods: Isolated and Langendorff-mode perfused hearts of WT and
      SIRT3-/- mice were subjected to 25-min global ischemia followed by 60-min of
      reperfusion in the presence or absence of the mPTP inhibitor, sanglifehrin A
      (SfA). Results: Analysis of mitochondrial sirtuins demonstrated that SIRT3
      deficiency upregulated SIRT4 with no effect on SIRT5 expression. Hearts of SIRT3
      /- mice exhibited significantly less recovery of cardiac function at the end of
      IR compared to WT mice. Intact (non-perfused) SIRT3-/- hearts exhibited an
      increased rate of Ca2+-induced swelling in mitochondria as an indicator of mPTP
      opening. However, there was no difference in mPTP opening and cyclophilin D
      acetylation between WT and SIRT3-/- hearts subjected to IR injury. Ca2+
      stimulated H2O2 production was significantly higher in SIRT3-/- mitochondria that
      was prevented by SfA. Superoxide dismutase activity was lower in SIRT3-/- heart
      mitochondria subjected to IR which correlated with an increase in protein
      carbonylation. However, mitochondrial DNA integrity was not affected in SIRT3-/-
      hearts after IR. Conclusion: SIRT3 deficiency exacerbates cardiac dysfunction
      during post-ischemic recovery, and increases mPTP opening and ROS generation
      without oxidative damage to mitochondrial proteins and DNA.

PMID- 28559848
TI  - Efficient Fetal-Maternal ECG Signal Separation from Two Channel Maternal
      Abdominal ECG via Diffusion-Based Channel Selection.
AB  - There is a need for affordable, widely deployable maternal-fetal ECG monitors to
      improve maternal and fetal health during pregnancy and delivery. Based on the
      diffusion-based channel selection, here we present the mathematical formalism and
      clinical validation of an algorithm capable of accurate separation of maternal
      and fetal ECG from a two channel signal acquired over maternal abdomen. The
      proposed algorithm is the first algorithm, to the best of the authors' knowledge,
      focusing on the fetal ECG analysis based on two channel maternal abdominal ECG
      signal, and we apply it to two publicly available databases, the PhysioNet non
      invasive fECG database (adfecgdb) and the 2013 PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology
      Challenge (CinC2013), to validate the algorithm. The state-of-the-art results are
      achieved when compared with other available algorithms. Particularly, the F1
      score for the R peak detection achieves 99.3% for the adfecgdb and 87.93% for the
      CinC2013, and the mean absolute error for the estimated R peak locations is 4.53
      ms for the adfecgdb and 6.21 ms for the CinC2013. The method has the potential to
      be applied to other fetal cardiogenic signals, including cardiac doppler signals.

PMID- 28559849
TI  - Epigenetic DNA Methylation Mediating Octopus vulgaris Early Development: Effect
      of Essential Fatty Acids Enriched Diet.
AB  - The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, is a good candidate for aquaculture but a
      sustainable production is still unviable due to an almost total mortality during
      the paralarvae stage. DNA methylation regulates gene expression in the eukaryotic
      genome, and has been shown to exhibit plasticity throughout O. vulgaris life
      cycle, changing profiles from paralarvae to adult stages. This pattern of
      methylation could be sensitive to small alterations in nutritional and
      environmental conditions during the species early development, thus impacting on
      its health, growth and survival. In this sense, a full understanding of the
      epigenetic mechanisms operating during O. vulgaris development would contribute
      to optimizing the culture conditions for this species. Paralarvae of O. vulgaris
      were cultured over 28 days post-hatching (dph) using two different Artemia sp.
      based diets: control and a long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA)
      enriched diet. The effect of the diets on the paralarvae DNA global methylation
      was analyzed by Methyl-Sensitive Amplification Polymorphism (MSAP) and global 5
      methylcytosine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) approaches. The analysis
      of different methylation states over the time revealed a global demethylation
      phenomena occurring along O. vulgaris early development being directly driven by
      the age of the paralarvae. A gradual decline in methylated loci (hemimethylated,
      internal cytosine methylated, and hypermethylated) parallel to a progressive gain
      in non-methylated (NMT) loci toward the later sampling points was verified
      regardless of the diet provided and demonstrate a pre-established and well
      defined demethylation program during its early development, involving a 20% of
      the MSAP loci. In addition, a differential behavior between diets was also
      observed at 20 dph, with a LC-PUFA supplementation effect over the methylation
      profiles. The present results show significant differences on the paralarvae
      methylation profiles during its development and a diet effect on these changes.
      It is characterized by a process of demethylation of the genome at the paralarvae
      stage and the influence of diet to favor this methylation loss.

PMID- 28559851
TI  - Estimating Neural Control from Concentric vs. Eccentric Surface Electromyographic
      Representations during Fatiguing, Cyclic Submaximal Back Extension Exercises.
AB  - Purpose: To investigate the differences in neural control of back muscles
      activated during the eccentric vs. the concentric portions of a cyclic,
      submaximal, fatiguing trunk extension exercise via the analysis of amplitude and
      time-frequency parameters derived from surface electromyographic (SEMG) data.
      Methods: Using back dynamometers, 87 healthy volunteers performed three maximum
      voluntary isometric trunk extensions (MVC's), an isometric trunk extension at 80%
      MVC, and 25 cyclic, dynamic trunk extensions at 50% MVC. Dynamic testing was
      performed with the trunk angular displacement ranging from 0 degrees  to 40
      degrees  and the trunk angular velocity set at 20 degrees /s. SEMG data was
      recorded bilaterally from the iliocostalis lumborum at L1, the longissimus dorsi
      at L2, and the multifidus muscles at L5. The initial value and slope of the root
      mean square (RMS-SEMG) and the instantaneous median frequency (IMDF-SEMG)
      estimates derived from the SEMG recorded during each exercise cycle were used to
      investigate the differences in MU control marking the eccentric vs. the
      concentric portions of the exercise. Results: During the concentric portions of
      the exercise, the initial RMS-SEMG values were almost twice those observed during
      the eccentric portions of the exercise. The RMS-SEMG values generally increased
      during the concentric portions of the exercise while they mostly remained
      unchanged during the eccentric portions of the exercise with significant
      differences between contraction types. Neither the initial IMDF-SEMG values nor
      the time-course of the IMDF-SEMG values significantly differed between the
      eccentric and the concentric portions of the exercise. Conclusions: The
      comparison of the investigated SEMG parameters revealed distinct neural control
      strategies during the eccentric vs. the concentric portions of the cyclic
      exercise. We explain these differences by relying upon the principles of orderly
      recruitment and common drive governing motor unit behavior.

PMID- 28559852
TI  - Is Abdominal Fetal Electrocardiography an Alternative to Doppler Ultrasound for
      FHR Variability Evaluation?
AB  - Great expectations are connected with application of indirect fetal
      electrocardiography (FECG), especially for home telemonitoring of pregnancy.
      Evaluation of fetal heart rate (FHR) variability, when determined from FECG, uses
      the same criteria as for FHR signal acquired classically-through ultrasound
      Doppler method (US). Therefore, the equivalence of those two methods has to be
      confirmed, both in terms of recognizing classical FHR patterns: baseline,
      accelerations/decelerations (A/D), long-term variability (LTV), as well as
      evaluating the FHR variability with beat-to-beat accuracy-short-term variability
      (STV). The research material consisted of recordings collected from 60 patients
      in physiological and complicated pregnancy. The FHR signals of at least 30 min
      duration were acquired dually, using two systems for fetal and maternal
      monitoring, based on US and FECG methods. Recordings were retrospectively divided
      into normal (41) and abnormal (19) fetal outcome. The complex process of data
      synchronization and validation was performed. Obtained low level of the signal
      loss (4.5% for US and 1.8% for FECG method) enabled to perform both direct
      comparison of FHR signals, as well as indirect one-by using clinically relevant
      parameters. Direct comparison showed that there is no measurement bias between
      the acquisition methods, whereas the mean absolute difference, important for both
      visual and computer-aided signal analysis, was equal to 1.2 bpm. Such low
      differences do not affect the visual assessment of the FHR signal. However, in
      the indirect comparison the inconsistencies of several percent were noted. This
      mainly affects the acceleration (7.8%) and particularly deceleration (54%)
      patterns. In the signals acquired using the electrocardiography the obtained STV
      and LTV indices have shown significant overestimation by 10 and 50% respectively.
      It also turned out, that ability of clinical parameters to distinguish between
      normal and abnormal groups do not depend on the acquisition method. The obtained
      results prove that the abdominal FECG, considered as an alternative to the
      ultrasound approach, does not change the interpretation of the FHR signal, which
      was confirmed during both visual assessment and automated analysis.

PMID- 28559850
TI  - Innovative Perspective: Gadolinium-Free Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Long-Term
      Follow-Up after Kidney Transplantation.
AB  - Since the mid-1980s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been investigated as a
      non- or minimally invasive tool to probe kidney allograft function. Despite this
      long-standing interest, MRI still plays a subordinate role in daily practice of
      transplantation nephrology. With the introduction of new functional MRI
      techniques, administration of exogenous gadolinium-based contrast agents has
      often become unnecessary and true non-invasive assessment of allograft function
      has become possible. This raises the question why application of MRI in the
      follow-up of kidney transplantation remains restricted, despite promising
      results. Current literature on kidney allograft MRI is mainly focused on
      assessment of (sub) acute kidney injury after transplantation. The aim of this
      review is to survey whether MRI can provide valuable diagnostic information
      beyond 1 year after kidney transplantation from a mechanistic point of view. The
      driving force behind chronic allograft nephropathy is believed to be chronic
      hypoxia. Based on this, techniques that visualize kidney perfusion and
      oxygenation, scarring, and parenchymal inflammation deserve special interest. We
      propose that functional MRI mechanistically provides tools for diagnostic work-up
      in long-term follow-up of kidney allografts.

PMID- 28559853
TI  - Proteogenomics Reveals Enriched Ribosome Assembly and Protein Translation in
      Pectoralis major of High Feed Efficiency Pedigree Broiler Males.
AB  - Background: In production animal agriculture, the cost of feed represents 60-70%
      of the total cost of raising an animal to market weight. Thus, development of
      viable biomarkers for feed efficiency (FE, g gain/g feed) to assist in genetic
      selection of breeding stock remains an important goal in commercial breeding
      programs. Methods: Global gene (cDNA microarray, RNAseq) and protein expression
      (shotgun proteomics) analyses have been conducted on breast muscle samples
      obtained from pedigree broiler males (PedM) exhibiting high and low FE
      phenotypes. Using the entire datasets (i.e., no cutoffs for significance or fold
      difference in expression) the number of genes or proteins that were expressed
      numerically higher or lower in the high FE compared to the low FE phenotype for
      key terms or functions, e.g., ribosomal, mitochondrial ribosomal, tRNA, RNA
      binding motif, RNA polymerase, small nuclear ribonucleoprotein, and protein
      tyrosine phosphatase, were determined. Bionomial distribution analysis (exact)
      was then conducted on these datasets to determine significance between
      numerically up or down expression. Results: Processes associated with
      mitochondrial proteome expression (e.g., mitochondrial ribosomal proteins,
      mitochondrial transcription, mitochondrial tRNA, and translation) were enriched
      in breast muscle from the high FE compared to the low FE pedigree male broiler
      phenotype. Furthermore, the high FE phenotype exhibited enrichment of ribosome
      assembly (e.g., RNA polymerase, mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomes, small, and
      heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins), as well as nuclear transport and
      protein translation processes compared to the low FE phenotype. Quality control
      processes (proteosomes and autophagy) were also enriched in the high FE
      phenotype. In contrast, the low FE phenotype exhibited enrichment of cytoskeletal
      proteins, protein tyrosine phosphatases, and tyrosine kinases compared to the
      high FE phenotype. These results suggest that processes of mitochondrial and
      cytosolic ribosomal construction, activity, and protein translation would be
      enhanced in high FE breast muscle, and that phosphorylation of tyrosine moieties
      of proteins could be prolonged in the high compared to low FE phenotype. The
      results indicate the presence of a proteogenomic architecture that could enhance
      ribosome construction, protein translation, and quality control processes and
      contribute to the phenotypic expression of feed efficiency in this PedM broiler
      model.

PMID- 28559854
TI  - Deletion of Slc26a1 and Slc26a7 Delays Enamel Mineralization in Mice.
AB  - Amelogenesis features two major developmental stages-secretory and maturation.
      During maturation stage, hydroxyapatite deposition and matrix turnover require
      delicate pH regulatory mechanisms mediated by multiple ion transporters. Several
      members of the Slc26 gene family (Slc26a1, Slc26a3, Slc26a4, Slc26a6, and
      Slc26a7), which exhibit bicarbonate transport activities, have been suggested by
      previous studies to be involved in maturation-stage amelogenesis, especially the
      key process of pH regulation. However, details regarding the functional role of
      these genes in enamel formation are yet to be clarified, as none of the separate
      mutant animal lines demonstrates any discernible enamel defects. Continuing with
      our previous investigation of Slc26a1-/- and Slc26a7-/- animal models, we
      generated a double-mutant animal line with the absence of both Slc26a1 and
      Slc26a7. We showed in the present study that the double-mutant enamel density was
      significantly lower in the regions that represent late maturation-, maturation-
      and secretory-stage enamel development in wild-type mandibular incisors. However,
      the "maturation" and "secretory" enamel microstructures in double-mutant animals
      resembled those observed in wild-type secretory and/or pre-secretory stages.
      Elemental composition analysis revealed a lack of mineral deposition and an
      accumulation of carbon and chloride in double-mutant enamel. Deletion of Slc26a1
      and Slc26a7 did not affect the stage-specific morphology of the enamel organ.
      Finally, compensatory expression of pH regulator genes and ion transporters was
      detected in maturation-stage enamel organs of double-mutant animals when compared
      to wild-type. Combined with the findings from our previous study, these data
      indicate the involvement of SLC26A1and SLC26A7 as key ion transporters in the pH
      regulatory network during enamel maturation.

PMID- 28559855
TI  - A Longitudinal Study on Attention Development in Primary School Children with and
      without Teacher-Reported Symptoms of ADHD.
AB  - Background: Prospective longitudinal studies are essential in characterizing
      cognitive trajectories, yet few of them have been reported on the development of
      attention processes in children. We aimed to explore attention development in
      normal children and children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
      (ADHD) symptoms in a repeated measures design using the attention network test
      (ANT). Methods: The population sample included 2,835 children (49.6% girls) aged
      7-11 years from 39 schools in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) who performed the ANT
      four times from January 2012 to March 2013. According to teacher ratings, 10.5%
      of the children presented ADHD symptoms. We performed multilevel mixed-effects
      linear regression models, adjusting for school and individual, to test the
      effects of age-related growth on the ANT networks: alerting, orienting and
      executive attention, and three measurements related to attentiveness: median of
      hit reaction time (HRT), hit reaction time standard error (HRT-SE) and
      variability. Results: We observed age-related growth in all the outcomes, except
      orienting. The curves were steeper at the younger groups, although for alertness
      the improvement was further at the oldest ages. Gender and ADHD symptoms
      interacted with age in executive attention, HRT and variability. Girls performed
      better in executive attention at young ages although boys reached females at
      around 10 years of age. For HRT, males showed faster HRT. However, girls had a
      more pronounced improvement and reached the levels of boys at age 11. Children
      with ADHD symptoms had significant differences in executive attention, HRT and
      variability compared to children without ADHD symptoms. Conclusions: We detected
      an ongoing development of some aspects of attention in primary school children,
      differentiating patterns by gender and ADHD symptoms. Our findings support the
      ANT for assessing attention processes in children in large epidemiological
      studies.

PMID- 28559857
TI  - Spanish Adaptation and Validation of the Outcome Questionnaire OQ-30.2.
AB  - This study assessed the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the
      Shortened Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-30.2, Lambert et al., 2004) validated with a
      sample of 546 patients in an outpatient mental health clinic and 100 non-clinical
      adults in Chile. Our results show that this measure has similar normative data to
      the original measure, with a cutoff score for the Chilean population set at
      43.36, and the reliable change index at 14. This Spanish OQ-30.2 has good
      internal consistency (alpha = 0.90), has concurrent validity with the Depressive,
      Anxious, and Somatoform disorders measuring scale (Alvarado and Vera, 1991), and
      is sensitive to change during psychotherapy. Consistent with previous studies,
      factorial analyses showed that both, the one-factor solution for a general scale
      and the three-factor solution containing three theoretical scales yielded poor
      fit estimates. Overall, our results are similar to past research on the OQ-45 and
      the OQ-30. The short version has adequate psychometric properties, comparable to
      those of the OQ-45, but provides a gain in application time that could be
      relevant in the setting of psychotherapy research with large samples, frequent
      assessments over time, and/or samples that may require more assistance completing
      items (e.g., low-literacy). We conclude that this measure will be a valuable
      instrument for research and clinical practice.

PMID- 28559856
TI  - A Nap But Not Rest or Activity Consolidates Language Learning.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests that a period of sleep after a motor learning task is a
      relevant factor for memory consolidation. However, it is yet open whether this
      also holds true for language-related learning. Therefore, the present study
      compared the short- and long-term effects of a daytime nap, rest, or an activity
      task after vocabulary learning on learning outcome. Thirty healthy subjects were
      divided into three treatment groups. Each group received a pseudo-word learning
      task in which pictures of monsters were associated with unique pseudo-word names.
      At the end of the learning block a first test was administered. Then, one group
      went for a 90-min nap, one for a waking rest period, and one for a resting
      session with interfering activity at the end during which a new set of monster
      names was to be learned. After this block, all groups performed a first re-test
      of the names that they initially learned. On the morning of the following day, a
      second re-test was administered to all groups. The nap group showed significant
      improvement from test to re-test and a stable performance onto the second re
      test. In contrast, the rest and the interference groups showed decline in
      performance from test to re-test, with persistently low performance at re-test 2.
      The 3 (GROUP) * 3 (TIME) ANOVA revealed a significant interaction, indicating
      that the type of activity (nap/rest/interfering action) after initial learning
      actually had an influence on the memory outcome. These data are discussed with
      respect to translation to clinical settings with suggestions for improvement of
      intervention outcome after speech-language therapy if it is followed by a nap
      rather than interfering activity.

PMID- 28559859
TI  - From Data to Truth in Psychological Science. A Personal Perspective.

PMID- 28559858
TI  - Parent-Toddler Behavior and Language Differ When Reading Electronic and Print
      Picture Books.
AB  - Little is known about the language and behaviors that typically occur when adults
      read electronic books with infants and toddlers, and which are supportive of
      learning. In this study, we report differences in parent and child behavior and
      language when reading print versus electronic versions of the same books, and
      investigate links between behavior and vocabulary learning. Parents of 102
      toddlers aged 17-26 months were randomly assigned to read two commercially
      available electronic books or two print format books with identical content with
      their toddler. After reading, children were asked to identify an animal labeled
      in one of the books in both two-dimensional (pictures) and three-dimensional
      (replica objects) formats. Toddlers who were read the electronic books paid more
      attention, made themselves more available for reading, displayed more positive
      affect, participated in more page turns, and produced more content-related
      comments during reading than those who were read the print versions of the books.
      Toddlers also correctly identified a novel animal labeled in the book more often
      when they had read the electronic than the traditional print books. Availability
      for reading and attention to the book acted as mediators in predicting children's
      animal choice at test, suggesting that electronic books supported children's
      learning by way of increasing their engagement and attention. In contrast to
      prior studies conducted with older children, there was no difference between
      conditions in behavioral or off-topic talk for either parents or children. More
      research is needed to determine the potential hazards and benefits of new media
      formats for very young children.

PMID- 28559860
TI  - Postural Communication of Emotion: Perception of Distinct Poses of Five Discrete
      Emotions.
AB  - Emotion can be communicated through multiple distinct modalities. However, an
      often-ignored channel of communication is posture. Recent research indicates that
      bodily posture plays an important role in the perception of emotion. However,
      research examining postural communication of emotion is limited by the variety of
      validated emotion poses and unknown cohesion of categorical and dimensional
      ratings. The present study addressed these limitations. Specifically, we examined
      individuals' (1) categorization of emotion postures depicting 5 discrete emotions
      (joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust), (2) categorization of different poses
      depicting the same discrete emotion, and (3) ratings of valence and arousal for
      each emotion pose. Findings revealed that participants successfully categorized
      each posture as the target emotion, including disgust. Moreover, participants
      accurately identified multiple distinct poses within each emotion category. In
      addition to the categorical responses, dimensional ratings of valence and arousal
      revealed interesting overlap and distinctions between and within emotion
      categories. These findings provide the first evidence of an identifiable posture
      for disgust and instantiate the principle of equifinality of emotional
      communication through the inclusion of distinct poses within emotion categories.
      Additionally, the dimensional ratings corroborated the categorical data and
      provide further granularity for future researchers to consider in examining how
      distinct emotion poses are perceived.

PMID- 28559861
TI  - Does a Flatter General Gradient of Visual Attention Explain Peripheral Advantages
      and Central Deficits in Deaf Adults?
AB  - Individuals deaf from early age often outperform hearing individuals in the
      visual periphery on attention-dependent dorsal stream tasks (e.g., spatial
      localization or movement detection), but sometimes show central visual attention
      deficits, usually on ventral stream object identification tasks. It has been
      proposed that early deafness adaptively redirects attentional resources from
      central to peripheral vision to monitor extrapersonal space in the absence of
      auditory cues, producing a more evenly distributed attention gradient across
      visual space. However, little direct evidence exists that peripheral advantages
      are functionally tied to central deficits, rather than determined by independent
      mechanisms, and previous studies using several attention tasks typically report
      peripheral advantages or central deficits, not both. To test the general altered
      attentional gradient proposal, we employed a novel divided attention paradigm
      that measured target localization performance along a gradient from parafoveal to
      peripheral locations, independent of concurrent central object identification
      performance in prelingually deaf and hearing groups who differed in access to
      auditory input. Deaf participants without cochlear implants (No-CI), with
      cochlear implants (CI), and hearing participants identified vehicles presented
      centrally, and concurrently reported the location of parafoveal (1.4 degrees )
      and peripheral (13.3 degrees ) targets among distractors. No-CI participants but
      not CI participants showed a central identification accuracy deficit. However,
      all groups displayed equivalent target localization accuracy at peripheral and
      parafoveal locations and nearly parallel parafoveal-peripheral gradients.
      Furthermore, the No-CI group's central identification deficit remained after
      statistically controlling peripheral performance; conversely, the parafoveal and
      peripheral group performance equivalencies remained after controlling central
      identification accuracy. These results suggest that, in the absence of auditory
      input, reduced central attentional capacity is not necessarily associated with
      enhanced peripheral attentional capacity or with flattening of a general
      attention gradient. Our findings converge with earlier studies suggesting that a
      general graded trade-off of attentional resources across the visual field does
      not adequately explain the complex task-dependent spatial distribution of deaf
      hearing performance differences reported in the literature. Rather, growing
      evidence suggests that the spatial distribution of attention-mediated performance
      in deaf people is determined by sophisticated cross-modal plasticity mechanisms
      that recruit specific sensory and polymodal cortex to achieve specific
      compensatory processing goals.

PMID- 28559863
TI  - Young Children's Understanding of Teaching and Learning and Their Theory of Mind
      Development: A Causal Analysis from a Cross-Cultural Perspective.
AB  - Children's understanding of the concepts of teaching and learning is closely
      associated with their theory of mind (ToM) ability and vital for school
      readiness. This study aimed to develop and validate a Preschool Teaching and
      Learning Comprehension Index (PTLCI) across cultures and examine the causal
      relationship between children's comprehension of teaching and learning and their
      mental state understanding. Two hundred and twelve children from 3 to 6 years of
      age from Hong Kong and the United States participated in study. The results
      suggested strong construct validity of the PTLCI, and its measurement and
      structural equivalence within and across cultures. ToM and PTLCI were
      significantly correlated with a medium effect size, even after controlling for
      age, and language ability. Hong Kong children outperformed their American
      counterparts in both ToM and PTLCI. Competing structural equation models
      suggested that children's performance on the PTLCI causally predicted their ToM
      across countries.

PMID- 28559862
TI  - Family Burden, Emotional Distress and Service Satisfaction in First Episode
      Psychosis. Data from the GET UP Trial.
AB  - Background: Literature has documented the role of family in the outcome of
      chronic schizophrenia. In the light of this, family interventions (FIs) are
      becoming an integral component of treatment for psychosis. The First Episode of
      Psychosis (FEP) is the period when most of the changes in family atmosphere are
      observed; unfortunately, few studies on the relatives are available. Objective:
      To explore burden of care and emotional distress at baseline and at 9-month
      follow-up and the levels of service satisfaction at follow-up in the two groups
      of relatives (experimental treatment EXP vs. treatment as usual TAU) recruited in
      the cluster-randomized controlled GET UP PIANO trial. Methods: The experimental
      treatment was provided by routine public Community Mental Health Centers (Italian
      National Health Service) and consisted of Treatment as Usual plus evidence-based
      additional treatment (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis for patients,
      Family Intervention for psychosis, and Case Management). TAU consisted of
      personalized outpatient psychopharmacological treatment, combined with non
      specific supportive clinical management and informal support/educational sessions
      for families. The outcomes on relatives were assessed by the Involvement
      Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ-EU), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and
      the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS-EU). Differences within and between
      groups were evaluated. Results: At baseline, 75 TAU and 185 EXP caregivers were
      assessed. In the experimental group 92% of relatives participated in at least 1
      family session. At follow-up both groups experienced improvement in all IEQ and
      GHQ items, but caregivers belonging to the EXP arm experienced a significantly
      greater change in 10 IEQ items (mainly pertaining to the "Tension" dimension) and
      in GHQ items. Due to the low sample size, a significant effectiveness was only
      observed for 2 IEQ items and 1 GHQ-12 item. With respect to VSSS data at follow
      up, caregivers in the EXP arm experienced significantly greater satisfaction in 8
      items, almost all pertaining to the dimensions "Relatives' Involvement" and
      "Professionals' Skills and Behavior." Conclusions: The Family intervention for
      psychosis delivered in the GET UP PIANO trial reduced family burden of illness
      and improved emotional distress and satisfaction with services. These results
      should encourage to promote FIs on caregivers of first-episode psychosis
      patients.

PMID- 28559864
TI  - The Development and Validation of the Online Shopping Addiction Scale.
AB  - We report the development and validation of a scale to measure online shopping
      addiction. Inspired by previous theories and research on behavioral addiction,
      the Griffiths's widely accepted six-factor component model was referred to and an
      18-item scale was constructed, with each component measured by three items. The
      results of exploratory factor analysis, based on Sample 1 (999 college students)
      and confirmatory factor analysis, based on Sample 2 (854 college students) showed
      the Griffiths's substantive six-factor structure underlay the online shopping
      addiction scale. Cronbach's alpha suggested that the resulting scale was highly
      reliable. Concurrent validity, based on Sample 3 (328 college students), was also
      satisfactory as indicated by correlations between the scale and measures of
      similar constructs. Finally, self-perceived online shopping addiction can be
      predicted to a relatively high degree. The present 18-item scale is a solid
      theory-based instrument to empirically measure online shopping addiction and can
      be used for understanding the phenomena among young adults.

PMID- 28559865
TI  - Effects of Music on Agitation in Dementia: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Agitation is a common problem in patients suffering from dementia and encompasses
      a variety of behaviors such as repetitive acts, restlessness, wandering, and
      aggressive behaviors. Agitation reduces the probability of positive social
      interaction and increases the psychological and organizational burden. While
      medical interventions are common, there is need for complementary or alternative
      methods. Music intervention has been brought forward as a promising method to
      reduce agitation in dementia. While interventions, target groups and research
      designs differ, there has so far not been a systematic overview assessing the
      effect of music intervention for agitation in patients with dementia. A meta
      analysis was conducted in order to investigate possible effects of music
      interventions. Twelve studies met inclusion criteria. Music intervention had a
      medium overall effect on agitation in dementia, suggesting robust clinical
      relevance. While the moderate number of studies does not allow for further
      differentiation between sub-types of music intervention, the sub-group
      comparisons indicated promising pathways for future systematic reviews. This meta
      analysis is the first systematic and quantitative overview supporting clinically
      and statistically robust effects of music intervention on agitation in dementia.
      The analysis provides further arguments for this non-pharmacological approach and
      highlights needs for future systematic research reviews for the investigation of
      intervention types.

PMID- 28559866
TI  - How Do B-Learning and Learning Patterns Influence Learning Outcomes?
AB  - Learning Management System (LMS) platforms provide a wealth of information on the
      learning patterns of students. Learning Analytics (LA) techniques permit the
      analysis of the logs or records of the activities of both students and teachers
      on the on-line platform. The learning patterns differ depending on the type of
      Blended Learning (B-Learning). In this study, we analyse: (1) whether significant
      differences exist between the learning outcomes of students and their learning
      patterns on the platform, depending on the type of B-Learning [Replacement blend
      (RB) vs. Supplemental blend (SB)]; (2) whether a relation exists between the
      metacognitive and the motivational strategies (MS) of students, their learning
      outcomes and their learning patterns on the platform. The 87,065 log records of
      129 students (69 in RB and 60 in SB) in the Moodle 3.1 platform were analyzed.
      The results revealed different learning patterns between students depending on
      the type of B-Learning (RB vs. SB). We have found that the degree of blend, RB
      vs. SB, seems to condition student behavior on the platform. Learning patterns in
      RB environments can predict student learning outcomes. Additionally, in RB
      environments there is a relationship between the learning patterns and the
      metacognitive and (MS) of the students.

PMID- 28559867
TI  - Response: Commentary: How to Make the Ghosts in my Bedroom Disappear? Focused
      Attention Meditation Combined with Muscle Relaxation (MR Therapy)-A Direct
      Treatment Intervention for Sleep Paralysis.

PMID- 28559868
TI  - Individual Alpha Peak Frequency in Ice Hockey Shooting Performance.
AB  - There are several important inter- and intra-individual variations in individual
      alpha peak frequency (IAPF) in the cognitive domain. The rationale for the
      present study was to extend the research on IAPF in the cognitive domain to IAPF
      in the sport domain. Specifically, the purpose of the present study was twofold:
      (a) to explore whether baseline IAPF is related to performance in an ice hockey
      shooting task and (b) to explore whether a shooting task has an effect on IAPF
      variability. The present investigation is one of the first studies to examine
      links between IAPF and sport performance. Study results did not show significant
      changes in IAPF when comparing baseline IAPF and pre- to post-task IAPF across
      three performance levels. The findings support previous literature in the
      cognitive domain suggesting that IAPF is a stable neurophysiological marker.
      Future research should consider the following methodological suggestions: (a)
      measuring IAPF during sport performance instead of at a resting state, (b)
      changing the pre-performance resting baseline instructions to take into account
      sport-specific mental preparation,

PMID- 28559869
TI  - Impression Management in the Job Interview: An Effective Way of Mitigating
      Discrimination against Older Applicants?
AB  - The increasingly aging population in most industrialized societies, coupled with
      the rather age-diverse current workforce makes discrimination against older
      employees a prevalent issue, especially in employment contexts. This renders
      research on ways for reducing this type of discrimination a particularly pressing
      concern. Drawing on theories of social identity and impression management, our
      research examines the role of impression management, aimed at refuting common
      older worker stereotypes, in diminishing bias against older job applicants during
      the job interview. The study consisted in an experimental hiring simulation
      conducted on a sample of 515 undergraduate students. Results show that older
      applicants who used impression management to contradict common older worker
      stereotypes were perceived as more hirable than those who did not. However,
      despite this positive effect, discrimination persisted: older applicants were
      consistently rated as less hirable than their younger counterparts when
      displaying the same IM behavior. Taken together, this research demonstrates that
      older job seekers can indeed ameliorate biased interview outcomes by engaging in
      impression management targeting common age stereotypes; however, it also shows
      that this strategy is insufficient for overcoming age discrimination entirely.
      The current study has important implications for theory, by expanding research on
      the use of impression management in mitigating age discrimination, as well as for
      practice, by offering older employees a hands-on strategy to reduce bias and
      stereotyping against them.

PMID- 28559870
TI  - Visual Representations of Sexual Violence in Online News Outlets.
AB  - To study visual representations of sexual violence, photographs accompanying
      German Internet news articles that appeared between January 2013 and March 2015
      (N = 42) were subjected to thematic analysis. Two main themes, consisting of
      several sub-themes, emerged from the data. The first theme was "rape myths,"
      illustrating a stereotypical view of sexual violence. It consisted of three sub
      themes: "beauty standards," referring to the fact that all women in our sample
      fit western beauty standards, "physical violence," as most images implied some
      form of physical violence, and finally "location," suggesting that rape only
      happens in secluded outdoor areas. These findings suggest that the images from
      our sample perpetuate certain rape myths. The second theme was "portrayal of
      victimhood," referring to the way victims of sexual violence were portrayed in
      photographs. The analysis of the sub-theme "passivity" showed that these
      portrayals fit a certain stereotype: the women were shown to be weak and helpless
      rather than individuals with agency and able to leave their status as a victim.
      Further sub-themes were "background," "organization of space," "camera
      perspective," and "lighting." We discuss these findings in relation to possibly
      reinforcing rape myths in society and as an issue in creating a biased perception
      of women who have experienced sexual violence.

PMID- 28559871
TI  - Abstracting Dance: Detaching Ourselves from the Habitual Perception of the Moving
      Body.
AB  - This work explores to what extent the notion of abstraction in dance is valid and
      what it entails. Unlike abstraction in the fine arts that aims for a certain
      independence from representation of the external world through the use of non
      figurative elements, dance is realized by a highly familiar object - the human
      body. In fact, we are all experts in recognizing the human body. For instance, we
      can mentally reconstruct its motion from minimal information (e.g., via a "dot
      display"), predict body trajectory during movement and identify emotional
      expressions of the body. Nonetheless, despite the presence of a human dancer on
      stage and our extreme familiarity with the human body, the process of abstraction
      is applicable also to dance. Abstract dance removes itself from familiar daily
      movements, violates the observer's predictions about future movements and
      detaches itself from narratives. In so doing, abstract dance exposes the observer
      to perceptions of unfamiliar situations, thus paving the way to new
      interpretations of human motion and hence to perceiving ourselves differently in
      both the physical and emotional domains.

PMID- 28559872
TI  - Positive fEMG Patterns with Ambiguity in Paintings.
AB  - Whereas ambiguity in everyday life is often negatively evaluated, it is
      considered key in art appreciation. In a facial EMG study, we tested whether the
      positive role of visual ambiguity in paintings is reflected in a continuous
      affective evaluation on a subtle level. We presented ambiguous (disfluent) and
      non-ambiguous (fluent) versions of Magritte paintings and found that M.
      Zygomaticus major activation was higher and M. corrugator supercilii activation
      was lower for ambiguous than for non-ambiguous versions. Our findings reflect a
      positive continuous affective evaluation to visual ambiguity in paintings over
      the 5 s presentation time. We claim that this finding is indirect evidence for
      the hypothesis that visual stimuli classified as art, evoke a safe state for
      indulging into experiencing ambiguity, challenging the notion that processing
      fluency is generally related to positive affect.

PMID- 28559873
TI  - New Strategies in the New Millennium: Servant Leadership As Enhancer of Service
      Climate and Customer Service Performance.
AB  - In a world in which customers are increasingly looking for solutions to their own
      concerns on how to make a better globalized world, new organizational strategies
      are emerging to approach the customer in the current third millennium. Servant
      leadership, which involves putting employees' needs first and serving the broader
      society, is emerging as a new strategic mechanism to approach the customer in
      line with the new social values-driven Marketing 3.0 era. Yet research has
      ignored the role and the various mechanisms servant leadership might utilize to
      improve customer service performance of their service units. Spanning 185 hotels
      located in Spain, a sample of 247 service units -in close contact with customers-
      was used to investigate whether servant leadership enhances customer service
      performance through shaping a service climate within the service unit. Results
      revealed that service climate mediates the positive influence of servant
      leadership on customer service performance. Managers can use these findings to
      note the value of leading the service unit in a servant friendly direction, which
      is better aligned with the new aspirations of customers today.

PMID- 28559874
TI  - Editorial: Infants' Understanding and Production of Goal-Directed Actions in the
      Context of Social and Object-Related Interactions.

PMID- 28559875
TI  - Beyond the Impasse - Reflections on Dissociative Identity Disorder from a
      Freudian-Lacanian Perspective.
AB  - Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a widely contested diagnosis. The
      dominant posttraumatic model (PTM) considers early life trauma to be the direct
      cause of the creation of alter identities and assumes that working directly with
      alter identities should be at the core of the therapeutic work. The socio
      cognitive model, on the other hand, questions the validity of the DID diagnosis
      and proposes an iatrogenic origin of the disorder claiming that reigning
      therapeutic and socio-cultural discourses create and reify the problem. The
      author argues that looking at the underlying psychical dynamics can provide a way
      out of the debate on the veracity of the diagnosis. A structural conception of
      hysteria is presented to understand clinical and empirical observations on the
      prevalence, appearance and treatment of DID. On a more fundamental level, the
      concept of identification and the fundamental division of human psychic
      functioning are proposed as crucial for understanding the development and
      treatment of DID.

PMID- 28559876
TI  - Cognitive Investments in Academic Success: The Role of Need for Cognition at
      University.
AB  - Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual
      tendency to engage in and enjoy cognitive endeavors, contributes to academic
      performance. Most studies on NFC and related constructs have thereby focused on
      grades to capture tertiary academic success. This study aimed at a more
      comprehensive approach on NFC's meaning to success in university. We examined not
      only performance but also rather affective indicators of success. The current
      sample consisted of 396 students of different subjects with a mean age of 24
      years (139 male). All participants took part in an online survey that assessed
      NFC together with school performance and further personality variables via self
      report. Success in university was comprehensively operationalized including
      performance, satisfaction with one's studies, and thoughts about
      quitting/changing one's major as indicators. The value of NFC in predicting
      tertiary academic success was examined with correlation analyses and path
      analysis. NFC significantly correlated with all success variables with the
      highest correlation for study satisfaction. Path analysis confirmed the
      importance of NFC for study satisfaction showing that NFC had a significant
      direct effect on study satisfaction and via this variable also a significant
      indirect effect on termination thoughts. This study clearly indicates that NFC
      broadly contributes to the mastery of academic requirements and that it is
      worthwhile to intensify research on NFC in the context of tertiary education.

PMID- 28559877
TI  - Poor Executive Functions among Children with Moderate-into-Severe Asthma:
      Evidence from WCST Performance.
AB  - Executive functions (EFs) measures of 27 asthmatic children, with general
      learning difficulties, were tested by using the Wisconsin card sorting test
      (WCST), and were compared to the performances of 30 non-asthmatic children with
      general learning difficulties. The results revealed that the asthmatic group has
      poor performance through all the WCST psychometric parameters and especially the
      perseverative errors one. The results were discussed in light of the postulation
      that poor EFs could be associated with the learning difficulties of asthmatic
      children. Neurophysiological framework has been suggested to explain the etiology
      of poor EFs among children with moderate into severe asthma.

PMID- 28559878
TI  - Attentional Capture to a Singleton Distractor Degrades Visual Marking in Visual
      Search.
AB  - Visual search is easier after observing some distractors in advance; it is as if
      the previewed distractors were excluded from the search. This effect is referred
      to as the preview benefit, and a memory template that visually marks the old
      locations of the distractors is thought to help in prioritizing the locations of
      newly presented items. One remaining question is whether the presence of a
      conspicuous item during the sequential shift of attention within the new items
      reduces this preview benefit. To address this issue, we combined the above
      preview search and a conventional visual search paradigm using a singleton
      distractor and examined whether the search performance was affected by the
      presence of the singleton. The results showed that the slope of reaction time as
      a function of set size became steeper in the presence of a singleton, indicating
      that the singleton distractor reduced the preview benefit. Furthermore, this
      degradation effect was positively correlated with the degree of conventional
      attentional capture to a singleton measured in a separate experiment with
      simultaneous search. These findings suggest that the mechanism of visual marking
      shares common attentional resources with the search process.

PMID- 28559879
TI  - Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation of Pseudocercospora fijiensis
      to Determine the Role of PfHog1 in Osmotic Stress Regulation and Virulence
      Modulation.
AB  - Black Sigatoka disease, caused by Pseudocercospora fijiensis is a serious
      constraint to banana production worldwide. The disease continues to spread in new
      ecological niches and there is an urgent need to develop strategies for its
      control. The high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      is well known to respond to changes in external osmolarity. HOG pathway
      activation leads to phosphorylation, activation and nuclear transduction of the
      HOG1 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). The activated HOG1 triggers
      several responses to osmotic stress, including up or down regulation of different
      genes, regulation of protein translation, adjustments to cell cycle progression
      and synthesis of osmolyte glycerol. This study investigated the role of the MAPK
      encoding PfHog1 gene on osmotic stress adaptation and virulence of P. fijiensis.
      RNA interference-mediated gene silencing of PfHog1 significantly suppressed
      growth of P. fijiensis on potato dextrose agar media supplemented with 1 M NaCl,
      indicating that PfHog1 regulates osmotic stress. In addition, virulence of the
      PfHog1-silenced mutants of P. fijiensis on banana was significantly reduced, as
      observed from the low rates of necrosis and disease development on the infected
      leaves. Staining with lacto phenol cotton blue further confirmed the impaired
      mycelial growth of the PfHog1 in the infected leaf tissues, which was further
      confirmed with quantification of the fungal biomass using absolute- quantitative
      PCR. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that PfHog1 plays a critical role
      in osmotic stress regulation and virulence of P. fijiensis on its host banana.
      Thus, PfHog1 could be an interesting target for the control of black Sigatoka
      disease in banana.

PMID- 28559883
TI  - Relationship between Pyruvate Kinase Activity and Cariogenic Biofilm Formation in
      Streptococcus mutans Biotypes in Caries Patients.
AB  - Streptococcus mutans (MS) and its biotype I are the strains most frequently found
      in dental plaque of young children. Our results indicate that in children
      pyruvate kinase (PK) activity increases significantly in dental plaque, and this
      corresponds with caries progression. The MS strains isolated in this study or
      their main glycolytic metabolism connected with PK enzymes might be useful risk
      factors for studying the pathogenesis and target points of novel therapies for
      dental caries. The relationship between PK activity, cariogenic biofilm formation
      and selected biotypes occurrence was studied. S. mutans dental plaque samples
      were collected from supragingival plaque of individual deciduous molars in 143
      subjects. PK activity was measured at different time points during biofilm
      formation. Patients were divided into two groups: initial stage decay, and
      extensive decay. Non-parametric analysis of variance and analysis of covariance
      were used to determine the connections between S. mutans levels, PK activity and
      dental caries biotypes. A total of 143 strains were derived from subjects with
      caries. Biotyping data showed that 62, 23, 50, and 8 strains were classified as
      biotypes I, II, III, IV, respectively. PK activity in biotypes I, II, and IV was
      significantly higher in comparison to that in biotype III. The correlation
      between the level of S. mutans in dental plaque and PK activity was both
      statistically significant (p < 0.05) and positive. The greater the level of S.
      mutans in the biofilm (colony count and total biomass), the higher the PK
      activity; similarly, a low bacterial count correlated with low PK activity.

PMID- 28559882
TI  - Bacterial Root Microbiome of Plants Growing in Oil Sands Reclamation Covers.
AB  - Oil sands mining in northern Alberta impacts a large footprint, but the industry
      is committed to reclaim all disturbed land to an ecologically healthy state in
      response to environmental regulations. However, these newly reconstructed
      landscapes may be limited by several factors that include low soil nutrient
      levels and reduced microbial activity. Rhizosphere microorganisms colonize plant
      roots providing hosts with nutrients, stimulating growth, suppressing disease and
      increasing tolerance to abiotic stress. High-throughput sequencing techniques can
      be used to provide a detailed characterization of microbial community structure.
      This study used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize the bacterial root
      microbiome associated with annual barley (Hordeum vulgare) and sweet clover
      (Melilotus albus) growing in an oil sands reclamation area. Our results indicate
      that Proteobacteria dominated the endosphere, whereas other phyla such as
      Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes were restricted to the rhizosphere, suggesting
      that plants have the ability to select for certain soil bacterial consortia. The
      bacterial community in the endosphere compartments were less rich and diverse
      compared to the rhizosphere. Furthermore, it was apparent that sweet clover
      plants were more selective, as the community exhibited a lower richness and
      diversity compared to barley. Members of the family Rhizobiaceae, such as
      Sinorhizobium and Rhizobium were mainly associated with clover, whereas
      Acholeplasma (wall-less bacteria transmitted by insects) was unique to barley.
      Genera from the Enterobacteriaceae family, such as Yersinia and Lentzea were also
      mostly detected in barley, while other genera such Pseudomonas and Pantoea were
      able to successfully colonize both plants. Endophytic bacterial profiles varied
      within the same plant species at different sampling locations; however, these
      differences were driven by factors other than slope positions or cover
      management. Our results suggest that bacterial endophytic communities of plants
      growing in land reclamation systems are a subset of the rhizosphere community and
      selection is driven by plant factors.

PMID- 28559884
TI  - Editorial: Emerging Tools for Emerging Symbioses-Using Genomics Applications to
      Studying Endophytes.

PMID- 28559880
TI  - Laccases: Production, Expression Regulation, and Applications in Pharmaceutical
      Biodegradation.
AB  - Laccases are a family of copper-containing oxidases with important applications
      in bioremediation and other various industrial and biotechnological areas. There
      have been over two dozen reviews on laccases since 2010 covering various aspects
      of this group of versatile enzymes, from their occurrence, biochemical
      properties, and expression to immobilization and applications. This review is not
      intended to be all-encompassing; instead, we highlighted some of the latest
      developments in basic and applied laccase research with an emphasis on laccase
      mediated bioremediation of pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics.
      Pharmaceuticals are a broad class of emerging organic contaminants that are
      recalcitrant and prevalent. The recent surge in the relevant literature justifies
      a short review on the topic. Since low laccase yields in natural and genetically
      modified hosts constitute a bottleneck to industrial-scale applications, we also
      accentuated a genus of laccase-producing white-rot fungi, Cerrena, and included a
      discussion with regards to regulation of laccase expression.

PMID- 28559885
TI  - Occurrence and Variety of beta-Lactamase Genes among Aeromonas spp. Isolated from
      Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant.
AB  - Members of the genus Aeromonas that commonly occur in various aquatic ecosystems
      are taken into account as vectors spreading antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in
      the environment. In our study strains of Aeromonas spp. (n = 104) not susceptible
      to ampicillin were isolated from municipal sewage of different levels of
      purification - raw sewage, activated sludge and treated wastewater. The crucial
      step of the study was the identification of beta-lactamase resistance genes. The
      identified genes encode beta-lactamases from 14 families - blaTEM, blaOXA,
      blaSHV, blaCTX-M, blaMOX, blaACC, blaFOX, blaGES, blaPER, blaV EB, blaKPC, cphA,
      imiH, and cepH. There were no significant differences in number of identified
      ARGs between isolation points. BlaOXA, blaFOX variants and, characteristic for
      Aeromonas genus, metallo-beta-lactamase cphA-related genes were the most commonly
      identified types of beta-lactam resistance determinants. Moreover, we found four
      extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (blaSHV -11, blaCTX-M-27, blaCTX-M-98, and
      blaPER-4) - and seven AmpC (blaACC, blaFOX-2-like, blaFOX-3, blaFOX-4-like,
      blaFOX-9, blaFOX-10-like, and blaFOX-13-like) types and variants of genes that
      had never been found among Aeromonas spp. before. Five of the beta-lactamases
      families (blaTEM, blaOXA, blaFOX, blaV EB, and cphA) were identified in all three
      isolation sites, which supports the hypothesis that wastewater treatment plants
      (WWTPs) are hot spots of ARGs dissemination. The obtained ARGs sequences share
      high identity with previously described beta-lactamases, but new variants of
      those genes have to be considered as well. Characterization of antibiotic
      susceptibility was performed using disk the diffusion method with 12 different
      antibiotics according to CLSI guidelines. Over 60% of the strains are
      unsusceptible to cefepime and chloramphenicol and the majority of the strains
      have a multidrug resistance phenotype (68%). Finally, analysis of plasmid
      profiles among the resistant strains showed that 62% of the isolates from all
      three points of the WWTP carry plasmids of different sizes. Among some of the
      isolated plasmids blaFOX-4-like and blaGES genes have been found. To sum up, the
      results strongly suggest that Aeromonas spp. can be considered as agents of
      antibiotic resistance dissemination from wastewater to the natural environment.

PMID- 28559887
TI  - CRP Regulates D-Lactate Oxidation in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1.
AB  - Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is a heterotrophic facultative anaerobe that respires
      using various organic and inorganic compounds. This organism has served as a
      model to study bacterial metabolic and regulatory systems that facilitate their
      survival in redox-stratified environments. The expression of many anaerobic
      respiratory genes in MR-1, including those for the reduction of fumarate,
      dimethyl sulfoxide, and metal oxides, is regulated by cyclic AMP receptor protein
      (CRP). However, relatively little is known about how this organism regulates the
      expression of catabolic enzymes catalyzing the oxidation of organic compounds,
      including lactate. Here, we investigated transcriptional mechanisms for the lldP
      (SO_1522) and dld (SO_1521) genes, which encode putative lactate permease and D
      lactate dehydrogenase, respectively, and demonstrate that CRP regulates their
      expression in MR-1. We found that a crp-deletion mutant of MR-1 (Deltacrp) showed
      impaired growth on D-lactate. Complementary expression of dld in Deltacrp
      restored the ability to grow on D-lactate, indicating that the deficient growth
      of Deltacrp on D-lactate is attributable to decreased expression of dld. In vivo
      transcription and in vitro electrophoretic mobility shift assays reveal that CRP
      positively regulates the expression of the lldP and dld genes by directly binding
      to an upstream region of lldP. Taken together, these results indicate that CRP is
      a global transcriptional regulator that coordinately regulates the expression of
      catabolic and respiratory pathways in MR-1, including D-lactate dehydrogenase and
      anaerobic terminal reductases.

PMID- 28559886
TI  - Global Diversity of Desert Hypolithic Cyanobacteria.
AB  - Global patterns in diversity were estimated for cyanobacteria-dominated
      hypolithic communities that colonize ventral surfaces of quartz stones and are
      common in desert environments. A total of 64 hypolithic communities were
      recovered from deserts on every continent plus a tropical moisture sufficient
      location. Community diversity was estimated using a combined t-RFLP
      fingerprinting and high throughput sequencing approach. The t-RFLP analysis
      revealed desert communities were different from the single non-desert location. A
      striking pattern also emerged where Antarctic desert communities were clearly
      distinct from all other deserts. Some overlap in community similarity occurred
      for hot, cold and tundra deserts. A further observation was that the producer
      consumer ratio displayed a significant negative correlation with growing season,
      such that shorter growing seasons supported communities with greater abundance of
      producers, and this pattern was independent of macroclimate. High-throughput
      sequencing of 16S rRNA and nifH genes from four representative samples validated
      the t-RFLP study and revealed patterns of taxonomic and putative diazotrophic
      diversity for desert communities from the Taklimakan Desert, Tibetan Plateau,
      Canadian Arctic and Antarctic. All communities were dominated by cyanobacteria
      and among these 21 taxa were potentially endemic to any given desert location.
      Some others occurred in all but the most extreme hot and polar deserts suggesting
      they were relatively less well adapted to environmental stress. The t-RFLP and
      sequencing data revealed the two most abundant cyanobacterial taxa were
      Phormidium in Antarctic and Tibetan deserts and Chroococcidiopsis in hot and cold
      deserts. The Arctic tundra displayed a more heterogenous cyanobacterial
      assemblage and this was attributed to the maritime-influenced sampling location.
      The most abundant heterotrophic taxa were ubiquitous among samples and belonged
      to the Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria.
      Sequencing using nitrogenase gene-specific primers revealed all putative
      diazotrophs were Proteobacteria of the orders Burkholderiales, Rhizobiales, and
      Rhodospirillales. We envisage cyanobacterial carbon input to the system is
      accompanied by nitrogen fixation largely from non-cyanobacterial taxa. Overall
      the results indicate desert hypoliths worldwide are dominated by cyanobacteria
      and that growing season is a useful predictor of their abundance. Differences in
      cyanobacterial taxa encountered may reflect their adaptation to different
      moisture availability regimes in polar and non-polar deserts.

PMID- 28559888
TI  - Transmission of Bamboo mosaic virus in Bamboos Mediated by Insects in the Order
      Diptera.
AB  - Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV), a member of the genus Potexvirus, is the major threat
      to bamboo cultivation. Similar to most potexviruses, the transmission of BaMV by
      insect vectors has not been documented previously. However, field observations of
      BaMV disease incidences suggested that insect vectors might be involved. In this
      study, we aimed to investigate the possibility of insect-mediated transmission of
      BaMV among bamboo clumps, in order to provide further insights into the infection
      cycles of BaMV for the development of effective disease management measures. From
      the major insects collected from infected bamboo plantations, BaMV genomic RNAs
      were detected inside the bodies of two dipteran insects, Gastrozona fasciventris
      and Atherigona orientalis, but not in thrips (Scirtothrips dorsalis). Artificial
      feeding assays using green fluorescent protein-tagged BaMV virions revealed that
      BaMV could enter the digestive systems and survive in the regurgitant and
      excretion of the dipterans. BaMV RNA could be retained in the dipterans for up to
      4 weeks. Insect-mediated transmission assays indicated that both dipterans could
      transmit BaMV to bamboo seedlings through artificially created wounds with low
      infection efficiency (14 - 41%), suggesting that the dipterans may mediate the
      transmission in a mechanical-like manner. These results demonstrated that
      dipterans with sponge-like mouthparts may also serve as vectors for at least one
      potexvirus, BaMV, among bamboo plants. The finding suggested that dipteran insect
      control should be integrated into the disease management measures against BaMV
      infections.

PMID- 28559889
TI  - Characterization of Lipopeptide Biosurfactants Produced by Bacillus licheniformis
      MB01 from Marine Sediments.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance has become one of the world's most severe problems because
      of the overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are more difficult
      to kill and more expensive to treat. Researchers have been studied on antibiotic
      alternatives such as antimicrobial peptides and lipopeptides. A functional
      bacteria MB01 producing lipopeptides which can be used as bacteriostat was
      isolated from the Bohai Sea sediments, which had been identified as Bacillus
      licheniformis by the morphological, physiological, and biochemical identification
      and 16s rDNA sequence. The lipopeptides produced by MB01 were determined to be
      cyclic surfactin homologs by LC-ESI-MS structural identification after crude
      extraction and LH-20 chromatography. [M+H]+m/z 994, 1008, 1022, and 1036 were all
      the characteristic molecular weight of surfactin homologs. CID analysis revealed
      that the molecular structure of the lipopeptides was Rn-Glu1-Leu/Ile2-Leu3-Val4
      Asp5-Leu6-Leu/Ile7. The lipopeptides showed well resistance to UV light and the
      change of pH and temperature.

PMID- 28559890
TI  - Unexpected Transcripts in Tn7 orf19.2646 C. albicans Mutant Lead to Low Fungal
      Burden Phenotype In vivo.
AB  - The commensal fungus Candida albicans is the major cause of fungal systemic
      infection in immuno-compromised patients, with a mortality rate approaching 50%
      in the case of bloodstream infections. There is therefore a clear need to better
      understand fungal biology during infection to improve treatment. One of the
      particularities of C. albicans is its capacity to adapt to drastically diverse
      environments such as brain, bloodstream or gut. Adaptations to environmental
      change are mediated by transcription factors (TF) that modulate the expression of
      their target genes. Previous screening of a collection of Tn7 C. albicans TF
      mutants in vivo identified orf19.2646 as playing a crucial role in the ability of
      the fungus to survive within its host. Indeed, the orf19.2646 Tn7 interruption
      mutant strain displayed a reduced fungal burden compared to the wild-type strain.
      Surprisingly, an independent deletion mutant did not recapitulate the phenotype
      of the Tn7 interruption mutant. In the present study, we therefore investigated
      the difference between these two mutants and determined by performing a RACE
      analysis whether unexpected transcripts of the Tn7 mutant occurred. We found that
      two such transcripts upstream and downstream of the Tn7 insertion site were
      produced. The two transcripts were expressed in an orf19.2646 deletion mutant
      which displayed a significantly reduced fungal burden level compared to the wild
      type in G. mellonella. When the regions corresponding to these transcripts were
      deleted in the Tn7 mutants, the strains lacking both regions displayed a fungal
      burden similar to that of the wild-type strain. This study shows for the first
      time that mRNA transcription may occur downstream of a Tn7 sequence. In addition,
      these results demonstrated that the low fungal burden phenotype observed in the
      orf19.2646 Tn7 mutant is due to the presence of these two transcripts together
      participating to an unidentified virulence mechanism to be further elucidated.

PMID- 28559891
TI  - Systematic Optimization of Protein Secretory Pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      to Increase Expression of Hepatitis B Small Antigen.
AB  - Hepatitis B is a major disease that chronically infects millions of people in the
      world, especially in developing countries. Currently, one of the effective
      vaccines to prevent Hepatitis B is the Hepatitis B Small Antigen (HBsAg), which
      is mainly produced by the recombinant yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In order to
      bring down the price, which is still too high for people in developing countries
      to afford, it is important to understand key cellular processes that limit
      protein expression. In this study, we took advantage of yeast knockout collection
      (YKO) and screened 194 S. cerevisiae strains with single gene knocked out in four
      major steps of the protein secretory pathway, i.e., endoplasmic-reticulum (ER)
      associated protein degradation, protein folding, unfolded protein response (UPR),
      and translocation and exocytosis. The screening showed that the single deletion
      of YPT32, SBH1, and HSP42 led to the most significant increase of HBsAg
      expression over the wild type while the deletion of IRE1 led to a profound
      decrease of HBsAg expression. The synergistic effects of gene knockout and gene
      overexpression were next tested. We found that simultaneously deleting YPT32 and
      overexpressing IRE1 led to a 2.12-fold increase in HBsAg expression over the wild
      type strain. The results of this study revealed novel genetic targets of protein
      secretory pathways that could potentially improve the manufacturing of broad
      scope vaccines in a cost-effective way using recombinant S. cerevisiae.

PMID- 28559892
TI  - Streptomyces colonosanans sp. nov., A Novel Actinobacterium Isolated from
      Malaysia Mangrove Soil Exhibiting Antioxidative Activity and Cytotoxic Potential
      against Human Colon Cancer Cell Lines.
AB  - Streptomyces colonosanans MUSC 93JT, a novel strain isolated from mangrove forest
      soil located at Sarawak, Malaysia. The bacterium was noted to be Gram-positive
      and to form light yellow aerial and vivid yellow substrate mycelium on ISP 2
      agar. The polyphasic approach was used to determine the taxonomy of strain MUSC
      93JT and the strain showed a range of phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic properties
      consistent with those of the members of the genus Streptomyces. Phylogenetic and
      16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that closely related strains include
      Streptomyces malachitofuscus NBRC 13059T (99.2% sequence similarity),
      Streptomyces misionensis NBRC 13063T (99.1%), and Streptomyces
      phaeoluteichromatogenes NRRL 5799T (99.1%). The DNA-DNA relatedness values
      between MUSC 93JT and closely related type strains ranged from 14.4 +/- 0.1 to
      46.2 +/- 0.4%. The comparison of BOX-PCR fingerprints indicated MUSC 93JT
      exhibits a unique DNA profile. The genome of MUSC 93JT consists of 7,015,076 bp.
      The DNA G + C content was determined to be 69.90 mol%. The extract of strain MUSC
      93JT was demonstrated to exhibit potent antioxidant activity via ABTS, metal
      chelating, and SOD assays. This extract also exhibited anticancer activity
      against human colon cancer cell lines without significant cytotoxic effect
      against human normal colon cells. Furthermore, the chemical analysis of the
      extract further emphasizes the strain is producing chemo-preventive related
      metabolites. Based on this polyphasic study of MUSC 93JT, it is concluded that
      this strain represents a novel species, for which the name Streptomyces
      colonosanans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MUSC 93JT (= DSM 102042T =
      MCCC 1K02298T).

PMID- 28559881
TI  - Rodent Models of Invasive Aspergillosis due to Aspergillus fumigatus: Still a
      Long Path toward Standardization.
AB  - Invasive aspergillosis has been studied in laboratory by the means of plethora of
      distinct animal models. They were developed to address pathophysiology, therapy,
      diagnosis, or miscellaneous other concerns associated. However, there are great
      discrepancies regarding all the experimental variables of animal models, and a
      thorough focus on them is needed. This systematic review completed a
      comprehensive bibliographic analysis specifically-based on the technical features
      of rodent models infected with Aspergillus fumigatus. Out the 800 articles
      reviewed, it was shown that mice remained the preferred model (85.8% of the
      referenced reports), above rats (10.8%), and guinea pigs (3.8%). Three quarters
      of the models involved immunocompromised status, mainly by steroids (44.4%)
      and/or alkylating drugs (42.9%), but only 27.7% were reported to receive
      antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent from bacterial infection. Injection of spores
      (30.0%) and inhalation/deposition into respiratory airways (66.9%) were the most
      used routes for experimental inoculation. Overall, more than 230 distinct A.
      fumigatus strains were used in models. Of all the published studies, 18.4% did
      not mention usage of any diagnostic tool, like histopathology or mycological
      culture, to control correct implementation of the disease and to measure outcome.
      In light of these findings, a consensus discussion should be engaged to establish
      a minimum standardization, although this may not be consistently suitable for
      addressing all the specific aspects of invasive aspergillosis.

PMID- 28559893
TI  - Upregulation of Early and Downregulation of Terminal Pathway Complement Genes in
      Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue and Adipocytes in Acquired Obesity.
AB  - Inflammation is an important mediator of obesity-related complications such as
      the metabolic syndrome but its causes and mechanisms are unknown. As the
      complement system is a key mediator of inflammation, we studied whether it is
      activated in acquired obesity in subcutaneous adipose tissue (AT) and isolated
      adipocytes. We used a special study design of genetically matched controls of
      lean and heavy groups, rare monozygotic twin pairs discordant for body mass index
      (BMI) [n = 26, within-pair difference (Delta) in body mass index, BMI >3 kg/m2]
      with as much as 18 kg mean Deltaweight. Additionally, 14 BMI-concordant (BMI <3
      kg/m2) served as a reference group. The detailed measurements included body
      composition (DEXA), fat distribution (MRI), glucose, insulin, adipokines, C3a and
      SC5b-9 levels, and the expression of complement and insulin signaling pathway
      related genes in AT and adipocytes. In both AT and isolated adipocytes, the
      classical and alternative pathway genes were upregulated, and the terminal
      pathway genes downregulated in the heavier co-twins of the BMI-discordant pairs.
      The upregulated genes included C1q, C1s, C2, ficolin-1, factor H, receptors for
      C3a and C5a (C5aR1), and the iC3b receptor (CR3). While the terminal pathway
      components C5 and C6 were downregulated, its inhibitor clusterin was upregulated.
      Complement gene upregulation in AT and adipocytes correlated positively with
      adiposity and hyperinsulinemia and negatively with the expression of insulin
      signaling-related genes. Plasma C3a, but not SC5b-9, levels were elevated in the
      heavier co-twins. There were no differences between the co-twins in BMI
      concordant pairs. Obesity is associated with increased expression of the early,
      but not late, complement pathway components and of key receptors. The twins with
      acquired obesity have therefore an inflated inflammatory activity in the AT. The
      results suggest that complement is likely involved in orchestrating clearance of
      apoptotic debris and inflammation in the AT.

PMID- 28559894
TI  - Multifactorial Modulation of Food-Induced Anaphylaxis.
AB  - Prevalence of food-induced anaphylaxis increases progressively and occurs in an
      unpredictable manner, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients.
      Intrinsic factors including age, physiological, and genetic features of the
      patient as well as extrinsic factors such as the intake of drugs and exposure to
      environmental agents modulate this disorder. It has been proven that diseases,
      such as mastocytosis, defects in HLA, or filaggrin genes, increase the risk of
      severe allergic episodes. Certain allergen families such as storage proteins,
      lipid transfer proteins, or parvalbumins have also been linked to anaphylaxis.
      Environmental factors such as inhaled allergens or sensitization through the skin
      can exacerbate or trigger acute anaphylaxis. Moreover, the effect of dietary
      habits such as the early introduction of certain foods in the diet, and the
      advantage of the breastfeeding remain as yet unresolved. Interaction of allergens
      with the intestinal cell barrier together with a set of effector cells represents
      the primary pathways of food-induced anaphylaxis. After an antigen cross-links
      the IgEs on the membrane of effector cells, a complex intracellular signaling
      cascade is initiated, which leads cells to release preformed mediators stored in
      their granules that are responsible for the acute symptoms of anaphylaxis.
      Afterward, they can also rapidly synthesize lipid compounds such as
      prostaglandins or leukotrienes. Cytokines or chemokines are also released,
      leading to the recruitment and activation of immune cells in the inflammatory
      microenvironment. Multiple factors that affect food-induced anaphylaxis are
      discussed in this review, paying special attention to dietary habits and
      environmental and genetic conditions.

PMID- 28559895
TI  - Autophagy Plays an Important Role in Anti-inflammatory Mechanisms Stimulated by
      Alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor.
AB  - Alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7nAChR) has been reported to
      alleviate neuroinflammation. Here, we aimed to determine the role of autophagy in
      alpha7nAChR-mediated inhibition of neuroinflammation and its underlying
      mechanism. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice and
      lipopolysaccharide-stimulated BV2 microglia were used as in vivo and in vitro
      models of neuroinflammation, respectively. The severity of EAE was evaluated with
      neurological scoring. Autophagy-related proteins (Beclin 1, LC3-II/I, p62/SQSTM1)
      were detected by immunoblot. Autophagosomes were observed using transmission
      electron microscopy and tandem fluorescent mRFP-GFP-LC3 plasmid was applied to
      test autophagy flux. The mRNA levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1beta, IL-18,
      and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were detected by real-time PCR. We
      used 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and autophagy-related gene 5 small interfering RNA
      (Atg5 siRNA) to block autophagy in vivo and in vitro, respectively. Activating
      alpha7nAChR with PNU282987 ameliorates EAE severity and spinal inflammatory
      infiltration in EAE mice. PNU282987 treatment also enhanced monocyte/microglia
      autophagy (Beclin 1, LC3-II/I ratio, p62/SQSTM1, colocalization of CD45- or CD68
      positive cells with LC3) both in spinal cord and spleen from EAE mice. The
      beneficial effects of PNU282987 on EAE mice were partly abolished by 3-MA, an
      autophagy inhibitor. In vitro, PNU282987 treatment increased autophagy and
      promoted autophagy flux. Blockade of autophagy by Atg5 siRNA or bafilomycin A1
      attenuated the inhibitory effect of PNU282987 on IL-6, IL-1beta, IL-18, and TNF
      alpha mRNA. Our results demonstrate for the first time that activating
      alpha7nAChR enhances monocyte/microglia autophagy, which suppresses
      neuroinflammation and thus plays an alleviative role in EAE.

PMID- 28559896
TI  - Climate Influences the Content and Chemical Composition of Foliar Tannins in
      Green and Senesced Tissues of Quercus rubra.
AB  - Environmental stresses not only influence production of plant metabolites but
      could also modify their resorption during leaf senescence. The production
      resorption dynamics of polyphenolic tannins, a class of defense compound whose
      ecological role extends beyond tissue senescence, could amplify the influence of
      climate on ecosystem processes. We studied the quantity, chemical composition,
      and tissue-association of tannins in green and freshly-senesced leaves of Quercus
      rubra exposed to different temperature (Warming and No Warming) and precipitation
      treatments (Dry, Ambient, Wet) at the Boston-Area Climate Experiment (BACE) in
      Massachusetts, USA. Climate influenced not only the quantity of tannins, but also
      their molecular composition and cell-wall associations. Irrespective of climatic
      treatments, tannin composition in Q. rubra was dominated by condensed tannins
      (CTs, proanthocyanidins). When exposed to Dry and Ambient*Warm conditions, Q.
      rubra produced higher quantities of tannins that were less polymerized. In
      contrast, under favorable conditions (Wet), tannins were produced in lower
      quantities, but the CTs were more polymerized. Further, even as the overall
      tissue tannin content declined, the content of hydrolysable tannins (HTs)
      increased under Wet treatments. The molecular composition of tannins influenced
      their content in senesced litter. Compared to the green leaves, the content of
      HTs decreased in senesced leaves across treatments, whereas the CT content was
      similar between green and senesced leaves in Wet treatments that produced more
      polymerized tannins. The content of total tannins in senesced leaves was higher
      in Warming treatments under both dry and ambient precipitation treatments. Our
      results suggest that, though climate directly influenced the production of
      tannins in green tissues (and similar patterns were observed in the senesced
      tissue), the influence of climate on tannin content of senesced tissue was partly
      mediated by the effect on the chemical composition of tannins. These different
      climatic impacts on leaves over the course of a growing season may alter forest
      dynamics, not only in decomposition and nutrient cycling dynamics, but also in
      herbivory dynamics.

PMID- 28559898
TI  - Silencing of Soybean Raffinose Synthase Gene Reduced Raffinose Family
      Oligosaccharides and Increased True Metabolizable Energy of Poultry Feed.
AB  - Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is the number one oil and protein crop in the
      United States, but the seed contains several anti-nutritional factors that are
      toxic to both humans and livestock. RNA interference technology has become an
      increasingly popular technique in gene silencing because it allows for both
      temporal and spatial targeting of specific genes. The objective of this research
      is to use RNA-mediated gene silencing to down-regulate the soybean gene raffinose
      synthase 2 (RS2), to reduce total raffinose content in mature seed. Raffinose is
      a trisaccharide that is indigestible to humans and monogastric animals, and as
      monogastric animals are the largest consumers of soy products, reducing raffinose
      would improve the nutritional quality of soybean. An RNAi construct targeting RS2
      was designed, cloned, and transformed to the soybean genome via Agrobacterium
      mediated transformation. Resulting plants were analyzed for the presence and
      number of copies of the transgene by PCR and Southern blot. The efficiency of
      mRNA silencing was confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR. Total raffinose
      content was determined by HPLC analysis. Transgenic plant lines were recovered
      that exhibited dramatically reduced levels of raffinose in mature seed, and these
      lines were further analyzed for other phenotypes such as development and yield.
      Additionally, a precision-fed rooster assay was conducted to measure the true
      metabolizable energy (TME) in full-fat soybean meal made from the wild-type or
      transgenic low-raffinose soybean lines. Transgenic low-raffinose soy had a
      measured TME of 2,703 kcal/kg, an increase as compared with 2,411 kcal/kg for
      wild-type. As low digestible energy is a major limiting factor in the percent of
      soybean meal that can be used in poultry diets, these results may substantiate
      the use of higher concentrations of low-raffinose, full-fat soy in formulated
      livestock diets.

PMID- 28559897
TI  - The Influence of the Plant Growth Regulator Maleic Hydrazide on Egyptian
      Broomrape Early Developmental Stages and Its Control Efficacy in Tomato under
      Greenhouse and Field Conditions.
AB  - Broomrapes (Phelipanche spp. and Orobanche spp.) are holoparasitic plants that
      cause tremendous losses of agricultural crops worldwide. Broomrape control is
      extremely difficult and only amino acid biosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides
      present an acceptable control level. It is expected that broomrape resistance to
      these herbicides is not long in coming. Our objective was to develop a broomrape
      control system in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) based on the plant growth
      regulator maleic hydrazide (MH). Petri-dish and polyethylene-bag system
      experiments revealed that MH has a slight inhibitory effect on Phelipanche
      aegyptiaca seed germination but is a potent inhibitor of the first stages of
      parasitism, namely attachment and the tubercle stage. MH phytotoxicity toward
      tomato and its P. aegyptiaca-control efficacy were tested in greenhouse
      experiments. MH was applied at 25, 50, 75, 150, 300, and 600 g a.i. ha-1 to
      tomato foliage grown in P. aegyptiaca-infested soil at 200 growing degree days
      (GDD) and again at 400 GDD. The treatments had no influence on tomato foliage or
      root dry weight. The total number of P. aegyptiaca attachments counted on the
      roots of the treated plants was significantly lower at 75 g a.i. ha-1 and also at
      higher MH rates. Phelipanche aegyptiaca biomass was close to zero at rates of
      150, 300, and 600 g a.i. ha-1 MH. Field experiments were conducted to optimize
      the rate, timing and number of MH applications. Two application sequences gave
      superior results, both with five split applications applied at 100, 200, 400,
      700, and 1000 GDD: (a) constant rate of 400 g a.i. ha-1; (b) first two
      applications at 270 g a.i. ha-1 and the next three applications at 540 g a.i. ha
      1. Based on the results of this study, MH was registered for use in Israel in
      2013 with the specified protocol and today, it is widely used by most Israeli
      tomato growers.

PMID- 28559900
TI  - Isoflavone Malonyltransferases GmIMaT1 and GmIMaT3 Differently Modify Isoflavone
      Glucosides in Soybean (Glycine max) under Various Stresses.
AB  - Malonylated isoflavones are the major forms of isoflavonoids in soybean plants,
      the genes responsible for their biosyntheses are not well understood, nor their
      physiological functions. Here we report a new benzylalcohol O-acetyltransferase,
      anthocyanin O-hydroxycinnamoyltransferase, anthranilate N
      hydroxycinnamoyl/benzoyltransferase, deacetylvindoline 4-O-acetyltransferase
      (BAHD) family isoflavone glucoside malonyltransferase GmIMaT1, and GmIMaT3, which
      is allelic to the previously characterized GmMT7 and GmIF7MaT. Biochemical
      studies showed that recombinant GmIMaT1 and GmIMaT3 enzymes used malonyl-CoA and
      several isoflavone 7-O-glucosides as substrates. The Km values of GmIMaT1 for
      glycitin, genistin, and daidzin were 13.11, 23.04, and 36.28 MUM, respectively,
      while these of GmIMaT3 were 12.94, 26.67, and 30.12 MUM, respectively. Transgenic
      hairy roots overexpressing both GmIMaTs had increased levels of malonyldaidzin
      and malonylgenistin, and contents of daidzin and glycitin increased only in
      GmIMaT1-overexpression lines. The increased daidzein and genistein contents were
      detected only in GmIMaT3-overexpression lines. Knockdown of GmIMaT1 and GmIMaT3
      reduced malonyldaidzin and malonylgenistin contents, and affected other
      isoflavonoids differently. GmIMaT1 is primarily localized to the endoplasmic
      reticulum while GmIMaT3 is primarily in the cytosol. By examining their
      transcript changes corresponding to the altered isoflavone metabolic profiles
      under various environmental and hormonal stresses, we probed the possible
      functions of GmIMaTs. Two GmIMaTs displayed distinct tissue expression patterns
      and respond differently to various factors in modifying isoflavone 7-O-glucosides
      under various stresses.

PMID- 28559899
TI  - Atmospheric CO2 Alters Resistance of Arabidopsis to Pseudomonas syringae by
      Affecting Abscisic Acid Accumulation and Stomatal Responsiveness to Coronatine.
AB  - Atmospheric CO2 influences plant growth and stomatal aperture. Effects of high or
      low CO2 levels on plant disease resistance are less well understood. Here,
      resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana against the foliar pathogen Pseudomonas
      syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst) was investigated at three different CO2 levels:
      high (800 ppm), ambient (450 ppm), and low (150 ppm). Under all conditions
      tested, infection by Pst resulted in stomatal closure within 1 h after
      inoculation. However, subsequent stomatal reopening at 4 h, triggered by the
      virulence factor coronatine (COR), occurred only at ambient and high CO2, but not
      at low CO2. Moreover, infection by Pst was reduced at low CO2 to the same extent
      as infection by mutant Pst cor- . Under all CO2 conditions, the ABA mutants aba2
      1 and abi1-1 were as resistant to Pst as wild-type plants under low CO2, which
      contained less ABA. Moreover, stomatal reopening mediated by COR was dependent on
      ABA. Our results suggest that reduced ABA levels at low CO2 contribute to the
      observed enhanced resistance to Pst by deregulation of virulence responses. This
      implies that enhanced ABA levels at increasing CO2 levels may have a role in
      weakening plant defense.

PMID- 28559901
TI  - Estimation of Wheat Plant Density at Early Stages Using High Resolution Imagery.
AB  - Crop density is a key agronomical trait used to manage wheat crops and estimate
      yield. Visual counting of plants in the field is currently the most common method
      used. However, it is tedious and time consuming. The main objective of this work
      is to develop a machine vision based method to automate the density survey of
      wheat at early stages. RGB images taken with a high resolution RGB camera are
      classified to identify the green pixels corresponding to the plants. Crop rows
      are extracted and the connected components (objects) are identified. A neural
      network is then trained to estimate the number of plants in the objects using the
      object features. The method was evaluated over three experiments showing
      contrasted conditions with sowing densities ranging from 100 to 600 seeds?m-2.
      Results demonstrate that the density is accurately estimated with an average
      relative error of 12%. The pipeline developed here provides an efficient and
      accurate estimate of wheat plant density at early stages.

PMID- 28559902
TI  - A Spectrophotometric Assay for Robust Viability Testing of Seed Batches Using
      2,3,5-Triphenyl Tetrazolium Chloride: Using Hordeum vulgare L. as a Model.
AB  - A comparative analysis was carried out of published methods to assess seed
      viability using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) based assays of seed
      batches. The tests were carried out on seeds of barley (Hordeum vulgare cv.
      Optic) as a model. We established that 10% [w/v] trichloroacetic acid
      (TCA)/methanol is superior to the acetone and methanol-only based methods:
      allowing the highest recovery of formazan and the lowest background optical
      density (OD) readings, across seed lots comprising different ratios of viable and
      dead seeds. The method allowed a linear-model to accurately capture the
      statistically significant relationship between the quantity of formazan that
      could be extracted using the method we developed and the seed temperature
      response, and seed viability as a function of artificially aged seed lots. Other
      quality control steps are defined to help ensure the assay is robust and these
      are reported in a Standard Operating Procedure.

PMID- 28559903
TI  - Expression of CdDHN4, a Novel YSK2-Type Dehydrin Gene from Bermudagrass,
      Responses to Drought Stress through the ABA-Dependent Signal Pathway.
AB  - Dehydrin improves plant resistance to many abiotic stresses. In this study, the
      expression profiles of a dehydrin gene, CdDHN4, were estimated under various
      stresses and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments in two bermudagrasses (Cynodon
      dactylon L.): Tifway (drought-tolerant) and C299 (drought-sensitive). The
      expression of CdDHN4 was up-regulated by high temperatures, low temperatures,
      drought, salt and ABA. The sensitivity of CdDHN4 to ABA and the expression of
      CdDHN4 under drought conditions were higher in Tifway than in C299. A 1239-bp
      fragment, CdDHN4-P, the partial upstream sequence of the CdDHN4 gene, was cloned
      by genomic walking from Tifway. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the CdDHN4-P
      sequence possessed features typical of a plant promoter and contained many
      typical cis elements, including a transcription initiation site, a TATA-box, an
      ABRE, an MBS, a MYC, an LTRE, a TATC-box and a GT1-motif. Transient expression in
      tobacco leaves demonstrated that the promoter CdDHN4-P can be activated by ABA,
      drought and cold. These results indicate that CdDHN4 is regulated by an ABA
      dependent signal pathway and that the high sensitivity of CdDHN4 to ABA might be
      an important mechanism enhancing the drought tolerance of bermudagrass.

PMID- 28559904
TI  - Genetic Architecture of Anther Extrusion in Spring and Winter Wheat.
AB  - Hybrid wheat breeding is gaining prominence worldwide because it ensures higher
      and more static yield than conventionally bred varieties. The cleistogamous
      floral architecture of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) impedes anthers inside the
      floret, making it largely an inbreeder. For hybrid seed production, high anther
      extrusion is needed to promote cross pollination and to ensure a high level of
      pollen availability for the seed plant. This study, therefore, aimed at the
      genetic dissection of anther extrusion (AE) in panels of spring (SP), and winter
      wheat (WP) accessions by genome wide association studies (GWAS). We performed
      GWAS to identify the SNP markers potentially linked with AE in each panel
      separately. Phenotypic data were collected for 3 years for each panel. The
      average levels of Pearson's correlation (r) among all years and their best linear
      unbiased estimates (BLUEs) within both panels were high (r(SP) = 0.75, P <
      0.0001;r(WP) = 0.72, P < 0.0001). Genotypic data (with minimum of 0.05 minor
      allele frequency applied) included 12,066 and 12,191 SNP markers for SP and WP,
      respectively. Both genotypes and environment influenced the magnitude of AE. In
      total, 23 significant (|log10(P)| > 3.0) marker trait associations (MTAs) were
      detected (SP = 11; WP = 12). Anther extrusion behaved as a complex trait with
      significant markers having either favorable or unfavorable additive effects and
      imparting minor to moderate levels of phenotypic variance (R2(SP) = 9.75-14.24%;
      R2 (WP) = 9.44-16.98%). All mapped significant markers as well as the markers
      within their significant linkage disequilibrium (r2 >= 0.30) regions were blasted
      against wheat genome assembly (IWGSC1+popseq) to find the corresponding genes and
      their high confidence descriptions were retrieved. These genes and their
      orthologs in Hordeum vulgare, Brachypodium distachyon, Oryza sativa, and Sorghum
      bicolor revealed syntenic genomic regions potentially involved in flowering
      related traits. Moreover, the expression data of these genes suggested potential
      candidates for AE. Our results suggest that the use of significant markers can
      help to introduce AE in high yielding varieties to increase cross fertilization
      rates and improve hybrid-seed production in wheat.

PMID- 28559905
TI  - Validation of Suitable Reference Genes for RT-qPCR Data in Achyranthes bidentata
      Blume under Different Experimental Conditions.
AB  - Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a sensitive
      technique for gene expression studies. However, choosing the appropriate
      reference gene is essential to obtain reliable results for RT-qPCR assays. In the
      present work, the expression of eight candidate reference genes, EF1-alpha
      (elongation factor 1-alpha), GAPDH (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase),
      UBC (ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme), UBQ (polyubiquitin), ACT (actin), beta-TUB
      (beta-tubulin), APT1 (adenine phosphoribosyltransferase 1), and 18S rRNA (18S
      ribosomal RNA), was evaluated in Achyranthes bidentata samples using two
      algorithms, geNorm and NormFinder. The samples were classified into groups
      according to developmental stages, various tissues, stresses (cold, heat,
      drought, NaCl), and hormone treatments (MeJA, IBA, SA). Suitable combination of
      reference genes for RT-qPCR normalization should be applied according to
      different experimental conditions. In this study, EF1-alpha, UBC, and ACT genes
      were verified as the suitable reference genes across all tested samples. To
      validate the suitability of the reference genes, we evaluated the relative
      expression of CAS, which is a gene that may be involved in phytosterol synthesis.
      Our results provide the foundation for gene expression analysis in A. bidentata
      and other species of Amaranthaceae.

PMID- 28559907
TI  - SHB1/HY1 Alleviates Excess Boron Stress by Increasing BOR4 Expression Level and
      Maintaining Boron Homeostasis in Arabidopsis Roots.
AB  - Boron is an essential mineral nutrient for higher plant growth and development.
      However, excessive amounts of boron can be toxic. Here, we report on the
      characterization of an Arabidopsis mutant, shb1 (sensitive to high-level of boron
      1), which exhibits hypersensitivity to excessive boron in roots. Positional
      cloning demonstrated that the shb1 mutant bears a point mutation in a gene
      encoding a heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) corresponding to the HY1 gene involved in
      photomorphogenesis. The transcription level of the SHB1/HY1 gene in roots is up
      regulated under excessive boron stimulation. Either overexpressing SHB1/HY1 or
      applying the HO1 inducer hematin reduces boron accumulation in roots and confers
      high boron tolerance. Furthermore, carbon monoxide and bilirubin, catalytic
      products of HO1, partially rescue the boron toxicity-induced inhibition of
      primary root growth in shb1. Additionally, the mRNA level of BOR4, a boron efflux
      transporter, is reduced in shb1 roots with high levels of boron supplementation,
      and hematin cannot relieve the boron toxicity-induced root inhibition in bor4
      mutants. Taken together, our study reveals that HO1 acts via its catalytic by
      products to promote tolerance of excessive boron by up-regulating the
      transcription of the BOR4 gene and therefore promoting the exclusion of excessive
      boron in root cells.

PMID- 28559906
TI  - Drawing Links from Transcriptome to Metabolites: The Evolution of Aroma in the
      Ripening Berry of Moscato Bianco (Vitis vinifera L.).
AB  - Monoterpenes confer typical floral notes to "Muscat" grapevine varieties and, to
      a lesser extent, to other aromatic non-Muscat varieties. Previous studies have
      led to the identification and functional characterization of some enzymes and
      genes in this pathway. However, the underlying genetic map is still far from
      being complete. For example, the specific steps of monoterpene metabolism and its
      regulation are largely unknown. With the aim of identifying new candidates for
      the missing links, we applied an integrative functional genomics approach based
      on the targeted metabolic and genome-wide transcript profiling of Moscato Bianco
      ripening berries. In particular, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of
      free and bound terpenoid compounds was combined with microarray analysis in the
      skins of berries collected at five developmental stages from pre-veraison to over
      ripening. Differentially expressed metabolites and probes were identified in the
      pairwise comparison between time points by using the early stage as a reference.
      Metabolic and transcriptomic data were integrated through pairwise correlation
      and clustering approaches to discover genes linked with particular metabolites or
      groups of metabolites. These candidate transcripts were further checked for co
      localization with quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting aromatic compounds.
      Our findings provide insights into the biological networks of grapevine secondary
      metabolism, both at the catalytic and regulatory levels. Examples include a nudix
      hydrolase as component of a terpene synthase-independent pathway for monoterpene
      biosynthesis, genes potentially involved in monoterpene metabolism (cytochrome
      P450 hydroxylases, epoxide hydrolases, glucosyltransferases), transport (vesicle
      associated proteins, ABCG transporters, glutathione S-transferases, amino acid
      permeases), and transcriptional control (transcription factors of the ERF, MYB
      and NAC families, intermediates in light- and circadian cycle-mediated regulation
      with supporting evidence from the literature and additional regulatory genes with
      a previously unreported association to monoterpene accumulation).

PMID- 28559909
TI  - Differential Responses of Polyamines and Antioxidants to Drought in a
      Centipedegrass Mutant in Comparison to Its Wild Type Plants.
AB  - Centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides [Munro] Hack.) is an important warm-season
      turfgrass species with low turf maintenance requirements. However, our knowledge
      on physiological adaptation of centipedegrass to drought stress is limited.
      Physiological responses to drought in a gamma-ray-induced mutant 22-1 as compared
      with two wild type (WT) lines were analyzed for understanding of drought
      tolerance mechanism of centipedegrass. The mutant showed an elevated drought
      tolerance with higher levels of relative water content, net photosynthetic rate
      (A) and stomatal conductance (gs) and lower levels of ion leakage and
      malondialdehyde (MDA) under drought stress as compared with WT plants. A showed
      significant correlation with gs and MDA. Higher levels of antioxidant enzymes
      activities, non-enzyme antioxidants, and polyamines including putrescine (Put),
      spermidine (Spd), and spermine (Spm) were maintained in 22-1 than in WT plants.
      Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate-peroxidase (APX), and
      glutathione reductase (GR) activities and ascorbic acid (AsA) content were
      significantly correlated with both Put and Spd levels, and reduced glutathione
      level was correlated with Put during drought stress. Exogenous application of
      Put, Spd, and Spm increased drought tolerance and activities of SOD, CAT, APX,
      and GR in WT plants. The results suggest that higher levels of polyamines and
      antioxidant defense system are associated with the elevated drought tolerance in
      22-1, which may improve protection on photosynthesis against drought induced
      oxidative damage.

PMID- 28559908
TI  - Association of Candidate Genes With Submergence Response in Perennial Ryegrass.
AB  - Perennial ryegrass is a popular cool-season grass species due to its high quality
      for forage and turf. The objective of this study was to identify associations of
      candidate genes with growth and physiological traits to submergence stress and
      recovery after de-submergence in a global collection of 94 perennial ryegrass
      accessions. Accessions varied largely in leaf color, plant height (HT), leaf
      fresh weight (LFW), leaf dry weight (LDW), and chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm)
      at 7 days of submergence and in HT, LFW and LDW at 7 days of recovery in two
      experiments. Among 26 candidate genes tested by various models, single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in 10 genes showed significant associations with traits
      including 16 associations for control, 10 for submergence, and 8 for recovery.
      Under submergence, Lp1-SST encoding sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase and
      LpGA20ox encoding gibberellin 20-oxidase were associated with LFW and LDW, and
      LpACO1 encoding 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase was associated with
      LFW. Associations between Lp1-SST and HT, Lp6G-FFT encoding fructan:fructan 6G
      fructosyltransferase and Fv/Fm, LpCAT encoding catalase and HT were also detected
      under submergence stress. Upon de-submergence, Lp1-SST, Lp6G-FFT, and LpPIP1
      encoding plasma membrane intrinsic protein type 1 were associated with LFW or
      LDW, while LpCBF1b encoding C-repeat binding factor were associated with HT. Nine
      significant SNPs in Lp1-SST, Lp6G-FFT, LpCAT, and LpACO1 resulted in amino acid
      changes with five substitutions found in Lp1-SST under submergence or recovery.
      The results indicated that allelic diversity in genes involved in carbohydrate
      and antioxidant metabolism, ethylene and gibberellin biosynthesis, and transcript
      factor could contribute to growth variations in perennial ryegrass under
      submergence stress and recovery after de-submergence.

PMID- 28559910
TI  - QTL Mapping of Adult-Plant Resistance to Leaf Rust in the Wheat Cross Zhou
      8425B/Chinese Spring Using High-Density SNP Markers.
AB  - Wheat leaf rust is an important disease worldwide. Growing resistant cultivars is
      an effective means to control the disease. In the present study, 244 recombinant
      inbred lines from Zhou 8425B/Chinese Spring cross were phenotyped for leaf rust
      severities during the 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015 cropping
      seasons at Baoding, Hebei province, and 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 cropping seasons
      in Zhoukou, Henan province. The population was genotyped using the high-density
      Illumina iSelect 90K SNP assay and SSR markers. Inclusive composite interval
      mapping identified eight QTL, designated as QLr.hebau-2AL, QLr.hebau-2BS,
      QLr.hebau-3A, QLr.hebau-3BS, QLr.hebau-4AL, QLr.hebau-4B, QLr.hebau-5BL, and
      QLr.hebau-7DS, respectively. QLr.hebau-2BS, QLr.hebau-3A, QLr.hebau-3BS, and
      QLr.hebau-5BL were derived from Zhou 8425B, whereas the other four were from
      Chinese Spring. Three stable QTL on chromosomes 2BS, 4B and 7DS explained 7.5
      10.6%, 5.5-24.4%, and 11.2-20.9% of the phenotypic variance, respectively.
      QLr.hebau-2BS in Zhou 8425B might be the same as LrZH22 in Zhoumai 22; QLr.hebau
      4B might be the residual resistance of Lr12, and QLr.hebau-7DS is Lr34. QLr.hebau
      2AL, QLr.hebau-3BS, QLr.hebau-4AL, and QLr.hebau-5BL are likely to be novel QTL
      for leaf rust. These QTL and their closely linked SNP and SSR markers can be used
      for fine mapping, candidate gene discovery, and marker-assisted selection in
      wheat breeding.

PMID- 28559911
TI  - Comparative Analysis of Transcriptomes in Rhizophoraceae Provides Insights into
      the Origin and Adaptive Evolution of Mangrove Plants in Intertidal Environments.
AB  - Mangroves are woody plants that grow at the interface between land and sea in
      tropical and subtropical latitudes, where they exist in conditions of high
      salinity, extreme tides, strong winds, high temperatures, and muddy, anaerobic
      soils. Rhizophoraceae is a key mangrove family, with highly developed
      morphological and physiological adaptations to extreme conditions. It is an ideal
      system for the study of the origin and adaptive evolution of mangrove plants. In
      this study, we characterized and comprehensively compared the transcriptomes of
      four mangrove species, from all four mangrove genera, as well as their closest
      terrestrial relative in Rhizophoraceae, using RNA-Seq. We obtained 41,936-48,845
      unigenes with N50 values of 982-1,185 bp and 61.42-69.48% annotated for the five
      species in Rhizophoraceae. Orthology annotations of Gene Ontology, Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and Clusters of Orthologous Groups revealed
      overall similarities in the transcriptome profiles among the five species,
      whereas enrichment analysis identified remarkable genomic characteristics that
      are conserved across the four mangrove species but differ from their terrestrial
      relative. Based on 1,816 identified orthologs, phylogeny analysis and divergence
      time estimation revealed a single origin for mangrove species in Rhizophoraceae,
      which diverged from the terrestrial lineage ~56.4 million years ago (Mya),
      suggesting that the transgression during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum may
      have been responsible for the entry of the mangrove lineage of Rhizophoraceae
      into intertidal environments. Evidence showed that the ancestor of Rhizophoraceae
      may have experienced a whole genome duplication event ~74.6 Mya, which may have
      increased the adaptability and survival chances of Rhizophoraceae during and
      following the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. The analysis of positive selection
      identified 10 positively selected genes from the ancestor branch of
      Rhizophoraceae mangroves, which were mainly associated with stress response,
      embryo development, and regulation of gene expression. Positive selection of
      these genes may be crucial for increasing the capability of stress tolerance
      (i.e., defense against salt and oxidative stress) and development of adaptive
      traits (i.e., vivipary) of Rhizophoraceae mangroves, and thus plays an important
      role in their adaptation to the stressful intertidal environments.

PMID- 28559912
TI  - Development of SSR Markers Based on Transcriptome Sequencing and Association
      Analysis with Drought Tolerance in Perennial Grass Miscanthus from China.
AB  - Drought has become a critical environmental stress affecting on plant in
      temperate area. As one of the promising bio-energy crops to sustainable biomass
      production, the genus Miscanthus has been widely studied around the world.
      However, the most widely used hybrid cultivar among this genus, Miscanthus *
      giganteus is proved poor drought tolerance compared to some parental species.
      Here we mainly focused on Miscanthus sinensis, which is one of the progenitors of
      M. * giganteus providing a comparable yield and well abiotic stress tolerance in
      some places. The main objectives were to characterize the physiological and
      photosynthetic respond to drought stress and to develop simple sequence repeats
      (SSRs) markers associated with drought tolerance by transcriptome sequencing
      within an originally collection of 44 Miscanthus genotypes from southwest China.
      Significant phenotypic differences were observed among genotypes, and the average
      of leaf relative water content (RWC) were severely affected by drought stress
      decreasing from 88.27 to 43.21%, which could well contribute to separating the
      drought resistant and drought sensitive genotype of Miscanthus. Furthermore, a
      total of 16,566 gene-associated SSRs markers were identified based on Illumina
      RNA sequencing under drought conditions, and 93 of them were randomly selected to
      validate. In total, 70 (75.3%) SSRs were successfully amplified and the generated
      loci from 30 polymorphic SSRs were used to estimate the genetic differentiation
      and population structure. Finally, two optimum subgroups of the population were
      determined by structure analysis and based on association analysis, seven
      significant associations were identified including two markers with leaf RWC and
      five markers with photosynthetic traits. With the rich sequencing resources
      annotation, such associations would serve an efficient tool for Miscanthus
      drought response mechanism study and facilitate genetic improvement of drought
      resistant for this species.

PMID- 28559913
TI  - Facilitation by a Spiny Shrub on a Rhizomatous Clonal Herbaceous in
      Thicketization-Grassland in Northern China: Increased Soil Resources or Shelter
      from Herbivores.
AB  - The formation of fertility islands by shrubs increases soil resources
      heterogeneity in thicketization-grasslands. Clonal plants, especially rhizomatous
      or stoloniferous clonal plants, can form large clonal networks and use
      heterogeneously distributed resources effectively. In addition, shrubs,
      especially spiny shrubs, may also provide herbaceous plants with protection from
      herbivores, acting as 'shelters'. The interaction between pre-dominated clonal
      herbaceous plants and encroaching shrubs remains unclear in thicketization
      grassland under grazing pressure. We hypothesized that clonal herbaceous plants
      can be facilitated by encroached shrubs as a 'shelter from herbivores' and/or as
      an 'increased soil resources' under grazing pressure. To test this hypothesis, a
      total of 60 quadrats were chosen in a thicket-grassland in northern China that
      was previously dominated by Leymus chinensis and was encroached upon by the spiny
      leguminous plant Caragana intermedia. The soil and plant traits beneath and
      outside the shrub canopies were sampled, investigated and contrasted with an
      enclosure. The soil organic matter, soil total nitrogen and soil water content
      were significantly higher in the soil beneath the shrub canopies than in the soil
      outside the canopies. L. chinensis beneath the shrub canopies had significantly
      higher plant height, single shoot biomass, leaf length and width than outside the
      shrub canopies. There were no significantly differences between plant growth in
      enclosure and outside the shrub canopies. These results suggested that under
      grazing pressure in a grassland undergoing thicketization, the growth of the
      rhizomatous clonal herbaceous plant L. chinensis was facilitated by the spiny
      shrub C. intermedia as a 'shelter from herbivores' more than through 'increased
      soil resources'. We propose that future studies should focus on the community-
      and ecosystem-level impacts of plant clonality.

PMID- 28559914
TI  - Changes in Cerebral Oxygenation Associated with Intradialytic Blood Transfusion
      in Patients with Severe Anemia Undergoing Hemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis (HD) patients frequently suffer from severe anemia
      caused by various hemorrhagic disorders in addition to renal anemia.
      Intradialytic blood transfusion is sometimes performed; however, the cerebral
      oxygenation changes associated with this procedure remain unclear. METHODS:
      Sixteen HD patients with severe anemia who required intradialytic blood
      transfusion were included (12 men and 4 women; mean age, 64.8 +/- 9.8 years).
      Cerebral regional oxygen saturation (rSO2) was monitored using near-infrared
      spectroscopy, and cerebral fractional oxygen extraction (FOE) was calculated
      before and after HD. Twenty-five HD patients with well-maintained hemoglobin (Hb)
      levels were included as a control group. RESULTS: Cerebral rSO2 values were
      significantly lower in HD patients with severe anemia than in the control group
      (42.4 +/- 9.9 vs. 52.5 +/- 8.5%, p = 0.001). Following intradialytic blood
      transfusion (385 +/- 140 mL of concentrated red blood cells), Hb levels
      significantly increased (from 7.2 +/- 0.9 to 9.1 +/- 1.1 g/dL, p < 0.001), and
      cerebral rSO2 values significantly improved after HD (from 42.4 +/- 9.9 to 46.3
      +/- 9.0%, p < 0.001). Cerebral FOE values before HD in patients with severe
      anemia were significantly higher than those in the control group (severe anemia,
      0.56 +/- 0.10; controls, 0.45 +/- 0.08; p < 0.001). After HD with intradialytic
      blood transfusion, these values significantly decreased (0.52 +/- 0.09 after HD
      versus 0.56 +/- 0.10 before HD, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: HD patients with severe
      anemia represented cerebral oxygen metabolism deterioration, which could be
      significantly improved by intradialytic blood transfusion.

PMID- 28559915
TI  - Combining Results from Distinct MicroRNA Target Prediction Tools Enhances the
      Performance of Analyses.
AB  - Target prediction is generally the first step toward recognition of bona fide
      microRNA (miRNA)-target interactions in living cells. Several target prediction
      tools are now available, which use distinct criteria and stringency to provide
      the best set of candidate targets for a single miRNA or a subset of miRNAs.
      However, there are many false-negative predictions, and consensus about the
      optimum strategy to select and use the output information provided by the target
      prediction tools is lacking. We compared the performance of four tools cited in
      literature-TargetScan (TS), miRanda-mirSVR (MR), Pita, and RNA22 (R22), and we
      determined the most effective approach for analyzing target prediction data
      (individual, union, or intersection). For this purpose, we calculated the
      sensitivity, specificity, precision, and correlation of these approaches using 10
      miRNAs (miR-1-3p, miR-17-5p, miR-21-5p, miR-24-3p, miR-29a-3p, miR-34a-5p, miR
      124-3p, miR-125b-5p, miR-145-5p, and miR-155-5p) and 1,400 genes (700 validated
      and 700 non-validated) as targets of these miRNAs. The four tools provided a
      subset of high-quality predictions and returned few false-positive predictions;
      however, they could not identify several known true targets. We demonstrate that
      union of TS/MR and TS/MR/R22 enhanced the quality of in silico prediction
      analysis of miRNA targets. We conclude that the union rather than the
      intersection of the aforementioned tools is the best strategy for maximizing
      performance while minimizing the loss of time and resources in subsequent in vivo
      and in vitro experiments for functional validation of miRNA-target interactions.

PMID- 28559917
TI  - Development of the nervous system in Platynereis dumerilii (Nereididae,
      Annelida).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The structure and development of the nervous system in Lophotrochozoa
      has long been recognized as one of the most important subjects for phylogenetic
      and evolutionary discussion. Many recent papers have presented comprehensive data
      on the structure and development of catecholaminergic, serotonergic and
      FMRFamidergic parts of the nervous system. However, relatively few papers contain
      detailed descriptions of the nervous system in Annelida, one of the largest taxa
      of Lophotrochozoa. The polychaete species Platynereis dumerilii has recently
      become one of the  more popular model animals in evolutionary and developmental
      biology. The goal of the present study was to provide a detailed description of
      its neuronal development. The data obtained will contribute to a better
      understanding of the basic features of neuronal development in polychaetes.
      RESULTS: We have studied the development of the nervous system in P. dumerilii
      utilizing histo- and immunochemical labelling of catecholamines, serotonin,
      FMRFamide related peptides, and acetylated tubulin. The first neuron
      differentiates at the posterior extremity of the protrochophore, reacts to the
      antibodies against both serotonin and FMRFamide. Then its fibres run forwards
      along the ventral side. Soon, more neurons appear at the apical extreme, and
      their basal neurites form the basel structure of the developing brain (cerebral
      neuropil and circumesophageal connectives). Initial development of the nervous
      system starts in two rudiments: anterior and posterior. At the nectochaete stage,
      segmental ganglia start to differentiate in the anterior-to-posterior direction,
      and the first structures of the stomatogastric and peripheral nervous system
      appear. All connectives including the unpaired ventral cord develop from
      initially paired nerves. CONCLUSIONS: We present a detailed description of
      Platynereis dumerilii neuronal development based on anti-acetylated tubulin,
      serotonin, and FMRFamide-like immunostaining as well as catecholamine
      histofluorescence. The development of the nervous system starts from peripheral
      pioneer neurons at both the posterior and anterior poles of the larva, and their
      neurites form a scaffold upon which the adult central nervous system develops.
      The anterior-to-posterior mode of the ventral ganglia development challenges the
      primary heteronomy concept. Comparison with the development of Mollusca reveals
      substantial similarities with early neuronal development in larval Solenogastres.

PMID- 28559918
TI  - Geographical and temporal variation in environmental conditions affects nestling
      growth but not immune function in a year-round breeding equatorial lark.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Variation in growth and immune function within and among populations
      is often associated with specific environmental conditions. We compared growth
      and immune function in nestlings of year-round breeding equatorial Red-capped
      Lark Calandrella cinerea from South Kinangop, North Kinangop and Kedong (Kenya),
      three locations that are geographically close but climatically distinct. In
      addition, we studied growth and immune function of lark nestlings as a function
      of year-round variation in breeding intensity and rain within one location. We
      monitored mass, wing, and tarsus at hatching (day 1) and at 4, 7, and 10 days
      post-hatch, and we quantified four indices of immune function (haptoglobin,
      agglutination, lysis and nitric oxide) using blood samples collected on day 10.
      RESULTS: Nestling body mass and size at hatching, which presumably reflect the
      resources that females allocated to their eggs, were lowest in the most arid
      location, Kedong. Contrary to our predictions, nestlings in Kedong grew faster
      than nestlings in the two other cooler and wetter locations of South and North
      Kinangop. During periods of peak reproduction within Kedong, nestlings were
      heavier at hatching, but they did not grow faster over the first 10 days post
      hatch. In contrast, rainfall, which did not relate to timing of breeding, had no
      effect on hatching mass, but more rain did coincide with faster growth post
      hatch. Finally, we found no significant differences in nestling immune function,
      neither among locations nor with the year-round variation within Kedong.
      CONCLUSION: Based on these results, we hypothesize that female body condition
      determines nestling mass and size at hatching, but other independent
      environmental conditions subsequently shape nestling growth. Overall, our results
      suggest that environmental conditions related to food availability for nestlings
      are relatively unimportant to the timing of breeding in equatorial regions, while
      these same conditions do have consequences for nestling size and growth.

PMID- 28559916
TI  - Maternal sensitivity and social support protect against childhood atopic
      dermatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many studies have identified associations between qualities of
      maternal-child relationships and childhood asthma, but few have examined
      associations with childhood atopic dermatitis (AD), a common precursor to asthma.
      Moreover, maternal psychological distress, including prenatal and postnatal
      depression, anxiety and stress, may increase risk, while social support from
      partners may reduce risk for childhood AD. We sought to uncover the association
      between maternal-infant relationship qualities (maternal sensitivity towards
      infant behavioral signals, controlling behavior, and unresponsiveness) and child
      AD after accounting for risk (i.e., prenatal and postnatal maternal depression,
      anxiety and stress) and protective (i.e., social support) factors. METHODS: We
      conducted a secondary analysis of data collected on a subsample of 242 women and
      their infants enrolled during pregnancy in the ongoing Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes
      and Nutrition cohort study. Inclusion criteria required mothers to be >16 years
      of age, English speaking and <22 weeks gestational age at enrollment. Data on
      depression, anxiety and stress in the prenatal and postnatal periods and
      physician diagnosis of childhood AD at 18 months were gathered via maternal
      report. Maternal sensitivity, unresponsiveness and controlling behaviours were
      assessed via videotaped observations using the Child-Adult Relationship
      Experimental (CARE)-Index at 6 months of infant age. RESULTS: Higher maternal
      sensitivity, or the inability of the mother to appropriately understand and
      respond to infant needs based on behavioral signals, predicted reduced odds of AD
      independent of and in combination with low prenatal and postnatal anxiety and
      high paternal support. After adjustment, higher maternal controlling behaviours
      and unresponsiveness also predicted greater odds of AD. CONCLUSIONS: Low maternal
      sensitivity is a risk factor for childhood AD, independently and in combination
      with perinatal anxiety and low social support. Thus, interventions that improve
      maternal-infant relationship quality, especially sensitivity, reduce anxiety and
      improve social support from partners could reduce odds of childhood AD.

PMID- 28559919
TI  - Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among foreign students in Lubeck,
      Germany tested with QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube and QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The tuberculosis (TB) incidence rate in foreign-born individuals has
      been increasing in Germany in recent years. Foreign students may be an important
      source of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in low-incidence countries. In
      Germany, there are no guidelines for LTBI screening of foreign students. The aim
      of the study was to estimate LTBI prevalence and evaluate associated risk factors
      among foreign students in Germany. The second purpose of our study was to compare
      the results of the new generation of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) to those
      of its predecessor QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT). METHODS: This cross
      sectional study was conducted between February 2016 and March 2016. Foreign
      students and young professionals attending the university and higher education
      institutes in Lubeck, Germany were tested with QFT-Plus and QFT-GIT. Participants
      filled out a questionnaire for the purpose of LTBI risk assessment and analysis.
      Variables associated with a positive test result were analyzed using logistic
      regression. RESULTS: One hundred thirty four students participated in the study.
      The overall prevalence as regards positive results from both tests, QFT-Plus and
      QFT-GIT, was 9.7%, and the prevalence of positive QFT-Plus results was 8.2%. The
      main independent variables associated with a positive QFT-Plus result were a)
      being born in a high-incidence country (OR = 6.7, 95% CI: 1.3-34.3) and b)
      previous contact with a person with active TB (OR = 4.5, 95% CI: 1.1-18.3).
      Higher age (OR = 2.8, 95% CI: 0.7-11.3) and male gender (OR = 1.6, 95% CI: 0.4
      6.7) showed a tendency toward positive QFT-Plus results but this was not
      statistically significant. Agreement between QFT-Plus and QFT-GIT results was
      kappa = 0.85, p < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: The LTBI prevalence among foreign students
      was about 10%. We recommend implementing a policy whereby all foreign students
      are screened by means of a questionnaire about LTBI risk factors, so that only
      students with present risk factors are tested for LTBI. The agreement between the
      new QFT-Plus and the QFT-GIT (kappa = 0.85) was good. QFT-Plus might be used in
      the same format as its predecessor.

PMID- 28559920
TI  - Assessment of long-term cultivated human precision-cut lung slices as an ex vivo
      system for evaluation of chronic cytotoxicity and functionality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Investigation of basic chronic inflammatory mechanisms and
      development of new therapeutics targeting the respiratory tract requires
      appropriate testing systems, including those to monitor long- persistence. Human
      precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) have been demonstrated to mimic the human
      respiratory tract and have potential of an alternative, ex-vivo system to replace
      or augment in-vitro testing and animal models. So far, most research on PCLS has
      been conducted for short cultivation periods (<=72 h), while analyses of slowly
      metabolized therapeutics require long-term survival of PCLS in culture. In the
      present study, we evaluated viability, physiology and structural integrity of
      PCLS cultured for up to 15 days. METHODS: PCLS were cultured for 15 days and
      various parameters were assessed at different time points. RESULTS: Structural
      integrity and viability of cultured PCLS remained constant for 15 days. Moreover,
      bronchoconstriction was inducible over the whole period of cultivation, though
      with decreased sensitivity (EC501d = 4 * 10-8 M vs. EC5015d = 4 * 10-6 M) and
      reduced maximum of initial airway area (1d = 0.5% vs. 15d = 18.7%). In contrast,
      even though still clearly inducible compared to medium control, LPS-induced TNF
      alpha secretion decreased significantly from day 1 to day 15 of culture.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall, though long-term cultivation of PCLS need further
      investigation for cytokine secretion, possibly on a cellular level, PCLS are
      feasible for bronchoconstriction studies and toxicity assays.

PMID- 28559921
TI  - The gene family-free median of three.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The gene family-free framework for comparative genomics aims at
      providing methods for gene order analysis that do not require prior gene family
      assignment, but work directly on a sequence similarity graph. We study two
      problems related to the breakpoint median of three genomes, which asks for the
      construction of a fourth genome that minimizes the sum of breakpoint distances to
      the input genomes. METHODS: We present a model for constructing a median of three
      genomes in this family-free setting, based on maximizing an objective function
      that generalizes the classical breakpoint distance by integrating sequence
      similarity in the score of a gene adjacency. We study its computational
      complexity and we describe an integer linear program (ILP) for its exact
      solution. We further discuss a related problem called family-free adjacencies for
      k genomes for the special case of [Formula: see text] and present an ILP for its
      solution. However, for this problem, the computation of exact solutions remains
      intractable for sufficiently large instances. We then proceed to describe a
      heuristic method, FFAdj-AM, which performs well in practice. RESULTS: The
      developed methods compute accurate positional orthologs for genomes comparable in
      size of bacterial genomes on simulated data and genomic data acquired from the
      OMA orthology database. In particular, FFAdj-AM performs equally or better when
      compared to the well-established gene family prediction tool MultiMSOAR.
      CONCLUSIONS: We study the computational complexity of a new family-free model and
      present algorithms for its solution. With FFAdj-AM, we propose an appealing
      alternative to established tools for identifying higher confidence positional
      orthologs.

PMID- 28559922
TI  - Association of hepatitis status with surgical outcomes in patients with dual
      hepatitis B and C related hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The conception that serological hepatitis markers determined surgical
      prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with hepatitis B (HBV) or
      hepatitis C (HCV) has been well defined. However, little is known about the
      relationship between surgical outcomes and serological hepatitis markers in
      patients with dual HBV and HCV related HCC. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of
      the clinical data of 39 HCC patients with HBV-HCV coinfection who underwent
      curative hepatectomy between 2001 and 2011 was performed. HBV DNA quantification,
      expression of HBV antigens, anti-HCV signal-to-cutoff ratio (S/CO) and some
      clinicopathological characteristics were investigated to show the potential
      relationship among them and the surgical prognosis. RESULTS: The Cox proportional
      hazards model identified that HBV DNA quantification of 1,000 IU/mL or higher,
      HBeAg seropositivity, tumor size of greater than 5 cm, multiple tumors, and
      vascular invasion were risk factors for HCC prognosis. Thus, HBV DNA
      quantification, HBsAg level, HBeAg status and HCV-Ab level which may reveal the
      hepatitis status were further analyzed. The overall survival time in the group
      with high (>=1,000 IU/mL) HBV DNA quantification was significantly lower than the
      group with low (<1,000 IU/mL) HBV DNA quantification. Similarly, the high HBsAg
      level (>=1,000 IU/mL) was associated with poor survival compared with the low
      HBsAg level. Moreover, HBeAg seropositivity determined a higher cumulative risk
      for death. However, no significant difference was observed in overall survival
      time between the groups with low (<10.9 S/CO) and high (>=10.9 S/CO) HCV-Ab
      level. Compared to HCV-Ab high-level group, the serological HBsAg level was
      observed significantly higher in HCV-Ab low-level group. Furthermore, the data we
      analyzed showed these 4 serological hepatitis markers were not correlated with
      cumulative recurrence rate. On multivariate analysis, none of serological
      hepatitis markers was an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients with dual
      hepatitis B and C. CONCLUSION: Among HCC patients with HBV-HCV coinfection, those
      who with preoperatively high HBV DNA quantification or HBeAg seropositivity had a
      short survival time and served as poor survival indicators. Serological
      expression of HBV status rather than HCV status might potentially dominate the
      surgical outcomes of the Chinese HCC patients with HBV-HCV coinfection.

PMID- 28559924
TI  - Acceptance and commitment therapy universal prevention program for adolescents: a
      feasibility study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a need to prevent anxiety and depression in young people and
      mindfulness contains important emotion regulation strategies. Acceptance and
      commitment therapy (ACT), a mindfulness-based therapy, has yet to be evaluated as
      a prevention program, but has demonstrated an ability to reduce symptoms of
      anxiety and depression in adult and adolescent populations. This study examines
      the feasibility of using an ACT-based prevention program in a sample of year 10
      (aged 14-16 years) high school students from Sydney, Australia. METHODS:
      Participants were allocated to either their usual classes or to the ACT-based
      intervention. Participants were followed for a period of 5 months post
      intervention and completed the Flourishing Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress
      Scale, and a program evaluation questionnaire. Analyses were completed using
      intention-to-treat mixed models for repeated measures. RESULTS: The results
      indicated that the intervention was acceptable to students and feasible to
      administer in a school setting. There were no statistically significant
      differences between the conditions, likely due to the small sample size (N = 48).
      However, between-group effect sizes demonstrated small to large differences for
      baseline to post-intervention mean scores and medium to large differences for
      baseline to follow-up mean scores, all favouring the ACT-based condition.
      CONCLUSION: The results suggest that an ACT-based school program has potential as
      a universal prevention program and merits further investigation in a larger
      trial. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry. Trial
      ID: ACTRN12616001383459. Registered 06/10/2016. Retrospectively registered.

PMID- 28559923
TI  - Prevalence and risk factors associated with sexually transmitted infections
      (STIs) among women of reproductive age in Swaziland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain an important public
      health problem with approximately half a billion new cases annually among persons
      aged 15-49 years. Epidemiological data on STIs among women of reproductive age in
      Swaziland are limited. The availability of epidemiological data on STIs and
      associated risk factors in this population is essential for the development of
      successful prevention, diagnosis and management strategies in the country. The
      study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with STIs.
      METHODS: A total of 655 women aged 15-49 years were systematically enrolled from
      five health facilities using a cross-sectional study design. Cervical specimen
      were tested using GeneXpert CT/NG Assays for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and
      Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), GeneXpertTV Assay for Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), and
      GeneXpert HPV Assays for hr-HPV. Blood samples were tested using Alere Determine
      HIV-1/2Ag/Ab Combo and Trinity Biotech Uni-Gold Recombigen HIV test for
      confirmation for HIV, and Rapid Plasma Reagin and TPHA test for confirmation for
      Treponema pallidum (syphilis). Genital warts were assessed prior to specimen
      collection. Survey weighted analyses were done to estimate the population burden
      of STIs. RESULTS: The four most common curable STIs: CT, NG, TV, Treponema
      pallidum (syphilis), as well as genital warts were considered in this study. The
      overall weighted prevalence of any of these five STIs was 19.4% (95% CI: 14.9
      24.8), corresponding to 72 990 women with STIs in Swaziland. The estimated
      prevalences were 7.0% (95% CI: 4.1-11.2) for CT, 6.0% (95% CI: 3.8-8.8) for NG,
      8.4% (95% CI: 5.4-12.8) for TV, 1.4% (95% CI: 1.1-10.2) for syphilis and 2.0%
      (95% CI: 1.0-11.4) for genital warts. The overall weighted HIV prevalence was
      42.7% (95%CI: 35.7-46.2). Among hr-HPV positive women, 18.8% (95% CI: 13.1-26.3)
      had one STI, while 6.3% (95% CI: 3.3-11.7) had multiple STIs. Risk factors
      associated with STIs were being employed (OR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.0-4.7), self
      employed (OR = 2.8, 95% CI: 1.5-5.5) and being hr-HPV positive (OR = 2.0, 95% CI:
      1.3-3.1). Age (0.9, 95% CI: 0.8-0.9), being married (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.3-0.7)
      and not using condoms with regular partners (OR = 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3-0.9) were
      inversely associated with STIs. CONCLUSION: STIs are highly prevalent among women
      of reproductive age in Swaziland. Thus, a comprehensive STIs screening,
      surveillance and treatment programme would be justified and could potentially
      lower the burden of STIs in the country.

PMID- 28559926
TI  - Genome-wide characterization of cellulases from the hemi-biotrophic plant
      pathogen, Bipolaris sorokiniana, reveals the presence of a highly stable GH7
      endoglucanase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bipolaris sorokiniana is a filamentous fungus that causes spot blotch
      disease in cereals like wheat and has severe economic consequences. However,
      information on the identities and role of the cell wall-degrading enzymes (CWDE)
      in B. sorokiniana is very limited. Several fungi produce CWDE like glycosyl
      hydrolases (GHs) that help in host cell invasion. To understand the role of these
      CWDE in B. sorokiniana, the first step is to identify and annotate all possible
      genes of the GH families like GH3, GH6, GH7, GH45 and AA9 and then characterize
      them biochemically. RESULTS: We confirmed and annotated the homologs of GH3, GH6,
      GH7, GH45 and AA9 enzymes in the B. sorokiniana genome using the sequence and
      domain features of these families. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses of these
      homologs revealed that the transcripts of the BsGH7-3 (3rd homolog of the GH 7
      family in B. sorokiniana) were most abundant. BsGH7-3, the gene of BsGH7-3, was
      thus cloned into pPICZalphaC Pichia pastoris vector and expressed in X33 P.
      pastoris host to be characterized. BsGH7-3 enzyme showed a temperature optimum of
      60  degrees C and a pHopt of 8.1. BsGH7-3 was identified to be an endoglucanase
      based on its broad substrate specificity and structural comparisons with other
      such endoglucanases. BsGH7-3 has a very long half-life and retains 100% activity
      even in the presence of 4 M NaCl, 4 M KCl and 20% (v/v) ionic liquids. The enzyme
      activity is stimulated up to fivefold in the presence of Mn+2 and Fe+2 without
      any deleterious effects on enzyme thermostability. CONCLUSIONS: Here we
      reanalysed the B. sorokiniana genome and selected one GH7 enzyme for further
      characterization. The present work demonstrates that BsGH7-3 is an endoglucanase
      with a long half-life and no loss in activity in the presence of denaturants like
      salt and ionic liquids, and lays the foundation towards exploring the Bipolaris
      genome for other cell wall-degrading enzymes.

PMID- 28559925
TI  - Integrated analysis of 454 and Illumina transcriptomic sequencing characterizes
      carbon flux and energy source for fatty acid synthesis in developing Lindera
      glauca fruits for woody biodiesel.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lindera glauca fruit with high quality and quantity of oil has
      emerged as a novel potential source of biodiesel in China, but the molecular
      regulatory mechanism of carbon flux and energy source for oil biosynthesis in
      developing fruits is still unknown. To better develop fruit oils of L. glauca as
      woody biodiesel, a combination of two different sequencing platforms (454 and
      Illumina) and qRT-PCR analysis was used to define a minimal reference
      transcriptome of developing L. glauca fruits, and to construct carbon and energy
      metabolic model for regulation of carbon partitioning and energy supply for FA
      biosynthesis and oil accumulation. RESULTS: We first analyzed the dynamic
      patterns of growth tendency, oil content, FA compositions, biodiesel properties,
      and the contents of ATP and pyridine nucleotide of L. glauca fruits from seven
      different developing stages. Comprehensive characterization of transcriptome of
      the developing L. glauca fruit was performed using a combination of two different
      next-generation sequencing platforms, of which three representative fruit samples
      (50, 125, and 150 DAF) and one mixed sample from seven developing stages were
      selected for Illumina and 454 sequencing, respectively. The unigenes separately
      obtained from long and short reads (201, and 259, respectively, in total) were
      reconciled using TGICL software, resulting in a total of 60,031 unigenes (mean
      length = 1061.95 bp) to describe a transcriptome for developing L. glauca fruits.
      Notably, 198 genes were annotated for photosynthesis, sucrose cleavage, carbon
      allocation, metabolite transport, acetyl-CoA formation, oil synthesis, and energy
      metabolism, among which some specific transporters, transcription factors, and
      enzymes were identified to be implicated in carbon partitioning and energy source
      for oil synthesis by an integrated analysis of transcriptomic sequencing and qRT
      PCR. Importantly, the carbon and energy metabolic model was well established for
      oil biosynthesis of developing L. glauca fruits, which could help to reveal the
      molecular regulatory mechanism of the increased oil production in developing
      fruits. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents for the first time the application of an
      integrated two different sequencing analyses (Illumina and 454) and qRT-PCR
      detection to define a minimal reference transcriptome for developing L. glauca
      fruits, and to elucidate the molecular regulatory mechanism of carbon flux
      control and energy provision for oil synthesis. Our results will provide a
      valuable resource for future fundamental and applied research on the woody
      biodiesel plants.

PMID- 28559928
TI  - Novel insight into the relationship between organic substrate composition and
      volatile fatty acids distribution in acidogenic co-fermentation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Co-fermentation is an attractive technology for improving volatile
      fatty acids (VFAs) production by treatment of solid organic wastes. However, it
      remains unclear how the composition of different organic matters in solid waste
      influences the VFAs distribution, microbial community structure, and metabolic
      pathway during acidogenic co-fermentation. In this study, different organic
      wastes were added into waste activated sludge (WAS) as co-fermentation substrates
      to explore the impact of organic matter composition on VFAs pattern and the
      microbiological mechanism . RESULTS: Acetate was the most dominant VFA produced
      in all fermentation groups, making up 41.3-57.6% of the total VFAs produced
      during acidogenic co-fermentation under alkaline condition. With the increased
      addition of potato peel waste, the concentrations of propionate and valerate
      decreased dramatically, while ethanol and butyrate concentrations increased. The
      addition of food waste caused gradual decreases of valerate and propionate, but
      ethanol increased and butyrate was relatively stable. Some inconsistency was
      observed between hydrolysis efficiency and acidification efficiency. Our results
      revealed that starch was mainly responsible for butyrate and ethanol formation,
      while lipids and protein favored the synthesis of valerate and propionate.
      Microbial community analysis by high-throughput sequencing showed that Firmicutes
      had the highest relative abundance at phylum level in all fermentation groups.
      With 75% potato peel waste or 75% food waste addition to WAS, Bacilli (72.2%) and
      Clostridia (56.2%) were the dominant respective classes. In fermentation using
      only potato peel waste, the Bacilli content was 64.1%, while the Clostridia
      content was 53.6% in the food-only waste fermentation. CONCLUSIONS: Acetate was
      always the dominant product in acidogenic co-fermentation, regardless of the
      substrate composition. The addition of carbon-rich substrates significantly
      enhanced butyrate and ethanol accumulation, while protein-rich substrate
      substantially benefited propionate and valerate generation. Potato peel waste
      substantially favored the enrichment of Bacilli, while food waste dramatically
      increased Clostridia content in the sludge.

PMID- 28559927
TI  - Modeling the impact of high temperatures on microalgal viability and
      photosynthetic activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Culture collapse due to high temperatures can significantly impact
      the profitability of outdoor algal cultivation systems. The objective of this
      study was to model for the first time the impact of high temperatures on algal
      activity and viability. RESULTS: Viability measurements on Dunaliella salina
      cultures were based on cytometry with two fluorescent markers (erythrosine and
      fluorescein di-acetate), and photosynthetic activity was measured by Pulse
      Amplitude Modulation (PAM) fluorometry. Kinetic studies revealed that viability
      and activity losses during exposure to high temperatures could be described by a
      Weibull model. Both mortality and activity were shown to be functions of the
      thermal dose received by the algae, defined as the product of duration of
      exposure to high temperatures and an exponential function of temperature.
      Simulations at five climatic locations revealed that culture collapse due to high
      temperatures could impact productivity of D. salina in non-temperature-controlled
      outdoor photobioreactors by 35 and 40% in arid and Mediterranean climates,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The model developed in this study can be used to
      forecast the impact of high temperatures on algal biofuel productivity. When
      coupled with models predicting the temperature of outdoor cultivation systems,
      this model can also be used to select the best combination of location, system
      geometry, and algal species to minimize the risks of culture collapse and
      therefore maximize biofuel productivity.

PMID- 28559929
TI  - Gene Set Enrichment Analyses: lessons learned from the heart failure phenotype.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genetic studies for complex diseases have predominantly discovered
      main effects at individual loci, but have not focused on genomic and
      environmental contexts important for a phenotype. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis
      (GSEA) aims to address this by identifying sets of genes or biological pathways
      contributing to a phenotype, through gene-gene interactions or other mechanisms,
      which are not the focus of conventional association methods. RESULTS: Approaches
      that utilize GSEA can now take input from array chips, either gene-centric or
      genome-wide, but are highly sensitive to study design, SNP selection and pruning
      strategies, SNP-to-gene mapping, and pathway definitions. Here, we present
      lessons learned from our experience with GSEA of heart failure, a particularly
      challenging phenotype due to its underlying heterogeneous etiology. CONCLUSIONS:
      This case study shows that proper data handling is essential to avoid false
      positive results. Well-defined pipelines for quality control are needed to avoid
      reporting spurious results using GSEA.

PMID- 28559931
TI  - Soluble plasma proteins ST2 and CD163 as early biomarkers of nephropathy in
      Swedish patients with diabetes, 15-34 years of age: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate plasma levels of sST2 and
      sCD163 to determine whether they at an early stage could predict development of
      diabetic nephropathy and/or diabetic retinopathy in patients at clinical onset.
      METHODS: Patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus at age 15-34 years between
      1987 and 1988 (n = 220) were included. Data such as BMI, smoking, HbA1c and islet
      cell antibodies were collected at time of diagnosis. Within the 10 year follow-up
      period, 112 patients (51%) developed following diabetes related complications;
      retinopathy (n = 91), nephropathy (n = 12) or both (n = 9). Plasma concentrations
      of sST2 and sCD163 were measured at time of diagnosis and levels compared between
      different complication groups. RESULTS: Plasma levels of sST2 were significantly
      higher in patients who later developed nephropathy (n = 21; 1012 [773-1493]
      pg/ml) compared to those who did not (n = 199; 723 [449-1084] pg/ml; p = 0.006).
      A tendency for higher plasma levels of sCD163 was observed but not statistically
      significant (p = 0.058). CONCLUSIONS: sST2 and sCD163 show promise as potential
      biomarkers for the development of nephropathy already at clinical onset. sST2
      and/or sCD163 could possibly be part of a biomarker panel aimed to find patients
      at high risk of developing nephropathy. Both markers need to be investigated in a
      larger prospective study.

PMID- 28559933
TI  - Nuclear Medicine in the Era of Precision Medicine.

PMID- 28559930
TI  - Comparison of clinical and immunological findings in gnotobiotic piglets infected
      with Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak strain and EHEC O157:H7.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shiga toxin (Stx) producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) (STEC) is the
      most frequent cause of diarrhoea-positive haemolytic uraemic syndrome (D + HUS)
      in humans. In 2011, a huge outbreak with an STEC O104:H4 strain in Germany
      highlighted the limited possibilities for causative treatment of this syndrome.
      The responsible STEC strain was found to combine Stx production with adherence
      mechanisms normally found in enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). Pathotypes of E.
      coli evolve and can exhibit different adhesion mechanisms. It has been shown
      previously that neonatal gnotobiotic piglets are susceptible for infection with
      STEC, such as STEC O157:H7 as well as for EAEC, which are considered to be the
      phylogenetic origin of E. coli O104:H4. This study was designed to characterise
      the host response to infection with the STEC O104:H4 outbreak strain in
      comparison to an STEC O157:H7 isolate by evaluating clinical parameters (scoring)
      and markers of organ dysfunction (biochemistry), as well as immunological (flow
      cytometry, assessment of cytokines/chemokines and acute phase proteins) and
      histological alterations (light- and electron microscopy) in a gnotobiotic piglet
      model of haemolytic uraemic syndrome. RESULTS: We observed severe clinical
      symptoms, such as diarrhoea, dehydration and neurological disorders as well as
      attaching-and-effacing lesions (A/E) in the colon in STEC O157:H7 infected
      piglets. In contrast, STEC O104:H4 challenged animals exhibited only mild
      clinical symptoms including diarrhoea and dehydration and HUS-specific/severe
      histopathological, haematological and biochemical alterations were only
      inconsistently presented by individual piglets. A specific adherence phenotype of
      STEC O104:H4 could not be observed. Flow cytometric analyses of lymphocytes
      derived from infected animals revealed an increase of natural killer cells (NK
      cells) during the course of infection revealing a potential role of this subset
      in the anti-bacterial activity in STEC disease. CONCLUSIONS: Unexpectedly, E.
      coli O104:H4 infection caused only mild symptoms and minor changes in histology
      and blood parameters in piglets. Outcome of the infection trial does not reflect
      E. coli O104:H4 associated human disease as observed during the outbreak in 2011.
      The potential role of cells of the innate immune system for STEC related disease
      pathogenesis should be further elucidated.

PMID- 28559932
TI  - Exploring the heterogeneity of neural social indices for genetically distinct
      etiologies of autism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a genetically and phenotypically
      heterogeneous disorder. Promising initiatives utilizing interdisciplinary
      characterization of ASD suggest phenotypic subtypes related to specific likely
      gene-disrupting mutations (LGDMs). However, the role of functionally associated
      LGDMs in the neural social phenotype is unknown. METHODS: In this study of 26
      children with ASD (n = 13 with an LGDM) and 13 control children, we characterized
      patterns of mu attenuation and habituation as children watched videos containing
      social and nonsocial motions during electroencephalography acquisition. RESULTS:
      Diagnostic comparisons were consistent with prior work suggesting aberrant mu
      attenuation in ASD within the upper mu band (10-12 Hz), but typical patterns
      within the lower mu band (8-10 Hz). Preliminary exploration indicated distinct
      social sensitization patterns (i.e., increasing mu attenuation for social motion)
      for children with an LGDM that is primarily expressed during embryonic
      development. In contrast, children with an LGDM primarily expressed post
      embryonic development exhibited stable typical patterns of lower mu attenuation.
      Neural social indices were associated with social responsiveness, but not
      cognition. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest unique neurophysiological profiles
      for certain genetic etiologies of ASD, further clarifying possible genetic
      functional subtypes of ASD and providing insight into mechanisms for targeted
      treatment approaches.

PMID- 28559934
TI  - The Current Status of SPECT or SPECT/CT in South Korea.
AB  - The first step to nuclear medicine in Korea started with introduction of the
      gamma camera in 1969. Although planar images with the gamma camera give important
      functional information, they have the limitations that result from 2-dimensional
      images. Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) due to its 3
      dimensional image acquisition is superior to earlier planar gamma imaging in
      image resolution and diagnostic accuracy. As demand for a hybrid functional and
      anatomical imaging device has increased, integrated SPECT/CT systems have been
      used. In Korea, SPECT/CT was for the first time installed in 2003. SPECT/CT can
      eliminate many possible pitfalls on SPECT-alone images, making better attenuation
      correction and thereby improving image quality. Therefore, SPECT/CT is clinically
      preferred in many hospitals in various aspects. More recently, additional
      SPECT/CT images taken from the region with equivocal uptake on planar images have
      been helpful in making precise interpretation as part of their clinical workup in
      postoperative thyroid cancer patients. SPECT and SPECT/CT have various
      advantages, but its clinical application has gradually decreased in recent few
      years. While some researchers investigated the myocardial blood flow with cardiac
      PET using F-18 FDG or N-13 ammonia, myocardial perfusion SPECT is, at present,
      the radionuclide imaging study of choice for the risk stratification and guiding
      therapy in the coronary artery disease patients in Korea. New diagnostic
      radiopharmaceuticals for AD have received increasing attention; nevertheless,
      brain SPECT will remain the most reliable modality evaluating cerebral perfusion.

PMID- 28559935
TI  - Current Status and Future Direction of Nanomedicine: Focus on Advanced Biological
      and Medical Applications.
AB  - Nanotechnology is the engineering and manipulation of materials and devices with
      sizes in the nanometer range. Colloidal gold, iron oxide nanoparticles and
      quantum dot semiconductor nanocrystals are examples of nanoparticles, with sizes
      generally ranging from 1 to 20 nm. These nanotechnologies have been researched
      tremendously in the last decade and this has led to a new area of "nanomedicine"
      which is the application of nanotechnology to human health-care for diagnosis,
      monitoring, treatment, prediction and prevention of diseases. Recently progress
      has been made in overcoming some of the difficulties in the human use of
      nanomedicines. In the mid-1990s, Doxil was approved by the FDA, and now various
      nanoconstructs are on the market and in clinical trials. However, there are many
      obstacles in the human application of nanomaterials. For translation to clinical
      use, a detailed understanding is needed of the chemical and physical properties
      of particles and their pharmacokinetic behavior in the body, including their
      biodistribution, toxicity, and biocompatibility. In this review, we provide a
      broad introduction to nanomedicines and discuss the preclinical and clinical
      trials in which they have been evaluated.

PMID- 28559936
TI  - Salmonella-Mediated Cancer Therapy: Roles and Potential.
AB  - The use of bacteria for cancer therapy, which was proposed many years ago, was
      not recognized as a potential therapeutic strategy until recently. Technological
      advances and updated knowledge have enabled the genetic engineering of bacteria
      for their safe and effective application in the treatment of cancer. The efficacy
      of radiotherapy depends mainly on tissue oxygen levels, and low oxygen
      concentrations in necrotic and hypoxic regions are a common cause of treatment
      failure. In addition, the distribution of a drug is important for the therapeutic
      effect of chemotherapy, and the poor vasculature in tumors impairs drug delivery,
      limiting the efficacy of a drug, especially in necrotic and hypoxic regions.
      Bacteria-mediated cancer therapy (BMCT) relies on facultative anaerobes that can
      survive in well or poorly oxygenated regions, and it therefore improves the
      therapeutic efficacy drug distribution throughout the tumor mass. Since the mid
      1990s, the number of published bacterial therapy papers has increased rapidly,
      with a doubling time of 2.5 years in which the use of Salmonella increased
      significantly. BMCT is being reevaluated to overcome some of the drawbacks of
      conventional therapies. This review focuses on Salmonella-mediated cancer therapy
      as the most widely used type of BMCT.2.

PMID- 28559938
TI  - Ratio of Mediastinal Lymph Node SUV to Primary Tumor SUV in 18F-FDG PET/CT for
      Nodal Staging in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Following determination of the maximum standardized uptake values
      (SUVmax) of the mediastinal lymph nodes (SUV-LN) and of the primary tumor (SUV-T)
      on 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the aim of
      the study was to determine the value of the SUV-LN/SUV-T ratio in lymph node
      staging in comparison with that of SUV-LN. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed a
      total of 289 mediastinal lymph node stations from 98 patients with NSCLC who were
      examined preoperatively for staging and subsequently underwent pathologic studies
      of the mediastinal lymph nodes. We determined SUV-LN and SUV-R for each lymph
      node station on 18F-FDG PET/CT and then classified each station into one of three
      groups based on SUV-T (low, medium and high SUV-T groups). Diagnostic performance
      was assessed based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and
      the optimal cut-off values that would best discriminate metastatic from benign
      lymph nodes were determined for each method. RESULTS: The average of SUV-R of
      malignant lymph nodes was significantly higher than that of benign lymph nodes
      (0.79 +/- 0.45 vs. 0.36 +/- 0.23, P < 0.0001). In the ROC curve analysis, the
      area under the curve (AUC) of SUV-R was significantly higher than that of SUV-LN
      in the low SUV-T group (0.885 vs. 0.810, P = 0.019). There were no significant
      differences between the AUCs of SUV-LN and of SUV-R in the medium and high SUV-T
      groups. The optimal cut-off value for SUV-R in the low SUV-T group was 0.71
      (sensitivity 87.5 %, specificity 85.9 %). CONCLUSIONS: The SUV-R performed well
      in distinguishing between metastatic and benign lymph nodes. In particular, SUV-R
      was found to have a better diagnostic performance than SUV-LN in the low SUV-T
      group.

PMID- 28559937
TI  - The Role of Nuclear Medicine in the Staging and Management of Human Immune
      Deficiency Virus Infection and Associated Diseases.
AB  - Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) is a leading cause of death. It attacks the
      immune system, thereby rendering the infected host susceptible to many HIV
      associated infections, malignancies and neurocognitive disorders. The altered
      immune system affects the way the human host responds to disease, resulting in
      atypical presentation of these disorders. This presents a diagnostic challenge
      and the clinician must use all diagnostic avenues available to diagnose and
      manage these conditions. The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy
      (HAART) has markedly reduced the mortality associated with HIV infection but has
      also brought in its wake problems associated with adverse effects or drug
      interaction and may even modulate some of the HIV-associated disorders to the
      detriment of the infected human host. Nuclear medicine techniques allow non
      invasive visualisation of tissues in the body. By using this principle,
      pathophysiology in the body can be targeted and the treatment of diseases can be
      monitored. Being a functional imaging modality, it is able to detect diseases at
      the molecular level, and thus it has increased our understanding of the
      immunological changes in the infected host at different stages of the HIV
      infection. It also detects pathological changes much earlier than conventional
      imaging based on anatomical changes. This is important in the immunocompromised
      host as in some of the associated disorders a delay in diagnosis may have dire
      consequences. Nuclear medicine has played a huge role in the management of many
      HIV-associated disorders in the past and continues to help in the diagnosis,
      prognosis, staging, monitoring and assessing the response to treatment of many
      HIV-associated disorders. As our understanding of the molecular basis of disease
      increases nuclear medicine is poised to play an even greater role. In this review
      we highlight the functional basis of the clinicopathological correlation of HIV
      from a metabolic view and discuss how the use of nuclear medicine techniques,
      with particular emphasis of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose, may have impact in the
      setting of HIV. We also provide an overview of the role of nuclear medicine
      techniques in the management of HIV-associated disorders.

PMID- 28559939
TI  - Comparison of Quantitative Methods on FDG PET/CT for Treatment Response
      Evaluation of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: FDG PET is effective in treatment response evaluation of cancer.
      However, there is no standard method for quantitative evaluation of FDG PET,
      particularly regarding cytostatic drugs. We compared various FDG PET quantitative
      methods in terms of response determination. METHODS: A total of 39 refractory
      metastatic colorectal cancer patients who received a multikinase inhibitor
      treatment were included. Baseline and posttreatment FDG PET/CT scans were
      performed before and two cycles after treatment. Standardized uptake value (SUV)
      and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) values using various margin thresholds (30-70 %
      of maximum SUV with increment 10 %, twice mean SUV of blood pool, SUV 3.0, and
      SUV 4.0) were measured, with measurement target of the hottest lesion or a
      maximum of five hottest lesions. Treatment response by the PERCIST criteria was
      also determined. Predictive values of the PET indexes were evaluated in terms of
      the treatment response determined by the RECIST 1.1 criteria. RESULTS: The
      agreement rate was 38 % between response determined by the PERCIST and the RECIST
      criteria (kappa = 0.381). When patients were classified into disease control
      group (PR, SD) and non-control group (PD) by the RECIST criteria, percent changes
      of TLG with various margin thresholds (particularly, 30-50 % of maximum SUV)
      exhibited significant differences between the two groups, and high diagnostic
      power for the response by the RECIST criteria. TLG-based criteria, which used a
      margin threshold of 50 % of maximum SUV, exhibited a high agreement with the
      RECIST criteria compared with the PERCIST criteria (kappa = 0.606). CONCLUSION:
      In metastatic colorectal cancer, FDG PET/CT could be effective for treatment
      response evaluation by using TLG measured by margin thresholds of 30-50 % of
      maximum SUV. Further studies are warranted regarding the optimal cutoff values
      for this method.

PMID- 28559940
TI  - Clinical Significance of Pretreatment FDG PET/CT in MIBG-Avid Pediatric
      Neuroblastoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging is
      well known to have clinical significance in the initial staging and response
      evaluation of the many kinds of neoplasms. However, its role in the pediatric
      neuroblastoma is not clearly defined. In the present study, the clinical
      significance of FDG-PET/computed tomography (CT) in 123I- or 131I
      metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG)-avid pediatric neuroblastoma was investigated.
      METHODS: Twenty patients with neuroblastoma who undertook pretreatment FDG PET/CT
      at our institute between 2008 and 2015 and showed MIBG avidity were
      retrospectively enrolled in the present study. Clinical information-including
      histopathology, and serum markers-and several PET parameters-including SUVmax of
      the primary lesion (Psuv), target-to-background ratio (TBR), metabolic tumor
      volume (MTV), and coefficient of variation (CV)-were analyzed. The prognostic
      effect of PET parameters was evaluated in terms of progression-free survival
      (PFS). RESULTS: Total 20 patients (4.5 +/- 3.5 years) were divided as two groups
      by disease progression. Six patients (30.0 %) experienced disease progression and
      one patient (5.0 %) died during follow-up period. There were not statistically
      significant in age, stage, MYCN status, primary tumor size, serum lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and ferritin level between
      two groups with progression or no progression. However, Psuv (p = 0.017), TBR (p
      = 0.09), MTV (p = 0.02), and CV (p = 0.036) showed significant differences
      between two groups. In univariate analysis, PFS was significantly associated with
      Psuv (p = 0.021) and TBR (p = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: FDG-PET parameters were
      significantly related with progression of neuroblastoma. FDG-PET/CT may have the
      potential as a valuable modality for evaluating prognosis in the patients with
      MIBG-avid pediatric neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28559942
TI  - High Prevalence of Thyroid Disease and Role of Salivary Gland Scintigraphy in
      Patients with Xerostomia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Although Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is the most common disease causing
      xerostomia, autoimmune thyroid diseases can also affect the salivary glands. The
      aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of thyroid diseases (TD) in
      subjects with symptoms of xerostomia and evaluate the efficacy of salivary gland
      scintigraphy (SGS) in the detection of TD in patients with SS and without SS.
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the SGS findings of 173 subjects (men:women,
      29:144) with symptoms of xerostomia. Ejection fractions (EF) in the parotid and
      submandibular glands were calculated. Thyroid disease was diagnosed on the basis
      of the results of the visual assessment of tracer uptake in the thyroid gland on
      SGS images as well as serological thyroid function tests. RESULTS: Based on the
      American-European Criteria, 94 patients were diagnosed with SS. Hashimoto's
      thyroiditis was diagnosed in 63 patients, subacute thyroiditis in 23, subclinical
      hypothyroidism in five, and Graves' disease in one. There were significant
      differences in the EF values of the parotid and submandibular glands between
      patients with TD and those with undetermined diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: More than
      half of patients with xerostomia exhibited TD. Thyroid assessment by SGS is
      feasible, and SGS appears to be useful for the patients with xerostomia caused by
      TD. SGS may be the first imaging modality capable of evaluating both salivary
      gland function and thyroid gland status in patients with xerostomia. This
      strategy would make the requirement for additional workup for thyroid disease.

PMID- 28559943
TI  - Unusual Contiguous Soft Tissue Spread of Advanced Malignant Mesothelioma Detected
      by FDG PET/CT.
AB  - Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a tumor of mesodermal origin that arises
      from the serosa of the pleura, peritoneum, pericardium or tunica vaginalis. MPM
      is well known to have a poor prognosis with a median survival time of 12 months.
      Accurate diagnosis, staging and restaging of MPM are crucial with [18F]
      flurodeoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET/CT) playing an
      increasingly important role. Here we report a case of MPM with unusual contiguous
      soft tissue spread of the tumor along the dermal and fascial planes characterized
      by PET/CT. Given that the loco-regional tumor in the thorax was under control on
      PET/CT, the death of the patient was most likely associated with physiologic or
      metabolic causes associated with an extra-thoracic tumor.

PMID- 28559941
TI  - Comparison of Two Different Segmentation Methods on Planar Lung Perfusion Scan
      with Reference to Quantitative Value on SPECT/CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: Until now, there was no single standardized regional segmentation method
      of planar lung perfusion scan. We compared planar scan based two segmentation
      methods, which are frequently used in the Society of Nuclear Medicine, with
      reference to the lung perfusion single photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) derived values in lung cancer patients. METHODS:
      Fifty-five lung cancer patients (male:female, 37:18; age, 67.8 +/- 10.7 years)
      were evaluated. The patients underwent planar scan and SPECT/CT after injection
      of technetium-99 m macroaggregated albumin (Tc-99 m-MAA). The % uptake and
      predicted postoperative percentage forced expiratory volume in 1 s (ppoFEV1%)
      derived from both posterior oblique (PO) and anterior posterior (AP) methods were
      compared with SPECT/CT derived parameters. Concordance analysis, paired
      comparison, reproducibility analysis and spearman correlation analysis were
      conducted. RESULTS: The % uptake derived from PO method showed higher concordance
      with SPECT/CT derived % uptake in every lobe compared to AP method. Both methods
      showed significantly different lobar distribution of % uptake compared to
      SPECT/CT. For the target region, ppoFEV1% measured from PO method showed higher
      concordance with SPECT/CT, but lower reproducibility compared to AP method.
      Preliminary data revealed that every method significantly correlated with actual
      postoperative FEV1%, with SPECT/CT showing the best correlation. CONCLUSION: The
      PO method derived values showed better concordance with SPECT/CT compared to the
      AP method. Both PO and AP methods showed significantly different lobar
      distribution compared to SPECT/CT. In clinical practice such difference according
      to different methods and lobes should be considered for more accurate
      postoperative lung function prediction.

PMID- 28559944
TI  - Giant Cell Tumor of the Rib: Two Cases of F-18 FDG PET/CT Findings.
AB  - We report two cases of giant cell tumor arising from the rib and their F-18 FDG
      PET/CT findings. The two patients complained of chest wall pain, and large
      lobulated soft tissue masses with intense FDG uptake were seen on F-18 FDG
      PET/CT. A malignant tumor such as osteosarcoma or chondrosarcoma was suspected
      due to the large size of the mass, bony destruction, and intense FDG uptake. En
      bloc resection was performed and final pathologic results revealed giant cell
      tumor of the rib. Giant cell tumor of the rib is very rare, and larger lesions
      with high FDG uptake can be misdiagnosed as an intrathoracic malignancy arising
      from the rib, pleura, or chest wall.

PMID- 28559945
TI  - Sensitive Detection of a Small Parathyroid Adenoma Using Fluorocholine PET/CT: A
      Case Report.
AB  - Primary hyperparathyroidism is caused by parathyroid adenoma in the majority of
      cases and diagnosis is usually made biochemically. Pre-surgical localization of
      parathyroid adenoma is essential to limit the extent of surgery and avoid missing
      them at ectopic sites. Anatomical and functional imaging are used for the
      localization, but may fail to identify the small and ectopic parathyroid adenoma.
      We present a case of small sized ectopic parathyroid adenoma at unusual location
      detected by F-18 fluorocholine (FCH) PET/CT, where other imaging modalities
      failed. The post-operative histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of ectopic
      parathyroid adenoma.

PMID- 28559946
TI  - F-18 FDG PET Findings for Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.
AB  - Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease is a rare multisystemic granulomatous autoimmune
      disorder affecting pigmented tissues such as the choroid, meninges, inner ear,
      and the skin. Neurologic symptoms are usually mild. Clinical manifestations
      include generalized muscle weakness, headache, meningismus, vertigo, decreased
      visual acuity, hearing loss and mental changes ranging from mild confusion to
      psychosis, hemiparesis, dysarthria, and aphasia. Seizures are very rare. We
      describe a case of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomography
      (PET) and software-fused PET-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in Vogt-Koyanagi
      Harada disease with seizure.

PMID- 28559947
TI  - Visual and Quantitative Analysis of Cisternography for the Detection of
      Cerebrospinal Fluid Leakage.
AB  - We herein present a case of a 29-year-old man with clear rhinorrhea, which
      persisted for 8 years following a myringotomy. After cotton pledgets were placed
      in several different regions of the nasal cavity, cisternography using Tc-99m
      DTPA was performed to measure the radioactivity of each pledget. Cisternography
      showed subtle uptake in the nasal cavity. However, intense uptake was detected in
      the pledget placed in the right eustachian tube orifice, where the pledget:serum
      count ratio was 10.3:1. The patient underwent duroplasty and cranioplasty, and
      the rhinorrhea resolved.

PMID- 28559948
TI  - Bone Scintigraphy and Tenofovir-Induced Osteomalacia in Chronic Hepatitis B.
AB  - Tenofovir, used in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and HIV, is known for its
      side effects on the kidneys and bones. We share interesting images of a patient
      with tenofovir-induced osteomalacia on Technetium-99 m hydroxymethyelene (Tc-99 m
      HDP) bone scintigraphy. Pattern recognition of this bone scintigraphy and
      correlation with the clinical history is essential to avoid misdiagnosis.

PMID- 28559949
TI  - Biopsy from Recurrent Lesion May Change Further Treatment Plan in Metastatic
      Breast Cancer.

PMID- 28559950
TI  - Erratum to: Incidental Findings of Intense Radioiodine Uptake in Struma Ovarii
      and Bilateral Non-Lactating Breast Simultaneously on Post-Ablation SPECT/CT for
      Papillary Thyroid Cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s13139-016-0459-0.].

PMID- 28559951
TI  - Neurodynamic evaluation of hearing aid features using EEG correlates of listening
      effort.
AB  - In this study, we propose a novel estimate of listening effort using
      electroencephalographic data. This method is a translation of our past findings,
      gained from the evoked electroencephalographic activity, to the oscillatory EEG
      activity. To test this technique, electroencephalographic data from experienced
      hearing aid users with moderate hearing loss were recorded, wearing hearing aids.
      The investigated hearing aid settings were: a directional microphone combined
      with a noise reduction algorithm in a medium and a strong setting, the noise
      reduction setting turned off, and a setting using omnidirectional microphones
      without any noise reduction. The results suggest that the electroencephalographic
      estimate of listening effort seems to be a useful tool to map the exerted effort
      of the participants. In addition, the results indicate that a directional
      processing mode can reduce the listening effort in multitalker listening
      situations.

PMID- 28559953
TI  - Quantitative EEG evaluation for performance level analysis of professional female
      soccer players.
AB  - Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) was used to investigate the brain
      activity of Thai professional female soccer team players who exhibit high
      performance. The QEEGs of 29 players were recorded three times: twice before a
      competition (once a week) and a week after a competition. The results of the
      brain topographic map (absolute power) in the alpha frequency band and the brain
      connectivity (coherence) in the delta frequency bands represented their anxiety
      and decision-making levels, respectively. These phenomena occurred in the brain
      activities of the athletes, which could be used to predict their performances
      during the competition. Moreover, the value of the correlation coefficient
      between the brain activity ranking and average performance score revealed a
      moderate to good relationship (rs = .586, p = .001). These results support the
      association between brain activity and performance level during competition.

PMID- 28559952
TI  - Multivariate multi-scale weighted permutation entropy analysis of EEG complexity
      for Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The complexity change of brain activity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an
      interesting topic for clinical purpose. To investigate the dynamical complexity
      of brain activity in AD, a multivariate multi-scale weighted permutation entropy
      (MMSWPE) method is proposed to measure the complexity of electroencephalograph
      (EEG) obtained in AD patients. MMSWPE combines the weighted permutation entropy
      and the multivariate multi-scale method. It is able to quantify not only the
      characteristics of different brain regions and multiple time scales but also the
      amplitude information contained in the multichannel EEG signals simultaneously.
      The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by both the simulated
      chaotic signals and EEG recordings of AD patients. The simulation results from
      the Lorenz system indicate that MMSWPE has the ability to distinguish the
      multivariate signals with different complexity. In addition, the EEG analysis
      results show that in contrast with the normal group, the significantly decreased
      complexity of AD patients is distributed in the temporal and occipitoparietal
      regions for the theta and the alpha bands, and also distributed from the right
      frontal to the left occipitoparietal region for the theta, the alpha and the beta
      bands at each time scale, which may be attributed to the brain dysfunction.
      Therefore, it suggests that the MMSWPE method may be a promising method to reveal
      dynamic changes in AD.

PMID- 28559954
TI  - Route searching based on neural networks and heuristic reinforcement learning.
AB  - In this paper, an improved and much stronger RNH-QL method based on RBF network
      and heuristic Q-learning was put forward for route searching in a larger state
      space. Firstly, it solves the problem of inefficiency of reinforcement learning
      if a given problem's state space is increased and there is a lack of prior
      information on the environment. Secondly, RBF network as weight updating rule,
      reward shaping can give an additional feedback to the agent in some intermediate
      states, which will help to guide the agent towards the goal state in a more
      controlled fashion. Meanwhile, with the process of Q-learning, it is accessible
      to the underlying dynamic knowledge, instead of the need of background knowledge
      of an upper level RBF network. Thirdly, it improves the learning efficiency by
      incorporating the greedy exploitation strategy to train the neural network, which
      has been testified by the experimental results.

PMID- 28559955
TI  - A plausible neural circuit for decision making and its formation based on
      reinforcement learning.
AB  - A human's, or lower insects', behavior is dominated by its nervous system. Each
      stable behavior has its own inner steps and control rules, and is regulated by a
      neural circuit. Understanding how the brain influences perception, thought, and
      behavior is a central mandate of neuroscience. The phototactic flight of insects
      is a widely observed deterministic behavior. Since its movement is not
      stochastic, the behavior should be dominated by a neural circuit. Based on the
      basic firing characteristics of biological neurons and the neural circuit's
      constitution, we designed a plausible neural circuit for this phototactic
      behavior from logic perspective. The circuit's output layer, which generates a
      stable spike firing rate to encode flight commands, controls the insect's angular
      velocity when flying. The firing pattern and connection type of excitatory and
      inhibitory neurons are considered in this computational model. We simulated the
      circuit's information processing using a distributed PC array, and used the real
      time average firing rate of output neuron clusters to drive a flying behavior
      simulation. In this paper, we also explored how a correct neural decision circuit
      is generated from network flow view through a bee's behavior experiment based on
      the reward and punishment feedback mechanism. The significance of this study:
      firstly, we designed a neural circuit to achieve the behavioral logic rules by
      strictly following the electrophysiological characteristics of biological neurons
      and anatomical facts. Secondly, our circuit's generality permits the design and
      implementation of behavioral logic rules based on the most general information
      processing and activity mode of biological neurons. Thirdly, through computer
      simulation, we achieved new understanding about the cooperative condition upon
      which multi-neurons achieve some behavioral control. Fourthly, this study aims in
      understanding the information encoding mechanism and how neural circuits achieve
      behavior control. Finally, this study also helps establish a transitional bridge
      between the microscopic activity of the nervous system and macroscopic animal
      behavior.

PMID- 28559956
TI  - From abstract topology to real thermodynamic brain activity.
AB  - Recent approaches to brain phase spaces reinforce the foremost role of symmetries
      and energy requirements in the assessment of nervous activity. Changes in
      thermodynamic parameters and dimensions occur in the brain during symmetry
      breakings and transitions from one functional state to another. Based on
      topological results and string-like trajectories into nervous energy landscapes,
      we provide a novel method for the evaluation of energetic features and
      constraints in different brain functional activities. We show how abstract
      approaches, namely the Borsuk-Ulam theorem and its variants, may display real,
      energetic physical counterparts. When topology meets the physics of the brain, we
      arrive at a general model of neuronal activity, in terms of multidimensional
      manifolds and computational geometry, that has the potential to be
      operationalized.

PMID- 28559957
TI  - Global asymptotic stability of complex-valued neural networks with additive time
      varying delays.
AB  - In this paper, we extensively study the global asymptotic stability problem of
      complex-valued neural networks with leakage delay and additive time-varying
      delays. By constructing a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and applying
      newly developed complex valued integral inequalities, sufficient conditions for
      the global asymptotic stability of proposed neural networks are established in
      the form of complex-valued linear matrix inequalities. This linear matrix
      inequalities are efficiently solved by using standard available numerical
      packages. Finally, three numerical examples are given to demonstrate the
      effectiveness of the theoretical results.

PMID- 28559958
TI  - Hereditary and non-hereditary branches of family eligible for BRCA test: cancers
      in other sites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The analysis of relationships of BRCA alterations with cancer at
      sites other than breast/ovary may provide innovative information concerning BRCA
      pathogenic role and support additional clinical decisions. Aim of this study is
      to compare presence of cancers in other sites in members of hereditary (H) and
      not-hereditary (nH) branches of families of patients eligible to BRCA test.
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the incidence of cancer in other sites in
      members of 136 families eligible for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer genetic
      counseling at Centro Studi Tumori Eredo-familiari of our Institute; we compared
      the frequency of other cancer types in 1156 members of the H-branch with respect
      to 1062 members of nH-Branch. The families belonging to a proband case and with
      informative members in at least three generation entered the present study.
      RESULTS: The frequency of other Cancers in members of H-branch was significantly
      higher than that in members of nH-branch (161 vs 75 cancers; p < 0.0001). In
      specific, members of H-branch had a significantly higher probability to have more
      lung cancer (38 vs 9;p < 0.0006), kidney cancer (23 vs 5;p < 0.0005), liver
      cancer (13 vs 3;p < 0.02) and larynx cancer (14 vs 4;p < 0.03). Interestingly, to
      belong to H-branch resulted significantly associated with a higher probability of
      lung cancer (OR 4.5; 2.15-9.38 95%C.I.), liver cancer (OR: 4.02; 1.14-14.15 95%
      C.I.) and larynx cancer (OR:3.4; 1.12-10.39 95%C.I.) independently from Gender
      and Age. CONCLUSIONS: Members belonging to the H-branch of families of patients
      eligible to BRCA test have a higher risk of tumors in lung, larynx and liver.
      Clinicians should consider the increased risk for these cancers to activate
      prevention/early diagnosis practices in members of families with breast/ovarian
      familial cancer syndrome.

PMID- 28559959
TI  - Traditional Chinese medicine for lipid metabolism disorders.
AB  - Dyslipidemia significantly contributes to the development of cardiovascular
      disease (CVD), which is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in
      China. Statins are the first-line therapy for reducing LDL-C serum levels.
      However, they have adverse effects, which restrict their clinical application.
      Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparations have been increasingly described
      for their beneficial effects in hyperlipidemic patients. Existing data show that
      the lipid-regulating effects of TCM may be related to: (1) inhibiting intestinal
      absorption of lipids; (2) reducing endogenous cholesterol synthesis; (3)
      regulating cholesterol transport; (4) promoting the excretion of cholesterol in
      the liver; (5) regulating transcription factors related to lipid metabolism. This
      study provides an overview of recent studies and elaborates the underlying
      mechanisms of lipid-regulation by TCM.

PMID- 28559960
TI  - Medicinal plants for the treatment of obesity: ethnopharmacological approach and
      chemical and biological studies.
AB  - Obesity is a global epidemic that has shown a steady increase in morbimortality
      indicators; it is considered a social problem and entails serious health risks.
      One of the alternatives in the treatment of obesity is the traditional use of
      medicinal plants, which supports the research and development of obesity
      phytotherapy. In this article, we provide information about ethnopharmacological
      species used to treat obesity, through an electronic search of the periodical
      databases Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and Scielo, considering the period 1996
      2015 and using the descriptors "plants for obesity", "ethnopharmacology for
      obesity" and "anti-obesity plants" in both Portuguese and English. We analyzed
      and organized data on 76 plant species, cataloged per the taxonomy, geographic
      distribution, botanical aspects, popular use, and chemical and biological studies
      of the listed plants. The anti-obesity effect of the cataloged species was
      reported, describing actions on the delay of fat absorption, suppression of
      enzymatic activities, mediation of lipid levels and increase of lipolytic
      effects, attributed mainly to phenolic compounds. Given these findings,
      ethnopharmacological approaches are relevant scientific tools in the selection of
      plant species for studies that demonstrate anti-obesity action. Deeper botanical,
      chemical, pre-clinical and clinical studies are particularly necessary for
      species that present phenolic compounds in their chemical structure.

PMID- 28559961
TI  - Autophagy inhibitor regulates apoptosis and proliferation of synovial fibroblasts
      through the inhibition of PI3K/AKT pathway in collagen-induced arthritis rat
      model.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Mounting studies have illustrated an important role of
      autophagy in various diseases, but few studies have reported its contribution to
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the underlying mechanism was largely unknown. This
      study aimed to investigate whether autophagy inhibitors could regulate apoptosis
      and proliferation through PI3K/AKT pathway in RA. METHODS: RA animal model was
      established by collagen induction. General observations and degree of joint
      swelling were observed. Inflammatory response, cell survival related factors and
      apoptosis were also detected in synovial fibroblasts. In addition, cultured
      rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLS) were subjected to TNF
      alpha treatment in vitro, and TNF-alpha induced cell autophagy, synovial cell
      proliferation and apoptosis were detected. Moreover, cell cycle and cytokine
      secretion protein, along with the above parameters, were analyzed. RESULTS:
      Results from the animal model showed that autophagy inhibitors attenuated
      inflammatory reaction and synovial hyperplasia, while promoted synovial
      fibroblasts apoptosis. Meanwhile, inhibition of autophagy promoted cell apoptosis
      and reversed cell proliferation in vitro, also blocked cell in the G2/M arrest
      and reduced the S phase cells. Furthermore, we observed that inhibition of
      PI3K/AKT pathway reversed TNF-alpha mediated autophagy and cytokine secretion.
      CONCLUSION: autophagy inhibitors could mitigate inflammation response, inhibiting
      RA-FLS cell proliferation while promoting cell apoptosis by the PI3K/AKT pathway.

PMID- 28559962
TI  - Icariside II promotes the osteogenic differentiation of canine bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/S6K1 signaling pathways.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the osteogenic effects of
      icariside II (ICSII) on canine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and the
      pathways by which these effects were induced. BMSCs were cultured and expanded to
      the fourth passage. The proliferative effects of ICSII were assessed using the
      cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The osteogenic response to ICSII in BMSCs in
      vitro was examined by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assays and Alizarin red
      staining. Using Western blot assays and real-time PCR (RT-PCR), we examined the
      expression of osteogenetic proteins/genes. We also evaluated changes in Akt and
      S6K1 phosphorylation levels, along with changes in the expression of osteogenesis
      proteins/genes after pretreatment with wortmannin (an inhibitor of
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; PI3K) or rapamycin [a specific inhibitor of
      mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)] in the presence or absence of ICSII. Our
      results show that ICSII promotes the proliferation of BMSCs, while inhibiting ALP
      activity. We also found that calcium nodules form after BMSCs are treated with
      ICSII and osteogenetic medium for 21 days. ICSII significantly increased the
      expression of osteogenesis proteins/genes and elevated the phosphorylation levels
      of Akt and S6K1. Treatment with wortmannin or rapamycin attenuated the expression
      of p-Akt, p-S6K1, and osteogenesis proteins/genes. These results suggest that
      ICSII promotes the osteogenic differentiation of canine BMSCs via the
      PI3K/AKT/mTOR/S6K1 signaling pathways.

PMID- 28559963
TI  - Identification of miR-101-3p targets and functional features based on
      bioinformatics, meta-analysis and experimental verification in hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MiR-101-3p has been reported to suppress invasion and metastasis in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. However, the relevant mechanisms are still
      unclear. The research seeks to determine systematic value of miR-101-3p in HCC,
      and comprehensively summarize the predicted target genes as well as their
      potential function, pathways and networks in HCC. METHODS: The miR-101-1 profiles
      in 353 HCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were analyzed. Meta
      analysis was performed to estimate relationship of miR-101 (including precursor
      and mature miR-101) with clinical features and prognosis in HCC. Further, the
      promising targets of miR-101-3p were predicted and followed with Gene Ontology
      (GO), pathway and network analysis. In addition, the functional impact of miR-101
      3p was confirmed with in vitro experiments in HCC cells. RESULTS: In TCGA data,
      low-expression of miR-101-1 might be a diagnostic (AUC: 0.924, 95% CI: 0.894
      0.953) and prognostic (HR=1.55) marker for HCC. Down-regulated miR-101-1 also
      correlated with poor differentiation, advanced TNM stage, lymph node metastasis
      and high AFP level of HCC. Meta-analysis revealed that miR-101 down-regulation
      were associated with poor prognosis, high AFP level and advanced TNM stage of
      HCC. Moreover, 343 hub genes were filtered and miR-101-3p may be involved in
      intracellular signaling cascade, transcription, metabolism and cell
      proliferation. Focal adhesion and pathways in cancer were also significantly
      enriched. In vitro experiments demonstrated that miR-101-3p inhibited
      proliferation and promoted apoptosis in HCC cells. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-101-1 may be
      a prospective biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of HCC. Potential targets of
      miR-101-3p could regulate genesis and development of HCC. The data offers
      insights into biological significances and promising targets of miR-101-3p for
      further investigation and potential therapies in HCC.

PMID- 28559964
TI  - Expression and prognostic value of glutamate dehydrogenase in extrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma patients.
AB  - Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) produces a precursor to glutathione, an important
      molecule in maintaining cellular redox balance and the cancerous characteristics
      of tumor cells through intracellular signaling pathways. However, the underlying
      molecular mechanisms linking glutamate dehydrogenase and extrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma have not been elucidated yet. Herein, we examined GDH
      expression levels and evaluated its potential correlations with prognosis.
      Meanwhile, the therapeutic value of GDH targeting the Smad pathways in
      extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was explored. Immunohistochemical studies
      revealed that GDH expression level was correlated to CD34 expression, cellular
      differentiation, the presence or absence of capsular and vascular invasion, lymph
      node metastasis, neural invasion and patient age. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis
      and COX proportional hazards models demonstrated that the prognosis was closely
      associated with GDH expression, CD34 positivity, nerve infiltration and cell
      differentiation. GDH silencing significantly reduced the proliferation, migratory
      potential and invasive capability. We also demonstrated that GDH promoted cell
      proliferation and metastasis potentially through Smad-mediated induction of TGF
      beta signaling pathway. Therefore, GDH may be an important prognostic indicator
      and may provide a new target for novel treatments of extrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma.

PMID- 28559965
TI  - Brainstem injury associated with supratentorial lesions is revealed by
      electronystagmography of the cold caloric reflex test.
AB  - To explore the brainstem injury associated with supratentorial lesions, we
      conducted analysis of ICP levels and detected ENG parameters by using the cold
      caloric reflex test and histopathological examinations of the brainstem. Rat
      model of intracerebral hemorrhage was well-established in the study of
      supratentorial lesions of varying severities (n=210). Intracerebral pressure
      monitoring and electronystagmography of the cold caloric reflex test were
      simultaneously performed in animals. Apoptotic, immunohistochemical, and
      histopathological changes in different segments of the brainstem were
      investigated at various time intervals. Electronystagmography parameters were
      analyzed by cold caloric reflex test. The result showed that the increase of
      intracerebral pressure was correlated with lesion severity including elevating
      levels and rostral-caudal progression of neuronal apoptosis, demyelination, N
      methyl-D-aspartate cell receptor down-regulation (r=0.815), and histopathological
      changes. Mutiple discrimination analysis of electronystagmography parameters
      presented a diagnostic accuracy rate of 79.5% in localizing brainstem injury. In
      conclusion, our data demonstrated that electronystagmography monitoring along
      with the cold caloric reflex test performed a favorable effect on the estimation
      of brainstem injury in ICH rat model, which provided a potential bedside
      diagnostic tool to assess and predict the progress of supratentorial lesion
      patient in future.

PMID- 28559966
TI  - Wedelolactone from Eclipta alba inhibits lipopolysaccharide-enhanced cell
      proliferation of human renal mesangial cells via NF-kappaB signaling pathway.
AB  - Mesangial cells of glomerulus which could produce and degrade several ECMs, take
      part in the repair and update of mesangial matrix and GBM, regulate glomerular
      filtration rate, secret cytokines and phagocytose immune complexes contribute a
      lot to physiological functions and pathological reactions of glomerular. There
      inflammation response of abnormal proliferation induced by LPS could lead to
      renal damage. Herein, wedelolactone, an active chemical constituent extracted
      from leaves of Eclipta alba, was used to explore if it could be an effective
      inhibitor of the proliferative response of HRMCs. The effects of different
      concentration wedelolactone on the secretion of cytokines, cell viability and NF
      kappaB pathway were all detected by qPCR, western blotting and ELISA. The results
      indicated that wedelolactone could inhibit the abnormal proliferation of HRMCs
      via regulating the activity of several key members of NF-kappaB signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28559967
TI  - Effect of activation of Toll-like receptor 7 in the inhibition of allergic asthma
      on a mouse model.
AB  - Targeting Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is known to have a potential therapeutic
      effect on experimental allergic asthma, but the exact mechanism is incompletely
      understood. To investigate the potential therapeutic effect of TLR7 agonist
      (TLR7a) a new versatile TLR7 agonist conjugated to Der f 1 was synthesized and
      evaluated in vivo here. It was confirmed that the course of airway
      hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and eosinophilia of the TLR7a vaccine-treated mice were
      limited. Levels of specific IgG1, IgG2a and IgE antibodies of these mice were
      changed obviously compared with that of the model mice. The expression of T
      helper 2 cytokine, interleukin (IL)-4, production in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      (BALF) and splenocytes were significantly decreased, while the levels of IFN
      gamma, IL-12 and IL-10 were increased after the treatment of TLR7a vaccine. In
      addition, Muc5 expression and goblet cells were significantly decreased in the
      lung tissue of asthma model mice treated with TLR7a plus Der f 1. These results
      suggest that the TLR7a-Der f 1 vaccine exhibits interesting therapeutic potency
      in suppressing allergic asthma and could be used a new agent in the treatment of
      allergic diseases.

PMID- 28559968
TI  - PEA3 protects against gentamicin nephrotoxicity: role of mitochondrial
      dysfunction.
AB  - Toxin-induced nephrotoxicity is one of the major causes leading to the acute
      kidney injury (AKI). Among these nephrotoxic toxins, gentamicin can induce AKI
      with elusive mechanisms. Emerging evidence demonstrated that PEA3 (polyomavirus
      enhancer activator 3) contributed to the nephrogenesis, while its role in AKI
      remains unknown. Thus, this study was to investigate the role of PEA3 in
      gentamicin nephrotoxicity, as well as the underlying mechanisms. In rats,
      gentamicin treatment (200 mg/kg twice per day) for two days induced remarkable
      kidney injury with a peak damage on day 5 evaluated by the tubular injury score,
      proteinuria, and tubular injury markers of NGAL and KIM-1. In parallel with the
      tubular injury, PEA3 protein and mRNA expressions were significantly upregulated
      by gentamicin and peaked on day 5. To define the role of PEA3 in gentamicin
      nephrotoxicity, proximal tubule cells were transfected with PEA3 plasmid with or
      without gentamicin treatment (1 mg/ml). Notably, overexpression of PEA3
      attenuated gentamicin-induced cell injury shown by the ameliorated cell apoptosis
      and NGAL and KIM-1 upregulation. Meantime, gentamicin caused severe mitochondrial
      dysfunction, which was largely normalized by PEA3 overexpression. In contrast,
      silencing PEA3 by a siRNA strategy further deteriorated gentamicin-induced cell
      apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction. In sum, PEA3 protected against
      gentamicin nephrotoxicity possibly via a mitochondrial mechanism.

PMID- 28559969
TI  - Escape of U251 glioma cells from temozolomide-induced senescence was modulated by
      CDK1/survivin signaling.
AB  - Temozolomide (TMZ) has been widely used in conjunction with radiotherapy for
      treating various types of cancers. However, tumor cells arrested in senescence
      due to TMZ administration can sometimes escape and become drug resistant. In the
      current study, the possible role of survivin in the senescence escape of TMZ
      treated glioma cells was comprehensively studied. The levels of survivin and CDK1
      expression in a human glioma cell line (U251) were monitored, and cell apoptosis,
      cell cycle distribution, anchorage-independent growth, and senescence were
      studied in U251 cells in different degrees of senescence. To further investigate
      how survivin affects the TMZ-resistance of gliomas, we modulated the levels of
      survivin and CKD1 expression in TMZ-treated cells and then examined how the
      treated cells responded. The results showed that knockdown of the survivin gene
      increased the sensitivity of glioma cells to TMZ treatment by inducing senescent
      cells to become apoptotic. Moreover, after senescence was induced, expression of
      the survivin gene became suppressed, but survivin levels returned to normal after
      the cells had escaped from senescence. While down-regulation of the survivin gene
      in senescent and senescence-escaping U251 cells had no effect on cell apoptosis,
      cell cycle distribution, or senescence status, it dramatically reduced the
      anchorage-independent growth ability of the cells. Additionally, CDK1 was able to
      not only enhance the anchorage-independent growth ability of the cells, but also
      contribute to their further senescence escape by modulating the survivin and
      other pathways. In conclusion, the survivin gene was necessary for glioma cells
      to escape from and enter into senescence during treatment with TMZ.

PMID- 28559970
TI  - The lncRNA n340790 accelerates carcinogenesis of thyroid cancer by regulating miR
      1254.
AB  - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been recently reported to be dysregulated and
      play a critical role in the progression of thyroid cancer. Here, we found that
      the lncRNA n340790 was highly expressed in human thyroid cancer tissues and was
      strongly correlated with the clinical characteristics of patients. There was a
      good prognostic value of n340790 for thyroid cancer. In vitro overexpression of
      n340790 promoted the development of thyroid cancer, while silencing n340790
      inhibited this process. Additionally, n340790 accelerated the growth of thyroid
      cancer tumor in vivo. Furthermore, we discovered that n340790 could act as an
      endogenous sponge by directly binding to miR-1254 and downregulating miR-1254
      expression. In addition, miR-1254 could inhibit the stimulatory effect of n340790
      on the growth and invasion of thyroid cancer cells. In conclusion, n340790
      promoted the development process of malignant thyroid cancer by regulating miR
      1254, and targeting n340790 may be a promising strategy as a thyroid cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28559971
TI  - Astragalus polysaccharides attenuates TNF-alpha-induced insulin resistance via
      suppression of miR-721 and activation of PPAR-gamma and PI3K/AKT in 3T3-L1
      adipocytes.
AB  - Insulin resistance is associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. The aim of
      this study was to explore the mechanism of how Astragalus Polysaccharides (APS)
      improves insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. A cell culture model of insulin
      resistance was established in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes by treating them with TNF
      alpha, high glucose and insulin. Glucose uptake levels were detected in each
      group. To determine the mechanism by which APS improves insulin resistance in 3T3
      L1 adipocytes, qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-721, and Western
      blots were used to detect the expression or activity of PPAR-gamma, PAKT, PI3K,
      AKT, and GLUT4. Immunostaining was used to detect the expression of GLUT4. We
      successfully madea model of insulin resistance in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes. APS
      increased glucose uptake levels in insulin-resistant adipocytes in a dose- and
      time-dependent manner, and also increased insulin sensitivity. APS suppressed miR
      721 with its target gene PPAR-gamma in a dose-dependent manner. miR-721 or PPAR
      inhibitor T0070907 inhibited the expressions of PPAR-gamma, pAKT, and GLUT4 and
      also reduced glucose accumulation. APS attenuated these miR-721- and PPAR-gamma
      induced changes. APS increased insulin sensitivity by attenuating the effects of
      miR-721. The PI3K inhibitor wortmannin reduced the APS-increased pAKT, glucose
      uptake, and GLUT4 levels, and also reduced those levels in the presence of
      insulin with or without APS. Taken together, our findings suggest that APS
      promotes glucose uptake and increases insulin sensitivity in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
      and may involve the miR-721-PPAR-gamma-PI3K/AKT-GLUT4 signaling pathway. These
      might be new therapeutic targets for treating insulin resistance in obesity and
      diabetes.

PMID- 28559972
TI  - FOXQ1 promotes cancer metastasis by PI3K/AKT signaling regulation in colorectal
      carcinoma.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is one of the major health problems, with invade surrounding
      tissues, and migrate to distant organs being the most critical concern, thus
      identified metastasis associated hallmarks and more efficacious treatment are
      urgently needed. It found that forkhead box q1 (FOXQ1) is aberrant expression in
      variety of human cancers and FOXQ1 is involved in oncogenic pathways. However,
      the role of FOXQ1 has been unexplored in colorectal cancer metastasis to date.
      Here, expression of FOXQ1 was higher in colorectal cancer tissue samples and
      cancer cell lines than in normal colorectal tissue and cell lines. Further
      research suggested that FOXQ1 positively regulated cell proliferation in
      colorectal cancer and down-regulation of CDK6, extracellular regulated protein
      kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). In corresponding
      to this result, over-expression of FOXQ1 significantly promoted colorectal cancer
      growth in vivo. Moreover, down regulation of FOXQ1 expression in colorectal
      carcinoma cell HCT116 and LOVO strikingly inhibits tumor growth in vivo. Finally,
      FOXQ1-dependent inhibition of colorectal cancer cell migration and invasion and
      down-regulation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase
      (PI3K) phosphorylation, AKT (v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene) phosphorylation
      and matrix metalloproteinase-2/9 (MMP-2/9) expression. These integrated efforts
      have identified FOXQ1 as a tumor promoter and might provide promising approaches
      for colorectal cancer metastasis treatment.

PMID- 28559973
TI  - Research on the traditional Chinese medicine treating gastrointestinal motility
      in diabetic rats by improving biomechanical remodeling and neuroendocrine
      regulation.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated that TWA, a Chinese herbal medicine, could
      significantly improve the symptoms of patients with diabetic gastrointestinal
      dysfunction. However, the specific mechanism of regulating intestinal peristalsis
      has not been found. This study aimed to discover TWA's therapeutic mechanism for
      regulating intestinal motility. The intestinal propulsion rate of diabetic rats
      was significantly increased after treatment with TWA for 8 weeks. Aiming at the
      mechanical structure, biomechanical testing indicated that TWA can significantly
      decrease the no-load intestinal wall thickness, cross-sectional area, and angular
      spread in a zero-stress state. Notably, intestinal stress-strain curve shifted to
      the right, which indicated TWA can inhibit intestinal hyperplasia and hardening
      and improve biomechanical remodeling. Further study of the mechanism revealed
      that TWA significantly inhibited the expression of AGE in the villi, crypt, and
      muscle and RAGE in crypt and upregulated the expression of nerve regulator
      (PSD95, C-kit and SCF). Radioimmunoassay showed TWA treatment decreased levels of
      serum somatostatin and vasoactive intestinal peptide. Moreover, associations were
      found between the intestinal propulsion rate with the morphologic and
      biomechanical remodeling parameters, changes of nerve factors, and endocrine
      hormones. Morphologic and biomechanical remodeling of the intestinal wall are the
      pathologic basis of gastrointestinal dysfunction. TWA can benefit intestinal
      motility by improving biomechanical and morphologic remodeling and by regulating
      expression of neuroendocrine factors. The results showed that the effect of TWA
      was dose-dependent, the higher the dose, the greater is the improvement. Thus,
      traditional Chinese medicine might be a valuable tool for treating diabetic
      gastrointestinal dysfunction.

PMID- 28559975
TI  - Inhibition of glioblastoma growth and invasion by 125I brachytherapy in rat
      glioma model.
AB  - Development of the novel targeted therapies for glioblastoma multiforme is very
      important. Brachytherapy has been proven to provide a good alternative to
      surgical removal of the prostate, breast and cervix with reduced risk of certain
      long-term side effects. Thus, 125I brachytherapy was used to effect on the growth
      and invasion of glioma cells in vitro and in vivo. The inhibitory effect of 125I
      seeds on C6 cells proliferation was determined by MTT assay. A rat intracranial
      glioma model was established and the 125I seeds were implanted into the glioma
      area. CD31 expression was determined by immunohistochemical method to evaluate
      the angiogenesis. The DeltaPsim detection and cell invasion assays were performed
      to detect the mitochondrial-induced apoptosis and invasion signaling in tumor
      cells. 125I brachytherapy could significantly inhibit C6 rat glioma cells growth
      and reduce cell viability in vitro. The seeds implantation also inhibited tumor
      growth in the rat glioma model and improved survival rate. Analysis revealed that
      ROS production and the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis was activated
      by 125I brachytherapy. The HE staining results revealed that the rat glioma model
      treated with 125I seeds exhibited better defined tumor margins and fewer invasive
      cells to the lateral striatum compared with the untreated group. The comparison
      of expression of CD31 in treated or untreated groups was performed to show that
      the 125I brachytherapy has potential antiangiogenic activity. Meanwhile, 125I
      brachytherapy can inhibit the growth and invasion of glioma cells via decreasing
      the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9.

PMID- 28559974
TI  - Melatonin prevents sleep deprivation-associated anxiety-like behavior in rats:
      role of oxidative stress and balance between GABAergic and glutamatergic
      transmission.
AB  - Sleep deprivation (SD) has been shown to induce anxiety-like behavior. Melatonin,
      an endogenous potent antioxidant, protects neurons from oxidative stress in many
      disease models. Here we investigated the effect of melatonin against SD-induced
      anxiety-like behavior and attempted to define the possible mechanisms involved.
      SD was induced in rats using modified multiple platform model. Melatonin (15
      mg/kg) was administered to the rats via intraperitoneal injection. The elevated
      plus maze test, open field test and light-dark exploration were used to evaluate
      anxiety-like behavior. Serum corticosterone was measured to determine stress
      level. Malondialdehyde (MDA) level and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity
      of amygdala and serum were performed to determine the level of oxidative stress.
      Levels of protein were detected by means of Western blot. The results showed that
      SD induces anxiety-like behavior, while melatonin treatment prevented these
      changes. Serum corticosterone also increased with SD but its levels were
      normalized by melatonin. In addition, melatonin reversed SD-induced changes in
      MDA and SOD in both of amygdala and serum. The results of Western blot showed
      that melatonin attenuated the up-regulation of NR2B-containing N-methyl-D
      aspartate receptors, GluR1 subunit of the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4
      isoxazolepropionic acid receptor as well as phosphorylation of GluR1 at Ser831,
      and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-alpha in SD rats. Meanwhile,
      melatonin blocked the down-regulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid A-alpha-2
      receptor. In conclusion, our results suggest that melatonin prevents anxiety-like
      behavior induced by SD. The possible mechanism may be attributed to its ability
      to reduce oxidative stress and maintain balance between GABAergic and
      glutamatergic transmission.

PMID- 28559976
TI  - Quantitative photoacoustic imaging for early detection of muscle ischemia injury.
AB  - Acute lower extremity ischemia is a limb-and life-threatening problem. The timing
      of clinical intervention is critical to achieving optimal outcomes. However,
      there has been a lack of effective techniques capable of evaluating muscle and
      limb damage. Microcirculatory injury is the initial pathological change during
      ischemic muscle injury. Here, we performed photoacoustic imaging (PAI) in real
      time to quantitatively detect the degree of microcirculatory injury of ischemic
      muscles in a rat model in which Evans blue (EB), which strongly binds to albumin
      in blood, was used as a nontoxic molecular PA probe. The right lower hind limbs
      of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were subjected to 2 or 3 hours of tourniquet-induced
      ischemia. Then, PA imaging of the tibialis anterior (TA) muscles in the anterior
      compartment was performed for 0-24 h after the release of compression. Twenty
      four hours after reperfusion, rats were euthanized and examined for pathology,
      edema and muscle viability. Imaging at 680 nm on rats revealed that there was
      significant signal enhancement in the TA muscles of the two injury groups
      compared to the control group, and the 3-h injury group had significantly higher
      PA signal intensity than the 2-h injury group at each time point. Histopathology
      results obtained from both the normal and the damaged muscles correlated well
      with the PAI findings. In conclusion, PA imaging is a promising modality for
      quantitatively detecting limb and muscle ischemic injury and may pave the road
      for further clinical application.

PMID- 28559977
TI  - Oxysophocarpine reduces oxygen-glucose deprivation-induced microglial activation
      and injury.
AB  - Microglial over-activation and apoptosis are associated with ischemic brain
      diseases. These processes may be hindered by oxysophocarpine (OSC) that generates
      anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic activities. However, the precise roles of
      OSC in microglial inflammation and apoptosis induced by oxygen-glucose
      deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) remain unclear. In this study, we found that
      OSC reduced OGD/R-induced inflammation in BV-2 microglia. OSC elevated cell
      viability and prevented the release of lactate dehydrogenase. OSC downregulated
      cyclooxygenase 2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase and reduced the levels of
      inflammatory mediators, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)
      1beta, IL-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, prostaglandin E2, and nitric
      oxide. OSC inhibited the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and myeloid
      differentiation protein 88 (MyD88) and blocked the activation of nuclear factor
      (NF)-kappaB. In addition, OSC suppressed OGD/R-elicited BV-2 cell apoptosis, as
      indicated as follows: The restored mitochondrial membrane potential and the
      reduced caspase-3 activity; the decrease of Bax and cleaved caspase-3 and the
      increase of Bcl-2; the enhanced phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR. These results
      implied that OSC impedes OGD/R-induced inflammation and apoptosis of microglial
      cells. Therefore, OSC may be potentially used for ischemic stroke therapy.

PMID- 28559978
TI  - miR-143-3p targeting LIM domain kinase 1 suppresses the progression of triple
      negative breast cancer cells.
AB  - Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Triple-negative
      breast cancer is one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer as it has the
      worst clinical outcome for patients. microRNAs are a type of small non-coding RNA
      and play an important role in breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to
      explore the potential function and mechanism of miR-143-3p in triple-negative
      breast cancer (TNBC). MTT and colony formation assays, the effect of miR-143-3p
      modulation on MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation, revealed that increased miR-143-3p
      expression inhibited the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells. Moreover, miR
      143-3p overexpression inhibited the movement of MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells in wound
      healing and transwell assays. To identify a potential miR-143-3p target, we
      investigated the effect of miR-143-3p modulation on LIMK1 expression level.
      Increased miR-143-3p expression caused a reduction in LIMK1 mRNA and protein,
      suggesting that LIMK1 is a target of miR-143-3p. In addition, dual-luciferase
      reporter assays showed that LIMK1 is a target gene of miR-143-3p. Flow cytometry
      analysis indicated that miR-143-3p arrested MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells at the G0/G1
      phase. The TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database demonstrated that miR-143-3p
      was down-regulated in breast cancer tissues compared with normal breast tissues.
      These data demonstrated that miR-143-3p functioned as a suppressor gene in TNBC
      and that miR-143 targeted therapy may be a new strategy for TNBC treatment.

PMID- 28559979
TI  - A new comorbidity model and the common pathological mechanisms of migraine and
      epilepsy.
AB  - A bi-directional relationship between epilepsy and migraine has been widely
      reported in epidemiological and clinical studies, but the mechanisms of
      interaction between these disorders have not been fully examined using animal
      models. The aim of the present study was to develop a new comorbidity model of
      migraine and epilepsy. Nociception was induced by applying an inflammatory soup
      to the dura mater; this procedure resulted in nociception similar to that
      expressed in inflammatory disorders such as migraine. We showed that nociceptive
      behaviors (head rubbing, including with the forepaws and hindpaws) were
      significantly enhanced in comorbidity rats compared to sham-operation (Sham)
      rats, and these nociceptive behaviors were correlated with epilepsy-like
      behaviors. The plasma levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)
      significantly increased in the migraine group compared with the sham group, but
      CGRP did not further increase in comorbidity rats compared with migraine rats. C
      Fos immunoreactive area values were higher in the comorbidity group than in the
      migraine group in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis (Sp5C) area (P<0.05). There was
      no significant difference in HSP70 expression between the comorbidity group and
      the epilepsy group. The expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in
      the CA3 area of the hippocampus in the comorbidity group was significantly higher
      than that in the epilepsy group according to the immunohistochemical test
      (P<0.05). In conclusion, our findings indicate that pilocarpine-induced epilepsy
      exacerbates inflammatory nociception, which can aggravate seizure severity.
      Moreover, we established a new comorbidity model for migraine and epilepsy.

PMID- 28559980
TI  - All-trans-retinoic acid activates SDF-1/CXCR4/ROCK2 signaling pathway to inhibit
      chondrogenesis.
AB  - Recent studies have indicated that ATRA inhibits chondrogenesis and can lead to
      congenital clubfoot (CCF). The molecular mechanism of ATRA-induced chondrogenesis
      is not clear. As RhoA/ROCK and SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling play important molecular
      roles for a variety of cellular processes, we hypothesized that RhoA/ROCK2 and
      SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling are involved in ATRA-induced chondrogenesis in rat embryo
      hind limb bud mesenchymal cells (rEHBMCs). We found that ATRA dose-dependently
      inhibits proliferation and expression of chondrogenic transcription factors (SOX9
      and COL2A1) in rEHBMCs. In contrast, ATRA increases the expression of ROCK2, SDF
      1 and CXCR4. Pharmacological inhibition of ROCK signaling and SDF-1/CXCR4
      signaling by Y27632 and AMD3100, respectively, resulted in elevated expression of
      SOX9 and COL2A1. In addition, we found that disturbing SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling by
      AMD3100 decreases ATRA-induced ROCK2 expression. In vivo studies we also confirm
      that SOX9 expression of early-stage cartilage progenitors in the proliferative
      zone and COL2A1 expression in prehypertrophic chondrocytes are decreased in ATRA
      treated rat embryo hind limb. Together, these results show that ATRA activates
      SDF-1/CXCR4/ROCK2 signaling to inhibit chondrogenesis to lead to CCF by
      suppressing differentiation through down-regulation of SOX9 and COL2A1 expression
      in rat embryo hind limb bud mesenchymal cells.

PMID- 28559981
TI  - Examination of histopathological changes of scalpel, monopolar, bipolar, and
      thermocautery applications in rat experimental circumcision model.
AB  - This study endeavors to analyze the effects of thermocautery, bipolar cautery,
      monopolar cautery, and the scalpel to show that the thermocautery is a safe
      device to be used in circumcision. Twenty-four rats were assigned to 4 different
      groups: the scalpel, thermocautery, bipolar cautery, and monopolar cautery
      groups. Circumcisions were performed using the scalpel, thermocautery, bipolar
      cautery, or monopolar cautery devices. The circumcised foreskin was removed for
      histopathological analysis. The circumcision techniques were compared in terms of
      the depth of injury on the prepuce. Wound healing on the 5th day on the
      circumcision plane was evaluated by using a grading scale from 0-4 and by
      comparing re-epithelization, granulation tissue, and collagen deposition. Blood
      samples were taken 1st hour after the operation and the 5th day, prior to the
      necropsy. The totals of the oxidant/anti-oxidant levels were determined. For
      statistical analyses, the SPSS packet program was used. Statistical significance
      was determined as a P value <0.05. The least trauma was with the scalpel which
      was comparable with the thermocautery in regard to depth of injury,
      epithelization, granulation tissue formation, and collagen buildup. Thermocautery
      group showed superior collagen proliferation compared with the monopolar cautery
      group, while being superior in epithelization and injury depth when compared with
      the bipolar cautery group. The use of thermocautery for circumcision has shown to
      be safe and resulted in better wound healing in rats with no apparent
      complications, and, if used in the human population, it may be a safe and
      effective technique.

PMID- 28559982
TI  - Long noncoding RNAs and novel inflammatory genes determined by RNA sequencing in
      human lymphocytes are up-regulated in permanent atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia in clinical practice. Currently,
      approximately 33.5 million individuals are affected by AF globally. AF involves
      multiple complicated mechanisms which have not been fully investigated yet. RNA
      sequencing (RNAseq) is an outstanding method for investigation of diseases due to
      its high-throughput information. Here, RNAseq was applied to determine mRNA and
      long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression profiles in human lymphocytes from 6
      permanent atrial fibrillation (pmAF) patients and 6 healthy controls.
      Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to further validate 3 lncRNAs
      and 4 inflammatory mRNAs. It was discovered that there were numerous
      differentially-expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs between these two groups. GO analysis
      indicated that differentially-expressed mRNAs were mainly involved in native
      immunity, inflammation, signaling transduction and so forth, and they were also
      enriched in pathways like TNF signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway,
      Toll-like receptor pathway and NOD-like receptor pathway. Moreover, co-expression
      network demonstrated that dysregulated mRNAs and lncRNAs in pmAF lymphocytes
      participated in inflammation, autophagy, mitochondrial functions, oxidative
      stress, etc. Further validation by qRT-PCR demonstrated mRNAs and lncRNAs were
      significantly higher in lymphocytes from pmAF patients compared with controls. In
      conclusion, mRNA and lncRNA expression profiles in lymphocytes are significantly
      different between pmAF and controls, differentially-expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs
      are involved in pathways closely associated with inflammation, oxidative stress,
      autophagy, cell apoptosis and collagen synthesis, suggesting lymphocytes might
      play indispensable roles in the development of pmAF.

PMID- 28559983
TI  - Feedback between E2F1 and CIP2A regulated by human papillomavirus E7 in cervical
      cancer: implications for prognosis.
AB  - Previously, we found that cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A)
      plays a key role in the malignant transformation of cervical cancer. Here, we
      further explore whether and how CIP2A is regulated by human papillomavirus E7
      (HPV E7) and the prognostic value of CIP2A in cervical cancer. We demonstrated a
      positive feedback loop between the E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) and CIP2A at
      the transcription level in HeLa and SiHa cells by real-time PCR and western blot
      analysis. The feedback, regulated by HPV E7, was further confirmed by their sub
      cellular co-expression seen on immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry
      staining in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, CIP2A and E2F1 expression was greatly
      elevated in human cervical cancer tissue. CIP2A expression was tightly associated
      with tumor size, depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis in 184 cases of
      cervical cancer. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses
      revealed poor overall and disease-free survival of patients with CIP2A-E2F1 co
      expression, and high CIP2A-E2F1 co-expression was an independent risk factor for
      overall survival of patients. Therefore, CIP2A-E2F1 expression might be a
      valuable indicator to predict outcome and guide personal treatment in cervical
      cancer.

PMID- 28559984
TI  - Ulcer healing effect of autologous mixed sheets consisting of fibroblasts and
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells in rabbit ischemic hind limb.
AB  - We developed mixed cell sheets consisting of fibroblasts and peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells that had high potency for secreting vascular endothelial growth
      factor. The purpose of this study was to confirm the therapeutic effects of mixed
      sheets in rabbits suffering from ulcers at the ischemic hind limbs. We used the
      ulcer model, which was constructed by implantation and sandwiching the skin
      between two magnets to be a representative of human refractory cutaneous ulcer.
      The ulcer healing rate of mixed cell sheets was higher than that of the control
      at an early stage of healing. The calf blood pressure and angiographic score,
      which were considered to reflect rough collateral blood flow, did not vary
      amongmixed cell sheets. However, through laser Doppler perfusion image,
      implantation of mixed cell sheets revealed a significant improvement in
      microvascular blood flow in the healed skin of the ischemic limb compared to
      trafermin, a recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor, and the control.
      These results suggest that mixed cell may operate predominantly on the surface of
      the ischemic tissue by their angiogenic potency, thereby promoting healing of the
      ischemic ulcer. Mixed cell sheets could become a promising therapeutic material
      for refractory cutaneous ulcers.

PMID- 28559985
TI  - Peptide-modified chitosan hydrogels promote skin wound healing by enhancing wound
      angiogenesis and inhibiting inflammation.
AB  - Cutaneous wound healing following trauma is a complex and dynamic process
      involving multiple overlapping events following trauma. Two critical elements
      affecting skin wound healing are neovascularization and inflammation. A nascent
      vessel can provide nutrition and oxygen to a healing wound. Therefore, treatments
      strategies that enhance angiogenesis and inhibit inflammation can promote skin
      wound healing. Previous studies have shown that the SIKVAV peptide (Ser-Ile-Lys
      Val-Ala-Val) from laminin can promote angiogenesis in vitro. This study evaluated
      the effects of peptide SIKVAV-modified chitosan hydrogels on skin wound healing.
      We established skin wounds established in mice and treated them with SIKVAV
      modified chitosan hydrogels. H&E staining showed that peptide-modified chitosan
      hydrogels accelerated the reepithelialization of wounds compared with the
      negative and positive controls. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that
      more myofibroblasts were deposited at wounds treated with peptide-modified
      chitosan hydrogels that at those treated with negative and positive controls. In
      addition, peptide-modified chitosan hydrogels promoted angiogenesis as well as
      keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation, but inhibited inflammation in
      skin wounds. Taken together, these results suggest that SIKVAV-modified chitosan
      hydrogels are a promising treatment component for healing-impaired wounds.

PMID- 28559986
TI  - Severe traumatic hemorrhagic shock induces compromised immune barrier function of
      the mesenteric lymph node leading to an increase in intestinal bacterial
      translocation.
AB  - Critically ill patients have increased susceptibility to translocation of gut
      bacteria. However, the mechanisms are complicated and remain unclear, and the aim
      of this study was to explore these mechanisms. Rats exposed to different levels
      of shock were orally administrated with bioluminescent Citrobacter. We found that
      severe shock caused an increase in bacterial translocation to the visceral
      organs, such as liver, spleen and blood, compared with mild shock. Surprisingly,
      bacterial translocation to mesenteric lymph node (MLN) was unchanged between the
      two shock groups. Various methods, including flow cytometry, a co-culture model
      and western blots, were used to evaluate MLN-associated immune function.
      Specifically, we focused on mesenteric lymph node dendritic cells (MLN-DCs), the
      critical antigen presenting cells involved in the construction of the immune
      barrier in MLN. We also found that severe shock impaired the phenotypic
      maturation of MLN-DCs and induced a tolerogenic phenotype. Furthermore, co
      culture assays of DCs with naive CD4+ T cells showed that DCs subject to severe
      shock were more inclined to polarize native CD4+ T cells into Th2 and Treg cells.
      This study successfully reproduced the clinical phenomenon of severe shock
      resulting in increased bacterial translocation to extraintestinal tissues, and
      this may be related to the compromised immune barrier function of MLN, as
      maturation and function of MLN-DC's were badly impaired.

PMID- 28559988
TI  - MiR-31 is involved in the high glucose-suppressed osteogenic differentiation of
      human periodontal ligament stem cells by targeting Satb2.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease that gives rise to impaired
      bone remodeling. Increasing evidences have shown that miRNAs are associated with
      osteogenic differentiation of stem cells. However, the underlying mechanism that
      links DM-induced HG conditions and impaired osteogenic differentiation capacity
      of periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) still remains unclear. In this study,
      we found that diabetic mice with increased miR-31 level in periodontal ligaments
      exhibited greater bone loss. In vitro, the high expression of miR-31 is
      associated with the impaired osteogenic differentiation ability of PDLSCs in high
      glucose environment. Furthermore, miR-31 inhibitors increased mineralized bone
      matrix formation and raised Runx2, Osx and OCN expression at both mRNA and
      protein levels. However, PDLSCs pretreated with miR-31 mimics decreased bone
      matrix formation and reduced Runx2, Osx and OCN expression level in high glucose
      microenvironment. Moreover, Satb2 was identified as a target of miR-31 which
      directly binds to its 3'-untranslated region. To further elucidate the effect of
      Satb2 in miR-31-mediated osteogenic differentiation, PDLSCs were transfected with
      Satb2 siRNA and miR-31 inhibitors. The results showed that Satb2 siRNA inhibited
      osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs in HG, whereas miR-31 inhibitors reversed
      the repression of osteogenic differentiation in Satb2 siRNA transfected PDLSCs.
      Taken together, these results demonstrate that miR-31 is involved in the high
      glucose-suppressed osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs by targeting Satb2.

PMID- 28559987
TI  - microRNA-383 mediates high glucose-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in
      retinal pigment epithelial cells by repressing peroxiredoxin 3.
AB  - Hyperglycemia-mediated damage to retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells plays a
      central role in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Dysregulation of
      microRNA (miR)-383 modulates pancreatic beta cell survival in diabetes; however,
      its role in diabetic retinopathy remains unclear. In this study, we examined the
      expression of miR-383 in ARPE-19 human RPE cell lines after high glucose
      treatment and investigated its functions in high glucose-induced reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) generation and apoptotic responses. The downstream target gene that
      mediated the action of miR-383 was functionally characterized. It was found that
      high glucose induced a 2.4-fold increase in miR-383 abundance, compared to ARPE
      19 cells treated with normal glucose. Overexpression of miR-383 inhibited cell
      viability and promoted apoptosis and ROS formation in ARPE-19 cells, which was
      coupled with deregulation of Bcl-2 and Bax. Peroxiredoxin 3 (PRDX3) expression
      was repressed by miR-383 in ARPE-19 cells. Restoration of PRDX3 counteracted miR
      383-induced ROS generation and apoptosis, while silencing of PRDX3 phenocopied
      the detrimental effects of miR-383 on ARPE-19 cells. Delivery of anti-miR-383
      inhibitors led to an increase of PRDX3 expression and prevented high glucose
      elicited ROS formation and apoptosis in ARPE-19 cells. Overall, miR-383
      upregulation accounts for high glucose-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in
      RPE cells by repressing PRDX3 expression. Targeting miR-383 may have therapeutic
      potential in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28559989
TI  - MicroRNA-142-5p promotes cell growth and migration in renal cell carcinoma by
      targeting BTG3.
AB  - PURPOSE: Some microRNA (miRNA) levels have been found to be dysregulated in
      cancer patients, suggesting the potential usefulness of miRNAs in cancer
      therapies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of miR-142
      5p in human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and its potential role in tumor growth and
      metastasis. METHODS: The expression level of miR-142-5p in human RCC tissue and
      cell lines was determined by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction analysis. MTT, colony formation, Transwell, and cell cycle assays were
      performed to explore the potential functions of miR-142-5p in human RCC cells.
      The potential target gene of miR-142-5p was identified and confirmed via
      luciferase reporter assays. RESULTS: miR-142-5p expression was elevated in RCC
      tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-142-5p significantly promoted cell
      proliferation and colony formation and could prevent G1 phase arrest among RCC
      786-O cells. Meanwhile, the migration potential of 786-O cells was greater than
      that of control cells. BTG3 was identified as a direct target of miR-142-5p, and
      re-expression of BTG3 reversed the miR-142-5p-induced cell proliferation.
      CONCLUSION: miR-142-5p promoted the proliferation and migration of RCC cells by
      targeting BTG3. With this potential onco-miRNA role in the progression of RCC,
      miR-142-5p may be a therapeutic target for the treatment of RCC.

PMID- 28559990
TI  - Macrophages activating chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 8/miR-17 cluster modulate
      hepatocellular carcinoma cell growth and metastasis.
AB  - Macrophages are a major component of tumor stroma and the infiltrated macrophages
      in malignant tumor tissues (as called tumor associated macrophages, TAM) play a
      pivotal role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. However, the
      molecular mechanisms of macrophages promoting HCC metastasis are poorly
      understood. The study was to investigate the effects of macrophages on liver
      cancer cell proliferation and metastasis through chemokine (C-X-C Motif) Ligand 8
      (CXCL8). We found that macrophages activated by co-cultured liver cancer cells
      produced higher levels of CXCL8, which accelerated cell growth and metastasis.
      The expression of miR-18a and miR-19a (belonging to miR-17 cluster) increased in
      HCC cells by CXCL8 simulation and led to the enhancement of HCC cell
      proliferation and metastasis. In a conclusion, HCC cells and macrophages
      interaction promoted cancer cell proliferation and metastasis through the up
      regulation of CXCL8/miR-17 cluster.

PMID- 28559991
TI  - Exogenous MSCs ameliorate hypoxia/reoxygenation injury in renal tubular
      epithelial cells through JAK/STAT signaling pathway-mediated regulation of HMGB1.
AB  - This study was conducted to investigate the repair mechanism of
      hypoxia/reoxygenation injury (HRI) in renal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2) by
      exogenous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The activation of the JAK/STAT pathway
      in HK-2 cells after HRI and treatment of MSCs, JAK inhibitor WP1066 and STAT
      inhibitor SOCS3 was investigated using Western blot analysis. HK-2 cells were
      transfected with siRNA STAT3 and analyzed for expression of STAT3, JAK2 and HMGB1
      using fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot. Cell viability and
      apoptosis were analyzed using the MTT assay and flow cytometry. After HRI, the
      JAK/STAT pathway in HK-2 cells was activated, resulting in the upregulation of
      JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, p-JAK1, p-JAK2, p-JAK3, STAT1, STAT2, STAT3, p-STAT1, p-STAT2
      and p-STAT3. After treatment with MSC conditioned medium (MSCs CM), WP1066, or
      SOCS, the expression of these proteins was significantly down-regulated. When the
      cells were transfected with siRNA STAT3, the expression of STAT3 at protein and
      mRNA levels and JAK2 and HMGB1 at mRNA level was down-regulated; the cell
      viability was reduced and apoptosis increased. It is concluded that exogenous
      MSCs reduce HRI of HK-2 cells by suppressing the JAK/STAT signaling pathway and
      down-regulating the expression of HMGB1.

PMID- 28559992
TI  - Delivery of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells attenuates airway
      responsiveness and inflammation in a mouse model of ovalbumin-induced asthma.
AB  - Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) possess immunomodulation
      property, yet their therapeutic potential in asthma is unclear. This study aimed
      to explore the effects of ADMSCs on airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation
      in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma models. The underlying mechanism(s) was also
      examined. BALB/c mice were sensitized with OVA on days 0, 7, and 14, followed by
      8-week OVA challenge from day 22. ADMSCs were injected via tail vein on day 21.
      Animals were measured for airway responsiveness, lung pathology, IgE and cytokine
      levels in serum, cell composition in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), gene
      expression in the lung, and regulatory T cells (Tregs). We found that delivery of
      ADMSCs decreased airway responsiveness and eosinophil counts in BALF and reduced
      infiltration of inflammatory cells and number of mucus-expressing goblet cells in
      the lung in OVA-challenged mice. OVA-evoked elevation of serum IgE levels and
      alteration of cytokine production in serum and BALF was significantly prevented
      by ADMSCs. In addition, administration of ADMSCs impaired the regulation of lung
      IL-10, Foxp3, IL-17, and RORgamma expression by OVA challenge and restored the
      percentage of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs in the spleen. In conclusion, ADMSCs confer
      protection against OVA-induced airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation, which
      is associated with induction of Tregs and restoration of immune homeostasis.
      These findings suggest that ADMSCs may have therapeutic implications for allergic
      asthma.

PMID- 28559993
TI  - Propofol inhibits cell proliferation and invasion in rheumatoid arthritis
      fibroblast-like synoviocytes via the nuclear factor-kappaB pathway.
AB  - Propofol is an anesthetic drug commonly used in the clinical practice. The aim of
      this study is to explore the effect of propofol on the aggressive behaviors of
      rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLSs). Propofol treatment
      for 48 or 72 h significantly inhibited the viability of RA-FLSs, but a 24-h
      treatment did not produce cytotoxic effects. Propofol exposure for 48 h led to
      reduction of proliferation and induction of apoptosis in RA-FLSs, which was
      coupled with increased Bax and decreased Bcl-2 and survivin levels. Additionally,
      treatment with propofol for 24 h significantly suppressed the migration and
      invasion of RA-FLSs. Mechanistically, propofol inhibited nuclear factor-kappaB
      (NF-kappaB) activity. Overexpression of constitutively active NF-kappaB p65
      reversed the inhibitory effects of propofol on RA-FLSs. Taken together, propofol
      exerts anti-proliferative and anti-invasive effects on RA-FLSs via the NF-kappaB
      pathway and may have therapeutic potential in treatment of RA.

PMID- 28559994
TI  - MiR-144-3p inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in multiple myeloma
      by targeting c-Met.
AB  - MicroRNA-144-3p (miR-144-3p) has been implicated in the development of many types
      of cancer. However, its role in multiple myeloma (MM) remains largely unknown. In
      this study, we found that miR-144-3p was downregulated in both MM cell lines and
      plasma from patients with MM. In vitro studies further showed that transfection
      of an miR-144-3p mimic into MM cells inhibited their proliferation and colony
      formation, and promoted cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis. In
      addition, we found that miR-144-3p could directly target the 3'-untranslated
      region of cellular-mesenchymal to epithelial transition factor (c-MET) and
      suppress c-MET expression and its downstream signaling pathway (PI3K/AKT). Rescue
      experiments revealed that overexpression of c-MET partially reversed the
      inhibition effect of miR-144-3p in MM cells. In vivo studies confirmed that
      restoration of miR-144-3p suppressed tumor growth in xenograft nude mice by
      repressing c-MET. Overall, these findings demonstrate that miR-144-3p functions
      as a tumor suppressor in MM by targeting c-MET, suggesting that miR-144-3p might
      serve as a potential therapeutic target in MM.

PMID- 28559995
TI  - Cryptotanshinone reverses reproductive disturbances in rats with
      dehydroepiandrosterone-induced polycystic ovary syndrome.
AB  - Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), with a prevalence of 5-8%, is the most common
      endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age. Although cryptotanshinone (CRY)
      has been shown to effectively reverse reproductive disturbances, it remains
      poorly understood whether it can be used to treat PCOS. Here we used an
      established rat model of PCOS. Prepubertal female Sprague-Dawley rats were
      subcutaneously injected with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) 60 mg/kg/day for 3
      weeks. Those in the DHEA group were given normal saline, while the CRY group was
      given 27 mg/kg by gastrogavage for 3 weeks. DHEA-treated rats had irregular
      estrous cycles and significantly increased ovarian weight compared to control
      rats (P < 0.05), and 3 weeks of treatment with CRY in DHEA-treated rats
      significantly decreased ovarian weight (P < 0.05). CRY decreased the levels of
      testosterone, estradiol, and luteinizing hormone (LH) as well as the LH/follicle
      stimulating hormone ratio (P < 0.05). CRY decreased inhibin B and follistatin
      mRNA and protein expression but upregulated activin A mRNA and protein expression
      in the ovarian tissue of rats with PCOS (P < 0.05). These results suggest that
      CRY treatment could reverse reproductive disturbances in rats with PCOS.

PMID- 28559996
TI  - MicroRNA-199a-3p inhibits tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by
      targeting ZHX1/PUMA signal.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: MicroRNAs play an important role in cell proliferation,
      apoptosis, differentiation, and invasion by regulating the expression of various
      genes. For example, the downregulation of microRNA-199a-3p (miR-199a-3p) that is
      noted in numerous human malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),
      results in a poor prognosis in patients with HCC. This finding suggests that miR
      199a-3p overexpression in HCC could provide a new treatment approach. We explored
      this possibility by examining the effects of miR-199a-3p on the growth and
      apoptosis of HCC cells in vitro and vivo. METHODS: The miR-199a-3p signaling
      pathway was examined using ZHX1 (zinc-fingers and homeoboxes-1) or PUMA (a p53
      upregulated modulator of apoptosis) siRNA transfection to determine the effects
      of miR-199a-3p on growth and apoptosis of HepG2 cells in vitro. A subcutaneously
      implanted tumor model of HepG2 cells in nude mice was used to assess the effects
      of miR-199a-3p on the signaling pathway and tumorigenesis development in vivo.
      RESULTS: miR-199a-3p inhibited growth and induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells in
      vitro. These effects were accompanied by upregulation of ZHX1 and PUMA. Targeting
      ZHX1 inhibited upregulation of PUMA after miR-199a-3p transfection. In addition,
      miR-199a-3p inhibited Bcl2 expression, but increased Bax and cleaved caspase-3
      expression. Targeting PUMA or ZHX1 reversed the effect of miR-199a-3p, followed
      by upregulation of Bcl2 and downregulation of Bax and cleaved caspase-3,
      respectively. Furthermore, miR-199a-3p inhibited tumorigenesis of xenografts in
      nude mice. CONCLUSIONS: miRNA-199a-3p could effectively prevent primary tumor
      formation. The ability of this therapy to decrease tumorigenesis may be related
      toZHX1-dependent PUMA signals.

PMID- 28559997
TI  - Anticancer effect of PP31J isolated from Physalis pubescens L. in human cervical
      carcinoma cells.
AB  - Extracts derived from Physalis pubescens L. may function as cancer therapies. The
      pharmacological effects of PP31J on human cervical carcinoma cells (HeLa cells)
      were investigated in this study. HeLa cells were treated with PP31J, and then
      cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution were measured using a
      cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry. Protein expression levels
      of regulators of cell apoptosis and cell cycle were also examined using western
      blotting. Our data show that PP31J inhibited the growth of HeLa cells.
      Significant growth inhibition compared to the vehicle-treated group was observed
      using a concentration of 5 MUM PP31J at 24, 48, and 72 h. PP31J also selectively
      arrested cell cycle progression in the G1 phase at 40 MUM (P < 0.05) and in the
      G2/M phase at 20 MUM (P < 0.01) and 40 MUM (P < 0.001). Our results further
      demonstrate a significant increase in cell apoptosis (P < 0.001) following PP31J
      treatment (10, 20, and 40 MUM). Immunoblotting data show that PP31J downregulated
      (P < 0.01) the expression of Bcl-xL and decreased (P < 0.05) the expression of
      Survivin and Cyclin D1 at 20 and 40 MUM. This study shows the anti-tumor activity
      of PP31J in HeLa cells and that the effects of PP31J on cell cycle distribution
      and apoptosis induction were partially attributed to the regulation of Cyclin D1,
      Survivin, and Bcl-xL.

PMID- 28559999
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha protects mesenchymal stem cells against oxygen
      glucose deprivation-induced injury via autophagy induction and PI3K/AKT/mTOR
      signaling pathway.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation is a promising therapeutic strategy
      for myocardial infarction. The survival rate of the grafted MSCs is limited by
      the conditions of hypoxia and low nutrient levels. In this study, we investigated
      the role of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (Hif-1alpha) in oxygen-glucose
      deprivation (OGD)-induced injury in MSCs. Hif-1alpha was overexpressed or
      suppressed in MSCs by transfection with a Hif-1alpha expressing vector or Hif
      1alpha-specific siRNA, respectively. Then MSCs were exposed to OGD, and the
      changes in cell viability, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were
      respectively monitored by MTT assay and flow cytometry. Additionally, expression
      levels of Beclin1, LC3 I and LC3 II, as well phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT and
      mTOR were detected by RT-PCR and Western blotting. The results indicated that Hif
      1alpha overexpression improved cell viability, reduced G1 phase cells
      accumulation, and suppressed apoptosis under OGD condition (P<0.05). Beclin1
      expression and the LC3 II/LC3 I ratio were increased by Hif-1alpha
      overexpression, and were decreased by Hif-1alpha knock-down (P<0.05). In
      addition, PI3K, AKT and mTOR were inactivated by Hif-1alpha overexpression, and
      phosphorylated by Hif-1alpha knock-down (P<0.05). In conclusion, these data
      suggest that Hif-1alpha overexpression protects MSCs from OGD-induced injury via
      a mechanism in which autophagy and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway are implicated.

PMID- 28560000
TI  - Discoidin domain receptor 1 activity drives an aggressive phenotype in bladder
      cancer.
AB  - Discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) is a receptor tyrosine kinase which utilizes
      collagen as a ligand to regulate the interaction between cancer cells and tumor
      stroma. However, the clinical relevance of DDR1 expression in bladder cancer as
      well as its molecular regulation have not been previously investigated. Here, we
      assessed the role of DDR1 in bladder cancer. The DDR1 levels in bladder cancer
      specimens were examined by Western blot, compared to the paired adhesive normal
      controls. The effects of DDR1 were explored on both cell migration in bladder
      cancer cells and tumor growth as xenograft. We detected significant higher levels
      of DDR1 in bladder cancer tissues. Moreover, high levels of DDR1 were correlated
      with poor prognosis of corresponding patients. Both the in vitro cell
      invasiveness and in vivo tumor xenograft growth could be promoted by the
      overexpressed DDR1, while both of which could be inhibited after the depletion of
      DDR1. Furthermore, DDR1 increased the levels of ZEB1 and Slug, based on its
      effects on tumor invasion. In conclusion, DDR1 may promote the aggressiveness of
      bladder cancer cells and drive an aggressive phenotype in bladder cancer.

PMID- 28559998
TI  - A novel relationship for schizophrenia, bipolar and major depressive disorder
      Part 5: a hint from chromosome 5 high density association screen.
AB  - Familial clustering of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD), and major
      depressive disorder (MDD) was systematically reported (Aukes, M. F. Genet Med
      2012, 14, 338-341) and any two or even three of these disorders could co-exist in
      some families. In addition, evidence from symptomatology and psychopharmacology
      also imply that there are intrinsic connections between these three major
      disorders. A total of 56,569 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) on chromosome
      5 were genotyped by Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP array 6.0 on 119 SCZ, 253
      BPD (type-I), 177 MDD patients and 1000 controls. Associated SNPs and flanking
      genes was screen out systematically, and cadherin pathway genes (CDH6, CDH9,
      CDH10, CDH12, and CDH18) belong to outstanding genes. Unexpectedly, nearly all
      flanking genes of the associated SNPs distinctive for BPD and MDD were replicated
      in an enlarged cohort of 986 SCZ patients (P <= 9.9E-8). Considering multiple
      bits of evidence, our chromosome 5 analyses implicated that bipolar and major
      depressive disorder might be subtypes of schizophrenia rather than two
      independent disease entities. Also, cadherin pathway genes play important roles
      in the pathogenesis of the three major mental disorders.

PMID- 28560001
TI  - Icariside II induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human glioblastoma cells
      through suppressing Akt activation and potentiating FOXO3a activity.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor,
      and currently chemotherapeutic options for GBM are very limited. Given the poor
      prognosis, the development of novel anti-GBM agents is quite urgent. Using two
      human glioma cells (U87 and A172 cells), we demonstrated that Icariside II (ICA
      II), an active flavonoid compound derived from Epimedium koreanum, could inhibit
      GBM cell growth in a dose dependent manner. Wound healing data suggested that ICA
      II also inhibited the migration of human glioma cells. Mechanistically, ICA II
      induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and this cytotoxic effect was dependent
      on the reduction of Forkhead box O3a(FOXO3a) phosphorylation mediated by Akt and
      the enrichment of nuclear FOXO3a, which initiated the transcription of p21/p27.
      Importantly, the cytotoxic effect induced by ICA II could be reversed by
      silencing the expression of FOXO3a, suggesting the critical role of FOXO3a in
      this process. Taken together, we propose ICA II as a potential novel anti-GBM
      candidate with a mechanism of inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing
      apoptosis through suppressing Akt activation and potentiating FOXO3a activity.

PMID- 28560003
TI  - Glutamine with probiotics attenuates intestinal inflammation and oxidative stress
      in a rat burn injury model through altered iNOS gene aberrant methylation.
AB  - Severe burns may lead to intestinal inflammation and oxidative stress resulting
      in intestinal barrier damage and gut dysfunction. In the management of severe
      burns, therapies are needed to attenuate whole-body inflammatory responses and
      control the burden of oxidative stress. In this study, we evaluated the effects
      of oral glutamine (Gln) with probiotics on burn-induced intestinal inflammation
      and oxidative stress using a Wistar rat burn injury model. We then explored
      potential molecular mechanisms for the effects of glutamine and probiotics on
      intestinal tissue inflammation and oxidative stress. We found that glutamine and
      probiotics together significantly inhibited nitric oxide (NO) content; reduced
      levels of the inflammatory factors TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-8; and altered
      expression of oxidative stress factors including reactive oxygen species and
      superoxide dismutase. We found that the apoptotic proportion of intestinal
      epithelial cells in severely burned subjects was notably decreased following
      treatment with glutamine plus probiotics. We also found that glutamine and
      probiotics given together markedly reduced NO content by down-regulating the
      expression of iNOS in blood and intestinal tissue. These findings indicate that
      regulation of the iNOS gene plays a pivotal role in inflammation and oxidative
      stress in the response to severe burns in the Wistar rat. We then further
      investigated the mechanism by which combined therapy with glutamine and
      probiotics might reduce expression of iNOS and found that this treatment resulted
      in increased methylation of the iNOS gene. The methylation level of the iNOS gene
      was found to be regulated via differential expression of DNMT1 and Tet1.
      Collectively, our results suggest that combined therapy with glutamine and
      probiotics can markedly reduce the synthesis of NO, suppressing intestinal
      inflammation and oxidative stress in the Wistar rat burn injury model.

PMID- 28560002
TI  - Prostaglandin E1 protects coronary microvascular function via the glycogen
      synthase kinase 3beta-mitochondrial permeability transition pore pathway in rat
      hearts subjected to sodium laurate-induced coronary microembolization.
AB  - Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) is used as a pretreatment for ischemia reperfusion injury
      in many biological systems. However, its value as a pretreatment for coronary
      microembolization (CME) is unknown. The goal of this study was to determine
      whether PGE1 would protect against CME. In a CME rat model, we observed
      microthrombi and early myocardial ischemia, with endothelium appearing exfoliated
      and mitochondria having irregular morphology and decreased internal complexity.
      The level of fibrinogen-like protein 2 prothrombinase was increased and
      superoxide dismutase and catalase levels were decreased. Moreover, mitochondria
      copy number and mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening were
      increased. Pretreatment with PGE1 (1 or 2 MUg/kg) significantly improved these
      cardiological deficits, acting via the glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK-3beta)
      mPTP pathway. Unexpectedly, the phosphorylation of Akt at Ser473 decreased in the
      PGE1 at high dose. Overall, our findings suggested an important role for PGE1 in
      pretreatment of coronary microvascular dysfunction.

PMID- 28560005
TI  - Low-expression of TMEM100 is associated with poor prognosis in non-small-cell
      lung cancer.
AB  - Transmembrane protein 100 (TMEM100) was first identified as a transcript from the
      mouse genome. Recent studies have demonstrated that TMEM100 is involved in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) malignancy. However, the distribution and clinical
      significance of TMEM100 in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) remains poorly
      understood. This study aims to explore the significance of TMEM100 expression in
      NSCLC. We found that TMEM100 expression was significantly reduced in NSCLC
      tissues when compared with that in adjacent normal lung tissues (P<0.001). Kaplan
      Meier survival analysis showed that overall survival of patients with lower
      expressions of TMEM100 was significantly shorter (n=152, P<0.05). In addition,
      TMEM100 overexpression in NSCLC cell lines inhibited cell proliferation in vitro
      and in vivo. Transwell migration and invasion assay showed that TMEM100
      significantly suppressed the migration and invasion of NSCLC cell lines. In
      contrast, knocking down TMEM100 promoted NSCLC proliferation and migration.
      Finally, we found that TMEM100 worked as a cancer suppressor gene mainly by
      inhibiting the TNF signaling pathway. In conclusion, TMEM100 acted as a tumor
      suppressor in NSCLC and may prove to be a potential prognostic biomarker and
      therapeutic target for NSCLC.

PMID- 28560004
TI  - Impact of impaired cardiac function on the progression of chronic kidney disease-
      -role of pharmacomodulation of valsartan.
AB  - Although chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known to aggravate cardiovascular
      disease in the setting of cardiorenal syndrome (CRS), the impact of impaired
      cardiac function on the progression of CKD has seldom been reported. This study
      tested the impact of acute myocardial infarction on a rodent CKD model and the
      therapeutic effect of valsartan in this setting. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats
      (n = 50) equally divided into group 1 (sham control), group 2 (CKD induced by 5/6
      nephrectomy), group 3 (AMI by ligation of left coronary artery), group 4
      (CKD+AMI), group 5 (CKD+AMI+valsartan, orally 10 mg/kg/day). By day 60, kidney
      injury score, creatinine levels, and ratio of urine to creatinine were highest in
      group 4 and lowest in group 1, significantly higher in group 4 than those in
      groups 2 and 5, and significantly higher in group 5 than those in group 2 (all p
      < 0.001). Protein expressions of inflammation (IL-1beta/MMP-9), oxidative stress
      (NOX-1/NOX-2/oxidized protein, angiotensin-II receptor), apoptosis (Bax, cleaved
      caspase-3/PARP), fibrosis (Smad3/TGF-beta), and kidney injured (KIM-1/FSP-1)
      markers showed an identical pattern, whereas anti-fibrosis (Smad5/BMP-2) indices
      exhibited an opposite pattern compared to that of creatinine level among all
      groups (all p < 0.01). Cellular expressions of inflammation (CD14/CD68), DNA
      damage (gamma-H2AX, CD90/XRCC1) and proximal-renal tubule (KIM-1) biomarkers
      displayed an identical pattern, whereas podocyte-integrity markers (podocin/ZO
      1/p-cadherin/synaptopodin) showed a pattern opposite to that of creatinine level
      among all groups (all p < 0.001). In a rodent CKD setting, renal function
      impairment and parenchymal damage further deteriorated after AMI but were
      suppressed following valsartan treatment.

PMID- 28560006
TI  - Fat tissue, a potential Schwann cell reservoir: isolation and identification of
      adipose-derived Schwann cells.
AB  - Schwann cells can be used to promote peripheral nerve repair. However, it is
      challenging to obtain abundant autologous Schwann cells without sacrificing nerve
      integrity. In this study, we isolated Schwann cells from murine inguinal adipose
      tissue and identified the cell phenotype and function in vivo and in vitro.
      Through H&E and immunofluorescence staining, we detected tiny nerve fibers and
      Schwann cells in adipose tissue. We evaluated the phenotype of spindle-shaped
      cells (Schwann cell-like cells, SCLCs) isolated from adipose tissue using
      immunofluorescence staining and real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that SCLCs
      expressed specific Schwann cell markers. Analysis of conditioned SCLC culture
      media showed that, similar to Schwann cells isolated from sciatic nerves, SCLCs
      secreted NGF and BDNF. SCLCs were harvested from CAG-EGFP transgenic mice and
      combined with silicone nerve conduits to repair sciatic nerve defects in wild
      type mice. Six months post-surgery, we found EGFP-positive SCLCs forming myelin
      sheaths in the same way as sciatic nerve-derived Schwann cells. This research
      indicates the existence of Schwann cells in adipose tissue and identifies the
      spindle-shaped cells isolated from adipose tissue as Schwann cells using in vitro
      and in vivo evaluations. Thus, SCLCs might be promising seed cells for peripheral
      nerve tissue engineering.

PMID- 28560007
TI  - Use of immune modulation by human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells to treat
      experimental arthritis in mice.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease characterized
      by inflammatory cell infiltration and joint erosion. Human adipose-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells (hASCs) have shown the capacity of suppressing effector T
      cell activation and inflammatory cytokine expression. We investigated whether
      hASCs play a therapeutic role in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) by
      administering a single dose of hASCs in mice with established CIA. In vivo, a
      beneficial effect was observed following hASC infusion as shown by a marked
      decrease in the severity of arthritis. Human ASCs were detectable in the joints,
      and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased levels of anti
      inflammatory cytokines were observed in the sera of the hASC-treated mice.
      Furthermore, hASC treatment induced the expansion of regulatory T cells (Tregs)
      both in the peripheral blood and in the spleen tissues. In vitro, hASCs
      downregulated the production of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-1beta,
      and IL-6 in mouse macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and inhibited
      the proliferation of human primary T cells in response to mitogens. Thus hASCs
      represent a novel and effective therapeutic strategy for RA.

PMID- 28560008
TI  - GC7 blocks epithelial-mesenchymal transition and reverses hypoxia-induced
      chemotherapy resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
AB  - Hypoxia is common in solid tumors and results in the activation of hypoxia
      response genes. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) is thought to
      reflect major cellular adaptation to hypoxia and contributes to chemoresistance
      in various tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). N1-guanyl-1,7
      diaminoheptane (GC7) is an inhibitor which suppresses the active eukaryotic
      translation initiation factor 5A-2 (eIF5A2), preventing epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) in chemoresistance. In this study, we investigated the role of
      GC7 in the therapeutic effect of doxorubicin in hypoxia in HCC. We utilized four
      types of HCC cell line (Huh7, Hep3B, SNU387 and SNU449) in this study. Western
      blot and immunofluorescence were used to detect expression of
      epithelial/mesenchymal markers for EMT evaluation and HIF-1alpha was knocked down
      using HIF-1alpha-siRNA. Hypoxia-induced EMT contributed to doxorubicin
      chemoresistance in HCC cells. Low concentrations of GC7 sensitized Huh7 and Hep3B
      to doxorubicin by reversing EMT. Knockdown of HIF-1alpha attenuated hypoxia
      induced EMT and abolished the unique feature of GC7. GC7 enhanced sensitivity to
      doxorubicin in HCC by reversing hypoxia-induced EMT via the HIF-1alpha-mediated
      signaling pathway. We suggest a new method of enhancing cytotoxicity of
      chemotherapy and improving the long-term survival rate in HCC.

PMID- 28560009
TI  - Analysis of different bicruciate-retaining tibial prosthesis design using a three
      dimension finite element model.
AB  - The recent interest in bicruciate-retaining prostheses has aimed to address the
      need for an implant that can mimic a natural knee. Arguments have always existed
      about survivorship, including loosening and subsidence, as well as tibial
      preparation in bicruciate-retaining tibial prostheses. The aim of this study was
      to investigate the biomechanics of a new modular design and other bicruciate
      retaining designs using a three-dimensional finite element model under different
      load conditions to discover which prosthesis was more suitable. We also evaluated
      related parameters (the third principal stress, shear stress, micromotion, and
      von Mises stresses) to compare the characteristics of different bicruciate
      retaining designs. The biomechanics of the bicruciate-retaining tibial prosthesis
      can be influenced by the style of the designed prosthesis and gait loading. The
      new modular design showed stability and moderated the third principal stress,
      leading to less shear stress and stress shield, suggesting that this type of
      design can avoid knee prosthesis loosening and subsidence. Therefore, the new
      design may be used as a more suitable prosthesis for future bicruciate-retaining
      implant application.

PMID- 28560010
TI  - Hyperbaric oxygen treatment attenuates neuropathic pain by elevating autophagy
      flux via inhibiting mTOR pathway.
AB  - Peripheral neuropathic pain is a complex disease, and treated based on underlying
      diseases. Emerging evidences suggest that hyperbaric oxygen alleviates
      neuropathic pain. However, its cellular and molecular mechanism on pain relief is
      unknown. We hypothesize that hyperbaric oxygen alleviates neuropathic pain via
      activating autophagy flux and inhibiting mTOR pathway. Hyperbaric oxygen
      effectively inhibited nerve injury induced autophagy impairment and mTOR pathway
      activation in a rat spinal nerve ligation (SNL) model. Moreover, intrathecal
      injection of rapamycin, an autophagy inducer, enhanced hyperbaric oxygen effect
      by further decreasing mTOR activity. In contrast, chloroquine, an autophagy
      inhibitor, counteracted hyperbaric oxygen analgesic effect. These findings
      indicate that hyperbaric oxygen attenuated neuropathic pain by increasing spinal
      autophagic flux via inhibiting mTOR pathway. Our study provides pre-clinical
      evidences in expediting hyperbaric oxygen become a safe clinical treatment of
      neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28560011
TI  - Peutz-Jeghers syndrome with early onset of pre-adolescent gynecomastia: a
      predigree case report and clinical and molecular genetic analysis.
AB  - This study reports a case of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome with early onset of
      gynecomastia, and discusses its clinical characteristics and genetic changes in a
      family. The clinical characteristics of a child diagnosed with Peutz-Jeghers
      syndrome in our hospital and his parents were summarized, and related genes were
      detected in the child and his parents. Furthermore, the therapeutic effect of
      letrozole was also observed. A five-year-and-three-month-old male patient visited
      a doctor due to "progressive painless enlargements at bilateral breast for more
      than two years". The mother of the patient had breast hyperplasia and ovarian
      cysts, had no hematemesis and hematochezia history, and had two 1-mm pigmented
      spots on the palm side of the left thumb. The father of the patient revealed no
      abnormalities. In the child, luteinizing hormone (LH) release peak induced by
      luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) excitation testing was 0.29 U/l, and
      follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) peak was 0.41 U/l. Karyotype: 46, XY. Gene
      sequencing revealed a mutation c.658C>T in the serine threonine kinase 11 (STK11)
      gene in the child and this mother, while the child's father was normal. After one
      year of oral administration of letrozole, the boy's breasts reduced to stage B2,
      bone age was 10 years and eight months old, and DeltaBA/DeltaCA ratio was <1. The
      patient had early onset of pre-adolescent gynecomastia, had no obvious
      gastrointestinal symptoms, presented with a few pigmented spots in the skin
      mucosa, and was diagnosed with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome by genetic testing.
      Letrozole treatment can effectively control the development of breast and
      progression of bone age.

PMID- 28560012
TI  - RIZ1 negatively regulates ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2C/UbcH10 via targeting c
      Myc in meningioma.
AB  - RIZ1 has been considered as an important tumor suppressor gene. Our previous
      studies have already demonstrated that the expression of RIZ1 is closely related
      to the occurrence and development of meningioma. In addition, we also found that
      the expression of UbcH10 was related to the pathologic grade of meningioma which
      also affected the prognosis of these patients. However, we are lack of the
      understanding of the effect of UbcH10 on cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell
      cycle and other functions in meningioma cells. Besides, the regulation mechanism
      between RIZ1 and UbcH10 still remains unclear. In this study, we attempted to
      demonstrated that UbcH10 was a downstream target of RIZ1 and reported that UbcH10
      silencing might negatively regulate cell proliferation, migration, invasion and
      promote apoptosis, which is similar to the cell phenotype that of over expressed
      RIZ1. Mechanistically, we proved that UbcH10 was a c-Myc target gene and that
      RIZ1 regulated UbcH10 expression in a c-Myc-dependent manner. For the first time,
      our study demonstrated that UbcH10 played a key role in the proliferation,
      metastasis and apoptosis of primary human malignant meningioma cells. In
      addition, the mechanism of RIZ1 regulating UbcH10 is also clear. Our study can
      also provide a potential target and new idea for the follow-up molecular
      intervention in clinical malignant meningiomas.

PMID- 28560013
TI  - Stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha and transforming growth factor-beta1
      synergistically facilitate migration and chondrogenesis of synovium-derived stem
      cells through MAPK pathways.
AB  - The clinical translation of tissue engineering methods is confined by the limited
      external cell sources, which is hopefully to be addressed by the cell guidance
      approach as cytokine-induced homing and differentiation of the patients'
      autologous cells. Synovium-derived stem cells (SDSCs) are a potent cell source
      for cartilage restoration due to its intrinsic proximity and tissue-specific
      chondrogenic capacity. In this study, stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF
      1alpha) in combination with transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) were
      used to induce SDSCs migration and chondrogenesis in vitro. The migration
      capacity was evaluated by transwell assay and for chondrogenic evaluation, the
      expression of Sox9, ACAN and COL2A1 were assessed by quantitative RT-PCR while
      the expression of sulfated GAG and collagen II were evaluated by Alcian Blue
      stain and immunohistochemistry respectively. Our data showed that SDF-1alpha/CXC
      chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) was involved in SDSCs migration through
      phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway. Exogenous TGF
      beta1 enhanced SDF-1alpha-induced SDSCs migration in a concentration and time
      dependent manner through CXCR4, evidenced as complete blockage by AMD3100, the
      CXCR4 antagonist and this effect was mediated by extracellular regulated protein
      kinases (ERK) activation. Moreover, the addition of SDF-1alpha augmented the TGF
      beta1-induced SDSCs chondrogenesis, evidenced by the increased pellet sizes and
      the expressions of COL 2A1, ACAN and Sox9. This effect was related to c-Jun N
      terminal kinase (JNK) activation. Collectively, these results suggest that SDF
      1alpha and TGF-beta1 interacts with each other and synergistically enhance the
      SDSCs migration and chondrogenesis through MAPK pathways.

PMID- 28560014
TI  - The "Spinner" Illusion: More Dots, More Speed?
AB  - The perceived speed of a ring of equally spaced dots moving around a circular
      path appears faster as the number of dots increases (Ho & Anstis, 2013, Best
      Illusion of the Year contest). We measured this "spinner" effect with radial
      sinusoidal gratings, using a 2AFC procedure where participants selected the
      faster one between two briefly presented gratings of different spatial
      frequencies (SFs) rotating at various angular speeds. Compared with the reference
      stimulus with 4 c/rev (0.64 c/rad), participants consistently overestimated the
      angular speed for test stimuli of higher radial SFs but underestimated that for a
      test stimulus of lower radial SFs. The spinner effect increased in magnitude but
      saturated rapidly as the test radial SF increased. Similar effects were observed
      with translating linear sinusoidal gratings of different SFs. Our results support
      the idea that human speed perception is biased by temporal frequency, which
      physically goes up as SF increases when the speed is held constant. Hence, the
      more dots or lines, the greater the perceived speed when they are moving
      coherently in a defined area.

PMID- 28560016
TI  - A case of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the bladder with prolonged
      spontaneous remission.
AB  - Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) of the urinary bladder are rare. We
      present a case of a 72-year-old man who presented with back pain and acute renal
      failure. Ultrasound showed a soft tissue mass in the base of the bladder causing
      bilateral ureteric obstruction. Subsequent biopsy of this mass demonstrated
      neuroendocrine carcinoma. He was commenced on neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      (carboplatin/etoposide) and proceeded to a radical cysto-prostatectomy. Histology
      revealed a LCNEC involving the bladder, T4a with invasion through to adipose
      tissue and posteriorly at perivesical resection margins. In addition, there was a
      Gleason score 9 prostatic adenocarcinoma, distinct from the neuroendocrine
      carcinoma. Following surgery, the patient developed gross local-regional
      recurrence and refused further systemic therapy. However, 1 year following
      referral to palliative care, a further CT-PET showed complete spontaneous
      remission of his disease. There are only few case reports of LCNEC of the urinary
      bladder therefore the pathogenesis and treatment protocol are still unclear. This
      case report highlights the unpredictable nature of this disease.

PMID- 28560017
TI  - An unusual case of traumatic bilateral hip dislocation without fracture.
AB  - Bilateral traumatic hip dislocations are extremely rare. Most of these are
      related to acetabular or proximal femoral fractures, consisting of complex
      lesions, and are rarely pure ligamentous injuries. Posterior dislocation is the
      most frequent. Some dislocations are accompanied by sciatic nerve palsy. The
      present case is a posterior bilateral hip dislocation with no other associated
      lesions, there are very few reports published with this clinical setting. The
      patient had good functional outcome.

PMID- 28560015
TI  - A mini review focused on the proangiogenic role of silicate ions released from
      silicon-containing biomaterials.
AB  - Angiogenesis is considered an important issue in the development of biomaterials
      for the successful regeneration of tissues including bone. While growth factors
      are commonly used with biomaterials to promote angiogenesis, some ions released
      from biomaterials can also contribute to angiogenic events. Many silica-based
      biomaterials have been widely used for the repair and regeneration of tissues,
      mainly hard tissues such as bone and tooth structure. They have shown excellent
      performance in bone formation by stimulating angiogenesis. The release of
      silicate and others (Co and Cu ions) has therefore been implicated to play
      critical roles in the angiogenesis process. In this short review, we highlight
      the in vitro and in vivo findings of angiogenesis (and the related bone
      formation) stimulated by the various types of silicon-containing biomaterials
      where silicate ions released might play essential roles. We discuss further the
      possible molecular mechanisms underlying in the ion-induced angiogenic events.

PMID- 28560018
TI  - Internal hernia after laparoscopic right hemicolectomy, report of a case.
AB  - Mesenteric defects are often not closed in laparoscopic colectomy. We herein
      report a case of an internal hernia projecting through a mesenteric defect
      following laparoscopy-assisted right hemicolectomy. A 74-year-old woman was
      hospitalized for the surgical treatment of double colon cancer. Preoperative
      colonoscopy demonstrated the presence of ascending colon and transverse colon
      cancers. A laparoscopic-assisted right hemicolectomy was performed. The
      mesenteric defect resulting from the colectomy was not closed. Three months after
      the surgery, the patient developed a bowel obstruction. Under a diagnosis of
      strangulated bowel obstruction, we performed a laparotomy, and found a necrotic
      small bowel, which had passed into the bursa omentalis through the mesenteric
      defect. We removed the necrotic small bowel and closed the mesenteric defect by
      suturing. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful. An internal hernia
      projecting through a mesenteric defect following laparoscopy-assisted right
      hemicolectomy developed a severe strangulated bowel obstruction.

PMID- 28560019
TI  - Post-transplantation nephroptosis causing recurrent episodes of acute renal
      failure and hypertension secondary to intermittent vascular torsion of
      intraperitoneal renal allograft.
AB  - Nephroptosis is a rare complication in renal transplantation, but one with
      significant associated risk. Due to non-specific clinical features, there may be
      a substantial delay in diagnosis and loss of the transplanted kidney due to renal
      pedicle thrombosis. We present a case of post-transplantation nephroptosis after
      simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant, which resulted in accelerated
      hypertension and reversible acute kidney injury >1 year after transplantation.
      Prompt detection of this rare entity leading to expeditious surgical intervention
      is necessary to preserve viability of the renal allograft.

PMID- 28560020
TI  - Intracranial monodermal teratoma presenting with growing teratoma syndrome.
AB  - Intracranial teratomas are rare. We report a case of a purely monodermal teratoma
      manifesting as intracranial growing teratoma syndrome. To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first report of such nature in the literature.

PMID- 28560021
TI  - 'Coexisting pituitary adenoma and suprasellar meningioma-a coincidence or
      causation effect: report of two cases and review of the literature'.
AB  - Coexistence of pituitary adenoma (PA) and another type of brain tumor is a very
      rare clinical scenario. Even though such a presentation can be an incidental
      event but a thorough review of the literature will be made to elucidate the
      possible mechanisms and treatment options in similar cases. Two cases of
      concomitant sellar and suprasellar/diaphragmatic tumors are reported. A 37-year
      old lady with prolactinoma and a suprasellar diaphragmatic meningioma and a 42
      year-old acromegalic man with suprasellar/diaphragmatic meningioma and a PA. Both
      meningiomas were removed transcranially. The prolactinoma could be managed
      medically and the growth hormone secreting adenoma was removed trans
      sphenoidally. The visual problems and hormonal imbalances of both patients
      improved postoperatively. The literature is reviewed on this topic and the
      possible pathogenesis and management protocol of similar lesions are discussed.

PMID- 28560022
TI  - Combined TRAM flap with latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap for reconstruction of
      a large breast post-radiation induced necrosis.
AB  - Radiation therapy is a critical component of breast cancer management following
      breast-conserving surgery. Post-radiation sequelae are greater in women with
      larger breasts, given the need for higher doses and dosing heterogeneity. The
      goal of breast reconstruction post-mastectomy is to improve the quality of life
      and add no more health risk. The optimal reconstruction should make the patient
      feel as natural as possible. Reconstruction of a large-sized breast with
      aesthetically satisfactory outcome poses a challenge to the breast surgeon. The
      breast of most Egyptian women is of a large volume with variable degrees of
      ptosis, thus it is difficult to reconstruct such a large-ptotic breast using an
      implant. We describe the successful reconstruction of a large-sized breast after
      radiation-induced necrosis using a combined transverse myocutaneous rectus
      abdominis flap and latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap reconstruction. The
      combined use of both flaps offered a more natural breast reconstruction and
      avoided the use of any implants.

PMID- 28560023
TI  - Malrotation with midgut volvulus in an adult: a case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - We report a case of a 53-year-old male who presented with acute onset right upper
      quadrant (RUQ) abdominal pain with investigations demonstrating malrotation
      causing midgut volvulus and subsequent intestinal obstruction. The patient was
      consented for an emergent operation and underwent an exploratory laparotomy.
      Operative findings included the presence of adhesive bands in the RUQ (Ladd's
      Band), volvulus of the mid-portion of the small bowel in a clockwise fashion and
      multiple intra-abdominal adhesions causing internal hernias. We subsequently
      performed a Ladd's procedure and the patient had an uneventful recovery with
      eventual discharge on postoperative day 8. This case report reviews the incidence
      of malrotation in adults. It also highlights the difficulty in diagnosing midgut
      volvulus in the adult population given the nonspecific, insidious symptoms
      therefore prompting awareness of its existence and a high degree of clinical
      suspicion.

PMID- 28560024
TI  - Neuroendocrine carcinoma as a rare cause of jejunal intussusception in an adult.
      Management and literature review.
AB  - Intussusception of the small bowel is an uncommon condition, with the majority of
      cases being observed during infancy. A number of points are responsible, with
      benign and malignant lesions of the small intestine being the most common.
      Herein, we present the case of a 75-year-old male patient with vague abdominal
      pain and black stool during defecation, who underwent surgery due to jejunal
      intussusception. Pathology report demonstrated a neuroendocrine carcinoma as the
      underlying cause for his condition, with no additional metastases during the
      initial diagnosis. Although a conservative approach for management of
      intussusception is viable, the possibility of gastric outlet obstruction and the
      presence of malignancy as the primary point usually lead to urgent surgery. In
      the case of malignancy, adjuvant chemotherapy or additional symptomatic therapy
      with close follow-up may be required depending on tumor's grade and
      aggressiveness.

PMID- 28560025
TI  - An unusual case of massive hematemesis caused by aorto-esophageal fistula due to
      mycotic aneurysm of mid-thoracic aorta in a patient without prior aortic
      instrumentation.
AB  - In the words of Sir William Osler: "There is no disease more conducive to
      clinical humility than aneurysms of the aorta". Here, we describe a case of a
      primary fistulous tract between a pseudoaneurysm sac and a portion of the mid
      thoracic esophagus leading to massive extravasation of blood causing hemorrhagic
      shock in a 71-year-old female.

PMID- 28560026
TI  - Conservative management of a traumatic common iliac venous pseudoaneurysm: a case
      report.
AB  - Limited evidence-based protocols exist regarding the management of venous
      pseudoaneurysms. Cases reports have documented surgical treatments including
      endovascular coil embolization or suture ligation in the setting of hemodynamic
      stability. Depending on the location of the venous injury, a more conservative
      approach to a stable pseudoaneurysm may be advantageous. This report describes a
      case of a patient who sustained a blunt traumatic common iliac vein
      pseudoaneurysm who was successfully managed non-operatively.

PMID- 28560027
TI  - Successful surgical employment of Impella recovery system for right ventricular
      failure after previous aortic valve replacement.
AB  - A 58-year-old woman underwent aortic valve replacement. On the second
      postoperative day the patient referred a sharply chest pain, and an emergent
      coronary angiography revealed total occlusion of the right coronary artery. An
      intra-aortic ballon pump was placed and the patient underwent emergent off-pump
      coronary revascularization of the right coronary artery. Five hours later, due to
      unstable hemodynamic the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was implanted
      without improvement of the right ventricular (RV) function. Then we decided to
      implant the Impella Right Direct (RD). After 9 days of Impella's insertion the RV
      was recovered and the device was successfully explanted. After 16 days of Impella
      explanted the patient was discharged. This case suggest that implantation of
      Impella RD is clinically feasible, associated with hemodynamic improvement, and
      facilitate successful bridge-to-recovery in patients with post-cardiotomy RV
      failure due to myocardial infarction unresponsive to coronary artery bypass
      grafting, maximal medical therapy, contrapulsation and extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation.

PMID- 28560028
TI  - Aortic rupture due to radiation injury successfully treated with thoracic
      endovascular aortic repair.
AB  - Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) has been reported to be an effective
      treatment option for aortic emergencies. However, there are few reports about
      TEVAR for aortic rupture due to radiation injury. A 54-year-old man presented
      with haemoptysis. He had a history of lung cancer, which had been treated with
      chemotherapy and radiation therapy (72 Gy/16 times) 3 years previously, and the
      cancer lesion did not progress. On chest radiography, pneumonia was suspected in
      the radiated lesion. However, after admission, he presented with back pain,
      progressive anaemia and hypotension. Enhanced computed tomography revealed
      extravasation of contrast medium in the distal aortic arch. He was diagnosed with
      aortic rupture due to radiation injury. TEVAR was performed. He was extubated one
      day after the operation, and the haemoptysis disappeared. He was discharged from
      the hospital without any complications. He is well 1 year after the surgery,
      without aortic disease progression or lung cancer recurrence.

PMID- 28560029
TI  - Is there a doctor in the house? Availability of Israeli physicians to the
      workforce.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Israeli policymakers have expressed serious concerns about being able
      to meet the growing demand for physician services. For this reason, the Israel
      Ministry of Health (MoH) undertook studies based on 2008 and then 2012 data to
      obtain an accurate assessment of the size, specialty mix, demographic and
      geographic composition of the physician workforce. This paper highlights the
      findings from these studies about the number and percentage of licensed
      physicians in Israel who were not available, were only partially available, or
      were about to leave the Israeli healthcare workforce. METHODS: The two studies
      cross-linked administrative files of the entire physician population in Israel.
      The two sources were the MoH registry of licensed physicians, which contains
      demographic, medical education and specialty information, and the Israel Tax
      Authority income file on employment data. A third source, used only for the study
      of 2008 data, was the CBS Population Census Data 2008 which was based on a large
      representative sample of the population (14%), along with the updated Population
      Registry, which provided data on physicians whose occupation was in medical care
      as well as the number of work-hours. By linking the files we could also assess
      the population of licensed Israeli physicians living abroad. RESULTS: Only 74% of
      licensed physicians of all ages in 2012 were active in the Israeli workforce. Of
      physicians under the age of 70, 87% were living and working in Israel. Female
      physicians tended to retire from the workforce earlier than males and were more
      likely to work fewer hours during their working years. The rate of physicians who
      worked longer hours declined in both genders as age rose. About 10% of licensees
      had been living abroad for at least a year and the majority of these were older.
      Approximately 7% of licensed physicians, ages 30-44, were abroad and most are
      presumed to be doing additional clinical training or gaining research experience.
      In some specialty fields young physicians were not replacing retirees at a
      compensatory rate; anesthesiologists, a specialty in short supply in Israel were
      more likely to be living abroad than other specialists. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment
      of the medical workforce pool and personnel planning require not just the number
      of licensed physicians but also information about the employment mix of license
      holders and their level of professional activity in Israel. For planning future
      workforce needs, it is important to keep in mind that the average female vs. male
      physician has lower clinical productivity due to shorter hours and earlier
      retirement and that a group of young physicians will predictably be abroad at any
      point in time; however major "brain drain" is not evident. Furthermore,
      extrapolating from the findings in the current studies, we believe that a
      potential shortage of physicians within Israel can be mitigated by better
      administrative support of physicians, use of physician extenders, and careful
      attention to improving physician satisfaction in certain specialties.

PMID- 28560030
TI  - Thoracolumbar epidural anaesthesia with 0.5% bupivacaine with or without
      methadone in goats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidural anaesthesia is one of the most commonly used locoregional
      techniques in ruminants. The lumbosacral epidural technique is reasonably easy to
      perform and requires low volumes of local anaesthetic drug to allow procedures
      caudal to the umbilicus. However, surgical procedures in the flank of the animal
      would require an increased volume of drugs. The anaesthetized area provided by
      thoracic epidural technique is larger than the lumbosacral technique; however the
      former is rather challenging to perform. Therefore, access through lumbosacral
      area to introduce a catheter into the thoracolumbar space is a potential
      alternative to thoracic access. Epidural anaesthesia is achieved with local
      anaesthetics; opioids can be added to improve analgesia. This study aimed to
      evaluate the effects of 0.5% bupivacaine with or without methadone, administered
      through an epidural catheter inserted through the lumbosacral access and advanced
      to the thoracolumbar space, on thoracolumbar epidural anaesthesia in goats.
      METHODS: Six animals received two treatments each in a randomized crossover
      study: BUP treatment consisted of 0.5% bupivacaine (1 mL per each 10 cm of spine
      column; 1 +/- 0.2 mg/kg BW) and BMT treatment was the same; however 1 mL of
      bupivacaine was replaced by 1 mL (0.22 +/- 0.03 mg/kg BW) of methadone (10
      mg/mL). The treatments were administered near to T11-T12 through an epidural
      catheter. Motor blockade and analgesia were evaluated by electrical stimulation.
      RESULTS: Heart rate, respiratory rate, ruminal motility and rectal temperature
      were evaluated before and after the treatment. Motor blockade was observed on
      both treatments, up to 6 h post-treatment. Analgesia was observed on BUP up to 4
      h and on BMT up to 6 h post-treatment. Physiological values did not change at any
      moment. CONCLUSIONS: Bupivacaine-methadone combination promoted longer-lasting
      analgesia in goats compared to bupivacaine alone when administered through an
      epidural catheter into the thoracolumbar space.

PMID- 28560032
TI  - Transauricular intra-arterial and intravenous digital subtraction angiography for
      abdominal aortic aneurysm imaging in a rabbit model.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate transauricular digital subtraction
      angiography (DSA) as an alternative to conventional intra-arterial DSA for rabbit
      abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: AAA models were created
      in 8 New Zealand white rabbits by sewing vein patch. The diameters of aortic
      arteries were measured by DSA via ear vein and ear central artery. The common
      carotid artery (CCA) was exposed and cannulated for DSA as conventional
      angiography. Diameter size was measured and compared. RESULTS: Aortic diameters,
      tested by DSA via ear vein, ear central artery and CCA were 7.9 +/- 1.2 mm, 7.8
      +/- 1.0 mm and 7.9 +/- 1.1 mm respectively, with no significant differences.
      Angiography via CCA as standard procedure, correlation in aneurysm neck diameter
      was r = 0.93 for IVDSA and r = 0.96 for angiography via central artery (P <
      0.01); Correlation in AAA diameter was r = 0.99 for IVDSA and r = 0.99 for
      angiography via central artery (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Transauricular DSA
      shows good correlation to conventional DSA, can be used repeatedly with less
      invasiveness, and suitable for rabbit AAA follow-up study.

PMID- 28560033
TI  - Comparison of outcome of VLCP versus PKEF in the treatment of AO type C2-3 distal
      radial fractures.
AB  - PURPOSES: Fractures of the distal radius are extremely common in adults. However,
      the optimal management remains controversial, especially in AO type C2-3 (Type23
      C2 or C3 of distal radial fracture, according to AO classifications). The purpose
      of this study was to compare the results of the volar locking compression plate
      (VLCP) and percutaneous Kirschner-wires combined with external fixation (PKEF) in
      the treatment of the AO type C2-3 fractures. METHODS: From July 2012 to June
      2015, 62 patients with AO type C2-3 fractures, treated by VLCP or PKEF, were
      included in this retrospective study. Patients were followed up at 3 months, 6
      months after operation, and final follow up. Outcomes were assessed by
      radiographic features in all follow up and by DASH and Sarmiento's modification
      of the Gartland-Werley score at final follow up. RUSULTS: No significant
      difference was noted between these two groups in terms of volar inclination,
      ulnar angulation and ulnar variance. There was also no significant difference on
      DASH score between these two groups. However, according to the Sarmiento's
      modification of the Gartland-Werley scores, the scores was higher in VLCP group
      than the PKEF group, and ratings of excellent and good were lower in the VLCP
      group (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both techniques could get satisfactory results in
      the treatment of AO type C2-3 fractures, but PKEF leads to better wrist function
      than VLCP .

PMID- 28560034
TI  - Spontaneous temporomandibular joint herniation into the external auditory canal
      through a patent foramen of Huschke: A case report.
AB  - Temporomandibular joint herniation (TMJ) can be caused by inflammation, trauma,
      tumor, or otologic procedures. However, spontaneous TMJ herniation can also occur
      as a result of a congenital bony defect in the external auditory canal (EAC),
      known as the patent foramen of Huschke (PFH), and occurs in 0.4% of the
      population. Herein, the authors present a case of spontaneous TMJ herniation
      through the PFH with clicking tinnitus. The patient underwent the surgical repair
      of bony defect in the EAC with placement of titanium mesh, and the symptom
      disappeared after surgery. They also review the relevant literature regarding
      this disease and discuss its embryologic development and clinical significance.

PMID- 28560031
TI  - Nuclear roles for cilia-associated proteins.
AB  - Cilia appear to be derived, evolutionarily, from structures present in the
      ancestral (pre-ciliary) eukaryote, such as microtubule-based vesicle trafficking
      and chromosome segregation systems. Experimental observations suggest that the
      ciliary gate, the molecular complex that mediates the selective molecular
      movement between cytoplasmic and ciliary compartments, shares features with
      nuclear pores. Our hypothesis is that this shared transport machinery is at least
      partially responsible for the observation that a number of ciliary and
      ciliogenesis-associated proteins are found within nuclei where they play roles in
      the regulation of gene expression, DNA repair, and nuclear import and export.
      Recognizing the potential for such nuclear roles is critical when considering the
      phenotypic effects that arise from the mutational modification of ciliary
      proteins.

PMID- 28560035
TI  - Completeness in clerking: The surgical admissions proforma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The accessibility of surgical patient data is a key safety concern,
      and relies on efficient clerking and handovers. This project assessed whether the
      introduction of a surgical clerking proforma improved the recording of patient
      information in the surgical admissions unit (SAU) at Northwick Park Hospital.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Existing patient notes were assessed on content and ease
      of access, using two independent surveys conducted over a 5-day period. The first
      survey audited patient notes before (n = 28) and after (n = 23) the introduction
      of the proforma. It assessed whether key patient details were documented, in line
      with the 17 criteria set out in the Guidelines for Clinicians on Medical Records
      and Notes by The Royal College of Surgeons in England. The second survey
      questioned healthcare professionals before (n = 25) and after (n = 17) proforma
      implementation on the accessibility of patient data and coherency of patient
      notes. RESULTS: 5 of the 17 criteria showed significant differences post proforma
      implementation. Of these differences, the recording of height and occupation was
      most notable (p < 0.01). Medication history, weight and investigations also
      showed significant increases in documentation (p < 0.05). In all 3 questions
      asked to healthcare professionals, fewer healthcare professionals were required
      to revisit archived notes following proforma implementation (p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Our study illustrates that a comprehensive surgical clerking proforma
      improves patient data documentation and saves healthcare professionals' time
      compared to the freehand clerking method. The implications of such work are far
      reaching, and if well implemented could allow a new reliable platform for further
      clinical audits.

PMID- 28560036
TI  - Barriers and motivations for health insurance subscription in Cape Coast, Ghana:
      a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the main objectives of the Ghana National Health Insurance
      Scheme, at its establishment in 2003, was to ease financial burden of the full
      cost recovery policy, particularly on the poor. However, currently, majority of
      the scheme's subscribers are individuals in the upper wealth quintile, as the
      poor in society rather have not subscribed. We explored the motivational factors
      as well as the barriers to health insurance subscription in the Cape Coast
      Metropolis of Ghana. METHODS: This study collected qualitative data from 30
      purposively selected subscribers and non-subscribers to the National Health
      Insurance Scheme using an in-depth interview guide. RESULTS: Major motivational
      factors identified were; affordable health insurance premium, access to free
      drugs, and social security against unforeseen health challenges. Encouragement by
      friends, family members, and colleagues, was also found to motivate subscription
      to the health insurance. The major barriers to health insurance subscription
      included; long queues and waiting time, perceived poor quality of drugs, and
      negative attitude of service providers both at the healthcare facilities and the
      health insurance office. The study underscores the need for the National Health
      Insurance Authority to conduct intensive education to change the negative
      perception people have regarding the quality of health insurance drugs. Efforts
      should also be made to reduce the waiting time in accessing healthcare with the
      National Health Insurance Scheme card. This would motivate more people to
      subscribe or renew their membership. CONCLUSIONS: The implication of barriers
      found is that people may not subscribe to the scheme in subsequent years. This
      would, therefore, consequently defeat the objective of achieving universal
      healthcare coverage with the scheme.

PMID- 28560037
TI  - Instant velocity and consistency of emitted cloud change by the different levels
      of canister filling with Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs), but not with Soft Mist
      Inhalers (SMIs): a bench study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhalation is the preferred route for respiratory drug delivery, but
      several factors contribute to the variability of the respirable dose fraction.
      Instant velocity and the dynamic characteristics of the droplet cloud represent
      crucial factors. Aim was to measure and compare the instant velocity and the
      consistency of emitted cloud from five different MDIs (A - Salbutamol sulphate
      100mcg, GSK; B - Salbutamol sulphate 100mcg, Valeas; C - Salmeterol
      xinafoate/Fluticasone propionate 25/125mcg, GSK; D - Formoterol
      fumarate/Bechlomethasone propionate 6/100mcg, Chiesi; E - Formoterol
      fumarate/Fluticasone dipropionate 5/125mcg, Mundipharma) and one SMI (Tiotropium
      bromide 5mcg, Boehringer Ingelheim), at different distance from the nozzle and
      canister filling. METHODS: Measurements were made at 90, 50, and 10% of canister
      filling, and at 5, 10, and 20 cm from the nozzle, for a total of 972 puffs. A
      high speed video photography protocol was adopted and high speed cameras (1.200
      frames/sec.) were used. Data were acquired by means of specialized softwares.
      Temperature, humidity, and vibrations occurrence were strictly controlled during
      measurements. Statistics: Anova and p < 0.05 were accepted as the minimum
      significance level. RESULTS: MDIs generated different Instant velocities: MDI B
      generated the highest, while MDI A the lowest. As expected, velocity decreased in
      proportion to the distance from the nozzle. Except with MDI C, instant velocity
      decreased significantly over the first 50% of canister emptying, but dropped by
      >33% at 90% of emptying with all other MDIs (p < 0-037; p < 0.001; p < 0.005, and
      p < 0.001, respectively). Instant velocity was extremely lower (p < 0.001) and
      constant for all levels of canister filling (p = ns) with SMI. All MDIs had a
      very fast jet phase, ranging 0.01-0.03 s at 10 cm, and 0.03-0.05 s at 20 cm from
      the nozzle, without any significant difference from each other (p = ns). MDIs
      generated a cloud similarly tight (p = ns) at 10 and 20 cm from the nozzle, while
      it was extremely wider and constant with the SMI (p = 0-001). Also the cloud
      turbulence was minimized during the SMI emission. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
      MDIs are characterized by a substantial variability in both their instant
      velocity and consistency of the emitted cloud at different levels of canister
      filling. SMI generates a much slower soft mist cloud which is constantly
      homogeneous and independent of canister emptying. These peculiarities assessed at
      bench are suggesting a higher dose consistency and a much more effective
      therapeutic performance also in real life.

PMID- 28560038
TI  - Mutational status predicts the risk of thromboembolic events in lung
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Precision medicine promises to improve prognosis of patients affected
      by untreatable diseases. Patients with lung cancer (especially lung
      adenocarcinoma) bear an increased risk of VTE. Mutations in the EGFR and
      rearrangement in the ALK genes identify specific subgroups of patients. Aim of
      this study was to investigate the role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutational status on the risk of venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) in lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: A retrospective
      longitudinal design was used. Patients with lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed and
      undergoing a mutational analysis at the Karolinska University Hospital,
      Stockholm, Sweden between January 2009 and September 2015 were divided in three
      subgroups based on their mutational status (EGFR-, ALK-mutated, unexposed group).
      Event-free time for VTE was assessed using Cox regression analysis based on
      mutation status and treatment received. RESULTS: Three hundred-ten patients were
      included. A VTE occurred in 70 (22.6%) patients. Mutation of EGFR was associated
      with a decreased risk of VTE (HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.23-0.94). Treatment with tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors (TKI) reduced the risk of VTE compared to other treatment
      strategies not including TKI (HR 0.42, 95% CI 0.29-0.79). CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      suggests that patients with lung adenocarcinoma bearing a EGFR-mutation have a
      decreased risk of VTE compared with patients with other forms of lung
      adenocarcinoma. Targeted therapy with TKI alone or in combination with other
      treatments seems to reduce the risk of VTE compared to other treatments not
      including TKI.

PMID- 28560039
TI  - Percentile ranks and benchmark estimates of change for the Health Education
      Impact Questionnaire: Normative data from an Australian sample.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Participant self-report data play an essential role in the evaluation
      of health education activities, programmes and policies. When questionnaire items
      do not have a clear mapping to a performance-based continuum, percentile norms
      are useful for communicating individual test results to users. Similarly, when
      assessing programme impact, the comparison of effect sizes for group differences
      or baseline to follow-up change with effect sizes observed in relevant normative
      data provides more directly useful information compared with statistical tests of
      mean differences and the evaluation of effect sizes for substantive significance
      using universal rule-of-thumb such as those for Cohen's 'd'. This article aims to
      assist managers, programme staff and clinicians of healthcare organisations who
      use the Health Education Impact Questionnaire interpret their results using
      percentile norms for individual baseline and follow-up scores together with group
      effect sizes for change across the duration of typical chronic disease self
      management and support programme. METHODS: Percentile norms for individual Health
      Education Impact Questionnaire scale scores and effect sizes for group change
      were calculated using freely available software for each of the eight Health
      Education Impact Questionnaire scales. Data used were archived responses of 2157
      participants of chronic disease self-management programmes conducted by a wide
      range of organisations in Australia between July 2007 and March 2013. RESULTS:
      Tables of percentile norms and three possible effect size benchmarks for baseline
      to follow-up change are provided together with two worked examples to assist
      interpretation. CONCLUSION: While the norms and benchmarks presented will be
      particularly relevant for Australian organisations and others using the English
      language version of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire, they will also be
      useful for translated versions as a guide to the sensitivity of the scales and
      the extent of the changes that might be anticipated from attendance at a typical
      chronic disease self-management or health education programme.

PMID- 28560041
TI  - Severe acute asthma caused by Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection.
AB  - Asthma exacerbation is associated with respiratory infections, including those by
      viruses and atypical bacteria. We herein report a case of severe acute asthma in
      an adult caused by Chlamydophila pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) infection. A 39-year
      old woman without a history of asthma reported to the emergency department with
      progressive worsening of cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing with low oxygen
      saturation. A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed patchy ground-glass opacity
      and bronchial wall thickening. She was treated with systemic corticosteroids,
      inhaled short-acting beta2 agonists, aminophylline, doripenem, and levofloxacin.
      Through successful treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), her condition and
      the chest X-ray and CT findings improved. Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection was
      confirmed by elevated paired serum C. pneumoniae-specific IgA antibodies.
      Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection is an important cause of severe acute asthma.
      On CT, findings typical of C. pneumoniae pneumonia were noted.

PMID- 28560040
TI  - Spatially-segmented undersampled MRI temperature reconstruction for transcranial
      MR-guided focused ultrasound.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Volumetric thermometry with fine spatiotemporal resolution is
      desirable to monitor MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) procedures in the
      brain, but requires some form of accelerated imaging. Accelerated MR temperature
      imaging methods have been developed that undersample k-space and leverage signal
      correlations over time to suppress the resulting undersampling artifacts.
      However, in transcranial MRgFUS treatments, the water bath surrounding the skull
      creates signal variations that do not follow those correlations, leading to
      temperature errors in the brain due to signal aliasing. METHODS: To eliminate
      temperature errors due to the water bath, a spatially-segmented iterative
      reconstruction method was developed. The method fits a k-space hybrid signal
      model to reconstruct temperature changes in the brain, and a conventional MR
      signal model in the water bath. It was evaluated using single-channel 2DFT
      Cartesian, golden angle radial, and spiral data from gel phantom heating, and in
      vivo 8-channel 2DFT data from a FUS thalamotomy. Water bath signal intensity in
      phantom heating images was scaled between 0-100% to investigate its effect on
      temperature error. Temperature reconstructions of retrospectively undersampled
      data were performed using the spatially-segmented method, and compared to
      conventional whole-image k-space hybrid (phantom) and SENSE (in vivo)
      reconstructions. RESULTS: At 100% water bath signal intensity, 3 *-undersampled
      spatially-segmented temperature reconstruction error was nearly 5-fold lower than
      the whole-image k-space hybrid method. Temperature root-mean square error in the
      hot spot was reduced on average by 27 * (2DFT), 5 * (radial), and 12 * (spiral)
      using the proposed method. It reduced in vivo error 2 * in the brain for all
      acceleration factors, and between 2 * and 3 * in the temperature hot spot for 2-4
      * undersampling compared to SENSE. CONCLUSIONS: Separate reconstruction of brain
      and water bath signals enables accelerated MR temperature imaging during MRgFUS
      procedures with low errors due to undersampling using Cartesian and non-Cartesian
      trajectories. The spatially-segmented method benefits from multiple coils, and
      reconstructs temperature with lower error compared to measurements from SENSE
      reconstructed images. The acceleration can be applied to increase volumetric
      coverage and spatiotemporal resolution.

PMID- 28560042
TI  - Acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase in cardiosurgical patients with
      postoperative delirium.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients in intensive care units (ICU) are often diagnosed with
      postoperative delirium; the duration of which has a relevant negative impact on
      various clinical outcomes. Recent research found a potentially important role of
      acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in delirium of
      critically ill patients on non-surgical ICU or in non-cardiac-surgery patients.
      We tested the hypothesis that AChE and BChE have an impact on patients after
      cardiac surgery with postoperative delirium. METHODS: After obtaining approval
      from the local ethics committee, this mechanistic study gathered data of all 217
      patients included in a randomized controlled trial testing non-pharmacological
      modifications of care in the cardiac surgical ICU to reduce delirium. Delirium
      was assessed with the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit
      (CAM-ICU) and the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (Nu-DESC) twice a day for the
      first 3 days after surgery. Further outcome variables were somatic laboratory
      parameters and variables regarding surgery, anesthesia, and postsurgical
      recovery. 10 MUl venous or arterial blood was drawn and AChE and BChE were
      determined with ChE check mobile from Securetec. RESULTS: Of 217 patients, 60
      (27.6%) developed postsurgical delirium (POD). Patients with POD were older (p =
      0.005), had anemia (p = 0.01), and worse kidney function (p = 0.006).
      Furthermore, these patients had lower intraoperative cerebral saturation (NIRS)
      (p < 0.001) and higher intraoperative need of catecholamines (p = 0.03).
      Delirious patients showed more inflammatory response (p < 0.001). AChE and BChE
      values were mainly inside the norm. Patients with values outside the norm did not
      have POD more often than others. Regarding AChE and BChE patients did not differ
      in having delirium or not (p > 0.10). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative measurement of
      AChE and BChE did not discern between patients with and without POD. The effect
      of the cardiac surgical procedure on AChE and BChE remains unclear. Further
      studies with patients in cardiac surgery are needed to evaluate a possible
      combination of delirium and the cholinergic transmitter system. There might be
      possible interactions with AChE/BChE and blood products and the use of
      cardiopulmonary bypass, which should be investigated more intensively. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00006217.

PMID- 28560043
TI  - New and emerging chlamydial infections of creatures great and small.
AB  - Until recently, our knowledge of the host range and diversity of members of the
      Chlamydiaceae, obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens of humans and animals,
      was thought to be nearly complete. Aided by advances in molecular diagnostics, a
      new picture is emerging, however, that the host barriers may be looser than
      previously thought for many chlamydial species. While cross-host transmission of
      chlamydial species is a concern for animal health, new reports highlight an
      emerging zoonotic risk for several species associated with intensification of
      farming and the widespread popularity of companion animals. The description of an
      expanded cohort of new species within this family from avian and reptilian hosts
      has also highlighted how much we still have to learn about the biology and
      pathogenicity of the Chlamydiaceae as a whole. Reports emerging about these
      relatives of the traditional chlamydial pathogens are matched by the continued
      identification of novel Chlamydia-related bacteria in the phylum Chlamydiae,
      providing evidence that many may be pathogenic to humans or animals and pose a
      zoonotic or vector-borne risk. The review examines the new hosts described for
      well-characterized chlamydial veterinary pathogens, emerging novel chlamydial
      species and the potential for these to cause disease in their respective hosts.

PMID- 28560044
TI  - Decolorization of synthetic textile wastewater using electrochemical cell divided
      by cellulosic separator.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Annually, large quantities of dyes are produced and consumed in
      different industries. The discharge of highly colored textile effluents to the
      aquatic environments causes serious health problems in living organisms. This
      paper investigates the performance of each of the electro-oxidation and electro
      reduction pathways in the removal of reactive red 120 (RR120) from synthetic
      textile effluents using a novel electrochemical reactor. METHODS: In the current
      study, a two-compartment reactor divided by cellulosic separator was applied in
      batch mode using graphite anodes and stainless steel cathodes. Central Composite
      Design was used to design the experiments and find the optimal conditions. The
      operational parameters were initial dye concentration (100-500 mg L-1), sodium
      chloride concentration (2500-12,500 mg L-1), electrolysis time (7.5-37.5 min),
      and current intensity (0.06-0.3 A). RESULTS: The results showed that electro
      oxidation was much more efficient than electro-reduction in the removal of RR120.
      According to the developed models, current intensity was the most effective
      factor on the electro-oxidation of RR120 as well as in power consumption
      (Coefficients of 12.06 and 0.73, respectively). With regard to the dye removal
      through electro-reduction, electrolysis time (coefficient of 8.05) was the most
      influential factor. Under optimal conditions (RR120 = 200 mg.L-1, NaCl = 7914.29
      mg.L-1, current intensity = 0.12 A, and reaction time = 30 min), the dye was
      removed as 99.44 and 32.38% via electro-oxidation and electro-reduction
      mechanisms, respectively, with consuming only 1.21 kwhm-3 of electrical energy.
      CONCLUSIONS: According to the results, electro-oxidation using graphite anodes in
      a cell divided by cellulosic separator is very efficient, compared to electro
      reduction, in the removal of RR120 from aqueous solutions.

PMID- 28560045
TI  - Correlation of neuter status and expression of heritable disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gonadectomy, or neutering, is a very common surgery for dogs having
      many positive effects on behavior, health, and longevity. There are also certain
      risks associated with neutering including the development of orthopedic
      conditions, cognitive decline, and a predisposition to some neoplasias. This
      study was designed specifically to identify if a correlation exists between
      neuter status and inherited conditions in a large aggregate cohort of dogs
      representing many different breeds. RESULTS: Neutered dogs were at less risk for
      early and congenital conditions (aortic stenosis, early onset cataracts, mitral
      valve disease, patent ductus arteriosus, portosystemic shunt, and ventricular
      septal defect) than intact dogs. Neutering was also associated with reduced risk
      of dilated cardiomyopathy and gastric dilatation volvulus in males. Neutering was
      significantly associated with an increased risk for males and females for cancers
      (hemangiosarcoma, hyperadrenocorticism, lymphoma, mast cell tumor, and
      osteosarcoma), ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and epilepsy. Intervertebral
      disk disease was associated with increased risk in females only. For elbow
      dysplasia, hip dysplasia, lens luxation, and patellar luxation neutering had no
      significant effect on the risk for those conditions. Neutering was associated
      with a reduced risk of vehicular injury, a condition chosen as a control.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective study, several conditions showed an increased
      risk associated with neutering whereas other conditions were less likely to be
      expressed in neutered dogs. The complexity of the interactions between neutering
      and inherited conditions underscores the need for reflective consultation between
      the client and the clinician when considering neutering. The convenience and
      advantages of neutering dogs that will not be included in a breeding program must
      be weighed against possible risk associated with neutering.

PMID- 28560046
TI  - A review of delivery room resuscitation in very low birth weight infants in a
      middle income country.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advanced levels of delivery room resuscitation in very low birth
      weight infants are reported to be associated with death and complications of
      prematurity. In resource limited settings, the need for delivery room
      resuscitation is often used as a reason to limit care in these infants. METHODS:
      This was a review of delivery room resuscitation in very low birth weight infants
      born in a tertiary hospital in South Africa between 01 January 2013 and 30 June
      2016. Outcomes included death and serious complications of prematurity. Advanced
      delivery room resuscitation was defined as the need for intubation, chest
      compressions or the administration of adrenaline. RESULTS: A total of 1511 very
      low birth weight infants were included in the study. The majority (1332/1511
      (88.2%) required oxygen in the delivery room. Face mask ventilation was needed in
      45.2% (683/1511). Advanced delivery room resuscitation was only required in 10.6%
      (160/1511). More than half the infants who required advanced delivery room
      resuscitation died (89/160; 55.6%). Advanced delivery room resuscitation was
      required in significantly more infants <1000 grams at birth than those infants
      >1000 grams (83/539 (15.4%) vs 77/972 (7.9%) p < 0.001). Advanced delivery room
      resuscitation was significantly associated with a 5 minute Apgar score < 6 (OR
      13.8 (95%CI 8.6-22.0), supplemental oxygen at day 28 (OR 2.2 (95% CI 1.4-3.9),
      metabolic acidosis (OR 2.3 (95% CI 1.1-4.8) and death (OR 1.9 95% CI 1.1-3.3).
      Other serious complications of prematurity were not associated with advanced
      delivery room resuscitation. Mortality was increased in infants with a low
      admission temperature (35.1  degrees C (SD 0.92) vs 36.1  degrees C (SD 1.4) (p <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: There was a high mortality rate associated with advanced
      delivery room resuscitation; however complications of prematurity were not
      increased in survivors..The need for advanced delivery room resuscitation alone
      should not be used as a predictor of poor outcome in very low birth weight
      infants. Survivors of advanced delivery room resuscitation should be afforded
      ventilatory support if required. Special care must be taken to avoid hypothermia
      in very low birth weight infants requiring resuscitation at birth.

PMID- 28560047
TI  - Effects of dexamethasone on progesterone and estrogen profiles and uterine
      progesterone receptor localization during pregnancy in Sahel goat in Semi-Arid
      region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the widespread use of dexamethasone in veterinary and human
      medicine, it is reported to cause some severe pregnancy related side effects like
      abortion in some animals. The mechanism of the response is not clear but seems to
      be related to interspecies and/or breed difference in response which may involve
      alterations in the concentrations of some reproductive hormones. METHODS: Twenty
      Sahel goats comprising 18 does and 2 bucks were used for this study. Pregnancies
      were achieved by natural mating after synchronization. Repeated dexamethasone
      injections were given at 0.25 mg/kg body weight. Blood samples were collected
      biweekly for hormonal assay. Uterine biopsies were harvested at days 28 and day
      78 of gestation through caesarean section for immunohistochemical analysis using
      3 pregnant does randomly selected from each group at each instant. Data were
      expressed as Means +/- Standard Deviations and analyzed using statistical soft
      ware package, GraphPad Instant, version 3.0 (2003) and progesterone receptor (PR)
      were scored semi-quantitatively. RESULTS: Dexamethasone treatments had no
      significant (p > 0.05) effect on progesterone and estrogen concentrations in
      pregnant Sahel goats but up regulated PR from 2+ to 3+ in second trimester.
      CONCLUSION: As dexamethasone adverse effect on placenta is an established fact,
      the lack of effect on progesterone level in this study may be due to the fact
      that unlike other species whose progesterone production during pregnancy is
      placenta - dependent, in goats is corpus luteum - dependent. Consequently
      dexamethasone adverse effect on placenta reported in literatures did not
      influence progesterone levels during pregnancy in Sahel goat. The up regulation
      of progesterone receptor (PR) in Sahel goat gravid uterus is a beneficial effects
      and that dexamethasone can safely be used in corpus luteum - dependent
      progesterone secreting pregnant animal species like Sahel goat and camel.
      Therefore source of progesterone secretions during pregnancy should be considered
      in clinical application of dexamethasone in pregnancy.

PMID- 28560048
TI  - The phylogenetic position of dicyemid mesozoans offers insights into spiralian
      evolution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obtaining phylogenomic data for enigmatic taxa is essential to
      achieve a better understanding of animal evolution. Dicyemids have long
      fascinated biologists because of their highly simplified body organization, but
      their life-cycles remain poorly known. Based on the discovery of the dicyemid
      DoxC gene, which encodes a spiralian peptide, it has been proposed that dicyemids
      are members of the Spiralia. Other studies have suggested that dicyemids may have
      closer affinities to mollusks and annelids. However, the phylogenetic position of
      dicyemids has remained a matter of debate, leading to an ambiguous picture of
      spiralian evolution. RESULTS: In the present study, newly sequenced
      transcriptomic data from Dicyema japonicum were complemented with published
      transcriptomic data or predicted gene models from 29 spiralian, ecdysozoan, and
      deuterostome species, generating a dataset (Dataset 1) for phylogenomic analyses,
      which contains 348 orthologs and 58,124 amino acids. In addition to this dataset,
      to eliminate systematic errors, two additional sub-datasets were created by
      removing compositionally heterogeneous or rapidly evolving sites and orthologs
      from Dataset 1, which may cause compositional heterogeneity and long-branch
      attraction artifacts. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses both
      placed Dicyema japonicum (Dicyemida) in a clade with Intoshia linei
      (Orthonectida) with strong statistical support. Furthermore, maximum likelihood
      analyses placed the Dicyemida + Orthonectida clade within the Gastrotricha, while
      in Bayesian inference analyses, this clade is sister group to the clade of
      Gastrotricha + Platyhelminthes. CONCLUSIONS: Whichever the case, in all analyses,
      Dicyemida, Orthonectida, Gastrotricha, and Platyhelminthes constitute a
      monophyletic group that is a sister group to the clade of Mollusca + Annelida.
      Based on present phylogenomic analyses, dicyemids display close affinity to
      orthonectids, and they may share a common ancestor with gastrotrichs and
      platyhelminths, rather than with mollusks and annelids. Regarding spiralian
      phylogeny, the Gnathifera forms the sister group to the Rouphozoa and
      Lophotrochozoa, as has been suggested by previous studies; thus our analysis
      supports the traditional acoeloid-planuloid hypothesis of a nearly microscopic,
      non-coelomate common ancestor of spiralians.

PMID- 28560049
TI  - Measurement of refractive indices of tunicates' tunics: light reflection of the
      transparent integuments in an ascidian Rhopalaea sp. and a salp Thetys vagina.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tunic is a cellulosic, integumentary matrix found in tunicates
      (Subphylum Tunicata or Urochordata). The tunics of some ascidian species and
      pelagic tunicates, such as salps, are nearly transparent, which is useful in
      predator avoidance. Transparent materials can be detected visually using light
      reflected from their surfaces, with the different refractive indices between two
      media, i.e., tunic and seawater, being the measure of reflectance. A larger
      difference in refractive indices thus provides a larger measure of reflectance.
      RESULTS: We measured the refractive indices of the transparent tunic of Thetys
      vagina (salp: Thaliacea) and Rhopalaea sp. (ascidian: Ascidiacea) using an Abbe
      refractometer and an ellipsometer to estimate the light reflection at the tunic
      surface and evaluate the anti-reflection effect of the nipple array structure on
      the tunic surface of T. vagina. At D-line light (lambda = 589 nm), the refractive
      indices of the tunics were 0.002-0.004 greater than seawater in the measurements
      by Abbe refractometer, and 0.02-0.03 greater than seawater in the measurements by
      ellipsometer. The refractive indices of tunics were slightly higher than that of
      seawater. According to the simulation of light reflection based on rigorous
      coupled wave analysis (RCWA), light at a large angle of incidence will be
      completely reflected from a surface when its refractive indices are smaller than
      seawater. Therefore, the refractive index of integument is important for enabling
      transparent organisms to remain invisible in the water column. CONCLUSION: In
      order to minimize reflectance, the refractive index should be similar to, but
      never smaller than, that of the surrounding seawater. The simulation also
      indicated that the presence or absence of a nipple array does not cause
      significant difference in reflectance on the surface. The nipple array on the
      tunic of the diurnal salp may have another function, such as bubble repellence,
      other than anti-reflection.

PMID- 28560050
TI  - Gamma knife radiosurgery for the treatment of uveal melanoma and uveal
      metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study retrospectively analyzed outcomes for patients undergoing
      gamma knife radiosurgery (GKR) for uveal melanoma (UM) and intraocular
      metastases. METHODS: Patients who underwent GKR for UM or intraocular metastases
      between 1/1/1990 and 6/1/2015 at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, were
      retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Eleven patients (11 eyes) had UM while seven
      patients (7 eyes) had intraocular metastases. Patients with UM were followed for
      a median of 19.74 +/- 10.4 months. Visual acuity (VA) logMAR 0.30 +/- 0.53
      (Snellen 20/40) versus 0.40 +/- 0.97 (Snellen 20/50), tumor thickness (5.30 +/-
      2.17 vs. 3.60 +/- 2.32 mm), were not significantly different between preoperative
      and postoperative measurements, respectively. Nine percent (1/11) patients
      required enucleation. Subsequently, no patients experienced metastases. Patients
      with intraocular metastases were followed for a median of 6.03 +/- 6.32 months.
      They did not have significant changes in VA (logMAR 0.30 +/- 0.59 vs. 0.30 +/-
      1.57; Snellen 20/40 vs. 20/40) or tumor thickness (3.50 +/- 1.36 vs. 1.30 +/-
      0.76 mm) postoperatively. Fourteen percent (1/7 patients) required enucleation.
      Complications experienced by patients with UM include radiation retinopathy
      (2/11), papillopathy (1/11), cystoid macular edema (1/11), vitreomacular traction
      (1/11), exudative retinal detachment (1/11). Patients with metastases had
      treatment complicated by recurrence (2/7). Dose to the margin, maximum dose of
      radiation, and clinical target volume did not correlate with post-procedural VA,
      risk of enucleation, or death in patients with either UM or patients with
      intraocular metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Visual outcomes were satisfactory for
      patients undergoing GKR without significant morbidity and without significant
      risk of enucleation or metastases.

PMID- 28560052
TI  - Genomic profile of a patient with triple negative essential thrombocythemia,
      unresponsive to therapy: A case report and literature review.
AB  - Clonal analysis of patients with triple negative myeloproliferative neoplasm
      (MPN) has provided evidence of additional aberrations, including epigenetic
      alterations. To discover such novel genetic aberrations, patients were screened
      through next-generation sequencing using a myeloid sequencing panel of 54 genes
      using a genetic analyser. Genetic variants in 28 genes, including TET2, BCOR,
      BCR, and ABL1 were identified in a triple negative essential thrombocythemia (ET)
      patient. The individual role of some of these variants in disease pathogenesis
      has yet to be studied. Somatic mutations in the same genes have been reported
      with variable frequencies in myeloid malignancies. However, no pathogenic impact
      of these variants could be found; therefore, long-term follow up of patients with
      genetic analysis of a large cohort and the use of whole genome sequencing is
      required to assess the effects of these variants.

PMID- 28560051
TI  - Choroidal vascular analysis in myopic eyes: evidence of foveal medium vessel
      layer thinning.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyse morphologic features of the choroid in Non-pathological
      myopic eyes using spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (OCT).
      METHODS: Retrospective analysis of enhanced depth SD-OCT images of Non
      pathological myopic eyes in comparison with age-matched healthy controls was
      performed. Choroidal thickness (CT) and large choroidal vessel thickness (LCVT)
      were measured at the fovea, 750 um nasally from fovea (N750) and 750 um
      temporally (T750) from fovea. Medium choroidal vessel thickness (MCVT) was
      calculated by subtracting LCVT from CT. Choriocapillaris was encompassed by MCVT,
      given its reduced thickness. Linear regression analysis evaluated the
      relationship between age and axial with CT, LCVT and MCVT. RESULTS: The study
      group comprised 42 eyes of 31 patients (mean age 46.13 +/- 15.63; 15 females).
      Control group included 57 eyes of 34 patients (mean age of 42.3 +/- 15.29; 24
      females). Mean axial length in myopic eyes and control group was 26.57 +/- 1.27
      and 23.59 +/- 0.99 mm respectively. Myopic eyes showed significant thinning of
      MCVT and CT at all locations (p < 0.0001) compared to controls, unlike LCVT (p >
      0.05). With each decade, thinning of up to 37 um in CT was noted along with
      thinning of LCVT (up to 22.6 um) and MCVT (up to 25 um). Each mm increase in
      axial length caused 38.2 um thinning of choroid along with LCVT (<10 um),
      however, MCVT showed more notable thinning (>30 um). CONCLUSION: Significant
      thinning of MCVT was noted in non-pathological myopic eyes in comparison to
      healthy subjects. It appears that MCVT has stronger relationship with age and
      axial length.

PMID- 28560053
TI  - Volatiles profiling in Ceratonia siliqua (Carob bean) from Egypt and in response
      to roasting as analyzed via solid-phase microextraction coupled to chemometrics.
AB  - Ceratonia siliqua is a legume tree of considerable commercial importance for the
      flavor and sweets industry cultivated mostly for its pods nutritive value and or
      several health benefits. Despite extensive studies on C. siliqua pod non-volatile
      metabolites, much less is known regarding volatiles composition which contributes
      to the flavor of its many food products. To gain insight into C. siliqua aroma,
      31 volatile constituents from unroasted and roasted pods were profiled using
      headspace solid-phase micro extraction (HD-SPME) analyzed via quadruple mass
      spectrometer followed by multivariate data analyses. Short chain fatty acids
      amounted for the major volatile class at ca. (71-77%) with caproic acid (20%) and
      pentanoic acid (15-25%) as major components. Compared to ripe pod, roasted ripe
      pod was found less enriched in major volatile classes i.e., short chain fatty
      acids and aldehydes, except for higher pyranone levels. Volatiles mediating for
      unheated and hot carob fruit aroma is likely to be related to its (E)
      cinnamaldehyde and pyranone content, respectively. Such knowledge is expected to
      be the key for understanding the olfactory and taste properties of C. siliqua and
      its various commercial food products.

PMID- 28560054
TI  - Antibacterial activity against Streptococcus mutans and inhibition of bacterial
      induced enamel demineralization of propolis, miswak, and chitosan nanoparticles
      based dental varnishes.
AB  - Using natural products can be a cost-effective approach for caries prevention
      especially in low income countries where dental caries is highly prevalent and
      the resources are limited. Specially prepared dental varnishes containing
      propolis, miswak, and chitosan nanoparticles (CS-NPs) with or without sodium
      fluoride (NaF) were assessed for antibacterial effect against Streptococcus
      mutans (S. mutans) using disk diffusion test. In addition, the protective effect
      of a single pretreatment of primary teeth enamel specimens against in vitro
      bacterial induced enamel demineralization was assessed for 3 days. All natural
      products containing varnishes inhibited bacterial growth significantly better
      than 5% NaF varnish, with NaF loaded CS-NPs (CSF-NPs) showing the highest
      antibacterial effect, though it didn't significantly differ than those of other
      varnishes except miswak ethanolic extract (M) varnish. Greater inhibitory effect
      was noted with varnish containing freeze dried aqueous miswak extract compared to
      that containing ethanolic miswak extract, possibly due to concentration of
      antimicrobial substances by freeze drying. Adding natural products to NaF in a
      dental varnish showed an additive effect especially compared to fluoride
      containing varnish. 5% NaF varnish showed the best inhibition of demineralization
      effect. Fluoride containing miswak varnish (MF) and CSF-NPs varnish inhibited
      demineralization significantly better than all experimental varnishes, especially
      during the first 2 days, though CSF-NPs varnish had a low fluoride concentration,
      probably due to better availability of fluoride ions and the smaller size of
      nanoparticles. Incorporating natural products with fluoride into dental varnishes
      can be an effective approach for caries prevention, especially miswak and
      propolis when financial resources are limited.

PMID- 28560056
TI  - Maintaining a regular physical activity aggravates intramuscular tumor growth in
      an orthotopic liposarcoma model.
AB  - Today, care teams within cancer centers encourage patients to be physically
      active, after diagnosis, based on data obtained mainly from breast, colon and
      prostate cancer. Intriguingly, the impact of physical activity (PA) on
      intramuscular tumors (e.g. sarcomas) has not been specifically addressed and,
      thus, could be mistakenly confounded with other cancers. In this preclinical
      study we assessed the impact of PA on intramuscular liposarcoma (LS) evolution.
      Four-week-old nude male mice were active by voluntary running on wheels, for six
      weeks. Then, mice were divided into four groups with open or restricted access to
      wheels, which have received an orthotopic intramuscular injection of either
      vehicle or human LS, SW872, cells. Active mice presented ~1.5 fold increase in
      tumor mass, which was mainly due to higher cellular mitosis and proliferation.
      This bulging intramuscular tumor mass altered muscle function, as evidence by
      overall muscle strength and maximum running capacity. From a molecular point of
      view, active mice exhibited poor levels of Phospho-p38Thr180/Tyr182 and p21
      content in tumors and also displayed low amounts of circulating insulin comparing
      to inactive counterparts. Insulin induced Phospho-p38Thr180/Tyr182 and p21
      expression in SW872 cells, in vitro. The expression of p21 was regulated in a p38
      dependent fashion, since inhibition of p38 activity abolished the up-regulation
      of p21. Our data suggest that insulin-dependent activation of p38 MAPK-p21
      pathway is a possible mechanism responsible for delaying tumor growth in inactive
      mice. Clinically, patients with lower-extremities LS could be advised to reduce
      or minimize their levels of PA during the preoperative period.

PMID- 28560057
TI  - CEBPA-mediated upregulation of the lncRNA PLIN2 promotes the development of
      chronic myelogenous leukemia via the GSK3 and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling
      pathways.
AB  - Accumulating evidence has shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are
      significant regulators of multiple cellular processes, including the development
      of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML). However, the mechanism of how the lncRNA
      PLIN2 affects CML development remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to
      investigate the potential roles of CEBPA-mediated upregulation of PLIN2 in the
      process of CML development by regulating the GSK3 and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling
      pathways. We found that both CEBPA and PLIN2 were expressed at significantly
      higher levels in CML. Simultaneously, we found that CEBPA upregulated the
      expression of PLIN2 and that there was a positive correlation between CEBPA and
      PLIN2 in CML patients. CEBPA promoted the progression of CML by upregulating
      PLIN2. We also found that PLIN2 increased the expression levels of AKT, p-AKT,
      GSK-3beta, beta-catenin and Axin2/Conductin as well as promoted the progression
      of CML via the GSK3 and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathways in vitro.
      Furthermore, we found that CEBPA-mediated upregulation of PLIN2 expression
      promotes tumor growth via GSK3 and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in vivo. Therefore,
      our study provided a new theoretical basis for CML treatment through the
      CEBPA/PLIN2 axis.

PMID- 28560055
TI  - Revisiting the hallmarks of cancer.
AB  - The hallmarks of cancer described by Hanahan and Weinberg have proved seminal in
      our understanding of cancer's common traits and in rational drug design. Not free
      of critique and with understanding of different aspects of tumorigenesis coming
      into clearer focus in the recent years, we attempt to draw a more organized and
      updated picture of the cancer hallmarks. We define seven hallmarks of cancer:
      selective growth and proliferative advantage, altered stress response favoring
      overall survival, vascularization, invasion and metastasis, metabolic rewiring,
      an abetting microenvironment, and immune modulation, while highlighting some
      considerations for the future of the field.

PMID- 28560058
TI  - Flot2 promotes tumor growth and metastasis through modulating cell cycle and
      inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Flotillin-2 (Flot2) is a highly conserved and ubiquitously expressed protein that
      resides on the cytoplasmic side of the cell membrane within specific cholesterol
      rich microdomains. Some studies have reported that overexpression of Flot2 is
      related to cancer progression. However, the role of Flot2 in hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) remains unclarified. In this study, we aim to explore the
      correlation between Flot2 expression and HCC progression and the underlying
      mechanism. In the present study, overexpression of Flot2 in HCC tissues and cell
      lines was detected, and forced overexpression of Flot2 significantly promoted the
      proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis of HCC in vitro and in vivo by
      modulating cell cycle and inducing EMT, which was mediated via up-regulation of
      Twist as a result of Raf/MEK/ERK1/2 pathway activation. In contrast, silencing
      Flot2 expression inhibited these biological processes. Furthermore, high
      expression of Flot2 was significantly correlated with poor prognosis of HCC
      patients after curative resection and is an independent risk factor. In
      conclusion, Flot2 promoted tumor growth and metastasis of HCC through modulating
      cell cycle and inducing EMT. The expression of Flot2 may play a key role in HCC
      progression and may be regarded as a potential poor prognostic marker for HCC.

PMID- 28560059
TI  - The anti-protozoan drug nifurtimox preferentially inhibits clonogenic tumor cells
      under hypoxic conditions.
AB  - Tumor hypoxia is an independent prognostic indicator of tumor malignant
      progression and poor patient survival. Therefore, eradication of hypoxic tumor
      cells is of paramount importance for successful disease control. In this study,
      we have made a new discovery that nifurtimox, a clinically approved drug to treat
      Chagas disease caused by the parasitic protozoan trypanosomes, can function as a
      hypoxia-activated cytotoxin. We have found that nifurtimox preferentially kill
      clonogenic tumor cells especially under the hypoxic conditions of <=0.1% O2.
      Mechanistically, nifurtimox becomes activated after tumor cells enter into a
      fully hypoxic state, as shown by the stabilization of the Hypoxia-Inducible
      Factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha). Nifurtimox specifically induces the formation of
      53BP1 foci, a hallmark of DNA double-stranded breaks, in hypoxic tumor cells.
      Hypoxia-dependent activation of nifurtimox involves P450 (cytochrome)
      oxidoreductase. The anti-protozoan drug nifurtimox holds promise as a new hypoxia
      activated cytotoxin with the potential to preferentially eliminates severely
      hypoxic tumor cells.

PMID- 28560060
TI  - MicroRNA-365 inhibits ovarian cancer progression by targeting Wnt5a.
AB  - MicroRNA-365 (miR-365) has been reported to play an important role in
      tumorigenesis in many types of cancers; however, the role of miR-365 in the
      carcinogenesis of ovarian cancer remains unknown. In this study, we focused on
      the roles and underlying mechanisms of miR-365 in ovarian cancer. Here, we found
      that miR-365 expression level was significantly decreased in ovarian cancer
      tissues and cell lines, and that low miR-365 expression was negatively
      significantly associated with advanced stages as defined by the International
      Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), histological grading, and lymph
      node metastasis. Further functional assays showed that transfection with a miR
      365 mimic significantly decreased ovarian cancer cell proliferation, colony
      formation, migration, and invasion. In addition, Wnt5a was identified as a target
      gene of miR-365 in ovarian cancer by bioinformatic analysis, luciferase reporter
      assay, qPCR, and western blot. Wnt5a expression levels were upregulated and
      inversely correlated with miR-365 expression in ovarian cancer tissues (r = 
      0.638, P < 0.0001). Overexpression of Wnt5a could effectively reverse the miR-365
      overexpression-induced suppression of proliferation and invasion in ovarian
      cancer cells. Additionally, in vivo studies utilizing a xenograft model
      demonstrated that overexpression of miR-365 could reduce tumor growth by
      repressing Wnt5a. Taken together, these findings suggest that miR-365 may be a
      promising candidate for therapeutic application in ovarian cancer treatment.

PMID- 28560062
TI  - miR-146b-5p regulates cell growth, invasion, and metabolism by targeting PDHB in
      colorectal cancer.
AB  - MiRNA have been found to play a role in a plethora of cellular processes of
      cancer cells such as cell apoptosis, cell proliferation, invasion, migration
      metabolism and stem cell differentiation. Dysregulation of miR-146b-5p has been
      documented in a variety of human malignancies. However, the biological functions
      and molecular mechanisms of miR-146b-5p in ovarian cancer remain unknown. In this
      study, our results show that miR-146b-5p was unregulated in colorectal cancer
      (CRC) tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Ectopic
      overexpression of miR-146b-5p in CRC promoted cell growth, invasion and
      glycolysis, while knockdown of miR-146b-5p inhibited the growth, invasion and
      glycolysis of CRC cells. The oncogenic effect of miR-146b-5p is also confirmed in
      vivo. Mechanically, miR-146b-5p targets the 3'-UTR of pyruvate dehydrogenase B
      (PDHB) and exerts oncogenic effect. Overexpression of PDHB abolished the
      oncogenic effects of miR-146b-5p on the growth, invasion and glycolysis of CRC
      cells. Taken together, our results show that miR-146b-5p is an oncogenic miRNA in
      CRC which exerts its effect by directly targeting PDHB.

PMID- 28560063
TI  - CCR6+ B lymphocytes responding to tumor cell-derived CCL20 support hepatocellular
      carcinoma progression via enhancing angiogenesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Different immune cells in tumor microenvironment shape tumor
      progression. CCL20 over-expression was reported as one of the "stemness" trait in
      TP53 mutated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to understand the effect of
      CCL20 on HCC progression. METHODS: In two HCC cohort patients (n=95, n=85
      respectively), serum CCL20 concentration was quantified by using ELISA.
      Expressions of CCL20 and CCR6 in 41 paired HCC tumor and adjacent non-tumor
      tissues were determined by quantitative Real-Time PCR, confirmed by
      immunohistochemistry (CCL20) or by flow cytometry analysis (CCR6). Chemotaxis of
      splenocytes or purified CD19+ B cells to tumor cell-derived CCL20, and
      angiogenesis of different CD19+ B subtypes responding to tumor cell-derived CCL20
      were measured in vitro. H22 murine hepatoma cells were inoculated into
      immunocompetent or immunodeficient SCID mice, tumor growth and metastasis were
      monitored after the mice were treated with anti-CCL20 neutralizing antibody or
      depleted B cells by anti-CD20. RESULTS: Elevation of pretherapy serum CCL20 in
      HCC patients and increase of CCR6 expression in HCC tissues were closely
      associated with tumor metastasis and disease poor prognosis. In HCC tissues,
      CCL20 expression was positively correlated with CCR6 (R2 =0.3134, P=0.0002), and
      CCR6 was exclusively identified in tumor infiltrated immune cells. CD19+CD5+ B
      lymphocytes expressed higher CCR6, responded to tumor cell-derived CCL20 and
      enhanced angiogenesis in vitro. Neutralizing CCL20 activity in immunocompetent
      mice, not in SCID mice, attenuated tumor incidence, restrained tumor growth and
      distal metastasis. Tumor angiogenesis was significantly inhibited after CCL20
      activity was blockade. In addition, inhibiting B lymphocyte infiltration into
      tumor mileum also attenuated tumor growth. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor cell-derived CCL20
      interacts with CCR6 highly expressed CD19+CD5+ B cells, to promote HCC
      progression, which might be via enhancing angiogenesis.

PMID- 28560065
TI  - MicroRNA-338-3p inhibits thyroid cancer progression through targeting AKT3.
AB  - microRNA-338-3p (miR-338-3p) has been implicated in tumor development and
      progression in many types of cancers. However, the function and mechanism
      underlying the action of miR-383-3p in thyroid cancer remain unclear and were
      therefore investigated in this study by in vitro and in vivo experiments. We
      found that miR-338-3p was downregulated in thyroid cancer tissues and cell lines.
      miR-338-3p expression was significantly associated with the clinical stage and
      lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer. Forced expression of miR-338-3p
      suppressed thyroid cancer cell proliferation, clonogenicity, migration, and
      invasion in vitro and inhibited tumorigenesis in a nude mouse xenograft model
      system. Moreover, AKT3, a known oncogene, was confirmed as a direct target of miR
      383-3p in thyroid cancer cells, as evidenced by the fact that ectopic miR-383
      expression suppressed AKT3 expression and its downstream pathway (AKT pathway).
      In addition, AKT3 silencing by siRNA mimicked the effect of ectopic miR-338-3p on
      the growth and invasion of thyroid cancer cells. In contrast, AKT3 overexpression
      attenuated the inhibitory effect induced by miR-338-3p overexpression in thyroid
      cancer cells. These results suggest that miR-338-3p functions as a novel tumor
      suppressor that blocks thyroid cancer cell growth through targeting AKT3.

PMID- 28560064
TI  - Fms related tyrosine kinase 1 (Flt1) functions as an oncogene and regulates
      glioblastoma cell metastasis by regulating sonic hedgehog signaling.
AB  - Studies have shown that the abnormal expression of Fms related tyrosine kinase 1
      (Flt1) is associated with multiple malignancies, yet its role in glioblastoma
      pathology remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of
      Flt1 in regulating proliferation, migration and invasion of glioblastoma cells by
      establishing glioblastoma cell strains with constitutively silenced or elevated
      Flt1 expression. We demonstrate that ectopic expression of Flt1 promotes
      glioblastoma cells migration, invasion through cell scratching and Transwell
      assays. Further study has indicated that Flt1 knockdown prevents the spread of
      glioblastoma cells in vivo. Conversely, we also show that suppression of Flt1
      expression inhibits migration and invasion of glioblastoma cells. Finally, our
      findings demonstrate that Flt1 promotes invasion and migration of glioblastoma
      cells through sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway. Our study suggests that
      galectin-1 represents a crucial regulator of glioblastoma cells metastasis. Thus,
      the detection and targeted treatment of Flt1-expressing cancer serves as a new
      therapeutic target for glioblastoma.

PMID- 28560066
TI  - GalNAc-T6 in the relationship with invasion ability of endometrial carcinomas and
      prognostic significance.
AB  - O-glycosylation in the field of carcinogenesis has been a critical topic of
      concern for several decades. The abnormal function of enzymes catalyzing the
      first step of this process, named polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases
      (ppGalNAc-Ts) has been determined to play an important role in cancer development
      and metastasis. Accordingly, we investigated the expression of GalNAc-T6 in
      endometrial carcinoma and evaluated the relationship between invasion
      characteristics and the cellular level of GalNAc-T6. The results suggested that
      positive GalNAc-T6 expression is significantly associated with histological grade
      of tumors and myometrial invasion characteristic. In vitro experiments showed
      that the over expression of GalNAc-T6 had strong association with the decrease of
      endometrial cell invasiveness. Taken together, our data support the use of GalNAc
      T6 as a potential indicator of good prognosis and noninvasive tumor in patients
      with endometrial carcinoma.

PMID- 28560061
TI  - Understanding tumor anabolism and patient catabolism in cancer-associated
      cachexia.
AB  - Cachexia is a multifactorial paraneoplastic syndrome commonly associated with
      advanced stages of cancer. Cachexia is responsible for poor responses to
      antitumoral treatment and death in close to one-third of affected patients. There
      is still an incomplete understanding of the metabolic dysregulation induced by a
      tumor that leads to the appearance and persistence of cachexia. Furthermore,
      cachexia is irreversible, and there are currently no guidelines for its diagnosis
      or treatments for it. In this review, we aim to discuss the current knowledge
      about cancer-associated cachexia, starting with generalities about cancer as the
      generator of this syndrome, then analyzing the characteristics of cachexia at the
      biochemical and metabolic levels in both the tumor and the patient, and finally
      discussing current therapeutic approaches to treating cancer-associated cachexia.

PMID- 28560067
TI  - Inhibition of HIF-1alpha by PX-478 suppresses tumor growth of esophageal squamous
      cell cancer in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of hypoxia
      inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) expression in esophageal squamous cell
      cancer (ESCC) and clarify the effects of PX-478, a selective HIF-1alpha
      inhibitor, on ESCC both in vitro and in vivo. HIF-1alpha, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX
      2) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) were markedly overexpressed in ESCC
      tissue and associated with poorer survival. In vitro, both COX-2 and PD-L1
      expression of ESCC cells were significantly induced by CoCl2 treatment, but
      inhibited by HIF-1alpha knock-down or PX-478 treatment. Furthermore, PX-478
      significantly inhibited tumor cell proliferation by inhibiting the G2/M
      transition and promoting apoptosis of ESCC cells. In addition, inhibited
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition was observed after PX-478 treatment. In vivo,
      PX-478 significantly decreased tumor volume following subcutaneous implantation.
      Together, our results indicated that PX-478 had significant antitumor activity
      against HIF-1alpha over-expressing ESCC tumors in vitro and in vivo. These
      results opened up the possibility of inhibiting HIF-1alpha for targeted therapy
      of ESCC.

PMID- 28560069
TI  - The identification and validation of Trichosstatin A as a potential inhibitor of
      colon tumorigenesis and colon cancer stem-like cells.
AB  - Colon cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer types in developed countries.
      Metastasis and drug resistance are two contributing factors to the high mortality
      rate. Accumulating evidence suggest that cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) represents
      as a major contributor to these malignant features. Here, we identified and
      isolated colon cancer stem-like cells using side-population (SP) method from
      human colon cancer cell lines. SP colon cells demonstrate cancer stem-like cell
      properties including enhanced sphere-forming ability and resistance towards
      fluorouracil (5-FU). The CSC properties were associated with the increased
      expression level of major oncogenic and stem cell markers including beta-catenin,
      NF-kB, Akt/mTOR, KRAS and c-Myc. Trichostatin A (TSA), an antifungal antibiotic
      also a HDAC inhibitor, was found to function not only to decrease the expression
      of oncogenic markers but also the colon CSC properties. Importantly, TSA and 5-FU
      combined treatment synergistically suppressed colon cancer viability. Finally, in
      vivo results demonstrated that TSA alone and in combination with 5-FU effectively
      suppressed colon tumorigenesis. Collectively, this study provides preclinical
      evidence that TSA may function as a potential colon cancer therapeutic agent by
      targeting CSC and overcoming 5-FU resistance.

PMID- 28560071
TI  - The Changing Hospital Landscape: An Exploration of International Experiences.
AB  - The nature of hospital activity is changing in many countries, with some
      experiencing a broad trend towards the creation of hospital groups or chains and
      multi-hospital networks. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of
      experiences in other countries about the extent to which different hospital
      "models" may provide lessons for hospital provision in England by means of a
      review of four countries: France, Germany, Ireland and the United States, with
      England included for comparison. We find that there has been a trend towards
      privatisation and the formation of hospital groups in France, Germany, and the
      United States although it is important to understand the underlying market
      structure in these countries explaining the drivers for hospital consolidation.
      Thus, and in contrast to the NHS, in France, Germany, and the United States,
      private hospitals contribute to the delivery of publicly funded healthcare
      services. There is limited evidence suggesting that different forms of hospital
      cooperation, such as hospital groups, networks or systems, may have different
      impacts on hospital performance. Available evidence suggests that hospital
      consolidation may lead to quality improvements as increased size allows for more
      costly investments and the spreading of investment risk. There is also evidence
      that a higher volume of certain services such as surgical procedures is
      associated with better quality of care. However, the association between size and
      efficiency is not clear-cut and there is a need to balance "quality risk"
      associated with low volumes and "access risk" associated with the closure of
      services at the local level.

PMID- 28560068
TI  - HDAC2 overexpression correlates with aggressive clinicopathological features and
      DNA-damage response pathway of breast cancer.
AB  - There are 18 lysine deacetylases, also known as histone deacetylases (HDACs),
      that remove acetyl groups from histone and non-histone proteins, thereby playing
      critical roles in numerous biological processes. In many human cancers, HDACs are
      dysregulated through mutation, altered expression, or inappropriate recruitment
      to certain loci. However, knowledge of the genomic and transcriptomic alterations
      and the clinical significance of most HDACs in breast cancer remain incomplete.
      We used TCGA and METABRIC datasets to perform comprehensive, integrated genomic
      and transcriptomic analyses of 18 HDAC genes in approximately 3000 primary breast
      cancers and identified associations among recurrent copy number alteration, gene
      expression, clinicopathological features, and patient survival. We found distinct
      patterns of copy number alteration and expression for each HDAC in breast cancer
      subtypes. We demonstrated that HDAC2 and SIRT7 were the most commonly
      amplified/overexpressed, and SIRT3 was most deleted/underexpressed, particularly
      in aggressive basal-like breast cancer. Overexpression of HDAC2 was significantly
      correlated with high tumor grade, positive lymph node status, and poor prognosis.
      The HDAC inhibitor mocetinostat showed anti-tumor effects in HDAC2-overexpressing
      basal-like breast cancer lines in vitro. Furthermore, HDAC2 expression was
      positively correlated with a set of DNA-damage response genes, notably RAD51. We
      revealed a potential mechanism by which HDAC2 regulates RAD51 expression-by
      indirect mediation through microRNAs, e.g., miR-182. HDAC inhibitors have emerged
      as a promising new class of multifunctional anticancer agents. Identifying which
      breast cancers or patients show HDAC deregulation that contributes to tumor
      development/progression might enable us to improve target cancer therapy.

PMID- 28560072
TI  - Health Sector Reform in the Kurdistan Region - Iraq: Financing Reform, Primary
      Care, and Patient Safety.
AB  - In 2010, the Kurdistan Regional Government asked the RAND Corporation to help
      guide reform of the health care system in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The
      overarching goal of reform was to help establish a health system that would
      provide high-quality services efficiently to everyone to prevent, treat, and
      manage physical and mental illnesses and injuries. This article summarizes the
      second phase of RAND's work, when researchers analyzed three distinct but
      intertwined health policy issue areas: development of financing policy,
      implementation of early primary care recommendations, and evaluation of quality
      and patient safety. For health financing, the researchers reviewed the relevant
      literature, explored the issue in discussions with key stakeholders, developed
      and assessed various policy options, and developed plans or approaches to
      overcome barriers and achieve stated policy objectives. In the area of primary
      care, they developed and helped to implement a new management information system.
      In the area of quality and patient safety, they reviewed relevant literature,
      discussed issues and options with health leaders, and recommended an approach
      toward incremental implementation.

PMID- 28560070
TI  - Clinical implications of c-maf expression in plasma cells from patients with
      multiple myeloma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a type of hematological malignancy with
      significant heterogeneity in clinical features and prognosis. Cytogenetic
      abnormalities are the major factors affecting patient outcomes. Studies have
      shown that immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based detection of cancer-related genes
      expression could be alternative indicators for the prognosis of MM. METHODS:
      Nuclear expression of c-maf protein in the bone marrow plasma cells of 128
      multiple myeloma patients were examined by IHC, and its association with the
      clinicopathological features of MM patients was analyzed as well. RESULTS: Among
      the 128 patients, the positive rate of c-maf protein expression was up to 30.5%,
      which had no correlation with patient age, M protein type, Durie-Salmon staging
      system, the International Staging System, abnormal plasma cell ratio in the bone
      marrow, or the level of peripheral blood hemoglobin, serum calcium or lactate
      dehydrogenase. However, the c-maf-positive patients had a significantly higher
      rate of hypoproteinemia (p = 0.026) and higher serum beta2-microglobulin levels
      (>2500 MUg/L) (p = 0.007). Patients with negative c-maf expression had higher
      remission rates upon the treatment of non-bortezomib-based regimens although no
      effect of c-maf expression on progression-free survival or overall survival was
      observed. CONCLUSION: Patients with negative c-maf expression had higher
      remission rates upon the treatment of non-bortezomib-based regimens although no
      effect of c-maf expression on survival was observed. A further large-scale
      prospective study is required to verify these findings.

PMID- 28560073
TI  - Process Evaluation of the New Mexico Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home
      Visiting Competitive Development Grant.
AB  - This article describes the evaluation of the New Mexico Home Visiting Competitive
      Development Grant, which sought to pilot test the use of implementation supports
      to improve the development and implementation of home visiting programs. Each
      community was to use Getting To Outcomes(r) (GTO) and ECHO(r) (Extension for
      Community Healthcare Outcomes) to support their work. The GTO framework promotes
      capacity for high-quality programming by specifying ten steps that practitioners
      should take and by providing support to complete those steps. ECHO involves
      specialists providing training and technical assistance via distance technology
      to community practitioners in rural areas to improve the quality of services. The
      grant was delayed, and the project's scope shifted significantly from the
      original plan. The evaluation documents significant challenges in meeting grant
      goals. A local team hired to facilitate GTO did not use it as designed, and no
      communities were trained in GTO. The coalitions that were developed operated with
      few resources or accountability, and made little progress on plans to enhance
      services. Only two of the four communities started home visiting after nearly a
      year and a half. ECHO was used with fidelity with those two programs. There was
      no change in the continuum of services to support children and families. Due to
      delays and lack of implementation of the proposed intervention, the evaluation
      was not able to assess the project's impact on child or family outcomes, nor did
      the project serve as a robust pilot test of the use of GTO and ECHO to improve
      home visiting implementation.

PMID- 28560074
TI  - The Role of Health Care Transformation for the Chinese Dream: Powering Economic
      Growth, Promoting a Harmonious Society.
AB  - After having successfully expanded health insurance coverage, China now faces the
      challenge of building an effective and efficient delivery system to serve its
      large and aging population. The country finds itself at a crossroads-it can
      emulate the models of Western countries with their well-known limitations, or
      embark on an ambitious endeavor to create an innovative and sustainable model. We
      recommend that China choose the second option and design and implement a health
      care system based on population health management principles and sophisticated
      health information technology. Taking this path could yield a triple dividend for
      China: Health care will contribute to the growth of service sector employment,
      stimulate domestic demand by unlocking savings, and enable China to export its
      health system development capabilities to other emerging economies, mirroring its
      success in building other critical infrastructure. These forces can help turn the
      Chinese Dream into a reality.

PMID- 28560075
TI  - Emergency Department Patient Experience of Care Survey: Development and Field
      Test.
AB  - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have implemented Consumer
      Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS(r)) surveys to assess
      patient experience in a number of settings. Following CAHPS principles, RAND
      researchers designed and field tested an Emergency Department Patient Experience
      of Care Survey that consists of three survey instruments for use with adult
      patients who have visited the emergency department (ED). One instrument is for
      use with those patients who are discharged to the community following their ED
      visit; the other two are for use with those patients who are admitted to the
      hospital from the ED (one for use on its own and one to supplement an existing
      inpatient survey). The authors conducted a field test of these instruments in 12
      hospitals in late 2013 and early 2014 and analyzed the resulting data from 4,101
      ED patients. The analyses identified four composite measures (measures composed
      of responses to multiple survey questions) and ten measures that are each
      composed of a single survey question. As of September 2014, CMS plans to conduct
      additional testing on these instruments.

PMID- 28560076
TI  - Evaluation of the SAMHSA Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration (PBHCI)
      Grant Program: Final Report.
AB  - Excess morbidity and mortality in persons with serious mental illness is a public
      health crisis. Numerous factors contribute to this health disparity, including
      illness and treatment-related factors, socioeconomic and lifestyle-related
      factors, and limited access to and poor quality of general medical care. Primary
      and Behavioral Health Care Integration (PBHCI), one of the Substance Abuse and
      Mental Health Services Administration's service grant programs, is intended to
      improve the overall wellness and physical health status of people with serious
      mental illness, including individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders,
      by making available an array of coordinated primary care services in community
      mental health and other community-based behavioral health settings where the
      population already receives care. This article describes the results of a RAND
      Corporation evaluation of the PBHCI grants program. The evaluation was designed
      to understand PBHCI implementation strategies and processes, whether the program
      leads to improvements in outcomes, and which program models and/or model features
      lead to better program processes and consumer outcomes. Results of the evaluation
      showed that PBHCI grantee programs were diverse, varying in their structures,
      procedures, and the extent to which primary and behavioral health care was
      integrated at the program level. Overall, PBHCI programs also served many
      consumers with high rates of physical health care needs, although total program
      enrollment was lower than expected. The results of a small, comparative
      effectiveness study showed that consumers served at PBHCI clinics (compared to
      those served at matched control clinics) showed improvements on some (e.g.,
      markers of dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes) but not all of the physical
      health indicators studied (e.g., smoking, weight). Finally, we found that program
      features, such as clinic hours, regular staff meetings, and the degree of service
      integration, increased consumer access to integrated care, but that access to
      integrated care was not directly associated with improvements in physical health.
      Implications of the study results for programs and the broader field, plus
      options for future PBHCI-related research are discussed.

PMID- 28560077
TI  - Promoting Patient Safety Through Effective Health Information Technology Risk
      Management.
AB  - The potential for health information technology (IT) to improve health care
      delivery has been appreciated for decades, but "digitizing" health care can also
      introduce new risks and even harm. As the use of health IT has grown, these risks
      have become more apparent. The authors of this report evaluated the efforts of 11
      hospitals and ambulatory practices to use an improvement strategy and tools
      developed to promote safe use of health IT and to diagnose, monitor, and mitigate
      health IT-related safety risks. Through interviews, the authors discovered that
      some health care organizations (especially hospitals) with expertise in process
      improvement were able to identify and begin to mitigate health IT-related safety
      risks, but in most others, awareness of these risks was limited (especially in
      ambulatory practices). The authors concluded that better tools like the recently
      released Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guides are needed to
      help organizations optimize the safe use of health IT. However, health care
      organizations will require a better understanding of the safety risks posed by
      electronic health record (EHR) use to take full advantage of the SAFER Guides.
      There may also be a need for additional tools and metrics (and further usability
      studies of existing tools and metrics) to better support the needs of health care
      organizations as they increasingly rely on health IT to improve the quality and
      safety of patient care.

PMID- 28560078
TI  - Changes in Health Insurance Enrollment Since 2013: Evidence from the RAND Health
      Reform Opinion Study.
AB  - RAND's Health Reform Opinion Study (HROS) allows for an estimation of how many
      people have become enrolled in all sources of health care coverage since the
      implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The HROS is conducted using the
      RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative panel of individuals who
      regularly participate in surveys; this particular analysis, is focused on
      respondents age 18-64. In addition to asking them about their opinions of the
      ACA, each month RAND collected information about enrollment in health insurance,
      including employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), Medicaid, Medicare, insurance
      purchased on a marketplace, and other insurance purchased on the individual
      market. This detailed information about insurance coverage combined with the fact
      that the same individuals were surveyed each month provides a unique ability to
      track how insurance coverage has changed since the major health insurance
      coverage provisions of the ACA took effect on January 1, 2014. The analysis
      presented here examines changes in health insurance enrollment between September
      2013 and March 2014; overall, the authors estimate that 9.3 million more people
      have health care coverage in March 2014, lowering the uninsured rate from 20.5
      percent to 15.8 percent. This increase in coverage is driven not only by
      enrollment in health insurance marketplace plans, but also by gains in ESI and
      Medicaid. Enrollment in ESI plans increased by 8.2 million and Medicaid
      enrollment increased by 5.9 million, although some individuals did lose coverage
      during this period. The authors also found that 3.9 million people are now
      covered through the state and federal marketplaces-the so-called insurance
      exchanges-and less than 1 million people who previously had individual-market
      insurance became uninsured during the period in question. While the survey cannot
      tell if this latter group lost their insurance due to cancellation or because
      they simply felt the cost was too high, the overall number is very small,
      representing less than 1 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 64.

PMID- 28560079
TI  - Beliefs Related to Mental Illness Stigma Among California Young Adults.
AB  - This study examines mental illness stigma and related beliefs among young adults
      in California, especially whether levels of stigma are higher or lower than those
      observed in older adults.

PMID- 28560080
TI  - A Case Study Evaluating the Fidelity of Suicide Prevention Workshops in
      California.
AB  - Reports on an evaluation of California suicide intervention training workshops to
      provide evidence that training is delivered with fidelity and adherence to the
      workshop's design, as well as with high quality.

PMID- 28560081
TI  - Evaluation of the California Mental Health Services Authority's Prevention and
      Early Intervention Initiatives: Progress and Preliminary Findings.
AB  - The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) statewide Prevention
      and Early Intervention (PEI) program comprises three strategic initiatives: (1)
      reduction of stigma and discrimination toward those with mental illness, (2)
      prevention of suicide, and (3) improvement in student mental health. Community
      agencies serve as PEI program partners to perform activities intended to meet the
      goals of the initiatives. This article evaluates the progress of the PEI program
      partners in achieving their goals and establishes baseline population tracking of
      key risk factors and long-term outcomes targeted by the initiatives. Based on a
      model to assess the program partners' capacities and resources and a recent
      survey of California adults, this article shows that the partners have greatly
      expanded their abilities to launch numerous PEI activities and programs.

PMID- 28560082
TI  - An Examination of New York State's Integrated Primary and Mental Health Care
      Services for Adults with Serious Mental Illness.
AB  - The poor physical health of adults with serious mental illnesses is a public
      health crisis. Greater integration of mental health and primary medical care
      services at the clinic and system levels could address this need. In New York
      state, there are several ongoing initiatives that promote integrated care for
      adults with serious mental illness, provided or coordinated by community mental
      health center staff. This study examines three initiatives. Data were collected
      by RAND through site visits and surveys of mental health clinic administrators
      and associated professionals. Results showed that Primary and Behavioral Health
      Care Integration grantees developed infrastructure that supported a broad scope
      of primary and preventive health care services; these broad changes appeared to
      contribute to clinic-wide culture shifts toward integration and shared
      accountability for consumers' "whole person" health. Clinics participating in the
      Medicaid Incentive tended to implement only those services for which they could
      bill, which resulted in newly identified consumer physical health care needs but
      did not help consumers to connect to physical health care services. Finally,
      while administrators and providers were optimistic that Medicaid Health Homes
      have potential to improve access to care for adults with serious mental illness,
      the newness of the initiative made it difficult to assess the degree to which
      Health Home networks would meet these goals. We conclude with recommendations to
      state policymakers, clinical providers, and technical assistance providers and
      recommendations for future research, all designed to strengthen New York state's
      integrated care initiatives for adults with serious mental illness.

PMID- 28560083
TI  - Language Differences in California Adults' Exposure to Suicide Prevention
      Messaging, Confidence in One's Ability to Intervene with Someone at Risk, and
      Resource Preferences.
AB  - Assesses the results of a statewide survey to determine language differences
      among California adults' exposure to suicide prevention messaging, confidence to
      intervene with someone at risk of suicide, and resource preferences.

PMID- 28560084
TI  - Recommendations for Sustaining California's Statewide Mental Health Prevention
      and Early Intervention Programs.
AB  - Provides preliminary advice about which of the California Mental Health Services
      Authority's Prevention and Early Intervention activities seem most valuable to
      sustain or, in some cases, enhance.

PMID- 28560085
TI  - Developing a Research Strategy for Suicide Prevention in the Department of
      Defense: Status of Current Research, Prioritizing Areas of Need, and
      Recommendations for Moving Forward.
AB  - In response to the elevated rate of suicide among U.S. service members, a
      congressionally mandated task force recommended that the U.S. Department of
      Defense (DoD) create a unified, comprehensive strategic plan for suicide
      prevention research to ensure that DoD-funded studies align with DoD's goals. To
      help meet this objective, a RAND study cataloged the research funded by DoD and
      other entities that is directly relevant to military personnel, examined the
      extent to which current research maps to DoD's strategic research needs, and
      provided recommendations to ensure that proposed research strategies align with
      the national research strategy and integrate with DoD's data collection and
      program evaluation strategies. The study found that although DoD is one of the
      largest U.S. funders of research related to suicide prevention, its current
      funding priorities do not consistently reflect its research needs. The study
      indexed each of 12 research goals according to rankings of importance,
      effectiveness, cultural acceptability, cost, and learning potential provided by
      experts who participated in a multistep elicitation exercise. The results
      revealed that research funding is overwhelmingly allocated to prevention goals
      already considered by experts to be effective. Other goals considered by experts
      to be important and appropriate for the military context receive relatively
      little funding and have been the subject of relatively few studies, meaning that
      there is still much to learn about these strategies. Furthermore, DoD, like other
      organizations, suffers from a research-to-practice gap. The most promising
      results from studies funded by DoD and other entities do not always find their
      way to those responsible for implementing suicide prevention programs that serve
      military personnel. The RAND study recommended approaches to thoughtfully
      integrate the latest research findings into DoD's operating procedures to ensure
      that evidence-based approaches can benefit suicide prevention programs and
      prevent the further loss of lives to suicide.

PMID- 28560086
TI  - How Deployments Affect the Capacity and Utilization of Army Treatment Facilities.
AB  - The Army was concerned about how the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) cycle,
      established to provide a predictable process by which Army units deploy, reset,
      and train to become ready and available to deploy again, affected the lives of
      Army soldiers and their families. In particular, the Vice Chief of Staff of the
      Army asked RAND Arroyo Center to determine whether ARFORGEN resulted in ebbs and
      flows in the ability of Army military treatment facilities (MTFs) to provide
      medical care and respond to changes in family needs as soldiers and care
      providers deploy and return home. This concern is especially well-founded because
      military health research has shown that family members of service members utilize
      health care differently during deployment than when the soldier is at home. This
      study found that MTF capacity is not greatly affected when soldiers and care
      providers deploy, and that MTFs may be slightly less busy than when soldiers and
      care providers are both at home. In aggregate, family member access to health
      care does not appear to be impinged when soldiers deploy, and soldiers who did
      not deploy with their unit slightly increase their utilization of health care
      during those times.

PMID- 28560087
TI  - The Future of Public Health: A Horizon Scan.
AB  - Public Health England (PHE) commissioned RAND Europe to undertake a horizon
      scanning study exploring the future of public health and related scientific
      services. This work was intended to help inform thinking at the strategic level
      within PHE, firstly in relation to the wider vision of the Agency (which was only
      established in April 2013) and, secondly, in relation to the proposals for the
      creation of an integrated public health science hub. The study is based on a
      literature review, a brief Delphi exercise using the ExpertLens platform and key
      informant interviews with a range of PHE staff and external experts. It focuses
      on the different future public health science needs and the extent to which an
      integrated science hub could serve PHE as it evolves over the next twenty years.
      Thus, the study considers PHE's future remit and objectives in order that
      decisions about an integrated and co-located science hub be made in context and
      with reference to expert perceptions about the future.

PMID- 28560088
TI  - The Structural Genomics Consortium: A Knowledge Platform for Drug Discovery: A
      Summary.
AB  - The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) supports drug discovery efforts through
      a unique, open access model of public-private collaboration. This study presents
      the results of an independent evaluation of the Structural Genomics Consortium,
      conducted by RAND Europe with the Institute on Governance. The evaluation aimed
      to establish the role of the SGC within the wider drug discovery and PPP
      landscape, assessing the merits of the SGC open access model relative to
      alternative models of funding R&D in this space, as well as the key trends and
      opportunities in the external environment that may impact on the future of the
      SGC. It also established the incentives and disincentives for investment,
      strengths and weaknesses of the SGC's model, and the opportunities and threats
      the SGC will face in the future. This enabled us to assess the most convincing
      arguments for funding the SGC at present; important trade-offs or limitations
      that should be addressed in moving towards the next funding phase; and whether
      funders are anticipating changes either to the SGC or the wider PPP landscape.
      Finally, we undertook a quantitative analysis to ascertain what judgements can be
      made about the SGC's past and current performance track record, before unpacking
      the role of the external environment and particular actors within the SGC in
      developing scenarios for the future.

PMID- 28560090
TI  - Correction to: Biores Open Access 2016;5:137-145.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1089/biores.2016.0010.].

PMID- 28560089
TI  - Characterization of a Murine Model of Bioequivalent Bladder Wound Healing and
      Repair Following Subtotal Cystectomy.
AB  - Previous work demonstrated restoration of a bioequivalent bladder within 8 weeks
      of removing the majority of the bladder (subtotal cystectomy or STC) in rats. The
      goal of the present study was to extend our investigations of bladder repair to
      the murine model, to harness the power of mouse genetics to delineate the
      cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the observed robust bladder
      regrowth. Female C57 black mice underwent STC, and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks post
      STC, bladder repair and function were assessed via cystometry, ex vivo
      pharmacologic organ bath studies, and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI). Histology was also performed to measure bladder wall thickness. We
      observed a time-dependent increase in bladder capacity (BC) following STC, such
      that 8 and 12 weeks post-STC, BC and micturition volumes were indistinguishable
      from those of age-matched non-STC controls and significantly higher than observed
      at 4 weeks. MRI studies confirmed that bladder volume was indistinguishable
      within 3 months (11 weeks) post-STC. Additionally, bladders emptied completely at
      all time points studied (i.e., no increases in residual volume), consistent with
      functional bladder repair. At 8 and 12 weeks post-STC, there were no significant
      differences in bladder wall thickness or in the different components (urothelium,
      lamina propria, or smooth muscle layers) of the bladder wall compared with age
      matched control animals. The maximal contractile response to pharmacological
      activation and electrical field stimulation increased over time in isolated
      tissue strips from repaired bladders but remained lower at all time points
      compared with controls. We have established and validated a murine model for the
      study of de novo organ repair that will allow for further mechanistic studies of
      this phenomenon after, for example, genetic manipulation.

PMID- 28560091
TI  - A mixed methods study of multiple health behaviors among individuals with stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with stroke often have multiple cardiovascular risk
      factors that necessitate promoting engagement in multiple health behaviors.
      However, observational studies of individuals with stroke have typically focused
      on promoting a single health behavior. Thus, there is a poor understanding of
      linkages between healthy behaviors and the circumstances in which factors, such
      as stroke impairments, may influence a single or multiple health behaviors.
      METHODS: We conducted a mixed methods convergent parallel study of 25 individuals
      with stroke to examine the relationships between stroke impairments and physical
      activity, sleep, and nutrition. Our goal was to gain further insight into
      possible strategies to promote multiple health behaviors among individuals with
      stroke. This study focused on physical activity, sleep, and nutrition because of
      their importance in achieving energy balance, maintaining a healthy weight, and
      reducing cardiovascular risks. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected
      concurrently, with the former being prioritized over the latter. Qualitative data
      was prioritized in order to develop a conceptual model of engagement in multiple
      health behaviors among individuals with stroke. Qualitative and quantitative data
      were analyzed independently and then were integrated during the inference stage
      to develop meta-inferences. The 25 individuals with stroke completed closed-ended
      questionnaires on healthy behaviors and physical function. They also participated
      in face-to-face focus groups and one-to-one phone interviews. RESULTS: We found
      statistically significant and moderate correlations between hand function and
      healthy eating habits (r = 0.45), sleep disturbances and limitations in
      activities of daily living (r =  - 0.55), BMI and limitations in activities of
      daily living (r =  - 0.49), physical activity and limitations in activities of
      daily living (r = 0.41), mobility impairments and BMI (r =  - 0.41), sleep
      disturbances and physical activity (r =  - 0.48), sleep disturbances and BMI (r =
      0.48), and physical activity and BMI (r =  - 0.45). We identified five
      qualitative themes: (1) Impairments: reduced autonomy, (2) Environmental forces:
      caregivers and information, (3) Re-evaluation: priorities and attributions, (4)
      Resiliency: finding motivation and solutions, and (5) Negative affectivity:
      stress and self-consciousness. Three meta-inferences and a conceptual model
      described circumstances in which factors could influence single or multiple
      health behaviors. DISCUSSION: This is the first mixed methods study of
      individuals with stroke to elaborate on relationships between multiple health
      behaviors, BMI, and physical function. A conceptual model illustrates addressing
      sleep disturbances, activity limitations, self-image, and emotions to promote
      multiple health behaviors. We discuss the relevance of the meta-inferences in
      designing multiple behavior change interventions for individuals with stroke.

PMID- 28560092
TI  - Comparison in antioxidant and antitumor activities of pine polyphenols and its
      seven biotransformation extracts by fungi.
AB  - Microbial transformation can strengthen the antioxidant and antitumor activities
      of polyphenols. Polyphenols contents, antioxidant and antitumor activities of
      pine polyphenols and its biotransformation extracts by Aspergillus niger,
      Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus carbonarius, Aspergillus candidus, Trichodermas
      viride, Mucor wutungkiao and Rhizopus sp were studied. Significant differences
      were noted in antioxidant and antitumor activities. The highest antioxidant
      activities in Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), DPPH radical
      scavenging activity, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity, hydroxyl
      radical scavenging activity, reducing power assay and antitumor activity against
      LoVo cells were biotransformation extract of Aspergillus carbonarius (BAC),
      biotransformation extract of Mucor wutungkiao (BMW), biotransformation extract of
      Aspergillus carbonarius (BAC), biotransformation extract of Aspergillus niger
      (BAN), biotransformation extract of Aspergillus oryzae (BAO) and BMW,
      respectively. Correlation analysis found that antioxidant and antitumor
      activities were associated with polyphenols contents and types of free radicals
      and tumors. A. carbonarius can make polyphenol oxidation, hydroxylation and
      methylation, and form new polyphenols. In conclusion, A. carbonarius, A. niger
      and M. wutungkiao are valuable microorganisms used for polyphenols
      biotransformation and enhance the antioxidant and antitumor activities of
      polyphenols.

PMID- 28560093
TI  - Invasive lionfish had no measurable effect on prey fish community structure
      across the Belizean Barrier Reef.
AB  - Invasive lionfish are assumed to significantly affect Caribbean reef fish
      communities. However, evidence of lionfish effects on native reef fishes is based
      on uncontrolled observational studies or small-scale, unrepresentative
      experiments, with findings ranging from no effect to large effects on prey
      density and richness. Moreover, whether lionfish affect populations and
      communities of native reef fishes at larger, management-relevant scales is
      unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of lionfish on coral
      reef prey fish communities in a natural complex reef system. We quantified
      lionfish and the density, richness, and composition of native prey fishes (0-10
      cm total length) at sixteen reefs along ~250 km of the Belize Barrier Reef from
      2009 to 2013. Lionfish invaded our study sites during this four-year longitudinal
      study, thus our sampling included fish community structure before and after our
      sites were invaded, i.e., we employed a modified BACI design. We found no
      evidence that lionfish measurably affected the density, richness, or composition
      of prey fishes. It is possible that higher lionfish densities are necessary to
      detect an effect of lionfish on prey populations at this relatively large spatial
      scale. Alternatively, negative effects of lionfish on prey could be small,
      essentially undetectable, and ecologically insignificant at our study sites.
      Other factors that influence the dynamics of reef fish populations including reef
      complexity, resource availability, recruitment, predation, and fishing could
      swamp any effects of lionfish on prey populations.

PMID- 28560094
TI  - Eumelanin and pheomelanin are predominant pigments in bumblebee (Apidae: Bombus)
      pubescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are well known for their
      important inter- and intra-specific variation in hair (or pubescence) color
      patterns, but the chemical nature of the pigments associated with these patterns
      is not fully understood. For example, though melanization is believed to provide
      darker colors, it still unknown which types of melanin are responsible for each
      color, and no conclusive data are available for the lighter colors, including
      white. METHODS: By using dispersive Raman spectroscopy analysis on 12
      species/subspecies of bumblebees from seven subgenera, we tested the hypothesis
      that eumelanin and pheomelanin, the two main melanin types occurring in animals,
      are largely responsible for bumblebee pubescence coloration. RESULTS: Eumelanin
      and pheomelanin occur in bumblebee pubescence. Black pigmentation is due to
      prevalent eumelanin, with visible signals of additional pheomelanin, while the
      yellow, orange, red and brown hairs clearly include pheomelanin. On the other
      hand, white hairs reward very weak Raman signals, suggesting that they are
      depigmented. Additional non-melanic pigments in yellow hair cannot be excluded
      but need other techniques to be detected. Raman spectra were more similar across
      similarly colored hairs, with no apparent effect of phylogeny and both melanin
      types appeared to be already used at the beginning of bumblebee radiation.
      DISCUSSION: We suggest that the two main melanin forms, at variable amounts
      and/or vibrational states, are sufficient in giving almost the whole color range
      of bumblebee pubescence, allowing these insects to use a single precursor instead
      of synthesizing a variety of chemically different pigments. This would agree with
      commonly seen color interchanges between body segments across Bombus species.

PMID- 28560095
TI  - A novel genus and cryptic species harboured within the monotypic freshwater
      crayfish genus Tenuibranchiurus Riek, 1951 (Decapoda: Parastacidae).
AB  - Identifying species groups is an important yet difficult task, with there being
      no single accepted definition as to what constitutes a species, nor a set of
      criteria by which they should be delineated. Employing the General Lineage
      Concept somewhat circumvents these issues, as this concept allows multiple
      concordant lines of evidence to be used as support for species delimitation,
      where a species is defined as any independently evolving lineage. Genetically
      diverse groups have previously been identified within the monotypic parastacid
      genus Tenuibranchiurus Riek, 1951, but no further investigation of this diversity
      has previously been undertaken. Analysis of two mitochondrial DNA gene regions
      has previously identified two highly divergent groups within this taxon,
      representing populations from Queensland (Qld) and New South Wales (NSW),
      respectively. Additional testing within this study of both mitochondrial and
      nuclear DNA through species discovery analyses identified genetically diverse
      groups within these regions, which were further supported by lineage validation
      methods. The degree of genetic differentiation between Qld and NSW populations
      supports the recognition of two genera; with Qld retaining the original genus
      name Tenuibranchiurus, and NSW designated as Gen. nov. until a formal description
      is completed. Concordance between the species discovery and lineage validation
      methods supports the presence of six species within Tenuibranchiurus and two
      within Gen. nov. The recognition of additional species removes the monotypy of
      the genus, and the methods used can improve species identification within groups
      of organisms with taxonomic problems and cryptic diversity.

PMID- 28560096
TI  - Interactions of 172 plant extracts with human organic anion transporter 1
      (SLC22A6) and 3 (SLC22A8): a study on herb-drug interactions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Herb-drug interactions (HDIs) resulting from concomitant use of
      herbal products with clinical drugs may cause adverse reactions. Organic anion
      transporter 1 (OAT1) and 3 (OAT3) are highly expressed in the kidney and play a
      key role in the renal elimination of substrate drugs. So far, little is known
      about the herbal extracts that could modulate OAT1 and OAT3 activities. METHODS:
      HEK293 cells stably expressing human OAT1 (HEK-OAT1) and OAT3 (HEK-OAT3) were
      established and characterized. One hundred seventy-two extracts from 37 medicinal
      and economic plants were prepared. An initial concentration of 5 ug/ml for each
      extract was used to evaluate their effects on 6-carboxylfluorescein (6-CF) uptake
      in HEK-OAT1 and HEK-OAT3 cells. Concentration-dependent inhibition studies were
      conducted for those extracts with more than 50% inhibition to OAT1 and OAT3. The
      extract of Juncus effusus, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, was
      assessed for its effect on the in vivo pharmacokinetic parameters of furosemide,
      a diuretic drug which is a known substrate of both OAT1 and OAT3. RESULTS: More
      than 30% of the plant extracts at the concentration of 5 ug/ml showed strong
      inhibitory effect on the 6-CF uptake mediated by OAT1 (61 extracts) and OAT3 (55
      extracts). Among them, three extracts for OAT1 and fourteen extracts for OAT3
      were identified as strong inhibitors with IC50 values being <5 ug/ml. Juncus
      effusus showed a strong inhibition to OAT3 in vitro, and markedly altered the in
      vivo pharmacokinetic parameters of furosemide in rats. CONCLUSION: The present
      study identified the potential interactions of medicinal and economic plants with
      human OAT1 and OAT3, which is helpful to predict and to avoid potential OAT1- and
      OAT3-mediated HDIs.

PMID- 28560098
TI  - Sports training enhances visuo-spatial cognition regardless of open-closed
      typology.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of open and closed sport
      participation on visuo-spatial attention and memory performance among young
      adults. Forty-eight young adults-16 open-skill athletes, 16 closed-skill
      athletes, and 16 non-athletes controls-were recruited for the study. Both
      behavioral performance and event-related potential (ERP) measurement were
      assessed when participants performed non-delayed and delayed match-to-sample task
      that tested visuo-spatial attention and memory processing. Results demonstrated
      that regardless of training typology, the athlete groups exhibited shorter
      reaction times in both the visuo-spatial attention and memory conditions than the
      control group with no existence of speed-accuracy trade-off. Similarly, a larger
      P3 amplitudes were observed in both athlete groups than in the control group for
      the visuo-spatial memory condition. These findings suggest that sports training,
      regardless of typology, are associated with superior visuo-spatial attention and
      memory performance, and more efficient neural resource allocation in memory
      processing.

PMID- 28560097
TI  - pathVar: a new method for pathway-based interpretation of gene expression
      variability.
AB  - Identifying the pathways that control a cellular phenotype is the first step to
      building a mechanistic model. Recent examples in developmental biology, cancer
      genomics, and neurological disease have demonstrated how changes in the
      variability of gene expression can highlight important genes that are under
      different degrees of regulatory control. Simple statistical tests exist to
      identify differentially-variable genes; however, methods for investigating how
      changes in gene expression variability in the context of pathways and gene sets
      are under-explored. Here we present pathVar, a new method that provides
      functional interpretation of gene expression variability changes at the level of
      pathways and gene sets. pathVar is based on a multinomial exact test, or an
      asymptotic Chi-squared test as a more computationally-efficient alternative. The
      method can be used for gene expression studies from any technology platform in
      all biological settings either with a single phenotypic group, or two-group
      comparisons. To demonstrate its utility, we applied the method to a diverse set
      of diseases, species and samples. Results from pathVar are benchmarked against
      analyses based on average expression and two methods of GSEA, and demonstrate
      that analyses using both statistics are useful for understanding transcriptional
      regulation. We also provide recommendations for the choice of variability
      statistic that have been informed through analyses on simulations and real data.
      Based on the datasets selected, we show how pathVar can be used to gain insight
      into expression variability of single cell versus bulk samples, different stem
      cell populations, and cancer versus normal tissue comparisons.

PMID- 28560099
TI  - A retrospective analysis of postoperative hypokalemia in pituitary adenomas after
      transsphenoidal surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pituitary adenoma is one of the most common intracranial neoplasms,
      and its primary treatment is endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal tumorectomy.
      Postoperative hypokalemia in these patients is a common complication, and is
      associated with morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to analyze the
      etiopathology of postoperative hypokalemia in pituitary adenomas after endoscopic
      transsphenoidal surgery. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This retrospective study included
      181 pituitary adenomas confirmed by histopathology. Unconditional logistic
      regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs). Repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze change in serum
      potassium levels at different time points. RESULTS: Multiple Logistic regression
      analysis revealed that only ACTH-pituitary adenoma (OR = 4.92, 95% CI [1.18
      20.48], P = 0.029) had a significant association with postoperative hypokalemia.
      Moreover, the overall mean serum potassium concentration was significantly lower
      in the ACTH versus the non-ACTH group (3.34 mmol/L vs. 3.79 mmol/L, P = 0.001).
      Postoperative hypokalemia was predominantly found in patients with ACTH-pituitary
      adenoma (P = 0.033). CONCLUSIONS: ACTH-pituitary adenomas may be an independent
      factor related postoperative hypokalemia in patients despite conventional
      potassium supplementation in the immediate postoperative period.

PMID- 28560100
TI  - The first reported ceratopsid dinosaur from eastern North America (Owl Creek
      Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mississippi, USA).
AB  - Ceratopsids ("horned dinosaurs") are known from western North America and Asia, a
      distribution reflecting an inferred subaerial link between the two landmasses
      during the Late Cretaceous. However, this clade was previously unknown from
      eastern North America, presumably due to limited outcrop of the appropriate age
      and depositional environment as well as the separation of eastern and western
      North America by the Western Interior Seaway during much of the Late Cretaceous.
      A dentary tooth from the Owl Creek Formation (late Maastrichtian) of Union
      County, Mississippi, represents the first reported occurrence of Ceratopsidae
      from eastern North America. This tooth shows a combination of features typical of
      Ceratopsidae, including a double root and a prominent, blade-like carina. Based
      on the age of the fossil, we hypothesize that it is consistent with a dispersal
      of ceratopsids into eastern North America during the very latest Cretaceous,
      presumably after the two halves of North America were reunited following the
      retreat of the Western Interior Seaway.

PMID- 28560101
TI  - Restoring lepidopteran diversity in a tropical dry forest: relative importance of
      restoration treatment, tree identity and predator pressure.
AB  - Tropical dry forests (TDFs) have been widely transformed by human activities
      worldwide and the ecosystem services they provide are diminishing. There has been
      an urgent call for conservation and restoration of the degraded lands previously
      occupied by TDFs. Restoration experiences aim to recover species diversity and
      ecological functions. Different restoration strategies have been used to maximize
      plant performance including weeding, planting or using artificial mulching. In
      this investigation, we evaluated whether different restoration practices
      influence animal arrival and the reestablishment of biotic interactions. We
      particularly evaluated lepidopteran larvae diversity and caterpillar predation on
      plants established under different restoration treatments (mulching, weeding and
      control) in the Pacific West Coast of Mexico. This study corroborated the
      importance of plant host identity for lepidopteran presence in a particular area.
      Lepidopteran diversity and herbivory rates were not affected by the restoration
      treatment but they were related to tree species. In contrast, caterpillar
      predation marks were affected by restoration treatment, with a greater number of
      predation marks in control plots, while caterpillar predation marks among plant
      species were not significantly different. This study highlights the importance of
      considering the introduction of high plant species diversity when planning TDF
      restoration to maximize lepidopteran diversity and ecosystem functioning.

PMID- 28560102
TI  - Effectiveness of coral relocation as a mitigation strategy in Kane'ohe Bay,
      Hawai'i.
AB  - Coral reef restoration and management techniques are in ever-increasing demand
      due to the global decline of coral reefs in the last several decades. Coral
      relocation has been established as an appropriate restoration technique in select
      cases, particularly where corals are scheduled for destruction. However,
      continued long-term monitoring of recovery of transplanted corals is seldom
      sustained. Removal of coral from a navigation channel and relocation to a similar
      nearby dredged site occurred in 2005. Coral recovery at the donor site and
      changes in fish populations at the receiving site were tracked periodically over
      the following decade. Coral regrowth at the donor site was rapid until a recent
      bleaching event reduced coral cover by more than half. The transplant of mature
      colonies increased spatial complexity at the receiving site, immediately
      increasing fish biomass, abundance, and species that was maintained throughout
      subsequent surveys. Our research indicates that unlike the majority of historical
      accounts of coral relocation in the Pacific, corals transplanted into wave
      protected areas with similar conditions as the original site can have high
      survival rates. Data on long-term monitoring of coral transplants in diverse
      environments is central in developing management and mitigation strategies.

PMID- 28560103
TI  - Effects of arginine vasopressin on the urine proteome in rats.
AB  - Biomarkers are the measurable changes associated with a physiological or
      pathophysiological process. The content of urine frequently changes because it is
      not controlled by homeostatic mechanisms, and these alterations can be a source
      of biomarkers. However, urine is affected by many factors. In this study,
      vasoconstrictor and antidiuretic arginine vasopressin (AVP) were infused into
      rats using an osmotic pump. The rats' urinary proteome after one week of infusion
      was analyzed by label-free LC-MS/MS. A total of 408 proteins were identified;
      among these proteins, eight and 10 proteins had significantly altered expression
      in the low and high dose groups, respectively, compared with the control group
      using the one-way ANOVA analysis followed by post hoc analysis with the least
      significant difference (LSD) test or Dunnett's T3 test. Three differential
      proteins were described in prior studies as related to AVP physiological
      processes, and nine differential proteins are known disease biomarkers. Sixteen
      of the 17 differential proteins have human orthologs. These results suggest that
      we should consider the effects of AVP on urinary proteins in future urinary
      disease biomarker researches. The study data provide clues regarding underlying
      mechanisms associated with AVP for future physiological researches on AVP. This
      study provide a sensitive changes associated with AVP. However, the limitation of
      this result is that the candidate biomarkers should be further verified and
      filtered. Large clinical samples must be examined to verify the differential
      proteins identified in this study before these proteins are used as biomarkers
      for pathological AVP increased diseases, such as syndrome of inappropriate
      antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH).

PMID- 28560104
TI  - Construct validity and test-retest reliability of the International Fitness Scale
      (IFIS) in Colombian children and adolescents aged 9-17.9 years: the FUPRECOL
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a lack of instruments and studies written in Spanish
      evaluating physical fitness, impeding the determination of the current status of
      this important health indicator in the Latin population, especially in Colombia.
      The aim of the study was two-fold: to examine the validity of the International
      Fitness Scale (IFIS) with a population-based sample of schoolchildren from
      Bogota, Colombia and to examine the reliability of the IFIS with children and
      adolescents from Engativa, Colombia. METHODS: The sample comprised 1,873
      Colombian youths (54.5% girls) aged 9-17.9 years. We measured their adiposity
      markers (waist-to-height ratio, skinfold thickness, percentage of body fat and
      body mass index), blood pressure, lipids profile, fasting glucose, and physical
      fitness level (self-reported and measured). A validated cardiometabolic risk
      index score was also used. An age- and sex-matched subsample of 229
      schoolchildren who were not originally included in the sample completed the IFIS
      twice for reliability purposes. RESULTS: Our data suggest that both measured and
      self-reported overall physical fitness levels were inversely associated with
      percentage of body fat indicators and the cardiometabolic risk index score.
      Overall, schoolchildren who self-reported "good" or "very good" fitness had
      better measured fitness levels than those who reported "very poor/poor" fitness
      (all p < 0.001). The test-retest reliability of the IFIS items was also good,
      with an average weighted kappa of 0.811. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that
      self-reported fitness, as assessed by the IFIS, is a valid, reliable, and health
      related measure. Furthermore, it can be a good alternative for future use in
      large studies with Latin schoolchildren from Colombia.

PMID- 28560106
TI  - A molecular phylogeny of the spiny lobster Panulirus homarus highlights a
      separately evolving lineage from the Southwest Indian Ocean.
AB  - Accurate species description in the marine environment is critical for estimating
      biodiversity and identifying genetically distinct stocks. Analysis of molecular
      data can potentially improve species delimitations because they are easily
      generated and independent, and yield consistent results with high statistical
      power. We used classical phylogenetic (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference)
      and coalescent-based methods (divergence dating with fossil calibrations and
      coalescent-based species delimitation) to resolve the phylogeny of the spiny
      lobster Panulirus homarus subspecies complex in the Indo-West Pacific. Analyses
      of mitochondrial data and combined nuclear and mitochondrial data recovered
      Panulirus homarus homarus and Panulirus homarus rubellus as separately evolving
      lineages, while the nuclear data trees were unresolved. Divergence dating
      analysis also identified Panulirus homarus homarus and Panulirus homarus rubellus
      as two distinct clades which diverged from a common ancestor during the
      Oligocene, approximately 26 million years ago. Species delimitation using
      coalescent-based methods corroborated these findings. A long pelagic larval life
      stage and the influence of ocean currents on post-larval settlement patterns
      suggest that a parapatric mode of speciation drives evolution in this subspecies
      complex. In combination, the results indicate that Panulirus homarus rubellus
      from the Southwest Indian Ocean is a separately evolving lineage and possibly a
      separate species.

PMID- 28560105
TI  - The metabolic profile of a rat model of chronic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The kidney is always subjected to high metabolic demand. The aim of
      this study was to characterize metabolic profiles of a rat model of chronic
      kidney disease (CKD) with cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) induced by prolonged
      hypertension. METHODS: We used inbred male Dahl salt-sensitive (DS) rats fed an
      8% NaCl diet from six weeks of age (high-salt; HS group) or a 0.3% NaCl diet as
      controls (low-salt; LS group). We analyzed function, pathology, metabolome, and
      the gene expression related to energy metabolism of the kidney. RESULTS: DS rats
      with a high-salt diet showed hypertension at 11 weeks of age and elevated serum
      levels of creatinine and blood urea nitrogen with heart failure at 21 weeks of
      age. The fibrotic area in the kidneys increased at 21 weeks of age. In addition,
      gene expression related to mitochondrial function was largely decreased. The
      levels of citrate and isocitrate increased and the gene expression of alpha
      ketoglutaratedehydrogenase and succinyl-CoA synthetase decreased; these are
      enzymes that metabolize citrate and isocitrate, respectively. In addition, the
      levels of succinate and acetyl Co-A, both of which are metabolites of the
      tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, decreased. CONCLUSIONS: DS rats fed a high-salt
      diet were deemed a suitable model of CKD with CRS. Gene expression and
      metabolites related to energy metabolism and mitochondria in the kidney
      significantly changed in DS rats with hypertension in accordance with the
      progression of renal injury.

PMID- 28560107
TI  - Factors affecting genotyping success in giant panda fecal samples.
AB  - Fecal samples play an important role in giant panda conservation studies. Optimal
      preservation conditions and choice of microsatellites for giant panda fecal
      samples have not been established. In this study, we evaluated the effect of four
      factors (namely, storage type (ethanol (EtOH), EtOH -20  degrees C, 2-step
      storage medium, DMSO/EDTA/Tris/salt buffer (DETs) and frozen at -20  degrees C),
      storage time (one, three and six months), fragment length, and repeat motif of
      microsatellite loci) on the success rate of microsatellite amplification, allelic
      dropout (ADO) and false allele (FA) rates from giant panda fecal samples.
      Amplification success and ADO rates differed between the storage types. Freezing
      was inferior to the other four storage methods based on the lowest average
      amplification success and the highest ADO rates (P < 0.05). The highest
      microsatellite amplification success was obtained from either EtOH or the 2-step
      storage medium at three storage time points. Storage time had a negative effect
      on the average amplification of microsatellites and samples stored in EtOH and
      the 2-step storage medium were more stable than the other three storage types. We
      only detected the effect of repeat motif on ADO and FA rates. The lower ADO and
      FA rates were obtained from tri- and tetra-nucleotide loci. We suggest that
      freezing should not be used for giant panda fecal preservation in microsatellite
      studies, and EtOH and the 2-step storage medium should be chosen on priority for
      long-term storage. We recommend candidate microsatellite loci with longer repeat
      motif to ensure greater genotyping success for giant panda fecal studies.

PMID- 28560108
TI  - Storm effects on intertidal invertebrates: increased beta diversity of few
      individuals and species.
AB  - Climate change is predicted to lead to more extreme weather events, including
      changes to storm frequency, intensity and location. Yet the ecological responses
      to storms are incompletely understood for sandy shorelines, the globe's longest
      land-ocean interface. Here we document how storms of different magnitude impacted
      the invertebrate assemblages on a tidal flat in Brazil. We specifically tested
      the relationships between wave energy and spatial heterogeneity, both for habitat
      properties (habitat heterogeneity) and fauna (beta-diversity), predicting that
      larger storms redistribute sediments and hence lead to spatially less variable
      faunal assemblages. The sediment matrix tended to become less heterogeneous
      across the flat after high-energy wave events, whereas beta-diversity increased
      after storms. This higher beta-diversity was primarily driven by species losses.
      Significantly fewer species at a significantly lower density occurred within days
      to weeks after storms. Negative density and biomass responses to storm events
      were most prominent in crustaceans. Invertebrate assemblages appeared to recover
      within a short time (weeks to months) after storms, highlighting that most
      species typical of sedimentary shorelines are, to some degree, resilient to short
      term changes in wave energy. Given that storm frequency and intensity are
      predicted to change in the coming decades, identifying properties that determine
      resilience and recovery of ecosystems constitute a research priority for
      sedimentary shorelines and beyond.

PMID- 28560109
TI  - Within outlying mean indexes: refining the OMI analysis for the realized niche
      decomposition.
AB  - The ecological niche concept has regained interest under environmental change
      (e.g., climate change, eutrophication, and habitat destruction), especially to
      study the impacts on niche shift and conservatism. Here, we propose the within
      outlying mean indexes (WitOMI), which refine the outlying mean index (OMI)
      analysis by using its properties in combination with the K-select analysis
      species marginality decomposition. The purpose is to decompose the ecological
      niche into subniches associated with the experimental design, i.e., taking into
      account temporal and/or spatial subsets. WitOMI emphasize the habitat conditions
      that contribute (1) to the definition of species' niches using all available
      conditions and, at the same time, (2) to the delineation of species' subniches
      according to given subsets of dates or sites. The latter aspect allows addressing
      niche dynamics by highlighting the influence of atypical habitat conditions on
      species at a given time and/or space. Then, (3) the biological constraint exerted
      on the species subniche becomes observable within Euclidean space as the
      difference between the existing fundamental subniche and the realized subniche.
      We illustrate the decomposition of published OMI analyses, using spatial and
      temporal examples. The species assemblage's subniches are comparable to the same
      environmental gradient, producing a more accurate and precise description of the
      assemblage niche distribution under environmental change. The WitOMI calculations
      are available in the open-access R package "subniche."

PMID- 28560110
TI  - Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Sturnira parvidens
      and cross-species amplification in Sturnira species.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sturnira is one of the most species-rich genera in the Neotropics,
      and it is found from Mexico and the Lesser Antilles to Argentina. This genus
      forms a well-supported monophyletic clade with at least twenty-one recognized
      species, as well as several others under taxonomic review. Sturnira parvidens is
      a widespread frugivorous bat of the deciduous forests of the Neotropics, is
      highly abundant, and is a major component in fruit dispersal to regenerate
      ecosystems. METHODS: We used a technique based on Illumina paired-end sequencing
      of a library highly enriched for microsatellite repeats to develop loci for S.
      parvidens. We analyzed millions of resulting reads with specialized software to
      extract those reads that contained di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexanucleotide
      microsatellites. RESULTS: We selected and tested 14 polymorphic (di, tri, and
      tetra) microsatellites. All markers were genotyped on 26 different individuals
      from distinct locations of the distributional area of S. parvidens. We observed
      medium-high genetic variation across most loci, but only 12 were functionally
      polymorphic. Levels of expected heterozygosity across all markers were high to
      medium (mean HE  = 0.79, mean HO  = 0.72). We examined ascertainment bias in
      twelve bats of the genus, obtaining null/monomorphic/polymorphic amplifications.
      DISCUSSION: The Illumina paired-end sequencing system is capable of identifying
      massive numbers of microsatellite loci, while expending little time, reducing
      costs, and providing a large amount of data. The described polymorphic loci for
      S. parvidens in particular, and for the genus in general, could be suitable for
      further genetic analysis, including taxonomic inconsistencies,
      parentage/relatedness analysis, and population genetics assessments.

PMID- 28560111
TI  - Clonidine or remifentanil for adequate surgical conditions in patients undergoing
      endoscopic sinus surgery: a randomized study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deliberate hypotension is one way to achieve a bloodless surgical
      field in endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). We compared two anaesthesia regimens to
      induce deliberate hypotension and attempted to determine the most efficient one.
      METHODS: Fifty-nine patients undergoing ESS were minimized into two groups. In
      the CLO group, patients received I.V. sufentanil 0.15 ug/kg together with I.V.
      clonidine 2-3 ug/kg. In the REMI group, patients received remifentanil at a rate
      of up to 1 ug/kg/min. Fromme scores were collected 15 min after the incision and
      at the end of the procedure. Mean arterial pressure readings (MAP), heart rate
      readings, time to eyes opening, time to extubation, pain scores, analgesic
      requirements, and oxygen needs were collected and compared. RESULTS: There were
      no significant differences in Fromme scores between the two groups. The averaged
      MAP from 15 min to the end of the procedure was significantly lower in the REMI
      group; these patients also received more ephedrine. Significantly fewer patients
      in the CLO group needed oxygen therapy to keep their Pulse Oximeter Oxygen
      Saturation within 3% of their preoperative values. Patients in this group also
      needed less piritramide in the recovery room, and their pain scores were lower at
      discharge from the recovery room. DISCUSSION: Although both anaesthesia regimens
      offered a similar quality of surgical field, this study suggests that clonidine
      had a better average safety profile. Furthermore, patients who received this
      regimen required fewer painkillers immediately after surgery.

PMID- 28560112
TI  - Genetic effects on life-history traits in the Glanville fritillary butterfly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adaptation to local habitat conditions may lead to the natural
      divergence of populations in life-history traits such as body size, time of
      reproduction, mate signaling or dispersal capacity. Given enough time and strong
      enough selection pressures, populations may experience local genetic
      differentiation. The genetic basis of many life-history traits, and their
      evolution according to different environmental conditions remain however poorly
      understood. METHODS: We conducted an association study on the Glanville
      fritillary butterfly, using material from five populations along a latitudinal
      gradient within the Baltic Sea region, which show different degrees of habitat
      fragmentation. We investigated variation in 10 principal components, cofounding
      in total 21 life-history traits, according to two environmental types, and 33
      genetic SNP markers from 15 candidate genes. RESULTS: We found that nine SNPs
      from five genes showed strong trend for trait associations (p-values under 0.001
      before correction). These associations, yet non-significant after multiple test
      corrections, with a total number of 1,086 tests, were consistent across the study
      populations. Additionally, these nine genes also showed an allele frequency
      difference between the populations from the northern fragmented versus the
      southern continuous landscape. DISCUSSION: Our study provides further support for
      previously described trait associations within the Glanville fritillary butterfly
      species across different spatial scales. Although our results alone are
      inconclusive, they are concordant with previous studies that identified these
      associations to be related to climatic changes or habitat fragmentation within
      the Aland population.

PMID- 28560113
TI  - The role of kelp crabs as consumers in bull kelp forests-evidence from laboratory
      feeding trials and field enclosures.
AB  - The Northern kelp crab (Pugettia producta) and the graceful kelp crab (Pugettia
      gracilis) are common primary consumers in bull kelp beds near the San Juan
      Islands (Salish Sea, NE Pacific). In this system, urchins (often considered the
      most voracious herbivores exerting top-down control on kelp beds) tend to remain
      sedentary because of the high availability of detrital macroalgae, but the extent
      to which kelp crabs consume kelp (and other food options) is largely unknown. I
      conducted four types of laboratory feeding experiments to evaluate kelp crab
      feeding patterns: (1) feeding electivity between bull kelp (Nereocystis
      luetkeana) and seven species of co-occurring local macroalgae; (2) feeding
      electivity on aged vs. fresh bull kelp; (3) feeding preference between N.
      luetkeana and small snails (Lacuna sp.); and (4) scaling of feeding rate with
      body size in P. producta and P. gracilis. In choice experiments, P. producta
      consumed greater mass of N. luetkeana than of other macroalgal species offered
      and elected to eat fresh bull kelp over aged. However, P. producta also consumed
      snails (Lacuna sp.), indicating more generalized feeding than previously
      suspected. Feeding rates for P. producta exceeded the expected 3/4 scaling rule
      of metabolic rates, indicating that larger P. producta may have a
      disproportionately large impact on bull kelp. A subtidal field experiment,
      designed to assess the influence of consumers on juvenile bull kelp net tissue
      gain, found that only fully enclosed (protected) bull kelp increased in wet mass
      and blade length. Herbivory by kelp crabs, among other consumers, is likely to
      play a previously unrecognized role in mediating the growth and survival of this
      annual kelp species within the Salish Sea.

PMID- 28560114
TI  - Differentiation of Bifidobacterium longum subspecies longum and infantis by
      quantitative PCR using functional gene targets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Members of the genus Bifidobacterium are abundant in the feces of
      babies during the exclusively-milk-diet period of life. Bifidobacterium longum is
      reported to be a common member of the infant fecal microbiota. However, B. longum
      is composed of three subspecies, two of which are represented in the bowel
      microbiota (B. longum subsp. longum; B. longum subsp. infantis). B. longum
      subspecies are not differentiated in many studies, so that their prevalence and
      relative abundances are not accurately known. This may largely be due to
      difficulty in assigning subspecies identity using DNA sequences of 16S rRNA or
      tuf genes that are commonly used in bacterial taxonomy. METHODS: We developed a
      qPCR method targeting the sialidase gene (subsp. infantis) and sugar kinase gene
      (subsp. longum) to differentiate the subspecies using specific primers and
      probes. Specificity of the primers/probes was tested by in silico, pangenomic
      search, and using DNA from standard cultures of bifidobacterial species. The
      utility of the method was further examined using DNA from feces that had been
      collected from infants inhabiting various geographical regions. RESULTS: A
      pangenomic search of the NCBI genomic database showed that the PCR primers/probes
      targeted only the respective genes of the two subspecies. The primers/probes
      showed total specificity when tested against DNA extracted from the gold standard
      strains (type cultures) of bifidobacterial species detected in infant feces. Use
      of the qPCR method with DNA extracted from the feces of infants of different
      ages, delivery method and nutrition, showed that subsp. infantis was detectable
      (0-32.4% prevalence) in the feces of Australian (n = 90), South-East Asian (n =
      24), and Chinese babies (n = 91), but in all cases at low abundance (<0.01-4.6%)
      compared to subsp. longum (0.1-33.7% abundance; 21.4-100% prevalence).
      DISCUSSION: Our qPCR method differentiates B. longum subspecies longum and
      infantis using characteristic functional genes. It can be used as an
      identification aid for isolates of bifidobacteria, as well as in determining
      prevalence and abundance of the subspecies in feces. The method should thus be
      useful in ecological studies of the infant gut microbiota during early life where
      an understanding of the ecology of bifidobacterial species may be important in
      developing interventions to promote infant health.

PMID- 28560115
TI  - Seasonal dispersal and longitudinal migration in the Relict Gull Larus relictus
      across the Inner-Mongolian Plateau.
AB  - The Relict Gull Larus relictus is a globally vulnerable species and one of the
      least known birds, so understanding its seasonal movements and migration will
      facilitate the development of effective conservation plans for its protection. We
      repeatedly satellite-tracked 11 adult Relict Gulls from the Ordos sub-population
      in Hongjian Nur, China, over 33 migration seasons and conducted extensive ground
      surveys. Relict Gulls traveled ~800 km between Hongjian Nur in northern China to
      the coast of eastern China in a predominantly longitudinal migration, following a
      clockwise loop migration pattern. The gulls migrated faster in spring (4 +/- 2 d)
      than in autumn (15 +/- 13 d) due to a time-minimization strategy for breeding,
      and they showed considerable between-individual variation in the timing of the
      autumn migration, probably due to differences in the timing of breeding. Gulls
      that made at least two round trips exhibited high flexibility in spring migration
      timing, suggesting a stronger influence of local environment conditions over
      endogenous controls. There was also high route flexibility among different years,
      probably due to variations in meteorological or habitat conditions at stopover
      sites. Relict Gulls stayed for a remarkably long time (234 +/- 17 d) on their
      major wintering grounds in Bohai Bay and Laizhou Bay, between which there were
      notable dispersals. Pre-breeding dispersals away from the breeding area were
      distinct, which seemed to be a strategy to cope with the degradation of breeding
      habitat at Hongjian Nur. Overwhelming lake shrinkage on the breeding ground and
      at stopover sites and loss of intertidal flats on the wintering grounds are
      regarded as the main threats to Relict Gulls. It is crucial to make protection
      administrations aware of the great significance of key sites along migration
      routes and to promote the establishment of protected areas in these regions.

PMID- 28560116
TI  - Infrared thermography applied to lower limb muscles in elite soccer players with
      functional ankle equinus and non-equinus condition.
AB  - Gastrocnemius-soleus equinus (GSE) is a foot-ankle complaint in which the
      extensibility of the gastrocnemius (G) and soleus muscles (triceps surae) and
      ankle are limited to a dorsiflexion beyond a neutral ankle position. The
      asymmetric forces of leg muscles and the associated asymmetric loading forces
      might promote major activation of the triceps surae, tibialis anterior,
      transverses abdominal and multifidus muscles. Here, we made infrared recordings
      of 21 sportsmen (elite professional soccer players) before activity and after 30
      min of running. These recordings were used to assess temperature modifications on
      the gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, and Achilles tendon in GSE and non-GSE
      participants. We identified significant temperature modifications among GSE and
      non-GSE participants for the tibialis anterior muscle (mean, minimum, and maximum
      temperature values). The cutaneous temperature increased as a direct consequence
      of muscle activity in GSE participants. IR imaging capture was reliable to muscle
      pattern activation for lower limb. Based on our findings, we propose that non
      invasive IR evaluation is suitable for clinical evaluation of the status of these
      muscles.

PMID- 28560117
TI  - A Comparison of Pattern Recognition Control and Direct Control of a Multiple
      Degree-of-Freedom Transradial Prosthesis.
AB  - With existing conventional prosthesis control (direct control), individuals with
      a transradial amputation use two opposing muscle groups to control each
      prosthesis motor. As component complexity increases, subjects must switch the
      prosthesis into different modes to control each component in sequence. Pattern
      recognition control offers the ability to control multiple movements in a
      seamless manner without switching. In this paper, three individuals with a
      transradial amputation completed a home trial to compare direct control and
      pattern recognition control of a multiple degree-of-freedom prosthesis. Outcome
      measures before and after the home trial, together with subject questionnaires,
      were used to evaluate functional control. Although small, this trial has
      implications for the implementation of pattern recognition in commercial control
      systems and for future research studies.

PMID- 28560118
TI  - Low-Cost Sensor System Design for In-Home Physical Activity Tracking.
AB  - An aging and more sedentary population requires interventions aimed at monitoring
      physical activity, particularly within the home. This research uses simulation,
      optimization, and regression analyses to assess the feasibility of using a small
      number of sensors to track movement and infer physical activity levels of older
      adults. Based on activity data from the American Time Use Survey and assisted
      living apartment layouts, we determined that using three to four doorway sensors
      can be used to effectively capture a sufficient amount of movements in order to
      estimate activity. The research also identified preferred approaches for
      assigning sensor locations, evaluated the error magnitude inherent in the
      approach, and developed a methodology to identify which apartment layouts would
      be best suited for these technologies.

PMID- 28560119
TI  - Collaborative Paradigm of Preventive, Personalized, and Precision Medicine With
      Point-of-Care Technologies.
AB  - Recent advances in biosensors, medical instrumentation, and information
      processing and communication technologies (ICT) have enabled significant
      improvements in healthcare. However, these technologies have been mainly applied
      in clinical environments, such as hospitals and healthcare facilities, under
      managed care by well-trained and specialized individuals. The global challenge of
      providing quality healthcare at affordable cost leads to the proposed paradigm of
      P reventive, Personalized, and Precision Medicine that requires a seamless use of
      technology and infrastructure support for patients and healthcare providers at
      point-of-care (POC) locations including homes, semi or pre-clinical facilities,
      and hospitals. The complexity of the global healthcare challenge necessitates
      strong collaborative interdisciplinary synergies involving all stakeholder groups
      including academia, federal research institutions, industry, regulatory agencies,
      and clinical communities. It is critical to evolve with collaborative efforts on
      the translation of research to technology development toward clinical validation
      and potential healthcare applications. This special issue is focused on
      technology innovation and translational research for POC applications with
      potential impact in improving global healthcare in the respective areas. Some of
      these papers were presented at the NIH-IEEE Strategic Conference on Healthcare
      Innovations and POC Technologies for Precision Medicine (HI-POCT) held at the NIH
      on November 9-10, 2015. The papers included in the Special Issue provide a
      spectrum of critical issues and collaborative resources on translational research
      of advanced POC devices and ICT into global healthcare environment.

PMID- 28560120
TI  - Efficacy Evaluation of SAVE for the Diagnosis of Superficial Neoplastic Lesion.
AB  - The detection of non-polypoid superficial neoplastic lesions using current
      standard of white light endoscopy surveillance and random biopsy is associated
      with high miss rate. The subtle changes in mucosa caused by the flat and
      depressed neoplasms often go undetected and do not qualify for further
      investigation, e.g., biopsy and resection, thus increasing the risk of cancer
      advancement. This paper presents a screening tool named the saliency-aided visual
      enhancement (SAVE) method, with an objective of highlighting abnormalities in
      endoscopic images to detect early lesions. SAVE is a hybrid system combining
      image enhancement and saliency detection. The method provides both qualitative
      enhancement and quantitative suspicion index for endoscopic image regions. A
      study to evaluate the efficacy of SAVE to localize superficial neoplastic lesion
      was performed. Experimental results for average overlap index >0.7 indicated that
      SAVE was successful to localize the lesion areas. The area under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve obtained for SAVE was 94.91%. A very high
      sensitivity (100%) was achieved with a moderate specificity (65.45%). Visual
      inspection showed a comparable performance of SAVE with chromoendoscopy to
      highlight mucosal irregularities. This paper suggests that SAVE could be a
      potential screening tool that can substitute the application of burdensome
      chromoendoscopy technique. SAVE method, as a simple, easy-to-use, highly
      sensitive, and consistent red flag technology, will be useful for early detection
      of neoplasm in clinical applications.

PMID- 28560122
TI  - Advanced Practice Clinician Training for Neurology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The specialty of Neurology is faced with a fundamental problem of
      economics: supply and demand. The projected increase in provider supply is
      unlikely to keep up with projected increases in patient-care demand. Many large
      academic centers have used residents to meet this patient-care demand. However,
      the conflict between education of residents and patient-care needs has created a
      hindrance to both of those missions. Many specialties have been using advanced
      practice clinicians (APCs) to help address the need for patient care. In the
      setting of a residency program, this availability of APCs can help to alleviate
      patient-care demands for the resident and allow for better allocated educational
      time. Neurology has not historically been a popular choice for APCs and a
      standardized educational curriculum for a Neurology APC has not been established.
      METHODS: The authors share an example curriculum recently implemented for
      training new inpatient Neurology APCs. This curriculum includes a 12-week program
      complete with rotations through various subspecialties and proposes fundamental
      lecture topics for use in education. The authors share their expectations for
      clinical duties that evolve over the course of the 12-week program in conjunction
      with expectations for increasing clinical knowledge as well as efficiency in
      system utilization. CONCLUSION: The addition of APCs to support a busy inpatient
      Neurology practice has obvious beneficial implications but the integration and
      education of this new staff must be structured and well-designed to support the
      confidence of the APC in both their knowledge and their role as an indispensable
      member of the care team.

PMID- 28560121
TI  - Comparison of Different Analgesia Drug Regimens for Pain Control During
      Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy for Renal Stones: A Randomized Control
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: With the increased use of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy
      (ESWL), the management of urolithiasis has become much convenient for the
      patients and the health care professionals alike. However, associated with the
      procedure is the common complaint of pain. No agreed upon pain management
      strategy has yet been developed for the procedure. We compared the effect of
      different analgesia drug regiments for pain control. METHODOLOGY: A randomised
      controlled trial was carried out in Shifa International Hospital from between
      July 2015 to January 2016. A total of 135 patients were divided into three
      groups; group A received 30 g lidocaine 2% gel applied locally on corresponding
      lumber area 30 minutes before the procedure, group B received oral naproxen
      sodium 550 mg 45 minutes before the procedure, and group C received both oral
      naproxen and lidocaine gel. Patients were supplemented with intravenous
      nalbuphine during the procedure. The pain was assessed with 0-10 visual analogue
      scale. Both pre-procedure and post-procedure pain score was measured. RESULTS:
      Among 135 patients, 105 (77.8%) were male and 29 (21.5%) were female with mean
      age of 38.7 +/- 1.31 years. There was no difference of mean pain score or need
      for supplemental intravenous nalbuphine between groups B and C but there was
      significantly decreased mean pain score and need for supplemental intravenous
      nalbuphine in groups B and C in comparison with group A. CONCLUSION: The use of
      oral naproxen sodium with or without the addition of lidocaine gel during ESWL is
      a promising option for pain management during the procedure with significant
      improvement in comparison with lidocaine gel alone.

PMID- 28560123
TI  - Use of Subdural Evacuating Port System Following Open Craniotomy with Excision of
      Native Dura and Membranes for Management of Chronic Subdural Hematoma.
AB  - An 86-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit with a chronic
      subdural hematoma (CSDH) and rapid onset of worsening neurological symptoms. She
      was taken to the operating room for a mini-craniotomy for evacuation of the CSDH
      including excision of the dura and CSDH membrane. Postoperatively, a subdural
      evacuation port system (SEPS) was integrated into the craniotomy site and left in
      place rather than a traditional subdural catheter drain to evacuate the subdural
      space postoperatively. The patient had a good recovery and improvement of
      symptoms after evacuation and remained clinically well after the SEPS was
      removed. We offer the technique of dura and CSDH membrane excision plus SEPS
      drain as an effective postoperative alternative to the standard craniotomy
      leaving the native dura intact with traditional subdural drain that overlies the
      cortical surface of the brain in treating patients with CSDH.

PMID- 28560124
TI  - Multidrug Resistant Invasive Nontyphoidal Salmonella Isolated from and
      Masquerading Healed Tubercular Constrictive Pericarditis and Study of Virulence
      Markers.
AB  - Among the infectious causes of pericarditis are various bacteria, viruses, fungal
      and parasitic infections. The course disease may progress to a chronic
      constrictive pattern especially with tubercular etiology. Non-typhoidal
      Salmonella has rarely been reported as a cause of pericarditis. We describe here
      a case from which the pericardial fluid from an old case of tubercular
      pericarditis sent for culture to microbiology laboratory grew a Salmonella
      typhimurium. We studied the antibiotic resistance pattern, phage type and
      virulence factors playing a role in the invasive nature of the pathogen since no
      such study from pericardial fluid was found in the literature. The isolate was
      sensitive only to cephalosporins and it was untypable. It showed amplification
      for five fimbrial operons, three colonization factors, and other genes (pef
      operon), gog B(Gifsy-1 encoded effector), sseI (Gifsy-2 encoded effector), sodC (
      the periplasmic [copper and zinc Cu, Zn ]-superoxide dismutase) & sopE (a guanine
      nucleotide exchange factors). The present case highlights the need for early
      detection of the exact causative agent and serovar in management, the likelihood
      of a different etiological agent other than the original to be kept in mind for
      timely management and the highly resistant pattern of non-typhoidal Salmonella
      (NTS) limiting the therapeutic options as in our case to only cephalosporins. The
      genes encoded from the NTS might be required for invasive cardiac manifestation
      in humans.

PMID- 28560125
TI  - Learning Microvascular Anastomosis in Low Socioeconomic Vascular Models During
      Residency.
AB  - Microvascular anastomosis procedure has become an essential practice for the
      management of most neurovascular diseases. Increasing use of neurosurgical
      techniques necessitates intensive laboratory training in microsurgery. Umbilical
      artery is used for quantifiable representation to set up microvascular
      anastomosis model for the beginners. These arteries are found to be between 4 and
      5 mm in diameter. Chicken wings are set up as second anastomosis model. Five to
      six centimeter long brachial artery extracted from a chicken is measured
      approximately 1-2 mm in diameter. These arteries are practiced for end-to-end,
      end-to-side, or side-to-side anastomosis under the microscope. Umbilical cord and
      chicken wing model hold several advantages. These essentials are inexpensive,
      convenient to manage, and easy to obtain for educational purposes. They neither
      need detailed facilities for maintenance like in animal model nor any anesthetic
      prerequisite. Moreover, the diameter and structure of the material are identical
      to those of human cortical vessels. Low-cost laboratory training during residency
      is more relevant in source restraint areas. It has several added benefits in
      refining the procedural dexterity on anastomosing smaller size vessel identical
      to a cortical vessel of middle cerebral artery and distal branches of the
      superficial temporal artery.

PMID- 28560126
TI  - Transient Giant R Wave as a Marker for Ischemia in Unstable Angina.
AB  - Unstable angina is a clinical diagnosis that may present with or without
      electrocardiographic changes. The "giant R wave" on electrocardiogram has been
      reported as a manifestation of acute ischemia; however, it is a rare finding in
      current clinical practice. We describe a case of a patient with unstable angina
      and a transient "giant R wave" pattern with a culprit lesion in the right
      coronary artery.

PMID- 28560127
TI  - Naproxen and Diclofenac Attenuate Atorvastatin-induced Preconditioning of the
      Myocardium.
AB  - Statins reduce infarct size (IS) in ischemia-reperfusion injury of the
      myocardium. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) attenuates this benefit. We
      investigated the effect of two widely used non-selective non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with different degree of anti-COX-2 activity on
      atorvastatin-mediated preconditioning. Wistar rats received oral atorvastatin (10
      mg?kg-1?day-1), naproxen (10 mg?kg-1?day-1), diclofenac (8 mg?kg-1?day-1),
      atorvastatin+naproxen, atorvastatin+diclofenac or water for three days. Hearts
      were then excised and perfused in the Langendorff system. Area at risk (AR) and
      IS were determined after 30 min of regional ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion.
      Atorvastatin reduced IS by 51.3% compared with controls (14.7 +/- 3.9% vs. 30.2
      +/- 4.6% of the AR; P < 0.001). Naproxen and diclofenac alone did not alter IS
      compared to control. Diclofenac completely abrogated atorvastatin-mediated
      protection of the myocardium. Naproxen significantly attenuated but did not
      eliminate the IS reducing the effect of atorvastatin when compared with controls
      (P = 0.038). The difference in IS between the atorvastatin+naproxen group and the
      atorvastatin+diclofenac group showed a strong trend in reaching statistical
      significance (P = 0.058), but was not found to be significant. Our results
      suggest relatively small, but noticeable differences among non-selective NSAIDs
      in their potential to attenuate statin-mediated preconditioning.

PMID- 28560128
TI  - Identification of aqueous access residues of the sodium half channel in
      transmembrane helix 5 of the Fo-a subunit of Propionigenium modestum ATP
      synthase.
AB  - The Fo-a subunit of the Na+-transporting FoF1 ATP synthase from Propionigenium
      modestum plays a key role in Na+ transport. It forms half channels that allow Na+
      to enter and leave the buried carboxyl group on Fo-c subunits. The essential Arg
      residue R226, which faces the carboxyl group of Fo-c subunits in the middle of
      transmembrane helix 5 of the Fo-a subunit, separates the cytoplasmic side and
      periplasmic half-channels. To elucidate contributions of other amino acid
      residues of transmembrane helix 5 using hybrid FoF1 (Fo from P. modestum and F1
      from thermophilic Bacillus PS3), 25 residues were individually mutated to Cys,
      and effects of modification with the SH-modifying agent N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) on
      ATP synthesis and hydrolysis activity were analyzed. NEM significantly inhibited
      ATP synthesis and hydrolysis as well as proton pumping activities of A214C,
      G215C, A218C, I223C (cytoplasmic side from R226), and N230C (periplasmic side
      from R226) mutants and inhibited ATP synthesis activity of the K219C mutant
      (cytoplasmic side from R226). Thus, these residues contribute to the integrity of
      the Na+ half channel, and both half channels are present in the Fo-a subunit.

PMID- 28560129
TI  - Existence of two O-like intermediates in the photocycle of Acetabularia rhodopsin
      II, a light-driven proton pump from a marine alga.
AB  - A spectrally silent change is often observed in the photocycle of microbial
      rhodopsins. Here, we suggest the presence of two O intermediates in the
      photocycle of Acetabularia rhodopsin II (ARII or also called Ace2), a light
      driven algal proton pump from Acetabularia acetabulum. ARII exhibits a photocycle
      including a quasi-equilibrium state of M, N, and O (M?N?O->) at near neutral and
      above pH values. However, acidification of the medium below pH ~5.5 causes no
      accumulation of N, resulting in that the photocycle of ARII can be described as
      an irreversible scheme (M->O->). This may facilitate the investigation of the
      latter part of the photocycle, especially the rise and decay of O, during which
      molecular events have not been sufficiently understood. Thus we analyzed the
      photocycle under acidic conditions (pH <= 5.5). Analysis of the absorbance change
      at 610 nm, which mainly monitors the fractional concentration changes of K and O,
      was performed and revealed a photocycle scheme containing two sequential O-states
      with the different molar extinction coefficients. These photoproducts, termed O1
      and O2, may be even produced at physiological pH, although they are not clearly
      observed under this condition due to the existence of a long M-N-O equilibrium.

PMID- 28560130
TI  - Fatal haemorrhagic duodenal mucormycosis in a non-immunocompromised host: A case
      report.
AB  - Mucormycosis is an opportunistic infection caused by the fungi of the Mucorales
      order of the class Zygomycetes. Gastrointestinal mucormycosis is an uncommon,
      fatal condition accounting for only 7% of the cases. We present the case of a
      gastroduodenal mucormycosis presenting as recurrent massive hematemesis. We
      report this case to alert clinicians of this rare but fatal condition and to
      encourage further research into its pathogenesis and management.

PMID- 28560131
TI  - Fatal invasive aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus niger after bilateral lung
      transplantation.
AB  - Aspergillus niger is usually considered to be a low virulence fungus, not
      commonly reported to cause invasive infections. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis
      due to Aspergillus niger was diagnosed in a 43-year-old woman following bilateral
      lung transplantation. Intravenous voriconazole failed to control progression of
      the disease. Despite salvage therapy with a combination of voriconazole and
      caspofungin for 23 days, the patient developed massive hemoptysis leading to
      death. The authors report the clinical features and treatment of this case.

PMID- 28560132
TI  - Arthroscopic Capsular Release of the Talocalcaneonavicular Joint.
AB  - Arthrofibrosis of the talocalcaneonavicular joint can follow talar neck fracture
      especially if anterior approaches have been used for fracture fixation. Capsular
      release of the talocalcaneonavicular joint is indicated if the painful hindfoot
      stiffness cannot be controlled with conservative treatment. Open capsular release
      of the talocalcaneonavicular joint demands extensive soft tissue dissection and
      hinders early postoperative mobilization exercise of the joint. The purpose of
      this technical note is to describe a minimally invasive approach of arthroscopic
      capsular release of the talocalcaneonavicular joint that is composed of
      arthroscopic release of the talonavicular joint and the anterior subtalar joint.
      This allows immediate postoperative mobilization of the joint.

PMID- 28560133
TI  - Arthroscopic Tarsometatarsal Arthrodesis.
AB  - Tarsometatarsal (Lisfranc) osteoarthritis can be a disabling condition and is
      commonly due to posttraumatic causes. Tarsometatarsal arthrodesis is indicated if
      the pain does not subdue with conservative treatment. Classically, this is
      performed as an open procedure. The purpose of this technical note is to describe
      a minimally invasive approach of arthroscopic arthrodesis of the involved
      tarsometatarsal joints. The arthroscopic procedure is performed through the
      junction portals of the involved articulation. It has the advantages of better
      cosmesis, less wound complication, less bone resection, and more thorough joint
      debridement. However, it is contraindicated if there is an associated significant
      foot deformity or shortening of the involved foot rays.

PMID- 28560134
TI  - Basics of Elbow Arthroscopy Part I: Surface Anatomy, Portals, and Structures at
      Risk.
AB  - As our knowledge and technology advance, the indications for elbow arthroscopy
      continue to grow rapidly. During this expansion, a number of new portals have
      been described and reported using variable nomenclature and location
      descriptions. Accordingly, a comprehensive review of these portals is warranted.
      Given the concern for potential iatrogenic injury to surrounding neurovascular
      structures, a discussion of these critical nerves and vessels is also timely. In
      this work, we review pertinent surface anatomy; portal nomenclature, locations,
      and utility; and review distances to the nearest structures at risk.

PMID- 28560135
TI  - Basics of Elbow Arthroscopy Part II: Positioning and Diagnostic Arthroscopy in
      the Supine Position.
AB  - The field of elbow arthroscopy has evolved significantly since the procedure was
      first introduced more than 30 years ago. As our knowledge and understanding
      grows, numerous technical modifications have been made to improve the safety and
      efficacy of elbow arthroscopy. One of the most significant modifications is the
      change from the supine hanging position to the supine-suspended position with the
      use of a mechanical arm holder. Currently, the supine-suspended and lateral
      decubitus positions are the 2 most commonly used techniques. In this work, we
      discuss the history of the supine position, provide key points for proper patient
      positioning, and detail the steps of diagnostic elbow arthroscopy. It is our hope
      that this work will serve as an up-to-date review and summary of the most
      critical components of this procedure for emerging elbow arthroscopists.

PMID- 28560136
TI  - Basics of Elbow Arthroscopy Part III: Positioning and Diagnostic Arthroscopy in
      the Lateral Decubitus Position.
AB  - In recent years, arthroscopy has gained popularity as a preferred treatment of a
      multitude of pathologies affecting the elbow. Since its initial description in
      1985, many modifications have been made as our knowledge and technology have
      advanced. Currently, the majority of arthroscopic procedures are performed in
      either the lateral decubitus or supine suspended position. In this work, we
      discuss the history, patient positioning, and key steps for performing elbow
      arthroscopy in the lateral decubitus position. In addition to key steps, a number
      of strengths and limitations of this set up are discussed in detail. When
      properly executed, elbow arthroscopy can be performed in a safe and efficient
      manner with minimal risk to patients.

PMID- 28560137
TI  - Management of Rotator Cuff Defects After Calcific Tendinopathy Debridement Using
      a Bioinductive Collagen Implant.
AB  - The management of rotator cuff defects after arthroscopic debridement for
      calcific tendinitis can be a challenge for physicians. To date, treatment options
      have included debridement alone, in situ repairs of the tendon, or full-thickness
      takedown and repair. Each option, however, has been fraught with its own pitfalls
      and limitations. We propose a technique for the management of rotator cuff
      defects through the application of a bioinductive collagen implant that may allow
      for rapid tissue incorporation and regeneration.

PMID- 28560138
TI  - Arthroscopically Assisted Modified Jones Procedure.
AB  - The modified Jones procedure is the classic operative treatment of symptomatic
      clawed hallux. It is composed of transfer of the extensor hallucis longus tendon
      to the first metatarsal neck and fusion of the hallux interphalangeal joint. The
      purpose of this technical note is to report the technique of an arthroscopically
      assisted modified Jones procedure. This can be combined with other minimally
      invasive bone and soft-tissue procedures to correct all aspects of the complex
      cavus foot deformity.

PMID- 28560139
TI  - Arthroscopic Decompression of a Type III Subspine Impingement.
AB  - Extra-articular hip impingement refers to a variety of hip disorders causing pain
      and limited function in young, non-arthritic patients. Recently, there has been
      an increased focus on analyzing the degree of anterior inferior iliac spine
      (AIIS) dysmorphism and its correlation with subspine impingement (SSI), defined
      as abutment between a prominent distal aspect of the AIIS and the anterior aspect
      of the femoral head-neck junction. Arthroscopic decompression of the AIIS is
      recognized as an effective treatment for SSI. However, there may be some inherent
      risks of performing this procedure arthroscopically that require further
      investigation.

PMID- 28560140
TI  - Compression and Flip Test for Diagnosis of Unstable Acetabular Labral Tears Using
      a Peripheral Compartment Approach.
AB  - Assessment of integrity of the acetabular labrum is generally done via the
      central compartment under distraction of the femoral head from the acetabulum.
      With the technique of raising the extra-articular and peripheral compartment
      first, there is a need for testing the stability and function of the labrum from
      the peripheral side in a nondistracted position of the joint. The authors report
      on the compression and flip test (i.e., the flip test) for the detection of
      unstable, intrasubstance tears of the labrum or unstable chondrolabral
      separations. The test can be performed by compressing the labrum with blunt
      instruments. We grade the labral conditions as follows: grade 0 for firm
      resistance and elasticity to palpation, grade 1+ as easily compressed by the
      probe, grade 2+ for eversion of the body of the labrum under compression), and
      grade 1 for ossified, hard resistance without any elasticity and compressibility.
      This test can be performed directly after accessing the peripheral compartment
      through a 2-portal technique without extensive capsular work.

PMID- 28560141
TI  - The "Pull-Over" Technique for Arthroscopic Superior Capsular Reconstruction.
AB  - The management of irreparable rotator cuff tears is a difficult problem to deal
      with. The options include nonoperative route with anterior deltoid exercises,
      debridement with or without long head of biceps tenotomy, partial rotator cuff
      repair, tuberoplasty, muscle transfer, patch augmentation, biodegradable spacers,
      and reverse shoulder arthroplasty. None of these options are without their
      limitations. In recent years, arthroscopic superior capsular reconstruction has
      gained popularity as an alternative technique to address irreparable rotator cuff
      tears. Arthroscopic superior capsular reconstruction, however, is technically
      difficult. The purpose of this technical note is to describe a simple and
      reproducible technique for this procedure that addresses some of the challenges
      involved.

PMID- 28560143
TI  - Ultrasound for Treating Meniscocapsular Separation Together With Arthroscopy.
AB  - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to identify most types of meniscal
      tears; however, meniscocapsular separation of the medial meniscus can be
      difficult to identify with MRI. Here we present a technical note on the
      intrasurgical use of ultrasonography for the detection of meniscocapsular
      separation and confirmation of the beneficial effect of suturing on the stability
      of this lesion in a representative case of meniscocapsular separation that could
      be diagnosed with ultrasonography but not MRI preoperatively. Ultrasonography can
      detect meniscocapsular separation as a vertical low echoic area and be performed
      together with arthroscopy using the picture-in-picture function of the
      ultrasonography machine. Ultrasonography is an effective tool for diagnosing
      meniscocapsular separation and is helpful during arthroscopic surgery.

PMID- 28560142
TI  - Minimally Invasive Anterolateral Ligament Reconstruction of the Knee.
AB  - Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are among the most common knee injuries,
      and multiple reconstructive techniques have been described. However, studies
      frequently report an inability to duplicate native, dynamic knee function,
      particularly rotationally. This residual joint laxity that occasionally follows
      an ACL reconstruction can cause further problems post surgical intervention,
      including meniscal tears and especially late osteoarthritic change. Additionally,
      ACL graft retears are a concern, particularly in young patients. Although these
      undesired sequelae of ACL reconstruction could be a by-product of insufficient
      ACL reconstruction methods related to either graft placement or problems with
      graft healing and biology, it is also possible that failure to additionally
      address lateral extra-articular structures after ACL injury could play a role in
      the residual knee laxity of the affected knee. The purpose of this article is to
      show a minimally invasive technique for extra-articular anterolateral ligament
      reconstruction.

PMID- 28560144
TI  - Biceps Tenoscopy: Arthroscopic Evaluation of the Extra-articular Portion of the
      Long Head of Biceps Tendon.
AB  - The recent literature shows that imaging modalities, physical examination tests,
      and glenohumeral arthroscopy all have low sensitivities and specificities with
      respect to the diagnosis of the long head of biceps tendon pathology. Biceps
      tenoscopy is a strategy that aims to reduce the rate of missed diagnoses by
      improving visualization of the extra-articular part of the tendon. This is an
      area of predilection of pathology that is not adequately visualized with
      conventional arthroscopic techniques. This technical note presents the surgical
      technique for biceps tenoscopy.

PMID- 28560145
TI  - Using a Posterolateral Portal to Pass and Tie the Suture of the Inferior Anchor
      During Arthroscopic Bankart Repair.
AB  - Using a posterolateral portal in passing and tying the inferior knot allows good
      labral reduction and adequate capsular shift to treat anterior shoulder
      instability. In this technique, the most inferior anchor is placed through a low
      anterolateral portal. A penetrating grasper is introduced from a posterolateral
      portal situated 2 to 3 cm distal and lateral to the viewing portal. This portal
      is used to pass the 2 limbs of the anchor suture as inferior as possible through
      the labrum and capsule close to 6 o'clock position to form the 2 limbs of the
      first mattress suture. Finally, knot tying is performed through this
      posterolateral portal, thus allowing better superior shift of the capsulolabral
      tissue. The other 2 anchor sutures are passed and tied through the low
      anterolateral portal.

PMID- 28560146
TI  - Endobronchial primary large B-cell Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in HIV-infected patient
      in the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy era: Description of a case report.
AB  - We report an unusual case of endobronchial primary large B-cell Non Hodgkin
      Lymphoma in a HIV-infected patient in the course of effective Highly Active
      Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). Diagnosis of large B-cell NHL was obtained by
      fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) biopsies. Three cycles of R-CHOP chemotherapy
      (rituximab, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, prednisone) was
      performed and clinical and radiological remission was obtained after 3 cycles of
      therapy.

PMID- 28560147
TI  - Bosutinib induced pleural effusions: Case report and review of tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors induced pulmonary toxicity.
AB  - Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are known to cause pulmonary complications. We report
      a case of bosutinib related bilateral pleural effusions in a patient with chronic
      myeloid leukemia. Characteristics of the pleural fluid are presented. We also
      discuss other tyrosine kinase inhibitors induced pulmonary toxicities, including
      pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease.

PMID- 28560148
TI  - Mesenchymal cystic hamartoma of the lung.
AB  - Mesenchymal cystic hamartoma, although first reported as early as 1980s, remains
      a very rare lung disease. There have been less than 20 cases reported to date.
      Mesenchymal cystic hamartoma usually has an indolent course, but it could
      potentially result in morbidity and mortality. Biopsy is needed to confirm the
      diagnosis because it is essential to rule out other possibilities including
      malignancy.

PMID- 28560149
TI  - Non-invasive ventilation in a pregnancy with severe pneumonia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is not proven to be effective in
      treating respiratory failure in severe pneumonia. However, some clinicians
      nevertheless attempt NIV to indirectly deliver adequate oxygenation and avoid
      unnecessary endotracheal intubation. CASE PRESENTATION: In this article, we
      report the case of a 24-year-old woman at 32 weeks' gestation who presented with
      hypoxemic respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. She was
      successfully managed by NIV. DISCUSSION: However, NIV must be managed by
      providers who are trained in mechanical ventilation. This is of the utmost
      importance in avoiding any delay should the patient's condition worsen and
      require endotracheal intubation. Moreover, in pregnant women, the severity of
      illness may progress quickly due to the immunosuppression inherent in these
      patients. CONCLUSION: Special attention should be given to the choices of
      invasive ventilation and NIV to manage community acquired pneumonia patients in
      third trimester.

PMID- 28560150
TI  - Amyloid positron emission tomography in sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy: A
      systematic critical update.
AB  - Sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a very common small vessel disease
      of the brain, showing preferential and progressive amyloid-betadeposition in the
      wall of small arterioles and capillaries of the leptomeninges and cerebral
      cortex. CAA now encompasses not only a specific cerebrovascular pathological
      trait, but also different clinical syndromes - including spontaneous lobar
      intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), dementia and 'amyloid spells' - an expanding
      spectrum of brain parenchymal MRI lesions and a set of diagnostic criteria - the
      Boston criteria, which have resulted in increasingly detecting CAA during life.
      Although currently available validated diagnostic criteria perform well in
      multiple lobar ICH, a formal diagnosis is currently lacking unless a brain biopsy
      is performed. This is partly because in practice CAA MRI biomarkers provide only
      indirect evidence for the disease. An accurate diagnosis of CAA in different
      clinical settings would have substantial impact for ICH risk stratification and
      antithrombotic drug use in elderly people, but also for sample homogeneity in
      drug trials. It has recently been demonstrated that vascular (in addition to
      parenchymal) amyloid-betadeposition can be detected and quantified in vivo by
      positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid tracers. This non-invasive approach
      has the potential to provide a molecular signature of CAA, and could in turn have
      major clinical impact. However, several issues around amyloid-PET in CAA remain
      unsettled and hence its diagnostic utility is limited. In this article we
      systematically review and critically appraise the published literature on amyloid
      PET (PiB and other tracers) in sporadic CAA. We focus on two key areas: (a) the
      diagnostic utility of amyloid-PET in CAA and (b) the use of amyloid-PET as a
      window to understand pathophysiological mechanism of the disease. Key issues
      around amyloid-PET imaging in CAA, including relevant technical aspects are also
      covered in depth. A total of six small-scale studies have addressed (or reported
      data useful to address) the diagnostic utility of late-phase amyloid PET imaging
      in CAA, and one additional study dealt with early PiB images as a proxy of brain
      perfusion. Across these studies, amyloid PET imaging has definite diagnostic
      utility (currently tested only in probable CAA): it helps rule out CAA if
      negative, whether compared to healthy controls or to hypertensive deep ICH
      controls. If positive, however, differentiation from underlying incipient
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be challenging and so far, no approach (regional
      values, ratios, visual assessment) seems sufficient and specific enough, although
      early PiB data seem to hold promise. Based on the available evidence reviewed, we
      suggest a tentative diagnostic flow algorithm for amyloid-PET use in the clinical
      setting of suspected CAA, combining early- and late-phase PiB-PET images. We also
      identified ten mechanistic amyloid-PET studies providing early but promising
      proof-of-concept data on CAA pathophysiology and its various manifestations
      including key MRI lesions, cognitive impairment and large scale brain
      alterations. Key open questions that should be addressed in future studies of
      amyloid-PET imaging in CAA are identified and highlighted.

PMID- 28560151
TI  - Auditory prediction errors as individual biomarkers of schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder, typically diagnosed through
      symptomatic evidence collected through patient interview. We aim to develop an
      objective biologically-based computational tool which aids diagnosis and relies
      on accessible imaging technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG). To
      achieve this, we used machine learning techniques and a combination of paradigms
      designed to elicit prediction errors or Mismatch Negativity (MMN) responses. MMN,
      an EEG component elicited by unpredictable changes in sequences of auditory
      stimuli, has previously been shown to be reduced in people with schizophrenia and
      this is arguably one of the most reproducible neurophysiological markers of
      schizophrenia. EEG data were acquired from 21 patients with schizophrenia and 22
      healthy controls whilst they listened to three auditory oddball paradigms
      comprising sequences of tones which deviated in 10% of trials from regularly
      occurring standard tones. Deviant tones shared the same properties as standard
      tones, except for one physical aspect: 1) duration - the deviant stimulus was
      twice the duration of the standard; 2) monaural gap - deviants had a silent
      interval omitted from the standard, or 3) inter-aural timing difference, which
      caused the deviant location to be perceived as 90 degrees  away from the
      standards. We used multivariate pattern analysis, a machine learning technique
      implemented in the Pattern Recognition for Neuroimaging Toolbox (PRoNTo) to
      classify images generated through statistical parametric mapping (SPM) of
      spatiotemporal EEG data, i.e. event-related potentials measured on the two
      dimensional surface of the scalp over time. Using support vector machine (SVM)
      and Gaussian processes classifiers (GPC), we were able classify individual
      patients and controls with balanced accuracies of up to 80.48% (p-values =
      0.0326, FDR corrected) and an ROC analysis yielding an AUC of 0.87. Crucially, a
      GP regression revealed that MMN predicted global assessment of functioning (GAF)
      scores (correlation = 0.73, R2 = 0.53, p = 0.0006).

PMID- 28560152
TI  - Improved cerebral microbleeds detection using their magnetic signature on T2*
      phase-contrast: A comparison study in a clinical setting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: In vivo detection of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) from T2*
      gradient recalled echo (GRE) magnitude image suffers from low specificity, modest
      inter-rater reproducibility and is biased by its sensitivity to acquisition
      parameters. New methods were proposed for improving this identification, but they
      mostly rely on 3D acquisitions, not always feasible in clinical practice. A fast
      2D phase processing technique for computing internal field maps (IFM) has been
      shown to make it possible to characterize CMBs through their magnetic signature
      in routine clinical setting, based on 2D multi-slice acquisitions. However, its
      clinical interest for CMBs identification with respect to more common images
      remained to be assessed. To do so, systematic experiments were undertaken to
      compare the ratings obtained by trained observers with several image types, T2*
      magnitude, Susceptibility Weighted Imaging reconstructions (SWI) and IFM built
      from the same T2*-weighted acquisition. MATERIALS/METHODS: 15 participants from
      the MEMENTO multi-center cohort were selected: six subjects with numerous CMBs
      (20 +/- 6 CMBs), five subjects with a few CMBs (2 +/- 1 CMBs) and four subjects
      without CMB. 2D multi-slice T2* GRE sequences were acquired on Philips and
      Siemens 3T systems. After pilot experiments, T2* magnitude, Susceptibility
      Weighted Imaging (SWI) minimum intensity projection (mIP) on three slices and IFM
      were considered for the rating experiments. A graphical user interface (GUI) was
      designed in order to consistently display images in random order. Six raters of
      various background and expertise independently selected "definite" or "possible"
      CMBs. Rating results were compared with respect to a specific consensus
      reference, on both lesion and subject type points of view. RESULTS: IFM yielded
      increased sensitivity and decreased false positives rate (FPR) for CMBs
      identification compared to T2* magnitude and SWI-mIP images. Inter-rater
      variability was decreased with IFM when identifying subjects with numerous
      lesions, with only a limited increase in rating time. IFM thus appears as an
      interesting candidate to improve CMBs identification in clinical setting.

PMID- 28560153
TI  - Sexual dimorphism of volume reduction but not cognitive deficit in fetal alcohol
      spectrum disorders: A combined diffusion tensor imaging, cortical thickness and
      brain volume study.
AB  - Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed abnormalities in brain
      volumes, cortical thickness and white matter microstructure in fetal alcohol
      spectrum disorders (FASD); however, no study has reported all three measures
      within the same cohort to assess the relative magnitude of deficits, and few
      studies have examined sex differences. Participants with FASD (n = 70; 30
      females; 5-32 years) and healthy controls (n = 74; 35 females; 5-32 years)
      underwent cognitive testing and MRI to assess cortical thickness, regional brain
      volumes and fractional anisotropy (FA)/mean diffusivity (MD) of white matter
      tracts. A significant effect of group, age-by-group, or sex-by-group was found
      for 9/9 volumes, 7/39 cortical thickness regions, 3/9 white matter tracts, and
      9/10 cognitive tests, indicating group differences that in some cases differ by
      age or sex. Volume reductions for several structures were larger in males than
      females, despite similar deficits of cognition in both sexes. Correlations
      between brain structure and cognitive scores were found in females of both
      groups, but were notably absent in males. Correlations within a given MRI
      modality (e.g. total brain volume and caudate volume) were prevalent in both the
      control and FASD groups, and were more numerous than correlations between
      measurement types (e.g. volumes and diffusion tensor imaging) in either cohort.
      This multi-modal MRI study finds widespread differences of brain structure in
      participants with prenatal alcohol exposure, and to a greater extent in males
      than females which may suggest attenuation of the expected process of sexual
      dimorphism of brain structure during typical development.

PMID- 28560154
TI  - Children with cerebral palsy have altered oscillatory activity in the motor and
      visual cortices during a knee motor task.
AB  - The neuroimaging literature on cerebral palsy (CP) has predominantly focused on
      identifying structural aberrations within the white matter (e.g., fiber track
      integrity), with very few studies examining neural activity within the key
      networks that serve the production of motor actions. The current investigation
      used high-density magnetoencephalography to begin to fill this knowledge gap by
      quantifying the temporal dynamics of the alpha and beta cortical oscillations in
      children with CP (age = 15.5 +/- 3 years; GMFCS levels II-III) and typically
      developing (TD) children (age = 14.1 +/- 3 years) during a goal-directed
      isometric target-matching task using the knee joint. Advanced beamforming methods
      were used to image the cortical oscillations during the movement planning and
      execution stages. Compared with the TD children, our results showed that the
      children with CP had stronger alpha and beta event-related desynchronization
      (ERD) within the primary motor cortices, premotor area, inferior parietal lobule,
      and inferior frontal gyrus during the motor planning stage. Differences in beta
      ERD amplitude extended through the motor execution stage within the supplementary
      motor area and premotor cortices, and a stronger alpha ERD was detected in the
      anterior cingulate. Interestingly, our results also indicated that alpha and beta
      oscillations were weaker in the children with CP within the occipital cortices
      and visual MT area during movement execution. These altered alpha and beta
      oscillations were accompanied by slower reaction times and substantial target
      matching errors in the children with CP. We also identified that the strength of
      the alpha and beta ERDs during the motor planning and execution stages were
      correlated with the motor performance. Lastly, our regression analyses suggested
      that the beta ERD within visual areas during motor execution primarily predicted
      the amount of motor errors. Overall, these data suggest that uncharacteristic
      alpha and beta oscillations within visuomotor cortical networks play a prominent
      role in the atypical motor actions exhibited by children with CP.

PMID- 28560155
TI  - Grey matter abnormalities in children and adolescents with functional
      neurological symptom disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Functional neurological symptom disorder refers to the presence of
      neurological symptoms not explained by neurological disease. Although this
      disorder is presumed to reflect abnormal function of the brain, recent studies in
      adults show neuroanatomical abnormalities in brain structure. These structural
      brain abnormalities have been presumed to reflect long-term adaptations to the
      disorder, and it is unknown whether child and adolescent patients, with illness
      that is typically of shorter duration, show similar deficits or have normal brain
      structure. METHOD: High-resolution, three-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic
      resonance images (MRIs) were acquired in 25 patients (aged 10-18 years) and 24
      healthy controls. Structure was quantified in terms of grey matter volume using
      voxel-based morphometry. Post hoc, we examined whether regions of structural
      difference related to a measure of motor readiness to emotional signals and to
      clinical measures of illness duration, illness severity, and anxiety/depression.
      RESULTS: Patients showed greater volumes in the left supplementary motor area
      (SMA) and right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex
      (DMPFC) (corrected p < 0.05). Previous studies of adult patients have also
      reported alterations of the SMA. Greater SMA volumes correlated with faster
      reaction times in identifying emotions but not with clinical measures.
      CONCLUSIONS: The SMA, STG, and DMPFC are known to be involved in the perception
      of emotion and the modulation of motor responses. These larger volumes may
      reflect the early expression of an experience-dependent plasticity process
      associated with increased vigilance to others' emotional states and enhanced
      motor readiness to organize self-protectively in the context of the long-standing
      relational stress that is characteristic of this disorder.

PMID- 28560156
TI  - Neural signature of coma revealed by posteromedial cortex connection density
      analysis.
AB  - Posteromedial cortex (PMC) is a highly segregated and dynamic core, which appears
      to play a critical role in internally/externally directed cognitive processes,
      including conscious awareness. Nevertheless, neuroimaging studies on acquired
      disorders of consciousness, have traditionally explored PMC as a homogenous and
      indivisible structure. We suggest that a fine-grained description of intrinsic
      PMC topology during coma, could expand our understanding about how this cortical
      hub contributes to consciousness generation and maintain, and could permit the
      identification of specific markers related to brain injury mechanism and useful
      for neurological prognostication. To explore this, we used a recently developed
      voxel-based unbiased approach, named functional connectivity density (CD). We
      compared 27 comatose patients (15 traumatic and 12 anoxic), to 14 age-matched
      healthy controls. The patients' outcome was assessed 3 months later using Coma
      Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). A complex pattern of decreased and increased
      connections was observed, suggesting a network imbalance between
      internal/external processing systems, within PMC during coma. The number of PMC
      voxels with hypo-CD positive correlation showed a significant negative
      association with the CRS-R score, notwithstanding aetiology. Traumatic injury
      specifically appeared to be associated with a greater prevalence of hyper
      connected (negative correlation) voxels, which was inversely associated with
      patient neurological outcome. A logistic regression model using the number of
      hypo-CD positive and hyper-CD negative correlations, accurately permitted
      patient's outcome prediction (AUC = 0.906, 95%IC = 0.795-1). These points might
      reflect adaptive plasticity mechanism and pave the way for innovative prognosis
      and therapeutics methods.

PMID- 28560157
TI  - Optimized classification of 18F-Florbetaben PET scans as positive and negative
      using an SUVR quantitative approach and comparison to visual assessment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) calculated from cerebral
      cortical areas can be used to categorize 18F-Florbetaben (FBB) PET scans by
      applying appropriate cutoffs. The objective of this work was first to generate
      FBB SUVR cutoffs using visual assessment (VA) as standard of truth (SoT) for a
      number of reference regions (RR) (cerebellar gray matter (GCER), whole cerebellum
      (WCER), pons (PONS), and subcortical white matter (SWM)). Secondly, to validate
      the FBB PET scan categorization performed by SUVR cutoffs against the
      categorization made by post-mortem histopathological confirmation of the Abeta
      presence. Finally, to evaluate the added value of SUVR cutoff categorization to
      VA. METHODS: SUVR cutoffs were generated for each RR using FBB scans from 143
      subjects who were visually assessed by 3 readers. SUVR cutoffs were validated in
      78 end-of life subjects using VA from 8 independent blinded readers (3 expert
      readers and 5 non-expert readers) and histopathological confirmation of the
      presence of neuritic beta-amyloid plaques as SoT. Finally, the number of
      correctly or incorrectly classified scans according to pathology results using VA
      and SUVR cutoffs was compared. RESULTS: Composite SUVR cutoffs generated were
      1.43 (GCER), 0.96 (WCER), 0.78 (PONS) and 0.71 (SWM). Accuracy values were high
      and consistent across RR (range 83-94% for histopathology, and 85-94% for VA).
      SUVR cutoff performed similarly as VA but did not improve VA classification of
      FBB scans read either by expert readers or the majority read but provided higher
      accuracy than some non-expert readers. CONCLUSION: The accurate scan
      classification obtained in this study supports the use of VA as SoT to generate
      site-specific SUVR cutoffs. For an elderly end of life population, VA and SUVR
      cutoff categorization perform similarly in classifying FBB scans as Abeta
      positive or Abeta-negative. These results emphasize the additional contribution
      that SUVR cutoff classification may have compared with VA performed by non-expert
      readers.

PMID- 28560158
TI  - Application and evaluation of NODDI in the cervical spinal cord of multiple
      sclerosis patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a need to develop imaging methods sensitive to axonal
      injury in multiple sclerosis (MS), given the prominent impact of axonal pathology
      on disability and outcome. Advanced multi-compartmental diffusion models offer
      novel indices sensitive to white matter microstructure. One such model, neurite
      orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), is sensitive to neurite
      morphology, providing indices of apparent volume fractions of axons (vin),
      isotropic water (viso) and the dispersion of fibers about a central axis
      (orientation dispersion index, ODI). NODDI has yet to be studied for its
      sensitivity to spinal cord pathology. Here, we investigate the feasibility and
      utility of NODDI in the cervical spinal cord of MS patients. METHODS: NODDI was
      applied in the cervical spinal cord in a cohort of 8 controls and 6 MS patients.
      Statistical analyses were performed to test the sensitivity of NODDI-derived
      indices to pathology in MS (both lesion and normal appearing white matter NAWM).
      Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis were
      also performed to compare with NODDI. RESULTS: A decrease in NODDI-derived vin
      was observed at the site of the lesion (p < 0.01), whereas a global increase in
      ODI was seen throughout white matter (p < 0.001). DKI-derived mean kurtosis (MK)
      and radial kurtosis (RK) and DTI-derived fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial
      diffusivity (RD) were all significantly different in MS patients (p < 0.02),
      however NODDI provided higher contrast between NAWM and lesion in all MS
      patients. CONCLUSION: NODDI provides unique contrast that is not available with
      DKI or DTI, enabling improved characterization of the spinal cord in MS.

PMID- 28560159
TI  - Williams syndrome-specific neuroanatomical profile and its associations with
      behavioral features.
AB  - Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder with unique behavioral
      features. Yet the rareness of WS has limited the number and type of studies that
      can be conducted in which inferences are made about how neuroanatomical
      abnormalities mediate behaviors. In this study, we extracted a WS-specific
      neuroanatomical profile from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      measurements and tested its association with behavioral features of WS. Using a
      WS adult cohort (22 WS, 16 healthy controls), we modeled a sparse representation
      of a WS-specific neuroanatomical profile. The predictive performances are robust
      within the training cohort (10-fold cross-validation, AUC = 1.0) and accurately
      identify all WS individuals in an independent child WS cohort (seven WS, 59
      children with diverse developmental status, AUC = 1.0). The WS-specific
      neuroanatomical profile includes measurements in the orbitofrontal cortex,
      superior parietal cortex, Sylvian fissures, and basal ganglia, and variability
      within these areas related to the underlying size of hemizygous deletion in
      patients with partial deletions. The profile intensity mediated the overall
      cognitive impairment as well as personality features related to hypersociability.
      Our results imply that the unique behaviors in WS were mediated through the
      constellation of abnormalities in cortical-subcortical circuitry consistent in
      child WS and adult WS. The robustness of the derived WS-specific neuroanatomical
      profile also demonstrates the potential utility of our approach in both clinical
      and research applications.

PMID- 28560160
TI  - Application of calibrated fMRI in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Calibrated fMRI based on arterial spin-labeling (ASL) and blood oxygen-dependent
      contrast (BOLD), combined with periods of hypercapnia and hyperoxia, can provide
      information on cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), resting blood flow (CBF), oxygen
      extraction fraction (OEF), and resting oxidative metabolism (CMRO2). Vascular and
      metabolic integrity are believed to be affected in Alzheimer's disease (AD),
      thus, the use of calibrated fMRI in AD may help understand the disease and
      monitor therapeutic responses in future clinical trials. In the present work, we
      applied a calibrated fMRI approach referred to as Quantitative O2 (QUO2) in a
      cohort of probable AD dementia and age-matched control participants. The
      resulting CBF, OEF and CMRO2 values fell within the range from previous studies
      using positron emission tomography (PET) with 15O labeling. Moreover, the typical
      parietotemporal pattern of hypoperfusion and hypometabolism in AD was observed,
      especially in the precuneus, a particularly vulnerable region. We detected no
      deficit in frontal CBF, nor in whole grey matter CVR, which supports the
      hypothesis that the effects observed were associated specifically with AD rather
      than generalized vascular disease. Some key pitfalls affecting both ASL and BOLD
      methods were encountered, such as prolonged arterial transit times (particularly
      in the occipital lobe), the presence of susceptibility artifacts obscuring medial
      temporal regions, and the challenges associated with the hypercapnic manipulation
      in AD patients and elderly participants. The present results are encouraging and
      demonstrate the promise of calibrated fMRI measurements as potential biomarkers
      in AD. Although CMRO2 can be imaged with 15O PET, the QUO2 method uses more
      widely available imaging infrastructure, avoids exposure to ionizing radiation,
      and integrates with other MRI-based measures of brain structure and function.

PMID- 28560161
TI  - Do managed bees drive parasite spread and emergence in wild bees?
AB  - Bees have been managed and utilised for honey production for centuries and, more
      recently, pollination services. Since the mid 20th Century, the use and
      production of managed bees has intensified with hundreds of thousands of hives
      being moved across countries and around the globe on an annual basis. However,
      the introduction of unnaturally high densities of bees to areas could have
      adverse effects. Importation and deployment of managed honey bee and bumblebees
      may be responsible for parasite introductions or a change in the dynamics of
      native parasites that ultimately increases disease prevalence in wild bees. Here
      we review the domestication and deployment of managed bees and explain the
      evidence for the role of managed bees in causing adverse effects on the health of
      wild bees. Correlations with the use of managed bees and decreases in wild bee
      health from territories across the globe are discussed along with suggestions to
      mitigate further health reductions in wild bees.

PMID- 28560164
TI  - Confirmation of a unique species of Giardia, parasitic in the quenda (Isoodon
      obesulus).
AB  - The 'quenda genotype' of Giardia was first identified in quenda (syn. southern
      brown bandicoots, Isoodon obesulus) in Western Australia in 2004. We aimed to
      formally describe this genotype as a species of Giardia, Giardia peramelis.
      Seventy five faecal samples positive for G. peramelis were obtained from quenda
      within the Statistical Division of Perth, Western Australia. These samples were
      used in morphological and molecular characterisation of G. peramelis. PCR
      amplification and sequencing was most successful at the 18S rRNA and ITS1-5.8s
      ITS2 loci. Phylogenetic analyses placed G. peramelis external to the 'Giardia
      duodenalis species complex' and Giardia microti. This confirmed the uniqueness of
      G. peramelis, warranting classification as a separate species of Giardia. Study
      findings suggest quenda are a natural host for G. peramelis.

PMID- 28560165
TI  - Draft genome of the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora cactorum strain LV007 isolated
      from European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
AB  - Phytophthora cactorum is a broad host range phytopathogenic oomycete. P. cactorum
      strain LV007 was isolated from a diseased European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) in
      Malmo, Sweden in 2016. The draft genome of P. cactorum strain LV007 is 67.81 Mb.
      It contains 15,567 contigs and 21,876 predicted protein-coding genes. As reported
      for other phytopathogenic Phytophthora species, cytoplasmic effector proteins
      including RxLR and CRN families were identified. The genome sequence has been
      deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession NBIJ00000000. The version
      described in this paper is version NBIJ01000000.

PMID- 28560162
TI  - More than a rabbit's tale - Encephalitozoon spp. in wild mammals and birds.
AB  - Within the microsporidian genus Encephalitozoon, three species, Encephalitozoon
      cuniculi, Encephalitozoon hellem and Encephalitozoon intestinalis have been
      described. Several orders of the Class Aves (Passeriformes, Psittaciformes,
      Apodiformes, Ciconiiformis, Gruiformes, Columbiformes, Suliformes,
      Podicipediformes, Anseriformes, Struthioniformes, Falconiformes) and of the Class
      Mammalia (Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Primates, Artyodactyla, Soricomorpha, Chiroptera,
      Carnivora) can become infected. Especially E. cuniculi has a very broad host
      range while E. hellem is mainly distributed amongst birds. E. intestinalis has so
      far been detected only sporadically in wild animals. Although genotyping allows
      the identification of strains with a certain host preference, recent studies have
      demonstrated that they have no strict host specificity. Accordingly, humans can
      become infected with any of the four strains of E. cuniculi as well as with E.
      hellem or E. intestinalis, the latter being the most common. Especially, but not
      exclusively, immunocompromised people are at risk. Environmental contamination
      with as well as direct transmission of Encephalitozoon is therefore highly
      relevant for public health. Moreover, endangered species might be threatened by
      the spread of pathogens into their habitats. In captivity, clinically overt and
      often fatal disease seems to occur frequently. In conclusion, Encephalitozoon
      appears to be common in wild warm-blooded animals and these hosts may present
      important reservoirs for environmental contamination and maintenance of the
      pathogens. Similar to domestic animals, asymptomatic infections seem to occur
      frequently but in captive wild animals severe disease has also been reported.
      Detailed investigations into the epidemiology and clinical relevance of these
      microsporidia will permit a full appraisal of their role as pathogens.

PMID- 28560166
TI  - Small RNA-seq analysis in response to methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid
      treatment in Persicaria minor.
AB  - Persicaria minor (Kesum) is an important medicinal plant with high level of
      secondary metabolite contents, especially, terpenoids and flavonoids. Previous
      studies have revealed that application of exogenous phytohormone could increase
      secondary metabolite contents of the plant. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs
      that play important regulatory roles in various biological processes. In order to
      explore the possible role of miRNA in the regulation of these phytohormones
      signaling pathway and uncovering their potential correlation, we, for the first
      time, have generated the smallRNA library of Kesum plant. The library was
      developed in response to methyl jasmonate (MJ) and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment
      by using next-generation sequencing technology. Raw reads have been deposited to
      SRA database with the accession numbers, SRX2655642 and SRX2655643 (MJ-treated),
      SRXSRX2655644 and SRX2655645 (ABA-treated) and SRX2655646and SRX2655647
      (Control).

PMID- 28560167
TI  - RNA-seq analysis of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) fruit ripening.
AB  - Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is known for its delectable taste and
      contains high amount of xanthones which have been reported to possess anti
      cancer, anti-inflammatory and other bioactive properties. However, stage-specific
      regulation of mangosteen fruit ripening has never been studied in detail. We have
      performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of three ripening stages (Stage
      0, 2 and 6) of mangosteen. We have obtained a raw data from six libraries through
      Illumina HiSeq 4000. A total of ~ 40 Gb of raw data were generated. Clean reads
      of 650,887,650 (bp) were obtained from 656,913,570 (bp) raw reads. The raw
      transcriptome data were deposited to SRA database, with the BioProject accession
      number of PRJNA339916. These data will be beneficial for transcriptome profiling
      in order to study the regulation of mangosteen fruit ripening. The lack of a
      complete sequence database from this species impedes protein identification.
      These data sets provide a reference data for the exploration of novel genes or
      proteins to understand mangosteen fruit ripening behaviour.

PMID- 28560169
TI  - Small RNA sequencing for secondary metabolite analysis in Persicaria minor.
AB  - Persicaria minor (kesum) is an important medicinal plant and commonly found in
      southeast countries; Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This plant is
      enriched with a variety of secondary metabolites (SMs), and among these SMs,
      terpenoids are in high abundance. Terpenoids are comprised of many valuable
      biomolecules which have well-established role in agriculture and pharmaceutical
      industry. In P. minor, for the first time, we have generated small RNAs data
      sets, which can be used as tool in deciphering their roles in terpenoid
      biosynthesis pathways. Fungal pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum was used as elicitor
      to trigger SMs biosynthesis in P. minor. Raw reads and small RNA analysis data
      have already been deposited at GenBank under the accessions; SRX2645684 (Fusarium
      treated), SRX2645685 (Fusarium-treated), SRX2645686 (mock-infected), and
      SRX2645687 (mock-infected).

PMID- 28560168
TI  - Genome sequence of the oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides strain CGMCC
      2.1609.
AB  - Most eukaryotic oleaginous species are yeasts and among them the basidiomycete
      red yeast, Rhodotorula (Rhodosporidium) toruloides (Pucciniomycotina) is known to
      produce high quantities of lipids when grown in nitrogen-limiting media, and has
      potential for biodiesel production. The genome of the CGMCC 2.1609 strain of this
      oleaginous red yeast was sequenced using a hybrid of Roche 454 and Illumina
      technology generating 13 * coverage. The de novo assembly was carried out using
      MIRA and scaffolded using MAQ and BAMBUS. The sequencing and assembly resulted in
      365 scaffolds with total genome size of 33.4 Mb. The complete genome sequence of
      this strain was deposited in GenBank and the accession number is LKER00000000.
      The annotation is available on Figshare (doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.4754251).

PMID- 28560170
TI  - RNA-seq detects pharmacological inhibition of Epstein-Barr virus late
      transcription during spontaneous reactivation.
AB  - The stepwise and sequential expression of viral genes underlies progression of
      the infectious life cycle. The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is both a tractable model
      for elucidating principles of transcription as well as a global health threat. We
      describe an experimental protocol and bioinformatics pipeline for functional
      identification of EBV true late genes, the last step of transcription prior to
      virion packaging and egress. All data have been uploaded to the Gene Expression
      Omnibus under accession code GSE96689. The key improvement over previous
      approaches is leveraging the sensitivity of RNA-seq to detect gene expression
      changes during spontaneous reactivation.

PMID- 28560171
TI  - Pasteurella multocida chest wall abscess without wounds.

PMID- 28560172
TI  - A Case of Osteomyelitis of the toe caused by Coccidioidomycosis in a 17 year-old
      with Diabetes Insipidus.
AB  - We report a case of a 17-year-old male who presented with pain in his right first
      toe. His pain and swelling had worsened and x-rays of his foot revealed erosive
      changes of the great toe distal phalanx suggesting possible osteomyelitis. His co
      morbidities were morbid obesity and diabetes insipidus. He was admitted to the
      hospital, blood cultures were drawn, and he was started on vancomycin for
      presumed bacterial osteomyelitis. He underwent incision and drainage of the
      fluctuant abscess of the toe, where a culture of the wound was taken. Preliminary
      results grew fungi. Being located in an endemic area, he was started on anti
      fungal treatment for presumed disseminated coccidioidomycosis; culture was
      positive for Coccidiodes immitis. He also had serology positive for
      coccidioidomycosis titers. He had uneventful hospital stay and was discharged on
      long-term oral antifungal therapy.

PMID- 28560173
TI  - Severe interstitial pneumonia due to murine typhus in a patient returning from
      Bali.
AB  - Murine typhus has been increasingly reported as a cause of fever in returning
      travelers from Southeast Asia. We report a case of a previously healthy traveler
      returning from Bali with an non-specific febrile illness which quickly progressed
      to a severe form of interstitial pneumonia. After a careful epidemiological
      evaluation and laboratory analysis, murine typhus was diagnosed.

PMID- 28560175
TI  - Miliary tuberculosis with cerebral, liver, prostate and retroesophageal
      involvement.
AB  - Miliary tuberculosis results from the lymphohematogenous spread of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis and it is a rare form of this disease. The most affected places are
      the lymph nodes, pleura, and osteoarticular system, but any organ can be
      involved. Currently the disease is still endemic in developing countries by its
      close association with poor living conditions and malnutrition. Other
      comorbidities, particularly infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),
      diabetes mellitus, smoking and alcoholism are of great importance in the
      epidemiology of this disease. The authors describe the case of an adult man from
      Guinea-Bissau that has been residing in Portugal for the last few months,
      admitted with complaints of headache. He was submitted to a computerized
      tomography (CT) scan of the brain which showed multiple lesions. This led to
      further study and the diagnosis of a disseminated tuberculosis with cerebral,
      liver, prostate and retroesophageal involvement. He was started on anti
      tuberculosis therapy, achieving good results.

PMID- 28560174
TI  - Pediatric huaiyangshan virus infection: A case report with literature review.
AB  - To define the clinical manifestations and laboratory characteristics of pediatric
      severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) case caused by a novel
      bunyavirus. we retrospectively analyzed a pediatric case of viral SFTS in a 13
      year old successfully managed and confirmed to be due to the novel bunyavirus now
      referred to as Huaiyangshan virus. A literature review of related cases was
      performed.Our pediatric case was a 13.3-year-old middle school student no
      underlying disease. Major clinical features included a fever with chills,
      headache, and dizziness. The patient's epidemiology showed he had close contact
      with his grandfather who had a confirmed, novel bunyavirus infection. Symptomatic
      theraphy were given at admission. The patient's temperature and platelet count
      returned to normal by days 7 and 10, respectively, and he was discharged from the
      hospital with an improved condition. A literature search was performed using
      "severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome" and "bunyavirus" as keywords, but
      few relevant reports were found. Novel bunyavirus infection can be transmitted
      through close contact. Confirmed cases should be kept in isolation. Clinical
      manifestations were characterized by aspecific symptoms, such as fever and
      chills. In some cases, platelet counts may remain normal in the early phase of
      the disease, and fever may not present throughout the entire illness period.
      Thus, misdiagnosis is possible. Surveillance and vigorous follow-up should be
      carried out in children with tick bites or in close contact with an index patient
      in high-risk areas during peak season.

PMID- 28560176
TI  - Wife to husband transmission of Ecthyma contagiosum (Orf).

PMID- 28560163
TI  - Public health significance of zoonotic Cryptosporidium species in wildlife:
      Critical insights into better drinking water management.
AB  - Cryptosporidium is an enteric parasite that is transmitted via the faecal-oral
      route, water and food. Humans, wildlife and domestic livestock all potentially
      contribute Cryptosporidium to surface waters. Human encroachment into natural
      ecosystems has led to an increase in interactions between humans, domestic
      animals and wildlife populations. Increasing numbers of zoonotic diseases and
      spill over/back of zoonotic pathogens is a consequence of this anthropogenic
      disturbance. Drinking water catchments and water reservoir areas have been at the
      front line of this conflict as they can be easily contaminated by zoonotic
      waterborne pathogens. Therefore, the epidemiology of zoonotic species of
      Cryptosporidium in free-ranging and captive wildlife is of increasing importance.
      This review focuses on zoonotic Cryptosporidium species reported in global
      wildlife populations to date, and highlights their significance for public health
      and the water industry.

PMID- 28560178
TI  - Letter to the Editors: Concerning "Divergent clinical outcomes of alpha
      glucosidase enzyme replacement therapy in two siblings with infantile-onset Pompe
      disease treated in the symptomatic or pre-symptomatic state" by Takashi et al.
      and Letter to the Editors by Ortolano et al.

PMID- 28560177
TI  - Dengue virus serotype 3 and Chikungunya virus co-infection in a traveller
      returning from India to Portugal, November 2016.
AB  - We report a case of a laboratory-confirmed Dengue and Chikungunya viruses co
      infection imported from India to Portugal in early November 2016. The patient
      developed fever, retro-orbital pain and generalized myalgia after returning from
      Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Rishikesh, Goa and Mumbai. This case highlights the
      importance of these arboviruses to public health in India where high rates of co
      infection have been reported in the last few years, and demonstrates how
      challenging the laboratory diagnosis of imported co-infection cases can be in non
      endemic areas.

PMID- 28560179
TI  - The factors affecting lipid profile in adult patients with Mucopolysaccharidosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are a group of rare inherited disorders
      characterized by abnormal accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) within the
      myocytes and coronary arteries. Little is known about hyperlipidaemia as a
      potential cardiovascular risk factor in these patients. Baseline cholesterol data
      in adults are scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse factors
      affecting lipid profile in different types of MPSs to determine if abnormalities
      in lipid profile contribute to the overall risk of cardiovascular disease.
      METHODS: Adult patients (above the age of 16) with MPS type I, II, III, IV and VI
      attending clinics in two Inherited Metabolic Disorders centres were included.
      Their lipid profile, lipoprotein (a), HbA1c, Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT), BMI
      and treatment type were extracted. Analysis included descriptive statistics and
      Student t-test. RESULTS: Eighty two patients with five MPS types (I, II, III, IV
      and VI) were included in the study; 29 were females (35%) and 53 were males
      (65%). BMI above 25 kg/m2 in all MPS types indicated that some patients were
      overweight for their height. Only one patient post-HSCT had diabetes. In 3 cases
      insulin was analysed during GTT and showed no insulin resistance despite raised
      BMI. Mean total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were below 5 mmol/L and 3 mmol/L,
      respectively, in five individual MPS types. Lipoprotein (a) was available for 6
      MPS IV patients and was not significantly raised. CONCLUSIONS: MPS disorders are
      not associated with significant hypercholesterolaemia or diabetes mellitus
      despite increased BMI. Total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were within the
      targets for primary prevention for non-MPS population. Lipoprotein (a) is not a
      useful marker of cardiovascular disease in a small group of adult MPS IV patients
      irrespectively of treatment option. Whether long-term cardiovascular risk is
      dependent on lipid profile, diabetes, obesity or GAGs deposition within the organ
      system remains unanswered.

PMID- 28560180
TI  - Treatment of sugar processing industry effluent up to remittance limits:
      Suitability of hybrid electrode for electrochemical reactor.
AB  - Sugar industry is an oldest accommodates industry in the world. It required and
      discharges a large amount of water for processing. Removal of chemical oxygen
      demand and color through the electrochemical process including hybrid iron and
      aluminum electrode was examined for the treatment of cane-based sugar industry
      wastewater. Most favorable condition at pH 6.5, inter-electrode gap 20 mm,
      current density 156 A m-2, electrolyte concentration 0.5 M and reaction time 120
      min, 90% COD and 93.5% color removal was achieved. The sludge generated after
      treatment has less organic contain, which can be used as manure in agricultural
      crops. Overall the electrocoagulation was found to be reliable, efficient and
      economically fit to treat the sugar industry wastewater. *Electrocoagulation
      method for sugar processing industry wastewater treatment Optimization of
      operating parameters for maximum efficiency.*Physicochemical analysis of sludge
      and scum.*Significance of hydride metal electrode for pollutant removal.

PMID- 28560181
TI  - A modified assay for the enumeration of ascaris eggs in fresh raw sewage.
AB  - Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) pose a significant public health problem,
      infecting approximately 2 billion people globally. Despite relatively low
      prevalence in developed countries, the removal of STHs from wastewater remains
      crucial to allow the safe use of biosolids or recycled water for agriculture.
      Wastewater helminth egg count data can contribute to an assessment of the need
      for, or success of, a parasite management program. Although the World Health
      Organisation (WHO) has recommended a standard method for counting helminth eggs
      in raw sewage based on the method of Bailenger (Ayres et al., 1996), the method
      generally results in low percentage egg recoveries. Given the importance of
      determining the presence of STHs, it is essential to develop novel techniques
      that optimise the recovery rate of eggs from raw sewage. In the present study:
      *The method described by Bowman et al. (2003) was optimized for the concentration
      and enumeration of helminth eggs in raw sewage from municipal sewage treatment
      plants.*The method is simple and reproducible and recovers a greater percentage
      of helminth eggs compared to the WHO method.

PMID- 28560182
TI  - Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Treatment of
      Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, with a Focus on Afatinib.
AB  - Somatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are present in around
      50% of Asian patients and in 10-15% of Caucasian patients with metastatic non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of adenocarcinoma histology. The first-generation
      EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) gefitinib and erlotinib have demonstrated
      improved progression-free survival (PFS) and response rates but not overall
      survival (OS) benefit in randomized phase III trials when compared with platinum
      doublet chemotherapy. All patients treated with EGFR-TKIs will eventually develop
      acquired resistance to these agents. Afatinib, an irreversible ErbB family
      blocker, has shown in two randomly controlled trials in patients with EGFR
      activating mutations, a significant improvement in PFS and health-related quality
      of life when compared to platinum-based chemotherapy. Afatinib improved OS in
      patients with Del19 mutations. In patients having progressed on first-generation
      EGFR-TKIs, afatinib did lead to a clinical benefit. A randomly controlled trial
      showed that PFS was significantly superior with afatinib vs. erlotinib in
      patients with squamous NSCLC in the second-line setting. A phase IIb trial
      comparing afatinib and gefitinib in first-line EGFR positive NSCLC showed
      significantly improved PFS with afatinib but OS was not significantly improved.

PMID- 28560183
TI  - Outbreak by Hypermucoviscous Klebsiella pneumoniae ST11 Isolates with Carbapenem
      Resistance in a Tertiary Hospital in China.
AB  - Hypervirulent and multidrug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains pose a
      significant threat to the public health. In the present study, 21 carbapenem
      resistant K. pneumoniae isolates (CRKP) were determined by the string test as
      hypermucoviscous K. pneumoniae (HMKP), with the prevalence of 15.0% (21/140)
      among CRKP, and 1.1% (21/1838) among all K. pneumoniae isolates. Among them, 7
      (33.3%), and 1 (4.76%) isolate belonged to capsular serotype K20 and K2
      respectively, while 13 (61.9%, 13/21) weren't successfully typed by capsular
      serotyping. All the 21 isolates were carbapenemase-producers and were positive
      for blaKPC-2. In addition to blaKPC-2, all the 21 isolates except one harbor
      blaSHV-11, and 15 carry extended-spectrum beta-lactamase gene blaCTX-M-65. The
      virulence-associated genes with more than 90% of positive rates among 21 isolates
      included ureA (100%, 21/21), wabG (100%, 21/21), fimH (95.2%, 20/21), entB
      (95.2%, 20/21), ycf (95.2%, 20/21), ybtS (95.2%, 20/21), and iutA (90.5%, 19/21).
      rmpA and aerobactin were found in 57.1% (12/21) isolates. Five sequence types
      (STs) were identified by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), including ST11 (11 K
      non capsule typable and 5 K20 isolates), ST268 (1 K20 isolate and 1 K-non capsule
      typable isolate), ST65 (1 K2 isolate), ST692 (1 K-non capsule typable isolate),
      and ST595, a novel sequence type (1 K-non capsule typable isolate). Pulsed-field
      gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results showed two major PFGE clusters, of which
      cluster A accounts for 6 ST11 isolates (28.6%) and cluster B includes 8 ST11
      isolates (38.1%, 8/21). Ten and six ST11 isolates were isolated from 2014 and
      2015, respectively, while 8 were isolated from the same month of December in
      2014. Ten isolates were collected from the intensive care unit (ICU), and all
      except one belonged to ST11. Additional 4 ST11 isolates were collected from
      patients in non-ICU wards, who had more than 10 days of ICU stay history in 2014
      prior to transfer to their current wards where the isolates were recovered. Taken
      together, the present study showed a hospital outbreak and dissemination of ST11
      HMKP with carbapenem resistance caused by KPC-2. Effective surveillance and
      strict infection control strategies should be implemented to prevent outbreak by
      HMKP with carbapenem resistance in hospitals.

PMID- 28560184
TI  - Interaction between Plasmodium Glycosylphosphatidylinositol and the Host Protein
      Moesin Has No Implication in Malaria Pathology.
AB  - Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor of Plasmodium falciparum origin is
      considered an important toxin leading to severe malaria pathology through
      stimulation of pro-inflammatory responses from innate immune cells. Even though
      the GPI-induced immune response is widely described to be mediated by pattern
      recognition receptors such as TLR2 and TLR4, previous studies have revealed that
      these two receptors are dispensable for the development of severe malaria
      pathology. Therefore, this study aimed at the identification of potential
      alternative Plasmodium GPI receptors. Herein, we have identified the host protein
      moesin as an interaction partner of Plasmodium GPI in vitro. Given previous
      reports indicating the relevance of moesin especially in the LPS-mediated
      induction of pro-inflammatory responses, we have conducted a series of in vitro
      and in vivo experiments to address the physiological relevance of the moesin
      Plasmodium GPI interaction in the context of malaria pathology. We report here
      that although moesin and Plasmodium GPI interact in vitro, moesin is not
      critically involved in processes leading to Plasmodium-induced pro-inflammatory
      immune responses or malaria-associated cerebral pathology.

PMID- 28560185
TI  - Deregulation of MicroRNAs in Gastric Lymphomagenesis Induced in the d3Tx Mouse
      Model of Helicobacter pylori Infection.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori infection is considered as an excellent model of chronic
      inflammation-induced tumor development. Our project focuses on gastric MALT
      lymphoma (GML) related to H. pylori infection and mediated by the chronic
      inflammatory process initiated by the infection. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs)
      have emerged as a new class of gene regulators, which play key roles in
      inflammation and carcinogenesis acting as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Their
      precise characterization in the development of inflammation and their
      contribution in regulating host cells responses to infection by H. pylori have
      been little explored. Our goal was to analyze the changes in miRNAs in a GML
      mouse model using BALB/c mice thymectomized at day 3 post-birth (d3Tx model) and
      to clarify their implication in GML pathogenesis. PCR array followed by RT-qPCR
      identified five miRNAs (miR-21a, miR-135b, miR-142a, miR-150, miR-155)
      overexpressed in the stomachs of GML-developing d3Tx mice infected by H. pylori.
      The analysis of their putative targets allowed us to identify TP53INP1, an anti
      proliferative and pro-apoptotic protein, as a common target of 4 of the 5 up
      regulated miRNAs. We postulate that these miRNAs may act in synergy to promote
      the development of GML. miR-142a was also overexpressed in mouse sera samples and
      therefore could serve as a diagnostic marker. In situ hybridization on gastric
      samples with miR-142a revealed a global up-regulation of this miRNA by the tumor
      microenvironment at the lymphoma stage. Dysregulation of miR-21a, miR-135b, miR
      142a, miR-150, miR-155 could play a critical role in the pathogenesis of GML and
      might offer potential applications as therapeutic targets and novel biomarkers
      for this disease.

PMID- 28560186
TI  - Tracking Bioluminescent ETEC during In vivo BALB/c Mouse Colonization.
AB  - Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a leading cause of diarrhea worldwide.
      Adhesion to the human intestinal tract is crucial for colonization. ETEC adhesive
      structures have been extensively studied; however, colonization dynamics remain
      uncharacterized. The aim of this study was to track bioluminescent ETEC during in
      vivo infection. The promoter region of dnaK was fused with the luc gene,
      resulting in the pRMkluc vector. E. coli K-12 and ETEC FMU073332 strains were
      electroporated with pRMkluc. E. coli K-12 pRMkluc was bioluminescent; in
      contrast, the E. coli K-12 control strain did not emit bioluminescence. The
      highest light emission was measured at 1.9 OD600 (9 h) and quantified over time.
      The signal was detected starting at time 0 and up to 12 h. Streptomycin-treated
      BALB/c mice were orogastrically inoculated with either ETEC FMU073332 pRMkluc or
      E. coli K-12 pRMkluc (control), and bacterial colonization was determined by
      measuring bacterial shedding in the feces. ETEC FMU073332 pRMkluc shedding
      started and stopped after inoculation of the control strain, indicating that
      mouse intestinal colonization by ETEC FMU073332 pRMkluc lasted longer than
      colonization by the control. The bioluminescence signal of ETEC FMU073332 pRMkluc
      was captured starting at the time of inoculation until 12 h after inoculation.
      The bioluminescent signal emitted by ETEC FMU073332 pRMkluc in the proximal mouse
      ileum was located, and the control signal was identified in the cecum. The
      detection of maximal light emission and bioluminescence duration allowed us to
      follow ETEC during in vivo infection. ETEC showed an enhanced colonization and
      tropism in the mouse intestine compared with those in the control strain. Here,
      we report the first study of ETEC colonization in the mouse intestine accompanied
      by in vivo imaging.

PMID- 28560187
TI  - Which Health Cares Are Related to the Family Physician? A Critical Interpretive
      Synthesis of Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study provided the theoretical basis for program development
      through a new conceptualization of the concept of family physician related health
      care. METHODS: Critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was used to carry out
      qualitative analysis and synthesis of the literature from 2006 until 2015. At the
      beginning of CIS, the search strategy was designed to access electronic databases
      such as CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane library, PsycINFO, Embase, EBMreviews, and
      Thomson scientific web of science database. The main review question was the
      clarification of the health care related to family physician in health system,
      which produced over related 750 articles; 60 articles related to the research
      objective were studied by purposive sampling. After identifying the main
      categories and sub-categories, synthesis of the contradictory findings in
      different studies was conducted. New concepts and relationships between concepts
      were created using CIS of documentation related to the place of family physician
      in health system. RESULTS: To define the original position of family physician in
      health system, clarify its related health care and determine its boundaries from
      other health care providers, and its use in the design and development of family
      physician's educational program, a frame of concepts related to the main concept
      and question was created. A more useful means of understanding family physician
      is offered by the synthetic constructs of this framework. CONCLUSION: The
      theoretical conceptualization of family physician position and duties in the
      health system can be an appropriate guide for educational program and curricula
      in our context.

PMID- 28560188
TI  - Life-course and Cohort Trajectories of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases Risk
      Factors in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NCDs are the leading disease burdens in China and the NCDs risk
      factors shifts have accelerated at an unprecedented scale over the past 30 years.
      The aim of this study was to analysis the natural trajectories of NCDs risk
      factors over the life course. METHODS: The large-scale longitudinal data from the
      CHNS includes nine rounds of surveys between 1989 and 2011. Overall, 145913
      observations (29719 individuals) at multiple exams have been followed up over a
      23-year period. The mixed-effects models with random intercepts were used to the
      characterize shifts in the distribution of these risk factors across the whole
      life course. RESULTS: During about 23 years observational period across all age
      bands, the mean AMC, UAC, TSF, BMI, WC, DBP, SD, DD, and PA trajectory all
      increased until a certain age. Then decreased in both gender, whereas SBP
      strictly increased across lifespan; and the secular trend in AMC and WC, SBP, DBP
      was greater in women than in men; younger generations had higher AMC, UAC, TSF,
      BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR, SBP, DBP levels across adulthood, whereas younger birth
      cohorts had lower SD, DD, and PA levels. CONCLUSION: We observed in a large and
      comprehensive longitudinal dataset that provided strong evidence of population
      wide secular shifts from childhood onwards, which suggests that promoting
      healthier lifestyles, body weight, blood pressure and enhancing the primary
      practitioner's capability should be required to reduce the burden of NCDs in
      China.

PMID- 28560190
TI  - Botulinum as a Toxin for Treating Post-herpetic Neuralgia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to study the curative effects of botulinum A toxin (BTX-A)
      on the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia (PNH). METHODS: We enrolled 58 PNH
      patients and treated them with hypodermic injection of BTX-A in Xiangyang No.1
      People's Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Hubei, China. We measured and
      compared the Visual Analog Score (VAS), Neuropathy Pain Scale (NPS), Quality of
      Life Scale (SF-36) score, PNH seizure severity degree, seizure duration,
      frequency of attack and the use of painkillers before and after treatment. We
      used SPSS13 software package for statistical analysis. Values were expressed by
      mean+/- standard deviation. P<0.05 indicated a significant difference and P<0.01
      indicated an obvious significant difference. RESULTS: Attack frequency, attack
      duration and attack severity were all significantly lower after treatment
      (P<0.01). The use of painkillers reduced after treatment (P<0.01) and we observed
      very few adverse reactions associated with BTX-A injection. CONCLUSION: The use
      of BTX-A for treating post-herpetic neuralgia produced very promising results
      with very few adverse reactions. BTX-A can be considered as a valid approach in
      the treatment of PNH, especially in patients that do not respond well to
      painkillers.

PMID- 28560189
TI  - Systematic Analysis of Palatal Rugae Pattern for Use in Human Identification
      between Two Different Populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Forensic odontology plays important role in identification of human
      remains in mass disasters such as air crash, tsunami, and accidents. Palatal
      rugae act as an ideal requisite for human identification as they are present in
      all victims and are resistant to changes such as aging and trauma. The study
      aimed to analyze differences in shape and number of palatal rugae in population
      from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. METHODS: This study was conducted in
      SIBAR institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, India in 2012 on 200 subjects, gender
      matched and equally divided as 100 from Andhra Pradesh and 100 from Telangana
      states. Rugae were studied using Kapali.S classification. Association between
      rugae shape and gender variation between the two populations were tested by chi
      square analysis and student t-test. RESULTS: Average number of rugae was more
      (11.84+/-3.03) in subjects of Andhra Pradesh, compared to Telangana (9.50 +/
      1.65) population. Males of Andhra Pradesh showed significantly higher mean number
      of total rugae than in Telangana males. Distribution of total number of different
      rugae shapes in males and females of both the populations showed significant
      variation in wavy and circular rugae patterns. Wavy, curved and straight rugae
      were significantly higher in males and females of Andhra Pradesh compared to
      Telangana population. Telangana population showed significant increase in
      circular rugae. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed statistically significant
      variation in shape and total number of rugae between observed populations of
      Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.

PMID- 28560191
TI  - Application of Fuzzy Logic in Oral Cancer Risk Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The mapping of the malignization mechanism is still incomplete, but
      oxidative stress is strongly correlated to carcinogenesis. In our research, using
      fuzzy logic, we aimed to estimate the oxidative stress related-cancerization risk
      of the oral potentially malignant disorders. METHODS: Serum from 16 patients
      diagnosed (clinical and histopathological) with oral potentially malignant
      disorders (Dept. of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery and Radiology, "Iuliu Hatieganu"
      University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj Napoca, Romania) was processed
      fluorometric for malondialdehyde and proton donors assays (Dept. of
      Physiology,"Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca,
      Romania). The values were used as inputs, they were associated linguistic terms
      using MIN-MAX method and 25 IF-THEN inference rules were generated to estimate
      the output value, the cancerization risk appreciated on a scale from 1 to 10 - IF
      malondialdehyde is very high and donors protons are very low THEN the cancer risk
      is reaching the maximum value (Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of
      Managerial and Technological Engineering, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania)
      (2012-2014). RESULTS: We estimated the cancerization risk of the oral potentially
      malignant disorders by implementing the multi-criteria decision support system
      based on serum malondialdehyde and proton donors' values. The risk was estimated
      as a concrete numerical value on a scale from 1 to 10 depending on the input
      numerical/linguistic value. CONCLUSION: The multi-criteria decision support
      system proposed by us, integrated into a more complex computerized decision
      support system, could be used as an important aid in oral cancer screening and
      establish future medical decision in oral potentially malignant disorders.

PMID- 28560192
TI  - Mutational Analysis of Mitochondrial tRNA Genes in Patients with Asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mitochondria are autonomous cellular organelles that oversee a
      variety of functions such as metabolism, energy production, calcium buffering,
      and cell fate determination. Most recently, mitochondrial dysfunction caused by
      mitochondrial mutations played important roles in the pathogenesis of asthma.
      However, the frequency of mitochondrial tRNA mutations in asthma is largely
      unknown. METHODS: Overall, 200 patients with asthma and 100 healthy control
      subjects were recruited between Jan 2015 and Dec 2015 at the Guangming New
      District People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. We first
      performed PCR amplification of the mitochondrial tRNA genes and subsequently
      sequenced the PCR products, and we used the pathogenicity scoring system to
      evaluate the potential role of these mutations. RESULTS: Two patients carrying
      the tRNAThr G15927A mutation, three patients carrying the tRNAAla T5655C mutation
      and one patient carrying the tRNAGlu A14693G mutation, these mutations were
      absent in healthy controls. Moreover, these mutations located at positions highly
      conserved between different species, and may cause a failure in mitochondrial
      tRNA metabolism, consequently result in mitochondrial dysfunction that
      responsible for asthma. In addition, the pathogenicity scoring system showed that
      these mutations should be regarded as "pathogenic". CONCLUSION: Mitochondrial
      tRNA mutations caused the mitochondrial dysfunction may be involved in the
      pathogenesis of asthma. Thus, this study provided novel insight into the
      molecular mechanism underlying mitochondrial tRNA mutations in asthma. Moreover,
      screening for the mitochondrial tRNA mutations was advised for the diagnosis of
      patients with asthma.

PMID- 28560193
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Heavy Metals in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and
      Healthy Control in Pakistani Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to heavy metals in development of many diseases has been
      investigated previously, specially created by oxidative stress. The etiology of
      Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still not fully understood but oxidative stress
      created by heavy metals may have role in development of RA. The aim of present
      study was to compare serum level of heavy metals in RA and healthy control
      individuals. METHODS: Blood samples of 100 RA patients were collected from
      different hospitals in district Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan and 100 control
      individuals from Dec 2013 to May 2014.The serum samples were analyzed for
      determination of Pb, Cd, Cr and Ni through Atomic absorption spectrophotometer
      (AA 6600 Shimadzu). RESULTS: Statistically highly significant difference was
      observed between RA patients and healthy control individuals for Pb, Cd, Cr, and
      Ni level (P<0.01). The difference between the means of both sexes was not
      significant for Pb and Cd concentrations (P>0.01). For Cr the difference between
      the means of both sexes was statistically not significant in RA +ve patients and
      highly significant difference was observed between both sexes in healthy control
      group (P<0.01). The difference between the means of both sexes for Ni was
      statistically non-significant in healthy control group while significant
      difference was observed between both sexes in RA +ve group (P<0.05).
      Statistically non-significant difference for Pb, Cd, Cr and Ni level was found
      among the all three age groups of RA and healthy control individuals (P>0.01).
      CONCLUSION: Concentration of heavy metals in serum samples of RA patients and
      healthy control individuals differ significantly, which shows that heavy metals
      may contributes towards development of RA.

PMID- 28560194
TI  - Short-term Effects of Catheter Pressure and Time Control in Vacuum Aspiration
      Abortion for Early High-risk Pregnancies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate an approach to induced abortions during early
      pregnancies that controls the suction pressure and restricts the duration of the
      procedure. METHODS: Three hundred patients programmed for induced early pregnancy
      abortions, hospitalized in the Shandong Provincial Maternity & Child-care
      Hospital from October 2013 to October 2015, were enrolled. Patients were randomly
      assigned to either research or control group. In the research group, operation
      pressure was controlled at 400 mmHg and operation time in the uterine cavity was
      kept at less than 75 s. In the control group, pressure ranged from 400-500 mmHg.
      Clinical variables were recorded for each patient until the fourth month after
      surgery, correlation and multivariate analyses were carried. RESULTS: Compared
      with control group, anesthesia and intervention durations and the suction
      pressure were significantly lower and the endometrial thickness of the first late
      follicular phase after operation was significantly larger in the research group
      (P<0.05). In the first postoperative month, the number of patients who reported
      menstruation flow decreased by more than 1/3 of its normal volume was
      significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). In the third
      postoperative month, the thickness of the late follicular phase endometrium was
      significantly larger than that in the control group (P<0.001). The mean
      intraoperative pressure and intrauterine operation duration both influenced the
      endometrial thickness of follicular phase. CONCLUSION: Controlling the suction
      pressure and time for vacuum aspiration abortions during early pregnancies can
      reduce the incidence of intrauterine adhesions and better protect the
      endometrium.

PMID- 28560195
TI  - Development and Psychometric Properties of Social Exclusion Questionnaire for
      Iranian Divorced Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Divorce, especially in women, could be assessed from socio-cultural
      perspective as well as psychological viewpoint. This assessment requires cultural
      adopted as well as valid and reliable questionnaire. This study aimed to develop
      and assess the psychometric properties of a questionnaire in order to address
      social consequences in Iranian divorced women. METHODS: This was an exploratory
      mixed method study conducted during 2012 to 2014. According to the grounded
      theory approach in the first phase, social exclusion was extracted as a core of
      understanding process in participants. Based on, 47 preliminary generated items
      reliability and validity were assessed. In the second phase, the divorced women
      were recruited from a safe community center in Tehran through convenience
      sampling. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis conducted on the questionnaires of
      150 divorced women with mean age 41.76+/-8.49 yr, in that, indicated five
      dimensions, discriminative marital status, economic dependence on marital status,
      exclusionary marital status, and traumatic marital status health risks and,
      frightening marital status that jointly accounted for the 64% of the variance
      observed. An expert panel approved the face and content validity of the developed
      tool. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the Intra-class Correlation
      Coefficient were found to be 0.70 and 0.85, respectively. CONCLUSION: The present
      study provided a valid and reliable measure as Social Exclusion Questionnaire in
      Iranian divorced women (SEQ-IDW) to address social post-divorce consequences,
      which might help to improve women's social health.

PMID- 28560196
TI  - Psychometric Soundness of an Arabic Version of the Jefferson Scale of Attitude
      toward Physician and Nurse Collaboration (JSAPNC): A Preliminary Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Jefferson Scale of Attitude toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration
      (JSAPNC) has been used to measure the attitude regarding collaboration between
      nurses and physicians. The aim of this preliminary study was to test the
      reliability and validity of an Arabic version of the questionnaire and adapt it
      for use in Palestine. METHODS: Forward-backward translation of guidelines
      provided in the literature was followed. Content validity was examined by nine
      health experts and reliability was assessed with Cronbach's coefficient alpha;
      test-retest reliability. Construct validity was explored with exploratory factor
      analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by means of survey among
      414 physicians and nurses worked at Shifa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip in
      2015. RESULTS: Response rate was 65% and Cronbach's coefficient alpha was 73.2
      for the entire sample. Test-retest reliability was 0.79 measured by Pearson
      correlation. Factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed four factors
      explained 60.5% of the variance in the responses labeled as physician-nurse
      collaboration, doctor's authority, Shared education and Nursing role in-patient
      care. Goodness of fit indices from the CFA showed a satisfactory model of fit;
      Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.89; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation
      (RMSEA) = 0.06; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.03; and Hoelter
      index = 206. CONCLUSION: The Arabic version of JSAPNC is psychometrically sound
      tool with satisfactory measurement characteristics including validity and
      internal consistency reliability. Future research is required to replicate these
      findings with larger and representative sample. Generalization to Arab speaking
      countries can be considered but with caution.

PMID- 28560197
TI  - The Effect of Snail1 Gene Silencing by siRNA in Metastatic Breast Cancer Cell
      Lines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common diagnosed cancer among women in the
      world. Snail1 plays a role in the development of the invasive phenotypes of
      cancer, neural cell differentiation, cell division and apoptosis in tumor cells.
      Traces of snail1 in metastasis of breast cancer to bone are observed. The aim of
      this study was to investigate the effect of specific snail1 siRNAs on the
      proliferation, migration, induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of MDA-MB
      468 cells. METHODS: In 2015, this experimental study was performed on the MDA-MB
      468 cell lines in Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical
      Sciences. After the design and construction of siRNA, transfection was performed
      with transfection reagent. The expression levels of mRNA and protein were
      measured by qRT-PCR and western blot analysis, respectively. The survival of
      cells was determined by using MTT assay cells, apoptosis using Tunel assay, Cell
      migration using scratch assay, Cell cycle analysis by Propidium Iodide (PI) DNA
      staining method using flow cytometry on the MDA-MB-468. RESULTS: Transfection
      with siRNA significantly suppressed the expression of snail1 gene in dose
      dependent manner after 48 h (P<0.0001). Surprisingly, treatment with snail1 siRNA
      arrested cell cycle in S phases (P<0.0001). Moreover, siRNA transfection had
      effects on breast adenocarcinoma cells and inhibited the migration (P<0.0001),
      proliferation (P<0.0001) and induced apoptosis (P<0.0016). CONCLUSION: The snail1
      can be considered as a potent adjuvant in breast cancer therapy.

PMID- 28560198
TI  - Exploring Measures to Control Road Traffic Injuries in Iran: Key Informants
      Points of View.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Injuries and fatalities from road traffic Injuries are global public
      health concerns, and a major problem in the Iran. This study aimed to explore
      strategies to control road traffic Injuries (RTI) in Iran. METHODS: We conducted
      a qualitative study to explore possible ways to reduce the occurrence of road
      traffic Injuries in Iran in 2016. Interviewees were purposively sampled from
      various sectors due to multidisciplinary nature of RTIs. Participants were mainly
      representatives from the police, Ministry of Road, Municipal, emergency services
      and Ministry of Health. Besides, public health authorities, researchers, and
      university professors were interviewed. We conducted in-depth interviews using
      generic guides. Data was analyzed using MAXQDA 10 software. Through content
      analysis, we interpreted core themes relevant to the accomplishment of our study
      objectives. RESULTS: Themes that emerged from our study include; road traffic
      management, governance, education, improving accident database, enforcement,
      driving license restrictions, and construction of pedestrian overpass.
      CONCLUSION: This study revealed key informants' views regarding available and
      affordable solutions to reduce RTIs in Iran. Many applicable strategies are
      identified in the control of RTIs in Iran. Although some solutions such as
      highway construction and/or expanding rail transportation have been suggested as
      effective measures for reducing accident, but they are costly and may not be
      fully applied in developing countries like Iran.

PMID- 28560199
TI  - Emotional Intelligence in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a devastating situation. Spinal Cord
      Injury affects functional, psychological and socioeconomic aspects of patients'
      lives. The ability to accomplish and explicate the one's own and other's feelings
      and emotions to spread over appropriate information for confirming thoughts and
      actions is defined as emotional intelligence (EI). The goal of this study was to
      evaluate depression and EI in SCI patients in comparison with healthy subjects.
      METHODS: One-hundred-ten patients with SCI and 80 healthy subjects between Aug
      2014 and Aug 2015 were enrolled. The study was conducted in Imam Hospital,
      Tehran, Iran. All participants were asked to fill valid and reliable Persian
      version Emotional Quotient inventory (EQ-i) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).
      All data were analyzed using SPSS. Data were presented as Mean+/-SD for
      continuous or frequencies for categorical variables. Continuous variables
      compared by means of independent sample t-test. P-values less than 0.05 were
      considered as significant. RESULTS: Mean age of patients was 28.7 and mean age of
      controls was 30.2 yr. Spinal cord injury in 20 (18.3%) were at cervical level, in
      83 (75.4%) were thoracic and in 7 (6.3%) were lumbar. Mean values of
      independence, stress tolerance, self-actualization, emotional Self-Awareness,
      reality testing, Impulse Control, flexibility, responsibility, and assertiveness
      were significantly different between cases and controls. Mean values of stress
      tolerance, optimism, self-regard, and responsibility were significantly different
      between three groups with different injury level. Most scales were not
      significantly different between male and female cases. CONCLUSION: Emotional
      intelligence should be considered in SCI cases as their physical and
      psychological health is affected by their illness.

PMID- 28560200
TI  - An Efficient Predictive Model for Myocardial Infarction Using Cost-sensitive J48
      Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myocardial infarction (MI) occurs due to heart muscle death that
      costs like human life, which is higher than the treatment costs. This study aimed
      to present an MI prediction model using classification data mining methods, which
      consider the imbalance nature of the problem. METHODS: We enrolled 455 healthy
      and 295 myocardial infarction cases of visitors to Shahid Madani Specialized
      Hospital, Khorramabad, Iran, in 2015. Then, a hybrid feature selection method
      included Weight by Relief and Genetic algorithm applied on the dataset to select
      the best features. After selection of the features, the metacost classifier
      applied on the sampled dataset. Metacost made a cost sensitive J48 model by
      assigning different costs ratios for misclassified cases; include 1:10, 1:50,
      1:100, 1:150 and 1:200. RESULTS: After applying the model on the imbalanced
      dataset, the cost ratio 1:200 led to the best results in comparison to not using
      feature selection and cost sensitive model. The model achieved sensitivity, F
      measure and accuracy of 86.67%, 80% and 82.67%, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Experiments on the real dataset showed that using the cost-sensitive method along
      with the hybrid feature selection method improved model performance. Therefore,
      the model considered a reliable Myocardial Infarction prediction model.

PMID- 28560201
TI  - A Comparative Study on Willingness to Pay for Breast Cancer and Osteoporosis
      Screening in Kerman, Southeastern Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the economic evaluation techniques involves calculation of
      willingness to pay (WTP) for a service to find out the value of that service from
      the clients' perspective. This study estimated WTP for both breast cancer and
      osteoporosis screening and comparatively examined the contributing factors. In
      fact, the comparisons served to provide an exact analysis of individual attitudes
      and behaviors in relation to screening programs for cancers and other diseases.
      METHODS: This study was first designed in six scenarios several questionnaires
      concerning individual breast cancer and osteoporosis screening cases, and
      determined the WTP median in each scenario between people in Kerman Province of
      Iran in 2016. Then, the demand function for breast cancer and osteoporosis
      screening was formulated. Moreover, the factors contributing to WTP were examined
      through various scenarios in Stata and econometric techniques. RESULTS: The
      median and mean values of WTP in all the above scenarios were greater for breast
      cancer screening than for osteoporosis screening. Theoretically, the price
      assumed a minus sign whereas risk assumed a plus sign within the demand function
      formulated for both screening programs. Regarding the evaluated factors, age in
      breast cancer screening and risk of disease in osteoporosis screening were the
      major factors contributing to WTP. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer screening was more
      valuable than osteoporosis screening program from the perspective of the
      subjects. The programs can be successfully designed by concentrating on patients'
      age groups in breast cancer screening and high-risk patients in osteoporosis
      screening.

PMID- 28560202
TI  - Prevalence and Incidence of Multiple Sclerosis in Tehran, Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tehran is the capital of Iran with an increasing Multiple Sclerosis
      (MS) incidence. A retrospective population-based study was conducted to evaluate
      the status of MS prevalence and MS incidence trends in Tehran Province, Iran.
      METHODS: A population-based study was conducted from 1991 to 2014 in Tehran
      Province, the capital city of Iran based on Iranian MS Society (IMSS) registry
      system. A structured questionnaire design to cover the important epidemiological
      variables, related at the individual level for MS. A Monte Carlo Permutation
      method was utilized to test whether the apparent change in MS trends during 1991
      2014 was statistically significant. RESULTS: MS incidence was significantly
      increased during our study period. The annual percent change (APC) was 12.8% in
      women during 1991 to 2004 and 12.5% in men during the same period. The point
      prevalence of MS was 101.39 per 100000 populations in 2014. The age-adjusted
      prevalence rates were 134.03 and for male patients were 42.45 per 100000.
      CONCLUSION: MS prevalence and incidence in Tehran are markedly rising, it is
      crucial to elucidate the causes of the increasing trends and implement efficient
      policies lowering disease burden.

PMID- 28560203
TI  - Comparison of Gene-expression Profiles between Normal and Periodontitis-affected
      Tissues.

PMID- 28560204
TI  - Socio-demographic Factors Associated with Inhabitants' View Related to Vaccines
      in Indonesia.

PMID- 28560205
TI  - Treadmill Measurement of Maximal Aerobic Capacity in Untrained Students Aged 9-18
      Year.

PMID- 28560206
TI  - Dental Education and Oral Health Service in Iraq.

PMID- 28560207
TI  - Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices about Polio Vaccination of the Guardian in
      Super High-risk Areas of Gadap Town, Karachi, Pakistan.

PMID- 28560209
TI  - Basic Health Insurance Package in Iran: Revision Challenges.

PMID- 28560208
TI  - Challenges of Achieving Tuberculosis Elimination by 2050: A Need for More
      Attention in the TB Control Program in Iran.

PMID- 28560210
TI  - Determining the Requirements and Barriers for Using Barcode Technology in the
      Hospitals of Tabriz, Iran.

PMID- 28560211
TI  - Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products for Rare Diseases: State of Play of
      Incentives Supporting Development in Europe.
AB  - In 2008, the European Union introduced the Advanced Medicines Regulation aiming
      to improve regulation of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). We applied
      the ATMPs classification definitions in this Regulation to understand the link of
      this emerging group of medicinal products and the use of the Orphan Regulation. A
      total of 185 products that can be classified as ATMPs based on this Regulation
      have been submitted for orphan designation. Prior to its introduction in 2008,
      4.5% of the products submitted for orphan designation met these criteria. This
      percentage went up to 15% after 2008. We analyzed several parameters associated
      with active ATMP ODDs focusing on sponsor type and EU-Member State origin,
      therapeutic area targeted, and ATMP classification [i.e., somatic cell therapy
      medicinal product, tissue-engineered product (TEP), or gene therapy medicinal
      product (GTMP)] and the use of regulatory services linked to incentives such as
      the use of protocol assistance (PA) and other Committees [Committee for Advanced
      Therapies (CAT) and the Pediatric Committee]. The aim here was to gain insight on
      the use of different services. The UK submits the largest number of ATMPs for ODD
      representing ~30% of the total to date. Few submissions have been received from
      central and Eastern European Member States as well as some of the larger Member
      States such as Germany (3.6%). ATMPs ODDs were primarily GTMPs (48.7%) and SCTMPs
      (43.3%). TEPs only represented 8% of all submissions for this medicinal class.
      This is different from non-ODDs ATMPs where GTMPs make only 20% of ATMPs. A total
      of 11.7% of ATMP ODDs had received formal CAT classification. A total of 29.8% of
      all orphan drug (OD) ATMPs requested PA. A total of 71.8% did not have an agreed
      pediatric investigation plan (PIP). Four products (Glybera one PA; Zalmoxis two;
      Holoclar one; Strimvelis three) have received a marketing authorization (MAA) and
      a 10-year market exclusivity. Strimvelis also completed their PIP, which was
      compliant and received the additional 2-year extension to their 10-year market
      exclusivity. One OD ATMP (Cerepro) received a negative opinion for MAA. The use
      of services linked to incentives offered by different legislations for ATMP ODDs
      is low, indicating a need for increasing awareness.

PMID- 28560212
TI  - Enhancing Human Cognition with Cocoa Flavonoids.
AB  - Enhancing cognitive abilities has become a fascinating scientific challenge,
      recently driven by the interest in preventing age-related cognitive decline and
      sustaining normal cognitive performance in response to cognitively demanding
      environments. In recent years, cocoa and cocoa-derived products, as a rich source
      of flavonoids, mainly the flavanols sub-class, have been clearly shown to exert
      cardiovascular benefits. More recently, neuromodulation and neuroprotective
      actions have been also suggested. Here, we discuss human studies specifically
      aimed at investigating the effects of acute and chronic administration of cocoa
      flavanols on different cognitive domains, such as executive functions, attention
      and memory. Through a variety of direct and indirect biological actions, in part
      still speculative, cocoa and cocoa-derived food have been suggested to possess
      the potential to counteract cognitive decline and sustain cognitive abilities,
      particularly among patients at risk. Although still at a preliminary stage,
      research investigating the relations between cocoa and cognition shows dose
      dependent improvements in general cognition, attention, processing speed, and
      working memory. Moreover, cocoa flavanols administration could also enhance
      normal cognitive functioning and exert a protective role on cognitive performance
      and cardiovascular function specifically impaired by sleep loss, in healthy
      subjects. Together, these findings converge at pointing to cocoa as a new
      interesting nutraceutical tool to protect human cognition and counteract
      different types of cognitive decline, thus encouraging further investigations.
      Future research should include complex experimental designs combining
      neuroimaging techniques with physiological and behavioral measures to better
      elucidate cocoa neuromodulatory properties and directly compare immediate versus
      long-lasting cognitive effects.

PMID- 28560214
TI  - Clinical and Histopathological Findings of Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia-Associated
      Lichen Planus Pigmentosus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) is a primary lymphocytic scarring
      alopecia occurring mainly in postmenopausal women. A range of facial lesions have
      been described in FFA, such as lichen planus (LP) pigmentosus, red dots, facial
      papules, and perifollicular and diffuse erythema. These lesions can be the first
      sign of FFA. LP pigmentosus is a rare variant of LP. The first description of LP
      pigmentosus associated with FFA (in 2012) reported 22 cases of LP pigmentosus
      among 44 cases of FFA affecting South African patients. METHODS: We reviewed 16
      FFA patients with LP pigmentosus and the histopathological findings of the biopsy
      of LP pigmentosus in 9 patients. RESULTS: Most patients had intermediate skin
      phototypes (III-IV; n = 10; 62%). The age at onset of LP pigmentosus ranged from
      30 to 60 years. The most common histopathological findings were epidermal
      atrophy, basal cell degeneration, interfollicular inflammatory infiltrate and
      melanophages, and perifollicular changes. Other findings not previously described
      in LP pigmentosus were inflammation and interface changes on sweat duct epithelia
      (acrosyringium and superior dermal duct), and lichenoid perisebaceitis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Histology of our cases confirmed previous findings and showed a high
      incidence of perifollicular involvement with occasional changes affecting
      sebaceous and sweat glands.

PMID- 28560213
TI  - Tetrabutylphosphonium Bromide Reduces Size and Polydispersity Index of Tat2:siRNA
      Nano-Complexes for Triticale RNAi.
AB  - Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short 8-30 amino-acid oligopeptides that act
      as effective transducers of macromolecular cargo, particularly nucleic acids.
      They have been implemented in delivering dsDNA, ssDNA, and dsRNA into animal and
      plant cells. CPPs and nucleic acids form nano-complexes that are often 100-300 nm
      in size but still effectively transit the cell membrane of animal cells, but are
      less effective with plant cells due to the plant cell wall. To overcome this
      obstacle, nano-complexes of the CPP Tat2 and various lengths of nucleic acid (21
      mer siRNA duplex (dsRNA) to ~5.5 kb circular plasmid) were evaluated for size
      using dynamic light scattering (DLS), under conditions of increasing ionic
      strength (Ic) and addition of phase transfer catalyst salts (tetrabutylammonium
      bromide-TBAB and tetrabutylphosphonium bromide-TBPB) and sugars (maltose-mannitol
      solution). It was found that the combination of 21-mer siRNA:Tat2 complexes with
      TBPB produced small 10-20 nm diameter nano-complexes with a polydispersity index
      (PDI) of ~0.1. Furthermore, it was found that for each length of nucleic acid
      that a linear mathematical relationship existed between the theoretical volume of
      the nano-complex and the nucleic acid length. Next, nano-complex formulation was
      tested for its ability to carry small interfering RNA molecules into plant cells
      and to trigger silencing of phytoene desaturase (PDS) in Triticale leaves. RT
      qPCR showed 75% suppression of PDS, demonstrating that TBPB acts as an adjuvant
      in effecting the entry and efficacy of siRNA in young Triticale plants.

PMID- 28560215
TI  - Temporal Triangular Alopecia in Children: The Same Clinical Feature for Two
      Distinct Entities.

PMID- 28560216
TI  - A Painful Periungual Red Spot in a Patient with Onychodystrophy.

PMID- 28560217
TI  - Dermoscopy in the Evaluation of Nail Disorders.
AB  - Nail dermoscopy was initially used only in the assessment of nail pigmentation,
      but now it is widely utilized for the evaluation of many nail disorders. In daily
      practice, dermoscopy may confirm clinical diagnoses and guides in the management
      of nail diseases and treatments, permitting a better visualization of symptoms.
      Dry dermoscopy is required for evaluation of the nail plate surface, while gel as
      an interface is necessary for assessment of nail pigmentation and onycholysis, as
      well as for the evaluation of the distal nail margin. In this review, we describe
      the dermoscopic features of the most important nail disorders, looking at the
      different areas of the nail. Dermatoscopic changes that usually accompany
      specific nail diseases are also reviewed.

PMID- 28560218
TI  - Dermoscopic Analysis of Nevus Sebaceus of Jadassohn: A Study of 13 Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nevus sebaceus of Jadassohn (NSJ) is a complex cutaneous hamartoma
      with various clinical appearances. AIM: To describe different dermoscopic
      patterns of this nevus according to its evolutionary stages. METHODS: This was an
      analytical study of NSJ carried out in the Department of Dermatology at the
      University Hospital Hassan II, Fez, Morocco. RESULTS: Thirteen patients with a
      NSJ were enrolled in the study. Elevated verrucous plaques were noticed in 9
      patients, homogeneous tumors were described in 2 NSJ, an alopecic patch was found
      in 1 case, and we had 1 case of malignant transformation into basal cell
      carcinoma. The dermoscopic aspects of NSJ described in our study were yellowish
      or brown globules aggregated in clusters on a yellow background. This pattern was
      significantly related to the first stage of an alopecic patch (p = 0.001).
      Whitish-yellow lobular aspect and grayish papillary appearance were significantly
      related to verrucous plaques (p = 0.003). Homogeneous yellow-whitish pattern was
      related to nodules (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: The establishment of specific
      dermoscopic features of NSJ according to its evolutionary stages is important for
      its diagnosis and especially its monitoring in order to detect malignant
      transformation.

PMID- 28560219
TI  - Atypical Localization of Necrobiosis Lipoidica: Involvement of the Face and
      Scalp.

PMID- 28560221
TI  - Successful Treatment of Facial Papules in Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia with Oral
      Isotretinoin.

PMID- 28560222
TI  - A Birth Cohort Analysis to Study Dog Walking in Adolescence Shows No Relationship
      with Objectively Measured Physical Activity.
AB  - Physical inactivity during childhood and adolescence is a serious health concern.
      There are few studies of the activity undertaken by adolescents when walking with
      the family dog, and the effect of this on objectively measured physical activity
      levels. Objective measures of physical activity using accelerometers were
      recorded at age 11-12, 13-14, and 15-16 years in the Avon Longitudinal Study of
      Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (ALSPAC, UK) birth cohort during the 2000s. Family
      pet ownership was collected retrospectively using a questionnaire at age 18
      years, for the ages 7, 11, 13, and 15 years. In addition, approximate frequency
      per week of walks undertaken with dogs were also reported. Multilevel,
      multivariable modeling was used to investigate the relationship between dog
      ownership and dog walking status, and physical activity outcomes. There were a
      total of 4,373 complete data observations for use in 2,055 children. Reported
      participation in dog walking tended to increase during adolescence, as did dog
      ownership. The majority of who own dogs reported walking them either 2-6
      times/week (range 39-46%) or never (range 27-37%). A small minority (7-8%)
      reported walking their dog every day. Most reported never walking any other dog
      either (94-87%). We found no evidence for an association between dog ownership or
      reported dog walking, and objectively measured physical activity (counts per
      minute, P = 0.3, or minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, P = 0.7)
      during adolescence. This study provides no evidence to support a relationship
      between adolescent dog ownership and physical activity, and demonstrates the
      importance of using objective activity measures and considering dog walking
      rather than just dog ownership.

PMID- 28560224
TI  - Volume and Quality in Visceral Medicine.

PMID- 28560220
TI  - Medical and Surgical Treatment of Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Review.
AB  - Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease presenting
      with painful nodules, abscesses, sinus tracts, and scarring primarily affecting
      apocrine gland-rich intertriginous areas. HS prevalence ranges from 0.05 to 1%.
      The central pathogenic event in HS is believed to be the occlusion of the upper
      part of the folliculopilosebaceous unit, leading to the rupture of the
      sebofollicular canal with the consequent development of perifollicular
      lymphohistiocytic inflammation. The HS treatment choices are influenced by
      disease severity and its individual subjective impact, involving both medical and
      surgical interventions. However, given the chronic nature of HS, its destructive
      impact on social, working, and daily life of patients, its management is often
      frustrating for both the patient and physician. Hence, prompt and effective
      management strategies are urgently needed and a multidisciplinary approach is
      advocated. Therefore, in this article, we highlighted the main features of HS
      (clinical aspects, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic criteria,
      classifications, comorbidities, and treatments), so that awareness of this
      disease might be heightened in primary care physicians and surgeons, who may be
      the first health care providers to see patients with this disease owing to its
      characteristic clinical presentation (inflammatory nodules, abscesses, sinus
      tract, etc.).

PMID- 28560223
TI  - Epidemiological and Economic Evaluation of Alternative On-Farm Management
      Scenarios for Ovine Footrot in Switzerland.
AB  - Footrot is a multifactorial infectious disease mostly affecting sheep, caused by
      the bacteria Dichelobacter nodosus. It causes painful feet lesions resulting in
      animal welfare issues, weight loss, and reduced wool production, which leads to a
      considerable economic burden in animal production. In Switzerland, the disease is
      endemic and mandatory coordinated control programs exist only in some parts of
      the country. This study aimed to compare two nationwide control strategies and a
      no intervention scenario with the current situation, and to quantify their net
      economic effect. This was done by sequential application of a maximum entropy
      model (MEM), epidemiological simulation, and calculation of net economic effect
      using the net present value method. Building upon data from a questionnaire, the
      MEM revealed a nationwide footrot prevalence of 40.2%. Regional prevalence values
      were used as inputs for the epidemiological model. Under the application of the
      nationwide coordinated control program without (scenario B) and with (scenario C)
      improved diagnostics [polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test], the Swiss-wide
      prevalence decreased within 10 years to 14 and 5%, respectively. Contrary, an
      increase to 48% prevalence was observed when terminating the current control
      strategies (scenario D). Management costs included labor and material costs.
      Management benefits included reduction of fattening time and improved animal
      welfare, which is valued by Swiss consumers and therefore reduces societal costs.
      The net economic effect of the alternative scenarios B and C was positive, the
      one of scenario D was negative and over a period of 17 years quantified at CHF
      422.3, 538.3, and -172.3 million (1 CHF = 1.040 US$), respectively. This implies
      that a systematic Swiss-wide management program under the application of the PCR
      diagnostic test is the most recommendable strategy for a cost-effective control
      of footrot in Switzerland.

PMID- 28560225
TI  - Minimum Volume Standards in Surgery - Are We There Yet?
AB  - The quality of surgery is directly dependent on the quantity, more specifically,
      on the number of operations performed at a given hospital as well as on the
      designated surgeon. This fact is supported by numerous studies and meta-analyses
      that will be presented in the following text. Most of the convincing data for
      complex procedures can be obtained from visceral (upper and lower
      gastrointestinal) surgery studies. Mortality of large oncological procedures,
      such as esophageal or pancreatic surgery, can be reduced by 50% if a certain
      number of interventions are guaranteed per year. Centralizing these operations
      performed by specialized surgeons is the key to success. This also ensures that
      the minimum volume amounts within a given hospital are well above the required
      levels, thus enabling to teach the necessary expertise step by step. The
      obligatory 'learning curve' for complex interventions cannot be completed within
      the framework of reference figures during residency training. Together, surgeons
      and their respective societies have introduced a proposal for efficient case
      oriented centralized surgery. Whether 'we are there yet' in surgery will depend
      in the end on how these efforts will be incorporated into administrative
      requirements and the guidelines that will then be implemented across the board.

PMID- 28560226
TI  - Dimensions of Quality and Their Increasing Relevance for Visceral Medicine in
      Germany.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 'Quality in medicine' is a term used in a broad sense. In this work
      the definition and dimensions of quality in medicine and the implementation of a
      measurement and reporting system in Germany are discussed. Existing applications
      are described and possible future effects are pointed out. METHODS: The ongoing
      process of implementing a quality reporting system into the German healthcare
      system is studied by publicly available legal texts, published reactions of
      stakeholders and publications of G-BA and IQTIG. Definitions of quality,
      dimensions of quality and quality measurement in medicine are studied by using
      textbooks as well as the world wide web and PubMed search. RESULTS: Donabedian's
      'dimensions of quality' are fundamental in dealing with quality in medicine.
      Existing measurement and reporting systems have immanent strengths and
      weaknesses, as the definition of quality is affected by one's point of view. The
      legislator will have to decide which 'dimension of quality' is mandatory and how
      to measure it. CONCLUSION: Quality has become a control instrument with
      unforeseeable consequences. A clear definition of the used quality concept is as
      essential as the use of feasible measurement and reporting systems. The use of
      routine data could be an interesting option.

PMID- 28560227
TI  - Quality Indicators in Pancreatic Surgery: Lessons Learned from the German DGAV
      StuDoQ|Pancreas Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Political and public interest in quality management in surgery is
      increasing. The German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV)
      established the DGAV StuDoQ, a nationwide registry for quality assessment in
      visceral surgery, with the organ-specific module DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas. The first
      prerequisite for the measurement of quality is the definition of quality
      indicators. These can be related to risk factors which are also documented in the
      registry. METHODS: Quality indicators for pancreatic surgery were developed by
      review of the current literature and expert consensus. After ranking the
      potential quality indicators, three essential indicators for outcome quality were
      selected for further review of the literature. Current figures were extracted
      from the DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas registry and the correlation with selected risk
      factors was tested. RESULTS: Three essential outcome quality indicators were
      selected: in-hospital mortality, TV30, and severe complications according to the
      Clavien-Dindo Classification. Preliminary data confirms the validity of risk
      factors included in the DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas registry. CONCLUSION: Essential
      quality indicators were defined for pancreatic surgery. The DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas
      constitutes a valid platform for risk-adjusted quality assessment in Germany.

PMID- 28560228
TI  - Influence of Hospital Volume Effects and Minimum Caseload Requirements on Quality
      of Care in Pancreatic Surgery in Germany.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Numerous international studies have identified hospital volume as
      significant independent variable of death following pancreatic surgery. Most of
      these studies were limited to regions of countries or portions of a national
      population and did not include data on volume-outcome effects in Germany.
      METHODS: The Medline database was systematically searched to identify studies
      that analyzed volume-outcome relationships and effects of minimum caseload
      requirements on outcomes of pancreatic surgery in Germany. RESULTS: Recent
      observational studies utilizing German hospital discharge data confirmed that
      patients undergoing pancreatic surgery in Germany also have better outcomes when
      treated in facilities with high annual caseloads. Besides a decreased risk of in
      hospital mortality, there is also a reduced risk of 1-year mortality in high
      volume hospitals. In addition, there is evidence that adherence to already
      existing minimum caseload requirements reduces morbidity and mortality of
      pancreatic surgery in Germany. As a result of an insufficient centralization in
      the recent past, however, a large proportion of hospitals that perform pancreatic
      surgery still do not meet minimum caseload requirements. CONCLUSIONS: Specific
      measures (i.e. sanctions for failure to achieve minimum volumes) that initiate a
      sufficient centralization process without threatening patient access to surgical
      care are needed.

PMID- 28560229
TI  - Is There a Rationale for Structural Quality Assurance in Esophageal Surgery?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advances regarding perioperative mortality rates and oncological
      outcomes after esophagectomy have been reported extensively by specialized high
      volume centers in Europe and the USA over the last decade. However, recent
      database analyses reveal that the perioperative mortality of esophagectomy
      remains high in these countries, indicating a discrepancy between surgical
      quality in baseline hospitals and specialized centers. METHODS: This article
      provides an overview over the existing literature on the correlation between
      structural quality, procedural volume, and surgical outcome in e- sophageal
      surgery. RESULTS: Structural, procedural and outcome measures can be used to
      assess the quality of surgical treatment and perioperative management. Surgical
      procedures on the esophagus for both benign and malignant diseases are rare and
      typically associated with high perioperative morbidity and mortality. Usually,
      direct outcome measures do not provide enough statistical power to actually
      identify differences in surgical quality between hospitals, making structural
      quality measures the only feasible parameter to compare the quality of e-
      sophageal surgery among different centers. Several analyses from different
      countries have shown a strong correlation between hospital volume and
      postoperative mortality. Data from countries in which esophageal surgery has been
      centralized indicate beneficial effects of a centralized health care system on
      postoperative mortality after esophagectomy. Additionally, only high-volume
      centers generally provide optimal preoperative and postoperative management and
      comprehensive access to modern multimodal treatment. In Germany, esophageal
      surgery is still decentralized, but hospitals performing complex esophageal
      procedures have to fulfill minimum caseload requirements of 10 cases per year. In
      practice, these requirements are not met by the majority of hospitals and a
      detrimental effect on the achieved surgical outcomes can be noted. CONCLUSION:
      Therefore, we conclude that structural quality assurance is crucial to further
      reduce postoperative morbidity after esophageal surgery and to improve long-term
      results.

PMID- 28560230
TI  - Minimum Volume Discussion in the Treatment of Colon and Rectal Cancer: A Review
      of the Current Status and Relevance of Surgeon and Hospital Volume regarding
      Result Quality and the Impact on Health Economics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To answer the question whether minimum caseloads need to be
      stipulated in the German S3 (or any other) guidelines for colorectal cancer, we
      analyzed the current representative literature. The question is important
      regarding medical quality as well as health economics and policy. METHODS: A
      literature research was conducted in PubMed for papers concerning 'colon cancer'
      (CC), 'rectal cancer' (RC), and 'colorectal cancer' (CRC), with 'results',
      'quality', and 'mortality' between the years 2000 and 2016 being relevant
      factors. We graded the recommendations as 'pro', 'maybe', or 'contra' in terms of
      a significant correlation between hospital volume (HV) or surgeon volume (SV) and
      treatment quality. We also listed the recommended numbers suggested for HV or SV
      as minimum caseloads and calculated and discussed the socio-economic impact of
      setting minimum caseloads for CRC. RESULTS: The correlations of caseloads of
      hospitals or surgeons turned out to be highly controversial concerning the
      influence of HV or SV on short- and long-term surgical treatment quality of CRC.
      Specialized statisticians made the point that the reports in the literature might
      not use the optimal biometrical analytical/reporting methods. A Dutch analysis
      showed that if a decision towards minimum caseloads, e.g. >50 for CRC resections,
      would be made, this would exclude a lot of hospitals with proven good treatment
      quality and include hospitals with a treatment quality below average. Our
      economic analysis envisioned that a yearly loss of EUR <830,000 might ensue for
      hospitals with volumes <50 per year. CONCLUSIONS: Caseload (HV, SV) definitely is
      an inconsistent surrogate parameter for treatment quality in the surgery of CC,
      RC, or CRC. If used at all, the lowest tolerable numbers but the highest demands
      for structural, process and result quality in the surgical/interdisciplinary
      treatment of CC and RC must be imposed and independently controlled. Hospitals
      fulfilling these demands should be medically and socio-economically preferred
      concerning the treatment of CC and RC patients.

PMID- 28560231
TI  - Arguments for and against Centralization in Oncologic Visceral Medicine.

PMID- 28560232
TI  - The Microbiome in Visceral Medicine: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Obesity and
      Beyond.
AB  - It has become increasingly evident over the past two decades that the microbiota
      plays a nurturing role in the development of the immune system. This appears to
      be important since the amplitude of immune responses has a crucial regulatory
      function in homeostasis and the prevention of unwanted inflammation. Hence, a
      malfunctioning gut flora has been shown to play a key role in visceral medicine.
      Strong evidence demonstrates for example that intestinal inflammation can develop
      as a result of a dysregulated microbiota, deficient antimicrobial responses, and
      aberrant bacterial translocation into the bowel wall. In healthy individuals, the
      bacterial translocation is blocked by a single layer of highly specialized
      intestinal epithelial cells which forms a strong barrier that lines the gut wall.
      This structure is responsible for an efficient absorption of nutrients while
      keeping the luminal flora at bay. In susceptible individuals, for yet
      incompletely understood reasons, either defective epithelial barrier function or
      dysregulated microbial composition or microbial pathogens drive intestinal
      inflammation. Many therapeutic strategies focusing on the modulation of the
      microbiota have been proposed recently but future research including prospective
      human studies and gnotobiotic mouse models are still needed to evaluate the
      contribution and potential therapeutic value of individual bacteria to human
      health.

PMID- 28560234
TI  - Robotic single-site supracervical hysterectomy with manual morcellation:
      Preliminary experience.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the feasibility, safety and peri- and postoperative outcomes of
      robotic single-site supracervical hysterectomy (RSSSH) for benign gynecologic
      disease. METHODS: We report 3 patients who received RSSSH for adenomyosis of the
      uterus from November 2015 to April 2016. We evaluated the feasibility, safety and
      outcomes among these patients. RESULTS: The mean surgical time was 244 min and
      the estimated blood loss was 216 mL, with no blood transfusion necessitated. The
      docking time was shortened gradually from 30 to 10 min. We spent 148 min on
      console operation. Manual morcellation time was also short, ranging from 5 to 10
      min. The mean hospital stay was 5 d. Lower VAS pain score was also noted. There
      is no complication during or after surgery. CONCLUSION: RSSSH is feasible and
      safe, incurs less postoperative pain and gives good cosmetic appearance. The
      technique of in-bag, manual morcellation can avoid tumor dissemination.

PMID- 28560235
TI  - Ticagrelor therapy and atrioventricular block: Do we need to worry?
AB  - Ticagrelor is a potent, direct P2Y12 antagonist with rapid onset of action and
      intense platelet inhibition, indicated in patients with acute coronary syndromes
      (ACS). This drug is usually well tolerated, but some patients experience serious
      adverse effects: Major bleeding; gastrointestinal disturbances; dyspnoea;
      ventricular pauses > 3 s. Given the unexpected high incidence of
      bradyarrhythmias, a PLATO substudy monitored this side effect, showing that
      ticagrelor was associated with an increase in the rate of sinus bradycardia and
      sinus arrest compared to clopidogrel. This side effect was usually transient,
      asymptomatic and not associated with higher incidence of severe atrioventricular
      (AV) block or pacemaker needs. A panel of experts from Food and Drug
      Administration did not consider bradyarrhythmias a serious problem in clinical
      practice and, accordingly, current labeling of the drug does not give any
      precaution or contraindication regarding this issue. However, recently some
      articles have described ACS patients with high-degree, life-threatening, AV block
      requiring drug discontinuation and, in some cases, pacemaker implantation. In
      this paper, we describe and discuss five published case reports of severe AV
      block following ticagrelor therapy and two other cases managed in our Hospital.
      The analysis of literature suggests that, although rarely, ticagrelor can be
      associated with life-threatening AV block. Caution and careful monitoring are
      required especially in patients with already compromised conduction system and/or
      treated with AV blocking agents. Future studies, with long-term rhythm
      monitoring, would help to define the outcome of patients at higher risk of
      developing this complication.

PMID- 28560233
TI  - Evolution, current status and advances in application of platelet concentrate in
      periodontics and implantology.
AB  - Platelet concentrates (PC) [platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and platelet-rich fibrin
      (PRF)] are frequently used for surgical procedures in medical and dental fields,
      particularly in oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery and sports
      medicine. The objective of all these technologies is to extract all the elements
      from a blood sample that could be used to improve healing and promote tissue
      regeneration. Although leukocyte rich and leukocyte poor PRP's have their own
      place in literature, the importance of non-platelet components in a platelet
      concentrate remains a mystery. PC have come a long way since its first appearance
      in 1954 to the T-PRF, A-PRF and i-PRF introduced recently. These PC find varied
      applications successfully in periodontics and implant dentistry as well. However,
      the technique of preparation, standing time, transfer process, temperature of
      centrifuge, vibration, etc., are the various factors for the mixed results
      reported in the literature. Until the introduction of a proper classification of
      terminologies, the PC were known by different names in different countries and by
      different commercial companies which also created a lot of confusion. This review
      intends to clarify all these confusion by briefing the exact evolution of PC,
      their preparation techniques, recent advances and their various clinical and
      technical aspects and applications.

PMID- 28560236
TI  - Unusual presentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with rectal metastasis.
AB  - Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a rare tumour that mainly metastasizes in lymph
      nodes, bones, lungs and liver. Colorectal metastases of NPC are extremely rare
      phenomenon and associated with a poor prognosis. We reported here a case of NPC
      with rectal metastasis, we discussed the treatment modalities and the prognosis
      after reviewing the similar cases described in the literature.

PMID- 28560237
TI  - Elizabethkingia miricola: A rare non-fermenter causing urinary tract infection.
AB  - Elizabethkingia miricola (E. miricola) is a gram-negative non-fermentative
      bacterium which is rarely encountered. It is usually misidentified or considered
      as a contaminant in routine microbiology laboratories due to the limitations in
      conventional biochemical techniques. However, with the advent of the matrix
      assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF
      MS), the identification of non-fermenters has become easy and this has led to
      enhanced understanding of the clinical significance of these uncommonly isolated
      microorganisms. The genus Elizabethkingia has only two species E. meningoseptica
      and E. miricola. Both of these organisms are known to be multi-drug resistant and
      therefore, their accurate identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing
      are necessary prior to the initiation of appropriate therapy. In the world
      literature till date, only 3 cases of sepsis caused by E. miricola have been
      reported. We present the first case of E. miricola association with urinary tract
      infection.

PMID- 28560238
TI  - High PD-1 expression on regulatory and effector T-cells in lung cancer draining
      lymph nodes.
AB  - The treatment of advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with PD-1/PD-L1
      immune checkpoint inhibitors has improved clinical outcome for a proportion of
      patients. The current challenge is to find better biomarkers than PD-L1
      immunohistochemistry (IHC) that will identify patients likely to benefit from
      this therapy. In this exploratory study we assessed the differences in T-cell
      subsets and PD-1 expression levels on T-cells in tumour-draining lymph nodes
      (TDLNs) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). To evaluate this, flow
      cytometric analyses were performed on endobronchial ultrasound-guided (EBUS) fine
      needle aspirates (FNA) from TDLNs of patients with NSCLC, and the results were
      compared to paired PBMC samples. For a select number of patients, we were also
      able to obtain cells from a non-TDLN (NTDLN) sample. Our data show that the
      frequency of PD-1+ CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, as well as the PD-1 expression level on
      activated regulatory T (aTreg) and CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, are higher in TDLNs
      than in PBMCs and, in a small sub-analysis, NTDLNs. These elevated PD-1
      expression levels in TDLNs may reflect tumour-specific T-cell priming and
      conditioning, and may serve as a predictive or early-response biomarker during PD
      1 checkpoint blockade.

PMID- 28560239
TI  - Image reconstruction of oxidized cerebral cytochrome C oxidase changes from
      broadband near-infrared spectroscopy data.
AB  - In diffuse optical tomography (DOT), overlapping and multidistance measurements
      are required to reconstruct depth-resolved images of oxy- ([Formula: see text])
      and deoxy- (HHb) hemoglobin concentration changes occurring in the brain. These
      can be considered an indirect measure of brain activity, under the assumption of
      intact neurovascular coupling. Broadband systems also allow changes in the redox
      state of cytochrome c oxidase (oxCCO) to be measured, which can be an important
      biomarker when neurovascular coupling is impaired. We used DOT to reconstruct
      images of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] from
      data acquired with a broadband system. Four healthy volunteers were measured
      while performing a visual stimulation task (4-Hz inverting checkerboard). The
      broadband system was configured to allow multidistance and overlapping
      measurements of the participants' visual cortex with 32 channels. A multispectral
      approach was employed to reconstruct changes in concentration of the three
      chromophores during the visual stimulation. A clear and focused activation was
      reconstructed in the left occipital cortex of all participants. The difference
      between the residuals of the three-chromophore model and of the two-chromophore
      model (recovering only [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) exhibits a
      spectrum similar to that of oxCCO. These results form a basis for further studies
      aimed to further optimize image reconstruction of [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28560240
TI  - Mesoscale brain explorer, a flexible python-based image analysis and
      visualization tool.
AB  - Imaging of mesoscale brain activity is used to map interactions between brain
      regions. This work has benefited from the pioneering studies of Grinvald et al.,
      who employed optical methods to image brain function by exploiting the properties
      of intrinsic optical signals and small molecule voltage-sensitive dyes. Mesoscale
      interareal brain imaging techniques have been advanced by cell targeted and
      selective recombinant indicators of neuronal activity. Spontaneous resting state
      activity is often collected during mesoscale imaging to provide the basis for
      mapping of connectivity relationships using correlation. However, the information
      content of mesoscale datasets is vast and is only superficially presented in
      manuscripts given the need to constrain measurements to a fixed set of
      frequencies, regions of interest, and other parameters. We describe a new open
      source tool written in python, termed mesoscale brain explorer (MBE), which
      provides an interface to process and explore these large datasets. The platform
      supports automated image processing pipelines with the ability to assess multiple
      trials and combine data from different animals. The tool provides functions for
      temporal filtering, averaging, and visualization of functional connectivity
      relations using time-dependent correlation. Here, we describe the tool and show
      applications, where previously published datasets were reanalyzed using MBE.

PMID- 28560241
TI  - Single-view geometric calibration for C-arm inverse geometry CT.
AB  - Accurate and artifact-free reconstruction of tomographic images requires precise
      knowledge of the imaging system geometry. A projection matrix-based calibration
      method to enable C-arm inverse geometry CT (IGCT) is proposed. The method is
      evaluated for scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX), a C-arm mounted inverse
      geometry fluoroscopic technology. A helical configuration of fiducials is imaged
      at each gantry angle in a rotational acquisition. For each gantry angle, digital
      tomosynthesis is performed at multiple planes and a composite image analogous to
      a cone-beam projection is generated from the plane stack. The geometry of the C
      arm, source array, and detector array is determined at each angle by constructing
      a parameterized three-dimensional-to-two-dimensional projection matrix that
      minimizes the sum-of-squared deviations between measured and projected fiducial
      coordinates. Simulations were used to evaluate calibration performance with
      translations and rotations of the source and detector. The relative root-mean
      square error in a reconstruction of a numerical thorax phantom was 0.4% using the
      calibration method versus 7.7% without calibration. In phantom studies,
      reconstruction of SBDX projections using the proposed method eliminated artifacts
      present in noncalibrated reconstructions. The proposed IGCT calibration method
      reduces image artifacts when uncertainties exist in system geometry.

PMID- 28560242
TI  - Segmented targeted least squares estimator for material decomposition in multibin
      photon-counting detectors.
AB  - We present a fast, noise-efficient, and accurate estimator for material
      separation using photon-counting x-ray detectors (PCXDs) with multiple energy bin
      capability. The proposed targeted least squares estimator (TLSE) is an
      improvement of a previously described A-table method by incorporating dynamic
      weighting that allows the variance to be closer to the Cramer-Rao lower bound
      (CRLB) throughout the operating range. We explore Cartesian and average-energy
      segmentation of the basis material space for TLSE and show that, compared with
      Cartesian segmentation, the average-energy method requires fewer segments to
      achieve similar performance. We compare the average-energy TLSE to other proposed
      estimators-including the gold standard maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and the
      A-table-in terms of variance, bias, and computational efficiency. The variance
      and bias were simulated in the range of 0 to 6 cm of aluminum and 0 to 50 cm of
      water with Monte Carlo methods. The Average-energy TLSE achieves an average
      variance within 2% of the CRLB and mean absolute error of [Formula: see text].
      Using the same protocol, the MLE showed variance within 1.9% of the CRLB ratio
      and average absolute error of [Formula: see text] but was 50 times slower in our
      implementations. Compared with the A-table method, TLSE gives a more homogenously
      optimal variance-to-CRLB ratio in the operating region. We show that variance in
      basis material estimates for TLSE is lower than that of the A-table method by as
      much as [Formula: see text] in the peripheral region of operating range (thin or
      thick objects). The TLSE is a computationally efficient and fast method for
      material separation with PCXDs, with accuracy and precision comparable to the
      MLE.

PMID- 28560243
TI  - Semiautomated biventricular segmentation in three-dimensional echocardiography by
      coupled deformable surfaces.
AB  - With the advancement of three-dimensional (3-D) real-time echocardiography in
      recent years, automatic creation of patient specific geometric models is becoming
      feasible and important in clinical decision making. However, the vast majority of
      echocardiographic segmentation methods presented in the literature focus on the
      left ventricle (LV) endocardial border, leaving segmentation of the right
      ventricle (RV) a largely unexplored problem, despite the increasing recognition
      of the RV's role in cardiovascular disease. We present a method for coupled
      segmentation of the endo- and epicardial borders of both the LV and RV in 3-D
      ultrasound images. To solve the segmentation problem, we propose an extension of
      a successful state-estimation segmentation framework with a geometrical
      representation of coupled surfaces, as well as the introduction of myocardial
      incompressibility to regularize the segmentation. The method was validated
      against manual measurements and segmentations in images of 16 patients. Mean
      absolute distances of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see
      text] between the proposed and reference segmentations were observed for the LV
      endocardium, RV endocardium, and LV epicardium surfaces, respectively. The method
      was computationally efficient, with a computation time of [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28560244
TI  - Toward real-time quantification of fluorescence molecular probes using
      target/background ratio for guiding biopsy and endoscopic therapy of esophageal
      neoplasia.
AB  - Multimodal endoscopy using fluorescence molecular probes is a promising method of
      surveying the entire esophagus to detect cancer progression. Using the
      fluorescence ratio of a target compared to a surrounding background, a
      quantitative value is diagnostic for progression from Barrett's esophagus to high
      grade dysplasia (HGD) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). However, current
      quantification of fluorescent images is done only after the endoscopic procedure.
      We developed a Chan-Vese-based algorithm to segment fluorescence targets, and
      subsequent morphological operations to generate background, thus calculating
      target/background (T/B) ratios, potentially to provide real-time guidance for
      biopsy and endoscopic therapy. With an initial processing speed of 2 fps and by
      calculating the T/B ratio for each frame, our method provides quasireal-time
      quantification of the molecular probe labeling to the endoscopist. Furthermore,
      an automatic computer-aided diagnosis algorithm can be applied to the recorded
      endoscopic video, and the overall T/B ratio is calculated for each patient. The
      receiver operating characteristic curve was employed to determine the threshold
      for classification of HGD/EAC using leave-one-out cross-validation. With 92%
      sensitivity and 75% specificity to classify HGD/EAC, our automatic algorithm
      shows promising results for a surveillance procedure to help manage esophageal
      cancer and other cancers inspected by endoscopy.

PMID- 28560245
TI  - Assistive lesion-emphasis system: an assistive system for fundus image readers.
AB  - Computer-assisted diagnostic (CAD) tools are of interest as they enable efficient
      decision-making in clinics and the screening of diseases. The traditional
      approach to CAD algorithm design focuses on the automated detection of
      abnormalities independent of the end-user, who can be an image reader or an
      expert. We propose a reader-centric system design wherein a reader's attention is
      drawn to abnormal regions in a least-obtrusive yet effective manner, using
      saliency-based emphasis of abnormalities and without altering the appearance of
      the background tissues. We present an assistive lesion-emphasis system (ALES)
      based on the above idea, for fundus image-based diabetic retinopathy diagnosis.
      Lesion-saliency is learnt using a convolutional neural network (CNN), inspired by
      the saliency model of Itti and Koch. The CNN is used to fine-tune standard low
      level filters and learn high-level filters for deriving a lesion-saliency map,
      which is then used to perform lesion-emphasis via a spatially variant version of
      gamma correction. The proposed system has been evaluated on public datasets and
      benchmarked against other saliency models. It was found to outperform other
      saliency models by 6% to 30% and boost the contrast-to-noise ratio of lesions by
      more than 30%. Results of a perceptual study also underscore the effectiveness
      and, hence, the potential of ALES as an assistive tool for readers.

PMID- 28560246
TI  - Psychosis research in Asia: advantage from low prevalence of cannabis use.

PMID- 28560247
TI  - Enabling point-of-care testing and personalized medicine for schizophrenia.

PMID- 28560248
TI  - Personalized medicine for schizophrenia.

PMID- 28560249
TI  - Altered sulcogyral patterns of orbitofrontal cortex in a large cohort of patients
      with schizophrenia.
AB  - Abnormalities in prenatal brain development contribute to schizophrenia
      vulnerability. Orbitofrontal cortex sulcogyral patterns are largely determined
      during prenatal development, and four types of orbitofrontal cortex sulcogyral
      patterns have been classified in humans. Altered orbitofrontal cortex patterns
      have been reported in individuals with schizophrenia using magnetic resonance
      imaging; however, sample sizes of previous studies were small-medium effects for
      detection, and gender manifestation for orbitofrontal cortex sulcogyral patterns
      is unclear. The present study investigated orbitofrontal cortex patterns of 155
      patients with schizophrenia and 375 healthy subjects. The orbitofrontal cortex
      sulcogyral pattern distributions of schizophrenia were significantly different
      compared with healthy subjects in the left hemisphere (chi2 = 14.55, p = 0.002).
      In female schizophrenia, post-hoc analyses revealed significantly decreased Type
      I expression (chi2 = 6.76, p = 0.009) and increased Type II expression (chi2 =
      11.56, p = 0.001) in the left hemisphere. The present study suggested that female
      schizophrenia showed altered orbitofrontal cortex patterns in the left
      hemisphere, which may be related to neurodevelopmental abnormality.

PMID- 28560250
TI  - On discontinuing treatment in schizophrenia: a clinical conundrum.

PMID- 28560251
TI  - Effects of childhood and adolescence physical activity patterns on psychosis risk
      a general population cohort study.
AB  - Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are associated with high morbidity and mortality
      in somatic diseases. The risk factors of this excess mortality include, e.g.,
      obesity, dietary factors, and physical inactivity, especially after the onset of
      psychosis, but there are limited early developmental data on these factors in
      individuals who later develop psychosis. A population-based cohort study
      "Cardiovascular Risk of Young Finns" started in 1980 with 3596 children and
      adolescents from six different age groups (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 years).
      Cardiovascular health parameters, including questionnaire of physical activity
      before first hospitalization (<=18 years), were studied in 1980, 1983, and 1986.
      All psychiatric diagnoses of the participants were derived from the Finnish
      Hospital Discharge Register up to the year 2012. We identified diagnostic groups
      of non-affective psychosis (n = 68, including a schizophrenia subgroup, n = 41),
      personality disorders (n = 43), affective disorders (n = 111), and substance
      related disorders (n = 49), based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
      Disorders, Fourth Ed ition (DSM-IV). Groups were compared with controls with no
      psychiatric diagnoses (n = 3325). Sex, age, body mass index, birth weight, non
      preterm birth, and mother's mental disorders were included in the statistical
      model. Low physical activity in childhood and adolescence (9-18 years)
      independently predicted later development of non-affective psychosis. Lower
      physical activity index (relative risk 1.26 [1.1-1.5]), lower level of common
      activity during leisure time (relative risk 1.71 [1.2-2.5]), and non
      participation in sports competitions (relative risk 2.58 [1.3-5.3]) were
      associated with a higher risk for later non-affective psychosis (expressed as
      increase in relative risk per physical activity unit). The findings were even
      stronger for schizophrenia, but no such link was observed for other diagnoses.
      The cause of low physical activity in premorbid/prodromal phase is likely to be
      multifactorial, including deviant motor and cognitive development. The results
      provide a rationale for including exercise and physical activity interventions as
      a part of psychosis prevention programs.

PMID- 28560252
TI  - DNA methylation in schizophrenia in different patient-derived cell types.
AB  - DNA methylation of gene promoter regions represses transcription and is a
      mechanism via which environmental risk factors could affect cells during
      development in individuals at risk for schizophrenia. We investigated DNA
      methylation in patient-derived cells that might shed light on early development
      in schizophrenia. Induced pluripotent stem cells may reflect a "ground state"
      upon which developmental and environmental influences would be minimal. Olfactory
      neurosphere-derived cells are an adult-derived neuro-ectodermal stem cell
      modified by developmental and environmental influences. Fibroblasts provide a non
      neural control for life-long developmental and environmental influences. Genome
      wide profiling of DNA methylation and gene expression was done in these three
      cell types from the same individuals. All cell types had distinct, statistically
      significant schizophrenia-associated differences in DNA methylation and linked
      gene expression, with Gene Ontology analysis showing that the differentially
      affected genes clustered in networks associated with cell growth, proliferation,
      and movement, functions known to be affected in schizophrenia patient-derived
      cells. Only five gene loci were differentially methylated in all three cell
      types. Understanding the role of epigenetics in cell function in the brain in
      schizophrenia is likely to be complicated by similar cell type differences in
      intrinsic and environmentally induced epigenetic regulation.

PMID- 28560255
TI  - What if it was easier to prevent schizophrenia than to treat it?

PMID- 28560256
TI  - Schizophrenia genetics comes to translation.

PMID- 28560253
TI  - Spatial and temporal boundaries of NMDA receptor hypofunction leading to
      schizophrenia.
AB  - The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor hypofunction is one of the most prevalent
      models of schizophrenia. For example, healthy subjects treated with uncompetitive
      N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonists elicit positive, negative, and
      cognitive-like symptoms of schizophrenia. Patients with anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate
      receptor encephalitis, which is likely caused by autoantibody-mediated down
      regulation of cell surface N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors, often experience
      psychiatric symptoms similar to schizophrenia initially. However, where and when
      N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor hypofunction occurs in the brain of schizophrenic
      patients is poorly understood. Here we review the findings from N-methyl-d
      aspartate receptor antagonist and autoantibody models, postmortem studies on N
      methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunits, as well as the global and cell-type
      specific knockout mouse models of subunit GluN1. We compare various conditional
      GluN1 knockout mouse strains, focusing on the onset of N-methyl-d-aspartate
      receptor deletion and on the cortical cell-types. Based on these results, we
      hypothesize that N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor hypofunction initially occurs in
      cortical GABAergic neurons during early postnatal development. The resulting GABA
      neuron maturation deficit may cause reduction of intrinsic excitability and GABA
      release, leading to disinhibition of pyramidal neurons. The cortical
      disinhibition in turn could elicit glutamate spillover and subsequent homeostatic
      down regulation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor function in pyramidal neurons in
      prodromal stage. These two temporally-distinct N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor
      hypofunctions may be complimentary, as neither alone may not be able to fully
      explain the entire schizophrenia pathophysiology. Potential underlying mechanisms
      for N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor hypofunction in cortical GABA neurons are also
      discussed, based on studies of naturally-occurring N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor
      antagonists, neuregulin/ErbB4 signaling pathway, and theoretical analysis of
      excitatory/inhibitory balance.

PMID- 28560254
TI  - Unravelling socio-motor biomarkers in schizophrenia.
AB  - We present novel, low-cost and non-invasive potential diagnostic biomarkers of
      schizophrenia. They are based on the 'mirror-game', a coordination task in which
      two partners are asked to mimic each other's hand movements. In particular, we
      use the patient's solo movement, recorded in the absence of a partner, and motion
      recorded during interaction with an artificial agent, a computer avatar or a
      humanoid robot. In order to discriminate between the patients and controls, we
      employ statistical learning techniques, which we apply to nonverbal synchrony and
      neuromotor features derived from the participants' movement data. The proposed
      classifier has 93% accuracy and 100% specificity. Our results provide evidence
      that statistical learning techniques, nonverbal movement coordination and
      neuromotor characteristics could form the foundation of decision support tools
      aiding clinicians in cases of diagnostic uncertainty.

PMID- 28560257
TI  - Generating testable hypotheses for schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis
      pathogenesis by integrating epidemiological, genomic, and protein interaction
      data.
AB  - Patients with schizophrenia and their relatives have reduced prevalence of
      rheumatoid arthritis. Schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis genome-wide
      association studies also indicate negative genetic correlations, suggesting that
      there may be shared pathogenesis at the DNA level or downstream. A portion of the
      inverse prevalence could be attributed to pleiotropy, i.e., variants of a single
      nucleotide polymorphism that could confer differential risk for these disorders.
      To study the basis for such an interrelationship, we initially compared lists of
      single nucleotide polymorphisms with significant genetic associations (p < 1e-8)
      for schizophrenia or rheumatoid arthritis, evaluating patterns of linkage
      disequilibrium and apparent pleiotropic risk profiles. Single nucleotide
      polymorphisms that conferred risk for both schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis
      were localized solely to the extended HLA region. Among single nucleotide
      polymorphisms that conferred differential risk for schizophrenia and rheumatoid
      arthritis, the majority were localized to HLA-B, TNXB, NOTCH4, HLA-C, HCP5, MICB,
      PSORS1C1, and C6orf10; published functional data indicate that HLA-B and HLA-C
      have the most plausible pathogenic roles in both disorders. Interactomes of these
      eight genes were constructed from protein-protein interaction information using
      publicly available databases and novel computational predictions. The genes
      harboring apparently pleiotropic single nucleotide polymorphisms are closely
      connected to rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia associated genes through
      common interacting partners. A separate and independent analysis of the
      interactomes of rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia genes showed a significant
      overlap between the two interactomes and that they share several common pathways,
      motivating functional studies suggesting a relationship in the pathogenesis of
      schizophrenia/rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28560259
TI  - DNA methylation evidence against the accelerated aging hypothesis of
      schizophrenia.
AB  - The accelerated aging hypothesis of schizophrenia posits that physiological
      changes throughout the body that are associated with normal aging occur at an
      earlier age in individuals with schizophrenia. Testing this hypothesis has been
      limited by problems measuring biological age. Recently, a method using DNA
      methylation levels at 353 genomic sites to produce "DNA methylation age", an
      estimate of tissue biological age, was described and validated. We used this
      method to test the hypothesis in the postmortem superior temporal gyrus of 22 non
      psychiatric control and 22 schizophrenia subjects. DNA methylation age correlated
      with chronological age in both non-psychiatric control (r = 0.95, p < 0.0001) and
      schizophrenia subjects (r = 0.96, p < 0.0001). Age acceleration did not differ
      between non-psychiatric control and schizophrenia subjects (t = 1.27, p = 0.21).
      Our findings suggest there is no acceleration of brain aging in schizophrenia.
      Larger studies using samples from multiple brain regions and homogenous cell
      populations will be necessary to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28560258
TI  - Vulnerability to omega-3 deprivation in a mouse model of NMDA receptor
      hypofunction.
AB  - Several studies have found decreased levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty
      acids in the brain and blood of schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, dietary
      omega-3 supplements may improve schizophrenia symptoms and delay the onset of
      first-episode psychosis. We used an animal model of NMDA receptor hypofunction,
      NR1KD mice, to understand whether changes in glutamate neurotransmission could
      lead to changes in brain and serum fatty acids. We further asked whether dietary
      manipulations of omega-3, either depletion or supplementation, would affect
      schizophrenia-relevant behaviors of NR1KD mice. We discovered that NR1KD mice
      have elevated brain levels of omega-6 fatty acids regardless of their diet. While
      omega-3 supplementation did not improve any of the NR1KD behavioral
      abnormalities, omega-3 depletion exacerbated their deficits in executive
      function. Omega-3 depletion also caused extreme mortality among male mutant mice,
      with 75% mortality rate by 12 weeks of age. Our studies show that alterations in
      NMDAR function alter serum and brain lipid composition and make the brain more
      vulnerable to dietary omega-3 deprivation.

PMID- 28560260
TI  - Science of recovery in schizophrenia research: brain and psychological substrates
      of personalized value.

PMID- 28560262
TI  - Decreased free d-aspartate levels are linked to enhanced d-aspartate oxidase
      activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of schizophrenia patients.
AB  - It is long acknowledged that the N-methyl d-aspartate receptor co-agonist, d
      serine, plays a crucial role in several N-methyl d-aspartate receptor-mediated
      physiological and pathological processes, including schizophrenia. Besides d
      serine, another free d-amino acid, d-aspartate, is involved in the activation of
      N-methyl d-aspartate receptors acting as an agonist of this receptor subclass,
      and is abundantly detected in the developing human brain. Based on the hypothesis
      of N-methyl d-aspartate receptor hypofunction in the pathophysiology of
      schizophrenia and considering the ability of d-aspartate and d-serine to
      stimulate N-methyl d-aspartate receptor-dependent transmission, in the present
      work we assessed the concentration of these two d-amino acids in the post-mortem
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of patients with schizophrenia and
      healthy subjects. Moreover, in this cohort of post-mortem brain samples we
      investigated the spatiotemporal variations of d-aspartate and d-serine.
      Consistent with previous work, we found that d-aspartate content was selectively
      decreased by around 30% in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, but not in the
      hippocampus, of schizophrenia-affected patients, compared to healthy subjects.
      Interestingly, such selective reduction was associated to greater (around 25%)
      cortical activity of the enzyme responsible for d-aspartate catabolism, d
      aspartate oxidase. Conversely, no significant changes were found in the
      methylation state and transcription of DDO gene in patients with schizophrenia,
      compared to control individuals, as well as in the expression levels of serine
      racemase, the major enzyme responsible for d-serine biosynthesis, which also
      catalyzes aspartate racemization. These results reveal the potential involvement
      of altered d-aspartate metabolism in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as a
      factor contributing to dysfunctional N-methyl d-aspartate receptor-mediated
      transmission in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28560261
TI  - Brain structure, function, and neurochemistry in schizophrenia and bipolar
      disorder-a systematic review of the magnetic resonance neuroimaging literature.
AB  - Since Emil Kraepelin's conceptualization of endogenous psychoses as dementia
      praecox and manic depression, the separation between primary psychotic disorders
      and primary affective disorders has been much debated. We conducted a systematic
      review of case-control studies contrasting magnetic resonance imaging studies in
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A literature search in PubMed of studies
      published between January 2005 and December 2016 was conducted, and 50
      structural, 29 functional, 7 magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and 8 combined
      imaging and genetic studies were deemed eligible for systematic review.
      Structural neuroimaging studies suggest white matter integrity deficits that are
      consistent across the illnesses, while gray matter reductions appear more
      widespread in schizophrenia compared to bipolar disorder. Spectroscopy studies in
      cortical gray matter report evidence of decreased neuronal integrity in both
      disorders. Functional neuroimaging studies typically report similar functional
      architecture of brain networks in healthy controls and patients across the
      psychosis spectrum, but find differential extent of alterations in task related
      activation and resting state connectivity between illnesses. The very limited
      imaging-genetic literature suggests a relationship between psychosis risk genes
      and brain structure, and possible gene by diagnosis interaction effects on
      functional imaging markers. While the existing literature suggests some shared
      and some distinct neural markers in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it will
      be imperative to conduct large, well designed, multi-modal neuroimaging studies
      in medication-naive first episode patients that will be followed longitudinally
      over the course of their illness in an effort to advance our understanding of
      disease mechanisms.

PMID- 28560264
TI  - Thought disorder measured as random speech structure classifies negative symptoms
      and schizophrenia diagnosis 6 months in advance.
AB  - In chronic psychotic patients, word graph analysis shows potential as
      complementary psychiatric assessment. This analysis relies mostly on
      connectedness, a structural feature of speech that is anti-correlated with
      negative symptoms. Here we aimed to verify whether speech disorganization during
      the first clinical contact, as measured by graph connectedness, can correctly
      classify negative symptoms and the schizophrenia diagnosis 6 months in advance.
      Positive and negative syndrome scale scores and memory reports were collected
      from 21 patients undergoing first clinical contact for recent-onset psychosis,
      followed for 6 months to establish diagnosis, and compared to 21 well-matched
      healthy subjects. Each report was represented as a word-trajectory graph.
      Connectedness was measured by number of edges, number of nodes in the largest
      connected component and number of nodes in the largest strongly connected
      component. Similarities to random graphs were estimated. All connectedness
      attributes were combined into a single Disorganization Index weighted by the
      correlation with the positive and negative syndrome scale negative subscale, and
      used for classifications. Random-like connectedness was more prevalent among
      schizophrenia patients (64 * 5% in Control group, p = 0.0002). Connectedness from
      two kinds of memory reports (dream and negative image) explained 88% of negative
      symptoms variance (p < 0.0001). The Disorganization Index classified low vs. high
      severity of negative symptoms with 100% accuracy (area under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve = 1), and schizophrenia diagnosis with 91.67%
      accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.85). The
      index was validated in an independent cohort of chronic psychotic patients and
      controls (N = 60) (85% accuracy). Thus, speech disorganization during the first
      clinical contact correlates tightly with negative symptoms, and is quite
      discriminative of the schizophrenia diagnosis.

PMID- 28560263
TI  - Dopamine D2 receptors and the circadian clock reciprocally mediate antipsychotic
      drug-induced metabolic disturbances.
AB  - Antipsychotic drugs are widely prescribed medications, used for numerous
      psychiatric illnesses. However, antipsychotic drugs cause serious metabolic side
      effects that can lead to substantial weight gain and increased risk for type 2
      diabetes. While individual drugs differ, all antipsychotic drugs may cause these
      important side effects to varying degrees. Given that the single unifying
      property shared by these medications is blockade of dopamine D2 and D3 receptors,
      these receptors likely play a role in antipsychotic drug-induced metabolic side
      effects. Dopamine D2 and dopamine D3 receptors are expressed in brain regions
      critical for metabolic regulation and appetite. Surprisingly, these receptors are
      also expressed peripherally in insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells. By
      inhibiting glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, dopamine D2 and dopamine D3
      receptors are important mediators of pancreatic insulin release. Crucially,
      antipsychotic drugs disrupt this peripheral metabolic regulatory mechanism. At
      the same time, disruptions to circadian timing have been increasingly recognized
      as a risk factor for metabolic disturbance. Reciprocal dopamine and circadian
      signaling is important for the timing of appetitive/feeding behaviors and insulin
      release, thereby coordinating cell metabolism with caloric intake. In particular,
      circadian regulation of dopamine D2 receptor/dopamine D3 receptor signaling may
      play a critical role in metabolism. Therefore, we propose that antipsychotic
      drugs' blockade of dopamine D2 receptor and dopamine D3 receptors in pancreatic
      beta cells, hypothalamus, and striatum disrupts the cellular timing mechanisms
      that regulate metabolism. Ultimately, understanding the relationships between the
      dopamine system and circadian clocks may yield critical new biological insights
      into mechanisms of antipsychotic drug action, which can then be applied into
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28560265
TI  - Isoform specific differences in phospholipase C beta 1 expression in the
      prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia and suicide.
AB  - Our previous study demonstrated that phospholipase C beta 1 mRNA was down
      regulated in Brodmann's area 46 from subjects with schizophrenia. However,
      phospholipase C beta 1 protein has also been shown to be lower in Brodmann's area
      8 and 9 from teenage suicide subjects, creating a potential confound in
      interpreting the findings in schizophrenia due to the high suicide rate
      associated with this disorder. To begin to reconcile and consolidate these
      findings, in this study, we measured mRNA and protein levels of phospholipase C
      beta 1 variants a and b in Brodmann's area 46 and Brodmann's area 9 from subjects
      with schizophrenia, many of whom were suicide completers, and determined the
      diagnostic specificity of observed findings. Consistent with our previous study,
      levels of phospholipase C beta 1 a and b mRNA, but not protein, were lower in
      Brodmann's area 46 from subjects with schizophrenia. In Brodmann's area 9,
      phospholipase C beta 1a protein levels were lower in subjects with schizophrenia,
      while phospholipase C beta 1b mRNA was higher and protein was lower in those that
      had died of suicide. Altered protein levels in Brodmann's area 9 appeared to be
      diagnostically specific, as we did not detect these changes in subjects with
      bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder or suicide completers with no
      diagnosis of mental illness. We further assessed the relationship between
      phospholipase C beta 1 and levels of muscarinic receptors (CHRMs) that signal
      through this protein, in both human and Chrm knockout mouse central nervous
      system tissue, and found no strong relationship between the two. Understanding
      central nervous system differences in downstream effector pathways in
      schizophrenia may lead to improved treatment strategies and help to identify
      those at risk of suicide.

PMID- 28560266
TI  - The effect of cognitive remediation in individuals at ultra-high risk for
      psychosis: a systematic review.
AB  - Cognitive deficits are prominent features of the ultra-high risk state for
      psychosis that are known to impact functioning and course of illness. Cognitive
      remediation appears to be the most promising treatment approach to alleviate the
      cognitive deficits, which may translate into functional improvements. This study
      systematically reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive
      remediation in the ultra-high risk population. The electronic databases MEDLINE,
      PsycINFO, and Embase were searched using keywords related to cognitive
      remediation and the UHR state. Studies were included if they were peer-reviewed,
      written in English, and included a population meeting standardized ultra-high
      risk criteria. Six original research articles were identified. All the studies
      provided computerized, bottom-up-based cognitive remediation, predominantly
      targeting neurocognitive function. Four out of five studies that reported a
      cognitive outcome found cognitive remediation to improve cognition in the domains
      of verbal memory, attention, and processing speed. Two out of four studies that
      reported on functional outcome found cognitive remediation to improve the
      functional outcome in the domains of social functioning and social adjustment.
      Zero out of the five studies that reported such an outcome found cognitive
      remediation to affect the magnitude of clinical symptoms. Research on the effect
      of cognitive remediation in the ultra-high risk state is still scarce. The
      current state of evidence indicates an effect of cognitive remediation on
      cognition and functioning in ultra-high risk individuals. More research on
      cognitive remediation in ultra-high risk is needed, notably in large-scale trials
      assessing the effect of neurocognitive and/or social cognitive remediation on
      multiple outcomes.

PMID- 28560268
TI  - Learning stable and predictive network-based patterns of schizophrenia and its
      clinical symptoms.
AB  - : Schizophrenia is often associated with disrupted brain connectivity. However,
      identifying specific neuroimaging-based patterns pathognomonic for schizophrenia
      and related symptom severity remains a challenging open problem requiring large
      scale data-driven analyses emphasizing not only statistical significance but also
      stability across multiple datasets, contexts and cohorts. Accurate prediction on
      previously unseen subjects, or generalization, is also essential for any useful
      biomarker of schizophrenia. In order to build a predictive model based on
      functional network feature patterns, we studied whole-brain fMRI functional
      networks, both at the voxel level and lower-resolution supervoxel level.
      Targeting Auditory Oddball task data on the FBIRN fMRI dataset (n = 95), we
      considered node-degree and link-weight network features and evaluated stability
      and generalization accuracy of statistically significant feature sets in
      discriminating patients vs. CONTROLS: We also applied sparse multivariate
      regression (elastic net) to whole-brain functional connectivity features, for the
      first time, to derive stable predictive features for symptom severity. Whole
      brain link-weight features achieved 74% accuracy in identifying patients and were
      more stable than voxel-wise node-degrees. Link-weight features predicted severity
      of several negative and positive symptom scales, including inattentiveness and
      bizarre behavior. The most-significant, stable and discriminative functional
      connectivity changes involved increased correlations between thalamus and primary
      motor/primary sensory cortex, and between precuneus (BA7) and thalamus, putamen,
      and Brodmann areas BA9 and BA44. Precuneus, along with BA6 and primary sensory
      cortex, was also involved in predicting severity of several symptoms. Overall,
      the proposed multi-step methodology may help identify more reliable multivariate
      patterns allowing for accurate prediction of schizophrenia and its symptoms
      severity.

PMID- 28560267
TI  - Electroconvulsive therapy-induced brain functional connectivity predicts
      therapeutic efficacy in patients with schizophrenia: a multivariate pattern
      recognition study.
AB  - Previous studies suggested that electroconvulsive therapy can influence regional
      metabolism and dopamine signaling, thereby alleviating symptoms of schizophrenia.
      It remains unclear what patients may benefit more from the treatment. The present
      study sought to identify biomarkers that predict the electroconvulsive therapy
      response in individual patients. Thirty-four schizophrenia patients and 34
      controls were included in this study. Patients were scanned prior to treatment
      and after 6 weeks of treatment with antipsychotics only (n = 16) or a combination
      of antipsychotics and electroconvulsive therapy (n = 13). Subject-specific
      intrinsic connectivity networks were computed for each subject using a group
      information-guided independent component analysis technique. Classifiers were
      built to distinguish patients from controls and quantify brain states based on
      intrinsic connectivity networks. A general linear model was built on the
      classification scores of first scan (referred to as baseline classification
      scores) to predict treatment response. Classifiers built on the default mode
      network, the temporal lobe network, the language network, the corticostriatal
      network, the frontal-parietal network, and the cerebellum achieved a cross
      validated classification accuracy of 83.82%, with specificity of 91.18% and
      sensitivity of 76.47%. After the electroconvulsive therapy, psychosis symptoms of
      the patients were relieved and classification scores of the patients were
      decreased. Moreover, the baseline classification scores were predictive for the
      treatment outcome. Schizophrenia patients exhibited functional deviations in
      multiple intrinsic connectivity networks which were able to distinguish patients
      from healthy controls at an individual level. Patients with lower classification
      scores prior to treatment had better treatment outcome, indicating that the
      baseline classification scores before treatment is a good predictor for treatment
      outcome.

PMID- 28560270
TI  - A cross-country Exchange Market Pressure (EMP) dataset.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the research article titled -
      "An exchange market pressure measure for cross country analysis" (Patnaik et al.
      [1]). In this article, we present the dataset for Exchange Market Pressure values
      (EMP) for 139 countries along with their conversion factors, rho (rho). Exchange
      Market Pressure, expressed in percentage change in exchange rate, measures the
      change in exchange rate that would have taken place had the central bank not
      intervened. The conversion factor rho can interpreted as the change in exchange
      rate associated with $1 billion of intervention. Estimates of conversion factor
      rho allow us to calculate a monthly time series of EMP for 139 countries.
      Additionally, the dataset contains the 68% confidence interval (high and low
      values) for the point estimates of rho's. Using the standard errors of estimates
      of rho's, we obtain one sigma intervals around mean estimates of EMP values.
      These values are also reported in the dataset.

PMID- 28560271
TI  - Data from docking simulations to develop an efficient strategy able to evaluate
      the interactions between RAGE and MDA-induced albumin adducts.
AB  - This data article contains the results of docking simulations performed in order
      to develop a suitable in silico strategy able to assess the stability of the
      putative complexes between RAGE and MDA induced adducts on human albumin as
      experimentally determined doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2016.12.017, (Degani et al., 2017)
      [1]. The docking simulations involved different approaches to give a simplified
      yet realistic representation of the protein adducts and their environment. With
      increasing complexity, simulations involved the corresponding albumin tripeptides
      and pentapeptides with the modified residue in the central position as well as
      pseudo-structures which were generated by collecting the albumin residues around
      the adducted residue within a sphere of 7.5 A and 5 A radius. The reliability of
      the tested approaches was assessed by monitoring the score differences between
      adducted and unmodified residues. The obtained results revealed the greater
      predictive power of the spherical pseudo-structures compared to the simple tri-
      or pentapeptidic sequences thus suggesting that RAGE recognition involves
      residues which are spatially close to the modified residue even though not
      necessarily adjacent in the primary sequence.

PMID- 28560269
TI  - Fractures in indigenous compared to non-indigenous populations: A systematic
      review of rates and aetiology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compared to non-indigenous populations, indigenous populations
      experience disproportionately greater morbidity, and a reduced life expectancy;
      however, conflicting data exist regarding whether a higher risk of fracture is
      experienced by either population. We systematically evaluate evidence for whether
      differences in fracture rates at any skeletal site exist between indigenous and
      non-indigenous populations of any age, and to identify potential risk factors
      that might explain these differences. METHODS: On 31 August 2016 we conducted a
      comprehensive computer-aided search of peer-reviewed literature without date
      limits. We searched PubMed, OVID, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and reference lists of
      relevant publications. The protocol for this systematic review is registered in
      PROSPERO, the International Prospective Register of systematic reviews
      (CRD42016043215). Using the World Health Organization reference population as
      standard, hip fracture incidence rates were re-standardized for comparability
      between countries. RESULTS: Our search yielded 3227 articles; 283 potentially
      eligible articles were cross-referenced against predetermined criteria, leaving
      27 articles for final inclusion. Differences in hip fracture rates appeared as
      continent-specific, with lower rates observed for indigenous persons in all
      countries except for Canada and Australia where the opposite was observed.
      Indigenous persons consistently had higher rates of trauma-related fractures; the
      highest were observed in Australia where craniofacial fracture rates were 22
      times greater for indigenous compared to non-indigenous women. After adjustment
      for socio-demographic and clinical risk factors, approximately a three-fold
      greater risk of osteoporotic fracture and five-fold greater risk of craniofacial
      fractures was observed for indigenous compared to non-indigenous persons;
      diabetes, substance abuse, comorbidity, lower income, locality, and fracture
      history were independently associated with an increased risk of fracture.
      CONCLUSIONS: The observed paucity of data and suggestion of continent-specific
      differences indicate an urgent need for further research regarding indigenous
      status and fracture epidemiology and aetiology. Our findings also have
      implications for communities, governments and healthcare professionals to enhance
      the prevention of trauma-related fractures in indigenous persons, and an
      increased focus on modifiable lifestyle behaviours to prevent osteoporotic
      fractures in all populations.

PMID- 28560272
TI  - Chorological maps for the main European woody species.
AB  - A novel chorological data compilation for the main European tree and shrub
      species is presented. This dataset was produced by combining numerous and
      heterogeneous data collected from 20th century atlas monographs providing
      complete species distribution maps, and from more recent national to regional
      atlases, occurrence geodatabases and scientific literature. The dataset is
      composed of numerous species distribution maps available in geographical
      information system (GIS) format, created by compiling, evaluating and
      synthesizing data of all collected sources. The geometry of the individual
      datasets describes contiguous large areas of occupancy of each species as
      polygons and fragmented or isolated occurrences as points. Since this geodatabase
      is intended to provide a synthetic continental-scale overview of the species
      ranges, the maps represent the species' general chorology and the
      presence/absence information should not be considered absolute in terms of
      geolocation. Errors and imprecisions arising from the interpretation and
      digitalization processes are likely to occur, especially in those areas where
      detailed information is scarce. As new information sources become available,
      these will be used to address current data gaps, implement corrections and
      updates of the chorology dataset as well as expanding it to comprise additional
      species.

PMID- 28560273
TI  - A reconstructed melanoma data set for evaluating differential treatment benefit
      according to biomarker subgroups.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled
      "Measuring differential treatment benefit across marker specific subgroups: the
      choice of outcome scale" (Satagopan and Iasonos, 2015) [1]. These data were
      digitally reconstructed from figures published in Larkin et al. (2015) [2]. This
      article describes the steps to digitally reconstruct patient-level data on time
      to-event outcome and treatment and biomarker groups using published Kaplan-Meier
      survival curves. The reconstructed data set and the corresponding computer
      programs are made publicly available to enable further statistical methodology
      research.

PMID- 28560274
TI  - Properties of particle phases for metal-matrix-composite design.
AB  - Successful metallurgical design of metal-matrix-composites relies on the
      knowledge of the intrinsic property profiles of the metal matrix and especially
      the compounds employed for particles, whiskers or fibres. In this work we
      compiled the key properties melting point, bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young's
      modulus, density, hardness, Poisson's ratio and structure/space group from the
      widespread literature data for the most relevant compound types, i.e. borides,
      carbo-borides, carbides, oxides, nitrides and intermetallic phases.

PMID- 28560276
TI  - Hydrolysis rate constants and activation parameters for phosphate- and
      phosphonate-bridged phthalonitrile monomers under acid, neutral and alkali
      conditions.
AB  - Hydrolysis data for Bis(3-(3,4-dicyanophenoxy)phenyl) phenyl phosphate and Bis(3
      (3,4-dicyanophenoxy)phenyl) phenylphosphonate under pH 4, 7 and 10 are presented.
      Conversion/time plots collected by HPLC analysis, typical chromatograms and NMR
      spectra of the reactions products are given. Pseudo-first order rate constants
      are determined for both substrates at 25, 50 and 80  degrees C. Activation
      parameters were calculated from Arrhenius equation.

PMID- 28560275
TI  - Data on genome analysis of Bacillus velezensis LS69.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the published entitled "Whole
      genome sequencing of Bacillus velezensis LS69, a strain with a broad inhibitory
      spectrum against pathogenic bacteria" (Liu et al., 2017) [1]. Genome analysis
      revealed B. velezensis LS69 has a good potential for biocontrol and plant growth
      promotion. This article provides an extended analysis of the genetic islands,
      core genes and amylolysin loci of B. velezensis LS69.

PMID- 28560277
TI  - Theoretical assessment data for the binding of sepsis causing pathogens to ApoH
      beads.
AB  - The data presented in this paper supports the research article "A rapid, highly
      sensitive and culture-free detection of pathogens from blood by positive
      enrichment" ( Vutukuru et al., 2016) [1]. We compared a list of sepsis causing
      pathogens to the ApoH binding data given to us by ApoH technologies. The data
      highlights the binding of ApoH beads to sepsis causing pathogens.

PMID- 28560278
TI  - Dataset on exogenous application of salicylic acid and methyljasmonate and the
      accumulation of caffeine in young leaf tissues and catabolically inactive
      endosperms.
AB  - Exogenous exposure of coffee plants to 50 MUM and 500 MUM salicylic acid through
      liquid hydroponic medium or the exposure to volatile fumes of methyljasmonate was
      carried out to study the role of salicylic acid and methyljasmonate on the
      accumulation of caffeine and other methylxanthines like 7-methylxanthine,
      theobromine and theophylline. Transcript levels of the first, second and third N
      methyltransferase involved in the core caffeine biosynthetic pathway namely,
      xanthosine methyltransferase (XMT), methylxanthine methyltransferase (MXMT) and
      di-methylxanthine methyltransferase (DXMT) was investigated by semi-quantitative
      RT-PCR for validating the reason behind the changes of caffeine biosynthetic
      potential under the influence of the two analogues of plant phytohormones.
      Maturing coffee fruits are known to be biologically inactive with respect to
      caffeine biosynthetic activity in the endosperms. To understand this, fruits were
      treated with different doses of salicylic acid in a time-course manner and the de
      repression of tissue maturation-mediated knockdown of caffeine biosynthesis by
      exogenously applied salicylic acid was achieved. In our companion paper [1] it
      was shown that the repression of NMT genes during the dry weight accumulation
      phase of maturing endosperm could be relaxed by the exogenous application of
      salicylic acid and methyljasmonate. A probable model based on the work carried
      out therein and based on other literature [2], [3], [4] was proposed to describe
      that the crosstalk between salicylic acid or methyljasmonate and the ABA/ethylene
      pathway and might involve transcription factors downstream to the signaling
      cascade.

PMID- 28560279
TI  - Data for the generation of RNA spatiotemporal distributions and interpretation of
      Chk1 and SLBP protein depletion phenotypes during Drosophila embryogenesis.
AB  - The data presented in this article is related to the research article entitled
      "Biochemical Fractionation of Time-Resolved Drosophila Embryos Reveals Similar
      Transcriptomic Alterations in Replication Checkpoint and Histone mRNA Processing
      Mutants" (Lefebvre et al., 2017) [1]. This article provides a spatiotemporal
      transcriptomic analysis of early embryogenesis and shows that mutations in the
      checkpoint factor grapes/Chk1 and the histone mRNA processing factor SLBP
      selectively impair zygotic gene expression. Here, lists of transcripts enriched
      in early syncytial embryos, late blastoderm embryos, cytoplasmic and nuclear
      extracts of blastoderm embryos are made public, along with transcription factor
      motif occurrence for genes enriched in each context. In addition, extensive lists
      of genes down-regulated upon Chk1 and SLBP protein depletion in embryos are
      released to enable further analyses.

PMID- 28560280
TI  - Data for iTRAQ-based quantification of the cardiac proteome of rainbow trout
      (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at rest and with exercise training.
AB  - This data article presents the first description of the rainbow trout cardiac
      ventricle at the level of the proteome, with more than 700 proteins identified
      and quantified using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)
      and LC-MS/MS. The abundances of these proteins were compared across 4 durations
      of moderate exercise training (0, 4, 7, and 14 d), and a total of 107 proteins
      were differentially abundant during the course of the training program. The
      differentially abundant proteins are presented here grouped by functional
      classification. In the research article associated with this data [1], the
      temporal changes in the cardiac proteome are discussed in the context of cardiac
      remodelling and development of a trained heart phenotype.

PMID- 28560281
TI  - Microarray data and gene expression statistics for Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage.
AB  - Here we describe microarray expression data (raw and normalized), experimental
      metadata, and gene-level data with expression statistics from Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage from the Vermont Asbestos
      Group (VAG) Mine on Belvidere Mountain in northern Vermont, USA. For nearly 100
      years (between the late 1890s and 1993), chrysotile asbestos fibers were
      extracted from serpentinized ultramafic rock at the VAG Mine for use in
      construction and manufacturing industries. Studies have shown that water courses
      and streambeds nearby have become contaminated with asbestos mine tailings
      runoff, including elevated levels of magnesium, nickel, chromium, and arsenic,
      elevated pH, and chrysotile asbestos-laden mine tailings, due to leaching and
      gradual erosion of massive piles of mine waste covering approximately 9 km2. We
      exposed yeast to simulated VAG Mine tailings leachate to help gain insight on how
      eukaryotic cells exposed to VAG Mine drainage may respond in the mine
      environment. Affymetrix GeneChip(r) Yeast Genome 2.0 Arrays were utilized to
      assess gene expression after 24-h exposure to simulated VAG Mine tailings runoff.
      The chemistry of mine-tailings leachate, mine-tailings leachate plus yeast
      extract peptone dextrose media, and control yeast extract peptone dextrose media
      is also reported. To our knowledge this is the first dataset to assess global
      gene expression patterns in a eukaryotic model system simulating asbestos mine
      tailings runoff exposure. Raw and normalized gene expression data are accessible
      through the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus
      (NCBI GEO) Database Series GSE89875
      (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE89875).

PMID- 28560282
TI  - Clinical and biochemical data of endothelial function in Women Consuming Combined
      Contraceptives.
AB  - The data presented in this article are associated with the research article
      entitled "Heme-Nitrosylated Hemoglobin and Oxidative Stress in Women Consuming
      Combined Contraceptives. Clinical Application of the EPR Spectroscopy" (Lobysheva
      et al., 2017 [1]), and describe the characteristics of redox status in blood, as
      well as biochemical and clinical parameters of young female subjects consuming
      (or not) contraceptive pills (CP). Erythrocyte concentration of reduced thiols
      reflecting erythrocyte redox capacity was measured before and after sample
      deproteinization by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) using a
      nitroxide biradical spin probe specifically interacting with reduced thiols;
      additional data were obtained by a colorimetric method using Ellman's reagents in
      the same samples. The products of nitric oxide oxidation, nitrite and total NOx
      (in presence of nitrate reductase) were measured in the plasma of study subjects
      by a colorimetric assay based on the detection of red-violet colored azo dye
      after reaction of nitrite with the Griess reagent. Biochemical and clinical
      parameters reflective of cardiovascular risk factors (diastolic blood pressure, C
      reactive protein, triglycerides and homocysteine concentrations in venous blood)
      were compared in subgroups of consumers of CP containing ethinyl estradiol and
      different types of synthetic progestogens. Parameters reflective of the integrity
      of the vasculature, - erythrocyte concentration of heme-nitrosylated hemoglobin
      (5-coordinate alpha-heme-FeII-NO, HbNO) measured directly by the EPR subtraction
      method; index of reactive hyperemia response (FRHI) measured by digital pulse
      tonometry using EndoPAT; oxidative vascular stress measured as total plasma
      peroxide concentration were compared in subgroups of young women taking CP
      containing ethinyl estradiol at different concentrations and for various
      durations.

PMID- 28560283
TI  - Dataset on characterization of hemin-azide derivative and DNA oligonucleotide
      hemin conjugate.
AB  - In this article newly synthesized azide derivative of hemin and DNA-hemin
      conjugate are characterized. Hemin-azide was purified using HPLC and
      characterized using elemental analysis, IR and NMR. The DNA-hemin conjugate was
      obtained via click chemistry [1] and click reaction was carried out using
      traditional Cu-catalyzed and Cu-free approaches. The final product was
      successfully obtained using Cu-free cycloaddition. The identity of product was
      confirmed using Maldi TOF spectrometry. Obtained hemin-DNA conjugate exhibited
      peroxidase-like activity.

PMID- 28560284
TI  - Data demonstrating the anti-oxidant role of hemopexin in the heart.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled
      Hemopexin counteracts systolic dysfunction induced by heme-driven oxidative
      stress (G. Ingoglia, C. M. Sag, N. Rex, L. De Franceschi, F. Vinchi, J. Cimino,
      S. Petrillo, S. Wagner, K. Kreitmeier, L. Silengo, F. Altruda, L. S. Maier, E.
      Hirsch, A. Ghigo and E. Tolosano, 2017) [1]. Data show that heme induces reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) production in primary cardiomyocytes. H9c2 myoblastic cells
      treated with heme bound to human Hemopexin (Hx) are protected from heme
      accumulation and oxidative stress. Similarly, the heme-driven oxidative response
      is reduced in primary cardiomyocytes treated with Hx-heme compared to heme alone.
      Our in vivo data show that mouse models of hemolytic disorders, beta-thalassemic
      mice and phenylhydrazine-treated mice, have low serum Hx associated to enhanced
      expression of heme- and oxidative stress responsive genes in the heart. Hx-/-
      mice do not show signs of heart fibrosis or overt inflammation. For
      interpretation and discussion of these data, refer to the research article
      referenced above.

PMID- 28560285
TI  - Data on the association of CMPK1 with clinicopathological features and biological
      effect in human epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - Human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological disease.
      However, the molecular mechanisms by which transforming growth factor-beta (TGF
      beta) regulates ovarian tumor progression markers remain unclear. The present
      data show cytidine monophosphate kinase (CMPK) as an EOC biomarker and are
      related to the article entitled "Cytidine monophosphate kinase is inhibited by
      the TGF-beta signalling pathway through the upregulation of miR-130b-3p in human
      epithelial ovarian cancer" [1]. CMPK, as well as cystatin B [2] and beta-2
      microglobulin [3], is overexpressed in human epithelial-type ovarian tumors. CMPK
      is an enzyme required for nucleic acid biosynthesis [4] and is regulated by the
      TGF-beta signaling pathway in EOC cells [1]. Furthermore, the data show the
      effect of CMPK-shRNA on EOC cell apoptosis and TGF-beta-induced Smad2
      phosphorylation. CMPK expression in two EOC cell lines OVCAR-3 and SK-OV-3 is
      regulated by multiple miRNAs and some of these miRNAs may affect EOC
      chemoresistance [5].

PMID- 28560286
TI  - Uncovering Pathogenic Mechanisms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Using Mouse Models
      of Crohn's Disease-Like Ileitis: What is the Right Model?
AB  - Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, together known as inflammatory bowel
      disease, are debilitating chronic disorders of unknown cause and cure. Our
      evolving understanding of these pathologies is enhanced greatly by the use of
      animal models of intestinal inflammation that allow in vivo mechanistic studies,
      preclinical evaluation of new therapies, and investigation into the causative
      factors that underlie disease pathogenesis. Several animal models, most commonly
      generated in mice, exist for the study of colitis. The appropriateness of their
      use often can be determined by their mode of generation (ie, chemical induction,
      T-cell transfer, targeted genetic manipulation, spontaneously occurring, and so
      forth), the type of investigation (mechanistic studies, pathogenic experiments,
      preclinical evaluations, and so forth), and the type of inflammation that occurs
      in the model (acute vs chronic colitis, tissue injury/repair, and so forth).
      Although most murine models of inflammatory bowel disease develop inflammation in
      the colon, Crohn's disease most commonly occurs in the terminal ileum, where a
      very limited number of mouse models manifest disease. This review discusses
      appropriate experimental applications for different mouse models of colitis, and
      highlights the particular utility of 2 highly relevant models of Crohn's-like
      ileitis-the spontaneous SAMP1/YitFc inbred mouse strain and the genetically
      engineered TnfDeltaAU-rich element/+ mouse model of tumor necrosis factor
      overexpression, both of which bear strong resemblance to the human condition.
      Similar to patients with Crohn's disease, SAMP1/YitFc ileitis develops
      spontaneously, without chemical, genetic, or immunologic manipulation, making
      this model particularly relevant for studies aimed at identifying the primary
      defect underlying the occurrence of Crohn's ileitis, as well as preclinical
      testing of novel treatment modalities.

PMID- 28560288
TI  - Regulation of Gastric Carcinogenesis by Inflammatory Cytokines.
AB  - Chronic inflammation caused by infection with Helicobacter pylori and autoimmune
      gastritis increases an individual's risk of developing gastric cancer. More than
      90% of gastric cancers are adenocarcinomas, which originate from epithelial cells
      in the chronically inflamed gastric mucosa. However, only a small subset of
      chronic gastritis patients develops gastric cancer, implying a role for genetic
      and environmental factors in cancer development. A number of DNA polymorphisms
      that increase gastric cancer risk have mapped to genes encoding cytokines. Many
      different cytokines secreted by immune cells and epithelial cells during chronic
      gastritis have been identified, but a better understanding of how cytokines
      regulate the severity of gastritis, epithelial cell changes, and neoplastic
      transformation is needed. This review summarizes studies in both human and mouse
      models, describing a number of different findings that implicate various
      cytokines in regulating the development of gastric cancer.

PMID- 28560287
TI  - Mend Your Fences: The Epithelial Barrier and its Relationship With Mucosal
      Immunity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - The intestinal epithelium can be easily disrupted during gut inflammation as seen
      in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's
      disease. For a long time, research into the pathophysiology of IBD has been
      focused on immune cell-mediated mechanisms. Recent evidence, however, suggests
      that the intestinal epithelium might play a major role in the development and
      perpetuation of IBD. It is now clear that IBD can be triggered by disturbances in
      epithelial barrier integrity via dysfunctions in intestinal epithelial cell
      intrinsic molecular circuits that control the homeostasis, renewal, and repair of
      intestinal epithelial cells. The intestinal epithelium in the healthy individual
      represents a semi-permeable physical barrier shielding the interior of the body
      from invasions of pathogens on the one hand and allowing selective passage of
      nutrients on the other hand. However, the intestinal epithelium must be
      considered much more than a simple physical barrier. Instead, the epithelium is a
      highly dynamic tissue that responds to a plenitude of signals including the
      intestinal microbiota and signals from the immune system. This epithelial
      response to these signals regulates barrier function, the composition of the
      microbiota, and mucosal immune homeostasis within the lamina propria. The
      epithelium can thus be regarded as a translator between the microbiota and the
      immune system and aberrant signal transduction between the epithelium and
      adjacent immune cells might promote immune dysregulation in IBD. This review
      summarizes the important cellular and molecular barrier components of the
      intestinal epithelium and emphasizes the mechanisms leading to barrier
      dysfunction during intestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28560289
TI  - Initiation and Maintenance of Gastric Cancer: A Focus on CD44 Variant Isoforms
      and Cancer Stem Cells.
AB  - Gastric cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Although
      the incidence of gastric cancer in the United States is relatively low, it
      remains significantly higher in some countries, including Japan and Korea.
      Interactions between cancer stem cells and the tumor microenvironment can have a
      substantial impact on tumor characteristics and contribute to heterogeneity. The
      mechanisms responsible for maintaining malignant cancer stem cells within the
      tumor microenvironment in human gastric cancer are largely unknown. Tumor cell
      and genetic heterogeneity contribute to either de novo intrinsic or the therapy
      induced emergence of drug-resistant clones and eventual tumor recurrence.
      Although chemotherapy often is capable of inducing cell death in tumors, many
      cancer patients experience recurrence because of failure to effectively target
      the cancer stem cells, which are believed to be key tumor-initiating cells. Among
      the population of stem cells within the stomach that may be targeted during
      chronic Helicobacter pylori infection and altered into tumor-initiating cells are
      those cells marked by the cluster-of-differentiation (CD)44 cell surface
      receptor. CD44 variable isoforms (CD44v) have been implicated as key players in
      malignant transformation whereby their expression is highly restricted and
      specific, unlike the canonical CD44 standard isoform. Overall, CD44v, in
      particular CD44v9, are believed to mark the gastric cancer cells that contribute
      to increased resistance for chemotherapy- or radiation-induced cell death. This
      review focuses on the following: the alteration of the gastric stem cell during
      bacterial infection, and the role of CD44v in the initiation, maintenance, and
      growth of tumors associated with gastric cancer.

PMID- 28560290
TI  - Farnesoid X Receptor Agonist Treatment Alters Bile Acid Metabolism but
      Exacerbates Liver Damage in a Piglet Model of Short-Bowel Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Options for the prevention of short-bowel syndrome-associated
      liver disease (SBS-ALDs) are limited and often ineffective. The farnesoid X
      receptor (FXR) is a newly emerging pharmaceutical target and FXR agonists have
      been shown to ameliorate cholestasis and metabolic disorders. The aim of this
      study was to assess the efficacy of obeticholic acid (OCA) treatment in
      preventing SBS-ALDs. METHODS: Piglets underwent 75% small-bowel resection (SBS)
      or sham surgery (sham) and were assigned to either a daily dose of OCA (2.4
      mg/kg/day) or were untreated. Clinical measures included weight gain and stool
      studies. Histologic features were assessed. Ultraperformance liquid
      chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was used to determine bile acid
      composition in end point bile and portal serum samples. Gene expression of key
      FXR targets was assessed in intestinal and hepatic tissues via quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: OCA-treated SBS piglets showed decreased
      stool fat and altered liver histology when compared with nontreated SBS piglets.
      OCA prevented SBS-associated taurine depletion, however, further analysis of bile
      and portal serum samples indicated that OCA did not prevent SBS-associated
      alterations in bile acid composition. The expression of FXR target genes involved
      in bile acid transport and synthesis increased within the liver of SBS piglets
      after OCA administration whereas, paradoxically, intestinal expression of FXR
      target genes were decreased by OCA administration. CONCLUSIONS: Administration of
      OCA in SBS reduced fat malabsorption and altered bile acid composition, but did
      not prevent the development of SBS-ALDs. We postulate that extensive small
      resection impacts the ability of the remnant intestine to respond to FXR
      activation.

PMID- 28560292
TI  - Metaplasia in the Stomach Arises From Gastric Chief Cells.
AB  - The development of intestinal-type gastric cancer is preceded by loss of parietal
      cells (oxyntic atrophy) and the induction of metaplastic cell lineages in the
      gastric mucosa. For example, mouse models have shown that spasmolytic polypeptide
      expressing metaplasia can develop following oxyntic atrophy through
      transdifferentiation of zymogen-secreting chief cells. Evolution of spasmolytic
      polypeptide-expressing metaplasia from chief cells occurs via a coordinated
      dismantling of their secretory apparatus and reprogramming of their
      transcriptome. Increasing evidence suggests that the process of chief cell
      reprogramming requires the influence of inflammatory cytokines and requires both
      zymogen granule autophagy and alterations in gene transcription. It is likely
      that spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia is a physiological repair
      mechanism that is similar to those that occur in other tissues (eg, pancreas) for
      recruiting reparative progenitor cells in response to mucosal wounds. Chronic
      inflammation can induce a recurring pattern of persistent
      reprogramming/metaplasia that increases the risk for neoplasia.

PMID- 28560291
TI  - Gastrin and Gastric Cancer.
AB  - Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide.
      Despite progress in understanding its development, challenges with treatment
      remain. Gastrin, a peptide hormone, is trophic for normal gastrointestinal
      epithelium. Gastrin also has been shown to play an important role in the
      stimulation of growth of several gastrointestinal cancers including gastric
      cancer. We sought to review the role of gastrin and its pathway in gastric cancer
      and its potential as a therapeutic target in the management of gastric cancer. In
      the normal adult stomach, gastrin is synthesized in the G cells of the antrum;
      however, gastrin expression also is found in many gastric adenocarcinomas of the
      stomach corpus. Gastrin's actions are mediated through the G-protein-coupled
      receptor cholecystokinin-B (CCK-B) on parietal and enterochromaffin cells of the
      gastric body. Gastrin blood levels are increased in subjects with type A atrophic
      gastritis and in those taking high doses of daily proton pump inhibitors for acid
      reflux disease. In experimental models, proton pump inhibitor-induced
      hypergastrinemia and infection with Helicobacter pylori increase the risk of
      gastric cancer. Understanding the gastrin:CCK-B signaling pathway has led to
      therapeutic strategies to treat gastric cancer by either targeting the CCK-B
      receptor with small-molecule antagonists or targeting the peptide with immune
      based therapies. In this review, we discuss the role of gastrin in gastric
      adenocarcinoma, and strategies to block its effects to treat those with
      unresectable gastric cancer.

PMID- 28560293
TI  - Isthmus Stem Cells Are the Origins of Metaplasia in the Gastric Corpus.
AB  - The acquisition of genetic/epigenetic mutations in long-lived gastrointestinal
      stem cells leads to the development of cancer, as well as precancerous lesions
      such as metaplasia and dysplasia. In the proximal stomach corpus, this model of
      progression from stem cells has been supported by studies in mice and human
      beings, showing abundant proliferation in the isthmus and clonal expansion of
      mutated cells from the stem cell region. An alternative theory proposes that
      gastric metaplasia arises from mature differentiated chief cells. Despite reports
      of low levels of proliferation in chief cells in acute injury models, there is
      little evidence for reprogramming of chief cells into long-lived stem cells that
      continuously supply progeny over time. Critical flaws in the chief cell
      transdifferentiation theory include the definition of acute SPEM, the chief cell
      damaging effect of chemical reagents, and the specificity of chief cell lineage
      tracing. In contrast, there is now strong evidence regarding the stem cell
      origins of gastric metaplasia that refutes the transdifferentiation theory. Here,
      we briefly review the history and definition of gastric metaplasia, and outline
      in detail the evidence that supports the stem cell origin of metaplasia.

PMID- 28560294
TI  - Psoriasis vulgaris with fibrokeratoma from pityriasis amiantacea.

PMID- 28560295
TI  - Isoradiotopic response of lichen planus after radiotherapy of the breast.

PMID- 28560296
TI  - Alopecia after injection of ATX-101 for reduction of submental fat.

PMID- 28560297
TI  - Uterine lipoleiomyosarcoma: Complete medullary compression as presentation of a
      solitary metastasis.
AB  - *A rare case of lipoleiomyosarcoma.*Patient presented at our center with
      paraplegia caused by a solitary vertebral metastasis of a uterine
      cancer.*Lobectomy performed for a solitary lung metastasis.

PMID- 28560298
TI  - Successful treatment of low-grade endometrial cancer in premenopausal women with
      an aromatase inhibitor after failure with oral or intrauterine progesterone.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Young women with endometrial intraepithelial hyperplasia or low
      grade endometrial carcinoma are potential candidates for conservative fertility
      sparing therapy utilizing progesterone rather than hysterectomy. High-dose
      progesterone treatment is associated with 55-80% initial response but high
      relapse rates. Using aromatase inhibitors in conjunction with high-dose
      progesterone has largely been unstudied. CASE DESCRIPTIONS: Three obese
      premenopausal women with endometrial cancer failed to respond to oral or
      intrauterine progesterone as first line therapy. Due to their desire to continue
      to pursue fertility sparing treatment options, an aromatase inhibitor was added
      to their treatment regimen. This resulted in resolution of their malignancy in
      each case. DISCUSSION: In obese premenopausal women, the mechanism of malignant
      transformation in endometrial carcinoma is considered to be an association with
      relatively high levels of serum estrogen from peripheral conversion of androgens
      to estrone in adipose tissue with a deficiency in progesterone exposure due to
      chronic anovulation. Using aromatase inhibitors seems reasonable as an adjunct to
      progesterone given the high likelihood that this population has a significant
      proportion of their estrogen production coming from peripheral conversion in
      adipose tissue. This case series is unique in that each woman initially failed to
      respond to progesterone but had resolution when an aromatase inhibitor was added
      to their treatment regimen. This would suggest that obese women with low grade
      malignancy or hyperplasia who have no radiographic evidence of deep myometrial
      invasion, ovarian or retroperitoneal metastases and who wish to retain their
      fertility may be treated with intrauterine progesterone and an aromatase
      inhibitor.

PMID- 28560299
TI  - The age-old problem of acne.
AB  - Acne vulgaris is one of the top three most commonly encountered dermatological
      problems worldwide in both primary and secondary care. Acne diagnosis and
      treatment date back to ancient Greek and Egyptian times. This article explores
      acne through the ages and discusses past theories on etiology and treatment with
      particular focus on the discovery of retinoids and their impact on women's
      health.

PMID- 28560301
TI  - Pemphigoid gestationis: Clinical and histologic features of twenty-three
      patients.

PMID- 28560300
TI  - Striae gravidarum: Risk factors, prevention, and management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Striae gravidarum (SG) are atrophic linear scars that represent one
      of the most common connective tissue changes during pregnancy. SG can cause
      emotional and psychological distress for many women. Research on risk factors,
      prevention, and management of SG has been often inconclusive. METHODS: We
      conducted a literature search using textbooks, PubMed, and Medline databases to
      assess research performed on the risk factors, prevention, and management of SG.
      The search included the following key words: striae gravidarum, pregnancy stretch
      marks, and pregnancy stretch. We also reviewed citations within articles to
      identify relevant sources. RESULTS: Younger age, maternal and family history of
      SG, increased pre-pregnancy and pre-delivery weight, and increased birth weight
      were the most significant risk factors identified for SG. Although few studies
      have confirmed effective prevention methods, Centella asiatica extract,
      hyaluronic acid, and daily massages showed some promise. Treatment for general
      striae has greatly improved over the last few years. Topical tretinoin >= 0.05%
      has demonstrated up to 47% improvement of SG and non-ablative fractional lasers
      have consistently demonstrated 50 to 75% improvement in treated lesions of striae
      distensae. CONCLUSION: Overall, SG has seen a resurgence in research over the
      last few years with promising data being released. Results of recent studies
      provide dermatologists with new options for the many women who are affected by
      these disfiguring marks of pregnancy.

PMID- 28560302
TI  - Three cases of localized cutaneous nodular amyloidosis in patients with limited
      systemic sclerosis and a brief literature review.
AB  - Localized cutaneous nodular amyloidosis (LCNA) is the rarest form of localized
      cutaneous amyloidosis. In patients with LCNA, local plasma cells secrete
      immunoglobulin light chains called amyloid L via an unknown mechanism. LCNA has
      been associated with autoimmune connective tissue diseases such as most commonly
      Sjogren syndrome. A few reported cases of LCNA are associated with limited
      systemic sclerosis (LSSc). We report three cases of LCNA in patients with LSSc to
      add to the existing literature, discuss the disease association and proposed
      pathophysiology, and briefly review the existing information in current
      literature. It is important to closely follow patients with LCNA to monitor
      progression to systemic amyloidosis.

PMID- 28560303
TI  - Persistent lip enlargement: An unusual presentation of lupus erythematosus.
AB  - Macrocheilia is a challenging problem with a variety of underlying causes that
      are both local and systemic, and granulomatous causes underlie the majority of
      cases. In this study, we report on a 31-year old man who presented with a chronic
      lower lip enlargement and a nodular submental erythematous lesion. He was
      otherwise clinically healthy. Laboratory test results were within the normal
      limit except for a positive anti-double stranded DNA test result. A diagnosis of
      cutaneous lupus erythematosus was made on the basis of histopathology and direct
      immunofluorescence. The lesions resolved dramatically after treatment with
      hydroxychloroquine. Lupus erythematosus should be considered when examining
      patients who present with chronic lip swelling.

PMID- 28560304
TI  - Defining the mimics and clinico-histological diagnosis criteria for mycosis
      fungoides to minimize misdiagnosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is a significant diagnostic challenge; it has
      various differential diagnosis especially at an early stage. Our aim was to
      describe mimics of MF clinically and histologically, and to define significant
      diagnostic criteria of the disease. METHODS: This was a retro-prospective cohort
      of 370 patients in whom the diagnosis of MF was suspected clinically. RESULTS: MF
      was histologically confirmed in 15.4% of cases and rejected in 84.5%. Other
      identified histologically diagnosis were eczema, psoriasis; nonspecific
      dermatitis, lichen, lupus; pseudolymphoma, parapsoriasis and toxidermia. 4
      patients with palmoplantar MF were wrongly treated as eczema, and 10 patients
      with psoriasiform MF were initially treated as psoriasis. We also described the
      clinical, histological and immunohistochemistry diagnostic criteria for
      distinguishing MF from benign dermatosis. CONCLUSIONS: Misdiagnosis of MF was a
      real problem for this study, because it shared common clinical and histological
      characteristics with other inflammatory diseases like eczema and psoriasis.
      Therefore, defining significant clinico-histological diagnosis criteria of MF
      would be of great help and would increase the accuracy of the diagnosis.

PMID- 28560305
TI  - Hydrocortisone 1% cream and sertaconazole 2% cream to treat facial seborrheic
      dermatitis: A double-blind, randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seborrheic dermatitis (SD) is a chronic dermatitis with periods of
      remission and relapse that requires long-term treatment. OBJECTIVE: We compared
      the efficacy and safety of treatment with sertaconazole with standard
      corticosteroid medications in adults with facial SD. METHODS: In this double
      blind, randomized controlled trial, 60 patients with a diagnosis of SD were
      enrolled. Patients were instructed to apply either sertaconazole 2% cream (30
      patients) or hydrocortisone 1% cream (30 patients) twice daily to the affected
      area of the face. The severity of facial SD was assessed at 0, 2, and 4 weeks of
      treatment. Secondary efficacy measures included patient assessment of seborrhea,
      adverse events, and improvement percentage (IP). RESULTS: SD lesions cleared
      significantly (p < .05) and similarly in both treatment groups (p > .05). Both
      treatments resulted in significant improvement of SD lesions and the rate of
      adverse events was similar in both groups. The IP was higher for treatment with
      hydrocortisone in Week 2 and similar in both groups at the end of the study.
      LIMITATIONS: Limitations include the small number of patients who were recruited
      for this study and the lack of evaluation of time to relapse. CONCLUSION:
      Treatment with topical sertaconazole may be regarded as a substitute for topical
      corticosteroid medications due to the fewer adverse events and similar efficacy.

PMID- 28560306
TI  - Spironolactone for the treatment of acne in women, a retrospective study of 110
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence on the safety and efficacy of
      spironolactone in the treatment of women with acne. Thus, for many dermatologists
      spironolactone remains an alternative rather than a mainstay treatment for female
      patients with acne. METHODS: An electronic medical records search tool was used
      to select data from a group of women who received spironolactone to treat acne
      and were evaluated with the comprehensive acne severity scale (CASS) before
      treatment and at all follow-up visits. Data points were collected for CASS scores
      at each follow-up visit, concurrent and previous treatments, and side effects.
      These data points were used to draw conclusions about the safety and efficacy of
      spironolactone in this patient population. RESULTS: There were 110 patients that
      met all eligibility requirements. Of these, 94 patients saw an improvement in
      their CASS score and 61 patients completely cleared their score to 0. There were
      16 patients who did not improve and six who relapsed after initial improvement.
      The women saw an average improvement in their acne by 73.1% for the face, 75.9%
      for the chest, and 77.6% for the back. Fifty-one women experienced side effects,
      but only six found them bothersome enough to stop taking spironolactone.
      CONCLUSION: A majority of women in this study saw a dramatic improvement in their
      acne while treated with spironolactone. There were low rates of relapse or
      discontinuation of the medication. To further promote the use of spironolactone
      as a first-line systemic treatment for women with acne, there must be more
      prospective controlled trials.

PMID- 28560307
TI  - Lupus profundus limited to a site of trauma: Case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - Lupus erythematosus profundus (LEP) is a rare form of chronic cutaneous lupus
      erythematosus. We report on a case of a 56-year-old Caucasian woman who presented
      with a single, persistent, painful rash on the left hip and lateral aspect of the
      left upper thigh, which had been present for 2.5 years. The patient had a history
      of previous injury to this area before the rash started. Clinical findings showed
      an inflamed, hyperpigmented, and indurated plaque with a linear skin invagination
      and no associated systemic symptoms. A skin biopsy test result confirmed the
      diagnosis of LEP and the clinical and laboratory examinations ruled out systemic
      lupus erythematosus. After 2 months of treatment with methotrexate 20 mg weekly
      and 1 month of prednisolone 7.5 mg daily, the skin rash improved considerably. We
      also present a brief review of the epidemiology, etiology, clinical features,
      histopathology, laboratory findings, differential diagnosis, and treatment of
      LEP.

PMID- 28560308
TI  - Resting-state network dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) literature to examine consistency of functional
      connectivity alterations in AD dementia and mild cognitive impairment, using
      resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS: Studies were
      screened using a standardized procedure. Multiresolution statistics were
      performed to assess the spatial consistency of findings across studies. RESULTS:
      Thirty-four studies were included (1363 participants, average 40 per study).
      Consistent alterations in connectivity were found in the default mode, salience,
      and limbic networks in patients with AD dementia, mild cognitive impairment, or
      in both groups. We also identified a strong tendency in the literature toward
      specific examination of the default mode network. DISCUSSION: Convergent evidence
      across the literature supports the use of resting-state connectivity as a
      biomarker of AD. The locations of consistent alterations suggest that highly
      connected hub regions in the brain might be an early target of AD.

PMID- 28560309
TI  - Single-nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with cognitive decline at
      Alzheimer's disease conversion within mild cognitive impairment patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The growing public threat of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has raised
      the urgency to quantify the degree of cognitive decline during the conversion
      process of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD and its underlying genetic
      pathway. The aim of this article was to test genetic common variants associated
      with accelerated cognitive decline after the conversion of MCI to AD. METHODS: In
      583 subjects with MCI enrolled in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
      (ADNI; ADNI-1, ADNI-Go, and ADNI-2), 245 MCI participants converted to AD at
      follow-up. We tested the interaction effects between individual single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms and AD diagnosis trajectory on the longitudinal Alzheimer's Disease
      Assessment Scale-Cognition scores. RESULTS: Our findings reveal six genes,
      including BDH1, ST6GAL1, RAB20, PDS5B, ADARB2, and SPSB1, which are directly or
      indirectly related to MCI conversion to AD. DISCUSSION: This genome-wide
      association study sheds light on a genetic mechanism of longitudinal cognitive
      changes during the transition period from MCI to AD.

PMID- 28560310
TI  - Longitudinal evaluation of criteria for subjective cognitive decline and
      preclinical Alzheimer's disease in a memory clinic sample.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and biomarker-based "at-risk"
      concepts such as "preclinical" Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been developed to
      predict AD dementia before objective cognitive impairment is detectable. We
      longitudinally evaluated cognitive outcome when using these classifications.
      METHODS: Memory clinic patients (n = 235) were classified as SCD (n = 122):
      subtle cognitive decline (n = 36) and mild cognitive impairment (n = 77) and
      subsequently subclassified into SCDplus and National Institute on Aging
      Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) stages 0 to 3. Mean (standard deviation) follow
      up time was 48 (35) months. Proportion declining cognitively and prognostic
      accuracy for cognitive decline was calculated for all classifications. RESULTS:
      Among SCDplus patients, 43% to 48% declined cognitively. Among NIA-AA stage 1 to
      3 patients, 50% to 100% declined cognitively. The highest positive likelihood
      ratios (+LRs) for subsequent cognitive decline (+LR 6.3), dementia (+LR 3.4), and
      AD dementia (+LR 6.5) were found for NIA-AA stage 2. DISCUSSION: In a memory
      clinic setting, NIA-AA stage 2 seems to be the most successful classification in
      predicting objective cognitive decline, dementia, and AD dementia.

PMID- 28560312
TI  - Editorial: eNeuro Offers a Unique Interactive Experience to Reviewer Training.

PMID- 28560314
TI  - Correction: Horikawa and Ojima. Cortical Activation Patterns Evoked by Temporally
      Asymmetric Sounds and Their Modulation by Learning (eNeuro March/April 2017, 4(2)
      e0241-16.2017 1-19 https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0241-16.2017).
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0241-16.2017.].

PMID- 28560311
TI  - Acute Knockdown of Kv4.1 Regulates Repetitive Firing Rates and Clock Gene
      Expression in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus and Daily Rhythms in Locomotor
      Behavior.
AB  - Rapidly activating and inactivating A-type K+ currents (IA) encoded by Kv4.2 and
      Kv4.3 pore-forming (alpha) subunits of the Kv4 subfamily are key regulators of
      neuronal excitability. Previous studies have suggested a role for Kv4.1 alpha
      subunits in regulating the firing properties of mouse suprachiasmatic nucleus
      (SCN) neurons. To test this, we utilized an RNA-interference strategy to
      knockdown Kv4.1, acutely and selectively, in the SCN. Current-clamp recordings
      revealed that the in vivo knockdown of Kv4.1 significantly (p < 0.0001) increased
      mean +/- SEM repetitive firing rates in SCN neurons during the day (6.4 +/- 0.5
      Hz) and at night (4.3 +/- 0.6 Hz), compared with nontargeted shRNA-expressing SCN
      neurons (day: 3.1 +/- 0.5 Hz; night: 1.6 +/- 0.3 Hz). IA was also significantly
      (p < 0.05) reduced in Kv4.1-targeted shRNA-expressing SCN neurons (day: 80.3 +/-
      11.8 pA/pF; night: 55.3 +/- 7.7 pA/pF), compared with nontargeted shRNA
      expressing (day: 121.7 +/- 10.2 pA/pF; night: 120.6 +/- 16.5 pA/pF) SCN neurons.
      The magnitude of the effect of Kv4.1-targeted shRNA expression on firing rates
      and IA was larger at night. In addition, Kv4.1-targeted shRNA expression
      significantly (p < 0.001) increased mean +/- SEM nighttime input resistance (Rin;
      2256 +/- 166 MOmega), compared to nontargeted shRNA-expressing SCN neurons (1143
      +/- 93 MOmega). Additional experiments revealed that acute knockdown of Kv4.1
      significantly (p < 0.01) shortened, by ~0.5 h, the circadian period of
      spontaneous electrical activity, clock gene expression and locomotor activity
      demonstrating a physiological role for Kv4.1-encoded IA channels in regulating
      circadian rhythms in neuronal excitability and behavior.

PMID- 28560313
TI  - Urothelial Tight Junction Barrier Dysfunction Sensitizes Bladder Afferents.
AB  - Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic voiding
      disorder that presents with pain in the urinary bladder and surrounding pelvic
      region. A growing body of evidence suggests that an increase in the permeability
      of the urothelium, the epithelial barrier that lines the interior of the bladder,
      contributes to the symptoms of IC/BPS. To examine the consequence of increased
      urothelial permeability on pelvic pain and afferent excitability, we
      overexpressed in the urothelium claudin 2 (Cldn2), a tight junction (TJ)
      associated protein whose message is significantly upregulated in biopsies of
      IC/BPS patients. Consistent with the presence of bladder-derived pain, rats
      overexpressing Cldn2 showed hypersensitivity to von Frey filaments applied to the
      pelvic region. Overexpression of Cldn2 increased the expression of c-Fos and
      promoted the activation of ERK1/2 in spinal cord segments receiving bladder
      input, which we conceive is the result of noxious stimulation of afferent
      pathways. To determine whether the mechanical allodynia observed in rats with
      reduced urothelial barrier function results from altered afferent activity, we
      examined the firing of acutely isolated bladder sensory neurons. In patch-clamp
      recordings, about 30% of the bladder sensory neurons from rats transduced with
      Cldn2, but not controls transduced with GFP, displayed spontaneous activity.
      Furthermore, bladder sensory neurons with tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) action
      potentials from rats transduced with Cldn2 showed hyperexcitability in response
      to suprathreshold electrical stimulation. These findings suggest that as a result
      of a leaky urothelium, the diffusion of urinary solutes through the urothelial
      barrier sensitizes bladders afferents, promoting voiding at low filling volumes
      and pain.

PMID- 28560315
TI  - Proactive Control: Neural Oscillatory Correlates of Conflict Anticipation and
      Response Slowing.
AB  - Proactive control allows us to anticipate environmental changes and adjust
      behavioral strategy. In the laboratory, investigators have used a number of
      different behavioral paradigms, including the stop-signal task (SST), to examine
      the neural processes of proactive control. Previous functional MRI studies of the
      SST have demonstrated regional responses to conflict anticipation-the likelihood
      of a stop signal or P(stop) as estimated by a Bayesian model-and reaction time
      (RT) slowing and how these responses are interrelated. Here, in an
      electrophysiological study, we investigated the time-frequency domain substrates
      of proactive control. The results showed that conflict anticipation as indexed by
      P(stop) was positively correlated with the power in low-theta band (3-5 Hz) in
      the fixation (trial onset)-locked interval, and go-RT was negatively correlated
      with the power in delta-theta band (2-8 Hz) in the go-locked interval. Stimulus
      prediction error was positively correlated with the power in the low-beta band
      (12-22 Hz) in the stop-locked interval. Further, the power of the P(stop) and go
      RT clusters was negatively correlated, providing a mechanism relating conflict
      anticipation to RT slowing in the SST. Source reconstruction with beamformer
      localized these time-frequency activities close to brain regions as revealed by
      functional MRI in earlier work. These are the novel results to show oscillatory
      electrophysiological substrates in support of trial-by-trial behavioral
      adjustment for proactive control.

PMID- 28560316
TI  - VMAT2-Mediated Neurotransmission from Midbrain Leptin Receptor Neurons in Feeding
      Regulation.
AB  - Leptin receptors (LepRs) expressed in the midbrain contribute to the action of
      leptin on feeding regulation. The midbrain neurons release a variety of
      neurotransmitters including dopamine (DA), glutamate and GABA. However, which
      neurotransmitter mediates midbrain leptin action on feeding remains unclear.
      Here, we showed that midbrain LepR neurons overlap with a subset of dopaminergic,
      GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons. Specific removal of vesicular monoamine
      transporter 2 (VMAT2) in midbrain LepR neurons (KO mice) disrupted DA
      accumulation in vesicles, but failed to cause a significant change in the evoked
      release of either glutamate or GABA to downstream neurons. While KO mice showed
      no differences on chow, they presented a reduced high-fat diet (HFD) intake and
      resisted to HFD-induced obesity. Specific activation of midbrain LepR neurons
      promoted VMAT2-dependent feeding on chow and HFD. When tested with an
      intermittent access to HFD where first 2.5-h HFD eating (binge-like) and 24-h HFD
      feeding were measured, KO mice exhibited more binge-like, but less 24-h HFD
      feeding. Interestingly, leptin inhibited 24-h HFD feeding in controls but not in
      KO mice. Thus, VMAT2-mediated neurotransmission from midbrain LepR neurons
      contributes to both binge-like eating and HFD feeding regulation.

PMID- 28560317
TI  - Gain Control in Predictive Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements: Evidence for an
      Acceleration-Based Predictive Mechanism.
AB  - The smooth pursuit eye movement system incorporates various control features
      enabling adaptation to specific tracking situations. In this work, we analyzed
      the interplay between two of these mechanisms: gain control and predictive
      pursuit. We tested human responses to high-frequency perturbations during step
      ramp pursuit, as well as the pursuit of a periodically moving target. For the
      latter task, we found a nonlinear interaction between perturbation response and
      carrier acceleration. Responses to perturbations where the initial perturbation
      acceleration was contradirectional to carrier acceleration increased with carrier
      velocity, in a manner similar to that observed during step-ramp pursuit. In
      contrast, responses to perturbations with ipsidirectional initial perturbation
      and carrier acceleration were large for all carrier velocities. Modeling the
      pursuit system suggests that gain control and short-term prediction are separable
      elements. The observed effect may be explained by combining the standard gain
      control mechanism with a derivative-based short-term predictive mechanism. The
      nonlinear interaction between perturbation and carrier acceleration can be
      reproduced by assuming a signal saturation, which is acting on the derivative of
      the target velocity signal. Our results therefore argue for the existence of an
      internal estimate of target acceleration as a basis for a simple yet efficient
      short-term predictive mechanism.

PMID- 28560318
TI  - Differential Effects of Retinoic Acid Concentrations in Regulating Blood-Brain
      Barrier Properties.
AB  - The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a multifaceted property of the brain vasculature
      that protects the brain and maintains homeostasis by tightly regulating the flux
      of ions, molecules, and cells across the vasculature. Blood vessels in the brain
      are formed by endothelial cells that acquire barrier properties, such as tight
      and adherens junctions, soon after the brain vasculature is formed. Endothelial
      WNT signaling is crucial to induce these BBB properties by regulating their
      expression and stabilization. Recent studies have implicated retinoic acid (RA)
      signaling in BBB development and shown that pharmacological concentrations of RA
      (>=5 um) can induce BBB properties in cultured brain endothelial cells. However,
      a recent study demonstrated that RA inhibits endothelial WNT signaling during
      brain development, suggesting that RA does not promote BBB properties. We
      therefore investigated whether RA plays a physiological role in BBB development.
      We found that BBB function and junctional protein expression was unaffected in
      mouse mutants that have a reduced capacity to synthesize RA (Rdh10 mutants).
      Furthermore, embryos exposed to a RA-enriched diet did not enhance BBB protein
      expression. Together, our data indicate that RA is not capable of inducing, nor
      is it required for, BBB protein expression in vivo. Like other studies, we found
      that pharmacological concentrations of RA induce BBB genes in cultured murine
      brain endothelial cells, and this may involve activation of the LXR/RXR signaling
      pathway. Our data do not support a role for RA in BBB development, but confirm
      reports that pharmacological RA is a robust tool to induce BBB properties in
      culture.

PMID- 28560319
TI  - Cyclical nursing patterns in wild orangutans.
AB  - Nursing behavior is notoriously difficult to study in arboreal primates,
      particularly when offspring suckle inconspicuously in nests. Orangutans have the
      most prolonged nursing period of any mammal, with the cessation of suckling
      (weaning) estimated to occur at 6 to 8 years of age in the wild. Milk consumption
      is hypothesized to be relatively constant over this period, but direct evidence
      is limited. We previously demonstrated that trace element analysis of
      bioavailable elements from milk, such as barium, provides accurate estimates of
      early-life diet transitions and developmental stress when coupled with growth
      lines in the teeth of humans and nonhuman primates. We provide the first detailed
      nursing histories of wild, unprovisioned orangutans (Pongo abelii and Pongo
      pygmaeus) using chemical and histological analyses. Laser ablation inductively
      coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to determine barium distributions
      across the teeth of four wild-shot individuals aged from postnatal biological
      rhythms. Barium levels rose during the first year of life in all individuals and
      began to decline shortly after, consistent with behavioral observations of
      intensive nursing followed by solid food supplementation. Subsequent barium
      levels show large sustained fluctuations on an approximately annual basis. These
      patterns appear to be due to cycles of varying milk consumption, continuing until
      death in an 8.8-year-old Sumatran individual. A female Bornean orangutan ceased
      suckling at 8.1 years of age. These individuals exceed the maximum weaning age
      reported for any nonhuman primate. Orangutan nursing may reflect cycles of infant
      demand that relate to fluctuating resource availability.

PMID- 28560320
TI  - Nighttime temperature and human sleep loss in a changing climate.
AB  - Human sleep is highly regulated by temperature. Might climate change-through
      increases in nighttime heat-disrupt sleep in the future? We conduct the inaugural
      investigation of the relationship between climatic anomalies, reports of
      insufficient sleep, and projected climate change. Using data from 765,000 U.S.
      survey respondents from 2002 to 2011, coupled with nighttime temperature data, we
      show that increases in nighttime temperatures amplify self-reported nights of
      insufficient sleep. We observe the largest effects during the summer and among
      both lower-income and elderly respondents. We combine our historical estimates
      with climate model projections and detail the potential sleep impacts of future
      climatic changes. Our study represents the largest ever investigation of the
      relationship between sleep and ambient temperature and provides the first
      evidence that climate change may disrupt human sleep.

PMID- 28560322
TI  - Perpetuating the myth of the return of native forests.
AB  - Vina et al. imply that native forests account for China's marked increase in tree
      cover and that tree plantations play a minimal role. All 71 tweets linked to the
      article reinforce the idea that China's native forests are returning, whereas a
      review of their methodology indicates that it is not likely accurate. Referring
      news articles (n = 19) were dominated by terms associated with native forests,
      whereas tree plantations were rarely mentioned.

PMID- 28560321
TI  - Directional mechanical stability of Bacteriophage phi29 motor's 3WJ-pRNA:
      Extraordinary robustness along portal axis.
AB  - The molecular motor exploited by bacteriophage phi29 to pack DNA into its capsid
      is regarded as one of the most powerful mechanical devices present in viral,
      bacterial, and eukaryotic systems alike. Acting as a linker element, a prohead
      RNA (pRNA) effectively joins the connector and ATPase (adenosine triphosphatase)
      components of the phi29 motor. During DNA packing, this pRNA needs to withstand
      enormous strain along the capsid's portal axis-how this remarkable stability is
      achieved remains to be elucidated. We investigate the mechanical properties of
      the phi29 motor's three-way junction (3WJ)-pRNA using a combined steered
      molecular dynamics and atomic force spectroscopy approach. The 3WJ exhibits
      strong resistance to stretching along its coaxial helices, demonstrating its
      super structural robustness. This resistance disappears, however, when external
      forces are applied to the transverse directions. From a molecular standpoint, we
      demonstrate that this direction-dependent stability can be attributed to two Mg
      clamps that cooperate and generate mechanical resistance in the pRNA's coaxial
      direction. Our results suggest that the asymmetric nature of the 3WJ's mechanical
      stability is entwined with its biological function: Enhanced rigidity along the
      portal axis is likely essential to withstand the strain caused by DNA
      condensation, and flexibility in other directions should aid in the assembly of
      the pRNA and its association with other motor components.

PMID- 28560324
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9 gene drives in genetically variable and nonrandomly mating wild
      populations.
AB  - Synthetic gene drives based on CRISPR/Cas9 have the potential to control, alter,
      or suppress populations of crop pests and disease vectors, but it is unclear how
      they will function in wild populations. Using genetic data from four populations
      of the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, we show that most populations harbor
      genetic variants in Cas9 target sites, some of which would render them immune to
      drive (ITD). We show that even a rare ITD allele can reduce or eliminate the
      efficacy of a CRISPR/Cas9-based synthetic gene drive. This effect is equivalent
      to and accentuated by mild inbreeding, which is a characteristic of many disease
      vectoring arthropods. We conclude that designing such drives will require
      characterization of genetic variability and the mating system within and among
      targeted populations.

PMID- 28560323
TI  - CTCF facilitates DNA double-strand break repair by enhancing homologous
      recombination repair.
AB  - The repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is mediated via two major pathways,
      nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR) repair. DSB
      repair is vital for cell survival, genome stability, and tumor suppression. In
      contrast to NHEJ, HR relies on extensive homology and templated DNA synthesis to
      restore the sequence surrounding the break site. We report a new role for the
      multifunctional protein CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) in facilitating HR-mediated
      DSB repair. CTCF is recruited to DSB through its zinc finger domain independently
      of poly(ADP-ribose) polymers, known as PARylation, catalyzed by poly(ADP-ribose)
      polymerase 1 (PARP-1). CTCF ensures proper DSB repair kinetics in response to
      gamma-irradiation, and the loss of CTCF compromises HR-mediated repair.
      Consistent with its role in HR, loss of CTCF results in hypersensitivity to DNA
      damage, inducing agents and inhibitors of PARP. Mechanistically, CTCF acts
      downstream of BRCA1 in the HR pathway and associates with BRCA2 in a PARylation
      dependent manner, enhancing BRCA2 recruitment to DSB. In contrast, CTCF does not
      influence the recruitment of the NHEJ protein 53BP1 or LIGIV to DSB. Together,
      our findings establish for the first time that CTCF is an important regulator of
      the HR pathway.

PMID- 28560325
TI  - Harnessing the hygroscopic and biofluorescent behaviors of genetically tractable
      microbial cells to design biohybrid wearables.
AB  - Cells' biomechanical responses to external stimuli have been intensively studied
      but rarely implemented into devices that interact with the human body. We
      demonstrate that the hygroscopic and biofluorescent behaviors of living cells can
      be engineered to design biohybrid wearables, which give multifunctional
      responsiveness to human sweat. By depositing genetically tractable microbes on a
      humidity-inert material to form a heterogeneous multilayered structure, we
      obtained biohybrid films that can reversibly change shape and biofluorescence
      intensity within a few seconds in response to environmental humidity gradients.
      Experimental characterization and mechanical modeling of the film were performed
      to guide the design of a wearable running suit and a fluorescent shoe prototype
      with bio-flaps that dynamically modulates ventilation in synergy with the body's
      need for cooling.

PMID- 28560326
TI  - Field-induced magnetic instability within a superconducting condensate.
AB  - The application of magnetic fields, chemical substitution, or hydrostatic
      pressure to strongly correlated electron materials can stabilize electronic
      phases with different organizational principles. We present evidence for a field
      induced quantum phase transition, in superconducting Nd0.05Ce0.95CoIn5, that
      separates two antiferromagnetic phases with identical magnetic symmetry. At zero
      field, we find a spin-density wave that is suppressed at the critical field MU0H*
      = 8 T. For H > H*, a spin-density phase emerges and shares many properties with
      the Q phase in CeCoIn5. These results suggest that the magnetic instability is
      not magnetically driven, and we propose that it is driven by a modification of
      superconducting condensate at H*.

PMID- 28560328
TI  - Does basic energy access generate socioeconomic benefits? A field experiment with
      off-grid solar power in India.
AB  - This article assesses the socioeconomic effects of solar microgrids. The lack of
      access to electricity is a major obstacle to the socioeconomic development of
      more than a billion people. Off-grid solar technologies hold potential as an
      affordable and clean solution to satisfy basic electricity needs. We conducted a
      randomized field experiment in India to estimate the causal effect of off-grid
      solar power on electricity access and broader socioeconomic development of 1281
      rural households. Within a year, electrification rates in the treatment group
      increased by 29 to 36 percentage points. Daily hours of access to electricity
      increased only by 0.99 to 1.42 hours, and the confidence intervals are wide.
      Kerosene expenditure on the black market decreased by 47 to 49 rupees per month.
      Despite these strong electrification and expenditure effects, we found no
      systematic evidence for changes in savings, spending, business creation, time
      spent working or studying, or other broader indicators of socioeconomic
      development.

PMID- 28560329
TI  - Fast label-free multilayered histology-like imaging of human breast cancer by
      photoacoustic microscopy.
AB  - The goal of breast-conserving surgery is to completely remove all of the cancer.
      Currently, no intraoperative tools can microscopically analyze the entire
      lumpectomy specimen, which results in 20 to 60% of patients undergoing second
      surgeries to achieve clear margins. To address this critical need, we have laid
      the foundation for the development of a device that could allow accurate
      intraoperative margin assessment. We demonstrate that by taking advantage of the
      intrinsic optical contrast of breast tissue, photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) can
      achieve multilayered histology-like imaging of the tissue surface. The high
      correlation of the PAM images to the conventional histologic images allows rapid
      computations of diagnostic features such as nuclear size and packing density,
      potentially identifying small clusters of cancer cells. Because PAM does not
      require tissue processing or staining, it can be performed promptly and
      intraoperatively, enabling immediate directed re-excision and reducing the number
      of second surgeries.

PMID- 28560327
TI  - Antibody-mediated neutralization of soluble MIC significantly enhances CTLA4
      blockade therapy.
AB  - Antibody therapy targeting cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4)
      elicited survival benefits in cancer patients; however, the overall response rate
      is limited. In addition, anti-CTLA4 antibody therapy induces a high rate of
      immune-related adverse events. The underlying factors that may influence anti
      CTLA4 antibody therapy are not well defined. We report the impact of a cancer
      derived immune modulator, the human-soluble natural killer group 2D (NKG2D)
      ligand sMIC (soluble major histocompatibility complex I chain-related molecule),
      on the therapeutic outcome of anti-CTLA4 antibody using an MIC transgenic
      spontaneous TRAMP (transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate)/MIC tumor
      model. Unexpectedly, animals with elevated serum sMIC (sMIChi) responded poorly
      to anti-CTLA4 antibody therapy, with significantly shortened survival due to
      increased lung metastasis. These sMIChi animals also developed colitis in
      response to anti-CTLA4 antibody therapy. Coadministration of an sMIC-neutralizing
      monoclonal antibody with the anti-CTLA4 antibody alleviated treatment-induced
      colitis in sMIChi animals and generated a cooperative antitumor therapeutic
      effect by synergistically augmenting innate and adoptive antitumor immune
      responses. Our findings imply that a new combination therapy could improve the
      clinical response to anti-CTLA4 antibody therapy. Our findings also suggest that
      prescreening cancer patients for serum sMIC may help in selecting candidates who
      will elicit a better response to anti-CTLA4 antibody therapy.

PMID- 28560330
TI  - A two-dimensional semiconductor transistor with boosted gate control and sensing
      ability.
AB  - Transistors with exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) materials on a SiO2/Si substrate
      have been applied and have been proven effective in a wide range of applications,
      such as circuits, memory, photodetectors, gas sensors, optical modulators,
      valleytronics, and spintronics. However, these devices usually suffer from
      limited gate control because of the thick SiO2 gate dielectric and the lack of
      reliable transfer method. We introduce a new back-gate transistor scheme
      fabricated on a novel Al2O3/ITO (indium tin oxide)/SiO2/Si "stack" substrate,
      which was engineered with distinguishable optical identification of exfoliated 2D
      materials. High-quality exfoliated 2D materials could be easily obtained and
      recognized on this stack. Two typical 2D materials, MoS2 and ReS2, were
      implemented to demonstrate the enhancement of gate controllability. Both
      transistors show excellent electrical characteristics, including steep
      subthreshold swing (62 mV dec-1 for MoS2 and 83 mV dec-1 for ReS2), high mobility
      (61.79 cm2 V-1 s-1 for MoS2 and 7.32 cm2 V-1 s-1 for ReS2), large on/off ratio
      (~107), and reasonable working gate bias (below 3 V). Moreover, MoS2 and ReS2
      photodetectors fabricated on the basis of the scheme have impressively leading
      photoresponsivities of 4000 and 760 A W-1 in the depletion area, respectively,
      and both have exceeded 106 A W-1 in the accumulation area, which is the best ever
      obtained. This opens up a suite of applications of this novel platform in 2D
      materials research with increasing needs of enhanced gate control.

PMID- 28560331
TI  - Repeated divergent selection on pigmentation genes in a rapid finch radiation.
AB  - Instances of recent and rapid speciation are suitable for associating phenotypes
      with their causal genotypes, especially if gene flow homogenizes areas of the
      genome that are not under divergent selection. We study a rapid radiation of nine
      sympatric bird species known as capuchino seedeaters, which are differentiated in
      sexually selected characters of male plumage and song. We sequenced the genomes
      of a phenotypically diverse set of species to search for differentiated genomic
      regions. Capuchinos show differences in a small proportion of their genomes, yet
      selection has acted independently on the same targets in different members of
      this radiation. Many divergent regions contain genes involved in the
      melanogenesis pathway, with the strongest signal originating from putative
      regulatory regions. Selection has acted on these same genomic regions in
      different lineages, likely shaping the evolution of cis-regulatory elements,
      which control how more conserved genes are expressed and thereby generate
      diversity in classically sexually selected traits.

PMID- 28560332
TI  - Dynamic and programmable self-assembly of micro-rafts at the air-water interface.
AB  - Dynamic self-assembled material systems constantly consume energy to maintain
      their spatiotemporal structures and functions. Programmable self-assembly
      translates information from individual parts to the collective whole. Combining
      dynamic and programmable self-assembly in a single platform opens up the
      possibilities to investigate both types of self-assembly simultaneously and to
      explore their synergy. This task is challenging because of the difficulty in
      finding suitable interactions that are both dissipative and programmable. We
      present a dynamic and programmable self-assembling material system consisting of
      spinning at the air-water interface circular magnetic micro-rafts of radius 50
      MUm and with cosinusoidal edge-height profiles. The cosinusoidal edge-height
      profiles not only create a net dissipative capillary repulsion that is sustained
      by continuous torque input but also enable directional assembly of micro-rafts.
      We uncover the layered arrangement of micro-rafts in the patterns formed by
      dynamic self-assembly and offer mechanistic insights through a physical model and
      geometric analysis. Furthermore, we demonstrate programmable self-assembly and
      show that a 4-fold rotational symmetry encoded in individual micro-rafts
      translates into 90 degrees  bending angles and square-based tiling in the
      assembled structures of micro-rafts. We anticipate that our dynamic and
      programmable material system will serve as a model system for studying
      nonequilibrium dynamics and statistical mechanics in the future.

PMID- 28560335
TI  - Global disparity in the supply of commercial weather and climate information
      services.
AB  - Information about weather and climate is vital for many areas of decision-making,
      particularly under conditions of increasing vulnerability and uncertainty related
      to climate change. We have quantified the global commercial supply of weather and
      climate information services. Although government data are sometimes freely
      available, the interpretation and analysis of those data, alongside additional
      data collection, are required to formulate responses to specific challenges in
      areas such as health, agriculture, and the built environment. Using transactional
      data, we analyzed annual spending by private and public organizations on
      commercial weather and climate information in more than 180 countries by
      industrial sector, region, per capita, and percentage of GDP (gross domestic
      product) and against the country's climate and extreme weather risk. There are
      major imbalances regarding access to these essential services between different
      countries based on region and development status. There is also no relationship
      between the level of climate and weather risks that a country faces and the level
      of per capita spending on commercial weather and climate information in that
      country. At the international level, action is being taken to improve access to
      information services. With a better understanding of the flows of commercial
      weather and climate information, as explored in this study, it will be possible
      to tackle these regional and development-related disparities and thus to increase
      resilience to climate and weather risks.

PMID- 28560334
TI  - Extraordinary linear dynamic range in laser-defined functionalized graphene
      photodetectors.
AB  - Graphene-based photodetectors have demonstrated mechanical flexibility, large
      operating bandwidth, and broadband spectral response. However, their linear
      dynamic range (LDR) is limited by graphene's intrinsic hot-carrier dynamics,
      which causes deviation from a linear photoresponse at low incident powers. At the
      same time, multiplication of hot carriers causes the photoactive region to be
      smeared over distances of a few micrometers, limiting the use of graphene in high
      resolution applications. We present a novel method for engineering photoactive
      junctions in FeCl3-intercalated graphene using laser irradiation. Photocurrent
      measured at these planar junctions shows an extraordinary linear response with an
      LDR value at least 4500 times larger than that of other graphene devices (44 dB)
      while maintaining high stability against environmental contamination without the
      need for encapsulation. The observed photoresponse is purely photovoltaic,
      demonstrating complete quenching of hot-carrier effects. These results pave the
      way toward the design of ultrathin photodetectors with unprecedented LDR for high
      definition imaging and sensing.

PMID- 28560333
TI  - Learning to read alters cortico-subcortical cross-talk in the visual system of
      illiterates.
AB  - Learning to read is known to result in a reorganization of the developing
      cerebral cortex. In this longitudinal resting-state functional magnetic resonance
      imaging study in illiterate adults, we show that only 6 months of literacy
      training can lead to neuroplastic changes in the mature brain. We observed that
      literacy-induced neuroplasticity is not confined to the cortex but increases the
      functional connectivity between the occipital lobe and subcortical areas in the
      midbrain and the thalamus. Individual rates of connectivity increase were
      significantly related to the individual decoding skill gains. These findings
      crucially complement current neurobiological concepts of normal and impaired
      literacy acquisition.

PMID- 28560336
TI  - Chiral plasmonics.
AB  - We present a comprehensive overview of chirality and its optical manifestation in
      plasmonic nanosystems and nanostructures. We discuss top-down fabricated
      structures that range from solid metallic nanostructures to groupings of metallic
      nanoparticles arranged in three dimensions. We also present the large variety of
      bottom-up synthesized structures. Using DNA, peptides, or other scaffolds,
      complex nanoparticle arrangements of up to hundreds of individual nanoparticles
      have been realized. Beyond this static picture, we also give an overview of
      recent demonstrations of active chiral plasmonic systems, where the chiral
      optical response can be controlled by an external stimulus. We discuss the
      prospect of using the unique properties of complex chiral plasmonic systems for
      enantiomeric sensing schemes.

PMID- 28560337
TI  - Simple technologies and diverse food strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early
      Holocene at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru.
AB  - Simple pebble tools, ephemeral cultural features, and the remains of maritime and
      terrestrial foods are present in undisturbed Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene
      deposits underneath a large human-made mound at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites on
      the Pacific coast of northern Peru. Radiocarbon ages indicate an intermittent
      human presence dated between ~15,000 and 8000 calendar years ago before the mound
      was built. The absence of fishhooks, harpoons, and bifacial stone tools suggests
      that technologies of gathering, trapping, clubbing, and exchange were used
      primarily to procure food resources along the shoreline and in estuarine wetlands
      and distant mountains. The stone artifacts are minimally worked unifacial stone
      tools characteristic of several areas of South America. Remains of avocado, bean,
      and possibly cultivated squash and chile pepper are also present, suggesting
      human transport and consumption. Our new findings emphasize an early coastal
      lifeway of diverse food procurement strategies that suggest detailed observation
      of resource availability in multiple environments and a knowledgeable economic
      organization, although technologies were simple and campsites were seemingly
      ephemeral and discontinuous. These findings raise questions about the pace of
      early human movement along some areas of the Pacific coast and the level of
      knowledge and technology required to exploit maritime and inland resources.

PMID- 28560338
TI  - High seismic attenuation at a mid-ocean ridge reveals the distribution of deep
      melt.
AB  - At most mid-ocean ridges, a wide region of decompression melting must be
      reconciled with a narrow neovolcanic zone and the establishment of full oceanic
      crustal thickness close to the rift axis. Two competing paradigms have been
      proposed to explain melt focusing: narrow mantle upwelling due to dynamic effects
      related to in situ melt or wide mantle upwelling with lateral melt transport in
      inclined channels. Measurements of seismic attenuation provide a tool for
      identifying and characterizing the presence of melt and thermal heterogeneity in
      the upper mantle. We use a unique data set of teleseismic body waves recorded on
      the Cascadia Initiative's Amphibious Array to simultaneously measure seismic
      attenuation and velocity across an entire oceanic microplate. We observe maximal
      differential attenuation and the largest delays ([Formula: see text] s and
      deltaTS ~ 2 s) in a narrow zone <50 km from the Juan de Fuca and Gorda ridge
      axes, with values that are not consistent with laboratory estimates of
      temperature or water effects. The implied seismic quality factor (Qs <= 25) is
      among the lowest observed worldwide. Models harnessing experimentally derived
      anelastic scaling relationships require a 150-km-deep subridge region containing
      up to 2% in situ melt. The low viscosity and low density associated with this
      deep, narrow melt column provide the conditions for dynamic mantle upwelling,
      explaining a suite of geophysical observations at ridges, including electrical
      conductivity and shear velocity anomalies.

PMID- 28560339
TI  - Robust nanogenerators based on graft copolymers via control of dielectrics for
      remarkable output power enhancement.
AB  - A robust nanogenerator based on poly(tert-butyl acrylate) (PtBA)-grafted
      polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) copolymers via dielectric constant control
      through an atom-transfer radical polymerization technique, which can markedly
      increase the output power, is demonstrated. The copolymer is mainly composed of
      alpha phases with enhanced dipole moments due to the pi-bonding and polar
      characteristics of the ester functional groups in the PtBA, resulting in the
      increase of dielectric constant values by approximately twice, supported by
      Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements. This increase in the dielectric
      constant significantly increased the density of the charges that can be
      accumulated on the copolymer during physical contact. The nanogenerator generates
      output signals of 105 V and 25 MUA/cm2, a 20-fold enhancement in output power,
      compared to pristine PVDF-based nanogenerator after tuning the surface potential
      using a poling method. The markedly enhanced output performance is quite stable
      and reliable in harsh mechanical environments due to the high flexibility of the
      films. On the basis of these results, a much faster charging characteristic is
      demonstrated in this study.

PMID- 28560340
TI  - Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion
      sputtering.
AB  - By introducing a superconducting gap in Weyl or Dirac semimetals, the
      superconducting state inherits the nontrivial topology of their electronic
      structure. As a result, Weyl superconductors are expected to host exotic
      phenomena, such as nonzero-momentum pairing due to their chiral node structure,
      or zero-energy Majorana modes at the surface. These are of fundamental interest
      to improve our understanding of correlated topological systems, and, moreover,
      practical applications in phase-coherent devices and quantum applications have
      been proposed. Proximity-induced superconductivity promises to allow these
      experiments on nonsuperconducting Weyl semimetals. We show a new route to
      reliably fabricate superconducting microstructures from the nonsuperconducting
      Weyl semimetal NbAs under ion irradiation. The significant difference in the
      surface binding energy of Nb and As leads to a natural enrichment of Nb at the
      surface during ion milling, forming a superconducting surface layer (Tc ~ 3.5 K).
      Being formed from the target crystal itself, the ideal contact between the
      superconductor and the bulk may enable an effective gapping of the Weyl nodes in
      the bulk because of the proximity effect. Simple ion irradiation may thus serve
      as a powerful tool for the fabrication of topological quantum devices from
      monoarsenides, even on an industrial scale.

PMID- 28560341
TI  - Photonic-plasmonic hybrid single-molecule nanosensor measures the effect of
      fluorescent labels on DNA-protein dynamics.
AB  - Current methods to study molecular interactions require labeling the subject
      molecules with fluorescent reporters. However, the effect of the fluorescent
      reporters on molecular dynamics has not been quantified because of a lack of
      alternative methods. We develop a hybrid photonic-plasmonic antenna-in-a
      nanocavity single-molecule biosensor to study DNA-protein dynamics without using
      fluorescent labels. Our results indicate that the fluorescein and fluorescent
      protein labels decrease the interaction between a single DNA and a protein due to
      weakened electrostatic interaction. Although the study is performed on the DNA
      XPA system, the conclusion has a general implication that the traditional
      fluorescent labeling methods might be misestimating the molecular interactions.

PMID- 28560342
TI  - How birds direct impulse to minimize the energetic cost of foraging flight.
AB  - Birds frequently hop and fly between tree branches to forage. To determine the
      mechanical energy trade-offs of their bimodal locomotion, we rewarded four
      Pacific parrotlets with a seed for flying voluntarily between instrumented
      perches inside a new aerodynamic force platform. By integrating direct
      measurements of both leg and wing forces with kinematics in a bimodal long jump
      and flight model, we discovered that parrotlets direct their leg impulse to
      minimize the mechanical energy needed to forage over different distances and
      inclinations. The bimodal locomotion model further shows how even a small lift
      contribution from a single proto-wingbeat would have significantly lengthened the
      long jump of foraging arboreal dinosaurs. These avian bimodal locomotion
      strategies can also help robots traverse cluttered environments more effectively.

PMID- 28560343
TI  - Divergence of species responses to climate change.
AB  - Climate change can have profound impacts on biodiversity and the sustainability
      of many ecosystems. Various studies have investigated the impacts of climate
      change, but large-scale, trait-specific impacts are less understood. We analyze
      abundance data over time for 86 tree species/groups across the eastern United
      States spanning the last three decades. We show that more tree species have
      experienced a westward shift (73%) than a poleward shift (62%) in their
      abundance, a trend that is stronger for saplings than adult trees. The observed
      shifts are primarily due to the changes of subpopulation abundances in the
      leading edges and are significantly associated with changes in moisture
      availability and successional processes. These spatial shifts are associated with
      species that have similar traits (drought tolerance, wood density, and seed
      weight) and evolutionary histories (most angiosperms shifted westward and most
      gymnosperms shifted poleward). Our results indicate that changes in moisture
      availability have stronger near-term impacts on vegetation dynamics than changes
      in temperature. The divergent responses to climate change by trait- and
      phylogenetic-specific groups could lead to changes in composition of forest
      ecosystems, putting the resilience and sustainability of various forest
      ecosystems in question.

PMID- 28560345
TI  - Observation and ultrafast dynamics of a nonvalence correlation-bound state of an
      anion.
AB  - Nonvalence states of molecular anions play key roles in processes, such as
      electron mobility, in rare-gas liquids, radiation-induced damage to DNA, and the
      formation of anions in the interstellar medium. Recently, a class of nonvalence
      bound anion state has been predicted by theory in which correlation forces are
      predominantly responsible for binding the excess electron. We present a direct
      spectroscopic observation of this nonvalence correlation-bound state (CBS) in the
      para-toluquinone trimer cluster anion. Time-resolved photoelectron velocity map
      imaging shows that photodetachment of the CBS produces a narrow and highly
      anisotropic photoelectron distribution, consistent with detachment from an s-like
      orbital. The CBS is bound by ~50 meV and decays by vibration-mediated
      autodetachment with a lifetime of 700 +/- 100 fs. These states are likely to be
      common in large and/or polarizable anions and clusters and may act as doorway
      states in electron attachment processes.

PMID- 28560346
TI  - Nonlocally sensing the magnetic states of nanoscale antiferromagnets with an
      atomic spin sensor.
AB  - The ability to sense the magnetic state of individual magnetic nano-objects is a
      key capability for powerful applications ranging from readout of ultradense
      magnetic memory to the measurement of spins in complex structures with nanometer
      precision. Magnetic nano-objects require extremely sensitive sensors and
      detection methods. We create an atomic spin sensor consisting of three Fe atoms
      and show that it can detect nanoscale antiferromagnets through minute, surface
      mediated magnetic interaction. Coupling, even to an object with no net spin and
      having vanishing dipolar stray field, modifies the transition matrix element
      between two spin states of the Fe atom-based spin sensor that changes the
      sensor's spin relaxation time. The sensor can detect nanoscale antiferromagnets
      at up to a 3-nm distance and achieves an energy resolution of 10 MUeV, surpassing
      the thermal limit of conventional scanning probe spectroscopy. This scheme
      permits simultaneous sensing of multiple antiferromagnets with a single-spin
      sensor integrated onto the surface.

PMID- 28560344
TI  - The timetable of evolution.
AB  - The integration of fossils, phylogeny, and geochronology has resulted in an
      increasingly well-resolved timetable of evolution. Life appears to have taken
      root before the earliest known minimally metamorphosed sedimentary rocks were
      deposited, but for a billion years or more, evolution played out beneath an
      essentially anoxic atmosphere. Oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere and
      surface oceans first rose in the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) 2.4 billion years
      ago, and a second increase beginning in the later Neoproterozoic Era
      [Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE)] established the redox profile of modern
      oceans. The GOE facilitated the emergence of eukaryotes, whereas the NOE is
      associated with large and complex multicellular organisms. Thus, the GOE and NOE
      are fundamental pacemakers for evolution. On the time scale of Earth's entire 4
      billion-year history, the evolutionary dynamics of the planet's biosphere appears
      to be fast, and the pace of evolution is largely determined by physical changes
      of the planet. However, in Phanerozoic ecosystems, interactions between new
      functions enabled by the accumulation of characters in a complex regulatory
      environment and changing biological components of effective environments appear
      to have an important influence on the timing of evolutionary innovations. On the
      much shorter time scale of transient environmental perturbations, such as those
      associated with mass extinctions, rates of genetic accommodation may have been
      limiting for life.

PMID- 28560347
TI  - Carbon dots in zeolites: A new class of thermally activated delayed fluorescence
      materials with ultralong lifetimes.
AB  - Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are inspiring intensive
      research in optoelectronic applications. To date, most of the TADF materials are
      limited to metal-organic complexes and organic molecules with lifetimes of
      several microseconds/milliseconds that are sensitive to oxygen. We report a
      facial and general "dots-in-zeolites" strategy to in situ confine carbon dots
      (CDs) in zeolitic matrices during hydrothermal/solvothermal crystallization to
      generate high-efficient TADF materials with ultralong lifetimes. The resultant
      CDs@zeolite composites exhibit high quantum yields up to 52.14% and ultralong
      lifetimes up to 350 ms at ambient temperature and atmosphere. This intriguing
      TADF phenomenon is due to the fact that nanoconfined space of zeolites can
      efficiently stabilize the triplet states of CDs, thus enabling the reverse
      intersystem crossing process for TADF. Meanwhile, zeolite frameworks can also
      hinder oxygen quenching to present TADF behavior at air atmosphere. This design
      concept introduces a new perspective to develop materials with unique TADF
      performance and various novel delayed fluorescence-based applications.

PMID- 28560348
TI  - Molecular "surgery" on a 23-gold-atom nanoparticle.
AB  - Compared to molecular chemistry, nanochemistry is still far from being capable of
      tailoring particle structure and functionality at an atomic level. Numerous
      effective methodologies that can precisely tailor specific groups in organic
      molecules without altering the major carbon bones have been developed, but for
      nanoparticles, it is still extremely difficult to realize the atomic-level
      tailoring of specific sites in a particle without changing the structure of other
      parts (for example, replacing specific surface motifs and deleting one or two
      metal atoms). This issue severely limits nanochemists from knowing how different
      motifs in a nanoparticle contribute to its overall properties. We demonstrate a
      site-specific "surgery" on the surface motif of an atomically precise 23-gold
      atom [Au23(SR)16]- nanoparticle by a two-step metal-exchange method, which leads
      to the "resection" of two surface gold atoms and the formation of a new 21-gold
      atom nanoparticle, [Au21(SR)12(Ph2PCH2PPh2)2]+, without changing the other parts
      of the starting nanoparticle structure. This precise surgery of the nanocluster
      reveals the different reactivity of the surface motifs and the inner core: the
      least effect of surface motifs on optical absorption but a distinct effect on
      photoluminescence (that is, a 10-fold enhancement of luminescence after the
      tailoring). First-principles calculations further reveal the thermodynamically
      preferred reaction pathway for the formation of [Au21(SR)12(Ph2PCH2PPh2)2]+. This
      work constitutes a major step toward the development of atomically precise,
      versatile nanochemistry for the precise tailoring of the nanocluster structure to
      control its properties.

PMID- 28560350
TI  - Increasing the revenue from lignocellulosic biomass: Maximizing feedstock
      utilization.
AB  - The production of renewable chemicals and biofuels must be cost- and performance-
      competitive with petroleum-derived equivalents to be widely accepted by markets
      and society. We propose a biomass conversion strategy that maximizes the
      conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (up to 80% of the biomass to useful
      products) into high-value products that can be commercialized, providing the
      opportunity for successful translation to an economically viable commercial
      process. Our fractionation method preserves the value of all three primary
      components: (i) cellulose, which is converted into dissolving pulp for fibers and
      chemicals production; (ii) hemicellulose, which is converted into furfural (a
      building block chemical); and (iii) lignin, which is converted into carbon
      products (carbon foam, fibers, or battery anodes), together producing revenues of
      more than $500 per dry metric ton of biomass. Once de-risked, our technology can
      be extended to produce other renewable chemicals and biofuels.

PMID- 28560349
TI  - Argininosuccinate synthase 1 is an intrinsic Akt repressor transactivated by p53.
AB  - The transcription factor p53 is at the core of a built-in tumor suppression
      system that responds to varying degrees of stress input and is deregulated in
      most human cancers. Befitting its role in maintaining cellular fitness and
      fidelity, p53 regulates an appropriate set of target genes in response to
      cellular stresses. However, a comprehensive understanding of this scheme has not
      been accomplished. We show that argininosuccinate synthase 1 (ASS1), a citrulline
      aspartate ligase in de novo arginine synthesis pathway, was directly
      transactivated by p53 in response to genotoxic stress, resulting in the
      rearrangement of arginine metabolism. Furthermore, we found that x-ray
      irradiation promoted the systemic induction of Ass1 and concomitantly increased
      plasma arginine levels in p53+/+ mice but not in p53-/- mice. Notably, Ass1+/-
      mice exhibited hypersensitivity to whole-body irradiation owing to increased
      apoptosis in the small intestinal crypts. Analyses of ASS1-deficient cells
      generated using the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic
      repeats)-Cas9 (CRISPR-associated 9) system revealed that ASS1 plays a pivotal
      role in limiting Akt phosphorylation. In addition, aberrant activation of Akt
      resulting from ASS1 loss disrupted Akt-mediated cell survival signaling activity
      under genotoxic stress. Building on these results, we demonstrated that p53
      induced an intrinsic Akt repressor, ASS1, and the perturbation of ASS1 expression
      rendered cells susceptible to genotoxic stress. Our findings uncover a new
      function of p53 in the regulation of Akt signaling and reveal how p53, ASS1, and
      Akt are interrelated to each other.

PMID- 28560352
TI  - Endourologic Management of an Iatrogenic Ureteral Avulsion Using a
      Thermoexpandable Nickel-Titanium Alloy Stent (Memokath 051).
AB  - Background: The use of ureteroscopy in the management of urolithiasis is well
      established. Ureteral avulsion is a rare but challenging complication of the
      procedure. Postureteral injury strictures are a common result of such injuries
      and are typically managed with reconstructive surgery or endoscopically with
      polymer stent. This case represents the first effective management of ureteral
      avulsion and subsequent ureteral stricture using a Memokath ureteral stent. Case
      Presentation: A 54-year-old gentleman presented to the Department of Urology with
      right loin pain as a result of right renal calculi, previously treated with
      extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. The patient was investigated with
      ultrasonography and noncontrast CT of his urinary tract, revealing mild right
      sided hydroureteronephrosis and two right proximal ureteral stones, measuring 9
      and 4 mm, respectively. He underwent a right semirigid ureteroscopy and laser
      stone fragmentation with complete stone clearance, but on withdrawal of the
      ureteroscope, a right ureteral injury occurred with ureteral mucosal avulsion
      extending from the L3/L4 vertebrae to the right vesicoureteral junction. Upon
      consideration of several options for management of this ureteral avulsion, the
      patient opted for endourologic stenting. After 10 months, the patient developed a
      ureteral stricture as a result of the avulsion. He was troubled with stent
      related symptoms and wanted to avoid reconstructive surgery and, therefore, opted
      for a Memokath ureteral stent. The patient recovered well with excellent renal
      function and drainage on subsequent mercaptoacetyl-triglycyl renogram.
      Conclusion: Ureteral avulsion is a rare but important complication of
      ureteroscopy with numerous options available for management. Discussions should
      be had with the patient to weigh the various options, and metallic stents should
      be considered in the long-term management of such injuries and their sequel.

PMID- 28560353
TI  - A Large Posteriorly Located Prostatic Mass Lesion Challenging the Robotic
      Surgeon: Prostate Leiomyoma.
AB  - Background: Prostatic leiomyoma is a benign and rare condition of the prostate.
      Robotic surgery is increasingly being applied in the surgical management of
      prostate cancer. Case Presentation: Herein, a mass lesion that was located in the
      posterior part of the prostate between seminal vesicles that was identified
      during robotic surgery is presented. This lesion further challenged the console
      surgeon during performing a robotic radical prostatectomy procedure for a 200 g
      large prostate with prostate cancer. Conclusion: Prostatic leiomyomas that are
      benign mesenchymal smooth muscle tumors might present as a posteriorly located
      mass lesion between seminal vesicles that could challenge the surgeon during
      surgery, which should be kept in mind.

PMID- 28560354
TI  - Citation analysis of scientific categories.
AB  - Databases catalogue the corpus of research literature into scientific categories
      and report classes of bibliometric data such as the number of citations to
      articles, the number of authors, journals, funding agencies, institutes,
      references, etc. The number of articles and citations in a category are gauges of
      productivity and scientific impact but a quantitative basis to compare
      researchers between categories is limited. Here, we compile a list of
      bibliometric indicators for 236 science categories and citation rates of the 500
      most cited articles of each category. The number of citations per paper vary by
      several orders of magnitude and are highest in multidisciplinary sciences,
      general internal medicine, and biochemistry and lowest in literature, poetry, and
      dance. A regression model demonstrates that citation rates to the top articles in
      each category increase with the square root of the number of articles in a
      category and decrease proportionately with the age of the references: articles in
      categories that cite recent research are also cited more frequently. The citation
      rate correlates positively with the number of funding agencies that finance the
      research. The category h-index correlates with the average number of cites to the
      top 500 ranked articles of each category ([Formula: see text]). Furthermore, only
      a few journals publish the top 500 cited articles in each category: four journals
      publish 60% ([Formula: see text]) of these and ten publish 81% ([Formula: see
      text]).

PMID- 28560355
TI  - Lake Afrera, a structural depression in the Northern Afar Rift (Red Sea).
AB  - The boundary between the African and Arabian plates in the Southern Red Sea
      region is displaced inland in the northern Afar rift, where it is marked by the
      Red Sea-parallel Erta Ale, Alaita, and Tat Ali volcanic ridges. The Erta Ale is
      offset by about 20 and 40 km from the two en echelon ridges to the south. The
      offset area is highly seismic and marked by a depression filled by lake Afrera, a
      saline body of water fed by hydrothermal springs. Acoustic bathymetric profiles
      show ~80 m deep canyons parallel to the NNW shore of the lake, part of a system
      of extensional normal faults striking parallel to the Red Sea. This system is
      intersected by oblique structures, some with strike-slip earthquakes, in what
      might evolve into a transform boundary. Given that the lake's surface lies today
      about 112 m below sea level, the depressed (minus ~190 m below sea level) lake's
      bottom area may be considered the equivalent of the "nodal deep" in slow-slip
      oceanic transforms. The chemistry of the lake is compatible with the water having
      originated from hydrothermal liquids that had reacted with evaporites and
      basalts, rather than residual from evaporation of sea water. Bottom sediments
      include calcitic grains, halite and gypsum, as well as ostracod and diatom tests.
      The lake's level appears to have dropped by over 10 m during the last ~50 years,
      continuing a drying up trend of the last few thousand years, after a "wet" stage
      9,800 and 7,800 years before present when according to Gasse (1973) Lake Afrera
      covered an area several times larger than at present. This "wet" stage
      corresponds to an early Holocene warm-humid climate that prevailed in Saharan and
      Sub Saharan Africa. Lake Abhe, located roughly 250 km south of Afrera, shows
      similar climate-driven oscillations of its level.

PMID- 28560351
TI  - Global increase in replication fork speed during a p57KIP2-regulated erythroid
      cell fate switch.
AB  - Cell cycle regulators are increasingly implicated in cell fate decisions, such as
      the acquisition or loss of pluripotency and self-renewal potential. The cell
      cycle mechanisms that regulate these cell fate decisions are largely unknown. We
      studied an S phase-dependent cell fate switch, in which murine early erythroid
      progenitors transition in vivo from a self-renewal state into a phase of active
      erythroid gene transcription and concurrent maturational cell divisions. We found
      that progenitors are dependent on p57KIP2-mediated slowing of replication forks
      for self-renewal, a novel function for cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. The
      switch to differentiation entails rapid down-regulation of p57KIP2 with a
      consequent global increase in replication fork speed and an abruptly shorter S
      phase. Our work suggests that cell cycles with specialized global DNA replication
      dynamics are integral to the maintenance of specific cell states and to cell fate
      decisions.

PMID- 28560356
TI  - ROTAVAC(r) does not interfere with the immune response to childhood vaccines in
      Indian infants: A randomized placebo controlled trial.
AB  - A phase III randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted in the
      urban neighborhoods of Delhi to assess whether Oral Rotavirus Vaccine ROTAVAC(r)
      interferes with the immune response to childhood vaccines when coadministered.
      Infants aged 6 weeks were randomized to receive three doses of either ROTAVAC(r)
      or placebo along with childhood vaccines: Oral Polio Vaccine and vaccines against
      Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b
      given as Pentavalent at 6, 10, 14 weeks of age. Blood specimens were collected
      from all infants at baseline and 4 weeks post dose 3 to assess the immune
      response to antigens in Oral Polio Vaccine, Pentavalent and ROTAVAC(r) vaccines.
      Non-inferiority of immune response to all vaccine components of the childhood
      vaccines when ROTAVAC(r) was administered concurrently was demonstrated. Non
      inferior immune responses to childhood vaccines were evaluated based on the
      seroprotective levels of antibodies against polio types 1, 2, and 3, Diphtheria
      toxoid, Tetanus toxoid, Haemophilus influenza type b anti- polyribosyl ribitol
      phosphate antibodies and Hepatitis B antibodies; and the Geometric Mean
      Concentration for Pertussis. The proportion of infants who seroconverted (>=4
      fold rise) was 38.6% in the ROTAVAC(r) group and 12.2% in the placebo group. The
      frequency and severity of immediate adverse events, adverse events and serious
      adverse events were similar in both groups. None of the five reported deaths were
      considered to be related to the ROTAVAC(r) and no case of intussusception meeting
      Brighton Diagnostic Certainty Level I criteria was reported. This study
      demonstrated that ROTAVAC(r) can be safely administered with childhood vaccines
      without interfering with the immune response to the antigens contained in these
      vaccines.

PMID- 28560357
TI  - Impact of heme on specific antibody production in mice: promotive, inhibitive or
      null outcome is determined by its concentration.
AB  - Free heme is an endogenous danger signal that provokes innate immunity. Active
      innate immunity provides a precondition of an effective adaptive immune response.
      However, heme catabolites, CO, biliverdin and bilirubin trigger
      immunosuppression. Furthermore, free heme induces expression of heme oxygenase-1
      to increase production of CO, biliverdin and bilirubin. As such, free heme can
      play a paradoxical role in adaptive immunity. What is the outcome of the animal
      immune response to an antigen in the presence of free heme? This question remains
      to be explored. Here, we report the immunization results of rats and mice after
      intraperitoneal injection of formulations containing BSA and heme. When the heme
      concentrations were below 1 MUM, between 1 MUM and 5 MUM and above 5 MUM,
      production of anti-BSA IgG and IgM was unaffected, enhanced and suppressed,
      respectively. The results suggest that heme can influence adaptive immunity by
      double concentration-thresholds. If the heme concentrations are less than the
      first threshold, there is no effect on adaptive immunity; if the concentrations
      are more than the first but less than the second threshold, there is promotion
      effect; and if the concentrations are more than the second threshold, there is an
      inhibitory effect. A hypothesis is also presented here to explain the mechanism.

PMID- 28560358
TI  - Hepatocyte-specific expression of constitutively active Alk5 exacerbates
      thioacetamide-induced liver injury in mice.
AB  - While Transforming growth factor-betas (Tgf-betas) have been known to play an
      important role in liver fibrosis through an activation of Hepatic Stellate Cells
      (HSC), their fibrotic role on hepatocytes in liver damage has not been addressed
      thoroughly. To shed more light on the hepatocyte-specific role of Tgf-beta
      signaling during liver fibrosis, we generated transgenic mice expressing
      constitutively active Tgf-beta type I receptor Alk5 under the control of albumin
      promoter. Uninjured mice with increased Tgf-beta/Alk5 signaling in hepatocytes
      (caAlk5/Alb-Cre mice) did not show characteristics related to hepatocyte death,
      fibrosis and inflammation. When subjected to thioacetamide (TAA) treatment,
      caAlk5/Alb-Cre mice exhibited more severe liver injury, when compared to control
      littermates. After TAA administration for 12 weeks, an increase in pathological
      changes was evident in caAlk5/Alb-Cre livers, with higher number of infiltrating
      cells in the portal and periportal area. Immunohistochemistry for F4/80,
      myeloperoxidase and CD3 showed that there was an increased accumulation of
      macrophages, neutrophils and T-lymphocytes, respectively, in caAlk5/Alb-Cre
      livers. Coincidently, we observed an exacerbated liver damage as seen by
      increases in serum aminotransferase level and number of apoptotic hepatocytes in
      caAlk5/Alb-Cre mice. Sirius staining of collagen demonstrated that the fibrotic
      response was worsened in caAlk5/Alb-Cre mice. The enhanced fibrosis in mutant
      livers was associated with marked production of alpha-SMA-positive myofibroblast.
      Hepatic expression of genes indicative of HSC activation was greater in
      caAlk5/Alb-Cre mice. In conclusion, our data indicated that elevation of Tgf-beta
      signaling via Alk5 in hepatocytes is not sufficient to induce liver pathology but
      plays an important role in amplifying TAA-induced liver damage.

PMID- 28560359
TI  - Analysis of plastic residues in maple sap and syrup collected from tubing systems
      sanitized with isopropyl alcohol.
AB  - A plastic tubing system operated under vacuum is usually used to collect sap from
      maple trees during spring time to produce maple syrup. This system is commonly
      sanitized with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to remove microbial contamination
      colonizing the system during the sugar season. Questions have been raised whether
      IPA would contribute to the leaching of plastic residues in maple sap and syrup
      coming from sanitized systems. First, an extraction experiment was performed in
      the lab on commercial plastic tubing materials that were submitted to IPA under
      harsh conditions. The results of the GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of many
      compounds that served has target for further tests. Secondly, tests were done on
      early and mid-season maple sap and syrup coming from many sugarbushes using IPA
      or not to determine potential concentrations of plastic residues. Results
      obtained from sap and syrup samples showed that no quantifiable (< 1-75 MUg/L)
      concentration of any plastic molecules tested was determined in all samples
      coming from IPA treated or not treated systems. However, some samples of first
      sap run used as a rinse solution to be discarded before the season start and that
      were coming from non sanitized or IPA sanitized systems, showed quantifiable
      concentrations of chemical residue such as ultraviolet protector (octabenzone).
      These results show that IPA can be safely used to sanitize maple sap collection
      system in regards to the leaching of plastic residues in maple sap and syrup and
      reinforced the need to thoroughly rinse the tubing system at the beginning of the
      season for both sanitized and non sanitized systems.

PMID- 28560360
TI  - A wash-free SNAP-tag fluorogenic probe based on the additive effects of quencher
      release and environmental sensitivity.
AB  - A 1,8-naphthalimide-derived fluorogenic probe was reported to label SNAP-tag
      fusion proteins in living cells. The probe can rapidly label a SNAP-tag and
      exhibit a fluorescence increase of 36-fold due to the additive effects of
      environment sensitivity of fluorophores and inhibition of photo-induced electron
      transfer from O6-benzylguanine to the fluorophore. The labeling of intracellular
      proteins has been successfully achieved without a wash-out procedure.

PMID- 28560361
TI  - A fluorescence turn-on probe for human (bovine) serum albumin based on the
      hydrolysis of a dioxaborine group promoted by proteins.
AB  - A fluorescence "off-on" probe CBF, constructed by incorporating a dioxaborine
      unit into a microenvironment-sensitive fluorophore, was developed for serum
      albumin (SA). Upon binding to SA, the dioxaborine group in CBF was hydrolyzed
      into beta-diketonate, which triggered dramatic fluorescence enhancement (over
      1000-fold) along with a remarkable blue-shift (~100 nm). The bioimaging results
      suggested that more SA were taken in by cancer cells.

PMID- 28560362
TI  - A new approach to surface activation of porous nanomaterials using non-thermal
      helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatment.
AB  - Non-thermal helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatment is applied to the
      surface activation of porous TiO2 nanoparticle assemblies. Treatment conditions
      such as the working distance of the plasma discharge, helium gas flow rate, and
      treatment time are optimized for effective removal of contaminants from the
      assembly surface. Laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry
      (LDI-TOF MS) is applied to detect trace amounts of contaminants on assembly
      surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy
      (TEM) observations confirm that the nanoparticle assemblies retain their original
      perfect spherical structures as well as their ultra-fine convex-concave nano
      surfaces even after the plasma jet treatment. N2 adsorption/desorption and X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) measurements show no significant changes in their BET specific
      surface areas and crystal structures, respectively. The plasma jet-treated TiO2
      nanoparticle assemblies show a 3.8 fold improvement in their reaction rate
      constants for methylene blue degradation and a 2 fold enhancement of their
      photocurrents under UV irradiation when compared with untreated TiO2.

PMID- 28560363
TI  - Formation of (PNP)Rh complexes containing covalent rhodium-zinc bonds in studies
      of potential Rh-catalysed Negishi coupling.
AB  - While investigating rhodium-catalyzed Negishi coupling, it was observed that the
      (PNP)Rh fragment readily inserted into zinc-carbon bonds to form isolable
      molecules with covalent rhodium-zinc bonds.

PMID- 28560364
TI  - Copper-catalyzed acyltrifluoromethylation of alkenes: rapid access to
      trifluoroethyl indanones and related compounds.
AB  - Copper-catalyzed acyltrifluoromethylation of alkenes has been developed for the
      first time, affording trifluoroethyl indanones and related cyclic ketones in
      promising yields with excellent diastereoselectivity. The fast incorporation of
      CF3 and indanone into a single molecule renders it an efficient and valuable tool
      for the synthesis of biologically active compounds.

PMID- 28560365
TI  - A 365 nm UV LED-excitable antenna ligand for switchable lanthanide luminescence.
AB  - The time-resolved luminescence of lanthanide complexes is a highly sensitive and
      widely used bioassay technology for clinical diagnostics. With the time-resolved
      luminescence detection the naturally occurring autofluorescence of biological
      matrices, solid supports and plastics can be avoided. A major drawback of the
      current technique is that the luminescent lanthanide labels require ultraviolet
      (UV) excitation, typically shorter than 360 nm, which is strongly absorbed and
      can damage living biological systems. The lack of cost-efficient high power solid
      state excitation light sources for UV excitation further limits the development
      of low-cost and more compact measurement instruments for time-resolved
      luminescence and the potential use of lanthanide luminescence in different
      applications. Switchable lanthanide luminescence is a binary probe technology
      that inherently enables a high signal modulation in a separation-free detection
      of targets. The intrinsically luminescent lanthanide chelate is split into two
      nonluminescent moieties, a lanthanide ion carrier chelate and a light harvesting
      antenna ligand, each of which can be attached to a separate molecular probe. A
      luminescent lanthanide complex is formed only when the two probes bind adjacently
      to the target molecule. Herein we describe a new 365 nm excitable antenna ligand
      (AL360) for switchable lanthanide luminescence of europium(iii) (EuIII) that
      would enable the use of 365 nm light emitting diodes (LEDs) as an excitation
      light source for time-resolved fluorescence imaging and detection. With the
      acquired subpicomolar assay sensitivity it would be applicable for solution or
      surface arrays and UV LED microscopy.

PMID- 28560366
TI  - A cascade C-H functionalization/cyclization reaction of N-arylpyridin-2-amines
      with alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes for the synthesis of dihydroquinolinone
      derivatives under rhodium catalysis.
AB  - A novel cascade C-H functionalization/cyclization reaction of N-arylpyridin-2
      amines with alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes has been developed under rhodium
      catalysis, affording dihydroquinolinone derivatives in moderate to excellent
      yields. A plausible mechanism of dual catalytic cycles by rhodium(iii) catalysis
      is also proposed.

PMID- 28560367
TI  - Antimicrobial nitric oxide releasing surfaces based on S-nitroso-N
      acetylpenicillamine impregnated polymers combined with submicron-textured surface
      topography.
AB  - A novel dual functioning antimicrobial CarboSil 20 80A polymer material that
      combines physical topographical surface modification and nitric oxide (NO)
      release is prepared and evaluated for its efficacy in reducing bacterial adhesion
      in vitro. The new biomaterial is created via a soft lithography two-stage
      replication process to induce submicron textures on its surface, followed by
      solvent impregnation with the NO donor, S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP),
      to obtain long-term (up to 38 d) NO release. The NO releasing textured polymer
      surface is evaluated against four bacteria commonly known to cause infections in
      hospital settings and the results demonstrate that the combined strategy enables
      a synergistic effect on reducing the bacterial adhesion of Staphylococcus
      epidermidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria.

PMID- 28560368
TI  - Ultra-low fouling methylimidazolium modified surfaces for the detection of HER2
      in breast cancer cell lysates.
AB  - We synthesized novel ultra-low fouling ionic liquids and demonstrated their use
      with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing for the analysis of HER2 in breast
      cancer cell lysates. Whilst biomarkers are commonly detected in serum, this
      remains challenging for cancer diagnosis due to their low concentrations in
      circulation and in some cases, there is a poor correlation between serum and
      tissue concentrations. Therefore, a cell lysate constitutes an interesting
      biosample for cancer diagnosis and typing, which has been largely unexploited for
      chemical biosensing of cancer biomarkers. However, high fouling of surfaces in
      contact with the cell lysate and the absence of effective surface chemistry to
      prevent fouling are currently limiting biomarker analysis in cell lysates. To
      address this challenge, we report the synthesis of 1-(carboxyalkyl)-3-(12
      mercaptododecyl)-1H-imidazolium ionic liquids with different anions (Br-, BF4-,
      PF6-, ClO4-, and NTf2-) and ethyl and pentyl chains to form monolayers and
      analyse specific proteins from cell lysates. The most efficient ionic liquid
      monolayer, 1-(carboxyethyl)-3-(12-mercaptododecyl)-1H-imidazolium bromide, was
      able to eliminate the nonspecific adsorption (surface coverage of 2 +/- 2 ng cm
      2) of a concentrated cell lysate (protein concentration of ~3.5 mg mL-1), which
      was significantly better than carboxy-PEG (surface coverage of 14 +/- 7 ng cm-2),
      a benchmark monolayer commonly used to reduce nonspecific adsorption. These ionic
      liquid monolayers were modified with anti-HER2 and the detection of the HER2
      breast cancer biomarker was carried out in crude breast cancer cell lysates, as
      shown with HER2-negative MCF-7 cells spiked with HER2 and with HER2 positive SK
      BR-3 cells.

PMID- 28560369
TI  - Synthesis of well-defined pentagonally prismatic silver nanoparticles: role of
      bromide in (100) stabilization and facet preservation.
AB  - We have demonstrated the effect of bromide for exclusive (100) stabilization that
      enabled the preparation of pentagonal prisms (AgPPNPs), a newly developed
      nanoscale shape. High-quality precursors and exact amount of bromide were
      necessary requirements for the precise length and faceting control. Bromide
      excess resulted in AgPPNP rounding, highlighting a delicate balance in faceting
      control and shape preservation.

PMID- 28560370
TI  - Antineoplastic drugs and their analysis: a state of the art review.
AB  - The number of patients suffering from cancer is constantly increasing and,
      consequently, the number of different chemotherapy treatments administered is
      increasing. Given the high reactivity and toxicity of antineoplastic drugs,
      analytical methods are required in all pharmaceutical fields, from drug
      development to their elimination in wastewater; including formulation quality
      control, environment and human exposure and therapeutic drug monitoring. The aim
      of this paper is to provide an overview of the analytical methods available for
      the determination of antineoplastic drugs in different matrices such as
      pharmaceutical formulations, biological and environmental samples. The
      applicability and performance of the reported methods will be critically
      discussed, with focus on the most commonly used antineoplastic drugs. Only
      conventional compounds and small molecules for targeted therapy will be
      considered in the present review.

PMID- 28560371
TI  - Precursor determined lateral size control of monolayer MoS2 nanosheets from a
      series of alkylammonium thiomolybdates: a reversal of trend between growth media.
AB  - The growth of ligand-free MoS2 nanosheets with mean lateral sizes below 5 nm at
      270  degrees C is reported. Nanosheets grown from a melt of tetraalkylammonium
      tetrathiomolybdates, [R4N]2[MoS4] (R = n-butyl, n-hexyl or n-octyl) vary in width
      between mean lateral sizes of 4.35 and 2.1 nm. Inclusion of the precursors into a
      polymer matrix shows the opposite trend in lateral dimensions with sheet widths
      ranging from 3.5 to 4.8 nm.

PMID- 28560377
TI  - Low-temperature, high-mobility, solution-processed metal oxide semiconductors
      fabricated with oxygen radical assisted perchlorate aqueous precursors.
AB  - In this report, a simple and general chemical route for fabricating MO
      semiconducting films at a relatively low temperature without any fuel additives
      or special annealing steps was demonstrated. The precursor, which consisted of
      perchlorate, nitrate, and water, is easily converted into In2O3 at an annealing
      temperature of 250  degrees C due to oxygen radical assisted decomposition and
      generation of a large amount of heat. It is found that perchlorate salt can
      decompose and form an oxide film with high quality at a lower temperature when
      assisted by nitrate salt. The optimized In2O3-TFT fabricated via this precursor
      exhibits a saturation mobility of 14.5 cm2 V-1 s-1. Furthermore, this approach
      has been expanded to the fabrication of ZnO films and attained improved
      performance, indicating its universality.

PMID- 28560378
TI  - Predicting working beyond retirement in the Netherlands: an interdisciplinary
      approach involving occupational epidemiology and economics.
AB  - Objectives No study so far has combined register-based socioeconomic information
      with self-reported information on health, demographics, work characteristics, and
      the social environment. The aim of this study was to investigate whether
      socioeconomic, health, demographic, work characteristics and social environmental
      characteristics independently predict working beyond retirement. Methods
      Questionnaire data from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and
      Motivation were linked to data from Statistics Netherlands. A prediction model
      was built consisting of the following blocks: socioeconomic, health, demographic,
      work characteristics and the social environment. First, univariate analyses were
      performed (P0<.15), followed by correlations and logistic multivariate regression
      analyses with backward selection per block (P0<.15). All remaining factors were
      combined into one final model (P0<.05). Results In the final model, only factors
      from the blocks health, work and social environmental characteristics remained.
      Better physical health, being intensively physically active for >2 days/week,
      higher body height, and working in healthcare predicted working beyond
      retirement. If respondents had a permanent contract or worked in handcraft, or
      had a partner that did not like them to work until the official retirement age,
      they were less likely to work beyond retirement. Conclusion Health, work
      characteristics and social environment predicted working beyond retirement, but
      register-based socioeconomic and demographic characteristics did not
      independently predict working beyond retirement. This study shows that working
      beyond retirement is multifactorial.

PMID- 28560379
TI  - VPA and MEL induce apoptosis by inhibiting the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway in TMZ
      resistant U251 cells.
AB  - Chemoresistance is the primary obstacle to effective treatment of glioblastoma,
      the most lethal brain tumor. Our previous study demonstrated that Nf-E2 related
      factor 2 (Nrf2), a traditional cytoprotective transcription factor, was
      overexpressed in gliomas and promoted malignancy. The present study aimed to
      investigate the expression levels of Nrf2-antioxidant response element (ARE)
      signaling pathway genes in temozolomide (TMZ)-resistant U251 human glioblastoma
      cells (U251-TMZ). Additionally, the effect of valproic acid (VPA) and melatonin
      (MEL) on Nrf2 expression in U251-TMZ cells and their association with
      chemoresistance was investigated. The results of the present study indicated that
      the expression levels of components of the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway were
      increased in U251-TMZ cells compared with U251 parent cells. Silencing of Nrf2 by
      transfection with small interfering RNA restored the chemosensitivity of U251-TMZ
      cells. The Nrf2 inhibitors VPA and MEL successfully reduced Nrf2 expression and
      survival in U251-TMZ cells treated with TMZ, accompanied by increased reactive
      oxygen species levels and apoptosis. Therefore, VPA and MEL may be potential
      chemotherapeutic sensitizers for the treatment of chemoresistant glioblastoma.

PMID- 28560380
TI  - Sorafenib induces variations of the DNA methylome in HA22T/VGH human
      hepatocellular carcinoma-derived cells.
AB  - Sorafenib is currently used to treat advanced and/or unresectable hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC), but the increase of the median survival was only 3 months.
      Moreover, sorafenib has severe side effects and patients develop resistance
      quickly. Epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation play a decisive role in
      the development and progression of HCC. To our knowledge, there are no studies
      that analysed the global DNA methylation changes in HCC cells treated with
      sorafenib. Using MeDip-chip technologies, we found 1230 differentially methylated
      genes in HA22T/VGH cells treated with sorafenib compared to untreated cells. Gene
      ontology and pathway analysis allowed identifying several enriched signaling
      pathways involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Among the genes
      differentially methylated we found genes related to apoptosis, angiogenesis and
      invasion, and genes belonging to pathways known to be deregulated in HCC such as
      RAF/MEK/ERK, JAK-STAT, PI3K/AKT/mTOR and NF-kappaB. Generally, we found that
      oncogenes tended to be hypermethylated and the tumor suppressor genes tended to
      be hypomethylated after sorafenib treatment. Finally, we validated MeDip-chip
      results for several genes found differentially methylated such as BIRC3, FOXO3,
      MAPK3, SMAD2 and TSC2, using both COBRA assay and direct bisulfite sequencing and
      we evaluated their mRNA expression. Our findings suggest that sorafenib could
      affect the methylation level of genes associated to cancer-related processes and
      pathways in HCC cells, some of which have been previously described to be
      directly targeted by sorafenib.

PMID- 28560381
TI  - Hypomethylation of the Toll-like receptor-2 gene increases the risk of essential
      hypertension.
AB  - Studies on the etiology of essential hypertension (EH) have demonstrated that
      chronic inflammation contributes to the onset and development of elevated blood
      pressure. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), important immune receptors, serve a role in
      chronic inflammation and are associated with EH. In the present study, 96
      patients with EH, and 96 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited,
      and eight cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides (CpG1-8) were analyzed
      using bisulfite pyrosequencing technology. It was observed that the methylation
      levels of all of the eight CpG dinucleotides were decreased in the EH group
      compared with the control group; however, only CpG1 (2.83+/-1.34 vs. 3.44+/-1.75;
      P=0.009), CpG6 (3.58+/-3.64 vs. 8.30+/-4.13; P<0.001) and CpG8 (8.91+/-5.32 vs.
      11.33+/-3.87; P<0.001) were significantly different, as demonstrated by paired t
      test analysis. In addition, logistic regression analysis demonstrated that CpG6
      hypomethylation was a risk factor of EH (odds ratio=1.10; adjusted P=0.009), and
      CpG6 methylation level was observed to be negatively correlated with systolic
      blood pressure (r=-0.304; P<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r=-0.329;
      P<0.001). Additionally, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis
      demonstrated that a methylation level of 7.5% for CpG6 (area under the curve,
      0.834; P<0.001) was an appropriate threshold value to predict the risk of EH.
      With generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction, a potential gene-gene
      interaction between CpG6 and CpG8 (P=0.001), and gene-environment interactions
      between smoking, alcohol consumption, CpG6, CpG7 and CpG8 (P=0.011), were
      observed. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that
      hypomethylation of the TLR2 promoter, particularly CpG6, was associated with the
      risk of EH in this population. Additionally, a gene-gene interaction between CpG6
      and CpG8, and interactions between environmental factors, including smoking and
      alcohol consumption, and CpG6, CpG7 and CpG8, may be associated with the risk of
      EH.

PMID- 28560382
TI  - Revealing radiotherapy- and chemoradiation-induced pathway dynamics in
      glioblastoma by analyzing multiple differential networks.
AB  - The progression of glioblastoma (GBM) is driven by dynamic alterations in the
      activity and connectivity of gene pathways. Revealing these dynamic events is
      necessary in order to understand the pathological mechanisms of, and develop
      effective treatments for, GBM. The present study aimed to investigate dynamic
      alterations in pathway activity and connectivity across radiotherapy and
      chemoradiation conditions in GBM, and to give system-level insights into
      molecular mechanisms for GBM therapy. A total of two differential co-expression
      networks (DCNs) were constructed using Pearson correlation coefficient analysis
      and one sided t-tests, based on gene expression profiles and protein-protein
      interaction networks, one for each condition. Subsequently, shared differential
      modules across DCNs were detected via significance analysis for candidate
      modules, which were obtained according to seed selection, module search by seed
      expansion and refinement of searched modules. As condition-specific differential
      modules mediate differential biological processes, the module connectivity
      dynamic score (MCDS) was implemented to explore dynamic alterations among them.
      Based on DCNs with 287 nodes and 1,052 edges, a total of 28 seed genes and seven
      candidate modules were identified. Following significance analysis, five shared
      differential modules were identified in total. Dynamic alterations among these
      differential modules were identified using the MCDS, and one module with
      significant dynamic alterations was identified, termed the dynamic module. The
      present study revealed the dynamic alterations of shared differential modules,
      identified one dynamic module between the radiotherapy and chemoradiation
      conditions, and demonstrated that pathway dynamics may applied to the study of
      the pathogenesis and therapy of GBM.

PMID- 28560384
TI  - Hydrogen sulfide inhibits mitochondrial fission in neuroblastoma N2a cells
      through the Drp1/ERK1/2 signaling pathway.
AB  - Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been demonstrated to have various effects on
      mitochondrial function. The aim of the present study was to investigate the
      effects of H2S on mitochondrial fission and the potential underlying mechanisms
      of these effects. Transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that
      sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS, a donor of H2S) inhibited mitochondrial fission in a
      dose- and time-dependent manner. Treating neuro-2a (N2a) mouse neuroblastoma
      cells with 400 uM NaHS for 16 h significantly increased the % of elongated
      mitochondria and reduced the number of mitochondria per cell compared with
      untreated cells. In addition, the viability and ATP generation of N2a cells that
      were treated with various concentrations of NaHS was examined. The results
      demonstrated that treatment with 400 and 600 uM NaHS increased cell viability and
      ATP generation compared with untreated cells. To further understand the effects
      of H2S on mitochondrial morphology, the protein and mRNA expression levels of
      dynamin 1 like (Dnm1l, also known as Drp1) were examined, and the results
      demonstrated that NaHS dose-dependently reduced Drp1 mRNA and protein levels,
      consistent with the mitochondrial morphology changes. To determine whether H2S
      affects mitochondrial morphology through Drp1 expression, Drp1 was overexpressed
      in N2a cells using a lentivirus encoding the Drp1 cDNA. It was observed that Drp1
      overexpression reversed the effects of NaHS. Furthermore, NaHS promoted the
      phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2, and the
      effects of NaHS on Drp1 expression were abolished by an ERK1/2 inhibitor
      (PD98059). The results of the present study indicate that the H2S-induced
      decrease in Drp1 mRNA and protein levels and mitochondrial fission may involve
      the ERK1/2 signaling pathway. The present study suggests that H2S may be used in
      the future as a potential therapeutic for diseases that may be mediated by
      abnormal mitochondria fragmentation, such as Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28560383
TI  - Effects of genistein supplementation on genome-wide DNA methylation and gene
      expression in patients with localized prostate cancer.
AB  - Epidemiological studies have shown that dietary compounds have significant
      effects on prostate carcinogenesis. Among dietary agents, genistein, the major
      isoflavone in soybean, is of particular interest because high consumption of soy
      products has been associated with a low incidence of prostate cancer, suggesting
      a preventive role of genistein in prostate cancer. In spite of numerous studies
      to understand the effects of genistein on prostate cancer, the mechanisms of
      action have not been fully elucidated. We investigated the differences in
      methylation and gene expression levels of prostate specimens from a clinical
      trial of genistein supplementation prior to prostatectomy using Illumina
      HumanMethylation450 and Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip Microarrays.
      The present study was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical
      trial on Norwegian patients who received 30 mg genistein or placebo capsules
      daily for 3-6 weeks before prostatectomy. Gene expression changes were validated
      by quantitative PCR (qPCR). Whole genome methylation and expression profiling
      identified differentially methylated sites and expressed genes between placebo
      and genistein groups. Differentially regulated genes were involved in
      developmental processes, stem cell markers, proliferation and transcriptional
      regulation. Enrichment analysis suggested overall reduction in MYC activity and
      increased PTEN activity in genistein-treated patients. These findings highlight
      the effects of genistein on global changes in gene expression in prostate cancer
      and its effects on molecular pathways involved in prostate tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28560385
TI  - The PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is involved in CVB3-induced autophagy of HeLa cells.
AB  - Recent studies have found that viral myocarditis (VMC) associated with
      coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) causes autophagy activation after infection, but the
      specific mechanism is not clear. The present study demonstrated that the
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB)/mammalian target of
      rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway participates in CVB3-induced autophagy. We
      found that the light chain 3 (LC3)-II/LC3-I ratio was increased and p62 and p
      mTOR were altered at different times during CVB3 infection. To further assess the
      effects of this signaling pathway on CVB3 infection and viral replication, we
      selected 24 h post-inoculation (h.p.i.) as our research time point to conduct our
      next study. We inhibited the function of PI3K, Akt1 and mTOR. The outcome showed
      that inhibition of PI3K with ZSTK474 alleviated autophagy and decreased CVB3 mRNA
      replication and VP1 expression. Inhibition of mTOR with rapamycin promoted
      autophagy and viral mRNA replication but did not impact VP1 expression.
      Inhibition of Akt with MK2206 aggravated autophagy induced by viral infection. In
      our research, p62 exhibited a decrease at the beginning of infection but then
      increased as infection time increased. This finding may serve as a clue to
      elucidate the function of autophagy at different times of infection. However, the
      details merit further study. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the
      PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway participates in the process of autophagy induced
      by CVB3 infection. This finding may provide a new perspective of CVB3-induced
      autophagy.

PMID- 28560386
TI  - Fangchinoline suppresses growth and metastasis of melanoma cells by inhibiting
      the phosphorylation of FAK.
AB  - Melanoma is a malignant tumor with high degree of malignancy, metastasis and high
      mortality. The etiology of melanoma has not been fully elucidated, and there is
      no effective drug for the complete treatment of melanoma. In recent years, many
      traditional Chinese herbal medicines have played an important role in clinical
      treatment and experimental research on cancer. As a natural product,
      fangchinoline has the characteristics of enhancing immune function, low toxicity
      and good liver protection features, so it is considered to be a new type of
      anticancer drug. In the present study, we found that fangchinoline has inhibitory
      effects on the proliferation and metastasis of A375 and A875 cells in a
      concentration-dependent manner. Fangchinoline inhibited the proliferation of A375
      and A875 cell activity with IC50 values of 12.41 and 16.20 uM. We also found that
      fangchinoline could significantly reduce the phosphorylation of Focal adhesion
      kinase (FAK). In summary, we demonstrated that fangchinoline inhibits the
      proliferation and metastasis of melanoma cells by suppressing FAK and its
      downstream signaling pathway. More importantly, we provide a novel mechanism that
      fangchinoline could be an effective candidate for the treatment of melanoma.

PMID- 28560387
TI  - Reciprocal antagonistic regulation of N-myc mRNA by miR-17 and the neuronal
      specific RNA-binding protein HuD.
AB  - Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer originating from embryonic neural crest
      cells. Amplification of the proto-oncogene N-myc, seen in ~30% of neuroblastoma
      tumors, is a marker for poor prognosis. Recently discovered small regulatory
      RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), are implicated in cancers, including neuroblastoma.
      miRNAs downregulate the expression of genes by binding to the 3'-untranslated
      regions (3'-UTRs), thereby inhibiting translation or inducing degradation of
      cognate mRNAs. Our study sought to identify miRNAs that regulate N-myc expression
      and thereby malignancy in neuroblastoma. miRNAs whose expression negatively
      correlates with N-myc expression were identified from a miRNA microarray of 4 N
      myc-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines. Three of these miRNAs (miR-17, miR-20a
      and miR-18a) belong to the miR-17-92 cluster, previously shown to be upregulated
      by N-myc. qPCR validation of these miRNAs in a larger panel of cell lines
      revealed that levels of miR-17 were inversely proportional to N-myc mRNA amounts
      in the N-myc-amplified cell lines. Notably, miR-17 also downregulated N-myc
      protein synthesis in the N-myc-amplified cells, thereby generating a negative
      feedback regulatory loop between the proto-oncogene and this miRNA. Moreover, the
      neuronal-specific RNA-binding protein HuD (ELAVL4), which regulates the
      processing/stability of N-myc mRNA, competes with miR-17 for a binding site in
      the 3'-UTR of N-myc. Thus, N-myc levels appear to be modulated by the
      antagonistic interactions of both miR-17, as a negative regulator, and HuD, as a
      positive regulator, providing further evidence of the complex cellular control
      mechanisms of this oncogene in N-myc-amplified neuroblastoma cells.

PMID- 28560388
TI  - Inhibition of IGF-1 receptor kinase blocks the differentiation into cardiomyocyte
      like cells of BMSCs induced by IGF-1.
AB  - Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have the potential to
      transdifferentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells (CLCs) if an appropriate cardiac
      environment is provided. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) plays an important
      role in the cell migration, survival and differentiation of BMSCs. However, the
      effect of IGF-1 on the cellular differentiation remains unclear. In the present
      study, BMSCs were isolated from rat femurs and tibias and the cells were purified
      at passage 6 (P6). IGF-1 and IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) kinase inhibitor I-OMe AG538
      were added to detect if IGF-1 could induce BMSCs to transdifferentiate into CLCs
      and if I-OMe AG538 could inhibit IGF-1-mediated receptor activation and
      downstream signaling. Immunostaining demonstrated that all P6 BMSCs express CD29
      and CD44 but not CD45. BMSCs induced by 15 ng/ml IGF-1 revealed positivity for
      cardiac troponin-T and cardiac troponin-I. The optimal induction time was 14 days
      but the expression of these proteins were incompletely inhibited by 300 nmol/l I
      OMe AG538 and completely inhibited by 10 umol/l I-OMe AG538. Western blotting
      showed that the level of IGF-1R autophosphorylation and the expression of cTnT
      and cTnI were higher when BMSCs were induced for 14 days. I-OMe AG538 selectively
      inhibited IGF-1-mediated growth and signal transduction and the inhibitory effect
      of I-OMe AG538 were not reverted in the presence of exogenous IGF-1. In addition,
      when a time course analysis of the effects of I-OMe AG538 on mitogen-activated
      protein kinase kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling were done, we
      observed a transient inhibitory effect on Erk1/2 and Akt phosphorylation, in
      keeping with the inhibitory effects on cell growth. Taken together, these data
      indicate that I-OMe AG538 could inhibit IGF-1-induced CLCs in BMSCs and this
      effect is time- and concentration-dependent.

PMID- 28560389
TI  - Elemene inhibits the migration and invasion of 4T1 murine breast cancer cells via
      heparanase.
AB  - Elemene (ELE), a natural plant drug extracted from Curcumae Rhizoma, has been
      widely used for cancer treatment in China for more than 20 years. Although it is
      reported to be a broad-spectrum anticancer drug, the mechanism underlying the
      action of ELE in the treatment of breast cancer remains to be fully elucidated.
      Heparanase, a mammalian endo-D-glucuronidase, is involved in degradation of the
      extracellular matrix (ECM), and thus promotes tumor progression and metastasis.
      The downregulation of heparanase can effectively reduce tumor malignant
      behaviors. In the present study, the inhibitory effects of ELE were evaluated in
      breast cancer cells using a Cell Counting kit 8 assay. The migratory and invasive
      capabilities of cancer cells were investigated using a wound healing assay, real
      time cell analysis and a Transwell assay. In addition, western blot analysis was
      used to assess alterations in the expression levels of key proteins. The present
      results confirmed the antiproliferative and antimetastatic effects of ELE, using
      low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH) as a positive control. In addition, ELE was
      demonstrated to downregulate the expression of heparanase, and decrease the
      phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and AKT. These findings
      suggested that ELE may be a promising agent targeting heparanase in the treatment
      of breast cancer.

PMID- 28560390
TI  - Prognostic value of PAX9 in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and
      its prediction value to radiation sensitivity.
AB  - Abnormal paired box 9 (PAX9) expression is associated with tumorigenesis, cancer
      development, invasion and metastasis. The present study investigated the
      prognostic significance of PAX9 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and
      its role in predicting radiation sensitivity. A total of 52.8% (121/229) ESCC
      tissues were positive for PAX9. The 1-, 3- and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS)
      rates were 72.2, 35.2 and 5.6%, respectively, and the overall survival (OS) rates
      were and 86.1, 44.4, and 23.1%, respectively, in PAX9-positive tumors. In PAX9
      negative tumors, the one-, three- and five-year DFS rates were 76.9, 47.9 and
      24.0%, and the OS rates were 90.9, 57.9 and 38.8%, respectively. Univariate
      analysis revealed that PAX9, differentiation, T stage, lymph node metastasis, and
      tumor-node-metastasis stage were associated with OS. Multivariate analysis of DFS
      and OS revealed that the hazard ratios for PAX9 were 0.624 (95% CI: 0.472-0.869,
      P=0.004) and 0.673 (95% CI: 0.491-0.922, P=0.014), respectively. Patients that
      received adjuvant therapy exhibited significant differences in the 5-year DFS
      (P<0.001) and OS (P<0.001). PAX9-positive ESCC patients who received post-surgery
      radiotherapy had a significantly greater 5-year DFS (P=0.011) and OS (P=0.009)
      than patients who received surgery only. Thus, PAX9 may be an independent
      prognostic factor for the surgical treatment of ESCC and a possible predictor of
      radiation sensitivity.

PMID- 28560391
TI  - Fisetin inhibits liver cancer growth in a mouse model: Relation to dopamine
      receptor.
AB  - Fisetin (3,3',4',7-tetrahydroxyflavone), a natural abundant flavonoid, is
      produced in different vegetables and fruits. Fisetin has been reported to relate
      to various positive biological effects, including anti-proliferative, anticancer,
      anti-oxidative and neuroprotective effects. Dopamine receptors (DRs) belonging to
      G protein-coupled receptor family, are known as the target of ~50% of all modern
      medicinal drugs. DRs consist of various proteins, functioning as transduction of
      intracellular signals for extracellular stimuli. We found that fisetin performed
      as DR2 agonist to suppress liver cancer cells proliferation, migration and
      invasion. Caspase-3 signaling was activated to induce apoptosis for fisetin
      administration. Furthermore, TGF-beta1 was also inhibited in fisetin-treated
      liver cancer cells, reducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
      Additionally, fisetin downregulated VEGFR1, p-ERK1/2, p38 and pJNK, ameliorating
      liver cancer progression. In vivo, the orthotopically implanted tumors from mice
      were inhibited by fisetin adminisatration accompanied by prolonged survival rate
      and higher levels of dopamine. Together, the results indicated a novel
      therapeutic strategy to suppress liver cancer progression associated with DR2
      regulation, indicating that dopamine might be of importance in liver cancer
      progression.

PMID- 28560392
TI  - The blueberry component pterostilbene has potent anti-myeloma activity in
      bortezomib-resistant cells.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematologic malignancy because of its drug
      resistance. Pterostilbene (Pter) is found mainly in blueberries and grapes. The
      effects of Pter and its exact pharmacologic mechanisms on chemoresistant myeloma
      are not known. Herein, we investigated the anti-myeloma activity of Pter in
      bortezomib-resistant cell line H929R and explored the related mechanism of action
      for the first time. We found that Pter inhibited proliferation of H929R cells and
      promoted apoptosis of the cells through a caspase-dependent pathway, loss of
      mitochondrial membrane potential, and activation of Akt and p38 mitogen-activated
      protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. DNA damage and S-phase arrest might be
      involved in Pter-related toxicity in H929R cells. Pter and the histone
      deacetylase inhibitors panobinostat or vorinostat inhibited proliferation of
      H929R cells in a synergistic manner. These data supported that Pter might be a
      promising natural compound for relapsed/refractory myeloma therapy, especially
      against myeloma resistant to bortezomib chemotherapy.

PMID- 28560393
TI  - The inhibition of NOTCH2 reduces UVB-induced damage in retinal pigment epithelium
      cells.
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible
      blindness in the elderly. The pathogenesis of dry AMD remains indistinct and the
      mechanism of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells death in dry AMD is
      controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate the functions of
      Notch signaling in ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced damage of RPE cells. It was
      identified that, in RPE cells, UVB increased intracellular reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) and induced cell apoptosis. In addition, UVB activated Notch
      signaling in a dose dependent manner. Surprisingly, NOTCH2, but not NOTCH1, was
      demonstrated to be the major Notch receptor in RPE cells. Under normal
      conditions, the inhibition of NOTCH2 reduced cell growth and cell migration, but
      had no impact on intracellular ROS and cell apoptosis. However, in the presence
      of UVB, the inhibition of NOTCH2, but not NOTCH1, attenuated intracellular ROS
      and cell apoptosis. The function of Notch signaling involved in UVB damage of RPE
      cells may not only be significant to understanding the pathogenesis of AMD
      (especially dry AMD), but also useful for designing effective therapeutic agents
      for dry AMD.

PMID- 28560394
TI  - MicroRNA-526a targets p21-activated kinase 7 to inhibit tumorigenesis in
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - MicroRNAs belong to a series of noncoding RNAs and have diverse roles in several
      biological processes. The association between aberrant microRNA expression and
      tumorigenesis is complex and remains to be fully elucidated. The present study
      investigated whether microRNA (miR) -526a can suppress the progression of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in vitro and in vivo. Reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction, luciferase reporter assay, invasion
      assay, western blotting and in vivo implantation were used to investigate the
      potential function of miR-526a. The present study observed that the level of miR
      526a was downregulated in HCC tissues and well-established cell lines. In
      addition, the ectopic introduction of miR-526a into Huh7 and HepG2 cells
      significantly attenuated HCC tumorigenesis, including proliferation, migration
      and invasion. The growth of tumor xenografts was also inhibited following
      transfection with miR-526a. Using overlapping strategies, p21-activated kinase 7
      (PAK7) was predicted to be a target for miR-526a, and this was verified
      experimentally. An inverse correlation was found between miR-526a and PAK7 in HCC
      tissues. The results of the present study revealed a novel function of miR-526a
      and may provide crucial insight into therapeutic interventions targeting
      microRNAs.

PMID- 28560396
TI  - Mitochondrial Ca2+ removal amplifies TRAIL cytotoxicity toward apoptosis
      resistant tumor cells via promotion of multiple cell death modalities.
AB  - Ca2+ has emerged as a new target for cancer treatment since tumor-specific traits
      in Ca2+ dynamics contributes to tumorigenesis, malignant phenotypes, drug
      resistance, and survival in different tumor types. However, Ca2+ has a dual (pro
      death and pro-survival) function in tumor cells depending on the experimental
      conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the onset of the pro-survival
      Ca2+ signals caused by the therapy. For this purpose, a better understanding of
      pro-survival Ca2+ pathways in cancer cells is critical. Here we report that Ca2+
      protects malignant melanoma (MM) and osteosarcoma (OS) cells from tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) cytotoxicity. Simultaneous
      measurements using the site-specific Ca2+ probes showed that acute TRAIL
      treatment rapidly and dose-dependently increased the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration
      ([Ca2+]cyt) and mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]mit) Pharmacological
      analyses revealed that the [Ca2+]mit remodeling was under control of
      mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU), mitochondrial permeability transition pore
      (MPTP), and a Ca2+ transport pathway sensitive to capsazepine and AMG9810. Ca2+
      chelators and the MCU inhibitor ruthenium 360, an MPTP opener atractyloside,
      capsazepine, and AMG9810 all decreased [Ca2+]mit and sensitized these tumor cells
      to TRAIL cytotoxicity. The Ca2+ modulation enhanced both apoptotic and non
      apoptotic cell death. Although the [Ca2+]mit reduction potentiated TRAIL-induced
      caspase-3/7 activation and cell membrane damage within 24 h, this potentiation of
      cell death became pronounced at 72 h, and not blocked by caspase inhibition. Our
      findings suggest that in MM and OS cells mitochondrial Ca2+ removal can promote
      apoptosis and non-apoptotic cell death induction by TRAIL. Therefore,
      mitochondrial Ca2+ removal can be exploited to overcome the resistance of these
      cancers to TRAIL.

PMID- 28560397
TI  - Effects of interleukin-17 on human retinal vascular endothelial cell capillary
      tube formation in vitro.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the effect of and mechanism underlying
      interleukin (IL)-17 on human retinal vascular endothelial cell (HREC) capillary
      tube formation in vitro. The expression of IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) in human HRECs
      was quantified using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and
      western blot analyses. The roles of IL-17 in HREC migration and capillary tube
      formation were detected using a wound scratching assay and three-dimensional
      Matrigel assay, respectively, in vitro. HREC proliferation was examined using a
      cell counting kit-8 assay with administration of serial doses of IL-17. The
      effects of IL-17 on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF),
      intercellular cell adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, IL-6 and IL-8 in HRECs were
      evaluated using RT-PCR and western blot analyses. The results revealed that the
      HRECs expressed IL-17R, and the number of intact capillary tubes formed by HRECs
      in the presence of IL-17 was markedly higher, compared with that in the blank
      control group. The wound scratching assay showed that the numbers of migrated
      HRECs stimulated with IL-17 at concentrations of 100 or 500 ng/ml were
      significantly higher, compared with the number in the control group. The RT-PCR
      and western blot analyses showed that IL-17 significantly promoted the expression
      of VEGF, ICAM-1, IL-6 and IL-8 by the HRECs. The proliferation of HRECs in the
      presence of IL-17 was also significantly increased. Therefore, IL-17 increased
      HREC capillary tube formation through promoting HREC migration, proliferation,
      and expression levels of VEGF, ICAM-1, IL-6 and IL-8.

PMID- 28560395
TI  - HSVtk/GCV system on hepatoma carcinoma cells: Construction of the plasmid
      pcDNA3.1-pAFP-TK and targeted killing effect.
AB  - Previous studies demonstrated that herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk)
      could phosphorylate non-toxic gancyclovir (GCV) efficiently to produce
      phosphorylated products that result in cell apoptosis, to kill tumor cells. The
      present study aimed to construct a plasmid vector, pcDNA3.1-pAFP-TK, carrying the
      suicide gene driven by the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) promoter, to investigate the
      cytotoxicity of HSVtk/GCV suicide gene system on hepatoma carcinoma cells.
      Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting results
      demonstrated that the HSVtk gene was effectively expressed in HepG2 hepatoma
      carcinoma cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-pAFP-TK plasmid, whereas HSVtk gene
      expression was not detected in normal HL-7702 liver cells. In addition, MTT
      assays indicated that cell viability of HepG2 cells with the plasmid pcDNA3.1
      pAFP-TK decreased in a dose-dependent manner following treatment with GCV for 48
      h. Flow cytometry also revealed that the cell apoptosis rate and mitochondrial
      membrane potential reduction rate in the HepG2 cells treated with HSVtk/GCV
      suicide gene system were significantly higher than in the control group.
      Apoptosis rates in the control group and the pcDNA3.1-pAFP-TK group were (1.00+/
      0.62%) and (38.70+/-6.03%), respectively. Mitochondrial membrane potential
      reduction rates in the control group and the pcDNA3.1-pAFP-TK group were (0.57+/
      0.11%) and (22.84+/-5.79%), respectively. Caspase-3 staining demonstrated that
      activated caspase-3 increased significantly in the HepG2 cells treated with
      HSVtk/GCV suicide gene system, whereas in the control group activated caspase-3
      increase was not observed. The results of the present study, therefore, indicated
      that HSVtk suicide gene was obviously expressed in the HepG2 cells and that the
      HSVtk/GCV system was effective at killing HepG2 hepatoma carcinoma cells.

PMID- 28560398
TI  - Toxic proteins from Croton tiglium L. exert a proinflammatory effect by inducing
      release of proinflammatory cytokines and activating the p38-MAPK signaling
      pathway.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to determine the toxic targets of proteins from
      Croton tiglium L. and to investigate the potential mechanism of their toxicity.
      The toxic targets were determined by oral medication and intraperitoneal
      injection. The median lethal dose of oral medication in mice was calculated using
      Bliss software (2,752.8-3,407.5 mg/kg), and that of intraperitoneal injection was
      195.8-272.69 mg/kg. The results of histopathological examination demonstrated
      that the kidney was primarily impaired by intraperitoneal injection, with slight
      degeneration of renal tubular epithelial cells. As to oral medication, the
      digestive tract was primarily injured, which manifested as congestion, bleeding,
      serious edema and other symptoms. Oral administration of the proteins caused
      gastrointestinal edema by increasing the intestinal permeability. Severe edema
      was associated with the inflammatory response, therefore the association between
      the toxicity of the proteins and inflammation was investigated. The
      proinflammatory effects of the crude proteins on the release of inflammatory
      mediator prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were evaluated through intraperitoneal injection
      and the production of proinflammatory cytokines in RAW264.7 macrophages. Maximum
      PGE2 was released in the mice in vivo following intraperitoneal injection with
      400 mg crude protein/kg body weight. Proinflammatory cytokines in macrophages,
      including tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta, were produced in
      dose- and time-dependent manners in vitro. furthermore, the expressions of cell
      signaling molecules were detected by western blotting. The inflammatory response
      induced by crude protein in macrophages was associated with the mitogen-activated
      protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway mainly including p38-MAPK, extracellular
      signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2/3 and the activated
      p38-MAPK signaling pathway. However, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2
      and c-Jun N-terminal kinases 1-3 exhibited no significant response.

PMID- 28560399
TI  - MicroRNA expression analysis during FK506-induced osteogenic differentiation in
      rat bone marrow stromal cells.
AB  - FK506 (also known as tacrolimus) is a potent immunosuppressive agent that is
      widely used in the treatment of graft-rejection and autoimmune diseases. FK506
      has attracted additional attention owing to its potential role in osteogenic
      differentiation and bone formation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to
      serve important roles in the regulation of osteogenic differentiation; however,
      identification of specific miRNAs and their roles in regulating FK506-induced
      osteogenic differentiation have been poorly examined. In the present study,
      osteodifferentiation of rat bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) was induced with
      varying concentrations of FK506 (5-5,000 nM) for 3, 7 and 14 days. Differentially
      expressed miRNAs were profiled using miRNA array, verified by reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and subjected to
      gene ontology (GO) term and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)
      pathway analysis. Results from the present study identified a subset of miRNAs
      that were differentially expressed, of which five upregulated miRNAs (miR-106b
      5p, miR-101b-3p, miR-193a-3p, miR-485-3p and miR-142-3p) and four downregulated
      miRNAs (miR-27a-3p, miR-207, miR-218a-2-3p and let-7a-5p) were confirmed by RT
      qPCR. GO and KEGG analysis revealed that the predicted target genes of these
      miRNAs are involved in multiple biological processes and signaling pathways,
      including cell differentiation and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)
      signaling pathway. Verification of the miRNA-target genes revealed that Smad5,
      Jagged 1 and MAPK9 were significantly upregulated, whereas Smad7, BMP and activin
      membrane-bound inhibitor, and dual-specificity phosphatase 2 were significantly
      downregulated during FK506-induced osteodifferentiation. The present study may
      provide an experimental basis for further research on miRNA functions during
      FK506-induced osteogenic differentiation in rat BMSCs.

PMID- 28560400
TI  - Altered gene expression of hepatic cytochrome P450 in a rat model of intermittent
      hypoxia with emphysema.
AB  - Patients with respiratory overlap syndrome (OS), defined as concomitant chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, may exhibit
      an increased blood concentration of ingested drugs. This poor elimination of
      drugs is primarily attributed to downregulated gene expression of the drug
      metabolizing cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) in the liver. However, the underlying
      mechanisms of the decreased expression of CYPs in OS are poorly understood. In
      order to address this, a rat model of intermittent hypoxia with emphysema was
      evaluated in the present study, by analyzing liver gene expression using the
      reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Intermittent
      hypoxia and cigarette smoke exposure caused upregulation of hepatic inflammatory
      cytokines, while CYPs were downregulated. This downregulation of CYPs was
      associated with an increase in nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB expression and a
      decrease in the expression of nuclear receptors pregnane X receptor, constitutive
      androstane receptor and glucocorticoid receptor, which are the upstream
      regulatory molecules of CYPs. The results of the present study indicated that,
      during the development of OS, systematic inflammatory reactions may downregulate
      hepatic CYP gene expression via the NF-kappaB signaling pathway.

PMID- 28560402
TI  - Anticancer effects of phytocannabinoids used with chemotherapy in leukaemia cells
      can be improved by altering the sequence of their administration.
AB  - Phytocannabinoids possess anticancer activity when used alone, and a number have
      also been shown to combine favourably with each other in vitro in leukaemia cells
      to generate improved activity. We have investigated the effect of pairing
      cannabinoids and assessed their anticancer activity in cell line models. Those
      most effective were then used with the common anti-leukaemia drugs cytarabine and
      vincristine, and the effects of this combination therapy on cell death studied in
      vitro. Results show a number of cannabinoids could be paired together to generate
      an effect superior to that achieved if the components were used individually. For
      example, in HL60 cells, the IC50 values at 48 h for cannabidiol (CBD) and
      tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) when used alone were 8 and 13 uM, respectively;
      however, if used together, it was 4 uM. Median-effect analysis confirmed the
      benefit of using cannabinoids in pairs, with calculated combination indices being
      <1 in a number of cases. The most efficacious cannabinoid-pairs subsequently
      synergised further when combined with the chemotherapy agents, and were also able
      to sensitise leukaemia cells to their cytotoxic effects. The sequence of
      administration of these drugs was important though; using cannabinoids after
      chemotherapy resulted in greater induction of apoptosis, whilst this was the
      opposite when the schedule of administration was reversed. Our results suggest
      that when certain cannabinoids are paired together, the resulting product can be
      combined synergistically with common anti-leukaemia drugs allowing the dose of
      the cytotoxic agents to be dramatically reduced yet still remain efficacious.
      Nevertheless, the sequence of drug administration is crucial to the success of
      these triple combinations and should be considered when planning such treatments.

PMID- 28560401
TI  - Prostaglandin E2 promotes human CD34+ cells homing through EP2 and EP4 in vitro.
AB  - Recently, certain studies have demonstrated in vitro that prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)
      promotes human cluster of differentiation (CD)34+ cell homing. However, the sub
      type receptors activated by PGE2 are unknown, as the PGE2 receptor EP1-4 subtypes
      (EP1-4) are expressed on the membrane of human CD34+ cells. Based on the above,
      the present study aimed to screen the receptor subtype activity by PGE2 to
      promote human CD34+ cell homing. It was observed that human CD34+ cells expressed
      the four PGE2 sub-receptors, particularly EP2 and 4. PGE2 increased EP2 and 4
      mRNA expression significantly, while EP1 and 3 mRNA exhibited no significant
      alteration. PGE2, EP2 agonist (EP2A), and EP4A upregulated C-X-C chemokine
      receptor 4 mRNA and protein expression in human CD34+ cells, and promoted stromal
      cell-derived factor 1alpha (SDF-1alpha) expression in bone marrow mesenchymal
      stem cells (BMMSCs). These phenomena were inhibited by the associated receptor
      antagonists. PGE2, EP2A, and EP4A facilitated human CD34+ cell migration towards
      SDF-1alpha and BMMSCs. The results of the present study suggested that PGE2
      promoted human CD34+ cell homing through EP2 and 4 receptors in vitro.

PMID- 28560403
TI  - Anti-fibrotic effect of Sedum sarmentosum Bunge extract in kidneys via the
      hedgehog signaling pathway.
AB  - Sedum sarmentosum Bunge (SSBE) is a perennial plant widely distributed in Asian
      countries, and its extract is traditionally used for the treatment of certain
      inflammatory diseases. Our previous studies demonstrated that SSBE has marked
      renal anti-fibrotic effects. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain
      to be fully elucidated. The present study identified that SSBE exerts its
      inhibitory effect on the myofibroblast phenotype and renal fibrosis via the
      hedgehog signaling pathway in vivo and in vitro. In rats with unilateral ureteral
      obstruction (UUO), SSBE administration reduced kidney injury and alleviated
      interstitial fibrosis by decreasing the levels of transforming growth factor
      (TGF)-beta1 and its receptor, and inhibiting excessive accumulation of
      extracellular matrix (ECM) components, including type I and III collagens. In
      addition, SSBE suppressed the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen,
      and this anti-proliferative activity was associated with downregulation of
      hedgehog signaling activity in SSBE-treated UUO kidneys. In cultured renal
      tubular epithelial cells (RTECs), recombinant TGF-beta1 activated hedgehog
      signaling, and resulted in induction of the myofibroblast phenotype. SSBE
      treatment inhibited the activation of hedgehog signaling and partially reversed
      the fibrotic phenotype in TGF-beta1-treated RTECs. Similarly, aristolochic acid
      mediated upregulated activity of hedgehog signaling was reduced by SSBE
      treatment, and thereby led to the abolishment of excessive ECM accumulation.
      Therefore, these findings suggested that SSBE attenuates the myofibroblast
      phenotype and renal fibrosis via suppressing the hedgehog signaling pathway, and
      may facilitate the development of treatments for kidney fibrosis.

PMID- 28560404
TI  - Intermittent low dose irradiation enhances the effectiveness of radio- and chemo
      therapy for human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line HT-29.
AB  - Low dose irradiation (LDIR) induces hormesis and adaptive response in organism
      and mammalian cell lines. Notably, LDIR generates distinct biological effects in
      cancer cells from normal cells, e.g., it may affect the growth of cancer cells
      via the activation of certain cell signaling pathway, which does not exist in
      normal cells. Therefore, LDIR is considered as a promising assistant method of
      clinical cancer therapy. In this study, we chose human colorectal adenocarcinoma
      cell line HT-29 as the experimental model, and investigated the differential
      biological effects between 250 mGy single dose LDIR and 250 mGy intermittent LDIR
      pretreatments in high dose irradiation (HDIR) radiotherapy and 5-fluorouracil (5
      FU) based chemotherapy. Through the cell growth assays, we observed that 250 mGy
      intermittent LDIR pretreatment significantly increased the killing effect of both
      radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Western blotting results showed that intermittent
      LDIR pretreatment apparently activated the ATM/p53 (ataxia telangiectasia
      mutated, ATM) pathway in radiotherapy; it also activated ERK and p38MAPK pathways
      in chemotherapy. When we used chemical inhibitors to block the ATM/p53 or p38MAPK
      pathways, the intermittent LDIR induced cell growth inhibitions were reversed.
      However, blockage of ERK pathway could not affect the cell growth inhibiton in
      chemotherapy. Taken together, our findings evaluated the intermittent LDIR as a
      potential valuable method that can enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy and
      chemotherapy, especially in the radio- or chemo-resistant tumor types.

PMID- 28560405
TI  - MARK2 inhibits the growth of HeLa cells through AMPK and reverses epithelial
      mesenchymal transition.
AB  - Microtubule affinity-regulating kinases (MARKs; MARK1, MARK2, MARK3 and MARK4)
      act directly downstream of LKB1, the multitasking tumor-suppressor kinase, and
      thereby mediate its biological effects. Current understanding of the function of
      MARKs is greatly restricted to regulation of cell polarity. However, whether or
      how MARKs contribute to cellular growth control remains largely unknown. In the
      present study, we utilized an inducible lentiviral expression system that allows
      rapid MARK expression in LKB1-deficient HeLa cells, and characterized additional
      functions of MARKs: overexpression of MARK2 in HeLa cells resulted in a decrease
      in cell growth, inhibition of colony formation and arrest in G1 cell cycle phase,
      with AMPK as the putative downstream effector upregulating the expression of p21
      and p16. MARK2 was found to play a role in F-actin reorganization and to
      contribute to reversal of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) as exemplified
      in the case of HeLa cells that exhibited phenotypic changes, reduced cell
      migration and invasion. Our findings unveil the coordinated regulation of cell
      growth and EMT mediated by MARK2, and also provide new insights into the
      mechanisms underlying the anti-metastatic activity of MARK2.

PMID- 28560406
TI  - Silencing of ATM expression by siRNA technique contributes to glioma stem cell
      radiosensitivity in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Evidence has shown that both high expression of the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated
      (ATM) gene and glioma stem cells (GSCs) are responsible for radioresistance in
      glioma. Thus, we hypothesized that brain tumor radiosensitivity may be enhanced
      via silencing of the ATM gene in GSCs. In the present study we successfully
      induced GSCs from two cell lines and used CD133 and nestin to identify GSCs. A
      lentivirus was used to deliver siRNA-ATMPuro (A group) to GSCs prior to
      radiation, while siRNA-HKPuro (N group) and GSCs (C group) were used as negative
      and blank controls, respectively. RT-qPCR and western blotting were performed to
      verify the efficiency of the siRNA-ATM technique. The expression of the ATM gene
      and ATM protein were significantly downregulated post-transfection. Cell Counting
      Kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation assays revealed that the A group demonstrated
      weak cell proliferation and lower survival fractions post-irradiation compared to
      the C/N groups. Flow cytometry was used to examine the percentage of cell
      apoptosis and G2 phase arrest, which were both higher in the A group than in the
      C/N groups. We found that the comet tail percentage evaluated by comet assay was
      higher in the A group than in the C/N groups. After radiation treatment, three
      radiosensitive genes [p53, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), survivin]
      exhibited a decreasing tendency as determined by RT-qPCR. Mice underwent
      subcutaneous implantation, followed by radiation, and the resulting necrosis and
      hemorrhage were more obvious in the A group than in the N groups. In conclusion,
      silencing of ATM via the siRNA technique improved radiosensitivity of GSCs both
      in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28560407
TI  - Tensile strength suppresses the osteogenesis of periodontal ligament cells in
      inflammatory microenvironments.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the role of orthodontic force in
      osteogenesis differentiation, matrix deposition and mineralization in periodontal
      ligament cells (PDLCs) cells in inflammatory microenvironments. The mesenchymal
      origin of PDLCs was confirmed by vimentin and cytokeratin staining. PDLCs were
      exposed to inflammatory cytokines (5 ng/ml IL-1beta and 10 ng/ml TNF-alpha)
      and/or tensile strength (0.5 Hz, 12% elongation) for 12, 24 or 48 h. Cell
      proliferation and tensile strength-induced cytokine expression were assessed by
      MTT assay and ELISA, respectively. Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2)
      and type I collagen (COL-I) expression were analysed by reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. Additionally,
      alkaline phosphatase activity was measured, and the mineralization profile was
      evaluated by alizarin red S staining. PDLCs exposed to tensile strength in
      inflammatory microenvironments exhibited reduced proliferation and mineralization
      potential. Treatment with the inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta and TNF-alpha
      increased RUNX2 expression levels; however, decreased COL-I expression levels,
      indicating that bone formation and matrix deposition involve different mechanisms
      in PDL tissues. Notably, RUNX2 and COL-I expression levels were decreased in
      PDLCs exposed to a combination of an inflammatory environment and loading
      strength. The decreased osteogenic potential in an inflammatory microenvironment
      under tensile strength suggests that orthodontic force may amplify periodontal
      destruction in orthodontic patients with periodontitis.

PMID- 28560408
TI  - Collagen-derived N-acetylated proline-glycine-proline upregulates the expression
      of pro-inflammatory cytokines and extracellular matrix proteases in nucleus
      pulposus cells via the NF-kappaB and MAPK signaling pathways.
AB  - N-acetylated proline-glycine-proline (N-Ac-PGP) is a chemokine involved in
      inflammatory diseases and is found to accumulate in degenerative discs. N-Ac-PGP
      has been demonstrated to have a pro-inflammatory effect on human cartilage
      endplate stem cells. However, the effect of N-Ac-PGP on human intervertebral disc
      cells, especially nucleus pulposus (NP) cells, remains unknown. The purpose of
      this study was to investigate the effect of N-Ac-PGP on the expression of pro
      inflammatory factors and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteases in NP cells and the
      molecular mechanism underlying this effect. Therefore, Milliplex assays were used
      to detect the levels of various inflammatory cytokines in conditioned culture
      medium of NP cells treated with N-Ac-PGP, including interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta),
      IL-6, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-C motif ligand 2
      (CCL2). RT-qPCR was also used to determine the expression of pro-inflammatory
      cytokines and ECM proteases in the NP cells treated with N-Ac-PGP. Moreover, the
      role of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase
      (MAPK) signaling pathways in mediating the effect of N-Ac-PGP on the phenotype of
      NP cells was investigated using specific signaling inhibitors. Milliplex assays
      showed that NP cells treated with N-Ac-PGP (10 and 100 ug/ml) secreted higher
      levels of IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-17, TNF-alpha and CCL2 compared with the control. RT
      qPCR assays showed that NP cells treated with N-Ac-PGP (100 ug/ml) had markedly
      upregulated expression of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3), MMP13, a disintegrin
      and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif 4 (ADAMTS4), ADAMTS5, IL-6, CCL
      2, CCL-5 and C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10). Moreover, N-Ac-PGP was
      shown to activate the MAPK and NF-kappaB signaling pathways in NP cells. MAPK and
      NF-kappaB signaling inhibitors suppressed the upregulation of proteases and pro
      inflammatory cytokines in NP cells treated with N-Ac-PGP. In conclusion, N-Ac-PGP
      induces the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and matrix catabolic enzymes
      in NP cells via the NF-kappaB and MAPK signaling pathways. N-Ac-PGP is a novel
      therapeutic target for intervertebral disc degeneration.

PMID- 28560409
TI  - Construction of disease-specific transcriptional regulatory networks identifies
      co-activation of four gene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Even though various molecules may serve as biomarkers, little is known concerning
      the mechanisms underlying the carcinogenesis of ESCC, particularly the
      transcriptional regulatory network. Thus, in the present study, paired ESCC and
      non-cancerous (NC) tissues were assayed by Affymetrix microarray assays. Passing
      Attributes between Networks for Data Assimilation (PANDA) was used to construct
      networks between transcription factors (TFs) and their targets. AnaPANDA program
      was applied to compare the regulatory networks. A hypergeometric distribution
      model-based target profile similarity analysis was utilized to find co-activation
      effects using both TF-target networks and differential expression data. There
      were 1,116 genes upregulated and 1,301 genes downregulated in ESCC compared with
      NC tissues. In TF-target networks, 16,970 ESCC-specific edges and 9,307 NC
      specific edges were identified. Edge enrichment analysis by AnaPANDA indicated 17
      transcription factors (NFE2L2, ELK4, PAX6, TLX1, ESR1, ZNF143, TP53, REL, ELF5,
      STAT1, TBP, NHLH1, FOXL1, SOX9, STAT3, ELK1, and HOXA5) suppressed in ESCC and 5
      (SPIB, BRCA1, MZF1, MAFG and NFE2L1) activated in ESCC. For SPIB, MZF1, MAFG and
      NFE2L1, a strong and significant co-activation effect among them was detected in
      ESCC. In conclusion, the construction of transcriptional regulatory networks
      found SPIB, MZF1, MAFG and NFE2L1 co-activated in ESCC, which provides
      distinctive insight into the carcinogenesis mechanism of ESCC.

PMID- 28560411
TI  - CpG methylation patterns are associated with gene expression variation in
      osteosarcoma.
AB  - Osteosarcoma is a common malignant tumor in childhood and adolescence (nearly 5%
      of all cases of cancer in children), as well as a type of tumor with poor
      prognosis. However, the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of osteosarcoma
      remains to be elucidated. The aim of the current study was to determine the
      association between methylation and gene expression changes in osteosarcoma cell
      line. Microarray data were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database
      (GSE36004). Genome-wide methylation status was determined in 19 different
      osteosarcoma cell lines and 6 normal controls. Differentially expressed genes
      (DEGs) were identified from cancer cells with genefilter package in R and
      differentially methylated sites were screened with CpGassoc package in R.
      Integrated gene expression with methylation profiles, genes differentially
      expressed and methylated, were obtained, and transcriptional regulatory network
      construction was performed. Functional annotation was performed for genes in the
      network using the DAVID online tool. Following integrated analysis, a total of 75
      methylated sites were demonstrated to be localized at a transcription factor
      binding region. These sites may be bound by 83 transcription factors which will
      then alter the expression of 75 downstream DEGs. In the regulatory network,
      seizure related 6 homolog like 2 (SEZ6L2) had the highest degree of upregulation
      and was demonstrated to be regulated by 12 transcription factors. Furthermore,
      kin of IRRE like (KIRREL), centrosomal protein 72 (CEP72) and cyclin-dependent
      kinase 4 (CDK4) were also regulated by more than three transcription factors.
      Functional annotation revealed that the upregulated genes were primarily involved
      in the cell cycle pathway. Several differentially methylated sites were
      associated with upregulation of SEZ6L2, KIRREL, CEP72 and CDK4 and may have an
      important role in the pathogenesis of osteosarcomas through promotion of cell
      proliferation and metastasis.

PMID- 28560410
TI  - DCLK1 is correlated with MET and ERK5 expression, and associated with prognosis
      in malignant pleural mesothelioma.
AB  - Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer for which more
      effective treatments are needed. In this study, strong to moderate staining of
      MET and ERK5 was detected in 67.1 and 48% of the analyzed 73 human mesothelioma
      tumors, and significant correlation of MET and ERK5 expression was identified
      (P<0.05). We evaluated the doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) expression in human
      mesothelioma tumors. Our results showed that 50.7% of the immunohistochemistry
      analyzed human mesothelioma tumors have strong to moderate staining of DCLK1, and
      its expression is significantly correlated with MET or ERK5 expression (P<0.05).
      Also, the upregulation of DCLK1 is correlated with poor prognosis in MPM patients
      (P=0.0235). To investigate whether DCLK1 is downstream of MET/ERK5 signaling in
      human mesothelioma, the effect of DCLK1 expression was analyzed after treatments
      with either the MET inhibitor XL184 or the ERK5 inhibitor XMD8-92 in human
      mesothelioma cell lines. Our results showed that the MET inhibitor XL184 reduced
      the expression of phospho-ERK5 and DCLK1 expression in human mesothelioma cell
      lines. In addition, the ERK5 inhibitor XMD8-92 reduced the expression of phospho
      ERK5 and DCLK1 expression in human mesothelioma cell lines. Furthermore, XML184
      and XMD8-92 treatment impaired invasion and tumor sphere formation ability of
      H290 mesothelioma cells. These results suggest that DCLK1 is regulated by
      MET/ERK5 signaling in human mesothelioma, and the MET/ERK5/DCLK1 signaling
      cascade could be further developed into a promising therapeutic target against
      mesothelioma.

PMID- 28560412
TI  - Farnesoid X receptor deletion improves cardiac function, structure and remodeling
      following myocardial infarction in mice.
AB  - The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is implicated in cholesterol and bile acid
      homeostasis; however, its role following myocardial infarction (MI) has yet to be
      elucidated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of FXR
      knockout on left ventricular (LV) remodeling following MI. Coronary arteries of
      wild type (WT) and FXR-/- mice were permanently occluded to cause MI, and serial
      echocardiographic and histological tests were conducted. At 4 weeks post-MI, FXR
      /- mice exhibited significantly smaller infarct sizes (34.20+/-2.58 vs. 44.20+/
      3.19%), improved ejection fraction (47.31+/-1.08 vs. 37.64+/-0.75%) and reduced
      LV chamber dilation compared with WT mice. LV remodeling was significant as early
      as 7 days post-MI in FXR-/- compared with WT mice. Histological features
      associated with enhanced long-term remodeling and improved functionality, such as
      increased angiogenesis via detection of CD31 and reduced fibrosis, were observed
      in the FXR-/- group. Myocyte apoptosis within the infarcted zones appeared
      significantly reduced by day 7 in FXR-/- mice. In conclusion, the results of the
      present study suggested that FXR knockout may participate in the preservation of
      post-MI cardiac functionality, via reducing fibrosis and chronic apoptosis, and
      ameliorating ventricular function.

PMID- 28560413
TI  - Coptidis Rhizoma induces intrinsic apoptosis through BAX and BAK activation in
      human melanoma.
AB  - Malignant melanoma has exhibited a rising incidence in recent years worldwide.
      Although various molecular targeted drugs are being researched and developed for
      melanoma patients, their efficacy appears to be unsatisfactory. Over the past few
      years, several reports have demonstrated that Coptidis Rhizoma water extracts
      (CR) or its major active chemical component, berberine, has anticancer activities
      in various types of cancer, including melanoma. However, their underlying
      mechanisms have not been well understood. In the present study, we determined
      that CR suppressed melanoma cell viability, which was mainly mediated through
      apoptosis. In addition, the expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins, BCL2A1,
      MCL1 and BCL-w, were strongly suppressed by CR treatment. Furthermore, multi
      domain pro-apoptotic proteins BAX and BAK were activated by CR treatment and were
      also required for the CR-induced apoptosis. Collectively, CR or some formulations
      containing CR, may be effective safe treatment strategies for human melanoma.

PMID- 28560414
TI  - Bone marrow stromal cells promote neuromotor functional recovery, via
      upregulation of neurotrophic factors and synapse proteins following traumatic
      brain injury in rats.
AB  - It has previously been demonstrated that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs)
      exhibit great therapeutic potential in neuronal injuries; however, there is
      limited understanding of the precise underlying mechanisms that contribute to
      functional improvement following brain injury. The aim of the present study was
      to assess the effect of BMSC treatment on traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats,
      and investigate if they migrate to injured areas and promote neuromotor
      functional recovery via upregulation of neurotrophic factors and synaptic
      proteins. BMSCs were cultured in vitro from female Sprague Dawley (SD) rat bone
      marrow and were subsequently infused into male adult SD rats via the tail vein,
      following induction of TBI. The results demonstrated that treatment with BMSCs
      significantly reduced TBI-induced neuromotor impairment and neuronal loss, as
      assessed by rota rod testing, western blot analysis, modified neurological
      severity score and immunohistochemistry. The distribution of transplanted BMSCs
      was tracked by monitoring the expression of sex determining region Y (SRY) in
      rats. The number of cells double-positive for SRY/neuronal nuclear antigen or
      SRY/glial fibrillary acidic protein was increased in the BMSC group, which
      demonstrated that BMSCs migrated to injured areas and differentiated into neurons
      and astrocytes, following TBI. Furthermore, administration of BMSCs increased
      expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and brain derived neurotrophic
      factor. Protein expression levels of synaptophysin were downregulated following
      TBI and this was reversed in part by treatment with BMSCs. These findings
      uncovered some underlying mechanisms of action of BMSCs, and may lead to their
      potential use as a future effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of TBI.

PMID- 28560415
TI  - Bioinformatics analyses of the differences between lung adenocarcinoma and
      squamous cell carcinoma using The Cancer Genome Atlas expression data.
AB  - The present study aimed to explore gene and microRNA (miRNA) expression
      differences between lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma
      (LUSC). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs
      (DEMs) were identified by analyzing mRNA and miRNA expression data in normal and
      cancerous lung tissues that were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database.
      A total of 778 DEGs and 7 DEMs were identified. Altered gene functions and
      signaling pathways were investigated using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia
      of Genes and Genomes analyses, which revealed that DEGs were significantly
      enriched in extracellular matrix organization, cell differentiation, negative
      regulation of toll signaling pathway, and several other terms and pathways.
      Transcription factor (TF)-miRNA-gene networks in LUAD and LUSC were predicted
      using the TargetScan, Miranda, and TRANSFAC databases, which revealed the
      regulatory links among the TFs, DEMs, and DEGs. The central TFs, i.e., the TFs in
      the middle of the TF-miRNA-gene network, of LUAD and LUSC were similar. Although
      LUAD and LUSC shared similar miRNAs in the predicted networks, miR-29b-3p was
      demonstrated to be upregulated only in LUAD, whereas miR-1, miR-105-5p, and miR
      193b-5p were altered in LUSC. These findings may improve our understanding of the
      different molecular mechanisms in non-small cell lung cancers and may promote new
      and accurate strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

PMID- 28560416
TI  - XAF1 expression levels in a non-small cell lung cancer cohort and its potential
      association with carcinogenesis.
AB  - The process of lung carcinogenesis is still not well understood and involves
      different levels of regulation of several genes. The search for molecular
      biomarkers, which can be applicable to clinical practice, has been the focus of
      various studies. XIAP-associated factor 1 (XAF1) was previously shown to be
      downregulated in many types of tumors, including squamous cell lung cancer. XAF1
      is a pro-apoptotic protein and its restoration was found to sensitize cancer
      cells to apoptotic stimuli; however, the precise mechanism involved in the
      downregulation of XAF1 in tumors is unknown and promoter hypermethylation or heat
      shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1) may be involved. Therefore, the aim of the
      present study was to evaluate the expression of XAF1 in tumors and adjacent non
      tumor specimens from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and its
      potential association with various factors including clinicopathological
      characteristics and other genes involved in NSCLC. Our results indicated that
      XAF1 expression was markedly altered in NSCLC tumor samples when compared to that
      found in normal lung tissues. Predominantly, XAF1 was downregulated in the
      tumors, except in never-smoker patients. In addition, XAF1 may also be important
      in the whole cell stress mechanism where the p53 status is crucial.

PMID- 28560417
TI  - Atheroprotective effects of statins in patients with unstable angina by
      regulating the blood-borne microRNA network.
AB  - Experimental studies have demonstrated several effects of statins in acute
      coronary syndrome (ACS) that may extend their clinical benefit beyond the lipid
      profile modification itself. However, the precise underlying mechanism remains to
      be elucidated. microRNAs (miRNAs) serve significant roles in the pathophysiology
      of atherosclerotic plaque progression. The present study investigated the
      protective role of statins in patients with unstable angina (UA) by regulating
      the circulating miRNA network. miRNA array results demonstrated that there were
      21 differentially expressed miRNAs in non-statin-treated patients with UA (n=8)
      compared with non-coronary artery disease controls (n=8), and 33 differentially
      expressed miRNAs in statin-treated patients with UA (n=8) compared with non
      statin patients. TargetScan and miRanda programs were used to predict miRNAs
      target genes. miRNAs target genes in vascular endothelial cells and monocytes
      were clustered based on the CGAP SAGE library via the Database for Annotation,
      Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) platform, and miRNA target genes
      in platelets were clustered based on a UP tissue-specific library via the DAVID
      platform. The PANTHER database via DAVID platform was used to perform signaling
      pathway analysis. The miRNA-gene/pathway network was visualized by Cytoscape
      software. Bioinformatic analysis suggested that statin-induced miRNAs functions
      were primarily enriched in angiogenesis, integrin and platelet derived growth
      factor signaling pathways in UA patients. In endothelial cells and platelets,
      statin-induced miRNAs primarily targeted the integrin signaling pathway, and in
      monocytes primarily targeted cytoskeletal regulation by the Rho GTPase signaling
      pathway. These results revealed that statins may serve systematic protective
      roles in UA patients by influencing the circulating miRNA regulatory network.
      Further studies are required to verify the functions of statin-induced miRNAs in
      endothelial cells, platelets and monocytes.

PMID- 28560418
TI  - An FGF8b-mimicking peptide with potent antiangiogenic activity.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 8b interacts with its receptors and promotes
      angiogenesis in hormone-dependent tumors. In the present study, we demonstrated
      that a short peptide, termed 8b-13, which mimics part of the FGF8b structure,
      significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells (HUVECs) triggered by FGF8b using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)
      2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), flow cytometry and an in vitro scratch
      assay. In addition, the findings from western blotting and reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that 8b-13 appeared to counteract
      the effects of FGF8b on the expression of cyclin D1, the activation of signaling
      cascades, and the expression of proangiogenic factors; these actions may be
      involved in the mechanism underlying the inhibitory effects of 8b-13 on FGF8b
      induced HUVEC proliferation and migration. The present results suggested that 8b
      13 may be considered a potent FGF8b antagonist with antiangiogenic activity, and
      may have potential as a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer
      characterized by abnormal FGF8b upregulation.

PMID- 28560419
TI  - Upregulation of miR-101 enhances the cytotoxic effect of anticancer drugs through
      inhibition of colon cancer cell proliferation.
AB  - This study investigated the effect of miR-101 on proliferation, migration,
      invasion, and chemotherapy sensitivity in colon cancer cell lines HT-29 and RKO.
      MicroRNAs are a class of small noncoding RNA molecules, which play important
      roles in diverse biological processes of human cancers, such as carcinogenesis,
      development, differentiation, and apoptosis. The expression of miR-101 in colon
      cancer and adjacent non-tumor tissues were examined by quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction. The expression of miR-101 was upregulated by
      recombinant adenovirus Ad-miR-101. Cell proliferation was detected by 3-(4,5
      dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and cloning
      methods. Cell migration and invasion potential were examined using Transwell
      migration and Matrigel invasion chamber assays. Drug sensitivity to 5
      fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (DDP) was explored using MTT assays and l
      acridine orange/ethidium bromide double staining. The expression of miR-101
      decreased in colon cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues. The
      upregulated expression of miR-101 suppressed cell proliferation and inhibited
      cell migration and invasion in HT-29 and RKO colon cancer cell lines. The
      overexpression of miR-101 promoted the inhibitory effect of 5-FU and DDP on HT-29
      cells. The expression of miR-101 was downregulated in colon cancer. The
      upregulated expression of miR-101 inhibited proliferation and migration, and
      increased the sensitivity of colon cancer cells to chemotherapy.

PMID- 28560420
TI  - The restraining effect of baicalein and U0126 on human cervical cancer cell line
      HeLa.
AB  - To explore the restraining effect of baicalein and the mitogen-activation protein
      kinase kinase inhibitor, U0126, on human cervical cell line HeLa proliferation,
      apoptosis and migration. HeLa cells were treated by different concentrations of
      baicalein or U0126. A Cell Counting Kit (CCK)-8 assay was applied to examine cell
      viability. Flow cytometry was used to determine cell cycle and apoptosis. A wound
      healing assay was performed to detect cell migration. A terminal deoxynucleotidyl
      transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay was adopted to test cell apoptosis.
      Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot
      analysis was used to detect apoptosis gene and protein expression. CCK-8 assay
      demonstrated that baicalein and U0126 suppressed HeLa cell viability by dose
      dependence. TUNEL, Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide, and
      ratio of Bcl-2-associated X protein and B cell lymphoma 2 indicated that
      baicalein and U0126 induced HeLa cell apoptosis. Flow cytometry revealed that
      baicalein blocked the cell cycle of HeLa in G0/G1 phase. A wound healing assay
      demonstrated that baicalein significantly inhibited HeLa cell migration compared
      with control. Baicalein and U0126 markedly downregulated extracellular signal
      regulated kinase 1/2, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP9 levels both in
      mRNA and protein. In the present study, the authors demonstrated that baicalein
      and U0126 may be used in cervical cancer treatment by inhibiting cell migration
      and inducing cell apoptosis.

PMID- 28560421
TI  - A novel damage mechanism: Contribution of the interaction between necroptosis and
      ROS to high glucose-induced injury and inflammation in H9c2 cardiac cells.
AB  - Recently, a novel mechanism known as 'programmed necrosis' or necroptosis has
      been shown to be another important mechanism of cell death in the heart. In this
      study, we investigated the role of necroptosis in high glucose (HG)-induced
      injury and inflammation, as well as the underlying mechanisms. In particular, we
      focused on the interaction between necroptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      in H9c2 cardiac cells. Our results demonstrated that the exposure of H9c2 cardiac
      cells to 35 mM glucose (HG) markedly enhanced the expression level of receptor
      interacting protein 3 (RIP3), a kinase which promotes necroptosis. Importantly,
      co-treatment of the cells with 100 uM necrostatin-1 (a specific inhibitor of
      necroptosis) and HG for 24 h attenuated not only the increased expression level
      of RIP3, but also the HG-induced injury and inflammation, as evidenced by an
      increase in cell viability, a decrease in ROS generation, the attenuation of the
      dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential and a decrese in the secretion
      levels of inflammatory cytokines, i.e., interleukin (IL)-1beta and tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF)-alpha. Furthermore, treatment of the cells with 1 mM N-acetyl-L
      cysteine (a scavenger of ROS) for 60 min prior to exposure to HG significantly
      reduced the HG-induced increase in the RIP3 expression level, as well as the
      injury and inflammatory response described above. Taken together, the findings of
      this study clearly demonstrate a novel damage mechanism involving the positive
      interaction between necroptosis and ROS attributing to HG-induced injury and
      inflammation in H9c2 cardiac cells.

PMID- 28560422
TI  - Effects of maternal acrolein exposure during pregnancy on testicular testosterone
      production in fetal rats.
AB  - Acrolein has been reported to have diverse toxic effects on various organs,
      including the reproductive system. However, little is known regarding the effects
      of maternal acrolein exposure on testicular steroidogenesis in male offspring.
      The present study investigated the effects of acrolein on fetal testosterone
      production and associated genes. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were
      intraperitoneally injected with vehicle (normal saline) or 1, 2 or 5 mg/kg
      acrolein from gestational day (GD) 14-20, and fetal testes were examined on GD
      21. Fetal body and testicular weights were markedly reduced in pups following
      exposure to high doses of acrolein (5 mg/kg) in late pregnancy. Notably, in utero
      exposure of 5 mg/kg acrolein significantly decreased the testicular testosterone
      level and downregulated the expression levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory
      protein (StAR) and 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD), whereas the
      levels of other steroidogenic enzymes, including scavenger receptor class B,
      cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme and steroid 17 alpha-hydroxylase/17,20
      lyase, were unaffected. Furthermore, the 3beta-HSD immunoreactive area in the
      interstitial region of the fetal testes was reduced at a 5 mg/kg dose, whereas
      the protein expression levels of 4-hydroxynonenalwere dose-dependently increased
      following maternal exposure to acrolein. mRNA expression levels of insulin-like
      factor 3, a critical gene involved in testicular descent, were unaltered
      following maternal acrolein exposure. Taken together, the results of the present
      study suggested that maternal exposure to high doses of acrolein inhibited fetal
      testosterone synthesis, and abnormal expression of StAR and 3beta-HSD may be
      associated with impairment of the steroidogenic capacity.

PMID- 28560423
TI  - Prokaryotic expression, purification and characterization of human cyclooxygenase
      2.
AB  - Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is a key enzyme which catalyzes the conversion of
      arachidonic acid (AA) into prostaglandins (PGs). It plays an important role in
      pathophysiological processes, such as tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, inflammation
      and tumor cell drug resistance. Therefore, COX-2 has been viewed as an important
      target for cancer therapy. The preparation of COX-2 protein is an important
      initial step for the subsequent development of COX-2 inhibitors. In this study,
      we report a strategy to heterologously express truncated human COX-2 (trCOX-2) in
      Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21(DE3) host cells. Following denaturation,
      purification and renaturation, we successfully obtained enzymatically active
      trCOX-2 containing 257 residues of the C-terminus. Homology modeling and
      molecular docking analyses revealed that trCOX-2 retained the predicted 3D
      catalytic domain structure and AA could still bind to its hydrophobic groove.
      Western blot analysis and ELISA indicated that the trCOX-2 still retained its
      characteristic antigenicity and binding activity, while COX assays revealed that
      trCOX-2 maintained its enzyme activity. On the whole, in this study, we provided
      a novel method to isolate trCOX-2 possessing AA binding and catalytic activities.
      This study thus lays a foundation to facilitate further investigations of COX-2
      and offers a valuable method with which to achieve the prokaryotic expression of
      a eukaryotic membrane protein.

PMID- 28560424
TI  - Secretomic profiling of cells from hollow fiber bioreactor reveals PSMA3 as a
      potential cholangiocarcinoma biomarker.
AB  - Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), derived from the bile duct, occurs with a relatively
      high incidence in Northeast Thailand. Early diagnosis is still hampered by the
      lack of sufficient biomarkers. In recent years, biomarker discovery using
      secretomes has provided interesting results, including our studies on CCA
      secretomes, especially with three-dimensional cell cultures. Thus, cells cultured
      using the hollow fiber bioreactor (HFB) with 20 kDa molecular weight cut-off
      (MWCO) yielded higher quality and quantity of secretomes than those from
      conditioned media of the monolayer culture (MNC) system. In this study, we
      employed the HFB culture system with 5 kDa MWCO and compared conditioned media
      from the HFB and MNC systems using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, followed
      by identifying proteins of interest by liquid chromatography and mass
      spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Two out of 4 spots of NGAL or lipocalin-2 were found to
      show highest increase in expression of 19.93-fold and 18.79-fold in HFB compared
      to MNC. Interestingly, all 14 proteasome subunits including proteasome subunit
      alpha type-1 to type-7 and beta type-1 to type-7 showed 2.92-fold to 12.13-fold
      increased expression in HFB. The protein-protein interactions of upregulated
      proteins were predicted, and one of the main interaction clusters involved 20S
      proteasome subunits. Proteasome activity in the HFB conditioned media was also
      found to be higher than that in MNC conditioned media. Three types of proteasome
      subunit were also validated by immunoblotting and showed higher expression in the
      HFB system compared to MNC system. Proteasome subunit alpha type-3 (PSMA3) showed
      the highest level in plasma of cholangiocarcinoma patients compared to normal and
      hepatocellular carcinoma patients by immunodetection, and is of interest as a
      potential biomarker for cholangiocarcinoma.

PMID- 28560426
TI  - DcR3 promotes hepatoma cell migration by downregulating E-cadherin expression.
AB  - Decoy receptor 3 (DcR3), a decoy molecule belonging to the tumor necrosis factor
      receptor superfamily (TNFRSF), is a soluble receptor that can neutralize the
      biological effects of three other TNFSF members, namely, Fas ligand
      (FasL/TNFSF6/CD95L), LIGHT (TNFSF14) and TNF-like molecule 1A (TL1A/TNFSF15).
      DcR3 expression is increased in tumor cells. As such, DcR3 has been considered a
      potential biomarker to predict cancer invasion and progression of inflammation.
      However, the molecular mechanisms of DcR3 in tumor progression and metastasis
      remain poorly described. In the present study, DcR3 induced cytoskeleton
      remodeling, inhibited E-cadherin expression, and promoted cancer cell migration.
      Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry demonstrated that DcR3 expression was
      increased in hepatoma cells, whereas E-cadherin expression was significantly
      downregulated. Immunohistochemistry revealed that DcR3 and E-cadherin exhibited
      an opposite expression pattern between normal and cancerous liver tissues.
      Moreover, DcR3 treatment promoted IkappaBalpha degradation and p65 nuclear
      translocation. Therefore, the present study uncovered the mechanism underlying
      the function of DcR3 in cancer cell migration and provides evidence that DcR3 may
      be a potential target for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28560425
TI  - Investigating critical genes and gene interaction networks that mediate
      cyclophosphamide sensitivity in chronic myelogenous leukemia.
AB  - Drug resistance is an obstacle in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia
      (CML), and is a common reason for treatment failure or disease progression.
      However, the underlying mechanisms of cyclophosphamide resistance remain poorly
      defined. In the present study, microarray data concerning cyclophosphamide
      sensitive and -resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia cell lines were analyzed. A
      total of 258 differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between these
      two groups, from which 139 DEGs were upregulated and 119 were downregulated.
      Several candidate genes that were associated with cyclophosphamide resistance
      were also identified. These DEGs were subsequently classified using Gene Ontology
      and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment pathway analysis. A
      total of 487 biological processes and 17 KEGG pathways were revealed to be
      enriched. Furthermore, an interaction network was established to identify the
      core genes that regulated cyclophosphamide resistance. Signal transducer and
      activator of transcription 5A (STAT5A), FYN proto-oncogene, Src family tyrosine
      kinase and spleen associated tyrosine kinase were revealed to be the hub genes in
      multiple enriched biological processes and signaling pathways, indicating that
      these were involved in mediating cyclophosphamide sensitivity in CML cells. The
      expression levels of 5 DEGs were also confirmed in two human CML cell lines (K
      562 and KU812) by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
      Furthermore, selective knockdown of STAT5A and S100 calcium binding protein A4
      (S100A4) recovered cyclophosphamide sensitivity in K-562 cells, suggesting their
      involvement in drug resistance. The present study identified several potential
      genes and pathways contributing to cyclophosphamide resistance, and confirmed the
      involvement of STAT5A and S100A4 in drug resistance. These results enable
      improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying drug resistance in CML cells.

PMID- 28560427
TI  - Araliasaponin II isolated from leaves of Acanthopanax henryi (Oliv.) Harms
      inhibits inflammation by modulating the expression of inflammatory markers in
      murine macrophages.
AB  - Araliasaponin II (AS II) is a bioactive compound isolated from Acanthopanax
      henryi (Oliv.) Harms, a plant widely used in traditional oriental medicine. The
      present study investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of AS II using murine
      macrophages. The effects of AS II on inflammatory mediator and cytokine
      production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells was evaluated.
      Nitric oxide (NO) and cytokine production were determined using the Griess
      reagent and an ELISA kit. The expression levels of cytokines, inducible NO
      synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA were examined by reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The expression levels of
      iNOS, COX-2 and toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 protein were examined by western
      blotting. Translocation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) and TLR-4 expression
      were visualized by immunofluorescence staining. AS II markedly inhibited the
      production of NO and prostaglandin E2, and reduced iNOS and COX-2 expression at
      the transcriptional and translational levels. AS II downregulated the expression
      of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha at the protein and mRNA levels.
      Furthermore, pre-treatment with AS II significantly suppressed the TLR-4-NF
      kappaB signaling pathway; this effect may be cause by AS II competing with LPS
      for binding to TLR-4 and subsequently inhibiting translocation of the NF
      kappaB/p65 protein to the nucleus. The results suggested that the anti
      inflammatory properties of AS II may result from inhibiting pro-inflammatory
      mediators by suppressing the initiation of the inflammatory response and
      inhibiting TLR-4-NF-kappaB signaling pathways.

PMID- 28560428
TI  - Metformin ameliorates hepatic steatosis and improves the induction of autophagy
      in HFD-induced obese mice.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the effect of metformin on the induction
      of autophagy in the liver and adipose tissues of a mouse model of obesity.
      C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks to induce obesity
      associated hepatic steatosis, and treated with metformin (150 mg/kg/d) by
      intraperitoneal injection for the final 4 weeks of HFD feeding. Body weight was
      recorded weekly, and the food intake of the mice was recorded daily during the
      treatment period. Liver and adipose tissues were harvested for histological and
      molecular analyses. The results revealed that metformin significantly reduced
      body weight without altering food intake in the HFD mice, particularly in the
      epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT). Metformin treatment ameliorated HFD
      induced hepatic steatosis and serum levels of triglycerides, which was consistent
      with a marked increase in the expression levels of microtubule-associated protein
      1 light chain 3 (LC3) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in the liver
      following metformin treatment. However, metformin suppressed the expression of
      LC3 in the eWAT without altering the expression of AMPK, compared with that in
      the HFD mice. In conclusion, metformin reduced the body weight and hepatic
      steatosis of the HFD-induced obese mice, without altering food intake. The
      effects of metformin treatment may be attributable to the improved induction of
      hepatic autophagy and the inhibited induction of adipose tissue autophagy.

PMID- 28560429
TI  - Modified citrus pectin inhibits galectin-3 function to reduce atherosclerotic
      lesions in apoE-deficient mice.
AB  - Galectin-3 is a carbohydrate-binding lectin, which has been implicated in the
      modulation of atherosclerotic pathophysiology, and is highly expressed in
      monocytes, macrophages and endothelial cells within atherosclerotic plaques.
      Modified citrus pectin (MCP) is produced from citrus pectin via pH and
      temperature modifications, which break it into shorter, non-branched, galactose
      rich carbohydrate chains. MCP is able to tightly bind with galectin-3, via
      recognition of its carbohydrate recognition domain, and facilitates the
      modulation of galectin-3-induced bioactivity. The present study explored the
      effects of MCP on the initiation of atherosclerosis. Eight-week-old
      apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were treated with 1% MCP and fed an atherogenic
      diet for 4 weeks. The effects of MCP on atherosclerotic initiation were
      determined by pathological analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM)
      imaging. MCP treatment reduced the size of atherosclerotic lesion areas, which
      was accompanied by decreased numbers of macrophages and smooth muscle cells
      (SMCs). Furthermore, SEM examination of the surface of the atheroma-prone vessel
      wall indicated that MCP treatment reduced endothelial injury. To analyze the
      effects of MCP on monocyte adhesion, firstly, oxidized-low density lipoprotein
      and various concentrations of MCP (0.025, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.25%) were incubated
      with the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for stimulation and
      following this, the U937 cells were plated onto the HUVECs. The results revealed
      that MCP reduced the adhesion of U937 monocytes to HUVECs, indicating the
      adhesion-inhibiting effects of MCP. In conclusion, the present study revealed
      that MCP, a galectin-3 inhibitor, reduced the size of atherosclerotic lesions by
      inhibiting the adhesion of leucocytes to endothelial cells. Inhibition of
      galectin-3 function may be a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of
      atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28560431
TI  - Overexpression of miR-15b-5p promotes gastric cancer metastasis by regulating
      PAQR3.
AB  - Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world, with 952,000
      new cases diagnosed in 2012. Tumor metastasis is the major cause of cancer
      recurrence and death. miR-15b-5p has been reported to be dysregulated in numerous
      types of cancers. However, the role of miR-15b-5p in GC metastasis remains
      unclear. An miRNA microarray was adopted to analyze the miRNA expression profile.
      By employing quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), miR-15b
      5p expression levels were detected in GC cell lines, tissues and plasma samples.
      In addition, the effects of miR-15b-5p on cell proliferation, migration and
      invasion were studied by applying gain-of-function approaches. Moreover, the
      target of miR-15b-5p was assessed by dual-luciferase assay, and the mechanism
      underlying the regulation of GC metastasis by miR-15b-5p was assessed by rescue
      experiments. The results revealed that miR-15b-5p was upregulated in GC cell
      lines, tissues and plasma samples. A high plasma level of miR-15b-5p was
      correlated with distant tumor metastasis. In addition, overexpression of miR-15b
      5p in GC cells promoted cell proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT). Moreover, progestin and adipoQ receptor family
      member 3 (PAQR3) was found to be a direct target of miR-15b-5p and re-expression
      of PAQR3 in miR-15b-5p-overexpressing GC cells partly attenuated the
      proliferation, migration and invasion. These findings revealed that miR-15b-5p
      promotes the metastasis of GC cells through PAQR3 and may represent a potential
      biomarker of GC.

PMID- 28560430
TI  - Fyn/heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein E1 signaling regulates pancreatic
      cancer metastasis by affecting the alternative splicing of integrin beta1.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer is characterized by a dense desmoplastic reaction in which
      extracellular matrix proteins accumulate and surround tumor cells. Integrins and
      their related signaling molecules are associated with progression of pancreatic
      cancer. In the present study, the association between the metastasis of
      pancreatic cancer and the expression of hnRNP E1 and integrin beta1 was
      evaluated. In vitro and in vivo experiments were designed to study the mechanism
      underlying the regulation of integrin beta1 splicing by the Fyn/hnRNP E1
      spliceosome. Expression of hnRNP E1 and integrin beta1A were associated with
      metastasis of pancreatic cancer. Inhibition of Fyn activity upregulated the
      expression of P21-activated kinase 1 and promoted the phosphorylation and nuclear
      localization of hnRNP E1, leading to the construction of a spliceosome complex
      that affected the alterative splicing of integrin beta1. In the hnRNP E1
      spliceosome complex, hnRNP A1 and serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 were
      responsible for binding to the pre-mRNA of integrin beta1. Suppression of Fyn
      activity and/or overexpression of hnRNP E1 decreased the metastasis of pancreatic
      cancer cells. In pancreatic cancer, the present study demonstrated a novel
      mechanism by which Fyn/hnRNP E1 signaling regulates pancreatic cancer metastasis
      by affecting the alternative splicing of integrin beta1. hnRNP E1 and integrin
      beta1A are associated with the metastasis of pancreatic cancer and may be novel
      molecular targets for pancreatic cancer treatment.

PMID- 28560433
TI  - Overexpression of GLP-1 receptors suppresses proliferation and cytokine release
      by airway smooth muscle cells of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease via activation of ABCA1.
AB  - Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is an important insulin secretagogue that
      possesses anti-inflammatory effects. GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists have been
      demonstrated to serve a pivotal role in the treatment of obstructive lung
      diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the
      specific function and underlying mechanisms of GLP-1R in COPD remain uncertain.
      The aim of the present study was to investigate the action and underlying
      mechanisms of GLP-1R in airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells from COPD patients. GLP
      1R expression levels were markedly decreased in ASM cells from COPD patients
      compared with those from healthy controls. ASM cell proliferation and migration,
      and the levels of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-4, tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor
      (GM-CSF) were measured. Transfection of pcDNA3.1-GLP-1R had inhibitory effects on
      ASM cell proliferation and migration, whereas GLP-1R small interfering (si)RNA
      reversed these effects. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that GLP-1R
      overexpression markedly suppressed IL-1beta, IL-4, TNF-alpha and GM-CSF levels.
      GLP-1R overexpression upregulated the expression levels of adenosine triphosphate
      binding cassette, subfamily A, member 1 (ABCA1) in ASM cells, and the effects of
      GLP-1R on cell proliferation and migration, and inflammatory cytokine expression
      in ASM cells was abolished by siRNA-mediated silencing of ABCA1. The results of
      the present study suggested that GLP-1R contributes to COPD pathology,
      potentially via an ABCA1-mediated pathway.

PMID- 28560432
TI  - Otoprotective effects of ethosuximide in NOD/LtJ mice with age-related hearing
      loss.
AB  - Despite long-term efforts to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for age-related
      hearing loss (AHL), there is currently no available treatment strategy able to
      provide a cure. Apoptotic cell death, including that of hair cells and spiral
      ganglion neurons (SGNs) in the cochlea has been proposed to be the classic theory
      behind the development of AHL. As calcium signaling plays key roles in signal
      transduction in apoptosis, in this study, we selected ethosuximide, which is able
      to block T-type calcium (Ca2+ion) channels, suppressing Ca2+. We hypothesized
      that the apoptotic pathway may be blocked through the inhibition of T-type Ca2+
      channels in cochlear cells in NOD/LtJ mice. NOD/LtJ mice were divided into 2
      groups as follows: the ethosuximide-treated and untreated (control) groups.
      Ethosuximide was administered by intraperitoneal injection every other day from
      post-natal day seven (P7) until the mice were 8 weeks of age. Following
      treatment, auditory-evoked brainstem response (ABR) thresholds and distortion
      product oto-acoustic emission (DPOAE) of the mice in the 2 groups were measured
      at different time points. Morphometric analysis and the expression of genes
      involved in the T-type Ca2+-mediated apoptotic pathway were monitored. The ABR
      and DPOAE results revealed that the NOD/LtJ mice exhibited early-onset and
      rapidly progressive AHL. A histological examination revealed that hair cell
      degeneration coincided with the progression of hearing loss. Hair cell and SGN
      was were significantly lower and auditory function was significantly improved in
      the ethosuximide-treated group compared to the untreated group. Our data thus
      indicate that ethosuximide prevents the degeneration of cochlear cells by
      regulating the expression of genes in apoptotic pathways. Our findings suggest
      that activating the T-type Ca2+ channel and downstream genes may be key
      pathological mechanisms responsible for AHL in NOD/LtJ mice.

PMID- 28560434
TI  - miR-30e acts as a tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma partly via
      JAK1/STAT3 pathway.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer-associated
      mortalities. The effective diagnostic and therapeutic targets for HCC are still
      unclear. miR-30e was differentially expressed in the majority of HCC tissues and
      cell lines. The aim of this study was to investigate the functional roles of miR
      30e and their modulation of cancer networks in HCC cells. We determined the
      expression of miR-30e by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and
      found downregulation of miR-30e in HepG2 and HuH7 cells. miR-30e mimics
      significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HepG2 and
      HuH7 cells, and promoted cell apoptosis, but did not influence the cell cycle.
      Dual-luciferase reporter assays were applied to identify JAK1 as target of miR
      30e. miR-30e mimics downregulated the expression levels of JAK1 and vimentin in
      mRNA and protein in HepG2 and HuH7 cells. Silence of JAK1 by small interfering
      RNAs inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells.
      Furthermore, we verified that, IL-6, an agonist of JAK1/STAT3 pathway partly
      recovered the inhibition of miR-30e mimics on cell migration. Taken together,
      these findings confirmed our speculation that the functional effect of miR-30e on
      HCC cells, in part, is dependent on the JAK1/STAT3 signaling pathway. It was
      suggested that miR-30e has a critical role in the suppression of HCC and presents
      a novel mechanism of miRNA-mediated JAK1 expression in cancer cells that might be
      a good prognostic marker for survival of HCC patients.

PMID- 28560436
TI  - Differences in molecular regulation between osteochondroma and bizarre parosteal
      osteochondromatous proliferation.
AB  - The differences in molecular mechanisms between osteochondroma and bizarre
      parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation (BPOP) remain to be fully elucidated.
      In the present study, the differentially expressed genes between BPOP and
      osteochondroma were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus online database,
      and the associations among these genes were analyzed using the Database for
      Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) online bioinformatics
      software. The results revealed several differentially expressed genes between
      human BPOP and osteochondroma. These differentially expressed genes were also
      enriched in different subgroups based on the analysis using DAVID online
      software, including 'transforming growth factor beta receptor signaling pathway',
      'BMP signaling pathway', 'Wnt receptor signaling pathway', 'response to chemical
      stimulus', 'regulation of inflammatory response', 'response to stress',
      'glycosaminoglycan binding', 'polysaccharide binding', 'extracellular matrix
      structural constituent' and 'growth factors binding'. Taken together, these
      findings led to the conclusion that different gene regulatory mechanisms exist
      between BPOP and osteochondroma. Environmental stimulation and inflammation may
      contribute to BPOP or osteochondroma, and differences in extracellular matrix may
      contribute to differences in biological characteristics between BPOP and
      osteochondroma.

PMID- 28560435
TI  - MicroRNA-146a promotes gastric cancer cell apoptosis by targeting transforming
      growth factor beta-activated kinase 1.
AB  - Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNA (miR)-146a functions as an oncogene
      or tumor suppressor in various cancers. However, the role of miR-146a in gastric
      cancer (GC) remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated the function
      of miR-146a in GC cells. The results of the present study revealed that miR-146a
      modulates GC cell apoptosis. Overexpression of miR-146a significantly increased
      apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells, whereas inhibition of miR-146a protected cells from
      apoptosis. miR-146a expression in GC cells was inversely correlated with
      transforming growth factor beta-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) expression, at the mRNA
      and protein levels. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of TAK1
      enhanced GC cell apoptosis, whereas overexpression of TAK1 promoted survival of
      GC cells. Overexpression of miR-146a or knockdown of TAK1 led to a marked
      increase in inhibitor of kappaBalpha (IkappaBalpha) and a decrease in B-cell
      lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression levels in SGC-7901 cells. By contrast, silencing of
      miR-146a or TAK1 overexpression downregulated IkappaBalpha and upregulated Bcl-2
      expression levels. Therefore, the results of the present study demonstrated a
      novel negative feedback mechanism to promote GC cell apoptosis involving the miR
      146a/TAK1/nuclear factor-kappaB axis.

PMID- 28560438
TI  - Synergistic role of Cul1 and c-Myc: Prognostic and predictive biomarkers in
      colorectal cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, and its high
      rates of recurrence and metastasis are the important causes of treatment failure
      in CRC. Therefore, the development of valuable molecular markers to accurately
      predict the prognosis of CRC patients is vital. In the present study, we
      determined the expression of Cullin1 (Cul1) and c-Myc in a CRC tissue microarray
      containing 470 cancer and corresponding normal tissues by immunohistochemistry.
      We found that Cul1 and c-Myc expression was significantly upregulated in the CRC
      cancer tissues compared with that noted in the adjacent non-cancer tissues. High
      Cul1 expression in cancer tissues was associated with depth of invasion
      (P=0.005), lymph node metastasis (P=0.001) and TNM stage (P=0.015). High c-Myc
      expression in cancer tissues was significantly positively association with age
      (P=0.004), depth of invasion (P<0.001), lymph node metastasis (P<0.001) and TNM
      stage (P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that Cul1 or c-Myc
      expression was an independent and unfavorable prognostic factor for CRC patients
      [hazard ratio (HR), 0.749, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.563-0.996, P<0.05; and
      HR, 0.384, 95% CI, 0.257-0.472, P<0.001, respectively]. Furthermore, Cul1 and c
      Myc exhibited synergistic potential for the prediction of CRC prognosis, and the
      patients with low expression of both Cul1 and c-Myc had a favorable survival
      outcome (P<0.001).

PMID- 28560437
TI  - The expression of DNA methyltransferases3A is specifically downregulated in
      chorionic villi of early embryo growth arrest cases.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression pattern of four
      DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B and DNMT3L) in placenta chorionic
      villi of early embryo growth arrest patients. Chorionic villous specimens were
      obtained from 40 pregnant patients diagnosed with early embryo growth arrest and
      40 healthy women who underwent selective pregnancy termination. Reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and
      western blot analysis were performed to characterize the mRNA and protein
      expression of DNMTs in chorionic villous cells. It was identified, among the four
      DNMTs, DNMT3B presented the highest level of protein expression in both patient
      groups. Although the mRNA expressions of the four DNMTs were comparable, the
      DNMT3A protein was specifically downregulated in patients with early embryo
      growth arrest. Therefore, the current study suggests that an abnormal decrease in
      DNMT3A protein levels may be involved in the pathogenesis of early embryo growth
      arrest.

PMID- 28560439
TI  - Isoliquiritigenin inhibits the proliferation of human renal carcinoma Caki cells
      through the ROS-mediated regulation of the Jak2/STAT3 pathway.
AB  - Isoliquiritigenin (ISL) is a flavonoid with chalcone structure that has been
      noted in licorice and shallot, which are generally used in traditional Chinese
      medicine. ISL has demonstrated various pharmacological effects including
      antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity. However, the molecular
      mechanisms underlying the anticancer effects of ISL remain poorly understood. The
      present study revealed that ISL significantly decreased viability and induced
      apoptosis in human renal carcinoma Caki cells. The ISL-induced apoptosis was
      associated with the cleavage of caspase-9, -7 and -3, and that of PARP. Moreover,
      ISL increased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax and diminished the
      expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, and Bcl-xl, thereby increasing
      cytochrome c release. Treatment of cells with ISL also induced the expression of
      p53 through downregulation of murine double minute 2 (Mdm2). Furthermore, ISL
      generated reactive oxygen species (ROS), and pretreatment with ROS scavenger N
      acetyl cysteine (NAC) and NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium abrogated
      the ISL-induced apoptosis. One of the key oncogenic signaling pathways is
      mediated through signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3),
      which promotes abnormal cell proliferation. Incubation of cells with ISL markedly
      diminished phosphorylation and DNA binding activity of STAT3, and reduced
      expression of STAT3 responsive gene products, such as cyclin D1 and D2. ISL also
      attenuated constitutive phosphorylation of upstream kinase, Janus-activated
      kinase 2 (Jak2). Pretreatment with NAC abrogated the inhibitory effect of ISL on
      activation of STAT3 and blocked the cleavage of caspase-9, -7 and -3, and that of
      PARP in Caki cells. Taken together, the present study provides the first report
      that ISL induces apoptosis in Caki cells via generation of ROS, which causes
      induction of p53 and inhibition of the STAT3 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28560441
TI  - CGRP attenuates hyperoxia-induced oxidative stress-related injury to alveolar
      epithelial type II cells via the activation of the Sonic hedgehog pathway.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the effect of calcitonin gene-related
      peptide (CGRP) on primary alveolar epithelial type II (AECII) cells and
      expression of Sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway components following
      exposure to hyperoxia. The AECII cells were isolated and purified from premature
      rats and exposed to air (21% oxygen), air + CGRP, hyperoxia (95% oxygen) or
      hyperoxia + CGRP. The production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      was determined using the 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate molecular probe. The
      levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the culture
      supernatant were detected by spectrophotometry. The apoptosis of AECII cells was
      assayed by flow cytometry, and the mRNA and protein expression levels of Shh and
      Ptc1 in the AECII cells were detected by reverse transcription-quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), western blot analysis and
      immunofluorescence, respectively. The cellular pathological changes partly
      improved and apoptosis was markedly decreased upon treatment with CGRP under
      hyperoxic conditions. The levels of ROS in the hyperoxia + CGRP group were
      significantly lower than thoe in the hyperoxia group. In addition, the hyperoxia
      induced increase in MDA levels and the decrease in SOD activity in the culture
      supernatant of the AECII cells were attenuated by CGRP. Compared with the cells
      exposed to air, hyperoxia markedly inhibited the mRNA and protein expression
      levels of Shh and Ptc1 in the AECII cells; however, this inhibition was partly
      attenuated by treatment with CGRP. On the whole, our data suggest that CGRP can
      partly protect AECII cells from hyperoxia-induced injury, and the upregulation of
      CGRP may be a potential therapeutic approach with which to combat hyperoxia
      induced lung injury, which may be associated with the activation of the SHH
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28560440
TI  - The protective effects of PCPA against monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial
      hypertension are mediated through the downregulation of NFAT-1 and NF-kappaB.
AB  - Inflammation and remodeling play a role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial
      hypertension (PAH). Nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) and nuclear factor of
      activated T cells-1 (NFAT-1) participate in inflammation and remodeling in a
      number of diseases. As a tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor, 4-chloro-DL
      phenylalanine (PCPA) had been reported to exert anti-inflammatory and remodeling
      effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that PCPA may attenuate monocrotaline (MCT)
      induced PAH through the NFAT-1 and NF-kappaB signaling pathways. In order to
      confirm our hypothesis, we divided 68 Sprague-Dawley male rats into 4 groups as
      follows: the control, MCT, MCT + P1 and MCT + P2 groups. MCT was administered at
      a dose of 60 mg/kg once via intraperitoneal injection. PCPA was administered via
      intraperitoneal injection at a dose of 50 or 100 mg/kg once daily for 21
      consecutive days. We then measured the hemodynamic index and morphological
      analysis was carried out on the lung tissues. Western blot analysis and
      immunohistochemistry were used to examine the levels of NFAT-1 and NF-kappaB p
      65. The expression levels of phosphorylated inhibitor of NF-kappaB kinase (p
      IKK), IKK, phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK), ERK,
      intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and inter-leukin-6 (IL-6) were
      examined by western blot analysis. MCT was found to significantly induce PAH,
      with inflammation and remodeling of the lung tissues. This was associatd with an
      increased expression of NFAT-1, p-IKK, p-ERK and nuclear p65. PCPA significantly
      attenuated MCT-induced inflammation and arterial remodeling, and decreased the
      expression of NFAT-1, as well as that of relevant proteins of the NF-kappaB
      signaling pathway. The above-mentioned findings suggest that the inhibitory
      effects of PCPA on MCT-induced inflammation and arterial remodeling are related
      to the downregulation of the NFAT-1 and NF-kappaB signaling pathways in rats with
      PAH.

PMID- 28560442
TI  - New bioactive peptide reduces the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs and increases
      drug sensitivity.
AB  - Anticancer bioactive peptide (ACBP) is extracted from normal goat spleens and
      exhibits antitumor activity alone and in combination with low cisplatin doses to
      achieve antitumor efficacy similar to higher cisplatin doses via sustained
      medication modes. In the present study, we investigated whether elevated levels
      of induced or normal ACBP in MKN-45 gastric cancer (GC) cells may reduce their
      toxicity to oxaliplatin (L-OHP) in a dose-dependent manner. The growth inhibition
      rate (IR), morphological changes and gene expression were examined in MKN-45 GC
      cells. Compared with normal ACBP, induced ACBP alone significantly enhanced the
      anticancer activity of L-OHP-mediated apoptosis and reduced the amount and side
      effects of L-OHP (P<0.05). The inhibition of cancer cell growth at high
      concentrations of induced ACBP and L-OHP was significantly more effective than at
      low concentrations. In addition, for the first time, we examined the potential of
      a combination of induced ACBP and L-OHP to increase L-OHP sensitivity in human
      gastric carcinoma xenograft tumors. Nude mice were implanted with human gastric
      carcinoma MKN-45 cells and treated with an intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml of
      normal saline, 30 ug/ml ACBP, 20 ug/ml L-OHP or 30 ug/ml ACBP + 20 ug/ml L-OHP
      [combination of anticancer bioactive peptide and oxaliplatin (A+L)] via the tail
      vein twice a week. In vivo short-term intermittent use of induced ACBP alone
      significantly inhibited MKN-45 tumor growth. The combination of induced ACBP and
      L-OHP also significantly improved the quality of life of the nude mice and
      reduced the toxicity of L-OHP. Based on flow cytometry and gene expression
      analyses, A+L significantly increased the proportion of cells in the G2/M phase
      (P<0.05) relative to ACBP or L-OHP alone, and short-term intraperitoneal
      injection of ACBP increased the sensitizing effect of L-OHP. Collectively, these
      results suggest that high levels of induced ACBP in combination with L-OHP via a
      short-term intermittent medication mode could be a useful clinical therapeutic
      strategy for GC.

PMID- 28560443
TI  - Rutaecarpine alleviates renal ischemia reperfusion injury in rats by suppressing
      the JNK/p38 MAPK signaling pathway and interfering with the oxidative stress
      response.
AB  - In the present study, the protective effect and the potential underlying
      mechanism of rutaecarpine (Ru) on renal ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) in rats
      were investigated. A renal ischemia reperfusion mouse model was established. Ru
      at 30, 60 mg/kg administered intraperitoneally prior to reperfusion led to
      attenuated renal injury. The results demonstrated that Ru treatment significantly
      reduced the content of serum creatinine, urea nitrogen and neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin in rats with renal IRI. In addition, Ru treatment improved
      the degree of renal proximal tubular necrosis, decreased the content of
      inflammatory cytokines in reperfused renal tissue and increased serum superoxide
      dismutase levels to protect the kidney. The associated underlying mechanism may
      involve the inhibition of p38 kinase phosphorylation and c-Jun N-terminal kinase,
      anti-lipid peroxidation, elimination of free radicals, and a reduction in the
      degree of apoptotic damage and oxidative stress injury induced by renal IRI.
      Therefore, Ru may be a suitable compound for the prevention and treatment of
      renal IRI.

PMID- 28560444
TI  - Schisandrin B attenuates the inflammatory response, oxidative stress and
      apoptosis induced by traumatic spinal cord injury via inhibition of p53 signaling
      in adult rats.
AB  - Schisandrin B is an active monomer of the Chinese magnolia vine (Schisandra
      chinensis) that can reduce transaminase activity in liver cells, inhibit lipid
      peroxidation, enhance antioxidant status, has protective effects in the liver and
      has antitumor effects. The present study investigated the potential protective
      effects of schisandrin B on the p53 signaling pathway in attenuating the
      inflammatory response, oxidative stress and apoptosis induced by traumatic spinal
      cord injury (TSCI) in adult rats. Behavioral examination, inclined plate test and
      spinal cord water content were used to evaluate the protective effect of
      schisandrin B in TSCI rats. The expression levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD),
      malondialdehyde (MDA), nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB subunit p65 and tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF)-alpha were examined using ELISA kits. Western blot analysis was
      performed to analyze the protein expression of caspase-3 and phosphorylated (p)
      p53 in TSCI rats. In the present study, schisandrin B improved behavioral
      examination results and the maximum angle of inclined plate test, and inhibited
      spinal cord water content in rats with TSCI. Notably, schisandrin B reduced the
      activation of traumatic injury-associated pathways, including SOD, MDA, NF-kappaB
      p65 and TNF-alpha, in TSCI rats. In addition, schisandrin B suppressed the TSCI
      induced expression of caspase-3 and p-p53 in TSCI rats. These results indicated
      that schisandrin B may attenuate the inflammatory response, oxidative stress and
      apoptosis in TSCI rats by inhibiting the p53 signaling pathway in adult rats.

PMID- 28560445
TI  - Genistein and menaquinone-4 treatment-induced alterations in the expression of
      mRNAs and their products are beneficial to osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cell functions.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to determine the molecular basis of the
      beneficial effects of genistein and/or menaquinone-4 (MK-4) on bone quality.
      Initially, 1 uM genistein was applied to MC3T3-E1 cells for 24 h and the
      upregulated mRNAs that were detected by microarray were selected for further
      examination by reverse transcription-quantitative-polymerase chain reaction.
      Among them, alterations were observed in the level of GATA-binding protein 6
      (GATA6), Notch gene homolog 2 (NOTCH2), Wnt family member 5A (WNT5A), bone gamma
      carboxyglutamate protein (BGLAP), chondroadherin (CHAD), dipeptidyl peptidase 4
      (DPP4), ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 2 (ENPP2), alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) 3 and ATPase phospholipid-transporting 11A (ATP11A) in response
      to treatment with 0.1 uM 17-beta-estradiol, 1 uM genistein, and/or 1 uM MK-4.
      GATA6, NOTCH2 and WNT5A are considered to be associated with osteoclast, but not
      osteoblast, function; however, increases in osteoblastic mRNAs, including BGLAP
      and CHAD, were observed in each of the treatment groups at 48 h.
      Immunocytochemical analysis confirmed an increase in CHAD and DPP4 proteins
      following the administration of genistein + MK-4. Furthermore, genistein + MK-4
      led to alterations in cell morphology to spindle or oval shapes, and increased
      the intensity of ALP staining. Although the level of ALP mRNA was not
      consistently altered in response to the treatments, a marked increase in ALP
      activity was observed following 96 h treatment with genistein + MK-4. Therefore,
      the simultaneous intake of genistein and MK-4 appears to be beneficial for the
      maintenance of bone quality.

PMID- 28560446
TI  - Prediction of marker genes associated with hypertension by bioinformatics
      analyses.
AB  - This study aimed to explore the underlying marker genes associated with
      hypertension by bioinformatics analyses. A gene expression profile (GSE54015) was
      downloaded. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the normotensive
      female (NF) and hypertensive female (HF), and between the normotensive male (NM)
      and hypertensive male (HM) groups were analyzed. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway
      enrichment analyses were performed, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI)
      network construction. The transcription factors (TFs), and the common DEGs
      between the HF and HM groups were then analyzed. In total, 411 DEGs were
      identified between the HF and NF groups, and 418 DEGs were identified between the
      HM and NM groups. The upregulated DEGs in the HF and HM groups were enriched in 9
      GO terms, including oxidation reduction, such as cytochrome P450, family 4,
      subfamily b, polypeptide 1 (Cyp4b1) and cytochrome P450, family 4, subfamily a,
      polypeptide 31 Cyp4a31). The downregulated DEGs were mainly enriched in GO terms
      related to hormone metabolic processes. In the PPI network, cytochrome P450,
      family 2, subfamily e, polypeptide 1 (Cyp2e1) had the highest degree in all 3
      analysis methods in the HF group. Additionally, 4 TFs were indentified from the 2
      groups of data, including sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor
      1 (Srebf1), estrogen receptor 1 (Esr1), retinoid X receptor gamma (Rxrg) and
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Pparg). The intersection genes
      were mainly enriched in GO terms related to the extracellular region. On the
      whole, our data indicate that the DEGs, Cyp4b1, Cyp4a31 and Loxl2, and the TFs,
      Esr1, Pparg and Rxrg, are associated with the progression of hypertension, and
      may thus serve as potential therapeutic targets in this disease.

PMID- 28560447
TI  - GROalpha overexpression drives cell migration and invasion in triple negative
      breast cancer cells.
AB  - Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of highly aggressive breast
      cancer with poor prognosis. The main characteristic feature of TNBC is its lack
      of expression of ER, PR and HER2 receptors that are targets for treatments.
      Hence, it is imperative to identify novel therapeutic strategies to target TNBC.
      Our aim was to examine whether GROalpha is a specific marker for TNBC metastasis.
      For this we performed qPCR, ELISA, migration/invasion assays, western blotting,
      and siRNA transfections. Evaluation of baseline GROalpha expression in different
      breast cancer (BC) subtypes showed that it is significantly upregulated in breast
      tumor cells, specifically in TNBC cell line. On further evaluation in additional
      17 TNBC cell lines we found that baseline GROalpha expression was significantly
      elevated in >50% of the cell lines validating GROalpha overexpression
      specifically in TNBC cells. Moreover, GROalpha-stimulation in MCF7 and SKBR3
      cells and GROalpha-knockdown in MDA-MB-231 and HCC1937 cells elicited dramatic
      changes in migration and invasion abilities in vitro. Corresponding changes in
      EMT markers were also observed in phenotypically modified BC cells. Furthermore,
      mechanistic studies identified GROalpha regulating EMT markers and
      migration/invasion via MAPK pathway and specific inhibition using PD98059
      resulted in the reversal of effects induced by GROalpha on BC cells. In
      conclusion, our study provides strong evidence to suggest that GROalpha is a
      critical modulator of TNBC migration/invasion and proposes GROalpha as a
      potential therapeutic target for treatment of TNBC metastasis.

PMID- 28560448
TI  - Multiple Nav1.5 isoforms are functionally expressed in the brain and present
      distinct expression patterns compared with cardiac Nav1.5.
AB  - It has previously been demonstrated that there are various voltage gated sodium
      channel (Nav) 1.5 splice variants expressed in brain tissue. A total of nine
      Nav1.5 isoforms have been identified, however, the potential presence of further
      Nav1.5 variants expressed in brain neurons remains to be elucidated. The present
      study systematically investigated the expression of various Nav1.5 splice
      variants and their associated electrophysiological properties in the rat brain
      tissue, via biochemical analyses and whole-cell patch clamp recording. The
      results demonstrated that adult Nav1.5 was expressed in the rat, in addition to
      the neonatal Nav1.5, Nav1.5a and Nav1.5f isoforms. Further studies indicated that
      the expression level ratio of neonatal Nav1.5 compared with adult Nav1.5
      decreased from 1:1 to 1:3 with age development from postnatal (P) day 0 to 90.
      This differed from the ratios observed in the developing rat hearts, in which the
      expression level ratio decreased from 1:4 to 1:19 from P0 to 90. The
      immunohistochemistry results revealed that Nav1.5 immunoreactivity was
      predominantly observed in neuronal cell bodies and processes, whereas decreased
      immunoreactivity was detected in the glial components. Electrophysiological
      analysis of Nav1.5 in the rat brain slices revealed that an Na current was
      detected in the presence of 300 nM tetrodotoxin (TTX), however this was inhibited
      by ~1 uM TTX. The TTX-resistant Na current was activated at -40 mV and reached
      the maximum amplitude at 0 mV. The results of the present study demonstrated that
      neonatal and adult Nav1.5 were expressed in the rat brain and
      electrophysiological analysis further confirmed the functional expression of
      Nav1.5 in brain neurons.

PMID- 28560449
TI  - Hypoxia-induced angiopoietin-like protein 4 as a clinical biomarker and treatment
      target for human prostate cancer.
AB  - Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) is a multifunctional protein, playing roles
      in glucose and lipid metabolism, inflammation, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis.
      Recent research suggests that ANGPTL4 is induced by hypoxia and is a useful
      diagnostic or prognostic marker for various cancers. However, it remains unclear
      whether ANGPTL4 expression influences prostate cancer. Here we examined the
      biological and clinical relevance of ANGPTL4 expression in prostate cancer.
      Firstly we examined ANGPTL4 expression in the prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP
      and LNCaP/CH incubated at 1% O2 for at least 6 months. We compared cellular
      proliferation, migration, and ANGPTL4 secretion in a culture medium between these
      cell lines. In addition, we investigated the effect of various concentrations of
      recombinant ANGPTL4 protein (rANGPTL4) on cellular proliferation and
      intracellular signaling pathways. Moreover, we used ANGPTL4 knockdown by RNA
      interference to investigate the influence of ANGPTL4 expression on these cell
      lines. Finally, we investigated the correlation between ANGPTL4 expression in
      prostate cancer specimens and clinicopathological parameters using
      immunohistochemistry. Our data suggested that the expression of ANGPTL4 in
      hypoxic conditions was 14.4-fold higher than that in normoxic condition. ANGPTL4
      secretion in the culture medium increased 7.0-fold. In addition, rANGPTL4
      increased cellular proliferation 1.72-fold via Akt activation. Moreover, ANGPTL4
      knockdown decreased cell growth and its secretion by 25.7 and 41.4%,
      respectively, compared with the control. A multivariate analysis showed that
      positive ANGPTL4 expression in the resected specimens was an independent
      prognostic indicator of biochemical recurrence (P=0.03, hazard ratio = 2.02). Our
      results show that ANGPTL4 is induced by hypoxia and promotes cancer progression
      via the activated PI3K/Akt pathway. Moreover, ANGPTL4 can be used as a prognostic
      marker for prostate cancer patients undergoing radical prostatectomy.

PMID- 28560450
TI  - Upregulation of SOCS3 in lung CD4+ T cells in a mouse model of chronic PA lung
      infection and suppression of Th17-mediated neutrophil recruitment in exogenous
      SOCS3 transfer in vitro.
AB  - Neutrophilic airway inflammation in chronic lung infections caused by Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa (PA) is associated with T helper (Th)17 responses. Suppressor of
      cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is the major negative modulator of Th17 function
      through the suppression of signal transducer and activator of transcription
      (STAT)3 activation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the
      expression of SOCS3 in lung CD4+ T cells in a mouse model of chronic PA lung
      infection and the effect of exogenous SOCS3 on Th17-mediated neutrophil
      recruitment in vitro. A mouse model of chronic PA lung infection was established
      and the activation of STAT3 and Th17 response in lung tissues and lung CD4+ T
      cells was assessed. The protein and mRNA expression of SOCS3 in lung CD4+ T cells
      was analyzed by western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction. The authors constructed a recombinant lentivirus
      carrying the SOCS3 gene and transferred it into lung CD4+ T cells isolated from a
      mouse model. These transfected cells were stimulated with interleukin (IL)-23 in
      vitro and the protein level of p-STAT3 and retinoid-related orphan receptor
      (ROR)gammat was determined by western blotting. The expression of IL-17A+ cells
      was analyzed by flow cytometry and the level of IL-17A in cell culture
      supernatant was measured by ELISA. The mouse lung epithelial cell line, MLE-12,
      was cocultured with lung CD4+ T cells that overexpressed the SOCS3 gene and the
      culture supernatant was harvested and used for a chemotaxis assay. Compared with
      control mice, mice with chronic PA lung infection had significantly higher level
      of p-STAT3 and Th17 response in both lung tissues and lung CD4+ T cells. The
      protein and mRNA level of SOCS3 in lung CD4+ T cells increased as the chronic PA
      lung infection developed. Exogenous SOCS3 gene transfer in PA-infected lung CD4+
      T cells decreased p-STAT3 and RORgammat expression and suppressed the level of IL
      17A+ cells in vitro. MLE-12 cells cocultured with SOCS3-overexpressing lung CD4+
      T cells expressed a significantly lower level of neutrophil chemoattractants
      chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand (CXCL) 1 and CXCL5, and recruited significantly
      smaller numbers of migrating neutrophils than those cocultured with control
      cells. SOCS3 was upregulated in lung CD4+ T cells following the activation of
      STAT3/Th17 axis in a mouse model of chronic PA lung infection. Exogenous SOCS3
      transfer in PA-infected lung CD4+ T cells suppresses Th17-mediated neutrophil
      recruitment in vitro.

PMID- 28560451
TI  - FoxO3a plays a key role in the protective effects of pomegranate peel extract
      against amikacin-induced ototoxicity.
AB  - The use of amikacin (AMK) in present treatment strategies results in severe
      ototoxicity; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this toxicity remain
      unclear. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of orally administered
      pomegranate peel extract (PPE), a strong antioxidant, as a protective agent
      against AMK-induced ototoxicity. To this end, PPE was orally administered to
      adult BALB/c mice for 5 days, and the mice were then concurrently treated with
      AMK (500 mg/kg/day for 15 consecutive days). Auditory threshold shifts induced by
      AMK were significantly attenuated. The results of immunohistochemical staining
      and western blot analysis revealed that PPE exerted its protective effects by by
      downregulating the phosphorylation of Forkhead box O3a (FoxO3a), an important
      transcription factor which is involved in the responses to oxidative stress. The
      results also showed that PPE treatment inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase
      phosphorylation, prevented the activation of pro-apoptotic protein caspase-3,
      decreased the levels of apoptosis-inducing Bax protein, and increased the levels
      of the anti-apoptotic mediator, Bcl-2, induced by AMK in the mouse cochlea. Taken
      together, our experimental findings suggest that phosphorylated FoxO3a mediates
      AMK-induced apoptosis in BALB/c mice cochlea. PPE effectively attenuated
      oxidative stress and ototoxicity by regulating FoxO3a, and may thus prove to be
      beneficial in protecting auditory cells from ototoxic drugs.

PMID- 28560452
TI  - Arctigenin inhibits triple-negative breast cancers by targeting CIP2A to
      reactivate protein phosphatase 2A.
AB  - We have shown that a novel STAT3 inhibitor arctigenin (Atn) induces significant
      cytotoxicity in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. This study further
      delineated molecular mechanisms where by Atn triggered cytotoxicity in TNBC
      cells. We found Atn can also inhibit metastasis in TNBC cells through cancerous
      inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) pathway. CIP2A is an endogenous
      inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), which can increase the migration and
      invasion of various cancer cells. PP2A is a tumor suppressor, which is
      functionally defective in various cancers. Atn-induced metastasis inhibition was
      associated with reactivation of PP2A, downregulation of CIP2A and Akt
      phosphorylation. Silencing CIP2A enhanced Atn-induced metastasis inhibition and
      apoptosis in TNBCs. Furthermore, ectopic expression of CIP2A or inhibition of
      PP2A in TNBC cells abolished the effects of Atn. In conclusion, we found that
      enhancement of PP2A activity by inhibition of CIP2A, at least in part, promotes
      the anti-metastasis effect induced by Atn. Our findings disclose the novel
      therapeutic mechanism of this targeted agent, and suggest the therapeutic
      potential and feasibility of developing PP2A enhancers as a novel anticancer
      strategy.

PMID- 28560453
TI  - Nrf2 mediates the protective effects of homocysteine by increasing the levels of
      GSH content in HepG2 cells.
AB  - Homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH) are crucial reduction-oxidation
      mediators. The underlying mechanisms governing the effects of Hcy on GSH
      generation in the progression of alcoholic liver disease has so far received
      little attention. The present study hypothesized that the antioxidant
      transcriptional factor nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) may
      participate in Hcy-mediated regulation of GSH production in HepG2 human liver
      cancer cells. MTT assay was used to study the cytotoxicity of homocysteine,
      western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining were used to determine the
      effect of Hcy on Nrf2 expression. Our data demonstrated that HepG2 cells exposed
      to exogenous levels of Hcy (0-100 uM) exhibited elevated GSH levels in a
      concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE)-induced
      cell injury was attenuated by Hcy; however, this protective effect was blocked by
      the GSH-production inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine. Hcy treatment was able to
      induce Nrf2 protein expression in HepG2 cells. Treatment with the Nrf2 activator
      tert-butylhydroquinone (0-100 uM) increased GSH expression in a concentration
      dependent manner; however, Nrf2-siRNA abolished the Hcy-induced increase in GSH
      expression and cellular protection in 4-HNE-stressed HepG2 cells. In conclusion,
      the antioxidant transcriptional factor Nrf2 was demonstrated to mediate the Hcy
      induced increase in GSH expression levels and cellular protection in HepG2 cells.

PMID- 28560455
TI  - MicroRNA-146a-5p enhances cisplatin-induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells by
      targeting multiple anti-apoptotic genes.
AB  - MicroRNAs play a crucial role in gene expression regulation in various types of
      cancers. Previous studies show the expression level of miR-146a-5p is
      downregulated in epithelial ovarian cancer. Further investigations suggest this
      downregulation is responsible for apoptosis resistance in ovarian cancer cells.
      However, the mechanism of how miR-146a-5p promotes apoptosis remains unclear. In
      this study, the role of miR-146a-5p in cisplatin-induced apoptosis of ovarian
      cancer cells was assessed by DAPI staining, MTT assays, and monitoring expression
      of XIAP, BCL2L2, BIRC2 and BIRC5 through a dual-luciferase assay. Our results
      show that miR-146a-5p can regulate three important anti-apoptotic genes including
      XIAP, BCL2L2 and BIRC5 via their 3'UTRs. Not only can overexpression of miR-146a
      5p downregulate the expression of XIAP in SKOV3 cells, but it also lowers the
      IC50 values of cisplatin in OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells and enhances the
      susceptibility of OVCAR3, SKOV3 and primary ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin
      induced apoptosis. The effect of XIAP rescuing cisplatin-induced apoptosis
      accelerated by miR-146a-5p further supports our conclusion. Our results suggest
      that the regulation of three anti-apoptotic genes by miR-146-5p enhances the
      therapeutic effects of cisplatin.

PMID- 28560454
TI  - Silencing of type Igamma phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinase suppresses ovarian
      cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion.
AB  - Metastasis is the major cause of death in ovarian cancer patients. Given that the
      molecular mechanism underlying metastasis formation is critical for improving
      therapeutic development and clinical treatment, it must be fully understood.
      Recent studies have revealed that lipid kinase type Igamma phosphatidylinositol
      phosphate kinase (PIPKIgamma) participates in the metastasis of breast cancer and
      colon cancer by regulating cell migration and invasion. However, its role in the
      progression of ovarian cancer is unclear. Here we showed that PIPKIgamma
      expression is upregulated in multiple epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines.
      Silencing of PIPKIgamma impaired PI3K/AKT signaling and inhibited the aggressive
      behaviors of epithelial ovarian cancer cells, including proliferation, migration
      and invasion. Moreover, we found that PIPKIgamma was required for the activation
      of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in epithelial
      ovarian cancer cells, indicating that STAT3 may also be engaged in the PIPKIgamma
      dependent aggressiveness of epithelial ovarian cancer cells. Our results, for the
      first time, identified PIPKIgamma as a novel regulator in epithelial ovarian
      cancer cells that promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion by
      activating multiple signaling pathways. Therefore, we propose that PIPKIgamma
      could potentially be a therapeutic target for the early detection and treatment
      of epithelial ovarian cancer. Further studies employing in vivo models are
      necessary to test this possibility.

PMID- 28560457
TI  - Regulation of autophagy and EMT by the interplay between p53 and RAS during
      cancer progression (Review).
AB  - Cellular autophagy and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are key events
      mostly resulted from the interplay of tumor suppressors and oncogenes during
      cancer progression. The master tumor suppressor p53 may control tumor cell
      autophagy and EMT through the transcriptional induction of multiple target genes,
      while the activated oncogene RAS may also play a critical role in regulating
      mitogenic signaling to tumor cell autophagy and EMT. Although the fundamental
      functions of p53 and RAS are well understood, the interactive effects of p53 and
      RAS on autophagy and EMT are still unclear. In this review, we highlight the
      recent advances in the regulation of autophagy and EMT by p53 and RAS, aiming to
      explore novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers in cancer treatment and
      prevention.

PMID- 28560456
TI  - Investigation of the major cytochrome P450 1A2 genetic variant in a healthy
      Tibetan population in China.
AB  - The cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2 gene is involved in the metabolism of several
      carcinogens and clinically important drugs, generating a high potential for
      pharmacokinetic interactions. Since no data are available for Tibetan aborigines,
      the present study aimed to investigate the distribution of variant CYP1A2 alleles
      in a population living in Tibetan region of China. Genotyping analyses of CYP1A2
      were conducted in 96 unrelated, healthy volunteers of Tibetan ancestry using
      direct sequencing assays. A total of 14 different CYP1A2 polymorphisms, including
      two novel variants (1690G>A and 2896C>T) in the intron region and a novel non
      synonymous one (795G>C, Gln265His) were detected. CYP1A2*1A (6.77%), CYP1A2*1B
      (58.33%) and CYP1A2*1F (14.58%) were the most frequent defective alleles
      identified in the sample. The frequencies of the prevalent genotypes
      CYP1A2*1A/*1B, *1B/*1B, *1B/*1F were 13.54%, 16.67% and 29.17%, respectively. In
      addition, the novel non-synonymous variant 795G>C (Gln265His) was predicted to be
      benign by PolyPhen-2 and SIFT tools. The present study provides useful
      information on the pattern of CYP1A2 polymorphisms in Chinese Tibetan population.
      The current results may have potential benefits for the development of
      personalized medicine in the Tibetan population.

PMID- 28560458
TI  - EphA2 receptor activation with ephrin-A1 ligand restores cetuximab efficacy in
      NRAS-mutant colorectal cancer cells.
AB  - Patients with wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) that harbors
      NRAS activating mutations do not benefit from anti-EGFR therapies. Very little is
      known about oncogenic NRAS signaling driving mCRC unresponsiveness to the EGFR
      directed antibody cetuximab. Using a system of paired NRAS-mutant and wild-type
      isogenic mCRC cell lines to explore signaling pathways engaged by the common
      oncogenic NRAS Q61K variant upon challenge with cetuximab, we uncovered an
      unexpected mechanism of resistance to cetuximab involving dysregulation of the
      ephrin-A1/EphA2 signaling axis. Parental NRAS+/+ cells, but not NRASQ61K/+ cells,
      activated the ephrin receptor ephA1 in response to cetuximab treatment. Moreover,
      whereas cetuximab treatment significantly downregulated EPHA2 gene expression in
      NRAS+/+ cells, EPHA2 expression in NRASQ61K/+ cells was refractory to cetuximab.
      Remarkably, pharmacologically mimicked ephrin-A1 engagement to ephA2 converted
      NRAS-mutant into RAS wild-type mCRC cells in terms of cetuximab efficacy.
      Accordingly, activation of the ephA2 receptor by bioactive recombinant human
      ephrin-A1/Fc-fusion protein suppressed the cetuximab-unresponsive hyperactivation
      of MAPK and AKT and fully restored cetuximab activity in NRAS-mutant colorectal
      cells. Collectively, these findings reveal that the clinical benefit of cetuximab
      in mCRC might necessarily involve the suppression of the ligandless oncogenic
      signaling of the ephA2 receptor. Hence, ligand-dependent tumor suppressor
      signaling using therapeutic ephA2 agonists might offer new therapeutic
      opportunities to clinically widen the use of cetuximab in NRAS-mutated and/or
      ephA2-dependent mCRC tumors.

PMID- 28560459
TI  - sigma-1 receptor stimulation protects against pressure-induced damage through
      InsR-MAPK signaling in human trabecular meshwork cells.
AB  - The purpose of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of the
      sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R) agonist (+)-pentazocin (PTZ) on pressure-induced
      apoptosis and death of human trabecular meshwork cells (hTMCs). The expression
      levels of Sig-1R and insulin receptor (InsR) were examined in hTMCs. Cells were
      cultured under a pressure of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 mmHg for 48 h, and under 80
      mmHg for 44 h, after which the cells were treated with (+)-PTZ (20 uM), N-(2-(3,4
      dichlorophenyl)ethyl)-N-methyl-2-(dimethylamino) ethylamine (BD-1063; 20 uM)
      administered 30 min prior to (+)-PTZ, or BD-1063 (20 uM) and then exposed to 80
      mmHg again until the 48 h time-point. The changes of the cells were observed by
      optical and electron microscopy, the apoptosis and death of hTMCs were detected
      by ethidium bromide/acridine orange dual staining assay and the expression of Sig
      1R and InsR by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and
      western blot analysis. The phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated
      kinase (ERK), an important downstream protein of the InsR-mitogen-activated
      protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathway, was also detected by western blot
      analysis when (+)-PTZ and BD-1063 were added to the 80 mmHg-treated cells. Sig
      1Rs and InsRs were expressed in hTMCs. The apoptosis and death of hTMCs increased
      from 40 mmHg with 50% cell death when the pressure was at 80 mmHg and the
      structure of the cells noticeably changed. The expression of Sig-1R and InsR
      increased along with the elevation of pressure. (+)-PTZ decreased the apoptosis
      and death of hTMCs and increased the expression of Sig-1R and InsR, and the
      phosphorylation of ERK. Such effects were blocked by BD-1063. The present study
      suggested that Sig-1R agonist (+)-PTZ can protect hTMCs from pressure-induced
      apoptosis and death by activating InsR and the MAPK signal pathway.

PMID- 28560460
TI  - Synthetic lethal interaction of CDK inhibition and autophagy inhibition in human
      solid cancer cell lines.
AB  - Cell cycle control is a promising target in cancer treatments, and some small
      molecule cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors have exhibited clinical
      effectiveness. However, no biomarkers predictive of efficacy have been developed.
      Recent studies have revealed that CDK inhibitor (CKI) proteins, such as p27 and
      p16, also induced cytoprotective autophagy in cancer cells. However, it is
      unclear whether small-molecule CKIs also induce autophagy in solid tumors, as
      induced autophagy promotes cancer cell survival. In this study, we revealed that
      a CDK4 inhibitor and a CKI with a broad range of targets (flavopiridol) induced
      autophagy in some, but not all, solid cancer cell lines. Autophagy induction by
      CDK4 inhibitor was observed in BT474, MDA-MB435S, SKBr3 (derived from breast
      cancer), A431 (derived from epidermoid cancer), and SW480 (derived from
      colorectal cancer) cell lines. No such autophagy was observed in MCF7, MDA-MB231
      (derived from breast cancer), NCI-N87 (derived from gastric cancer), and KMST-6
      (derived from a fibroblast). In the cell lines showing autophagy, which was
      induced by CDK4 inhibitor, the combination of CDK4 inhibitor and autophagy
      inhibition by either chloroquine (CQ) or knockdown of ATG5 or BECN1 induced
      apoptosis. However, it did not induce apoptosis in the cell lines in which
      autophagy was not induced by CDK4 inhibitor. These findings indicate that the
      autophagy induced by CDK4 inhibitor mimics stress-induced autophagy in some solid
      cancer cell lines. The combination of a small-molecule CKI involved in G1/S
      arrest and an autophagy inhibitor leads to a synthetic lethal interaction and
      could become a new antitumor strategy for solid tumors showing cytoprotective
      autophagy induced by small-molecule CKIs.

PMID- 28560461
TI  - Increased SLC7A8 expression mediates L-DOPA uptake by renal tubular epithelial
      cells.
AB  - The kidney serves a central role in the control of blood pressure through the
      release of vasoactive substances and the urinary excretion of Na+. Patients with
      essential hypertension usually exhibit persistent high blood pressure accompanied
      by Na+ retention. L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) is an amino acid, converted
      by the enzyme aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase to dopamine. The uptake of L
      DOPA by cells of the proximal tubular epithelium of the kidney is controlled by
      the L-type amino acid transporter 2 (LAT2). LAT2 belongs to the solute carrier
      family 7 (SLC7) of amino acid transporters and is coded by the SLC7A8 gene.
      SLC7A8 expression is increased in the second-order mesenteric arteries and
      kidneys of spontaneously hypertensive rats. The present study aimed to
      investigate the physiological role of the SLC7A8 gene in L-DOPA handling by
      kidney cells. Selective upregulation of SLC7A8 mRNA and protein levels was
      achieved by adenoviral transduction of NRK-52E cells, which retain several
      properties of proximal tubular epithelial cells. In addition, L-DOPA uptake was
      determined using high performance liquid chromatography; NRK-52E cells expressing
      SLC7A8 exhibited increased uptake of L-DOPA. The results of the present study
      suggested that SLC7A8 may serve a critical role in blood pressure control through
      regulating L-DOPA uptake in renal epithelial cells of the proximal tubule.

PMID- 28560462
TI  - Remote ischemic postconditioning confers neuroprotective effects via inhibition
      of the BID-mediated mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.
AB  - Ischemic postconditioning has been demonstrated to alleviate brain
      ischemia/reperfusion-induced neuronal apoptosis; however, the protective
      mechanisms underlying the improved and more convenient method of remote ischemic
      postconditioning (RIPostC) are only recently beginning to be elucidated.
      Mitochondria are important in the regulation of cell apoptosis, and the B-cell
      lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) homology 3 interacting-domain death agonist (BID) promotes the
      insertion/oligomerization of Bcl-2-associated X protein into the mitochondrial
      outer membrane, leading to the release of proapoptotic proteins from the
      mitochondria. The present study hypothesized that RIPostC targets the BID
      mediated mitochondrial apoptotic pathway to exert neuroprotective effects, and
      the optimal time window for RIPostC application was investigated. RIPostC was
      conducted as follows: Three 10-min cycles of bilateral femoral artery occlusion
      with intervals of 10 min reperfusion after 0, 10 or 30 min of brain reperfusion.
      The results revealed that reperfusion induced significant activation of BID, via
      proteolytic cleavage and translocation to the mitochondria, as determined using
      western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining. Mitochondrial release of
      cytochrome c was additionally detected during BID activation, all of which were
      inhibited by the application of RIPostC. When RIPostC was applied during
      reperfusion, it demonstrated a significant protective effect. Furthermore, the
      infarct volume, neurological function and the degree of neuronal apoptosis were
      improved with application of RIPostC. These results suggested that the protective
      mechanisms of RIPostC may be associated with inhibition of the BID-mediated
      mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, which may act as a potential molecular target
      for therapeutic intervention in the future.

PMID- 28560463
TI  - [Local therapy with dye formulations].

PMID- 28560464
TI  - ["Indolent" pigmented skin tumor for more than 20 years].

PMID- 28560465
TI  - [Lanadelumab : Future plasma-independent subcutaneous prophylaxis for bradykinin
      mediated angioedema?]

PMID- 28560467
TI  - [Suspicious papilla in a 27-year-old man].

PMID- 28560466
TI  - Real-life effectiveness of spa therapy in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases:
      a retrospective study of 819 patients.
AB  - The objective of this study is to determine the use and efficacy of spa therapy
      in patients with a wide spectrum of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases under
      real-life clinical practice circumstances. In this retrospective observational
      study at the Medical Ecology and Hydroclimatology Department of Istanbul Faculty
      of Medicine, the records of all adult patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal
      diseases who were prescribed a spa therapy in various health resorts in Turkey
      between 2002 and 2012 were analyzed. Patients sojourned to and stayed at a health
      resort and followed a usual 2-week course of spa therapy. The patients were
      examined within a week before and after the spa therapy at the department by the
      physicians and outcome measures were pain intensity (visual analog scale, VAS),
      patient's general evaluation (VAS), physician's general evaluation (VAS), Health
      Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Lequesne's Functional Index (LFI), Western
      Ontario and McMaster Universities Index (WOMAC), Waddell Index (WI), Neck Pain
      and Disability Scale (NPDS), Shoulder Disability Questionnaire (SDQ),
      Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI).
      In total, 819 patients were included in the analysis. The diagnoses were 536
      osteoarthritis; 115 fibromyalgia; 50 lumbar disc herniation; 34 cervical disc
      herniation; 23 nonspecific low back pain; 22 ankylosing spondylitis; 16
      rheumatoid arthritis; 9 rotator cuff tendinitis; and 14 other conditions/diseases
      including scoliosis, stenosing flexor tenosynovitis, congenital hip dislocation
      in adult, Behcet's disease, de Quervain tendinopathy, psoriatic arthritis,
      osteoporosis, fracture rehabilitation, and diffuse idiopathic skeletal
      hyperostosis. Statistically significant decrease in pain scores was found in all
      patients except hip osteoarthritis (p = 0.063) and rheumatoid arthritis (p =
      0.134) subgroups; and statistically significant improvement in function in all
      patients except hip osteoarthritis (p = 0.068), rheumatoid arthritis (p = 0.111),
      and rotator cuff tendinitis (p = 0.078) subgroups. In daily clinical practice,
      spa therapy is prescribed and practiced mainly for osteoarthritis, then
      fibromyalgia, lumbar/cervical disc herniation, and nonspecific low back pain; and
      less for ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and rotator cuff
      tendinitis. The study results suggest that real-life spa therapy may be effective
      in a variety of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases by improving pain and
      function.

PMID- 28560468
TI  - [Ultra-widefield angiography for retinal vein occlusion : How large is large
      enough?]
AB  - BACKGROUND: The introduction of full fundus angiography (FAG) for retinal vein
      occlusion (RVO) has enriched diagnostic imaging; however, it is unclear how much
      of the retina has to be visualized to evaluate the risk of neovascularization. We
      investigated the 102 degrees  Spectralis camera to assess if imaging beyond the
      central 102 degrees  is necessary. METHODS: In this retrospective study we
      assessed 80 eyes of 80 patients with RVO to analyze central and peripheral
      ischemia using the ultra-widefield 102 degrees  Spectralis camera. The standard
      viewer software was used to delineate ischemic areas (IA) and to measure the
      amount of pixels of IA in correlation to the total amount of pixels in the
      peripheral image. RESULTS: Among the 80 eyes with RVO there were 51 eyes with
      ischemic areas (central and/or peripheral), of which IA could be detected in 49
      eyes by analyzing a fovea-centered FAG image. The average IA in these 51 eyes was
      23.5% of the total image area and 53.7% of disc areas, respectively. DISCUSSION:
      A fovea-centered FAG image with a 102 degrees  angle appears to be sufficient to
      determine the clinically relevant extent of IA. Old recommendations and imaging
      methods should be rethought. The 102 degrees  Spectralis camera provides a
      clinically suitable, fast and exact method which might replace old methods to
      describe and document the extent of ischemia by disc areas.

PMID- 28560469
TI  - Gene therapy for lysosomal storage disorders: recent advances for metachromatic
      leukodystrophy and mucopolysaccaridosis I.
AB  - Lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) are rare inherited metabolic disorders
      characterized by a dysfunction in lysosomes, leading to waste material
      accumulation and severe organ damage. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and
      haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) have been exploited as potential
      treatments for LSDs but pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown in some
      cases limited efficacy. Intravenous ERT is able to control the damage of visceral
      organs but cannot prevent nervous impairment. Depending on the disease type, HSCT
      has important limitations when performed for early variants, unless treatment
      occurs before disease onset. In the attempt to overcome these issues, gene
      therapy has been proposed as a valuable therapeutic option, either ex vivo, with
      target cells genetically modified in vitro, or in vivo, by inserting the genetic
      material with systemic or intra-parenchymal, in situ administration. In
      particular, the use of autologous haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) transduced with
      a viral vector containing a healthy copy of the mutated gene would allow supra
      normal production of the defective enzyme and cross correction of target cells in
      multiple tissues, including the central nervous system. This review will provide
      an overview of the most recent scientific advances in HSC-based gene therapy
      approaches for the treatment of LSDs with particular focus on metachromatic
      leukodystrophy (MLD) and mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS-I).

PMID- 28560470
TI  - Cost per response for abatacept versus adalimumab in rheumatoid arthritis by ACPA
      subgroups in Germany, Italy, Spain, US and Canada.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder leading to
      disability and reduced quality of life. Effective treatment with biologic DMARDs
      poses a significant economic burden. The Abatacept versus Adalimumab Comparison
      in Biologic-Naive RA Subjects with Background Methotrexate (AMPLE) trial was a
      head-to-head, randomized study comparing abatacept in serum anti-citrullinated
      protein antibody (ACPA)-positive patients, with increasing efficacy across ACPA
      quartile levels. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost per response
      accrued using abatacept versus adalimumab in ACPA-positive and ACPA-negative
      patients with RA from the health care perspective in Germany, Italy, Spain, the
      US and Canada. A cost-consequence analysis (CCA) was designed to compare the
      monthly costs per responding patient/patient in remission. Efficacy, safety and
      resource use inputs were based on the AMPLE trial. A one-way deterministic
      sensitivity analysis (OWSA) was also performed to assess the impact of model
      inputs on the results for total incremental costs. Cost per response in ACPA
      positive patients favoured abatacept compared with adalimumab (ACR20, ACR90 and
      HAQ-DI). Subgroup analysis favoured abatacept with increasing stringency of
      response criteria and serum ACPA levels. Cost per remission (DAS28-CRP) favoured
      abatacept in ACPA-negative patients, while cost per CDAI and SDAI favoured
      abatacept in ACPA-positive patients. Abatacept was consistently favoured in ACPA
      Q4 patients across all outcomes and countries. Cost savings were greater with
      abatacept when more stringent response criteria were applied and also with
      increasing ACPA levels, which could lead to a lower overall health care budget
      impact with abatacept compared with adalimumab.

PMID- 28560471
TI  - Impact of laser fiber tip cleavage on power output for ureteroscopy and stone
      treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Holmium:YAG laser is the most used laser for urolithiasis. Generally, we
      use metallic scissors to cut the fiber tip to restore its effectiveness. Many
      cleaving methods have been described to avoid fiber damage and to restore its
      greatest power to the fiber. There is a lack of information regarding which
      cleaving method should be used and its effect on the fiber. In order to compare
      these effects, we studied different cleavage methods in terms of power output and
      its effects on the fiber. METHODS: New single-use 272-MUm fibers were used with a
      holmium:YAG laser lithotripter. Five kinds of fiber tips were compared: a new
      intact fiber, cleaved with ceramic scissors, cleaved with metallic scissors,
      first cleaved then stripped and first stripped then cleaved. The fibers were used
      against synthetic stones (BegoStone(r)) similar to calcium oxalate monohydrate,
      with fragmentation (SP, 5 Hz, 1.5 J) and dusting (LP, 15 Hz, 0.5 J) settings. We
      measured power output at 0, 1, 5, 10 and 15 min. RESULTS: For fragmentation
      parameters, there was a statistical difference between the 5 groups at 0 and 1
      min of laser use (p < 0.05) and none for time period over 1 min (p = 0.077
      0.658). For dusting parameters, there was a statistical difference between the 5
      groups at 0 min of laser use (p < 0.05) and none for time period over 0 min (p =
      0.064-1). CONCLUSION: Cleaving the fiber tip may restore its effectiveness to the
      fiber, but only for a limited time, although it may preserve the scopes from
      damage.

PMID- 28560472
TI  - Prevalence, clonality, and pathogenicity of Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates
      in newborn feces.
AB  - Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the most prevalent pathogens causing
      late-onset sepsis in neonates. The question is whether neonates acquire endemic
      hospital-adapted clones or incidentally occurring CoNS strains after birth during
      their hospital stay. Therefore, a prospective study was performed on the
      prevalence of CoNS in the stool of babies (born vaginally or by cesarean section)
      during their first days of life. Their clonal relatedness and potential to induce
      invasive disease were characterized. CoNS were analyzed from the stool samples of
      newborns with a load of CoNS above 103 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL. The
      identification of CoNS was performed phenotypically and genotypically. For
      typing, repetitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR), pulsed-field gel
      electrophoresis, and multilocus sequence typing were used. Resistance profiles,
      biofilm production, the presence of icaAD and of IS256 were determined as well.
      From a total of 207 stool samples (56 newborns), CoNS were detected in 41% of the
      newborns, mostly on day 3 for the first time (62.5%). Staphylococcus epidermidis
      was isolated in 85.7% of cases, harbored no IS256 element, and mostly expressed
      no biofilm. The isolates were separated into four main clusters by repetitive
      sequence-based PCR. 24% of the strains showed no antimicrobial resistance. 20%
      were resistant against four antibiotics of two different antibiotic classes. The
      remaining strains were resistant only against one antimicrobial substance class.
      Thus, it can be concluded that newborns do not acquire hospital-adapted endemic,
      multidrug-resistant S. epidermidis isolates during their first days of life. Yet,
      the results support the thesis that, during hospital stay, environmental
      parameters may convert sensible/noninvasive S. epidermidis strains into multidrug
      resistant strains with characteristics of invasiveness.

PMID- 28560473
TI  - Low-intensity laser therapy efficacy evaluation in FVB mice subjected to acute
      and chronic arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune inflammation, has a high prevalence in the
      population, and while therapy is available, it required often injection of drugs
      causing discomfort to patients. This study evaluates the clinical and
      histological effect of low-intensity laser therapy (LILT) as an alternative
      treatment, in a murine model of acute and chronic inflammation. FVB mice received
      either a Zymosan A injection into one knee joint inducing acute inflammation,
      followed after 15 min or 24 h by LILT or a collagen bovine type II injection
      emulsified in "Freund's Complete Adjuvant" to induce chronic arthritis, followed
      at 4 weeks with multiple LILT sessions. LILT mediated by either 660, 808, or 905
      nm and tissue response was evaluated based on clinical symptoms and histological
      analysis of inflammatory infiltrate and damage to the articular surfaces. LILT
      can be effective in elevating clinical symptoms, so Kruskal-Wallis testing
      indicated no significant differences between knees affected by acute arthritis
      and treated once with LILT and an injured knee without treatment (p > 0.05) for
      660 and 808 nm with some improvements for the 905-nm LILT. Mice receiving two
      treatments for acute arthritis showed exacerbation of inflammation and articular
      resorption following therapy with a 660-nm continuous laser (p < 0.05). For
      chronic inflammation, differences were not noted between LILT treated and
      untreated injured knee joints (p > 0.05). Among the lasers, the 905 nm tends to
      show better results for anti-inflammatory effect in acute arthritis, and the 660
      nm showed better results in chronic arthritis. In conclusion, LILT wavelength
      selection depends on the arthritis condition and can demonstrate anti
      inflammatory effects for chronic arthritis and reduced resorption area in this
      murine model.

PMID- 28560474
TI  - Vertebral fracture in postmenopausal Chinese women: a population-based study.
AB  - : In a random sample of postmenopausal Chinese women, the prevalence of
      radiographic vertebral fractures increased from 13% between ages 50 and 59 to
      over 50% after age 80 years. A model with seven clinical risk factors predicted
      the probability of vertebral fractures as well with as without BMD and better
      than a model with only three risk factors. More than half an hour of outdoor
      activity per day might correlate with lower risk of vertebral fracture in this
      population. INTRODUCTION: We aimed to describe the prevalence and develop a model
      for prediction of radiographic vertebral fractures in a large random sample of
      postmenopausal Chinese women. METHODS: We enrolled 1760 women from an age
      stratified random sample of postmenopausal women in Beijing, China. The presence
      of vertebral fracture was assessed by semi-quantitative grading of lateral
      thoracolumbar radiographs, risk factors by interview, bone mineral density (BMD)
      of the proximal femur and lumbar spine by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and
      markers of bone turnover from a fasting blood sample. Associations of these
      factors were analyzed in logistic models and discrimination by areas of receiver
      operating characteristics curves (AUC). RESULTS: The prevalence of vertebral
      fracture, ranged from 13.4% ages 50 to 59 years old to 58.1% at age 80 years or
      older. Older age, a history of non-vertebral fracture, lower femoral neck BMD T
      score, body mass index (BMI), height loss, housework, and less than half an hour
      of outdoor activity were significantly associated with increased probability of
      having a vertebral fracture. A model with those seven factors had a similar AUC
      with or without BMD and performed better than a simple model with three factors.
      CONCLUSION: This study is from a true random sample of postmenopausal women in
      urban China with high response rate. The prevalence of vertebral fractures in
      postmenopausal women in Beijing increases from 13% under age 60 to over 50% by
      age 80 years. A model with seven clinical risk factors with or without BMD is
      better than simple models and may guide the use of spine x-rays to identify women
      with vertebral fractures. More than half an hour of outdoor activity might
      correlate with lower risk of vertebral fracture in this population.

PMID- 28560476
TI  - Erratum to: X-ray Induced and Thermostimulated Luminescence of new Fluorine
      Containing Compounds (Potential Luminophores, Scintillators and Dosimeters).

PMID- 28560475
TI  - Generation of membrane potential beyond the conceptual range of Donnan theory and
      Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation.
AB  - Donnan theory and Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation (GHK eq.) state that the nonzero
      membrane potential is generated by the asymmetric ion distribution between two
      solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane and/or by the continuous ion
      transport across the semipermeable membrane. However, there have been a number of
      reports of the membrane potential generation behaviors in conflict with those
      theories. The authors of this paper performed the experimental and theoretical
      investigation of membrane potential and found that (1) Donnan theory is valid
      only when the macroscopic electroneutrality is sufficed and (2) Potential
      behavior across a certain type of membrane appears to be inexplicable on the
      concept of GHK eq. Consequently, the authors derived a conclusion that the
      existing theories have some limitations for predicting the membrane potential
      behavior and we need to find a theory to overcome those limitations. The authors
      suggest that the ion adsorption theory named Ling's adsorption theory, which
      attributes the membrane potential generation to the mobile ion adsorption onto
      the adsorption sites, could overcome those problems.

PMID- 28560478
TI  - Storeroom 99: a place for words to support families of ICU patients.

PMID- 28560477
TI  - Daclatasvir and asunaprevir in hemodialysis patients with hepatitis C virus
      infection: a nationwide retrospective study in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is common in hemodialysis patients
      and worsens their prognosis, while antiviral therapy options are limited.
      Recently, clinical trial and real-world, small-scale studies have reported
      excellent responses to direct-acting antivirals in patients with advanced chronic
      kidney diseases. However, real-world, large-scale data were lacking. This large
      multicenter analysis included HCV-infected hemodialysis patients receiving
      combination therapy with a nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) inhibitor, daclatasvir
      (DCV), and a protease inhibitor, asunaprevir (ASV). METHODS: Twenty-three centers
      in Japan participated in this study of 123 hemodialysis patients with genotype 1
      HCV infection, who received DCV/ASV combination therapy between November 2014 and
      March 2016. We collected and analyzed data relating to treatment outcome,
      baseline clinical information, laboratory measurements (during and after the
      treatment), and adverse events. RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients (31.7%) had
      advanced liver fibrosis, 12 (9.8%) had histories of hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC), and 18 (14.6%) had baseline resistance-associated variants (RAVs) of NS5A.
      The overall sustained virological response (SVR)12 rate was 95.9% (118/123).
      Notably, all patients with HCC and 94.4% (17/18) of those with NS5A RAVs achieved
      SVR12. Significant factors associated with non-SVR were advanced fibrosis and the
      interleukin-28B non-TT genotype at rs8099917. Four patients (3.3%) discontinued
      therapy because of adverse events including elevated serum alanine transaminase
      levels (n = 2), rash (n = 1), and HCC (n = 1); all of these achieved SVR12.
      CONCLUSIONS: This real-world, nationwide study revealed that DCV/ASV combination
      therapy was safe and highly effective for hemodialysis patients with genotype 1
      HCV infections. This study was registered at the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry
      (UMIN000024227).

PMID- 28560479
TI  - The importance of rectal washout for the oncological outcome after Hartmann's
      procedure for rectal cancer: analysis of population-based data from the Swedish
      Colorectal Cancer Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During rectal cancer surgery the bowel may contain viable, exfoliated
      cancer cells, a potential source for local recurrence (LR). The amount and
      viability of these cells can be reduced using intraoperative rectal washout, a
      procedure that reduces the LR risk after anterior resection. The aim of this
      study was to analyse the impact of washout on oncological outcome when performed
      in Hartmann's procedure (HP) for rectal cancer. METHODS: A national cohort study
      on data for patients registered from 1995 to 2007 in the Swedish Colorectal
      Cancer Registry was carried out. The final analysis included patients belonging
      to TNM stages I-III who had undergone R0 HP with a registered 5-year follow-up.
      Multivariate analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 1188 patients were
      analysed (686 washout and 502 no washout). No differences were detected between
      the washout group and the no washout group concerning rates of LR [7% (49/686)
      vs. 10% (49/502); p = 0.13], distant metastasis (DM) [17% (119/686) vs. 18%
      (93/502); p = 0.65], and overall recurrence (OAR) [21% (145/686) vs. 24%
      (120/502); p = 0.29]. For both groups, the 5-year cancer-specific survival was
      below 50%. In multivariate analysis, washout neither decreased the risk of LR,
      DM, or OAR nor increased overall or the cancer-specific 5-year survival.
      CONCLUSIONS: The oncological outcome did not improve when washout was performed
      in HP for rectal cancer.

PMID- 28560480
TI  - Patient quality of life and short-term surgical outcomes between robotic and
      laparoscopic anterior resection for adenocarcinoma of the rectum.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare patient quality of life (QoL) and short-term surgical
      outcomes between robotic anterior resection (r-AR) and laparoscopic (l-AR)
      approach. METHODS: Consecutive patients having undergone either robotic or
      laparoscopic AR for adenocarcinoma were studied. All operations were performed by
      two surgeons experienced in laparoscopic and recently introduced robotic surgery.
      Surgical outcomes were determined by post-operative histology and short-term
      complications. QoL was prospectively assessed using the EORTC QLC-CR30 and QLC
      CR29 questionnaires. RESULTS: In total, 36 patients (18 r-AR) with a median
      follow-up of 12 months following surgery (9-month robotic and 20-month
      laparoscopic) were studied. The two groups were similarly matched for age and
      gender. Laparoscopic patients had a lower ASA grade (p = 0.02). There was no
      significant difference in surgical outcomes between groups. r-AR patients
      reported lower pain scales (2 +/- 6 vs. 11 +/- 13) (p = 0.04), lower levels of
      insomnia 0 vs. 8 +/- 15 (p = 0.04) and a lower abdominal pain scale (2 +/- 9 vs.
      17 +/- 27) (p = 0.04). Male impotence scores were higher in l-AR 33 +/- 35
      compared to r-AR 7 +/- 21 (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Despite its recent introduction
      to our centre, the quality of oncological resection using the robotic surgery is
      comparable to laparoscopy. Lower impotence and QoL scores in patients after
      robotic procedure may be explained on the basis of better visualisation and
      precise tissue handling.

PMID- 28560481
TI  - Fluorescence to highlight the urethra: a human cadaveric study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Urethral injury is a complication feared by surgeons performing
      transanal TME (TaTME) or abdominoperineal excision (APE) procedures. Injury
      during TaTME occurs when the prostate is inadvertently mobilised or as a direct
      injury similar to the direct injury during the perineal dissection of APE
      procedures. We performed a proof of principle study to assess the feasibility of
      using indocyanine green (ICG) to fluoresce the urethra in human cadavers.
      METHODS: Indocyanine green at varying doses was mixed with Instillagel and
      infiltrated into the urethra of male human cadavers. The urethra was exposed
      through either a perineal incision or by mobilisation of the prostate during a
      TaTME dissection and fluorescence observed using a PINPOINT laparoscope
      (NOVADAQ). Brightness was assessed on the images using ImageJ (National Institute
      of Health). RESULTS: Eight cadavers were included in the study. Fluorescence was
      visualised in the urethra in all eight cadavers. Minimal dissection was required
      to obtain fluorescence transperineally. In one cadaver, the urethra was
      demonstrated under fluorescence using a simulated TaTME with additional
      fluorescence also being observed in the prostate. There was no correlation
      between brightness and dosing. CONCLUSIONS: This novel proof of principle study
      demonstrates a simple way in which the urethra may be easily identified
      preventing it from injury during surgery.

PMID- 28560483
TI  - Conditional loss of hepatocellular Hedgehog signaling in female mice leads to the
      persistence of hepatic steroidogenesis, androgenization and infertility.
AB  - The Hedgehog signaling pathway is known to be involved in embryogenesis, tissue
      remodeling, and carcinogenesis. Because of its involvement in carcinogenesis, it
      seems an interesting target for cancer therapy. Indeed, Sonidegib, an approved
      inhibitor of the Hedgehog receptor Smoothened (Smo), is highly active against
      diverse carcinomas, but its use is also reported to be associated with several
      systemic side effects. Our former work in adult mice demonstrated hepatic
      Hedgehog signaling to play a key role in the insulin-like growth factor axis and
      lipid metabolism. The current work using mice with an embryonic and hepatocyte
      specific Smo deletion describes an adverse impact of the hepatic Hedgehog pathway
      on female fertility. In female SAC-KO mice, we detected androgenization
      characterized by a 3.3-fold increase in testosterone at 12 weeks of age based on
      an impressive induction of steroidogenic gene expression in hepatocytes, but not
      in the classic steroidogenic organs (ovary and adrenal gland). Along with the
      elevated level of testosterone, the female SAC-KO mice showed infertility
      characterized by juvenile reproductive organs and acyclicity. The endocrine and
      reproductive alterations resembled polycystic ovarian syndrome and could be
      confirmed in a second mouse model with conditional deletion of Smo at 8 weeks of
      age after an extended period of 8 months. We conclude that the down-regulation of
      hepatic Hedgehog signaling leads to an impaired hormonal balance by the induction
      of steroidogenesis in the liver. These effects of Hedgehog signaling inhibition
      should be considered when using Hedgehog inhibitors as anti-cancer drugs.

PMID- 28560482
TI  - Integrated In Silico Fragment-Based Drug Design: Case Study with Allosteric
      Modulators on Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 5.
AB  - GPCR allosteric modulators target at the allosteric binding pockets of G protein
      coupled receptors (GPCRs) with indirect influence on the effects of an
      orthosteric ligand. Such modulators exhibit significant advantages compared to
      the corresponding orthosteric ligands, including better chemical tractability or
      physicochemical properties, improved selectivity, and reduced risk of
      oversensitization towards their receptors. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5
      (mGlu5), a member of class C GPCRs, is a promising therapeutic target for
      treating many central nervous system diseases. The crystal structure of mGlu5 in
      the complex with the negative allosteric modulator mavoglurant was recently
      reported, providing a fundamental model for designing new allosteric modulators.
      Computational fragment-based drug discovery represents a powerful scaffold
      hopping and lead structure-optimization tool for drug design. In the present
      work, a set of integrated computational methodologies was first used, such as
      fragment library generation and retrosynthetic combinatorial analysis procedure
      (RECAP) for novel compound generation. Then, the compounds generated were
      assessed by benchmark dataset verification, docking studies, and QSAR model
      simulation. Subsequently, structurally diverse compounds, with reported or
      unreported scaffolds, can be observed from top 20 in silico synthesized
      compounds, which were predicted to be potential mGlu5 modulators. In silico
      compounds with reported scaffolds may fill SAR holes in known, patented series of
      mGlu5 modulators. And the generation of compounds without reported tests on mGluR
      indicates that our approach is doable for exploring and designing novel
      compounds. Our case study of designing allosteric modulators on mGlu5
      demonstrated that the established computational fragment-based approach is a
      useful methodology for facilitating new compound design in the future.

PMID- 28560484
TI  - A New Look at Precipitants of Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy in Cirrhosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a major cause of
      significant morbidity and mortality in patients with liver cirrhosis. We examined
      the frequency and profile of the precipitating factors resulting in
      hospitalizations for overt HE. METHODS: We conducted both retrospective and
      prospective studies to identify clinical precipitants of overt HE in patients
      with cirrhosis. The retrospective study patients were hospitalized at a large
      urban safety-net hospital, and the prospective study included the patients
      admitted at a liver transplant center. RESULTS: There were a total of 149
      patients with cirrhosis and overt HE (91 males, mean age 55.3 +/- 8.6 years) in
      the retrospective group and 45 patients (27 males, mean age 58.3 +/- 8.2 years)
      in the prospective group of the study. The average MELD score was 16 +/- 6.8 in
      the retrospective group and 22.7 +/- 7.2 in the prospective group. Dehydration
      (46-76%), acute kidney injury (32-76%), lactulose nonadherence (about 50%),
      constipation (about 40%), and infections (20-42%) were the most frequently
      identified precipitants for hospitalization in retrospective and prospective
      groups. Multiple precipitants were identified in 60 (40.3%) patients in the
      retrospective group and 34 (76%) patients in the prospective group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Multiple concurrent precipitating factors were identified in the majority of
      patients with overt HE requiring hospitalization. Dehydration due to various
      causes was the most common precipitant of overt HE, followed by acute kidney
      injury (AKI), constipation, and infections. Prevention of dehydration, AKI, and
      constipation by close outpatient monitoring may be an effective measure to
      prevent hospitalization for overt HE in patients with cirrhosis.

PMID- 28560485
TI  - Evaluation of end-tidal CO2 pressure at the anaerobic threshold for detecting and
      assessing pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is useful for the evaluation of patients
      with suspected or confirmed pulmonary hypertension (PH). End-tidal carbon dioxide
      pressure (PETCO2) during exercise is reduced with elevated pulmonary artery
      pressure. However, the utility of ventilatory parameters such as CPET for
      detecting PH remains unclear. We conducted a review in 155 patients who underwent
      right heart catheterization and CPET. Fifty-nine patients had PH [mean pulmonary
      arterial pressure (mPAP) >=25 mmHg]. There was an inverse correlation between
      PETCO2 at the anaerobic threshold (AT) and mPAP (r = -0.66; P < 0.01). Multiple
      regression analysis showed that PETCO2 at the AT was independently associated
      with an elevated mPAP (P = 0.04). The sensitivity and specificity of CPET for PH
      were 80 and 86%, respectively, when the cut-off value identified by receiver
      operating characteristic curve analysis for PETCO2 at the AT was <=34.7 mmHg. A
      combination of echocardiography and CPET improved the sensitivity in detecting PH
      without markedly reducing specificity (sensitivity 87%, specificity 85%).
      Evaluation of PETCO2 at the AT is useful for estimating pulmonary pressure. A
      combination of CPET and previous screening algorithms for PH may enhance the
      diagnostic ability of PH.

PMID- 28560488
TI  - Lived Religion as Reproductive Decision-Making Resource Among Romanian Women Who
      Use Abortion as Contraception.
AB  - This article draws upon qualitative ethnographic data collected between 2005 and
      2013 in southern Romania among women who have been consistently using abortion as
      a contraceptive method. It particularly considers the role that lived religion
      might have played in some individuals' strategies to render abortion a
      justifiable practice. Over the last seven decades, Romanian women's experiences
      of abortion have often been at odds with both secular and religious regulations.
      This study shifts the perspective from the biopolitics and the bioethics of
      abortion toward women's own reproductive decision-making strategies in a context
      of enduring traditional patriarchy. It explores the fluid and pragmatic ways in
      which some Romanians use the notions of "God's will," "sin," "redemption,"
      "afterlife," and "Godparenting" to redefine abortion as a partially disembodied
      reproductive event. As a reproductive decision-making resource, lived religion
      empowers women to navigate the lived complexities of conception and
      contraception.

PMID- 28560486
TI  - New scoring model (DARSYM score) to predict post-discharge bleeding after
      successful second-generation drug-eluting stent implantation.
AB  - We aimed to create a scoring model to predict post-discharge bleeding (PDB) after
      drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation in Japanese subjects. We enrolled 1912
      consecutive patients undergoing DES implantation (age 70 +/- 10 years; 72% male).
      PDB was defined as a composite of type 5, 3, and 2 bleeding using the Bleeding
      Academic Research Consortium criteria. A Cox proportional hazard model assessed
      predictors, and we then derived a clinical model stratifying risk of PDB after
      DES implantation. Ninety-eight patients (6.7%) experienced PDB; gastrointestinal
      bleeding (GIB) was most common (n = 66, 67%), followed by intracranial bleeding
      (n = 24, 25%). PDB was independently associated with age >80 years [risk ratio
      (RR): 1.89, p < 0.001], hypertension (RR: 1.68, p = 0.03), severe renal
      dysfunction (RR: 1.56, p = 0.04), anemia on admission (RR: 1.75, p = 0.02), prior
      history of GIB (RR: 3.49, p < 0.001), NSAIDs use (RR: 2.33, p = 0.03), and
      introduction of triple antithrombotic therapy (RR: 2.94, p < 0.001). A clinical
      prediction rule for risk of bleeding events including seven baseline factors was
      derived. A better predictive ability for PDB was found using this new scoring
      system than the HAS-BLED score [c statistics, 0.85 (95% CI 0.83-0.87) and c
      statistics, 0.71 (95% CI 0.69-0.73), respectively; p < 0.001]. This new scoring
      system including patient characteristics and laboratory variables can identify
      patients at high risk of PDB after DES implantation.

PMID- 28560487
TI  - Effect of venous stenting on intracranial pressure in idiopathic intracranial
      hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is characterised by an
      increased intracranial pressure (ICP) in the absence of any central nervous
      system disease or structural abnormality and by normal CSF composition.
      Management becomes complicated once surgical intervention is required. Venous
      sinus stenosis has been suggested as a possible aetiology for IIH. Venous sinus
      stenting has emerged as a possible interventional option. Evidence for venous
      sinus stenting is based on elimination of the venous pressure gradient and
      clinical response. There have been no studies demonstrating the immediate effect
      of venous stenting on ICP. METHODS: Patients with a potential or already known
      diagnosis of IIH were investigated according to departmental protocol. ICP
      monitoring was performed for 24 h. When high pressures were confirmed, CT
      venogram and catheter venography were performed to look for venous stenosis to
      demonstrate a pressure gradient. If positive, venous stenting would be performed
      and ICP monitoring would continue for a further 24 h after deployment of the
      venous stent. RESULTS: Ten patients underwent venous sinus stenting with
      concomitant ICP monitoring. Nine out of ten patients displayed an immediate
      reduction in their ICP that was maintained at 24 h. The average reduction in mean
      ICP and pulsatility was significant (p = 0.003). Six out of ten patients reported
      a symptomatic improvement within the first 2 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Venous sinus
      stenting results in an immediate reduction in ICP. This physiological response to
      venous stenting has not previously been reported. Venous stenting could offer an
      alternative treatment option in correctly selected patients with IIH.

PMID- 28560489
TI  - The Effect of Holly Quran Voice With and Without Translation on Stress, Anxiety
      and Depression During Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the effect of Holy Quran on stress, anxiety and
      depression in Iranian pregnant women. A total of 168 participants were allocated
      randomly into three groups. Group I received broadcast of the Holy Quran with
      translation, group II received broadcast of the Holy Quran without translation,
      and group III was the control group. After intervention, scores of perceived
      stress, state anxiety, trait anxiety and depression in group I and group II were
      significantly lower compared with the control group. The Holly Quran with
      translation and without it, both are the effective for reducing stress, anxiety
      and depression during pregnancy.

PMID- 28560491
TI  - Answer to the Letter to the Editor of S. Huang et al. concerning "New
      classification for the treatment of pyogenic spondylodiscitis: validation study
      on a population of 250 patients with a follow-up of 2 years" by Enrico Pola et
      al. Eur Spine J (2017) doi:10.1007/s00586-017-5043-5.

PMID- 28560490
TI  - Laser capture microdissection protocol for gene expression analysis in the brain.
AB  - Laser capture microdissection (LCM) allows the isolation of specific cell
      populations from complex tissues that can be then used for gene expression
      studies. However, there are no reproducible protocols to study RNA in the brain
      and, particularly, in the substantia nigra. RNA is a very labile biomolecule that
      is easily degraded during manipulation. LCM studies use low amounts of material
      and special precautions must be taken to preserve RNA yield and integrity, which
      are decisive for PCR analysis. The RNA yield and/or integrity can be affected
      negatively by tissue manipulation, LCM process and RNA extraction. We have
      optimized these three critical steps using nigral tissue sections, and developed
      a LCM protocol to obtain high-quality RNA for gene expression analysis. The
      optimal LCM protocol requires the use of 20 um-thick tissue sections mounted on
      glass slides and processed for rapid tyrosine hydroxylase immunofluorescence.
      Additionally, a total microdissected tissue area of 1 mm2 and a column-based RNA
      extraction method were used to obtain a high RNA yield and integrity. In the rat
      substantia nigra, we demonstrated the expression of RNA for the angiotensin type
      1 and type 2 receptors using this optimized LCM protocol. In conclusion, the LCM
      protocol reported here can be used to study the expression of both scarcely or
      abundantly expressed genes in the different brain regions of mammals under both
      physiological and pathological conditions.

PMID- 28560492
TI  - Simulation Modelling in Healthcare: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Literature
      Reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous studies examine simulation modelling in healthcare. These
      studies present a bewildering array of simulation techniques and applications,
      making it challenging to characterise the literature. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      paper is to provide an overview of the level of activity of simulation modelling
      in healthcare and the key themes. METHODS: We performed an umbrella review of
      systematic literature reviews of simulation modelling in healthcare. Searches
      were conducted of academic databases (JSTOR, Scopus, PubMed, IEEE, SAGE, ACM,
      Wiley Online Library, ScienceDirect) and grey literature sources, enhanced by
      citation searches. The articles were included if they performed a systematic
      review of simulation modelling techniques in healthcare. After quality assessment
      of all included articles, data were extracted on numbers of studies included in
      each review, types of applications, techniques used for simulation modelling,
      data sources and simulation software. RESULTS: The search strategy yielded a
      total of 117 potential articles. Following sifting, 37 heterogeneous reviews were
      included. Most reviews achieved moderate quality rating on a modified AMSTAR (A
      Measurement Tool used to Assess systematic Reviews) checklist. All the review
      articles described the types of applications used for simulation modelling; 15
      reviews described techniques used for simulation modelling; three reviews
      described data sources used for simulation modelling; and six reviews described
      software used for simulation modelling. The remaining reviews either did not
      report or did not provide enough detail for the data to be extracted. CONCLUSION:
      Simulation modelling techniques have been used for a wide range of applications
      in healthcare, with a variety of software tools and data sources. The number of
      reviews published in recent years suggest an increased interest in simulation
      modelling in healthcare.

PMID- 28560493
TI  - Three-dimensional analysis of linear vestibulo-ocular reflex in humans during
      eccentric rotation while facing downwards.
AB  - When participants undergo eccentric rotation (ER), i.e., they are rotated while
      displaced from the axis of rotation, they undergo both rotational stimulation and
      linear acceleration, which induces both the angular vestibulo-ocular reflex
      (aVOR) and linear VOR (lVOR). During ER, the lVOR induced by tangential linear
      acceleration enhances the eye movement induced by aVOR. In this study, we
      attempted to measure aVOR and lVOR separately, while participants underwent ER
      while facing the ground in a dark room. We analyzed three-dimensional eye
      movements using a video-oculography system. The participants sat on the ER chair
      either directly above the center of rotation, or with their head out, head in,
      right ear out, or left ear out against the center of rotation. Under these
      conditions, the rotational axis of the eye was perpendicular to the ground for
      rotational stimulation (aVOR), and the axis was parallel to the ground for linear
      stimulation (lVOR). Thus, measured eye movements could be separated into these
      two components. At 0.1 and 0.3 Hz rotation, we observed aVOR but not lVOR.
      However, when the stimulation frequency was above 0.5 Hz, we observed both aVOR
      and lVOR. These data indicate that lVOR is activated when the stimulation
      frequency is above 0.5 Hz. We conclude that it is possible to separately analyze
      aVOR and lVOR, and to simultaneously assess the function of aVOR and lVOR by
      analyzing eye movements induced when participants undergo ER above 0.5 Hz while
      facing the ground.

PMID- 28560494
TI  - Spatial limits of visuotactile interactions in the presence and absence of
      tactile stimulation.
AB  - The presence of a light flash near to the body not only increases the ability to
      detect a weak touch but also increases reports of feeling a weak touch that did
      not occur. The somatic signal detection task (SSDT) provides a behavioural marker
      by which to clarify the spatial extent of such visuotactile interactions in
      peripersonal space. Whilst previous evidence suggests a limit to the spatial
      extent over which visual input can distort the perception of tactile stimulation
      during the rubber hand illusion, the spatial boundaries of light-induced tactile
      sensations are not known. In a repeated measures design, 41 participants
      completed the SSDT with the light positioned 1 cm (near), 17.5 cm (mid) or 40 cm
      (far) from the tactile stimulation. In the far condition, the light did not
      affect hit, or false alarm rates during the SSDT. In the near and mid conditions,
      the light significantly increased hit rates and led to a more liberal response
      criterion, that is, participants reported feeling the touch more often regardless
      of whether or not it actually occurred. Our results demonstrate a spatial
      boundary over which visual input influences veridical and non-veridical touch
      perception during the SSDT, and provide further behavioural evidence to show that
      the boundaries of the receptive fields of visuotactile neurons may be limited to
      reach space.

PMID- 28560496
TI  - Evaluation of ecotoxicological impact of new pyrrole-derived aminophosphonates
      using selected bioassay battery.
AB  - Six new dimethyl N-arylamino(2-pyrrolyl)methylphosphonates 2a-f were synthesized
      by the modified aza-Pudovik reaction. Their ecotoxicological impact using battery
      of bioassay was assessed using Microtox and Ostracodtoxit tests as well as
      phytotoxicity towards two plants, dicotyledonous radish (Raphanus sativus) and
      monocotyledonous oat (Avena sativa) following the OECD 208 Guideline.
      Ecotoxicological properties of compounds 2a-f in aspect of acute and chronic
      toxicity were evaluated using Heterocypris incongruens and Aliivibrio fisheri
      tests. The obtained results showed that tested aminophosphonates 2a-f have
      moderate-to-high phyto- and ecotoxicological impact. They are toxic for both
      plants but more toxic against dicotyledonous. The investigated compounds showed
      important ecotoxicity against Heterocypris incongruens crustaceans and Aliivibrio
      fisheri bacteria. It was found that the substituents of the phenyl ring plays a
      key role in the degree of toxicity. Results showed that investigated compounds
      are ecologically toxic and that any of their application should be implemented
      with care.

PMID- 28560495
TI  - Development of a novel method for the strengthening and toughening of irradiation
      sterilized bone allografts.
AB  - Reconstruction of large skeletal defects is a significant and challenging issue.
      Bone allografts are often used for such reconstructions. However, sterilizing
      bone allografts by using gamma-irradiation, damages collagen and causes the bone
      to become weak, brittle and less fatigue resistant. In a previous study, we
      successfully protected the mechanical properties of human cortical bone by
      conducting a pre-treatment with ribose, a natural and biocompatible agent. This
      study focuses on examining possible mechanisms by which ribose might protect the
      bone. We examined the mechanical properties, crosslinking, connectivity and free
      radical scavenging potentials of the ribose treatment. Human cortical bone beams
      were treated with varying concentration of ribose (0.06-1.2 M) and gamma
      irradiation before testing them in 3-point bending. The connectivity and amounts
      of crosslinking were determined with Hydrothermal-Isometric-Tension testing and
      High-Performance-Liquid-Chromatography, respectively. The free radical content
      was measured using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance. Ribose pre-treatment improved
      the mechanical properties of irradiation sterilized human bone in a pre-treatment
      concentration-dependent manner. The 1.2 M pre-treatment provided >100% of
      ultimate strength of normal controls and protected 76% of the work-to-fracture
      (toughness) lost in the irradiated controls. Similarly, the ribose pre-treatment
      improved the thermo-mechanical properties of irradiation-sterilized human bone
      collagen in a concentration-dependent manner. Greater free radical content and
      pentosidine content were modified in the ribose treated bone. This study shows
      that the mechanical properties of irradiation-sterilized cortical bone allografts
      can be protected by incubating the bone in a ribose solution prior to
      irradiation.

PMID- 28560497
TI  - Fate and transport of furrow-applied granular tefluthrin and seed-coated
      clothianidin insecticides: Comparison of field-scale observations and model
      estimates.
AB  - The transport of agricultural insecticides to water bodies may create risk of
      exposure to non-target organisms. Similarly, widespread use of furrow-applied and
      seed-coated insecticides may increase risk of exposure, yet accessible exposure
      models are not easily adapted for furrow application, and only a few examples of
      model validation of furrow-applied insecticides exist using actual field data.
      The goal of the current project was to apply an exposure model, the Pesticide in
      Water Calculator (PWC), to estimate the concentrations of two in-furrow
      insecticides applied to maize: the granular pyrethroid, tefluthrin, and the seed
      coated neonicotinoid, clothianidin. The concentrations of tefluthrin and
      clothianidin in surface runoff water, sampled from a field in central Illinois
      (USA), were compared to the PWC modeled pesticide concentrations in surface
      runoff. The tefluthrin concentrations were used to optimize the application
      method in the PWC, and the addition of particulate matter and guttation droplets
      improved the models prediction of clothianidin concentrations. Next, the
      tefluthrin and clothianidin concentrations were calculated for a standard farm
      pond using both the optimized application method and the application methods
      provided in PWC. Estimated concentrations in a standard farm pond varied by a
      factor of 100 for tefluthrin and 50 for clothianidin depending on the application
      method used. The addition of guttation droplets and particulate matter to the
      model increased the annual clothianidin concentration in a standard farm pond by
      a factor of 1.5, which suggested that these transport routes should also be
      considered when assessing neonicotinoid exposure.

PMID- 28560498
TI  - Gender-based normative values for pattern-reversal and flash visually evoked
      potentials under binocular and monocular stimulation in healthy adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine gender-based normative values for pattern-reversal (PR) and
      flash (F) visually evoked potentials (VEP) under binocular and monocular
      stimulation in healthy adults. METHODS: Healthy adults (age >=18 years) were
      recruited among university employees and students. Inclusion criteria were
      absence of abnormalities in fundoscopy, tracking ability, stereopsis and
      pupillary reflexes; best-corrected visual acuity <=.00 logMAR; and refractive
      error (spherical equivalent) from -6.00 to +6.00. Exclusion criteria were
      previous intraocular surgery, systemic and/or neurological disorders. Binocular
      and monocular tests were performed according to International Society for
      Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision standards for PRVEP (reversal rate = 1.9 Hz,
      checkerboard stimuli 15' and 60' at 100% contrast) and FVEP (3 cd s/m2, rate = 1
      Hz). VEP parameters of amplitude (uV) and peak times (ms) were measured. Inter
      ocular differences, inter-peak intervals (N135-N75) and binocular summation were
      determined. RESULTS: Fifty-four subjects (28 females; mean age = 40.4 +/- 13.7
      years; median = 40.0 years) were included. Mean P100 latencies for 15' and 60'
      stimuli were, respectively, 94.6 +/- 4.7 ms and 96.1 +/- 4.2 for women. Mean
      values of P100 latency for men were 97.4 +/- 4.9 for 15' and 97.7 +/- 4.2 for 60'
      stimuli. Larger mean P100 for 15' checks was observed in women (12.8 +/- 5.7 uV)
      than men (8.6 +/- 2.5 uV) in PRVEP. Similar results were found for FVEP N2-P2
      amplitudes (mean = 14.6 +/- 4.9 for women and 9.8 +/- 4.0 for men). CONCLUSIONS:
      Gender-based normative values for PRVEP and FVEP were determined, with women
      disclosing higher responses than men for smaller stimuli in the visual pathway.
      The use of gender-based normative values in the analysis of clinical VEP data for
      diagnostic and therapeutic purposes is recommendable. Additional analysis
      including inter-peak intervals and binocular summation ratio might improve the
      diagnostic power of VEP.

PMID- 28560499
TI  - The Impact of Substance Use on Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Among HIV
      Infected Women in the United States.
AB  - Research is scant regarding differential effects of specific types of
      recreational drugs use on antiretroviral therapy adherence among women,
      particularly to single-tablet regimens (STR). This is increasingly important in
      the context of marijuana legalization. We examined the effects of self-reported
      substance use on suboptimal (<95%) adherence in the Women's Interagency HIV
      Study, 2003-2014. Among 1799 HIV-infected women, the most prevalent substance
      used was marijuana. In multivariable Poisson GEE regression, substance use
      overall was significantly associated with suboptimal adherence (adjusted
      prevalence ratio, aPR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.10-1.32), adjusting for STR use, socio
      demographic, behavioral, and clinical factors. Among STR users, compared to no
      drug use, substance use overall remained detrimental to ART adherence (aPR =
      1.61, 95% CI 1.24-2.09); specifically, both marijuana (aPR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.11
      1.97) and other drug use (aPR = 1.87, 95% CI 1.29-2.70) predicted suboptimal
      adherence. These findings highlight the need to intervene with drug-using women
      taking antiretroviral therapy to maintain effective adherence.

PMID- 28560500
TI  - Synergistic induction of apoptosis by combination treatment with mesupron and
      auranofin in human breast cancer cells.
AB  - Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) has been validated as a predictive or
      prognostic biomarker protein, and mesupron is considered the first-in-class
      anticancer agent to inhibit uPA activity in human breast cancer. In the present
      study, we showed that the synergism between mesupron and auranofin, a thioredoxin
      reductase inhibitor, for inducing of apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast cancer
      cells. Our results demonstrated that mesupron and auranofin significantly lead to
      inhibition of the cancer cells proliferation; cell cycle arrest at the G1/S phase
      of the cell cycle, and apoptosis as indicated by caspase 3 activation, poly(ADP
      ribose) polymerase cleavage, and annexin V staining. Isobologram analyses of MCF
      7 cells showed a clear synergism between mesupron and auranofin. This combined
      treatment decreased the levels of mitochondrial anti-apoptotic factors, such as
      BCL-2, BCL-xL, and MCL-1 and caused nuclear translocation of apoptosis-inducing
      factor. Mitochondrial membrane potential (Deltapsi m ) was found to be strongly
      disrupted in combination-treated cells. In addition, combination treatment
      significantly enhanced the overproduction of reactive oxygen species, which was
      rescued by N-acetylcysteine treatment. The combination treatment suppressed
      phosphorylation of Akt, thus contributing to apoptosis. Taken together, our data
      suggest that the use of mesupron in combination with auranofin may be important
      in achieving high anticancer synergy.

PMID- 28560501
TI  - Relationship of bone mineral density with valvular and annular calcification in
      community-dwelling older people: The Cardiovascular Health Study.
AB  - : Associations between bone mineral density and aortic valvular, aortic annular,
      and mitral annular calcification were investigated in a cross-sectional analysis
      of a population-based cohort of 1497 older adults. Although there was no
      association between continuous bone mineral density and outcomes, a significant
      association between osteoporosis and aortic valvular calcification in men was
      found. INTRODUCTION: The process of cardiac calcification bears a resemblance to
      skeletal bone metabolism and its regulation. Experimental studies suggest that
      bone mineral density (BMD) and valvular calcification may be reciprocally
      related, but epidemiologic data are sparse. METHODS: We tested the hypothesis
      that BMD of the total hip and femoral neck measured by dual-energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DXA) is inversely associated with prevalence of three
      echocardiographic measures of cardiac calcification in a cross-sectional analysis
      of 1497 older adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study. The adjusted
      association of BMD with aortic valve calcification (AVC), aortic annular
      calcification (AAC), and mitral annular calcification (MAC) was assessed with
      relative risk (RR) regression. RESULTS: Mean (SD) age was 76.2 (4.8) years; 58%
      were women. Cardiac calcification was highly prevalent in women and men: AVC,
      59.5 and 71.0%; AAC 45.1 and 46.7%; MAC 42.8 and 39.5%, respectively. After
      limited and full adjustment for potential confounders, no statistically
      significant associations were detected between continuous BMD at either site and
      the three measures of calcification. Assessment of WHO BMD categories revealed a
      significant association between osteoporosis at the total hip and AVC in men
      (adjusted RR compared with normal BMD = 1.24 (1.01-1.53)). In graded sensitivity
      analyses, there were apparent inverse associations between femoral neck BMD and
      AVC with stenosis in men, and femoral neck BMD and moderate/severe MAC in women,
      but these were not significant. CONCLUSION: These findings support further
      investigation of the sex-specific relationships between low BMD and cardiac
      calcification, and whether processes linking the two could be targeted for
      therapeutic ends.

PMID- 28560502
TI  - Proximal carious lesions infiltration-a 3-year follow-up study of a randomized
      controlled clinical trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infiltration of carious lesion has been claimed as a promising
      approach for the management of non-cavitated proximal lesions (NCPL). Clinical
      studies have suggested that this approach may reduce NCPL progression in
      individuals whose caries risk was not change over the studied period. OBJECTIVE:
      This study aimed to assess the additional benefit of infiltration of NCPL over a
      3-year period in a group of individuals who received treatment and control of
      carious activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two caries-active subjects that
      possessed at least a pair of NCPL in posterior teeth were selected for this study
      totalizing 36 pairs of lesion. In a split-mouth design, lesions were randomly
      allocated to test (infiltration) or placebo treatments. At follow-up, lesions
      were radiographically analyzed, progression was determined by radiographic pair
      wise comparison and differences in number of progressing lesions between test,
      and placebo-treated surfaces were compared. RESULTS: Seventeen subjects (27 pairs
      of lesions) were followed up. Only four subjects were caries-active at the follow
      up. In the test group, 2/27 (7.4%) lesions and in the placebo group 5/27 (18.5%)
      lesions had progressed. No statistical difference was observed between the
      studied groups (p = 0.453). CONCLUSION: Subjects under treatment focusing on
      controlling caries activity presented low progression rates in both infiltrated
      and non-infiltrated NCPL. As only very few lesions progressed in both groups, no
      significant additional effect could be found. Further studies with larger sample
      sizes are necessary. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Infiltration of NCPL may have limited
      additional effect if other treatments focused on controlling caries activity are
      successful.

PMID- 28560503
TI  - Effect of increasing fruit and vegetable intake by dietary intervention on
      nutritional biomarkers and attitudes to dietary change: a randomised trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: Low fruit and vegetable consumption is linked with an increased risk of
      death from vascular disease and cancer. The benefit of eating fruits and
      vegetables is attributed in part to antioxidants, vitamins and phytochemicals.
      Whether increasing intake impacts on markers of disease remains to be
      established. This study investigates whether increasing daily intake of fruits,
      vegetables and juices from low (approx. 3 portions), to high intakes (approx. 8
      portions) impacts on nutritional and clinical biomarkers. Barriers to achieving
      the recommended fruit and vegetable intakes are also investigated. METHOD: In a
      randomised clinical trial, the participants [19 men and 26 women (39-58 years)]
      with low reported fruit, juice and vegetable intake (<3 portions/day) were
      randomised to consume either their usual diet or a diet supplemented with an
      additional 480 g of fruit and vegetables and fruit juice (300 ml) daily for 12
      weeks. Nutritional biomarkers (vitamin C, carotenoids, B vitamins), antioxidant
      capacity and genomic stability were measured pre-intervention, at 4-, 8- and 12
      weeks throughout the intervention. Samples were also taken post-intervention
      after a 6-week washout period. Glucose, homocysteine, lipids, blood pressure,
      weight and arterial stiffness were also measured. Intake of fruit, fruit juice
      and vegetables was reassessed 12 months after conducting the study and a
      questionnaire was developed to identify barriers to healthy eating. RESULTS:
      Intake increased significantly in the intervention group compared to controls,
      achieving 8.4 portions/day after 12 weeks. Plasma vitamin C (35%), folate (15%)
      and certain carotenoids [alpha-carotene (50%) and beta-carotene (70%) and
      lutein/zeaxanthin (70%)] were significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the
      intervention group. There were no significant changes in antioxidant capacity,
      DNA damage and markers of vascular health. Barriers to achieving recommended
      intakes of fruits and vegetables measured 12 months after the intervention period
      were amount, inconvenience and cost. CONCLUSION: While increasing fruit, juice
      and vegetable consumption increases circulating level of beneficial nutrients in
      healthy subjects, a 12-week intervention was not associated with effects on
      antioxidant status or lymphocyte DNA damage. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was
      registered at Controlled-Trials.com; registration ISRCTN71368072.

PMID- 28560504
TI  - Development of Cordycepin Formulations for Preclinical and Clinical Studies.
AB  - There is extensive literature on in vivo studies with cordycepin, but these
      studies were generally conducted without validation of the various formulations,
      especially in terms of the solubility of cordycepin in the dosing vehicles used.
      Cordycepin is a promising drug candidate in multiple therapeutic areas, and there
      is a growing interest in studies aimed at assessing the pharmacological activity
      of this compound in relevant animal disease models. It is likely that many
      reported in vivo studies used formulations in which cordycepin was incompletely
      soluble. This can potentially confound the interpretation of pharmacokinetics and
      efficacy results. Furthermore, the presence of particles in intravenously
      administered suspension can cause adverse effects and should be avoided. Here, we
      present the results from our development of simple and readily applicable
      formulations of cordycepin based on quantitative solubility assessment.
      Homogeneous solutions of cordycepin were prepared in phosphate-buffered saline
      (PBS) at different pH levels, suitable as formulations for both intravenously and
      oral administration. For the purpose of high-dose oral administration, we also
      developed propylene glycol (PPG)-based vehicles in which cordycepin is completely
      soluble. The stability of the newly developed formulations was also assessed, as
      well as the feasibility of their sterilisation by filtration. Additionally, an
      HPLC-UV method for the determination of cordycepin in the formulations, which may
      also be useful for other purposes, was developed and validated. Our study could
      provide useful information for improvement of future preclinical and clinical
      studies involving cordycepin.

PMID- 28560505
TI  - A Cheap and Convenient Method of Liposome Preparation Using Glass Beads as a
      Source of Shear Force.
AB  - Liposomes, the biocompatible lipid bilayer vesicles, have attracted immense
      attention due to their distinctive features such as efficient vehicle for the
      delivery of a wide range of therapeutic agents, adjustable formulation
      properties, and high drug entrapment efficiency. In this contribution, we present
      a simple method for the preparation of liposomes using glass beads and compared
      the potential of this method with conventional methods of liposome preparation.
      The prepared liposomes were characterized by different analytical techniques
      (HPLC, DLS, TEM, differential scanning calorimetry, and in vitro drug release).
      Our findings revealed that the particle size of liposomes is mainly dependent on
      the size of the glass beads and the glass bead shearing time. An average liposome
      size of 67.7 +/- 25.5 nm was obtained using 2-mm glass beads after 24-h
      incubation at 200 rpm. The liposomes prepared under the optimized conditions
      exhibited a high encapsulation efficiency of 92.1 +/- 1.7% with 31.08% drug
      release after 360 min at 37 degrees C. In conclusion, the developed method is a
      simple and convenient process of liposome preparation of different sizes with
      desirable entrapment efficiency capacity.

PMID- 28560506
TI  - Biomimetic Dissolution: A Tool to Predict Amorphous Solid Dispersion Performance.
AB  - The presented study describes the development of a membrane permeation non-sink
      dissolution method that can provide analysis of complete drug speciation and
      emulate the in vivo performance of poorly water-soluble Biopharmaceutical
      Classification System class II compounds. The designed membrane permeation
      methodology permits evaluation of free/dissolved/unbound drug from amorphous
      solid dispersion formulations with the use of a two-cell apparatus, biorelevant
      dissolution media, and a biomimetic polymer membrane. It offers insight into oral
      drug dissolution, permeation, and absorption. Amorphous solid dispersions of
      felodipine were prepared by hot melt extrusion and spray drying techniques and
      evaluated for in vitro performance. Prior to ranking performance of extruded and
      spray-dried felodipine solid dispersions, optimization of the dissolution
      methodology was performed for parameters such as agitation rate, membrane type,
      and membrane pore size. The particle size and zeta potential were analyzed during
      dissolution experiments to understand drug/polymer speciation and supersaturation
      sustainment of felodipine solid dispersions. Bland-Altman analysis was performed
      to measure the agreement or equivalence between dissolution profiles acquired
      using polymer membranes and porcine intestines and to establish the biomimetic
      nature of the treated polymer membranes. The utility of the membrane permeation
      dissolution methodology is seen during the evaluation of felodipine solid
      dispersions produced by spray drying and hot melt extrusion. The membrane
      permeation dissolution methodology can suggest formulation performance and be
      employed as a screening tool for selection of candidates to move forward to
      pharmacokinetic studies. Furthermore, the presented model is a cost-effective
      technique.

PMID- 28560507
TI  - Comparison of CROES, S.T.O.N.E, and Guy's scoring systems for the prediction of
      stone-free status and complication rates following percutaneous nephrolithotomy
      in patients with chronic kidney disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the accuracy of S.T.O.N.E, Clinical Research
      Office of the Endourological Society (CROES), and Guy's stone score in patients
      with chronic kidney disease (CKD) following percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL).
      METHODS: The charts of patients who had undergone a prone percutaneous
      nephrolithotomy from June 2006 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed.
      Patients accepted as stage 3 and higher according to chronic kidney disease
      epidemiology collaboration formula, were enrolled into the study. Calculation of
      the CROES, S.T.O.N.E, and Guy's scoring system (SS) was made as defined in
      original papers. Patients were categorized into four scores according to CROES,
      into nine scores according to S.T.O.N.E, and into four scores according to Guy's
      SS. RESULTS: A total of 303 patients fulfilled the study inclusion criteria. The
      mean preoperative eGFR and creatinine levels were 47 mL/min and 1.55 mg/dL,
      respectively. In patients who were stone free and those with residual stones, the
      mean CROES SS was 179 and 137 (p < 0.001), the mean S.T.O.N.E score was 8.8 and
      9.9 (p < 0.001), and the mean Guy's SS was 1.8 and 2.4 (p < 0.001), respectively.
      Multivariate regression analysis revealed CROES SS was the only scoring system,
      which had a predictive value for PNL outcome in patients with CKD (p = 0.011) and
      any of three SS were not useful for predicting PNL complications in patients with
      CKD. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the CROES SS was the only independent
      factor in the prediction of PNL outcome in CKD patients. Furthermore, three of
      the NSSs were not useful for predicting PNL complications in patients with CKD.

PMID- 28560508
TI  - Does the Use of a Checklist Help Medical Students in the Detection of
      Abnormalities on a Chest Radiograph?
AB  - The interpretation of chest radiographs is a complex task that is prone to
      diagnostic error, especially for medical students. The aim of this study is to
      investigate the extent to which medical students benefit from the use of a
      checklist regarding the detection of abnormalities on a chest radiograph. We
      developed a checklist based on literature and interviews with experienced thorax
      radiologists. Forty medical students in the clinical phase assessed 18 chest
      radiographs during a computer test, either with (n = 20) or without (n = 20) the
      checklist. We measured performance and asked participants for feedback using a
      survey. Participants that used a checklist detected more abnormalities on images
      with multiple abnormalities (M = 50.1%) than participants that could not use a
      checklist (M = 41.9%), p = 0.04. The post-experimental survey shows that on
      average, participants considered the checklist helpful (M = 3.25 on a five-point
      scale), but also time consuming (M = 3.30 on a five-point scale). In conclusion,
      a checklist can help medical students to detect abnormalities in chest
      radiographs. Moreover, students tend to appreciate the use of a checklist as a
      helpful tool during the interpretation of a chest radiograph. Therefore, a
      checklist is a potentially important tool to improve radiology education in the
      medical curriculum.

PMID- 28560509
TI  - Evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Anomalies with a Handheld
      Smartphone.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of an iPhone
      for evaluation of the coronary arteries on coronary CT angiography (CTA) in
      comparison to a standard clinical workstation. Fifty coronary CTA exams were
      selected to include a range of normal and abnormal cases including both coronary
      artery disease (CAD) of varying severity and coronary artery anomalies. Two
      cardiac radiologists reviewed each exam on a standard clinical workstation
      initially and then on an iPhone 6 after a washout period. Coronary stenosis was
      evaluated on a 4-point scale and presence of coronary anomalies was recorded. Two
      additional cardiac radiologists reviewed all cases in consensus on the standard
      workstation and these results were used as the reference standard. When reader
      results were compared to the reference standard, there was no significant
      difference in agreement for per-vessel stenosis scores using either the iPhone or
      standard clinical workstation. The intraobserver intertechnology agreement on a
      per-vessel basis for obstructive CAD were 97.4% (299/307, kappa = 0.777) and
      97.5% (317/325, kappa = 0.804) for the two readers. All cases of coronary
      anomalies were identified by both readers regardless of the device used. Coronary
      CTA examinations can be interpreted on a smartphone with diagnostic accuracy
      comparable to a standard workstation. 3D visualization app on the iPhone may
      facilitate urgent coronary CTA review when a workstation is not available.

PMID- 28560510
TI  - The role of neurotensin as a novel biomarker in the endoscopic screening of high
      risk population for developing colorectal neoplasia.
AB  - Colorectal cancer screening programs aim at early detection of cancer to reduce
      incidence rates and mortality. The objective of this study is to identify the
      role of neurotensin in the endoscopic screening of high-risk population for
      developing colorectal neoplasia. Blood samples from patients referred for urgent
      colonoscopy to investigate symptoms suspicious of colorectal cancer were
      collected. Blood neurotensin levels were measured using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay. Colonoscopy findings were used as reference for determining
      the diagnostic accuracy of blood neurotensin. The study comprised 26 patients in
      total: 12 healthy and 14 with colon pathology (13 high-grade dysplasia
      adenomatous polyps, 1 adenocarcinoma). There were no statistically significant
      differences in the clinical and biochemical parameters between colon pathology
      and healthy group except neurotensin levels. Pathology in colon was associated
      with 3.7-fold increase in NT levels. In multivariate analysis, patients with
      pathology in colon have increased serum neurotensin levels compared to controls
      adjusted for age, gender, BMI and co-morbidities. The value of 12.93 pg/ml is
      associated with 87.5% sensitivity and 91.7% specificity for discriminating the
      colon pathology from normal colonic epithelium (p = 0.001). Neurotensin plasma
      values differentiate healthy people from patients suffering from colonic
      pathologies such as adenomatous polyps and cancer. The use of neurotensin as a
      potential endoscopic screening tool for identifying high-risk population for
      developing colorectal cancer is promising, but much has to be done before it is
      validated in larger scale prospective studies.

PMID- 28560511
TI  - Caveolin-1 is Markedly Downregulated in Patients with Early-Stage Colorectal
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Caveolin-1 (CAV-1), the main scaffold protein in caveolae, is
      frequently deregulated in human cancer. Of importance, this protein has been
      described to show tumor suppressor or oncogenic properties depending on the cell
      type and the stage of the disease. In fact, its role in colorectal cancer (CRC)
      remains to be fully clarified due to discrepancies in the literature. METHODS: We
      analyzed CAV-1 by western blot in a set of early-stage CRC patients with paired
      tumor tissue and normal colonic mucosa available. CAV-1 mRNA and expression
      levels of miR-124, 133 and 802 were quantified by real-time PCR. RESULTS: We
      found CAV-1 strongly downregulated in 76.2% of tumor samples and associated with
      the subgroup of elderly patients (p = 0.027). We observed by real-time PCR a lack
      of correlation between CAV-1 mRNA and protein levels in some cases with CAV-1
      downregulated by western blot, and miR-124 deregulation was identified as a
      potential contributing alteration to decrease CAV-1 protein expression.
      CONCLUSION: CAV-1 is commonly downregulated in patients with primary CRC, which
      suggests its tumor suppressor role in early stages of this disease. Moreover,
      based on our findings, the previous discrepancies observed in different studies
      to date could be due to a complex posttranscriptional CAV-1 regulation.

PMID- 28560513
TI  - Immunohistochemical Detection of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate and Sphingosine Kinase-1
      in Human Tissue Samples and Cell Lines.
AB  - Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and the enzyme primarily responsible for its
      production, sphingosine kinase-1 (SphK-1), are dysregulated in multiple human
      diseases including cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes, neurological
      diseases, fibrosis, and certain pathologies associated with impaired angiogenesis
      such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Antibody-based techniques to
      identify and localize S1P and SphK-1 within cells and tissue specimens represent
      a powerful tool, not only to understand biological role of these molecules but
      also to validate these unique in-class targets in multiple state diseases.
      Consequently, the potential applications of these molecules for therapy and
      diagnostic purposes are currently under investigation. Here, we describe a new
      improved technique, Agitated Low Temperature Epitope Retrieval (ALTER) for
      staining procedures, to identify expression of S1P and SphK-1 in human frozen
      tissue samples. The challenges encountered in the process of localization in
      tissue samples of lipid molecules such as S1P are discussed.

PMID- 28560512
TI  - Biological Implant for Complex Abdominal Wall Reconstruction: A Single
      Institution Experience and Review of Literature.
AB  - AIM: To present our single institution and surgeon's complex abdominal wall
      reconstructions (CAWR) experience with PermacolTM mesh through a non-randomized
      study. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Data of 51 consecutive patients were prospectively
      collected between 2003 and 2015. Patients had a median of 3 comorbidities (range
      0-10) and 68% were Center for Disease Control class II-IV. The mean previous
      repair was 1.3 (range, 0-12), and 25 (44%) had a mesh in situ. The median defect
      size was 625 cm2. RESULTS: Among the 56 CAWR procedures, in 16 (29%) bowel
      resection/anastomosis was performed. The overall post-operative complication rate
      was 45%, and it was wound-related except from 1 patient dead for myocardial
      infarction. One was lost at follow-up. Five were re-operated for recurrence with
      a second Permacol mesh, leading to 14 (26%) overall recurrences at a mean follow
      up of 44 months (range, 4-123). In 33 (59%) cases, fascial closure was achieved.
      The mesh placement was intraperitoneal in 89%, retro-muscular in 9% and supra
      fascial in 1% of cases. A multivariate analysis showed that predictor risk for
      recurrence was more than 3 previous repairs, wound class III-IV, whereas age,
      type of comorbidities, defect size and fascial closure did not influence the
      recurrence. Median post-operative performance status was 0 (range; 0-3). A
      satisfaction questionnaire was obtained in 43 patients, and 86% of them were
      satisfied with the outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Biological materials have the potential
      to reduce morbidity and improve outcome of definitive repair of CAWR.

PMID- 28560514
TI  - Illumina-Based Sequencing Analysis Directed Selection for Actinobacterial
      Probiotic Candidates for Banana Plants.
AB  - As potential probiotic candidates, plant vertically transmitted actinobacteria
      are beneficial to growth and health of host plants. New methods to isolate the
      actinobacterial taxa with low growth rates should be developed. Based on the
      actinobacterial population information, the probiotic actinobacterial taxa could
      be directly isolated from healthy banana shoot tips. However, actinobacterial
      DNAs with high GC contents could bias estimates of actinobacteria by PCR. In the
      study, two amplicon sequencing strategies were adopted to elucidate the
      endophytic actinobacterial community of banana plants. More than 92.5% bacterial
      OTUs were affiliated with actinobacteria by these two strategies, and total
      14,289 actinobacterial OTUs with above 97% similarity were detected in banana
      shoot tips. Although the libraries generated by the two strategies differed in
      the abundance of some genera, Mycobacterium and Nocardia dominated both libraries
      and most actinobacterial taxa were overlapped. Higher phylogenetic resolution
      actinobacteriome of banana plants was successfully established. Based on the
      endophytic actinobacterial community information, the streptomycetes were
      isolated from shoot tips. Pot experiments illustrated that the strain could
      promote banana plantlet growth and elevate resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f.
      sp. cubense (FOC) under FOC infested soils. The results suggested that the
      selection for probiotic agents based on actinobacteriome analysis is reliable and
      feasible compared with present greenhouse selection.

PMID- 28560515
TI  - Stimulating Effects of Sucrose and Inulin on Growth, Lactate, and Bacteriocin
      Productions by Pediococcus pentosaceus.
AB  - Sucrose and inulin, when combined with glucose, behaved as stimulating agents of
      bacteriocin production by Pediococcus pentosaceus ATCC 43200. When such microbial
      strain was grown in glucose-based Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) medium, without
      any additional supplement, it showed higher maximum cell concentration (2.68 +/-
      1.10 g/L) and longer generation time (2.17 +/- 0.02 h), but lower specific growth
      rate (0.32 +/- 0.01 h-1) than in the same medium supplemented with 1.0% of both
      ingredients (2.53 +/- 1.10 g/L, 1.60 +/- 0.05 h and 0.43 +/- 0.02 h-1,
      respectively). Glucose replacement by sucrose or inulin almost completely
      suppressed growth, hence confirming that it is the preferred carbon source for
      this strain. Qualitatively, similar results were observed for lactate production,
      which was 59.8% higher in glucose-based medium. Enterococcus and Listeria strains
      were sensitive to bacteriocin, whose antimicrobial effect after 8 h increased
      from 120.25 +/- 0.35 to 144.00 +/- 1.41 or 171.00 +/- 1.41 AU/mL when sucrose or
      inulin was added to the glucose-based MRS medium. Sucrose and inulin were also
      able to speed up P. pentosaceus growth in the exponential phase.

PMID- 28560517
TI  - A contemporary analysis of clinical and demographic factors of chronic
      rhinosinusitis patients and their association with disease severity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is highly prevalent, significantly
      decreases quality of life and leads to tremendous health care costs every year.
      No recent study has characterised the prevalence of potentially CRS-modifying
      patient characteristics and simultaneously shown their impact on CRS severity.
      AIMS: We sought to determine the prevalence of potential clinical and demographic
      CRS-modifying characteristics and their associations with CRS symptom severity in
      a large contemporary cohort of CRS patients. METHODS: Retrospective review of CRS
      patients who visited our rhinology clinics between February 2016 and February
      2017 was conducted. CRS symptom severity was measured using the 22-item Sinonasal
      Outcomes Test (SNOT-22) questionnaire, which all patients received. Association
      was sought between SNOT-22 score (as dependent variable) and patients' clinical
      and demographic characteristics using linear regression. RESULTS: Of the 572
      included patients, the mean age was 51.1 years (SD = 15.8) and the mean SNOT-22
      score was 34.3 (SD = 22.6). Prevalence of granulomatous diseases,
      immunodeficiency and cystic fibrosis were each approximately 5%. Prevalence of
      aeroallergen hypersensitivity was 42.3% and prevalence of asthma was 27.8%. More
      severe CRS symptomatology was associated with smoking tobacco (adjusted beta =
      5.47, p = 0.034) and comorbid asthma (adjusted beta = 12.02, p < 0.001), whilst
      less severe symptomatology was associated with older age (adjusted beta = -0.23,
      p = 0.002) and diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (adjusted beta = -11.87, p = 0.009).
      CONCLUSIONS: In a contemporary cohort of CRS patients, prevalence of disease
      modifying comorbidities ranged from approximately 5 to over 40%. Smoking tobacco
      and asthma were associated with more severe CRS symptomatology, whilst older age
      and diagnosis of cystic fibrosis were associated with less severe CRS
      symptomatology.

PMID- 28560516
TI  - Clinical scores for outcomes of rhythm control or arrhythmia progression in
      patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review.
AB  - Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are commonly managed with rhythm control
      strategy, but the natural history of this common arrhythmia leads itself to
      progression from paroxysmal to persistent or permanent AF, and recurrences are
      evident despite rhythm control treatments using cardioversion or catheter
      ablation. Numerous clinical factors have been associated with outcomes of rhythm
      control or arrhythmia progression in patients with AF. The more common factors
      have been used to formulate risk stratification scores, to help predict the
      outcomes of rhythm control treatments or AF progression. This review article
      provides an overview on the published clinical risk scores related to outcomes of
      rhythm control strategy or AF progression.

PMID- 28560518
TI  - miR-210 expression in PBMCs from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and
      rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In hypoxic conditions, miRNA-210 plays an important role in
      regulating the expression of hypoxia-inducing factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and the
      differentiation of T helper 17 (Th17) cells, and this may be involved in the
      development and function of the immune system. AIMS: This study was to
      investigate the miR-210 expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells
      (PBMCs) from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) and its association with the clinical and laboratory features of
      both diseases. METHODS: Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase
      chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect miR-210 expression levels in PBMCs
      from 35 patients with SLE, 38 patients with RA, and 35 healthy controls. RESULTS:
      Compared with the healthy controls, the miR-210 expression levels were
      significantly increased in patients with SLE (P = 0.001) and there was increased
      significantly expression of miR-210 in SLE with pleuritis (Z = -2.345, P = 0.019)
      and anti-SSB/La-positive group (Z = -2.076, P = 0.038). However, we have not
      found the significant correlation between the miR-210 levels and the Systemic
      Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) score (r s = 0.091, P =
      0.602). Although, no significant difference between miR-210 levels in RA patients
      and those in healthy controls was found (Z = -1.226, P = 0. 220). There was a
      significant decreased expression of miR-210 in active RA patients than inactive
      RA patients (Z = -4.011, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The dysregulation of miR-210
      levels in SLE and RA patients suggests that miR-210 might play an important role
      in the pathogenesis of these diseases.

PMID- 28560519
TI  - Molecular hydrogen affects body composition, metabolic profiles, and
      mitochondrial function in middle-aged overweight women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Molecular hydrogen (H2) effectively treats obesity-related disorders
      in animal models, yet no studies have investigated the effectiveness and safety
      of H2 for improving biomarkers of obesity in humans. AIM: In this double blind,
      placebo-controlled, crossover pilot trial, we evaluated the effects of H2
      intervention on body composition, hormonal status, and mitochondrial function in
      ten (n = 10) middle-aged overweight women. METHODS: Volunteers received either
      hydrogen-generating minerals (supplying ~6 ppm of H2 per day) or placebo by oral
      administration of caplets for 4 weeks. The primary end-point of treatment
      efficacy was the change in the body fat percentage from baseline to 4 weeks. In
      addition, assessment of other body composition indices, screening laboratory
      studies, and evaluation of side effects were performed before and at follow-up.
      Clinical trial registration www.clinicaltrials.gov , ID number NCT02832219.
      RESULTS: No significant differences were observed between treatment groups for
      changes in weight, body mass index, and body circumferences at 4-week follow-up
      (P > 0.05). H2 treatment significantly reduced body fat percentage (3.2 vs. 0.9%,
      P = 0.05) and arm fat index (9.7 vs. 6.0%, P = 0.01) compared to placebo
      administration, respectively. This was accompanied by a significant drop in serum
      triglycerides after H2 intervention comparing to placebo (21.3 vs. 6.5%; P =
      0.04), while other blood lipids remained stable during the study (P > 0.05).
      Fasting serum insulin levels dropped by 5.4% after H2 administration, while
      placebo intervention augmented insulin response by 29.3% (P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      It appears that orally administered H2 as a blend of hydrogen-generating minerals
      might be a beneficial agent in the management of body composition and insulin
      resistance in obesity.

PMID- 28560520
TI  - What is the evidence for the performance of generic preference-based measures? A
      systematic overview of reviews.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the evidence on the validity and responsiveness of five
      commonly used preference-based instruments, the EQ-5D, SF-6D, HUI3, 15D and AQoL,
      by undertaking a review of reviews. METHODS: Four databases were investigated
      using a strategy refined through a highly sensitive filter for systematic
      reviews. References were screened and a search for grey literature was performed.
      Identified citations were scrutinized against pre-defined eligibility criteria
      and data were extracted using a customized extraction template. Evidence on known
      group validity, convergent validity and responsiveness was extracted and reviewed
      by narrative synthesis. Quality of the included reviews was assessed using a
      modified version of the AMSTAR checklist. RESULTS: Thirty reviews were included,
      sixteen of which were of excellent or good quality. The body of evidence,
      covering more than 180 studies, was heavily skewed towards EQ-5D, with
      significantly fewer studies investigating HUI3 and SF-6D, and very few the 15D
      and AQoL. There was also lack of head-to-head comparisons between GPBMs and the
      tests reported by the reviews were often weak. Where there was evidence, EQ-5D,
      SF-6D, HUI3, 15D and AQoL seemed generally valid and responsive instruments,
      although not for all conditions. Evidence was not consistently reported across
      reviews. CONCLUSIONS: Although generally valid, EQ-5D, SF-6D and HUI3 suffer from
      some problems and perform inconsistently in some populations. The lack of head-to
      head comparisons and the poor reporting impedes the comparative assessment of the
      performance of GPBMs. This highlights the need for large comparative studies
      designed to test instruments' performance.

PMID- 28560521
TI  - Primary care supply and quality of care in England.
AB  - We investigated the relationship between primary care supply and quality of care
      in England. We analysed 35 process measures of quality of care covering 13
      medical conditions using English Longitudinal Study of Aging data linked to area
      of residence indicators. Greater GP density had a statistically significant and
      positive association with quality of care, and distance to GP practice had a
      statistically significant and negative association. The effects were concentrated
      in indicators of care related to cardiovascular diseases and arthritis, and on
      specific indicators for diabetes, incontinence and hearing problems. The results
      suggest that better primary care supply can improve quality of care.

PMID- 28560522
TI  - 2-Hydroxy-4-methoxy benzoic acid attenuates the carbon tetra chloride-induced
      hepatotoxicity and its lipid abnormalities in rats via anti-inflammatory and
      antioxidant mechanism.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Liver inflammation stimulates various inflammatory cytokines
      and initiates injury through oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to
      curtaile the liver injury through natural principles such as 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy
      benzoic acid (HMBA). METHODS: The current study examines the hepatoprotective and
      lipid lowering effect of HMBA against carbon tetra chloride (CCl4)-mediated liver
      toxicity in male Wistar rats. RESULTS: The hepatoprotective effects of HMBA
      against CCl4-induced liver damage, were evident from low serum transaminases
      activities, reduced hepatic lipid peroxidation and collagen content, restoration
      of total glutathione, and recouping of the inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF
      alpha, IL-1beta, IL-10, and IL-6 levels. Further it was found that the treatment
      of HMBA, significantly lowered (P<0.01) the levels of total cholesterol,
      triglycerides, free fatty acids and phospholipids in serum and liver. To
      investigate the mechanism behind the hepatoprotective and lipid lowering effect,
      the activities of heme oxygenase (HO1), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were measured
      and expression levels were quantified through western blot following HMBA
      administration. The results showed that HMBA administration significantly
      decreased the activity of HO1 (P<0.001), and increased the activity of MPO
      (P<0.001); further similar finding was observed in western analysis. The
      hepatoprotective, lipid lowering and shifting key defensive enzyme activities are
      similar to that of standard drug such as N-acetylcysteine. CONCLUSION: HMBA is
      competent of shielding liver from CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity, and this is
      associated with the lipid lowering, inflammatory cytokine restoration and
      induction of defensive enzyme activities.

PMID- 28560523
TI  - Five-Year Outcomes: Laparoscopic Greater Curvature Plication for Treatment of
      Morbid Obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic greater curvature plication (LGCP) is a newer
      metabolic/bariatric surgical procedure that requires no resection, bypass, or
      implantable device. We report outcomes in a cohort of LGCP patients at 5-year
      follow-up. METHODS: Body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) evolution, excess weight loss
      (%EWL), excess BMI loss (%EBMIL), and total weight loss (%TWL) were recorded.
      Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess BMI change over
      5 years. Two-step cluster analysis was used to profile LGCP patients according to
      significant characteristics relative to successful 5-year weight loss. RESULTS:
      Of patients entering the study between 2010 and 2011 with complete weight data
      through 5-year follow-up (86.9%, 212/244), mean age was 45.8 +/- 10.9 years; mean
      baseline BMI, 41.4 +/- 5.5 (81.6% women); 58 patients (27.4%) had type 2
      diabetes. Mean operative time was 69.0 min; mean hospitalization, 38 h (24-72).
      ANOVA indicated a significant BMI reduction out to 2 years (p < 0.001), a plateau
      at 3 and 4 years, and a moderate but significant BMI increase at 5 years (p <
      0.01). EBMIL at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years was as follows: 50.7 +/- 9.1%, 61.5 +/-
      8.1%, 60.2 +/- 7.0%, 58.5 +/- 7.0%, and 56.8 +/- 6.3%. At 5 years, 79.2%
      (168/212) of patients were successful; 20.8% (44/212) experienced a suboptimal
      weight outcome; mean weight regain, 9.2%. Cluster analysis identified four
      distinct LGCP patient profiles. Diabetes improvement rate was 65.5%. There were
      12 reoperations (4.9%): 4 emergency (1.6%) and 8 (3.3%) elective. There was no
      mortality. CONCLUSIONS: At 5-year follow-up, LGCP proved to be safe and
      effective, with 56.8% EBMIL and a low rate of complications.

PMID- 28560525
TI  - How Do I Do a Laparoscopic One-Anastomosis Gastric Bypass in a Patient with Situs
      Inversus Totalis.

PMID- 28560524
TI  - Pharmacokinetics in Morbid Obesity: Influence of Two Bariatric Surgery Techniques
      on Paracetamol and Caffeine Metabolism.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to study the impact of the two most common
      bariatric surgery techniques on paracetamol pharmacokinetics (a marker of gastric
      emptying) and caffeine metabolism (a marker of liver function). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In the present prospective study, we studied 24 morbid obese patients
      before, at 4 weeks, and 6 months after having undergone sleeve gastrectomy (n =
      10) or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (n = 14). For comparative purposes, 28 healthy
      controls (14 normal weights and 14 overweights) were also included in the study.
      RESULTS: Paracetamol pharmacokinetics was altered in the obese participants
      leading to lower bioavailability. Bariatric surgery resulted in faster absorption
      and normalized pharmacokinetic parameters, prompting an increase in paracetamol
      bioavailability. No differences were found between surgical procedures. In the
      case of caffeine, the ratio paraxanthine/caffeine did not differ between morbid
      obese and healthy individuals. This ratio remained unmodified after surgery,
      indicating that the liver function (assessed by cytochrome P450 1A2 activity) was
      unaffected by obesity or bariatric surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Paracetamol
      pharmacokinetics and caffeine plasma levels are altered in severely obese
      patients. The two studied bariatric surgical techniques normalize paracetamol
      oral bioavailability without impairing the liver function (measured by cytochrome
      P450 1A2 activity).

PMID- 28560526
TI  - Resident Training in Bariatric Surgery-A National Survey in the Netherlands.
AB  - PURPOSE: Surgical procedures for morbid obesity, including laparoscopic Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass (LRYGB), are considered standardized laparoscopic procedures. Our
      goal was to determine how bariatric surgery is trained in the Netherlands.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Questionnaires were sent to lead surgeons from all 19
      bariatric centers in the Netherlands. At least two residents or fellows were
      surveyed for each center. Dutch residents are required to collect at least 20
      electronic Objective Standard Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) observations
      per year, which include the level of supervision needed for specific procedures.
      Centers without resident accreditation were excluded. RESULTS: All 19 surgeons
      responded (100%). Answers from respondents who worked at teaching hospitals with
      residency accreditation (12/19, 63%) were analyzed. The average number of trained
      residents or fellows was 14 (range 3-33). Preferred procedures were LRYGB (n =
      10), laparoscopic gastric sleeve (LGS) resection (n = 1), or no preference (n =
      1). Three groups could be discerned for the order in which procedural steps were
      trained: unstructured, in order of increasing difficulty, or in order of
      chronology. Questionnaire response was 79% (19/24) for residents and 73% (8/11)
      for fellows. On average, residents started training in bariatric surgery in
      postgraduate year (PGY) 4 (range 0-5). The median number of bariatric procedures
      performed was 40 for residents (range 0-148) and 220 during fellowships (range 5
      306). CONCLUSIONS: Training in bariatric surgery differs considerably among
      centers. A structured program incorporating background knowledge, step-wise
      technical skills training, and life-long learning should enhance efficient
      training in bariatric teaching centers without affecting quality or patient
      safety.

PMID- 28560528
TI  - Success of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy by Single Balloon Enteroscopy in
      Patients Who Have Undergone Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass.
AB  - Data is limited regarding the success and safety of percutaneous endoscopic
      gastrostomy (PEG) placements by single balloon enteroscopy (SBE) in patients with
      Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RNY-GB) anatomy. We report on 23 cases of PEG
      placements by SBE with overall technical success of reaching the excluded stomach
      70% and with PEG placement success rate of 69%. No intra-procedural adverse
      events occurred. This technique seems safe when feasible for PEG placement in
      patients with RNY-GB anatomy.

PMID- 28560527
TI  - Outcomes of Partnered Individuals Undergoing Bariatric Surgery Together: A Single
      Institution Case Series.
AB  - There exists marked variation in weight loss among the 200,000 annual bariatric
      patients, and many of these patients struggle with weight regain. Several studies
      have suggested that positive social support may significantly impact bariatric
      surgery outcomes, leading to more excess weight loss and maintenance of this
      weight loss through appropriate lifestyle changes. We sought to understand this
      by assessing clinical and behavioral outcomes among married couples whereby both
      spouses underwent bariatric surgery at our institution. In our case series, we
      found evidence that married couples meet or exceed postoperative weight loss
      milestones at 12, 18, and 24 months and did not show signs of weight regain as a
      group at 18 or 24 months. Among partners who underwent the same clinical pathway
      at our single institution, women tended to lose more weight than men at 12
      months. Additionally, while there was significant variation in postoperative
      follow-up among patients, we found that partners within couples typically
      exhibited the same behavior with respect to postoperative visits when they had
      their surgeries within a year of each other. This case series suggests that
      partnered patients undergoing bariatric surgery can meet or exceed weight loss
      outcomes and may practice similar follow-up adherence.

PMID- 28560529
TI  - Desire for Core Tastes Decreases After Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Single-Center
      Longitudinal Observational Study with 6-Month Follow-up.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) modifies gastrointestinal
      substances that control hunger and satiation via the brain-gut axis. A potential
      mechanism implicated in weight loss is the shift in food preferences. Our aim was
      to assess changes in taste preferences and their relationship to weight loss.
      METHODS: This is a prospective longitudinal observational study in 100
      consecutive LSG patients. Questionnaire with photographs of tastes was
      administered before surgery, at postoperative (PO) day 6 and PO month 6.
      Participants asked to rate each item in terms of desire to consume on a 5-point
      Likert scale. RESULTS: Preoperative demographics are as follows: 77 women/23 men,
      mean age 40.8 +/- 12 years, and mean BMI 42.46 +/- 6.7 kg/m2. Mean 6-month PO %
      total body weight loss (%TBWL): 24 +/- 6.2%. Preferences for bitter, salty,
      umami, fatty, sour, spicy, and sweet decreased significantly from baseline to PO
      day 6 (p < 0.001) and to PO month 6 (p < 0.002). Preferences of water (4.22) did
      not change significantly; red wine (1.8) and cigarettes (1.86) decreased
      significantly at PO day-6, but returned to baseline range at PO month 6. The
      highest changes of preferences in 6 months were observed for fatty (delta = 1.58)
      and sweet (delta = 0.95), (p < 0.002). Preference for salty at 6 months
      negatively correlated with %TBWL (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: LSG seems to be
      associated with a rapid and sustained decrease in preferences for all core
      tastes, detectable already at PO day 6. Preferences for sweet and fatty food
      undergo the highest decline, whereas preferences of water, red wine, and
      cigarette remain unchanged. The decrease in salty preference seems to correlate
      with 6-month %TBWL. Further studies are needed on the long-term impact of taste
      changes after LSG.

PMID- 28560530
TI  - Reliability and Validity of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Scoring System for
      the Upper Extremity in Japanese Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) scoring system developed in
      1993 is a widely used disease-specific evaluation tool for assessment of physical
      function in patients with musculoskeletal tumors; however, only a few studies
      have confirmed its reliability and validity. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: The aim of this
      study was to validate the MSTS scoring system for the upper extremity (MSTS-UE)
      in Japanese patients with musculoskeletal tumors for use by others in research.
      Does the MSTS-UE have: (1) sufficient reliability and internal consistency; (2)
      adequate construct validity; and (3) reasonable criterion validity in comparison
      to the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score (TESS) or SF-36? METHODS: Reliability was
      performed using test-retest analysis, and internal consistency was evaluated with
      Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Construct validity was evaluated using a scree plot
      to confirm the construct number and the Akaike information criterion network.
      Criterion validity was evaluated by comparing the MSTS-UE with the TESS and SF
      36. RESULTS: The test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficient
      (0.95; 95% CI, 0.91-0.97) was excellent, and internal consistency with Cronbach's
      alpha (0.7; 95% CI, 0.53-0.81) was acceptable. There were no ceiling and floor
      effects. The Akaike Information Criterion network showed that lifting ability,
      pain, and dexterity played central roles among the components. The MSTS-UE showed
      substantial correlation with the TESS scoring scale (r = 0.75; p < 0.001) and
      fair correlation with the SF-36 physical component summary (r = 0.37; p = 0.007).
      Although the MSTS-UE showed slight correlation with the SF-36 mental component
      summary, the emotional acceptance component of the MSTS-UE showed fair
      correlation (r = 0.29; p = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: We can conclude that the MSTS is
      not an adequate measure of general health-related quality of life; however, this
      system was designed mainly to be a simple measure of function in a single
      extremity. To evaluate the mental state of patients with musculoskeletal tumors
      in the upper extremity, further study is needed.

PMID- 28560531
TI  - Not the Last Word: Rethinking the Resident Research Requirement.

PMID- 28560534
TI  - Exercise Testing and Stress Imaging in Aortic Valve Disease.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Aortic valve disease and especially aortic stenosis (AS) is a
      growing cardiac pathology. Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is still the only
      treatment with proven benefit on survival in symptomatic patients and in patients
      with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <50%. The benefit of
      prophylactic AVR in asymptomatic patients is still unproven. Once symptoms
      develop, the prognosis worsens. Exercise testing has emerged as a tool to unmask
      the "pseudo-asymptomatic" patients with AS (those without self-reporting
      symptoms), to link "exercise induced dyspnea" more confidently and more
      objectively to aortic valve disease and to allow for a safe "watchful waiting
      strategy" in "pseudo-symptomatic" patients (those with dyspnea unrelated to
      aortic valve disease). In cases in which exercise testing is unable to link
      dyspnea to aortic valve disease, exercise stress echocardiography and
      cardiopulmonary exercise testing may be helpful. Whatever the results of exercise
      testing with regard to symptom development, an increase in mean aortic valve
      pressure gradient >18-20 mmHg was associated with an increased risk of cardiac
      related events in severe AS patients (class IIb indication for AVR in the ESC
      guidelines). The decrease in LVEF during exercise as well as the development of
      exercise induced pulmonary hypertension, as revealed by exercise stress
      echocardiography, may be also useful in the risk stratification of these
      asymptomatic patients with severe AS. Data on the role of exercise
      echocardiography in asymptomatic severe aortic regurgitation patients is still
      scarce and further studies are needed. It seems that an exercise induced decrease
      in LVEF by 5% may be a better predictor of LV systolic dysfunction after AVR in
      asymptomatic patients or in patients with minimal symptoms. Exercise testing and
      exercise echocardiography are safe in the asymptomatic patients with aortic
      disease, provide useful clinical information that may help in risk assessment of
      these complicated patients and their use should be encouraged especially in heart
      valve clinics.

PMID- 28560532
TI  - Can A Multivariate Model for Survival Estimation in Skeletal Metastases (PATHFx)
      Be Externally Validated Using Japanese Patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Objective survival estimates are important when treating or studying
      outcomes in patients with skeletal metastases. One decision-support tool, PATHFx
      (www.pathfx.org) is designed to predict each patient's postsurgical survival
      trajectory at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months in patients undergoing stabilization for
      skeletal metastases. PATHFx has been externally validated in various western
      centers, but it is unknown whether it may be useful in Asian patient populations.
      QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We asked (1) whether the PATHFx models are as predictive in
      Japanese patients by estimating the area under the receiver operator
      characteristic curve (AUC); we considered an AUC greater than 0.7 as an adequate
      predictive value. We also (2) performed decision curve analysis at various times
      to determine whether and how PATHFx should be used clinically at those times.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A Bayesian model is a statistical method to explore
      conditional, probabilistic relationships between variables to estimate the
      likelihood of an outcome using observed data. We applied the PATHFx Bayesian
      models to an independent dataset containing the records of patients who underwent
      skeletal stabilization for metastatic bone disease at one of five Japanese
      referral centers and had a followup longer than 12 months for survivors. Of 270
      patients in the database, we excluded nine patients from analysis because their
      followup was less than 12 months, and finally we included 261 patients in the
      analysis. Data examined included age at the time of surgery, sex, indication for
      surgery (impending fracture or completed pathologic fracture), number of bone
      metastases (solitary or multiple), presence or absence of visceral or lymph node
      metastases, preoperative hemoglobin concentration, absolute lymphocyte count, and
      the primary oncologic diagnosis. We performed receiver operating characteristic
      curve analysis and estimated the AUC as a measure of discriminatory ability.
      Decision curve analysis was performed to determine if and how the models should
      be used in the clinical setting. RESULTS: The AUCs for the 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12
      month models were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.63-0.86), 0.80 (95% CI, 0.72-0.87), 0.83 (95%
      CI, 0.77-0.89), and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.75-0.86), respectively. Decision analysis
      indicated that the models conferred a positive net benefit (above the lines
      assuming none or all survive at each time) although the CIs of the AUC for 1
      month were wide, suggesting that this dataset could not adequately predict 1
      month survival. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show PATHFx is suitable for clinical
      use in Japan and may be used to guide surgical decision making or as a risk
      stratification method in support of clinical trials involving Japanese patients
      at 3, 6, and 12 months. More studies will be necessary to confirm the validity of
      the 1-month survival predictions of this mode. Other patient populations will
      need to be studied to confirm its usefulness in other non-Western and non
      Japanese populations. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, prognostic study.

PMID- 28560533
TI  - Sociomotor action control.
AB  - Our actions affect the behavior of other people in predictable ways. In the
      present article, we describe a theoretical framework for action control in social
      contexts that we call sociomotor action control. This framework addresses how
      human agents plan and initiate movements that trigger responses from other
      people, and we propose that humans represent and control such actions literally
      in terms of the body movements they consistently evoke from observers. We review
      evidence for this approach and discuss commonalities and differences to related
      fields such as joint action, intention understanding, imitation, and
      interpersonal power. The sociomotor framework highlights a range of open
      questions pertaining to how representations of other persons' actions are linked
      to one's own motor activity, how specifically they contribute to action
      initiation, and how they affect the way we perceive the actions of others.

PMID- 28560535
TI  - The hidden epidemic of schistosomiasis in recent African immigrants and asylum
      seekers to Italy.
AB  - The prevalence of schistosomiasis among recent refugees from sub-Saharan Africa
      in Italy is unknown. This is a retrospective review of African immigrants
      screened at Centre for Tropical Diseases of Negrar from March 2014 to February
      2016. Of the 373 immigrants tested, 34% were positive at least at one
      schistosomiasis test. The proportion of positive ELISA serology was 103/373
      (27.6%). At microscopy, infected subjects were 65/373 (17.4%), (51% Schistosoma
      haematobium, 38% Schistosoma mansoni, 11% both). CCA antigen for S. mansoni was
      positive in 47/373 individuals (12.6%). We found a particularly high positivity
      rate in subjects from Mali (72.1%) and Ivory Coast (48%). This "hidden epidemic"
      of schistosomiasis cannot be longer neglected, considering the risk of severe
      complications, and the effective and inexpensive treatment available.

PMID- 28560536
TI  - Prostate cancer incidence as an iceberg.

PMID- 28560537
TI  - Association between childhood adversity and a diagnosis of personality disorder
      in young adulthood: a cohort study of 107,287 individuals in Stockholm County.
AB  - Childhood adversity (CA) may increase the risk for later developing of
      personality disorder (PD). However, less is known about the association between
      cumulative CA and PD, and the role of childhood psychopathology and school
      performance. The current study examined the relationship between a range of CAs
      and a diagnosis of PD in young adulthood, and the roles of childhood
      psychopathology and school performance in this relationship. All individuals born
      in Stockholm County 1987-1991 (n = 107,287) constituted our cohort. Seven CAs
      were measured between birth and age 14: familial death, parental criminality,
      parental substance abuse and psychiatric morbidity, parental separation and/or
      single-parent household, household public assistance and residential instability.
      Individuals were followed from their 18th birthday until they were diagnosed with
      PD or until end of follow-up (December 31st 2011). Adjusted estimates of risk of
      PD were calculated as hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
      Associations were observed between cumulative CA and PD. During the follow-up 770
      individuals (0.7%) were diagnosed with PD. Individuals exposed to 3+ CAs had the
      highest risks of being diagnosed with PD (HR 3.0, 95% CI 2.4-3.7). Childhood
      psychopathology and low school grades further increased the risk of PD among
      individuals exposed to CA. Cumulative CA is strongly associated with a diagnosis
      of PD in young adulthood. Our findings indicate that special attention should be
      given in schools and health services to children exposed to adversities to
      prevent decline in school performance, and to detect vulnerable individuals that
      may be on negative life-course trajectories.

PMID- 28560538
TI  - Coenzyme Q10 and niacin mitigate streptozotocin- induced diabetic encephalopathy
      in a rat model.
AB  - Diabetic encephalopathy is an important complication of diabetes characterized by
      cognitive impairment, neurochemical and structural abnormalities. This study
      aimed to investigate the effect of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and niacin as well as
      their combination in the treatment of encephalopathy associated with
      streptozotocin (STZ)- induced diabetes in rats. Glibenclamide (reference diabetic
      drug) and donepezil hydrochloride (acetylcholinesterase inhibitor) were also
      evaluated. Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60
      mg/kg). One month after STZ injection, diabetic rats were treated with the
      aforementioned drugs for two weeks. The evaluation was done through measuring
      glucose level, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), interleukin 6 (IL6), DNA
      degradation as well as serotonin and noradrenaline as neurotransmitters. The
      present data illustrated that combining CoQ10 and niacin exhibiting the most
      potent effect in improving the measured parameters and ameliorating some of
      diabetes complications.

PMID- 28560539
TI  - Symptoms of central sensitization and comorbidity for juvenile fibromyalgia in
      childhood migraine: an observational study in a tertiary headache center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Central sensitization is an important epiphenomenon of the adult
      migraine, clinically expressed by allodynia, pericranial tenderness and
      comorbidity for fibromyalgia in a relevant number of patients. This study aimed
      to evaluate the frequency and the clinical characteristics of allodynia,
      pericranial tenderness, and comorbidity for Juvenile Fibromialgia (JFM) in a
      cohort of migraine children selected in a tertiary headache center. METHODS: This
      was an observational cross-sectional study on 8-15 years old migraine patients.
      Allodynia was assessed by a questionnaire. Pericranial tenderness and comorbidity
      for JFM as well as their possible association with poor quality of life and
      migraine related disability, and with other clinical symptoms as anxiety,
      depression, sleep disorders and pain catastrophizing, were also evaluated.
      RESULTS: One hundred and fifty one patients were selected, including chronic
      migraine (n degrees 47), migraine without aura (n degrees  92) and migraine with
      aura (n degrees  12) sufferers. Allodynia was reported in the 96,6% and
      pericranial tenderness was observed in the 68.8% of patients. Pericranial
      tenderness was more severe in patients with more frequent migraine and shorter
      sleep duration. Allodynia seemed associated with anxiety, pain catastrophizing
      and high disability scores. Comorbidity for JFM was present in the 0.03%
      ofpatients. These children presented with a severe depression and a significant
      reduction of quality of life as compared to the other patients. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study outlined a relevant presence of symptoms of central sensitization among
      children with migraine. Severe allodynia and comorbidity for JFM seemed to cause
      a general decline of quality of life, which would suggest the opportunity of a
      routine assessment of these clinical features.

PMID- 28560540
TI  - Post-traumatic headache: the use of the sport concussion assessment tool (SCAT-3)
      as a predictor of post-concussion recovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given that post-traumatic headache is one of the most prevalent and
      long-lasting post-concussion sequelae, causes significant morbidity, and might be
      associated with slower neurocognitive recovery, we sought to evaluate the use of
      concussion screening scores in a concussion clinic population to assess for post
      traumatic headache. METHODS: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study of 254
      concussion patients from the New York University (NYU) Concussion Registry. Data
      on the headache characteristics, concussion mechanism, concussion screening
      scores were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: 72% of the patients had post
      traumatic headache. About half (56.3%) were women. The mean age was 35 (SD 16.2).
      90 (35%) patients suffered from sport-related concussions (SRC). Daily post
      traumatic headache patients had higher Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT)-3
      symptom severity scores than the non-daily post-traumatic headache and the
      headache-free patients (50.2 [SD 28.2] vs. 33.1 [SD 27.5] vs. 21.6 SD23], p <
      0.001). Patients with SRC had lower headache intensity (4.47 [SD 2.5] vs. 6.24
      [SD 2.28], p < 0.001) and SCAT symptom severity scores (33.9 [SD 27.4] vs. 51.4
      [SD 27.7], p < 0.001) than the other patients, but there were no differences in
      post-traumatic headache prevalence, frequency, and Standardized Assessment of
      Concussion (SAC) scores. CONCLUSION: The presence and frequency of post-traumatic
      headache are associated with the SCAT-3 symptom severity score, which is the most
      important predictor for post-concussion recovery. The SCAT-3 symptom severity
      score might be a useful tool to help characterize patients' post-traumatic
      headache.

PMID- 28560541
TI  - Differential inhibitory response to telcagepant on alphaCGRP induced
      vasorelaxation and intracellular Ca2+ levels in the perfused and non-perfused
      isolated rat middle cerebral artery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is one of the most potent
      endogenous vasodilators identified to date. The present study elucidates the
      differential interaction of CGRP, its receptor and the effect of the CGRP
      receptor antagonist telcagepant on intracellular Ca2+ -levels and tension in rat
      middle cerebral arteries (MCA) by pressurized arteriography, FURA-2/wire
      myography and immunohistochemistry. METHODS: A pressurized arteriograph system
      was used to evaluate changes in MCA tension when subjected to CGRP and/or
      telcagepant. Intracellular calcium levels were evaluated using a FURA-2/wire
      myograph system. Localization of the CGRP-receptor components was verified using
      immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Abluminal but not luminal alphaCGRP (10-12-10-6 M)
      caused concentration-dependent vasorelaxation in rat MCA. Luminal telcagepant (10
      6 M) failed to inhibit this relaxation, while abluminal telcagepant inhibited the
      relaxation (10-6 M). Using the FURA-2 method in combination with wire myography
      we observed that alphaCGRP reduced intracellular calcium levels and in parallel
      the vascular tone. Telcagepant (10-6 M) inhibited both vasorelaxation and drop in
      intracellular calcium levels. Both functional components of the CGRP receptor,
      CLR (calcitonin receptor-like receptor) and RAMP1 (receptor activity modifying
      peptide 1) were found in the smooth muscle cells but not in the endothelial cells
      of the cerebral vasculature. CONCLUSIONS: This study thus demonstrates the
      relaxant effect of alphaCGRP on rat MCA. The vasorelaxation is associated with a
      simultaneous decrease in intracellular calcium levels. Telcagepant reduced
      relaxation and thwarted the reduction in intracellular calcium levels localized
      in the vascular smooth muscle cells. In addition, telcagepant may act as a non
      competitive antagonist at concentrations greater than 10-8 M.

PMID- 28560542
TI  - The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in
      children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is widely recognised that there are associations between headache,
      psychiatric comorbidity and attachment insecurity in both adults and children.
      The aims of this study were: 1) to compare perceived attachment security and
      anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine without aura and a healthy
      control group; 2) to test whether the child's perceived security of attachment to
      the mother and the father mediated the association between migraine and anxiety.
      METHODS: One hundred children and adolescents with Migraine without Aura were
      compared with a control group of 100 children without headache. The Security
      Scale (measures perceived security of attachments) and the Self-Administered
      Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of anxiety symptoms,
      were administered to all participants. RESULTS: The clinical group had lower
      attachment security than the control group and higher scores on all anxiety
      scales. Anxiety was negatively correlated with attachment. Children's attachment
      to their mother mediated the increase in global anxiety in the clinical group.
      Insecure paternal attachment was associated with greater insecurity in maternal
      attachment, suggesting that there is a complex pathway from migraine to anxiety
      symptoms mediated by perceived insecurity of paternal attachment and hence also
      by perceived insecurity of maternal attachment. CONCLUSION: These results suggest
      that insecure parental attachment may exacerbate anxiety in children and
      adolescents with migraine and point to the importance of multimodal
      interventions, perhaps taking account of family relationships, for children and
      adolescents with migraine.

PMID- 28560543
TI  - Bone and soft tissue histology: a new approach to determine characteristics of
      offending instrument in sharp force injuries.
AB  - This paper describes a new approach to determine characteristics of the implement
      used to inflict trauma which involves the histological analysis of exogenous
      particles. Based on Locard's principle "every contact leaves a trace," we decided
      to assess whether histological examination of bone and soft tissue around a
      penetrating injury (sharp force trauma) could provide evidence of the offending
      implement. Case reports and experimental studies have demonstrated the potential
      of cut mark features in bone to identify the causative implement and potentially
      assist in identifying the perpetrator. Scanning electron microscopy in
      combination with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDS) have previously
      been reported to identify exogenous particles from various implements. In medical
      research, histological techniques are used to study the impact of foreign
      particles in tissues originating from implants. However, the routine use of
      histology in forensic medicine focuses on understanding type and timing of
      injuries. Based on three forensic cases, the results presented in this paper
      demonstrate that histology offers a cost-efficient and reliable means to detect
      foreign particles related to offending implement and/or to the environment where
      the victim was located. The interpretation of histological results was performed
      in conjunction with the macroscopic autopsy findings and anthropological analysis
      of bone samples.

PMID- 28560544
TI  - Profile of osteoarthritic patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty, a step
      toward a definition of the "need for surgery".
AB  - AIMS: The objective of this study is to characterize, based on clinical,
      radiographic, health-related, quality-of-life-related, and demographic variables,
      the profile of a large, homogeneous, cohort of patients undergoing knee or hip
      arthroplasty, in a public hospital. Current regulatory guidelines for structure
      modifying agent are not clear regarding hard clinical endpoint. The "need for
      surgery" has been suggested as a potential relevant outcome, but, until now, it
      is poorly defined. By characterizing a large number of patients who undergo total
      hip or total knee replacement, this paper aims at providing a contribution to the
      better definition of the "need for surgery" in advanced OA of the lower limbs.
      METHODS: Consecutive patients who underwent primary knee arthroplasty (KA) or hip
      arthroplasty (HA) between December 2008 and February 2013, in an academic
      hospital, and who were diagnosed with hip or knee osteoarthritis (OA) (ACR
      criteria). Data collected at baseline included demographic and clinical data;
      Kellgren-Lawrence radiological grading; Western Ontario and Mc Master
      Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC); EuroQol five dimensions questionnaire and
      EuroQol visual analog scale; and 36-item Short Form Health Survey. RESULTS: 626
      subjects were included, 346 with hip OA and 280 with knee OA. Significant
      differences between subjects in need of an HA or of a KA were seen in terms of
      age (66.5 years versus 65 for hip), duration of complaints (2188 days versus
      1146.5 for hip), BMI (28.68 kg/m2 versus 27.07), radiological status (severe OA
      were found in 79.85% in knee group and 68.73% in hip group), comorbidities (FCI
      higher in knee group), traumatic of surgical history (37 versus 6%), and health
      related quality of life and function (patients with HA had a poorer clinical
      status regarding WOMAC and WOMAC subscale). CONCLUSION: Significant differences
      were observed between patients undergoing KA or HA. These differences might be
      useful to better understand the "need for surgery" status in these indications.
      This concept may help to define responders and failures to pharmacological
      treatment of OA.

PMID- 28560545
TI  - Relationships among peak expiratory flow rate, body composition, physical
      function, and sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Although respiratory muscle strength is known to decrease
      with age, the relationship between pulmonary function and sarcopenia remains to
      be examined. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between peak
      expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and skeletal muscle mass/sarcopenia in community
      dwelling older adults. METHODS: We utilized data from 427 older adults (age 74.4
      +/- 5.3 years, men/women 157/270) who had participated in the 2015 Otassha
      Kenshin, a longitudinal study that excluded participants with air-flow
      limitations. Diagnoses of sarcopenia were based on criteria outlined in the
      Consensus Report of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia and adjusted for
      Japanese individuals. We compared body composition, physical function, and lung
      function between patients with and without sarcopenia. Receiver operating
      characteristic analysis (ROC) for sarcopenia was performed using PEFR, calf
      circumference, and body mass index. RESULTS: Sixty-five participants (men/women
      12/53) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Patients with sarcopenia were older than
      those without sarcopenia, and had lower height, weight, body mass index, skeletal
      muscle mass, appendicular skeletal mass, and skeletal muscle index. Stepwise
      multiple regression analysis identified whole-body skeletal mass as an
      independent factor for PEFR. ROC analysis of sarcopenia identified a cut-off
      value of 5.0 L s for PEFR, with a sensitivity of 0.62, specificity of 0.77, and
      area under the curve of 0.73 (95% CI 0.67-0.79; P < 0.001). DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that physical function is more strongly
      associated with respiratory muscle mass than total skeletal muscle mass and that
      PEFR may be a valid indicator of sarcopenia.

PMID- 28560546
TI  - Medial parapatellar approach leads to internal rotation of tibial component in
      total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate if the type of approach
      [medial parapatellar approach (MPA) versus lateral parapatellar approach with
      tibial tubercle osteotomy (LPA)] influences rotation of femoral and/or tibial
      component and leg axis in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). It was the hypothesis
      that MPA leads to an internally rotated tibial TKA component. METHODS: This study
      included 200 consecutive patients in whom TKA was performed using either a
      parapatellar medial (n = 162, MPA) or parapatellar lateral approach with tibial
      tubercle osteotomy (n = 38, LPA). All patients underwent clinical follow-up,
      standardized radiographs and computed radiography (CT). TKA components' position
      and the whole leg axis were assessed on 3D reconstructed CT scans (sagittal,
      coronal and rotational). Mean values of TKA component position and the whole leg
      alignment of both groups were compared using a t test. The tibial component was
      graded as internally rotated (<3 degrees  of external rotation (ER)), neutral
      rotation (equal or between 3 degrees  and 6 degrees  of ER) and externally
      rotated (>6 degrees  ER). The femoral component was graded as internally rotated
      [>3 degrees  of internal rotation (IR)], neutral rotation (equal or between -3
      degrees  IR and 3 degrees  of ER) and externally rotated (>3 degrees  ER).
      RESULTS: There was no significant difference in terms of whole leg axis after TKA
      between both groups (MPA: 0.2 degrees  valgus +/- 3.4; LPA: 0.0 degrees  valgus
      +/- 3.5). Means of tibial component rotation were 2.7 degrees  ER +/- 6.1 (MPA)
      and 7.6 degrees  ER +/- 5.4 (LPA). Patients of group LPA presented a
      significantly less internally rotated (LPA: 18.4%; MPA: 48.8%) and more
      externally rotated (LPA: 52.6%; MPA: 22.8%) tibial component (p < 0.001). No
      significant differences were seen for the femoral component position, tibial
      valgus/varus and tibial slope. CONCLUSION: The type of approach (medial versus
      lateral) significantly influenced tibial TKA component rotation. It appears that
      a MPA tends to internally rotate the tibial TKA component and a LPA tends to
      externally rotate the tibial TKA. The anterior cortex should not be used as
      landmark for tibial TKA component placement when using the lateral approach with
      tibial tubercle osteotomy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Retrospective comparative study,
      Level III.

PMID- 28560547
TI  - Gender Differences in Resistance to Schooling: The Role of Dynamic Peer-Influence
      and Selection Processes.
AB  - Boys engage in notably higher levels of resistance to schooling than girls. While
      scholars argue that peer processes contribute to this gender gap, this claim has
      not been tested with longitudinal quantitative data. This study fills this lacuna
      by examining the role of dynamic peer-selection and influence processes in the
      gender gap in resistance to schooling (i.e., arguing with teachers, skipping
      class, not putting effort into school, receiving punishments at school, and
      coming late to class) with two-wave panel data. We expect that, compared to
      girls, boys are more exposed and more responsive to peers who exhibit resistant
      behavior. We estimate hybrid models on 5448 students from 251 school classes in
      Sweden (14-15 years, 49% boys), and stochastic actor-based models (SIENA) on a
      subsample of these data (2480 students in 98 classes; 49% boys). We find that
      boys are more exposed to resistant friends than girls, and that adolescents are
      influenced by the resistant behavior of friends. These peer processes do not
      contribute to a widening of the gender gap in resistance to schooling, yet they
      contribute somewhat to the persistence of the initial gender gap. Boys are not
      more responsive to the resistant behavior of friends than girls. Instead, girls
      are influenced more by the resistant behavior of lower status friends than boys.
      This explains to some extent why boys increase their resistance to schooling more
      over time. All in all, peer-influence and selection processes seem to play a
      minor role in gender differences in resistance to schooling. These findings
      nuance under investigated claims that have been made in the literature.

PMID- 28560548
TI  - Media use, sports activities, and motor fitness in childhood and adolescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity is one of the key determinants of physical, mental,
      and social health of children and adolescents. Therefore, the early development
      of health-relevant behavior patterns is of high relevance. AIM: To examine the
      impact of selected socioeconomic factors as well as media consumption, on sports
      activities and the motor skills of 10- to 14-year-old secondary school students.
      METHODS: Body height and body weight were measured. The motor skills were
      determined with the Deutschen Motorik Test (DMT 6-18; German Motor Test).
      Information about media use, media equipment, recreational sports activities,
      migration status, and the parents' profession was collected by means of a
      standardized questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 391 adolescents have been tested
      (male 235; female 156). Body mass index (BMI) types are evenly distributed on
      gender. On a weekday, the pupils spend 10.3 h using media (SD +/- 9.1 h). On
      weekends, media use increases up to 12 h per day on average (SD +/- 9.7 h). The
      number of available media is independent from the age of the respondents and the
      social status of their families. According to bivariate correlations, heavy media
      use, a high BMI as well as migration status correlate negatively with both sports
      activities and motor skills. BMI seems to have the strongest influence on
      athletic performance (b = 0.41). CONCLUSION: Media use is an important
      determinant of juvenile sports activity and motor performance, being part of a
      complex juvenile leisure behavior.

PMID- 28560549
TI  - Cost Analysis of Prostate Artery Embolization (PAE) and Transurethral Resection
      of the Prostate (TURP) in the Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Prostatic arterial embolization (PAE) has emerged as a minimally
      invasive alternative to TURP; however, there are limited cost comparisons
      reported. The purpose of this study was to compare in-hospital direct costs of
      elective PAE and TURP in a hospital setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Institutional
      Review Board-approved retrospective review was performed on patients undergoing
      PAE and TURP from January to December 2014. Inclusion criteria included male
      patients greater than 40 years of age who presented for ambulatory TURP or PAE
      with no history of prior surgical intervention for BPH. Direct costs were
      categorized into the following categories: nursing and operating room or
      interventional room staffing, operating room or interventional supply costs,
      anesthesia supplies, anesthesia staffing, hospital room cost, radiology, and
      laboratory costs. Additionally, length of stay was evaluated for both groups.
      RESULTS: The mean patient age for the TURP (n = 86) and PAE (n = 70) cohorts was
      71.3 and 64.4 years, respectively (p < 0.0001). Intra-procedural supplies for PAE
      were significantly more costly than TURP ($1472.77 vs $1080.84, p < 0.0001). When
      including anesthesia supplies and nursing/staffing, costs were significantly more
      expensive for TURP than PAE ($2153.64 vs $1667.10 p < 0.0001). The average length
      of stay for the TURP group was longer at 1.38 versus 0.125 days for the PAE
      group. Total in-hospital costs for the TURP group ($5338.31, SD $3521.17) were
      significantly higher than for PAE ($1678.14, SD $442.0, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS:
      When compared to TURP, PAE was associated with significantly lower direct in
      hospital costs and shorter hospital stay.

PMID- 28560550
TI  - Reply To: Safety and Efficacy of Y-90 Radioembolization After Prior Major Hepatic
      Resection: Dosimetric Consideration.

PMID- 28560551
TI  - Repetitive Blunt Trauma and Arterial Injury in the Hand.
AB  - INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Arterial injury in the hand is most often due to repetitive
      blunt trauma. Although not always associated with significant impairment, it may
      cause serious ischemic damage or considerable disability. As a cause of digital
      ischemia, the frequency of this disorder is widely under appreciated. This study
      reviews the clinical and angiographic features of this condition.
      MATERIALS/METHODS: An extensive literature review combined with the authors
      experience with arterial injury in the hand due to repetitive blunt hand trauma
      is summarized with emphasis on mechanisms of injury and pathologic changes to
      explain the angiographic findings and clinical presentations. RESULTS:
      Angiographic findings are related to severity of injury and underlying changes in
      the arterial wall. The clinical presentation varies from asymptomatic to digital
      necrosis and gangrene, related to severity of arterial injury, collateral
      circulation, and the highly variable arterial anatomy in the hand. CONCLUSION:
      Early recognition is important because compared to many other causes of digital
      ischemia in the upper extremities, traumatic arterial injury is frequently
      readily treatable. Angiographic findings and clinical presentation are often
      characteristic. The diagnosis should not be based on a clear history of
      repetitive hand trauma since the patient may be unaware of this occurrence.

PMID- 28560552
TI  - Children With and Without Dystonia Share Common Muscle Synergies While Performing
      Writing Tasks.
AB  - Childhood dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by muscle overflow and
      variability. This is the first study that investigates upper limb muscle
      synergies in childhood dystonia with the twofold aim of deepening the
      understanding of neuromotor dysfunctions and paving the way to possible synergy
      based myocontrol interfaces suitable for this neurological population.
      Nonnegative matrix factorization was applied to the activity of upper-limb
      muscles recorded during the execution of writing tasks in children with dystonia
      and age-matched controls. Despite children with dystonia presented compromised
      kinematics of the writing outcome, a strikingly similarity emerged in the number
      and structure of the synergy vectors extracted from children in the two groups.
      The analysis also revealed that the timing of activation of the synergy
      coefficients did not significantly differ, while the amplitude of the peaks
      presented a slight reduction. These results suggest that the synergy analysis has
      the ability of capturing the uncorrupted part of the electromyographic signal in
      dystonia. Such an ability supports a possible future use of muscle synergies in
      the design of myocontrol interfaces for children with dystonia.

PMID- 28560553
TI  - Quantification of Inter-Erythrocyte Forces with Ultra-High Frequency (410 MHz)
      Single Beam Acoustic Tweezer.
AB  - Efforts on quantitative measurements of the interactive forces of red blood cells
      (RBC) have been pursued for many years in hopes of a better understanding of
      hemodynamics and blood rheology. In this paper, we report an approach based on an
      ultra-high frequency (410 MHz) single beam acoustic tweezer (SBAT) for
      quantitative measurements of inter-RBC forces at a single cell level. The
      trapping forces produced by this ultra-high frequency (UHF) SBAT can be
      quantitatively estimated with a micropipette. Since the focal beam diameter of
      the 410 MHz ultrasonic transducer used in this SBAT was only 6.5 micrometer
      (MUm), which was smaller than that of a RBC (~7.5 MUm), it was made possible to
      directly apply the beam to a single RBC and measure inter-RBC forces against the
      pre-calibrated acoustic trapping forces as another example of potential cellular
      applications of the SBAT. The magnitude of these forces was found to be 391.0 +/-
      86.4 pN. Finally, it is worth noting that unlike several other methods, this
      method does not require the measuring device to be in contact with the cells.

PMID- 28560555
TI  - Reply to the letter to the editor concerning "Endoscopic tympanoplasty: learning
      curve for a surgeon already trained in microscopic tympanoplasty".

PMID- 28560554
TI  - Continuous local analgesia is effective in postoperative pain treatment after
      medium and large incisional hernia repair.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Incisional hernias are a frequent complication of laparotomy. Open
      surgery is still an option for the treatment of incisional hernias with medium
      and large wall defects. Major opioids are routinely used in the treatment of
      postoperative pain, with several side effects. Continuous local analgesia can be
      effective in postoperative pain management after various surgical interventions.
      However, very few reports exist on its application in incisional hernias.
      PURPOSE: We assessed the effectiveness of ropivacaine in reducing the need for
      systemic analgesics in postoperative pain management related to these
      interventions. METHODS: We conducted an open-label, prospective, randomized
      design study. One hundred patients with medium and large incisional hernias were
      treated by open surgery. Thirty patients with abdominal defects > 8 cm received
      continuous postoperative local analgesia with ropivacaine 5 mg/ml. Thirty four
      and 36 patients (abdominal defects of more, and respectively less than 8 cm)
      received conventional analgesia. RESULTS: Continuous local anesthesia during the
      first 72 h after surgery reduced the number of patients needing analgesia with
      pethidine (17 vs 47% and 53%, p = 0.006), as well as the cumulative doses of
      pethidine (p < 0.05), tramadol (p < 0.001), and metamizole (p < 0.001) needed to
      control postoperative pain. Catheter installation for local anesthesia did not
      increase surgery time (p = 0.16) or the rate of local complications. CONCLUSION:
      Continuous local analgesia reduces the need for systemic opioids and can be
      successfully used in the postoperative pain management after medium and large
      incisional hernias treated by open surgery.

PMID- 28560556
TI  - Shear Stress Induces Phenotypic Modulation of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells via
      AMPK/mTOR/ULK1-Mediated Autophagy.
AB  - Phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is involved in the
      pathophysiological processes of the intracranial aneurysms (IAs). Although shear
      stress has been implicated in the proliferation, migration, and phenotypic
      conversion of VSMCs, the molecular mechanisms underlying these events are
      currently unknown. In this study, we investigated whether shear stress(SS)
      induced VSMC phenotypic modulation was mediated by autophagy involved in
      adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/mammalian target of
      rapamycin (mTOR)/Unc-51-like kinase 1 (ULK1) pathway. The results show that shear
      stress could inhibit the expression of key VSMC contractile genes and induce pro
      inflammatory/matrix-remodeling genes levels, contributing to VSMCs phenotypic
      switching from a contractile to a synthetic phenotype. More importantly, Shear
      stress also markedly increased the levels of the autophagy marker microtubule
      associated protein light chain 3-II (LC3II), Beclin-1, and p62 degradation. The
      autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) significantly blocked shear-induced
      phenotypic modulation of VSMCs. To further explore the molecular mechanism
      involved in shear-induced autophagy, we found that shear stress could activate
      AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 signaling pathway in VSMCs. Compound C, a pharmacological
      inhibitor of AMPK, significantly reduced the levels of p-AMPK and p-ULK, enhanced
      p-mTOR level, and finally decreased LC3II and Beclin-1 level, which suggested
      that activated AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 signaling was related to shear-mediated autophagy.
      These results indicate that shear stress promotes VSMC phenotypic modulation
      through the induction of autophagy involved in activating the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1
      pathway.

PMID- 28560558
TI  - A quick glance at selected topics in this issue.
AB  - A quick glance at selected topics in this issue" aims to highlight selected
      articles and provide a quick review to the readers.

PMID- 28560557
TI  - Heterogeneity Among Neutrophils.
AB  - Neutrophils (PMNs) play a key role in innate defence mechanisms. Generally, PMNs
      were considered to have a homogeneous population of mature and diversified cells.
      It seems, however, that their pleiotropic action results from the existence of
      different subpopulations in this group of cells. There are data that confirm the
      involvement of PMNs in the direct activation of other cells in non-specific
      response, as well as specialised cells in specific response. For example, there
      have been observations of PMNs with different levels of activity in relation to
      lymphocytes, and a population was identified which had characteristics similar to
      those of cells which are capable of presenting antigens. There are also reports
      of PMNs which demonstrate different survival time or capacity for chemotaxis.
      Other studies suggest that the neutrophil response to Staphylococcus aureus is
      diverse (not identical among all neutrophil). There are also reports of PMNs with
      varying activity during inflammation, which might explain many as yet unknown
      pathophysiological aspects of their hyperreactivity. The functional dualism of
      PMNs in the course of neoplastic disorders raises a lot of controversy. This
      paper presents the current state of knowledge of the heterogeneity of PMNs and
      their potential roles in different stages of disease.

PMID- 28560559
TI  - Greatest opportunities for growth in nuclear cardiology.

PMID- 28560560
TI  - FDG PET/CT in prosthetic heart valve endocarditis: There is no need to wait.

PMID- 28560561
TI  - Investigation of Ion Transmission Effects on Intact Protein Quantification in a
      Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer.
AB  - Recently, direct intact protein quantitation using triple quadrupole mass
      spectrometry (QqQ-MS) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) was demonstrated (J.
      Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 27, 886-896 (2016)). Even though QqQ-MS is known to
      provide extraordinary detection sensitivity for quantitative analysis, we found
      that intact proteins exhibited a less than 5% ion transmission from the first
      quadrupole to the third quadrupole mass analyzer in the presence of zero
      collision energy (ZCE). With the goal to enhance intact protein quantitation
      sensitivity, ion scattering effects, proton transfer effects, and mass filter
      resolution widths were examined for their contributions to the lost signal.
      Protein standards myoglobin and ubiquitin along with small molecules reserpine
      and vancomycin were analyzed together with various collision induced dissociation
      (CID) gases (N2, He, and Ar) at different gas pressures. Mass resolution settings
      played a significant role in reducing ion transmission signal. By narrowing the
      mass resolution window by 0.35 m/z on each side, roughly 75%-90% of the ion
      signal was lost. The multiply charged proteins experienced additional proton
      transfer effects, corresponding to 10-fold signal reduction. A study of increased
      sensitivity of the method was also conducted with various MRM summation
      techniques. Although the degree of enhancement was analyte-dependent, an up to 17
      fold increase in sensitivity was observed for ubiquitin using a summation of
      multiple MRM transitions. Biological matrix, human urine, and equine plasma were
      spiked with proteins to demonstrate the specificity of the method. This study
      provides additional insight into optimizing the use and sensitivity of QqQ-MS for
      intact protein quantification. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28560563
TI  - Mobility Peak Tailing Reduction in a Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA) Coupled
      with a Mass Spectrometer and Several Ionization Sources.
AB  - The differential mobility analyzer (DMA) is a narrow-band linear ion mobility
      filter operating at atmospheric pressure. It combines in series with a quadrupole
      mass spectrometer (Q-MS) for mobility/mass analysis, greatly reducing chemical
      noise in selected ion monitoring. However, the large flow rate of drift gas
      (~1000 L/min) required by DMAs complicates the achievement of high gas purity.
      Additionally, the symmetry of the drying counterflow gas at the interface of many
      commercial MS instruments, is degraded by the lateral motion of the drift gas at
      the DMA entrance slit. As a result, DMA mobility peaks often exhibit tails due to
      the attachment of impurity vapors, either (1) to the reagent ion within the
      separation cell, or (2) to the analyte of interest in the ionization region. In
      order to greatly increase the noise-suppression capacity of the DMA, we describe
      various vapor-removal schemes and measure the resulting increase in the tailing
      ratio, (TR = signal at the peak maximum over signal two half-widths away from
      this maximum). Here we develop a low-outgassing DMA circuit connected to a mass
      spectrometer, and test it with three ionization sources (APCI, Desolvating-nano
      ESI, and Desolvating low flow SESI). While prior TR values were in the range 100
      1000, the three new sources achieve TR ~ 105. The SESI source has been optimized
      for maximum sensitivity, delivering an unprecedented gain for TNT of 190
      counts/fg, equivalent to an ionization efficiency of one out of 140 neutral
      molecules. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28560562
TI  - Design of a TW-SLIM Module for Dual Polarity Confinement, Transport, and
      Reactions.
AB  - Here we describe instrumental approaches for performing dual polarity ion
      confinement, transport, ion mobility separations, and reactions in structures for
      lossless ion manipulations (SLIM). Previous means of ion confinement in SLIM,
      based upon rf-generated pseudopotentials and DC fields for lateral confinement,
      cannot trap ions of opposite polarity simultaneously. Here we explore alternative
      approaches to provide simultaneous lateral confinement of both ion polarities.
      Traveling wave ion mobility (IM) separations experienced in such SLIM cause ions
      of both polarities to migrate in the same directions and exhibit similar
      separations. The ion motion (and relative motion of the two polarities) under
      both surfing and IM separation conditions are discussed. In surfing conditions
      the two polarities are transported losslessly and non-reactively in their
      respective potential minima (higher absolute voltage regions confine negative
      polarities, and lower absolute potential regions are populated by positive
      polarities). In separation mode, where ions roll over an overtaking traveling
      wave, the two polarities can interact during the rollovers. Strategies to
      minimize overlap of the two ion populations to prevent reactive losses during
      separations are presented. A theoretical treatment of the time scales over which
      two populations (injected into a DC field-free region of the dual polarity SLIM
      device) interact is considered, and SLIM designs for allowing ion/ion
      interactions and other manipulations with dual polarities at 4 Torr are
      presented. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28560565
TI  - A Novel Triethylphosphonium Charge Tag on Peptides: Synthesis, Derivatization,
      and Fragmentation.
AB  - Charge tagging is a peptide derivatization process that commonly localizes a
      positive charge on the N-terminus. Upon low energy activation (e.g., collision
      induced dissociation or post-source decay) of charge tagged peptides, relatively
      few fragment ions are produced due to the absence of mobile protons. In contrast,
      high energy fragmentation, such as 157 nm photodissociation, typically leads to a
      series of a-type ions. Disadvantages of existing charge tags are that they can
      produce mobile protons or that they are undesirably large and bulky. Here, we
      investigate a small triethylphosphonium charge tag with two different linkages:
      amide (158 Da) and amidine bonds (157 Da). Activation of peptides labeled with a
      triethylphosphonium charge tag through an amide bond can lead to loss of the
      charge tag and the production of protonated peptides. This enables low intensity
      fragment ions from both the protonated and charge tagged peptides to be observed.
      Triethylphosphonium charge tagged peptides linked through an amidine bond are
      more stable. Post-source decay and photodissociation yield product ions that
      primarily contain the charge tag. Certain amidine induced fragments are also
      observed. The previously reported tris(trimethoxyphenyl) phosphonium acetic acid
      N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester charge tag shows a similar fragment ion distribution,
      but the mass of the triethylphosphonium tag label is 415 Da smaller. Graphical
      Abstract ?.

PMID- 28560564
TI  - An Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Study on the "In Vacuo" Hetero
      Oligomers Formed by the Antimicrobial Peptides, Surfactin and Gramicidin S.
AB  - It was previously observed that the lipopeptide surfactants in surfactin (Srf)
      have an antagonistic action towards the highly potent antimicrobial
      cyclodecapeptide, gramicidin S (GS). This study reports on some of the molecular
      aspects of the antagonism as investigated through complementary electrospray
      ionization mass spectrometry techniques. We were able to detect stable 1:1 and
      2:1 hetero-oligomers in a mixture of surfactin and gramicidin S. The noncovalent
      interaction between GS and Srf, with the proposed equilibrium: GS~Srf<->GS+Srf
      correlated to apparent K d values of 6-9 MUM in gas-phase and 1 MUM in aqueous
      solution. The apparent K d values decreased with a longer incubation time and
      indicated a slow oligomerization equilibrium. Furthermore, the low MUM K dapp
      values of GS~Srf<->GS+Srf fell within the biological concentration range and
      related to the 2- to 3-fold increase in [GS] needed for bacterial growth
      inhibition in the presence of Srf. Competition studies indicated that neither Na+
      nor Ca2+ had a major effect on the stability of preformed heterodimers and that
      GS in fact out-competed Ca2+ and Na+ from Srf. Traveling wave ion mobility mass
      spectrometry revealed near symmetrical peaks of the heterodimers correlating to a
      compact dimer conformation that depend on specific interactions. Collision
      induced dissociation studies indicated that the peptide interaction is most
      probably between one Orn residue in GS and the Asp residue, but not the Glu
      residue in Srf. We propose that flanking hydrophobic residues in both peptides
      stabilize the antagonistic and inactive peptide hetero-oligomers and shield the
      specific polar interactions in an aqueous environment. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28560566
TI  - Excitation energy transfer in phycobiliproteins of the cyanobacterium
      Acaryochloris marina investigated by spectral hole burning.
AB  - The cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina developed two types of antenna complexes,
      which contain chlorophyll-d (Chl d) and phycocyanobilin (PCB) as light-harvesting
      pigment molecules, respectively. The latter membrane-extrinsic complexes are
      denoted as phycobiliproteins (PBPs). Spectral hole burning was employed to study
      excitation energy transfer and electron-phonon coupling in PBPs. The data reveal
      a rich spectral substructure with a total of four low-energy electronic states
      whose absorption bands peak at 633, 644, 654, and at about 673 nm. The electronic
      states at ~633 and 644 nm can be tentatively attributed to phycocyanin (PC) and
      allophycocyanin (APC), respectively. The remaining low-energy electronic states
      including the terminal emitter at 673 nm may be associated with different
      isoforms of PC, APC, or the linker protein. Furthermore, the hole burning data
      reveal a large number of excited state vibrational frequencies, which are
      characteristic for the chromophore PCB. In summary, the results are in good
      agreement with the low-energy level structure of PBPs and electron-phonon
      coupling parameters reported by Gryliuk et al. (BBA 1837:1490-1499, 2014) based
      on difference fluorescence line-narrowing experiments.

PMID- 28560568
TI  - Outcome of carotid artery stenting in the hands of vascular surgeons.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To analyze the procedural and clinical outcomes of carotid artery
      stenting (CAS) in the hands of endovascular trained vascular surgeons. METHODS:
      Between April 2008 to May 2013, 1197 patients were treated for extracranial
      internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. The proportion of endovascular treated
      patients was 5.0% (CAS n = 60 vs. carotid endarterectomy (CEA) n = 1137). All
      patients in the CAS group (44 males, median age 70 years) were treated by two
      senior vascular surgeons experienced in endovascular methods. Restenosis was the
      indication for CAS in 32 out of 60 patients (53.3%). Further indications were
      contralateral ICA occlusion (n = 14, 23.3%), radiogenic ICA stenosis (n = 5,
      8.3%), high-risk candidates for CEA (n = 4, 6.6%), and the presence of
      contralateral recurrent paresis (n = 2, 3.3%). High-risk patients for CEA were
      defined as patients with history of severe cardiac disease and patients with
      impaired general condition. 84.4% (n = 27) of the restenosis were asymptomatic
      with a mean degree of stenosis of 83.7%, and 12.9% (n = 4) were symptomatic
      (degree of stenosis of 90%). Mean procedural and fluoroscopy time were 61 and 14
      min. Study endpoints were periprocedural stroke-related mortality and morbidity,
      restenosis rate, and overall survival. Follow-up was performed by duplex
      ultrasound with a median follow-up period of 12 months (range 1-55). RESULTS: The
      periprocedural stroke rate of CAS within 30 days was 3.3% (one ischemic stroke,
      one intracranial hemorrhage); two additional patients suffered TIA (3.3%). None
      of the patients had a myocardial infarction perioperatively. The mortality rate
      was 0. CAS procedures were completed in 90.0% (n = 54) of cases. Dropout rate was
      8.3% (n = 5) for morphological reasons (e.g., carotid kinking). Intraoperative
      complication rate was 1.7% (n = 1) including one patient who suffered
      intraoperative rupture of access vessels. The conversion rate with subsequent CEA
      procedure was 6.6% (n = 4 of 5). The restenosis rate during follow-up was 3.3%
      after CAS. The reintervention rate during the median follow-up period of 12
      months (1-55 months) was 5.5% (n = 3/54). Two patients received a reintervention
      with successful balloon angioplasty; in one case, a diagnostic angiography was
      performed excluding the presence of a relevant restenosis. No additional stent
      was implanted. The survival rate was 100% at 1 year, 90.4% at 2 years, and 77.7%
      at 3 years. CONCLUSION: CAS, in the hands of vascular surgeons, is feasible with
      a moderate perioperative risk in a highly selected patient cohort. A procedure
      termination rate of approximately 10% shows that the complementary therapy using
      CAS procedure is not overused by surgeons.

PMID- 28560567
TI  - Gd3+-chelated lipid accelerates solid-state NMR spectroscopy of seven
      transmembrane proteins.
AB  - Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) is an attractive technique for studying large membrane
      proteins in membrane-mimetic environments. However, SSNMR experiments often
      suffer from low efficiency, due to the inherent low sensitivity and the long
      recycle delays needed to recover the magnetization. Here we demonstrate that the
      incorporation of a small amount of a Gd3+-chelated lipid, Gd3+-DMPE-DTPA, into
      proteoliposomes greatly shortens the spin-lattice relaxation time (1H-T 1) of
      lipid-reconstituted membrane proteins and accelerates the data collection. This
      effect has been evaluated on a 30 kDa, seven-transmembrane protein, Leptosphaeria
      rhodopsin. With the Gd3+-chelated lipid, we can perform 2D SSNMR experiments 3
      times faster than by diamagnetic control. By combining this paramagnetic
      relaxation-assisted data collection with non-uniform sampling, the 3D
      experimental times are reduced eightfold with respect to traditional 3D
      experiments on diamagnetic samples. A comparison between the paramagnetic
      relaxation enhancement (PRE) effects of Cu2+- and Gd3+-chelated lipids indicates
      the much higher relaxivity of the latter. Hence, a tenfold lower concentration is
      needed for Gd3+-chelated lipids to achieve comparable PRE effects to Cu2+
      chelated lipids. In addition, Gd3+-chelated lipids neither alter the protein
      structures nor induce significant line-width broadening of the protein signals.
      This work is expected to be beneficial for structural and dynamic studies of
      large membrane proteins by SSNMR.

PMID- 28560569
TI  - Epstein-Barr virus and thyroid cancer: the controversy remains.

PMID- 28560570
TI  - Effect of Lorenzo's Oil on Hepatic Gene Expression and the Serum Fatty Acid Level
      in abcd1-Deficient Mice.
AB  - Lorenzo's oil is known to decrease the saturated very long chain fatty acid
      (VLCFA) level in the plasma and skin fibroblasts of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy
      (ALD) patients. However, the involvement of Lorenzo's oil in in vivo fatty acid
      metabolism has not been well elucidated. To investigate the effect of Lorenzo's
      oil on fatty acid metabolism, we analyzed the hepatic gene expression together
      with the serum fatty acid level in Lorenzo's oil-treated wild-type and abcd1
      deficient mice. The change in the serum fatty acid level in Lorenzo's oil-treated
      abcd1-defcient mice was quite similar to that in the plasma fatty acid level in
      ALD patients supplemented with Lorenzo's oil. In addition, we found that the
      hepatic gene expression of two peroxisomal enzymes, Dbp and Scp2, and three
      microsomal enzymes, Elovl1, 2, and 3, were significantly stimulated by Lorenzo's
      oil. Our findings indicate that Lorenzo's oil activates hepatic peroxisomal fatty
      acid beta-oxidation at the transcriptional level. In contrast, the
      transcriptional stimulation of Elovl1, 2, and 3 by Lorenzo's oil does not cause
      changes in the serum fatty acid level. It seems likely that the inhibition of
      these elongation activities by Lorenzo's oil results in a decrease in saturated
      VLCFA. Thus, these results not only contribute to a clarification of the
      mechanism by which the saturated VLCFA level is reduced in the serum of ALD
      patients by Lorenzo's oil-treatment, but also suggest the development of a new
      therapeutic approach to peroxisomal beta-oxidation enzyme deficiency, especially
      mild phenotype of DBP deficiency.

PMID- 28560571
TI  - Molecular studies with Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762), mosquito
      transmitting the dengue virus.
AB  - Dengue is an infectious viral disease, which can present a wide clinical picture,
      ranging from oligo or asymptomatic forms, to bleeding and shock, and can progress
      to death. The disease problem has increased in recent years, especially in urban
      and suburban areas of tropical and subtropical regions. There are five dengue
      viruses, called serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, DEN-4, and DEN-5), which belong
      to the Flaviviridae family and are transmitted to humans through infected
      mosquito bites, with the main vector the Aedes aegypti mosquito (Linnaeus, 1762).
      Studies performed with Ae. aegypti, aimed at their identification and analysis of
      their population structure, are fundamental to improve understanding of the
      epidemiology of dengue, as well for the definition of strategic actions that
      reduce the transmission of this disease. Therefore, considering the importance of
      such research to the development of programs to combat dengue, the present review
      considers the techniques used for the molecular identification, and evaluation of
      the genetic variability of Ae. aegypti.

PMID- 28560572
TI  - Tumor suppressor p53 induces apoptosis of host lymphocytes experimentally
      infected by Leishmania major, by activation of Bax and caspase-3: a possible
      survival mechanism for the parasite.
AB  - Apoptosis of infected host macrophages by Leishmania spp. is mainly addressed as
      one of the survival mechanisms of the parasite. However, there is no eligible
      data about whether tumor suppressor p53 could induce the apoptosis of host
      lymphocytes-treated Leishmania major via the mitochondrial intrinsic pathway. In
      this study, the amastigotes of L. major obtained from ten cutaneous leishmaniases
      (CL) patients were separately isolated and cultured in N.N.N and RPMI 1640 media.
      L. major was definitely confirmed by targeting Cyt b gene following sequencing.
      Subsequently, 2-3 * 106 lymphocytes obtained from ten healthy individuals were
      isolated and co-cultured with 1-2 * 106 L. major promastigotes. Following 6 h of
      exposure time, the enzymatic activity of caspase-3 was determined by fluorometric
      assay in each L. major-treated lymphocytes and cell control (only lymphocyte).
      The mRNA expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, p53, and caspase-3 genes were assessed by
      quantitative real-time-PCR analysis following 6 to 9 h of exposure times. The Bcl
      2 mRNA expression in L. major-treated lymphocytes was 100-fold down-regulated
      relative to cell control. The mRNA expressions of p53 and caspase-3 were over
      expressed 1.8- and 3.2-fold up-regulated relative to control lymphocytes,
      respectively. The Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and caspase-3 activity were higher than the
      control group (Pv <0.05). The current new findings indicate that the apoptotic
      effects of L. major-treated host lymphocytes dependent on p53 tumor suppressor
      via mitochondrial pathway may probably address as an auxiliary survival mechanism
      of L. major in CL patients. However, here is much work ahead to figure out the
      multiple functions played by apoptosis in the evasion of L. major.

PMID- 28560573
TI  - Sarcocystis dehongensis n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Sarcocystidae) from water buffalo
      (Bubalus bubalis) in China.
AB  - Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is the intermediate host for at least four
      species of Sarcocystis: S. fusiformis, S. buffalonis, S. levinei, and S.
      sinensis/S. dubeyi. Here, a new species, Sarcocystis dehongensis, is reported in
      51 of 756 (6.7%) water buffaloes in China. By light microscopy, the cysts of S.
      dehongensis were macroscopic, up to 18.5 mm long and 95 MUm in diameter; 4.9-11.9
      MUm villous protrusions extended beyond the sarcocyst wall. Using transmission
      electron microscopy, the sarcocyst wall had lancet- or leaf-like protrusions in
      longitudinal section, but the cross section showed that the protrusions appeared
      as mushroom-like in shape with a core of tightly packed microtubules, similar to
      "type 24." BLAST searches revealed that S. dehongensis shared the most
      similarities with the 18S rDNA sequence of S. hardangeri (92.4%) and
      mitochondrial cox1 gene sequence of S. ovalis (81.0%), whereas no sequences in
      GenBank were found to be significantly similar to the ITS-1 region of S.
      dehongensis. A phylogenetic analysis based on 18S rDNA and mitochondrial cox1
      gene sequences suggested that S. dehongensis was closely related to Sarcocystis
      species from cervids that employ corvids as definitive hosts.

PMID- 28560574
TI  - EORTC PET response criteria are more influenced by reconstruction inconsistencies
      than PERCIST but both benefit from the EARL harmonization program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the consistency of PET evaluation response
      criteria in solid tumours (PERCIST) and European Organisation for Research and
      Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) classification across different reconstruction
      algorithms and whether aligning standardized uptake values (SUVs) to the European
      Association of Nuclear Medicine acquisition (EANM)/EARL standards provides more
      consistent response classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Baseline (PET1) and
      response assessment (PET2) scans in 61 patients with non-small cell lung cancer
      were acquired in protocols compliant with the EANM guidelines and were
      reconstructed with point-spread function (PSF) or PSF + time-of-flight (TOF)
      reconstruction for optimal tumour detection and with a standardized ordered
      subset expectation maximization (OSEM) reconstruction known to fulfil EANM
      harmonizing standards. Patients were recruited in three centres. Following
      reconstruction, EQ.PET, a proprietary software solution was applied to the PSF +/
      TOF data (PSF +/- TOF.EQ) to harmonize SUVs to the EANM standards. The impact of
      differing reconstructions on PERCIST and EORTC classification was evaluated using
      standardized uptake values corrected for lean body mass (SUL). RESULTS: Using
      OSEMPET1/OSEMPET2 (standard scenario), responders displayed a reduction of -57.5%
      +/- 23.4 and -63.9% +/- 22.4 for SULmax and SULpeak, respectively, while
      progressing tumours had an increase of +63.4% +/- 26.5 and +60.7% +/- 19.6 for
      SULmax and SULpeak respectively. The use of PSF +/- TOF reconstruction impacted
      the classification of tumour response. For example, taking the OSEMPET1/PSF +/-
      TOFPET2 scenario reduced the apparent reduction in SUL in responding tumours (
      39.7% +/- 31.3 and -55.5% +/- 26.3 for SULmax and SULpeak, respectively) but
      increased the apparent increase in SUL in progressing tumours (+130.0% +/- 50.7
      and +91.1% +/- 39.6 for SULmax and SULpeak, respectively). Consequently,
      variation in reconstruction methodology (PSF +/- TOFPET1/OSEMPET2 or OSEM
      PET1/PSF +/- TOFPET2) led, respectively, to 11/61 (18.0%) and 10/61 (16.4%)
      PERCIST classification discordances and to 17/61 (28.9%) and 19/61 (31.1%) EORTC
      classification discordances. An agreement was better for these scenarios with
      application of the propriety filter, with kappa values of 1.00 and 0.95 compared
      to 0.75 and 0.77 for PERCIST and kappa values of 0.93 and 0.95 compared to 0.61
      and 0.55 for EORTC, respectively. CONCLUSION: PERCIST classification is less
      sensitive to reconstruction algorithm-dependent variability than EORTC
      classification but harmonizing SULs within the EARL program is equally effective
      with either.

PMID- 28560576
TI  - Dengue associated choroiditis: a rare entity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We report a case of choroiditis during dengue fever. RESULTS: A 35
      year-old female presented with blurring of vision during dengue fever. Her fundus
      examination revealed yellow deep choroidal lesions at right macula, multiple
      small, yellowish subretinal macular dots along papillomacular bundle, and
      hyperemic disc. There was a small retinal hemorrhage at temporal margin of disc.
      The left eye had similar small discrete lesion superonasal and inferotemporal to
      macula. CONCLUSIONS: We report a hitherto undescribed case of choroiditis in a
      dengue patient.

PMID- 28560575
TI  - Unknown biological effects of L-glucose, ALA, and PUFA.
AB  - Key substrates including glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids play core roles in
      nutrient metabolism. In this review, we describe phenomena observed when key
      substrates are applied to cells. We focused on three promising substrates: L
      glucose derivatives, 5-aminolevulinic acid, and polyunsaturated fatty acid. Since
      they are assumed to give a specific reaction when they are transported into cells
      or metabolized in cells, they are expected to be applied in a clinical setting.
      We provide the latest knowledge regarding their behaviors and effects on cells.

PMID- 28560577
TI  - Impact of inflammation on early hematopoiesis and the microenvironment.
AB  - Steady-state hematopoiesis is maintained by slowly dividing, self-renewing
      hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and their offspring, lineage-specified downstream
      progenitors in bone marrow (BM). It was previously thought that hematopoietic
      stresses such as infection or other inflammatory stimuli, are mostly recognized
      by terminally differentiated immune cells, i.e., front-line defenders at the
      local site of reaction, and that they produce factors that directly act on
      hematopoietic stem and progenitors (HSPCs) in BM and subsequently stimulate them
      to rebuild and sustain the hemato-lymphatic system. However, accumulating
      evidence now indicates that primitive HSPCs, as well as microenvironmental cells
      in BM are also able to sense systemically migrating hematopoietic stress signals,
      and respond by orchestrating on-site hematopoiesis via direct and indirect
      mechanisms. While inflammation has many beneficial roles in activating the immune
      system for defense or facilitating tissue repair, it also shows detrimental
      effects if sustained chronically, i.e., might lead to HSPC damage as bone marrow
      failure or leukemia. Thus, inflammation requires tight control of initiation and
      termination in time and space dependent manner.

PMID- 28560578
TI  - MD simulation study of the diffusion and local structure of n-alkanes in liquid
      and supercritical methanol at infinite dilution.
AB  - The diffusion coefficients of 14 n-alkanes (ranging from methane to n
      tetradecane) in liquid and supercritical methanol at infinite dilution (at a
      pressure of 10.5 MPa and at temperatures of 299 K and 515 K) were deduced via
      molecular dynamics simulations. Values for the radial distribution function,
      coordination number, and number of hydrogen bonds were then calculated to explore
      the local structure of each fluid. The flexibility of the n-alkane (as
      characterized by the computed dihedral distribution, end-to-end distance, and
      radius of gyration) was found to be a major influence and hydrogen bonding to be
      a minor influence on the local structure. Hydrogen bonding reduces the
      flexibility of the n-alkane, whereas increasing the temperature enhances its
      flexibility, with temperature having a greater effect than hydrogen bonding on
      flexibility. Graphical abstract The flexibility of the alkane is a major
      influence and the hydrogen bonding is a minor influence on the first solvation
      shell; the coordination numbers of long-chain n-alkanes in the first solvation
      shell are rather low.

PMID- 28560579
TI  - Multi-parametric analysis reveals enhanced G2-phase arrest of an optimized anti
      HER2 antibody to inhibit breast cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To find a "me-better" antibody by epitope-specific antibody
      optimization and multi-parametric analysis. RESULTS: Using epitope-specific
      library based on the commercial drug, Pertuzumab/2C4, we screened a novel human
      anti-HER2 antibody, MIL5, which has slightly higher affinity than the drug. MIL5
      and 2C4 share the same epitope to bind HER2; however, MIL5 bound to HER2 His235
      His245 more tightly than 2C4, which could be the main reason of its enhanced
      affinity. In vivo experiments also showed MIL5 had stronger anti-cancer activity
      than 2C4; however, the classical flow cytometry assays to detect cell apoptosis
      or cycling did not show convincing evidence of the advantages of MIL5. Thus we
      introduced the multi-parameter in-cell analysis method to evaluate the
      superiority of MIL5 to 2C4 in arresting cancer cells in G2-phase to inhibit cell
      growth and/or proliferation. CONCLUSION: Multi-parametric method confirmed
      stronger arrest of G2 by MIL5 to show better anti-cancer function both in vitro
      and in vivo than 2C4.

PMID- 28560580
TI  - PMicroRNA-124a regulates LPS-induced septic cardiac dysfunction by targeting
      STX2.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of miR-124a in LPS-induced septic cardiac
      insufficiency where underlying mechanism is unclear. RESULTS: Expression of miR
      124a was decreased in myocardium of LPS-induced septic cardiac dysfunction model.
      miR-124a antagomiR or agomiR were injected via tail vein to induce miR-124a
      dysregulated model. miR-124a antagomiR aggravated LPS-induced cardiac dysfunction
      and apoptosis, while miR-124a agomiR had the opposite effect. Syntaxin-2 (STX2)
      was indicated as a candidate target gene by bioinformatic software. Further
      experiments confirmed that STX2 was downregulated in miR-124a agomiR-treated rats
      but upregulated in miR-124a antagomiR-treated rats, and STX2 inhibition could
      strongly block the miR-124a antagomiR-associated increase in cell apoptosis.
      Luciferase reporter activity assay indicated that STX2 was a direct target of miR
      124a. Serological detection reveled that miR-124a was down-regulated in the
      plasma of septic cardiac dysfunction rats. CONCLUSIONS: miR-124a aggravates LPS
      induced cardiac dysfunction and the miR-124a/STX2 pathway might serve as the
      potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets for septic cardiac dysfunction.

PMID- 28560581
TI  - Antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties of polypropylene meshes coated with
      metal-containing DLC thin films.
AB  - A promising strategy to reduce nosocomial infections related to prosthetic meshes
      is the prevention of microbial colonization. To this aim, prosthetic meshes
      coated with antimicrobial thin films are proposed. Commercial polypropylene
      meshes were coated with metal-containing diamond-like carbon (Me-DLC) thin films
      by the magnetron sputtering technique. Several dissimilar metals (silver, cobalt,
      indium, tungsten, tin, aluminum, chromium, zinc, manganese, tantalum, and
      titanium) were tested and compositional analyses of each Me-DLC were performed by
      Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Antimicrobial activities of the films
      against five microbial species (Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis) were also
      investigated by a modified Kirby-Bauer test. Results showed that films containing
      silver and cobalt have inhibited the growth of all microbial species. Tungsten
      DLC, tin-DLC, aluminum-DLC, zinc-DLC, manganese-DLC, and tantalum-DLC inhibited
      the growth of some strains, while chromium- and titanium-DLC weakly inhibited the
      growth of only one tested strain. In-DLC film showed no antimicrobial activity.
      The effects of tungsten-DLC and cobalt-DLC on Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm
      formation were also assessed. Tungsten-DLC was able to significantly reduce
      biofilm formation. Overall, the experimental results in the present study have
      shown new approaches to coating polymeric biomaterials aiming antimicrobial
      effect.

PMID- 28560582
TI  - Towards standardization of 18F-FET PET imaging: do we need a consistent method of
      background activity assessment?
AB  - BACKGROUND: PET with O-(2-18F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (18F-FET) has reached
      increasing clinical significance for patients with brain neoplasms. For
      quantification of standard PET-derived parameters such as the tumor-to-background
      ratio, the background activity is assessed using a region of interest (ROI) or
      volume of interest (VOI) in unaffected brain tissue. However, there is no
      standardized approach regarding the assessment of the background reference.
      Therefore, we evaluated the intra- and inter-reader variability of commonly
      applied approaches for clinical 18F-FET PET reading. The background activity of
      20 18F-FET PET scans was independently evaluated by 6 readers using a (i) simple
      2D-ROI, (ii) spherical VOI with 3.0 cm diameter, and (iii) VOI consisting of
      crescent-shaped ROIs; each in the contralateral, non-affected hemisphere
      including white and gray matter in line with the European Association of Nuclear
      Medicine (EANM) and German guidelines. To assess intra-reader variability, each
      scan was evaluated 10 times by each reader. The coefficient of variation (CoV)
      was assessed for determination of intra- and inter-reader variability. In a
      second step, the best method was refined by instructions for a guided background
      activity assessment and validated by 10 further scans. RESULTS: Compared to the
      other approaches, the crescent-shaped VOIs revealed most stable results with the
      lowest intra-reader variabilities (median CoV 1.52%, spherical VOI 4.20%, 2D-ROI
      3.69%; p < 0.001) and inter-reader variabilities (median CoV 2.14%, spherical VOI
      4.02%, 2D-ROI 3.83%; p = 0.001). Using the guided background assessment, both
      intra-reader variabilities (median CoV 1.10%) and inter-reader variabilities
      (median CoV 1.19%) could be reduced even more. CONCLUSIONS: The commonly applied
      methods for background activity assessment show different variability which might
      hamper 18F-FET PET quantification and comparability in multicenter settings. The
      proposed background activity assessment using a (guided) crescent-shaped VOI
      allows minimization of both intra- and inter-reader variability and might
      facilitate comprehensive methodological standardization of amino acid PET which
      is of interest in the light of the anticipated EANM technical guidelines.

PMID- 28560583
TI  - Monitoring response to anti-angiogenic mTOR inhibitor therapy in vivo using 111In
      bevacizumab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ability to image vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could
      enable prospective, non-invasive monitoring of patients receiving anti-angiogenic
      therapy. This study investigates the specificity and pharmacokinetics of 111In
      bevacizumab binding to VEGF and its use for assessing response to anti-angiogenic
      therapy with rapamycin. Specificity of 111In-bevacizumab binding to VEGF was
      tested in vitro with unmodified radiolabelled bevacizumab in competitive
      inhibition assays. Uptake of 111In-bevacizumab in BALB/c nude mice bearing
      tumours with different amounts of VEGF expression was compared to that of isotype
      matched control antibody (111In-IgG1kappa) with an excess of unlabelled
      bevacizumab. Intratumoural VEGF was evaluated using ELISA and Western blot
      analysis. The effect of anti-angiogenesis therapy was tested by measuring tumour
      uptake of 111In-bevacizumab in comparison to 111In-IgG1kappa following
      administration of rapamycin to mice bearing FaDu xenografts. Uptake was measured
      using gamma counting of ex vivo tumours and effect on vasculature by using anti
      CD31 microscopy. RESULTS: Specific uptake of 111In-bevacizumab in VEGF-expressing
      tumours was observed. Rapamycin led to tumour growth delay associated with
      increased relative vessel size (8.5 to 10.3, P = 0.045) and decreased mean
      relative vessel density (0.27 to 0.22, P = 0.0015). Rapamycin treatment increased
      tumour uptake of 111In-bevacizumab (68%) but not 111In-IgGkappa and corresponded
      with increased intratumoural VEGF165. CONCLUSIONS: 111In-bevacizumab accumulates
      specifically in VEGF-expressing tumours, and changes after rapamycin therapy
      reflect changes in VEGF expression. Antagonism of mTOR may increase VEGF in vivo,
      and this new finding provides the basis to consider combination studies blocking
      both pathways and a way to monitor effects.

PMID- 28560586
TI  - Erratum to: Shodagor Family Strategies : Balancing Work and Family on the Water.

PMID- 28560584
TI  - RNA-based regulation in type I toxin-antitoxin systems and its implication for
      bacterial persistence.
AB  - Bacterial dormancy is a valuable survival strategy upon challenging environmental
      conditions. Dormant cells tolerate the consequences of high stress levels and may
      re-populate the environment upon return to favorable conditions. Antibiotic
      tolerant bacteria-termed persisters-regularly cause relapsing infections,
      increase the likelihood of antibiotic resistance, and, therefore, earn increasing
      attention. Their generation often depends on toxins from chromosomal toxin
      antitoxin systems. Here, we review recent insights concerning RNA-based control
      of toxin synthesis, and discuss possible implications for persister generation.

PMID- 28560585
TI  - Creation, characterization and utilization of Cryptococcus neoformans mutants
      sensitive to micafungin.
AB  - We constructed deletion mutants of Cryptococcus neoformans var neoformans
      (serotype D) genes encoding late ergosterol biosynthetic pathway enzymes and
      found that the mutations enhanced susceptibility to various drugs including
      micafungin, one of the echinocandins, to which wild-type Cryptococcus strains
      show no susceptibility. Furthermore, through isolation of a mutant resistant to
      micafungin from a micafungin-sensitive erg mutant and genetic analysis of it, we
      found that the responsible mutation occurred in the hotspot 2 of FKS1 encoding
      beta-1, 3-glucan synthase, indicating that micafungin inhibited the growth of the
      erg mutant via inhibiting Fks1 activity. Addition of ergosterol to the culture of
      the erg mutants recovered the resistance to micafungin, suggesting that the
      presence of ergosterol in membrane inhibits the accession of micafungin to its
      target. We found that a loss of one of genes encoding subunits of v-ATPase, VPH1,
      made Cryptococcus cells sensitive to micafungin. Our observation that the erg2
      vph1 double mutant was more sensitive to micafungin than either single mutant
      suggests that these two genes act differently in becoming resistant to
      micafungin. The erg mutants allowed us to study the physiological significance of
      beta-1, 3-glucan synthesis in C. neoformans; the inhibition of beta-1, 3-glucan
      synthesis induced cell death and changes in cellular morphology. By observing the
      erg mutant cells recovering from the growth inhibition imposed by micafungin, we
      recognized beta-1, 3-glucan synthesis would suppress filamentous growth in C.
      neoformans.

PMID- 28560588
TI  - The Power of the Case Narrative - Can it be Brought to Bear on Duplicate
      Detection?

PMID- 28560589
TI  - A case of Wilson's disease presenting with paroxysmal dystonia.

PMID- 28560587
TI  - Evolutionary relationships and expression analysis of EUL domain proteins in rice
      (Oryza sativa).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lectins, defined as 'Proteins that can recognize and bind specific
      carbohydrate structures', are widespread among all kingdoms of life and play an
      important role in various biological processes in the cell. Most plant lectins
      are involved in stress signaling and/or defense. The family of Euonymus-related
      lectins (EULs) represents a group of stress-related lectins composed of one or
      two EUL domains. The latter protein domain is unique in that it is ubiquitous in
      land plants, suggesting an important role for these proteins. RESULTS: Despite
      the availability of multiple completely sequenced rice genomes, little is known
      on the occurrence of lectins in rice. We identified 329 putative lectin genes in
      the genome of Oryza sativa subsp. japonica belonging to nine out of 12 plant
      lectin families. In this paper, an in-depth molecular characterization of the EUL
      family of rice was performed. In addition, analyses of the promoter sequences and
      investigation of the transcript levels for these EUL genes enabled retrieval of
      important information related to the function and stress responsiveness of these
      lectins. Finally, a comparative analysis between rice cultivars and several
      monocot and dicot species revealed a high degree of sequence conservation within
      the EUL domain as well as in the domain organization of these lectins.
      CONCLUSIONS: The presence of EULs throughout the plant kingdom and the high
      degree of sequence conservation in the EUL domain suggest that these proteins
      serve an important function in the plant cell. Analysis of the promoter region of
      the rice EUL genes revealed a diversity of stress responsive elements.
      Furthermore analysis of the expression profiles of the EUL genes confirmed that
      they are differentially regulated in response to several types of stress. These
      data suggest a potential role for the EULs in plant stress signaling and defense.

PMID- 28560590
TI  - High-resolution mapping reveals linkage between genes in common bean cultivar
      Ouro Negro conferring resistance to the rust, anthracnose, and angular leaf spot
      diseases.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Co-segregation analysis and high-throughput genotyping using SNP,
      SSR, and KASP markers demonstrated genetic linkage between Ur-14 and Co-3 4 /Phg
      3 loci conferring resistance to the rust, anthracnose and angular leaf spot
      diseases of common bean. Rust, anthracnose, and angular leaf spot are major
      diseases of common bean in the Americas and Africa. The cultivar Ouro Negro has
      the Ur-14 gene that confers broad spectrum resistance to rust and the gene
      cluster Co-3 4 /Phg-3 containing two tightly linked genes conferring resistance
      to anthracnose and angular leaf spot, respectively. We used co-segregation
      analysis and high-throughput genotyping of 179 F2:3 families from the Ruda
      (susceptible) * Ouro Negro (resistant) cross-phenotyped separately with races of
      the rust and anthracnose pathogens. The results confirmed that Ur-14 and Co-3 4
      /Phg-3 cluster in Ouro Negro conferred resistance to rust and anthracnose,
      respectively, and that Ur-14 and the Co-3 4 /Phg-3 cluster were closely linked.
      Genotyping the F2:3 families, first with 5398 SNPs on the Illumina BeadChip
      BARCBEAN6K_3 and with 15 SSR, and eight KASP markers, specifically designed for
      the candidate region containing Ur-14 and Co-3 4 /Phg-3, permitted the creation
      of a high-resolution genetic linkage map which revealed that Ur-14 was positioned
      at 2.2 cM from Co-3 4 /Phg-3 on the short arm of chromosome Pv04 of the common
      bean genome. Five flanking SSR markers were tightly linked at 0.1 and 0.2 cM from
      Ur-14, and two flanking KASP markers were tightly linked at 0.1 and 0.3 cM from
      Co-3 4 /Phg-3. Many other SSR, SNP, and KASP markers were also linked to these
      genes. These markers will be useful for the development of common bean cultivars
      combining the important Ur-14 and Co-3 4 /Phg-3 genes conferring resistance to
      three of the most destructive diseases of common bean.

PMID- 28560591
TI  - Individual- and Family-Level Determinants of Risky Sexual Behavior Among Swedish-
      and Foreign-Born Young Adults 18-30 Years of Age, Residing in Skane, Sweden.
AB  - In Sweden, various public health interventions have been performed to reduce
      risky sexual behaviors among young people and promote safer and positive
      approaches to sexuality, while attempting to bridge the gap between the less
      privileged or more vulnerable young people and their more privileged peers. This
      study aimed to compare the individual- and familial-level determinants of risky
      sexual behavior among foreign-born and Swedish-born young adults 18-30 years of
      age residing in Skane, the south of Sweden. This was a cross-sectional study that
      used a questionnaire to collect data from 2968 randomly selected respondents
      between 18 and 30 years between January and March 2013. The associations were
      analyzed using chi-square tests, and simple and multiple logistic regression
      analyses. Younger age, i.e., individual-level factor, and living with only one
      parent or another person while growing up, i.e., familial-level factor, increased
      the risk of engaging in sexual risk taking for both Swedish- and foreign-born
      youth. Male gender was related to a higher risk of engaging in sexual risk-taking
      behaviors among foreign-born youth but was not as important as influence on
      sexual risk taking among Swedish-born youth. Parental education level, on the
      other hand, was significantly associated with sexual intercourse on the "first
      night" and early sexual debut solely among Swedish-born youth. Condom use was not
      associated with any family-level factor among both Swedish-born and foreign-born
      youth. The design of sexual reproductive health and rights messages and
      interventions to target risky sexual behavior among Swedish youth should take
      into consideration immigration status (for example, being Swedish-born or foreign
      born), individual- and family-level characteristics, as well as the type of
      behavioral change or outcome desired.

PMID- 28560592
TI  - A Scale for the Assessment of Sexual Standards Among Youth: Psychometric
      Properties.
AB  - The (hetero)sexual double standard (SDS), prescribing sexual modesty for girls
      and sexual prowess for boys, negatively affects sexual and mental health.
      Nevertheless, endorsement and enactment of the SDS is still common. In this
      study, we respond to recent calls for modernization in the field of sexual double
      standard research. We describe the development of the "Scale for the Assessment
      of Sexual Standards among Youth" (SASSY), as well as its psychometric properties.
      This instrument was designed to measure contemporary sexual double standard
      endorsement, defined as "the degree to which an individual's attitude reflects a
      divergent set of expectations for boys and girls, in that boys are expected to be
      relatively more sexually active, assertive, and knowledgeable and girls are
      expected to be relatively more sexually reserved, passive, and inexperienced"
      among adolescents and emerging adults. In Study 1, a pool of 35 items was
      administered in a Dutch sample (N = 465, 54.8% female, age 16-20). A 20-item set
      formed a one-dimensional and internally consistent scale and was subsequently
      administered in a second Dutch sample. Study 2 (N = 818, 58.4% female, age 16-25)
      again assessed the 20-item set. After dropping one item, the 19-item SASSY proved
      to be one-dimensional and internally consistent, exhibiting good test-retest
      reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity. Finally, the instrument
      showed configural and metric measurement invariance across gender, age, education
      level, and sexual experience level, and configural, metric, and scalar
      measurement invariance across time. These studies confirmed the 19-item SASSY to
      be a reliable and valid new tool for the assessment of contemporary sexual double
      standard endorsement among adolescents and emerging adults.

PMID- 28560593
TI  - Base Excess as a Predictor of Complications in Cytoreductive Surgery with
      Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Base excess is important in assessing metabolic status. Postoperative
      management in patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic
      intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for peritoneal malignancies can be a
      challenge, and we therefore sought to investigate perioperative predictors of
      overall morbidity in CRS/HIPEC patients at our institution. METHODS: Patients who
      underwent CRS/HIPEC from 2012 to 2016 were identified retrospectively from a
      prospectively collected institutional database. Patient demographics and
      perioperative variables were obtained and the comprehensive complication index
      (CCI) was calculated for each patient in order to assess perioperative morbidity.
      Stepwise linear regression analyses were performed, with CCI as the outcome
      variable. RESULTS: A total of 72 CRS/HIPEC patients had recorded base excesses in
      the first 48 h postoperatively. Mean immediate postoperative base excess was -6.0
      mmol/L (interquartile range [IQR] -8 to -4.1), mean delta base excess at 48 h was
      +4.3 mmol/L (IQR +2.1 to +6.2), and mean CCI was 25.2 (IQR 8.7-36.7). On
      multivariate analysis, delta base excess was the only significant predictor of
      CCI, demonstrating a protective effect (p = 0.001). In patients who experienced
      less than the mean delta base excess of +4.3 mmol/L, lower delta base excess was
      an independent predictor of complications (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Delta base
      excess is an independent predictor of morbidity in patients undergoing CRS/HIPEC.
      A delta base excess of greater than +4.3 mmol/L at 48 h may be an appropriate
      goal for resuscitation of CRS/HIPEC patients in the immediate postoperative
      period. Standardized protocols to correct the base deficit in CRS/HIPEC patients
      during the early postoperative period can potentially help mitigate perioperative
      morbidity.

PMID- 28560594
TI  - FBXO50 Enhances the Malignant Behavior of Gastric Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Challenges to our understanding the molecular mechanisms of the
      progression of gastric cancer (GC) must be overcome to facilitate the
      identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In this article, we
      analyzed the expression of the gene encoding F-box-only 50 (FBXO50) and
      determined whether it contributes to the malignant phenotype of GC. METHODS:
      FBXO50 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels and copy numbers of the FBXO50 locus were
      determined in 10 GC cell lines and a nontumorigenic epithelial cell line.
      Polymerase chain reaction array analysis was performed to identify genes
      coordinately expressed with FBXO50. The effects of inhibiting FBXO50 on GC cell
      proliferation, adhesion, invasiveness, and migration were evaluated using a small
      interfering RNA targeted to FBXO50 mRNA. To evaluate the clinical significance of
      FBXO50 expression, we determined the levels of FBXO50 mRNA in tissues acquired
      from 200 patients with GC. RESULTS: The levels of FBXO50 mRNA were increased in
      five GC cell lines and positively correlated with those of ITGA5, ITGB1, MMP2,
      MSN, COL5A2, GNG11, and WNT5A. Copy number gain of the FBXO50 locus was detected
      in four GC cell lines. Inhibition of FBXO50 expression significantly decreased
      the proliferation, adhesion, migration, and invasiveness of GC cell lines. In
      clinical samples, high FBXO50 expression correlated with increased pT4, invasive
      growth, lymph node metastasis, and positive peritoneal lavage cytology. Patients
      with high FBXO50 expression had a significantly higher prevalence of recurrence
      after curative gastrectomy and were more likely to experience shorter overall
      survival. CONCLUSIONS: FBXO50 may represent a biomarker for GC phenotypes and as
      a target for therapy.

PMID- 28560595
TI  - Trends in Sexual Function After Breast Cancer Surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Sexual dysfunction is assumed to be common, but understudied, in breast
      cancer patients. Herein, we use the validated female sexual functioning index
      (FSFI) to evaluate changes in female sexual function after breast cancer surgery.
      METHODS: The FSFI assesses sexual function in six domains (desire, arousal,
      lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, pain) on a 36-point scale, with scores >26.6
      indicating better sexual function. We identified 226 women with unilateral breast
      cancer undergoing surgery at our institution from June 2010-January 2015. All
      completed the FSFI preoperatively and at a median of 13 months postoperatively.
      We quantified declines in FSFI scores and considered p-values <0.05 statistically
      significant. RESULTS: Overall, 119 women had breast-conserving surgery (BCS), 40
      had unilateral mastectomy (UM), and 67 had UM plus contralateral prophylactic
      mastectomy (CPM). All women had similar baseline FSFI scores (medians: BCS, 26.3;
      UM, 25.2; UM+CPM, 23.7; p = 0.23). At follow-up, sexual function had declined
      significantly in BCS (23.5; p < 0.001) and UM (17.4; p = 0.010), but was
      unchanged in UM+CPM (22.8; p = 0.74) women. Interestingly, all women maintained
      their desire for sex (p = 0.17). BCS and UM women demonstrated significant
      declines in all other subscale domains (all p < 0.045). UM+CPM women demonstrated
      no decline in any subscale domain, yet did not exhibit superior sexual function
      to those having UM or BCS (medians: BCS, 23.5; UM, 17.4; UM+CPM, 22.8; p = 0.21).
      CONCLUSIONS: Baseline sexual dysfunction exists in women diagnosed with breast
      cancer. Surgery negatively impacts sexual function. Patients who choose
      mastectomy do not exhibit superior sexual function over those having BCS at 13
      months following surgery.

PMID- 28560596
TI  - Standard Pathologic Features Can Be Used to Identify a Subset of Estrogen
      Receptor-Positive, HER2 Negative Patients Likely to Benefit from Neoadjuvant
      Chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with
      estrogen receptor-positive (ER+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2
      negative (HER2-) breast cancers and in invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is
      uncertain due to the low rates of pathologic complete response (pCR). OBJECTIVE:
      The aim of this study was to determine if pathologic features can identify
      subsets likely to benefit from NAC. METHODS: Patients with stage I-III ER+, HER2-
      breast cancer receiving NAC were retrospectively reviewed. Endpoints were
      downstaging to breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and nodal pCR after NAC. Patients
      were grouped by progesterone receptor (PR) status and grade/differentiation (high
      grade or poor [HP] vs. non-HP). RESULTS: From 2007 to 2016, 402 ER+/HER2- cancers
      in patients receiving NAC were identified. Median age was 50 years, 98% were
      clinical stage II-III, and 75% were cN+. Overall pCR rate was 5%; breast pCR in
      7% and nodal pCR in 15% of cN+ patients (p < 0.0001). Patients with ILC initially
      ineligible for BCS (n = 56) were less likely to downstage than those with
      invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC; n = 183, 16 vs. 48%, p <= 0.0001), with a similar
      trend in the axilla (p = 0.086). The rates of BCS eligibility after NAC were
      highest in PR-/HP patients (62%) and lowest in PR+/non-HP patients (29%) [p =
      0.005]. In the axilla, nodal pCR among cN+ patients (n = 301) ranged from 0 to
      35% (p < 0.0001) within these groups, and was most frequent in PR-/HP patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: ER+/HER2- patients most likely to benefit from NAC are those with PR
      and HP tumors. Patients with ILC are unlikely to downstage in the breast or
      axilla compared with IDC. The use of these criteria can assist in defining the
      initial treatment approach.

PMID- 28560597
TI  - Increased Grade in Neuroendocrine Tumor Metastases Negatively Impacts Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor grade is an important predictor of survival in
      gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), as determined by Ki-67
      expression and mitotic rate. NETs generally grow indolently, but some cells may
      acquire traits facilitating metastasis. It is unclear how frequently metastases
      differ in grade from their primary tumors, and whether increasing grade in
      metastases affects prognosis. METHODS: Ki-67 immunohistochemistry was performed
      on resected GEPNET specimens and cases with results for both primary tumors and
      concurrent metastases were identified. Grade was determined using a modified
      World Health Organization classification (Ki-67: G1 = 0-2%; G2 > 2-20%; G3 >
      20%). RESULTS: Ki-67 was performed on both the primary tumor and metastases in
      103 patients. Tumor grade was higher in metastases from 25 (24%) patients, 24
      increased from G1 to G2, and 1 increased from G2 to G3; 68 (66%) patients had no
      change in grade (42 G1 and 26 G2), and 10 (10%) decreased from G2 to G1. No
      clinicopathologic factors were predictive of higher grade in metastases. The 5
      year progression-free survival (PFS) was 55% for patients with stable grade
      versus 8% of patients with increased grade, while 5-year overall survival (OS)
      was 92 and 54%, respectively. The 5-year OS of patients who had stable grade with
      G1 and G2 primaries was 92 and 64%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one-third
      of patients had metastases with a different grade than their primary, and, when
      grade increased, both PFS and OS significantly decreased. Determining the grade
      in both the primary tumor and a metastasis is important for estimating prognosis
      and to help inform decisions regarding additional therapies.

PMID- 28560598
TI  - The Impact of Residual Disease After Preoperative Systemic Therapy on Clinical
      Outcomes in Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive disease
      treated with multimodality therapy: preoperative systemic therapy (PST) followed
      by modified radical mastectomy (MRM), chest wall and regional nodal radiotherapy,
      and adjuvant biologic therapy and/or endocrine therapy when appropriate. In non
      IBC, the degree of pathologic response to PST has been shown to correlate with
      time to recurrence (TTR) and overall survival (OS). We sought to determine if
      pathologic response correlates with oncologic outcomes of IBC patients. METHODS:
      Following review of IBC patients' records (1997-2014), we identified 258 stage
      III IBC patients; 181 received PST followed by MRM and radiotherapy and were
      subsequently analyzed. Pathologic complete response (pCR) to PST, hormone
      receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, grade, and
      histology were evaluated as predictors of TTR and OS by Cox model. RESULTS:
      Overall, 95/181 (52%) patients experienced recurrence; 93/95 (98%) were distant
      metastases (median TTR 3.2 years). Seventy-three patients (40%) died (median OS
      6.9 years). pCR was associated with improved TTR (hazard ratio [HR] 0.20, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 0.09-0.46, p < 0.01, univariate; HR 0.17, 95% CI 0.07
      0.41, p < 0.0001, multivariate) and improved OS (HR 0.26, 95% CI 0.11-0.65, p <
      0.01, univariate). In patients with pCR, grade III (HR 1.91, 95% CI 1.16-3.13, p
      = 0.01), and triple-negative phenotype (HR 3.54, 95% CI 1.79-6.98, p = 0.0003)
      were associated with shorter TTR, while residual ductal carcinoma in situ was not
      (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.53-1.35, p = 0.48, multivariate). CONCLUSIONS: In stage III
      IBC, pCR was associated with prognosis, further influenced by grade, hormone
      receptor, and HER2 status. Investigating mechanisms that contribute to better
      response to PST could help improve oncologic outcomes in IBC.

PMID- 28560599
TI  - Computed Tomography Image Texture: A Noninvasive Prognostic Marker of Hepatic
      Recurrence After Hepatectomy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recurrence after resection of colorectal liver metastases (CRLMs)
      occurs in up to 75% of patients. Preoperative prediction of hepatic recurrence
      may inform therapeutic strategies at the time of initial resection. Texture
      analysis (TA) is an established technique that quantifies pixel intensity
      variations (heterogeneity) on cross-sectional imaging. We hypothesized that
      tumoral and parenchymal changes that are predictive of overall survival (OS) and
      recurrence in the future liver remnant (FLR) can be detected using TA on
      preoperative computed tomography (CT) images. METHODS: Patients who underwent
      resection for CRLM between 2003 and 2007 with appropriate preoperative CT scans
      were included (n = 198) in this retrospective study. Texture features extracted
      from the tumor and FLR, and clinicopathologic variables, were incorporated into a
      multivariable survival model. RESULTS: Quantitative imaging features of the FLR
      were an independent predictor of both OS and hepatic disease-free survival
      (HDFS). Tumor texture showed significant association with OS. TA of the FLR
      allowed patient stratification into two groups, with significantly different
      risks of hepatic recurrence (hazard ratio 2.09, 95% confidence interval 1.33
      3.28; p = 0.001). Patients with homogeneous parenchyma had approximately twice
      the risk of hepatic recurrence (41 vs. 20%). CONCLUSION: TA of the tumor and FLR
      are independently associated with OS, and TA of the FLR is independently
      associated with HDFS. Patients with homogeneous parenchyma had a significantly
      higher risk of hepatic recurrence. Preoperative TA of the liver represents a
      potential biomarker to identify patients at risk of liver recurrence after
      resection for CRLM.

PMID- 28560600
TI  - Short-Course Radiotherapy Followed by Neoadjuvant Bevacizumab, Capecitabine, and
      Oxaliplatin and Subsequent Radical Treatment in Primary Stage IV Rectal Cancer:
      Long-Term Results of a Phase II Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In a Dutch phase II trial conducted between 2006 and 2010, short
      course radiotherapy followed by systemic therapy with capecitabine, oxaliplatin,
      and bevacizumab as neoadjuvant treatment and subsequent radical surgical
      treatment of primary tumor and metastatic sites was evaluated. In this study, we
      report the long-term results after a minimum follow-up of 6 years. METHODS:
      Patients with histologically confirmed rectal adenocarcinoma with potentially
      resectable or ablatable metastases in liver or lungs were eligible. Follow-up
      data were collected for all patients enrolled in the trial. Overall and
      recurrence-free survival were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS:
      Follow-up data were available for all 50 patients. After a median follow-up time
      of 8.1 years (range 6.0-9.8), 16 patients (32.0%) were still alive and 14 (28%)
      were disease-free. The median overall survival was 3.8 years (range 0.5-9.4).
      From the 36 patients who received radical treatment, two (5.6%) had a local
      recurrence and 29 (80.6%) had a distant recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term
      survival can be achieved in patients with primary metastatic rectal cancer after
      neoadjuvant radio- and chemotherapy. Despite a high number of recurrences, 32% of
      patients were alive after a median follow-up time of 8.1 years.

PMID- 28560601
TI  - Induction Chemotherapy Followed by Resection or Irreversible Electroporation in
      Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer (IMPALA): A Prospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Following induction chemotherapy, both resection or irreversible
      electroporation (IRE) may further improve survival in patients with locally
      advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). However, prospective studies combining these
      strategies are currently lacking, and available studies only report on subgroups
      that completed treatment. This study aimed to determine the applicability and
      outcomes of resection and IRE in patients with nonprogressive LAPC after
      induction chemotherapy. METHODS: This was a prospective, single-center cohort
      study in consecutive patients with LAPC (September 2013 to March 2015). All
      patients were offered 3 months of induction chemotherapy (FOLFIRINOX or
      gemcitabine depending on performance status), followed by exploratory laparotomy
      for resection or IRE in patients with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid
      Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 nonprogressive, IRE-eligible tumors. RESULTS: Of 132 patients
      with LAPC, 70% (n = 93) started with chemotherapy (46% [n = 61] FOLFIRINOX).
      After 3 months, 59 patients (64%) had nonprogressive disease, of whom 36 (27% of
      the entire cohort) underwent explorative laparotomy, resulting in 14 resections
      (11% of the entire cohort, 39% of the explored patients) and 15 IREs (11% of the
      entire cohort, 42% of the explored patients). After laparotomy, 44% (n = 16) of
      patients had Clavien-Dindo grade 3 or higher complications, and 90-day all-cause
      mortality was 11% (n = 4). With a median follow-up of 24 months, median overall
      survival after resection, IRE, and for all patients with nonprogressive disease
      without resection/IRE (n = 30) was 34, 16, and 15 months, respectively. The
      resection rate in 61 patients receiving FOLFIRINOX treatment was 20%. CONCLUSION:
      Induction chemotherapy followed by IRE or resection in nonprogressive LAPC led to
      resection or IRE in 22% of all-comers, with promising survival rates after
      resection but no apparent benefit of IRE, despite considerable morbidity.
      Registered at Netherlands Trial Register (NTR4230).

PMID- 28560602
TI  - Progression to T1 High Grade (T1HG) from a Lower Stage/Grade is Associated with
      Poorer Survival Outcomes than Initial Diagnosis with T1HG Bladder Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have documented a poor prognosis in those patients
      who were initially diagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMBIC) and
      progressed to muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) compared with those who
      initially presented with MIBC. However, studies regarding this issue have not yet
      been performed in patients with T1 high-grade (T1HG) tumor. We aimed to compare
      survival outcomes between patients diagnosed as T1HG after initial transurethral
      resection of the bladder tumor (TUR-BT) and patients who presented with lower
      stage and/or grade but progressed to T1HG at the time of tumor recurrence.
      METHODS: The study comprised 499 patients who had a diagnosis of T1HG after
      initial TUR-BT (initial T1HG group) and 62 patients who progressed to T1HG after
      TUR-BT at the time of tumor recurrence (progressed T1HG group). Progression was
      defined as recurrence to a higher grade and/or stage than the previous result,
      while MIBC progression was defined as progression to stage T2 or higher and/or
      N+, and/or M1. RESULTS: The median overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific
      survival (CSS) durations were 38.0 and 29.0 months, respectively. Kaplan-Meier
      curve analysis showed significantly decreased 5-year OS (74.4 vs. 57.4%), CSS
      (86.4 vs. 72.8%), and MIBC progression-free survival (82.6 vs. 62.2%) in the
      progressed T1HG group. Multivariate analysis revealed that progressed T1HG was a
      significant predictor of OS, CSS, and MIBC progression (all, p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The progressed T1HG group showed poorer survival outcomes compared
      with the initial T1HG group. Consequently, in patients who progress to T1HG,
      intensive surveillance and treatment strategies should be considered.

PMID- 28560603
TI  - Micro-RNA-130a-3p Regulates Gemcitabine Resistance via PPARG in
      Cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prognosis of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is so poor that its
      chemoresistance needs to be reduced. In this study, we focused on the microRNAs
      (miRNAs) associated with gemcitabine resistance of CCA and assessed the clinical
      significance of miRNAs and their target genes. METHODS: We performed miRNA
      microarray analysis for two CCA cell lines (CCLP-1 and MzChA-1) and their
      gemcitabine-resistant (GR) cells. An miR-130a-3p mimic was induced into CCA cells
      using lipofection, and we used pioglitazone as a peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) agonist in vitro. The expression of miR-130a
      3p was studied in 27 intrahepatic CCA samples after laser capture microdissection
      (LCM) and by immunohistochemistry from patients who had undergone curative
      resection from March 2004 to November 2012 at Osaka University Hospital. RESULTS:
      miR-130a-3p expression was upregulated in CCLP-1-GRs and MzChA-1-GRs
      significantly more than in their parental cells. Transfection of the miR-130a-3p
      mimic into CCA cells increased gemcitabine resistance, and we detected PPARG as a
      target gene of miR-130a-3p. Furthermore, pioglitazone had a synergistic effect
      with gemcitabine and alleviated gemcitabine resistance of CCA GR cells. Moreover,
      clinical examination revealed that for patients who underwent adjuvant
      gemcitabine therapy, those who were PPARgamma positive had significantly longer
      disease-free survival than those who were PPARgamma negative (n = 5 and 11,
      respectively; p = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that miR-130a-3p was
      associated with gemcitabine resistance in CCA through PPARG, and there is a
      possibility that pioglitazone can be used for the treatment of CCA.

PMID- 28560604
TI  - Anthropogenic protection alters the microbiome in intertidal mangrove wetlands in
      Hainan Island.
AB  - Intertidal mangrove wetlands are of great economic and ecological importance. The
      regular influence of tides has led to the microbial communities in these wetlands
      differing significantly from those in other habitats. In this study, we
      investigated the microbiomes of the two largest mangrove wetlands in Hainan
      Island, China, which have different levels of anthropogenic protection. Soil
      samples were collected from the root zone of 13 mangrove species. The microbial
      composition, including key functional groups, was assessed using Illumina
      sequencing. Bioinformatics analysis showed that there was a significant
      difference in the microbiomes between the protected Bamen Bay and the unprotected
      Dongzhai Bay. The overall microbiome was assigned into 78 phyla and
      Proteobacteria was the most abundant phylum at both sites. In the protected
      wetland, there were fewer marine-related microbial communities, such as sulfate
      reducing bacteria, and more terrestrial-related communities, such as
      Verrucomicrobia methanotrophs. We also observed distinct microbial compositions
      among the different mangrove species at the protected site. Our data suggest that
      the different microbiomes of the two mangrove wetlands are the result of a
      complex interaction of the different environmental variables at the two sites.

PMID- 28560605
TI  - Social support, stress coping strategies, resilience and posttraumatic growth in
      a Polish sample of HIV-infected individuals: results of a 1 year longitudinal
      study.
AB  - This study investigated the level of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and its
      association with the level of social support, stress coping strategies and
      resilience among a people living with HIV (PLWH) in a 1 year longitudinal study.
      We also controlled for age, HIV infection duration and the presence of
      posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). From the 290 participants, initially
      eligible for the study, 110 patients were recruited for the first assessment and
      73 patients participated in a follow-up assessment. Participants filled out
      following psychometric tools: the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), the
      Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS), the Mini-COPE Inventory, the Resiliency
      Assessment Scale (SPP-25) and the PTSD-F questionnaire. Received support and
      resilience were positively, whereas return to religion as coping strategy was
      negatively related to the PTG. Clinicians and researchers need to focus on
      potentially positive consequences of HIV infection, i.e. PTG, and factors that
      might promote it among PLWH.

PMID- 28560606
TI  - Biological Invasion Influences the Outcome of Plant-Soil Feedback in the Invasive
      Plant Species from the Brazilian Semi-arid.
AB  - Plant-soil feedback is recognized as the mutual interaction between plants and
      soil microorganisms, but its role on the biological invasion of the Brazilian
      tropical seasonal dry forest by invasive plants still remains unclear. Here, we
      analyzed and compared the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) communities and soil
      characteristics from the root zone of invasive and native plants, and tested how
      these AMF communities affect the development of four invasive plant species
      (Cryptostegia madagascariensis, Parkinsonia aculeata, Prosopis juliflora, and
      Sesbania virgata). Our field sampling revealed that AMF diversity and frequency
      of the Order Diversisporales were positively correlated with the root zone of the
      native plants, whereas AMF dominance and frequency of the Order Glomerales were
      positively correlated with the root zone of invasive plants. We grew the invasive
      plants in soil inoculated with AMF species from the root zone of invasive (I
      changed) and native (I unaltered) plant species. We also performed a third
      treatment with sterilized soil inoculum (control). We examined the effects of
      these three AMF inoculums on plant dry biomass, root colonization, plant
      phosphorous concentration, and plant responsiveness to mycorrhizas. We found that
      I unaltered and I changed promoted the growth of all invasive plants and led to a
      higher plant dry biomass, mycorrhizal colonization, and P uptake than control,
      but I changed showed better results on these variables than I unaltered. For
      plant responsiveness to mycorrhizas and fungal inoculum effect on plant P
      concentration, we found positive feedback between changed-AMF community (I
      changed) and three of the studied invasive plants: C. madagascariensis, P.
      aculeata, and S. virgata.

PMID- 28560607
TI  - Femoral nerve and lumbar plexus injury after minimally invasive lateral
      retroperitoneal transpsoas approach: electrodiagnostic prognostic indicators and
      a roadmap to recovery.
AB  - Injury to the lumbosacral (LS) plexus is a well-described complication after
      lateral retroperitoneal transpsoas approaches to the spine. The prognosis for
      functional recovery after lumbosacral plexopathy or femoral/obturator neuropathy
      is unclear. We designed a retrospective case-control study with patients
      undergoing one-level lateral retroperitoneal transpsoas lumbar interbody fusion
      (LLIF) between January 2011 and June 2016 to correlate electrodiagnostic
      assessments (EDX) to physiologic concepts of nerve injury and reinnervation, and
      attempt to build a timeline for patient evaluation and recovery. Cases with post
      operative obturator or femoral neuropathy were identified. Post-operative MRI,
      nerve conduction studies (NCS), electromyography (EMG), and physical examinations
      were performed at intervals to assess clinical and electrophysiologic recovery of
      function. Two hundred thirty patients underwent LLIF. Six patients (2.6%)
      suffered severe femoral or femoral/obturator neuropathy. Five patients (2.2%) had
      immediate post-operative weakness. One of the six patients developed delayed
      weakness due to a retroperitoneal hematoma. Five out of six patients (83%)
      demonstrated EDX findings at 6 weeks consistent with axonotmesis. All patients
      improved to at least MRC 4/5 within 12 months of injury. In conclusion,
      neurapraxia is the most common LS plexus injury, and complete recovery is
      expected after 3 months. Most severe nerve injuries are a combination of
      neurapraxia and variable degrees of axonotmesis. EDX performed at 6 weeks and 3,
      6, and 9 months provides prognostic information for recovery. In severe injuries
      of proximal femoral and obturator nerves, observation of proximal to distal
      progression of small-amplitude, short-duration (SASD) motor unit potentials may
      be the most significant prognostic indicator.

PMID- 28560608
TI  - Utility of preoperative meningioma consistency measurement with magnetic
      resonance elastography (MRE): a review.
AB  - Meningioma consistency is a critical factor that influences preoperative planning
      for surgical resection. Recent studies have investigated the utility of
      preoperative magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in predicting meningioma
      consistency. However, it is unclear whether existing methods are optimal for
      application to clinical practice. The results and conclusions of these studies
      are limited by their imaging acquisition methods, such as the use of a single MRE
      frequency and the use of shear modulus as the final measurement variable, rather
      than its storage and loss modulus components. In addition, existing studies do
      not account for the effects of cranial anatomy, which have been shown to
      significantly distort the MRE signal. Given the interaction of meningiomas with
      these anatomic structures and the lack of supporting evidence with more accurate
      imaging parameters, MRE may not yet be reliable for use in clinical practice.

PMID- 28560609
TI  - Addition of exogenous SOD1 aggregates causes TDP-43 mislocalisation and
      aggregation.
AB  - ALS is characterised by a focal onset of motor neuron loss, followed by
      contiguous outward spreading of pathology throughout the nervous system,
      resulting in paralysis and death generally within a few years after diagnosis.
      The aberrant release and uptake of toxic proteins including SOD1 and TDP-43 and
      their subsequent propagation, accumulation and deposition in motor neurons may
      explain such a pattern of pathology. Previous work has suggested that the
      internalization of aggregates triggers stress granule formation. Given the close
      association of stress granules and TDP-43, we wondered whether internalisation of
      SOD1 aggregates stimulated TDP-43 cytosolic aggregate structures. Addition of
      recombinant mutant G93A SOD1 aggregates to NSC-34 cells was found to trigger a
      rapid shift of TDP-43 to the cytoplasm where it was still accumulated after 48 h.
      In addition, SOD1 aggregates also triggered cleavage of TDP-43 into fragments
      including a 25 kDa fragment. Collectively, this study suggests a role for protein
      aggregate uptake in TDP-43 pathology.

PMID- 28560610
TI  - Association between growth dynamics, morphological parameters, the chromosomal
      status of the blastocysts, and clinical outcomes in IVF PGS cycles with single
      embryo transfer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study is to examine interconnection between
      speed of embryo development, the genetic status of the blastocysts, and clinical
      outcomes in IVF preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) cycles with single embryo
      transfer (SET). METHODS: The retrospective comparative study has been performed
      between January 2013 and January 2016. Seven hundred thirty-seven cycles of IVF
      treatment with PGS, followed by 503 SETs, were included in the study. Normally
      fertilized oocytes were hatched on day 3, were cultured to the blastocyst stage,
      and were biopsied only when at least three to seven cells were herniating from
      zona pellucida on the morning of day 5 (<=118 h) or day 6 (>=139 h). A total of
      3705 embryos were analyzed for euploidy rates and blastocyst morphology. All
      embryos were vitrified after the biopsy, and selected embryos were subsequently
      thawed for a hormone replacement frozen embryo transfer cycle. RESULTS: The
      euploidy rate was significantly higher among embryos biopsied on day 5 versus day
      6: 59.44 +/- 4.1 and 48.19 +/- 3.8, respectively, p < 0.05. The difference in
      euploidy rates between embryos biopsied on day 5 versus day 6 in matched age
      groups increased from 5.83 to 25.46% with advancing maternal age. Our data
      demonstrated no statistically significant difference in euploidy rates between
      good-quality embryos biopsied on day 5 in the group of patients <38 years old and
      embryos in PGS cycles using donor oocytes: 71.12% (336/472) and 75.68% (221/292),
      respectively, p = 0.174, chi 2 = 1.848. In 270 out of 503 SETs, transferred
      embryos were biopsied on day 5 (ongoing pregnancy rate was 64.6% in a group of
      patients <38 years old, and in a group of patients >=38 years old, ongoing PR was
      64.2%). In 233 out of 503 cycles, transferred embryos were biopsied on day 6
      (ongoing PR was 46.6% in a group of patients <38 years old, and in a group of
      patients >=38 years old, ongoing PR was 50.8%). In all study groups, the ongoing
      pregnancy rate was higher when the transferred embryo was available for biopsy on
      day 5. CONCLUSIONS: Good- and fair-quality embryos available for biopsy on day 5
      have higher euploidy rates and have a higher chance to result in an ongoing
      pregnancy. Euploidy rate has significant variations within the same age group
      depending on the morphology of the blastocysts.

PMID- 28560611
TI  - Have You Talked about It: Advance Care Planning among African Americans Living
      with HIV in Baltimore.
AB  - Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of planning for when individuals are
      unable to make their own healthcare decisions. Research suggests ACP is
      understudied among HIV-positive African Americans. We explored ACP knowledge,
      preferences, and practices with HIV-positive African Americans from an urban HIV
      specialty clinic (AFFIRM study). Participants completed surveys and interviews.
      Descriptive analyses and Poisson regression were conducted on survey data.
      Qualitative interviews were coded using grounded theory/constant comparative
      method. Participants were mostly male (55.1%). Half rated their current pain as
      at least six out of ten (50.8%). Two-thirds had discussed ACP with providers or
      supporters (66.2%). Qualitative themes were: (1) impact of managing pain on
      quality of life and healthcare, (2) knowledge/preferences for ACP, and (3)
      sources of HIV supportive care and coping (N = 39). Correlates of having
      discussed ACP included: moderate pain intensity (p < 0.10), including supporters
      in health decisions (p < 0.001), religious attendance (p < 0.05), and knowledge
      of healthcare mandates (p < 0.01; N = 276). Findings highlight the need for
      patient education to document healthcare preferences and communication skills
      development to promote inclusion of caregivers in decision-making.

PMID- 28560612
TI  - Characterization of Stress in Low-Income, Inner-City Mothers of Children with
      Poorly Controlled Asthma.
AB  - The goal of this longitudinal analysis was to characterize factors associated
      with the experience of life stress in low-income, inner-city mothers of minority
      children with high-risk asthma.Participants (n = 276) reported on family
      demographics, child asthma control and healthcare utilization, social support,
      contemporary life difficulties (housing, finances, violence exposure) measured by
      the validated Crisis in Family Systems scale, and daily stress. Latent growth
      curve modeling examined predictors of life stress across 12 months as a function
      of home and community difficulties, asthma-specific factors, and social support.
      Mothers were primarily single (73%), unemployed (55%), and living in extreme
      poverty with most (73%) reporting an annual family income <$20,000 (73%). The
      children were young (mean age = 5.59, SD = 2.17), African-American (96%), and had
      poorly controlled asthma (94%) at study enrollment. Higher daily stress was
      associated with financial difficulties, safety concerns in the home and
      community, and housing problems. Access to social support was consistently
      related to reduced stress. The only asthma-specific factor associated with life
      stress was healthcare utilization, with more emergency services for asthma
      related to higher daily stress. Findings underscore the clinical significance of
      assessing diverse home and community stressors and social support in low-income,
      inner-city caregivers of children with poorly controlled asthma.

PMID- 28560614
TI  - Letter to the editor.

PMID- 28560613
TI  - The Relationship between Neighborhood Disorder, Social Networks, and Indoor
      Cigarette Smoking among Impoverished Inner-City Residents.
AB  - Impoverished urban neighborhoods tend to have higher rates of smoking and higher
      rates of exposure to secondhand smoke as compared to more affluent neighborhoods.
      Contextual factors of neighborhood disorder and social network and household
      composition may have an impact on indoor smoking behaviors. The TIDE study
      examined psychosocial factors associated with smoking behaviors among
      impoverished inner-city smokers in Baltimore, Maryland. Among a community
      recruited sample of 413 smokers who lived with others, most (73%) reported that
      they or others smoked in their residence. Cohabitation with children, elderly,
      and those with asthma and other respiratory condition was not associated with
      indoor smoking. Neighborhood disorder, the proportion of social network members
      who smoked with the study participant, and the proportion of household members
      who smoked were all independently associated with smoking indoors. The study
      findings suggest the importance of addressing neighborhood and social network
      factors when developing programs for promoting indoor smoking bans as well as
      cessation and prevention programs.

PMID- 28560615
TI  - Effect of continuous dialysis on blood ph in acidemic hypercapnic animals with
      severe acute kidney injury: a randomized experimental study comparing high vs.
      low bicarbonate affluent.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Controlling blood pH during acute ventilatory failure and hypercapnia
      in individuals suffering from severe acute kidney injury (AKI) and undergoing
      continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is of paramount importance in
      critical care settings. In this situation, the optimal concentration of sodium
      bicarbonate in the dialysate is still an unsolved question in critical care since
      high concentrations may worsen carbon dioxide levels and low concentrations may
      not be as effective in controlling pH. METHODS: We performed a randomized, non
      blinded, experimental study. AKI was induced in 12 female pigs via renal hilum
      ligation and hypoventilation by reducing the tidal volume during mechanical
      ventilation with the goal of achieving a pH between 7.10-7.15. After achieving
      the target pH, animals were randomized to undergo isovolemic hemodialysis with
      one of two bicarbonate concentrations in the dialysate (40 mEq/L [group 40] vs.
      20 mEq/L [group 20]). RESULTS: Hemodynamic, respiratory, and laboratory data were
      collected. The median pH value at CRRT initiation was 7.14 [7.12, 7.15] in group
      20 and 7.13 [7.09, 7.14] in group 40 (P = ns). The median baseline PaCO2 was 74
      [72, 81] mmHg in group 20 vs. 79 [63, 85] mmHg in group 40 (P = ns). After 3 h of
      CRRT, the pH value was 7.05 [6.95, 7.09] in group 20 and 7.12 [7.1, 7.14] in
      group 40 (P < 0.05), with corresponding values of PaCO2 of 85 [79, 88] mmHg vs.
      81 [63, 100] mmHg (P = ns). The difference in pH after 3 h was due to a metabolic
      component [standard base excess -10.4 [-12.5, -9.5] mEq/L in group 20 vs. -7.6 [
      9.2, -5.1] mEq/L in group 40) (P < 0.05)]. Despite the increased infusion of
      bicarbonate in group 40, the blood CO2 content did not change during the
      experiment. The 12-h survival rate was higher in group 40 (67% vs. 0, P = 0.032).
      CONCLUSIONS: A higher bicarbonate concentration in the dialysate of animals
      undergoing hypercapnic respiratory failure was associated with improved blood pH
      control without increasing the PaCO2 levels.

PMID- 28560617
TI  - A Case Study of Negative Affixes in Sadegh Hedayat's Letters: The Effect of
      Bipolar Mood Disorder.
AB  - This research studies the morphological features found in Sadegh Hedayat's
      letters, who, based on linguistic and psychological studies, may have had bipolar
      disorder. It aims to assess the impact of various types of moods on the frequency
      of negative affixes through qualitative analysis of the letters' text. The
      letters are written in Persian, and include six negative derivational affixes. As
      bipolar disorder includes four episodes, all letters are analyzed on the basis of
      six negative affixes concerning the episodes using SPSS. The results indicate
      that each episode shows totally different characteristics in using negative
      affixes. In fact, Hedayat mostly used negative affixes in depression, confirming
      psychological studies, and it is revealed that he mostly used negative affixes in
      hypomania when he experienced an irritated mood. Moreover, the frequency of
      negative affixes in mixed episode shows a combination of hypomania and
      depression, which is in agreement with previous studies. Additionally, euthymia
      shows few negative affixes.

PMID- 28560616
TI  - 1H, 13C, and 15N backbone and sidechain resonance assignments of a monomeric
      variant of E. coli deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase.
AB  - Deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase (DERA) catalyses the reversible conversion of 2
      deoxyribose-5-phosphate (dR5P) into glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P) and
      acetaldehyde. For industrial applications, this enzyme is used in organic
      synthesis for aldol reactions between acetaldehyde as a donor and a wide range of
      aldehydes as acceptors. Here, we present a near complete set of sequence-specific
      1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments of a 28 kDa monomeric variant of the
      Escherichia coli DERA. These assignments provide the basis for ongoing structural
      and dynamic analysis of DERA substrate specificity.

PMID- 28560618
TI  - Dissipation pattern and risk quotients assessment of amisulbrom in Korean melon
      cultivated in plastic house conditions.
AB  - Amisulbrom formulated as suspension concentrate was applied at the rate
      recommended for Korean melon to determine the dissipation pattern (at two
      different sites), the pre-harvest residue limit (PHRL), and risk assessments.
      Samples collected over 10 days were extracted using liquid-liquid extraction
      (LLE) and cleaned up with solid-phase extraction (SPE) Florisil cartridge.
      Residual concentrations were determined using liquid chromatography-ultraviolet
      detector (LC-UVD) and confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      (LC-MS/MS). The standard showed good instrument response linearity with a
      correlation coefficient (R 2) = 0.9999, and the recovery ranged from 87.5 to
      93.7%. The dissipation half-life calculated from two different sites were found
      to be 7.0 and 8.8 days for sites 1 and 2, respectively. A PHRL graph constructed
      from the data indicated that if the residue levels were less than 0.55-0.59 mg/kg
      3 days before harvest or less than 0.61-0.74 mg/kg 7 days before harvest, then
      they would be lower than the maximum residue limits (MRLs) at harvest. Risk
      assessments showed that the risk quotient (RQ) was 4.39-3.47% at 0 day, declined
      to 1.53-1.63% at 10 days. Therefore, the current data indicate that the
      amisulbrom can be applied safely to Korean melon; hence, it is unlikely to induce
      adverse health effects in consumers.

PMID- 28560620
TI  - 13C NMR spectroscopy characterization of particle-size fractionated soil organic
      carbon in subalpine forest and grassland ecosystems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Soil organic carbon (SOC) and carbon (C) functional groups in
      different particle-size fractions are important indicators of microbial activity
      and soil decomposition stages under wildfire disturbances. This research
      investigated a natural Tsuga forest and a nearby fire-induced grassland along a
      sampling transect in Central Taiwan with the aim to better understand the effect
      of forest wildfires on the change of SOC in different soil particle scales. Soil
      samples were separated into six particle sizes and SOC was characterized by solid
      state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in each fraction. RESULTS: The
      SOC content was higher in forest than grassland soil in the particle-size
      fraction samples. The O-alkyl-C content (carbohydrate-derived structures) was
      higher in the grassland than the forest soils, but the alkyl-C content
      (recalcitrant substances) was higher in forest than grassland soils, for a higher
      humification degree (alkyl-C/O-alkyl-C ratio) in forest soils for all the soil
      particle-size fractions. CONCLUSIONS: High humification degree was found in
      forest soils. The similar aromaticity between forest and grassland soils might be
      attributed to the fire-induced aromatic-C content in the grassland that offsets
      the original difference between the forest and grassland. High alkyl-C content
      and humification degree and low C/N ratios in the fine particle-size fractions
      implied that undecomposed recalcitrant substances tended to accumulate in the
      fine fractions of soils.

PMID- 28560619
TI  - Cariprazine: A Review in Schizophrenia.
AB  - Cariprazine (VraylarTM) is a dopamine D3-preferring D2/D3 receptor partial
      agonist indicated for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. This
      narrative review summarizes pharmacological, efficacy and tolerability data
      relevant to the use of cariprazine in patients with this disorder. In 6-week,
      phase IIb and III trials in patients with schizophrenia, cariprazine was
      significantly more efficacious than placebo in improving schizophrenia symptoms,
      including improvements in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total
      scores. It was associated with a significantly longer time to relapse than
      placebo in a long-term, phase III, relapse-prevention study. Cariprazine was also
      significantly more efficacious than risperidone in improving PANSS Factor Score
      for Negative Symptoms in a phase III trial in patients with predominantly
      negative symptoms of schizophrenia, a typically difficult to treat group of
      patients. Cariprazine was generally well tolerated in clinical trials, with most
      adverse events being of mild to moderate severity, and metabolic changes observed
      were considered generally not clinically significant. Cariprazine is a useful
      addition to the treatment options for schizophrenia, and may be of particular use
      in patients with predominantly negative symptoms.

PMID- 28560622
TI  - Micro-electrolysis/retinervus luffae-based simultaneous autotrophic and
      heterotrophic denitrification for low C/N wastewater treatment.
AB  - Nitrogen bioremediation in organic insufficient wastewater generally requires an
      extra carbon source. In this study, nitrate-contaminated wastewater was treated
      effectively through simultaneous autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification
      based on micro-electrolysis carriers (MECs) and retinervus luffae fructus (RLF),
      respectively. The average nitrate and total nitrogen removal rates reached 96.3
      and 94.0% in the MECs/RLF-based autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification
      (MRAHD) system without ammonia and nitrite accumulation. The performance of MRAHD
      was better than that of MEC-based autotrophic denitrification for the wastewater
      treatment with low carbon nitrogen (COD/N) ratio. Real-time quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) revealed that the relative abundance of nirS
      type denitrifiers attached to MECs (4.9%) and RLF (5.0%) was similar. Illumina
      sequencing suggested that the dominant genera were Thiobacillus (7.0%) and
      Denitratisoma (5.7%), which attached to MECs and RLF, respectively. Sulfuritalea
      was discovered as the dominant genus in the middle of the reactor. The
      synergistic interaction between autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrifiers played
      a vital role in the mixotrophic substrate environment.

PMID- 28560621
TI  - Lymphocytes as Biomarkers of Therapeutic Response in Rheumatic Autoimmune
      Diseases, Is It a Realistic Goal?
AB  - Many therapies are available for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) while
      biological therapies have limited effects in patients with systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE) and primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS). In both cases,
      biomarkers predicting drug response would be very useful to guide clinicians in
      their choice. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the value of
      lymphocyte phenotyping as a marker of therapeutic response. Of the 1063 articles
      retrieved, 39 fulfilled inclusion criteria and were included in the present
      review (25 for RA, 10 for SLE, and 4 for pSS). Lymphocyte phenotyping was
      described as a biomarker of therapeutic response in many studies, but most
      results could not be confirmed by independent teams using multivariate analysis.
      The most consistent result might be the association between rituximab response
      and the levels of memory B cells before therapy, although some studies were
      controversial. Thus, lymphocyte phenotyping cannot yet be proposed as a biomarker
      of response in rheumatic autoimmune diseases. The lack of reproducibility between
      studies may be explained by technical issues influencing lymphocyte phenotyping
      so standardization procedures should be developed for future studies. The
      patients' characteristics vary between studies, and large population studies,
      including a wide range of patients' characteristics and biomarkers, are required
      to provide predictive models for clinical outcomes. The use of new flow cytometry
      techniques such as single-cell mass cytometry technology might also help finder
      reliable biomarkers in the future.

PMID- 28560623
TI  - Exposure assessment of honeybees through study of hive matrices: analysis of
      selected pesticide residues in honeybees, beebread, and beeswax from French
      beehives by LC-MS/MS.
AB  - Apiculture and pollination services are seriously threatened by bee weakening and
      losses phenomena. In this context, a survey was performed on samples from
      beehives across French areas during the 2012-2016 growing seasons, primarily
      taken from symptomatic colonies. A total of 488 honeybees, beebread, and wax were
      analyzed for the presence of pesticide residues. A total of 13 analytes including
      neonicotinoids and pyrethroids insecticides together with some of their
      metabolites and the fungicide boscalid were screened within samples.
      Methodologies based on efficient modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged,
      and safe extractions followed by an LC-MS/MS quantification were implemented for
      each matrix. Thirty-eight percent of the 125 bee samples, 61% of the 87 wax
      samples, and 77% of the 276 beebread samples contained at least one of the
      targeted pesticides. Beebread was the most contaminated matrix with an average of
      two pesticide detections by positive sample and a maximum of seven compounds for
      a sample. Neonicotinoids and boscalid were the most often detected pesticides,
      whatever the matrix. The comparison of neonicotinoid detections in samples
      collected before and after the partial neonicotinoid ban in France displays a
      decrease in the frequency of detections for contamination levels lower than 1
      ng/g in beebread. For higher levels and other matrices, no tendency can be drawn.

PMID- 28560624
TI  - Urinary metabolomic profiling in rats exposed to dietary di(2-ethylhexyl)
      phthalate (DEHP) using ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of
      flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS).
AB  - Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is an omnipresent environmental chemical with
      widespread nonoccupational human exposure through multiple ways. Although
      considerable efforts have been invested to investigate mechanisms of DEHP
      toxicity, the key metabolic biomarkers of DEHP toxicity remain to be identified.
      The aim of this study was to assess the urinary metabonomics of dietary DEHP in
      rats using the technique of ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole
      time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS). Fourteen female Wistar
      rats were divided into two groups and given increasing dietary doses of DEHP for
      30 consecutive days. The urinary metabolite profile was studied using ultra
      performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem
      mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares
      discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) enabled clusters to be clearly separated. Eleven
      principal urinary metabolites were identified as contributing to the clusters.
      The clusters in the positive electrospray ionization (ESI) mode were xanthurenic
      acid, kynurenic acid, nonate, N6-methyladenosine, and L-isoleucyl-L-proline. The
      clusters in the negative ESI mode were hippuric acid, tetrahydrocortisol, citric
      acid, phenylpropionylglycine, cPA(18:2(9Z, 12Z)/0:0), and LysoPC(14:1(9Z)). The
      urinary metabonomic changes indicated that exposure to dietary DEHP can affect
      energy-related metabolism, liver and renal function, fatty acid metabolism, and
      cause DNA damage in rats. The findings of this study on the urinary metabolites
      and metabolic pathways of DEHP may form the basis for future studies on the
      mechanisms of toxicity of this commonly found environmental chemical.

PMID- 28560627
TI  - Testing the EKC hypothesis by considering trade openness, urbanization, and
      financial development: the case of Turkey.
AB  - This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the
      case of Turkey from 1960 to 2013 by considering energy consumption, trade,
      urbanization, and financial development variables. Although previous literature
      examines various aspects of the EKC hypothesis for the case of Turkey, our model
      augments the basic model with several covariates to develop a better
      understanding of the relationship among the variables and to refrain from omitted
      variable bias. The results of the bounds test and the error correction model
      under autoregressive distributed lag mechanism suggest long-run relationships
      among the variables as well as proof of the EKC and the scale effect in Turkey. A
      conditional Granger causality test reveals that there are causal relationships
      among the variables. Our findings can have policy implications including the
      imposition of a "polluter pays" mechanism, such as the implementation of a carbon
      tax for pollution trading, to raise the urban population's awareness about the
      importance of adopting renewable energy and to support clean, environmentally
      friendly technology.

PMID- 28560628
TI  - Fate of selected drugs in the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for domestic
      sewage.
AB  - The wide diffusion of Emerging Organic Micropollutants (EOMs) in the environment
      is receiving increasing attention due to their potential toxicological effects on
      living organisms. So far, the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) have not been
      designed with the purpose to remove these contaminants; therefore, they can
      represent the major source of release into the environment both through the
      effluent and the wasted sludge. The fate of EOMs in the WWTPs is still not
      completely known; further investigations are therefore needed to assess if it is
      possible to exploit the existing treatment units to reduce EOM concentrations or
      which processes must be implemented to this purpose. Among the wide class of
      EOMs, the present study focused on the following drugs of abuse: amphetamine
      (AM), methamphetamine (MET), 11-nor-Delta9-THC-9carboxy (THC-COOH) and
      benzoylecgonine (BEG). Presence and removal efficiency of these drugs in the
      activated sludge tank of a WWTP for domestic sewage was investigated through
      analyses at both full-scale and laboratory scale. Determinations conducted in the
      full-scale WWTP highlighted that, among the searched drugs, AM was found to be
      the most abundant in the influent and effluent of the biological oxidation tank,
      while 11-nor-Delta9-THC-9carboxy was present at the lowest concentration. Some
      removal took place in the units prior to the oxidation tank, although the main
      reduction was observed to occur in the biological oxidation reactor. All the
      drugs showed a wide variability of the measured concentrations during the week
      and the day. Taking into account results from both full-scale observations and
      batch tests, removals in the biological reactor were found within the following
      ranges: 33-84% for AM, 33-97% for MET, 33-57% for BEG and 29-83% for THC-COOH.
      These removals were due to a combination of adsorption and biodegradation mainly,
      while volatilization did not play a significant role. Other processes, e.g.
      hydrolysis, were likely to occur.

PMID- 28560625
TI  - Fullerol C60(OH)24 nanoparticles and mycotoxigenic fungi: a preliminary
      investigation into modulation of mycotoxin production.
AB  - Increased use of fullerols in various fields and expected increase of their
      environmental spread impose the necessity for testing fullerol nanoparticles
      (FNP) effects on microbiota. There is little information available on the
      interaction of mycotoxigenic fungi and FNP, despite FNP having a great potential
      of modifying mycotoxin production. Namely, FNP exhibit both ROS-quenching and ROS
      producing properties, while oxidative stress stimulates mycotoxin synthesis in
      the fungi. In order to shed some light on the extent of interaction between FNP
      and mycotoxigenic fungi, the effects of fullerol C60(OH)24 nanoparticles (10,
      100, 1000 ng/mL) on mycelial growth, aflatoxin production and oxidative stress
      modulation in an aflatoxigenic strain of Aspergillus flavus (NRRL 3251) during
      168 h of incubation in a liquid culture medium were examined. FNP slightly
      reduced mycelial biomass weight, but significantly decreased aflatoxin
      concentration in media. Lipid peroxide content, superoxide dismutase, catalase
      and glutathione peroxidase activities suggest that FNP treatments hormetically
      reduced oxidative stress within fungal cells in turn suppressing aflatoxin
      production. These findings contribute to the assessment of environmental risk and
      application potential of fullerols.

PMID- 28560626
TI  - Use of halophytes in pilot-scale horizontal flow constructed wetland treating
      domestic wastewater.
AB  - Recent findings encourage the use of halophytes in constructed wetlands for
      domestic wastewater treatment due to their special physiological characteristics
      as the ability to accumulate heavy metals and salts in their tissues makes them
      ideal candidates for constructed wetland vegetation. In this particular study, we
      investigated the application of halophytic plants in a horizontal flow
      constructed wetland for domestic wastewater treatment purposes. The pilot plant
      which was situated in Crete (Greece) was planted with a polyculture of halophytes
      (Tamarix parviflora, Juncus acutus, Sarcocornia perrenis, and Limoniastrum
      monopetalum). The system's performance was monitored for a period of 11 months
      during which it received primary treated wastewater from the local wastewater
      treatment plant. Results show that halophytes developed successfully in the
      constructed wetland and achieved organic matter and pathogen removal efficiencies
      comparable to those reported for reeds in previous works (63% and 1.6 log units,
      respectively). In addition, boron concentration in the effluent was reduced by
      40% in comparison with the influent. Salinity as expressed by electrical
      conductivity did not change during the treatment, indicating that the
      accumulation of salts in the leaves is not able to overcome electrical
      conductivity increasing due to evapotranspiration. The results indicate an
      improvement in the treatment of domestic wastewater via the use of halophyte
      planted CWs.

PMID- 28560629
TI  - Extreme learning machines: a new approach for modeling dissolved oxygen (DO)
      concentration with and without water quality variables as predictors.
AB  - In this paper, several extreme learning machine (ELM) models, including standard
      extreme learning machine with sigmoid activation function (S-ELM), extreme
      learning machine with radial basis activation function (R-ELM), online sequential
      extreme learning machine (OS-ELM), and optimally pruned extreme learning machine
      (OP-ELM), are newly applied for predicting dissolved oxygen concentration with
      and without water quality variables as predictors. Firstly, using data from eight
      United States Geological Survey (USGS) stations located in different rivers
      basins, USA, the S-ELM, R-ELM, OS-ELM, and OP-ELM were compared against the
      measured dissolved oxygen (DO) using four water quality variables, water
      temperature, specific conductance, turbidity, and pH, as predictors. For each
      station, we used data measured at an hourly time step for a period of 4 years.
      The dataset was divided into a training set (70%) and a validation set (30%). We
      selected several combinations of the water quality variables as inputs for each
      ELM model and six different scenarios were compared. Secondly, an attempt was
      made to predict DO concentration without water quality variables. To achieve this
      goal, we used the year numbers, 2008, 2009, etc., month numbers from (1) to (12),
      day numbers from (1) to (31) and hour numbers from (00:00) to (24:00) as
      predictors. Thirdly, the best ELM models were trained using validation dataset
      and tested with the training dataset. The performances of the four ELM models
      were evaluated using four statistical indices: the coefficient of correlation
      (R), the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), the root mean squared error (RMSE), and
      the mean absolute error (MAE). Results obtained from the eight stations indicated
      that: (i) the best results were obtained by the S-ELM, R-ELM, OS-ELM, and OP-ELM
      models having four water quality variables as predictors; (ii) out of eight
      stations, the OP-ELM performed better than the other three ELM models at seven
      stations while the R-ELM performed the best at one station. The OS-ELM models
      performed the worst and provided the lowest accuracy; (iii) for predicting DO
      without water quality variables, the R-ELM performed the best at seven stations
      followed by the S-ELM in the second place and the OP-ELM performed the worst with
      low accuracy; (iv) for the final application where training ELM models with
      validation dataset and testing with training dataset, the OP-ELM provided the
      best accuracy using water quality variables and the R-ELM performed the best at
      all eight stations without water quality variables. Fourthly, and finally, we
      compared the results obtained from different ELM models with those obtained using
      multiple linear regression (MLR) and multilayer perceptron neural network
      (MLPNN). Results obtained using MLPNN and MLR models reveal that: (i) using water
      quality variables as predictors, the MLR performed the worst and provided the
      lowest accuracy in all stations; (ii) MLPNN was ranked in the second place at two
      stations, in the third place at four stations, and finally, in the fourth place
      at two stations, (iii) for predicting DO without water quality variables, MLPNN
      is ranked in the second place at five stations, and ranked in the third, fourth,
      and fifth places in the remaining three stations, while MLR was ranked in the
      last place with very low accuracy at all stations. Overall, the results suggest
      that the ELM is more effective than the MLPNN and MLR for modelling DO
      concentration in river ecosystems.

PMID- 28560630
TI  - Diplopia as isolated presentation of varicella zoster central nervous system
      reactivation.
AB  - Here, we report a patient who developed diplopia secondary to a right cranial
      nerve III and IV palsy, as well as fever and headache. Cerebrospinal fluid
      analysis (CSF) showed high varicella-zoster virus (VZV)-DNA viral load
      (>300,000,000 copies/ml). VZV antibodies in CSF was >=1:16. Diagnosis of
      neurological reactivation of VZV infection was made without the presence of
      characteristic vesicular rash. Quantitative real-time PCR for VZV and intrathecal
      dosage of VZV IgM and IgG should be performed in cases suspected for viral
      encephalitis and also in all patients with not otherwise attributable cranial
      nerve lesions.

PMID- 28560632
TI  - Improvements in brain and behavior following eradication of hepatitis C.
AB  - Despite recent advances in treatment, hepatitis C remains a significant public
      health problem. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to infiltrate the brain, yet
      findings from studies on associated neurocognitive and neuropathological changes
      are mixed. Furthermore, it remains unclear if HCV eradication improves HCV
      associated neurological compromise. This study examined the longitudinal
      relationship between neurocognitive and neurophysiologic markers among healthy
      HCV- controls and HCV+ adults following successful HCV eradication. We
      hypothesized that neurocognitive outcomes following treatment would be related to
      both improved cognition and white matter integrity. Participants included 57 HCV+
      participants who successfully cleared the virus at the end of treatment
      (sustained virologic responders [SVRs]) and 22 HCV- controls. Participants
      underwent neuropsychological testing and, for a nested subset of participants,
      neuroimaging (diffusion tensor imaging) at baseline and 12 weeks following
      completion of HCV therapy. Contrary to expectation, group-level longitudinal
      analyses did not reveal significant improvement in neurocognitive performance in
      the SVRs compared to the control group. However, a subgroup of SVRs demonstrated
      a significant improvement in cognition relative to controls, which was related to
      improved white matter integrity. Indeed, neuroimaging data revealed beneficial
      effects associated with clearing the virus, particularly in the posterior corona
      radiata and the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Findings suggest that a
      subgroup of HCV+ patients experienced improvements in cognitive functioning
      following eradication of HCV, which appears related to positive changes in white
      matter integrity. Future research should examine whether any additional
      improvements in neurocognition and white matter integrity among SVRs occur with
      longer follow-up periods.

PMID- 28560635
TI  - Preface for the Ursula Sonnewald Honorary Issue of Neurochemical Research.

PMID- 28560633
TI  - Simultaneous living donor liver transplant with sleeve gastrectomy for metabolic
      syndrome and NASH-related ESLD-First report from India.
AB  - Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with morbid obesity and metabolic syndrome is
      now a common cause of end-stage liver disease (ESLD). These patients are high
      risk candidates for liver transplant, and require bariatric surgery to prevent
      recurrent disease in the new liver. Data reports bariatric surgery after
      transplant, which maybe difficult because of adhesions between the stomach and
      liver in living donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipient. We report the first case
      of combined LDLT with sleeve gastrectomy (SG) from India. A morbidly obese
      diabetic woman with NASH-related ESLD was planned for combined right lobe LDLT
      with open SG, in view of failed diet therapy, musculo-skeletal complaints, and
      restricted mobility. Postoperatively, with liver graft functioning adequately,
      bariatric diet restrictions resulted in maximum reduction of 25% weight,
      achieving a target BMI below 30 kg/m2 within 2 months, along with complete cure
      of diabetes and better ambulation. Thus, combination of LDLT and bariatric
      surgery in the same sitting is safe and effective in management of metabolic
      syndrome and associated NASH-related ESLD.

PMID- 28560631
TI  - Genetics of HIV-associated sensory neuropathy and related pain in Africans.
AB  - Despite the use of safer antiretroviral medications, the rate of HIV-associated
      sensory neuropathy (HIV-SN), the most common neurological complication of HIV,
      remains high. This condition is often painful and has a negative effect on
      quality of life. Up to 90% of those with HIV-SN experience pain for which there
      is no effective analgesic treatment. Genetic factors are implicated, but there is
      a lack of a comprehensive body of research for African populations. This
      knowledge gap is even more pertinent as Africans are most affected by HIV.
      However, recent studies performed in Southern African populations have identified
      genes displaying potential as genetic markers for HIV-SN and HIV-SN-associated
      pain in Africans. Here, we review the published studies to describe current
      knowledge of genetic risk factors for this disease in Africa.

PMID- 28560634
TI  - Modulation of IgG-FcRn interactions to overcome antibody-mediated inhibition of
      nerve regeneration.

PMID- 28560636
TI  - Monkeys and mountains in Yunnan, China.

PMID- 28560637
TI  - Characterization of Thiomonas delicata arsenite oxidase expressed in Escherichia
      coli.
AB  - Microbial arsenite oxidation is an essential biogeochemical process whereby more
      toxic arsenite is oxidized to the less toxic arsenate. Thiomonas strains
      represent an important arsenite oxidizer found ubiquitous in acid mine drainage.
      In the present study, the arsenite oxidase gene (aioBA) was cloned from Thiomonas
      delicata DSM 16361, expressed heterologously in E. coli and purified to
      homogeneity. The purified recombinant Aio consisted of two subunits with the
      respective molecular weights of 91 and 21 kDa according to SDS-PAGE. Aio
      catalysis was optimum at pH 5.5 and 50-55  degrees C. Aio exhibited stability
      under acidic conditions (pH 2.5-6). The V max and K m values of the enzyme were
      found to be 4 umol min-1 mg-1 and 14.2 uM, respectively. SDS and Triton X-100
      were found to inhibit the enzyme activity. The homology model of Aio showed
      correlation with the acidophilic adaptation of the enzyme. This is the first
      characterization studies of Aio from a species belonging to the Thiomonas genus.
      The arsenite oxidase was found to be among the acid-tolerant Aio reported to date
      and has the potential to be used for biosensor and bioremediation applications in
      acidic environments.

PMID- 28560638
TI  - Induction of fungal laccase production under solid state bioprocessing of new
      agroindustrial waste and its application on dye decolorization.
AB  - Lignocellulosic wastes are generally produced in huge amounts worldwide. Peach
      waste of these obtained from fruit juice industry was utilized as the substrate
      for laccase production by Pleurotus eryngii under solid state bioprocessing
      (SSB). Its chemical composition was determined and this bioprocess was carried
      out under stationary conditions at 28  degrees C. The effects of different
      compounds; copper, iron, Tween 80, ammonium nitrate and manganese, and their
      variable concentrations on laccase production were investigated in detail. The
      optimum production of laccase (43,761.33 +/- 3845 U L-1) was achieved on the day
      of 20 by employing peach waste of 5.0 g and 70 uM Cu2+, 18 uM Fe2+, 0.025% (v/v)
      Tween 80, 4.0 g L-1 ammonium nitrate, 750 uM Mn2+ as the inducers. The dye
      decolorization also researched to determine the degrading capability of laccase
      produced from peach culture under the above-mentioned conditions. Within this
      scope of the study, methyl orange, tartrazine, reactive red 2 and reactive black
      dyes were treated with this enzyme. The highest decolorization was performed with
      methyl orange as 43 +/- 2.8% after 5 min of treatment when compared to other
      dyes. Up to now, this is the first report on the induction of laccase production
      by P. eryngii under SSB using peach waste as the substrate.

PMID- 28560639
TI  - Production of biodiesel from microalgae through biological carbon capture: a
      review.
AB  - Gradual increase in concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere due
      to the various anthropogenic interventions leading to significant alteration in
      the global carbon cycle has been a subject of worldwide attention and matter of
      potential research over the last few decades. In these alarming scenario
      microalgae seems to be an attractive medium for capturing the excess CO2 present
      in the atmosphere generated from different sources such as power plants,
      automobiles, volcanic eruption, decomposition of organic matters and forest
      fires. This captured CO2 through microalgae could be used as potential carbon
      source to produce lipids for the generation of biofuel for replacing petroleum
      derived transport fuel without affecting the supply of food and crops. This
      comprehensive review strives to provide a systematic account of recent
      developments in the field of biological carbon capture through microalgae for its
      utilization towards the generation of biodiesel highlighting the significance of
      certain key parameters such as selection of efficient strain, microalgal
      metabolism, cultivation systems (open and closed) and biomass production along
      with the national and international biodiesel specifications and properties. The
      potential use of photobioreactors for biodiesel production under the influence of
      various factors viz., light intensity, pH, time, temperature, CO2 concentration
      and flow rate has been discussed. The review also provides an economic overview
      and future outlook on biodiesel production from microalgae.

PMID- 28560640
TI  - MERS-CoV papain-like protease (PLpro): expression, purification, and
      spectroscopic/thermodynamic characterization.
AB  - Within a decade, MERS-CoV emerged with nearly four times higher case fatality
      rate than an earlier outbreak of SARS-CoV and spread out in 27 countries in short
      span of time. As an emerging virus, combating it requires an in-depth
      understanding of its molecular machinery. Therefore, conformational
      characterization studies of coronavirus proteins are necessary to advance our
      knowledge of the matter for the development of antiviral therapies. In this
      study, MERS-CoV papain-like protease (PLpro) was recombinantly expressed and
      purified. Thermal folding pathway and thermodynamic properties were characterized
      using dynamic multimode spectroscopy (DMS) and thermal shift assay. DMS study
      showed that the PLpro undergoes a single thermal transition and follows a pathway
      of two-state folding with T m and van't Hoff enthalpy values of 54.4 +/- 0.1 
      degrees C and 317.1 +/- 3.9 kJ/mol, respectively. An orthogonal technique based
      on intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence also showed that MERS-CoV PLpro undergoes a
      single thermal transition and unfolds via a pathway of two-state folding with a T
      m value of 51.4  degrees C. Our findings provide significant understandings of
      the thermodynamic and structural properties of MERS-CoV PLpro.

PMID- 28560641
TI  - Plant growth-promoting actinobacteria: a new strategy for enhancing sustainable
      production and protection of grain legumes.
AB  - Grain legumes are a cost-effective alternative for the animal protein in
      improving the diets of the poor in South-East Asia and Africa. Legumes, through
      symbiotic nitrogen fixation, meet a major part of their own N demand and
      partially benefit the following crops of the system by enriching soil. In
      realization of this sustainability advantage and to promote pulse production,
      United Nations had declared 2016 as the "International Year of pulses". Grain
      legumes are frequently subjected to both abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in
      severe yield losses. Global yields of legumes have been stagnant for the past
      five decades in spite of adopting various conventional and molecular breeding
      approaches. Furthermore, the increasing costs and negative effects of pesticides
      and fertilizers for crop production necessitate the use of biological options of
      crop production and protection. The use of plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria
      for improving soil and plant health has become one of the attractive strategies
      for developing sustainable agricultural systems due to their eco-friendliness,
      low production cost and minimizing consumption of non-renewable resources. This
      review emphasizes on how the PGP actinobacteria and their metabolites can be used
      effectively in enhancing the yield and controlling the pests and pathogens of
      grain legumes.

PMID- 28560642
TI  - Identification and characterization of microRNAs and their targets in high
      altitude stress-adaptive plant maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp).
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, short (~21-nucleotide), non-coding RNA
      molecules that play pivotal roles in plant growth, development, and stress
      response signaling. In this study using recently published draft genome sequence
      of a high-altitude plant maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp) and applying genome-wide
      computational-based approaches, a total of 62 potentially conserved miRNAs
      belonging to 28 families were identified and four (lme-miR160a, lme-miR164c, lme
      miR 166a, and lme-miR 319a) of them further validated by RT-PCR. Deploying
      psRNATarget tool a total of 99 potential miRNA target transcripts were also
      identified in maca. Targets include a number of transcription factors like
      Squamosa promoter-binding, NAC, MYB, auxin response factor, APETALA, WRKY, and F
      box protein. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first genome-based miRNA
      profiling of a high-altitude plant.

PMID- 28560643
TI  - In vitro seed germination and biochemical profiling of Artemisia absinthium
      exposed to various metallic nanoparticles.
AB  - In the recent years, nanotechnology has attained much attention in the every
      field of science. The synthesis, characterisation and applications of metallic
      nanoparticles (MNPs) have become an important branch of nanotechnology. In the
      current study, MNPs were synthesised through polyols process and applied in vitro
      to study their effect on medicinally important plant : Artemisia absinthium. The
      current study strives to check the effect of MNPs, i.e., Ag, Cu and Au on seed
      germination, root and shoot length, seedling vigour index (SVI) and biochemical
      profiling in A. absinthium. The seeds were inoculated on MS medium supplemented
      with various combinations of MNPs suspension. The seed germination was greatly
      influenced upon the application of MNPs and was recorded highest for the silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs) suspensions. The best result for seed germination (98.6%)
      was obtained in MS medium supplemented with AgNPs as compared to control (92.9%)
      and other nanoparticles, i.e., copper (69.6%) and gold (56.5%), respectively,
      after 35 days of inoculation. Significant results were obtained for root length,
      shoot length and SVI in response to application of AgNPs as compared to copper
      nanoparticles (CuNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). These nanoparticles (NPs)
      could induce stress in plants by deploying the endogenous mechanism. In response
      to these stresses, plants produce various defence compounds. Total phenolic
      content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were significant in the MS medium
      supplemented with AgNPs as compared to other NPs, while DPPH radical scavenging
      assay (RSA) was highest in AuNPs treated plantlets. The MNPs showed higher
      toxicity level and enhanced secondary metabolites production, total phenolic
      content, total flavonoid content, antioxidant activity, superoxide dismutase
      (SOD) activity and total protein content.

PMID- 28560644
TI  - Biosorption and equilibrium isotherms study of cadmium removal by Nostoc muscorum
      Meg 1: morphological, physiological and biochemical alterations.
AB  - Rice fields of Meghalaya especially in the coal mining belt receive water
      contaminated by effluents from mines that are known to carry harmful heavy metal
      ions such as Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cd, As, Pb, Cr, etc. Cd exposure was analyzed in the
      cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum Meg 1 isolated from a contaminated rice field in
      Sohra, Meghalaya, India. Toxicity study established 0.5 ppm on day 3 to be the
      LD50. At LD50 chlorophyll a and total protein concentration was reduced by 50.9
      and 52.5%, while nitrogenase and glutamine synthetase activities were inhibited
      by 40.8 and 38.4%. EDX and FTIR analyses confirmed Cd binding and participation
      of hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl and phosphate groups in biosorption of Cd onto
      the cell surfaces. SEM study established morphological changes. At pH 8.0 and
      temperature 25 +/- 2  degrees C, the cyanobacterium removed 92% Cd within 24 h.
      Of this, 91% Cd was adsorbed on the cell surface while 4% was internally
      accumulated. The energy required for internal accumulation of Cd was partly
      provided in the form of ATP synthesized during active photosynthesis. The
      Langmuir isotherm was found best fitted with a R 2 value 0.98 when compared to
      Freundlich and Temkin adsorption isotherms. The maximum sorption capacity, Q max,
      of the organism was 71.4 mg of Cd per g of biomass. R L value of 0.29 indicated
      favorable interaction between cyanobacterial biomass and Cd. The adsorption
      intensity, n value 7.69 g/L obtained from Freundlich isotherm showed that the
      organism possessed high Cd sorption capacity.

PMID- 28560645
TI  - A comparative assessment of morphological and molecular diversity among Sechium
      edule (Jacq.) Sw. accessions in India.
AB  - Genetic variation of 36 Sechium edule accessions collected across 12 states in
      India was assessed using morphological traits and DAMD markers. Eighteen fruit
      morphological traits (both qualitative and quantitative) were evaluated to
      confirm the variations in the present collection. Quantitative traits showed
      major variations with respect to fruit weight (7.85-498.33 g/fruit), fruit length
      (5.8-15 cm/fruit), fruit diameter (6-28 cm/fruit) and length of the spine (0-5
      cm). Qualitative traits were also diverse in fruit colour, shape, spine density,
      reticulation, flexibility of spine and furrow depth. The first six principle
      components showed 82.88% variation in the principal component analysis. The
      principal component analysis revealed that fruit weight, fruit width, fruit
      diameter, fruit shape, length of spine, spine density and furrow depth had a
      significant contribution to the total variation. The DNA analysis performed using
      DAMD primers were used for deducing the diversity at DNA level. The collection
      produced 102 bands out of which 97 were polymorphic and the percentage
      polymorphism ranged between 66.66 and 100 per primer. Discrete pattern of
      clustering was obtained using UPGMA method of complete linkage percent
      disagreement revealing high diversity among the collected accessions. Thus, the
      present study indicates that molecular and morphological marker map would improve
      our knowledge of S. edule and would facilitate efforts to breed improved S. edule
      cultivars.

PMID- 28560646
TI  - Synergistic effect of Chryseobacterium gleum sp. SUK with ACC deaminase activity
      in alleviation of salt stress and plant growth promotion in Triticum aestivum L.
AB  - Soil salinity is major abiotic stresses affecting morphological, biochemical and
      physiological processes of plant growth. Chryseobacterium gleum sp. SUK isolated
      from salt-stressed soil exhibited ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate)
      deaminase activity with IAA (indole acetic acid), siderophore, ammonia, hydrogen
      cyanide production, 2% salt tolerance and fungal cell wall degrading enzyme
      production (cellulase, protease). The isolate also showed a poultry feather
      degrading activity which is the main waste material of poultry industry and
      opulent source of proteins, amino acids, nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium,
      potassium, manganese, zinc and copper. Application of feather-degraded lysate
      with the degrading isolate, C. gleum sp. SUK denotes triple role of
      bioformulation to surmount salinity stress, management of poultry waste disposal
      and utilization of feathers degraded products as a biostimulant for better growth
      of plants as well as strain SUK having multifarious plant growth promoting
      traits. Wheat crops exposed to salt stressor were inoculated with studied
      bioformulation. Results of plant analysis showed improvement in root and shoot
      length, fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll, proteins, amino acids, phenolics,
      flavonoids content and decreased level of proline. In addition, Na+ uptake was
      decreased and K+ uptake was increased. Therefore, application of novel
      bioformulation could increase the yield of crops by ameliorating growth of plants
      and alleviating the salinity stress.

PMID- 28560647
TI  - Cytomorphological and nitrogen metabolic enzyme analysis of psychrophilic and
      mesophilic Nostoc sp.: a comparative outlook.
AB  - Cyanobacterial diazotrophs play a significant role in environmental nitrogen
      economy despite their habitat either tropical or polar. However, the phenomenon
      by which it copes with temperature induced stress is poorly understood.
      Temperature response study of psychrophilic and mesophilic Nostoc strains
      explores their adaptive mechanisms. The selected psychrophilic and mesophilic
      strains were confirmed as Nostoc punctiforme and Nostoc calcicola respectively,
      by ultrastructure and 16S rDNA phylogeny. The psychrophilic strain has extensive
      glycolipid and polysaccharide sheath along with characteristic deposition of
      cyanophycin, polyhydroxybutyrate granules, and carboxysomes. This is possibly an
      adaptive strategy exhibited to withstand the freezing temperature and high
      intense of ultraviolet rays. The biomass measured in terms of dry weight,
      protein, and chlorophyll indicated a temperature dependant shift in both the
      psychrophilic and mesophilic strains and attained maximum growth in their
      respective temperature niches. At low temperature, psychrophilic organism
      exhibited nitrogenase activity, while mesophilic strains did not. The maximum
      glutamine synthetase activity was observed at 4  degrees C for psychrophilic and
      37  degrees C for mesophilic strains. Activity at 4  degrees C in psychrophilic
      strains revealed their energetic mechanism even at low temperature. The nitrate
      and nitrite reductase of both psychrophilic and mesophilic strains showed maximum
      activity at 37  degrees C denoting their similar nitrogen assimilating mechanisms
      for combined nitrogen utilization. The activity studies of nitrogen
      fixation/assimilation enzymes have differential effects at varying temperatures,
      which provide valuable insights of physiological contribution and role of Nostoc
      strains in the biological nitrogen cycle.

PMID- 28560648
TI  - Smoking behaviour and health care costs coverage: a European cross-country
      comparison.
AB  - The empirical evidence about the effect of smoking on health care cost coverage
      is not consistent with the expectations based on the notion of adverse selection.
      This evidence is mostly based on correlational studies which cannot isolate the
      adverse selection effect from the moral hazard effect. Exploiting data from the
      Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, this study uses an
      instrumental variable strategy to identify the causal effect of daily smoking on
      perceived health care cost coverage of those at age 50 or above in 12 European
      countries. Daily smoking is instrumented by a variable indicating whether or not
      there is any other daily smoker in the household. A self-assessment of health
      care cost coverage is used as the outcome measure. Among those who live with a
      partner (72% of the sample), the result is not statistically significant which
      means we find no effect of smoking on perceived health care cost coverage.
      However, among those who live without a partner, the results show that daily
      smokers have lower self-assessed perceived health care cost coverage. This
      finding replicates the same counter-intuitive relationship between smoking and
      health insurance presented in previous studies, but in a language of causality.
      In addition to this, we contribute to previous studies by a cross-country
      comparison which brings in different institutional arrangements, and by using the
      self-assessed perceived health care cost coverage which is broader than health
      insurance coverage.

PMID- 28560650
TI  - Effects of Learning Strategy Training on the Writing Performance of College
      Students with Asperger's Syndrome.
AB  - Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly entering
      institutions of higher education. However, many are not prepared for the academic
      and social demands of postsecondary environments. Although studies have evaluated
      academic and social interventions for children and adolescents with ASD, little
      research exists on the college population. The current study utilized a multiple
      baseline across participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of a writing
      learning strategy on the writing performance of three college students with ASD.
      Results indicated that the quality of writing performance improved following
      strategy instruction. In addition, participants were able to generalize strategy
      use to content specific writing tasks.

PMID- 28560649
TI  - Group B Streptococcus causes severe sepsis in term neonates: 8 years experience
      of a major Chinese neonatal unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In contrast to industrialized countries, the clinical characteristics
      of neonatal sepsis caused by Group B Streptococcus (GBS) are largely unexplored
      in China. METHODS: A retrospective case series study was performed at a high
      capacity neonatal unit in Shanghai, China from January 2008 to December 2015.
      Clinical characteristics of neonates with culture-proven GBS sepsis and
      antibiotic susceptibility of isolated strains were analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-three
      term neonates were included during the study period. The majority (74.4%) had
      early-onset sepsis with symptoms of respiratory distress. Meningitis was
      significantly more common in lateonset sepsis than in early-onset sepsis (81.5%
      vs. 18.8%, P<0.0001). Approximately one third of all patients (n=16) developed
      severe sepsis, defined as sepsis with organ dysfunctions, and respiratory
      dysfunction/failure was the most common (32.6%). The in-hospital mortality rate
      of GBS sepsis was 4.7%. Neonates who progressed to severe sepsis had
      significantly lower pH level at the onset of symptoms than those who did not
      (7.26+/-0.12 vs. 7.39+/-0.05, P=0.006). Treatment of severe GBS sepsis required
      lots of medical resources including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. All
      tested GBS strains were susceptible to penicillin, but the rate of resistance to
      clindamycin (84.0%) and erythromycin (88.0%) was high. CONCLUSIONS: GBS as a
      pathogen for neonatal sepsis has been receiving little attention in China. Our
      data demonstrated that GBS sepsis was likely to be fulminant. Early recognition
      followed by antibiotics and adequate supportive therapies was critical for
      successful treatment. Chinese clinicians should be aware of GBS infection when
      treating neonatal sepsis, especially in the absence of universal maternal GBS
      screening.

PMID- 28560651
TI  - Bilateral choroidal neovascularization associated with gyrate atrophy managed
      with intravitreal bevacizumab.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case with gyrate atrophy (GA) complicated by bilateral
      choroidal neovascularization (CNV) treated with intravitreal bevacizumab. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 20-year-old man presented with a complaint of sudden visual
      decrease in his both eyes. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/400 and
      20/500, with a spherical refractive error of -2.00 and -1.75 D, in the right and
      left eyes, respectively. Dilated fundus examination revealed multiple bilateral,
      sharply defined chorioretinal atrophy areas in the midperipheral and peripheral
      zone with the suspicion of CNV in both eyes. Spectral-domain optical coherence
      tomography revealed bilateral cystoid macular edema consistent with CNV
      development which was confirmed by fundus fluorescein angiography. Single dose of
      intravitreal bevacizumab injections were performed to both eyes of the patient.
      At the first month after the injection, the BCVA improved and OCT revealed scar
      formation without any intraretinal/subretinal fluid in both eyes. At the first
      year follow-up, the maculas remained dry on the OCT and the BCVA was preserved.
      No additional injections were needed. CONCLUSION: Intravitreal bevacizumab might
      be a treatment alternative, which provides satisfactory anatomical and functional
      results and leads to a better central vision in cases with GA complicated by CNV.

PMID- 28560652
TI  - Comparative study of visual function and ocular aberrations of two different one
      piece designed hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lens.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether the aspherical IOL, Tecnis ZCB00, can improve the
      visual quality by measuring visual acuity, wavefront aberrations, and contrast
      sensitivity. METHODS: It was a retrospective case series. Patients who underwent
      phacoemulsification cataract surgery were divided into two groups. One group
      (Group TC) was implanted with one-piece aspherical acrylic IOL (Tecnis ZCB00,
      AMO); the other (Group SA) was implanted with one-piece spherical acrylic IOL
      (Sensar AAB00, AMO). Eighty-eight eyes were selected into this study, among them
      43 eyes in 26 male cases and 45 eyes in 29 female cases. Thirty-six eyes in 23
      cases were in Group TC, and 52 eyes in 32 cases were in Group SA. Three months
      postoperatively, aberrations were analyzed with i-Trace visual function analyzer
      (Tracy Technologies, USA). Contrast sensitivities were measured with Takaci-CGT
      1000 contrast glare tester (Seiko, Japan). RESULTS: All the 88 eyes underwent
      phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation, without complications
      during or after surgery. Three months postoperatively, the uncorrected vision
      acuity in Group TC was significantly better than in Group SA (P = 0.007). At the
      pupil size of 5.0 mm, higher-order aberrations in Group TC were significantly
      higher than in Group SA (P = 0.02), especially the spherical aberration (Z 40 )
      (P < 0.001); at the pupil size of 4.0 mm, Z 40 in Group SA was statistically
      higher than in Group TC (P < 0.001); at the pupil size of 3.0 mm, higher-order
      aberrations such as coma (Z 3-1,1 ) and trefoil aberration (Z 3-3,3 ) in Group SA
      were obviously higher than in Group TC (P = 0.01). In the low spatial frequency,
      the contrast sensitivity and the glare sensitivity in Group TC were significantly
      higher than in Group SA (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: By the short-term follow-up (3
      months), the aspherical acrylic IOL can reduce the higher-order aberrations
      (especially the spherical aberration) and increase the contrast sensitivity to
      improve the visual performance.

PMID- 28560653
TI  - Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in XRCC1 (194) and XPD (751) with
      Age-related cataract.
AB  - PURPOSE: Age-related cataract (ARC) is a multifactorial disease and different
      risk factors, including genetic and environmental, are responsible for the
      development of its various types. The aim of this study was to find out a
      correlation, if any, between ARC and the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
      in DNA repair genes XRCC1 (X-ray repair cross-complementary-1) [Arg194Trp
      (rs1799782)] and XPD (xerodermapigmentosa complementation group D) [Lys751Gln
      (rs13,181]. METHOD: The genotype at these two SNPs was analyzed in 260 subjects
      (125 control and 135 patients) from Southern Punjab population (Pakistan) by
      polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP)
      method. Genotype at both analyzed codons was correlated either individually or in
      various combinations with the studied epidemiological factors known to be
      associated with ARC. RESULTS: Our results indicated that both SNPs Arg194Trp in
      XRCC1 (P = 0.967) and Lys751Gln in XPD (P = 0.995) were not associated with ARC
      whether they were analyzed individually or in combined form (P > 0.05). Analysis
      of epidemiological factors revealed that age (P < 0.001), cast of subjects (P =
      0.001), diabetes (P < 0.001), hypertension (P = 0.001), smoking habit (P = 0.01),
      drug abuse (P < 0.05), steroid use (P = 0.001) and body weight (P < 0.001) can
      influence the incidence of ARC in enrolled subjects. After applying Binary
      logistic regression it was found that the weight (P < 0.01), family history (P =
      0.05), drug abuse (P = 0.05), smoking (P < 0.05) and steroid use (P < 0.05) has a
      significant association with the phenotype of the subjects. All epidemiological
      factors were also studied in association with various genotypic combinations of
      both SNPS, diabetes was the only factor that had a significant association (P <
      0.001) association with ARC. Hypertension (P = 0.01), body weight (P < 0.05) and
      cast (P < 0.001) were found associated with ARC when epidemiological factors were
      individually correlated with ARC. Result of the two proportion test indicated
      that gender had no influence on the incidence of disease. CONCLUSION: It is
      concluded that studied SNPs in XRCC1 and XPD have no association with the
      incidence of age related cataract in the analyzed group of subjects.

PMID- 28560654
TI  - Newer Vaccines against Mosquito-borne Diseases.
AB  - Mosquitos are responsible for a number of protozoal and viral diseases. Malaria,
      dengue, Japanese encephalitis (JE) and chikungunya epidemics occur commonly all
      over the world, leading to marked mortality and morbidity in children. Zika,
      Yellow fever and West Nile fever are others requiring prevention. Environmental
      control and mosquito bite prevention are useful in decreasing the burden of
      disease but vaccination has been found to be most cost-effective and is the need
      of the hour. RTS,S/AS01 vaccine is the first malaria vaccine being licensed for
      use against P. falciparum malaria. Dengvaxia (CYD-TDV) against dengue was
      licensed first in Mexico in 2015. A Vero-cell derived, inactivated and alum
      adjuvanted JE vaccine based on the SA14-14-2 strain was approved in 2009 in North
      America, Australia and various European countries. It can be used from 2 mo of
      age. In India, immunization is carried out in endemic regions at 1 y of age.
      Another inactivated Vero-cell culture derived Kolar strain, 821564XY, JE vaccine
      is being used in India. Candidate vaccines against dengue, chikungunya and West
      Nile fever are been discussed. A continued research and development of new
      vaccines are required for controlling these mosquito-borne diseases.

PMID- 28560657
TI  - Ionic Liquids for Supercapacitor Applications.
AB  - Supercapacitors are electrochemical energy storage devices in which the charge is
      accumulated through the adsorption of ions from an electrolyte on the surface of
      the electrode. Because of their large ionic concentrations, ionic liquids have
      widely been investigated for such applications. The main properties that have to
      be optimized are the electrochemical window, the electrical conductivity, and the
      interfacial capacitances. Ionic liquids allow a significant improvement of the
      former, but they suffer from their high viscosity. In this review, I will discuss
      the advantages and the inconvenience of using ionic liquids in supercapacitors.
      Some innovative approaches using mixtures of ionic liquids or redox-active ions
      will also be critically addressed.

PMID- 28560655
TI  - A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of diindolylmethane for breast cancer
      biomarker modulation in patients taking tamoxifen.
AB  - PURPOSE: Diindolylmethane (DIM), a bioactive metabolite of indole-3-carbinol
      found in cruciferous vegetables, has proposed cancer chemoprevention activity in
      the breast. There is limited evidence of clinically relevant activity of DIM or
      long-term safety data of its regular use. A randomized, double-blind, placebo
      controlled trial was conducted to determine the activity and safety of combined
      use of BioResponse DIM(r) (BR-DIM) with tamoxifen. METHODS: Women prescribed
      tamoxifen (n = 130) were randomly assigned oral BR-DIM at 150 mg twice daily or
      placebo, for 12 months. The primary study endpoint was change in urinary
      2/16alpha-hydroxyestrone (2/16alpha-OHE1) ratio. Changes in 4-hydroxyestrone (4
      OHE1), serum estrogens, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), breast density, and
      tamoxifen metabolites were assessed. RESULTS: Ninety-eight women (51 placebo, 47
      DIM) completed intervention; compliance with treatment was >91%. BR-DIM increased
      the 2/16alpha-OHE1 ratio (+3.2 [0.8, 8.4]) compared to placebo (-0.7 [-1.7, 0.8],
      P < 0.001). Serum SHBG increased with BR-DIM compared to placebo (+25 +/- 22 and
      +1.1 +/- 19 nmol/L, respectively). No change in breast density measured by
      mammography or by MRI was observed. Plasma tamoxifen metabolites (endoxifen, 4-OH
      tamoxifen, and N-desmethyl-tamoxifen) were reduced in women receiving BR-DIM
      versus placebo (P < 0.001). Minimal adverse events were reported and did not
      differ by treatment arm. CONCLUSION: In patients taking tamoxifen for breast
      cancer, daily BR-DIM promoted favorable changes in estrogen metabolism and
      circulating levels of SHBG. Further research is warranted to determine whether BR
      DIM associated decreases in tamoxifen metabolites, including effects on endoxifen
      levels, attenuates the clinical benefit of tamoxifen. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01391689.

PMID- 28560659
TI  - ?

PMID- 28560658
TI  - Safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of a single ascending dose of
      pradefovir, a novel liver-targeting, anti-hepatitis B virus drug, in healthy
      Chinese subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pradefovir is efficiently converted to adefovir [9-(2
      phosphonylmethoxyethyl) adenine (PMEA)], producing high hepatic PMEA
      concentration but low levels in the systemic circulation and kidney. The aim of
      this study is to evaluate the tolerability, adverse effect (AEs),
      pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of a single ascending dose of pradefovir.
      METHODS: Fifty healthy subjects were divided into five groups and randomized
      within each group at a ratio of 3:1:1 to receive a single ascending dose of
      pradefovir (10, 30, 60, 90, or 120 mg), and 10 mg adefovir dipivoxil (ADP) or
      placebo. Blood and urine samples were collected and analyzed. A total of 1930
      polymorphic loci were analyzed in 6 blood samples collected from the 90 mg
      pradefovir group. RESULTS: The single oral dose of pradefovir up to 120 mg was
      well tolerated. A total of 29 dose-limited mild AEs were reported in 17 subjects.
      The peak plasma concentration (C max) and area under the curve (AUC)0-48 of serum
      pradefovir ranged from (21.41 +/- 12.98) to (447.33 +/- 79.34) ng/mL and (46.10
      +/- 29.45) to (748.18 +/- 134.15) ng h/mL across the dose range, respectively.
      The C max and AUC0-48 of serum PMEA ranged from 18.10 +/- 4.96 to 312.33 +/-
      114.19 ng/mL and 72.65 +/- 28.25 to 1095.48 +/- 248.47 ng h/mL. Generally, no
      kidney impairment was observed. Pharmacogenetic analysis identified three
      metabolism-related single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) locis, P450 (cytochrome)
      oxidoreductase [POR (rs6965343)], arylamine N-acetyltransferases [NAT1
      (rs4986993)] and CYP2F1 (rs305968)], and one distribution-related loci,
      orosomucoid 2 [ORM2 (rs12685968)]. CONCLUSIONS: The single oral dose of
      pradefovir 10-120 mg was well tolerated. SNPs may be associated with variable
      rates of adverse events. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CTR20140341.

PMID- 28560656
TI  - Social well-being is associated with less pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic
      leukocyte gene expression in women after surgery for breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Satisfaction with social resources, or "social well-being," relates to
      better adaptation and longer survival after breast cancer diagnosis.
      Biobehavioral mechanisms linking social well-being (SWB) to mental and physical
      health may involve inflammatory signaling. We tested whether reports of greater
      SWB were associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic
      leukocyte gene expression after surgery for non-metastatic breast cancer.
      METHODS: Women (N = 50) diagnosed with non-metastatic (0-III) breast cancer were
      enrolled 2-8 weeks after surgery. SWB was assessed with the social/family well
      being subscale of the FACT-B. Leukocyte gene expression for specific pro
      inflammatory (cytokines, chemokines, and COX-2) and pro-metastatic genes (e.g.,
      MMP9) was derived from microarray analysis. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses
      controlling for age, stage of disease, days since surgery, education, and body
      mass index (BMI) found higher levels of SWB related to less leukocyte pro
      inflammatory and pro-metastatic gene expression (p < 0.05). Emotional well-being,
      physical well-being, and functional well-being did not relate to leukocyte gene
      expression (p > 0.05). Greater SWB remained significantly associated with less
      leukocyte pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic gene expression after controlling
      for depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Results have implications for understanding
      mechanisms linking social resources to health-relevant biological processes in
      breast cancer patients undergoing primary treatment. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: NCT01422551.

PMID- 28560660
TI  - Impact of treatment on survival of patients with secondary glioblastoma.
AB  - Data concerning treatment of secondary glioblastoma evolving from previously
      treated WHO II or III grade tumors are very scarce. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the impact of surgical resection and adjuvant treatment on survival in
      patients with secondary glioblastoma. Thirty-nine patients with secondary
      glioblastoma evolving from previously treated lower grade gliomas between 2004
      and 2015 were included. We evaluated the extent of resection, pathological
      parameters, adjuvant treatment, as well as survival after malignant
      transformation. The primary tumor grade was WHO II in 16 (41.0%) and WHO III in
      23 (59.0%) patients. Median age was 43 years (range 23-67). Median KPS was 80
      (range 60-100) before surgery, and 70 (range 50-100) after surgery. Gross total
      resection (GTR) of contrast-enhancing disease was achieved in 19 (48.7%)
      patients. Adjuvant treatment was radio-chemotherapy in 23 (59.0%), radiotherapy
      in three (7.7%), chemotherapy in five (12.8%) and none in eight (20.5%) patients.
      Median survival was 11 months (range 1-35) in the entire group. Time since
      initial diagnosis and previous treatment did not correlate with survival after
      glioblastoma. Failed GTR, poor KPS after surgery, and no adjuvant treatment were
      prognostic factors for shorter survival in univariate analysis (p < 0.0001, p =
      0.028 and p = 0.003). In selected patients, complete resection and adjuvant
      treatment may prolong survival in spite of multiple previous therapies.

PMID- 28560662
TI  - MGMT promoter methylation status: time for a frank discussion.

PMID- 28560661
TI  - Outcome and prognostic factors in patients with brain metastases from small-cell
      lung cancer treated with whole brain radiotherapy.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors associated with
      overall survival (OS) and neurological progression free survival (nPFS) in small
      cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients with brain metastases who received whole-brain
      radiotherapy (WBRT). From 2003 to 2015, 229 SCLC patients diagnosed with brain
      metastases who received WBRT were analyzed retrospectively. In this cohort 219
      patients (95%) received a total photon dose of 30 Gy in 10 fractions. The
      prognostic factors evaluated for OS and nPFS were: age, Karnofsky Performance
      Status (KPS), number of brain metastases, synchronous versus metachronous
      disease, initial response to chemotherapy, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
      recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) class and thoracic radiation. Median OS
      after WBRT was 6 months and the median nPFS after WBRT was 11 months. Patients
      with synchronous cerebral metastases had a significantly better median OS with 8
      months compared to patients with metachronous metastases with a median survival
      of 3 months (p < 0.0001; HR 0.46; 95% CI 0.31-0.67). Based on RPA classification
      median survival after WBRT was 17 months in RPA class I, 7 months in class II and
      3 months in class III (p < 0.0001). Karnofsky performance status scale (KPS <
      70%) was significantly associated with OS in both univariate (HR 2.84; p < 0.001)
      and multivariate analyses (HR 2.56; p = 0.011). Further, metachronous brain
      metastases (HR 1.8; p < 0.001), initial response to first-line chemotherapy (HR
      0.51, p < 0.001) and RPA class III (HR 2.74; p < 0.001) were significantly
      associated with OS in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis metachronous
      disease (HR 1.89; p < 0.001) and initial response to chemotherapy (HR 0.61; p <
      0.001) were further identified as significant prognostic factors. NPFS was
      negatively significantly influenced by poor KPS (HR 2.56; p = 0.011), higher
      number of brain metastases (HR 1.97; p = 0.02), and higher RPA class (HR 2.26; p
      = 0.03) in univariate analysis. In this series, the main prognostic factors
      associated with OS were performance status, time of appearance of intracranial
      disease (synchronous vs. metachronous), initial response to chemotherapy and
      higher RPA class. NPFS was negatively influenced by poor KPS, multiplicity of
      brain metastases, and higher RPA class in univariate analysis. For patients with
      low performance status, metachronous disease or RPA class III, WBRT should be
      weighed against supportive therapy with steroids alone or palliative
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28560663
TI  - CD147 and glioma: a meta-analysis.
AB  - Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors. This meta-analysis aimed to
      systematically evaluate the relationship between CD147 expression in tissues and
      the clinicopathological features of patients with glioma. We searched PubMed
      (1966-2016), EMBASE (1980-2016), Cochrane Library (1996-2016), Web of Science
      (1945-2016), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1982-2016), and Wan Fang
      databases (1988-2016). Quality assessment of the literature was performed using
      the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, with Revman 5.3 and Stata 14.0 for analysis. In
      total, 1806 glioma patients from 19 studies were included, and patients with
      CD147 overexpression had poorer overall survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.211, P <
      0.0001], a higher risk of recurrence (HR = 2.20, P = 0.0025), and a lower 5-year
      survival rate [odds ratio (OR) 0.12; 95% CI 0.08-0.19; P < 0.00001]. We observed
      significant differences in CD147 expression when comparing glioma tissues versus
      non-cancerous brain tissues (OR 20.42; 95% CI 13.94-29.91; P < 0.00001), tumor
      grades III-IV versus grades I-II (OR 5.88, 95% CI 4.15-8.34; P < 0.00001), and
      large versus small tumors (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.04-2.40; P = 0.03). We also observed
      a significant correlation with matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 (OR 39.11, 95% CI
      11.47-133.34; P < 0.00001) and MMP9 (OR 13.35, 95% CI 4.67-38.18; P < 0.00001).
      CD147 expression did not differ based on patient's age (young vs. old, P = 0.89)
      or gender (female vs. male, P = 0.57). CD147 expression may be a potential
      prognostic biomarker for poorer overall and relapse-free survival, and may affect
      the 5-year survival rate in glioma patients. CD147 expression is also closely
      correlated with poor clinical characteristics in glioma patients.

PMID- 28560664
TI  - External validation of the diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma survival prediction
      model: a collaborative report from the International DIPG Registry and the SIOPE
      DIPG Registry.
AB  - We aimed to perform external validation of the recently developed survival
      prediction model for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), and discuss its
      utility. The DIPG survival prediction model was developed in a cohort of patients
      from the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, registered in the SIOPE DIPG
      Registry, and includes age <3 years, longer symptom duration and receipt of
      chemotherapy as favorable predictors, and presence of ring-enhancement on MRI as
      unfavorable predictor. Model performance was evaluated by analyzing the
      discrimination and calibration abilities. External validation was performed using
      an unselected cohort from the International DIPG Registry, including patients
      from United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Basic comparison with the
      results of the original study was performed using descriptive statistics, and
      univariate- and multivariable regression analyses in the validation cohort.
      External validation was assessed following a variety of analyses described
      previously. Baseline patient characteristics and results from the regression
      analyses were largely comparable. Kaplan-Meier curves of the validation cohort
      reproduced separated groups of standard (n = 39), intermediate (n = 125), and
      high-risk (n = 78) patients. This discriminative ability was confirmed by similar
      values for the hazard ratios across these risk groups. The calibration curve in
      the validation cohort showed a symmetric underestimation of the predicted
      survival probabilities. In this external validation study, we demonstrate that
      the DIPG survival prediction model has acceptable cross-cohort calibration and is
      able to discriminate patients with short, average, and increased survival. We
      discuss how this clinico-radiological model may serve a useful role in current
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28560665
TI  - Radiation-agent combinations for glioblastoma: challenges in drug development and
      future considerations.
AB  - Glioblastoma is an aggressive disease characterized by moderate initial response
      rates to first-line radiation-chemotherapy intervention followed by low poor
      response rates to second-line intervention. This article discusses novel
      strategic platforms for the development of radiation-investigational agent
      combination clinical trials for primary and recurrent glioblastoma in a NCI-NCTN
      settings with simultaneous analysis of challenges in the drug development
      process.

PMID- 28560666
TI  - Circulating Tumor Cells as Cancer Biomarkers in the Clinic.
AB  - It is believed that the development of metastatic cancer requires the presence of
      circulating tumor cells (CTCs) , which are found in a patient's circulation as
      rare abnormal cells comingled with billions of the normal red and white blood
      cells. The systems developed for detection of CTCs have brought progress to
      cancer treatment. The molecular characterization of CTCs can aid in the
      development of new drugs, and their presence during treatment can help clinicians
      determine the prognosis of the patient. Studies have been carried out in patients
      early in the disease course, with only primary tumors, and the role of CTCs in
      prognosis seems to be as important as it is in patients with metastatic disease.
      The published studies on CTCs have focused on their prognostic significance,
      their utility in real-time monitoring of therapies, the identification of
      therapeutic and resistance targets, and understanding the process of metastasis .
      The analysis of CTCs during the early stages, as a "liquid biopsy," helps to
      monitor patients at different points in the disease course, including minimal
      residual disease, providing valuable information about the very early assessment
      of treatment effectiveness. Finally, CTCs can be used to screen patients with
      family histories of cancer or with diseases that can lead to the development of
      cancer. With standard protocols, this easily obtained and practical tool can be
      used to prevent the growth and spread of cancer. In this chapter, we review some
      important aspects of CTCs , surveying the disease aspects where these cells have
      been investigated.

PMID- 28560667
TI  - Strategies for Isolation and Molecular Profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease worldwide, and metastasis is
      responsible for more than 90% of the mortality of cancer patients. Metastasis
      occurs when tumor cells leave the primary tumor, travel through the blood stream
      as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and then colonize secondary tumors at sites
      distant from the primary tumor. The capture, identification, and analysis of CTCs
      offer both scientific and clinical benefits. On the scientific side, the analysis
      of CTCs could help elucidate possible genetic alterations and signaling pathway
      aberrations during cancer progression, which could then be used to find new
      methods to stop cancer progression. On the clinical side, non-invasive testing of
      a patient's blood for CTCs can be used for patient diagnosis and prognosis, as
      well as subsequent monitoring of treatment efficacy in routine clinical practice.
      Additionally, investigation of CTCs early in the progression of cancer may reveal
      targets for initial cancer detection and for anti-cancer treatment. This chapter
      will evaluate strategies and devices used for the isolation and identification of
      CTCs directly from clinical samples of blood. Recent progress in the
      understanding of the significance of both single CTCs and circulating tumor
      microemboli will be discussed. Also, advancements in the use of CTC-based liquid
      biopsy in clinical diagnosis and the potential of CTC-based molecular
      characterization for use in clinical applications will be summarized.

PMID- 28560668
TI  - Aptamer-Based Methods for Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells and Their
      Potential for Personalized Diagnostics.
AB  - Cancer diagnostics and treatment monitoring rely on sensing and counting of rare
      cells such as cancer circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood. Many analytical
      techniques have been developed to reliably detect and quantify CTCs using unique
      physical shape and size of tumor cells and/or distinctive patterns of cell
      surface biomarkers. Main problems of CTC bioanalysis are in the small number of
      cells that are present in the circulation and heterogeneity of CTCs. In this
      chapter, we describe recent progress towards the selection and application of
      synthetic DNA or RNA aptamers to capture and detect CTCs in blood. Antibody-based
      approaches for cell isolation and purification are limited because of an
      antibody's negative effect on cell viability and purity. Aptamers transform cell
      isolation technology, because they bind and release cells on-demand. The unique
      feature of anti-CTC aptamers is that the aptamers are selected for cell surface
      biomarkers in their native state, and conformation without previous knowledge of
      their biomarkers. Once aptamers are produced, they can be used to identify CTC
      biomarkers using mass spectrometry. The biomarkers and corresponding aptamers can
      be exploited to improve cancer diagnostics and therapies .

PMID- 28560669
TI  - Development of a Protocol for Single-Cell Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells in
      Patients with Solid Tumors.
AB  - Genomic characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) enables the monitoring
      of tumor progression and of adaption occurring during treatment. CTC molecular
      characterization represents indeed a precious tool to implement in the clinical
      practice for better dealing with acquired resistance to systemic treatment and
      tumor evolution. Unfortunately CTCs are very rare and enrichments from blood
      samples and subsequent identification of these cells are technically very
      challenging. We describe here the main steps leading to the development of a
      technical protocol for visualization, enumeration and recovery of single CTCs
      exploiting the recently developed DEPArrayTMplatform. Our description of the
      technical workflow starts with evaluation of pre-analytical aspects related to
      blood sample collection warning about the possible effects on immunoreactivity
      profiles which may bias the interpretation. Subsequently, other CTC-enrichment
      approaches are critically discussed and compared in relation to their
      performances with the DEPArrayTM. Identification of CTCs represents another
      critical point due to their heterogeneity and due to the still-to-be clarified
      role of different subpopulations, typically epithelial, mesenchymal or mixed.
      Finally, issues related to single cell analysis are illustrated. The chapter ends
      with an overview of results obtained on real clinical samples which support the
      reliability of the protocol and its transferability to the daily clinical
      routine.

PMID- 28560670
TI  - Flow Cytometric Methods for Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation and Molecular
      Analysis.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells provide a non-invasive source of tumor material that can
      be valuable at all stages of disease management, including screening and early
      diagnosis, monitoring response to therapy, identifying therapeutic targets, and
      assessing development of drug resistance. Cells isolated from the blood of cancer
      patients can be used for phenotypic analysis, tumor genotyping, transcriptional
      profiling, as well as for ex vivo culture of isolated cells. There are a variety
      of novel technologies currently being developed for the detection and analysis of
      rare cells in circulation of cancer patients. Flow cytometry is a powerful cell
      analysis platform that is increasingly being used in this field of study due to
      its relatively high throughput and versatility with respect to the large number
      of commercially available antibodies and fluorescent probes available to
      translational and clinical researchers. More importantly, it offers the ability
      to easily recover viable cells with high purity that are suitable for downstream
      molecular analysis, thus making it an attractive technology for cancer research
      and as a diagnostic tool.

PMID- 28560671
TI  - Enrichment and Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells and Other Rare Cell
      Populations by Microfluidic Filtration.
AB  - The current standard methods for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from
      blood involve EPCAM-based immunomagnetic approaches. A major disadvantage of
      these strategies is that CTCs with low EPCAM expression will be missed. Isolation
      by size using filter membranes circumvents the reliance on this cell surface
      marker, and can facilitate the capture not only of EPCAM-negative CTCs but other
      rare cells as well. These cells that are trapped on the filter membrane can be
      characterized by immunocytochemistry (ICC) , enumerated and profiled to elucidate
      their clinical significance. In this chapter, we discuss advances in filtration
      systems to capture rare cells as well as downstream ICC methods to detect and
      identify these cells. We highlight our recent clinical study demonstrating the
      feasibility of using a novel method consisting of automated microfluidic
      filtration and sequential ICC for detection and enumeration of CTCs, as well as
      circulating mesenchymal cells (CMCs), circulating endothelial cells (CECs), and
      putative circulating stem cells (CSCs). We hypothesize that simultaneous analysis
      of circulating rare cells in blood of cancer patients may lead to a better
      understanding of disease progression and development of resistance to therapy.

PMID- 28560672
TI  - Detection and Enumeration of Circulating Tumor Cells with Invasive Phenotype.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) disseminate from solid primary cancers into the
      peripheral blood and lymphatic vessels and can lead to metastatic tumor
      development; thus, CTC assays are an important clinical tool for monitoring
      progression and evaluating prognosis in cancer. However, CTCs are limited in
      number and heterogeneous in their biological and physical properties, making
      their detection, isolation, and enumeration a major challenge. To overcome these
      difficulties, novel techniques have been developed to detect and enumerate CTCs
      with an invasive phenotype. In this chapter, we will summarize these recently
      developed methods and detail two novel methods for capturing and enriching CTCs
      on the basis of their viability and their invasive properties.

PMID- 28560673
TI  - Molecular Profiling and Significance of Circulating Tumor Cell Based Genetic
      Signatures.
AB  - Cancer kills by metastasizing beyond the primary site. Early detection, surgical
      intervention and other treatments have improved the survival rates of patients
      with cancer, however, once metastasis occurs, responses to conventional therapies
      become significantly less effective, and this remains the leading cause of death.
      Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are tumor cells that have preferentially
      disseminated from the primary tumor mass into the hematological system, and are
      en route to favorable distant sites where if they survive, can develop into
      metastases. They may be the earliest detectable cells with metastatic ability,
      and are gaining increasing attention because of their prognostic value in many
      types of cancers including breast, prostate, colon and lung. Recent technological
      advances have removed barriers that previously hindered the detection and
      isolation of these rare cells from blood, and have exponentially improved the
      genetic resolution at which we can characterize signatures that define CTCs. Some
      of the most significant observations from such examinations are described here.
      Firstly, aberrations that were thought to be unique to CTCs are detected at
      subclonal frequencies within primary tumors with measurable heterogeneity,
      indicating pre-existing genetic signatures for metastasis. Secondly, these
      subclonal events are enriched in CTCs and metastases, pointing towards the
      selection of a more 'fit' component of tumor cells with survival advantages.
      Lastly, this component of cancer cells may also be the chemoresistant portion
      that escapes systemic treatment, or acquires resistance during progression of the
      disease. The future of cancer management may include a standardized method of
      measuring intratumor heterogeneity of the primary as well as matched CTCs. This
      will help identify and target rare aberrations within primary tumors that make
      them more adept to disseminate, and also to monitor the development of treatment
      resistant subclones as cancer progresses.

PMID- 28560674
TI  - Detection of Gene Rearrangements in Circulating Tumor Cells: Examples of ALK-,
      ROS1-, RET-Rearrangements in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer and ERG-Rearrangements in
      Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) hold promise as biomarkers to aid in patient
      treatment stratification and disease monitoring. Because the number of cells is a
      critical parameter for exploiting CTCs for predictive biomarker's detection, we
      developed a FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization) method for CTCs enriched on
      filters (filter-adapted FISH [FA-FISH]) that was optimized for high cell
      recovery. To increase the feasibility and reliability of the analyses, we
      combined fluorescent staining and FA-FISH and developed a semi-automated
      microscopy method for optimal FISH signal identification in filtration-enriched
      CTCs . Here we present these methods and their use for the detection and
      characterization of ALK-, ROS1-, RET-rearrangement in CTCs from non-small-cell
      lung cancer and ERG-rearrangements in CTCs from prostate cancer patients.

PMID- 28560675
TI  - Enrichment, Isolation and Molecular Characterization of EpCAM-Negative
      Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - The presence of EpCAM-positive circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral
      blood is associated with poor clinical outcomes in breast, colorectal and
      prostate cancer, as well as the prognosis of other tumor types. In addition,
      recent studies have suggested that the presence of CTCs undergoing epithelial-to
      mesenchymal transition and, as such, may exhibit reduced or no expression of
      epithelial proteins e.g. EpCAM, might be related to disease progression in
      metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients. Analyzing the neoplastic nature of this
      EpCAM-low/negative (EpCAM-neg) subpopulation remains an open issue as the current
      standard detection methods for CTCs are not efficient at identifying this
      subpopulation of cells. The possible association of EpCAM-neg CTCs with EpCAM
      positive (EpCAM-pos) CTCs and role in the clinicopathological features and
      prognosis of MBC patients has still to be demonstrated. Several technologies have
      been developed and are currently being tested for the identification and the
      downstream analyses of EpCAM-pos CTCs. These technologies can be adapted and
      implemented into workflows to isolate and investigate EpCAM-neg cells to
      understand their biology and clinical relevance. This chapter will endeavour to
      explain the rationale behind the identification and analyses of all CTC
      subgroups, as well as to review the current strategies employed to enrich,
      isolate and characterize EpCAM-negative CTCs. Finally, the latest findings in the
      field will briefly be discussed with regard to their clinical relevance.

PMID- 28560676
TI  - Expression of Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition and Cancer Stem Cell Markers in
      Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - The characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTC) has the potential not only
      to provide important insights into molecular alterations of advanced tumor
      disease but also to facilitate risk prediction. Epithelial mesenchymal transition
      (EMT) has been discovered as important process for the development of metastases
      and the dissemination of tumor cells into the blood stream. In different tumor
      types, CTC with a mesenchymal phenotype have been reported that have presumably
      underwent EMT. Moreover, CTC with stem-cell like characteristics have been
      postulated as important drivers of tumor progression. Different platforms have
      been introduced to allow CTC enrichment independent of expression of epithelial
      antigens, as these may be downregulated in EMT- or stem-cell-like CTC. Both for
      CTCs with EMT- or stem-cell features different markers have been proposed.
      However, there is still a lack of evidence on the association of these markers
      with functional features and characteristics for stem cells and cells undergoing
      EMT.

PMID- 28560677
TI  - Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition and Circulating Tumor Cells in Small Cell Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - Cancer patients die of metastatic disease but knowledge regarding individual
      steps of this complex process of intravasation, spread and extravasation leading
      to secondary lesions is incomplete. Subpopulations of tumor cells are supposed to
      undergo an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), to enter the bloodstream and
      eventually establish metastases in a reverse process termed mesenchymal
      epithelial transition (MET). Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents a unique
      model to study metastatic spread due to early dissemination and relapse, as well
      as availability of a panel of circulating cancer cell (CTC) lines recently.
      Additionally, chemosensitive SCLC tumor cells switch to a completely resistant
      phenotype during cancer recurrence. In advanced disease, SCLC patients display
      extremely high blood counts of CTCs in contrast to other tumors, like breast,
      prostate and colon cancer. Local inflammatory conditions at the primary tumor
      site and recruitment of macrophages seem to increase the shedding of tumor cells
      into the circulation in processes which may proceed independently of EMT. Since
      millions of cells are released by tumors into the circulation per day, analysis
      of a limited number of CTCs at specific time points are difficult to be related
      to the development of metastatic lesions which may occur approximately one year
      later. We have obtained a panel of SCLC CTC cell line from patients with
      relapsing disease, which share characteristic markers of this malignancy and a
      primarily epithelial phenotype with unique formation of large tumorospheres,
      containing quiescent and hypoxic cells. Although smoking and inflammation promote
      EMT, partial expression of vimentin indicates a transitional state with partial
      EMT in these cell lines at most. The CTC lines exhibit high expression of EpCAM ,
      absent phosphorylation of beta-catenin and background levels of Snail. Provided
      that these tumor cells had ever undergone EMT, here in advanced disease MET seem
      to have occurred already in the peripheral circulation. Alternative explanations
      for the expression of mesenchymal markers of the CTC lines are the heterogeneity
      of SCLC cells, cooperative migration or altered gene expression in response to
      the inflammatory tumor microenvironment allowing for tumor spread without
      EMT/MET.

PMID- 28560678
TI  - Clinical Relevance of a Candidate Stem Cell Marker, p75 Neurotrophin Receptor
      (p75NTR) Expression in Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - Despite advances in its diagnosis and multimodal therapies, the prognosis of
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients remains poor, because of high
      incidences of metastasis . Recent reports suggested that circulating tumor stem
      cells (CTSCs), rather than circulating tumor cells (CTCs), were more accurate
      diagnostic marker for metastasis, because tumor stem cells or cancer stem cells
      (CSCs) are more responsible for metastasis through processes such as epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT) and tumor initiation. A neurotrophin receptor p75
      (p75NTR) is expressed in a candidate CSC s in ESCC, which possess enhanced
      tumorigenicity along with strong expression of EMT-related genes. Our recent
      report using two-color flow cytometry demonstrated that CTC counts based on a
      combined expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and p75NTR was
      significantly higher in peripheral blood samples of ESCC patients than healthy
      controls. In addition, EpCAM + p75NTR+, but not EpCAM + p75NTR- CTC counts,
      correlated with clinically diagnosed distant metastasis and pathological venous
      invasion in surgically resected primary ESCC tumors. Malignant cytology of the
      isolated EpCAM + p75NTR+ cells was microscopically confirmed as well. These
      results demonstrated that EpCAM + p75NTR+ CTC count was a more accurate
      diagnostic marker than EpCAM+ CTC count, suggesting the highly metastatic
      potential of CTCs with p75NTR expression.Investigation using the isolated EpCAM +
      p75NTR+ CTCs to assess their stem cell properties may shed light on their roles
      in tumor metastasis in ESCC.Further investigations based on large-scale
      prospective studies with long term follow up may provide us with evidences for
      its clinical use.

PMID- 28560679
TI  - Personalized Treatment Through Detection and Monitoring of Genetic Aberrations in
      Single Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) present a viable alternative to access tumor
      materials other than primary biopsies in cancer. This disease is among the most
      widespread in the world and is difficult to target because of its complex nature,
      challenges in getting quality samples and dynamic temporal changes in response to
      treatment. Conventional methods of detection and monitoring the disease profile
      do not suffice to be able to target the heterogeneity that exists at the cellular
      level. CTCs have been identified as a possible substitute for tumor tissue
      samples, and can be used to complement current disease management. Challenges in
      CTCs molecular analysis lie in the purity of the sample, which is masked by the
      presence of large quantities of white blood cells (WBCs) . In this chapter, we
      present a microfluidic biochip platform that performs secondary purification to
      isolate single CTCs efficiently. Studying single CTCs will allow for sensitive
      detection of critical mutations and addressing intercellular variances that will
      be otherwise missed easily due to low mutation frequencies when evaluating bulk
      cell retrieval. Using the biochip, we isolated single CTCs, and conducted
      personalized integrated EGFR mutational analysis using conventional polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequencing. We also demonstrated that high
      quality next generation sequencing (NGS) libraries can be readily generated from
      these samples. In our initial study, we revealed that the dominant EGFR mutations
      such as L858R and T790M could be detected in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
      patients with low CTC counts. We envision the biochip will enable efficient
      isolation of rare single cells from samples. This technology coupled with
      downstream molecular characterization of CTCs will aid in realizing the
      personalized medicine for cancer patients.

PMID- 28560680
TI  - Glycan Markers as Potential Immunological Targets in Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - We present here an experimental approach for exploring a new class of tumor
      biomarkers that are overexpressed by circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and are
      likely targetable in immunotherapy against tumor metastasis. Using carbohydrate
      microarrays, anti-tumor monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were scanned against a large
      panel of carbohydrate antigens to identify potential tumor glycan markers.
      Subsequently, flow cytometry and fiber-optic array scanning technology (FAST)
      were applied to determine whether the identified targets are tumor-specific cell
      surface markers and are, therefore, likely suitable for targeted immunotherapy.
      Finally, the tumor glycan-specific antibodies identified were validated using
      cancer patients' blood samples for their performance in CTC-detection and
      immunotyping analysis. In this article, identifying breast CTC-specific glycan
      markers and targeting mAbs serve as examples to illustrate this tumor biomarker
      discovery strategy.

PMID- 28560681
TI  - Significance of EGFR Expression in Circulating Tumor Cells.
AB  - This chapter focuses on a deep description of the epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) expression in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and its main role in
      cancer progression, genetic changes related to metastasis , and resistance to
      treatment. The aberrant behavior of cancer cells is caused by genetic mutations
      and altered patterns of gene expression. These changes can be responsible for an
      increase in cell motility but also an ability of CTCs to survival in different
      microenvironments, as well as developing therapy-resistant clones. Finally, CTCs
      can acquire the ability to invade distant organs, where metastatic foci can
      develop.

PMID- 28560684
TI  - Simulation-based education: what's it all about?

PMID- 28560685
TI  - How a needs assessment study taught us a lesson about the ethics of educational
      research.

PMID- 28560682
TI  - Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in tumor progression.
AB  - The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a biological process in which a
      non-motile epithelial cell changes to a mesenchymal state with invasive
      capacities. However, the EMT program is involved in both physiological and
      pathological processes. Cancer-associated EMT is known to contribute to increase
      invasiveness and metastasis, resistance to therapies, and generation of cell
      populations with stem cell-like characteristics and therefore is deeply involved
      in tumor progression. This process is finely orchestrated by multiple signaling
      pathways and regulatory transcriptional networks. The hallmark of EMT is the loss
      of epithelial surface markers, mainly E-cadherin, and the acquisition of
      mesenchymal phenotype. These events can be mediated by EMT transcription factors
      which can cooperate with several enzymes to repress the E-cadherin expression and
      regulate EMT at the epigenetic and post-translational level. A growing body of
      evidence indicates that cancer cells can reside in various phenotypic states
      along the EMT spectrum, where cells can jointly retain epithelial traits with
      mesenchymal ones. This type of phenotypic plasticity endows cancer cells with
      tumor-initiating potential. The identification of the signaling pathways and
      modulators that lead to activation of EMT programs during these disease processes
      is providing new insights into the plasticity of cellular phenotypes and possible
      therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28560683
TI  - The impact of a multifaceted intervention including sepsis electronic alert
      system and sepsis response team on the outcomes of patients with sepsis and
      septic shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compliance with the clinical practice guidelines of sepsis management
      has been low. The objective of our study was to describe the results of
      implementing a multifaceted intervention including an electronic alert (e-alert)
      with a sepsis response team (SRT) on the outcome of patients with sepsis and
      septic shock presenting to the emergency department. METHODS: This was a pre-post
      two-phased implementation study that consisted of a pre-intervention phase
      (January 01, 2011-September 24, 2012), intervention phase I (multifaceted
      intervention including e-alert, from September 25, 2012-March 03, 2013) and
      intervention phase II when SRT was added (March 04, 2013-October 30, 2013) in a
      900-bed tertiary-care academic hospital. We recorded baseline characteristics and
      processes of care in adult patients presenting with sepsis or septic shock. The
      primary outcome measures were hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were the
      need for mechanical ventilation and length of stay in the intensive unit and in
      the hospital. RESULTS: After implementing the multifaceted intervention including
      e-alert and SRT, cases were identified with less severe clinical and laboratory
      abnormalities and the processes of care improved. When adjusted to propensity
      score, the interventions were associated with reduction in hospital mortality
      [for intervention phase II compared to pre-intervention: adjusted odds ratio
      (aOR) 0.71, 95% CI 0.58-0.85, p = 0.003], reduction in the need for mechanical
      ventilation (aOR 0.45, 95% CI 0.37-0.55, p < 0.0001) and reduction in ICU LOS and
      hospital LOS for all patients as well as ICU LOS for survivors. CONCLUSIONS:
      Implementing a multifaceted intervention including sepsis e-alert with SRT was
      associated with earlier identification of sepsis, increase in compliance with
      sepsis resuscitation bundle and reduction in the need for mechanical ventilation
      and reduction in hospital mortality and LOS.

PMID- 28560686
TI  - Trends in drug offers among adolescents in the United States, 2002-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Being offered illicit drugs is a critical factor leading to drug
      initiation and other psychosocial risk behaviors among adolescents in the United
      States. However, there exist few studies examining the recent trends in drug
      offers among adolescents, particularly across racial/ethnic subgroups. The
      present study examines trends and psychosocial/behavioral correlates of drug
      offers among adolescents of the three largest racial/ethnic groups. METHODS: We
      used data from the 2002-2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health of
      adolescents aged 12-17, which include African-American, Hispanic, and White
      adolescents (n = 199,700) in the U.S. We estimated the prevalence of past-month
      drug offers by race/ethnicity, and conducted logistic regression analyses to test
      the significance of the trends and to examine the correlates of drug offers.
      RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of drug offers decreased significantly from
      16.3% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2014, reflecting a 24.5% reduction in the relative
      proportion of adolescents who were offered drugs. While the decreasing trends
      were observed in all subgroups (e.g., race/ethnicity), the decreases were more
      limited among African-American and Hispanic youth than White youth. As a result,
      while no differences were observed at the outset of the study, a higher
      proportion of African-American and Hispanic adolescents were offered drugs
      between 2012 and 2014. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest a general decline in drug
      offers among adolescents in the U.S., but racial/ethnic differences in prevalence
      were identified. This underscores the importance of further efforts to understand
      the racial/ethnic differences in drug offers and suggests the need for culturally
      sensitive drug prevention programs.

PMID- 28560687
TI  - HIV-1 gp120 Upregulates Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Expression in
      BV2 Cells via the Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling Pathway.
AB  - HIV-1 gp120 plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated pain, but
      the underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. This study aims
      to determine the effect and possible mechanism of HIV-1 gp120 on BDNF expression
      in BV2 cells (a murine-derived microglial cell line). We observed that gp120 (10
      ng/ml) activated BV2 cells in cultures and upregulated proBDNF/mBDNF.
      Furthermore, gp120-treated BV2 also accumulated Wnt3a and beta-catenin,
      suggesting the activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. We demonstrated that
      activation of the pathway by Wnt3a upregulated BDNF expression. In contrast,
      inhibition of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway by either DKK1 or IWR-1 attenuated
      BDNF upregulation induced by gp120 or Wnt3a. These findings collectively suggest
      that gp120 stimulates BDNF expression in BV2 cells via the Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28560689
TI  - Clinical characteristics of menstrually related and non-menstrual migraine.
AB  - Migraine attacks increase during the perimenstrual period in approximately half
      of female migraineurs. There are differences in the pathogenesis and clinical
      features of menstrually related and non-menstrual migraine attacks. The objective
      of this study was to compare the characteristics of migraine in patients with
      menstrually related and non-menstrual migraine, and to investigate the
      differences between premenstrual, menstrual, and late-menstrual migraine attacks.
      Three-hundred and thirty-two women with migraine without aura were evaluated
      using questionnaires and diaries to determine the characteristics of headache,
      preceding and accompanying symptoms, and the relation of migraine attacks and
      menstruation. One-hundred and sixty-three women had menstrually related migraine
      without aura (49.1%). Duration of disease and duration of headache were longer (p
      = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively), and nausea, vomiting, phonophobia, and
      aggravation of headache with physical activity were more frequent in patients
      with menstrually related migraine (p = 0.005, p = 0.006, p < 0.001 and p = 0.006,
      respectively). Premonitory symptoms and allodynia were observed more frequently
      in the menstrually related migraine group (p = 0.012 and p = 0.004,
      respectively). Perimenstrual migraine attacks occurred premenstrually (days -2
      and -1) in 46 patients (25.3%), menstrually (days 1 to 3) in 90 patients (49.4%),
      and late menstrually (days 4 to 7) in 19 patients (10.4%). Our results showed
      that the duration of headache was longer and accompanying symptoms were more
      frequent and diverse in patients with menstrually related migraine without aura,
      suggesting that these findings may reflect the increase in excitability or
      susceptibility of the brain in these patients.

PMID- 28560688
TI  - ANCA-associated vasculitis with renal involvement.
AB  - Systemic vasculitis is a rare but severe group of diseases characterized by
      inflammation and necrosis of blood vessels. The size of the vessel affected
      varies among the different forms of vasculitis and there are three main
      subgroups: large, medium and small vessel vasculitis. Among small vessel
      vasculitis, the antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated forms are
      of particular importance. This subgroup includes: microscopic polyangiitis,
      granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's), eosinophilic granulomatosis with
      polyangiitis (Churg-Strauss) and the form limited to the kidney. ANCA are serum
      autoantibodies directed against proteins present in the cytoplasmic granules of
      neutrophils and represent the serological markers of small vessel vasculitis.
      Renal involvement is present in the majority of patients with ANCA-associated
      vasculitis (AAV) and the consequences of a missed or delayed diagnosis of renal
      vasculitis are potentially life threatening. Patient survival and the risk of end
      stage renal disease are closely associated with renal function at presentation.
      The gold standard for diagnosis remains renal biopsy. In 2010, a new
      histopathological classification based on the percent of normal glomeruli,
      cellular crescent or global sclerotic glomeruli was proposed. The aim of this
      classification was to predict the renal prognosis. Nowadays, remission can be
      achieved and maintained in most cases with a combination of high-dose steroid and
      immunosuppressive drugs. This therapy has to be continued for at least 24 months
      after a substantial remission has been obtained because early cessation of
      treatment is associated with an increased risk of relapse. For this reason,
      patients should be regularly monitored in order to promptly diagnose and treat a
      possible recurrence of AAV. This review will focus on kidney involvement in AAV
      with an overview of the clinical-pathological characteristics and therapeutic
      strategy for these conditions.

PMID- 28560690
TI  - Extrarenal determinants of kidney filter function.
AB  - The kidney is an organ involved in cross talk with many human organs. The link
      between the immune system and the kidney has been studied in some detail,
      although data precisely elucidating their interaction are sparse, in particular
      with regard to the function of the kidney filter apparatus. Current research
      suggests that an understanding of the impairment of this cross talk between the
      bone marrow, as a fundament of the immune system and the kidney will provide
      meaningful insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of impaired kidney
      filter function. Circulating factors have long been implicated in the
      pathogenesis of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, particularly focal segmental
      glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and its recurrence. Soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR)
      has emerged as a circulating factor responsible for FSGS and also as an early
      predictive marker for the development of various renal diseases. The bone marrow
      has recently been revealed as a predominant source of suPAR with deleterious
      effects on the kidney filter. These new findings have led to bone marrow or
      hematopoietic stem cell transplants being considered as potential therapeutic
      options for preventing the post-transplantation recurrence of FSGS or even as a
      treatment for the original disease associated with high suPAR levels. Whereas
      bone marrow transplantation for patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease
      is challenging, recent clinical trials have demonstrated the promising outcome of
      combined bone marrow and kidney transplantation in patients with kidney failure.
      In this review, with its brief update on suPAR, we describe the critical new role
      of the bone marrow in the pathogenesis of the kidney disease process and the
      functional connection between these two organs through the soluble mediator,
      suPAR. We also comment on the feasibility of bone marrow transplants for the
      treatment of patients with chronic renal failure arising from recurrent FSGS.

PMID- 28560692
TI  - Engineering kidney cells: reprogramming and directed differentiation to renal
      tissues.
AB  - Growing knowledge of how cell identity is determined at the molecular level has
      enabled the generation of diverse tissue types, including renal cells from
      pluripotent or somatic cells. Recently, several in vitro protocols involving
      either directed differentiation or transcription-factor-based reprogramming to
      kidney cells have been established. Embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent
      stem cells can be guided towards a kidney fate by exposing them to combinations
      of growth factors or small molecules. Here, renal development is recapitulated in
      vitro resulting in kidney cells or organoids that show striking similarities to
      mammalian embryonic nephrons. In addition, culture conditions are also defined
      that allow the expansion of renal progenitor cells in vitro. Another route
      towards the generation of kidney cells is direct reprogramming. Key transcription
      factors are used to directly impose renal cell identity on somatic cells, thus
      circumventing the pluripotent stage. This complementary approach to stem-cell
      based differentiation has been demonstrated to generate renal tubule cells and
      nephron progenitors. In-vitro-generated renal cells offer new opportunities for
      modelling inherited and acquired renal diseases on a patient-specific genetic
      background. These cells represent a potential source for developing novel models
      for kidney diseases, drug screening and nephrotoxicity testing and might
      represent the first steps towards kidney cell replacement therapies. In this
      review, we summarize current approaches for the generation of renal cells in
      vitro and discuss the advantages of each approach and their potential
      applications.

PMID- 28560691
TI  - Role of TGF-beta in metastatic colon cancer: it is finally time for targeted
      therapy.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent tumor types in Western
      countries. Approximately 20 % of patients show metastasis at the time of
      diagnosis, with the liver being one of the most affected organs. Transforming
      growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) plays a regulatory role not only in the physiology
      of the normal colon but also in the development of CRC and its metastatic
      process. In this review, we analyze the molecular mechanisms leading to TGF-beta
      dysregulation in tumor and stroma cells and the modification of the
      microenvironment that fosters CRC metastasis. Recent genomic studies have
      identified a CRC subtype with a mesenchymal and aggressive phenotype having TGF
      beta as a hub gene of this signature. Consistent with these findings, the
      inhibition of TGF-beta signaling has been shown to impair experimental CRC
      metastasis to the liver. Based on these and other results conducted in various
      tumor types, the pharmaceutical industry has developed a variety of strategies to
      target TGF-beta. We provide up-to-date information of these therapies, which are
      currently in preclinical or clinical trials.

PMID- 28560693
TI  - Quantifying podocyte depletion: theoretical and practical considerations.
AB  - Podocyte depletion is a central event in the pathogenesis of many glomerular
      diseases. For this reason, methods to quantify podocyte depletion have become
      increasingly important. Here, we review currently available methods for
      quantifying podocyte depletion, including the analysis of glomerular cross
      sections, the most important and common stereological methods and newer
      techniques such as whole glomerular analysis in optically cleared samples. Each
      method has advantages and limitations. We therefore discuss theoretical and
      practical considerations to assist the selection of the most appropriate method
      for an individual study.

PMID- 28560694
TI  - Role of apoptosis in the development of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney
      disease (ADPKD).
AB  - Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a widespread genetic
      disorder in the Western world and is characterized by cystogenesis that often
      leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Mutations in the pkd1 gene, encoding for
      polycystin-1 (PC1) and its interaction partner pkd2, encoding for polycystin-2
      (PC2), are the main drivers of this disease. PC1 and PC2 form a multiprotein
      membrane complex at cilia sites of the plasma membrane and at intracellular
      membranes. This complex mediates calcium influx and stimulates various signaling
      pathways regulating cell survival, proliferation and differentiation. The
      molecular consequences of pkd1 and pkd2 mutations are still a matter of debate.
      In particular, the ways in which the cysts are initially formed and progress
      throughout the disease are unknown. The mechanisms proposed to play a role
      include enhanced cell proliferation, increased apoptotic cell death and
      diminished autophagy. In this review, we summarize our current understanding
      about the contribution of apoptosis to cystogenesis and ADPKD. We present the
      animal models and the tools and methods that have been created to analyze this
      process. We also critically review the data that are in favor or against the
      involvement of apoptosis in disease generation. We argue that apoptosis is
      probably not the sole driver of cystogenesis but that a cooperative action of
      cell death, compensatory cell proliferation and perturbed autophagy gradually
      establish the disease. Finally, we propose novel strategies for uncovering the
      mode of action of PC1 and PC2 and suggest means by which their dysfunction or
      loss of expression lead to cystogenesis and ADPKD development.

PMID- 28560695
TI  - High-Tech Drugs in Creaky Formulations.
AB  - Recent literature reviews and registration documents covering novel Signal
      Transduction Inhibitors in the treatment of cancer paint a picture of
      inefficiency and variability, where formulation improvements could be valuable.
      In this article, we discuss apparent drug design flaws as we impose the current
      standard formulation practice.

PMID- 28560696
TI  - Impact of the Charge Ratio on the In Vivo Immunogenicity of Lipoplexes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present study investigated the immunogenic potential of different
      cationic liposome formulations with a DNA plasmid encoding Pfs25, a malaria
      transmission-blocking vaccine candidate. METHODS: Pfs25 plasmid DNA was complexed
      with cationic liposomes to produce lipoplexes at different charge ratios of the
      cationic lipid head group to the nucleotide phosphate (N:P). The formation of
      lipoplexes was visualized by Cryogenic-TEM. Confocal microscopy of lipoplexes
      formed with GFP encoding plasmid DNA, and flow cytometry was used to determine
      their in vitro transfection capability. Two different lipoplex formulations using
      plasmid DNA encoding Pfs25 were evaluated for in vivo immunogenicity after
      intramuscular administration in Balb/c mice. Immune sera were analyzed by ELISA.
      RESULTS: The results demonstrated that the cationic liposome-mediated DNA
      immunization with an N:P charge ratio of 1:3 (anionic lipoplexes) is more
      effective than the use of naked plasmid DNA alone. No antibody response was
      observed when lipoplexes with a higher N:P charge ratio of 10:3 (cationic
      lipoplexes) were used. Trehalose was added to some lipoplex formulations as a
      cryoprotectant and adjuvant, but it did not yield any further improvement of
      immunogenicity in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that Pfs25 plasmid DNA
      delivered as lipoplexes at a charge ratio of 1:3 elicited strong immunogenicity
      in mice and may be improved further to match the immune responses of DNA vaccines
      administered by in vivo electroporation.

PMID- 28560697
TI  - The Cardiotoxic Mechanism of Doxorubicin (DOX) and Pegylated Liposomal DOX in
      Mice Bearing C-26 Colon Carcinoma: a Study Focused on microRNA Role for Toxicity
      Assessment of New Formulations.
AB  - PURPOSE: MicroRNAs (miRs) are a group of small non-coding RNAs that regulate
      transcriptional or post-transcriptional gene expression. The aim of the present
      study was to investigate the role of miR -1, -21 and -145 and their targets in
      cardiotoxicity-induced by DOX and pegylated liposomal DOX. METHODS: BALB/c mice
      subjected to subcutaneous injection of C-26 tumor cells. Eight days after tumor
      inoculation, animals were divided into 6 groups: control, liposome, DOX (6 and 9
      mg/kg) and PL-DOX (6 and 9 mg/kg). The formulations were administered one time
      per week for four weeks. 24 h after the last injection, mice were sacrificed;
      blood and heart samples were taken. Western blot analysis was done on protein
      extracts to investigate the expression of cardiac caspase-3, -8, Bax, Bcl2,
      Programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) and BCL2/Adenovirus E1B 19 kDa Interacting
      Protein 3 (BNIP3). The expression levels of miR -1, -21 and -145 were also
      evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: Mice treated with both DOX
      formulations showed a marked inhibition in tumor growth. Western blot analysis
      indicated that the expression level of cardiac caspase-3, caspase-8, Bax and
      BNIP3 were up-regulated due to DOX injection (9 mg/kg). Exposure of mice with DOX
      resulted in a significant increase in cardiac miR-1 and miR-21 expression level.
      PL-DOX treatment did not change the proteins and miRs expression. CONCLUSION: The
      results suggest that miR -1, -21 and -145 may involve in cardiotoxicity induced
      by DOX. Evaluation of miRs signaling pathways might be of potential value for
      toxicity assessment of new formulations. Graphical Abstract The cardiotoxic
      mechanism of doxorubicin (DOX) and pegylated liposomal DOX (PL-DOX).

PMID- 28560698
TI  - A Biocompatible Synthetic Lung Fluid Based on Human Respiratory Tract Lining
      Fluid Composition.
AB  - PURPOSE: To characterise a biorelevant simulated lung fluid (SLF) based on the
      composition of human respiratory tract lining fluid. SLF was compared to other
      media which have been utilized as lung fluid simulants in terms of fluid
      structure, biocompatibility and performance in inhalation biopharmaceutical
      assays. METHODS: The structure of SLF was investigated using cryo-transmission
      electron microscopy, photon correlation spectroscopy and Langmuir isotherms.
      Biocompatibility with A549 alveolar epithelial cells was determined by MTT assay,
      morphometric observations and transcriptomic analysis. Biopharmaceutical
      applicability was evaluated by measuring the solubility and dissolution of
      beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) and fluticasone propionate (FP), in SLF.
      RESULTS: SLF exhibited a colloidal structure, possessing vesicles similar in
      nature to those found in lung fluid extracts. No adverse effect on A549 cells was
      apparent after exposure to the SLF for 24 h, although some metabolic changes were
      identified consistent with the change of culture medium to a more lung-like
      composition. The solubility and dissolution of BDP and FP in SLF were enhanced
      compared to Gamble's solution. CONCLUSION: The SLF reported herein constitutes a
      biorelevant synthetic simulant which is suitable to study biopharmaceutical
      properties of inhalation medicines such as those being proposed for an inhaled
      biopharmaceutics classification system.

PMID- 28560699
TI  - Identification of Strategic Residues at the Interface of Antigen-Antibody
      Interactions by In Silico Mutagenesis.
AB  - Structural information pertaining to antigen-antibody interactions is fundamental
      in immunology, and benefits structure-based vaccine design. Modeling of antigen
      antibody immune complexes from co-crystal structures or molecular docking
      simulations provides an extensive profile of the epitope at the interface;
      however, the key amino acids involved in the interaction must be further
      clarified, often through the use of experimental mutagenesis and subsequent
      binding assays. Here, we describe an in silico mutagenesis method to identify key
      sites at antigen-antibody interfaces, using significant increase in pH-dependency
      energy among saturated point mutations. Through a comprehensive analysis of the
      crystal structures of three antigen-antibody immune complexes, we show that a
      cutoff value of 1 kcal/mol of increased interaction energy provides good
      congruency with the experimental non-binding mutations conducted in vitro. This
      in silico mutagenesis strategy, in association with energy calculations, may
      provide an efficient tool for antibody-antigen interface analyses, epitope
      optimization, and/or conformation prediction in structure-based vaccine design.

PMID- 28560700
TI  - An improved design of optical sensor for long-term measurement of arterial blood
      flow waveform.
AB  - We present here the improved design and development of optical sensor for non
      invasive measurements of arterial blood flow waveform. The sensor is based on a
      physical principle of reflective photoplethysmography (PPG). As the light source
      we used serially connected infrared diodes whereas NPN silicon phototransistors
      were used as light detectors. The electronic components were molded into square
      package and poured with silicone. Such preparation produced an elastic
      superficies that allowed excellent attachment of the sensor on the skin's
      surface. Moreover, a serial connection of infrared diodes and phototransistors
      completely eliminated signal artifacts caused by minor muscle contractions. The
      sensor recording performances were examined at the photoplethysmographic sites on
      three different arteries; the commune carotid, femoral and radial and, on each
      site the sensor demonstrated remarkable capability to make a consistent,
      reproducible measurements. Because of the advantageous physical and electrical
      properties, the new sensor is suitable for various cardiovascular diagnostics
      procedures, especially when long-term measurements of arterial blood flow
      waveform are required, for monitoring of different parameters in cardiovascular
      units and for research.

PMID- 28560701
TI  - Nano-Calorimetry based point of care biosensor for metabolic disease management.
AB  - Point of care (POC) diagnostics represents one of the fastest growing health care
      technology segments. Developments in microfabrication have led to the development
      of highly-sensitive nanocalorimeters ideal for directly measuring heat generated
      in POC biosensors. Here we present a novel nano-calorimeter-based biosensor
      design with differential sensing to eliminate common mode noise and capillary
      microfluidic channels for sample delivery to the thermoelectric sensor. The
      calorimeter has a resolution of 1.4 +/- 0.2 nJ/(Hz)1/2 utilizing a 27 junction
      bismuth/titanium thermopile, with a total Seebeck coefficient of 2160 MUV/K.
      Sample is wicked to the calorimeter through a capillary channel making it
      suitable for monitoring blood obtained through a finger prick (<1 MUL sample
      required). We demonstrate device performance in a model assay using catalase,
      achieving a threshold for hydrogen peroxide quantification of 50 MUM. The
      potential for our device as a POC blood test for metabolic diseases is shown
      through the quantification of phenylalanine (Phe) in serum, an unmet necessary
      service in the management of Phenylketonuria (PKU). Pegylated phenylalanine
      ammonia-lyase (PEG-PAL) was utilized to react with Phe, but reliable detection
      was limited to <5 mM due to low enzymatic activity. The POC biosensor concept can
      be multiplexed and adapted to a large number of metabolic diseases utilizing
      different immobilized enzymes.

PMID- 28560702
TI  - Hybrid intracerebral probe with integrated bare LED chips for optogenetic
      studies.
AB  - This article reports on the development, i.e., the design, fabrication, and
      validation of an implantable optical neural probes designed for in vivo
      experiments relying on optogenetics. The probes comprise an array of ten bare
      light-emitting diode (LED) chips emitting at a wavelength of 460 nm and
      integrated along a flexible polyimide-based substrate stiffened using a
      micromachined ladder-like silicon structure. The resulting mechanical stiffness
      of the slender, 250-MUm-wide, 65-MUm-thick, and 5- and 8-mm-long probe shank
      facilitates its implantation into neural tissue. The LEDs are encapsulated by a
      fluropolymer coating protecting the implant against the physiological conditions
      in the brain. The electrical interface to the external control unit is provided
      by 10-MUm-thick, highly flexible polyimide cables making the probes suitable for
      both acute and chronic in vivo experiments. Optical and electrical properties of
      the probes are reported, as well as their in vivo validation in acute optogenetic
      studies in transgenic mice. The depth-dependent optical stimulation of both
      excitatory and inhibitory neurons is demonstrated by altering the brain activity
      in the cortex and the thalamus. Local network responses elicited by 20-ms-long
      light pulses of different optical power (20 MUW and 1 mW), as well as local
      modulation of single unit neuronal activity to 1-s-long light pulses with low
      optical intensity (17 MUW) are presented. The ability to modulate neural activity
      makes these devices suitable for a broad variety of optogenetic experiments.

PMID- 28560703
TI  - Allogenic Blood Transfusion Is an Independent Predictor of Poorer Peri-operative
      Outcomes and Reduced Long-Term Survival after Cytoreductive Surgery and
      Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy: a Review of 936 Cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a paucity of data on the impact of allogenic blood
      transfusion (ABT) on morbidity and survival outcomes after cytoreductive surgery
      and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC). METHODS: Nine hundred
      and thirty-five consecutive CRS/HIPEC procedures were performed between 1996 and
      2016 at a high-volume institution in Sydney, Australia. Of these, 337(36%)
      patients required massive ABT (MABT) (>=5 units). Peri-operative complications
      were graded according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. The association of
      concomitant MABT with 21 peri-operative outcomes and overall survival (OS) was
      assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: In-hospital
      mortality was 1.8%. Patients requiring MABT had more extensive disease as
      reflected by a higher peritoneal cancer index (>=17) (70 vs. 29%, p < 0.001) and
      longer operative times (>=9 h) (82 vs. 35%, p < 0.001). After accounting for
      confounding factors, MABT was associated with in-hospital mortality (relative
      risk (RR), 7.72; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35-10.11; p = 0.021) and grade
      III/IV morbidity (RR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.42-2.95; p < 0.001). MABT was associated
      with an increased incidence of prolonged hospital stay (>=28 days) (RR, 1.86; 95%
      CI, 1.26-2.74; p = 0.002) and intensive care unit stay (>=4 days) (RR, 1.83; 95%
      CI, 1.24-2.70, p = 0.002). It was also associated with a significant OS in
      patients with colorectal cancer peritoneal carcinomatosis (RR 4.49; p < 0.001)
      and pseudomyxoma peritonei (RR, 4.37; p = 0.026), but not appendiceal cancer (p =
      0.160). CONCLUSION: MABT is an independent predictor for poorer peri-operative
      outcomes including in-hospital mortality and grade III/IV morbidity. It may also
      compromise long-term survival, particularly in patients with colorectal cancer
      peritoneal carcinomatosis.

PMID- 28560704
TI  - Surgical Ampullectomy with Complete Resection of the Common Bile Duct: a New
      Procedure for Radical Resection of Non-invasive Ampulloma with Biliary Extension.
AB  - Extension of ampulloma into the lower common bile duct (CBD) is observed in up to
      30% of cases. This biliary extension can prevent complete tumor resection thus is
      considered as a contraindication for endoscopic and even surgical ampullectomy.
      For ampullomas associated with a prolonged biliary extension, a
      pancreaticoduodenectomy is associated with a high morbidity and can be considered
      as an overtreatment for a benign neoplasm. The present study describes a new
      surgical approach including ampullectomy with complete resection of the
      intrapancreatic CBD and restoration of both biliary and pancreatic flow by two
      separate anastomoses. This procedure was performed in seven patients for a non
      invasive ampulloma with a 25- to 70-mm CBD involvement. No patients died and
      three developed postoperative complications. Resection was R0 in all patients but
      one. With a 24-month median follow-up (range = 3-84), no patients developed
      pancreatic insufficiency or tumor recurrence.

PMID- 28560705
TI  - Patient-Centered Outcome Instruments in Esophageal and Gastric Surgery.

PMID- 28560706
TI  - Local Hemodynamic Differences Between Commercially Available Y-Grafts and
      Traditional Fontan Baffles Under Simulated Exercise Conditions: Implications for
      Exercise Tolerance.
AB  - Fontan completion, resulting in a total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC), is
      accomplished using a lateral tunnel (LT), extracardiac conduit (ECC), or recently
      a bifurcated Y-graft. The local energetic differences between these graft types
      have not been substantially analyzed under exercise conditions. The present study
      evaluates the energetic performance of Y-grafts under simulated exercise
      conditions, compares their performance to the previous LT/ECC Fontan options, and
      discusses implications for exercise tolerance and hemodynamic predictability.
      Twenty Y-graft and 20 LT/ECC patients were analyzed. TCPC anatomies and flow
      waveforms were reconstructed using patient-specific cardiac magnetic resonance
      (CMR) images and phase-contrast CMR. Computational fluid dynamics simulations
      were performed to quantify indexed power loss (iPL) under both resting and
      simulated exercise conditions. Comparisons between graft types were investigated.
      iPL was significantly higher (p < 0.01) for Y-grafts at all activity levels. No
      significant interaction effects were observed between graft type and activity
      level. iPL at rest was strongly correlated (r 2 = 0.97, p < 0.001) with iPL at
      moderate exercise for Y-grafts, but less so for the LT/ECC cohort (r 2 = 0.66, p
      < 0.001). Similar results were seen for intense exercise, with a strong
      correlation for Y-grafts (r 2 = 0.94, p < 0.001) and a moderate correlation for
      LT/ECC (r 2 = 0.52, p < 0.001). Commercially available Y-grafts were found to
      have significantly higher iPL at all activity levels, suggesting worse exercise
      tolerance than the LT/ECC alternatives. Y-grafts offered impressive hemodynamic
      predictability which was not seen in the LT/ECC cohort. Our results encourage the
      further evaluation of an area-preserving Y-graft design to offer both improved
      energetic performance and hemodynamic predictability. Commercial Y-grafts show
      worse energetics, but more predictable responses than traditional Fontan
      connections under simulated exercise conditions. During simulated exercise
      conditions, commercially available Y-grafts show predictable but inferior
      energetic performance compared to lateral tunnel and extracardiac conduit Fontan
      connections, suggesting poorer exercise capacity. If Y-graft use is continued,
      these results encourage further evaluation of a cross sectional area-preserving Y
      graft design as a additional alternative for Fontan completion.

PMID- 28560707
TI  - Current trends in tendinopathy: consensus of the ESSKA basic science committee.
      Part I: biology, biomechanics, anatomy and an exercise-based approach.
AB  - Chronic tendinopathies represent a major problem in the clinical practice of
      sports orthopaedic surgeons, sports doctors and other health professionals
      involved in the treatment of athletes and patients that perform repetitive
      actions. The lack of consensus relative to the diagnostic tools and treatment
      modalities represents a management dilemma for these professionals. With this
      review, the purpose of the ESSKA Basic Science Committee is to establish
      guidelines for understanding, diagnosing and treating this complex pathology.

PMID- 28560708
TI  - Tonabersat Prevents Inflammatory Damage in the Central Nervous System by Blocking
      Connexin43 Hemichannels.
AB  - The cis benzopyran compound tonabersat (SB-220453) has previously been reported
      to inhibit connexin26 expression in the brain by attenuating the p38-mitogen
      activated protein kinase pathway. We show here that tonabersat directly inhibits
      connexin43 hemichannel opening. Connexin43 hemichannels have been called
      "pathological pores" based upon their role in secondary lesion spread, edema,
      inflammation, and neuronal loss following central nervous system injuries, as
      well as in chronic inflammatory disease. Both connexin43 hemichannels and
      pannexin channels released adenosine triphosphate (ATP) during ischemia in an in
      vitro ischemia model, but only connexin43 hemichannels contributed to ATP release
      during reperfusion. Tonabersat inhibited connexin43 hemichannel-mediated ATP
      release during both ischemia and reperfusion phases, with direct channel block
      confirmed using electrophysiology. Tonabersat also reduced connexin43 gap
      junction coupling in vitro, but only at higher concentrations, with junctional
      plaques internalized and degraded via the lysosomal pathway. Systemic delivery of
      tonabersat in a rat bright-light retinal damage model (a model for dry age
      related macular degeneration) resulted in significantly improved functional
      outcomes assessed using electroretinography. Tonabersat also prevented thinning
      of the retina, especially the outer nuclear layer and choroid, assessed using
      optical coherence tomography. We conclude that tonabersat, already given orally
      to over 1000 humans in clinical trials (as a potential treatment for, and
      prophylactic treatment of, migraine because it was thought to inhibit cortical
      spreading depression), is a connexin hemichannel inhibitor and may have the
      potential to be a novel treatment of central nervous system injury and chronic
      neuroinflammatory disease.

PMID- 28560711
TI  - Recent advances in hypertrophic scar.
AB  - Hypertrophic scars (HTS) are predominant diseases after burn and trauma, which
      cause severe physiological and psychological problems. HTS have been researched
      for decades, and our knowledge about the mechanisms of HTS formation process has
      been increasing. However, the effects of currently available prevention and
      treatment strategies are limited. In this review, we summarize currently known
      mechanisms and recent studies of HTS, including extracellular matrix, matrix
      metalloproteinases, fibroblasts, myofibroblasts and their contraction ability,
      keratinocytes, growth factors, inflammatory and immune response, and stem cell
      treatment, hoping for a better understanding of HTS generation, development and
      effective translation to treatment strategies.

PMID- 28560709
TI  - Targeting Neural Hyperactivity as a Treatment to Stem Progression of Late-Onset
      Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Sporadic late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), the most common form of dementia
      in the elderly, causes progressive and severe loss of cognitive abilities. With
      greater numbers of people living to advanced ages, LOAD will increasingly burden
      both the healthcare system and society. There are currently no available disease
      modifying therapies, and the failure of several recent pathology-based strategies
      has highlighted the urgent need for effective therapeutic targets. With aging as
      the greatest risk factor for LOAD, targeting mechanisms by which aging
      contributes to disease could prove an effective strategy to delay progression to
      clinical dementia by intervention in elderly individuals in an early prodromal
      stage of disease. Excess neural activity in the hippocampus, a recently described
      phenomenon associated with age-dependent memory loss, was first identified in
      animal models of aging and subsequently translated to clinical conditions of
      aging and early-stage LOAD. Critically, elevated activity was similarly localized
      to specific circuits within the hippocampal formation in aged animals and humans.
      Here we review evidence for hippocampal hyperactivity as a significant
      contributor to age-dependent cognitive decline and the progressive accumulation
      of pathology in LOAD. We also describe studies demonstrating the efficacy of
      reducing hyperactivity with an initial test therapy, levetiracetam (Keppra), an
      atypical antiepileptic. By targeting excess neural activity, levetiracetam may
      improve cognition and attenuate the accumulation of pathology contributing to
      progression to the dementia phase of LOAD.

PMID- 28560712
TI  - Endogenous Probes for Drug Transporters: Balancing Vision With Reality.
AB  - Various endogenous probes have been identified for a number of hepatic and renal
      drug transporters and available clinical data indicate that they could be
      leveraged in phase I trials to facilitate subject phenotyping and drug-drug
      interaction (DDI) assessment. Despite the progress, however, it is recognized
      that the menu of probes needs expanding, that existing probes need further
      characterization and validation, and that compound files need to be built in
      support of probe absorption-metabolism-distribution-excretion-DDI modeling
      exercises.

PMID- 28560713
TI  - Time domain measurement of the vascular and myocardial branches of the
      baroreflex: A study in physically active versus sedentary individuals.
AB  - This study tests the spontaneous sequence method for the evaluation of the
      cardiac, vasomotor, and myocardial branches of the baroreflex. Systolic blood
      pressure (SBP), interbeat interval (IBI), stroke volume (SV), preejection period
      (PEP), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were continuously recorded in 33
      physically active and 25 sedentary participants at rest and during a mental
      arithmetic task. Sequences of spontaneous covariation between SBP and IBI (for
      the cardiac branch), SV and PEP (for the myocardial branch), and TPR (for the
      vasomotor branch) were located. The slope of the regression line between values
      in the sequences produced an estimate of baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), and the
      proportion of progressive SBP changes that elicited reflex modulations yielded an
      estimate of baroreflex effectiveness (BEI). The active group showed greater BRS
      in all three branches than the sedentary group. Cardiac and vasomotor BEI
      decreased during the arithmetic task in the sedentary group but not in the active
      one. Only cardiac BRS decreased during the arithmetic task. In conclusion, the
      method appears appropriate for the simultaneous assessment of the three
      baroreflex branches. The assessment of the vascular branch of the baroreflex may
      have prognostic relevance in the development of hypertension or other
      cardiometabolic diseases.

PMID- 28560714
TI  - Clinical presentation and echocardiographic diagnosis of postinfarction papillary
      muscle rupture: A review of 22 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) continue to be common in the
      United States. Mechanical complications of AMI can lead to cardiogenic shock (CS)
      and death. The aim of this study was to review the cases of papillary muscle
      ruptures in the setting of myocardial infarctions at a tertiary care center, with
      a focus on the clinical presentation and echocardiographic diagnosis. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective study from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2014. In
      all, 22 patients with AMI and papillary muscle rupture (AMI-PMR) who had surgical
      intervention were identified. RESULTS: The average age was 70 (+/-11) with 16
      (73%) males. Six patients presented with ST-elevation myocardial infarctions
      (STEMI) and all underwent emergent revascularization with primary percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI) prior to the diagnosis of AMI-PMR. The other 16
      patients presented with a non-STEMI. In total, 17 (77%) of the 22 patients were
      diagnosed with an AMI-PMR within 7 days from their onset of symptoms. In all, 12
      patients (55%) had anterolateral papillary muscle ruptures (ALPMR), and the other
      10 had posteromedial papillary muscle ruptures (PMPMR). Ruptures were complete in
      10 patients (45%). Patients presented with pulmonary edema early (<7 days) more
      commonly than late (>14 days). Transthoracic echocardiography was able to
      demonstrate severe mitral regurgitation in 86% and a definitive or suggestive
      diagnosis in 93%. All 22 patients survived to operative management, and the
      overall in-hospital mortality rate was 9%. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, ischemic
      papillary muscle ruptures continue to occur, but with prompt diagnosis by
      echocardiography and rapid surgical management, the mortality rate continues to
      decline.

PMID- 28560715
TI  - Incomplete Kawasaki disease presenting as bilateral hip synovitis.

PMID- 28560710
TI  - HCN Channel Targets for Novel Antidepressant Treatment.
AB  - Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic and potentially life threatening
      illness that carries a staggering global burden. Characterized by depressed mood,
      MDD is often difficult to diagnose and treat owing to heterogeneity of syndrome
      and complex etiology. Contemporary antidepressant treatments are based on
      improved monoamine-based formulations from serendipitous discoveries made > 60
      years ago. Novel antidepressant treatments are necessary, as roughly half of
      patients using available antidepressants do not see long-term remission of
      depressive symptoms. Current development of treatment options focuses on
      generating efficacious antidepressants, identifying depression-related neural
      substrates, and better understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of
      depression. Recent insight into the brain's mesocorticolimbic circuitry from
      animal models of depression underscores the importance of ionic mechanisms in
      neuronal homeostasis and dysregulation, and substantial evidence highlights a
      potential role for ion channels in mediating depression-related excitability
      changes. In particular, hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN)
      channels are essential regulators of neuronal excitability. In this review, we
      describe seminal research on HCN channels in the prefrontal cortex and
      hippocampus in stress and depression-related behaviors, and highlight substantial
      evidence within the ventral tegmental area supporting the development of novel
      therapeutics targeting HCN channels in MDD. We argue that methods targeting the
      activity of reward-related brain areas have significant potential as superior
      treatments for depression.

PMID- 28560716
TI  - Risk stratification and long-term risk prediction of E6 oncoprotein in a
      prospective screening cohort in China.
AB  - E6 oncoprotein is a necessary agent of HPV driven oncogenic transformation. This
      study is aimed at evaluating the risk stratification potency of HPV 16/18 E6
      oncoprotein (E6) as a triage method for HPV positivity. Moreover, it also acts as
      a predictor of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or worse (CIN3+). The
      screening cohort of 1,997 women was followed for a 15 year period in approximate
      five-year intervals. Participants were concurrently screened by HPV DNA testing
      (HC2), liquid based cytology (LBC), visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and
      were referred to colposcopy and biopsy if any tests reflected positive. E6 was
      performed on cervical samples collected from this cohort in 2005 and 2014. The
      ability of E6 to predict CIN3+ risk after the five- and ten-year interval was
      evaluated. Among HPV positive women in 2005, E6 indicated the lowest positive
      rate (9.9%) compared to LBC (48.4%) and VIA (28.0%), however, a higher prevalence
      rate (10.3%) and 10-year cumulative incidence rate (53.0%) of CIN3+ were detected
      among women who were E6 positive. Meanwhile, only 4.2% and 2.9% of women with
      abnormal LBC and positive VIA were diagnosed as prevalent CIN3+ in 2005, 23.0%
      and 16.5% developed to CIN3+ after year 10, respectively. Strong associations
      were found between precedent and subsequent HPV persistence and E6 oncoprotein
      expression (ORadjusted  = 40.0 and 21.2, respectively). E6 oncoprotein could
      serve as a low-cost, highly specific, strongly indicative point-of-care method in
      the triage and treatment of HPV positive women.

PMID- 28560718
TI  - Suzuki Cross-Coupling for Post-Complexation Derivatization of Non-Racemic Bis
      Cyclometalated Iridium(III) Complexes.
AB  - A straightforward method for post-complexation derivatizations of diastereo- and
      enantiomerically pure bis-cyclometalated benzoxazole and benzothiazole
      iridium(III) complexes is reported. Triflate- and bromine-functionalized
      iridium(III) complex dimers, represented as [Ir(MU-Cl)(C^N)2 ]2 , were converted
      to the corresponding diastereomeric complexes, represented as Ir(C^N)2 (N^O),
      using readily available chiral salicyloxazolines and salicylthiazolines as
      ancillary ligands, which are represented as N^O. The Ir(C^N)2 (N^O) complexes,
      formed as mixtures of diastereomers, were then resolved by flash chromatography
      and the diastereomerically pure complexes Ir(C^N)2 (N^O) subjected to Suzuki
      cross-couplings. The post-complexation cross-couplings proceed without affecting
      the metal-located stereocenter and hence provide post-complexation derivatized
      non-racemic iridium(III) complexes, which were not easily accessible with
      previous methods. This strategy expands the toolbox to access functionalized non
      racemic iridium(III) complexes for diverse applications in the life sciences,
      materials sciences, and catalysis.

PMID- 28560719
TI  - Visual system pathology in humans and animal models of blast injury.
AB  - Injury from blast exposure is becoming a more prevalent cause of death and
      disability worldwide. The devastating neurological impairments that result from
      blasts are significant and lifelong. Progress in the development of effective
      therapies to treat injury has been slowed by its heterogeneous pathology and the
      dearth of information regarding the cellular mechanisms involved. Within the last
      decade, a number of studies have documented visual dysfunction following injury.
      This brief review examines damage to the visual system in both humans and animal
      models of blast injury. The in vivo use of the retina as a surrogate to evaluate
      brain injury following exposure to blast is also highlighted.

PMID- 28560720
TI  - Home mechanical ventilation for stable COPD in GOLD 2017: What are we
      ventilating?

PMID- 28560721
TI  - Electronically Activated Organoboron Catalysts for Enantioselective Propargyl
      Addition to Trifluoromethyl Ketones.
AB  - A broadly applicable, practical, scalable, efficient and highly alpha- and
      enantioselective method for addition of a silyl-protected propargyl moiety to
      trifluoromethyl ketones has been developed. Reactions, promoted by 2.0 mol % of a
      catalyst that is derived in situ from a readily accessible aminophenol compound
      at ambient temperature, were complete after only 15 minutes at room temperature.
      The desired tertiary alcohols were isolated in up to 97 % yield and 98.5:1.5
      enantiomeric ratio. Alkyl-, alkenyl-, alkynyl-, aryl- or heteroaryl-substituted
      trifluoromethyl ketones can be used. Utility is highlighted by application to a
      transformation that is relevant to enantioselective synthesis of BI 653048, a
      compound active against rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28560723
TI  - Impact of distress related to attenuated psychotic symptoms in individuals at
      ultra high risk of psychosis: Findings from the Longitudinal Youth at Risk Study.
AB  - AIM: Recent studies have highlighted that attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS) are
      an important source of distress in ultra high risk (UHR) individuals and that
      this distress is related to transition to psychosis (TTP). This study examined
      distress associated with APS in UHR individuals and investigated its association
      with TTP. METHODS: The Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental State (CAARMS)
      was used to identify 173 UHR individuals, who were included as participants in
      the study. Distress related to APS was self-reported. Functioning was assessed on
      the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale. Associations between
      each of the 4 APS subscales in the CAARMS-non-bizarre ideas (NBI), perceptual
      abnormalities (PA), unusual thought content (UTC) and disorganized speech (DS)
      with its distress level were examined. RESULTS: Of the 173 UHR participants, 154
      (89%) reported distress related to one or more APS. NBI was rated to be the most
      distressing out of the 4 APS by the highest number of participants (32.9%)
      compared to UTC (12.1%), PA (24.9%) and DS (2.9%). Mean distress scores were
      significantly associated with CAARMS composite scores (P < .001). However, there
      was no significant relationship between distress scores and functioning. Both
      mean distress scores (OR = 1.034, P = .029) and functioning (OR = 0.892, P =
      .022) were significant predictors of transition to psychosis at 1 year of follow
      up. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides additional evidence to link subjective
      distress experienced by UHR individuals to APS and to their subsequent clinical
      outcomes and has significant clinical implications.

PMID- 28560722
TI  - Effectiveness of Drugs in Routine Care: A Model for Sequential Monitoring of New
      Medicines Using Dronedarone as Example.
AB  - Although there is no doubt about the scientific value of randomized controlled
      clinical trials, they are usually conducted in selected populations different
      from those treated in clinical practice. Therefore, it is important to optimize
      real-time postmarketing evaluation of the effectiveness, safety, and cost of new
      drugs. Using electronic health records and administrative health databases from a
      well-defined region with universal access to healthcare, we have built a
      framework for real-time sequential monitoring of the effectiveness of newly
      marketed drugs in routine care. We chose the antiarrhythmic agent dronedarone as
      the study drug and flecainide as the comparator drug for illustration of the
      model. We demonstrate that this model produces consistent results with increasing
      precision over time as data accumulates in the clinical systems. We believe that
      use of this model at the introduction of new drugs can provide complementary
      evidence, especially in settings of adaptive licensing of new drugs.

PMID- 28560717
TI  - Organ dysfunction, injury and failure in acute heart failure: from
      pathophysiology to diagnosis and management. A review on behalf of the Acute
      Heart Failure Committee of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European
      Society of Cardiology (ESC).
AB  - Organ injury and impairment are commonly observed in patients with acute heart
      failure (AHF), and congestion is an essential pathophysiological mechanism of
      impaired organ function. Congestion is the predominant clinical profile in most
      patients with AHF; a smaller proportion presents with peripheral hypoperfusion or
      cardiogenic shock. Hypoperfusion further deteriorates organ function. The injury
      and dysfunction of target organs (i.e. heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, intestine,
      brain) in the setting of AHF are associated with increased risk for mortality.
      Improvement in organ function after decongestive therapies has been associated
      with a lower risk for post-discharge mortality. Thus, the prevention and
      correction of organ dysfunction represent a therapeutic target of interest in AHF
      and should be evaluated in clinical trials. Treatment strategies that
      specifically prevent, reduce or reverse organ dysfunction remain to be identified
      and evaluated to determine if such interventions impact mortality, morbidity and
      patient-centred outcomes. This paper reflects current understanding among experts
      of the presentation and management of organ impairment in AHF and suggests
      priorities for future research to advance the field.

PMID- 28560725
TI  - Treatment Efficacy of Multiple Family Therapy for Chinese Families of Children
      with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
AB  - The treatment efficacy of multiple family therapy (MFT) for Chinese families of
      children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has not been
      studied in the past. In this paper, the effect of MFT on different aspects of the
      lives of the parents in the experimental group (n = 61) was compared with the
      effect of only the psychoeducational talks on parents in the control group (n =
      53). The results of a MANOVA have shown that by the time they reached the
      posttreatment phase, the parents who had completed the full 42 hours of the MFT
      program perceived their children's ADHD symptoms as being less serious and less
      pathological than they had originally thought compared to the parents in the
      control group. The effect of MFT on parent-child relationships, parenting stress,
      parental efficacy, hope, and perceived social support was statistically
      insignificant. Contributions and limitations of our study are discussed.

PMID- 28560724
TI  - The time course of pupil dilation evoked by visual sexual stimuli: Exploring the
      underlying ANS mechanisms.
AB  - The early processing of visual sexual stimuli shows signs of automaticity.
      Moreover, there is evidence for sex-specific patterns in cognitive and
      physiological responding to erotica. However, little is known about the time
      course of rapid pupillary responses to sexual stimuli and their correspondence
      with other measures of autonomic activity in women and men. To study pupil
      dilation as an implicit measure of sexual arousal at various stages of picture
      processing, we presented 35 heterosexual participants with pictures showing
      either erotic couples or single (male/female) erotic nudes, contrasted with
      people involved in everyday situations. Brightness-adjusted grayscale pictures
      were shown for a duration of 2,500 ms within the central visual field,
      alternating with perceptually matched patches. Left pupil diameter was recorded
      at 500 Hz using a video-based eye tracker. Skin conductance and heart rate were
      coregistered and correlated with latent components of pupil dilation (dissociated
      by temporal PCA). Whereas stimulus-evoked changes in pupil size indicated
      virtually no initial constriction, a rapid effect of appetence emerged (dilation
      to erotica within 500 ms). Responses at early stages of processing were
      remarkably consistent across both sexes. In contrast, later phases of pupil
      dilation, subjective ratings, and skin conductance responses showed a sex
      specific pattern. Moreover, evidence for an association of early-onset pupil
      dilation and heart rate acceleration was found, suggestive of parasympathetic
      inhibition, whereas the late component was mainly related to sympathetically
      mediated skin conductance. Taken together, our results indicate that different
      temporal components of pupil responses to erotic stimuli may reflect divergent
      underlying neural mechanisms.

PMID- 28560726
TI  - Payment Reform and Health Disparities: Changes in Dialysis Modality under the New
      Medicare Dialysis Payment System.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of the Medicare dialysis payment reform on
      potential disparities in the selection of peritoneal dialysis (PD) for the
      treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). DATA SOURCES: Centers for Medicare &
      Medicaid Services (CMS) ESRD Medical Evidence Form, Medicare claims, and other
      CMS data for 2008-2013. STUDY DESIGN: We examined the association of patient age,
      race/ethnicity, urban/rural location, pre-ESRD care, comorbidities, insurance,
      and other factors with the selection of PD as initial dialysis modality across
      prereform (2008-2009), interim (2010), and postreform (2011-2013) time periods.
      PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Selection of PD increased among diverse patient subgroups
      following the payment reform. However, the lower PD selection observed with older
      age, black race, Hispanic ethnicity, less pre-ESRD care, and Medicaid insurance
      before the reform largely remained in the initial postreform years. CONCLUSIONS:
      Despite recent growth in PD, there may be ongoing disparities in access to PD
      that have largely not been mitigated by the payment reform. There is potential
      for modifying provider financial incentives to achieve policy goals related to
      cost and quality of care. However, even with a substantial shift in financial
      incentives, separate initiatives to reduce existing disparities in care may be
      needed.

PMID- 28560727
TI  - Choosing the optimal method of blood pressure measurement for limited-resource
      rural communities in the "Community Health Assessment Program-Philippines".
AB  - The Community Health Assessment Program-Philippines (CHAP-P) is an international
      collaboration of investigators whose aim is to adapt a previously proven Canadian
      community-based cardiovascular awareness and prevention intervention to the
      Philippines and other low-middle-income countries. Choosing a method of blood
      pressure measurement for the research program presents a challenge. There is
      increasing consensus globally that blood pressure measurement with automated
      devices is preferred. Recommendations from low-middle-income countries, including
      the Philippines, are less supportive of automated blood pressure devices. The
      value placed on factors including device accuracy, durability, cost, energy
      source, and complexity differ with local context. Our goal was to support the
      progress of local policy concerning blood pressure measurement while testing a
      comprehensive approach to community-based screening for cardiovascular risk. The
      authors describe the challenges in making a choice of blood pressure device and
      the approach to determine optimal method of measurement for our research program.

PMID- 28560728
TI  - Decreasing hazards of Alzheimer's disease with the use of antidepressants:
      mitigating the risk of depression and apolipoprotein E.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, manifesting
      in clinically observable deficits in memory, thinking, and behavior that
      disproportionately affects older adults. Susceptibility genes, such as
      apolipoprotein epsilon4, have long been associated with an increased risk of AD
      diagnosis. Studies have shown associations between depression and increased risk
      of AD development. Furthermore, findings from previous investigations suggest
      mixed effects in the use of psychotropic medication in older adults. The
      hypothesis for this study is that antidepressant use modifies the increased
      hazard of depression or such that a non-significant hazard will result with
      respect to eventual AD development. METHODS: Utilizing data from the National
      Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, we examined evaluations of 11,443 cognitively
      intact participants. Survival analysis was used to explore relationships between
      depression, apolipoprotein E, AD diagnosis, and antidepressant use. RESULTS: An
      analytical sample of 8732 participants with normal cognition was examined. Among
      users of antidepressant medication, the hazard, in most cases, was no longer
      statistically significant. One generic medication showed protective benefits for
      users (p < 0.001). In addition, there was a statistically significant
      relationship between recent depression (n = 2083; p < 0.001), lifetime depression
      (n = 2068; p < 0.05), and epsilon4 carrier status (n = 2470; p < 0.001) and AD
      development. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that a mechanism related to
      antidepressant use may reduce the hazard of eventual AD. Furthermore, the
      findings reinforce the association between depression, apolipoprotein E (APOE)
      epsilon4, and AD diagnosis. This study contributes to the emerging literature
      exploring interventions aimed at decreasing the risk of AD by targeting
      potentially modifiable psychosocial risk factors such as depression. Copyright
      (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28560729
TI  - Determining the factors associated with blood-borne virus testing of substance
      misusers presenting to hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnosing blood-borne virus (BBV) infection is an essential first
      step in eliminating transmission and securing access to treatment amongst
      substance misusers. AIMS: To determine the proportion of substance misusers
      presenting to hospital who undergo BBV testing and the factors influencing
      testing. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed of patients
      presenting to two Sydney teaching hospitals with substance misuse diagnoses
      between January and April 2015. Proportions tested for human immunodeficiency
      virus, hepatitis C and hepatitis B previously and during the index
      hospitalisation presentation were examined. Multivariable analysis was performed
      to determine factors associated with testing. RESULTS: Of 239 patients, 47
      (19.7%) had a documented BBV at baseline. Of those with unknown BBV status, 29
      (12.8%) had undergone some attempt at testing during presentation; 3.1% had their
      hepatitis B immunity assessed. Factors associated with an increased likelihood of
      testing during presentation included documented injecting drug use (odds ratio
      (OR) 15.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.21-54.50; P < 0.001), admission under
      a physician (OR 11.79; 95% CI 2.82-49.40; P = 0.001) and admission on a Friday
      (OR 4.46; 95% CI 1.28-15.48; P = 0.02). Patients who had had more than one
      previous admission in the preceding 6 months (OR 0.24; 95% CI 0.078-0.73; P =
      0.01) or a length of stay of 1 day or less (OR 0.17; 95% CI 0.032-0.87; P =
      0.033) were less likely to be tested. CONCLUSION: Despite the high baseline
      prevalence of BBV infections in the population, there were many missed
      opportunities for BBV testing. We found patient-, admission- and clinician-level
      barriers that could be addressed to enhance BBV testing uptake.

PMID- 28560730
TI  - Perception paradox between the doctors and patients in the industrial
      bureaucratic age of medicine: Defensive versus offensive medicine in
      anticoagulation and atrial fibrillation ablation.

PMID- 28560731
TI  - Vaccine discussions with parents: The experience of Australian paediatricians.
AB  - AIM: Health-care providers are crucial in maintaining parental confidence in
      vaccination. Health-care providers are the most commonly accessed resource by
      parents for vaccine-related information and are highly trusted. We investigated
      paediatricians' (i) frequency of vaccine discussions; (ii) specific vaccine
      related topics discussed; (iii) perceived role in childhood vaccination; (iv)
      challenges faced when having discussions; (v) confidence in vaccine-related
      knowledge and communication skills; and (vi) interest in online education and
      training. METHODS: We invited members of the Australian Paediatric Research
      Network to complete an online Research Electronic Data Capture survey in 2015
      2016. RESULTS: Of 383 active Australian Paediatric Research Network members, 165
      (43%) completed the online survey. A total of 61% reported 'frequently' or
      'almost always' having vaccine-related discussions, with 15% 'rarely' having
      them. 'Lack of time' was the most commonly reported barrier to having vaccine
      discussions (54%). Vaccine necessity was most commonly discussed (33%), followed
      by vaccine safety (24%), general vaccine concerns (23%) and catch-up schedules
      (23%). While only 25% of paediatricians lacked confidence in their vaccine
      related knowledge and 11% in their communication skills, most expressed interest
      in online training to address vaccine knowledge (62%) and communication skills
      (53%). CONCLUSION: Paediatricians play a key role in maintaining public
      confidence in vaccination. However, opportunities to address concerns are not
      being maximised by Australian paediatricians. There is a need and desire for
      training and resources to increase vaccine knowledge and communication skills for
      paediatricians, to optimise the frequency and effectiveness of vaccine
      discussions with parents and to ensure ongoing high immunisation coverage rates
      in Australia.

PMID- 28560732
TI  - Log Odds and the Interpretation of Logit Models.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We discuss how to interpret coefficients from logit models, focusing
      on the importance of the standard deviation (sigma) of the error term to that
      interpretation. STUDY DESIGN: We show how odds ratios are computed, how they
      depend on the standard deviation (sigma) of the error term, and their sensitivity
      to different model specifications. We also discuss alternatives to odds ratios.
      PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: There is no single odds ratio; instead, any estimated odds
      ratio is conditional on the data and the model specification. Odds ratios should
      not be compared across different studies using different samples from different
      populations. Nor should they be compared across models with different sets of
      explanatory variables. CONCLUSIONS: To communicate information regarding the
      effect of explanatory variables on binary {0,1} dependent variables, average
      marginal effects are generally preferable to odds ratios, unless the data are
      from a case-control study.

PMID- 28560733
TI  - Complete remission with romidepsin in a patient with T-cell acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia refractory to induction hyper-CVAD.
AB  - T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T
      LBL) are neoplasms that originate from T-cell precursors. Outcomes in adult
      patients with T-ALL/LBL remain unsatisfactory; early relapse following intensive
      induction chemotherapy is a concern, and patients with relapsed or refractory
      disease have a poor prognosis. Romidepsin is a potent, class 1 selective histone
      deacetylase inhibitor approved for the treatment of patients with peripheral T
      cell lymphoma who have had >=1 prior therapy and patients with cutaneous T-cell
      lymphoma who have had >=1 prior systemic therapy. Here, we report the case of an
      adult patient with T-ALL refractory to induction hyperfractionated
      cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone (hyper-CVAD).
      Treatment with romidepsin was initiated, and romidepsin in combination with hyper
      CVAD resulted in complete remission, with mild tumor lysis syndrome as the only
      detectable additional toxicity. The patient eventually underwent allogeneic stem
      cell transplant while in first complete remission. Prior studies have shown that
      romidepsin is capable of inducing durable responses with manageable toxicities in
      patients with mature T-cell lymphomas. This case study describes the successful
      use of romidepsin in combination with hyper-CVAD in an adult patient with
      refractory T-ALL and highlights the activity of romidepsin in the T-cell lineage.
      The potential of romidepsin-containing regimens in patients with T-ALL/LBL
      deserves further study.

PMID- 28560734
TI  - Substrate properties of zebrafish Rtn4b/Nogo and axon regeneration in the
      zebrafish optic nerve.
AB  - This study explored why lesioned retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons regenerate
      successfully in the zebrafish optic nerve despite the presence of Rtn4b, the
      homologue of the rat neurite growth inhibitor RTN4-A/Nogo-A. Rat Nogo-A and
      zebrafish Rtn4b possess characteristic motifs (M1-4) in the Nogo-A-specific
      region, which contains delta20, the most inhibitory region of rat Nogo-A. To
      determine whether zebrafish M1-4 is inhibitory as rat M1-4 and Nogo-A delta20,
      proteins were recombinantly expressed and used as substrates for zebrafish single
      cell RGCs, mouse hippocampal neurons and goldfish, zebrafish and chick retinal
      explants. When offered as homogenous substrates, neurites of hippocampal neurons
      and of zebrafish single cell RGCs were inhibited by zebrafish M1-4, rat M1-4, and
      Nogo-A delta20. Neurite length increased when zebrafish single cell RGCs were
      treated with receptor-type-specific antagonists and, respectively, with
      morpholinos (MO) against S1PR2 and S1PR5a-which represent candidate zebrafish
      Nogo-A receptors. In a stripe assay, however, where M1-4 lanes alternate with
      polylysine-(Plys)-only lanes, RGC axons from goldfish, zebrafish, and chick
      retinal explants avoided rat M1-4 but freely crossed zebrafish M1-4 lanes
      suggesting that zebrafish M1-4 is growth permissive and less inhibitory than rat
      M1-4. Moreover, immunostainings and dot blots of optic nerve and myelin showed
      that expression of Rtn4b is very low in tissue and myelin at 3-5 days after
      lesion when axons regenerate. Thus, Rtn4b seems to represent no major obstacle
      for axon regeneration in vivo because it is less inhibitory for RGC axons from
      retina explants, and because of its low abundance.

PMID- 28560735
TI  - Impact of the Swedish National Stroke Campaign on stroke awareness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Time delay from stroke onset to arrival in hospital is an important
      obstacle to widespread reperfusion therapy. To increase knowledge about stroke,
      and potentially decrease this delay, a 27-month national public information
      campaign was carried out in Sweden. AIMS: To assess the effects of a national
      stroke campaign in Sweden. METHODS: The variables used to measure campaign
      effects were knowledge of the AKUT test [a Swedish equivalent of the FAST (Face
      Arm-Speech-Time)] test and intent to call 112 (emergency telephone number) .
      Telephone interviews were carried out with 1500 randomly selected people in
      Sweden at eight points in time: before, three times during, immediately after,
      and nine, 13 and 21 months after the campaign. RESULTS: Before the campaign, 4%
      could recall the meaning of some or all keywords in the AKUT test, compared with
      23% during and directly after the campaign, and 14% 21 months later.
      Corresponding figures were 15%, 51%, and 50% for those remembering the term AKUT
      and 65%, 76%, and 73% for intent to call 112 when observing or experiencing
      stroke symptoms. During the course of the campaign, improvement of stroke
      knowledge was similar among men and women, but the absolute level of knowledge
      for both items was higher for women at all time points. CONCLUSION: The
      nationwide campaign substantially increased knowledge about the AKUT test and
      intention to call 112 when experiencing or observing stroke symptoms, but
      knowledge declined post-intervention. Repeated public information therefore
      appears essential to sustain knowledge gains.

PMID- 28560736
TI  - Enantioseparation of ofloxacin and its four related substances with ligand
      exchange-micellar electrokinetic chromatography using copper(II)-L-isoleucine
      complex as chiral selector.
AB  - A ligand-exchange micellar electrokinetic capillary electrophoresis system with
      copper(II)-L-isoleucine complexes as the chiral selector incorporated in micelles
      of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was developed for the enantioseparation of
      ofloxacin and its four related substances (impurities A, C, E, and F). The
      effects of important parameters affecting separation such as buffer pH, SDS
      concentration, chiral selector concentration, and organic additive were
      investigated in detail. Under optimum experimental conditions, enantioseparation
      of ofloxacin, impurities A, C, E, and F enantiomers was accomplished with
      resolutions of 4.28, 2.83, 3.40, 3.58, and 2.46, respectively. Further,
      simultaneous separation of impurities A, C, E, and F enantiomers was achieved
      using 10 mmol/L NH4 OAc as the running buffer containing 4 mmol/L copper
      sulfate,20 mmol/L L-isoleucine, 20 mmol/L SDS, and 5% methanol at pH 8.5. To the
      best of our knowledge, the simultaneous enantioseparation of four impurities of
      ofloxacin has not been reported previously.

PMID- 28560738
TI  - Evaluation of ultrasound reporting for thyroid cancer diagnosis and surveillance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of ultrasound imaging in thyroid disease care,
      ultrasound reports vary greatly in the features described. It is essential that
      ultrasound reports contain and present all components necessary for a clinical
      decision in a reader-friendly format. METHODS: One hundred ninety thyroid and
      neck ultrasound reports were scored using the universal ultrasound report
      template developed by Su et al, along with the American Thyroid Association (ATA)
      and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists/Associazione Medici
      Endocrinologi/European Thyroid Association (AACE/AME/ETA) guidelines. All
      ultrasounds were performed on patients seen between August and November 2015 by a
      single surgeon (M.L.U), and originated from a variety of physicians and
      institutions. RESULTS: An average of 30.9% of Su et al's criteria was
      satisfactorily included in the reports. Similar results were reached when the ATA
      and the AACE/AME/ETA guidelines were applied as scoring templates. CONCLUSION:
      Our results reveal the wide variation in ultrasound reporting. The
      standardization of ultrasound reporting would help to improve physicians' ability
      to properly diagnose and manage patients with thyroid disease.

PMID- 28560737
TI  - Reduced regional cerebral blood flow in patients with heart failure.
AB  - AIMS: Heart failure (HF) patients show significant lateralized neural injury,
      accompanied by autonomic, mood and cognitive deficits. Both gray and white matter
      damage occurs and probably develops from altered cerebral blood flow (CBF), a
      consequence of impaired cardiac output. However, the distribution of regional CBF
      changes in HF patients is unknown, but is an issue in determining mechanisms of
      neural injury. Our aim was to compare regional CBF changes in HF with CBF in
      control subjects using non-invasive pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling
      (ASL) procedures. METHODS AND RESULTS: We collected pseudo-continuous ASL data
      from 19 HF patients [mean age 55.5 +/- 9.1 years; mean body mass index 27.7 +/-
      5.3 kg/m2 ; 13 male) and 29 control subjects (mean age 51.4 +/- 5.3 years; mean
      body mass index 25.7 +/- 3.6 kg/m2 ; 18 male), using a 3.0-Tesla magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Whole-brain CBF maps were calculated, normalized
      to a common space, smoothed and compared between groups using ANCOVA (covariates;
      age, gender and gray matter volume). Reduced CBF appeared in multiple sites in HF
      patients in comparison with controls, with principally lateralized lower flow in
      temporal, parietal and occipital regions. Areas with decreased CBF included the
      bilateral prefrontal, frontal, temporal and occipital cortex, thalamus,
      cerebellum, corona radiate, corpus callosum, hippocampus and amygdala.
      CONCLUSIONS: Heart failure patients showed lower, and largely lateralized, CBF in
      multiple autonomic, mood and cognitive regulatory sites. The reduced CBF is
      likely to contribute to the lateralized brain injury, leading to the autonomic
      and neuropsychological deficits found in the condition.

PMID- 28560739
TI  - Predictive value of different prostate-specific antigen-based markers in men with
      baseline total prostate-specific antigen <2.0 ng/mL.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the predictive value of various molecular forms of
      prostate-specific antigen in men with baseline prostate-specific antigen <2.0
      ng/mL. METHODS: The case cohort comprised 150 men with a baseline prostate
      specific antigen level <2.0 ng/mL, and who developed prostate cancer within 10
      years. The control cohort was 300 baseline prostate-specific antigen- and age
      adjusted men who did not develop prostate cancer. Serum prostate-specific
      antigen, free prostate-specific antigen, and [-2] proenzyme prostate-specific
      antigen were measured at baseline and last screening visit. The predictive impact
      of baseline prostate-specific antigen- and [-2] proenzyme prostate-specific
      antigen-related indices on developing prostate cancer was investigated. The
      predictive impact of those indices at last screening visit and velocities from
      baseline to final screening on tumor aggressiveness were also investigated.
      RESULTS: The baseline free to total prostate-specific antigen ratio was a
      significant predictor of prostate cancer development. The odds ratio was 6.08 in
      the lowest quintile baseline free to total prostate-specific antigen ratio
      subgroup. No serum indices at diagnosis were associated with tumor
      aggressiveness. The Prostate Health Index velocity and [-2] proenzyme prostate
      specific antigen/free prostate-specific antigen velocity significantly increased
      in patients with higher risk D'Amico risk groups and higher Gleason scores.
      CONCLUSIONS: Free to total prostate-specific antigen ratio in men with low
      baseline prostate-specific antigen levels seems to predict the risk of developing
      prostate cancer, and it could be useful for a more effective individualized
      screening system. Longitudinal changes in [-2] proenzyme prostate-specific
      antigen-related indices seem to correlate with tumor aggressiveness, and they
      could be used as prognostic tool before treatment and during active surveillance.

PMID- 28560741
TI  - Method development for the determination of elements in Hypericum perforatum L.
      (St John's wort) herb and preparations using inductively coupled plasma-optical
      emission spectroscopy and microwave digestion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A method was developed to analyze St John's wort (Hypericum
      perforatum L.) herb and preparations using inductively coupled plasma-optical
      emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to determine the quantity of 11 elements (Al, B,
      Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Sr and Zn). METHODS: This study includes the
      evaluation of digestion acids and calibration methods, as well as instrumental
      parameters such as choice of nebulizer and emission wavelength. KEY FINDINGS: Two
      nebulizers (Conikal and SeaSpray) performed similarly for most elements, and two
      optimum wavelengths were determined for each element. Five acids were evaluated
      for the digestion of the Polish Certified Reference Material Tea Leaves (INCT-TL
      1), while three were taken forward to use for the different St John's wort
      formulations (i.e. herb, capsule and tablet). A simple protocol using 5 ml HNO3
      was sufficient in most cases; however, variability was observed for elements
      often bound in silicates (e.g. Al, Fe and Zn). An external weighted calibration
      was also found to be preferential over unweighted, and the use of standard
      addition affected some concentration values up to 20%. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore,
      this paper presents the development and optimized method parameters to be used
      with ICP-OES that will allow the analysis of 11 key elements present in St John's
      wort herb and preparations.

PMID- 28560742
TI  - The relationships between lipid ratios and arterial stiffness.

PMID- 28560740
TI  - Acutely damaged axons are remyelinated in multiple sclerosis and experimental
      models of demyelination.
AB  - Remyelination is in the center of new therapies for the treatment of multiple
      sclerosis to resolve and improve disease symptoms and protect axons from further
      damage. Although remyelination is considered beneficial in the long term, it is
      not known, whether this is also the case early in lesion formation. Additionally,
      the precise timing of acute axonal damage and remyelination has not been assessed
      so far. To shed light onto the interrelation between axons and the myelin sheath
      during de- and remyelination, we employed cuprizone- and focal lysolecithin
      induced demyelination and performed time course experiments assessing the
      evolution of early and late stage remyelination and axonal damage. We observed
      damaged axons with signs of remyelination after cuprizone diet cessation and
      lysolecithin injection. Similar observations were made in early multiple
      sclerosis lesions. To assess the correlation of remyelination and axonal damage
      in multiple sclerosis lesions, we took advantage of a cohort of patients with
      early and late stage remyelinated lesions and assessed the number of APP- and
      SMI32- positive damaged axons and the density of SMI31-positive and silver
      impregnated preserved axons. Early de- and remyelinating lesions did not differ
      with respect to axonal density and axonal damage, but we observed a lower axonal
      density in late stage demyelinated multiple sclerosis lesions than in
      remyelinated multiple sclerosis lesions. Our findings suggest that remyelination
      may not only be protective over a long period of time, but may play an important
      role in the immediate axonal recuperation after a demyelinating insult.

PMID- 28560745
TI  - Aspirin in heart failure: don't throw the baby (aspirin) out with the bathwater.

PMID- 28560743
TI  - Occurrence of BAP1 germline mutations in cutaneous melanocytic tumors with loss
      of BAP1-expression: A pilot study.
AB  - Melanocytic BAP1-associated intradermal tumors (MBAITs) can either be sporadic or
      associated with a cancer-predisposition syndrome. In this study we explored the
      clinical status of 136 patients in which at least one MBAIT was found. 49/136
      (36%) of them gave their signed consent for an oncogenetic BAP1 blood test.
      28/136 patients (20%) diagnosed with an MBAIT had other MBAITs and/or a personal
      or familial history of BAP1-related cancers that could clinically designate them
      as potential carriers of a BAP1 germline mutation. 17 of these 28 patients
      underwent oncogenetic testing. A deleterious mutation of BAP1 was confirmed in
      12/17 cases. 4/17 cases were wild-type; all had a single MBAIT and a history of
      skin melanoma. A variant of unknown significance was found in one case with
      multiple MBAITs. Among the 12 mutated cases, multiple MBAITs were present in
      10/12 cases and were the only clinical sign in 4/12 cases. The remaining 32/49
      blood-tested cases with an isolated MBAIT were wild type for BAP1 in 25/32 cases
      or showed a variant of unknown significance in 7/32 cases. We recommend,
      following the diagnosis of a MBAIT, performing a BAP1 immunohistochemistry in all
      other cutaneous melanocytic tumors removed previously or simultaneously and all
      skin melanomas. This screening could help clinicians prioritize which patients
      would most benefit from oncogenetic testing.

PMID- 28560744
TI  - Silage preparation and fermentation quality of kudzu, sugarcane top and their
      mixture treated with lactic acid bacteria, molasses and cellulase.
AB  - We studied silage fermentation of kudzu (KZ), sugarcane top (ST) and their
      mixtures treated with additives to be able to effectively use available local
      feed resources. The silages were prepared using KZ, ST, KZ 90% + ST 10%, KZ 80% +
      ST 20%, KZ 70% + ST 30% and KZ 60% + ST 40%, based on fresh matter (FM). These
      silages were treated with 108  colony-forming units/g epiphytic lactic acid
      bacteria (LAB), 5% molasses and 0.02% cellulase of FM. The KZ contained higher
      crude protein (CP; 14.52%) content and lower levels of neutral detergent fiber
      (NDF; 62.15%) than those of ST (6.84% CP and 64.93% NDF) based on dry matter
      (DM). The KZ 60% + ST 40% silage fermented well with a higher (P < 0.05) lactic
      acid content and lower (P < 0.05) pH than those of the other mixed silages.
      Silages treated with molasses had lower (P < 0.05) ammonia-N, NDF, acid detergent
      fiber, and hemi-cellulose contents as well as pH, but higher (P < 0.05) DM, water
      soluble carbohydrate, and lactic acid contents, than those of the control, LAB
      and cellulase treatments. The results confirmed that KZ 60% + ST 40% was the best
      mixing ratio to prepare silage, and molasses improved silage fermentation and
      fiber degradation.

PMID- 28560746
TI  - Network component analysis reveals developmental trajectories of structural
      connectivity and specific alterations in autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - The structural organization of the brain can be characterized as a hierarchical
      ensemble of segregated modules linked by densely interconnected hub regions that
      facilitate distributed functional interactions. Disturbances to this network may
      be an important marker of abnormal development. Recently, several
      neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), have been
      framed as disorders of connectivity but the full nature and timing of these
      disturbances remain unclear. In this study, we use non-negative matrix
      factorization, a data-driven, multivariate approach, to model the structural
      network architecture of the brain as a set of superposed subnetworks, or network
      components. In an openly available dataset of 196 subjects scanned between 5 and
      85 years we identify a set of robust and reliable subnetworks that develop in
      tandem with age and reflect both anatomically local and long-range, network hub
      connections. In a second experiment, we compare network components in a cohort of
      51 high-functioning ASD adolescents to a group of age-matched controls. We
      identify a specific subnetwork representing an increase in local connection
      strength in the cingulate cortex in ASD (t = 3.44, P < 0.001). This work
      highlights possible long-term implications of alterations to the developmental
      trajectories of specific cortical subnetworks. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4169-4184, 2017.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28560747
TI  - Can assessment of afferent thermal sensitivity shed light onto multiple sclerosis
      diagnosis and disease progression?
AB  - Podcast available at: http://www.yada
      yada.co.uk/wiley/ExperimentalPhysiology/audio/Ep1_july17.mp3.

PMID- 28560748
TI  - p16 protein expression and correlation with clinical and pathological features in
      osteosarcoma of the jaws: Experience of 37 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In literature, no markers have been reported as predictive and
      prognostic factors in osteosarcoma of the jaw. METHODS: A retrospective analysis
      of p16 expression was performed in 37 patients with high-grade osteosarcoma of
      the jaw to investigate its potential prognostic and predictive value. RESULTS:
      p16 positivity was found in 56.7% of cases. The absence of p16 expression was
      associated with an adverse disease-free survival (P = .003). At the multivariate
      Cox regression, positive margins were the only independent factor. In the
      subgroup of 17 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, a significant
      association was noted between p16 expression and pathological response to
      chemotherapy (P = .015) and the negativity of p16 increased the risk of negative
      outcome (P = .01). CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that the wide surgical margin is
      the most important prognostic factor. The expression of p16 confers greater
      sensitivity to chemotherapy and its loss of expression is associated with a worse
      prognosis.

PMID- 28560750
TI  - Blood pressure and all-cause mortality by level of cognitive function in the
      elderly: Results from a population-based study in rural Greece: Methodological
      issues.

PMID- 28560751
TI  - Differential control of respiratory frequency and tidal volume during high
      intensity interval training.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? By manipulating
      recovery intensity and exercise duration during high-intensity interval training
      (HIIT), we tested the hypothesis that fast inputs contribute more than metabolic
      stimuli to respiratory frequency (fR ) regulation. What is the main finding and
      its importance? Respiratory frequency, but not tidal volume, responded rapidly
      and in proportion to changes in workload during HIIT, and was dissociated from
      some markers of metabolic stimuli in response to both experimental manipulations,
      suggesting that fast inputs contribute more than metabolic stimuli to fR
      regulation. Differentiating between fR and tidal volume may help to unravel the
      mechanisms underlying exercise hyperpnoea. Given that respiratory frequency (fR )
      has been proposed as a good marker of physical effort, furthering the
      understanding of how fR is regulated during exercise is of great importance. We
      manipulated recovery intensity and exercise duration during high-intensity
      interval training (HIIT) to test the hypothesis that fast inputs (including
      central command) contribute more than metabolic stimuli to fR regulation. Seven
      male cyclists performed an incremental test, a 10 and a 20 min continuous time
      trial (TT) as preliminary tests. Subsequently, recovery intensity and exercise
      duration were manipulated during HIIT (30 s work and 30 s active recovery) by
      performing four 10 min and one 20 min trial (recovery intensities of 85, 70, 55
      and 30% of the 10 min TT mean workload; and 85% of the 20 min TT mean workload).
      The work intensity of the HIIT sessions was self-paced by participants to achieve
      the best performance possible. When manipulating recovery intensity, fR , but not
      tidal volume (VT ), showed a fast response to the alternation of the work and
      recovery phases, proportional to the extent of workload variations. No
      association between fR and gas exchange responses was observed. When manipulating
      exercise duration, fR and rating of perceived exertion were dissociated from VT ,
      carbon dioxide output and oxygen uptake responses. Overall, the rating of
      perceived exertion was strongly correlated with fR (r = 0.87; P < 0.001) but not
      with VT . These findings may reveal a differential control of fR and VT during
      HIIT, with fast inputs appearing to contribute more than metabolic stimuli to fR
      regulation. Differentiating between fR and VT may help to unravel the mechanisms
      underlying exercise hyperpnoea.

PMID- 28560749
TI  - Comparison of annual percentage change in breast cancer incidence rate between
      Taiwan and the United States-A smoothed Lexis diagram approach.
AB  - Recent studies compared the age effects and birth cohort effects on female
      invasive breast cancer (FIBC) incidence in Asian populations with those in the US
      white population. They were based on age-period-cohort model extrapolation and
      estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) in the age-standardized incidence rates
      (ASR). It is of interest to examine these results based on cohort-specific annual
      percentage change in rate (APCR) by age and without age-period-cohort model
      extrapolation. FIBC data (1991-2010) were obtained from the Taiwan Cancer
      Registry and the U.S. SEER 9 registries. APCR based on smoothed Lexis diagrams
      were constructed to study the age, period, and cohort effects on FIBC incidence.
      The patterns of age-specific rates by birth cohort are similar between Taiwan and
      the US. Given any age-at-diagnosis group, cohort-specific rates increased
      overtime in Taiwan but not in the US; cohort-specific APCR by age decreased with
      birth year in both Taiwan and the US but was always positive and large in Taiwan.
      Given a diagnosis year, APCR decreased as birth year increased in Taiwan but not
      in the US. In Taiwan, the proportion of APCR attributable to cohort effect was
      substantial and that due to case ascertainment was becoming smaller. Although our
      study shows that incidence rates of FIBC have increased rapidly in Taiwan,
      thereby confirming previous results, the rate of increase over time is slowing.
      Continued monitoring of APCR and further investigation of the cause of the APCR
      decrease in Taiwan are warranted.

PMID- 28560752
TI  - Selective embolization therapy for intrarenal artery stenosis causing
      renovascular hypertension: Efficacy and follow-up renal imaging.
AB  - We report the case of a young woman treated with selective renal embolization for
      renovascular hypertension caused by intrarenal artery stenosis and show follow-up
      imaging of the treated kidney. An 18-year-old woman had renin-dependent
      hypertension with intrarenal artery stenosis caused by fibromuscular dysplasia. A
      middle branch artery was nearly occluded, resulting in segmental renal ischemia
      with excessive renin secretion. Because our angioplasty attempt for
      revascularization failed as a result of technical difficulty, we performed
      selective embolization of the diseased vessel by anhydrous ethanol. The
      embolization promptly ameliorated hyperreninemia and resistant hypertension
      without deterioration of renal function. Findings from magnetic resonance imaging
      showed disappearance of the blood flow in the embolized area corresponding to the
      ischemic lesion that had been revealed by diffusion-weighted imaging. Thus,
      selective embolization can be effective in treating renovascular hypertension by
      intrarenal stenosis for which angioplasty is not feasible. Additionally, renal
      magnetic resonance imaging is useful for evaluating the causative ischemic lesion
      and embolized area.

PMID- 28560753
TI  - Big thrombus "sitting" in an atrial septal aneurysm.
AB  - A 79 year-old-man presented three episodes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding and
      weight loss. Endoscopy revealed bleeding and extrinsic compression at the pyloric
      region. Computed tomography scan showed a pancreatic tumor, peritoneal
      carcinomatosis, vascular infiltration, and incidentally found a partially
      calcified hypodense lesion of 35 mm in the left atrium, suggesting a myxoma or a
      thrombus. Echocardiography revealed moderate left atrium enlargement, dilated
      left atrial appendage with spontaneous echo contrast, moderate dilatation and
      dysfunction of the left ventricle, ejection fraction was 39%, and an atrial
      septal aneurysm in which a piriform, mass of 35*33*25 mm, was "sitting,"
      suggesting an organized thrombus.

PMID- 28560755
TI  - Cephalopod embryonic shells as a tool to reconstruct reproductive strategies in
      extinct taxa.
AB  - An exhaustive study of existing data on the relationship between egg size and
      maximum size of embryonic shells in 42 species of extant cephalopods demonstrated
      that these values are approximately equal regardless of taxonomy and shell
      morphology. Egg size is also approximately equal to mantle length of hatchlings
      in 45 cephalopod species with rudimentary shells. Paired data on the size of the
      initial chamber versus embryonic shell in 235 species of Ammonoidea, 46
      Bactritida, 13 Nautilida, 22 Orthocerida, 8 Tarphycerida, 4 Oncocerida, 1
      Belemnoidea, 4 Sepiida and 1 Spirulida demonstrated that, although there is a
      positive relationship between these parameters in some taxa, initial chamber size
      cannot be used to predict egg size in extinct cephalopods; the size of the
      embryonic shell may be more appropriate for this task. The evolution of
      reproductive strategies in cephalopods in the geological past was marked by an
      increasing significance of small-egged taxa, as is also seen in simultaneously
      evolving fish taxa.

PMID- 28560756
TI  - Evaluation of the Efficiency of the Nursing Care Plan Applied Using NANDA, NOC,
      and NIC Linkages to Elderly Women with Incontinence Living in a Nursing Home: A
      Randomized Controlled Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Evaluate the efficiency of the nursing care plan, applied with the use
      of NANDA-I, NOC, and NIC (NNN) linkages, for elderly women with incontinence who
      live in nursing homes. METHODS: A randomized controlled experimental design was
      applied. NNN linkages were prepared and applied for 12 weeks in an experimental
      group. NOC scales were evaluated again for two groups. RESULTS: A 0.5 NOC point
      change targeted in all elderly in the experimental group were provided between
      pretest-posttest scores. The experimental group had higher life quality and lower
      incontinence severity/symptoms than the control group. CONCLUSION: It is
      important that NNN linkages effective for solving the problems are used in
      different groups and with larger samples to create further evidence linking NNN.

PMID- 28560754
TI  - Oncostatin M induces RIG-I and MDA5 expression and enhances the double-stranded
      RNA response in fibroblasts.
AB  - Interleukin (IL)-6-type cytokines have no direct antiviral activity;
      nevertheless, they display immune-modulatory functions. Oncostatin M (OSM), a
      member of the IL-6 family, has recently been shown to induce a distinct number of
      classical interferon stimulated genes (ISG). Most of them are involved in antigen
      processing and presentation. However, induction of retinoic acid-inducible gene
      (RIG)-I-like receptors (RLR) has not been investigated. Here we report that OSM
      has the capability to induce the expression of the DExD/H-Box RNA helicases RIG-I
      and melanoma differentiation antigen 5 (MDA5) as well as of the transcription
      factors interferon regulatory factor (IRF)1, IRF7 and IRF9 in primary
      fibroblasts. Induction of the helicases depends on tyrosine as well as serine
      phosphorylation of STAT1. Moreover, we could show that the OSM-induced STAT1
      phosphorylation is predominantly counter-regulated by a strong STAT3-dependent
      SOCS3 induction, as Stat3 as well as Socs3 knock-down results in an enhanced and
      prolonged helicase and IRF expression. Other factors involved in regulation of
      STAT1 or IRF1 activity, like protein tyrosine phosphatase, non-receptor type 2
      (PTPN2), promyelocytic leukaemia protein (PML) or small ubiquitin-related
      modifier 1 (SUMO1), play a minor role in OSM-mediated induction of RLR.
      Remarkably, OSM and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) synergize to mediate
      transcription of RLR and pre-treatment of fibroblasts with OSM fosters the type I
      interferon production in response to a subsequent encounter with double-stranded
      RNA. Together, these findings suggest that the OSM-induced JAK/STAT1 signalling
      is implicated in virus protection of non-professional immune cells and may
      cooperate with interferons to enhance RLR expression in these cells.

PMID- 28560757
TI  - Lipoprotein ratios are better than conventional lipid parameters in predicting
      arterial stiffness in young men.
AB  - Although dyslipidemia is associated with cardiovascular disease, there are
      conflicting data about the role of serum lipids and their ratios in promoting
      arterial stiffness. The authors aimed to compare serum lipid profiles to predict
      arterial stiffness, which was assessed by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity in
      young Chinese men. A total of 1015 participants aged 18 to 44 years without
      serious comorbidities were recruited for conventional detection. Anthropometrics,
      brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, serum lipids, and other laboratory data were
      measured. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were performed
      to examine the relationship between serum lipid profiles and brachial-ankle pulse
      wave velocity. Participants with high brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity
      exhibited higher levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total
      cholesterol/HDL-C, TG/HDL-C, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/HDL-C, and non
      HDL-C/HDL-C. The subsequent multivariable logistic regression showed that TG/HDL
      C, total cholesterol/HDL-C, non-HDL-C/HDL-C, and TG significantly increased the
      risk for arterial stiffness after adjustment for confounding factors. Results
      indicate that lipid ratios are superior to conventional lipid parameters for
      predicting arterial stiffness in young men and that the TG/HDL-C ratio has the
      strongest association with arterial stiffness.

PMID- 28560758
TI  - Stress and brain functional changes in patients with Crohn's disease: A
      functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Crohn's disease (CD) patients, stress is believed to influence
      symptoms generation. Stress may act via central nervous system pathways to affect
      visceral sensitivity and motility thus exacerbating gastrointestinal symptoms.
      The neural substrate underpinning these mechanisms needs to be investigated in
      CD. We conducted an explorative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      study in order to investigate potential differences in the brain stress response
      in CD patients compared to controls. METHODS: 17 CD patients and 17 healthy
      controls underwent a fMRI scan while performing a stressful task consisting in a
      Stroop color-word interference task designed to induce mental stress in the fMRI
      environment. KEY RESULTS: Compared to controls, in CD patients the stress task
      elicited greater blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals in the midcingulate
      cortex (MCC). CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: The MCC integrate "high" emotional
      processes with afferent sensory information ascending from the gut. In light of
      these integrative functions, the stress-evoked MCC hyperactivity in CD patients
      might represent a plausible neural substrate for the association between stress
      and symptomatic disease. The MCC dysfunction might be involved in mechanisms of
      central disinhibition of nociceptive inputs leading to amplify the visceral
      sensitivity. Finally, the stress-evoked MCC hyperactivity might affect the
      regulation of intestinal motility resulting in exacerbation of disease symptoms
      and the autonomic and neuroendocrine regulation of inflammation resulting in
      enhanced inflammatory activity.

PMID- 28560759
TI  - Analysis of common barriers to rural patients utilizing hospice and palliative
      care services: An integrated literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim of this literature review is to explore barriers
      and potential solutions related to hospice (HC) and palliative care (PC) services
      among rural residents. Although the healthcare system is continually advancing,
      healthcare providers may not be optimizing HC and PC referrals for the growing
      rural population who underutilize these services. Suggested methods to close the
      utilization gap between HC and PC services among rural patients appear feasible,
      but universal effectiveness cannot be determined. METHODS: An integrative
      literature review was conducted to evaluate diverse sources of literature. An
      electronic literature search was carried out using databases MEDLINE, CINAHL,
      Cochrane, PsycINFO, and Pubmed. The search was limited to English only, full
      text, peer reviewed, and published between 2010 and 2016. Search terms included
      rural, hospice, palliative, care access, and barriers. CONCLUSION: There are
      several barriers that interrelate to decreased utilization of PC and HC for rural
      populations and there are many options for overcoming them to equalize care.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Although advances to the general healthcare system are
      expediently rising, the rural patient population seems to fall short of these
      important life-changing services, especially in the realm of PC/HC. Beginning in
      primary care, this patient population can be affected and included in a positive
      manner.

PMID- 28560760
TI  - Oral antiplatelet therapy: impact for transfusion medicine.
AB  - Patients on antiplatelet therapy, be it aspirin only, or aspirin in combination
      with oral adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor inhibitors like clopidogrel,
      prasugrel and ticagrelor, or the protease-activated receptor-1 inhibitor
      vorapaxar, may develop bleeding or need transient reversal of platelet blockade
      for acute interventions. In this review, we summarize reports on patients with
      antiplatelet therapy receiving platelet concentrates due to bleeding, and in
      vitro experiments estimating the feasibility to restore platelet function by
      spiking blood from healthy individuals or patients on antiplatelet treatment with
      noninhibited platelets. So far, all clinical data were gained from patients on
      aspirin with or without ADP P2Y12 receptor inhibitors. Platelet inhibition due to
      clopidogrel, and to some extent also prasugrel may be overcome by platelet
      transfusion, but clinical data on massive platelet transfusion in these patients
      are lacking. Platelet transfusion may even be associated with worse outcomes.
      Ticagrelor-mediated platelet inhibition remains a challenge, as case reports show
      that platelet transfusion did not restore haemostasis. Prescription of the latter
      therefore demands a particular stringent indication.

PMID- 28560761
TI  - Physicians' reasons not to discontinue long-term used off-label antipsychotic
      drugs in people with intellectual disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disability (ID) frequently use antipsychotic
      drugs on an off-label base, often for many years. Physicians' decisions to
      discontinue these drugs not only depend on patient characteristics, like the
      presence of mental or behavioural disorders, but also on environmental factors,
      such as inappropriate living circumstances, and on attitudes, knowledge and
      beliefs of staff, clients and their representatives towards the effects of
      antipsychotic drug use. In this study, we therefore investigated the influence of
      participant and setting-related factors on decisions of physicians not to
      discontinue off-label prescribed antipsychotics. METHODS: The study took place in
      living facilities of six service providers for people with ID spread over the
      Netherlands and staffed with support professionals, nurses, behavioural scientist
      and physicians and was part of an antipsychotics discontinuation trial. ID
      physicians had to decide whether the off-label use of antipsychotics could be
      discontinued. Medical and pharmaceutical records were used to establish the
      prevalence of antipsychotic drug use in the study population, along with duration
      of use and whether the use was off-label. Reasons of physicians not to
      discontinue the prescription of antipsychotics in those participants who used off
      label antipsychotics for more than a year were collected and categorised as
      related to participant or setting characteristics, including lack of consent to
      discontinue, and staff members, participants or their legal representatives.
      RESULTS: Of the 3299 clients of the service providers, 977 used one or more
      antipsychotic drugs. The prevalence of antipsychotic drug use was 30%. Reasons
      for use were in 5% of cases, a chronic psychotic disorder classified according to
      Diagnostic System Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria, in 25%, present or
      past (suspected) non-schizophrenia-related psychotic symptoms and in 69%,
      challenging behaviours. Overall, physicians were willing to discontinue their
      prescriptions in 51% of cases, varying from 22% to 87% per service provider. The
      odds for decisions of physicians to discontinue off-label prescriptions varied
      from 0.19 to 13.95 per service provider. The variables 'a living situation with
      care and support' and 'challenging behaviour' were associated with a higher
      chance of discontinuation. The main reasons for decisions not to discontinue were
      concerns for symptoms of restlessness, the presence of an autism spectrum
      disorder, previously unsuccessful attempts to discontinue and objections against
      discontinuation of legal representatives. Reasons for physicians' decisions not
      to discontinue the off-label use of antipsychotics varied largely between the
      service providers. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of antipsychotic drug use for off
      label indications in people with ID remains high. The results of this study
      indicate that there is a large variation in clinical practice of physicians
      regarding discontinuation of long-term antipsychotic drug prescriptions, which
      may be partially related to environmental factors as setting culture and
      attitudes of staff towards off-label antipsychotic drug use in persons with ID.

PMID- 28560762
TI  - Low-dose Desmopressin and Tolterodine Combination Therapy for Treating Nocturia
      in Women with Overactive Bladder: A Double-blind, Randomized, Controlled Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of safety and efficacy of desmopressin/tolterodine
      combination therapy in women. METHODS: This double-blind, randomized, proof-of
      concept study enrolled 106 patients (>=18 years), with overactive bladder (OAB)
      and nocturia, with >=2 nocturnal voids, receiving a 3-month once-daily
      combination (desmopressin 25 ug, orally-disintegrating tablets [ODT]/tolterodine
      4 mg [Detrol(r) LA]; n = 49) or monotherapy (tolterodine 4 mg/placebo ODT; n =
      57). Primary endpoint was change from baseline in mean number of nocturnal voids.
      Secondary endpoints were change from baseline in nocturnal voided volume, time to
      first nocturnal void, and quality-of-life. Post-hoc exploratory analysis were
      performed for patients with and without baseline nocturnal polyuria (NP, n = 47
      each). RESULTS: Overall population showed a non-significant reduction in mean
      number of nocturnal voids with combination versus monotherapy (full analysis set:
      adjusted treatment contrast [TC], -0.34; P = 0.112). Change in mean nocturnal
      void volume (TC, -64.16 mL; P = 0.103), mean time to first nocturnal void (TC,
      18.00 min; P = 0.385) and Nocturia Impact (NI) Diary(c) scores were comparable.
      In post-hoc analysis, NP patients showed a benefit with combination versus
      monotherapy for nocturnal void volume (P = 0.034) and time to first nocturnal
      void (P = 0.045), and a non-significant improvement in NI Diary(c) scores. Safety
      profile was comparable between treatments. A single transient event of
      asymptomatic clinically significant hyponatremia in combination group resolved
      subsequently. CONCLUSION: Low-dose desmopressin could be safely combined with
      tolterodine for treating nocturia in women with OAB, with a significant benefit
      in women with NP. Further, prospective validation studies of combination therapy
      are warranted in mixed NP/OAB population, based on this favorable proof-of
      concept finding.

PMID- 28560763
TI  - Implementation and evaluation of a peer review process for advanced practice
      nurses in a university hospital setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Over the past decade, implementation of the peer review
      process for the development of the advanced practice nurse (APN) has been
      emphasized. However, little exists in the literature regarding APN peer review.
      The peer review process is intended to help demonstrate competency of care,
      enhance quality improvement measures, and foster the professional growth of the
      APN. METHODS: APNs serving on a professional governance council within a
      university teaching hospital developed a model of peer review for APNs. Nine
      months after the tool was implemented, an anonymous follow-up survey was
      conducted. A follow-up request was sent 4 weeks later to increase the number of
      respondents. Likert scales were used to elicit subjective data regarding the
      process. CONCLUSIONS: Of 81 APNs who participated in the survey, more than half
      (52%) felt that the process would directly improve their professional practice.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Survey results show that the peer review process
      affected APN professional practice positively. Additional research might include
      pathways for remediation and education of staff, evaluation of alternate methods
      to improve application to clinical practice, and collection of outcome data. The
      models presented provide a foundation for future refinement to accommodate
      different APN practice settings.

PMID- 28560764
TI  - Incidence of sleep disturbances in patients with familial Mediterranean fever and
      the relation of sleep quality with disease activity.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the sleep quality and the relation of sleep quality with
      depression, anxiety, fatigue and disease activity in adult patients with familial
      Mediterranean fever (FMF). METHOD: One hundred and seventy-four FMF patients and
      84 age-sex matched healthy individuals were included in this study. The
      Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue
      (MAF) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Index (HADS) were used to assess
      sleep quality, fatigue, depression and anxiety, respectively. RESULT: FMF
      patients had significantly higher depression, anxiety, fatigue and PSQI scores
      than healthy controls. As the severity of the disease increased, scores of total
      PSQI and its domains increased. Patients with total PSQI score higher than 5 had
      statistically significantly higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (ESR), serum C
      reactive protein and serum amyloid levels during attacks, more attack numbers in
      last 3 months and worse fatigue, depression scores. Total PSQI score was
      positively correlated with inflammatory markers during attacks, attack numbers in
      the last 3 months and fatigue score. Logistic regression models identified
      disease duration, ESR during attacks, fatigue, attack numbers in the last 3
      months as predictors of poor sleep quality. CONCLUSION: Poor sleep quality is
      common in adult FMF patients. Anxiety, depression and fatigue are more frequent
      in FMF patients than healthy individuals. Poor sleep quality is associated with
      inflammatory marker levels during attacks, fatigue and attack numbers in the last
      3 months.

PMID- 28560765
TI  - An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change.
AB  - We synthesize findings from one of the world's largest and longest-running
      experimental investigations, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project
      (BDFFP). Spanning an area of ~1000 km2 in central Amazonia, the BDFFP was
      initially designed to evaluate the effects of fragment area on rainforest
      biodiversity and ecological processes. However, over its 38-year history to date
      the project has far transcended its original mission, and now focuses more
      broadly on landscape dynamics, forest regeneration, regional- and global-change
      phenomena, and their potential interactions and implications for Amazonian forest
      conservation. The project has yielded a wealth of insights into the ecological
      and environmental changes in fragmented forests. For instance, many rainforest
      species are naturally rare and hence are either missing entirely from many
      fragments or so sparsely represented as to have little chance of long-term
      survival. Additionally, edge effects are a prominent driver of fragment dynamics,
      strongly affecting forest microclimate, tree mortality, carbon storage and a
      diversity of fauna. Even within our controlled study area, the landscape has been
      highly dynamic: for example, the matrix of vegetation surrounding fragments has
      changed markedly over time, succeeding from large cattle pastures or forest
      clearcuts to secondary regrowth forest. This, in turn, has influenced the
      dynamics of plant and animal communities and their trajectories of change over
      time. In general, fauna and flora have responded differently to fragmentation:
      the most locally extinction-prone animal species are those that have both large
      area requirements and low tolerance of the modified habitats surrounding
      fragments, whereas the most vulnerable plants are those that respond poorly to
      edge effects or chronic forest disturbances, and that rely on vulnerable animals
      for seed dispersal or pollination. Relative to intact forests, most fragments are
      hyperdynamic, with unstable or fluctuating populations of species in response to
      a variety of external vicissitudes. Rare weather events such as droughts,
      windstorms and floods have had strong impacts on fragments and left lasting
      legacies of change. Both forest fragments and the intact forests in our study
      area appear to be influenced by larger-scale environmental drivers operating at
      regional or global scales. These drivers are apparently increasing forest
      productivity and have led to concerted, widespread increases in forest dynamics
      and plant growth, shifts in tree-community composition, and increases in liana
      (woody vine) abundance. Such large-scale drivers are likely to interact
      synergistically with habitat fragmentation, exacerbating its effects for some
      species and ecological phenomena. Hence, the impacts of fragmentation on
      Amazonian biodiversity and ecosystem processes appear to be a consequence not
      only of local site features but also of broader changes occurring at landscape,
      regional and even global scales.

PMID- 28560766
TI  - Systolic longitudinal strain correlates with visual assessment of regional left
      ventricular function during dobutamine stress echocardiography and discriminates
      the segments with induced contractility impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between visual and strain assessment of left
      ventricular (LV) function during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) remains
      poorly investigated. We assessed systolic longitudinal strain (SLS) and strain
      rate (SLSR) in segments visually graded as normokinetic, hypokinetic, or akinetic
      at baseline (0) and peak stage (1) of DSE and compared deformation changes
      between segments with and without induced contractility worsening. METHODS: From
      250 patients examined by DSE, 238 patients with diagnostic test were included,
      mean age of 62+/-9 years (105 females). Regional LV contractility was assessed
      visually and measured using SLS and SLSR in 4284 segments. RESULTS: The LV
      segments during baseline and peak stage of DSE revealed gradual decrease in
      absolute values of SLS (from 17.7+/-6.4% in normokinetic to 11.7+/-8.4% in
      akinetic segments at rest, and from 17.2+/-8.5% to 14.4+/-7.8% at peak, P<.001),
      as measured by automated function imaging (AFI) and SLSR (from 1.1+/-0.37 s-1 in
      normokinetic to 0.9+/-0.29 s-1 in akinetic at rest, and from 2.32+/-0.92 to
      2.13+/-0.85 s-1 at peak). The decrease in SLS in segments with contractility
      worsening was higher than in segments without induced impairment (DeltaSLS 2% vs
      0%, P<.0001 for all LV segments and 2% vs 1%, P=.02 in mid-LV segments). Absolute
      value of regional SLS <23% at peak DSE and decrease in SLS >2% from baseline
      showed 90% and 76% sensitivity for the detection of contractility impairment.
      CONCLUSION: Strain analysis quantifies segmental LV contractility not only at
      rest and peak DSE but may be helpful in detection of stress-induced contractility
      worsening.

PMID- 28560767
TI  - Reviewing the quality of discourse information measures in aphasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Discourse is fundamental to everyday communication, and is an
      increasing focus of clinical assessment, intervention and research. Aphasia can
      affect the information a speaker communicates in discourse. Little is known about
      the psychometrics of the tools for measuring information in discourse, which
      means it is unclear whether these measures are of sufficient quality to be used
      as clinical outcome measures or diagnostic tools. AIMS: To profile the measures
      used to describe information in aphasic discourse, and to assess the quality of
      these measures against standard psychometric criteria. METHODS & PROCEDURES: A
      scoping review method was employed. Studies were identified using a systematic
      search of Scopus, Medline and Embase databases. Standard psychometric criteria
      were used to evaluate the measures' psychometric properties. MAIN CONTRIBUTION:
      The current review summarizes and collates the information measures used to
      describe aphasic discourse, and evaluates their quality in terms of the
      psychometric properties of acceptability, reliability and validity. Seventy-six
      studies described 58 discourse information measures, with a mean of 2.28 measures
      used per study (SD = 1.29, range = 1-7). Measures were classified as 'functional'
      measures (n = 33), which focused on discourse macrostructure, and 'functional and
      structural' measures (n = 25), which focused on micro-linguistic and macro
      structural approaches to discourse. There were no reports of the acceptability of
      data generated by the measures (distribution of scores, missing data). Test
      retest reliability was reported for just 8/58 measures with 3/8 > 0.80. Intra
      rater reliability was reported for 9/58 measures and in all cases percentage
      agreement was reported rather than reliability. Per cent agreement was also
      frequently reported for inter-rater reliability, with only 4/76 studies reporting
      reliability statistics for 12/58 measures; this was generally high (>.80 for
      11/12 measures). The majority of measures related clearly to the discourse
      production model indicating content validity. A total of 36/58 measures were used
      to make 41 comparisons between participants with aphasia (PWA) and neurologically
      healthy participants (NHP), with 31/41 comparisons showing a difference between
      the groups. Four comparisons were made between discourse genres, with two
      measures showing a difference between genres, and two measures showing no
      difference. CONCLUSIONS: There is currently insufficient information available to
      justify the use of discourse information measures as sole diagnostic or outcome
      measurement tools. Yet the majority of measures are rooted in relevant theory,
      and there is emerging evidence regarding their psychometric properties. There is
      significant scope for further psychometric strengthening of discourse information
      measurement tools.

PMID- 28560768
TI  - Modeling event count data in the presence of informative dropout with application
      to bleeding and transfusion events in myelodysplastic syndrome.
AB  - In many biomedical studies, it is often of interest to model event count data
      over the study period. For some patients, we may not follow up them for the
      entire study period owing to informative dropout. The dropout time can
      potentially provide valuable insight on the rate of the events. We propose a
      joint semiparametric model for event count data and informative dropout time that
      allows for correlation through a Gamma frailty. We develop efficient likelihood
      based estimation and inference procedures. The proposed nonparametric maximum
      likelihood estimators are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal.
      Furthermore, the asymptotic covariances of the finite-dimensional parameter
      estimates attain the semiparametric efficiency bound. Extensive simulation
      studies demonstrate that the proposed methods perform well in practice. We
      illustrate the proposed methods through an application to a clinical trial for
      bleeding and transfusion events in myelodysplastic syndrome. Copyright (c) 2017
      John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28560771
TI  - The Lancet Commission on hypertension: Addressing the global burden of raised
      blood pressure on current and future generations.

PMID- 28560769
TI  - Patient Experience of Chronic Illness Care and Medical Home Transformation in
      Safety Net Clinics.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between medical home transformation and
      patient experience of chronic illness care. STUDY SETTING: Thirteen safety net
      clinics located in five states enrolled in the Safety Net Medical Home
      Initiative. STUDY DESIGN: Repeated cross-sectional surveys of randomly selected
      adult patients were completed at baseline (n = 303) and postintervention (n =
      271). DATA COLLECTION METHODS: Questions from the Patient Assessment of Chronic
      Illness Care (PACIC) (100-point scale) were used to capture patient experience of
      chronic illness care. Generalized estimating equation methods were used to (i)
      estimate how differential improvement in patient-centered medical home (PCMH)
      capability affected differences in modified PACIC scores between baseline and
      postintervention, and (ii) to examine cross-sectional associations between PCMH
      capability and modified PACIC scores for patients at completion of the
      intervention. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In adjusted analyses, high PCMH improvement
      (above median) was only marginally associated with a larger increase in total
      modified PACIC score (adjusted beta = 7.7, 95 percent confidence interval [CI]: 
      1.1 to 16.5). At completion of the intervention, a 10-point higher PCMH
      capability score was associated with an 8.9-point higher total modified PACIC
      score (95 percent CI: 3.1-14.7) and higher scores in four of five subdomains
      (patient activation, delivery system design, contextual care, and follow
      up/coordination). CONCLUSIONS: We report that sustained, 5-year medical home
      transformation may be associated with modest improvement in patient experience of
      chronic illness care for vulnerable populations in safety net clinics.

PMID- 28560770
TI  - A Radiographic Measurement of the Anterior Epidural Space at L4-5 Disc Level.
AB  - To observe the morphology character of the anterior epidural space at the L4-5
      disc level and to provide an anatomical basis for safely and accurately
      performing a percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD). Fifty-five cases
      with L5 S1 lumbar disc herniation were included in this study, and cases with L4
      5 disease were excluded. When the puncture needle reached the epidural space at
      the L5 S1 level, iohexol was injected at the pressure of 50 cm H2 O during the
      PELD, then C-Arm fluoroscopy was used to obtain standard lumbar frontal and
      lateral images. The widths of epidural space at the level of the L4 lower
      endplate, the L5 upper endplate, as well as the middle point of the L4-5 disc
      were measured from the lumbar lateral X-ray film. Epidural space at the L4-5 disc
      plane performs like a trapezium chart with a short side at the head end and a
      long side at the tail end in the lumbar lateral X-ray radiograph, while the
      average widths of epidural space were 10.2 +/- 2.5, 12.3 +/- 2.3, and 13.8 +/-
      2.6 mm at the upper, middle, and lower level of the L4-5 disc. Understanding the
      morphological characteristics of epidural space will contribute to improving the
      safety of the tranforaminal percutaneous endoscopy technique.

PMID- 28560772
TI  - Promoting reproducibility in addiction research.

PMID- 28560774
TI  - Role of P-glycoprotein inhibitors in children with drug-resistant epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The role of P-glycoprotein (Pgp), one of the known multidrug
      transporters, has been suggested in drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). The following
      study aimed to measure the serum level of Pgp as a possible indicator of tissue
      Pgp overexpression in patients with DRE and to assess the efficacy of verapamil
      (as a Pgp inhibitor agent) in these patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A group of 24
      patients with DRE were recruited and subdivided into two groups, one receiving
      verapamil and the other receiving a placebo in a double-blind randomized study.
      Pgp serum levels were measured at enrollment and 12 months later. Twenty
      medically controlled epileptic patients served as a control group. RESULTS: A
      significant statistical increase was found in the Pgp level of patients when
      compared the control group. Patients on both verapamil and the placebo showed
      improvement in seizure frequency and severity where statistical analysis showed
      no significant differences. CONCLUSION: Pgp serum levels in patients with DRE
      were significantly elevated compared to patients with medically controlled
      epilepsy. The effect of verapamil as Pgp inhibitor on DRE requires further
      evaluation and research.

PMID- 28560773
TI  - Untargeted analysis to monitor metabolic changes of garlic along heat treatment
      by LC-QTOF MS/MS.
AB  - Black garlic is increasing its popularity in cuisine around the world; however,
      scant information exists on the composition of this processed product. In this
      study, polar compounds in fresh garlic and in samples taken at different times
      during the heat treatment process to obtain black garlic have been characterized
      by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry in high resolution
      mode. Ninety-five compounds (mainly amino acids and metabolites, organosulfur
      compounds, and saccharides and derivatives) were tentatively identified in all
      the analysed samples and classified as a function of the family they belong to.
      Statistical analysis of the results allowed establishing that the major changes
      in garlic occur during the first days of treatment, and they mainly affect to the
      three representative families. The main pathways involved in the synthesis of the
      compounds affected by heat treatment, and their evolution during the process were
      studied.

PMID- 28560775
TI  - Joint Congress of The 6th Biennial Congress of the Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato
      Biliary Association & The 29th Meeting of Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary
      Pancreatic Surgery.

PMID- 28560776
TI  - Spontaneous language production of Italian children with cochlear implants and
      their mothers in two interactive contexts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years many studies have shown that the use of cochlear
      implants (CIs) improves children's skills in processing the auditory signal and,
      consequently, the development of both language comprehension and production.
      Nevertheless, many authors have also reported that the development of language
      skills in children with CIs is variable and influenced by individual factors
      (e.g., age at CI activation) and contextual aspects (e.g., maternal linguistic
      input). AIMS: To assess the characteristics of the spontaneous language
      production of Italian children with CIs, their mothers' input and the
      relationship between the two during shared book reading and semi-structured play.
      METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty preschool children with CIs and 40 typically
      developing children, 20 matched for chronological age (CATD group) and 20 matched
      for hearing age (HATD group), were observed during shared book reading and semi
      structured play with their mothers. Samples of spontaneous language were
      transcribed and analysed for each participant. The numbers of types, tokens, mean
      length of utterance (MLU) and grammatical categories were considered, and the
      familiarity of each mother's word was calculated. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The
      children with CIs produced shorter utterances than the children in the CATD
      group. Their mothers produced language with lower levels of lexical variability
      and grammatical complexity, and higher proportions of verbs with higher
      familiarity than did the mothers in the other groups during shared book reading.
      The children's language was more strongly related to that of their mothers in the
      CI group than in the other groups, and it was associated with the age at CI
      activation. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings suggest that the language of
      children with CIs is related both to their mothers' input and to age at CI
      activation. They might prompt suggestions for intervention programs focused on
      shared-book reading.

PMID- 28560778
TI  - Daily oral administration of low-dose methotrexate has greater antirheumatic
      effects in collagen-induced arthritis rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Methotrexate (MTX) is administered once or thrice weekly to patients
      with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Even though RA continually progresses, MTX is not
      administered daily. Therefore, we investigated whether the daily administration
      of a low dose of MTX inhibits the progression of arthritis in collagen-induced
      arthritis (CIA) rats. METHODS: Methotrexate was orally administered once weekly,
      thrice weekly and once daily to CIA rats, and arthritis scores were measured. KEY
      FINDINGS: When the same dose of MTX was administered, the exacerbation of
      arthritis was inhibited significantly more in the once-daily group than in the
      other groups. When the dose in the once-daily group was reduced to one-fourth
      that of the current standard dosing method, arthritis scores were markedly lower
      in the once-daily group than in the once and thrice-weekly groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      The daily administration of a low dose of MTX not only maintained normal levels
      that estimated adverse effects but also suppressed the progression of arthritis
      significantly more than the current standard dosing method. The results indicate
      that the reconsideration of dosing schedules based on the characteristics of MTX
      will lead to more effective RA therapy than that currently used in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28560777
TI  - In child and adult migraineurs the somatosensory cortex stands out ... again: An
      arterial spin labeling investigation.
AB  - Over the past decade, human brain imaging investigations have reported altered
      regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the interictal phase of migraine. However,
      there have been conflicting findings across different investigations, making the
      use of perfusion imaging in migraine pathophysiology more difficult to define.
      These inconsistencies may reflect technical constraints with traditional
      perfusion imaging methods such as single-photon emission computed tomography and
      positron emission tomography. Comparatively, pseudocontinuous arterial spin
      labeling (pCASL) is a recently developed magnetic resonance imaging technique
      that is noninvasive and offers superior spatial resolution and increased
      sensitivity. Using pCASL, we have previously shown increased rCBF within the
      primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in adult migraineurs, where blood flow was
      positively associated with migraine frequency. Whether these observations are
      present in pediatric and young adult populations remains unknown. This is an
      important question given the age-related variants of migraine prevalence,
      symptomology, and treatments. In this investigation, we used pCASL to
      quantitatively compare and contrast blood flow within S1 in pediatric and young
      adult migraineurs as compared with healthy controls. In migraine patients, we
      found significant resting rCBF increases within bilateral S1 as compared with
      healthy controls. Furthermore, within the right S1, we report a positive
      correlation between blood flow value with migraine attack frequency and cutaneous
      allodynia symptom profile. Our results reveal that pediatric and young adult
      migraineurs exhibit analogous rCBF changes with adult migraineurs, further
      supporting the possibility that these alterations within S1 are a consequence of
      repeated migraine attacks. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4078-4087, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28560779
TI  - Efficacy and tolerability of initial high vs low doses of S-(-)-amlodipine in
      hypertension.
AB  - In an 8-week randomized trial of patients with mild or moderate hypertension, the
      authors investigated the efficacy and tolerability of initial high (5.0 mg/d) vs
      low (2.5 mg/d) doses of S-(-)-amlodipine (equivalent to 5 and 10 mg of racemic
      amlodipine, respectively). In the S-(-)-amlodipine 2.5-mg group (n=263), 24-hour
      ambulatory systolic/diastolic blood pressure (+/-standard deviation) decreased
      from 131.5+/-15.0/82.1+/-10.7 mm Hg at baseline to 126.0+/-13.5/78.5+/-9.5 mm Hg
      at 8 weeks of follow-up by a least square mean (+/-standard error) change of
      6.0+/-0.6/3.8+/-0.4 mm Hg. In the S-(-)-amlodipine 5-mg group (n=260), the
      corresponding changes were from 133.6+/-13.7/83.1+/-9.9 mm Hg to 125.0+/
      12.0/78.2+/-8.9 mm Hg by 8.1+/-0.6/4.7+/-0.4 mm Hg, respectively. The between
      group differences in changes in 24-hour systolic/diastolic blood pressure were
      2.1/0.9 (P=.02/.17) mm Hg. Similar trends were observed for daytime and nighttime
      ambulatory and clinic blood pressure. The incidence rate was similar for all
      adverse events. An initial high dose of S-(-)-amlodipine improved ambulatory
      blood pressure control with similar tolerability as an initial low dose in
      hypertension.

PMID- 28560780
TI  - Double-blind randomized phase III study comparing a mixture of natural agents
      versus placebo in the prevention of acute mucositis during chemoradiotherapy for
      head and neck cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is no widely accepted intervention in the prevention of acute
      mucositis during chemoradiotherapy for head and neck carcinoma. In the present
      double-blind study, we tested 4 natural agents, propolis, aloe vera, calendula,
      and chamomile versus placebo. METHODS: Patients undergoing concomitant chemo
      intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) were given natural agent or matched
      placebo; grade 3 mucositis on physical examination according to Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 3.0 was the primary
      endpoint. Various covariates were tested at logistic regression, including the
      individual amount of mucosa receiving at least 9.5 Gy per week (V9.5w). RESULTS:
      One hundred seven patients were randomized from January 2011 to July 2014, and
      104 were assessable (51%-49% were assigned to the placebo group and 53%-51% were
      assigned to the natural agent). Overall, 61 patients developed peak grade 3
      mucositis with no difference between arms (P = .65). Conversely, V9.5w (P = .007)
      and primary site (P = .037) were independent predictors. CONCLUSION: The selected
      natural agents do not prevent mucositis, whereas the role of V9.5w is confirmed.

PMID- 28560781
TI  - Attending to the heart is associated with posterior alpha band increase and a
      reduction in sensitivity to concurrent visual stimuli.
AB  - Attentional mechanisms have been studied mostly in specific sensory domains, such
      as auditory, visuospatial, or tactile modalities. In contrast, attention to
      internal interoceptive visceral targets has only recently begun to be studied,
      despite its potential importance in emotion, empathy, and self-awareness. Here,
      we studied the effects of shifting attention to the heart using a cue-target
      detection paradigm during continuous EEG recordings. Subjects were instructed to
      count either a series of visual stimuli (visual condition) or their own
      heartbeats (heart condition). Visual checkerboard stimuli were used as
      attentional probes throughout the task. Consistent with previous findings,
      attention modulated the amplitude of the heartbeat-evoked potentials. Directing
      attention to the heart significantly reduced the visual P1/N1 amplitude evoked by
      the attentional probe. ERPs locked to the attention-directing cue revealed a
      novel frontal positivity around 300 ms postcue. Finally, spectral power in the
      alpha band over parieto-occipital regions was higher while attending to the heart
      when compared to the visual task-and correlated with subject's performance in the
      interoceptive task. These results are consistent with a shared, resource-based
      attentional mechanism whereby allocating attention to bodily signals can affect
      early responses to visual stimuli.

PMID- 28560782
TI  - Benefit of cardiopoietic mesenchymal stem cell therapy on left ventricular
      remodelling: results from the Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative
      Therapy (CHART-1) study.
AB  - AIMS: Left ventricular (LV) reverse remodelling is an important marker of
      improved outcomes in patients with advanced heart failure (HF). We examined the
      impact of the intramyocardial administration of bone-marrow-derived, lineage
      directed, autologous cardiopoietic mesenchymal stem cells (C3BS-CQR-1) on LV
      remodelling in patients with advanced HF enrolled in the CHART-1 study. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Patients (n=351) with symptomatic advanced HF secondary to ischaemic
      heart disease, and reduced LV ejection fraction (LVEF <35%) were randomized to
      receive C3BS-CQR-1 or a sham procedure. In a post hoc analysis we examined the
      effect of C3BS-CQR-1 on LV reverse remodelling within 1 year of the procedure and
      the influence of C3BS-CQR-1 dosing in the 271 patients treated as randomized.
      Delivery of C3BS-CQR-1 was associated with a progressive decrease in both LV end
      diastolic volume (LVEDV) and end-systolic volume (LVESV) within 52 weeks after
      treatment. At 1 year, the LVEDV and LVESV of treated patients decreased by 17.0
      mL and 12.8 mL greater than controls (P=0.006 and P=0.017, respectively). The
      effect on LVEDV was maintained after multivariable adjustment for baseline age,
      systolic blood pressure, LVEDV, LVEF and history of myocardial infarction. The
      largest reverse remodelling was evident in the patients receiving a moderate
      number of injections (<20). CONCLUSION: In CHART-1, intramyocardial
      administration of cardiopoietic stem cells led to reverse remodelling as
      evidenced by significant progressive decreases in LVEDV and LVESV through the 52
      weeks of follow-up. Further studies are needed to explore the dose response with
      regard to cell number and injected volume, and reverse remodelling.

PMID- 28560784
TI  - Reversible and cachexia-associated feline skin fragility syndrome in three cats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Feline skin fragility syndrome (FSFS) is an acquired disorder
      characterized by altered collagen production resulting in an extremely thin and
      fragile skin. FSFS is associated with diseases characterized by excessive
      steroidal hormones that can inhibit collagen synthesis. It is also described
      concomitantly with severe inflammatory, infectious or neoplastic conditions where
      the pathogenesis remains largely unknown. OBJECTIVES: To describe three cases of
      FSFS in cats that become cachectic secondary to different causes without
      glucocorticoid involvement. To describe the histopathological features of
      connective tissue for both fragile skin and the skin after healing. RESULTS: All
      cats developed cachexia in less than two months (body condition score ranging
      from 1-1.5). Concomitant diseases were diagnosed in Case 1 (aspiration pneumonia
      due to mega-oesophagus) and Case 2 (feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)). In Case
      3, malnutrition was suspected as a primary cause. The main histological feature
      of fragile skin was an atrophic dermis with pale eosinophilic, thin and irregular
      collagen fibres with numerous red cores observed with Masson's stain. Elastic
      fibres were normal. Postrecovery histopathological findings at 11 (Case 1) and
      six months (Case 3) after diagnosis, indicated normalization of the collagen and
      of the whole skin as compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE:
      To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first report describing a
      reversible, nonsteroid-induced FSFS, associated with rapidly developing cachexia
      in cats.

PMID- 28560783
TI  - End-of-Life Care Planning in Accountable Care Organizations: Associations with
      Organizational Characteristics and Capabilities.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To measure the extent to which accountable care organizations (ACOs)
      have adopted end-of-life (EOL) care planning processes and characterize those
      ACOs that have established processes related to EOL. DATA SOURCES: This study
      uses data from three waves (2012-2015) of the National Survey of ACOs.
      Respondents were 397 ACOs participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial ACO
      contracts. STUDY DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional survey study using
      multivariate ordered logit regression models. We measured the extent to which the
      ACO had adopted EOL care planning processes as well as organizational
      characteristics, including care management, utilization management, health
      informatics, and shared decision-making capabilities, palliative care, and
      patient-centered medical home experience. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Twenty-one percent
      of ACOs had few or no EOL care planning processes, 60 percent had some processes,
      and 19.6 percent had advanced processes. ACOs with a hospital in their system
      (OR: 3.07; p = .01), and ACOs with advanced care management (OR: 1.43; p = .02),
      utilization management (OR: 1.58, p = .00), and shared decision-making
      capabilities (OR: 16.3, p = .000) were more likely to have EOL care planning
      processes than those with no hospital or few to no capabilities. CONCLUSIONS:
      There remains considerable room for today's ACOs to increase uptake of EOL care
      planning, possibly by leveraging existing care management, utilization
      management, and shared decision-making processes.

PMID- 28560785
TI  - Image of a left atrial mass after a cardiopulmonary bypass in a child.
AB  - Invagination of an appendage into the left atrium is a rare complication. It
      occurs spontaneously or after open-heart surgery. In our case, a postoperative
      transesophageal echocardiogram, after closure of a ventricular septal defect in a
      5-month-old infant, revealed a large mass in the left atrium. A diagnosis of a
      left appendage inversion was confirmed after external examination of the heart.
      Herein, we provide echocardiographic images before, during, and after manual
      reversion of the left appendage. Misdiagnosis of this complication could have led
      to an additional unnecessary surgical procedure that could have impacted on the
      patient's morbidity.

PMID- 28560786
TI  - Medication compliance and clinical outcomes of fixed-dose combinations vs free
      combinations of an angiotensin II receptor blocker and a calcium channel blocker
      in hypertension treatment.
AB  - Using the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, the authors
      identified 1136 patients taking fixed-dose combination and 4544 patients taking
      free combinations of an angiotensin II receptor blocker and a dihydropyridine
      calcium channel blocker from January 2009 to December 2012. At a mean follow-up
      of 2.1 years, the fixed-dose combination was associated with improved medication
      adherence and persistence and better survival free from major adverse cardiac
      events and hospitalization for heart failure compared with the free combination
      regimens.

PMID- 28560787
TI  - A role for interleukin 17A in IBD-related neuroplasticity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes to the structure and function of the innervation of the gut
      contribute to symptom generation in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). However,
      delineation of the mechanisms of these effects has proven difficult. Previous
      work on sympathetic neurons identified interleukin (IL)-17A as a novel
      neurotrophic cytokine. Since IL-17A is involved in IBD pathogenesis, we tested
      the hypothesis that IL-17A contributes to neuroanatomical remodeling during IBD.
      METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for tyrosine hydroxylase was used to identify
      sympathetic axons in mice with dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis and
      controls. Axon outgrowth from sympathetic neurons in response to incubation in
      cytokines or endoscopic patient biopsy supernatants was quantified. KEY RESULTS:
      DSS-induced colitis led to an increase in tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity
      in the inflamed colon but not the spleen. Colonic supernatants from mice with
      colitis and biopsy supernatants from Crohn's disease patients increased axon
      outgrowth from mouse sympathetic neurons compared to supernatants from uninflamed
      controls. An antibody that neutralized IL-17A blocked the ability of DSS-induced
      colitis and Crohn's disease supernatants to induce axon extension. CONCLUSIONS
      AND INFERENCES: These findings identify IL-17A as a potential mediator of
      neuroanatomical remodeling of the gut innervation during IBD.

PMID- 28560789
TI  - Janet I. Sprent.

PMID- 28560788
TI  - Introduction to a Virtual Issue on root traits.

PMID- 28560790
TI  - Progressing from 'functional' to mechanistic traits.

PMID- 28560791
TI  - Linking plant hydraulics and beta diversity in tropical forests.

PMID- 28560792
TI  - Timing of return to work and women's breastfeeding practices in urban Malaysia: A
      qualitative study.
AB  - Nearly half of the working population in Malaysia are women, and with only a
      short period of maternity leave, they may struggle to achieve the recommended 6
      months of exclusive breastfeeding. The aim of this paper was to explore the
      relationship between the timing of return to work and beliefs and breastfeeding
      practices among women in urban Malaysia. A qualitative inquiry based on a
      phenomenological framework and multiple methods was used: face-to-face interview,
      participant diary and researcher field notes. Data collection took place in
      Penang and the Klang Valley, Malaysia, from March to September 2011. Eligible
      participants were purposely identified at randomly selected recruitment sites. A
      thematic analysis method was used to develop the typologies and categories of the
      findings. A total of 40 working women with a mean age of 32 years (SD 3.4) were
      interviewed and 15 participated in the diary writing. Most women (75%) returned
      to work between 2 and 3 months. Only 10% returned to work 4 months or later
      postpartum, and 15% had an early return to work (defined here as less than 2
      months). The women fell into three groups: Passionate women with a strong
      determination to breastfeed, who exclusively breastfed for 6 months; Ambivalent
      women, who commenced breastfeeding but were unable to sustain this after
      returning to work; and Equivalent women, who perceived formula feeding as equally
      nutritious as breast milk. Although longer maternity leave was very important for
      Ambivalent women to maintain breastfeeding, it was not as important for the
      Equivalent or Passionate women. In conclusion, returning earlier was not an
      absolute barrier to continuing breastfeeding. Instead, a woman's beliefs and
      perceptions of breastfeeding were more important than the timing of her return to
      work in determining her ability to maintain breastfeeding or breast milk feeding.

PMID- 28560793
TI  - Tregitopes and impaired antigen presentation: Drivers of the immunomodulatory
      effects of IVIg?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is commonly used in the
      clinic to treat various autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases, the mode of
      action is not fully elucidated. This work investigates two proposed mechanisms:
      (1) the potential role of regulatory T-cell epitopes (Tregitopes) from the
      constant domain of IgG in the immunosuppressive function of IVIg; and (2) a
      potential impact of IVIg on the ability of antigen presenting cells (APCs) to
      present peptides. METHODS AND RESULTS: Investigation of the HLA class II peptide
      repertoire from IVIg-loaded dendritic cells (DCs) via MHC-associated peptide
      proteomics (MAPPs) revealed that numerous IgG-derived peptides were strongly
      presented along the antibody sequence. Surprisingly, Tregitopes 167 and 289 did
      not show efficient natural presentation although they both bound to HLA class II
      when directly loaded as "naked" peptides on human DCs. In addition, both
      Tregitopes could not reproduce the inhibitory effect of IVIg in a human in vitro
      T-cell proliferation assay as well as in vivo in mice. MAPPs data demonstrate
      that presentation of peptides from several antigens remained unchanged even when
      competed with high doses of IVIg, in both human and mouse. CONCLUSION: These data
      suggest that the effects mediated by IVIg are not caused by Tregitopes nor by
      impaired antigen presentation.

PMID- 28560794
TI  - A novel marketing mix and choice architecture framework to nudge restaurant
      customers toward healthy food environments to reduce obesity in the United
      States.
AB  - This review identified and adapted choice architecture frameworks to develop a
      novel framework that restaurant owners could use to promote healthy food
      environments for customers who currently overconsume products high in fat, sugar
      and sodium that increase their risk of obesity and diet-related non-communicable
      diseases. This review was conducted in three steps and presented as a narrative
      summary to demonstrate a proof of concept. Step 1 was a systematic review of
      nudge or choice architecture frameworks used to categorize strategies that cue
      healthy behaviours in microenvironments. We searched nine electronic databases
      between January 2000 and December 2016 and identified 1,244 records. Inclusion
      criteria led to the selection of five choice architecture frameworks, of which
      three were adapted and combined with marketing mix principles to highlight eight
      strategies (i.e. place, profile, portion, pricing, promotion, healthy default
      picks, prompting or priming and proximity). Step 2 involved conducting a
      comprehensive evidence review between January 2006 and December 2016 to identify
      U.S. recommendations for the restaurant sector organized by strategy. Step 3
      entailed developing 12 performance metrics for the eight strategies. This
      framework should be tested to determine its value to assist restaurant owners to
      promote and socially normalize healthy food environments to reduce obesity and
      non-communicable diseases.

PMID- 28560795
TI  - Management of an asymptomatic patient with the apical variant of hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Healthcare professionals are faced with challenging decisions regarding patient
      evaluation and management on a daily basis. Once a diagnosis is made, additional
      challenges include how to proceed with the management. Here, we present an eighty
      two-year-old female who was incidentally diagnosed with the apical variant of
      hypertrophic cardiomyopathy on a transthoracic echocardiogram. She was found to
      have newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation, but was otherwise asymptomatic from a
      cardiomyopathy standpoint. No specific guidelines exist for this patient
      population. Therefore, how does one proceed with the management of an
      asymptomatic patient with the apical variant of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

PMID- 28560797
TI  - The effects of rapid eye movement sleep deprivation during late pregnancy on
      newborns' sleep.
AB  - Sleep deprivation during pregnancy is an emerging concern, as it can adversely
      affect the development of the offspring brain. This study was conducted to
      evaluate the effects of deprivation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep during the
      third term of pregnancy on the sleep-wake profiles of neonates in the Wistar rat
      model. Sleep-wake patterns were assessed through electrophysiological measures
      and behavioural observations during postnatal days 1-21 on pups born to REM sleep
      deprived dams and control rats. Pups of REM sleep-deprived dams had active sleep
      that was not only markedly higher in percentage during all the days studied, but
      also had reduced latency during later postnatal days 15-21. Quiet sleep and wake
      periods were lower. These factors, along with less frequent but longer sleep-wake
      cycles, indicated maturational delay in the sleep-wake neural networks. The
      disruption of time-bound growth of sleep-wake neural networks was substantiated
      further by the decreased slope of survival plots in the sleep bouts. Examination
      of altered sleep-wake patterns during early development may provide crucial
      information concerning deranged neural development in the offspring. This is the
      first report, to our knowledge, to show that maternal sleep deprivation during
      pregnancy can delay and impair the development of sleep-wake profile in the
      offspring.

PMID- 28560796
TI  - Postoperative Evaluation of Reduction Loss in Proximal Humeral Fractures: A
      Comparison of Plain Radiographs and Computed Tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare postoperative CT images with plain radiographs for
      measuring prognostic factors of reduction loss of fractures of the proximal part
      of the humerus. METHODS: A total of 65 patients who sustained fractures of the
      proximal humerus treated with locking plates from June 2012 to October 2015 were
      retrospectively analyzed. There were 24 men and 41 women, with a mean age of 60.0
      years (range, 22-76 years). According to the Neer classification system of
      proximal humeral fracture, there were 26 two-part, 27 three-part and 12 four-part
      fractures of the proximal part of the humerus, and all fractures were treated
      with open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) using locked plating. All
      postoperative CT images and plain radiographs of the patients were obtained.
      Prognostic factors of the reduction loss were the change of neck shaft angle
      (NSA) and the change of humeral head height (HHH). The change of NSA and HHH were
      evaluated by the difference between postoperative initial and final follow-up
      measurement. Reduction loss was defined as the change >=10 degrees  for NSA or
      >=5 mm for HHH. The NSA and HHH were measured using plain radiographs and 3-D CT
      images, both initially and at final follow-up. The paired t-test was used for
      comparison of NSA, change of NSA, HHH, and change of HHH between two image
      modalities. The differences between two image modalities in the assessment of
      reduction loss were examined using the chi2 -test (McNemar test). Intraclass
      correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess the intra-observer and inter
      observer reliability. RESULTS: 3-D CT images (ICC range, 0.834-0.967) were more
      reliable in all parameters when compared with plain radiographs (ICC range, 0.598
      0.915). Significant differences were found between the two image modalities in
      all parameters (plain radiographs: initial NSA = 133.6 degrees  +/- 3.8 degrees ,
      final NSA = 130.0 degrees  +/- 1.9 degrees , initial HHH = 17.9 +/- 0.9 mm, final
      HHH = 15.8 +/- 1.5 mm; 3-D CT: initial NSA = 131.4 degrees  +/- 3.4 degrees ,
      final NSA = 128.8 degrees  +/- 1.7 degrees , initial HHH = 16.8 +/- 1.2 mm, final
      HHH = 14.5 +/- 1.1 mm; all P < 0.05). In the assessment of reduction loss, the
      percentage was 16.9% (11/65) for the plain radiographs and 7.7% (5/65) for the 3
      D CT scans (P < 0.05). For the 5 patients with reduction loss, which were
      observed by two imaging modalities, the mean Constant-Murley score was 61.0 +/-
      1.6. The patients with reduction loss, observed only in plain radiographs but not
      CT images, had good shoulder function (Constant-Murley score: 82.7 +/- 1.0).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data reveal that 3-D CT images are more reliable than plain
      radiographs in the assessment of the prognostic factors of reduction loss of
      fractures of the proximal part of the humerus with treatment of locking plates;
      this reliable CT technique can serve as an effective guideline for the subsequent
      clinical management of patients.

PMID- 28560798
TI  - VNS and pregnancy: A multicentric experience of four cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vagus nerve stimulation system (VNS) has been employed worldwide as
      adjunctive therapy in drug-resistant epileptic patients. Only nine previous
      pregnancies with six-positive outcomes have been reported in women with epilepsy
      treated with VNS since 1998. AIMS OF THE STUDY: To communicate the experience of
      pregnancies in women treated with VNS in our country. METHODS: Clinical data of
      four female patients treated with VNS during pregnancy and delivery in five
      gestations is described. RESULTS: Four pregnancy outcomes were positive and one
      ended in spontaneous abortion, probably more related to the use antiepileptic
      drugs than VNS itself. Two births were vaginal and the other two with cesarean
      section. None of the complications during delivery were attributed to VNS. No
      teratogenicity was documented. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our experience VNS
      constitutes a safe therapy for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy in women
      of childbearing potential and during pregnancy and delivery. Larger series will
      be useful to confirm this finding.

PMID- 28560799
TI  - Blood pressure management and guideline adherence in hypertensive emergencies and
      urgencies: A comparison between telemedically supported and conventional out-of
      hospital care.
AB  - Prehospital hypertensive emergencies and urgencies are common, but evidence is
      lacking. Telemedically supported hypertensive emergencies and urgencies were
      prospectively collected (April 2014-March 2015) and compared retrospectively with
      a historical control group of on-scene physician care in the emergency medical
      service of Aachen, Germany. Blood pressure management and guideline adherence
      were evaluated. Telemedical (n=159) vs conventional (n=172) cases: blood pressure
      reductions of 35+/-24 mm Hg vs 44+/-23 mm Hg revealed a group effect adjusted for
      baseline differences (P=.0006). Blood pressure management in categories: no
      reduction 6 vs 0 (P=.0121); reduction <=25% (recommended range) 113 vs 110
      patients (P=.2356); reduction >25% to 30% 13 vs 29 (0.020); reduction >30% 12 vs
      16 patients (P=.5608). The telemedical approach led to less pronounced blood
      pressure reductions and a tendency to improved guideline adherence. Telemedically
      guided antihypertensive care may be an alternative to conventional care
      especially for potentially underserved areas.

PMID- 28560801
TI  - What is it about old muscles?

PMID- 28560800
TI  - Emerging Targets of Diuretic Therapy.
AB  - Diuretics are commonly prescribed for treatment in patients with hypertension,
      edema, or heart failure. Studies on hypertensive and salt-losing disorders and on
      urea transporters have contributed to better understanding of mechanisms of renal
      salt and water reabsorption and their regulation. Proteins involved in the
      regulatory pathways are emerging targets for diuretic and aquaretic therapy.
      Integrative high-throughput screening, protein structure analysis, and chemical
      modification have identified promising agents for preclinical testing in animals.
      These include WNK-SPAK inhibitors, ClC-K channel antagonists, ROMK channel
      antagonists, and pendrin and urea transporter inhibitors. We discuss the
      potential advantages and side effects of these potential diuretics.

PMID- 28560802
TI  - The effect of preoperative oral administration of prednisolone on postoperative
      pain in patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis: a single-centre
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - AIM: This single-centre randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical
      trial assessed the effect of a preoperative, single, oral dose of prednisolone on
      postoperative pain and postoperative analgesic intake in patients with
      symptomatic, irreversible pulpitis in mandibular molars. METHODOLOGY: Four
      hundred participants, randomly assigned to two equal groups, received either 40
      mg prednisolone or placebo tablets 30 min before single-visit root canal
      treatment. Patients recorded their pain level 6, 12 and 24 h after treatment on a
      100-mm visual analogue scale. All patients received a sham capsule to take if
      needed as a postoperative analgesic, and, if the pain persisted, an analgesic was
      prescribed. The relative risk reduction and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were
      estimated for binary data. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare postoperative
      pain intensity between groups. RESULTS: The relative risk reduction in pain
      incidence was 20.31% (95% CI: 12.03%, 27.82%) at 6 h, 23.39% (95% CI: 14.75%,
      31.16%) at 12 h and 28.85% (95% CI: 18.08%, 38.20%) at 24 h. Prednisolone had
      significantly less post-obturation pain intensity compared to placebo at 6, 12
      and 24 h (P < 0.001). The relative risk reduction in sham-capsule intake was 54%
      (95% CI: 38%, 66%) and of analgesic intake was 55% (95% CI: 3%, 79%). No adverse
      effects were recorded. CONCLUSION: Preoperative oral administration of a single
      dose of 40 mg prednisolone was beneficial to control short-term post-obturation
      pain after single-visit root canal treatment in patients with symptomatic
      irreversible pulpitis reducing pain incidence after 24 h by approximately 30% and
      postoperative analgesic intake by approximately 55%.

PMID- 28560803
TI  - Troubleshooting the collect concentration monitor alarm in therapeutic
      thrombocytapheresis.

PMID- 28560805
TI  - What has preoperative radio(chemo)therapy brought to localized rectal cancer
      patients in terms of perioperative and long-term outcomes over the past decades?
      A systematic review and meta-analysis based on 41,121 patients.
AB  - We asked what preoperative radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy (PRT/PCRT) has brought
      to patients in terms of perioperative and long-term outcomes over the past
      decades. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted using PubMed, Embase
      and Web of Science databases. All original comparative studies published in
      English that were related to PRT/PCRT and surgical resection and which analyzed
      survival, postoperative and quality of life outcomes were included. Data
      synthesis and statistical analysis were carried out using Stata software. Data
      from 106 comparative studies based on 80 different trials enrolling 41,121
      patients were included in our study. Based on our overall analyses, PRT/PCRT
      significantly improved patients' local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), but
      neither overall survival (OS) nor metastasis-free survival (MFS) showed
      improvement. In addition, PRT significantly increased the postoperative morbidity
      and mortality but PCRT did not have a significant effect. Furthermore, PRT/PCRT
      significantly increased the risk of postoperative wound complications but not
      anastomotic leakage and bowel obstruction. Our comprehensive subgroup analyses
      further supported the aforementioned results. Meanwhile, long-term anorectal
      symptoms (impaired squeeze pressures, use of pads, incontinence and urgency) and
      erectile dysfunction were also significantly increased in patients after
      PRT/PCRT. The benefits of PRT/PCRT as applied over the last several decades have
      not been sufficient to improve OS. Metastases of primary tumor and postoperative
      adverse effects were the two primary obstacles for an improved OS. In fact, the
      greatest advantage of PRT/PCRT is still local tumor control and a significantly
      improved LRFS.

PMID- 28560804
TI  - Wnt is necessary for mesenchymal to epithelial transition in colorectal cancer
      cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metastasis underlies most colorectal cancer mortality. Cancer cells
      spread through the body as single cells or small clusters of cells that have an
      invasive, mesenchymal, nonproliferative phenotype. At the secondary site, they
      revert to a proliferative "tumor constructing" epithelial phenotype to rebuild a
      tumor. We previously developed a unique in vitro three-dimensional model, called
      LIM1863-Mph, which faithfully recapitulates these reversible transitions that
      underpin colorectal cancer metastasis. Wnt signaling plays a key role in these
      transitions and is initiated by the coupling of extracellular Wnt to Frizzled
      (FZD). Using the LIM1863-Mph model system we demonstrated that the Wnt receptor
      FZD7 is necessary for mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET). Here we
      investigate the role of Wnt in MET. RESULTS: Wnt secretion is dependent on
      palmitoylation by Porcupine (PORC). A PORC inhibitor (IWP2) that prevents Wnt
      secretion, blocked the epithelial transition of mesenchymal LIM1863-Mph cells.
      Wnt gene array analysis identified several Wnts that are upregulated in
      epithelial compared with mesenchymal LIM1863-Mph cells, suggesting these ligands
      in MET. Wnt2B was the most abundant differentially expressed Wnt gene. Indeed,
      recombinant Wnt2B could overcome the IWP2-mediated block in epithelial transition
      of mesenchymal LIM1863-Mph cells. CONCLUSIONS: Wnt2B co-operates with Frizzled7
      to mediate MET in colorectal cancer. Developmental Dynamics 247:521-530, 2018.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28560807
TI  - Psychometric evaluation of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory in an acute
      general hospital setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI; (Cohen-Mansfield and
      Kerin, 1986)) is a well-known tool for assessing agitated behaviours in people
      with dementia who reside in long-term care. No studies have evaluated the
      psychometric qualities and factor structure of the CMAI in acute general
      hospitals, a setting where people with demand may become agitated. METHOD:
      Longitudinal study investigating pain, agitation and behavioural problems in 230
      people with dementia admitted to acute general hospitals in 2011-2012. Cohen
      Mansfield Agitation Inventory was completed as part of a battery of assessments
      including PAINAD to measure pain. RESULTS: A nine-item two-factor model of
      aggressive and nonaggressive behaviours proved to be the best-fitting measurement
      model in this sample, (chi2  = 96.3, df = 26, p<0.001; BIC [Bayesian Information
      Criterion] = 4593.06, CFI [Comparative Fit Index] = 0.884, TLI [Tucker Lewis
      Index] = 0.839, RMSEA [Root Mean Square Error of the Approximation] = 0.108).
      Although similar to the original factor structure, the new model resulted in the
      elimination of item 13 (screaming). Validity was confirmed with the shortened
      CMAI showing similar associations with pain as the original version of the CMAI,
      in particular the link between aggressive behaviours and pain. CONCLUSION: The
      factor structure of the CMAI was broadly consistent with the original solution
      although a large number of items were removed. Scales reflecting physical and
      verbal aggression were combined to form an Aggressive factor, and physical and
      verbal nonaggressive behaviours were combined to form the Nonaggressive factor. A
      shorter, more concise version of the CMAI was developed for use in acute general
      hospital settings. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28560806
TI  - Factors associated with future intentions to use personal vaporisers among those
      with some experience of vaping.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Personal vaporisers (PV), including e-cigarettes, may be a
      harm reduction strategy for tobacco control. This study aims to identify factors
      associated with future intentions to vape among smokers and ex-smokers in
      Australia and the UK. DESIGN AND METHODS: Cross-sectional data of smokers and ex
      smokers (n = 1199, mean age = 45.3 years, 44.8% male), collected in 2014/2015 and
      divided into four subgroups: smoking past vapers (SPV), smoking vapers (SV), ex
      smoking past vapers (ESPV) and ex-smoking vapers (ESV), from the International
      Tobacco Control Australia and UK surveys were analysed by using regression
      models. RESULTS: Higher vaping satisfaction increased vaping intentions for all
      groups except ESPV. Perceiving PVs as less harmful predicted intentions to vape
      for all groups except ESV. The importance of PVs for stopping smoking predicted
      lower intentions to continue vaping for SV, but higher intentions to initiate
      vaping for SPV. The importance of PVs for cutting down smoking was a positive
      predictor only for SPV. Among ex-smokers, importance for maintaining not smoking
      was a positive predictor for ESPV, but not for ESV. The importance of perceiving
      vapour being less harmful also depended on vaping status for ex-smokers. The only
      country interaction was that only in the UK was perceiving PVs as less harmful
      associated with intention among SPV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Factors
      influencing intentions vary by smoking and/or vaping status, with greater
      differences between the ex-smoker subgroups. This is consistent with PVs being
      seen as a way of managing smoking, rather than something that has intrinsic
      value, for all except the ex-smoking vapers. [Ma BH, Yong H-H, Borland R, McNeill
      A, Hitchman SC. Factors associated with future intentions to use personal
      vaporisers among those with some experience of vaping. Drug Alcohol Rev
      2017;00:000-000].

PMID- 28560808
TI  - Optical Communication among Oscillatory Reactions and Photo-Excitable Systems: UV
      and Visible Radiation Can Synchronize Artificial Neuron Models.
AB  - Neuromorphic engineering promises to have a revolutionary impact in our
      societies. A strategy to develop artificial neurons (ANs) is to use oscillatory
      and excitable chemical systems. Herein, we use UV and visible radiation as both
      excitatory and inhibitory signals for the communication among oscillatory
      reactions, such as the Belousov-Zhabotinsky and the chemiluminescent Orban
      transformations, and photo-excitable photochromic and fluorescent species. We
      present the experimental results and the simulations regarding pairs of ANs
      communicating by either one or two optical signals, and triads of ANs arranged in
      both feed-forward and recurrent networks. We find that the ANs, powered
      chemically and/or by the energy of electromagnetic radiation, can give rise to
      the emergent properties of in-phase, out-of-phase, anti-phase synchronizations
      and phase-locking, dynamically mimicking the communication among real neurons.

PMID- 28560809
TI  - Editorial Comment to Assessment of sexual function in Japanese men with prostate
      cancer undergoing permanent brachytherapy without androgen deprivation therapy:
      Analysis from the Japanese Prostate Cancer Outcome Study of Permanent Iodine-125
      Seed Implantation database.

PMID- 28560810
TI  - Changes of cortical activation in swallowing following high frequency repetitive
      transcranial magnetic stimulation in older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study explored whether high-frequency repetitive transcranial
      magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can induce positive changes in the cortical areas of
      older adults who do not have functional difficulties in swallowing. METHODS: Ten
      healthy, right-handed, elderly volunteers were subjected to 18F-labeled
      fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography(FDG-PET) scans when at rest,
      swallowing before rTMS, and swallowing after rTMS. During the swallowing study,
      water was infused orally via a catheter at a rate of 600 mL/h. Subjects swallowed
      water every 20 seconds following a light flash for 30 minutes. During rest, the
      light source was active, but subjects were requested not to swallow. The rTMS
      consisted of 5 Hz applied to a pharyngeal motor hot spot in the right hemisphere
      for 10 minutes every weekday for 2 weeks. The intensity of the stimulation was
      set at 90% of the thenar motor threshold of the same hemisphere. The differences
      between each patient's active image and the control images (P<.05) on a voxel-by
      voxel basis were examined to find significant increases in metabolism using
      statistical parametric mapping software. KEY RESULTS: The cortical areas
      activated by swallowing before rTMS included the bilateral sensorimotor cortex
      (Brodmann's areas 3 and 4) and showed symmetry. The cortical areas activated by
      swallowing after rTMS were the same as the areas before rTMS. There was no
      statistical difference between the two swallowing activation areas. CONCLUSIONS
      AND INFERENCES: Older adults displayed the symmetry of cortical control of
      swallowing function. High frequency rTMS did not affect the activation in the
      swallowing sensorimotor cortices of elderly people.

PMID- 28560811
TI  - Comparing the Effectiveness of Dynamic Treatment Strategies Using Electronic
      Health Records: An Application of the Parametric g-Formula to Anemia Management
      Strategies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of dynamic anemia management strategies
      by applying the parametric g-formula to electronic health records. DATA
      SOURCE/STUDY SETTING: Patients with end-stage renal disease from the US Renal
      Data System who had congestive heart failure or ischemic heart disease and were
      undergoing hemodialysis in outpatient dialysis facilities between 2006 and 2010.
      STUDY DESIGN: We explicitly emulated a target trial of three erythropoietin
      dosing strategies (aimed at achieving a low, middle, or high hematocrit) and
      estimated the observational analog of the per-protocol effect. RESULTS: Of
      156,945 eligible patients, 41,970 died during the 18-month follow-up. Compared to
      the low-hematocrit strategy, the estimated risk of death was 4.6 (95% CI 4.4-4.9)
      percentage points higher under the high-hematocrit strategy and 1.8 (95% CI 1.7
      1.9) percentage points higher under the mid-hematocrit strategy. The
      corresponding risk differences for a composite outcome of death and myocardial
      infarction were similar. CONCLUSION: An explicit emulation of a target trial
      using electronic health records, combined with the parametric g-formula, allowed
      comparison of real-world dynamic strategies that have not been compared in
      randomized trials.

PMID- 28560814
TI  - E. B. Robson, PhD (1928- 2016). Galton Professor of Human Genetics, University
      College London and Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Human Genetics, died July
      18th 2016.

PMID- 28560813
TI  - Impact of positive margins on outcomes of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
      according to p16 status.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, positive surgical margins in head and neck cancer are
      considered to be an indicator for postoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) over
      radiotherapy (RT) alone. However, there are less data regarding the impact of
      margin status on human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma (SCC). METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of 55 patients with
      oropharyngeal SCC undergoing primary surgical treatment. The impact of margin
      status on disease-specific survival (DSS) was studied according to p16 status.
      RESULTS: Twenty-one patients had positive margins. Adjuvant treatment in these
      cases was CRT (n = 6), RT alone (n = 14), and none (n = 1). Among p16-negative
      patients, positive margins and dysplasia at margins predicted significantly worse
      DSS. Among patients with p16-positive disease, margin status had no impact on
      DSS. CONCLUSION: Patients with p16-positive oropharyngeal SCC and positive
      margins after excision maintain a low risk of recurrence despite most receiving
      RT alone as adjuvant treatment. These findings raise questions regarding the
      additional benefit of postoperative CRT in this group.

PMID- 28560815
TI  - Covariate-adjusted borrowing of historical control data in randomized clinical
      trials.
AB  - The borrowing of historical control data can be an efficient way to improve the
      treatment effect estimate of the current control group in a randomized clinical
      trial. When the historical and current control data are consistent, the borrowing
      of historical data can increase power and reduce Type I error rate. However, when
      these 2 sources of data are inconsistent, it may result in a combination of
      biased estimates, reduced power, and inflation of Type I error rate. In some
      situations, inconsistency between historical and current control data may be
      caused by a systematic variation in the measured baseline prognostic factors,
      which can be appropriately addressed through statistical modeling. In this paper,
      we propose a Bayesian hierarchical model that can incorporate patient-level
      baseline covariates to enhance the appropriateness of the exchangeability
      assumption between current and historical control data. The performance of the
      proposed method is shown through simulation studies, and its application to a
      clinical trial design for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is described. The
      proposed method is developed for scenarios involving multiple imbalanced
      prognostic factors and thus has meaningful implications for clinical trials
      evaluating new treatments for heterogeneous diseases such as amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis.

PMID- 28560812
TI  - Threshold position control of anticipation in humans: a possible role of
      corticospinal influences.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Sudden unloading of preloaded wrist muscles elicits motion to a new
      wrist position. Such motion is prevented if subjects unload muscles using the
      contralateral arm (self-unloading). Corticospinal influences originated from the
      primary motor cortex maintain tonic influences on motoneurons of wrist muscles
      before sudden unloading but modify these influences prior to the onset and until
      the end of self-unloading. Results are interpreted based on the previous finding
      that intentional actions are caused by central, particularly corticospinal,
      shifts in the spatial thresholds at which wrist motoneurons are activated, thus
      predetermining the attractor point at which the neuromuscular periphery achieves
      mechanical balance with environment forces. By maintaining or shifting the
      thresholds, descending systems let body segments go to the equilibrium position
      in the respective unloading tasks without the pre-programming of kinematics or
      muscle activation patterns. The study advances the understanding of how motor
      actions in general, and anticipation in particular, are controlled. ABSTRACT: The
      role of corticospinal (CS) pathways in anticipatory motor actions was evaluated
      using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary motor cortex
      projecting to motoneurons (MNs) of wrist muscles. Preloaded wrist flexors were
      suddenly unloaded by the experimenter or by the subject using the other hand
      (self-unloading). After sudden unloading, the wrist joint involuntarily flexed to
      a new position. In contrast, during self-unloading the wrist remained almost
      motionless, implying that an anticipatory postural adjustment occurred. In the
      self-unloading task, anticipation was manifested by a decrease in descending
      facilitation of pre-activated flexor MNs starting ~72 ms before changes in the
      background EMG activity. Descending facilitation of extensor MNs began to
      increase ~61 ms later. Conversely, these influences remained unchanged before
      sudden unloading, implying the absence of anticipation. We also tested TMS
      responses during EMG silent periods produced by brief muscle shortening,
      transiently resulting in similar EMG levels before the onset and after the end of
      self-unloading. We found reduced descending facilitation of flexor MNs after self
      unloading. To explain why the wrist excursion was minimized in self-unloading due
      to these changes in descending influences, we relied on previous demonstrations
      that descending systems pre-set the threshold positions of body segments at which
      muscles begin to be activated, thus predetermining the equilibrium point to which
      the system is attracted. Based on this notion, a more consistent explanation of
      the kinematic, EMG and descending patterns in the two types of unloading is
      proposed compared to the alternative notion of direct pre-programming of
      kinematic and/or EMG patterns.

PMID- 28560816
TI  - Scan-layered reconstructions: A pilot study of a nondestructive dental
      histoanatomical analysis method and digital workflow to create restorations
      driven by natural dentin and enamel morphology.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work aims to present a pilot study of a non-destructive dental
      histo-anatomical analysis technique as well as to push the boundaries of the
      presently available restorative workflows for the fabrication of highly
      customized ceramic restorations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An extracted human
      maxillary central incisor was subject to a micro computed tomography scan and the
      acquired data was transferred into a workstation, reconstructed, segmented,
      evaluated and later imported into a Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided
      Manufacturing software for the fabrication of a ceramic resin-bonded prosthesis.
      RESULTS: The obtained prosthesis presented an encouraging optical behavior and
      was used clinically as final restoration. CONCLUSION: The digitally layered
      restorative replication of natural tooth morphology presents today as a clear
      possibility. New clinical and laboratory-fabricated, biologically inspired
      digital restorative protocols are to be expected in the near future. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: The digitally layered restorative replication of natural tooth
      morphology presents today as a clear possibility. This pilot study may represent
      a stimulus for future research and applications of digital imaging as well as
      digital restorative workflows in service of esthetic dentistry.

PMID- 28560817
TI  - Outcomes of pulmonary arterial hypertension therapy in Australia: is monotherapy
      adequate?
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Australia, government-subsidised treatment of pulmonary arterial
      hypertension (PAH) is limited to monotherapy. Recent international guidelines
      advocate that initial combination therapy be considered for all symptomatic PAH
      patients. AIM: To characterise 'real-life' outcomes in PAH patients initiated on
      monotherapy. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 100 consecutive
      PAH patients at a single centre who were commenced on monotherapy for PAH between
      2004 and 2015. The composite clinical end-point of 'treatment failure' was
      prospectively defined as (i) >15% fall in 6-min walk distance (6MWD) on follow
      up, (ii) physician judgement of inadequate treatment response, (iii) adverse drug
      effect requiring cessation and (iv) death or transplantation. RESULTS: At
      initiation of therapy, mean age was 54 +/- 18 years, and underlying diagnoses
      included idiopathic (36%), connective tissue disease-associated (37%) and
      congenital heart disease-associated-PAH (25%). Baseline 6MWD was 360 +/- 140 m,
      and 75% were in either the New York Heart Association functional classes III or
      IV. Over a median follow up of 38 months (interquartile range 20-67), 62% of the
      subjects met the criteria for a clinical failure event. Median time to
      monotherapy failure was 24 months (95% confidence interval 14-34), with death or
      transplantation being the most common clinical failure event. Estimated 1-, 3-
      and 5-year survival rates from time of treatment initiation were 92, 75 and 66%.
      CONCLUSION: The majority of patients failed initial monotherapy therapy within 2
      years of treatment initiation. Broader access to approved PAH agents is needed to
      enable combination therapy in line with evidence-based international guidelines.

PMID- 28560818
TI  - Emotion regulation deficits in regular marijuana users.
AB  - Effective regulation of negative affective states has been associated with mental
      health. Impaired regulation of negative affect represents a risk factor for
      dysfunctional coping mechanisms such as drug use and thus could contribute to the
      initiation and development of problematic substance use. This study investigated
      behavioral and neural indices of emotion regulation in regular marijuana users (n
      = 23) and demographically matched nonusing controls (n = 20) by means of an fMRI
      cognitive emotion regulation (reappraisal) paradigm. Relative to nonusing
      controls, marijuana users demonstrated increased neural activity in a bilateral
      frontal network comprising precentral, middle cingulate, and supplementary motor
      regions during reappraisal of negative affect (P < 0.05, FWE) and impaired
      emotion regulation success on the behavioral level (P < 0.05). Amygdala-focused
      analyses further revealed impaired amygdala downregulation in the context of
      decreased amygdala-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex functional connectivity (P <
      0.05, FWE) during reappraisal in marijuana users relative to controls. Together,
      the present findings could reflect an unsuccessful attempt of compensatory
      recruitment of additional neural resources in the context of disrupted amygdala
      prefrontal interaction during volitional emotion regulation in marijuana users.
      As such, impaired volitional regulation of negative affect might represent a
      consequence of, or risk factor for, regular marijuana use. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4270
      4279, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28560819
TI  - Radiographic assessment of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung aeration in newborn
      calves delivered by elective Caesarean section.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a radiographic standard for the assessment
      of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung aeration in newborn calves. Caesarean
      delivered mature calves (n = 9) underwent lung assessment by thoracic radiography
      as well as arterial and venous blood gas analysis within the first 30 min, 1, 2,
      3, 6, 12 and 24 hr after birth. The results indicated that newborn calves
      delivered by elective Caesarean section suffered from a physiological combined
      respiratory and metabolic acidosis with the dominance of respiratory acidosis,
      and an improvement in these conditions was recorded within 24 hr after birth.
      Concerning the radiographic results, clear lung fields, improvement in lung
      expansion, air content of the lung and absence of lung opacification occurred
      within 24 hr of birth. Furthermore, the ventral lung quadrant showed an
      improvement in radiographic opacification and lung expansion earlier than the
      dorsal lung regions. The findings of this study support the potential role of
      thoracic radiography in the assessment of pulmonary fluid clearance and lung
      aeration in newborn calves.

PMID- 28560820
TI  - Children's and parents' opinions on the sport-related food environment: a
      systematic review.
AB  - Sport is a key setting for interventions to address child obesity given its
      obesogenic nature. Understanding children's and parents' opinions on the sport
      related food environment is critical in developing effective programmes and
      policies to improve children's health. This systematic review synthesizes
      quantitative and qualitative research examining children's and parents' opinions
      on the sport-related food environment. During July 2016, a range of electronic
      databases of academic and grey literature were searched. Thirty-two publications
      (11 including children, 17 parents and 4 both) were included for review. The
      publications were assessed using the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to
      Obesity framework to categorize the sport-related food environment into the
      physical, sociocultural, economic and political environments. The literature
      available investigating children's and parents' opinions of the sport-related
      food environment suggests that many children and parents consider the environment
      neither conducive to nor supportive of children's healthy food behaviours or
      wider health and well-being. Both groups would likely support actions to change
      and improve it. This systematic review found that original research specifically
      investigating children's and parents' perspectives on almost all aspects of the
      sport-related food environment is limited. Thus, there is scope for further
      investigation into this important part of children's food environments.

PMID- 28560821
TI  - Ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) regulates peripheral chemoreceptor activity and
      cardiorespiratory responses to hypoxia.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Carotid body dysfunction is recognized as a cause of hypertension in
      a number of cardiorespiratory diseases states and has therefore been identified
      as a potential therapeutic target. Purinergic transmission is an important
      element of the carotid body chemotransduction pathway. We show that inhibition of
      ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) in vitro reduces carotid body basal discharge and
      responses to hypoxia and mitochondrial inhibition. Additionally, inhibition of
      CD73 in vivo decreased the hypoxic ventilatory response, reduced the hypoxia
      induced heart rate elevation and exaggerated the blood pressure decrease in
      response to hypoxia. Our data show CD73 to be a novel regulator of carotid body
      sensory function and therefore suggest that this enzyme may offer a new target
      for reducing carotid body activity in selected cardiovascular diseases. ABSTRACT:
      Augmented sensory neuronal activity from the carotid body (CB) has emerged as a
      principal cause of hypertension in a number of cardiovascular related
      pathologies, including obstructive sleep apnoea, heart failure and diabetes.
      Development of new targets and pharmacological treatment strategies aiming to
      reduce CB sensory activity may thus improve outcomes in these key patient
      cohorts. The present study investigated whether ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73), an
      enzyme that generates adenosine, is functionally important in modifying CB
      sensory activity and cardiovascular respiratory responses to hypoxia. Inhibition
      of CD73 by alpha,beta-methylene ADP (AOPCP) in the whole CB preparation in vitro
      reduced basal discharge frequency by 76 +/- 5% and reduced sensory activity
      throughout graded hypoxia. AOPCP also significantly attenuated elevations in
      sensory activity evoked by mitochondrial inhibition. These effects were mimicked
      by antagonism of adenosine receptors with 8-(p-sulfophenyl) theophylline.
      Infusion of AOPCP in vivo significantly decreased the hypoxic ventilatory
      response (Delta 

PMID- 28560822
TI  - Relationship of changes in strain rate indices estimated from velocity-encoded MR
      imaging to loss of muscle force following disuse atrophy.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study explores changes in strain rate (SR) (rate of regional
      deformation) parameters extracted from velocity-encoded MRI and their
      relationship to muscle force loss following 4-week unilateral lower limb
      suspension in healthy humans. METHODS: Two-dimensional SR maps were derived from
      three directional velocity-encoded MR phase-contrast images of the medial
      gastrocnemius in seven subjects. Atrophy-related and regional differences in the
      SR eigenvalues, angle between the SR and muscle fiber (SR-fiber angle), and
      strain rates in the fiber basis were statistically analyzed using analysis of
      variance and linear regression. RESULTS: During isometric contraction, SR in the
      fiber cross section (SRin-plane ) was significantly lower, and the SR-fiber angle
      was significantly higher postsuspension (P < 0.05). On multiple variable
      regression analysis, the volume of medial gastrocnemius, SRin-plane , and SR
      fiber angle were significantly associated with force and changes in the, and the
      SR eigenvalues and shear SR were significantly associated with change in force
      with disuse. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in SR-fiber angle, SRin-plane , and shear SR as
      well as their ability to predict force and force changes may reflect the role of
      remodeling of the extracellular matrix in disuse atrophy and its functional
      consequence in reducing lateral transmission of force. Magn Reson Med 79:912-922,
      2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28560823
TI  - Identification and quantification of predominant metabolites of synthetic
      cannabinoid MAB-CHMINACA in an authentic human urine specimen.
AB  - An autopsy case in which the cause of death was judged as drug poisoning by two
      synthetic cannabinoids, including MAB-CHMINACA, was investigated. Although
      unchanged MAB-CHMINACA could be detected from solid tissues, blood and stomach
      contents in the case, the compound could not be detected from a urine specimen.
      We obtained six kinds of reference standards of MAB-CHMINACA metabolites from a
      commercial source. The MAB-CHMINACA metabolites from the urine specimen of the
      abuser were extracted using a QuEChERS method including dispersive solid-phase
      extraction, and analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with
      or without hydrolysis with beta-glucuronidase. Among the six MAB-CHMINACA
      metabolites tested, two predominant metabolites could be identified and
      quantified in the urine specimen of the deceased. After hydrolysis with beta
      glucuronidase, an increase of the two metabolites was not observed. The
      metabolites detected were a 4-monohydroxycyclohexylmethyl metabolite M1 (N-(1
      amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-((4-hydroxycyclohexyl)methyl)-1H-indazole-3
      carboxamide) and a dihydroxyl (4-hydroxycyclohexylmethyl and tert-butylhydroxyl)
      metabolite M11 (N-(1-amino-4-hydroxy-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-((4
      hydroxycyclohexyl)methyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide). Their concentrations were
      2.17 +/- 0.15 and 10.2 +/- 0.3 ng/mL (n = 3, each) for M1 and M11, respectively.
      Although there is one previous in vitro study showing the estimation of
      metabolism of MAB-CHMINACA using human hepatocytes, this is the first report
      dealing with in vivo identification and quantification of MAB-CHMINACA
      metabolites in an authentic human urine specimen.

PMID- 28560824
TI  - Emphasis on abdominal obesity as a modifier of eplerenone effect in heart
      failure: hypothesis-generating signals from EMPHASIS-HF.

PMID- 28560825
TI  - PhredEM: a phred-score-informed genotype-calling approach for next-generation
      sequencing studies.
AB  - A fundamental challenge in analyzing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data is to
      determine an individual's genotype accurately, as the accuracy of the inferred
      genotype is essential to downstream analyses. Correctly estimating the base
      calling error rate is critical to accurate genotype calls. Phred scores that
      accompany each call can be used to decide which calls are reliable. Some genotype
      callers, such as GATK and SAMtools, directly calculate the base-calling error
      rates from phred scores or recalibrated base quality scores. Others, such as
      SeqEM, estimate error rates from the read data without using any quality scores.
      It is also a common quality control procedure to filter out reads with low phred
      scores. However, choosing an appropriate phred score threshold is problematic as
      a too high threshold may lose data, while a too low threshold may introduce
      errors. We propose a new likelihood-based genotype-calling approach that exploits
      all reads and estimates the per-base error rates by incorporating phred scores
      through a logistic regression model. The approach, which we call PhredEM, uses
      the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain consistent estimates of
      genotype frequencies and logistic regression parameters. It also includes a
      simple, computationally efficient screening algorithm to identify loci that are
      estimated to be monomorphic, so that only loci estimated to be nonmonomorphic
      require application of the EM algorithm. Like GATK, PhredEM can be used together
      with a linkage-disequilibrium-based method such as Beagle, which can further
      improve genotype calling as a refinement step. We evaluate the performance of
      PhredEM using both simulated data and real sequencing data from the UK10K project
      and the 1000 Genomes project. The results demonstrate that PhredEM performs
      better than either GATK or SeqEM, and that PhredEM is an improved, robust, and
      widely applicable genotype-calling approach for NGS studies. The relevant
      software is freely available.

PMID- 28560827
TI  - Cytopathology of high-grade fetal adenocarcinoma of the lung: A case report and
      cytological analysis.

PMID- 28560826
TI  - Training alters the distribution of perilipin proteins in muscle following acute
      free fatty acid exposure.
AB  - KEY POINTS: The lipid droplet (LD)-associated perilipin (PLIN) proteins promote
      intramuscular triglyceride (IMTG) storage, although whether the abundance and
      association of the PLIN proteins with LDs is related to the diverse lipid storage
      in muscle between trained and sedentary individuals is unknown. We show that
      lipid infusion augments IMTG content in type I fibres of both trained and
      sedentary individuals. Most importantly, despite there being no change in PLIN
      protein content, lipid infusion did increase the number of LDs connected with
      PLIN proteins in trained individuals only. We conclude that trained individuals
      are able to redistribute the pre-existing pool of PLIN proteins to an expanded LD
      pool during lipid infusion and, via this adaptation, may support the storage of
      fatty acids in IMTG. ABSTRACT: Because the lipid droplet (LD)-associated
      perilipin (PLIN) proteins promote intramuscular triglyceride (IMTG) storage, we
      investigated the hypothesis that differential protein content of PLINs and their
      distribution with LDs may be linked to the diverse lipid storage in muscle
      between trained and sedentary individuals. Trained (n = 11) and sedentary (n =
      10) subjects, matched for age, sex and body mass index, received either a 6 h
      lipid or glycerol infusion in the setting of a concurrent hyperinsulinaemic
      euglycaemic clamp. Sequential muscle biopsies (0, 2 and 6 h) were analysed using
      confocal immunofluorescence microscopy for fibre type-specific IMTG content and
      PLIN associations with LDs. In both groups, lipid infusion increased IMTG content
      in type I fibres (trained: +62%, sedentary: +79%; P < 0.05) but did not affect
      PLIN protein content. At baseline, PLIN2 (+65%), PLIN3 (+105%) and PLIN5 (+53%;
      all P < 0.05) protein content was higher in trained compared to sedentary
      individuals. In trained individuals, lipid infusion increased the number of LDs
      associated with PLIN2 (+27%), PLIN3 (+73%) and PLIN5 (+40%; all P < 0.05) in type
      I fibres. By contrast, in sedentary individuals, lipid infusion only increased
      the number of LDs not associated with PLIN proteins. Acute free fatty acid
      elevation therefore induces a redistribution of PLIN proteins to an expanded LD
      pool in trained individuals only and this may be part of the mechanism that
      enables fatty acids to be stored in IMTG.

PMID- 28560828
TI  - Toward Benzobis(thiadiazole)-based Diradicaloids.
AB  - We theoretically predicted that acetylene-bridged benzo[1,2-c;4,5
      c']bis[1,2,5]thiadiazole (BBT) oligomers would show a quick increase of diradical
      character with the extension of chain length. To validate the hypothesis, six
      stable BBT-based diradicaloids were synthesized and fully characterized by X-ray
      crystallographic analysis and various spectroscopic measurements. Three of them
      showed prominent paramagnetic activity at elevated temperatures due to thermal
      population from the open-shell singlet ground state to triplet excited state. It
      was also found that substitution by electron-donating triphenylamine groups at
      the termini promoted the diradical character and reduced the singlet-triplet
      energy gap, and at the same time, resulted in intense near-infrared absorption.

PMID- 28560830
TI  - Intrathecal Opioid Therapy for Non-Malignant Chronic Pain: A Long-Term
      Perspective.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Many patients with intrathecal opioid pumps do adhere to the therapy
      for many years but there is scarce knowledge about the long-term effects of
      intrathecal opioid therapy (IOT) of more than three years. We sought to assess
      the long-term efficacy and the presence of typical side-effects and complications
      of IOT. METHODS: A chart review was conducted on all patients with intrathecal
      opioid pumps that had been treated at our institution between 1.11.1990 and
      31.12.2014. Information regarding age, gender, diagnosis, age at time of implant,
      duration of disease, pump type in use, revision operations, and opioid doses over
      time was recorded. Moreover, a questionnaire was given to the patients containing
      the following items: pain scores on the NRS with and without IOT, pain related
      disability, unwanted side-effects of opioid therapy, anxiety, and depression.
      RESULTS: Thirty-six patients (21 m/15 f, mean age 62.9 years, range 30.5-83.9
      years, SD 11.0 years) were studied. Mean duration of intrathecal therapy at time
      of study was 11.8 years. Thirty-two patients had gas-driven pumps and four
      patients had programmable pumps. The mean actual dose in those patients receiving
      morphine sulfate was 4.6 mg/day (range 0.2-11.1 mg, SD 2.63 mg). Pain levels
      prior to pump implantation were 7.98 (NRS) (range 4-10, SD 1.62). Pain levels
      directly after pump implantation were 4.87 (range 2-7, SD 1.86) and at time of
      follow-up 4.44 (range 0-9, SD 2.03). The most common unwanted side-effects
      reported by the patients were fatigue, obstipation, urinary retention, and sexual
      dysfunction. There was no life-threatening complication or permanent neurological
      deficit. CONCLUSIONS: IOT seems to be effective also for long-term application.
      Clinically unwanted side-effects are relatively frequent but not the limiting
      factor for patient satisfaction.

PMID- 28560829
TI  - Dynamic phosphocreatine imaging with unlocalized pH assessment of the human lower
      leg muscle following exercise at 3T.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a high temporal resolution imaging method that measures
      muscle-specific phosphocreatine (PCr) resynthesis time constant (tauPCr ) and pH
      changes in muscles of the lower leg following exercise on a clinical 3T MRI
      scanner. METHODS: We developed a frequency-selective 3D non-Cartesian FLORET
      sequence to measure PCr with 17-mm nominal isotropic resolution (28 mm actual
      resolution) and 6-s temporal resolution to capture dynamic metabolic muscle
      activity. The sequence was designed to additionally collect inorganic phosphate
      spectra for pH quantification, which were localized using sensitivity profiles of
      individual coil elements. Nineteen healthy volunteers were scanned while
      performing a plantar flexion exercise on an in-house developed ergometer. Data
      were acquired with a dual-tuned multichannel coil array that enabled phosphorus
      imaging and proton localization for muscle segmentation. RESULTS: After a 90-s
      plantar flexion exercise at 0.66 Hz with resistance set to 40% of the maximum
      voluntary contraction, tauPCr was estimated at 22.9 +/- 8.8 s (mean +/- standard
      deviation) with statistical coefficient of determination r2  = 0.89 +/- 0.05. The
      corresponding pH values after exercise were in the range of 6.9-7.1 in the
      gastrocnemius muscle. CONCLUSION: The developed technique allows measurement of
      muscle-specific PCr resynthesis kinetics and pH changes following exercise, with
      a temporal resolution and accuracy comparable to that of single voxel 31 P-MRS
      sequences. Magn Reson Med 79:974-980, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for
      Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28560831
TI  - Stereochemical assignment of fusiccocadiene from NMR shielding constants and
      vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy.
AB  - The absolute configuration (AC) of the common precursor of the fusicoccane family
      of terpenoids, fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene (FCdiene), had only been deduced by a
      lengthy total synthesis, or indirectly from crystal structures of fusicoccin A.
      However, in particular the AC determinations based on downstream products of the
      terpene synthase intrinsically overlook potential epimerization reactions. In
      this contribution, we confirm the relative stereochemistry of FCdiene by
      comparison of experimental and predicted 13 C-NMR chemical shifts, and finally
      determine the absolute configuration from an analysis of its infrared and
      vibrational circular dichroism spectra.

PMID- 28560834
TI  - Advanced statistical methodologies to address inherent study limitations. Author
      Response to Ayubi and Saeid.

PMID- 28560832
TI  - Effects of a lifestyle intervention on REM sleep-related OSA severity in obese
      individuals with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine if an intensive lifestyle intervention
      (ILI) reduces the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in rapid-eye movement
      (REM) sleep, and to determine if longitudinal changes in glycaemic control are
      related to changes in OSA severity during REM sleep over a 4-year follow-up. This
      was a randomized controlled trial including 264 overweight/obese adults with type
      2 diabetes (T2D) and OSA. Participants were randomized to an ILI targeted to
      weight loss or a diabetes support and education (DSE) control group. Measures
      included anthropometry, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) during REM sleep (REM-AHI) and
      non-REM sleep (NREM-AHI) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) at baseline and year 1,
      year 2 and year 4 follow-ups. Mean baseline values of REM-AHI were significantly
      higher than NREM-AHI in both groups. Both REM-AHI and NREM-AHI were reduced
      significantly more in ILI versus DSE, but these differences were attenuated
      slightly after adjustment for weight changes. Repeated-measure mixed-model
      analyses including data to year 4 demonstrated that changes in HbA1c were related
      significantly to changes in weight, but not to changes in REM-AHI and NREM-AHI.
      Compared to control, the ILI reduced REM-AHI and NREM-AHI during the 4-year
      follow-up. Weight, as opposed to REM-AHI and NREM-AHI, was related to changes in
      HbA1c. The findings imply that weight loss from a lifestyle intervention is more
      important than reductions in AHI for improving glycaemic control in T2D patients
      with OSA.

PMID- 28560833
TI  - Use of microwave ablation in the treatment of patients with multiple primary
      malignant tumors.
AB  - A 56-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in 2007, complaining of an
      irritating cough. Computed tomography examination demonstrated a mass in the
      right lung and enlargement of the hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes. Small cell
      lung cancer was confirmed by pathological examination after fibro-bronchoscope
      biopsy. The patient was treated with received sequential chemotherapy and
      radiotherapy. Preventive radiotherapy of the whole brain was performed after
      complete remission of the lung disease. Seven years after diagnosis, follow-up
      computed tomography revealed masses in both the liver and kidney. Subsequent
      percutaneous biopsy confirmed hepatocellular carcinoma in the liver and renal
      clear cell carcinoma in the kidney. The patient received microwave ablation for
      the treatment of both liver and renal tumors, and is doing well with no
      recurrence after two years of follow-up.

PMID- 28560835
TI  - A comparison of pulse oximetry and cerebral oxygenation in children with severe
      sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome: a pilot study.
AB  - Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used to assess the impact of
      obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) on cerebral oxygenation.
      However, the relationship between the variations in the cerebral tissue oxygen
      saturation (DeltaTOI) and pulse oximetry (DeltaSpO2 ) has not been assessed in
      children with OSAHS. Consecutive clinically stable children with severe OSAHS
      [apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) >15 events h-1 ] diagnosed during a night-time
      polygraphy with simultaneous recording of cerebral oxygenation with NIRS (NIRO
      200NX, Hamamatsu Photonics KK) were included between September 2015 and June
      2016. Maximal DeltaSpO2 (SpO2 drop from the value preceding desaturation to
      nadir) and concomitant variations in transcutaneous carbon dioxide (DeltaPtcCO2
      ), maximal DeltaTOI and maximal variations in cerebral oxygenated (O2 Hb) and
      deoxygenated (HHb) haemoglobin were reported. The relationships between DeltaSpO2
      , DeltaPtcCO2 and DeltaTOI, DeltaO2 Hb and DeltaHHb were investigated. The data
      from five children (three boys, aged 9.6 +/- 6.7 years, AHI 16-91 events h-1 )
      were analysed. Strong correlations were found between DeltaSpO2 and DeltaTOI (r =
      0.887, P < 0.001), but also with DeltaO2 Hb and DeltaHHb with a particular
      pattern in the youngest child with a dark skin pigmentation. Mean DeltaSpO2 was
      20 +/- 17% and mean DeltaTOI was 8 +/- 7%. Maximal DeltaSpO2 of approximately 70%
      were coupled with DeltaTOI of no more than 35%. DeltaPtcCO2 correlated only
      weakly with the cerebral oxygenation indexes. This pilot study shows a strong
      relationship between pulse oximetry and cerebral oxygenation in children with
      OSAHS, with lower changes in TOI compared to SpO2 . Future studies should address
      the clinical impact of respiratory events on cerebral oxygenation and its
      consequences.

PMID- 28560836
TI  - Sensitivity analysis of magnetic field measurements for magnetic resonance
      electrical impedance tomography (MREIT).
AB  - PURPOSE: Clinical use of magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography
      (MREIT) still requires significant sensitivity improvements. Here, the
      measurement of the current-induced magnetic field (DeltaBz,c ) is improved using
      systematic efficiency analyses and optimization of multi-echo spin echo (MESE)
      and steady-state free precession free induction decay (SSFP-FID) sequences.
      THEORY AND METHODS: Considering T1 , T2 , and T2* relaxation in the signal-to
      noise ratios (SNRs) of the MR magnitude images, the efficiency of MESE and SSFP
      FID MREIT experiments, and its dependence on the sequence parameters, are
      analytically analyzed and simulated. The theoretical results are experimentally
      validated in a saline-filled homogenous spherical phantom with relaxation
      parameters similar to brain tissue. Measurement of DeltaBz,c is also performed in
      a cylindrical phantom with saline and chicken meat. RESULTS: The efficiency
      simulations and experimental results are in good agreement. When using optimal
      parameters, DeltaBz,c can be reliably measured in the phantom even at injected
      current strengths of 1 mA or lower for both sequence types. The importance of
      using proper crusher gradient selection on the phase evolution in a MESE
      experiment is also demonstrated. CONCLUSION: The efficiencies observed with the
      optimized sequence parameters will likely render in-vivo human brain MREIT
      feasible. Magn Reson Med 79:748-760, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for
      Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28560837
TI  - The relationship between sleep and glucagon-like peptide 1 in patients with
      abnormal glucose tolerance.
AB  - Glucagon-like peptide 1 plays a role in glucose regulation. Sleep disturbances
      (obstructive sleep apnea, insufficient or poor sleep quality) have been shown to
      adversely affect glucose metabolism. This study aimed to explore the relationship
      between sleep and glucagon-like peptide 1 regulation in patients with abnormal
      glucose tolerance. Seventy-one adults with haemoglobin A1c levels between 5.7%
      and < 6.5% and no history of diabetes participated. Habitual sleep duration and
      efficiency were obtained from 7-day actigraphy recordings. Obstructive sleep
      apnea was assessed using an overnight home monitor. Glucagon-like peptide 1
      levels were measured during a 75-g glucose tolerance. The area under the curve of
      glucagon-like peptide 1 was calculated. The mean age (SD) was 55.1 (8.3) years
      and median (interquartile range) haemoglobin A1c was 5.97% (5.86, 6.23). There
      was no relationship between sleep duration or efficiency and fasting or area
      under the curve glucagon-like peptide 1. Glucagon-like peptide 1 levels did not
      differ among those sleeping <= 5.75, > 5.75-< 6.5 or >= 6.5 h per night.
      Increasing apnea-hypopnea index, an indicator of obstructive sleep apnea
      severity, correlated with lower area under the curve glucagon-like peptide 1 (B 
      0.242, P = 0.045), but not with fasting glucagon-like peptide 1 (B -0.213, P =
      0.079). After adjusting for sex, haemoglobin A1c and body mass index, increasing
      apnea-hypopnea index was negatively associated with having area under the curve
      glucagon-like peptide 1 in the highest quartile (odds ratio 0.581, P = 0.028, 95%
      CI 0.359, 0.942). This study demonstrated that increasing obstructive sleep apnea
      severity was associated with lower glucagon-like peptide 1 response to glucose
      challenge. This could possibly be an additional mechanism by which obstructive
      sleep apnea affects glucose metabolism. Whether raising glucagon-like peptide 1
      levels in patients with abnormal glucose tolerance with more severe obstructive
      sleep apnea will be beneficial should be explored.

PMID- 28560838
TI  - Optimal climate for large trees at high elevations drives patterns of biomass in
      remote forests of Papua New Guinea.
AB  - Our ability to model global carbon fluxes depends on understanding how
      terrestrial carbon stocks respond to varying environmental conditions. Tropical
      forests contain the bulk of the biosphere's carbon. However, there is a lack of
      consensus as to how gradients in environmental conditions affect tropical forest
      carbon. Papua New Guinea (PNG) lies within one of the largest areas of contiguous
      tropical forest and is characterized by environmental gradients driven by
      altitude; yet, the region has been grossly understudied. Here, we present the
      first field assessment of aboveground biomass (AGB) across three main forest
      types of PNG using 193 plots stratified across 3,100-m elevation gradient.
      Unexpectedly, AGB had no direct relationship to rainfall, temperature, soil, or
      topography. Instead, natural disturbances explained most variation in AGB. While
      large trees (diameter at breast height > 50 cm) drove altitudinal patterns of
      AGB, resulting in a major peak in AGB (2,200-3,100 m) and some of the most carbon
      rich forests at these altitudes anywhere. Large trees were correlated to a set of
      climatic variables following a hump-shaped curve. The set of "optimal" climatic
      conditions found in montane cloud forests is similar to that of maritime
      temperate areas that harbor the largest trees in the world: high ratio of
      precipitation to evapotranspiration (2.8), moderate mean annual temperature (13.7
      degrees C), and low intra-annual temperature range (7.5 degrees C). At extreme
      altitudes (2,800-3,100 m), where tree diversity elsewhere is usually low and
      large trees are generally rare or absent, specimens from 18 families had girths
      >70 cm diameter and maximum heights 20-41 m. These findings indicate that simple
      AGB-climate-edaphic models may not be suitable for estimating carbon storage in
      forests where optimal climate niches exist. Our study, conducted in a very remote
      area, suggests that tropical montane forests may contain greater AGB than
      previously thought and the importance of securing their future under a changing
      climate is therefore enhanced.

PMID- 28560841
TI  - Short-term acclimation to warmer temperatures accelerates leaf carbon exchange
      processes across plant types.
AB  - While temperature responses of photosynthesis and plant respiration are known to
      acclimate over time in many species, few studies have been designed to directly
      compare process-level differences in acclimation capacity among plant types. We
      assessed short-term (7 day) temperature acclimation of the maximum rate of
      Rubisco carboxylation (Vcmax ), the maximum rate of electron transport (Jmax ),
      the maximum rate of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase carboxylation (Vpmax ), and
      foliar dark respiration (Rd ) in 22 plant species that varied in lifespan (annual
      and perennial), photosynthetic pathway (C3 and C4 ), and climate of origin
      (tropical and nontropical) grown under fertilized, well-watered conditions. In
      general, acclimation to warmer temperatures increased the rate of each process.
      The relative increase in different photosynthetic processes varied by plant type,
      with C3 species tending to preferentially accelerate CO2 -limited photosynthetic
      processes and respiration and C4 species tending to preferentially accelerate
      light-limited photosynthetic processes under warmer conditions. Rd acclimation to
      warmer temperatures caused a reduction in temperature sensitivity that resulted
      in slower rates at high leaf temperatures. Rd acclimation was similar across
      plant types. These results suggest that temperature acclimation of the
      biochemical processes that underlie plant carbon exchange is common across
      different plant types, but that acclimation to warmer temperatures tends to have
      a relatively greater positive effect on the processes most limiting to carbon
      assimilation, which differ by plant type. The acclimation responses observed here
      suggest that warmer conditions should lead to increased rates of carbon
      assimilation when water and nutrients are not limiting.

PMID- 28560840
TI  - Long-term quality of life after definitive treatment for prostate cancer: patient
      reported outcomes in the second posttreatment decade.
AB  - Definitive treatment for prostate cancer includes radical prostatectomy (RP),
      external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), and brachytherapy (BT). The different
      side effect profiles of these options are crucial factors for patients and
      clinicians when deciding between treatments. This study reports long-term health
      related quality of life (HRQOL) for patients in their second decade after
      treatment for prostate cancer. We used a validated survey to assess urinary,
      bowel, and sexual function and HRQOL in a prospective cohort of patients
      diagnosed with localized prostate cancer 14-18 years previously. We report and
      compare the outcomes of patients who were initially treated with RP, EBRT, or BT.
      Of 230 eligible patients, the response rate was 92% (n = 211) and median follow
      up was 14.6 years. Compared to baseline, RP patients had significantly worse
      urinary incontinence and sexual function, EBRT patients had worse scores in all
      domains, and BT patients had worse urinary incontinence, urinary
      irritation/obstruction, and sexual function. When comparing treatment groups, RP
      patients underwent larger declines in urinary continence than did BT patients,
      and EBRT and BT patients experienced larger changes in urinary
      irritation/obstruction. Baseline functional status was significantly associated
      with long-term function for urinary obstruction and bowel function domains. This
      is one of the few prospective reports on quality of life for prostate cancer
      patients beyond 10 years, and adds information about the late consequences of
      treatment choices. These data may help patients make informed decisions regarding
      treatment choice based on symptoms they may experience in the decades ahead.

PMID- 28560839
TI  - Suppressor of fused controls cerebellar neuronal differentiation in a manner
      modulated by GLI3 repressor and Fgf15.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deficiency of Suppressor of Fused (SuFu), an intracellular mediator
      of Hedgehog signaling, in the murine mid-hindbrain disrupts cerebellar
      morphogenesis and cell differentiation in a manner that is rescued by
      constitutive expression of GLI3 transcriptional repressor (GLI3R). Here, we
      determined SuFu functions in cerebellar radial precursors following the stage of
      mid-hindbrain specification using a Blbp-Cre transgene. RESULTS: SuFu-deficient
      cerebella were severely dysplastic, and characterized by laminar disorganization,
      and delayed differentiation of ventricular zone-derived precursors. In vitro
      analysis of cerebellar precursors isolated from control and mutant mice
      demonstrated an increased proportion of radial glial precursors vs. Tuj1-positive
      neurons in mutant cultures. Abnormal cell differentiation in SuFu-deficient
      precursors was rescued by a constitutively expressed GLI3R knock-in allele,
      albeit with variable penetrance. Using RNA expression analysis in control and
      SuFu-deficient cerebellar anlage, we identified up-regulation of Fgf15 in mutant
      tissue. Strikingly, exogenous hFGF19, a mFGF15 ortholog, inhibited neuronal
      differentiation in cultures of wild-type cerebellar precursors. Moreover, siRNA
      mediated knockdown of Fgf15 in SuFu-deficient cerebellar precursors rescued their
      delayed differentiation to neurons. CONCLUSIONS: Together, our results show that
      SuFu promotes cerebellar radial precursor differentiation to neurons. SuFu
      function is mediated in part by GLI3R and down-regulation of Fgf15 expression.
      Developmental Dynamics 247:156-169, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28560842
TI  - Three-dimensional stereophotogrammetric analysis of 50 smiles: A study of dento
      facial proportions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to analyze 50 smiles using 3D
      stereophotogrammetry (3D-spg)-based facial reconstruction, to calculate ratios
      involving measurements of the distances between dental and facial landmarks and
      to compare these ratios with the golden ratio phi (1.618). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Fifty subjects with no obvious malocclusion participated in this study. For each
      subject, 4 photographs were acquired using the LifeViz MiniTM, an absolute
      calibration 3D-spg system. Facial and dental landmarks (based on Farkas'
      definitions) were fixed, and 8 distances were measured. Four ratios were then
      calculated and compared with the value of 1.618. RESULTS: The ratio "incisal edge
      of the maxillary central incisor-lower border of the chin/subnasal point-incisal
      edge of the maxillary central incisor" (IE-Me/SN-IE) was 1.693 +/- 0.190, the
      ratio "right endocanthion-left endocanthion/right exocanthion-right endocanthion"
      was 1.582 +/- 0.173, the ratio "incisal edge of the maxillary central incisor
      distal edge of the right canine/distal edge of the right canine-right labial
      commissure" was 1.670 +/- 0.355, and the ratio "right labial commissure-left
      labial commissure/distal edge of the right canine-distal edge of the left canine"
      was 1.602 +/- 0.136. In contrast, the vertical ratio IE-Me/SN-IE significantly
      differed from the golden ratio (1 sample t test, P = .009). CONCLUSION: This
      study revealed that the observed ratios were surprisingly close to the golden
      ratio. Only the vertical ratio differed from the golden ratio, whereas the
      horizontal ratios appear to be adequately approximated by phi. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: If the distances from reference points of the face to teeth within
      a harmonious smile exhibited recurring esthetic proportions, knowledge of such
      ratios would provide an additional tool for the elaboration of esthetic treatment
      plans. In addition, this knowledge could provide guidance when planning tooth
      positions and dental proportions by encouraging consideration of the global
      nature of the oro-facial sphere.

PMID- 28560843
TI  - Superelectrophilic Behavior of an Anion Demonstrated by the Spontaneous Binding
      of Noble Gases to [B12 Cl11 ].
AB  - It is common and chemically intuitive to assign cations electrophilic and anions
      nucleophilic reactivity, respectively. Herein, we demonstrate a striking
      violation of this concept: The anion [B12 Cl11 ]- spontaneously binds to the
      noble gases (Ngs) xenon and krypton at room temperature in a reaction that is
      typical of "superelectrophilic" dications. [B12 Cl11 Ng]- adducts, with Ng
      binding energies of 80 to 100 kJ mol-1 , contain B-Ng bonds with a substantial
      degree of covalent interaction. The electrophilic nature of the [B12 Cl11 ]-
      anion is confirmed spectroscopically by the observation of a blue shift of the CO
      stretching mode in the IR spectrum of [B12 Cl11 CO]- and theoretically by
      investigation of its electronic structure. The orientation of the electric field
      at the reactive site of [B12 Cl11 ]- results in an energy barrier for the
      approach of polar molecules and facilitates the formation of Ng adducts that are
      not detected with reactive cations such as [C6 H5 ]+ . This introduces the new
      chemical concept of "dipole-discriminating electrophilic anions."

PMID- 28560844
TI  - Evaluation of the skeletal and dental effects in orthodontic patients with
      maxillary lateral incisor agenesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the transverse dimension of
      the dentoalveolar and skeletal widths in both unilateral (UMLIA) and bilateral
      (BMLIA) maxillary lateral incisor agenesis groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      study sample consisted of 59 patients (34 females and 25 males) divided into
      three groups as UMLIA group (16 patients; 14.94 +/- 1.37 years), BMLIA group (21
      patients; 14.46 +/- 1.53 years) and control group (22 patients; 15.28 +/- 1.70
      years) without tooth agenesis. Transversal measurements (maxillary and mandibular
      intercanine, interpremolar, intermolar, intercanine alveolar, interpremolar
      alveolar, intermolar alveolar widths) were done on dental casts. Craniofacial
      skeletal measurements were done with posteroanterior cephalometric radiographs.
      Statistical testing was performed with the one-way variance analysis, Kruskal
      Wallis and post hoc tests. RESULTS: UMLIA and BMLIA groups had statistically
      significantly narrower skeletal apical base of the maxilla, maxillary intercanine
      and intercanine alveolar widths compared with the control group (P < .05).
      Moreover, UMLIA and BMLIA groups had statistically significantly similar dental,
      alveolar and skeletal features (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS: The UMLIA and BMLIA groups
      showed statistically significantly smaller values for maxillary intercanine,
      maxillary intercanine alveolar and skeletal maxillary widths compared with the
      control group. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides information the
      transverse dimension of the dental, alveolar and skeletal widths with maxillary
      lateral incisor agenesis patients. Knowledge of transverse dimension of the
      dental, alveolar and skeletal widths with maxillary lateral incisor agenesis
      patients is important for diagnosis and treatment planning.

PMID- 28560845
TI  - Spinocerebellar ataxia type 10: common haplotype and disease progression rate in
      Peru and Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 is a neurodegenerative
      disorder that is due to an expanded ATTCT repeat tract in the ATXN10 gene. Our
      aim was to describe clinical characteristics and intragenic haplotypes of
      patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 from Brazil and Peru. METHODS:
      Expanded alleles were detected by repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction.
      Disease progression was measured by the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of
      Ataxia, and the Neurological Examination Score for Spinocerebellar Ataxias when
      possible. Haplotypes were constructed based on polymorphic markers within and
      outside the gene. RESULTS: Thirteen new families were diagnosed (three from
      Peru). Patients from three Brazilian families diagnosed previously were also
      reassessed. In total, 25 individuals (16 families) were evaluated. Mean (+/- SD)
      age at onset and disease duration were 34.8 +/- 10.2 and 12 +/- 8 years,
      respectively. Common findings were ataxia, dysarthria/dysphagia, nystagmus,
      pyramidal signs, ophthalmoparesis and seizures. No associations were found
      between clinical findings and geographical origins. Twelve patients living in
      remote regions were examined only once. In the remaining individuals, the Scale
      for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia score, and Neurological Examination Score
      for Spinocerebellar Ataxias worsened by 0.444 (95% CI, -0.088 to 0.800) and 0.287
      (95% CI, -0.061 to 0.635) points/year, respectively. A common haplotype,
      19CGGC14, was found in 11/13 of Brazilian and in 1/3 of Peruvian families.
      CONCLUSIONS: The progression rate was slower than in other spinocerebellar
      ataxias. A consistently recurrent intragenic haplotype was found, suggesting a
      common ancestry for most, if not all, patients.

PMID- 28560846
TI  - Outcome following treatment of feline gastrointestinal mast cell tumours.
AB  - Prognosis of feline gastrointestinal mast cell tumours (FGIMCT), based on limited
      available literature, is described as guarded to poor, which may influence
      treatment recommendations and patient outcome. The purpose of this study is to
      describe the clinical findings, treatment response, and outcome of FGIMCT.
      Medical records of 31 cats diagnosed with and treated for FGIMCT were
      retrospectively reviewed. Data collected included signalment, method of
      diagnosis, tumour location (including metastatic sites), treatment type, cause of
      death and survival time. Mean age was 12.9 y. Diagnosis was made via cytology (n
      = 15), histopathology (n = 13) or both (n = 3). Metastatic sites included
      abdominal lymph node (n = 10), abdominal viscera (n = 4) and both (n = 2).
      Therapeutic approaches included chemotherapy alone (n = 15), surgery and
      chemotherapy (n = 7), glucocorticoid only (n = 6) and surgery and glucocorticoid
      (n = 3). Lomustine (n = 15) and chlorambucil (n = 12) were the most commonly used
      chemotherapy drugs. Overall median survival time was 531 d (95% confidence
      interval 334, 982). Gastrointestinal location, diagnosis of additional cancers,
      and treatment type did not significantly affect survival time. Cause of death was
      tumour-related or unknown (n = 12) and unrelated (n = 8) in the 20 cats dead at
      the time of analysis. The prognosis for cats with FGIMCT may be better than
      previously reported, with 26% of cats deceased from an unrelated cause. Surgical
      and medical treatments (including prednisolone alone) were both associated with
      prolonged survival times. Treatment other than prednisolone may not be necessary
      in some cats. Continued research into prognostic factors and most effective
      treatment strategies are needed.

PMID- 28560847
TI  - Importance of prumycin produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SD-32 in biocontrol
      against cucumber powdery mildew disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Powdery mildew disease of cucurbits is caused mainly by Podosphaera
      fusca, which is one of the most important limiting factors in cucurbit production
      worldwide. Previously we reported that Bacillus amyloliquefaciens biocontrol
      strain SD-32 produces C17 bacillomycin D and [Ile 2002]surfactin, and that these
      metabolites play important roles in SD-32's biocontrol over cucumber gray mold
      disease. Our further investigation demonstrated that the culture broth and its
      supernatant suppressed cucumber powdery mildew disease in greenhouse experiments.
      However, the active principle(s) remained unknown. RESULTS: The active compound
      was isolated from the culture supernatant after anti-powdery mildew disease
      activity-guided purification and identified as prumycin. Prumycin significantly
      suppressed the disease, whereas bacillomycin D and [Ile 2002]surfactin did not.
      Prumycin did not induce the expression of plant defense genes (PR1a and VSP1),
      suggesting that it does not act via plant defense response. Light microscopic
      observations of prumycin-treated cucumber cotyledon suggested that prumycin
      inhibits the conidial germination of P. fusca. CONCLUSION: This study
      demonstrates that prumycin is a major factor in SD-32's suppression of cucumber
      powdery mildew disease. Our findings shed light for the first time on prumycin's
      role in biocontrol by Bacillus against this disease. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28560848
TI  - Advanced Silicon Chemistry in Australia: Forming Strong Links with Asia.
AB  - This paper details Australian commercial and academic silicon research. Areas of
      interest include silicon metal, polysiloxane polymers, copolymers, cyclics,
      emulsions, microemulsions, silanes, silane coupling agents, sol-gel chemistry and
      water-treatments, porous silicon, polysiloxane degradation, silicon hydrogel
      contact lenses, silanolate synthesis, siloxane interfacial polymerisation,
      hydrosilylation, polysiloxane electrolytes for lithium ion batteries, silanes for
      PBX materials, octafunctionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS),
      POSS hybrids, sol-gel hydrogenation catalysts, silane modification of silica, sol
      gel energy storage, silicate grout stabilisation, GeoPolymer concretes, aerogel
      insulating foams, "Phaco-Ersatz" Accommodating Gel-Intraocular Lens technologies.
      Strong collaborative opportunities, in silicon, with Asia, exist with
      organisations such as: 1) The Asian Silicon Society and 2) The Agency for the
      Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Indonesia.

PMID- 28560850
TI  - Modulation of Open-shell Characters of Amine-inserted Diphenoquinones via
      Structural Modification.
AB  - In this study, a series of triphenylamine derivatives with two 2,6
      diphenylphenoxy radicals (2 a-d), which could be regarded as amine-inserted
      diphenoquinones have been synthesized and investigated their structures and
      electronic properties. The structures of 2 a-d were confirmed by single-crystal X
      ray analysis, showing the characteristic bond length alternation patterns for
      closed-shell quinoids. The solutions of 2 a-d exhibited clear ESR signals even at
      room temperature, indicating their thermally accessible diradical states. The NMR
      and ESR measurements showed that the diradical character of 2 a-d were increased
      in the order of 2 a<2 b<2 c<2 d, well-reproduced by theoretical calculations. The
      results of this work strongly suggest that the diradical character of this class
      of compounds could be tuned by changing the substituent on the central nitrogen
      atom.

PMID- 28560849
TI  - Transcription factors CEP-1/p53 and CEH-23 collaborate with AAK-2/AMPK to
      modulate longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - A decline in mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) function has long been
      implicated in aging and various diseases. Recently, moderate mitochondrial ETC
      dysfunction has been found to prolong lifespan in diverse organisms, suggesting a
      conserved and complex role of mitochondria in longevity determination. Several
      nuclear transcription factors have been demonstrated to mediate the lifespan
      extension effect associated with partial impairment of the ETC, suggesting that
      compensatory transcriptional response to be crucial. In this study, we showed
      that the transcription factors CEP-1/p53 and CEH-23 act through a similar
      mechanism to modulate longevity in response to defective ETC in Caenorhabditis
      elegans. Genomewide gene expression profiling comparison revealed a new link
      between these two transcription factors and AAK-2/AMP kinase (AMPK) signaling.
      Further functional analyses suggested that CEP-1/p53 and CEH-23 act downstream of
      AAK-2/AMPK signaling and CRTC-1 transcriptional coactivator to promote stress
      resistance and lifespan. As AAK-2, CEP-1, and CEH-23 are all highly conserved,
      our findings likely provide important insights for understanding the organismal
      adaptive response to mitochondrial dysfunction in diverse organisms and will be
      relevant to aging and pathologies with a mitochondrial etiology in human.

PMID- 28560851
TI  - Significance of flower pot cells in effusion cytology.
AB  - Cells with long polar hair-like processes referred to as 'flower pot cells' are a
      rare but beautiful morphological feature observed in effusions of diverse
      etiologies. This report describes these cells in effusions seen in ovarian
      borderline serous tumours, malignant mesothelioma and in reactive mesothelial
      cells with or without accompanying malignant cells. These processes were better
      appreciated in air-dried May-Grunwald-Giemsa stained smears.

PMID- 28560852
TI  - The significant effects of puberty on the genetic diathesis of binge eating in
      girls.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent data show significant phenotypic and genetic associations
      between ovarian hormones and binge eating in adulthood. Theories of hormonal risk
      focus on puberty and the possibility that hormone activation induces changes in
      genetic effects that then lead to differential risk for binge eating in
      postpuberty and adulthood. Although this theory is difficult to test in humans,
      an indirect test is to examine whether genetic influences on binge eating
      increase during the pubertal period in girls. Prior work has shown pubertal
      increases in genetic influences on overall disordered eating symptoms, but no
      study to date has examined binge eating. The present study was the first to
      examine these increases for binge eating. METHODS: Participants included 1,568
      female twins (aged 8-25 years) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry.
      Binge eating and pubertal development were assessed with self-report
      questionnaires. RESULTS: Twin moderation models showed significant linear
      increases in genetic effects from prepuberty (5%) to postpuberty (42%), even
      after controlling for the effects of age and body mass index. DISCUSSION: Results
      provide critical support for increased genetic influences on binge eating during
      puberty. Additional studies are needed to identify hormonal mechanisms and fully
      test contemporary models of ovarian hormone risk.

PMID- 28560853
TI  - Combination of chemotherapy and gefitinib as first-line treatment for patients
      with advanced lung adenocarcinoma and sensitive EGFR mutations: A randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - To explore the optimal treatment strategy for patients who harbor sensitive EGFR
      mutations, a head-to-head study was performed to compare chemotherapy and
      gefitinib in combination or with either agent alone as first-line therapy, in
      terms of efficacy and safety. A total of 121 untreated patients with advanced
      lung adenocarcinoma who harbored sensitive EGFR mutations were randomly assigned
      to receive gefitinib combined with pemetrexed and carboplatin, pemetrexed plus
      carboplatin or gefitinib alone. The progression-free survival (PFS) of patients
      in the combination group (17.5 months, 95% CI, 15.3-19.7) was longer than that of
      patients in the chemotherapy group (5.7 months, 95% CI, 5.2-6.3) or gefitinib
      (11.9 months, 95% CI, 9.1-14.6) group. The (hazard ratios) HRs of PFS for the
      combination group vs. chemotherapy and gefitinib groups were 0.16 (95% CI, 0.09
      0.29, p < 0.001) and 0.48 (95% CI, 0.29-0.78, p = 0.003), respectively. The
      overall response rate (ORR) in the combination therapy group, chemotherapy group
      and the gefitinib group was 82.5%, 32.5% and 65.9%, respectively. The
      combinational strategy resulted in longer overall survival (OS) than chemotherapy
      (HR = 0.46, p = 0.016) or gefitinib (HR = 0.36, p = 0.001) alone. Our finding
      suggested that treatment with pemetrexed plus carboplatin combined with gefitinib
      could provide better survival benefits for patients with lung adenocarcinoma
      harboring sensitive EGFR mutations.

PMID- 28560854
TI  - Pharmacogenetic analysis of irreversible severe cisplatin-induced nephropathy: a
      case report of a 27-year-old woman.
AB  - In this report we describe a young patient diagnosed with bulky FIGO stage IIIb
      squamous cell cervix carcinoma with severe and irreversible nephropathy after
      three weekly low-doses of cisplatin. Besides several known risk factors such as
      hypomagnesemia and hypoalbuminemia, the patient also proved to be homozygously
      polymorphic for two polymorphisms within the COMT gene (c.615 + 310C>T and c.616
      367C>T). As COMT polymorphism has been associated with cisplatin-induced
      ototoxicity, its effect on nephrotoxicity of cisplatin should be the subject of
      further investigation.

PMID- 28560855
TI  - N-Heterocyclic Phosphenium Complex of Manganese: Synthesis and Catalytic Activity
      in Ammonia Borane Dehydrogenation.
AB  - A neutral N-heterocyclic phosphenium complex of manganese was synthesised by a
      metathesis approach and characterised by IR, NMR, and XRD studies. The short P-Mn
      distance suggests a substantial metal-ligand double bond character. Reaction with
      a hydride produced an anionic phosphine complex, which was also characterised by
      IR and NMR spectroscopy and, after anion exchange, a single-crystal XRD study.
      Protonation of the anion occurs at the metal to yield a neutral phosphine metal
      carbonyl hydride, which releases dihydrogen upon irradiation with UV light. These
      reactions confirm the electrophilic nature of the phosphenium ligand and suggest
      that the title complex might undergo reactions displaying metal-ligand
      cooperativity. Surprisingly, reaction with ammonia borane (AB) did not proceed
      under transfer hydrogenation of the Mn=P double bond but through the catalytic
      dehydrogenation of AB. The phosphenium complex behaves here as a class II
      catalyst, which dehydrogenates AB to NH2 BH2 that was trapped with cyclohexene.
      Computational model studies led to the identification of two possible catalytic
      cycles, which differ in the regioselectivity of the initial AB activation step.
      In one case, the activation proceeds as cooperative transfer hydrogenation of the
      Mn=P bond, whereas in the other case a H+ /H- pair is transferred to the
      phosphorus atom and a nitrogen atom of the phosphenium unit, resulting in a
      ligand-centred reaction in which the metal fragment acts merely as stabilising
      substituent. Unexpectedly, this pathway, which constitutes a new reaction mode
      for phosphenium complexes, seems to be better in accord with experimental
      findings on the course of the catalysis.

PMID- 28560856
TI  - Peripancreatic paraganglioma mimics pancreatic/gastrointestinal neuroendocrine
      tumor on fine needle aspiration: Report of two cases and review of the
      literature.
AB  - Cytologic diagnosis of extra-adrenal paraganglioma presenting as a peripancreatic
      mass is challenging with a high error rate due to its rarity. We report two cases
      of peripancreatic masses identified by radiology. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided
      fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the masses showed a moderately cellular tumor
      composed of small to medium sized neoplastic cells with round to oval nuclei,
      arranged singly and in loose clusters. Focal rosette-like structures were
      present. The cells were positive for neuroendocrine markers (synaptophysin and
      chromogranin). A diagnosis of a neoplasm with neuroendocrine differentiation and
      neuroendocrine tumor was made respectively on FNA for each case. The subsequent
      surgical resection of the tumors revealed peripancreatic paraganglioma. Although
      paraganglioma has been reported in the literature, the detailed comparison of
      perpancreatic paraganglioma versus pancreatic/gastrointestinal neuroendocrine
      tumor is still lacking. Therefore using these two cases with literature review,
      we wish to illustrate the differential diagnosis between these two entities based
      on cytomorphology and immunohistochemical study.

PMID- 28560857
TI  - Interpersonal sensitivity, bullying victimization and paranoid ideation among
      help-seeking adolescents and young adults.
AB  - AIM: The effects of a negative interpersonal experience, such as bullying
      victimization in childhood and adolescence, can be strong and long lasting.
      Bullying victimization is associated with paranoid ideation and suspiciousness.
      Few studies have focused on personality traits of victims of bullying. The aim of
      this study is to investigate whether a particular personality trait called
      interpersonal sensitivity may be related to suspiciousness in those who
      experienced bullying victimization. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 147
      help-seeking adolescents (mean age 17 years) selected after a screening phase
      (Prodromal Questionnaire) and evaluated with the Structured Interview for
      Psychosis-risk Syndromes (SIPS). All participants were specifically asked if they
      had experienced either psychological bullying or physical bullying, and they
      completed the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM). RESULTS: Of the whole
      sample, 30 (20%) participants had experienced psychological bullying or physical
      bullying at least once in their life. Performing a multiple regression, bullying
      victimization was found to be an independent predictor of subtle paranoid
      ideation and suspiciousness. Interpersonal sensitivity was also found to be an
      independent predictor of subtle paranoid ideation; in particular, two IPSM
      subscales, fragile inner-self and separation anxiety, showed a significant
      correlation with subtle paranoid ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirmed
      that bullying victimization is a negative interpersonal experience associated
      with paranoid ideation and suspiciousness. However, being overly sensitive and
      having negative beliefs about the self as fragile and vulnerable to threat also
      lead to a tendency to attribute experiences as externally caused and, in turn,
      facilitate the formation and maintenance of paranoid ideation.

PMID- 28560858
TI  - Basal subtype is predictive for response to cetuximab treatment in patient
      derived xenografts of squamous cell head and neck cancer.
AB  - Cetuximab is the single targeted therapy approved for the treatment of head and
      neck cancer (HNSCC). Predictive biomarkers have not been established and patient
      stratification based on molecular tumor profiles has not been possible. Since
      EGFR pathway activation is pronounced in basal subtype, we hypothesized this
      activation could be a predictive signature for an EGFR directed treatment. From
      our patient-derived xenograft platform of HNSCC, 28 models were subjected to
      Affymetrix gene expression studies on HG U133+ 2.0. Based on the expression of
      821 genes, the subtype of each of the 28 models was determined by integrating
      gene expression profiles through centroid-clustering with previously published
      gene expression data by Keck et al. The models were treated in groups of 5-6
      animals with docetaxel, cetuximab, everolimus, cis- or carboplatin and 5
      fluorouracil. Response was evaluated by comparing tumor volume at treatment
      initiation and after 3 weeks of treatment (RTV). Tumors distributed over the 3
      signature-defined subtypes: 5 mesenchymal/inflamed phenotype (MS), 15 basal type
      (BA), 8 classical type (CL). Cluster analysis revealed a strong correlation
      between response to cetuximab and the basal subtype. RTV MS 3.32 vs. BA 0.78 (MS
      vs. BA, unpaired t-test, p 0.0002). Cetuximab responders were distributed as
      following: 1/5 in MS, 5/8 in CL and 13/15 in the BA group. Activity of classical
      chemotherapies did not differ between the subtypes. In conclusion basal subtype
      was associated with response to EGFR directed therapy in head and neck squamous
      cell cancer patient-derived xenografts.

PMID- 28560859
TI  - Electron Transfer of Cytochrome c on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering-Active
      Substrates: Material Dependence and Biocompatibility.
AB  - Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) represents a powerful approach for
      studying the structure and reaction of proteins in fundamental and applied
      sciences. The surface properties of SERS-active materials determine important
      parameters such as Raman enhancement ability, biocompatibility, and electronic
      communication between supports and proteins. Here, electron transfer (ET) of Cyt
      c on noble metals and transition metals is investigated by SERS spectroscopy. The
      results here indicate that the ET occurs from the reduced state of Cyt c to
      silver substrate, depending on the laser wavelengths. Nickel and cobalt can
      directly transfer electrons to the oxidized state of Cyt c, which enables a
      reductive activity of these transition metal nanoparticles (NPs). This study
      demonstrates the role of transition metals as electron donors for Cyt c and has
      proved that the charge transfer theory for SERS is applicable for explanation of
      the ET between Cyt c and Ag NPs.

PMID- 28560861
TI  - What impact does trauma have on the at-risk mental state? A systematic literature
      review.
AB  - Identification of individuals with an at-risk mental state (ARMS) who are at a
      heightened risk of developing psychosis allows researchers and clinicians to
      identify what factors are associated with poorer outcomes and transitions to
      psychosis. A number of socioenvironmental factors are linked to an increase risk
      of developing psychosis, of which childhood trauma is widely acknowledged. The
      current review aims to examine what impact trauma has on the ARMS by reviewing
      reported relationships between trauma variables and transition to psychosis, ARMS
      severity, adaptive functioning and comorbid symptomology from both cross
      sectional and prospective design studies. A literature search was conducted for
      all relevant original research articles published in the English language up to
      December 2015 using 3 electronic databases: PsycINFO, Web of Science and PubMed.
      A total of 6 papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the current
      review. Trauma was found to have a significant impact on the ARMS observed
      through reported relationships between trauma variables and transition to
      psychosis, ARMS severity, adaptive functioning and comorbid symptomology. Sexual
      trauma demonstrated the most consistent trauma variable to impact the ARMS.
      Individuals with an ARMS who have experienced sexual trauma are at a heightened
      risk of poorer outcomes and transitions to psychosis. Further prospective design
      studies are required to examine this observation further.

PMID- 28560860
TI  - The intrinsic cause of color fading in sliced cooked cured beef during chilled
      storage.
AB  - The relationship between color change and other physical and chemical
      characteristics of sliced cooked cured beef (SCCB) during chilled storage were
      investigated using principal components analysis (PCA) to determine the color
      fading causes. Samples were prepared and stored at 8 degrees C for up to 35 days
      in a vacuum package to simulate a supermarket storage environment; related
      indicators were measured periodically every week. The results showed that the
      first PC explained 59.82% of the total variation, and the second explained
      22.28%. PC1 was a concentrated reflection of color changes of SCCB during storage
      and PC2 was an environment factor causing the change of color. The change in
      apparent redness is mainly caused by redox reaction of the nitroso hemochromogen
      (NH) (eigenvectors of a*, C and NH in PC1 were all the maximum value of 0.28); a*
      was correlated with NH (0.96), free sulfhydryls (0.98), carbonyl derivatives (
      0.95) formed during protein oxidation, and malondialdehyde (-0.98) and dienes (
      0.92) formed by lipid oxidation. Color fading was significantly correlated with
      oxidizing and reducing power, existing forms of nitrogen and with the pH of the
      meat matrix. Changes in the internal environment of the sample initially
      influenced L* and b* values, and subsequently a*.

PMID- 28560863
TI  - Cellulosic Biomass-Reinforced Polyvinylidene Fluoride Separators with Enhanced
      Dielectric Properties and Thermal Tolerance.
AB  - Safety issues are critical barriers to large-scale energy storage applications of
      lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Using an ameliorated, thermally stable, shutdown
      separator is an effective method to overcome the safety issues. Herein, we
      demonstrate a novel, cellulosic biomass-material-blended polyvinylidene fluoride
      separator that was prepared using a simple nonsolvent-induced phase separation
      technique. This process formed a microporous composite separator with reduced
      crystallinity, uniform pore size distribution, superior thermal tolerance, and
      enhanced electrolyte wettability and dielectric and mechanical properties. In
      addition, the separator has a superior capacity retention and a better rate
      capability compared to the commercialized microporous polypropylene membrane.
      This fascinating membrane was fabricated via a relatively eco-friendly and cost
      effective method and is an alternative, promising separator for high-power LIBs.

PMID- 28560866
TI  - Stretchable Piezoelectric Substrate Providing Pulsatile Mechanoelectric Cues for
      Cardiomyogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - Ex vivo induction of cardiomyogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells
      (MSCs) before implantation would potentiate therapeutic efficacy of stem cell
      therapies for ischemic heart diseases because MSCs rarely undergo cardiomyogenic
      differentiation following implantation. In cardiac microenvironments, electric
      pulse and cyclic mechanical strain are sequentially produced. However, no study
      has applied the pulsatile mechanoelectric cues (PMEC) to stimulate cardiomyogenic
      differentiation of MSCs ex vivo. In this study, we developed a stretchable
      piezoelectric substrate (SPS) that can provide PMEC to human MSCs (hMSCs) for
      cardiomyogenic differentiation ex vivo. Our data showed that hMSCs subjected to
      PMEC by SPS underwent promoted cardiac phenotype development: cell alignment and
      the expression of cardiac markers (i.e., cardiac transcription factors,
      structural proteins, ion channel proteins, and gap junction proteins). The
      enhanced cardiac phenotype development was mediated by the upregulation of
      cardiomyogenic differentiation-related autocrine factor expression, focal
      adhesion kinase, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases signaling pathways.
      Thus, SPS providing electrical and mechanical regulation of stem cells may be
      utilized to potentiate hMSC therapies for myocardial infarction and provide a
      tool for the study of stem cell biology.

PMID- 28560862
TI  - Low serum bilirubin level predicts the development of chronic kidney disease in
      patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: We evaluated whether serum bilirubin levels can predict the
      development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: This was a retrospective observational longitudinal
      study of patients presenting at the Pusan National University Hospital. A total
      of 349 patients with T2DM and preserved kidney function (estimated glomerular
      filtration rate >= 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) were enrolled. The main outcome was the
      development of CKD stage 3 or greater. The patients were divided into four groups
      according to the quartiles of the total serum bilirubin levels at baseline.
      RESULTS: The group with the lowest range of total serum bilirubin level (Q1)
      showed the highest cumulative incidence of CKD stage 3 or greater than that of
      the other lower quartiles (Q1 vs. Q4; hazard ratio [HR], 6.75; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.54 to 29.47; p = 0.011). In multivariate analysis, the risk of
      developing CKD stage 3 or greater was higher in the second lowest quartile of the
      serum bilirubin level than that in the highest quartile of the serum bilirubin
      level (Q2 vs. Q4; HR, 9.36; 95% CI, 1.33 to 65.73; p = 0.024). In the
      normoalbuminuria subgroup (n = 236), multivariate analysis showed that the risk
      of developing CKD stage 3 or greater was higher in the lowest quartile of the
      serum bilirubin level than that in the highest quartile of the serum bilirubin
      level (Q1 vs. Q4; HR, 7.36; 95% CI, 1.24 to 35.82; p = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Serum
      bilirubin might be an early clinical marker for predicting the progression of CKD
      in patients with T2DM and preserved renal function.

PMID- 28560864
TI  - DNA Replication Dynamics and Cellular Responses to ATP Competitive CDC7 Kinase
      Inhibitors.
AB  - The CDC7 kinase, by phosphorylating the MCM DNA helicase, is a key switch for DNA
      replication initiation. ATP competitive CDC7 inhibitors are being developed as
      potential anticancer agents; however how human cells respond to the selective
      pharmacological inhibition of this kinase is controversial and not understood.
      Here we have characterized the mode of action of the two widely used CDC7
      inhibitors, PHA-767491 and XL-413, which have become important tool compounds to
      explore the kinase's cellular functions. We have used a chemical genetics
      approach to further characterize pharmacological CDC7 inhibition and CRISPR/CAS9
      technology to assess the requirement for kinase activity for cell proliferation.
      We show that, in human breast cells, CDC7 is essential and that CDC7 kinase
      activity is formally required for proliferation. However, full and sustained
      inhibition of the kinase, which is required to block the cell-cycle progression
      with ATP competitor compounds, is problematic to achieve. We establish that MCM2
      phosphorylation is highly sensitive to CDC7 inhibition and, as a biomarker, it
      lacks in dynamic range since it is easily lost at concentrations of inhibitors
      that only mildly affect DNA synthesis. Furthermore, we find that the cellular
      effects of selective CDC7 inhibitors can be altered by the concomitant inhibition
      of cell-cycle and transcriptional CDKs. This work shows that DNA replication and
      cell proliferation can occur with reduced CDC7 activity for at least 5 days and
      that the bulk of DNA synthesis is not tightly coupled to MCM2 phosphorylation and
      provides guidance for the development of next generation CDC7 inhibitors.

PMID- 28560865
TI  - Understanding the Critical Role of the Ag Nanophase in Boosting the Initial
      Reversibility of Transition Metal Oxide Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - The initial reversible capacity, a critical impediment in transition metal oxide
      based anodes, is augmented in conversion-reaction-involved CoO anodes for lithium
      ion batteries, by incorporating a chemically synthesized Ag nanophase. With an
      increase in the added amount of Ag nanophase from 5 to 15 wt %, the initial
      capacity loss decreases linearly up to 31.7%. The Ag nanophase maintains its
      pristine metallic nature without undergoing phase transformations, even during
      repeated vigorous electrochemical reactions of the active CoO phase.
      Complementary ex situ chemical/physical analyses suggest that the Ag nanophase
      promotes the catalytic generation of reversible gel-like/polymeric films wherein
      lithium ions are stored capacitively in the low-voltage region below 0.7 V during
      discharging. These scientific findings would provide a heretofore unrecognized
      pathway to resolving a major issue associated with the critical irreversibility
      in conversion-type transition metal oxide anodes.

PMID- 28560867
TI  - Quasi-Two-Dimensional h-BN/beta-Ga2O3 Heterostructure Metal-Insulator
      Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor.
AB  - beta-gallium oxide (beta-Ga2O3) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)
      heterostructure-based quasi-two-dimensional metal-insulator-semiconductor field
      effect transistors (MISFETs) were demonstrated by integrating mechanical
      exfoliation of (quasi)-two-dimensional materials with a dry transfer process,
      wherein nanothin flakes of beta-Ga2O3 and h-BN were utilized as the channel and
      gate dielectric, respectively, of the MISFET. The h-BN dielectric, which has an
      extraordinarily flat and clean surface, provides a minimal density of charged
      impurities on the interface between beta-Ga2O3 and h-BN, resulting in superior
      device performances (maximum transconductance, on/off ratio, subthreshold swing,
      and threshold voltage) compared to those of the conventional back-gated
      configurations. Also, double-gating of the fabricated device was demonstrated by
      biasing both top and bottom gates, achieving the modulation of the threshold
      voltage. This heterostructured wide-band-gap nanodevice shows a new route toward
      stable and high-power nanoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28560868
TI  - Metabolic Design of Corynebacterium glutamicum for Production of l-Cysteine with
      Consideration of Sulfur-Supplemented Animal Feed.
AB  - l-Cysteine is a valuable sulfur-containing amino acid widely used as a nutrition
      supplement in industrial food production, agriculture, and animal feed. However,
      this amino acid is mostly produced by acid hydrolysis and extraction from human
      or animal hairs. In this study, we constructed recombinant Corynebacterium
      glutamicum strains that overexpress combinatorial genes for l-cysteine
      production. The aims of this work were to investigate the effect of the combined
      overexpression of serine acetyltransferase (CysE), O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase
      (CysK), and the transcriptional regulator CysR on l-cysteine production. The CysR
      overexpressing strain accumulated approximately 2.7-fold more intracellular
      sulfide than the control strain (empty pMT-tac vector). Moreover, in the
      resulting CysEKR recombinant strain, combinatorial overexpression of genes
      involved in l-cysteine production successfully enhanced its production by
      approximately 3.0-fold relative to that in the control strain. This study
      demonstrates a biotechnological model for the production of animal feed
      supplements such as l-cysteine using metabolically engineered C. glutamicum.

PMID- 28560869
TI  - Quantitation of Rotundone in Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) Peel and Juice by
      Stable Isotope Dilution Assay.
AB  - Aroma extract dilution analyses of the aromas of peels and juices of white and
      pink grapefruits revealed that rotundone, responsible for peppery, spicy, and
      woody odors, was detected for the first time at high flavor dilution factors of
      256-1024. In both juices, rotundone was detected at the highest flavor dilution
      factor of 1024. Rotundone in grapefruits was quantitated by a stable isotope
      dilution assay with a newly synthesized deuterium-labeled internal standard,
      rotundone-d2,3: its levels were 2180 and 1920 ng/kg in white and pink grapefruit
      peels and 29.6 and 49.8 ng/kg in white and pink grapefruit juices, respectively.
      On the basis of these results, sensory analysis was performed to assess the
      effects of rotundone on a white grapefruit juice aroma reconstitute. This sensory
      analysis revealed that rotundone does not impart a woody odor or affect any of
      the existing attributes, but increases various attributes, thus confirming that
      rotundone is indispensable for the aroma of grapefruit juice.

PMID- 28560870
TI  - Balanced Ambipolar Organic Field-Effect Transistors by Polymer Preaggregation.
AB  - Ambipolar organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on heterojunction active
      films still suffer from an imbalance in the transport of electrons and holes.
      This problem is related to an uncontrolled phase separation between the donor and
      acceptor organic semiconductors in the thin films. In this work, we have
      developed a concept to improve the phase separation in heterojunction transistors
      to enhance their ambipolar performance. This concept is based on preaggregation
      of the donor polymer, in this case poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), before solution
      mixing with the small-molecular-weight acceptor, phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl
      ester (PCBM). The resulting heterojunction transistor morphology consists of self
      assembled P3HT fibers embedded in a PCBM matrix, ensuring balanced mobilities
      reaching 0.01 cm2/V s for both holes and electrons. These are the highest
      mobility values reported so far for ambipolar OFETs based on P3HT/PCBM blends.
      Preaggregation of the conjugated polymer before fabricating binary blends can be
      regarded as a general concept for a wider range of semiconducting systems
      applicable in organic electronic devices.

PMID- 28560871
TI  - Forecasting Chronic Diseases Using Data Fusion.
AB  - Data fusion, that is, extracting information through the fusion of complementary
      data sets, is a topic of great interest in metabolomics because analytical
      platforms such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and nuclear
      magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy commonly used for chemical profiling of
      biofluids provide complementary information. In this study, with a goal of
      forecasting acute coronary syndrome (ACS), breast cancer, and colon cancer, we
      jointly analyzed LC-MS, NMR measurements of plasma samples, and the metadata
      corresponding to the lifestyle of participants. We used supervised data fusion
      based on multiple kernel learning and exploited the linearity of the models to
      identify significant metabolites/features for the separation of healthy referents
      and the cases developing a disease. We demonstrated that (i) fusing LC-MS, NMR,
      and metadata provided better separation of ACS cases and referents compared with
      individual data sets, (ii) NMR data performed the best in terms of forecasting
      breast cancer, while fusion degraded the performance, and (iii) neither the
      individual data sets nor their fusion performed well for colon cancer.
      Furthermore, we showed the strengths and limitations of the fusion models by
      discussing their performance in terms of capturing known biomarkers for smoking
      and coffee. While fusion may improve performance in terms of separating certain
      conditions by jointly analyzing metabolomics and metadata sets, it is not
      necessarily always the best approach as in the case of breast cancer.

PMID- 28560872
TI  - Correction to "Photoreductive Elimination of Chlorine from Antimony in an
      [SbPd]VII Complex".

PMID- 28560873
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of Tetrahydropyridines/Piperidines via Stepwise [4 +
      2]/[2 + 2] Cyclizations.
AB  - A phosphine-catalyzed novel enantioselective [4 + 2]-annulation reaction between
      allene ketones and 1-azadienes has been developed, and tetrahydropyridines were
      obtained in good yields and with excellent enantioselectivities. Subsequent
      exposure of tetrahydropyridines to benzyne leads to a [2 + 2]-cyclization,
      creating optically enriched polycyclic piperidines with a quaternary stereogenic
      center and a cyclobutene moiety. The reported stepwise [4 + 2]/[2 + 2]
      cycloadditions represent a new approach to access enantiomerically enriched
      nitrogen-containing six-membered ring systems.

PMID- 28560874
TI  - Single Biosensor for Simultaneous Quantification of Glucose and pH in a Rat Brain
      of Diabetic Model Using Both Current and Potential Outputs.
AB  - Glucose and pH are two important indicators of diabetes mellitus. However, their
      dynamic changes at the same time in brain are still not clear, mainly due to a
      lack of a single biosensor capable of simultaneous quantification of two species
      in a live rat brain. In this work, a selective and sensitive ratiometric
      electrochemical biosensor was developed for simultaneously quantifying glucose
      and pH using both current and potential outputs in a rat brain of diabetic model.
      Here, glucose oxidase was first employed as a specific recognition element for
      both glucose and pH because the active center (FAD) could undergo a 2H+/2e-
      process. Moreover, an insensitive molecule toward pH and glucose was used as an
      inner-reference element to provide a built-in correction to improve the accuracy.
      The ratio between the oxidation peak current density of glucose and that of ABTS
      gradually increased with increasing concentration of glucose, and showed a good
      linearity in the range of 0.3-8.2 mM. Meanwhile, the midpotential difference
      between glucose oxidase and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic
      acid) (ABTS) positively shifted with pH decreasing, leading to accurate
      determination of pH in the linear range of 5.67-7.65. Thus, combined with the
      unique properties of carbon fiber microelectrode, including easy to insert and
      good biocompatibility, the developed single biosensor was successfully applied to
      detect pH and glucose at the same time in hippocampus, striatum, and cortex in a
      live rat brain of diabetic model.

PMID- 28560875
TI  - Cobalt(III)-Catalyzed C-H Activation: Azo Directed Selective 1,4-Addition of
      Ortho C-H Bond to Maleimides.
AB  - Highly selective azo directed 1,4-addition of an ortho C-H bond to maleimides has
      been developed using Co(III) catalyst. This reaction furnishes 3-arylated
      succinimide derivatives in good yields with excellent selectivity. This protocol
      exhibits a broad substrate scope and is compatible with symmetrical and
      unsymmetrical azobenzene derivatives, with maleimides and maleate esters.
      Preliminary deuterium incorporation studies have been performed to understand the
      mechanism of the reaction.

PMID- 28560876
TI  - Facile and Large-Area Preparation of Porous Ag3PO4 Photoanodes for Enhanced
      Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation.
AB  - Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising approach for renewable
      energy, where the development of efficient photoelectrodes, especially
      photoanodes for water oxidation is still challenging. In this paper, we report
      the novel solution-processed microcrystalline Ag3PO4 photoanodes with tunable
      porosity depending on the reaction time. These porous Ag3PO4 films were grown on
      large-area (4.5 * 4.5 cm2) silver substrates via an air-exposed and room
      temperature immersion reaction. Enhanced light absorption abilities were
      exhibited by the synthesized Ag3PO4 films with optimized porosity resulted from
      prolonged reaction times (>=20 h), due to which appreciable water splitting
      performance was demonstrated when they were utilized as photoanodes.
      Particularly, the highly porous 20 h Ag3PO4 photoanode presented a photocurrent
      density of around 4.32 mA/cm2, which is nearly three times higher than that of
      the nonporous 1 h Ag3PO4 photoanode (1.48 mA/cm2) at 1 V vs Ag/AgCl. Moreover,
      superior stability of the 20 h Ag3PO4 photoanode has also been confirmed by the 5
      h successive PEC water splitting experiment. Therefore, both the scalable and
      facile fabrication method, and considerable photoactivity and stability of these
      Ag3PO4 photoanodes together suggest their great potential for efficient solar-to
      fuel energy conversion and other PEC applications.

PMID- 28560877
TI  - Formation of Germa-ketenimine on the Ge(100) Surface by Adsorption of tert-Butyl
      Isocyanide.
AB  - Reactions of the (100) surfaces of Ge and Si with organic molecules have been
      generally understood within the concept of "dimers" formed by the 2 * 1 surface
      reconstruction. In this work, the adsorption of tert-butyl isocyanide on the
      Ge(100)-2 * 1 surface at large exposures is investigated under ultrahigh vacuum
      conditions. A combination of infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy, and temperature-programmed desorption experiments along with
      dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations is used to determine
      the surface products. Upon adsorption of a dense monolayer of tert-butyl
      isocyanide, a product whose structure resembles a germa-ketenimine (N=C=Ge) with
      sigma donation toward and pi back-donation from the Ge(100) surface appears.
      Formation of this structure involves divalent-type surface Ge atoms that arise
      from cleavage of the Ge(100)-2 * 1 surface dimers. Our results reveal an
      unprecedented class of reactions of organic molecules at the Ge(100) surface.

PMID- 28560879
TI  - What Is Required for Highly Oxidized Molecules To Form Clusters with Sulfuric
      Acid?
AB  - We have studied the specific requirements of a given neutral organic molecule to
      act as a stabilizer in sulfuric acid induced new particle formation. Based on an
      analysis of the reaction Gibbs free energies between simple functional groups and
      sulfuric acid, carboxylic acid groups are identified to show the strongest
      hydrogen bonding interaction with sulfuric acid. The free energy associated with
      the hydrogen bonding between sulfuric acid and 14 different carboxylic acids of
      atmospheric relevance reveal that the binding strength is very dependent on the
      ability of sulfuric acid to form an additional hydrogen bond via its vacant S-OH
      group to a gamma-carbonyl group in the organic molecule. Extending the analysis
      to monoterpene oxidation products and further to large dimer esters, we identify
      the following necessary criteria for a given organic oxidation product to
      efficiently stabilize sulfuric acid clustering: (1) weak or no intramolecular
      hydrogen bonds in the isolated monomer; (2) more than two carboxylic acid groups.
      As a proof of concept we show that these requirements correspond to the docking
      of a sulfuric acid molecule between two non-interacting carboxylic acid groups in
      the organic molecule. These findings suggests that, for a given organic oxidation
      product to participate in the initial steps in new particle formation involving
      sulfuric acid, very distinct molecular features are required.

PMID- 28560878
TI  - Serial Metabolome Changes in a Prospective Cohort of Subjects with Influenza
      Viral Infection and Comparison with Dengue Fever.
AB  - Influenza virus infection (IVI) and dengue virus infection (DVI) are major public
      health threats. Between IVI and DVI, clinical symptoms can be overlapping yet
      infection-specific, but host metabolome changes are not well-described.
      Untargeted metabolomics and targeted oxylipinomic analyses were performed on sera
      serially collected at three phases of infection from a prospective cohort study
      of adult subjects with either H3N2 influenza infection or dengue fever.
      Untargeted metabolomics identified 26 differential metabolites, and major
      perturbed pathways included purine metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis and beta
      oxidation, tryptophan metabolism, phospholipid catabolism, and steroid hormone
      pathway. Alterations in eight oxylipins were associated with the early
      symptomatic phase of H3N2 flu infection, were mostly arachidonic acid-derived,
      and were enriched in the lipoxygenase pathway. There was significant overlap in
      metabolome profiles in both infections. However, differences specific to IVI and
      DVI were observed. DVI specifically attenuated metabolites including serotonin,
      bile acids and biliverdin. Additionally, metabolome changes were more persistent
      in IVI in which metabolites such as hypoxanthine, inosine, and xanthine of the
      purine metabolism pathway remained significantly elevated at 21-27 days after
      fever onset. This study revealed the dynamic metabolome changes in IVI subjects
      and provided biochemical insights on host physiological similarities and
      differences between IVI and DVI.

PMID- 28560881
TI  - Stable, Fluorescent Polymethylmethacrylate Particles for the Long-Term
      Observation of Slow Colloidal Dynamics.
AB  - Suspensions of solid micron-scale colloidal particles in liquid solvents are a
      foundational model system used to explore a wide range of phase transitions,
      including crystallization, gelation, spinodal decomposition, and the glass
      transition. One of the most commonly used systems for these investigations is the
      fluorescent spherical particles of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) suspended in a
      mixture of nonpolar solvents that match the density and the refractive index of
      the particles to minimize sedimentation and scattering. However, the particles
      can swell in these solvents, changing their size and density, and may leak the
      fluorescent dye over days to weeks; this constrains the exploration of slow and
      kinetically limited processes, such as near-boundary phase separation or the
      glass transition. In this paper, we produce PMMA colloidal particles that employ
      polymerizable and photostable cyanine-based fluorescent monomers spanning the
      range of visible wavelengths and a polymeric stabilizer prepared from
      polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS-graft-PMMA. Using microcalorimetry, we characterize
      the thermodynamics of an accelerated equilibration process for these dispersions
      in the buoyancy- and refractive-index-matching solvents. We use confocal
      differential dynamic microscopy to demonstrate that they behave as hard spheres.
      The suspended particles are stable for months to years, maintaining fixed
      particle size and density, and do not leak dye. Thus, these particles enable
      longer term experiments than may have been possible earlier; we demonstrate this
      by observing spinodal decomposition in a mixture of these particles with a
      depletant polymer in the microgravity environment of the International Space
      Station. Using fluorescence microscopy, we observe coarsening over several months
      and measure the growth of the characteristic length scale to be a fraction of a
      picometer per second; this rate is among the slowest observed in a phase
      separating system. Our protocols should facilitate the synthesis of a variety of
      particles.

PMID- 28560880
TI  - Quantitative Proteomics Analysis Confirmed Oxidative Metabolism Predominates in
      Streptomyces coelicolor versus Glycolytic Metabolism in Streptomyces lividans.
AB  - Recent physiological studies indicated that S. lividans metabolism was mainly
      glycolytic, whereas S. coelicolor metabolism was mainly oxidative. To determine
      whether such metabolic characteristics were correlated with consistent proteomics
      features, a comparative label-free, shotgun proteomics analysis of these strains
      was carried out. Among 2024 proteins identified, 360 showed significant
      differences in abundance between the strains. This study revealed that S.
      coelicolor catabolized glucose less actively than S. lividans, whereas the amino
      acids present in the medium were catabolized less actively by S. lividans than by
      S. coelicolor. The abundance of glycolytic proteins in S. lividans was consistent
      with its high glycolytic activity, whereas the abundance of proteins involved in
      the catabolism of amino acids in S. coelicolor provided an explanatory basis for
      its predominantly oxidative metabolism. In this study, conducted under conditions
      of low O2 availability, proteins involved in resistance to oxidative stress and
      those belonging to a DosR-like dormancy regulon were abundant in S. coelicolor,
      whereas tellurium resistance proteins were abundant in S. lividans. This
      indicated that the strains reacted differently to O2 limitation. Proteins
      belonging to the CDA, RED, and ACT pathways, usually highly expressed in S.
      coelicolor, were not detected under these conditions, whereas proteins of
      siderophores, 5-hydroxyectoine, and terpenoid biosynthetic pathways were present.

PMID- 28560882
TI  - Gambling disorder: Association between duration of illness, clinical, and
      neurocognitive variables.
AB  - Background and aims Gambling disorder (GD) may have its onset in a wide range of
      ages, from adolescents to old adults. In addition, individuals with GD tend to
      seek treatment at different moments in their lives. As a result of these
      characteristics (variable age at onset and variable age at treatment seeking), we
      find subjects with diverse duration of illness (DOI) in clinical practice. DOI is
      an important but relatively understudied factor in GD. Our objective was to
      investigate clinical and neurocognitive characteristics associated with different
      DOI. Methods This study evaluated 448 adults diagnosed with GD. All assessments
      were completed prior to treatments being commenced. Results Our main results
      were: (a) there is a negative correlation between DOI and lag between first
      gambling and onset of GD; (b) lifetime history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is
      associated with a longer duration of GD; (c) the presence of a first-degree
      relative with history of AUD is associated with a more extended course of GD; and
      (d) there is a negative correlation between DOI and quality of life. Discussion
      This study suggests that some important variables are associated with different
      DOI. Increasing treatment-seeking behavior, providing customized psychological
      interventions, and effectively managing AUD may decrease the high levels of
      chronicity in GD. Furthermore, research on GD such as phenomenological studies
      and clinical trials may consider the duration of GD in their methodology. DOI
      might be an important variable when analyzing treatment outcome and avoiding
      confounders.

PMID- 28560883
TI  - A deletion mutation in nfxB of in vitro-induced moxifloxacin-resistant
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa confers multidrug resistance.
AB  - The modulation of efflux pump functions under fluoroquinolone (FQ) exposure is of
      great concern as it could result in occurrence of multidrug-resistant (MDR)
      bacterial strains. In this study, MDR mechanism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa induced
      via moxifloxacin (MOX) pressure was investigated. After serial MOX [concentration
      of 0.5 * the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)] exposure, the fully
      susceptible P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027 strain has increased its MIC not only toward
      MOX (1->128 mg/L) but also to other antibiotics. Furthermore, this MOX-exposed
      strain did not revert to antibiotic-sensitive phenotype when being cultured in
      antibiotic-free medium for 12 days. No mutation was observed for FQ-target (gyrA
      and parC) or most investigated efflux regulatory genes (mexT, mexR, and nalC)
      except nfxB in which a 100-bp deletion was found. This associated with the
      elevated expression of multidrug efflux pump operon (mexCD-oprJ) which could
      directly result in MDR phenotype.

PMID- 28560885
TI  - Research in health information management: An expanding field of enquiry.

PMID- 28560884
TI  - Dual antiplatelet therapy duration in patients following percutaneous coronary
      intervention or after acute coronary syndrome: one size does not fit all.

PMID- 28560886
TI  - Ultrasound-Guided Thrombin Injection Is a Safe and Effective Treatment for
      Femoral Artery Pseudoaneurysm in the Morbidly Obese.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ultrasound-guided thrombin injection (UGTI) is a well-established
      practice for the treatment of femoral artery pseudoaneurysm. This procedure is
      highly successful but dependent on appropriate pseudoaneurysm anatomy and
      adequate ultrasound visualization. Morbid obesity can present a significant
      technical challenge due to increased groin adiposity, resulting in poor
      visualization of critical structures needed to safely perform the procedure. We
      aim to evaluate the safety and efficacy of UGTI to treat femoral artery
      pseudoaneurysm in the morbidly obese. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort
      study in which all patients who underwent UGTI at The Ohio State University Ross
      Heart Hospital from 2009 to 2014 were analyzed for patient characteristics and
      stratified by body mass index (BMI). Patients with BMI >= 35 were considered
      morbidly obese and were compared to patients with a BMI < 35. Outcome was failed
      treatment resulting in residual pseudoaneurysm. RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of
      54 patients who underwent thrombin injection. There were 41 nonmorbidly obese and
      13 morbidly obese patients. Mean age was 64.5 years. The cohort was 44.4% male.
      There were 6 failures, of which 1 underwent successful repeat injection and 5
      underwent open surgical repair. There was no statistically significant difference
      in failure between nonmorbidly obese and morbidly obese patients (9.8% vs 15.4%,
      P = .45). There were no embolic/thrombotic complications. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound
      guided thrombin injection is a safe and effective therapy in the morbidly obese
      for the treatment of femoral artery pseudoaneurysm. In the hands of experienced
      sonographers and surgeons with adequate visualization of the pseudoaneurysm sac,
      UGTI should remain a standard therapy in the morbidly obese.

PMID- 28560887
TI  - The gut microbiome and cardiovascular risk: current perspective and gaps of
      knowledge.

PMID- 28560888
TI  - The evolution of acute burn care - retiring the split skin graft.
AB  - The skin graft was born in 1869 and since then, surgeons have been using split
      skin grafts for wound repair. Nevertheless, this asset fails the big burn
      patient, who deserves an elastic, mobile and robust outcome but who receives the
      poorest possible outcome based on donor site paucity. Negating the need for the
      skin graft requires an autologous composite cultured skin and a material capable
      of temporising the burn wound for four weeks until the composite is produced. A
      novel, biodegradable polyurethane chemistry has been used to create two such
      products. This paper describes the design, production, optimisation and
      evaluation of several iterations of these products. The evaluation has occurred
      in a variety of models, both in vitro and in vivo, employing Hunterian scientific
      principles, and embracing Hunter's love and appreciation of comparative anatomy.
      The process has culminated in significant human experience in complex wounds and
      extensive burn injury. Used serially, the products offer robust and elastic
      healing in deep burns of any size within 6 weeks of injury.

PMID- 28560891
TI  - Expression of Foxp3 and its prognostic significance in colorectal cancer.
AB  - The aim of this study was to explore the expression and clinical significance of
      Foxp3 in colorectal tumor cells. An immunohistochemistry assay was used to detect
      the expression of Foxp3 in 173 cases of colorectal cancer. The relationship
      between the clinicopathological factors and the prognosis of colorectal cancer
      was analyzed. The rate of positive Foxp3 expression in tumor cells was 89.7%.
      There were no significant differences between cases with and without expression
      of Foxp3 with regard to sex, age, primary cancer sites, and distal metastasis.
      The expression of Foxp3 was negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis and
      pathological tumor, node, metastasis (pTNM) stage in tumor cells ( P < 0.05),
      which reflects the depth of invasion. Foxp3 expression also had a positive
      correlation with the degree of differentiation ( P < 0.01). A high level of Foxp3
      expression was observed more often in tumor cells compared to tumor-surrounding
      tissues ( P = 0.003). High expression of Foxp3 was also associated with longer
      overall and disease-free survival ( P ? 0.001). Foxp3 expression in colorectal
      cancer cells correlates with many clinicopathological characteristics; moreover,
      high expression of Foxp3 may be a promising potential prognostic factor for
      patients with colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28560889
TI  - Association of HIV/AIDS Clinician Warm Line Utilization with Diagnosis and
      Management of Antiretroviral Treatment Failure in Mozambique: A Retrospective
      Analysis of Program Data.
AB  - In accordance with global HIV/AIDS goals, Mozambique is attempting to improve
      management of antiretroviral treatment failure (TF). We sought to determine
      whether the utilization of a national HIV/AIDS clinician telephone consultation
      service increased recognition and reporting of TF. In a retrospective analysis of
      routinely collected program data from telephone consultation logs and
      Mozambique's national registry of second-line antiretroviral requests, we used
      linear mixed methods to describe the association between TF-related telephone
      consultations and submission of second-line requests, which required
      documentation of the TF diagnosis. The unit of analysis was the health facility.
      Available data included 1417 consultations (390 [27.5%] TF related) and 2662
      second-line requests from 1011 health units (2015-2016 data). In multivariable
      analyses, each TF-related consultation was associated with an increase of 0.61
      (95% confidence interval 0.15 to 1.06) second-line requests. In this setting, TF
      related telephone consultation was positively and significantly associated with
      diagnosis and reporting of antiretroviral TF.

PMID- 28560893
TI  - Physical Fitness and Frailty Syndrome in Institutionalized Older Women.
AB  - Associations between frailty and physical-functional fitness (PFF) indicators in
      frail women over 65 years of age remain largely unexplored. This study analyzed
      the relationship between frailty syndrome (FS) and PFF indicators and assessed
      how the latter might predict the former. Participants were 119 elderly women
      (81.96 +/- 7.89 years) recruited from four social and healthcare centers. PFF was
      assessed through muscle strength tests of upper and lower limbs, endurance,
      agility-dynamic balance, flexibility, and body composition. The following FS
      indicators were assessed: weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slowness, and low
      physical activity level. Significant correlations were found between FS and
      endurance, agility-dynamic balance, upper and lower limbs muscle strength tests.
      Comparitive analyses also revealed that, among FS groups, the frail subgroup
      performed significantly poorer on all PFF measures except body composition.
      Additionally, a receiving operating characteristics curve analysis revealed good
      diagnostic accuracy for predicting FS using the agility-dynamic balance test
      (Area Under Curve [AUC] = .82, 95% CI [0.74, 0.90]; sensitivity and specificity
      were 70.4% and 84.8% for the cutoff = 16.22 seconds). Accurately, the risk of
      frail condition (not pre-frail) increases about 2.12% per second spent in this
      test. Thus, the agility-dynamic balance test is a promising tool for screening
      institutionalized older people for risk of FS.

PMID- 28560892
TI  - Self-Reported Versus Accelerometer-Assessed Daily Physical Activity in Childhood
      Obesity Treatment.
AB  - We investigated the relationship between interview-based subjective ratings of
      physical activity (PA) engagement and accelerometer-assessed objectively measured
      PA in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. A total of 92 children
      and adolescents (40 males, 52 females) with BMI >= 90th percentile for sex and
      age, aged 5-17 years had valid GT3X + accelerometer-assessed PA and interview
      assessed self-reported information on PA engagement at the time of enrollment in
      a multidisciplinary outpatient tertiary treatment for childhood obesity.
      Accelerometer-derived mean overall PA and time spent in moderate to vigorous
      physical intensity were generated, applying cut-offs based on Vector Magnitude
      settings as defined by Romanzini et al. (2014), and a physical activity score
      (PAS) based on self-reported data. Overall, a higher self-reported PAS was
      correlated with higher accelerometer-assessed daily total PA levels ( r = 0.34, p
      < .01) and children who reported a high PAS were more physically active compared
      with children who reported a low PAS. There was a fair level of agreement between
      self-reported PAS and accelerometer-assessed PA (Kappa agreement = 0.23; 95% CI =
      [0.03, 0.43]; p = .01). PAS, derived from self-report, may be a useful instrument
      for evaluating PA at a group level among children and adolescents enrolled in
      multidisciplinary obesity treatment.

PMID- 28560895
TI  - Age Diversity in the Workplace: The Effect of Relational Age Within Supervisor
      Employee Dyads on Employees' Work Engagement.
AB  - Although having a younger supervisor or a supervisor of a similar age runs
      counter to the traditional older supervisor-younger subordinate norm, it is
      becoming increasingly common in the 21st-century workplace. The current study
      uses theories of relational demography and relational norms as well as Selective
      Optimization with Compensation theory and the job demands-resources model to
      understand how relational age within supervisor-employee dyads influences
      workers' engagement. Cross-sectional data from a multiworksite (U.S.-based)
      sample of 2,195 workers aged 18 to 81 years were used to estimate ordinary least
      squares regression models. After accounting for a variety of factors that could
      influence engagement levels (i.e., demographics, health status, and job or
      personal resources), findings indicated that employees with similar-age
      supervisors were less engaged than employees with older supervisors. Moreover,
      while employees who did not know the ages of their supervisors were just as
      engaged as employees with older supervisors. Implications for engaging an age
      diverse workforce are discussed.

PMID- 28560894
TI  - Growth of Verticillium longisporum in Xylem Sap of Brassica napus is Independent
      from Cultivar Resistance but Promoted by Plant Aging.
AB  - As Verticillium stem striping of oilseed rape (OSR), a vascular disease caused by
      Verticillium longisporum, is extending into new geographic regions and no control
      with fungicides exists, the demand for understanding mechanisms of quantitative
      resistance increases. Because V. longisporum is strictly limited to the xylem and
      resistance is expressed in the systemic stage post root invasion, we investigated
      a potential antifungal role of soluble constituents and nutritional conditions in
      xylem sap as determinants of cultivar resistance of OSR to V. longisporum.
      Assessment of biometric and molecular genetic parameters applied to describe V.
      longisporum resistance (net area under disease progress curve, stunting, stem
      thickness, plant biomass, and V. longisporum DNA content) showed consistent
      susceptibility of cultivar 'Falcon' in contrast to two resistant genotypes, 'SEM'
      and 'Aviso'. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed a consistently stronger in
      vitro growth of V. longisporum in xylem sap extracted from OSR compared with the
      water control. Further comparisons of fungal growth in xylem sap of different
      cultivars revealed the absence of constitutive or V. longisporum induced
      antifungal activity in the xylem sap of resistant versus susceptible genotypes.
      The similar growth of V. longisporum in xylem sap, irrespective of cultivar,
      infection with V. longisporum and xylem sap filtration, was correlated with about
      equal amounts of total soluble proteins in xylem sap from these treatments.
      Interestingly, compared with younger plants, xylem sap from older plants induced
      significantly stronger fungal growth. Growth enhancement of V. longisporum in
      xylem sap of aging plants was reflected by increased contents of carbohydrates,
      which was consistent in mock or V. longisporum-infected plants and independent
      from cultivar resistance. The improved nutritional conditions in the xylem of
      more mature plants may explain the late appearance of disease symptoms, which are
      observed only in late maturity stages of plants in the field. While falsifying
      the presence of antifungal activity in xylem sap of resistant cultivars, this
      study strengthens previous findings that indicated a significant role of physical
      cell wall bound resistance factors involved in quantitative, cultivar-related
      resistance of B. napus to V. longisporum.

PMID- 28560896
TI  - Bayesian two-part bent-cable Tobit models with skew distributions: Application to
      AIDS studies.
AB  - This paper presents a new development of a bent-cable two-part Tobit model to
      identify both phasic patterns and mixture of advancing (to AIDS) and non
      advancing patients of HIV. In identification of such phasic patterns, estimation
      of a transition period for the development of drug resistance to antiretroviral
      (ARV) drug or therapy is carried out using longitudinal data that have a gradual
      change from a declining phase to an increasing phase. In addition to phasic
      changes, there are also problems of skewness and left-censoring in the response
      variable because of a lower limit of detection. A relatively large percentage of
      data below limit of detection are recorded more than expected under an assumed
      skew-distribution. To properly accommodate these features, we present an
      extension of the random effects bent-cable Tobit model that incorporates a
      mixture of true undetectable observations and those values from a skew-normal
      distribution for a response with left-censoring, skewness and phasic patterns.
      The proposed methods are illustrated using real data from an AIDS clinical study.

PMID- 28560897
TI  - Fructosamine: A Negative Acute Phase Reactant.

PMID- 28560899
TI  - Shared Electronic Health Record Systems: Key Legal and Security Challenges.
AB  - Use of shared electronic health records opens a whole range of new possibilities
      for flexible and fruitful cooperation among health personnel in different health
      institutions, to the benefit of the patients. There are, however, unsolved legal
      and security challenges. The overall aim of this article is to highlight legal
      and security challenges that should be considered before using shared electronic
      cooperation platforms and health record systems to avoid legal and security
      "surprises" subsequent to the implementation. Practical lessons learned from the
      use of a web-based ulcer record system involving patients, community nurses, GPs,
      and hospital nurses and doctors in specialist health care are used to illustrate
      challenges we faced. Discussion of possible legal and security challenges is
      critical for successful implementation of shared electronic collaboration
      systems. Key challenges include (1) allocation of responsibility, (2)
      documentation routines, (3) and integrated or federated access control. We
      discuss and suggest how challenges of legal and security aspects can be handled.
      This discussion may be useful for both current and future users, as well as
      policy makers.

PMID- 28560898
TI  - A Systematic Review of Reviews Evaluating Technology-Enabled Diabetes Self
      Management Education and Support.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of mobile phones, technology has been
      increasingly used to enable diabetes self-management education and support. This
      timely systematic review summarizes how currently available technology impacts
      outcomes for people living with diabetes. METHODS: A systematic review of high
      quality review articles and meta analyses focused on utilizing technology in
      diabetes self-management education and support services was conducted. Articles
      were included if published between January 2013 and January 2017. RESULTS: Twenty
      five studies were included for analysis. The majority evaluated the use of mobile
      phones and secure messaging. Most studies described healthy eating, being active
      and metabolic monitoring as the predominant self-care behaviors evaluated.
      Eighteen of 25 reviews reported significant reduction in A1c as an outcome
      measure. Four key elements emerged as essential for improved A1c: (1)
      communication, (2) patient-generated health data, (3) education, and (4)
      feedback. CONCLUSION: Technology-enabled diabetes self-management solutions
      significantly improve A1c. The most effective interventions incorporated all the
      components of a technology-enabled self-management feedback loop that connected
      people with diabetes and their health care team using 2-way communication,
      analyzed patient-generated health data, tailored education, and individualized
      feedback. The evidence from this systematic review indicates that organizations,
      policy makers and payers should consider integrating these solutions in the
      design of diabetes self-management education and support services for population
      health and value-based care models. With the widespread adoption of mobile
      phones, digital health solutions that incorporate evidence-based, behaviorally
      designed interventions can improve the reach and access to diabetes self
      management education and ongoing support.

PMID- 28560900
TI  - Effect of BGM Accuracy on the Clinical Performance of CGM: An In-Silico Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Standard management of type 1 diabetes (T1D) relies on blood glucose
      monitoring based on a range of technologies from self-monitoring of blood glucose
      (BGM) to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Even as CGM technology matures,
      patients utilize BGM for calibration and dosing. The question of how the accuracy
      of both technologies interact is still not well understood. METHODS: We use a
      recently developed data-driven simulation approach to characterize the
      relationship between CGM and BGM accuracy especially how BGM accuracy impacts CGM
      performance in four different use cases with increasing levels of reliance on
      twice daily calibrated CGM. Simulations are used to estimate clinical outcomes
      and isolate CGM and BGM accuracy characteristics that drive performance. RESULTS:
      Our results indicate that meter (BGM) accuracy, and more specifically systematic
      positive or negative bias, has a significant effect on clinical performance
      (HbA1c and severe hypoglycemia events) in all use-cases generated for twice daily
      calibrated CGMs. Moreover, CGM sensor accuracy can amplify or mitigate, but not
      eliminate these effects. CONCLUSION: As a system, BGM and CGM and their mode of
      use (use-case) interact to determine clinical outcomes. Clinical outcomes (eg,
      HbA1c, severe hypoglycemia, time in range) can be closely approximated by linear
      relationships with two BGM accuracy characteristics, namely error and bias. In
      turn, the coefficients of this linear relationship are determined by the use-case
      and by CGM accuracy (MARD).

PMID- 28560902
TI  - Changing people's perceptions and creating a vibrant learning environment.
AB  - There has been a long-standing perception that care homes are a backwater for
      nursing careers, largely due to inequity in accessing workplace training
      opportunities compared with those in the NHS.

PMID- 28560903
TI  - 'Susan and Dena's vision, hard work and enthusiasm were unbeatable'.
AB  - Susan Wills and Dena Ross have reduced unplanned and avoidable admissions by
      supporting the carers to manage residents safely in their nursing homes.

PMID- 28560901
TI  - New Faces of HIV Infection: Age, Race, and Timing of Entry into HIV Care in the
      Southeastern United States.
AB  - Among younger men who have sex with men (MSM), the incidence of HIV is rising
      nationally. Of the 281 persons who entered into care at a large HIV clinic in the
      southeastern United States in 2010 to 2012, 78 (27.8%) were <25 years old at the
      time of diagnosis. Those in the younger group were more likely than those aged
      >=25 to be black (59.0% versus 37.4%), MSM (78.2% versus 55.2%), and to have a
      longer median time from diagnosis to entry into care (71 versus 53 days; P < .05
      each). In adjusted survival analysis, persons of black race were less likely to
      enter care after diagnosis than those of nonblack race (hazard ratio = 0.75, P =
      .02). Young MSM represent an important target population for prevention and HIV
      testing interventions, and there is a need to shorten the time from diagnosis to
      linkage to care, particularly in persons aged <25 and of black race.

PMID- 28560905
TI  - 'If you don't like how your service is run, say so'.
AB  - What is your job? I am a commissioner and a nurse, which means I have roles, such
      as clinical audit, that other commissioners do not have. My job involves
      assessing the needs of the local population, looking for gaps and filling these
      with the appropriate services.

PMID- 28560906
TI  - Beloved Old Age and What to Do About It: Margery Allingham's The Relay Handed on
      to Julia Jones Beloved Old Age and What to Do About It: Margery Allingham's The
      Relay Handed on to Julia Jones 192pp L10.99 Golden Duck 9781899262298 1899262296
      [Formula: see text].
AB  - This book offers the perspectives of two people caring for older family members:
      novelist Margery Allingham in the 1950s and her biographer Julia Jones, whose
      mother is in her nineties and living in supported housing, today.

PMID- 28560907
TI  - Joint launch of frailty resource.
AB  - The RCN older people's forum and RCNi have launched an online resource for nurses
      to help patients with frailty.

PMID- 28560908
TI  - Valuable online resources and outstanding nursing talent.
AB  - Welcome to the June issue of Nursing Older People. RCNi has recently launched an
      online frailty resource in conjunction with the RCN older people's forum. Access
      to this valuable resource is included in your subscription to the journal and I
      encourage you to visit it.

PMID- 28560909
TI  - Use 'nursing intuition' in assessments, say senior care home staff.
AB  - Care home nurses need to ensure they are putting patients at the heart of
      decisions about care from their admission onwards, according to two senior nurses
      in the field.

PMID- 28560910
TI  - Deconditioning due to hospitalisation.
AB  - Functional decline as a result of admission to hospital has been well documented
      since 1944. Older people are at much higher risk of deconditioning than their
      younger counterparts. This research focus summarises two early studies on
      deconditioning and one recent study that records the incidence of iatrogenic
      disability during hospitalisation.

PMID- 28560911
TI  - Story in numbers.
AB  - Ageing in the 21st century.

PMID- 28560912
TI  - Hospital-associated deconditioning and dysfunction.
AB  - A paper published in 1991 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
      describes hospitalisation as a 'devastating' event for an older person. This was
      conceptualised as stemming from three discrete processes: the illness itself,
      adverse effects of treatment and the general effects of deconditioning.

PMID- 28560913
TI  - Functional impact of ten days of bed rest in healthy older adults.
AB  - Kortebein and colleagues published a seminal paper in 2008 that reported a study
      involving 11 older participants older than 67 who underwent ten days of enforced
      bed rest. Such a study would not gain ethical consent today.

PMID- 28560914
TI  - Preventable iatrogenic disability in elderly patients during hospitalisation.
AB  - A French study involving 503 patients of 75 years and over reviewed the
      frequency, causes and preventability of disability induced by a hospital stay.

PMID- 28560916
TI  - 'I have Alzheimer's disease and I have a voice'.
AB  - I am a single woman of a certain age. I have Alzheimer's disease and I live alone
      without a carer. I manage as best I can, but I am often in terror of inevitable
      future deterioration.

PMID- 28560917
TI  - Caring for patients with Parkinson's disease in general hospital settings.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common progressive neurological condition. There
      are 127,000 people with the disease in the UK, that is, one in every 500 of the
      population. In 2014-15 there were 14,000 hospital admissions of people with PD in
      England. However, PD is often not the primary cause of admission. Urinary tract
      infections and pneumonia, for example, are frequent causes of hospital admission
      for people with PD. Therefore, nurses on general medical and surgical wards will
      often care for people with PD. This article aims to provide an update on PD and
      explore the nurse's role in assessment and provision of safe and effective care
      for patients with PD in acute hospital settings.

PMID- 28560918
TI  - '125 years of savings needed to live well'.
AB  - The unachievable cost of dementia care is revealed in a new report that also
      highlights the loneliness of carers.

PMID- 28560919
TI  - Short-term corticosteroid use may be associated with increased risk of adverse
      events.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of serious adverse events
      associated with corticosteroid use, specifically fracture, sepsis and venous
      thromboembolism (VTE).

PMID- 28560920
TI  - Care homes needed for new research into managing falls.
AB  - Academics conducting a L1.8 million research project are recruiting care homes to
      test a new falls procedure. Funded by the National Institute for Health Research,
      the three-year project involves trials of a new training package and guidelines
      designed by the University of Nottingham's Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing.
      The trials are taking place at residential and care homes in the East Midlands,
      West Yorkshire and East Anglia.

PMID- 28560921
TI  - Horse-riding simulation can be part of balance training for people with knee
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - This study explores whether simulated horse-riding exercises can help older
      people with osteoarthritis of the knee.

PMID- 28560922
TI  - International experts call for atrial fibrillation screening programme.
AB  - Screening programmes need to be introduced to detect irregular heart rates among
      older patients, according to an international collaboration of experts.

PMID- 28560923
TI  - Anti-tau vaccine is successful in clinical trial for people with Alzheimer's
      disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease progressively impairs cognition and daily function, and death
      usually occurs five to ten years after diagnosis. There are drugs available to
      treat the disease's symptoms, but they do not halt or slow its progression.

PMID- 28560924
TI  - Anguish at outliving our adult children.
AB  - 'Old age ain't no place for sissies', film star Bette Davis (pictured) once said,
      and how right she was.

PMID- 28560925
TI  - Integrated Care in Action: A Practical Guide for Health, Social Care and Housing
      Supports Miller Robin Brown Hilary and Mangan Catherine Integrated Care in
      Action: A Practical Guide for Health, Social Care and Housing Supports 232pp
      L22.99 Jessica Kingsley 9781849056465 1849056463 [Formula: see text].
AB  - The blurb of this book suggests it is about leading, managing and delivering
      integrated care, but it could be applied to any kind of change in healthcare
      services.

PMID- 28560926
TI  - The value of life story work for staff, people with dementia and family members.
AB  - Dementia is a term used to describe a collection of symptoms that include
      problems with memory, self-care, reasoning and communication. Care interventions
      that focus on preserving people's dignity and identity are therefore essential.
      Using Driscoll's reflective model to guide critical thinking, this article
      reflects on the use of one intervention, namely life story work, to promote
      person-centred care for people with dementia. It explores the value or effect of
      life story work for healthcare staff, the person with dementia and family
      members. It also highlights best practice guidelines that are useful to consider
      to promote its optimal success as an intervention in dementia care, for example,
      instigating it early in the dementia journey and embedding it in a supportive
      culture. It is important to highlight to nursing students the many positive
      aspects of incorporating life story work into practice.

PMID- 28560927
TI  - GP services and care homes.
AB  - Essential facts Improving how GPs and care home staff work together is essential
      if residents are to receive more timely care, according to the Social Care
      Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

PMID- 28560929
TI  - Advances in percutaneous interventional therapies: the tricuspid valve.
AB  - Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a prevalent valve condition, with an estimated
      1.6 million people in the USA living with moderate or greater severity.
      Functional TR, which predominantly develops due to left-sided heart disease, is
      the predominant condition affecting the tricuspid valve in the Western world and
      severe TR is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. In part, due to
      a prolonged latency period with insidious symptoms, patients are often referred
      for surgery at advanced stages, with associated increased or prohibitive surgical
      risk. In addition, surgical treatment can result in high rates of recurrence.
      Therefore, there is an unmet need for percutaneous therapies that may provide a
      relatively low-risk treatment option. There are several devices with early human
      feasibility data available that will be reviewed in this article.

PMID- 28560930
TI  - Hand Rub Consumption Has Almost Doubled in 132 German Hospitals Over 9 Years.
AB  - Annual surveillance data (2007-2015), collected continuously in 132 German
      hospitals, was evaluated for development of alcohol-based hand-rub consumption
      (AHC) as a surrogate parameter for hand hygiene adherence. Overall, the median
      increase in AHC was 94%. The increases over 9 years were significant in all units
      and quartiles of AHC at baseline. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:870-872.

PMID- 28560931
TI  - Psychosis and dementia: risk factor, prodrome, or cause?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Progression of dementia is often associated with the emergence of
      neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), though there is recent evidence that NPS may
      occur in prodromal dementia (PrD) and impact clinical course. Mood and anxiety
      symptoms are the NPS that tend to occur most frequently in PrD and thus have been
      most extensively studied. Comparatively, there has been little focus on psychotic
      symptoms in PrD. METHODS: The authors review the existing literature on psychosis
      in PrD, including the functional psychosis of early and late onset, with a focus
      on epidemiology, phenomenology, and clinical course and treatment considerations.
      RESULTS: Patients with psychotic disorders at baseline such as schizophrenia may
      be more at risk for developing dementia over time, although this is not
      completely clear. Psychotic symptoms are likely more common in PrD than
      previously understood based on factor analysis studies, although they are much
      more common in established dementia. Variability in findings may reflect the
      heterogeneous nature of PrD studies to date and the lack of inclusion of patients
      with late onset psychosis in most clinical studies. The presence of psychosis in
      patients with PrD may be associated with a worse prognosis in terms of mortality
      and conversion to dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Research to date suggests that psychosis
      in PrD may be more common than previously thought and impact clinical course
      negatively. Future studies incorporating patients with late onset psychotic
      disorders, and focusing on the impact of early recognition and treatment, are
      required to more fully understand the role of psychosis in PrD.

PMID- 28560932
TI  - Redescription and genetic characterization of Cystidicoloides vaucheri, including
      first description of male and current status on the phylogeny of Cystidicolidae
      (Nematoda: Habronematoidea).
AB  - Cystidicoloides vaucheri collected in the stomach of the redtail catfish
      Phractocephalus hemioliopterus from River Acre, State of Acre, Brazil is
      redescribed, including the first description of males and the first genetic
      characterization based upon 18S and 28S genes of the rRNA. Newly collected
      females were biometrically smaller than those reported in the original
      description, but similar morphology shared by the two samples revealed that they
      belong to the same species. Scanning electron micrographs showed the accurate
      structure of the cephalic region, described here in detail. Furthermore, the
      morphology of males completed the specific diagnosis, strengthening the validity
      of the species. The three other congeners differ from C. vaucheri mainly as
      follows: in C. dlouhyi the area rugosa is absent, the cephalic structures in C.
      fischeri are completely distinct, and in both species the spicules have
      membranous outgrowths, absent in C. vaucheri. Despite the dubious generic
      assignment of C. izecksohni, it differs from C. vaucheri in several biometrical
      and morphological features. Because of data availability, only sequences of the
      18S were used for phylogenetic reconstructions. Results showed that the genus
      Ascarophis and the families Cystidicolidae and Physalopteridae are not
      monophyletic. Cystidicoloides vaucheri formed an independent branch clustering
      with representatives of Cystidicolidae, confirming its validity. The inclusion of
      Salmonema and Spinitectus within Cystidicolidae should be reviewed, since they
      formed an assemblage with species from Rhabdochonidae. In fact, current
      classification of some taxa belonging to Habronematoidea, Physalopteroidea and
      Thelazioidea need to be re-evaluated, mainly based on molecular data from
      different genes.

PMID- 28560934
TI  - Organic food consumption during pregnancy is associated with different consumer
      profiles, food patterns and intake: the KOALA Birth Cohort Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To find out how the consumption of organic food during pregnancy is
      associated with consumer characteristics, dietary patterns and macro- and
      micronutrient intakes. DESIGN: Cross-sectional description of consumer
      characteristics, dietary patterns and macro- and micronutrient intakes associated
      with consumption of organic food during pregnancy. SETTING: Healthy, pregnant
      women recruited to a prospective cohort study at midwives' practices in the
      southern part of the Netherlands; to enrich the study with participants adhering
      to alternative lifestyles, pregnant women were recruited through various specific
      channels. SUBJECTS: Participants who filled in questionnaires on food frequency
      in gestational week 34 (n 2786). Participant groups were defined based on the
      share of organic products within various food types. RESULTS: Consumers of
      organic food more often adhere to specific lifestyle rules, such as vegetarianism
      or anthroposophy, than do participants who consume conventional food only
      (reference group). Consumption of organic food is associated with food patterns
      comprising more products of vegetable origin (soya/vegetarian products,
      vegetables, cereal products, bread, fruits, and legumes) and fewer animal
      products (milk and meat), sugar and potatoes than consumed in conventional diets.
      These differences translate into distinct intakes of macro- and micronutrients,
      including higher retinol, carotene, tocopherol and folate intakes, lower intakes
      of vitamin D and B12 and specific types of trans-fatty acids in the organic
      groups. These differences are seen even in groups with low consumption of organic
      food. CONCLUSIONS: Various consumer characteristics, specific dietary patterns
      and types of food intake are associated with the consumption of organic food
      during pregnancy.

PMID- 28560933
TI  - Measuring Antibiotic Appropriateness for Urinary Tract Infections in Nursing Home
      Residents.
AB  - We assessed the appropriateness of initiating antibiotics in 49 nursing home (NH)
      residents receiving antibiotics for urinary tract infection (UTI) using 3
      published algorithms. Overall, 16 residents (32%) received prophylaxis, and among
      the 33 receiving treatment, the percentage of appropriate use ranged from 15% to
      45%. Opportunities exist for improving UTI antibiotic prescribing in NH. Infect
      Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:998-1001.

PMID- 28560935
TI  - Medical and psychosocial determinants of risk of postpartum depression: a cross
      sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of risk of
      maternal postpartum depression during the second month of puerperium. METHOD: In
      total, 387 postnatal women filled out a questionnaire concerning their health and
      social status, as well as the following tests: the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression
      Scale (EPDS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Neo Five-Factor
      Inventory (NEO-FFI) Personality Inventory and the Berlin Social Support Scales.
      After 4-8 weeks, patients responded to another questionnaire with the EPDS and
      the PHQ-9. RESULTS: In total, 48 patients (12.40%) were found to be at risk of
      postpartum depression between the fourth and eighth weeks after delivery.
      Premenstrual syndrome [adjusted odds ratio (ORa)=2.93, confidence interval (CI)
      1.30-6.63] and EPDS>12 points during the first week after the delivery (ORa=3.74,
      CI 1.59-9.04) increased the risk of postnatal depression. A similar role is
      played by a high result in neuroticism scale of the NEO-FFI (ORa=1.50, CI 1.17
      1.92) and a positive family history of any psychiatric disorder (ORa=1.03, CI
      1.01-1.06). CONCLUSION: A history of premenstrual syndrome and a higher risk of
      affective disorder soon after a childbirth are associated with greater chances of
      depressive symptoms in the second month postpartum. This is also the case if a
      patient is neurotic and has a relative with a history of any psychiatric
      disorder. Such women should have their mental status carefully evaluated.

PMID- 28560936
TI  - Self-rated health is associated with subsequent functional decline among older
      adults in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported that self-rated health (SRH) predicts
      subsequent mortality. However, less is known about the association between SRH
      and functional ability. The aim of this study was to examine whether SRH predicts
      decline in basic activities of daily living (ADL), even after adjustment for
      depression, among community-dwelling older adults in Japan. METHODS: A three-year
      prospective cohort study was conducted among 654 residents aged 65 years and
      older without disability in performing basic ADL at baseline. SRH was assessed
      using a visual analogue scale (range; 0-100), and dichotomized into low and high
      groups. Information on functional ability, sociodemographic factors, depressive
      symptoms, and medical conditions were obtained using a self-administered
      questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association
      between baseline SRH and functional decline three years later. RESULTS: One
      hundred and eight (16.5%) participants reported a decline in basic ADL at the
      three-year follow-up. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the low
      SRH group had a higher risk for functional decline compared to the high SRH
      group, even after controlling for potential confounding factors (odds ratio (OR)
      = 2.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.3-4.4). Furthermore, a 10-point
      difference in SRH score was associated with subsequent functional decline (OR =
      1.37; 95% CI = 1.16-1.61). CONCLUSIONS: SRH was an independent predictor of
      functional decline. SRH could be a simple assessment tool for predicting the loss
      or maintenance of functional ability in community-dwelling older adults. Positive
      self-evaluation might be useful to maintain an active lifestyle and stay healthy.

PMID- 28560937
TI  - Comparison of flock characteristics, journey duration and pathology between
      flocks with a normal and a high percentage of broilers 'dead-on-arrival' at
      abattoirs.
AB  - This study investigated high mortality in broilers transported to slaughter in
      Norway by comparing data from flocks with normal and high mortality during
      transportation. The data sources consisted of necropsy findings in 535 broilers
      dead-on-arrival (DOA), production data and slaughterhouse data, along with
      average journey duration for the 61 associated flocks. The mean Norwegian DOA%
      for 2015 was 0.10. In this study, normal-mortality flocks were defined as flocks
      with a mean DOA% up to 0.30 and high mortality as flocks with a mean DOA% above
      0.30. DOA% was calculated per flock. The most frequent pathological finding was
      lung congestion which was observed in 75.5% of the DOA broilers. This postmortem
      finding was significantly more common in broilers from high-mortality flocks
      (89.3%) than in DOA broilers from normal-mortality flocks (58%). The following
      variables had a significantly (P<0.05) higher median in the high-mortality
      flocks: flock size, 1st week mortality, foot pad lesion score, carcass rejection
      numbers and journey duration. The results indicate that high broiler mortality
      during transportation to the abattoir may be linked to several steps in the
      broiler production chain. The results suggest that preventive measures are to be
      considered in improvement of health and environmental factors during the
      production period and throughout the journey duration.

PMID- 28560938
TI  - DEFINING THE RELEVANT OUTCOME MEASURES IN MEDICAL DEVICE ASSESSMENTS: AN ANALYSIS
      OF THE DEFINITION PROCESS IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Defining relevant outcome measures for clinical trials on medical
      devices (MD) is complex, as there is a large variety of potentially relevant
      outcomes. The chosen outcomes vary widely across clinical trials making the
      assessment in evidence syntheses very challenging. The objective is to provide an
      overview on the current common procedures of health technology assessment (HTA)
      institutions in defining outcome measures in MD trials. METHODS: In 2012-14, the
      Web pages of 126 institutions involved in HTA were searched for methodological
      manuals written in English or German that describe methods for the predefinition
      process of outcome measures. Additionally, the institutions were contacted by
      email. Relevant information was extracted. All process steps were performed
      independently by two reviewers. RESULTS: Twenty-four manuals and ten responses
      from the email request were included in the analysis. Overall, 88.5 percent of
      the institutions describe the type of outcomes that should be considered in
      detail and 84.6 percent agree that the main focus should be on patient relevant
      outcomes. Specifically related to MD, information could be obtained in 26 percent
      of the included manuals and email responses. Eleven percent of the institutions
      report a particular consideration of MD related outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This
      detailed analysis on common procedures of HTA institutions in the context of
      defining relevant outcome measures for the assessment of MD shows that
      standardized procedures for MD from the perspective of HTA institutions are not
      widespread. This leads to the question if a homogenous approach should be
      implemented in the field of HTA on MD.

PMID- 28560939
TI  - A NEW HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR JAPAN? SIMULATING THE POTENTIAL
      IMPACT ON THE PRICE OF SIMEPREVIR.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Japanese authorities have announced a plan to introduce a health
      technology assessment (HTA) system in 2016. This study assessed the potential
      impact of such a policy on the price of the antivirologic drug simeprevir.
      METHODS: Taking the antivirologic drug simeprevir as an example, we compared the
      current Japanese price with hypothetical prices that might result if a U.K. (cost
      utility) or German (efficiency frontier) style HTA assessment was in place.
      RESULTS: The simeprevir unit price under the current Japanese pricing scheme is
      13,122 Japanese yen (equivalent to 109.35 U.S. dollars as of April 2015).
      Depending on the selection of comparators and the pricing method, and assuming
      that HTA will be used as a basis for price setting, the estimated prices of
      simeprevir vary up to four times higher than under the current Japanese pricing
      scheme. CONCLUSIONS: Although the analysis is based on only one drug, it cannot
      be taken for granted that a new HTA system would reduce public healthcare
      expenditure in Japan.

PMID- 28560940
TI  - Priority of Patient Safety Associated With Robotic Surgical Instruments-Response
      to Landenberg et al.

PMID- 28560941
TI  - Thyroid cancer has a small impact on patient-partner relationships and their
      frequency of sexual activity.
AB  - : ABSTRACTObjective:This cross-sectional survey examined changes in perceived
      relationships and sexual activity in a sample of thyroid cancer patients and
      their partners, taking into account sociodemographic and disease-related
      variables, as well as such outcome measures as anxiety, depression, fatigue, and
      quality of life (QoL). METHOD: A total of 38 patients with thyroid cancer who
      were being treated at the department of nuclear medicine in Zurich or Lucerne
      over the preceding seven years, as well as their partners, completed
      questionnaires about the quality of their relationships (RQ), about perceptions
      of changes in their relationships, and about their frequency of sexual activity.
      They also filled out prevalidated questionnaires related to anxiety, depression,
      fatigue, and QoL. RESULTS: Some 17 patients (44.7%) and 16 partners (42.1 %)
      reported that the cancer diagnosis had changed their relationships. Of these, 10
      (26.3%) patients and 9 (23.7%) partners reported positive changes only, while 7
      patients (18.4%) and 7 partners (18.4%) reported mixed or negative changes. A
      perceived mixed/negative relationship change was associated with increased
      depression and lower RQ in patients and partners, as well as with increased
      anxiety in patients. While the frequency of sexual activity only changed in
      roughly half of patients and partners (16 patients [42.1%] and 20 partners
      [52.6%]), increased sexual activity was associated with lower physical QoL scores
      and a higher depression score than in counterparts who reported no change.
      SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Compared to other cancer sites, in our sample thyroid
      cancer had a relatively small impact on patient-partner relationships and levels
      of intimacy. We found that screening patients and their partners with a simple
      question-"Did the diagnosis of cancer change your relationship?"-can lead to
      early detection of couples who are potentially at risk for perceived negative
      relationship changes and can facilitate timely psychosocial referral for couple's
      therapy.

PMID- 28560942
TI  - Categorization and Analysis of Disaster Health Publications: An Inventory.
AB  - Disaster Medicine is a relatively new discipline. Understanding of the current
      status of its science is needed in order to develop a roadmap for the direction
      and structure of future studies that will contribute to building the science of
      the health aspects of disasters (HADs). The objective of this study was to
      examine the existing, peer-reviewed literature relevant to the HADs to determine
      the status of the currently available literature underlying the science of the
      HADs. A total of 709 consecutive, peer-reviewed articles published from 2009-2014
      in two disaster-health-related medical journals, Prehospital and Disaster
      Medicine (PDM) and Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (DMPHP), were
      examined. Of these, 495 were disaster-related (PDM, 248; DMPHP, 247). Three major
      categories defined these disaster-related research articles: (1) Epidemiological
      studies comprised 50.5%; (2) Interventional, 20.3%; and (3) Syntheses, 26.9%.
      Interventional studies were sub-categorized into: (a) Relief Responses, 23.0%;
      (b) Recovery Responses, 2.0%; or (c) Risk-Reduction Interventions, 75.0%.
      Basically, the inventories were consistent within the two journals. Reported
      indicators of outcomes related to the responses were constrained to achievement
      indicators (numbers accomplished). Syntheses articles were sub-categorized into:
      (a) Literature Reviews, 17.6%; (b) Opinions, 25.2%; (c) Models, 24.4%; (d)
      Frameworks, 6.9%; (e) Guidelines, 13.0%; (f) Tools, 3.0%; (g) Protocols,
      Policies, or Criteria, 2.3%; or (h) Conference Summaries, 7.6%. Trend analyses
      indicated that the relative proportions of articles in each category and sub
      category remained relatively constant over the five years. No randomized
      controlled trials (RTCs), non-randomized, comparative controlled trials (CCTs),
      or systematic reviews were published in these journals during the period
      examined. Each article also was examined qualitatively for objectives, study
      type, content, language, and structure. There was no common structure used for
      any category or sub-categories. In addition, the terminology used was
      inconsistent and often confusing. This categorization process should be applied
      to other peer-reviewed journals that publish research related to HADs. As
      evidenced in the current study, the evidence base for HADs is far from robust and
      is disorganized, making the development of scientific evidence on which to base
      best practices difficult. A stronger evidence base is needed to develop the
      science associated with the HADs. This will require a common structure and
      terminology to facilitate comparisons. Greater depth of reporting is needed in
      order to render the Epidemiological studies more useful in mitigating the
      negative health impacts of hazard-related events. Interventional studies must be
      structured and include outcomes, impacts, benefits, and costs with robust
      indicators. The outcomes and impacts of Risk-Reduction Interventions will require
      the evaluation of changes in the epidemiology documented in future events or
      exercises. Birnbaum ML , Adibhatla S , Dudek O , Ramsel-Miller J . Categorization
      and analysis of disaster health publications: an inventory. Prehosp Disaster Med.
      2017;32(5):473-482 .

PMID- 28560943
TI  - Informant questionnaire on cognitive decline in the elderly (IQCODE) for
      classifying cognitive dysfunction as cognitively normal, mild cognitive
      impairment, and dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly
      (IQCODE) is a reliable, validated informant-based instrument in screening for
      cognitive dysfunction. However, previous studies have evaluated only the ability
      to discriminate dichotomously, such as dementia from cognitively normal (CN)
      individuals or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from CN. This study investigated
      the ability of the IQCODE to classify not only dichotomous but also multiple
      stages of cognitive dysfunction. METHODS: We examined 228 consecutive
      participants (76 CN, 76 with MCI, and 76 with dementia). Receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curves determined dichotomous classification parameters.
      Multi-category ROC surfaces were evaluated to classify three stages of cognitive
      dysfunction. RESULTS: Dichotomous classification using the ROC curve analyses
      showed that the area under the ROC curve was 0.91 for dementia from participants
      without dementia and 0.71 for MCI from CN. Simultaneous multi-category
      classification analyses showed that the volume under the ROC surface was 0.61 and
      the derived optimal cut-off points were 3.15 and 3.73 for CN, MCI, and dementia.
      The Youden index for the IQCODE was estimated as 0.51 and the derived optimal cut
      off points were 3.33 and 3.70. The overall classification accuracy by the VUS was
      58.3% and that by the Youden index 61.8%. CONCLUSIONS: IQCODE is useful to
      classify the dichotomous and multi-category stages of cognitive dysfunction.

PMID- 28560944
TI  - Feed intake and milk production in dairy cows fed different grass and legume
      species: a meta-analysis.
AB  - The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare feed intake, milk production, milk
      composition and organic matter (OM) digestibility in dairy cows fed different
      grass and legume species. Data from the literature was collected and different
      data sets were made to compare families (grasses v. legumes, Data set 1),
      different legume species and grass family (Data set 2), and different grass and
      legume species (Data set 3+4). The first three data sets included diets where
      single species or family were fed as the sole forage, whereas the approach in the
      last data set differed by taking the proportion of single species in the forage
      part into account allowing diets consisting of both grasses and legumes to be
      included. The grass species included were perennial ryegrass, annual ryegrass,
      orchardgrass, timothy, meadow fescue, tall fescue and festulolium, and the legume
      species included were white clover, red clover, lucerne and birdsfoot trefoil.
      Overall, dry matter intake (DMI) and milk production were 1.3 and 1.6 kg/day
      higher, respectively, whereas milk protein and milk fat concentration were 0.5
      and 1.4 g/kg lower, respectively, for legume-based diets compared with grass
      based diets. When comparing individual legume species with grasses, only red
      clover resulted in a lower milk protein concentration than grasses. Cows fed
      white clover and birdsfoot trefoil yielded more milk than cows fed red clover and
      lucerne, probably caused by a higher OM digestibility of white clover and
      activity of condensed tannins in birdsfoot trefoil. None of the included grass
      species differed in DMI, milk production, milk composition or OM digestibility,
      indicating that different grass species have the same value for milk production,
      if OM digestibility is comparable. However, the comparison of different grass
      species relied on few observations, indicating that knowledge regarding feed
      intake and milk production potential of different grass species is scarce in the
      literature. In conclusion, different species within family similar in OM
      digestibility resulted in comparable DMI and milk production, but legumes
      increased both DMI and milk yield compared with grasses.

PMID- 28560945
TI  - Detecting delirium superimposed on dementia: diagnostic accuracy of a simple
      combined arousal and attention testing procedure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Detecting delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) can be challenging
      because assessment partly relies on cognitive tests that may be abnormal in both
      conditions. We hypothesized that a combined arousal and attention testing
      procedure would accurately detect DSD. METHODS: Patients aged >=70 years were
      recruited from five hospitals across Europe. Delirium was diagnosed by physicians
      using DSM-5 criteria using information from nurses, carers, and medical records.
      Dementia was ascertained by the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in
      the Elderly. Arousal was measured using the Observational Scale of Level of
      Arousal (OSLA), which assesses eye opening, eye contact, posture, movement, and
      communication. Attention was measured by participants signaling each time an "A"
      was heard when "S-A-V-E-A-H-A-A-R-T" was read out. RESULTS: The sample included
      114 persons (mean age 82 years (SD 7); 54% women). Dementia alone was present in
      25% (n = 28), delirium alone in 18% (n = 21), DSD in 27% (n = 31), and neither in
      30% (n = 34). Arousal and attention was assessed in n = 109 (96%). Using OSLA,
      83% participants were correctly identified as having delirium (sensitivity 85%,
      specificity 82%, AUROC 0.92). The attention task correctly classified 76% of
      participants with delirium (sensitivity 90%, specificity 64%, AUROC 0.80).
      Combining scores correctly classified 91% of participants with delirium
      (sensitivity 84%, specificity 92%, AUROC 0.94). Diagnostic accuracy remained high
      in the subgroup with dementia (93% correctly classified, sensitivity 94%,
      specificity 92%, AUROC 0.98). CONCLUSIONS: This combined arousal-attention
      assessment to detect DSD was brief yet had high diagnostic accuracy. Such an
      approach could have clinical utility for diagnosing DSD.

PMID- 28560946
TI  - Development and Application of an Antibiotic Spectrum Index for Benchmarking
      Antibiotic Selection Patterns Across Hospitals.
AB  - Standard metrics for antimicrobial use consider volume but not spectrum of
      antimicrobial prescribing. We developed an antibiotic spectrum index (ASI) to
      classify commonly used antibiotics based on activity against important pathogens.
      The application of this index to hospital antibiotic use reveals how this tool
      enhances current antimicrobial stewardship metrics. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
      2017;38:993-997.

PMID- 28560947
TI  - Food security among individuals experiencing homelessness and mental illness in
      the At Home/Chez Soi Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Individuals experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to
      food insecurity. The At Home/Chez Soi study provides a unique opportunity to
      first examine baseline levels of food security among homeless individuals with
      mental illness and second to evaluate the effect of a Housing First (HF)
      intervention on food security in this population. DESIGN: At Home/Chez Soi was a
      2-year randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of HF compared
      with usual care among homeless adults with mental illness, stratified by level of
      need for mental health services (high or moderate). Logistic regressions tested
      baseline associations between food security (US Food Security Survey Module),
      study site, sociodemographic variables, duration of homelessness,
      alcohol/substance use, physical health and service utilization. Negative binomial
      regression determined the impact of the HF intervention on achieving levels of
      high or marginal food security over an 18-month follow-up period (6 to 24
      months). SETTING: Community settings at five Canadian sites (Moncton, Montreal,
      Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver). SUBJECTS: Homeless adults with mental illness
      (n 2148). RESULTS: Approximately 41 % of our sample reported high or marginal
      food security at baseline, but this figure varied with gender, age, mental health
      issues and substance use problems. High need participants who received HF were
      more likely to achieve marginal or high food security than those receiving usual
      care, but only at the Toronto and Moncton sites. CONCLUSIONS: Our large multi
      site study demonstrated low levels of food security among homeless experiencing
      mental illness. HF showed promise for improving food security among participants
      with high levels of need for mental health services, with notable site
      differences.

PMID- 28560948
TI  - Variation in blood serum proteins and association with somatic cell count in
      dairy cattle from multi-breed herds.
AB  - Blood serum proteins are significant indicators of animal health. Nevertheless,
      several factors should be considered to appropriately interpret their
      concentrations in blood. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to
      assess the effect of herd productivity, breed, age and stage of lactation on
      serum proteins and (2) to investigate association between serum proteins and
      somatic cell count (SCC) in dairy cattle. Milk and blood samples were collected
      from 1508 cows of six different breeds (Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, Jersey,
      Simmental, Rendena and Alpine Grey) that were housed in 41 multi-breed herds.
      Milk samples were analyzed for composition and SCC, while blood samples were
      analyzed for serum proteins (i.e. total protein, albumin, globulin and albumin-to
      globulin ratio (A : G)). Herds were classified as low or high production,
      according to the cow's average daily milk energy yield adjusted for breed, days
      in milk (DIM) and parity. Data were analyzed using a linear mixed model that
      included the fixed effects of DIM, parity, SCS, breed, herd productivity and the
      random effect of the Herd-test date within productivity level. Cows in high
      producing herds (characterized also by greater use of concentrates in the diet)
      had greater serum albumin concentrations. Breed differences were reported for all
      traits, highlighting a possible genetic mechanism. The specialized breed Jersey
      and the two dual-purpose local breeds (Alpine Grey and Rendena) had the lowest
      globulin concentration and greatest A : G. Changes in serum proteins were
      observed through lactation. Total protein reached the highest concentration
      during the 4th month of lactation. Blood albumin increased with DIM following a
      quadratic pattern, while globulin decreased linearly. As a consequence, A : G
      increased linearly during lactation. Older cows had greater total protein and
      globulin concentrations, while albumin concentration seemed to be not
      particularly affected by age. A linear relationship between serum proteins and
      SCS was observed. High milk SCS was associated with greater total protein and
      globulin concentrations in blood. The rise in globulin concentration, together
      with a decrease in albumin concentrations, resulted in a decline in A : G as SCS
      of milk increased. In conclusion, such non-genetic factors must be considered to
      appropriately interpret serum proteins as potential animal welfare indicator and
      their evaluation represents an important first-step for future analysis based on
      the integration of metabolomics, genetic and genomic information for improving
      the robustness of dairy cows.

PMID- 28560950
TI  - MALAT1 Promotes the Proliferation and Metastasis of Osteosarcoma Cells By
      Activating the Rac1/JNK Pathway Via Targeting MiR-509.
AB  - Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is a long
      noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that contributes to the initiation and development of many
      solid tumors, including osteosarcoma (OS). In this study, we showed that MALAT1
      was increased in human OS tissues and cell lines. MALAT1 knockdown suppressed OS
      cell growth and metastasis, induced OS cell apoptosis and delayed tumor growth in
      an OS xenograft model. We also detected downregulation of microRNA-509 (miR-509),
      a suppressor of OS growth, in OS tissues and cell lines. Then, we identified that
      miR-509 is a direct target of MALAT1 and Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate
      1 (Rac1) is a direct target of miR-509. MALAT1 may promote OS cell growth through
      inhibition of miR-509, leading to the activation of Rac1/JNK pathway. Our results
      suggest a MALAT1/miR-509/Rac1 axis that mediates OS cell proliferation and tumor
      progression.

PMID- 28560949
TI  - A conceptual model: Redesigning how we provide palliative care for patients with
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - : ABSTRACTBackground:Despite significant needs, patients with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) make limited use of palliative care, in part because the
      current models of palliative care do not address their key concerns. OBJECTIVE:
      Our aim was to develop a tailored model of palliative care for patients with COPD
      and their family caregivers. METHOD: Based on information gathered within a
      program of studies (qualitative research exploring experiences, a cohort study
      examining service use), an expert advisory committee evaluated and integrated
      data, developed responses, formulated principles to inform care, and made
      recommendations for practice. The informing studies were conducted in two
      Australian states: Victoria and South Australia. RESULTS: A series of principles
      underpinning the model were developed, including that it must be: (1) focused on
      patient and caregiver; (2) equitable, enabling access to components of palliative
      care for a group with significant needs; (3) accessible; and (4) less resource
      intensive than expansion of usual palliative care service delivery. The
      recommended conceptual model was to have the following features: (a) entry to
      palliative care occurs routinely triggered by clinical transitions in care; (b)
      care is embedded in routine ambulatory respiratory care, ensuring that it is
      regarded as "usual" care by patients and clinicians alike; (c) the tasks include
      screening for physical and psychological symptoms, social and community support,
      provision of information, and discussions around goals and preferences for care;
      and (d) transition to usual palliative care services is facilitated as the
      patient nears death. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Our proposed innovative and
      conceptual model for provision of palliative care requires future formal testing
      using rigorous mixed-methods approaches to determine if theoretical propositions
      translate into effectiveness, feasibility, and benefits (including economic
      benefits). There is reason to consider adaptation of the model for the palliative
      care of patients with other nonmalignant conditions.

PMID- 28560951
TI  - miR-3188 Regulates Cell Proliferation, Apoptosis, and Migration in Breast Cancer
      by Targeting TUSC5 and Regulating the p38 MAPK Signaling Pathway.
AB  - This study intended to investigate the effects of miR-3188 on breast cancer and
      to reveal the possible molecular mechanisms. miR-3188 was upregulated and TUSC5
      was downregulated in breast cancer tissues and MCF-7 cells compared to normal
      tissue and MCF-10 cells. After MCF-7 cells were transfected with miR-3188
      inhibitor, cell proliferation and migration were inhibited, whereas apoptosis was
      promoted. Luciferase reporter assay suggested that TUSC5 was a target gene of miR
      3188. In addition, miR-3188 overexpression increased the p-p38 expression, while
      miR-3188 suppression decreased the p-p38 expression significantly. miR-3188
      regulated breast cancer progression via the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. In
      conclusion, miR-3188 affects breast cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis, and
      migration by targeting TUSC5 and activating the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. miR
      3188 may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28560953
TI  - Nelfinavir and Ritonavir Kill Bladder Cancer Cells Synergistically by Inducing
      Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.
AB  - The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease inhibitor nelfinavir acts against
      malignancies by inducing endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. The HIV protease
      inhibitor ritonavir, on the other hand, not only induces ER stress but also
      inhibits P-glycoprotein's pump activity and thereby enhances the effects of its
      substrate drugs. We therefore postulated that ritonavir in combination with
      nelfinavir would kill bladder cancer cells effectively by inducing ER stress
      cooperatively and also enhancing nelfinavir's effect. Nelfinavir was shown to be
      a P-glycoprotein substrate, and the combination of nelfinavir and ritonavir
      inhibited bladder cancer cell growth synergistically. It also suppressed colony
      formation significantly. The combination significantly increased the number of
      cells in the sub-G1 fraction and also the number of annexin V+ cells, confirming
      robust apoptosis induction. The combination induced ER stress synergistically, as
      evidenced by the increased expression of glucose-regulated protein 78, ER
      resident protein 44, and endoplasmic oxidoreductin-1-like protein. It also
      increased the expression of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor
      AMP-activated protein kinase and caused dephosphorylation of S6 ribosomal
      protein, demonstrating that the combination also inhibited the mTOR pathway. We
      also found that the combination enhanced histone acetylation synergistically by
      decreasing the expression of HDACs 1, 3, and 6.

PMID- 28560954
TI  - Development and Validation of a GC-MS Method for the Analysis of Homogentisic
      Acid in Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo L.) Honey.
AB  - To confirm the botanical origin of strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) honey, a
      liquid-liquid extraction followed by GC-MS method was developed for the
      quantitative determination of homogentisic acid (HGA), the main phenolic compound
      in this honey. Different parameters affecting extraction, such as the type and
      volume of extraction solvents, pH of the solution, and amount of salt, were
      optimized. The method showed good linearity (r2 = 0.9990) over the tested
      concentration range (50-500 mg/kg) and a low LOD (0.3 mg/kg). Precision expressed
      as RSD was <7%. The average accuracy was 95%. The optimized method was applied
      for determining the HGA content in strawberry tree honey samples from Croatia.
      The HGA content in analyzed samples (n = 7) ranged from 245.1 to 485.9 mg/kg. The
      proposed method provided reliable performance and can be easily implemented for
      the routine monitoring of HGA in strawberry tree honey in order to assure honey
      QC.

PMID- 28560956
TI  - Complementary role of cardiac computed tomography to transesophageal
      echocardiography in the evaluation of prosthetic valve dysfunction.

PMID- 28560955
TI  - Effects of astaxanthin in mice acutely infected with Trypanosoma cruzi.
AB  - During Trypanosoma cruzi infection, oxidative stress is considered a contributing
      factor for dilated cardiomyopathy development. In this study, the effects of
      astaxanthin (ASTX) were evaluated as an alternative drug treatment for Chagas
      disease in a mouse model during the acute infection phase, given its anti
      inflammatory, immunomodulating, and anti-oxidative properties. ASTX was tested in
      vitro in parasites grown axenically and in co-culture with Vero cells. In vivo
      tests were performed in BALB/c mice (4-6 weeks old) infected with Trypanosoma
      cruzi and supplemented with ASTX (10 mg/kg/day) and/or nifurtimox (NFMX; 100
      mg/kg/day). Results show that ASTX has some detrimental effects on axenically
      cultured parasites, but not when cultured with mammalian cell monolayers. In
      vivo, ASTX did not have any therapeutic value against acute Trypanosoma cruzi
      infection, used either alone or in combination with NFMX. Infected animals
      treated with NFMX or ASTX/NFMX survived the experimental period (60 days), while
      infected animals treated only with ASTX died before day 30 post-infection. ASTX
      did not show any effect on the control of parasitemia; however, it was associated
      with an increment in focal heart lymphoplasmacytic infiltration, a reduced number
      of amastigote nests in cardiac tissue, and less hyperplasic spleen follicles when
      compared to control groups. Unexpectedly, ASTX showed a negative effect in
      infected animals co-treated with NFMX. An increment in parasitemia duration was
      observed, possibly due to ASTX blocking of free radicals, an anti-parasitic
      mechanism of NFMX. In conclusion, astaxanthin is not recommended during the acute
      phase of Chagas disease, either alone or in combination with nifurtimox.

PMID- 28560957
TI  - Autophagy in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury: Friend or foe?

PMID- 28560958
TI  - Exosomes-ADMS: A novel therapy thought in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28560959
TI  - CYP2C19*2 and CYP2C19*3 allelomorphism in Turkish population.

PMID- 28560960
TI  - Acute rheumatic fever and isolated myocarditis.

PMID- 28560961
TI  - Metabolic disorder caused by antipsychotic treatment may facilitate the
      development of atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28560962
TI  - Statins therapy might be beneficial in the treatment of myocardial ischemia
      reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28560963
TI  - Association between statins use and erectile dysfunction.

PMID- 28560964
TI  - Osteocalcin: A stiff challenge for arteries.

PMID- 28560965
TI  - Limit the uptake of milk by young people: A method to prevent the occurrence of
      heart failure.

PMID- 28560966
TI  - Incretin-based therapy for type 2 diabetes: What have we learned from the meta
      analyses?

PMID- 28560967
TI  - Increased risk of thromboembolic events in adult congenital heart disease
      patients with atrial tachyarrhythmias: Bias due to the data sparsity.

PMID- 28560968
TI  - Telomere length: A newly marker for predicting atrial fibrillation?

PMID- 28560969
TI  - Dual risk stratification for dual antiplatelet therapy: SYNTAX and CHA2DS2-VASc
      score.

PMID- 28560970
TI  - Methods of assessment of the post-exercise cardiac autonomic recovery: Additional
      important factors to be considered.

PMID- 28560971
TI  - Opinions on the strategy of forced diuresis with matched controlled hydration to
      prevent post procedural acute kidney injury in the catheterization laboratory.

PMID- 28560972
TI  - Response to: Avicenna (Ibn Sina) aspect of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28560973
TI  - Patient selection and high-tech equipment: A great double act in coronary
      computed tomography angiography.

PMID- 28560974
TI  - Letter to Editor: Management and research in cancer treatment-related
      cardiovascular toxicity: Challenges and perspective.

PMID- 28560975
TI  - Inhibition of IL-17 might be a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of
      myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28560976
TI  - Regarding the article of Manczuk et al. (2017; 230: 549-555) entitled "Ideal
      cardiovascular health is associated with self-rated health status. The Polish
      Norwegian Study (PONS)."

PMID- 28560977
TI  - Reply to the letter to editor by Gaye et al.

PMID- 28560978
TI  - QTc interval prolongation in Systemic Sclerosis: Correlations with clinical
      variables and arrhythmic risk.

PMID- 28560979
TI  - QTc interval prolongation in systemic sclerosis.

PMID- 28560980
TI  - Comment on direct bilirubin as predictor of severity and mortality in idiopathic
      pulmonary arterial hypertension.

PMID- 28560981
TI  - Reply to "Comment on direct bilirubin as predictor of severity and mortality in
      idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension".

PMID- 28560982
TI  - Acute type B aortic dissection risk predictors: Thoracic aorta anatomic
      variables.

PMID- 28560983
TI  - Acute type B aortic dissection risk predictors: Thoracic aorta anatomic
      variables.

PMID- 28560984
TI  - Carotid artery disease and neurocognitive impairment.

PMID- 28560985
TI  - Carotid artery disease and neurocognitive impairment.

PMID- 28560986
TI  - Interlaboratory reproducibility of LC-MS untargeted lipidomics results in
      patients with calcific coronary disease: Methodological issues.

PMID- 28560987
TI  - The promising therapeutic agents for heart diseases: Histone Methyltransferase
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28560988
TI  - Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery: Early
      manifestation preventing diagnosis.

PMID- 28560989
TI  - Liver kinase b1: A promising therapeutic approach for 'Browning' the cardiac
      adipose tissues.

PMID- 28560990
TI  - Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 signal pathway: A promising therapeutic
      target for attenuating cardiac fibrosis.

PMID- 28560991
TI  - National progress on antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28560992
TI  - Purdah and the gagging of science.

PMID- 28560993
TI  - Financing preparedness at a national level.

PMID- 28560994
TI  - A new chapter for the NCD Alliance: stronger together.

PMID- 28560996
TI  - Offline: B-day-time to get real.

PMID- 28560995
TI  - Respiratory medicine and critical care: a call for papers for ERS.

PMID- 28560997
TI  - Scott Gottlieb sworn in to head the FDA.

PMID- 28560998
TI  - Data reveal state of Venezuelan health system.

PMID- 28560999
TI  - New era for health in The Gambia?

PMID- 28561000
TI  - STREAM characterisation correction.

PMID- 28561001
TI  - STREAM characterisation correction - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28561002
TI  - Artificial trachea transplantation is not ready for patients.

PMID- 28561003
TI  - The MERIDIAN trial: caution is needed.

PMID- 28561004
TI  - Acromegaly in Lorenzo the Magnificent, father of the Renaissance.

PMID- 28561005
TI  - Management of patients at risk of acute kidney injury.
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a multifaceted syndrome that occurs in different
      settings. The course of AKI can be variable, from single hit and complete
      recovery, to multiple hits resulting in end-stage renal disease. No interventions
      to improve outcomes of established AKI have yet been developed, so prevention and
      early diagnosis are key. Awareness campaigns and education for health-care
      professionals on diagnosis and management of AKI-with attention to avoidance of
      volume depletion, hypotension, and nephrotoxic interventions-coupled with
      electronic early warning systems where available can improve outcomes. Biomarker
      based strategies have not shown improvements in outcome. Fluid management should
      aim for early, rapid restoration of circulatory volume, but should be more
      limited after the first 24-48 h to avoid volume overload. Use of balanced
      crystalloid solutions versus normal saline remains controversial. Renal
      replacement therapy should only be started on the basis of hard criteria, but
      should not be delayed when criteria are met. On the basis of recent evidence, the
      risk of contrast-induced AKI might be overestimated for many conditions.

PMID- 28561006
TI  - Strategies for long-term preservation of kidney graft function.
AB  - Kidney transplantation has become a routine procedure in the treatment of
      patients with kidney failure, and requires collaboration of experts from
      different disciplines, such as nephrology, surgery, immunology, pathology,
      infectious disease medicine, cardiology, and oncology. Grafts can be obtained
      from deceased or living donors, with different logistical requirements and
      implications for long-term graft patency. 1-year graft survival rates are greater
      than 95% in many centres but improvement of long-term function remains a
      challenge. New developments in molecular immunology and computational biology
      have increased precision of donor and recipient matching of HLA and non-HLA
      compatibility. Individual omics-wide molecular diagnostics, extracorporeal
      therapies, and drug developments allow for precise individual decision making and
      treatment. Tolerance induction by mixed chimerism without toxic conditioning and
      with a low risk of graft versus host disease is a visionary but realistic goal.
      Some of these innovations are already used in modern transplant centres and will
      allow advancement in long-term allograft preservation.

PMID- 28561007
TI  - Application of Flow Cytometry to the Detection of Pathogenic Bacteria.
AB  - Outbreaks of infections have emphasized the necessity for rapid and economic
      detection methods for pathogens in samples ranging from those of clinical origin
      to food products during production and retail storage, and increasingly, in
      environmental samples. Flow cytometry (FCM) allows the rapid acquisition of multi
      parametric data regarding cell populations within fluidised samples. However, the
      application of FCM to pathogen detection depends on the availability of specific
      fluorescent probes such as antibodies and RNA probes capable of detecting and
      isolating pathogens from these diverse samples. A particular issue for FCM
      methodology is the ability to recover and discriminate bacteria from the sample
      matrix which may pose a major technical hurdle towards accurate and sensitive
      analysis. This review article focuses on detection of pathogens using FCM in
      samples originating from food, water, environmental and clinical sources and
      outlines the current state of the art and potential future applications.

PMID- 28561008
TI  - Adsorption of 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal atoms on beta 12-Borophene.
AB  - We perform an ab initio study of the electronic structure and magnetic properties
      of 3d, 4d and 5d transition metals (TM) adsorbed on freestanding and Ag(1 1 1)
      supported [Formula: see text]-borophene. The stability of TM adsorption is high
      for all atoms and increases with the period. For the 3d TM adsorption we observed
      strong exchange effects. The Ag(1 1 1)-surface induced small effects on the
      calculated properties. Studying the magnetic interaction between TMs, VIB atoms
      showed direct exchange, while VIIB and Fe showed 2p(B)-mediated indirect
      exchange. In the ultimate case of a one-dimensional TM array, Ru and Os also show
      direct exchange effects.

PMID- 28561009
TI  - Humidity-enhanced sub-ppm sensitivity to ammonia of covalently functionalized
      single-wall carbon nanotube bundle layers.
AB  - A low-cost method for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) network production from solutions
      on flexible polyethylene naphthalate substrates has been adopted to prepare high
      quality and well characterized SWCNT bundle layers to be used as the active layer
      in chemiresistor gas sensors. Two types of SWCNTs have been tested: pristine
      SWCNTs, deposited from a surfactant solution, and covalently functionalized
      SWCNTs, deposited from a dimethyl-acetamide solution. The humidity effects on the
      sensitivity of the SWCNTs network to NH3 have been investigated. The results show
      that relative humidity favors the response to NH3, confirming recent theoretical
      predictions. The COOH-functionalized sample displays the largest response owing
      to both its hydrophilic nature, favoring the interaction with H2O molecules, and
      its largest surface area. Compared to data available in the literature, the
      present sensors display a remarkable sensitivity well below the ppm range, which
      makes them quite promising for environmental and medical applications, where NH3
      concentrations (mostly of the order of tens of ppb) have to be detected.

PMID- 28561010
TI  - In-plane heterostructures of Sb/Bi with high carrier mobility.
AB  - In-plane two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures have been attracting public
      attention due to their distinctive properties. However, the pristine materials
      that can form in-plane heterostructures are reported only for graphene, hexagonal
      BN, transition-metal dichalcogenides. It will be of great significance to explore
      more suitable 2D materials for constructing such ingenious heterostructures.
      Here, we demonstrate two types of novel seamless in-plane heterostructures
      combined by pristine Sb and Bi monolayers by means of first-principle approach
      based on density functional theory. Our results indicate that external strain can
      serve as an effective strategy for bandgap engineering, and the transition from
      semiconductor to metal occurs when a compressive strain of -8% is applied. In
      addition, the designed heterostructures possess direct band gaps with high
      carrier mobility (~4000 cm2 V-1 s-1). And the mobility of electrons and holes
      have huge disparity along the direction perpendicular to the interface of Sb/Bi
      in-plane heterostructures. It is favorable for carriers to separate spatially.
      Finally, we find that the band edge positions of Sb/Bi in-plane heterostructures
      can meet the reduction potential of hydrogen generation in photocatalysis. Our
      results not only offer alternative materials to construct versatile in-plane
      heterostructures, but also highlight the applications of 2D in-plane
      heterostructures in diverse nanodevices and photocatalysis.

PMID- 28561011
TI  - Rapid implementation of the repair-misrepair-fixation (RMF) model facilitating
      online adaption of radiosensitivity parameters in ion therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Treatment planning for ion therapy must account for physical
      properties of the beam as well as differences in the relative biological
      effectiveness (RBE) of ions compared to photons. In this work, we present a fast
      RBE calculation approach, based on the decoupling of physical properties and the
      [Formula: see text] ratio commonly used to describe the radiosensitivity of
      irradiated cells or organs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In the framework of the
      mechanistic repair-misrepair-fixation (RMF) model, the biological modeling can be
      decoupled from the physical dose. This was implemented into a research treatment
      planning system for carbon ion therapy. RESULTS: The presented implementation of
      the RMF model is very fast, allowing online changes of [Formula: see text]. For
      example, a change of [Formula: see text] including a complete biological modeling
      and a recalculation of RBE for [Formula: see text] voxel takes 4 ms on a 4 CPU,
      3.2 GHz workstation. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The derived decoupling within the
      RMF model allows fast changes in [Formula: see text], facilitating online
      adaption by the user. This provides new options for radiation oncologists,
      facilitating online variations of the radiobiological input parameters during the
      treatment plan evaluation process as well as uncertainty and sensitivity
      analyses.

PMID- 28561012
TI  - Mn 3d bands and Y-O hybridization of hexagonal and orthorhombic YMnO3 thin films.
AB  - We report here the O K-edge x-ray absorption spectra of hexagonal and
      orthorhombic YMnO3 thin films, aiming at comparing the changes in the Mn 3d bands
      as well as the role of Y 4d-O 2p hybridization. The experimental results were
      analyzed using first principles (GGA) band structure calculations. The spectra
      present clear differences in the Mn 3d bands, which are attributed to changes in
      the Mn-O coordination and symmetry. A strong Y 4d-O 2p hybridization is observed
      in both the hexagonal and orthorhombic films, and its possible role on the
      occurrence of the observed ferroelectricity is discussed.

PMID- 28561013
TI  - Photoresponsive lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles for controlled doxorubicin
      release.
AB  - Currently, photoresponsive nanomaterials are particularly attractive due to their
      spatial and temporal controlled drug release abilities. In this work, we report a
      photoresponsive lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticle for remote controlled delivery
      of anticancer drugs. This hybrid nanoparticle comprises three distinct functional
      components: (i) a poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) core to encapsulate
      doxorubicin; (ii) a soybean lecithin monolayer at the interface of the core and
      shell to act as a molecular fence to prevent drug leakage; (iii) a
      photoresponsive polymeric shell with anti-biofouling properties to enhance
      nanoparticle stability, which could be detached from the nanoparticle to trigger
      the drug release via a decrease in the nanoparticle's stability under light
      irradiation. In vitro results revealed that this core-shell nanoparticle had
      excellent light-controlled drug release behavior (76% release with light
      irradiation versus 10% release without light irradiation). The confocal
      microscopy and flow cytometry results also further demonstrated the light
      controlled drug release behavior inside the cancer cells. Furthermore, a CCK8
      assay demonstrated that light irradiation could significantly improve the
      efficiency of killing cancer cells. Meanwhile, whole-animal fluorescence imaging
      of a tumor-bearing mouse also confirmed that light irradiation could trigger drug
      release in vivo. Taken together, our data suggested that a hybrid nanoparticle
      could be a novel light controlled drug delivery system for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28561014
TI  - Simulating effects of brain atrophy in longitudinal PET imaging with an
      anthropomorphic brain phantom.
AB  - In longitudinal positron emission tomography (PET), the presence of volumetric
      changes over time can lead to an overestimation or underestimation of the true
      changes in the quantified PET signal due to the partial volume effect (PVE)
      introduced by the limited spatial resolution of existing PET cameras and
      reconstruction algorithms. Here, a 3D-printed anthropomorphic brain phantom with
      attachable striata in three sizes was designed to enable controlled volumetric
      changes. Using a method to eliminate the non-radioactive plastic wall, and
      manipulating BP levels by adding different number of events from list-mode
      acquisitions, we investigated the artificial volume dependence of BP due to PVE,
      and potential bias arising from varying BP. Comparing multiple reconstruction
      algorithms we found that a high-resolution ordered-subsets maximization algorithm
      with spatially variant point-spread function resolution modeling provided the
      most accurate data. For striatum, the BP changed by 0.08% for every 1% volume
      change, but for smaller volumes such as the posterior caudate the artificial
      change in BP was as high as 0.7% per 1% volume change. A simple gross correction
      for striatal volume is unsatisfactory, as the amplitude of the PVE on the BP
      differs depending on where in the striatum the change occurred. Therefore, to
      correctly interpret age-related longitudinal changes in the BP, we must account
      for volumetric changes also within a structure, rather than across the whole
      volume. The present 3D-printing technology, combined with the wall removal
      method, can be implemented to gain knowledge about the predictable bias
      introduced by the PVE differences in uptake regions of varying shape.

PMID- 28561015
TI  - Necl 4 and RNase 5 Are Important Biomarkers for Gastric and Colon
      Adenocarcinomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND There is a need to identify new prognostic factors that may be used in
      addition to the known risk factors in gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas. In this
      study, we aimed to determine the expression of Necl 4 and RNase 5 biomarkers in
      gastric and colon adenocarcinomas, as well as the prognostic efficacy of these
      biomarkers in gastric and colon adenocarcinomas. MATERIAL AND METHODS Ninety-two
      cases resected due to stomach and colon adenocarcinoma were included in the
      study. The expression of Necl 4 and RNase 5 biomarkers was evaluated by
      immunohistochemical staining of the stomach and colon normal mucosa and
      adenocarcinoma areas. RESULTS In colon adenocarcinomas, there was a significant
      association between Necl 4 and lymphovascular invasion, vascular invasion, and
      perineural invasion (p<0.05). There was a significant association between RNase 5
      and histological differentiation in colon adenocarcinomas (p<0.05). There was no
      association between RNase 5 and Necl 4 in gastric or colon adenocarcinomas.
      CONCLUSIONS Necl 4 may have prognostic value in colon adenocarcinomas, but it is
      difficult to ascertain in gastric adenocarcinomas.

PMID- 28561017
TI  - Anapole nanolasers for mode-locking and ultrafast pulse generation.
AB  - Nanophotonics is a rapidly developing field of research with many suggestions for
      a design of nanoantennas, sensors and miniature metadevices. Despite many
      proposals for passive nanophotonic devices, the efficient coupling of light to
      nanoscale optical structures remains a major challenge. In this article, we
      propose a nanoscale laser based on a tightly confined anapole mode. By harnessing
      the non-radiating nature of the anapole state, we show how to engineer nanolasers
      based on InGaAs nanodisks as on-chip sources with unique optical properties.
      Leveraging on the near-field character of anapole modes, we demonstrate a
      spontaneously polarized nanolaser able to couple light into waveguide channels
      with four orders of magnitude intensity than classical nanolasers, as well as the
      generation of ultrafast (of 100 fs) pulses via spontaneous mode locking of
      several anapoles. Anapole nanolasers offer an attractive platform for
      monolithically integrated, silicon photonics sources for advanced and efficient
      nanoscale circuitry.

PMID- 28561016
TI  - Light-driven liquid metal nanotransformers for biomedical theranostics.
AB  - Room temperature liquid metals (LMs) represent a class of emerging
      multifunctional materials with attractive novel properties. Here, we show that
      photopolymerized LMs present a unique nanoscale capsule structure characterized
      by high water dispersibility and low toxicity. We also demonstrate that the LM
      nanocapsule generates heat and reactive oxygen species under biologically neutral
      near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. Concomitantly, NIR laser exposure induces
      a transformation in LM shape, destruction of the nanocapsules, contactless
      controlled release of the loaded drugs, optical manipulations of a microfluidic
      blood vessel model and spatiotemporal targeted marking for X-ray-enhanced imaging
      in biological organs and a living mouse. By exploiting the physicochemical
      properties of LMs, we achieve effective cancer cell elimination and control of
      intercellular calcium ion flux. In addition, LMs display a photoacoustic effect
      in living animals during NIR laser treatment, making this system a powerful tool
      for bioimaging.

PMID- 28561019
TI  - Reply to C Harling.

PMID- 28561020
TI  - England uses a competency-based approach to consent for health interventions.

PMID- 28561018
TI  - Maternal heterozygous NLRP7 variant results in recurrent reproductive failure and
      imprinting disturbances in the offspring.
AB  - It has been shown previously that homozygous and compound-heterozygous variants
      affecting protein function in the human NLRP genes impact reproduction and/or
      fetal imprinting patterns. These variants represent so-called 'maternal effect
      mutations', that is, although female variant carriers are healthy, they are at
      risk of reproductive failure, and their offspring may develop aberrant
      methylation and imprinting disorders. In contrast, the relevance to reproductive
      failure of maternal heterozygous NLRP7 variants remains unclear. The present
      report describes the identification of a heterozygous NLRP7 variant in a healthy
      28-year-old woman with a history of recurrent reproductive failure, and the
      molecular findings in two of the deceased offspring. Next-generation sequencing
      (NGS) for NLRP variants was performed. In the tissues of two offspring (one
      fetus; one deceased premature neonate) methylation of imprinted loci was tested
      using methylation-specific assays. Both pregnancies had been characterized by the
      presence of elevated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels and ovarian cysts.
      In the mother, a heterozygous nonsense 2-bp deletion in exon 5 of the NLRP7 gene
      was identified (NM_001127255.1:c.2010_2011del, p.(Phe671Glnfs*18)). In the two
      investigated offspring, heterogeneous aberrant methylation patterns were detected
      at imprinted loci. The present data support the hypothesis that heterozygous
      NLRP7 variants contribute to reproductive wastage, and that these variants
      represent autosomal dominant maternal effect variants which lead to aberrant
      imprinting marks in the offspring. Specific screening and close prenatal
      monitoring of NLRP7 variant carriers is proposed. Egg donation might facilitate
      successful pregnancy in heterozygous NLRP7 variant carriers.

PMID- 28561021
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9 targeting events cause complex deletions and insertions at 17 sites
      in the mouse genome.
AB  - Although CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has provided numerous opportunities to
      interrogate the functional significance of any given genomic site, there is a
      paucity of data on the extent of molecular scars inflicted on the mouse genome.
      Here we interrogate the molecular consequences of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletions
      at 17 sites in four loci of the mouse genome. We sequence targeted sites in 632
      founder mice and analyse 54 established lines. While the median deletion size
      using single sgRNAs is 9 bp, we also obtain large deletions of up to 600 bp.
      Furthermore, we show unreported asymmetric deletions and large insertions of
      middle repetitive sequences. Simultaneous targeting of distant loci results in
      the removal of the intervening sequences. Reliable deletion of juxtaposed sites
      is only achieved through two-step targeting. Our findings also demonstrate that
      an extended analysis of F1 genotypes is required to obtain conclusive information
      on the exact molecular consequences of targeting events.

PMID- 28561022
TI  - IL-17 induced NOTCH1 activation in oligodendrocyte progenitor cells enhances
      proliferation and inflammatory gene expression.
AB  - NOTCH1 signalling contributes to defective remyelination by impairing
      differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). Here we report that
      IL-17 stimulation induces NOTCH1 activation in OPCs, contributing to Th17
      mediated demyelinating disease. Mechanistically, IL-17R interacts with NOTCH1 via
      the extracellular domain, which facilitates the cleavage of NOTHC1 intracellular
      domain (NICD1). IL-17-induced NOTCH1 activation results in the interaction of IL
      17R adaptor Act1 with NICD1, followed by the translocation of the Act1-NICD1
      complex into the nucleus. Act1-NICD1 are recruited to the promoters of several
      NOTCH1 target genes (including STEAP4, a metalloreductase important for
      inflammation and cell proliferation) that are specifically induced in the spinal
      cord by Th17 cells. A decoy peptide disrupting the IL-17RA-NOTCH1 interaction
      inhibits IL-17-induced NOTCH1 activation and attenuates Th17-mediated
      experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE). Taken together, these findings
      demonstrate critical crosstalk between the IL-17 and NOTCH1 pathway, regulating
      Th17-induced inflammatory and proliferative genes to promote demyelinating
      disease.

PMID- 28561024
TI  - Giant electron-hole transport asymmetry in ultra-short quantum transistors.
AB  - Making use of bipolar transport in single-wall carbon nanotube quantum
      transistors would permit a single device to operate as both a quantum dot and a
      ballistic conductor or as two quantum dots with different charging energies. Here
      we report ultra-clean 10 to 100 nm scale suspended nanotube transistors with a
      large electron-hole transport asymmetry. The devices consist of naked nanotube
      channels contacted with sections of tube under annealed gold. The annealed gold
      acts as an n-doping top gate, allowing coherent quantum transport, and can create
      nanometre-sharp barriers. These tunnel barriers define a single quantum dot whose
      charging energies to add an electron or a hole are vastly different (e-h charging
      energy asymmetry). We parameterize the e-h transport asymmetry by the ratio of
      the hole and electron charging energies etae-h. This asymmetry is maximized for
      short channels and small band gap tubes. In a small band gap device, we
      demonstrate the fabrication of a dual functionality quantum device acting as a
      quantum dot for holes and a much longer quantum bus for electrons. In a 14 nm
      long channel, etae-h reaches up to 2.6 for a device with a band gap of 270 meV.
      The charging energies in this device exceed 100 meV.

PMID- 28561023
TI  - Expression of CD226 is associated to but not required for NK cell education.
AB  - DNAX accessory molecule-1 (DNAM-1, also known as CD226) is an activating receptor
      expressed on subsets of natural killer (NK) and T cells, interacts with its
      ligands CD155 or CD112, and has co-varied expression with inhibitory receptors.
      Since inhibitory receptors control NK-cell activation and are necessary for MHC-I
      dependent education, we investigated whether DNAM-1 expression is also involved
      in NK-cell education. Here we show an MHC-I-dependent correlation between DNAM-1
      expression and NK-cell education, and an association between DNAM-1 and NKG2A
      that occurs even in MHC class I deficient mice. DNAM-1 is expressed early during
      NK-cell development, precedes the expression of MHC-I-specific inhibitory
      receptors, and is modulated in an education-dependent fashion. Cd226-/- mice have
      missing self-responses and NK cells with a normal receptor repertoire. We propose
      a model in which NK-cell education prevents or delays downregulation of DNAM-1.
      This molecule endows educated NK cells with enhanced effector functions but is
      dispensable for education.

PMID- 28561025
TI  - End-Triassic mass extinction started by intrusive CAMP activity.
AB  - The end-Triassic extinction is one of the Phanerozoic's largest mass extinctions.
      This extinction is typically attributed to climate change associated with
      degassing of basalt flows from the central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP).
      However, recent work suggests that the earliest known CAMP basalts occur above
      the extinction horizon and that climatic and biotic changes began before the
      earliest known CAMP eruptions. Here we present new high-precision U-Pb ages from
      CAMP mafic intrusive units, showing that magmatic activity was occurring ~100 Kyr
      ago before the earliest known eruptions. We correlate the early magmatic activity
      with the onset of changes to the climatic and biotic records. We also report ages
      from sills in an organic rich sedimentary basin in Brazil that intrude
      synchronously with the extinction suggesting that degassing of these organics
      contributed to the climate change which drove the extinction. Our results
      indicate that the intrusive record from large igneous provinces may be more
      important for linking to mass extinctions than the eruptive record.

PMID- 28561027
TI  - Formation of metallic cation-oxygen network for anomalous thermal expansion
      coefficients in binary phosphate glass.
AB  - Understanding glass structure is still challenging due to the result of disorder,
      although novel materials design on the basis of atomistic structure has been
      strongly demanded. Here we report on the atomic structures of the zinc phosphate
      glass determined by reverse Monte Carlo modelling based on diffraction and
      spectroscopic data. The zinc-rich glass exhibits the network formed by ZnOx
      (averaged x<4) polyhedra. Although the elastic modulus, refractive index and
      glass transition temperature of the zinc phosphate glass monotonically increase
      with the amount of ZnO, we find for the first time that the thermal expansion
      coefficient is very sensitive to the substitution of the phosphate chain network
      by a network consisting of Zn-O units in zinc-rich glass. Our results imply that
      the control of the structure of intermediate groups may enable new
      functionalities in the design of oxide glass materials.

PMID- 28561028
TI  - Hot excited state management for long-lived blue phosphorescent organic light
      emitting diodes.
AB  - Since their introduction over 15 years ago, the operational lifetime of blue
      phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) has remained insufficient
      for their practical use in displays and lighting. Their short lifetime results
      from annihilation between high-energy excited states, producing energetically hot
      states (>6.0 eV) that lead to molecular dissociation. Here we introduce a
      strategy to avoid dissociative reactions by including a molecular hot excited
      state manager within the device emission layer. Hot excited states transfer to
      the manager and rapidly thermalize before damage is induced on the dopant or
      host. As a consequence, the managed blue PHOLED attains T80=334+/-5 h (time to
      80% of the 1,000 cd m-2 initial luminance) with a chromaticity coordinate of
      (0.16, 0.31), corresponding to 3.6+/-0.1 times improvement in a lifetime compared
      to conventional, unmanaged devices. To our knowledge, this significant
      improvement results in the longest lifetime for such a blue PHOLED.

PMID- 28561026
TI  - R2TP/Prefoldin-like component RUVBL1/RUVBL2 directly interacts with ZNHIT2 to
      regulate assembly of U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein.
AB  - The R2TP/Prefoldin-like (R2TP/PFDL) complex has emerged as a cochaperone complex
      involved in the assembly of a number of critical protein complexes including
      snoRNPs, nuclear RNA polymerases and PIKK-containing complexes. Here we report on
      the use of multiple target affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry to
      identify two additional complexes that interact with R2TP/PFDL: the TSC1-TSC2
      complex and the U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP). The interaction
      between R2TP/PFDL and the U5 snRNP is mostly mediated by the previously
      uncharacterized factor ZNHIT2. A more general function for the zinc-finger HIT
      domain in binding RUVBL2 is exposed. Disruption of ZNHIT2 and RUVBL2 expression
      impacts the protein composition of the U5 snRNP suggesting a function for these
      proteins in promoting the assembly of the ribonucleoprotein. A possible
      implication of R2TP/PFDL as a major effector of stress-, energy- and nutrient
      sensing pathways that regulate anabolic processes through the regulation of its
      chaperoning activity is discussed.

PMID- 28561029
TI  - Bacterial RadA is a DnaB-type helicase interacting with RecA to promote
      bidirectional D-loop extension.
AB  - Homologous recombination (HR) is a central process of genome biology driven by a
      conserved recombinase, which catalyses the pairing of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)
      with double-stranded DNA to generate a D-loop intermediate. Bacterial RadA is a
      conserved HR effector acting with RecA recombinase to promote ssDNA integration.
      The mechanism of this RadA-mediated assistance to RecA is unknown. Here, we
      report functional and structural analyses of RadA from the human pathogen
      Streptococcus pneumoniae. RadA is found to facilitate RecA-driven ssDNA
      recombination over long genomic distances during natural transformation. RadA is
      revealed as a hexameric DnaB-type helicase, which interacts with RecA to promote
      orientated unwinding of branched DNA molecules mimicking D-loop boundaries. These
      findings support a model of DNA branch migration in HR, relying on RecA-mediated
      loading of RadA hexamers on each strand of the recipient dsDNA in the D-loop,
      from which they migrate divergently to facilitate incorporation of invading
      ssDNA.

PMID- 28561030
TI  - Metabolic network analysis reveals microbial community interactions in anammox
      granules.
AB  - Microbial communities mediating anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) represent
      one of the most energy-efficient environmental biotechnologies for nitrogen
      removal from wastewater. However, little is known about the functional role
      heterotrophic bacteria play in anammox granules. Here, we use genome-centric
      metagenomics to recover 17 draft genomes of anammox and heterotrophic bacteria
      from a laboratory-scale anammox bioreactor. We combine metabolic network
      reconstruction with metatranscriptomics to examine the gene expression of anammox
      and heterotrophic bacteria and to identify their potential interactions. We find
      that Chlorobi-affiliated bacteria may be highly active protein degraders,
      catabolizing extracellular peptides while recycling nitrate to nitrite. Other
      heterotrophs may also contribute to scavenging of detritus and peptides produced
      by anammox bacteria, and potentially use alternative electron donors, such as H2,
      acetate and formate. Our findings improve the understanding of metabolic
      activities and interactions between anammox and heterotrophic bacteria and offer
      the first transcriptional insights on ecosystem function in anammox granules.

PMID- 28561032
TI  - Pairwise frictional profile between particles determines discontinuous shear
      thickening transition in non-colloidal suspensions.
AB  - The process by which sheared suspensions go through a dramatic change in
      viscosity is known as discontinuous shear thickening. Although well-characterized
      on the macroscale, the microscopic mechanisms at play in this transition are
      still poorly understood. Here, by developing new experimental procedures based on
      quartz-tuning fork atomic force microscopy, we measure the pairwise frictional
      profile between approaching pairs of polyvinyl chloride and cornstarch particles
      in solvent. We report a clear transition from a low-friction regime, where pairs
      of particles support a finite normal load, while interacting purely
      hydrodynamically, to a high-friction regime characterized by hard repulsive
      contact between the particles and sliding friction. Critically, we show that the
      normal stress needed to enter the frictional regime at nanoscale matches the
      critical stress at which shear thickening occurs for macroscopic suspensions. Our
      experiments bridge nano and macroscales and provide long needed demonstration of
      the role of frictional forces in discontinuous shear thickening.

PMID- 28561031
TI  - Real-time visualization of clustering and intracellular transport of gold
      nanoparticles by correlative imaging.
AB  - Mechanistic understanding of the endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of
      nanoparticles is essential for designing smart theranostic carriers. Physico
      chemical properties, including size, clustering and surface chemistry of
      nanoparticles regulate their cellular uptake and transport. Significantly, even
      single nanoparticles could cluster intracellularly, yet their clustering state
      and subsequent trafficking are not well understood. Here, we used DNA-decorated
      gold (fPlas-gold) nanoparticles as a dually emissive fluorescent and plasmonic
      probe to examine their clustering states and intracellular transport. Evidence
      from correlative fluorescence and plasmonic imaging shows that endocytosis of
      fPlas-gold follows multiple pathways. In the early stages of endocytosis, fPlas
      gold nanoparticles appear mostly as single particles and they cluster during the
      vesicular transport and maturation. The speed of encapsulated fPlas-gold
      transport was critically dependent on the size of clusters but not on the types
      of organelle such as endosomes and lysosomes. Our results provide key strategies
      for engineering theranostic nanocarriers for efficient health management.

PMID- 28561033
TI  - Smooth 2D manifold extraction from 3D image stack.
AB  - Three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy followed by image processing is
      routinely used to study biological objects at various scales such as cells and
      tissue. However, maximum intensity projection, the most broadly used rendering
      tool, extracts a discontinuous layer of voxels, obliviously creating important
      artifacts and possibly misleading interpretation. Here we propose smooth manifold
      extraction, an algorithm that produces a continuous focused 2D extraction from a
      3D volume, hence preserving local spatial relationships. We demonstrate the
      usefulness of our approach by applying it to various biological applications
      using confocal and wide-field microscopy 3D image stacks. We provide a parameter
      free ImageJ/Fiji plugin that allows 2D visualization and interpretation of 3D
      image stacks with maximum accuracy.

PMID- 28561034
TI  - A damaged genome's transcriptional landscape through multilayered expression
      profiling around in situ-mapped DNA double-strand breaks.
AB  - Of the many types of DNA damage, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are probably the
      most deleterious. Mounting evidence points to an intricate relationship between
      DSBs and transcription. A cell system in which the impact on transcription can be
      investigated at precisely mapped genomic DSBs is essential to study this
      relationship. Here in a human cell line, we map genome-wide and at high
      resolution the DSBs induced by a restriction enzyme, and we characterize their
      impact on gene expression by four independent approaches by monitoring steady
      state RNA levels, rates of RNA synthesis, transcription initiation and RNA
      polymerase II elongation. We consistently observe transcriptional repression in
      proximity to DSBs. Downregulation of transcription depends on ATM kinase activity
      and on the distance from the DSB. Our study couples for the first time, to the
      best of our knowledge, high-resolution mapping of DSBs with multilayered
      transcriptomics to dissect the events shaping gene expression after DSB induction
      at multiple endogenous sites.

PMID- 28561036
TI  - Review of techniques and studies characterizing the release of carbon nanotubes
      from nanocomposites: Implications for exposure and human health risk assessment.
AB  - Composites made with engineered nanomaterials (nanocomposites) have a wide range
      of applications, from use in basic consumer goods to critical national defense
      technologies. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a popular addition in nanocomposites
      because of their enhanced mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties.
      Concerns have been raised, though, regarding potential exposure and health risks
      from nanocomposites containing CNTs because of comparisons to other high aspect
      ratio fibers. Assessing the factors affecting CNT release from composites is
      therefore paramount for understanding potential exposure scenarios that may occur
      during product handling and manipulation. Standardized methods for detecting and
      quantifying released CNTs, however, have not yet been developed. We therefore
      evaluated experimental approaches deployed by various researchers, with an
      emphasis on characterizing free versus composite bound CNTs. From our analysis of
      published studies characterizing CNT releases from nanocomposites, we found that
      the qualitative and quantitative methods used across studies varied greatly, thus
      limiting the ability for objective comparison and evaluation of various release
      factors. Nonetheless, qualitative results indicated that factors such as
      composite type, CNT functionalization, and energy input during manipulation
      (i.e., grinding) may affect CNT release. Based on our findings, we offer several
      recommendations for future product testing and assessment of potential exposure
      and health risks associated with CNT nanocomposites.

PMID- 28561035
TI  - Inner centromere localization of the CPC maintains centromere cohesion and allows
      mitotic checkpoint silencing.
AB  - Faithful chromosome segregation during mitosis requires that the kinetochores of
      all sister chromatids become stably connected to microtubules derived from
      opposite spindle poles. How stable chromosome bi-orientation is accomplished and
      coordinated with anaphase onset remains incompletely understood. Here we show
      that stable chromosome bi-orientation requires inner centromere localization of
      the non-enzymatic subunits of the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC) to maintain
      centromeric cohesion. Precise inner centromere localization of the CPC appears
      less relevant for Aurora B-dependent resolution of erroneous kinetochore
      microtubule (KT-MT) attachments and for the stabilization of bi-oriented KT-MT
      attachments once sister chromatid cohesion is preserved via knock-down of WAPL.
      However, Aurora B inner centromere localization is essential for mitotic
      checkpoint silencing to allow spatial separation from its kinetochore substrate
      KNL1. Our data infer that the CPC is localized at the inner centromere to sustain
      centromere cohesion on bi-oriented chromosomes and to coordinate mitotic
      checkpoint silencing with chromosome bi-orientation.

PMID- 28561037
TI  - Milk-cereal and whole-grain dietary patterns protect against low bone mineral
      density among male adolescents and young adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Evidence supporting the possible effect of dietary factors
      on adult bone health has emerged in recent decades. The purpose of this study was
      to ascertain the influence of different dietary patterns on bone mineral density
      (BMD) among Korean male youth. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Data were extracted from the
      Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) during 2008
      2011. The subjects included 1351 male aged 10-25 years. We defined 'low BMD
      group' as subjects with a BMD Z-score of -2.0 or less. Dietary patterns were
      derived from 20 food groups via factor analysis. RESULTS: Three dietary patterns
      meat and vegetable, white rice and kimchi, milk-cereal and whole grain-were
      derived. The 'milk-cereal and whole-grain' dietary pattern score showed positive
      association with energy, protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin
      and vitamin C intakes. Participants in the top tertile of the milk-cereal and
      whole-grain pattern were less likely to have low BMD, compared with subjects in
      the bottom tertile (odds ratio=0.36, 95% confidence interval=0.16-0.81, P=0.018).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the milk-cereal and whole-grain dietary
      pattern may have a benign influence on bone health in the Korean male youth.

PMID- 28561039
TI  - Sedentary behavior and compensatory mechanisms in response to different doses of
      exercise-a randomized controlled trial in overweight and obese adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To examine compensatory changes in sedentary behavior (SB)
      and light-intensity physical activities (LIPA) in response to a 22-week exercise
      training program in overweight/obese adults; and to determine if different forms
      of exercise training and physical activity recommendations interact with these
      compensatory changes. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Eighty-nine overweight and obese
      individuals (body mass index (BMI): 25-34.9 kg/m2, 48% males), aged 18-50 years,
      were randomized into four intervention groups (strength, endurance, combined
      strength + endurance and physical activity recommendations) with a 25-30% caloric
      restriction of total daily energy expenditure for 22 weeks. Energy expenditure
      was measured by accelerometry before, during and after the program. RESULTS: LIPA
      increased significantly (P<0.001) after three months and at the end of
      intervention compared to baseline (pre: 281+/-9 min; 3 months: 303+/-9 min; post:
      312+/-8 min). SB percentage decreased by 5.3 at the end of the intervention
      (P=0.002). No interactions were observed between groups or sexes. Significant
      correlations were found between SB and body weight, fat mass, android fat mass
      and lean body mass before and after the intervention (P<0.05). LIPA was also
      significantly correlated with all these body composition variables in the pre
      intervention, but only correlated with body weight at the end of intervention.
      CONCLUSIONS: There were no compensatory changes after a combined exercise and
      diet program; where minutes in LIPA increased and %SB decreased after the
      program, without differences among exercise modes. Greater physical activity
      levels can contribute to a better percentage and distribution of body tissues.

PMID- 28561038
TI  - The role of energy intake and energy misreporting in the associations between
      eating patterns and adiposity.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Research examining associations between eating occasion
      (EO) frequency and adiposity is inconclusive; studies examining the impact of
      energy misreporting are rare. This study examined associations between eating
      patterns and adiposity, with adjustment for energy misreporting, in a nationally
      representative sample of Australian adults. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Dietary intake was
      assessed via two 24-h recalls collected during the 2011-12 National Nutrition and
      Physical Activity Survey (n=4050 adults, aged ?19 years). Frequencies of all EOs,
      meals and snacks were calculated. Height, weight and waist circumference (WC)
      were measured. Energy misreporting was assessed as the ratio of energy intake to
      predicted energy expenditure (EI:EE). Energy misreporters were identified by
      EI:EE ratios, <0.68 or >1.32. Multivariate regression models assessed
      associations between eating patterns and body mass index (BMI), WC,
      overweight/obesity (BMI ?25 kg m-2) and central overweight/obesity (WC ?94 cm in
      men and ?80 cm in women). RESULTS: After adjustment for covariates and EI:EE,
      frequency of all EOs, meals (women only) and snacks was positively associated
      with WC and BMI (all P<0.01). Snack, but not meal frequency, was also associated
      with overweight/obesity (men: OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.07-1.39; women: OR=1.26, 95% CI
      1.10-1.43) and central overweight/obesity (men: OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.32; women:
      OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.06-1.37). Multivariate analysis that excluded energy
      misreporters and adjusted for EI yielded either null or inverse associations
      (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the associations between
      eating patterns and adiposity are complicated by the role of EI and energy
      misreporting. Longitudinal research that considers the impact of EI and energy
      misreporting is needed to better understand the relationship between eating
      patterns and obesity.

PMID- 28561040
TI  - The mystery of longevity in Cilento: a mix of a good dose of genetic
      predisposition and a balanced diet based on the Mediterranean model.

PMID- 28561041
TI  - Acquired IFNgamma resistance impairs anti-tumor immunity and gives rise to T-cell
      resistant melanoma lesions.
AB  - Melanoma treatment has been revolutionized by antibody-based immunotherapies.
      IFNgamma secretion by CD8+ T cells is critical for therapy efficacy having anti
      proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on tumour cells. Our study demonstrates a
      genetic evolution of IFNgamma resistance in different melanoma patient models.
      Chromosomal alterations and subsequent inactivating mutations in genes of the
      IFNgamma signalling cascade, most often JAK1 or JAK2, protect melanoma cells from
      anti-tumour IFNgamma activity. JAK1/2 mutants further evolve into T-cell
      resistant HLA class I-negative lesions with genes involved in antigen
      presentation silenced and no longer inducible by IFNgamma. Allelic JAK1/2 losses
      predisposing to IFNgamma resistance development are frequent in melanoma.
      Subclones harbouring inactivating mutations emerge under various immunotherapies
      but are also detectable in pre-treatment biopsies. Our data demonstrate that
      JAK1/2 deficiency protects melanoma from anti-tumour IFNgamma activity and
      results in T-cell-resistant HLA class I-negative lesions. Screening for
      mechanisms of IFNgamma resistance should be considered in therapeutic decision
      making.

PMID- 28561042
TI  - Systematic discovery of mutation-specific synthetic lethals by mining pan-cancer
      human primary tumor data.
AB  - Two genes are synthetically lethal (SL) when defects in both are lethal to a cell
      but a single defect is non-lethal. SL partners of cancer mutations are of great
      interest as pharmacological targets; however, identifying them by cell line-based
      methods is challenging. Here we develop MiSL (Mining Synthetic Lethals), an
      algorithm that mines pan-cancer human primary tumour data to identify mutation
      specific SL partners for specific cancers. We apply MiSL to 12 different cancers
      and predict 145,891 SL partners for 3,120 mutations, including known mutation
      specific SL partners. Comparisons with functional screens show that MiSL
      predictions are enriched for SLs in multiple cancers. We extensively validate a
      SL interaction identified by MiSL between the IDH1 mutation and ACACA in
      leukaemia using gene targeting and patient-derived xenografts. Furthermore, we
      apply MiSL to pinpoint genetic biomarkers for drug sensitivity. These results
      demonstrate that MiSL can accelerate precision oncology by identifying mutation
      specific targets and biomarkers.

PMID- 28561043
TI  - HSPs drive dichotomous T-cell immune responses via DNA methylome remodelling in
      antigen presenting cells.
AB  - Immune responses primed by endogenous heat shock proteins, specifically gp96, can
      be varied, and mechanisms controlling these responses have not been defined.
      Immunization with low doses of gp96 primes T helper type 1 (Th1) immune
      responses, whereas high-dose immunization primes responses characterized by
      regulatory T (Treg) cells and immunosuppression. Here we show gp96 preferentially
      engages conventional and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) under low and high
      doses, respectively, through CD91. Global DNMT-dependent epigenetic modifications
      lead to changes in protein expression within these antigen-presenting cells.
      Specifically, pDCs upregulate neuropilin-1 to enable the long term interactions
      of pDCs with Treg cells, thereby enhancing suppression of Th1 anti-tumour
      immunity. Our study defines a CD91-dependent mechanism through which gp96
      controls dichotomous immune responses relevant to the therapy of cancer and
      autoimmunity.

PMID- 28561044
TI  - Engineered clearing agents for the selective depletion of antigen-specific
      antibodies.
AB  - Here we have designed a novel class of engineered antibody-based reagents
      ('Seldegs') that induce the selective degradation of antigen-specific antibodies.
      We demonstrate the rapid and specific clearance of antibodies recognizing the
      autoantigen, myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein and tumour target, HER2. Seldegs
      have considerable potential in multiple areas, including the treatment of
      antibody-mediated autoimmunity and diagnostic imaging.

PMID- 28561047
TI  - Force sensing in cytokinesis.

PMID- 28561045
TI  - Oligolysine-based coating protects DNA nanostructures from low-salt denaturation
      and nuclease degradation.
AB  - DNA nanostructures have evoked great interest as potential therapeutics and
      diagnostics due to ease and robustness of programming their shapes, site-specific
      functionalizations and responsive behaviours. However, their utility in
      biological fluids can be compromised through denaturation induced by
      physiological salt concentrations and degradation mediated by nucleases. Here we
      demonstrate that DNA nanostructures coated by oligolysines to 0.5:1 N:P (ratio of
      nitrogen in lysine to phosphorus in DNA), are stable in low salt and up to
      tenfold more resistant to DNase I digestion than when uncoated. Higher N:P ratios
      can lead to aggregation, but this can be circumvented by coating instead with an
      oligolysine-PEG copolymer, enabling up to a 1,000-fold protection against
      digestion by serum nucleases. Oligolysine-PEG-stabilized DNA nanostructures
      survive uptake into endosomal compartments and, in a mouse model, exhibit a
      modest increase in pharmacokinetic bioavailability. Thus, oligolysine-PEG is a
      one-step, structure-independent approach that provides low-cost and effective
      protection of DNA nanostructures for in vivo applications.

PMID- 28561046
TI  - Cancer-cell intrinsic gene expression signatures overcome intratumoural
      heterogeneity bias in colorectal cancer patient classification.
AB  - Stromal-derived intratumoural heterogeneity (ITH) has been shown to undermine
      molecular stratification of patients into appropriate prognostic/predictive
      subgroups. Here, using several clinically relevant colorectal cancer (CRC) gene
      expression signatures, we assessed the susceptibility of these signatures to the
      confounding effects of ITH using gene expression microarray data obtained from
      multiple tumour regions of a cohort of 24 patients, including central tumour, the
      tumour invasive front and lymph node metastasis. Sample clustering alongside
      correlative assessment revealed variation in the ability of each signature to
      cluster samples according to patient-of-origin rather than region-of-origin
      within the multi-region dataset. Signatures focused on cancer-cell intrinsic gene
      expression were found to produce more clinically useful, patient-centred
      classifiers, as exemplified by the CRC intrinsic signature (CRIS), which robustly
      clustered samples by patient-of-origin rather than region-of-origin. These
      findings highlight the potential of cancer-cell intrinsic signatures to reliably
      stratify CRC patients by minimising the confounding effects of stromal-derived
      ITH.

PMID- 28561048
TI  - Erratum: SWELL1 is a regulator of adipocyte size, insulin signalling and glucose
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28561049
TI  - Championing authorship attribution.

PMID- 28561051
TI  - Cell forces meet cell metabolism.
AB  - Epithelial cells form energetically costly cell-cell adhesions in response to
      mechanical forces. How cells obtain their energy during this event is unclear.
      Activity of a key regulator of cell metabolism, the AMP-activated protein kinase
      (AMPK), is now shown to be mechanoresponsive, and thus can bridge adhesion
      mechanotransduction and energy homeostasis.

PMID- 28561052
TI  - Corrigendum: The tetrameric kinesin Kif25 suppresses pre-mitotic centrosome
      separation to establish proper spindle orientation.

PMID- 28561050
TI  - Multiscale force sensing in development.
AB  - The seminal observation that mechanical signals can elicit changes in biochemical
      signalling within cells, a process commonly termed mechanosensation and
      mechanotransduction, has revolutionized our understanding of the role of cell
      mechanics in various fundamental biological processes, such as cell motility,
      adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. In this Review, we will discuss how
      the interplay and feedback between mechanical and biochemical signals control
      tissue morphogenesis and cell fate specification in embryonic development.

PMID- 28561053
TI  - Mitochondria link metabolism and epigenetics in haematopoiesis.
AB  - Due to their varied metabolic and signalling roles, mitochondria are important in
      mediating cell behaviour. By altering mitochondrial function, two studies now
      identify metabolite-induced epigenetic changes that have profound effects on
      haematopoietic stem cell fate and function.

PMID- 28561054
TI  - Endoglin moves and shapes endothelial cells.
AB  - Vascular malformations result from improper blood vessel responses to molecular
      and mechanical signals. Two studies now show that endothelial cell migration and
      cell shape changes are perturbed in mutants lacking the TGFbeta/BMP co-receptor
      endoglin, leading to arteriovenous shunts. Endoglin coordinates endothelial cell
      responses to ligand-receptor signalling and flow-mediated mechanical cues.

PMID- 28561055
TI  - Forces in cell biology.

PMID- 28561056
TI  - EGFR probes matrix stiffness.

PMID- 28561057
TI  - Mechanical control of antigen uptake.

PMID- 28561058
TI  - Reducing interferon'ce in stem cells.
AB  - Little is known regarding how the interactions of stem cells with the immune
      system regulate their plasticity. A study now describes a mechanism by which
      normal breast and cancer stem cells utilize miR-199a to downregulate the
      corepressor LCOR and minimize responses to type I interferon.

PMID- 28561059
TI  - Reversing stratification during wound healing.
AB  - The involvement of proliferation and migration in epidermal healing has long been
      recognized, but three studies now reveal how a variety of individual cell
      behaviours achieve a collective epithelial response, and how diverse repair
      routes are taken by cells of different origins.

PMID- 28561060
TI  - Formin' a perinuclear actin cage in confined migration.

PMID- 28561061
TI  - Regulated membrane remodeling by Mic60 controls formation of mitochondrial crista
      junctions.
AB  - The mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) is crucial
      for the formation of crista junctions and mitochondrial inner membrane
      architecture. MICOS contains two core components. Mic10 shows membrane-bending
      activity, whereas Mic60 (mitofilin) forms contact sites between inner and outer
      membranes. Here we report that Mic60 deforms liposomes into thin membrane tubules
      and thus displays membrane-shaping activity. We identify a membrane-binding site
      in the soluble intermembrane space-exposed part of Mic60. This membrane-binding
      site is formed by a predicted amphipathic helix between the conserved coiled-coil
      and mitofilin domains. The mitofilin domain negatively regulates the membrane
      shaping activity of Mic60. Binding of Mic19 to the mitofilin domain modulates
      this activity. Membrane binding and shaping by the conserved Mic60-Mic19 complex
      is crucial for crista junction formation, mitochondrial membrane architecture and
      efficient respiratory activity. Mic60 thus plays a dual role by shaping inner
      membrane crista junctions and forming contact sites with the outer membrane.

PMID- 28561062
TI  - Inhibition of gelatinase B/MMP-9 does not attenuate colitis in murine models of
      inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - One third of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) inadequately respond
      to anti-TNF treatment and preclinical data suggest that matrix metalloproteinase
      9 (MMP-9) is a novel therapeutic target. Here we show that IBD clinical and
      histopathological parameters found in wild type mice challenged with three
      different models of colitis, acute and chronic dextran sodium sulphate (DSS), and
      acute 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced colitis are not attenuated in
      MMP-9 knockout mice. We find similar colonic gene expression profiles in wild
      type and MMP-9 knockout mice in control and acute DSS conditions with the
      exception of eleven genes involved in antimicrobial response during colitis.
      Parameters of chronic colitis are similar in wild type and MMP-9 knockout mice.
      Pharmacological inhibition of MMP-9 with bio-active peptides does not improve DSS
      colitis. We suggest that MMP-9 upregulation is a consequence rather than a cause
      of intestinal inflammation and we question whether MMP-9 represents a disease
      target in IBD.

PMID- 28561064
TI  - Turbulence hierarchy in a random fibre laser.
AB  - Turbulence is a challenging feature common to a wide range of complex phenomena.
      Random fibre lasers are a special class of lasers in which the feedback arises
      from multiple scattering in a one-dimensional disordered cavity-less medium. Here
      we report on statistical signatures of turbulence in the distribution of
      intensity fluctuations in a continuous-wave-pumped erbium-based random fibre
      laser, with random Bragg grating scatterers. The distribution of intensity
      fluctuations in an extensive data set exhibits three qualitatively distinct
      behaviours: a Gaussian regime below threshold, a mixture of two distributions
      with exponentially decaying tails near the threshold and a mixture of
      distributions with stretched-exponential tails above threshold. All distributions
      are well described by a hierarchical stochastic model that incorporates
      Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence, which includes energy cascade and the
      intermittence phenomenon. Our findings have implications for explaining the
      remarkably challenging turbulent behaviour in photonics, using a random fibre
      laser as the experimental platform.

PMID- 28561065
TI  - Beat frequency quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy for fast and
      calibration-free continuous trace-gas monitoring.
AB  - Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) is a sensitive gas detection
      technique which requires frequent calibration and has a long response time. Here
      we report beat frequency (BF) QEPAS that can be used for ultra-sensitive
      calibration-free trace-gas detection and fast spectral scan applications. The
      resonance frequency and Q-factor of the quartz tuning fork (QTF) as well as the
      trace-gas concentration can be obtained simultaneously by detecting the beat
      frequency signal generated when the transient response signal of the QTF is
      demodulated at its non-resonance frequency. Hence, BF-QEPAS avoids a calibration
      process and permits continuous monitoring of a targeted trace gas. Three
      semiconductor lasers were selected as the excitation source to verify the
      performance of the BF-QEPAS technique. The BF-QEPAS method is capable of
      measuring lower trace-gas concentration levels with shorter averaging times as
      compared to conventional PAS and QEPAS techniques and determines the electrical
      QTF parameters precisely.

PMID- 28561063
TI  - Selective analysis of cancer-cell intrinsic transcriptional traits defines novel
      clinically relevant subtypes of colorectal cancer.
AB  - Stromal content heavily impacts the transcriptional classification of colorectal
      cancer (CRC), with clinical and biological implications. Lineage-dependent
      stromal transcriptional components could therefore dominate over more subtle
      expression traits inherent to cancer cells. Since in patient-derived xenografts
      (PDXs) stromal cells of the human tumour are substituted by murine counterparts,
      here we deploy human-specific expression profiling of CRC PDXs to assess cancer
      cell intrinsic transcriptional features. Through this approach, we identify five
      CRC intrinsic subtypes (CRIS) endowed with distinctive molecular, functional and
      phenotypic peculiarities: (i) CRIS-A: mucinous, glycolytic, enriched for
      microsatellite instability or KRAS mutations; (ii) CRIS-B: TGF-beta pathway
      activity, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, poor prognosis; (iii) CRIS-C:
      elevated EGFR signalling, sensitivity to EGFR inhibitors; (iv) CRIS-D: WNT
      activation, IGF2 gene overexpression and amplification; and (v) CRIS-E: Paneth
      cell-like phenotype, TP53 mutations. CRIS subtypes successfully categorize
      independent sets of primary and metastatic CRCs, with limited overlap on existing
      transcriptional classes and unprecedented predictive and prognostic performances.

PMID- 28561066
TI  - WIPI3 and WIPI4 beta-propellers are scaffolds for LKB1-AMPK-TSC signalling
      circuits in the control of autophagy.
AB  - Autophagy is controlled by AMPK and mTOR, both of which associate with ULK1 and
      control the production of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns3P), a
      prerequisite for autophagosome formation. Here we report that WIPI3 and WIPI4
      scaffold the signal control of autophagy upstream of PtdIns3P production and have
      a role in the PtdIns3P effector function of WIPI1-WIPI2 at nascent
      autophagosomes. In response to LKB1-mediated AMPK stimulation, WIPI4-ATG2 is
      released from a WIPI4-ATG2/AMPK-ULK1 complex and translocates to nascent
      autophagosomes, controlling their size, to which WIPI3, in complex with FIP200,
      also contributes. Upstream, WIPI3 associates with AMPK-activated TSC complex at
      lysosomes, regulating mTOR. Our WIPI interactome analysis reveals the scaffold
      functions of WIPI proteins interconnecting autophagy signal control and
      autophagosome formation. Our functional kinase screen uncovers a novel regulatory
      link between LKB1-mediated AMPK stimulation that produces a direct signal via
      WIPI4, and we show that the AMPK-related kinases NUAK2 and BRSK2 regulate
      autophagy through WIPI4.

PMID- 28561067
TI  - Real-time monitoring of hydrophobic aggregation reveals a critical role of
      cooperativity in hydrophobic effect.
AB  - The hydrophobic interaction drives nonpolar solutes to aggregate in aqueous
      solution, and hence plays a critical role in many fundamental processes in
      nature. An important property intrinsic to hydrophobic interaction is its
      cooperative nature, which is originated from the collective motions of water
      hydrogen bond networks surrounding hydrophobic solutes. This property is widely
      believed to enhance the formation of hydrophobic core in proteins. However,
      cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions has not been successfully characterized
      by experiments. Here, we quantify cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions by
      real-time monitoring the aggregation of hydrophobic solute (hexaphenylsilole,
      HPS) in a microfluidic mixer. We show that association of a HPS molecule to its
      aggregate in water occurs at sub-microsecond, and the free energy change is -5.8
      to -13.6 kcal mol-1. Most strikingly, we discover that cooperativity constitutes
      up to 40% of this free energy. Our results provide quantitative evidence for the
      critical role of cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions.

PMID- 28561069
TI  - A clinical-molecular prognostic model to predict survival in patients with post
      polycythemia vera and post essential thrombocythemia myelofibrosis.
AB  - Polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET) are myeloproliferative
      neoplasms with variable risk of evolution into post-PV and post-ET myelofibrosis,
      from now on referred to as secondary myelofibrosis (SMF). No specific tools have
      been defined for risk stratification in SMF. To develop a prognostic model for
      predicting survival, we studied 685 JAK2, CALR, and MPL annotated patients with
      SMF. Median survival of the whole cohort was 9.3 years (95% CI: 8-not reached-NR
      ). Through penalized Cox regressions we identified negative predictors of
      survival and according to beta risk coefficients we assigned 2 points to
      hemoglobin level <11 g/dl, to circulating blasts ?3%, and to CALR-unmutated
      genotype, 1 point to platelet count <150 * 109/l and to constitutional symptoms,
      and 0.15 points to any year of age. Myelofibrosis Secondary to PV and ET
      Prognostic Model (MYSEC-PM) allocated SMF patients into four risk categories with
      different survival (P<0.0001): low (median survival NR; 133 patients),
      intermediate-1 (9.3 years, 95% CI: 8.1-NR; 245 patients), intermediate-2 (4.4
      years, 95% CI: 3.2-7.9; 126 patients), and high risk (2 years, 95% CI: 1.7-3.9;
      75 patients). Finally, we found that the MYSEC-PM represents the most appropriate
      tool for SMF decision-making to be used in clinical and trial settings.

PMID- 28561070
TI  - Biotransformation of p-xylene into terephthalic acid by engineered Escherichia
      coli.
AB  - Terephthalic acid (TPA) is an important industrial chemical currently produced by
      energy intensive and potentially hazardous p-xylene (pX) oxidation process. Here
      we report the development of metabolically engineered Escherichia coli system for
      biological transformation of pX into TPA. The engineered E. coli strain harbours
      a synthetic TPA pathway optimized through manipulation of expression levels of
      upstream and downstream modules. The upstream pathway converts pX to p-toluic
      acid (pTA) and the downstream pathway transforms pTA to TPA. In a two-phase
      partitioning fermentation, the engineered strain converts 8.8 g pX into 13.3 g
      TPA, which corresponds to a conversion yield of 96.7 mol%. These results suggest
      that the E. coli system presented here might be a promising alternative for the
      large-scale biotechnological production of TPA and lays the foundations for the
      future development of sustainable approaches for TPA production.

PMID- 28561068
TI  - Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate Increases Resting-State Limbic Perfusion and Body and
      Emotion Awareness in Humans.
AB  - Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a GHB-/GABA-B receptor agonist inducing a broad
      spectrum of subjective effects including euphoria, disinhibition, and enhanced
      vitality. It is used as treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders including
      narcolepsy and alcohol withdrawal, but is also a drug of abuse. Non-medical users
      report enhancement of body and emotion awareness during intoxication. However,
      the neuronal underpinnings of such awareness alterations under GHB are unknown so
      far. The assessment of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) by pharmacological
      magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI) enables the elucidation of drug-induced
      functional brain alterations. Thus, we assessed the effects of GHB (35 mg/kg
      p.o.) in 17 healthy males on rCBF and subjective drug effects, using a placebo
      controlled, double-blind, randomized, cross-over design employing arterial spin
      labeling phMRI. Compared to placebo, GHB increased subjective ratings for body
      and emotion awareness, and for dizziness (p<0.01-0.001, Bonferroni-corrected). A
      whole-brain analysis showed increased rCBF in the bilateral anterior cingulate
      cortex (ACC) and the right anterior insula under GHB (p<0.05, cluster-corrected).
      ACC and insula rCBF are correlated with relaxation, and body and emotion
      awareness (p<0.05-0.001, uncorrected). Interaction analyses revealed that GHB
      induced increase of body awareness was accompanied by increased rCBF in ACC,
      whereas relaxation under GHB was accompanied by elevated rCBF in right anterior
      insula (p<0.05, uncorrected). In conclusion, enhancement of emotion and body
      awareness, and increased perfusion of insula and ACC bears implications both for
      the properties of GHB as a drug of abuse as well as for its putative personalized
      potential for specific therapeutic indications in affective disorders.

PMID- 28561072
TI  - Immunotherapy: Macrophages hijack anti-PD-1 therapy.

PMID- 28561073
TI  - Targeted therapies: J-ALEX hints at new first-line in NSCLC.

PMID- 28561071
TI  - Clinical utility of gene-expression signatures in early stage breast cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, with different subtypes having a
      distinct biological, molecular, and clinical course. Assessments of standard
      clinical and pathological features have traditionally been used to determine the
      use of adjuvant systemic therapy in patients with early stage breast cancer;
      however, the ability to identify those who will benefit from adjuvant
      chemotherapy remains a challenge, leading to the overtreatment of some patients.
      Advances in molecular medicine have substantially improved the accuracy of gene
      expression profiling of breast tumours, resulting in improvements in the ability
      to predict a patient's risk of breast cancer recurrence and likely response to
      endocrine therapy and/or chemotherapy. These genomic assays, several of which are
      commercially available, have aided physicians in tailoring treatment decisions
      for patients at the individual level. Herein, we describe the available data on
      the clinical validity of the most widely available assays in patients with early
      stage breast cancer, with a focus on the development, validation, and clinical
      application of these assays, in addition to the anticipated outcomes of ongoing
      prospective trials. We also review data from comparative studies of these assays
      and from cost-effectiveness analyses relating to their clinical use.

PMID- 28561075
TI  - HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance mutations among antiretroviral therapy-Naive
      individuals in Surabaya, Indonesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The emergence of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) compromises the
      effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART), resulting in treatment failure of human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Although more than a decade has passed
      since ART was introduced into Indonesia, information on TDR is limited. Here, a
      genotypic study of TDR among ART-naive individuals was conducted in Surabaya,
      Indonesia. METHOD: HIV-1 seropositive participants were recruited from the
      communities of commercial sex workers and intravenous drug users as well as from
      the university teaching hospital in Surabaya. Protease (PR) and reverse
      transcriptase (RT) genes were sequenced in order to conduct HIV-1 subtyping and
      phylogenetic analysis and to detect TDR. TDR was defined as the presence of at
      least one surveillance drug resistance mutation on the WHO list or major drug
      resistance mutations in the International AIDS Society-USA panel. RESULT: Fifty
      two and 47 of the PR and RT genes, respectively, were successfully sequenced in
      the 58 samples. HIV-1 subtyping revealed that 86.3% (50/58) of the sequenced
      samples were classified as CRF01_AE, 8.6% as subtype B, 3.4% as B/CRF01_AE, and
      1.7% as A/G/CRF01_AE. TDR of PR inhibitors was not detected in this study. In
      contrast, TDR of RT inhibitors was detected in 4.3% (2/47) of samples. In
      addition, minor drug resistance mutations were detected in 98.1% (51/52) and
      12.8% (6/47) of PR and RT genes, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study clarified
      the predominance of the CRF01_AE strain in Surabaya, Indonesia. The prevalence of
      TDR was below 5%, indicating that the currently available first-line regimen is
      still effective in Surabaya. However, the prevalence might be underestimated
      since we detected only major population of HIV-1 in individuals. Therefore,
      continuous surveillance is required in order to detect the emergence of TDR in
      the early phase.

PMID- 28561076
TI  - Polyamides and their functionalization: recent concepts for their applications as
      biomaterials.
AB  - Synthetic polyamides (nylons) are very important polymers with applications in
      many fields, and recently their use in biology and medicine has become more and
      more important. Different recent concepts and strategies for the
      functionalization and applications of nylons as biomaterials are summarized in
      this article, with a focus on their utilization as scaffolds for tissue
      engineering, membranes and bioactive surfaces.

PMID- 28561074
TI  - Succinate and its G-protein-coupled receptor stimulates osteoclastogenesis.
AB  - The mechanism underlying bone impairment in patients with diabetes mellitus, a
      metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia and dysregulation in
      metabolism, is unclear. Here we show the difference in the metabolomics of bone
      marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) derived from hyperglycaemic (type 2 diabetes
      mellitus, T2D) and normoglycaemic mice. One hundred and forty-two metabolites are
      substantially regulated in BMSCs from T2D mice, with the tricarboxylic acid (TCA)
      cycle being one of the primary metabolic pathways impaired by hyperglycaemia.
      Importantly, succinate, an intermediate metabolite in the TCA cycle, is increased
      by 24-fold in BMSCs from T2D mice. Succinate functions as an extracellular ligand
      through binding to its specific receptor on osteoclastic lineage cells and
      stimulates osteoclastogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Strategies targeting the
      receptor activation inhibit osteoclastogenesis. This study reveals a metabolite
      mediated mechanism of osteoclastogenesis modulation that contributes to bone
      dysregulation in metabolic disorders.

PMID- 28561077
TI  - Reactions between hydroxyl-substituted alkylperoxy radicals and Criegee
      intermediates: correlations of the electronic characteristics of methyl
      substituents and the reactivity.
AB  - The reactions of four hydroxyl-substituted alkylperoxy (RO2) radicals with four
      stabilized Criegee intermediates (SCIs) were investigated. Due to the existence
      of various reactive sites in both RO2 and SCI, various reaction modes were
      obtained. By adjusting the relative orientation of the two components of the
      reactants, different pathways were predicted. The addition of RO2 radical
      terminal oxygen atom to SCI carbonyl carbon is a favorable reaction mode. For RO2
      radicals, increasing the number of methyl substituents in beta-carbon will
      promote the addition reaction. Carbonyl oxides with hydrogen atoms as
      substituents in the anti-position react faster than the corresponding carbonyl
      oxides with hydrogen atom substituents in the syn-position. Thus, the reaction
      barrier can be "tuned" by the substitution of alkyl groups. The analysis of the
      transition states have revealed that there were correlations between the reaction
      barrier heights, NPA charges and electron spin population of the terminal oxygen
      of RO2, as well as between the interatomic distances of O-C in transition states.
      As the oligomers formed by the sequential addition of SCIs to RO2 radicals are
      the common components of secondary organic aerosols, the investigation was able
      to contribute to understand the formation of SOA.

PMID- 28561078
TI  - Determination of growth regimes of Pd nanostructures on c-plane sapphire by the
      control of deposition amount at different annealing temperatures.
AB  - Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable physical, optical and catalytic
      properties have a wide range of applications including various optoelectronics,
      sensors and fuel cells. In this paper, we demonstrate the evolution of various
      physical properties, configurations, size and density of palladium (Pd)
      nanostructures on sapphire(Al2O3) (0001) by the systematic control of deposition
      amount (DA) at distinct annealing temperatures. The transformation of the
      deposited thin films into various Pd NPs is achieved by the dewetting of the thin
      film by means of surface diffusion, nucleation, Volmer-Weber growth and surface
      energy minimization mechanism. Depending on the evolution of size, density and
      configuration, five distinctive regimes of Pd nanostructures are demonstrated:
      (i) nucleation and evolution of small NPs between 1 and 3 nm, (ii) medium NPs
      with the dominating vertical growth between 5 and 20 nm, (iii) laterally expanded
      large NPs between 30 and 40 nm, (iv) irregular coalesced Pd NPs between 50 and 80
      nm and (v) voids evolution between 100 and 200 nm. Initial film thickness and
      annealing temperature play major roles on the dewetting process and the resulting
      Pd nanostructures are notably distinguished. The fabricated Pd nanostructures
      influence the lattice vibration modes of sapphire(0001) such as gradual decrement
      in the intensity and left-shift of the peak position with increased surface
      coverage. In addition, the optical properties are studied by UV-VIS-NIR (300-1100
      nm) reflectance spectra, which shows the reflectance, absorption and scattering
      over the wavelength and are closely related to the morphology evolution of Pd
      nanostructures.

PMID- 28561079
TI  - Determinants of the host-guest interactions between alpha-, beta- and gamma
      cyclodextrins and group IA, IIA and IIIA metal cations: a DFT/PCM study.
AB  - The most widely used native cyclodextrins are alpha-, beta- and gamma
      cyclodextrins containing six, seven or eight alpha-d-glucopyranoside units in the
      ring, respectively. Although the ligation properties of these host molecules have
      been extensively studied, a number of questions regarding their metal binding and
      selectivity remain unaddressed: to what extent do the size and flexibility of the
      host alpha-, beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins influence their metal
      affinity/selectivity? Which metal is the most preferred binding partner of alpha
      , beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins? How do the charge, size and preferred
      coordination number of the metal cation shape its interactions with the host
      cyclodextrin? Can the guest metal cation inflict structural alterations in the
      host molecule and, if so, how do these changes correlate with the metal's
      properties? In the present study, by employing density functional theory (DFT)
      calculations combined with polarizable continuum model (PCM) computations, we try
      to answer these questions by evaluating the thermodynamic parameters of the IA,
      IIA and IIIA group metal binding to alpha, beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins. We
      assess how the interaction between the two binding partners depends on (1) the
      size, valence state and preferred coordination number of the guest metal cations,
      (2) the size and flexibility of the host molecule, and (3) the dielectric
      properties of the environment. The series of group IA (Na+ and Rb+), IIA (Mg2+
      and Sr2+) and IIIA (Al3+ and In3+) metal cations have been chosen for the task as
      they allow us to study the effect of various metal parameters (variable charge,
      ionic radius and coordination number) on the strength and form of the
      interactions with the host cyclodextrins.

PMID- 28561080
TI  - Diacetylene polymerization on a bulk insulator surface.
AB  - Molecular electronics has great potential to surpass known limitations in
      conventional silicon-based technologies. The development of molecular electronics
      devices requires reliable strategies for connecting functional molecules by wire
      like structures. To this end, diacetylene polymerization has been discussed as a
      very promising approach for contacting single molecules with a conductive polymer
      chain. A major challenge for future device fabrication is transferring this
      method to bulk insulator surfaces, which are mandatory to decouple the electronic
      structure of the functional molecules from the support surface. Here, we provide
      experimental evidence for diacetylene polymerization of 3,3'-(1,3-butadiyne-1,4
      diyl)bisbenzoic acid precursors on the (10.4) surface of calcite, a bulk
      insulator with a band gap of around 6 eV. When deposited on the surface held at
      room temperature, ordered islands with a (1 * 3) superstructure are observed
      using dynamic atomic force microscopy. A distinct change is revealed upon heating
      the substrate to 485 K. After heating, molecular stripes with a characteristic
      inner structure are formed that excellently match the expected diacetylene
      polymer chains in appearance and repeat distance. The corresponding density
      functional theory computations reveal molecular-level bonding patterns of both
      the (1 * 3) superstructure and the formed striped structure, confirming the
      assignment of on-surface diacetylene polymerization. Transferring the concept of
      using diacetylene polymerization for creating conductive connections to bulk
      insulator surfaces paves the way towards application-relevant systems for future
      molecular electronic devices.

PMID- 28561081
TI  - Cobalt-porphine catalyzed CO2 electro-reduction: a novel protonation mechanism.
AB  - The urgent need for artificially fixing CO2 calls for catalysts of high
      efficiency. The transition metal functionalized porphyrin (TMP) is one of the
      most important types of organic catalysts for CO2 reduction. However, the
      catalytic mechanisms of TMP in CO2 reduction still remain controversial. Starting
      from the previously neglected catalyst self-protonation model, we uncover a new
      CO2 reduction mechanism on cobalt-porphine, which involves an indirect proton
      transfer step occurring at the beginning of the reduction cycle. Based on this
      protonation mechanism, we demonstrate the different correlations between
      producing rate and pH for the formation of CO and methane, in good agreement with
      available experimental observations. Our results reveal how pH and potential
      affect the CO2 reduction process, providing important clues and insights for
      further optimization of TMP catalysts.

PMID- 28561082
TI  - Heteroaggregation of oppositely charged particles in the presence of multivalent
      ions.
AB  - Time-resolved dynamic light scattering is used to measure absolute
      heteroaggregation rate coefficients and the corresponding stability ratios for
      heteroaggregation between amidine and sulfate latex particles. These measurements
      are complemented by the respective quantities for the homoaggregation of the two
      systems and electrophoresis. Based on the latter measurements, the stability
      ratios are calculated using Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. In
      monovalent salt solutions, the two types of particles investigated are oppositely
      charged. In the presence of multivalent ions, however, one particle type reverses
      its charge, while the charge of the other particle type is hardly affected. In
      this region, the heteroaggregation stability ratio goes through a pronounced
      maximum when plotted versus concentration. This region of slow aggregation is
      wider than the one observed in the corresponding homoaggregation process. One
      also finds that the onset of this region sensitively depends on the boundary
      conditions used to calculate the double layer force. The present results are more
      in line with constant potential boundary conditions.

PMID- 28561083
TI  - A DFT study of the adsorption of glycine in the interlayer space of
      montmorillonite.
AB  - The adsorption properties of clay minerals have been widely studied in several
      technological areas, due to their versatility, absorption capacity and catalytic
      properties. The interaction of amino acids with clay surfaces can be interesting
      due to their role in prebiotic scenarios. Different degrees of hydration and the
      adsorption of the glycine molecule and glycinium cation in the interlayer space
      of montmorillonite were investigated by means of calculations based on density
      functional theory (DFT). Our calculations show that the cation exchange of K+ by
      glycinium in the interlayer of hydrated K-montmorillonite is highly possible and
      exothermic. This supports previous experimental results by explaining the
      possible adsorption of glycine as a molecule and cation. Glycine is adsorbed in a
      zwitterionic form in the interlayer without being solvated with water. Besides,
      glycine and glycinium are highly exothermically adsorbed in the interlayer. The
      interlayer spacings under different conditions were in agreement with the
      experimental values. Hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions between
      molecules and surface atoms are responsible for this exothermicity. The IR
      spectra were calculated and compared with the experimental results showing
      interesting frequency shifts depending on the intermolecular interactions in the
      interlayer space of montmorillonite.

PMID- 28561084
TI  - A label-free colorimetric biosensor for sensitive detection of vascular
      endothelial growth factor-165.
AB  - Sensitive detection of a low abundant protein is essential for biomedical
      research and clinical diagnostics. Herein, we develop a label-free colorimetric
      biosensor for the sensitive detection of recombinant human vascular endothelial
      growth factor-165 (VEGF165). This biosensor consists of an aptamer-based hairpin
      probe, an assistant DNA-trigger duplex and a linear template. In the presence of
      VEGF165, the specific binding of VEGF165 with the aptamer-based hairpin probe
      results in the opening of a hairpin probe and the opened hairpin probe
      subsequently hybridizes with the single-stranded region of the assistant DNA
      trigger duplex to initiate the strand displacement amplification (SDA) to yield
      abundant triggers. The released triggers can further function as the primers to
      anneal with the hairpin probe and lead to the opening of the hairpin structure,
      which subsequently hybridizes with the assistant DNA-trigger duplex to initiate
      the next round of SDA reaction and generates more triggers. Large amounts of
      triggers could be generated by the synergistic operation of dual SDA reaction,
      and the obtained triggers can initiate a new round of SDA reaction to yield
      numerous G-quadruplex DNAzymes, which subsequently catalyze the conversion of
      ABTS2- to ABTS- by H2O2 to yield a color change with the assistance of a cofactor
      hemin. In contrast, in the absence of target VEGF165, the hairpin probe, the
      assistant DNA-trigger duplex and the linear template can stably coexist in
      solution, and thus no color change is observed because no trigger can initiate
      SDA to generate the G-quadruplex DNAzyme. This biosensor has a low detection
      limit of 1.70 pM and a dynamic range over 3 orders of magnitude from 24.00 pM to
      11.25 nM. Moreover, the biosensor shows excellent specificity toward the target
      VEGF165 and the entire reaction can be carried out in an isothermal manner
      without the involvement of a high precision thermal cycler, making the current
      assay extremely cost effective.

PMID- 28561085
TI  - Enhanced conductivity of sodium versus lithium salts measured by impedance
      spectroscopy. Sodium cobaltacarboranes as electrolytes of choice.
AB  - The development of new types of ion conducting materials is one of the most
      important challenges in the field of energy. Lithium salt polymer electrolytes
      have been the most convenient, and thus the most widely used in the design of the
      new generation of batteries. However, in this work, we have observed that Na+
      ions provide a higher conductivity, or at least a comparable conductivity to that
      of Li+ ions in the same basic material. This provides an excellent possibility to
      use Na+ ions in the design of a new generation of batteries, instead of lithium,
      to enhance conductivity and ensure wide supply. Our results indicate that the dc
      conductivity is larger when the anion is [Co(C2B9H11)2]-, [COSANE]-, compared to
      tetraphenylborate, [TPB]-. Our data also prove that the dc-conductivity behavior
      of Li+ and Na+ salts is opposite with the two anions. At 40  degrees C, the
      conductivity values change from 1.05 * 10-2 S cm-1 (Li[COSANE]) and 1.75 * 10-2 S
      cm-1 (Na[COSANE]) to 2.8 * 10-3 S cm-1 (Li[TPB]) and 1.5 * 10-3 S cm-1 (Na[TPB]).
      These findings indicate that metallacarboranes can be useful components of mixed
      matrix membranes (MMMs), providing excellent conductivity when the medium
      contains sufficient amounts of ionic components and a certain degree of humidity.

PMID- 28561086
TI  - Diabetic wound regeneration using heparin-mimetic peptide amphiphile gel in db/db
      mice.
AB  - There is an urgent need for more efficient treatment of chronic wounds in
      diabetic patients especially with a high risk of leg amputation. Biomaterials
      capable of presenting extracellular matrix-mimetic signals may assist in the
      recovery of diabetic wounds by creating a more conducive environment for blood
      vessel formation and modulating the immune system. In a previous study, we showed
      that glycosaminoglycan-mimetic peptide nanofibers are able to increase the rate
      of closure in STZ-induced diabetic rats by induction of angiogenesis. The present
      study investigates the effect of a heparin-mimetic peptide amphiphile (PA)
      nanofiber gel on full-thickness excisional wounds in a db/db diabetic mouse
      model, with emphasis on the ability of the PA nanofiber network to regulate
      angiogenesis and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Here, we showed
      that the heparin-mimetic PA gel can support tissue neovascularization, enhance
      the deposition of collagen and expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha
      SMA), and eliminate the sustained presence of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in the diabetic wound site. As the absence of
      neovascularization and overexpression of pro-inflammatory markers are a hallmark
      of diabetes and interfere with wound recovery by preventing the healing process,
      the heparin-mimetic PA treatment is a promising candidate for acceleration of
      diabetic wound healing by modulating angiogenesis and local immune response.

PMID- 28561088
TI  - Mapping the ionic fingerprints of molecular monolayers.
AB  - We have previously proposed, and experimentally resolved, an ionic charge
      relaxation model for redox inactive self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metallic
      electrodes in contact with a liquid electrolyte. Here we analyse, by capacitance
      spectroscopy, the resistance and capacitance terms presented by a range of
      thiolated molecular films. Molecular dynamics simulations support a SAM-specific
      energy barrier to solution-phase ions. Once surmounted, the entrapped ions
      support a film embedded ionic capacitance and non-faradaic relaxation, which can
      be assigned as a particular case of general electrochemical capacitance.

PMID- 28561090
TI  - The new age of MOFs and of their porous-related solids.

PMID- 28561089
TI  - Hierarchical core-shell CoMn2O4@MnO2 nanoneedle arrays for high-performance
      supercapacitors.
AB  - Hierarchical mesoporous core-shell CoMn2O4@MnO2 nanoneedle arrays on nickel foam
      have been manufactured via a two-step hydrothermal process. Electrochemical
      performances of the CoMn2O4@MnO2 nanomaterials have been tested for
      supercapacitors and demonstrated outstanding properties. The CoMn2O4@MnO2
      electrode delivers a specific capacitance of 2126 F g-1 at a current density of 1
      A g-1 in 2 M KOH aqueous solution and also shows an excellent cycling stability,
      which retains 94.4% of the initial capacitance after 5000 charge/discharge cycles
      at a current density of 4 A g-1. The result confirms the superiority of the
      CoMn2O4@MnO2 electrode compared with the CoMn2O4 electrode and demonstrates the
      potential application of the CoMn2O4@MnO2 nanoneedle array electrode for high
      performance energy storage device applications.

PMID- 28561091
TI  - Design of a highly active base catalyst through utilizing organic-solvent-treated
      layered silicate Hiroshima University Silicates.
AB  - Crystalline layered silicates are promising materials for the rational design of
      innovative catalysts owing to their wide variety and easily tunable surfaces.
      However, diffusional limitation in their interlayer spaces limits their catalytic
      efficiency. Herein, we have developed a novel synthesis route to a highly active
      layered silicate catalyst utilizing Hiroshima University Silicates (HUSs). We
      attempted to tune the stacking structure of the silicate layers of HUS-2 and HUS
      7 ion-exchanged with hexadecyltrimethylammonium (C16TMA) using organic-solvent
      treatment, and found that cyclohexane treatment of HUS-7 gave an aggregate of
      randomly restacked silicate nanosheets without degradation of the original
      silicate framework. We prepared amine-modified base catalysts by grafting with
      aminopropyltriethoxysilane, and investigated their catalytic performances in the
      transesterification of triacetin with methanol. The catalyst based on HUS-7
      exhibited a much higher catalytic activity than that based on HUS-2 despite their
      similar framework topology. Moreover, the activity of the HUS-7-based catalyst
      was far superior to those of other base catalysts, such as amine-modified
      mesoporous silica, catalyst resin, and alkylamine. Detailed characterization of
      the catalysts revealed that the improved accessibility of reactant molecules to
      the immobilized functional units, which is derived from both the randomly stacked
      silicate layers and the bulky interlayer molecules incorporated, is the primary
      reason for the high catalytic efficiency of the layered silicate catalyst.

PMID- 28561092
TI  - A field analysis of lampricide photodegradation in Great Lakes tributaries.
AB  - The lampricides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and 2',5-dichloro-4'
      nitrosalicylanilide (niclosamide) are added to Great Lakes tributaries to target
      the sea lamprey, an invasive parasitic fish. This study examines the
      photochemical behavior of the lampricides in Carpenter Creek, Sullivan Creek, and
      the Manistique River. The observed loss of TFM in Carpenter and Sullivan Creeks
      (i.e., 34 and 19%) was similar to the loss of bromide in parallel time of passage
      studies (i.e., 30 and 29%), demonstrating that TFM photodegradation was minimal
      in both tributaries during the lampricide application. Furthermore, the absence
      of inorganic and organic photoproducts in the Manistique River demonstrates that
      TFM and niclosamide photodegradation was minimal in this large tributary, despite
      its long residence time (i.e., 3.3 days). Kinetic modeling was used to identify
      environmental variables primarily responsible for the limited photodegradation of
      TFM in the field compared to estimates from laboratory data. This analysis
      demonstrates that the lack of TFM photodegradation was attributable to the short
      residence times in Carpenter and Sullivan Creeks, while depth, time of year, time
      of day, and cloud cover influenced photochemical fate in the Manistique River.
      The modeling approach was extended to assess how many of the 140 United States
      tributaries treated with lampricides in 2015 and 2016 were amenable to TFM
      photolysis. While >50% removal of TFM due to photolysis could occur in 13 long
      and shallow tributaries, in most systems lampricides will reach the Great Lakes
      untransformed.

PMID- 28561093
TI  - Order-disorder phase transitions in Au-Cu nanocubes: from nano-thermodynamics to
      synthesis.
AB  - Catalysts have been widely used in industries and can be optimized by tuning the
      composition and chemical ordering of the elements involved in the nano-alloy.
      Among bi-metallic alloys, the Au-Cu system is of particular interest because it
      exhibits ordered phases at low temperatures. Nevertheless, the temperature at
      which these ordered structures are formed is totally unknown at the nanoscale.
      Consequently, to speed up the development of these catalysts, this paper
      theoretically predicts the structural phase transitions between ordered and
      disordered phases for the Au-Cu system by using nano-thermodynamics. Following
      the predictions, the suggested annealing temperatures have been carefully chosen
      and consequently, Au-Cu ordered nanocubes have been successfully synthesized
      through a solventless protocol. The results are fully supported by electron
      microscopy observations.

PMID- 28561094
TI  - Unusual spin-polarized electron state in fullerene induced by carbon adatom
      defect.
AB  - First-principles calculations show that a carbon adatom defect at the Def[5, 6]
      site on the surface of C60 can produce a more stable spin-polarized singlet
      electronic state instead of a magnetic triplet state. This is clearly different
      from the cases of graphene and nanotubes. The mechanism results from the electron
      population of the adatom, which produces antiferromagnetic coupling around the
      C60 cage and the adatom itself. Our calculations show the same phenomenon occurs
      in other IPR fullerenes, such as C70 and C80. These findings extend the
      understanding of the magnetic origin of pure carbon structures and are valuable
      for research related to the spin polarization of carbon systems.

PMID- 28561095
TI  - Metal carbonate complexes formed through the capture of ambient O2 and CO2 by
      elemental metals in 1-methylimidazole: molecular Cu(CO3)(MeIm)3 and polymeric
      M(CO3)(MeIm)2.2H2O (M = Co, Zn).
AB  - When immersed in 1-methylimidazole, the metals copper, zinc, and cobalt will
      react with ambient dioxygen and carbon dioxide to yield the blue-green molecular
      complex Cu(CO3)(MeIm)3 and the pair of isostructural polymeric complexes
      Zn(CO3)(MeIm)2.2H2O and Co(CO3)(MeIm)2.2H2O, respectively.

PMID- 28561096
TI  - Enhancements in catalytic reactivity and selectivity of homobimetallic complexes
      containing heteroditopic ligands.
AB  - Rh(i) and Ir(i) homobimetallic complexes were synthesised using a heteroditopic
      ligand system on a xanthene scaffold containing a monodentate N-heterocyclic
      carbene ligand and a bidentate bis(pyrazol-1-yl)methane ligand. The complexes
      were tested as catalysts for the two-step dihydroalkoxylation and two-step
      hydroamination/hydrosilylation reactions. This is the first known report of an
      organometallic group 9 complex, Ir(i) bimetallic complex, 13, to selectively
      favour the opposite spirocyclisation product from that reported in the
      literature, 14cvs.14b. The Ir(i) homobimetallic complex catalyses the
      intramolecular hydroamination reaction of alkynamines efficiently and proved to
      be a highly active catalyst for promoting the subsequent hydrosilylation of the
      pyrrolines; completing the hydrosilylation reactions in less than 40 seconds. A
      chloro-bridged bimetallic species was observed in the solid state, revealing that
      the COD co-ligands present underwent an oxidation.

PMID- 28561100
TI  - Energetic pi-conjugated vinyl bridged triazoles: a thermally stable and
      insensitive heterocyclic cation.
AB  - A new family of vinyl bridge 1,1'-(ethane-5-yl)-bis(3,4-diamino-1,2,4-triazolium)
      salts were explored as novel structural energetic materials. These new salts were
      further characterized by elemental analysis, infrared and multinuclear NMR
      spectra. Structural confirmation of nine salts such as 4-11 and 14 was supported
      by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Theoretical investigations associated with
      heats of formation and detonation performance were carried out by employing the
      Gaussian 09 program and the EXPLO5 V6.02 code, respectively. The sensitivities
      towards impact and friction were studied using BAM standards. According to the
      experimental and computational data, these salts show densities ranging from 1.61
      to 1.82 g cm-3 at 298 K, good thermal stabilities (Td: 217  degrees C-322 
      degrees C), excellent detonation performance (P: 7809 m s-1 to 9640 m s-1, D:
      24.6 GPa-33.9 GPa) and rational impact and friction sensitivities (IS: 4 J to 60
      J, FS: 120 N to 360 N).

PMID- 28561097
TI  - DNA preservation in silk.
AB  - The structure of DNA is susceptible to alterations at high temperature and on
      changing pH, irradiation and exposure to DNase. Options to protect and preserve
      DNA during storage are important for applications in genetic diagnosis, identity
      authentication, drug development and bioresearch. In the present study, the
      stability of total DNA purified from human dermal fibroblast cells, as well as
      that of plasmid DNA, was studied in silk protein materials. The DNA/silk mixtures
      were stabilized on filter paper (silk/DNA + filter) or filter paper pre-coated
      with silk and treated with methanol (silk/DNA + PT-filter) as a route to
      practical utility. After air-drying and water extraction, 50-70% of the DNA and
      silk could be retrieved and showed a single band on electrophoretic gels. 6%
      silk/DNA + PT-filter samples provided improved stability in comparison with 3%
      silk/DNA + filter samples and DNA + filter samples for DNA preservation, with
      ~40% of the band intensity remaining at 37  degrees C after 40 days and ~10%
      after exposure to UV light for 10 hours. Quantitative analysis using the
      PicoGreen assay confirmed the results. The use of Tris/borate/EDTA (TBE) buffer
      enhanced the preservation and/or extraction of the DNA. The DNA extracted after
      storage maintained integrity and function based on serving as a functional
      template for PCR amplification of the gene for zinc finger protein 750 (ZNF750)
      and for transgene expression of red fluorescence protein (dsRed) in HEK293 cells.
      The high molecular weight and high content of a crystalline beta-sheet structure
      formed on the coated surfaces likely accounted for the preservation effects
      observed for the silk/DNA + PT-filter samples. Although similar preservation
      effects were also obtained for lyophilized silk/DNA samples, the rapid and simple
      processing available with the silk-DNA-filter membrane system makes it appealing
      for future applications.

PMID- 28561101
TI  - On the outside looking in: rethinking the molecular mechanism of 1,3-dipolar
      cycloadditions from the perspective of bonding evolution theory. The reaction
      between cyclic nitrones and ethyl acrylate.
AB  - In this work we report on the progress that has been made towards gaining an
      understanding of the molecular mechanism of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions using the
      bonding evolution theory (BET). A detailed analysis of the flow of electron
      density along the reaction pathway of the formal 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition
      reaction between cyclic nitrones (pyrroline-1-oxide and 2,3,4,5
      tetrahydropyridine-1-oxide) and ethyl acrylate, as a case study, allowed the
      nature of the molecular mechanisms to be characterized. The present study
      provides a deep insight into the reaction mechanism, based on the electron
      density rearrangements given by the structural stability domains, and their
      connection with the bond breaking/forming processes along the reaction pathway.
      The electron pushing formalism is a powerful tool to describe chemical
      reactivity. Here, we show how the Lewis structures can be recovered and how curly
      arrows describe electron density transfers in chemical reaction mechanisms based
      on the BET results. The reaction mechanism is described by four consecutive
      events taking place as the reaction progresses: (1) the population of the initial
      N-C double bond is transferred to the N and C atoms; (2) the population of the
      initial double C-C bond is transferred to the C atoms. Along the ortho pathway
      the next steps are: (3) the C-C bond-forming process, and (4) the O-C bond
      forming process. The order of (3) and (4) is inverted in the meta channel. Based
      on the sequence of the structural stability domains along the intrinsic reaction
      coordinate, a new synchronicity index is proposed, allowing us to classify and
      quantify the (a)synchronicity of the 1,3-DC reactions and, therefore, the nature
      of the reaction mechanism.

PMID- 28561102
TI  - Two bilayer metal-organic frameworks with rare trinuclear heterometal clusters
      and tunable photoluminescence.
AB  - Two bilayer metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) respectively containing trinuclear
      Pb/K and Cd/Na clusters have been solvothermally synthesized. Photoluminescence
      studies showed that they exhibit tunable purple-to-red-to-green and purple-to
      green luminescence behaviours by variation of excitation light, respectively.

PMID- 28561103
TI  - Correlation and squeezing for optical transistor and intensity for router
      applications in Pr3+:YSO.
AB  - We realized an optical transistor and router utilizing multi-order fluorescence
      and spontaneous parametric four-wave mixing. Specifically, the optical routing
      action was derived from the results of splitting in the intensity signal due to a
      dressing effect, whereas the transistor as a switch and amplifier was realized by
      a switching correlation and squeezing via a nonlinear phase. A substantial
      enhancement of the optical contrast was observed for switching applications using
      correlation and squeezing contrary to the intensity signal. Moreover, the
      controlling parameters were also configured to devise a control mechanism for the
      optical transistor and router.

PMID- 28561105
TI  - Elucidating the structure of light absorbing styrene carbocation species formed
      within zeolites.
AB  - Styrene derivatives can form carbocation species upon contact with zeolites. In
      this study, structures of a series of styrene derivatives with substituents in
      the para position, which have been obtained experimentally, were elucidated using
      theoretical calculations. Styrene with F, Cl, Br, methyl (Me) and methoxy (MeO)
      groups was studied by means of (TD)-DFT calculations. Electronic structure
      changes depending on the substituents, Br and MeO, showed smaller HOMO-LUMO gaps
      in the series. Theoretical excitation energies of two dimeric species were found
      to match very well with absorption bands reported experimentally. Ternary and
      secondary carbocation dimeric species were found to be responsible for the
      absorption of light in the visible region. Both structures were studied using
      aromaticity indexes as well as atoms-in-molecules theory to understand the
      changes in electron delocalization to produce non-typical light absorbing
      compounds. Aromatic rings with all the substituents lose aromaticity to reinforce
      charge transfer within the molecule, stabilizing the adjacent carbocation
      species. The results are attractive to interpret the electronic spectra of such
      compounds formed within zeolites and for a better understanding of the electronic
      structure as well as the reaction mechanisms of the carbocation species.

PMID- 28561106
TI  - Effect of water on the effective Goldschmidt tolerance factor and photoelectric
      conversion efficiency of organic-inorganic perovskite: insights from first
      principles calculations.
AB  - Water is often believed to be the leading killer of perovskite solar cells'
      efficiency. However, recent experimental results show that perovskite solar cells
      have higher photoelectric conversion efficiency in a suitably moist environment.
      In this study, the relationship between the interstitial water molecule and the
      theoretical maximum efficiency of the perovskite absorber layer is discussed
      based on density functional theory calculations. Our calculated results show that
      an interstitial water molecule can enlarge the effective Goldschmidt tolerance
      factor, which is an empirical structural parameter for the structure of the
      perovskite material. The primitive MAPbI3 structure is not the ideal perovskite
      structure with the highest photoelectric conversion efficiency. Surprisingly,
      appropriate interstitial water molecules are beneficial to perovskite absorbers
      in terms of increasing photoelectric conversion efficiency. This can be
      attributed to the relatively larger effective Goldschmidt tolerance factor of the
      perovskite structure with an interstitial water molecule, which affects the
      photoelectric conversion efficiency of the perovskite structure. Our calculations
      indicate that the perovskite absorbers with a H2O : MAPbI3 ratio of 1/4-1/2 have
      a relatively higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. This study helps us
      understand the role of the interstitial molecule in the perovskite structure
      deeply, which is very useful in the design and optimization of the perovskite
      absorbers for high-efficiency perovskite cells.

PMID- 28561112
TI  - Determination of zero-field splitting in Co2+ halide complexes with magnetic and
      far-IR measurements.
AB  - Three penta-coordinate Co2+ complexes with halide substitutes were synthesized.
      Their zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters were determined by fitting dc
      magnetic data and far-infrared magneto-transmission spectra. The results gave an
      unusual case that complexes with heavier halide atoms bear smaller ZFS
      parameters.

PMID- 28561113
TI  - Iron-catalyzed C-H/N-H activation by triazole guidance: versatile alkyne
      annulation.
AB  - Iron-catalyzed C-H/N-H functionalizations were achieved by the aid of modular
      triazole amides. The alkyne annulation allowed for the expedient synthesis of
      valuable isoquinolone scaffolds with high levels of chemo-, site- and regio
      selectivities.

PMID- 28561114
TI  - Cool white, persistent room-temperature phosphorescence in carbon dots embedded
      in a silica gel matrix.
AB  - Herein we report the observation of room-temperature phosphorescence from carbon
      dots (CDs) embedded in a silica gel matrix. The precursors used in the synthesis
      (malonic acid and ethylene diamine) were chosen to have the surface of the CDs
      rich in C[double bond, length as m-dash]O and C[double bond, length as m-dash]N
      functionalities. The CDs in an aqueous dispersion exhibit an intense blue
      fluorescence and upon incorporation into silica gel demonstrate a green after
      glow, which is visible even to the naked eye. The phosphorescence measurements
      indicated that the life-time of phosphorescence emission is about 1.8 s, under
      380 nm excitation, which is the highest magnitude reported for CDs in solid-state
      matrices. Moreover, the 1931 CIE color parameters corresponding to the
      phosphorescence emission are in the white gamut region of the chromaticity
      diagram.

PMID- 28561115
TI  - Horizontally aligned carbon nanotube arrays: growth mechanism, controlled
      synthesis, characterization, properties and applications.
AB  - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted worldwide research interest in the past
      two decades owing to their extraordinary properties and wide applications in
      numerous fields. Among various types of CNTs, the horizontally aligned CNT
      (HACNT) arrays, which consist of CNTs grown on flat substrates and parallel with
      each other with large intertube distances and lengths up to centimeters, show
      many advantages due to their perfect structures and extraordinary mechanical,
      thermal and electrical properties. HACNTs show great potential as building blocks
      for transparent displays, nano electronics, quantum lines, field emission
      transistors, superstrong tethers, aeronautics and astronics materials, and even
      space elevators. During the past years, great progress has been achieved in HACNT
      research. In this review, we systematically review the growth mechanism,
      structure control, morphology control, characterization, manipulation,
      properties, and applications of HACNTs. Finally, we present a summary and outlook
      for the future development of HACNTs. We hope these advances will shed light on
      the future study of HACNTs.

PMID- 28561116
TI  - Multistage extraction platform for highly efficient and fully continuous
      purification of nanoparticles.
AB  - This paper presents a fully-continuous novel liquid-liquid-extraction (LLE)
      platform for the purification of nanoparticles. The use of multistage operation
      enhances the purity of the final stream without the expense of high solvent
      consumption. Two case studies, purification of CdSe quantum dots in organic
      solvent and that of gold nanoparticles in water, demonstrate that the LLE
      platform is versatile, non-destructive, and highly efficient.

PMID- 28561118
TI  - A close-packed 3D plasmonic superlattice of truncated octahedral gold nanoframes.
AB  - We report the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement of three
      dimensional (3D) close-packed plasmonic superlattices of truncated octahedral
      gold nanostructures. Experimentally, we resolved two different types of hot
      spots, one originates from the face-to-face contacts and the other is from the
      edge-to-edge contacts among the 3D close-packed plasmonic superlattice of gold
      nanostructures. The high degree of homogeneity of truncated octahedral Au@Pt
      nanoparticles (TOh Au@Pt NPs) and truncated octahedral Pt@Au nanoframes (TOh
      Pt@Au NFs) allowed them to self-assemble into remarkable 3D close-packed
      plasmonic superlattices. The morphological evolution and the corresponding
      optical behavior of TOh Pt@Au NFs were systematically monitored during each
      synthetic process. The measured SERS enhancement on the hot spots from the edge
      to-edge contacts of TOh Pt@Au NFs was five times greater than the SERS response
      from the analogous face-to-face contacts of TOh Au@Pt NPs under the same given
      experimental conditions. The hollow interior and well-defined structural
      morphology of TOh Pt@Au NFs will allow researchers to design highly programmable
      3D plasmonic superlattices for efficient SERS enhancement.

PMID- 28561120
TI  - Paramagnetic ionic plastic crystals containing the octamethylferrocenium cation:
      counteranion dependence of phase transitions and crystal structures.
AB  - In recent years, ionic plastic crystals have attracted much attention. Many
      metallocenium salts exhibit plastic phases, but factors affecting their phase
      transitions are yet to be elucidated. To investigate these factors, we
      synthesized octamethylferrocenium salts with various counteranions [Fe(C5Me4H)2]X
      ([1]X; X- = B(CN)4-, C(CN)3-, N(CN)2-, FSA (= (SO2F)2N-), FeCl4-, GaCl4- and
      CPFSA (= CF2(SO2CF2)2N-)) and elucidated their crystal structures and phase
      behavior. Correlations between the crystal structures and phase sequences, and
      the shapes and volumes of the anions are discussed. Except for [1][CPFSA], these
      salts exhibit phase transitions to plastic phases at or above room temperature
      (TC = 298-386 K), and the plastic phases exhibit either NaCl- or anti-NiAs-type
      structures. X-ray crystal structure analyses of these salts at 100 K revealed
      that they have structures in which cations and anions are alternately arranged,
      with the exception of [1][CPFSA]. [1][CPFSA] exhibits a structure in which anions
      and cations are separately stacked to form columns. [1][N(CN)2] exhibits a polar
      crystal structure that undergoes a monotropic phase transition to a
      centrosymmetric structure. The magnetic susceptibilities of room-temperature
      plastic crystals [1][GaCl4] and [1][FeCl4] were investigated; the latter exhibits
      a small ferromagnetic interaction at low temperatures.

PMID- 28561123
TI  - Correction: Giant vesicles from rehydrated crude mixtures containing unexpected
      mixtures of amphiphiles formed under plausibly prebiotic conditions.
AB  - Correction for 'Giant vesicles from rehydrated crude mixtures containing
      unexpected mixtures of amphiphiles formed under plausibly prebiotic conditions'
      by Michele Fiore et al., Org. Biomol. Chem., 2017, 15, 4231-4240.

PMID- 28561121
TI  - Photo-clickable microRNA for in situ fluorescence labeling and imaging of
      microRNA in living cells.
AB  - A photo-clickable microRNA whose fluorescence was able to be turned on by mild
      light irradiation was constructed and the in situ fluorescence turn-on of the
      photo-clickable microRNA-122 in living cells was demonstrated by light
      irradiation with spatial and temporal resolution.

PMID- 28561125
TI  - Preparation and characterization of a calcium-phosphate-silicon coating on a Mg
      Zn-Ca alloy via two-step micro-arc oxidation.
AB  - Magnesium alloys are the most promising implant materials due to their excellent
      biodegradability. However, their high degradation rate limits their practical
      application. In this study, we produced a calcium-phosphate (Ca-P) coating and a
      calcium-phosphate-silicon (Ca-P-Si) coating via one-step and two-step micro-arc
      oxidation processes, respectively. The microstructure and chemical composition of
      the MAO coatings were characterized using SEM, XRD and EDS. The degradation
      behaviors of the MAO coatings and the substrate were investigated using
      electrochemical techniques and immersion tests in simulated body fluid (SBF). The
      results show that the silicate was successfully incorporated into the Ca-P
      coating in the second MAO step, and this also increased the thickness of the
      coating. The Ca-P-Si coatings remarkably reduced the corrosion rate of the Mg
      alloy and Ca-P coating during 18 days of immersion in SBF. In addition, the bone
      like apatite layer on the sample surface demonstrated the good biomineralization
      ability of the Ca-P-Si coating. Potentiodynamic polarization results showed that
      the MAO coating could clearly enhance the corrosion resistance of the Mg alloy.
      Moreover, we propose the growth mechanism of the MAO coating in the second step.

PMID- 28561126
TI  - Impulsive laser-induced alignment of OCS molecules at FERMI.
AB  - We demonstrate the experimental realization of impulsive alignment of carbonyl
      sulfide (OCS) molecules at the Low Density Matter Beamline (LDM) at the free
      electron laser FERMI. OCS molecules in a molecular beam were impulsively aligned
      using 200 fs pulses from a near-infrared laser. The alignment was probed through
      time-delayed ionization above the sulphur 2p edge, resulting in multiple
      ionization via Auger decay and subsequent Coulomb explosion of the molecules. The
      ionic fragments were collected using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer and the
      analysis of ion-ion covariance maps confirmed the correlation between fragments
      after Coulomb explosion. The analysis of the CO+ and S+ channels allowed us to
      extract the rotational dynamics, which is in agreement with our theoretical
      description as well as with previous experiments. This result opens the way for a
      new class of experiments at LDM within the field of coherent control of molecules
      with the possibilities that a precisely synchronized optical-pump XUV-probe laser
      setup like FERMI can offer.

PMID- 28561127
TI  - Integrating perfusable vascular networks with a three-dimensional tissue in a
      microfluidic device.
AB  - Creating vascular networks in tissues is crucial for tissue engineering. Although
      recent studies have demonstrated the formation of vessel-like structures in a
      tissue model, long-term culture is still challenging due to the lack of active
      perfusion in vascular networks. Here, we present a method to create a three
      dimensional cellular spheroid with a perfusable vascular network in a
      microfluidic device. By the definition of the cellular interaction between human
      lung fibroblasts (hLFs) in a spheroid and human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVECs) in microchannels, angiogenic sprouts were induced from microchannels
      toward the spheroid; the sprouts reached the vessel-like structures in a spheroid
      to form a continuous lumen. We demonstrated that the vascular network could
      administer biological substances to the interior of the spheroid. As cell density
      in the spheroid is similar to that of a tissue, the perfusable vasculature model
      opens up new possibilities for a long-term tissue culture in vitro.

PMID- 28561128
TI  - Molecular dynamics study of solvated aniline and ethylene glycol monomers
      confined in calcium silicate nanochannels: a case study of tobermorite.
AB  - The combination of organic and inorganic materials can result in materials with
      extraordinary performance. In this work, molecular dynamics was employed to
      investigate the structure, dynamics, interfacial behavior, and polymerization
      tendency of two types of monomers, aniline (AN) and ethylene glycol (EG),
      confined in the nanopores of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel. The
      interaction mechanism between the polymer and C-S-H gel has been interpreted: the
      silicate chains can provide nonbridging oxygen sites to accept H-bonds from the
      hydroxyl in EG and -NH2 functional groups in AN monomers. Due to stronger H-bond
      interactions, EG monomers are more likely to penetrate deeper into the C-S-H
      surface and exhibit a more pronounced orientation preference and longer resident
      time in the interfacial region compared with AN monomers. However, neighboring AN
      monomers exhibit strong spatial correlation and prefer to aggregate as large
      clusters, while EG monomers diffuse separately in bulk solution. Dynamically, the
      diffusion coefficients of monomers in the vicinity of the C-S-H surface were
      greatly reduced compared with those in the bulk solution due to restriction by H
      bonds and attraction to surface calcium ions. Furthermore, with increasing
      monomer concentration, both monomers achieved greater surface adsorption density
      and penetration depth, and longer interfacial resident times. Higher
      concentrations also contributed to increased cluster size for AN monomers. The
      interaction mechanism in this organic-inorganic system provides useful guidelines
      for polymer selection, design, and fabrication of C-S-H/polymer nanocomposites.

PMID- 28561129
TI  - AlCl3 catalyzed coupling of N-benzylic sulfonamides with 2-substituted
      cyanoacetates through carbon-nitrogen bond cleavage.
AB  - A new cross-coupling reaction of N-benzylic sulfonamides with 2-substituted
      cyanoacetates for the synthesis of 2-substituted benzylbenzene was reported. In
      the presence of AlCl3, a broad range of N-benzylic sulfonamides reacted smoothly
      with 2-substituted cyanoacetates to afford structurally diverse benzylbenzenes in
      moderate to excellent yields. The conversion could be enlarged to gram-scale
      efficiently. The practicability of this approach was further manifested in the
      synthesis of a related bioactive agent with high anti-inflammatory activity.

PMID- 28561131
TI  - Feeding Jejunostomy: Is It a Safe Route in Pediatric Patients? Single Institution
      Experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:  Impossibility to place a gastrostomy and failed gastroesophageal
      reflux surgery with unsafe swallow are the main indications to Feeding
      Jejunostomy (FJ) in children. The aim of this study is to quantify the incidence
      of complications associated with FJ. MATERIALS AND METHODS:  A retrospective
      review of patients who had surgically inserted FJ between January 2009 and August
      2013 at our institution was conducted. Data were obtained from medical records,
      operative notes, and radiology database, focusing on complications. RESULTS:  A
      total of 19 patients, average age 39.6 months (3-168 months), were treated during
      the study period. Indications to FJ were gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
      associated with unsafe swallow in 12, esophageal atresia in 5, and foregut
      dysmotility in 2. Seventeen FJ were inserted via laparotomy and 2 were
      laparoscopically assisted. In all cases, a serosal tunnel on the antimesenteric
      border was fashioned. No intraoperative complications were recorded. Tube
      dislodgement/blockage occurred on an average of 0.48 times per month in 18 out of
      19 patients. The average radiation dose received for tube
      reinsertion/manipulation was 3.316 mSv/year/patient (0-10.66). Major
      postoperative complications occurred in 7 out of 19. After an average follow-up
      of 21 months, two have abandoned the use of FJ due to poor tolerance and three
      have fully weaned off. Two patients died due to unrelated causes. CONCLUSION: 
      FJ, as an alternative means for enteral feeding, may require multiple
      readmissions and exposure to radiological procedures. The high risk of severe
      complications should be considered when offering this procedure.

PMID- 28561130
TI  - The effects of natural language processing on cross-institutional portability of
      influenza case detection for disease surveillance.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the accuracy and portability of a natural
      language processing (NLP) tool for extracting clinical findings of influenza from
      clinical notes across two large healthcare systems. Effectiveness is evaluated on
      how well NLP supports downstream influenza case-detection for disease
      surveillance. METHODS: We independently developed two NLP parsers, one at
      Intermountain Healthcare (IH) in Utah and the other at University of Pittsburgh
      Medical Center (UPMC) using local clinical notes from emergency department (ED)
      encounters of influenza. We measured NLP parser performance for the presence and
      absence of 70 clinical findings indicative of influenza. We then developed
      Bayesian network models from NLP processed reports and tested their ability to
      discriminate among cases of (1) influenza, (2) non-influenza influenza-like
      illness (NI-ILI), and (3) 'other' diagnosis. RESULTS: On Intermountain Healthcare
      reports, recall and precision of the IH NLP parser were 0.71 and 0.75,
      respectively, and UPMC NLP parser, 0.67 and 0.79. On University of Pittsburgh
      Medical Center reports, recall and precision of the UPMC NLP parser were 0.73 and
      0.80, respectively, and IH NLP parser, 0.53 and 0.80. Bayesian case-detection
      performance measured by AUROC for influenza versus non-influenza on Intermountain
      Healthcare cases was 0.93 (using IH NLP parser) and 0.93 (using UPMC NLP parser).
      Case-detection on University of Pittsburgh Medical Center cases was 0.95 (using
      UPMC NLP parser) and 0.83 (using IH NLP parser). For influenza versus NI-ILI on
      Intermountain Healthcare cases performance was 0.70 (using IH NLP parser) and
      0.76 (using UPMC NLP parser). On University of Pisstburgh Medical Center cases,
      0.76 (using UPMC NLP parser) and 0.65 (using IH NLP parser). CONCLUSION: In all
      but one instance (influenza versus NI-ILI using IH cases), local parsers were
      more effective at supporting case-detection although performances of non-local
      parsers were reasonable.

PMID- 28561132
TI  - Safely Decreasing Rigid Bronchoscopies for Foreign-Body Aspiration in Children:
      An Algorithm for the Emergency Department.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:  Rigid bronchoscopy was traditionally performed in the management
      of foreign-body aspiration (FBA). More recently, since development of a less
      invasive method, flexible bronchoscopy has been proposed in some centers for the
      management of FBA. For the past few years, we have applied a decisional
      algorithm, privileging flexible bronchoscopy for diagnosis and, in some cases,
      for extraction of foreign body (FB). Our aims are first to analyze our current
      management of FBA and second to examine the bronchoscopic findings and
      complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS:  Retrospective medical chart review of all
      patients with clinical suspicion of FBA who underwent bronchoscopy (flexible
      and/or rigid) from 2009 through 2014. RESULTS:  An FB was found in 23 (33%) of
      the 70 patients included in the study (45 boys, 25 girls; median age: 21.5
      months). Diagnosis of FBA was made on first intention in 22/23 (96%) and
      extraction was performed in 7/23 (30%) by flexible bronchoscopy. Rigid
      bronchoscopy was necessary for the extraction of the 16/23 (70%) remaining FBs.
      The rigid procedure was performed as first intention in only two (3%) patients,
      and one of the two was negative. Among the clinical signs of FBA, none were > 90%
      specific except for apnea (100%), but which was poorly sensitive (22%). Seven
      clinical and radiologic signs were found to be significantly different between
      FB+ and FB- groups: sudden choking, cyanosis, apnea, decreased breath sounds,
      atelectasis, mediastinal shift, and air trapping. Conversely, when none of these
      symptoms or signs and no clear history of sudden choking were present (in 15/70
      patients), no FB was found. No life-threatening complications or death were
      observed. CONCLUSION:  Our current management of FBA allows us to avoid almost
      all negative rigid bronchoscopies. In addition, we identified some symptoms and
      clinical and radiologic signs whose absence was highly predictive of negative
      bronchoscopy. We propose a novel algorithm for management of FBA that will help
      decrease the number of negative bronchoscopies.

PMID- 28561133
TI  - Primary versus Staged Closure of Exomphalos Major: Cardiac Anomalies Do Not
      Affect Outcome.
AB  - AIM:  The objective of the study is to describe management of exomphalos major
      and investigate the effect of congenital cardiac anomalies. METHODS:  A single
      center retrospective review (with audit approval) was performed of neonates with
      exomphalos major (fascial defect >= 5cm +/- liver herniation) between 2004 and
      2014.Demographic and operative data were collected and outcomes compared between
      infants who had primary or staged closure. Data, median (range), were analyzed
      appropriately. RESULTS:  A total of 22 patients were included, 20 with liver
      herniation and 1 with pentalogy of Cantrell. Gestational age was 38 (30-40)
      weeks, birth weight 2.7 (1.4-4.6) kg, and 13 (60%) were male. Two were managed
      conservatively due to severe comorbidities, 5 underwent primary closure, and 15
      had application of Prolene (Ethicon Inc) mesh silo and serial reduction. Five
      died, including two managed conservatively, none primarily of the exomphalos.
      Survivors were followed up for 38 months (2-71). Cardiac anomalies were present
      in 20 (91%) patients: 8 had minor and 12 major anomalies. Twelve (55%) patients
      had other anomalies. Primary closure was associated with shorter length of stay
      (13 vs. 85 days, p = 0.02), but infants had similar lengths of intensive care
      stay, duration of parenteral feeds, and time to full feeds. Infants with cardiac
      anomalies had shorter times to full closure (28 vs. 62 days, p = 0.03), but other
      outcomes were similar. CONCLUSION:  Infants whose defect can be closed primarily
      have a shorter length of stay, but other outcomes are similar. Infants with more
      significant abdominovisceral disproportion are managed with staged closure; the
      presence of major cardiac anomalies does not affect surgical outcome.

PMID- 28561135
TI  - Time and Speed of Vascular Pedicle Dissection in Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery
      Perforator Flap Elevation.

PMID- 28561134
TI  - Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator-Assisted Pancreatic Resection in
      Hyperinsulinism.

PMID- 28561136
TI  - The Foxgloves (Digitalis) Revisited.
AB  - This review provides a renewed look at the genus Digitalis. Emphasis will be put
      on those issues that attracted the most attention or even went through
      paradigmatic changes since the turn of the millennium. PubMed and Google Scholar
      were used ("Digitalis" and "Foxglove" were the key words) to identify research
      from 2000 till 2017 containing data relevant enough to be presented here.
      Intriguing new results emerged from studies related to the phylogeny and taxonomy
      of the genus as well as to the biosynthesis and potential medicinal uses of the
      key active compounds, the cardiac glycosides. Several Eastern and Western
      Foxgloves were studied with respect to their propagation in vitro. In this
      context, molecular biology tools were applied and phytochemical analyses were
      conducted. Structure elucidation and analytical methods, which have experienced
      less exciting progress, will not be considered here in great detail.

PMID- 28561137
TI  - [The Development of Social Innovations in Health Care and the Role of Science and
      Research].
AB  - In the course of demographic, epidemiological and social changes, various
      challenges arise concerning the organization of health care and health promotion
      for the population. Innovative approaches are needed to face these challenges.
      The focus in the theoretical work is on the analysis of the development of social
      innovations and on the role of science and research to solve social problems.
      First of all, the notion of innovation based on technologies will be expanded by
      social innovations. 2 approaches to promote social innovations are discussed: the
      systematic discovery and development of solutions in practice as well as the co
      productive development in the terms of transdisciplinary research. It will be
      demonstrated that a cooperative and co-productive research and development
      process brings new requirements regarding scientific practice so that a
      discussion about the organisation and general conditions of transdisciplinary
      research and development in the health (service) research has to be strengthened.

PMID- 28561138
TI  - Skin Color and Maternal Near Miss: Exploring a Demographic and Health Survey in
      Brazil.
AB  - Purpose In 2013, it was estimated that 289,000 maternal deaths occurred
      worldwide. The maternal mortality ratio has decreased in many countries in the
      past decades, due to early identification and treatment of obstetric
      complications, despite the dissimilarities observed in diverse locations and
      populations. Black women, for instance, have always been more susceptible to the
      occurrence of maternal mortality and severe morbidity. Therefore, the objective
      of this study is to assess skin color as a predictive factor for maternal near
      miss (MNM) in a sample of Brazilian women interviewed in the Brazilian National
      Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2006. Method A secondary analysis of the
      DHS database, a population-based cross-sectional nationally representative study
      was conducted. This database is of public domain. The risk of maternal
      complications according to ethnic group and the associated sociodemographic
      characteristics were evaluated. For the data analysis, the odds ratios and
      respective 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results In the sample
      interviewed, 59% of women were black or brown (mixed-race). Approximately 23% of
      women had some complication, and 2% of these women had at least one MNM pragmatic
      criterion. The MNM rate was 31 per 1,000 live births, and its occurrence was not
      statistically different among the ethnic groups. The only factors identified that
      were considered to be associated with the occurrence of MNM were maternal age
      above 40 and women not currently attending school, but only among white women.
      Conclusion The 2006 DHS results did not show a higher occurrence of maternal
      complications, and specifically of MNM associated with black/brown skin color.

PMID- 28561139
TI  - [Not Available].

PMID- 28561140
TI  - Assessment of Iron Status and the Effect of Red Blood Cell Transfusion in
      Premature Infants.

PMID- 28561141
TI  - Survival, Short-Term, and Long-Term Morbidities of Neonates with Birth Weight <
      500 g.

PMID- 28561143
TI  - Assessment of Anthropometric Measurements as Predictors of Car Seat Screening
      Failure.

PMID- 28561142
TI  - Lipoprotein Heterogeneity Early in Pregnancy and Preterm Birth.

PMID- 28561144
TI  - Serum Endocan Level as a Predictive Marker for Hemodynamically Significant Patent
      Ductus Arteriosus in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

PMID- 28561145
TI  - Evolutionary Triangulation to Refine Genetic Association Studies of Spontaneous
      Preterm Birth.

PMID- 28561146
TI  - Failed Vacuum and the Long-Term Neurological Impact on the Offspring.

PMID- 28561147
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561148
TI  - [Preoperative Preparation: Patient Blood Management - What is Optimal?]
AB  - Patient Blood Management (PBM) focusses on anemia management, the minimization of
      (unnecessary) iatrogenic blood loss and the exhaustion of natural tolerance to
      anemia with rational use of red blood cell transfusion. The focus of the current
      review article is now the preoperative phase with the following PBM components:
      management of anemia, pre-transfusion analytics and management of anticoagulants.
      Preoperative anemia is an independent risk factor for increased perioperative
      morbidity and mortality. In elective surgery, the causes of anemia should be
      diagnosed prior to surgery as early as possible, and if indicated, a specific
      treatment for treatable causes should be initiated. Preoperative pre-transfusion
      analytics should be performed by a step-wise approach depending on the
      transfusion probability (and the baseline hemoglobin) and current in-house data.
      Management of (oral) anticoagulants needs to consider an individual risk
      stratification for bleeding and thromboembolic events, should be initiated in the
      preoperative phase, and should specify whether the anticoagulant needs to be
      continued, stopped or bridged. Long-term success of the preoperative PBM program
      can only be guaranteed with clearly defined responsibilities in the preoperative
      PBM team, communication and training of all those involved in the process of
      care.

PMID- 28561149
TI  - [Preoperative Evaluation and Arrangements: The Elderly Patient].
AB  - : With a constantly growing portion of elderly within our population and the
      advances of modern medicine, surgery on aged and very aged patients has become a
      daily hospital routine. Due to the physical and mental features of ageing these
      patients face special perioperative risks. They display a higher rate of
      complications, morbidity and cognitive deficits which might in the end lead to
      persisting need of care. Even in the healthy elderly, most organ functions are
      "physiologically" instable or deficient and the homeostasis of health and disease
      is fragile. The preoperative evaluation of the aged patient has to be extended
      towards risk factors and pathologic pre-conditions which derive especially from
      high age and are so far not determined by a mere "fit-for-anaesthesia?"
      EVALUATION: This includes assessment of frailty and functional status as well as
      the evaluation of pre-existing cognitive deficits, malnutrition and polypharmacy.
      Prevention of postoperative cognitive deficits and delirium is an important goal
      of medical therapy and requires i. a. omission of benzodiazepines, BIS-controlled
      anaesthesia, focus on patient's comfort and orientation and inclusion of close
      relatives and confidants in all processes. Considering all this, an elderly
      patient might require more time than usually given to be well prepared for
      anaesthesia, surgery and the postoperative course. The altered physiology and the
      special risk profile of the aged patient demand special attention and time
      throughout the perioperative phase. With an increasing number of elderly
      presenting for surgery, it is likely that more age-adapted structures and
      processes become implemented in our hospitals.

PMID- 28561150
TI  - [Preoperative Optimization of Pulmonary Diseases - an Approach].
AB  - Preoperative identification of patients with an increased risk for perioperative
      pulmonary complications is crucial for the anesthesiological management. These
      complications were underestimated in the past, but are associated with an
      increased morbidity and mortality when occuring. Patients with preexisting
      pulmonary diseases are at increased risk for perioperative pulmonary
      complications. In the recent past more emphasis was placed on preoperative
      optimization of the underlying pulmonary diseases like COPD or Asthma bronchiale.
      The knowledge of pathophysiology and pharmacological treatment options in this
      special subset of patients is essential. It has been shown that preventive
      programs in the preoperative setting were able to reduce pulmonary complications.

PMID- 28561151
TI  - [Acute Pain Therapy in Appendectomy].
AB  - The acute pain therapy in the setting of conventional or laparoscopic
      appendectomy has to be initiated by the surgeon. The success of acute pain
      therapy holds a direct relevance for quality of life, morbidity, chronification
      of pain, and economic aspects. A written consent between participating
      occupational groups and medical faculties based on existing guidelines is a
      crucial prerequisite for a well-functioning acute pain therapy. An adequately
      informed patient is able to actively take part in the process of his acute pain
      therapy. He becomes "part of the team". An efficient acute pain therapy always
      consists of a combination of non-medical procedures, technical operative aspects,
      and medical procedures.

PMID- 28561152
TI  - [Hypercapnic Raised Intracerebral Pressure - Ecmo Therapy Despite Major
      Intracerebral Haemorrhage].
AB  - We report a case of a 29-year-old primigravida asian woman with severe peripartal
      HELLP-syndrome. During delivery she developed coma. HELLP syndrome, complicated
      by severe intracerebral hemorrhage was detected. During course of therapy with
      drainage of intraventricular intracerebral hemorrhage, the patient developed
      pneumonia followed by severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with
      critically raised ICP. After 31 days of stabilization by extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation (ECMO) and lung protective ventilation the patient was weaned of ECMO
      therapy. Following a period of 107 days including the weaning of respirator
      therapy her neurologic status improved and she was able to follow commands, move
      upper and lower extremities on request, and recognize her relatives.

PMID- 28561153
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561154
TI  - Different Kinematics of Knees with Varus and Valgus Deformities.
AB  - Few data exist of kinematics of knees with varus and valgus deformities combined
      with osteoarthritis. The purpose of this study was to reveal different (1)
      tibiofemoral kinematics, (2) medial and lateral gaps, and (3) condylar liftoff of
      osteoarthritic knees with either varus or valgus deformity before and after total
      knee arthroplasty (TKA). For this purpose, 40 patients for TKA were included in
      this study, 23 knees with varus deformity and 17 knees with valgus deformity. All
      patients underwent computer navigation, and kinematics was assessed before making
      any cuts or releases and after implantation. Osteoarthritic knees with valgus
      deformity showed a significant difference in tibia rotation relative to the femur
      with flexion before and after TKA, whereas knees with varus deformity did not.
      Knees with a valgus deformity showed femoral external rotation in extension and
      femoral internal rotation in flexion, whereas knees with a varus deformity
      revealed femoral internal rotation in extension and femoral external rotation in
      flexion. In both groups, gaps increased after TKA. Condylar liftoff was not
      observed in the varus deformity group after TKA. In the valgus deformity group,
      condylar liftoff was detected after TKA at knee flexion of 50 degrees and more.
      This study revealed significant differences in tibiofemoral kinematics between
      osteoarthritic knees with a varus or valgus deformity before and after TKA.
      Valgus deformities showed a paradoxic movement pattern. These in vivo
      intraoperative results need to be confirmed using fluoroscopic or radiographic
      three-dimensional matching before and after TKA.

PMID- 28561155
TI  - Hematologic Malignancies Are Associated with Adverse Perioperative Outcomes
      following Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - The treatment of hematologic malignancies has advanced over the years, resulting
      in an improved survival of patients. As a result, these patients may be a part of
      the increasing population requiring total knee arthroplasty (TKA); however, they
      might be at a higher risk of adverse perioperative outcomes. The purpose of this
      study was to determine the perioperative outcomes (complications, length of stay
      [LOS], and costs) of patients with hematologic malignancies following TKA. This
      study used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to identify patients who
      underwent TKA in the United States from 2000 to 2011. Patients diagnosed with any
      hematologic malignancy (N = 24,714) were then stratified by Hodgkin's disease (N
      = 791), Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (N = 7,096), plasma cell dyscrasias (N = 1,621),
      leukemia (N = 8,005), myeloproliferative disease (N = 5,746), and/or
      myelodysplastic syndromes (N = 1,608) for determining the complications that
      occurred during admission. Propensity matching was performed for demographics,
      hospital characteristics, and comorbidities, which yielded 24,491 patients with
      any hematologic malignancy and 24,458 control patients. Additionally, propensity
      matching was performed for the hematologic malignancy subtypes. Multivariable
      regression models were used to analyze the surgical and medical complications,
      LOS, and costs. The annual frequency of THA in patients with any hematologic
      malignancy increased from 2000 to 2011 (p < 0.0001). Hematologic malignancies
      were associated with an increased risk of any surgery-related complication (odds
      ratio [OR] = 1.31, p < 0.0001) and any general medical complication (OR = 1.38, p
      < 0.0001). Patients with any hematologic malignancy had increased odds of
      complications, including acute postoperative anemia (OR = 1.29, p < 0.0001),
      hematoma/seroma (OR = 1.65, p < 0.02), peripheral vascular disease (OR = 2.23, p
      = 0.046), deep venous thrombosis (DVT) (OR = 1.95, p = 0.02), and blood
      transfusion (OR = 1.61, p < 0.0001). Hematologic malignancies were associated
      with an increased incremental LOS (0.13 d, p < 0.0001) and an increased
      incremental cost ($788, p < 0.0001). Thus, we conclude that following TKA,
      patients with hematologic malignancies are at an increased risk of perioperative
      complications, longer LOS, and higher costs. The risk quantification for adverse
      perioperative outcomes in association with an increased cost may help design
      different risk stratification and reimbursement methods in such patients when
      undergoing TKA.

PMID- 28561156
TI  - Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty Using a Constrained Condylar Knee Prosthesis
      Combined with a Posterior Stabilized Articular Surface.
AB  - Intraoperative assessment of valgus-varus stability is crucial for choosing
      articular surfaces with different levels of constraint. Legacy constrained
      condylar knee (CCK) prostheses are readily available to assemble and use with a
      CCK articular surface or a posterior stabilized (PS) articular surface in
      revision knee arthroplasty surgeries. We wanted to validate outcomes of revision
      total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using legacy CCK prostheses combined with a PS
      articular surface. Thirty-seven patients were enrolled and followed up for more
      than 2 years. Range of motion (ROM), the Knee Society score (KSS), the Knee
      Society functional score (KSS-F), and the Western Ontario and McMaster
      Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) were used to evaluate outcomes. Follow-up
      was a mean of 86.5 months (range: 28-152 months). The mean age of the
      participants was 69.8 years (range: 31-86 years). The mean ROM was 110.5 degrees,
      the KSS was 86.2 points, the KSS-F was 68.3 points, and the WOMAC score was 22.6
      points. Seven participants had implant failures: five because of delayed
      infections and two because of posterior dislocations. In conclusion, revision TKA
      using a CCK prosthesis combined with a PS articular surface might provide
      satisfactory mid-term outcomes. Delayed infection was the most common cause of
      implant failure. Dislocation might occur in middle-old or older patients despite
      careful intraoperative examination of valgus-varus stability, extension-flexion
      gap balancing, and signs of recurvatum.

PMID- 28561157
TI  - High Varus Angle and Lower Posterior Tibial Slope Associated with PCL Injury in
      Cruciate Retaining Total Knee Arthroplasty: An MRI Study.
AB  - The posterior tibial slope (PTS) is important for performing a tibial cut that
      does not injure the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). In this study, the amount
      of PCL fibers sacrificed under simulated tibial cuts with varying posterior
      inclinations was evaluated using magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of
      osteoarthritic varus knees. Knee X-rays, orthoroentgenograms, and MRIs of 113
      Kellgren and Lawrence grades 3 to 4 osteoarthritic knees were included. Four
      different simulated tibial cuts were performed at 0, 3, 5 degrees and parallel to
      the tibia plateau 3 mm below of the most defective part of the cartilage in the
      medial plateau. Correlations between the PCL avulsion amount and the PTS and
      varus alignment of the lower extremity were analyzed for all four simulated
      tibial cut levels. The maximum amount of PCL was preserved with a 0-degree tibial
      cut in patients with a PTS of more than 8 degrees. With increased tibial cut
      angles, the posterior slope resulted in an increased amount of avulsed PCL.
      Although the amount of avulsed PCL was proportional with the varus alignment, it
      was inversely proportional with the sagittal slope. The number of injured PCLs
      also increased as the slope of the tibial cuts increased. Patients with mild
      varus alignments and high PTSs are more suitable for cruciate retaining total
      knee arthroplasty.

PMID- 28561158
TI  - Does Age Influence How Patients Rate Their Experience of Care after Total Knee
      Arthroplasty?

PMID- 28561160
TI  - Video Comment on Marietta Iacucci et al.

PMID- 28561159
TI  - New Constituents from Gymnocarpos decander.
AB  - The phytochemical investigation of Gymnocarpos decander aerial parts extract
      afforded two new saponins, 3-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranosyl-2beta,3beta,16alpha,23
      tetrahydroxyolean-12-en-28-O-beta-D-apiofuranosyl-(1 -> 3)-beta-D-xylopyranosyl
      (1 -> 4)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 -> 2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl ester (1), 3-O
      beta-D-glucuronopyranosyl-2beta,3beta,16alpha-trihydroxyolean-12-en-28-O-alpha-L
      rhamnopyranosyl-(1 -> 3)-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 -> 4)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1
      -> 2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl ester (2), and three new flavonol glycosides,
      isorhamnetin 3-O-2''''-O-acetyl-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 -> 6)-[beta-D
      apiofuranosyl-(1 -> 2)]-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), isorhamnetin 3-O-2'''-O
      acetyl-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 -> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (4), and quercetin 3
      O-2'''-O-acetyl-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 -> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5),
      together with three known compounds. Their structures were determined by
      spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR analysis and high-resolution mass
      spectrometry. The new isolates were investigated for their potential cytotoxic
      activity on three cancer cell lines. Compounds 1 and 2 showed moderate
      antiproliferative activity.

PMID- 28561161
TI  - Video Comment on Yoshihiro Nakazato et al.

PMID- 28561162
TI  - Is it time to stop using percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage?

PMID- 28561163
TI  - Multiple white flat lesions in the gastric corpus are not intestinal metaplasia.

PMID- 28561164
TI  - White flat lesions in the gastric corpus may be intestinal metaplasia.

PMID- 28561167
TI  - [Buried Penis: A Comprehensive Review on Aetiology, Classification and Plastic
      Surgical Reconstruction].
AB  - The buried penis, also called hidden or concealed penis, is associated with
      morbid obesity or seen after massive weight loss in adults. In highly obese,
      bariatric patients, the penile shaft invaginates into the pre-pubic fat masses,
      resulting in voiding problems and urine wetting of the surrounding tissue. This
      leads to infection, skin maceration, lichen sclerosus and eczema. Sole
      circumcision without mons pubis plasty or penile fixation does not suffice to
      alleviate the discomfort and leads to recurrence. In post-bariatric patients,
      penile retraction is only partially present or absent, but abundant pre-pubic
      skin tissue forms an apron covering the genitals with problems in hygiene and
      sexual intercourse. In these cases, plastic-reconstructive interventions include
      mons pubis plasty with or without penile fixation. This article provides a
      comprehensive overview on aetiology, a novel classification of the buried penis
      and plastic-surgical reconstructive interventions matched to the stages of the
      condition.

PMID- 28561168
TI  - [Plastic Surgical Correction of Buried Penis].
AB  - A "buried penis" causes functional problems and embarrassment. In the past, this
      complex condition was only seen in extremely overweight patients or as a result
      of severe inflammations in this region. More recently, this problem has also been
      observed in patients with massive weight loss following bariatric surgery. In
      these patients there is an abundance of extremely flaccid skin in the suprapubic
      region, which covers the penis and causes it to "disappear". This leads to
      balanitis and, in turn, further retraction of the penis. The only solution to
      this condition is a sophisticated surgical approach in 3 phases: At first,
      suprapubic tissues must be lifted. Secondly, the penis must be completely denuded
      and debrided and the correct penopubic/penoscrotal angles must be reconstructed.
      The last phase includes a strainless coverage of the remaining defect of the
      penis. This condition has not been widely described in the literature. The
      general incidence and prevalence in the postbariatric population is unknown,
      probably due to patients' embarrassment and lack of knowledge on the physicians'
      end. Nevertheless, the buried penis can be successfully exposed through careful,
      structured surgical treatment and an interdisciplinary approach between plastic
      surgeons and urologists.

PMID- 28561169
TI  - [Adequate Antibiotic Prophylaxis and Therapy of Periprosthetic Infections of the
      Breast - Review of 468 Consecutive Implant Removals].
AB  - Background Periprosthetic infections are feared complications in aesthetic as
      well as in reconstructive breast surgery. The purpose of our study was to
      evaluate our institution's specific culture data and to identify most common
      organisms and suitable antibiotics for prophylaxis and first line treatment in
      implant-based breast surgery. Patients and Methods We analyzed all patients with
      a change or removal of breast implants in the period from 01.01.2012 to
      31.12.2015 retrospectively. Based on the medical records, the surgical
      indications were identified and specifically analyzed for signs of infection and
      capsular fibrosis. In addition, we assessed all microbiological data of these
      interventions. Results 468 implant removals or exchanges were performed in 360
      patients. Microbiological smears were gathered from 169 patients (249 implants).
      Bacteria were cultured from 23 implants (21 patients). In 6 additional implants
      (four patients) a periprosthetic infection was present, without pathogen
      detection. In most cases, advanced capsular fibrosis was the reason for implant
      exchange. In 17 smears bacterial detection was carried out despite absence of
      clinical signs of infection. In 17 cases coagulase-negative staphylococci were
      detected. In 4 Staphylococcus aureus, and once each E. coli, Morganella morganii
      and Proprionibacterium acnes (one double infection). All pathogens were sensitive
      to piperacillin/tazobactam and vancomycin. One resistancy was seen to cefuroxime
      and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and 2 to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin and
      clindamycin. Conclusion In the majority of cases, pathogen detection was an
      incidental finding, while capsular contracture caused surgical revision.
      Pathogens and resistance patterns found in this study differed from the majority
      of international publications. In our institution, Cefuroxime and
      amoxicillin/clavulanic acid have been proven to be a reasonable choice for
      prevention and treatment of periprosthetic infections. Especially in fulminant
      infections piperacillin/tazobactam would be our choice for initial treatment,
      until the specific antibiogram is available.

PMID- 28561171
TI  - [A Dentist's Accidental Self-Injury by Hydrofluoric Acid - Hydrofluoric Acid
      Burns].

PMID- 28561170
TI  - [Radiation-induced angiosarcoma of the breast].
AB  - Background Radiation-induced angiosarcomas of the breast are rare secondary
      malignancies that occur after adjuvant radiation of breast cancer. They grow in a
      multifocal manner and frequently develop local recurrences. Therefore, they often
      pose a surgical challenge. Due to their rarity it is still unclear whether a
      radical surgical approach leads to a beneficial outcome. The aim of this study
      was to determine the prognostic significance of surgical margins. Patients and
      methods We retrospectively assessed the outcome of 18 patients who underwent
      surgical treatment at our institution. The median follow-up was 4.4 years.
      Univariate analyses were performed to determine the prognostic significance of
      the assessed factors on local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) and overall
      survival (OS). Results The median patient age was 66.3 years. The median latency
      between radiation and angiosarcoma occurrence was 6.9 years. The estimated 5-year
      rates for LRFS and OS were 25.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.8-47.2) and
      53.8% (95% CI: 26.8-74.8). R0 resection of the primary lesion was associated with
      a significant improvement in LRFS (p=0.017) and OS (p=0.013). Moreover, R0
      resection of the last local recurrence was also associated with a more favourable
      OS (p=0.040). Conclusions Due to their aggressive growth pattern and pronounced
      tendency to local recurrence, a radical surgical approach should be sought in the
      treatment of radiation-induced angiosarcomas. Wherever feasible, surgical
      treatment should aim at R0 margins in order to improve local control and OS.

PMID- 28561172
TI  - [Delayed Post-burn Scar Reconstruction of the Dorsum of the Hand with a Collagen
      Elastin-based Dermal Substitute and Split-skin Graft].
AB  - The hands are involved in more than 80% of severe (grade IIb-III) burn accidents.
      Even if appropriate initial surgical care is provided in a timely manner, this
      does not necessarily guarantee a satisfactory outcome in terms of function and
      aesthetics if interdisciplinary postoperative care and patient compliance are
      inadequate. In the following case, a grade IIb-III burn, this led to unstable
      scars on the back of both hands and an intrinsic-minus hand position,
      bilaterally. Our case study demonstrates that even a delayed reconstruction with
      a collagen- elastin-based dermal substitute and split-skin graft combined with
      appropriate interdisciplinary postoperative care may lead to an excellent result
      comparable with the function and aesthetics of healthy hands, albeit with a
      significant effort.

PMID- 28561173
TI  - [Comment on the Article of Dagobert Lindlau: Reread: Eduard Zeis, Handbook of
      Plastic Surgery, Berlin 1838].

PMID- 28561175
TI  - [Multiple sclerosis fatigue, its neural correlates, and its modulation with
      tDCS].
AB  - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive and inflammatory disease of the
      central nervous system and causes high rates of non-traumatic disability in young
      adults. Fatigue is frequently reported by a major part of patients during the
      disease course and dramatically increases the burden of illness. Despite the high
      prevalence of fatigue and its enormous impact on quality of life, its
      pathophysiological mechanisms are still unclear. Its etiology is multifactorial
      and complex, and is usually classified into 'primary' fatigue resulting from the
      pathological brain changes versus 'secondary' fatigue following disease symptoms,
      sleep disturbances, mood disorders, and side effects of medication. Hypotheses
      concerning the pathophysiology of this symptom are based on radiological,
      physiological, and endocrine data. It has been suggested that fatigue refers to
      structural and functional changes in a variety of neuronal networks. Over the
      past years, non-invasive brain stimulation methods were used to modulate brain
      function, especially transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has proven to
      impact neuronal connectivity; however evidence is still sparse due to the pilot
      character of the studies. In this review we aim at discussing the neuronal
      correlates of fatigue and the potential influence of tDCS in the modulation of
      the symptoms.

PMID- 28561176
TI  - [Early Diagnosis of Chorea-Acanthocytosis: Orofacial Dyskinesia, Epileptic
      Seizures, and HyperCKemia].
AB  - Chorea-acanthocytosis is an uncommon neurodegenerative disorder. Early diagnosis
      is often challenging. The triad of orofacial dyskinesia, epileptic seizures, and
      hyperCKemia should alert neurologists of a neuroacanthocytosis syndrome. The
      diagnosis can be confirmed by detection of chorein deficiency or through
      molecular genetics (VPS13A mutation).

PMID- 28561177
TI  - [Risk Factors for Postoperative Delirium after Cardiac Surgery].
AB  - Background Delirium is a common psychiatric disorder after cardiac surgery and
      predisposes patients to increased mortality and morbidity. Its prevention
      requires knowledge of the risk factors involved. Objective What are preoperative
      risk factors for postoperative delirium after cardiac surgery? Methods
      Prospective longitudinal study of 241 elective cardiac surgical patients with
      preoperative assessment of potential risk factors and delirium assessment twice
      daily over five postoperative days. Results 13 % of the patients experienced
      delirium. Reduced cognitive performance (OR: 3.80; 95 % CI: 1.66 - 8.66), higher
      comorbidity (OR: 1.36; 95 % CI: 1.07 - 1.7) and higher age (OR: 1.08; 95 % CI:
      1.02 - 1.13) increased the risk of delirium. Conclusion Delirium after cardiac
      surgery is common. It occurs in particular in patients with low cognitive
      performance, higher comorbidity and higher age.

PMID- 28561178
TI  - [19th century Russian research about collective behavior].
AB  - In the 19th century, collective behavior or crowd psychology was given a broad
      interest in psychiatric research. But until today the focus had always been on
      French, English or German publications neglecting the comprehensive Russian
      research that exists. That's why, the authors wish to elaborate 19th century
      Russian points of view on crowd psychology.Our research revealed that most of the
      Russian authors discussed imitation, suggestion, and hereditary predisposition -
      as did their colleagues in the West. Contrary to that, the 1881 monograph by
      Viktor Kandinsky could be regarded as an outstanding work because it presents an
      independent hypothesis on crowd psychology. Kandinsky postulated a gradual
      transition from normal to pathological based on neuro-anatomical und
      physiological presumptions. He postulated a causal chain which starts with
      exaltation followed by ecstasy, illusions, and at least hallucinations. He
      regarded exaltation to be a precondition in which a person accepts notions
      uncritically. Thus, in an exalted crowd one person that hallucinates may "infect"
      the others easily. People prone to mysticism, with a passion for mysterious
      things or on outstanding skills would be at a high risk of being infected. On the
      other hand, Kandinsky's hypothesis also implies that no one is exempt from such
      infection.

PMID- 28561179
TI  - [Lithium treatment in patients with impaired kidney function: Between Scylla and
      Charybdis].
AB  - Introduction In quite a few patients with bipolar disorder there is no real
      alternative to lithium treatment despite impaired kidney function. Is it possible
      to continue lithium treatment despite kidney malfunction by changing dosage
      and/or frequency of administration? Case Report We report on a 65-year-old woman
      suffering from bipolar-I disorder who had been on lithium treatment for many
      decades. While on lithium, the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decreased
      constantly. A decision had to be made whether to switch to a more tolerable o.d.
      administration or to taper off lithium. Conclusion With a single dose at bedtime,
      the serum levels remained stable; however, kidney function unfortunately did not
      improve. A relevant increase of GFR above the level of 60 mL/min/1,73 m2 was only
      achieved after a 50% dose reduction leading also to a substantial decrease of
      lithium serum levels. A kidney protective lithium application in patients with
      reduced renal function is like sailing between Scylla and Charybdis.

PMID- 28561180
TI  - [Cognitive Disorders in Schizophrenia].
AB  - Cognitive disorders in schizophrenia can be observed in relatives and persons
      even before the first episode. The patterns of these disorders may be specific to
      the occurrence of a later episode. After the first episode, the disorders remain
      relatively stable and are partly correlated with negative symptoms. Furthermore,
      the cognitive deficits have a negative impact on the social and occupational
      functional level. Recent studies suggest that cognitive remediation has small to
      moderate effects on cognition, and thus can also improve overall patient
      function.

PMID- 28561181
TI  - [The Load of Injustice: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Subjectively
      Perceived Income Injustice on the Risk of Stress-Associated Diseases Based on the
      German Socio-Economic Panel Study].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Income injustice is regarded as a psychosocial strain and associated
      with an increased risk of stress-related diseases. The physiological stress
      response is thereby considered as a central link. The aim of the study is to
      reveal the influence of subjectively perceived income injustice on stress
      associated diseases, taking into consideration the load duration. METHOD: Based
      on the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, data on 5,657 workers in the survey
      years 2005-2013 were analyzed. The dependent variable reflect the doctor's
      diagnosed new cases of diabetes, asthma, cardiopathy, stroke, hypertension and
      depression in the years 2009-2013 as an index. Key predictor is the injustice
      perception of one's income. In order to operationalize the duration of the
      injustice perception, the values of the variable for the years 2005, 2007 and
      2009 were accumulated. Using logit models, stratified for gender and volume of
      employment, factors were identified that affect the probability of stress-related
      diseases. RESULTS: If income was perceived as unjust for over 5 years, the odds
      of stress-related diseases were strongly enhanced for women (OR 1.64; 95% CI 1.17
      2.30). Women working full-time seemed to be particularly affected (OR 2.43; 95%
      CI 1.54-3.84). Men working full-time perceiving their income as unjust also
      showed an increased risk for stress diseases (OR 1.43; CI 1.03-1.98). The more
      often income was assessed as unjust, the higher was the probability of stress
      related diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived income injustice seems to be a
      significant risk factor for stress-related diseases within a dose-response
      relationship with increasing duration of exposure. Findings of stress research
      indicate that this represents the 'allostatic load'. Gender-specific differences
      in stress reaction as well as in the appraisal of the stressors can be associated
      with gender-specific work and life conditions and therefore provide explanatory
      approaches for the revealed effects.

PMID- 28561182
TI  - [The Costs of Overweight and Obesity: a Systematic Review].
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of
      cost-of-illness studies for overweight and adiposity in Germany. METHODS: We
      conducted a PubMed search to identify relevant studies. To increase
      comparability, all cost data were inflated to 2014 prices. For bottom-up studies,
      we additionally calculated relative cost-differences between normal weight and
      overweight, as well as adiposity. These relative differences were pooled using
      meta-analytical techniques and extrapolated to the German population. RESULTS: We
      identified 15 bottom-up studies, 6 top-down studies and 2 Markov simulations. On
      average, top-down studies reported direct costs of 7.9 billion Euros and indirect
      costs of 3.6 billion Euros. Due to between-study heterogeneity, we were not able
      to pool absolute costs reported in bottom-up studies. The pooled relative cost
      differences for studies conducted with adult persons were +22% for the difference
      between normal weight and overweight and +53% for the difference between normal
      weight and adiposity. The corresponding effect sizes were 0.07 (- 0.05; 0.19) and
      0.15 (0.02; 0.28), respectively. In studies conducted with children and
      adolescents, relative cost-differences were considerably smaller with
      corresponding effect sizes being close to zero. Extrapolation of relative pooled
      cost-differences from bottom-up studies to the German total population yielded
      direct and indirect excess costs of 22.2 billion Euros for overweight and 23.0
      billion Euros for adiposity. CONCLUSION: We found substantial heterogeneity of
      cost findings between studies for top-down and bottom-up studies as well, which
      points to substantial uncertainty and strongly hampers clear statements about the
      costs of overweight and adiposity. Our findings imply that costs are
      underestimated by top-down studies, whereas overestimated by our extrapolation.
      The true costs presumably lie between the findings of both approaches.

PMID- 28561183
TI  - Salivary Cortisol, Perceived Stress, and Metabolic Syndrome: A Matched Case
      Control Study in Female Shift Workers.
AB  - Although the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is complex and
      multifactorial, there is limited information if psychological factors, such as
      stress exposure, are involved in the etiology of MetS. Therefore, this study
      investigated the associations between MetS and cortisol levels and perceived
      stress levels among women shift workers in Southern Brazil. A matched case
      control study was conducted, including 50 cases of MetS and 200 age-matched
      controls (+/-3 years, 4 for each case). Salivary cortisol levels were evaluated
      immediately after waking and one upon returning home from work. Perceived stress
      levels were measured by the Perceived Stress Scale with 10 items (PSS-10).
      Multivariate-adjusted associations between MetS and salivary cortisol levels and
      perceived stress levels were assessed by conditional logistic regression. Means+/
      standard deviations of salivary cortisol levels were not significantly different
      between cases and controls either immediately after waking (5.37+/-4.10 vs.
      6.03+/-5.39 nmol/l; p = 0.53) or after work (2.74+/-2.87 vs. 2.78+/-2.85 nmol/l;
      p = 0.93). There was no significant difference in perceived stress level between
      cases and controls (14.2+/-5.9 vs. 15.5+/-5.6; p = 0.15). No independent
      association was observed in the multivariate model between MetS and salivary
      cortisol level or perceived stress level after these exposures were stratified
      into tertiles. Overall, there was no difference between women with or without
      MetS in regard to the free salivary cortisol and perceived stress. Our results do
      not support an association between stress exposure and MetS among women shift
      workers.

PMID- 28561184
TI  - Measuring VLDL1-Triglyceride and VLDL2-Triglyceride Kinetics in Men: Effects of
      Dietary Control on Day-to-Day Variability.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the impact of dietary control on VLDL1- and
      VLDL2-TG kinetics and associated metabolic parameters. Twelve overweight/obese
      men were randomized to a provided 3 day isocaloric diet with fixed macronutrient
      composition (diet group, n=6) or to their regular unrestricted diet (non-diet
      group, n=6). VLDL1- and VLDL2-TG turnovers were measured twice 2-4 weeks apart,
      using primed-constant infusion of ex vivo labeled [1-14C]VLDL1-TG and [9,10
      3H]VLDL2-TG. Isocaloric diet intervention lowered the difference in the mean of
      both VLDL2-TG secretion and clearance rate (p<0.01), and the coefficient of
      variation (CV) of VLDL2-TG clearance rate (p<0.05). The difference in mean and CV
      of the other kinetic estimates (VLDL1-TG secretion, clearance and oxidation rate)
      were lowered, but not significantly. The CV's of total triglyceride, VLDL1-TG,
      and VLDL2-TG concentrations were significantly lowered by diet intervention
      compared to regular diet; total triglyceride (31%-5%, p<0.01), VLDL1-TG (42%-9%,
      p<0.01), and VLDL2-TG (36%-10%, p<0.01). In conclusion, VLDL1- and VLDL2-TG
      kinetics show great day-to-day variability, which may be diminished by diet
      intervention. Therefore, standardized macronutrient intake prior to study days
      improves the probability of demonstrating significant outcomes of cross-sectional
      and intervention studies of VLDL1-TG and VLDL2-TG kinetics and metabolism.

PMID- 28561186
TI  - Muscle Response to Complete Peripheral Nerve Injury: Changes of Acetylcholine
      Receptor and Creatine Kinase Activity over Time.
AB  - Background This study was designed to assess the changes of acetylcholine
      receptor (AChR) and creatine kinase (CK) levels, which are important biochemical
      markers for muscle viability in cases of long-term muscle denervation. Scientists
      and peripheral nerve surgeons may find these data important regarding maximal
      range of muscle viability applicable for timing of effective peripheral nerve
      reconstructive surgery. Methods The study was conducted on 48 rats (96
      gastrocnemius muscles), whose right legs were denervated by removing a 10-mm
      segment of sciatic nerve, while their left legs remained intact. Under general
      anesthesia, the rats were euthanized at seven points in time, on days 7, 14, 21,
      30, 60, 120, and 210. In both legs, AChR was quantified by 125I-alpha
      bungarotoxin, whereas CK activity was measured using a spectrophotometric method.
      Results CK levels in the denervated limb reached a minimal level of 34% on day 30
      in comparison to the intact limb and remained at this level up to 210 days after
      operation. AChR levels in the denervated limb reached a minimal level of 38% on
      day 120 in comparison to the intact limb and remained at this level up to 210
      days after operation. Conclusion The present study shows that AChR and CK levels
      in rat denervated muscles remain constant at about third of its intact condition
      for a period of at least a third of rat's lifetime postinjury.

PMID- 28561185
TI  - High Leptin Level Attenuates Embryo Development in Overweight/Obese Infertile
      Women by Inhibiting Proliferation and Promotes Apoptosis in Granule Cell.
AB  - Obesity appears to be associated with female reproductive dysfunction and
      infertility. Women with obesity undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) had poor
      oocyte quality, decreased embryo development, and poor pregnancy outcome.
      However, the mechanism linking obesity to poor reproductive outcomes is still
      unclear. Obesity is frequently accompanied with elevated leptin levels. Here we
      aimed to evaluate the effect of high leptin level in follicular fluid (FF) on the
      proliferation and apoptosis in granule cells and correlate these findings with
      poor reproductive outcomes in infertile women with overweight or obesity who
      underwent IVF treatment. We investigated clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates in
      189 infertile women who underwent IVF. Leptin levels were quantified in
      peripheral blood and FF as well. In vitro cell model was used to explore the
      potential effect of high leptin on the proliferation and apoptosis in granulosa
      cells. Results showed reduced clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates in
      overweight/obesity women who underwent IVF compared to control with normal BMI.
      On the other hand, leptin levels presented significant increase in peripheral
      blood and FF in overweight/obese women. Leptin level in FF was negatively
      correlated to good quality embryo rate. Importantly, in vitro study showed that
      leptin inhibited cells proliferation and promoted apoptosis by upregulation of
      caspase-3 and downregulation of Bcl-2 in granulosa cells in a dose dependent
      manner. These observations suggest that leptin may acts as a local mediator to
      attenuate embryo development and reduce fertility in obese patients.

PMID- 28561187
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Morbidity of the Free Fibula Flap Reconstruction in Head
      and Neck Malignancies.

PMID- 28561188
TI  - Reply to Letter to the Editor: Morbidity of the Free Fibula Flap Reconstruction
      in Head and Neck Malignancies.

PMID- 28561190
TI  - In-Hospital Outcomes Following Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in a
      Retrospective Cohort of Infants.

PMID- 28561189
TI  - Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping at <32 Weeks' Gestation: Implementation and
      Outcomes.

PMID- 28561191
TI  - Platelet-Rich Fibrin Conduits as an Alternative to Nerve Autografts for
      Peripheral Nerve Repair.

PMID- 28561192
TI  - Heart Rate and Oxygen Uptake Kinetics in Type 2 Diabetes Patients - A Pilot Study
      on the Influence of Cardiovascular Medication on Regulatory Processes.
AB  - The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether there are differences in
      heart rate and oxygen uptake kinetics in type 2 diabetes patients, considering
      their cardiovascular medication. It was hypothesized that cardiovascular
      medication would affect heart rate and oxygen uptake kinetics and that this could
      be detected using a standardized exercise test. 18 subjects were tested for
      maximal oxygen uptake. Kinetics were measured in a single test session with
      standardized, randomized moderate-intensity work rate changes. Time series
      analysis was used to estimate kinetics. Greater maxima in cross-correlation
      functions indicate faster kinetics. 6 patients did not take any cardiovascular
      medication, 6 subjects took peripherally acting medication and 6 patients were
      treated with centrally acting medication. Maximum oxygen uptake was not
      significantly different between groups. Significant main effects were identified
      regarding differences in muscular oxygen uptake kinetics and heart rate kinetics.
      Muscular oxygen uptake kinetics were significantly faster than heart rate
      kinetics in the group with no cardiovascular medication (maximum in cross
      correlation function of muscular oxygen uptake vs. heart rate; 0.32+/-0.08 vs.
      0.25+/-0.06; p=0.001) and in the group taking peripherally acting medication
      (0.34+/-0.05 vs. 0.28+/-0.05; p=0.009) but not in the patients taking centrally
      acting medication (0.28+/-0.05 vs. 0.30+/-0.07; n.s.). It can be concluded that
      regulatory processes for the achievement of a similar maximal oxygen uptake are
      different between the groups. The used standardized test provided plausible
      results for heart rate and oxygen uptake kinetics in a single measurement session
      in this patient group.

PMID- 28561194
TI  - Impact of the Ile105Val Polymorphism of the Glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1)
      Gene on Obesity and Markers of Cardiometabolic Risk in Young Adult Population.
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate the association between Glutathione S
      transferase P1 (GSTP1) gene polymorphism with obesity and markers of
      cardiometabolic risk. A cross-sectional study was carried out in individuals
      aged>=18 and <=30 years. The study included 54 normal weight, 27 overweight and
      68 obese volunteers. Anthropometric measurements and biochemical parameters were
      evaluated, the DNA was extracted from blood samples and polymerase chain reaction
      restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to measure GSTP1
      Ile105Val gene polymorphism of the study participants. Also, biochemical analysis
      and hormone assays were carried out. A positive association between GSTP1
      polymorphism and obesity was observed on subjects carrying at least one G allele
      (AG and GG). GG genotype was found only in the obese group. The G allele carriers
      presented 2.4 times higher chance of obesity when compared to those with the AA
      genotype. These results were independent of sex and age. We suggest that despite
      a study in population regional (south of Brazil), the GSTP1 gene polymorphism may
      play a significant role in the increase of susceptibility of obesity and
      contribute to identify the cardiovascular risk in young adults.

PMID- 28561193
TI  - Success Rates in a Diabetes Specialist Nurse-Led Education Programme: Re-setting
      the Glucostat.
AB  - Analysis of National Diabetes Audit data from 2011-2012 of newly diagnosed people
      with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) found low initial success rates in much of the
      UK at 20% on initial training, while an unusually high success rate of 75%
      achieving target HbA1C<58 mmol/mol (< 7.5%) was found in Cheshire (England
      average=40.8%). We present a review of the approach taken by the Cheshire
      Diabetes team in the 12 months following diagnosis. Between 2012 and 2013, 15
      consecutive newly diagnosed people with type 1 DM were followed up for 18 months.
      All received support and advice by community Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSNs)
      and Dieticians covering Central and Eastern Cheshire, UK. Mean+/-SD age at
      diagnosis was 23+/-3 years. The period of contact with the DSN service varied
      from 7-12 weeks. Baseline HbA1C of 99 mmol/mol [11.2%] (95% CI: 86-111 mmol/mol
      [10.0-12.3%]) declined by ~50% to 49 mmol/mol [6.6%] (41-57 mmol/mol [5.9-7.4%];
      F=16.9, p<0.001) at 6 months and did not change between 6-12 months. Of those
      newly diagnosed with type 1 DM, 84.6% achieved a target HbA1C<58 mmol/mol (<7.5%)
      and 61.5% met a target<48 mmol/mol (<6.5%). There was no significant weight
      change during the study. The key elements of this bio-psycho-social approach by
      the DSN team included providing psychological support, patient engagement,
      demonstrating positive regard, gaining trust, identifying health-seeking
      behaviour, providing key decision-making skills and developing a self-management
      plan. This resulted in improvements in overall glycaemic control well above the
      national average without untoward weight gain. The UK National Diabetes Audit
      (2011-2012) in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics in Cheshire, UK, showed a success
      rate at 6 months post-diagnosis of 75% achieving a target HbA1C<58 mmol/mol
      (<7.5%) compared with the national average of 40.8%. Initially thought to be
      erroneous, these excellent results were confirmed. The approach taken to achieve
      them is herein described.

PMID- 28561195
TI  - Computer-aided diagnosis for colonoscopy.

PMID- 28561196
TI  - A novel endoloop system for closure of colonic mucosal defects through a single
      channel colonoscope.
AB  - Background and study aims Successful closure of the postoperative mucosal defect
      is crucial for endoscopic treatment. The purse-string suture strategy via a
      double-channel endoscope has been recommended as being both safe and feasible for
      large gastrointestinal mucosal defects. However, for colonic treatment, use of a
      single-channel colonoscope is more popular because of its longer length and
      greater flexibility. A novel pre-detached endoloop system was therefore developed
      for endoscopic purse-string suture closure via a single-channel endoscope. This
      study evaluated its feasibility and efficacy, especially for right colonic
      mucosal defects. Patients and methods A total of 18 patients with colonic defects
      post-endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) were treated using the single-channel
      endoscope method. Results All mucosal defects were successfully closed using the
      novel closure technique. No severe complications, such as massive intraoperative
      bleeding, delayed bleeding, peritonitis, or perforation, were recorded. All
      patients recovered well after ESD and left the hospital within 7 days.
      Conclusions This novel pre-detached endoloop strategy via a single-channel
      endoscope was safe and feasible for the closure of colonic mucosal defects using
      an endoscopic purse-string suture.

PMID- 28561197
TI  - Endoscopic hand-suturing for defect closure after gastric endoscopic submucosal
      dissection: a pilot study in animals and in humans.
AB  - Background and study aims Mucosal suturing enables reliable and optimal defect
      closure after endoscopic treatments. We developed and investigated the
      feasibility of endoscopic hand-suturing (EHS) after gastric endoscopic submucosal
      dissection (ESD) in porcine in vivo models and in human clinical cases. Patients
      and methods EHS involving continuous suturing of the mucosal layers using a
      through-the-scope needle-holder and absorbable barbed suture, was performed after
      gastric ESD in six live pigs and in eight consecutive patients. Success rates,
      adverse events, and suture maintenance were subsequently investigated. Results
      EHS was successfully completed in all six pigs and eight patients (100 %) without
      severe adverse events. However, at 1 week postoperatively the suture closures had
      not been maintained in all six porcine cases and in the first four clinical
      cases. In the later four clinical cases, wider and tight suturing of the mucosal
      edges ensured that the defects remained closed until postoperative week 4.
      Conclusion EHS is a feasible procedure that may facilitate secure and refined
      endoscopic surgeries. Mucosal closure in such cases can be maintained using firm
      suturing.Clinical trial number: UMIN000017125.

PMID- 28561198
TI  - Risk of infection following colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy in symptomatic
      patients.
AB  - Background and study aims Previous studies describing the incidence of infection
      after colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy are limited. The aim of this study was to
      determine the incidence of infection, and to propose a nomogram to predict the
      probability of infection following colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy in symptomatic
      patients. Patients and methods A nationwide retrospective study was conducted by
      analyzing the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. The
      incidence of infection within 30 days after colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy was
      assessed and compared with a control group matched at a ratio of 1:1 based on
      age, sex, and the date of examination. Results  In all, 112 543 patients who
      underwent colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy and 112 543 matched patients who did not
      undergo these procedures were included. The overall incidence of infection within
      30 days after colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy was 0.37 %, which was significantly
      higher than that of the control group (0.04 %; P < 0.001). Diverticulitis,
      peritonitis, and appendicitis were the most common infections. Patients who
      underwent colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy had a 9.38-fold risk of infection (95 %
      confidence interval, 6.81 - 12.93; P < 0.001) compared with the control group.
      The predicted infection-free rates of the nomogram were closely aligned with the
      actual infection-free rates, with a bootstrapping concordance index of 0.763.
      Conclusions Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy are associated with an increased risk
      of infection, which may occur after these procedures. Our nomogram may provide
      clinicians with an easy tool to evaluate the risk of infection after colonoscopy
      and sigmoidoscopy in symptomatic patients.

PMID- 28561199
TI  - Efficacy of self-expandable metal stents in management of benign biliary
      strictures and comparison with multiple plastic stents: a meta-analysis.
AB  - Background and study aims There is burgeoning interest in the utilization of
      covered self-expandable metal stents (CSEMSs) for managing benign biliary
      stricture (BBS). This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated cumulative
      stricture resolution and recurrence rates using CSEMSs and compared performance
      of CSEMSs and multiple plastic stents (MPS) in BBS management. Method Searches in
      several databases identified studies including >= 10 patients that utilized
      CSEMSs for BBS treatment. Weighted pooled rates were calculated for stricture
      resolution and recurrence. Pooled risk ratios (RRs) comparing CSEMSs with MPS
      were calculated for stricture resolution, stricture recurrence, and adverse
      events. Pooled difference in means was calculated to compare number of endoscopic
      retrograde cholangiopancreatographies (ERCPs) in each group.  Results The meta
      analysis included 22 studies with 1298 patients. Weighted pooled rate for BBS
      resolution with CSEMS was 83 % (95 % confidence limits [95 %CLs] 78 %, 87 %; I2 =
      72 %). On meta-regression analysis, resolution in chronic pancreatitis patients
      and post-orthotopic liver transplant patients were significant predictors of
      heterogeneity. Weighted pooled rate for stricture recurrence with CSEMSs was 16 %
      (11 %, 22 %). Overall rate of adverse events requiring intervention and/or
      hospitalization was 15 %. Four randomized controlled trials with 213 patients
      compared CSEMSs with MPS: the pooled RRs for stricture resolution, recurrence,
      and adverse events were 1.07 (0.97, 1.18), 0.88 (0.48, 1.63), and 1.16 (0.71,
      1.88), respectively with no heterogeneity. Pooled difference in means for number
      of ERCPs was - 1.71 ( - 2.33, - 1.09) in favor of CSEMS. Conclusions CSEMSs
      appear to have excellent efficacy in BBS management. They are as effective as MPS
      but require fewer ERCPs to achieve clinical success.

PMID- 28561200
TI  - [Exposure of Adolescents to Leisure-Time Noise: Results of the First Follow-Up of
      the Ohrkan Cohort Study].
AB  - Objective Analysis of changes in leisure noise exposure among adolescents during
      2.5 years of follow-up. Methods The analysis is based on the Ohrkan cohort study.
      A total of 2 149 9th graders in the City of Regensburg (mostly aged 15-16 years)
      were recruited between 2009-2011. At 2.5-year follow-up, the participants were
      asked again about leisure noise exposure. Both at baseline (O-I) and in the
      follow-up (O-II), self-reported frequency of participation in noisy activities
      was combined with literature-based values of usual sound levels to calculate the
      total weekly noise exposure. This exposure was compared to the lower exposure
      action value (lEAV) of 80 dB(A) given by the occupational health and safety
      regulations. Logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated
      with leisure noise exposure above the lEAV. Results Exposure data from both time
      points were available for 1 704 adolescents (54% female). The percentage of
      participants who were exposed to leisure noise exceeding the lEAV increased from
      75  to 92% due to more persons visiting discotheques in O-II. In both surveys,
      the activity reported by the highest percentage of participants and with the
      longest exposure duration was listening to pop music via portable listening
      devices (PLD) although the proportion of users decreased slightly. Not being a
      pupil affected PLD use at volume levels >80 dB (A) whereas older age was
      associated with noise exposure in discotheques. Conclusions O-II shows that
      adolescents are engaged in leisure activities under harmful noise levels and that
      noise exposure sources are changing with age. These issues should be considered
      in the developing of prevention programs.

PMID- 28561201
TI  - [First Insights into Scope of Practice and Salary of Physician Assistants, A New
      Healthcare Profession, in Germany].
AB  - Background In 2010, the first government-approved physician assistant (PA)
      program was introduced at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University
      Karlsruhe (DHBW). There are not sufficient data regarding the scope of practice
      and salary of our graduates. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to
      obtain information regarding these. Methods The survey included all graduates (2
      classes, n=27). A specific questionnaire was developed, including 37 questions e.
      g. on the current employment status, scope of practice, salary and job
      satisfaction regarding the PA program and career. A descriptive analysis of the
      data was carried out using SPSS. Results 25 graduates participated in the survey
      (96.1%); the average age of participants was 32.2 years (25-53 years). 88% (n=22)
      were employed as a PA, most of them worked in internal medicine (n=11) or surgery
      (n=9). Responsibilities that are often or very often assigned to the PAs are
      preparing final documents, taking over a coordinating role in the therapeutic
      team, as well as participation in taking patient medical history and conducting
      physical examinations. In two-thirds of respondents, the gross monthly base
      salary (full-time position) was about 3000 euros. 77.3% (n=17) of graduates were
      generally satisfied or very satisfied with their current situation. Conclusions
      It appears that graduates of the DHBW are well integrated into the staff
      structure of hospitals, as far as the scope of practice and average salary are
      concerned. Further studies on the integration of this new profession in Germany
      and on their extended scope of practice in comparison to established healthcare
      professions will be conducted.

PMID- 28561202
TI  - [Job Satisfaction of Young Professionals in Health Care].
AB  - Background Job satisfaction in health care is currently important in view of
      workforce shortage in the health care area. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate job satisfaction in young health professionals and to identify factors
      possibly influencing overall job satisfaction. Methods About one year after
      graduating from vocational training, a total of 579 graduates from various health
      care professions [Nursing (N), Nursing and Geriatric Nursing; Therapy (TP),
      Physical therapy and Logopaedics; Diagnostics (D), Diagnostic Radiography and
      Biomedical Science], were invited to participate in an online-survey. Job
      satisfaction was assessed with the 10-item Warr-Cook-Wall (WCW) job satisfaction
      questionnaire. Descriptive analysis of the WCW was performed, and the impact of
      various factors on job satisfaction was determined by stepwise linear regression
      analysis. Results In total, 189 graduates (N, n=121; TP, n=32; D, n=36) were
      included in data analysis (32.6% response rate). Overall job satisfaction in all
      young professionals was 4.9+/-1.6 (mean+/-SD) and was slightly higher in TP
      (5.4+/-1.4) compared with N (4.7+/-1.6) and D (5.0+/-1.5), respectively. Highest
      satisfaction was identified with "colleagues" and lowest satisfaction with
      "income" was identified in all professional groups. Colleagues and fellow workers
      showed the highest score of association regarding overall job satisfaction in
      regression analysis. Conclusions As a whole, our data suggest good to very good
      satisfaction in various WCW items of job satisfaction. "Colleagues" were shown to
      have a high impact on job satisfaction. To improve the attractiveness of job
      profiles in health care, the presented results may provide a valuable input
      regarding workforce shortage.

PMID- 28561203
TI  - Relationship Between Daily Dose, Serum Concentration, and Clinical Response to
      Quetiapine in Children and Adolescents with Psychotic and Mood Disorders.
AB  - Introduction In child and adolescent psychiatry, therapeutic drug monitoring
      (TDM) is strongly recommended. However, therapeutic ranges (TR) are defined only
      for adults. The objectives of this naturalistic study were to assess the
      relationships between serum quetiapine concentration, daily dose, and clinical
      outcomes as well as the determinants of pharmacokinetic variability. Furthermore,
      it was elucidated whether the recommended TR for adult patients with psychotic
      disorders is valid for children and adolescents. Methods TDM was performed in 180
      pediatric patients treated with quetiapine. Psychopathological changes were
      assessed by the Clinical Global Impression - Improvement scale (CGI-I). Adverse
      drug reactions (ADRs) were assessed by using a short form of the Udvalg for
      Kliniske Undersogelser (UKU) side effect rating scale. Results A weak positive
      linear relationship between daily dose (mean 349.9+/-248.9 mg/day) and serum
      concentration of quetiapine (rs=0.496, p<0.001) was found (mean age 15.6+/-1.9
      years, 45.6% male, 31.1% monotherapy), but no relationship between serum
      concentration and clinical outcome was found. Dose variation accounted for only
      12.5% (rs2=0.125) of the variability of serum concentrations. No effects by
      gender, age, body weight, smoking habits, and co-medication were found. The
      majority of patients with psychotic (67.8%) and mood disorders (74.5%) showed a
      serum concentration below the suggested lower limit (100 ng/mL) of the TR for
      adults. Discussion There are several limitations of this study because of the
      naturalistic design, and our results should therefore be interpreted with
      caution. Notwithstanding, our data suggest that the lower limit of the TR for
      quetiapine is lower than the limit in adult patients.

PMID- 28561204
TI  - Oral Administration of (S)-Allyl-l-Cysteine and Aged Garlic Extract to Rats:
      Determination of Metabolites and Their Pharmacokinetics.
AB  - (S)-Allyl-l-cysteine is the major bioactive compound in garlic. (S)-Allyl-l
      cysteine is metabolized to (S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide, N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l
      cysteine, and N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide after oral administration.
      An accurate LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous
      quantification of (S)-allyl-l-cysteine and its metabolites in rat plasma, and the
      feasibility of using it in pharmacokinetic studies was tested. The analytes were
      quantified by multiple reaction monitoring using an atmospheric pressure
      ionization mass spectrometer. Because significant quantitative interference was
      observed between (S)-allyl-l-cysteine and N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine as a
      result of the decomposition of N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine at the detector
      source, chromatographic separation was required to discriminate (S)-allyl-l
      cysteine and its metabolites on a reversed-phase C18 analytical column with a
      gradient mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile. The
      calibration curves of (S)-allyl-l-cysteine, (S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide, N
      acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine, and N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide were
      linear over each concentration range, and the lower limits of quantification were
      0.1 ug/mL [(S)-allyl-l-cysteine and N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine] and 0.25 ug/mL
      [(S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide and N-acetyl-(S)-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide].
      Acceptable intraday and inter-day precisions and accuracies were obtained at
      three concentration levels. The method satisfied the regulatory requirements for
      matrix effects, recovery, and stability. The validated LC-MS/MS method was
      successfully used to determine the concentration of (S)-allyl-l-cysteine and its
      metabolites in rat plasma samples after the administration of (S)-allyl-l
      cysteine or aged garlic extract.

PMID- 28561205
TI  - Treatment with Mountain-Cultivated Ginseng Alleviates Trimethyltin-Induced
      Cognitive Impairments in Mice via IL-6-Dependent JAK2/STAT3/ERK Signaling.
AB  - Panax ginseng is the most widely used herbal medicine for improving cognitive
      functions. The pharmacological activity and underlying mechanisms of mountain
      cultivated ginseng, however, have yet to be clearly elucidated, in particular,
      against trimethyltin-induced cognitive dysfunction. We previously reported that
      interleukin-6 plays a protective role against trimethyltin-induced cognitive
      dysfunction. Because of this, we have implemented a study system that uses
      interleukin-6 null (-/-) and wild-type mice. Interestingly, mountain-cultivated
      ginseng significantly upregulated interleukin-6 expression. With this study, we
      sought to determine whether the interleukin-6-dependent modulation of the Janus
      kinase 2/signal transducer activator of transcription 3 and extracellular signal
      regulated kinase signaling network is also associated with the pharmacological
      activity of mountain-cultivated ginseng against trimethyltin-induced cognitive
      dysfunction. Trimethyltin treatment (2.4 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) causes the
      downregulation of Janus kinase 2/signal transducer activator of transcription 3,
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling, and impairment of the
      cholinergic system. We found that mountain-cultivated ginseng treatment (50
      mg/kg, intraperitoneal) significantly attenuated cognitive impairment normally
      induced by trimethyltin by upregulating p-Janus kinase 2/signal transducer
      activator of transcription 3, p-extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling,
      and the cholinergic system. Trimethyltin-induced cognitive impairments were more
      pronounced in interleukin-6 (-/-) mice than wild-type mice, and they were
      markedly reduced by treatment with either mountain-cultivated ginseng or
      recombinant interleukin-6 protein (6 ng, intracerebroventricular). Additionally,
      treatment with either AG490 (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneal), a Janus kinase 2/signal
      transducer activator of transcription 3 inhibitor, or U0126 (2 ug/head,
      intracerebroventricular), an extracellular signal-regulated kinase inhibitor,
      reversed the effects of mountain-cultivated ginseng treatment. The effects of
      mountain-cultivated ginseng treatment were comparable to those of recombinant
      interleukin-6 protein in interleukin-6 (-/-) mice. Our results, therefore,
      suggest that mountain-cultivated ginseng acts through interleukin-6-dependent
      activation of Janus kinase 2/signal transducer activator of transcription
      3/extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling in order to reverse cognitive
      impairment caused by trimethyltin treatment.

PMID- 28561206
TI  - 4H Leukodystrophy: A Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scoring System.
AB  - 4H (hypomyelination, hypodontia and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism) leukodystrophy
      (4H) is an autosomal recessive hypomyelinating white matter (WM) disorder with
      neurologic, dental, and endocrine abnormalities. The aim of this study was to
      develop and validate a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scoring system for 4H. A
      scoring system (0-54) was developed to quantify hypomyelination and atrophy of
      different brain regions. Pons diameter and bicaudate ratio were included as
      measures of cerebral and brainstem atrophy, and reference values were determined
      using controls. Five independent raters completed the scoring system in 40 brain
      MRI scans collected from 36 patients with genetically proven 4H. Interrater
      reliability (IRR) and correlations between MRI scores, age, gross motor function,
      gender, and mutated gene were assessed. IRR for total MRI severity was found to
      be excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.87; 95% confidence interval:
      0.80-0.92) but varied between different items with some (e.g., myelination of the
      cerebellar WM) showing poor IRR. Atrophy increased with age in contrast to
      hypomyelination scores. MRI scores (global, hypomyelination, and atrophy scores)
      significantly correlated with clinical handicap (p < 0.01 for all three items)
      and differed between the different genotypes. Our 4H MRI scoring system reliably
      quantifies hypomyelination and atrophy in patients with 4H, and MRI scores
      reflect clinical disease severity.

PMID- 28561208
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561209
TI  - [Pregnancy Rhinitis - an Update].
AB  - Pregnancy rhinitis (PR), a common condition in pregnant women, is defined as long
      lasting nasal congestion due to mucosal swelling and increased secretion without
      any signs of infection, allergy or tumor, starting at any time during pregnancy
      and disappearing within 2 weeks of delivery. Smoking and a sensitization to house
      dust mites are known risk factors. While a definitive pathophysiological concept
      for PR does not exist, hormonal influences are discussed. We present a stepwise
      therapeutic strategy for PR and an overview to the latest literature.

PMID- 28561210
TI  - Cardiac Etiologies of Hydrops Fetalis.
AB  - Cardiac etiologies of hydrops fetalis have been a topic of concern due to
      challenging perinatal management. The common cardiac etiologies leading to
      hydrops fetalis include structural cardiac anomalies, cardiac dysrhythmias,
      cardiac tumors, cardiomyopathy and myocarditis. The mechanisms of cardiogenic
      hydrops fetalis may be: 1) elevation of atrial pressure and volume overload, 2)
      decrease of cardiac output, and 3) development of congestive heart failure. The
      diagnosis of hydrops fetalis was usually made at 19-36 gestational weeks, when
      ultrasound is a highly effective diagnostic method. Intrauterine interventions
      for certain congenital heart defects, maternal transplacental or direct fetal
      medications and fetal pacing placement for cardiac arrhythmias, and fetal or
      postnatal tumor resections are important progressions of etiologic treatment for
      hydrops fetalis. Treatment strategies for hydrops fetalis per se are usually
      ultrasound-guided pericardiocentesis and feto-amniotic shunting, whereas
      reaccumulation may require further interventions in utero or postnatally. Hydrops
      fetalis often carries a poor prognosis, and mortality remains high. Current
      developments in the management of hydrops fetalis should encourage physicians to
      attempt further fetal interventions.

PMID- 28561207
TI  - Genetic, Phenotypic, and Interferon Biomarker Status in ADAR1-Related
      Neurological Disease.
AB  - We investigated the genetic, phenotypic, and interferon status of 46 patients
      from 37 families with neurological disease due to mutations in ADAR1. The
      clinicoradiological phenotype encompassed a spectrum of Aicardi-Goutieres
      syndrome, isolated bilateral striatal necrosis, spastic paraparesis with normal
      neuroimaging, a progressive spastic dystonic motor disorder, and adult-onset
      psychological difficulties with intracranial calcification. Homozygous missense
      mutations were recorded in five families. We observed a p.Pro193Ala variant in
      the heterozygous state in 22 of 23 families with compound heterozygous mutations.
      We also ascertained 11 cases from nine families with a p.Gly1007Arg dominant
      negative mutation, which occurred de novo in four patients, and was inherited in
      three families in association with marked phenotypic variability. In 50 of 52
      samples from 34 patients, we identified a marked upregulation of type I
      interferon-stimulated gene transcripts in peripheral blood, with a median
      interferon score of 16.99 (interquartile range [IQR]: 10.64-25.71) compared with
      controls (median: 0.93, IQR: 0.57-1.30). Thus, mutations in ADAR1 are associated
      with a variety of clinically distinct neurological phenotypes presenting from
      early infancy to adulthood, inherited either as an autosomal recessive or
      dominant trait. Testing for an interferon signature in blood represents a useful
      biomarker in this context.

PMID- 28561211
TI  - [Increasing Consumption of Crystal Meth in Saxony and its Risks for Mother and
      Child - Experiences at a Level I Perinatal Center from a Pediatric Viewpoint].
AB  - Over the past several years, the number of first-time users of methamphetamine
      considerably increased within the Free State of Saxony. This number also, and
      especially, includes women of child-bearing age and young mothers. A supportive
      intervention aimed at reducing the effects of drug abuse should begin in a timely
      way - during pregnancy at latest, but better before it. To develop an optimal
      care protocol for both the mother and her child, more knowledge regarding the
      personal conditions of the women as well as the specific features of later child
      development after prenatal methamphetamine exposure (PME) is vital. In this
      study, the data of 129 women and their newborns with PME who were admitted to a
      Level-1 perinatal center between 2007 and 2015 were analyzed. At delivery, two
      thirds of the women were aged 20-30 years. Only 48% attended their first
      preventive examination in pregnancy within the first 12 weeks. Their children
      subsequently presented with heterogeneous withdrawal symptoms, and pathological
      findings of the heart, urogenital and central nervous system. The present data
      aims to sensitize pediatric and obstetric health professionals to the need for
      timely and adequate care and support. A pathway model of detoxification treatment
      for mother and child - "The Dresden Crystal Path" - is presented. It combines
      public and voluntary youth welfare organizations, public health authorities, a
      public drugs advisory service as well as medical care facilities. Moreover, it
      describes the coordination of different medical subspecialties such as
      pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and psychiatry.

PMID- 28561212
TI  - [A new German Scale for Assessing Parental Stress after Preterm Birth
      (PSS:NICU_German/2-scales)].
AB  - : Background Preterm birth is known to be a stressful and anxious situation for
      parents, which might have long-term impact on the psychological health of mothers
      and even on the development of their preterm infants. Objective The Parental
      Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU) was developed to assess
      parental stress after preterm birth through three subscales [1]. The aim of the
      present study was to examine the psychometric properties and the dimensionality
      of the German version of the PSS:NICU to develop a reliable German version of the
      PSS:NICU. Methods For the development (exploratory factor analysis) 100 parents
      of preterm infants answered the questionnaire. Results The Sights and Sounds
      subscale was removed from the German version of the PSS:NICU due to low number of
      items. A PSS: NICU_German/2-scales was developed consisting of 2 subscales:
      Infant Behavior and Appearance (7 Items, Cronbach's alpha=0,82) and Parental Role
      Alteration (6 Items, Cronbach's alpha=0,87). Conclusions The PSS:NICU_German/2
      scales is a reliable and economic scale for the assessment of parental stress
      after preterm birth.

PMID- 28561213
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561214
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561215
TI  - ?

PMID- 28561216
TI  - [Return to Work: A Psychoeducational Module - An Intervention Study].
AB  - : OBJECTIV: e This study evaluated a psychoeducational intervention that aimed to
      facilitate return to work. METHODS: The randomized-controlled study trial was
      established at three psychiatric hospitals. The status of permanent employment in
      an age group of 18 to 60 served as main inclusion criterion. The intervention
      consisted of 5 sessions and covered topics such as disclosure of the diagnosis to
      colleagues and supervisors or legal frameworks in the return-to-work process.
      Participants of the control group received treatment as usual. RESULTS: The
      informative value of the comparisons was decreased by strong differences between
      the groups at baseline due to an allocation bias. However, participants of the
      intervention group felt more secure and prepared regarding their return to the
      workplace. In addition, participants developed a higher level of understanding
      regarding their rights within the legal frameworks when returning to work. More
      participants of the control group returned to work within 3 months. The decisive
      factor for a successful return to work was the intention of the participants to
      return at baseline. CONCLUSION: The psychoeducational program was well accepted
      among participants and appeared to be a useful addition to individual counseling
      by social workers. However,the program did not increase the likelihood to return
      to work within three months.

PMID- 28561217
TI  - ["The Crutch is in the corner ..." - Experience of Mental Ill People with Cross
      Sectoral Care in Integrated Care - A Qualitative Study].
AB  - The aim of the qualitative study was the evaluation of experiences with
      integrated care especially with the care in network "NetzWerk psychische
      Gesundheit" (NWpG) from the perspective of mental ill patients. The patients were
      recruited from the NWpG. Focus groups were conducted in five of these networks
      and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. 40 mental ill patients
      participated on the focus groups. Overall, they were very positive about their
      care in such a network. Especially, aspects like need orientation, 24/7 telephone
      hotline, involvements of relatives as well as outreach care has been experienced
      as a support for their own care. The health care in NWpG seems to be important
      for an independent existence and presents relevant components for an autonomous
      life.

PMID- 28561219
TI  - New Thieme Research Awards: Call for Pacesetting Contributions to Drug Research.

PMID- 28561218
TI  - [50th Anniversary of Psychiatric Attitude Research in Germany].
AB  - Objective Analysis of the development of psychiatric attitude research in Germany
      over the past 50 years. Methods Historical overview based on systematic reviews
      of population-based studies. Results In the beginning, public attitudes towards
      people with mental disorders and towards psychiatry were studied from a
      sociological perspective, later on research was guided by a social psychological
      or individual psychological approach. This provided important insights into
      processes underlying the stigma of mental illness (e. g., role of labeling,
      causal attributions, beliefs into a continuum between mental health and illness,
      prevalence estimates etc.). Substantial contributions have also been made as
      regards the study of time trends in public attitudes and beliefs about mental
      illness, the investigation of the impact of the media on public attitudes, and
      the evaluation of the effectiveness of anti-stigma and awareness programs.
      Conclusion Despite these undisputable advancements it is about time to compliment
      the individual by a societal perspective. This appears particularly necessary in
      view of current trends in Germany towards sociopolitical radicalization.

PMID- 28561220
TI  - Preparation and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles in the Presence of Citrate
      and Soybean Seed Extract in an Acidic Conditions.
AB  - Through the present study, an eco-friendly method was used to synthesize the gold
      nanoparticles (GNPs) by using the sodium citrate and extract of the soybean seed
      as reducing the agents at PH 3. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) method was used to
      evaluate the crystal structure of as-synthesized NPs and it's revealed that this
      method leads to well crystallized GNPs. In order to determine the particle size
      and their distribution, field emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM) and dynamic
      light scattering (DLS) were used. The results showed that, the average particle
      size distribution of synthesized GNPs in solutions containing of the soybean
      extract and 1% citrate at PH 3 is about 109.6 and 140.9 nm, respectively. Also,
      we find that the average size of GNPs is 40 and 33 nm from solutions of citrate
      and soybean extract, respectively. It was concluded that using the extract of
      soybean seeds as reducing agent can lead to GNPs with small size and narrow size
      distribution.

PMID- 28561221
TI  - Design and Synthesis of New 1,3,4-Oxadiazole - Benzothiazole and Hydrazone
      Derivatives as Promising Chemotherapeutic Agents.
AB  - Looking for new cytotoxic and antimicrobial agents with improved antitumor
      activity, a series of hydrazide and oxadiazole derivatives were designed and
      synthesized using 3-methoxyphenol as starting substance. Novel N'-(arylidene)-2
      (3-methoxyphenoxy)acetohydrazide derivatives (4a-f)/1-(4-substitutedphenyl)-2-[(5
      [(3-methoxyphenoxy)methyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)thio]ethan-1-one derivatives (6a
      f)/N-(6-substitutedbenzothiazol-2-yl)-2-[(5-[(3-methoxyphenoxy)methyl]-1,3,4
      oxadiazol-2-yl)thio]acetamide derivatives (7a-e) were obtained and evaluated for
      their in vitro antimicrobial activity against various gram-positive, gram
      negative bacteria and fungi. The antimicrobial activity potential of the
      compounds against gram-negative bacteria was found to have higher compared to the
      potential against gram-positive bacteria. Also, compounds were screened for their
      antiproliferative activity against 2 selected human tumor cell lines, A549 lung,
      MCF7 breast cancer cell line and mouse embryo fibroblast cell line, NIH/3T3 as
      healthy cell line. Among the compounds evaluated, compound 7c bearing 1,3,4
      oxadiazole ring and 6-methoxy benzothiazole moiety exhibited the highest
      inhibitory activity against A549 and MCF-7 tumor cell lines in contrary to
      NIH/3T3 cell line, as desired.

PMID- 28561222
TI  - Cromolyn Sodium Attenuates Paraquat-Induced Lung Injury by Modulation of
      Proinflammatory Cytokines.
AB  - The current study aimed to investigate the effects of Cromolyn Sodium (CS) on
      proinflammatory cytokines in Paraquat (PQ)-induced lung damage in rat. Animals
      were randomly divided into 5 groups. Group 1 and 2 received nebulized vehicle and
      CS (8 mg/kg) for 3 consecutive weeks, respectively. Group 3 was treated with
      single oral dose of PQ (40 mg/kg). Groups 4 and 5 were PQ groups which received
      nebulized CS (6 and 8 mg/kg/day, respectively) from 1 week before to 2 weeks
      after PQ administration. Finally, the animals were scarified and the changes of
      hydroxyproline (HP) and histology were evaluated in lung tissue. In addition, IL
      1beta, TNF-alpha and IL-8 levels were determined in serum samples. The results
      showed that lung HP level as well as IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and IL-8 were
      significantly lower in the CS treated rats as compared to PQ group. The best
      response, however, was observed with the 8 mg/kg of CS as confirmed by histology
      findings. This study suggests that CS may prevent progression of PQ-induced lung
      damage by decreasing of inflammatory cytokines.

PMID- 28561223
TI  - Antidiabetic Activity of Extract and Compounds from an Endophytic Fungus
      Nigrospora oryzae.
AB  - The fungal extract as well as the 3 biosynthetic compounds, (S)-(+)-2-cis-4-trans
      abscisic acid (1), , 7'-hydroxy-abscisic acid (2) and 4-des-hydroxyl altersolanol
      A (3) from the endophytic fungus, Nigrospora oryzae, isolated from Combretum
      dolichopetalum leaf were investigated for their antidiabetic potential.The
      antidiabetic activity was determined in alloxan-induced diabetic mice by
      monitoring their fasting blood sugar for 9 h.The extract and the compounds (1-3)
      significantly (p<0.001) reduced the fasting blood sugar of the diabetic mice.The
      present study has shown that the biosynthetic products of the endophytic fungus,
      N. oryzae, exhibited strong antidiabetic activity. It has further shown that
      endophytic fungi could be an alternative source of novel compounds for management
      of diabetes.

PMID- 28561224
TI  - Variant PIK3R1 Hypermorphic Mutation and Clinical Phenotypes in a Family with
      Short Statures, Mild Immunodeficiency and Lymphoma.
AB  - Background Heterozygous point mutations in the GT splice donor consensus sequence
      of exon 11 of the PIK3R1 gene (coding for p85alpha, p55alpha, and p50alpha
      regulatory subunits of PI3K) lead to exon skipping and thereby to an aberrant
      protein that leaves PI3K hyperactivated. Several patients with this particular
      variant of PI3 kinase delta syndrome (APDS) suffering from sinopulmonary
      infections and lymphoproliferation have been described. Methods (Whole exome)
      sequencing, evaluation of cellular and clinical phenotypes. Results We here
      report a family with a new heterozygous mutation in this gene, a 9 bp deletion
      (c.1418_1425+1del) that, however, leads to the same skipping of exon 11. The
      clinical phenotypes of their members partly overlap features of patients of other
      reports. Conclusions We found a new mutation in PIK3R1 and show how broad the
      resulting clinical spectrum can be.

PMID- 28561225
TI  - Feasibility, Risk Profile and Diagnostic Yield of Stereotactic Biopsy in Children
      and Young Adults with Brain Lesions.
AB  - Objective To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and diagnostic yield of
      stereotactic biopsy (SB) in children and adolescents with cerebral lesions.
      Methods We performed a systematic review of the literature and a retrospective
      analysis of all pediatric and adolescent patients who underwent SB for unclear
      brain lesions at our center. We collected patient and lesion-associated
      parameters, analysed the rate of procedural complications and diagnostic yield.
      Results Our institutional series consisted of 285 SBs in 269 children and young
      adults between 1989 and 2016 (median age, 9 (range 1-18) years). There was no
      procedure-related mortality. Permanent and transient morbidity was 0.7% and 5.8%,
      respectively. Lesions were located in brain lobes (26.3%) and in midline
      structures (73.7%). The diagnostic yield was 97.5% and histology consisted low
      grade gliomas (44.2%), high-grade gliomas (15.1%), non-glial tumors (22.8%), and
      non-neoplastic disease (15.4%). Morbidity was not associated with tumor location,
      age, histology or intraoperative position of the patient. In order to compare our
      findings with previous reports, we reviewed 25 studies with 1 109 children and
      young adults which had underwent SB. The diagnostic yield ranged between 83% and
      100%. The reported morbidity and mortality rates range from 0-27% and 0-3.3%,
      respectively. Conclusions SB in this particular patient population is a safe and
      a high-yield diagnostic procedure and indicates therefore its importance in the
      light of personalized medicine with the development of individual molecular
      treatment strategies.

PMID- 28561226
TI  - Neonatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke - A Hospital Based Active Surveillance Study in
      Germany.
AB  - Background Neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (NAIS) accounts for substantial long
      term sequelae in children. The potential effectiveness of neuroprotective
      therapies needs to be evaluated in appropriate studies with sufficient power.
      Objective To identify annual number of NAIS cases in Germany potentially eligible
      for randomized interventional trials. Methods Active surveillance for NAIS in 345
      pediatric hospitals with questionnaire based validation of reported cases.
      Results Incidence of NAIS (7.1/100000 births) was in the range of other
      population-based studies. To design future clinical trials with anticoagulative
      or regenerative therapies, it is of major importance to distinguish between cases
      with or without relevant perinatal pathology. Children without underlying disease
      or premature birth accounted for 56% of all reported NAIS cases (primary NAIS).
      In 69% of the primary cases clinical seizures were observed. Although 31% showed
      other, less pathognomonic symptoms, NAIS was diagnosed. Mean time span between
      onset of symptoms and diagnosis was 2.9 days. The sensitivity of the initial
      ultrasound performed in all cases was 69%. Conclusions NAIS is a rare but not
      negligible morbidity in newborns. Asymptomatic children account for 56% of NAIS
      in all neonates. In these, not only seizures but also other unexplained symptoms
      should trigger diagnostic work-up with cUS and cMRI. Negative initial ultrasound
      results do not exclude NAIS.

PMID- 28561227
TI  - [Quality Characteristics and Prevalence of Exercise Therapy During Childhood
      Cancer Treatment in Germany].
AB  - Background Exercise and adapted physical activity during and after treatment for
      childhood cancer have a large potential to diminish several side and late effects
      of treatment. However, the prevalence of such interventions is low. The aim of
      this investigation is to identify interventions in the clinical setting in
      Germany and to examine their quality and structural characteristics. Method 54
      hospitals were investigated for the existence of relevant interventions and if
      applicable the quality and structural characteristics of these according to DIN
      EN 15224:2012 and further characteristics of structural quality in written form
      or by telephone. Results 48 hospitals took part in the investigation and filled
      out the questionnaire (CR 89%). Of these, 9 (19%) offer exercise therapy during
      treatment and/or aftercare. The remaining 39 (81%) did not offer exercise therapy
      at the time of investigation. Exercise therapy represents a permanent component
      of adjuvant treatment in the 9 identified hospitals. The qualifications of
      exercise therapy staff seem appropriate as well as conditions concerning rooms
      and equipment. Yet, funding of exercise therapy is mainly realized through
      donations and 3rd party funds. Conclusion The majority of childhood cancer
      patients in Germany do not have access to adapted physical activity during
      treatment or aftercare. The body of evidence for exercise therapy in the
      pediatric oncology setting is growing, as well as the network between exercise
      scientists/therapists in this field. To date, an exercise manual for pediatric
      oncology in German and a comprehensive financing option of such interventions via
      health insurance is not available.

PMID- 28561229
TI  - Growth Failure Caused by Premature Epiphyseal Closure in a Child Treated with
      Isotretinoin for Neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28561228
TI  - 2017 GPOH Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Neuroblastic
      Tumors.
AB  - The clinical course of neuroblastoma is more heterogeneous than any other
      malignant disease. Most low-risk patients experience regression after limited or
      even no chemotherapy. However, more than half of high-risk patients die from
      disease despite intensive multimodal treatment. Precise patient characterization
      at diagnosis is key for risk-adapted treatment. The guidelines presented here
      incorporate results from national and international clinical trials to produce
      recommendations for diagnosing and treating neuroblastoma patients in German
      hospitals outside of clinical trials.

PMID- 28561230
TI  - Enhancement of Quercetin Oral Bioavailability by Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug
      Delivery System and their Quantification Through Ultra High Performance Liquid
      Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry in Cerebral Ischemia.
AB  - Background Quercetin (Qur) and its major in vivo bioactive metabolites i. e., 3'
      O-methyl quercetin, 4'-O-methyl quercetin and quercetin 7-O-beta-D-glucuronide,
      may be used to treat cerebral ischemia however the poor aqueous solubility and
      less intestinal absorption of Qur results low bioavailability. Purpose To improve
      Qur bioavailability through preparation of nanoformulation and to develop and
      validate a sensitive quantification method for Qur detection in brain homogenate.
      Methods Qur-containing self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (Qur-SNEDDS) was
      developed to form oil-in-water nanoemulsions in situ. Ultra-high performance
      liquid chromatography electrospray ionization-synapt mass spectrometric method
      (UHPLC/ESI-QTOF-MS/MS) was developed and validated for quantification whereas for
      optimal recovery of analyte, a liquid-liquid extraction method (LLE) was used.
      Results A droplet size of 94.63+/-3.17 nm and zeta potential of -17.91+/-1.02 mV
      for nanoemuslion, elution time for Qur and internal standard (IS) Rutin as 1.21
      and 1.50 min alongwith a transition at m/z 301.04/151.03 and 609.21/299.21, were
      observed respectively. Similarly, linear dynamic range (1.00 ng/mL-2 000.0
      ng/mL), intra and inter-assay i. e., %CV of 0.26-2.04, lower limit of detection
      (LOD) 0.08 ng/mL as well as lower limit of quantitation (LOQ) as 0.131 ng/mL were
      also observed. Conclusion The developed method have advantage over previous all
      methods i. e., less time consuming (<3.0), low consumption of solvents (flow rate
      0.20 mL/min.) via small size column, more accuracy and specificity as well as use
      of acetonitrile as compared to hazardous solvents. This certainly adds advantages
      for green chromatography technique and supports application of current developed
      method for quantification and evaluation of Qur-SNEDDS.

PMID- 28561231
TI  - Large Intra-subject Variability in Caffeine Pharmacokinetics: Randomized Cross
      over Study of Single Caffeine Product.
AB  - Background Average bioequivalence has been criticized for not adequately
      addressing individual variations. Importance of subjects' blinding in
      bioequivalence studies has not been well studied. We explored the extent of intra
      subject pharmacokinetic variability and effect of drug-ingestion unawareness in
      subjects taking single caffeine product. Methods A single-dose randomized cross
      over design was used to compare pharmacokinetics of 200 mg caffeine, described as
      caffeine (overt) or as placebo (covert). Maximum concentration (Cmax), Cmax first
      time (Tmax), area-under-the-concentration-time-curve, to last measured
      concentration (AUCT), extrapolated to infinity (AUCI), or to Tmax of overt
      caffeine (AUCOverttmax), and Cmax/AUCI were calculated blindly using standard non
      compartmental method. Percentages of individual covert/overt ratios that are
      outside the +/-25% range were determined. Covert-vs-overt effect on caffeine
      pharmacokinetics was evaluated by 90% confidence interval (CI) and 80.00-125.00%
      bioequivalence range. Results 32 healthy subjects (6% females, mean (SD) age 33.3
      (7.2) year) participated in the study (28 analysed). Out of the 28 individual
      covert/overt ratios, 23% were outside the +/-25% range for AUCT, 30% for AUCI,
      20% for AUCOverttmax, 30% for Cmax, and 43% for Tmax. There was no significant
      covert-vs-overt difference in any of the pharmacokinetic parameters studied.
      Further, the 90% CIs for AUCT, AUCI, Cmax, AUCOverttmax, and Cmax/AUCI were all
      within the 80.00-125.00% bioequivalence range with mean absolute deviation of
      covert/overt ratios of 3.31%, 6.29%, 1.43%, 1.87%, and 5.19%, respectively.
      Conclusions Large intra-subject variability in main caffeine pharmacokinetic
      parameters was noted when comparing an oral caffeine product to itself. Subjects'
      blinding may not be important in average bioequivalence studies.

PMID- 28561232
TI  - Effect of Different Sampling Schedules on Results of Bioavailability and
      Bioequivalence Studies: Evaluation by Means of Monte Carlo Simulations.
AB  - Bioavailability and bioequivalence study is one of the most frequently performed
      investigations in clinical trials. Bioequivalence testing is based on the
      assumption that 2 drug products will be therapeutically equivalent when they are
      equivalent in the rate and extent to which the active drug ingredient or
      therapeutic moiety is absorbed and becomes available at the site of drug action.
      In recent years there has been a significant growth in published papers that use
      in silico studies based on mathematical simulations to analyze pharmacokinetic
      and pharmacodynamic properties of drugs, including bioavailability and
      bioequivalence aspects. The goal of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of
      in silico studies as a tool in the planning of bioequivalence, bioavailability
      and other pharmacokinetic assays, e.g., to determine an appropriate sampling
      schedule. Monte Carlo simulations were used to define adequate blood sampling
      schedules for a bioequivalence assay comparing 2 different formulations of
      cefadroxil oral suspensions. In silico bioequivalence studies comparing different
      formulation of cefadroxil oral suspensions using various sampling schedules were
      performed using models. An in vivo study was conducted to confirm in silico
      results. The results of in silico and in vivo bioequivalence studies demonstrated
      that schedules with fewer sampling times are as efficient as schedules with
      larger numbers of sampling times in the assessment of bioequivalence, but only if
      Tmax is included as a sampling time. It was also concluded that in silico studies
      are useful tools in the planning of bioequivalence, bioavailability and other
      pharmacokinetic in vivo assays.

PMID- 28561233
TI  - 2017 Eberhard F. Mammen Award Announcements: Part I-Most Popular Articles.

PMID- 28561234
TI  - Point-of-Care Testing in Acute Hemorrhagic and Thrombotic States.

PMID- 28561235
TI  - How Long Does It Take for Clopidogrel and Ticagrelor to Inhibit Platelets in
      Patients Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention? A Detailed
      Pharmacodynamic Analysis: Time Course of Platelet Reactivity in STEMI (TOPS).
AB  - Antiplatelet therapy plays a pivotal role in patients with an ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) to prevent further atherothrombotic
      events, such as stent thrombosis. Although the risk of stent thrombosis is
      highest in the first hours after primary percutaneous coronary intervention
      (pPCI), little is known about when an adequate level of platelet inhibition is
      achieved following a clopidogrel or ticagrelor loading dose in STEMI patients.
      Patients presenting with STEMI in whom pPCI was performed and who were loaded
      with 600 mg clopidogrel or 180 mg ticagrelor were eligible for enrolment in this
      nonrandomized, open label, single-center study. Platelet reactivity was measured
      before PCI, 6 and 24 hours after loading dose and after 2, 7, and 14 days, using
      the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay as well as 20 umol/L adenosine diphosphate stimulated
      light transmittance aggregometry (LTA). We analyzed the time until a VerifyNow
      result of < 236 P2Y12 reaction units or LTA maximum platelet aggregation of <
      64.5% was reached. A total of 28 patients were participated in this study.
      Platelet reactivity dropped below the high platelet reactivity cutoff level after
      11.4 (VerifyNow) and 5.7 (LTA) hours in patients who were loaded with
      clopidogrel, and after 2.4 (VerifyNow) and 3.9 (LTA) hours in patients who were
      loaded with ticagrelor. Despite the administration of a clopidogrel or ticagrelor
      loading dose, it still takes multiple hours (2-11) to reach adequate platelet
      inhibition in STEMI patients. This might indicate the need for additional
      antiplatelet therapy in the first hours after loading in patients undergoing pPCI
      with stenting.

PMID- 28561236
TI  - [Quo vadis DGPRAC: associated members' goals for the future].
AB  - Plastic surgery is extremely diverse and offers various fields of work. To
      provide optimal support for plastic surgeons in training, it is therefore
      paramount to know their mid- and long-term goals. To that end, we conducted a web
      based survey among the 462 associated members of the German Association of
      Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (DGPRAC). Besides asking questions
      about the current status, we specifically inquired about the pursued setting and
      main area of work. 84 completed questionnaires were evaluated. Most respondents
      saw their future in a private practice setting. Reconstructive surgery and
      aesthetic surgery were by far the most sought-after fields, while only a few of
      the associated members pursued a career in hand surgery, and none of them wished
      to work in burn care. At the same time, they felt that aesthetic surgery was the
      field where training was most insufficient. Therefore, measures need to be taken
      to improve the training in aesthetic surgery. Also, it is paramount to increase
      the attractiveness of both the fields of hand surgery and burn care to assure
      highly qualified care in the future.

PMID- 28561237
TI  - QSAR Study of Artemisinin Analogues as Antimalarial Drugs by Neural Network and
      Replacement Method.
AB  - Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were derived for 179
      analogues of artemisinin, a potent antimalarial agent. Molecular descriptors
      derived solely from molecular structure were used to represent molecular
      structure. Utilizing replacement method, a subset of 11 descriptors was selected.
      General regression neural network (GRNN) was used to construct the nonlinear QSAR
      models in all stages of study. The relative standard error percent in
      antimalarial activity predictions for the training set by the application of
      cross-validation (RMSE-CV) was 0.43, and for test set (RMSEtest) was 0.51. GRNN
      analysis yielded predicted activities in the excellent agreement with the
      experimentally obtained values (R2training = 0.967 and R2test = 0.918). The mean
      absolute error for the test set was computed as 0.4115.

PMID- 28561238
TI  - Sensitive LC-MS/MS Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Bendamustine and
      its Active Metabolite, gamma-Hydroxybendamustine in Small Volume Mice and Dog
      Plasma and its Application to a Pharmacokinetic Study in Mice and Dogs.
AB  - A highly sensitive, specific and rapid LC-ESI-MS/MS method has been developed and
      validated for the simultaneous quantification of bendamustine (BM) and gamma
      hydroxybendamustine (HBM) in small volume (20 uL) mice and dog plasma using
      phenacetin as an internal standard (IS) as per regulatory guidelines. Both the
      analytes and IS were extracted from mice and dog plasma using a liquid-liquid
      extraction method. Chromatography was achieved on Atlantis dC18 column using an
      isocratic mobile phase (0.2% formic acid:acetonitrile, 25:75) at a flow rate of
      0.40 mL/min. The total chromatographic run time was 3.0 min and the elution of
      BM, HBM and IS occurred at ~1.2, 1.2 and 2.0 min, respectively. A linear response
      function was established 0.11-518 ng/mL for both the analytes in mice and dog
      plasma. The intra- and inter-day accuracy and precisions were in the range of
      3.46-12.9 and 3.63-8.23%; 1.15-9.00 and 7.86-9.49% for BM and HBM, respectively
      in mice plasma and 2.15-6.49 and 1.73-13.1%; 4.35-13.9 and 4.33-10.5% for BM and
      HBM, respectively in dog plasma. This novel method has been applied to a
      pharmacokinetic study in mice and dogs.

PMID- 28561239
TI  - Determination of Fenofibric Acid in Rat Plasma and its Application to a
      Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study of JW322 and Fenofibrate.
AB  - In this study, a sensitive and reliable method for the quantitation of fenofibric
      acid in rat plasma was developed and validated using high performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC). The plasma samples were prepared by deproteinization, and
      sildenafil was used as an internal standard. Chromatographic separation was
      achieved using a reversed-phase (C18) column. The mobile phase, 0.02 M ammonium
      acetate buffer:acetonitrile (35:65, v/v), was run at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min,
      and the column eluent was monitored using an ultraviolet detector at 280 nm at
      room temperature. The retention times of sildenafil (an internal standard), and
      fenofibric acid were approximately 5.9 and 7.7 min, respectively. The
      quantitation limit of fenofibric acid in rat plasma was 0.03 MUg/mL.
      Pharmacokinetic parameters of fenofibric acid was evaluated after oral (at doses
      of 20 mg/kg) administration of JW322 and fenofibrate in rats. After oral
      administration (20 mg/kg) of JW322, relative bioavailability was approximately
      272.8% compared to fenofibrate.

PMID- 28561240
TI  - Preparation and Characterization of Copolymeric Polymersomes for Protein
      Delivery.
AB  - Biodegradable copolymeric polymersomes have been used for controlled drug
      delivery of proteins. These polymersomes important areas to overcome formulation
      associated problems of the proteins. The aim of this study was to develop
      polymersomes using biodegradable copolymers for delivery of bovine serum albumin
      (BSA) as a model protein. Encapsulated BSA by mPEG-PCL polymersomes led to
      formation of BSA-loaded mPEG-PCL polymersomes. The polymersomes synthesized with
      the protein-polymer ratio of 1:4 at 15 000 rpm gave maximum loading, minimum
      polydispersion with maximally sustained protein release pattern, among the
      prepared polymersomes. Investigation on FTIR and DSC results revealed that such a
      high encapsulation efficiency is due to strong interaction between BSA and the
      copolymer.The particles size and their morphology of polymersomes were determined
      by DLS and AFM.The encapsulation efficiency of BSA was 91.02%. The results of AFM
      showed that the polymersomes had spherical shapes with size of 49 nm.The sizes of
      BSA-loaded polymersomes ranged from 66.06 nm to 84.97 nm. The results showed that
      polymersomes exhibited a triphasic release, for BSA. Overall, the results
      indicated that mPEG-PCL polymersomes can be considered as a promising carrier for
      proteins.

PMID- 28561241
TI  - In vitro Controlled Release from Solid Pharmaceutical Formulations of two new
      Adamantane Aminoethers with Antitubercular Activity (I).
AB  - The aim of the present investigation was to develop matrix tablet formulations
      for the in vitro controlled release of 2 new tuberculocidal adamantane
      aminoethers (compounds I and II), congeneric to the adamantane derivative SQ109,
      which is in final clinical trials, using carefully selected excipients, such as
      polyvinylpyrrolidone, sodium alginate and lactose. The tablets were prepared
      using the direct compression method and dissolution experiments were conducted
      using the US Pharmacopoeia type II apparatus (paddle method) in gastric and
      intestinal fluids. The results confirm that both analogues, albeit more
      lipophilic than SQ109, showed satisfactory in vitro release characteristics from
      solid pharmaceutical formulations. In conclusion, these formulations merit
      further assessment by conducting in the future bioavailability in vivo studies.

PMID- 28561242
TI  - The Importance of Facts and the Role of Academic Publishers in Today's World-A
      Publisher's View.

PMID- 28561243
TI  - Pulmonary Disease and Critical Illness in Pregnancy.

PMID- 28561244
TI  - General Management Principles of the Pregnant Woman.
AB  - Pregnancy is a dynamic process that consists of profound physiological changes
      mediated by hormonal, mechanical, and circulatory pathways. Understanding of
      changes in physiology is essential for distinguishing abnormal and normal signs
      and symptoms in a pregnant patient. These physiological changes also have
      important pharmacotherapeutic considerations for a pregnant patient. Although
      there are limited data to guide decisions regarding medications and diagnostic
      procedures in pregnancy, a careful review of risks should be balanced with review
      of risk of withholding a medication or procedure. Interventional pulmonary
      procedures can be safely performed in pregnant women while keeping in mind the
      maternal anatomic and physiologic changes. Furthermore, management of a maternal
      cardiopulmonary arrest requires important modifications in patient positioning
      and intravenous access to ensure adequate efficacy of chest compressions,
      circulation, and airway management. This review will provide an overview of
      maternal physiologic changes with a focus on cardiopulmonary physiology,
      pharmacotherapeutic considerations, diagnostic and interventional pulmonary
      procedures during pregnancy, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation in pregnancy.

PMID- 28561246
TI  - Pulmonary Hypertension in Pregnancy.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a pulmonary vasculopathy associated with
      abnormal cardiopulmonary hemodynamics and a limited life expectancy due to right
      heart failure. Young women are preferentially affected. Women with PAH are at
      increased risk of complications and death during pregnancy for both the mother
      and the fetus. While it is not well characterized how changes in sex steroids and
      other hormones during pregnancy affect pulmonary hypertension, many expected
      systemic and heart-lung physiologic adaptations during gestation are poorly
      tolerated in women with PAH. Despite the approval of numerous therapies for PAH
      in recent years, pregnancy avoidance or early termination is still recommended in
      women with PAH because of poor outcomes. In this review, we will discuss
      physiologic and hormonal changes in pregnancy as they relate to pulmonary
      vascular disease and right heart function. We will review current consensus
      recommendations and outline the management of pregnancy in PAH when it does
      occur.

PMID- 28561245
TI  - Pulmonary Complications of Pregnancy: Venous Thromboembolism.
AB  - Unique considerations are needed when diagnosing and treating venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) in women who are pregnant or postpartum. What are the risks
      to the fetus, such as drug exposure or the risk of radiation with diagnostic
      imaging? How does the physiology of pregnancy affect imaging techniques and
      anticoagulation management? How should anticoagulation be managed around labor
      and delivery? These questions highlight some of the important considerations
      needed when managing a pregnant patient with suspected or confirmed VTE. This
      review outlines what is known about the epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical
      risk factors, diagnosis, and therapeutic management of VTE in pregnancy. We also
      review our preferred diagnostic and treatment algorithm for a pregnant patient
      with suspected or confirmed VTE.

PMID- 28561247
TI  - Asthma during Pregnancy: Exacerbations, Management, and Health Outcomes for
      Mother and Infant.
AB  - One in 10 pregnant women worldwide has asthma and of these, 10% will have a
      severe exacerbation requiring oral corticosteroids (OCSs) in pregnancy. This
      review of recent publications in the field will describe the effects of
      exacerbation on maternal and neonatal health, the use of asthma medications
      during pregnancy, and will suggest novel management approaches for asthma in
      pregnancy. Pregnancy results in unpredictable changes in the disease; therefore,
      regular monitoring of symptoms is recommended. Uncontrolled asthma is frequently
      described in cohorts of pregnant women with asthma, and some recent studies show
      associations with adverse perinatal outcomes, as previously demonstrated with
      exacerbations. Guidelines for the management of asthma recommend the continued
      use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in pregnancy, with budesonide having a
      particularly good safety profile. Recent data suggest small effects of asthma
      and/or asthma medication use on congenital malformations; however, there is less
      data available on the safety of ICS/long-acting beta agonist combinations, which
      are increasingly used for maintenance treatment. Novel management strategies are
      needed to address the complex needs of pregnant women with asthma. These include
      medication nonadherence and the presence of numerous comorbidities which can
      affect asthma, such as rhinitis, cigarette smoking, obesity, and mental health
      issues. Inflammation-based management has been shown to be effective in reducing
      exacerbations in pregnancy and may also improve perinatal outcomes. The
      involvement of a multidisciplinary team and the assessment of comorbidities have
      potential to improve the health of mothers and their offspring.

PMID- 28561248
TI  - Pulmonary Infections in Pregnancy.
AB  - Pregnant women experience physiological and immunological changes that increase
      the risk or severity of certain pulmonary infections. These changes also affect
      drug disposition, which impacts treatment choices. In this article, we review the
      available data on (1) the physiological and immunological changes that
      specifically impact tuberculosis, influenza, and varicella pneumonia; (2) active
      and latent tuberculosis management, including drug monitoring and maternal-infant
      outcomes; (3) the treatment and prevention of influenza; and (4) the diagnosis
      and management of varicella pneumonia. Clinical trials often exclude pregnant
      women, but there is a consensus that treating pregnant women for tuberculosis,
      influenza, and varicella pneumonia improves outcomes for both the woman and her
      child.

PMID- 28561249
TI  - Interstitial Lung Disease in Women of Child-Bearing Age.
AB  - Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is an inflammatory and fibrotic infiltrative
      process of the lung that is often associated with collagen vascular disease in
      women. Untreated, it results in collagen deposition in the lung interstitium that
      can lead to a slow suffocating death. Pregnancy planning is often not discussed
      with women who have ILD due to concerns about potentially aggravating the disease
      process, or due to lack of knowledge about the safety of medications used to
      treat ILD. With improved understanding of the pathophysiology of both autoimmune
      disease and ILD, it has become clear that safe, planned pregnancies are possible
      in most women with ILD. In this article, our aim is to review diagnosis,
      treatment, and disease course of ILD in women who are planning a pregnancy or are
      pregnant. Better understanding of the disease process and knowledge of safe
      treatments will likely lead to improved pregnancy planning in women with ILD.

PMID- 28561250
TI  - Predictors of Maternal Mortality and Prognostic Models in Obstetric Patients.
AB  - The use of predictive models has been proposed as a potential tool to reduce
      maternal morbidity and mortality, by aiding in the timely identification of
      potential high-risk patients. Prognostic models in critical care have been used
      to characterize the severity of illness of specific diseases. Physiological
      changes in pregnancy may result in general critical illness prediction models
      overestimating mortality in obstetric patients. Models that specifically reflect
      the unique characteristics of obstetric patients may have better prognostic
      value. Recently developed tools have focused on identifying at-risk patients
      before they require intensive care unit (ICU) admission to target early
      interventions and prevent acute clinical decompensation. The aim of the newest
      scoring systems, specifically designed for groups of obstetric patients receiving
      non-ICU care, is to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality by identifying early
      high-risk patients and initiating prompt effective medical responses.

PMID- 28561251
TI  - Management of Acute Respiratory Failure in Pregnancy.
AB  - Respiratory failure affects up to 1 in 500 pregnancies, more commonly in the
      postpartum period. The causes of respiratory failure include several pregnancy
      specific conditions such as preeclampsia, amniotic fluid embolism, and peripartum
      cardiomyopathy. Pregnancy may also increase the risk or severity of other
      conditions, such as asthma, thromboembolism, viral pneumonitis, and gastric acid
      aspiration. Changes to maternal respiratory physiology and the presence of a
      fetus may affect the assessment and management of these patients. In addition to
      identifying pregnancy-specific causes, some differences exist in the management
      of the pregnant woman with acute respiratory failure. Endotracheal intubation in
      pregnancy carries a significant risk, due to upper airway edema and rapid oxygen
      desaturation following apnea. Few studies have addressed prolonged mechanical
      ventilation management in pregnancy. Optimizing oxygenation is important, but
      whether permissive hypercapnia is tolerated during pregnancy remains unclear.
      Delivery of the fetus is often considered but does not always improve maternal
      respiratory function and should be reserved only for cases where benefit to the
      fetus is anticipated.

PMID- 28561252
TI  - General Care of the Pregnant Patient in the Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - Pregnant women represent a small subset of all intensive care unit (ICU)
      admissions and may require intensive care for "obstetric" or "nonobstetric"
      reasons. Women may be admitted to the ICU at any stage of pregnancy or in the
      postpartum period. Pregnancy may be discovered at the time of admission to the
      ICU. Pregnancy impacts on ICU care in a variety of ways and requires a
      multidisciplinary approach to management. Pregnancy is associated with
      considerable physiological changes that affect most organ systems, including an
      expansion in blood volume, an increase in minute ventilation, and an increased
      risk of thrombosis. The enlarging uterus may be associated with mechanical
      complications due to compression and displacement of other structures. The
      growing fetus places considerable demands upon the mother, being reliant on
      maternal systems for oxygenation, nutrition and disposal of carbon dioxide, and
      other waste products. This "second patient" must be considered when managing the
      pregnant woman. Optimal management of the mother usually constitutes best
      treatment for the fetus. Maternal shock and physiological disturbance,
      medications, and ionizing radiation from diagnostic imaging may have harmful
      effects on the unborn child. Delivery of the fetus for either maternal or fetal
      indications may be necessary and should be planned for, even if considered
      unlikely to be required. Care of the postpartum woman has its own challenges,
      including managing lactation and facilitating mother/infant contact. In this
      article, the general care aspects of ICU treatment of the pregnant woman will be
      discussed, including monitoring, physiological target setting, and general
      supportive care.

PMID- 28561253
TI  - Obstetric Disorders in the ICU.
AB  - Pregnant and postpartum patients represent a challenge to critical care
      physicians, as two patients in one have to be cared for and because specific
      obstetric disorders, not universally covered in formal critical care training,
      need to be managed. Pregnancy also alters physiologic norms, so that the critical
      care physician may either fail to recognize a value as abnormal in pregnancy or
      mistakenly identify as abnormal a value within the normal range for a pregnant
      woman. In this article, we will review the most frequent obstetric causes of
      admission of pregnant/postpartum patients to the intensive care unit
      (hypertensive disease of pregnancy, obstetric hemorrhage, and obstetric sepsis)
      along with their diagnostic criteria, clinical presentation, and recommended
      treatment. We will also cover some specific, although less frequent, obstetric
      disorders, such as acute fatty liver of pregnancy, peripartum cardiomyopathy, and
      amniotic fluid embolism. Our primary aim is to improve quality of care for these
      types of patients.

PMID- 28561254
TI  - [Importance of Job Demands for Rehabilitation Patients - Application of an Index
      According to Occupations].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the importance of job demands for rehabilitation
      patients. METHODS: A secondary data analysis of 2,089 rehabilitation patients of
      the Federal German Pension Insurance was conducted. The job exposure index of
      Kroll was used based on occupations. RESULTS: The prevalence of high job demands
      was 11.2%. The index correlated significantly with reha-relevant impairments.
      Furthermore, there was a significant association between high job demands and an
      unfavorable return-to-work prognosis at discharge from rehabilitation, also
      independently of the presence of self-reported severe restrictions of work
      ability. CONCLUSION: The job exposure index reflects occupation-specific job
      demands of rehabilitation patients. The construction of the index based on the
      relevant occupation classifications enables its broad application in analyses
      using routinely collected health data.

PMID- 28561255
TI  - [Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty - Utilization of Postoperative Rehabilitation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: After total hip and knee arthroplasty, patients have different
      options of subsequent treatment: an early postoperative rehabilitation, with or
      without a period at home, or only outpatient services. The aim of this study was
      to identify factors predicting the utilization of an early postoperative
      rehabilitation. METHODS: This cross-sectoral analysis is based on claims data of
      AOK Baden-Wurttemberg (Statutory Health Insurance), Deutsche Rentenversicherung
      Bund and Deutsche Rentenversicherung Baden-Wurttemberg (German Pension
      Insurance). Predictors for participation in an early postoperative rehabilitation
      and for an interim period were determined using logistic regression analysis.
      RESULTS: 82.6% of 9 232 patients were going to an early postoperative
      rehabilitation after total hip arthroplasty. After total knee arthroplasty, 83.9%
      of 7 656 patients were utilizing postoperative rehabilitation. Moreover, there
      was less utilization of postoperative rehabilitation in young, male and foreign
      patients. The analysis shows that the utilization of post-acute rehabilitation
      was significantly predicted by sociodemographic variables (age, sex, nationality)
      as well as comorbidity, outpatient treatment and medication. CONCLUSION: The
      results provide an indication of higher severity of patients in group
      "postoperative rehabilitation without a period at home". Nevertheless there are
      some indications for under-utilization of certain patient groups.

PMID- 28561256
TI  - Lack of K140 immunoreactivity in junctional epidermolysis bullosa skin and
      keratinocytes associates with misfolded laminin epidermal growth factor-like
      motif 2 of the beta3 short arm.
AB  - Recessive mutations in the LAMA3, LAMB3 and LAMC2 genes that encode laminin-332
      (LM332) (alpha3a, beta3 and gamma2 chains, respectively) cause different
      junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB) subtypes. Biallelic truncating mutations
      in any of these three genes usually lead to lack of protein expression resulting
      in the severe generalized JEB subtype, while missense or splice-site mutations in
      at least one allele lead to reduced expression typical of JEB generalized
      intermediate (JEB-gen intermed) or localized. Here, we molecularly characterized
      an adult patient with JEB showing negative skin staining for the anti-beta3 chain
      monoclonal antibody K140. This antibody recognizes an as yet unidentified epitope
      within the laminin beta3 short arm. The patient harbours a homozygous splice-site
      mutation resulting in highly aberrant transcripts with partial skipping of the
      LAMB3 exon that encodes the laminin epidermal growth factor-like motif 2 of the
      beta3 short arm (beta3-LE2). At the protein level, mutation consequences predict
      a misfolded beta3-LE2 motif and, indeed, we found that LM332 is correctly
      assembled but retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where it colocalizes
      with the lumenal ER chaperone protein BiP, leading to dramatically reduced
      secretion. Lack of K140 reactivity to mutant LM332 was confirmed by
      immunoprecipitation and Western blot analyses. Our findings not only identify the
      beta3-LE2 subdomain as the region recognized by K140, but also show that
      misfolding of LM332 structural motifs and subsequent protein retention in the ER
      is a common pathomechanism in JEB-gen intermed. In addition to its usefulness in
      antigen mapping diagnosis of JEB subtypes, this knowledge is relevant to the
      design of therapeutic strategies aimed at releasing ER-retained LM332 in JEB.

PMID- 28561257
TI  - Recommendations for Use of Affirmative Psychotherapy With LGBT Older Adults.
AB  - Affirmative therapy is a type of psychotherapy used to validate and advocate for
      the needs of sexual and gender minority clients. Therapists use verbal and
      nonverbal means to demonstrate an affirming stance toward lesbian, gay, bisexual,
      and transgender (LGBT) clients. Although this therapeutic approach can be used
      with LGBT individuals across the lifespan, the case presented in this paper
      highlights the benefit of using this approach with older LGBT individuals.
      Discussion of the unique challenges faced by older LGBT people will be followed
      with an illustrative case that shows ways that affirmative therapy can help
      individuals achieve greater self-actualization. The case formulation and
      conclusion will highlight specific ways that therapists can convey an affirmative
      stance and help clients feel welcome and accepted in the therapeutic setting.
      Recommendations for environmental cues, intake questions, and treatment skills
      will be offered at the conclusion.

PMID- 28561258
TI  - Adjunct steroids in the treatment of peritonsillar abscess: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study systematically reviews the existing literature on the
      efficacy of adjuvant corticosteroids in improving clinical outcomes after
      peritonsillar abscess (PTA) drainage. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS:
      We performed a literature search of MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index
      to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and
      ClinicalTrials.gov from inception to June 2016. Inclusion criteria included
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating adjuvant corticosteroids after PTA
      drainage. Data were systematically collected on study design, patient
      demographics, and clinical characteristics. Two independent investigators
      reviewed all manuscripts and summarized the data. RESULTS: Three RCTs comprising
      153 patients were included. The results were not pooled due to heterogeneity in
      the method in which outcomes were measured and reported. The trials also varied
      on the type of steroid (dexamethasone, methylprednisolone) administered and
      method of drainage (incision, aspiration). All three RCTs reported statistically
      significant improvement in body temperature from adjuvant steroid administration
      compared to placebo. Pain scores, mouth opening, time to painless oral intake,
      and duration of hospitalization were significantly improved in only one or two of
      the three RCTs between the steroid and control group. No adverse side effects
      from steroid administration were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Steroids as an adjunct
      therapy to the treatment of PTA may result in faster recovery. However, further
      investigation with larger RCTs and standardized outcomes are warranted. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 1a. Laryngoscope, 128:72-77, 2018.

PMID- 28561259
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of high-sensitivity faecal immunochemical test and colonoscopy
      screening for colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer screening can decrease morbidity and mortality.
      However, there are widespread differences in the implementation of programmes and
      choice of strategy. The primary objective of this study was to estimate lifelong
      costs and health outcomes of two of the currently most preferred methods of
      screening for colorectal cancer: colonoscopy and sensitive faecal immunochemical
      test (FIT). METHODS: A cost-effectiveness analysis of colorectal cancer screening
      in a Swedish population was performed using a decision analysis model, based on
      the design of the Screening of Swedish Colons (SCREESCO) study, and data from the
      published literature and registries. Lifelong cost and effects of colonoscopy
      once, colonoscopy every 10 years, FIT twice, FIT biennially and no screening were
      estimated using simulations. RESULTS: For 1000 individuals invited to screening,
      it was estimated that screening once with colonoscopy yielded 49 more quality
      adjusted life-years (QALYs) and a cost saving of ?64 800 compared with no
      screening. Similarly, screening twice with FIT gave 26 more QALYs and a cost
      saving of ?17 600. When the colonoscopic screening was repeated every tenth year,
      7 additional QALYs were gained at a cost of ?189 400 compared with a single
      colonoscopy. The additional gain with biennial FIT screening was 25 QALYs at a
      cost of ?154 300 compared with two FITs. CONCLUSION: All screening strategies
      were cost-effective compared with no screening. Repeated and single screening
      strategies with colonoscopy were more cost-effective than FIT when lifelong
      effects and costs were considered. However, other factors such as patient
      acceptability of the test and availability of human resources also have to be
      taken into account.

PMID- 28561260
TI  - Analysis of gluconate metabolism for pyruvate production in engineered
      Escherichia coli based on genome-wide transcriptomes.
AB  - : For pyruvate-producing strains, intracellular reduced nicotinamide adenine
      dinucleotide (NADH) accumulation is the main reason for the glycolysis
      inhibition. Comparing with glucose, using sodium gluconate as carbon source
      brought a decrease in NADH production and an increase in pyruvate production in
      engineered strain YP211. In order to explore the metabolic advantages of
      gluconate, genome-wide transcriptome analysis was employed to compare the
      metabolic differences between the two carbon sources. The results showed that the
      transcription of the genes gntU, gntK, and gntT responsible for transport and
      phosphorylation of gluconate, and genes edd and eda belonging to the Entner
      Doudoroff (ED) pathway, was significantly enhanced. This suggested that the
      shortest route for the synthesis of pyruvate from gluconate was activated, and
      the synthesis of NADH was halved. Besides, the transcription of genes glpABCDTKF
      related to the glycerol metabolism was significantly enhanced, which might be
      because glycerol metabolism pathways were activated in the absence of glucose.
      These results provided valuable information for the further design of metabolic
      pathways in the construction of pyruvate-producing strains. SIGNIFICANCE AND
      IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Comparing with glucose, using sodium gluconate as carbon
      source brought a decrease in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and an increase in
      pyruvate production in engineered strain YP211. From the genome-wide
      transcriptome analysis, the Entner-Doudoroff pathway was activated strongly in
      gluconate metabolism, which innovatively provided a shorter and more effective
      pathway for pyruvate production.

PMID- 28561261
TI  - Analysis of chloroplast genomes and a supermatrix inform reclassification of the
      Rhodomelaceae (Rhodophyta).
AB  - With over a thousand species, the Rhodomelaceae is the most species-rich family
      of red algae. While its genera have been assigned to 14 tribes, the high-level
      classification of the family has never been evaluated with a molecular phylogeny.
      Here, we reassess its classification by integrating genome-scale phylogenetic
      analysis with observations of the morphological characters of clades. In order to
      resolve relationships among the main lineages of the family we constructed a
      phylogeny with 55 chloroplast genomes (52 newly determined). The majority of
      branches were resolved with full bootstrap support. We then added 266 rbcL, 125
      18S rRNA gene and 143 cox1 sequences to construct a comprehensive phylogeny
      containing nearly half of all known species in the family (407 species in 89
      genera). These analyses suggest the same subdivision into higher-level lineages,
      but included many branches with moderate or poor support. The circumscription for
      nine of the 13 previously described tribes was supported, but the Lophothalieae,
      Polysiphonieae, Pterosiphonieae and Herposiphonieae required revision, and five
      new tribes and one resurrected tribe were segregated from them. Rhizoid anatomy
      is highlighted as a key diagnostic character for the morphological delineation of
      several lineages. This work provides the most extensive phylogenetic analysis of
      the Rhodomelaceae to date and successfully resolves the relationships among major
      clades of the family. Our data show that organellar genomes obtained through high
      throughput sequencing produce well-resolved phylogenies of difficult groups, and
      their more general application in algal systematics will likely permit
      deciphering questions about classification at many taxonomic levels.

PMID- 28561262
TI  - Quantification of regional variations in glenoid trabecular bone architecture and
      mineralization using clinical computed tomography images.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to demonstrate feasibility of a clinical CT imaging
      and analysis technique to quantify regional variations in trabecular bone
      architecture and mineralization of glenoid bones. Specifically, our objective was
      to determine to what extent clinical CT imaging of intact upper extremities can
      describe variations of trabecular bone architectures at anatomic and peri-implant
      regions by comparing trabecular bone architectures as measured by high
      resolution, micro CT imaging of same excised glenoid bones. Bone volume fraction
      (BVF), trabecular bone thickness (TbTh), number of trabecular bone (TbN), spacing
      (TbS), pattern factor (TbPf), bone surface area (BSA), and skeletal connectivity
      (Conn.), in addition to bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density
      (BMD), were quantified from both clinical and micro CT images using whole bone,
      anatomic, and peri-implant bone masks. Strong correlations of BVF, TbTh, TbSp,
      BMC, and BMD were found between clinical CT and micro CT imaging methods. The
      variations in BVF, TbTh, TbSp, TbN, BMC, and BMD at anatomical and peri-implant
      regions were larger than those at whole bone regions. In this study, we have
      demonstrated that this clinical CT imaging methodology can be used to quantify
      variations of a patient's glenoid bone at anatomic and peri-implant levels.
      Statement of Clinical Significance. An in vivo quantitative assessment of glenoid
      trabecular bone architecture in the anatomic and peri-implant regions may improve
      our understanding on the role of bone quality on glenoid component loosening
      following total shoulder arthroplasty. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society.
      Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:85-96, 2018.

PMID- 28561263
TI  - Providing teachers with education on epilepsy increased their willingness to
      handle acute seizures in children from one to 10 years of age.
AB  - AIM: In Germany, preschool teachers supervise children up to six years of age and
      are also responsible for supervising older pupils after school. This study
      explored the impact of a teaching session on epilepsy for teachers in charge of
      children from 1 to 10 years of age. METHODS: We evaluated the benefit of a
      teaching session offered to all preschool teachers in Leipzig, Germany, in 2014
      2015, by asking them to complete the same questionnaire 12-24 months pre
      intervention, and 12 months postintervention. RESULTS: Both questionnaires were
      completed by 123 teachers. The number of teachers who felt they were prepared to
      handle an acute seizure rose from 36 (29%) pre-intervention to 65 (53%) post
      intervention (p < 0.001) and their willingness to administer a prescribed rescue
      medication rose from 66 (54%) to 93 (76%, p < 0.001). The session also increased
      the number of teachers who were prepared to take children with epilepsy on
      excursions under any circumstance from 38 (31%) to 52 (42%, p < 0.05). In
      addition, the number of teachers who would place a solid object in the child's
      mouth during an attack fell from 16 (13%) to seven (6%) (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Providing a teaching session on epilepsy increased the teachers' knowledge and
      willingness to act and reduced obsolete, counterproductive measures.

PMID- 28561264
TI  - Virulence markers associated with Trueperella pyogenes infections in livestock
      and companion animals.
AB  - : Trueperella pyogenes is an opportunistic pathogen that causes diverse pyogenic
      infections in livestock. The genes that encode the exotoxin pyolysin (plo) and
      other putative factors that promote adhesion of pathogen to host cells (fimbriae
      fimA, fimC, fimE, fimG, neuraminidases nanH, nanP, and collagen-binding protein
      cbpA) have been associated with virulence, particularly in mastitis and uterus
      infections of dairy cows. However, the role of these virulence markers in the
      pathogenicity of the agent in domestic animals infections still is incompletely
      understood. The genes plo, fimA, fimC, fimE, fimG, nanH, nanP, and cbpA were
      investigated in 71 T. pyogenes strains recovered from cattle, sheep, goats, dogs,
      equines, and a pig, recovered from mastitis (n = 35), and non-mastitis (n = 36)
      cases (abscesses, reproductive tract diseases, pneumonia, lymphadenitis,
      encephalitis). The most common genes harboured by the isolates were: plo (71/71 =
      100.0%), fimA (70/71 = 98.6%), nanP (56/71 = 78.9%), fimE (53/71 = 74.6%), fimC
      (46/71 = 64.8%) and nanH (45/71 = 63.4%), whereas cbpA (6/71 = 8.4%) and fimG
      (4/71 = 5.6%) were uncommon. The most frequent genotypes were
      plo/fimA/fimE/fimC/nanH/nanP (17/71 = 23.9%), plo/fimA/fimE/nanH/nanP (13/71 =
      18.3%), and plo/fimA/fimE/fimC/nanP (11/71 = 15.5%). No association was observed
      between the presence of genes vs clinical signs or host species. To the best of
      our knowledge, this is the first report on aforementioned virulence factors of
      pathogen detected in diseased horses and dogs. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE
      STUDY: The role of particular virulence factors of Trueperella pyogenes that
      determine different pyogenic infections among domestic animals is poorly
      understood. Eight putative virulence genes and genotype profiles of 71 isolates
      were investigated among different clinical manifestations in domestic animals.
      The most common genes were plo (71/71 = 100.0%), fimA (70/71 = 98.6%), nanP
      (56/71 = 78.9%), fimE (53/71 = 74.6%), fimC (46/71 = 64.8%) and nanH (45/71 =
      63.4%), whereas plo/fimA/fimE/fimC/nanH/nanP (17/71 = 23.9%),
      plo/fimA/fimE/nanH/nanP (13/71 = 18.3%), and plo/fimA/fimE/fimC/nanP (11/71 =
      15.5%) were the most frequent genotypes. Studies involving virulence factors are
      critical in the investigation of molecular epidemiology, pathogenicity, and
      hypothetical differences in the virulence among T. pyogenes strains from
      different geographical areas.

PMID- 28561265
TI  - Mild TSH resistance: Clinical and hormonal features in childhood and adulthood.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mutations in TSH receptor (TSHR) are associated with TSH resistance, a
      genetic defect characterized by a heterogeneous phenotype ranging from severe
      hypothyroidism to subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH). We assessed the clinical and
      hormonal pattern of TSHR variants in a series of pediatric patients, and the long
      term outcome of growth, biochemical measurements of metabolism, and
      neuropsychological functions in TSHR mutations carriers. DESIGN: Observational,
      retrospective study. PATIENTS: Thirty four children (age 7 days to 11 years) and
      18 adult carriers of TSHR variants. MEASUREMENTS: The TSHR gene was sequenced by
      PCR-amplified direct sequencing in 111 pediatric patients with slight to moderate
      elevation of TSH and normal FT4 levels. The study focused on the: auxological and
      biochemical parameters, thyroid ultrasound, bone age, bone mineral density (BMD),
      and intellectual outcome (IQ) were collected during the long follow-up (1-15
      years). RESULTS: Seventeen different TSHR variants (eight novel) were identified
      in 34 of the 111 pediatric patients, with a high prevalence of familial cases
      (27/34). Neonatal screening for congenital hypothyroidism was positive in half of
      the TSHR carriers. Growth, IQ, BMD, and biochemical parameters were normal in all
      subjects. Twenty patients received L-T4 replacement therapy, in all cases before
      genetic analysis. After re-evaluation, six patients resumed L-T4 therapy: they
      were compound heterozygous, or single heterozygous and with associated conditions
      at risk of thyroid impairment (SGA). No adults presented clinical features
      consistent with impaired thyroid function. CONCLUSIONS: Children carriers of TSHR
      variants, regardless of L-T4 treatment, show regular growth and
      neuropsychological development, with no evident biochemical and US alterations.

PMID- 28561266
TI  - Sublingual immunotherapy provides long-term relief in allergic rhinitis and
      reduces the risk of asthma: A retrospective, real-world database analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergy immunotherapy (AIT) is the only treatment for allergic
      rhinitis (AR) and/or allergic asthma (AA) with long-term efficacy. However, there
      are few real-life data on the progression of AR and/or AA in patients receiving
      AIT. OBJECTIVES: To assess the real-world, long-term efficacy of grass pollen
      sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) tablets in AR and their impact on asthma onset
      and progression. METHODS: In a retrospective analysis of a German longitudinal
      prescription database, AR patients treated with grass pollen SLIT tablets were
      compared with a control group not having received AIT. Multiple regression
      analysis was used to compare changes over time in rescue symptomatic AR
      medication use after treatment cessation, asthma medication use, and the time to
      asthma onset in the two groups. RESULTS: After applying all selection criteria,
      2851 SLIT and 71 275 control patients were selected for the study. After
      treatment cessation, AR medication use was 18.8 percentage points lower (after
      adjustment for covariates, and relative to the pretreatment period) in SLIT
      tablet group than in the non-AIT group (P<.001). Asthma onset was less frequent
      in SLIT tablet group than in non-AIT group (odds ratio: 0.696, P=.002), and time
      to asthma was significantly longer (hazard ratio: 0.523; P=.003). After SLIT
      cessation, asthma medication use fell by an additional 16.7 percentage points
      (relative to the pretreatment period) in the SLIT tablet group vs the non-AIT
      group (P=.004). CONCLUSIONS: Real-world treatment of AR patients with grass
      pollen SLIT tablets was associated with slower AR progression, less frequent
      asthma onset, and slower asthma progression.

PMID- 28561267
TI  - Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary
      Edentulous Population. Part 1: Objective Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the objective differences in lip support using common facial
      soft tissue markers, when evaluating patients wearing a maxillary denture with a
      labial flange in comparison to an experimental flangeless denture. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 31 maxillary edentulous patients who were esthetically
      satisfied with their existing maxillary denture were recruited in this clinical
      study. The maxillary denture was then duplicated in clear acrylic resin. Two
      standardized full-face digital photographs (frontal and profile) were made with
      the duplicate denture in the mouth. The labial flange of the duplicate denture
      was then removed from first premolar to first premolar region, to create the
      experimental flangeless denture. It was returned to the oral cavity, and 2
      additional full-face digital photographs were made. The differences between these
      images were studied using 5 facial anatomic markers (subnasale, labrale superior,
      stomion, nasolabial angle, lip thickness). A paired sample t-test was used to
      compare differences in measurements for various anatomic markers using an alpha
      value of 0.05. RESULTS: For profile images, there were no statistically
      significant differences between photographs with and without a labial flange for
      anatomic markers- labrale superior and stomion (p < 0.05). There was a
      statistically significant difference for subnasale as well as the nasolabial
      angle but the magnitude of the difference was too small to be clinically
      significant (p < 0.05). For frontal images, there was no statistically
      significant difference in lip thickness between photographs with and without a
      labial flange. Additionally, there was no association between differences in
      measurements and patient-related factors such as gender and prior years of
      edentulism. CONCLUSIONS: Removal of a labial flange in a maxillary denture
      resulted in minimal and clinically insignificant anatomic differences in lip
      support between flange and flangeless dentures, when analyzed in frontal and
      profile images.

PMID- 28561269
TI  - Combined impact of healthy lifestyle factors on lifespan: two prospective
      cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of multiple healthy lifestyle factors on survival time is
      unclear. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine differences in survival
      time associated with a healthy lifestyle versus a less healthy lifestyle.
      METHODS: This study consisted of 33 454 men (Cohort of Swedish Men) and 30 639
      women (Swedish Mammography Cohort) aged 45-83 years and free of cancer and
      cardiovascular disease at baseline. The healthy lifestyle factors included the
      following: (i) nonsmoking; (ii) physical activity at least 150 min per week;
      (iii) alcohol consumption of 0-14 drinks per week; (iv) and healthy diet defined
      as a modified Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Diet score above the
      median. Cox proportional hazards regression models and Laplace regression were
      used to estimate, respectively, hazard ratios of all-cause mortality and
      differences in survival time. RESULTS: During follow-up from 1998 through 2014,
      8630 deaths amongst men and 6730 deaths amongst women were ascertained through
      linkage to the Swedish Cause of Death Register. Each of the four healthy
      lifestyle factors was inversely associated with all-cause mortality and increased
      survival time. Compared with individuals with no or one healthy lifestyle factor,
      the multivariable hazard ratios of all-cause mortality for individuals with all
      four health behaviours were 0.47 (95% 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.44-0.51) in
      men and 0.39 (95% CI: 0.35-0.44) in women. This corresponded to a difference in
      survival time of 4.1 (95% CI: 3.6-4.6) years in men and 4.9 (95% CI: 4.3-5.6)
      years in women. CONCLUSION: Adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours may markedly
      increase lifespan.

PMID- 28561268
TI  - Near infrared spectroscopy for measuring changes in bone hemoglobin content after
      exercise in individuals with spinal cord injury.
AB  - Bone blood perfusion has an essential role in maintaining a healthy bone.
      However, current methods for measuring bone blood perfusion are expensive and
      highly invasive. This study presents a custom built near-infrared spectroscopy
      (NIRS) instrument to measure changes in bone blood perfusion. We demonstrated the
      efficacy of this device by monitoring oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin
      changes in the human tibia during and after exercise in able-bodied and in
      individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), a population with known impaired
      peripheral blood perfusion. Nine able-bodied individuals and six volunteers with
      SCI performed a 10 min rowing exercise (functional electrical stimulation rowing
      for those with SCI). With exercise, during rowing, able-bodied showed an increase
      in deoxygenated hemoglobin in the tibia. Post rowing, able-bodied showed an
      increase in total blood content, characterized by an increase in total hemoglobin
      content due primarily to an increase in deoxygenated hemoglobin. During rowing
      and post-rowing, those with SCI showed no change in total blood content in the
      tibia. The current study demonstrates that NIRS can non-invasively detect changes
      in hemoglobin concentration in the tibia. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society.
      Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:183-191, 2018.

PMID- 28561270
TI  - Barriers to generating PDX models of HPV-related head and neck cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Delineate factors impacting the creation and use of
      patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) of human papilloma virus-related (HPV+) head
      and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). STUDY DESIGN: Laboratory-based
      translational study. METHODS: Fifty-one surgically resected HNSCCs, including 31
      HPV + cancers, were implanted into NOD/SCID/IL-2Rgamma-/- (NSG) mice using
      standardized methodology. Clinical and pathologic factors were tested for
      association with engraftment. The gross, histologic, and molecular features of
      established HPV + PDXs were analyzed in comparison to their tumors of origin.
      RESULTS: Negative HPV status and perineural invasion (PNI) were independent,
      additive factors associated with increased PDX formation. Epstein-Barr virus
      positive (EBV+) human large B-cell lymphomas grew from 32% of HPV + HNSCC cases
      that failed to engraft. Successfully established HPV + PDXs retained basaloid
      histology and often developed cystic growth patterns typical of HPV + nodal
      metastases. They also maintained elevated p16INK4A levels and expression of E6/E7
      viral oncogene transcripts. CONCLUSION: Reduced engraftment by HPV + tumors
      lacking PNI likely results in selection biases in HNSCC PDX models. Formation of
      EBV + lymphomas in NSG mice further reduces the generation of HPV + models and
      must be ruled out before long-term use of PDXs. Nevertheless, the retention of
      distinctive pathologic traits and viral oncogene expression by HPV + PDXs
      provides a viable in vivo platform for basic and translational studies as well as
      a resource for generating advanced in vitro models. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA.
      Laryngoscope, 127:2777-2783, 2017.

PMID- 28561273
TI  - A case of multifocal scarring alopecia.

PMID- 28561272
TI  - Cannabinoid CB1 /CB2 receptor agonists attenuate hyperactivity and body weight
      loss in a rat model of activity-based anorexia.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious psychiatric condition
      characterized by excessive body weight loss and disturbed perceptions of body
      shape and size, often associated with excessive physical activity. There is
      currently no effective drug-related therapy of this disease and this leads to
      high relapse rate. Clinical data suggest that a promising therapy to treat and
      reduce reoccurrence of AN may be based on the use of drugs that target the
      endocannabinoid (EC) system, which appears dysregulated in AN patients.
      EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: The activity-based anorexia (ABA) rodent model mimics the
      severe body weight loss and increased physical activity, as well as the
      neuroendocrine disturbances (i.e. hypoleptinaemia and hypercortisolaemia) in AN.
      This study investigated whether cannabinoid agonists can effectively modify
      anorexic-like behaviours and neuroendocrine changes in rats subjected to a
      repeated ABA regime that mimics the human condition in which patients repeatedly
      undergo a recovery and illness cycle. KEY RESULTS: Our data show that subchronic
      treatment with both the natural CB1 /CB2 receptor agonist Delta9 
      tetrahydrocannabinol and the synthetic CB1 /CB2 receptor agonist CP-55,940
      significantly reduced body weight loss and running wheel activity in ABA rats.
      These behavioural effects were accompanied by an increase in leptin signalling
      and a decrease in plasma levels of corticosterone. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS:
      Taken together, our results further demonstrate the involvement of the EC system
      in AN pathophysiology and that strategies which modulate EC signalling are useful
      to treat this disorder, specifically in patients where physical hyperactivity
      plays a central role in its progression and maintenance.

PMID- 28561275
TI  - Screening for biosurfactant production by 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene-transforming
      bacteria.
AB  - AIMS: To isolate and identify TNT-transforming cultures from explosive
      contaminated soils with the ability to produce biosurfactants. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Bacteria (pure and mixed cultures) were selected based on their ability
      to transform TNT in minimum media with TNT as the sole nitrogen source and an
      additional carbon source. TNT-transforming bacteria were identified by 16S rRNA
      gene sequencing. TNT transformation rates were significantly lower when no
      additional carbon or nitrogen sources were added. Surfactant production was
      enabled by the presence of TNT. Fourteen cultures were able to transform the
      explosive (>50%); of these, five showed a high transformation capacity (>90%),
      and six produced surfactants. CONCLUSIONS: All explosive-transforming cultures
      contained Proteobacteria of the genera Achromobacter, Stenotrophomonas,
      Pseudomonas, Sphingobium, Raoultella, Rhizobium and Methylopila. These cultures
      transformed TNT when an additional carbon source was added. Remarkably,
      Achromobacter spanius S17 and Pseudomonas veronii S94 have high TNT
      transformation rates and are surfactant producers. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE
      STUDY: TNT is a highly toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic nitroaromatic explosive;
      therefore, bioremediation to eliminate or mitigate its presence in the
      environment is essential. TNT-transforming cultures that produce surfactants are
      a promising method for remediation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
      first report that links surfactant production and TNT transformation by bacteria.

PMID- 28561274
TI  - Statistical shape modelling of hip and lumbar spine morphology and their
      relationship in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.
AB  - The anatomical shape of bones and joints is important for their proper function
      but quantifying this, and detecting pathological variations, is difficult to do.
      Numerical descriptions would also enable correlations between joint shapes to be
      explored. Statistical shape modelling (SSM) is a method of image analysis
      employing pattern recognition statistics to describe and quantify such shapes
      from images; it uses principal components analysis to generate modes of variation
      describing each image in terms of a set of numerical scores after removing global
      size variation. We used SSM to quantify the shapes of the hip and the lumbar
      spine in dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images from 1511 individuals in
      the MRC National Survey of Health and Development at ages 60-64 years. We
      compared shapes of both joints in men and women and hypothesised that hip and
      spine shape would be strongly correlated. We also investigated associations with
      height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and local (hip or lumber spine) bone
      mineral density. In the hip, all except one of the first 10 modes differed
      between men and women. Men had a wider femoral neck, smaller neck-shaft angle,
      increased presence of osteophytes and a loss of the femoral head/neck curvature
      compared with women. Women presented with a flattening of the femoral head and
      greater acetabular coverage of the femoral head. Greater weight was associated
      with a shorter, wider femoral neck and larger greater and lesser trochanters.
      Taller height was accompanied by a flattening of the curve between superior head
      and neck and a larger lesser trochanter. Four of the first eight modes describing
      lumbar spine shape differed between men and women. Women tended to have a more
      lordotic spine than men with relatively smaller but caudally increasing anterior
      posterior (a-p) vertebral diameters. Men were more likely to have a straighter
      spine with larger vertebral a-p diameters relative to vertebral height than
      women, increasing cranially. A weak correlation was found between body weight and
      a-p vertebral diameter. No correlations were found between shape modes and height
      in men, whereas in women there was a weak positive correlation between height and
      evenness of spinal curvature. Linear relationships between hip and spine shapes
      were weak and inconsistent in both sexes, thereby offering little support for our
      hypothesis. In conclusion, men and women entering their seventh decade have small
      but statistically significant differences in the shapes of their hips and their
      spines. Associations with height, weight, BMI and BMD are small and correspond to
      subtle variations whose anatomical significance is not yet clear. Correlations
      between hip and spine shapes are small.

PMID- 28561276
TI  - Intestinal microbiota in patients with chronic hepatitis C with and without
      cirrhosis compared with healthy controls.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The importance of the intestinal microbiota for the onset and
      clinical course of many diseases, including liver diseases like non-alcoholic
      steatohepatitis and cirrhosis, is increasingly recognized. However, the role of
      intestinal microbiota in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains
      unclear. METHODS: In a cross-sectional approach, the intestinal microbiota of 95
      patients chronically infected with HCV (n=57 without cirrhosis [NO-CIR]; n=38
      with cirrhosis [CIR]) and 50 healthy controls (HC) without documented liver
      diseases was analysed. RESULTS: Alpha diversity, measured by number of phylotypes
      (S) and Shannon diversity index (H'), decreased significantly from HC to NO-CIR
      to CIR. S and H' correlated negatively with liver elastography. Analysis of
      similarities revealed highly statistically significant differences in the
      microbial communities between HC, NO-CIR and CIR (R=.090; P<1.0*10-6 ).
      Stratifying for HCV genotypes even increased the differences. In addition, we
      observed distinct patterns in the relative abundance of genera being either
      positive or negative correlated with diseases status. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      shows that not only the stage of liver disease but also HCV infection is
      associated with a reduced alpha diversity and different microbial community
      patterns. These differences might be caused by direct interactions between HCV
      and the microbiota or indirect interactions facilitated by the immune system.

PMID- 28561277
TI  - A Large-Scale Study of Misophonia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aim to elucidate misophonia, a condition in which particular sounds
      elicit disproportionally strong aversive reactions. METHOD: A large online study
      extensively surveyed personal, developmental, and clinical characteristics of
      over 300 misophonics. RESULTS: Most participants indicated that their symptoms
      started in childhood or early teenage years. Severity of misophonic responses
      increases over time. One third of participants reported having family members
      with similar symptoms. Half of our participants reported no comorbid clinical
      conditions, and the other half reported a variety of conditions. Only
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was related to the severity of the
      misophonic symptoms. Remarkably, half of the participants reported experiencing
      euphoric, relaxing, and tingling sensations with particular sounds or sights, a
      relatively unfamiliar phenomenon called autonomous sensory meridian response
      (ASMR). CONCLUSION: It is unlikely that another "real" underlying clinical,
      psychiatric, or psychological disorder can explain away the misophonia. The
      possible relationship with PTSD and ASMR warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28561278
TI  - The effects of testosterone on body composition in obese men are not sustained
      after cessation of testosterone treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Testosterone treatment in obese dieting men augments the diet
      associated loss of fat mass, but protects against loss of lean mass. We assessed
      whether body composition changes are maintained following withdrawal of
      testosterone treatment. METHODS: We conducted a prespecified double-blind
      randomized placebo-controlled observational follow-up study of a randomized
      controlled trial (RCT). Participants were men with baseline obesity (body mass
      index >30 kg/m2 ) and a repeated total testosterone level <12 nmol/L, previously
      enrolled in a 56-week testosterone treatment trial combined with a weight loss
      programme. Main outcome measures were mean adjusted differences (MAD) (95%
      confidence interval), in body composition between testosterone- and placebo
      treated men at the end of the observation period. RESULTS: Of the 100 randomized
      men, 82 completed the RCT and 64 the subsequent observational study. Median [IQR]
      observation time after completion of the RCT was 82 weeks [74; 90] in men
      previously receiving testosterone (cases) and 81 weeks [67;91] in men previously
      receiving placebo (controls), P=.51. At the end of the RCT, while losing similar
      amounts of weight, cases had, compared to controls, lost more fat mass, MAD -2.9
      kg (-5.7, -0.2), P=.04, but had lost less lean mass MAD 3.4 kg (1.3, 5.5),
      P=.002. At the end of the observation period, the former between-group
      differences in fat mass, MAD -0.8 kg (-3.6, 2.0), P=1.0, in lean mass, MAD -1.3
      kg (-3.0, 0.5), P=.39, and in appendicular lean mass, MAD -0.1 kg/m2 (-0.3, 0.1),
      P=.45, were no longer apparent. During observation, cases lost more lean mass,
      MAD -3.7 kg (-5.5, -1.9), P=.0005, and appendicular lean mass, MAD -0.5 kg/m2 (
      0.8, -0.3), P<.0001 compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: The favourable effects of
      testosterone on body composition in men subjected to a concomitant weight loss
      programme were not maintained at 82 weeks after testosterone treatment cessation.

PMID- 28561280
TI  - Anti-FcgammaRIIB (CD32) Antibodies Differentially Modulate Murine FVIII-Specific
      Recall Response in vitro.
AB  - Fc gamma receptors (FcgammaRs) for IgG regulate adaptive immune responses by
      modulating activating and inhibitory signalling pathways within immune cells.
      Data from a haemophilia A mouse model demonstrate that genetic deletion or
      blockade of the inhibitory FcgammaR (CD32) suppresses the formation of antibody
      secreting cells (ASCs) in vitro. Mechanisms preventing the FVIII-specific recall
      response, however, remain unclear. Here, the potential role of CD32 inhibition
      was studied by differentially modulating receptor activity with selected anti
      CD32 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Splenocytes from immunized FVIII-/- mice were
      restimulated with FVIII in the absence or presence of different anti-CD32 mAbs
      over 6 days. At day 6, cytokine release was quantified from cell culture
      supernatant and the formation of FVIII-specific ASCs assessed. Binding of FVIII
      containing immune complexes (F8-ICs) to bone marrow-derived dendritic cells
      (BMdDCs) was also investigated. The antagonistic CD32 mAb AT128 suppressed the
      formation of FVIII-specific ASCs and reduced secretion of IFN-gamma and IL-10. In
      contrast, the agonistic mAbs AT130-2 and AT130-5, and their F(ab')2 fragments,
      allowed the formation of FVIII-specific ASCs, even though the full IgG of AT130-2
      reduced binding of F8-ICs to CD32. Data suggest that an inhibitory signal is
      transmitted when F8-ICs bind to CD32 and that this signal is required during
      memory B cell (MBC) activation to support formation of FVIII-specific ASCs. If
      the inhibitory signal is lacking due to CD32 deletion or blockade with
      antagonistic anti-CD32 mAbs, FVIII-specific T cell stimulation and ASC formation
      are suppressed, whereas agonistic stimulation of CD32 restores T cell stimulation
      and ASC formation.

PMID- 28561281
TI  - Race differences in reproducibilities: The HERITAGE family study.
AB  - The HERITAGE (HEalth, RIsk factors, exercise Training And GEnetics) Family Study
      is a multicenter clinical trial conducted by five institutions in the United
      States and Canada. The overall objective of the study is to investigate the role
      of the genotype in cardiovascular, metabolic, and hormonal responses to aerobic
      exercise training and the contribution of regular exercise to changes in
      cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors in white and black families.
      Since the accuracy of the assessment of the response to training depends on how
      repeatable or reproducible the measurements are, it is important to assess
      potential racial differences in reproducibilities, which may have implications
      for pooling data across races. The sample studied consisted of 96 blacks and 304
      whites. The black sample had 46 males with mean age 33.6 +/- 14.2 years and 40
      females with mean age 33.9 +/- 12.7 years. The white sample had 152 males with
      mean age 35.5 +/- 14.9 years, and 152 females with mean age 34.9 +/- 14.3 years.
      Reproducibilities, as measured by intraclass correlations among repeated
      measures, were comparable between whites and blacks for variables in the
      anthropometry, i.e, lipid, exercise test, and blood pressure domains.
      Reproducibilities in both races exceeded 0.85 for most of the variables. When the
      within-race reproducibilities are very high, statistical significance of any
      observed racial difference in the reproducibilities may not be very meaningful.
      There was a significant racial difference in the reproducibility for Apoprotein
      A1 (0.73 in blacks, 0.89 in whites, P < 0.01). However, this is not a cause for
      concern, since only one among 37 comparisons was significant. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      9:415-424, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561279
TI  - A modified colorectal screening score for prediction of advanced neoplasia: A
      prospective study of 5744 subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: We validated a modified risk algorithm based on the Asia
      Pacific Colorectal Screening (APCS) score that included body mass index (BMI) for
      prediction of advanced neoplasia. METHODS: Among 5744 Chinese asymptomatic
      screening participants undergoing a colonoscopy in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2012, a
      random sample of 3829 participants acted as the derivation cohort. The odds
      ratios for significant risk factors identified by binary logistic regression
      analysis were used to build a scoring system ranging from 0 to 6, divided into
      "average risk" (AR): 0; "moderate risk" (MR): 1-2; and "high risk" (HR): 3-6. The
      other 1915 subjects formed a validation cohort, and the performance of the score
      was assessed. RESULTS: The prevalence of advanced neoplasia in the derivation and
      validation cohorts was 5.4% and 6.0%, respectively (P = 0.395). Old age, male
      gender, family history of colorectal cancer, smoking, and BMI were significant
      predictors in multivariate regression analysis. A BMI cut-off at > 23 kg/m2 had
      better predictive capability and lower number needed to screen than that of > 25
      kg/m2 . Utilizing the score developed, 8.4%, 57.4%, and 34.2% in the validation
      cohort were categorized as AR, MR, and HR, respectively. The corresponding
      prevalence of advanced neoplasia was 3.8%, 4.3%, and 9.3%. Subjects in the HR
      group had 2.48-fold increased prevalence of advanced neoplasia than the AR group.
      The c-statistics of the modified score had better discriminatory capability than
      that using predictors of APCS alone (c-statistics = 0.65 vs 0.60). CONCLUSIONS:
      Incorporating BMI into the predictors of APCS score was found to improve risk
      prediction of advanced neoplasia and reduce colonoscopy resources.

PMID- 28561282
TI  - Growth of the Czech child population 0-18 years compared to the World Health
      Organization growth reference.
AB  - Nationwide anthropological surveys of 0-18-year-old children were carried out in
      the Czech Republic (former Czech regions of Czechoslovakia) five times during the
      last 40 years, at 10-year intervals. The measurements provide reference data for
      the growth of the Czech child population and at the same time ample material for
      comparison with other populations. A comparison of the results of such nationwide
      anthropometric surveys with the World Health Organization (WHO) growth reference
      implies that the growth trend of Czech children is comparable with the WHO
      reference. The greatest similarity in the shape of the WHO height curves and the
      results obtained in Czechoslovakia was in 1971. The results obtained in the
      nationwide surveys also imply that the secular trend still exerts its effect. In
      the case of height, this finding is consistent during the whole period of 40
      years. Concerning weight in higher age categories, especially in girls, the trend
      slowed down or stopped. Furthermore, there is no problem of malnutrition in the
      Czech child population. Similarly, as in any other developed nations, the
      prevalence of overweight and obesity is the problem that merits attention. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 9:459-468, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561283
TI  - Somatic comparisons at three ages of South Korean males and males of other Asian
      groups.
AB  - Somatic data were collected during July 1995 on 154 males, ages 6, 9, and 15
      years, residing in urban Pusan, South Korea, and on 157 age peers residing in
      rural regions surrounding the city. Comparisons are made between urban and rural
      groups for measures of body size and form, skinfold thicknesses, the body mass
      index (BMI), and estimated arm muscle area (ARM). The data were analyzed in 2
      (urban-rural) * 3 (age) analyses of variance with an alpha level of P < 0.05. Age
      differences were evident for all dimensions. A significant main effect for urban
      rural differences was found for stature, sitting height, lower limb height, upper
      limb length, arm girth, calf girth, shoulder width, hip width, body weight, and
      the sum of skinfolds. Regardless of age, urban children were larger than rural
      children. The interaction was nonsignificant. Except for the trunk width index,
      urban and rural boys did not differ on measures of body form. Similar means were
      obtained for the BMI and ARM in urban and rural boys. Compared with data
      collected four decades ago, present day 6, 9, and 15 year old males are taller
      and heavier at every age, indicating secular gains. Pusan males are similar in
      stature to age peers in Taiwan and Japan, and taller than the Chinese. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 9:493-503, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561284
TI  - Relationship between physical activity, socioeconomic status, and physical
      fitness of 8-15-year-old youth from Mozambique.
AB  - A cross-sectional study of 593 students (277 boys, 316 girls) 8-15 years of age
      was done to evaluate the physical fitness (PF) of children and adolescents from
      Maputo, Mozambique, relative to socioeconomic status (SES) and physical activity
      (PA). PF was assessed by a battery of field tests including the sit and reach,
      sit-ups, hand grip strength, a 10 * 5 meters shuttle run, and two distance runs,
      1,600 and 2,400 meters. PA was estimated with a questionnaire designed for this
      population. Students were divided into three groups according to region of
      residence, which was used as the criterion of SES. PA was more intense among
      underprivileged students due to domestic activities and walking time per day. PF
      significantly differed among SES groups. Poor students exhibited significantly
      better results on the sit and reach and endurance runs, while privileged children
      performed better on sit-ups and the shuttle run. There were no differences in
      grip strength. Comparison with North American reference data suggests that
      Mozambican youth have greater flexibility and cardiorespiratory endurance, but
      less absolute strength and power. The results suggest that SES is an important
      determinant of fitness in Mozambique, especially because of its influence on body
      size, composition, and on PA. In addition, cultural effects on the performance of
      the tests were indicated. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:449-457, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561285
TI  - Proportion of adipose tissue-free body mass as skeletal muscle: Magnitude and
      constancy in men.
AB  - Although it is often assumed that skeletal muscle (SM) is a fixed proportion of
      adipose tissue-free body mass (ATFM), there is little data in living humans that
      supports this hypothesis. Limited data from elderly cadavers suggests a
      relatively constant proportion of ATFM as SM in men (mean +/- SD, 0.540 +/-
      0.046) and women (0.489 +/- 0.049). The present study tested the hypothesis that
      SM is a relatively constant proportion of ATFM in healthy men. Whole body SM and
      ATFM were measured using multiscan computerized axial tomography. The SM/ATFM
      ratio in the men (n = 24) was 0.563 +/- 0.036 which was not significantly
      different from the value found in the elderly male cadavers. Multiple regression
      analysis indicated that the SM/ATFM ratio was significantly related to 1/ATFM (P
      = 0.036) and the body mass index (P = 0.024), and not with age. Further study is
      needed of other possible factors such as physical activity, gender, race, and
      disease state, that may effect the relationship between SM and ATFM. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:487-492, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561286
TI  - Relationships of physical activity and somatic characteristics with physical
      fitness and motor skill in prepubertal girls.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between physical
      activity and somatic growth with motor skill and physical fitness in prepubertal
      girls. The subjects were 215, 7-10-year-old girls. Somatic characteristics
      included 15 dimensions. Physical fitness was assessed by the EUROFIT battery of 9
      tests. Motor skill development was based on quantitative and qualitative
      assessment of the overhand throw. Physical activity was assessed by parental
      seven-day physical activity recall for the child. Sum of five skinfolds was
      significantly negatively related with motor fitness after controlling for the
      effects of physical activity (r = -0.27 to -0.39). Somatic characteristics were
      not significantly related with fitness items and throwing stage after controlling
      for physical activity. Age-specific partial correlations between physical
      activity, fitness items, quantitative, and qualitative characteristics of the
      overhand throw, were not significant. After controlling for body size and
      subcutaneous fatness, aerobic fitness was significantly related with physical
      activity of moderate to high intensity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:513-521, 1997. (c)
      1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561287
TI  - Socioeconomic differences in growth of metacarpal II during adolescence in
      females: Interactions with sexual and skeletal maturity.
AB  - In order to study the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in growth of the second
      metacarpal (MC) during adolescence in females, 352 cross-sectional observations
      of 34 girls from high SES 11-17 years of age were compared with 876 cross
      sectional observations of age-matched low to middle SES Turkish girls. Values for
      MC length (L), L/outer diameter (D), total cortical thickness (C), C/L, C/D%,
      stature, weight, stages of secondary sexual development (SSD), and skeletal age
      (SA) were significantly greater in the high SES, while outer (D) and medullary
      diameter (M), C-area, M-area, and MC-volume were significantly smaller. The
      estimated total average increase in C/year was 0.21 versus 0.22 mm in low-middle
      and high SES girls, respectively, being twice as high before 14 years compared
      with at 14-17 years. The decrease in M started earlier and was steeper in the
      high SES. M was significantly smaller in the high SES when SSD or years before
      and after menarche was controlled, and also after SA of 14 years, while C was not
      significantly different under these conditions. M and D values for a given L were
      significantly greater in low-middle SES girls, while differences in C were not
      significant. It was concluded that reduced C for age in low-middle SES girls is a
      reflection of their overall slower growth relative to high SES girls, and once
      they catch up in growth the difference in C between groups is no longer
      significant. However, there still is a greater D for a given L, which is mainly
      due to significantly greater M for L, which was present at the beginning of the
      study. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:439-448, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561288
TI  - "Month of birth effect" does not alter longitudinal growth in an experimental
      animal model.
AB  - Previous cross-sectional human and animal data collected in the southern
      hemisphere suggest that month of birth influences growth throughout life;
      individuals born between August and January (spring/summer) were larger than
      individuals born between February and July (fall/winter) throughout their life
      cycle. It has been suggested that there is some form of annual global variation
      which may be caused by extraterrestrial factors. The present study, utilizing an
      experimental animal model, investigated the "month of birth effect" in the
      northern hemisphere on the somatic and skeletal growth of rabbits. The study
      sample consisted of 135 laboratory bred and reared New Zealand white rabbits
      (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from 62 different litters; spring/summer rabbits (n = 75)
      were born between February and July; fall/winter rabbits (n = 60) were born
      between August and January. Serial longitudinal body mass and craniofacial
      radiographic growth data were collected at 10, 25, 42, 84, and 126 days of age.
      Results from a two-way ANOVA showed no significant (P > 0.05) differences in the
      month of birth main effect or in the age * month of birth interaction for either
      somatic or skeletal growth. Results from the present study do not support the
      "month of birth effect" hypothesis. It was concluded that variations in growth
      patterns are more likely controlled by local environmental factors such as
      hemispheric seasonality in photoperiod or temperature, and not by more exotic
      factors such as the earth's orbital trajectory around the sun or global energy
      fields. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:481-486, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561289
TI  - Electrophoretic protein polymorphisms in Kaingang and Guarani Indians of Southern
      Brazil.
AB  - A total of 337 Kaingang and Guarani Indians from two localities were studied in
      relation to 18 protein genetic loci. In one of the localities, members of these
      two groups live side by side but show little genetic similarity, emphasizing the
      influence of cultural factors in the mating behavior of human groups. Integrating
      the present results with previous ones, it was verified that the genetic
      relationships among six Kaingang populations do not follow the pattern expected
      from their geographical distribution. Comparisons made with three other Ge~
      speaking tribes indicate that the Kaingang did not separate well from them. Most
      (96%) of the variability in the six polymorphic systems considered occur at the
      intrapopulational level. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:505-512, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561290
TI  - Growth of metacarpal II during female adolescence: Relationships to stature,
      weight, and skeletal and sexual maturity.
AB  - Growth of the second metacarpal (MC) was evaluated during female adolescence in
      110 Turkish girls who were followed longitudinally starting from 8.5 to 11 years
      until a Greulich and Pyle skeletal age (SA) >=17 years was reached. Stature (St),
      weight (Wt), stage of secondary sexual development (SSD), length (L), and
      medullary (M) and outer diameters (D) of MC were measured. Total cortical
      thickness (C) of MC was derived as the difference between D and M. Yearly rates
      of growth in L, D, C, and St were calculated for each 6 months from the smoothed
      data. Peak length (PLV), peak D (PDV), and peak C (PCV) velocities and the ages
      at reaching these peaks were determined. L at fusion was 62.4 +/- 3.0 mm and
      correlated significantly with adult stature (AdSt). PLV was 4.09 +/- 0.60 mm/yr
      at a mean age of 12.28 +/- 0.90 years and it correlated best with PHV (r = 0.52),
      then with L at fusion and AdSt, but not with ages at PLV, PHV, PDV, fusion, and
      onset of SSD. PLV occurred synchronously with PDV, 0.1 years after PHV, 0.9 years
      after onset of the breast bud, 0.4 years after onset of axillary hair, and 1.1
      years before menarche. Age at PLV correlated best with age at PHV, and in
      decreasing order with ages at fusion, menarche, PDV, and onset of SSD, but not
      with PLV, PDV, PHV, L at fusion, and AdSt. The most important single factor
      determining MC L was St (R = 0.77). Multifactorial analysis showed that in
      conjunction with St, D and C are contributory determinants of L, while SA is not.
      MC D was primarily determined by L. In conjunction with L, C and chronological
      age (CA) contributed positively and SA negatively. Velocity of C reached its peak
      at 13.04 +/- 1.20 years, 0.72 and 0.76 years after PLV and PDV, respectively.
      After 14 years, C continued to increase significantly, while growth increments in
      D and L were greatly reduced. This was realized by a significant reduction in M,
      which indicates that there is endosteal deposition of bone. Increase in C was
      significantly associated with increasing stages of SSD and inversely with M.
      Multifactorial analysis, however, showed that SSD is not an independent factor
      and that C is determined primarily by SA, and then inversely by M and directly by
      L. Once these factors are known, other factors, such as SSD, St, and Wt, lose
      their significance. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:425-438, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561291
TI  - Plasticity of adolescent growth in boys.
AB  - The present analysis examines the plasticity of adolescent growth in 21 selected
      historic and recent growth studies from 6 European countries, the U.S., and
      Japan, during the last 150 years. Mean stature at the age of 6 years has
      significantly increased by approximately 6 mm per decade (P < 0.05), whereas
      adult stature has risen by approximately 10 mm per decade (P < 0.01).
      Developmental tempo has also increased. Mean age at take-off significantly
      dropped by approximately 2 years per century (P < 0.01), and age at peak height
      velocity by 1.7 years per century (P < 0.01). Yet, the secular trend affected
      different parts of the growth curves in a different way so that the shape of the
      growth curves has also changed. Whereas adolescent growth rose significantly in
      the last century (P < 0.01) and increasingly contributed to the improvement of
      adult stature, no significant modification of the prepubertal portion was
      evident. Though early childhood and adolescent growth appeared equally plastic,
      both parameters were statistically independent, indicating differences in the
      regulation of early and adolescent growth. Yet, the factors that regulate
      adolescent growth still remain to be elucidated. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:469-480,
      1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561292
TI  - Guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of scabies in Japan (third edition):
      Executive Committee of Guideline for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Scabies.
AB  - In the current work, we present our new guideline for the diagnosis and treatment
      of scabies which we, the Executive Committee convened by the Japanese
      Dermatological Association, developed to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment of
      scabies in Japan. Approval of phenothrin topical use under the National Health
      Insurance in August 2014 led to this action. Permethrin, a topical anti-scabietic
      medication belonging to the same pyrethroid group as phenothrin, is already in
      use worldwide. In this guideline, we introduce criteria for a proper diagnosis of
      scabies, treatment algorithm for common and crusted (hyperkeratotic) scabies, and
      prevention. The major change from our second edition is the treatment algorithm.
      As phenothrin is now available, the first-line therapy for common scabies is
      either topical phenothrin lotion or oral ivermectin. The second-line option for
      topical treatment is sulfur-containing ointments, crotamiton cream or benzyl
      benzoate lotion. gamma-Benzene hexachloride ointment is no longer provided for
      clinical use. In an immunosuppressed patient, the treatment option is still the
      same, but with close follow up. If the symptoms persist, diagnosis and treatment
      must be reassessed. For hyperkeratotic scabies and nail scabies, removal of thick
      crust, cutting of nails and occlusive dressing are additionally required. The
      safety and effectiveness of combined treatment with topical and oral medications
      are not yet confirmed. Further assessment is needed. In addition to appropriate
      treatment, it is essential to educate patients and health-care workers and to
      conduct epidemiological studies to prevent further spread of the disease through
      effectively utilizing available resources including manpower, finance, logistics
      and time.

PMID- 28561293
TI  - Age differences in somatotypes of Garhwali males 17-60 years of age.
AB  - Changes in somatotype with age were investigated in a cross-sectional sample of
      400 Garhwali men from northwest India. The subjects, 17-60 years of age, were
      somatotyped with the Heath-Carter anthropometric protocol. The overall mean
      somatotype was 3.0-3.7-3.1. A one-way MANOVA indicated significant differences
      among the nine age groups. Pairwise comparisons using Hotelling's T2 showed
      significant differences between men up to 29 years and those over 30 years.
      Garhwali men 30+ years of age were more endomorphic and less ectomorphic than
      younger men. The mean somatotype for men 30+ years was 3.3-3.9-2.7 and for men
      <30 years was 2.8-3.3-3.9. Endomorphy and mesomorphy increased with age with a
      reciprocal decrease in ectomorphy up to 55 years; the trend was somewhat reversed
      thereafter. The somatotype categories mesomorphic ectomorph and mesomorph
      ectomorph included the greatest proportion of Garhwali men <30 years; maximum
      percentages of men 30+ years belonged to the mesomorph-endomorph, endomorphic
      mesomorph and mesomorphic endomorph categories. Garhwali men were more
      ectomorphic and less endomorphic and mesomorphic than Canadians. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:285-290, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561294
TI  - Beta-globin gene cluster haplotypes in an admixed Venezuelan population.
AB  - Haplotype frequencies for the beta-globin gene cluster were determined in 96
      chromosomes from a Venezuelan mixed population. Twelve haplotypes were observed,
      the most frequent of which were 2, 3, and 4; all others showed prevalences below
      10%. When the results were compared with those of 13 other groups using a
      phylogenetic tree, they clustered in an intermediate position somewhat nearer to
      those of four sub-Saharan African populations. This is in accordance with
      historical and other genetic data which indicate an important contribution of
      people of African ancestry to this population. The high heterozygosity (80%) and
      the intermediate position in the tree, on the other hand, possibly reflect past
      intermixture of these African-derived individuals with Europeans and Amerindians.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:323-327, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561295
TI  - Evaluation of infection and nutritional status as determinants of cellular
      immunosuppression.
AB  - While an association between severe protein-energy malnutrition and diminished
      cellular immunity has been documented, the impact of lesser grades of
      malnutrition on cellular immunosuppression is less clear. This study emphasizes
      that the relationship between mild-to- moderate malnutrition and cellular immune
      function, assessed through delayed-type hypersensitivity testing, is often
      obscured by the immunosuppressive effects of concurrent infection. Results from
      an 18-month prospective field study of nutritional status, cellular immune
      function and morbidity among 62 nomadic Turkana children ages 8 months to 10
      years were used to quantify the immunosuppressive effects of mild-to-moderate
      malnutrition and infection. When controlling for infection at the time of DTH
      testing, children below -2 s.d. of the reference median weight- for-height or
      weight-for-age were at least 3 times as likely to be anergic (non-responsive) as
      children at the reference median. At the same time, infected children experienced
      a 4.9 times higher risk of being anergic compared to uninfected children. These
      findings suggest that mild-to-moderate malnutrition and infection are significant
      independent risk factors for impaired cellular immune function among Turkana
      children. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:381-390, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561296
TI  - Longitudinal assessment of hormonal and physical alterations during normal
      puberty in boys. IV: Predictions of adult height by the Bayley-Pinneau, Roche
      Wainer-Thissen, and Tanner-Whitehouse methods compared.
AB  - To determine how accurately the Roche-Wainer-Thissen (RWT), Tanner-Whitehouse
      (TW2), and Bayley-Pinneau (BP) prediction models estimated adult height, serial
      height predictions were made for 23 healthy boys (mean initial age 10.4 +/- 1.1
      years) every 8 months from 8-15 years of age. The RWT model was tested using
      Greulich-Pyle (RWT-GP) and Fels (RWT-Fels) bone ages. Stature was measured every
      4 months until near final height was attained (growth rate <1cm . 8 mo-1). Mean
      age at near final height was 18.4 +/- 1.4 years. To assure that the predictions
      were as accurate and precise as possible, bone age assessments were made by
      experts in each method. To investigate the influence of maturation on the
      predictions, the boys were grouped by Fels bone ages: <11 yr, 11-13.99 yr, and 14
      14.99 yr. Comparison of the prediction bias and of the root mean square errors
      (RMSE) showed that the TW2 model gave the most accurate results, followed by the
      RWT and BP models. The adult height was generally underpredicted by the TW2 model
      and overpredicted by the RWT and BP models. The RMSE was reduced for each of the
      models as the bone age approached maturity. The TW2 model had the smallest
      average RMSE in all bone age groups. In the <11 yr bone age group, the RWT-Fels,
      RWT-GP, and BP models produced RMSEs that were 16.4%, 18.4%, 62.1%, respectively,
      greater than the TW2 model. For the 11-13.99 yr group, RMSE by the RWT-Fels, RWT
      GP, and BP models were 7.5%, 18.0%, and 15.2%, respectively, greater than the TW2
      model. In the 14-14.99 yr group the RWT-GP model had a 45.5% greater RMSE than
      the TW2 model, whereas the RWT-Fels model produced a RMSE only 15.2% greater than
      TW2. The RWT-Fels model produced a lower RMSE than the RWT-GP model for all bone
      age groups. Although the data are probably as accurate and precise as presently
      possible, biologically significant error remains, especially with overprediction
      of adult height in normally growing boys by the BP and RWT models. It is
      recommended that regardless of the prediction model implemented, caution be used
      when advising patients of their predicted adult height since all of the models
      tested had outlying predictions. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:371-380, 1997. (c) 1997
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561298
TI  - Tel-Aviv-Heidelberg Three Generation Offspring Study: Genetic and environmental
      sources of variation and covariation among plasma lipids, lipoproteins, and
      apoliproteins.
AB  - Multivariate genetic analysis, implemented in the statistical package for
      pedigree analysis, FISHER, was carried out on a large sample of Israeli pedigrees
      to evaluate heritability and genetic correlations among an array of plasma
      lipids: total cholesterol (TCHL), triglycerides (TRIG), HDL-C and HDL2-C, HDL3-C,
      LDL-C and HDL-C%, apolipoproteins A and B (APO-A1 and APO-B), lipoprotein LP(a)
      and fibrinogen (FIBR). Multiple regression analysis showed that although sex,
      age, smoking and other study environmental factors, have a significant
      contribution to the variation of each plasma lipid, they exert little effect on
      covariation in lipids. Genes, however, are important factors of the variation and
      covariation in lipids. Thus, variance component analysis showed that the genetic
      component of the study variables, adjusted on age, sex and environmental factors,
      ranged between 31% for logarithm-transformed TRIG and 77% for plasma
      concentrations of LP(a). Coefficients of multiple genetic determination of the
      genetic variation of each variable attributable to all of the other variables,
      ranged from low values (<30%) for TRIG, LP(a) and FIBR, to moderate (64%) for
      HDL2-C. The genetic variation of each of the remaining variables was completely
      explained by variation in other lipids. The results of a factor analyses of
      phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlation matrices were similar and
      clearly identified several clusters of variables. The first included APO-A1, HDL
      C, HDL2-C and HDL3-C, and the second-APO-B, LDL-C and THCL. Further analysis
      showed that it was probable the genetic component of variation of HDL3-C plasma
      concentration that fully depended on APO-A1, while those of LDL-C and TCHL fully
      depended on APO-B. The degree of correlation between TRIG, LP(a), FIBR and other
      variables, if any, was considerably lower. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:357-370, 1997. (c)
      1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561297
TI  - Swift and sure-footed on the Savanna: A study of Hadzabe gaits and feet in
      Northern Tanzania.
AB  - Data on footprints and gait of 54 Hadzabe, 6-70 years of age expand understanding
      of pedal morphology of unshod people and assist the development of ideas about
      the evolution of hominid bipedality and upright posture. Contrary to published
      data on gaits and pedal morphology of unshod populations, Hadzabe (also known as
      Hadza) from northern Tanzania exhibit values of stride length, relative stride
      length, and walking speeds that exceed those of rural and small-town populations.
      In all observable plantar features, including foot indices, an interdigital space
      between the hallux and second toe, fanning of the foot anteriorly, and foot
      angles (in-toeing and out-toeing), Hadzabe feet are comparable with those of
      never-shod Machiguengas in Peru. On average, Hadzabe hallucal gaps and ball
      widths are narrower than those of Machiguengas and other unshod short people.
      Hadzabe feet are also characterized by valgus halluces versus the varus halluces
      of never-shod Machiguengas and certain West Africans. Although characterized by a
      valgus toe, Hadzabe hallucal angles, which do not exceed 20 degrees , are lower
      than those of Northern Hemispheric urbanites and shod rural populations of the
      Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Hadzabe also exhibit less medial and lateral
      rotation of the hip joint than Machiguengas do. The heel and the longitudinal
      arch impressions of the Hadzabe footprints closely resemble those of the Laetoli
      bipeds in the manner of weight distribution during locomotion. The striking
      similarity of footprint impressions, especially the heel and the longitudinal
      arch, between Hadzabe and Laetoli hominid footprints clearly imply that the pedal
      features of the Laetoli printmakers are remarkably humanoid. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      9:303-321, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561299
TI  - Sex differences in pubertal growth of the heart.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine sex differences in growth of the heart
      during puberty. Three-year increments of growth of the heart and body structures
      and functions related to heart size were compared between the sexes.
      Echocardiographically estimated left ventricular mass (LVM) represented heart
      size, body surface area (BSA) represented the area supplied by the left
      ventricle, and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) represented a segment of arterial
      resistance. Pubertal changes in these and several other parameters were compared
      in 67 healthy girls and 84 healthy boys followed longitudinally from 11.5 to 14.5
      years. Increments were compared by t-tests. Left ventricular mass of boys was
      larger than in girls. The sex difference was not significant at 11.5 years, but
      increased during the three pubertal years. LVM increased 26% in girls and 53% in
      boys (P <.001). During the same period, BSA increased 22% in girls and 29% in
      boys (P <.001), while DBP increased 6% in girls and 9% in boys (P <.05). The
      larger increment of BSA and DBP in boys corresponds to the sex difference in the
      increment of the heart size. These differences account, in part, for the greater
      increase (P <.001) in physical working capacity in boys compared to girls. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 9:297-302, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561300
TI  - Identifying saltatory growth patterns in infancy: A comparison of results based
      on measurement protocol.
AB  - The present analyses address the question of how frequently time-intensive growth
      measurements need to be taken in order to provide sufficient data for the
      statistical identification of pulsatile saltatory growth patterns during infancy.
      The daily serial growth measurements of three infants during 4 months are
      analyzed in seven subsets, which include progressively fewer data points from
      daily to weekly intervals. Saltatory growth pulse identification and growth
      pattern analyses are compared between the temporally distinctive data sets by the
      saltatory algorithm and continuous curvilinear models. Statistically significant
      pulse identification and saltatory growth pattern resolution decrease with time
      intervals > 2-5 days in these data sets. These results suggest that the
      convenience of a Monday, Wednesday, Friday protocol may not be sufficient to
      characterize saltatory growth in individual infants, and the dependability factor
      is a significant source of error that may contribute to growth pattern
      misperception in data collected by infrequent protocols. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:343
      355, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561301
TI  - Interrelationships of age and the body mass index with risk factors of non
      insulin dependent diabetes in European and migrant Asian males.
AB  - A comparative study of the interrelationships of age and the body mass index
      (BMI) with several risk factors for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
      (NIDDM) in adult White European (hereafter called European n = 262) and migrant
      Indian (n = 39) and Pakistani (n = 100) males residing in Peterborough, East
      Anglia, revealed significantly lower mean total cholesterol (TC), but higher mean
      diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in Asian men. Similar associations between age and
      fasting blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), systolic (SBP), and
      diastolic (DBP) blood pressure were observed in Asian and European men, but TC,
      SBP and DBP differed between the ethnic groups. The BMI showed a significant
      relationship (after removal of the age effect) with SBP and DBP in all ethnic
      groups, but there was no significant ethnic group heterogeneity in the
      associations of BMI with FBG, TC, SBP and DBP. The distributions (age and BMI
      controlled) of TC, SBP and DBP were significantly different in Asians compared
      with Europeans. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:291-296, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561302
TI  - Bone loss, traditional diet, and cold adaptation in Arctic populations.
AB  - North American Inuit and Inupiat ("Eskimo") populations have been described as
      having a lower bone mass relative to Caucasians as a consequence of their
      traditional high-protein "acid-ash" diet. However, this bone buffering mechanism
      has also been implicated as a risk factor for osteoporosis in industrialized
      Caucasian populations, and one recent study has found a positive association
      between dietary protein, and bone mass in premenopausal women. The original
      studies documenting the Eskimo-Caucasian difference in aging bone loss do not
      consider the consequences of population variation in body composition, in
      particular lean body mass (LBM), which correlates with bone mass. The possibility
      also exists that the original reference sample may be exceptional rather than
      normative for bone mineral density (BMD). Regression analysis was conducted on
      published age- and sex-specific cohort means for BMD, and bone mineral content
      adjusted for estimates of LBM for the original Eskimo-Caucasian comparisons, and
      for an additional Caucasian sample from Belgium. Significant differences were
      found between all groups, including Belgians, and the Wisconsin sample for BMD,
      supporting the notion of the latter having exceptional bone quality when measured
      as BMD. When adjusted for LBM, the Eskimo samples are distinct in pattern and
      magnitude of aging bone loss relative to Caucasians, supporting the hypothesis of
      real inter-population differences. However, given the current ambiguity
      surrounding the "protein-calcium buffering" model, an alternative explanation is
      offered. It is hypothesized that the accelerated bone loss among the Inuit and
      Inupiat reflects higher production and utilization of the thyroid hormones, T4
      and T3 , as a mechanism of cold adaptation through enhanced nonshivering
      thermogenesis. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:329-341, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561303
TI  - The patterns of historical population movements in Europe and some of their
      genetic consequences.
AB  - Population movements of 891 ethnic units in Europe over the past 4,200 years, and
      the correlations of these movements with modern genetic distances were
      investigated on a one-degree-square grid of the continent. There is significant
      spatial pattern in movements from sources, to targets, and overall. Patterns
      change significantly over time. Patterns of sources and targets differ
      significantly. Modern movements are more numerous than ancient movements.
      Movements on the periphery of Europe are few in number and are concentrated in
      direction, while Central European movements are numerous and unconcentrated in
      direction. Modern genetic distance is negatively correlated with the amount of
      population exchange between localities. Regional genetic variance is positively
      correlated with number of movements into, but not out of, areas. The findings are
      interpreted in the context of European ethnohistory and population biology. Am.
      J. Hum. Biol. 9:391-404, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561304
TI  - Math anxiety and math performance in children: The mediating roles of working
      memory and math self-concept.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous studies, most of them involving adolescents and adults, have
      evidenced a moderate negative relationship between math anxiety and math
      performance. There are, however, a limited number of studies that have addressed
      the mechanisms underlying this relation. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate
      the role of two possible mediational mechanisms between math anxiety and math
      performance. Specifically, we sought to test the simultaneous mediating role of
      working memory and math self-concept. SAMPLE: A total of 167 children aged 8-12
      years participated in this study. METHODS: Children completed a set of
      questionnaires used to assess math and trait anxiety, math self-concept as well
      as measures of math fluency and math problem-solving. Teachers were asked to rate
      each student's math achievement. As measures of working memory, two backward span
      tasks were administered to the children. RESULTS: A series of multiple mediation
      analyses were conducted. Results indicated that both mediators (working memory
      and math self-concept) contributed to explaining the relationship between math
      anxiety and math achievement. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that working memory
      and self-concept could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at
      helping students with math anxiety. Longitudinal designs could also be used to
      better understand the mediational mechanisms that may explain the relationship
      between math anxiety and math performance.

PMID- 28561305
TI  - Genetic fusion protein 3*STa-ovalbumin is an effective coating antigen in ELISA
      to titrate anti-STa antibodies.
AB  - Heat-stable toxin type I (STa)-ovalbumin chemical conjugates are currently used
      as the only coating antigen in ELISA to titrate anti-STa antibodies for ETEC
      vaccine candidates. STa-ovalbumin chemical conjugation requires STa toxin
      purification, a process that can be carried out by only a couple of laboratories
      and often with a low yield. Alternative ELISA coating antigens are needed for
      anti-STa antibody titration for ETEC vaccine development. In the present study,
      we genetically fused STa toxin gene (three copies) to a modified chicken
      ovalbumin gene for genetic fusion 3*STa-ovalbumin, and examined application of
      this fusion protein as an alternative coating antigen of anti-STa antibody
      titration ELISA. Data showed fusion protein 3*STa-ovalbumin was effectively
      expressed and extracted, and anti-STa antibody titration ELISA using this
      recombinant protein (25 ng per well) or STa-ovalbumin chemical conjugates (10
      ng/well) showed the same levels of sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, mice
      immunized with this fusion protein developed anti-STa antibodies; induced
      antibodies showed in vitro neutralization activity against STa toxin. These
      results indicate that recombinant fusion protein 3*STa-ovalbumin is an effective
      ELISA coating antigen for anti-STa antibody titration, enabling a reliable
      reagent supply to make standardization of STa antibody titration assay feasible
      and to accelerate ETEC vaccine development.

PMID- 28561306
TI  - Stapes prosthesis length and hearing outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: First, to determine if prosthesis length plays a role in optimizing
      successful hearing outcomes in stapedotomy surgery; and second, to determine if
      patient factors such as height are correlated with prosthesis length. STUDY
      DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of
      patients undergoing stapedotomy surgeries with adequate follow up. Length of
      prosthesis, pre-/postoperative audiograms, and follow-up data were obtained.
      RESULTS: The primary group consisted of 227 cases. The prosthesis length ranged
      from 3.75 mm to 4.75 mm (median 4.25 mm). The greatest improvement in
      postoperative air-bone gap (ABG) occurred in the 4.25 mm group, and the least in
      the 3.75 mm group. Patient height showed a positive, although weak, correlation
      with prosthesis length. No findings reached statistical significance. CONCLUSION:
      Accurate measurement of prosthesis length is important for successful
      postoperative hearing outcomes. There is a positive but not significant
      correlation between patient height and prosthesis length. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.
      Laryngoscope, 128:722-726, 2018.

PMID- 28561307
TI  - Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary
      Edentulous Population. Part 2: Blinded Subjective Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the subjective differences in facial esthetics evaluations
      among lay people, general dentists, and prosthodontists, when evaluating images
      of patients wearing a maxillary denture with a labial flange in comparison to an
      experimental flangeless denture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A random sample of 20
      maxillary edentulous patients from the original sample of 31 patients described
      in part 1 of the study was selected for this study. A total of 60 judges
      comprising 15 general dentists, 15 prosthodontists, and 30 lay people were
      recruited for subjective analysis. The judges were blinded about the objectives
      of the study and were asked to rate the facial esthetics of each image using a
      100 mm visual analog scale (VAS) instrument. Four digital images per subject
      (total of 80 images) were evaluated in a random order, twice by all 60 judges. A
      repeated measures general linear mixed modeling method using restricted maximum
      likelihood estimation was performed using mixed procedure in a statistical
      software package to study the differences in evaluations. RESULTS: The overall
      VAS ratings of facial esthetics for images with flangeless dentures were slightly
      lower compared to images with labial flanges, and this difference was
      statistically significant (p < 0.05). This was true for both profile and frontal
      images; however, the magnitude of the difference was too small (no greater than 4
      mm on a 100 mm scale) to be clinically significant. There were no statistically
      significant differences in facial esthetics ratings irrespective of the
      background or gender of the judges. CONCLUSIONS: Flangeless dentures resulted in
      slightly lower ratings of facial esthetics compared to images with a labial
      flange, but the differences were clinically insignificant. This was true for all
      judges comprising general dentists, prosthodontists, and lay people and for both
      frontal and profile images.

PMID- 28561308
TI  - Knowledge, perception, and practice of patients about pityriasis versicolor in
      Kaduna, North Central Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although pityriasis versicolor (PV) is a common fungal infection of
      the skin affecting up to 50% of the population in the tropics, little is known
      about what patients know, believe, or feel about the condition. METHODS: In a
      cross-sectional questionnaire study of 608 consecutive patients attending the
      General Outpatient Department and Skin Clinic of a public hospital in Kaduna,
      Nigeria, self-report of PV, knowledge about its causes, treatments used by
      patients, and perception and feelings about the condition were assessed. RESULTS:
      Overall 608 patients were studied (239/594 [40.2%] males, 355/594 [59.8%]
      females, age 11-49 years, mean +/- SD age of 29.3 +/- 10.1). Lifetime self-report
      prevalence of PV was 271/606 (44.7%) (males: 117/239 [50.0%] females: 148/355
      [41.7%] P = 0.09). Three hundred and twenty-seven of 608 (53.8%) patients
      believed PV was transmitted from another person while 204/608 (33.6%) believed
      the condition was caused by poor personal hygiene. One hundred and thirty of 608
      (21.4%) thought PV was caused by fungi living on the skin. Virtually all
      respondents who had PV had used at least one preparation with more than half
      visiting a healthcare facility. A total of 305/608 (50.2%), 189/608 (31.1%), and
      142/608 (23.4%) respondents reported feeling or likely feeling uncomfortable,
      embarrassed, or ashamed, respectively, about PV. Being considered a dirty person
      (45.6%) and being avoided by other people (28%) were common concerns of
      respondents. CONCLUSION: Most patients did not know what caused PV, and many were
      uncomfortable, embarrassed, and ashamed, and feared being considered dirty and
      avoided by others.

PMID- 28561309
TI  - A Simple Nanocellulose Coating for Self-Cleaning upon Water Action: Molecular
      Design of Stable Surface Hydrophilicity.
AB  - Coating solid surfaces with cellulose nanofibril (CNF) monolayers via physical
      deposition was found to keep the surfaces free of a variety of oils, ranging from
      viscous engine oil to polar n-butanol, upon water action. The self-cleaning
      function was well correlated with the unique molecular structure of the CNF, in
      which abundant surface carboxyl and hydroxy groups are uniformly, densely, and
      symmetrically arranged to form a polar corona on a crystalline nanocellulose
      strand. This isotropic core-corona configuration offers new and easily adoptable
      guidance to design self-cleaning surfaces at the molecular level. Thanks to its
      excellent self-cleaning behavior, the CNF coating converted conventional meshes
      into highly effective membranes for oil-water separation with no prior surface
      treatment required.

PMID- 28561310
TI  - Structurally Diverse Boron-Nitrogen Heterocycles from an N2 O23- Formazanate
      Ligand.
AB  - Five new compounds comprised of unprecedented boron-nitrogen heterocycles have
      been isolated from a single reaction of a potentially tetradentate N2 O23-
      formazanate ligand with BF3 ?OEt2 and NEt3 . Optimized yields for each product
      were obtained through variation of experimental conditions and rationalized in
      terms of relative Gibbs free energies of the products as determined by electronic
      structure calculations. Chemical reduction of two of these compounds resulted in
      the formation of a stable anion, radical anion, and diradical dianion. Structural
      and electronic properties of this new family of redox-active heterocycles were
      characterized using UV/vis absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and X-ray
      crystallography.

PMID- 28561313
TI  - They also serve: Chamorro male fertility in the pre-world war ii period.
AB  - Male fertility, a generally overlooked aspect in studies of human reproductive
      patterns, is examined from the reproductive life histories of Chamorro males with
      essential completed fertility by 1941. Males in this "natural fertility"
      indigenous population of the Pacific island of Guam exhibit low levels of couple
      infertility which are counteracted by high levels of adult male mortality, while
      new unions formed after the death of female partners tend to reduce completed
      fertility by only about one child. Delayed age at the time of union formation is
      largely compensated by reduction in birthspacing intervals among offspring of
      older fathers. Early terminators, formerly fertile couples of reproductive age
      who fail for unspecified biological or behavioral reasons to continue
      reproducing, affect an equal or even larger impact than adult male mortality on
      failure to attain theoretical male fertility maxima in this population. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 10:23-35, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561314
TI  - Comparative study of craniofacial morphology and bite force in Fijians and
      Japanese.
AB  - An anthropological survey was conducted in Fiji in 1994 and 1995 to study dental
      arch form, craniofacial morphology, and bite force of Fijians. Measurements were
      obtained from dental casts, cephalograms, and thin pressure-sensitive sheets
      (Dental Prescale(r)) for bite force analysis. Results were compared with those of
      Japanese. In every direction, the size of the dental arch in Fijians was larger
      than in Japanese. Fijians displayed longer palates, longer mandibles, and
      bimaxillary protrusion. There was no significant difference in upper and lower
      facial heights. FH to lower incisor angle in Fijians was significantly larger
      than in Japanese. Fijians were characterized by a small palatal plane angle,
      occlusal plane angle and mandibular plane angle, and were thus brachyfacial. The
      Japanese tended to be more dolichofacial. The distances from the Cd line to the
      pterygoid muscles, masseter muscles, and teeth in Fijians were significantly
      longer than in Japanese. Occlusal contact areas of Fijians were also greater than
      those of Japanese. The results indicate that the masticatory muscles and
      craniofacial morphologies supporting them would be better integrated in Fijians
      than in Japanese. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:63-72, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561315
TI  - Blood pressure and adiposity: A comparative study of socioeconomically diverse
      groups of Andhra Pradesh, India.
AB  - The effect of adiposity on blood pressures, systolic (SBP), and diastolic (DBP),
      was examined in a sample of 1119 individuals (456 males, 663 females), 18-75
      years, from socioeconomically diverse populations from Southern Andhra Pradesh,
      India. The populations were graded into four socioeconomic groups, group I
      seminomadic Yerukalas, group II-hard working scheduled caste Mala and the
      Muslims, group III-land owning agricultural castes Reddy and Balija, and group IV
      sedentary urban dwelling castes such as Brahmins, Vyshyas, and Marwadis. There
      was a trend of increase in mean blood pressures and the frequency of
      hypertensives (SBP >=160 and/or DBP >=95) with increasing age in all groups, and
      the increase was more distinct from group I to group IV. Mean values of body mass
      index (BMI: weight/height2 ) and body fat (SF4: sum of biceps, triceps,
      subscapular, and suprailiac skinfolds) also showed an increasing trend from group
      I to group IV. A somewhat opposite trend was evident in two indices of fat
      distribution, centripetal fat ratio (CFR: ratio of subscapular to the sum of
      subscapular and triceps skin fold thicknesses) and the relative fat pattern index
      (RFPI: ratio of subscapular skinfold thickness to the sum of subscapular and
      suprailiac skinfold thicknesses). Step-wise regression analysis indicated that
      while one or the other adiposity measures along with one of the age terms
      significantly contributed to SBP variation among males in the affluent groups III
      and IV, neither any adiposity measure nor age explain the variation in group I,
      and only body fat, not age, in group II. A qualitatively similar pattern was
      observed in females, except that BMI explained a significant amount of variation
      in SBP in group I, and only age and not any of the adiposity measures, in group
      IV. Besides age, BMI and fat pattern indices accounted for a significant amount
      of variation in DBP, while RFPI explained a significant amount of variation in
      group IV. The amount of variation in SBP explained by the age and adiposity
      measures increased from the traditional to urbanized groups in males (2.4% to
      24.8%) and females (11.4% to 43.6%). A similar trend was observed in case of DBP
      in both males (0.2% to 15.4%) and females (7.6% to 21.8%). Analysis of covariance
      of the pooled sample suggested that each of five categorical variables-physical
      activity, smoking, income, food habit, and group membership-independently
      explained a significant amount of residual variation in SBP of males, while only
      food habit and social status did so in females. DBP variation, however, was
      significantly accounted for by only three of the five (excluding food habit and
      smoking) categorical variables in males and by none in females. The effect of
      categorical variables on the residual variation in SBP becomes increasingly
      significant from the traditional to the urbanized groups in males, while this
      trend is not consistent in females. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:5-21, 1998. (c) 1998
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561311
TI  - Growth and enzymatic activity of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, a mutualistic
      fungus isolated from the leaf-cutting ant Atta mexicana, on cellulose and
      lignocellulosic biomass.
AB  - : A mutualistic fungus of the leaf-cutting ant Atta mexicana was isolated and
      identified as Leucoagaricus gongylophorus. This isolate had a close phylogenetic
      relationship with L. gongylophorus fungi cultivated by other leaf-cutting ants as
      determined by ITS sequencing. A subcolony started with ~500 A. mexicana workers
      could process 2 g day-1 of plant material and generate a 135 cm3 fungus garden in
      160 days. The presence of gongylidia structures of ~35 MUm was observed on the
      tip of the hyphae. The fungus could grow without ants on semi-solid cultures with
      alpha-cellulose and microcrystalline cellulose and in solid-state cultures with
      grass and sugarcane bagasse, as sole sources of carbon. The maximum CO2
      production rate on grass (Vmax  = 17.5 mg CO2  Lg-1  day-1 ) was three times
      higher than on sugarcane bagasse (Vmax  = 6.6 mg CO2  Lg-1 day-1 ). Recoveries of
      32.9 mgglucose  gbiomass-1 and 12.3 mgglucose  gbiomass-1 were obtained from the
      fungal biomass and the fungus garden, respectively. Endoglucanase activity was
      detected on carboxymethylcellulose agar plates. This is the first study reporting
      the growth of L. gongylophorus from A. mexicana on cellulose and plant material.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: According to the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first report about the growth of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus,
      isolated from the colony of the ant Atta mexicana, on semisolid medium with
      cellulose and solid-state cultures with lignocellulosic materials. The maximum
      CO2 production rate on grass was three times higher than on sugarcane bagasse.
      Endoglucanase activity was detected and it was possible to recover glucose from
      the fungal gongylidia. The cellulolytic activity could be used to process
      lignocellulosic residues and obtain sugar or valuable products, but more work is
      needed in this direction.

PMID- 28561316
TI  - Normal masticatory function of girls and young women: mandibular masticatory
      movements.
AB  - Mandibular masticatory movements were evaluated in 10 young adult women and 12
      young girls. All subjects had normal occlusion with minimal overjet. Masticatory
      movements of the incisors were recorded in three dimensions with an Optotrak(r)
      camera system while subjects chewed gum in a habitual manner for 20 seconds. A
      masticatory analysis program divided each masticatory cycle into four phases and
      averaged the duration, excursions, and velocities of all cycles for each subject.
      Duration of the total cycle was longer in women because they had longer slow
      opening and slow closing phases than girls. Women had a significantly larger
      vertical component of opening during slow opening and the power stroke than
      girls. Women also had a significantly larger posterior component of opening
      during slow opening and the power stroke than did girls. At maximum opening,
      women also tended to have the incisors in a more posterior position. There were
      no differences between the groups for the amount of maximum lateral excursion
      during chewing. Vertical velocity during fast opening and fast closing was slower
      for women, but there were no age-related differences during the slow open and
      slow close phases. Am. J. Human Biol. 10:53-62, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561317
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28561318
TI  - Multilocus DNA profiling using the probe 33.6 in the Tamil Nadu population of
      South India.
AB  - Using the multilocus minisatellite probe 33.6 in combination with the HinfI
      restriction enzyme, the extent of genetic variation detected by DNA
      fingerprinting was estimated in 102 unrelated individuals of the Dravidian Hindu
      population of Tamil Nadu, South India. In this first study of its kind on an
      anthropologically defined Indian population, DNA fragments of size >2.5 kb could
      be reliably scored. Results indicate that the Tamilian Hindus show an average
      number of bands per individual somewhat smaller (15.69 for fragments of size >2.5
      kb) than that in other Caucasian populations. For comparable molecular weight of
      fragment sizes, the Tamilian Hindus show a lower level of band sharing
      probabilities between unrelated individuals compared with other Caucasians.
      Nevertheless, the probe 33.6 offers a high level of individualization of DNA
      fingerprints for unrelated individuals in Tamil Nadu. Computations on expected
      band sharing frequencies between various biological relatives and expected DNA
      fingerprint identity indicate that this multilocus minisatellite probe can be
      efficiently used in resolving forensic identification and parentage testing cases
      in this South Indian population in spite of its high level of inbreeding. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 10:87-93, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561320
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28561319
TI  - Permanent tooth emergence among Zambian schoolchildren: a standard for the
      assignment of ages.
AB  - There is sufficient variation in the timing of permanent tooth emergence to
      warrant population specific standards. Due to the lack of reliable ages in rural
      Zambia, a tooth emergence standard is derived from an urban sample of 543 Zambian
      schoolchildren. The standard allows assignment of an age to a child based on the
      total number of permanent teeth emerged. As a way to evaluate the ability of the
      standard to assign correct ages to Zambian children, a randomly chosen test (10%)
      sample was withheld from the formation of the standard. Accuracy of the standard
      in assigning ages to children in both the test and main samples was assessed in
      +/-0.5, +/-1.0, and +/-2.0 year intervals. Both the main and test samples were
      able to accurately assign correct ages within +/-0.5 year ~40% of the time and
      within +/-1.0 year ~65% of the time for both males and females. To further
      facilitate use in field settings, the standard was visually smoothed. Once again
      the accuracy of the standard was very similar when applied to the main and test
      samples. The smoothed standard was as accurate as the original standard. The
      smoothed standard is thus recommended for application to rural Zambian children
      of unknown or unreliable age. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:45-51, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561321
TI  - Corticomedular index of the right tibia in the diagnosis of osteopenia in
      prehistoric skeletal remains.
AB  - This study examined the diagnostic accuracy of the corticomedular index obtained
      at the midpoint of the shaft of right tibia as an indicator of osteopenia in a
      prehistoric sample composed of 133 individuals. Osteopenia was assessed by a
      histomorphometrical measure of trabecular bone volume (TBV) in an undecalcified
      bone section of a small part of the proximal epiphysis to: Mild, moderate, and
      severe osteopenia were defined as TBV values less than 17.5%, 15%, and 12.5%,
      respectively. The corticomedular index (CI) was determined on X-ray films of the
      tibiae. Mean TBV of the sample was 17.93 +/- 4.97%, it was moderately correlated
      with CI (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001). CI values under 0.20 showed high specificity in
      the diagnosis of all degrees of osteopenia, whereas CI values under 0.275 showed
      relatively high sensitivity (90.4%) in the diagnosis of severe osteopenia. These
      methods were then prospectively applied in a further sample of 41 right tibiae
      also from a prehistoric sample of Gran Canaria. The results were similar to those
      in the larger sample. Thus, CI may be a useful tool in detecting osteopenia in
      earlier populations. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:37-44, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561322
TI  - Cross-sectional survey of growth of urban and rural "cape coloured"
      schoolchildren: anthropometry and functional tests.
AB  - The patterns of physical growth (height, weight, length of body segments,
      circumferences, and widths) and function (grip strength, reflexes, and pulse
      rates) of "Cape Coloured" schoolchildren were studied. Urban and rural groups
      were selected with maximum contrasting socioeconomic status (SES). Data were
      collected between 1986 and 1988 and included 906 males and 1,068 females of high
      SES between 5 and 20 years in the Cape Town urban area and 834 males and 940
      females of low SES between 5 and 19 years in the Little Karoo region. Means and
      standard deviations of 20 characteristics by age are presented separately for
      males and females and urban and rural groups. The heights and weights of
      prepubertal urban children match American reference data, but postpubertally they
      decline somewhat, whereas these measurements of the rural children consistently
      lie ~1 standard deviation below the urban group. Skinfold thicknesses of urban
      children match or exceed the American reference, implying that their nutritional
      needs are being met well. Functional indicators of rural children are much poorer
      than those of urban children. The results of the urban children may provide a
      target for the improvement in growth status of rural children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      10:73-85, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561323
TI  - A Two-Step Synthesis of 2-Spiropiperidines.
AB  - A general two-step synthesis of 2-spiropiperidines has been developed. delta
      Amino-beta-ketoesters can be reacted with cyclic ketones to generate 2
      spiropiperidines in good to excellent yields. The 2-spiropiperidines formed
      occupy an under-explored region of 3D-chemical space and are novel scaffolds for
      use in drug discovery programs. These 2-spiropiperidines can be further
      functionalised to generate small highly sp3 -rich structures, which exhibit an
      excellent likeness to lead-molecules in drug discovery.

PMID- 28561324
TI  - Curcumin Ameliorates Kidney Function and Oxidative Stress in Experimental Chronic
      Kidney Disease.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known to involve inflammation, oxidative stress
      and apoptosis. Here, we investigated the impact of curcumin (diferuloyl methane,
      a phenolic turmeric pigment), which has strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and
      anti-apoptotic activities on kidney structure and function in rats with adenine
      induced CKD. Rats were treated for 5 weeks with adenine to induce CKD-like renal
      damage and combined with three doses of curcumin. Markers of kidney function and
      oxidative stress were quantified in plasma, urine, renal homogenates and on
      kidney tissue. Curcumin was found to significantly abate adenine-induced toxic
      effects such as reduced creatinine clearance, elevated neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin levels and raised urinary N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase
      activities. Curcumin markedly reduced renal morphological damage and
      histopathological markers of inflammation, fibrosis and apoptosis. Curcumin
      further reduced adenine-induced hypertension, urinary albumin, the inflammatory
      cytokines IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha, cystatin C and adiponectin. It restored
      plasma sclerostin concentrations and lowered oxidative stress in renal
      homogenates. In animals treated with the two higher curcumin concentrations,
      alone or in combination with adenine, an increased expression of the
      antioxidative transcription factor Nrf2 was found as well as up-regulation of the
      activity of its direct target glutathione reductase, and of an indirect target,
      the glutathione level. In conclusion, curcumin exhibits salutary effects against
      adenine-induced CKD in rats by reducing inflammation and oxidative stress via up
      regulation of the transcription factor Nrf2.

PMID- 28561325
TI  - Assays for Infliximab Drug Levels and Antibodies: A Matter of Scales and
      Categories.
AB  - Immunogenicity is a frequent cause of secondary non-response to tumour necrosis
      factor (TNF) inhibitors. Drug level measurement and detection of antidrug
      antibodies have been shown to be cost effective and clinically relevant, and a
      large number of assays are available for these purposes. It is, however,
      difficult to compare assays and translate results into clinical meaningful
      information due to different methodological approaches and a lack of assay
      standardization. We have analysed infliximab drug levels and antidrug antibodies
      in 107 patient samples using enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISA),
      immunofluorometric assays (IFMA) and reporter-gene assays (RGA). The RGA gave the
      lowest results for drug levels, whereas the IFMA detected the highest number of
      antidrug antibody positive sera. Applying individualized therapeutic ranges to
      each assay resulted in agreement among all three assays in 74% of samples for
      drug levels and 98% of samples for antidrug antibodies. We found that TNF
      inhibitor monitoring assays measure on different scales and that the agreement
      between quantitative results is limited. However, interassay differences can
      partially be overcome by assay-individualized translations of quantities into
      categories, which also is necessary for a meaningful clinical application. Our
      data demonstrate that assays should not be used interchangeably and that direct
      comparison of quantitative drug levels obtained with different assays should be
      avoided.

PMID- 28561326
TI  - Symptom improvement, recurrence and infection after laparoscopic ventral
      rectopexy using biologic mesh.

PMID- 28561327
TI  - Smoking and olfactory dysfunction: A systematic literature review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature
      was undertaken, examining the association between tobacco smoking and olfactory
      function in humans, utilizing PubMed and Web of Science (1970-2015) as data
      sources. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. METHODS:
      This database review of studies of smoking and olfaction, with a focus on
      identifying high-quality studies (based on modified versions of the Newcastle
      Ottawa Scale), used validated olfactory tests among the generally healthy
      population. RESULTS: We identified 11 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Of 10
      cross-sectional studies, two were excluded from meta-analysis because the cohorts
      they studied were included in another article in the review. In meta-analysis,
      current smokers had substantially higher odds of olfactory dysfunction compared
      to never smokers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.59, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.37
      1.85). In contrast, former smokers were found to have no difference in risk of
      impaired olfaction compared to never smokers (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.91-1.21). The
      single longitudinal study reviewed found a trend toward increased risk of
      olfactory decline over time in ever smokers; this trend was stronger in current
      as compared to former smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Current smoking, but not former
      smoking, is associated with significantly increased risk of olfactory
      dysfunction, suggesting that the effects of smoking on olfaction may be
      reversible. Future studies that prospectively evaluate the impact of smoking
      cessation on improvement in olfactory function are warranted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      N/A. Laryngoscope, 127:1753-1761, 2017.

PMID- 28561328
TI  - Inferior thyroid artery ligation increases hypocalcemia after thyroidectomy: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of truncal ligation of the inferior thyroid
      artery in comparison with ligation of secondary branches as a risk factor for
      postoperative hypocalcemia. DATA SOURCES: A search was conducted using the
      Medical Subject Headings and free-text terms "thyroid*" and "truncal ligation*"
      in PubMed Central, PubMed, Embase, and Latin American and Caribbean Health
      Sciences Literature databases for trials published between January 1985 and
      October 2016. A Google search with the same terms, and a "snowball" approach was
      designed to retrieve the largest number of articles. REVIEW METHODS: Controlled
      trials (randomized or not) of adults who underwent total/bilateral subtotal
      thyroidectomy were searched, and truncal ligation versus nontruncal ligation of
      the inferior thyroid artery was compared. Data were acquired following Preferred
      Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.
      Methodological quality of randomized controlled trials was assessed in accordance
      with Cochrane Collaboration guidelines, and for nonrandomized controlled trials,
      the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale for cohort studies was used. Pooled
      results are presented as risk differences with a random effects model. The main
      outcome was postoperative temporary and definitive hypocalcemia. RESULTS: We
      found 11 nonrandomized controlled trials and nine randomized controlled trials
      with 1940 patients: 977 patients in the trunk ligation group and 963 patients in
      the nontruncal ligation group. The risk difference for biochemical hypocalcemia
      was 6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2% to 11%), for symptomatic hypocalcemia 6%
      (95% CI: 1% to 10%), and definitive hypocalcemia 0% (95% CI: -1% to 1%) in the
      whole group. CONCLUSIONS: Truncal ligation of the inferior thyroid artery
      increases the risk of temporary and symptomatic hypocalcemia but not the risk of
      definitive hypocalcemia. Laryngoscope, 128:534-541, 2018.

PMID- 28561329
TI  - Sputum basophils and asthma diagnosis: dawn of a new era?

PMID- 28561331
TI  - Comparative study of flex heart rate in three samples of Nepali boys.
AB  - Flex heart rate (HR, beats per minute) has assumed increasing importance in
      studies of energy expenditure and physical activity. Flex HR is defined as the
      mean of maximum rest and minimum exercise HR recorded during a standard test.
      This report examines methodological and substantive issues regarding the
      measurement and interpretation of population variation in flex HR values. Flex HR
      was determined for 80 Nepali 10-14-year-old boys living in contrasting physical
      and socioeconomic environments (31 village boys, 24 urban middle-class
      schoolboys, and 25 homeless street boys). The three populations exhibited
      significant differences in flex HR, with villagers averaging lower values than
      school or homeless boys (91, 100, and 103 bpm, respectively, P < 0.0001). They
      also differed in mean resting HR (P < 0.0002), but not in the percentage increase
      of flex over resting HR. To evaluate reliability, flex HR measurements were
      repeated on 14 school boys after a 3-month interval. Mean initial and repeat
      values were not significantly different, but discrepancies were large for
      individual subjects (-15 to +24 bpm). This suggests that flex HR is reliable at
      the population level, but not necessarily stable for individuals over time. The
      range of factors contributing to variation in flex HR between and within
      populations have implications for the use of HR monitoring to estimate levels of
      physical activity. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561332
TI  - Ancient DNA: Methods, progress, and perspectives.
AB  - The advent of the polymerase chain reaction as a standard molecular genetic
      technique and the demonstration that nucleic acids are routinely preserved in
      prehistoric material have led to a dramatic increase in molecular approaches to
      archaeological problems. These genetic approaches to long-standing problems in
      prehistory hold considerable promise to clarify issues of population origins,
      migrations, and settlement patterns, as well as ancestor/descendant
      relationships. The evolving methods for manipulating and analyzing ancient DNA
      (aDNA) are reviewed here, as are more recent applications of these methods to
      anthropologically relevant samples. In addition, new preliminary material is
      presented on mtDNA variation in Anasazi samples from the U.S. Southwest. The
      initial samples analyzed indicate similarity to contemporary populations of the
      Greater Southwest, as evidenced by the modest frequency of a 9bp deletion in
      Region V of the mtDNA molecule, and the possible absence of haplogroup D. (c)
      1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561333
TI  - Genetic structure of the Utah Mormons: A comparison of kinship estimates from DNA
      blood groups, genealogies, and ancestral arrays.
AB  - Kinship estimates based on shared proportions of European ancestry are
      constructed for 284 Utah males born in eight geographic subdivisions. These
      "ancestral kinship" estimates are compared with kinship coefficients based on DNA
      polymorphisms, blood groups, genealogies, isonymy, and migration matrices. At the
      subdivision level, a high correlation is observed between ancestral kinship and
      kinship based on isonymy. Comparing individuals, a significant correlation is
      obtained between ancestral kinship and genealogy derived kinship. Kinship
      estimates based on DNA and blood groups do not correlate significantly with
      ancestral kinship. This is most likely due to the effects of several generations
      of random mating in this population. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561334
TI  - Introduction: Individual, intra-, and inter-population variability in human DNA.

PMID- 28561335
TI  - DNA interpopulational variation in Siberian indigenous populations: The mountain
      Altai.
AB  - Using mtDNA and classical markers, previous studies have found that the Altai are
      genetically divergent from the rest of Siberia. This study uses five variable
      number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci to examine the relationship of the Altai to
      other indigenous Siberian populations. Frequencies of VNTR fragments have been
      obtained from the DNA of 95 individuals living in the Altai village of Mendur
      Sokkon. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows that the Altai are significantly
      different from the Evenki village of Surinda at loci D11S129 and D20S15. In
      addition, the Altai are also statistically different from the Evenki village of
      Poligus at locus D11S129. The test reveals no differences between the Ket village
      of Sulamai and Mendur-Sokkon. The GST value obtained for Siberia is significant
      and is almost equal to that found for the GST of American ethnic groups. The
      significance of the GST values was verified through random resampling of the
      data. The GST value is an effect of the relative isolation of the Evenki as well
      as gene flow into the Kets and Altai; this is shown in a plot of rn versus mean
      heterozygosity. Although genetic differentiation between the Siberian groups is
      significant, an R matrix analysis, which uses American and Siberian ethnic
      groups, shows that the Siberians form a tight cluster. When the R matrix, GST ,
      and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov results are combined, the Altai appear to be
      genetically different among Siberian populations, yet they are not as genetically
      divergent as previous studies have shown. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561330
TI  - Impaired activity of adherens junctions contributes to endothelial dilator
      dysfunction in ageing rat arteries.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Ageing-induced endothelial dysfunction contributes to organ
      dysfunction and progression of cardiovascular disease. VE-cadherin clustering at
      adherens junctions promotes protective endothelial functions, including
      endothelium-dependent dilatation. Ageing increased internalization and
      degradation of VE-cadherin, resulting in impaired activity of adherens junctions.
      Inhibition of VE-cadherin clustering at adherens junctions (function-blocking
      antibody; FBA) reduced endothelial dilatation in young arteries but did not
      affect the already impaired dilatation in old arteries. After junctional
      disruption with the FBA, dilatation was similar in young and old arteries. Src
      tyrosine kinase activity and tyrosine phosphorylation of VE-cadherin were
      increased in old arteries. Src inhibition increased VE-cadherin at adherens
      junctions and increased endothelial dilatation in old, but not young, arteries.
      Src inhibition did not increase dilatation in old arteries treated with the VE
      cadherin FBA. Ageing impairs the activity of adherens junctions, which
      contributes to endothelial dilator dysfunction. Restoring the activity of
      adherens junctions could be of therapeutic benefit in vascular ageing. ABSTRACT:
      Endothelial dilator dysfunction contributes to pathological vascular ageing.
      Experiments assessed whether altered activity of endothelial adherens junctions
      (AJs) might contribute to this dysfunction. Aortas and tail arteries were
      isolated from young (3-4 months) and old (22-24 months) F344 rats. VE-cadherin
      immunofluorescent staining at endothelial AJs and AJ width were reduced in old
      compared to young arteries. A 140 kDa VE-cadherin species was present on the cell
      surface and in TTX-insoluble fractions, consistent with junctional localization.
      Levels of the 140 kDa VE-cadherin were decreased, whereas levels of a TTX-soluble
      115 kDa VE-cadherin species were increased in old compared to young arteries.
      Acetylcholine caused endothelium-dependent dilatation that was decreased in old
      compared to young arteries. Disruption of VE-cadherin clustering at AJs (function
      blocking antibody, FBA) inhibited dilatation to acetylcholine in young, but not
      old, arteries. After the FBA, there was no longer any difference in dilatation
      between old and young arteries. Src activity and tyrosine phosphorylation of VE
      cadherin were increased in old compared to young arteries. In old arteries, Src
      inhibition (saracatinib) increased: (i) 140 kDa VE-cadherin in the TTX-insoluble
      fraction, (ii) VE-cadherin intensity at AJs, (iii) AJ width, and (iv)
      acetylcholine dilatation. In old arteries treated with the FBA, saracatinib no
      longer increased acetylcholine dilatation. Saracatinib did not affect dilatation
      in young arteries. Therefore, ageing impairs AJ activity, which appears to
      reflect Src-induced phosphorylation, internalization and degradation of VE
      cadherin. Moreover, impaired AJ activity can account for the endothelial dilator
      dysfunction in old arteries. Restoring endothelial AJ activity may be a novel
      therapeutic approach to vascular ageing.

PMID- 28561336
TI  - Validity of the body mass index as an indicator of adiposity in an ethnically
      diverse population of youths.
AB  - The primary objective was to investigate the influences of ethnicity and pubertal
      stage on the ability of body mass index (BMI) to rank adiposity in a cohort of
      402 Asian, African, Hispanic, and White Americans, aged 9-25 years. BMI was
      calculated from measured weight and height. Body composition and pubertal stage
      were determined by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and self-rating,
      respectively. Multiple linear regression models with BMI, ethnicity, puberty, and
      age as explanatory variables were used to determine if ethnicity and pubertal
      stage modify the ability of BMI to predict percent of body weight that is fat
      (%BF). Spearman's correlation coefficients of BMI with %BF were also estimated.
      Both ethnicity and pubertal stage interacted with BMI. The correlation between
      BMI and %BF (r) was much higher in females (r = 0.72, P < 0.001) than in males (r
      = 0.15, NS). Among females, correlations did not vary much by pubertal stage, but
      tended to be higher in Blacks. Among males, correlations tended to be low during
      mid-puberty. However, a high correlation between BMI and lean body mass (LBM) was
      consistently observed in mid-pubertal males across all ethnic groups.
      Stratification by quartile of BMI showed that the correlation was >0 (P < .05)
      only in the highest quartile. Thus, in an ethnically diverse cohort of 9-25 year
      olds, the correlation between BMI and %BF is poor in the lower quartiles of BMI.
      In comparison, LBM correlates better with BMI than %BF in the lower quartiles of
      BMI. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561337
TI  - Relationship of skeletal age to limb composition during pubescence.
AB  - The relationships between skeletal age (SA) and limb composition (arms, legs, and
      all four limbs) in terms of fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), muscle mass (MM)
      and bone mineral content (BMC) were investigated in 55 males and 53 females aged
      9-15 years. The Fels method was used to assess hand-wrist SAs which were
      expressed as SA/chronological age (SA/CA). The limb composition data were
      obtained from a Lunar dual-energy x-ray absorptiometer using 3.6z software. The
      means for the limb composition variables increased gradually with age except in
      males for whom FM decreased from 12 to 13 years, and FFM and MM increased
      markedly from 13 to 14 years. There were similar findings when the limb
      composition data were expressed as percentages of body weight. All of the
      regressions of SA/CA on limb composition variables had positive slopes. Each of
      the slopes was significant for males, but nonsignificant for females. (c) 1996
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561338
TI  - Molecular population genetic studies of the island peoples of the South Pacific.
AB  - The introduction of molecular genetic techniques to survey DNA variation directly
      has greatly advanced the study of inter- and intra-population variability. One of
      the first DNA polymorphisms to be surveyed for population variation was the alpha
      globin copy number variants in Melanesia, and this study indicated a new role for
      malarial selection. Subsequently, DNA sequence polymorphism was investigated by
      the definition of haplotypes, which result from linkage disequilibrium among site
      polymorphisms. Distributions of alpha-globin haplotypes clearly demonstrate the
      effects of migration on population affinities in Melanesia and Polynesia.
      Analysis of neutral diversity in the nuclear genome has been enriched by the
      discovery of variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTRs), particularly the
      hypervariable mini-satellites. Highly allelic VNTRs are sensitive to the effects
      of genetic drift caused by bottlenecks or population subdivision, and in Oceania
      they reflect the demography of colonization. Because VNTRs are subject to high
      and variable rates of mutation, they are informative within a range of recent
      evolutionary time scales and, together with other DNA polymorphisms, contribute
      to a more complete interpretation of a population's history. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561339
TI  - Intraindividual variation in the basal metabolic rate of women: Effect of the
      menstrual cycle.
AB  - The validity of using the basal metabolic rate (BMR) to calculate an individual's
      energy requirements is based upon the assumption that the intraindividual
      variation in BMR is small. Early studies (pre-1940) on BMR in women had shown
      that the menstrual cycle may have a profound effect, contributing to high levels
      of intraindividual variation. To investigate this issue further, and to explore
      whether BMR is indeed a biological constant in women, sequential measurements of
      BMR were made in women over one menstrual cycle. Two independent studies were
      undertaken in which the BMR of 12 weight-stable women (not taking the
      contraceptive pill) was measured every day (excluding weekends) for a period of 5
      weeks. The six women participating in the first study were measured using a
      Douglas bag, while the six subjects in the second study were measured with a
      Deltatrac (Datex, Helsinki). Nine of the 12 subjects demonstrated a peak in BMR
      during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, while 8 of the 12 subjects
      exhibited a fall in BMR after the onset of menstruation. Group analysis of the
      results indicated that the BMR during the early follicular phase was
      significantly lower than the BMR during the late luteal phase (Wilcoxon's signed
      rank test: P < 0.01). The level of intraindividual variation was assessed by
      calculating the coefficient of variation (CV) for the measurement period. The CV
      in six of the women exhibited a level of variation comparable to men (2-4%).
      However, intraindividual variation in the BMR of the other six women was
      considerably higher (up to 12%). In these six women, therefore, BMR may not be
      considered a biological constant. All available data on sequential measurements
      of BMR in fertile women were collated from the literature for the first time, and
      statistically analyzed. BMR during the early follicular phase was found to be
      significantly lower (P < 0.05) than during the late luteal phase. Further work on
      the biological constancy of BMR in women and the impact of the menstrual cycle on
      BMR is required. This area is of particular importance given the fact that the
      energy requirements of both individuals and populations are now calculated using
      the BMR. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561340
TI  - Heart rate monitoring of physical activity among village, school, and homeless
      Nepali boys.
AB  - Continuous HR monitoring, in conjunction with self-reports and direct observation
      of physical activity, was undertaken in three samples of 10-13-year-old Nepali
      boys living in different physical and socioeconomic environments. A total of 134
      daytime HR profiles were recorded from 67 boys (76 from 31 villagers, 39 from 20
      urban middle-class schoolboys, and 19 from 16 homeless street boys). Habitual
      levels of physical activity were compared using mean daytime HR (bpm) and the
      following indicators: percentage time during which boys are active (HR> flex,
      defined as an individual's average between resting and exercising HR), moderately
      active (HR> flex + 20%, also HR> 119 bpm), and vigorously active (HR> 139 bpm)
      over 10 hours of daylight. Mean daytime HR (102 bpm) and percentage time spent
      vigorously active (4%) did not differ between samples, despite obvious
      differences in lifestyles; thus better indicators are needed to characterize
      levels of physical activity. Percentage time spent active (HR> flex) was
      significantly higher (P < 0.0001) for villagers participating in subsistence
      activities, as a result of low flex HR values, indicating a higher level of
      physical fitness. Evaluation of moderate physical activity was sensitive to the
      choice of indicator, either an individual calibrated (above flex) or an absolute
      threshold of HR elevation. The former may be more appropriate than the latter to
      compare physical activity levels in populations with different lifestyles and
      levels of physical fitness. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561341
TI  - Y-chromosome-specific restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs):
      Relevance to human evolution and human variation.
AB  - The human Y chromosome comprises two distinct parts: the pseudoautosomal region
      on the tip of the short arm that pairs with the X chromosome in male meiosis and
      undergoes recombination, and the remainder of the chromosome, which is male
      specific and not involved in recombination. It is this haploid part of the Y
      chromosome, with its accumulation of mutations, that is of interest to human
      biologists because the variation within it potentially reflects the paternal line
      in human evolution (just as mtDNA analysis represents maternal lineages). The Y
      chromosome, however, appears to contain very few restriction fragment length
      polymorphisms (RFLPs), and furthermore, understanding of the polymorphic basis of
      some of these is presently imperfect. These latter problems include the
      possibility of multiple origins of the same allele, especially in repeat sequence
      polymorphisms, and failure to recognize the ancestral allele at a locus. All of
      these restrictions and difficulties mean that no comprehensive understanding of
      either Y chromosome evolution or its variability among the world's populations is
      yet possible. This report examines the current knowledge of Y-chromosome
      population genetics obtained using probes such as p12f, p49a, pYAP, and pYalphal,
      including their use in measuring gene flow and also in population histories and
      differentiation. Most studies have reported allele frequencies at a particular
      locus, but a fuller understanding of Y chromosome evolution and variation will
      require haplotype data. One interesting observation is the low diversity for some
      Y-chromosome polymorphisms in African populations compared to Caucasoids, a
      contrast to the pattern seen for other DNA polymorphisms. The role of different
      mate choice systems in acting to substantially reduce Y-chromosome variation is
      considered. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561342
TI  - An evolutionary perspective on maladaptive traits and cultural conformity.
AB  - The problem of maladaptive cultural traits is explored through the notion of
      adaptive psychological mechanisms. It is suggested that the theory of a specific
      conformity mechanism is plausible, supported by multidisciplinary data, and
      helpful in explaining the proliferation and persistence of human maladaptive
      behavior. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561343
TI  - Pan-Arctic sea ice-algal chl a biomass and suitable habitat are largely
      underestimated for multiyear ice.
AB  - There is mounting evidence that multiyear ice (MYI) is a unique component of the
      Arctic Ocean and may play a more important ecological role than previously
      assumed. This study improves our understanding of the potential of MYI as a
      suitable habitat for sea ice algae on a pan-Arctic scale. We sampled sea ice
      cores from MYI and first-year sea ice (FYI) within the Lincoln Sea during four
      consecutive spring seasons. This included four MYI hummocks with a mean chl a
      biomass of 2.0 mg/m2 , a value significantly higher than FYI and MYI refrozen
      ponds. Our results support the hypothesis that MYI hummocks can host substantial
      ice-algal biomass and represent a reliable ice-algal habitat due to the (quasi-)
      permanent low-snow surface of these features. We identified an ice-algal habitat
      threshold value for calculated light transmittance of 0.014%. Ice classes and
      coverage of suitable ice-algal habitat were determined from snow and ice surveys.
      These ice classes and associated coverage of suitable habitat were applied to pan
      Arctic CryoSat-2 snow and ice thickness data products. This habitat
      classification accounted for the variability of the snow and ice properties and
      showed an areal coverage of suitable ice-algal habitat within the MYI-covered
      region of 0.54 million km2 (8.5% of total ice area). This is 27 times greater
      than the areal coverage of 0.02 million km2 (0.3% of total ice area) determined
      using the conventional block-model classification, which assigns single-parameter
      values to each grid cell and does not account for subgrid cell variability. This
      emphasizes the importance of accounting for variable snow and ice conditions in
      all sea ice studies. Furthermore, our results indicate the loss of MYI will also
      mean the loss of reliable ice-algal habitat during spring when food is sparse and
      many organisms depend on ice-algae.

PMID- 28561344
TI  - Bilateral vestibulopathy with positive Tullio phenomenon.
AB  - : We describe the case of a 34-year-old patient presenting with the unique
      combination of bilateral vestibulopathy in combination with noise- and pressure
      induced nystagmus. Bilateral vestibular dysfunction was demonstrated by
      pathological results in video-based head impulse testing as well as in caloric
      testing. In contrast, cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials were normal,
      demonstrating normal sacculus function. Due to the positive Tullio phenomenon,
      semicircular dehiscence syndrome was excluded. Recently, this symptom combination
      was related to the histopathological finding of vestibular atelectasis. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: NA.Laryngoscope, 128:1223-1225, 2018.

PMID- 28561346
TI  - SPONTANEOUS MUTATIONS FOR LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS IN AN OBLIGATE PARTHENOGEN.
AB  - By allowing mutations to accumulate spontaneously in different lines derived from
      a single female of an obligately parthenogenetic Daphnia, it has become possible
      to estimate the rate at which new genetic variance for life-history characters
      arises as well as to identify the average pleiotropic effects of mutant
      polygenes. The estimated polygenic mutation rates are quite compatible with those
      available for sexual organisms. The results are therefore in conflict with the
      hypothesis that parthenogens compensate for the loss of recombination by
      elevating the mutation rate. Based on these results, it is argued that the rate
      of phenotypic evolution may be enhanced as much as five-fold by sexuality.
      However, if dominance or epistatic gene interactions are of major importance, or
      if the sensitivity to environmental effects is reduced or the rate of polygenic
      mutation enhanced under asexuality, the full advantage of sex will not be
      attained and may even be reversed. Regardless of these conditions, it is clear
      that the mutational rate of production of polygenic variation is sufficient to
      allow significant rates of phenotypic evolution in purely asexual organisms.

PMID- 28561345
TI  - Outcome after one year of upper airway stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea in
      a multicenter German post-market study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: Upper airway stimulation (UAS) of the hypoglossal nerve has
      been implemented in the routine clinical practice for patients with moderate-to
      severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who could not adhere to continuous positive
      airway pressure. This study reports objective and patient-reported outcome after
      12 months of implantation. STUDY DESIGN: Multicenter prospective single-arm
      study. METHODS: Consecutive patients who received the UAS system (Inspire Medical
      Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, Maple Grove, MN, U.S.A.) were enrolled in
      three German centers. Key study exclusion criteria included body mass index > 35
      kg/m2 , apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) < 15 or > 65, or complete concentric collapse
      at the soft palate during sedated endoscopy. Data collection at 6- and 12-month
      visit include home sleep test and patient-reported outcome measures. RESULTS:
      Among the total of 60 participants, the median AHI reduced from 28.6 to 9.5 from
      baseline to 12 months. Patient-reported outcome measured in Epworth Sleepiness
      Scale and Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire both improved significantly
      from baseline to 12 months. The average usage time was 39.1 +/- 14.9 hours per
      week among all participants based on recordings by the implanted device. One
      patient requested a removal of the device for cosmetic and other personal reasons
      and was completed without sequelae. CONCLUSION: This study supported that UAS is
      a safe and effective treatment option for patients with OSA in routine clinical
      practice. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:509-515, 2018.

PMID- 28561347
TI  - EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISM IN KIN-STRUCTURED AND RANDOM SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS.
AB  - A. population structure favorable to the evolution of an altruistic trait is
      studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The model is based on a small-scale
      nonindustrial human society but seems generalizable to other highly social
      mammals. Three hierarchical levels are recognized: 1) the ecologically isolated
      local group (hamlet) which may be composed of kin and/or unrelated individuals;
      2) the deme (settlement) comprising several such groups which interbreed; and 3)
      the set of demes (metapopulation) among which gene flow occurs. The first two
      levels of the model are based on D. S. Wilson's structured deme concept; the
      third allows for gene flow among demes in the metapopulation and for the
      structured diffusion of alleles across a wider area than might be included within
      the scope of a single deme. The simulation models genetic drift by a process of
      hamlet formation which may be random, or variously kin-structured. Hamlets may
      then become extinct based on a probability function of their gene frequencies.
      Individual selection within settlements is modeled deterministically, and gene
      flow among settlements is modeled as two-dimensional steppingstone migration of
      random or kin-structured groups. Results of the simulations show that, with
      realistic values for group sizes, moderate extinction rate, and high rates of
      migration (m > 27%), disadvantageous alleles (s = 10% and 25%) may increase
      markedly due to differential hamlet extinction over the course of 50 generations.
      The greater the degree of kin-structuring of founder groups, the higher the
      variance among hamlets and the faster the rate of increase of the allele for
      altruism. Nonetheless, even in some randomly founded groups, a clear increase in
      the altruism gene frequency occurred. It is also notable that kin-structured
      group selection by hamlet extinction may be effective when the initial frequency
      of altruism genes is very low (average of one per deme) and among a relatively
      small number of demes (25). Thus the process of group extinction in a
      hierarchically structured population allows rapid increase of an allele for
      altruism under plausible demographic conditions.

PMID- 28561348
TI  - THE PRECISION OF HISTOCOMPATIBILITY RESPONSE IN CLONAL RECOGNITION IN TROPICAL
      MARINE SPONGES.
AB  - Recently discovered histocompatibility-like phenomena in sponges (Phylum
      Porifera) have prompted attempts to measure the precision with which allogeneic
      grafts are recognized and rejected. The results of these investigations have been
      extremely varied, ranging from suggestions that allorecognition does not occur to
      suggestions that every genetically distinct individual may be unique in
      histocompatibility type. Interpretation of these findings is complicated by the
      variation in methods and species used by different workers. Here we compare
      various measurements of allorecognition precision for several species of tropical
      marine sponges. From our results we conclude that 1) tissue implant grafts are
      more prone to artifact than grafts between intact sponges; 2) the possibility of
      clonal propogation should be considered when graft acceptances are observed
      between sponges selected from a single population; and 3) allozyme variation in
      Niphates erecta shows that occasional grafts between genetically different
      individuals may be accepted.

PMID- 28561349
TI  - BUTTERFLY WING MARKINGS ARE MORE ADVANTAGEOUS DURING HANDLING THAN DURING THE
      INITIAL STRIKE OF AN AVIAN PREDATOR.
AB  - The "false head" hypothesis states that due to the posterior ventral wing
      markings of certain butterflies which resemble a "false head," visually hunting
      predators, such as birds, are deceived into attacking the hind wing area rather
      than the true head of the butterfly. In the laboratory, six groups of
      artificially marked dead cabbage butterflies, Pieris rapae, were presented to
      Blue Jays, Cyanocitta cristata. Of the six "false head" markings, only the
      eyespot significantly influenced the point of attack. All of the "false head"
      markings, however, led to a greater proportion of attacks to the hind wing area
      of the butterfly. In the course of prey handling following an initial attack,
      each of the six "false head" markings significantly directed predator handling
      strikes away from the true head of captive butterflies to the anal angle of the
      hind wing. In a second experiment, live P. rapae with "false head" markings were
      mishandled and thus escaped, significantly more frequently than controls.
      Therefore, "false head" markings may confer a selective advantage by increasing
      the probability of escape, particularly during handling.

PMID- 28561350
TI  - FORTHCOMING MEETING.

PMID- 28561351
TI  - INTRAPOPULATIONAL VARIATION IN POLLEN-MEDIATED GENE FLOW IN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA
      L.
AB  - The extent of genetic variation in pollen-mediated gene flow distance was
      measured for a population of the wind-pollinated herb, Plantago lanceolata.
      Twenty-nine genotypes were collected from a natural population, clonally
      replicated, and grown to reproductive maturity in a greenhouse. Relative gene
      flow distances were measured for each replicate and genotype in a wind tunnel.
      Approximately five percent of the total variation in gene flow distance was
      attributable to variation among genotypes. Most of the remaining variation was
      attributable to differences between the early part of the growing season, when
      most of the flowering occurs, and the remainder of the season, when flowering is
      sparse. The rankings of the genotypes' gene flow distances showed significant
      concordance between the early-season measures and measures from later in the
      summer. There was no correlation between the average inflorescence height for a
      plant and the average gene flow distance for that plant. For analysis of pollen
      characteristics suspected as causal factors of variation in gene flow distance,
      the variation in gene flow distance was divided into two components: that due to
      environmental (seasonal) differences, and that due to the differences among
      genotypes within runs. Variation in both the buoyant properties of the pollen
      grains and their adhesiveness was significantly partially correlated with
      environmental variation in gene flow distance, while only the buoyant properties
      of the pollen grains were significantly partially correlated with among-genotype
      variation in gene flow distances.

PMID- 28561352
TI  - GROUP SIZE FACTORS AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION OF MORPHOMETRIC CORRELATION.
AB  - Within-locality correlations among eight morphological traits of the fundatrix
      and among 15 morphological traits of the alate fundatrigeniae of the aphid
      Pemphigus populicaulis Fitch were examined for among-locality variation. A
      jackknife procedure revealed highly significant differences among correlation
      matrices representing 34 local samples from eastern North America. Most bivariate
      correlations also differed significantly among samples. Although very low
      correlations cannot differ, for moderate or strong correlations the average
      magnitude of correlation is not a good predictor of the degree of interlocality
      difference. Nearly half of the variation among localities is in the level of
      "overall correlation," which is positively correlated with intralocality size
      variation. Despite significant differences among localities, spatial
      autocorrelation tests failed to reveal any significant geographic pattern in
      correlations. Monte Carlo experiments suggest that if geographic patterns in the
      correlations were of the same magnitude as those for the means of these traits,
      some of these patterns would have been detected. Factor analyses of the pooled
      within-locality correlation matrices, after oblique rotation to simple structure,
      reveal appendage and body-size factors for both alates and stem mothers. In
      general, correlations between traits with high loadings on the same factor differ
      among localities, whereas substantial correlations that do not vary
      geographically are between traits that are not well resolved by the factor
      analyses. It is hypothesized that the apparently random geographic differences in
      correlation are caused by chance differences in the mode of response to short
      term selection. Geographic patterns in trait means are established by selection,
      but, because local population sizes are finite, similar response to selection
      occurs by diverse physiological or developmental mechanisms in different
      populations, just as replicate lines in artificial selection experiments may
      achieve the same response by diverse mechanisms. These diverse mechanisms of
      response will have diverse effects on genetic variance and covariance, causing
      correlation patterns to vary geographically. Several forces will oppose continued
      divergence of these patterns.

PMID- 28561353
TI  - THE COSTS OF CHANGING SEX AND THE ONTOGENY OF MALES UNDER CONTEST COMPETITION FOR
      MATES.
AB  - In its simplest form, the size-advantage hypothesis predicts that individuals
      should change sex in order to increase their reproductive success. In terms of
      lifetime expectations, this must be true for the hypothesis to hold. However, as
      we review here, some loss of reproductive success may occur immediately after sex
      change. Unavoidable costs (e.g., those resulting from a restructuring of the
      gonad) have not been adequately distinguished from adaptive allocations of
      resources which diminish current reproduction in favor of large increases in
      future mating success. This strategy can become particularly important for
      species in which a few males monopolize matings. To illustrate this idea, we
      describe the changes in mating frequency as mature females become sexually active
      males in three species of protogynous wrasses. In one species, a male defends a
      permanent, all-purpose territory composed of up to 12 females. When he is
      removed, a single female changes sex and successfully completes mating sequences
      with all females in the territory within an average of 5.6 days. This duration
      roughly corresponds to the time required for functional transformation of gonads;
      thus, individuals in this species suffer few reproductive losses as a result of
      changing sex. The largest males in two other species mate with an average of 25
      to 50 females per day, but only by successfully defending reproductive
      territories. In one of those species, individuals that changed sex mated
      infrequently over a two-year period after sexual transformation and, by the end
      of the study, were still well below the average size of males that consistently
      obtained territories. Sex-changed individuals in the other species had very low
      reproductive success for up to 45% of the maximum lifespan as a male. It is
      improbable that the substantial cost of changing sex in the latter two species
      results from gonad restructuring or from mistakes due to imprecise cues for sex
      change. Instead, the cost appears to represent an investment in growth rather
      than current reproduction as a means of rapidly attaining a size advantage when
      individuals face intense competition for extraordinarily successful mating
      territories.

PMID- 28561354
TI  - LOCAL POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION FOR COMPATIBILITY IN AN ANNUAL LEGUME AND ITS
      HOST-SPECIFIC FUNGAL PATHOGEN.
AB  - Severe attack by the fungal pathogen Synchytrium decipiens frequently occurs in
      natural populations of the annual plant Amphicarpaea bracteata (Leguminosae) in
      eastern North America. Field transplant experiments indicate that there is
      significant population differentiation in the plant-fungus association over
      distances of 1 km or greater: plants transplanted back into their population of
      origin become heavily infected, while foreign plants from populations 1 or 100 km
      away experience little or no infection, even though these foreign plants are
      subject to heavy fungal attack in their native populations. To investigate the
      fine structure of population differentiation, progeny of A. bracteata plants
      collected at six sites at 30 m intervals along a transect were inoculated with a
      single strain of S. decipiens in a controlled environment. Fungal lesions were
      initiated in all 36 plant progeny groups tested, yet there was highly
      significant, 5-fold variation among plants from different sites in the mean
      number of fungal lesions developing per plant. In addition, all fungal lesions
      aborted without maturing spores on all plants from one site on the transect.
      Fungal lesion abortion rates averaged only 9% on plants from the other five
      sites. Such local population differentiation in plant-pathogen compatibility may
      be related to A. bracteata's high degree of self-pollination. Limited long
      distance recombination in A. bracteata due to self-pollination and spatially
      restricted pollen flow may be a major factor preventing the evolution of
      increased plant resistance to fungal attack.

PMID- 28561355
TI  - THE COLONIZATION OF DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA IN CHILE. II. CLINES IN THE CHROMOSOMAL
      ARRANGEMENTS.
AB  - Drosophila subobscura is a Palearctic species that was first detected in the New
      World in Puerto Montt (Chile) in February 1978. Since that time, it has spread
      over a broad area and increased in population density. The South American
      populations exhibit a high level of chromosomal polymorphism: 20 different
      arrangements exist, distributed among five chromosomes. Chromosomal arrangement
      heterozygosity varies from 0.55 to 0.61 in the nine populations examined.
      Incipient clines in the frequencies of the arrangements are appearing; these
      clines follow the same latitudinal direction as in the Old World. Wing length
      significantly decreases with latitude, as it does in Europe. The colonization of
      South America by D. subobscura appears to be a major natural experiment with
      outcomes that duplicate the distributional patterns-in chromosomal polymorphism
      and in wing length-observed in the Old World, thereby strongly supporting the
      adaptive significance of these patterns. The data show a very rapid effect of
      natural selection promoting genetic differentiation among natural populations.

PMID- 28561356
TI  - GENETIC COVARIATION AMONG LIFE-HISTORY COMPONENTS: THE EFFECT OF NOVEL
      ENVIRONMENTS.

PMID- 28561357
TI  - ON THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRISTYLY.
AB  - Darwin proposed that the function of the stamen-style polymorphism in
      heterostylous plants is to increase the probability of legitimate (compatible)
      pollinations among the floral morphs. Conspicuous pollen trimorphism in
      tristylous Pontederia cordata enables a test of the hypothesis. Comparison of the
      composition of pollen loads in naturally pollinated stigmas of intact and
      emasculated flowers were made at a population in Paugh Lake, Ontario, which was
      visited primarily by bumblebees. The magnitude of legitimate pollination was
      analyzed by ANOVA. In intact flowers, significant legitimate pollination was
      detected in the long-styled morph only. Following emasculation legitimate
      pollination was evident in the long- and short-styled morphs, with the mid-styled
      morph just short of displaying significant legitimate pollination. Similar
      results were obtained by chi-square analysis. It has been suggested that
      heterostyly may reduce mutual interference between maternal and paternal
      reproductive function. Two aspects of pollen-stigma interference were
      investigated in P. cordata. The potential importance of stigmatic or stylar
      clogging by incompatible pollen was examined by controlled field pollinations and
      measurements of seed set. The results indicate that prior application of large
      amounts of incompatible pollen has no significant effect on the seed set of open
      pollinated inflorescences. Comparison of legitimate pollen capture in intact and
      emasculated flowers provided no evidence that the presence of stamens within
      flowers of the floral morphs interferes with the receipt of legitimate pollen.
      Pollen-stigma interference remains to be demonstrated in heterostylous plants.

PMID- 28561358
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF INDO-WEST PACIFIC ANGELFISHES (PISCES:
      POMACANTHIDAE).
AB  - Analysis of the relationships between duration of the pelagic larval stage (as
      indicated by otolith microstructure), adult size, and the extent of geographic
      distribution for Indo-West Pacific angelfishes (Pomacanthidae) indicates that
      neither adult size nor larval duration significantly predicts extent of
      distribution, either individually or jointly in a multiple regression. These
      results are robust for both the family as a whole and the genus best represented
      in our data (Centropyge). If larval duration and adult size do have an effect, it
      is only jointly and at the genus level. However, larval duration and adult size
      do correlate significantly and negatively with one another. The operational
      factor seems to be egg size, which correlates positively with adult size, and
      negatively with duration of the pelagic larval stage. Similar correlations are
      evident in both marine invertebrates and at least some other coral-reef fishes,
      suggesting they are of widespread significance. The limited ability of either
      reproductive parameter to predict extent of species distribution indicates,
      first, that even in a group as morphologically conservative as the Indo-West
      Pacific pomacanthids, neither a two-fold difference between species in larval
      duration nor a two order of magnitude difference in female fecundity markedly
      affects extant distributions; and secondly, that either undescribed biological
      factors or historical constraints are of paramount importance. Available evidence
      suggests that dispersal abilities of most coral reef fishes, in fact, may be
      limited, despite the nearly universal occurrence of a pelagic stage in
      development.

PMID- 28561359
TI  - CONFIDENCE LIMITS ON PHYLOGENIES: AN APPROACH USING THE BOOTSTRAP.
AB  - The recently-developed statistical method known as the "bootstrap" can be used to
      place confidence intervals on phylogenies. It involves resampling points from
      one's own data, with replacement, to create a series of bootstrap samples of the
      same size as the original data. Each of these is analyzed, and the variation
      among the resulting estimates taken to indicate the size of the error involved in
      making estimates from the original data. In the case of phylogenies, it is argued
      that the proper method of resampling is to keep all of the original species while
      sampling characters with replacement, under the assumption that the characters
      have been independently drawn by the systematist and have evolved independently.
      Majority-rule consensus trees can be used to construct a phylogeny showing all of
      the inferred monophyletic groups that occurred in a majority of the bootstrap
      samples. If a group shows up 95% of the time or more, the evidence for it is
      taken to be statistically significant. Existing computer programs can be used to
      analyze different bootstrap samples by using weights on the characters, the
      weight of a character being how many times it was drawn in bootstrap sampling.
      When all characters are perfectly compatible, as envisioned by Hennig, bootstrap
      sampling becomes unnecessary; the bootstrap method would show significant
      evidence for a group if it is defined by three or more characters.

PMID- 28561360
TI  - LIFE HISTORY STUDIES OF THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS).
      VI. PLUMAGE POLYMORPHISM, ASSORTATIVE MATING AND FITNESS.
AB  - The investigated the hypothesis that positive assortative mating for plumage
      coloration observed in populations of the dichromatic Lesser Snow Goose (Anser
      caerulescens caerulescens) evolved and persists due to selective advantages
      accruing to individuals choosing mates phenotypically similar to themselves. We
      examined potential differences between pure (white * white, blue * blue) and
      mixed (white * blue, blue * white) pairs for an array of fitness components
      related to both fecundity and viability. While no differences were detected for
      most components, mixed pairs consistently enjoyed enhanced nesting success
      relative to their pure counterparts. In addition, pre-reproductive viability and
      female offspring recruitment were significantly greater for mixed pairs for some
      of the cohorts examined. Not only have we failed to find enhanced reproductive
      success associated with positive assortment, we have provided evidence that there
      is some advantage associated with negative assortment. In light of our findings,
      we suggest: 1) that positive assortment results from the use of familial color as
      one element in species recognition; 2) that the enhanced fitness of mixed pairs,
      particularly with respect to nesting success, results from complementation of
      parental behavior; and 3) that while negative assortment will not likely become
      the rule in this population, the selective advantage of mixed pairs is a
      potential determinant of pair type frequencies in the La Perouse Bay population.

PMID- 28561361
TI  - MICROGEOGRAPHIC LINEAGE ANALYSIS BY MITOCHONDRIAL GENOTYPE: VARIATION IN THE
      COTTON RAT (SIGMODON HISPIDUS).
AB  - We evaluate the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic markers to describe
      population structure and matrilineal kinship on a microgeographic scale. An
      analysis of restriction site variation in 134 cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus)
      collected from a 3.2 hectare field revealed significant spatial and temporal
      heterogeneity in frequencies of mtDNA genotypes among nest sites. Inspection of
      particular genotypes provided additional information about minimum numbers of
      female lineages (family units) per nest site, and the possible matrilineal
      affiliations of individuals. However, since shared genotypes are not necessarily
      synapomorphs having arisen within the study area, conclusions about dispersal
      must remain reserved. Study of the maternally-transmitted mtDNA genome offers
      novel perspectives on the meaning of microgeographic population structure.

PMID- 28561362
TI  - REPLY TO GILBERT.

PMID- 28561363
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN HAWAIIAN BIDENS.
AB  - The genus Bidens (Asteraceae) has undergone extensive adaptive radiation on the
      Hawaiian Islands. The 19 species and eight subspecies endemic to Hawaii exhibit
      much more morphological and ecological differentiation than the continental
      members of the genus. However, the Hawaiian taxa have the same chromosome number
      and retain the capacity to interbreed in all possible combinations. Twenty-two
      populations of 15 Hawaiian taxa and four populations of American taxa were
      compared at 21 loci controlling eight enzyme systems. Populations of Hawaiian
      taxa are highly polymorphic. However, little genetic differentiation has occurred
      among taxa in spite of the high levels of genetic variability. Genetic identities
      calculated for pairs of populations show that populations of the same taxon are
      genetically more similar than are populations belonging to different taxa, but
      all values are high. The level of genetic differentiation that has occurred among
      the species of Hawaiian Bidens is comparable to the level of genetic differences
      found among populations within single continental plant species. Moreover, there
      is no correlation between the isozyme data and morphological data. No groups of
      taxa are evident in the genetic data, although morphological groups exist.
      Genetic differentiation at isozyme loci has not occurred at the same rate as the
      acquisition of presumably adaptive morphological and ecological characters in
      Hawaiian Bidens. Adaptive radiation may be limited to a few genes controlling
      morphological and ecological characters.

PMID- 28561364
TI  - OVIPOSITION SITE SELECTION BY DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.
AB  - The effects of texture and larval residues in the medium on oviposition site
      selection (OSS) by Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans were studied.
      Drosophila melanogaster laid over 95% of its eggs in sieved medium (vs. unsieved
      medium); D. simulans laid all of its eggs in sieved medium. Surgical removal of
      antennal segments, and of fore-, mid-, or hindtarsi did not affect this result,
      indicating that sense organs involved in discriminating between sieved and
      unsieved medium are not confined to only one of the tested structures. In a
      "multiple choice" experiment, females were allowed to lay eggs in sieved medium
      of three types: unconditioned (fresh) medium, medium conditioned by D.
      melanogaster larvae (i.e., medium containing larval residues of D. melanogaster),
      and medium conditioned by D. simulans larvae. This choice experiment was
      performed with D. melanogaster and with D. simulans, using three densities of
      females (10, 20, and 40 per experimental unit). Both species laid more eggs in
      unconditioned medium than in either of the conditioned media, and density had no
      effect. D. melanogaster laid more eggs near the edges of food patches than in the
      center, whereas D. simulans showed no preference for edge or center. Under
      crowded conditions, both species survived at a higher rate in conditioned media
      (egg-to-adult survival) than in unconditioned medium, leading to the anomalous
      conclusion that females of these species seem not to maximize the survival of
      their offspring. This anomaly was partially resolved by the finding that medium
      already containing larvae gave lower survival rates than unoccupied medium.

PMID- 28561366
TI  - GENETIC ORIGIN OF MALE DIPLOIDY IN THE FIRE ANT, SOLENOPSIS INVICTA (HYMENOPTERA:
      FORMICIDAE), AND ITS EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE.
AB  - Male diploidy was studied in natural populations of the fire ant, Solenopsis
      invicta, in order to find an explanation from population genetics for the
      apparently common occurrence of this phenomenon in some North American
      populations. The association of male diploidy with polygyne (more than one queen
      per colony) populations in this species led us to expect that the two phenomena
      are causally linked. We proposed three hypotheses, based on current knowledge of
      sex-determining mechanisms in the Hymenoptera, to explain the loss of genetic
      diversity associated with high rates of diploid male production in S. invicta: a)
      allelic diversity was reduced during colonization of North America by a small
      founder group; b) allelic diversity was reduced during subsequent subfounding of
      the several polygyne populations; and c) genetic structuring of polygyne
      populations due to local inbreeding caused reduced allelic diversity and/or
      increased homozygosity. An extensive survey revealed that diploid males are
      common in all four polygyne (P) populations studied, and that none occur in the
      monogyne (M) population in north-central Georgia. On the other hand, newly mated
      (i.e., colony-founding) queens from this same M population produced diploid males
      in the laboratory, and in the Georgia M and P populations, the frequencies of
      queens that produce diploid males were shown to be similar. We conclude that the
      frequent production of diploid males in S. invicta has resulted from a loss of
      allelic diversity during colonization of North America rather than from any
      special genetic attribute of P populations. We found no evidence for genetic
      structuring of the Georgia P population or for decreased allelic diversity
      relative to the Georgia M population. Thus, the exclusive occurrence of diploid
      males in P populations does not reflect a fundamental difference between P and M
      populations in the genetic determinants of male diploidy but is, rather, the
      result of differential mortality of diploid-male-producing colonies of the two
      forms. In view of these results, the common occurrence of male diploidy in the P
      form of S. invicta cannot be taken as evidence of a role for kin selection in the
      evolution of polygyny. (In this paper, "polygyny" is used to refer to a multiple
      queen society.) Studies of the progeny of single queens with allozyme markers
      demonstrated that diploid male S. invicta are produced biparentally, as in other
      hymenopteran species. Diploid males were found to take part in the normal summer
      mating flights in the Georgia P population, although the significance of this
      behavior is unknown. Males sampled from two P populations exhibited bimodal size
      distributions, with the diploid males consistently larger than haploids. Assuming
      a single locus sex determinant, we estimate 15 alleles at this locus for both
      forms of the ant in North America.

PMID- 28561367
TI  - A MOLECULAR APPROACH TO THE ROLE OF HISTORICITY IN EVOLUTION. I. EXPERIMENTAL
      DESIGN WITH ENZYME POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - I investigate the role of the past history (characterized by two inverse
      sequences of three environments) experienced by Drosophila melanogaster
      populations, on the allozyme frequencies at four loci (alpha-Gpdh, Adh, Est-6,
      Pgm) in a common and constant final environment. The only locus for which an
      effect of past history was detected is Adh. Although not unambiguous, this result
      is discussed in terms of interactions between this locus and other polymorphic
      loci. For Est-6 and Pgm, no influence of past history was seen. As for alpha
      Gpdh, the substantial heterogeneity between replicate populations belonging to
      the same historical series is probably due to a hitch-hiking effect of genes
      surrounding this locus. More generally, the role of historicity (i.e., the
      factors originating from the past history of a population and being accountable
      for its contemporary evolution) in creating genetic diversity between populations
      and among species is discussed.

PMID- 28561368
TI  - COMMENT ON MUTAGENESIS AND COMPETITION IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28561369
TI  - PATTERNS OF CHARACTER DIVERGENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ECOTYPES OF
      DALECHAMPIA SCANDENS (EUPHORBIACEAE).
AB  - The variation of four floral characters (resin-gland area, gland-stigma distance,
      gland-anther distance, and anther-stigma distance) was analyzed across 15
      populations of Dalechampia scandens occurring sympatrically, in various
      combinations, with five other congeners. Univariate and multivariate analysis of
      variance and a posteriori comparison tests indicate that there are significant
      statistical patterns of character divergence away from sympatric congeners for
      three of the floral characters. These characters, which on the basis of common
      garden studies appear to be under genetic control, may not vary independently;
      i.e., genetic control may be overlapping. The characters appear to be
      functionally related. Populations of Dalechampia scandens occurring sympatrically
      with congeners possessing relatively large resin glands, large gland-stigma
      distances and large anther-stigma distances (e.g., D. dioscoreifolia and D.
      affinis) have significantly smaller resin glands, gland-stigma distances and
      anther-stigma distances than do populations occurring sympatrically with
      congeners with relatively small resin glands, gland-stigma distances, and anther
      stigma distances (e.g., D. cissifolia, D. heteromorpha and D. schottii).
      Populations of D. scandens not sympatric with other Dalechampia species generally
      have intermediately sized structures. The pattern of bidirectional divergence is
      consistent with the evolutionary scenario that selection against interspecific
      pollination has resulted in local ecotypic differentiation and character
      displacement in populations sympatric with ecologically similar congeners.

PMID- 28561371
TI  - REDUCTION IN PAGE CHARGES.

PMID- 28561370
TI  - FORAGING DYNAMICS OF BIRD PREDATORS ON OVERWINTERING MONARCH BUTTERFLIES IN
      MEXICO.
AB  - By suspending nets within and adjacent to a 2.25 hectare overwintering colony of
      monarch butterflies in Mexico, we estimated that black-backed orioles and black
      headed grosbeaks killed 4,550 to 34,300 and an average of 15,067 butterflies per
      day. A conservative calculation of mortality through the 135 day overwintering
      season was 2.034 million butterflies, or about 9% of the colony. The birds preyed
      selectively upon male butterflies, possibly because of a difference in fat
      content, or possibly because females contain higher concentrations and larger
      amounts of cardenolide or other defensive chemicals. The risk to individual
      monarchs of being killed was much greater on the colony periphery and in thinned
      areas of the forest. Bird predation thus is sufficient to have played a major
      role in shaping the evolution of the monarch's overwintering and aggregation
      behavior. Substantial daily variation in predation intensity occurred, 26% of
      which was attributable to the birds eating more butterflies on colder days, and
      30% of which was attributable to a 7.85 day predation cycle. The hypothesis is
      put forward that the birds feed cyclically because they build up toxic levels of
      cardenolides or other defensive chemicals contained in the butterflies. The
      cyclic predation may reduce total predation on the colony by as much as 50%. Such
      chemical-based group protection is interpreted as a fortuitous by-product of the
      evolution of unpalatability through selective processes acting on other phases of
      the monarch's life history.

PMID- 28561372
TI  - MxA is a positive regulator of type I IFN signaling in HCV infection.
AB  - Type I interferons (IFNs) are a family of primordial cytokines that respond to
      various pathogen infections including Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Type I IFNs signal
      through Jak/STAT pathway leading to the production of a few hundred interferon
      stimulated genes (ISGs). The aim of this study was to explore the role of one of
      these ISGs, MxA in HCV infection and type I IFN production. Plasmid encoding MxA
      was cloned into PcDNA3.1-3*tag vector and MxA expression was confirmed both at
      mRNA (RT-PCR) and protein (Western blot, WB) levels. IFNalpha and IFNbeta
      productions were quantified by RT-PCR from cell lysate and by ELISA kit from
      culture medium following MxA over-expression in Huh7.5.1 cells. The activation
      status of Jak/STAT signaling pathway was examined at three levels: p-STAT1 (WB),
      interferon sensitive response element (ISRE) activity (dual luciferase reporter
      gene assay), and levels of ISG expression (RT-qPCR). J6/JFH1 HCV culture system
      was used to study the role of MxA in HCV replication. Our findings indicated that
      MxA over-expression inhibited HCV replication and potentiated the IFNalpha
      mediated anti-HCV activity; MxA stimulated the production of IFNalpha, IFNbeta,
      and enhanced IFNalpha-induced activation of Jak-STAT signaling pathway. We
      concluded that MxA is a positive regulator of type I IFN signaling in HCV
      infection.

PMID- 28561374
TI  - Practical guide for selection of 1 H qNMR acquisition and processing parameters
      confirmed by automated spectra evaluation.
AB  - In our recent paper, a new technique for automated spectra integration and
      quality control of the acquired results in qNMR was developed and validated
      (Monakhova & Diehl, Magn. Res. Chem. 2017, doi: 10.1002/mrc.4591). The present
      study is focused on the influence of acquisition and postacquisition parameters
      on the developed automated routine in particular, and on the quantitative NMR
      (qNMR) results in general, which has not been undertaken previously in a
      systematic and automated manner. Results are presented for a number of model
      mixtures and authentic pharmaceutical products measured on 500- and 600-MHz NMR
      spectrometers. The influence of the most important acquisition (spectral width,
      transmitter [frequency] offset, number of scans, and time domain) and processing
      (size of real spectrum, deconvolution, Gaussian window multiplication, and line
      broadening) parameters for qNMR was automatically investigated. Moderate
      modification of the majority of the investigated parameters from default
      instrument settings within evaluated ranges does not significantly affect the
      trueness and precision of the qNMR. Lite Gaussian window multiplication resulted
      in accuracy improvement of the qNMR output and is recommended for routine
      measurements. In general, given that the acquisition and processing parameters
      were selected based on the presented guidelines, automated qNMR analysis can be
      employed for reproducible high-precision concentration measurements in practice.

PMID- 28561373
TI  - c-Jun N-Terminal Kinases (JNKs) Are Critical Mediators of Osteoblast Activity In
      Vivo.
AB  - The c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) are ancient and evolutionarily conserved
      regulators of proliferation, differentiation, and cell death responses.
      Currently, in vitro studies offer conflicting data about whether the JNK pathway
      augments or represses osteoblast differentiation, and the contribution of the JNK
      pathway to regulation of bone mass in vivo remains unclear. Here we show that
      Jnk1-/- mice display severe osteopenia due to impaired bone formation, whereas
      Jnk2-/- mice display a mild osteopenia only evident in long bones. In order to
      both confirm that these effects were osteoblast intrinsic and assess whether
      redundancy with JNK1 masks a potential contribution of JNK2, mice with a
      conditional deletion of both JNK1 and JNK2 floxed conditional alleles in
      osteoblasts (Jnk1-2osx ) were bred. These mice displayed a similar degree of
      osteopenia to Jnk1-/- mice due to decreased bone formation. In vitro, Jnk1-/-
      osteoblasts display a selective defect in the late stages of osteoblast
      differentiation with impaired mineralization activity. Downstream of JNK1,
      phosphorylation of JUN is impaired in Jnk1-/- osteoblasts. Transcriptome analysis
      showed that JNK1 is required for upregulation of several osteoblast-derived
      proangiogenic factors such as IGF2 and VEGFa. Accordingly, JNK1 deletion results
      in a significant reduction skeletal vasculature in mice. Taken together, this
      study establishes that JNK1 is a key mediator of osteoblast function in vivo and
      in vitro. (c) 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28561375
TI  - Finding a Trans-Affirmative Provider: Challenges Faced by Trans and Gender
      Diverse Psychologists and Psychology Trainees.
AB  - This article explores some of the challenges faced by trans and gender diverse
      (TGD) individuals who not only are attempting to access trans-affirmative care,
      but who are also members of the very profession from which they are seeking
      services. The authors explore challenges related to finding supervision,
      accessing care for assessment services, and finding a provider for personal
      counseling. With each example, the authors unpack the challenges and also address
      the implications for training for all involved. Based on these challenges that
      TGD psychologists and trainees face in attempting to access care, the authors
      provide recommendations related to trans-affirmative training for psychologists.

PMID- 28561376
TI  - Digital story telling in social justice nursing education.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore and evaluate how digital
      stories integrated into public health nursing education can teach social justice
      concepts essential for nurse leadership. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Four digital stories
      were selected and incorporated into a public health nursing course. Students were
      asked to reflect on these stories. A retrospective qualitative analysis was
      completed on the student narrative reflections and analyzed for themes. A total
      of 108 narrative reflections of public health nursing students were included from
      2015 to 2016. RESULTS: Themes were identified based on analysis and include
      Encountering Vulnerability, Questioning Systems and Choosing Moral Courage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Digital stories offer an innovative medium to convey the importance
      of story, advance social justice as an essential practice of nursing, and create
      opportunities that addresses social justice in nursing and in developing nursing
      leaders.

PMID- 28561377
TI  - Country-wide seroprevalence studies on Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and
      hantavirus infections in general population of Bulgaria.
AB  - Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and hantavirus infections are the two
      viral hemorrhagic fevers spread in Europe. To test actual circulation of CCHF
      virus (CCHFV) and hantaviruses in Bulgaria, we conducted country-wide
      seroepidemiological studies. Serum samples were collected prospectively from 1500
      residents of all 28 districts in Bulgaria. CCHFV seroprevalence of 3.7% was
      revealed. Anamnesis for tick bites, contact with livestock, age over 40 years and
      residency in Haskovo district were found as risk factors. The highest CCHFV
      seroprevalence was observed in the known endemic districts in southeastern
      Bulgaria: Haskovo (28%) and Yambol (12%). Reactive samples were found in
      residents of 20 of the 28 districts in Bulgaria. In comparison with the previous
      studies, the data presented indicate that CCHFV increased substantially its
      circulation in the endemic regions and was introduced in many new areas.
      Hantavirus seroprevalence was based on results of the immunoblot and estimated as
      3.1%. Surprisingly, contrary to all available data, Puumala virus seroprevalence
      rate was 2.3% versus 0.8% of Dobrava-Belgrade virus. Evidence for hantavirus IgG
      seropositivity was found in residents of 23 of the 28 districts in the country.
      The first hantavirus seroprevalence study in Bulgaria showed that Puumala virus
      is probably more wide-spread in the country than Dobrava-Belgrade virus.

PMID- 28561378
TI  - Epidemiology of bloodstream infections after myeloablative and non-myeloablative
      allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A single-center cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (allo-HSCT) often develop bloodstream infections (BSI). We aimed
      to describe the etiologies and antibiotic resistance patterns of BSI after allo
      HSCT, and, as knowledge about the impact of conditioning regimen is limited, we
      looked at the incidence, timing, risk factors, and mortality of BSI separately
      for myeloablative (MA)- and non-myeloablative (NMA)-conditioned patients.
      METHODS: All 460 patients (207 MA- and 253 NMA-conditioned) who underwent their
      first allo-HSCT at our center from 2008 to 2013 were included in a historical
      cohort. BSI were registered from initiation of conditioning to day 360 after
      transplantation. RESULTS: BSI occurred in 34% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 28%,
      41%) of MA-conditioned patients and in 17% (95% CI: 12%, 22%) of NMA-conditioned
      patients. Of all isolates, 68% were gram-positive bacteria (GPB), 23% gram
      negative bacteria (GNB), and 9% fungi. The GPB/GNB ratio declined from 2008 to
      2014 (P for trend <.01). Of all GNB, 47% were multidrug resistant (MDR), but the
      proportion declined over the study period. In a multivariate Cox regression
      model, only acute graft-versus-host disease was associated with a higher hazard
      of first BSI (hazard ratio 2.50, 95% CI: 1.48, 4.21). Overall 30-day survival
      after a BSI was higher for MA-conditioned patients than for NMA-conditioned
      patients (89% vs 74%, P=.04). CONCLUSION: MA-conditioned patients experience BSI
      more often than NMA-conditioned patients in the year after allo-HSCT. While BSI
      are increasingly caused by GNB, the rate of MDR GNB is declining.

PMID- 28561379
TI  - Cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of 131 I and 60 Co in follicular thyroid cancer
      cell (WRO) with and without recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone
      treatment.
AB  - Normally, differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) tends to be biologically indolent,
      highly curable and has an excellent prognosis. However, the treatment may fail
      when the cancer has lost radioiodine avidity. The present study was carried out
      in order to evaluate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of 131 I and 60 Co and
      radioiodine uptake in WRO cells, derived from DTC, harboring the BRAFV600E
      mutation. WRO cells showed a relatively slow cell cycle of 96.3 h with an
      unstable karyotype containing various double minutes. The genotoxicity assay
      (micronucleus test) showed a relative high radioresistance to 131 I (0.07-3.70
      MBq/mL), independent of treatment with recombinant human thyroid-stimulating
      hormone (rhTSH). For the cytotoxicity assay, WRO cells were also relatively
      resistant to 60 Co (range: 0.2-8.3 Gy), but with a gradual decrease of viability
      as a function of time for higher doses (20 and 40 Gy, starting from the fifth to
      sixth day). For internal irradiation with 131 I, WRO cells showed a decline in
      viability at radioactive concentration higher than 1.85 MBq/mL; this was even
      more effective at 3.70 MBq/mL, but only when preceded by rhTSH, in coincidence
      with the highest level of 131 I uptake. These data show promising results, since
      the loss of the ability of thyroid cells to concentrate radioiodine is considered
      to be one of the main factors responsible for the failure of 131 I therapy in
      patients with DTC. The use of tumor-derived cell lines as a model for in vivo
      tumor requires, however, further investigations and deep evaluation of the
      corresponding in vivo effects. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:451-461, 2017. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28561380
TI  - Functional Adaptation of the Calcaneus in Historical Foot Binding.
AB  - The normal structure of human feet is optimized for shock dampening during
      walking and running. Foot binding was a historical practice in China aimed at
      restricting the growth of female feet for aesthetic reasons. In a bound foot the
      shock-dampening function normally facilitated by the foot arches is withdrawn,
      resulting in the foot functioning as a rigid extension of the lower leg. An
      interesting question inspiring this study regards the nature of adaptation of the
      heel bone to this nonphysiological function using the parameters of cancellous
      bone anisotropy and 3D fabric topology and a novel intertrabecular angle (ITA)
      analysis. We found that the trabecular microarchitecture of the normal heel bone,
      but not of the bound foot, adapts to function by increased anisotropy and
      preferred orientation of trabeculae. The anisotropic texture in the normal heel
      bone consistently follows the physiological stress trajectories. However, in the
      bound foot heel bone the characteristic anisotropy pattern fails to develop,
      reflecting the lack of a normal biomechanical input. Moreover, the basic
      topological blueprint of cancellous bone investigated by the ITA method is nearly
      invariant in both normal and bound foot. These findings suggest that the
      anisotropic cancellous bone texture is an acquired characteristic that reflects
      recurrent loading conditions; conversely, an inadequate biomechanical input
      precludes the formation of anisotropic texture. This opens a long-sought-after
      possibility to reconstruct bone function from its form. The conserved topological
      parameters characterize the generic 3D fabric of cancellous bone, which is to a
      large extent independent of its adaptation to recurrent loading and perhaps
      determines the mechanical competence of trabecular bone regardless of its
      functional adaptation. (c) 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28561381
TI  - Estrogen-dependent efficacy of limb ischemic preconditioning in female rats.
AB  - Our aim was to examine the effects of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) on the local
      periosteal and systemic inflammatory consequences of hindlimb ischemia
      reperfusion (IR) in Sprague-Dawley rats with chronic estrogen deficiency (13
      weeks after ovariectomy, OVX) in the presence and absence of chronic 17beta
      estradiol supplementation (E2, 20 ug kg-1 , 5 days/week for 5 weeks); sham
      operated (non-OVX) animals served as controls. As assessed by intravital
      fluorescence microscopy, rolling and the firm adhesion of polymorphonuclear
      neutrophil leukocytes (PMNs) gave similar results in the Sham + IR and OVX + IR
      groups in the tibial periosteal microcirculation during the 3-h reperfusion
      period after a 60-min tourniquet ischemia. Postischemic increases in periosteal
      PMN adhesion and PMN-derived adhesion molecule CD11b expressions, however, were
      significantly reduced by IPC (two cycles of 10'/10') in Sham animals, but not in
      OVX animals; neither plasma free radical levels (as measured by
      chemiluminescence), nor TNF-alpha release was affected by IPC. E2 supplementation
      in OVX animals restored the IPC-related microcirculatory integrity and PMN
      derived CD11b levels, and TNF-alpha and free radical levels were reduced by IPC
      only with E2. An enhanced estrogen receptor beta expression could also be
      demonstrated after E2 in the periosteum. Overall, the beneficial periosteal
      microcirculatory effects of limb IPC are lost in chronic estrogen deficiency, but
      they can be restored by E2 supplementation. This suggests that the presence of
      endogenous estrogen is a necessary facilitating factor of the anti-inflammatory
      protection provided by limb IPC in females. The IPC-independent effects of E2 on
      inflammatory reactions should also be taken into account in this model. (c) 2017
      Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
      36:97-105, 2018.

PMID- 28561382
TI  - Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary
      Edentulous Population - Part 3: Unblinded and Discriminatory Subjective Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the subjective differences in direct lip support assessments
      and to determine if dentists and laypeople are able to discern and correctly
      identify direct changes in lip support between flange and flangeless dentures.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A random sample of 20 maxillary edentulous patients
      described in part 2 of the study was used for analysis. A total of 60 judges
      comprising 15 general dentists, 15 prosthodontists, and 30 laypeople, the
      majority of who were distinct from part 2 of the study, were recruited. All
      images used in this study were cropped at the infraorbital level and converted to
      black and white tone, to encourage the judges to focus on lip support. The judges
      were un-blinded to the study objectives and told what to look for, and were asked
      to rate the lip support of each of the 80 images on a 100 mm visual analog scale
      (VAS). The judges then took a discriminatory sensory analysis test (triangle
      test) where they were required to correctly identify the image with a flangeless
      denture out of a set of 3 images. Both the VAS and triangle test ratings were
      conducted twice in a random order, and mean ratings were used for all analyses.
      RESULTS: The overall VAS ratings of lip support for images with flangeless
      dentures were slightly lower compared to images with labial flanges, and this
      difference was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). This was true for both
      profile and frontal images. However, the magnitude of these differences was too
      small (no greater than 5 mm on a 100-mm scale) to be clinically significant or
      meaningful. The differences in VAS ratings were not significant between the
      judges. For the triangle test, judges overall correctly identified the flangeless
      denture image in 55% of frontal image sets and 60% of profile image sets. The
      difference in correct identification rate between frontal and profile images was
      statistically significant (p < 0.0001). For frontal and profile images,
      prosthodontists had the highest correct identification rate (61% and 69%),
      followed by general dentists (53% and 68%) and by laypeople (53% and 50%). The
      difference in correct identification rate was statistically significant between
      various judges (p = 0.012). For all judges, the likelihood of correctly
      identifying images with flangeless dentures was significantly greater than 1/3,
      which was the minimum chance for correct identification (p < 0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Removal of a labial flange in a maxillary denture resulted in
      slightly lower ratings of lip support compared to images with a labial flange,
      but the differences were clinically insignificant. When judges were forced to
      look for differences, flangeless dentures were detected more often in profile
      images. Prosthodontists detected the flangeless dentures more often than general
      dentists and laypeople.

PMID- 28561383
TI  - Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary
      Edentulous Population. Part 4: Patient-Centered Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the subjective differences in facial esthetics evaluations and
      the ability to distinguish facial changes due to changes in lip support, when
      evaluated by patients themselves. An additional objective was to study the
      differences between patients' self-evaluation versus evaluation of other
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 22 maxillary edentulous patients from
      the original sample of 31 patients described in Part 1 of the study, returned to
      participate in this part of the study. The 22 patients acted as judges for all
      images in this study, and were therefore un-blinded to the objectives and details
      of the study. Patients first completed evaluation of facial esthetics on a visual
      analog scale (VAS). Four digital images per patient (total of 88 images) were
      evaluated in a random order, twice by all 22 patients. The mean scores from all
      judgments were used as the outcomes to be analyzed. All patients then took a
      discriminatory sensory analysis test (triangle test) where they were required to
      correctly identify the image with a flangeless denture out of a set of 3 images.
      Both the VAS and triangle test ratings were conducted twice in a random order,
      and mean ratings were used for all analyses. RESULTS: For VAS analysis, there
      were no statistically significant or clinically significant differences in facial
      esthetics ratings between flange and flangeless dentures (p < 0.05). This was
      true for both profile and frontal images, irrespective of self-evaluation versus
      evaluation of other patients, years of patient edentulism, and judge (patient)
      gender. For the triangle test, frontal images had a correct identification rate
      of 50.2% and profile images of 50.4%, and the difference was not significant.
      There were no significant differences in triangle test results with respect to
      self-evaluation versus evaluation of other patients and judge (patient) gender.
      For all patients, the likelihood of correctly identifying images with flangeless
      dentures was significantly greater than 1/3, which was the minimum chance for
      correct identification (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Flangeless dentures resulted in
      no differences in facial esthetics ratings for frontal and profile images, when
      evaluated by patients. When patients were forced to look for differences,
      flangeless dentures were detected in half of the image sets. These findings were
      similar for self-evaluation versus evaluation of other patients and for both
      patient genders.

PMID- 28561385
TI  - The decanalization of weight, recumbent length, and head circumference during
      infancy.
AB  - This study has estimated the extent to which 659 infants in the Fels Longitudinal
      Study maintained their positions in canals on the current NCHS growth charts
      during 6- and 12-month intervals. These canals are the zones between adjacent
      major percentile lines (5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 95th) on the
      growth charts. The probabilities of increases or decreases in level by two or
      more canals were calculated. Additionally, the probabilities were calculated for
      changes in level from between the 5th and 10th percentiles or between the 90th
      and 95th percentiles to zones beyond the 5th or 95th percentiles, respectively
      (transitions from normal limits). The analyses were made from birth to 36 months
      for weight and from 1-36 months for length and head circumference. The
      probabilities of decanalization were larger for weight than for length or head
      circumference for the interval from birth to 6 months, but not later. The
      probabilities for each variable analyzed tended to be large for young age
      intervals and larger for changes toward the medians than for changes from the
      medians. The directions of decanalization for weight from birth to 6 months were
      related to birth weight and those for length were related to midparent stature
      for the intervals from 6-12 months in each sex, 1-12 months in girls, and 6-18
      months in boys. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:689-698, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561384
TI  - Bone wax extrusion through postauricular wounds: A case series.
AB  - Bone wax is an effective hemostatic agent that generally is considered safe.
      However, because it is nonabsorbable, significant complications can occur. We
      present the first two reported cases of delayed migration and extrusion of bone
      wax through postauricular wounds due to foreign body reaction and granuloma
      formation following mastoid surgery. We also present a literature review of
      complications associated with intraoperative bone wax use and discuss alternative
      hemostatic agents. Laryngoscope, 128:369-372, 2018.

PMID- 28561386
TI  - Principal components analysis of morphological measures in the Quebec family
      study: Familial correlations.
AB  - Principal components analysis was carried out on 13 morphological dimensions
      collected in the first phase of the Quebec Family Study (weight, height, fat mass
      (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), body surface area, six skinfolds, arm and calf
      girths). The first four principal components (PCs) account for 85.9% of the total
      phenotypic variance in the anthropometric dimensions. The first PC has almost
      equal loadings on the 13 variables, indicating its role as an overall body size
      and adiposity measure. This interpretation is supported by its high
      intraindividual correlations with other composite indices such as the BMI and sum
      of six skinfolds (SF6). An interesting finding compared to other studies dealing
      with PCs of only skinfolds is that the second component appears to contrast
      measures of body fat with those that are fat free or that represent overall body
      size, thus indexing a different dimension to the fat patterning. It explains 17%
      of the total phenotypic variance. The commonly observed component for the trunk
      extremity contrast is represented as the fourth principal component. The third
      component primarily indexes height, although an extremity-trunk contrast is also
      weakly represented. Together, the 3rd and 4th components explain ~10% of the
      total variance. The intraindividual correlation of PC3 with the trunk-extremity
      skinfold ratio (TER) is moderately negative (-0.307), whereas that of PC4 is
      highly positive (0.764). Analysis of familial correlations (parent-offspring and
      sibling) shows that the familial effect (transmissibility) ranges 0.43-0.75 for
      the first four PCs. The lack of significant spouse correlation for most of the
      PCs suggests that these familial effects may be primarily genetic. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:725-733, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561387
TI  - Secular changes in stature, weight, fatness, overweight, and obesity in urban
      African American adolescents from the mid-1950's to the mid-1990's.

PMID- 28561388
TI  - Delayed visuomotor development in children born to adolescent mothers.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to determine visuomotor development of
      children born to adolescent mothers and to compare it with that observed in those
      born to adult mothers. The sample included 59 urban Mestizo children, 7-8 years
      of age, who were born to adolescent mothers, and 73 urban Mestizo children of the
      same age, who were born to adult mothers (>20 years). Visuomotor development was
      assessed using the Bender test. Children born to adolescent mothers had a higher
      number of errors in the Bender Gestalt scores compared to those obtained by
      children born to adult mothers. Items of perseverance and integration in the
      Bender-Gestalt test were the most affected in children born to adolescent
      mothers. Of the children born to adolescent mothers, 13.8% repeated a school
      grade compared to 4.3% of children born to adult mothers (P < 0.01). Differences
      in sociocultural circumstances between the adolescent and adult mothers may have
      influenced the results. Nevertheless, children born to adolescent mothers have
      delayed visuomotor maturation and a low performance at school. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      9:717-723, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561390
TI  - The effect of maternal nutritional variables on birthweight outcomes of infants
      born to Sherpa women at low and high altitudes in Nepal.
AB  - A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted in Nepal to investigate the
      effects of maternal nutrition on the pregnancy outcome of Sherpa women living at
      low and high altitudes. It was hypothesized that variation in nutrition and
      energy expenditure of pregnant women would correlate with variation in infant
      birthweight. Anthropometric dimensions, energy consumption and expenditure, and
      demographic and migration information were collected on a large sample of women
      living in two regions of Nepal: the Khumbu region (3480-3930 m) and Kathmandu
      (1330 m). This paper reports findings for a subset of the sample; 17 women at low
      altitude and 21 women at high altitude who became pregnant and were followed
      during pregnancy. The results showed no significant differences for mean
      birthweights between the low (X = 3069 +/- 341 grams) and high (X = 3099 +/- 483
      grams) altitude samples. Furthermore, larger birthweights were associated with
      larger weight gains during pregnancy for the high altitude sample. A stepwise
      regression analysis found a negative association between high energy expenditures
      during the second trimester and infant birthweight, but positive associations
      were found between third trimester calcium and second trimester protein intakes
      and birthweight. Prepregnancy BMI and stature were associated positively with
      infant birthweight, suggesting that good nutritional status prior to pregnancy
      may play an important role in pregnancy outcome for this population. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:751-763, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561389
TI  - Seasonal height velocity variation in boys and girls 8-18 years.
AB  - This study investigated the seasonal variation in height velocity during the
      summer and winter months. The subjects were healthy children, 109 boys and 119
      girls, 8.5-18.0 years of age who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study of
      bone mineral accrual. Anthropometric dimensions were taken twice a year, in the
      fall in conjunction with the annual bone assessment measures and 6 months later.
      Six-month velocities for height were calculated, which produced 982 velocities in
      boys and 1043 velocities in girls. Over the age range studied, summer velocities
      accounted for at least 67% of the total yearly growth in boys and 60% of the
      total yearly growth in girls. Separate two-way ANOVAs (season by age) were used
      to compare the summer and winter velocities over half-yearly age increments in
      both sexes. Season and age effects were significant (P < 0.01), but the
      interaction effect was not significant. The seasonal differences converged in the
      later years when the summer and winter velocities decreased to zero. The results
      demonstrate the importance of considering seasonal variation in height velocity
      in designing studies and in assessing and interpreting growth data. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:709-715, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561391
TI  - Estimation of the optimum density of the Selk'nam from Tierra del Fuego:
      Inferences about human dynamics in extreme environments.
AB  - The Selk'nam, a hunter-gatherer group that inhabited Isla Grande (Tierra del
      Fuego), became extinct soon after coming into contact with Europeans (XIX
      century). The population of this tribe was estimated from mission archives and
      the application of a hunter-gatherer ecological model. Both approaches suggest
      that the widely accepted number of 3,500-4,000 individuals for this human group
      is an overestimation, and that 1,500 may be more accurate. This yields a
      population density of 0.04 persons/km2 , a very low value, but which is in
      accordance with the extremely harsh environment. The low population density was
      an essential adaptive strategy to the complex ecological equilibrium of Tierra
      del Fuego. Indirectly, this factor may have contributed to the rapid
      disappearance of this population with the breakdown of the traditional way of
      life. In addition, the missionary registers show that most of the aborigines died
      of infectious diseases, a situation exacerbated by the high population density in
      the missions. The reconstruction of the decline of the Selk'nam population may be
      used to evaluate the impact of European contact on other American hunter-gatherer
      groups and also to elucidate the adaptive patterns of human groups in adverse
      environments. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:699-708, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561392
TI  - Worldwide genetic diversity at the HLA-DQA1 locus.
AB  - Genotype, gene, or phenotype frequency data, obtained by PCR analysis with
      sequence specific oligonucleotide probes at the HLA-DQA1 locus, in 176 population
      samples, each consisting of 30 or more individuals, from all around the world
      were analyzed. The sampled populations were assigned to the following nine
      groups: African, Afro-American, American Native, American Mestizo, Asian,
      American Caucasian, European Caucasian, Caucasian from other regions, and Pacific
      Islanders. Observed genotype proportions agreed with Hardy-Weinberg expectations
      (HWE) in 90 of the 102 populations for which genotype data are available. The 12
      discordant population samples were of substantial mixed origin. For these
      discordant populations, 41 of the 252 (population by genotype) data points showed
      significant departures of the observed frequencies in comparison to their HWE
      predictions. The deviations, by and large (38 of the 41), were in the direction
      of HWE over-estimating the actual genotype frequencies. Total heterozygosity (HT
      ) at a worldwide level was 79%, and varied from 56% in American Natives to >80%
      in Caucasians. Of the total diversity, 94.4% was due to intra-population and 5.6%
      to inter-population variation (FST ), partitioned into 3.0% inter-population
      within groups and 2.6% inter-group variation. FST for the locus was high among
      Africans and American Natives (>9%) and low in Afro-Americans and American
      Caucasians (<0.5%). The range for allele specific FST was 0.2% to 5.9%, and the
      lowest value did not correspond to the same allele in all nine groups. A variance
      component analysis of allele frequencies showed no relationship of the ratio of
      between/within group variation with the world average frequency of the respective
      alleles. The first three principal components explained 36.2%, 27.5%, and 22.9%
      of the total allelic diversity, respectively. For Caucasian and Afro-American
      samples, the first two PCs formed clusters by groups. In contrast, the American
      Native, Asian, and Pacific Islander groups showed a greater inter-population
      diversity, while the corresponding principal component scores of the American
      Mestizo samples were between American Natives and Caucasians. In aggregate, the
      analyses indicate that genetic drift in contrast to natural selection, more
      readily explains the pattern of worldwide diversity at the HLA-DQA1 locus. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 9:735-749, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561393
TI  - Decanalization of weight and stature during childhood and adolescence.
AB  - The probabilities that children and adolescents alter their positions to non
      adjacent canals (decanalization) on the current NCHS growth charts have been
      estimated. In this context, canals are the zones between the major percentile
      levels (5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 95th) that are shown on the
      charts. These probabilities were calculated for one- and 2-year intervals,
      beginning at each annual age from 3-16 years, using serial data for weight and
      stature from 329 male and 303 female participants in the Fels Longitudinal Study.
      The probabilities of particular types of decanalizations, categorized by the
      initial canal and the direction of the change in relative level (decrease/loss;
      increase/gain) are presented. The probabilities for 1-year intervals were very
      low and, therefore, they are not presented. Additionally, probabilities were
      calculated for transitions from the canal between the 5th and 10th percentiles to
      the zone below the 5th percentile and from the canal between the 90th and 95th
      percentiles to the zone above the 95th percentile. Both these transitions are
      shifts to levels that are outside the normal range, and are more common than
      decanalization. The probabilities of decanalization and of transitions from the
      normal range were generally larger for weight than for stature except for
      transitions from the canal between the 90th and 95th percentiles to the zone
      beyond the 95th percentile. The probabilities for both weight and stature tended
      to be larger for changes toward the medians than for changes from the medians.
      Decanalizations that involved increases in level were significantly related to
      advanced skeletal maturation at ages younger than the usual age of peak height
      velocity and to retarded skeletal maturation at ages older than the usual age of
      peak height velocity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:351-359, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561394
TI  - Spectral and bout detection analysis of physical activity patterns in healthy,
      prepubertal boys and girls.
AB  - Little is known about the frequency-intensity patterns of naturally occurring
      physical activity in children. A data set obtained previously by direct
      observation of physical activity in 8 girls and 7 boys (all prepubertal, ages 6
      10) was analyzed with spectral analysis to detect significant frequency-intensity
      relationships. Pulse detection algorithms were used to characterize the number of
      exercise bouts, their duration and relative intensity. Spectral analysis revealed
      that physical activity bouts were frequent, pulsatile, and random with no
      significant frequencies detected during many 24-min periods of observation. An
      average of 83 +/- 11 bouts per hour were observed in boys and 89 +/- 12 bouts per
      hour in girls, and the mean duration of an exercise bout was 21 +/- 5 sec for
      boys and 20 +/- 4 sec for girls (NS). While high-intensity exercise bouts
      comprised less than 20% of the time spent in physical activity, duration of high
      intensity exercise bouts tended to be longer and accounted for about 40% of the
      energy expenditure associated with physical activity. Spontaneous physical
      activity in prepubertal children is characterized by frequent bouts of brief,
      mostly low intensity exercise, randomly interspersed with less frequent, but
      metabolically substantial high intensity bouts. These findings are potentially
      useful in assessing the impact of disease on quality of life in children,
      investigating the relationship between physical activity and mechanisms of growth
      and development, and creating new approaches for in-laboratory exercise testing
      in children. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:289-297, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561395
TI  - Birth ponderal index and body mass index reference curves in a large population.
AB  - A file of 100,716 children born between 1984 and 1988 in 22 maternity wards was
      used to estimate for each week of gestational age and gender, the exponent beta
      which makes an index Weight/Lengthbeta independent from length. It varied with
      gestational age but remained near 3. Therefore, Rohrer's index (Weight/Length3 )
      appears as a good approximation to assess neonatal weight as a whole, taking
      length into account. However, literature suggests that Quetelet's index
      (Weight/Length2 ) might be a better indicator of fat mass. In both cases,
      percentile curves take gestational age into account. Curves by gestational age
      between 32 and 42 weeks of amenorrhea and by gender, for Quetelet's and Rohrer's
      indices have been plotted. The values vary with gestational age. For example, the
      tenth percentile of Quetelet's index shifts from 7.8-12.3 kg/m2 in boys and from
      7.9-12.2 kg/m2 in girls. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:327-340, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561396
TI  - Physical fitness and body composition in relation to physical activity in
      prepubescent Senegalese children.
AB  - Relationships among estimated body composition, habitual physical activity, and
      physical fitness were considered in Senegalese children 8.5-13.5 years of age.
      Anthropometric dimensions (arm and calf circumferences, trunk, and extremity
      skinfolds, body mass index), four motor performances (dash, standing long jump,
      throw, grip strength), a step-test (cardiorespiratory fitness), and heart rate
      (HR) monitoring (physical activity) were collected in 140 children (66 boys and
      74 girls). Age and sex had a major effect on indicators of body composition and
      physical fitness. Height stunting used as an indicator of chronic undernutrition
      had a remarkable effect on body composition but only a limited influence on
      physical fitness. Physical activity, represented by percentage of time above the
      flex-HR (%fHR), did not vary with sex, age, and nutritional status. However,
      there was a low-to-moderate correlation between %fHR and several body composition
      indices, grip strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness. Comparisons of children in
      the upper and lower quartiles of %fHR indicated that better indices of body
      composition in boys, and better strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in girls
      were positively associated with a higher level of physical activity. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:385-396, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561398
TI  - Transcutaneous electrical muscle stimulation does not alter regional arm
      adiposity and muscularity.
AB  - The present study evaluated the effects of an electrical muscle stimulation (EMS)
      training protocol claimed to elicit site-specific fat reduction and muscle
      hypertrophy. The protocol includes 6 weeks (3 sessions/week, 10
      contractions/session) of high frequency (2500 Hz) transcutaneous EMS training on
      upper arm muscle and fat tissue. Two groups of 10 subjects were stimulated either
      on the dominant biceps brachii (B) or triceps brachii (T). The non-dominant arm
      served as a control. Post-training measures of upper arm fat and muscle tissue
      evaluated with girths, skinfolds, and ultrasound measures of fat did not change
      following EMS training of the treatment and control arms (p > 0.05). Upper arm x
      ray measurements to estimate total upper arm volume, muscle plus bone volume, and
      fat volume also did not change significantly for groups B and T following
      training (p > 0.05). The results thus indicate no selective upper arm muscle
      hypertrophy or site-specific fat reduction with high frequency EMS training of
      healthy muscle. Am. J Hum. Biol. 10:317-326, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561397
TI  - Frequency of color blindness among Nigerian school children in Lagos.
AB  - Plates 1-15 of the Ishihara tests for color blindness were administered to 5,580
      boys and 5,405 girls in primary and secondary schools in Lagos. The difference
      between males and females in the frequency of total color blindness was not
      significant. The frequency of total color blindness among the children was 0.19%.
      However, the frequencies of red-green color blindness, which were 3.60% and 0.81%
      among the males and females, respectively, were significantly different. Deutans
      occurred at a higher frequency than protans among both male and female red-green
      color blind individuals, but the differences among males and also females were
      not significant. In addition, there was no significant difference between the
      sexes in the occurrence of deutans and protans. Although the frequency of red
      green color blindness detected among males in this study is significantly lower
      than that reported for Lagos in another survey, which gave a frequency similar to
      that for Caucasians, the frequency obtained in the present study is similar to
      frequencies reported for other populations of Blacks of African Ancestry. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 10:283-288, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561399
TI  - Validity of published prediction equations for body composition in high altitude
      Bolivian Aymara as evaluated by doubly labeled water.

PMID- 28561400
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28561401
TI  - Urbanization and child growth in Nepal.
AB  - The growth of children (0-60 months) of rural-to-urban migrant women was studied
      in a population of carpet-making workers in a peri-urban community of Kathmandu,
      Nepal. Mean height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-age (WAZ) z-scores are compared
      for two groups of children belonging to recent urban migrant women (resident <5
      years) and to long-term migrants (resident ?5 years). The process of urbanization
      and adaptation to the city environment was explored by examining cohort
      differences in health care utilization, diarrheal morbidity, breastfeeding
      practices, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. On average, both
      children of recent and long-term migrants have moderate-to-severe linear growth
      retardation after 12 months of age. There is, however, a statistically
      significant difference in mean HAZ and WAZ scores between children depending on
      maternal length of urban residence status; children of long-term migrants have
      better growth status compared to children of recent migrants. Nevertheless, there
      are no significant differences between long-term and recent migrant families in
      terms of socioeconomic characteristics and selected biobehavioral practices which
      have been associated with modernization and adaptation to an urban environment.
      It is concluded that the process of adaptation to an urban environment cannot be
      explained by standard biobehavioral indicators of modernization and requires
      further consideration. Am. J Hum. Biol. 10:307-315, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561402
TI  - Effects of ethnicity, gender, obesity, and age on central fat distribution:
      Comparison of dual x-ray absorptiometry measurements in white, black, and Puerto
      Rican adults.
AB  - Population based studies relying primarily upon anthropometric surrogates of fat
      distribution have shown that central or upper-body adiposity is related to
      ethnicity, gender, age, and total body fatness. As an improvement over
      anthropometry, dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) provides more precise measurements
      of fat mass (FM) in the total body and trunk. DXA was performed on 510 apparently
      healthy White (81 females (f), 64 males (m)), Black (94 f, 79 m), and Puerto
      Rican (102 f, 100 m) adults aged 20-75 years in order to determine and compare
      the effects of race, gender, age, and total FM on trunk FM. Trunk FM was greater
      for Blacks and Puerto Ricans than Whites, irrespective of gender (P < 0.014).
      Puerto Rican males and females had a greater proportion of fat in the trunk
      (%TrFM) than Whites or Blacks (P < 0.001), and Whites and Blacks were similar
      with respect to %TrFM (P > 0.67). Females had less %TrFM than males in all three
      ethnic groups (all P < 0.001). Based on multiple regression analysis, ethnicity
      did not affect the relationship of trunk and total FM among males (P > 0.16), but
      the coefficient for total FM was larger for Puerto Rican compared to Black
      females (P = 0.043). Trunk FM increased with age in Whites and Puerto Ricans (P <
      0.02), but not Blacks (P > 0.24). The effects of age did not differ by gender or
      ethnicity among Whites and Puerto Ricans (P > 0.10). Adjustment for total FM and
      age eliminated ethnic and gender differences in trunk FM (all P > 0.37). The
      results suggest that the high levels of central adiposity observed among Blacks
      and Hispanics relative to Whites reflect patterns of generalized obesity observed
      in the respective populations. Patterns of accumulation of truncal FM with
      increasing age and obesity may not be generalizable to all ethnic groups. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 10:361-369, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561403
TI  - Letter to the editor.

PMID- 28561404
TI  - Comparison of five-site skinfold thicknesses in late pregnancy vs early
      postpartum.
AB  - To test the hypothesis that the sum (?) of five skinfold thicknesses in the
      immediate postpartum period is significantly less than that obtained in the last
      month of pregnancy in healthy American women, a standardized approach was used to
      measure skinfold thicknesses at five sites in 81 healthy, active women. Measures
      were obtained in the last month of pregnancy and again in the first month
      postpartum. Prior to pregnancy the subjects ranged in age from 24-39 years and
      weighed between 45-87 kg. The ? of five skinfold thicknesses ranged between 34
      and 162 mm. During pregnancy, weight gain ranged between 6.5-24.6 kg with a mean
      gain of 14.5 kg. The ? of five skinfold thicknesses peaked between 8-36 weeks
      gestation and the peak increase ranged from -19 mm to +63 mm above preconceptual
      levels. In late pregnancy, the ? of five skinfold thicknesses ranged between 34.1
      and 166.8 mm (mean = 91.7 mm), and postpartum, the range and mean values were
      similar (38.1-156.4 mm, and 91.8 mm). When values obtained in late pregnancy are
      compared with those obtained postpartum, the r2 value was 0.9122. There was also
      good correlation at each of the skinfold sites (r2 's = 0.8001-0.9239), except
      the abdomen (r2 = 0.6049). In conclusion, the hypothesis is incorrect; the ? of
      five skinfold thicknesses in the immediate postpartum period is as acceptable a
      measure of late pregnancy subcutaneous fat deposition and/or retention as that
      obtained in the last month of pregnancy in present day healthy American women.
      Am. J Hum. Biol. 10:299-305, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561406
TI  - Apparatus for precision calibration of skinfold calipers.
AB  - Despite the fact that skinfold calipers are widely used to measure subcutaneous
      adipose tissue, the current methods of calibration are quite crude. Methods such
      as hanging masses from the caliper jaws until they remain open, lack validity and
      reliability because the caliper jaws are stationary instead of dynamic, and the
      opening jaws give an upscale reading of the jaw gap not a downscale reading that
      occurs when the calipers are being used to measure skinfolds. This report
      describes how to build an apparatus capable of measuring static and dynamic,
      upscale and downscale jaw pressures of a variety of caliper types and also
      provides guidelines specifically for calibration and servicing of Harpenden
      calipers. The key areas to maintain are the caliper springs (which should have
      spring coefficients ranging 1.104-1.153 N.mm-1 ), the pivot joint (which should
      operate smoothly), the indicator mechanism (which should require only 0.78-0.88 N
      for full movement), and the jaw alignment which should be square to ensure that
      the full effective jaw surface area of 90 mm2 is applied to the skinfold. While
      there are insufficient data at this time to prescribe rigid calibration criteria,
      assessment of approximately 100 new and used Harpenden calipers indicates that,
      after servicing, the important dynamic downscale jaw pressure will range 7.7-8.4
      g.mm-2 at 5 mm of jaw gap and 7.3-8.0 g.mm-2 at 40 mm of jaw gap. Dynamic upscale
      jaw pressure should be within 1.0-1.5 g.mm-2 of the corresponding dynamic
      downscale jaw pressure. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:689-697, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561405
TI  - Somatotype and indicators of metabolic fitness in youth.
AB  - The relationship between physique and metabolic fitness was examined in a sample
      of 413 boys and 343 girls 9-18 years of age from Phase I of the Quebec Family
      Study. Physique was assessed using the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotype.
      Indicators of metabolic fitness were plasma triglyceride levels (TG), high
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL
      C), and blood glucose levels (GLY). The sample was divided into three age groups,
      9-12, 13-15, and 16-18 years of age. A partial canonical correlation analysis was
      used to quantify the relationship between the standardized somatotype and
      metabolic fitness variables (z-transformed) with age as the covariate. In both
      boys and girls the first canonical correlation is significant (P ? 0.001) and
      indicates a relationship between the physique and metabolic fitness variables. By
      age group, the 16-18 year old boys, and the 9-12, 13-15, 16-18 year old girls
      demonstrate significant canonical correlations (P ? 0.03). Overall, 8% to 19% of
      the variance in metabolic fitness can be explained by the Heath-Carter
      anthropometric somatotype. The makeup of the canonical variates is similar for
      all age groups. Generally, the physique domain is characterized by a positive
      loading for ectomorphy and negative loadings for endomorphy and mesomorphy. The
      metabolic fitness domain has a positive loading for HDL-C and negative loadings
      for TG, LDL-C, and GLY. The results suggest that in youth 9-18 years, a physique
      characterized by high endomorphy and mesomorphy is associated with higher levels
      of TG, LDL-C, and GLY, and lower levels of HDL-C. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:341-350,
      1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561407
TI  - The contribution of adolescent growth to shorter adult statures among girls of
      Chinese ancestry.
AB  - Researchers have hypothesized that shorter mean statures at onset of the
      adolescent spurt and more rapid skeletal maturation during adolescence among East
      Asian populations contribute significantly to their shorter mean adult statures
      compared to European populations. The goal of this study is to use longitudinal
      height growth data modeled with the Preece-Baines Model 1 (PB1) function to
      examine the relative importance of adolescent growth to population differences in
      adult stature. Biological variables for 303 Chinese females from the Da-an
      District in Taipei, Taiwan, are compared with those for 23 British and 69 Euro
      American females. Results indicate that 96% of the difference in adult statures
      (4.37 cm) between the British and urban Chinese may be attributed to the greater
      amount of time available to the British for preadolescent growth. Growth during
      adolescence between these two groups is not significantly different. When
      comparisons are made with the Euro-American sample from Berkeley, California,
      only about 26% of the difference in adult stature (6.96 cm) may be attributed to
      the later age at take-off. Much (53.2%) of the difference has already accrued by
      take-off among the Chinese. Small, but statistically significant differences in
      adolescent growth also exist. When considered within the context of other
      longitudinal studies of European and American females, this study gives only
      modest support to the hypothesis that more rapid skeletal maturation leads to
      reduced amounts of adolescent growth among East Asian populations. Interestingly,
      though, population differences do appear to exist in the relationship between the
      relative timing of an individual's growth spurt and spurt intensity. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:735-746, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561408
TI  - Fat distribution in relation to sex and socioeconomic status in children 4-19
      years.
AB  - Fat distribution was studied in an urban sample of boys and girls 4.5 to 19.5
      years from the Basque province of Biscay by means of Principal Component Analysis
      (PCA) of five skinfolds. The PCA extracted four components, which explained 99.1%
      of the total variance. The first principal component revealed strong stability
      across age and sex, and was related to a pattern of central body fat
      distribution. The three other components, upper-lower trunk fat, lateral-medial
      trunk fat, and upper-lower extremity fat, showed poor stability due largely to
      the influence of age and, to a lesser degree, sex. In both sexes, individual
      scores of the four factors did not show multivariate differences by socioeconomic
      status when a MANOVA with age, age2 and age3 as covariates was done.
      Nevertheless, the first factor scores were significantly higher only in the
      poorer socioeconomic group of girls. The results are explained in the context of
      either different lifestyles related to socioeconomic status, a protective effect
      against environmental stress on urban males, or greater plasticity of trunk fat
      relative to extremity fat in females. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:799-806, 1998. (c)
      1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561409
TI  - Malaria infection and human behavioral factors: A stochastic model analysis for
      direct observation data in the Solomon Islands.
AB  - The effect of human behavior on malaria infection was investigated in a
      holoendemic area in the Solomon Islands, using a newly developed mathematical
      model based on the results of blood examinations and 2 weeks of direct
      observations. The present study indicated that the place where individuals spent
      the evening had no significant relation to malaria infection, but that some kinds
      of clothes significantly reduced malaria infection. However, as the result of
      prediction by the Susceptible-Exposed-Infective-Recovered (SEIR) model, effective
      control of malaria transmission would require as much as 95% coverage by
      protection even in the case that the protective measure was highly effective. The
      results strongly suggested protection measures besides bed net distribution in
      addition to the necessity of health education. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:781-789,
      1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561410
TI  - Proceedings of the Human Biology Association 23rd Annual Meeting, March 30-April
      1, 1998, Salt Lake Hilton Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah.

PMID- 28561411
TI  - Enamel hypoplasias related to famine stress in living Chinese.
AB  - The relationship between linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) and nutritional stress
      caused by a grave historical famine (1959-1961) was investigated among
      contemporary Chinese. Based on dental observations in a sample of 3,014 subjects
      from rural and urban China, and data on famine stress from a variety of
      historical sources, hypotheses regarding the relation between LEH and nutritional
      stress were tested. Famine stress raised LEH prevalence significantly in the
      birth cohorts having their teeth developing during famine years; therefore, a
      correlation between nutritional stress and formation of LEH as suggested by
      previous studies was indicated. Rural subjects had significantly higher LEH
      prevalence than urban subjects, and this was attributed to poorer nutritional and
      living conditions in rural areas. Males had a slightly higher LEH prevalence than
      females, so that female biological buffering to environmental stress appears to
      have outweighed possible cultural practice of daughter neglect in this
      difference. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:723-733, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561412
TI  - The influence of relative age on success and dropout in male soccer players.
AB  - The consistent asymmetry in the birth-date distribution of senior professional
      soccer players has led us to investigate whether similar asymmetries emerge
      throughout youth categories in soccer. Birth dates were considered for
      professional players, national youth teams, youth players transferred to top
      teams, and regular youth league players. Kolmogorov Smirnov tests assessed
      differences between observed and expected birth-date distributions. Regression
      analyses examined the relationship between month of birth and number of
      participants at various levels of play in soccer. Results indicated that youth
      players born from August to October (the early part of the selection year),
      beginning in the 6-8 year age group, are more likely to be identified as talented
      and to be exposed to higher levels of coaching. Eventually, these players are
      more likely to be transferred to top teams, to play for national teams, and to
      become involved professionally. In comparison, players born late in the selection
      year tended to dropout as early as 12 years of age. Recommendations suggest a
      review of the 24-month age band and current methods for talent detection and
      selection. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:791-798, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561413
TI  - Secular change in running performance of Japanese adolescents: A longitudinal
      developmental study.
AB  - A 5-year longitudinal cohort study of the running development of Japanese
      adolescents was conducted at a secondary school in Tokyo from 1968 to 1994. The
      purpose was to investigate changes in the pattern of development over time. The
      test items were an endurance run (1,500 m for boys and 1,000 m for girls) and a
      dash (50 m for both sexes). The total number of subjects was 512 boys and 516
      girls in the endurance run, and 825 boys and 895 girls in the dash. These
      students entered the first grade of the school from 1968 to 1989 at the age of 12
      years, and were followed for the next 5 years. In the analyses, a quadratic
      regression model was used to characterize intra-individual, age-related changes
      in running performance. The model fit the observed data, and the validity of the
      model was confirmed. Secular changes in the running development of boys were
      minimal over the last 30 years. Changes in girls, however, had three different
      patterns: 1) an overall decrease in performance with an almost unchanged
      estimated performance in the first grade, 2) a greater decrease in the late
      teenage years, and 3) a decrease in the age of maximal performance. Secular
      changes in physical growth (stature and body mass index) could not fully explain
      the secular changes in the running development of girls, suggesting that the
      underlying causes may be social and cultural. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:765-779, 1998.
      (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561414
TI  - Protein genetic studies among the Tupi-Monde Indians of the Brazilian Amazonia.
AB  - A sample of 417 individuals belonging to three Tupi-Monde-speaking tribes
      (Gaviao, Surui, Zoro) were variously studied in relation to 26 genetic protein
      systems. Previous investigations performed among the Surui in relation to some of
      these systems were confirmed. The three groups do not depart markedly from the
      genetic pattern already established for South American Indians and show low inter
      ethnic admixture. When these results are combined with those from 10 other Tupi
      tribes, two clear geographic groupings (southeastern and northwestern) can be
      discerned. Using different methods to evaluate the same genetic distance
      matrices, different patterns of association between the Tupi-Monde populations
      were obtained. The populations are probably too similar among themselves,
      blurring finer relationships. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:711-722, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561415
TI  - Growth rates of children of subsaharan African ancestry born to immigrant parents
      and of French children in Paris.
AB  - This comparative survey is based on two populations of children born and raised
      in Paris or the Paris area: 320 French children and 129 children whose parents
      are both of African ancestry from the Subsaharan area. They are part of a first
      generation born outside of their respective countries. A longitudinal study of
      growth from birth to four years of age shows population differences. The length
      and weight at birth of full-term African babies are significantly less than of
      French newborns. But, African infants catch-up quickly and reach the same length
      as French infants during the first month of life; their weight is already
      significantly greater than that of French infants from 1 to 6 months. The body
      mass index (BMI, W/H2 ) during the breast-feeding period indicates that the
      infants are of well nourished status. After the first year of life, the means for
      the BMI of the children born to Subsaharan immigrant parents are lower than means
      for French children. This suggests poorer nutritional status, which may be
      associated with the marginal socioeconomic status of African families living in
      the Paris area. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:757-763, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561416
TI  - Household headship and nutritional status: Female-headed versus male/dual-headed
      households.
AB  - Approximately one-third of all poor urban households in Latin America are headed
      by females. This study compares the nutritional status of women and children from
      female-headed (FHH) and male/dual headed (MHH/DHH) households in economically
      disadvantaged neighborhoods in Cali, Colombia. Data collected included
      socioeconomic indicators, anthropometric dimensions, dietary intake, and
      interviews documenting household composition. Classification of household
      headship was based on the acknowledged head and the primary economic provider of
      the household. Of the households in this study, 81 (80%) were from MHH/DHHs and
      20 (20%) from FHHs. FHHs had fewer material possessions and lived in houses made
      of less expensive materials compared to MHH/DHHs. However, there were no
      significant differences in the nutritional status of women or children in FHHs vs
      MHH/DHHs. Most women had BMIs within the normal range (19-29 kg/m2 ). The
      majority of children (95%) had weight-for-height z-scores within +/-2 of the NCHS
      references. These results suggest that while FHHs in Cali were economically
      poorer, the women studied appeared to have had access to sufficient food sources
      for themselves and their children. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:699-709, 1998. (c) 1998
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561417
TI  - Second metacarpal cross-sectional geometry: Rehabilitating a circular argument.
AB  - Radiogrammetry of the second metacarpal has long served as a measure of normal
      and abnormal bone growth and aging, functional asymmetry, and fracture risk in
      osteoporosis. The method relies on algebraic interpretation (circular or
      elliptical models) of uni- or biplanar radiographic images. This paper tests the
      conformance of these models with actual measures of metacarpal geometric
      variation in a sample of 356 bones from an historic archaeological sample. Both
      the circular and elliptical models significantly over-estimate actual values for
      all variables (e.g., total area (3.05% and 9.42%, respectively) and cortical area
      (7.25% and 12.25%), bending rigidity about the mediolateral (13.88% and 20.92%)
      and anteroposterior axes (17.35% for the elliptical model). The greater degree of
      systematic bias found for the elliptical model is contrary to results of an
      earlier study (Lazenby, 1997), and suggests that sample composition can influence
      the method error associated with a particular approach. The import of
      radiogrammetric bias will depend on the degree of shape variation among samples
      compared (e.g., left vs right, male vs female, etc.), which in most cases cannot
      be predetermined. Consequently, reduced major axis equations were derived from
      regressing actual on estimated values for total area (TA), cortical area (CA) and
      two measures of bending rigidity (Ix, Iy) in order to permit adjustment for
      radiogrammetric error associated with these algebraic models. Application of
      these formulae to a hold-out sample showed no significant differences between
      actual and predicted values. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:747-756, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561418
TI  - Heritability of hippocampal subfield volumes using a twin and non-twin siblings
      design.
AB  - The hippocampus is composed of distinct subfields linked to diverse functions and
      disorders. The subfields can be mapped using high-resolution magnetic resonance
      images, and their volumes can potentially be used as quantitative phenotypes for
      genetic investigation of hippocampal function. We estimated the heritability of
      hippocampus subfield volumes of 465 subjects from the Human Connectome Project
      (twins and non-twin siblings) using two methods. The first used a univariate
      model to estimate heritability with and without adjustment for total brain volume
      (TBV) and ipsilateral hippocampal volume to determine if heritability was
      uniquely attributable to subfield volume rather than confounds that attributed to
      global volumes. We observed the right: subiculum, cornu ammonis 2/3, and cornu
      ammonis 4/dentate gyrus subfields had the highest significant heritability
      estimates after adjusting for ipsilateral hippocampal volume. In the second
      analysis, we used a bivariate model to investigate the shared heritability and
      genetic correlation of the subfield volumes with TBV and ipsilateral hippocampal
      volume. Genetic correlation demonstrates shared genetic architecture between
      phenotypes and shared heritability is what proportion of the genetic architecture
      of one trait is shared by the other. Highest genetic correlations were between
      subfield volumes and ipsilateral hippocampal volume than with TBV. The pattern
      was opposite for shared heritability suggesting that subfields share greater
      proportion of the genetic architecture with TBV than with ipsilateral hippocampal
      volume. The relationship between the genetic architecture of TBV, hippocampal
      volume, and of individual subfields should be accounted for when using
      hippocampal subfield volumes as quantitative phenotypes for imaging genetics
      studies. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4337-4352, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28561419
TI  - Endothelial cells co-cultured with renal carcinoma cells significantly reduce
      RECK expression under chemical hypoxia.
AB  - Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is characterized by excessive angiogenesis, while
      chronic kidney disease (CKD) suffers from the opposite problem-failure of
      reparative angiogenesis. It can be due to their different responses to hypoxic
      environment. But the specific molecular regulators are still unclear. This study
      is aimed to explore the influence of human renal cell cancer cells (786-0) and
      human renal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2) on RECK expression, proliferation,
      and angiogenesis of adjacent microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) under
      chemical hypoxia. Cobalt chloride (CoCl2 ) treatment was used to simulate the
      hypoxia environment in RCC and CKD. Co-culture, cell proliferation assay, and
      tube formation assay were used to evaluate the influence of 786-0 or HK-2 cells
      on proliferation and angiogenesis of adjacent HMEC-1 cells. Effects of different
      environments on RECK expressions in 786-0, HK2, or HMEC-1 cells were determined
      by Western blot. We found that both 786-0 cells and HK2 cells can upregulate RECK
      expression of adjacent HMEC-1 cells in normoxic conditions. However, under
      hypoxia, the HMEC-1 cells co-cultured with 786-0 significantly reduced RECK
      expression and there was no significant change in HMEC-1 cells co-cultured with
      HK2 cells. We also found that 786-0 significantly enhanced the proliferation and
      angiogenesis of adjacent HMEC-1 cells. Our results suggested that some paracrine
      substances produced by 786-0 cells may reduce RECK expression of adjacent HMEC-1
      cells and enhance their proliferation and in vitro angiogenic capacity.

PMID- 28561420
TI  - Cab4b, the first human platelet antigen carried by glycoprotein IX discovered in
      a context of severe neonatal thrombocytopenia.
AB  - : Essentials Life-threatening maternofetal thrombocytopenias mostly depend on
      alphaIIb beta3 antigens. We performed serological, genomic and in vitro studies
      of two life-threatening thrombocytopenias. Identification of a c.368C>T variation
      leading to Pro123Leu substitution in GPIX. A rare GPIX variant reported in a
      genomic database define a new alloantigen. SUMMARY: Background After three
      miscarriages, a 39-year-old woman gave birth, with a 1-year interval, to two
      severely thrombocytopenic neonates (4 *109 L-1 and 33 *109 L-1 ) with
      intracranial hemorrhages. Transfusion of platelet concentrates corrected the
      thrombocytopenia. The outcome was favorable for the first child, but the second
      one died 10 days after cesarean delivery (31 weeks of gestation + 6 days).
      Methods Serologic studies were performed with mAb-specific immobilization of
      platelet antigens and flow cytometry techniques. Human platelet alloantigen (HPA)
      genotyping was performed with the BioArray HPA BeadChip and PCR-sequence-specific
      primer techniques. Genomic DNA was studied by direct sequencing of PCR products.
      The mutant glycoprotein (GP) was expressed in transiently transfected HEK293
      cells. Results In MAIPA assay, the maternal serum faintly reacted with GPIbIX
      from paternal and child 1 platelets, but not with maternal or panel platelets. No
      maternofetal incompatibility was found in the 22 known HPA systems, tested except
      for HPA-1b in child 2. A new alloantigen carried by GPIbIX was suspected. Genomic
      sequencing revealed a paternal GPIX variation (NM_000174.4:c.368C>T). The father
      and children were heterozygous and incompatible with the mother, who was
      NM_000174.4:c.368C homozygous. The maternal serum reacted with the GPIX
      NP_000165.1:p.Leu123 form coexpressed with GPIb in transfected HEK293 cells. The
      NM_000174.4:c.368T allele (rs202229101) has a minor allele frequency of 0.0002,
      and was not detected in 120 French subjects (families with fetal and neonatal
      alloimmune thrombocytopenia [FNAIT]), suggesting that it is rarely implicated in
      alloimmunization. Conclusion The NP_000165.1:p.Leu123 allele named Cab4b is the
      first platelet alloantigen described on GPIX. In the absence of other known
      maternofetal incompatibility, the child 1 case suggests that anti-Cab4b
      alloantibodies can induce severe thrombocytopenias.

PMID- 28561422
TI  - Determinants of breastfeeding in four Canadian Ojibwa communities: A decision
      making model.
AB  - A prospective cohort study was conducted to determine the patterns of
      breastfeeding and factors associated with breastfeeding choice and duration among
      Canadian Aboriginal (Ojibwa) women from third trimester to 12 weeks postpartum.
      The survey included demographic, obstetric and infant feeding information,
      measures of "breastfeeding beliefs," "breastfeeding confidence," and "referent
      support." Thirty-six Treaty-status women, living in or near four Manitoba First
      Nations communities, were interviewed prenatally and subsequently gave birth to a
      live infant between December 1993 and June 1994. Demographic, obstetric and
      infant feeding information from 20 women who missed the prenatal interview were
      obtained retrospectively. The overall response rate was 98% of eligible women.
      Outcome measures included initiation and duration of breastfeeding. Explanatory
      variables included factors associated with breastfeeding initiation/duration,
      based on a revision of the Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) decision-making model.
      Breastfeeding rates were 57% (initiated), 44% (week 1), 32% (week 4), and 18%
      (week 12). The decision-making model demonstrated construct validity for
      breastfeeding choice. Multivariate modelling indicated "prenatal intent" and
      "breastfeeding confidence" as best predictors of breastfeeding choice. Best
      predictors of duration were "satisfaction with breastfeeding at 2 weeks" and
      "postpartum referent scores." "Satisfaction" was negatively correlated with the
      number of verbalized problems. Reasons for weaning included "insufficient milk"
      and "soreness." Community intervention programs could focus on breastfeeding
      beliefs, confidence and referent support, and decrease early weaning by screening
      for preventable problems. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:579-593, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561423
TI  - Assessment of motor ability of 4- and 5-year-old children.
AB  - The aim of this investigation was to develop a test battery to measure the motor
      abilities of 4- and 5-year-old children. The subjects were 932 healthy
      kindergarten children from Tartu, Estonia: boys, 4 years, n = 205; boys, 5 years,
      n = 267; girls, 4 years, n = 224; girls, 5 years, n = 236. Height and body mass
      were measured, and the body mass index (BMI, kg/m2 ) was calculated. The
      following motor ability tests were used: 3-min run (cardiorespiratory endurance),
      standing long jump (explosive strength), 4 * 10 m shuttle-run (running speed,
      agility), situps for 30 sec (trunk strength), sit-and-reach (flexibility), and
      sand bag (150 g) throw with the dominant hand (explosive strength, coordination).
      The motor tests were repeated 1 week later in subgroups of 28-33 children. Most
      of the tests had an acceptable reliability (r > 0.75) and none had a poor
      reliability (r < 0.40). There were significant (P < 0.05-0.001) differences
      between 4- and 5-year-old boys and girls in all tests except the sit-and-reach
      between the 4- and 5-year-old girls. Performances of boys were generally better
      than those of girls of the same age. Test results were often dependent on height
      and body mass, but not on the BMI. When body size and age were statistically
      controlled with second-order partial correlations, the relationships were greatly
      reduced or no longer significant. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that age,
      height, and mass of the children accounted for only a small percentage of the
      variance in performances. The greatest contribution to total variance was
      accounted for by body size in the 3-min run in 4-year-old boys (6%). Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:659-664, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561421
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of Transdermal Etofenamate and Diclofenac in Healthy Volunteers.
AB  - Little is known about the course of the plasma concentration and the
      bioavailability of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) contained in
      dermal patches. We compared an etofenamate prototype patch (patent EP 1833471)
      and a commercially available diclofenac epolamine patch regarding the
      bioavailability of the active ingredients relative to respective i.m.
      applications and regarding their plasma concentration-time course. Twenty-four
      healthy human volunteers were treated using a parallel group design (n = 12 per
      group) with a single dermal patch (removed after 12 hr) followed (after a latency
      of 48 hr) by eight consecutive dermal patches every 12 hr to reach steady-state
      conditions. The patches were generally well tolerated, but one volunteer treated
      with etofenamate developed an allergic contact dermatitis. After the first patch,
      Cmax was 0.81 +/- 0.11 (mean +/- S.E.M.) ng/mL (reached 12 hr after patch
      removal) for diclofenac and 31.3 +/- 3.8 ng/mL for flufenamic acid (reached at
      patch removal), the main metabolite of etofenamate. Etofenamate was not
      detectable. After repetitive dosing, trough plasma concentrations after the
      eighth dose were 1.72 +/- 0.32 ng/mL for diclofenac and 48.7 +/- 6.6 ng/mL for
      flufenamic acid. Bioavailabilities (single dose) relative to i.m. applications
      were 0.22 +/- 0.04% for diclofenac and 1.15 +/- 0.06% for flufenamic acid. In
      conclusion, the relative bioavailability (compared to the respective i.m.
      application) of both drugs is low. The maximal plasma concentrations after
      topical administration of these drugs are well below the IC50 values for COX-1
      and COX-2, explaining the absence of dose-dependent toxicities.

PMID- 28561424
TI  - Body composition and blood pressures in school children 6-14 years of age.
AB  - The relationship between parameters of estimated body composition (FFM = fat free
      mass, FM = fat mass, %F = percentage fat) and blood pressure was examined in a
      sample of 1418 school-children (712 males, 706 females), 6-14 years of age from
      L'Aquila and its province (Abruzzo), Italy. Systolic and diastolic blood
      pressures increased from 6-14 years in both sexes (males: systolic pressure 93.08
      +/- 14.95 to 122.29 +/- 13.27 mm Hg; diastolic pressure: 59.60 +/- 11.60 to 74.83
      +/- 8.35 mm Hg; females: systolic pressure: 97.12 +/- 13.16 to 120.56 +/- 8.02 mm
      Hg; diastolic pressure: 61.93 +/- 10.23 to 76.67 +/- 4.85 mm Hg). FFM and FM
      estimated by anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance, exhibited similar growth
      trends (Anthropometry: in males, FFM: 20.55-47.20 kg and FM: 4.14-12.01 kg; in
      females, FFM: 19.95-41.90 kg and FM: 5.03-15.84 kg; Impedance: in males, FFM:
      18.40-47.30 kg and FM: 6.26-11.91 kg; in females, FFM: 17.47-36.97 kg and FM:
      7.61-20.77 kg). Correlations between body composition parameters and blood
      pressures were generally significant. In particular, there was a strong
      relationship between systolic blood pressure and both FM and %F, the correlations
      being higher when the body composition parameters were estimated by
      anthropometry. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:535-544, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561425
TI  - Assessment of body composition by using a new chart method.
AB  - The body mass index (BMI, weight/height2 ), is commonly used as a simple and
      valid way of assessing body composition. However, the significance of the BMI is
      not clear, since body mass is composed of two main components: fat-free mass
      (FFM) and fat mass (FM), each with different densities. In order to graphically
      present body composition as a quantitative measure, a chart based on the fat-free
      mass index (FFMI, FFM/height2 ) and fat mass index (FMI; FM/height2 ), as
      reported in a previous paper (Hattori, J. Anthropol. Soc. Nippon 99:141-148,
      1991), was revised by adding information on both the percentages of body fat
      (%fat) and the BMI. The benefit of the new chart method is its simplicity which
      comes from the application of two variables on a two dimensional chart. The chart
      containing the lines of %fat and the BMI can be of use in detecting multiple
      aspects of body composition since it provides four pieces of information at the
      same time: FMI, FFMI, BMI, and %fat. Am. J Hum. Biol. 9:573-578, 1997. (c) 1997
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561426
TI  - Fat-free mass and fat mass in active boys during adolescence.
AB  - Longitudinal body composition data were examined in 24 active and 10 control boys
      between the ages of 12.3 and 15.3 years. The main objectives were (1) to contrast
      the distance and velocity curves of fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) in
      active and control groups using chronological and maturity bases, and (2) to
      compare the timing and magnitude of peak velocities in FFM and FM in relation to
      those of body mass. FFM was greater in active than control boys irrespective of
      whether data were aligned according to chronological age (CA), peak height
      velocity (PHV), or peak FFM velocity. When aligned on CA there was a tendency for
      FM to be greater in the control group. There were definitive adolescent spurts in
      body mass and FFM in both active and control groups. The spurt in FFM was
      significantly greater in active than control boys around the time of PHV (-0.5 to
      +0.5 yr PHV). Fat velocities declined in the active group and increased in the
      control group. The pooled data showed no significant differences in the ages at
      which peak velocities occurred in height, body mass, FFM, or FM. It was concluded
      that (1) the tendency for active boys to have a larger FFM and a smaller FM is
      influenced by increased physical activity, and (2) the ages at PFV and PFFMV
      occur at the same time as the age at PBMV, and that these events coincide with
      the age at PHV. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:617-627, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561427
TI  - Comparative study of flex heart rate in colombian children and in pregnant,
      lactating, and non-pregnant, nonlactating women.
AB  - The heart rate (HR) value employed to separate resting and active portions of the
      calibration curves used to estimate energy expenditure (EE) from minute-by-minute
      HR recordings is called the flex-HR. The present study has characterized it, the
      resting HR and the average daily HR during the awake portion of the day (12-14 h)
      by comparing age, gender and nutritional status effects related to measured
      maximum oxygen consumption (V O 2 max; ml/min/kg body weight)in school-aged
      Colombian children (145 boys and 132 girls), 6-16 years of age. The same HR
      variables have been individually measured in nutritionally normal, nonpregnant,
      nonlactating (NPNL; n = 48), pregnant (n = 26), and lactating (n = 18) women, 19
      43 years of age, on three occasions separated by 3 months. In general, the flex
      HR followed the differences observed in resting and average daily HRs. All three
      values decreased with age in children, were higher in girls than boys, and did
      not exhibit differences between nutritionally normal and undernourished children.
      All three HRs had a statistically significant negative relationship with V O 2
      max in boys but not in girls. NPNL and lactating women showed no significant
      change in the mean values of the repeated HR measurements but exhibited maximum
      individual differences of flex-HR of -56 to +42 beats/min. Pregnant women had
      higher HRs in all 3 rounds of measurement compared to NPNL subjects. The data
      support the generalization that the flex-HR method of estimating EE is
      appropriate in groups of subjects but not in individuals, and that individual
      calibration of subjects close to the time of application to the making of EE
      measurements is an important feature of its use. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:647-657,
      1997. (c) Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561428
TI  - Characteristics of young men with clustering risk factors for coronary heart
      disease: The cardiovascular risk in young finns study.
AB  - The majority of coronary heart disease (CHD) arises from a population with only
      moderately elevated risk factor levels. This study addressed the issue of whether
      clustering of moderately adverse levels of serum low density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C), serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and
      diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was detectable in children and young adults.
      Significant clustering of these factors was observed in young men (ages 18-24
      years) (Observed/Expected [O/E] ratio = 1.5, p = 0.014), whereas in young women
      or children no clustering greater than due to chance was found. In males,
      clustering tended to increase with age. Compared to young women, young men had a
      higher relative intake of dietary fat, and smoked and used alcohol more often.
      Compared to men without risk factors, the men at risk were significantly more
      obese, consumed more dietary fat, and smoked more often. The highest degree of
      clustering was seen in the highest quartile for the subscapular skinfold
      thickness (O/E ratio = 2.4). In conclusion, high LDL-C, low HDL-C, and high DBP
      cluster in young adult males. The clear sex difference observed in clustering may
      be one of the causes for the susceptibility of adult men to CHD. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 9:565-571, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561429
TI  - Evaluation of a dermatoglyphic index to detect placental type variation in MZ
      twins.
AB  - A dermatoglyphic index, which was previously used retrospectively to assess
      relationships between placental type in MZ twins with other variables, was tested
      for verification in two new separate samples of twins of known placental type. In
      both a French twin sample (19 monochorionic and 24 dichorionic) and the U.S. twin
      sample (49 monochorionic and 22 dichorionic), dermatoglyphic index scores were
      higher in monochorionic than dichorionic pairs. The difference in scores attained
      statistical significance when the two new samples were pooled. It is concluded
      that although the index cannot be used retrospectively to classify an individual
      MZ twin pair, an association of the placental type dermatoglyphic score with
      another variable in a group of MZ twins without any placentation information
      provides support for continuing to investigate prenatal effects on the associated
      variable. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:609-615, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561430
TI  - PI, GC, HP, and TF serum protein polymorphisms in Siena, Tuscany, Italy, with a
      review of data for Italy.
AB  - The genetic polymorphism of four serum proteins (PI, GC, HP, and TF) is analyzed
      in a sample of 200 unrelated individuals from the province of Siena, Tuscany,
      central Italy. Siena is traditionally divided into 17 Contrade, that act as
      social units. The aim of this report is to ascertain whether this peculiar
      organization has led to genetic differentiation among the inhabitants of each
      Contrada and from other populations of Italy. For this purpose, the frequencies
      of genetic markers found in Siena are also compared with those reported for the
      same serum proteins in Italy based on provincial samples from the literature. The
      statistical analyses (heterozygosity estimates, F-statistics, and cluster
      analysis) suggest that the Contrade represent only a cultural and historical
      institution without biological consequence and that the Italian population can be
      considered genetically homogeneous. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:629-646, 1997. (c) 1997
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561431
TI  - Combined effects of the tempo of maturation and mid-parent height on the shape of
      individual growth curves.
AB  - The concurrent effects of mid-parent height and tempo of maturation on variation
      of the individual growth curve were examined. Data of 183 boys from the Wroclaw
      Growth Study were used. The functional and biological parameters were derived
      from fitting Preece-Baines model 1 to individual data. All subjects were divided
      into three categories of mid-parent height and maturation rate, resulting in nine
      groups. MANOVA showed significant differences in the functional and biological
      parameters for three maturity and mid-parent height groups, separately. However,
      insignificant interactions indicated independence of the two factors. Univariate
      analysis revealed that the first factor (tempo of maturation) adjusts time and
      velocity at the beginning (T1, V1) and peak (T2, V2) of the adolescent growth
      spurt. This factor accounts for the shape of the curve. It places the curve along
      age and velocity axes. The other factor (mid-parent height) is responsible for
      general elevation of the growth curve on the centile distribution, placing it on
      the appropriate centile. This regulates height parameters, i.e., height at take
      off (H1), height at peak height velocity (H2), and adult height (AH). The
      simultaneous influence of the two factors leads to estimation of a more specific
      and more probable type of a curve. This kind of the estimation allows diminishing
      variance and prediction error. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:555-563, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561432
TI  - Estimation of inbreeding, kinship, genetic distances, and population structure
      from surnames: The island of Hvar, Croatia.
AB  - The aim of this study was to estimate inbreeding, kinship, genetic distances, and
      population structure of the island of Hvar using surnames of the population from
      10 villages. Total inbreeding on the island, estimated from the frequency of
      isonymous marriages, amounted to 0.0228. Total kinship (unreduced variance) of
      the entire island amounted to 0.0411, a value indicative of very isolated
      populations with accumulated kinship over time. The analysis of genetic
      relationships based on surnames among the villages did not reveal the division of
      the island's villages into two clusters, "eastern" and "western", as was the case
      in previous studies when clustering was based on biological, biocultural, and
      sociocultural traits. In addition, kinship and genetic distances determined from
      surnames revealed a poor fit to an isolation by distance model (for kinship, R2 =
      14.6%, a = 0.1101, b = 0.3573; for genetic distances, R2 = 0.0%, a = 0.5686, b =
      121.52), which is in contrast to the results of previous analyses based on other
      traits. In order to estimate how closely parameters obtained from surnames
      represented real interpopulational distances, matrices of kinship and genetic
      distances between 10 villages (determined from surnames) were correlated to
      corresponding distance matrices based on migrational, sociocultural,
      anthropometric, physiological, dermatoglyphic, and genetic traits that were
      previously reported in the literature on the very same samples. The kinship
      matrix correlated poorly with other distance matrices, while the genetic distance
      matrix determined from surnames was in a good correlation with distance matrices
      based on linguistics (r = 0.65 for basic and r = 0.63 for cultural vocabulary),
      metacarpal bone dimensions (r = 0.54) and genetics (determined from systems of
      erythrocyte antigens and isoenzymes, r = 0.45). Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:595-607,
      1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561433
TI  - On the relationship between pregnancy weight gain and chorioamnionitis.
AB  - Chorioamnionitis refers to infection of the amniotic fluid by such agents as
      Streptococcus sp., E. coli and Ureaplasma sp. It has not only been linked to the
      risk of premature rupture of the membranes and preterm delivery, but also to
      increased morbidity and mortality among neonates born to mothers with such
      infections. The possible association between maternal gestational weight gain and
      chorioamnionitis was examined in data using a case sample of 62 and control
      sample of 168 Israeli women. Univariate analysis demonstrated a significant
      increase in the incidence of chorioamnionitis among mothers delivering before 33
      weeks gestation who displayed inadequate gestational weight gain according to the
      IOM standards. Comparison of logistic regression analyses between mothers who
      developed chorioamnionitis at different stages of their pregnancies, controlling
      for the effects of maternal anthropometric, sociodemographic, and obstetric
      factors, showed that inadequate weight gain significantly increased the risk of
      chorioamnionitis among those delivering very prematurely. The differences in
      significant risk factors suggest the possibility that pre- and full-term
      chorioamnionitis may not have the same etiologies. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:545-553,
      1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561436
TI  - Silver(III)???Silver(III) Interactions that Stabilize the syn Form in a Porphyrin
      Dimer Upon Oxidation.
AB  - The interaction between two AgII porphyrins, connected covalently through a
      highly flexible ethane bridge, in a metalloporphyrin dimer has been investigated
      upon stepwise oxidation. X-ray structure determination of one and two-electron
      oxidized complexes has clearly revealed only metal-centered oxidation that
      results in short Ag-N (porphyrin) distance with large distortion in the porphyrin
      macrocycle. The 2e-oxidized complex exhibits significant metallophilic
      interaction in the form of a close AgIII ???AgIII contact that brings two
      porphyrin rings more cofacial with syn-conformation, which would otherwise
      stabilize in an anti-form. The interaction also leads to an intense emission peak
      at 546 nm at 77 K in the photoluminescence study.

PMID- 28561435
TI  - Comparing methods for fetal fraction determination and quality control of NIPT
      samples.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare available analysis methods for determining fetal fraction
      on single read next generation sequencing data. This is important as the
      performance of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) procedures depends on the
      fraction of fetal DNA. METHODS: We tested six different methods for the detection
      of fetal fraction in NIPT samples. The same clinically obtained data were used
      for all methods, allowing us to assess the effect of fetal fraction on the test
      result, and to investigate the use of fetal fraction for quality control.
      RESULTS: We show that non-NIPT methods based on body mass index (BMI) and
      gestational age are unreliable predictors of fetal fraction, male pregnancy
      specific methods based on read counts on the Y chromosome perform consistently
      and the fetal sex-independent new methods SeqFF and SANEFALCON are less reliable
      but can be used to obtain a basic indication of fetal fraction in case of a
      female fetus. CONCLUSION: We recommend the use of a combination of methods to
      prevent the issue of reports on samples with insufficient fetal DNA; SANEFALCON
      to check for presence of fetal DNA, SeqFF for estimating the fetal fraction for a
      female pregnancy and any Y-based method for estimating the fetal fraction for a
      male pregnancy. (c) 2017 The Authors. Prenatal Diagnosis published by John Wiley
      & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28561437
TI  - Ratiometric Fluorescent Probes for the Detection of Reactive Oxygen Species.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are endogenously produced oxidants with various
      functions ranging from host defense to signaling. These transient species can
      cause severe damage to the body when their production is dysregulated or when
      environmental factors elevate their concentrations. To study their effects and
      prevent oxidative harm, tools capable of monitoring ROS in cells and tissue in a
      sensitive and selective fashion are required. In this Review, a summary of
      existing ratiometric probes is provided, together with a critical discussion of
      selected examples.

PMID- 28561434
TI  - Intracellular origin and ultrastructure of platelet-derived microparticles.
AB  - : Essentials Platelet microparticles play a major role in pathologies, including
      hemostasis and thrombosis. Platelet microparticles have been analyzed and
      classified based on their ultrastructure. The structure and intracellular origin
      of microparticles depend on the cell-activating stimulus. Thrombin-treated
      platelets fall apart and form microparticles that contain cellular organelles.
      SUMMARY: Background Platelet-derived microparticles comprise the major population
      of circulating blood microparticles that play an important role in hemostasis and
      thrombosis. Despite numerous studies on the (patho)physiological roles of
      platelet-derived microparticles, mechanisms of their formation and structural
      details remain largely unknown. Objectives Here we studied the formation,
      ultrastructure and composition of platelet-derived microparticles from isolated
      human platelets, either quiescent or stimulated with one of the following
      activators: arachidonic acid, ADP, collagen, thrombin or calcium ionophore
      A23187. Methods Using flow cytometry, transmission and scanning electron
      microscopy, we analyzed the intracellular origin, structural diversity and size
      distributions of the subcellular particles released from platelets. Results The
      structure, dimensions and intracellular origin of microparticles depend on the
      cell-activating stimulus. The main structural groups include a vesicle surrounded
      by one thin membrane or multivesicular structures. Thrombin, unlike other
      stimuli, induced formation of microparticles not only from the platelet plasma
      membrane and cytoplasm but also from intracellular structures. A fraction of
      these vesicular particles having an intracellular origin contained organelles,
      such as mitochondria, glycogen granules and vacuoles. The size of platelet
      derived microparticles depended on the nature of the cell-activating stimulus.
      Conclusion The results obtained provide a structural basis for the qualitative
      differences of various platelet activators, for specific physiological and
      pathological effects of microparticles, and for development of advanced assays.

PMID- 28561438
TI  - A case of caecal perforation treated by laparoscopic caecectomy - a video
      vignette.

PMID- 28561439
TI  - Relative and interacting effects of sex, race, and environment upon body cell
      mass in healthy adults.
AB  - Most epidemiologic studies in nutrition have concentrated on body fat and obesity
      because of associated health risks, while few studies have examined factors that
      influence body cell mass (BCM). The relative influences of sex, race,
      environment, and age upon BCM were compared by analyzing the results of
      bioimpedance analyses in two cohorts of 1094 healthy adults, including Africans
      in Zaire, plus African Americans and Caucasians in New York City. Men were
      taller, heavier, and had a larger BCM and fat-free mass (FFM) than women, while
      women had more fat than men. African American men and women had more BCM, FFM,
      and fat than Africans. In contrast, BCM and FFM were not different in African
      Americans and Caucasians, and body fat was higher only in African American than
      in Caucasian women. Sex influenced the effects of environment and race, since the
      majority of the weight differences in men were in FFM, while the majority of the
      weight differences in women were in fat. The effect of sex upon BCM was stronger
      than the effects of environment (p < 0.001) or race (p < 0.001), and the effect
      of environment was stronger than the effect of race (p = 0.012), so that the
      relative strengths were sex > environment > race. Race had a stronger effect upon
      FFM than upon BCM. Since race did not affect BCM significantly, it may affect
      other components of FFM, e.g., extracellular water or solids, such as skeletal
      mass. The results demonstrate that sex affects normal body composition to a
      greater degree than race or environment. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:259-268, 1998. (c)
      1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561440
TI  - In-depth study of breastfeeding structure: New data from Mali.
AB  - A number of variables, including ethnic affiliation, time of day, infant and
      maternal ages, and infant dietary supplementation, are used to compare their
      effects on breastfeeding structure of two groups of rural Malian women. The agro
      fishing Bozo and the transhumant pastoralist Fulbe live in the Inner Niger Delta
      of Mali. On-demand breastfeeding is practiced by these groups. Lactation
      continues throughout the infant's second year of life and often into the third.
      Comparisons are made with data from other traditional societies to highlight
      differences in breastfeeding structure and its determinants. Ethnic affiliation
      does not have any significant effect on nursing variables, and the suckling
      patterns of the Fulbe and Bozo women are comparable in this study. Suckling
      activity does not vary according to time of day, although individual women
      exhibit different temporal patterns of nursing behavior. Infant age is
      significantly and negatively correlated to session duration. As infants get older
      and their diets are supplemented with food other than breastmilk, their appetites
      decrease and, consequently, they suckle less. However, there is much individual
      variation in this relationship, and it is argued that the decrease in suckling
      due to supplementation may be offset by an increase in suckling due to infants
      demanding the breast for physical affection. Maternal age, in contrast, is not
      correlated with any nursing variable in this study. This indicates that there is
      no decrease in physiological capacity to provide milk and that access to
      surrogate caretakers is either not correlated with maternal age, or is not a
      strategy employed by these women. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:179-190, 1998. (c) 1998
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561441
TI  - Stunting in an Andean community: Prevalence and etiology.
AB  - The magnitude and potential causes of linear growth retardation in a rural
      agricultural community of the Ecuadorian Andes are examined. Growth stunting is
      common in this population, as height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) for boys and girls 1
      5 years average -2.2 and -2.0, respectively. Dietary analyses suggest multiple
      nutrient deficiencies. The diet appears to be moderately deficient in energy,
      protein, calcium, and vitamin A, and more severely limiting in zinc.
      Additionally, analyses of the local water supply and household hygiene indicate
      that risk of infection is relatively high among this population. Of the 23 days
      for which water quality was monitored, slight Escherichia coli contamination was
      observed on 13 days (57%), and moderate contamination was seen once (4%).
      Overall, it appears that growth faltering in this population reflects the
      synergistic effect of mild-to-moderate malnutrition and disease. It is unlikely
      that malnutrition alone is sufficient to explain the degree of stunting seen in
      this and other Andean populations. Rather, the stress of coping with chronic
      disease in the presence of malnutrition may contribute to early childhood growth
      faltering and compromise potential catch up growth later in life. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:229-240, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561442
TI  - Anthropometric determinants of risk factors in an African American population.
AB  - This study assessed the association of biological markers, including cholesterol,
      HDL, LDL, triglycerides, ApoA-1, and ApoB, with estimates of the body
      composition, including the conicity index (CI), BMI, bioelectrical impedance
      analysis, and the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). One hundred-twenty-six African
      American adults (43-males, 83-females) from a public housing community in the
      District of Columbia were recruited. Females were four times more likely to be
      obese than were males. Among the four anthropometric indicators, the WHR was the
      best method to explain the variances in biological markers, including cholesterol
      and ApoB levels in females. The CI showed relationships with log triglyceride
      levels in females, while percentage body fat (%BF) explained the variances of log
      HDL and log ApoA-1 in males. For cholesterol, log triglycerides and ApoB, mean
      values were positively associated with tertiles of the WHR, whereas mean values
      of log HDL and log ApoA-1 were negatively associated with tertiles of %BF. The
      WHR and CI, indicators of relative body fat distribution, are more related to
      risk factors for CVD and diabetes among females than is the BMI. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:249-258, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561443
TI  - Medical ethnobiology of the highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The
      gastrointestinal diseases.

PMID- 28561444
TI  - Butterfat feeding in early infancy in african populations: New hypotheses.
AB  - The feeding of butterfat and animal milk to infants during their first 6 months
      has been documented in a number of pastoralist populations in Africa and
      elsewhere. In the view of the majority of nutrition scientists and physicians,
      this practice heightens the risk of malnutrition and infection for the infant.
      Where these nonbreastmilk foods are used to replace breastmilk, this view
      certainly is justified. In high-risk populations who use foods such as butterfat
      as complements to unrestricted breastfeeding, however, the relationship between
      early supplementation and infant growth and morbidity may be complex. Moreover,
      it may be mediated by the nutritional status of mothers and the nutritional
      adequacy of their breastmilk. In this work, the ecological context of butterfat
      feeding in Turkana, Kenya, is examined. It is argued that butterfat promotes
      positive infant energy balance prior to the critical period of the transition to
      active immunity, which occurs during the stressful dry season. Breastmilk alone
      may be inadequate to sustain growth and fat storage of young infants, since the
      diet and nutritional status of Turkana mothers suggest that fat content of their
      milk may be at the low end of the human range. In an environment where selection
      pressure is assumed to be high, a strategy of complementing the fat in human milk
      with butterfat may prolong positive energy balance of infants and enhance their
      resistance to infection and their survival during the critical period. Hence, it
      is an important component of human adaptation in Turkana. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      10:163-178, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561445
TI  - Ecology of breastfeeding in the United States: An applied perspective.
AB  - Breastfeeding initiation and duration have followed distinct cycles in the United
      States. Despite recent increases, breastfeeding rates still fall short of public
      health goals. This paper takes an applied perspective to examine the potential
      role of human biologists in enhancing the promotion of breastfeeding in the
      United States. The conceptual model of breastfeeding held by policy makers and
      public health professionals is distinguished from that of human biologists. An
      integrated model is proposed that incorporates the sociodemographic factors of
      the public health model with the components of breastfeeding structure and early
      mother-infant interaction of the human biology model. It is suggested that human
      biologists can contribute to the more effective promotion of breastfeeding by
      promoting inclusion of a wide range of anthropological research on infant
      feeding, clarifying the vocabulary of infant feeding, and expanding their own
      research to include participation in the development and testing of breastfeeding
      interventions. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:221-228, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561446
TI  - Hydration as a limiting factor in lactation.
AB  - A relatively untapped area of research concerning lactation and hydration exists
      for bioanthropologists interested in the ecology of breastfeeding. This review
      details current limited knowledge on the topic with recommendations about
      relevant research questions for human biologists. On average, lactating mothers
      produce >750 ml/day milk for their infants. Breastfeeding thus promotes a
      powerful thirst stimulus in the lactating mother, resulting in a 12-16% increase
      in fluid intake among Western women. Thirst during lactation may be mediated by
      oxytocin release, since this hormone is structurally similar to the antidiuretic
      hormone, vasopressin. Prolactin also may be involved. A few studies among Western
      women concluded that moderate dehydration does not affect milk production, but it
      is not known how lactating women in hot and/or dry climates respond to
      chronically limited water supplies. Lactating women in such environments may use
      both physiological and behavioral adaptations to conserve fluid requirements,
      such as reducing activities during breastfeeding and carrying extra fluid
      supplies while travelling. Given the limited state of knowledge on lactation and
      hydration, future field studies should incorporate research to determine the
      importance of adequate fluids in maintaining milk production and the health of
      both mothers and infants. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:151-161, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561447
TI  - Bacterial toxins and enteral feeding of premature infants at risk for necrotizing
      enterocolitis.
AB  - Bacterial translocation and enteral feeding are factors implicated in neonatal
      necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in the preterm infant. A cohort of 60 preterm low
      birth-weight (LBW) infants (600-1,600 g at birth) consecutively admitted to the
      neonatal intensive care unit (NICU; N = 183) were prospectively followed to
      evaluate the role of bacterial endotoxins (lipopolysaccharides) and enteral
      feeding in the development of NEC. Stage I NEC was identified in 14/60 (23%)
      infants. In all, 15% (9/60) of infants followed, which represented roughly 5% of
      higher risk, LBW infants admitted to the NICU, progressed to Stage II or III NEC
      disease. Infants not enterally fed (nothing by mouth [NPO]) were at greatest risk
      of developing NEC. No infant who was breast milk fed progressed to Stage II or
      III NEC. The protective effect of breast milk was most evident when compared with
      the combined group of NPO or formula-feeding infants per person-week at risk (RR
      = .15, P < .04). Toxin-producing bacteria and endotoxin levels in stool filtrates
      predicted early and advanced stages of NEC disease. Cytokine concentrations
      (interleukin-6 [IL-6]) in stool appeared of limited value in reflecting mucosally
      limited disease in the gastrointestinal tract. Overgrowth of toxin-producing
      bacteria and their toxin products may adversely affect gut barrier function;
      monitoring endotoxin concentrations in stool filtrates may be most clinically
      useful in NPO and formula-fed infants identified at risk of developing NEC. Am.
      J. Hum. Biol. 10:211-219, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561448
TI  - Ecology of breastfeeding: Approaches toward improvement of women's and children's
      health.
AB  - It is well established that breastfeeding has significant benefits for infant
      health and plays an important role in regulating maternal fecundity. However,
      many questions remain regarding the mechanisms underlying these relationships and
      the sources of the observed variation among individuals and populations. For
      example, women of seemingly comparable breastfeeding magnitude and nutritional
      status display substantial heterogeneity in the duration of postpartum
      subfecundity. This variation may be related to breastfeeding structure, which in
      turn is the consequence of variation in ecological conditions. In addition to
      theoretical questions, it is essential that efforts are directed toward
      addressing the issues of improving women's and children's health. Women have
      multiple roles and obligations, including a responsibility for their own well
      being as well as that of their children. Women also have a right to determine the
      course of action most appropriate for themselves. Under suitable conditions,
      breastfeeding is the best choice for the well-being of both the mother and
      infant; hence, provided with these conditions most women will choose to
      breastfeed. Working within an ecological perspective, human biologists have an
      opportunity to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical issues by
      conducting research that also contributes to the advocacy of women's and
      children's health. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:145-149, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561449
TI  - Biological and behavioral factors influence group differences in prolactin levels
      among breastfeeding Nepali women.
AB  - This study of two natural fertility Nepali groups, the Tamang and Kami,
      identifies biological and behavioral factors associated with population
      differences in fertility. Previous research had established that Tamang
      experience longer interbirth intervals than Kami despite similarly intense
      nursing practices, and bear considerably higher energy expenditure due to
      workload. This cross-sectional study of 71 breastfeeding women includes prolactin
      determinations on three blood spot samples collected 5, 30, and 50 minutes
      following a timed nursing bout, and data on maternal age, BMI, menstrual status,
      previous birth interval, parity, infant age, nursing bout length, and durations
      of supplementation and postpartum amenorrhea. The findings show that Tamang
      breastfeeding mothers have higher average prolactin levels than Kami for as long
      as 22 months postpartum. Tamang mothers sustain average prolactin levels above
      those of nonpregnant, nonlactating women for nearly 2 years postpartum, whereas
      prolactin levels among Kami breastfeeding mothers are the same as this latter
      group after 1 year postpartum. Furthermore, the findings indicate that Tamang
      mothers have higher average prolactin levels regardless of maternal age, physical
      status (BMI, weight, or height), or infant age, and the rate of decline in
      prolactin from 5 to 50 minutes after suckling is significantly greater for Kami
      than Tamang. Since factors associated with prolactin levels differ by group, the
      findings also emphasize that populations vary not only in the strength of effects
      that proximate determinants have on fertility regulation, but also in the
      pathways by which they exert their effects (direct physiological versus indirect
      behavioral). Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:191-210, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561450
TI  - Body composition in Central Asia populations: Fat patterning variation in the
      Kazakhs of the Tien Shan mountains and the Uighurs of Semericia.
AB  - Eleven anthropometric variables related to fat patterning were analyzed in two
      populations of Central Asia, the Kazakhs of the Tien Shan mountains (2100 m) and
      the Uighurs of the Semericia plains. Subjects were healthy unrelated males, 122
      Kazakhs and 79 Uighurs, 19-65 years. Comparisons were done with a preliminary
      analysis of variance and then by covariance analysis, taking into account the
      influence of age. The Uighurs, independently of age, show higher values than
      Kazakhs for all of the characteristics related to fat patterning, but principal
      components analysis suggests a similar somatic structure in the two samples. The
      presence of lower adiposity in the Kazakhs than in the Uighurs could be related
      to stress, probably associated with nutrition and lifestyle in a mountain
      environment. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:241-247, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561451
TI  - Hyperspectral Imaging to Determine the Properties and Homogeneity of Renewable
      Carbon Materials.
AB  - Hyperspectral imaging within the near infrared (NIR) region offers a fast and
      reliable way for determining the properties of renewable carbon materials. The
      chemical information provided by a spectrum combined with the spatial information
      of an image allows mathematical operations that can be performed in both the
      spectral and spatial domains. Here, we show that hyperspectral NIR imaging can be
      successfully used to determine the properties of hydrothermally prepared carbon
      on the material and pixel levels. Materials produced from different feedstocks or
      prepared under different temperatures can also be distinguished, and their
      homogeneity can be evaluated. As hyperspectral imaging within the NIR region is
      non-destructive and requires very little sample preparation, it can be used for
      controlling the quality of renewable carbon materials destined for a wide range
      of different applications.

PMID- 28561452
TI  - Optical coherence tomography angiography of the macular microvasculature changes
      in retinitis pigmentosa.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the macular microvasculature changes by optical coherence
      tomography angiography (OCTA) and analyse the correlation between these changes
      and central visual function in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). METHODS:
      We measured the area of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and the foveal and
      parafoveal flow density (FFD and PFD, respectively) in the superficial (S) and
      deep (D) retinal plexus by OCTA (AngioVue) and compared these values between 73
      RP patients and 36 healthy controls. We analysed the relationships between these
      microvasculature measurements and central visual functions such as visual acuity
      (VA) and the values of static perimetry tests (Humphrey Field Analyzer, the
      central 10-2 program) in the RP patients. RESULTS: The FFD-S, PFD-S and PFD-D
      were significantly decreased in the RP patients compared to the controls (all p <
      0.05), whereas there was no significant difference in the FAZ-S, FAZ-D or FFD-D
      (all p > 0.05). A subgroup analysis showed that the RP patients with VA <20/20
      had increased FAZ-S compared to the controls and RP patients with VA >=20/20 (p =
      0.01 and p = 0.007, respectively). Spearman rank testing demonstrated that PFD-S
      and PFD-D were significantly correlated with all of the central visual parameters
      (all p < 0.01). The FAZ-S and FFD-S were significantly correlated with VA, and
      FAZ-D and FFD-D showed no significant correlation. CONCLUSION: Both the
      superficial and deep layers of the parafoveal microvasculature are attenuated in
      RP and correlated with reduced central visual function. The foveal
      microvasculature, especially in the deep layer, was relatively preserved until
      mild-to-moderately advanced stages.

PMID- 28561453
TI  - The impact of developing a speech and swallow rehab program: Improving patient
      satisfaction and multidisciplinary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of
      developing an integrated head and neck cancer speech and swallowing
      rehabilitation program on physician/team focus on functional outcomes. STUDY
      DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional design. METHODS: Surveys regarding physician
      behavior and patient satisfaction with speech and swallowing were administered in
      an academic oncology practice prior to and 1 year following establishment of a
      dedicated head and neck speech and swallowing rehabilitation program.
      Participants included new and established head and neck cancer patients recruited
      consecutively. The primary outcome was physician behavior regarding speech and
      swallowing outcomes (as measured by discussion of function, providing suggestions
      regarding function, and referral to speech-language pathology services). RESULTS:
      A total of 199 surveys were returned at the first time point and 271 at the
      second. Demographic variables were comparable between the two groups. The later
      cohort was more likely to report team discussion and suggestions regarding speech
      and swallowing function than the former (P < .001, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 
      0.775 to -0.265; P < .001, 95% CI: -0.928 to -0.035, respectively). Although
      there was no significant difference between the groups in regard to satisfaction
      with speech (P = .07), more favorable satisfaction with swallowing was reported
      by the later cohort (P = .028, 95% CI: -0.531 to -0.029). CONCLUSIONS:
      Integration of speech and swallowing rehabilitation into head and neck cancer
      programs is associated with increased physician focus on functional outcomes and
      greater patient satisfaction in regard to swallowing function. We advocate for
      standard integration of such services into the multidisciplinary head and neck
      cancer care team. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2578-2581, 2017.

PMID- 28561454
TI  - Hepatitis B treatment eligibility in West Africa: Uncertainties and need for
      prospective cohort studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: While universal screening of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is
      recommended in high burden countries, little is known about the proportion of HBV
      infected persons in need of antiviral therapy in these settings. METHODS:
      Prisoners in Senegal and Togo as well as female sex workers and men who have sex
      with men in Cote d'Ivoire were screened for HBV infection. All HBsAg-positive
      participants underwent transient elastography, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and
      HBV viral load (VL) quantification. Individuals with cirrhosis or those aged >30
      years with an HBV replication >=20 000 IU/mL and elevated ALT were considered
      eligible for antiviral therapy. RESULTS: Of 1256 participants, 110 (8.8%) were
      HBsAg positive; their median age was 30 years [interquartile range: 25-33] and 96
      (86.5%) were men. Three individuals (2.7%) had cirrhosis, while 28 (29.5%) of 94
      participants with available measurements had an HBV VL >=20 000 IU/mL. Overall,
      11 (10.0%) subjects were considered eligible for immediate antiviral treatment
      (2.1% of participants in Dakar, 7.7% in Abidjan and 21.6% in Lome, P=.001) and 59
      (53.4%) for close monitoring due to the presence of significant liver fibrosis,
      elevated ALT or significant HBV replication. CONCLUSIONS: Among vulnerable
      populations in West Africa, a minority of HBV-infected individuals were eligible
      for immediate antiviral therapy. Prospective cohort studies are necessary to
      evaluate anti-HBV treatment eligibility facing the significant proportion of
      individuals with active chronic HBV infection.

PMID- 28561455
TI  - Co-assembly of Patchy Polymeric Micelles and Protein Molecules.
AB  - The development in the synthesis and self-assembly of patchy nanoparticles has
      resulted in the creation of complex hierarchical structures. Co-assembly of
      polymeric nanoparticles and protein molecules combines the advantages of
      polymeric materials and biomolecules, and will produce new functional materials.
      Co-assembly of positively charged patchy micelles and negatively charged bovine
      serum albumin (BSA) molecules is investigated. The patchy micelles, which were
      synthesized using block copolymer brushes as templates, leads to co-assembly with
      protein molecules into vesicular structures. The average size of the assembled
      structures can be controlled by the molar ratio of BSA to patchy micelles. The
      assembled structures are dissociated in the presence of trypsin. The protein
      polymer hybrid vesicles could find potential applications in medicine.

PMID- 28561456
TI  - Investigation of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) 4G/5G promoter
      polymorphism in Indian venous thrombosis patients: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism in venous thrombosis has been
      contradictory. PAI-1 4G/4G genotype is associated with elevated levels of PAI-1
      resulting in a hypofibrinolytic state and a higher thrombotic risk. OBJECTIVE: In
      this study, the distribution of genotypes and frequency of alleles of the 4G/5G
      polymorphism of PAI-1 gene in Indian patients with different types of venous
      thrombosis was investigated for its role in development of thrombosis. METHOD: A
      total of 87 portal vein thrombosis (PVT), 71 Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS), 156
      cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT), and 163 deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients were
      studied alongside 251 healthy controls for the PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism by allele
      specific PCR. RESULTS: Frequency of 4G/4G genotype was higher in all groups in
      comparison with controls. 4G/4G was associated with PVT risk (OR=2.51, 95%
      CI=1.29-4.96, P=.0075), BCS risk (OR=5.98, 95% CI=2.68-13.42, P<.0001), and DVT
      risk (OR=1.75, 95% CI=0.98-3.02, P=.0225). This is the first case-control study
      from India establishing PAI-1 4G/4G as a strong risk factor for abdominal
      thrombosis (PVT and BCS). Statistically significant association was not found
      between 4G/4G genotype and CVT risk. CONCLUSION: PAI-1 4G/4G is a strong risk
      factor for venous thrombosis in Indian patients and should be included in
      laboratory testing panel of thrombophilia.

PMID- 28561457
TI  - Early childhood determinants of age at menarche in rural guatemala.
AB  - The influence of early childhood determinants on age at menarche was investigated
      in a sample of Guatemalan women who participated as children in a nutrition
      intervention study conducted from 1969 to 1977. Age at menarche was
      retrospectively estimated in 1991 and 1992. Mean age at menarche was 13.7 (+/
      1.3) years. Data on linear growth, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, and energy
      intake from supplementation as well as home sources were available between birth
      and 7 years of age. Socioeconomic status (SES) data were collected in 1975. Four
      hundred and ninety-seven women who had reached menarche by 1992 were grouped into
      three categories of stunting based on their height-for-age z-scores (none, >-2.0;
      moderate, -2.0 SD to -3.0 SD; severe, <-3.0 SD relative to National Center for
      Health Statistics reference data) at 3 years of age. About 78% of the sample was
      moderately or severely stunted at 3 years of age. The group that was severely
      stunted in childhood reached menarche at 14.1 +/- 1.4 years, significantly later
      than those who were moderately stunted (13.7 +/- 1.2 years) or not stunted (13.5
      +/- 1.3 years). Using multiple linear regression methods, stunting was a
      significant predictor of age at menarche. Average energy intake (kcal/d) from
      home diet was associated with earlier menarche independent of preschool growth
      status. Percent time ill with diarrhea was positively associated with age at
      menarche. When the effects of diet, supplement, percent time ill with diarrhea
      and respiratory illnesses, and SES were taken into account, the independent
      influence of stunting on age at menarche persisted and remained significant. (c)
      1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561458
TI  - Ovarian function in the latter half of the reproductive lifespan.
AB  - The relationship of age to four aspects of ovarian function was investigated:
      daily progesterone levels, pulsatile progesterone secretion, follicular and
      luteal estradiol levels, and preovulatory estradiol levels. Daily progesterone
      levels decrease after age 40. Pulsatile progesterone secretion remains
      approximately stable with age, though older women have somewhat higher late
      luteal activity. Daily follicular and luteal estradiol levels decrease with
      advancing age, but preovulatory peak estradiol remains stable. Some of these
      changes undoubtedly have negative effects on fecundity, such as lower follicular
      estradiol and average progesterone, via effects on endometrial development and
      support. But other changes identified, such as stability of preovulatory
      estradiol levels and thereby presumptive capacity to stimulate a luteinizing
      hormone (LH) surge despite lower follicular and luteal levels, as well as
      increased pulsatile progesterone secretion around the time of implantation,
      appear designed to conserve and maintain function. Thus, ovarian endocrine
      function over the course of reproductive life represents a process of change, but
      not one of generalized functional decline. Rather, aging with respect to ovarian
      endocrine function may proceed on a track, or on multiple tracks, which are
      largely separable from the continual depletion of oocyte stores which occurs over
      the lifetime. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561459
TI  - Evolution of the human life cycle.
AB  - Social mammals have three basic stages of postnatal development: infant,
      juvenile, and adult. Some species also have a brief female post-reproductive
      stage. The human life cycle, however, is best described by five stages: infant,
      child, juvenile, adolescent, and adult. Women in both traditional and industrial
      societies may also have a long post-reproductive stage. Analyses of bones and
      teeth of early hominids who died as subadults suggest that the evolution of the
      new life stages of childhood and adolescence are not of ancient origin. The
      current human pattern evolved after the appearance of Homo erectus. It is
      possible that evidence for the existence of the post-reproductive stage for women
      will also be recoverable from the fossil record because the hormonal changes
      associated with menopause have profound effects on bone density and histology of
      tubular bones. It is hypothesized that the new life stages of the human life
      cycle represent feeding and reproductive specializations of the genus Homo. (c)
      1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561460
TI  - Assessing cardiovascular risk and stress-related blood pressure variability in
      young women employed in wage jobs.
AB  - This overview discusses how aspects of behavior and stressors inherent in the
      lifestyles of contemporary women affect their cardiovascular health. Three main
      issues are addressed. The first is the applicability of cardiovascular risk data
      collected on prior generations of working women in predicting the health outcomes
      of the current generation of women. It is argued that the earlier data may not
      adequately describe the health risk of the current generation because of changes
      in the nature of women's paid employment in recent decades, and because the
      compartmentalization of economic, leisure, and domestic activities may have
      affected how stress associated with each influences cardiovascular measures such
      as blood pressure. Second, the influence of the environment on lifestyle is
      briefly discussed in the context that differences in the results of studies
      examining lifestyle stressors may occur as a consequence of local physical and
      cultural environmental differences which influence lifestyle. Third, the effects
      of daily microenvironmental changes on blood pressure are discussed and it is
      argued that perceived socioeconomic roles may influence the cardiovascular
      response to the stressors inherent in each microenvironment. Because the
      lifestyles of women change over the lifespan, it is concluded that the impact of
      lifestyle on cardiovascular risk must be studied at all stages of life. (c) 1996
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561461
TI  - Proceedings of Human Biology Association 21st Annual Meeting, April 8-10, 1996,
      Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Durham, North Carolina.

PMID- 28561462
TI  - Lifespan approach to the study of human biology: An introductory overview.

PMID- 28561463
TI  - Excessive gestational weight gain and chronic disease risk.
AB  - Excessive deposition of central body and abdominal (centripetal) fat early in
      life often will presage the later development of cardiovascular and metabolic
      diseases. Data from urban, low-income women from Camden, New Jersey, were used to
      examine the influence of gestational weight gain on patterns of weight change and
      fat deposition in 118 young women followed over two consecutive pregnancies.
      Adjusting for confounding factors, there was a significant (P < 0.05) dose
      response relationship between the amount of gestational gain (in the subsequent
      pregnancy) and increases in postpartum weight compared with the postpartum in the
      prior pregnancy: +1.5 kg with a low gain, +2.9 kg with recommended amounts of
      gain, and +7.9 kg with excessive gain. Excessive gain (18+ kg) was common (18%)
      in the sample. The incidence of "new" obesity (body mass index [BMI] >29.0 in the
      subsequent postpartum but not the index postpartum) increased significantly with
      gestational gain: 4.7% with low gain, 7.0% with recommended gains, and 25.0% with
      excessive gain. There were similar dose-response increases related to gestational
      weight gain in all skinfolds (suprailiac, subscapular, and triceps) and the sum
      of the skinfolds. However, in women with excessive gains, fat was increased
      disproportionately at upper (+52%) and lower (+48%) central body sites, compared
      with the periphery (+27%), and compared with increases in women with lesser
      gestational gains. Thus, excessive gestational weight gain, which is common among
      low-income women, may be a factor which promotes obesity and a centripetal fat
      pattern during the reproductive years, thereby increasing the risk for
      cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in later life. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561464
TI  - The relation of lifetime reproduction to survivorship in women and men: A
      prospective study.
AB  - The relation of lifetime reproduction to survivorship was investigated among
      1,533 women and 1,230 men from Southern California who were born between 1880 and
      1929. Analyses used the total group and two 25-year birthyear subcohorts (1880
      1904 and 1905-1929). Follow-up for vital status was 100% and included 41,399
      person-years, from baseline (1972-1974) through mid-1990. Cox proportional
      hazards analyses were adjusted for age, body mass index, estrogen use in women,
      and socioeconomic status. Alternate sets of analyses for each sex used
      reproduction coded dichotomously, and as a continuous variable. Parous women had
      significantly poorer survivorship than nulliparous women in the total group (P =
      0.003) and among women born 1880-1904 (P = 0.02), but not among women born 1905
      1929 (P = 0.08). Analyses using number of biological children showed
      significantly poorer maternal survivorship "per child ever born" among the total
      group of women (P = 0.04) and among women born 1880-1904 (P = 0.01), but not
      among women born 1905-1929 (P = 0.96). Further analyses confirmed that women's
      risk per child tended to increase with maternal age. Equivalent sets of analyses
      for men showed no relationship between reproduction and survivorship. The
      survivorship differences between women's birthyear subcohorts may be due to
      secular trends or age-specific disease patterns. Study findings tend to support
      the latter, and suggest that childbearing may increase or accelerate women's
      mortality from certain diseases which occur late in life, and that risk may
      increase with age. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561465
TI  - Developmental influences on adult ovarian hormonal function.
AB  - The hypothesis is advanced that levels of ovarian hormonal function in adult
      women are associated with the tempo of growth and maturation in childhood and
      adolescence. Empirical data are presented documenting a correlation between
      menarcheal age and adult ovarian hormonal function both within and between
      populations. It is noted that this relationship is compatible with current
      understanding of the mechanisms underlying pubertal maturation of ovarian
      hormonal function. Functionally, such a relationship could serve the purpose of
      modulating adult fecundity to chronic environmental conditions. Alternative
      hypotheses include the possibility that the relationship is not causal but rather
      reflects either confounded effects of some common cause or the persistence of
      acute environmental effects through time. Proper testing of such alternative
      hypotheses will require longitudinal data on migrant populations, changing
      environments, or secular trends within populations. The importance of
      establishing the relationship between development and adult ovarian hormonal
      function is not limited to issues of fecundity and fertility, but includes other
      areas of female general and reproductive health. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561466
TI  - Symptoms of menopause in relation to the timing of reproductive events and past
      menstrual experience.
AB  - The framework of the lifespan approach is used to examine the frequency of
      symptoms associated with menopause. Symptom frequencies are examined in relation
      to past menstrual symptom experience and the timing of reproductive events. Data
      were drawn from a cross-sectional community survey carried out in Greene County,
      New York. The symptoms most often reported were hot flashes, irritability, mood
      changes, sweating, and headaches. Frequencies of vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes,
      sweating) were highly correlated. Frequencies of psychological symptoms
      (irritability, mood change) were also highly correlated. Neither vasomotor nor
      psychological symptoms were associated with parity, age at menarche, or ages at
      first and last childbirth. Frequency of hot flashes was significantly associated
      with post-menopause status, later age at natural menopause, and fewer years of
      education. In contrast, frequency of psychological symptoms was not related to
      menopause status, age at natural menopause, or years of education. Menstrual
      abdominal cramps and leg cramping were associated with hot flash frequency at
      menopause, but not frequency of menopausal mood change. In contrast, menstrual
      bloating and mood changes were associated with menopausal irritability and mood
      change. Self-reported vasomotor and psychological symptoms demonstrated
      dissimilar relationships to lifespan events. It is difficult to determine,
      however, which dimension of the lifespan (biological, sociocultural, or
      psychological) is involved in determining differences in menopansal symptom
      frequencies. (c) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561467
TI  - Growth in height and weight of South African urban infants from birth to five
      years: The Birth to Ten Study.
AB  - The Birth To Ten (BTT) birth cohort study was designed to investigate the health
      and growth of children living in the Soweto-Johannesburg Metropole, South Africa.
      During 1990-1991, 4034 singleton births, from a total birth population of 5449
      that occurred between 23 April and 8 June, 1990, were enrolled into the study.
      Anthropometric, socioeconomic, health, nutritional, and demographic data were
      collected at birth and at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 60 months. Socioeconomic data
      relating to household commodities, maternal education, and paternal occupation
      were combined to create socioeconomic status (SES) groups for comparative
      purposes. Mean birth weights were less than American norms and demonstrated
      significant differences between the sexes. The percentage of low birth weight
      children of normal gestational age (7.1%) was similar to that of developed
      countries. Growth in weight exceeded that of the National Center for Health
      Statistics (NCHS) reference during the first 6 months and then fell to -0.43 Z
      scores by 4 years. Height growth was consistently less than the NCHS reference
      and the prevalence of stunting and wasting increased to 22.4% and 6.8%,
      respectively, by 2 years. Catch-up occurred between 4 and 5 years resulting in a
      reduction in the prevalence of stunting and wasting to 5.4% and 0.8%,
      respectively, at 5 years. SES differences were apparent throughout the time
      period but only reached significance in height and weight after 4 years of age.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:495-504, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561468
TI  - Timing of the influence of maternal nutritional status during pregnancy on fetal
      growth.
AB  - This study, which used data from a longitudinal nutrition study of mothers and
      infants in rural Guatemala, tested a hypothesis that the influence of maternal
      nutritional status on various measurements of fetal growth is trimester-specific.
      The relationships between various measures of newborn size and the changes of
      maternal anthropometry at various stages of pregnancy were analyzed by ordinary
      least squares multiple regression techniques. The sample included 235 mother
      infant pairs who had complete anthropometry for both the newborns (weight,
      length, and head circumference) and their mothers at 3, 6, and 9 months of
      pregnancy (weight, height, circumferences of mid-upper arm and thigh, skinfold
      thicknesses at biceps, triceps, calf, thigh, and subscapular sites). Each
      kilogram of maternal weight gain in the second and third trimester was associated
      with statistically significant increases in birth weight of 62 g (P < 0.001) and
      26 g (P < 0.05), respectively. Newborn length and head circumference were
      significantly associated with maternal weight gain and the changes in maternal
      thigh skinfolds in mid-pregnancy only. The overall results suggest that maternal
      nutritional status in mid-pregnancy rather than in late pregnancy is a more
      important determinant of fetal growth in weight, length, and head circumference.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:529-539, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561469
TI  - Renin, ANP, ACE polymorphisms, blood pressure and age in American Samoans:
      Preliminary data.
AB  - Molecular studies have identified numerous candidate genes that may influence
      interindividual variation in physiologically important endpoints. Among these are
      molecular variants of three proteins associated with blood pressure regulation,
      renin, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE).
      These loci are polymorphic in all populations examined. The purpose of this study
      was to determine gene and genotype frequencies at these three loci in a sample of
      American Samoans and to examine associations of the various genotypes with blood
      pressure, hypertension, and age. Genotype frequencies of a BglI restriction
      fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) at the renin locus were slightly out of
      Hardy-Weinberg expectations (P ? 0.025). Frequencies of a BglI RFLP at the ANP
      locus and of the insertion/deletion polymorphism at the ACE locus approximated
      Hardy-Weinberg expectations (P ? 0.10). These frequencies differed from those
      reported in "Afro-Caribbean" and "Caucasian" samples from London. Neither average
      blood pressures nor the frequencies of either systolic or diastolic hypertension
      differed significantly across genotypes at the ANP or ACE loci. However, systolic
      pressure was elevated among those heterozygous for the renin BglI cut site (P =
      0.07). Mean age was 34.4 years among individuals heterozygous for the ANP BglI
      cut site, while it was 46.0 years for homozygotes without the site (P = 0.04).
      After dividing the sample at its median age (45 years), 31.8% of younger, but
      only 8.7% of older participants were ANP BglI heterozygotes (G = 9.48; P =
      0.005). Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:439-449, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561470
TI  - Two decade trends in birth weight and early childhood growth in Papua New Guinea.
AB  - At present, little is known about patterns of early growth and development in
      foraging and small-scale horticultural populations. Moreover, still less is known
      about secular changes in growth in these populations. Data collected in 1967,
      1976, and 1989 are presented for birth weight and subsequent growth to 5 years
      among Au forager-horticulturalists of Papua New Guinea. Despite the launching of
      health campaigns over the last two decades aimed at bettering the nutritional
      status of the Au, the data show that average birth weight has remained stable and
      low at just over 2600 g. Weight- and length-for-age also show no significant
      changes among traditional Au over the last 20 years, and remain on average, at
      just below the U.S. 5th percentile. Evidence for the start of a positive secular
      trend in birth weight and subsequent growth is seen, however, among a small group
      of Au children residing in households that have a source of wage income. These
      individuals show an increase of 150 g in birth weight, and over the subsequent 5
      years of growth average 93 g heavier and 2.6 cm taller than Au children in
      traditional households. In addition to providing baseline data on child growth in
      a forager-horticulturalist society, the findings provide evidence for a secular
      trend newly underway, and suggest that health promotion campaigns alone without
      socioeconomic development may be insufficient in effecting change in growth
      status in rural communities. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:483-493, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561471
TI  - Prevalence of obesity and contributing factors among Sherpa women in urban and
      rural Nepal.
AB  - Dietary and lifestyle changes have profound influences on the body mass and
      nutritional status of individuals living in developed countries. This report used
      data from a prospective longitudinal study to assess the prevalence of obesity
      among Sherpa women and to determine which factors were most predictive of it. The
      body mass index (BMI), energy consumption and expenditures, and physical activity
      patterns were compared for nonpregnant, premenopausal women living in urban low
      altitude (n = 216); urban high altitude (n = 56); and rural high altitude (n =
      93) settings. Area of residence was highly predictive of the BMI. The mean body
      weight and BMI were significantly higher for the urban low altitude sample (53.3
      kg and 23.5 kg/m2 , respectively) than for the total high altitude sample (51.4
      kg and 21.8 kg/m2 , respectively). The rural, high altitude sample had the lowest
      mean body weight (50.1 kg), triceps skinfold (18.5 mm), and BMI (21.3 kg/m2 ).
      Although mean BMI was in the range associated with the overall lowest risk to
      health, distribution of the BMI showed that 29% of the urban low altitude sample
      were classified obese. The prevalence of obesity was correlated with reduced
      energy expenditure, not to an increase in consumed calories. Reduced energy
      expenditures appear to be related to shifts in occupation, access to motorized
      transportation, and increased affluence, which has allowed Sherpas to hire
      servants to do manual labor. These data suggest that Sherpa women may potentially
      be at risk of chronic health problems in the future because of increased
      adiposity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:519-528, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561472
TI  - Genes play an important role in bone aging.
AB  - Pathological changes in bones like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis are among the
      most frequent outcomes of age and aging. Presently, little is known about the
      genetic basis of peak bone mass or rate of bone loss, or on the genetics of bone
      formation and resorption. This paper reviews modern studies, dealing with the
      genetic aspects of bone formation and bone aging. The currently most popular
      measures of bone aging are: osteometric measurements (OSM) including measures of
      cortical thickness, bone mineral density (BMD), and osteographic scores (OSS)
      basing on descriptive criteria of bone age. These three are important clinical
      tools for predicting chronic degenerative disease and estimating biological age
      of individuals. Despite abundant data on ethnic and racial differences in these
      bone aging measures, modern knowledge regarding the genetics of the processes
      came primarily from family studies of BMD which point to strong familial and
      probably also genetic effects on bone mass. Regardless of the measurement
      technique or skeletal site selected, heritability estimates of BMD in most
      studies account for about 60% of the total variation in bone mass. Similarity of
      heritability estimates in most studies suggests that the same genetic factors
      operate on both weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing bones. However, genetic
      heritability may be overestimated in some family studies due to underestimation
      of common environmental effects. Segregation analysis, performed to date, reveals
      strong effect of potential major locus on BMD of both compact and trabecular
      bone, but much remains to be clarified. Genetic factors affecting BMD may be
      mediated through biochemical turnover of bone. Hence, segregation, linkage, and
      molecular biology are the staples of any genetic analysis of BMD, while the study
      of biochemical factors regulating bone turnover should elucidate the full picture
      of bone formation and aging. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:421-438, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561473
TI  - Longitudinal change in forced expiratory volume in healthy, non-smoking men and
      women: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.

PMID- 28561474
TI  - Age at menarche and prevalence of oligo/amenorrhea in top Polish athletes.
AB  - The representative sample of a population of top Polish athletes (>75% of all
      participants in Poland's Winter and Summer National Championships during 1992
      1994) was investigated using a questionnaire. The athletic group numbered 926
      women in total. The control group (n = 708) in the same age range (15-37 years)
      as the athletes was randomly chosen from the Warsaw population. The mean
      menarcheal age of all athletes was 13.6 +/- 1.3 years, and it was statistically
      different from the controls (12.9 +/- 1.2 years). Athletes who started training
      before menarche were more numerous (661) than those who started training after
      menarche (265). The mean menarcheal age was also different for those groups (13.9
      +/- 1.3 years vs. 13.0 +/- 1.3 years). In all sports except cross-country skiing
      and biathlon, the menarcheal age of girls starting training before menarche was
      later as compared to the age of those starting training after menarche. The
      prevalence of oligo/amenorrhea (?9 menstrual cycles per year) was much higher for
      all younger and premenarche trained athletes than postmenarche trained girls.
      This prevalence also was much higher for athletes than for controls. Early
      maturers were engaged in team games, fencing, and judo, but late maturers were
      engaged in cross-country skiing and biathlon, track and field-long and middle
      distances, and marathon. It may indicate the presence of the sport's selection
      factor. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:511-517, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561475
TI  - Evolution of human lifespan: Past, future, and present.
AB  - The only satisfactory general theory for understanding the biology of aging is
      that provided by evolutionary genetics. The central theoretical result of the
      evolutionary theory of aging is that aging is caused by a fall in the force of
      natural selection, beginning at the time of the onset of reproduction and
      continuing until the cessation of reproduction. This formal result has been
      tested using breeding experiments in which the force of natural selection is
      altered in replicated laboratory populations. As predicted by the evolutionary
      theory of aging, such experiments can readily postpone aging. A recent advance
      has been the discovery of late-life mortality plateaus in human and other
      populations. These can be predicted theoretically from the late-life plateau in
      the force of natural selection, when it remains at or near zero. It is virtually
      certain that human lifespan has substantially increased over its last few million
      years of evolution. Evolutionary theory can explain this increase in terms of
      decreased ecological vulnerability resulting from increased brain size. The
      immediate future of human evolution is unlikely to see extensive genetic
      increases in lifespan, given the experimental data on rates of change in lifespan
      with experimental populations. But, evolutionary research suggests that there are
      few fundamental biological barriers to the extension of human lifespan, only
      practical barriers. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:409-420, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561476
TI  - Does the relationship of ambulatory blood pressure to position and location vary
      by age, sex, race/ethnicity, or body mass index?
AB  - The effects of position and location on ambulatory blood pressure, and the
      variability in these effects across individuals was examined. The extent to which
      the variability among individuals could be predicted by age, sex, race/ethnicity,
      and body mass was also assessed. The data include 24-hour ambulatory blood
      pressure recordings of 246 subjects from an ongoing worksite study. A random
      coefficients model yielded estimates of within-person and between-person effects.
      The position and location of individuals significantly affect their ambulatory
      blood pressure. As position changes from reclining to sitting to standing, blood
      pressure increases, after controlling for location. Likewise, blood pressure is
      typically higher at work than at home, controlling for position. The effects on
      blood pressure of both position and location vary considerably across persons.
      Interpersonal variability, measured by the standard deviation, is typically 30
      75% as large as the variability in mean levels of blood pressure. There is also
      an interaction effect of position and location: the difference in blood pressure
      between standing and sitting down at work is not the same as the corresponding
      difference at home. Age, sex, race/ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI) predict
      17% of the interpersonal variability in average systolic blood pressure while
      sitting at home, and 6% in diastolic blood pressure. The analysis of whether the
      effects of position or location vary by age, sex, race/ethnicity or BMI shows
      that the difference between work and home blood pressures is not significantly
      related to any of these four factors. However, the difference between awake and
      sleep diastolic blood pressures can be predicted, in part, by age and perhaps
      race/ethnicity. As age increases, the drop in diastolic blood pressure during
      sleep is attenuated. Hispanics also appear to experience a smaller drop in blood
      pressure during sleep. The drop in blood pressure associated with lying down
      (while awake) is similarly related to age and race/ethnicity. The increase in
      blood pressure associated with standing (vs. sitting) while at work is also
      attenuated in older individuals. Although significant interaction effects were
      demonstrated, these four major risk factors for hypertension predicted only small
      percentages of the interpersonal variability in the effects of position and
      location on blood pressure. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:459-470, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561478
TI  - Human biology and aging: Recent advances and new directions.

PMID- 28561477
TI  - Brain weight of Northwest Indian children and adolescents.
AB  - Brain weight of 708 individuals, 329 neonates (211 males and 118 females), 142
      infants (101 males, 41 females), and 237 children and adolescents (136 males and
      101 females), from Chandigarh region of northwest India were measured. Brain
      weight was 371.9 +/- 89.5 gm in male newborns and 342.5 +/- 72.2 gm in female
      newborns (P > 0.05). It increased to 444.7 +/- 87.2 gm in the former and 405.0 +/
      78.5 gm in the latter at the end of the neonatal period (28 days). Brain weight
      increased to 845.7 +/- 163.4 gm in males and 803.0 +/- 100.1 gm in females at the
      end of 12 months (P > 0.05), and then to 1241.9 +/- 104.5 gm in the age group of
      5-6 years in males and to 1101.3 +/- 37.5 gm in the age group of 3-4 years in
      females. Thereafter, there was a gradual increase in the brain weight to 1326.9
      +/- 126.9 gm in male and 1206.3 +/- 86.4 gm in female adolescents in the age
      group of 16-17 years (P < 0.01). By the age of 6 years, about 94.5% (95.6% in
      males and 93.3% in females) of adult brain weight was attained. Sex differences
      became evident after the age of 14 years. Relationships between brain weight and
      age, supine body length, body weight and body surface area were also considered.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:505-509, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561479
TI  - Menarche, menopause, and migration: Implications for breast cancer research.
AB  - A multigenerational delay in the rise of breast cancer incidence rates has been
      documented among immigrants to the United States. Prompted by this observation,
      this study examines three breast cancer risk factors, age at menarche, parity,
      and age at menopause, in relation to each other and in relation to migration
      status and language most often used in U.S. Hispanic populations. Mexican
      American (n = 1,502), Cuban American (n = 534), and Puerto Rican (n = 700) women,
      aged 30-74 years, were drawn from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey (HHANES), 1982-1984. Mean recalled age at menarche was significantly later
      among first generation compared to second generation immigrants in both Mexican
      Americans (13.3 vs 12.8 years) and Puerto Ricans (12.8 vs 11.9 years). Among
      Mexican Americans, more children were reported by first generation immigrants
      than women of the third or more generations (4.9 vs 4.0 children) and by Spanish
      speakers compared to women who used English more frequently (4.5 vs 3.3
      children). Mean and median ages at menopause were later among second generation
      Mexican American women than first generation women. There was a small,
      significant, positive correlation between recalled ages at menarche and menopause
      within each of the first generation Hispanic subgroups. The unique positive
      correlation between ages at menarche and menopause among first generation
      immigrants may relate to having spent early years in the country of origin and
      later years in the United States. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:451-457, 1998. (c) 1998
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561480
TI  - Prevalence and significance of HBeAg and isolated anti-HBc in several
      institutions for the mentally retarded in the autonomous community of madrid.
AB  - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to HBsAg (antiHBs)
      are excellent markers for HBV infection and its immunity. A total of 414
      patients, 312 Down syndrome and 102 non-Down's syndrome, were studied, and 142
      were residents of an institution (RI), whereas 272 were in nonresidential care
      (NRC). Of the total, 28 (6.8%) were HBsAg positive, and of these, 16 (57.1%) had
      a positive test for the Hepatitis Be antigen (HBeAg). Proportionately more Down
      syndrome chronic carriers of HBsAg acquired the persistent Hepatitis Be antigen
      (HBeAg) than non-Down syndrome patients 15 (65.2%) vs. 1 (20%). The presence of
      HBeAg was correlated with abnormal liver function and high titres of HBsAg.
      Testing for the IgM antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen (IgM AntiHBc)
      facilitated the identification of acute and chronic hepatitis infection in both
      RI and NRC individuals. The significance of isolated antiHBc seropositivity in
      Down syndrome patients remains unclear. It is not certain whether the isolated
      antiHBc seropositivity represents chronic "low levels" of HBV, past infection, or
      false-positive tests, and whether this test should be employed as a vaccine
      screening test. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:29-33 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561481
TI  - Reliability of multiple frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis: An
      intermachine comparison.
AB  - The technical reliability (i.e., interinstrument and interoperator reliability)
      of three SEAC-swept frequency bioimpedance monitors was assessed for both errors
      of measurement and associated analyses. In addition, intraoperator and
      intrainstrument variability was evaluated for repeat measures over a 4-hour
      period. The measured impedance values from a range of resistance-capacitance
      circuits were accurate to within 3% of theoretical values over a range of 50-800
      ohms. Similarly, phase was measured over the range 1 degrees -19 degrees  with a
      maximum deviation of 1.3 degrees  from the theoretical value. The extrapolated
      impedance at zero frequency was equally well determined (+/-3%). However, the
      accuracy of the extrapolated value at infinite frequency was decreased,
      particularly at impedances below 50 ohms (approaching the lower limit of the
      measurement range of the instrument). The interinstrument/operator variation for
      whole body measurements were recorded on human volunteers with biases of less
      than +/-1% for measured impedance values and less than 3% for phase. The
      variation in the extrapolated values of impedance at zero and infinite
      frequencies included variations due to operator choice of the analysis parameters
      but was still less than +/-0.5%. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:63-72 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561482
TI  - The Raymond Pearl memorial lecture, 1996: The eternal triangle-genes, phenotype,
      and environment.
AB  - Attempts to understand the causes for phenotypical differences in the biology and
      behavior of human populations have tended to focus alternatively on genetic,
      cultural, and natural environmental variables. The relative narrowness of focus
      in these studies often impedes the development of research design appropriate to
      the hypothesis and the process of reaching reasonable conclusions. Past research
      on native high-altitude populations is used first to illustrate the deficiencies
      of research based on single variables and errors which can occur in conclusions
      about causal factors when potential genetic contributions are excluded. Analyses
      of blood pressure data from Samoan modernization studies are used to illustrate
      the complexity of determining causality in the development of a pathological
      condition. The need for better qualified cross-cultural measures is emphasized.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:93-101 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561483
TI  - Multicompartment model of body composition assessment in Chinese-American adults.
AB  - Using hydrodensitometry, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, and deuterium dilution
      techniques, multiple compartment body composition assessment was performed on 29
      adult Chinese-American men (n = 11) and women (n = 18). The purpose of the
      investigation was to determine if significant differences exist in the estimation
      of percentage of body fat (%BF) and fat-free mass (FFM), based on 2-, 3-, and 4
      compartment models of body composition. Height, weight, and the body mass index
      (BMI) for the men were 170 cm, 63 kg, and 22 kg/m2 ; for the women, values were
      161 cm, 59 kg, and 23 kg/m2 , respectively. Estimated values for %BF from density
      alone and density adjusted for TBW were not significantly different for either
      the men or women (20.5% vs. 18.8%) and (28.2% vs. 27.4%). However, %BF estimated
      from the 4-compartment model of density, TBW and BMC resulted in significantly
      lower values for both groups, 17.5% for men and 26.8% for women. The lack of a
      significant difference in %BF between density only and density adjusted for TBW
      indicates that TBW was within the accepted constancy value associated with
      hydrodensitometry. When density was adjusted for variation in both TBW and BMC, a
      significant decline occurred in the estimate of %BF for men, but not for women.
      The average TBW to FFM ratio was 0.75., 0.74, and 0.73 when using FFM values from
      2-, 3-, and 4-compartment models, respectively. The average BMC to FFM ratio from
      two-, three-, and four-compartment estimates of FFM were 0.054, 0.053, and 0.052
      for the men and 0.060, 0.059, and 0.059 for the women. The results suggest that
      Chinese-American men and women have similar TBW/FFM ratios, but the BMC/FFM ratio
      is higher in women than men. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:21-27 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
      This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the
      United States of America.

PMID- 28561484
TI  - Dietary pattern and growth of 10-12-year-old Bolivian girls and boys: Relation
      between altitude and socioeconomic status.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of nutrition and physical
      activity on growth and health of 228 native Bolivian prepubertal girls and boys
      10-12 years of age, from high socioeconomic status (HSES) and low socioeconomic
      status (LSES), living at high altitude (HA) in La Paz (~4,000 m) and at low
      altitude (LA) in St. Cruz (~400 m). In the 4 years of the study, dietary
      information and daily physical activities were obtained with the 24-hour recall
      method by interviewing the child and mother. All food items were converted into
      grams, and nutrients were calculated by using food composition tables for Latin
      America. Physical activities were estimated in four intensity levels and
      calculated in terms of energy output. The results show that nutritional intake is
      influenced by socioeconomic status, but not by altitude. Overall, the energy and
      nutrient intake of the HSES girls and boys was significantly higher (P <= 0.01)
      than the intake of the LSES children at both altitudes; no sex effect was
      evident. HSES girls and boys consumed greater amounts of nutrients, especially
      protein and fat; they were taller but also fatter. The physical activity of LSES
      children was higher than that of HSES children. The lower energy intake and the
      higher energy expenditure of LSES children were reflected in their smaller body
      size. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:51-62 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561485
TI  - Buoyancy of African black and European white males.
AB  - Twenty-six male swimmers (13 Blacks, 13 Whites) matched for age, weight, and
      stature were subjects in the comparison of anthropometric characteristics and
      horizontal and vertical buoyancies. Subjects were tested in a swimming pool in
      the horizontal position. The time necessary for the body to return to the
      vertical position defined horizontal buoyancy. Vertical buoyancy was the
      hydrostatic lift necessary to maintain the subject immersed to the nose. The
      results indicated similarities in arm span, trunk flexibility, and full
      inspiration and exhalation of Black and White subjects. However, there were
      differences in body fat distribution (P <= 0.05) and buoyancies (P <= 0.01), with
      Whites storing more fat and having better buoyancy than Blacks. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      9:87-92 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561486
TI  - Somatotype and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy adults.
AB  - Relationships between cardiovascular risk factors and Heath-Carter anthropometric
      somatotype components were considered in 642 healthy adults free from overt
      disease: 68 males and 177 females, 30-39 years, and 233 males and 224 females, 40
      49 years of age. Risk factors included systolic and diastolic blood pressures
      (SBP, DBP), fasting glycemia (GLYC), triglycerides (TG), plasma cholesterol
      (CHOL), the high density lipoprotein cholesterol fraction (HDL-C), and the HDL
      C/CHOL ratio. Correlations between risk factors and each somatotype component
      were calculated after controlling for the effects of the other two somatotype
      components. Correlations were generally low and at best moderate, with
      significant correlations ranging from -0.23 to +0.23 in males and -0.20 to +0.30
      in females. The relationships were stronger in the older group, 40-49 years, but
      the pattern of correlations was different in men and women. Endomorphy tended to
      be positively related to risk factors in older females, whereas ectomorphy tended
      to be negatively related to risk factors in older males. Comparison of
      somatotypes of individuals at the extremes of the distributions for each risk
      factor (upper and lower tertiles) were generally consistent with the direction of
      the correlations. For each cardiovascular risk, those with a poorer profile
      tended to be more endomorphic and mesomorphic and less ectomorphic than those
      with a better profile, who were more ectomorphic and less endomorphic and
      mesomorphic. The association was more apparent in males than in females and more
      so in those 40-49 years of age than in the younger age group. Although the
      correlations suggest that body type is weakly associated with common
      cardiovascular risk factors in healthy men and women, somatotype associations are
      more apparent at the extremes of the distributions of specific risk factors. Am.
      J. Hum. Biol. 9:11-19 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561487
TI  - Physiological and cognitive responses to cold exposure in 11-12-year-old boys.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of cold and exercise in the cold on the
      physiological and cognitive responses of 11-12-year-old boys. Children were
      dressed in sweat suits and exposed to cold (CD, 7 degrees C), cool (CL, 13
      degrees C), and neutral (N, 22 degrees C) environments for 110 minutes, with 10
      minutes of light exercise (1 watt . kg body wt-1 ) midway through the exposure. A
      30-minute "recovery" in neutral conditions followed each session. Session order
      was randomized. Rectal temperature (Tre) decreased significantly more in CD
      compared to CL and N, and continued to decrease during the recovery period. Chest
      skin temperature (Tch) was significantly different between conditions and
      remained stable even in CD, despite the decrease in Tre. Tch returned to
      prechamber values during the recovery period. Hand temperature (Th) decreased
      during CL and CL, and remained significantly lower than prechamber values
      following the recovery. Exercise heart rate was lower in the CD and CL(115 +/- 13
      and 119 +/- 20 beats . min-1 ) compared to N (130 +/- 17 beats . min-1 ). No
      differences were observed in oxygen consumption between sessions. No differences
      were also observed between sessions in cognitive performance on language and math
      tests. It was concluded that while the study conditions did not appear to affect
      cognitive capacity in boys, they proved sufficient to disturb core temperature.
      This disturbance was not corrected 30 minutes following cold exposure. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 9:39-49 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561488
TI  - Accuracy of anthropometric estimation of muscle cross-sectional area of the arm
      in males.
AB  - Mid-arm cross-sectional muscle area was studied in several domains to evaluate
      nutritional status and muscle area and hypertrophy in revalidation and strength
      related studies. In this study, anthropometrically determined muscle + bone area
      formulas were validated against Houndsfield unit-based CT-scan measures at mid
      humerus (stretched and relaxed), and mid-humerus -3 and -6 cm positions in 75
      healthy male twins. Muscle + bone area estimates calculated by mid-arm
      circumference and the triceps skinfold (MBA.ANg, MBA.ANh) underestimated muscle
      area determined by CT imaging (MUS.CT) at all scans. The formula, including
      triceps and biceps skinfold (MBA.ANf), was in closer agreement with MUS.CT. It is
      therefore suggested that both the biceps and triceps skinfolds (or additional arm
      skinfolds) be used to estimate muscle area at the mid-arm position. The results
      emphasize the use of (nonremovable) landmarks in longitudinal studies that
      consider mid-arm muscle cross-sectional area, since the muscle area in three
      scans over a 6 cm region of the upper arm differs substantially and is in the
      same range as expected hypertrophic changes after short-term resistance training
      programs. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:73-86 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561489
TI  - Familial resemblance in height and weight in an endogamous Hahisya caste
      population of rural West Bengal.
AB  - Intrafamilial resemblance and heritability of height and weight in an endogamous,
      agricultural caste population of rural West Bengal ("Mahisya") were estimated
      from data for 540 individuals, 110 parent pairs and 187 sons and 133 daughters
      (children as well as adults) from 110 nuclear families. Multiple regression with
      age and sex adjustments was used. A trend of greater mother-child than father
      child correlation was observed, but was not significant. Sibling correlations
      indicated no evidence of sex linkage. Heritability for height (h2 = 0.603) was
      greater than that for weight (h2 = .405). Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:7-9 (c) 1997 Wiley
      Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561490
TI  - Organ weights in healthy and apparently healthy Danish infants.
AB  - The weights of brain, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, and thymus were
      registered in 222 forensic autopsies of Danish infants aged 1 week to 0.99 year
      (137 males, 85 females), who prior to death were healthy or apparently healthy
      based on clinical evidence. Variability of organ weights was estimated, and the
      relationship between individual organ weights and age, body weight, and body
      length, and the sum of organ weights was evaluated in relation to age, body
      weight, and body length. No significant differences were found between males and
      females, and between the healthy and apparently healthy infants. There was a
      positive, significant correlation of the individual organ weights with age, body
      weight, and body length. It was most pronounced for the weight of the brain and
      least pronounced for the thymus. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:35-38 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss,
      Inc.

PMID- 28561491
TI  - Frequencies of HLA-A and HLA-B alleles in a Mexico City mestizo sample.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to evaluate the frequency of HLA-A and HLA-B
      antigens in a sample of the Mexico City Mestizo population. Previous similar
      studies were done by other authors in nonrelated individuals, while the present
      investigation was performed in families (parents and offspring), and therefore, a
      more accurate estimate of gene and haplotype frequencies was obtained. The
      predominant antigens in descending order are A2, A24, and A28 at the A locus,
      whereas B39 and B35 are at the B locus, all with gene frequencies above 0.1. As
      expected, the two more frequent haplotypes were A2-B16 and A2-B35 (considering
      main specificities), both with frequencies of 0.056. Seven of the 18 significant
      delta values of the haplotypes (observed vs. expected) remained significant after
      correcting for the number of comparisons, indicating the presence of linkage
      disequilibrium between the HLA-A and HLA-B regions. However, only A1-B8 and A19
      B13 were found to be in disequilibrium in another Mexico City Mestizo sample
      which had very similar HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequencies to those in the present
      survey, suggesting that the biological significance of the other associations is
      rather doubtful. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:1-5 (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561492
TI  - HIERARCHICAL SELECTION THEORY AND SEX RATIOS. II. ON APPLYING THE THEORY, AND A
      TEST WITH FIG WASPS.
AB  - Predictions from the theory of sex ratios in subdivided populations are tested by
      studying fig wasps (Agaonidae). Observations strongly support the qualitative
      prediction that fig wasp sex ratios (males/total) decrease with increasing
      amounts of both inbreeding and competition among male relatives for access to
      mates (local mate competition). However, the observed sex ratio is consistently
      lower than predicted by previous quantitative models. Many assumptions underlying
      these models are unrealistic. Each unrealistic assumption is discussed as it
      applies to fig wasps, and where appropriate, new quantitative predictions are
      derived based on more realistic assumptions. New predictions are compared to the
      data in an a posteriori fashion and are found to be much closer to the
      observations than previous models from the literature, but further work will be
      required before a close match between theory and observation can be claimed.

PMID- 28561493
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF TRACHEID DIAMETER IN EARLY VASCULAR PLANTS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
      ON THE HYDRAULIC CONDUCTANCE OF THE PRIMARY XYLEM STRAND.
AB  - A cumulative correlation analysis of the maximum diameter of primary xylem
      tracheids recorded for 41 tracheophyte fossils, plotted against their ages
      (ranging from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Devonian), yields a Spearman rank
      coefficient (rsp ) of 0.696 (P < 0.01). Data for specimens taxonomically
      referable to zosterophyllophytes and lycopods reveal an increase in the range and
      maximum diameter of tracheids from the Siegenian to the Emsian. Correlation
      analysis of these data yields an rsp value of 0.95 (P < 0.02). The mean and
      maximum tracheid diameters recorded for rhyniophytes, when correlated against
      stratigraphic occurrence, yield rsp values of 0.81 (P < 0.05) and 0.85 (P <
      0.02), respectively. A correlation analysis of the data for rhyniophytes,
      trimerophytes and progymnosperms yields an rsp value of 0.87 (P < 0.01).
      Therefore, despite a relatively small sample size of early Paleozoic plants, the
      available data show a surprising level of statistical robustness. The data are
      interpreted to indicate that during the early evolution of tracheophytes, both
      the range and maximum tracheid diameter of the primary xylem increased, while in
      some plant lineages (zosterophyllophytes) there is evidence for a plateauing of
      maximum tracheid diameters by the Middle Devonian. The statistical trends in the
      data are interpreted within the context of the evolution of the hydraulic
      conductance of tracheophyte primary xylem.

PMID- 28561495
TI  - A THEORY OF FAUNAL BUILDUP FOR COMPETITION COMMUNITIES.
AB  - Invasion-structured communities have more species than do coevolution-structured
      communities assembled using the same resource distribution. Species in invasion
      structured communities are tightly packed, occupying the upper portion of the
      resource axis; species in coevolution-structured communities are more widely
      spaced, and most are located in the lower portion of the resource axis. As a
      consequence, coevolution-structured communities tend to be more stable than
      comparable invasion-structured communities, but more open to invasion. Both
      invasion-structured and coevolution-structured communities have niche separations
      that are significantly different than would be expected if species were assorted
      at random. Two-species communities formed by the invasion-only algorithm under
      asymmetric competition had the majority of their niche separations in the range 0
      0.5. All other communities had niche separations that were greater than expected.
      The most common separations were in the range 1.0-3.5. Thus, while not a common
      feature of many communities, nicheseparation patterns similar to those described
      by Hutchinson (1959) appear as an "ensemble" property of many communities. The
      faunal-buildup graphs formed by the coevolutionary algorithm differ from those
      formed by the invasion-only algorithm, showing community cycling whenever
      asymmetric competition is present. Through this cycling behavior the
      coevolutionary faunal-buildup algorithm provides both a theoretical basis for
      Wilson's (1959) taxon cycle and a hypothesis explaining the distribution of
      Anolis lizards in the Lesser Antilles.

PMID- 28561496
TI  - ON IRREVERSIBLE EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28561497
TI  - ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ALLOZYME FREQUENCIES AND SOIL CHARACTERISTICS IN GAILLARDIA
      PULCHELLA (COMPOSITAE).
AB  - Selection favoring different alleles in different environments frequently has
      been suggested as an explanation for allozyme variation within and among
      populations. This hypothesis predicts that allozyme frequencies will be
      correlated with environmental variables. Previous studies on allozyme frequency
      environment covariation in plants often have relied on qualitative assessments of
      the environment and have emphasized highly autogamous species. We have examined
      allozyme frequency-soil associations in Gaillardia pulchella, an obligately
      outcrossed annual plant, by regressing the frequencies of 15 common allozymes
      representing six polymorphic enzyme loci on principal components from a set of 20
      quantitative soil variables. Fifty-one populations, representing four taxonomic
      varieties, were included in the analysis. Among the 26 populations representing
      the var. pulchella, allozymes Adh-2f and Pgm-1c were significantly associated
      with a block of highly inter-correlated soil characteristics which serve to
      discriminate between soils derived from calcareous vs. non-calcareous rock types.
      This geographically complex pattern of allozyme frequency-soil covariation is not
      likely to be spurious and, thus, indicates the presence of adaptively
      differentiated soil races, or ecotypes. However, these results are not sufficient
      to conclude that the allozyme frequency divergence between ecotypes was mediated
      by selection, either directly or through genetic hitchhiking. The pattern of
      allozyme frequency-soil covariation within var. pulchella was not found among the
      other taxonomic varieties. Patterns of genotype-environment covariation often may
      be recognizable only within geographically or environmentally restricted groups
      of populations because of the confounding influences of other environmental
      variables.

PMID- 28561498
TI  - ON ESTIMATING RELATEDNESS USING GENETIC MARKERS.

PMID- 28561499
TI  - MATING PREFERENCE AND ITS RELEVANCE TO ADAPTATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER:
      INVERSION POLYMORPHISM AND DDT RESISTANCE.
AB  - The importance of adult mating success as a component of fitness influencing
      inversion polymorphism in two DDT-resistant populations of Drosophila
      melanogaster was investigated. The polymorphism involved In(3R)P and the Standard
      (St) gene arrangement. In population 731R the St/St females showed greater mating
      propensity than In/In females, while in population J2 the In/In females showed a
      significant positive association between mating propensity and the percentage of
      St/St males present. Mating preference data showed that St/St males were
      selectively favored over In/In males in both populations. No differences were
      observed between St/St and St/In karyotypes in either population. Frequency
      dependent mating in the form of a rare male mating disadvantage for the In/In
      males tested against the St/St males in 731R was observed; the St/St males in
      this case showed a marginally significant rare male mating advantage. Thus,
      mating success as well as previously measured fecundity and fertility all
      indicate a selective advantage of the St chromosome over the In chromosome in
      both populations. This fitness relationship does not predict the equilibrium
      condition of 70-80% St/In, 20-30% In/In, and 0-10% St/St found in the DDT
      environment, whereas previously collected larval viability data and estimated
      adult survivorship do. In at least one population (731R), the adult mating
      success data do predict the dynamics of the polymorphism in the absence of DDT,
      whereas viability does not. These results, although limited to two populations
      under two environments (presence or absence of DDT), suggest that the
      relationship between adaptation to the environment under study and various
      components of fitness needs to be investigated fully before assessing which
      fitness components are most important in determining the effects of natural
      selection in specific populations.

PMID- 28561500
TI  - REPLY TO HAFNER AND PETERSEN.

PMID- 28561501
TI  - ETHOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE IN ALLOPATRY AND ASYMMETRICAL ISOLATION IN THE SOUTH
      PACIFIC AEDES SCUTELLARIS SUBGROUP.
AB  - Ethological isolation among eight species of mosquitoes in the Aedes scutellaris
      subgroup of the south Pacific was investigated by offering females a simultaneous
      choice between males of their own species and males of another species. The
      degree of ethological isolation between these largely allopatric, island-dwelling
      mosquitoes was associated with time since the species had become geographically
      isolated by the fragmentation of the Outer Melanesian Arc 2-10 mya. The degree of
      ethological isolation between species pairs was observed to be significantly
      correlated with the degree of genetic isolation based on other published studies
      of allozyme variation and percentage egg hatch from interspecific hybridizations.
      However, ethological isolation was asymmetrical for some species pairs within the
      same island region. Asymmetrical isolation was especially prominent in Polynesia,
      where females of two older species discriminated against males of newer species,
      while females of the newer species failed to discriminate.

PMID- 28561502
TI  - alpha-LACTALBUMIN AND THE ORIGINS OF LACTATION.

PMID- 28561503
TI  - THE ECOLOGICAL GENETICS OF INTRODUCED POPULATIONS OF THE GIANT TOAD, BUFO
      MARINUS. III. GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS OF VARIATION.
AB  - The allele frequencies at ten polymorphic loci are described from 31 Bufo marinus
      populations in the Moreton Bay region in southeastern Queensland, Australia and
      the variation of these is found to be non-random in all cases. The pattern of non
      randomness varies among loci, being clinal in two instances. The allele
      frequencies at the same ten loci are also described for 12 populations sampled
      from throughout B. marinus' Australian range. The frequency variation on this
      larger geographical scale is non-random at all but two loci (Mpi and Hbdh) and
      also varies among loci, in this case being clinal in four instances. In both
      cases, the patterns of variation are most reasonably explained as having resulted
      from genetic drift occurring during the recent range expansion which B. marinus
      is known to have experienced in Australia. It seems that natural selection has
      played little, if any, role in generating the observed gene frequency patterns.
      These results emphasize the need for caution in interpreting geographical
      patterns of variation. They show that even when clinal patterns exist at some
      loci but not at others, one cannot conclude that the patterns result from natural
      selection, unless the demographic histories of the studied populations are known
      and are inconsistent with the alternative hypothesis that the patterns result
      from genetic drift.

PMID- 28561505
TI  - FAUNAL TURNOVER IN SOUTH AMERICAN FOSSIL AVIFAUNAS: THE INSUFFICIENCIES OF THE
      FOSSIL RECORD.

PMID- 28561504
TI  - HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR FLUCTUATION IN LEVELS OF HYBRIDIZATION.

PMID- 28561506
TI  - PATTERNS OF ALLOZYME RELATIONSHIPS COMPARED WITH MORPHOLOGY, HYBRIDIZATION, AND
      GEOLOGIC HISTORY IN ALLOPATRIC ISLAND-DWELLING MOSQUITOES.
AB  - Allozyme relationships were compared with morphology, interspecific
      hybridization, and geologic history in 14 closely-related species in the Aedes
      (Stegomyia) scutellaris subgroup. The phylogeny generated by the electrophoretic
      data was generally in agreement with morphological classifications except that
      one morphologically distinct species pair (A. alcasidi and A. malayensis) showed
      only populational differentiation and several nearly identical morphological
      pairs in Polynesia (e.g., A. pseudoscutellaris and A. polynesiensis) were very
      distant genetically. A molecular clock, based on the ratio between genetic
      distance and divergence time (one unit of Nei's distance = 11 million years)
      inferred from a dated geologic event, was used to compare zoogeography,
      morphology, and biochemical relationships. Genetic distances between species from
      the Solomon Islands and the Vanuatu-Polynesia area correspond to an early
      Pliocene separation of these areas. An invasion of Micronesia occurred
      approximately 5 million years ago. Most remaining speciation occurred during the
      mid-Pliocene as islands moved into their present-day positions. The close
      relationship between southeast Asian and Philippine species could have resulted
      from the recent onset of isolation in the Pleistocene. Interspecific
      hybridization potential was not significantly correlated with Nei's genetic
      distance. Many quite distantly related species readily hybridize, while some
      closely related pairs show only unidirectional compatibility. Slight
      interspecific morphological divergence and the independence of hybridization
      capabilities from phylogeny are not unexpected in a group in which species are
      allopatric and occupy similar habitats.

PMID- 28561508
TI  - THE SOCIETY THANKS ROBERT AND MARGARET BEER.

PMID- 28561507
TI  - SELECTION AMONG "SPECIES": A FORMULATION IN TERMS OF NATURAL FUNCTIONAL UNITS.
AB  - The unit that directly evolves under the action of higher-level natural selection
      "among species" must be the higher-level analogue of the population. Contrary to
      present formulations of "species selection," clades (or other higher taxa) do not
      fulfill the basic structural and dynamic criteria to be so considered. Clades are
      not localized, their members do not share an environment, and they cannot be said
      to respond to local selective regimes. Traditional species selection does not
      provide a causal mechanism for evolutionary change in terms of the interaction of
      the units of selection with a shared environment in the way that conventional
      organismic selection does; as used by some authors, species selection is a purely
      descriptive term. Communities do fulfill the criteria required by a theory of
      natural selection. Within communities, selection is among the populations of
      different species that make up the community, here termed "avatars" of those
      species. Avatars are the closest analogues of individual organisms in traditional
      selection theory. Just as populations evolve by organismic selection, communities
      evolve by avatar selection, and more inclusive units, the higher-level analogues
      of the species, evolve as their component communities do. This formulation of
      higher-level selection reveals a congruence with processes at the lower, organism
      based level and suggests the most profitable direction to be taken in attempts at
      formal extension of selection theory.

PMID- 28561509
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF PLANT SIZE IN VIOLA SORORIA.
AB  - Survivorship and fecundity in the forest herb, Viola sororia, are size-dependent.
      The basis of size variation among individuals of Viola sororia was investigated
      with a uniform environment experiment. Plants collected from natural populations
      were vegetatively reproduced and grown under two light regimes in a greenhouse.
      Analysis of quantitative variation showed: 1) significant differences between
      light treatments for characters related to plant shape and relative growth rate;
      2) significant among-genet variation for plant size, plant shape and relative
      growth rate but none for physiological characters; and 3) a size threshold for
      cleistogamous seed production and rhizome production. Heritability estimates for
      the characters associated with plant size and shape ranged from 0.09 to 0.39,
      indicating significant genetic determination for these traits. In addition, among
      genet differences in relative growth rate were substantial. The results of this
      study suggest that the size variation found in natural populations is not solely
      a function of environmental heterogeneity but is significantly influenced by the
      genotypes composing the population.

PMID- 28561510
TI  - RADIAL CONDENSATION IN THE AXIS OF THE EVOLVING LIMB.

PMID- 28561511
TI  - SIBLING SPECIES, CALL DIFFERENCES, AND SPECIATION IN GREEN LACEWINGS (NEUROPTERA:
      CHRYSOPIDAE: CHRYSOPERLA).
AB  - Green lacewings of the morphologically homogeneous carnea-plorabunda-downesi
      group within the chrysopid genus Chrysoperla produce unique, species-specific,
      substrate-borne songs during courtship and mating; both sexes sing, and partners
      must reciprocally exchange their acoustical signals before copulation will occur.
      Two widespread, sympatric North American representatives of this complex, the
      sibling species pair C. plorabunda and C. downesi, hybridize readily in the
      laboratory but not in nature. This species pair has been presented as
      exemplifying sympatric speciation by disruptive selection. Here, it is shown from
      tape-playback and female-choice experiments that calls represent bona fide
      reproductive isolating mechanisms between the two species. Furthermore, call
      analyses of F1 , F2 , F3 , and backcross progeny of the two species confirm
      polygenic control of call expression, in which different alleles at each of
      several loci are fixed in each taxon. Sex linkage of traits is absent, but the
      various features of the calls are not completely independent of one another in
      their patterns of inheritance. These and other life-history data cast doubt on
      several major premises of the sympatric speciation hypothesis and suggest that
      call alteration might have triggered the speciation event giving rise to the
      siblings. A complex of cryptic "song morphs" physically and ecologically
      identical to C. plorabunda and C. downesi, but singing different songs, exists in
      the mountains of western North America, while the Alps of central Europe harbor
      populations of C. carnea that have undergone call differentiation in an analogous
      but independent manner. It is proposed that call divergence may in itself be
      driving the speciation process within this section of Chrysoperla, by greatly
      accelerating the rate at which full reproductive isolation between populations
      can be achieved.

PMID- 28561513
TI  - SUMMARY OF THE MINUTES OF THE SSE COUNCIL MEETING.

PMID- 28561512
TI  - AGGREGATION FORMATION AND ASSORTATIVE MATING IN TWO MELOID BEETLES.
AB  - Males and females of the meloid beetles Lytta magister and Tegrodera aloga form
      large aggregations in Sonoran Desert habitat. Males and females of L. magister
      fly to prominent ridgetop landmarks, where they feed on flowering shrubs, mate
      (probably just once in any one aggregation), and disperse, with the group forming
      and disbanding in a few days. Males and females of T. aloga form very large,
      mobile bands that march across the desert flatland feeding and mating; females
      probably leave after a single copulation, with the result that the group becomes
      increasingly male-biased in its sex ratio. The aggregations persist for a minimum
      of 2-3 weeks. Great variation in body size characterizes both species. Positive
      assortative mating occurs in L. magister but not in T. aloga, possibly because
      males and females of the two species incur different costs and benefits for
      selective mating. It is probable that body size in Lytta correlates both with
      female fecundity and with male spermatophore size or amount of cantharidin
      contributed during copulation. This should favor males that mate with large
      females while also favoring females that mate with large males. If large
      individuals pair off, this will leave smaller individuals to settle for one
      another, leading to positive assortative mating. The same argument may not apply
      to T. aloga, perhaps because its copulations are shorter and its aggregations
      longer-lived, and therefore any one mating does not eliminate chances to copulate
      again within the band.

PMID- 28561514
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF THE ECOLOGICAL AMPLITUDE OF SPARTINA PATENS. II. VARIANCE
      AND CORRELATION ANALYSIS.
AB  - Reciprocal transplantations of Spartina patens genotypes from adjacent salt
      marsh, swale, and dune habitats provided evidence for genetic differentiation
      among subpopulations, due at least in part to contrasting selection regimes.
      Genet survival in the different habitats was related to the amount of genetic
      divergence. In the dune habitat, marsh ramets showed the lowest survival, swale
      ramets showed intermediate survival, and dune ramets showed the highest survival.
      This relationship was not reciprocal, however. The marsh habitat afforded an
      environment where survival was maximal for all genotypes. Thus, by comparison,
      the dune environment appeared to impose a more intense selection pressure, and
      the swale an intermediate selection pressure on Spartina patens. In each site
      resident genotypes tended to show greater relative fitness than aliens. This
      evidence for genetic divergence corroborates that previously reported on
      morphometric (Silander and Antonovics, 1979) and allozymic traits (Silander,
      1984). High levels of phenotypic plasticity may permit greater adaptation to the
      spatially and temporally heterogeneous environment occupied by S. patens than
      would genetic variation alone. Dune and swale genets were more phenotypically
      plastic across traits examined than were marsh genotypes. The higher plasticity
      in these peripheral subpopulations may confer increased fitness among residents
      and compensate for observed declines in genetic variation. A slight decrease in
      genetic variability was evident from marsh to dune subpopulations. However, since
      the differences in genetic variation among subpopulations were small, and
      disparities did occur, it is unlikely that evolutionary divergence is retarded
      primarily by a lack of genetic variability in the characters considered. Evidence
      is presented to indicate that evolutionary divergence among subpopulations may be
      retarded by negative or unfavorable correlations among characters being selected
      simultaneously. These negative correlations may increase extinction probabilities
      in small peripheral populations, such as those represented by the dune or swale,
      and are likely to lower fitness. Based on these observations, I hypothesize that
      further microevolution may be retarded in peripheral dune and swale
      subpopulations, primarily by unfavorable genetic correlation structures among
      fitness components or characters under simultaneous selection. Contributing
      factors may include lowered genetic variance and higher levels of phenotypic
      plasticity.

PMID- 28561515
TI  - WHY DISTASTEFUL BUTTERFLIES HAVE APOSEMATIC LARVAE AND ADULTS, BUT CRYPTIC PUPAE:
      EVIDENCE FROM PREDATION EXPERIMENTS ON THE MONARCH AND THE EUROPEAN SWALLOWTAIL.

PMID- 28561516
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE FACTORS ON VIABILITY SELECTION IN HYLA GRATIOSA TADPOLES.
AB  - Two full sib families of Hyla gratiosa larvae were compared in growth rate and
      survival under twelve ecological conditions in field enclosures. The twelve
      conditions represented the independent absence or presence of two predators
      (nymphal dragonflies and larval salamanders) and a range of three initial tadpole
      densities (8, 16, 32 larvae per enclosure). This 2 * 2 * 3 design for variance
      analysis was replicated five times in a natural pond. The presence of either
      predator reduced survival levels by 24%. There was no consistent effect of
      tadpole density on survival. However, at low tadpole density (8 per enclosure),
      the presence of salamanders did not affect tadpole survival levels; effect of the
      salamanders was restricted to the higher densities (16 and 32 per enclosure). The
      combined effect on overall survival of the two predators was additive. One
      sibship (denoted A) consistently displayed a higher survival level than the other
      (denoted B). However, the level of differential survival, measured as the
      survival of B relative to A, varied among predator combinations. Survival
      differences among treatments and sibships were related to body size differences.
      The changing levels of differential survival between sibships did not reflect a
      changing level of differential body size but, rather, an ecologically mediated
      change in the relationship between the level of body size variation and the
      subsequent level of survival variation. Ecological factors such as conspecific
      density variation or predator abundance do not act as isolated selective
      pressures but, rather, interact in their effects on mortality rates. These
      interactions cause the value of a trait related to a fitness component to vary
      with ecological condition. These results suggest that a thorough understanding of
      how selection really does act in natural populations requires a thorough
      understanding of the relevant ecological factors, a point all too often
      unappreciated.

PMID- 28561517
TI  - Malakoplakia after kidney transplantation: Case report and literature review.
AB  - Malakoplakia is a granulomatous disease associated with an infectious etiology,
      usually involving the urinary tract. It reveals itself as a recurrent urinary
      tract infection (r-UTI), and in some cases, it is associated with impairment of
      renal function. Immunosuppression is one of its main associated factors, and it
      has been increasingly described in patients with solid organ transplantation
      (SOT), mainly kidney transplantation. Macroscopically, it can form masses and
      sometimes it may be confused with neoplasia, which is why histological findings
      are fundamental for the diagnosis. Here, we present a case of bladder
      malakoplakia, manifested by r-UTI from Escherichia coli in a patient with renal
      transplantation, refractory to long-term antibiotic treatment and reduction in
      immunosuppression, which resolved after surgical management. We also summarize
      the clinical characteristics of malakoplakia and compare them with previous
      reports in the literature on SOT.

PMID- 28561518
TI  - Bioelectrical impedance changes during the menstrual cycle.
AB  - Numerous physiological factors that may influence estimates of body composition
      based on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) have been recognized. The two
      studies to date investigating changes in bioelectrical impedance during the
      menstrual cycle have produced conflicting results. Male control subjects were
      included in this study in an attempt to discern variations in bioelectrical
      impedance associated with the menstrual cycle in women from those due to other
      physiological variables affecting both sexes. Body weight and bioelectrical
      impedance (tetrapolar Holtain Analyzer; 50 kHz, 800 MUA) were measured two to
      five times per week for one menstrual cycle (21-34 days) on 42 women (6 taking an
      oral contraceptive, OC), aged 19.0-34.4 years, and for 22-32 days on 28 men (18.9
      24.1 years). Body weight in the non-OC women decreased significantly between
      menses and the late follicular phase, and increased significantly between the
      late follicular phase and the premenstruum (paired t test, P < 0.05). These
      changes were not correlated with matching bioelectrical impedance changes (linear
      regression, P > 0.05). Bioelectrical impedance in the non-OC women, and body
      weight and bioelectrical impedance in the OC women and the men, did not differ
      significantly over the measurement period. Likewise, estimated lean body mass
      (LBM) and total body water (TBW) derived from BIA remained stable. The
      intraobserver test-retest reliability (Smeas ) of bioelectrical impedance was
      12.3 ohm (2.8% of mean bioelectrical impedance) which produced as much as a 10
      12% error in estimating LBM and TBW. Measurement error was reduced to 4 ohm in a
      subgroup where electrode positions were marked with indelible ink. These results
      indicate that body composition assessments based on BIA measured at 50 kHz are
      not affected by the menstrual cycle. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:155-161, 1997. (c) 1997
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561519
TI  - Developmental, genetic, and environmental components of lung volumes at high
      altitude.
AB  - Vital capacity and residual lung volume (in terms of 1/min or ml/m2 of body
      surface area) of 357 subjects (205 males, 152 females) was evaluated in La Paz,
      Bolivia, situated at 3,750 m. The sample included: (1) 37 high altitude rural
      natives (all male), (2) 125 high altitude urban natives (69 male, 58 female), (3)
      85 Bolivians of foreign ancestry acclimatized to high altitude since birth (40
      male, 45 female), (4) 63 Bolivians of foreign ancestry acclimatized to high
      altitude during growth (30 male, 33 female), and (5) 47 non-Bolivians of either
      European or North American ancestry acclimatized to high altitude during
      adulthood (24 male, 23 female). Results indicate that (1) all samples studied,
      irrespective of origin or acclimatization status, have larger lung volumes than
      those predicted from sea level norms; (2) the high altitude rural natives have
      significantly greater lung volumes (vital capacity and residual lung volume) than
      the high altitude urban natives and all the non-native high altitude samples; (3)
      males acclimatized to high altitude since birth or during growth attain similar
      lung volumes as high altitude urban natives and higher residual lung volumes than
      subjects acclimatized to high altitude during adulthood but lower than the high
      altitude rural natives; (4) females acclimatized to high altitude since birth or
      during growth attain similar lung volumes as subjects acclimatized to high
      altitude during adulthood; (5) age at arrival to high altitude is inversely
      related to residual lung volume but not vital capacity; (6) among subjects
      acclimatized to high altitude during growth, approximately 20-25% of the
      variability in residual lung volume can be explained by developmental factors;
      (7) among high altitude rural and urban natives, it appears that approximately 20
      25% of the variability in residual lung volume at high altitude can be explained
      by genetic traits associated with skin reflectance and genetic traits shared by
      siblings; and (8) vital capacity, but not the residual lung volume, is inversely
      related to occupational activity level. Together these data suggest that the
      attainment of vital capacity at high altitude is influenced more by environmental
      factors, such as occupational activity level, and body composition than
      developmental acclimatization. On the other hand, the attainment of an enlarged
      residual volume is related to both developmental acclimatization and genetic
      factors. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:191-203, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561520
TI  - Facial clefting and Amerindian admixture in populations of Santiago, Chile.
AB  - Among congenital malformations, cleft lip with and/or without cleft palate has
      the highest relative frequencies and shows ethnic variation in prevalence. Both
      malformations are generally more common among the Asian than European
      populations. Many populations of Chile have genes of Amerindian and Spanish
      ancestry, with considerable variation in the degree of Amerindian admixture.
      Therefore, the association of clefting incidence with Amerindian admixture was
      investigated. The frequency of cleft lip and/or cleft palate in infants born in
      three private and two public maternity service clinics of Santiago, Chile, is
      reported. The private clinic patients have a higher socioeconomic status (SES)
      than those receiving the public services. They also differ in estimated
      Amerindian admixture. More than 200,900 consecutive birth records were reviewed.
      The rate of clefting malformations is 15.3 per 10,000 live births. Based on
      allele frequencies at the ABO and Rh blood group loci, the percentage of
      Amerindian admixture is higher in infants born in the public compared to those
      born in the private maternity service clinics. Amerindian admixture is positively
      correlated (Spearman's p = 0.9, P = 0.008) with clefting rate across these
      samples. Clefting is also associated with SES, with lower SES showing higher
      clefting rates. Mothers of clefting newborns also have higher estimated
      Amerindian admixture compared to those of normal newborns. The results support
      the view that in Chilean populations, susceptibility to clefting is related to
      Amerindian ancestry. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:225-232, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561521
TI  - Distribution of subcutaneous fat and muscle thicknesses in young and middle-aged
      women.
AB  - Thicknesses of subcutaneous fat tissue at 13 sites (triceps, biceps, forearm,
      subscapular, abdomen, suprailiac, axilla, chest, quadriceps, suprapatellar,
      hamstrings, posterior calf, medial calf), and muscle tissue at nine sites
      (triceps, biceps, forearm, subscapular, abdomen, quadriceps, suprapatellar,
      hamstrings, posterior calf) were determined by using the B-mode ultrasound
      technique. Subjects were 36 young (18-29 years) and 44 middle-aged women (45-64
      years). Body density averaged 1.047 +/- 0.007 g . ml-1 (SD) for the young, and
      1.022 +/- 0.005 g . ml-1 for the middle-aged women. The middle-aged women showed
      significantly thicker subcutaneous fat than the young at all sites, and the
      relative differences between the two groups were larger on the trunk and adjacent
      sites. Muscle thicknesses on the trunk and quadriceps were significantly higher
      in the young women than in the middle-aged, but values for the upper extremities
      and calf were not significant between the two groups. The sum of subcutaneous fat
      thicknesses at 13 sites was significantly correlated with fat mass relative to
      the second power of stature (FM . St-2 ) in both groups, r = 0.766 (P < 0.05) for
      the young and r = 0.803 (P < 0.05) for the middle aged women. For subcutaneous
      fat thickness per unit FM . St-2 , the young women showed significantly higher
      values than the middle-aged on both the upper and lower extremities. The sum of
      muscle thicknesses at nine sites was significantly correlated with fat-free mass
      per unit stature2 (FFM . St-2 ) in both groups, r = 0.764 (P < 0.05) for the
      young and r = 0.636 (P < 0.05) for the middle-aged. The relative values of muscle
      thicknesses to FFM . St-2 were significantly lower on the abdomen and quadriceps
      in the middle-aged women than in the young. Thus compared with the young, the
      middle-aged women have thicker subcutaneous fat thicknesses along the whole body
      and thinner muscle thicknesses on the trunk and quadriceps regions. Moreover, it
      appears that in middle-aged women, the relative distribution of subcutaneous fat
      and muscle thicknesses to FM and FFM, respectively, show disproportionately
      higher fat stores internally than subcutaneously, and more rapid atrophy of
      muscle tissues at the anterior sites of the trunk and thigh than at other body
      sites. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:247-255, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561522
TI  - Role of infant feeding practice, sex, and age on fatness and subcutaneous fat
      distribution in infancy: Longitudinal analysis of multiple skinfold measurements.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine whether subcutaneous fatness and fat
      distribution differ on the basis of feeding practice and sex during the first 6
      months of life. Longitudinal principal components analysis (PCA) was done on
      skinfolds measured at five sites in 45 breast-fed and 41 formula-fed infants. The
      first component represented fatness, the second component change in fatness, and
      the third component upper body/lower body fat distribution. Analysis of the
      components indicated that fatness and the proportion of lower body fat were
      greater in breast-fed than in formula-fed infants; however, when race was
      included as a predictor, the differences in lower body fat did not persist. The
      interpretation of components and the group differences were confirmed by repeated
      measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the sum of skinfolds (fatness) or simple
      skinfold ratios (fat distribution). Group differences for fatness and upper
      body/lower body fat persisted when race was included as a predictor. Longitudinal
      PCA of another indicator, the Rohrer index, suggested that fatness was greater in
      formula-fed than breast-fed infants. Collectively, these findings suggest that
      formula-fed infants have less subcutaneous fat than breast-fed infants; however,
      formula-fed infants may have either more internal fat or more lean body mass. Am.
      J. Hum. Biol. 9:179-190, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561523
TI  - Absence of the alpha-1-antitrypsin PI*Z allele in Tunisia substantiates the
      particular genetic structure of African populations.
AB  - Alpha-1-antitrypsin (PI) phenotypes were studied in a sample of 450 Tunisians.
      The observed frequencies of PI alleles were identical to those in African
      populations, with a very low incidence of PI*S and virtual absence of PI*Z. Such
      figures are similar to estimates in Asians and clearly opposite to those in
      Europeans. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:223-224, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561524
TI  - Lactose digestion capacity and perceived symptomatic response after dairy product
      consumption in Tokelau Island migrants.
AB  - When lactose-malabsorbing individuals use dairy products decreased lactase
      activity and the subsequent reduction in hydrolysis of ingested lactose can
      result in gastrointestinal and gaseous symptoms (lactose intolerance). This
      article examines lactose malabsorption, perceived gastrointestinal symptoms, and
      dairy product consumption in a Tokelau Island migrant population in New Zealand.
      Questionnaire data were collected and lactose digestion capacity was determined
      for 58 individuals 15-71 years of age. Additional questionnaire data were
      collected for 137 Tokelau migrants, 18-50 years of age. Breath hydrogen analysis
      indicated that 63.8% (CI = 51.4-76.2%) of Tokelau migrants were lactose
      malabsorbers, while 22.4% (11.7-33.1%) can absorb lactose [results are
      inconclusive for 13.8% (4.9-22.7%) of the population]. This was consistent with
      results reported for other Polynesian populations. Tokelau Island migrants
      reported relatively low levels of gastrointestinal distress after the consumption
      of daily products. Less than 50% of those with lactose malabsorption perceived
      gastrointestinal symptoms after a 50 g of lactose in 300 ml of water, while one
      third of this group reported symptoms after approximately 240 ml (one glass) or
      less of milk. However, without confirmation by double-blind studies, it is
      difficult to state the extent to which symptoms are actually due to lactose.
      Neither the ability to absorb lactose nor perceived gastrointestinal symptoms are
      associated with the frequency or quantity of dairy product consumption (P >
      0.05). Patterns of dairy product consumption are just as likely due to other
      physiological, psychological, cultural, and social factors. Am. J. Hum. Biol.
      9:233-246, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561525
TI  - Carrier detection of hemophilia by immunological and coagulation assays in a
      selected sample of the Mexican population.

PMID- 28561526
TI  - Assessment of enamel hypoplasia in a high status burial site.
AB  - Social differentiation is a characteristic of all societies, and higher social
      status is often associated with better nutrition and good health. Traditional
      archeologically inferred social status has been linked with biological evidence
      such as skeletal robusticity and the incidence of disease. In this regard, linear
      enamel hypoplasia (LEH) is considered a good indicator of health, and individuals
      with a high status should, at least in theory, not suffer from severe defects. In
      order to test this hypothesis, the prevalence and occurrence of LEH were assessed
      in a skeletal sample at the Fort Center, Florida, site. Located near Lake
      Okeechobee, this site was occupied from about A.D. 200-800, and was considered a
      mortuary ceremonial center. These archeological findings suggested that
      individuals buried there belonged to a high class and merited special mortuary
      rituals. Although 1,835 teeth were found, only 679 maxillary and 393 mandibular
      teeth were analyzed. The upper I1 and lower C are reported to be most
      representative for LEH, and were thus selected for further analysis. There were
      45 left incisors and 48 left canines. Results indicated that about 95% of
      incisors and 98% of canines were affected. The occurrence of severe hypoplastic
      lines was much lower (between 30% and 40%). The minimum number of defects
      affecting the canine surpassed three, thus showing evidence of repeated stress
      during childhood. Hypoplasia was first observed between the ages of 1.0 and 1.5
      years for incisors and between 2.0 and 2.5 years for canines. Severe defects were
      first noted to occur at 2.5-3.0 years of age for incisors and 3.0-3.5 years for
      canines. In conclusion, the high frequency of LEH in this socially elite
      population seems to prove that in prehistory even privileged classes were
      severely subjected to stress and the social stratification alone was not
      sufficient to buffer them from rigorous environments. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:213
      222, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561527
TI  - Relationship of physical performance to maturation in perimenarchal girls.
AB  - The relationship of physical performance to maturation, characterized by the
      onset of menarche, was examined annually from 1989 to 1992 among 61 healthy,
      active perimenarchal girls from 10 to 14 years. Within each age group,
      differences in selected physical performance variables between and among three
      maturity groups, early, average, and late, were compared. Subjects categorized as
      having early or late maturation were those whose age at menarche was minus or
      plus, respectively, one standard deviation from the mean age at menarche 12.70 +
      0.99 yr (range 10.29-14.65). Subjects demonstrated steady progression with age in
      breast and pubic hair development. Weight, estimated lean body weight and fat
      weights, and stature increased significantly with age and maturation. With the
      exceptions of flexibility, bent arm hang, standing vertical jump, and relative
      maximum oxygen uptake, the performance measures of running speed, functional
      strength, explosive strength, static strength, upper body power, and aerobic
      power improved significantly with age and maturation. Generally more mature
      subjects tended to perform significantly better than the less mature, but there
      are fewer significant performance differences between and among maturation groups
      within specific age groups. Therefore, whereas more mature 10- and 14-year-old
      females may, within the same age group, have only a very slight advantage in some
      physical performance abilities over their less mature age mates, more mature
      females aged 11, 12, and 13 years have a greater physical performance advantage.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:163-171, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561528
TI  - Age at menarche and comparison of the growth and performance of pre- and post
      menarcheal girls in China.
AB  - The median menarcheal ages (MMAs) of Chinese girls in 1991 were calculated by
      using the status quo method and probit analysis in 64,322 schoolgirls 8-18 years
      of age. The sample was randomly selected from 29 provinces of China. The MMAs
      were 13.01 +/- 1.19 and 13.64 +/- 1.24 years for urban and rural girls,
      respectively. These estimates were 0.16 and 0.20 years lower than that of Chinese
      urban and rural girls in 1985, respectively. The associations between growth
      status and the timing of menarche were also analyzed by comparing of 10
      indicators of somatic growth and motor ability between the pre- and post
      menarcheal girls. Early maturers consistently have high means of stature, weight,
      and vital capacity than late maturers. By contrast, the late maturers tend to
      have a linear physique and more potential of increasing stature and lower limbs
      into late adolescence. Late maturers also tend to have more potential in catching
      up in motor abilities, which were inferior to those of early maturers during
      early adolescence. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:205-212, 1997. (c) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561529
TI  - Somatotypes of 7- to 16-year-old boys in Saskatchewan, Canada.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to examine the stability of somatotypes of 63 boys
      in Saskatoon, Canada who were followed from 7 to 16 years of age. Somatotype
      photos were taken annually and rated by a criterion rater (BH-R). Comparisons
      were made longitudinally across all years using repeated-measures ANOVAs of the
      whole somatotype (S), somatotype attitudinal means (SAM), analysis of categories,
      separate components (endomorphy, mesomorphy, ectomorphy), and partial
      correlations. In the first year, the means were age = 7.1 yr, height = 121.0 cm,
      mass = 22.8 kg, S = 2.9-3.6-1.6, and SAM = 1.1. In the last year, the means were
      age = 16.7 yr, height = 172.6 cm, mass = 59.9 kg, S = 2.5-4.0-3.7, and SAM = 1.4.
      Mean somatotypes across years were different [F(9,558) = 67.9, P < .01], with the
      largest differences between 7-10 yr and 14-16 yr. These differences were largely
      due to significant increases in mesomorphy (F = 24.6, P < .01) and ectomorphy (F
      = 159.9, P < .01). Partial correlations between ages for each component, with the
      other two held constant, revealed poor predictions for three or more years apart
      (r2 < .35). Thus, both group and individual somatotypes changed between 7 and 16
      years of age. The overall pattern was from endo-mesomorph through central to
      mesomorph-ectomorph somatotypes. The trends are similar to those observed in
      comparable samples from other countries. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:257-272, 1997. (c)
      1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561530
TI  - Preparation of a novel radiotracer targeting the EphB4 receptor via
      radiofluorination using spiro azetidinium salts as precursor.
AB  - The visualization of Eph receptors, which are overexpressed in various tumor
      entities, using selective small molecule Eph inhibitors by means of positron
      emission tomography is a promising approach for tumor imaging. N
      (Pyrimidinyl)indazolamines represent a class of compounds, which are known to
      have high affinity especially for the EphB4 receptor. Radiofluorination of these
      compounds could provide a highly specific imaging agent and was investigated
      using a classical nucleophilic introduction of [18 F]fluoride as well as a less
      common nucleophilic ring-opening reaction of azetidinium salts. In the past,
      radiofluorinations using azetidinium precursors were demonstrated to result in
      high radiochemical yields in short periods. For this purpose, an azetidinium
      precursor based on the N-(pyrimidinyl)indazolamine lead compound was developed,
      and radiofluorination was successfully accomplished. The respective [18
      F]radiotracer was quickly prepared with high radiochemical purity >97% and in a
      radiochemical yield of 34%.

PMID- 28561531
TI  - Chemical Recognition of Active Oxygen Species on the Surface of Oxygen Evolution
      Reaction Electrocatalysts.
AB  - Owing to the transient nature of the intermediates formed during the oxygen
      evolution reaction (OER) on the surface of transition metal oxides, their nature
      remains largely elusive by the means of simple techniques. The use of chemical
      probes is proposed, which, owing to their specific affinities towards different
      oxygen species, unravel the role played by these species on the OER mechanism.
      For that, tetraalkylammonium (TAA) cations, previously known for their surfactant
      properties, are introduced, which interact with the active oxygen sites and
      modify the hydrogen bond network on the surface of OER catalysts. Combining
      chemical probes with isotopic and pH-dependent measurements, it is further
      demonstrated that the introduction of iron into amorphous Ni oxyhydroxide films
      used as model catalysts deeply modifies the proton exchange properties, and
      therefore the OER mechanism and activity.

PMID- 28561532
TI  - Pretreatment albumin level predicts survival in head and neck squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Poor nutritional status in patients with head and neck
      squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is associated with tumor progression and
      survival. This study examined the prognostic value of nutritional and
      hematological markers in patients with HNSCC who received definitive treatments.
      STUDY DESIGN: A prospective observational cohort study. METHODS: This study
      included 338 consecutive patients who underwent surgery and/or
      radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy for treatment-naive HNSCC. Body weight and
      nutritional and hematological parameters were regularly measured before and after
      treatment. Univariate and multivariate analyses using Cox proportional hazards
      models were performed to identify factors associated with disease-free survival
      (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Body
      weight, serum total protein and albumin levels, and hematological variables
      significantly decreased after treatment. Univariate analyses illustrated that
      age, tumor site, T and N classifications, overall stage, pretreatment serum
      albumin (<3.5 g/dL) and hemoglobin (<12 g/dL) levels, and neutrophil-lymphocyte
      ratio were significantly associated with DFS, CSS, and OS (all P < .05).
      Multivariate analyses identified age, tumor site, N classification, and
      pretreatment albumin levels as independent predictors of DFS, CSS, and OS (all P
      < .05). Patients with low serum albumin levels prior to treatment experienced
      approximately sixfold increases in the risks of tumor progression and cancer
      specific and overall mortality compared to the findings in their counterparts.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that pretreatment serum albumin levels predict
      DFS, CSS, and OS in patients who received definitive treatment for HNSCC. These
      findings might help to predict treatment outcome and guide nutritional
      intervention in patients with HNSCC. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2b. Laryngoscope,
      127:E437-E442, 2017.

PMID- 28561533
TI  - Emergence of Bruton's tyrosine kinase-negative Hodgkin lymphoma during ibrutinib
      treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
AB  - Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a chronic B-cell lympho-proliferative
      disorder in which lymphomatous transformations occur in 5%-15% of patients.
      Histologically these cases resemble diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or Richter's
      transformation, in over 80% of cases. Rare cases of transformation to Hodgkin
      lymphoma (HL) have been reported in the literature with an estimated prevalence
      of 0.4%. We report a case of a 67-year-old female with CLL treated with the novel
      Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) inhibitor, ibrutinib, who subsequently presented
      with intractable fevers. Bone marrow trephine, and lymph node biopsy revealed
      classical HL with negative immuno-histochemistry for Btk in HL cells, on a
      backdrop of CLL. The patient commenced treatment with Adriamycin, Vinblastine and
      Dacarbazine (AVD), which resulted in an excellent response. Hodgkin
      transformation of CLL is rare with a single retrospective study of 4121 CLL
      patients reporting only 18 cases. Btk expression in HL cells is recently
      recognised in classical HL; however, the majority of HLs are Btk negative. Given
      that Btk inhibitors have recently been shown to induce genomic instability in B
      cells, in the context of their widespread use, such emerging cases are
      increasingly relevant.

PMID- 28561535
TI  - Lita F. Osmunden.

PMID- 28561536
TI  - Serial changes in blood pressure from childhood into young adulthood for females
      in relation to body mass index and maturational age.
AB  - This study determines: (1) patterns of change from childhood to young adulthood
      in body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood
      pressure (DBP), (2) effects of elevated BMI values on changes in blood pressures
      (BP), (3) extent of tracking for SBP, DBP, and BMI, and (4) prediction of future
      risk for elevated BP from earlier values. Annual serial BP and BMI data were
      available for 198 white females, ages 8-22 years, enrolled in the Fels
      Longitudinal Study. Patterns of change in BMI were described by a random effects
      model with a time series model for the correlated residuals. Serial BMI measures
      were differentiated from age-specific means to measure relative individual BMI
      levels. Serial BP were analyzed using a similar model to the BMI where relative
      individual BMI levels were included as an explanatory variable. There was a
      general increasing trend for SBP, DBP, and BMI from 8-22 years, but the rates of
      increase declined with age. At the same chronological age, early menarche females
      had a significantly greater BMI mean value than late menarche females. An average
      increase of 1 kg/m2 in deviation from BMI population means resulted in an average
      increase of 1.2 mmHg in SBP and 0.6 mmHg in DBP. Having SBP and DBP levels 1
      standard deviation above mean levels, relative to females at mean levels, as
      early as age 9 represents an odds ratio of 2 for exceeding national 75th
      percentile levels of SBP and DBP at age 21. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10: 589-598, 1998.
      (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561534
TI  - Gender differences in healthy aging and Alzheimer's Dementia: A 18 F-FDG-PET
      study of brain and cognitive reserve.
AB  - Cognitive reserve (CR) and brain reserve (BR) are protective factors against age
      associated cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders. Very limited
      evidence exists about gender effects on brain aging and on the effect of CR on
      brain modulation in healthy aging and Alzheimer's Dementia (AD). We investigated
      gender differences in brain metabolic activity and resting-state network
      connectivity, as measured by 18 F-FDG-PET, in healthy aging and AD, also
      considering the effects of education and occupation. The clinical and imaging
      data were retrieved from large datasets of healthy elderly subjects (HE) (225)
      and AD patients (282). In HE, males showed more extended age-related reduction of
      brain metabolism than females in frontal medial cortex. We also found differences
      in brain modulation as metabolic increases induced by education and occupation,
      namely in posterior associative cortices in HE males and in the anterior limbic
      affective and executive networks in HE females. In AD patients, the correlations
      between education and occupation levels and brain hypometabolism showed gender
      differences, namely a posterior temporo-parietal association in males and a
      frontal and limbic association in females, indicating the involvement of
      different networks. Finally, the metabolic connectivity in both HE and AD aligned
      with these results, suggesting greater efficiency in the posterior default mode
      network for males, and in the anterior frontal executive network for females. The
      basis of these brain gender differences in both aging and AD, obtained exploring
      cerebral metabolism, metabolic connectivity and the effects of education and
      occupation, is likely at the intersection between biological and sociodemographic
      factors. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4212-4227, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28561537
TI  - Perceptions and patterns of physical activity: A comparison of Mohawk/Cayuga and
      non-native adolescents.
AB  - This study examined the relationships between habitual physical activity and self
      referent thought among Native and non-Native grade 9 students in Southern
      Ontario. The Habitual Activity Estimation Scale (HAES) and the Children's Self
      perception of Adequacy in and Predilection for Physical Activity (CSAPPA) scale
      were administered to 74% of eligible native students (13M, 13F) and 87% of
      eligible non-Native students (65M, 65F). All were attending the same secondary
      school, adjacent to the Six Nations (Mohawk/Cayuga) reservation. Natives and non
      Natives differed (P < .01) with respect to physical activity levels, predilection
      for physical activity, and enjoyment of physical education, with Native students
      reporting less physical activity than the non-Native group. There were no
      significant differences in perceived adequacy between the two groups. Further
      investigations are needed to determine how far these results can be generalized
      to less prosperous Native bands in other parts of Canada and the U.S.
      Nevertheless, it appears that physical educators should develop culturally
      appropriate interventions to increase physical activity among Native youth, in
      consultation with Native leadership. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:629-635, 1998. (c) 1998
      Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561538
TI  - Nutrition, bone mass, and subsequent risk of hip fracture in white women.
AB  - The interrelationships between nutritional status, concurrent bone density, bone
      dimensions, and risk of subsequent hip fracture were investigated using data from
      the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and its three follow
      up studies. A cohort of 890 White women aged 45 years or older who received
      nutritional and bone measurements in the baseline survey in 1971-75 were
      recontacted in 1982-84, 1986, and 1987. Height, weight, serum albumin, total
      energy intake, bone density, and bone dimensions were measured at baseline.
      Thirty-three incident hip fractures were identified during 12,190 person-years of
      follow-up. Total energy intake and serum albumin were little correlated with
      concurrent bone density and bone dimensions. Serum albumin, total energy intake,
      and weight tended to be inversely associated with risk of hip fracture. The
      multivariable relative risks were 0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57-0.98)
      for one standard deviation increment of serum albumin, 0.67 (95% CI = 0.42-1.07)
      for dietary energy intake, and 0.61 (95% CI = 0.38-0.97) for weight,
      respectively. Height was positively, but not significantly associated with risk
      of hip fracture. Nutritional effects on hip fracture were independent of
      concurrent bone density and bone dimensions. Higher bone density was protective
      of subsequent hip fracture (relative risk = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.36-0.83, for one
      standard deviation increment of bone density) independent of effects related to
      concurrent nutritional status. Thus, poor nutritional status and reduced bone
      density appeared to increase the risks of subsequent hip fracture independently.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:661-667, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561539
TI  - Growth studies in Jena, Germany: Changes in body size and subcutaneous fat
      distribution between 1975 and 1995.
AB  - This report presents results of an anthropological investigation on Jena,
      Germany, schoolchildren from 1995. Stature and weight, body mass index (BMI), and
      four skinfolds (biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac) are presented for
      children 7-14 years of age and are compared with results of investigations on
      schoolchildren carried out in Jena in 1975 and 1985. Between those years, in both
      sexes there were no significant differences in stature, weight, and consequently
      in the BMI. In this timespan, a trend toward a reduction of subcutaneous fat was
      noted. A different development was observed in the period 1985-1995. Stature as
      well as body weight increased, and because the increase in weight was greater
      than expected from the increase in stature, there also was an increase in the
      BMI. A large increase in overall subcutaneous fatness was also found. In 1995,
      the highest amount of body fat was observed in Jena children since 1975. Changes
      in the distribution of subcutaneous fat tissue occurred. Between 1975 and 1985,
      the ratio of trunk to extremity skinfolds (T/E ratio) decreased significantly in
      boys and girls in all ages, but increased between 1985 and 1995. In spite of this
      increase, children had the largest T/E ratio in 1975. Changes in the nutritional
      situation and other factors in living conditions, possibly related to the
      unification of Germany in 1989 influencing somatic development, are considered.
      Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:579-587, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561540
TI  - Fertility, migration, and mortality in an old order Amish community.
AB  - Mortality, fertility, and migration data were used to identify population
      structure in a group of Old Order Amish living in New York State. Two thousand
      and sixteen individuals were accounted for since the community was first formed
      in 1948 and this is nearly total ascertainment of the population. Further,
      ethnography compared Amish households to neighboring non-Amish households to
      understand differences in health beliefs, caregiving patterns, and economic
      strategies. Despite evidence that suggests that the Amish have health risks
      comparable to U.S. population and that they under-utilize health care, this study
      demonstrates that Amish age standardized death rates are 19% below the U.S. death
      rate in 1960. Natural fertility combined with low infant mortality, migrating to
      form new communities when population density increased, and selective but
      appropriate use of western biomedicine have emerged as strong cultural patterns
      that facilitated reproductive success and longevity among the Amish. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:619-628, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561541
TI  - Changes in height and motor performance relative to peak height velocity: A mixed
      longitudinal study of Spanish boys and girls.
AB  - Longitudinal changes in stature and motor performance were studied in an
      adolescent sample of 36 boys and 53 girls. Peak height velocity (PHV) was
      determined in 28 boys and 38 girls using non-smoothed polynomials. The
      estimations of PHV and the age-at-PHV are, respectively, 11.4 +/- 2.2 cm/yr and
      13.0 +/- 0.63 years (boys), and 8.7 +/- 1.6 cm/yr and 12.4 +/- 0.57 years
      (girls). Performances in explosive strength (standing long jump; medicine ball
      throw) and flexibility (trunk maximal flexion) exhibit peak development during
      the year following PHV in both sexes. Maximal mean growth velocities in an
      endurance run (six minutes) occur before PHV in girls and after PHV in boys. Peak
      velocities in agility (4 * 6 m shuttle run), running speed (40 m dash) and
      abdominal strength-resistance (sit-ups for 30 seconds) occur before PHV in both
      sexes. There also is an acceleration of performances in these three tests after
      PHV. The results indicate that performance in several motor tests shows an
      adolescent spurt of an intensity that is proportionally comparable to the
      adolescent height spurt in both sexes. The dynamics of changes in motor
      performance in relation to PHV appears similar in both sexes. The most striking
      difference occurs in the endurance run. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:647-660, 1998. (c)
      1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561542
TI  - Genetic structure of southwestern Corsica (France).
AB  - The distribution of nine red cell enzymes (ACP, ADA, AK, DIA, ESD, GLO1, PGM1,
      PGD, and SOD) and seven plasma proteins (C3, GC, HP, ORM, PI, PLG, and TF) was
      analyzed in a sample of 274 unrelated individuals from the southwestern area of
      Corsica (France), specifically from Ajaccio and nearby villages. The aim of the
      research was to study the genetic structure of Corsica and to add further to our
      knowledge about microgeographic variability of polymorphisms in Corsica. The
      analysis, carried out by genetic distances and R-matrix through 39 alleles of 13
      genetic markers, reveals a certain degree of differentiation within Corsica. The
      results show a genetic heterogeneity between Corsica and other European and
      Mediterranean populations, although the genetic differences appear to be smaller
      between Corsicans and Sardinians than among Corsicans and other compiled
      populations. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:567-577, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561543
TI  - Secular growth changes in the stature and weight of Amerindian schoolchildren and
      adults in the Chilean Andes, 1972-1987.
AB  - A positive secular trend for stature and weight is evident in rural Aymara
      speaking Indians of the Parinacota Province (>3,000 m) in the northern Chilean
      Andes. The study is based on two cross-sectional growth surveys carried out in
      1972 and 1987. In the survey of 1972, which was undertaken by other authors, a
      sample of 190 individuals was considered. The 1987 survey, performed by the
      present author, comprises a sample of 170 Indians. Both children and adults of
      each sex, ages 6-29 years, are included. Secular comparisons of age-grouped means
      indicate a secular increase in stature and weight in Aymara children,
      adolescents, and adults in the Parinacota Province between 1972 and 1987. The
      Aymara tend to be taller and heavier in 1987. The estimated secular increase for
      stature is 2.1 cm/decade for males and 1.8 cm/decade for females. For weight, the
      increase is 2.3 kg/decade for males and 1.5 kg/decade for females. In all cases,
      growth gains tend to be greater in males than in females. The body mass index
      also increases slightly. The secular changes in stature and weight are
      statistically significant in both sexes. From additional nutritional data on the
      Aymara samples compared, it is concluded that the observed secular increases
      might primarily reflect improved food supply over the past two decades. Am. J.
      Hum. Biol. 10:607-617, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561544
TI  - Non-linear patterns of growth in very low birth weight infants.
AB  - The deviations of daily weight, weekly length and head circumference from linear
      growth were analyzed in 87 very low birth weight infants. The deviations
      exhibited a highly significant polynomial oscillation not only for weight, but
      also for length and head circumference. The weight amplitudes were larger for
      males than for females. They were also larger in infants appropriate for
      gestational age than in small-for-date infants. The difference with trophicity
      may be related to the process of adjustment of catch-up in small-for-date
      infants. However, the mechanisms of these oscillatory deviations could also be
      explained by clinical events, method of feeding, or homeostatic regulation.
      Further studies are required to elucidate the role of the different factors. Am.
      J. Hum. Biol. 10:637-646, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561545
TI  - Skin reflectance of lowland Bolivian youths of European ancestry.
AB  - The skin reflectances of 257 Bolivian youths of European ancestry (140 males, 117
      females; 9.0-19.9 yr) residing in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (average altitude of 400 m)
      are described. Reflectances were measured at three wavelengths (425 nm, 545 nm,
      and 685 nm) on two different sites, the medial surface of the inner upper arm and
      the forehead. Males tended to be darker than females, significantly on the inner
      upper arm (P < .05). Males tended to darken significantly with age on both the
      upper arm and the forehead (P < .05), while females tended to lighten with age on
      the upper arm and darken with age on the forehead. However, with the exception of
      reflectances at 545 nm on the inner upper arm, the age changes in females were
      insignificant (P > .05). The results of comparisons between two groups based on
      maternal and paternal surnames (two Spanish surnames, at least one non-Spanish
      European surnames) were consistent with expectations, or with those with two
      Spanish surnames tending to be significantly darker than those with one or more
      non-Spanish European surname (P < .05). Finally, the results of a principal
      components analysis of reflectances were similar to those found in a previous
      study of highland Bolivians of Aymara ancestry. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:559-565,
      1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561546
TI  - Changing concepts in skeletal physiology: Wolff's Law, the Mechanostat, and the
      "Utah Paradigm".
AB  - According to the Utah paradigm of skeletal physiology: (1) mechanical forces on
      skeletons generate signals in skeletal organs that control the biologic
      mechanisms that determine the architecture and strength of those organs, (2)
      these occur in ways that let the organs endure their voluntary mechanical usage
      for life without hurting or breaking, (3) to work properly, these mechanisms need
      nonmechanical factors (hormones, vitamins, calcium, genes, cytokines, etc.), (4)
      only mechanical factors can guide those mechanisms in time and anatomical space,
      (5) this arrangement determines skeletal health and disorders can cause or help
      to cause numerous disorders of skeletal and extraskeletal organs (the collagenous
      tissue in ligaments and tendons also forms a part of extraskeletal organs).
      Accumulated evidence now strongly supports these features of the Utah paradigm,
      which supplements a 1960 paradigm. It incites reassessment of some former ideas
      about skeletal physiology and disease. Some controversies ensue that will take
      time to resolve. After they are resolved, skeletal science, medicine, and surgery
      should be significantly better than before and different in unforeseeable
      respects as well. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:599-605, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561547
TI  - Acute mountain sickness: Is there a lag period before symptoms?
AB  - The present study was designed to determine if symptoms of acute mountain
      sickness are presented within six hours after arrival at high altitude. Seventeen
      male subjects, 23-30 years, were studied. The subjects were professional soccer
      players, life-long residents at low altitudes except one player who was playing
      soccer in a team at 3400 m (512 mm Hg of Barometric Pressure) during an entire
      year in 1995. The players were transported by a commercial airline from Lima (150
      m) to Cusco (3400 m). The trip lasted 1 hour. Heart rate and arterial oxygen
      saturation were measured at rest in Lima (150 m), at the time of arrival at
      Cusco, and at 4 and 6 hours after arrival at 3400 m. On day 6 at high altitude,
      the physical performance during a soccer game was assessed. The symptoms of acute
      mountain sickness (AMS) were assessed 6 hours after arrival at Cusco with a self
      administered questionnaire, and thereafter each 24-hours up to 5 days of exposure
      to high altitude. The following symptoms were assessed: headache,
      gastrointestinal symptoms, dizziness, fatigue, and sleep abnormalities. AMS was
      defined by a Lake-Louise score ?4 (self-assessment only). Thirty five percent of
      the soccer players developed AMS within 6 hours after arrival by air at 3400 m
      altitude. Arterial oxygen saturation at arrival was higher in those player who
      developed AMS within 6 hours after arrival (94.3 +/- 0.94% vs 90.8 +/- 2.36; P <
      0.001). From arrival to 6 hours of exposure to altitude, there was a significant
      fall in arterial oxygen saturation in those men who developed AMS than in those
      who did not. Results from the stepwise multiple regression (R2 = 0.59; P < 0.04)
      and logistic regression (R2 = 0.48; P < 0.0019) analyses showed that the
      difference between arterial oxygen saturation at sea level and at arrival at
      Cusco was a predictor for the development of AMS within 6 hours upon arrival at
      altitude. This suggests that the lower the difference between arterial oxygen
      saturation at sea level and at arrival, the higher the probability to develop AMS
      within 6 hours after arrival at 3400 m. The presentation of AMS, however, does
      not predict low performance in physical activity at high altitude. Am. J. Hum.
      Biol. 10:669-677, 1998. (c) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID- 28561548
TI  - Corrigendum : Uveal Melanoma Treatment and Prognostication.

PMID- 28561549
TI  - Editorial.
AB  - It was 27 years ago, during my Masters that I was introduced to this journal,
      then edited by Peter James. He was one of a succession of icons of Dental Public
      Health to have filled this role including Denis O'Mullane, Martin Downer and
      until December, my colleague and friend Mike Lennon. Many of us have looked up to
      those pioneers with respect and reverence. The journal has always been the place
      to look for UK based research in DPH, and now it is fulfilling that purpose for
      on a European scale as well.

PMID- 28561550
TI  - The oral health of people with learning disabilities - a user-friendly
      questionnaire survey.
AB  - Impetus for action: To conduct a user-friendly questionnaire survey of the oral
      health and service needs of adults with learning disabilities. Solution:
      Researchers collaborated with local self-advocacy services to develop a
      questionnaire adapted from one used in a regional postal survey. The
      questionnaire, which covered dental status, oral health and dental services use,
      was sent to a random sample of people from the learning disability case register.
      Outcome: Of 2,000 questionnaires mailed, 117 were returned undelivered and 625
      were completed (response rate 31.3%). The self-reported dental status of people
      with learning disabilities appeared similar to that of the 2008 postal survey of
      the general population in Sheffield. The major difference in dental status was
      11.5% of people with learning disabilities wore upper dentures and 7.2% wore
      lower dentures, compared to 21.2% and 12.1% of the general population in
      Sheffield. Challenges: Using the case register as a recruitment instrument may
      have excluded people with learning disabilities not registered. Time and finances
      only permitted one mailing. Analysis on the basis of deprivation could not be
      conducted. Future implications and learning points: Contrary to current practice,
      it is possible to include people with learning disabilities in oral health
      surveys. A multidisciplinary team was essential for enabling the progression and
      implementation of inclusive research and for people with learning disabilities
      and their supporters to engage meaningfully. This level of collaboration appears
      necessary if we are committed to ensuring that people with learning disabilities
      and their supporters are made visible to policy and decision-makers.

PMID- 28561551
TI  - Sugar before bed: a simple dietary risk factor for caries experience.
AB  - : Clinical care pathways have placed renewed emphasis on caries risk assessment
      and the ability to predict and prevent further disease. With diet considered a
      key factor in the development of caries, the level of caries risk posed by
      dietary habits, such as the frequency of intake and timing of free sugars is
      questioned. OBJECTIVE: To identify reliable and simple dietary risk factors for
      caries experience. RESEARCH DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study of a
      convenience sample with data gained from clinical examinations, questionnaire and
      a 24 hour dietary-recall interview. PARTICIPANTS: 128 subjects aged 11-12 from
      comprehensive schools in Greater Manchester and Newcastle upon-Tyne, UK. OUTCOME
      MEASURES: free sugars consumed between meals, before bed and total % of total
      free sugars consumed were assessed from dietary assessments led by a dietitian.
      D4-6MFT was generated with a caries threshold of ICDAS stage 4 from clinical
      examinations. RESULTS: Analysis revealed no significant differences in caries
      experience when looking specifically at caries into dentine, referred to as the
      cavity group (split at D4-6MFT), between high and low deprivation, consumption of
      free sugars between meals and free sugars (%). The consumption of free sugars
      within the hour before bed revealed a statistically significant difference
      between the cavity/no cavity groups (p=0.002). Logistic regression analysis on
      the cavity/no cavity groups revealed an odds ratio of 2.4 (95%CI 1.3,4.4) for
      free sugars consumption before bedtime. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the
      consumption of free sugars before bedtime may be an important risk factor for
      adolescent caries into dentine experience.

PMID- 28561553
TI  - Access to urgent dental care: a scoping review.
AB  - Objective: To summarise the literature on urgent dental care and to identify
      research priorities on the organisation and delivery of urgent dental services.
      Basic research design: Scoping review using Andersen's behavioural model of
      health service utilisation for a framework analysis of the data. Main outcome
      measures: Gaps in the literature, defined as those factors and interactions
      identified by Andersen's model as having a contributory role in access to health
      services that were not evident in the source papers. Results: Fifty-six papers
      met the inclusion criteria for the review. The factors most often considered
      were; demographic, socioeconomic, perceived and evaluated need, and health
      behaviours. Patient outcomes of evaluated health and quality of life following
      urgent dental care were the least studied variables, with the exception of
      patient satisfaction. No studies were identified on community values/norms of
      people accessing urgent dental care, on health economic evaluations or on studies
      of how urgent dental services mitigate use of other medical services. No studies
      were identified on urgent need for populations living in water fluoridated areas
      or on the relationship between service design and efficient or effective access
      as measured by patient outcomes. Conclusion: Future research on patient outcomes
      and the comparison of different service models for urgent dental care through
      measures of equity, effectiveness and efficiency of access are needed to inform
      future policy and organisation of these services.

PMID- 28561552
TI  - Measuring oral health impact among care home residents in Wales.
AB  - Objective: To explore inequalities in oral health impact among care home
      residents using OHIP-14 and ADHS criteria. Basic research design: Cross-sectional
      survey with structured interview and clinical examination using 2009 ADHS
      criteria including OHIP-14. Comparisons were made between groups of residents and
      with findings from the ADHS 2009. Participants: Care homes and residents were
      randomly selected. Those without capacity and non-English/Welsh speakers were
      excluded. 447 residents answered all OHIP-14 questions and had full oral
      examination. Main Outcome Measure: OHIP-14. Results: Reporting of OHIP problems
      was more common among care home residents compared with older people examined in
      the ADHS 2009 (50% vs 40%). There was no difference in the mean number of impacts
      between residents who were: dentate/edentate; denture wearing/non-denture
      wearing; with/without caries. Residents reporting 'problems and pain in your
      mouth at the moment', or 'occasional or more frequent dry mouth', more often
      experienced OHIP-14 impacts. Conclusion: Compared with peers living in the
      community, both dentate and edentate care home residents are more likely to live
      with one or more impacts. Two simple questions related to 'Any problems and pain
      in your mouth?' and 'Do you have frequent dry mouth?' may help to target care
      home residents more likely to experience oral health impacts.

PMID- 28561554
TI  - Urinary fluoride excretion in preschool children after intake of fluoridated milk
      and use of fluoride-containing toothpaste.
AB  - Objective: To assess the urinary fluoride excretion in preschool children after
      drinking fluoridated milk with 0.185 mg F and 0.375 mg F and to study the impact
      of use of fluoride toothpaste. Basic research design: Double-blind cross-over
      study. Participants: Nine healthy children, 2.5-4.5 years of age. Intervention:
      In a randomized order, participants drank 1.5 dl milk once daily for 7 days with
      no fluoride added (control), 0.185 mg fluoride added and 0.375 mg fluoride added.
      The experiment was performed twice with (Part I) and without (Part II) parental
      tooth brushing with 1,000 ppm fluoride toothpaste. The fluoride content in the
      piped drinking water was 0.5 mg F/L. Main outcome measure: Urinary fluoride
      excretion. Results: The 24-hour urinary fl uoride excretion/kg body weight varied
      from 0.014 mg F for the placebo intervention and non-fluoride toothpaste to 0.027
      mg F for the 0.375 mg intervention with use of 1,000 ppm fluoride toothpaste. The
      difference compared with the placebo intervention was not statistically
      significant for any of the interventions when fluoride toothpaste was used
      (p?0.05) while it was statistically significantly different when non-fluoride
      toothpaste was used (p?0.05). Conclusions: All sources of fluoride must be
      considered when designing community programs. With 0.5 mg F/L in the drinking
      water and daily use of fluoride toothpaste, most children had a fluoride intake
      optimal for dental health. In this setting, additional intake of fluoride milk
      was within safe limits up to 0.185 mg/day while conclusions about the safety of
      0.375 mg/day were uncertain.

PMID- 28561555
TI  - Directly observed daily mouth care provided to care home residents in one area of
      Kent, UK.
AB  - Objective: To gather accurate data on the daily mouth care provided in care homes
      including tooth brushing, oral health assessment, and recording of care provided.
      Basic research design: Direct observation and notes review. Clinical setting:
      Both nursing and 'regular' care homes. Participants: 365 Residents living in 16
      care homes and their carers underwent observation, notes review or data
      collection in some form. Main outcome measures: Provision of mouth morning care.
      Results: Of 161 residents observed, most (93, 58%) did not have their
      teeth/dentures brushed. If performed, brushing was often carried out by the
      resident themselves (36 cases, 53%), rather than by a carer (32 cases, 44%).
      Carers used a toothbrush to clean inside a resident's mouth in just 7 cases (4.3%
      of all personal care routines observed). Smaller care homes were no more likely
      to brush residents teeth than larger care homes, and nursing homes were no more
      likely to brush teeth than other care homes. Of the 309 sets of notes available
      for review, 41 (13%) contained a dedicated oral health needs assessment, and 109
      (35%) contained a daily oral care chart in some form. Mouth care was often
      recorded inaccurately (15% of cases). Conclusions: This is the first
      observational study in the UK to assess oral care actually provided to residents
      by carers in care homes. The findings reveal a substantially different picture of
      daily mouth care than was previously understood and suggest that many of the
      nation's care home residents may not be receiving adequate, or any, oral health
      care.

PMID- 28561556
TI  - Association between sense of coherence and oral health-related quality of life
      among toddlers.
AB  - Objective: To assess the relationship between sense of coherence (SOC) and oral
      health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among children aged one to three years.
      Participants: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 276 mother-child pairs
      randomly selected from the city of Diamantina, Brazil. Method: Information was
      obtained on socio-demographic factors. The short version of Antonovsky's sense of
      coherence scale (SOC 13) and the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale
      (ECOHIS) were administered. The children were examined for dental caries.
      Statistical analysis involved descriptive statistics, the calculation of
      Spearman's correlation coefficients and adjusted Poisson regression models.
      Results: SOC was significantly associated with the child's OHRQoL in the
      multivariate analysis. Children of mothers with high SOC (PR 0.96; 95%CI
      0.93,0.98; p=0.045) had a lower prevalence of a negative impact on OHRQoL.
      Children with severe dental caries had a greater prevalence of a negative impact
      on OHRQoL (PR 2.53; 95%CI 1.77,3.62; p?0.001). Conclusions: Maternal SOC could be
      a psychosocial determinant of the OHRQoL of children aged one to three years.
      Severe dental caries was associated with poorer quality of life.

PMID- 28561557
TI  - Tobacco use in late adolescence among rural Sri Lankans.
AB  - Objective: To determine the prevalence of, and factors associated with, tobacco
      use among 16-19 year old students from rural Sri Lanka. Basic research design: A
      cross-sectional study where the data were collected by means of a pre-tested self
      administered questionnaire. Participants: 390, 16-19 year old students selected
      from 9 schools in Ampara education zone. Results: Nearly 22% of the sample had
      used tobacco during their life and the prevalence of ever smokeless tobacco use
      (19%) was higher than the prevalence of ever smoking (10%). The prevalence of
      current smoking was 16% in males and 1% in females while 23% and 3% of males and
      females were current smokeless tobacco users respectively. Current smoking was
      independently associated with gender and having a smoker at home while current
      smokeless tobacco use was significantly associated with gender, maternal
      education and paternal occupation. Conclusion: The prevalence of tobacco use was
      high in these rural students.

PMID- 28561558
TI  - Dental caries experience among Albanian pre-school children: a national survey.
AB  - Objective: To determine the dental caries experience and treatment needs among 5
      year-olds in Albania. Research Design: This cross sectional study was conducted
      in 2015 by using a cluster sampling technique. The dmft was used to assess dental
      caries experience and caries prevalence as percentages of children with dmf?0.
      Caries treatment needs were assessed with dt/dmft x 100, missing teeth with
      mt/dmft x 100 and ft /dmft x 100 as the Care Index. Participants: 2,039 five-year
      olds, from 17 districts of Albania were selected . Children's residency was
      divided into 3 main regions (South, West, Central and North). Method: WHO 2013
      diagnostic criteria were used and dental caries was recorded at cavity level d3.
      Results:: The mean age was 5.4 (SD 0.5) years. The caries prevalence (dmf?0) was
      84.1%. The prevalence of children without cavitated lesions (d=0) was 20.1%. The
      mean dmft index was 4.41 (SD 3.83). The caries treatment needs were 84% (SD 26%).
      Conclusions: The Albanian 5-year-olds assessed in this survey had a high dental
      caries experience and untreated cavities in the primary dentition. The national
      health authorities should introduce preventive programs and improved dental care
      access for this age group.

PMID- 28561559
TI  - A model for oral health gradients in children: using structural equation
      modeling.
AB  - : Detecting the underlying socioeconomic and behavioral determinants is essential
      for reducing oral health disparities in children. OBJECTIVE: To test a conceptual
      model in children to explore the interaction amongst social, environmental,
      behavioral factors and oral health outcomes. METHODS: This analytic cross
      sectional study was performed in 2014-2015 in Shiraz, Iran. The sampling was
      conducted using a multistage stratified design to represent the whole 6-year-olds
      in Shiraz County. Participants were 830, 6-year-old first grade primary
      schoolchildren and their parents. Children were examined to register decayed,
      missing and filled teeth (dmft) and simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S).
      Parents were asked for data on socio-cultural risk factors, oral health behaviors
      and children's oral health related quality of life (C-OHRQoL). Data on
      environmental risk factors were collected from several sources. The proposed
      model, a development of Peterson's, was tested using structural equation modeling
      (SEM). RESULTS: The tested model could empirically demonstrate the wide range of
      social and behavioral factors affecting C-OHRQoL. Socioeconomic status (SES)
      affected the OHRQoL of children through several pathways. Tooth brushing
      frequency, use of oral health services and consuming cariogenic foods were the
      mediators, through which SES affected dmft and subsequently C-OHRQoL.
      CONCLUSIONS: Using the modified Petersen's model and SEM, the paths in which
      different distal and proximal factors affect oral health outcomes in children
      could be clearly identified. It showed that addressing the underlying social,
      economic and behavioral determinants is essential for reducing oral health
      disparities among Iranian children.

PMID- 28561560
TI  - Using the simplified case mix tool (sCMT) to identify cost in special care dental
      services to support commissioning.
AB  - : To commission dental services for vulnerable (special care) patient groups
      effectively, consistently and fairly an evidence base is needed of the costs
      involved. The simplified Case Mixed Tool (sCMT) can assess treatment mode
      complexity for these patient groups. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the sCMT can be
      used to identify costs of service provision. CLINICAL SETTING: Patients (n=495)
      attending the Sussex Community NHS Trust Special Care Dental Service for care
      were assessed using the sCMT. MAIN MEASURES: sCMT score and costs (staffing,
      laboratory fees, etc.) besides patient age, whether a new patient and use of
      general anaesthetic/intravenous sedation. METHOD: Statistical analysis (adjusted
      linear regression modelling) compared sCMT score and costs then sensitivity
      analyses of the costings to age, being a new patient and sedation use were
      undertaken. Regression tables were produced to present estimates of service
      costs. RESULTS: Costs increased with sCMT total scale and single item values in a
      predictable manner in all analyses except for 'cooperation'. Costs increased with
      the use of IV sedation; with each rising level of the sCMT, and with complexity
      in every sCMT category, except cooperation. CONCLUSION: Costs increased with
      increase in complexity of treatment mode as measured by sCMT scores. Measures
      such as the sCMT can provide predictions of the resource allocations required
      when commissioning special care dental services.

PMID- 28561561
TI  - Oral health and oral health behaviours of five-year-old children in the Charedi
      Orthodox Jewish Community in North London, UK.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report on the oral health status and oral health behaviours of five
      year-old Charedi Orthodox Jewish children attending schools in London, UK. BASIC
      RESEARCH DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHOD: Clinical examinations mirroring
      the 2015 National Dental Public Health Epidemiology Programme for England for
      five-year-olds and a parental questionnaire on oral health behaviours.
      PARTICIPANTS: 137 five-year-olds attending Charedi Orthodox Jewish schools in
      Hackney, North London. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence dmft?0 (%) and severity
      (mean dmft) of dental caries. RESULTS: Of these children 58% had experienced
      dental caries (95%CI 50,67), the mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth
      was 2.38 (95%CI 1.90,2.82) and 23% (95%CI 16,30) had caries affecting their
      incisors. Only 20% reported that their children had their teeth brushed twice a
      day and 16% of the children started having their teeth brushed between six months
      and one year of age. CONCLUSIONS: The oral health of five-year-old children in
      the Charedi Orthodox Jewish community is significantly worse than their
      counterparts across Hackney, London and England. The establishment of robust
      baseline data supports the local authority plan to develop targeted oral health
      improvement programmes tailored to address the health needs and cultural
      sensitivities of this community.

PMID- 28561562
TI  - Using National-Scale Data To Develop Nutrient-Microcystin Relationships That
      Guide Management Decisions.
AB  - Quantitative models that predict cyanotoxin concentrations in lakes and
      reservoirs from nutrient concentrations would facilitate management of these
      resources for recreation and as sources of drinking water. Development of these
      models from field data has been hampered by the high proportion of samples in
      which cyanotoxin concentrations are below detection limits and by the high
      variability of cyanotoxin concentrations within individual lakes. Here, we
      describe a national-scale hierarchical Bayesian model that addresses these issues
      and that predicts microcystin concentrations from summer mean total nitrogen and
      total phosphorus concentrations. This model accounts for 69% of the variance in
      mean microcystin concentrations in lakes and reservoirs of the conterminous
      United States. Mean microcystin concentrations were more strongly associated with
      differences in total nitrogen than total phosphorus. A general approach for
      assessing this and similar types of models for their utility for guiding
      management decisions is also described.

PMID- 28561563
TI  - Reducing Friction in the Eye: A Comparative Study of Lubrication by Surface
      Anchored Synthetic and Natural Ocular Mucin Analogues.
AB  - Biomaterials used in the ocular environment should exhibit specific tribological
      behavior to avoid discomfort and stress-induced epithelial damage during
      blinking. In this study, two macromolecules that are commonly employed as ocular
      biomaterials, namely, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and hyaluronan (HA), are
      compared with two known model glycoproteins, namely bovine submaxillary mucin
      (BSM) and alpha1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), with regard to their nonfouling
      efficiency, wettability, and tribological properties when freely present in the
      lubricant, enabling spontaneous adsorption, and when chemisorbed under low
      contact pressures. Chemisorbed coatings were prepared by means of photochemically
      triggered nitrene insertion reactions. BSM and AGP provided boundary lubrication
      when spontaneously adsorbed in a hydrophobic contact with a coefficient of
      friction (CoF) of ~0.03-0.04. PVP and HA were found to be excellent boundary
      lubricants when chemisorbed (CoF <= 0.01). Notably, high-molecular-weight PVP
      generated thick adlayers, typically around 14 nm, and was able to reduce the CoF
      below 0.005 when slid against a BSM-coated poly(dimethylsiloxane) pin in a
      tearlike fluid.

PMID- 28561564
TI  - Functionalized Ionic Microgel Sensor Array for Colorimetric Detection and
      Discrimination of Metal Ions.
AB  - A functional ionic microgel sensor array was developed by using 1-(2
      pyridinylazo)-2-naphthaleno (PAN)- and bromothymol blue (BTB)-functionalized
      ionic microgels, which were designed and synthesized by quaternization reaction
      and anion-exchange reaction, respectively. The PAN microgels (PAN-MG) and BTB
      microgels (BTB-MG) were spherical in shape with a narrow size distribution and
      exhibited characteristic colors in aqueous solution in the presence of various
      trace-metal ions, which could be visually distinguished by the naked eye. Such
      microgels could be used for the colorimetric detection of various metal ions in
      aqueous solution at submicromolar levels, which were lower than the U.S.
      Environmental Protection Agency standard for the safety limit of metal ions in
      drinking water. A total of 10 species of metal ions in aqueous solution, Ba2+,
      Cr3+, Mn2+, Pb2+, Fe3+, Co2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, and Al3+, were successfully
      discriminated by the as-constructed microgel sensor array combined with
      discriminant analysis, agglomerative hierarchical clustering, and leave-one-out
      cross-validation analysis.

PMID- 28561565
TI  - Importance of Solvent Removal Rate on the Morphology and Device Performance of
      Organic Photovoltaics with Solvent Annealing.
AB  - Solvent vapor annealing has been widely used in organic photovoltaics (OPV) to
      tune the morphology of bulk heterojunction active layer for the improvement of
      device performance. Unfortunately, the effect of solvent removal rate (SRR) after
      solvent annealing, which is one of the key factors that impact resultant
      morphology, on the morphology and device performance of OPV has never been
      reported. In this work, the nanoscale morphology of small molecule (SM):fullerene
      bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cell from different SRRs after solvent annealing
      was examined by small-angle neutron scattering and grazing incidence X-ray
      scattering. The results clearly demonstrate that the nanoscale morphology of
      SM:fullerene BHJ especially fullerene phase separation and concentration of
      fullerene in noncrystalline SM was significantly impacted by the SRR. The
      enhanced fullerene phase separation was found with a decrease of SRR, while the
      crystallinity and molecular packing of SM remained unchanged. Correlation to
      device performance shows that the balance between pure fullerene phase and mixing
      phase of SM and fullerene is crucial for the optimization of morphology and
      enhancement of device performance. Moreover, the specific interfacial area
      between pure fullerene phase and mixing phase is crucial for the electron
      transport and thus device performance. More importantly, this finding would
      provide a more careful and precise control of morphology of SM:fullerene BHJ and
      offers a guideline for further improvement of device performance with solvent
      annealing.

PMID- 28561566
TI  - Strontium Titanate Based Artificial Leaf Loaded with Reduction and Oxidation
      Cocatalysts for Selective CO2 Reduction Using Water as an Electron Donor.
AB  - Thin film of SrTiO3 nanorods loaded with reduction and oxidation cocatalysts
      drove the selective reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbon monoxide (CO),
      as well as caused the production of equivalent oxygen molecules through water
      oxidation under UV irradiation. The described film functioned as a free-standing
      plate without any bias potential application, similar to a natural leaf. The film
      was facilely fabricated by a simple hydrothermal and annealing treatment of a
      titanium substrate to produce the SrTiO3 nanorod film (STO film) followed by two
      steps of loading the reduction and oxidation cocatalysts onto the surface of the
      STO. As a reduction cocatalyst, a CuxO nanocluster was chosen to achieve
      selective reduction of CO2 into CO, whereas a cobalt- and phosphate-based
      cocatalyst (CoPi) facilitated oxidation on the STO surface to promote oxygen
      generation. For the photocatalysis test, a wireless film was simply set into an
      aqueous solution bubbled with CO2 in a reactor, and CO production was observed in
      the headspace of the reactor under UV irradiation. Compared to the bare STO film,
      the dual cocatalyst-loaded STO film exhibited 2.5 times higher CO generation. H2
      production was very limited in our system, and the amount of molecules generated
      by the reduction reaction was almost twice that of the generated oxygen
      molecules, proving that water molecules acted as electron donors. Our artificial
      leaf consists of abundant and nontoxic natural elements and represents the first
      achievement of stoichiometric CO2 reduction using water as an electron donor by a
      free-standing natural leaflike plate form.

PMID- 28561567
TI  - Clathrin-Independent Killing of Intracellular Mycobacteria and Biofilm
      Disruptions Using Synthetic Antimicrobial Polymers.
AB  - Current membrane targeting antimicrobials fail to target mycobacteria due to
      their hydrophobic membrane structure, ability to form drug-resistant biofilms,
      and their natural intracellular habitat within the confines of macrophages. In
      this work, we describe engineering of synthetic antimicrobial polymers (SAMPs)
      derived from biocompatible polyamides that can target drug-sensitive and drug
      resistant mycobacteria with high selectivity. Structure-activity relationship
      studies revealed that reduced hydrophobicity of cationic pendants induces
      enhanced and selective permeabilization of mycobacterial membranes. The least
      hydrophobic SAMP (TAC1) was found to be the most active with maximum specificity
      toward mycobacteria over E. coli, S. aureus, and mammalian cells. Membrane
      perturbation studies, scanning electron microscopy, and colony PCR confirmed the
      ability of TAC1 to induce membrane lysis and to bind to the genomic material of
      mycobacteria, thereby inducing mycobacterial cell death. TAC1 was most effective
      in perfusing and disrupting the mycobacterial biofilms and was also able to kill
      the intracellular mycobacteria effectively without inducing any toxicity to
      mammalian cells. Cellular uptake studies revealed clathrin independent uptake of
      TAC1, thereby allowing it to escape hydrolytic lysosomal degradation and
      effectively kill the intracellular bacteria. Therefore, this manuscript presents
      the design and selective antimycobacterial nature of polyamide polymers with
      charged hydrophobic pendants that have ability to disrupt the biofilms and kill
      intracellular mycobacteria.

PMID- 28561568
TI  - Tunable Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles with INDT-Based Conjugated Polymers
      for Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging.
AB  - Photoacoustic imaging combines both excellent spatial resolution with high
      contrast and specificity, without the need for patients to be exposed to ionizing
      radiation. This makes it ideal for the study of physiological changes occurring
      during tumorigenesis and cardiovascular disease. In order to fully exploit the
      potential of this technique, new exogenous contrast agents with strong absorbance
      in the near-infrared range, good stability and biocompatibility, are required. In
      this paper, we report the formulation and characterization of a novel series of
      endogenous contrast agents for photoacoustic imaging in vivo. These contrast
      agents are based on a recently reported series of indigoid pi-conjugated organic
      semiconductors, coformulated with 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, to
      give semiconducting polymer nanoparticles of about 150 nm diameter. These
      nanoparticles exhibited excellent absorption in the near-infrared region, with
      good photoacoustic signal generation efficiencies, high photostability, and
      extinction coefficients of up to three times higher than those previously
      reported. The absorption maximum is conveniently located in the spectral region
      of low absorption of chromophores within human tissue. Using the most promising
      semiconducting polymer nanoparticle, we have demonstrated wavelength-dependent
      differential contrast between vasculature and the nanoparticles, which can be
      used to unambiguously discriminate the presence of the contrast agent in vivo.

PMID- 28561569
TI  - Probing the Effects of Ligand Field and Coordination Geometry on Magnetic
      Anisotropy of Pentacoordinate Cobalt(II) Single-Ion Magnets.
AB  - In this work, the effects of ligand field strength as well as the metal
      coordination geometry on magnetic anisotropy of pentacoordinated CoII complexes
      have been investigated using a combined experimental and theoretical approach.
      For that, a strategic design and synthesis of three pentacoordinate CoII
      complexes [Co(bbp)Cl2].(MeOH) (1), [Co(bbp)Br2].(MeOH) (2), and [Co(bbp)(NCS)2]
      (3) has been achieved by using the tridentate coordination environment of the
      ligand in conjunction with the accommodating terminal ligands (i.e., chloride,
      bromide, and thiocyanate). Detailed magnetic studies disclose the occurrence of
      slow magnetic relaxation behavior of CoII centers with an easy-plane magnetic
      anisotropy. A quantitative estimation of ZFS parameters has been successfully
      performed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Both the sign and
      magnitude of ZFS parameters are prophesied well by this DFT method. The
      theoretical results also reveal that the alpha -> beta (SOMO-SOMO) excitation
      contributes almost entirely to the total ZFS values for all complexes. It is
      worth noting that the excitation pertaining to the most positive contribution to
      the ZFS parameter is the dxy -> dx2-y2 excitation for complexes 1 and 2, whereas
      for complex 3 it is the dz2 -> dx2-y2 excitation.

PMID- 28561570
TI  - Correction to Multifunctional Enzymatically Generated Hydrogels for Chronic Wound
      Application.

PMID- 28561571
TI  - pH-Dependent Inversion of Hofmeister Trends in the Water Structure of the
      Electrical Double Layer.
AB  - Specific ion effects (SIEs) are known to influence the acid/base behavior of
      silica and the interfacial structure of water, yet evidence of the effect of pH
      on SIEs is lacking. Here broadband vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG)
      spectroscopy was used to study SIEs on the water structure at the electrical
      double layer (EDL) of silica as a function of pH and monovalent cation identity
      from pH 2-12 at 0.5 M salt concentration. SFG results indicate a direct
      Hofmeister series of cation adsorption at pH 8 (Li+ < Na+ < K+ < Cs+), with an
      inversion in this series occurring at pH > 10. In addition, an inversion in SFG
      intensity trends also occurred at pH < 6, which was attributed to contributions
      from asymmetric cation hydration and EDL overcharging. The highly pH-dependent
      SIEs for silica/water have implications for EDL models that often assume pH
      independent parameters.

PMID- 28561572
TI  - Access to Perfluoroalkyl-Substituted Enones and Indolin-2-ones via Multicomponent
      Pd-Catalyzed Carbonylative Reactions.
AB  - A simple method for accessing perfluoroalkyl-substituted enones is described
      applying a four-component palladium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling of aryl
      boronic acids together with terminal alkynes and perfluoroalkyl iodides in the
      presence of carbon monoxide. A wide range of highly functionalized enones can
      thus be prepared in a single operation in good yields. With 2-aminophenylalkynes,
      an intramolecular aminocarbonylation event overrules providing the indolin-2-one
      framework. Finally, adaptation of the two-chamber technology expands the method
      to the synthesis of the aforementioned structures with 13C-isotope labeling.

PMID- 28561573
TI  - Syntheses, Crystal Structures, and Nonlinear Optical Activity of
      Cs2Ba[AnO2(C2H5COO)3]4 (An = U, Np, Pu) and Unprecedented Octanuclear Complex
      Units in KR2(H2O)8[UO2(C2H5COO)3]5 (R = Sr, Ba).
AB  - X-ray diffraction was applied to the elucidation of crystal structures of single
      crystals of Cs2Ba[AnO2(C2H5COO)3]4, where An = U(I), Np(II), Pu(III), and
      KR2(H2O)8[UO2(C2H5COO)3]5, where R = Sr(IV), Ba (polymorphs V-a and V-b). FTIR
      spectra were analyzed for the uranium-containing crystals I, IV, and V-b.
      Isostructural cubic crystals I-III are constructed of typical mononuclear anionic
      complex units [AnO2(C2H5COO)3]- and charge-balancing Cs and Ba cations. Features
      of actinide contraction in the six U-Np-Pu isostructural series known to date are
      analyzed. In crystal structures of IV and V two typical complexes [UO2(C2H5COO)3]
      bind with a hydrated Sr or Ba cation to form the rare trinuclear neutral complex
      unit {R(H2O)4[UO2(C2H5COO)3]2}, where R = Sr, Ba. Two such trinuclear units and
      one typical mononuclear unit further bind with a K cation to form the
      unprecedented octanuclear neutral complex unit
      K[UO2(C2H5COO)3]{R(H2O)4[UO2(C2H5COO)3]2}2. As the derived polynuclear complexes
      of uranyl ion with carboxylate ligands in the crystal structures of IV and V are
      not the first but are rare examples, the equilibrium between mono and polynuclear
      complex units in aqueous solutions is discussed. The two polymorphic
      modifications V-a and V-b were studied at 100 K and at room temperature,
      respectively. Peculiarities of noncovalent interactions in crystal structures of
      the two polymorphs are revealed using Voronoi-Dirichlet tessellation. The
      nonlinear optical activity of noncentrosymmetric crystals I was estimated by its
      ability for second harmonic generation.

PMID- 28561574
TI  - Molecular Complexity and Retrosynthesis.
AB  - An atom-environment complexity measure, CA, to assess local changes in complexity
      during synthetic transformations is described. The complexity measure is based on
      applying Shannon's equation to the number and diversity of paths up to two bonds
      in length emanating from an atom node. The method requires no explicit accounting
      for bond type, stereochemistry, ring membership, symmetry, or molecular size. CA
      varies with expectation across a number of basic reaction examples and may
      identify the key disconnections to guide retrosynthesis.

PMID- 28561575
TI  - Employing OpenCL to Accelerate Ab Initio Calculations on Graphics Processing
      Units.
AB  - We present an extension of our graphics processing units (GPU)-accelerated
      quantum chemistry package to employ OpenCL compute kernels, which can be executed
      on a wide range of computing devices like CPUs, Intel Xeon Phi, and AMD GPUs.
      Here, we focus on the use of AMD GPUs and discuss differences as compared to CUDA
      based calculations on NVIDIA GPUs. First illustrative timings are presented for
      hybrid density functional theory calculations using serial as well as parallel
      compute environments. The results show that AMD GPUs are as fast or faster than
      comparable NVIDIA GPUs and provide a viable alternative for quantum chemical
      applications.

PMID- 28561577
TI  - Developments in the Reactivity of 2-Methylimidazolium Salts.
AB  - Unexpected and unusual reactivity of 2-methylimidazolium salts toward aryl-N
      sulfonylimines and aryl aldehydes is here reported. Upon reaction with aryl-N
      sulfonylimines, the addition product, arylethyl-2-imidazolium-1-tosylamide (3),
      is formed with moderate to good yields, while upon reaction with aldehydes, the
      initial addition product (6) observed in NMR and HPLC-MS experimental analysis is
      postulated by us as an intermediate to the final conversion to carboxylic acids.
      Studies in the presence and absence of molecular oxygen allow us to conclude that
      the imidazolium salts is crucial for the oxidation. A detailed mechanistic study
      was carried out to provide insights regarding this unexpected reactivity.

PMID- 28561579
TI  - Chemoselective Access to gamma-Ketoesters with Stereogenic Quaternary alpha
      Center or gamma-Keto Nitriles by Aerobic Reaction of alpha-Cyanoesters and
      Styrenes.
AB  - Chemoselective access to either gamma-ketoesters with a quaternary all-carbon
      alpha-stereogenic center or gamma-keto nitriles is described by copper-catalyzed
      aerobic reaction of styrenes with alpha-cyanoesters. Formal oxo-enolation or oxo
      cyanomethylation of styrenes is achieved via a sequence of addition of enolate
      (or cyanomethyl) radical to olefin and oxidation of the resulting radical adduct.
      This method starts from abundant and cheap feedstock under aerobic conditions,
      without any prefunctionalization or the production of stoichiometric metal salts
      waste, making it very attractive for practical use.

PMID- 28561578
TI  - Controllable Structures Designed with Multiple-Dielectric Responses in Hybrid
      Perovskite-Type Molecular Crystals.
AB  - In this report, two new hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite-type compounds,
      (IBA)CdBr3 (1; IBA = isobutylammonium cation, i-C4H9-NH3) and (IBA)2CdBr4 (2),
      have been successfully synthesized by reasonable modulation of the ratio of the
      reactants. 1 with a one-dimensional (1D) chained structure presents sequential
      solid-state phase transitions, and 2 with a two-dimensional (2D) layered
      structure undergoes triple structural phase transitions. The phase transitions
      are attributable to the stepwise ordering process of the organic IBA cation of
      the title compounds, which also exhibit temperature-dependent dielectric
      transitions and dielectric anisotropies. Among the different structural
      environments, the dynamic motions of organic cations show distinct differences,
      driving the variation of physical properties.

PMID- 28561581
TI  - Odd [n]Cumulenes (n = 3, 5, 7, 9): Synthesis, Characterization, and Reactivity.
AB  - In comparison to the omnipresent two- and three-dimensional allotropes of carbon,
      namely, graphite and diamond (as well as recent entries graphene, carbon
      nanotubes, and fullerenes), a detailed understanding of the one-dimensional
      carbon allotrope carbyne is not well established, and even the existence of
      carbyne has been a matter of controversy over the past decades. Composed of sp
      hybridized carbon, carbyne could potentially exist in two forms, either as a
      polyyne (alternating single and triple bonds, expected to show a semiconducting
      behavior) or as a cumulene (all carbon atoms are connected via double bonds,
      predicted to show metallic behavior). Although a number of publications are
      available on the hypothetical structure and properties of carbyne, specific
      knowledge about its physical and spectroscopic characteristics is still unclear.
      In order to predict the properties of carbyne, the synthesis and study of model
      compounds, namely, polyynes and cumulenes, has been a promising avenue. The
      synthesis of polyynes has been extensively explored in the last decades,
      culminating with the isolation of a polyyne with 22 acetylene units, which allows
      extrapolation to the properties of carbyne. Extended cumulenes, on the other
      hand, have remained much less well-known, and specific studies of properties
      versus molecular length are quite limited. A limiting factor to the study of
      [n]cumulenes has been their dramatically increased reactivity, especially in
      comparison to polyynes of comparable length. For example, most known [7]cumulenes
      can only be handled in solution, while the polyynes of equivalent length (i.e., a
      triyne with three acetylene units) are quite stable. [9]Cumulenes are the longest
      derivatives studied to date. In this Account, we describe our efforts to design
      and synthesize odd [n]cumulenes (i.e., n = 3, 5, 7, 9) that are sufficiently
      persistent under ambient conditions to allow in depth characterization of
      physical and spectral properties. This goal has been achieved through
      modification of the end-capping groups by increasing the steric bulk and thereby
      shielding the reactive cumulene framework to provide stable [7]- and
      [9]cumulenes. An alternative route to stabilization is accomplished via
      encapsulation of the cumulene skeleton in a macrocycle, that is, formation of
      cumulene rotaxanes. The new sterically encumbered cumulenic products are
      reasonably stable under normal laboratory conditions, although some readily
      undergo cycloaddition reactions to give interesting products. We have explored
      preliminary trends for the reactivity of long [n]cumulenes. Finally, trends in
      the series of [n]cumulene model compounds are now discernible, including a
      thorough consideration of bond length alternation (BLA) in long [n]cumulenes
      using X-ray crystallographic analyses, as well as electronic properties via UV
      vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry.

PMID- 28561580
TI  - Free-Energy Calculations of Ionic Hydration Consistent with the Experimental
      Hydration Free Energy of the Proton.
AB  - Computational free-energy correction strategies and the choice of experimental
      proton hydration free energy, DeltaGs*(H+), are analyzed to investigate the
      apparent controversy in experimental thermodynamics of ionic hydration. Without
      corrections, the hydration free-energy (DeltaGhyd) calculations match experiments
      with DeltaGs*(H+) = -1064 kJ/mol as reference. Using the Galvani surface
      potential the resulting (real) DeltaGhyd are consistent with DeltaGs*(H+) = -1098
      kJ/mol. When applying, in an ad hoc manner, the discrete solvent correction,
      DeltaGhyd matching the "consensus" DeltaGs*(H+) of -1112 kJ/mol are obtained.
      This analysis rationalizes reports on DeltaGhyd calculations for ions using
      different experimental references. For neutral amino acid side chains DeltaGhyd
      are independent of the water model, whereas there are large differences in
      DeltaGhyd due to the water model for charged species, suggesting that long-range
      ordering of water around ions yields an important contribution to the DeltaGhyd.
      These differences are reduced significantly when applying consistent corrections,
      but to obtain the most accurate results it is recommended to use the water model
      belonging to the force field.

PMID- 28561582
TI  - Interplay Of Stereochemistry, Conformational Rigidity, And Ease Of Synthesis For
      13-Membered Cyclic Peptidomimetics Containing APC Residues.
AB  - As part of a program to design small molecules that bind proteins, we require
      cyclic peptides (or peptidomimetics) that are severely constrained such that they
      adopt one predominant conformation in solution. This paper describes syntheses of
      the 13-membered cyclic tetrapeptides 1 containing aminopyrrolidine carboxyl (APC)
      residues. A linear precursor was prepared and used to determine optimal
      conditions for cyclization of that substrate. A special linker was prepared to
      enable cyclization of similar linear peptidomimetics on a solid phase, and the
      solution-phase cyclization conditions were shown to be appropriate for this too.
      Stereochemical variations were then used to determine the ideal APC configuration
      for cyclization of the linear precursors (on a solid phase, using the conditions
      identified previously). Consequently, a series of compounds were prepared that
      are representative of compounds 1. Conformational studies of representative
      compounds in DMSO solution were performed primarily using (i) NOE studies, (ii)
      quenched molecular dynamics simulations using no constraints from experiment, and
      (iii) MacroModel calculations with NMR constraints. All three strategies
      converged to the same conclusion: the backbone of molecules based on 1 tends to
      adopt one preferential conformation in solution and that conformation can be
      predicted from the stereochemistries of the alpha-amino acids involved.

PMID- 28561583
TI  - Preparation of a Novel Intumescent Flame Retardant Based on Supramolecular
      Interactions and Its Application in Polyamide 11.
AB  - The flammability and melt dripping of the widely used bio-based polyamide 11 (PA
      11) have attracted much attention in the last decade, and they are still a big
      challenge for the fire science society. In this work, a novel single
      macromolecular intumescent flame retardant (AM-APP) that contains an acid source
      and a gas source was prepared by supramolecular reactions between melamine and p
      aminobenzene sulfonic acid, followed by an ionic exchange with ammonium
      polyphosphate. The chemical structure of AM-APP was characterized by Fourier
      transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and
      scanning electron microscopy. AM-APP and TiO2 were then introduced into PA 11 by
      melt compounding to improve the fire resistance of the composite. The fire
      performance of PA 11 composites was evaluated by the limiting oxygen index (LOI),
      vertical burning (UL-94), and cone calorimetry tests. The results showed that the
      presence of 22% AM-APP and 3% TiO2 increased the LOI value from 22.2 to 29.2%,
      upgraded the UL-94 rating from no rating to V-0, completely eliminated melt
      dripping, and significantly decreased the peak heat release rate from 943.4 to
      177.5 kW/m2. The thermal behaviors were investigated by thermogravimetric (TG)
      analysis and TG-FTIR. It is suggested that AM-APP produces an intumescent char
      structure and releases inert gases, whereas TiO2 may consolidate the char layers,
      leading to the improvement in the fire resistance of PA 11.

PMID- 28561584
TI  - In Situ Detection and Imaging of Telomerase Activity in Cancer Cell Lines via
      Disassembly of Plasmonic Core-Satellites Nanostructured Probe.
AB  - The label-free localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) detection technique has
      been identified as a powerful means for in situ investigation of biological
      processes and localized chemical reactions at single particle level with high
      spatial and temporal resolution. Herein, a core-satellites assembled
      nanostructure of Au50@Au13 was designed for in situ detection and intracellular
      imaging of telomerase activity by combining plasmonic resonance Rayleigh
      scattering spectroscopy with dark-field microscope (DFM). The Au50@Au13 was
      fabricated by using 50 nm gold nanoparticles (Au50) as core and 13 nm gold
      nanoparticles (Au13) as satellites, both of them were functionalized with single
      chain DNA and gathered proximity through the highly specific DNA hybridization
      with a nicked hairpin DNA (O1) containing a telomerase substrate (TS) primer as
      linker. In the presence of telomerase, the telomeric repeated sequence of
      (TTAGGG)n extended at the 3'-end of O1 would hybridized with its complementary
      sequences at 5'-ends. This led the telomerase extension product of O1 be folded
      to form a rigid hairpin structure. As a result, the Au50@Au13 was disassembled
      with the releasing of O1 and Au13-S from Au50-L, which dramatically decreased the
      plasmon coupling effect. The remarkable LSPR spectral shift was observed
      accompanied by a detectable color change from orange to green with the increase
      of telomerase activity at single particle level with a detection limit of 1.3 *
      10-13 IU. The ability of Au50@Au13 for in situ imaging intracellular telomerase
      activity, distinguishing cancer cells from normal cells, in situ monitoring the
      variation of cellular telomerase activity after treated with drugs were also
      demonstrated.

PMID- 28561585
TI  - Switchable Diastereoselectivity in the Fluoride-Promoted Vinylogous Mukaiyama
      Michael Reaction of 2-[(Trimethylsilyl)oxy]furan Catalyzed by Crown Ethers.
AB  - The fluoride-promoted vinylogous Mukaiyama-Michael reaction of 2
      [(trimethylsilyl)oxy]furan with diverse alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones is
      described. The TBAF-catalyzed VMMR afforded high anti-diastereoselectivity
      irrespective of the solvents used. The KF/crown ethers catalytic systems proved
      to be highly efficient in terms of yields and resulted in a highly
      diastereoselective unprecedented solvent/catalyst switchable reaction. Anti
      adducts were obtained as single diastereomers or with excellent
      diastereoselectivities when benzo-15-crown-5 in CH2Cl2 was employed. On the other
      hand, high syn-diastereoselectivities (from 73:27 to 96:4) were achieved by
      employing dicyclohexane-18-crown-6 in toluene. On the basis of DFT calculations,
      the catalysts/solvent-dependent switchable diastereoselectivities are proposed to
      be the result of loose or tight cation-dienolate ion pairs.

PMID- 28561586
TI  - Anti-inflammatory 12,20-Epoxypregnane and 11,12-seco-Pregnane Glycosides from the
      Stems of Hoya kerrii.
AB  - Five 12,20-epoxypregnane glycosides (1-3, 5, and 6) and two 11,12-seco-pregnane
      glycosides (4 and 7) with spirodilactone motifs, as well as spirodilactone
      cleavage products 8 and 9, were isolated from the stems of Hoya kerrii. The
      relative configurations of the three related skeletons were supported by ROESY
      experiments and X-ray crystallographic analyses. The isolates were evaluated for
      their anti-inflammatory activity based on the inhibition of NO production in
      RAW264.7 cells, and some showed IC50 values ranging from 12.6 to 96.5 MUM. The
      most potent compound, 9a, was also examined for its anti-inflammatory mechanism
      against mRNA expression and was found to down-regulate mRNA expression of iNOS
      and COX-2 in a dose-dependent manner.

PMID- 28561587
TI  - Protective Effects of Functional Chicken Liver Hydrolysates against Liver
      Fibrogenesis: Antioxidation, Anti-inflammation, and Antifibrosis.
AB  - Via an assay using an Amino Acid Analyzer, pepsin-digested chicken liver
      hydrolysates (CLHs) contain taurine (365.57 +/- 39.04 mg/100 g), carnosine (14.03
      +/- 1.98 mg/100 g), and anserine (151.58 +/- 27.82 mg/100 g). This study aimed to
      evaluate whether CLHs could alleviate thioacetamide (TAA)-induced fibrosis. A
      dose of 100 mg TAA/kg BW significantly increased serum liver damage indices and
      liver cytokine contents. Cell infiltration and monocytes/macrophages in livers of
      TAA-treated rats were illustrated by the H&E staining and immunohistochemical
      analysis of cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68, ED1), respectively. A
      significantly increased hepatic collagen accumulation was also observed and
      quantified under TAA treatment. A significant up-regulation of transforming
      growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and SMAD family member 4 (SMAD4) caused by TAA
      treatment further enhanced alpha smooth muscle actin (alphaSMA) gene and protein
      expressions. The liver antioxidant effects under TAA treatment were significantly
      amended by 200 and 600 mg CLHs/kg BW. Hence, the ameliorative effects of CLHs on
      liver fibrogenesis could be attributed by antioxidation and anti-inflmmation.

PMID- 28561589
TI  - Desymmetrization of meso-1,2-Diols by a Chiral N,N-4-Dimethylaminopyridine
      Derivative Containing a 1,1'-Binaphthyl Unit: Importance of the Hydroxy Groups.
AB  - We developed an acylative desymmetrization of meso-1,2-diols using a binaphthyl
      based N,N-4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) derivative 1h with tert-alcohol
      substituents. The reaction proceeds with a wide range of acyclic meso-1,2-diols
      and six-membered-ring meso-1,2-diols to provide a monoacylate selectively with a
      high enantiomeric ratio (er). Only 0.1 mol % of the catalyst facilitated the
      reaction within a short reaction time (3 h) to afford enantio-enriched
      monoacylated products in moderate to good yield. Several control experiments
      revealed that the tert-alcohol units of catalyst 1h play a significant role in
      achieving high catalytic activity, chemoselectivity of monoacylation, and
      enantioselectivity.

PMID- 28561590
TI  - Dynamics of Microscale Liquid Propagation in Micropillar Arrays.
AB  - Understanding the dynamics of microscale liquid propagation in micropillar arrays
      can lead to significant enhancement in macroscopic propagation modeling. Such a
      phenomenon is fairly complicated, and a fundamental understanding is lacking. The
      aim here is to estimate three main parameters in liquid propagation, capillary
      pressure, average liquid height, and contact angle on the pillar side, through
      modeling and experimental validation. We show that the capillary pressure is not
      constant during liquid propagation, and the average capillary pressure is
      evaluated using its maximum and minimum values. The average liquid height
      influences the permeability of such a structure, which is challenging to
      determine as a result of the complicated three-dimensional (3D) meniscus shape. A
      simple physical model is provided in this paper to predict the average liquid
      height with less than 7% error. The contact angle on the micropillar side, which
      has considerable impact on the capillary pressure and the average liquid height,
      has been debated for a long time. We propose a model to predict this contact
      angle and validate it against experimental values in the literature. Our findings
      also indicate that the microscopic motion of the liquid front is significantly
      affected by the ratio of the pillar height to edge-to-edge spacing, and a
      correlation is provided for quantification. The proposed models are able to
      predict the droplet spreading dynamics and estimate spreading distance and time
      reasonably.

PMID- 28561588
TI  - Protein Domain Mimics as Modulators of Protein-Protein Interactions.
AB  - Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are ubiquitous in biological systems and
      often misregulated in disease. As such, specific PPI modulators are desirable to
      unravel complex PPI pathways and expand the number of druggable targets available
      for therapeutic intervention. However, the large size and relative flatness of
      PPI interfaces make them challenging molecular targets. This Account describes
      our systematic approach using secondary and tertiary protein domain mimics (PDMs)
      to specifically modulate PPIs. Our strategy focuses on mimicry of regular
      secondary and tertiary structure elements from one of the PPI partners to inspire
      rational PDM design. We have compiled three databases (HIPPDB, SIPPDB, and
      DIPPDB) of secondary and tertiary structures at PPI interfaces to guide our
      designs and better understand the energetics of PPI secondary and tertiary
      structures. Our efforts have focused on three of the most common secondary and
      tertiary structures: alpha-helices, beta-strands, and helix dimers (e.g., coiled
      coils). To mimic alpha-helices, we designed the hydrogen bond surrogate (HBS) as
      an isosteric PDM and the oligooxopiperazine helix mimetic (OHM) as a
      topographical PDM. The nucleus of the HBS approach is a peptide macrocycle in
      which the N-terminal i, i + 4 main-chain hydrogen bond is replaced with a
      covalent carbon-carbon bond. In mimicking a main-chain hydrogen bond, the HBS
      approach stabilizes the alpha-helical conformation while leaving all helical
      faces available for functionalization to tune binding affinity and specificity.
      The OHM approach, in contrast, envisions a tetrapeptide to mimic one face of a
      two-turn helix. We anticipated that placement of ethylene bridges between
      adjacent amides constrains the tetrapeptide backbone to mimic the i, i + 4, and i
      + 7 side chains on one face of an alpha-helix. For beta-strands, we developed
      triazolamers, a topographical PDM where the peptide bonds are replaced by
      triazoles. The triazoles simultaneously stabilize the extended, zigzag
      conformation of beta-strands and transform an otherwise ideal protease substrate
      into a stable molecule by replacement of the peptide bonds. We turned to a salt
      bridge surrogate (SBS) approach as a means for stabilizing very short helix
      dimers. As with the HBS approach, the SBS strategy replaces a noncovalent
      interaction with a covalent bond. Specifically, we used a bis-triazole linkage
      that mimics a salt bridge interaction to drive helix association and folding.
      Using this approach, we were able to stabilize helix dimers that are less than
      half of the length required to form a coiled coil from two independent strands.
      In addition to demonstrating the stabilization of desired structures, we have
      also shown that our designed PDMs specifically modulate target PPIs in vitro and
      in vivo. Examples of PPIs successfully targeted include HIF1alpha/p300, p53/MDM2,
      Bcl-xL/Bak, Ras/Sos, and HIV gp41. The PPI databases and designed PDMs created in
      these studies will aid development of a versatile set of molecules to probe
      complex PPI functions and, potentially, PPI-based therapeutics.

PMID- 28561591
TI  - Development of Selective Clk1 and -4 Inhibitors for Cellular Depletion of Cancer
      Relevant Proteins.
AB  - In cancer cells, kinases of the Clk family control the supply of full-length,
      functional mRNAs coding for a variety of proteins essential to cell growth and
      survival. Thus, inhibition of Clks might become a novel anticancer strategy,
      leading to a selective depletion of cancer-relevant proteins after turnover. On
      the basis of a Weinreb amide hit compound, we designed and synthesized a diverse
      set of methoxybenzothiophene-2-carboxamides, of which the N-benzylated derivative
      showed enhanced Clk1 inhibitory activity. Introduction of a m-fluorine in the
      benzyl moiety eventually led to the discovery of compound 21b, a potent inhibitor
      of Clk1 and -4 (IC50 = 7 and 2.3 nM, respectively), exhibiting an unprecedented
      selectivity over Dyrk1A. 21b triggered the depletion of EGFR, HDAC1, and p70S6
      kinase from the cancer cells, with potencies in line with the measured GI50
      values. In contrast, the cellular effects of congener 21a, which inhibited Clk1
      only weakly, were substantially lower.

PMID- 28561592
TI  - Pressure Dependence of the Boson Peak of Glassy Glycerol.
AB  - The pressure dependence of the boson peak (BP) of glycerol, including its
      behavior across the liquid-glass transition, has been studied using Raman
      scattering. A significant increase of the BP frequency was observed with pressure
      up to 11 GPa at room temperature. The pressure dependence of BP frequency nuBP is
      proportional to (1+P/P0)1/3, where P and P0 are the pressure and a constant,
      respectively, consistent with a soft potential model. The characteristic length
      of medium range order is close in size to a cyclic trimer of glycerol molecules,
      as predicted by the medium range order of a BP excitation using molecular
      dynamics simulations, and the pressure dependence of a characteristic medium
      range order is nearly constant. The pressure induced structural changes in
      glycerol can be understood in terms of the shrinkage of voids with cyclic trimers
      persisting to at least 11 GPa. Pressure dependence of the intermolecular O-H
      stretching mode indicates that the intermolecular hydrogen bond distances
      gradually decrease up to the glass transition pressure of ~5 GPa and become
      nearly constant in the glassy state, indicating the disappearance of free volume
      in the dense glass.

PMID- 28561593
TI  - Ionothermal Design of Crystalline Halogeno(cyano)cuprate Family: Structure
      Diversity, Solid-State Luminescence, and Photocatalytic Performance.
AB  - A general preparative method for multifunctional halogeno(cyano)cuprate materials
      in ionic liquids is developed in this work. Under ionothermal conditions,
      alkylimidazolium-based ionic liquids serving as solvent, charge-compensating, and
      structure-directing agent, as well as reactant lead to 12 members of the novel
      hybrid halogeno(cyano)cuprate family with a general formula of [R1R2R3IM]b+c
      a[CuaXb(CN)c] (R1R2R3IM = alkylimidazolium cations, X = halide anions). X-ray
      single-crystal diffractions show that diverse inorganic halogeno(cyano)cuprate
      components vary from discrete complexes (1 and 2), one-dimensional (1D) chains (3
      7), two-dimensional (2D) layer (8), to three-dimensional (3D) open frameworks (9
      12). 1 and 2 are of zero-dimensional discrete structures containing triangular
      [CuX3]2- anions. In complexes 3-7, pentagonal bipyramidal [Cu2X3] units are
      bridged by CN groups to give 1D [Cu2X3(CN)]2- inorganic chains, which are charge
      balanced by the surrounded alkylimidazolium cations. 2D inorganic [Cu5ClI2(CN)4]2
      layer in complex 8 is alternately packed with [VMIM]+ organic cations. In
      complex 9, left- and right-handed Cu-CN helical chains connect each other to give
      a 3D open framework, which are further entrapped by 1D zigzag Cu-CN chains and
      [PMIM]+ cations. Diverse unique Cu(I) atoms and cyanide or halide bridging groups
      in 10, 11, and 12 are extended into 3D anionic open frameworks with 1D channels,
      which are occupied by alkylimidazolium cations. For all hybrid
      halogeno(cyano)cuprate complexes, the extensively existing C-H...X or C-H...pi
      hydrogen bonds help to stabilize the ultimate supramolecular packing structures.
      Notably, the distances between adjacent Cu(I) centers range from 2.420(2) to
      2.989(2) A in all polymeric frameworks, which indicate strong Cu...Cu
      interactions. Thanks to the cooperation of conjugate pi electron cyanide systems
      with halide ions and/or Cu...Cu interactions, compounds 1-12 all demonstrate
      strong solid-state photoluminescence and semiconducting performance. Specially,
      hybrid halogeno(cyano)cuprates reported herein first exhibit excellent
      photocatalytic degradation of organic dye. To the best of our knowledge, fewer
      than 10 crystalline halogeno(cyano)cuprate compounds were obtained before this
      work, although different synthetic routes have been involved. Clearly, the
      discovery of this large hybrid material family under ionothermal conditions is
      important for the further development of novel functional halogeno(cyano) filled
      shell d10 metal crystalline materials.

PMID- 28561594
TI  - Reversible Shape Transformation of Ultrathin Polydopamine-Stabilized Droplet.
AB  - Here we report on the flattening of water droplets using an ultrathin membrane of
      autopolymerized polydopamine at the air/water interface. This has only been
      previously reported with the use of synthetic or extracted peptides, two
      dimensional designed synthetic peptide thin films with thicknesses of several
      tens of nanometers. However, in the previous study, the shape of the water
      droplet was changed irreversibly and the phenomenon was observed only at the
      air/water interface. In the present study, an ultrathin polydopamine membrane
      stabilized droplet induced the flattening of a water droplet at the air/liquid
      and liquid/liquid interfaces because a polydopamine membrane was spontaneously
      formed at these interfaces. Furthermore, a reversible transformation of the
      droplet to flat and dome shape droplets were discovered at the liquid/liquid
      interface. These are a completely new system because the polydopamine membrane is
      dynamically synthesized at the interface and the formation speed of the
      polydopamine membrane overcomes the flattening time scale. These results will
      provide new insight into physical control of the interfacial shapes of droplets.

PMID- 28561595
TI  - Beyond-Cassie Mode of Wetting and Local Contact Angles of Droplets on Checkboard
      Patterned Surfaces.
AB  - Droplet wetting and distortion on flat surfaces with heterogeneous wettability
      are studied using the 3D Shan-Chen pseudopotential multiphase lattice Boltzmann
      model (LBM). The contact angles are compared with the Cassie mode, which predicts
      an apparent contact angle for flat surfaces with different wetting properties,
      where the droplet size is large compared to the size of the heterogeneity. In
      this study, the surface studied consists in a regular checkboard pattern with two
      different Young's contact angles (hydrophilic and hydrophobic) and equal surface
      fraction. The droplet size and patch size of the checkboard are varied beyond the
      limit where Cassie's equation is valid. A critical ratio of patch size to droplet
      radius is found below which the apparent contact angle follows the Cassie mode.
      Above the critical value, the droplet shape changes from a spherical cap to a
      more distorted form, and no single contact angle can be determined. The local
      contact angles are found to vary along the contact line between minimum and
      maximum values. The droplet is found to wet preferentially the hydrophilic
      region, and the wetted area fraction of the hydrophilic region increases quasi
      linearly with the ratio between patch and droplet sizes. We propose a new
      equation beyond the critical ratio, defining an equivalent contact angle, where
      the wetted area fractions are used as weighting coefficients for the maximum and
      minimum local contact angles. This equivalent contact angle is found to equal
      Cassie's contact angle.

PMID- 28561597
TI  - MIS techniques in orthopedics.

PMID- 28561596
TI  - Higher exercise intensity delays postexercise recovery of impedance-derived
      cardiac sympathetic activity.
AB  - Systolic time intervals (STIs) provide noninvasive insights into cardiac
      sympathetic neural activity (cSNA). As the effect of exercise intensity on
      postexercise STI recovery is unclear, this study investigated the STI recovery
      profile after different exercise intensities. Eleven healthy males cycled for 8
      min at 3 separate intensities: LOW (40%-45%), MOD (75%-80%), and HIGH (90%-95%)
      of heart-rate (HR) reserve. Bio-impedance cardiography was used to assess STIs -
      primarily pre-ejection period (PEP; inversely correlated with cSNA), as well as
      left ventricular ejection time (LVET) and PEP:LVET - during 10 min seated
      recovery immediately postexercise. Heart-rate variability (HRV), i.e., natural
      logarithm of root mean square of successive differences (Ln-RMSSD), was
      calculated as an index of cardiac parasympathetic neural activity (cPNA). Higher
      preceding exercise intensity elicited a slower recovery of HR and Ln-RMSSD (p <
      0.001), and these measures did not return to baseline by 10 min following any
      intensity (p <= 0.009). Recovery of STIs was also slower following higher
      intensity exercise (p <= 0.002). By 30 s postexercise, higher preceding intensity
      resulted in a lower PEP (98 +/- 14 ms, 75 +/- 6 ms, 66 +/- 5 ms for LOW, MOD, and
      HIGH, respectively, p < 0.001). PEP recovered to baseline (143 +/- 11 ms) by 5
      min following LOW (139 +/- 13 ms, p = 0.590) and by 10 min following MOD (145 +/-
      17 ms, p = 0.602), but was still suppressed at 10 min following HIGH (123 +/- 21
      ms, p = 0.012). Higher preceding exercise intensity attenuated the recovery of
      indices for cSNA (from STIs) and cPNA (from HRV) in a graded dose-response
      fashion. While exercise intensity must be considered, acute recovery may be a
      valuable period during which to concurrently monitor these noninvasive indices,
      to identify potentially abnormal cardiac autonomic responses.

PMID- 28561598
TI  - Minimally invasive spine surgery. A surgical manual. Second edition.

PMID- 28561599
TI  - Intraoperative Temperature Management.

PMID- 28561600
TI  - Current Pneumonia Surveillance Methodology: Similar Underestimation in Trauma and
      Surgical Patients in the Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
      developed new surveillance definitions for ventilator-associated events (VAE),
      leading to concerns that hospitals may be underreporting the true incidence of
      ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAPs). We sought to compare rates of clinically
      diagnosed VAP with CDC defined possible VAPs (PVAPs) in patients with a VAE in
      the surgical/trauma intensive care unit (STICU). HYPOTHESIS: Significant
      difference exists between rates of clinical VAP and PVAP in patients with at
      least one VAE. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All STICU patients with >=1 VAE, between
      1/1/2013 and 10/31/2015 were identified. Age, length of stay (LOS), ICU and
      ventilator days were collected. RESULTS: There were 134 patients who had >=1 VAE.
      Mean age was 54.3 (+/-17.1) years. Mean LOS, median ICU, and median ventilator
      days were 26.3 (+/-14.1), 21.0 (17.0-33.0), and 17.0 (12.8-24.0) days,
      respectively. There were 68 cases of clinically diagnosed VAP, but only 37% met
      PVAP criteria. We compared 43 cases of clinical VAP, not meeting PVAP criteria,
      with the 25 PVAPs. Both groups had similar outcomes. The PVAPs were more likely
      to have an abnormal temperature (48.0% vs. 14.0%, p = 0.004), abnormal white
      blood cell count (84.0% vs. 18.6%, p < 0.001), or new antibiotic agent initiated
      (100% vs. 18.6%, p < 0.001) as VAE triggers. Comparison of the 93 trauma and 41
      surgical patients demonstrated trauma patients were younger (51.2 vs. 61.5 y, p =
      0.001), but had similar outcomes and rates of clinical VAP (48.4% and 43.9%, p =
      NS). Only 20.4% of trauma and 14.6% of surgical patients, however, had a PVAP
      reported. For patients with at least one VAE, the sensitivity and specificity for
      PVAP detecting VAP was 36.8% and 96.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The new CDC
      definition for PVAP grossly underestimates the clinical diagnosis of VAP and
      reports less than a third of the patients treated for VAP. Reporting differences
      were similar for trauma and surgical patients.

PMID- 28561601
TI  - Physical principles of ultrasonic dissection and clinical application of
      BERCHTOLD SONO-CUT reusable ultrasonic scissors.
AB  - Technical principles and physical action mechanisms of ultrasonic dissection are
      introduced. We list various indications for using the BERCHTOLD SONO-CUT scissors
      and describe early clinical experiences, e.g. in pediatric laparoscopic surgery.

PMID- 28561602
TI  - The endoluminal management of duodenal lesions.
AB  - Benign duodenal lesions such as adenomas and webs have traditionally been
      approached endoscopically. Unfortunately, endoscopic polypectomies are limited by
      the size and villous nature of the lesions as well as their locations within the
      lumen. Duodenal web resections may be restricted by the size of the opening
      leading to inadequate lumen size and recurrence. When these procedures fail,
      conventional open or laparoscopic surgery with its attendant morbidity is often
      necessary. Recent advances in camera optics and mini-Iaparoscopic instrumentation
      have expanded the laparoscopic options available to treat mucosal and submucosal
      lesions of the upper GI tract. Laparoscopic endoluminal surgery has evolved into
      a viable option for the treatment of many intragastric lesions. We have
      successfully extrapolated this concept to the treatment of proximal duodenal
      lesions. Successful resection of a duodenal web and a large tubulovillous adenoma
      are presented. Laparoendoscopic intraluminal management of benign duodenal
      lesions is safe, feasible, and effective.

PMID- 28561603
TI  - Technology and application of the reusable Olympus Ultrasonic Dissector.
AB  - With US scalpels a new era of laparoscopic surgery has begun. We have given
      instances of the striking advantages of modern ultrasonic dissectors in general,
      and of the SonoSurg system in particular. Key aspects are reusability, modularity
      and multi-functionality. Modularity allows for extension of the basic scalpel
      e.g. to an aspirator, reusability results in cost effectiveness. Nevertheless,
      ultrasonically activated devices are not limited to the well-known scalpels and
      aspirators. New technologies such as the SonoSurg ultrasound trocar and
      combination instruments are currently under development.

PMID- 28561604
TI  - Aggressive endoscopic mucosal resection in the upper GI tract - Hook knife EMR
      method.
AB  - We have developed a new EMR method, the 'Hook knife' method, for the en-bloc
      resection of larger lesions. First, we placed marks around the lesion with a
      coagulation tip. Next, 10% glycerol diluted epinephrine solution was injected
      into the submucosal layer to separate the mucosa from the muscular layer proper.
      Then, we cut the mucosa around the lesion with a needle knife. Finally, we cut
      the submucosal fibers and vessels using a hook-type knife and resected the
      lesions. A large en-bloc resection, >=70 mm in size, was possible with this new
      EMR method. Because of this, the histological examination for both the range of
      lateral spreading and the depth of invasion can be made more precisely.
      Aggressive endoscopic mucosal resection is established by this new EMR method.

PMID- 28561605
TI  - Technology and clinical application of ultrasonic dissection.
AB  - The implementation of UltraCision (The Harmonic Scalpel) can be seen as a
      milestone in the development of surgery. Ultrasound is now used for tissue
      cutting and/or simultaneous vessel sealing and transection. No electric current
      passes through the patient. Thus the typical complications associated with
      electrocautery can be avoided. This technology was primarily developed for
      videoscopic surgery and then successfully transferred to all branches of open
      surgery. The clean and blood-saving dissection technology and the ability to
      dissect very close to sensitive structures in oncological surgery are highly
      beneficial for patients. The development of new blades and multifunctional shears
      has further enhanced both practicability and ergonomics. UltraCision can now be
      used for the complete surgical spectrum, both in open and in laparoscopic
      surgery.

PMID- 28561606
TI  - Endoluminal intragastric treatment of gastric carcinoma.
AB  - Early gastric cancer accounts for more than 50% of resected gastric cancer cases
      in Japan. Because of the increased incidence of early gastric cancer, endoluminal
      minimally invasive intragastric treatments have been developed. The rate of lymph
      node metastasis is very low in early gastric cancer, especially in mucosal
      cancer. There are two popular strategies in Japan for the management of patients
      with mucosal cancer: endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and intragastric mucosal
      resection (IGMR). EMR is more popular: from 1993 to 1997, over 35,000 cases of
      early gastric cancer have been treated by EMR in Japan. IGMR was developed in
      1993, and 256 cases of early gastric cancer, which were not appropriate for EMR
      because of size and location, have been treated successfully by IGMR. These data
      suggest that in Japan 20%-30% of patients with early gastric cancer are treated
      by endoluminal intragastric procedures. In this paper we review the indications
      for, techniques pertaining to, and outcomes of EMR and IGMR in Japan.

PMID- 28561607
TI  - Dissection technologies.

PMID- 28561609
TI  - MITAT - Current state and future perspectives.

PMID- 28561608
TI  - Endoluminal resection of gastric intestinal stromal tumors (GIST).
AB  - Endoluminal surgery, the combination of flexible endoscopy and percutaneous
      transgastric laparoscopy, has expanded the role of minimally invasive surgery in
      treating foregut diseases. This imaginative technique blends the skills of
      endoscopist and laparoscopist. The stomach is well-suited for this technique as
      it is an expandable, large volume organ readily accessible to a flexible
      endoscope, and the relative ease of placing endoscopically or laparoscopically
      guided percutaneous, transgastric ports provides access for laparoscopic
      instrumentation. The resection of gastric stromal tumors provides one of the few
      opportunities to integrate flexible endoscopy and laparoscopy. Proper training in
      the appropriate indications to utilize endoluminal techniques and familiarity
      with the multiple modifications from the original intragastric techniques
      described nearly a decade ago will allow surgeons to approach small,
      predominately endoluminal gastric stromal tumors with low malignant potential
      located in the cardia, along the posterior gastric wall, near the
      gastroesophageal junction or proximal to the pylorus.

PMID- 28561610
TI  - The Stretta procedure for the treatment of gastro esophageal reflux disease
      (GERD).
AB  - Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common disorders of the
      gastrointestinal tract. Laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery has been shown to be
      safe and effective for the treatment of GERD with excellent symptom control.
      However, an approach to the treatment of GERD that has less morbidity than
      surgery and obviates the need for drugs is desirable. The endoscopic delivery of
      temperaturecontrolled radiofrequency energy (RF) to the gastroesophageal junction
      (GE), termed Stretta (Curon Medical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA), has recently been shown
      to be safe, well tolerated, and highly effective in patients with GERD. We review
      the basic principles, technique, potential mechanisms of action, and
      effectiveness of the Stretta procedure.

PMID- 28561611
TI  - Saline enhanced thermal sealing of tissue: Potential for bloodless surgery.
AB  - A new technology has been introduced that combines radiofrequency (RF) energy
      with simultaneous saline irrigation. We present a description of the technology,
      its fundamental effect on tissue, selected preclinical results, and early
      clinical outcomes in a variety of surgical disciplines. The initial product that
      incorporates this technology is the TissueLink Floating BallTM, a monopolar
      surface coagulator, available in both laparoscopic and open shaft lengths. The
      low flow rate of saline couples RF to tissue and provides Cooling to limit the
      tissue temperature to no greater than 100 degrees C. This prevents desiccation,
      eschar, smoke, and sticking associated with conventional dry electrosurgical
      devices with dry electrodes. The primary tissue effect OCcurs at tissue
      temperatures in the range of 60-80 degrees C and involves the shrinkage of the
      Type I collagen that OCcurs in the walls of blood vessels, airways, bile ducts
      and other biological vessels. The shrinkage of the collagen closes the lumen and
      seals the vessel. Data is presented on the depth of the tissue effect and the
      chronic healing response in porcine liver. Early clinical results in the form of
      case reports are presented for both general and thoracic surgical applications,
      particularly for highly vascularized parenchymatous organs such as liver and
      lung. The use of the TissueLink device for liver resections has shown the
      potential to dramatically reduce blood loss. Its use in thoracic surgery has
      demonstrated it is capable of achieving both hemostasis and aerostasis.

PMID- 28561612
TI  - Early clinical experience with water-jet dissection (hydro-jet) during nerve
      sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy.
AB  - Successful preservation of the neuro-vascular bundle (NVB) during anatomical
      nerve-sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy (NS-RRP) for patients with
      clinically localized prostate cancer is a great operative challenge. We employed
      a new dissection method using water-jet technology for the preservation of the
      NVB. We evaluated intraoperative parameters, complications and early functional
      results regarding continence and potency. The results were compared to a
      conventional operative technique. Bilateral NS-RRP was performed by the same
      urologist in 36 consecutive cases between January and December 2000. Eighteen
      patients underwent NS-RRP using water-jet dissection (ERBE Helix Hydro-Jet).
      Eighteen patients underwent a standard NS-RRP. Water-jet dissection was used
      exclusively for nerve-sparing. We assessed blood loss, operation time,
      complications and incidence of blood transfusions. Early continence and potency
      rates were evaluated. Nerve-sparing using the Hydro-Jet technique appeared to be
      easier, more subtle and faster compared with the standard surgical technique. The
      exact dissection of the layers allowed a selective dissection and better control
      of crossing vessels to the prostate. Blood loss was reduced by 36% (p=0.02), no
      blood transfusion was necessary and the operation time was reduced by 20%
      (p=0.02). There were no major complications. Continence rates 3 months after RRP
      were 77.7% in the water jet group and 66.6% in the standard group, and overall
      potency rates (any grade of erection) were 77.7% and 55.5% respectively. Water
      jet dissection is a feasible, safe and efficient technique to facilitate NS-RRP.
      There is a minimal learning curve with comparable functional results to the
      conventional procedure. Further improvements in the water-jet application and a
      longer follow-up might lead to further improvements in continence and potency
      rates in patients undergoing NS-RRP.

PMID- 28561613
TI  - Technology of water-jet dissection.
AB  - For about 20 years, water-jet dissection has been used as a surgical technique.
      Due to the development of suitable instruments, devices, and operation
      strategies, water-jet dissection is becoming increasingly interesting for
      applications, especially for dissections where the atraumatical and/or
      tissueselective preparation or separation of tissue structures is mandatory.
      Prerequisites for the effective and safe application of the water-jet dissection
      are, on the one side, the knowledge of the relevant physical characteristics of
      the tissues in question, as well as their mechanical connections, and, on the
      other side, the knowledge of the relevant physical effects of a water-jet. The
      present paper will deal with these aspects.

PMID- 28561614
TI  - Early endoscopic management of anastomotic leakage of esophageal atresia.
AB  - Anastomotic leaks (AL) of esophageal atresia (EA) close spontaneously with tube
      drainage and nutritional support, but this conservative management carries some
      risk factors. The present study describes an alternative endoscopic approach in
      evaluation and management. The endoscopic procedure, including esophagoscopy,
      catheterization of leakage point, and application of fibrin glue (FG) has been
      evaluated. It was applied seven times to four patients. The diagnostic criteria,
      the technique and the results are discussed. It has been determined that early
      endoscopic demonstration of AL in EA and application of FG prevent the possible
      complications of the conservative management, such as mediastinitis and lung
      collapse with pneumothorax due to ineffective chest drain, and side effects of
      parenteral nutrition and antibiotics. If a quickly solidified FG in a proper
      amount "0,5 ml) is used in an early phase with a correct positioning of the AL by
      radiological or endoscopic examination, a satisfactory result can be obtained.

PMID- 28561615
TI  - Development of a new haemostatic dissecting forceps utilizing controlled heat as
      an energy source.
AB  - We tested a prototype of a new thermal surgical system in animal experiments.
      This device utilizes controlled heat as an energy source and seals and divides
      small- to medium-size vessels. The forceps we used in the current study are
      shaped like dissecting forceps used in conventional open surgery, and their
      grippers can open bilaterally. Heating elements are built into a gripper. The
      temperature adjustment is controlled by monitoring the electric resistance. Since
      the new device utilizes no ultrasonic energy, unfavorable phenomena such as
      cavitations or mist production are not observed. In a preliminary experiment, 12
      segments of animal arteries were sealed and cut by the prototype forceps. Five
      artery stumps did not burst at the maximum pressure of the manometer system (1471
      mmHg). The other seven stumps showed burst pressure ranging from 525 mmHg to 1051
      mmHg. It is feasible to utilize controlled heat as a new alternative energy
      source for haemostatic surgical dissection. The new thermal dissector we are in
      the process of developing showed safe and quick sealing and cutting of the
      vessels in the experimental settings.

PMID- 28561616
TI  - Design of multifunctional compliant mechanisms for minimally invasive surgery.
AB  - Compliant mechanisms that can perform multiple unique functions have great
      potential for use in minimally invasive therapy. A fully compliant mechanism may
      be thought of as a monolithic mechanism without hinge joints which uses elastic
      deformation to achieve force and motion transmission. Incorporating
      multifunctional compliant mechanisms into minimally invasive surgical tools has
      many possible advantages, including reduced instrument exchanges and additional
      dexterity at the surgical site. Compliant mechanisms also offer the advantage of
      single-piece construction and ease of manufacture over their rigid-link
      counterparts, eliminating the need for complex millimeter-scale assembly and
      cleaning in hinge areas. A multicriteria topology optimization procedure for the
      design of multifunctional compliant mechanisms is illustrated through the design
      of a combination tool that will perform forceps and scissor function. A working
      solid model of the combination forceps/scissors has been generated based on the
      optimal topology. Results of detailed finite element modeling are discussed along
      with implications for practical manufacture and implementation.

PMID- 28561617
TI  - LigaSure AtiasTM Instrument.
AB  - It is the objective of this article to describe the features and applications of
      the LigaSureTM vessel sealing system and the new laparoscopic LigaSure AtlasTM
      instrument with both vessel sealing and tissue dividing capabilities. This new
      technique works by fusing the collagen and elastine in vessel walls to create a
      permanent seal. The fusion mechanism results in strong burst strength
      characteristics as compared to standard bipolar and ultrasonic coagulating
      instruments. This new energy-based source continually monitors the clinical
      effect on the tissue and provides greater tissue sealing with minimal damage to
      surrounding tissue. Studies have shown that the automated LigaSureTM device is
      safe, efficient, and easy to use and reduces intraoperative blood loss and
      operative time in many surgical procedures.

PMID- 28561618
TI  - Endoluminal surgery.

PMID- 28561619
TI  - The treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts by laparoscopic drainage: endoluminal and
      lesser sac techniques.
AB  - A variety of approaches are now available to drain pancreatic pseudocysts (PP)
      when indicated. In addition to open surgery, endoscopic, laparoscopic, intra
      luminal, and percutaneous techniques are available as therapeutic options to
      facilitate drainage of mature symptomatic PP. The laparoscopic lesser sac
      technique is appealing since it * relies on a secure stapled anastomosis, *
      provides an adequate sized cystgastrostomy to facilitate drainage, and * utilizes
      minimally invasive techniques to diminish operative morbidity and expedite return
      to normal activities. Short-term follow-up data suggest that this approach is
      feasible, effective and reproducible, Long-term studies demonstrating the
      efficacy of laparoscopic drainage of PP using the lesser sac technique are needed
      to validate these early favorable outcomes.

PMID- 28561621
TI  - Effects of Oestradiol and the Oestrogen Antagonist lei 182,780 on the Delayed
      Type Hypersensitivity (DTH) Index and on Serum Levels of lgM and lgG in
      Ovariectomised Balb/C and MRL/Mp-Lpr/Lpr Mice, a Model of Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus (SLE).
AB  - The effects of oestradiol and the oestrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780 were
      investigated on the DTH index, serum IgG and IgM levels and spleen weight in
      female BALB/c and MRLIMP-Ipr/lpr mice. At six weeks, the mice were
      ovariectomisecl, and one week later, over a four-week period, given biweekly s.c.
      doses of (i) 5MUJ l of oli ve oil, or (i i) 5 MU1 of oil containing 3.2 MUg of
      17beta-oestradiol (E2), or (iii) 5 MUl of oil containing (3.2 MUl of E2 + ICI
      182,780 , at a dose of 30 mg/kg), or (iv) the same dose of ICI 182,780 alone. E2
      significantly raised the DTH index in BALB/c mice; this effect was prevented if
      ICI 182,780 was included in the injectio n . The DTH index in MRL mice was
      unaffected by any of the treatments. All steroid u.eatments raised serum IgG
      levels in BALB/c mice, but those in sera of MRL were un affected and were
      significantly higher than those measured in BALB/c mice . ICI 182,780 depressed
      TgM in BALB/c mice, while all steroidtreatments increased JgM in MRL mice. ICI
      182,780 de pressed spleen weights in both strains. Oes u.ogen may influence Bcell
      functiontlu.ough ICI 182,780-se nsitive receptors, and ICI 182,780 may have
      agonist actions on the immune system. (200 words).

PMID- 28561627
TI  - Hearing Rehabilitation For Deafened Adults - A Psychosocial Approach.

PMID- 28561630
TI  - [Nurse style of central vein! Our experience in the peripherally inserted central
      venous catheter].
AB  - What is PICC line insertion? The PICC is a soft, flexible catheter which is made
      of polyurethane or silicone, and is inserted via an upper or lower extremity
      peripheral vein into superior or inferior vena cava. The origin of PICC line
      dates back to the early 1950s. Since the introduction of the PICC catheter, this
      method of venous catheterization has gone through many changes as regards the
      technique of insertion or the type of catheter used. Despite the routine use of
      PICC line worldwide, little progress has been made in its use in Hungary. In this
      short review we will briefly summarise the use of PICC line, its indications,
      advantages, disadvantages, and on complementary devices which are necessary
      during the procedure. We discuss our experience in insertion of PICC line at Pecs
      University, where the procedure is solely done by a certified registered nurse.
      We hope that with continuous progression of nurse competency, this procedure will
      be implemented at a higher scale in Hungary. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(22): 856-863.

PMID- 28561626
TI  - Sex Differences in High School Athletes' Knowledge of Sport-Related Concussion
      Symptoms and Reporting Behaviors.
AB  - CONTEXT:   Recent researchers have reported that athletes' knowledge of sport
      related concussion (SRC) has increased but that athletes still lack knowledge of
      all the signs and symptoms of SRC. Understanding the signs and symptoms of SRC
      and the dangers of playing while symptomatic are critical to reporting behaviors
      in high school athletes. OBJECTIVE:   To examine sex differences in knowledge of
      SRC symptoms and reasons for not reporting a suspected SRC to an authoritative
      figure in high school athletes. DESIGN:   Cross-sectional study. SETTING:  
      Survey. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:   A total of 288 athletes across 7 sports
      (198 males [68.8%] and 90 females [31.2%]). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):   A
      validated knowledge-of-SRC survey consisted of demographic questions, a list of
      21 signs and symptoms of SRC, and reasons why athletes would not report their
      SRC. The independent variable was sex. Athlete knowledge of SRC symptoms was
      assessed by having participants identify the signs and symptoms of SRC from a
      list of 21 symptoms. Knowledge scores were calculated by summing the number of
      correct answers; scores ranged from 0 to 21, with a score closer to 21
      representing greater knowledge. Reporting-behavior questions asked athletes to
      choose reasons why they decided not to report any possible SRC signs and symptoms
      to an authoritative figure. RESULTS:   A sex difference in total SRC symptom
      knowledge was found (F286 = 4.97, P = .03, d = 0.26). Female high school athletes
      had more total SRC symptom knowledge (mean +/- standard deviation = 15.06 +/-
      2.63; 95% confidence interval = 14.54, 15.57) than males (14.36 +/- 2.76; 95%
      confidence interval = 13.97, 14.74). Chi-square tests identified significant
      relationships between sex and 8 different reasons for not reporting an SRC.
      CONCLUSIONS:   High school males and females had similar SRC symptom knowledge;
      however, female athletes were more likely to report their concussive symptoms to
      an authoritative figure.

PMID- 28561631
TI  - [Semmelweis of the 17th century or Jean Baptiste Denis and the first human
      transfusion (1667)].

PMID- 28561632
TI  - [Traumatic asphyxia with permanent visual loss. Case report].
AB  - Traumatic asphyxia is a rare condition that occurs after compressive
      thoracoabdominal trauma, which is characterized by subconjunctival hemorrhage,
      cervicofacial cyanosis, edema and petechiae. Serious life-threatening thoracic
      and abdominal injuries may coexist. After conservatory treatment in most cases
      complete recovery is achieved, but in isolated cases permanent neurological
      lesions may occur. We present the case of the 39-year-old male patient who
      suffered a compressive thoracoabdominal trauma. The physical examination showed
      the characteristic "ecchymotic mask". After surgical treatment of the abdominal
      injuries and intensive therapy the patient was discharged with permanent vision
      loss. The high retrograde venous pressure in the head and neck may be associated
      with neuronal ischemia, which can lead to irreversible optic nerve atrophy. It is
      therefore important to carry out an early, routine and complete ophtalmologic
      examination, especially in the intubated and poorly cooperative patients. Orv
      Hetil. 2017; 158(22): 864-868.

PMID- 28561634
TI  - [Social anxiety and self-esteem: Hungarian validation of the "Brief Fear of
      Negative Evaluation Scale - Straightforward Items"].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the third most frequent
      emotional disorder with 13-15% prevalence rate, it remains unrecognized very
      often. Social phobia is associated with low self-esteem, high self-criticism and
      fear of negative evaluation by others. It shows high comorbidity with depression,
      alcoholism, drug addiction and eating disorders. AIM: To adapt the widely used
      "Fear of Negative Evaluation" (FNE) social phobia questionnaire. METHOD: Anxiety
      and mood disorder patients (n = 255) completed the Fear of Negative Evaluation
      Scale (30, 12 and 8 item-versions) as well as social cognition, anxiety and self
      esteem questionnaires. RESULTS: All the three versions of the FNE have strong
      internal validity (alpha>0.83) and moderate significant correlation with low self
      esteem, negative social cognitions and anxiety. The short 8-item BFNE-S has the
      strongest disciminative value in differentiating patients with social phobia and
      with other emotional disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The Hungarian version of the BFNE-S
      is an effective tool for the quick recognition of social phobia. Orv Hetil. 2017;
      158(22): 843-850.

PMID- 28561635
TI  - [Role of the diet in urinary stone formation and prevalence].
AB  - In Hungary and in the developed countries urinary stones occur more often due to
      nutritional habits, obesity and sedentary lifestyle beside the endocrine and
      metabolic causes. In the daily urological and family doctor practice prevention
      should have an important role. Prevention is based not only on body weight
      control, physical exercise and medical treatment, but on proper diet as well. The
      nutritional components can change the consistence of urine, causing
      supersaturation, which is essential in stone formation. Specific nutritional
      components can either prevent stone formation (increased fluid intake, citrate,
      magnesium, fruits and vegetables) or either increase stone formation (decreased
      fluid intake, proteins, carbohydrates, oxalate, salt, increased calcium intake,
      ascorbic-acid etc). We summarized evidence-based practical dietary suggestions on
      the primary and secondary prevention of urinary stones. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(22):
      851-855.

PMID- 28561636
TI  - Choosing "Something Else" as a Sexual Identity: Evaluating Response Options on
      the National Health Interview Survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: Researchers struggle to find effective ways to measure sexual and gender
      identities to determine whether there are health differences among subsets of the
      LGBTQ+ population. METHOD: This study examines responses on the National Health
      Interview Survey (NHIS) sexual identity questions among 277 LGBTQ+ healthcare
      providers. RESULTS: Eighteen percent indicated that their sexual identity was
      "something else" on the first question, and 57% of those also selected "something
      else" on the second question. Half of the genderqueer/gender variant participants
      and 100% of transgender-identified participants selected "something else" as
      their sexual identity. CONCLUSION: The NHIS question does not allow all
      respondents in LGBTQ+ populations to be categorized, thus we are potentially
      missing vital health disparity information about subsets of the LGBTQ+
      population.

PMID- 28561637
TI  - A Study To Assess the Numbers and Prevalence of Bacillus cereus and Its Toxins in
      Pasteurized Fluid Milk.
AB  - Bacillus cereus is a pathogenic adulterant of raw milk and can persist as spores
      and grow in pasteurized milk. The objective of this study was to determine the
      prevalence of B. cereus and its enterotoxins in pasteurized milk at its best
      before date when stored at 4, 7, and 10 degrees C. More than 5.5% of moderately
      temperature-abused products (stored at 7 degrees C) were found to contain >105
      CFU/mL B. cereus , and about 4% of them contained enterotoxins at a level that
      may result in foodborne illness; in addition, more than 31% of the products
      contained >105 CFU/mL B. cereus and associated enterotoxins when stored at 10
      degrees C. Results from a growth kinetic study demonstrated that enterotoxin
      production by B. cereus in pasteurized milk can occur in as short as 7 to 8 days
      of storage at 7 degrees C. The higher B. cereus counts were associated with
      products containing higher butterfat content or with those produced using the
      conventional high-temperature, short-time pasteurization process. Traditional
      indicators, aerobic colony counts and psychrotrophic counts, were found to have
      no correlation with level of B. cereus in milk. The characterization of 17
      representative B. cereus isolates from pasteurized milk revealed five toxigenic
      gene patterns, with all the strains carrying genes encoding for diarrheal toxins
      but not for an emetic toxin, and with one strain containing all four diarrheal
      enterotoxin genes (nheA, entFM, hblC, and cytK). The results of this study
      demonstrate the risks associated even with moderately temperature-abused
      pasteurized milk and the necessity of a controlled cold chain throughout the
      shelf life of fluid milk to enhance product safety and minimize foodborne
      illness.

PMID- 28561638
TI  - Mitigation of Salmonella on Pet Food Kibbles by Using Liquid and Powdered 3
      Hydroxy-3-Methylbutyric Acid.
AB  - In recent years, several pet food recalls have been attributed to Salmonella
      contamination. In addition to the negative impacts on animal health, Salmonella
      contaminated pet foods have been linked to infection in humans. With that in
      mind, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set forth a zero-tolerance policy
      for Salmonella in pet foods. Typically, pet foods are extruded or processed at
      high temperatures that are sufficient to reduce pathogenic bacteria. However, the
      possibility for postextrusion contamination still exists. One potential method to
      reduce the risk of postextrusion contamination of pet foods with Salmonella is
      through the addition of a chemical additive coating. The objective of this
      research was to evaluate the ability of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB),
      in either free acid (HMBFA) or calcium salt (CaHMB) form, to reduce postextrusion
      contamination of dry extruded dog kibble with Salmonella. Three trials were
      conducted with HMBFA and CaHMB coated onto the kibbles at levels of 0, 0.1, 0.3,
      0.5, 0.9, and 1.5% (w/w). The coated kibbles were then inoculated with Salmonella
      enterica subsp. enterica Enteritidis (ATCC 13076), with enumeration done on days
      0, 1, 2, 7, and 14 postinoculation. Subsamples on each day were serially diluted,
      spread plated to xylose lysine deoxycholate agar, and incubated at 37 degrees C
      for 24 h. Salmonella colonies were then counted and log CFU per gram was
      calculated. The 1.5% HMBFA reduced counts by 4.9 +/- 0.2 log units on day 1,
      whereas the positive control only decreased 2.2 +/- 0.1 log units (P < 0.0001).
      The 1.5% CaHMB level decreased counts by 7.1 +/- 0.04 log units by day 7 compared
      with the control decrease of 2.1 +/- 0.1 log units (P < 0.0001). All HMBFA and
      CaHMB treatments resulted in the elimination of detectable Salmonella counts by
      day 14 (P < 0.0001 versus controls). In conclusion, HMB coating was effective at
      reducing Salmonella artificially inoculated to dog kibbles in a model of
      postextrusion contamination.

PMID- 28561639
TI  - Susceptibility of Salmonella Biofilm and Planktonic Bacteria to Common
      Disinfectant Agents Used in Poultry Processing.
AB  - Poultry contaminated with Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica are a major cause
      of zoonotic foodborne gastroenteritis. Salmonella Heidelberg is a common serotype
      of Salmonella that has been implicated as a foodborne pathogen associated with
      the consumption of improperly prepared chicken. To better understand the
      effectiveness of common antimicrobial disinfectants (i.e., peroxyacetic acid
      [PAA], acidified hypochlorite [aCH], and cetylpyridinium chloride [CPC]),
      environmental isolates of nontyphoidal Salmonella were exposed to these agents
      under temperature, concentration, and contact time conditions consistent with
      poultry processing. Under simulated processing conditions (i.e., chiller tank and
      dipping stations), the bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects of each
      disinfectant were assessed against biofilm and planktonic cultures of each
      organism in a disinfectant challenge. Log reductions, planktonic MICs, and mean
      biofilm eradication concentrations were computed. The biofilms of each Salmonella
      isolate were more resistant to the disinfectants than were their planktonic
      counterparts. Although PAA was bacteriostatic and bactericidal against the
      biofilm and planktonic Salmonella isolates tested at concentrations up to 64
      times the concentrations commonly used in a chiller tank during poultry
      processing, aCH was ineffective against the same isolates under identical
      conditions. At the simulated 8-s dipping station, CPC was bacteriostatic against
      all seven and bactericidal against six of the seven Salmonella isolates in their
      biofilm forms at concentrations within the regulatory range. These results
      indicate that at the current contact times and concentrations, aCH and PAA are
      not effective against these Salmonella isolates in their biofilm state. The use
      of CPC should be considered as a tool for controlling Salmonella biofilms in
      poultry processing environments.

PMID- 28561641
TI  - Global Health Initiatives of the International Oncology Community.
AB  - Cancer has become one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in low-
      and middle-income countries (LMICs), where 60% of the world's total new cases are
      diagnosed. The challenge for effective control of cancer is multifaceted. It
      mandates integration of effective cancer prevention, encouraging early detection,
      and utilization of resource-adapted therapeutic and supportive interventions. In
      the resource-constrained setting, it becomes challenging to deliver each service
      optimally, and efficient allocation of resources is the best way to improve the
      outcome. This concept was translated into action through development of resource
      stratified guidelines, pioneered by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI),
      and later adopted by most oncology societies in an attempt to help physicians
      deliver the best possible care in a limited-resource setting. Improving outcome
      entails collaboration between key stakeholders, including the pharmaceutical
      industry, local and national health authorities, the World Health Organization
      (WHO), and other nonprofit, patient-oriented organizations. Therefore, we started
      to observe global health initiatives-led by ASCO, the Union for International
      Cancer Control (UICC), and the WHO-to address these challenges at the
      international level. This article discusses some of these initiatives.

PMID- 28561640
TI  - Future Genetic/Genomic Biomarker Testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

PMID- 28561642
TI  - Minimizing Minimally Invasive Surgery for Endometrial Carcinoma.

PMID- 28561643
TI  - Making the Case for Improving Oncology Workforce Diversity.

PMID- 28561644
TI  - Can Cancer Truths Be Told? Challenges for Medical Journalism.

PMID- 28561645
TI  - The Road to Addressing Noncommunicable Diseases and Cancer in Global Health
      Policy.

PMID- 28561646
TI  - Bench-to-Bedside Approaches for Personalized Exercise Therapy in Cancer.
AB  - The past 2 decades have witnessed a growing body of work investigating the
      feasibility and efficacy of exercise therapy on a broad array of outcomes in many
      different oncology scenarios. Despite this heterogeneity, the exercise therapy
      prescription approach and the dose tested has been largely similar. Thus, current
      exercise therapy prescriptions in the oncology setting adopt a one-size-fits-all
      approach. In this article, we provide an overview of personalization of exercise
      therapy in cancer using the principles of training as an overarching framework.
      Specifically, we first review the fundamentals of exercise prescription in
      chronic disease before focusing attention on application of these principles to
      optimize the safety and efficacy of exercise therapy on (1) cancer treatment
      induced cardiovascular toxicity and (2) tumor progression and metastasis.

PMID- 28561648
TI  - Tissue-Agnostic Drug Development.
AB  - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved drugs to treat patients
      with tumor types based on a single anatomic site, such as renal cell carcinoma or
      melanoma, rather than on a biomarker alone. This standard approach is based on a
      number of factors, including heterogeneity of drug effects in different biomarker
      positive tumor types. Additionally, drug development for some drugs was primarily
      directed toward a specific genomic abnormality in a specific tumor type (e.g.,
      drugs for anaplastic lymphoma kinase [ALK] fusion-positive non-small cell lung
      cancer). In such cases, differences in biology, differences in natural histories
      of different cancers, differences in mutation frequencies among cancers, or
      differences in concomitant therapies may have necessitated diverse development
      considerations. As described in U.S. regulations [21 CFR 201, CFR 201.57(c)(2)],
      the indications and usage section of drug labeling "must state that a drug is
      indicated for the treatment, prevention, mitigation, cure, or diagnosis of a
      recognized disease or condition or of a manifestation of a recognized disease or
      condition, or for the relief of symptoms associated with a recognized disease or
      condition." Such regulations, however, do not require that disease be defined
      solely as a specific tumor type. This manuscript will highlight
      scientific/biologic issues, clinical trial designs, and regulatory issues
      pertaining to the development of drugs agnostic of tumor type. Although the
      manuscript will discuss regulatory considerations as understood by the authors
      regarding tissue-agnostic drug development, it should not be considered formal or
      binding FDA guidance or policy.

PMID- 28561649
TI  - Mastering Resilience in Oncology: Learn to Thrive in the Face of Burnout.
AB  - Oncology clinician burnout has become a noteworthy issue in medical oncology
      directly affecting the quality of patient care, patient satisfaction, and overall
      organizational success. Due to the increasing demands on clinical time,
      productivity, and the evolving medical landscape, the oncology clinician is at
      significant risk for burnout. Long hours in direct care with seriously ill
      patients/families, limited control over daily responsibilities, and endless
      electronic documentation, place considerable professional and personal demands on
      the oncologist. As a result, the oncology clinician's wellness is adversely
      impacted. Physical/emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and feelings of
      ineffectiveness evolve as core signs of burnout. Unaddressed burnout may affect
      cancer clinician relationships with their patients, the quality of care
      delivered, and the overall physical and emotional health of the clinician.
      Oncology clinicians should be encouraged to build upon their strengths, thrive in
      the face of adversity and stress, and learn to positively adapt to the changing
      cancer care system. Fostering individual resilience is a key protective factor
      against the development of and managing burnout. Empowering clinicians at both
      the individual and organizational level with tailored resilience strategies is
      crucial to ensuring clinician wellness. Resilience interventions may include:
      burnout education, work-life balance, adjustment of one's relationship to work,
      mindful practice, and acceptance of the clinical work environment. Health care
      organizations must act to provide institutional solutions through the
      implementation of: team-based oncology care, communication skills training, and
      effective resiliency training programs in order to mitigate the effects of stress
      and prevent burnout in oncology.

PMID- 28561647
TI  - Social Media and Mobile Technology for Cancer Prevention and Treatment.
AB  - Given the number of lives affected by cancer and the great potential for
      optimizing well-being via lifestyle changes, patients, providers, health care
      systems, advocacy groups, and entrepreneurs are looking to digital solutions to
      enhance patient care and broaden prevention efforts. Thousands of health-oriented
      mobile websites and apps have been developed, with a majority focused upon
      lifestyle behaviors (e.g., exercise, diet, smoking). In this review, we consider
      the use and potential of social media and mHealth technologies for cancer
      prevention, cancer treatment, and survivorship. We identify key principles in
      research and practice, summarize prior reviews, and highlight notable case
      studies and patient resources. Further, with the potential for scaled delivery
      and broad reach, we consider application of social media and mHealth technologies
      in low-resource settings. With clear advantages for reach, social media and
      mHealth technologies offer the ability to scale and engage entire populations at
      low cost, develop supportive social networks, connect patients and providers,
      encourage adherence with cancer care, and collect vast quantities of data for
      advancing cancer research. Development efforts have been rapid and numerous, yet
      evaluation of intervention effects on behavior change and health outcomes are
      sorely needed, and regulation around data security issues is notably lacking.
      Attention to broader audiences is also needed, with targeted development for
      culturally diverse groups and non-English speakers. Further investment in
      research to build the evidence base and identify best practices will help
      delineate and actualize the potential of social media and mHealth technologies
      for cancer prevention and treatment.

PMID- 28561650
TI  - Higher-Level Pathway Objectives of Epigenetic Therapy: A Solution to the p53
      Problem in Cancer.
AB  - Searches for effective yet nontoxic oncotherapies are searches for exploitable
      differences between cancer and normal cells. In its core of cell division, cancer
      resembles normal life, coordinated by the master transcription factor MYC.
      Outside of this core, apoptosis and differentiation programs, which dominantly
      antagonize MYC to terminate cell division, necessarily differ between cancer and
      normal cells, as apoptosis is suppressed by biallelic inactivation of the master
      regulator of apoptosis, p53, or its cofactor p16/CDKN2A in approximately 80% of
      cancers. These genetic alterations impact therapy: conventional oncotherapy
      applies stress upstream of p53 to upregulate it and causes apoptosis
      (cytotoxicity)-a toxic, futile intent when it is absent or nonfunctional.
      Differentiation, on the other hand, cannot be completely suppressed because it is
      a continuum along which all cells exist. Neoplastic evolution stalls advances
      along this continuum at its most proliferative points-in lineage-committed
      progenitors that have division times measured in hours compared with weeks for
      tissue stem cells. This differentiation arrest is by mutations/deletions in
      differentiation-driving transcription factors or their coactivators that shift
      balances of gene-regulating protein complexes toward corepressors that repress
      instead of activate hundreds of terminal differentiation genes. That is,
      malignant proliferation without differentiation, also referred to as cancer
      "stem" cell self-renewal, hinges on druggable corepressors. Inhibiting these
      corepressors (e.g., DNMT1) releases p53-independent terminal differentiation in
      cancer stem cells but preserves self-renewal of normal stem cells that express
      stem cell transcription factors. Thus, epigenetic-differentiation therapies
      exploit a fundamental distinction between cancer and normal stem cell self
      renewal and have a pathway of action downstream of genetic defects in cancer,
      affording favorable therapeutic indices needed for clinical progress.

PMID- 28561651
TI  - Precision Oncology: Who, How, What, When, and When Not?
AB  - Precision oncology, defined as molecular profiling of tumors to identify
      targetable alterations, is rapidly developing and has entered the mainstream of
      clinical practice. Genomic testing involves many stakeholders working in a
      coordinated fashion to deliver high-quality tissue samples to high-quality
      laboratories, where appropriate next-generation sequencing (NGS) molecular
      analysis leads to actionable results. Clinicians should be familiar with the
      types of genomic variants reported by the laboratory and the technology used to
      determine the results, including limitations of current testing methodologies and
      reports. Interpretation of genomic results is best undertaken with
      multidisciplinary input to reduce uncertainty in clinical recommendations
      relating to a documented variant. Non-small cell lung cancer has emerged as a
      prototype disease where genomic data from at least several well-documented
      alterations with approved targeted agents are essential for optimal treatment
      from diagnosis of advanced disease. Due to the development of resistance to
      targeted therapies, resampling and retesting of tumors, including using liquid
      biopsy technology after clinical progression, may be important in making
      treatment decisions. The value of molecular profiling depends on avoiding both
      underutilization for well-documented variant target-drug pairs and
      overutilization of variant-drug therapy without proven benefit. As techniques
      evolve and become more cost effective, the use of molecular testing may prove to
      add more specificity and improve outcomes for a larger number of patients.

PMID- 28561652
TI  - Evolving Treatment Paradigm in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - The treatment paradigm for advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)
      has evolved rapidly since the arrival of targeted therapies and novel
      immunotherapies. mRCC was previously treated only with cytokines. However,
      discoveries of mutations affecting the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene
      (leading to increased expression of VEGF and hypoxia inducible factor/HIF-1) and
      of deregulations in the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/AKT/mTOR pathway (resulting
      in tumor angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and tumor growth) have led to the
      development of numerous targeted therapies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
      (FDA) has thus approved a total of nine targeted therapies since 2005, including
      VEGF tyrosine kinase inhibitors (sunitinib, pazopanib, axitinib, sorafenib, and
      lenvatinib), a monoclonal antibody targeting VEGF (bevacizumab), mTOR inhibitors
      (temsirolimus and everolimus), and a multityrosine kinase inhibitor
      (cabozantinib). Furthermore, the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors has
      again shifted the mRCC therapeutic landscape with the FDA's approval of
      nivolumab. Herein, we discuss the unprecedented changes in the field of clear
      cell histology mRCC in both the first-line and salvage settings, and we also
      discuss future therapies and recommend a treatment paradigm on sequencing of
      these agents.

PMID- 28561653
TI  - Bone Sarcoma Pathology: Diagnostic Approach for Optimal Therapy.
AB  - The pathologic interpretation of malignant bone tumors is one of the more
      challenging areas in surgical pathology. This is based on the reality that
      primary bone sarcomas are uncommon, demonstrate significant morphologic
      heterogeneity, and have a broad spectrum of biology. Accordingly, it is difficult
      for pathologists to acquire the necessary experience to confidently and
      accurately diagnose bone sarcomas. The task is further complicated by the fact
      that it requires the integration of clinical and radiologic information into the
      diagnostic process. Lastly, molecular aberrations in sarcomas are being newly
      discovered and their identification is often critical to make specific diagnoses.
      The pathologist's role in guiding optimal treatment in biopsy specimens is to
      make an accurate diagnosis and provide the grade and molecular aberrations when
      appropriate. The pathology report of resected tumors must confirm this
      information and assess the surgical resection margins and the percentage of
      necrosis if the sarcoma has been treated with neoadjuvant systemic therapy.

PMID- 28561654
TI  - The Current Landscape of Early Drug Development for Patients With Sarcoma.
AB  - Until recently, advancements in the treatment of patients with adult soft tissue
      sarcomas have been relatively slow. This is, in part, due to their heterogeneity
      and rarity. A better understanding of the biology and differences among the
      various histologies has led to substantial growth in novel strategies. In
      addition to novel cytotoxic chemotherapies, agents targeting platelet-derived
      growth factor receptor-alpha (PDGFRalpha), mTOR, and angiogenesis are areas of
      active investigation. Additionally, with the success of checkpoint inhibitors in
      other malignancies and early encouraging results of checkpoint inhibitors in some
      sarcoma subtypes, this approach is being widely investigated in various sarcomas.
      As we increasingly recognize and treat each sarcoma histology as a separate
      disease, it is important to spread awareness of the exciting clinical trials
      available to our patients with these rare malignancies.

PMID- 28561655
TI  - Fertility, Cardiac, and Orthopedic Challenges in Survivors of Adult and Childhood
      Sarcoma.
AB  - The combination of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate was established as
      the standard backbone of contemporary osteosarcoma therapy in 1986. Since then,
      however, further improving the survival of patients with osteosarcoma has been
      challenging-30% to 40% of patients with osteosarcoma still die of this disease.
      In addition, these patients often experience loss of fertility at a young age,
      short- and long-term treatment-related cardiotoxicity, and adverse orthopedic
      effects from surgical resection of the tumor or endoprosthetic reconstructions.
      Cancer treatment often markedly increases the risk of infertility later in life,
      causing many patients substantial distress and regret. Sperm banking and oocyte
      cryopreservation are standard of care and should be available to all at-risk
      patients. Newer techniques, such as autologous gonadal tissue transplant for
      prepubertal children, are being developed, and newer systemic agents have
      infertility risk profiles that remain undefined and warrant further study. Cost
      and access remain barriers to these options. The late effects of anthracycline
      induced cardiotoxicity are also increasingly a problem for these patients. These
      effects are often progressive and can be disabling. Adding dexrazoxane to
      doxorubicin therapy significantly reduces the risk for most adverse cardiac
      outcomes without compromising the efficacy of induction chemotherapy. Limb
      salvage surgery remains the standard of care for treatment in the majority of
      patients with extremity sarcomas. Modular metal prostheses and allograft
      reconstructions comprised the majority of surgical procedures for limb salvage
      surgery. The most common mechanism of failure of these implants is infection and
      mechanical failure of the implant.

PMID- 28561656
TI  - Whence High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - Our understanding of epithelial ovarian cancer has blossomed, and we now
      recognize that it is a collection of varied histologic and molecularly different
      malignancies, many of which may not derive from a true ovarian anatomic
      precursor. High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is a unique type of
      epithelial cancer. It is characterized by nearly universal mutation in and
      dysfunction of p53, genomic instability rather than driver mutations, advanced
      stage at onset, and probable fallopian tube epithelium origin, with a serous
      tubal in situ carcinoma precursor. Germline deleterious mutations in BRCA1 and
      BRCA2, as well as other less prevalent genes involved in DNA repair, such as
      PALB2 and RAD51c, are associated with its carcinogenesis and may predict
      susceptibility to classes of treatment agents, including DNA-damaging agents and
      DNA repair inhibitors. Loss of function of these genes is associated with
      homologous recombination dysfunction (HRD). It is now recognized that there may
      be HGSOC with wild-type BRCA1 and BRCA2 with an identifiable HRD phenotype. Such
      HRD tumors also may be more susceptible to certain classes of treatments and may
      be phenotypically detectable with a composite molecular biomarker that has been
      shown to be predictive for response to PARP inhibitors. Use of this new knowledge
      of the anatomic and molecular background of HGSOC has led to the rational design
      of novel combinations of treatment classes to create an HRD-like cellular
      environment and thus drive treatment benefits.

PMID- 28561658
TI  - More Medicine, Fewer Clicks: How Informatics Can Actually Help Your Practice.
AB  - In the information age, we expect data systems to make us more effective and
      efficient-not to make our lives more difficult! In this article, we discuss how
      we are using data systems, such as electronic health records (EHRs), to improve
      care delivery. We illustrate how US Oncology is beginning to use real-world
      evidence to facilitate trial accrual by automatic identification of eligible
      patients and how big data and predictive analytics will transform the field of
      oncology. Some information systems are already being used at the point of care
      and are already empowering clinicians to improve the care of their patients in
      real time. Telehealth platforms are being used to bridge gaps that currently
      exist in expertise, geography, and technical capability. Optimizing virtual
      collaboration, such as through virtual tumor boards, is empowering communities
      that are geographically disparate to coordinate care. Informatics methods can
      provide solutions to the challenging problems of how to manage the vast amounts
      of data confronting the practicing oncologist, including information about
      treatment regimens, side effects, and the influence of genomics on the practice
      of oncology. We also discuss some of the challenges of clinical documentation in
      the modern era, and review emerging efforts to engage patients as digital donors
      of their EHR data.

PMID- 28561657
TI  - Clinical Pathways and the Patient Perspective in the Pursuit of Value-Based
      Oncology Care.
AB  - The art of practicing oncology has evolved substantially in the past 5 years. As
      more and more diagnostic tests, biomarker-directed therapies, and immunotherapies
      make their way to the oncology marketplace, oncologists will find it increasingly
      difficult to keep up with the many therapeutic options. Additionally, the cost of
      cancer care seems to be increasing. Clinical pathways are a systematic way to
      organize and display detailed, evidence-based treatment options and assist the
      practitioner with best practice. When selecting which treatment regimens to
      include on a clinical pathway, considerations must include the efficacy and
      safety, as well as costs, of the therapy. Pathway treatment regimens must be
      continually assessed and modified to ensure that the most up-to-date, high
      quality options are incorporated. Value-based models, such as the ASCO Value
      Framework, can assist providers in presenting economic evaluations of clinical
      pathway treatment options to patients, thus allowing the patient to decide the
      overall value of each treatment regimen. Although oncologists and pathway
      developers can decide which treatment regimens to include on a clinical pathway
      based on the efficacy of the treatment, assessment of the value of that treatment
      regimen ultimately lies with the patient. Patient definitions of value will be an
      important component to enhancing current value-based oncology care models and
      incorporating new, high-quality, value-based therapeutics into oncology clinical
      pathways.

PMID- 28561659
TI  - How Should We Intervene on the Financial Toxicity of Cancer Care? One Shot, Four
      Perspectives.
AB  - The median price of a month of chemotherapy has increased by an order of
      magnitude during the past 20 years, far exceeding inflation over the same period.
      Along with rising prices, increases in cost sharing have forced patients to
      directly shoulder a greater portion of those costs, resulting in undue financial
      burden and, in some cases, cost-related nonadherence to treatment. What can we do
      to intervene on treatment-related financial toxicity of patients? No one party
      can single-handedly solve the problem, and the solution must be multifaceted and
      creative. A productive discussion of the problem must avoid casting blame and,
      instead, must look inward for concrete starting points toward improvement in the
      affordability and value of cancer care. With these points in mind, the authors
      representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, insurance providers,
      oncologists, and patient advocacy-have each been asked to respond with a
      practical answer to the provocative hypothetical question, "If you could propose
      one thing, and one thing only, in terms of an action or change by the
      constituency you represent in this discussion, what would that be?"

PMID- 28561660
TI  - The Oncology Care Model: Perspectives From the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
      Services and Participating Oncology Practices in Academia and the Community.
AB  - Cancer care delivery in the United States is often fragmented and inefficient,
      imposing substantial burdens on patients. Costs of cancer care are rising more
      rapidly than other specialties, with substantial regional differences in quality
      and cost. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center
      (CMMIS) recently launched the Oncology Care Model (OCM), which uses payment
      incentives and practice redesign requirements toward the goal of improving
      quality while controlling costs. As of March 2017, 190 practices were
      participating, with approximately 3,200 oncologists providing care for
      approximately 150,000 unique beneficiaries per year (approximately 20% of the
      Medicare Fee-for-Service population receiving chemotherapy for cancer). This
      article provides an overview of the program from the CMS perspective, as well as
      perspectives from two practices implementing OCM: an academic health system (Yale
      Cancer Center) and a community practice (Hematology Oncology Associates of
      Central New York). Requirements of OCM, as well as implementation successes,
      challenges, financial implications, impact on quality, and future visions, are
      provided from each perspective.

PMID- 28561661
TI  - Operable Melanoma: Screening, Prognostication, and Adjuvant and Neoadjuvant
      Therapy.
AB  - The importance of reducing the numbers of patients with late-stage melanoma,
      identifying which patients are most likely to progress, and treating these
      patients at the earliest possible stage cannot be overemphasized. Improved
      screening of patients prior to diagnosis has the advantage of identifying early
      stage disease that is for the most part treatable by surgical methods. The
      process of melanoma screening is rapidly evolving through population-based
      programs, mobile health technologies, and advanced imaging tools. For patients
      with newly diagnosed melanoma, accurately estimating disease prognosis has
      important implications for management and follow-up. Prognostic factors are
      individual host- or tumor-related factors or molecules that correlate with
      genetic predisposition and clinical course. These include clinical covariates and
      host and tumor proteomic/genomic markers that allow the prognostic
      subclassification of patients. Adjuvant therapy for high-risk surgically resected
      melanoma targets residual micrometastatic disease with the goal of reducing the
      risk of relapse and mortality. In the United States, three regimens have achieved
      regulatory approval for adjuvant therapy, including high-dose interferon alpha,
      pegylated interferon alpha, and ipilimumab at 10 mg/kg. Phase III trials have
      reported benefits in relapse-free survival (all regimens) and overall survival
      (high-dose interferon alpha and ipilimumab). The management of locally/regionally
      advanced melanoma may benefit from neoadjuvant therapy, which is the subject of
      several ongoing studies. Recent studies have shown promising clinical activity
      and yielded important biomarker findings and mechanistic insights.

PMID- 28561662
TI  - Systemic Therapy Options for Patients With Unresectable Melanoma.
AB  - There has been a therapeutic revolution in the treatment of metastatic melanoma
      over the past decade. Patients presenting with inoperable disease have several
      therapeutic options, which can include both targeted and immune therapy. Immune
      checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated an improvement in overall survival and
      led to some durable responses. However, toxicity, especially in combination
      regimens, can be severe. Adverse events should be anticipated, diagnosed as early
      as possible, monitored, and managed. Combination BRAF and MEK inhibition has also
      been shown to improve overall survival in patients with V600E-mutated melanoma.
      Responses to therapy are often rapid, and treatment is not associated with immune
      related adverse events. Current trials are under way to determine which option is
      optimal as frontline therapy for patients with V600E melanoma. In patients with
      progressive disease despite standard therapies, clinical trials are recommended.
      There are several promising agents in development.

PMID- 28561664
TI  - Data Commons to Support Pediatric Cancer Research.
AB  - The falling costs and increasing fidelity of high-throughput biomedical research
      data have led to a renaissance in cancer surveillance and treatment. Yet, the
      amount, velocity, and complexity of these data have overcome the capacity of the
      increasing number of researchers collecting and analyzing this information. By
      centralizing the data, processing power, and tools, there is a valuable
      opportunity to share resources and thus increase the efficiency, power, and
      impact of research. Herein, we describe current data commons and how they operate
      in the oncology landscape, including an overview of the International
      Neuroblastoma Risk Group data commons as a paradigm case. We outline the
      practical steps and considerations in building data commons. Finally, we discuss
      the unique opportunities and benefits of creating a data commons within the
      context of pediatric cancer research, highlighting the particular advantages for
      clinical oncology and suggested next steps.

PMID- 28561665
TI  - New Classification for Central Nervous System Tumors: Implications for Diagnosis
      and Therapy.
AB  - The 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central
      Nervous System (WHO 2016) represents a noteworthy divergence from prior
      classification schemas. This new classification introduced the concept of
      "integrated diagnoses" based on a marriage of both phenotypic (microscopic) and
      genotypic parameters, with the intended goals of improving diagnostic accuracy
      and patient management. The result is a major restructuring in many of the brain
      tumor categories, with the codification of multiple new tumor entities and
      subgroups. It is therefore imperative that pathologists, clinicians, and neuro
      oncology researchers alike rapidly become familiar with this new classification
      schema. Many of the diagnostic updates set forth in the WHO 2016 have impacted
      brain tumor types that commonly arise in the pediatric age group, particularly
      within the diffuse glioma, ependymoma, and embryonal tumor categories. This
      review gives a brief overview of (1) the WHO 2016 as it relates to pediatric
      central nervous system (CNS) tumors, with an emphasis on molecular diagnostic
      tools used in the clinical arena, (2) ongoing and developing approaches to the
      molecular and genomic classification of pediatric CNS tumors, and (3) the impact
      of this new classification schema on clinical trials in pediatric neuro-oncology.

PMID- 28561666
TI  - Integration of Genomics Into Treatment: Are We There Yet?
AB  - Using advances in genetic analysis to segment and direct treatment of multiple
      myeloma (MM) represents a way of maintaining therapeutic progress. Recent genetic
      analyses have opened the possibility of enhancing risk stratification approaches
      and of using different risk and biologic strata as part of clinical trials. The
      Myeloma Genome Project is a collaborative project that has compiled the largest
      set of cases with sequencing and have outcome data that are available for
      stratification purposes. Mutation-targeted treatment of the Ras pathway has been
      shown to be active in MM, but is compromised by the presence of the subclonal
      genetic variation typical of myeloma. Going forward, risk and biologically
      stratified therapy for MM looks to be a promising way of maintaining therapeutic
      progress, as does precision immunotherapy directed by the cellular context of the
      bone marrow.

PMID- 28561663
TI  - Beyond Alkylating Agents for Gliomas: Quo Vadimus?
AB  - Recent advances in therapies have yielded notable success in terms of improved
      survival in several cancers. However, such treatments have failed to improve
      outcome in patients with gliomas for whom surgery followed by radiation therapy
      and chemotherapy with alkylating agents remain the standard of care. Genetic and
      epigenetic studies have helped identify several alterations specific to gliomas.
      Attempts to target these altered pathways have been unsuccessful due to various
      factors, including tumor heterogeneity, adaptive resistance of tumor cells, and
      limitations of access across the blood-brain barrier. Novel therapies that
      circumvent such limitations have been the focus of intense study and include
      approaches such as immunotherapy, targeting of signaling hubs and metabolic
      pathways, and use of biologic agents. Immunotherapeutic approaches including
      tumor-targeted vaccines, immune checkpoint blockade, antibody-drug conjugates,
      and chimeric antigen receptor-expressing cell therapies are in various stages of
      clinical trials. Similarly, identification of key metabolic pathways or
      converging hubs of signaling pathways that are tumor specific have yielded novel
      targets for therapy of gliomas. In addition, the failure of conventional
      therapies against gliomas has led to a growing interest among patients in the use
      of alternative therapies, which in turn has necessitated developing evidence
      based approaches to the application of such therapies in clinical studies. The
      development of these novel approaches bears potential for providing breakthroughs
      in treatment of more meaningful and improved outcomes for patients with gliomas.

PMID- 28561667
TI  - Myeloma in Elderly Patients: When Less Is More and More Is More.
AB  - Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell malignancy that occurs among older adults and
      accounts for 15% of all hematologic malignancies in the United States. Thirty
      five percent of patients are diagnosed at age 75 or older. Novel therapeutics and
      routine use of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) have led to
      substantial improvements in patient survival, although improvements have been
      more impressive among patients younger than age 65. Finding the balance between
      under- and overtreating elderly patients is one of the biggest challenges
      specific to them as a subgroup of patients with MM. Decision making about which
      therapies and their dose intensity and duration should be influenced by a
      patient's functional status, personal preferences, disease characteristics, and
      ability to tolerate therapy. ASCT should be considered for all patients younger
      than age 80, assuming that they are not frail. The attainment of a stringent
      complete response and minimal residual disease negativity is associated with
      improved progression-free and overall survival. Again, consideration of quality
      of life for these patients is paramount. Although there is a growing list of
      tools to sort through these issues, a fully integrated approach has not yet been
      finely tuned, leaving additional work to be done for the treatment of elderly
      patients with MM.

PMID- 28561668
TI  - Established and Novel Prognostic Biomarkers in Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy characterized by
      notable interpatient heterogeneity. There have been important advances in therapy
      and overall survival, but some patients with high-risk features still have poor
      survival rates. Therefore, accurate identification of this subset of patients has
      been integral to improvement of patient outcome. During the last few years,
      cytogenetics, gene expression profiling, MRI and PET/CT, as well as serum free
      light chain assays have been used as accurate biomarkers to better characterize
      the diverse course and outcome of the disease. With the recent advances of
      massive parallel sequencing techniques, the development of new models that better
      stratify high-risk groups are beginning to be developed. The use of
      multiparameter flow cytometry and next-generation sequencing have paved the way
      for assessment of minimal residual disease and better prognostication of post
      therapeutic outcomes. Circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA are
      promising potential biomarkers that demonstrate the spatial and temporal
      heterogeneity of MM. Finally, more prognostic markers are being developed that
      are specific to immunotherapeutic agents. In this review, we discuss these
      traditional and novel biomarkers that have been developed for MM and also those
      that can predict disease progression from precursor stages. Together, these
      biomarkers will help improve our understanding of the intrapatient and
      interpatient variabilities and help develop precision medicine for patients with
      high-risk MM.

PMID- 28561669
TI  - Role of Chemotherapy and Targeted Therapy in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - On the basis of several randomized trials and meta-analyses, adjuvant
      chemotherapy is the accepted standard of care for certain patients with early
      stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients with stage II, IIIA, or large
      (>= 4 cm) IB tumors are candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy. The survival
      improvement with adjuvant chemotherapy is approximately 5% at 5 years, though
      certain trials have suggested that it can be 8% to 10%. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      also has shown a survival advantage, though the volume of data with this approach
      is far less than that of adjuvant chemotherapy. The combination of cisplatin and
      vinorelbine is the most well-studied regimen, but current consensus is to use
      four cycles of any of the platinum-based chemotherapy regimens commonly used as
      front-line therapy for patients with advanced-stage NSCLC. Trials to define
      biomarkers that can predict benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy have not been
      successful, but results of other such trials are still awaited. On the basis of
      the benefit observed with targeted agents in patients with advanced-stage disease
      and driver genetic alterations in their tumors, ongoing trials are evaluating the
      utility of these targeted agents as adjuvant therapy. Similarly, clinical benefit
      observed with checkpoint inhibitors has prompted assessment of these drugs in
      patients with early-stage NSCLC. It is very likely, in the future, that factors
      other than the anatomy of the tumor will be used to select patients with early
      stage NSCLC for systemic therapy and that the choice of systemic therapy will
      extend beyond platinum-based chemotherapy.

PMID- 28561670
TI  - The Road of Mentorship.
AB  - Mentorship can be the cornerstone of professional development and career
      satisfaction. There is literature to support that mentorship not only improves
      job satisfaction, but also improves productivity, facilitates personal growth,
      and can rekindle our passion while lessening the risk of compassion fatigue.
      Mentorship is a developmental relationship that changes as the relationship
      evolves. There are two broad categories of mentorship: traditional and
      transformational. There are four subtypes within each of those areas: formal,
      informal, spot, or peer. Mentorship is critical to the professional development
      of junior colleagues. Good mentorship is guiding and steering younger partners
      and other colleagues toward paths of success. As a mentor, one should be looking
      for opportunities for formal professional development and engagement of mentees.
      Self-motivation is the hallmark of the successful mentee. The mentee should be
      able to set his or her own goals, strive to actively seek feedback, ask
      questions, and keep an accurate record of progress. Although the onus is on the
      mentee to reach out, mentorship has bidirectional value directly related to the
      efforts of both parties. There are many benefits to mentorship, such as the
      promotion of learning, personal development, improved job satisfaction, and
      improved job performance. Barriers exist, including the rapidly changing
      landscape of oncology, time constraints, lack of self-awareness, and generational
      differences. Through a career, mentoring needs will change, as will mentors.

PMID- 28561671
TI  - Pathology Issues in Thoracic Oncology: Histologic Characterization and
      Tissue/Plasma Genotyping May Resolve Diagnostic Dilemmas.
AB  - Lung cancer is a heterogeneous diagnosis that encompasses a spectrum of
      histologic and molecular subgroups. A paradigm shift favoring selection of
      treatment based on histologic and molecular makeup has positively affected
      prognosis for patients with metastatic lung cancer, with select patients
      experiencing durable responses to treatment. However, prognosis remains poor for
      the majority of patients. Furthermore, oncologists are increasingly faced with
      challenging dilemmas related to histopathologic and molecular characterization of
      tumors, both at diagnosis and during treatment. In this review, we focus on three
      particular challenges: (1) management of mixed histology tumors, a particularly
      aggressive group of lung cancers, (2) distinguishing multiple primary lung tumors
      from intrapulmonary metastases, and (3) incorporation of liquid biopsies into the
      diagnostic algorithm and subsequent follow-up of patients with advanced lung
      cancer. This review will summarize the existing literature and highlight the
      potential for molecular genotyping to help refine approaches to each of these
      challenges.

PMID- 28561672
TI  - Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: Improving Prevention and Survivorship.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer is a growing problem in oncology, given slowly rising incidence
      and continued suboptimal outcomes. A concerted effort to reverse this tide will
      require prevention, early diagnosis, and improved systemic therapy for curable
      disease. We focus on these aspects in detail in this study. Hereditary pancreatic
      cancer is an underappreciated area. With the growing use of genomics (both
      somatic and germline) in cancer care, there is increasing recognition of
      hereditary pancreatic cancer cases: around 10% of all pancreatic cancer may be
      related to familial syndromes, such as familial atypical multiple mole and
      melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, Lynch syndrome,
      and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. Screening and surveillance guidelines by various
      expert groups are discussed. Management of resectable pancreatic cancer is
      evolving; the use of multiagent systemic therapies, in the adjuvant and
      neoadjuvant settings, is discussed. Current and emerging data, along with ongoing
      clinical trials addressing important questions in this area, are described.
      Surveillance recommendations based on latest ASCO guidelines are also discussed.
      Finally, the multimodality management of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer
      is discussed. The various clinicoanatomic definitions of this entity, followed by
      consensus definitions, are described. Then, we focus on current opinions and
      practices around neoadjuvant therapy, discussing chemotherapy and radiation
      aspects, and the role of surgical resection.

PMID- 28561673
TI  - Best Practices and Practical Nuances in the Treatment of Gastric Cancer in High
      Risk Global Areas.
AB  - Gastric cancer is an aggressive disease that is very frequent in Latin America.
      The reasons for this increased incidence is not clear. Associated with the lack
      of minimum health care opportunities, lack of accurate statistics and reporting
      data beyond epidemiologic data, and raw nonreliable data, there is little known
      of the actual clinical course and treatment of these patients. Understanding
      epidemiologic data may allow us to encourage the adequate use and distribution of
      the meager resources that exist.

PMID- 28561674
TI  - Gastric Cancer in Southern Europe: High-Risk Disease.
AB  - Gastric cancer is an aggressive disease. Several risk factors are involved in
      gastric cancer pathogenesis, likely Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection,
      genetic factors in hereditary syndromes, lifestyle, and diet. However, well
      implemented screening strategies are lacking in most countries, including those
      in Southern Europe. Nevertheless, gastric cancer outcomes are better in some
      Southern European countries than in others, likely because of the incidence and
      distribution of different histologic types. Robotic surgery has been gaining
      favor as a treatment of early-stage disease, and the need for perioperative
      chemotherapy or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced disease has
      been debated. In the metastatic setting, trastuzumab in combination with
      chemotherapy has helped to extend survival compared with chemotherapy alone for
      HER2-positive disease. This article will describe how gastric cancer is assessed
      and treated in Southern Europe in an attempt to correlate these approaches from a
      global perspective.

PMID- 28561675
TI  - Gastric Cancer in Asia: Unique Features and Management.
AB  - Gastric cancer (GC) poses a burden to patients across the globe as the third
      leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Incidence of GC is particularly high in
      Asian countries, which is attributed to the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H.
      pylori) infection and has prompted the establishment of unique treatment
      strategies. D2 gastrectomy, which was established in the 1950s in Japan, has
      served as a gold standard for locally advanced GC for over half a century. Since
      the beginning of the 21st century, endoscopic resection (ER) techniques and
      minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery have greatly changed the treatment of
      patients with early GC. S-1, which showed a striking survival benefit in a large
      randomized trial in Japan, has been used as adjuvant therapy for the last decade.
      Likewise, S-1-based chemotherapy regimens are currently the standard of care for
      the treatment of unresectable/metastatic GC in Asia. Along with the development
      of standardized therapy, novel techniques and new drugs have been rapidly brought
      into clinical practice. State-of-the-art sentinel node (SN) navigation surgery
      enables clinicians to perform truly minimally invasive surgery for early GC, and
      appropriate chemotherapy regimens are now determined by a tumor's molecular
      expression. New classifications based on gene signatures are proposed and may
      replace conventional clinical classifications. Such highly individualized
      treatment has the potential to alter our clinical practice in GC in the near
      future. The best practice in each geographic region should be shared and
      integrated, resulting in the best practice without borders.

PMID- 28561676
TI  - The Promise of Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has presented a therapeutic challenge.
      Despite its heterogeneity, which is partially related to its various etiologies,
      it frequently arises in a background of chronic inflammation, which makes it a
      potentially excellent candidate for immunotherapeutic approaches. There is
      evidence of antitumor immunity in HCC as manifested by the cell infiltrate and
      its association with prognosis, the presence of tumor-associated antigens, and
      the reports of immune-mediated spontaneous regressions. However, both the liver
      itself and the tumor environment possess a diverse armamentarium of mechanisms
      that suppress antitumor immunity. Here, we describe the rationale for
      immunotherapy in HCC and discuss the emerging clinical data from various
      immunotherapeutic approaches including checkpoint inhibition, cell therapy,
      oncolytic viral therapy, and various combinatorial approaches. We also highlight
      the potential for various modalities to be adapted across different stages of the
      disease.

PMID- 28561677
TI  - Immunotherapy for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer.
AB  - PD-L1 upregulation occurs in approximately 40% of gastroesophageal cancers.
      However, unlike other solid tumors, there is minimal PD-L1 expressed on the
      cancer cells; rather, expression occurs predominantly on infiltrating myeloid
      cells. Preliminary clinical data involving single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in
      metastatic gastroesophageal cancer have reported response rates of 22%-27% for
      patients with PD-L1+ tumors and 10%-17% for unselected patients. The phase III
      ONO-4538-12 (ATTRACTION 2) trial has demonstrated an improved overall survival
      for nivolumab compared with placebo for patients with heavily pretreated gastric
      cancer. In the future, we will need better biomarkers to select those most likely
      to respond and/or identify patients who may need combination immunotherapeutics
      or alternate strategies. A number of subsets of gastric cancer with different
      immune signatures, most notably tumors positive for Epstein-Barr virus and
      microsatellite instability, have been identified, with approximately 50% and 94%
      PD-L1+ staining seen on tumor cells and immune cells in the EBV subtype and
      approximately 33% and 45% PD-L1+ staining seen on tumor cells and immune cells in
      MSI high tumors. Both subtypes demonstrate PD-L1+ immune cells with tumor
      infiltrating patterns, unlike the more commonly seen PD-L1+ immune cells at the
      invasive margin. PD-L2 expression has been reported in 52% of esophageal
      adenocarcinomas but little is known about the expression of other immune
      checkpoints. Additional factors that suggest gastroesophageal cancers may respond
      to checkpoint inhibition include the high somatic mutation burden and the link
      with chronic inflammation. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the
      checkpoint inhibitor data published to date in advanced esophagogastric cancers
      and rationalize how the immune microenvironment in these diverse tumors can
      explain response or resistance to immunotherapeutics.

PMID- 28561678
TI  - Deploying Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer: Defining Mechanisms of Response and
      Resistance.
AB  - The immune reaction to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a strong
      prognostic determinant of clinical outcomes and may be a promising therapeutic
      target. We use multiplex immunohistochemistry to illustrate distinct patterns of
      T-cell and myeloid cell infiltration seen in PDAC that have therapeutic
      implications and discuss the current state of immunotherapy in this disease.
      Based on collective findings from clinical and preclinical studies, two
      conceptual models have emerged for applying immunotherapy in PDAC that involve
      (1) restoring elements of T-cell immunosurveillance and (2) redirecting myeloid
      cells to condition tumors with increased sensitivity to cytotoxic therapies.
      Overall, the success of immunotherapy in PDAC will most likely rely on strategic
      combinations of therapies that are informed by well-designed correlative analyses
      that consider the spatial heterogeneity of immune responses detected in malignant
      tissues.

PMID- 28561679
TI  - Biomarker Testing for Personalized Therapy in Lung Cancer in Low- and Middle
      Income Countries.
AB  - There have been many important advances in personalized therapy for patients with
      lung cancer, particularly for those with advanced disease. Molecular testing is
      crucial for implementation of personalized therapy. Although the United States
      and many Western countries have come far in the implementation of personalized
      therapy for lung cancer, there are substantial challenges for low- and middle
      income countries (LMICs). Globally, the LMICs display great heterogeneity in the
      pattern of implementation of molecular testing and targeted therapy. The current
      review presents an attempt to identify the challenges and obstacles for the
      implementation of molecular testing and the use of targeted therapies in these
      areas. Lack of infrastructure, lack of technical expertise, economic factors, and
      lack of access to new drugs are among the substantial barriers.

PMID- 28561681
TI  - Cancer Care and Control as a Human Right: Recognizing Global Oncology as an
      Academic Field.
AB  - The global burden of cancer incidence and mortality is on the rise. There are
      major differences in cancer fatality rates due to profound disparities in the
      burden and resource allocation for cancer care and control in developed compared
      with developing countries. The right to cancer care and control should be a human
      right accessible to all patients with cancer, regardless of geographic or
      economic region, to avoid unnecessary deaths and suffering from cancer. National
      cancer planning should include an integrated approach that incorporates a
      continuum of education, prevention, cancer diagnostics, treatment, survivorship,
      and palliative care. Global oncology as an academic field should offer the
      knowledge and skills needed to efficiently assess situations and work on
      solutions, in close partnership. We need medical oncologists, surgical
      oncologists, pediatric oncologists, gynecologic oncologists, radiologists, and
      pathologists trained to think about well-tailored resource-stratified solutions
      to cancer care in the developing world. Moreover, the multidisciplinary
      fundamental team approach needed to treat most neoplastic diseases requires
      coordinated investment in several areas. Current innovative approaches have
      relied on partnerships between academic institutions in developed countries and
      local governments and ministries of health in developing countries to provide the
      expertise needed to implement effective cancer control programs. Global oncology
      is a viable and necessary field that needs to be emphasized because of its
      critical role in proposing not only solutions in developing countries, but also
      solutions that can be applied to similar challenges of access to cancer care and
      control faced by underserved populations in developed countries.

PMID- 28561680
TI  - Thinking Differently in Global Health in Oncology Using a Diagonal Approach:
      Harnessing Similarities, Improving Education, and Empowering an Alternative
      Oncology Workforce.
AB  - Cancer is a leading global cause of death, and diverse and minority populations
      suffer worse outcomes compared with white people from Western societies. Within
      the United States, African Americans and other blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and
      American Indians have lower cancer survival rates than whites. In the rest of the
      world, those from low- and middle-income countries have the greatest disparities,
      but even those from non-Western high-income countries such as Oman and the United
      Arab Emirates are diagnosed with cancer at later stages and suffer increased
      mortality. Although considerable differences exist among these populations,
      similarities and synergies are also apparent. Challenges can be very similar in
      reaching these populations effectively for cancer control to improve outcomes,
      and innovative strategies are needed to effectively make change. In this review,
      the authors discuss new approaches to the prevention and early detection of
      cancer as well as the implementation of programs in global oncology and put in
      evidence cultural similarities and challenges of different populations,
      highlighting strategies to improve cancer survival and quality care around the
      world through innovations in training and education, empowerment of an
      alternative workforce, and a diagonal approach to cancer care using case studies
      drawn from the authors' work and experience.

PMID- 28561682
TI  - Advances in the Treatment of Advanced Extracutaneous Melanomas and Nonmelanoma
      Skin Cancers.
AB  - Cutaneous malignancies make up the greatest proportion of all human cancers and
      include melanomas as well as nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) such as basal cell
      carcinoma (BCC) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), as well as less
      common Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), cutaneous lymphomas, cutaneous adnexal
      tumors, Kaposi sarcomas, and other sarcomas. Each of these NMSCs differ
      significantly in biology, clinical behavior, and optimal treatment
      recommendations from each other and from cutaneous melanoma. Similarly, less
      common extracutaneous melanomas, such as mucosal (MMs) and uveal (UMs), are
      unique biologic and clinical entities that require distinct diagnostic and
      management considerations. In this review, we summarize recent advances in
      biology and treatment of extracutaneous melanomas and NMSCs, including MMs, UMs,
      cSCC, BCC, and MCC.

PMID- 28561683
TI  - Breast Cancer in the Central Nervous System: Multidisciplinary Considerations and
      Management.
AB  - Breast cancer is the second most common primary tumor associated with central
      nervous system (CNS) metastases. Patients with metastatic HER2-positive or triple
      negative (estrogen receptor (ER)-negative, progesterone receptor (PR)-negative,
      HER2-negative) breast cancer are at the highest risk of developing parenchymal
      brain metastases. Leptomeningeal disease is less frequent but is distributed
      across breast cancer subtypes, including lobular breast cancer. Initial treatment
      strategies can include surgery, radiation, intravenous or intrathecal
      chemotherapy, and/or targeted approaches. In this article, we review the
      epidemiology of breast cancer brain metastases, differences in clinical behavior
      and natural history by tumor subtype, and important considerations in the
      multidisciplinary treatment of these patients. We will highlight new findings
      that impact current standards of care, clinical controversies, and notable
      investigational approaches in clinical testing.

PMID- 28561684
TI  - Optimizing Breast Cancer Adjuvant Radiation and Integration of Breast and
      Reconstructive Surgery.
AB  - Postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) reduces the risk of locoregional and distant
      recurrence and improves overall survival in women with lymph node-positive breast
      cancer. Because of stage migration and improvements in systemic therapy and other
      aspects of breast cancer care, the absolute benefit of PMRT and regional nodal
      irradiation may be small in some favorable subsets of patients with very low
      nodal burden, and newer consensus guidelines do not mandate PMRT in all node
      positive cases. The use and need for PMRT may considerably complicate breast
      reconstruction after mastectomy and therefore mandates multidisciplinary input
      that takes into account patient choice given potential risk of acute and long
      term toxicities, benefits, life expectancy, the biology of the tumor, plans for
      systemic therapy, and actual tumor burden. Management of axillary lymph node
      metastases is changing with selective use of axillary lymph node dissection for
      advanced disease, sentinel lymph node biopsy alone for clinically and pathologic
      node-negative cases receiving mastectomy, and targeted axillary dissection alone
      among patients with eradication of initial biopsy-proven nodal metastases with
      neoadjuvant systemic therapy use. In general, when the need for PMRT is
      anticipated, autologous reconstruction should be delayed. This comprehensive
      article reviews the current indications and implications regarding integration of
      breast cancer surgery and timing of reconstruction with optimum radiation
      delivery to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.

PMID- 28561685
TI  - Lifestyle Interventions to Improve Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Reduce Breast
      Cancer Recurrence.
AB  - As patients are living longer after a cancer diagnosis, survivorship is becoming
      increasingly important in cancer care. The sequelae of multimodality therapies
      include weight gain and decreased cardiorespiratory fitness, which increase
      cardiovascular risk. Evidence suggests that physical activity reduces the risk of
      breast cancer recurrence and death. Avoidance of weight gain after therapy also
      improves outcomes after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Prospective randomized
      trials must be performed to determine the benefits of specific physical activity
      and dietary habits for survivors of breast cancer. This review outlines the
      important physiologic changes that occur with antineoplastic therapy and the
      important role of exercise and diet.

PMID- 28561687
TI  - New Insight Into the Biology, Risk Stratification, and Targeted Treatment of
      Myelodysplastic Syndromes.
AB  - In myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), somatic mutations occur in five major
      categories: RNA splicing, DNA methylation, activated cell signaling, myeloid
      transcription factors, and chromatin modifiers. Although many MDS cases harbor
      more than one somatic mutation, in general, there is mutual exclusivity of
      mutated genes within a class. In addition to the prognostic significance of
      individual somatic mutations, more somatic mutations in MDS have been associated
      with poor prognosis. Prognostic assessment remains a critical component of the
      personalization of care for patient with MDS because treatment is highly risk
      adapted. Multiple methods for risk stratification are available with the revised
      International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R), currently considered the gold
      standard. Increasing access to myeloid gene panels and greater evidence for the
      diagnostic and predictive value of somatic mutations will soon make sequencing
      part of the standard evaluation of patients with MDS. In the absence of formal
      guidelines for their prognostic use, well-validated mutations can still refine
      estimates of risk made with the IPSS-R. Not only are somatic gene mutations
      advantageous in understanding the biology of MDS and prognosis, they also offer
      potential as biomarkers and targets for the treatment of patients with MDS.
      Examples include deletion 5q, spliceosome complex gene mutations, and TP53
      mutations.

PMID- 28561688
TI  - Novel Therapeutics in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
AB  - In this review, we focus on three key areas in acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
      developmental therapeutics: FLT3 inhibitors, IDH inhibitors, and drugs that may
      be particularly beneficial in secondary AML.

PMID- 28561686
TI  - Advances in the Treatment of Pediatric Bone Sarcomas.
AB  - Bone tumors make up a significant portion of noncentral nervous system solid
      tumor diagnoses in pediatric oncology patients. Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma,
      both with distinct clinical and pathologic features, are the two most commonly
      encountered bone cancers in pediatrics. Although mutations in the germline have
      classically been more associated with osteosarcoma, there is recent evidence
      germline alterations in patients with Ewing sarcoma also play a significant role
      in pathogenesis. Treatment advances in this patient population have lagged behind
      that of other pediatric malignancies, particularly targeted interventions
      directed at the biologic underpinnings of disease. Recent advances in biologic
      and genomic understanding of these two cancers has expanded the potential for
      therapeutic advancement and prevention. In Ewing sarcoma, directed focus on
      inhibition of EWSR1-FLI1 and its effectors has produced promising results. In
      osteosarcoma, instead of a concentrated focus on one particular change, largely
      due to tumor heterogeneity, a more diversified approach has been adopted
      including investigations of growth factors inhibitors, signaling pathway
      inhibitors, and immune modulation. Continuing recently made treatment advances
      relies on clinical trial design and enrollment. Clinical trials should include
      incorporation of biological findings; specifically, for Ewing sarcoma, assessment
      of alternative fusions and, for osteosarcoma, stratification utilizing
      biomarkers. Expanded cancer genomics knowledge, particularly with solid tumors,
      as it relates to heritability and incorporation of family history has led to
      early identification of patients with cancer predisposition. In these patients
      through application of cost-effective evidence-based screening techniques the
      ultimate goal of cancer prevention is becoming a realization.

PMID- 28561689
TI  - Improving Cancer Care Through the Patient Experience: How to Use Patient-Reported
      Outcomes in Clinical Practice.
AB  - Poorly controlled symptoms are common and debilitating during cancer treatment
      and can affect functional status and quality of life, health care resource
      utilization, treatment adherence, and cancer survivorship. Historically, the
      patient experience, including symptoms during treatment, has not been tracked or
      documented in the patient health record. Measurement of patient-reported outcomes
      (PROs), including symptoms, is an essential component to cancer care focused on
      the illness impact to the patient and family. PROs can be useful at the
      individual level for monitoring and promoting symptom care both in the clinic and
      remotely and at the population level for aggregating population data for use in
      research and quality improvement initiatives. Implementation of PROs in cancer
      clinical care requires a carefully thought out process to overcome challenges
      related to integrating PROs into existing electronic health records and clinical
      work flow. Issues with implementing PRO collection may include making decisions
      about measurement tools, modes of delivery, frequency of measurement, and
      interpretation that are guided by a clarification of the purpose for collecting
      PROs. We focus on three aspects of PRO use: (1) improving care for individual
      patients, (2) analyzing aggregated data to improve care and outcomes overall, and
      (3) considerations in implementing PRO collection.

PMID- 28561690
TI  - Understanding the New WHO Classification of Lymphoid Malignancies: Why It's
      Important and How It Will Affect Practice.
AB  - Improved delineation of lymphoid malignancy biology has prompted refinement of
      the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and
      lymphoid tumors with a new framework introduced in 2016. This knowledge has
      provided valuable insights regarding management. Early clonal proliferations have
      been set apart given their limited potential for malignant dissemination.
      Increasing knowledge of molecular drivers of aggressive lymphomas has allowed
      subclassification and opportunity for clinical investigations to personalize
      therapy. New insights into T-cell pathophysiology has allowed grouping based on
      shared molecular and cellular features. This article will summarize the key
      changes in terms of diagnosis and histopathologic definitions, the impact of
      these changes on clinical management, and the challenges of future research in
      this field.

PMID- 28561691
TI  - Improving Quality and Value of Cancer Care for Older Adults.
AB  - The concepts of quality and value have become ubiquitous in discussions about
      health care, including cancer care. Despite their prominence, these concepts
      remain difficult to encapsulate, with multiple definitions and frameworks
      emerging over the past few decades. Defining quality and value for the care of
      older adults with cancer can be particularly challenging. Older adults are
      heterogeneous and often excluded from clinical trials, severely limiting
      generalizable data for this population. Moreover, many frameworks for quality and
      value focus on traditional outcomes of survival and toxicity and neglect goals
      that may be more meaningful for older adults, such as quality of life and
      functional independence. A history of quality and value standards and an
      evaluation of some currently available standards and frameworks elucidate the
      potential gaps in application to older adults with cancer. However, narrowing the
      focus to processes of care presents several opportunities for improving the care
      of older adults with cancer now, even while further work is ongoing to evaluate
      outcomes and efficiency. New models of care, including the patient-centered
      medical home, as well as new associated bundled payment models, would be
      advantageous for older adults with cancer, facilitating collaboration,
      communication, and patient-centeredness and minimizing the fragmentation that
      impairs the current provision of cancer care. Advances in information technology
      support the foundation for these models of care; these technologies facilitate
      communication, increase available data, support shared decision making, and
      increase access to multidisciplinary specialty care. Further work will be needed
      to define and to continue to tailor processes of care to achieve relevant
      outcomes for older patients with cancer to fulfill the promise of quality and
      value of care for this vulnerable and growing population.

PMID- 28561692
TI  - Health Disparities and the Global Landscape of Lymphoma Care Today.
AB  - Lymphoma encompass a wide variety of distinct disease entities, including, but
      not limited to, subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL).
      In the last 3 decades, therapeutic advancements have resulted in substantial
      improvements in lymphoma outcome. In most high-income regions, HL is a largely
      curable disease and for patients with two frequent subtypes of NHL, diffuse large
      B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL), survival has dramatically
      improved with the incorporation of rituximab as a standard treatment approach.
      Despite these advances, outcomes vary between and across populations. This review
      will provide updated information about health disparities in lymphoma in the
      United States and across the globe.

PMID- 28561693
TI  - Age and Sex in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Therapy: It's Not All Created Equal, or Is
      It?
AB  - Age is the most prominent factor for survival in all patients diagnosed with
      lymphoma, and male sex implies an increased and independent risk for a worse
      progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in most lymphomas,
      possibly with the exception of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). The worse outcome for
      elderly patients is only partially explained by decreased tolerance to treatment
      regimens associated with the increasing number and severity of comorbidities.
      Little is known about specific differences in lymphoma biology with respect to
      age and sex, and this is changing only slowly despite the recent rise in interest
      about these issues. To better understand the differences and their underlying
      mechanisms, questions of age- and sex-specific outcomes, their correlation with
      pharmacokinetic data, and planned and received doses, must be addressed and
      reported in prospective clinical trials. Such studies must be accompanied by
      translational research that investigates biologic differences of lymphomas
      between old and young and male and female patients by addressing the
      microenvironment, cytogenetics including next-generation sequencing and systems
      biology of lymphomas, and correlation of these findings with treatment results.
      This knowledge will enable us to adjust lymphoma treatment to the necessities of
      more personalized medicine.

PMID- 28561694
TI  - Current Approaches to Mantle Cell Lymphoma: Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapies.
AB  - Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a unique lymphoma subtype, both biologically and
      clinically. Virtually all cases are characterized by a common genetic lesion,
      t(11;14), resulting in overexpression of cyclin D1. The clinical course is
      moderately aggressive, and the disease is considered incurable. Considerable
      biologic and clinical heterogeneity exists, with some patients experiencing a
      rapidly progressive course, while others have disease that is readily managed.
      New tools exist for risk stratification and may allow for a more personalized
      approach in the future. Landmark studies have been completed in recent years and
      outcomes appear to be improving. Randomized clinical trials have clarified the
      role of high-dose cytarabine (Ara-C) for younger patients and have demonstrated a
      role for maintenance rituximab therapy. Multiple areas of uncertainty remain,
      however, and are the focus of ongoing research. This review focuses on (1)
      strategies to differentiate between aggressive and less aggressive cases, (2)
      understanding who should receive hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and (3)
      the role for maintenance therapy in MCL.

PMID- 28561695
TI  - Biomarkers for Checkpoint Inhibition.
AB  - The identification of predictive biomarkers for the benefit of cancer
      immunotherapy is the holy grail of the burgeoning immunotherapy field. Recent
      work has shown that there are a core of concepts that establish the presence of
      an immune cell-infiltrate, an inflammatory signature of the tumor
      microenvironment, and the availability of target antigens defined by mutated
      neoantigens, as critical for the success of the checkpoint blockade. Genetic
      analyses have shown that resistance to PD-1 blockade, either innate or adaptive,
      may be due to existing or de novo mutations in signaling pathways critical for T
      cell function in a modest proportion of cases. Major hurdles in the field that
      remain to be overcome are the difficulty of obtaining tumor biopsies for
      biomarker assessment, the heterogeneity of biomarker expression within tumors and
      within different tumors from the same patient, and the inducibility of some
      biomarkers by disease-related processes. Although assessment of peripheral blood
      or serum biomarkers would be ideal, few data suggest that they would reliably
      predict outcome with checkpoint blockade. Ultimately, some amalgamated biomarker
      that includes tumor and host factors will be required to predict which patients
      are likely to benefit from, or be resistant to, the effects of checkpoint
      inhibition.

PMID- 28561696
TI  - Using the New ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline for Palliative Care Concurrent
      With Oncology Care Using the TEAM Approach.
AB  - Palliative care alongside usual oncology care is now recommended by ASCO as the
      standard of care for any patient with advanced cancer on the basis of multiple
      randomized trials that show better results with concurrent care than with usual
      oncology care. Some benefits include better quality of life, better symptom
      management, reduced anxiety and depression, less caregiver distress, more
      accordance of care with the wishes of the patient, and less aggressive end-of
      life care. Several studies show a survival advantage of several months, and many
      show considerable cost savings: better care at an affordable cost. However, there
      are not enough palliative care specialists available, so oncologists must
      practice exemplary primary palliative care. Protocols used in the clinical
      trials, similar to those designed for new chemotherapy agents, help oncologists
      use the TEAM approach of extra time, typically an hour a month spent with the
      palliative care team; education, especially about prognostic awareness and
      realistic options, which include formal setting of goals of care and discussion
      of advance directives; formal assessments for symptoms and for spiritual and
      psychosocial health; and management by an interdisciplinary team. These are all
      potentially accomplished by an oncology practice to replicate the services
      provided by concurrent palliative care.

PMID- 28561697
TI  - Screening and Treating Prostate Cancer in the Older Patient: Decision Making
      Across the Clinical Spectrum.
AB  - Treatment of the growing geriatric patient population is increasingly being
      recognized as a necessary priority of the oncology community. As the most common
      cancer among men in developed countries, prostate cancer afflicts a sizable
      portion of elderly men. Caring for this population requires knowledge of aspects
      of disease presentation, screening strategies, treatment approaches, and
      survivorship care considerations unique to the geriatric population. In this
      article, we review characteristics of prostate cancer screening and treatment
      decision making for localized disease in elderly men, including a discussion of
      the biology of disease in the elderly population. We also review best practices
      for providing treatment for localized and recurrent disease in an elderly
      population, including engaging in a basic geriatric assessment to determine
      fitness for treatment, eliciting information about patient preferences and
      support systems, and balancing treatment decisions in the context of these
      factors using the resources of a multidisciplinary care team. We then consider
      complications of prostate cancer survivorship related to systemic treatment in
      the elderly population of men with this disease. Finally, we emphasize the
      importance of engaging patients in treatment decision making across the spectrum
      of disease to personalize treatment plans and provide optimal care.

PMID- 28561699
TI  - Personalizing Therapy for Metastatic Prostate Cancer: The Role of Solid and
      Liquid Tumor Biopsies.
AB  - Although biopsies of metastatic prostate cancer are rarely undertaken in the
      clinical setting, there is increasing interest in developing personalized
      approaches to therapy by taking into account the genetic and phenotypic changes
      in an individual tumor. Indeed, analysis of metastatic prostate tumors can
      predict sensitivity to agents that inhibit DNA repair and resistance to novel
      hormonal agents, such as abiraterone and enzalutamide, and identify phenotypic
      changes, such as neuroendocrine differentiation, that have important clinical
      implications. Although obtaining metastatic tumor tissue is necessary for this
      genomic and molecular profiling, knowing when to biopsy, selecting the
      appropriate metastatic lesion, and interpreting the results are major challenges
      facing clinicians today. In this article, we discuss the rationale for obtaining
      metastatic tumor tissue, review the bioinformatic approach to analyzing these
      specimens, discuss the timing and approach to solid and liquid tumor biopsies,
      review the challenges associated with obtaining and acting on clinically relevant
      results, and discuss opportunities for the future.

PMID- 28561698
TI  - Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer: What Americans Can Learn From
      International Oncologists.
AB  - The three main sections in this article illustrate a number of facets of European
      health care. The first section looks at the influence of NICE on treatment of
      metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The second section explores the
      impact of molecular imaging on diagnosis and treatment, in particular the
      development and clinical implementation of 68Ga PET imaging in prostate cancer.
      The final section of the session looks at the STAMPEDE trial and how running a
      trial on this scale has impacted care of prostate cancer in the United Kingdom
      and also at the uptake of docetaxel chemotherapy in hormone-sensitive advanced
      disease.

PMID- 28561700
TI  - Value-Based Medicine and Integration of Tumor Biology.
AB  - Clinical oncology is in the midst of a genomic revolution, as molecular insights
      redefine our understanding of cancer biology. Greater awareness of the distinct
      aberrations that drive carcinogenesis is also contributing to a growing
      armamentarium of genomically targeted therapies. Although much work remains to
      better understand how to combine and sequence these therapies, improved outcomes
      for patients are becoming manifest. As we welcome this genomic revolution in
      cancer care, oncologists also must grapple with a number of practical problems.
      Costs of cancer care continue to grow, with targeted therapies responsible for an
      increasing proportion of spending. Rising costs are bringing the concept of value
      into sharper focus and challenging the oncology community with implementation of
      value-based cancer care. This article explores the ways that the genomic
      revolution is transforming cancer care, describes various frameworks for
      considering the value of genomically targeted therapies, and outlines key
      challenges for delivering on the promise of personalized cancer care. It
      highlights practical solutions for the implementation of value-based care,
      including investment in biomarker development and clinical trials to improve the
      efficacy of targeted therapy, the use of evidence-based clinical pathways, team
      based care, computerized clinical decision support, and value-based payment
      approaches.

PMID- 28561701
TI  - For Our Patients, for Ourselves: The Value of Personal Reflection in Oncology.
AB  - Caring for patients with cancer is a great privilege as well as an emotionally
      and intellectually challenging task. Stress and burnout are prevalent among
      oncology clinicians, with serious repercussions for the care of patients.
      Professional societies must provide guidance for trainees and practicing
      physicians to mitigate the negative consequences of stress on their personal
      lives and medical practice. Reflection, reading, and writing about personal
      experiences provide outlets for fortifying personal reserves and promoting
      resilience to allow us to recognize the joy and meaning of our work and to forge
      connections with our peers. Herein, we present some of our own reflections on how
      and why one might take time to write, and about the power of the written word in
      oncology and medicine.

PMID- 28561702
TI  - Perspectives on the Use of Clinical Pathways in Oncology Care.
AB  - Pathways and guidelines are valuable tools to provide evidence-based care in
      oncology. Pathways may be more restrictive than guidelines because they attempt
      (where possible) to reduce cost, add efficiency, and remove unwarranted
      variability. Pathways offer an opportunity to measure, report, and improve
      quality of care; they can drive to evidence-based targeted therapy where
      appropriate; they can enhance efficiency through standardization; and, finally,
      they can be a vehicle to enhance participation in clinical trials. Pathway
      implementation requires understanding and commitment on the part of the physician
      and leadership as they may initially disrupt workflow, but ultimately have the
      ability to enhance patient care. ASCO criteria have been published for the
      development and implementation of high-quality oncology pathway programs. Future
      challenges for pathways include incorporation of molecular testing and
      appropriate targeted care in a real-time precision oncology approach.

PMID- 28561703
TI  - Hematologic Malignancies: Plasma Cell Disorders.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy characterized by the growth of
      tumor cells in the bone marrow. Properties of the tumor microenvironment provide
      both potential tumor-promoting and tumor-restricting properties. Targeting
      underlying immune triggers for evolution of tumors as well as direct attack of
      malignant plasma cells is an emerging focus of therapy for MM. The monoclonal
      antibodies daratumumab and elotuzumab, which target the plasma cell surface
      proteins CD38 and SLAMF7/CS1, respectively, particularly when used in combination
      with immunomodulatory agents and proteasome inhibitors, have resulted in high
      response rates and improved survival for patients with relapsed and refractory
      MM. A number of other monoclonal antibodies are in various stages of clinical
      development, including those targeting MM cell surface antigens, the bone marrow
      microenvironment, and immune effector T cells such as antiprogrammed cell death
      protein 1 antibodies. Bispecific preparations seek to simultaneously target MM
      cells and activate endogenous T cells to enhance efficacy. Cellular immunotherapy
      seeks to overcome the limitations of the endogenous antimyeloma immune response
      through adoptive transfer of immune effector cells with MM specificity.
      Allogeneic donor lymphocyte infusion can be effective but can cause graft-versus
      host disease. The most promising approach appears to be genetically modified
      cellular therapy, in which T cells are given novel antigen specificity through
      expression of transgenic T-cell receptors (TCRs) or chimeric antigen receptors
      (CARs). CAR T cells against several different targets are under investigation in
      MM. Infusion of CD19-targeted CAR T cells following salvage autologous stem cell
      transplantation (SCT) was safe and extended remission duration in a subset of
      patients with relapsed/refractory MM. CAR T cells targeting B-cell maturation
      antigen (BCMA) appear most promising, with dramatic remissions seen in patients
      with highly refractory disease in three ongoing trials. Responses are associated
      with degree of CAR T-cell expansion/persistence and often toxicity, including
      cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity. Ongoing and future studies are
      exploring correlates of response, ways to mitigate toxicity, and "universal" CAR
      T cells.

PMID- 28561704
TI  - New Developments and Challenges in Rare Genitourinary Tumors: Non-Urothelial
      Bladder Cancers and Squamous Cell Cancers of the Penis.
AB  - The diagnosis and treatment of rare genitourinary tumors is inherently
      challenging. The Rare Diseases Act of 2002 initially defined a rare disorder as
      one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans. The lack of widely available
      clinical guidelines, limited research funding, and inaccessible clinical trials
      often lead to difficulty with treatment decisions to guide practitioners in
      rendering effective care for patients with rare genitourinary cancers. This
      article will discuss basic tenets of diagnosis and treatment as well as recent
      developments and clinical trials in rare non-urothelial bladder cancers and
      penile squamous cell cancers.

PMID- 28561705
TI  - Metabolic Alterations in Cancer and Their Potential as Therapeutic Targets.
AB  - Otto Warburg's discovery in the 1920s that tumor cells took up more glucose and
      produced more lactate than normal cells provided the first clues that cancer
      cells reprogrammed their metabolism. For many years, however, it was unclear as
      to whether these metabolic alterations were a consequence of tumor growth or an
      adaptation that provided a survival advantage to these cells. In more recent
      years, interest in the metabolic differences in cancer cells has surged, as tumor
      proliferation and survival have been shown to be dependent upon these metabolic
      changes. In this educational review, we discuss some of the mechanisms that tumor
      cells use for reprogramming their metabolism to provide the energy and nutrients
      that they need for quick or sustained proliferation and discuss the potential for
      therapeutic targeting of these pathways to improve patient outcomes.

PMID- 28561706
TI  - Practice-Changing Abstracts From the 2016 Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual
      Scientific Meeting.
AB  - The most relevant practice-changing presentations at the 2016 Society for Neuro
      Oncology (SNO) Annual Scientific Meeting revolved around the topic of the new
      2016 World Health Organization (WHO) classification of central nervous system
      (CNS) tumors. The most notable change in this new classification is the
      introduction of molecular markers into the morphologic classification of diffuse
      gliomas (isocitrate dehydrogenase [IDH] mutation, 1p19q codeletion, and H3K27M
      mutation), ependymomas (RELA fusion), medulloblastomas (WNT- and sonic hedgehog
      activated), and other embryonal tumors (C19MC amplification), thus allowing for
      more precise diagnosis of these entities compared with the use of morphologic
      features alone. Among the clinical trials presented, only one phase III trial
      evaluating a device therapy for treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma (EF14;
      tumor-treating fields) met prespecified statistical criteria for success, showing
      a modest benefit in progression-free survival and overall survival in patients
      without progression after radiation and concurrent temozolomide. Other topics of
      interest included the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of primary brain tumors
      and the prevalence of burnout among neuro-oncologists.

PMID- 28561707
TI  - American Society for Radiation Oncology 2016 Annual Meeting: Central Nervous
      System Abstracts.
AB  - The American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) 2016 scientific program
      presented a number of excellent abstracts focusing on brain and spine tumors.
      Selected abstracts will be reviewed in this article.

PMID- 28561708
TI  - Systemic Therapy for Non-Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - Treatment options for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have
      evolved markedly over the past decade, with multiple targeted therapies approved
      for the disease. In contrast, little improvement has been made in the management
      of metastatic non-clear cell RCC (nccRCC). Non-clear cell disease is an umbrella
      term that encompasses multiple biologically distinct entities, including but not
      limited to papillary, chromophobe, and sarcomatoid RCC. To date, prospective
      studies have largely explored treatments for ccRCC (e.g., VEGF- and mTOR-directed
      therapies) in trials that aggregate non-clear cell histologies. However, the
      studies do not acknowledge the varying biology of each non-clear cell subtype.
      Emerging studies in nccRCC should examine individual histologies and apply
      biologically relevant therapies. An example of this is SWOG 1500, a randomized
      phase II study that will compare a VEGF-inhibitor to one of three MET-directed
      therapies in patients with metastatic papillary RCC. Until the biologic diversity
      of nccRCC is appreciated, outcomes are likely to remain dismal.

PMID- 28561709
TI  - Practice Model for Advanced Practice Providers in Oncology.
AB  - According to ASCO, the number of practicing oncologists has remained stable
      despite growth demands, leading to an overall shortage in many areas of the
      country. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are advanced practice
      providers (APPs) who can assist in the provision of support and care to patients
      with cancer, but the role of the APP in the oncology setting has not been well
      defined. There exists a variety of different practice patterns for APPs who work
      in oncology, and the lack of role definition and absence of an established
      practice model are considered leading causes of APP attrition. According to the
      American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, it has been well demonstrated that, when
      nurse practitioners are allowed to work to the full scope of their education and
      preparation, there are notable cost reductions and quality improvements in
      patient care. The focus of APP education and training is on health promotion,
      disease prevention, and primary care medical management, but most APPs have
      limited exposure to management of cancer in patients. With this in mind, Aurora
      Cancer Care developed a practice model for APPs who work in oncology. The goal of
      the model is to enhance the quality of care delivered to patients and provide a
      stimulating work environment that fosters excellent collaborative relationships
      with oncologist colleagues, supports professional growth, and allows APPs to
      practice to the full extent of their licensure.

PMID- 28561710
TI  - Standard and Genomic Tools for Decision Support in Breast Cancer Treatment.
AB  - Over the past few decades, comprehensive characterization of the cancer genome
      has elucidated pathways that drive cancer and mechanisms of resistance to therapy
      and provided important insights for development of new therapies. These advances
      have resulted in the development of prognostic and predictive tools for use in
      clinical settings, which can assist clinicians and patients in making informed
      decisions about the benefits of established therapies. In early-stage breast
      cancer, multiparameter genomic assays are now available for decision making about
      the duration of adjuvant endocrine therapy and the use of adjuvant chemotherapy.
      Similarly, in metastatic disease, there are multiple commercially available next
      generation sequencing options for identifying genetic alterations in tumors that
      may be targeted with a drug. Although these tools hold great promise for
      providing precision medicine, it can be difficult for the treating physician to
      evaluate their clinical utility and appropriately select tools for individual
      clinical situations. This review summarizes the currently available genomic tools
      in breast cancer, the data underlying their clinical validity and utility, and
      how they can be used in conjunction with standard clinicopathologic data for
      making adjuvant and metastatic treatment decisions.

PMID- 28561711
TI  - Optimal Management of Early and Advanced HER2 Breast Cancer.
AB  - Approximately 15%-20% of breast cancer is HER2 positive, and patients with this
      subtype of disease historically had worse outcomes than patients with HER2
      negative disease. However, the introduction of HER2-directed therapies has
      dramatically altered outcomes for these patients, especially for persons with
      early disease. However, despite these achievements, metastatic disease is still
      not curable. This review summarizes the current treatment approach for patients
      in the preoperative and adjuvant setting, including data regarding selecting the
      optimal chemotherapy partner as well as determining the duration and type of anti
      HER-directed therapy. This article also reviews how to approach patients with
      advanced HER2-positive disease and discusses promising new therapies that are in
      development.

PMID- 28561712
TI  - Novel Targeted Agents and Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer.
AB  - The treatment of breast cancer is generally determined according to breast cancer
      subtype: hormone receptor-positive (luminal), triple-negative (basal-like), and
      HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. Recent years have seen the development of
      exciting novel and potent therapeutics based on molecular pathways, immune
      modulation, and antibody conjugates. In this article, we cover new and emerging
      therapeutic areas and ongoing clinical trials that may result in further
      improvements in breast cancer outcomes.

PMID- 28561713
TI  - Collaborating With Advanced Practice Providers: Impact and Opportunity.
AB  - Although significant progress has been made in cancer care, access to
      coordinated, high-quality care across the cancer care continuum remains a
      challenge for many patients. With significant workforce shortages in oncology
      anticipated, physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs)-known
      collectively as advanced practice providers (APPs)-are considered to be a part of
      the solution to bridging the gap between the supply of and demand for oncology
      services. APPs are integral to the provision of team-based care in oncology, and
      optimizing the roles of all members of the patient's care team is vital to
      ensuring the teams are cost-effective and that each team member is performing at
      the functional level intended. Studies have shown significant patient, physician,
      and APP satisfaction with collaborative care models, and APPs are well positioned
      to enhance value for patients in the oncology setting. Understanding the full
      scope of APP impact can be challenging as it extends well beyond direct patient
      care. As rapid progress in cancer care continues, innovative approaches to care
      delivery will be necessary to ensure patients' access. Effective oncologist-APP
      partnerships will be key to providing optimal, value-centered care to patients.

PMID- 28561714
TI  - Personalizing Adjuvant Therapy for Stage II/III Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - This review focuses on three areas of interest with respect to the treatment of
      stage II and III colon and rectal cancer, including (1) tailoring adjuvant
      therapy for the geriatric population, (2) the controversy as to the optimal
      adjuvant therapy strategy for patients with locoregional rectal cancer and for
      patients with colorectal resectable metastatic disease, and (3) discussion of the
      microenvironment, molecular profiling, and the future of adjuvant therapy. It has
      become evident that age is the strongest predictive factor for receipt of
      adjuvant chemotherapy, duration of treatment, and risk of treatment-related
      toxicity. Although incorporating adjuvant chemotherapy for patients who have
      received neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery would appear to be a reasonable
      strategy to improve survivorship as an extrapolation from stage III colon cancer
      adjuvant trials, attempts at defining the optimal rectal cancer population that
      would benefit from adjuvant therapy remain elusive. Similarly, the role of
      adjuvant chemotherapy for patients after resection of metastatic colorectal
      cancer has not been clearly defined because of very limited data to provide
      guidance. An understanding of the biologic hallmarks and drivers of metastatic
      spread as well as the micrometastatic environment is expected to translate into
      therapeutic strategies tailored to select patients. The identification of
      actionable targets in mesenchymal tumors is of major interest.

PMID- 28561715
TI  - Endometrial Cancer: Is This a New Disease?
AB  - The incidence of endometrial cancer is increasing, and the age of onset is
      younger than in prior years. Although endometrial cancer still occurs more
      commonly in older women, for whom the mortality rate is increasing, it also is
      being diagnosed in younger and younger women. The underlying cause of the
      increase in incidence is the epidemic of obesity and the resulting
      hyperinsulinemia. Conservative treatment may be indicated for younger women who
      wish to retain their fertility. Lifestyle modifications such as diet and exercise
      can modulate the risk of developing endometrial cancer as well as prevent
      recurrence and other comorbidities associated with obesity.

PMID- 28561716
TI  - Breast Cancer After Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer: It's Not Just
      About Chest Radiation.
AB  - Women who have been treated for a childhood, adolescent, or young adult cancer
      are at an increased risk for developing breast cancer at a young age, and breast
      cancer accounts for the most common subsequent malignant neoplasm among female
      childhood and adolescent cancer survivors. Risk of breast cancer in these
      survivors appears to be a multifaceted relationship between constitutional
      factors, exposures to radiation therapy (RT) and chemotherapy, and genetic
      predisposition. Given the significant morbidities and mortality associated with a
      breast cancer diagnosis, it is imperative that health care providers understand
      the risks, biology and genetics, recommended surveillance guidelines for early
      detection, and potential prevention strategies for women who have survived
      pediatric and young adult cancer.

PMID- 28561717
TI  - Addressing the Survivorship Care Needs of Patients Receiving Extended Cancer
      Treatment.
AB  - Cancer survivorship care and research has typically focused on the health care
      needs of people with cancer following the acute phase of treatment. Work in this
      area, however, has faced challenges in identifying when treatment is complete for
      many forms of cancer. Acknowledging this challenge, the scope of survivorship
      research is often expanded to include patients also receiving maintenance or
      prophylactic therapy. Inherent in this expanded definition is the recognition
      that for many individuals, cancer is a chronic disease requiring extended
      treatment over many years. Three distinct patient populations can be identified
      for which extended treatment poses important survivorship care needs that, to
      date, have not been adequately addressed. The first group includes patients
      receiving extended endocrine therapy, such as women with breast cancer receiving
      tamoxifen and/or aromatase inhibitors as well as men with prostate cancer
      receiving androgen deprivation therapy. The second group includes patients
      receiving extended targeted therapy to control disease, as exemplified by
      patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia receiving treatment with tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors. A key issue in both of these patient groups is the need to
      identify and address factors that contribute to difficulties in maintaining high
      levels of adherence to the prescribed therapy over extended periods of time. The
      third group includes patients receiving novel therapies for advanced or
      metastatic cancer that can extend life for prolonged periods. A key issue for
      this group is the need to understand and address their unique supportive care
      needs.

PMID- 28561718
TI  - Systemic Therapy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: From Current Standards to
      Future Molecular Targeted Approaches.
AB  - Over the past 20 years, substantial advances have been made in the treatment of
      patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In particular, there is now a
      wide range of options for the front-line treatment of mCRC. Sophisticated
      molecular technologies have been developed to identify novel prognostic and
      predictive biomarkers for CRC. DNA sequencing technology has made remarkable
      advances in recent years, primarily as a result of the development of next
      generation sequencing and whole exome sequencing, which are powerful new tools
      for the discovery of predictive molecular biomarkers to facilitate the delivery
      of personalized medicine. In addition to tumor tissue, recent efforts have
      focused on analyzing circulating tumor DNA in peripheral blood. Herein, we review
      the evolution of standard chemotherapy and targeted therapy strategies for the
      treatment of mCRC in the front-line setting, the molecular technologies that are
      presently being used to facilitate our ability to practice individualized
      medicine, and the practical aspects of applying molecular biomarkers to everyday
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28561720
TI  - mHealth: Mobile Technologies to Virtually Bring the Patient Into an Oncology
      Practice.
AB  - Accompanied by the change in the traditional medical landscape, advances in
      wireless technology have led to the development of telehealth or mobile health
      (mHealth), which offers an unparalleled opportunity for health care providers to
      continually deliver high-quality care. This revolutionary shift makes the patient
      the consumer of health care and empowers patients to be the driving force of
      management of their own health through mobile devices and wearable technology.
      This article presents an overview of technology as it pertains to clinical
      practice considerations. Telemedicine is changing the way clinical care is
      delivered without regard for proximity to the patient, whereas nonclinical
      telehealth applications affect distance education for consumers or clinicians,
      meetings, research, continuing medical education, and health care management.
      Technology has the potential to reduce administrative burdens and improve both
      efficiency and quality of care delivery in the clinic. Finally, the potential for
      telehealth approaches as cost-effective ways to improve adherence to treatment is
      explored. As telehealth advances, health care providers must understand the
      fundamental framework for applying telehealth strategies to incorporate into
      successful clinical practice.

PMID- 28561719
TI  - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: What Every Practitioner Needs to Know in 2017.
AB  - The prognosis of chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has improved so
      that life expectancy for patients responding to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)
      is now equivalent to age-matched controls. Attention should be paid to
      comorbidities that impact survival. The success of TKI therapy can be easily and
      reliably assessed at well-accepted time points using quantitative polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) standardized to the international scale. Patient-reported
      outcome (PRO) tools are readily available for use in the clinic and provide
      complementary information on the tolerance of TKIs. Effectively managing adverse
      events of TKIs can improve compliance and quality of life. Discontinuation of
      TKIs is the next frontier in CML. In select patients with sustained deep
      molecular remission, a discontinuation of TKI is associated with a durable
      treatment-free remission in approximately 50%. Patient engagement in their
      discontinuation can be achieved through a provider multi-team coaching, is
      complementary to the available guidelines, and may provide an additional safety
      net so that these discontinuations remain safe when applied in general practices.

PMID- 28561721
TI  - Managing Resistance to EFGR- and ALK-Targeted Therapies.
AB  - Targeted therapies have transformed the management of non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC) and placed an increased emphasis on stratifying patients on the basis of
      genetic alterations in oncogenic drivers. To date, the best characterized
      molecular targets in NSCLC are the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and
      anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). Despite steady advances in targeted therapies
      within these molecular subsets, however, acquired resistance to therapy is near
      universal. Recent preclinical models and translational efforts have provided
      critical insights into the molecular mechanisms of resistance to EGFR and ALK
      inhibitors. In this review, we present a framework for understanding resistance
      to targeted therapies. We also provide overviews of the molecular mechanisms of
      resistance and strategies to overcome resistance among EGFR-mutant and ALK
      rearranged lung cancers. To date, these strategies have centered on the
      development of novel next-generation inhibitors, rationale combinations, and use
      of local ablative therapies, such as radiotherapy.

PMID- 28561723
TI  - Wedge Resection Versus Anatomic Resection: Extent of Surgical Resection for Stage
      I and II Lung Cancer.
AB  - Currently, surgery for lung cancer with curative intent consists of resection
      (removal) of the proper extent of lung parenchyma that bears the cancer lesion
      along with locoregional lymph nodes to assess possible cancer metastasis.
      Lobectomy, at least, is preferred with regard to the extent of parenchymal
      resection. The history of lung cancer surgery, which started around 1933 as
      pneumonectomy (resection of the entire lung on either side), can be characterized
      as an attempt to minimize the extent of parenchymal resection. In the early
      1960s, pneumonectomy was replaced by lobectomy, which has long been respected as
      the standard surgical mode. However, the transition from lobectomy to a lesser
      resection, such as segmentectomy or wedge resection, was not recommended because
      of the results of a randomized trial performed by the North American Lung Cancer
      Study Group in the 1980s. As of now, the extent of parenchymal resection remains
      lobectomy, and lesser resection is indicated only for patients who have a
      compromised pulmonary reserve. Very recently, because of the advent of CT
      screening programs and improvements in imaging technology, fainter and smaller
      lung cancers are being discovered. For these smaller and earlier lung cancers,
      there is some uncertainty about whether lobectomy still should be indicated, as
      it is for larger tumors with a diameter of 3 cm or more. Therefore, several
      randomized trials are ongoing to compare lobectomy with lesser resections;
      endpoints are overall survival and postoperative pulmonary function. Until the
      results of these trials are available, lung cancer should still be removed by
      lobectomy rather than by limited resection, such as segmentectomy or wedge
      resection.

PMID- 28561722
TI  - Therapeutic Bone-Modifying Agents in the Nonmetastatic Breast Cancer Setting: The
      Controversy and a Value Assessment.
AB  - Clinical trials and meta-analyses investigating bisphosphonates as an adjuvant
      breast cancer therapy have shown a consistent trend, with postmenopausal women
      and women receiving ovarian suppression with gonadotropin-releasing hormone
      therapy gaining improved breast cancer outcomes with the use of adjuvant
      bisphosphonate therapy. The interpretation of these data is controversial,
      because the primary endpoints of the majority of adjuvant bisphosphonate studies
      have been negative. Pros and cons as well as the value of adjuvant bisphosphonate
      therapy are discussed here.

PMID- 28561724
TI  - Strategies to Maximize Patient Participation in Clinical Trials.
AB  - Despite considerable interest and success in oncology drug development, the
      minority of patients with cancer diagnoses enroll in clinical trials. Multiple
      obstacles account for this low enrollment rate. An improvement in patient
      participation in clinical trials could increase patient access to novel and
      potentially promising agents, provide faster trial results, and, with
      implementation of rational eligibility criteria, allow for a better understanding
      of the drug's safety and efficacy in a heterogeneous population. We present
      barriers and potential solutions to maximize patient participation, including a
      review of the ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research (FoCR) Modernizing Eligibility
      Criteria Project, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory
      considerations, an industry perspective, and a patient perspective.

PMID- 28561725
TI  - Challenges in Opening and Enrolling Patients in Clinical Trials.
AB  - Clinical trials are key elements of the processes that account for many of the
      recent advances in cancer care, including decreased mortality rates and increased
      survivorship; better supportive care; and improved understanding of cancer risk,
      prevention, and screening. This research also has led to the validation of
      numerous exciting new types of cancer treatments, such as molecularly targeted
      therapies and immunotherapies. Clinical trials, however, are becoming more and
      more challenging to conduct. Research programs must comply with legal and
      regulatory requirements that can be inefficient and costly to implement and often
      are variably interpreted by institutions and sponsors and sponsors'
      representatives, including contract research organizations. Some of these
      requirements are essential to protect the safety of trial participants, to
      promote the scientific integrity of research, or to ensure that trial conduct is
      efficient and adequately resourced. Such requirements are important to preserve.
      However, some requirements do not fulfill any of these goals and, in fact, hinder
      research and slow patient access to safe and effective treatments. This article
      discusses some of the identified issues that are slowing the process of cancer
      clinical trials, such as conservatively interpreted guidelines by pharmaceutical
      companies and contract research organizations; overprotective language for
      contracts; and patient protections by health systems and universities. The
      article also discusses possible solutions to these problems that are slowing down
      the cancer therapies that patients need.

PMID- 28561726
TI  - Caring for the Older Population With Advanced Lung Cancer.
AB  - The management of advanced lung cancer is changing rapidly, with new drug
      approvals occurring almost monthly. The average age of a newly diagnosed patient
      with advanced lung cancer remains around age 70. Caring for the older adult with
      advanced cancer differs from the care of younger adults. Chronologic age often
      does not accurately reflect the physiologic and functional status of older
      adults. Selecting treatment based on age alone results in undertreatment and
      overtreatment of many older adults. Addressing issues such as multiple chronic
      conditions, polypharmacy, geriatric syndromes, and heterogeneity in functional
      status among an expanding menu of treatment options for advanced disease is
      increasingly difficult, particularly among older adults historically
      underrepresented in clinical trials. In this article, we highlight key issues in
      caring for the older adult with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and the
      continued need for data supporting current and emerging treatment options. Key
      issues include the unique challenges of managing advanced lung cancer and a
      summary of the current treatment evidence as they apply to the elderly lung
      cancer population including supportive care strategies, risk stratification, and
      patient-reported outcomes.

PMID- 28561727
TI  - Social Media for Networking, Professional Development, and Patient Engagement.
AB  - Social media has become an established method of communication, and many
      physicians are finding these interactive tools and platforms to be useful for
      both personal and professional use. Risks of social media, or barriers to its
      use, include perceived lack of time, privacy concerns, and the risk of damage to
      one's reputation by unprofessional behavior. Of the social media platforms,
      Twitter has become favored by physicians and other health care professionals.
      Although one of the most obvious uses of social media is for rapid dissemination
      and receipt of information, oncologists are finding that social media is
      important for networking through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. These platforms
      also have potential for providing opportunities for professional development,
      such as finding collaborators through networking, participation in Twitter
      journal clubs, and participating in online case-based tumor boards. Social media
      can also be used for patient engagement, such as through participation in tweet
      chats. There is emerging data that patient engagement through these platforms may
      lead to improvement in some health-related outcomes; however, data are sparse for
      oncology-specific outcomes. Efforts are underway to determine how to assess how
      social media engagement impacts health outcomes in oncology patients.

PMID- 28561729
TI  - European/U.S. Comparison and Contrasts in Ovarian Cancer Screening and Prevention
      in a High-Risk Population.
AB  - The history of screening and prevention of ovarian cancer among high-risk women
      in the United States and Europe is one of mutual inspiration, with researchers
      learning from each others' findings and insights and collaborating with
      investigators from both sides of the Atlantic ocean. Examples of simultaneous and
      joint development of knowledge and scientific points of view include the paradigm
      shift from ovarian to fallopian tube high-grade serous cancer and the cessation
      of simultaneous adoption of ovarian cancer screening by clinicians in both the
      United States and Europe. Examples of joint efforts with fruitful results include
      international collaboration in large population-based, genome-wide association
      studies and in epidemiologic database studies. Research in the field of
      hereditary ovarian cancer is a great example of mutual inspiration and joint
      efforts for the purpose of improving knowledge and health care for women with
      hereditary ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28561730
TI  - Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Modeling for Drug Development in Oncology.
AB  - High drug attrition rates remain a critical issue in oncology drug development. A
      series of steps during drug development must be addressed to better understand
      the pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) properties of novel agents and,
      thus, increase their probability of success. As available data continues to
      expand in both volume and complexity, comprehensive integration of PK and PD
      information into a robust mathematical model represents a very useful tool
      throughout all stages of drug development. During the discovery phase, PK/PD
      models can be used to identify and select the best drug candidates, which helps
      characterize the mechanism of action and disease behavior of a given drug, to
      predict clinical response in humans, and to facilitate a better understanding
      about the potential clinical relevance of preclinical efficacy data. During early
      drug development, PK/PD modeling can optimize the design of clinical trials,
      guide the dose and regimen that should be tested further, help evaluate proof of
      mechanism in humans, anticipate the effect in certain subpopulations, and better
      predict drug-drug interactions; all of these effects could lead to a more
      efficient drug development process. Because of certain peculiarities of
      immunotherapies, such as PK and PD characteristics, PK/PD modeling could be
      particularly relevant and thus have an important impact on decision making during
      the development of these agents.

PMID- 28561728
TI  - Adoptive T-Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors.
AB  - Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an innovative form of
      immunotherapy wherein autologous T cells are genetically modified to express
      chimeric receptors encoding an antigen-specific single-chain variable fragment
      and various costimulatory molecules. Upon administration, these modified T cells
      traffic to, and recognize, cancer cells in an HLA-independent manner. CAR T-cell
      therapy has shown remarkable success in the treatment of CD-19-expressing B-cell
      acute lymphocytic leukemia. However, clinical gains to the same magnitude have
      not been reported in solid tumors. Several known obstacles to CAR T-cell therapy
      for solid tumors include target antigen identification, effective trafficking to
      the tumor, robust activation, proliferation, and in vivo cytotoxicity. Beyond
      these T-cell intrinsic properties, a complex and dynamic immunosuppressive tumor
      microenvironment in solid tumors hinders T-cell efficacy. Notable advancements in
      CAR design to include multiple costimulatory molecules, ligands, and soluble
      cytokines have shown promise in preclinical models, and some of these are
      currently in early-phase clinical trials. In this review, we discuss selected
      solid tumor malignancies and relevant preclinical data and highlight clinical
      trial results that are available. Furthermore, we outline some obstacles to CAR T
      cell therapy for each tumor and propose strategies to overcome some of these
      limitations.

PMID- 28561731
TI  - Pain and Opioids in Cancer Care: Benefits, Risks, and Alternatives.
AB  - Pain remains common in the setting of malignancy, occurring as a consequence of
      cancer and its treatment. Several high-quality studies confirm that more than 50%
      of all patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain. The prevalence of
      pain in cancer survivors is estimated to be 40%, while close to two-thirds of
      those with advanced disease live with pain. Progress has occurred in the
      management of cancer pain, yet undertreatment persists. Additionally, new
      challenges are threatening these advances. These challenges are numerous and
      include educational deficits, time restraints, and limited access to all types of
      care. New challenges to access are occurring as a result of interventions
      designed to combat the prescription drug abuse epidemic, with fewer clinicians
      willing to prescribe opioids, pharmacies reluctant to stock the medications, and
      payers placing strict limits on reimbursement. A related challenge is our
      evolving understanding of the risks of long-term adverse effects associated with
      opioids. And reflective of the opioid abuse epidemic affecting the general
      population, the potential for misuse or abuse exists in those with cancer.
      Guidelines have been developed to support oncologists when prescribing the long
      term use of opioids for cancer survivors. The challenges surrounding the use of
      opioids, and the need for safe and effective alternative analgesics, are leading
      to intense interest in the potential benefits of cannabis for cancer-related
      pain. Oncologists are faced with questions regarding the types of cannabis
      available, differences between routes of administration, data concerning safety
      and efficacy, and legal and regulatory dynamics.

PMID- 28561732
TI  - Ferric citrate controls serum phosphorus in dialysis patients: retrospective
      data?.
AB  - Ferric citrate is an approved phosphate binder for use in patients with chronic
      kidney disease on dialysis. Clinical trials demonstrated that ferric citrate
      controlled serum phosphorus levels and increased iron stores. The aim of this
      retrospective chart review was to evaluate real-world bone mineral and anemia
      parameter data from patients treated with ferric citrate. 92 adult dialysis
      patients taking ferric citrate (average starting dose of 6 tablets/day) for at
      least 6 months were included. Bone mineral, anemia, and iron biomarker levels
      were extracted from patient medical records before and during the first 6 months
      of ferric citrate treatment; 21 (23%) patients were phosphate binder naive, and
      71 (77%) patients had been on other phosphate binders. Before starting ferric
      citrate, 22% of patients had serum phosphorus <= 5.5 mg/dL, increasing to 65% of
      patients at 6 months of treatment (month 6). Mean (standard error of the mean
      (SEM)) baseline serum phosphorus was 6.55 +/- 0.17 mg/dL decreasing to 5.40 +/-
      0.17 mg/dL at month 6. Mean (SEM) baseline hemoglobin, ferritin, and transferrin
      saturation were 10.6 +/- 0.2 g/dL, 734 +/- 65 ng/mL, and 27.1 +/- 1.6%,
      respectively, and 11.1 +/- 0.2 g/dL, 947 +/- 66 ng/mL, and 37 +/- 1.9%,
      respectively, at month 6. The serum phosphorus and anemia biomarker levels
      observed in this retrospective chart review were similar to those seen in
      clinical trials.?.

PMID- 28561734
TI  - Poring over furrows.
AB  - Cryo-electron microscopy reveals the structure of a chloride channel that is
      closely related to a protein that transports lipids.

PMID- 28561733
TI  - Structural basis for anion conduction in the calcium-activated chloride channel
      TMEM16A.
AB  - The calcium-activated chloride channel TMEM16A is a member of a conserved protein
      family that comprises ion channels and lipid scramblases. Although the structure
      of the scramblase nhTMEM16 has defined the architecture of the family, it was
      unknown how a channel has adapted to cope with its distinct functional
      properties. Here we have addressed this question by the structure determination
      of mouse TMEM16A by cryo-electron microscopy and a complementary functional
      characterization. The protein shows a similar organization to nhTMEM16, except
      for changes at the site of catalysis. There, the conformation of transmembrane
      helices constituting a membrane-spanning furrow that provides a path for lipids
      in scramblases has changed to form an enclosed aqueous pore that is largely
      shielded from the membrane. Our study thus reveals the structural basis of anion
      conduction in a TMEM16 channel and it defines the foundation for the diverse
      functional behavior in the TMEM16 family.

PMID- 28561735
TI  - Learning shapes the aversion and reward responses of lateral habenula neurons.
AB  - The lateral habenula (LHb) is believed to encode negative motivational values. It
      remains unknown how LHb neurons respond to various stressors and how learning
      shapes their responses. Here, we used fiber-photometry and electrophysiology to
      track LHb neuronal activity in freely-behaving mice. Bitterness, pain, and social
      attack by aggressors intensively excite LHb neurons. Aversive Pavlovian
      conditioning induced activation by the aversion-predicting cue in a few trials.
      The experience of social defeat also conditioned excitatory responses to
      previously neutral social stimuli. In contrast, fiber photometry and single-unit
      recordings revealed that sucrose reward inhibited LHb neurons and often produced
      excitatory rebound. It required prolonged conditioning and high reward
      probability to induce inhibition by reward-predicting cues. Therefore, LHb
      neurons can bidirectionally process a diverse array of aversive and reward
      signals. Importantly, their responses are dynamically shaped by learning,
      suggesting that the LHb participates in experience-dependent selection of
      behavioral responses to stressors and rewards.

PMID- 28561736
TI  - A cell cycle-independent, conditional gene inactivation strategy for
      differentially tagging wild-type and mutant cells.
AB  - Here, we describe a novel method based on intronic MiMIC insertions described in
      Nagarkar-Jaiswal et al. (2015) to perform conditional gene inactivation in
      Drosophila. Mosaic analysis in Drosophila cannot be easily performed in post
      mitotic cells. We therefore, therefore, developed Flip-Flop, a flippase-dependent
      in vivo cassette-inversion method that marks wild-type cells with the endogenous
      EGFP-tagged protein, whereas mutant cells are marked with mCherry upon inversion.
      We document the ease and usefulness of this strategy in differential tagging of
      wild-type and mutant cells in mosaics. We use this approach to phenotypically
      characterize the loss of SNF4Agamma, encoding the gamma subunit of the AMP Kinase
      complex. The Flip-Flop method is efficient and reliable, and permits conditional
      gene inactivation based on both spatial and temporal cues, in a cell cycle-, and
      developmental stage-independent fashion, creating a platform for systematic
      screens of gene function in developing and adult flies with unprecedented detail.

PMID- 28561739
TI  - Inactivation of proteolytic enzymes by Eubothrium rugosum (Cestoda) from the gut
      of burbot Lota lota.
AB  - Parasitic organisms inhabiting the alimentary canal should permanently resist the
      destructive action of host digestive enzymes. The intestinal parasites were shown
      to produce specific protease inhibitors protecting them from proteolysis.
      However, little is known about this adaptive mechanism in cestodes so far,
      especially for the tapeworms dwelling inside the fish intestines. Here, we
      explored the ability to inactivate proteolytic enzymes in the fish tapeworm
      Eubothrium rugosum (Batsch, 1786) (Bothriocephalidea) parasitising the intestine
      of wild burbot, Lota lota (Linnaeus). The assays were conducted with different
      concentrations of commercial trypsin and homogenate of intestinal mucosa both
      being the sources of proteinases. The incubation of live E. rugosum in trypsin
      solutions of two different concentrations caused a significant decrease in the
      enzyme activity. The extent of activity reduction was dependent on trypsin
      concentration. At the same time, the inhibitory effect of the worm incubation
      medium turned out to be statistically insignificant. These findings suggest
      partial adsorption of the enzyme to the tegument surface, with its further
      inactivation. In contrast to the incubation medium, the worm extract suppressed
      over 80% of trypsin activity and nearly half of the proteolytic activity in the
      mucosa homogenate. Notably, the inhibitory activity of the tapeworms hardly
      depended on their size characteristics. Finally, the research has demonstrated
      secretion of proteinase inhibitor in E. rugosum, which appears to be essential
      for its survival in enzymatically hostile environment.

PMID- 28561737
TI  - Synergistic interactions with PI3K inhibition that induce apoptosis.
AB  - Activating mutations involving the PI3K pathway occur frequently in human
      cancers. However, PI3K inhibitors primarily induce cell cycle arrest, leaving a
      significant reservoir of tumor cells that may acquire or exhibit resistance. We
      searched for genes that are required for the survival of PI3K mutant cancer cells
      in the presence of PI3K inhibition by conducting a genome scale shRNA-based
      apoptosis screen in a PIK3CA mutant human breast cancer cell. We identified 5
      genes (PIM2, ZAK, TACC1, ZFR, ZNF565) whose suppression induced cell death upon
      PI3K inhibition. We showed that small molecule inhibitors of the PIM2 and ZAK
      kinases synergize with PI3K inhibition. In addition, using a microscale
      implementable device to deliver either siRNAs or small molecule inhibitors in
      vivo, we showed that suppressing these 5 genes with PI3K inhibition induced tumor
      regression. These observations identify targets whose inhibition synergizes with
      PI3K inhibitors and nominate potential combination therapies involving PI3K
      inhibition.

PMID- 28561740
TI  - A new genus of proteocephalid tapeworm (Cestoda) from the marbled swamp eel
      Synbranchus marmoratus Bloch (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) in the River
      Parana basin, Argentina.
AB  - Synbranchiella gen. n. is proposed to accommodate Synbranchiella mabelae sp. n.
      (Proteocephalidae: Monticelliinae) from the intestine of the marbled swamp eel
      Synbranchus marmoratus Bloch, in the River Colastine, a tributary of the middle
      River Parana in Argentina. The new genus is placed in the Monticelliinae because
      of the cortical position of the genital organs. It differs from all known
      monticelliine genera by the following combination of characters: (i) scolex
      robust, with a conical apex, without metascolex; (ii) biloculate suckers with a
      conspicuous septum separating unequally-sized loculi and a robust non-adherent
      area, lacking free posterior margin; (iii) vitelline follicles in two narrow
      lateral bands, extended throughout the nearly entire proglottid length; (iv)
      vagina always anterior to the cirrus-sac, with an inconspicuous vaginal
      sphincter; (v) a genital pore pre-equatorial. Scanning electron microscopy
      revealed three types of microtriches on the tegument surface: acicular and
      capiliform filitriches and gladiate spinitriches. A phylogenetic analysis of the
      large subunit nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (lsrDNA, D1-D3 domains) confirms that S.
      mabelae represents an independent lineage within a large clade comprised mainly
      from Neotropical taxa parasitising catfishes. This is the second
      proteocephalidean cestode described from a Neotropical synbranchiform fish host.

PMID- 28561738
TI  - Oxidative stress induces stem cell proliferation via TRPA1/RyR-mediated Ca2+
      signaling in the Drosophila midgut.
AB  - Precise regulation of stem cell activity is crucial for tissue homeostasis and
      necessary to prevent overproliferation. In the Drosophila adult gut, high levels
      of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been detected with different types of tissue
      damage, and oxidative stress has been shown to be both necessary and sufficient
      to trigger intestinal stem cell (ISC) proliferation. However, the connection
      between oxidative stress and mitogenic signals remains obscure. In a screen for
      genes required for ISC proliferation in response to oxidative stress, we
      identified two regulators of cytosolic Ca2+ levels, transient receptor potential
      A1 (TRPA1) and ryanodine receptor (RyR). Characterization of TRPA1 and RyR
      demonstrates that Ca2+ signaling is required for oxidative stress-induced
      activation of the Ras/MAPK pathway, which in turns drives ISC proliferation. Our
      findings provide a link between redox regulation and Ca2+ signaling and reveal a
      novel mechanism by which ISCs detect stress signals.

PMID- 28561741
TI  - An acid-free water-born quaternized chitosan/montmorillonite loaded into an
      innovative ultra-fine bead-free water-born nanocomposite nanofibrous scaffold; in
      vitro and in vivo approaches.
AB  - An acid-free water-born chitosan derivative/montmorillonite has been successfully
      synthesized. A natural-based biopolymer, N-(2-hydroxy) propyl-3-trimethyl
      ammonium chitosan chloride, was synthesized, and its structure confirmed by
      Fourier transform infrared microscopy and conductometric titration. It was
      applied to the cationic ion-exchange reaction of montmorillonite. Then, the
      synthesized materials were used to produce water-born composite scaffolds for
      tissue engineering applications and formed an ultra-fine bead-free multicomponent
      nanofibrous scaffold. The scaffold was subjected to in vitro and in vivo
      investigations. The effects of both acidic and neutral reaction media on the
      efficiency of the cationic ion-exchange reaction of montmorillonite were
      investigated. A mechanism has been suggested for the more efficient cationic ion
      exchange reaction achieved in the absence of the acid. In in vitro studies, the
      modified montmorillonite showed synergistic biocompatibility and cell growth with
      enhanced bioactivity compared to unmodified clay and even chitosan and the
      chitosan derivative. Scanning electron microscopy showed ultra-fine bead-free
      nanocomposite nanofibers. Improved biocompatibility, cell attachment, and cell
      growth were observed for the nanofibrous scaffolds compared to the individual
      components. In vivo experiments showed complete restoration of a critical-sized
      full-thickness wound without infection in 21 d. The technique provides a
      guideline to achieve chitosan nanofibrous morphology for multifunctional
      biomedical applications.

PMID- 28561742
TI  - A general strategy toward graphitized carbon coating on iron oxides as advanced
      anodes for lithium-ion batteries.
AB  - Integration of carbon materials with benign iron oxides is blazing a trail in
      constructing high-performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this
      paper, a unique general, simple, and controllable strategy is developed toward in
      situ uniform coating of iron oxide nanostructures with graphitized carbon (GrC)
      layers. The basic synthetic procedure only involves a simple dip-coating process
      for the loading of Ni-containing seeds and a subsequent Ni-catalyzed chemical
      vapor deposition (CVD) process for the growth of GrC layers. More importantly,
      the CVD treatment is conducted at a quite low temperature (450  degrees C) and
      with extremely facile liquid carbon sources consisting of ethylene glycol (EG)
      and ethanol (EA). The GrC content of the resulting hybrids can be controllably
      regulated by altering the amount of carbon sources. The electrochemical results
      reveal remarkable performance enhancements of iron oxide@GrC hybrids compared
      with pristine iron oxides in terms of high specific capacity, excellent rate and
      cycling performance. This can be attributed to the network-like GrC coating,
      which can improve not only the electronic conductivity but also the structural
      integrity of iron oxides. Moreover, the lithium storage performance of samples
      with different GrC contents is measured, manifesting that optimized
      electrochemical property can be achieved with appropriate carbon content.
      Additionally, the superiority of GrC coating is demonstrated by the advanced
      performance of iron oxide@GrC compared with its corresponding counterpart, i.e.,
      iron oxides with amorphous carbon (AmC) coating. All these results indicate the
      as-proposed protocol of GrC coating may pave the way for iron oxides to be
      promising anodes for LIBs.

PMID- 28561743
TI  - Mantle Cell Lymphoma with MYC Rearrangement: A Report of 17 Patients: Erratum.

PMID- 28561744
TI  - Synthesis and Thrombin, Factor Xa and U46619 Inhibitory Effects of Non-Amidino
      and Amidino N2-Thiophenecarbonyl- and N2-Tosylanthranilamides.
AB  - Thrombin (factor IIa) and factor Xa (FXa) are key enzymes at the junction of the
      intrinsic and extrinsic coagulation pathways and are the most attractive
      pharmacological targets for the development of novel anticoagulants. Twenty non
      amidino N2-thiophencarbonyl- and N2-tosyl anthranilamides 1-20 and six amidino N2
      thiophencarbonyl- and N2-tosylanthranilamides 21-26 were synthesized to evaluate
      their activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and prothrombin time (PT)
      using human plasma at a concentration of 30 ug/mL in vitro. As a result,
      compounds 5, 9, and 21-23 were selected to study the further antithrombotic
      activity. The anticoagulant properties of 5, 9, and 21-23 significantly exhibited
      a concentration-dependent prolongation of in vitro PT and aPTT, in vivo bleeding
      time, and ex vivo clotting time. These compounds concentration-dependently
      inhibited the activities of thrombin and FXa and inhibited the generation of
      thrombin and FXa in human endothelial cells. In addition, data showed that 5, 9,
      and 21-23 significantly inhibited thrombin catalyzed fibrin polymerization and
      mouse platelet aggregation and inhibited platelet aggregation induced by U46619
      in vitro and ex vivo. Among the derivatives evaluated, N-(3'-amidinophenyl)-2
      ((thiophen-2''-yl)carbonylamino)benzamide (21) was the most active compound.

PMID- 28561746
TI  - A Low-Cost System Based on Image Analysis for Monitoring the Crystal Growth
      Process.
AB  - Many techniques are used to monitor one or more of the phenomena involved in the
      crystallization process. One of the challenges in crystal growth monitoring is
      finding techniques that allow direct interpretation of the data. The present
      study used a low-cost system, composed of a commercial webcam and a simple white
      LED (Light Emitting Diode) illuminator, to follow the calcium carbonate crystal
      growth process. The experiments were followed with focused beam reflectance
      measurement (FBRM), a common technique for obtaining information about the
      formation and growth of crystals. The images obtained in real time were treated
      with the red, blue, and green (RGB) system. The results showed a qualitative
      response of the system to crystal formation and growth processes, as there was an
      observed decrease in the signal as the growth process occurred. Control of the
      crystal growth was managed by increasing the viscosity of the test solution with
      the addition of monoethylene glycol (MEG) at 30% and 70% in a mass to mass
      relationship, providing different profiles of the RGB average curves. The
      decrease in the average RGB value became slower as the concentration of MEG was
      increased; this reflected a lag in the growth process that was proven by the
      FBRM.

PMID- 28561745
TI  - HiSeeker: Detecting High-Order SNP Interactions Based on Pairwise SNP
      Combinations.
AB  - Detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms' (SNPs) interaction is one of the most
      popular approaches for explaining the missing heritability of common complex
      diseases in genome-wide association studies. Many methods have been proposed for
      SNP interaction detection, but most of them only focus on pairwise interactions
      and ignore high-order ones, which may also contribute to complex traits. Existing
      methods for high-order interaction detection can hardly handle genome-wide data
      and suffer from low detection power, due to the exponential growth of search
      space. In this paper, we proposed a flexible two-stage approach (called HiSeeker)
      to detect high-order interactions. In the screening stage, HiSeeker employs the
      chi-squared test and logistic regression model to efficiently obtain candidate
      pairwise combinations, which have intermediate or significant associations with
      the phenotype for interaction detection. In the search stage, two different
      strategies (exhaustive search and ant colony optimization-based search) are
      utilized to detect high-order interactions from candidate combinations. The
      experimental results on simulated datasets demonstrate that HiSeeker can more
      efficiently and effectively detect high-order interactions than related
      representative algorithms. On two real case-control datasets, HiSeeker also
      detects several significant high-order interactions, whose individual SNPs and
      pairwise interactions have no strong main effects or pairwise interaction
      effects, and these high-order interactions can hardly be identified by related
      algorithms.

PMID- 28561747
TI  - In-Process Atomic-Force Microscopy (AFM) Based Inspection.
AB  - A new in-process atomic-force microscopy (AFM) based inspection is presented for
      nanolithography to compensate for any deviation such as instantaneous degradation
      of the lithography probe tip. Traditional method used the AFM probes for
      lithography work and retract to inspect the obtained feature but this practice
      degrades the probe tip shape and hence, affects the measurement quality. This
      paper suggests a second dedicated lithography probe that is positioned back-to
      back to the AFM probe under two synchronized controllers to correct any deviation
      in the process compared to specifications. This method shows that the quality
      improvement of the nanomachining, in progress probe tip wear, and better
      understanding of nanomachining. The system is hosted in a recently developed
      nanomanipulator for educational and research purposes.

PMID- 28561748
TI  - A Point Temperature Sensor Based on Upconversion Emission in Er3+/Yb3+ Codoped
      Tellurite-Zinc-Niobium Glass.
AB  - Er3+/Yb3+ codoped tellurite-zinc-niobium (TZNb) glass was prepared by the melt
      quenching method and used for the construction of a point all-fiber temperature
      sensor. The glass thermal stability and network structural properties were
      studied by differential thermal analysis and Raman spectrum, respectively. High
      glass transition temperature is beneficial to widen the working temperature
      range. The dependence of fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of green upconversion
      emissions on the surrounding temperature from 276 to 363 K was experimentally
      investigated and the maximum temperature sensitivity is 95 * 10-4 K-1 at 363 K.
      Strong green upconversion emission, broad temperature measurement range and high
      sensitivity indicate this point temperature sensor is a promising optical device
      for application on optical temperature sensing.

PMID- 28561749
TI  - The Missing Piece in Biosynthesis of Amphidinols: First Evidence of Glycolate as
      a Starter Unit in New Polyketides from Amphidinium carterae.
AB  - Two new members of the amphidinol family, amphidinol A (1) and its 7-sulfate
      derivative amphidinol B (2), were isolated from a strain of Amphidinium carterae
      of Lake Fusaro, near Naples (Italy), and chemically identified by spectroscopic
      and spectrometric methods. Amphidinol A showed antifungal activity against
      Candida albicans (MIC = 19 ug/mL). Biosynthetic experiments with stable isotope
      labelled acetate allowed defining the elongation process in 1. For the first time
      the use of glycolate as a starter unit in the polyketide biosynthesis of
      amphidinol metabolites was unambiguously demonstrated.

PMID- 28561750
TI  - Enhanced Flexibility and Reusability through State Machine-Based Architectures
      for Multisensor Intelligent Robotics.
AB  - This paper presents a state machine-based architecture, which enhances the
      flexibility and reusability of industrial robots, more concretely dual-arm
      multisensor robots. The proposed architecture, in addition to allowing absolute
      control of the execution, eases the programming of new applications by increasing
      the reusability of the developed modules. Through an easy-to-use graphical user
      interface, operators are able to create, modify, reuse and maintain industrial
      processes, increasing the flexibility of the cell. Moreover, the proposed
      approach is applied in a real use case in order to demonstrate its capabilities
      and feasibility in industrial environments. A comparative analysis is presented
      for evaluating the presented approach versus traditional robot programming
      techniques.

PMID- 28561751
TI  - The Role of Somatic L1 Retrotransposition in Human Cancers.
AB  - The human LINE-1 (or L1) element is a non-LTR retrotransposon that is mobilized
      through an RNA intermediate by an L1-encoded reverse transcriptase and other L1
      encoded proteins. L1 elements remain actively mobile today and continue to
      mutagenize human genomes. Importantly, when new insertions disrupt gene function,
      they can cause diseases. Historically, L1s were thought to be active in the
      germline but silenced in adult somatic tissues. However, recent studies now show
      that L1 is active in at least some somatic tissues, including epithelial cancers.
      In this review, we provide an overview of these recent developments, and examine
      evidence that somatic L1 retrotransposition can initiate and drive tumorigenesis
      in humans. Recent studies have: (i) cataloged somatic L1 activity in many
      epithelial tumor types; (ii) identified specific full-length L1 source elements
      that give rise to somatic L1 insertions; and (iii) determined that L1 promoter
      hypomethylation likely plays an early role in the derepression of L1s in somatic
      tissues. A central challenge moving forward is to determine the extent to which
      L1 driver mutations can promote tumor initiation, evolution, and metastasis in
      humans.

PMID- 28561752
TI  - Melatonin Inhibits Androgen Receptor Splice Variant-7 (AR-V7)-Induced Nuclear
      Factor-Kappa B (NF-kappaB) Activation and NF-kappaB Activator-Induced AR-V7
      Expression in Prostate Cancer Cells: Potential Implications for the Use of
      Melatonin in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) Therapy.
AB  - A major current challenge in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, which can
      be initially controlled by medical or surgical castration, is the development of
      effective, safe, and affordable therapies against progression of the disease to
      the stage of castration resistance. Here, we showed that in LNCaP and 22Rv1
      prostate cancer cells transiently overexpressing androgen receptor splice variant
      7 (AR-V7), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) was activated and could result in
      up-regulated interleukin (IL)-6 gene expression, indicating a positive
      interaction between AR-V7 expression and activated NF-kappaB/IL-6 signaling in
      castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) pathogenesis. Importantly, both AR-V7
      induced NF-kappaB activation and IL-6 gene transcription in LNCaP and 22Rv1 cells
      could be inhibited by melatonin. Furthermore, stimulation of AR-V7 mRNA
      expression in LNCaP cells by betulinic acid, a pharmacological NF-kappaB
      activator, was reduced by melatonin treatment. Our data support the presence of
      bi-directional positive interactions between AR-V7 expression and NF-kappaB
      activation in CRPC pathogenesis. Of note, melatonin, by inhibiting NF-kappaB
      activation via the previously-reported MT1 receptor-mediated antiproliferative
      pathway, can disrupt these bi-directional positive interactions between AR-V7 and
      NF-kappaB and thereby delay the development of castration resistance in advanced
      prostate cancer. Apparently, this therapeutic potential of melatonin in advanced
      prostate cancer/CRPC management is worth translation in the clinic via combined
      androgen depletion and melatonin repletion.

PMID- 28561753
TI  - The Complete Structure of the Core Oligosaccharide from Edwardsiella tarda EIB
      202 Lipopolysaccharide.
AB  - The chemical structure and genomics of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) core
      oligosaccharide of pathogenic Edwardsiella tarda strain EIB 202 were studied for
      the first time. The complete gene assignment for all LPS core biosynthesis gene
      functions was acquired. The complete structure of core oligosaccharide was
      investigated by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy,
      electrospray ionization mass spectrometry MSn, and matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The following structure
      of the undecasaccharide was established: The heterogeneous appearance of the core
      oligosaccharide structure was due to the partial lack of beta-d-Galp and the
      replacement of alpha-d-GlcpNAcGly by alpha-d-GlcpNGly. The glycine location was
      identified by mass spectrometry.

PMID- 28561755
TI  - Rapid Screening and Identification of Diterpenoids in Tinospora sinensis Based on
      High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Linear Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass
      Spectrometry.
AB  - Diterpenoids are considered the major active compounds in Tinospora sinensis in
      virtue of their special structures and activities. Herein, an analytical method
      was developed for rapid screening and identification of diterpenoids in T.
      sinensis using high-performmance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion
      trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) in negative ion mode. Two
      diterpenoid reference standards were first analyzed to obtain their
      characteristic ESI-MS/MS fragmentation patterns. Then, based on the extracted ion
      chromatogram (EIC) data-mining method and characteristic fragmentation pathways
      analysis, diterpenoids in T. sinensis were rapidly screened and identified. After
      that, an important parameter, Clog P, was adopted to discriminate between the
      isomers of diterpenoids. As a result, 63 diterpenoids were characterized from the
      extract of T. sinensis, including 10 diterpenoids and 53 diterpenoid glycosides.
      Among them, 15 compounds were tentatively identified as new compounds. Finally,
      target isolation of one diterpenoid glycoside named tinosineside A was performed
      based on the obtained results, which further confirmed the deduced fragmentation
      patterns and identified diterpenoid profile in T. sinensis. The results
      demonstrated that the established method could be a rapid, effective analytical
      tool for screening and characterization of diterpenoids in the complex systems of
      natural medicines.

PMID- 28561754
TI  - Plant Lectins and Lectin Receptor-Like Kinases: How Do They Sense the Outside?
AB  - Lectins are fundamental to plant life and have important roles in cell-to-cell
      communication; development and defence strategies. At the cell surface; lectins
      are present both as soluble proteins (LecPs) and as chimeric proteins: lectins
      are then the extracellular domains of receptor-like kinases (LecRLKs) and
      receptor-like proteins (LecRLPs). In this review; we first describe the domain
      architectures of proteins harbouring G-type; L-type; LysM and malectin
      carbohydrate-binding domains. We then focus on the functions of LecPs; LecRLKs
      and LecRLPs referring to the biological processes they are involved in and to the
      ligands they recognize. Together; LecPs; LecRLKs and LecRLPs constitute versatile
      recognition systems at the cell surface contributing to the detection of
      symbionts and pathogens; and/or involved in monitoring of the cell wall structure
      and cell growth.

PMID- 28561756
TI  - Local Actions of Melatonin in Somatic Cells of the Testis.
AB  - The pineal hormone melatonin regulates testicular function through the
      hypothalamic-adenohypophyseal axis. In addition, direct actions of melatonin in
      somatic cells of the testis have been described. Melatonin acts as a local
      modulator of the endocrine activity in Leydig cells. In Sertoli cells, melatonin
      influences cellular growth, proliferation, energy metabolism and the oxidation
      state, and consequently may regulate spermatogenesis. These data pinpoint
      melatonin as a key player in the regulation of testicular physiology (i.e.,
      steroidogenesis, spermatogenesis) mostly in seasonal breeders. In patients with
      idiopathic infertility, melatonin exerts anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory
      effects on testicular macrophages, and provides protective effects against
      oxidative stress in testicular mast cells. Consequently, melatonin is also
      involved in the modulation of inflammatory and oxidant/anti-oxidant states in
      testicular pathology. Overall, the literature data indicate that melatonin has
      important effects on testicular function and male reproduction.

PMID- 28561757
TI  - Implications of Extracellular Matrix Production by Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem
      Cells for Development of Wound Healing Therapies.
AB  - The synthesis and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important
      role in the healing of acute and chronic wounds. Consequently, the use of ECM as
      treatment for chronic wounds has been of special interest-both in terms of
      inducing ECM production by resident cells and applying ex vivo produced ECM. For
      these purposes, using adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) could be of use.
      ASCs are recognized to promote wound healing of otherwise chronic wounds,
      possibly through the reduction of inflammation, induction of angiogenesis, and
      promotion of fibroblast and keratinocyte growth. However, little is known
      regarding the importance of ASC-produced ECM for wound healing. In this review,
      we describe the importance of ECM for wound healing, and how ECM production by
      ASCs may be exploited in developing new therapies for the treatment of chronic
      wounds.

PMID- 28561758
TI  - Lactobacillus reuteri I5007 Modulates Intestinal Host Defense Peptide Expression
      in the Model of IPEC-J2 Cells and Neonatal Piglets.
AB  - Modulation of the synthesis of endogenous host defense peptides (HDPs) by
      probiotics represents a novel antimicrobial approach for disease control and
      prevention, particularly against antibiotic-resistant infections in human and
      animals. However, the extent of HDP modulation by probiotics is species dependent
      and strain specific. In the present study, The porcine small intestinal
      epithelial cell line (IPEC-J2) cells and neonatal piglets were used as in-vitro
      and in-vivo models to test whether Lactobacillus reuteri I5007 could modulate
      intestinal HDP expression. Gene expressions of HDPs, toll-like receptors, and
      fatty acid receptors were determined, as well as colonic short chain fatty acid
      concentrations and microbiota. Exposure to 108 colony forming units (CFU)/mL of
      L. reuteri I5007 for 6 h significantly increased the expression of porcine beta
      Defensin2 (PBD2), pBD3, pBD114, pBD129, and protegrins (PG) 1-5 in IPEC-J2 cells.
      Similarly, L. reuteri I5007 administration significantly increased the expression
      of jejunal pBD2 as well as colonic pBD2, pBD3, pBD114, and pBD129 in neonatal
      piglets (p < 0.05). This was probably associated with the increase in colonic
      butyric acid concentration and up-regulating expression of Peroxisome
      Proliferator-Activated Receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) and G Protein-Coupled Receptor
      41 (GPR41) (p < 0.05), but not with stimulation of Pattern-Recognition Receptors.
      Additionally, supplementation with L. reuteri I5007 in the piglets did not affect
      the colonic microbiota structure. Our findings suggested that L. reuteri I5007
      could modulate intestinal HDP expression and improve the gut health of neonatal
      piglets, probably through the increase in colonic butyric acid concentration and
      the up-regulation of the downstream molecules of butyric acid, PPAR-gamma and
      GPR41, but not through modifying gut microbiota structure.

PMID- 28561759
TI  - Heteromer Nanostars by Spontaneous Self-Assembly.
AB  - Heteromer star-shaped nanoparticles have the potential to carry out therapeutic
      agents, improve intracellular uptake, and safely release drugs after prolonged
      periods of residence at the diseased site. A one-step seed mediation process was
      employed using polylactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA),
      silver nitrate, and tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride (THPC). Mixing
      these reagents followed by UV irradiation successfully produced heteromer
      nanostars containing a number of arm chains attached to a single core with a high
      yield. The release of THPC from heteromer nanostars was tested for its potential
      use for breast cancer treatment. The nanostars present a unique geometrical
      design exhibiting a significant intracellular uptake by breast cancer cells but
      low cytotoxicity that potentiates its efficacy as drug carriers.

PMID- 28561760
TI  - The Development of Non-Enzymatic Glucose Biosensors Based on Electrochemically
      Prepared Polypyrrole-Chitosan-Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposite Films.
AB  - The performance of a modified electrode of nanocomposite films consisting of
      polypyrrole-chitosan-titanium dioxide (Ppy-CS-TiO2) has been explored for the
      developing a non-enzymatic glucose biosensors. The synergy effect of TiO2
      nanoparticles (NPs) and conducting polymer on the current responses of the
      electrode resulted in greater sensitivity. The incorporation of TiO2 NPs in the
      nanocomposite films was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
      spectra. FE-SEM and HR-TEM provided more evidence for the presence of TiO2 in the
      Ppy-CS structure. Glucose biosensing properties were determined by amperommetry
      and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The interfacial properties of nanocomposite
      electrodes were studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The
      developed biosensors showed good sensitivity over a linear range of 1-14 mM with
      a detection limit of 614 MUM for glucose. The modified electrode with Ppy-CS
      nanocomposite also exhibited good selectivity and long-term stability with no
      interference effect. The Ppy-CS-TiO2 nanocomposites films presented high electron
      transfer kinetics. This work shows the role of nanomaterials in electrochemical
      biosensors and describes the process of their homogeneous distribution in
      composite films by a one-step electrochemical process, where all components are
      taken in a single solution in the electrochemical cell.

PMID- 28561763
TI  - The Impact of Diet Protein and Carbohydrate on Select Life-History Traits of The
      Black Soldier Fly Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae).
AB  - This study examined the impact of diet protein and carbohydrate percentages as
      well as moisture on the immature development, survivorship, and resulting adult
      longevity and egg production of the black soldier fly, Hermetiaillucens (L.)
      (Diptera: Stratiomyidae). Moisture impacted development and corresponding life
      history traits more than protein:carbohydrate content; larvae were unable to
      develop on diets at 40% moisture. Larvae fed diets at 70% moisture developed
      faster, grew larger, and required less food than those reared on diets at 55%
      moisture. Larvae reared on the balanced diet (21% protein:21% carbohydrate) at
      70% moisture developed the fastest on the least amount of food and had the
      greatest survivorship to the prepupal stage. Adult emergence and longevity were
      similar across treatments, indicating immature life-history traits were impacted
      the most. The control (Gainesville house fly) diet was superior to the artificial
      diets for all parameters tested. These differences could indicate that other
      constituents (e.g., associated microbes) serve a role in black soldier fly
      development. These data are valuable for industrialization of this insect as a
      "green" technology for recycling organic waste, which can be highly variable, to
      produce protein for use as feed in the livestock, poultry, and aquaculture
      industries, as well as for bioenergy production.

PMID- 28561762
TI  - Consumption of Dairy Yogurt Containing Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei,
      Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis and Heat-Treated Lactobacillus plantarum
      Improves Immune Function Including Natural Killer Cell Activity.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of consuming dairy yogurt
      containing Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei (L. paracasei), Bifidobacterium
      animalis ssp. lactis (B. lactis) and heat-treated Lactobacillus plantarum (L.
      plantarum) on immune function. A randomized, open-label, placebo-controlled study
      was conducted on 200 nondiabetic subjects. Over a twelve-week period, the test
      group consumed dairy yogurt containing probiotics each day, whereas the placebo
      group consumed milk. Natural killer (NK) cell activity, interleukin (IL)-12 and
      immunoglobulin (Ig) G1 levels were significantly increased in the test group at
      twelve weeks compared to baseline. Additionally, the test group had significantly
      greater increases in serum NK cell activity and interferon (IFN)-gamma and IgG1
      than placebo group. Daily consumption of dairy yogurt containing L. paracasei, B.
      lactis and heat-treated L. plantarum could be an effective option to improve
      immune function by enhancing NK cell function and IFN-gamma concentration
      (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03051425).

PMID- 28561761
TI  - A Review of Issues Related to Data Acquisition and Analysis in EEG/MEG Studies.
AB  - Electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) are non-invasive
      electrophysiological methods, which record electric potentials and magnetic
      fields due to electric currents in synchronously-active neurons. With MEG being
      more sensitive to neural activity from tangential currents and EEG being able to
      detect both radial and tangential sources, the two methods are complementary.
      Over the years, neurophysiological studies have changed considerably: high
      density recordings are becoming de rigueur; there is interest in both spontaneous
      and evoked activity; and sophisticated artifact detection and removal methods are
      available. Improved head models for source estimation have also increased the
      precision of the current estimates, particularly for EEG and combined EEG/MEG.
      Because of their complementarity, more investigators are beginning to perform
      simultaneous EEG/MEG studies to gain more complete information about neural
      activity. Given the increase in methodological complexity in EEG/MEG, it is
      important to gather data that are of high quality and that are as artifact free
      as possible. Here, we discuss some issues in data acquisition and analysis of EEG
      and MEG data. Practical considerations for different types of EEG and MEG studies
      are also discussed.

PMID- 28561765
TI  - Improving the Power Conversion Efficiency of Carbon Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar
      Cells by Growing the Dots on a TiO2 Photoanode In Situ.
AB  - Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are highly promising since they can
      potentially solve global energy issues. The development of new photosensitizers
      is the key to fully realizing perspectives proposed to DSSCs. Being cheap and
      nontoxic, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged as attractive candidates for
      this purpose. However, current methodologies to build up CQD-sensitized solar
      cells (CQDSCs) result in an imperfect apparatus with extremely low power
      conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Herein, we present a simple strategy of growing
      carbon quantum dots (CQDs) onto TiO2 surfaces in situ. The CQDs/TiO2 hybridized
      photoanode was then used to construct solar cell with an improved PCE of 0.87%,
      which is higher than all of the reported CQDSCs adopting the simple post
      adsorption method. This result indicates that an in situ growing strategy has
      great advantages in terms of optimizing the performance of CQDSCs. In addition,
      we have also found that the mechanisms dominating the performance of CQDSCs are
      different from those behind the solar cells using inorganic semiconductor quantum
      dots (ISQDs) as the photosensitizers, which re-confirms the conclusion that the
      characteristics of CQDs differ from those of ISQDs.

PMID- 28561764
TI  - Five New Limonoids from Peels of Satsuma Orange (Citrus reticulata).
AB  - Five new: 21,23-dihydro-21-hydroxy-23-oxonomilin (1), 21,23-dihydro-23-methoxy-21
      oxonomilin (2), 21,23-dihydro-21-hydroxy-23-oxonomilinic acid methyl ester (3),
      21,23-dihydro-23-methoxy-21-oxolimonin (4), and 21,23-dihydro-21-oxolimonin (5),
      and seven known limonoids were isolated from peels of satsuma orange (Citrus
      reticulata). The isolated compounds were evaluated for their inhibitory effects
      on macrophage activation by an inhibitory assay of nitric oxide (NO) production.
      Among them, compound (2) exhibited NO inhibitory activity without cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28561766
TI  - Genotypic Variation in Wheat Flour Lysophospholipids.
AB  - Lysophospholipids (LPLs) are the most abundant polar lipids in wheat endosperm
      and naturally complex with amylose, affecting starch physicochemical properties.
      We analyzed LPLs in wheat flour from 58 cultivars which differ by grain hardness
      using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). There were significant
      differences in LPL content between cultivars, demonstrating that genotype rather
      than environment contributes most to the total variance in wheat endosperm LPLs.
      Polar lipids such as LPLs may play a role in grain hardness through their
      interaction with puroindoline proteins, however, no strong correlation between
      kernel hardness and LPLs was detected. This may reflect the location of LPLs
      within the starch granule as opposed to the puroindoline proteins outside starch
      granules. LPLs may have an indirect relationship with kernel hardness as they
      could share the same origin as polar lipids that interact with puroindoline on
      the starch granule surface.

PMID- 28561767
TI  - Health, Well-Being and Energy Poverty in Europe: A Comparative Study of 32
      European Countries.
AB  - Despite growing pan-European interest in and awareness of the wide-ranging health
      and well-being impacts of energy poverty-which is characterised by an inability
      to secure adequate levels of energy services in the home-the knowledge base is
      largely British-centric and dominated by single-country studies. In response,
      this paper investigates the relationship between energy poverty, health and well
      being across 32 European countries, using 2012 data from the European Quality of
      Life Survey. We find an uneven concentration of energy poverty, poor health, and
      poor well-being across Europe, with Eastern and Central Europe worst affected. At
      the intersection of energy poverty and health, there is a higher incidence of
      poor health (both physical and mental) amongst the energy poor populations of
      most countries, compared to non-energy poor households. Interestingly, we find
      the largest disparities in health and well-being levels between energy poor and
      non-energy poor households occur within relatively equal societies, such as
      Sweden and Slovenia. As well as the unique challenges brought about by rapidly
      changing energy landscapes in these countries, we also suggest the relative
      deprivation theory and processes of social comparison hold some value in
      explaining these findings.

PMID- 28561769
TI  - Water Consumption in European Children: Associations with Intake of Fruit Juices,
      Soft Drinks and Related Parenting Practices.
AB  - Background: High intake of fruit juices and soft drinks contributes to excessive
      weight gain and obesity in children. Furthermore, parenting practices play an
      important role in the development of children's dietary habits. The way parents
      play this role in the development of their children's choices of beverages is
      still unclear. Objectives: To study the associations: (1) of both fruit juices
      and soft drinks consumption with water consumption of children and (2) The
      associations between parenting practices towards fruit juices and soft drinks and
      water consumption of children. Design: Cross-sectional data from 6 to 8 year old
      children from seven European communities (n = 1187) were collected. Associations
      among fruit juices, soft drinks, the respective parenting practices and the
      child's water consumption were assessed by parental questionnaires. Results: The
      consumption of water was inversely associated with that of soft drinks but not
      with the consumption of fruit juices. The child's water intake was favorably
      influenced when stricter parenting practices towards soft drinks were adopted
      (e.g., less parental allowance, low home availability and high parental self
      efficacy in managing intake). There was less influence observed of parenting
      practices towards fruit juices. Fruit juices were consumed more often than soft
      drinks. Conclusions: Low consumption of soft drinks-and not of fruit juices-was
      associated with high water consumption in children in the current study.
      Moreover, parenting practices towards both fruit juices and soft drinks were
      associated with the water intake of the children, irrespective of their socio
      economic status.

PMID- 28561768
TI  - Ontogeny of Sex-Related Differences in Foetal Developmental Features, Lipid
      Availability and Fatty Acid Composition.
AB  - Sex-related differences in lipid availability and fatty acid composition during
      swine foetal development were investigated. Plasma cholesterol and triglyceride
      concentrations in the mother were strongly related to the adequacy or inadequacy
      of foetal development and concomitant activation of protective growth in some
      organs (brain, heart, liver and spleen). Cholesterol and triglyceride
      availability was similar in male and female offspring, but female foetuses showed
      evidence of higher placental transfer of essential fatty acids and synthesis of
      non-essential fatty acids in muscle and liver. These sex-related differences
      affected primarily the neutral lipid fraction (triglycerides), which may lead to
      sex-related postnatal differences in energy partitioning. These results
      illustrate the strong influence of the maternal lipid profile on foetal
      development and homeorhesis, and they confirm and extend previous reports that
      female offspring show better adaptive responses to maternal malnutrition than
      male offspring. These findings may help guide dietary interventions to ensure
      adequate fatty acid availability for postnatal development.

PMID- 28561770
TI  - Identification of Differentially Expressed Micrornas Associate with Glucose
      Metabolism in Different Organs of Blunt Snout Bream (Megalobrama amblycephala).
AB  - Blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) is a widely favored herbivorous fish
      species and is a frequentlyused fish model for studying the metabolism
      physiology. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive illustration of the
      mechanisms of a high-starch diet (HSD) induced lipid metabolic disorder by
      identifying microRNAs (miRNAs) controlled pathways in glucose and lipid
      metabolism in fish using high-throughput sequencing technologies. Small RNA
      libraries derived from intestines, livers, and brains of HSD and normal-starch
      diet (NSD) treated M. amblycephala were sequenced and 79, 124 and 77
      differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in intestines, livers, and brains of HSD
      treated fish were identified, respectively. Bioinformatics analyses showed that
      these DEMs targeted hundreds of predicted genes were enriched into metabolic
      pathways and biosynthetic processes, including peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptor (PPAR), glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and insulin signaling pathway. These
      analyses confirmed that miRNAs play crucial roles in glucose and lipid metabolism
      related to high wheat starch treatment. These results provide information on
      further investigation of a DEM-related mechanism dysregulated by a high
      carbohydrate diet.

PMID- 28561771
TI  - Characterization and Genome Analysis of a Nicotine and Nicotinic Acid-Degrading
      Strain Pseudomonas putida JQ581 Isolated from Marine.
AB  - The presence of nicotine and nicotinic acid (NA) in the marine environment has
      caused great harm to human health and the natural environment. Therefore, there
      is an urgent need to use efficient and economical methods to remove such
      pollutants from the environment. In this study, a nicotine and NA-degrading
      bacterium-strain JQ581-was isolated from sediment from the East China Sea and
      identified as a member of Pseudomonas putida based on morphology, physio
      biochemical characteristics, and 16S rDNA gene analysis. The relationship between
      growth and nicotine/NA degradation suggested that strain JQ581 was a good
      candidate for applications in the bioaugmentation treatment of nicotine/NA
      contamination. The degradation intermediates of nicotine are pseudooxynicotine
      (PN) and 3-succinoyl-pyridine (SP) based on UV, high performance liquid
      chromatography, and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. However, 6
      hydroxy-3-succinoyl-pyridine (HSP) was not detected. NA degradation intermediates
      were identified as 6-hydroxynicotinic acid (6HNA). The whole genome of strain
      JQ581 was sequenced and analyzed. Genome sequence analysis revealed that strain
      JQ581 contained the gene clusters for nicotine and NA degradation. This is the
      first report where a marine-derived Pseudomonas strain had the ability to degrade
      nicotine and NA simultaneously.

PMID- 28561772
TI  - Chiral Derivatives of Xanthones: Investigation of the Effect of
      Enantioselectivity on Inhibition of Cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2) and Binding
      Interaction with Human Serum Albumin.
AB  - Searching of new enantiomerically pure chiral derivatives of xanthones (CDXs)
      with potential pharmacological properties, particularly those with anti
      inflammatory activity, has remained an area of interest of our group. Herein, we
      describe in silico studies and in vitro inhibitory assays of cyclooxygenases (COX
      1 and COX-2) for different enantiomeric pairs of CDXs. The evaluation of the
      inhibitory activities was performed by using the COX Inhibitor Screening Assay
      Kit. Docking simulations between the small molecules (CDXs; known ligands and
      decoys) and the enzyme targets were undertaken with AutoDock Vina embedded in
      PyRx-Virtual Screening Tool software. All the CDXs evaluated exhibited COX-1 and
      COX-2 inhibition potential as predicted. Considering that the (S)-(-)-enantiomer
      of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen preferentially binds to
      albumin, resulting in lower free plasma concentration than (R)-(+)-enantiomer,
      protein binding affinity for CDXs was also evaluated by spectrofluorimetry as
      well as in in silico. For some CDXs enantioselectivity was observed.

PMID- 28561775
TI  - Stability Study of Sunscreens with Free and Encapsulated UV Filters Contained in
      Plastic Packaging.
AB  - Sunscreens play a fundamental role in skin cancer prevention and in protection
      against photo-aging. UV filters are often photo-unstable, especially in relation
      to their vehicles and, being lipophilic substances, they are able to interact
      with plastic packaging. Finally, UV filter stability can be significantly
      affected by the routine use of the product at high temperatures. This work aims
      to study the stability of sunscreen formulations in polyethylene packaging. Butyl
      methoxydibenzoylmethane and octocrylene, both in a free form and as encapsulated
      filters were chosen as UV filters. Stability evaluations were performed both in
      the packaging and on the formulations. Moreover, a further two non-destructive
      techniques, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and a multiple light scattering
      technique, were also used to evaluate the stability of the formulation. Results
      demonstrated clearly that all of the pack underwent significant changes in its
      elastic/plastic behavior and in external color after solar irradiation. From the
      evaluation of the extractable profile of untreated and treated packaging material
      an absorption of 2-phenoxyethanol and octocrylene were shown. In conclusion, the
      results highlighted clearly that a reduction of the UV filter in the formulation
      packed in high-density polyethylene/low-density polyethylene (HDPE/LDPE) material
      can occur over time, reducing the protective effect of the product when applied
      to the skin.

PMID- 28561774
TI  - Salt Sensitive Tet-Off-Like Systems to Knockdown Primordial Germ Cell Genes for
      Repressible Transgenic Sterilization in Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus.
AB  - Repressible knockdown approaches were investigated for transgenic sterilization
      in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus. Two primordial germ cell (PGC) marker
      genes, nanos and dead end, were targeted for knockdown, and an off-target gene,
      vasa, was monitored. Two potentially salt sensitive repressible promoters,
      zebrafish adenylosuccinate synthase 2 (ADSS) and zebrafish racemase (Rm), were
      each coupled with four knockdown strategies: ds-sh RNA targeting the 5' end (N1)
      or 3' end (N2) of channel catfish nanos, full-length cDNA sequence of channel
      catfish nanos for overexpression (cDNA) and ds-sh RNA targeting channel catfish
      dead end (DND). Each construct had an untreated group and treated group with
      sodium chloride as the repressor compound. Spawning rates of full-sibling P1 fish
      exposed or not exposed to the constructs as treated and untreated embryos were
      93% and 59%, respectively, indicating potential sterilization of fish and
      repression of the constructs. Although the mRNA expression data of PGC marker
      genes were inconsistent in P1 fish, most F1 individuals were able to downregulate
      the target genes in untreated groups and repress the knockdown process in treated
      groups. The results indicate that repressible transgenic sterilization is
      feasible for reproductive control of fish, but more data from F2 or F3 are needed
      for evaluation.

PMID- 28561773
TI  - Can Co-Activation of Nrf2 and Neurotrophic Signaling Pathway Slow Alzheimer's
      Disease?
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifaceted disease that is hard to treat by
      single-modal treatment. AD starts with amyloid peptides, mitochondrial
      dysfunction, and oxidative stress and later is accompanied with chronic
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and autophagy dysfunction, resulting in more
      complicated pathogenesis. Currently, few treatments can modify the complicated
      pathogenic progress of AD. Compared to the treatment with exogenous antioxidants,
      the activation of global antioxidant defense system via Nrf2 looks more promising
      in attenuating oxidative stress in AD brains. Accompanying the activation of the
      Nrf2-mediated antioxidant defense system that reduce the AD-causative factor,
      oxidative stress, it is also necessary to activate the neurotrophic signaling
      pathway that replaces damaged organelles and molecules with new ones. Thus, the
      dual actions to activate both the Nrf2 antioxidant system and neurotrophic
      signaling pathway are expected to provide a better strategy to modify AD
      pathogenesis. Here, we review the current understanding of AD pathogenesis and
      neuronal defense systems and discuss a possible way to co-activate the Nrf2
      antioxidant system and neurotrophic signaling pathway with the hope of helping to
      find a better strategy to slow AD.

PMID- 28561777
TI  - Effect of Selected Mercapto Flavor Compounds on Acrylamide Elimination in a Model
      System.
AB  - The effect of four mercapto flavor compounds (1,2-ethanedithiol, 1-butanethiol, 2
      methyl-3-furanthiol, and 2-furanmethanethiol) on acrylamide elimination were
      investigated in model systems. The obtained results showed that mercaptans
      assayed were effective in elimination arylamide in a model system. Their
      reactivities for decreasing acrylamide content depended on mercaptan's molecular
      structure and acrylamide disappearance decreased in the following order: 1,2
      ethanedithiol > 2-methyl-3-furanthiol > 1-butanethiol > 2-furanmethanethiol.
      Mercaptans were added to acrylamide to produce the corresponding 3-(alkylthio)
      propionamides. This reaction was irreversible and only trace amounts of
      acrylamide were formed by thermal heating of 3-(alkylthio) propanamide. Although
      a large amount disappeared, only part of the acrylamide conversed into 3
      (alkylthio) propionamides. All of these results constitute a fundamental proof of
      the complexity of the reactions involved in the removal of free acrylamide in
      foods. This implies mercapto flavor/aroma may directly or indirectly reduce the
      level of acrylamide in food processing. This study could be regarded as a pioneer
      contribution on acrylamide elimination in a model system by the addition of
      mercapto flavor compounds.

PMID- 28561779
TI  - Transcriptomics, NF-kappaB Pathway, and Their Potential Spaceflight-Related
      Health Consequences.
AB  - In space, living organisms are exposed to multiple stress factors including
      microgravity and space radiation. For humans, these harmful environmental factors
      have been known to cause negative health impacts such as bone loss and immune
      dysfunction. Understanding the mechanisms by which spaceflight impacts human
      health at the molecular level is critical not only for accurately assessing the
      risks associated with spaceflight, but also for developing effective
      countermeasures. Over the years, a number of studies have been conducted under
      real or simulated space conditions. RNA and protein levels in cellular and animal
      models have been targeted in order to identify pathways affected by spaceflight.
      Of the many pathways responsive to the space environment, the nuclear factor
      kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kappaB) network appears to
      commonly be affected across many different cell types under the true or simulated
      spaceflight conditions. NF-kappaB is of particular interest, as it is associated
      with many of the spaceflight-related health consequences. This review intends to
      summarize the transcriptomics studies that identified NF-kappaB as a responsive
      pathway to ground-based simulated microgravity or the true spaceflight condition.
      These studies were carried out using either human cell or animal models. In
      addition, the review summarizes the studies that focused specifically on NF
      kappaB pathway in specific cell types or organ tissues as related to the known
      spaceflight-related health risks including immune dysfunction, bone loss, muscle
      atrophy, central nerve system (CNS) dysfunction, and risks associated with space
      radiation. Whether the NF-kappaB pathway is activated or inhibited in space is
      dependent on the cell type, but the potential health impact appeared to be always
      negative. It is argued that more studies on NF-kappaB should be conducted to
      fully understand this particular pathway for the benefit of crew health in space.

PMID- 28561780
TI  - Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel 2-Pyrrolidone-Fused (2-Oxoindolin-3
      ylidene)methylpyrrole Derivatives as Potential Multi-Target Tyrosine Kinase
      Receptor Inhibitors.
AB  - Signaling pathways of VEGFs and PDGFs are crucial in tumor angiogenesis, which is
      essential in solid tumor progression and metastasis. This study reports our
      strategy for designing and synthesizing a series of novel 2-pyrrolidone-fused (2
      oxoindolin-3-ylidene)methylpyrrole derivatives as potential multi-target tyrosine
      kinase receptor inhibitors. The target compounds were obtained by condensation of
      5-substituted oxindoles with N-substituted 2-pyrrolidone aldehyde 7 in
      satisfactory yields. Of these, 11 and 12 had the highest potency and, compared to
      sunitinib, showed: (1) significant increase in anti-proliferation of various
      cancer cells with a favorable selective index (SI); (2) higher inhibitory potency
      against both VEGFR-2 and PDGFRbeta. The molecular modeling results showed that,
      in terms of VEGFR-2 binding, the synthesized products had a similar binding mode
      to sunitinib but with tighter interaction.

PMID- 28561776
TI  - Qualitative Versus Quantitative Mammographic Breast Density Assessment:
      Applications for the US and Abroad.
AB  - Mammographic breast density (MBD) has been proven to be an important risk factor
      for breast cancer and an important determinant of mammographic screening
      performance. The measurement of density has changed dramatically since its
      inception. Initial qualitative measurement methods have been found to have
      limited consistency between readers, and in regards to breast cancer risk.
      Following the introduction of full-field digital mammography, more sophisticated
      measurement methodology is now possible. Automated computer-based density
      measurements can provide consistent, reproducible, and objective results. In this
      review paper, we describe various methods currently available to assess MBD, and
      provide a discussion on the clinical utility of such methods for breast cancer
      screening.

PMID- 28561781
TI  - Comparison of the Peripheral Reactive Hyperemia Index with Myocardial Perfusion
      Reserve by 82Rb PET/CT in HIV-Infected Patients.
AB  - After the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) the life expectancy of
      patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now approaching that
      of the general population and the importance of non-AIDS co-morbidities is
      increasing. Specifically, the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) seems to be
      higher in HIV-infected patients and an accurate risk prediction of CAD is of high
      importance for optimal long term treatment. In this study, we assessed the
      correlation of the endoPAT, which is an office-based CVD screening tool with the
      myocardial perfusion reserve by 82-rubidium PET/CT. We measured the reactive
      hyperemia index, which is a measure of the endothelial responsiveness, by the use
      of an endoPAT device (Itamar Medical, Caesarea, Israel) in 48 ART treated HIV
      infected patients with high CD 4 cell counts and viral suppression (HIV-RNA < 20
      copies/mL), who had previously undergone measurement of the myocardial perfusion
      reserve by 82-rubidium PET/CT for study purposes. We found an inverse correlation
      between the reactive hyperemia index and the myocardial perfusion reserve which
      most likely indicates different vascular physiology. This study did not find
      evidence to suggest the immediate implementation of the reactive hyperemia index
      as a screening tool for early coronary artery disease in well-treated HIV
      infected patients pending further validation in larger prospective studies.

PMID- 28561782
TI  - Some Physical Properties of Protein Moiety of Alkali-Extracted Tea Polysaccharide
      Conjugates Were Shielded by Its Polysaccharide.
AB  - Polysaccharide conjugates were alkali-extracted from green tea (TPC-A). Although
      it contained 11.80% covalently binding proteins, TPC-A could not bind to the
      Coomassie Brilliant Blue dyes G250 and R250. TPC-A had no expected characteristic
      absorption peak of protein in the UV-vis spectrum scanning in the range of 200
      700 nm. The UV-vis wavelength of 280 nm was not suitable to detect the presence
      of the protein portion of TPC-A. The zeta potential of TPC-A merely presented the
      negative charge properties of polysaccharides instead of the acid-base property
      of its protein section across the entire pH range. Furthermore, TPC-A was more
      stable when the pH of solution exceeded 4.0. In addition, no precipitation or
      haze was generated in the TPC-A/(-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) mixtures
      during 12 h storage. TPC-A has emulsifying activity, which indicated that its
      protein moiety formed hydrophobic groups. Thus, it was proposed that some
      physical properties of TPC-A protein were shielded by its olysaccharide, since
      the protein moiety was wrapped by its polysaccharide chains.

PMID- 28561783
TI  - Electromagnetic Field Assessment as a Smart City Service: The SmartSantander Use
      Case.
AB  - Despite the increasing presence of wireless communications in everyday life,
      there exist some voices raising concerns about their adverse effects. One
      particularly relevant example is the potential impact of the electromagnetic
      field they induce on the population's health. Traditionally, very specialized
      methods and devices (dosimetry) have been used to assess the strength of the E
      field, with the main objective of checking whether it respects the corresponding
      regulations. In this paper, we propose a complete novel approach, which exploits
      the functionality leveraged by a smart city platform. We deploy a number of
      measuring probes, integrated as sensing devices, to carry out a characterization
      embracing large areas, as well as long periods of time. This unique platform has
      been active for more than one year, generating a vast amount of information. We
      process such information, and the obtained results validate the whole
      methodology. In addition, we discuss the variation of the E-field caused by
      cellular networks, considering additional information, such as usage statistics.
      Finally, we establish the exposure that can be attributed to the base stations
      within the scenario under analysis.

PMID- 28561778
TI  - EZH2 in Cancer Progression and Potential Application in Cancer Therapy: A Friend
      or Foe?
AB  - Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a histone methyltransferase, catalyzes tri
      methylation of histone H3 at Lys 27 (H3K27me3) to regulate gene expression
      through epigenetic machinery. EZH2 functions as a double-facet molecule in
      regulation of gene expression via repression or activation mechanisms, depending
      on the different cellular contexts. EZH2 interacts with both histone and non
      histone proteins to modulate diverse physiological functions including cancer
      progression and malignancy. In this review article, we focused on the updated
      information regarding microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in
      regulation of EZH2, the oncogenic and tumor suppressive roles of EZH2 in cancer
      progression and malignancy, as well as current pre-clinical and clinical trials
      of EZH2 inhibitors.

PMID- 28561784
TI  - Metallic Glass/PVDF Magnetoelectric Laminates for Resonant Sensors and Actuators:
      A Review.
AB  - Among magnetoelectric (ME) heterostructures, ME laminates of the type Metglas
      like/PVDF (magnetostrictive+piezoelectric constituents) have shown the highest
      induced ME voltages, usually detected at the magnetoelastic resonance of the
      magnetostrictive constituent. This ME coupling happens because of the high cross
      correlation coupling between magnetostrictive and piezoelectric material, and is
      usually associated with a promising application scenario for sensors or
      actuators. In this work we detail the basis of the operation of such devices, as
      well as some arising questions (as size effects) concerning their best
      performance. Also, some examples of their use as very sensitive magnetic fields
      sensors or innovative energy harvesting devices will be reviewed. At the end, the
      challenges, future perspectives and technical difficulties that will determine
      the success of ME composites for sensor applications are discussed.

PMID- 28561786
TI  - Distributed Piezoelectric Sensor System for Damage Identification in Structures
      Subjected to Temperature Changes.
AB  - Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a very important area in a wide spectrum of
      fields and engineering applications. With an SHM system, it is possible to reduce
      the number of non-necessary inspection tasks, the associated risk and the
      maintenance cost in a wide range of structures during their lifetime. One of the
      problems in the detection and classification of damage are the constant changes
      in the operational and environmental conditions. Small changes of these
      conditions can be considered by the SHM system as damage even though the
      structure is healthy. Several applications for monitoring of structures have been
      developed and reported in the literature, and some of them include temperature
      compensation techniques. In real applications, however, digital processing
      technologies have proven their value by: (i) offering a very interesting way to
      acquire information from the structures under test; (ii) applying methodologies
      to provide a robust analysis; and (iii) performing a damage identification with a
      practical useful accuracy. This work shows the implementation of an SHM system
      based on the use of piezoelectric (PZT) sensors for inspecting a structure
      subjected to temperature changes. The methodology includes the use of
      multivariate analysis, sensor data fusion and machine learning approaches. The
      methodology is tested and evaluated with aluminum and composite structures that
      are subjected to temperature variations. Results show that damage can be detected
      and classified in all of the cases in spite of the temperature changes.

PMID- 28561785
TI  - Bioactive Natural Product and Superacid Chemistry for Lead Compound
      Identification: A Case Study of Selective hCA III and L-Type Ca2+ Current
      Inhibitors for Hypotensive Agent Discovery.
AB  - Dodoneine (Ddn) is one of the active compounds identified from
      Agelanthusdodoneifolius, which is a medicinal plant used in African pharmacopeia
      and traditional medicine for the treatment of hypertension. In the context of a
      scientific program aiming at discovering new hypotensive agents through the
      original combination of natural product discovery and superacid chemistry
      diversification, and after evidencing dodoneine's vasorelaxant effect on rat
      aorta, superacid modifications allowed us to generate original analogues which
      showed selective human carbonic anhydrase III (hCA III) and L-type Ca2+ current
      inhibition. These derivatives can now be considered as new lead compounds for
      vasorelaxant therapeutics targeting these two proteins.

PMID- 28561787
TI  - Production of Recombinant Antimicrobial Polymeric Protein Beta Casein-E 50-52 and
      Its Antimicrobial Synergistic Effects Assessment with Thymol.
AB  - Accelerating emergence of antimicrobial resistance among food pathogens and
      consumers' increasing demands for preservative-free foods are two contemporary
      challenging aspects within the food industry. Antimicrobial packaging and the use
      of natural preservatives are promising solutions. In the present study, we used
      beta-casein-one of the primary self-assembly proteins in milk with a high
      polymeric film production capability-as a fusion partner for the recombinant
      expression of E 50-52 antimicrobial peptide in Escherichia coli. The pET21a-BCN-E
      50-52 construct was transformed to E. coli BL21 (DE3), and protein expression was
      induced under optimized conditions. Purified protein obtained from nickel
      affinity chromatography was refolded under optimized dialysis circumstances and
      concentrated to 1600 ug/mL fusion protein by ultrafiltration. Antimicrobial
      activities of recombinant BCN-E 50-52 performed against Escherichia coli,
      Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus,
      Aspergillus flavus, and Candida albicans. Subsequently, the synergistic effects
      of BCN-E 50-52 and thymol were assayed. Results of checkerboard tests showed
      strong synergistic activity between two compounds. Time-kill and growth kinetic
      studies indicated a sharp reduction of cell viability during the first period of
      exposure, and SEM (scanning electron microscope) results validated the severe
      destructive effects of BCN E 50-52 and thymol in combination on bacterial cells.

PMID- 28561788
TI  - Comprehensive Characterization for Ginsenosides Biosynthesis in Ginseng Root by
      Integration Analysis of Chemical and Transcriptome.
AB  - Herbgenomics provides a global platform to explore the genetics and biology of
      herbs on the genome level. Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is an important medicinal
      plant with numerous pharmaceutical effects. Previous reports mainly discussed the
      transcriptome of ginseng at the organ level. However, based on mass spectrometry
      imaging analyses, the ginsenosides varied among different tissues. In this work,
      ginseng root was separated into three tissues-periderm, cortex and stele-each for
      five duplicates. The chemical analysis and transcriptome analysis were conducted
      simultaneously. Gene-encoding enzymes involved in ginsenosides biosynthesis and
      modification were studied based on gene and molecule data. Eight widely-used
      ginsenosides were distributed unevenly in ginseng roots. A total of 182,881
      unigenes were assembled with an N50 contig size of 1374 bp. About 21,000 of these
      unigenes were positively correlated with the content of ginsenosides.
      Additionally, we identified 192 transcripts encoding enzymes involved in two
      triterpenoid biosynthesis pathways and 290 transcripts encoding UDP
      glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Of these UGTs, 195 UGTs (67.2%) were more highly
      expressed in the periderm, and that seven UGTs and one UGT were specifically
      expressed in the periderm and stele, respectively. This genetic resource will
      help to improve the interpretation on complex mechanisms of ginsenosides
      biosynthesis, accumulation, and transportation.

PMID- 28561789
TI  - Careful with That Axe, Gene, Genome Perturbation after a PEG-Mediated Protoplast
      Transformation in Fusarium verticillioides.
AB  - Fusarium verticillioides causes ear rot disease in maize and its contamination
      with fumonisins, mycotoxins harmful for humans and livestock. Lipids, and their
      oxidized forms, may drive the fate of this disease. In a previous study, we have
      explored the role of oxylipins in this interaction by deleting by standard
      transformation procedures a linoleate diol synthase-coding gene, lds1, in F.
      verticillioides. A profound phenotypic diversity in the mutants generated has
      prompted us to investigate more deeply the whole genome of two lds1-deleted
      strains. Bioinformatics analyses pinpoint significant differences in the genome
      sequences emerged between the wild type and the lds1-mutants further than those
      trivially attributable to the deletion of the lds1 locus, such as single
      nucleotide polymorphisms, small deletion/insertion polymorphisms and structural
      variations. Results suggest that the effect of a (theoretically) punctual
      transformation event might have enhanced the natural mechanisms of genomic
      variability and that transformation practices, commonly used in the reverse
      genetics of fungi, may potentially be responsible for unexpected, stochastic and
      henceforth off-target rearrangements throughout the genome.

PMID- 28561790
TI  - Himatanthus drasticus Leaves: Chemical Characterization and Evaluation of Their
      Antimicrobial, Antibiofilm, Antiproliferative Activities.
AB  - Plant-derived products have played a fundamental role in the development of new
      therapeutic agents. This study aimed to analyze antimicrobial, antibiofilm,
      cytotoxicity and antiproliferative potentials of the extract and fractions from
      leaves of Himatanthusdrasticus, a plant from the Apocynaceae family. After
      harvesting, H. drasticus leaves were macerated and a hydroalcoholic extract
      (HDHE) and fractions were prepared. Antimicrobial tests, such as agar-diffusion,
      Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimal Bactericidal Concentration
      (MBC) were carried out against several bacterial species. Staphylococcus aureus,
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria monocytogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae were
      inhibited by at least one extract or fraction in the agar-diffusion assay
      (inhibition halos from 12 mm to 30 mm). However, the lowest MIC value was found
      for HDHE against K. pneumoniae. In addition, HDHE and its fractions were able to
      inhibit biofilm formation at sub-inhibitory concentrations (780 ug/mL and 1.56
      ug/mL). As the best activities were found for HDHE, we selected it for further
      assays. HDHE was able to increase ciprofloxacin (CIP) activity against K.
      pneumoniae, displaying synergistic (initial concentration CIP + HDHE: 2 ug/mL +
      600 ug/mL and 2.5 ug/mL + 500 ug/mL) and additive effects (CIP + HDHE: 3 ug/mL +
      400 ug/mL). This action seems to be associated with the alteration in bacterial
      membrane permeability induced by HDHE (as seen by propidium iodide labeling).
      This extract was non-toxic for red blood cell or human peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Additionally, it inhibited the lipopolysaccharide
      induced proliferation of PBMCs. The following compounds were detected in HDHE
      using HPLC-ESI-MS analysis: plumieride, plumericin or isoplumericin, rutin,
      quercetin and derivatives, and chlorogenic acid. Based on these results we
      suggest that compounds from H. drasticus have antimicrobial and antibiofilm
      activities against K. pneumoniae and display low cytotoxicity and anti
      proliferative action in PBMC stimulated with lipopolysaccharide.

PMID- 28561791
TI  - Epigenetic Control of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression: Focus on Regulation
      of Long-Terminal Repeats (LTRs).
AB  - Transposable elements, including endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), comprise almost
      45% of the human genome. This could represent a significant pathogenic burden but
      it is becoming more evident that many of these elements have a positive
      contribution to make to normal human physiology. In particular, the contributions
      of human ERVs (HERVs) to gene regulation and the expression of noncoding RNAs has
      been revealed with the help of new and emerging genomic technologies. HERVs have
      the common provirus structure of coding open reading frames (ORFs) flanked by two
      long-terminal repeats (LTRs). However, over the course of evolution and as a
      consequence of host defence mechanisms, most of the sequences contain INDELs,
      mutations or have been reduced to single LTRs by recombination. These INDELs and
      mutations reduce HERV activity. However, there is a trade-off for the host cells
      in that HERVs can provide beneficial sources of genetic variation but with this
      benefit comes the risk of pathogenic activity and spread within the genome. For
      example, the LTRs are of critical importance as they contain promoter sequences
      and can regulate not only HERV expression but that of human genes. This is true
      even when the LTRs are located in intergenic regions or are in antisense
      orientation to the rest of the gene. Uncontrolled, this promoter activity could
      disrupt normal gene expression or transcript processing (e.g., splicing). Thus,
      control of HERVs and particularly their LTRs is essential for the cell to manage
      these elements and this control is achieved at multiple levels, including
      epigenetic regulations that permit HERV expression in the germline but silence it
      in most somatic tissues. We will discuss some of the common epigenetic mechanisms
      and how they affect HERV expression, providing detailed discussions of HERVs in
      stem cell, placenta and cancer biology.

PMID- 28561792
TI  - Short-Term Associations between Air Pollution Concentrations and Respiratory
      Health-Comparing Primary Health Care Visits, Hospital Admissions, and Emergency
      Department Visits in a Multi-Municipality Study.
AB  - Acute effects of air pollution on respiratory health have traditionally been
      investigated with data on inpatient admissions, emergency room visits, and
      mortality. In this study, we aim to describe the total acute effects of air
      pollution on health care use for respiratory symptoms (ICD10-J00-J99). This will
      be done by investigating primary health care (PHC) visits, inpatient admissions,
      and emergency room visits together in five municipalities in southern Sweden,
      using a case-crossover design. Between 2005 and 2010, there were 81,019 visits to
      primary health care, 38,217 emergency room visits, and 25,271 inpatient
      admissions for respiratory symptoms in the study area. There was a 1.85% increase
      (95% CI: 0.52 to 3.20) in the number of primary health care visits associated
      with a 10 ug/m3 increase in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in Malmo, but not in
      the other municipalities. Air pollution levels were generally not associated with
      emergency room visits or inpatient admissions, with one exception (in Helsingborg
      there was a 2.52% increase in emergency room visits for respiratory symptoms
      associated with a 10 ug/m3 increase in PM10). In conclusion, the results give
      weak support for short-term effects of air pollution on health care use
      associated with respiratory health symptoms in the study area.

PMID- 28561793
TI  - Role of Free Radicals and Biotransformation in Trichloronitrobenzene-Induced
      Nephrotoxicity In Vitro.
AB  - This study determined the comparative nephrotoxic potential of four
      trichloronitrobenzenes (TCNBs) (2,3,4-; 2,4,5-; 2,4,6-; and 3,4,5-TCNB) and
      explored the effects of antioxidants and biotransformation inhibitors on TCNB
      induced cytotoxicity in isolated renal cortical cells (IRCC) from male Fischer
      344 rats. IRCC were incubated with a TCNB up to 1.0 mM for 15-120 min.
      Pretreatment with an antioxidant or cytochrome P450 (CYP), flavin monooxygenase
      (FMO), or peroxidase inhibitor was used in some experiments. Among the four
      TCNBs, the order of decreasing nephrotoxic potential was approximately 3,4,5- >
      2,4,6- > 2,3,4- > 2,4,5-TCNB. The four TCNBs exhibited a similar profile of
      attenuation of cytotoxicity in response to antioxidant pretreatments. 2,3,4- and
      3,4,5-TCNB cytotoxicity was attenuated by most of the biotransformation
      inhibitors tested, 2,4,5-TCNB cytotoxicity was only inhibited by isoniazid (CYP
      2E1 inhibitor), and 2,4,6-TCNB-induced cytotoxicity was inhibited by one CYP
      inhibitor, one FMO inhibitor, and one peroxidase inhibitor. All of the CYP
      specific inhibitors tested offered some attenuation of 3,4,5-TCNB cytotoxicity.
      These results indicate that 3,4,5-TCNB is the most potent nephrotoxicant, free
      radicals play a role in the TCNB cytotoxicity, and the role of biotransformation
      in TCNB nephrotoxicity in vitro is variable and dependent on the position of the
      chloro groups.

PMID- 28561794
TI  - Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Phenotypes of Recent Bacterial Strains
      Isolated from Urinary Tract Infections in Elderly Patients with Prostatic
      Disease.
AB  - Acute bacterial prostatitis is one of the frequent complications of urinary tract
      infection (UTI). From the approximately 10% of men having prostatitis, 7%
      experience a bacterial prostatitis. The purpose of this study was to investigate
      the prevalence of uropathogens associated with UTIs in older patients with benign
      prostatic hyperplasia and to assess their susceptibility to commonly prescribed
      antibiotics as well as the relationships between microbial virulence and
      resistance features. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli was found to be the most
      frequent bacterial strain isolated from patients with benign prostatic
      hyperplasia, followed by Enterococcus spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp.,
      Proteus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Serratia marcescens. Increased
      resistance rates to tetracyclines, quinolones, and sulfonamides were registered.
      Besides their resistance profiles, the uropathogenic isolates produced various
      virulence factors with possible implications in the pathogenesis process. The
      great majority of the uropathogenic isolates revealed a high capacity to adhere
      to HEp-2 cell monolayer in vitro, mostly exhibiting a localized adherence
      pattern. Differences in the repertoire of soluble virulence factors that can
      affect bacterial growth and persistence within the urinary tract were detected.
      The Gram-negative strains produced pore-forming toxins-such as hemolysins,
      lecithinases, and lipases-proteases, siderophore-like molecules resulted from the
      esculin hydrolysis and amylases, while Enterococcus sp. strains were positive
      only for caseinase and esculin hydrolase. Our study demonstrates that necessity
      of investigating the etiology and local resistance patterns of uropathogenic
      organisms, which is crucial for determining appropriate empirical antibiotic
      treatment in elderly patients with UTI, while establishing correlations between
      resistance and virulence profiles could provide valuable input about the clinical
      evolution and recurrence rates of UTI.

PMID- 28561795
TI  - Evaluation of Low-Cost Mitigation Measures Implemented to Improve Air Quality in
      Nursery and Primary Schools.
AB  - Indoor air pollution mitigation measures are highly important due to the
      associated health impacts, especially on children, a risk group that spends
      significant time indoors. Thus, the main goal of the work here reported was the
      evaluation of mitigation measures implemented in nursery and primary schools to
      improve air quality. Continuous measurements of CO2, CO, NO2, O3, CH2O, total
      volatile organic compounds (VOC), PM1, PM2.5, PM10, Total Suspended Particles
      (TSP) and radon, as well as temperature and relative humidity were performed in
      two campaigns, before and after the implementation of low-cost mitigation
      measures. Evaluation of those mitigation measures was performed through the
      comparison of the concentrations measured in both campaigns. Exceedances to the
      values set by the national legislation and World Health Organization (WHO) were
      found for PM2.5, PM10, CO2 and CH2O during both indoor air quality campaigns.
      Temperature and relative humidity values were also above the ranges recommended
      by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
      (ASHRAE). In general, pollutant concentrations measured after the implementation
      of low-cost mitigation measures were significantly lower, mainly for CO2.
      However, mitigation measures were not always sufficient to decrease the
      pollutants' concentrations till values considered safe to protect human health.

PMID- 28561796
TI  - Synthesis, Characterization and Protonation Behavior of Quinoxaline-Fused
      Porphycenes.
AB  - 9,10-Quinoxaline-fused porphycenes 1a-H2 and 1b-H2 were synthesized by
      intramolecular McMurry coupling. As a result of the annulation of the quinoxaline
      moiety on the porphycene skeleton, 1a-H2 and 1b-H2 display absorption and
      fluorescence in the near infra-red (NIR) region. Additionally, the quinoxaline
      moieties of 1a-H2 and 1b-H2 act as electron-withdrawing groups, introducing lower
      reduction potentials than for pristine porphycene. The protonation occurred at
      the nitrogen atoms in the cavity of freebase porphycenes and at the quinoxaline
      moieties for their nickel complexes to give diprotonic species.

PMID- 28561797
TI  - TRAV7-2*02 Expressing CD8+ T Cells Are Responsible for Palladium Allergy.
AB  - While metallic biomaterials have led to an improvement in the quality of life,
      metal allergies, especially to palladium (Pd), has caused a recent increase in
      allergic patients. Metal allergy is known to be a T cell-mediated delayed-type
      hypersensitivity (DTH); however, the pathogenic T cell subsets and the specific T
      cell receptor (TCR) have not been identified. Therefore, we attempted to identify
      the pathogenic T cells responsible for Pd allergy. We found that activating CD8+
      T cells significantly increased and that the TRAV (TCRalpha variable) 7-2*02
      chain skewed in Pd allergic mice. Furthermore, adoptive transfer experiments
      revealed that in vitro-cultured Pd-stimulated antigen presenting cells (APCs)
      function as memory APCs with recipient mice developing Pd allergy and that the
      frequency of TRAV7-2*02 increases the same as conventional Pd allergic mice. In
      contrast, neither proliferation of CD8+ T cells nor increasing of TRAV7-2*02 was
      observed in major histocompatibility complex I (MHC I)-deficient Pd-APCs
      transferred to mice. Taken together, we revealed that TRAV7-2*02-expressing CD8+
      T cells are the pathogenic T cells for the development of Pd allergy. We also
      identified the CDR3 consensus motif of pathogenic TCRs as CAAXSGSWQLIF in TRAV7
      2*02/TRAJ (TCRalpha junction)22*01 positive cells. These results suggest that the
      specific TCRs represent novel targets for the development of diagnostics and
      treatments for metal allergy.

PMID- 28561799
TI  - Extending Participatory Sensing to Personal Exposure Using Microscopic Land Use
      Regression Models.
AB  - Personal exposure is sensitive to the personal features and behavior of the
      individual, and including interpersonal variability will improve the health and
      quality of life evaluations. Participatory sensing assesses the spatial and
      temporal variability of environmental indicators and is used to quantify this
      interpersonal variability. Transferring the participatory sensing information to
      a specific study population is a basic requirement for epidemiological studies in
      the near future. We propose a methodology to reduce the void between
      participatory sensing and health research. Instantaneous microscopic land-use
      regression modeling (uLUR) is an innovative approach. Data science techniques
      extract the activity-specific and route-sensitive spatiotemporal variability from
      the data. A data workflow to prepare and apply uLUR models to any mobile
      population is presented. The uLUR technique and data workflow are illustrated
      with models for exposure to traffic related Black Carbon. The example uLURs are
      available for three micro-environments; bicycle, in-vehicle, and indoor.
      Instantaneous noise assessments supply instantaneous traffic information to the
      uLURs. The activity specific models are combined into an instantaneous personal
      exposure model for Black Carbon. An independent external validation reached a
      correlation of 0.65. The uLURs can be applied to simulated behavioral patterns of
      individuals in epidemiological cohorts for advanced health and policy research.

PMID- 28561798
TI  - NF-kappaB in Hematological Malignancies.
AB  - NF-kappaB (Nuclear Factor Kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells)
      transcription factors are critical regulators of immunity, stress response,
      apoptosis, and differentiation. Molecular defects promoting the constitutive
      activation of canonical and non-canonical NF-kappaB signaling pathways contribute
      to many diseases, including cancer, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and
      autoimmunity. In the present review, we focus our attention on the mechanisms of
      NF-kappaB deregulation in hematological malignancies. Key positive regulators of
      NF-kappaB signaling can act as oncogenes that are often prone to chromosomal
      translocation, amplifications, or activating mutations. Negative regulators of NF
      kappaB have tumor suppressor functions, and are frequently inactivated either by
      genomic deletions or point mutations. NF-kappaB activation in tumoral cells is
      also driven by the microenvironment or chronic signaling that does not rely on
      genetic alterations.

PMID- 28561800
TI  - Alternative Access to Functionalized 2,8-Ethanonoradamantane Derivatives.
AB  - 7a-(Methoxycarbonyl)-N-methyl-1,3a,5,6,7,7a-hexahydro-4H-1,4,6
      (epiethane[1,1,2]triyl)indene-4,9-dicarboximide has been prepared through a
      modification of a previous synthetic sequence, in which the benzyloxymethyl
      hydroxyl protecting group has been replaced by methoxymethyl, to avoid the
      apparent formation of a benzyl ester derivative as a side product. The overall
      yield of the new synthetic sequence is comparable to the previous one. Two
      advantages of the new procedure are: (a) no benzyl ester was formed and (b) a
      stereoisomeric mixture of syn- and anti-alcohols at the beginning of the
      synthetic sequence could be separated and the rest of the synthesis could be
      carried out with the main syn-stereoisomer instead of the corresponding
      stereoisomeric mixture as it was the case in the previous process. Additionally,
      several functional 2,8-ethanonoradamantane derivatives have been prepared.

PMID- 28561801
TI  - Is Erythrocyte Protoporphyrin a Better Single Screening Test for Iron Deficiency
      Compared to Hemoglobin or Mean Cell Volume in Children and Women?
AB  - Hemoglobin (Hb), mean cell volume (MCV), and erythrocyte protoporphyrin (EP) are
      commonly used to screen for iron deficiency (ID), but systematic evaluation of
      the sensitivity and specificity of these tests is limited. The objective of this
      study is to determine the sensitivity and specificity of Hb, MCV, and EP
      measurements in screening for ID in preschool children, non-pregnant women 15-49
      years of age, and pregnant women. Data from the National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Surveys (NHANES) (NHANES 2003-2006: n = 861, children three to five
      years of age; n = 3112, non-pregnant women 15 to 49 years of age. NHANES 1999
      2006: n = 1150, pregnant women) were examined for this purpose. Children or women
      with blood lead >=10 ug/dL or C-reactive protein (CRP) >5.0 mg/L were excluded.
      ID was defined as total body iron stores <0 mg/kg body weight, calculated from
      the ratio of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) to serum ferritin (SF). The
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to characterize the
      sensitivity and specificity of Hb, MCV, and EP measurements in screening for ID.
      In detecting ID in children three to five years of age, EP (Area under the Curve
      (AUC) 0.80) was superior to Hb (AUC 0.62) (p < 0.01) but not statistically
      different from MCV (AUC 0.73). In women, EP and Hb were comparable (non-pregnant
      AUC 0.86 and 0.84, respectively; pregnant 0.77 and 0.74, respectively), and both
      were better than MCV (non-pregnant AUC 0.80; pregnant 0.70) (p < 0.01). We
      concluded that the sensitivity and specificity of EP in screening for ID were
      consistently superior to or at least as effective as those of Hb and MCV in each
      population examined. For children three to five years of age, EP screening for ID
      was significantly better than Hb and similar to MCV. For both non-pregnant and
      pregnant women, the performance of EP and Hb were comparable; both were
      significantly superior to MCV.

PMID- 28561802
TI  - Nanofluid Types, Their Synthesis, Properties and Incorporation in Direct Solar
      Thermal Collectors: A Review.
AB  - The global demand for energy is increasing and the detrimental consequences of
      rising greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and environmental degradation
      present major challenges. Solar energy offers a clean and viable renewable energy
      source with the potential to alleviate the detrimental consequences normally
      associated with fossil fuel-based energy generation. However, there are two
      inherent problems associated with conventional solar thermal energy conversion
      systems. The first involves low thermal conductivity values of heat transfer
      fluids, and the second involves the poor optical properties of many absorbers and
      their coating. Hence, there is an imperative need to improve both thermal and
      optical properties of current solar conversion systems. Direct solar thermal
      absorption collectors incorporating a nanofluid offers the opportunity to achieve
      significant improvements in both optical and thermal performance. Since
      nanofluids offer much greater heat absorbing and heat transfer properties
      compared to traditional working fluids. The review summarizes current research in
      this innovative field. It discusses direct solar absorber collectors and methods
      for improving their performance. This is followed by a discussion of the various
      types of nanofluids available and the synthesis techniques used to manufacture
      them. In closing, a brief discussion of nanofluid property modelling is also
      presented.

PMID- 28561804
TI  - Corrigendum: Green tea consumption is associated with reduced incident CHD and
      improved CHD-related biomarkers in the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep24353.

PMID- 28561805
TI  - Corrigendum: A new gender-specific model for skin autofluorescence risk
      stratification.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep10198.

PMID- 28561803
TI  - Utilization of Multi-Immunization and Multiple Selection Strategies for Isolation
      of Hapten-Specific Antibodies from Recombinant Antibody Phage Display Libraries.
AB  - Phage display technology provides a powerful tool for the development of novel
      recombinant antibodies. In this work, we optimized and streamlined the
      recombinant antibody discovery process for haptens as an example. A multi
      immunization approach was used in order to avoid the need for construction of
      multiple antibody libraries. Selection methods were developed to utilize the full
      potential of the recombinant antibody library by applying four different elution
      conditions simultaneously. High-throughput immunoassays were used to analyse the
      binding properties of the individual antibody clones. Different carrier proteins
      were used in the immunization, selection, and screening phases to avoid
      enrichment of the antibodies for the carrier protein epitopes. Novel recombinant
      antibodies against mycophenolic acid and ochratoxin A, with affinities up to 39
      nM and 34 nM, respectively, were isolated from a multi-immunized fragment antigen
      binding (Fab) library.

PMID- 28561806
TI  - Genetic-based interactions among tree neighbors: identification of the most
      influential neighbors, and estimation of correlations among direct and indirect
      genetic effects for leaf disease and growth in Eucalyptus globulus.
AB  - An individual's genes may influence the phenotype of neighboring conspecifics.
      Such indirect genetic effects (IGEs) are important as they can affect the
      apparent total heritable variance in a population, and thus the response to
      selection. We studied these effects in a large, pedigreed population of
      Eucalyptus globulus using variance component analyses of Mycosphearella leaf
      disease, diameter growth at age 2 years, and post-infection diameter growth at
      ages 4 and 8 years. In a novel approach, we initially modeled IGEs using a factor
      analytic (FA) structure to identify the most influential neighbor positions, with
      the FA loadings being position-specific regressions on the IGEs. This involved
      sequentially comparing FA models for the variance-covariance matrices of the
      direct and indirect effects of each neighbor. We then modeled IGEs as a distance
      based, combined effect of the most influential neighbors. This often increased
      the magnitude and significance of indirect genetic variance estimates relative to
      using all neighbors. The extension of a univariate IGEs model to bivariate
      analyses also provided insights into the genetic architecture of this population,
      revealing that: (1) IGEs arising from increased probability of neighbor infection
      were not associated with reduced growth of neighbors, despite adverse fitness
      effects being evident at the direct genetic level; and (2) the strong, genetic
      based competitive interactions for growth, established early in stand
      development, were highly positively correlated over time. Our results highlight
      the complexities of genetic-based interactions at the multi-trait level due to
      (co)variances associated with IGEs, and the marked discrepancy occurring between
      direct and total heritable variances.

PMID- 28561808
TI  - Prostate cancer: Lineage predicts ADT response.

PMID- 28561809
TI  - Kidney cancer: Bap1 and Pbrm1 determine tumour grade.

PMID- 28561807
TI  - Personalized peptide vaccines and their relation to other therapies in urological
      cancer.
AB  - Immunotherapy is an important therapeutic modality for urological cancers and
      several immunological agents for their treatment, such as sipuleucel-T and immune
      checkpoint inhibitors, have been approved by the FDA. Personalized peptide
      vaccines (PPVs) are an immunotherapy that uses multiple cancer peptides that are
      selected to complement pre-existing host immunity. Vaccination with an
      appropriate, individualized selection of peptides, chosen from a list of
      candidates, induces stronger and more rapid antitumour immunity in comparison
      with inoculation of conventional peptide vaccines. Phase I and phase II trials
      have shown that PPVs are safe and effective in urological cancers. Randomized
      trials in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer showed that PPVs can
      significantly improve progression-free survival and overall survival. However,
      further studies are needed to evaluate the utility of PPVs in other urological
      cancers, to identify those patients who will derive the greatest benefit from
      this approach and to optimize the protocols for combination therapies involving
      PPVs.

PMID- 28561810
TI  - Infection: Intravesical gentamicin ameliorates recurrent UTI.

PMID- 28561812
TI  - Pain: Chondroitin sulfate is superior to hyaluronic acid.

PMID- 28561811
TI  - Prostate cancer: AZGP1 expression predicts favourable outcomes.

PMID- 28561813
TI  - Therapeutic approaches for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
AB  - Spinal muscular atrophy is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder
      characterized by progressive muscle wasting and loss of muscle function due to
      severe motor neuron dysfunction, secondary to mutations in the survival motor
      neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. A second neighboring centromeric gene, SMN2, is intact in
      all patients but contains a C-to-T variation in exon 7 that affects a splice
      enhancer and determines exclusion of exon 7 in the majority of its transcript,
      leading to an unstable protein that cannot substitute for mutant SMN1. Following
      successful studies on disease models and intensive studies on SMN functions in
      the past decade, SMN upregulation targeting SMN2, has been suggested as a
      possible therapeutic approach. Recently, we have witnessed an historical turning
      point with the first disease-modifying treatment receiving Food and Drug
      Administration approval and now being available to patients also outside the
      clinical trial. This innovative treatment is an antisense oligonucleotide, which,
      administered intrathecally, is able to increase exon 7 inclusion in the majority
      of the SMN2 mRNA and increase the production of fully functional SMN protein.
      Alternative advanced therapies, such as viral vector mediated gene therapy and
      orally available small molecules, are also showing promising results in early
      clinical trial phases.

PMID- 28561814
TI  - The SMA Trust: the role of a disease-focused research charity in developing
      treatments for SMA.
AB  - SMA is a rare hereditary neuromuscular disease that causes weakness and muscle
      wasting as a result of the loss of spinal motor neurons. In its most severe form,
      SMA is the commonest genetic cause of death in infants, and children with less
      severe forms of SMA face the prospect of lifelong disability from progressive
      muscle wasting, loss of mobility and limb weakness. The initial discovery of the
      defective gene has been followed by major advances in our understanding of the
      genetic, cellular and molecular basis of SMA, providing the foundation for a
      range of approaches to treatment, including gene therapy, antisense
      oligonucleotide treatments and more traditional drug-based approaches to slow or
      halt disease progression. The approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
      (FDA) of Spinraza (nusinersen), the first targeted treatment for spinal muscular
      atrophy (SMA), is a historic moment. Disease-focused research charities, such as
      The SMA Trust (UK), continue to have a crucial role in promoting the development
      of additional treatments for SMA, both by funding translational research and by
      promoting links between researchers, people living with SMA and other
      stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers.

PMID- 28561816
TI  - Validity and reliability of three-dimensional scanning compared to conventional
      anthropometry for children and adolescents: methodological mistake.

PMID- 28561817
TI  - Epigallocatechin-3-gallate attenuates cerebral cortex damage and promotes brain
      regeneration in acrylamide-treated rats.
AB  - Acrylamide (ACR) is a neurotoxic industrial chemical intermediate, which is also
      present in food and water. We investigated the neuroprotective effects of
      epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant polyphenol in green tea, on
      ACR-treated rat brain. Rats were pre-treated with EGCG for 4 d and then
      administered ACR and EGCG for 14 d. EGCG increased acetylcholinesterase (AChE)
      activity and the rate of Nissl-positive cells in ACR-treated rats. Senescence
      associated beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-gal) staining indicated that EGCG
      attenuated ACR-induced senescence. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha),
      inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) protein
      expression indicated that EGCG inhibited ACR-induced inflammation. In addition,
      immunohistochemical analysis of nestin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      (BDNF) revealed that EGCG promoted brain regeneration in ACR-treated rats.
      Altogether, our results suggest that EGCG can attenuate ACR-induced brain damage
      and promote regeneration in the cerebral cortex of rats. Therefore, we
      hypothesized that EGCG may alleviate ACR-related nerve injury.

PMID- 28561818
TI  - Anisotropic thermal expansion of SnSe from first-principles calculations based on
      Gruneisen's theory.
AB  - Based on Gruneisen's theory, the elastic properties and thermal expansion of bulk
      SnSe with the Pnma phase are investigated by using first-principles calculations.
      Our numerical results indicate that the linear thermal expansion coefficient
      along the a direction is smaller than the one along the b direction, while the
      one along the c direction shows a significant negative value, even at high
      temperature. The numerical results are in good accordance with experimental
      results. In addition, generalized and macroscopic Gruneisen parameters are also
      presented. It is also found that SnSe possesses negative Possion's ratio. The
      contributions of different phonon modes to NTE along the c direction are
      investigated, and it is found that the two modes which make the most important
      contributions to NTE are transverse vibrations perpendicular to the c direction.
      Finally, we analyze the relation of elastic constants to negative thermal
      expansion, and demonstrate that negative thermal expansion can also occur even
      with all positive macroscopic Gruneisen parameters.

PMID- 28561815
TI  - Effects of therapeutic hypothermia on white matter injury from murine neonatal
      hypoxia-ischemia.
AB  - BackgroundTherapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the standard of care for neonates with
      hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, but it is not fully protective in the clinical
      setting. Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) may cause white matter injury (WMI), leading to
      neurological and cognitive dysfunction.MethodsP9 mice were subjected to HI as
      previously described. Pups underwent 3.5 h of systemic hypothermia or
      normothermia. Cresyl violet and Perl's iron staining for histopathological
      scoring of brain sections was completed blindly on all brains. Immunocytochemical
      (ICC) staining for myelin basic protein (MBP), microglia (Iba1), and astrocytes
      (glia fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)) was performed on adjacent sections.
      Volumetric measurements of MBP coverage were used for quantitative analysis of
      white matter.ResultsTH provided neuroprotection by injury scoring for the entire
      group (n=44; P<0.0002). ICC analysis of a subset of brains showed that the
      lateral caudate was protected from WMI (P<0.05). Analysis revealed decreased GFAP
      and Iba1 staining in hippocampal regions, mostly CA2/CA3. GFAP and Iba1 directly
      correlated with injury scores of normothermic brains.ConclusionTH reduced injury,
      and qualitative data suggest that hippocampus and lateral caudate are protected
      from HI. Mildly injured brains may better show the benefits of TH. Overall, these
      data indicate regional differences in WMI susceptibility and inflammation in a P9
      murine HI model.

PMID- 28561819
TI  - SO2 and SO3 reactions with [(C5Me5)2Sm-O-Sm(C5Me5)2]: a DFT investigation and
      comparison with CO2 reactivity.
AB  - Recently, it was shown that samarocene oxide [Cp*2Sm-O-SmCp*2] with Cp* = C5Me5
      could react with organic and inorganic anhydrides. The reactions of [Cp*2Sm-O
      SmCp*2] with SO2 and SO3 are reported using DFT calculations and compared with
      the reactivity of CO2. These reactions exhibit similar features yielding [Cp*2-Sm
      (MU-eta1:eta2-OSO2)-SmCp*2] similar to [Cp*2-Sm-(MU-eta1:eta2-OCO2)-SmCp*2] and
      [Cp*2-Sm-(MU-eta2:eta2-O2SO2)-SmCp*2] complexes.

PMID- 28561820
TI  - Mechanistic insight into the thermal activation of Togni's trifluoromethylation
      reagents.
AB  - Herein we investigate the propensity of hypervalent iodine based electrophilic
      trifluoromethylating agents to undergo thermally induced fragmentation of the F3C
      I-O motif. For the first time we are able to observe a dissociative electron
      transfer mechanism using mass spectroscopy techniques to generate and trap CF3
      radicals. Consistent with this mechanism, alkyl radical elimination from these
      reagents is in full support of an intermediate cyclic iodanyl radical and a
      reagent-specific temperature of maximum radical production was found to correlate
      with reported solution phase reactivity.

PMID- 28561822
TI  - Synthesis, characterization and oxygen atom transfer reactivity of a pair of
      Mo(iv)O- and Mo(vi)O2-enedithiolate complexes - a look at both ends of the
      catalytic transformation.
AB  - Two new molybdenum complexes (Bu4N)2[MoIVO(ntdt)2] (1) and (Ph4P)2[MoVIO2(ntdt)2]
      (2) (ntdt = 2-naphthyl-1,4-dithiolate) were synthesized using asymmetric
      dithiolene precursors and were characterized as structural models for the active
      site of arsenite oxidase, a molybdopterin bearing enzyme. The ligand was obtained
      readily by a two-step synthesis starting from 2-bromo-2'-acetonapthone. Complexes
      1 and 2 were obtained by reaction of the resulting 4-naphthyl-1,3-dithiol-2-one
      with metal precursors trans-[MoO2(CN)4]4- and cis-[MoO2(NCS)4]2- respectively.
      Notably and to the best of our knowledge, this work constitutes the first
      utilization of the latter in dithiolene chemistry. 1 and 2 were characterized by
      NMR and IR spectroscopy, by cyclic voltammetry, mass spectrometry, elemental
      analysis and in case of 1 by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The molecular
      structure of compound 1 exhibits the less common cis isomeric form (i.e. the
      naphthyl groups of the 2-naphthyl-1,4-dithiolate ligands are located on the same
      side of the MoS4 square base). Structural, spectroscopic and electrochemical data
      are discussed in context. The catalytic oxo-transfer properties of 1 and 2 were
      investigated by oxo-transfer reactions from DMSO to PPh3 with varied catalyst :
      PPh3 ratios. Interestingly, the oxygen atom transfer reaction from DMSO to PPh3
      starting from compound 2 was found to be more efficient under the given
      conditions than when the reduced catalyst 1 was employed as initial species. The
      two catalytic systems are discussed and compared in terms of their reactivity.

PMID- 28561821
TI  - Environmental trends of metals and PCDD/Fs around a cement plant after
      alternative fuel implementation: human health risk assessment.
AB  - This study aimed at evaluating the potential impact of a cement plant after 4
      years of the employment of alternative fuel. In June 2015, concentrations of
      PCDD/Fs and metals were determined in soils, vegetation and air in order to
      measure potential changes with respect to previous surveys before (July 2011) and
      after (June 2013) the employment of alternative fuel. Risks to human health were
      also assessed. In soils, metal levels were similar to those observed in June 2013
      (p > 0.05). In comparison with July 2011, the increment was only statistically
      significant for As and Cd (p < 0.05). A notable increase in levels of PCDD/Fs was
      noted when current levels in soils (1.14 ng WHO-TEQ per kg) were compared with
      those observed in July 2011 (0.37 ng WHO-TEQ per kg) (p > 0.05) and June 2013
      (0.41 ng WHO-TEQ per kg) (p < 0.05). This increase was mainly caused by the
      increase in PCDD/F levels at one sampling site, which showed the heterogeneity of
      PCDD/F levels in soils, possibly as a result of different point emissions over
      the years. On the other hand, temporal trends in levels of metals and PCDD/Fs in
      vegetation showed a clear decrease, which indicated that the particle fraction of
      these pollutants would potentially be removed from leaf surfaces by wash-off. In
      air, levels were similar to those found in previous surveys. The results of PCA
      showed that the change in fuel had not affected the environmental profiles of
      metals and PCDD/Fs around the cement plant. The exposure of the population living
      in the surroundings of the plant was measured and it was shown that diet was the
      major contributor for both metals and PCDD/Fs, with percentages of over 97%, the
      only exceptions being As and Pb, for which dietary intake accounted for 43% and
      71% of the total exposure, respectively. Environmental non-cancer and cancer
      risks were within the limits considered as acceptable by international standards.

PMID- 28561823
TI  - A glycosylation strategy to develop a low toxic naphthalimide fluorescent probe
      for the detection of Fe3+ in aqueous medium.
AB  - A glycosylation strategy based on click chemistry was employed to develop a
      naphthalimide-based Fe3+ fluorescent probe with low cytotoxicity and good water
      solubility. The selectivity and sensitivity to Fe3+ of three synthesized
      naphthalimide-based fluorescent probes follows a Nap-PZ < Nap-OH < Nap-Glc trend,
      because Nap-PZ was modified with a good water-soluble group. The cytotoxicity
      follows a Nap-PZ > Nap-OH > Nap-Glc trend, because the exposed toxic group of Nap
      PZ was shielded by a good biocompatible group. The detection limit toward Fe3+
      ion follows a Nap-PZ (7.40 * 10-6 M) > Nap-OH (2.73 * 10-7 M) > Nap-Glc (4.27 *
      10-8 M) trend. Moreover, Nap-Glc could be used to detect Fe3+ in living cells.
      The fluorescent "off-on" response of Nap-Glc towards Fe3+ could be recognized by
      the naked eye, and the "off-on" fluorescent mechanism also was demonstrated by
      theoretical calculations. Therefore, Nap-Glc is a novel glucosyl naphthalimide
      fluorescent probe for environmental or biological detection of Fe3+ with low
      cytotoxicity and good water-solubility.

PMID- 28561824
TI  - Tetrel, pnictogen and chalcogen bonds identified in the gas phase before they had
      names: a systematic look at non-covalent interactions.
AB  - The terms tetrel bond, pnictogen bond and chalcogen bond were coined recently to
      describe non-covalent interactions involving group 14, 15 and 16 atoms,
      respectively, acting as the electrophilic site that seeks a nucleophilic region
      of another molecule, for example a non-bonding electron pair or pi-electron pair
      of a Lewis base. Many complexes containing these non-covalent bonds were
      identified and characterised in isolation in the gas phase by rotational and
      vibrational spectroscopy long before they were given these names. In this
      article, the geometries so determined for selected examples of complexes of each
      type are rationalised in terms of the molecular electrostatic surface potentials
      of the component molecules. Examples of chalcogen-bonded complexes considered are
      based mainly on sulfur dioxide, with the region near the sulfur atom as the
      electrophilic site that interacts with n-electron and pi-electron pairs for a
      range of simple Lewis base molecules. For tetrel bonds, the examples discussed
      involve the carbon atom of carbon dioxide as the electrophilic centre, while for
      pnictogen bonds the central nitrogen of the closely related molecule nitrous
      oxide is chosen. Geometrical similarities within each series allow simple
      definitions of each type of non-covalent bond that are conformal with that
      recently advanced for the halogen bond, a related non-covalent interaction.

PMID- 28561825
TI  - Indocyanine green-loaded gold nanostars for sensitive SERS imaging and
      subcellular monitoring of photothermal therapy.
AB  - We have demonstrated that a typical nanothermometer was incorporated in a bovine
      serum albumin stabilized gold nanostar-indocyanine green (denoted as GNS-ICG-BSA)
      nanoprobe to realize surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) imaging-based real
      time sensitive monitoring of intracellular temperature in photothermal therapy
      (PTT), which significantly improved the spatial resolution compared to infrared
      thermal imaging. Herein, an exogenous thermosensitive molecule, ICG, acting as a
      tri-functional agent, was selected as the Raman reporter instead of direct
      cellular biochemical changes. The triggering of the obtained probe was unaffected
      by the cellular microenvironment, so it can act as a monitor of PTT in various
      cell types. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was used to investigate the
      thermosensitive mechanism of ICG. The actively targeted GNS-ICG-BSA nanotags were
      used to induce SERS mapping-guided in vitro PTT of U87 glioma cells. Meanwhile,
      small temperature variations within a cell during PTT can be precisely monitored
      through the SERS fingerprint information, with a spatial resolution at the
      subcellular level and a sensitivity of 0.37  degrees C. Thus, the integrated GNS
      ICG-BSA nanotags can be treated as a theranostic probe, a SERS imaging probe and
      an intracellular thermometer. Moreover, the good biocompatibility and the low
      cytotoxicity of GNS-ICG-BSA nanotags, together with their superior photothermal
      ablation effect on U87 glioma cells have been confirmed. This suggested that the
      implanted nanothermometry approach would be promising for a better understanding
      of the biological processes at subcellular level and provide new insights into
      the fabrication of a multifunctional nanoplatform. Furthermore, this study
      revealed that the SERS-based monitoring technique can offer great potential for
      theranostics as an emerging strategy.

PMID- 28561828
TI  - Leveraging a temperature-tunable, scale-like microstructure to produce
      multimodal, supersensitive sensors.
AB  - The microstructure of a flexible film plays an important role in its sensing
      capability. Here, we fabricate a temperature-dependent wrinkled single-walled
      carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/polydimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) film (WSPF) and a wrinkle
      dependent scale-like SWCNT/PDMS film (SSPF) successfully, and address the
      formation and evolution mechanisms of each film. The low elastic modulus and high
      coefficient of thermal expansion of the PDMS layer combined with the excellent
      piezoresistive behavior of the SWCNT film motivated us to investigate how the
      scale-like microstructure of the SSPF could be used to design multimodal-sensing
      devices with outstanding capabilities. The results show that SSPFs present
      supersensitive performance in mechanical loading (an effective sensitivity of up
      to 740.7 kPa-1) and in temperature (a tunable thermal index of up to 29.9 * 103
      K). These exceptional properties were demonstrated in practical applications in a
      programmable flexile pressure sensor, thermal/light monitor or switch, etc., and
      were further explained through the macroscopic and microscopic piezoresistive
      behaviors of scale-like SWCNT coatings.

PMID- 28561826
TI  - Microfluidic-based high-throughput optical trapping of nanoparticles.
AB  - Optical tweezers have emerged as a powerful tool for multiparametric analysis of
      individual nanoparticles with single-molecule sensitivity. However, its inherent
      low-throughput characteristic remains a major obstacle to its applications within
      and beyond the laboratory. This limitation is further exacerbated when working
      with low concentration nanoparticle samples. Here, we present a microfluidic
      based optical tweezers system that can 'actively' deliver nanoparticles to a
      designated microfluidic region for optical trapping and analysis. The active
      microfluidic delivery of nanoparticles results in significantly improved
      throughput and efficiency for optical trapping of nanoparticles. We observed a
      more than tenfold increase in optical trapping throughput for nanoparticles as
      compared to conventional systems at the same nanoparticle concentration. To
      demonstrate the utility of this microfluidic-based optical tweezers system, we
      further used back-focal plane interferometry coupled with a trapping laser for
      the precise quantitation of nanoparticle size without prior knowledge of the
      refractive index of nanoparticles. The development of this microfluidic-based
      active optical tweezers system thus opens the door to high-throughput
      multiparametric analysis of nanoparticles using precision optical traps in the
      future.

PMID- 28561829
TI  - Core-shell CoFe2O4@Co-Fe-Bi nanoarray: a surface-amorphization water oxidation
      catalyst operating at near-neutral pH.
AB  - The exploration of high-performance and earth-abundant water oxidation catalysts
      operating under mild conditions is highly attractive and challenging. In this
      communication, core-shell CoFe2O4@Co-Fe-Bi nanoarray on carbon cloth (CoFe2O4@Co
      Fe-Bi/CC) was successfully fabricated by in situ surface amorphization of CoFe2O4
      nanoarray on CC (CoFe2O4/CC). As a 3D water oxidation electrode, CoFe2O4@Co-Fe
      Bi/CC shows outstanding activity with an overpotential of 460 mV to drive a
      geometrical catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2 in 0.1 M potassium borate (pH
      9.2). Notably, it also demonstrates superior long-term durability for at least 20
      h with 96% Faradic efficiency. Density functional theory calculations indicate
      that the conversion from OOH* to O2 is the rate-limiting step and the high water
      oxidation activity of CoFe2O4@Co-Fe-Bi/CC is associated with the lower free
      energy of 1.84 eV on a Co-Fe-Bi shell.

PMID- 28561831
TI  - A dynamic cell entry pathway of respiratory syncytial virus revealed by tracking
      the quantum dot-labeled single virus.
AB  - Studying the cell entry pathway at the single-particle level can provide detailed
      and quantitative information for the dynamic events involved in virus entry.
      Indeed, the viral entry dynamics cannot be monitored by static staining methods
      used in cell biology, and thus virus dynamic tracking could be useful in the
      development of effective antiviral strategies. Therefore, the aim of this work
      was to use a quantum dot-based single-particle tracking approach to monitor the
      cell entry behavior of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in living cells. The
      time-lapse fluorescence imaging and trajectory analysis of the quantum dot
      labeled RSV showed that RSV entry into HEp-2 cells consisted of a typical
      endocytosis trafficking process. Three critical events during RSV entry were
      observed according to entry dynamic and fluorescence colocalization analysis.
      Firstly, RSV was attached to lipid rafts of the cell membrane, and then it was
      efficiently delivered into the perinuclear region within 2 h post-infection,
      mostly moving and residing into the lysosome compartment. Moreover, the
      relatively slow velocity of RSV transport across the cytoplasm and the formation
      of the actin tail indicated actin-based RSV motility, which was also confirmed by
      the effects of cytoskeletal inhibitors. Taken together, these findings provided
      new insights into the RSV entry mechanism and virus-cell interactions in RSV
      infection that could be beneficial in the development of antiviral drugs and
      vaccines.

PMID- 28561832
TI  - Live-cell monochromatic dual-label sub-diffraction microscopy by mt-pcSOFI.
AB  - We expand photochromic super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (pcSOFI) to
      monochromatic dual-channel sub-diffraction microscopy. Multi-tau (mt-)pcSOFI
      unmixes spectrally identical reversibly switchable fluorescent proteins (RSFPs)
      based on their blinking kinetics. We show that mt-pcSOFI can be used to
      simultaneously image two structures in living cells with existing RSFPs and the
      newly developed ffDronpa-F.

PMID- 28561833
TI  - Molecular dynamic heterogeneity in relation to free volume and relaxation
      dynamics in organic glass-formers: oligomeric cis-1,4-poly(isoprene).
AB  - Herein, a combined study of the molecular rotation dynamics and free volume in
      cis-1,4-poly(isoprene) using two external probing techniques via ESR and PALS
      together with relaxation dynamics of the host medium via BDS is presented. The
      spectral evolution of the spin probe TEMPO from simulations over a wide range
      from 100 K up to 300 K exhibits three different regions of its correlation time
      consisting of a slow regime at low temperatures followed by the molecular dynamic
      heterogeneity zone from T = T = 155 K = 0.82 * T up to Tc ? 236 K = 1.26 * T and
      ending with a fast regime at high temperatures with the further characteristic
      ESR temperatures, T = 186 K ? T and T = 260 K. These are in close coincidence
      with four characteristic PALS temperatures: T = 160 K, T = 190 K, T = 227 K, and
      T = 263 K. Finally, using BDS, we revealed that the high-frequency features of
      the structural relaxation of 1,4-PIP 0.8k were related to the observed effects in
      the ESR and PALS response of the liquid state.

PMID- 28561834
TI  - Organoindium-modified monodisperse ellipsoid-/platelet-like periodic mesoporous
      silicas.
AB  - In this study, an indium(iii) silylamide complex was respectively grafted onto
      monodisperse ellipsoid-like (E) and platelet-like (P) large-pore hexagonal
      periodic mesoporous silicas (PMSs) SBA-15 to afford hybrid materials
      In[N(SiMe3)2]3@SBA-15E and In[N(SiMe3)2]3@SBA-15P with well-defined surface
      species ([triple bond, length as m-dash]SiO)2In[N(SiMe3)2], [triple bond, length
      as m-dash]SiOIn[N(SiMe3)2]2, and [triple bond, length as m-dash]SiOSiMe3. Surface
      ligand exchange between silylamido and alkoxyl group led to the conversion of
      surface species ([triple bond, length as m-dash]SiO)2In[N(SiMe3)2] and [triple
      bond, length as m-dash]SiOIn[N(SiMe3)2]2 into ([triple bond, length as m
      dash]SiO)2In(OR) and [triple bond, length as m-dash]SiOIn(OR)2 (R = Me, Et, iPr)
      with donor ligands thf or NH3, respectively, revealing that silylamido
      coordinated to the indium centre could be completely exchanged with alkoxyl
      groups (-OMe, OEt or OiPr). Solid-state 1H, 13C and 29Si nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectra and elemental analyses confirmed that surface species [triple
      bond, length as m-dash]SiOIn[N(SiMe3)2]2 are dominant in comparison with bipodal
      ([triple bond, length as m-dash]SiO)2In[N(SiMe3)2] and [triple bond, length as m
      dash]SiOSiMe3. The diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy of
      In-modified hybrid materials directly evidenced the alteration of surface species
      before and after grafting of In[N(SiMe3)2]3 and surface ligand exchange. In
      addition, the change of pore parameters (pore diameter, specific surface area and
      pore volume) monitored by nitrogen physisorption also indirectly corroborated the
      immobilization of the indium complex and the occurrence of ligand exchanges
      between -[N(SiMe3)2]2 and -OR (R = Me, Et, iPr) on the surface of SBA-15. Note
      that the calcination of In-modified hybrid materials at 540  degrees C led to the
      formation of crystalline In2O3 nanoparticles with different sizes which were
      respectively located in the internal pore and on the external surface of SBA-15
      due to the pore confinement effect, migration effect and shape effect of the
      parent support, but the long-range ordered mesopore arrays were still preserved
      and the crystalline structures of In2O3 were verified by powder X-ray diffraction
      and transmission electron microscopy.

PMID- 28561835
TI  - vhfRNAi: a web-platform for analysis of host genes involved in viral infections
      discovered by genome wide RNAi screens.
AB  - Knockdown of host genes using high-throughput genome-wide RNA interference
      screens has identified numerous host factors that affect viral infections, which
      would be helpful in understanding host-virus interactions. We have developed a
      vhfRNAi web resource based on genome-wide RNAi experiments for viruses. It
      contains experimental details of 12 249 entries (host factors + restriction
      factors) for 18 viruses. Simultaneously, this resource encompasses analysis of
      overlapping genes, genome wide association studies, gene ontology (GO), pathogen
      interacting proteins, interaction networks and pathway enrichment. Using overlap
      analysis, it was found that Influenza A virus shared overlapping host genes with
      the majority of viruses including Hepatitis C virus and Dengue virus 2. In the
      genome wide association studies analysis, 429 diseases/traits were mapped, of
      which obesity-related traits were the most common. GO analysis revealed that the
      major categories belonged to metabolic processes, molecule transport, signal
      transduction, proteolysis, etc. In the pathogen interacting protein analysis,
      protein interaction data from different resources can be explored for further
      understanding of host-virus biology. By pathway enrichment analysis, a total of
      8955 genes were mapped on 303 pathways with most of the hits coming from
      metabolic pathways. We have found 491 genes that are not essential for the host
      but essential for the virus and can be targeted to inhibit the virus. These may
      be explored as potential candidates for drug targets. The resource is freely
      accessible at and will be useful in understanding host-virus biology as well as
      identification of targets for the development of antiviral therapeutics.

PMID- 28561838
TI  - Vibrational optical activity as probe for intermolecular interactions.
AB  - A main focus of physical chemistry and related disciplines targets a detailed and
      fundamental characterization of intermolecular interactions. Interests are
      manifold and range from gaining experimental evidence for a particular
      interaction to the theoretical dissection of its exact quantum mechanical origin.
      In this perspective article, we discuss some recent developments in the field of
      vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy, which aim for its application
      for the characterization of intermolecular interactions of chiral molecules.
      Following a brief qualitative discussion of theoretical aspects of VCD
      spectroscopy, we show how the introduction of chirality into suitable model
      systems can give unprecedented insights into molecular complexes in the solution
      phase. In particular, we focus on solute-solvent interactions as well as the
      formation of the active conformation between catalyst and reactant, and also
      discuss the phenomenon of induced VCD signatures of achiral interaction partners.

PMID- 28561839
TI  - Sessile droplets for chemical and biological assays.
AB  - Sessile droplets are non-movable droplets spanning volumes in the nL-to-MUL
      range. The sessile-droplet-based platform provides a paradigm shift from the
      conventional, flow-based lab-on-a-chip philosophy, yet offering similar benefits:
      low reagent/sample consumption, high throughput, automation, and most importantly
      flexibility and versatility. Moreover, the platform relies less heavily on
      sophisticated fabrication techniques, often sufficient with a hydrophobic
      substrate, and no pump is required for operation. In addition, exploiting the
      physical phenomena that naturally arise when a droplet evaporates, such as the
      coffee-ring effect or Marangoni flow, can lead to fascinating applications. In
      this review, we introduce the physics of droplets, and then focus on the
      different types of chemical and biological assays that have been implemented in
      sessile droplets, including analyte concentration, particle separation and
      sorting, cell-based assays, and nucleic acid amplification. Finally, we provide
      our perspectives on this unique micro-scale platform.

PMID- 28561840
TI  - Silicon doped boron clusters: how to make stable ribbons?
AB  - A doping of small boron clusters with silicon atoms leads to the formation of
      stable boron nanoribbon structures. We present an analysis on the geometric and
      electronic structure, using MOs and electron localization function (ELF) maps, of
      boron ribbons represented by the dianions B10Si22- and B12Si22-. The effect of Si
      dopants and the origin of the underlying electron count [pi2(n+1)sigma2n] are
      analyzed. Interaction between both systems of delocalized pi and sigma electrons
      creating alternant B-B bonds along the perimeter of a ribbon induces its high
      thermodynamic stability. The enhanced stability is related to the self-locked
      phenomenon.

PMID- 28561841
TI  - Correction: Oleuropein down-regulated IL-1beta-induced inflammation and oxidative
      stress in human synovial fibroblast cell line SW982.
AB  - Correction for 'Oleuropein down-regulated IL-1beta-induced inflammation and
      oxidative stress in human synovial fibroblast cell line SW982' by Maria Luisa
      Castejon, et al., Food Funct., 2017, DOI: 10.1039/c7fo00210f.

PMID- 28561842
TI  - 13-cis-Retinoic acid on coinage metals: hierarchical self-assembly and spin
      generation.
AB  - Hierarchical self-assembly of 13-cis-retinoic acid on Au(111) and Ag(111) was
      investigated using low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy. On both
      surfaces, molecules form dimers by hydrogen bonds and the dimers arrange into
      ordered two-dimensional arrays through van der Waals forces. Three packing modes
      are observed on Au(111) and only one on Ag(111). We tentatively attribute the
      different patterns on the two surfaces to a stronger molecule-substrate
      interaction on Ag(111) and site-dependent molecular adsorption on different
      atomic lattices. In addition, 13-cis-ReA on Au(111) can be made to carry a
      localized spin.

PMID- 28561843
TI  - Graphene nanoflakes functionalized with cobalt/cobalt oxides formation during
      cobalt organic framework carbonization.
AB  - In this contribution, we present the synthesis and carbonization mechanism of
      metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) based on cobalt and terephthalic acid, with
      detailed attention to the carbonization mechanism of cobalt-based organic
      frameworks. The evolution of the unique morphology of carbonized cobalt organic
      frameworks induced by temperature allows the synthesis of a hybrid of multi
      layered carbon structures with metal and metal oxide nanoparticles placed between
      them. The formation of various phases and diameter distributions of cobalt
      nanoparticles resulted in the partial degradation of carbon structure and
      exfoliation. Presented data describe the connection between cobalt particle
      oxidation and carboreduction with the phenomenon of metal particle agglomeration.
      The presented study allows us to select carbonization conditions in order to
      obtain the desired cobalt crystalline structure on the graphene flakes from
      cobalt-based MOFs.

PMID- 28561844
TI  - Substrate coating by conductive polymers through spontaneous oxidation and
      polymerization.
AB  - A variety of substrates and substances were coated with conductive polymers at
      low temperature under ambient pressure. The substrate coating with heteroaromatic
      polymers proceeded through spontaneous oxidation and polymerization of the
      monomers, such as pyrrole (Py) and thiophene (Tp) derivatives. The monomer
      liquid, the solid nitrate oxidant, and the substrate were put in a closed vessel.
      The vapor of the activated monomer was spontaneously generated on the surface of
      the solid nitrate oxidant through the diffusion of the monomer vapor. The monomer
      and its activated species were adsorbed and polymerized on the surface of any
      substrate in the reaction vessel. The thickness was controlled by the reaction
      time. The substituents of the monomers had an influence on the coating rate. The
      morphology of the coated polymers was changed by the substrates with different
      wettabilities. The thin coating of the heteroaromatic polymer was applied to the
      preparation of an electrode for charge storage based on the redox reaction. The
      thin coating on the current collector showed an enhanced high-rate charge
      discharge performance. The present synthetic approach can be applied to the
      coating of polymer materials on a variety of substrates from the monomer vapor
      under mild conditions.

PMID- 28561845
TI  - Dynamic properties of the growth hormone releasing hormone receptor (GHRHR) and
      molecular determinants of GHRH binding.
AB  - The growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRHR) is a member of the class B
      GPCR subfamily. GHRH, a 44-residue neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus,
      regulates the secretion of growth hormone through its binding to GHRHR. It has
      recently been associated with several types of cancer such as prostate, breast,
      pancreatic and ovarian cancer. Family B GPCR peptides bind in a two-step model,
      where first the C-terminal region of the peptide interacts with the extracellular
      domain (ECD) of the receptor and subsequently, the N-terminal interacts with the
      seven transmembrane domain (TMD), resulting in activation. Structural information
      on family B GPCRs is limited; therefore, the use of computational methods may
      assist their efficient targeting towards new therapeutics. Here, we have utilized
      several computational tools, such as homology modelling, docking, large-scale
      molecular dynamics and principal component analysis (PCA), in order to: (a) gain
      information on the dynamic properties of the receptor domains and (b) propose a
      structural model for the interactions between GHRH and the ECD and TMD regions of
      GHRHR respectively. We conclude that PCA analysis can be used for studying such
      relative movements in family B GPCRs and provide a structural model, which may
      assist in the design of highly anticipated non-peptide antagonists against GHRHR.

PMID- 28561846
TI  - Interface passivation and electron transport improvement of polymer solar cells
      through embedding a polyfluorene layer.
AB  - In this contribution, a series of conducting polyfluorenes (PF) are introduced to
      improve interface adhesion and boost charge extraction of the TiO2 electron
      transport layer of inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs). After employing poly (9,9
      dihexylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PDF), poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co
      (1,4-benzo-{2,1',3}-thiadiazole)] (PDFBT), and poly[(4-(5-(7-methyl-9,9-dioctyl
      9H-fluoren-2-yl) thiophen-2-yl)-7-(5-methylthiophen-2
      yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole)] (PFTBT) as capping layers, interfacial coherence
      improvement and energy loss decrease are both achieved, facilitating charge
      transfer from the active layer to the TiO2 layer. The optimized contact, enhanced
      electrical conductivity, and reduced internal resistance contribute to increased
      short-circuit current density and fill factor, leading to an enhanced power
      conversion efficiency (PCE) from 5.72% up to 7.97%. The employment of the PF
      capping TiO2 buffer layer provides a promising approach to develop high
      efficiency PSCs.

PMID- 28561848
TI  - Details make the difference: a family of tetranuclear CuIIMnIII complexes with
      cube-like and double open cube-like cores.
AB  - The "direct synthesis" approach, namely one-pot reaction of metal powders and
      ammonium salt with a methanol solution of a polydentate Schiff base (H2L) formed
      in situ from salicylaldehyde and ethanolamine, has been successfully used for the
      preparation of the new heterometallic compounds [Cu3Mn(L)4(CH3OH)3]I3 (1),
      [Cu3Mn(L)4(CH3OH)3(H2O)]NCS.H2O (2), [Cu3Mn(L)4(CH3OH)(H2O)2.55]Br.0.45H2O (3)
      and [Cu3Mn(L)4(H2O)3.4]BF4.0.6H2O (4). Crystallographic analysis revealed that 1
      4 are based on the tetranuclear core {CuMnIII(MU3-O)4} where the metal centres
      are joined by the oxygen bridges of Schiff base ligands forming a cube-like
      arrangement. The novel heterometallic compound
      [Cu3Mn(L)4(CH3OH)3]2[Mn(NCS)4].2CH3OH (5) has been obtained by the "building
      block" approach using the reaction of [Cu(HL)2] with manganese acetate and NH4NCS
      in methanol. The crystal structure of 5 revealed the {CuMnIII(MU-O)2(MU3-O)2}
      metal core which can be viewed as a double open cube. In spite of a similar
      {Cu3MnO4} atom set in the cores of 1-5, the complexes show rather different
      molecular structures and significantly differ by the number and combinations of
      coordinated CH3OH/H2O solvent molecules. Variable-temperature (2-300 K) magnetic
      susceptibility along with variable-field magnetization measurements of 1-5 showed
      a decrease of the effective magnetic moment value at low temperature, indicative
      of the antiferromagnetic coupling of medium size (-55 to -22 cm-1). For these
      systems resembling a compressed prism the coupling constant in walls J4
      correlates with the averaged bonding angles in walls alpha: J4vs. alpha develops
      approximately according to a straight line.

PMID- 28561853
TI  - Nickel-cobalt-layered double hydroxide nanosheet arrays on Ni foam as a
      bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.
AB  - Bifunctional electrocatalysts, which are active both for the oxygen evolution
      reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), can increase the efficiency
      of overall water splitting, which is considered an attractive technology for
      hydrogen production. In this study, we report NiCo-LDH ultrathin nanosheets grown
      on nickel foam as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.
      When used as OER and HER electrodes, NiCo-LDH/NF demonstrated excellent water
      splitting performance, achieving a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at 1.66 V. Thus,
      the synthesis of hierarchical 3D porous structure composed of 2D ultrathin
      nanosheets in NiCo-LDH/NF demonstrated the significance of structural features
      for achieving a high electrocatalytic activity in overall water splitting.

PMID- 28561851
TI  - Reactivity of U-associated osteopontin with lactoferrin: a one-to-many complex.
AB  - Uranium is the heaviest natural element, mainly found in aqueous medium as the
      hexavalent uranyl ion (UO22+). Bones are the main organs in which uranium
      accumulates, depending on as yet unknown molecular and cellular mechanisms.
      Recently, it has been revealed that osteopontin (OPN), a protein involved in bio
      mineralization processes, and its main naturally occurring cleaved form (fOPN),
      have nanomolar affinities for UO22+. The binding of UO22+ is due to both the
      phosphorylation sites and acidic residues of these proteins and is accompanied by
      a slight gain in secondary structure. OPN is an Intrinsically Disordered Protein
      (IDP), a family of proteins which play a crucial role in several interaction
      networks, where phosphorylations are thought to be key elements. OPN has been
      shown to bind lactoferrin (LF) and the two proteins have antagonist functions in
      the modulation of the bio-mineralization process. However, to date, there has
      been no evidence that UO22+ and LF compete in their binding to OPN or not. Based
      on a series of convergent experimental data, this study first addressed in detail
      the LF/fOPN interaction and proposed a LF:fOPN 4/1 maximal stoichiometry.
      Moreover the phosphorylations were demonstrated to be necessary for the stability
      of such complexes. The interaction of preformed UO22+/fOPN complexes with LF was
      also investigated and the occurrence of several entities involving the three
      partners was demonstrated. These complexes did not reveal any significant
      conformational changes compared to those obtained in the absence of UO22+. The
      results have shown not only that LF and UO22+ do not compete, but also that these
      complexes are likely to be more stable than LF/fOPN complexes, as indicated by
      their melting temperature (Tm) values. The potential impact of those uranyl
      stabilized ternary complexes on some biological pathways now remains to be
      assessed. Nonetheless, this work has contributed to shedding light on the
      formation of stable ternary complexes involving a large structured protein, an
      IDP and an exogenous metal.

PMID- 28561854
TI  - Electrocatalytic proton reduction by a model for [NiFeSe] hydrogenases.
AB  - Two new heterodinuclear nickel-iron complexes [Ni(pbSmSe)FeCpCO]PF6 and
      [Ni(xbSmSe)FeCpCO]PF6 were synthesized as mimics of the [NiFeSe] hydrogenase
      active site (HCp = cyclopentadiene; H2pbSmSe = 1,9-diselenol-3,7-dithia-2,2,8,8
      tetramethylnonane; H2xbSmSe = 1,2,-bis(2-thiabutyl-3,3-dimethyl-4
      selenol)benzene). The compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray
      diffraction and cyclic voltammetry. X-ray structure determinations showed that in
      both NiFe complexes the nickel(ii) center is in a square-planar S2Se2
      environment; the two selenolate donors are bridging to the iron(ii) center that
      is further coordinated to an eta5-cyclopentadienyl group and a carbon monoxide
      ligand. Electrochemical studies showed that the complex [Ni(pbSmSe)FeCpCO]PF6 is
      an electrocatalyst for the production of H2 in DMF in the presence of acetic acid
      at -2.1 V vs. Fc+/Fc; a foot-of-the-wave (FOWA) analysis of the catalytic
      currents yielded an estimation of kobs of 24 s-1.

PMID- 28561855
TI  - The mechanism of ammonium bisulfate formation and decomposition over V/WTi
      catalysts for NH3-selective catalytic reduction at various temperatures.
AB  - In this study, the mechanism of ammonium bisulfate (ABS) formation and
      decomposition over V/WTi for the NH3-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) at
      various temperatures was deeply investigated. Bridged bidentate, chelating
      bidentate, and tridentate sulfates bound to TiO2 were formed as dominant
      intermediates at 200, 250, and 300  degrees C, respectively. These sulfates
      reacted with affinitive ammonium species to form ammonium (bi)sulfate species and
      also covered the active sites and embedded the VOSO4 intermediates, which
      resulted in an inferior intrinsic NH3-SCR conversion rate at 200  degrees C and
      250  degrees C. At 300  degrees C, trace amounts of ABS on TiO2 presented no
      influence on the NH3-SCR performance. The electrons deviating towards sulfates
      through the bond between ABS and metal oxides (WO3 and TiO2) weakened the
      stability of ABS and lowered its decomposition temperature, whereas the vanadia
      species played the opposite role due to the sulfur species existing in an
      electron saturation state with the formation of the VOSO4 intermediate. The
      presence of NO + O2 could break the bonds inside ABS and it could react with the
      ammonium species originating from ABS, which pulls NH3 out of the ABS formation
      equilibrium and accelerates its decomposition and competitively inhibits its
      formation. Correspondingly, the faster NH3-SCR conversion rate and higher N2
      selectivity improve the ABS poisoning resistance of the V/WTi catalyst at low
      temperatures.

PMID- 28561856
TI  - La(iii) biodistribution profiles from intravenous and oral dosing of two
      lanthanum complexes, La(dpp)3 and La(XT), and evaluation as treatments for bone
      resorption disorders.
AB  - Trivalent lanthanum (La3+) has the potential to treat bone resorption disorders
      (such as osteoporosis) by eliciting a bone-building response in the cells which
      control skeletal remodelling. Because La3+ suffers from extremely poor intestinal
      absorption, specifically designed chelators are required in order that a
      biologically active form of lanthanum can be administered orally. Two such
      chelators, 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone (Hdpp) and bis
      {[bis(carboxymethyl)amino]methy}phosphinic acid (H5XT), have previously been the
      subjects of extensive physical, in vitro, and in vivo testing as the tris- and
      mono-lanthanum(iii) complexes La(dpp)3 and La(XT), respectively. In this
      manuscript, we expand upon those studies to include 4-week intravenous (IV) and
      oral La3+ biodistribution profiles, which show that the metal ion initially
      accumulates in the liver followed by preferential redistribution and retention by
      bone. Of the two compounds, La(XT) demonstrates the more favourable in vivo
      characteristics, therefore dose-dependent oral biodistribution studies were
      carried out with this complex. These show drug saturation above a dose of 100 mg
      kg-1 day-1, so liver histology was performed in order to assess any potential
      toxicity. Finally, we improve upon the physical characterization of La(dpp)3 to
      include a single crystal X-ray structure, which exhibits an 8-coorindate La3+
      centre with two bound water molecules, and a disordered exoclathrate-type
      hydrogen bonded network.

PMID- 28561858
TI  - Palladium-catalyzed geometrically selective hydrogenation of (Z)-trifluoromethyl
      alkenyl triflate: an efficient approach to (Z) or (E)-3,3,3-trifluoropropenyl
      derivatives.
AB  - A Pd-catalyzed hydrogenation of (Z)-trifluoromethyl alkenyl triflate providing
      either (Z)- or (E)-3,3,3-trifluoropropenyl derivatives with excellent divergent
      geometric control in good yield is described. Catalyzed by Pd(OAc)2/PPh3, the
      reduction of (Z)-trifluoromethyl alkenyl triflates with HSiEt3 gave (E)-3,3,3
      trifluoropropenyl derivatives, and while using HCOOH/Et3N as the reducing agent,
      the (Z)-isomers were obtained through an elimination/hydrogenation tandem
      pathway. Both transformations showed excellent geometrical selectivity.

PMID- 28561849
TI  - Symbiosis-inspired approaches to antibiotic discovery.
AB  - Covering: 2010 up to 2017Life on Earth is characterized by a remarkable abundance
      of symbiotic and highly refined relationships among life forms. Defined as any
      kind of close, long-term association between two organisms, symbioses can be
      mutualistic, commensalistic or parasitic. Historically speaking, selective
      pressures have shaped symbioses in which one organism (typically a bacterium or
      fungus) generates bioactive small molecules that impact the host (and possibly
      other symbionts); the symbiosis is driven fundamentally by the genetic
      machineries available to the small molecule producer. The human microbiome is now
      integral to the most recent chapter in animal-microbe symbiosis studies and plant
      microbe symbioses have significantly advanced our understanding of natural
      products biosynthesis; this also is the case for studies of fungal-microbe
      symbioses. However, much less is known about microbe-microbe systems involving
      interspecies interactions. Microbe-derived small molecules (i.e. antibiotics and
      quorum sensing molecules, etc.) have been shown to regulate transcription in
      microbes within the same environmental niche, suggesting interspecies
      interactions whereas, intraspecies interactions, such as those that exploit
      autoinducing small molecules, also modulate gene expression based on
      environmental cues. We, and others, contend that symbioses provide almost
      unlimited opportunities for the discovery of new bioactive compounds whose
      activities and applications have been evolutionarily optimized. Particularly
      intriguing is the possibility that environmental effectors can guide laboratory
      expression of secondary metabolites from "orphan", or silent, biosynthetic gene
      clusters (BGCs). Notably, many of the studies summarized here result from
      advances in "omics" technologies and highlight how symbioses have given rise to
      new anti-bacterial and antifungal natural products now being discovered.

PMID- 28561861
TI  - Publication Integrity, Accessibility, and Women Authors.
AB  - An implicit assumption of considerable importance is that manuscripts published
      in professional journals should reflect integrity on the part of authors, peer
      reviewers, and publishers. Unfortunately, some evidence continues to emerge that
      calls into question a view that all responsible parties are willing to play by
      the rules.

PMID- 28561862
TI  - A Volunteer Basketball Clinic for Children with Disabilities: Professional
      Development Impact on Student-Athletes and Physical Therapy Students.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess the change in perceptions of student
      athletes, physical therapy students, and parents of children who helped to
      facilitate an athletic skills camp for children with disabilities. Participants
      experienced 3 hours of basketball activity yearly. Data were collected for 3
      consecutive years from a total of 51 parents, 15 student-athletes, and 22
      physical therapy students. Pre- and post-survey data were evaluated by two
      independent researchers. Common themes were developed for all participant groups
      and cross-group comparisons were evaluated. Findings indicated a synergistic
      benefit for student-athletes and physical therapy students derived from their
      impact and children with disabilities. Perceptual changes in students included a
      decrease in fear in working with disabled children, an appreciation for the value
      of having fun, and increased growth in civic identity and desire to volunteer.

PMID- 28561859
TI  - Human calprotectin affects the redox speciation of iron.
AB  - We report that the metal-sequestering human host-defense protein calprotectin
      (CP, S100A8/S100A9 oligomer) affects the redox speciation of iron (Fe) in
      bacterial growth media and buffered aqueous solution. Under aerobic conditions
      and in the absence of an exogenous reducing agent, CP-Ser
      (S100A8(C42S)/S100A9(C3S) oligomer) depletes Fe from three different bacterial
      growth media preparations over a 48 h timeframe (T = 30  degrees C). The presence
      of the reducing agent beta-mercaptoethanol accelerates this process and allows CP
      Ser to deplete Fe over a ~1 h timeframe. Fe-depletion assays performed with metal
      binding-site variants of CP-Ser show that the hexahistidine (His6) site, which
      coordinates Fe(ii) with high affinity, is required for Fe depletion. An analysis
      of Fe redox speciation in buffer containing Fe(iii) citrate performed under
      aerobic conditions demonstrates that CP-Ser causes a time-dependent increase in
      the [Fe(ii)]/[Fe(iii)] ratio. Taken together, these results indicate that the
      hexahistidine site of CP stabilizes Fe(ii) and thereby shifts the redox
      equilibrium of Fe to the reduced ferrous state under aerobic conditions. We also
      report that the presence of bacterial metabolites affects the Fe-depleting
      activity of CP-Ser. Supplementation of bacterial growth media with an Fe(iii)
      scavenging siderophore (enterobactin, staphyloferrin B, or desferrioxamine B)
      attenuates the Fe-depleting activity of CP-Ser. This result indicates that
      formation of Fe(iii)-siderophore complexes blocks CP-mediated reduction of
      Fe(iii) and hence the ability of CP to coordinate Fe(ii). In contrast, the
      presence of pyocyanin (PYO), a redox-cycling phenazine produced by Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa that reduces Fe(iii) to Fe(ii), accelerates Fe depletion by CP-Ser
      under aerobic conditions. These findings indicate that the presence of microbial
      metabolites that contribute to metal homeostasis at the host/pathogen interface
      can affect the metal-sequestering function of CP.

PMID- 28561864
TI  - Longitudinal Tracking of Workplace Outcomes for Undergraduate Allied Health
      Students Undertaking Placements in Rural Australia.
AB  - : Creating positive experiences in rural practice at the undergraduate level can
      influence allied health students' attitudes to working rurally. This study aimed
      to evaluate allied health students' experiences of their short-term, medium-term,
      or long-term rural placement and to follow their career outcomes. METHODS: The
      study used a mixed-methods design that utilised qualitative and quantitative
      data. Students from six allied health degree programs undertaking placements in
      Tamworth and Taree were invited to participate. Participation comprised of a
      series of surveys and an individual in-depth semi-structured interview. RESULTS:
      198 students completed 257 end-of-placement surveys as of June 2014, with 72.7%
      reporting an intention to work rurally after placement. Fifty-five percent (n=51)
      of the 92 students who had never lived in a rural area had a more favourable
      attitude towards working rurally following placement. After 1 year, 50% of
      graduates were working in a rural or remote location, compared to 23.7% of all
      graduates from these disciplines. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings indicated a
      positive perception of the rural placement experience and impact on intention to
      work rurally or in a rural location, particularly from those who had not
      previously spent time in a rural area. Future directions are to investigate
      longer-term workforce outcomes and the impact on the rural health workforce.

PMID- 28561863
TI  - Academic Achievement, Perceived Stress, Admission Data, and Sociodemographic
      Background Among Therapy Students in Israel.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Academic achievement (AA) is of great importance in the academic
      world. The aims of this study were to: 1) identify contributors to AA of physical
      therapy (PT) students; 2) evaluate students' perceived stress (PS); and 3)
      identify contributors to PS. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving three
      undergraduate PT classes in a single academic year was performed 1 week prior to
      final examinations. Current grade point average (GPA) and admission data were
      collected from administrative records. Additional data, collected using an online
      questionnaire, included the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS), Scale for Assessing
      Academic Stress (SAAS), and selected sociodemographic variables. Regression
      analysis identified contributors to AA and to PS. RESULTS: Records of 153
      students and questionnaires of 118 students were included in the study. Combined
      grades from psychometric tests and matriculation exams at admission, low PS,
      absence due to military reserve service during the academic year, and
      participation in the second and third years of the PT program accounted for a
      modest variance (31.1% ) in students' GPA. CONCLUSIONS: The low contribution of
      admission criteria to GPA suggests that there is no justification for raising the
      level of the present criteria.

PMID- 28561865
TI  - Assessing Health Professional Students' Cultural Competence Using a Global
      Perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The United States has become a diverse society, and healthcare
      professionals must view culture from a global perspective. The purpose of this
      study was to determine cultural competence levels of entering and exiting health
      science students within and across differing professional programs using the
      Global Worldview Cultural Competence Survey (GWCCS). PARTICIPANTS: 196 students
      participated in the study: 146 were entering students and 59 were exiting
      students. From the 146 entering students, 138 surveys were usable in the data
      analysis, and 58 of the 59 exiting were usable. PROCEDURE: Two separate cohorts
      of health professional students completed the GWCCS. Cohort 1 completed the GWCCS
      during the first 2 weeks of their academic program, and Cohort 2 completed the
      GWCCS in their final-year post-clinical experience. RESULTS: A significant
      difference in GWCCS total score was observed between entering and exiting
      students in health sciences, with the exiting students being more culturally
      competent. CONCLUSION: Although this study did not utilize a longitudinal study
      design, the findings demonstrate that the exiting cohort of health science
      students was more culturally competent than the entering cohort of health science
      students as determined by the GWCCS. However, neither cohort of students reached
      the level of proficiency.

PMID- 28561866
TI  - Institutional Readiness for Interprofessional Education Among Nutrition and
      Dietetics and Athletic Training Education Programs.
AB  - Organizations recommend interprofessional education (IPE) as a means of promoting
      collaborative patient-centered care. In turn, various external accreditors in the
      health professions have integrated IPE competencies into their standards.
      However, little is known about how athletic training (AT) and nutrition and
      dietetics (ND) have incorporated IPE into their educational programs. This study
      examined institutional factors that affect the level of IPE participation within
      ND and AT programs in the United States. The Interprofessional Education
      Assessment and Planning Instrument for Academic Institutions was distributed
      electronically to directors of accredited programs in ND and AT. In addition to
      gathering demographic information, survey questions addressed the institutions'
      level of involvement and commitment to IPE. Differences emerged between ND and AT
      programs for several items in the instrument. Factors that affected the
      differences included program level and academic unit in which the program
      resides. Results also suggest that ND and AT programs have similar levels of IPE
      participation, but there are great opportunities for growth. Institutional
      factors such resource commitment, academic unit type, and level of program may
      affect implementation and contribute to the development and success of IPE
      initiatives.

PMID- 28561867
TI  - Effectiveness of EvenupTM Shoe-Lift Use Among Individuals Prescribed a Walking
      Boot.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Walking boots are prescribed after foot and ankle injuries, allowing
      immediate ambulation for patients. However, temporary limb-length inequality
      (LLI) may result, causing dysfunction and pain, including low back pain. The
      EvenupTM shoe-lift was designed to eliminate joint pathology, pain, and gait
      deviations resulting from walking-boot-induced LLI, yet no clinical trials have
      been reported on its effectiveness. METHODS: Thirty-four subjects undergoing
      unilateral lower-extremity orthopedic medical and rehabilitative care were
      recruited for this study. Seventeen subjects were assigned to an intervention
      group using a walking boot on the foot of their involved side and the EvenupTM on
      the other foot, while the control group used a walking boot only on the involved
      side. Outcome measures included the lower extremity functional scale (LEFS),
      modified Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire (OSW), numeric pain
      rating scale, ankle range of motion (ROM) and strength. RESULTS: All subjects,
      regardless of the intervention, demonstrated improved function, decreased pain,
      increased ROM, and increased strength. Additionally, a clinically relevant
      difference was found between the intervention and control groups for the OSW and
      LEFS. CONCLUSION: LEFS and OSW results suggest EvenupTM use added value in the
      form of improved patient function.

PMID- 28561868
TI  - Improving Critical Thinking Using a Web-Based Tutorial Environment.
AB  - With a broad range of subject matter, students often struggle recognizing
      relationships between content in different subject areas. A scenario-based
      learning environment (SaBLE) has been developed to enhancing clinical reasoning
      and critical thinking among undergraduate students in a medical laboratory
      science program and help them integrate their new knowledge. SaBLE incorporates
      aspects of both cognitive theory and instructional design, including reduction of
      extraneous cognitive load, goal-based learning, feedback timing, and game theory.
      SaBLE is a website application that runs in most browsers and devices, and is
      used to develop randomly selected scenarios that challenge user thinking in
      almost any scenario-based instruction. User progress is recorded to allow
      comprehensive data analysis of changes in user performance. Participation is
      incentivized using a point system and digital badges or awards. SaBLE was
      deployed in one course with a total exposure for the treatment group of
      approximately 9 weeks. When assessing performance of SaBLE participants, and
      controlling for grade point average as a possible confounding variable, there was
      a statistically significant correlation between the number of SaBLE levels
      completed and performance on selected critical-thinking exam questions addressing
      unrelated content.

PMID- 28561869
TI  - Caregivers Are Heroes: An Innovative Educational Strategy Designed to Promote
      Compassion/Caring in Health Professional Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compassionate care is recognized as an intrinsic element of patient
      centered care. Although the evidence seems to indicate that compassionate care
      can be developed in health professions students, few methodologies reported have
      been interprofessional in nature. This paper describes Caregivers Are Heroes, an
      interprofessional educational strategy designed to imbue compassion/caring.
      METHODS: The sample population consisted of 51 caregivers and 170 students
      enrolled in three graduate programs during the 2014 summer semester. Students
      conducted caregiver interviews (CGI) in interprofessional groups of 3 to 4
      students. Pre- and post-CGI surveys were designed to measure change in student
      attitudes and perceptions from the CGI experience. Questions were taken from the
      Attitude Towards Helping Others (AHO) scale and the Zarit Burden Interview Screen
      (ZBIS). RESULTS: Analysis indicated a significant change in responses for one of
      the four AHO statements and significant correlation between caregiver ZBIS score
      and student post-CGI ZBIS score. CONCLUSION: Quantitative outcomes support the
      use of this strategy to promote changes in student attitudes that might lead to
      caring and compassion when interacting with caregivers and the recipients of
      their care. The variability of caregiver ZBIS scores is consistent with the
      literature on caregiver burden and emphasizes the need for students to appreciate
      the individuality of the caregiver experience.

PMID- 28561870
TI  - Physical Therapist Students' Perceptions from Performing Strength and
      Conditioning Training: Academic, Professional, and Clinical Benefits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this qualitative study was to assess the perceptions
      of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students in performing collegiate athletes'
      strength and conditioning training. METHODS: Four DPT students with the Certified
      Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) credential voluntarily provided
      collegiate athletes strength and conditioning training. Students were interviewed
      to obtain their perceptions of how the experience impacted performance in DPT
      school and perceptions of anticipated future benefits. RESULTS: Seven themes
      emerged from interviews: improved communication skills, movement analysis
      experience, improved time management/organization, increased understanding of
      exercises, attention to psychosocial aspects, interprofessional experience, and
      improved performance in coursework. CONCLUSION: DPT students with the CSCS
      credential perceived benefits from performing strength and conditioning training
      outside the standard DPT curriculum.

PMID- 28561871
TI  - Promoting Role Clarity for Health Professional Students Participating in an
      Interprofessional Behavior Change Counseling Workshop.
AB  - Interprofessional role clarity is linked to improving team collaboration and
      clinical care, yet there are barriers to implementing interprofessional curricula
      targeted to learner achievement of this competency. A behavior change counseling
      skills workshop for first-year advanced practice nursing (APN) (n=153) and third
      year pharmacy (PharmD) (n=127) students was modified to include learning
      experiences for enhancing interprofessional role clarity. Students rated the
      importance of each profession's contributions in nine patient care activities
      before and after the workshop. APN and PharmD students increased their ratings of
      the merit of each profession in counseling patients in several care activities.
      Findings suggest that providing interprofessional students an opportunity to
      learn core skills together can also foster an understanding of each other's
      professional roles and responsibilities.

PMID- 28561872
TI  - Prevalence and Predictors of Anxiety in Doctor of Physical Therapy Students.
AB  - Anxiety is a condition with multiple physical manifestations and sequelae,
      including negatively impacting learning. The prevalence of anxiety and the
      factors that predict it in health professions students are unknown. The current
      study assessed the prevalence of anxiety in DPT students and examined the
      predictors of anxiety. The findings showed high student anxiety levels that were
      analogous to military recruits. Female gender and low GPA were predictors of
      anxiety in the sample. Further research is necessary to determine other factors
      that contribute to anxiety so that interventions to reduce anxiety in health
      professions students can be initiated.

PMID- 28561873
TI  - The Reciprocity Team: Development of an Interprofessional Research Collaboration.
AB  - The purpose of this article is to articulate and provide detail about an
      interprofessional research collaboration at a public university in a rural area
      of western United States. This interprofessional research collaboration was
      organized to explore infant and maternal reciprocity. As a part of the
      organization and process portion of the collaborative effort, the authors
      identify the unique attributes of their collaboration. Additionally, barriers to
      collaborative research are presented, with opportunities and recommendations made
      to support existing and future interprofessional collaborative efforts for basic
      science scholars, clinicians, and educators in health-related professions.

PMID- 28561874
TI  - A Review of 52 Pedigrees with Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex Identifying Ten Novel
      Mutations in KRT5 and KRT14 in Australia.
AB  - Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) is a rare heritable skin fragility disorder,
      most commonly caused by dominant mutations in KRT5 and KRT14. EBS shows clinical
      heterogeneity with localised, intermediate and generalised severe forms, which
      tend to correlate with the location and nature of the disease causing mutations.
      We therefore aimed to identify the KRT5 and KRT14 mutations in patients diagnosed
      with EBS in Australia, and explore in depth the genotype to the phenotype
      correlations in patients with novel variants. Australian patients who were
      diagnosed with EBS after referral to the Australian National Diagnostic
      Laboratory for EB were offered mutation screening in the KRT5 and KRT14 genes.
      From this, 32 different mutations in KRT5 and KRT14 were identified within 39 of
      52 pedigrees. Ten of these mutations from 9 different pedigrees were novel, a
      further fatal case caused by KRT5 E477K is reported and in addition the third
      reported case of digenic inheritance in EBS was also observed.

PMID- 28561875
TI  - Prurigo Pigmentosa in a 21-year-old Caucasian Man: A Clinicopathological
      Correlation.
AB  - is missing (Short communication).

PMID- 28561876
TI  - Methotrexate-associated Sexual Dysfunction: Two Case Reports.
AB  - is missing (Short communication).

PMID- 28561877
TI  - Subcutaneous Nodule on the Right Palm of a Young Boy: A Quiz.
AB  - is missing (Quiz).

PMID- 28561878
TI  - Epidemiology-based assessment of tumor marker overordering in breast cancer: an
      algorithm to examine different disease conditions.
AB  - Laboratory tests are frequently overused and have elevated inappropriateness
      rates. We previously developed a model to investigate the rate of utilization of
      tumor markers (TMs) in outpatients as an indirect indicator of inappropriateness.
      The model was based on the comparison between the number of actually ordered and
      expected tests, with the latter estimated on the basis of both epidemiological
      data and recommendations of available clinical practice guidelines.In this paper
      we propose an algorithm to distinguish prevalent cases without evidence of
      disease from those with metastatic spread, on the basis of both epidemiological
      and clinical information. The algorithm allows for a more precise prediction of
      the expected TM requests per year, to be compared with the actual number of
      requested TMs in order to assess possibly inappropriate overordering rates.
      Moreover, the implementation of the algorithm renders the epidemiologically based
      model more flexible to develop accurate indicators for appropriateness in the use
      of TMs in different stages of disease and for different clinical questions. A
      practical application with CA15.3 requests in breast cancer is presented.

PMID- 28561879
TI  - Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin in hepatocellular cancer patients waiting for liver
      transplant: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) as a predictor of the
      risk of recurrence of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) after liver transplant (LT) has
      recently gained interest, especially in view of the recent extension of the
      eligibility criteria of these patients for LT. The aim of the present study is to
      look into this important matter based on a systematic review and meta-analysis.
      METHODS: A systematic literature review about the role of DCP in the specific
      setting of LT for HCC has been conducted. RESULTS: Three selected studies, which
      showed a high rate of homogeneity (I2 = 0.0%), confirmed that the tumor marker
      DCP is a useful predictive factor, indicating a 5-fold increased risk for HCC
      recurrence after LT (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis enabled us to
      underline the importance of DCP in the refinement of the eligibility criteria of
      HCC patients for LT. This information, based on Japanese studies performed in the
      setting of living-donor LT only, needs further validation in the Western world
      both in the setting of post-mortem and living-donor LT.

PMID- 28561880
TI  - Meta-analysis of prognostic role of Ki-67 labeling index in gastric carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This meta-analysis aimed to elucidate the prognostic role of the Ki
      67 labeling index (LI) in gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: The current study
      included 3,615 GC patients in 20 eligible studies, and evaluated the prognostic
      role of Ki-67 LI in GC. Subgroup analysis was conducted based on depth of
      invasion and cutoff value for high Ki-67 LI. RESULTS: A high Ki-67 LI correlated
      significantly with worse survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.214, 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.004-1.468). However, there was no significant correlation
      between high Ki-67 LI and worse survival in advanced GC (HR = 1.252, 95% CI,
      0.801-1.956). The subgroup with cutoff value <=25% showed a significant
      correlation with worse survival, but this was not seen in the subgroup with
      cutoff >25% (HR = 1.433, 95% CI, 1.094-1.876 vs. HR = 1.005, 95% CI, 0.801
      1.262). In addition, in the 10% <Ki-67 LI <= 20% range, there was a significant
      correlation between high Ki-67 LI and worse overall survival (HR = 1.931, 95% CI,
      1.013-3.310). CONCLUSIONS: A high Ki-67 LI correlated significantly with a worse
      prognosis in GC patients. Further cumulative studies for the optimal cutoff value
      for high Ki-67 LI are needed before application in clinical practice.

PMID- 28561881
TI  - Reference limits for chromogranin A, CYFRA 21-1, CA 125, CA 19-9 and
      carcinoembryonic antigen in patients with chronic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) may have increased plasma
      concentrations of some tumor markers even when no cancer is present. Previous
      studies have indicated that plasma concentrations of chromogranin A (CGA),
      cytokeratin 19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1), cancer antigen 125 (CA 125), cancer
      antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) are higher in patients
      with CKD but without cancer, than in healthy individuals, and this can make
      interpretation of results more complicated. The aim of this study was to
      establish reference limits for these markers in patients with CKD not receiving
      dialysis and with no clinical evidence of cancer. METHODS: We measured plasma
      concentrations in samples from 131 patients with CKD due to various etiologies
      and studied the association of tumor marker concentrations with estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and other patient characteristics. RESULTS:
      Estimated reference limits for plasma CA 125, CA 19-9 and CEA were approximately
      the same as for healthy populations. Serum concentrations of CGA and CYFRA 21-1
      correlated strongly with estimated GFR, and GFR-dependent reference limits were
      estimated. CONCLUSIONS: GFR-dependent reference limits for CGA and CYFRA 21-1 are
      reported in order to support interpretation of these markers in patients with
      CKD.

PMID- 28561882
TI  - MUC1 rs4072037 polymorphism is associated with decreased risk of gastric cancer:
      a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have recently investigated the association between
      mucin 1 (MUC1) rs4072037 polymorphism and gastric cancer (GC) risk, but with
      conflicting results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the
      association between MUC1 rs4072037 polymorphism and GC risk. METHODS: A
      comprehensive database search of PubMed, Elsevier, Embase and China National
      Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases was performed to identify relevant
      studies. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to
      assess the strength of any association. RESULTS: A total of 12 papers containing
      18 studies were included in this meta-analysis, involving 12,373 cases and 15,008
      controls. Our data suggested that rs4072037 polymorphism was associated with a
      decreased risk of GC. Stratification analyses of ethnicity indicated that
      rs4072037 decreased the risk of GC among white populations, but no significant
      relationship was observed among Asian populations. No significant associations
      were observed in subgroups of Lauren classification (intestinal or diffuse) and
      anatomical classification (cardia or non-cardia). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion,
      this meta-analysis suggested that rs4245739 polymorphism in the MUC1 gene may
      play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of GC, especially for white populations.

PMID- 28561883
TI  - The more, the better? Behavioral and neural correlates of frequent and infrequent
      vowel exposure.
AB  - A central assumption in the perceptual attunement literature holds that exposure
      to a speech sound contrast leads to improvement in native speech sound
      processing. However, whether the amount of exposure matters for this process has
      not been put to a direct test. We elucidated indicators of frequency-dependent
      perceptual attunement by comparing 5-8-month-old Dutch infants' discrimination of
      tokens containing a highly frequent [hit-he:t] and a highly infrequent [hYt-ho:t]
      native vowel contrast as well as a non-native [hEt-haet] vowel contrast in a
      behavioral visual habituation paradigm (Experiment 1). Infants discriminated both
      native contrasts similarly well, but did not discriminate the non-native
      contrast. We sought further evidence for subtle differences in the processing of
      the two native contrasts using near-infrared spectroscopy and a within
      participant design (Experiment 2). The neuroimaging data did not provide
      additional evidence that responses to native contrasts are modulated by frequency
      of exposure. These results suggest that even large differences in exposure to a
      native contrast may not directly translate to behavioral and neural indicators of
      perceptual attunement, raising the possibility that frequency of exposure does
      not influence improvements in discriminating native contrasts.

PMID- 28561884
TI  - Determination of vertebral heart score in three species of Spider monkey (Ateles
      fusciceps, A. hybridus and A. paniscus).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vertebral heart score (VHS) is a method of evaluation of cardiac
      size well documented in domestic mammals and in other primate species, and the
      aim of this study was to determine the VHS in three species of Spider monkey.
      METHODS: In this retrospective study, right lateral radiographs of thirty
      clinically well animals were reviewed and VHS determined. The species included
      were Ateles fusciceps (n=17), Ateles hybridus (n=8) and Ateles paniscus (n=5).
      RESULTS: The VHS was found to vary between species and was 9.73+/-0.81 for A.
      fusciceps, 10.53+/-0.37 for A. hybridus and 10.45+/-0.27 for A. paniscus.
      CONCLUSIONS: The observed values appear consistent with values determined for
      other primate species. There was statistically significant variation noted
      between species, and so VHS should be considered species-specific in this genus.
      The values determined may be of benefit in objectively evaluating cardiac size in
      the species investigated.

PMID- 28561885
TI  - The Mediated Amplification of a Crisis: Communicating the A/H1N1 Pandemic in
      Press Releases and Press Coverage in Europe.
AB  - In the aftermath of the A/H1N1 pandemic, health authorities were criticized for
      failures in crisis communication efforts, and the media were accused of
      amplifying the pandemic. Considering these criticisms, A/H1N1 provides a suitable
      case for examining risk amplification processes that may occur in the transfer of
      information from press releases to print news media during a health crisis. We
      integrated the social amplification of risk framework with theories of news
      decisions (news values, framing) in an attempt to contribute to existing research
      both theoretically and empirically. We conducted a quantitative content analysis
      of press releases disseminated by health and governmental authorities, as well as
      the quality and tabloid press in 10 European countries between March 2009 and
      March 2011. Altogether 243 press releases, 1,243 quality press articles, and 834
      tabloid press articles were coded. Consistent with research on news values and
      framing the results suggest that quality and tabloid papers alike amplified
      A/H1N1 risks by emphasizing conflict and damage, presenting information in a more
      dramatized way, and using risk-amplifying frames to a greater extent and risk
      attenuating frames to a lesser extent than press releases. To some extent, the
      quality and tabloid press differed in how risk information was presented. While
      tabloid press articles seemed to follow the leading quality press with regards to
      content and framing of health crisis coverage, they exhibited a stronger emphasis
      on drama and emotion in the way they presented information.

PMID- 28561886
TI  - Improving symptom management for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Symptomatic management is the main focus of ALS clinical care. We
      aim to report the prevalence of ALS-related symptoms and characterize self
      reported symptomatic management. METHODS: A symptom management survey developed
      by the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinical Research Network was completed by
      ALS registrants. Logistic regression identified potential predictors of symptom
      prevalence, severity, and treatment. RESULTS: A total of 567 ALS participants
      reported fatigue (90%), muscle stiffness (84%), and muscle cramps (74%) as most
      prevalent symptoms. Fatigue (18%), muscle stiffness (14%), and shortness of
      breath (12%) were most bothersome. Although fatigue was the most prevalent
      symptom, it was also least treated (10%). Neither location of care nor disease
      duration was associated with symptom prevalence, severity, or probability of
      receiving treatment. DISCUSSION: This large patient-reported symptom survey
      suggests that fatigue is the most prevalent, bothersome, and undertreated ALS
      symptom. Improving ALS symptom management is an unmet medical need and clinical
      trials of symptomatic treatments are needed. Muscle Nerve 57: 20-24, 2018.

PMID- 28561887
TI  - Reconciling patient and provider priorities for improving the care of critically
      ill patients: A consensus method and qualitative analysis of decision making.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Providers have traditionally established priorities for quality
      improvement; however, patients and their family members have recently become
      involved in priority setting. Little is known about how to reconcile priorities
      of different stakeholder groups into a single prioritized list that is actionable
      for organizations. OBJECTIVE: To describe the decision-making process for
      establishing consensus used by a diverse panel of stakeholders to reconcile two
      sets of quality improvement priorities (provider/decision maker priorities n=9;
      patient/family priorities n=19) into a single prioritized list. DESIGN: We
      employed a modified Delphi process with a diverse group of panellists to
      reconcile priorities for improving care of critically ill patients in the
      intensive care unit (ICU). Proceedings were audio-recorded, transcribed and
      analysed using qualitative content analysis to explore the decision-making
      process for establishing consensus. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Nine panellists
      including three providers, three decision makers and three family members of
      previously critically ill patients. RESULTS: Panellists rated and revised 28
      priorities over three rounds of review and reached consensus on the "Top 5"
      priorities for quality improvement: transition of patient care from ICU to
      hospital ward; family presence and effective communication; delirium screening
      and management; early mobilization; and transition of patient care between ICU
      providers. Four themes were identified as important for establishing consensus:
      storytelling (sharing personal experiences), amalgamating priorities (negotiating
      priority scope), considering evaluation criteria and having a priority champion.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating families of
      patients into a multistakeholder prioritization exercise. The approach described
      can be used to guide consensus building and reconcile priorities of diverse
      stakeholder groups.

PMID- 28561890
TI  - Factors Influencing Resilience of Burn Patients in South Korea.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine and identify the factors influencing the degree of resilience
      among Korean burn patients. DESIGN: A cross-sectional descriptive design was
      employed. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 138 burn patients recovering
      from the acute phase in H hospital, Seoul. The male patient participants numbered
      93 (67.4%) and the female participants numbered 45 (32.6%). The average age of
      the participants was 46.79 years. Measures used were the Beck Depression
      Inventory, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, self-esteem scale, family support
      scale, and resilience scale. FINDINGS: The analyses showed that the prediction
      model for resilience among burn patients was significant (F = 33.94, p < .001).
      The value of the adjusted R2 was 0.492, which corresponds to the explanatory
      power of 49.2%. The factor that was found to have the most influence on
      resilience among burn patients was self-esteem (beta = .35), followed by family
      support (beta = .29). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary evidence that
      self-esteem is a major and primary predictor of resilience among burn patients,
      next followed by family support. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In the nursing practice,
      nurses need to pay attention to the burn patient's self-esteem and family
      support. Concrete interventions and strategies to improve the resilience of burn
      patients are needed.

PMID- 28561889
TI  - Innervation of the medial prefrontal cortex by tyrosine hydroxylase
      immunoreactive fibers during adolescence in male and female rats.
AB  - Adolescence is associated with continued maturation of the cerebral cortex,
      particularly the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We have previously documented
      pruning in the number of neurons, dendrites, and synapses in the rat mPFC from
      preadolescence to adulthood, with the period of pubertal onset being particularly
      important. We hypothesized that dopaminergic innervation of this region, critical
      for executive functions, would also be influenced by pubertal onset. Here, we
      measured changes in the volume of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactive axons
      in all layers of the male and female mPFC from preadolescence to adulthood
      (postnatal Day (P) 25, 35, 45, 60, and 90) as a marker of dopaminergic
      innervation. Assessing both total fiber volume and length, TH fibers were
      quantified by multiplying the mPFC volume by fiber density. While there were
      subtle layer-specific changes, TH fiber volume and length increased between P25
      and P90 in both males and females. Contrary to our hypothesis, a role for
      pubertal onset in TH innervation of this region was not discernable. In summary,
      axons immunoreactive for TH increase with similar trajectories in the mPFC of
      male and female rats from pre-puberty to young adulthood.

PMID- 28561888
TI  - Affiliation with substance-using peers: Examining gene-environment correlations
      among parent monitoring, polygenic risk, and children's impulsivity.
AB  - Parental monitoring can buffer the effect of deviant peers on adolescents'
      substance use by reducing affiliation with substance-using peers. However,
      children's genetic predispositions may evoke poorer monitoring, contributing to
      negative child outcomes. We examined evocative genotype-environment correlations
      underlying children's genetic predisposition for behavioral undercontrol and
      parental monitoring in early adolescence via children's impulsivity in middle
      childhood, and the influence of parental monitoring on affiliation with substance
      using peers a year and a half later (n = 359). Genetic predisposition for
      behavioral undercontrol was captured using a polygenic risk score, and a portion
      of passive rGE was controlled by including parents' polygenic risk scores.
      Children's polygenic risk predicted poorer parental monitoring via greater
      children's impulsivity, indicating evocative rGE, controlling for a portion of
      passive rGE. Poorer parental monitoring predicted greater children's affiliation
      with substance-using peers a year and a half later. Results are discussed with
      respect to gene-environment correlations within developmental cascades.

PMID- 28561892
TI  - Microneedle-Assisted, DC-Targeted Codelivery of pTRP-2 and Adjuvant of Paclitaxel
      for Transcutaneous Immunotherapy.
AB  - This work aims at developing an immunotherapeutic strategy to deliver a cancer
      DNA vaccine targeting dendritic cells (DCs), to trigger their maturation and
      antitumor function, and reduce immune escape using a polymeric nanocomplex of
      paclitaxel (PTX)-encapsulated sulfobutylether-beta-cyclodextrin
      (SBE)/mannosylated N,N,N-trimethylchitosan (mTMC)/DNA. To enhance DC-targeting
      and revoke immunosuppression is the major challenge for eliciting effective
      antitumor immunity. This codelivery system is characterized by using low-dose PTX
      as an adjuvant that is included inside SBE, and the PTX/SBE further serves as an
      anionic crosslinker to self-assemble with the cationic mTMC/DNA polyplexes. This
      system is used in combination with a microneedle for transcutaneous vaccination.
      Once penetrating into the epidermis, the mannosylated nanocomplexes would
      preferentially deliver the pTRP-2 DNA vaccine inside the DCs. Phenotypic
      maturation is demonstrated by the increased expression of costimulatory molecules
      of CD80 and CD86, and the elevated secretion of IL-12p70. The mixed leucocyte
      reactions reveal that the PTX/SBE-mTMC/DNA nanocomplexes enhance the
      proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and inhibit the generation of immune
      suppressive FoxP3+ T cells. The system shows high antitumor efficacy in vivo. The
      PTX/SBE-mTMC/DNA nanocomplexes for DC-targeted codelivery of DNA vaccine and
      adjuvant PTX yield synergistic effects on the DC maturation and its presenting
      functions, thus increasing immune stimulation and reducing immune escape.

PMID- 28561891
TI  - Neonatal oxytocin and vasopressin manipulation alter social behavior during the
      juvenile period in Mongolian gerbils.
AB  - Oxytocin and vasopressin are important modulators of a wide variety of social
      behaviors, and increasing evidence is showing that these neuropeptides are
      important organizational effectors of later-life behavior as well. We treated day
      old gerbil pups with oxytocin, vasopressin, an oxytocin receptor antagonist, a
      vasopressin V1a receptor antagonist, or saline control, and then measured
      received parental responsiveness during the early postnatal period and juvenile
      social behavior during weaning. Neonatal vasopressin treatment enhanced sociality
      in males, but not females, at both developmental time points. When pups were
      individually placed outside the nest, parents were more responsive to male pups
      treated with vasopressin compared with littermates, and vasopressin treated male
      pups exhibited increased play with littermates as juveniles. These results show
      that vasopressin during very early life can enhance social interactions
      throughout early development.

PMID- 28561894
TI  - Texture and breakdown in the mouth: An industrial research approach.
AB  - : Texture is one of foods' most important qualities, but is a sensory perception
      by consumers. To understand, predict and design for sensory appeal, we must
      codify the sensory response and diagnose the physical stimuli in the mouth which
      give rise to perception. This brief review examines the leading contributions
      from Szczesniak and Bourne and shows the developments in the field, built on
      their earlier contributions. Because of its importance to consumer appeal, the
      food industry has made significant contributions. We now understand that human
      subjects monitor the entire process from initial bite, through mastication to
      swallowing, and the mouth is an extremely sophisticated processing device with
      both feedback and feedforward sensing. To understand the mechanisms of
      perception, multidisciplinary approaches of fracture and failure, rheology,
      tribology and forensic microscopy are now applied, and collaborations exist
      between sensory analysts, physicists, engineers, and oral physiologists.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The design of food structure for sensory appeal is the
      driving force in product development. The approaches outlined in this short
      review, represent the current "toolbox" available to the industry and academics
      interested in breakdown and perception in the mouth.

PMID- 28561895
TI  - Knowledge and self-care behaviors among patients with heart failure in Jordan.
AB  - Knowledge is known to affect self-care behaviors. However, little is known about
      the factors that influence self-care behaviors among patients with heart failure
      in Jordan. A cross-sectional descriptive-correlational design was used to
      describe the associations between knowledge, sociodemographics, and self-care
      behaviors. In a convenience sample of 226 patients with heart failure, the Dutch
      Heart Failure Scale and Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) version 6.2 were
      used to measure knowledge and self-care behaviors, respectively. The mean heart
      failure knowledge score was quite low at 5.29. The SCHFI self-care management
      subscale mean was 57.56 with an actual range of 10-90, and the SCHFI self-care
      maintenance subscale mean was 53.89 with an actual range of 13.33-86.66. The
      SCHFI self-care confidence subscale mean was lowest of the three at 45.07, with
      an actual range of 5.56-94.52. All three subscale mean scores were below the
      clinical target level (>=70) for the SCHFI. Lower knowledge, income, and
      educational level, shorter duration of disease, fewer people living at home,
      older age, and being unemployed were significant predictors of low self-care
      scores. Characteristics of the cultural, social, and healthcare environment in
      Jordan may help explain some results. Nurses may play a role in improving
      knowledge and self-care among patients with heart failure in Jordan. Studies of
      the effect of educational programs on knowledge and self-care among patients with
      heart failure are recommended.

PMID- 28561897
TI  - Temperature and Preeclampsia: Is the Association Valid?

PMID- 28561896
TI  - Creating a placental inflammatory composite index that has a high prognostic
      relevance to child morbidity.
AB  - AIM: Selecting pathologic measures of placental inflammation that affect
      pregnancy and childhood health is largely empirical. We aimed to systematically
      select several core inflammation-related placental measures to construct a novel
      placental inflammatory evaluation criterion with a high prognostic relevance to
      child morbidity. METHODS: We used data from the US Collaborative Perinatal
      Project (1959-1976), a longitudinal birth cohort study that recruited women
      during pregnancy and followed the children until 7 years of age. Bootstrap
      resampling, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, and receiver
      operator curve were used to select placental pathologic measures that were
      closely related to child morbidity to form a placental inflammatory composite
      index. RESULTS: Twenty-six candidate placental inflammation-related measures were
      ranked based on their close association with adverse neonatal outcomes. The top
      five placental measures were: (i) neutrophilic infiltration in umbilical artery;
      (ii) placental weight-birthweight ratio; (iii) necrosis in decidua capsularis;
      (iv) bacterial colony in epithelium of amnion; and (v) opacity of membranes and
      fetal surface. Several composite indexes were constructed. A five-measure
      composite index that had the highest prognostic relevance was chosen. Compared
      with subjects without any of the five abnormal measures, those with any lesion
      ranging from 1 to 5 had a 1.2- to 4.6-fold risk of adverse child outcomes,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Our composite index is simple, evidence-based, and has
      predictive value for child morbidity. It may be used as a novel placental
      inflammatory evaluation criterion.

PMID- 28561893
TI  - Extrinsic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells in development, homeostasis and
      diseases.
AB  - Lifelong generation of blood and immune cells depends on hematopoietic stem cells
      (HSCs). Their function is precisely regulated by complex molecular networks that
      integrate and respond to ever changing physiological demands of the body. Over
      the past several years, significant advances have been made in understanding the
      extrinsic regulation of HSCs during development and in homeostasis. Propelled by
      technical advances in the field, the cellular and molecular components of the
      microenvironment that support HSCs in vivo are emerging. In addition, the
      interaction of HSCs with their niches is appreciated as a critical contributor to
      the pathogenesis of a number of hematologic disorders. Here, we review these
      advances in detail and highlight the extrinsic regulation of HSCs in the context
      of development, homeostasis, and diseases. WIREs Dev Biol 2017, 6:e279. doi:
      10.1002/wdev.279 For further resources related to this article, please visit the
      WIREs website.

PMID- 28561899
TI  - A Big Data Analysis Approach for Rail Failure Risk Assessment.
AB  - Railway infrastructure monitoring is a vital task to ensure rail transportation
      safety. A rail failure could result in not only a considerable impact on train
      delays and maintenance costs, but also on safety of passengers. In this article,
      the aim is to assess the risk of a rail failure by analyzing a type of rail
      surface defect called squats that are detected automatically among the huge
      number of records from video cameras. We propose an image processing approach for
      automatic detection of squats, especially severe types that are prone to rail
      breaks. We measure the visual length of the squats and use them to model the
      failure risk. For the assessment of the rail failure risk, we estimate the
      probability of rail failure based on the growth of squats. Moreover, we perform
      severity and crack growth analyses to consider the impact of rail traffic loads
      on defects in three different growth scenarios. The failure risk estimations are
      provided for several samples of squats with different crack growth lengths on a
      busy rail track of the Dutch railway network. The results illustrate the
      practicality and efficiency of the proposed approach.

PMID- 28561898
TI  - Validation of a Point-of-Care Quantitative Equine IgG Turbidimetric Immunoassay
      and Comparison of IgG Concentrations Measured with Radial Immunodiffusion and a
      Point-of-Care IgG ELISA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests with good sensitivity and
      specificity are needed for diagnosing failure of transfer of passive immunity
      (FTPI) in foals. Turbidimetric immunoassays (TIA) have these characteristics and
      provide quantitative results. A commercially available TIA-based POC test (POC
      TIA) has not been validated in horses. OBJECTIVE: To validate a POC-TIA and
      compare results of POC-TIA, a POC-ELISA, and radial immunodiffusion (RID).
      ANIMALS: Heparinized blood samples (n = 127) from 48 hospitalized foals (<12 hour
      to 48 days). METHODS: Prospective validation study. IgG concentrations were
      measured using RID (gold standard), POC-TIA, and POC-ELISA. Agreement between
      assays was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis. Sensitivity and specificity were
      calculated using ROC curves. Inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation
      (CVs) and linearity were evaluated for POC-TIA. RESULTS: The mean bias (95%
      limits of agreement) between RID and POC-TIA was -4 (-185 to 176), 27 (-201 to
      255), and 308 (-377 to 993) mg/dL for samples with IgG concentrations of <400,
      400-800, and >800 mg/dL, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity at optimal
      cutoff were 94 and 100% for the POC-TIA and 94 and 100% for the POC-ELISA to
      detect IgG <400 mg/dL, and 85 and 87% (POC-TIA) and 69 and 79% (POC-ELISA) to
      detect IgG <=800 mg/dL. Intra- and interassay CVs for POC-TIA ranged between 1.6
      3.8 and 11.9-18.8%, respectively. Linearity of the dilution series was preserved
      (R2 > 0.96). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The POC-TIA provided
      unambiguous results and had sufficient sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and
      precision to be used as an alternative to other POC tests to assess FTPI in
      foals.

PMID- 28561901
TI  - Psychosocial factors and traumatic dental injuries among adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the association of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) and
      psychosocial factors in adolescents and to identify psychological profiles
      associated with TDI. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 531
      students aged 13-16 years. Data were collected through oral examination and a
      structured interview with the adolescents, in conjunction with a questionnaire
      answered by their mothers. Associations between TDI and independent variables
      were analysed using a model-based approach, while an exploratory data analysis
      was applied to identify homogenous clusters of adolescents in relation to their
      sense of coherence (SoC), perception of parental support and their mothers' SoC.
      These clusters were examined further for associations with TDI and psychosocial
      variables. RESULTS: The prevalence of TDI was 15.8%. Adolescents with high TDI
      prevalence were males, nonfirstborns, or those frequently engaging in physical
      activity. In addition, both their own SoC and that of their mother were low and
      they reported low parental support. They were also prone to complaining about the
      behaviour of their peer group. The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)
      demonstrated three homogenous clusters. The cluster with the highest scores for
      all psychological variables included adolescents with low TDI prevalence, low
      paternal punishment, spacious home environment, high Family Affluence Scale (FAS)
      score, good school grades, few complaints about schoolmates and higher maternal
      education. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial factors appear to influence an adolescent's
      risk of TDI. High parental support, high own and maternal SoC and a higher
      socioeconomic status (SES) are typical of adolescents with low TDI experience.

PMID- 28561900
TI  - Muscle changes in patients with diabetes and chronic exertional compartment
      syndrome before and after treatment with fasciotomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Muscle changes in patients with diabetes and lower leg pain due to
      chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) were investigated before and after
      fasciotomy. METHODS: The tibialis anterior muscle was analyzed with histochemical
      and morphological techniques in 7 patients with diabetes and CECS before
      fasciotomy and in 5 of them 1 year after fasciotomy. Nondiabetic patients with
      CECS and healthy participants served as references. RESULTS: Before treatment,
      walking distance until occurrence of pain was limited (<0.2 km). Intramuscular
      pressure was significantly higher than in reference participants. Muscle analysis
      showed changes pathognomonic for neuropathy and myopathy and a restricted
      capillary network, with significantly more severe changes in the muscles of
      patients with diabetes than in the muscles of nondiabetic patients. Treatment
      with fasciotomy improved clinical signs, increased walking ability, and reduced
      muscle abnormalities, but muscle capillarization remained low. DISCUSSION:
      Patients with diabetes and CECS have distinct pathological changes in affected
      muscles. Pressure-relieving fasciotomy triggers a regenerative response in the
      muscle tissue but not in the capillary bed. Muscle Nerve 57: 229-239, 2018.

PMID- 28561902
TI  - Safety and Pharmacokinetics of Bendamustine Rapid-Infusion Formulation.
AB  - Bendamustine hydrochloride (BDM) is approved in the United States to treat
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia and relapsed indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
      The first formulation marketed in the United States (original BDM) was a
      lyophilized product requiring reconstitution prior to dilution to the final
      admixture. A liquid formulation of BDM was subsequently introduced that did not
      require reconstitution before dilution. Both formulations are administered as a
      500 mL admixture with a recommended infusion time of 30 or 60 minutes for chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia and indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, respectively. A
      newer liquid BDM formulation (rapid BDM) is a ready-to-dilute solution not
      requiring reconstitution that dilutes into an admixture of only 50 mL and can be
      safely administered in a shorter infusion time (10 minutes). Rapid BDM admixture
      also has longer stability at room temperature than both lyophilized and liquid
      BDM formulations (6 vs 2 to 3 hours). This phase 1, open-label, randomized,
      crossover (3-period, partially replicated) study, conducted in "end-of-life"
      cancer patients at 10 oncology centers in the United States, demonstrates that
      rapid BDM is bioequivalent to original BDM as determined by area under the curve.
      Expected differences in maximum plasma concentration and time to maximum plasma
      concentration were observed between study treatments, given the substantially
      shorter infusion time of rapid BDM. No clinically relevant differences in other
      evaluated pharmacokinetic parameters were found. Rapid BDM infusions were safe
      and tolerable for cancer patients in this study. The overall safety profiles of
      the 2 BDM formulations were comparable, with no new safety signals identified and
      no differences in infusion-related adverse events.

PMID- 28561905
TI  - Calibrated brightfield-based imaging for measuring intracellular protein
      concentration.
AB  - Intracellular protein concentration is an essential cell characteristic, which
      manifests itself through the refractive index. The latter can be measured from
      two or more mutually defocused brightfield images analyzed using the TIE
      (transport-of-intensity equation). In practice, however, TIE does not always
      achieve quantitatively accurate results on biological cells. Therefore, we have
      developed a calibration procedure that involves successive imaging of cells in
      solutions containing different amounts of added protein. This allows one to
      directly relate the output of TIE (T) to intracellular protein concentration C
      (g/L). The resultant relationship has a simple form: C ~ 1.0(T/V), where V is the
      cell volume (MUm3 ) and 1.0 is an empirical coefficient. We used calibrated TIE
      imaging to characterize the regulatory volume increase (RVI) in adherent HeLa
      cells placed in a hyperosmotic solution. We found that while no RVI occurs over
      the first 30-60 min, the protein concentration fully recovers after 20 h. Because
      interpretation of such long experiments may depend on whether protein
      concentration varies significantly throughout the cell cycle, we measured this
      parameter in three cell lines: HeLa, MDCK and DU145. Our data indicate that
      protein concentration remains relatively stable in these cells. (c) 2017
      International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.

PMID- 28561904
TI  - Neonatal abstinence syndrome: Neurobehavior at 6 weeks of age in infants with or
      without pharmacological treatment for withdrawal.
AB  - Use and abuse of prescription opioids and concomitant increase in Neonatal
      Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), a condition that may lead to protracted
      pharmacological treatment in more than 60% of infants, has tripled since 2000.
      This study assessed neurobehavioral development using the NICU Network
      Neurobehavioral Scale in 6-week old infants with prenatal methadone exposure who
      did (NAS+; n = 23) or did not (NAS-; n = 16) require pharmacological treatment
      for NAS severity determined by Finnegan Scale. An unexposed, demographically
      similar group of infants matched for age served as comparison (COMP; n = 21).
      NAS+, but not NAS- group, had significantly lower scores on the regulation (p <
      .01) and quality of movement (p < .01) summary scales than the COMP group. The
      NAS+ and NAS- groups had higher scores on the stress-abstinence scale than the
      COMP group (p < .05). NAS diagnosis (NAS +) was associated with poorer regulation
      and quality of movement at 6 weeks of age compared to infants without prenatal
      methadone exposure from the same demographic.

PMID- 28561903
TI  - Arcuate nucleus neuropeptide coexpression and connections to gonadotrophin
      releasing hormone neurones in the female rhesus macaque.
AB  - The underlying hypothalamic neurocircuitry by which metabolism and feeding
      regulates reproductive function has been well-studied in the rodent; however,
      recent data have demonstrated significant neuroanatomical differences in the
      human brain. The present study had three objectives, centred on arcuate nucleus
      neuropeptides regulating feeding and reproduction: (i) to characterise
      coexpression patterns in the female nonhuman primate; (ii) to establish whether
      these neuronal populations make potential contacts with gonadotophin-releasing
      hormone (GnRH) neurones; and (iii) to determine whether these contacts differ
      between the low and high GnRH-releasing states of pre-puberty and adulthood,
      respectively. Female nonhuman primates have several coexpression patterns of
      hypothalamic neuropeptides that differ from those reported in rodents. Cocaine-
      and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is not coexpressed with pro
      opiomelanocortin but instead with neuropeptide Y (NPY). CART is also expressed in
      a subpopulation of kisspeptin cells in the nonhuman primate, similar to
      observations in humans but diverging from findings in rodents. Very few GnRH
      expressing neurones received close appositions from double-labelled
      kisspeptin/CART fibres; however, both single-labelled kisspeptin and CART fibres
      were in frequent apposition with GnRH neurones, with no differences between
      prepubertal and adult animals. NPY/agouti-related peptide (AgRP) coexpressing
      fibres contacted significantly more GnRH neurones in prepubertal animals than
      adults, consistent with increased NPY and AgRP mRNA observed in prepubertal
      animals. The findings of the present study detail significant differences in
      arcuate nucleus neuropeptide coexpression in the monkey compared to the rodent
      and are consistent with the hypothesis that arcuate nucleus NPY/AgRP neurones
      play an inhibitory role in controlling GnRH neuronal regulation in the
      prepubertal primate.

PMID- 28561906
TI  - Outcomes and patterns of failure for sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC):
      The Mayo Clinic Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a rare aggressive
      disease arising in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses with poor prognosis and
      unclear optimal management. METHODS: Forty patients were analyzed. Nasal cavity
      was the most common primary site. Most patients presented with T4 disease,
      received trimodality therapy, and were treated with intensity-modulated
      radiotherapy (IMRT). RESULTS: Median follow-up was 6.9 years. Sixteen patients
      (40%) experienced recurrent disease, 5 local (12.5%), 1 regional (2.5%), and 10
      distant (25%). The 5-year overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS),
      and locoreginal control (LRC) were 44%, 39%, and 71%, respectively. Patients
      treated with trimodality therapy had better outcomes compared to single modality
      therapy. Improved OS was noted with IMRT and with doses >=60 Gy. The most common
      cause of death was distant metastasis. CONCLUSION: SNUC is an aggressive
      malignancy with a high tendency to metastasize. Better outcomes were obtained
      with a trimodality approach. Modern radiotherapy (RT) techniques and doses >= 60
      Gy were associated with improved OS.

PMID- 28561907
TI  - Clinical significance of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in laryngeal
      carcinoma: Its role in the different subsites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, cancer cells lose
      adhesion capacity gaining migratory properties. The role of the process on
      prognosis has been evaluated in 50 cases of laryngeal carcinoma. METHODS: E
      cadherin, N-cadherin, beta-catenin, alpha-catenin, gamma-catenin, caveolin-1, and
      vimentin immunohistochemical expression were evaluated using a double score based
      on staining intensity and cellular localization. RESULTS: Cytoplasmic E-cadherin
      and alpha/gamma catenin staining were associated with a decrease in survival,
      cytoplasmic beta-catenin was associated with advanced stage, and N-cadherin and
      vimentin expression were associated with poor differentiation and tumor relapse.
      On the basis of cancer cells, epithelial or mesenchymal morphological and
      immunophenotypic similarity we identified 4 main subgroups correlated with a
      transition to a more undifferentiated phenotype, which have a different pattern
      of relapse and survival. CONCLUSION: The negative prognostic role of epithelial
      to-mesenchymal transition has been confirmed and a predictive role in glottic
      tumors has been suggested, leading us to propose epithelial-to-mesenchymal
      transition as an additional adverse feature in laryngeal carcinoma.

PMID- 28561908
TI  - Successful treatment of uterine artery pseudoaneurysm with laparoscopic temporary
      clamping of bilateral uterine arteries, followed by hysteroscopic surgery.
AB  - Surgical strategies for the treatment of uterine artery pseudoaneurysm (UAP)
      include transarterial embolization and ultrasound-guided low-dose thrombin
      injection. Such strategies, however, have limitations and include the risk of
      ischemic damage to the uterus. We report a case of UAP treated with a new
      hysteroscopic and laparoscopic technique. A 29-year-old G1P0 woman with
      spontaneous abortion was transferred to the present institution because of
      hemorrhagic shock. We diagnosed ruptured UAP on transvaginal ultrasound with
      color Doppler. Emergency laparoscopic temporary clamping of the bilateral uterine
      arteries was done to reduce the bleeding, and transcervical resection to stop the
      hemorrhaging and to collect the pseudoaneurysm tissue. After surgery, blood flow
      to the myometrium was monitored on ultrasound. By postoperative day 48, normal
      menstruation had restarted, and no intrauterine adhesions were observed. On
      pathology of the UAP, a dilated spiral artery without its characteristic elastic
      fibers was identified. This surgical approach may help preserve fertility and
      allow for pathological diagnosis of UAP.

PMID- 28561909
TI  - Electrodiagnostic tests are unlikely to change management in those with a known
      cause of typical distal symmetric polyneuropathy.

PMID- 28561910
TI  - Assessment of porosity index of the femoral neck and tibia by 3D ultra-short echo
      time MRI.
AB  - PURPOSE: To measure the porosity index (PI) by ultrashort echo-time magnetic
      resonance imaging (UTE MRI) of the femoral neck and tibia; assess its
      correlations with age, gender, and body mass index (BMI); and analyze the PI
      correlations between both sites to assess whether tibial PI can reflect changes
      of femoral neck PI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 68 healthy men and women (mean
      age, 45.7 +/- 15.9 years) underwent 3D UTE MRI (3.0T) of the hip and mid-shaft
      tibia. PI of the inferior femoral neck cortex and the whole cortex of the tibia
      were analyzed. Associations between parameters and differences of PIs between men
      and women, pre- and postmenopausal women were tested. RESULTS: Femoral neck PI
      was negatively correlated with age (r = -0.385, P = 0.043) and curvilinearly
      correlated with BMI (R2 = 0.225, P = 0.041) in men. Tibial PI was correlated with
      BMI (r = -0.477, P = 0.002) in women and age (r = 0.469, P = 0.043) in
      postmenopausal women, although P = 0.097 (r = 0.403) after adjustment for BMI.
      Femoral PI was significantly higher in men than in women (P < 0.001). No
      significant difference in femoral and tibial PI was observed between pre- and
      postmenopausal women. The femoral neck and tibial PIs were not significantly
      correlated in any group. CONCLUSION: PIs had some correlations with age, gender,
      and BMI. Since femoral neck PI was not correlated with tibial PI, the tibia
      cannot substitute the femoral neck for estimating bone quality. Direct assessment
      of the femoral neck cortex is needed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy
      Stage: 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:820-828.

PMID- 28561911
TI  - Biofilm formation and virulence factor analysis of Staphylococcus aureus isolates
      collected from ovine mastitis.
AB  - AIMS: To perform a phenotypic and genotypic characterization of 258
      Staphylococcus aureus isolates from clinical ovine mastitis and used for the
      preparation of inactivated autogenous vaccines. METHODS AND RESULTS: The
      potential for biofilm production was determined by phenotypic test of Congo Red
      Agar (CRA) and by PCR for the detection of icaA/D genes. Isolates were also
      screened by PCR for the presence of enterotoxins (sea, seb, sec, sed and see),
      toxic shock syndrome toxin (tsst), leukotoxins (lukD-E, lukM and lukPV83),
      haemolysins (hly-beta and hly-gamma), autolysin (atlA) genes and encoding
      microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMMs:
      clfA, clfB, fnbA, fnbB, bbp, cna, eno, fib, epbs, sdrC, sdrD and SdrE). None of
      the 258 isolates showed biofilm-forming ability on CRA and harboured icaA/D
      genes. The most frequent pyrogenic toxin superantigen genes amplified were sec
      plus tsst-1, which were found strictly in combination with 71.3% of the Staph.
      aureus isolates tested. None of the isolates harboured the genes encoding sea and
      see. Of the 258 isolates tested, 159 (61.6%) possessed all lukD-E/lukM/lukPV83
      genes, 123 (47.7%) harboured both hly-beta/hly-gamma genes, whereas almost all
      (97.3%) were PCR positive for atlA gene. With respect to adhesion determinants,
      179 (69.4%) isolates presented simultaneously four genes (fnbA, fib, clfA and
      clfB) for fibronectin- and fibrinogen-binding proteins. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      search, several putative virulence determinants have been identified in ovine
      Staph. aureus isolates collected in Sardinia. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE
      STUDY: Some of the putative virulence determinants could be considered as
      components of a vaccine because of their role in ovine mastitis pathogenesis.

PMID- 28561912
TI  - Crystallization Kinetics and Morphology Control of Formamidinium-Cesium Mixed
      Cation Lead Mixed-Halide Perovskite via Tunability of the Colloidal Precursor
      Solution.
AB  - The meteoric rise of the field of perovskite solar cells has been fueled by the
      ease with which a wide range of high-quality materials can be fabricated via
      simple solution processing methods. However, to date, little effort has been
      devoted to understanding the precursor solutions, and the role of additives such
      as hydrohalic acids upon film crystallization and final optoelectronic quality.
      Here, a direct link between the colloids concentration present in the [HC(NH2 )2
      ]0.83 Cs0.17 Pb(Br0.2 I0.8 )3 precursor solution and the nucleation and growth
      stages of the thin film formation is established. Using dynamic light scattering
      analysis, the dissolution of colloids over a time span triggered by the addition
      of hydrohalic acids is monitored. These colloids appear to provide nucleation
      sites for the perovskite crystallization, which critically impacts morphology,
      crystal quality, and optoelectronic properties. Via 2D X-ray diffraction, highly
      ordered and textured crystals for films prepared from solutions with lower
      colloidal concentrations are observed. This increase in material quality allows
      for a reduction in microstrain along with a twofold increase in charge-carrier
      mobilities leading to values exceeding 20 cm2 V-1 s-1 . Using a solution with an
      optimized colloidal concentration, devices that reach current-voltage measured
      power conversion efficiency of 18.8% and stabilized efficiency of 17.9% are
      fabricated.

PMID- 28561913
TI  - Dissection of Kinase Isoforms through Orthogonal and Chemical Inducible Signaling
      Cascades.
AB  - Interference from endogenous signaling enzymes represents a major hurdle for
      building orthogonal signaling cascades inside cells, particularly among closely
      related isoforms within an enzyme family. Here, we employed a genetically encoded
      chemical decaging strategy to build orthogonally activated kinase isoforms, with
      the endogenous counterparts temporally disabled by an extracellularly delivered
      bacterial effector. This approach eliminated any potential interference from
      other kinase isoforms as well as endogenous kinases, which allowed the specific,
      gain-of-function report of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MEK1)
      activity as opposed to MEK2 with high temporal resolution. Our study dissected
      the distinct enzymatic activity, feedback regulation and signal outputs between
      these closely related kinase isoforms.

PMID- 28561914
TI  - Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy.
AB  - Opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy has increased significantly in the past 10
      years. Women with OUD may often be undertreated or untreated because of limited
      accessibility to treatment, particularly in rural areas. Because detoxification
      is not recommended during pregnancy due to the potential for adverse outcomes in
      the fetus and a high risk of relapse for the woman, more primary care providers
      need to be well versed in opioid-assisted therapy. In addition, recent changes in
      Food and Drug Administration regulations now allow nurse practitioners and
      physician assistants with specialized training to provide buprenorphine treatment
      for pregnant women with OUD in primary care settings. The purpose of this article
      is to provide information and guidance for clinicians working with and treating
      this population.

PMID- 28561915
TI  - Migraines in Women: Current Evidence for Management of Episodic and Chronic
      Migraines.
AB  - Migraine headache is a disabling brain disorder that affects millions of women in
      the United States. Many migraine sufferers are undertreated. Both inadequate
      treatment and overuse of abortive migraine medication can contribute to
      progression from episodic to chronic migraine disorders. A significant number of
      migraine headaches or severity of episodic migraine headaches warrants treatment
      with prophylactic medications for prevention. This clinical update reviews the
      pathophysiology and diagnosis of migraine headaches in women, discusses the
      efficacy of abortive and chronic pharmacologic treatment, and examines strategies
      to prevent progression from episodic migraine to chronic migraine. A discussion
      of treatment during pregnancy and lactation is included.

PMID- 28561916
TI  - Thermal Disproportionation of Oxo-Functionalized Graphene.
AB  - Graphene production by wet chemistry is an ongoing scientific challenge.
      Controlled oxidation of graphite introduces oxo functional groups; this material
      can be processed and converted back to graphene by reductive defunctionalization.
      Although thermal processing yields conductive carbon, a ruptured and undefined
      carbon lattice is produced as a consequence of CO2 formation. This thermal
      process is not understood, but it is believed that graphene is not accessible.
      Here, we thermally process oxo-functionalized graphene (oxo-G) with a low (4-6 %)
      and high degree of functionalization (50-60 %) and find on the basis of Raman
      spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy performed at atomic resolution
      (HRTEM) that thermal processing leads predominantly to an intact carbon framework
      with a density of lattice defects as low as 0.8 %. We attribute this finding to
      reorganization effects of oxo groups. This finding holds out the prospect of
      thermal graphene formation from oxo-G derivatives.

PMID- 28561917
TI  - Impact of Providing Compassion on Job Performance and Mental Health: The
      Moderating Effect of Interpersonal Relationship Quality.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the relationships of providing compassion at work with job
      performance and mental health, as well as to identify the role of interpersonal
      relationship quality in moderating these relationships. DESIGN AND METHODS: This
      study adopted a two-stage survey completed by 235 registered nurses employed by
      hospitals in Taiwan. All hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression
      analyses. FINDINGS: The results show that providing compassion is an effective
      predictor of job performance and mental health, whereas interpersonal
      relationship quality can moderate the relationships of providing compassion with
      job performance and mental health. CONCLUSIONS: When nurses are frequently
      willing to listen, understand, and help their suffering colleagues, the
      enhancement engendered by providing compassion can improve the provider's job
      performance and mental health. Creating high-quality relationships in the
      workplace can strengthen the positive benefits of providing compassion. CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: Motivating employees to spontaneously exhibit compassion is crucial to
      an organization. Hospitals can establish value systems, belief systems, and
      cultural systems that support a compassionate response to suffering. In addition,
      nurses can internalize altruistic belief systems into their own personal value
      systems through a long process of socialization in the workplace.

PMID- 28561919
TI  - Current trends and future perspectives of dental pulp capping materials: A
      systematic review.
AB  - To systematically review the literature to analyze the current trends and future
      perspectives of dental pulp capping materials through an analysis of scientific
      and technological data. This study is reported in accordance with the PRISMA
      Statement. Nine databases were screened: PubMed (MedLine), Lilacs, IBECS, BBO,
      Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO, Google Scholar, and The Cochrane Library.
      Additionally, the following patent applications were searched online in Questel
      Orbit (Paris, France), USPTO, EPO, JPO, INPI, and Patentscope databases. A total
      of 716 papers and 83 patents were included. Calcium hydroxide was the main type
      of material studied, especially for direct pulp capping, followed by MTA. Patents
      related to adhesives or resins increased from 1998 e 2008, while in the last
      years, a major increase was observed in bioactive materials (containing bioactive
      proteins), materials derived from MTA (calcium silicate, calcium phosphate and
      calcium aluminate-based cements) and MTA. It was possible to obtain a scientific
      and technological overview of pulp capping materials. MTA has shown favorable
      results in vital pulp therapy that seem to surpass the disadvantages of calcium
      hydroxide. Recent advances in bioactive materials and those derived from MTA have
      shown promising results that could improve biomaterials used in vital pulp
      treatments. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl
      Biomater, 106B: 1358-1368, 2018.

PMID- 28561918
TI  - Dose Finding of Lenvatinib in Subjects With Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma
      Based on Population Pharmacokinetic and Exposure-Response Analyses.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for up to 90% of primary liver cancer
      occurrences worldwide. Lenvatinib, a multikinase inhibitor, was approved in
      radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. In this phase 2 study
      (study 202), we aimed to identify the lenvatinib optimal dose for subjects with
      advanced HCC Child-Pugh class A. Pooled data from phase 1 studies in healthy
      adults and in subjects with mixed tumor types, and from study 202 in subjects
      with HCC, were analyzed using a population pharmacokinetic approach. The
      relationship between treatment-emergent adverse events leading to withdrawal or
      dose reduction during cycle 1 and lenvatinib exposure was explored by logistic
      regression analysis. A receiver operating characteristics analysis was used to
      investigate the best cutoff values of lenvatinib exposure and body weight to
      identify a high-risk group for early dose modification. The final pharmacokinetic
      model included body-weight effects on apparent clearance and volume. The
      relationship between the lenvatinib area under the plasma concentration-time
      curve (AUC) at steady state and body weight demonstrated an increase in AUC as
      body weight decreased in subjects with HCC. An exposure-response relationship was
      observed, with higher lenvatinib AUC and lower body weight resulting in earlier
      drug withdrawal or dose reduction. The best cutoff values for body weight and
      lenvatinib AUC were 57.8 kg and 2430 ng.h/mL, respectively, to predict the group
      at high risk for early drug withdrawal or dose reduction. We therefore recommend
      12-mg and 8-mg starting doses for subjects >=60 kg and <60 kg, respectively, in
      subjects with HCC Child-Pugh class A.

PMID- 28561920
TI  - Two-dimensional and shear wave elastography ultrasound: A reliable method to
      analyse spastic muscles?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Few data exist on the feasibility and reliability of measuring
      muscular atrophy in 2 dimensions (2D) by ultrasonography (US) and elasticity with
      shear wave elastography (SWE) in spastic muscles. METHODS: Fourteen patients with
      chronic stroke took part in 2 intersession reliability experiments performed with
      1-week intervals between sessions. Pennation angle (PA), muscle thickness (MT),
      and shear elastic modulus (u) were measured in spastic gastrocnemius medialis
      (GM) muscles at rest and at maximal passive stretching in paretic and nonparetic
      legs. RESULTS: On the paretic side, the coefficient of variation (CV) in GM was
      6.30% for MT and 6.40% for PA at rest and was 7.53% and 8.26% for MT and PA,
      respectively, at maximal passive stretching. The reliability of the u measurement
      was good only for GM at rest on the paretic side (CV = 9.86%). DISCUSSION: 2D US
      associated with SWE shows promise for assessing structural changes in muscles.
      With some methodological adaptations, this approach could help guide spasticity
      treatment. Muscle Nerve 57: 222-228, 2018.

PMID- 28561921
TI  - Specific Enhancement of Catalytic Activity by a Dicopper Core: Selective
      Hydroxylation of Benzene to Phenol with Hydrogen Peroxide.
AB  - A dicopper(II) complex, stabilized by the bis(tpa) ligand 1,2-bis[2-[bis(2
      pyridylmethyl)aminomethyl]-6-pyridyl]ethane (6-hpa), [Cu2 (MU-OH)(6-hpa)]3+ , was
      synthesized and structurally characterized. This complex catalyzed selective
      hydroxylation of benzene to phenol using H2 O2 , thus attaining large turnover
      numbers (TONs) and high H2 O2 efficiency. The TON after 40 hours for the phenol
      production exceeded 12000 in MeCN at 50  degrees C under N2 , the highest value
      reported for benzene hydroxylation with H2 O2 catalyzed by homogeneous complexes.
      At 22 % benzene conversion, phenol (95.2 %) and p-benzoquinone (4.8 %) were
      produced. The mechanism of H2 O2 activation and benzene hydroxylation is
      proposed.

PMID- 28561922
TI  - Master in oral biology program: A path to addressing the need for future dental
      educators.
AB  - In dental education, the anatomical sciences, which include gross anatomy,
      histology, embryology, and neuroanatomy, encompass an important component of the
      basic science curriculum. At Creighton University School of Dentistry, strength
      in anatomic science education has been coupled with a solid applicant pool to
      develop a novel Master of Science in Oral Biology, Anatomic Sciences track degree
      program. The program provides a heavy emphasis on developing teaching skills in
      predoctoral students as well as exposure to research processes to encourage the
      cohort to pursuing a career in academic dentistry. The individuals considered for
      this program are applicants for admission to the School of Dentistry that have
      not been accepted into the entering dental class for that year. The students
      undertake a two year curriculum, studying anatomic sciences with a special
      emphasis on teaching. The students also must complete a research project that
      requires a thesis. The students in the program are guaranteed acceptance to
      dental school upon successful completion of the program. After six years, the
      first ten students have received their Master of Science degrees and continued in
      dental school. The program is favorably viewed by the faculty and participating
      students. It is also considered successful by metrics. Nine of the ten graduates
      have said they would like to participate in academic dentistry in some capacity
      during their careers. Anat Sci Educ 10: 607-612. (c) 2017 American Association of
      Anatomists.

PMID- 28561924
TI  - Nausea and vomiting: Therapeutic orphans of pediatric oncology.

PMID- 28561925
TI  - Evolution of sensory neuropathy after initiation of antiretroviral therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We studied the evolution of sensory neuropathy after antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) in human immunodeficiency virus-infected South Africans. METHODS:
      Enrolment commenced before ART with 6-monthly follow-ups for 24 months.
      Symptomatic distal sensory polyneuropathy (SDSP) was defined as one symptom and
      sign. Symptom/sign scores were compared between visits. RESULTS: We enrolled 184
      participants. Pre-ART, 16% had SDSP. After 18 months of ART, pain prevalence
      decreased in those with pre-ART SDSP (odds ratio [OR], 0.09; 95% confidence
      interval [95%CI], 0.03-0.29). Symptoms improved in 50% ever experiencing pain
      (mean improvement = 4.5 on 11-point scale). Participants SDSP-free pre-ART
      developed SDSP at a rate of 18 per 100 person-years. After 24 months (n = 102),
      18% had SDSP. Stavudine (60% of cohort) did not predict incident SDSP, but
      associated with increased prevalence of reduced/absent reflexes at 18 months (OR,
      2.24; 95% CI, 1.08-4.65). DISCUSSION: Painful symptoms improved during ART.
      Evolving sensory neuropathy was due to increasing small and large fiber
      dysfunction. Muscle Nerve 57: 371-379, 2018.

PMID- 28561923
TI  - Quantification and characterization of grouped type I myofibers in human aging.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Myofiber type grouping is a histological hallmark of age-related
      motor unit remodeling. Despite the accepted concept that denervation
      reinnervation events lead to myofiber type grouping, the completeness of those
      conversions remains unknown. METHODS: Type I myofiber grouping was assessed in
      vastus lateralis biopsies from Young (26 +/- 4 years; n = 27) and Older (66 +/- 4
      years; n = 91) adults. Grouped and ungrouped type I myofibers were evaluated for
      phenotypic differences. RESULTS: Higher type I grouping in Older versus Young was
      driven by more myofibers per group (i.e., larger group size) (P < 0.05). In Older
      only, grouped type I myofibers displayed larger cross-sectional area, more
      myonuclei, lower capillary supply, and more sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum calcium
      ATPase I (SERCA I) expression (P < 0.05) than ungrouped type I myofibers.
      DISCUSSION: Grouped type I myofibers retain type II characteristics suggesting
      that conversion during denervation-reinnervation events is either progressive or
      incomplete. Muscle Nerve 57: E52-E59, 2018.

PMID- 28561926
TI  - Quantitative sonographic assessment of myotonia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study explores ultrasound imaging for qualitative and
      quantitative assessment of myotonia. METHODS: Sixteen patients with myotonia and
      16 controls underwent sonographic evaluation of the thenar eminence muscles to
      assess the relaxation time after muscle percussion. RESULTS: The mean time for
      complete muscle relaxation in patients with myotonia was longer than that of
      controls. A cutoff of > 0.9 s for myotonia detection had a sensitivity of 88% and
      a specificity of 100%. The interrater reliability was moderate for qualitative
      assessment but was high for quantitative assessment. The relaxation time did not
      correlate with the number of trinucleotide repeats in patients with myotonic
      dystrophy. DISCUSSION: Sonographic evaluation for the presence of myotonia is
      feasible, sensitive, and specific but does not correlate with disease severity in
      myotonic dystrophy. Muscle Nerve 57: 146-149, 2018.

PMID- 28561928
TI  - Chemoselective Modification of Vinyl DNA by Triazolinediones.
AB  - A new method for the post-synthetic modification of nucleic acids was developed
      that involves mixing a phenyl triazolinedione (PTAD) derivative with DNA
      containing a vinyl nucleobase. The resulting reactions proceeded through step
      wise mechanisms, giving either a formal [4+2] cycloaddition product, or,
      depending on the context of nucleobase, PTAD addition along with solvent trapping
      to give a secondary alcohol in water. Catalyst-free addition between PTAD and the
      terminal alkene of 5-vinyl-2'-deoxyuridine (VdU) was exceptionally fast, with a
      second-order rate constant of 2*103  m-1  s-1 . PTAD derivatives selectively
      reacted with VdU-containing oligonucleotides in a conformation-selective manner,
      with higher yields observed for G-quadruplex versus duplex DNA. These results
      demonstrate a new strategy for copper-free bioconjugation of DNA that can
      potentially be used to probe nucleic acid conformations in cells.

PMID- 28561927
TI  - Mononeuritis multiplex associated with minocycline in an adolescent.

PMID- 28561929
TI  - Adverse events of group psychotherapy in the in-patient setting - results of a
      naturalistic trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Adverse events of psychotherapy have often been neglected in research.
      In this study, potential adverse events of group psychotherapies in a psychiatric
      hospital were systematically assessed, explored for predictors and linked to
      treatment outcome. METHOD: A naturalistic trial was conducted in 180 in-patients
      attending different group psychotherapies. Adverse events were assessed using
      three different measures: (i) weekly reporting of unwanted treatment reactions,
      (ii) mood changes in response to every single group session and (iii) premature
      group termination. RESULTS: Different measures of adverse events were weakly
      associated. Deterioration of mood state and/or unwanted treatment reactions were
      experienced by 60-65% of all patients. Reports of unwanted treatment reactions
      decreased over time and were negatively associated with symptom improvement.
      However, mood state deterioration was constant and unrelated to treatment
      outcome. The rate of premature group termination was 34%. Significant predictors
      of adverse events included patient characteristics as well as disadvantageous
      group conditions. CONCLUSIONS: For the majority of patients, group psychotherapy
      in the in-patient setting is associated with adverse events. Changes over time
      and a strong correlation with general symptom severity must be considered in the
      assessment and interpretation of adverse events. Predictors should be considered
      as potential risk factors in future research.

PMID- 28561930
TI  - Ultrahigh and Selective SO2 Uptake in Inorganic Anion-Pillared Hybrid Porous
      Materials.
AB  - The efficient capture of SO2 is of great significance in gas-purification
      processes including flue-gas desulfurization and natural-gas purification, but
      the design of porous materials with high adsorption capacity and selectivity of
      SO2 remains very challenging. Herein, the selective recognition and dense packing
      of SO2 clusters through multiple synergistic host-guest and guest-guest
      interactions by controlling the pore chemistry and size in inorganic anion (SiF62
      , SIFSIX) pillared metal-organic frameworks is reported. The binding sites of
      anions and aromatic rings in SIFSIX materials grasp every atom of SO2 firmly via
      Sdelta+ ...Fdelta- electrostatic interactions and Odelta- ...Hdelta+ dipole
      dipole interactions, while the guest-guest interactions between SO2 molecules
      further promote gas trapping within the pore space, which is elucidated by first
      principles density functional theory calculations and powder X-ray diffraction
      experiments. These interactions afford new benchmarks for the highly efficient
      removal of SO2 from other gases, even if at a very low SO2 concentration.
      Exceptionally high SO2 capacity of 11.01 mmol g-1 is achieved at atmosphere
      pressure by SIFSIX-1-Cu, and unprecedented low-pressure SO2 capacity is obtained
      in SIFSIX-2-Cu-i (4.16 mmol g-1 SO2 at 0.01 bar and 2.31 mmol g-1 at 0.002 bar).
      More importantly, record SO2 /CO2 selectivity (86-89) and excellent SO2 /N2
      selectivity (1285-3145) are also achieved. Experimental breakthrough curves
      further demonstrate the excellent performance of these hybrid porous materials in
      removing low-concentration SO2 .

PMID- 28561931
TI  - Germanium-Assisted Direct Growth of Graphene on Arbitrary Dielectric Substrates
      for Heating Devices.
AB  - Direct growth of graphene on dielectric substrates is a prerequisite to the
      development of graphene-based electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, the
      current graphene synthesis methods on dielectric substrates always involve a
      metal contamination problem, and the direct production of graphene patterns still
      remains unattainable and challenging. Herein, a semiconducting, germanium (Ge)
      assisted, chemical vapor deposition approach is proposed to produce monolayer
      graphene directly on arbitrary dielectric substrates. By the prepatterning of a
      catalytic Ge layer, the graphene with desired pattern can be achieved
      conveniently and readily. Due to the catalysis of Ge, monolayer graphene is able
      to form on Ge-covered dielectric substrates including SiO2 /Si, quartz glass, and
      sapphire substrates. Optimization of the process parameters leads to complete
      sublimation of the catalytic Ge layer during or immediately after formation of
      the monolayer graphene, enabling direct deposition of large-area and continuous
      graphene on dielectric substrates. The large-area, highly conductive graphene
      synthesized on a transparent dielectric substrate using the proposed approach has
      exhibited a wide range of applications, including in both defogger and
      thermochromic displays, as already successfully demonstrated here.

PMID- 28561932
TI  - Lenalidomide-responsive anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein neuropathy.

PMID- 28561933
TI  - Cx36, Cx43 and Cx45 in mouse and rat cerebellar cortex: species-specific
      expression, compensation in Cx36 null mice and co-localization in neurons vs.
      glia.
AB  - Electrical synapses formed by connexin36 (Cx36)-containing gap junctions between
      interneurons in the cerebellar cortex have been well characterized, including
      those formed between basket cells and between Golgi cells, and there is gene
      reporter-based evidence for the expression of connexin45 (Cx45) in the cerebellar
      molecular layer. Here, we used immunofluorescence approaches to further
      investigate expression patterns of Cx36 and Cx45 in this layer and to examine
      localization relationships of these connexins with each other and with glial
      connexin43 (Cx43). In mice, strain differences were found, such that punctate
      labelling for Cx36 was differentially distributed in the molecular layer of
      C57BL/6 vs. CD1 mice. In mice with EGFP reporter representing Cx36 expression,
      Cx36-puncta were localized to processes of stellate cells and other cerebellar
      interneurons. Punctate labelling of Cx45 was faint in the molecular layer of wild
      type mice and was increased in intensity in mice with Cx36 gene ablation. The
      vast majority of Cx36-puncta co-localized with Cx45-puncta, which in turn was
      associated with the scaffolding protein zonula occludens-1. In rats, Cx45-puncta
      were also co-localized with Cx36-puncta and additionally occurred along Bergmann
      glial processes adjacent to Cx43-puncta. The results indicate strain and species
      differences in Cx36 as well as Cx45 expression, possible compensatory processes
      after loss of Cx36 expression and localization of Cx45 to both neuronal and
      Bergmann glial gap junctions. Further, expression of both Cx43 and Cx45 in
      Bergmann glia of rat may contribute to the complex properties of junctional
      coupling between these cells and perhaps to their reported coupling with Purkinje
      cells.

PMID- 28561934
TI  - Risk of impaired cognition after prenatal exposure to psychotropic drugs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prenatal exposure to psychotropic drugs may affect the trajectories of
      brain development. In a register study, we investigated whether such exposure is
      associated with long-term impaired cognitive abilities. METHOD: Individuals born
      in Denmark in 1995-2008 were included. As proxies for cognitive impairment,
      requiring special needs education, attending special needs school, diagnoses of
      neurological/mental disorder, missed final examinations, and low school grade
      average were used. We accounted for maternal confounders. RESULTS: We identified
      868 159 individuals of whom 13 983 (1.6%) were prenatally exposed. The adjusted
      odds ratio (OR) was 0.97[0.92-1.02] for requiring special needs education,
      1.28[1.14-1.43] for attending special needs school, 1.32[1.20-1.46] for a
      neurological/mental disorder diagnosis, 1.37[1.22-1.54] for missing the final
      examinations, and 1.13[0.82-1.55] for obtaining a low school grade average.
      Exposure to psycholeptics (primarily antipsychotics and sedatives) was correlated
      with significantly increased risk for four outcomes. The highest was the risk of
      missing the primary school examinations (OR: 1.51[1.29-1.76]). The overall
      highest risk concerned the presence of a neurological/mental disorder after
      prenatal exposure to psychoanaleptics (primarily antidepressants) (OR: 1.86[1.24
      2.78). CONCLUSION: Prenatal exposure to psychotropic drugs affects proxy outcomes
      of cognitive disabilities at school age. Exposure to psycholeptics carries the
      largest risk. The role of psychoanaleptics is currently unclear.

PMID- 28561935
TI  - Clinicopathological characteristics of KIT and protein kinase C-delta expression
      in adenoid cystic carcinoma: comparison with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma and
      gastrointestinal stromal tumour.
AB  - AIMS: KIT overexpression is frequently observed in adenoid cystic carcinomas
      (AdCCs), chromophobe renal cell carcinomas (ChRCCs), and gastrointestinal stromal
      tumours (GISTs). Persistent KIT activation has been reported to be mediated by
      protein kinase C (PKC)-delta in a subset of colon cancers with wild-type KIT
      overexpression, and by PKC-theta in GISTs with mutant KIT overexpression. To
      elucidate the clinical implications of PKC-delta and PKC-theta expression in KIT
      expressing tumours, we investigated the expression of KIT, PKC-delta and PKC
      theta in AdCCs and ChRCCs in comparison with GISTs. METHODS AND RESULTS: KIT
      expression, PKC-delta expression and PKC-theta expression were analysed in whole
      sections from 41 AdCCs, 40 ChRCCs and 56 GISTs by immunohistochemistry.
      Membranous expression of KIT was found in 34 AdCCs and all ChRCCs, whereas
      cytoplasmic expression of KIT was found in 46 GISTs. In AdCCs, PKC-delta
      expression was associated with histological grade (P = 0.049), lymphovascular
      invasion (P = 0.004), perineural invasion (P = 0.002), and KIT positivity (P =
      0.002). PKC-delta positivity was associated with shorter relapse-free survival
      (RFS) (P = 0.017) and a tendency for there to be shorter overall survival (OS) (P
      = 0.090) in patients with AdCCs. No clinicopathological associations were
      observed between PKC-delta and KIT expression in ChRCCs. In GISTs, PKC-theta
      expression was associated with higher mitotic count (P = 0.011) and high grade
      according to the modified National Institutes of Health criteria (P < 0.001). PKC
      theta positivity was associated with shorter RFS (P = 0.016) and a tendency for
      there to be shorter OS (P = 0.051) in patients with GISTs. CONCLUSIONS: PKC-delta
      expression is associated with KIT expression and the prognosis of patients with
      AdCCs, suggesting that PKC-delta may be a potential therapeutic target for AdCCs.

PMID- 28561936
TI  - Catalysis of Extracellular Deamination by a FAD-Linked Oxidoreductase after
      Prodrug Maturation in the Biosynthesis of Saframycin A.
AB  - The biosynthesis of antibiotics in bacteria is usually believed to be an
      intracellular process, at the end of which the matured compounds are exported
      outside the cells. The biosynthesis of saframycin A (SFM-A), an antitumor
      antibiotic, requires a cryptic fatty acyl chain to guide the construction of a
      pentacyclic tetrahydroisoquinoline scaffold; however, the follow-up deacylation
      and deamination steps remain unknown. Herein we demonstrate that SfmE, a membrane
      bound peptidase, hydrolyzes the fatty acyl chain to release the amino group; and
      SfmCy2, a secreted oxidoreductase covalently associated with FAD, subsequently
      performs an oxidative deamination extracellularly. These results not only fill in
      the missing steps of SFM-A biosynthesis, but also reveal that a FAD-binding
      oxidoreductase catalyzes an unexpected deamination reaction through an
      unconventional extracellular pathway in Streptmyces bacteria.

PMID- 28561937
TI  - Hyperconjugation Is the Source of Helicity in Perfluorinated n-Alkanes.
AB  - Hyperconjugative, steric, and electrostatic effects were evaluated as possible
      sources of the helicity in linear perfluorinated alkanes through analysis of
      natural bond orbitals and classical electrostatics. Contrary to previous
      rationalizations, which indicate dominating steric or electrostatic effects, this
      analysis indicates that hyperconjugative stabilization through sigmaCC ->sigma*CF
      interactions are the underlying driving force for the origin of the observed
      helicity in perfluoroalkanes.

PMID- 28561938
TI  - Prenatal diagnosis of four-vessel umbilical cord with supernumerary vein varix: A
      case report and literature review.
AB  - Four-vessel umbilical cord with two arteries and two veins, and fetal intra
      abdominal umbilical vein varix are rare fetal vascular pathologies, associated
      with congenital anomalies and an adverse perinatal outcome, respectively. We
      report a case of a healthy male neonate born at a gestational age of 38 weeks,
      five days, after prenatal sonographic diagnosis of a four-vessel umbilical cord
      with a supernumerary vein varix. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      case with this combination.

PMID- 28561939
TI  - A Rapid Total Synthesis of Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride in Continuous Flow.
AB  - Within a total residence time of 9 min, the sodium salt of ciprofloxacin was
      prepared from simple building blocks via a linear sequence of six chemical
      reactions in five flow reactors. Sequential offline acidifications and
      filtrations afforded ciprofloxacin and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride. The overall
      yield of the eight-step sequence was 60 %. No separation of intermediates was
      required throughout the synthesis when a single acylation reaction was applied to
      remove the main byproduct, dimethylamine.

PMID- 28561940
TI  - Reproductive biology of Ferocactus recurvus (Mill.) Borg subsp. recurvus
      (Cactaceae) in the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley, Mexico.
AB  - Mexico has one of the highest diversities of barrel cacti species worldwide;
      however, all are threatened and require conservation policies. Information on
      their reproductive biology is crucial, but few studies are available. Ferocactus
      recurvus subsp. recurvus is a barrel cactus endemic to the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan
      Valley. Our research aimed to characterise its floral and pollination biology. We
      hypothesised bee pollination, as suggested by its floral morphology and
      behaviour, and self-incompatibility, like most barrel cacti studied. Three study
      sites were selected in the semiarid Zapotitlan Valley, Mexico. We examined 190
      flowers from 180 plants to determine: morphometry and behaviour of flowers,
      flower visitors and probable pollinators, and breeding system. Flowers showed
      diurnal anthesis, lasting 2-5 days, the stigma being receptive on day 2 or 3
      after the start of anthesis. Flowers produced scarce/no nectar and main visitors
      were bees (Apidae), followed by flies (Muscidae), ants (Formicidae), thrips
      (Thripidae) and hummingbirds (Throchilidae); however, only native bees and
      occasionally wasps contacted the stigma and anthers. Pollination experiments
      revealed that this species is self-incompatible and xenogamous. In natural
      conditions, fruit set was 60% and cross-pollination fruit set was 100%.
      Percentage seed germination resulting from cross-pollination was higher than in
      the control treatment. Our results provide ecological information for
      conservation programmes to ensure a high probability of breeding and seed
      production in natural populations of F. recurvus.

PMID- 28561941
TI  - Intramolecularly Protein-Crosslinked DNA Gels: New Biohybrid Nanomaterials with
      Controllable Size and Catalytic Activity.
AB  - DNA micro- and nanogels-small-sized hydrogels made of a crosslinked DNA backbone
      constitute new promising materials, but their functions have mainly been limited
      to those brought by DNA. Here a new way is described to prepare sub-micrometer
      sized DNA gels of controllable crosslinking density that are able to embed novel
      functions, such as an enzymatic activity. It consists of using proteins, instead
      of traditional base-pairing assembly or covalent approaches, to form crosslinks
      inside individual DNA molecules, resulting in structures referred to as
      intramolecularly protein-crosslinked DNA gels (IPDGs). It is first shown that the
      addition of streptavidin to biotinylated T4DNA results in the successful
      formation of thermally stable IPDGs with a controllable crosslinking density,
      forming structures ranging from elongated to raspberry-shaped and pearl-necklace
      like morphologies. Using reversible DNA condensation strategies, this paper shows
      that the gels can be reversibly actuated at a low crosslinking density, or
      further stabilized when they are highly crosslinked. Finally, by using
      streptavidin-protein conjugates, IPDGs with various enzymes are successfully
      functionalized. It is demonstrated that the enzymes keep their catalytic activity
      upon their incorporation into the gels, opening perspectives ranging from
      biotechnologies (e.g., enzyme manipulation) to nanomedicine (e.g.,
      vectorization).

PMID- 28561942
TI  - Total Synthesis of Dictyodendrins by the Gold-Catalyzed Cascade Cyclization of
      Conjugated Diynes with Pyrroles.
AB  - In total and formal syntheses of dictyodendrins B, C, E, and F, the key step
      involved the direct construction of the pyrrolo[2,3-c]carbazole core by the gold
      catalyzed annulation of a conjugated diyne with a pyrrole to form three bonds and
      two aromatic rings. The subsequent introduction of substituents at the C1 (Suzuki
      Miyaura coupling), C2 (addition to an aldehyde), N3 (alkylation), and C5
      positions (Ullman coupling) provided divergent access to dictyodendrins.

PMID- 28561943
TI  - Association between insomnia and atrial fibrillation in a Chinese population: A
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disorder; however, little
      research has explored the link between insomnia and atrial fibrillation (AF).
      HYPOTHESIS: Insomnia is associated with increased risk of AF in a Chinese
      population. METHODS: A total of 8371 Chinese participants (4314 males; mean age,
      42.4 +/- 13.1 years) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study to investigate
      the association between insomnia and AF. AF was assessed in a standard supine
      resting position with a 10-s 12-lead electrocardiograph (ECG) or by self-reported
      history. Insomnia was assessed using the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and a score
      of >=6 was regarded as having insomnia. The association between insomnia and AF
      was determined by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among the 8371 subjects,
      1074 (12.8%) had different degrees of insomnia, and AF was observed in 50
      subjects (0.60%). After adjusting for potential confounders, individuals with
      insomnia had moderately increased likelihood of suffering from AF compared with
      those without insomnia (odds ratio [OR]: 1.92, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00
      3.70, P = 0.05). After stratifying data by age, a significant positive
      association was found in those age <40 years (OR: 6.52, 95% CI: 1.64-25.83, P =
      0.01), and a similar trend existed in males after stratifying by sex, although
      this relationship was not statistically significant (OR: 2.11, 95% CI: 0.92-4.83,
      P = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with insomnia may have a higher risk of AF in
      the particular Chinese population assessed in this study. Age (<40 years) is a
      significant factor in the association between insomnia and AF.

PMID- 28561944
TI  - A global bibliometric analysis of otolaryngology: Head and neck surgery
      literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Bibliometrics uses analysis of content and citations of journal
      articles to quantify trends in published data. We aim to use bibliometric
      analysis to identify the global contribution by country to the ENT surgical
      literature over a 5-year period. DATA SOURCE: The top 20 countries for number of
      articles published in surgery and the 11 English-language otolaryngology surgical
      journals with the highest impact factors (IF) were included. Numbers of
      scientific articles per year (2009-2013) per country for each journal were
      identified through PubMed. As a marker of quality, a mean IF for each country was
      calculated, using number of articles and journal IF. These data were compared
      against population, GDP and dollars spent on research. RESULTS: In total, 10 574
      articles were included. The USA was the largest contributor, with 4462 articles
      published over 5 years. The second largest was the UK (1215 articles). Spain's
      mean IF was 2.136, followed by Taiwan (2.110). The Netherlands (19.7) and the UK
      (18.9) had the highest number of publications per million population. When
      considering overall research spending per country, Greece had the most cost
      effective publication output. The least cost-effective country was Japan. India,
      Greece and Japan had the greatest increase in publication quality. CONCLUSIONS:
      Bibliometric analysis can be used to identify not only major centres of English
      language ENT surgical research, such as the USA and UK but centres that are
      producing high-quality data, such as Spain, and cost-effective research, such as
      the UK. It can also highlight areas of increasing success in ENT research.

PMID- 28561945
TI  - Beta Blocker Administration During Emergency Department Evaluation for Acute
      Coronary Syndrome Is Associated With Lower Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms 1-Month
      Later.
AB  - We examined whether beta blocker administration in the emergency department (ED)
      during evaluation for suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) was associated with
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms 1-month later. Participants (N =
      350) were enrolled in the Reactions to Acute Care and Hospitalization (REACH)
      study, an ongoing observational cohort study of ED predictors of medical and
      psychological outcomes after evaluation for suspected ACS. Beta blockade during
      evaluation in the ED was extracted from medical records, and PTSD symptoms in
      response to the experience of suspected ACS were assessed 1-month later via
      telephone. Beta blockade in the ED was associated with lower PTSD symptoms 1
      month later, b = -2.80, beta = -.09, p = .045, after adjustment for demographics,
      preexisting psychological and medical covariates, and participants' distress
      during ED evaluation. Despite small effects, findings suggest that beta blockade
      during ED evaluation for suspected ACS-a time period relevant to fear
      consolidation of the memory of this potentially life-threatening event-may have
      protective effects for later psychological health.

PMID- 28561946
TI  - New Paradigm for Translational Modeling to Predict Long-term Tuberculosis
      Treatment Response.
AB  - Disappointing results of recent tuberculosis chemotherapy trials suggest that
      knowledge gained from preclinical investigations was not utilized to maximal
      effect. A mouse-to-human translational pharmacokinetics (PKs) - pharmacodynamics
      (PDs) model built on a rich mouse database may improve clinical trial outcome
      predictions. The model included Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth function in
      mice, adaptive immune response effect on bacterial growth, relationships among
      moxifloxacin, rifapentine, and rifampin concentrations accelerating bacterial
      death, clinical PK data, species-specific protein binding, drug-drug
      interactions, and patient-specific pathology. Simulations of recent trials
      testing 4-month regimens predicted 65% (95% confidence interval [CI], 55-74)
      relapse-free patients vs. 80% observed in the REMox-TB trial, and 79% (95% CI, 72
      87) vs. 82% observed in the Rifaquin trial. Simulation of 6-month regimens
      predicted 97% (95% CI, 93-99) vs. 92% and 95% observed in 2RHZE/4RH control arms,
      and 100% predicted and observed in the 35 mg/kg rifampin arm of PanACEA MAMS.
      These results suggest that the model can inform regimen optimization and predict
      outcomes of ongoing trials.

PMID- 28561947
TI  - Modeling the Transmission of Measles and Rubella to Support Global Management
      Policy Analyses and Eradication Investment Cases.
AB  - Policy makers responsible for managing measles and rubella immunization programs
      currently use a wide range of different vaccines formulations and immunization
      schedules. With endemic measles and rubella transmission interrupted in the
      region of the Americas, all five other regions of the World Health Organization
      (WHO) targeting the elimination of measles transmission by 2020, and increasing
      adoption of rubella vaccine globally, integrated dynamic disease, risk, decision,
      and economic models can help national, regional, and global health leaders manage
      measles and rubella population immunity. Despite hundreds of publications
      describing models for measles or rubella and decades of use of vaccines that
      contain both antigens (e.g., measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine or MMR), no
      transmission models for measles and rubella exist to support global policy
      analyses. We describe the development of a dynamic disease model for measles and
      rubella transmission, which we apply to 180 WHO member states and three other
      areas (Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, and Macao) representing >99.5% of the global
      population in 2013. The model accounts for seasonality, age-heterogeneous mixing,
      and the potential existence of preferentially mixing undervaccinated
      subpopulations, which create heterogeneity in immunization coverage that impacts
      transmission. Using our transmission model with the best available information
      about routine, supplemental, and outbreak response immunization, we characterize
      the complex transmission dynamics for measles and rubella historically to compare
      the results with available incidence and serological data. We show the results
      from several countries that represent diverse epidemiological situations to
      demonstrate the performance of the model. The model suggests relatively high
      measles and rubella control costs of approximately $3 billion annually for
      vaccination based on 2013 estimates, but still leads to approximately 17 million
      disability-adjusted life years lost with associated costs for treatment, home
      care, and productivity loss costs of approximately $4, $3, and $47 billion
      annually, respectively. Combined with vaccination and other financial cost
      estimates, our estimates imply that the eradication of measles and rubella could
      save at least $10 billion per year, even without considering the benefits of
      preventing lost productivity and potential savings from reductions in
      vaccination. The model should provide a useful tool for exploring the health and
      economic outcomes of prospective opportunities to manage measles and rubella.
      Improving the quality of data available to support decision making and modeling
      should represent a priority as countries work toward measles and rubella goals.

PMID- 28561948
TI  - Identification of fucosylated Fetuin-A as a potential biomarker for
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a malignancy of the bile ducts. The purpose
      of this discovery study was to identify effective serum markers for surveillance
      of cholangiocarcinoma. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Using a glycomic method, patients
      with CCA were determined to have increased levels of alpha-1,3 and alpha-1,6
      linked fucosylated glycan. Proteomic analysis of the serum fucosylated proteome
      identified proteins such as alpha-2-macroglobulin, kininogen, hemopexin, fetuin
      A, alpha-1 anti-trypsin, and ceruloplasmin as being hyperfucosylated in HCC. The
      levels of these glycoproteins in 109 patients with CCA, primary sclerosing
      cholangitis (PSC), and control patients were compared to the performance of CA-19
      9, the current "gold standard" assay for cholangiocarcinoma. RESULTS: Fucosylated
      Fetuin-A (fc-Fetuin-A) had the best ability to differentiate CCA from PSC, with
      an AUROC of 0.812 or 0.8665 at differentiating CCA from those with PSC or other
      liver disease. CA-19-9 had poor ability to differentiate PSC from
      cholangiocarcinoma (AUROC of 0.625). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Using
      glycomic and proteomic methods we identified a set of proteins that contain
      altered glycan in the sera of those with CCA. One of these proteins, fucosylated
      Fetuin-A may have value in the surveillance of people at risk for the development
      of cholangiocarcinoma.

PMID- 28561949
TI  - Gastrointestinal tract carcinoma in pediatric and adolescent age: The Italian
      TREP project experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal (GI) carcinomas are very rare in the pediatric and
      adolescent age range. We report the clinical features, treatment, and outcome of
      a series of children and adolescents with GI carcinoma prospectively registered
      in the Italian Tumori Rari in Eta Pediatrica (TREP) project. METHODS: The TREP
      project developed diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines based on recommendations
      currently in use for adults. Clinical data were centrally registered and
      reviewed. RESULTS: Fifteen patients were registered over the years 2000-2016.
      Most of the tumors were colorectal carcinomas (12 cases). All but one patient had
      advanced-stage disease (American Joint Committee on Cancer stages III-IV), and
      the majority of patients had aggressive histological subtypes, i.e. poorly
      differentiated (G3) (five patients), mucinous (four patients), and signet ring
      (two patients) adenocarcinomas. Surgery was performed in 13 of 15 patients, and
      was radical in nine of 13 patients. Only one patient received postoperative
      radiotherapy. All patients received chemotherapy, with the addition of
      bevacizumab in two cases. Nine patients were still alive at the time of the
      present report, but two of them had only just completed their treatment program
      and one patient is still on treatment. Six patients died due to disease
      progression. CONCLUSIONS: This prospective report on pediatric GI tract
      carcinomas confirms the rarity and biological aggressiveness of these diseases in
      pediatric and adolescent age. Further prospective studies are needed to explore
      the distinct biology of tumor in this age group in order to find new therapeutic
      targeted agents.

PMID- 28561950
TI  - Poly(N-(4-aminobutyl)-acrylamide) as mimetic polylysine for improving survival
      and differentiation of cerebellar granule neurons.
AB  - Poly(N-(4-aminobutyl)-acrylamide) (P4Am) and poly-d-lysine (PDL) possess the same
      butylamine side chain. The main difference is the peptide structure, which is in
      the main chain of PDL but in the side chain of P4Am. PDL has been extensively
      used in the preparation of neuronal cultures. We assumed neurons are sensitive
      enough to distinguish such structure difference so these two cationic polymers
      were compared at serial coating concentrations for culturing cerebellar granule
      neurons from 7-day-old Wistar rats in this study. Cellular viability and
      morphology assay showed no obvious difference for neurons cultured at high
      coating concentrations (>0.31 ug/mL) of these two polymers. In contrast, the
      difference in the peptide structure between P4Am and PDL could be distinguished
      by neurons at low coating concentrations (< 0.16 ug/mL). P4Am at low coating
      concentration could keep aggregates with three or four thick processes to support
      a more complete neural network with higher cellular viability than PDL. This
      suggests the interaction between neurons and the specific peptide structure of
      P4Am at low coating concentration was able to improve survival and
      differentiation of cultured cerebellar granule neurons. Although neural cells
      exhibited different morphologies and activities on high and low P4Am coating
      concentrations, immunofluorescence imaging confirmed most of cultured cells were
      functionally mature neurons, stained by neurofilament, synapsin I, and GAP43. The
      information should be useful for designing new biomaterials for regeneration of
      damaged circuits following disease or trauma. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1194-1201, 2018.

PMID- 28561951
TI  - Safety and efficacy of DOACs vs acenocoumarol in patients undergoing catheter
      ablation of atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thromboembolic complications can be life-threatening during atrial
      fibrillation (AF) catheter ablation. The aim of our study was to evaluate the
      safety and efficacy of continuous treatment using direct oral anticoagulants
      (DOACs) as an alternative to uninterrupted acenocoumarol for periprocedural
      anticoagulation. HYPOTHESIS: Continuous treatment with DOACs has similar safety
      and efficacy compared to acenocoumarol. METHODS: We enrolled 474 patients (mean
      age, 58 years; 68.4% male) undergoing AF catheter ablation between June 2013 and
      December 2016. All patients were equally assigned to take acenocoumarol (group 1,
      136 patients) or DOACs (group 2, 338 patients) for >=2 months before the
      procedure. We compared thromboembolic and bleeding complications between the 2
      groups. RESULTS: Our analysis showed no significant difference in major and minor
      complications between the 2 patient groups. Specifically, 3 of 136 patients
      (2.2%) using uninterrupted acenocoumarol had a major complication (1 patient
      [0.7%] had transient ischemic attack resolved 8 hours later, 1 [0.7%] had
      pericardial tamponade, and 1 [0.7%] had a subcapsular renal hematoma) and 2
      patients (1.4%) had minor complications (1 [0.7%] pseudoaneurysm and 1 [0.7%]
      groin hematoma). In group 2, 1 of 338 patients (0.3%) had a major complication
      (transient ischemic attack). In the same group, 7 patients (2.1%) had a minor
      complication (1 patient [0.3%] presented with pseudoaneurysm, 4 [1.2%] with
      pericardial effusion <1 cm, 1 [0.3%] femoral arteriovenous fistula between the
      femoral artery and femoral vein, and 1 [0.7%] groin hematoma). CONCLUSIONS: DOACs
      and acenocoumarol have similar safety and effectiveness regarding thromboembolic
      complications prevention without increasing bleeding complications.

PMID- 28561952
TI  - The impact of stereoscopic imagery and motion on anatomical structure recognition
      and visual attention performance.
AB  - Gross anatomy is located in a three-dimensional space. Visualizing aspects of
      structures in gross anatomy education should aim to provide information that best
      resembles their original spatial proportions. Stereoscopic three-dimensional
      imagery might offer possibilities to implement this aim, though some research has
      revealed potential impairments that may result from observing stereoscopic
      visualizations, such as discomfort. However, possible impairments of working
      memory such as decreased visual attention performance due to applying this
      technology in gross anatomy education have not yet been investigated. Similarly,
      in gross anatomy education the impact of stereoscopic imagery on learners'
      recognition of anatomical-spatial relationships and the impact of different
      presentation formats have only been investigated in a small number of studies. In
      this study, the performance of 171 teacher trainees working on the anatomy of
      hearing was examined, either with non-stereoscopic or stereoscopic imagery.
      Static and dynamic picture presentations were applied. Overall, benefits for
      stereoscopic imagery on estimating anatomical-spatial relations were found. The
      performance on a visual attention test indicates that the impact of stereoscopic
      visualizations on the human cognitive system varies more from person to person
      compared to non-stereoscopic visualizations. In addition, combinations of
      temporarily moving pictures and stereoscopic imagery lead to decreased visual
      attention performance compared to combinations of moving pictures and non
      stereoscopic imagery. Anat Sci Educ 11: 15-24. (c) 2017 American Association of
      Anatomists.

PMID- 28561953
TI  - Binary Synergistic Sensitivity Strengthening of Bioinspired Hierarchical
      Architectures based on Fragmentized Reduced Graphene Oxide Sponge and Silver
      Nanoparticles for Strain Sensors and Beyond.
AB  - Recently, stretchable electronics have been highly desirable in the Internet of
      Things and electronic skins. Herein, an innovative and cost-efficient strategy is
      demonstrated to fabricate highly sensitive, stretchable, and conductive strain
      sensing platforms inspired by the geometries of a spiders slit organ and a
      lobsters shell. The electrically conductive composites are fabricated via
      embedding the 3D percolation networks of fragmentized graphene sponges (FGS) in
      poly(styrene-block-butadiene-block-styrene) (SBS) matrix, followed by an
      iterative process of silver precursor absorption and reduction. The slit- and
      scale-like structures and hybrid conductive blocks of FGS and Ag nanoparticles
      (NPs) provide the obtained FGS-Ag-NP-embedded composites with superior electrical
      conductivity of 1521 S cm-1 , high break elongation of 680%, a wide sensing range
      of up to 120% strain, high sensitivity of ~107 at a strain of 120%, fast response
      time of ~20 ms, as well as excellent reliability and stability of 2000 cycles.
      This huge stretchability and sensitivity is attributed to the combination of high
      stretchability of SBS and the binary synergistic effects of designed FGS
      architectures and Ag NPs. Moreover, the FGS/SBS/Ag composites can be employed as
      wearable sensors to detect the modes of finger motions successfully, and
      patterned conductive interconnects for flexible arrays of light-emitting diodes.

PMID- 28561954
TI  - Evidence for the presence of a bacterial endosymbiont in the pecan scab pathogen
      Venturia effusa (basyonym: Fusicladium effusum).
AB  - AIMS: To determine whether Venturia effusa, the causative fungal agent of pecan
      scab, harbours a bacterial symbiont. METHODS AND RESULTS: Venturia effusa
      isolates were maintained on potato dextrose agar amended with antibiotics
      (chloramphenicol (100 MUg ml-1 ) and tetracycline 100 (MUg ml-1 )). Genomic DNA
      extracted from mycelia was used to target eubacterial 16S rDNA. A 1.4-kbp PCR
      amplified product using 16S rDNA degenerate primers was cloned, sequenced and
      found to have 99% identities with Actinobacteria representatives. Attempts to
      culture the detected bacteria apart from the fungus following agitation and
      fungal cell lysis were unsuccessful using standard bacteriological media under
      either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Fungal structures were visualized using
      scanning electron microscopy and putative bacterial formations associated with
      the fungal mycelia were observed. Fluorescence in situ hybridization using 16S
      rDNA oligonucleotides illuminated spores and portions of the hyphae. CONCLUSIONS:
      This is the first report to provide both molecular microbiological and
      microscopic evidence in support of the hypothesis that V. effusa harbours
      endosymbiotic bacteria. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Findings from this
      research contribute fundamental information regarding the biology of the fungus
      that may ultimately lead to identifying a target of the pathogen for use in
      management and/or avoidance strategies.

PMID- 28561956
TI  - Outcomes for olfactory neuroblastoma treated with induction chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oncologic outcomes for induction chemotherapy and its role in
      patients with advanced olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) remain unclear. METHODS: A
      retrospective review of 15 consecutive patients with extensive local invasion
      and/or nodal disease treated with induction chemotherapy with curative intent
      followed by definitive local therapy. RESULTS: The majority of patients were
      treated with cisplatin and etoposide. The response to chemotherapy was 68%
      (10/15). Response was 78% (7/9) in the high Hyams high-grade group and 50% (3/6)
      in the Hyams low-grade group. Seven patients had complete response (CR) and 3
      patients were able to avoid orbital exenteration. The 5-year disease-free
      survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 71% and 78%, respectively, with a
      trend toward improved survival in patients with CR. CONCLUSION: ONB is a
      chemosensitive tumor and induction chemotherapy is an acceptable strategy for
      aggressive and locoregional advanced disease. Hyams grade may predict
      chemosensitivity and CR may be associated with improved survival.

PMID- 28561955
TI  - Biexponential T2 relaxation estimation of human knee cartilage in vivo at 3T.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate biexponential T2 relaxation mapping of human knee cartilage
      in vivo in clinically feasible scan times. MATERIALS AND METHODS: T2 -weighted
      magnetic resonance (MR) images were acquired from eight healthy volunteers using
      a standard 3T clinical scanner. A 3D Turbo-Flash sequence was modified to enable
      T2 -weighted imaging with different echo times. Series of T2 -weighted images
      were fitted using mono- and biexponential models with two- and four-parametric
      nonlinear approaches, respectively. RESULTS: Biexponential relaxation of T2 was
      detected in the knee cartilage in five regions of interest in all eight healthy
      volunteers. Short/long relaxation components of T2 were estimated to be 8.27 +/-
      0.68 / 45.35 +/- 3.79 msec with corresponding fractions of 41.3 +/- 1.1% / 58.6
      +/- 4.6%, respectively. The monoexponential relaxation of T2 was measured to be
      26.9 +/- 2.27 msec. The experiments showed good repeatability with coefficient of
      variation root mean square (CVrms ) < 18% in all regions. The only difference in
      gender was observed in medial tibial cartilage, where the biexponential T2 in
      female volunteers was significantly higher compared to male volunteers (P =
      0.014). Significant differences were observed in T2 relaxation between different
      regions on interest. CONCLUSION: Biexponential relaxation of T2 was observed in
      the human knee cartilage in vivo. The short and long components are thought to be
      related to the tightly bound and loosely bound macromolecular water compartments.
      These preliminary results of biexponential T2 analysis could potentially be used
      to increase the specificity for detection of early osteoarthritis by measuring
      different water compartments and their fractions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 Technical
      Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:809-819.

PMID- 28561957
TI  - A retrospective study of anti-inflammatory use in dogs with pulmonary
      blastomycosis: 139 cases (2002-2012).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of anti-inflammatory medications on 30-day
      survival of dogs treated for pulmonary blastomycosis. DESIGN: Retrospective
      study. SETTING: University teaching hospital. ANIMALS: One hundred thirty nine
      client-owned dogs with confirmed pulmonary blastomycosis. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: The medical records of dogs diagnosed with pulmonary blastomycosis
      between May 2002 and October 2012 were identified. Of 139 dogs, 85 (61%) survived
      to 30 days, 38 (27%) were euthanized due to progressive clinical disease, 13
      (10%) died secondary to respiratory or cardiac arrest, and 3 (2%) did not survive
      to 30 days but had an unknown cause of death. Cases were classified based on the
      anti-inflammatory therapy that was used: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
      (NSAID), corticosteroids, both, or none. Controlling for the effects of
      itraconazole dose, sex, age, and pretreatment with anti-inflammatory medication,
      the odds for survival to 30 days was not statistically different between dogs who
      received no anti-inflammatory medication and the dogs who received NSAIDs (P =
      0.86), corticosteroids (P = 0.65), or both (P = 0.27). The need for supplemental
      oxygen was associated with decreased survival (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      population of dogs with pulmonary blastomycosis, the use of anti-inflammatory
      medications during therapy did not impact 30-day survival; however, the need for
      oxygen supplementation was associated with significantly lower survival.

PMID- 28561958
TI  - Identification of Free Radical Scavengers from Brazilian Green Propolis Using Off
      Line HPLC-DPPH Assay and LC-MS.
AB  - Brazilian green propolis is known as an appreciable natural antioxidant with
      abundant polyphenolic compounds. For quality control, a fingerprint-efficacy
      study of Brazilian green propolis was carried out in this work. Chemical
      fingerprints of Brazilian green propolis from 22 different sources were
      determined by HPLC and investigated by similarity analysis. The fingerprint
      efficacy relationships between chemical fingerprint and DPPH radical-scavenging
      activity were established. The results showed that 14 characteristic common peaks
      were identified, and 9 compounds were discovered with free radical-scavenging
      activities. Caffeoylquinic acids and artepillin C might be the major effective
      components for quality control of Brazilian green propolis due to their
      specificity and strong antioxidant activity. This study provides new markers for
      the quality assessment of Brazilian green propolis and its derived products.

PMID- 28561959
TI  - Review of Efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments for
      Menopausal Symptoms.
AB  - Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments have been used for
      thousands of years around the world. There has been increased interest in
      utilizing CAM for menopausal symptoms since the release of results of the Women's
      Health Initiative elucidated long-term adverse effects associated with hormone
      therapy. Women looking for more natural or safer means to treat hot flushes,
      night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms often turn to CAM such as yoga,
      phytoestrogens, or black cohosh. Yet there have been few well-conducted studies
      looking at the efficacy of these treatments. This review examines randomized
      clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses evaluating the
      effectiveness of commonly used CAM for the treatment of menopausal symptoms.

PMID- 28561961
TI  - A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF THE FELIDAE: IMMUNOLOGICAL DISTANCE.
AB  - The phylogenetic distances between 34 of the 37 extant species of Felidae were
      estimated using albumin immunological distances (AID). Albumins from ten cat
      species were used to prepare antisera in rabbits. A consensus phylogeny was
      constructed from a matrix of reciprocal AID measurements using four distinct
      phylogenetic algorithms. A series of one-way measurements using the ten index
      antisera and those 24 species for which albumins were available (but antisera
      were not), permitted addition of these "species' limbs" to the previously derived
      phylogenetic trees. The major conclusions of the derived topology were: 1) the
      earliest branch of the feline radiation occurred approximately 12 million years
      B.P. and led to the small South American cats (ocelot, margay, Geoffroy's cat,
      etc.); 2) the second branching occurred 8-10 million years B.P. and included the
      close relatives of the domestic cat (wildcats, jungle cat, sand cat, and black
      footed cat) plus Pallas's cat; 3) the third lineage which began to radiate 4-6
      million years B.P. was the pantherine lineage, which included several early
      branches (cheetah, serval, clouded leopard, golden cats, and puma) and a very
      recent (2 million years B.P.) split between the lynxes and the modern great cats
      (Panthera). The topology of the Felidae derived from albumin immunological
      distance is highly consistent with the karyological disposition of these species,
      as well as with the fossil record of this family. Because of the recent
      divergence of this group, the presented data set and the derived topology contain
      certain unresolved phylogenetic relationships which are so indicated.

PMID- 28561962
TI  - EVOLUTION IN THE SEASONAL THETA MODELS.

PMID- 28561960
TI  - Acute respiratory distress syndrome and septic shock in a cat with disseminated
      toxoplasmosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and septic
      shock in a cat with disseminated toxoplasmosis. CASE SUMMARY: A 2-year-old
      neutered male domestic shorthair cat was presented for acute respiratory
      distress. At the time of presentation it had been receiving cyclosporine for
      treatment of eosinophilic dermatitis. Thoracic radiographs revealed severe mixed
      nodular interstitial and alveolar patterns. An endotracheal wash was performed,
      which confirmed a diagnosis of pulmonary toxoplasmosis. Despite initial treatment
      with oxygen supplementation and intravenous clindamycin, the cat developed
      refractory hypoxemia and hypotension requiring mechanical ventilation and
      vasopressor support within 24 hours of hospital admission. Cardiac arrest
      occurred 56 hours after admission. Necropsy was performed and histopathology
      revealed protozoal organisms disseminated throughout the heart, lungs, liver, and
      brain. NEW OR UNIQUE INFORMATION PROVIDED: The clinical and necropsy findings
      presented here are consistent with ARDS secondary to disseminated toxoplasmosis
      in a cat. This is the first detailed report of ARDS in a cat. Toxoplasma titer
      testing and antimicrobial prophylaxis should be considered in cats prior to
      immunosuppressive treatment with cyclosporine.

PMID- 28561963
TI  - FACTORS DETERMINING A CLUTCH SIZE REDUCTION IN CALIFORNIA GULLS (LARUS
      CALIFORNICUS): A MULTI-HYPOTHESIS APPROACH.
AB  - In the thirty-five years since David Lack first highlighted the importance of
      clutch size, a large number of hypotheses have been proposed relating clutch size
      variation to various environmental and demographic factors. Despite a great deal
      of both empirical and theoretical work on clutch size, there has been very little
      effort to test many of the competing hypotheses in explaining a clutch size
      difference between two populations of the same species. I have taken the latter
      approach in an effort to explain a clutch size reduction in the California Gull
      (Larus californicus) population at Mono Lake, California. I compared the breeding
      biologies of the gulls at Mono Lake and at Great Salt Lake, Utah, collecting data
      for three breeding seasons at Mono Lake and one breeding season at Great Salt
      Lake. These data included measurements of the conditions of 60 adults, growth and
      mortality measurements for approximately 900 chicks, 4450 nest-hours of parental
      care observations, and the results of egg-removal experiments on 40 females. I
      tested seven hypotheses to explain the clutch size reduction: age structure, egg
      predation, bet-hedging, effort reallocation, most productive brood size, parental
      mortality, and pre-egg food limitation. Each of these hypotheses is described in
      detail in the introduction. The pre-egg food limitation hypothesis is best able
      to explain the clutch size reduction at Mono Lake, although the egg-removal
      experiments show that the resource limitation is relative and not absolute.
      Clutch size variation at each site need not be viewed as the result of fine
      scaled evolutionary adjustment, although the general clutch size decision
      machinery is presumably molded by selection. Future research must focus on the
      details of this clutch size decision machinery and its application to the concept
      of reproductive effort.

PMID- 28561964
TI  - GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY.
AB  - Studies of spatial variation in the environment have primarily focused on how
      genetic variation can be maintained. Many one-locus genetic models have addressed
      this issue, but, for several reasons, these models are not directly applicable to
      quantitative (polygenic) traits. One reason is that for continuously varying
      characters, the evolution of the mean phenotype expressed in different
      environments (the norm of reaction) is also of interest. Our quantitative genetic
      models describe the evolution of phenotypic response to the environment, also
      known as phenotypic plasticity (Gause, 1947), and illustrate how the norm of
      reaction (Schmalhausen, 1949) can be shaped by selection. These models utilize
      the statistical relationship which exists between genotype-environment
      interaction and genetic correlation to describe evolution of the mean phenotype
      under soft and hard selection in coarse-grained environments. Just as genetic
      correlations among characters within a single environment can constrain the
      response to simultaneous selection, so can a genetic correlation between states
      of a character which are expressed in two environments. Unless the genetic
      correlation across environments is +/- 1, polygenic variation is exhausted, or
      there is a cost to plasticity, panmictic populations under a bivariate fitness
      function will eventually attain the optimum mean phenotype for a given character
      in each environment. However, very high positive or negative correlations can
      substantially slow the rate of evolution and may produce temporary maladaptation
      in one environment before the optimum joint phenotype is finally attained.
      Evolutionary trajectories under hard and soft selection can differ: in hard
      selection, the environments with the highest initial mean fitness contribute most
      individuals to the mating pool. In both hard and soft selection, evolution toward
      the optimum in a rare environment is much slower than it is in a common one. A
      subdivided population model reveals that migration restriction can facilitate
      local adaptation. However, unless there is no migration or one of the special
      cases discussed for panmictic populations holds, no geographical variation in the
      norm of reaction will be maintained at equilibrium. Implications of these results
      for the interpretation of spatial patterns of phenotypic variation in natural
      populations are discussed.

PMID- 28561965
TI  - QUANTUM CHANGES IN GASTROPOD SHELL MORPHOLOGY NEED NOT REFLECT SPECIATION.

PMID- 28561966
TI  - LIFE HISTORY VARIATION IN PRIMATES.
AB  - Extensive variation in life-history patterns is documented across primate
      species. Variables included are gestation length, neonatal weight, litter size,
      age at weaning, age at sexual maturity, age at first breeding, longevity, and
      length of the estrous cycle. Species within genera and genera within subfamilies
      tend to be very similar on most measures, and about 85% of the variation remains
      when the subfamily is used as the level for statistical analysis. Variation in
      most life-history measures is highly correlated with variation in body size, and
      differences in body size are associated with differences in behavior and ecology.
      Allometric relationships between life-history variables and adult body weight are
      described; subfamily deviations from best-fit lines do not reveal strong
      correlations with behavior or ecology. However, for their body size, some
      subfamilies show consistently fast development across life-history stages while
      others are characteristically slow. One exception to the tendency for relative
      values to be positively correlated is brain growth: those primates with
      relatively large brains at birth have relatively less postnatal brain growth.
      Humans are a notable exception, with large brains at birth and high postnatal
      brain growth.

PMID- 28561967
TI  - STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF HETEROZYGOSITY DATA: INDEPENDENT SAMPLE COMPARISONS.
AB  - The distribution of mean heterozygosities under an infinite allele model with
      constant mutation rate was examined through simulation studies. It was found
      that, although the variance of the distribution decreases with increasing numbers
      of loci examined as expected, the shape of the distribution may remain skewed or
      bimodal. The distribution becomes symmetrical for increasing mean heterozygosity
      levels and numbers of loci. As a result, parametric statistical tests may not be
      valid for making comparisons among populations or species. Independent sample t
      tests were examined in detail to determine the frequency of rejection of the null
      hypothesis when pairs of samples are drawn from populations with the same mean
      heterozygosity. Differing numbers of loci and levels of mean heterozygosity were
      examined. For mean heterozygosity levels above 7.5%, t-tests provide the proper
      rejection rate, with as few as five loci. When mean heterozygosity is as low as
      2.5%, the t-test is conservative even when 40 loci are examined in each
      population. Independent sample t-tests were then examined for their power to
      detect true differences between populations as the degree of difference and
      number of loci vary. Although large differences can be found with high certainty,
      differences on the order of 5% heterozygosity may require that large numbers of
      loci (>40) be examined in order to be 80% or more certain of detecting them. In
      addition, it is emphasized that, for small numbers of loci (<25), the statistical
      detection of differences of interesting magnitude requires that relatively rare
      sampling events occur and that much larger differences be observed among the
      samples than exist for the population means. Two reasons exist for the lack of
      sensitivity of the test procedures. First, when mean heterozygosity levels are
      low, the non-normality of the sample means is perhaps most important. Second,
      even when mean heterozygosity levels are high or when sample sizes are large
      enough so sample means are approximately normally distributed, the intrinsically
      high interlocus variance of heterozygosity estimates makes the tests insensitive
      to the presence of heterozygosity differences that might be biologically
      meaningful. Finally, the implications of the results of this study are discussed
      with regard to observed low levels of correlation between heterozygosity and
      other explanatory variables.

PMID- 28561969
TI  - EVOLUTION BACK ISSUES.

PMID- 28561968
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION II.
      A TEST OF THE DENSITY-DEPENDENT SELECTION HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - This study tests the hypothesis that one evolutionary advantage of sexual
      reproduction is that it produces genetically variable progeny with a density
      dependent advantage mediated by resource partitioning or pest pressure. Our
      experimental approach involved planting separate plots of sexually-derived and
      asexually-derived tillers of the grass Anthoxanthum odoratum in density gradients
      at the two natural sites from which the source material was taken. The sexual
      progeny displayed a significant fitness advantage compared to the asexual
      progeny. But, in contrast to the expectations of the density-dependent selection
      hypothesis, the advantage of the sexually produced progeny is most marked at
      lower densities. Thus, the results of this experiment and our previous report
      (Antonovics and Ellstrand, 1984) seem to best support the frequency-dependent
      selection hypothesis for the advantage of sexual reproduction.

PMID- 28561970
TI  - AERODYNAMICS, THERMOREGULATION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF INSECT WINGS: DIFFERENTIAL
      SCALING AND EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE.
AB  - We examine several aerodynamic and thermoregulatory hypotheses about possible
      adaptive factors in the evolution of wings from small winglets in insects. Using
      physical models of Paleozoic insects in a wind tunnel, we explore the potential
      effects of wings for increasing gliding distance, increasing dispersal distance
      during parachuting, improving attitude control or stability, and elevating body
      temperatures during thermoregulation. The effects of body size and shape, wing
      length, number, and venation, and meteorological conditions are considered.
      Hypotheses consistent with both fixed and moveable wing articulations are
      examined. Short wings have no significant effects on any of the aerodynamic
      characteristics, relative to wingless models, while large wings do have
      significant effects. In contrast, short wings have large thermoregulatory effects
      relative to wingless models, but further increases in wing length do not
      significantly affect thermoregulatory performance. At any body size, there is a
      wing length below which there are significant thermoregulatory effects of
      increasing wing length, and above which there are significant aerodynamic effects
      of increasing wing length. The relative wing length at which this transition
      occurs decreases with increasing body size. These results suggest that there
      could be no effective selection for increasing wing length in wingless or short
      winged insects in relation to increased aerodynamic capacity. Our results are
      consistent with the hypothesis that insect wings initially served a
      thermoregulatory function and were used for aerodynamic functions only at larger
      wing lengths and/or body sizes. Thus, we propose that thermoregulation was the
      primary adaptive factor in the early evolution of wings that preadapted them for
      the subsequent evolution of flight. Our results illustrate an evolutionary
      mechanism in which a purely isometric change in body size may produce a
      qualitative change in the function of a given structure. We propose a hypothesis
      in which the transition from thermoregulatory to aerodynamic function for wings
      involved only isometric changes in body size and argue that changes in body form
      were not a prerequisite for this major evolutionary change in function.

PMID- 28561971
TI  - HUTCHINSONIAN RATIOS AND LOG-NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS.

PMID- 28561972
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION ON GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL SELECTION IN A
      CRESS.
AB  - An experimental study of group and individual selection for leaf area under
      different patterns of environmental variation is presented. This study, which
      uses the cress Arabidopsis thaliana, demonstrates that group selection can occur
      in plants. The response to group selection was always in the expected direction,
      but surprisingly, the response to individual selection was not. Furthermore the
      interaction between group and individual selection was significant. Individual
      selection interfered with the response to group selection whether the two forces
      were acting in concert or were opposed. The effects of the environmental
      variation treatments were detected mainly as three-way interactions with group
      and individual selection. Group selection was more effective in environments that
      interfered with individual selection, as well as in environments that did not
      interfere with group selection. These results suggest that the ability of a
      character to respond to group selection, individual selection, or both will
      depend on a great many factors and that the relative importance of the different
      levels of selection can only be determined empirically.

PMID- 28561973
TI  - FACTORS DETERMINING THE ACCURACY OF CLADOGRAM ESTIMATION: EVALUATION USING
      COMPUTER SIMULATION.
AB  - We developed a simulation model of phylogenesis with which we generated a large
      number of phylogenies and associated data matrices. We examined the
      characteristics of these and evaluated the success of three taxonomic methods
      (Wagner parsimony, character compatibility, and UPGMA clustering) as estimators
      of phylogeny, paying particular attention to the consequences of changes in
      certain evolutionary assumptions: relative rate of evolution in three different
      evolutionary contexts (phyletic, parent lineage, and daughter lineage); relative
      rate of evolution in different directions (novel forward, convergent forward, or
      reverse); variation of evolutionary rates; and topology of the phylogenetic tree.
      Except for variation of evolutionary rates, all the evolutionary parameters that
      we controlled had significant effects on accuracy of phylogenetic
      reconstructions. Unexpectedly, the topology of the phylogeny was the most
      important single factor affecting accuracy; some phylogenies are more readily
      estimated than others for simply historical reasons. We conclude that none of the
      three estimation methods is very accurate, that the differences in accuracy among
      them are rather small, and that historical effects (the branching pattern of a
      phylogeny) may outweigh biological effects in determining the accuracy with which
      a phylogeny can be reconstructed.

PMID- 28561974
TI  - DISRUPTIVE SELECTION ON HABITAT PREFERENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE
      ISOLATION: AN EXPLORATORY EXPERIMENT.
AB  - A. pair of replicate experiments was carried out to examine the role of habitat
      specialization in the process of sympatric speciation. The rationale of the
      experimental design was that disruptive selection for habitat preference can
      facilitate the process of sympatric speciation by reducing an antagonistic
      interaction between the processes of recombination and selection. Replicate
      populations of Drosophila melanogaster were subjected to disruptive selection for
      habitat preference and simultaneous selection for positive assortative mating,
      for a period of 46 generations. The experimental protocol simulated the
      introduction of a frugivorous fly population into a new environment that
      contained a mosaic of eight equally abundant habitats. Only two habitats were
      suitable to the flies, and these required opposite patterns of geotaxis,
      phototaxis, chemotaxis, and developmental time to be successfully located. At the
      beginning of each generation, flies were placed as pupae into the middle of a
      maze containing eight discrete habitats. To produce disruptive selection on
      habitat preference, only those flies that chose one or the other of two selected
      habitats were permitted to contribute gametes to the next generation. Flies from
      each of the selected habitats were cultured separately to simulate independent
      carrying capacities within each habitat. Because flies rarely mated until they
      assorted themselves into the available habitats, genes affecting habitat
      preference pleiotropically produced assortative mating between flies with similar
      habitat preference. A genetic marker was used to continuously monitor the level
      of potential gene flow between the flies derived from the two selected habitats.
      During the course of the experiment, there was a gradual increase in the
      philopatry of the flies, indicating the development of habitat specialization.
      The evolution of habitat specialization resulted in substantial reproductive
      isolation between the subpopulations utilizing each habitat resource.

PMID- 28561975
TI  - POSITIONS AVAILABLE.

PMID- 28561976
TI  - SONG DIALECTS AND GENE FLOW IN THE WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS
      NUTTALLI.

PMID- 28561977
TI  - RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF SELFED AND OUTCROSSED PROGENY IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - This study compares survival and growth of progeny derived from chasmogamous (CH)
      and cleistogamous (CL) flowers in Impatiens capensis, a forest annual. When
      progeny were grown in the field, CH seeds had significantly higher survival rates
      over winter (64% versus 56%), and the survival advantage of outcrossed progeny
      was not attributable to seed weight differences. No differences in seedling
      growth were detected. Greenhouse comparisons revealed no difference in seed
      survival but a 30% growth advantage to CH seedlings. We found no changes in
      developmental homeostasis of three leaf shape characters between inbred and
      outbred progeny, nor was there any difference in variability within CH and CL
      families. The outcrossing advantage observed in these experiments could not have
      been caused by avoidance of sib competition. Theory predicts that self-pollinated
      progenies may be more variable than outcrossed progenies if rare, recessive
      alleles are important contributors to genetic variances. Electrophoretic markers
      indicate that progeny derived from CH flowers are predominantly outcrossed (at
      least 54-97%).

PMID- 28561978
TI  - PARAMETER EVOLUTION IN THE theta-MODEL.

PMID- 28561979
TI  - PHYLOGENETICS OF THE LISIANTHIUS SKINNERI (GENTIANACEAE) SPECIES COMPLEX IN
      PANAMA UTILIZING DNA RESTRICTION FRAGMENT ANALYSIS.
AB  - The well-delimited and evolutionary interesting tropical shrub group, the
      Lisianthius skinneri (Gentianaceae) species complex, was analyzed for variation
      in nuclear ribosomal DNA and chloroplast DNA by restriction endonuclease fragment
      analysis. A most parsimonious tree using variations in both DNAs was constructed
      for seven populations in the group by including an appropriate outgroup. This
      phylogeny is significantly more compatible with the DNA data than most, but not
      all, less parsimonious phylogenies. At least two distinct lineages have
      independently evolved geographically restricted, cloud forest species from the
      putative ancestral, widespread, and lower elevation L. skinneri. Lisianthius
      skinneri itself is shown to be paraphyletic with populations derived separately
      from the two distinct lineages. Except for a switch in the placement of two
      populations, this DNA-based phylogeny is congruent with an isozyme-based Wagner
      network depicting relationships in the species complex. Relative rates of
      divergence, in terms of nuclear ribosomal DNA, chloroplast DNA, isozymes, and
      morphology, differ markedly within and between lineages. The non-transcribed
      spacer region of ribosomal DNA is shown to evolve in a manner that is not in
      accord with a molecular clock hypothesis. Small population sizes, restricted and
      isolated nature of populations, and probable founder events are suggested as
      instrumental in causing this lack of concerted divergence within and between
      lineages of the L. skinneri species complex.

PMID- 28561980
TI  - MALE EFFECTS ON FECUNDITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Effects of male Drosophila melanogaster on female fecundity and productivity were
      examined, considering both females held in containers with males and females
      exposed to male effects not involving contact. Females were more fecund when male
      effects were present, and the largest increase was recorded when vials were
      previously conditioned by males. This effect was probably due to the growth of
      transmitted microorganisms, which were observed on the laying surface, as further
      experiments with vials conditioned by virgin females showed a similar increase in
      fecundity. A male-specific effect was isolated by conditioning bottles containing
      only agar with males and virgin females. The observation of a male factor that
      stimulates oviposition without mating is novel and suggests complicated fertility
      interactions between the sexes.

PMID- 28561982
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN A COURTSHIP-RELATED MALE CHARACTER IN DROSOPHILA SILVESTRIS
      FROM A SINGLE HAWAIIAN LOCALITY.
AB  - The large Drosophila species of Hawaii display sexual dimorphism and elaborate
      species-specific courtship patterns. Male characters related to courtship attract
      particular attention since they frequently constitute the most conspicuous
      taxonomic differences between Hawaiian species. The present study concerns
      intraspecific genetic variation in a courtship-related male character. D.
      silvestris, endemic to the geologically new volcanoes of Hawaii island, displays
      a brush of large dorsal cilia on the tibia of the foreleg of the male fly. This
      is used to stimulate the female during courtship. Genetic variation between local
      populations has previously been shown to exist for both sexual behavior and cilia
      number. The present paper reports the results of a study of cilia number
      variation in males collected at a single site over the period 1976-1980. Male
      progeny of females captured in nature were also studied. The mean number of cilia
      in the natural population was stable except for 1979 when it rose significantly,
      falling back again in 1980. The data indicate the existence of ample genetic
      variance for this character, existing as a balanced polymorphism in the natural
      population. The character appears to be under stabilizing selection. It is
      hypothesized that sexual selection is a contributing factor.

PMID- 28561983
TI  - SELECTION ON BILL CHARACTERS IN A POPULATION OF DARWIN'S FINCHES: GEOSPIZA
      CONIROSTRIS ON ISLA GENOVESA, GALAPAGOS.
AB  - Lande and Arnold's (1983) technique for measuring selection on correlated
      quantitative traits was used to identify the targets of selection and to reveal
      the direction of selection on three bill dimensions, during different stages of
      the life cycle in a population of Darwin's finches, Geospiza conirostris, on Isla
      Genovesa, Galapagos. There was a tendency towards disruptive selection during dry
      conditions, arising from differential survival. In terms of longevity and
      breeding success of females, the direction of selection was to increase bill
      length. For males competing for territories, selection acted to increase bill
      depth and bill length. The effects of male-male interactions were separated from
      those of female choice. Male-male interactions selected for deep and long bills,
      whereas females chose their mates on the basis of a male's territory position and
      plumage coloration. The results reveal three factors constraining changes in bill
      dimensions: a tendency for the mean of a dimension to shift in one direction is
      counteracted by selection in the opposite direction on 1) another, positively
      correlated, bill dimension, 2) the same dimension in the other sex, and 3) the
      same dimension at another stage of the life cycle. If these factors are overcome
      by strong directional selection at one stage of the life cycle and relaxation at
      another, there can be an evolutionary response because the bill dimensions in
      this population are known to be heritable. The results complement those found in
      studies of G. fortis on another island and strengthen the view that these
      populations of Darwin's finches are frequently subjected to natural selection.

PMID- 28561984
TI  - SIZE-DISASSORTATIVE MATING IN THE CHRYSOMELID BEETLE CHRYSOLINA AURICHALCEA
      (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE).

PMID- 28561985
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND EVOLUTION IN A SPECIES COMPLEX OF
      TROPICAL SHRUBS BASED ON ISOZYMIC DATA.
AB  - An isozyme investigation of the Lisianthius skinneri (Gentianaceae) species
      complex in central Panama assayed levels of genetic variation within and among
      isolated populations and was used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships
      within the complex. The widespread and low elevation L. skinneri and one derived
      cloud forest endemic species, L. habuensis, are depauperate in genetic variation.
      Three other endemic cloud forest species exhibiting larger population sizes and
      apparently more outcrossed breeding systems have higher levels of heterozygosity
      but retain low levels of allelic diversity. More than 90% of the genetic
      variation in the species complex is confined to among-population differentiation
      rather than witnin-population variation. Isozyme-based relationships within the
      species complex using both genetic divergence values (Fitch and Margoliash
      algorithm) and shared allelic states (Nelson and Van Horn algorithm) are
      identical. This network is not entirely congruent with a previous DNA-based
      network. Geographical isolation, small population size, low allelic diversity,
      and high levels of among-population differentiation suggest that repeated
      instances of founder events and genetic drift have been important in the
      evolution of this tropical shrub complex.

PMID- 28561987
TI  - Oral misoprostol alone versus oral misoprostol and Foley's catheter for induction
      of labor: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of oral misoprostol and
      Foley's catheter versus oral misoprostol alone for induction of labor. METHODS:
      This open-label randomized controlled trial included 335 women requiring
      induction of labor. A total of 166 women were randomly allocated to induction
      with oral misoprostol alone and 169 women were assigned for induction with
      Foley's balloon catheter and oral misoprostol using a computer-generated
      allocation sequence. The primary outcome was rate of failure to achieve vaginal
      delivery within 24 h of induction. RESULTS: The proportion of women failing to
      achieve vaginal delivery within 24 h in the combination group was lower (11.8% vs
      28.7%, P = 0.001). When the two groups were stratified according to parity, the
      difference remained statistically significant only for parous women. The median
      induction-to-delivery interval (13.0 h vs 19 h, P = 0.000) and the median number
      of doses of misoprostol used (2 vs 3, P = 0.000) were lower in the combination
      group. The number of women who delivered vaginally in the combination group was
      significantly higher (91% vs 79%, P = 0.001). More neonates born to women in the
      misoprostol group had Apgar scores < 7 and were admitted to the neonatal
      intensive care unit (P = 0.016 and P = 0.007, respectively). CONCLUSION: The rate
      of failure to achieve vaginal delivery within 24 h was lower with Foley's balloon
      and oral misoprostol as compared to oral misoprostol alone.

PMID- 28561986
TI  - Rationale, design, and baseline characteristics of the CLARIFY registry of
      outpatients with stable coronary artery disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite major advances in prevention and treatment, coronary artery
      disease (CAD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Whereas many sources
      of data are available on the epidemiology of acute coronary syndromes, fewer
      datasets reflect the contemporary management and outcomes of stable CAD patients.
      HYPOTHESIS: A worldwide contemporary registry would improve our knowledge about
      stable CAD. The main objectives are to describe the demographics, clinical
      profile, contemporary management and outcomes of outpatients with stable CAD; to
      identify gaps between evidence and treatment; and to investigate long-term
      prognostic determinants. METHODS: CLARIFY (ProspeCtive observational LongitudinAl
      RegIstry oF patients with stable coronary arterY disease) is an ongoing
      international observational longitudinal registry. Stable CAD patients from 45
      countries in Europe, Asia, America, Middle East, Australia and Africa were
      enrolled between November 2009 and June 2010. The inclusion criteria were
      previous myocardial infarction, evidence of coronary stenosis >50%, proven
      symptomatic myocardial ischemia or prior revascularization procedure. The main
      exclusion criteria were serious non-cardiovascular disease, conditions
      interfering with life expectancy or severe other cardiovascular disease
      (including advanced heart failure). Follow-up visits were planned annually for up
      to 5 years, interspersed with 6-month telephone calls. RESULTS: Of the 32,703
      patients enrolled, most (77.6%) were male, age (mean +/- SD) was 64.2 +/- 10.5
      years, and 71.0% were receiving treatment for hypertension; mean +/- SD resting
      heart rate was 68.2 +/- 10.6 bpm. Patients were enrolled based on a history of
      myocardial infarction >3 months earlier (57.7%), having at least one stenosis
      >50% on coronary angiography (61.1%), proven symptomatic myocardial ischemia on
      non-invasive testing (23.1%), or history of percutaneous coronary intervention or
      coronary artery bypass graft (69.8%). Baseline characteristics were similar
      across the four subgroups identified by the four inclusion criteria. CONCLUSION:
      CLARIFY will provide a useful resource for understanding the current epidemiology
      of stable CAD.

PMID- 28561989
TI  - Light-Driven, Caterpillar-Inspired Miniature Inching Robot.
AB  - Liquid crystal elastomers are among the best candidates for artificial muscles,
      and the materials of choice when constructing microscale robotic systems.
      Recently, significant efforts are dedicated to designing stimuli-responsive
      actuators that can reproduce the shape-change of soft bodies of animals by means
      of proper external energy source. However, transferring material deformation
      efficiently into autonomous robotic locomotion remains a challenge. This paper
      reports on a miniature inching robot fabricated from a monolithic liquid crystal
      elastomer film, which upon visible-light excitation is capable of mimicking
      caterpillar locomotion on different substrates like a blazed grating and a paper
      surface. The motion is driven by spatially uniform visible light with relatively
      low intensity, rendering the robot "human-friendly," i.e., operational also on
      human skin. The design paves the way toward light-driven, soft, mobile
      microdevices capable of operating in various environments, including the close
      proximity of humans.

PMID- 28561988
TI  - Electron Hopping Across Hemin-Doped Serum Albumin Mats on Centimeter-Length
      Scales.
AB  - Exploring long-range electron transport across protein assemblies is a central
      interest in both the fundamental research of biological processes and the
      emerging field of bioelectronics. This work examines the use of serum-albumin
      based freestanding mats as macroscopic electron mediators in bioelectronic
      devices. In particular, this study focuses on how doping the protein mat with
      hemin improves charge-transport. It is demonstrated that doping can increase
      conductivity 40-fold via electron hopping between adjacent hemin molecules,
      resulting in the highest measured conductance for a protein-based material yet
      reported, and transport over centimeter length scales. The use of distance
      dependent AC impedance and DC current-voltage measurements allows the
      contribution from electron hopping between adjacent hemin molecules to be
      isolated. Because the hemin-doped serum albumin mats have both biocompatibility
      and fabrication simplicity, they should be applicable to a range of bioelectronic
      devices of varying sizes, configurations, and applications.

PMID- 28561990
TI  - Prenatal diagnosis of Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies: Underestimated
      problem of the secondary prevention of monogenetic disorders.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of effective
      preconceptional testing for carrier status in women at risk for Duchenne and
      Becker muscular dystrophies (D/BMD) on the prenatal diagnosis. METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis of 201 prenatal tests was performed in 169 Polish women at
      risk, in regard to time of testing for carrier status (prior to conception or
      during pregnancy) and carrier status of tested women, including confirmed D/BMD
      carriers (n = 78; 46.2%), D/BMD non-carriers - tested for germline mosaicism risk
      (n = 23; 13.6%), and women at risk with uncertain carrier status (n = 68; 40.2%).
      RESULTS: Only 52.7% of women were tested for D/BMD carrier status prior to
      conception and in these women prenatal diagnosis was carried out more frequently
      in the first trimester of pregnancy (64.7% vs 47.8%; P = 0.035). The results of
      prenatal testing in male fetuses in pregnancies of confirmed D/BMD carriers and
      D/BMD non-carriers - tested for germline mosaicism risk were conclusive in all
      cases, whereas in women with uncertain carrier status, only 60.0% of results were
      conclusive. Eighty-five of 103 female fetuses (82.5%) were tested prenatally and
      in 31.8% of them fetal carrier status was confirmed. CONCLUSION: Carrier status
      testing in women prior to conception has a positive impact on the frequency of
      first-trimester prenatal diagnosis and known D/BMD carrier status on the
      effectiveness of prenatal diagnosis. Due to the low percentage of women tested
      effectively prior to conception, carrier status testing in the families at risk
      should be propagated (including possibility of prenatal diagnosis of female
      fetuses).

PMID- 28561991
TI  - Development of a novel bioactive glass suitable for osteosarcoma-related bone
      grafts.
AB  - In this study, zinc borate-based glasses with increasing gallium content (0, 2.5,
      5, 10, and 15 wt % Ga) were synthesized and their effect on the viability and
      proliferation of preosteoblasts and osteosarcoma cancer cells were investigated.
      Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) cell viability assays using glass degradation
      extracts revealed that the extracts from glasses with lower Ga contents could
      enhance the viability of preosteoblasts, while extracts from the glass
      composition with 15 wt % Ga caused statistically significant reduction of their
      viability. MTT cell viability assays using the extracts and osteosarcoma cells
      showed that only extracts from the glass composition with 5 wt % Ga (G3) did not
      cause a statistically significant increase in the viability of cancer cells for
      all degradation periods (1 day, 7 days, and 28 days). G3 was selected as the most
      suitable composition for the osteosarcoma-related graft operations as it could
      improve the viability of preosteoblasts without increasing the viability of
      cancer cells. The viability of preosteoblasts and osteosarcoma cells in contact
      with the glass powders were also investigated using MTT assays. The results
      showed that the G3 powders could enhance the viability of preosteoblasts while
      decreasing the viability of osteosarcoma cells. Finally, live/dead assays
      revealed that suppression of proliferation appeared to be the mechanism causing
      the observed reductions in the viability of osteosarcoma cells exposed to G3
      powders. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl
      Biomater, 106B: 1186-1193, 2018.

PMID- 28561992
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28561993
TI  - Removable partial denture alloys processed by laser-sintering technique.
AB  - Removable partial dentures (RPDs) are traditionally made using a casting
      technique. New additive manufacturing processes based on laser sintering has been
      developed for quick fabrication of RPDs metal frameworks at low cost. The
      objective of this study was to characterize the mechanical, physical, and
      biocompatibility properties of RPD cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) alloys produced by two
      laser-sintering systems and compare them to those prepared using traditional
      casting methods. The laser-sintered Co-Cr alloys were processed by the selective
      laser-sintering method (SLS) and the direct metal laser-sintering (DMLS) method
      using the Phenix system (L-1) and EOS system (L-2), respectively. L-1 and L-2
      techniques were 8 and 3.5 times more precise than the casting (CC) technique (p <
      0.05). Co-Cr alloys processed by L-1 and L-2 showed higher (p < 0.05) hardness
      (14-19%), yield strength (10-13%), and fatigue resistance (71-72%) compared to CC
      alloys. This was probably due to their smaller grain size and higher
      microstructural homogeneity. All Co-Cr alloys exhibited low porosity (2.1-3.3%);
      however, pore distribution was more homogenous in L-1 and L-2 alloys when
      compared to CC alloys. Both laser-sintered and cast alloys were biocompatible. In
      conclusion, laser-sintered alloys are more precise and present better mechanical
      and fatigue properties than cast alloys for RPDs. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1174-1185, 2018.

PMID- 28561994
TI  - Pathogen-inducible Ta-Lr34res expression in heterologous barley confers disease
      resistance without negative pleiotropic effects.
AB  - Plant diseases are a serious threat to crop production. The informed use of
      naturally occurring disease resistance in plant breeding can greatly contribute
      to sustainably reduce yield losses caused by plant pathogens. The Ta-Lr34res gene
      encodes an ABC transporter protein and confers partial, durable, and broad
      spectrum resistance against several fungal pathogens in wheat. Transgenic barley
      lines expressing Ta-Lr34res showed enhanced resistance against powdery mildew and
      leaf rust of barley. While Ta-Lr34res is only active at adult stage in wheat, Ta
      Lr34res was found to be highly expressed already at the seedling stage in
      transgenic barley resulting in severe negative effects on growth. Here, we
      expressed Ta-Lr34res under the control of the pathogen-inducible Hv-Ger4c
      promoter in barley. Sixteen independent barley transformants showed strong
      resistance against leaf rust and powdery mildew. Infection assays and growth
      parameter measurements were performed under standard glasshouse and near-field
      conditions using a convertible glasshouse. Two Hv-Ger4c::Ta-Lr34res transgenic
      events were analysed in detail. Plants of one transformation event had similar
      grain production compared to wild-type under glasshouse and near-field
      conditions. Our results showed that negative effects caused by constitutive high
      expression of Ta-Lr34res driven by the endogenous wheat promoter in barley can be
      eliminated by inducible expression without compromising disease resistance. These
      data demonstrate that Ta-Lr34res is agronomically useful in barley. We conclude
      that the generation of a large number of transformants in different barley
      cultivars followed by early field testing will allow identifying barley lines
      suitable for breeding.

PMID- 28561995
TI  - Mean platelet volume may not show the presence and severity of hyperemesis
      gravidarum: Reply.

PMID- 28561996
TI  - 2D MoS2 Neuromorphic Devices for Brain-Like Computational Systems.
AB  - Hardware implementation of artificial synapses/neurons with 2D solid-state
      devices is of great significance for nanoscale brain-like computational systems.
      Here, 2D MoS2 synaptic/neuronal transistors are fabricated by using poly(vinyl
      alcohol) as the laterally coupled, proton-conducting electrolytes. Fundamental
      synaptic functions, such as an excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse
      facilitation, and a dynamic filter for information transmission of biological
      synapse, are successfully emulated. Most importantly, with multiple input gates
      and one modulatory gate, spiking-dependent logic operation/modulation,
      multiplicative neural coding, and neuronal gain modulation are also
      experimentally demonstrated. The results indicate that the intriguing 2D MoS2
      transistors are also very promising for the next-generation of nanoscale
      neuromorphic device applications.

PMID- 28561997
TI  - Defining moments for conscious time and content.
AB  - The spatiotemporal scales of natural phenomena define the observational
      granularity needed for scientific characterization. In cognitive neurosciences,
      neural oscillations delineate temporal scales that may naturally provide the
      computational resolution for information processing in the brain. Do neural
      oscillations define moments for the perception of time?

PMID- 28561998
TI  - Deposition of mannose-binding lectin and ficolins and activation of the lectin
      pathway of complement on the surface of polyurethane tubing used for
      cardiopulmonary bypass.
AB  - The artificial surface used for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a crucial factor
      activating the complement system and thus contributing to the generation of a
      systemic inflammatory response. The activation of classical and alternative
      pathways on this artificial surface is well known. In contrast, lectin pathway
      (LP) activation has not been fully investigated, although noted during CPB in
      several studies. Moreover, we have recently proved the contribution of the LP to
      the generation of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome after pediatric
      cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to assess LP-mediated complement
      activation on the surface of polyurethane CPB circuit tubing (noncoated Chalice
      (r) ), used for CPB procedures in children with congenital heart disease. We
      found deposition of mannose-binding lectin, ficolin-1, -2, and -3 on the surface
      of unused tubing and on tubing used for CPB from a small minority of patients.
      Furthermore, we observed deposition of complement C4 activation products on
      tubing used for CPB and previously unused tubing after incubation with normal
      serum. The latter finding indicates LP activation in vitro on the polyurethane
      surface. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl
      Biomater, 106B: 1202-1208, 2018.

PMID- 28561999
TI  - Allyl-Palladium-Catalyzed Ketone Dehydrogenation Enables Telescoping with Enone
      alpha,beta-Vicinal Difunctionalization.
AB  - The telescoping of allyl-palladium catalyzed ketone dehydrogenation with
      organocuprate conjugate addition chemistry allows for the introduction of aryl,
      heteroaryl, vinyl, acyl, methyl, and other functionalized alkyl groups
      chemoselectively to a wide variety of unactivated ketone compounds via their
      enone counterparts. The compatibility of the dehydrogenation conditions
      additionally allows for efficient trapping of the intermediate enolate with
      various electrophiles. The utility of this approach is demonstrated by comparison
      to several previously reported multistep sequences.

PMID- 28562000
TI  - Atomistic Approach toward Selective Photocatalytic Oxidation of a Mustard-Gas
      Simulant: A Case Study with Heavy-Chalcogen-Containing PCN-57 Analogues.
AB  - Here we describe the synthesis of two Zr-based benzothiadiazole- and
      benzoselenadiazole-containing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the selective
      photocatalytic oxidation of the mustard gas simulant, 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide
      (CEES). The photophysical properties of the linkers and MOFs are characterized by
      steady-state absorption and emission, time-resolved emission, and ultrafast
      transient absorption spectroscopy. The benzoselenadiazole-containing MOF shows
      superior catalytic activity compared to that containing benzothiadiazole with a
      half-life of 3.5 min for CEES oxidation to nontoxic 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfoxide
      (CEESO). Transient absorption spectroscopy performed on the benzoselenadiazole
      linker reveals the presence of a triplet excited state, which decays with a
      lifetime of 9.4 MUs, resulting in the generation of singlet oxygen for
      photocatalysis. This study demonstrates the effect of heavy chalcogen
      substitution within a porous framework for the modulation of photocatalytic
      activity.

PMID- 28562001
TI  - Antiscaling Magnetic Slippery Surfaces.
AB  - Scale formation is a common problem in a wide range of industries such as oil and
      gas, water desalination, and food processing. Conventional solutions for this
      problem including mechanical removal and chemical dissolution are inefficient,
      costly, and sometimes environmentally hazardous. Surface modification approaches
      have shown promises to address this challenge. However, these approaches suffer
      from intrinsic existence of solid-liquid interfaces leading to high rate of scale
      nucleation and high adhesion strength of the formed scale. Here, we report a new
      surface called magnetic slippery surface in two forms of Newtonian fluid (MAGSS)
      and gel structure (Gel-MAGSS). These surfaces provide a liquid-liquid interface
      to elevate the energy barrier for scale nucleation and minimize the adhesion
      strength of the formed scale on the surface. Performance of these new surfaces in
      both static and dynamic (under fluid flow) configurations is examined. These
      surfaces show superior antiscaling properties with an order of magnitude lower
      scale accretion compared to the solid surfaces and offer longevity and stability
      under high shear flow conditions. We envision that these surfaces open a new path
      to address the scale problem in the relevant technologies.

PMID- 28562002
TI  - Dual Imprinted Polymer Thin Films via Pattern Directed Self-Organization.
AB  - Synthetic topographically patterned films and coatings are typically contoured on
      one side, yet many of nature's surfaces have distinct textures on different
      surfaces of the same object. Common examples are the top and bottom sides of the
      butterfly wing or lotus leaf, onion shells, and the inside versus outside of the
      stem of a flower. Inspired by nature, we create dual (top and bottom) channel
      patterned polymer films. To this end, we first develop a novel fabrication method
      to create ceramic line channel relief structures by converting the oligomeric
      residue of stamped poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) nanopatterns on silicon
      substrates to glass (SiOx, silica) by ultraviolet-ozone (UVO) exposure. These
      silica patterned substrates are flow coated with polystyrene (PS) films and
      confined within an identically patterned top confining soft PDMS elastomer film.
      Annealing of the sandwich structures drives the PS to rapidly mold fill the top
      PDMS pattern in conjunction with a dewetting tendency of the PS on the silica
      pattern. Varying the film thickness h, from less than to greater than the pattern
      height, and varying the relative angle between the top-down and bottom-up
      patterned confinement surfaces create interesting uniform and nonuniform
      digitized defects in PS channel patterns, as also a defect-free channel regime.
      Our dual patterned polymer channels provide a novel fabrication route to
      topographically imprinted Moire patterns (whose applications range from security
      encrypting holograms to sensitive strain gauges), and their basic laser light
      diffractions properties are illustrated and compared to graphical simulations and
      2D-FFT of real-space AFM channel patterns. While traditional "geometrical" and
      "fringe" Moire patterns function by superposition of two misaligned optical
      patterned transmittance gratings, our topographic pattern gratings are quite
      distinct and may allow for more unique holographic optical characteristics with
      further development.

PMID- 28562003
TI  - Effect of Alkylation on the Cellular Uptake of Polyethylene Glycol-Coated Gold
      Nanoparticles.
AB  - Alkyl groups (CnH2n+1) are prevalent in engineered bionanomaterials used for many
      intracellular applications, yet how alkyl groups dictate the interactions between
      nanoparticles and mammalian cells remains incomprehensively investigated. In this
      work, we report the effect of alkylation on the cellular uptake of densely
      polyethylene glycol-coated nanoparticles, which are characterized by their
      limited entry into mammalian cells. Specifically, we prepare densely PEGylated
      gold nanoparticles that bear alkyl chains of varying carbon chain lengths (n) and
      loading densities (termed "alkyl-PEG-AuNPs"), followed by investigating their
      uptake by Kera-308 keratinocytes. Strikingly, provided a modest alkyl mass
      percentage of 0.2% (2 orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional lipid
      based NPs) in their PEG shells, dodecyl-PEG-AuNPs (n = 12) and octadecyl-PEG
      AuNPs (n = 18) can enter Kera-308 cells 30-fold more than methoxy-PEG-AuNPs (no
      alkyl groups) and hexyl-PEG-AuNPs (n = 6) after 24 h of incubation. Such strong
      dependence on n is valid for all serum concentrations considered (even under
      serum-free conditions), although enhanced serum levels can trigger the
      agglomeration of alkyl-PEG-AuNPs (without permanent aggregation of the AuNP
      cores) and can attenuate their cellular uptake. Additionally, alkyl-PEG-AuNPs can
      rapidly enter Kera-308 cells via the filipodia-mediated pathway, engaging the
      tips of membrane protrusions and accumulating within interdigital folds. Most
      alkyl-PEG-AuNPs adopt the "endo-lysosomal" route of trafficking, but ~15% of them
      accumulate in the cytosol. Regardless of intracellular location, alkyl-PEG-AuNPs
      predominantly appear as individual entities after 24 h of incubation. Our work
      offers insights into the incorporation of alkyl groups for designing
      bionanomaterials for cellular uptake and cytosolic accumulation with
      intracellular stability.

PMID- 28562004
TI  - pKa-Dependent Facilitated Transport of CO2 across Hyperthin Polyelectrolyte
      Multilayers.
AB  - Hyperthin (ca. 20-30 nm thick) polyelectrolyte multilayers have been fabricated
      that are capable of facilitated transport of CO2. These membranes were fabricated
      from polycations bearing pendant groups of varying basicity plus poly(sodium 4
      styrenesulfonate) as a polycounterion. A strong dependency of such transport on
      the basicity of the pendant groups (i.e., fixed carrier sites) has been found,
      where pKa values in the range of ca. 5-7 appear optimal.

PMID- 28562005
TI  - Hydrazide-Derivatized Microgels Bond to Wet, Oxidized Cellulose Giving Adhesion
      Without Drying or Curing.
AB  - Hydrazide-derivatized poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) microgels gave
      strong adhesion to wet, TEMPO oxidized, regenerated cellulose membranes without a
      drying or heating step. Adhesion was attributed to hydrazone covalent bond
      formation with aldehyde groups present on the cellulose surfaces. This is one of
      only three chemistries we have found that gives significant never-dried adhesion
      between wet cellulose surfaces. By contrast, for cellulose joints that have been
      dried and heated before wet testing, the hydrazide-hydrazone chemistry offers no
      advantages over standard paper industry wet strength resins. The design rules for
      the hydrazide-microgel adhesives include: cationic microgels are superior to
      anionic gels; the lower the microgel cross-link density, the higher the adhesion;
      longer PEG-based hydrazide tethers offer no advantage over shorter attachments;
      and, adhesion is independent of microgel diameter. Many of these rules were in
      agreement with predictions of a simple adhesion model where the microgels were
      assumed to be ideal springs. We propose that the unexpected, high cohesion
      between neighboring microgels in multilayer films was a result of bond formation
      between hydrazide groups and residual NHS-carboxyl esters from the preparation of
      the hydrazide microgels.

PMID- 28562006
TI  - Activation of Natural Products Biosynthetic Pathways via a Protein Modification
      Level Regulation.
AB  - Natural products are critical for drug discovery and development; however their
      discovery is challenged by the wide inactivation or silence of microbial
      biosynthetic pathways. Currently strategies targeting this problem are mainly
      concentrated on chromosome dissembling, transcription, and translation-stage
      regulations as well as chemical stimulation. In this study, we developed a novel
      approach to awake cryptic/silenced microbial biosynthetic pathways through
      augmentation of the conserved protein modification step-phosphopantetheinylation
      of carrier proteins. Overexpression of phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Pptase)
      genes into 33 Actinomycetes achieved a significantly high activation ratio at
      which 23 (70%) strains produced new metabolites. Genetic and biochemical studies
      on the mode-of-action revealed that exogenous PPtases triggered the activation of
      carrier proteins and subsequent production of metabolites. With this approach we
      successfully identified five oviedomycin and halichomycin-like compounds from two
      strains. This study provides a novel approach to efficiently activate
      cryptic/silenced biosynthetic pathways which will be useful for natural products
      discovery.

PMID- 28562007
TI  - Visible Thermochromism in Vanadium Pentoxide Coatings.
AB  - Although di-vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) has been a candidate of extensive research
      for over half a century, its intrinsic thermochromism has not been reported so
      far. Films of V2O5 grown on silicon, glass, and metal substrates by metal organic
      chemical vapor deposition in this study exhibit a thermally induced perceptible
      color change from bright yellow to deep orange. Temperature-dependent UV-vis
      spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction allow the correlation between the reversible
      continuous red shift of the absorption and the anisotropic thermal expansion
      along the (001) direction, that is, perpendicular to the sheets constituting the
      layered structure. Furthermore, the possibility of tuning the thermochromic
      behavior was demonstrated via a chemical doping with chromium.

PMID- 28562009
TI  - Biphenylene and Phagraphene as Lithium Ion Battery Anode Materials.
AB  - We present results of density functional theory calculations on the lithium (Li)
      ion storage capacity of biphenylene (BP) membrane and phagraphene (PhG) which are
      two-dimensional defected-graphene-like membranes. Both membranes show a larger
      capacity than graphene, Li2C6 and Li1.5C6 compared to LiC6. We find that Li is
      very mobile on these materials and does not interact as strongly with the
      membranes. In the case of BP we also investigated the possible volume expansion
      on Li insertion. We find a 11% expansion, which is very similar to the one found
      in graphite. Our findings show that both membranes are suitable materials for
      lithium ion battery anodes.

PMID- 28562008
TI  - Inhibition of Abeta Amyloid Growth and Toxicity by Silybins: The Crucial Role of
      Stereochemistry.
AB  - The self-assembling of the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide into neurotoxic
      aggregates is considered a central event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). Based on the "amyloid hypothesis", many efforts have been devoted
      to designing molecules able to halt disease progression by inhibiting Abeta self
      assembly. Here, we combine biophysical (ThT assays, TEM and AFM imaging),
      biochemical (WB and ESI-MS), and computational (all-atom molecular dynamics)
      techniques to investigate the capacity of four optically pure components of the
      natural product silymarin (silybin A, silybin B, 2,3-dehydrosilybin A, 2,3
      dehydrosilybin B) to inhibit Abeta aggregation. Despite TEM analysis demonstrated
      that all the four investigated flavonoids prevent the formation of mature
      fibrils, ThT assays, WB and AFM investigations showed that only silybin B was
      able to halt the growth of small-sized protofibrils thus promoting the formation
      of large, amorphous aggregates. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations indicated
      that silybin B interacts mainly with the C-terminal hydrophobic segment
      35MVGGVV40 of Abeta40. Consequently to silybin B binding, the peptide
      conformation remains predominantly unstructured along all the simulations. By
      contrast, silybin A interacts preferentially with the segments 17LVFF20 and
      27NKGAII32 of Abeta40 which shows a high tendency to form bend, turn, and beta
      sheet conformation in and around these two domains. Both 2,3-dehydrosilybin
      enantiomers bind preferentially the segment 17LVFF20 but lead to the formation of
      different small-sized, ThT-positive Abeta aggregates. Finally, in vivo studies in
      a transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans strain expressing human Abeta indicated that
      silybin B is the most effective of the four compounds in counteracting Abeta
      proteotoxicity. This study underscores the pivotal role of stereochemistry in
      determining the neuroprotective potential of silybins and points to silybin B as
      a promising lead compound for further development in anti-AD therapeutics.

PMID- 28562010
TI  - In-Situ Phase Transition Control in the Supercooled State for Robust Active Glass
      Fiber.
AB  - The construction of a dopant-activated photonic composite is of great
      technological importance for various applications, including smart lighting,
      optical amplification, laser, and optical detection. The bonding arrangement
      around the introduced dopants largely determines the properties, yet it remains a
      daunting challenge to manipulate the local state of the matrix (i.e., phase)
      inside the transparent composite in a controllable manner. Here we demonstrate
      that the relaxation of the supercooled state enables in-situ phase transition
      control in glass. Benefiting from the unique local atom arrangement manner, the
      strategy offers the possibility for simultaneously tuning the chemical
      environment of the incorporated dopant and engineering the dopant-host
      interaction. This allows us to effectively activate the dopant with high
      efficiency (calculated as ~100%) and profoundly enhance the dopant-host energy
      exchange interaction. Our results highlight that the in-situ phase transition
      control in glass may provide new opportunities for fabrication of unusual
      photonic materials with intense broadband emission at ~1100 nm and development of
      the robust optical detection unit with high compactness and broadband photon
      harvesting capability (from X-ray to ultraviolet light).

PMID- 28562011
TI  - Effect of Lithium Borate Additives on Cathode Film Formation in LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4/Li
      Cells.
AB  - A direct comparison of the cathode-electrolyte interface (CEI) generated on high
      voltage LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathodes with three different lithium borate electrolyte
      additives, lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiBOB), lithium 4-pyridyl trimethyl borate
      (LPTB), and lithium catechol dimethyl borate (LiCDMB), has been conducted. The
      lithium borate electrolyte additives have been previously reported to improve the
      capacity retention and efficiency of graphite/LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cells due to the
      formation of passivating CEI. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) suggests that
      incorporation of the lithium borates into 1.2 M LiPF6 in EC/EMC (3/7) electrolyte
      results in borate oxidation on the cathode surface at high potential. The
      reaction of the borates on the cathode surface leads to an increase in impedance
      as determined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), consistent with
      the formation of a cathode surface film. Ex-situ surface analysis of the
      electrode via a combination of SEM, TEM, IR-ATR, XPS, and high energy XPS
      (HAXPES) suggests that oxidation of all borate additives results in deposition of
      a passivation layer on the surface of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 which inhibits transition
      metal ion dissolution from the cathode. The passivation layer thickness increases
      as a function of additive structure LiCDMB > LPTB > LiBOB. The results suggest
      that the CEI thickness can be controlled by the structure and reactivity of the
      electrolyte additive.

PMID- 28562012
TI  - Dicyanobenzothiadiazole Derivatives Possessing Switchable Dielectric
      Permittivities.
AB  - Benzothiadiazoles are important electron acceptors and are frequently employed as
      electron-deficient components of donor-acceptor polymers. We report the effect of
      nitrile functionalities on the reactivity, steric hindrance, optoelectronic
      properties, and dielectric permittivity in dicyanobenzothioadiazole (DCNBT).
      Dielectric spectroscopy in the bulk and in solution assisted by DFT-calculations
      revealed that these molecules can be engineered to engender maximum values of the
      dipole moment and of dielectric permittivity due to the strong electron
      withdrawing effect of the nitrile groups. The self-assembly in the bulk was
      investigated by X-ray scattering performed on single crystals, fibers (2D-WAXS),
      and thin films (GiWAXS). Combining these results, we found a switching of
      dielectric permittivity of the 4,7-alkylthienyl-substituted
      dicyanobenzothiadiazole at the transition from the liquid crystalline to the
      isotropic phase with values capable of competing with the best known rodlike
      liquid crystals.

PMID- 28562013
TI  - Dodecahedral W@WC Composite as Efficient Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution and
      Nitrobenzene Reduction Reactions.
AB  - Core-shell composites with strong phase-phase contact could provide an incentive
      for catalytic activity. A simple, yet efficient, H2O-mediated method has been
      developed to synthesize a mesoscopic core-shell W@WC architecture with a
      dodecahedral microstructure, via a one-pot reaction. The H2O plays an important
      role in the resistance of carbon diffusion, resulting in the formation of the W
      core and W-terminated WC shell. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations
      reveal that adding W as core reduced the oxygen adsorption energy and provided
      the W-terminated WC surface. The W@WC exhibits significant electrocatalytic
      activities toward hydrogen evolution and nitrobenzene electroreduction reactions,
      which are comparable to those found for commercial Pt/C, and substantially higher
      than those found for meso- and nano-WC materials. The experimental results were
      explained by DFT calculations based on the energy profiles in the hydrogen
      evolution reactions over WC, W@WC, and Pt model surfaces. The W@WC also shows a
      high thermal stability and thus may serve as a promising more economical
      alternative to Pt catalysts in these important energy conversion and
      environmental protection applications. The current approach can also be extended
      or adapted to various metals and carbides, allowing for the design and
      fabrication of a wide range of catalytic and other multifunctional composites.

PMID- 28562014
TI  - Ten Good Reasons for the Use of the Tellurium-Centered Anderson-Evans
      Polyoxotungstate in Protein Crystallography.
AB  - Protein crystallography represents at present the most productive and most widely
      used method to obtain structural information on target proteins and protein
      ligand complexes within the atomic resolution range. The knowledge obtained in
      this way is essential for understanding the biology, chemistry, and biochemistry
      of proteins and their functions but also for the development of compounds of high
      pharmacological and medicinal interest. Here, we address the very central problem
      in protein crystallography: the unpredictability of the crystallization process.
      Obtaining protein crystals that diffract to high resolutions represents the
      essential step to perform any structural study by X-ray crystallography; however,
      this method still depends basically on trial and error making it a very time- and
      resource-consuming process. The use of additives is an established process to
      enable or improve the crystallization of proteins in order to obtain high quality
      crystals. Therefore, a more universal additive addressing a wider range of
      proteins is desirable as it would represent a huge advance in protein
      crystallography and at the same time drastically impact multiple research fields.
      This in turn could add an overall benefit for the entire society as it profits
      from the faster development of novel or improved drugs and from a deeper
      understanding of biological, biochemical, and pharmacological phenomena. With
      this aim in view, we have tested several compounds belonging to the emerging
      class of polyoxometalates (POMs) for their suitability as crystallization
      additives and revealed that the tellurium-centered Anderson-Evans
      polyoxotungstate [TeW6O24]6- (TEW) was the most suitable POM-archetype. After its
      first successful application as a crystallization additive, we repeatedly
      reported on TEW's positive effects on the crystallization behavior of proteins
      with a particular focus on the protein-TEW interactions. As electrostatic
      interactions are the main force for TEW binding to proteins, TEW with its highly
      negative charge addresses in principle all proteins possessing positively charged
      patches. Furthermore, due to its high structural and chemical diversity, TEW
      exhibits major advantages over some commonly used crystallization additives.
      Therefore, we summarized all features of TEW, which are beneficial for protein
      crystallization, and present ten good reasons to promote the use of TEW in
      protein crystallography as a powerful additive. Our results demonstrate that TEW
      is a compound that is, in many respects, predestined as a crystallization
      additive. We assume that many crystallographers and especially researchers, who
      are not experts in this field but willing to crystallize their structurally
      unknown target protein, could benefit from the use of TEW as it is able to
      promote both the crystallization process itself and the subsequent structure
      elucidation by providing valuable anomalous signals, which are helpful for the
      phasing step.

PMID- 28562015
TI  - Temporal Dynamics of Bacterial and Fungal Colonization on Plastic Debris in the
      North Sea.
AB  - Despite growing evidence that biofilm formation on plastic debris in the marine
      environment may be essential for its biodegradation, the underlying processes
      have yet to be fully understood. Thus, far, bacterial biofilm formation had only
      been studied after short-term exposure or on floating plastic, yet a prominent
      share of plastic litter accumulates on the seafloor. In this study, we explored
      the taxonomic composition of bacterial and fungal communities on polyethylene
      plastic sheets and dolly ropes during long-term exposure on the seafloor, both at
      a harbor and an offshore location in the Belgian part of the North Sea. We
      reconstructed the sequence of events during biofilm formation on plastic in the
      harbor environment and identified a core bacteriome and subsets of bacterial
      indicator species for early, intermediate, and late stages of biofilm formation.
      Additionally, by implementing ITS2 metabarcoding on plastic debris, we identified
      and characterized for the first time fungal genera on plastic debris.
      Surprisingly, none of the plastics exposed to offshore conditions displayed the
      typical signature of a late stage biofilm, suggesting that biofilm formation is
      severely hampered in the natural environment where most plastic debris
      accumulates.

PMID- 28562016
TI  - Brown Carbon Production in Ammonium- or Amine-Containing Aerosol Particles by
      Reactive Uptake of Methylglyoxal and Photolytic Cloud Cycling.
AB  - The effects of methylglyoxal uptake on the physical and optical properties of
      aerosol containing amines or ammonium sulfate were determined before and after
      cloud processing in a temperature- and RH-controlled chamber. The formation of
      brown carbon was observed upon methylglyoxal addition, detected as an increase in
      water-soluble organic carbon mass absorption coefficients below 370 nm and as a
      drop in single-scattering albedo at 450 nm. The imaginary refractive index
      component k450 reached a maximum value of 0.03 +/- 0.009 with aqueous glycine
      aerosol particles. Browning of solid particles occurred at rates limited by
      chamber mixing (<1 min), and in liquid particles occurred more gradually, but in
      all cases occurred much more rapidly than in bulk aqueous studies. Further
      browning in AS and methylammonium sulfate seeds was triggered by cloud events
      with chamber lights on, suggesting photosensitized brown carbon formation.
      Despite these changes in optical aerosol characteristics, increases in dried
      aerosol mass were rarely observed (<1 MUg/m3 in all cases), consistent with
      previous experiments on methylglyoxal. Under dry, particle-free conditions,
      methylglyoxal reacted (presumably on chamber walls) with methylamine with a rate
      constant k = (9 +/- 2) * 10-17 cm3 molecule-1 s-1 at 294 K and activation energy
      Ea = 64 +/- 37 kJ/mol.

PMID- 28562017
TI  - Toxic Aromatics Induced Responsive Facets for a Pore Surface Functionalized
      Luminescent Coordination Polymer.
AB  - A luminescent coordination polymer was synthesized based on a linker
      prefunctionalization-based design principle coupled with an appropriate template
      selection protocol adopted during crystallization. Luminescent linker derived
      photoluminescence emission signature together with the reversibly dynamic host
      polymer exhibited a unique response toward environmentally toxic aromatics in the
      solid state, arguably crucial for the designed development of toxin-responsive
      solid materials.

PMID- 28562018
TI  - Supply and Demand for Improved Sanitation: Results from Randomized Pricing
      Experiments in Rural Tanzania.
AB  - Improving access to sanitation is a global public health priority. Sufficient
      consumer demand is required for sanitation coverage to expand through private
      provision. To measure consumer demand for hygienic latrine platform products in
      rural Tanzania, we conducted a randomized, voucher-based real-money sales trial
      with 1638 households with unimproved latrines. We also evaluated multiple supply
      chain options to determine the costs of supplying latrine platform products to
      rural households. For concrete latrine SanPlats, 60% of households were willing
      to pay US$0.48 and 10% of households were willing to pay US$4.05, yet the average
      cost of supplying the SanPlat to households was US$7.51. Similarly, for plastic
      sanitary platforms, willingness-to-pay (WTP) dropped from almost 60% at a price
      of US$1.43 to 5% at a price of US$12.29, compared to an average supply cost of
      US$23.28. WTP was not significantly different between villages that had
      participated in the National Sanitation Campaign and those that had not.
      Randomized informational interventions, including hygiene data-sharing and peer
      based exposure to latrine platform products, had minimal effects on WTP. In
      conclusion, current household demand for latrine platform products is too low to
      achieve national goals for improved sanitation coverage through fully commercial
      distribution.

PMID- 28562019
TI  - Mass Spectrometric Characterization of Circulating Covalent Protein Adducts
      Derived from Epoxide Metabolites of Carbamazepine in Patients.
AB  - Carbamazepine (CBZ) is an effective antiepileptic drug that has been associated
      with hypersensitivity reactions. The pathogenesis of those reactions is
      incompletely understood but is postulated to involve a complex interplay between
      the drug's metabolism, genetic variation in human leukocyte antigens, and adverse
      activation of the immune system. Multiple T-cell activation mechanisms have been
      hypothesized including activation by drug-peptide conjugates derived from
      proteins haptenated by reactive metabolites. However, definitive evidence of the
      drug-protein adducts in patients has been lacking. In this study, mass
      spectrometry was used to characterize protein modifications by microsomally
      generated metabolites of CBZ and in patients taking CBZ therapy. CBZ 10,11
      epoxide (CBZE), a major electrophilic plasma metabolite of CBZ, formed adducts
      with glutathione-S-transferase pi (GSTP; Cys47) and human serum albumin (HSA;
      His146 and His338, but not Cys34) in vitro via notably divergent side-chain
      selectivity. Both proteins were adducted at the same residues by undefined
      monoxygenated metabolites ([O]CBZ) when they were incubated with human liver
      microsomes, NADPH and CBZ. There was also evidence for formation of a CBZ adduct
      at His146 and His338 of HSA derived via dehydration from an intermediate arene
      oxide adduct. Glutathione trapping of reactive metabolites confirmed microsomal
      production of CBZE and indicated simultaneous production of arene oxides. In 15
      patients prescribed CBZ therapy, [O]CBZ-modified HSA (His146) was detected in all
      subjects. The relative amount of adduct was moderately positively correlated with
      plasma concentrations of CBZ (r2 = 0.44, p = 0.002) and CBZE (r2 = 0.35, p =
      0.006). Our results have provided the first chemical evidence for microsomal
      production of [O]CBZ species that are able to escape the microsomal domain to
      react covalently with soluble proteins. This study has also demonstrated the
      presence of circulating [O]CBZ-modified HSA in patients without hypersensitivity
      reactions who were receiving standard CBZ therapy. The implications of those
      circulating adducts for susceptibility to CBZ hypersensitivity merit further
      immunological investigation in hypersensitive patients.

PMID- 28562020
TI  - Evaluation and Modeling of Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium and CO2 Absorption Enthalpies
      of Aqueous Designer Diamines for Post Combustion Capture Processes.
AB  - Novel absorbents with improved characteristics are required to reduce the
      existing cost and environmental barriers to deployment of large scale CO2
      capture. Recently, bespoke absorbent molecules have been specifically designed
      for CO2 capture applications, and their fundamental properties and suitability
      for CO2 capture processes evaluated. From the study, two unique diamine
      molecules, 4-(2-hydroxyethylamino)piperidine (A4) and 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4
      aminopiperidine (C4), were selected for further evaluation including
      thermodynamic characterization. The solubilities of CO2 in two diamine solutions
      with a mass fraction of 15% and 30% were measured at different temperatures
      (313.15-393.15 K) and CO2 partial pressures (up to 400 kPa) by thermostatic vapor
      liquid equilibrium (VLE) stirred cell. The absorption enthalpies of reactions
      between diamines and CO2 were evaluated at different temperatures (313.15 and
      333.15 K) using a CPA201 reaction calorimeter. The amine protonation constants
      and associated protonation enthalpies were determined by potentiometric
      titration. The interaction of CO2 with the diamine solutions was summarized and a
      simple mathematical model established that could make a preliminary but good
      prediction of the VLE and thermodynamic properties. Based on the analyses in this
      work, the two designer diamines A4 and C4 showed superior performance compared to
      amines typically used for CO2 capture and further research will be completed at
      larger scale.

PMID- 28562021
TI  - Shotgun Proteomics Analysis Discards Alkali Labile Phosphate as a Reliable Method
      To Assess Vitellogenin Levels in Mytilus galloprovincialis.
AB  - Vitellogenin, the egg yolk precursor, is a well-known biomarker of endocrine
      disruption in oviparous vertebrates. In invertebrates, such as bivalves, it has
      been used in the last 10 years for the same purpose, despite the limited
      knowledge of invertebrate endocrinology. In bivalves, vitellogenin levels are
      usually estimated using an indirect technique, alkali labile phosphate (ALP),
      that assumes that vitellogenin is the most abundant phosphorylated protein in the
      analyzed tissue. In this study, we applied shotgun proteomics for the
      identification and quantification of vitellogenin in marine mussel gonads and
      compared the results with those obtained with the ALP method. The proteomic
      analysis revealed that vitellogenin is only detected in female gonads with
      expression levels that are rather variable among female mussels at different
      stages of gonad development. ALP analysis, on the contrary, detected similar
      amounts of phosphorylated proteins regardless of sex or gonad development stage.
      These results show evidence that the ALP method is not providing reliable
      information about Vtg levels, at least in marine mussel gonads. ALP is not a good
      proxy to assess Vtg levels in marine mussels, and careful verification of the
      adequacy of the procedure should be done before ALP is further assumed as a proxy
      of Vtg in other bivalve mollusks.

PMID- 28562022
TI  - Engineering a Native Inducible Expression System in Shewanella oneidensis to
      Control Extracellular Electron Transfer.
AB  - Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is a model organism for understanding extracellular
      electron transport, in which cells transfer intracellular electrons to an
      extracellular terminal electron acceptor such as insoluble minerals or poised
      electrodes. Biotechnological applications exploiting the respiratory capabilities
      of Shewanella species have led to their proposed use in wastewater treatment,
      bioremediation, and remote sensors. Transcriptional regulation tools can be used
      to rationally engineer S. oneidensis, optimizing performance in biotechnological
      applications, introducing new capabilities, or investigating physiology.
      Engineered gene expression in S. oneidensis has primarily involved the use of
      foreign regulatory systems from Escherichia coli. Here we characterize a native
      S. oneidensis pathway that can be used to induce gene expression with
      trimethylamine N-oxide, then engineer strains in which extracellular electron
      transfer is controlled by this compound. The ability to induce this pathway was
      assessed by measuring iron reduction over time and by analyzing anodic current
      produced by cells grown in bioreactors.

PMID- 28562023
TI  - Mechanistic Insight from Calorimetric Measurements of the Assembly of the
      Binuclear Metal Active Site of Glycerophosphodiesterase (GpdQ) from Enterobacter
      aerogenes.
AB  - Glycerophosphodiesterase (GpdQ) from Enterobacter aerogenes is a binuclear
      metallohydrolase with a high affinity for metal ions at its alpha site but a
      lower affinity at its beta site in the absence of a substrate. Isothermal
      titration calorimetry (ITC) has been used to quantify the Co(II) and Mn(II)
      binding affinities and thermodynamics of the two sites in wild-type GpdQ and two
      mutants, both in the absence and in the presence of phosphate. Metal ions bind to
      the six-coordinate alpha site in an entropically driven process with loss of a
      proton, while binding at the beta site is not detected by ITC. Phosphate enhances
      the metal affinity of the alpha site by increasing the binding entropy and the
      metal affinity of the beta site by enthalpic (Co) or entropic (Mn) contributions,
      but no additional loss of protons. Mutations of first- and second-coordination
      sphere residues at the beta site increase the metal affinity of both sites by
      enhancing the binding enthalpy. In particular, loss of the hydrogen bond from
      second-sphere Ser127 to the metal-coordinating Asn80 has a significant effect on
      the metal binding thermodynamics that result in a resting binuclear active site
      with high catalytic activity. While structural and spectroscopic data with excess
      metal ions have indicated a bridging hydroxide in the binuclear GpdQ site,
      analysis of ITC data here reveals the loss of a single proton in the assembly of
      this site, indicating that the metal-bound hydroxide nucleophile is formed in the
      resting inactive mononuclear form, which becomes catalytically competent upon
      binding the second metal ion.

PMID- 28562024
TI  - An Amino-Coordinated Metal-Organic Framework for Selective Gas Adsorption.
AB  - A novel 3D porous metal organic framework, JUC-141, constructed by 5
      aminoisophthalic acid and Cu(NO3)2, has been synthesized successfully. The
      carboxyl groups in the ligand coordinate to Cu2+ to form the classic Cu2(COO)4
      paddle wheel SBU, and the assembly of the SBUs with the isophthalic acid moieties
      leads to a kagome lattice. Interestingly, the amino groups in the ligand also
      take part in the coordination and link to the dipole of the paddle wheel as
      pillars, thus forming a 3D porous framework with eea topology. The sizes of the
      channels are 5.2 A in the direction of [111] and 10.9 A in the direction of
      [001]. Gas sorption tests show that the CO2 adsorption capacities of JUC-141 are
      79.94 and 51.39 cm3 g-1 at 273 and 298 K under 1 atm pressure, respectively.
      However, the N2 adsorption capacities of JUC-141 are 13.90 and 6.76 cm3 g-1 at
      273 and 298 K under 1 atm pressure, respectively. IAST calculations indicate that
      the selectivity values of CO2/N2 are 21.62 at 273 K and 27.60 at 298 K under 101
      kPa, respectively. Good selective adsorption of CO2 over N2 makes JUC-141
      possible for CO2 storage and separation.

PMID- 28562025
TI  - Monitoring and Control of an Adsorption System Using Electrical Properties of the
      Adsorbent for Organic Compound Abatement.
AB  - Adsorption systems typically need gas and temperature sensors to monitor their
      adsorption/regeneration cycles to separate gases from gas streams. Activated
      carbon fiber cloth (ACFC)-electrothermal swing adsorption (ESA) is an adsorption
      system that has the potential to be controlled with the electrical properties of
      the adsorbent and is studied here to monitor and control the
      adsorption/regeneration cycles without the use of gas and temperature sensors and
      to predict breakthrough before it occurs. The ACFC's electrical resistance was
      characterized on the basis of the amount of adsorbed organic gas/vapor and the
      adsorbent temperature. These relationships were then used to develop control
      logic to monitor and control ESA cycles on the basis of measured resistance and
      applied power values. Continuous sets of adsorption and regeneration cycles were
      performed sequentially entirely on the basis of remote electrical measurements
      and achieved >=95% capture efficiency at inlet concentrations of 2000 and 4000
      ppmv for isobutane, acetone, and toluene in dry and elevated relative humidity
      gas streams, demonstrating a novel cyclic ESA system that does not require gas or
      temperature sensors. This contribution is important because it reduces the cost
      and simplifies the system, predicts breakthrough before its occurrence, and
      reduces emissions to the atmosphere.

PMID- 28562026
TI  - Centralized Drinking Water Treatment Operations Shape Bacterial and Fungal
      Community Structure.
AB  - Drinking water microbial communities impact opportunistic pathogen colonization
      and corrosion of water distribution systems, and centralized drinking water
      treatment represents a potential control for microbial community structure in
      finished drinking water. In this article, we examine bacterial and fungal
      abundance and diversity, as well as the microbial community taxonomic structure
      following each unit operation in a conventional surface water treatment plant.
      Treatment operations drove the microbial composition more strongly than sampling
      time. Both bacterial and fungal abundance and diversity decreased following
      sedimentation and filtration; however, only bacterial abundance and diversity was
      significantly impacted by free chlorine disinfection. Similarly, each treatment
      step was found to shift bacterial and fungal community beta-diversity, with the
      exception of disinfection on the fungal community structure. We observed the
      enrichment of bacterial and fungal taxa commonly found in drinking water
      distribution systems through the treatment process, for example, Sphingomonas
      following filtration and Leptospirillium and Penicillium following disinfection.
      Study results suggest that centralized drinking water treatment processes shape
      the final drinking water microbial community via selection of community members
      and that the bacterial community is primarily driven by disinfection while the
      eukaryotic community is primarily controlled by physical treatment processes.

PMID- 28562028
TI  - Thermal Reduction of NOx with Recycled Plastics.
AB  - This study develops technology for mitigation of NOx formed in thermal processes
      using recycled plastics such as polyethylene (PE). Experiments involve sample
      characterization, and thermogravimetric decomposition of PE under controlled
      atmospheres, with NOx concentration relevant to industrial applications. TGA
      Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and NOx chemiluminescence serve to
      obtain the removal efficiency of NOx by fragments of pyrolyzing PE. Typical NOx
      removal efficiency amounts to 80%. We apply the isoconversional method to derive
      the kinetic parameters, and observe an increasing dependency of activation energy
      on the reaction progress. The activation energies of the process span 135 kJ/mol
      to 226 kJ/mol, and 188 kJ/mol to 268 kJ/mol, for neat and recycled PE,
      respectively, and the so-called compensation effect accounts for the natural
      logarithmic pre-exponential ln (A/min-1) factors of ca. 19-35 and 28-41, in the
      same order, depending on the PE conversion in the experimental interval of
      between 5 and 95%. The observed delay in thermal events of recycled PE reflects
      different types of PE in the plastic, as measurements of intrinsic viscosity
      indicate that, the recycled PE comprises longer linear chains. The present
      evaluation of isoconversional activation energies affords accurate kinetic
      modeling of both isothermal and nonisothermal decomposition of PE in NOx-doped
      atmosphere. Subsequent investigations will focus on the effect of mass transfer
      and the presence of oxygen, as reburning of NOx in large-scale combustors take
      place at higher temperatures than those included in the current study.

PMID- 28562029
TI  - P- and N-Coordination of the Ambidentate Ligand HN[P(i-Pr)2]2 with Group 13
      Trihalides.
AB  - Five different coordination motifs were observed upon reaction of the simple
      group 13 Lewis acids MCl3 (M = In, Ga, Al, B) or BF3.Et2O with the ambidentate
      bis(diisopropylphosphino)amine ligand HN[P(i-Pr)2]2. In a 1:1 reaction mixture,
      the softer Lewis acids InCl3, GaCl3 and BCl3 coordinate to one of the two P atoms
      of the ligand. In contrast, AlCl3 and BF3 prefer coordination to the harder N
      atom. In all cases, the acidic N-H proton is shifted to P upon complexation with
      a metal. By altering the reaction stoichiometry, 2:1 metal-ligand complexes could
      be isolated for three of the combinations. BCl3 gives a bis-adduct via the two P
      atoms. GaCl3 produces a salt consisting of a [GaCl4]- anion and a P,P-chelated
      [LGaCl2]+ cation. Most unexpectedly, the reaction with InCl3 in methanol resulted
      in solvent deprotonation by the ligand to give two symmetric [(i-Pr2PH)2N]+
      cations in which all the basic P sites are coordinated to H rather than the group
      13 Lewis acid. These cations are balanced by the unique complex dianion
      [(MeO)6In4Cl8.2MeOH]2-. All complexes were characterized with a combination of
      multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

PMID- 28562027
TI  - Intein Zymogens: Conditional Assembly and Splicing of Split Inteins via Targeted
      Proteolysis.
AB  - Naturally split inteins have found widespread use in chemical biology due to
      their ability to drive the ligation of separately expressed polypeptides through
      a process termed protein trans-splicing (PTS). In this study, we harness PTS by
      rendering association of split intein fragments conditional upon the presence of
      a user-defined protease. We show that these intein "zymogens" can be used to
      create protein sensors and actuators that respond to the presence of various
      stimuli, including bacterial pathogens, viral infections, and light. We also show
      that this design strategy is compatible with several orthogonal split intein
      pairs, thereby opening the way to the creation of multiplexed sensor systems.

PMID- 28562030
TI  - Switching Protein Localization by Site-Directed RNA Editing under Control of
      Light.
AB  - Site directed RNA editing is an engineered tool for the posttranscriptional
      manipulation of RNA and proteins. Here, we demonstrate the inclusion of
      additional N- and C-terminal protein domains in an RNA editing-dependent manner
      to switch between protein isoforms in mammalian cell culture. By inclusion of
      localization signals, a switch of the subcellular protein localization was
      achieved. This included the shift from the cytoplasm to the outer-membrane, which
      typically is inaccessible at the protein-level. Furthermore, the strategy allows
      to implement photocaging to achieve spatiotemporal control of isoform switching.
      The strategy does not require substantial genetic engineering, and might well
      complement current optogenetic and optochemical approaches.

PMID- 28562032
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Arylation of Benzylic C-H bonds with Alkylarenes as the Limiting
      Reagents.
AB  - A novel copper-catalyzed arylation of benzylic C-H bonds with nucleophilic
      arylboronic acids has been developed that provides an efficient way to synthesize
      various 1,1-diarylalkanes with a broad substrate scope and excellent functional
      group compatibility. The reactions occur at room temperature using alkylarenes as
      the limiting reagents, which allows access to the arylation of the more valuable
      and complex bioactive compounds.

PMID- 28562031
TI  - Europium-Labeled Synthetic C3a Protein as a Novel Fluorescent Probe for Human
      Complement C3a Receptor.
AB  - Measuring ligand affinity for a G protein-coupled receptor is often a crucial
      step in drug discovery. It has been traditionally determined by binding putative
      new ligands in competition with native ligand labeled with a radioisotope of
      finite lifetime. Competing instead with a lanthanide-based fluorescent ligand is
      more attractive due to greater longevity, stability, and safety. Here, we have
      chemically synthesized the 77 residue human C3a protein and conjugated its N
      terminus to europium diethylenetriaminepentaacetate to produce a novel
      fluorescent protein (Eu-DTPA-hC3a). Time-resolved fluorescence analysis has
      demonstrated that Eu-DTPA-hC3a binds selectively to its cognate G protein-coupled
      receptor C3aR with full agonist activity and similar potency and selectivity as
      native C3a in inducing calcium mobilization and phosphorylation of extracellular
      signal-regulated kinases in HEK293 cells that stably expressed C3aR. Time
      resolved fluorescence analysis for saturation and competitive binding gave a
      dissociation constant (Kd) of 8.7 +/- 1.4 nM for Eu-DTPA-hC3a and binding
      affinities for hC3a (pKi of 8.6 +/- 0.2 and Ki of 2.5 nM) and C3aR ligands TR16
      (pKi of 6.8 +/- 0.1 and Ki of 138 nM), BR103 (pKi of 6.7 +/- 0.1 and Ki of 185
      nM), BR111 (pKi of 6.3 +/- 0.2 and Ki of 544 nM) and SB290157 (pKi of 6.3 +/- 0.1
      and Ki of 517 nM) via displacement of Eu-DTPA-hC3a from hC3aR. The macromolecular
      conjugate Eu-DTPA-hC3a is a novel nonradioactive probe suitable for studying
      ligand-C3aR interactions with potential value in accelerating drug development
      for human C3aR in physiology and disease.

PMID- 28562034
TI  - Correction to "Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective C-H Activation of Aliphatic
      Amines Using Chiral Anionic BINOL-Phosphoric Acid Ligands".

PMID- 28562033
TI  - Toward a Droplet-Based Single-Cell Radiometric Assay.
AB  - Radiotracers are widely used to track molecular processes, both in vitro and in
      vivo, with high sensitivity and specificity. However, most radionuclide detection
      methods have spatial resolution inadequate for single-cell analysis. A few
      existing methods can extract single-cell information from radioactive decays, but
      the stochastic nature of the process precludes high-throughput measurement (and
      sorting) of single cells. In this work, we introduce a new concept for
      translating radioactive decays occurring stochastically within radiolabeled
      single-cells into an integrated, long-lasting fluorescence signal. Single cells
      are encapsulated in radiofluorogenic droplets containing molecular probes
      sensitive to byproducts of ionizing radiation (primarily reactive oxygen species,
      or ROS). Different probes were examined in bulk solutions, and dihydrorhodamine
      123 (DHRh 123) was selected as the lead candidate due to its sensitivity and
      reproducibility. Fluorescence intensity of DHRh 123 in bulk increased at a rate
      of 54% per Gy of X-ray radiation and 15% per MBq/ml of 2-deoxy-2-[18F]-fluoro-d
      glucose ([18F]FDG). Fluorescence imaging of microfluidic droplets showed the same
      linear response, but droplets were less sensitive overall than the bulk ROS
      sensor (detection limit of 3 Gy per droplet). Finally, droplets encapsulating
      radiolabeled cancer cells allowed, for the first time, the detection of [18F]FDG
      radiotracer uptake in single cells through fluorescence activation. With further
      improvements, we expect this technology to enable quantitative measurement and
      selective sorting of single cells based on the uptake of radiolabeled small
      molecules.

PMID- 28562035
TI  - Ligand Binding Constants to Lithium Hexamethyldisilazide Determined by Diffusion
      Ordered NMR Spectroscopy.
AB  - We report the direct measurement of ligand-binding constants of organolithium
      complexes using a 1H NMR/diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) titration
      technique. Lithium hexamethyldisilazide complexes with ethereal and ester donor
      ligands (THF, diethyl ether, MTBE, THP, tert-butyl acetate) are characterized
      using 1H NMR and X-ray crystallography. Their aggregation and solvation states
      are confirmed using diffusion coefficient-formula weight correlation analysis,
      and the 1H NMR/DOSY titration technique is applied to obtain their binding
      constants. Our work suggests that steric hindrance of ethereal ligands plays an
      important role in the aggregation, solvation, and reactivity of these complexes.
      It is noteworthy that diffusion methodology is utilized to obtain binding
      constants.

PMID- 28562036
TI  - Mechanism for the Excited-State Multiple Proton Transfer Process of
      Dihydroxyanthraquinone Chromophores.
AB  - The single and dual cooperated proton transfer dynamic process in the excited
      state of 1,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone (1,5-DHAQ) was theoretically investigated,
      taking solvent effects (ethanol) into account. The absorption and fluorescence
      spectra were simulated, and dual fluorescence exhibited, which is consistent with
      previous experiments. Analysis of the calculated IR and Raman vibration spectra
      reveals that the intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions (O20-H21...O24 and
      O22-H23...O25) are strengthened following the excited proton transfer process.
      Finally, by constructing the potential energy surfaces of the ground state, first
      excited singlet state, and triplet state, the mechanism of the intramolecular
      proton transfer of 1,5-DHAQ can be revealed.

PMID- 28562038
TI  - Use of Fe-Impregnated Biochar To Efficiently Sorb Chlorpyrifos, Reduce Uptake by
      Allium fistulosum L., and Enhance Microbial Community Diversity.
AB  - Fe-impregnated biochar was assessed as a method to remove the pesticide pollutant
      chlorpyrifos, utilizing biochar/FeOx composite synthesized via chemical
      coprecipitation of Fe3+/Fe2+ onto Cyperus alternifolius biochar. Fe-impregnated
      biochar exhibited a higher sorption capacity than pristine biochar, resulting in
      more efficient removal of chlorpyrifos from water. Soil was dosed with pristine
      or Fe-impregnated biochar at 0.1 or 1.0% w/w, to evaluate chlorpyrifos uptake in
      Allium fistulosum L. (Welsh onion). The results showed that the average
      concentration of chlorpyrifos and its degradation product, 3,5,6-trichloro-2
      pyridinol (TCP), decreased in A. fistulosum L. with increased levels of pristine
      biochar and Fe-biochar. Fe-biochar was found to be more effective in reducing the
      uptake of chlorpyrifos by improving the sorption ability and increasing plant
      root iron plaque. Bioavailability of chlorpyrifos is reduced with both biochar
      and Fe-biochar soil dosing; however, the greatest persistence of chlorpyrifos
      residues was observed with 1.0% pristine biochar. Microbial community analysis
      showed Fe-biochar to have a positive impact on the efficiency of chlorpyrifos
      degradation in soils, possibly by altering microbial communities.

PMID- 28562037
TI  - Computational Discovery and Experimental Validation of Inhibitors of the Human
      Intestinal Transporter OATP2B1.
AB  - Human organic anion transporters (OATPs) are vital for the uptake and efflux of
      drugs and endogenous compounds. Current identification of inhibitors of these
      transporters is based on experimental screening. Virtual screening remains a
      challenge due to a lack of experimental three-dimensional protein structures.
      Here, we describe a workflow to identify inhibitors of the OATP2B1 transporter in
      the DrugBank library of over 5,000 drugs and druglike molecules. OATP member 2B1
      transporter is highly expressed in the intestine, where it participates in oral
      absorption of drugs. Predictions from a Random forest classifier, prioritized by
      docking against multiple comparative protein structure models of OATP2B1,
      indicated that 33 of the 5,000 compounds were putative inhibitors of OATP2B1. Ten
      predicted inhibitors that are prescription drugs were tested experimentally in
      cells overexpressing the OATP2B1 transporter. Three of these ten were validated
      as potent inhibitors of estrone-3-sulfate uptake (defined as more than 50%
      inhibition at 20 MUM) and tested in multiple concentrations to determine exact
      IC50. The IC50 values of bicalutamide, ticagrelor, and meloxicam suggest that
      they might inhibit intestinal OATP2B1 at clinically relevant concentrations and
      therefore modulate the absorption of other concomitantly administered drugs.

PMID- 28562039
TI  - Temporal Labeling of Nascent RNA Using Photoclick Chemistry in Live Cells.
AB  - We report the first cellular application of a photoclick SPAAC reagent to label
      azide-functionalized RNA. 350 nm irradiation of a cyclopropenone caged oxo
      dibenzocyclooctyne (photo-ODIBO) biotin yields formation of the SPAAC reactive
      species, which rapidly forms adducts with RNA containing 2'-azidoadenosine (2'N3
      A). Photo-ODIBO was found to be highly stable in the presence of thiols,
      conferring greater stability relative to ODIBO. Light activated photo-ODIBO
      enabled tagging of cellular RNA, in addition to fluorescent imaging as well as
      enrichment of RNA in cell subpopulations via selective irradiation.

PMID- 28562040
TI  - Synthesis of Bisdesmosidic Oleanolic Acid Saponins via a Glycosylation
      Deprotection Sequence under Continuous Microfluidic/Batch Conditions.
AB  - We report the first synthesis of a series of bisdesmosidic oleanolic acid
      saponins using microflow reactor Comet X-01 via a continuous flow glycosylation
      batch deprotection sequence. The main results of this study can be summarized as
      follows: (1) The microfluidic glycosylation of oleanolic acid at C-28 was
      achieved in quantitative yield and was applied to the synthesis of six C-28
      monoglycosidic saponins. (2) The microfluidic glycosylation of oleanolic acid at
      C-3 was achieved in good yield without orthoester byproduct formation and was
      applied to the synthesis of three bisdesmosidic saponins. (3) The continuous
      synthesis of saponins via a microfluidic glycosylation-batch deprotection
      sequence was achieved in four steps involving two purifications. Thus, the
      continuous microfluidic glycosylation-deprotection process is expected to be
      suitable for the preparation of a library of bisdesmosidic oleanolic acid
      saponins for in vivo pharmacological studies.

PMID- 28562041
TI  - Preparation and Characterization of Controlled-Release Avermectin/Castor Oil
      Based Polyurethane Nanoemulsions.
AB  - Avermectin (AVM) is a low-toxic and high-active biopesticide, but it can be
      easily degraded by UV light. In this paper, biodegradable castor oil-based
      polyurethanes (CO-PU) are synthesized and used as carriers to fabricate a new
      kind of AVM/CO-PU nanoemulsion through an emulsion solvent evaporation method,
      and the chemical structure, colloidal property, AVM loading capacity, controlled
      release behavior, foliar adhesion, and photostability of the AVM/CO-PU drug
      delivery systems are investigated. Results show that AVM is physically
      encapsulated in the CO-PU carrier nanospheres, the diameter of the AVM/CO-PU
      nanoparticles is <50 nm, and the AVM/CO-PU films are flat and smooth without any
      AVM aggregate. The drug loading capacity is up to 42.3 wt % with a high
      encapsulation efficiency of >85%. The release profiles indicate that the release
      rate is relatively high at the early stage and then slows, which can be adjusted
      by loaded AVM content, temperature, and pH of the release medium. The foliar
      pesticide retention of the AVM/CO-PU nanoemulsions is improved, and the
      photolysis rate of AVM in the AVM/CO-PU nanoparticles is significantly slower
      than that of the free AVM. A release mechanism of the AVM/CO-PU nanoemulsions is
      proposed, which is controlled by both diffusion and matrix erosion.

PMID- 28562042
TI  - Solvent Effects on Optical Rotation: On the Balance between Hydrogen Bonding and
      Shifts in Dihedral Angles.
AB  - Optical rotations of several conformers of four fluorinated molecules containing
      the 1-naphthalene or 4-(benzyloxy)phenyl group at the stereocenter have been
      calculated both in the gas phase and in an aqueous environment. For the compounds
      containing the 4-(benzyloxy)phenyl group, solvent effects on the optical
      rotations have also been investigated in chloroform as solvent. Optical rotations
      have been obtained by time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) with the
      CAM-B3LYP functional and the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set at lambda = 589 nm. Implicit
      and explicit solvent effects were investigated through the polarizable continuum
      model (PCM) and a microsolvation approach in conjunction with PCM, respectively.
      In the latter model, solvent molecules are considered as an explicit solvent and
      their positions are obtained by geometry optimizations for different conformers
      of the chiral molecule. For molecules containing the 1-naphthalene group, this
      model gives the same optical rotation signs for all conformers as compared to
      both gas phase and PCM results and reduces absolute deviations between
      calculations and experiment. Also, the microsolvation model reproduces the sign
      of the experimental optical rotations for the molecules containing the 4
      (benzyloxy)phenyl group using both water and chloroform as solvent. In a
      microsolvation model, however, the water and chloroform solvent molecules have
      similar hydrogen bonds but different effects on the conformation and thereby on
      the optical rotation since one dihedral angle, having a large effect on the
      optical rotation, is strongly sensitive to hydrogen bonding to water but not to
      chloroform. Our investigations demonstrate that a microsolvation approach in
      conjunction with PCM predicts optical rotations in reasonable agreements with
      experiments for both sign and magnitude.

PMID- 28562043
TI  - Far-Zone Resonant Energy Transfer in X-ray Photoemission as a Structure
      Determination Tool.
AB  - Near-zone Forster resonant energy transfer is the main effect responsible for
      excitation energy flow in the optical region and is frequently used to obtain
      structural information. In the hard X-ray region, the Forster law is inadequate
      because the wavelength is generally shorter than the distance between donors and
      acceptors; hence, far-zone resonant energy transfer (FZRET) becomes dominant. We
      demonstrate the characteristics of X-ray FZRET and its fundamental differences
      with the ordinary near-zone resonant energy-transfer process in the optical
      region by recording and analyzing two qualitatively different systems: high
      density CuO polycrystalline powder and SF6 diluted gas. We suggest a method to
      estimate geometrical structure using X-ray FZRET employing as a ruler the
      distance-dependent shift of the acceptor core ionization potential induced by the
      Coulomb field of the core-ionized donor.

PMID- 28562044
TI  - Revealing the Chemistry and Morphology of Buried Donor/Acceptor Interfaces in
      Organic Photovoltaics.
AB  - With power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of <13% and plagued by stability
      issues, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) still lack wide adoption, despite
      significant recent advances. Currently, the most progress in OPV device
      performance is achieved by "trial-and-error" preparation procedures that lead to
      complex and largely unknown-despite tremendous analytical efforts-morphologies.
      Here, we demonstrate a proof-of-principle, chemical imaging methodology that
      combines experimental high spatial sensitivity and chemical selectivity with
      theoretical modeling, capable of analyzing the three-dimensional composition and
      morphology of virtually any device. Allowing the precise measurement of
      composition and direct visualization of film morphology with depth, our approach
      reveals the intricate buried donor/acceptor (D/A) interface of a model
      polymer/fullerene system, poly(3-hexylthiphene-2,5-diyl)/[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric
      acid methyl ester (P3HT/PCBM). In particular, our technique is able to identify
      and quantify the D/A interface length, that is, the extent of molecular mixing at
      the D/A interface, a parameter crucial for device performance, yet never
      measured. Extracting this parameter allows demonstrating that, contrary to the
      general understanding, when starting with a fully mixed D/A phase in our model
      system, thermal annealing, which is known to substantially (however limited)
      increase the device performance by phase segregation, does not create but small
      amounts of pure phases, leaving the device mostly mixed, which limits the
      performance improvement.

PMID- 28562045
TI  - Dimerization and Structural Stability of Amyloid Precursor Proteins Affected by
      the Membrane Microenvironments.
AB  - The lipid raft microenvironment is implicated in the generation of the
      pathological amyloid-beta (Abeta) species in amyloid precursor protein (APP) that
      is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Evidence shows that APP forms a
      transmembrane homodimer with changeable structures as a function of the membrane
      compositions. However, the molecular responsibility of the dimerization and
      structural alteration for the amyloidogenic process in segregated membranes
      remains largely unclear. Here, we performed multiple coarse grained (CG)
      simulations to explore the behavioral preference of the transmembrane domain of
      APP (called C99) that is affected by the lipid raft microenvironment. The results
      showed that C99 was anchored at the boundary of the lipid raft relying on the
      conserved hydrophobic motif of V710xxA713xxxV717xxxV721. Moreover, the
      dimerization of C99 was greatly destabilized by the lipid raft, which led to a
      susceptible switching packing conformation. The molecular driving forces were
      derived from the combined regulation of the saturated lipids and cholesterols
      rather than from the simple binding competition of cholesterol in the C99
      dimerization. The molecular details of the differential dimerization in the raft
      forming and bulk fluid bilayer environments were compared, and the structural
      information was helpful for further understanding the enzymolysis responsiveness
      of APP.

PMID- 28562046
TI  - Gunnilactams A-C, Macrocyclic Tetralactams from the Mycelial Culture of the
      Entomogenous Fungus Paecilomyces gunnii.
AB  - Three novel macrocyclic tetralactams, gunnilactam A (1), gunnilactam B (2), and
      gunnilactam C (3), were isolated from the submerged fermentation broth of
      Paecilomyces gunnii, an entomogenous fungus identified as the anamorph of
      Cordyceps gunnii. Their structures were determined using NMR data, HREIMS, and
      single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Gunnilactam A exhibited selective cytotoxic
      activity against human prostate cancer C42B cells with an IC50 value of 5.4 MUM.

PMID- 28562047
TI  - Surface Plasmon Coupling and Control Using Spherical Cap Structures.
AB  - Propagating surface plasmons (PSPs) launched from a protruded silver spherical
      cap structure are investigated using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) and
      finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculations. Our combined experimental and
      theoretical findings reveal that PSP coupling efficiency is comparable to
      conventional etched-in plasmonic coupling structures. Additionally, plasmon
      propagation direction can be varied by linear rotation of the driving laser
      polarization. A simple geometric model is proposed in which the plasmon direction
      selectivity is proportional to the projection of the linear laser polarization on
      the surface normal. A application for the spherical cap coupler as a gate device
      is proposed. Overall, our results indicate that protruded cap structures hold
      great promise as elements in emerging surface plasmon applications.

PMID- 28562048
TI  - Lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) Pulp Phenolic Extract Confers a Protective
      Activity against Alcoholic Liver Disease in Mice by Alleviating Mitochondrial
      Dysfunction.
AB  - Mitochondria play an important role in the initiation and development of
      alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Our previous studies found lychee pulp phenolic
      extract (LPPE) exerted protective effect against ALD partly by inhibiting fatty
      acid beta-oxidation, and phenolic-rich lychee pulp extract improved restraint
      stress-induced liver injury by inhibiting mitochondrial dysfunction. The aim of
      this study was to investigate whether LPPE exerted protective effect against ALD
      via modulating mitochondrial function. The mice were treated with an ethanol
      containing liquid diet alone or in combination with LPPE for 8 weeks. LPPE
      supplementation significantly alleviated hepatic steatosis, suppressed serum
      aspartate aminotransferase activity, and decreased triglyceride levels in serum
      and liver. On the basis of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzyme analyses,
      LPPE supplementation inhibited serum and hepatic oxidative stress. Moreover, LPPE
      supplementation significantly suppressed mitochondrial 8-hydroxy-2'
      deoxyguanosine level, and increased mitochondrial membrane potential,
      mitochondrial DNA content, activities of mitochondrial complexes I and IV, and
      hepatic ATP level. Furthermore, LPPE supplementation significantly inhibited
      cytoplasmic cytochrome c level and caspase-3 activity, repressed Bax expression
      and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and increased Bcl-2 expression in liver. In summary, LPPE
      exerts beneficial effects against alcoholic liver injury by alleviating
      mitochondrial dysfunction.

PMID- 28562049
TI  - Protective Effect of Camellia Oil (Camellia oleifera Abel.) against Ethanol
      Induced Acute Oxidative Injury of the Gastric Mucosa in Mice.
AB  - Camellia oil, a common edible oil in Taiwan and China, has health effects for the
      gastrointestinal tract in folk medicine, and it contains abundant unsaturated
      fatty acids and phytochemicals. However, the preventive effect of camellia oil on
      ethanol-induced gastric ulcers remains unclear. This study was aimed to evaluate
      the preventive effect of camellia oil on ethanol-induced gastric injury in vitro
      and in vivo as well as its mechanisms of action. In an in vitro study, our
      results showed that pretreatment of RGM-1 cells with camellia oil enhanced the
      migration ability as well as increased heat shock protein expression and reduced
      apoptotic protein expression. In animal experiments, mice pretreated with
      camellia oil effectively showed improved ethanol-induced acute injury of the
      gastric muscosa and oxidative damage through the enhancement of antioxidant
      enzyme activities and heat shock protein and PGE2 production, as well as the
      suppression of lipid peroxidation, apoptosis-related proteins, pro-inflammatory
      cytokines, and NO production. Histological injury score and hemorrhage score in
      ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage dramatically elevated from the control
      group (0.00 +/- 0.0) to 3.40 +/- 0.7 and 2.60 +/- 0.5, respectively. However,
      treatments with camellia oil or olive oil (2 mL/kg bw) and lansoprazole (30 mg/kg
      bw) showed significant decreases in elevation of injury score and hemorrhage
      score (p < 0.05). Therefore, camellia oil has the potential to ameliorate ethanol
      induced acute gastric mucosal injury through the inhibition of inflammation and
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28562050
TI  - A Michael Addition-Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation One-Pot Enantioselective
      Tandem Process for Syntheses of Chiral gamma-Secondary Amino Alcohols.
AB  - An aza-Michael addition-asymmetric transfer hydrogenation tandem process for
      preparation of chiral gamma-secondary amino alcohols has been developed. This one
      pot tandem process involves an aza-Michael addition of aryl-substituted enones
      and amines to form aryl-substituted gamma-secondary amino ketones, followed by a
      Ru-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation to form aryl-substituted gamma
      secondary amino alcohols. An advantageous feature of this tandem reaction is that
      it provides various gamma-secondary amino alcohols in high yields with high
      enantioselectivities.

PMID- 28562051
TI  - Homogeneously Mixed Monolayers: Emergence of Compositionally Conflicted
      Interfaces.
AB  - The ability to manipulate interfaces at the nanoscale via a variety of thin-film
      technologies offers a plethora of avenues for advancing surface applications.
      These include surfaces with remarkable antibiofouling properties as well as those
      with tunable physical and electronic properties. Molecular self-assembly is one
      notably attractive method used to decorate and modify surfaces. Of particular
      interest to surface scientists has been the thiolate-gold system, which serves as
      a reliable method for generating model thin-film monolayers that transform the
      interfacial properties of gold surfaces. Despite widespread interest, efforts to
      tune the interfacial properties using mixed adsorbate systems have frequently led
      to phase-separated domains of molecules on the surface with random sizes and
      shapes depending on the structure and chemical composition of the adsorbates.
      This feature article highlights newly emerging methods for generating mixed thin
      film interfaces, not only to enhance the aforementioned properties of organic
      thin films, but also to give rise to interfacial compositions never before
      observed in nature. An example would be the development of monolayers formed from
      bidentate adsorbates and other unique headgroup architectures that provide the
      surface bonding stability necessary to allow the assembly of interfaces that
      expose mixtures of chains that are fundamentally different in character (i.e.,
      either phase-incompatible or structurally dissimilar), producing compositionally
      "conflicted" interfaces. By also exploring the prior efforts to produce such
      homogeneously blended interfaces, this feature article seeks to convey the
      relationships between the methods of film formation and the overall properties of
      the resulting interfaces.

PMID- 28562052
TI  - Critical Role of Methylammonium Librational Motion in Methylammonium Lead Iodide
      (CH3NH3PbI3) Perovskite Photochemistry.
AB  - Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are used to investigate dynamic
      structure-function relationships in methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3)
      perovskite. The intensity of the 150 cm-1 methylammonium (MA) librational Raman
      mode is found to be correlated with PL intensities in microstructures of MAPbI3.
      Because of the strong hydrogen bond between hydrogens in MA and iodine in the
      PbI6 perovskite octahedra, the Raman activity of MA is very sensitive to
      structural distortions of the inorganic framework. The structural distortions
      directly influence PL intensities, which in turn have been correlated with
      microstructure quality. Our measurements, supported with first-principles
      calculations, indicate how excited-state MA librational displacements
      mechanistically control PL efficiency and lifetime in MAPbI3-material parameters
      that are likely important for efficient photovoltaic devices.

PMID- 28562053
TI  - Numerical Simulation of Coalescence-Induced Jumping of Multidroplets on
      Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Initial Droplet Arrangement Effect.
AB  - The coalescence-induced droplet jumping on superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) has
      attracted considerable attention over the past several years. Most of the studies
      on droplet jumping mainly focus on two-droplet coalescence events whereas the
      coalescence of three or more droplets is actually more frequent and still remains
      poorly understood. In this work, a 3D lattice Boltzmann simulation is carried out
      to investigate the effect of initial droplet arrangements on the coalescence
      induced jumping of three equally sized droplets. Depending on the initial
      position of droplets on the surface, the droplet coalescence behaviors can be
      generally classified into two types: one is that all droplets coalesce together
      instantaneously (concentrated configuration), and the other is that the initial
      coalesced droplet sweeps up the third droplet in its moving path (spaced
      configuration). The critical Ohnesorge number, Oh, for the transition of inertial
      capillary-dominated coalescence to inertially limited-viscous coalescence is
      found to be 0.10 for droplet coalescence on SHSs with a contact angle of 160
      degrees . The jumping droplet velocity for concentrated multidroplet coalescence
      at Oh ? 0.10 still follows the inertial-capillary scaling with an increased
      prefactor, which indicates a viable jumping droplet velocity enhancement scheme.
      However, the droplet jumping velocity is drastically reduced for the spaced
      configuration compared to that for the aforementioned concentrated configuration.
      Because Oh exceeds 0.10, the effects of initial droplet arrangements on
      multidroplet jumping become weaker as viscosity plays a key role in the merging
      process. This work will provide effective guidelines for the design of functional
      SHSs with enhanced droplet jumping for a wide range of industrial applications.

PMID- 28562054
TI  - Highly Selective Synthesis of Dihydrobenzo[d]isoxazoles and
      Dihydrobenzo[d]oxazoles from Oximes and Arynes via in Situ Generation of
      Nitrones.
AB  - An efficient method for the synthesis of dihydrobenzo[d]isoxazoles and
      dihydrobenzo[d]oxazoles bearing a quaternary carbon center has been developed.
      The reaction involves generation of a ketonitrone intermediate in situ from a
      ketoxime and an aryne. A novel thermal rearrangement of the
      dihydrobenzo[d]isoxazole products to the corresponding dihydrobenzo[d]oxazoles
      has been observed. These transformations tolerate a variety of functional groups
      and offer a rapid and efficient way to diverse dihydrobenzo[d]isoxazoles and
      dihydrobenzo[d]oxazoles under mild transition-metal-free conditions.

PMID- 28562055
TI  - Formal Total Synthesis of Actinoranone and Asymmetric Synthesis of Labda-7,13-(E)
      dien-15-ol.
AB  - The syntheses of the polyketide and terpenoid fragments of actinoranone are
      reported in a concise fashion, relying on catalytic methods. Minimization on the
      use of protecting groups and redox reactions allowed the synthesis of the carbon
      backbone of actinoranone in 20 steps (11 steps for LLS). The asymmetric synthesis
      of labda-7,13-(E)-dien-15-ol is also disclosed.

PMID- 28562056
TI  - One-Dimensional van der Waals Material Tellurium: Raman Spectroscopy under Strain
      and Magneto-Transport.
AB  - Experimental demonstrations of one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals material
      tellurium (Te) have been presented by Raman spectroscopy under strain and magneto
      transport. Raman spectroscopy measurements have been performed under strains
      along different principle axes. Pronounced strain response along the c-axis is
      observed due to the strong intrachain covalent bonds, while no strain response is
      obtained along the a-axis due to the weak interchain van der Waals interaction.
      Magneto-transport results further verify its anisotropic property, which results
      in dramatically distinct magneto-resistance behaviors in terms of three different
      magnetic field directions. Specifically, phase coherence length extracted from
      weak antilocalization effect, Lphi ~ T-0.5, claims its two-dimensional (2D)
      transport characteristics when an applied magnetic field is perpendicular to the
      thin film. In contrast, Lphi ~ T-0.33 is obtained from universal conductance
      fluctuations once the magnetic field is along the c-axis of Te, which indicates
      its nature of 1D transport along the helical atomic chains. Our studies, which
      are obtained on high quality single crystal Te thin film, appear to serve as
      strong evidence of its 1D van der Waals structure from experimental perspectives.
      It is the aim of this paper to address this special concept that differs from the
      previous well-studied 1D nanowires or 2D van der Waals materials.

PMID- 28562057
TI  - Chemoselective and Diastereoconvergent Cu(II)-Catalyzed Aerobic Endoperoxidation
      of Polycarbonyls.
AB  - The diastereoconvergent synthesis of spirocyclic endoperoxides using a Meldrum's
      acid scaffold has been accomplished by employing readily available feedstock
      chemicals. Site selective C-H oxidation of the bis(beta-dicarbonyl) substrates
      was performed using elemental oxygen as the stoichiometric oxidant and a
      commercial Cu(II) catalyst. Sequential hydrogenolysis and ionic reduction of
      these endoperoxides provided fully substituted tetrahydrofurans in high yields
      and diastereoselectivity.

PMID- 28562058
TI  - Digestive Ripening: A Fine Chemical Machining Process on the Nanoscale.
AB  - A comprehensive overview of the process of digestive ripening that is known to
      convert polydisperse nanocrystals to monodisperse ones is presented. Apart from
      highlighting the role of organic molecules (ligands) in achieving size control,
      the roles of other parameters such as the nanocrystal-ligand binding strength and
      the temperature at which the reaction is carried out in accomplishing size
      control are also delineated. The generality of the procedure is illustrated by
      providing examples of how it is used to prepare monodisperse nanocrystals of
      different metals, alloy systems, and ultrasmall nanocrystals and also to narrow
      the size distribution in complex binary and ternary nanocrystal systems. Finally,
      the current status as far as the theoretical understanding of how size control is
      being achieved by digestive ripening is laid out, emphasizing at the same time
      the necessity to undertake more systematic studies to completely realize the full
      potential of this practically very useful procedure.

PMID- 28562059
TI  - Thiadiazole-fused Quinoxalineimide as an Electron-deficient Building Block for N
      type Organic Semiconductors.
AB  - A strong electron-accepting planar pi-conjugated framework, thiadiazole-fused
      quinoxalineimide (TQI), was designed and synthesized. Three TQI-based small
      molecules exhibit deep lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels, which
      require air stable n-channel conduction (~-4.0 eV). Among these molecules, Hex
      TQI-Br exhibits air-stable n-channel charge transport with a moderate mobility of
      0.044 cm2 V-1 s-1.

PMID- 28562060
TI  - Sphagnum Moss as an Indicator of Contemporary Rates of Atmospheric Dust
      Deposition in the Athabasca Bituminous Sands Region.
AB  - Sphagnum moss was collected from ombrotrophic (rain-fed) peat bogs to quantify
      dust emissions from the open-pit mining and upgrading of Athabasca bituminous
      sands (ABS). A total of 30 bogs were sampled in the ABS region, and 5 were
      sampled in central Alberta. Ash was separated into the acid-insoluble ash (AIA)
      and acid-soluble ash (ASA) fractions using HCl. The AIA concentrations increase
      toward industry from 0.4 +/- 0.5% to 4.7 +/- 2.0% over a distance of 30 km; the
      control site at the Utikuma Region Study Area (URSA) yielded 0.29 +/- 0.07% (n =
      30). Mass accumulations rates showed similar spatial variation. The morphology
      and mineralogy of the AIA particles were studied using scanning electron
      microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis and the particle size
      distributions using optical methods. Particle size was more variable in moss
      closer to industry. Major ions in the ASA fraction showed elevated accumulation
      rates of Ca, K, Fe, Mg, P, and S, with P being up to 5 times greater in samples
      nearest industry compared to those in distal locations. Given that P has been
      regarded as the growth-limiting nutrient in bogs, fertilization of nutrient-poor
      ecosystems, such as these from fugitive emissions of dusts from open-pit mining,
      may have long-term ecological ramifications.

PMID- 28562062
TI  - Quantum Dynamics with Short-Time Trajectories and Minimal Adaptive Basis Sets.
AB  - Methods for solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation via basis set
      expansion of the wave function can generally be categorized as having either
      static (time-independent) or dynamic (time-dependent) basis functions. We have
      recently introduced an alternative simulation approach which represents a middle
      road between these two extremes, employing dynamic (classical-like) trajectories
      to create a static basis set of Gaussian wavepackets in regions of phase-space
      relevant to future propagation of the wave function [J. Chem. Theory Comput., 11,
      8 (2015)]. Here, we propose and test a modification of our methodology which aims
      to reduce the size of basis sets generated in our original scheme. In particular,
      we employ short-time classical trajectories to continuously generate new basis
      functions for short-time quantum propagation of the wave function; to avoid the
      continued growth of the basis set describing the time-dependent wave function, we
      employ Matching Pursuit to periodically minimize the number of basis functions
      required to accurately describe the wave function. Overall, this approach
      generates a basis set which is adapted to evolution of the wave function while
      also being as small as possible. In applications to challenging benchmark
      problems, namely a 4-dimensional model of photoexcited pyrazine and three
      different double-well tunnelling problems, we find that our new scheme enables
      accurate wave function propagation with basis sets which are around an order-of
      magnitude smaller than our original trajectory-guided basis set methodology,
      highlighting the benefits of adaptive strategies for wave function propagation.

PMID- 28562061
TI  - Methane and Benzene in Drinking-Water Wells Overlying the Eagle Ford,
      Fayetteville, and Haynesville Shale Hydrocarbon Production Areas.
AB  - Water wells (n = 116) overlying the Eagle Ford, Fayetteville, and Haynesville
      Shale hydrocarbon production areas were sampled for chemical, isotopic, and
      groundwater-age tracers to investigate the occurrence and sources of selected
      hydrocarbons in groundwater. Methane isotopes and hydrocarbon gas compositions
      indicate most of the methane in the wells was biogenic and produced by the CO2
      reduction pathway, not from thermogenic shale gas. Two samples contained methane
      from the fermentation pathway that could be associated with hydrocarbon
      degradation based on their co-occurrence with hydrocarbons such as ethylbenzene
      and butane. Benzene was detected at low concentrations (<0.15 MUg/L), but
      relatively high frequencies (2.4-13.3% of samples), in the study areas. Eight of
      nine samples containing benzene had groundwater ages >2500 years, indicating the
      benzene was from subsurface sources such as natural hydrocarbon migration or
      leaking hydrocarbon wells. One sample contained benzene that could be from a
      surface release associated with hydrocarbon production activities based on its
      age (10 +/- 2.4 years) and proximity to hydrocarbon wells. Groundwater travel
      times inferred from the age-data indicate decades or longer may be needed to
      fully assess the effects of potential subsurface and surface releases of
      hydrocarbons on the wells.

PMID- 28562063
TI  - Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Tetrasubstituted Cyclic Enones to Chiral
      Cycloalkanols with Three Contiguous Stereocenters.
AB  - A highly efficient iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of tetrasubstituted
      cyclic enones has been developed for the enantioselective synthesis of chiral
      cycloalkanols with three contiguous stereocenters. The C?O and C?C bonds of the
      enone substrates were hydrogenated sequentially in one pot with excellent
      enantioselectivity (92 to >99% ee) and diastereoselectivity (dr 95:5 to >99:1).
      The reaction provided a practical approach to all of the stereoisomers of the
      antiulcer drug rosaprostol.

PMID- 28562064
TI  - Technostress: measuring a new threat to well-being in later life.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Technostress is stress induced by Information and Communication
      Technology (ICT) use. Research on the topic has focused primarily on the
      workforce and tended to overlook senior citizens. This study presents the
      development of a new scale, which was designed to measure technostress
      specifically among older adults. METHOD: The scale explores five constructs:
      overload, invasion, complexity, privacy and inclusion. The initial 20-item
      measure was tested in a pilot study and then included in an online survey of 537
      Internet users aged 60 years and over. RESULTS: Based on the statistical
      analysis, the scale was reduced to 14 items. The constructs had good internal
      homogeneity, significant inter-construct correlations and high loadings on a
      single latent factor. The scores were well distributed along the range.
      Concurrent validity was assessed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale. A
      significant negative association was found between the two scales - a correlation
      that remained significant even after controlling for background variables.
      CONCLUSION: The new scale is useful for measuring technostress in older people,
      and technostress ought to be considered a particular threat to well-being in
      later life. Future research should explore its antecedents and consequences and
      identify interventions useful in alleviating its harmful effect on older ICT
      users.

PMID- 28562066
TI  - A minireview of effects of maternal diet during pregnancy on postnatal vegetable
      consumption: Implications for future research (a new hypothesis) and
      recommendations.
AB  - The flavor of the maternal diet is transferred to the amniotic fluid and in this
      way the amniotic fluid becomes a transmitter of flavor-related information,
      developing babies can perceive in uterus. We aimed to review the available
      evidence regarding the impact of prenatal exposure to flavor on postnatal
      vegetable-related eating behavior. Studies of our focus have been the ones that
      have ad hoc examined the association of prenatal experience with vegetable
      related flavors with vegetable consumption in children. We have identified that
      some studies have found this association, against others. Particularly, the first
      group of studies found an increased vegetable intake at weaning and late
      childhood associated with prenatal flavor exposure. The second set, instead, did
      not find this association of variables at early childhood. We propose here that
      the vegetable type used in these last studies might explain this disparity of
      results, and suggest the following hypothesis to be tested in the future:
      prenatal exposure to nonbitter vegetables leads to an increased vegetable
      consumption at early childhood in comparison to prenatal exposure to bitter
      vegetables, postnatal exposure to vegetables and no exposure. The experimental
      design of this hypothesis as well as subsequent recommendations for future
      research and maternal diet are also here suggested.

PMID- 28562068
TI  - Extroversion, social support and life satisfaction in old age: a mediation model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was twofold: on the one hand to analyze whether
      extroversion predicts social support in older people, and on the other hand to
      determine if different types of social support mediate the effect that
      extroversion has on older people's life satisfaction. METHOD: The sample
      comprised 406 community-dwelling older adults (M = 74.88, SD = 6.75) from urban
      areas of Granada, southern Spain. RESULTS: Extroversion was positively correlated
      with emotional (r = .23) and with affectionate support (r = .30). Extroversion
      and all types of social support also positively correlated with life
      satisfaction. The multiple mediation analysis revealed that when age, gender,
      marital status and loneliness were controlled, extroversion predicted emotional
      (B = .008, p < .01) and affectionate support (B = .015, p < .01) and emotional
      and affectionate support mediated the association between extroversion and life
      satisfaction (total effect: B = .034, SE = .0024, p < .001, r2 = .295). Results
      from this study highlight the fact supportive social relations are crucial for
      older people's life satisfaction. Also emotional and affectionate support
      constitutes important explanatory mechanisms of the indirect effect of
      extroversion on life satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Personality traits should be
      considered when interventions aimed at promoting life satisfaction in old age and
      successful aging are designed.

PMID- 28562067
TI  - Hypertension in HIV-Infected Adults Compared with Similar but Uninfected Adults
      in China: Body Mass Index-Dependent Effects of Nadir CD4 Count.
AB  - Hypertension is a growing problem in the HIV population. The relationship between
      low nadir CD4 count and hypertension in the HIV-infected population has been
      reported. However, the effect of nadir CD4 on hypertension due to a different
      body mass index (BMI) is yet to be fully elucidated. In this cross-sectional
      study, 345 HIV-infected participants aged >=40 years were recruited. They were
      frequency matched and compared with age, sex, and education with HIV-uninfected
      adults (n = 345). Hypertension prevalence was lower in HIV-infected than in HIV
      uninfected participants (23.8% vs. 31.9%; p = .011), but this association was not
      significant after adjusting for potential confounders. Among HIV-infected
      individuals, older age, overweight, with a family history of cardiovascular
      diseases, and nadir CD4 count <50 cells/MUl were independently associated with
      hypertension. Stratifying individuals with BMI category revealed that nadir CD4
      count-regardless if it was operationalized as a dichotomous variable (<50
      cells/MUl) or continuous variable-was found to be associated with hypertension
      among individuals who were underweight and obese, but not among those who were
      normal weight and overweight. Among HIV-uninfected individuals, older age and
      having a waist circumference above cutoff were significantly associated with
      hypertension. This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that the
      association of nadir CD4 and hypertension is observed in underweight and obese
      HIV-infected patients. While these results suggest that the relationship between
      nadir CD4 count and hypertension might be mediated by body weight, future
      longitudinal studies will be needed to validate the findings, including its
      causal pathways.

PMID- 28562065
TI  - Role of Platelet-Derived Transforming Growth Factor-beta1 and Reactive Oxygen
      Species in Radiation-Induced Organ Fibrosis.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: This review evaluates the role of platelet-derived transforming
      growth factor (TGF)-beta1 in oxidative stress-linked pathologic fibrosis, with an
      emphasis on the heart and kidney, by using ionizing radiation as a clinically
      relevant stimulus. Current radiation-induced organ fibrosis interventions focus
      on pan-neutralization of TGF-beta or the use of anti-oxidants and anti
      proliferative agents, with limited clinical efficacy. Recent Advances: Pathologic
      fibrosis represents excessive accumulation of collagen and other extracellular
      matrix (ECM) components after dysregulation of a balance between ECM synthesis
      and degradation. Targets based on endogenous carbon monoxide (CO) pathways and
      the use of redox modulators such as N-acetylcysteine present promising
      alternatives to current therapeutic regimens. CRITICAL ISSUES: Ionizing radiation
      leads to direct DNA damage and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), with
      TGF-beta1 activation via ROS, thrombin generation, platelet activation, and pro
      inflammatory signaling promoting myofibroblast accumulation and ECM production.
      Feed-forward loops, as TGF-beta1 promotes ROS, amplify these profibrotic signals,
      and persistent low-grade inflammation insures their perpetuation. We highlight
      differential roles for platelet- versus monocyte-derived TGF-beta1, establishing
      links between canonical and noncanonical TGF-beta1 signaling pathways in
      relationship to macrophage polarization and autophagy, and define points where
      pharmacologic agents can intervene. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: Additional studies are
      needed to understand mechanisms underlying the anti-fibrotic effects of current
      and proposed therapeutics, based on limiting platelet TGF-beta1 activity,
      promotion of macrophage polarization, and facilitation of collagen autophagy.
      Models incorporating endogenous CO and selective TGF-beta1 pathways that impact
      the initiation and progression of pathologic fibrosis, including nuclear factor
      erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) and redox, are of particular interest.
      Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 977-988.

PMID- 28562069
TI  - "We Need to Deploy Them Very Thoughtfully and Carefully": Perceptions of
      Analytical Treatment Interruptions in HIV Cure Research in the United States-A
      Qualitative Inquiry.
AB  - Strategies to control HIV in the absence of antiretroviral therapy are needed to
      cure HIV. However, such strategies will require analytical treatment
      interruptions (ATIs) to determine their efficacy. We investigated how U.S.
      stakeholders involved in HIV cure research perceive ATIs. We conducted 36 in
      depth interviews with three groups of stakeholders: 12 people living with HIV, 11
      clinician-researchers, and 13 policy-makers/bioethicists. Qualitative data
      revealed several themes. First, there was little consensus on when ATIs would be
      ethically warranted. Second, the most frequent perceived hypothetical motivators
      for participating in research on ATIs were advancing science and contributing to
      society. Third, risks related to viral rebound were the most prevalent concerns
      related to ATIs. Stakeholders suggested ways to minimize the risks of ATIs in HIV
      cure research. Increased cooperation between scientists and local communities may
      be useful for minimizing risk. Further ethics research is necessary.

PMID- 28562071
TI  - Systematic health screening of refugees after resettlement in recipient
      countries: a scoping review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Health screening of refugees after settlement in a recipient country is
      an important tool to find and treat diseases. Currently, there are no available
      reviews on refugee health screening after resettlement. METHODS: A systematic
      literature search was conducted using the online Medical Literature Analysis and
      Retrieval System ('MEDLINE') database. Data extraction and synthesis were
      performed according to the PRISMA statement. RESULTS: The search retrieved 342
      articles. Relevance screening was conducted on all abstracts/titles. The final 53
      studies included only original scientific articles on health screening of
      refugees conducted after settlement in another country. The 53 studies were all
      from North America, Australia/New Zealand and Europe. Because of differences in
      country policies, the screenings were conducted differently in the various
      locations. The studies demonstrated great variation in who was targeted for
      screening and how screening was conducted. The disease most frequently screened
      for was tuberculosis; this was done in approximately half of the studies. Few
      studies included screening for mental health and non-infectious diseases like
      diabetes and hypertension. CONCLUSION: Health screening of refugees after
      resettlement is conducted according to varying local policies and there are vast
      differences in which health conditions are covered in the screening and whom the
      screening is available to.

PMID- 28562072
TI  - Synthesis and carbonic anhydrase inhibitory properties of new spiroindoline
      substituted sulphonamide compounds.
AB  - New spiroindoline-substituted sulphonamide compounds were synthesised and their
      inhibitory effects on the activity of purified human carbonic anhydrase I and II
      were evaluated. Human carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes (hCA-I and hCA-II) were
      purified from erythrocyte cells by affinity chromatography. The inhibitory
      effects of the 14 synthesised sulphonamides (6a-n) on esterase activities of
      these isoenzymes were studied in vitro. In relation to these activities, the
      inhibition equilibrium constants (Ki) were determined. The results showed that
      all the synthesised compounds inhibited the carbonic anhydrase (CA) isoenzyme
      activity. Among them, 6b was found to be the most active (Ki: 0.042 MUM) for hCA
      I and 6a (Ki: 0.151 MUM) for hCA II.

PMID- 28562073
TI  - Comparing multiple correspondence and principal component analyses with
      biomechanical signals. Example with turning the steering wheel.
AB  - The purpose of this article is to compare Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and
      a much less used method, i.e. MCA (Multiple Correspondence Analysis) with data
      being first changed into membership values to fuzzy space windows. For such a
      comparison, data from an experimental study about turning the steering wheel is
      used. In a didactic perspective, this article only considers one multidimensional
      signal with 5 components: 3 linked to the steering wheel angle and hand positions
      and 2 to hand effort variables. A discussion weighs out the pros and the cons of
      both methods with criteria such as the possibility to show complex relational
      phenomena, the analysis/computing time or the information loss inherent to the
      averaging stage (in the perspective to analyze several hundreds of large
      multidimensional signals).

PMID- 28562075
TI  - C9orf72 mutations do not influence the tau signature of amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis with cognitive impairment (ALSci).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: C9orf72 mutations are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
      (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and ALS-FTD. In addition to ALS-FTD, ALS
      patients may develop a spectrum of neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric
      deficits including ALS with cognitive impairment (ALSci). Here we examine the
      extent to which C9orf72 mutations are associated with ALSci and whether this
      alters the tau molecular signature. METHODS: We identified 16 ALSci cases within
      a post-mortem archive of 94 fully genotyped ALS cases, eight of which harboured a
      C9orf72 mutation, in addition to three cognitively-intact ALS cases with a
      C9orf72 mutation. Tau was fractionated into soluble and insoluble fractions, with
      or without dephosphorylation, and immunoblots for tau phospho-isoforms performed.
      RESULTS: Regardless of cognitive state or the presence of C9orf72 mutation, all
      ALS cases demonstrated six tau isoforms in both soluble and insoluble tau
      isolates. This pattern was unaffected by dephosphorylation. pThr175tau isoforms,
      a molecular signature of ALSci, were present regardless of C9orf72 genetic
      status. The pathognomic paired helical triplet in the insoluble tau fraction of
      Alzheimer's disease was not observed, regardless of cognitive or C9orf72 status.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the presence of a C9orf72 mutation does
      not influence the tau signature of ALS or ALSci.

PMID- 28562074
TI  - Phytochemical screening, total phenolic content and phytotoxic activity of corn
      (Zea mays) extracts against some indicator species.
AB  - Allelopathic effects of corn (Zea mays) extracts was studied, against seed
      germination and seedling growth of Phalaris minor, Helianthus annuus,
      Triticumaestivum, Sorghum halepense, Z. mays. Bioassay results showed that
      aqueous extracts of corn root and shoot, markedly affected seed germination, and
      other parameters compared with related controls. Preliminary phytochemical
      screening revealed the presence of various phytochemicals such as tannins,
      phlobatannins, flavonoids, terpenoids and alkaloids in both roots and shoot
      aqueous extracts. However, saponins were only present in the shoot aqueous
      extract, while in shoot ethanol extracts, only terpenoids and alkaloids were
      detected. Additionally, total polyphenolic (TPC) content in aqueous extracts of
      corn root and shoot, plus ethanol extracts of corn shoot were determined using an
      Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Results revealed TPC content of the corn shoot
      aqueous extract showed the highest yield, compared to other extracts. These
      findings suggest that phytochemicals present in Z. mays extracts may contribute
      to allelopathy effect.

PMID- 28562076
TI  - The influence of narrow-leafed lupin seed fermentation on their chemical
      composition and ileal digestibility and microbiota in growing pigs.
AB  - The aims of this study were to provide a controlled fermentation process of blue
      lupin seeds (Lupinus angustifolius, cv. Neptun), monitor the changes in seed
      composition and determine the influence of the fermentation on the apparent ileal
      digestibility (AID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids in growing pigs,
      compared with raw lupin seeds. The fermentation with bacteria and yeast was
      conducted for 24 h at 25oC under aerobic conditions. Seed fermentation increased
      the contents of CP, fibre, fat and ash and most of the analysed amino acids but
      reduced the levels of the nitrogen-free extractives. Furthermore, fermentation
      decreased the contents of raffinose family oligosaccharides and phytic acids but
      increased the alkaloid content. The AID was estimated on three barrows (mean
      initial body weight 25 kg), surgically fitted with a T-cannula in the distal
      ileum. The pigs received three diets, each for 6 d, within three experimental
      periods (3 * 3 Latin Square design). The diets contained soybean meal (Group
      SBM), raw lupin seeds (Group RL) or fermented lupin seeds (Group FL) as solely
      protein sources. Fermentation had a positive impact on the AID of CP and
      methionine, cysteine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and valine (p < 0.05).
      Feeding raw or fermented lupin seeds did not affect the microbial status of the
      ileal digesta. Moreover, ammonia content in the caecal digesta did not differ
      between Groups RL and FL, although it was significantly higher than in Group SBM.
      It can be concluded that the fermentation process modified the chemical
      composition of nutrients in seeds, which can influence the digestibility and
      utilisation of the fermentation product in animal diets compared to raw seeds.

PMID- 28562077
TI  - Medical student perceptions of clinical neurosurgery teaching in an undergraduate
      medical school curriculum.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate undergraduate medical student
      perceptions as to the value of different types of neurosurgical teaching to their
      general neuroscience education, delivered in the penultimate year of a U.K
      medical school. METHODS: We surveyed penultimate-year medical students at St
      George's Hospital Medical School, University of London (SGUL), who were
      undertaking their clinical neuroscience attachment from August 2014 to July 2015.
      A questionnaire comprising closed Likert scale questions and an open question
      inviting participants to comment freely was used to assess student perception
      about the value of Neurosurgical sessions within their overall neuroscience
      education. RESULTS: Of the 316 students in the year we surveyed 247 (78.2%), of
      whom 201 responded (response rate 81.4%). On average, 82.8% of students either
      agreed or strongly agreed that neurosurgical teaching sessions made a valuable
      contribution to their learning. In particular, lectures by neurosurgeons,
      clinical teaching on the Glasgow Coma Scale in neuro-ITU, bedside teaching and
      neurosurgical clinics were considered the most beneficial. The majority of
      students felt the sessions improved their understanding of neurological
      examination, signs, and 'red-flags'. The sessions were also beneficial for
      learning neuro-imaging and understanding of neurosurgical emergencies. Over two
      thirds felt that theatre sessions were beneficial, significantly more so amongst
      students invited to 'scrub-in'. CONCLUSIONS: Students rated neurosurgical
      sessions highly and valued the contribution they made not only to their learning
      of neurosurgical conditions and emergencies, but also to their learning of
      general neurology and clinical neurosciences overall. Student perceived learning
      from theatre sessions was significantly correlated with whether or not the
      student had been invited to 'scrub-in'. Expert neurosurgical teaching can make a
      valuable, and arguably essential contribution to the undergraduate medical
      curriculum.

PMID- 28562070
TI  - The Role of MicroRNAs in Environmental Risk Factors, Noise-Induced Hearing Loss,
      and Mental Stress.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression and
      define part of the epigenetic signature. Their influence on every realm of
      biomedicine is established and progressively increasing. The impact of
      environment on human health is enormous. Among environmental risk factors
      impinging on quality of life are those of chemical nature (toxic chemicals, heavy
      metals, pollutants, and pesticides) as well as those related to everyday life
      such as exposure to noise or mental and psychosocial stress. Recent Advances:
      This review elaborates on the relationship between miRNAs and these environmental
      risk factors. CRITICAL ISSUES: The most relevant facts underlying the role of
      miRNAs in the response to these environmental stressors, including redox
      regulatory changes and oxidative stress, are highlighted and discussed. In the
      cases wherein miRNA mutations are relevant for this response, the pertinent
      literature is also reviewed. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: We conclude that, even though in
      some cases important advances have been made regarding close correlations between
      specific miRNAs and biological responses to environmental risk factors, a need
      for prospective large-cohort studies is likely necessary to establish causative
      roles. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 28, 773-796.

PMID- 28562078
TI  - Alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity of ethanol extract, fractions and purified
      compounds from the wood of Albizia myriophylla.
AB  - Albizia myriophylla Benth. is a medicinal herb which is used as a traditional
      remedy for various ailments including diabetes in Thailand. In our continued
      investigation of the biological activity of A. myriophylla, the ethanol extract,
      fractions and the isolated compounds from the wood of this plant were evaluated
      for in vitro alpha-glucosidase inhibition using spectrophotometric method. The
      plant ethanol extract and its different fractions possessed alpha-glucosidase
      inhibitory activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Dichloromethane fraction
      of the wood ethanol extract exhibited the highest percent inhibition against
      alpha-glucosidase (69.30%) among all fractions. Subsequent alpha-glucosidase
      inhibition assay proved that indenoic acid (1), 8-methoxy-7, 3',4'
      trihydroxyflavone (2) and 3,4,7,3'-tetrahydroxyflavan (3) were partially rational
      for antidiabetic effect of this plant species. Among these compounds, 3 (IC50
      98.59 MUg/mL) exhibited potent inhibition of alpha-glucosidase, compared with a
      positive control acarbose (IC50 125 MUg/mL). The inhibitory effect towards alpha
      glucosidase of compounds 1-3 was reported herein for the first time.

PMID- 28562079
TI  - Improved visual acuity after microsurgical clipping of a symptomatic anterior
      cerebral artery aneurysm: case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Symptomatic aneurysms of the anterior cerebral artery causing visual
      impairments are rare and preponderantly lacking in the literature. It is further
      under discussion, whether operative clipping or endovascular coiling might be
      superior in order to achieve visual recovery. We therefore present a case of a
      patient with progressive visual loss caused by an aneurysm of the right A1-A2
      segment compressing the ipsilateral optic nerve. METHODS: A 57-year-old woman was
      admitted to our neurosurgical department with visual impairment of the right eye.
      On admission, visual acuity was 0.05 dpt. and visual field testings showed severe
      medial and lateral quadrant-anopia. MRI scans and angiography (DSA) demonstrated
      an aneurysm of the A1-A2 segment compressing the right optic nerve. During
      surgery, the aneurysm was clipped, the space-occupying dome removed and the nerve
      relieved from any adhesions. Instantaneously after surgery, visual acuity
      significantly improved from 0.05 to 0.9 dpt. CONCLUSIONS: Anterior cerebral
      artery aneurysms may present with acute visual impairments and surgical clipping
      significantly improves impaired visual acuity.

PMID- 28562080
TI  - Neuroimaging patterns along the ALS-FTD spectrum: a multiparametric imaging
      study.
AB  - Frontotemporal dementia is associated with considerable clinical, genetic and
      pathological heterogeneity. The objective of this study is to characterise the
      imaging signatures of the main FTD phenotypes along the ALS-FTD spectrum. A total
      of 100 participants underwent comprehensive multimodal neuroimaging, genetic
      testing and neuropsychological evaluation. Seven patients with behavioural
      variant FTD (bvFTD), 11 patients with non-fluent-variant primary progressive
      aphasia (nfvPPA), two patients with sematic-variant primary progressive
      aphasia(svPPA), 10 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and FTD carrying
      the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat (C9 + ALS-FTD), 10 patients with ALS-FTD
      without hexanucleotide repeats (C9-ALS-FTD), 20 ALS patients without behavioural
      or cognitive deficits (ALSnci) and 40 healthy controls (HC) were included in a
      prospective quantitative neuroimaging study. Phenotype-specific spatial patterns
      of pathology were identified along the ALS-FTD spectrum, highlighting a
      strikingly focal distribution of disease burden as opposed to global atrophy.
      Significant motor cortex and corticospinal tract degeneration was identified in
      both bvFTD and nfvPPA patients. C9-ALS-FTD patients exhibited widespread
      extramotor pathology and significant precentral gyrus atrophy compared to ALSnci
      patients. ROI analyses confirmed focal grey matter alterations in Broca's and
      Wernicke's area in language variant FTD cohorts. Our findings confirm that the
      clinical manifestations of FTD are underpinned by phenotype-specific patterns of
      white and grey matter degeneration.

PMID- 28562083
TI  - Cardiac light-chain deposition disease relapsing in the transplanted heart.

PMID- 28562081
TI  - A new sesquiterpene lactone glucoside and other constituents from Inula
      salsoloides with insecticidal activities on striped flea beetle (Phyllotreta
      striolata Fabricius).
AB  - A new sesquiterpene, eupatolide 13-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside (eupatolide-II, 1),
      lactone glucoside, along with 15 known compounds, were isolated from the whole
      plant of Inula salsoloides (Asteraceae). Dichloromethane extract and compounds 1
      11 were used to investigate insecticidal activities against vegetable important
      pest, striped flea beetle (Phyllotreta striolata Fabricius). None of the samples
      show any toxicity under concentration of 500 times, while compound 1 and the
      extract had toxic effect when the concentration increased to 250 times. But the
      corrected mortality of compound 1 and the extract were only 44.83 and 13.80%,
      respectively. Compound 11 (inulasalene) showed repellency effect in the no-choice
      test, and the repellency rate was 70%. Compounds 1 and 3 (inulasalsolide) showed
      the antifeeding rates of 65.22 and 47.06%, respectively. Compound 10 (11beta,13
      dihydrogeneupatolide) showed strong attractive effects on the adults, while the
      difference of injured area between the treatment and control was also not
      significant.

PMID- 28562085
TI  - Role of STRO-1 sorting of porcine dental germ stem cells in dental stem cell
      mediated bone tissue engineering.
AB  - Stem cells of dental origin emerged as a new source for the regeneration of
      tissues with advantages mainly including non-invasive collection procedures and
      lack of ethical contraversies with their harvest or use. In this study, porcine
      TGSCs (pTGSCs) were isolated from mandibular third molar tooth germs of 6-month
      old domestic pigs. This is the first study that reports the isolation and
      characterization of TGSCs from porcine third molars and their differentiation
      depending on STRO-1 expression. PTGSCs were sorted according to their STRO-1
      expression as STRO-1(+) and STRO-1(-). Sorted and unsorted heterogenous cells
      (US) were characterized by their osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic
      differentiation capabilities. STRO-1(+) cells exhibited a higher proliferation
      rate owing to their clonogenic properties. All three groups of cells were found
      differentiated into osteogenic lineage as shown by ALP activity, calcium
      deposition assay, detection of osteogenic mRNAs and, proteins and mineralization
      staining. According to differentiation analysis, STRO-1(+) cells did not show a
      better performance for osteogenesis compared to STRO-1(-) and US cells. This
      might indicate that STRO-1(+) cells might require a heterogeneous population of
      cells including STRO-1(-) in their niche to perform their proposed role in
      osteogenesis.

PMID- 28562086
TI  - Exploring the structural requirements in multiple chemical scaffolds for the
      selective inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum calcium-dependent protein kinase-1
      (PfCDPK-1) by 3D-pharmacophore modelling, and docking studies.
AB  - Current research on antimalarial protein kinases has provided an opportunity to
      design kinase-based antimalarial drugs. We have developed a common feature-based
      pharmacophore model from a set of multiple chemical scaffolds including
      derivatives of 3,6-imidazopyridazines, pyrazolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines and imidazo[1,5
      a]pyrazines, in order to incorporate the maximum structural diversity information
      in the model for the Plasmodium falciparum calcium-dependent protein kinase-1
      (PfCDPK-1) target. The best pharmacophore model (Hypo-1) with the essential
      features of two hydrogen bond donors (HBD), one hydrophobic aromatic (HYAr) and
      one ring aromatic (RA) showed the classification accuracies of 86.27%, 78.43% and
      100.00% in labelling the training and test set (test set-1 and test set-2)
      compounds into more active and less active classes. In order to identify the
      crucial interaction between multiple scaffold ligands and the target protein, we
      first developed the homology model using a template structure of P. bergheii
      (PbCDPK1; PDB ID: 3Q5I), and thereafter performed the docking studies. The
      residues such as Lys85, Phe147, Tyr148, Leu198, Val211, and Asp212 were found to
      be the most important interacting residues for possessing PfCDPK-1 inhibitory
      activity.

PMID- 28562087
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28562088
TI  - Spectroscopic characterisation of two polyketide metabolites from Cylindrocarpon
      sp. from driftwood.
AB  - Two new polyketides, (5R,7R,9R)-7,9-dihydroxy-5-decanolide and (4E,6R,9R)- 6,9
      dihydroxydec-4-enoic acid (2), were isolated from rice cultures of Cylindrocarpon
      sp. SY-39 discovered during screening of driftwood at a Shonai coast area in
      Yamagata, Japan. The structures of 1 and 2 were determined using a variety of
      spectroscopic methods. Compound 2 exhibited moderate antimicrobial activity
      against Staphylococcus aureus NBRC 13276 and Aspergillus clavatus F 318a at a
      concentration of 50 MUg per disk.

PMID- 28562089
TI  - Paving the Way to Change for Youth at the Gap between Child and Adolescent and
      Adult Mental Health Services.
AB  - By 2020 mental illness will be one of the 5 most common illnesses causing
      morbidity, mortality and disability among youth. At least 20% of Canadian youth
      have a psychiatric disorder the impact of which can dramatically alter their life
      trajectory. Focus on the factors contributing to this problem is crucial. Lack of
      coordination between child and adolescent mental health systems (CAMHS) and adult
      mental health systems (AMHS) and consequent disruption of care during this
      vulnerable time of transition is one such factor. Reasons for and the impact of
      this divide are multilayered, many of which are embedded in outdated, poorly
      informed approaches to care for this population in transition. This paper
      considers the etiology behind these reasons as potential foci for change. The
      paper also briefly outlines recent initiatives ongoing in Canada and
      internationally that reflect appreciation of these factors in the attempt to
      minimize the gap in service provision for youth in transition. The need to
      continue with research and program development endeavours for youth with mental
      illness whereby access to services and readiness for transition is no longer
      determined by age is strongly supported.

PMID- 28562091
TI  - Cyberbullying in Children and Youth: Implications for Health and Clinical
      Practice.
AB  - We review the recent literature on cyberbullying and its effects on victimised
      youth, identifying key points. We conclude that cyberbullying, while following
      many of the underlying dynamics of more traditional forms of bullying, features
      some unique qualities that can both magnify the damage caused and make it more
      difficult to detect. These features include the pervasive, never-ending nature of
      cyberbullying and the ability to quickly reach large audiences. The potential for
      anonymity and the related distance afforded by screens and devices compared to in
      person interaction allow the cruelty of cyberbullying to go unchecked. Despite
      the perceived anonymity of cyberbullying, cyberbullying can be perpetrated by
      friends, who often have intimate knowledge about the victimised youth that can be
      devastating when made public. Given the difficulty schools face in preventing or
      even detecting cyberbullying, health care providers are an important ally, due to
      their knowledge of the youth, the sense of trust they bring to youth, and their
      independence from the school setting. We conclude by calling for routine
      screening of bullying by health care providers who deal with paediatric
      populations.

PMID- 28562092
TI  - The Role of Health Care Providers in Cyberbullying.

PMID- 28562093
TI  - Child Abuse Experiences and Perceived Need for Care and Mental Health Service Use
      among Members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Child abuse is associated with poor mental health outcomes in
      adulthood. However, little is known about how a history of child abuse may be
      related to perceived need for care (PNC) and mental health service use (MHSU)
      among Canadian military personnel. The objectives of this study were to determine
      1) the relationship between child abuse history and PNC and 2) the relationship
      between child abuse history and MHSU in the Canadian military. METHOD: Data were
      drawn from the 2013 Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey ( n = 6692 Regular Force
      personnel between the ages of 18 and 60 years). Logistic regression was used to
      examine the relationships between individual child abuse types and PNC and MHSU
      while adjusting for sociodemographic variables, the presence of mental disorders,
      deployment-related variables, and other types of child abuse. Population
      attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated to estimate the proportion of PNC
      and MHSU that may be attributable to child abuse. RESULTS: Each individual child
      abuse type was associated with increased odds of PNC and MHSU after adjusting for
      all covariates (adjusted odds ratio ranging from 1.26 to 1.80). PAFs showed that
      if any child abuse did not occur, PNC and MHSU among Regular Force personnel may
      be reduced by approximately 14.3% and 11.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study highlights that preenlistment factors, such as a history of child abuse,
      have an independent association with PNC and MHSU and hence need to be considered
      when assessing the mental health service needs of the Canadian Regular Force
      personnel.

PMID- 28562094
TI  - Cyberbullying Prevention and Intervention Efforts: Current Knowledge and Future
      Directions.
AB  - Bullying is a serious public health concern that is associated with significant
      negative mental, social, and physical outcomes. Technological advances have
      increased adolescents' use of social media, and online communication platforms
      have exposed adolescents to another mode of bullying- cyberbullying. Prevention
      and intervention materials, from websites and tip sheets to classroom curriculum,
      have been developed to help youth, parents, and teachers address cyberbullying.
      While youth and parents are willing to disclose their experiences with bullying
      to their health care providers, these disclosures need to be taken seriously and
      handled in a caring manner. Health care providers need to include questions about
      bullying on intake forms to encourage these disclosures. The aim of this article
      is to examine the current status of cyberbullying prevention and intervention.
      Research support for several school-based intervention programs is summarised.
      Recommendations for future research are provided.

PMID- 28562095
TI  - The advancement of multidimensional QSAR for novel drug discovery - where are we
      headed?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Multidimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship
      (multidimensional-QSAR) method is one of the most popular computational methods
      employed to predict interesting biochemical properties of existing or
      hypothetical molecules. With continuous progress, the QSAR method has made
      remarkable success in various fields, such as medicinal chemistry, material
      science and predictive toxicology. Areas covered: In this review, the authors
      cover the basic elements of multidimensional -QSAR including model construction,
      validation and application. It includes and emphasizes the very recent
      developments of multidimensional -QSAR such as: HQSAR, G-QSAR, MIA-QSAR, multi
      target QSAR. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are also discussed
      and typical examples of their application are detailed. Expert opinion: Although
      there are defects in multidimensional-QSAR modeling, it is still of enormous help
      to chemists, biologists and other researchers in various fields. In the authors'
      opinion, the latest more precise and feasible QSAR models should be further
      developed by integrating new descriptors, algorithms and other relevant
      computational techniques. Apart from being applied in traditional fields (e.g.
      lead optimization and predictive risk assessment), QSAR should be used more
      widely as a routine method in other emerging research fields including the
      modeling of nanoparticles(NPs), mixture toxicity and peptides.

PMID- 28562096
TI  - Emerging growth factor receptor antagonists for the treatment of advanced
      melanoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Therapy for metastatic melanoma has undergone a rapid
      transformation over the past 5-10 years. Advances in immunotherapy with
      checkpoint inhibitors, including both anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1/PD-L1, have led
      to durable responses in up to 50% of patients. As our understanding of the
      processes driving the transformation of melanocytes has improved, progress in
      targeted therapies has also continued. Areas covered: Angiogenesis and the
      tumor's dependence on an expanded vascular supply has been a target for novel
      therapies since the 1970's, as this tissue is derived from endothelial cells that
      are genetically stable in adults. A phase II trial studying combined therapy with
      bevacizumab (an inhibitor of angiogenesis) and ipilimumab found promising
      results. Other agents such as sorafenib have not been as successful, failing to
      extend progression free or overall survival in clinical trials. In this paper
      other targeted growth factor inhibitors will also be discussed. Expert opinion:
      Ultimately, melanoma may not be vulnerable solely to chemotherapy or targeted
      therapy, but may be efficaciously treated with immunotherapy due to its high
      mutational rate resulting in the expression of numerous neo-antigens. Therapies
      with combinations of agents including growth factor receptor and either other
      targeted therapies or immunotherapy may be a promising complimentary approach.

PMID- 28562098
TI  - Dapagliflozin and renal function. Re: Diabetes and kidney disease: the role of
      sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) and SGLT-2 inhibitors in modifying
      disease outcomes. Mende CW. Curr Med Res Opin 2017;33:541-551.

PMID- 28562097
TI  - A simple point of care test can indicate the need for periodontal therapy to
      reduce the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes in mothers attending antenatal
      clinics.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although the association between periodontal disease (PD) and
      adverse pregnancy outcomes has gained recognition amongst antenatal healthcare
      workers, not much has changed in practice to address it. This prospective study
      tested the hypothesis that BANA (N-benzoyl-DL-arginine-2-naphthylamide), a
      diagnostic test for PD, may inform obstetricians and other antenatal healthcare
      practitioners, of the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in mothers attending
      antenatal clinics. METHODS: At first visit, the presence of suspected
      periodontopathogens was assessed by BANA testing of dental plaque from 443
      mothers attending antenatal clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and an
      association later sought with pregnancy outcomes. The accuracy of BANA to predict
      adverse pregnancy outcomes was evaluated by the calculation of likelihood ratios.
      The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. RESULTS: Significant
      differences were found between pregnancy outcomes of BANA-negative and BANA
      positive mothers (p < 0.0001). BANA showed sensitivity and negative predictive
      values of 87% and 91%; 75% and 78%; 87% and 94% in detecting low birth weight,
      preterm delivery, and preterm low birth weight delivery respectively. CONCLUSION:
      This study confirms that BANA may indicate the need for periodontal therapy to
      reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and could form part of the routine
      antenatal examination.

PMID- 28562099
TI  - The effectiveness of transdermal testosterone gel 1% (androgel) for poor
      responders undergoing in vitro fertilization.
AB  - The study was conducted on 110 poor responders undergoing in vitro fertilization
      (IVF) from October 2015 to July 2016 at the IVF Center of Millitary Medical
      University, Vietnam. Its aim is to investigate the effectiveness of transdermal
      androgel before using controlled ovarian stimulation on patients undergoing IVF.
      A prospective, descriptive study was conducted to compare between the group of
      patients who used testosterone gel and the group of those who did not in terms of
      the following indicators: the number of oocytes retrieved, MII oocytes,
      fertilization rate, number of embryos, pregnancy rate, and embryo implantation
      rate. The number of oocytes retrieved, number of embryos, pregnancy rate, and
      embryo implantation rate of the group of patients using transdermal androgel
      before Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS) were found higher than those of the
      control group, with statistical significance. The use of androgel before
      stimulating ovarian can improve the responsiveness of poor responders when
      undergoing IVF.

PMID- 28562100
TI  - Developments with experimental and investigational drugs for axial
      spondyloarthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Axial spondyloarthritis (AxS pA) is a chronic inflammatory disease
      for which, until recently, there were no valid therapeutic alternatives to TNF
      alpha blocking agents. This unmet clinical need led to explore several
      therapeutic targets, from proinflammatory cytokines to intracellular signaling
      systems. The recent approval of Secukinumab, an anti-IL-17A monoclonal antibody,
      marked a new step in the evolution of AxSpA treatment. Areas covered: the authors
      review and discuss all the biological or synthetic agents that are currently
      developed or that have been tested in AxSpA. News from relevant press releases by
      manufacturers on past, current and future developments are also reported. Several
      agents that target IL-17 are currently between phase 2 and 3 of clinical
      development. Ustekinumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks IL-23 and IL-12 is
      also in phase 3 after encouraging results from a pilot study. Expert opinion: The
      advent of agents that target the IL-23/IL-17 axis promises to reshape the
      therapeutic landscape for AxSpA in the next few years. Open questions in the
      research agenda for these agents involve their positioning in the therapeutic
      strategy, their efficacy on the spectrum of skeletal and extraskeletal
      manifestations of AxSpA, their effect on new bone formation and their long-term
      tolerance.

PMID- 28562101
TI  - Methionine metabolism and multiple sclerosis.
AB  - CONTEXT: Methylation reactions are particularly important in the brain and their
      inhibition can lead to a number of serious pathologies. Multiple sclerosis is one
      of the most common neurological disorders caused by interaction of genetic and
      environmental factors, but little is known about its cause or factors that
      contribute to the disorder. Although multiple sclerosis is primarily regarded as
      demyelinating disorder, there are no many articles focusing on methionine
      determination. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to investigate whether serum
      methionine and its related compounds like homocysteine, cysteine, glutathione and
      asymmetric dimethylarginine were changed in multiple sclerosis patients.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sulphur-containing compounds were determined by using high
      performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection in a single run
      for providing more complex view on methionine metabolism and asymmetric
      dimetylarginine was measured by a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      kit. RESULTS: Methionine and glutathione were decreased, but homocysteine,
      asymmetric dimethylarginine and cysteine were unchanged in patients with multiple
      sclerosis compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: Methionine and glutathione seem to
      be potential biomarkers for prognosis of the disease.

PMID- 28562102
TI  - Blastocyst transfer is not associated with increased unfavorable obstetric and
      perinatal outcomes compared with cleavage-stage embryo transfer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies demonstrated controversial results of whether there
      are risks in fetal outcomes after blastocyst-stage embryos transfer (BT) compared
      with cleavage-stage embryos transfer (CT). AIMS: To compare the implantation
      rates (IR), clinical pregnancy rates (cPR), birth rates (BR), gestational weeks,
      preterm birth rates, birth weights and low birth weight rates between CT and BT
      groups. METHODS: A retrospective study of 1627 embryos transfer cycles was
      performed from May 2014 to April 2015. The cycles were divided into two groups
      according to transfer stage: CT on Day 3 (n = 798) and BT on Day 5 (n = 829). For
      the CT group, it must have surplus embryos and only surplus embryos developed to
      available blastocysts, the cleavage-stage embryos could be included. The clinical
      outcomes of two groups were analyzed. RESULTS: The IR in CT group was lower than
      BT group (48.98% vs. 60.68%; p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in
      the clinical pregnancy rate and birth rate between BT and CT groups. For
      singletons and twin deliveries, there were no significant differences in
      gestational weeks, preterm birth rates, birth weights and low birth weight rates
      between two groups. CONCLUSION: Blastocysts had higher implantation potential
      than cleavage-stage embryos. Extended embryo culture was not related to increased
      adverse obstetric and perinatal outcome.

PMID- 28562103
TI  - The paradigm shift to end tuberculosis. Are we ready to assume the changes?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tuberculosis (TB) is the number one infectious disease killer and
      exemplifies the most neglected of them. Drug-susceptible TB presents with high
      mortality especially in atypical forms, disproportionally affecting
      immunosuppressed and vulnerable populations. The drug-resistant TB (DR-TB)
      epidemic, a world crisis, is sustained and increased through person-to-person
      transmission in households and the community. TB diagnostics and treatment in
      recent years are highly evolving fields. New rapid molecular tests are changing
      the perspectives in diagnosis and resistance screening. Also, new drugs and
      shorter regimens for DR-TB are appearing. For the first time in recent history, a
      large number of randomized control trials are incoming. Areas covered: This
      article reviews most TB advances including new diagnostic tests, drugs, and
      regimens and outlines upcoming drug trials while disclosing the potential gaps
      the in development of patient-centered systems and current organizational
      challenges leading to a delay in the uptake of these innovations. Expert
      commentary: Innovations are occurring, but not many are implemented on a wide
      scale in developing countries. TB health systems and staff are not getting
      updated in parallel. More efforts and funds are needed not only to implement
      current novelties but also to research for future solutions to eliminate TB.

PMID- 28562105
TI  - Prasugrel hydrochloride for the treatment of sickle cell disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic options for sickle cell disease (SCD) are limited and,
      currently, only one drug (hydroxyurea) has FDA approval for the treatment of
      adult SCD. While this genetic disease is caused by hemoglobin polymerization,
      subsequent downstream events trigger platelet activation, vaso-occlusion and the
      disease's complex pathophysiology. Areas covered: The oral thienopyridine,
      prasugrel hydrochloride, irreversibly inhibits the P2Y12 receptors, inhibiting
      ADP-dependent platelet activation. We discuss recent clinical trials evaluating
      the pharmokinetics of prasugrel and its potential for use in SCD. Expert opinion:
      Prasugrel administration in SCD appears to be well tolerated and safe. However,
      although this drug modestly inhibits platelet activity in these patients,
      administration of prasugrel to a large group of children and adolescents for up
      to 24 months failed to convincingly reduce vaso-occlusive complications.
      Speculatively, prasugrel may be of occasional use for off-license purposes in
      patients unable or unwilling to take hydroxyurea (particularly in 12-17-year
      olds). Although there is currently no prospect of prasugrel being licensed for
      use in SCD, the success of on-going trials of other antiplatelet agents in SCD
      might lead to further trials of prasugrel in SCD.

PMID- 28562104
TI  - Liver cirrhosis stages and the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic
      hepatitis B patients receiving antiviral therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Long-term antiviral therapy decreases the risk of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), however, it cannot
      eliminate the risk. We investigated the incidence of HCC at different stages of
      liver cirrhosis (LC) and identified clinical predictors for HCC development
      during antiviral therapy. METHODS: The data from 356 treatment-naive patients
      aged 40 to 69 years without a history of HCC who had received entecavir for >=6
      months were collected retrospectively. The incidence of HCC was evaluated in
      patients with CHB only, with LC without varices (stage 1), with varices (stage
      2), and with ascites (stage 3). RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 3.6
      years. In total, 45 patients (12.6%) developed HCC. The annual incidence rates of
      HCC in patients with CHB only or LC in stages 1, 2, and 3 were 0.4%, 2.6%, 9.8%,
      and 6.7%, respectively. In multivariate analyzes, LC at stage 2 (hazard ratio
      [HR] 17.16, 95% confidence interval [C.I.] 3.93-75.01, p < .001), alcohol
      consumption (HR 3.84, 95% C.I. 1.99-7.39, p < .001), and older age (HR 1.06, 95%
      C.I. 1.01-1.11, p = .010) were significantly associated with HCC development. The
      risk decreased in those who stopped drinking after 2 years of abstinence (p =
      .0314). CONCLUSIONS: LC with significant portal hypertension (varices or
      ascites), alcohol consumption, and older age at the time of starting antiviral
      therapy are independent predictors for future HCC development.

PMID- 28562106
TI  - Enteral nutrition in pediatric intestinal failure: does initial feeding impact on
      intestinal adaptation?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Primary IF can be due to impaired gut length or impaired gut
      function; short bowel syndrome (SBS) is the leading cause of IF. In IF patients
      complete enteral starvation should be avoided whenever possible and enteral/oral
      nutrition (EN/ON) should be employed at the maximum tolerated amount in each
      phase of the clinical evolution of IF. Intraluminal nutrients have stimulatory
      effects on epithelial cells and on trophism that enhance intestinal adaptation.
      Areas covered: Evidence for nutritional interventions in pediatric IF is limited
      and of poor quality. Clinical practice in SBS feeding are more 'experience-based'
      rather than 'evidence-based' and this dearth of clinical evidence is partly due
      to the rarity of this condition. This review updates knowledge concerning the
      impact of the initial diet with EN/ON in neonatal onset SBS in the process of
      bowel adaption. Expert commentary: Human milk resulted the preferred starting
      diet and it is generally combined with amino-acids (AAs) in Northern America and
      with hydrolyzed proteins (HFs) in Europe; polymeric diet is rarely employed. HFs
      were not more effective than AAs in promoting intestinal adaptation.

PMID- 28562107
TI  - Neurovegetative disorders of perimenopausal women treated with docosahexaenoic
      acid (DHA, 625 mg).
AB  - The study evaluated the effect of DHA 625 mg in women who experience menopausal
      symptoms, on sexuality and quality of life (QoL), and on the auditory brainstem
      response (ABR). Forty-two perimenopausal women were enrolled. The Kupperman Index
      (KI) was used to evaluate menopause symptoms. The Short Form-36 (SF-36), Female
      Sexual Function Index (FSFI), and the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS) were
      used to assess QoL, sexual function, and sexual distress, respectively. Auditory
      evoked potentials to measure the ABR. The study had one follow-up at 6 months.
      The women reported an improvement in the KI total score (p < .001). Moreover,
      women reported QoL improvements in all the psychological categories (p < .001),
      but not in physical categories (p = NS). FSFI and FSDS total scores increased (p
      < .01) and the FSDS score decreased (p < .01), mainly due to arousal (p < .03)
      and lubrication (p < .05) sexual aspects. The ABR wave latencies were lower than
      the baseline values (p < .05). DHA could be effective in modulating some
      perimenopausal symptoms in women and, consequently could contribute to improve
      their QoL and sexual life. Finally, DHA seems to have a direct activity on the
      neuronal conduction time into the audiological system.

PMID- 28562108
TI  - Characteristics of children and adolescents first prescribed proton pump
      inhibitors or histamine-2-receptor antagonists: an observational cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of pediatric patients prescribed
      proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) vs those of pediatric patients prescribed histamine
      2-receptor antagonists (H2RAs). METHODS: Observational studies were conducted
      using The Health Improvement Network (THIN) and the PHARMO Database Network.
      Patients aged 0-18 years who were first prescribed a PPI or H2RA between October
      1, 2009 and September 30, 2012 (THIN) or between September 1, 2008 and August 31,
      2011 (PHARMO) were included. Patient characteristics were identified and compared
      between the PPI and H2RA cohorts using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) adjusted for age and sex. RESULTS: The mean age (years) was
      higher in the PPI than in the H2RA cohorts (THIN 12.3 [n = 8204] vs 5.4 [n =
      7937], PHARMO 11.0 [n = 15 362] vs 7.1 [n = 6168]). Previous respiratory disease
      was more common in the PPI than in the H2RA cohort in THIN (OR = 1.19, 95% CI =
      1.08-1.30), as were asthma and respiratory medication use in PHARMO (OR = 1.27,
      95% CI = 1.12-1.45 and OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.10-1.38, respectively) and oral
      corticosteroid use in both databases (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.10-1.92 [THIN]; OR =
      2.80, 95% CI = 2.11-3.71 [PHARMO]). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,
      antibiotics, and oral contraceptives were also more common in PPI than in H2RA
      cohorts in both databases. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric patients receiving PPIs and
      those receiving H2RAs may represent different patient populations. PPIs may be
      more commonly prescribed than H2RAs among patients with respiratory diseases.

PMID- 28562109
TI  - Genetic and epigenetic markers in colorectal cancer screening: recent advances.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogenous disease which develops
      from benign intraepithelial lesions known as adenomas to malignant carcinomas.
      Acquired alterations in Wnt signaling, TGFbeta, MAPK pathway genes and clonal
      propagation of altered cells are responsible for this transformation. Detection
      of adenomas or early stage cancer in asymptomatic patients and better prognostic
      and predictive markers is important for improving the clinical management of CRC.
      Area covered: In this review, the authors have evaluated the potential of genetic
      and epigenetic alterations as markers for early detection, prognosis and
      therapeutic predictive potential in the context of CRC. We have discussed
      molecular heterogeneity present in CRC and its correlation to prognosis and
      response to therapy. Expert commentary: Molecular marker based CRC screening
      methods still fail to gain trust of clinicians. Invasive screening methods,
      molecular heterogeneity, chemoresistance and low quality test samples are some
      key challenges which need to be addressed in the present context. New sequencing
      technologies and integrated omics data analysis of individual or population
      cohort results in GWAS. MPE studies following a GWAS could be future line of
      research to establish accurate correlations between CRC and its risk factors.
      This strategy would identify most reliable biomarkers for CRC screening and
      management.

PMID- 28562110
TI  - Epidemiology and causes of death in a Swedish cohort of patients with autoimmune
      hepatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) show varying
      figures on prevalence and incidence, and data on the long-term prognosis are
      scarce. Objective To investigate the epidemiology, long-term prognosis and causes
      of death in a Swedish AIH cohort. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data collected from 634
      AIH patients were matched to the Cause of Death Registry, and survival analyses
      were made. Prevalence and incidence were calculated for university hospitals with
      full coverage of cases and compared to the County of Vasterbotten in Northern
      Sweden. RESULTS: AIH point prevalence was 17.3/100,000 inhabitants in 2009, and
      the yearly incidence 1990-2009 was 1.2/100,000 inhabitants and year. The time
      between diagnosis and end of follow-up, liver transplantation or death was in
      median 11.3 years (range 0-51.5 years). Men were diagnosed earlier (p < .001) and
      died younger than women (p = .002). No gender differences were found concerning
      transplant-free, overall survival and liver-related death. Cirrhosis at diagnosis
      was linked to an inferior survival (p < .001). Liver-related death was the most
      common cause of death (32.7%). The relative survival started to diverge from the
      general population 4 years after diagnosis but a distinct decline was not
      observed until after more than 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term survival was
      reduced in patients with AIH. No gender difference regarding prognosis was seen
      but men died younger, probably as a result of earlier onset of disease. Cirrhosis
      at diagnosis was a risk factor for poor prognosis and the overall risk of liver
      related death was increased.

PMID- 28562111
TI  - Repeated annual influenza vaccination and vaccine effectiveness: review of
      evidence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Studies in the 1970s and 1980s signaled concern that repeated
      influenza vaccination could affect vaccine protection. The antigenic distance
      hypothesis provided a theoretical framework to explain variability in repeat
      vaccination effects based on antigenic similarity between successive vaccine
      components and the epidemic strain. Areas covered: A meta-analysis of vaccine
      effectiveness studies from 2010-11 through 2014-15 shows substantial
      heterogeneity in repeat vaccination effects within and between seasons and
      subtypes. When negative effects were observed, they were most pronounced for
      H3N2, especially in 2014-15 when vaccine components were unchanged and
      antigenically distinct from the epidemic strain. Studies of repeated vaccination
      across multiple seasons suggest that vaccine effectiveness may be influenced by
      more than one prior season. In immunogenicity studies, repeated vaccination
      blunts the hemagglutinin antibody response, particularly for H3N2. Expert
      commentary: Substantial heterogeneity in repeated vaccination effects is not
      surprising given the variation in study populations and seasons, and the variable
      effects of antigenic distance and immunological landscape in different age groups
      and populations. Caution is required in the interpretation of pooled results
      across multiple seasons, since this can mask important variation in repeat
      vaccination effects between seasons. Multi-season clinical studies are needed to
      understand repeat vaccination effects and guide recommendations.

PMID- 28562112
TI  - Major depressive disorder: insight into candidate cerebrospinal fluid protein
      biomarkers from proteomics studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of global
      disability, and an increasing body of literature suggests different cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF) proteins as biomarkers of MDD. The aim of this review is to summarize
      the suggested CSF biomarkers and to analyze the MDD proteomics studies of CSF and
      brain tissues for promising biomarker candidates. Areas covered: The review
      includes the human studies found by a PubMed search using the following terms:
      'depression cerebrospinal fluid biomarker', 'major depression biomarker CSF',
      'depression CSF biomarker', 'proteomics depression', 'proteomics biomarkers in
      depression', 'proteomics CSF biomarker in depression', and 'major depressive
      disorder CSF'. The literature analysis highlights promising biomarker candidates
      and demonstrates conflicting results on others. It reveals 42 differentially
      regulated proteins in MDD that were identified in more than one proteomics study.
      It discusses the diagnostic potential of the biomarker candidates and their
      association with the suggested pathologies. Expert commentary: One ultimate goal
      of finding biomarkers for MDD is to improve the diagnostic accuracy to achieve
      better treatment outcomes; due to the heterogeneous nature of MDD, using bio
      signatures could be a good strategy to differentiate MDD from other
      neuropsychiatric disorders. Notably, further validation studies of the suggested
      biomarkers are still needed.

PMID- 28562113
TI  - Anaphylaxis: epidemiology, aetiology and relevance for the clinic.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Anaphylaxis is responsible for considerable morbidity and may in
      some cases prove fatal. Areas covered: This review summarises the findings from
      recent studies on the epidemiology and aetiology of anaphylaxis and draws on the
      insights from this work and recent international guidelines to consider the
      implications for clinical care. Acute management of anaphylaxis is centred on
      early recognition, treatment with adrenaline (epinephrine) and other essential
      life-support measures. The importance of longer-term care of patients with a
      history of or at risk of anaphylaxis are also considered with a view to
      minimising the risk of further reactions. Tailored individual anaphylaxis
      management plans should be a routine component of this longer-term care with
      provision of adrenaline auto-injectors to those at risk of further episodes of
      anaphylaxis. More generally, there is a need to ensure that there are standard
      protocols in place to ensure that risks of triggering anaphylaxis are minimised
      and appropriate acute and long-term care are provided if reactions occur. Expert
      commentary: It is important to be aware that anaphylaxis may occur in patients of
      any age, sex or ethnicity. Early recognition and prompt treatment with adrenaline
      are potentially life-saving. Careful assessment of risk and appropriate long-term
      management are key to improving long-term outcomes in those at risk of repeat
      episodes of anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28562114
TI  - Macroscopic findings, incidence and characteristics of microscopic colitis in a
      large cohort of patients from the United Kingdom.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Microscopic colitis (MC) is classically associated with normal or near
      normal endoscopic appearances. However, non-specific macroscopic findings have
      been described, the importance of biopsy location for confirming a diagnosis of
      MC is unclear, and reported incidence data from the United Kingdom are limited.
      This study was designed to assess macroscopic features, incidence, demographics,
      and location and positivity of biopsy samples in MC. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective, cross-sectional study of individuals with newly diagnosed MC.
      RESULTS: From 2010 to 2015, 540 cases of MC were reported. Macroscopic findings
      occurred in 16.5% (n = 89) cases, with trends towards increased frequency of
      ulceration or linear scarring in collagenous colitis (CC). The mean incidence of
      MC was 11.3 per 100,000 population/year, including 291 (53.9%) with CC (incidence
      6.1 per 100,000/year), 203 (37.6%) with lymphocytic colitis (incidence 4.2 per
      100,000/year) and 46 (8.5%) with MC, not otherwise specified. Most individuals
      were female (70.2%). Common features in patients with MC included symptom
      duration <6 months, weight loss, abdominal pain and use of proton pump
      inhibitors, statins, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In individuals
      with right- and left-sided biopsies taken, 98.2% had diagnostic features in both.
      However, rectal biopsies were only positive in 88.7%. CONCLUSIONS: One in six
      patients with MC demonstrated distinct macroscopic findings at colonoscopy. Our
      data confirm a female preponderance in MC, a relatively short symptom duration
      and use of certain drugs as common features. Both right- and left-sided biopsies
      were frequently positive, suggesting flexible sigmoidoscopy and biopsy could
      confirm a diagnosis in certain individuals.

PMID- 28562115
TI  - A register-based study: adverse events in colonoscopies performed in Sweden 2001
      2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The rates for colonoscopy-associated adverse events vary considerably
      worldwide. In Sweden, the figures are known to a limited extent. We assessed the
      frequency of severe colonoscopy-related adverse events and the impacts of
      different risk factors, including the use of general anaesthesia. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: This is a retrospective population-based cohort study of the
      colonoscopies performed during the years 2001-2013 on adults identified in the
      Swedish health registers. The rates for bleeding, perforation, splenic injury and
      30-day mortality were calculated. Covariates for risks were assessed in a
      multivariate Poisson regression model. RESULTS: There were 593,315 colonoscopies
      performed on the 426,560 individuals included in the study. The rates for
      colonoscopy-related bleeding and perforation were 0.17% and 0.11%, respectively.
      When polypectomy was performed, the rates were 0.53% for bleeding and 0.25% for
      perforation. There were 31 splenic injuries (1:20,000 colonoscopies) reported.
      The crude 30-day death rate for colonoscopy was 0.68%. Of those diagnosed with
      bleeding or perforation, 5.6% and 6.1% were dead within 30 days, respectively.
      The multivariate RR for perforation when general anaesthesia was employed was
      2.65 (p < .001; 95%CI 1.71-4.12). CONCLUSIONS: The perforation rate seemed to be
      relatively high in an international perspective. General anaesthesia was
      associated with a significantly higher risk for perforation. Splenic injuries
      were more frequent than expected.

PMID- 28562116
TI  - Pharmacovigilance in Russia: current state of affairs, challenges, and prospects.
AB  - This review outlines current issues of the pharmacovigilance (PV) system in the
      Russian Federation, namely the present state of regulatory aspects, regulatory
      requirements in both Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union, and review of causes
      of under-reporting of adverse drug reactions. Specific attention will be focused
      on how the system is designed to monitor drug safety functions, reporting and
      accountability of pharmaceutical products, their manufacturers and medical staff,
      the role played by regional centers for drug-safety monitoring, and insufficient
      understanding of the part taken by patients in the system of PV. The prospects of
      the Russian PV system and its harmonization with global practice will also be
      discussed.

PMID- 28562117
TI  - Omega-3 versus isoflavones in the control of vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal
      women.
AB  - Determine the efficacy and tolerability of omega-3 fatty acids versus soybean
      isoflavones in reducing the vasomotor symptoms (VMSs) frequency in postmenopausal
      women. A randomized, prospective, two-arm study was performed in healthy
      postmenopausal women aged 45-65. The two arms were: two capsules/day of omega-3
      (425 mg of omega-3/capsule) administered orally (n = 38) and two tablets/day of
      soybean isoflavones (54.4 mg of isoflavones/tablet) (n = 30), over 16 weeks. The
      mean baseline frequency of moderate and severe VMSs per week in the omega-3 group
      was 24.56 and 23.90, respectively, and 19.65 and 19.51 in the isoflavone group.
      After 4 months, the reduction in moderate and severe hot flashes with omega-3 was
      significant (p < .001), whereas in the case of isoflavones, there was a
      significant difference in severe (p = .02) hot flashes after 4 months, but not in
      moderate hot flashes (p = .077). Omega-3 did not demonstrate significant efficacy
      differences versus isoflavones over time. The use of omega-3 has a beneficial
      effect on hot flash reduction after 4 months of treatment. This is comparable to
      the benefits found with soybean isoflavones after 3-4 weeks and after 4 months in
      severe hot flash women, but higher than those found with soybean isoflavones in
      moderate symptom women.

PMID- 28562119
TI  - Cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for
      peritoneal malignancy: preliminary results of a multi-disciplinary teamwork model
      in Asia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy
      (CRS/HIPEC) is an emerging surgical procedure for peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC).
      CRS/HIPEC is a complicated treatment that requires multi-disciplinary teamwork
      (MDT), which may be lacking when establishing a CRS/HIPEC programme. Herein, we
      report our preliminary treatment outcomes with the early implementation of an MDT
      model for CRS/HIPEC. METHODS: From April 2015 to December 2016, 45 patients with
      a diagnosis of PC who received CRS/HIPEC were reviewed retrospectively in a
      single institution in Taiwan. RESULTS: Among the 45 patients, CRS was mainly
      performed by laparotomy (n = 42), and only three patients with limited PC
      underwent laparoscopic CRS. The first 13 patients received treatment before the
      MDT had been established (group 1), and the other 32 patients were treated after
      the MDT had been established (group 2). The highest peri-HIPEC body temperature
      in group 2 was significantly lower than that in group 1 (36.8  degrees C vs. 37.5
      degrees C, p < 0.001). Overall, eight patients experienced major complications.
      The trend of a lower major complication rate was observed after the MDT model had
      been implemented (30.7% in group 1 vs. 12.4% in group 2, p = 0.202). Pre
      CRS/HIPEC abdominal pain significantly increased the risk of post-operative major
      complications (p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Our experience suggests that the early
      implementation of an MDT model when establishing a CRS/HIPEC programme at a
      single institution may result in a higher complete cytoreduction rate and lower
      major complication rate, and also shorten the learning curve of this complicated
      procedure.

PMID- 28562120
TI  - Mediterranean diet adherence in the Mediterranean healthy eating, aging and
      lifestyle (MEAL) study cohort.
AB  - A decline in adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern has been observed
      over the last years. The aim of this study was to assess the level of adherence
      to the Mediterranean diet and possible determinants in the Mediterranean healthy
      Eating, Aging and Lifestyle (MEAL) study cohort. Demographic and dietary data of
      1937 individuals were collected in 2014-2015 from the general population of
      Catania, Sicily (Italy). Food frequency questionnaires and the MEDI-LITE score
      were used to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The score well
      characterised consumption of major food groups, micro- and macro-nutrients. The
      cohort had a general good adherence, but only a minority was highly adherent.
      High adherence was directly associated with education, non-smoking and physical
      activity and inversely with high occupational status. In conclusions,
      Mediterranean diet is still followed in Sicily; however, nutrition education
      campaigns should promote healthy traditional dietary patterns in certain groups
      of individuals.

PMID- 28562118
TI  - MIF family cytokines in cardiovascular diseases and prospects for precision-based
      therapeutics.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic
      cytokine with chemokine-like functions that increasingly is being studied in
      different aspects of cardiovascular disease. MIF was first identified as a
      proinflammatory and pro-survival mediator within the immune system, and a second
      structurally related MIF family member, D-dopachrome tautomerase (a.k.a. MIF-2),
      was reported recently. Both MIF family members are released by myocardium and
      modulate the manifestations of cardiovascular disease, specifically in myocardial
      ischemia. Areas covered: A scientific overview is provided for the involvement of
      MIF family cytokines in the inflammatory pathogenesis of atherosclerosis,
      myocardial infarction, and ischemia-reperfusion injury. We summarize findings of
      experimental, human genetic and clinical studies, and suggest therapeutic
      opportunities for modulating the activity of MIF family proteins that potentially
      may be applied in a MIF allele specific manner. Expert opinion: Knowledge of MIF,
      MIF-2 and their receptor pathways are under active investigation in different
      types of cardiovascular diseases, and novel therapeutic opportunities are being
      identified. Clinical translation may be accelerated by accruing experience with
      MIF-directed therapies currently in human testing in cancer and autoimmunity.

PMID- 28562121
TI  - Overweight adolescents and asthma: Revealing motivations and challenges with
      adolescent-provider communication.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Among teens with asthma, challenges of disease management may be
      greater in those with a body mass index (BMI) >85th percentile compared to youth
      within the parameters for normal weight-for-age. This mixed-methods study
      assessed teens' awareness of the link between weight and asthma management, and
      perspectives on how medical providers might open a discussion about managing
      weight. METHOD: Teens aged 13-18, having BMI >85 percentile and chronic asthma,
      identified using health system databases and a staff email message board, were
      invited to complete a semi-structured, in-depth phone interview. Interviews were
      audio taped, transcribed, and qualitatively analyzed, using the Framework Method.
      Responses were summarized and themes identified. Descriptive summaries were
      generated for a 16-item survey of weight conversation starters. RESULTS: Of 35
      teens interviewed, 24 (69%) were girls, 11 (31%) boys, 20 (63%) African-American.
      All teens reported having "the weight conversation" with their doctors, and
      preferred that parents be present. Half knew from their doctor about the link
      between being overweight and asthma, others knew from personal experience. Nearly
      all expressed the importance of providers initiating a weight management
      conversation. Most preferred conversation starters that recognized challenges and
      included parents' participation in weight management; least liked referred to
      "carrying around too much weight." CONCLUSIONS: Most teens responded favorably to
      initiating weight loss if it impacted asthma management, valued their provider
      addressing weight and family participation in weight management efforts.
      Adolescents' views enhance program development fostering more effective
      communication targeting weight improvement within the overall asthma management
      plan.

PMID- 28562122
TI  - A first trimester prediction model for gestational diabetes utilizing aneuploidy
      and pre-eclampsia screening markers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined whether first trimester aneuploidy and pre-eclampsia
      screening markers predict gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a large multi
      ethnic cohort and the influence of local population characteristics on markers.
      METHODS: Clinical and first trimester markers (mean arterial pressure (MAP),
      uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA PI), pregnancy associated plasma protein A
      (PAPP-A), free-beta human chorionic gonadotropin (free-hCGbeta)) were measured in
      a case-control study of 980 women (248 with GDM, 732 controls) at 11 to 13 + 6
      weeks' gestation. Clinical parameters, MAP-, UtA PI-, PAPP-A-, and free-hCGbeta
      multiples-of-the-median (MoM) were compared between GDM and controls; stratified
      by ethnicity, parity, and GDM diagnosis <24 versus >=24 weeks' gestation. GDM
      model screening performance was evaluated using AUROC. RESULTS: PAPP-A- and UtA
      PI-MoM were significantly lower in GDM versus controls (median ((IQR) PAPP-A-MoM
      0.81 (0.58-1.20) versus 1.00 (0.70-1.46); UtA PI-MoM 1.01 (0.82-1.21) versus 1.05
      (0.84-1.29); p < .05). Previous GDM, family history of diabetes, south/east Asian
      ethnicity, parity, BMI, MAP, UtA PI, and PAPP-A were significant predictors in
      multivariate analysis (p < .05). The AUC for a model based on clinical parameters
      was 0.88 (95%CI 0.85-0.92), increasing to 0.90 (95%CI 0.87-0.92) with first
      trimester markers combined. The combined model best predicted GDM <24 weeks'
      gestation (AUC 0.96 (95%CI 0.94-0.98)). CONCLUSIONS: Addition of aneuploidy and
      pre-eclampsia markers is cost-effective and enhances early GDM detection,
      accurately identifying early GDM, a high-risk cohort requiring early detection,
      and intervention. Ethnicity and parity modified marker association with GDM,
      suggesting differences in pathophysiology and vascular risk.

PMID- 28562123
TI  - The role of total body fat mass and trunk fat mass, combined with other endocrine
      factors, in menstrual recovery and psychopathology of adolescents with Anorexia
      Nervosa.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the threshold of total body and trunk fat mass required
      for menstrual recovery and to assess the impact of body composition in
      psychopathology of adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). METHODS: Prospective
      study of 60 adolescents presented with secondary amenorrhea and diagnosed with
      AN. Anthropometrics, body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry,
      hormonal studies and responses to mental health screens (EAT-26), were obtained
      at the beginning and at complete weight restoration, in all adolescents,
      independently of menstrual recovery (Group A) or not (Group B). RESULTS: At
      weight restoration, Group A total body fat mass, trunk fat mass, and
      trunk/extremities fat ratio were significantly higher (p < .001) than Group B.
      Menstruation was expected in 20% of total body fat mass and 20% of trunk fat mass
      (% of total trunk tissue). At time of menstrual recovery, total body fat mass (%)
      and trunk fat mass (%) were significantly negatively correlated with EAT-26 (r = 
      0.363, p = .032) and (r = -0.416, p = .013), respectively, while an increase of
      0.40% of trunk fat mass (%) lowers EAT-26 by one unit. DISCUSSION: Trunk fat mass
      distribution can positively influence psychopathology of adolescents with AN.

PMID- 28562124
TI  - Serum stromal-derived-factor-1 (CXCL12) and its alpha chemokine receptor (CXCR4)
      as biomarkers in neonatal sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal sepsis remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and
      mortality both among term and preterm infants. Advances in neonatal care improved
      survival and reduced complications in preterm infants. Chemokines are chemotactic
      cytokines that give directional guidance for leukocyte migration during
      inflammatory process. The chemokine CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 are now known
      to play an important role in inflammatory states. However, its value as a
      biomarker in neonatal sepsis is unclear. OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of
      measuring the serum levels of alpha-chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR-4) and
      stromal-derived-factor-1 (CXCL12) in diagnosis of late onset neonatal sepsis.
      SUBJECT AND METHODS: Serum levels of CXCL12 and CXCR4 were determined in 38 full
      term neonates, 23 cases of late onset sepsis (13 males and 10 female), and 15
      healthy neonates as control (six males and nine females) by ELISA technique and
      flow-cytometry. RESULTS: Serum levels of CXCR4 and CXCL12 were significantly
      higher in neonates with late onset sepsis compared with the non-septic ones. The
      sensitivity, the specificity, and the overall accuracy of CXCL12 were 100%. The
      sensitivity of CXCR4 was 87%; the specificity was 80% and the overall accuracy
      was 84%. CONCLUSIONS: Serum CXCR4 and CXCL12 levels increase significantly in
      septic neonates and they are valuable marker in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.
      Serum concentrations of both chemokines represent promising novel biomarkers for
      neonatal sepsis.

PMID- 28562125
TI  - A discrete choice experiment to determine UK patient preference for attributes of
      disease modifying treatments in Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - AIMS: The recent licensing of Disease Modifying Treatments (DMTs) for Multiple
      Sclerosis (MS) has increased available treatment options. The aim of this study
      was to explore MS patients' preference for the different attributes of DMTs in
      the UK. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Attributes (treatment characteristics) for
      inclusion in the discrete choice experiment (DCE) were determined through
      published literature and interviews with 12 people with MS. Seven attributes were
      selected. Participants were presented with three hypothetical treatment options
      sampled from included attributes and asked for their most/least preferred
      options. The influence of patient characteristics and demographics on patient
      preference was also investigated. RESULTS: The DCE was completed by 350 people
      with MS (81% female, mean age = 39). Results showed that method of taking
      medication was the strongest determinant of preference (27%; relative importance
      out of 100%), followed by relapse free rate (21%) and symptom progression (14%).
      Risk of fatigue (8%) and type of monitoring (6%) were the weakest determinants of
      preference. Once-daily oral treatment was preferred over all other methods of
      administration. Participant characteristics did not influence data on strength of
      preference. LIMITATIONS: This study assumed adequate participant understanding of
      the discrete choice experiment task, and recruitment targeted those with access
      to the internet. CONCLUSIONS: These results, derived from people with MS in the
      UK, should be used to inform individual discussions with patients about DMT
      choices.

PMID- 28562126
TI  - A systematic literature review of methods of incorporating mortality in cost
      effectiveness analyses of lipid-lowering therapies.
AB  - AIMS: Cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a useful tool for estimating the value
      of an intervention in relation to alternatives. In cardiovascular disease (CVD),
      CEA is especially important, given the high economic and clinical burden. One key
      driver of value is CVD mortality prevention. However, data used to inform CEA
      parameters can be limited, given the difficulty in demonstrating statistically
      significant mortality benefit in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), due in part
      to the frequency of fatal events and limited trial durations. This systematic
      review identifies and summarizes whether published CVD-related CEAs have
      incorporated mortality benefits, and the methodology among those that did.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted of CEAs of
      lipid-lowering therapies published between 2000-2017. Health technology
      assessments (HTA) and full-length manuscripts were included, and sources of
      mortality data and methods of applying mortality benefits were extracted. Results
      were summarized as proportions of articles to articulate common practices in CEAs
      of CVD. RESULTS: This review identified 100 studies for inclusion, comprising 93
      full-length manuscripts and seven HTA reviews. Among these, 99% assumed a
      mortality benefit in the model. However, 87 of these studies that incorporated
      mortality differences did so despite the trials used to inform model parameters
      not demonstrating statistically significant differences in mortality. None of the
      12 studies that used statistically significant findings from an individual RCT
      were based on active control studies. In a sub-group analysis considering the 60
      CEAs that incorporated a direct mortality benefit, 48 (80%) did not have RCT
      evidence for statistically significant benefit in CVD mortality. LIMITATIONS AND
      CONCLUSIONS: The finding that few CEA models included mortality inputs from
      individual RCTs of lipid-lowering therapy may be surprising, as one might expect
      that treatment efficacy should be based on robust clinical evidence. However,
      regulatory requirements in CVD-related RCTs often lead to insufficient sample
      sizes and observation periods for detecting a difference in CVD mortality, which
      results in the use of intermediate outcomes, composite end-points, or meta
      analysis to extrapolate long-term mortality benefit in a lifetime CEA.

PMID- 28562127
TI  - Effect of pre-treatment on in vitro gastric digestion of quinoa protein
      (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) obtained by wet and dry fractionation.
AB  - Quinoa protein was isolated from quinoa seeds using wet fractionation that
      resulted in a protein isolate (QPI) with a high protein purity of 87.1% (w/dw)
      and a protein yield of around 54%, and a dry fractionation method delivered a
      quinoa protein concentrate (QPC) with a purity of 27.8% (w/dw) and yield of
      around 47%. The dry fractionation process only involves milling and sieving and
      keeps the protein in its natural, native state. The aim was to study the in vitro
      gastric digestibility of both protein. Attention was paid to thermal pre
      treatment of QPI and QPC. QPC showed significantly higher (p < .05) digestibility
      than QPI samples. The results were interpreted with a simple double exponential
      model. The fraction of easily digested protein in QPC is higher than for QPI. The
      better digestibility of the QPC was explained by the prevention of the formation
      of large aggregates during pre-heating of the protein.

PMID- 28562128
TI  - Recent status of pregnant women with mental disorders at a Japanese perinatal
      center.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recently, we have been providing comprehensive treatment for
      pregnant women with mental disorders involving specialists from multiple fields
      in cooperation with local administrative agencies. In this study, we examined the
      outcomes of treatment for women with perinatal mental disorders in our institute
      to evaluate the effect of our recent approach to improve perinatal mental health.
      METHODS: We retrospectively compared the outcomes between pregnant women with
      mental disorders who delivered from April 2015 to March 2017 with those from
      April 2009 to March 2011. We examined the following: presence or absence of
      necessity of medication, self-interruption of medication, deterioration/relapse
      of mental disorders, and administrative support. RESULTS: There was no
      significant difference in the rate of pregnant women with mental disorders
      between the two periods (3.2 versus 3.2%, respectively, p = .94). The rates of
      patients requiring medication and those with self-interruption of medication did
      not reach significance (p = .90 and .19, respectively) between the two periods;
      however, the rate of patients with deterioration/relapse of mental disorders
      decreased significantly during pregnancy and postpartum (20.3 versus 10.7 and 7.3
      versus 1.7%, p = .04 and .03, respectively). On the other hand, the patients
      receiving administrative supports increased significantly over the total study
      period (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: It was suggested that our recent active management
      of pregnant women with mental disorders might have contributed to prevent the
      deterioration/relapse of mental disorders during pregnancy and postpartum.

PMID- 28562129
TI  - Fetal response to intramuscular epinephrine for anaphylaxis during maternal
      penicillin desensitization for secondary syphilis.
AB  - Penicillin desensitization is indicated in pregnant patients with severe
      allergies to penicillin with syphilis. The immediate effects of intramuscular
      epinephrine on the fetus during desensitization remain unreported. We describe a
      pregnant patient with secondary syphilis and penicillin allergy who developed
      anaphylaxis during penicillin desensitization. Anaphylaxis resolved after
      administration of intramuscular epinephrine. Throughout the procedure, continuous
      electronic fetal monitoring showed a stable fetus without a decrease in
      variability, tachycardia, decelerations, or signs of fetal distress. This case
      showed that intramuscular epinephrine is effective in treatment of anaphylaxis in
      a pregnant patient with little to no immediate effects on the fetus.

PMID- 28562130
TI  - Effects of ospemifene on vaginal epithelium of post-menopausal women.
AB  - Ospemifene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator used for the treatment of
      vulvo-vaginal atrophy (VVA) in post-menopausal women. No direct evidence of its
      effects on histological features of the human vagina has been reported. To
      evaluate the effects of ospemifene on histological parameters, glycogen content,
      proliferation, and estrogen receptor alpha expression (ERalpha) of vaginal
      epithelium in post-menopausal women. Thirty-two post-menopausal women undergoing
      surgical procedures were enrolled. Sixteen subjects taking ospemifene at the time
      of inclusion (OSP) were compared to 16 subjects not taking any hormone (CTL).
      Vaginal biopsies were taken from the proximal and distal vaginal wall during
      surgery to evaluate histology, Ki-67 and ERalpha expression. OSP group showed
      thicker vaginal epithelium (349 +/- 64 vs. 245 +/- 53 MUm, p < .001), higher
      proliferation index (212 +/- 47 vs. 127 +/- 28 Ki-67+ cells/mm, p < .001), higher
      epithelial (27.3 +/- 3.1 vs. 20.6 +/- 2.9 score, p < .001) and stromal (26.6 +/-
      4.9 vs. 20.6 +/- 2.6 score, p < .001) ERalpha expression when compared to the CTL
      group. In postmenopausal women affected by VVA, 1 month intake of ospemifene is
      associated with an increased maturation, and ERalpha expression of the vaginal
      mucosa. These changes may partially explain the improvement of symptoms of
      vaginal atrophy reported with this drug.

PMID- 28562131
TI  - Cost reduction from resolution/improvement of carcinoid syndrome symptoms
      following treatment with above-standard dose of octreotide LAR.
AB  - AIMS: To calculate the cost reduction associated with diarrhea/flushing symptom
      resolution/improvement following treatment with above-standard dose octreotide
      LAR from the commercial payor's perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diarrhea and
      flushing are two major carcinoid syndrome symptoms of neuroendocrine tumor (NET).
      Previously, a study of NET patients from three US tertiary oncology centers (NET
      3-Center Study) demonstrated that dose escalation of octreotide LAR to above
      standard dose resolved/improved diarrhea/flushing in 79% of the patients within 1
      year. Time course of diarrhea/flushing symptom data were collected from the NET 3
      Center Study. Daily healthcare costs were calculated from a commercial claims
      database analysis. For the patient cohort experiencing any diarrhea/flushing
      symptom resolution/improvement, their observation period was divided into days of
      symptom resolution/improvement or no improvement, which were then multiplied by
      the respective daily healthcare cost and summed over 1 year to yield the blended
      mean annual cost per patient. For patients who experienced no diarrhea/flushing
      symptom improvement, mean annual daily healthcare cost of diarrhea/flushing over
      a 1-year period was calculated. RESULTS: The economic model found that 108 NET
      patients who experienced diarrhea/flushing symptom resolution/improvement within
      1 year had statistically significantly lower mean annual healthcare cost/patient
      than patients with no symptom improvement, by $14,766 (p = .03). For the sub-set
      of 85 patients experiencing resolution/improvement of diarrhea, their cost
      reduction was more pronounced, at $18,740 (p = .01), statistically significantly
      lower than those with no improvement; outpatient costs accounted for 56% of the
      cost reduction (p = .02); inpatient costs, emergency department costs, and
      pharmacy costs accounted for the remaining 44%. LIMITATIONS: The economic model
      relied on two different sources of data, with some heterogeneity in the prior
      treatment and disease status of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Symptom
      resolution/improvement of diarrhea/flushing after treatment with an above
      standard dose of octreotide-LAR in NET was associated with a statistically
      significant healthcare cost decrease compared to a scenario of no symptom
      improvement.

PMID- 28562132
TI  - Burden of illness associated with sinusoidal obstruction syndrome/veno-occlusive
      disease in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - AIMS: Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS) is a life-threatening complication of
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) associated with significant
      morbidity and mortality. Healthcare utilization, costs, and mortality were
      assessed in HSCT patients diagnosed with SOS, with and without multi-organ
      dysfunction (MOD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective observational study
      identified real-world patients undergoing HSCT between January 1, 2009 and May
      31, 2014 using the Premier Healthcare Database. In absence of a formal ICD-9-CM
      diagnostic code, SOS patients were identified using a pre-specified definition
      adapted from Baltimore and Seattle criteria and clinical practice. Severe SOS
      (SOS/MOD) and non-severe SOS (SOS/no-MOD) were classified according to clinical
      evidence for MOD in the database. RESULTS: Of the 5,418 patients with a discharge
      diagnosis of HSCT, 291 had SOS, with 134 categorized as SOS/MOD and 157 as SOS/no
      MOD. The remaining 5,127 patients had HSCT without SOS. Overall SOS incidence was
      5.4%, with 46% having evidence of MOD. Distribution of age, gender, and race were
      similar between the SOS cohorts and non-SOS patients. After controlling for
      hospital profile and admission characteristics, demographics, and clinical
      characteristics, the adjusted mean LOS was 31.0 days in SOS/MOD compared to 23.9
      days in the non-SOS cohort (medians = 26.9 days vs 20.8 days, p < .001). The
      adjusted mean cost of SOS/MOD patients was $140,653, which was $41,702 higher
      than the non-SOS cohort (medians = $105,749 vs $74,395, p < .001). An almost 6
      fold increased odds of inpatient mortality was associated with SOS/MOD compared
      to the non-SOS cohort (odds ratio = 5.88; 95% CI = 3.45-10.33). LIMITATIONS:
      Limitations of retrospective observational studies apply, since the study was not
      randomized. Definition for SOS was based on ICD-9 diagnosis codes from a hospital
      administrative database and reliant on completeness and accuracy of coding.
      CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of real-world data shows that SOS/MOD is associated with
      significant increases in healthcare utilization, costs, and inpatient mortality.

PMID- 28562134
TI  - Contribution of nucleophosmin overexpression to multidrug resistance in breast
      carcinoma.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a serious obstacle in breast cancer patients which
      limits chemotherapeutic drugs application. Our previous study confirmed that
      overexpression of nucleophosmin (NPM) was closely related to MDR in methotrexate
      resistant breast cancer cells (MCF-7/MTX), and NPM could be a potential
      therapeutic target for chemoresistance. In this work, we aim to investigate NPM
      mediated resistance mechanism in breast carcinoma. The NPM level was strongly
      positive in breast carcinoma tissues compared with adjacent normal samples, which
      was associated with lymph node metastasis. We found abnormal expression of NPM
      activated PI3K/Akt pathway and affected downstream apoptosis factors. Then, NPM
      level was attenuated by RNA interfering technology, the sensitivity of MCF-7/MTX
      cells to methotrexate was obviously increased, factor level of mitochondria
      apoptosis pathway was significantly augmented, and Akt phosphorylation was
      inhibited. Furthermore, examination of Akt and NPM level demonstrated that Akt
      inhibitor MK-2206 sensitised resistant cells to methotrexate and induced MCF
      7/MTX cell apoptosis by PI3K/Akt pathway and mitochondria apoptosis pathway.
      These suggested NPM-induced resistance and anti-apoptosis were required for Akt
      activity. NPM has a crucial function in MDR of breast cancer through influencing
      Akt activity and resistant cell apoptosis, and it could be expected to become a
      therapeutic target for chemoresistance in breast cancer.

PMID- 28562133
TI  - Dietary nitrate does not modify blood pressure and cardiac output at rest and
      during exercise in older adults: a randomised cross-over study.
AB  - Dietary nitrate (NO3-) supplementation has been associated with improved vascular
      and metabolic health. We conducted a double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled
      RCT to investigate the effects of 7-d consumption of beetroot juice compared with
      placebo on (1) blood pressure (BP) measured in resting conditions and during
      exercise, (2) cardiac and peripheral vascular function and (3) biomarkers of
      inflammation, oxidative stress and endothelial integrity. Twenty non-smoking
      healthy participants aged 60-75 years and BMI 20.0-29.9 kg/m2 were recruited.
      Measurement was conducted before and after each 7-d intervention period.
      Consumption of NO3- had no effect on resting systolic and diastolic BP. NO3-
      consumption did not improve indexes of central and peripheral cardiac function
      responses during cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Dietary NO3- supplementation
      did not modify biomarkers of inflammation, oxidative stress and endothelial
      integrity. This study does not support the short-term benefits of dietary NO3-
      supplementation on physiological and biochemical markers of vascular health in
      older healthy adults.

PMID- 28562135
TI  - A qualitative study of medical educators' perspectives on remediation: Adopting a
      holistic approach to struggling residents.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: During residency, some trainees require the identification and
      remediation of deficiencies to achieve the knowledge, skills and attitudes
      necessary for independent practice. Given the limited published frameworks for
      remediation, we characterize remediation from the perspective of educators and
      propose a holistic framework to guide the approach to remediation. METHODS: We
      conducted semistructured focus groups to: explore methods for identifying
      struggling residents; categorize common domains of struggle; describe personal
      factors that contribute to difficulties; define remediation interventions and
      understand what constitutes successful completion. Data were analyzed through
      conventional content analysis. RESULTS: Nineteen physicians across multiple
      specialties and institutions participated in seven focus groups. Thirteen
      categories emerged around remediation. Some themes addressed practical components
      of remediation, while others reflected barriers to the process and the impact of
      remediation on the resident and program. The themes were used to inform
      development of a novel holistic framework for remediation. CONCLUSIONS: The
      approach to remediation requires comprehensive identification of individual
      factors impacting performance. The intervention should not only include a
      tailored learning plan but also address confounders that impact likelihood of
      remediation success. Our holistic framework intends to guide educators creating
      remediation plans to ensure all domains are addressed.

PMID- 28562136
TI  - G6PD deficiency and fungal infections in patients with acute myeloid leukemia:
      less enzyme more fungus.

PMID- 28562137
TI  - Correction to: Mbatha et al., High-risk human papillomavirus types in HIV
      infected and HIV-uninfected young women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa:
      implications for vaccination.

PMID- 28562138
TI  - Unilesional locally recurrent lymphomatoid papulosis with variable histological
      presentation.

PMID- 28562139
TI  - Population genetic structure and genetic diversity of Chinese pomfret at the
      coast of the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
AB  - The Chinese pomfret Pampus chinensis is one of the most economic and ecological
      important marine fish species in China. In the present study, the population
      genetic structure and genetic diversity of P. chinensis were evaluated from a
      total sample size of 180 individuals representing six populations from the East
      China Sea and the South China Sea using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase
      subunit I (COI) gene. A total of 24 variable sites (including 3 singleton sites
      and 21 parsimony information sites) were observed, and 18 haplotypes were
      defined. The haplotype diversity (Hd) of the populations ranged from 0.559 to
      0.775, and the nucleotide diversity (pi) ranged from 0.330 to 1.090%. Analysis of
      molecular variance (AMOVA) reveals that the main variation (66.02%) was among
      individuals within populations. The average pairwise differences and phiST values
      indicated significant genetic differentiation between Dongxing population and the
      other populations. The results of the present study are helpful for the
      sustainable management and utilization of this species.

PMID- 28562140
TI  - The effects of global budget on cost control and readmission in rural China: a
      difference-in-difference analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Global budget (GB) is considered one of the most important payment
      methods available. Since a new round of healthcare system reforms in 2009, the
      Chinese government has been paying attention to this prospective payment.
      However, it is unclear whether GB has influenced cost control and how it works in
      rural China. METHODS: YC county was chosen as the intervention group, with 33,175
      inpatients before and 36,883 inpatients after the reform (2012 and 2014,
      respectively). ZJ county acted as the control group, with 23,668 and 29,555
      inpatients, respectively. The inpatients' information was collected from a local
      insurance agency. The difference-in-difference method (controlling for age,
      gender, living status, severity of the disease, whether the patient had surgery,
      the level of medical institutions, and the secular trends of the two groups) was
      applied to estimate the effects on total spending (TS), reimbursement expense
      (RE), out-of-pocket payment (OOP), readmission rate, and seven kinds of medical
      service items. RESULTS: At per practice level, the GB was associated with a
      Y263.35 (p < .001) and Y447.46 (p < .001) decrease in growth of TS and RE,
      respectively, while OOP increased by Y188.06 (p < .001). At per capital level,
      the decrease in growth of TS and RE was Y64.39 (p = .301) and Y467.45 (p < .001),
      respectively, whereas the increase of OOP was more significant at Y408.19 (p <
      .001). Savings were concentrated in unclassified items (Y197.68, p < .001), drug
      prescription (Y69.03, p < .001), surgery (Y40.18, p < .001), cure (Y4.95, p =
      .565), and diagnosis (Y3.61, p = .064). Meanwhile, the readmission rate increased
      by 11.4% (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The GB has a prominent impact on curbing the
      growth of insurance fund expenditures, as well as drug and medical consumable
      costs. However, the patients' out-of-pocket payment has risen. Doctors decomposed
      hospitalization to deal with supervision, which was harmful to patients. Any
      medical insurance payment reform should be undertaken prudently, and its likely
      outcomes should be weighed comprehensively.

PMID- 28562141
TI  - Hybrid nanoparticles for the topical delivery of norfloxacin for the effective
      treatment of bacterial infection produced after burn.
AB  - The present study was designed to investigate the solubility and penetrability of
      norfloxacin after the topical application of developed lipid-polymer hybrid
      nanoparticle (LPN) formulation. The core shell of the LPNs formulation was
      composed of poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) that is highly lipophilic in nature,
      thus control the release of drug. The developed formulations were characterised
      for size, shape (transmission electron microscopy [TEM], scanning electron
      microscopy [SEM], and atomic force microscopy), entrapment efficiency, Fourier
      transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
      and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). Moreover, in vitro skin permeation studies
      were performed to determine release profile of the drug. Norfloxacin loaded
      nanoparticles retained there antimicrobial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus
      and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Stability study was suggested that the suitable
      storage condition should be at 4 +/- 2  degrees C/60 +/- 5% RH for the LPNs.
      Therefore, these nanoparticles showed a safe and effective long-lasting approach
      for long treatment of bacterial infections due to burn.

PMID- 28562143
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28562142
TI  - How do Swedish day center attendees with psychiatric disabilities view their
      worker role? A structural equation modeling study.
AB  - AIM: To investigate how day center attendees with psychiatric disabilities
      perceived their worker role and the importance of current work situation and
      personal factors in that respect. METHODS: Two-hundred attendees completed the
      Worker Role Self-assessment and questionnaires addressing possible predictors of
      the worker role: current employment situation, satisfaction with that situation,
      and a personal factor (encompassing self-esteem, self-mastery and engagement).
      Structural equation modeling was used. RESULTS: A model indicated two worker role
      factors; belief in a future worker role (WR1) and current capacities and routines
      (WR2). WR1 was positively influenced by having a job, younger age and the
      personal factor. Satisfaction with current work situation (usually unemployment)
      was negatively associated with WR1. The personal factor was single predictor of
      WR2. The attendees rated WR2 more positively than WR1. CONCLUSIONS: The personal
      factor was crucial for both WR1 and WR2. Work-related factors were only important
      for WR1. The more negative rating of belief in a future worker role may be
      interpreted as mistrust in the services. The attendees' positive ratings of
      capacities indicate, however, that they had a rehabilitation potential to
      develop. Enhancing self-esteem, mastery and engagement may be an avenue for staff
      in efforts to support the attendee's worker role.

PMID- 28562144
TI  - The behavioral deficits and cognitive impairment are correlated with decreased
      IGF-II and ERK in depressed mice induced by chronic unpredictable stress.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the behavioral deficits, cognitive impairment and possible
      mechanisms induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) in mice of different
      ages. METHODS: The behaviors and cognition were tested using the open field test,
      tail suspension test and the Morris water maze. The changes in the insulin-like
      growth factor II (IGF-II) and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and
      phosphorylation (p-ERK) in the hippocampus (HP) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were
      evaluated by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The 15-month-old mice revealed a
      significant decline in spontaneous behavior and the learning-memory function and
      showed a decrease in IGF-II and p-ERK expression levels in HP and PFC. Four weeks
      of CUS exposure induced significant anxiety- and depression-like behavior and
      learning-memory function impairment in 3- to 15-month-old mice, and reduced IGF
      II and p-ERK expression levels in HP and PFC, compared with control group mice,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The behavioral deficits and cognitive impairment
      induced by CUS and aging in mice could be associated with the down-regulated
      expression of IGF-II and p-ERK in HP and PFC. This role seems to be dependent on
      the intracellular ERK pathway.

PMID- 28562145
TI  - Exploring educational interventions to facilitate health professional students'
      professionally safe online presence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish the most effective approach and type of educational
      intervention for health professional students, to enable them to maintain a
      professionally safe online presence. METHOD: This was a qualitative,
      multinational, multi-institutional, multiprofessional study. Practical
      considerations (availability of participants) led us to use a combination of
      focus groups and individual interviews, strengthening our findings by
      triangulating our method of data collection. The study gathered data from 57
      nursing, medical and paramedical students across four sites in three countries
      (Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia and Wales). A content analysis was conducted to
      clarify how and why students used Facebook and what strategies they thought might
      be useful to ensure professional usage. A series of emergent codes were examined
      and a thematic analysis undertaken from which key themes were crystallized.
      RESULTS: The results illuminated the ways in which students use social networking
      sites (SNS). The three key themes to emerge from the data analysis were
      negotiating identities, distancing and risks. Students expressed the wish to have
      material about professional safety on SNS taught to them by authoritative figures
      to explain "the rules" as well as by peers to assist with practicalities. Our
      interactive research method demonstrated the transformative capacity of the
      students working in groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports the need for an
      educational intervention to assist health professional students to navigate SNS
      safely and in a manner appropriate to their future roles as health professionals.
      Because health professional students develop their professional identity
      throughout their training, we suggest that the most appropriate intervention
      incorporate small group interactive sessions from those in authority, and from
      peers, combined with group work that facilitates and enhances the students'
      development of a professional identity.

PMID- 28562146
TI  - Time trends in pediatric fracture incidence in Sweden during the period 1950
      2006.
AB  - Background and purpose - Pediatric fracture incidence may not be stable. We
      describe recent pediatric fracture epidemiology and etiology and compare this to
      earlier data. Patients and methods - The city of Malmo (population 271,271 in
      2005) in Sweden is served by 1 hospital. Using the hospital diagnosis registry,
      medical charts, and the radiographic archive, we identified fractures in
      individuals <16 years that had occurred during 2005 and 2006. We also retrieved
      previously collected fracture data from between 1950 and 1994, from the
      hospital's pediatric fracture database. We used official population data to
      estimate period-specific fracture incidence (the number of fractures per 105
      person-years) and also age- and sex-adjusted incidence. Differences are reported
      as rate ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals. Results - The pediatric
      fracture incidence during the period 2005-2006 was 1,832 per 105 person-years
      (2,359 in boys and 1,276 in girls), with an age-adjusted boy-to-girl ratio of 1.8
      (1.6-2.1). Compared to the period 1993-1994, age-adjusted rates were unchanged
      (RR =0.9, 95% CI: 0.8-1.03) in 2005-2006, with lower rates in girls (RR =0.8, 95%
      CI: 0.7-0.99) but not in boys (RR =1.0, 95% CI: 0.9-1.1). We also found that the
      previously reported decrease in unadjusted incidence in Malmo from 1976-1979 to
      1993-1994 was based on changes in demography, as the age-adjusted incidences were
      similar in the 2 periods (RR =1.0, 95% CI: 0.9-1.1). Interpretation - In Malmo,
      pediatric fracture incidence decreased from 1993-1994 to 2005-2006 in girls but
      not in boys. Changes in demography, and also other factors, influence the recent
      time trends.

PMID- 28562147
TI  - Clinical and radiological findings for early diagnosis of Herlyn-Werner
      Wunderlich syndrome in pediatric age: experience of a single center.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The authors present their experience in the management of pediatric
      patients with Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) considering clinical
      classification and anatomical characteristics of the malformation. METHODS: All
      the data of the patient presented at our Pediatric Surgery Unit from February
      2010 to August 2015 were collected. According to the type of malformations,
      patients were divided in 3 groups: A (completely obstructed hemivagina), B
      (incompletely obstructed hemivagina), and C (communication between the duplicated
      cervices). RESULTS: Six patients were treated in the study period. The mean age
      was 9 years (2 months-15 years). According to the characteristics of the HWWS, we
      had 5 patients in group A, 1 in group B, and none in group C. One-stage surgical
      treatment was performed in all cases of complete obstruction, but in one case a
      second look was necessary for a better resection of the septum. At a mean follow
      up of 18 months all patients were symptoms free. CONCLUSIONS: Prognosis of this
      malformation is good in case of early diagnosis and treatment. We suggest that
      when a renal agenesia is diagnosed, the patient needs an ultrasonographic follow
      up of the contralateral kidney but also of the genital tract to find each minimal
      abnormalities, furthermore, a MRI scanning before the onset of menstruation can
      be necessary.

PMID- 28562148
TI  - Cross-sectional association of exercise, strengthening activities, and
      cardiorespiratory fitness on generalized anxiety, panic and depressive symptoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Limited research has evaluated the individual and combined
      associations of physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and
      muscle strengthening activities (MSA) on generalized anxiety, panic and
      depressive symptoms. We evaluated this topic in a representative sample of young
      (20-39 years) adults, with considerations by sex. METHODS: Data from the 1999
      2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 2088) were used.
      Generalized anxiety, panic and depressive symptoms were assessed via self-report
      as well as using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Depressive
      Disorders modules of the automated version of the World Health Organization
      Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI-Auto 2.1). PA and MSA were
      assessed via validated self-report questionnaires and CRF was determined via a
      submaximal treadmill-based test. An index variable was created summing the number
      (range = 0-3) of these parameters for each participant. For example, those
      meeting PA guidelines, MSA guidelines and having moderate-to-high CRF were
      classified as having an index score of 3. RESULTS: MSA was not independently
      associated with generalized anxiety, panic and depressive symptoms, but those
      with higher levels of PA and CRF had a reduced odds of these symptoms (ranging
      from 40 to 46% reduced odds). Compared to those with an index score of 0, those
      with an index score of 1, 2, and 3, respectively, had a 39%, 54% and 71% reduced
      odds of having generalized anxiety, panic and depressive symptoms. Results were
      consistent across both sexes. CONCLUSION: PA and CRF, but not MSA, were
      independently associated with generalized anxiety, panic and depressive symptoms.
      There was evidence of an additive association between PA, CRF, and MSA on these
      symptoms.

PMID- 28562150
TI  - Preoperative psychosocial risk factors for poor outcomes at 1 and 5 years after
      total knee replacement.
AB  - Background and purpose - Psychosocial factors are important risk factors for poor
      outcomes in the first year after total knee replacement (TKR), however their
      impact on long-term outcomes is unclear. We aimed to identify preoperative
      psychosocial risk factors for poor outcomes at 1 year and 5 years after TKR.
      Patients and methods - 266 patients were recruited prior to TKR surgery. Knee
      pain and function were assessed preoperatively and at 1 and 5 years postoperative
      using the WOMAC Pain score, WOMAC Function score and American Knee Society Score
      (AKSS) Knee score. Preoperative depression, anxiety, catastrophizing, pain self
      efficacy and social support were assessed. Statistical analyses involved multiple
      linear regression and mixed effect linear regression. Results - Higher anxiety
      was a risk factor for worse pain at 1 year postoperative. No psychosocial factors
      were associated with any outcomes at 5 years postoperative. Analysis of change
      over time found that patients with higher pain self-efficacy had lower
      preoperative pain and experienced less improvement in pain up to 1 year
      postoperative. Higher pain self-efficacy was associated with less improvement in
      the AKSS up to 1 year postoperative but more improvement between 1 and 5 years
      postoperative. Interpretation - Preoperative anxiety was found to influence pain
      at 1 year after TKR. However, none of the psychosocial variables were risk
      factors for a poor outcome at 5 years post-operative, suggesting that the
      negative effects of anxiety on outcome do not persist in the longer-term.

PMID- 28562149
TI  - In Vivo Laser Confocal Microscopy Using the HRT-Rostock Cornea Module: Diversity
      and Diagnostic Implications in Patients with Uveitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Keratic precipitates (KP) are a common feature of uveitis. We
      prospectively examined KP with the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph II confocal laser
      scanning microscope and Rostock Corneal Module (HRT-RCM) to explore their
      diagnostic implications. METHODS: Prospective, observational, multicenter study.
      HRT-RCM images were classified by two masked observers. RESULTS: 120 scans on 120
      eyes from 110 subjects were included. The majority (N = 93) had non-infectious
      uveitis. Sixty eyes had active disease at scanning. Eight KP morphologies were
      defined. Agreement between the two masked graders was high (Kappa value across
      all categories = 0.81). Cluster and nodular KP were associated with active
      infectious uveitis (p < 0.01): patients with cluster KP (odds ratio [OR] = 3.03,
      95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.43, 6.45) and nodular KP (OR = 3.89, 95% CI:
      1.42, 10.65) were more likely to have infectious uveitis than those without.
      CONCLUSIONS: Laser confocal microscopy of KP may have a role in determining
      between infectious and non-infectious uveitis.

PMID- 28562152
TI  - End-of-life chemotherapy use at a Finnish university hospital: a retrospective
      cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent trends in the end-of-life (EOL) cancer care have suggested
      that the levels of treatment are becoming more aggressive. The aim of this single
      center study was to evaluate the time from the last intravenous (IV) chemotherapy
      treatment to death and identify factors correlating with treatment closer to
      death. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included all patients diagnosed with
      cancer at Turku University Central Hospital between the years 2005 and 2013 (N =
      38,982) who received IV chemotherapy during the last year of life (N = 3285). The
      cohort of patients and their respective clinical information were identified from
      electronic medical records. Statistical analysis was performed to assess and
      compare the treatment strategies, taking into account the patient's age, the year
      they were treated, and the type of cancer they were diagnosed with. RESULTS: A
      total of 11,250 cancer patients died during the observation time and one-third (N
      = 3285, 29.2%) of them had received IV chemotherapy during the last year of life.
      The time from the last IV chemotherapy regimen to death remained consistent
      across the follow-up time. During the last month of life, every third patient
      under the age of 50 years and only one-tenth of patients over the age of 80 years
      received IV chemotherapy. Hematological malignancies and lymphomas were treated
      closer to death when compared to other diagnostic groups. CONCLUSIONS: During the
      period of 9 years, the pattern of EOL IV chemotherapy treatment remained stable.
      Every third patient died at tertiary care. Only 7.2% of patients who received IV
      chemotherapy during the last year of life were treated 14 days before death,
      which is in line with international recommendations. However, significant
      variation in EOL treatment strategies between different diagnosis and age groups
      were identified.

PMID- 28562151
TI  - Low-dose splenic irradiation prior to hematopoietic cell transplantation in
      hypersplenic patients with myelofibrosis.

PMID- 28562154
TI  - Modelizing home safety as experienced by people with mental illness.
AB  - RATIONALE: As more individuals with mental disorders now live in the community
      and as the custodial care housing model has shifted to supported housing, home
      safety has become a rising issue, however, not well documented. OBJECTIVES: To
      describe the phenomenon of home safety for people with a mental disorder as well
      as its contributing factors. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative design was used.
      Individual interviews were conducted with persons with a mental disorder (n = 8),
      while focus groups were conducted with relatives, health and social service
      providers and community stakeholders (n = 21). The data were analyzed with the
      grounded theory analysis as described by Paille (1994). RESULTS: Findings suggest
      that home safety implies risk and protective factors, which are associated with
      (1) the person's characteristics; (2) the quality of the home environment; (3)
      the nature of the activities in which the individual engages. These dimensions
      are interrelated so that home incidents arise from a dynamic interaction between
      risk and protective factors. CONCLUSIONS: Home incidents therefore occur when the
      interaction between these dimensions is altered. Considering this situation,
      Occupational Therapists are well positioned to play a leading role and act as key
      contributors in the area of home safety in people with mental disorders.

PMID- 28562153
TI  - Increased frequencies of circulating and tumor-resident Vdelta1+ T cells in
      patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
AB  - Gamma-delta (gammadelta) T cells contribute to the innate immune response against
      cancer. In samples of 20 patients upon DLBCL diagnosis, we found that Vdelta1+ T
      cells were the major gammadelta T cell subset in tumors and PBMCs of patients,
      while Vdelta2 T cells were preponderant in PBMCs of healthy subjects.
      Interestingly, the germinal center (GC) subtype was associated with an increase
      in Vdelta1+ T cells in tumors, whereas the non-GC subtype was associated with a
      lower frequency of gammadelta T cells. While circulating Vdelta1+ T cells of
      patients or HSs mostly exhibited a naive phenotype, the majority of tumor
      Vdelta1+ T cells showed a central memory phenotype. Resident or circulating
      gammadelta T cells from patients were not functionally impaired since they
      produced high levels of IFN-gamma. Collectively, our findings are in favor of
      gammadelta T cell activation in tumors and open new perspectives for their
      modulation in DLBCL immunotherapy.

PMID- 28562155
TI  - Challenges of implementing fibromyalgia treatment guidelines in current clinical
      practice.
AB  - The current diagnostic and treatment pathway for patients with fibromyalgia (FM)
      is lengthy, complex, and characterized by multiple physician visits with an
      average 2-year wait until diagnosis. It is clear that effective identification
      and appropriate treatment of FM remain a challenge in current clinical practice.
      Ideally, FM management involves a multidisciplinary approach with the preferable
      patient pathway originating in primary care but supported by a range of health
      care providers, including referral to specialist care when necessary. After the
      publication of individual clinical studies, high-quality reviews, and meta
      analyses, recently published FM treatment guidelines have transitioned from an
      expert consensus to an evidence-based approach. Evidence-based guidelines provide
      a framework for ensuring early diagnosis and timely adoption of appropriate
      treatment. However, for successful outcomes, FM treatments must adopt a more
      holistic approach, which addresses more than just pain. Impact on the associated
      symptoms of fatigue and cognitive problems, sleep and mood disturbances, and
      lowered functional status are also important in judging the success of FM
      therapy. Recently published guidelines recommend the adoption of a symptom-based
      approach to guide pharmacologic treatment. Emerging treatment options for FM may
      be best differentiated on the basis of their effect on comorbid symptoms that are
      often associated with pain (e.g. sleep disturbance, mood, fatigue). The current
      review discusses the most recently published Canadian guidelines and the
      implications of the recent European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)
      recommendations, with a focus on the challenges of implementing these guidelines
      in current clinical practice.

PMID- 28562156
TI  - Neuritin attenuates early brain injury in rats after experimental subarachnoid
      hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Early brain injury (EBI) is central to the pathological progress of
      subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). In this study, we determined if neuritin protects
      the brain against EBI in rats and discussed the role of apoptosis pathway
      mediated by endoplasmic reticulum stress in this neuroprotective route. METHODS:
      A total of 96 male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into control, sham, SAH and
      SAH + neuritin groups. The rat SAH model was induced by injection 0.3 mL of
      nonheparinized arterial blood into the prechiasmatic cistern. Mortality assay,
      neurological scores, brain water content measurement, Evans blue dye assay, TUNEL
      stain assay and Western blot analysis were performed. RESULTS: Neuritin
      significantly improved the neurological scores, brain water content, blood-brain
      barrier (BBB) and apoptosis compared with the control and sham groups within 24 h
      after SAH. TUNEL staining assay results demonstrated that apoptosis was
      ameliorated, MMP-9 expression was reduced, whereas GRP78, CHOP, caspase-12 and
      ASK1 levels were markedly preserved after neuritin application. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study demonstrated that neuritin plays a neuroprotective role on EBI after SAH by
      attenuating BBB disruption, brain edema and apoptosis.

PMID- 28562157
TI  - Validity of a Chinese version of the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
      (MiniAQLQ) and a comparison of completion by patients and relatives.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Mini
      Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) and to investigate the
      differences between the MiniAQLQ completed by patients (p-MiniAQLQ) and by their
      relatives (r-MiniAQLQ). METHODS: One hundred and two asthmatic patients and 45
      relatives were recruited. The reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha
      and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The validity of the MiniAQLQ was
      assessed by comparing it with the Sydney Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
      (AQLQ-S) and lung function measurements. The mean quality of life scores were
      compared by gender and smoking history, and the p-MiniAQLQ scores were then
      compared with the r-MiniAQLQ scores. RESULTS: The MiniAQLQ showed high internal
      consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.901) and a high two-week reproducibility (ICC =
      0.863). The cross-sectional correlations between the MiniAQLQ and the AQLQ-S were
      strong. Correlations between the MiniAQLQ and lung function (predicted FEV1% and
      PEF) ranged from poor to weak at the total or domain levels. The MiniAQLQ scores
      were not significantly associated with gender or smoking history. There was poor
      agreement between the p-MiniAQLQ and r-MiniAQLQ scores at the total or domain
      levels. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the MiniAQLQ showed good reliability
      and validity. It is reliable for evaluating the impact of asthma on patients'
      quality of life. Relatives of the patients did not have a comprehensive grasp of
      the patients' conditions. Physicians should be cautious when patients' relatives
      come to the hospital to seek a modified treatment when the patients are not
      present.

PMID- 28562158
TI  - Sulfate-Binding Protein (Sbp) from Xanthomonas citri: Structure and Functional
      Insights.
AB  - The uptake and transport of sulfate in bacteria is mediated by an ATP-binding
      cassette transporter (ABC transporter) encoded by sbpcysUWA genes, whose
      importance has been widely demonstrated due to their relevance in cysteine
      synthesis and bacterial growth. In Xanthomonas citri, the causative agent of
      canker disease, the expression of components from this ABC transporter and others
      related to uptake of organic sulfur sources has been shown during in vitro growth
      cultures. In this work, based on gene reporter and proteomics analyses, we showed
      the activation of the promoter that controls the sbpcysUWA operon in vitro and in
      vivo and the expression of sulfate-binding protein (Sbp), a periplasmic-binding
      protein, indicating that this protein plays an important function during growth
      and that the transport system is active during Citrus sinensis infection. To
      characterize Sbp, we solved its three-dimensional structure bound to sulfate at
      1.14 A resolution and performed biochemical and functional characterization. The
      results revealed that Sbp interacts with sulfate without structural changes, but
      the interaction induces a significant increasing of protein thermal stability.
      Altogether, the results presented in this study show the evidence of the
      functionality of the ABC transporter for sulfate in X. citri and its relevance
      during infection.

PMID- 28562159
TI  - Automatic Associations Between One's Partner and One's Affect as the Proximal
      Mechanism of Change in Relationship Satisfaction: Evidence From Evaluative
      Conditioning.
AB  - The current study examined whether directly altering affective associations
      involving a relationship partner through evaluative conditioning can lead to
      changes in relationship satisfaction. Married couples ( N = 144) were asked to
      view a brief stream of images once every 3 days for 6 weeks. Embedded in this
      stream were pictures of the partner, which, according to random assignment of
      couples to experimental group, were paired with either positive or neutral
      stimuli. Couples also completed measures of automatic partner attitudes and
      explicit marital satisfaction at baseline and once every 2 weeks for 8 weeks.
      Spouses who viewed their partners paired with positive stimuli demonstrated more
      positive automatic partner attitudes than did control spouses, and these
      attitudes predicted increased self-reported marital satisfaction over time. These
      results provide novel evidence for a mechanism of change in relationship
      satisfaction, represent a step toward documenting how strong attitudes can evolve
      through passive exposure to information, and suggest novel avenues for
      relationship interventions.

PMID- 28562160
TI  - Work Experiences of Patients Receiving Palliative Care at a Comprehensive Cancer
      Center: Exploratory Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Employment-related issues have been largely overlooked in cancer
      patients needing palliative care. These issues may become more relevant as cancer
      evolves into more of a chronic illness and palliative care is provided
      independent of stage or prognosis. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the employment
      situations of working-age palliative care patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      survey setting/subjects: Consecutive sample of 112 patients followed in
      palliative care outpatient clinics at a comprehensive cancer center.
      MEASUREMENTS: Thirty-seven-item self-report questionnaire covering demographics,
      clinical status, and work experiences since diagnosis. RESULTS: The commonest
      cancer diagnoses were breast, colorectal, gynecological, and lung. Eighty-one
      percent had active disease. Seventy-four percent were on treatment. Eighty
      percent recalled being employed at the time of diagnosis, with 65% working full
      time. At the time of the survey, 44% were employed and 26% were working full
      time. Most participants said work was important, made them feel normal, and
      helped them feel they were "beating the cancer". Factors associated with being
      employed included male gender, self-employed, and taking less than three months
      off work. Respondents with pain and/or other symptoms were significantly less
      likely to be working. On multivariate analysis, only pain (odds ratio [OR] 8.16,
      p < 0.001) and other physical symptoms (OR 5.90, p = 0.012) predicted work
      status; gender (OR 2.07), self-employed (OR 3.07), and current chemotherapy (OR
      1.81) were included in the model, but were not statistically significant in this
      small sample. CONCLUSION: Work may be an important issue for some palliative care
      patients. Additional research is needed to facilitate ongoing employment for
      those who wish or need to continue working.

PMID- 28562162
TI  - High percentage of oral lichen planus and lichenoid lesion in oral squamous cell
      carcinomas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Oral lichen planus (OLP) and lichenoid lesions (OLL) are regarded as
      precursor lesions of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with potential for
      malignant transformation. This potential is not clear due to difficulties in
      diagnosis of OLP and OLL. Our aim was therefore to evaluate previously identified
      OLP and OLL as precursor lesions in OSCC and to identify cancer related
      etiological factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all cases (total 323, comprising 164 females
      and 159 males) with OSCC treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial
      Diseases and Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital during 2015. Confirmed by
      histopathological biopsy, 58 (17.9%) had OLP and 13 had OLL (4.0%) as precursor
      lesion. RESULTS: Patients with OLP were slightly older than those without it. OLP
      was more common in females than in males (p < .0001). TN class 1 tumors were more
      prevalent among patients with OLP or OLL (p = .006) and cancer relapses less
      common (p = .005). Smoking was less frequent in patients with OLP and OLL (p <
      .0001). Also alcohol abuse was less frequent among these patients (p < .001).
      CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm the importance of active follow-up of all
      patients with OLP and OLL even in patients who do not fit a traditional high-risk
      category for OSCC.

PMID- 28562161
TI  - PP2A-B56gamma is required for an efficient spindle assembly checkpoint.
AB  - The Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC) is part of a complex feedback system
      designed to ensure that cells do not proceed through mitosis unless all
      chromosomal kinetochores have attached to spindle microtubules. The formation of
      the kinetochore complex and the implementation of the SAC are regulated by
      multiple kinases and phosphatases. BubR1 is a phosphoprotein that is part of the
      Cdc20 containing mitotic checkpoint complex that inhibits the APC/C so that
      Cyclin B1 and Securin are not degraded, thus preventing cells going into
      anaphase. In this study, we found that PP2A in association with its B56gamma
      regulatory subunit, are needed for the stability of BubR1 during nocodazole
      induced cell cycle arrest. In primary cells that lack B56gamma, BubR1 is
      prematurely degraded and the cells proceed through mitosis. The reduced SAC
      efficiency results in cells with abnormal chromosomal segregation, a hallmark of
      transformed cells. Previous studies on PP2A's role in the SAC and kinetochore
      formation were done using siRNAs to all 5 of the B56 family members. In our study
      we show that inactivation of only the PP2A-B56gamma subunit can affect the
      efficiency of the SAC. We also provide data that show the intracellular locations
      of the B56 subunits varies between family members, which is consistent with the
      hypothesis that they are not completely functionally redundant.

PMID- 28562163
TI  - Everyday life in breast cancer survivors experiencing challenges: A qualitative
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer results in an
      increasing number of survivors, some of whom face new challenges in their
      transition to daily life. AIM: Based on these experiences, the aim of this study
      was to describe the everyday life in breast cancer survivors experiencing
      challenges. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Eleven women recruited from a follow-up study of
      breast cancer patients participated in qualitative interviews about their
      everyday occupations seven years after ending treatment. The inductive analysis
      revealed ten categories that were organized into five subthemes under the two
      main themes 'bodily and mental loneliness' and 'new center of gravity in everyday
      life'. RESULTS: Findings showed how relevant information and guidance; active
      support to the client and their relatives; and a balance between occupations at
      home and at work were important matters to handle their everyday life challenges.
      CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE: By assisting these women in finding new patterns of
      meaningful occupations that positively affect their everyday life, the study
      suggests some central elements to be included in future follow-up practice for
      breast cancer survivors. Approaching this goal, occupational therapists should
      contribute to more involvement assisting cancer survivors and their partners in
      finding new patterns of meaningful occupations that positively affect their
      everyday life.

PMID- 28562164
TI  - Exploring the feasibility and usability of the experience sampling method to
      examine the daily lives of patients with acquired brain injury.
AB  - The experience sampling method (ESM) is a structured diary method with high
      ecological validity, in that it accurately captures the everyday context of
      individuals through repeated measurements in naturalistic environments. Our main
      objective was to investigate the feasibility of using ESM in individuals with
      acquired brain injury (ABI). A second goal was to explore the usability of ESM
      data on a clinical level, by illustrating the interactions between person,
      environment, and affect. The PsyMate device provided ABI patients (N = 17) with
      ten signals (beeps) per day during six consecutive days. Each beep was followed
      by a digital questionnaire assessing mood, location, activities, social context,
      and physical well-being. Results demonstrated high feasibility with a 71%
      response rate and a 99% completion rate of the questionnaires. There were no
      dropouts and the method was experienced as user-friendly. Time-lagged multilevel
      analysis showed that higher levels of physical activity and fatigue predicted
      higher levels of negative affect at the same point in time, but not at later time
      points. This study illustrates the potential of ESM to identify complex person
      environment dynamics after ABI, while generating understandable and easy to use
      graphical feedback.

PMID- 28562165
TI  - HER-2/Epstein-Barr virus crosstalk in human gastric carcinogenesis: A novel
      concept of oncogene/oncovirus interaction.
AB  - Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of
      cancer deaths worldwide. Additionally, it is well-known that metastatic cancer
      disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients. Several
      investigations reported that HER-2 (ErbB-2 receptor) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
      are important etiological factors in human gastric cancer, where either
      oncogene/oncovirus alone can derive a major event of cancer progression and
      metastasis via epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Herein, we discuss, for
      the first time, the possibility of HER-2/EBV-oncoproteins interaction in human
      gastric cancer initiation and/or progression.

PMID- 28562166
TI  - Cancer, Financial Burden, and Medicare Beneficiaries.

PMID- 28562167
TI  - Previously Identified Common Post-Injury Adverse Events in Traumatic Spinal Cord
      Injury-Validation of Existing Literature and Relation to Selected Potentially
      Modifiable Comorbidities: A Prospective Canadian Cohort Study.
AB  - Adverse events (AEs) are common during care in patients with traumatic spinal
      cord injury (tSCI). Increased risk of AEs is linked to patient factors including
      pre-existing comorbidities. Our aim was to examine the relationships between
      patient factors and common post-injury AEs, and identify potentially modifiable
      comorbidities. Adults with tSCI admitted to a Level I acute specialized spine
      center between 2006 and 2014 who were enrolled in the Rick Hansen SCI Registry
      (RHSCIR) and had AE data collected using the Spine Adverse Events Severity system
      were included. Patient demographic, neurological injury, and comorbidities data
      were obtained from RHSCIR. Potentially modifiable comorbidities were grouped into
      health-related conditions, substance use/withdrawal, and psychiatric conditions.
      Negative binomial regression and multiple logistic regression were used to model
      the impact of patient factors on the number of AEs experienced and the occurrence
      of the five previously identified common AEs, respectively. Of the 444 patients
      included in the study, 24.8% reported a health-related condition, 15.3% had a
      substance use/withdrawal condition, 8% reported having a psychiatric condition;
      and 79.3% experienced one or more AEs. Older age (p = 0.004) and more severe
      injuries (p < 0.001) were nonmodifiable independent variables significantly
      associated with increased AEs. The AEs experienced by patients were urinary tract
      infections (42.8%), pneumonia (39.2%), neuropathic pain (31.5%), delirium
      (18.2%), and pressure ulcers (11.0%). Risk of delirium increased in those with
      substance use/withdrawal; and pneumonia risk increased with psychiatric
      comorbidities. Opportunity exists to develop clinical algorithms that include
      these types of risk factors to reduce the incidence and impact of AEs.

PMID- 28562168
TI  - The efficacy and safety of tacrolimus monotherapy in adult-onset nephrotic
      syndrome caused by idiopathic membranous nephropathy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficiency and safety
      of tacrolimus (TAC) monotherapy in the treatment of nephrotic idiopathic
      membranous nephropathy (IMN) compared with the protocol of cyclophosphamide (CTX)
      combined with corticosteroids. METHODS: In total, 58 patients with nephrotic
      syndrome and biopsy-proven IMN were included in this study. 30 patients received
      TAC monotherapy with an initial dose of 0.05-0.1 mg/kg/day. 28 patients received
      transvenous CTX at a dose of 0.5-0.75 g/m2 once in every month initially for 6
      months and once in every 2 or 3 months for the later period, and the regimen was
      combined with corticosteroids (prednisone 1 mg/kg/d). All patients were observed
      for the treatment effects, recurrence and side effects. RESULTS: Twelve months
      after the initial treatment, a total of 24 (80%) patients in the TAC group and 23
      (82.1%) patients in the CTX group achieved remission (either partial or complete
      remission). The survival curve of the probability of remission and complete
      remission were similar between the two groups (p > .05). Proteinuria (based on 24
      h urinary protein excretion) was significantly decreased, and serum albumin was
      significantly increased after immunosuppressive treatment in both the groups.
      Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was comparable between before and
      after treatment. The main adverse effects in TAC treatment were glucose
      intolerance, diabetes and abnormal aminotransferase. CONCLUSIONS: TAC monotherapy
      is an alternative therapeutic regimen for patients with nephrotic IMN. Its short
      term efficiency and patient tolerance are both acceptable.

PMID- 28562170
TI  - Pigment epithelial-derived factor in human fetal membranes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our main objective was to document, pigment epithelial-derived factor
      (PEDF), a secreted serine protease inhibitor with anti-angiogenic, anti
      inflammatory, and anti-oxidant properties, expression in human fetal membranes
      from preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (pPROM) and in in vitro cultures
      stimulated with cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or lipopolysaccharides (LPS), two
      major risk factors for pPROM (behavioral and bacterial, respectively). METHOD: We
      documented PEDF mRNA expression in clinical samples of fetal membranes from
      patients with pPROM using quantitative RT-PCR. Also, mRNA and protein levels were
      documented in fetal membranes (from normal term cesarean sections [not in labor])
      in an organ explant system stimulated with CSE or lipopolysaccharide (LPS).
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to localize PEDF in fetal membranes. RESULTS:
      We report no changes in PEDF mRNA expression in pPROM compared to term births (p
      = .59) or after treatment with CSE or LPS. However, by adding sulforaphane the
      PEDF mRNA expression increased significantly p < .000032. PEDF was localized to
      both amnion and chorion layers, but no difference was seen in staining
      intensities after CSE or LPS treatment compared to control. CONCLUSIONS: PEDF, a
      product of fetal membrane cells, is unaltered in pPROM or after exposure to risk
      factors of pPROM. The antioxidant stimulating substance sulforaphane contribute
      to an increase in PEDF mRNA in fetal membranes.

PMID- 28562169
TI  - PLK4 phosphorylation of CP110 is required for efficient centriole assembly.
AB  - Centrioles are assembled during S phase and segregated into 2 daughter cells at
      the end of mitosis. The initiation of centriole assembly is regulated by polo
      like kinase 4 (PLK4), the major serine/threonine kinase in centrioles. Despite
      its importance in centriole duplication, only a few substrates have been
      identified, and the detailed mechanism of PLK4 has not been fully elucidated.
      CP110 is a coiled-coil protein that plays roles in centriolar length control and
      ciliogenesis in mammals. Here, we revealed that PLK4 specifically phosphorylates
      CP110 at the S98 position. The phospho-resistant CP110 mutant inhibited centriole
      assembly, whereas the phospho-mimetic CP110 mutant induced centriole assembly,
      even in PLK4-limited conditions. This finding implies that PLK4 phosphorylation
      of CP110 is an essential step for centriole assembly. The phospho-mimetic form of
      CP110 augmented the centrosomal SAS6 level. Based on these results, we propose
      that the phosphorylated CP110 may be involved in the stabilization of cartwheel
      SAS6 during centriole assembly.

PMID- 28562172
TI  - Applying fMRI complexity analyses to the single subject: a case study for
      proposed neurodiagnostics.
AB  - Nonlinear dynamic tools have been statistically validated at the group level to
      identify subtle differences in system wide regulation of brain meso-circuits,
      often increasing clinical sensitivity over conventional analyses alone. We
      explored the feasibility of extracting information at the single-subject level,
      illustrating two pairs of healthy individuals with psychological differences in
      stress reactivity. We applied statistical and nonlinear dynamic tools to capture
      key characteristics of the prefrontal-limbic loop. We compared single subject
      results with statistical results for the larger group. We concluded that
      complexity analyses may identify important differences at the single-subject
      level, supporting their potential towards neurodiagnostic applications.

PMID- 28562171
TI  - Modular Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy and Lymphadenectomy: A
      Novel Pattern of Endoscopic Lung Cancer Resection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the development of the uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic
      surgery (VATS) technique, the use of uniportal VATS has become increasingly
      popular for the surgical resection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The
      objective of this study is to introduce a novel modularly designed surgical
      pattern for uniportal VATS for lung cancer resection and to investigate the
      safety, feasibility, and efficacy of this novel method. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The clinical data of NSCLC patients who underwent a curative uniportal VATS
      lobectomy between March 2015 and April 2016, including via the modular pattern
      (MP) and the conventional pattern (CP), were retrospectively collected and
      analyzed. Perioperative and postoperative parameters, including the operation
      duration, estimated intraoperative blood loss, rate of conversion to thoracotomy,
      lymph node dissection number, and postoperative complications, were compared
      between the two groups. RESULTS: A total of 321 patients were identified, among
      whom 221 underwent MP uniportal VATS lobectomy and 100 were treated via CP
      uniportal VATS lobectomy. Patients in the MP group experienced a shorter
      operation duration (135.58 +/- 47.16 minutes versus 148.86 +/- 42.53 minutes, P =
      .017) and less estimated intraoperative blood loss (75.20 +/- 37.99 mL versus
      89.50 +/- 41.11 mL, P = .003) than patients in the CP group. No significant
      difference was observed in the intraoperative conversion rate (2.7% versus 5.0%,
      P = .477), total number of lymph nodes dissected (24.67 +/- 7.73 versus 25.34 +/-
      7.62, P = .471), postoperative drainage duration (4.86 +/- 1.96 days versus 4.78
      +/- 2.10 days, P = .755), length of stay (9.60 +/- 2.93 days versus 9.97 +/- 2.80
      days, P = .286), or incidence of postoperative complications between the two
      groups. No postoperative deaths occurred. CONCLUSIONS: MP uniportal VATS
      lobectomy combined with mediastinal lymphadenectomy appears to be a safe and
      feasible technique for the treatment of NSCLC. The use of this technique can
      reduce the operation duration and intraoperative blood loss.

PMID- 28562173
TI  - A novel working memory task for preschoolers: sensitivity to age differences from
      3-5 years.
AB  - Working memory (WM) plays an important role in children's learning and is linked
      to later academic and occupational success. Understanding the early development
      of WM can provide critical clues regarding the underlying structure of executive
      functions and how they change over the life span. The main objectives of the
      present study were to (1) investigate age differences in the development of three
      components of WM (retrieval, substitution, transformation) on a novel preschool
      WM measure and (2) explore whether findings are consistent with the hierarchical
      model of WM development by examining perseverative and non-perseverative WM
      errors. Perseverative errors were hypothesized to be more strongly associated
      with problems substituting and transforming a representation held in mind,
      whereas non-perseverative errors were hypothesized to be associated with problems
      maintaining a representation in mind. Participants were 64 children ranging in
      age from 3.0 to 5.6 years. The results provide evidence for the sensitivity of
      the WM task to age differences from 3 to 5 years and support for the hierarchical
      model of WM development.

PMID- 28562174
TI  - Connecting Online With NASN.

PMID- 28562175
TI  - Nursing Informatics: Ethical Considerations for Adopting Electronic Records.
AB  - School districts are commonly adopting electronic storage systems, including
      electronic health records. Included in this adoption is a move toward cloud-based
      record storage systems to handle the increasing volumes of data. Deciding which
      system to adopt is especially difficult in times of tightening school district
      budgets. While there are several options to consider, including the outright
      purchase of a proprietary system or choosing one of a relatively new group of
      free programs, lead nurses must work to ensure that student information is
      protected and that any chosen system complies with privacy laws. This article
      provides a case study and presents legal and ethical considerations related to
      maintaining the privacy of health records in the school setting.

PMID- 28562176
TI  - Moving in the Wrong Direction - Health Care under the AHCA.

PMID- 28562177
TI  - Human-leukocyte antigen class II genes in early-onset obsessive-compulsive
      disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The exact aetiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unknown,
      although there is evidence to suggest a gene-environment interaction model.
      Several lines of evidence support a possible role of the immune system in this
      model. METHODS: The present study explores the allele variability in HLA genes of
      class II (HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQB1) in a sample of 144 early-onset OCD compared with
      reference samples of general population in the same geographical area. RESULTS:
      None of the 39 alleles identified (allele frequency >1%) showed significant
      differences between OCD and reference populations. Pooling the different alleles
      that comprised HLA-DR4 (including DRB1*04:01, DRB1*04:04 and DRB1*04:05 alleles)
      we observed a significantly higher frequency (X21 = 5.53, P = 0.018; OR = 1.64,
      95% CI 1.08-2.48) of these alleles in the early-onset OCD sample (10.8%) than in
      the reference population (6.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Taking into account the role of HLA
      class II genes in the central nervous system, the results presented here support
      a role of the immune system in the pathophysiological model of OCD.

PMID- 28562178
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28562181
TI  - Working memory predicts presence of auditory verbal hallucinations in
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The recent dramatic increase in research investigating auditory verbal
      hallucinations (AVHs) has broadened the former narrow focus on schizophrenia to
      incorporate additional populations that experience these symptoms. However, an
      understanding of potential shared mechanisms remains elusive. Based on theories
      suggesting a failure of top-down cognitive control, we aimed to compare the
      relationship between AVHs and cognition in two categorical diagnoses of
      psychosis, schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder. METHOD: A total of 124
      adults aged 21-60 participated, of whom 76 had present-state psychosis
      (schizophrenia, n = 53; bipolar disorder with psychosis, n = 23), and 48 were non
      clinical controls. Diagnosis and hallucination presence was determined using the
      Structured Clinical Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV TR. AVHs severity was
      assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Participants also
      completed the MATRICS cognitive battery. RESULTS: The bipolar disorder with
      psychosis group performed better than the schizophrenia group for cognitive
      domains of Processing speed, Attention, Working memory (WM), and Visual memory.
      Hierarchical binary logistic regression found that WM significantly predicted
      presence of AVHs in both psychotic groups, but diagnosis did not significantly
      increase the predictive value of the model. A hierarchical multiple linear
      regression found that schizophrenia diagnosis was the only significant predictor
      of hallucination severity. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study-the first, to
      our knowledge, to compare the relationship between AVHs and MATRICS domains
      across schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis-support theories that
      deficits in WM underly the genesis of AVHs. WM potentially represents a shared
      mechanism of AVHs across diagnoses, supporting dimensional classifications of
      these psychotic disorders. However, non-cognitive factors predictive of
      hallucination severity may be specific to schizophrenia.

PMID- 28562180
TI  - The multi-omics promise in context: from sequence to microbial isolate.
AB  - The numbers and diversity of microbes in ecosystems within and around us is
      unmatched, yet most of these microorganisms remain recalcitrant to in vitro
      cultivation. Various high-throughput molecular techniques, collectively termed
      multi-omics, provide insights into the genomic structure and metabolic potential
      as well as activity of complex microbial communities. Nonetheless, pure or
      defined cultures are needed to (1) decipher microbial physiology and thus test
      multi-omics-based ecological hypotheses, (2) curate and improve database
      annotations and (3) realize novel applications in biotechnology. Cultivation thus
      provides context. In turn, we here argue that multi-omics information awaits
      integration into the development of novel cultivation strategies. This can build
      the foundation for a new era of omics information-guided microbial cultivation
      technology and reduce the inherent trial-and-error search space. This review
      discusses how information that can be extracted from multi-omics data can be
      applied for the cultivation of hitherto uncultured microorganisms. Furthermore,
      we summarize groundbreaking studies that successfully translated information
      derived from multi-omics into specific media formulations, screening techniques
      and selective enrichments in order to obtain novel targeted microbial isolates.
      By integrating these examples, we conclude with a proposed workflow to facilitate
      future omics-aided cultivation strategies that are inspired by the microbial
      complexity of the environment.

PMID- 28562182
TI  - Effect of dual-attention task on attack and defensive actions in fencing.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect that the presence of
      two stimuli that require two different responses (dual-attention) has both, on
      offensive reaction-response time to a light stimulus, and on defensive response
      time when the stimulus is a real fencing attack. Twenty-five elite fencers and a
      fencing master were included in the study. The equipment included four force
      plates adapted to a scaffold that served as a fencing piste. Two force plates
      were placed, at the start position, under the fencer's feet and another two
      plates were placed under the master's feet. The results demonstrate that choice
      reaction time to visual stimuli increases in dual-task conditions with respect to
      simple reaction time, whereas the mean horizontal force tends to decrease in dual
      task. However, when the stimulus was an opponent's movement, dual-task conditions
      did not have any effect on the time required to initiate a defensive action. The
      changes in reaction time when real movements were used as stimuli challenge the
      validity of the reaction time to visual stimuli paradigm as a predictor of
      performance in fencing. Also, the results obtained demonstrate that perceptual
      and attentional processes play a major role in fencer performance in real
      competition.

PMID- 28562184
TI  - In Silico Probe-Based Detection of Citrus Viruses in NGS Data.
AB  - The conservation of plant biosecurity relies on the rapid identification of
      pathogenic organisms, including viruses. With next-generation sequencing (NGS),
      it is possible to identify multiple viruses within a metagenomic sample. In this
      study, we explored the use of electronic probes (e-probes) for the simultaneous
      detection of 11 recognized citrus viruses. E-probes were designed and screened
      against raw sequencing data to minimize the bioinformatic processing time
      required. The e-probes were able to accurately detect their cognate viruses in
      simulated datasets, without any false negatives or positives. The efficiency of
      the e-probe-based approach was validated with NGS datasets generated from
      different RNA preparations: double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) from 'Mexican' lime
      infected with different Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) genotypes, dsRNA from field
      samples, and small RNA and total RNA from grapefruit infected with the CTV T3
      genotype. A set of probes was made available that is able to accurately detect
      CTV in sequence data regardless of the input dataset or the genotype that plants
      are infected with.

PMID- 28562183
TI  - * Extracellular Matrices for Bone Regeneration: A Literature Review.
AB  - The gold standard material for bone regeneration is still autologous bone, a
      mesenchymal tissue that consists mainly of extracellular matrix (ECM) (90% v/v)
      and little cellular content (10% v/v). However, the fact that decellularized
      allogenic bone grafts often present a clinical performance comparable to
      autologous bone grafts demonstrates the crucial role of ECM in bone regeneration.
      For long, the mechanism by which bone allografts function was not clear, but
      recent research has unveiled many unique characteristics of ECM that seem to play
      a key role in tissue regeneration. This is further confirmed by the fact that
      synthetic biomaterials with composition and properties resembling bone ECM
      present excellent bone regeneration properties. In this context, ECM molecules
      such as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and self-assembly peptides (SAPs) can improve
      the performance of bone regeneration biomaterials. Moreover, decellularized ECM
      derived either from native tissues such as bone, cartilage, skin, and tooth germs
      or from cells such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and stem cells has shown
      promising results in bone regeneration applications. Understanding the role of
      ECM in bone regeneration is crucial for the development of the next generation of
      biomaterials for bone tissue engineering. In this sense, this review addresses
      the state-of-the-art on this subject matter.

PMID- 28562185
TI  - * Hypoxia Biomimicry to Enhance Monetite Bone Defect Repair.
AB  - Tissue hypoxia is a critical driving force for angiogenic and osteogenic
      responses in bone regeneration and is, at least partly, under the control of the
      Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) pathway. Recently, the widely used
      iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO) has been found to elevate HIF-1alpha levels
      independent of oxygen concentrations, thereby, creating an otherwise normal
      environment that mimics the hypoxic state. This has the potential to augment the
      biological properties of inorganic scaffolds without the need of recombinant
      growth factors. This pilot study investigates the effect of local delivery of DFO
      on bone formation and osseointegration of an anatomically matched bone graft
      substitute, in the treatment of segmental bone defects. Three-dimensional
      printing was used to create monetite grafts, which were implanted into 10 mm
      midshaft ulnar defects in eight rabbits. Starting postoperative day 4, one graft
      site in each animal was injected with 600 MUL (200 MUM) of DFO every 48 h for six
      doses. Saline was injected in the contralateral limb as a control. At 8 weeks,
      micro-CT and histology were used to determine new bone growth, vascularity, and
      assess osseointegration. Six animals completed the protocol. Bone metric analysis
      using micro-CT showed a significantly greater amount of new bone formed (19.5%
      vs. 13.65% p = 0.042) and an increase in bone-implant contact area (63.1 mm2 vs.
      33.2 mm2 p = 0.03) in the DFO group compared with control. Vascular channel
      volume was significantly greater in the DFO group (20.9% vs. 16.2% p = 0.004).
      Histology showed increased bone formation within the osteotomy gap, more bone
      integrated with the graft surface as well as more matured soft tissue callus in
      the DFO group. This study demonstrates a significant increase in new bone
      formation after delivery of DFO in a rabbit long bone defect bridged by a 3D
      printed bioresorbable bone graft substitute. Given the safety, ease of handling,
      and low expense of this medication, the results of this study support further
      investigation into the use of iron chelators in creating a biomimetic environment
      for bone healing in segmental bone loss.

PMID- 28562187
TI  - A rare 'incidentaloma' found on low-dose CT screening for lung cancer: 'scanner
      beware'.
AB  - Screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has been shown
      to reduce mortality and has been recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task
      Force for adults 55 to 80 years of age with a 30 pack-year smoking history who
      are either current smokers or those that quit within 15 years. However, the
      overwhelming majority of abnormalities detected are not from malignancy. We
      report a case of pulmonary Langerhans' cell histiocytosis, here-to-fore thought
      of as extremely uncommon, and make readers aware that this may be increasingly
      found as LDCT is more widely adopted.

PMID- 28562186
TI  - The appropriateness of training exposures for match-play preparation in
      adolescent schoolboy and academy rugby union players.
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare the physical and movement demands between
      training and match-play in schoolboy and academy adolescent rugby union (RU)
      players. Sixty-one adolescent male RU players (mean +/- SD; age 17.0 +/- 0.7
      years) were recruited from four teams representing school and regional academy
      standards. Players were categorised into four groups based on playing standard
      and position: schoolboy forwards (n = 15), schoolboy backs (n = 15), academy
      forwards (n = 16) and academy backs (n = 15). Global positioning system and
      accelerometry measures were obtained from training and match-play to assess
      within-group differences between conditions. Maximum data were analysed from 79
      match files across 8 matches (1.3 +/- 0.5 matches per participant) and 152
      training files across 15 training sessions (2.5 +/- 0.5 training sessions per
      participant). Schoolboy forwards were underprepared for low-intensity activities
      experienced during match-play, with schoolboy backs underprepared for all
      movement demands. Academy forwards were exposed to similar physical demands in
      training to matches, with academy backs similar to or exceeding values for all
      measured variables. Schoolboy players were underprepared for many key, position
      specific aspects of match-play, which could place them at greater risk of injury
      and hinder performance, unlike academy players who were better prepared.

PMID- 28562188
TI  - Nitrogen and phosphorus removed from a subsurface flow multi-stage filtration
      system purifying agricultural runoff.
AB  - : Agricultural nonpoint source pollution has been increasingly serious in China
      since the 1990s. The main causes were excessive inputs of nitrogen fertilizer and
      pesticides. A multi-stage filtration system was built to test the purification
      efficiencies and removal characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus when treating
      agricultural runoff. Simulated runoff pollution was prepared by using river water
      as source water based on the monitoring of local agricultural runoff.
      Experimental study had been performed from September to November 2013, adopting
      12 h for flooding and 12 h for drying. The results showed that the system was
      made adaptive to variation of inflow quality and quantity, and had good removal
      for dissolved total nitrogen, total nitrogen, dissolved total phosphorus (DTP),
      and total phosphorus, and the average removal rate was 27%, 36%, 32%, and 48%,
      respectively. Except nitrate ([Formula: see text]), other forms of nitrogen and
      phosphorus all decreased with the increase of stages. Nitrogen was removed mainly
      in particle form the first stage, and mostly removed in dissolved form the second
      and third stage. Phosphorus was removed mainly in particulate during the first
      two stages, but the removal of particulate phosphorus and DTP were almost the
      same in the last stage. An approximate logarithmic relationship between removal
      loading and influent loading to nitrogen and phosphorus was noted in the
      experimental system, and the correlation coefficient was 0.78-0.94.
      ABBREVIATIONS: [Formula: see text]: ammonium; [Formula: see text]: nitrite;
      [Formula: see text]: nitrate; DTN: dissolved total nitrogen; TN: total nitrogen;
      DTP: dissolved total phosphorus; TP: total phosphorus; PN: particulate nitrogen;
      PP: particulate phosphorus.

PMID- 28562189
TI  - Surfactant-enhanced bioremediation of DDTs and PAHs in contaminated farmland
      soil.
AB  - Field-scale bioremediation of dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethanes (DDTs) and
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminated farmland soil from the
      Shenyang North New Area of China was studied using the bacteria Arthrobacter
      globiformis. The additive effects of different concentrations of biosurfactant
      rhamnolipids (RLs) and anionic-nonionic mixed surfactant (SDBS-Tween 80) were
      evaluated. DDT and PAH removal rates by A. globiformis after 150 days of
      remediation were 52.1% and 21.9%, respectively. At the optimum RL concentration
      of 5 mg kg-1, DDTs and PAHs had removal rates of 64.3% and 35.6%, respectively,
      at 150 days. This was 60.7% and 29.3% higher than the control; 36.9% and 19.8%
      higher than soil with RL-5 alone; and 12.2% and 13.8% higher than the A.
      globiformis treatment alone. RL-5 can enhance soil enzyme activity and A.
      globiformis reproduction during the DDT and PAH biodegradation processes. This
      study illustrates a highly efficient, low-cost in situ soil bioremediation
      technology that could have practical utility.

PMID- 28562190
TI  - Catechin-loaded Eudragit microparticles for the management of diabetes:
      formulation, characterization and in vivo evaluation of antidiabetic efficacy.
AB  - Catechin (CT) is natural molecule proved for antidiabetic activity. Clinical
      application of CT is highly restricted because of its low bioavailability and
      ineffectiveness in in vivo conditions. Therefore, the main objective of the
      present investigation was to formulate CT-loaded Eudragit RS 100 microparticles
      and evaluated for its potential against diabetes. CT microparticles showing
      highest entrapment efficiency of 92.3 +/- 6.5% and higher percentage yield of
      63.46 +/- 4.3% was selected as optimised formulation. CT microparticles treated
      rats showed significantly lower blood glucose, cholesterol, LDL, free fatty acid
      and triglyceride concentrations in comparison to pristine CT-treated rats. The
      glucose and lipid profiles of microparticle formulation were akin to normal rats.
      Moreover, CT microparticles did not produce obesity even after 60 days which is a
      comment side effect of antidiabetic drugs. These results indicate that the CT
      microparticles can be applied as potential and safe carrier for the treatment of
      diabetes.

PMID- 28562192
TI  - The stability of drinking water treatment residue with ozone treatment.
AB  - The best management of drinking water treatment residue (DWTR) in environmental
      remediation should be based on comprehensively understanding the effectiveness
      and risk of DWTR. In this study, the variation in physicochemical properties,
      metal lability, and adsorption capability of DWTR under oxidizing condition were
      investigated. The oxidizing condition was set up using ozone treatment, and the
      laboratory incubation test were performed within 50 d in association with
      thermogravimetry, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry, specific surface area
      and porosity analyzer, fractionation, and P adsorption test. The results showed
      that ozone treatment had limited effect on the properties of organic matter, the
      lability of Al, Cu, and Fe, the P adsorption capability, and the distributions of
      the adsorbed P in DWTR, but the treatment increased N2 sorption/desorption,
      specific surface area, total pore volume of DWTR and led to the transformation of
      Mn from acid-soluble to reducible fractions. These findings demonstrated that
      DWTR generally kept stable under oxidizing environment; even oxidizing
      environment may induce a tendency of increasing the adsorption capability and
      decreasing the environmental risk of DWTR. Accordingly, the effectiveness and
      safety of DWTR can be maintained under natural aerobic environment, and DWTR is a
      reliable adsorbent that could be recycled in environmental remediation.

PMID- 28562191
TI  - Explaining mental health inequalities in Northern Sweden: a decomposition
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There has been a substantial increase of income inequalities in
      Sweden over the last 20 years, which also could be reflected in health
      inequalities, including mental health inequalities. Despite the growing body of
      literature focusing on health inequalities in Sweden, income-related inequalities
      in mental health have received little attention. Particularly scarce are research
      from Northern Sweden and examinations of the social determinants of health
      inequalities. OBJECTIVES: The present study seeks to provide evidence regarding
      inequalities in mental health in Northern Sweden. The specific aims were to (1)
      quantify the income-related inequality in mental health in Northern Sweden, and
      (2) determine the contribution of social determinants to the inequality. METHODS:
      The study population comprised 25,646 participants of the 2014 Health on Equal
      Terms survey in the four northernmost counties of Sweden, aged 16 to 84 years
      old. Income-related inequalities in mental health were quantified by the
      concentration index and further decomposed by applying Wagstaff-type
      decomposition analysis. RESULTS: The overall concentration index of mental health
      in Northern Sweden was -0.15 (95% CI: -0.17 to -0.13), indicating income
      inequalities in mental health disfavoring the less affluent population. The
      decomposition analysis results revealed that socio-economic conditions, including
      employment status (31%), income (22.6%), and cash margin (14%), made the largest
      contribution to the pro-rich inequalities in mental health. The second-largest
      contribution came from demographic factors, mainly age (11.3%) and gender (6%).
      Psychosocial factors were of smaller importance, with perceived discrimination
      (8%) and emotional support (3.4%) making moderate contributions to the health
      inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates substantial income
      related mental health inequalities in Northern Sweden, and provides insights into
      their underpinnings. These findings suggest that addressing the root causes is
      essential for promoting mental health equity in this region.

PMID- 28562193
TI  - Mentoring relationships between senior physicians and junior doctors and/or
      medical students: A thematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mentoring relationships are pivotal to the outcome of the mentoring
      process. This thematic review seeks to study the key aspects of mentoring
      relationships between senior physicians and junior doctors and/or medical
      students to inform efforts to improve mentoring programs. METHODS: Literature
      search was performed on publications across PubMed, ERIC, Cochrane Database of
      Systematic Reviews, OVID and ScienceDirect databases between 1 January 2000 and
      31 December 2015 by three independent reviewers. The BEME guide and STORIES
      statement were used to develop a narrative from the articles selected. RESULTS:
      Thematic analysis of 49 articles reveals five semantic themes of initiation
      process, developmental process, evaluation process, sustaining mentoring
      relationship, and obstacles to effective mentoring. The evolving and relational
      dependent nature of mentoring pivots upon the compatibility of mentors and
      mentees and the quality of their interactions, which in turn depend on mentoring
      environments and awareness of mentor-, mentee-, organizational-related factors
      and changes in context and goals. CONCLUSIONS: Embrace of a consistent mentoring
      approach to ensure effective oversight of the mentoring process must be balanced
      with sufficient flexibility to ensure a mentee-centered approach. Efforts must be
      made to optimize the key aspects of mentoring relationships in order to ensure
      successful mentoring processes and outcomes.

PMID- 28562196
TI  - Antitumor and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Response After Administration of the Anti
      Programmed Death 1 Antibody Pembrolizumab.

PMID- 28562195
TI  - mHealth App for Risk Assessment of Pigmented and Nonpigmented Skin Lesions-A
      Study on Sensitivity and Specificity in Detecting Malignancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the advent of smartphone devices, an increasing number of
      mHealth applications that target melanoma identification have been developed, but
      none addresses the general context of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer
      identification. INTRODUCTION: In this study a smartphone application using
      fractal and classical image analysis for the risk assessment of skin lesions is
      systematically evaluated to determine its sensitivity and specificity in the
      diagnosis of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer along with actinic keratosis
      and Bowen's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the Department of Dermatology,
      Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 341 melanocytic and nonmelanocytic
      lesions were imaged using SkinVision app; 239 underwent histopathological
      examination, while the rest of 102 lesions were clinically diagnosed as clearly
      benign and not removed. The algorithm has been calibrated using the images of the
      first 233 lesions. The calibrated version of the algorithm was used in a subset
      of 108 lesions, and the obtained results were compared with the medical findings.
      RESULTS: On the 108 cases used for evaluation the algorithm scored 80%
      sensitivity and 78% specificity in detecting (pre)malignant conditions.
      DISCUSSION: Although less accurate than the dermatologist's clinical eye, the app
      may offer support to other professionals who are less familiar with
      differentiating between benign and malignant lesions. CONCLUSION: An mHealth
      application for the risk assessment of skin lesions was evaluated. It adds value
      to diagnosis tools of its type by taking into consideration pigmented and
      nonpigmented lesions all together and detecting signs of malignancy with high
      sensitivity.

PMID- 28562194
TI  - The cart before the horse: When cognitive neuroscience precedes cognitive
      neuropsychology.
AB  - Cognitive neuropsychology (CN) has had an immense impact on the understanding of
      the normal cognitive processes underlying reading, spelling, spoken language
      comprehension and production, spatial attention, memory, visual perception, and
      orchestration of actions, through detailed analysis of behavioural performance by
      neurologically impaired individuals. However, there are other domains of
      cognition and communication that have rarely been investigated with this
      approach. Many cognitive neuropsychologists have extended their work in language,
      perception, or attention by turning to functional neuroimaging or lesion-symptom
      mapping to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the cognitive mechanisms
      they have identified. Another approach to extending one's research in CN is to
      apply the methodology to other cognitive functions. We briefly review the domains
      evaluated using methods of CN to develop cognitive architectures and
      computational models and the domains that have used functional neuroimaging and
      other brain mapping approaches in healthy controls to identify the neural
      substrates involved in cognitive tasks over the past 20 years. We argue that in
      some domains, neuroimaging studies have preceded the careful analysis of the
      cognitive processes underlying tasks that are studied, with the consequence that
      results are difficult to interpret. We use this analysis as the basis for
      discussing opportunities for expanding the field.

PMID- 28562197
TI  - Improving End-of-Life Care: Palliative Care Embedded in an Oncology Clinic
      Specializing in Targeted and Immune-Based Therapies.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patients with advanced cancer benefit from early involvement of
      palliative care. The ideal method of palliative care integration remains to be
      determined, as does its effectiveness for patients treated with targeted and
      immune-based therapies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied the impact of an
      embedded palliative care team that saw patients in an academic oncology clinic
      specializing in targeted and immune-based therapies. Patients seen on a specific
      day accessed the embedded model, on the basis of automatic criteria; patients
      seen other days could be referred to a separate palliative care clinic (usual
      care). We abstracted data from the medical records of 114 patients who died
      during the 3 years after this model's implementation. RESULTS: Compared with
      usual care (n = 88), patients with access to the embedded model (n = 26)
      encountered palliative care as outpatients more often ( P = .003) and earlier
      (mean, 231 v 109 days before death; P < .001). Hospice enrollment rates were
      similar ( P = .303), but duration was doubled (mean, 57 v 25 days; P = .006), and
      enrollment > 7 days before death-a core Quality Oncology Practice Initiative
      metric-was higher in the embedded model (odds ratio, 5.60; P = .034). Place of
      death ( P = .505) and end-of-life chemotherapy (odds ratio, 0.361; P = .204) did
      not differ between the two arms. CONCLUSION: A model of embedded and
      automatically triggered palliative care among patients treated exclusively with
      targeted and immune-based therapies was associated with significant improvements
      in use and timing of palliative care and hospice, compared with usual practice.

PMID- 28562198
TI  - Challenges for providing health care in traumatized populations: barriers for
      PTSD treatments and the need for new developments.
AB  - There is a growing recognition about the effects of traumatic experiences on
      mental health worldwide. With ongoing conflicts, natural disasters, interpersonal
      violence, and other traumatic events it is estimated that approximately 70% of
      the global population have been exposed to at least one lifetime traumatic
      experience. Research shows a substantial proportion of survivors, especially in
      low- and middle-income countries, would have a posttraumatic stress disorder
      (PTSD). During recent decades effective evidence-based treatments for PTSD have
      been developed. However, there are significant barriers to mental health services
      and trauma-informed treatments are not easily available for trauma survivors.
      From the perspective of social psychotraumatology several core barriers to trauma
      treatments were identified, including the lack of acknowledgment, and avoidance
      of disclosure. The need for cultural sensitivity in PTSD treatments, the
      potential of alternative ways of treatment delivery, and the involvement of non
      professional volunteers are proposed as directions for future developments in the
      field.

PMID- 28562201
TI  - Electrochemotherapy and calcium electroporation inducing a systemic immune
      response with local and distant remission of tumors in a patient with malignant
      melanoma - a case report.

PMID- 28562200
TI  - Underutilization of proton therapy in the treatment of pediatric central nervous
      system tumors: an analysis of the National Cancer Database.

PMID- 28562202
TI  - A case of isolated small cell carcinoma of the brain.

PMID- 28562199
TI  - Delivery of Community-Based Palliative Care: Findings from a Time and Motion
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of palliative care has increased substantially as the population
      ages and as evidence for its benefits grows. However, there is limited
      information regarding which care activities are necessary for delivering high
      quality, interdisciplinary, community-based palliative care. OBJECTIVES: This
      study aims to identify and measure the discrete clinical and administrative
      activities completed by a multidisciplinary team in a hospice provider-led model
      for providing community-based palliative care. STUDY DESIGN: A time and motion
      study was conducted at three care settings within a large hospice and palliative
      care network and a process map was drawn to describe the personnel and activities
      recorded. METHODS: Researchers recorded activities performed by clinical and
      administrative staff. Activities were categorized into those related to patient
      care, administrative duties, care coordination, and other. A process map of
      palliative care delivery was created and descriptive statistics were used to
      calculate the proportion of time spent on discrete activities and within each
      activity category. RESULTS: Over 50 hours of activities were recorded during
      which the clinicians interacted with 25 patients and engaged in 20 distinct
      tasks. Physicians spent 94% of their time on tasks related to patient care and 1%
      on administrative tasks. Nurse practitioners and registered nurses spent 82% and
      53% of their time on patient-related tasks and 2% and 37% on administrative
      tasks, respectively. CONCLUSION: The delivery of palliative care is
      interdisciplinary and involves numerous discrete tasks and activities.
      Understanding the components of a community-based palliative care model is the
      first step to designing incentives to encourage its spread.

PMID- 28562203
TI  - Is Hepatic Triglyceride Content Associated with Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity and
      Carotid Intima-Media Thickness? The Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity Study.
AB  - Purpose To test the hypothesis that hepatic triglyceride content is associated
      with subclinical vascular impairment and is not confounded by various
      cardiometabolic risk factors. Materials and Methods This study was approved by
      the institutional review board, and all participants gave written informed
      consent. In this cross-sectional analysis of baseline measurements of the
      Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study, a population-based cohort study, 1899
      participants (52% men; mean age, 55 years +/- 6 [standard deviation]) underwent
      magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy and MR imaging to assess hepatic
      triglyceride content, aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and visceral fat. Carotid
      intima-media thickness (IMT) was acquired and measured by trained research nurses
      according to standard procedures. Multivariate regression analyses were used to
      study associations of hepatic triglyceride content with total and regional aortic
      PWV and carotid IMT while adjusting for several possible confounding factors,
      including the metabolic syndrome. Results Total aortic PWV (mean difference, 0.5
      m/sec; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.3, 0.7) and carotid IMT (mean difference,
      37 MUm; 95% CI: 25, 49) were higher in participants with hepatic steatosis. After
      adjusting for various covariates, a 10-fold increase in hepatic triglyceride
      content was associated with an increased mean aortic PWV of 0.19 m/sec (95% CI:
      0.03, 0.36) in total and an increased mean aortic PWV of 0.42 m/sec (95% CI:
      0.03, 0.81) in the abdominal segment. A 10-fold increase in hepatic triglyceride
      content was also associated with an increased mean carotid IMT of 15 MUm (95% CI:
      0, 29) but not after additional adjustments for visceral and total body fat.
      Conclusion In this relatively large population-based cohort study, hepatic
      triglyceride content was associated with aortic pulse wave velocity and carotid
      IMT. These associations were only partly explained by the metabolic syndrome and
      visceral adiposity, suggesting a possible specific contribution of hepatic
      steatosis to subclinical vascular impairment. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental
      material is available for this article.

PMID- 28562204
TI  - Contrast-enhanced MR Imaging versus Contrast-enhanced US: A Comparison in
      Glioblastoma Surgery by Using Intraoperative Fusion Imaging.
AB  - Purpose To compare contrast material enhancement of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)
      with intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (US) versus that with
      preoperative gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging by
      using real-time fusion imaging. Materials and Methods Ten patients with GBM were
      retrospectively identified by using routinely collected, anonymized data.
      Navigated contrast-enhanced US was performed after intravenous administration of
      contrast material before tumor resection. All patients underwent tumor excision
      with navigated intraoperative US guidance with use of fusion imaging between real
      time intraoperative US and preoperative MR imaging. With use of fusion imaging,
      glioblastoma contrast enhancement at contrast-enhanced US (regarding location,
      morphologic features, margins, dimensions, and pattern) was compared with that at
      gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging. Results Fusion imaging for virtual
      navigation enabled matching of real-time contrast-enhanced US scans to
      corresponding coplanar preoperative gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR images in
      all cases, with a positional discrepancy of less than 2 mm. Contrast enhancement
      of gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging and contrast-enhanced US was
      superimposable in all cases with regard to location, margins, dimensions, and
      morphologic features. The qualitative analysis of contrast enhancement pattern
      demonstrated a similar distribution in contrast-enhanced US and gadolinium
      enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging in nine patients: Seven lesions showed peripheral
      inhomogeneous ring enhancement, and two lesions showed a prevalent nodular
      pattern. In one patient, the contrast enhancement pattern differed between the
      two modalities: Contrast-enhanced US showed enhancement of the entire bulk of the
      tumor, whereas gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging demonstrated peripheral
      contrast enhancement. Conclusion Glioblastoma contrast enhancement with contrast
      enhanced US is superimposable on that provided with preoperative gadolinium
      enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging regarding location, margins, morphologic
      features, and dimensions, with a similar enhancement pattern in most cases. Thus,
      contrast-enhanced US is of potential use in the surgical management of GBM. (c)
      RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

PMID- 28562205
TI  - Diameter of the Pulmonary Artery in Relation to the Ascending Aorta: Association
      with Cardiovascular Outcome.
AB  - Purpose To investigate whether the pulmonary artery (PA)-to-ascending aorta (Ao)
      ratio is associated with outcome in unselected patients referred for cardiac
      magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Materials and Methods This study prospectively
      enrolled 650 consecutive patients (47.2% women; mean age, 56.1 years +/- 17.7
      [standard deviation]). Diameters of PA and Ao were measured in axial black blood
      images. On the basis of previous results, a PA-to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater was
      chosen as the cutoff for further analysis. Univariable and multivariable Cox
      regression models were used to investigate the primary end point, which was
      defined as a composite of cardiovascular hospitalization and death. Results A PA
      to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater was present in 131 (20.2%) patients. Patients with
      a PA-to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater were predominantly women (P = .010); more
      frequently presented with atrial fibrillation (P < .001), diabetes (P < .001),
      and impaired renal function (P < .001); and had higher N-terminal pro-B-type
      natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels (P < .001), larger left (P = .023) and
      right ventricles (RV; P = .002), and worse RV function (P < .001). Patients were
      followed for 17.8 months +/- 12.9, during which 110 patients (16.9%) reached the
      primary end point. By Kaplan-Meier analysis, event-free survival was
      significantly worse in patients with a PA-to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater (log-rank
      test, P < .001). A PA-to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater was independently associated
      with outcome by multivariable Cox regression analysis, in addition to age, NT
      proBNP serum levels, and RV size. Conclusion A PA-to-Ao ratio of 1.0 or greater
      identified patients at risk, most likely because of elevated PA pressures. On the
      basis of these results, the PA-to-Ao ratio should routinely be reported at
      cardiac MR imaging. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for
      this article.

PMID- 28562208
TI  - Prefrontal Cortex in Control: Broadening the Scope to Identify Mechanisms.
AB  - Sometime in the past two decades, neuroimaging and behavioral research converged
      on pFC as an important locus of cognitive control and decision-making, and that
      seems to be the last thing anyone has agreed on since. Every year sees an
      increase in the number of roles and functions attributed to distinct subregions
      within pFC, roles that may explain behavior and neural activity in one context
      but might fail to generalize across the many behaviors in which each region is
      implicated. Emblematic of this ongoing proliferation of functions is dorsal ACC
      (dACC). Novel tasks that activate dACC are followed by novel interpretations of
      dACC function, and each new interpretation adds to the number of functionally
      specific processes contained within the region. This state of affairs, a
      recurrent and persistent behavior followed by an illusory and transient relief,
      can be likened to behavioral pathology. In Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
      29:10 we collect contributed articles that seek to move the conversation beyond
      specific functions of subregions of pFC, focusing instead on general roles that
      support pFC involvement in a wide variety of behaviors and across a variety of
      experimental paradigms.

PMID- 28562207
TI  - Social and Nonsocial Relational Reasoning in Adolescence and Adulthood.
AB  - Reasoning during social interactions requires the individual manipulation of
      mental representations of one's own traits and those of other people as well as
      their joint consideration (relational integration). Research using nonsocial
      paradigms has linked relational integration to activity in the rostrolateral PFC.
      Here, we investigated whether social reasoning is supported by the same general
      system or whether it additionally relies on regions of the social brain network,
      such as the medial PFC. We further assessed the development of social reasoning.
      In the social task, participants evaluated themselves or a friend, or compared
      themselves with their friend, on a series of traits. In the nonsocial task,
      participants evaluated their hometown or another town or compared the two. In a
      behavioral study involving 325 participants (11-39 years old), we found that
      integrating relations, compared with performing single relational judgments,
      improves during adolescence, both for social and nonsocial information. Thirty
      nine female participants (10-31 years old) took part in a neuroimaging study
      using a similar task. Activation of the relational integration network, including
      the rostrolateral PFC, was observed in the comparison condition of both the
      social and nonsocial tasks, whereas the medial PFC showed greater activation when
      participants processed social as opposed to nonsocial information across
      conditions. Developmentally, the right anterior insula showed greater activity in
      adolescents compared with adults during the comparison of nonsocial versus social
      information. This study shows parallel recruitment of the social brain and the
      relational reasoning network during the relational integration of social
      information in adolescence and adulthood.

PMID- 28562206
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide induces the differentiation of hepatic progenitor cells into
      myofibroblasts via activation of the Hedgehog signaling pathway.
AB  - Normally, hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs) are activated and differentiate into
      hepatocytes or bile ductular cells to repair liver damage during liver injury.
      However, it remains controversial whether the abnormal differentiation of HPCs
      occurs under abnormal conditions. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of the
      microenvironment, promotes liver fibrosis. In the present study, HPCs promoted
      liver fibrosis in rats following carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) treatment.
      Meanwhile, the LPS level in the portal vein was elevated and played a primary
      role in the fate of HPCs. In vitro, LPS inhibited the hepatobiliary
      differentiation of HPCs. Concurrently, HPCs co-cultured with LPS for 2 weeks
      showed a tendency to differentiate into myofibroblasts (MFs). Thus, we conclude
      that LPS promotes the aberrant differentiation of HPCs into MFs as a third type
      of descendant. This study provides insight into a novel differentiation fate of
      HPCs in their microenvironment, and could thus lead to the development of HPCs
      for treatment methods in liver fibrosis.

PMID- 28562209
TI  - The Phenomenal Contents and Neural Correlates of Spontaneous Thoughts across
      Wakefulness, NREM Sleep, and REM Sleep.
AB  - Thoughts occur during wake as well as during dreaming sleep. Using experience
      sampling combined with high-density EEG, we investigated the phenomenal qualities
      and neural correlates of spontaneously occurring thoughts across wakefulness, non
      rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and REM sleep. Across all states, thoughts were
      associated with activation of a region of the midcingulate cortex. Thoughts
      during wakefulness additionally involved a medial prefrontal region, which was
      associated with metacognitive thoughts during wake. Phenomenologically, waking
      thoughts had more metacognitive content than thoughts during both NREM and REM
      sleep, whereas thoughts during REM sleep had a more social content. Together,
      these results point to a core neural substrate for thoughts, regardless of
      behavioral state, within the midcingulate cortex, and suggest that medial
      prefrontal regions may contribute to metacognitive content in waking thoughts.

PMID- 28562210
TI  - Lateral Sinus Dural Arteriovenous Fistulas: Sinovenous Outflow Restriction
      Outweighs Cortical Venous Reflux as a Parameter Associated with Hemorrhage.
AB  - Purpose To investigate whether sinovenous outflow restriction (SOR) is more
      strongly associated with hemorrhage than cortical venous reflux (CVR) in patients
      with lateral sinus dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs). Materials and Methods An
      institutional review board approved this retrospective study and waiver of
      informed consent was obtained. From 1995 to 2016, 163 cases of lateral sinus
      DAVFs were included and divided into hemorrhagic and nonhemorrhagic groups based
      on initial presentation. Their angiograms and magnetic resonance images were
      evaluated, with two evaluators independently grading CVR and SOR. The SOR was
      scored as the combined conduit score (CCS), ranging from zero (total occlusion)
      to 8 (fully patent). The CVR and CCS of the hemorrhagic and nonhemorrhagic groups
      were compared. Logistic regression models were established for both the CVR and
      CCS to compare their performances in discriminating DAVF hemorrhage. Results
      Sinovenous outflow was significantly more restrictive (lower median CCS) in the
      hemorrhagic group than in the nonhemorrhagic group (1 vs 6.5; P < .001). A CCS of
      less than or equal to 2 best discriminated between the groups with a sensitivity
      of 90.0% and a specificity of 88.1%. The CCS model had a higher discriminative
      performance than did the CVR model (area under the curve, 0.933 vs 0.843; P =
      .018). Conclusion The CCS grading system semiquantifies SOR. SOR may represent a
      stronger risk factor associated with hemorrhage in patients with lateral sinus
      DAVFs than does CVR, and thus may offer guidance in therapeutic decision making.
      (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28562212
TI  - Rank Selection in Nonnegative Matrix Factorization using Minimum Description
      Length.
AB  - Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is primarily a linear dimensionality
      reduction technique that factorizes a nonnegative data matrix into two smaller
      nonnegative matrices: one that represents the basis of the new subspace and the
      second that holds the coefficients of all the data points in that new space. In
      principle, the nonnegativity constraint forces the representation to be sparse
      and parts based. Instead of extracting holistic features from the data, real
      parts are extracted that should be significantly easier to interpret and analyze.
      The size of the new subspace selects how many features will be extracted from the
      data. An effective choice should minimize the noise while extracting the key
      features. We propose a mechanism for selecting the subspace size by using a
      minimum description length technique. We demonstrate that our technique provides
      plausible estimates for real data as well as accurately predicting the known size
      of synthetic data. We provide an implementation of our code in a Matlab format.

PMID- 28562211
TI  - Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Nomograms Based on the Albumin-Bilirubin Grade to
      Assess the Outcomes of Radiofrequency Ablation.
AB  - Purpose To construct a nomogram with the albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grade to assess
      the long-term outcomes of patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) after radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Materials and Methods This
      retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, and informed
      consent was waived. We studied 622 treatment-naive patients with HCC according to
      the Milan criteria who subsequently underwent RFA from 2002 to 2013. Baseline
      characteristics were collected to identify the risk factors for determination of
      poor overall survival after RFA. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model
      based on significant prognostic factors of overall survival was used to construct
      the nomogram. Results After a median follow-up time of 35.7 months, 190 patients
      had died. The cumulative 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 63.1% and
      48.7%, respectively. Stratified according to ALBI grade, the cumulative 5- and 10
      year survival rates were 80.0% and 67.9% for patients with grade 1, respectively,
      and 48.6% and 35.1% for those with grades 2-3, respectively (P < .001).
      Multivariate analysis results showed that patient age older than 65 years, a
      prothrombin time international normalized ratio greater than 1.1, alpha
      fetoprotein level greater than 20 ng/mL, multiple tumors, and ALBI grade 2 or 3
      were associated with overall mortality. A nomogram was developed on the basis of
      these five variables. Internal validation with 200 bootstrapped sample sets had a
      good concordance index of 0.770 (95% confidence interval: 0.633, 0.876).
      Conclusion This simple nomogram based on the ALBI grade offers personalized long
      term survival data for patients with early-stage HCC who undergo RFA. (c) RSNA,
      2017 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

PMID- 28562213
TI  - Multivariate Time Series Decomposition into Oscillation Components.
AB  - Many time series are considered to be a superposition of several oscillation
      components. We have proposed a method for decomposing univariate time series into
      oscillation components and estimating their phases (Matsuda & Komaki, 2017 ). In
      this study, we extend that method to multivariate time series. We assume that
      several oscillators underlie the given multivariate time series and that each
      variable corresponds to a superposition of the projections of the oscillators.
      Thus, the oscillators superpose on each variable with amplitude and phase
      modulation. Based on this idea, we develop gaussian linear state-space models and
      use them to decompose the given multivariate time series. The model parameters
      are estimated from data using the empirical Bayes method, and the number of
      oscillators is determined using the Akaike information criterion. Therefore, the
      proposed method extracts underlying oscillators in a data-driven manner and
      enables investigation of phase dynamics in a given multivariate time series.
      Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. From monthly
      mean north-south sunspot number data, the proposed method reveals an interesting
      phase relationship.

PMID- 28562214
TI  - GP-Select: Accelerating EM Using Adaptive Subspace Preselection.
AB  - We propose a nonparametric procedure to achieve fast inference in generative
      graphical models when the number of latent states is very large. The approach is
      based on iterative latent variable preselection, where we alternate between
      learning a selection function to reveal the relevant latent variables and using
      this to obtain a compact approximation of the posterior distribution for EM. This
      can make inference possible where the number of possible latent states is, for
      example, exponential in the number of latent variables, whereas an exact approach
      would be computationally infeasible. We learn the selection function entirely
      from the observed data and current expectation-maximization state via gaussian
      process regression. This is in contrast to earlier approaches, where selection
      functions were manually designed for each problem setting. We show that our
      approach performs as well as these bespoke selection functions on a wide variety
      of inference problems. In particular, for the challenging case of a hierarchical
      model for object localization with occlusion, we achieve results that match a
      customized state-of-the-art selection method at a far lower computational cost.

PMID- 28562215
TI  - Predicting the Existence and Stability of Phase-Locked Mode in Neural Networks
      Using Generalized Phase-Resetting Curve.
AB  - We used the phase-resetting method to study a biologically relevant three-neuron
      network in which one neuron receives multiple inputs per cycle. For this purpose,
      we first generalized the concept of phase resetting to accommodate multiple
      inputs per cycle. We explicitly showed how analytical conditions for the
      existence and the stability of phase-locked modes are derived. In particular, we
      solved newly derived recursive maps using as an example a biologically relevant
      driving-driven neural network with a dynamic feedback loop. We applied the
      generalized phase-resetting definition to predict the relative-phase and the
      stability of a phase-locked mode in open loop setup. We also compared the
      predicted phase-locked mode against numerical simulations of the fully connected
      network.

PMID- 28562216
TI  - Support Vector Algorithms for Optimizing the Partial Area under the ROC Curve.
AB  - The area under the ROC curve (AUC) is a widely used performance measure in
      machine learning. Increasingly, however, in several applications, ranging from
      ranking to biometric screening to medicine, performance is measured not in terms
      of the full area under the ROC curve but in terms of the partial area under the
      ROC curve between two false-positive rates. In this letter, we develop support
      vector algorithms for directly optimizing the partial AUC between any two false
      positive rates. Our methods are based on minimizing a suitable proxy or surrogate
      objective for the partial AUC error. In the case of the full AUC, one can readily
      construct and optimize convex surrogates by expressing the performance measure as
      a summation of pairwise terms. The partial AUC, on the other hand, does not admit
      such a simple decomposable structure, making it more challenging to design and
      optimize (tight) convex surrogates for this measure. Our approach builds on the
      structural SVM framework of Joachims ( 2005 ) to design convex surrogates for
      partial AUC and solves the resulting optimization problem using a cutting plane
      solver. Unlike the full AUC, where the combinatorial optimization needed in each
      iteration of the cutting plane solver can be decomposed and solved efficiently,
      the corresponding problem for the partial AUC is harder to decompose. One of our
      main contributions is a polynomial time algorithm for solving the combinatorial
      optimization problem associated with partial AUC. We also develop an approach for
      optimizing a tighter nonconvex hinge loss-based surrogate for the partial AUC
      using difference-of-convex programming. Our experiments on a variety of real
      world and benchmark tasks confirm the efficacy of the proposed methods.

PMID- 28562217
TI  - Deep Restricted Kernel Machines Using Conjugate Feature Duality.
AB  - The aim of this letter is to propose a theory of deep restricted kernel machines
      offering new foundations for deep learning with kernel machines. From the
      viewpoint of deep learning, it is partially related to restricted Boltzmann
      machines, which are characterized by visible and hidden units in a bipartite
      graph without hidden-to-hidden connections and deep learning extensions as deep
      belief networks and deep Boltzmann machines. From the viewpoint of kernel
      machines, it includes least squares support vector machines for classification
      and regression, kernel principal component analysis (PCA), matrix singular value
      decomposition, and Parzen-type models. A key element is to first characterize
      these kernel machines in terms of so-called conjugate feature duality, yielding a
      representation with visible and hidden units. It is shown how this is related to
      the energy form in restricted Boltzmann machines, with continuous variables in a
      nonprobabilistic setting. In this new framework of so-called restricted kernel
      machine (RKM) representations, the dual variables correspond to hidden features.
      Deep RKM are obtained by coupling the RKMs. The method is illustrated for deep
      RKM, consisting of three levels with a least squares support vector machine
      regression level and two kernel PCA levels. In its primal form also deep
      feedforward neural networks can be trained within this framework.

PMID- 28562218
TI  - A Weight-Adaptive Laplacian Embedding for Graph-Based Clustering.
AB  - Graph-based clustering methods perform clustering on a fixed input data graph.
      Thus such clustering results are sensitive to the particular graph construction.
      If this initial construction is of low quality, the resulting clustering may also
      be of low quality. We address this drawback by allowing the data graph itself to
      be adaptively adjusted in the clustering procedure. In particular, our proposed
      weight adaptive Laplacian (WAL) method learns a new data similarity matrix that
      can adaptively adjust the initial graph according to the similarity weight in the
      input data graph. We develop three versions of these methods based on the L2
      norm, fuzzy entropy regularizer, and another exponential-based weight strategy,
      that yield three new graph-based clustering objectives. We derive optimization
      algorithms to solve these objectives. Experimental results on synthetic data sets
      and real-world benchmark data sets exhibit the effectiveness of these new graph
      based clustering methods.

PMID- 28562219
TI  - Determination of the Lowest-Energy States for the Model Distribution of Trained
      Restricted Boltzmann Machines Using a 1000 Qubit D-Wave 2X Quantum Computer.
AB  - The possibility of using a quantum computer D-Wave 2X with more than 1000 qubits
      to determine the global minimum of the energy landscape of trained restricted
      Boltzmann machines is investigated. In order to overcome the problem of limited
      interconnectivity in the D-Wave architecture, the proposed RBM embedding combines
      multiple qubits to represent a particular RBM unit. The results for the lowest
      energy (the ground state) and some of the higher-energy states found by the D
      Wave 2X were compared with those of the classical simulated annealing (SA)
      algorithm. In many cases, the D-Wave machine successfully found the same RBM
      lowest-energy state as that found by SA. In some examples, the D-Wave machine
      returned a state corresponding to one of the higher-energy local minima found by
      SA. The inherently nonperfect embedding of the RBM into the Chimera lattice
      explored in this work (i.e., multiple qubits combined into a single RBM unit were
      found not to be guaranteed to be all aligned) and the existence of small,
      persistent biases in the D-Wave hardware may cause a discrepancy between the D
      Wave and the SA results. In some of the investigated cases, introduction of a
      small bias field into the energy function or optimization of the chain-strength
      parameter in the D-Wave embedding successfully addressed difficulties of the
      particular RBM embedding. With further development of the D-Wave hardware, the
      approach will be suitable for much larger numbers of RBM units.

PMID- 28562220
TI  - Extraction of Synaptic Input Properties in Vivo.
AB  - Knowledge of synaptic input is crucial for understanding synaptic integration and
      ultimately neural function. However, in vivo, the rates at which synaptic inputs
      arrive are high, so that it is typically impossible to detect single events. We
      show here that it is nevertheless possible to extract the properties of the
      events and, in particular, to extract the event rate, the synaptic time
      constants, and the properties of the event size distribution from in vivo voltage
      clamp recordings. Applied to cerebellar interneurons, our method reveals that the
      synaptic input rate increases from 600 Hz during rest to 1000 Hz during
      locomotion, while the amplitude and shape of the synaptic events are unaffected
      by this state change. This method thus complements existing methods to measure
      neural function in vivo.

PMID- 28562221
TI  - LQG Online Learning.
AB  - Optimal control theory and machine learning techniques are combined to formulate
      and solve in closed form an optimal control formulation of online learning from
      supervised examples with regularization of the updates. The connections with the
      classical linear quadratic gaussian (LQG) optimal control problem, of which the
      proposed learning paradigm is a nontrivial variation as it involves random
      matrices, are investigated. The obtained optimal solutions are compared with the
      Kalman filter estimate of the parameter vector to be learned. It is shown that
      the proposed algorithm is less sensitive to outliers with respect to the Kalman
      estimate (thanks to the presence of the regularization term), thus providing
      smoother estimates with respect to time. The basic formulation of the proposed
      online learning framework refers to a discrete-time setting with a finite
      learning horizon and a linear model. Various extensions are investigated,
      including the infinite learning horizon and, via the so-called kernel trick, the
      case of nonlinear models.

PMID- 28562222
TI  - Multiview Feature Analysis via Structured Sparsity and Shared Subspace Discovery.
AB  - Since combining features from heterogeneous data sources can significantly boost
      classification performance in many applications, it has attracted much research
      attention over the past few years. Most of the existing multiview feature
      analysis approaches separately learn features in each view, ignoring knowledge
      shared by multiple views. Different views of features may have some intrinsic
      correlations that might be beneficial to feature learning. Therefore, it is
      assumed that multiviews share subspaces from which common knowledge can be
      discovered. In this letter, we propose a new multiview feature learning
      algorithm, aiming to exploit common features shared by different views. To
      achieve this goal, we propose a feature learning algorithm in a batch mode, by
      which the correlations among different views are taken into account. Multiple
      transformation matrices for different views are simultaneously learned in a joint
      framework. In this way, our algorithm can exploit potential correlations among
      views as supplementary information that further improves the performance result.
      Since the proposed objective function is nonsmooth and difficult to solve
      directly, we propose an iterative algorithm for effective optimization. Extensive
      experiments have been conducted on a number of real-world data sets. Experimental
      results demonstrate superior performance in terms of classification against all
      the compared approaches. Also, the convergence guarantee has been validated in
      the experiment.

PMID- 28562223
TI  - Effect of Phase Response Curve Shape and Synaptic Driving Force on
      Synchronization of Coupled Neuronal Oscillators.
AB  - The role of the phase response curve (PRC) shape on the synchrony of synaptically
      coupled oscillating neurons is examined. If the PRC is independent of the phase,
      because of the synaptic form of the coupling, synchrony is found to be stable for
      both excitatory and inhibitory coupling at all rates, whereas the antisynchrony
      becomes stable at low rates. A faster synaptic rise helps extend the stability of
      antisynchrony to higher rates. If the PRC is not constant but has a profile like
      that of a leaky integrate-and-fire model, then, in contrast to the earlier
      reports that did not include the voltage effects, mutual excitation could lead to
      stable synchrony provided the synaptic reversal potential is below the voltage
      level the neuron would have reached in the absence of the interaction and
      threshold reset. This level is controlled by the applied current and the leakage
      parameters. Such synchrony is contingent on significant phase response (that
      would result, for example, by a sharp PRC jump) occurring during the synaptic
      rising phase. The rising phase, however, does not contribute significantly if it
      occurs before the voltage spike reaches its peak. Then a stable near-synchronous
      state can still exist between type 1 PRC neurons if the PRC shows a left skewness
      in its shape. These results are examined comprehensively using perfect integrate
      and-fire, leaky integrate-and-fire, and skewed PRC shapes under the assumption of
      the weakly coupled oscillator theory applied to synaptically coupled neuron
      models.

PMID- 28562225
TI  - The First Hundred Days for Health Care.

PMID- 28562224
TI  - Analytical Derivation of Nonlinear Spectral Effects and 1/f Scaling Artifact in
      Signal Processing of Real-World Data.
AB  - In estimating the frequency spectrum of real-world time series data, we must
      violate the assumption of infinite-length, orthogonal components in the Fourier
      basis. While it is widely known that care must be taken with discretely sampled
      data to avoid aliasing of high frequencies, less attention is given to the
      influence of low frequencies with period below the sampling time window. Here, we
      derive an analytic expression for the side-lobe attenuation of signal components
      in the frequency domain representation. This expression allows us to detail the
      influence of individual frequency components throughout the spectrum. The first
      consequence is that the presence of low-frequency components introduces a
      1/f[Formula: see text] component across the power spectrum, with a scaling
      exponent of [Formula: see text]. This scaling artifact could be composed of
      diffuse low-frequency components, which can render it difficult to detect a
      priori. Further, treatment of the signal with standard digital signal processing
      techniques cannot easily remove this scaling component. While several theoretical
      models have been introduced to explain the ubiquitous 1/f[Formula: see text]
      scaling component in neuroscientific data, we conjecture here that some
      experimental observations could be the result of such data analysis procedures.

PMID- 28562226
TI  - Inhibition of Pathological Phenotype of Hypertrophic Scar Fibroblasts Via
      Coculture with Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.
AB  - Hypertrophic scar (HS) is a dermal fibroproliferative disease characterized by
      fibroblast over-proliferation, overproduction, and deposition of the
      extracellular matrix. Growing evidence demonstrated that adipose-derived stem
      cells (ASCs) secrete a plethora of trophic and antifibrotic factors, which
      suppress inflammation and ameliorate fibrosis of different tissues. However, few
      studies investigate their effect on repressing HS activity. This study evaluated
      the suppressing effect of ASCs on HS fibroblast bioactivity and the possible
      mechanism via a coculture model. HS-derived fibroblasts (HSFs) and ASCs were
      isolated from individual patients. HSFs or HSFs treated with transforming growth
      factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) were cocultured with ASCs and the change of HSF cellular
      behaviors, such as cell proliferation, migration, contractility, and gene/protein
      expression of scar-related molecules, were evaluated by cell counting assay, cell
      cycle analysis, scratch wound assay, fibroblast-populated collagen lattice (FPCL)
      contractility assay, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, ELISA, and
      western blotting assay. After 5 days of ASC coculture treatment, the expression
      levels of collagen I (Col 1), collagen III (Col 3), fibronectin (FN), TGF-beta1,
      interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), connective tissue growth factor
      (CTGF), and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) in HSFs decreased significantly
      while the expression levels of decorin (DCN) and MMP-1/TIMP-1 (matrix
      metalloproteinase/tissue inhibitor of MMP) ratio increased significantly.
      Besides, after 5 days of exogenous TGF-beta1 stimulation, the expression levels
      of Col 1, FN, TGF-beta1, IL-6, CTGF, and alpha-SMA in HSFs increased
      significantly. Impressively, all these increased gene expression levels were
      reversed by 5 days of ASCs coculture treatment. Additionally, the proliferation,
      migration, and contractility of HSFs were all significantly reduced by ASC
      coculture treatment. Furthermore, the protein levels of TGF-beta1 and
      intracellular signal pathway-related molecules, such as p-smad2, p-smad3, p
      Stat3, and p-ERK, were downregulated significantly in HSFs after 5 days of ASCs
      coculture treatment. This study demonstrated that coculture of HSFs with ASCs not
      only inhibited proliferation, migration, and contractility of HSFs but also
      decreased the expression levels of HSF-related or TGF-beta1-induced molecules.
      Additionally, the antifibrotic effect on HSFs was likely mediated by the
      inhibition of multiple intracellular signaling. The results of this study suggest
      the therapeutic potential of ASCs for HS treatment, which is worth of further
      investigation.

PMID- 28562227
TI  - A Combinatorial Approach to Induce Sensory Axon Regeneration into the Dorsal Root
      Avulsed Spinal Cord.
AB  - Spinal root injuries result in newly formed glial scar formation, which prevents
      regeneration of sensory axons causing permanent sensory loss. Previous studies
      showed that delivery of trophic factors or implantation of human neural
      progenitor cells supports sensory axon regeneration and partly restores sensory
      functions. In this study, we elucidate mechanisms underlying stem cell-mediated
      ingrowth of sensory axons after dorsal root avulsion (DRA). We show that human
      spinal cord neural stem/progenitor cells (hscNSPC), and also, mesoporous silica
      particles loaded with growth factor mimetics (MesoMIM), supported sensory axon
      regeneration. However, when hscNSPC and MesoMIM were combined, sensory axon
      regeneration failed. Morphological and tracing analysis showed that sensory axons
      grow through the newly established glial scar along "bridges" formed by migrating
      stem cells. Coimplantation of MesoMIM prevented stem cell migration, "bridges"
      were not formed, and sensory axons failed to enter the spinal cord. MesoMIM
      applied alone supported sensory axons ingrowth, but without affecting glial scar
      formation. In vitro, the presence of MesoMIM significantly impaired migration of
      hscNSPC without affecting their level of differentiation. Our data show that (1)
      the ability of stem cells to migrate into the spinal cord and organize cellular
      "bridges" in the newly formed interface is crucial for successful sensory axon
      regeneration, (2) trophic factor mimetics delivered by mesoporous silica may be a
      convenient alternative way to induce sensory axon regeneration, and (3) a
      combinatorial approach of individually beneficial components is not necessarily
      additive, but can be counterproductive for axonal growth.

PMID- 28562228
TI  - Preparation of cross-linked magnetic chitosan particles from steel slag and
      shrimp shells for removal of heavy metals.
AB  - In this study, a new method for preparation of cross-linked magnetic chitosan
      particles (MCPs) from steel slag and shrimp shells using green tea extract as
      crosslinking reagent has been presented. The MCPs obtained were characterized by
      means of X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy,
      scanning electron microscopy and magnetic properties, and then were used to
      investigate the adsorption properties of Cu(II) and Ni(II) ions in aqueous
      solutions. The influence of experimental conditions such as contact time, pH
      value, adsorbent dose and initial metal concentration, and the possibility of
      regeneration were studied systematically. The Cu(II) and Ni(II) adsorption
      isotherms, kinetics and thermodynamics have been measured and discussed. The
      results show that the synthesized MCPs have high adsorption capacity for both
      metal ions (126.58 mg/g for Cu(II) and 66.23 mg/g for Ni(II)), and have excellent
      regeneration stability with efficiency of greater than 83% after five cycles of
      the adsorption-regeneration process. The adsorption process of Ni(II) and Cu(II)
      on MCPs was feasible, spontaneous and exothermic, and better described by the
      Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order kinetic equation. The MCPs can be applied
      as a low cost and highly efficient adsorbent for removal of heavy metals from
      wastewater due to its high adsorption capacity, easy recovery and good
      reusability.

PMID- 28562229
TI  - Effect of chromium (VI) on the multiple nitrogen removal pathways and microbial
      community of aerobic granular sludge.
AB  - The frequent appearance of Cr(VI) significantly impacts the microbial metabolism
      in wastewater. In this study, long-term effects of Cr(VI) on microbial community,
      nitrogen removal pathways and mechanism of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) were
      investigated. AGS had strong resistance ability to 1.0 mg/L Cr(VI). 3.0 mg/L
      Cr(VI) increased the heterotrophic-specific ammonia uptake rate (HSAUR) and
      heterotrophic-specific nitrate uptake rate (HSNUR) transiently, whereas 5.0 mg/L
      Cr(VI) sharply decreased the specific ammonia uptake rate (SAUR), specific
      nitrate uptake rate (SNUR) and simultaneous nitrification denitrification rate
      (SNDR). It was found that Cr (VI) has a greater inhibitory effect on autotrophic
      nitrification (ASAUR), and the maximal inhibition rate (IR) was 139.19%. Besides,
      the inhibition of Cr (VI) on nitrogen removal process belongs to non-competitive
      inhibition. Cr(VI) had a weaker negative impact on heterotrophic bacteria
      compared with that on autotrophic bacteria. Denaturing gradient gel
      electrophoresis analyses suggest that Acidovorax sp., flavobacterium sp.,
      uncultured soil bacterium, uncultured nitrosospira sp., uncultured prokaryote,
      uncultured beta-proteobacterium and uncultured pseudomonas sp. were the dominant
      species. The inhibition of Cr(VI) on nitrite-oxidizing bacteria was the
      strongest, followed by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and denitrifying bacteria.
      Linear correlations between bacterial count and biomass-specific uptake rate were
      observed when the Cr(VI) concentration exceeded 3 mg/L. This study revealed the
      effect of Cr(VI) on nitrification is more serious than that on denitrification.
      Autotrophic and heterotrophic nitrification, heterotrophic denitrification and
      simultaneous nitrification denitrification played a significant role on nitrogen
      removal under Cr(VI) stress.

PMID- 28562230
TI  - Biodegradation of phenol and benzene by endophytic bacterial strains isolated
      from refinery wastewater-fed Cannabis sativa.
AB  - The presence of benzene and phenol in the environment can lead to serious health
      effects in humans and warrant development of efficient cleanup strategies. The
      aim of the present work was to assess the potential of indigenous endophytic
      bacterial strains to degrade benzene and phenol. Seven strains were successfully
      isolated from Cannabis sativa plants irrigated with oil refinery wastewater.
      Molecular characterization was performed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Phenol was
      biodegraded almost completely with Achromobacter sp. (AIEB-7), Pseudomonas sp.
      (AIEB-4), and Alcaligenes sp. (AIEB-6) at 250, 500, and 750 mg L-1; however, the
      degradation was only 81%, 72%, and 69%, respectively, when exposed to 1000 mg L
      1. Bacillus sp. (AIEB-1), Enterobacter sp. (AIEB-3), and Acinetobacter sp. (AIEB
      2) degraded benzene significantly at 250, 500, and 750 mg L-1. However, these
      strains showed 80%, 72%, and 68% benzene removal at 1000 mg L-1 exposure,
      respectively. Rates of degradation could be modeled with first-order kinetics
      with rate constant values of 1.86 * 10-2 for Pseudomonas sp. (AIEB-4) and 1.80 *
      10-2 h-1 for Bacillus sp. (AIEB-1) and half-lives of 1.5 and 1.6 days,
      respectively. These results establish a foundation for further testing of the
      phytoremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in the presence of these
      endophytic bacteria.

PMID- 28562231
TI  - Expanding health coverage in India: role of microfinance-based self-help groups.
AB  - To fulfil its commitment to universal health coverage, it will be necessary for
      the Indian government to expand access to appropriate and affordable health
      services. Through the mechanism of microfinance-based self-help groups (SHGs),
      poor women and their families are provided not only with access to finance to
      improve their livelihoods but also, in many cases, with a range of basic health
      services. Governments and non-governmental organisations in India have
      implemented large-scale programmes for the promotion of SHGs. With 93 million
      people organised nationally, the SHGs provide an established population base that
      can potentially be used to extend health coverage. However, the potential for
      working with SHGs to improve people's access to health services has not been an
      active part of the national policy discourse..

PMID- 28562233
TI  - Relationship of phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) gene polymorphisms with risk of
      ischemic stroke: a hospital based case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide.
      Ischemic stroke (IS) accounts for around 80-85% of total stroke and is a complex
      polygenic multi-factorial disorder which is affected by a complex combination of
      vascular, environmental, and genetic factors. OBJECTIVE: The study was conducted
      with an aim to examine the relationship of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
      of PDE4D (T83C, C87T, and C45T) gene with increasing risk of IS in patients in
      North Indian population. METHODS: In this hospital-based case-control study, 250
      IS subjects and 250 age-and sex-matched control subjects were enrolled from the
      Neurosciences Centre, A.I.I.M.S., New Delhi, India. Deoxyribonucleic acids (DNAs)
      were extracted using the conventional Phenol-Chloroform isolation method.
      Different genotypes were determined by Polymerase chain reaction- Restriction
      fragment length polymorphism method. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Interval
      (CI) of relationship of polymorphisms with risk of IS were calculated by
      conditional multivariable regression analysis. RESULTS: High blood pressure, low
      socioeconomic status, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and family history of stroke were
      observed to be statistically significant risk factors for IS. Multivariable
      adjusted analysis demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between
      SNP 83 of PDE4D gene polymorphism and increasing odds of IS under the dominant
      model of inheritance (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.50; p value = 0.04) after
      adjustment of potential confounding variables. Stratified analysis on the basis
      of TOAST classification demonstrated a statistically significant association for
      increasing 2.73 times odds for developing large vessel disease stroke as compared
      to controls (OR, 2.73; 95% CI, 1.16 to 0.02; p value = 0.02). We did not find any
      significant association of SNPs (C87T and C45T) of the PDE4D gene with the risk
      of IS. CONCLUSION: SNP 83 of PDE4D gene may increase the risk for developing IS
      whereas SNP 87 and SNP45 of PDE4D may not be associated with the risk of IS in
      the North Indian population. Prospective cohort studies are required to
      corroborate these findings.

PMID- 28562232
TI  - Optical Method to Quantify Mechanical Contraction and Calcium Transients of Human
      Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes.
AB  - Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocytes (hPS-CMs)
      holds promise for myocardial regeneration therapies, drug discovery, and models
      of cardiac disease. Potential cardiotoxicities may affect hPS-CM mechanical
      contraction independent of calcium signaling. Herein, a method using an image
      capture system is described to measure hPS-CM contractility and intracellular
      calcium concurrently, with high spatial and temporal resolution. The image
      capture system rapidly alternates between brightfield and epifluorescent
      illumination of contracting cells. Mechanical contraction is quantified by a
      speckle tracking algorithm applied to brightfield image pairs, whereas calcium
      transients are measured by a fluorescent calcium reporter. This technique
      captured changes in contractile strain, calcium transients, and beat frequency of
      hPS-CMs over 21 days in culture, as well as acute responses to isoproterenol and
      Cytochalasin D. The technique described above can be applied without the need to
      alter the culture platform, allowing for determination of hPS-CM behavior over
      weeks in culture for drug discovery and myocardial regeneration applications.

PMID- 28562234
TI  - Ethics teaching in a medical education environment: preferences for diversity of
      learning and assessment methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ethics and professionalism are an integral part of medical school
      curricula; however, medical students' views on these topics have not been
      assessed in many countries. OBJECTIVE:  The study aimed to examine medical
      students' perceptions toward ethics and professionalism teaching, and its
      learning and assessment methods. DESIGN: A self-administered questionnaire
      eliciting views on professionalism and ethics education was distributed to a
      total of 128 final-year medical students. RESULTS: A total of 108 students
      completed the survey, with an 84% response rate. Medical students reported
      frequently encountering ethical conflicts during training but stated only a
      moderate level of ethics training at medical school (mean = 5.14 +/- 1.8). They
      noted that their education had helped somewhat to deal with ethical conflicts
      (mean = 5.39 +/- 2.0). Students strongly affirmed the importance of ethics
      education (mean = 7.63 +/- 1.03) and endorsed the value of positive role models
      (mean = 7.45 +/- 1.5) as the preferred learning method. The cohort voiced
      interest in direct faculty supervision as an approach to assessment of knowledge
      and skills (mean = 7.62 +/- 1.26). Female students perceived greater need for
      more ethics education compared to males (p = < 0.05). Students who claimed that
      they had experienced some unprofessional treatment had a more limited view of the
      importance of ethics as a subject (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Medical students
      viewed ethics education positively and preferred clinically attuned methods for
      learning.

PMID- 28562235
TI  - Attitudes and factors contributing to attrition in Canadian surgical specialty
      residency programs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We recently studied attrition in Canadian general surgical programs;
      however, there are no data on whether residents enrolled in other surgical
      residencies harbour the same intents as their general surgical peers. We sought
      to determine how many residents in surgical disciplines in Canada consider
      leaving their programs and why. METHODS: An anonymous survey was administered to
      all residents in 9 surgical disciplines in Canada. Significance of association
      was determined using the Pearson chi2 test. The Canadian Post-MD Education
      Registry (CAPER) website was used to calculate the response rate. RESULTS: We
      received 523 responses (27.6% response rate). Of these respondents, 140 (26.8%)
      were either "somewhat" or "seriously" considering leaving their program.
      Residents wanting to pursue additional fellowship training and those aspiring to
      an academic career were significantly less likely to be considering changing
      specialties (p = 0.003 and p = 0.005, respectively). Poor work-life balance and
      fear of unemployment/underemployment were the top reasons why residents would
      change specialty (55.5% and 40.8%, respectively), although the reasons cited were
      not significantly different between those considering changing and those who were
      not (p = 0.64). Residents who were considering changing programs were
      significantly less likely to enjoy their work and more likely to cite having
      already invested too much time to change as a reason for continuing (p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: More than one-quarter of residents in surgical training programs in
      Canada harbour desires to abandon their surgical careers, primarily because of
      unsatisfactory work-life balance and limited employment prospects. Efforts to
      educate prospective residents about the reality of the surgical lifestyle and to
      optimize employment prospects may improve completion rates.

PMID- 28562236
TI  - Left ventricular assist device exchange: the Toronto General Hospital experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As support times for left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) become
      longer, several complications requiring device exchange may occur. To our
      knowledge, this is the first Canadian report regarding implantable LVAD exchange.
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the cases of consecutive, unique patients
      implanted with an LVAD between June 2006 and October 2015 at Toronto General
      Hospital. RESULTS: In total, 122 patients were impanted with an LVAD during the
      study period. Eight patients required LVAD exchange, and 1 patient had 2
      replacements (9 of 122, 7.3%). There were 7 HeartMate II (HMII), 1 HVAD and 1
      DuraHeart pumps exchanged. Two of these exchanges occurred early at the time of
      initial implant, whereas 7 occurred late (range 8-623 d). Six exchanges were made
      owing to pump thrombosis. Of the 3 exchanges made for other causes, 1 HMII
      exchange was owing to a driveline fracture, 1 DuraHeart patient had early inflow
      obstruction requiring exchange to HMII at the initial implant, and the third had
      a suspected inflow obstruction with no evidence of thrombosis at the time of the
      procedure. The mean support time before exchange was 225 days, and time from
      exchange to transplant, death or ongoing support was 245 days. Three patients
      were successfully bridged to transplant, and at the time of data collection 2
      were supported awaiting transplant. Three patients died after a mean duration of
      394.3 days (range 78-673 d) of support postreplacement. Four cases were
      successfully performed using a subcostal approach. CONCLUSION: Pump thrombosis is
      the most common cause for LVAD exchange, which can be performed with acceptable
      morbidity and mortality. The subcostal approach may be the preferred procedure
      for an HMII exchange when indicated.

PMID- 28562237
TI  - Robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for lung resection: the first Canadian
      series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Robotic surgery was introduced as a platform for minimally invasive
      lung resection in Canada in October 2011. We present the first Canadian series of
      robotic pulmonary resection for lung cancer. METHODS: Prospective databases at 2
      institutions were queried for patients who underwent robotic resection for lung
      cancer between October 2011 and June 2015. To examine the effect of learning
      curves on patient and process outcomes, data were organized into 3 temporal
      tertiles, stratified by surgeon. RESULTS: A total of 167 consecutive patients
      were included in the study. Median age was 66 (range 27-88) years, and 46.1% (n =
      77) of patients were men. The majority of patients (n = 141, 84%) underwent
      robotic lobectomy. Median duration of surgery was 270 (interquartile range [IQR]
      233-326) minutes, and median length of stay (LOS) was 4 (IQR 3-6) days. Twelve
      patients (7%) were converted to thoracotomy. Total duration of surgery and
      console time decreased significantly (p < 0.001) across tertiles, with a steady
      decline until case 20, followed by a plateau effect. Across tertiles, there was
      no significant difference in LOS, number of lymph node stations removed, or
      perioperative complications. CONCLUSION: The results of this case series are
      comparable to those reported in the literature. A prospective study to examine
      the outcomes and cost of robotic pulmonary resection compared with video-assisted
      thoracoscopic surgery should be done in the context of the Canadian health care
      system. We have presented the first consecutive case series of robotic lobectomy
      in Canada. Outcomes compare favourably to other series in the literature.

PMID- 28562238
TI  - The Orthopedic Trauma Symposium: improving care of orthopedic injuries in Haiti.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although single-trip volunteer medical teams can provide much-needed
      acute trauma care following natural disasters, their ability to leave a legacy of
      improved care in the region is often limited. One way to improve treatment of
      traumatic injuries is through conference-based teaching, such as the Orthopedic
      Trauma Symposium (OTS), which took place in Haiti in 2014. However, there is
      little research evaluating the effectiveness of such teaching tools. We evaluated
      the OTS and the potential benefits of future iterations of the course. METHODS: A
      survey consisting of 5-point Likert scale questions as well as qualitative open
      feedback assessed respondents' opinions regarding the value, content and delivery
      of the OTS. Respondents were classified dichotomously in terms of their role in
      the OTS (instructor v. participant) to measure any meaningful difference in
      feedback. RESULTS: In total, 84% of all participants agreed that course content
      was clearly communicated, and 98% agreed that instructors were knowledgeable in
      the topics covered. Moreover, 87% of all participants responded that they would
      apply the training in their medical practices going forward. CONCLUSION: Haitian
      physicians, residents and medical students responded favourably to the OTS. Open
      ended questions offered concise, attainable improvements for future iterations of
      the course. Organizations committed to improving medical care in low- and middle
      income countries should take note of these findings while continuing to develop
      the OTS and similar initiatives globally.

PMID- 28562239
TI  - Vascular Access in Pediatric Patients in the Emergency Department: Types of
      Access, Indications, and Complications.
AB  - Vascular access is a potentially life-saving procedure that is a mainstay of
      emergency medicine practice. There are a number of challenges associated with
      obtaining and maintaining vascular access, and the choice of the route of access
      and equipment used will depend on patient- and provider-specific factors. In this
      issue, the indications and complications of peripheral intravenous access,
      intraosseous access, and central venous access are reviewed. Timely and effective
      assessment and management of difficult-access patients, pain control techniques
      that can assist vascular access, and contraindications to each type of vascular
      access are also discussed.

PMID- 28562240
TI  - Dental Emergencies: Management Strategies That Improve Outcomes.
AB  - Acute dental emergencies are a common chief complaint presenting to emergency
      departments, and they are increasing substantially in frequency. The diagnosis
      and management of dental emergencies is a core competency of the emergency
      clinician, and proper therapeutic strategies can significantly improve cosmetic
      and functional outcomes for patients. This issue provides a systematic review of
      the literature on common acute traumatic and atraumatic dental emergencies with a
      focus on the historical and physical examination findings that must be understood
      to identify life-threatening infections, relieve pain, salvage natural teeth, and
      communicate with specialists in the further management of patients after
      emergency treatment.

PMID- 28562244
TI  - Executive Summary: Research Gaps at the Intersection of Pediatric
      Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation in Low-Resource Settings.

PMID- 28562242
TI  - IFT trains in different stages of assembly queue at the ciliary base for
      consecutive release into the cilium.
AB  - Intraflagellar transport (IFT) trains, multimegadalton assemblies of IFT proteins
      and motors, traffic proteins in cilia. To study how trains assemble, we employed
      fluorescence protein-tagged IFT proteins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. IFT-A and
      motor proteins are recruited from the cell body to the basal body pool, assembled
      into trains, move through the cilium, and disperse back into the cell body. In
      contrast to this 'open' system, IFT-B proteins from retrograde trains reenter the
      pool and a portion is reused directly in anterograde trains indicating a 'semi
      open' system. Similar IFT systems were also observed in Tetrahymena thermophila
      and IMCD3 cells. FRAP analysis indicated that IFT proteins and motors of a given
      train are sequentially recruited to the basal bodies. IFT dynein and tubulin
      cargoes are loaded briefly before the trains depart. We conclude that the pool
      contains IFT trains in multiple stages of assembly queuing for successive release
      into the cilium upon completion.

PMID- 28562245
TI  - Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation: The Evolving Global Child Health
      Landscape.
AB  - The last decade has witnessed major reductions in child mortality and a focus on
      saving lives with key interventions targeting major causes of child deaths, such
      as neonatal deaths and those due to childhood diarrhea and pneumonia. With the
      transition to Sustainable Development Goals, the global health community is
      expanding child health initiatives to address not only the ongoing need for
      reduced mortality, but also to decrease morbidity and adverse exposures toward
      improving health and developmental outcomes. The relationship between adverse
      environmental exposures frequently associated with factors operating in the
      prepregnancy period and during fetal development is well established. Also well
      appreciated are the developmental impacts (both short- and long-term) associated
      with postnatal factors, such as immunostimulation and environmental enteropathy,
      and the additional risks posed by the confluence of factors related to
      malnutrition, poor living conditions, and the high burden of infections. This
      article provides our current thinking on the pathogenesis and risk factors for
      adverse developmental outcomes among young children, setting the scene for
      potential interventions that can ameliorate these adversities among families and
      children at risk.

PMID- 28562241
TI  - Cooperation between a hierarchical set of recruitment sites targets the X
      chromosome for dosage compensation.
AB  - In many organisms, it remains unclear how X chromosomes are specified for dosage
      compensation, since DNA sequence motifs shown to be important for dosage
      compensation complex (DCC) recruitment are themselves not X-specific. Here, we
      addressed this problem in C. elegans. We found that the DCC recruiter, SDC-2, is
      required to maintain open chromatin at a small number of primary DCC recruitment
      sites, whose sequence and genomic context are X-specific. Along the X, primary
      recruitment sites are interspersed with secondary sites, whose function is X
      dependent. A secondary site can ectopically recruit the DCC when additional
      recruitment sites are inserted either in tandem or at a distance (>30 kb).
      Deletion of a recruitment site on the X results in reduced DCC binding across
      several megabases surrounded by topologically associating domain (TAD)
      boundaries. Our work elucidates that hierarchy and long-distance cooperativity
      between gene-regulatory elements target a single chromosome for regulation.

PMID- 28562246
TI  - Assessment of Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation From Fetal Life to
      Adolescence in Low-Resource Settings.
AB  - Efforts to improve child neurodevelopment are critical to health, equity, and
      sustainable development, particularly in low-resource settings in the United
      States and globally. The colliding epidemics of food insecurity, infectious
      diseases, and noncommunicable diseases interact and impact neurodevelopment.
      Understanding the complex relationships between nutrition, inflammation, and
      neurodevelopment can inform clinical and public health interventions to improve
      outcomes. This article reviews key definitions, tools, and considerations for the
      assessment of nutrition, inflammation, and child neurodevelopment. The
      effectiveness of existing assessment tools to reflect status and biology,
      particularly in relation to each other, and to predict long-term changes in
      health is examined. The aim of this review is to present the extant evidence,
      identify critical research gaps, and suggest a research agenda for future
      longitudinal and intervention studies to address the assessment of nutrition,
      inflammation, and child neurodevelopment, particularly in low-resource settings.
      Despite research gaps, there is a strong relationship between nutrition,
      inflammation, environmental factors, and child neurodevelopment, which emphasizes
      the need to evaluate targeted, early interventions to improve long-term health
      and well-being.

PMID- 28562247
TI  - Neurodevelopment: The Impact of Nutrition and Inflammation During Preconception
      and Pregnancy in Low-Resource Settings.
AB  - The rapid pace of fetal development by far exceeds any other stage of the life
      span, and thus, environmental influences can profoundly alter the developmental
      course. Stress during the prenatal period, including malnutrition and
      inflammation, impact maternal and fetal neurodevelopment with long-term
      consequences for physical and mental health of both the mother and her child. One
      primary consequence of maternal malnutrition, inflammation, and other sources of
      prenatal stress is a poor birth outcome, such as prematurity or growth
      restriction. These phenotypes are often used as indications of prenatal
      adversity. In fact, the original evidence supporting the fetal programming
      hypothesis came from studies documenting an association between birth phenotype
      and the development of subsequent physical and mental health problems. Fetal
      growth restriction in both term and preterm infants is associated with neonatal
      morbidities and a wide variety of behavioral and psychological diagnoses in
      childhood and adolescence, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
      anxiety, depression, internalizing and thought problems, poor social skills, and
      autism spectrum disorder. Improving maternal-child health requires interventions
      that begin before pregnancy and continue throughout gestation and into the
      postpartum period. Such interventions might include supporting pregnancy
      intention, maternal nutrition, health/medical care, mental health, and providing
      social support. This article discusses the impact of maternal nutrition and
      inflammation during preconception and pregnancy among women living in low
      resource settings, with an emphasis on key knowledge gaps that need to be
      addressed to guide program and policy decisions at local, regional and global
      levels.

PMID- 28562248
TI  - Neurodevelopment: The Impact of Nutrition and Inflammation During Infancy in Low
      Resource Settings.
AB  - Infancy and early childhood (ie, birth through age 24 months) represent a period
      of life with both exquisite opportunity and vulnerability for neurodevelopment.
      This is due to rapid brain development, both anatomic and functional, as well as
      to high nutrient requirements during a time of dependence on human milk and
      complementary foods. Complex interactions exist among nutrition, social, and
      physical environments and exposures. The newborn brain also reflects maternal
      exposures that occurred as the product of many interacting forces during
      gestation. Connections between nutrient use and acute and chronic inflammation
      are increasingly recognized, but the evidence base linking both nutrition and
      inflammation to neurodevelopment is relatively modest and quite limited for this
      young age group specifically. This article provides an overview of key
      interactions of nutritional requirements relevant to brain development and
      function; nutritional vulnerabilities related to maternal nutritional status and
      function; and the impact of environmental exposures and inflammation on nutrient
      homeostasis and neurodevelopment during this critical developmental window.

PMID- 28562250
TI  - Neurodevelopment: The Impact of Nutrition and Inflammation During Adolescence in
      Low-Resource Settings.
AB  - Approximately 1 out of 5 children worldwide suffers from childhood malnutrition
      or stunting and associated health conditions, including an increased
      susceptibility to infections and inflammation. Due to improved early
      interventions, most children even in low-resource settings now survive early
      childhood malnutrition, yet exhibit continuing evidence of neurodevelopmental
      deficits, including poor school achievement and behavioral problems. These
      conditions are compounded in children who continue to be undernourished
      throughout the adolescent years. At present, these sequelae of malnutrition and
      infection are of major concern in the adolescent population, given that young
      people between the ages of 10 and 24 years represent nearly one-quarter of the
      world's population. Therefore, there is an urgent need to focus on the well-being
      of this age group and, in particular, on behavioral, cognitive, and brain
      disorders of adolescents who experienced malnutrition, infection, and
      inflammation prenatally, in early childhood, and during adolescence itself.
      Because one-third of all women globally become pregnant during their adolescent
      years, brain and behavioral disorders during this period can have an
      intergenerational impact, affecting the health and well-being of the next
      generation. This article summarizes the current state of knowledge and evidence
      gaps regarding childhood and adolescent malnutrition and inflammation and their
      impact on adolescent neurodevelopment, the limited evidence regarding nutrition
      and psychosocial interventions, and the role of resilience and protective factors
      in this age group. This overview should help to inform the development of new
      strategies to improve the neurodevelopmental outcomes of high risk adolescent
      populations.

PMID- 28562251
TI  - Reducing Information's Speed Improves Verbal Cognition and Behavior in Autism: A
      2-Cases Report.
AB  - According to the temporal theory of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), audiovisual
      changes in environment, particularly those linked to facial and verbal language,
      are often too fast to be faced, perceived, and/or interpreted online by many
      children with ASD, which could help explain their facial, verbal, and/or
      socioemotional interaction impairments. Our goal here was to test for the first
      time the impact of slowed-down audiovisual information on verbal cognition and
      behavior in 2 boys with ASD and verbal delay. Using 15 experimental sessions
      during 4 months, both boys were presented with various stimuli (eg, pictures,
      words, sentences, cartoons) and were then asked questions or given instructions
      regarding stimuli. The audiovisual stimuli and instructions/questions were
      presented on a computer's screen and were always displayed twice: at real-time
      speed (RTS) and at slowed-down speed (SDS) using the software Logiral. We scored
      the boys' verbal cognition performance (ie, ability to understand
      questions/instructions and answer them verbally/nonverbally) and their behavioral
      reactions (ie, attention, verbal/nonverbal communication, social reciprocity),
      and analyzed the effects of speed and order of the stimuli presentation on these
      factors. According to the results, both participants exhibited significant
      improvements in verbal cognition performance with SDS presentation compared with
      RTS presentation, and they scored better with RTS presentation when having SDS
      presentation before rather than after RTS presentation. Behavioral reactions were
      also improved in SDS conditions compared with RTS conditions. This initial
      evidence of a positive impact of slowed-down audiovisual information on verbal
      cognition should be tested in a large cohort of children with ASD and associated
      speech/language impairments.

PMID- 28562249
TI  - Neurodevelopment: The Impact of Nutrition and Inflammation During Early to Middle
      Childhood in Low-Resource Settings.
AB  - The early to middle childhood years are a critical period for child
      neurodevelopment. Nutritional deficiencies, infection, and inflammation are major
      contributors to impaired child neurodevelopment in these years, particularly in
      low-resource settings. This review identifies global research priorities relating
      to nutrition, infection, and inflammation in early to middle childhood
      neurodevelopment. The research priority areas identified include: (1) assessment
      of how nutrition, infection, or inflammation in the preconception, prenatal, and
      infancy periods (or interventions in these periods) affect function in early to
      middle childhood; (2) assessment of whether effects of nutritional interventions
      vary by poverty or inflammation; (3) determination of the feasibility of
      preschool- and school-based integrated nutritional interventions; (4) improved
      assessment of the epidemiology of infection- and inflammation-related
      neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI); (5) identification of mechanisms through
      which infection causes NDI; (6) identification of noninfectious causes of
      inflammation-related NDI and interventions for causes already identified (eg,
      environmental factors); and (7) studies on the effects of interactions between
      nutritional, infectious, and inflammatory factors on neurodevelopment in early to
      middle childhood. Areas of emerging importance that require additional study
      include the effects of maternal Zika virus infection, childhood environmental
      enteropathy, and alterations in the child's microbiome on neurodevelopment in
      early to middle childhood. Research in these key areas will be critical to the
      development of interventions to optimize the neurodevelopmental potential of
      children worldwide in the early to middle childhood years.

PMID- 28562252
TI  - Time From Emergency Department Evaluation to Operation and Appendiceal
      Perforation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In patients with appendicitis, the risk of perforation
      increases with time from onset of symptoms. We sought to determine if time from
      emergency department (ED) physician evaluation until operative intervention is
      independently associated with appendiceal perforation (AP) in children. METHODS:
      We conducted a planned secondary analysis of children aged 3 to 18 years with
      appendicitis enrolled in a prospective, multicenter, cross-sectional study of
      patients with abdominal pain (<96 hours). Time of initial physical examination
      and time of operation were recorded. The presence of AP was determined using
      operative reports. We analyzed whether duration of time from initial ED physician
      evaluation to operation impacted the odds of AP using multivariable logistic
      regression, adjusting for traditionally suggested risk factors that increase the
      risk of perforation. We also modeled the odds of perforation in a subpopulation
      of patients without perforation on computed tomography. RESULTS: Of 955 children
      with appendicitis, 25.9% (n = 247) had AP. The median time from ED physician
      evaluation to operation was 7.2 hours (interquartile range: 4.8-8.5). Adjusting
      for variables associated with perforation, duration of time (<= 24 hours) between
      initial ED evaluation and operation did not significantly increase the odds of AP
      (odds ratio = 1.0, 95% confidence interval, 0.96-1.05), even among children
      without perforation on initial computed tomography (odds ratio = 0.95, 95%
      confidence interval, 0.89-1.02). CONCLUSIONS: Although duration of abdominal pain
      is associated with AP, short time delays from ED evaluation to operation did not
      independently increase the odds of perforation.

PMID- 28562253
TI  - Life-Threatening Pneumopathy and U urealyticum in a STAT3-Deficient Hyper-IgE
      Syndrome Patient.
AB  - A deficiency in signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is
      responsible for autosomal dominant hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome, an
      immunodeficiency syndrome causing Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia,
      Haemophilus influenzae, and, rarely, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus sp
      infections. Currently, intracellular pathogens are not targeted in the management
      of severe infections. The pathophysiologic mechanism of hyperimmunoglobulin E
      syndrome immunodeficiency has recently been linked to a disorder in the T helper
      17 pathway and disruption of the interleukin -23/interleukin-17 axis. We report
      an unusual case of severe pleuropneumopathy by Ureaplasma urealyticum in a
      teenage girl with STAT3-deficient hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome (STAT3 HIES). A
      previous case of severe lung infection by Mycoplasma pneumoniae has already been
      described in a STAT3-deficient patient, but U urealyticum has never been reported
      in patients with STAT3 HIES. After a review of the literature, it seems that the
      specific immunodeficiency pathway of STAT3 HIES exposes STAT3 HIES patients to
      Ureaplasma lung infections because the pathophysiology of STAT3 HIES and
      Ureaplasma is based on STAT3 and T helper 17 cells.

PMID- 28562254
TI  - Intractable Hypoglycemia in the Setting of Autoimmune Overlap Syndrome.
AB  - Evaluation of hypoglycemia in a patient with known diabetes mellitus, although
      usually straightforward, can at times be challenging. We present the case of an 8
      year-old Latina girl initially diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus in the
      setting of multiple autoimmune disorders, including dermatomyositis and lupus
      nephritis. She subsequently developed signs of insulin resistance and severe
      hypoglycemia, which was found to be due to insulin-receptor autoantibodies. This
      condition, known as type B insulin resistance, is a rare, heterogeneous metabolic
      disease that may feature hypoglycemia in the setting of extreme insulin
      resistance and hyperinsulinemia and, in this case, masqueraded as type 1 diabetes
      mellitus. The presence of hypoglycemia in the setting of multiple autoimmune
      disorders should prompt consideration of autoimmune-mediated hypoglycemia. In
      addition to immunologic modifying therapies, advances in diabetes care in the
      form of continuous glucose monitoring have provided an additional tool to manage
      recurrent hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28562255
TI  - Behavioral Problems and Socioemotional Competence at 18 to 22 Months of Extremely
      Premature Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Behavior and socioemotional development are crucial aspects of child
      development . METHODS: A total of 2505 children born at <27 weeks' gestation was
      evaluated at 18 to 22 months' corrected age between January 1, 2008 and December
      12, 2012 (86% follow-up). The Brief Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional
      Assessment was used to evaluate behavioral and socioemotional problems. Cognition
      and language were evaluated by using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler
      Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III). Logistic regression analysis was used to
      evaluate for perinatal and demographic factors associated with behavioral
      problems (>=75th percentile) and delayed socioemotional competence (<=15th
      percentile). Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was used to identify
      possible associated risk factors and Bayley-III scores as mediators. RESULTS:
      Thirty-five percent (873) of children had behavioral problems, and 26% (637)
      displayed deficits in socioemotional competence. Male sex, public insurance,
      mothers with less than a high school education, and lower maternal age were
      associated with behavioral problems. Deficits in competence were associated with
      lower birth weight, public insurance, mothers with less than a high school
      education, and abnormal neuromotor exam. Bayley-III language and cognitive scores
      were significant mediators of the relationships between risk factors and both
      behavioral and competence scores (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Extremely premature
      children are at risk for behavioral problems and deficits in socioemotional
      competence. Sociodemographic factors were associated with both socioemotional
      competence and behavioral problems. Deficits in socioemotional competence were
      also associated with neuromotor abnormalities and cognitive and language
      function.

PMID- 28562256
TI  - Sporadic Insulinoma Presenting as Early Morning Night Terrors.
AB  - A 16-year-old boy with a recent diagnosis of night terrors was evaluated for
      recurrent early morning hypoglycemia after an early morning seizure. Evaluation
      in clinic with critical laboratories identified hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia.
      Additional investigation revealed a sporadic insulinoma as the etiology of his
      hypoglycemia and all symptoms were resolved after pancreaticoduodenectomy. The
      importance of obtaining critical laboratory samples is highlighted and
      appropriate radiologic, medical, and pathologic testing is discussed. We
      additionally review the medical and surgical management of hyperinsulinemic
      hypoglycemia. A discussion of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 associated
      insulinomas is included as well. This case highlights the importance of
      considering hypoglycemia in the evaluation of night terrors and new-onset
      seizures.

PMID- 28562257
TI  - Smoke-Free Legislation in Spain and Prematurity.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Spain implemented a partial smoking ban in 2006
      followed by a comprehensive ban in 2011. The objective was to examine the
      association between these smoke-free policies and different perinatal
      complications. METHODS: Cross-sectional study including all live births between
      2000 and 2013. Selected adverse birth outcomes were: preterm births (<37
      gestational weeks), small for gestational age (SGA; <10th weight percentile
      according to Spanish reference tables), and low birth weight (<2500 g). We
      estimated immediate and gradual rate changes after smoking bans by using
      overdispersed Poisson models with different linear trends for 2000 to 2005
      (preban), 2006 to 2010 (partial ban), and 2011 to 2013 (comprehensive ban).
      Models were adjusted for maternal sociodemographics, health care during the
      delivery, and smoking prevalence during pregnancy. RESULTS: The comprehensive ban
      was associated with preterm birth rate reductions of 4.5% (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 2.9%-6.1%) and 4.1% (95% CI: 2.5%-5.6%) immediately and 1 year
      after implementation, respectively. The low birth weight rate also dropped
      immediately (2.3%; 95% CI: 0.7%-3.8%) and 1 year after the comprehensive ban
      implementation (3.5%; 95% CI: 2.1%-5.0%). There was an immediate reduction in the
      SGA rate at the onset of the partial ban (4.9%; 95% CI: 3.5%-6.2%), which was
      sustained 1 year postimplementation. Although not associated with the
      comprehensive ban at the onset, the SGA rate declined by 1.7% (95% CI: 0.3%-3.1%)
      1 year postimplementation. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of the Spanish smoke
      free policies was associated with a risk reduction for preterm births and low
      birth weight infants, especially with the introduction of the more restrictive
      ban.

PMID- 28562258
TI  - The Impact of Pediatric-Specific Vancomycin Dosing Guidelines: A Quality
      Improvement Initiative.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are limited data guiding vancomycin dosing
      practices in the pediatric population to target the goal troughs recommended by
      national vancomycin guidelines. In this study, we sought to improve adherence to
      guideline trough targets through a quality improvement intervention. METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis was first conducted to assess baseline performance. A
      multidisciplinary team then developed and implemented a standardized dosing
      algorithm recommending 15 mg/kg per dose for mild and moderate infections (goal
      trough: 10-15 ug/mL) and 20 mg/kg per dose for severe infections (goal trough: 15
      20 ug/mL), both delivered every 6 hours (maximum single dose: 750 mg). The impact
      of the intervention was evaluated prospectively using standard statistics and
      quality improvement methodology. The outcome measures included the percentage of
      patients with an initial therapeutic trough and the time to therapeutic trough.
      RESULTS: A total of 116 patients (49 preintervention, 67 postintervention) were
      included. Postintervention, there was a significant increase in the percentage of
      patients with an initial therapeutic trough (6.1% to 20.9%, P = .03) and in the
      percentage of patients with initial troughs between 10 and 20 ug/mL (8.2% to
      40.3%, P < .001). The time to therapeutic trough decreased from 2.78 to 1.56 days
      (P = .001), with the process control chart showing improved control
      postintervention. Vancomycin-related toxicity was unchanged by the intervention
      (6.1% versus 4.5%; P = .70). CONCLUSIONS: Using quality improvement methodology
      with standardized higher initial vancomycin doses, we demonstrated improved
      adherence to national trough guidelines without noted safety detriment.

PMID- 28562260
TI  - Ten-Year Trends in Bullying and Related Attitudes Among 4th- to 12th-Graders.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Bullying is a significant public health concern, and
      it has received considerable attention from the media and policymakers over the
      past decade, which has led some to believe that it is increasing. However, there
      are limited surveillance data on bullying to inform our understanding of such
      trends over the course of multiple years. The current study examined the
      prevalence of bullying and related behaviors between 2005 and 2014 and explored
      whether any such changes varied across schools or as a function of school-level
      covariates. METHODS: Youth self-reports of 13 indicators of bullying and related
      behaviors were collected from 246 306 students in 109 Maryland schools across 10
      years. The data were weighted to reflect the school populations and were analyzed
      by using longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling to examine changes over time.
      RESULTS: The covariate-adjusted models indicated a significant improvement over
      bullying and related concerns in 10 out of 13 indicators (including a decrease in
      bullying and victimization) for in-person forms (ie, physical, verbal,
      relational) and cyberbullying. Results also showed an increase in the perceptions
      that adults do enough to stop bullying and students' feelings of safety and
      belonging at school. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of bullying and related behaviors
      generally decreased over this 10-year period with the most recent years showing
      the greatest improvements in school climate and reductions in bullying.
      Additional research is needed to identify factors that contributed to this
      declining trend.

PMID- 28562259
TI  - Racial and Ethnic Differences in ADHD Treatment Quality Among Medicaid-Enrolled
      Youth.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We estimated racial/ethnic differences in attention
      deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) care quality and treatment continuity among
      Medicaid-enrolled children. METHODS: Using Medicaid data from 9 states (2008 to
      2011), we identified 172 322 youth (age 6 to 12) initiating ADHD medication.
      Outcome measures included: (1) adequate follow-up care in the (a) initiation and
      (b) continuation and maintenance (C&M) treatment phases; (2) combined treatment
      with medication and psychotherapy (versus medication alone); (3) medication
      discontinuation; and (4) treatment disengagement (ie, discontinued medication and
      received no psychotherapy). Logistic regressions controlled for confounding
      measures. RESULTS: Among those initiating medication, three-fifths received
      adequate follow-up care in the initiation and C&M phases, and under two-fifths
      received combined treatment. Compared with whites, African American youth were
      less likely to receive adequate follow-up in either phase (P < .05), whereas
      Hispanic youth were more likely to receive adequate follow-up in the C&M phase (P
      < .001). African American and Hispanic youth were more likely than whites to
      receive combined treatment (P < .05). Over three-fifths discontinued medication,
      and over four-tenths disengaged from treatment. Compared with whites, African
      American and Hispanic children were 22.4% and 16.7% points more likely to
      discontinue medication, and 13.1% and 9.4% points more likely to disengage from
      treatment, respectively (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Care quality for Medicaid
      enrolled youth initiating ADHD medication is poor, and racial/ethnic differences
      in these measures are mixed. The most important disparities occur in the higher
      rates of medication discontinuation among minorities, which translate into higher
      rates of treatment disengagement because most youth discontinuing medication
      receive no psychotherapy.

PMID- 28562261
TI  - Early Puberty, Friendship Group Characteristics, and Dating Abuse in US Girls.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between
      advanced pubertal development and adolescent dating abuse (ADA) and to test if
      this relationship is moderated by friendship group characteristics in a
      nationally representative sample of US girls. METHODS: Data were drawn from wave
      1 and 2 (1995-1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult
      Health. The sample included 3870 girls aged 13 to 17 years, all of whom were in
      romantic and/or nonromantic sexual relationships. Relative pubertal development
      was measured as perceived physical development as compared with peers of the same
      age and race and age at menarche at wave 1. Participants reported at wave 2
      whether they had experienced any verbal or physical abuse in their relationships.
      Friendship group characteristics included the percentage of boy friends, older
      friends, and friends' risk behavior level. RESULTS: Negative binomial regression
      analyses revealed an interaction between advanced pubertal development and
      percentage of boy friends on ADA victimization, adjusted for age, race, parents'
      marital status, household income, number of relationships, self-esteem, self
      control, and antisocial behavior history. Advanced pubertal development was
      associated with more ADA victimization when girls' friendship groups comprised a
      higher percentage of boys. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of
      pubertal timing and friendship group characteristics to ADA victimization. Early
      pubertal development is a risk marker for ADA victimization, particularly when a
      higher percentage of girls' friends are boys. Pediatricians and adolescent health
      specialists should be sensitive to the elevated risk for ADA victimization in
      early-maturing girls.

PMID- 28562262
TI  - Safety Profile of Cough and Cold Medication Use in Pediatrics.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The safety of cough and cold medication (CCM) use in
      children has been questioned. We describe the safety profile of CCMs in children
      <12 years of age from a multisystem surveillance program. METHODS: Cases with
      adverse events (AEs) after ingestion of at least 1 index CCM ingredient
      (brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine,
      doxylamine, guaifenesin, phenylephrine, and pseudoephedrine) in children <12
      years of age were collected from 5 data sources. An expert panel determined
      relatedness, dose, intent, and risk factors. Case characteristics and AEs are
      described. RESULTS: Of the 4202 cases reviewed, 3251 (77.4%) were determined to
      be at least potentially related to a CCM, with accidental unsupervised ingestions
      (67.1%) and medication errors (13.0%) the most common exposure types. Liquid
      (67.3%), pediatric (75.5%), and single-ingredient (77.5%) formulations were most
      commonly involved. AEs occurring in >20% of all cases included tachycardia,
      somnolence, hallucinations, ataxia, mydriasis, and agitation. Twenty cases (0.6%)
      resulted in death; most were in children <2 years of age (70.0%) and none
      involved a therapeutic dose. The overall reported AE rate was 0.573 cases per 1
      million units (ie, tablets, gelatin capsules, or liquid equivalent) sold (95%
      confidence interval, 0.553-0.593) or 1 case per 1.75 million units. CONCLUSIONS:
      The rate of AEs associated with CCMs in children was low. Fatalities occurred
      even less frequently. No fatality involved a therapeutic dose. Accidental
      unsupervised ingestions were the most common exposure types and single
      ingredient, pediatric liquid formulations were the most commonly reported
      products. These characteristics present an opportunity for targeted prevention
      efforts.

PMID- 28562263
TI  - Birth Weight and Intelligence in Young Adulthood and Midlife.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We examined the associations between birth weight and intelligence at
      3 different adult ages. METHODS: The Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort is comprised of
      children born in Copenhagen from 1959 to 1961. Information on birth weight and
      >=1 tests of intelligence was available for 4696 members of the cohort.
      Intelligence was assessed at a mean age of 19 years with the Borge Priens Prove
      test, at age 28 years with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and at age 50
      years with the Intelligenz-Struktur-Test 2000 R. RESULTS: Birth weight was
      significantly associated with intelligence at all 3 follow-up assessments, with
      intelligence scores increasing across 4 birth weight categories and declining for
      the highest birth weight category. The adjusted differences between those in the
      <2.5kg birth weight group and those in the 3.5 to 4.00kg group were >5 IQ points
      at all 3 follow-up assessments, corresponding to one-third of a SD. The
      association was stable from young adulthood into midlife,and not weaker at age 50
      years. Adjustment for potential confounding factors, including infant
      socioeconomic status and gestational age, did not dilute the associations, and
      associations with intelligence were evident across the normal birth weight range
      and so were not accounted for by low birth weight only. CONCLUSIONS: The
      association between birth weight and intelligence is stable from young adulthood
      into midlife. These long-term cognitive consequences may imply that even small
      shifts in the distribution of birth size, in normal-sized infants as well, may
      have a large impact at the population level.

PMID- 28562264
TI  - Adult Consequences of Self-Limited Delayed Puberty.
AB  - Delayed puberty is a common condition defined as the lack of sexual maturation by
      an age >=2 SD above the population mean. In the absence of an identified
      underlying cause, the condition is usually self-limited. Although self-limited
      delayed puberty is largely believed to be a benign developmental variant with no
      long-term consequences, several studies have suggested that delayed puberty may
      in fact have both harmful and protective effects on various adult health
      outcomes. In particular, height and bone mineral density have been shown to be
      compromised in some studies of adults with a history of delayed puberty. Delayed
      puberty may also negatively affect adult psychosocial functioning and educational
      achievement, and individuals with a history of delayed puberty carry a higher
      risk for metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. In contrast, a history of
      delayed puberty appears to be protective for breast and endometrial cancer in
      women and for testicular cancer in men. Most studies on adult outcomes of self
      limited delayed puberty have been in small series with significant variability in
      outcome measures and study criteria. In this article, we review potential medical
      and psychosocial issues for adults with a history of self-limited delayed
      puberty, discuss potential mechanisms underlying these issues, and identify gaps
      in knowledge and directions for future research.

PMID- 28562265
TI  - Trends in Food and Beverage Consumption Among Infants and Toddlers: 2005-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nutritional guidance for infants and toddlers is lacking, and the
      diets of American children in the first 2 years of life are not well
      characterized. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the NHANES were used to
      describe the diets of 0- to 23-month-olds in the United States. Participants with
      complete dietary data were eligible for the analysis (N = 2359). Linear
      regression models were constructed to identify changes from 2005 to 2008 and from
      2009 to 2012 in food and beverage consumption, both overall and within
      sociodemographic groups. RESULTS: We observed several trends toward meeting early
      feeding recommendations, such as a decline in the prevalence of complementary
      feeding among 0- to 5-month-olds. However, the prevalence of vegetable
      consumption was consistently lower than desired (~25% of 6- to 11-month-olds and
      20% of 12- to 23-month-olds had no reported vegetable consumption on dietary
      recall days in the 2009-2012 set). Subgroup analyses revealed that some trends
      were limited to certain populations (eg, a decline in juice consumption was
      observed among 6- to 11-month-old non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks but
      not among Mexican Americans), and additional trends emerged within groups (eg,
      the prevalence of breast milk consumption declined among 0- to 5-month-old
      Mexican Americans). CONCLUSIONS: Although there have been some improvements in
      the diets of 0- to 23-month-olds in recent years, there are areas in which this
      population continues to fall short of current recommendations. This underscores
      the need for additional policy guidance for providers and education for parents
      and caretakers on helping infants and toddlers achieve healthy diets.

PMID- 28562267
TI  - An Initiative to Improve the Quality of Care of Infants With Neonatal Abstinence
      Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a
      constellation of neurologic, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal disturbances
      associated with opioid withdrawal, has increased dramatically and is associated
      with long hospital stays. At our institution, the average length of stay (ALOS)
      for infants exposed to methadone in utero was 22.4 days before the start of our
      project. We aimed to reduce ALOS for infants with NAS by 50%. METHODS: In 2010, a
      multidisciplinary team began several plan-do-study-act cycles at Yale New Haven
      Children's Hospital. Key interventions included standardization of
      nonpharmacologic care coupled with an empowering message to parents, development
      of a novel approach to assessment, administration of morphine on an as-needed
      basis, and transfer of infants directly to the inpatient unit, bypassing the
      NICU. The outcome measures included ALOS, morphine use, and hospital costs using
      statistical process control charts. RESULTS: There were 287 infants in our
      project, including 55 from the baseline period (January 2008 to February 2010)
      and 44 from the postimplementation period (May 2015 to June 2016). ALOS decreased
      from 22.4 to 5.9 days. Proportions of methadone-exposed infants treated with
      morphine decreased from 98% to 14%; costs decreased from $44 824 to $10 289. No
      infants were readmitted for treatment of NAS and no adverse events were reported.
      CONCLUSIONS: Interventions focused on nonpharmacologic therapies and a simplified
      approach to assessment for infants exposed to methadone in utero led to both
      substantial and sustained decreases in ALOS, the proportion of infants treated
      with morphine, and hospital costs with no adverse events.

PMID- 28562268
TI  - Peer Victimization, Depressive Symptoms, and Substance Use: A Longitudinal
      Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peer victimization is common among youth and associated with
      substance use. Yet, few studies have examined these associations longitudinally
      or the psychological processes whereby peer victimization leads to substance use.
      The current study examined whether peer victimization in early adolescence is
      associated with alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use in mid- to late adolescence,
      as well as the role of depressive symptoms in these associations. METHODS:
      Longitudinal data were collected between 2004 and 2011 from 4297 youth in
      Birmingham, Alabama; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles County, California. Data
      were analyzed by using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The hypothesized
      model fit the data well (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = 0.02;
      Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.95). More frequent experiences of peer
      victimization in the fifth grade were associated with greater depressive symptoms
      in the seventh grade (B[SE] = 0.03[0.01]; P < .001), which, in turn, were
      associated with a greater likelihood of alcohol use (B[SE] = 0.03[0.01]; P =
      .003), marijuana use (B[SE] = 0.05[0.01]; P < .001), and tobacco use (B[SE] =
      0.05[0.01]; P < .001) in the tenth grade. Moreover, fifth-grade peer
      victimization was indirectly associated with tenth-grade substance use via the
      mediator of seventh-grade depressive symptoms, including alcohol use (B[SE] =
      0.01[0.01]; P = .006), marijuana use (B[SE] = 0.01[0.01]; P < .001), and tobacco
      use (B[SE] = 0.02[0.01]; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Youth who experienced more
      frequent peer victimization in the fifth grade were more likely to use substances
      in the tenth grade, showing that experiences of peer victimization in early
      adolescence may have a lasting impact by affecting substance use behaviors during
      mid- to late adolescence. Interventions are needed to reduce peer victimization
      among youth and to support youth who have experienced victimization.

PMID- 28562266
TI  - Receptivity to Tobacco Advertising and Susceptibility to Tobacco Products.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Non-cigarette tobacco marketing is less regulated and
      may promote cigarette smoking among adolescents. We quantified receptivity to
      advertising for multiple tobacco products and hypothesized associations with
      susceptibility to cigarette smoking. METHODS: Wave 1 of the nationally
      representative PATH (Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health) study
      interviewed 10 751 adolescents who had never used tobacco. A stratified random
      selection of 5 advertisements for each of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smokeless
      products, and cigars were shown from 959 recent tobacco advertisements. Aided
      recall was classified as low receptivity, and image-liking or favorite ad as
      higher receptivity. The main dependent variable was susceptibility to cigarette
      smoking. RESULTS: Among US youth, 41% of 12 to 13 year olds and half of older
      adolescents were receptive to at least 1 tobacco advertisement. Across each age
      group, receptivity to advertising was highest for e-cigarettes (28%-33%) followed
      by cigarettes (22%-25%), smokeless tobacco (15%-21%), and cigars (8%-13%). E
      cigarette ads shown on television had the highest recall. Among cigarette
      susceptible adolescents, receptivity to e-cigarette advertising (39.7%; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 37.9%-41.6%) was higher than for cigarette advertising
      (31.7%; 95% CI: 29.9%-33.6%). Receptivity to advertising for each tobacco product
      was associated with increased susceptibility to cigarette smoking, with no
      significant difference across products (similar odds for both cigarette and e
      cigarette advertising; adjusted odds ratio = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.09-1.37).
      CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of US adolescent never tobacco users are
      receptive to tobacco advertising, with television advertising for e-cigarettes
      having the highest recall. Receptivity to advertising for each non-cigarette
      tobacco product was associated with susceptibility to smoke cigarettes.

PMID- 28562269
TI  - Ethical Conduct of Research in Children: Pediatricians and Their IRB (Part 2 of
      2).
AB  - In part 1 of this series, we discussed the historical, ethical, and legal
      background that provides justification for the current system of protection of
      subjects of human experimentation. We also discussed briefly the implementation
      of those principles in institutional review board (IRB) operations. In part 2, we
      focus on legislation dealing with pediatric research, the rules and ethics of
      assent, and then turn our attention to minimal-risk studies. To that end, we
      discuss the minimal-risk threshold and the process of balancing benefit and risk
      in IRB decisions for pediatric studies. We define the notion of consent waiver as
      well as the procedures for expedited review, management of adverse events, and
      amendments to approved protocol. Finally, we mention some miscellaneous issues,
      including central and commercial IRB, reliance agreements, biobanks, and sample
      shipping regulations.

PMID- 28562270
TI  - When Should Trainees Call for Help With Invasive Procedures?

PMID- 28562271
TI  - Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Among Child Care Center Directors in 2008 and
      2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children in child care centers represent an important population to
      consider in attempts to mitigate the spread of an influenza pandemic. This
      national survey, conducted in 2008 and 2016, assessed directors' reports of their
      child care centers' pandemic influenza preparation before and after the 2009 H1N1
      novel influenza pandemic. METHODS: This was a telephone-based survey of child
      care center directors randomly selected from a national database of licensed US
      child care centers who were queried about their preparedness for pandemic
      influenza. We grouped conceptually related items in 6 domains into indexes:
      general infection control, communication, seasonal influenza control, use of
      health consultants, quality of child care, and perceived barriers. These indexes,
      along with other center and director characteristics, were used to predict
      pandemic influenza preparedness. RESULTS: Among 1500 and 518 child care center
      directors surveyed in 2008 and 2016, respectively, preparation for pandemic
      influenza was low and did not improve. Only 7% of directors had taken concrete
      actions to prepare their centers. Having served as a center director during the
      2009 influenza pandemic did not influence preparedness. After adjusting for
      covariates, child care health consultation and years of director's experience
      were positively associated with pandemic influenza preparation, whereas
      experiencing perceived barriers such as lack of knowing what to do in the event
      of pandemic influenza, was negatively associated with pandemic influenza
      preparedness. CONCLUSIONS: Pandemic influenza preparedness of child care center's
      directors needs to improve. Child care health consultants are likely to be
      important collaborators in addressing this problem.

PMID- 28562272
TI  - Racial and Ethnic Trends in Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths: United States, 1995
      2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Immediately after the 1994 Back-to-Sleep campaign,
      sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) rates decreased dramatically, but they have
      remained relatively stable (93.4 per 100 000 live births) since 2000. In this
      study, we examined trends in SUID rates and disparities by race/ethnicity since
      the Back-to-Sleep campaign. METHODS: We used 1995-2013 US period-linked birth
      infant death data to evaluate SUID rates per 100 000 live births by non-Hispanic
      white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native,
      and Asian/Pacific Islander racial/ethnic groupings. To examine racial/ethnic
      disparities, we calculated rate ratios with NHWs as the referent group.
      Unadjusted linear regression was used to evaluate trends (P < .05) in rates and
      rate ratios. The distribution and rates of SUID by demographic and birth
      characteristics were compared for 1995-1997 and 2011-2013, and chi2 tests were
      used to evaluate significance. RESULTS: From 1995 to 2013, SUID rates were
      consistently highest for American Indian/Alaska Natives, followed by NHBs. The
      rate for NHBs decreased significantly, whereas the rate for NHWs also declined,
      but not significantly. As a result, the disparity between NHWs and NHBs narrowed
      slightly. The SUID rates for Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders were lower
      than the rates for NHWs and showed a significant decrease, resulting in an
      increase in their advantage over NHWs. CONCLUSIONS: Each racial/ethnic group
      showed a unique trend in SUID rates since the Back-to-Sleep campaign. When
      implementing risk-reduction strategies, it is important to consider these trends
      in targeting populations for prevention and developing culturally appropriate
      approaches for racial/ethnic communities.

PMID- 28562273
TI  - Supporting Global Health at the Pediatric Department Level: Why and How.

PMID- 28562274
TI  - Ethical Controversy About Hysterectomy for a Minor.
AB  - One of the most complicated ethical issues that arises in children's hospitals
      today is the issue of whether it is ever permissible to perform a procedure for a
      minor that will result in permanent sterilization. In most cases, the answer is
      no. The availability of good, safe, long-acting contraception allows surgical
      options to be postponed when the primary goal of such surgical options is to
      prevent pregnancy. But what if a minor has congenital urogenital anomalies or
      other medical conditions for which the best treatment is a hysterectomy? In those
      cases, the primary goal of therapy is not to prevent pregnancy. Instead,
      sterility is an unfortunate side effect of a medically indicated treatment.
      Should that side effect preclude the provision of a therapy that is otherwise
      medically appropriate? We present a case that raises these issues, and asked
      experts in law, bioethics, community advocacy, and gynecology to respond. They
      discuss whether the best option is to proceed with the surgery or to cautiously
      delay making a decision to give the teenager more time to carefully consider all
      of the options.

PMID- 28562275
TI  - Frequent Binge Drinking Among US Adolescents, 1991 to 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Scientific understanding of the forces involved in the
      decades-long decline of adolescent alcohol use in the United States is limited.
      This study examines specific changes in US adolescent frequent binge drinking
      (FBD) by age (variation due to maturation), period (variation across time that
      does not covary across age), and cohort (variation common to adolescents born
      around the same time). METHODS: We analyzed nationally representative,
      multicohort data from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students sampled between 1991 and
      2015 from Monitoring the Future (n = 1 065 022) to estimate age, period, and
      cohort effects on adolescents' FBD (defined as >=2 occasions of >=5 drinks in a
      row during the past 2 weeks). Age-Period-Cohort analyses were stratified by sex,
      race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES). Trends in the associations
      between demographics and FBD across historical time were examined. RESULTS:
      Decreases in FBD during adolescence were attributable to period and cohort
      effects independent of age variations. Birth cohorts between 1985 and 1990 showed
      the greatest decline in FBD. The Age-Period-Cohort results were consistent across
      sex, race/ethnicity, and SES, with the exception of slower declines seen among
      African American adolescents compared with white adolescents since 2007. We also
      found convergence in FBD by sex and divergence by SES. CONCLUSIONS: Recent
      declines in adolescent FBD have been driven by period and cohort effects.
      Attention is warranted for the slower declines in FBD seen among African American
      adolescents since 2007, a narrowing difference by sex, and a growing gap by SES.

PMID- 28562276
TI  - Childhood Social Disadvantage and Pubertal Timing: A National Birth Cohort From
      Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Early pubertal timing is linked with a range of
      adverse health outcomes later. Given recent trends of earlier pubertal
      maturation, there is growing interest in the factors influencing pubertal timing.
      Socioeconomic disadvantage has been previously linked with reproductive
      strategies later in life. In this study, we aim to determine the association
      between cumulative social disadvantages in early life and early puberty in a
      population-based birth cohort. METHODS: Data are from the B (baby) cohort of The
      Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Children (n  =  5107) were aged 0 to 1
      years when recruited in 2004 and 10 to 11 years (n  =  3764) at Wave 6 in 2015.
      Household socioeconomic position (SEP) and neighborhood socioeconomic
      disadvantage were collected at all 6 waves. Trajectories of disadvantage were
      identified through latent class models. Early puberty at Wave 6 was assessed from
      parental reports using an adaptation of the Pubertal Development Scale. RESULTS:
      Cumulative exposure to extremely unfavorable household SEP in boys independently
      predicted a fourfold increase (odds ratio = 4.22, 95% confidence interval 2.27
      7.86) in the rate of early puberty. In girls, the increase was twofold (odds
      ratio = 1.96, 95% confidence interval 1.08-3.56). We found no effect from
      neighborhood disadvantage once family SEP was taken into account. CONCLUSIONS:
      Cumulative exposure to household socioeconomic disadvantage in early life
      predicts earlier pubertal timing in both boys and girls. This may represent 1
      mechanism underpinning associations between early life disadvantage and poor
      health in later life.

PMID- 28562277
TI  - Reducing Hospitalization Rates for Children With Anaphylaxis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Most children with anaphylaxis in the emergency
      department (ED) are hospitalized. Opportunities exist to safely reduce the
      hospitalization rate for children with anaphylaxis by decreasing unnecessary
      hospitalizations. A quality improvement (QI) intervention was conducted to
      improve care and reduce hospitalization rates for children with anaphylaxis.
      METHODS: We used the Model for Improvement and began with development and
      implementation in 2011 of a locally developed evidence-based guideline based on
      national recommendations for the management of anaphylaxis. Guideline adoption
      and adherence were supported by interval reminders and feedback to providers.
      Patients from 2008 to 2014 diagnosed with anaphylaxis were identified, and
      statistical process control methods were used to evaluate change in
      hospitalization rates over time. The balancing measure was any return visit to
      the ED within 72 hours. To control for secular trends, hospitalization rates for
      anaphylaxis at 34 US children's hospitals over the same time period were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Over the study period, there were 1169 visits for children
      with anaphylaxis, of which 731 (62%) occurred after the QI implementation. The
      proportion of children hospitalized decreased from 54% to 36%, with no increase
      in the 72-hour ED revisit rate. The hospitalization rate across 34 other US
      pediatric hospitals remained static at 52% over the study period. CONCLUSIONS: We
      safely reduced unnecessary hospitalizations for children with anaphylaxis and
      sustained the change over 3 years by using a QI initiative that included evidence
      based guideline development and implementation, reinforced by provider reminders
      and structured feedback.

PMID- 28562279
TI  - Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Asthma Interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Researchers often struggle with the gap between
      efficacy and effectiveness in clinical research. To bridge this gap, the
      Community Healthcare for Asthma Management and Prevention of Symptoms (CHAMPS)
      study adapted an efficacious, randomized controlled trial that resulted in
      evidence-based asthma interventions in community health centers. METHODS:
      Children (aged 5-12 years; N = 590) with moderate to severe asthma were enrolled
      from 3 intervention and 3 geographically/capacity-matched control sites in high
      risk, low-income communities located in Arizona, Michigan, and Puerto Rico. The
      asthma intervention was tailored to the participant's allergen sensitivity and
      exposure, and it comprised 4 visits over the course of 1 year. Study visits were
      documented and monitored prospectively via electronic data capture. Asthma
      symptoms and health care utilization were evaluated at baseline, and at 6 and 12
      months. RESULTS: A total of 314 intervention children and 276 control children
      were enrolled in the study. Allergen sensitivity testing (96%) and home
      environmental assessments (89%) were performed on the majority of intervention
      children. Overall study activity completion (eg, intervention visits, clinical
      assessments) was 70%. Overall and individual site participant symptom days in the
      previous 4 weeks were significantly reduced compared with control findings
      (control, change of -2.28; intervention, change of -3.27; difference, -0.99; P <
      .001), and this result was consistent with changes found in the rigorous evidence
      based interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence-based interventions can be
      successfully adapted into primary care settings that serve impoverished, high
      risk populations, reducing the morbidity of asthma in these high-need
      populations.

PMID- 28562278
TI  - Maternal Use of Opioids During Pregnancy and Congenital Malformations: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Opioid use and abuse have increased dramatically in recent years,
      particularly among women. OBJECTIVES: We conducted a systematic review to
      evaluate the association between prenatal opioid use and congenital
      malformations. DATA SOURCES: We searched Medline and Embase for studies published
      from 1946 to 2016 and reviewed reference lists to identify additional relevant
      studies. STUDY SELECTION: We included studies that were full-text journal
      articles and reported the results of original epidemiologic research on prenatal
      opioid exposure and congenital malformations. We assessed study eligibility in
      multiple phases using a standardized, duplicate review process. DATA EXTRACTION:
      Data on study characteristics, opioid exposure, timing of exposure during
      pregnancy, congenital malformations (collectively or as individual subtypes),
      length of follow-up, and main findings were extracted from eligible studies.
      RESULTS: Of the 68 studies that met our inclusion criteria, 46 had an unexposed
      comparison group; of those, 30 performed statistical tests to measure
      associations between maternal opioid use during pregnancy and congenital
      malformations. Seventeen of these (10 of 12 case-control and 7 of 18 cohort
      studies) documented statistically significant positive associations. Among the
      case-control studies, associations with oral clefts and ventricular septal
      defects/atrial septal defects were the most frequently reported specific
      malformations. Among the cohort studies, clubfoot was the most frequently
      reported specific malformation. LIMITATIONS: Variabilities in study design, poor
      study quality, and weaknesses with outcome and exposure measurement. CONCLUSIONS:
      Uncertainty remains regarding the teratogenicity of opioids; a careful assessment
      of risks and benefits is warranted when considering opioid treatment for women of
      reproductive age.

PMID- 28562280
TI  - The Benefits of New Guidelines to Prevent Peanut Allergy.

PMID- 28562281
TI  - Herbal Medicines for Gastrointestinal Disorders in Children and Adolescents: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Gastrointestinal disorders are common childhood complaints. Particular
      types of complementary and alternative medicine, such as herbal medicine, are
      commonly used among children. Research information on efficacy, safety, or dosage
      forms is still lacking. OBJECTIVES: To systematically summarize effectiveness and
      safety of different herbal treatment options for gastrointestinal disorders in
      children. DATA SOURCES: Medline/PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library were
      searched through July 15, 2016. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials
      comparing herbal therapy with no treatment, placebo, or any pharmaceutical
      medication in children and adolescents (aged 0-18 years) with gastrointestinal
      disorders were eligible. DATA EXTRACTION: Two authors extracted data on study
      design, patients, interventions, control interventions, results, adverse events,
      and risk of bias. RESULTS: Fourteen trials with 1927 participants suffering from
      different acute and functional gastrointestinal disorders were included in this
      review. Promising evidence for effectiveness was found for Potentilla erecta,
      carob bean juice, and an herbal compound preparation including Matricaria
      chamomilla in treating diarrhea. Moreover, evidence was found for peppermint oil
      in decreasing duration, frequency, and severity of pain in children suffering
      from undifferentiated functional abdominal pain. Furthermore, evidence for
      effectiveness was found for different fennel preparations (eg, oil, tea, herbal
      compound) in treating children with infantile colic. No serious adverse events
      were reported. LIMITATIONS: Few studies on specific indications, single herbs, or
      herbal preparations could be identified. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the limited
      number of studies, results have to be interpreted carefully. To underpin evidence
      outlined in this review, more rigorous clinical trials are needed.

PMID- 28562282
TI  - Aspirin Dose and Prevention of Coronary Abnormalities in Kawasaki Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is part of the recommended treatment of
      Kawasaki disease (KD). Controversies remain regarding the optimal dose of ASA to
      be used. We aimed to evaluate the noninferiority of ASA at an antiplatelet dose
      in acute KD in preventing coronary artery (CA) abnormalities. METHODS: This is a
      multicenter, retrospective, nonrandomized cohort study including children 0 to 10
      years of age with acute KD between 2004 and 2015 from 5 institutions, of which 2
      routinely use low-dose ASA (3-5 mg/kg per day) and 3 use high-dose ASA (80 mg/kg
      per day). Outcomes were CA abnormalities defined as a CA diameter with a z score
      >=2.5. We assessed the risk difference of CA abnormalities according to ASA dose.
      All subjects received ASA and intravenous immunoglobulin within 10 days of fever
      onset. RESULTS: There were 1213 subjects included, 848 in the high-dose and 365
      in the low-dose ASA group. There was no difference in the risk of CA
      abnormalities in the low-dose compared with the high-dose ASA group (22.2% vs
      20.5%). The risk difference adjusted for potential confounders was 0.3% (95%
      confidence interval [CI]: -4.5% to 5.0%). The adjusted risk difference for CA
      abnormalities persisting at the 6-week follow-up was -1.9% (95% CI: -5.3% to
      1.5%). The 95% CI of the risk difference of CA abnormalities adjusted for
      confounders was within the prespecified 5% margin considered to be noninferior.
      CONCLUSIONS: In conjunction with intravenous immunoglobulin, low-dose ASA in
      acute KD is not inferior to high-dose ASA for reducing the risk of CA
      abnormalities.

PMID- 28562283
TI  - Effectiveness of Tympanostomy Tubes for Otitis Media: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - CONTEXT: Tympanostomy tube placement is the most common ambulatory surgery
      performed on children in the United States. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study
      was to synthesize evidence for the effectiveness of tympanostomy tubes in
      children with chronic otitis media with effusion and recurrent acute otitis
      media. DATA SOURCES: Searches were conducted in Medline, the Cochrane Central
      Trials Registry and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase, and the
      Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. STUDY SELECTION:
      Abstracts and full-text articles were independently screened by 2 investigators.
      DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 147 articles were included. When feasible, random
      effects network meta-analyses were performed. RESULTS: Children with chronic
      otitis media with effusion treated with tympanostomy tubes compared with watchful
      waiting had a net decrease in mean hearing threshold of 9.1 dB (95% credible
      interval: -14.0 to -3.4) at 1 to 3 months and 0.0 (95% credible interval: -4.0 to
      3.4) by 12 to 24 months. Children with recurrent acute otitis media may have
      fewer episodes after placement of tympanostomy tubes. Associated adverse events
      are poorly defined and reported. LIMITATIONS: Sparse evidence is available,
      applicable only to otherwise healthy children. CONCLUSIONS: Tympanostomy tubes
      improve hearing at 1 to 3 months compared with watchful waiting, with no evidence
      of benefit by 12 to 24 months. Children with recurrent acute otitis media may
      have fewer episodes after tympanostomy tube placement, but the evidence base is
      severely limited. The benefits of tympanostomy tubes must be weighed against a
      variety of associated adverse events.

PMID- 28562285
TI  - Navigating Decisional Discord: The Pediatrician's Role When Child and Parents
      Disagree.
AB  - From the time when children enter the preteen years onward, pediatric medical
      decision-making can entail a complex interaction between child, parents, and
      pediatrician. When the child and parents disagree regarding medical decisions,
      the pediatrician has the challenging task of guiding the family to a final
      decision. Unresolved discord can affect family cohesiveness, patient adherence,
      and patient self-management. In this article, we outline 3 models for the
      pediatrician's role in the setting of decisional discord: deference, advocative,
      and arbitrative. In the deference model, the pediatrician prioritizes parental
      decision-making authority. In the advocative model, the pediatrician advocates
      for the child's preference in decision-making so long as the child's decision is
      medically reasonable. In the arbitrative model, the pediatrician works to resolve
      the conflict in a balanced fashion. Although each model has advantages and
      disadvantages, the arbitrative model should serve as the initial model in nearly
      all settings. The arbitrative model is likely to reach the most beneficial
      decision in a manner that maintains family cohesiveness by respecting the
      authority of parents and the developing autonomy of children. We also highlight,
      however, occasions when the deference or advocative models may be more
      appropriate. Physicians should keep all 3 models available in their professional
      toolkit and develop the wisdom to deploy the right model for each particular
      clinical situation.

PMID- 28562284
TI  - Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia in
      Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia is
      associated with high rates of treatment failure in adults. The epidemiology,
      clinical outcomes, and risk factors for treatment failure associated with MRSA
      bacteremia in children are poorly understood. METHODS: Multicenter, retrospective
      cohort study of children <=18 years hospitalized with MRSA bacteremia across 3
      tertiary care children's hospitals from 2007 to 2014. Treatment failure was
      defined as persistent bacteremia >3 days, recurrence of bacteremia within 30
      days, or attributable 30-day mortality. Potential risk factors for treatment
      failure, including the site of infection, vancomycin trough concentration,
      critical illness, and need for source control, were collected via manual chart
      review and evaluated using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 232
      episodes of MRSA bacteremia, 72 (31%) experienced treatment failure and 23%
      developed complications, whereas 5 (2%) died within 30 days. Multivariable
      analysis of 174 children treated with vancomycin with steady-state vancomycin
      concentrations obtained found that catheter-related infections (odds ratio [OR],
      0.36; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.13-0.94) and endovascular infections (OR,
      4.35; 95% CI: 1.07-17.7) were associated with lower and higher odds of treatment
      failure, respectively, whereas a first vancomycin serum trough concentration <10
      MUg/mL was not associated with treatment failure (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.49-3.66).
      Each additional day of bacteremia was associated with a 50% (95% CI: 26%-79%)
      increased odds of bacteremia-related complications. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized
      children with MRSA bacteremia frequently suffered treatment failure and
      complications, but mortality was low. The odds of bacteremia-related
      complications increased with each additional day of bacteremia, emphasizing the
      importance of achieving rapid sterilization.

PMID- 28562287
TI  - Interventions Targeting Sensory Challenges in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Sensory challenges are common among children with autism spectrum
      disorder (ASD). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of
      interventions targeting sensory challenges in ASD. DATA SOURCES: Databases,
      including Medline and PsycINFO. STUDY SELECTION: Two investigators independently
      screened studies against predetermined criteria. DATA EXTRACTION: One
      investigator extracted data with review by a second. Investigators independently
      assessed risk of bias and strength of evidence (SOE), or confidence in the
      estimate of effects. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies, including 20 randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs), were included. Only 3 studies had low risk of bias.
      Populations, interventions, and outcomes varied. Limited, short-term studies
      reported potential positive effects of several approaches in discrete skill
      domains. Specifically, sensory integration-based approaches improved sensory and
      motor skills-related measures (low SOE). Environmental enrichment improved
      nonverbal cognitive skills (low SOE). Studies of auditory integration-based
      approaches did not improve language (low SOE). Massage improved symptom severity
      and sensory challenges in studies with likely overlapping participants (low SOE).
      Music therapy studies evaluated different protocols and outcomes, precluding
      synthesis (insufficient SOE). Some positive effects were reported for other
      approaches, but findings were inconsistent (insufficient SOE). LIMITATIONS:
      Studies were small and short-term, and few fully categorized populations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Some interventions may yield modest short-term (<6 months)
      improvements in sensory- and ASD symptom severity-related outcomes; the evidence
      base is small, and the durability of the effects is unclear. Although some
      therapies may hold promise, substantial needs exist for continuing improvements
      in methodologic rigor.

PMID- 28562286
TI  - Nutritional and Dietary Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently use special
      diets or receive nutritional supplements to treat ASD symptoms. OBJECTIVES: Our
      objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of dietary interventions
      or nutritional supplements in ASD. DATA SOURCES: Databases, including Medline and
      PsycINFO. STUDY SELECTION: Two investigators independently screened studies
      against predetermined criteria. DATA EXTRACTION: One investigator extracted data
      with review by a second investigator. Investigators independently assessed the
      risk of bias and strength of evidence (SOE) (ie, confidence in the estimate of
      effects). RESULTS: Nineteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 4 with a low
      risk of bias, evaluated supplements or variations of the gluten/casein-free diet
      and other dietary approaches. Populations, interventions, and outcomes varied.
      Omega-3 supplementation did not affect challenging behaviors and was associated
      with minimal harms (low SOE). Two RCTs of different digestive enzymes reported
      mixed effects on symptom severity (insufficient SOE). Studies of other
      supplements (methyl B12, levocarnitine) reported some improvements in symptom
      severity (insufficient SOE). Studies evaluating gluten/casein-free diets reported
      some parent-rated improvements in communication and challenging behaviors;
      however, data were inadequate to make conclusions about the body of evidence
      (insufficient SOE). Studies of gluten- or casein-containing challenge foods
      reported no effects on behavior or gastrointestinal symptoms with challenge foods
      (insufficient SOE); 1 RCT reported no effects of camel's milk on ASD severity
      (insufficient SOE). Harms were disparate. LIMITATIONS: Studies were small and
      short-term, and there were few fully categorized populations or concomitant
      interventions. CONCLUSIONS: There is little evidence to support the use of
      nutritional supplements or dietary therapies for children with ASD.

PMID- 28562288
TI  - Tackling Bullying: Grounds for Encouragement and Sustained Focus.

PMID- 28562289
TI  - Prevention and Treatment of Tympanostomy Tube Otorrhea: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - CONTEXT: Children with tympanostomy tubes often develop ear discharge. OBJECTIVE:
      Synthesize evidence about the need for water precautions (ear plugs or swimming
      avoidance) and effectiveness of topical versus oral antibiotic treatment of
      otorrhea in children with tympanostomy tubes. DATA SOURCES: Searches in Medline,
      the Cochrane Central Trials Registry and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,
      Excerpta Medica Database, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health
      Literature. STUDY SELECTION: Abstracts and full-text articles independently
      screened by 2 investigators. DATA EXTRACTION: 25 articles were included. RESULTS:
      One randomized controlled trial (RCT) in children assigned to use ear plugs
      versus no precautions reported an odds ratio (OR) of 0.68 (95% confidence
      interval, 0.37-1.25) for >1 episode of otorrhea. Another RCT reported an OR of
      0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.29-1.76) for nonswimmers versus swimmers.
      Network meta-analyses suggest that, relative to oral antibiotics, topical
      antibiotic-glucocorticoid drops were more effective: OR 5.3 (95% credible
      interval, 1.2-27). The OR for antibiotic-only drops was 3.3 (95% credible
      interval, 0.74-16). Overall, the topical antibiotic-glucocorticoid and antibiotic
      only preparations have the highest probabilities, 0.77 and 0.22 respectively, of
      being the most effective therapies. LIMITATIONS: Sparse randomized evidence (2
      RCTs) and high risk of bias for nonrandomized comparative studies evaluating
      water precautions. Otorrhea treatments include non-US Food and Drug
      Administration approved, off-label, and potentially ototoxic antibiotics.
      CONCLUSIONS: No compelling evidence of a need for water precautions exists. Cure
      rates are higher for topical drops than oral antibiotics.

PMID- 28562290
TI  - Lessons From the 2013 Boston Marathon: Incorporating Residents Into Institutional
      Emergency Plans.

PMID- 28562291
TI  - Questions Remain Regarding the Effectiveness of Many Commonly Used Autism
      Treatments.

PMID- 28562292
TI  - The Road to Tolerance and Understanding.

PMID- 28562294
TI  - Lessons Learned From Australia: Social Disadvantage and Pubertal Timing.

PMID- 28562293
TI  - More Evidence Linking Smoke-Free Legislation and Lower Risk of Prematurity and
      Low Birth Weight.

PMID- 28562295
TI  - Noncigarette Tobacco Advertising May Be Hazardous to a Teen's Health.

PMID- 28562296
TI  - Race, Ethnicity, and SIDS.

PMID- 28562297
TI  - Adolescent Frequent Heavy Drinking From 1991-2015.

PMID- 28562298
TI  - Shared Decision-Making and Children With Disabilities: Pathways to Consensus.
AB  - Shared decision-making (SDM) promotes family and clinician collaboration, with
      ultimate goals of improved health and satisfaction. This clinical report provides
      a basis for a systematic approach to the implementation of SDM by clinicians for
      children with disabilities. Often in the discussion of treatment plans, there are
      gaps between the child's/family's values, priorities, and understanding of
      perceived "best choices" and those of the clinician. When conducted well, SDM
      affords an appropriate balance incorporating voices of all stakeholders,
      ultimately supporting both the child/family and clinician. With increasing
      knowledge of and functional use of SDM skills, the clinician will become an
      effective partner in the decision-making process with families, providing family
      centered care. The outcome of the process will support the beneficence of the
      physician, the authority of the family, and the autonomy and well-being of the
      child.

PMID- 28562299
TI  - Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping After Birth.

PMID- 28562300
TI  - Fruit Juice in Infants, Children, and Adolescents: Current Recommendations.
AB  - Historically, fruit juice was recommended by pediatricians as a source of vitamin
      C and as an extra source of water for healthy infants and young children as their
      diets expanded to include solid foods with higher renal solute load. It was also
      sometimes recommended for children with constipation. Fruit juice is marketed as
      a healthy, natural source of vitamins and, in some instances, calcium. Because
      juice tastes good, children readily accept it. Although juice consumption has
      some benefits, it also has potential detrimental effects. High sugar content in
      juice contributes to increased calorie consumption and the risk of dental caries.
      In addition, the lack of protein and fiber in juice can predispose to
      inappropriate weight gain (too much or too little). Pediatricians need to be
      knowledgeable about juice to inform parents and patients on its appropriate uses.

PMID- 28562301
TI  - Pain Assessment and Treatment in Children With Significant Impairment of the
      Central Nervous System.
AB  - Pain is a frequent and significant problem for children with impairment of the
      central nervous system, with the highest frequency and severity occurring in
      children with the greatest impairment. Despite the significance of the problem,
      this population remains vulnerable to underrecognition and undertreatment of
      pain. Barriers to treatment may include uncertainty in identifying pain along
      with limited experience and fear with the use of medications for pain treatment.
      Behavioral pain-assessment tools are reviewed in this clinical report, along with
      other strategies for monitoring pain after an intervention. Sources of pain in
      this population include acute-onset pain attributable to tissue injury or
      inflammation resulting in nociceptive pain, with pain then expected to resolve
      after treatment directed at the source. Other sources can result in chronic
      intermittent pain that, for many, occurs on a weekly to daily basis, commonly
      attributed to gastroesophageal reflux, spasticity, and hip subluxation. Most
      challenging are pain sources attributable to the impaired central nervous system,
      requiring empirical medication trials directed at causes that cannot be
      identified by diagnostic tests, such as central neuropathic pain. Interventions
      reviewed include integrative therapies and medications, such as gabapentinoids,
      tricyclic antidepressants, alpha-agonists, and opioids. This clinical report aims
      to address, with evidence-based guidance, the inherent challenges with the goal
      to improve comfort throughout life in this vulnerable group of children.

PMID- 28562302
TI  - Trends in Patent Ductus Arteriosus Diagnosis and Management for Very Low Birth
      Weight Infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine yearly trends of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) diagnosis
      and treatment in very low birth weight infants. METHODS: In this retrospective
      cohort study of very low birth weight infants (<1500 g) between 2008 and 2014
      across 134 California hospitals, we evaluated PDA diagnosis and treatment by year
      of birth. Infants were either inborn or transferred in within 2 days after
      delivery and had no congenital abnormalities. Intervention levels for treatment
      administered to achieve ductal closure were categorized as none, pharmacologic
      (indomethacin or ibuprofen), both pharmacologic intervention and surgical
      ligation, or ligation only. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess
      risk factors for PDA diagnosis and treatment. RESULTS: PDA was diagnosed in 42.8%
      (12 002/28 025) of infants, with a decrease in incidence from 49.2% of 4205
      infants born in 2008 to 38.5% of 4001 infants born in 2014. Pharmacologic and/or
      surgical treatment was given to 30.5% of patients. Between 2008 and 2014, the
      annual rate of infants who received pharmacologic intervention (30.5% vs 15.7%)
      or both pharmacologic intervention and surgical ligation (6.9% vs 2.9%) decreased
      whereas infants who were not treated (60.5% vs 78.3%) or received primary
      ligation (2.2% vs 3.0%) increased. CONCLUSIONS: There is an increasing trend
      toward not treating patients diagnosed with PDA compared with more intensive
      treatments: pharmacologic intervention or both pharmacologic intervention and
      surgical ligation. Possible directions for future study include the impact of
      these trends on hospital-based and long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28562305
TI  - Innovative Health Care Financing Strategies for Children and Youth With Special
      Health Care Needs.

PMID- 28562303
TI  - Maternal and Perinatal Exposures Are Associated With Risk for Pediatric-Onset
      Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if prenatal, pregnancy, or postpartum-related
      environmental factors are associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) risk in
      children. METHODS: This is a case-control study of children with MS or clinically
      isolated syndrome and healthy controls enrolled at 16 clinics participating in
      the US Network of Pediatric MS Centers. Parents completed a comprehensive
      environmental questionnaire, including the capture of pregnancy and perinatal
      factors. Case status was confirmed by a panel of 3 pediatric MS specialists.
      Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine association of
      these environmental factors with case status, adjusting for age, sex, race,
      ethnicity, US birth region, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Questionnaire
      responses were available for 265 eligible cases (median age 15.7 years, 62%
      girls) and 412 healthy controls (median age 14.6, 54% girls). In the primary
      multivariable analysis, maternal illness during pregnancy was associated with 2.3
      fold increase in odds to have MS (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-4.21, P =
      .01) and cesarean delivery with 60% reduction (95% CI 0.20-0.82, P = .01). In a
      model adjusted for these variables, maternal age and BMI, tobacco smoke exposure,
      and breastfeeding were not associated with odds to have MS. In the secondary
      analyses, after adjustment for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic
      status, having a father who worked in a gardening-related occupation (odds ratio
      [OR] 2.18, 95% CI 1.14-4.16, P = .02) or any use in household of pesticide
      related products (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.06-2.81, P = .03) were both associated with
      increased odds to have pediatric MS. CONCLUSION: Cesarean delivery and maternal
      health during pregnancy may influence risk for pediatric-onset MS. We report a
      new possible association of pesticide-related environmental exposures with
      pediatric MS that warrants further investigation and replication.

PMID- 28562306
TI  - Statement of the Problem: Health Reform, Value-Based Purchasing, Alternative
      Payment Strategies, and Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs.
AB  - There is increasing interest in maximizing health care purchasing value by
      emphasizing strategies that promote cost-effectiveness while achieving optimal
      health outcomes. These value-based purchasing (VBP) strategies have largely
      focused on adult health, and little is known about the impact of VBP program
      development and implementation on children, especially children and youth with
      special health care needs (CYSHCN). With the increasing emphasis on VBP,
      policymakers must critically analyze the potential impact of VBP for CYSCHN,
      because this group of children, by definition, uses more health care services
      than other children and inevitably incurs higher per person costs. We provide a
      history and definition of VBP and insurance design, noting its origin in employer
      sponsored health insurance, and discuss various financing and payment strategies
      that may be pursued under a VBP framework. The relevance of these approaches for
      CYSHCN is discussed, and recommendations for next steps are provided. There is
      considerable work to be done if VBP strategies are to be applied to CYSHCN.
      Issues include the low prevalence of specific special health care need
      conditions, how to factor in a life course perspective, in which investments in
      children's health pay off over a long period of time, the marginal savings that
      may or may not accrue, the increased risk of family financial hardship, and the
      potential to exacerbate existing inequities across race, class, ethnicity,
      functional status, and other social determinants of health.

PMID- 28562308
TI  - Partners for Kids Care Coordination: Lessons From the Field.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this trial was to present a case study of care
      coordination for children and youth with special health care needs from an
      exclusively pediatric accountable care organization, and compare precare and
      postcare data on their use of inpatient and emergency department services.
      METHODS: This pre-post comparison of the health care utilization included a
      subset of 733 children enrolled in Partners for Kids care coordination funded
      through a delegation arrangement with several Medicaid managed care plans. We
      compared inpatient admissions, hospital bed days, 30-day hospital readmissions,
      and emergency department visits during the 6 months before their enrollment in
      the coordination program versus the 6 months after enrollment. RESULTS:
      Approximately 16 000 referrals to the Partners for Kids care coordination program
      were made for an estimated 12 000 children. A total of 3072 unique individual
      children were enrolled; the most common condition classification was mental,
      behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders (25% of enrolled children). Due to
      rapid turnover/churn in Medicaid managed care eligibility, the subset of children
      with continuous enrollment was limited to 733 children. Among this subset, the
      counts of inpatient admissions, bed days, and 30-day readmissions between the pre
      enrollment and post-enrollment period decreased (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that it is possible for an accountable care organization to
      reduce inpatient and emergency department utilization. Going forward, the most
      important tasks of the care coordination team are to overcome obstacles to
      referral and participation and to develop methods to achieve better measures of
      patient-reported outcomes.

PMID- 28562307
TI  - The Eye of the Beholder: A Discussion of Value and Quality From the Perspective
      of Families of Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs.
AB  - There is broad agreement that increasing the cost-effectiveness and quality of
      health care services, thereby achieving greater value, is imperative given this
      country's current spiraling costs and poor health outcomes. However, how
      individuals or stakeholder groups define value may differ significantly.
      Discussion of value in the context of health care, in particular value-based
      purchasing and value-based insurance design, must acknowledge that there is no
      universal consensus definition as to what constitutes value. To date, the
      consumer perspective has been underrepresented in discussions of value-based
      strategies such as pay for performance, capitated and bundled payments, and high
      deductible health plans, which have been driven primarily by payers and
      providers. This article will discuss 3 elements of value from the perspective of
      families of children and youth with special health care needs: the role of
      families in the delivery of care, consumer perspectives on what constitutes
      quality for children and youth with special health care needs, and health care
      and health care financing literacy, decision-making, and costs. The undervalued
      contributions made by family members in the delivery and oversight of pediatric
      care and the importance of partnering with them to achieve the goals of the
      Triple Aim are stressed. The article closes with a discussion of recommendations
      for a future policy and research agenda related to advancing the integration of
      the consumer perspective into value-based purchasing and value-based insurance
      design.

PMID- 28562309
TI  - Value-Based Insurance Design Pharmacy Benefits for Children and Youth With
      Special Health Care Needs: Principles and Opportunities.
AB  - Value-based insurance design (VBID) represents an innovative approach to health
      insurance coverage. In the context of pharmacy benefits, the goal of VBID is to
      minimize access barriers to the most effective and appropriate treatments for
      specific medical conditions. Both private and public insurance programs have
      explored VBID pharmacy projects primarily for medical conditions affecting
      adults. To date, evidence for VBID pharmacy programs for children and youth with
      special health care needs (CYSHCN) appears lacking. There appears to be potential
      for VBID concepts to be applied to pharmacy coverage benefiting CYSHCN. An
      overview of VBID pharmacy principles and guiding principles are presented.
      Opportunities for the creation of pharmacy programs with a value-based
      orientation and challenges to the redesign of pharmacy benefits are identified.
      VBID pharmacy coverage principles may be helpful to improve medication use and
      important clinical outcomes while lowering barriers to medication use for the
      population of CYSHCN. Pilot projects of VBID pharmacy benefits for children and
      youth should be explored. However, many questions remain.

PMID- 28562310
TI  - Mental Health Services Utilization and Expenditures Among Children Enrolled in
      Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mental illness in children increases the risk of
      developing mental health disorders in adulthood, and reduces physical and
      emotional well-being across the life course. The Mental Health Parity and
      Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA, 2008) aimed to improve access to mental health
      treatment by requiring employer-sponsored health plans to include insurance
      coverage for behavioral health services. METHODS: Investigators used IBM
      Watson/Truven Analytics MarketScan claims data (2007-2013) to examine: (1) the
      distribution of mental illness; (2) trends in utilization and out-of-pocket
      expenditures; and (3) the overall effect of the MHPAEA on mental health services
      utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures among privately-insured children aged
      3 to 17 with mental health disorders. Multivariate Poisson regression and linear
      regression modeling techniques were used. RESULTS: Mental health services use for
      outpatient behavioral health therapy (BHT) was higher in the years after the
      implementation of the MHPAEA (2010-2013). Specifically, before the MHPAEA
      implementation, the annual total visits for BHT provided by mental health
      physicians were 17.1% lower and 2.5% lower for BHT by mental health
      professionals, compared to years when MHPAEA was in effect. Children covered by
      consumer-driven and high-deductible plans had significantly higher out-of-pocket
      expenditures for BHT compared to those enrolled PPOs. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      demonstrate increased mental health services use and higher out-of-pocket costs
      per outpatient visit after implementation of the MHPAEA. As consumer-driven and
      high-deductible health plans continue to grow, enrollees need to be cognizant of
      the impact of health insurance benefit designs on health services offered in
      these plans.

PMID- 28562311
TI  - Refining Our Understanding of Value-Based Insurance Design and High Cost Sharing
      on Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is significant concern about the financial burdens of new
      insurance plan designs on families, particularly families with children and youth
      with special health care needs (CYSHCN). With value-based insurance design (VBID)
      plans growing in popularity, this study examined the implications of selected
      VBID cost-sharing features on children. METHODS: We studied children's health
      care spending patterns in 2 data sets that include high deductible and narrow
      network plans among others. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data from 2007 to
      2013 on 22 392 children were used to study out-of-pocket (OOP) costs according to
      CYSHCN, family income, and spending. MarketScan large employer insurance claims
      data from 2007 to 2014 (N = 4 263 452) were used to test for differences in mean
      total payments and OOP costs across various health plans. RESULTS: Across the
      data sets, we found that existing health plans place significant financial
      burdens on families, particularly lower income households and families with
      CYSHCN; individuals among the top 10% of OOP spending averaged more than $2000
      per child. Although high deductible and consumer-driven plans impose substantial
      OOP costs on children, they do not significantly reduce spending, whereas health
      maintenance organizations that use network restrictions and tighter management
      do. CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not support the conclusion that high cost-sharing
      features that are common in VBID plans will significantly reduce health care
      spending on children.

PMID- 28562312
TI  - A Pediatrician's Perspective: Value-Based Care, Consumerism, and the Practice of
      Pediatrics: A Glimpse of the Future.

PMID- 28562314
TI  - Repurposing ARBs as treatments for breast cancer.

PMID- 28562313
TI  - Friedreich's ataxia induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes display
      electrophysiological abnormalities and calcium handling deficiency.
AB  - We sought to identify the impacts of Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) on
      cardiomyocytes. FRDA is an autosomal recessive degenerative condition with
      neuronal and non-neuronal manifestations, the latter including progressive
      cardiomyopathy of the left ventricle, the leading cause of death in FRDA. Little
      is known about the cellular pathogenesis of FRDA in cardiomyocytes. Induced
      pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were derived from three FRDA individuals with
      characterized GAA repeats. The cells were differentiated into cardiomyocytes to
      assess phenotypes. FRDA iPSC- cardiomyocytes retained low levels of FRATAXIN
      (FXN) mRNA and protein. Electrophysiology revealed an increased variation of FRDA
      cardiomyocyte beating rates which was prevented by addition of nifedipine,
      suggestive of a calcium handling deficiency. Finally, calcium imaging was
      performed and we identified small amplitude, diastolic and systolic calcium
      transients confirming a deficiency in calcium handling. We defined a robust FRDA
      cardiac-specific electrophysiological profile in patient-derived iPSCs which
      could be used for high throughput compound screening. This cell-specific
      signature will contribute to the identification and screening of novel treatments
      for this life-threatening disease.

PMID- 28562316
TI  - Novel therapeutic target against Alzheimer.

PMID- 28562317
TI  - Role of seizure in neonatal stroke.

PMID- 28562318
TI  - Intermittent hypoxia produces Alzheimer disease?

PMID- 28562315
TI  - Aged induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) as a new cellular model for studying
      premature aging.
AB  - Nuclear integrity and mechanical stability of the nuclear envelope (NE) are
      conferred by the nuclear lamina, a meshwork of intermediate filaments composed of
      A- and B-type lamins, supporting the inner nuclear membrane and playing a pivotal
      role in chromatin organization and epigenetic regulation. During cell senescence,
      nuclear alterations also involving NE architecture are widely described. In the
      present study, we utilized induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) upon prolonged
      in vitro culture as a model to study aging and investigated the organization and
      expression pattern of NE major constituents. Confocal and four-dimensional
      imaging combined with molecular analyses, showed that aged iPSCs are
      characterized by nuclear dysmorphisms, nucleoskeletal components (lamin A/C
      prelamin isoforms, lamin B1, emerin, and nesprin-2) imbalance, leading to
      impaired nucleo-cytoplasmic MKL1 shuttling, actin polymerization defects,
      mitochondrial dysfunctions, SIRT7 downregulation and NF-kBp65 hyperactivation.
      The observed age-related NE features of iPSCs closely resemble those reported for
      premature aging syndromes (e.g., Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome) and for
      somatic cell senescence. These findings validate the use of aged iPSCs as a
      suitable cellular model to study senescence and for investigating therapeutic
      strategies aimed to treat premature aging.

PMID- 28562319
TI  - Amyloid-beta breaks brain's neuroprotection.

PMID- 28562320
TI  - ASICs may affect GABAergic synapses.

PMID- 28562321
TI  - Intellectual maturity and longevity: late-blooming composers and writers live
      longer than child prodigies.
AB  - Life history theory links human physical and sexual development to longevity.
      However, there have been no studies on the association of intellectual
      development with longevity. This observational study investigates the
      relationship between the onset of intellectual maturity and lifespan through the
      life histories of composers and creative writers, whose intellectual development
      can be gauged through their compositions and writings. In these groups we model
      the relationship between the age at first creative work, and age at death using
      multilevel regression, adjusting for sex, date of birth, and nationality.
      Historical biographical records on 1110 musical composers and 1182 creative
      writers, born in the period 1400 AD through 1915 AD, were obtained from the
      Oxford Companion to Music and the Oxford Companion to English Literature.
      Composers and creative writers lived, respectively 0.16 (p = 0.02) and 0.18 (p <
      0.01) years longer for each later year of age at first work. When completion of
      the first creative work is interpreted as a proxy for the onset of intellectual
      maturity in composers and creative writers, our findings indicate that a later
      onset of intellectual maturity is associated with higher longevity.

PMID- 28562328
TI  - Stereochemical preference toward oncotarget: Design, synthesis and in vitro
      anticancer evaluation of diastereomeric beta-lactams.
AB  - PURPOSE: In the battle against cancer discovery of new and novel chemotherapeutic
      agent demands extreme obligation. Development of anticancer compounds with higher
      potency and reduced side-effects is timely and challenging. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:
      A small series of fourteen diastereomeric beta-lactams (seven pairs) were
      synthesized through multi-step process exploring [2+2] ketene-imine cycloaddition
      as the key step. Comparative stereochemical preferences were studied through
      computational docking and validated by in vitro evaluation. beta-tubulin was
      considered as possible molecular target and in vitro anticancer evaluation was
      conducted against SiHa, B16F10, K562 and Chang cell lines. Caspase-3 activation
      assay and hematoxylin/eosin staining of the cells were also accomplished.
      RESULTS: Better docking scores of the cis- over the trans-beta-lactams indicated
      favorable beta-lactam-beta-tubulin interactions in cis-geometry. In vitro (IC50)
      evaluation confirmed better anticancer activity of the cis-diastereoisomers.
      Apoptosis-induced cell death was supported by caspase-3 activation study. A cis
      beta-lactam [(+/-)-Cis-3-amino-1-phenyl-4-(p-tolyl) azetidin-2-one, 6C] was found
      to be more active (in vitro) than the marketed natural drug colchicine against
      SiHa and B16F10 (six times higher potency) cell lines. Reduced toxicity (compared
      to colchicine) in Chang cells confirmed better site-selectivity (accordingly less
      side-effects) of 6C than colchicine. Aside from 6C, most of the reported
      molecules demonstrated good to strong in vitro anticancer activity against SiHa
      and B16F10 cancer cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: Stereochemical preferences of the cis
      beta-lactams over their trans-counterparts, toward the molecular target beta
      tubulin, was confirmed by docking studies and in vitro anticancer evaluation.
      Apoptosis was identified as the cause of cell death. The lead 6C exhibited higher
      potency and selectivity than the marketed drug colchicine both in silico as well
      as in vitro.

PMID- 28562327
TI  - The protein kinase MBK-1 contributes to lifespan extension in daf-2 mutant and
      germline-deficient Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - In Caenorhabditis elegans, reduction of insulin/IGF-1 like signaling and loss of
      germline stem cells both increase lifespan by activating the conserved
      transcription factor DAF-16 (FOXO). While the mechanisms that regulate DAF-16
      nuclear localization in response to insulin/IGF-1 like signaling are well
      characterized, the molecular pathways that act in parallel to regulate DAF-16
      transcriptional activity, and the pathways that couple DAF-16 activity to
      germline status, are not fully understood at present. Here, we report that
      inactivation of MBK-1, the C. elegans ortholog of the human FOXO1-kinase DYRK1A
      substantially shortens the prolonged lifespan of daf-2 and glp-1 mutant animals
      while decreasing wild-type lifespan to a lesser extent. On the other hand,
      lifespan-reduction by mutation of the MBK-1-related kinase HPK-1 was not
      preferential for long-lived mutants. Interestingly, mbk-1 loss still allowed for
      DAF-16 nuclear accumulation but reduced expression of certain DAF-16 target genes
      in germline-less, but not in daf-2 mutant animals. These findings indicate that
      mbk-1 and daf-16 functionally interact in the germline- but not in the daf-2
      pathway. Together, our data suggest mbk-1 as a novel regulator of C. elegans
      longevity upon both, germline ablation and DAF-2 inhibition, and provide evidence
      for mbk-1 regulating DAF-16 activity in germline-deficient animals.

PMID- 28562329
TI  - Identification of polymorphisms in 12q24.1, ACAD10, and BRAP as novel genetic
      determinants of blood pressure in Japanese by exome-wide association studies.
AB  - We performed exome-wide association studies to identify genetic variants that
      influence systolic or diastolic blood pressure or confer susceptibility to
      hypertension in Japanese. The exome-wide association studies were performed with
      the use of Illumina HumanExome-12 DNA Analysis BeadChip or Infinium Exome-24
      BeadChip arrays and with 14,678 subjects, including 8215 individuals with
      hypertension and 6463 controls. The relation of genotypes of 41,843 single
      nucleotide polymorphisms to systolic or diastolic blood pressure was examined by
      linear regression analysis. After Bonferroni's correction, 44 and eight
      polymorphisms were significantly (P < 1.19 * 10-6) associated with systolic or
      diastolic blood pressure, respectively, with six polymorphisms (rs12229654,
      rs671, rs11066015, rs2074356, rs3782886, rs11066280) being associated with both
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Examination of the relation of allele
      frequencies to hypertension with Fisher's exact test revealed that 100 of the
      41,843 single nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly (P < 1.19 * 10-6)
      associated with hypertension. Subsequent multivariable logistic regression
      analysis with adjustment for age and sex showed that five polymorphisms
      (rs150854849, rs202069030, rs139012426, rs12229654, rs76974938) were
      significantly (P < 1.25 * 10-4) associated with hypertension. The polymorphism
      rs12229654 was thus associated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure
      and with hypertension. Six polymorphisms (rs12229654 at 12q24.1, rs671 of ALDH2,
      rs11066015 of ACAD10, rs2074356 and rs11066280 of HECTD4, and rs3782886 of BRAP)
      were found to be associated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, with
      those at 12q24.1 or in ACAD10 or BRAP being novel determinants of blood pressure
      in Japanese.

PMID- 28562330
TI  - The correlation between pulmonary fibrosis and methylation of peripheral Smad3 in
      cases of pigeon breeder's lung in a Chinese Uygur population.
AB  - Smad3 is a key protein in the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)/Smad
      signaling pathway, which is involved in fibrosis in many organs. We investigated
      the relationship between Smad3 gene methylation and pulmonary fibrosis in pigeon
      breeder's lung (PBL). Twenty Uygur PBL patients with pulmonary fibrosis in Kashi
      between October 2015 and March 2016 were enrolled. Twenty PBL-free pigeon
      breeders and 20 healthy non-pigeon breeders enrolled during the same period
      constituted the negative and normal control groups, respectively. Participants'
      data and peripheral blood samples were collected, and three Smad3 CpG loci were
      examined. Distributions of CpG_2 and CpG_4 methylation rates did not differ
      across groups, whereas distributions of CpG_3 methylation rates were
      significantly different among the three groups. The CpG_3 methylation rate was
      significantly lower in the patient group than in the negative control group.
      Smad3 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the patient group than in the
      negative control group but did not differ between the two control groups. TGF
      betalevels were significantly higher in the patient group than in either control
      group (both P<0.01). Smad3 gene methylation and Smad3 mRNA expression were
      negatively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of -0.84. The number of
      pigeons bred during the preceding three months was positively correlated with
      Smad3 mRNA expression, with a correlation coefficient of 0.77. Smad3 gene
      hypomethylation might promote pulmonary fibrosis in Uygur PBL patients via
      increased Smad3 mRNA expression. Smad3 methylation, Smad3 mRNA expression and TGF
      beta level were correlated with the number of pigeons bred by patients.

PMID- 28562332
TI  - IRF5 is associated with adverse postoperative prognosis of patients with non
      metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: IRF5 is one member of IRFs family, and is critical for host immunity
      and cell response. In the present study, we sought to search the clinical and
      prognostic value of IFR5 in patients with non-metastatic ccRCC. RESULTS: IRF5
      proved to be an adverse independent prognostic factor for overall survival (p <
      0.001) and recurrence free survival (p = 0.002). The newly built nomograms could
      give better prediction for overall survival and recurrence free survival in ccRCC
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included 264 individuals who were diagnosed
      with non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma in the present study.
      Immunohistochemistry staining was performed on tissue microarrays to evaluate the
      IRF5 expression. chi2 test, Fisher's exact test, t test, Kaplan-Meier method and
      Cox proportional hazard model were applied to evaluate the prognostic value of
      IRF5. Two nomograms were constructed to predict clinical outcomes for ccRCC
      patients after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: IRF5 was an adverse independent prognostic
      factor for both overall survival and recurrence free survival in patients with
      non-metastatic ccRCC.

PMID- 28562331
TI  - Dual degradation signals destruct GLI1: AMPK inhibits GLI1 through beta-TrCP
      mediated proteasome degradation.
AB  - Overexpression of the GLI1 gene has frequently been found in various cancer
      types, particularly in brain tumors, in which aberrant GLI1 induction promotes
      cancer cell growth. Therefore, identifying the molecular players controlling GLI1
      expression is of clinical importance. Previously, we reported that AMPK directly
      phosphorylated and destabilized GLI1, resulting in the suppression of the
      Hedgehog signaling pathway. The current study not only demonstrates that AMPK
      inhibits GLI1 nuclear localization, but further reveals that beta-TrCP plays an
      essential role in AMPK-induced GLI1 degradation. We found that activation of AMPK
      promotes the interaction between beta-TrCP and GLI1, and induces beta-TrCP
      mediated GLI1-ubiquitination and degradation. Inhibiting AMPK activity results in
      the dissociation of the beta-TrCP and GLI1 interaction, and diminishes beta-TrCP
      mediated-GLI1 ubiquitination and degradation. On GLI1, substitution of AMPK
      phosphorylation sites to aspartic acid (GLI13E) results in stronger binding
      affinity of GLI1 with beta-TrCP, accompanied by enhanced GLI1 ubiquitination and
      later degradation. In contrast, the GLI1 alanine mutant (GLI13A) shows weaker
      binding with beta-TrCP, which is accompanied by reduced beta-TrCP-mediated
      ubiquitination and degradation. Together, these results demonstrate that AMPK
      regulates GLI1 interaction with beta-TrCP by phosphorylating GLI1 and thus both
      post-translational modifications by AMPK and beta-TrCP ultimately impact GLI1
      degradation.

PMID- 28562333
TI  - Efficacy and safety comparison of chemotherapies for advanced gastric cancer: A
      network meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Chemotherapy is one of the commonly used therapies for advanced
      gastric cancer. In this study, we performed a network meta-analysis on the
      efficacy and safety of common treatments to give evidences of their relative
      benefits. RESULTS: 32 trials with 8550 patients and 20 regimens were included in
      this study. According to the results of primary outcomes, 5-FU plus OXA, 5-FU
      plus DOC, CAP plus CIS, CAP plus OXA, S-1 plus OXA and S-1 plus PAC performed
      well in improving OS and ORR. As for the adverse events, S-1 had a safer effect
      than other treatments, conversely, 5-FU plus CIS ranked the last. However, there
      was no regimen with outstanding performances in both efficacy and safety.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Studies were searched from database and screened with
      criteria. The Bayesian framework based network meta-analysis was performed with
      software R and STATA. Overall survival (OS) and overall response rate (ORR) were
      considered as primary outcomes while adverse events as secondary outcomes. The
      outcomes were represented by hazard ratios or odd ratios with 95% corresponding
      credible intervals, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The network meta-analysis
      suggested that 5-FU plus OXA and 5-FU plus DOC were recommended when efficacy was
      stressed. S-1 was safest but poorly effective. A regimen, as an excellent
      combination of efficacy and safety, is still waiting to be discovered.

PMID- 28562334
TI  - Gene co-expression network reveals shared modules predictive of stage and grade
      in serous ovarian cancers.
AB  - Serous ovarian cancer (SOC) is the most lethal gynecological cancer. Clinical
      studies have revealed an association between tumor stage and grade and clinical
      prognosis. Identification of meaningful clusters of co-expressed genes or
      representative biomarkers related to stage or grade may help to reveal mechanisms
      of tumorigenesis and cancer development, and aid in predicting SOC patient
      prognosis. We therefore performed a weighted gene co-expression network analysis
      (WGCNA) and calculated module-trait correlations based on three public microarray
      datasets (GSE26193, GSE9891, and TCGA), which included 788 samples and 10402
      genes. We detected four modules related to one or more clinical features
      significantly shared across all modeling datasets, and identified one stage
      associated module and one grade-associated module. Our analysis showed that MMP2,
      COL3A1, COL1A2, FBN1, COL5A1, COL5A2, and AEBP1 are top hub genes related to
      stage, while CDK1, BUB1, BUB1B, BIRC5, AURKB, CENPA, and CDC20 are top hub genes
      related to grade. Gene and pathway enrichment analyses of the regulatory networks
      involving hub genes suggest that extracellular matrix interactions and mitotic
      signaling pathways are crucial determinants of tumor stage and grade. The
      relationships between gene expression modules and tumor stage or grade were
      validated in five independent datasets. These results could potentially be
      developed into a more objective scoring system to improve prediction of SOC
      outcomes.

PMID- 28562335
TI  - Urinary exosomes reveal protein signatures in hypertensive patients with
      albuminuria.
AB  - Albuminuria is an indicator of cardiovascular risk and renal damage in
      hypertensive individuals. Chronic renin-angiotensin system (RAS) suppression
      facilitates blood pressure control and prevents development of new-onset
      albuminuria. A significant number of patients, however, develop albuminuria
      despite chronic RAS blockade, and the physiopathological mechanisms are
      underexplored. Urinary exosomes reflect pathological changes taking place in the
      kidney. The objective of this work was to examine exosomal protein alterations in
      hypertensive patients with albuminuria in the presence of chronic RAS
      suppression, to find novel clues underlying its development. Patients were
      followed-up for three years and were classified as: a) patients with persistent
      normoalbuminuria; b) patients developing de novo albuminuria; and c) patients
      with maintained albuminuria. Exosomal protein alterations between groups were
      identified by isobaric tag quantitation (iTRAQ). Confirmation was approached by
      target analysis (SRM). In total, 487 proteins were identified with high
      confidence. Specifically, 48 proteins showed an altered pattern in response to
      hypertension and/or albuminuria. Out of them, 21 proteins interact together in
      three main functional clusters: glycosaminoglycan degradation, coagulation and
      complement system, and oxidative stress. The identified proteins constitute
      potential targets for drug development and may help to define therapeutic
      strategies to evade albuminuria progression in hypertensive patients chronically
      treated.

PMID- 28562336
TI  - Synergistic targeting of malignant pleural mesothelioma cells by MDM2 inhibitors
      and TRAIL agonists.
AB  - Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is a chemoresistant tumor characterized by
      low rate of p53 mutation and upregulation of Murine Double Minute 2 (MDM2),
      suggesting that it may be effectively targeted using MDM2 inhibitors. In the
      present study, we investigated the anticancer activity of the MDM2 inhibitors
      Nutlin 3a (in vitro) and RG7112 (in vivo), as single agents or in combination
      with rhTRAIL.In vitro studies were performed using MPM cell lines derived from
      epithelioid (ZL55, M14K), biphasic (MSTO211H) and sarcomatoid (ZL34) MPMs. In
      vivo studies were conducted on a sarcomatoid MPM mouse model.In all the cell
      lines tested (with the exception of ZL55, which carries a biallelic loss-of
      function mutation of p53), Nutlin 3a enhanced p21, MDM2 and DR5 expression, and
      decreased survivin expression. These changes were associated to cell cycle arrest
      but not to a significant induction of apoptosis. A synergistic pro-apoptotic
      effect was obtained through the association of rhTRAIL in all the cell lines
      harboring functional p53. This synergistic interaction of MDM2 inhibitor and
      TRAIL agonist was confirmed using a mouse preclinical model. Our results suggest
      that the combined targeting of MDM2 and TRAIL might provide a novel therapeutic
      option for treatment of MPM patients, particularly in the case of sarcomatoid MPM
      with MDM2 overexpression and functional inactivation of wild-type p53.

PMID- 28562337
TI  - IL13RA2 targeted alpha particle therapy against glioblastomas.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive primary malignant brain cancer that
      invariably results in a dismal prognosis. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have not
      been completely effective as standard treatment options for patients due to
      recurrent disease. We and others have therefore developed molecular strategies to
      specifically target interleukin 13 receptor alpha 2 (IL13RA2), a GBM restricted
      receptor expressed abundantly on over 75% of GBM patients. In this work, we
      evaluated the potential of Pep-1L, a novel IL13RA2 targeted peptide, as a
      platform to deliver targeted lethal therapies to GBM. To demonstrate GBM
      specificity, we radiolabeled Pep-1L with Copper-64 and performed in vitro cell
      binding studies, which demonstrated specific binding that was blocked by
      unlabeled Pep-1L. Furthermore, we demonstrated real-time GBM localization of
      [64Cu]Pep-1L to orthotopic GBMs using small animal PET imaging. Based on these
      targeting data, we performed an initial in vivo safety and therapeutic study
      using Pep-1L conjugated to Actinium-225, an alpha particle emitter that has been
      shown to potently and irreversibly kill targeted cells. We infused [225Ac]Pep-1L
      into orthotopic GBMs using convection-enhanced delivery and found no significant
      adverse events at injected doses. Furthermore, our initial data also demonstrated
      significantly greater overall, median and mean survival in treated mice when
      compared to those in control groups (p < 0.05). GBM tissue extracted from mice
      treated with [225Ac]Pep-1L showed double stranded DNA breaks, lower Ki67
      expression and greater propidium iodide internalization, indicating anti-GBM
      therapeutic effects of [225Ac]Pep-1L. Based on our results, Pep-1L warrants
      further investigation as a potential targeted platform to deliver anti-cancer
      agents.

PMID- 28562338
TI  - An herbal formula attenuates collagen-induced arthritis via inhibition of JAK2
      STAT3 signaling and regulation of Th17 cells in mice.
AB  - Wenjinghuoluo prescription, a traditional Chinese medicine compound treatment of
      rheumatoid arthritis characterized by wind-cold-dampness arthralgia, contains
      five herbs, namely, C. cassia Presl., Cinnamomum cassia Presl., Paeonia
      lactiflora Pall., Saposhnikovia divaricate (Turcz.) Schischk., and Clematis
      chinensis Osbeck. We have reported that WJHL could inhibit the production of
      inflammatory mediators in immune cells. This study explored the effect and
      mechanism of WJHL on collagen-induced arthritis mice. WJHL could significantly
      improve clinical arthritic conditions; inhibit bone erosion and osteophyte
      formation in joints; decrease expression of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha,
      IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-17); reduce protein expression levels of JAK2, p-JAK2,
      STAT3, p-STAT3 and gene expression levels of JAK2, STAT3, IL-17A, RORgammat mRNA;
      elevate osteoprotegerin and Foxp3 mRNA levels and lower Th17 cell proportions in
      splenocytes. Results suggest that WJHL, specifically regulating the JAK2/STAT3
      pathway and Th17 cells, may be a promising herbal medicine candidate for the
      treatment of RA.

PMID- 28562339
TI  - FAM3A mediates PPARgamma's protection in liver ischemia-reperfusion injury by
      activating Akt survival pathway and repressing inflammation and oxidative stress.
AB  - FAM3A is a novel mitochondrial protein, and its biological function remains
      largely unknown. This study determined the role and mechanism of FAM3A in liver
      ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). In mouse liver after IRI, FAM3A expression was
      increased. FAM3A-deficient mice exhibited exaggerated liver damage with increased
      serum levels of AST, ALT, MPO, MDA and oxidative stress when compared with WT
      mice after liver IRI. FAM3A-deficient mouse livers had a decrease in ATP content,
      Akt activity and anti-apoptotic protein expression with an increase in apoptotic
      protein expression, inflammation and oxidative stress when compared WT mouse
      livers after IRI. Rosiglitazone pretreatment protected against liver IRI in wild
      type mice but not in FAM3A-deficient mice. In cultured hepatocytes, FAM3A
      overexpression protected against, whereas FAM3A deficiency exaggerated oxidative
      stress-induced cell death. FAM3A upregulation or FAM3A overexpression inhibited
      hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced activation of apoptotic gene and hepatocyte death
      in P2 receptor-dependent manner. FAM3A deficiency blunted rosiglitazone's
      beneficial effects on Akt activation and cell survival in cultured hepatocytes.
      Collectively, FAM3A protects against liver IRI by activating Akt survival
      pathways, repressing inflammation and attenuating oxidative stress. Moreover, the
      protective effects of PPARgamma agonist(s) on liver IRI are dependent on FAM3A
      ATP-Akt pathway.

PMID- 28562340
TI  - Cell type-dependent HIF1 alpha-mediated effects of hypoxia on proliferation,
      migration and metastatic potential of human tumor cells.
AB  - Tumor hypoxia promotes neoangiogenesis and contributes to the radio- and
      chemotherapy resistant and aggressive phenotype of cancer cells. However, the
      migratory response of tumor cells and the role of small GTPases regulating the
      organization of cytoskeleton under hypoxic conditions have yet to be established.
      Accordingly, we measured the proliferation, migration, RhoA activation, the mRNA
      and protein levels of hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and three
      small G-proteins, Rac1, cdc42 and RhoA in a panel of five human tumor cell lines
      under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Importantly, HT168-M1 human melanoma cells
      with high baseline migration capacity showed increased HIF-1alpha and small
      GTPases expression, RhoA activation and migration under hypoxia. These activities
      were blocked by anti- HIF-1alpha shRNA. Moreover, the in vivo metastatic
      potential was promoted by hypoxia mimicking CoCl2 treatment and reduced upon
      inhibition of HIF-1alpha in a spleen to liver colonization experiment. In
      contrast, HT29 human colon cancer cells with low migration capacity showed
      limited response to in vitro hypoxia. The expression of the small G-proteins
      decreased both at mRNA and protein levels and the RhoA activation was reduced.
      Nevertheless, the number of lung or liver metastatic colonies disseminating from
      orthotopic HT29 grafts did not change upon CoCl2 or chetomin treatment. Our data
      demonstrates that the hypoxic environment induces cell-type dependent changes in
      the levels and activation of small GTPases and results in varying migratory and
      metastasis promoting responses in different human tumor cell lines.

PMID- 28562344
TI  - Accumulation of prohibitin is a common cellular response to different stressing
      stimuli and protects melanoma cells from ER stress and chemotherapy-induced cell
      death.
AB  - Melanoma is responsible for most deaths among skin cancers and conventional and
      palliative care chemotherapy are limited due to the development of
      chemoresistance. We used proteomic analysis to identify cellular responses that
      lead to chemoresistance of human melanoma cell lines to cisplatin. A systems
      approach to the proteomic data indicated the participation of specific cellular
      processes such as oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial organization and
      homeostasis, as well as the unfolded protein response (UPR) to be required for
      the survival of cells treated with cisplatin. Prohibitin (PHB) was among the
      proteins consistently accumulated, interacting with the functional clusters
      associated with resistance to cisplatin. We showed PHB accumulated at different
      levels in melanoma cell lines under stressing stimuli, such as (i) treatment with
      temozolomide (TMZ), dacarbazine (DTIC) and cisplatin; (ii) serum deprivation;
      (iii) tunicamycin, an UPR inducer. Prohibitin accumulated in the mitochondria of
      melanoma cells after cisplatin and tunicamycin treatment and its de novo
      accumulation led to chemoresistance melanoma cell lines. In contrast, PHB knock
      down sensitized melanoma cells to cisplatin and tunicamycin treatment. We
      conclude that PHB participates in the survival of cells exposed to different
      stress stimuli, and can therefore serve as a target for the sensitization of
      melanoma cells to chemotherapy.

PMID- 28562345
TI  - Three hematological indexes that may serve as prognostic indicators in patients
      with primary, high-grade, appendicular osteosarcoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)
      are considered effective prognostic factors of osteosarcoma, useful prognostic
      biomarkers for patients with osteosarcoma are still lacking. METHODS: A
      retrospective study of 106 patients with primary, high-grade, appendicular
      osteosarcoma obtained between 2006 and 2011 was performed to assess the
      prognostic value of serum ALP, LDH and fibrinogen (FBG) levels, as well as their
      decrease rates in osteosarcoma. The Kaplan-Meier method was employed to analyze
      overall survival. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine the
      significance of these prognostic biomarkers on survival distribution. RESULTS:
      Patients with pre-ct (before neoadjuvant chemotherapy) LDH>210U/L, post-ct (after
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but before surgery) LDH>215U/L, post-ct FBG>2.8g/L, FBG
      DR (Decrease Rate)<=10% tended to have a poorer prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: High pre
      ct and post-ct peripheral serum LDH level, high serum post-ct FBG level and low
      decrease rate of serum FBG were related to poor survival in patients with
      osteosarcoma. Fibrinogen was found to be a new valuable predictor of 5-year
      survival in patients with osteosarcoma for the first time.

PMID- 28562346
TI  - Methionine restriction on oxidative stress and immune response in dss-induced
      colitis mice.
AB  - A strong correlation exists between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and
      oxidative stress involving alterations of several key signaling pathways. It is
      known that methionine promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) production; we
      therefore hypothesize that a methionine restriction diet would reduce ROS
      production, inflammatory responses, and the course of IBD. We generated a murine
      colitis model by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) treatment and tested the effects of
      the methionine restriction diet. Forty-eight mice were randomly divided into four
      groups of equal size, which included a control (CON) group, an MR (methionine
      restriction diet) group, a DSS treated group and an MR-DSS treated group. Mice in
      the first two groups had unrestricted access to water for one week. Mice in the
      two DSS-treated groups had unrestricted access to 5% DSS solution supplied in the
      drinking water for the same period. Mice in the CON and DSS groups were given a
      basal diet, whereas mice in the MR-DSS and MR groups were fed a 0.14% MR diet. We
      found that DSS reduced daily weight gain, suppressed antioxidant enzyme
      expression, increased histopathology scores and activated NF-kappaB and nuclear
      factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1
      (Nrf2/Keap1) signaling. We also showed that the MR diet upregulated catalase
      (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities,
      decreased myeloperoxidase (MPO), TNF-alpha and IL-1beta, and reversed activation
      of the NF-kappaB signaling pathway in MR-DSS mice. Taken together, our results
      imply that the MR diet may be considered as an adjuvant in IBD therapeutics.

PMID- 28562347
TI  - Epistatic SNP interaction of ERCC6 with ERCC8 and their joint protein expression
      contribute to gastric cancer/atrophic gastritis risk.
AB  - Excision repair cross-complementing group 6 and 8 (ERCC6 and ERCC8) are two
      indispensable genes for the initiation of transcription-coupled nucleotide
      excision repair pathway. This study aimed to evaluate the interactions between
      single nucleotide polymorphisms of ERCC6 (rs1917799) and ERCC8 (rs158572 and
      rs158916) in gastric cancer and its precancerous diseases. Besides, protein level
      analysis were performed to compare ERCC6 and ERCC8 expression in different stages
      of gastric diseases, and to correlate SNPs jointly with gene expression. Sequenom
      MassARRAY platform method was used to detect polymorphisms of ERCC6 and ERCC8 in
      1916 subjects. In situ ERCC6 and ERCC8 protein expression were detected by
      immunohistochemistry in 109 chronic superficial gastritis, 109 chronic atrophic
      gastritis and 109 gastric cancer cases. Our results demonstrated pairwise
      epistatic interactions between ERCC6 and ERCC8 SNPs that ERCC6 rs1917799-ERCC8
      rs158572 combination was associated with decreased risk of chronic atrophic
      gastritis and increased risk of gastric cancer. ERCC6 rs1917799 also showed a
      significant interaction with ERCC8 rs158916 to reduce gastric cancer risk. The
      expressions of ERCC6, ERCC8 and ERCC6-ERCC8 combination have similarities that
      higher positivity was observed in chronic superficial gastritis compared with
      chronic atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer. As for the effects of ERCC6 and
      ERCC8 SNPs on the protein expression, single SNP had no correlation with
      corresponding gene expression, whereas the ERCC6 rs1917799-ERCC8 rs158572 pair
      had significant influence on ERCC6 and ERCC6-ERCC8 expression. In conclusion,
      ERCC6 rs1917799, ERCC8 rs158572 and rs158916 demonstrated pairwise epistatic
      interactions to associate with chronic atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer
      risk. The ERCC6 rs1917799-ERCC8 rs158572 pair significantly influence ERCC6 and
      ERCC6-ERCC8 expression.

PMID- 28562348
TI  - Actual over 10-year survival after liver resection for patients with intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - Partial hepatectomy is a potentially curative therapy for intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Unfortunately, the overall surgical prognosis remains
      dismal and the actual 10-year survival has not been reported. This study aimed to
      document 10-year actual survival rates, identify the prognostic factors
      associated with 10-year survival rate, and analyze the characteristics of
      patients who survived >= 10 years. Among 251 patients who underwent curative
      liver resection for ICC between 2003 and 2006 at the Eastern Hepatobiliary
      Surgery Hospital, 21 patients (8.4%) survived >= 10 years. The 5-, 7-, and 10
      year overall survival rates were 32.3%, 22.3% and 8.4%, respectively. The 10-year
      cumulative incidence of ICC-related death and recurrence were 80.9% and 85.7%,
      respectively. Multivariate analysis based on competing risk survival analysis
      identified that tumor > 5 cm was independently associated with ICC-related death
      and recurrence (hazard ratios: 1.369 and 1.445, respectively), in addition to
      carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) >10 U/mL, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) >39
      U/mL, multiple nodules, vascular invasion, nodal metastasis and local
      extrahepatic invasion. Patients who survived >= 10 years had a longer time to
      first recurrence, lower levels of CEA, CA19-9 and alkaline phosphatase, less
      perioperative blood loss, solitary tumor, smaller tumor size, and absence of
      nodal metastasis or local extrahepatic invasion. In conclusion, a 10-year
      survival after liver resection for ICC is possible and can be expected in
      approximately 8.4% of patients.

PMID- 28562349
TI  - MicroRNA-155, induced by FOXP3 through transcriptional repression of BRCA1, is
      associated with tumor initiation in human breast cancer.
AB  - MicroRNA (miR)-155 is upregulated in breast cancer cells and in sera of patients
      with breast cancer, but its clinical relevance remains uncertain. The objective
      of the present effort was to address the transcriptional regulation of miR-155. A
      bioinformatics analysis of public datasets validated upregulation of miR-155 in
      tumor cells of patients with breast cancer, particularly those who were at early
      stages and had triple-negative cancers. The expression profiling and clinical
      relevance of miR-155 in tumor cells and blood cells were characterized by TaqMan
      miR assays and, in plasma and exosomes, by nest-quantitative PCR analysis. There
      was a positive correlation between expression of FOXP3 and miR-155 in breast
      cancer cell lines and primary breast cancers. In breast cancer cells, FOXP3
      induced miR-155 through transcriptional repression of BRCA1. Furthermore, in an
      Alabama cohort, blood and plasma samples were collected from 259 participants,
      including patients with breast cancer or benign breast tumors, members of breast
      cancer families, and matched healthy female controls. For patients with early
      stage or localized breast cancer, there were high levels of miR-155 in both
      plasma and blood cells. In cultured breast cancer cells, expression of miR-155
      was induced by FOXP3 but was not significantly changed in culture medium or
      exosomes, suggesting that circulating miR-155 originated from blood cells. These
      findings reveal a transcriptional axis of FOXP3-BRCA1-miR-155 in breast cancer
      cells and show that plasma miR-155 may serve as a non-invasive biomarker for
      detection of early stage breast cancer.

PMID- 28562350
TI  - U94 of human herpesvirus 6 down-modulates Src, promotes a partial mesenchymal-to
      epithelial transition and inhibits tumor cell growth, invasion and metastasis.
AB  - U94, the latency gene of human herpesvirus 6, was found to inhibit migration,
      invasion and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells (ECs). Because of its
      potent anti-migratory activity on ECs, we tested the capability of U94 to
      interfere with the individual steps of the metastatic cascade. We examined the
      U94 biological activity on the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB 231, as a
      model of highly aggressive cancer cell. Here we show that the expression of U94
      delivered by an HSV-1-based amplicon promoted down-modulation of Src and
      downstream molecules linked to cell motility and proliferation. Indeed, U94
      expression strongly inhibited cell migration, invasiveness and clonogenicity. We
      investigated the effects of U94 in a three-dimensional rotary cell-culture system
      and observed the ability of U94 to modify tumor cell morphology by inducing a
      partial mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition. In fact, despite U94 did not induce
      any expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin, it down-modulated different
      mesenchymal markers as beta-catenin, Vimentin, TWIST, Snail1, and MMP2. In vivo
      data on the tumorigenicity of MDA-MB 231 displayed the capability of U94 to
      control tumor growth, invasiveness and metastasis, as well as tumor-driven
      angiogenesis. The antitumor U94 activity was also confirmed on the human cervical
      cancer cell line HeLa. The ability of U94 to inhibit cell growth, invasion and
      metastasis opens the way to a promising field of research aimed to develop new
      therapeutic approaches for treating tumor and cancer metastasis.

PMID- 28562351
TI  - The bidirectional association between oral cancer and esophageal cancer: A
      population-based study in Taiwan over a 28-year period.
AB  - Previous studies have revealed that patients with oral or esophageal cancer are
      at higher risk for subsequently developing a second primary malignancy. However,
      it remains to be determined what association exists between oral cancer and
      esophageal cancer particularly in Asian countries where squamous cell carcinoma
      is the predominant type of esophageal cancer. A population-based study was
      carried out in Taiwan, where the incidence rates of both oral and esophageal
      squamous cell carcinomas are high, to test the hypothesis that oral cancer or
      esophageal cancer predisposes an individual to developing the other form of
      cancer. Our results showed that patients with primary oral cancer (n=45,859) had
      ten times the risk of second esophageal cancer compared to the general
      population. Within the same cohort, the reciprocal risk of oral cancer as a
      second primary in primary esophageal cancer patients (n=16,658) was also
      increased seven-fold. The bidirectional relationship suggests common risk factors
      between these two cancers. The present study is not only the first population
      based study in Asia to validate the reciprocal relationship between oral and
      esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, but also will aid in the appropriate
      selection of high-risk patients for a future follow-up surveillance program.

PMID- 28562352
TI  - Rapalogs can promote cancer cell stemness in vitro in a Galectin-1 and H-ras
      dependent manner.
AB  - Currently several combination treatments of mTor- and Ras-pathway inhibitors are
      being tested in cancer therapy. While multiple feedback loops render these
      central signaling pathways robust, they complicate drug targeting.Here, we
      describe a novel H-ras specific feedback, which leads to an inadvertent rapalog
      induced activation of tumorigenicity in Ras transformed cells. We find that
      rapalogs specifically increase nanoscale clustering (nanoclustering) of oncogenic
      H-ras but not K-ras on the plasma membrane. This increases H-ras signaling
      output, promotes mammosphere numbers in a H-ras-dependent manner and tumor growth
      in ovo. Surprisingly, also other FKBP12 binders, but not mTor-inhibitors,
      robustly decrease FKBP12 levels after prolonged (>2 days) exposure. This leads to
      an upregulation of the nanocluster scaffold galectin-1 (Gal-1), which is
      responsible for the rapamycin-induced increase in H-ras nanoclustering and
      signaling output. We provide evidence that Gal-1 promotes stemness features in
      tumorigenic cells. Therefore, it may be necessary to block inadvertent induction
      of stemness traits in H-ras transformed cells by specific Gal-1 inhibitors that
      abrogate its effect on H-ras nanocluster. On a more general level, our findings
      may add an important mechanistic explanation to the pleiotropic physiological
      effects that are observed with rapalogs.

PMID- 28562354
TI  - Circulating pre-treatment Epstein-Barr virus DNA as prognostic factor in locally
      advanced nasopharyngeal cancer in a non-endemic area.
AB  - The prognostic value of pre-treatment Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) DNA viral load for
      non-endemic, locally-advanced, EBV-related nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients
      is yet to be defined. All patients with EBV encoded RNA (EBER)-positive NPC
      treated at our Institution from 2005 to 2014 with chemotherapy (CT) concurrent
      with radiation (RT) +/- induction chemotherapy (ICT) were retrospectively
      reviewed. Pre-treatment baseline plasma EBV DNA (b-EBV DNA) viral load was
      detected and quantified by PCR. Median b-EBV DNA value was correlated to
      potential influencing factors by univariate analysis. Significant variables were
      then extrapolated and included in a multivariate linear regression model. The
      same variables, including b-EBV DNA, were correlated with Disease Free Survival
      (DFS) and Overall Survival (OS) by univariate and multivariate analysis.A total
      of 130 locally-advanced EBER positive NPC patients were evaluated. Overall, b-EBV
      DNA was detected in 103 patients (79.2%). Median viral load was 554 copies/mL
      (range 50-151075), and was positively correlated with T stage (p=0.002), N3a-b vs
      N0-1-2 stage (p=0.048), type of treatment (ICT followed by CTRT, p=0.006) and
      locoregional and/or distant disease recurrence (p=0.034). In the overall
      population, DFS and OS were significantly longer in patients with pre-treatment
      negative EBV DNA than in positive subjects at the multivariate analysis.Negative
      b-EBV DNA can be considered as prognostic biomarker of longer DFS and OS in NPC
      in non-endemic areas. This finding needs confirmation in larger prospective
      series, with standardized and inter-laboratory harmonized method of plasma EBV
      DNA quantification.

PMID- 28562366
TI  - Preparation and characterization of ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films grown
      by reactive sputtering.
AB  - HfO2-ZrO2 solid-solution films were prepared by radio frequency sputtering, and
      the subsequent annealing process was optimized to render enhanced ferroelectric
      behavior. The target power, working pressure and O2 partial pressure ratios were
      varied, along with the annealing gas, time and temperature. Then, the film's
      structural and electrical properties were carefully scrutinized. Oxygen-deficient
      conditions were necessary during the sputter deposition to suppress grain growth,
      while annealing by O2 gas was critical to avoid defects and leakage problems. It
      is expected that the grain size difference under various deposition conditions
      combined with the degree of TiN top and bottom electrode oxidation by O2 gas will
      result in different ferroelectric behaviors. As a result, Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 prepared
      by radio frequency sputtering showed optimized ferroelectricity at 0% of O2
      reactive gas, with a doubled remnant polarization value of ~20 MUC cm-2 at a
      thickness of 11 nm. Film growth conditions with a high growth rate (4-5 nm min-1)
      were favorable for achieving the ferroelectric phase film, which feasibly
      suppressed both the grain growth and accompanying monoclinic phase formation.

PMID- 28562357
TI  - Association between three VEGF polymorphisms and renal cell carcinoma
      susceptibility: a meta-analysis.
AB  - Several studies have reported an association between vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms rs2010963, rs3025039 and rs699947 and renal cell
      carcinoma (RCC). However, the results remain inconclusive and controversial. We
      therefore conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate this association. Electronic
      databases were searched for relevant case-control studies up to November 2016.
      RevMan 5.2 software and STATA version 12.0 were used for statistical analysis in
      our meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 value. Nine eligible
      studies were retrieved for detailed evaluation. The pooled estimates indicated
      that the GG genotype of VEGF rs2010963 polymorphism significantly decreased RCC
      risk [GG vs. GC+CC; GG vs. GC]. There was also a significant association between
      VEGF rs3025039 polymorphism and RCC susceptibility [CC+CT vs. TT; CC vs. TT].
      Furthermore, a significant association between VEGF rs699947 polymorphism and RCC
      susceptibility was detected [A vs. C; AA+AC vs. CC; AA vs. AC+CC; AA vs. CC; AA
      vs. AC; AC vs. CC]. Subgroup analysis revealed that these associations held true
      especially for Asians. Our meta-analysis suggested that there may be a
      relationship between the VEGF rs2010963, rs3025039 and rs699947 polymorphisms and
      RCC susceptibility.

PMID- 28562367
TI  - Three-electron spin qubits.
AB  - The goal of this article is to review the progress of three-electron spin qubits
      from their inception to the state of the art. We direct the main focus towards
      the exchange-only qubit (Bacon et al 2000 Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 1758-61, DiVincenzo
      et al 2000 Nature 408 339) and its derived versions, e.g. the resonant exchange
      (RX) qubit, but we also discuss other qubit implementations using three electron
      spins. For each three-spin qubit we describe the qubit model, the envisioned
      physical realization, the implementations of single-qubit operations, as well as
      the read-out and initialization schemes. Two-qubit gates and decoherence
      properties are discussed for the RX qubit and the exchange-only qubit, thereby
      completing the list of requirements for quantum computation for a viable
      candidate qubit implementation. We start by describing the full system of three
      electrons in a triple quantum dot, then discuss the charge-stability diagram,
      restricting ourselves to the relevant subsystem, introduce the qubit states, and
      discuss important transitions to other charge states (Russ et al 2016 Phys. Rev.
      B 94 165411). Introducing the various qubit implementations, we begin with the
      exchange-only qubit (DiVincenzo et al 2000 Nature 408 339, Laird et al 2010 Phys.
      Rev. B 82 075403), followed by the RX qubit (Medford et al 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett.
      111 050501, Taylor et al 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 050502), the spin-charge qubit
      (Kyriakidis and Burkard 2007 Phys. Rev. B 75 115324), and the hybrid qubit (Shi
      et al 2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 140503, Koh et al 2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 109
      250503, Cao et al 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 086801, Thorgrimsson et al 2016
      arXiv:1611.04945). The main focus will be on the exchange-only qubit and its
      modification, the RX qubit, whose single-qubit operations are realized by driving
      the qubit at its resonant frequency in the microwave range similar to electron
      spin resonance. Two different types of two-qubit operations are presented for the
      exchange-only qubits which can be divided into short-ranged and long-ranged
      interactions. Both of these interaction types are expected to be necessary in a
      large-scale quantum computer. The short-ranged interactions use the exchange
      coupling by placing qubits next to each other and applying exchange-pulses
      (DiVincenzo et al 2000 Nature 408 339, Fong and Wandzura 2011 Quantum Inf.
      Comput. 11 1003, Setiawan et al 2014 Phys. Rev. B 89 085314, Zeuch et al 2014
      Phys. Rev. B 90 045306, Doherty and Wardrop 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 050503,
      Shim and Tahan 2016 Phys. Rev. B 93 121410), while the long-ranged interactions
      use the photons of a superconducting microwave cavity as a mediator in order to
      couple two qubits over long distances (Russ and Burkard 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92
      205412, Srinivasa et al 2016 Phys. Rev. B 94 205421). The nature of the three
      electron qubit states each having the same total spin and total spin in z
      direction (same Zeeman energy) provides a natural protection against several
      sources of noise (DiVincenzo et al 2000 Nature 408 339, Taylor et al 2013 Phys.
      Rev. Lett. 111 050502, Kempe et al 2001 Phys. Rev. A 63 042307, Russ and Burkard
      2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 235411). The price to pay for this advantage is an increase
      in gate complexity. We also take into account the decoherence of the qubit
      through the influence of magnetic noise (Ladd 2012 Phys. Rev. B 86 125408, Mehl
      and DiVincenzo 2013 Phys. Rev. B 87 195309, Hung et al 2014 Phys. Rev. B 90
      045308), in particular dephasing due to the presence of nuclear spins, as well as
      dephasing due to charge noise (Medford et al 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 050501,
      Taylor et al 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 050502, Shim and Tahan 2016 Phys. Rev. B
      93 121410, Russ and Burkard 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 235411, Fei et al 2015 Phys.
      Rev. B 91 205434), fluctuations of the energy levels on each dot due to noisy
      gate voltages or the environment. Several techniques are discussed which partly
      decouple the qubit from magnetic noise (Setiawan et al 2014 Phys. Rev. B 89
      085314, West and Fong 2012 New J. Phys. 14 083002, Rohling and Burkard 2016 Phys.
      Rev. B 93 205434) while for charge noise it is shown that it is favorable to
      operate the qubit on the so-called '(double) sweet spots' (Taylor et al 2013
      Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 050502, Shim and Tahan 2016 Phys. Rev. B 93 121410, Russ and
      Burkard 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 235411, Fei et al 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 205434,
      Malinowski et al 2017 arXiv: 1704.01298), which are least susceptible to noise,
      thus providing a longer lifetime of the qubit.

PMID- 28562353
TI  - IL-17RC is critically required to maintain baseline A20 production to repress JNK
      isoform-dependent tumor-specific proliferation.
AB  - The IL-17/IL-17R axis has controversial roles in cancer, which may be explained
      by tumor-specific results. Here, we describe a novel molecular mechanism
      underlying IL-17RC-controlled tumor-specific proliferation. Triggered by IL-17RC
      knockdown (KD), B16 melanoma and 4T1 carcinoma cells inversely altered
      homeostatic tumor proliferation and tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. In
      contrast to the existing dogma that IL-17RC-dependent signaling activates the JNK
      pathway, IL-17RC KD in both tumor cell lines caused aberrant expression and
      activation of different JNK isoforms along with markedly diminished levels of the
      ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20. We demonstrated that differential up-regulation of
      JNK1 and JNK2 in the two tumor cell lines was responsible for the reciprocal
      regulation of c-Jun activity and tumor-specific proliferation. Furthermore, we
      showed that A20 reconstitution of IL-17RCKD clones with expression of full-length
      A20, but not a truncation-mutant, reversed aberrant JNK1/JNK2 activities and
      tumor-specific proliferation. Collectively, our study reveals a critical role of
      IL-17RC in maintaining baseline A20 production and a novel role of the IL-17RC
      A20 axis in controlling JNK isoform-dependent tumor-specific homeostatic
      proliferation.

PMID- 28562368
TI  - Heart sounds analysis using probability assessment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper describes a method for automated discrimination of heart
      sounds recordings according to the Physionet Challenge 2016. The goal was to
      decide if the recording refers to normal or abnormal heart sounds or if it is not
      possible to decide (i.e. 'unsure' recordings). APPROACH: Heart sounds S1 and S2
      are detected using amplitude envelopes in the band 15-90 Hz. The averaged shape
      of the S1/S2 pair is computed from amplitude envelopes in five different bands
      (15-90 Hz; 55-150 Hz; 100-250 Hz; 200-450 Hz; 400-800 Hz). A total of 53 features
      are extracted from the data. The largest group of features is extracted from the
      statistical properties of the averaged shapes; other features are extracted from
      the symmetry of averaged shapes, and the last group of features is independent of
      S1 and S2 detection. Generated features are processed using logical rules and
      probability assessment, a prototype of a new machine-learning method. MAIN
      RESULTS: The method was trained using 3155 records and tested on 1277 hidden
      records. It resulted in a training score of 0.903 (sensitivity 0.869, specificity
      0.937) and a testing score of 0.841 (sensitivity 0.770, specificity 0.913). The
      revised method led to a test score of 0.853 in the follow-up phase of the
      challenge. SIGNIFICANCE: The presented solution achieved 7th place out of 48
      competing entries in the Physionet Challenge 2016 (official phase). In addition,
      the PROBAfind software for probability assessment was introduced.

PMID- 28562369
TI  - Combining sparse coding and time-domain features for heart sound classification.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper builds upon work submitted as part of the 2016
      PhysioNet/CinC Challenge, which used sparse coding as a feature extraction tool
      on audio PCG data for heart sound classification. APPROACH: In sparse coding,
      preprocessed data is decomposed into a dictionary matrix and a sparse coefficient
      matrix. The dictionary matrix represents statistically important features of the
      audio segments. The sparse coefficient matrix is a mapping that represents which
      features are used by each segment. Working in the sparse domain, we train support
      vector machines (SVMs) for each audio segment (S1, systole, S2, diastole) and the
      full cardiac cycle. We train a sixth SVM to combine the results from the
      preliminary SVMs into a single binary label for the entire PCG recording. In
      addition to classifying heart sounds using sparse coding, this paper presents two
      novel modifications. The first uses a matrix norm in the dictionary update step
      of sparse coding to encourage the dictionary to learn discriminating features
      from the abnormal heart recordings. The second combines the sparse coding
      features with time-domain features in the final SVM stage. MAIN RESULTS: The
      original algorithm submitted to the challenge achieved a cross-validated mean
      accuracy (MAcc) score of 0.8652 (Se  =  0.8669 and Sp  =  0.8634). After
      incorporating the modifications new to this paper, we report an improved cross
      validated MAcc of 0.8926 (Se  =  0.9007 and Sp  =  0.8845). SIGNIFICANCE: Our
      results show that sparse coding is an effective way to define spectral features
      of the cardiac cycle and its sub-cycles for the purpose of classification. In
      addition, we demonstrate that sparse coding can be combined with additional
      feature extraction methods to improve classification accuracy.

PMID- 28562370
TI  - Enhanced plasmon coupling of partly embedded gold nanospheres with surrounding
      silicon.
AB  - Gold nanospheres (AuNSs) were partly embedded into silicon through metal-assisted
      chemical etching, producing multiple-dimensional coupling of the plasmon
      resonances with the induced image charges in the surrounding medium. Rich
      plasmonic features of such coupling system were revealed by single particle dark
      field scattering spectra, characterizing by two splitted multipolar resonances at
      short wavelength region and a mixed dipolar resonance extending to infrared
      region. Numerical electrodynamic calculations indicated that the multipolar modes
      arise from the in-plane and out-of-plane quadrupolar resonances, which are
      excited by the horizontal and verticle electric field components, respectively,
      of the incident light owing to the enhanced coupling interaction. As the
      embedding depth increases, the degree of symmetry breaking in such
      nanoparticles/substrate system changes, resulting in significantly modified
      optical response, which supplies a new way to modulate the optical properties of
      plasmonic nanoparticles.

PMID- 28562371
TI  - The role of the multiparametric MRI in the diagnosis of prostate cancer in biopsy
      naive men.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the role of prebiopsy multiparametric MRI in biopsy
      naive men for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Recent level 1 evidence shows that multiparametric MRI has high
      sensitivity and negative predictive value for the detection of clinically
      significant prostate cancer in biopsy-naive men. Concurrent developments include
      important work in the standardization of MRI reporting. The low specificity and
      positive predictive value of MRI means that biopsy is still necessary following
      MRI. MRI-targeted prostate biopsy has emerged as an alternative diagnostic test
      to transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy, though its exact role in biopsy
      naive men and the optimal technique remain to be defined. SUMMARY: There is the
      potential for MRI to be used as a triage test to allow a proportion of men to
      avoid biopsy and remain on prostate-specific antigen surveillance. MRI-suspicious
      areas can be sampled more intensively using MRI-targeted biopsy that can be
      carried out in a variety of ways. Future work should focus on the cost
      effectiveness of introducing a prebiopsy MRI pathway in biopsy-naive men and
      addressing the training needs for such a change. VIDEO ABSTRACT:
      http://links.lww.com/COU/A11.

PMID- 28562372
TI  - Masseteric to buccal branch nerve transfer.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review recent literature pertaining to the use of
      masseteric-facial nerve neurorrhaphy (MFNN) for facial reanimation in patients
      with facial paralysis. RECENT FINDINGS: First, MFNN effectively restores some
      midface tone and function, including the ability to smile. Second, use of the
      masseteric nerve minimizes synkinesis, dysarthria, and dysphagia that frequently
      occur after hypoglossal-facial nerve neurorrhaphy. Third, concurrent cable
      grafting to the zygomatic branch from an intact proximal facial nerve remnant -
      when available - can restore dynamic eye closure. SUMMARY: Masseteric nerve
      transfer is an alternative to hypoglossal nerve transfer that improves midface
      appearance and function for properly selected patients with facial paralysis.

PMID- 28562373
TI  - Point-of-care Ultrasound Detection of Intraoperative Venous Air Embolism.

PMID- 28562374
TI  - Images in Anesthesiology: Air Embolism during Cardiac Catheterization and the
      Role for Anesthesia Use of Bedside Ultrasound.

PMID- 28562375
TI  - Exercise medicine for advanced prostate cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Exercise is a provocative medicine, known for its preventive,
      complimentary and rehabilitative role in the management of cancer. Impressively,
      exercise is also emerging as a synergistic and targeted medicine to enhance
      symptom control, modulate tumour biology and delay disease progression, with the
      potential to increase overall survival. Given the complex clinical presentation
      of advanced prostate cancer patients and their omnipresent comorbidities, this
      review describes the current and potential role of exercise medicine in advanced
      prostate cancer. RECENT FINDINGS: Exercise has been shown to be safe, feasible
      and effective for advanced prostate cancer patients, inclusive of patients with
      bone metastases; a previously excluded population due to patient and clinician
      fear of adverse events. Preclinical data provide insight into the ability of
      exercise to modulate cancer-specific outcomes, may synergistically increase the
      potency of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and may endogenously and/or mechanically
      suppress tumour formation, growth and invasion in visceral and skeletal tissue.
      Epidemiological studies have also shown an association between physical activity
      and increased survival. SUMMARY: Exercise oncology is rapidly evolving, with
      impressive possibilities that may directly improve patient outcomes in advanced
      prostate cancer. Research must focus on translating preclinical trials into human
      clinical trials and investigate the direct effect of exercise on overall
      survival.

PMID- 28562376
TI  - Ventilation/perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography: a service
      evaluation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify the positive rate and negative predictive value (NPV) of
      our ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) single-photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT) service as respective markers of overcalling (false positives) and
      undercalling (false negatives). We also identified the indeterminate rate as an
      indicator of the technical quality of the scans and reporter confidence. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: V/Q SPECT studies carried out over 5 years were classified into
      positive, negative and indeterminate results. Patients who had died or had
      pulmonary emboli on imaging within 3 months of a negative V/Q SPECT were
      identified as false negatives, from which the NPV was calculated. The total
      number of positive and indeterminate studies as a proportion of all studies was
      calculated as the positive and indeterminate rates. RESULTS: The positive rate,
      NPV and indeterminate rates in nonpregnant patients were 24, 98.7-100 and 3.6%,
      respectively. The positive rate, NPV and indeterminate rates in pregnant patients
      were 6.8, 100 and 2.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The positive rate and NPV for
      nonpregnant patients were similar to the published literature. This suggests that
      we provide a safe service. The indeterminate rate was slightly higher than the
      stated guidelines. The study shows that the positive rate and NPV are achievable
      indicators of potential overcalling and undercalling in a V/Q SPECT service.This
      is also one of the first studies to report a positive rate in pregnant patients
      undergoing V/Q SPECT that other institutions can use as a standard when
      evaluating their services.

PMID- 28562377
TI  - The value of 18F-DOPA PET/CT in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma and
      increased calcitonin values.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this prospective observational study was to examine the benefit
      of a fluorine-18-L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (F-DOPA) PET/computed tomography (CT)
      scan in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in terms of increased
      calcitonin levels. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-eight MTC patients after initial
      total thyreoidectomy with increasing follow-up calcitonin levels suggestive for
      active disease after negative conventional imaging findings (neck ultrasound or
      thorax, abdomen, pelvis multislice computed tomography as standard imaging) were
      scanned using F-DOPA PET/CT from November 2012 to April 2016. The mean calcitonin
      level was 108.5 (range: 6.7-290) pmol/l and the mean carcinoembryonic antigen
      level was 15.7 (range: 1.1-221.9) MUg/l. The mean follow-up period was 19.7
      months. RESULTS: F-DOPA PET/CT was positive in 16 out of 28 (57%) patients,
      mostly because of metabolically active neck and mediastinal lymph nodes
      metastases. Previously unknown bone metastases were found in six patients. A
      positive scan was reported in four patients (25% of positive scans) with a very
      low calcitonin value of less than 49.9 pmol/l. PET/CT findings led to a change of
      management and therapy in 16 out of 28 patients, with surgical procedure
      performed in eight patients, radiotherapy in five patients, and chemotherapy in
      two patients. CONCLUSION: F-DOPA PET/CT is a clinically useful modality in MTC
      whenever the calcitonin level is increased. There is a clear trend toward more
      positive scans with the higher calcitonin values, but patients with moderately
      elevated calcitonin values should also be taken into consideration for molecular
      imaging with F-DOPA PET/CT as the tumor burden in these patients is probably low,
      enabling further therapy to be individualized and consequently more efficient.

PMID- 28562378
TI  - Lack of association between COMT Val158Met and ZDHHC8 rs175174 polymorphisms and
      susceptibility to schizophrenia in a Brazilian population.

PMID- 28562379
TI  - Dexrazoxane added to doxorubicin-based adjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer: a
      retrospective cohort study with a comparative analysis of toxicity and survival.
AB  - Dexrazoxane is indicated as a cardioprotective agent for patients receiving
      doxorubicin who are at increased risk for cardiotoxicity. Concerns have been
      raised on the use of dexrazoxane, particularly in adjuvant therapy, because of
      the risk of interference with the antitumor effect of doxorubicin. Two meta
      analyses in metastatic breast cancer have rejected this hypothesis, but have
      shown an apparent increase in the severity of myelosuppression when dexrazoxane
      is used. Here, we analyzed retrospectively a cohort of our institute database to
      assess whether the addition of dexrazoxane causes more bone marrow suppression in
      breast cancer patients receiving doxorubicin-based adjuvant therapy. The
      secondary objectives were assessment of the incidence of febrile neutropenia,
      dose-schedule modifications, recorded cardiac events or cardiac test
      abnormalities, and overall survival. Eight hundred and twenty-two female patients
      who received adjuvant (or neoadjuvant) doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide for
      breast cancer between 2001 and 2013 were included. One hundred and four of these
      patients also received dexrazoxane concurrently with the adjuvant treatment.
      Hospital records and, when accessible, community clinic records were reviewed.
      The median follow-up duration was 7 years for patients receiving dexrazoxane and
      7.5 years for patients not receiving dexrazoxane. 85.6% of patients were alive at
      data lock. Compared with the nondexrazoxane group, patients who received
      dexrazoxane were older (median age at diagnosis 59 vs. 52 years) and more likely
      to receive dose-dense AC therapy (73 vs. 59%) and adjuvant trastuzumab treatment
      (29 vs. 15%). Compared with the nondexrazoxane group, dexrazoxane treatment was
      associated with a higher rate of hematological side effects: leukopenia (48 vs.
      39%), neutropenia (45 vs. 31%, P=0.003), anemia (86 vs. 73%, P=0.005), and
      thrombocytopenia (37 vs. 22%, P=0.001). There were more febrile neutropenia
      hospitalizations (20 vs. 10%, P=0.001) and dose reductions (22 vs. 8%, P<0.001)
      in the dexrazoxane group, but no significant difference in the incidence of
      treatment delays or cancellations. The incidence of cardiac events was the same
      in both treatment groups with and without dexrazoxane. There was a
      nonsignificantly lower mortality rate in the dexrazoxane group (9.6%) compared
      with the nondexrazoxane group (15.0%) at data lock. Adding dexrazoxane to
      doxorubicin in adjuvant therapy patients leads to higher rates of bone marrow
      suppression in all blood components, as well as more febrile neutropenia events,
      and dose reductions. No differences in events defined as cardiac toxicities were
      detected. Dexrazoxane had no detrimental effect on survival, despite the higher
      hematological toxicity, the older median age, and the higher prevalence of HER2
      positive disease in the dexrazoxane group.

PMID- 28562380
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of venetoclax in patients with 17p deletion chronic lymphocytic
      leukemia.
AB  - Venetoclax is a first-in-class orally available, B-cell lymphoma (BCL)-2
      inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) harboring the 17p deletion. We used a novel
      approach for evaluating venetoclax pharmacokinetics using only sparse sampling in
      155 patients enrolled in a phase 2, multicenter, open-label study in CLL patients
      with the 17p deletion. Patients received venetoclax doses within 30 min after the
      completion of breakfast or the first meal of the day, with no specific
      recommendations for the fat content in the meal. Blood samples for venetoclax
      assay were collected during the ramp-up period and on day 1 of weeks 8, 12, 16,
      24, and every 12 weeks thereafter. The mean postdose (8 h) plasma venetoclax
      concentrations increased with increasing weekly venetoclax dose during the ramp
      up period to reach 1.89 ug/ml on week 5 day 1 at the 400 mg dose. The mean
      predose concentration at the 400 mg dose ranged between 0.69 and 0.99 ug/ml
      across visits between weeks 8 and 120. Repeated-measures analysis detected no
      statistical significance (P>=0.05) for the mean predose concentrations at any of
      the times tested from weeks 8 to 24. The study shows that the pharmacokinetic
      profile of venetoclax in CLL patients with the 17p deletion is comparable to the
      overall CLL as well as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patient populations. Furthermore,
      no specific recommendation in terms of fat content in the meal is needed for the
      intake of venetoclax in patients with CLL.

PMID- 28562381
TI  - Respiratory involvement in neuromuscular disorders.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In numerous neuromuscular disorders (NMDs), respiratory muscle
      weakness is present, and acute or chronic respiratory failure may evolve. Very
      often, respiratory involvement substantially adds to the burden of disease,
      impairs quality of life, or reduces life expectancy. This article summarizes new
      aspects of both diagnosis and management of respiratory muscle weakness in
      patients with NMDs. RECENT FINDINGS: Drugs like deflazacort, ataluren,
      eteplirsen, and nusinersen are now approved treatments for Duchenne Muscular
      Dystrophy and Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and others are on their way in NMDs.
      Although observing how innovative drugs will change the natural history of these
      diseases, including respiratory function over time, adequate symptomatic
      treatment remains meaningful and is strongly recommended. Physicians should
      systematically take respiratory involvement into account to improve patients'
      quality of life and prognosis. SUMMARY: First, it is outlined in which subtypes
      of NMD respiratory muscle dysfunction is particularly relevant. Second, new
      developments regarding diagnostic procedures, including respiratory muscle
      strength testing, spirometry, and sleep studies, are covered. Third, this article
      gives an overview on current concepts of ventilatory support and management of
      secretions in patients with NMD.

PMID- 28562382
TI  - Impact of mean platelet aggregation degree on long-term clinical outcomes among
      patients undergoing a complex percutaneous coronary intervention.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the mean
      platelet aggregation degree and long-term clinical outcomes in patients receiving
      a complex percutaneous coronary intervention (CPCI). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      screened 2141 patients after a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) treated
      with aspirin and clopidogrel. CPCI was defined as a procedure targeted to at
      least one of the following: left main disease, bifurcation lesion, ostial lesion,
      chronic total occlusion, and small-vessel stenting. ADP-induced platelet
      aggregation was serially measured by light transmission aggregometry at least
      three times after PCI and the mean value was calculated. The population was
      categorized on the basis of the mean ADP degree and the presence of CPCI. The
      primary endpoint measured was a major adverse cardiovascular and cerebral event
      (MACCE). RESULTS: A total of 1245 patients enrolled in the study were divided
      into four groups: group A (CPCI and ADP>=40%), group B (CPCI and ADP<40%), group
      C (non-CPCI and ADP>=40%), and group D (non-CPCI and ADP<40%). The median follow
      up was 29.9 months. The Cox multivariate analysis suggested that group A was an
      independent risk factor for MACCE (hazard ratio: 2.70, 95% confidence interval:
      1.25-5.81; P<0.001). Compared with group A, the remaining groups (groups B, C,
      and D) had a lower rate of MACCE. When group C was set as the reference, groups B
      and D had similar risks for primary endpoints. CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing
      CPCI with a high mean ADP degree are at a high risk for MACCE. Serial platelet
      function testing is therefore important in patients receiving CPCI.

PMID- 28562383
TI  - Treatment options for stent restenosis: insights from intracoronary imaging,
      clinical trials, and registries.
AB  - Although drug-eluting stents (DES) have markedly reduced the incidence of stent
      restenosis (SR), the increased number and complexity of percutaneous coronary
      interventions performed worldwide explain the sustained prevalence of SR.
      Intracoronary imaging techniques remain essential tools to unravel the underlying
      mechanical causes potentially leading to SR. Current clinical trial data suggest
      that DES are the most effective therapy for the management of both bare-metal
      stents SR and DES-SR. In this setting, however, drug-eluting balloons represent a
      valid therapeutic alternative with the attractive advantage of not requiring the
      implantation of an additional metallic layer. In this review, we will discuss
      trial data on the historical evolution and the evidence supporting currently
      available therapeutic modalities for patients with bare-metal stents SR or DES
      SR.

PMID- 28562384
TI  - Personalized hemodynamic management.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To describe personalized hemodynamic management of critically
      ill patients in the operating room and the ICU. RECENT FINDINGS: Several recent
      clinical studies have investigated different strategies for optimizing blood
      pressure (BP) and flow in the operating room and in the ICU. In the past, (early)
      goal-directed hemodynamic treatment strategies often used predefined fixed
      population-based 'normal' values as hemodynamic targets. Most hemodynamic
      variables, however, have large interindividual variability and are dependent on
      several biometric factors. Personalized BP management aims to set specific BP
      targets for a given patient taking into account blood flow autoregulation and any
      history of chronic hypertension. To optimize cardiac output and oxygen delivery,
      individualized hemodynamic management based on functional assessment of fluid
      responsiveness is used. Innovative noninvasive technologies now enable
      preoperative assessment of a patient's personal normal hemodynamic values, which
      can then be targeted in the perioperative phase. In critically ill patients
      admitted to the ICU, adaptive multiparametric hemodynamic monitoring can help to
      personalize hemodynamic management. SUMMARY: Personalized hemodynamic management
      targets personal normal values of hemodynamic variables, which are adjusted to
      biometric data and adapted to the clinical situation (i.e., adequate values).
      This approach optimizes cardiovascular dynamics based on the patient's personal
      hemodynamic profile.

PMID- 28562387
TI  - Lipid resuscitation in acute poisoning: after a decade of publications, what have
      we really learned?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The decision to provide intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE)
      therapy as a treatment modality for the reversal of various drug toxicity was
      discovered in the last decade. Numerous publications, in both humans and animals
      attest to its clinical use, but current supporting evidence is inconsistent.
      RECENT FINDINGS: A recent systematic review reported evidence for benefit of ILE
      in bupivacaine toxicity. Human randomized trials, large observational studies as
      well as animal models of orogastric poisoning failed to report a clear benefit of
      ILE for nonlocal anesthetics poisoning. SUMMARY: ILE can be used to resuscitate
      local anesthetics especially bupivacaine. The impact of ILE on oral overdoses is
      controversial and clear evidence on benefit is lacking. A thorough risk benefit
      assessment with consideration of alternative options is warranted to minimize the
      risk of adverse effects. Evidence supports using bolus doses of ILE, while
      infusion rates are still debatable.

PMID- 28562385
TI  - Mitochondrial DNA in Sepsis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Our understanding of critical illness is transforming as we
      develop a better understanding of the impact pathogen-associated molecular
      patterns and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) have on the
      pathogenesis of disease. Of the known DAMPs, there is a growing interest in
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as a DAMP capable of propagating the inflammatory
      response seen in sepsis and other conditions. In this review, we describe the
      varying mechanisms by which mtDNA is translocated from mitochondria into cytosol
      and the extracellular space where it can illicit an inflammatory response. In
      addition, we present some of the most recent clinical studies to examine mtDNA in
      critical illness. RECENT FINDINGS: Basic science research provides convincing
      data that mtDNA can influence the immune system through toll-like receptor 9 and
      inflammasomes. Clinical trials provide evidence that mtDNA is elevated in
      critically ill patients and is associated with mortality. SUMMARY: Although mtDNA
      is a DAMP shown to be elevated in numerous conditions, the clinical ramifications
      of this finding remain elusive. Further work is needed to determine if mtDNA can
      be utilized as a biomarker of disease severity or mortality.

PMID- 28562386
TI  - Neurotoxicity of anesthetic drugs: an update.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article reviews the most recently published evidence that
      investigated anesthesia-induced neurotoxicity in both animals and humans,
      especially as it pertains to the perinatal period. RECENT FINDINGS: Several
      recent studies have focused on better understanding the complex mechanisms that
      underlie intravenous and volatile anesthesia-induced neurotoxicity in animals.
      Adjuvant agents that target these pathways have been investigated for their
      effectiveness in attenuating the neuroapoptosis and neurocognitive deficits that
      result from anesthesia exposure, including dexmedetomidine, rutin, vitamin C,
      tumor necrosis factor alpha, lithium, apocynin, carreic acid phenethyl ester.
      Five clinical studies, including one randomized control trial, provided
      inconsistent evidence on anesthesia-induced neurotoxicity in humans. SUMMARY:
      Despite a growing body of preclinical studies that have demonstrated anesthesia
      induced neurotoxic effects in the developing and aging brain, their effects on
      the human brain remains to be determined. The performance of large-scale human
      studies is limited by several important factors, and noninvasive biomarkers and
      neuroimaging modalities should be employed to define the injury phenotypes that
      reflect anesthesia-induced neurotoxicity. Ultimately, the use of these modalities
      may provide new insights into whether the concerns of anesthetics are justified
      in humans.

PMID- 28562388
TI  - Procedural sedation in the ICU and emergency department.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Procedures are increasingly being performed in the acute care
      setting, outside of the operating rooms (OR). This article aims to review the
      current literature on out-of-OR procedural sedation with a focus on the ICU and
      emergency department, highlighting the following topics: multidisciplinary team
      approach, choice of pharmacologic agent, sedation scales, current safety
      guidelines, anticipating complications, appropriate monitoring and necessary
      resources. RECENT FINDINGS: Subjective assessment of sedation using sedation
      scales is controversial. Addition of ketamine and dexmedetomidine to propofol for
      sedation improves patient and proceduralist satisfaction. The short-acting
      benzodiazepine remimazolam shows promise in initial phase 2 trials. Use of
      capnography for monitoring during sedation is being challenged by new literature
      from the emergency department setting. Hypoxia is the most common adverse event
      with procedural sedation, and the risk of pulmonary aspiration is low. SUMMARY:
      Multimodal/synergistic sedation under a multidisciplinary team provides the best
      patient satisfaction. Collection and analysis of physiological data and outcomes
      of patients undergoing procedural sedation is necessary to maintain compliance
      with regulatory bodies. There is a paucity of comprehensive guidelines for
      conducting research in procedural sedation; therefore, it is being currently
      addressed by the Sedation Consortium.

PMID- 28562389
TI  - Clinical course over five decades of a woman carrying 16p13.3 microduplication.

PMID- 28562390
TI  - Myhre syndrome with novel findings: bilateral congenital cortical cataract,
      bilateral papilledema, accessory nipple, and adenoid hypertrophy.

PMID- 28562391
TI  - Pierpont syndrome: report of a new patient.
AB  - Pierpont syndrome (OMIM #602342) is a rare disorder characterized by
      developmental delay, characteristic facial gestalt, hearing loss, and abnormal
      fat distribution in the distal limbs. A specific mutation in TBL1XR1 [c.1337A>G;
      p.(Tyr446Cys)] has been described recently in six unrelated patients with
      Pierpont syndrome. We report on a male child with developmental delay,
      distinctive facial dysmorphic features, dystrophy, and abnormal fat distribution
      in the feet, in whom we identified the identical TBL1XR1 mutation. This patient
      also had additional clinical features including microphthalmia, pendular
      nystagmus, cryptorchidism, dermal sinus, and peripheral joint laxity, which had
      not been reported previously in association with Pierpont syndrome. This patient
      corroborates the assumption that Pierpont syndrome is exclusively caused by the
      specific TBL1XR1 missense mutation p.(Tyr446Cys) and the additional features
      broaden the phenotypic spectrum of this rare disorder.

PMID- 28562392
TI  - Atypical osteogenesis imperfecta caused by a 17q21.33 deletion involving COL1A1.

PMID- 28562393
TI  - Association between lower air pressure and the onset of ischemic colitis: a case
      control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Ischemic colitis (IC) often affects the elderly. Proarteriosclerotic
      factors, such as hypertension and smoking, and cardiovascular disease are
      considered major contributors to IC. Although a possible link between certain
      cerebrocardiovascular disorders and meteorological phenomena has been reported,
      the relationship between IC onset and weather changes remains uninvestigated.
      This study examined whether specific meteorological factors were associated with
      the occurrence of IC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 303
      patients who had been diagnosed with IC between January 2003 and June 2010 at
      Suwa Red Cross Hospital in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The meteorological data of
      the days on which IC patients visited the hospital (IC+ days) were compared with
      those of the days on which IC patients did not (IC- days). RESULTS: Univariate
      analysis indicated that IC+ days had significantly lower air pressure (P<0.001),
      depressed air pressure from the previous day (P<0.001), and fewer daylight hours
      (P<0.001), as well as higher air temperature (P=0.017), air humidity (P=0.004),
      wind velocity (P<0.001), and rainfall (P=0.012) compared with IC- days.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis of the meteorological data showed that
      air pressure (odds ratio: 0.935, P<0.001) and change in air pressure from the
      previous day (odds ratio: 0.934, P<0.001) were related to onset of IC.
      CONCLUSION: Lower air pressure and decrease in air pressure from the previous day
      are possible novel factors associated with the development of IC.

PMID- 28562394
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for the differential
      diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: ESCULAP versus CEUS-LI-RADS.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A comparison is made of two contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)
      algorithms for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in high-risk
      patients: Erlanger Synopsis of Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound for Liver lesion
      Assessment in Patients at Risk (ESCULAP) and American College of Radiology
      Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound-Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (ACR-CEUS-LI
      RADSv.2016). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Focal liver lesions in 100 high-risk patients
      were assessed using both CEUS algorithms (ESCULAP and CEUS-LI-RADSv.2016) for a
      direct comparison. Lesions were categorized according to size and contrast
      enhancement in the arterial, portal venous and late phases.For the definite
      diagnosis of HCC, categories ESCULAP-4, ESCULAP-Tr and ESCULAP-V and CEUS-LI-RADS
      LR-5, LR-Tr and LR-5-V were compared. In addition, CEUS-LI-RADS-category LR-M
      (definitely/probably malignant, but not specific for HCC) and ESCULAP-category C
      [intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma (ICC)] were compared.Histology, CE
      computed tomography and CE-MRI served as reference standards. RESULTS: The
      reference standard among 100 lesions included 87 HCCs, six ICCs and seven non-HCC
      non-ICC-lesions. For the diagnosis of HCC, the diagnostic accuracy of CEUS was
      significantly higher with ESCULAP versus CEUS-LI-RADS (94.3%/72.4%; p<0.01).
      Sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) and negative
      predictive value for ESCULAP/CEUS-LI-RADS were 94.3%/72.4%; 61.5%/69.2%;
      94.3%/94%; and 61.5%/27.3%, respectively.The diagnostic accuracy for ICC (LR
      M/ESCULAP-C) was identical with both algorithms (50%), with higher PPV for
      ESCULAP-C versus LR-M (75 vs. 50%). CONCLUSION: CEUS-based algorithms contribute
      toward standardized assessment and reporting of HCC-suspect lesions in high-risk
      patients. ESCULAP shows significantly higher diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and
      negative predictive value with no loss of specificity compared with CEUS-LI-RADS.
      Both algorithms have an excellent PPV. Arterial hyperenhancement is the key
      feature for the diagnosis of HCC with CEUS. Washout should not be a necessary
      prerequisite for the diagnosis of definite HCC. CEUS-LI-RADS in its current
      version is inferior to ESCULAP for the noninvasive diagnosis of HCC. There are
      two ways to improve CEUS-LI-RADS: firstly, combination of the categories LR-4 and
      LR-5 for the diagnosis of definite HCC, and secondly, use of subtotal
      infiltration of a liver lobe as an additional feature.

PMID- 28562395
TI  - Differential significance of early surgical complications for acute and long-term
      recurrence-free survival following surgical resection of hepatocellular
      carcinoma: do comorbidities play a role?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative complications of Clavien-Dindo grade 3 or more are of
      prognostic significance in patients who undergo liver resection for
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, perioperative mortality and patient
      comorbidities represent relevant factors that interfere with postoperative long
      term survival. To clarify this, a retrospective single-center study was carried
      out. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patient data were prospectively collected in a
      continuously updated liver resection database. Overall, 184 consecutive patients
      who underwent liver resection for HCC with a curative intent between March 2003
      and December 2013 were selected for the study. The patients were assigned to two
      groups according to the presence or absence of postoperative complications. Pre
      existing comorbidities, perioperative mortality, surgical outcome, and long-term
      survival data were analyzed. RESULTS: Postoperative complications requiring
      revision surgery were identified in 17.4% of the patients. The in-house mortality
      rate was 4.8%. Compared with patients without complications, patients with
      complications were older and had significantly more pre-existing comorbidities,
      more advanced tumors, more intrahepatic metastasis, longer operation times,
      greater blood loss, and more extensive resections. The overall 5-year survival
      rates were 40.1 and 52.5% in patients with or without postoperative
      complications, respectively. The corresponding 5-year recurrence-free survival
      rates were 46.3 and 46.7% (perioperative mortality excluded). Multivariate
      analysis showed that elevation of the Charlson Comorbidity Index was associated
      independently with decreased overall and recurrence-free survival. CONCLUSION: In
      patients with HCC, posthepatectomy complications are confirmed to have predictive
      value. However, closer analysis and exclusion of perioperative mortality effects
      show an independent impact of pre-existing comorbidities on long-term overall und
      recurrence-free survival.

PMID- 28562398
TI  - Celebrate Home Health Aides.

PMID- 28562397
TI  - Simulation Research in Gastrointestinal and Urologic Care-Challenges and
      Opportunities: Summary of a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
      Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
      Workshop.
AB  - : A workshop on "Simulation Research in Gastrointestinal and Urologic Care:
      Challenges and Opportunities" was held at the National Institutes of Health in
      June 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to examine the extent to which
      simulation approaches have been used by skilled proceduralists (not trainees)
      caring for patients with gastrointestinal and urologic diseases. The current
      status of research findings in the use and effectiveness of simulation
      applications was reviewed, and numerous knowledge gaps and research needs were
      identified by the faculty and the attendees. The paradigm of "deliberate
      practice," rather than mere repetition, and the value of coaching by experts was
      stressed by those who have adopted simulation in music and sports. Models that
      are most useful for the adoption of simulation by expert clinicians have yet to
      be fully validated. Initial studies on the impact of simulation on safety and
      error reduction have demonstrated its value in the training domain, but the role
      of simulation as a strategy for increased procedural safety remains uncertain in
      the world of the expert practitioner. Although the basic requirements for
      experienced physicians to acquire new skills have been explored, the widespread
      availability of such resources is an unrealized goal, and there is a need for
      well-designed outcome studies to establish the role of simulation in improving
      the quality of health care.

PMID- 28562401
TI  - Using a Standardized Patient to Improve Collaboration and Problem Solving Skills
      With CPAP Usage in the Home.
AB  - A review of literature revealed a lack of research pertaining to nurses' or
      student nurses' knowledge of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and the
      ability to troubleshoot CPAP malfunction. This study sought to answer the
      following questions: What are associate degree nursing (ADN) students' knowledge,
      interdisciplinary communication, and problem-solving skills regarding patients'
      home use of CPAP? Is there a change after participation in a simulation with a
      patient on CPAP in home setting? Twenty-one ADN students enrolled in small
      Midwest college participated. A preexperimental design of one group pretest
      posttest was used. Each student completed a demographic questionnaire, Mayo High
      Performance Teamwork Scale, Interprofessional collaborative simulation experience
      survey, and a CPAP knowledge base survey before and upon completion of the
      simulation. There were no changes in students' comfort, baseline knowledge, and
      basic understanding regarding CPAP. However, after the simulation, students
      described more detailed problem-solving skills, which included using respiratory
      therapists, durable medical equipment providers, and community resources. On the
      Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale, all 16 items demonstrated improved scores
      (baseline mean = 21.65 and postsimulation mean = 25.6).

PMID- 28562400
TI  - Prevalence of and Factors Related to Prescription Opioids, Benzodiazepines, and
      Hypnotics Among Medicare Home Health Recipients.
AB  - High rates of controlled prescription drugs are associated with cognitive
      impairment, falls, and misuse and dependence. Little is known about the
      prevalence of these medications among older adults receiving home healthcare. The
      purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of, and the factors related
      to, opioid analgesics, benzodiazepines (BNZ), and nonbenzodiazepine (NBNZH)
      hypnotics among a large sample of older adults entering home healthcare services.
      The data came from administrative records of 133 Certified Home healthcare
      Agencies located across 32 states. Patients (age >= 65) receiving Medicare home
      healthcare services and who received a start-of-care Medicare OASIS assessment
      between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2014, were included in the study (n =
      87,780). Rates of controlled medication use were compared across patient-level
      sociodemographic, clinical, functional, and environmental variables. The
      prevalence of controlled medication was high, with 58% prescribed at least one
      class of controlled drug, 44% were prescribed an opioid, 19% were prescribed a
      BNZ, and almost 7% were prescribed a NBZDH. Factors independently associated with
      higher levels of controlled medication usage include younger-old age, white race,
      postsurgical status, injuries, referral from inpatient settings, and rural
      location. Home healthcare clinicians are well positioned to review and reconcile
      medication, oversee referrals and follow-up care, and provide ongoing assessment
      of risk regarding the use of opioids, BNZ, and hypnotics among home healthcare
      patients.

PMID- 28562402
TI  - Artificial Nutrition and Hydration in People With Late-Stage Dementia.
AB  - The progressive nature of dementia marks this disease as a terminal illness in
      the advanced stage, and palliative care rather than curative treatment is
      indicated. The use of feeding tubes to deliver artificial nutrition and hydration
      at end of life is often part of the plan of care for people with dementia.
      Current evidence, however, suggests that tube feeding in advanced dementia is not
      beneficial and the burdens of the procedure and the feedings themselves outweigh
      any benefits. Evidence also reveals that healthcare providers may lack evidence
      based knowledge about artificial nutrition and hydration to adequately inform
      families and surrogate decision makers. This article examines the evidence
      regarding use of artificial nutrition and hydration for patients with end-stage
      dementia and offers implications for home care clinicians.

PMID- 28562403
TI  - Prevention of 30-Day Readmission After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery.
AB  - Although many studies have focused on risk factors for 30-day readmission after
      coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, there is very little known about the
      prevention of modifiable risk factors associated with readmission. The research
      questions that guided this focused literature review were (1) What are the
      modifiable risk factors of 30-day readmission after CABG surgery identified in
      recent literature? and (2) What are the clinical programs and strategies
      available in preventing 30-day readmission after CABG surgery? A focused
      literature review from 1997 to 2014 yielded 17 published reports. Findings of
      this review revealed a significant gap between addressing modifiable patient
      specific risk factors and the current clinical program initiatives, which are
      focused on care processes. Clinical programs and strategies for 30-day
      readmission after CABG surgery are evolving. Many programs and studies have
      included discharge planning and education as interventions to prevent 30-day
      readmissions; however, there is inconsistency in the literature on the impact of
      early discharge on readmission. Future studies need to focus on targeting the
      clinical modifiable risk factors and discharge planning and education, which may
      help to prevent 30-day readmissions.

PMID- 28562404
TI  - Bundle Payment Program Initiative: Roles of a Nurse Navigator and Home Health
      Professionals.
AB  - With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, The Centers for Medicare and
      Medicaid (CMS) introduced a new value-based payment model, the Bundle Payment
      Care Initiative. The CMS Innovation (Innovation Center) authorized hospitals to
      participate in a pilot to test innovative payment and service delivery models
      that have a potential to reduce Medicare expenditures while maintaining or
      improving the quality of care for beneficiaries. A hospital-based home care
      agency, Abington Jefferson Health Home Care Department, led the initiative for
      the development and implementation of the Bundled Payment Program. This was a
      creative and innovative method to improve care along the continuum while testing
      a value-based care model.

PMID- 28562405
TI  - Reviewing the 2017 American Diabetes Association Standards of Medical Care.

PMID- 28562406
TI  - Caregiver Education and Support.

PMID- 28562407
TI  - Unexpected Painful Breath.

PMID- 28562408
TI  - A Day in the Life of a Home Health and Hospice Aide.

PMID- 28562409
TI  - Writing for Publication.

PMID- 28562410
TI  - Documentation Dilemmas.

PMID- 28562411
TI  - In Celebration of Home Healthcare Aides.

PMID- 28562413
TI  - Renal Adiposity Confounds Quantitative Assessment of Markers of Renal Diffusion
      With MRI: A Proposed Correction Method.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recent studies have indicated that excessive fat may confound
      assessment of diffusion in organs with high fat content, such as the liver and
      breast. However, the extent of this effect in the kidney, which is not considered
      a major fat deposition site, remains unclear. This study tested the hypothesis
      that renal fat may impact diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) parameters, and
      proposes a 3-compartment model (TCM) to circumvent this effect. METHODS: Using
      computer simulations, we investigated the effect of fat on assessment of apparent
      diffusion coefficient (ADC), intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM), and TCM-derived
      pure-diffusivity. We also investigated the influence of magnetic resonance
      repetition (TR) and echo time (TE) on DWI parameters as a result of variation in
      the relative contribution of the fat signal. Apparent diffusion coefficient, IVIM
      and TCM DWI parameters were calculated in domestic pigs fed a high-cholesterol
      (obese group) or normal diet (lean group), and correlated to renal histology.
      Intravoxel incoherent motion-derived pure-diffusivity was also compared among 15
      essential hypertension patients classified by body mass index (BMI) (high vs
      normal). Finally, pure-diffusivity was calculated and compared in 8 patients with
      atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) and 5 healthy subjects using IVIM
      and TCM. RESULTS: Simulations showed that unaccounted fat results in the
      underestimation of IVIM-derived pure diffusivity. The underestimation increases
      as the fat fraction increases, with higher pace at lower fat contents. The
      underestimation was larger for shorter TR and longer TE values due to the
      enhancement of the relative contribution of the fat signal. Moreover, TCM, which
      incorporates highly diffusion-weighted images (b > 2500 s/mm), could correct for
      fat-dependent underestimation. Animal studies in the lean and obese groups
      confirmed lower ADC and IVIM pure-diffusivity in obese versus lean pigs with
      otherwise healthy kidneys, whereas pure-diffusivity calculated using TCM were not
      different between the 2 groups. Similarly, essential hypertension patients with
      high BMI had lower ADC (1.9 vs 2.1 * 10 mm/s) and pure-diffusivity (1.7 vs 1.9 *
      10 mm/s) than those with normal BMI. Pure-diffusivity calculated using IVIM was
      not different between the ARAS and healthy subjects, but TCM revealed
      significantly lower diffusivity in ARAS. CONCLUSIONS: Excessive renal fat may
      cause underestimation of renal ADC and IVIM-derived pure-diffusivity, which may
      hinder detection of renal pathology. Models accounting for fat contribution may
      help reduce the variability of diffusivity calculated using DWI.

PMID- 28562414
TI  - Spatial Distribution of Iron Within the Normal Human Liver Using Dual-Source Dual
      Energy CT Imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Explore the potential of dual-source dual-energy (DSDE) computed
      tomography (CT) to retrospectively analyze the uniformity of iron distribution
      and establish iron concentration ranges and distribution patterns found in
      healthy livers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten mixtures consisting of an iron nitrate
      solution and deionized water were prepared in test tubes and scanned using a DSDE
      128-slice CT system. Iron images were derived from a 3-material decomposition
      algorithm (optimized for the quantification of iron). A conversion factor (mg
      Fe/mL per Hounsfield unit) was calculated from this phantom study as the quotient
      of known tube concentrations and their corresponding CT values. Retrospective
      analysis was performed of patients who had undergone DSDE imaging for renal
      stones. Thirty-seven patients with normal liver function were randomly selected
      (mean age, 52.5 years). The examinations were processed for iron concentration.
      Multiple regions of interest were analyzed, and iron concentration (mg Fe/mL) and
      distribution was reported. RESULTS: The mean conversion factor obtained from the
      phantom study was 0.15 mg Fe/mL per Hounsfield unit. Whole-liver mean iron
      concentrations yielded a range of 0.0 to 2.91 mg Fe/mL, with 94.6% (35/37) of the
      patients exhibiting mean concentrations below 1.0 mg Fe/mL. The most important
      finding was that iron concentration was not uniform and patients exhibited
      regionally high concentrations (36/37). These regions of higher concentration
      were observed to be dominant in the middle-to-upper part of the liver (75%),
      medially (72.2%), and anteriorly (83.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Dual-source dual-energy CT
      can be used to assess the uniformity of iron distribution in healthy subjects.
      Applying similar techniques to unhealthy livers, future research may focus on the
      impact of hepatic iron content and distribution for noninvasive assessment in
      diseased subjects.

PMID- 28562416
TI  - Cryptococcal disease in the solid organ transplant setting: review of clinical
      aspects with a discussion of asymptomatic cryptococcal antigenemia.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cryptococcal infections are an important cause of morbidity
      and mortality in solid organ transplant patients. Here, we review the
      microbiology, epidemiology, clinical course, treatment, and outcomes of
      Cryptococcus in solid organ transplant recipients. RECENT FINDINGS: We identify
      the unique findings in solid organ transplant patients when compared to other
      immunocompromised patients such as those with HIV. We also describe our
      experience and outcomes with regard to solid organ transplant patients who do not
      have positive fungal cultures, but cryptococcal antigen positivity and concern
      for cryptococcal disease. SUMMARY: Our review will highlight the importance of
      these new diagnostic techniques in those with Cryptococcus and solid organ
      transplant, which will be the subject of new research.

PMID- 28562417
TI  - Strongyloides stercoralis in solid organ transplantation: early diagnosis gets
      the worm.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Strongyloidiasis is a parasitic infection affecting millions
      of people worldwide. Complications of infection are strongly associated with
      alcoholism, immunosuppression, and organ transplantation. Delayed diagnosis
      results in hyperinfection syndrome and disseminated strongyloidiasis leading to
      mortality rates approaching 80%. Early detection, and prevention of infection and
      transmission are key to diminish this illness. RECENT FINDINGS: In this review,
      we cover the basic concepts in immunity, immunosuppression, and disorder
      necessary for understanding the infectious syndromes associated with
      Strongyloides stercoralis infection. Focused discussion on donor-derived
      transmission and recipient risk in solid organ transplantation is presented.
      Current methodology for diagnosis, screening algorithms, and treatment are also
      reviewed. SUMMARY: Strongyloidiasis complicated by hyperinfection and
      dissemination remains associated with a poor outcome. The poor outcome pleads for
      a high level of suspicion and aggressive treatment in at-risk patients. As the
      population of transplant patients continues to increase, the risk of infection
      also increases, compelling us to address this highly fatal infectious
      complication in solid organ transplantation (SOT). Here we review the pathology,
      immunology, diagnosis, and treatment of strongyloides infection in the
      immunosuppressed SOT population.

PMID- 28562418
TI  - Autologous islet transplantation: challenges and lessons.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Human islet isolation and autotransplantation [autologous
      islet transplant (AUTX)] is performed to prevent or ameliorate brittle diabetes
      after total pancreatectomy performed for benign disease. The success or failure
      of the transplant can be associated with a profound impact on the individual's
      quality of life and even survival. AUTX offers unique insights into the effects
      of pancreas quality, islet number, isolation technique and alternate site
      engraftment on transplant efficacy. Herein, we review islet isolation with a
      focus on potential pathways to further optimize the endocrine outcome of AUTX,
      and compare and contrast differences in islet processing for AUTX and
      allotransplantation (allogeneic islet transplant). RECENT FINDINGS: New knowledge
      of human islet biology and issues surrounding the engraftment process offer
      opportunities for innovative approaches toward optimizing islet cell
      transplantation. SUMMARY: Improving the rate and durability of insulin
      independence in the often-times marginal dose model of AUTX may provide new
      insight toward improving the efficiency and durability of single donor islet
      (allogeneic islet transplant).

PMID- 28562419
TI  - Endocrine disorders and hormonal therapy for adolescent acne.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Acne vulgaris is a global disease with increasing prevalence
      in adolescents. It has a profound impact on their quality of life, especially
      when endocrine disorders are also involved. Recent concerns regarding antibiotic
      stewardship, failures with antibiotic usage, and the development of antibiotic
      resistant Propionibacterium acnes have led clinicians to consider other
      therapeutic options for acne treatment. The present review explores hormonal
      therapies for the treatment of acne vulgaris. RECENT FINDINGS: There are now four
      different combined oral contraceptive pills that are FDA approved for the
      treatment of acne since its first introduction in 1960. Recent literature has
      provided more information on the efficacy of different generations of combined
      oral contraceptive pills, their side-effects, and cancer risks. Furthermore,
      spironolactone has been gaining wider use among dermatologists in adolescents
      with endocrine dysfunction. New diagnostic guidelines and treatment
      recommendations have also been suggested. SUMMARY: Hormonal therapies are
      effective and well tolerated options for the treatment of acne vulgaris in
      adolescents with and without endocrine disorders. They can be used as monotherapy
      or in conjunction with benzoyl peroxide, topical retinoic acid, or antibiotics.

PMID- 28562420
TI  - Statement on gender-affirmative approach to care from the pediatric endocrine
      society special interest group on transgender health.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this Position Statement is to emphasize the
      importance of an affirmative approach to the health care of transgender
      individuals, as well as to improve the understanding of the rights of transgender
      youth. RECENT FINDINGS: Transgender youth have optimal outcomes when affirmed in
      their gender identity, through support by their families and their environment,
      as well as appropriate mental health and medical care. SUMMARY: The Pediatric
      Endocrine Society Special Interest Group on Transgender Health joins other
      academic societies involved in the care of children and adolescents in supporting
      policies that promote a safe and accepting environment for gender
      nonconforming/transgender youth, as well as adequate mental health and medical
      care. This document provides a summary of relevant definitions, information and
      current literature on which the medical management and affirmative approach to
      care of transgender youth are based.

PMID- 28562421
TI  - Ventricular fibrillation and long-QT syndrome due to panhypopituitarism.

PMID- 28562422
TI  - Serum calcification propensity is associated with renal tissue oxygenation and
      resistive index in patients with arterial hypertension or chronic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arterial calcifications increase arterial stiffness and are
      associated with a faster decline of kidney function in patients with arterial
      hypertension (AH) and/or chronic kidney disease (CKD). Yet the underlying
      mechanisms linking arterial calcifications, vascular stiffness and renal function
      decline are incompletely understood. A novel in-vitro blood test evaluates the
      propensity of patient's serum to prevent the formation of calcifications by
      measuring the maturation time of calciprotein particles (CPP) [transformation
      time of amorphous calcium phosphate-containing primary CPP to crystalline
      hydroxyapatite-containing secondary CPP (T50)]. We hypothesized that a high
      arterial stiffness and a high propensity to calcify may be associated with high
      renal vascular resistance and low renal tissue oxygenation. METHODS: T50 was
      measured in patients with AH and a preserved renal function, in CKD patients and
      in healthy controls, a lower T50 indicating a higher risk of calcification. Pulse
      wave velocity (PWV) was assessed as a measure of arterial stiffness, and renal
      resistive index was measured by renal Doppler ultrasound. Renal tissue
      oxygenation was measured by blood oxygenation level-dependent MRI using the mean
      R2 values of the cortex, the medulla and layers of renal parenchyma. A high R2
      value corresponds to a low tissue oxygenation. RESULTS: Mean T50 was 246 +/- 129
      min in 58 CKD patients, 275 +/- 111 min in 48 AH patients and 324 +/- 96 min in
      39 healthy controls (Panova = 0.008). In multivariable adjusted linear regression
      analysis, serum T50 correlated negatively with circulating calcium and phosphate
      levels, mean cortical and medullary R2, PWV, renal resistive index and being
      hypertensive. PWV was positively associated with R2 levels of outer and inner
      layers of renal parenchyma. CONCLUSION: The current study shows that hypertensive
      patients with preserved renal function as well as CKD patients have a higher risk
      of calcification than controls. High arterial stiffness and calcification
      propensity are linked to low renal tissue oxygenation and perfusion in
      hypertensive and CKD patients. These results provide new insights on the
      relationships among arterial stiffness, renal tissue oxygenation and the risk of
      developing CKD.

PMID- 28562424
TI  - Biology of Bone Formation, Fracture Healing, and Distraction Osteogenesis.
AB  - Distraction osteogenesis is a bone-regenerative process in which an osteotomy is
      followed by distraction of the surrounding vascularized bone segments, with
      formation of new bone within the distraction gap. Distraction osteogenesis is
      efficacious for reconstructing critical sized bony defects in the appendicular
      and craniofacial skeleton. To provide opportunity to expand applications of
      distraction osteogenesis, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the
      underlying molecular biology and physiology of bone development and fracture
      healing. To accomplish these objectives a review of the literature was performed
      using search terms "endochondral ossification, intramembranous ossification,
      craniofacial skeleton, appendicular skeleton, fracture healing, bone development,
      and distraction osteogenesis." Bones of the craniofacial and appendicular
      skeleton have distinct mechanisms of embryonic development. The former develops
      from growth centers of mesenchymal precursors through intramembranous
      ossification. The latter forms though endochondral ossification in growth plates.
      However, both endochondral and intramembranous bone share similar master
      regulatory transcription factors and downstream growth factors. Fracture healing
      mirrors the pathway by which these bones developed embryonically. In contrast,
      bone formed by distraction osteogenesis does so by intramembranous ossification,
      regardless of whether it occurs within the appendicular or craniofacial skeleton.
      Understanding molecular pathway differences between bone formation by these
      mechanisms may allow for optimization and expansion of skeletal reconstruction by
      distraction osteogenesis.

PMID- 28562423
TI  - A Report of Information Technology and Health Deficiencies in U.S. Nursing Homes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of nursing home
      (NH) information technology (IT) sophistication on publically reported health
      safety deficiency scores documented during standard inspections. METHODS: The
      sample included 807 NHs from every U.S. state. A total of 2187 health inspections
      were documented in these facilities. A national IT sophistication survey
      describing IT capabilities, extent of IT use, and degree of IT integration in
      resident care, clinical support, and administrative activities in U.S. NHs was
      used. The relationship between NH health deficiencies and IT sophistication
      survey scores was examined, using weighted regression. RESULTS: Controlling for
      registered nurse hours per resident day, deficiency scores decreased as total IT
      sophistication increased. Controlling for total IT sophistication score,
      deficiency scores decreased as registered nurse hours per resident day increased.
      Ownership status significantly influenced health deficiency scores. CONCLUSIONS:
      These results highlight the necessity to understand benefits of implementing NH
      IT and demonstrating its impact on patient safety.

PMID- 28562425
TI  - Rotational and Collic Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potential Testing in Normal
      Developing Children and Children With Combined Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
      Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Vestibular dysfunction in childhood can have a major effect on a
      child's developmental process. Balance function has been reported to be poorer in
      children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than in their
      typically developing peers. Due to contradictory available evidence and the
      paucity of research on vestibular function specifically in children with combined
      ADHD (cADHD), we designed this aged-matched study to assess vestibular function
      in children with cADHD. DESIGN: We enrolled 30 typically developing children (15
      boys and 15 girls; mean age, 9 years 6 months; range, 7 to 12 years) and 33
      children (19 boys and 14 girls; mean age, 9 years 0 months; range, 7 to 12 years)
      with cADHD diagnosed by our research psychiatrist. Typically developing controls
      were used to obtain normative data on vestibular testing and to examine the
      impact of age on the vestibular response parameters, and these results were
      compared with those of the cADHD group. All children underwent the sinusoidal
      harmonic acceleration subtype of the rotary chair test (0.01, 0.02, 0.08, 0.16,
      and 0.32 Hz) and the cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) test.
      RESULTS: At all five frequencies in the sinusoidal harmonic acceleration test,
      there was no significant correlation between age and any of the following rotary
      chair response parameters in typically developing children: vestibulo-ocular
      reflex (VOR) gain, phase, asymmetry, and fixation index. Furthermore, there was
      no significant correlation between age and any of the following cVEMP parameters
      for the right and left ears of control group: p1 and n1 latency, amplitude,
      threshold, and amplitude ratio. Significantly higher VOR gains were observed for
      children with cADHD at frequencies of 0.01 (p = 0.001), 0.08 (p < 0.001), 0.16 (p
      = 0.001), and 0.32 (p = 0.003) Hz, when compared with the control group.
      Furthermore, fixation abilities were significantly lower in the cADHD group than
      in the control group at 0.16 (p < 0.001) and 0.32 (p < 0.001) Hz. cVEMP
      parameters showed no significant differences between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our results showed higher VOR gains and poorer fixation abilities in children
      with cADHD compared with typically developing children. Cerebellar dysfunction in
      patients with ADHD has been well documented in the literature, and our findings
      of cVEMP and rotary chair tests for these children showed impaired vestibular
      function in these children, based on increased VOR gain values and decreased
      fixation capabilities. Because VOR gain is mediated through the inferior olive
      and controlled by the cerebellum, our results suggest that central inhibition of
      vestibular function may be deficient in children with cADHD, resulting in higher
      VOR gains. Also, there is general agreement that failure of fixation suppression
      indicates a central lesion. The lesion can originate from the parietal-occipital
      cortex, the pons, or the cerebellum. However, failure of fixation suppression is
      most prominent in lesions involving the midline cerebellum that could be counted
      for children with cADHD. We believe that this contribution is theoretically and
      practically relevant as high VOR gains and decreased suppression capabilities may
      result in symptoms of reading and writing difficulties, learning disabilities,
      vertigo, and motion sickness in these children. Therefore, assessment of
      vestibular function in children with cADHD at a young age must be considered when
      developing rehabilitation protocols for these children.

PMID- 28562427
TI  - Effects of Saccular Function on Recovery of Subjective Dizziness After Vestibular
      Rehabilitation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We attempted to investigate whether the integrity of saccular function
      influences the severity of subjective dizziness after vestibular rehabilitation
      in vestibular neuritis. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: Tertiary
      referral center. PATIENTS: Forty-six patients with acute unilateral vestibular
      neuritis were included. INTERVENTIONS: Diagnostic, therapeutic, and
      rehabilitative. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All the patients completed vestibular
      rehabilitation therapy until their computerized dynamic posturography and rotary
      chair test results were significantly improved. The rehabilitation patients were
      classified into the normal to mild subjective dizziness and moderate to severe
      subjective dizziness groups according to the dizziness handicap inventory score
      (cutoff of 40). Differences between the two groups were analyzed. RESULTS: After
      rehabilitation, 32.6% of the patients still complained of moderate to severe
      dizziness. Age, sex distribution, the presence of comorbidities, caloric
      weakness, pre- and postrehabilitation gain values in rotary chair test,
      postrehabilitation composite scores in posturography, and the duration of
      rehabilitation were not significantly different between the two groups. However,
      initial dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) score and composite score in dynamic
      posturography were worse and the proportion of patients with absent cervical
      vestibular-evoked myogenic potential in the moderate to severe group was much
      higher (93.3% vs. 35.5%, p < 0.001). After multiple regression analysis of those
      factors, initial DHI score and absent cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic
      potential response were identified as being associated with higher
      postrehabilitation DHI score. CONCLUSION: Saccular dysfunction in acute
      vestibular neuritis can contribute to persistent subjective dizziness, even after
      the objective parameters of vestibular function tests have been improved by
      vestibular rehabilitation.

PMID- 28562426
TI  - Age-Related Differences in the Processing of Temporal Envelope and Spectral Cues
      in a Speech Segment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: As people age, they experience reduced temporal processing abilities.
      This results in poorer ability to understand speech, particularly for degraded
      input signals. Cochlear implants (CIs) convey speech information via the temporal
      envelopes of a spectrally degraded input signal. Because there is an increasing
      number of older CI users, there is a need to understand how temporal processing
      changes with age. Therefore, the goal of this study was to quantify age-related
      reduction in temporal processing abilities when attempting to discriminate words
      based on temporal envelope information from spectrally degraded signals. DESIGN:
      Younger normal-hearing (YNH) and older normal-hearing (ONH) participants were
      presented a continuum of speech tokens that varied in silence duration between
      phonemes (0 to 60 ms in 10-ms steps), and were asked to identify whether the
      stimulus was perceived more as the word "dish" or "ditch." Stimuli were vocoded
      using tonal carriers. The number of channels (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and unprocessed)
      and temporal envelope low-pass filter cutoff frequency (50 and 400 Hz) were
      systematically varied. RESULTS: For the unprocessed conditions, the YNH
      participants perceived the word ditch for smaller silence durations than the ONH
      participants, indicating that aging affects temporal processing abilities. There
      was no difference in performance between the unprocessed and 16-channel, 400-Hz
      vocoded stimuli. Decreasing the number of spectral channels caused decreased
      ability to distinguish dish and ditch. Decreasing the envelope cutoff frequency
      also caused decreased ability to distinguish dish and ditch. The overall pattern
      of results revealed that reductions in spectral and temporal information had a
      relatively larger effect on the ONH participants compared with the YNH
      participants. CONCLUSIONS: Aging reduces the ability to utilize brief temporal
      cues in speech segments. Reducing spectral information-as occurs in a channel
      vocoder and in CI speech processing strategies-forces participants to use
      temporal envelope information; however, older participants are less capable of
      utilizing this information. These results suggest that providing as much spectral
      and temporal speech information as possible would benefit older CI users
      relatively more than younger CI users. In addition, the present findings help set
      expectations of clinical outcomes for speech understanding performance by adult
      CI users as a function of age.

PMID- 28562428
TI  - Single nucleotide variant in Nucleoporin 107 may be predictive of sensitivity to
      chemotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alterations in nuclear pore complex (NPC) genes have been previously
      associated with response to chemotherapy. Using agnostic exome sequencing, we
      envisioned that new alleles in NPC genes, predictive of sensitivity to platinum
      treatment, could be discovered. METHODS: Twenty-two platinum-sensitive and six
      platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients were tested. Platinum sensitivity was
      defined as disease-free survival greater than 6 months. Next-generation
      sequencing of exomes was used to compare platinum-sensitive and platinum
      resistant patients. Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) associated with platinum
      sensitivity in NPC genes (n=30 genes) were identified. RESULTS: SNVs in three NPC
      genes were associated with response to platinum on univariate analysis. SNV
      rs79419059 (10T>C) in Nucleoporin 107 (Nup107) was associated with platinum
      resistance (P=0.0061), whereas rs2302811 (3662-4A>G) in Nucleoporin 188 (Nup188)
      and rs77246077 (3420-67T>A) in Nucleoporin 214 (Nup214) were associated with
      platinum sensitivity (P=0.0483 and 0.0091, respectively). Controlling for other
      confounders, multivariate age-adjusted Cox proportional hazard analysis showed
      rs79419059 to be significantly associated with platinum resistance (odds ratio:
      4.519, 95% confidence interval: 1.317-15.501, P=0.0457). CONCLUSION: We
      identified a variant in the 3'-UTR region Nup107 unique to sensitivity to
      platinum in ovarian cancer. With validation of this variant, it is possible that
      a new marker predictive of patient response may be identified.

PMID- 28562429
TI  - Disenfranchised Grief in the PICU: Crying for Attention.
AB  - THEME: The death of any child is distressing to parents, family, friends, and
      healthcare staff alike. However, the close family circle is accorded the right to
      grieve by society, as the nature of the relationship with the child is
      acknowledged and socially validated. The relationship between the child and the
      staff caring for the child is not acknowledged to the same extent, and this may
      cause difficulties for staff who grieve following the death of the child. This
      experience is repeated many times when working in the PICU. CASE STUDIES: This
      article describes two cases that illustrate the unrecognized nature of
      disenfranchised grief for pediatric healthcare staff. DISCUSSION: Addressing the
      cumulative effects of bereavement on the staff in the PICU through formal and
      informal systems of support may reduce emotional exhaustion, improve staff
      retention, and enhance the care of children and families.

PMID- 28562430
TI  - Transplantation of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells into a murine model
      of immune thrombocytopenia.
AB  - : Several reports have demonstrated T regulatory cells may play an important role
      in the pathophysiology of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). As the immunomodulator,
      bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (BM-MSCs) regulate T regulatory
      cells and show therapeutic effects on autoimmune diseases. However, it is not
      clear how BM-MSCs affect ITP. In this study, we explored the specific effects of
      BM-MSCs on ITP in mice. Using a murine model of ITP, mice were randomly divided
      into three groups: normal control group, ITP control group and ITP and BM-MSCs
      group. Platelet (PLT) levels were monitored by an automatic blood cell counter,
      and T regulatory cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Compared with the
      untreated ITP mice, the PLT level of the ITP mice was significantly increased
      after BM-MSCs treatment. In the BM-MSCs group, T regulatory cells were
      significantly decreased. These findings demonstrate that bone-marrow-derived MSCs
      are effective in improving PLT levels and reducing the T regulatory cells
      mediating proinflammatory response in ITP mice.

PMID- 28562431
TI  - Lacrimal Apparatus Defect Repair: Use of the Monocanalicular Silicone Stent.

PMID- 28562432
TI  - A Two-Phase Pilot Study to Evaluate the Safety and Tolerability of an In Situ
      Polymerizing Collagen.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Demand for collagen-based fillers has declined primarily because of
      limited long-term clinical benefit and the introduction of hyaluronic acid
      compositions. In situ polymerizing collagen is a noncrosslinked solution of
      porcine collagen containing a collagenase shield that undergoes fibrillogenesis
      on injected into tissues forming a natural matrix. OBJECTIVE: Conduct a
      prospective, single-center, dual-phase open-label study in 8 subjects to evaluate
      the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of the porcine collagen composition.
      METHODS: In Phase I, potential hypersensitivity of the collagen composition was
      evaluated after skin testing in the back (men) or forearms of subjects (women).
      In Phase II, subjects showing no signs of hypersensitivity received collagen
      injections into the nasolabial area followed by evaluation at 1, 4, 8, and 12
      weeks using the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale. RESULTS: None of the subjects
      had signs of hypersensitivity and all continued in Phase II. The treating
      physician(s) reported no post-treatment adverse events. Improvement of the
      nasolabial fold was observed by the physicians and confirmed by assessment of
      high-resolution photographs and Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale scores over
      the 12-week treatment were maintained. CONCLUSION: In this pilot clinical study
      in situ polymerizing collagen was shown to be safe and effective throughout the 3
      month study period.

PMID- 28562433
TI  - Platelet-Rich Plasma in Combination With 5% Minoxidil Topical Solution and 1 mg
      Oral Finasteride for the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia: A Randomized Placebo
      Controlled, Double-Blind, Half-Head Study.

PMID- 28562434
TI  - Treatment of Actinic Keratoses: A Randomized Split-Site Approach Comparison of
      Sequential 5-Fluorouracil and 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Photodynamic Therapy to 5
      Aminolevulinic Acid Photodynamic Monotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Actinic keratoses (AKs) are skin lesions resulting from sun exposure
      and carry a risk of developing into squamous cell carcinoma. Current therapies
      for AK eradication include topical 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and photodynamic therapy
      (PDT) with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). However, sequential therapy with
      5-FU-ALA-PDT may offer improved outcome compared to ALA-PDT alone. OBJECTIVE: The
      purpose of this study is to compare the long-term efficacy of AK clearance by
      sequential therapy with 5-FU-ALA-PDT versus ALA-PDT alone. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This is a single center, randomized split-site approach study on equivalent
      anatomical and clinical sites. Seventeen patients were enrolled with one half of
      the site randomized to receive sequential 5-FU-ALA-PDT and the other side with
      ALA-PDT monotherapy. Total AKs were counted at baseline, 6 and 12 months.
      RESULTS: Median percentage reduction in AK number at 6 months for 5-FU-ALA-PDT
      versus ALA-PDT was 100% for 5-FU-ALA-PDT (N = 21) and 66.7% for ALA-PDT (N = 21),
      p = .001. Median percentage reduction in AK number at 12 months for 5-FU-ALA-PDT
      versus ALA-PDT was 100% for 5-FU-ALA-PDT (N = 22) and 82.6% for ALA-PDT (N = 22),
      p = .0002. CONCLUSION: Sequential therapy with 5-FU-ALA-PDT is more effective at
      AK clearance at 6 and 12 months compared to ALA-PDT monotherapy.

PMID- 28562435
TI  - Calcium Hydroxylapatite Dermal Filler for Treatment of Dorsal Hand Volume Loss:
      Results From a 12-Month, Multicenter, Randomized, Blinded Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA) microspheres suspended in a carrier
      gel is an opaque dermal filler that has been used to provide immediate volume
      correction in the dorsal hands. OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and effectiveness
      of CaHA for the correction of volume loss in the hands up to 12 months. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: This multicenter, controlled, single-blind study (NCT01832090)
      included 114 subjects randomized 3:1 to CaHA treatment and untreated control
      groups. Effectiveness was assessed by blinded investigators using the validated
      Merz Hand Grading Scale (MHGS). Subject-reported improvement was assessed using
      the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale. Effects of treatment on hand function
      were also assessed. RESULTS: A total of 75% of subjects achieved >=1-point
      improvement on the MHGS (p < .0001) at 3 months (primary end point); this
      response was generally maintained through 12 months. Proportions of subjects
      reporting improvement ranged from 98% (3 months) to 86% (12 months). There were
      no clinically significant differences between control and CaHA-treated subjects
      in any hand function measure. Adverse events were generally expected, minor,
      short-lived, injection-related, and similar to those observed in previous CaHA
      clinical studies. CONCLUSION: Treatment with CaHA results in significant
      improvement in the appearance of the dorsal hand and is well tolerated.

PMID- 28562436
TI  - Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study on the Use of Platelet-Rich Plasma
      in Women With Female Androgenetic Alopecia.

PMID- 28562437
TI  - Use of Skin Biopsies Among Dermatologists.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skin biopsies are essential to establish a diagnosis in many skin
      diseases. Utilization has been increasing rapidly and represents a significant
      health care cost. There are no benchmarks or baselines to guide the practice of
      skin biopsies. OBJECTIVE: To create a reference data set of biopsy behavior among
      dermatologists. METHODS: Five hundred eighty-eight dermatologists belonging to
      the American Dermatological Association (ADA) were surveyed. Two hundred eighty
      seven responded with 128 of those providing biopsy data. RESULTS: The mean
      percentage of biopsies that were malignant was 44.5%. This varied by subspecialty
      with a mean of 41.7%, 57.4%, and 4.1% of biopsies performed by general
      dermatologists, Mohs micrographic surgeons, and pediatric dermatologists,
      respectively. By category or diagnosis, the biopsies were 22.7% basal cell
      carcinoma, 12.0% SCC, 10.2% benign neoplasms, 10.0% nevi, 8.0% actinic keratosis,
      7.6% seborrheic keratosis, 7.5% inflammatory disorders, 6.1% SCC in situ, 5.3%
      dysplastic nevus, 5.1% benign skin, 1.5% melanoma in situ, 1.4% melanoma, 0.9%
      lentigines, 0.8% other malignancies, 0.6% infectious, 0.2% not otherwise
      specified, and 0.1% atypical lesions. There was a statistically significant
      difference in biopsy results between different dermatological subspecialties.
      CONCLUSION: These results should help elucidate dermatologic practice patterns
      and thus create opportunities to improve dermatologic care and reduce health care
      costs.

PMID- 28562439
TI  - Impact of Smoke Evacuation on Patient Experience During Mohs Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There have been several investigations into possible health risks of
      surgical smoke exposure, and it has previously been associated with harboring
      pathogens and carcinogens. Patients in the authors' practice have expressed that
      the odor from the smoke created by electrosurgical equipment is unpleasant.
      OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to determine if smoke evacuation decreases patient
      perception of smoke created by electrosurgery during Mohs surgery and if it
      subsequently improves patient satisfaction with their surgical experience by
      minimizing the associated odor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients were
      enrolled in this comparative trial. Smoke evacuation was used during closure but
      not during Mohs stages. Patients were queried regarding their experience and
      preferences during and at the end of the procedure. RESULTS: 100% of patients
      reported the perception of a burning odor during removal of Mohs stages, compared
      with 40% reporting the perception of a burning odor during closure. During the
      Mohs stages, 66.6% of patients reported the odor as unpleasant compared with
      16.6% of patients during closure. There were no statistically significant
      differences in patient perceptions when stratified by age, sex, or surgical site.
      CONCLUSION: The authors believe that using a wall suction smoke evacuation system
      is simple and can result in a more pleasant experience for patients undergoing
      Mohs surgery.

PMID- 28562438
TI  - Retrospective Evaluation of Topical Bimatoprost and Iris Pigmentation Change.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Topical bimatoprost is a topical prostaglandin analog originally used
      to treat glaucoma and more recently used to cosmetically induce hypertrichosis of
      the eyelashes. Iris pigmentation change has been noted in the treatment of
      glaucoma but has not been assessed with the cosmetic periorbital application of
      bimatoprost. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate for iris pigmentation change with the long
      term cosmetic use of topical bimatoprost. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective
      chart review in a cosmetic dermatology practice of women (N = 50) who
      consistently purchased topical bimatoprost over an average of 4.59 years was
      compared with that of age-matched non-bimatoprost patients (N = 50). A blinded
      evaluator assessed each patient for iris pigmentary change. RESULTS: No iris
      pigmentation change was noted with the cutaneous application of bimatoprost.
      CONCLUSION: The cutaneous application of bimatoprost appears to be safe with
      minimal risk for iris pigmentation change.

PMID- 28562440
TI  - Vitamin D in human reproduction.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a wide range of
      human disease states and the global epidemic, particularly in reproductive aged
      women, has led to a focus on this complex hormones role in human reproduction.
      Indeed vitamin D receptors are found throughout the reproductive tract in the
      ovary, endometrium, and the placenta. It has roles both in calcium-dependent and
      independent pathways. However, agreement upon the most appropriate way to assess
      vitamin D status and ultimately its activity at various sites has proven
      challenging. RECENT FINDINGS: Investigators have studied vitamin D's role in
      assisted reproduction and found successful outcomes are correlated with vitamin D
      replete status. However, subsequent studies have found mixed results when parsing
      its role in folliculogenesis and oogenesis versus its impact on embryonic
      implantation in the endometrium. Correlation was shown in a donor oocyte model
      which suggests endometrial involvement; however, in a euploid blastocyst transfer
      model with attention to embryo and endometrial synchrony this was not seen. It
      may be that the major impact is proximal to blastocyst formation at the site of
      folliculogenesis as has been shown in a primate model. Taken together, these
      studies suggest that vitamin D's role may be more sophisticated when it comes to
      reproductive success. Further, it has become clear that the nonstandard method of
      determining vitamin D status in the clinical and research settings requires
      clarification to ensure more comparable data in future studies. SUMMARY: Vitamin
      D has clear roles in human health and disease, and its impact on human
      reproduction seems promising but requires clarification. With new techniques for
      assessing its status in patients and its impact at end organs as well as evolving
      theories regarding its potential to influence folliculogenesis, endometrial
      receptivity, and ovarian aging, we will soon gain additional clarity and hope to
      be able to impact reproductive success in a positive way.

PMID- 28562441
TI  - Simulation Research in Gastrointestinal and Urologic Care-Challenges and
      Opportunities: Summary of a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
      Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
      Workshop.
AB  - A workshop on ''Simulation Research in Gastrointestinal and Urologic Care:
      Challenges and Opportunities'' was held at the National Institutes of Health in
      June 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to examine the extent to which
      simulation approaches have been used by skilled proceduralists (not trainees)
      caring for patients with gastrointestinal and urologic diseases. The current
      status of research findings in the use and effectiveness of simulation
      applications was reviewed, and numerous knowledge gaps and research needs were
      identified by the faculty and the attendees. The paradigm of ''deliberate
      practice,'' rather than mere repetition, and the value of coaching by experts was
      stressed by those who have adopted simulation in music and sports. Models that
      are most useful for the adoption of simulation by expert clinicians have yet to
      be fully validated. Initial studies on the impact of simulation on safety and
      error reduction have demonstrated its value in the training domain, but the role
      of simulation as a strategy for increased procedural safety remains uncertain in
      the world of the expert practitioner. Although the basic requirements for
      experienced physicians to acquire new skills have been explored, the widespread
      availability of such resources is an unrealized goal, and there is a need for
      well-designed outcome studies to establish the role of simulation in improving
      the quality of health care.

PMID- 28562442
TI  - Pulse wave reflection in children: amplification through the lifecourse.

PMID- 28562443
TI  - Birth cohort or measurement protocol differences?

PMID- 28562444
TI  - Poor blood pressure control: what can we do?

PMID- 28562445
TI  - Reply: physics cannot be disputed.

PMID- 28562446
TI  - Renal resistive index for resistant hypertension.

PMID- 28562447
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28562448
TI  - The rising incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of liver disease in
      the United States and will soon be the leading indication for liver
      transplantation. NAFLD can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and is usually
      asymptomatic. Prompt referral to a hepatologist may halt the morbidity and
      mortality associated with NAFLD.

PMID- 28562449
TI  - Genetic counseling for hereditary cancer: A primer for NPs.
AB  - Many patients have concerns regarding their family's cancer history and may be
      appropriate for referral to genetic counseling. This article examines indications
      for referral for genetic counseling for hereditary cancer, the process of genetic
      counseling and testing, and ways for NPs to collaborate with genetics providers.

PMID- 28562450
TI  - Considerations for Residency Programs Regarding Accepting Undocumented Students
      Who Are DACA Recipients.
AB  - The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative provides for the
      temporary deferral of enforcement of immigration laws for certain undocumented
      individuals brought to the United States before age 16. More than 50 medical
      schools now consider applicants who are DACA recipients, and medical school
      graduates with DACA are eligible to continue their training in graduate medical
      education. In this article, the authors summarize current policy and provide data
      on DACA recipients in medical school. They then review the implications for
      considering DACA recipients in graduate medical education, including employment
      guidelines, employer responsibilities, training at Veterans Affairs facilities,
      research funding, and professional licensure. They conclude by discussing the
      future of the DACA program and best practices for supporting students who are
      DACA recipients.First, there are no employment restrictions for DACA recipients
      with valid work authorization documents as long as their employers use Form I-9
      Employment Eligibility Verification. Second, unlike H-1B or J-1 visa holders,
      DACA recipients do not generate additional immigration-related costs for their
      residency programs. Next, provisions in the Civil Rights Act prohibit employers
      from discriminating against applicants based on national origin or, in some
      cases, citizenship status. Furthermore, trainees with DACA are eligible to rotate
      through Veterans Affairs facilities. Finally, some states, like California and
      New York, have adopted policies and regulations allowing trainees with DACA who
      meet all professional requirements to receive a medical license. Given this state
      of affairs, DACA recipients should have equal standing to their peers when being
      evaluated for residency positions.

PMID- 28562452
TI  - Mixed Messages or Miscommunication? Investigating the Relationship Between
      Assessors' Workplace-Based Assessment Scores and Written Comments.
AB  - PURPOSE: The shift toward broader, programmatic assessment has revolutionized the
      approaches that many take in assessing medical competence. To understand the
      association between quantitative and qualitative evaluations, the authors
      explored the relationships that exist among assessors' checklist scores, task
      ratings, global ratings, and written comments. METHOD: The authors collected and
      analyzed, using regression analyses, data from the McMaster Modular Assessment
      Program. The data were from emergency medicine residents in their first or second
      year of postgraduate training from 2012 through 2014. Additionally, using content
      analysis, the authors analyzed narrative comments corresponding to the "done" and
      "done, but needs attention" checklist score options. RESULTS: The regression
      analyses revealed that the task ratings, provided by faculty assessors, are
      associated with the use of the "done, but needs attention" checklist score
      option. Analyses also identified that the "done, but needs attention" option is
      associated with a narrative comment that is balanced, providing both strengths
      and areas for improvement. Analysis of qualitative comments revealed differences
      in the type of comments provided to higher- and lower-performing residents.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights some of the relationships that exist among
      checklist scores, rating scales, and written comments. The findings highlight
      that task ratings are associated with checklist options while global ratings are
      not. Furthermore, analysis of written comments supports the notion of a "hidden
      code" used to communicate assessors' evaluation of medical competence, especially
      when communicating areas for improvement or concern. This study has implications
      for how individuals should interpret information obtained from qualitative
      assessments.

PMID- 28562451
TI  - Values Guide Us in Times of Uncertainty: DACA and Graduate Medical Education.
AB  - With a new administration and Congress, there is uncertainty surrounding the
      future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In light of
      this uncertainty, medical schools have tried to better understand how they can
      support trainees with DACA. In their article in this issue, Nakae and colleagues
      describe the issues often encountered by medical students with DACA as they
      prepare for residency and by the program directors who receive their
      applications. They offer recommendations for best practices to support these
      trainees. The authors of this Invited Commentary expand on these important
      considerations, based on their experiences at a national level. They argue that
      the core values in academic medicine should drive decision making, the student
      voice is critical, teamwork is essential, and wellness deserves attention.
      Academic medicine is part of a larger movement with partners across the health
      professions and higher education focused on advancing the values of access and
      opportunity for all. The authors of this Invited Commentary argue that remaining
      steadfast and committed to the core values in medicine will allow the academic
      medicine community to successfully navigate these uncertain times.

PMID- 28562453
TI  - Continuing Professional Development for Faculty: An Elephant in the House of
      Academic Medicine or the Key to Future Success?
AB  - The scope of change required by academic medical centers (AMCs) to maintain their
      viability and achieve their tripartite mission in the future is large; such
      reform is affected by numerous global, national, and local forces. Most AMCs
      focus their transformational efforts on organizational infrastructure (e.g.,
      undertaking payment reform, developing new organizational structures, investing
      in information technology) and educational programs (with subsequent changes in
      undergraduate and graduate medical education curricula). Although useful, these
      efforts have failed to produce the kind of change required for AMCs to succeed in
      the future.The authors of this Invited Commentary describe a key element missing
      from most of these reform efforts-the preparation of faculty for new models of
      health care and educational practice. To address this issue, they call for the
      effective, system-aligned presence of continuing professional development (CPD)
      programs. CPD combines continuing medical education, with its focus on content
      knowledge, and faculty development, with its focus on evidence-based learning
      methodologies, across the institution to produce a more robust, system- and
      outcomes-oriented program to facilitate both individual and organizational
      learning. If sufficiently supported, CPD programs can provide a platform for the
      human changes necessary to ensure the smooth transition of AMCs to new models of
      education, clinical research, and ultimately patient care.

PMID- 28562454
TI  - Exploring the Relationships Between USMLE Performance and Disciplinary Action in
      Practice: A Validity Study of Score Inferences From a Licensure Examination.
AB  - PURPOSE: Physicians must pass the United States Medical Licensing Examination
      (USMLE) to obtain an unrestricted license to practice allopathic medicine in the
      United States. Little is known, however, about how well USMLE performance relates
      to physician behavior in practice, particularly conduct inconsistent with safe,
      effective patient care. The authors examined the extent to which USMLE scores
      relate to the odds of receiving a disciplinary action from a U.S. state medical
      board. METHOD: Controlling for multiple factors, the authors used non-nested
      multilevel logistic regression analyses to estimate the relationships between
      scores and receiving an action. The sample included 164,725 physicians who
      graduated from U.S. MD-granting medical schools between 1994 and 2006. RESULTS:
      Physicians had a mean Step 1 score of 214 (standard deviation [SD] = 21) and a
      mean Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) score of 213 (SD = 23). Of the physicians,
      2,205 (1.3%) received at least one action. Physicians with higher Step 2 CK
      scores had lower odds of receiving an action. A 1-SD increase in Step 2 CK scores
      corresponded to a decrease in the chance of disciplinary action by roughly 25%
      (odds ratio = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.70-0.80). After accounting for Step 2 CK scores,
      Step 1 scores were unrelated to the odds of receiving an action. CONCLUSIONS:
      USMLE Step 2 CK scores provide useful information about the odds a physician will
      receive an official sanction for problematic practice behavior. These results
      provide validity evidence supporting current interpretation and use of Step 2 CK
      scores.

PMID- 28562455
TI  - SimZones: An Organizational Innovation for Simulation Programs and Centers.
AB  - The complexity and volume of simulation-based learning programs have increased
      dramatically over the last decade, presenting several major challenges for those
      who lead and manage simulation programs and centers. The authors present five
      major issues affecting the organization of simulation programs: (1) supporting
      both single- and double-loop learning experiences; (2) managing the training of
      simulation teaching faculty; (3) optimizing the participant mix, including
      individuals, professional groups, teams, and other role-players, to ensure
      learning; (4) balancing in situ, node-based, and center-based simulation
      delivery; and (5) organizing simulation research and measuring value. They then
      introduce the SimZones innovation, a system of organization for simulation-based
      learning, and explain how it can alleviate the problems associated with these
      five issues.Simulations are divided into four zones (Zones 0-3). Zone 0
      simulations include autofeedback exercises typically practiced by solitary
      learners, often using virtual simulation technology. Zone 1 simulations include
      hands-on instruction of foundational clinical skills. Zone 2 simulations include
      acute situational instruction, such as clinical mock codes. Zone 3 simulations
      involve authentic, native teams of participants and facilitate team and system
      development.The authors also discuss the translation of debriefing methods from
      Zone 3 simulations to real patient care settings (Zone 4), and they illustrate
      how the SimZones approach can enable the development of longitudinal learning
      systems in both teaching and nonteaching hospitals. The SimZones approach was
      initially developed in the context of the Boston Children's Hospital Simulator
      Program, which the authors use to illustrate this innovation in action.

PMID- 28562456
TI  - The Problem and Goals Are Global, the Solutions Are Local: Revisiting Quality
      Measurements and the Role of the Private Sector in Global Health Professions
      Education.
AB  - The shortage of a competent health workforce is a global challenge. However, its
      manifestations and proposed solutions are very much context related (i.e.,
      local). In addition to the shortage of health professionals, the quality of
      health professions education programs, institutions, and graduates, and how to
      measure quality, are also problematic. Commonly used metrics like the Credit
      Hours System and the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System have
      limitations (e.g., being more focused on quantity than quality).In this Invited
      Commentary, the author discusses the need to revisit quality measurements in
      health professions education and the issue of whether the private sector has a
      role to play in narrowing the ever-increasing gap between the demand for health
      care professionals and the health care workforce shortage.

PMID- 28562457
TI  - The Educational Climate Inventory: Measuring Students' Perceptions of the
      Preclerkship and Clerkship Settings.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop an instrument to assess educational climate, a critical
      aspect of the medical school learning environment that previous tools have not
      explored in depth. METHOD: Fifty items were written, capturing aspects of Dweck's
      performance-learning distinction, to distinguish students' perceptions of the
      educational climate as learning/mastery oriented (where the goal is growth and
      development) versus performance oriented (where the goal is appearance of
      competence). These items were included in a 2014 survey of first-, second-, and
      third-year students at six diverse medical schools. Students rated their
      preclerkship or clerkship experiences and provided demographic and other data.
      The final Educational Climate Inventory (ECI) was determined via exploratory and
      confirmatory factor analysis. Relationships between scale scores and other
      variables were calculated. RESULTS: Responses were received from 1,441/2,590
      students (56%). The 20-item ECI resulted, with three factors: centrality of
      learning and mutual respect; competitiveness and stress; and passive learning and
      memorization. Clerkship students' ratings of their learning climate were more
      performance oriented than preclerkship students' ratings (P < .001). Among
      preclerkship students, ECI scores were more performance oriented in schools with
      grading versus pass-fail systems (P < .04). Students who viewed their climate as
      more performance oriented were less satisfied with their medical school (P <
      .001) and choice of medicine as a career (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The ECI allows
      educators to assess students' perceptions of the learning climate. It has
      potential as an evaluation instrument to determine the efficacy of attempts to
      move health professions education toward learning and mastery.

PMID- 28562458
TI  - Improved Learning Outcomes After Flipping a Therapeutics Module: Results of a
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact on learning outcomes of flipping a pain
      management module in a doctor of pharmacy curriculum. METHOD: In a required first
      professional-year pharmacology and therapeutics course at the University of
      Maryland School of Pharmacy, the pain therapeutics content of the pain management
      module was flipped. This redesign transformed the module from a largely lecture
      based, instructor-centered model to a learner-centered model that included a
      variety of preclass activities and in-class active learning exercises. In spring
      2015, the module was taught using the traditional model; in spring 2016, it was
      taught using the flipped model. The same end-of-module objective structured
      clinical exam (OSCE) and multiple-choice exam were administered in 2015 to the
      traditional cohort (TC; n = 156) and in 2016 to the flipped cohort (FC; n = 162).
      Cohort performance was compared. RESULTS: Learning outcomes improved
      significantly in the FC: The mean OSCE score improved by 12.33/100 points (P <
      .0001; 95% CI 10.28-14.38; effect size 1.33), and performance on the multiple
      choice exam's therapeutics content improved by 5.07 percentage points (P < .0001;
      95% CI 2.56-7.59; effect size 0.45). Student performance on exam items assessing
      higher cognitive levels significantly improved under the flipped model. Grade
      distribution on both exams shifted, with significantly more FC students earning
      an A or B and significantly fewer earning a D or F compared with TC students.
      CONCLUSIONS: Student performance on knowledge- and skill-based assessments
      improved significantly after flipping the therapeutics content of a pain
      management module.

PMID- 28562459
TI  - Desipramine rescues emotional memory deficit induced by low doses of reserpine.
AB  - Emotional memory deficit is a well-known complication in early Parkinson's
      disease. However, its molecular mechanism is still not well known. To address
      this issue, we examined the cue-related fear-conditioning task and long-term
      potentiation (LTP) of the thalamus to the lateral amygdala in rats treated with
      low doses of reserpine (Res). We found that low-dose Res treatment impaired
      emotional memory and LTP. We also found that exogenous upregulation of
      norepinephrine (NE) ameliorated the impairment of LTP by facilitating beta
      adrenergic receptors. Finally, acute treatment with NE or desipramine rescued the
      impaired emotional memory induced by a low-dose of Res. These results imply a
      pivotal role for NE in synaptic plasticity and associative fear memory in rats
      treated with low doses of Res and suggest that desipramine is a potential
      candidate for treating Parkinson's disease-related emotional memory deficit.

PMID- 28562460
TI  - Team Communication Influence on Procedure Performance: Findings From
      Interprofessional Simulations with Nursing and Medical Students.
AB  - Interprofessional team performance is believed to be dependent on the development
      of effective team communication skills. Yet, little evidence exists in
      undergraduate nursing programs on whether team communication skills affect team
      performance. A secondary analysis of a larger study on interprofessional student
      teams in simulations was conducted to determine if there is a relationship
      between team communication and team procedure performance. The results showed a
      positive, significant correlation between interprofessional team communication
      ratings and procedure accuracy in the simulation. Interprofessional team training
      in communication skills for nursing and medical students improves the procedure
      accuracy in a simulated setting.

PMID- 28562461
TI  - Student Perceptions of Stressors and the Value of Coaching in a Baccalaureate
      Nursing Articulation Program.
AB  - Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses (RIBN) is a unique articulation
      program in North Carolina. The fourth year of RIBN is challenging; students are
      enrolled as full-time university students while starting part-time employment as
      new graduate nurses. The aim of this descriptive pilot study was to explore the
      anticipated and actual stressors related to the fourth year experience and
      evaluate the impact of monthly coaching sessions. Key stressors identified were
      academic workload, professional awareness/role transition/workforce adjustment,
      time management, and obligations to support individuals. The monthly coaching
      sessions were beneficial in providing a means of debriefing and reframing life
      events.

PMID- 28562462
TI  - The Challenge of Patient Notification and the Work of Follow-Up Generated by a 2
      Step Testing Protocol for Group A Streptococcal Pharyngitis in the Pediatric
      Emergency Department.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Current guidelines recommend confirmatory testing for negative rapid
      antigen detection tests (RADTs) for group A streptococcal pharyngitis in
      children. We sought to describe the work of follow-up generated by this process
      and frequency of our inability to notify patients of positive results. METHODS:
      We retrospectively reviewed laboratory and outreach nurse records of patients who
      had group A streptococcal pharyngitis testing performed in an academic pediatric
      emergency department during 2014. For patients with a negative RADT and
      subsequent positive backup direct nucleic acid probe test, we recorded whether
      the patient was successfully notified of the positive result, the number of
      contact attempts, and the time to antibiotic prescription. RESULTS: There were
      6504 patients who had an RADT performed, of which 5474 (84.2%) were negative with
      a confirmatory test performed. There were 234 patients with positive confirmatory
      testing and not prescribed antibiotics at the time of the initial visit. Of
      these, 90.1% were ultimately contacted and prescribed appropriate antibiotics,
      whereas 7.3% were lost to follow-up and 2.6% had potentially unnecessary repeat
      visits. Of those contacted, 43.1% were reached only after multiple telephone
      calls or a letter. The median time from the negative RADT to the submission of an
      electronic prescription was 19.6 hours (interquartile range, 7.5-24.9 hours;
      range, 6-144 hours). CONCLUSIONS: Although confirmatory testing after a negative
      RADT in children is currently the standard of care, this practice requires a
      substantial amount of work. Furthermore, a significant fraction of patients are
      lost to follow-up or have unnecessary repeat visits.

PMID- 28562463
TI  - An Ethical Justification for Termination of Resuscitation Protocols for Pediatric
      Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article was to compare specific characteristics and
      outcomes among adult and pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients
      to show that the existing literature warrants the design and implementation of
      pediatric studies that would specifically evaluate termination of resuscitation
      protocols. We also address the emotional and practical concerns associated with
      ceasing resuscitation efforts on scene when treating pediatric patients. METHODS:
      Relevant prospective and retrospective studies were used to compare
      characteristics and outcomes between adult and pediatric OHCA patients.
      Characteristics analyzed were nonwitnessed arrests, absence of shockable rhythm,
      no return of spontaneous circulation, and survival to hospital discharge.
      RESULTS: Cases of unwitnessed arrests by emergency medical services providers are
      substantially the same in pediatric patients (41.0%-96.3%) compared with their
      adult counterparts (47.4%-97.7%). The adult studies revealed 57.6% to 92.2% of
      patients without an initial shockable rhythm. The pediatric studies showed a
      range of 64.0% to 98.0%. The range of adult patients without return of
      spontaneous circulation was 54.8% to 95.4%, and the range in pediatric patients
      was 68.2% to 95.6%. Survival rates among the adult studies ranged from 0.8% to
      9.3% (mean, 5.0%; median, 5.2%), and in the pediatric studies they were 2.0% to
      26.2% (mean, 9.2%; median, 7.7%). CONCLUSIONS: The data compared demonstrate that
      characteristics and outcomes are virtually identical between adult and pediatric
      OHCA patients. We also found the 3 chief barriers hindering further research to
      be invalid impediments to moving forward. This review warrants designing
      pediatric studies that would specifically correlate termination of resuscitation
      protocols with patient survival and include predictive values.

PMID- 28562464
TI  - Arrhythmic Side of Ondansetron Alongside Antiemetic Effect.

PMID- 28562465
TI  - Occult Head Injury in Children Less Than 2 Years With Suspected Child Abuse in
      the Emergency Department.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the frequency of clinically significant
      findings requiring emergent neurosurgical intervention on computed tomography
      (CT) in neurologically intact children admitted to the hospital with suspected
      abuse. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of neurologically stable children
      (0-24 months) in whom both skeletal survey and CT head were performed for child
      abuse evaluation from 2000 to 2011. RESULTS: A total of 132 patients met
      inclusion criteria (mean age, 7.6 mo; 55% male, 52% Caucasian, and 34% African
      American). Computed tomography scans demonstrated occult head injury in 5%; none
      required neurosurgical intervention or had any neurological deterioration.
      Average length of stay was 4 days, with average time to CT scan being 12.8 hours
      from triage, and average time to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of 70.5
      hours. Five MRIs were performed, and 4 had identical results on CT scan.
      CONCLUSIONS: No clinically significant brain injury (requiring intervention) was
      seen in this cohort. These findings support delaying imaging in neurologically
      intact children to obtain MRI after hospital admission, thus, limiting radiation
      exposure.

PMID- 28562466
TI  - Evidence-Based Medicine Curriculum Improves Pediatric Emergency Fellows' Scores
      on In-Training Examinations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine if implementation of our
      evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum had an effect on pediatric emergency
      medicine fellows' scores on the relevant section of the in-training examination
      (ITE). METHODS: We obtained deidentified subscores for 22 fellows over 6 academic
      years for the Core Knowledge in Scholarly Activities (SA) and, as a balance
      measure, Emergencies Treated Medically sections. We divided the subscores into
      the following 3 instruction periods: "baseline" for academic years before our
      current EBM curriculum, "transition" for academic years with use of a research
      method curriculum with some overlapping EBM content, and "EBM" for academic years
      with our current EBM curriculum. We analyzed data using the Kruskal-Wallis test,
      the Mann-Whitney U test, and multivariate mixed-effects linear models. RESULTS:
      The SA subscore median was higher during the EBM period in comparison with the
      baseline and transition periods. In contrast, the Emergencies Treated Medically
      subscore median was similar across instruction periods. Multivariate modeling
      demonstrated that our EBM curriculum had the following independent effects on the
      fellows' SA subscore: (1) in comparison with the transition period, the fellows'
      SA subscore was 21 percentage points higher (P = 0.005); and (2) in comparison to
      the baseline period, the fellows' SA subscore was 28 percentage points higher
      during the EBM curriculum instruction period (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our EBM
      curriculum was associated with significantly higher scores on the SA section of
      the ITE. Pediatric emergency medicine educators could consider using fellows'
      scores on this section of the ITE to assess the effect of their EBM curricula.

PMID- 28562467
TI  - Assistive Techniques for Proximal Anastomosis in Minimally Invasive Coronary
      Artery Bypass Grafting.
AB  - We introduce assistive techniques for proximal anastomosis in off-pump minimally
      invasive coronary artery bypass grafting (MICS CABG) to overcome difficult access
      to the ascending aorta in MICS CABG. An 8-cm left thoracotomy is made in the
      fifth intercostal space. ThoraTrak retractor (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN USA)
      is used to open the thoracotomy and is pulled to the cephalad and rightward
      direction toward to the ascending aorta. The pericardium is opened from the
      ascending aorta to the left ventricular apex and to the inferior vena cava. Two
      retraction sutures on the pericardial edge are used to laterally displace the
      heart. After dissecting between the ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery,
      the Octopus tissue stabilizer (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN USA), of which the
      suction tip is bent 60 degrees, is used to retract the pulmonary artery caudally.
      A flexible side-biting clamp (Vitalitec Inc.) is placed on the ascending aorta,
      and proximal anastomoses are handsewn on the ascending aorta. A total of 31
      proximal anastomoses were completed with this technique between November 2013 and
      June 2015. All proximal anastomosis was completed without any difficulty. In MICS
      CABG, the technical challenges in proximal anastomosis due to difficult access to
      the aorta can be overcome safely by using this technique.

PMID- 28562469
TI  - Gynecological Cancer as a Second Malignancy in Patients With Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and risk factors
      for gynecological cancer as second malignancy (SM) after treatment of breast
      cancer (BC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between January 1985 and December 2007, a
      total of 2756 patients with BC were analyzed for gynecological cancers as an SM.
      Analysis was carried out for patient-, disease-, and treatment-related
      characteristics. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to
      estimate the relative risk of gynecologic malignancies. RESULTS: The median age
      at BC diagnosis was 49 years and median follow-up of 14 years. In total, 25 cases
      of gynecological cancer were noted with an incidence of 0.9%. We observed 9
      ovarian and endometrium (0.3%) as well as 7 uterine cervix (0.25%) cancers.
      Family history of BC was the most significant risk factor for SM (relative risk,
      7.4; 95% confidence interval, 3.03-18.28; P<0.001). Women with a family history
      of BC had a higher incidence of endometrial (12%) and ovarian (16%) cancer
      compared with those who have no family history (0.1%, P = 0.003). Statistically
      significant higher incidence of endometrial cancer was seen in patients
      undergoing hormonal therapy (0.4%) as compared with those who are not undergoing
      hormonal therapy (0.1%, P = 0.001). Most of the endometrial (88.9%) and cervical
      (71%) cancers were detected at an early stage but ovarian cancers (66.6%) in
      advanced stage. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy did not increase the risk of
      gynecological SM. CONCLUSIONS: Women with BC are at risk of developing a second
      primary gynecological malignancy particularly of endometrium and ovary. Family
      history of BC was a high risk factor for gynecologic SM. These patients should be
      followed up for its early detection.

PMID- 28562470
TI  - A Comparison of Dye Versus Fluorescence Methods for Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping
      in Endometrial Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Sentinel nodes (SNs) have been observed in several reports from Japan
      and overseas in cases with endometrial cancer; however, no consensus has been
      reached regarding the types of tracers or the method of their injection. A
      combination of the radioisotope (RI) and dye method is considered to be
      desirable. We assessed SN mapping using either dye or near-infrared fluorescence
      imaging to clarify a suitable method in cases of endometrial cancer. METHODS:
      Patients were enrolled from 92 patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer and
      having no extrauterine metastasis by the preoperative imaging between 2009 and
      2014 at our institution. To identify the SNs, we performed 3 methods using either
      dye or fluorescence solutions in conjunction with a RI method. In the dye method,
      we injected indocyanine green in the uterine subserosa, visually identifying SNs
      as stained green. In the fluorescence method, a dilute indocyanine green solution
      (0.5 mg, fluorescence A or 0.25 mg, fluorescence B, each per 10 mL of solvent)
      was injected and the SN identified by the HyperEye Medical System. RESULTS: The
      SN detection rates were 100%, 100%, and 96% using dye and fluorescence A or B
      solution, respectively. Pelvic SNs were detected by the 3 methods in 98%, 100%,
      and 96% of cases and para-aortic SNs in 65%, 88%, and 74%, respectively.
      Fluorescence A solution was somewhat better than dye in detecting para-aortic
      SNs, although not significantly so (P = 0.07). The sensitivity and negative
      predictive values for detecting SNs with metastases with the dye method were 92%
      and 98% compared with 100% and 100%, respectively, for both fluorescence
      solutions. CONCLUSIONS: Although both dye and fluorescence methods performed
      well, no method perfectly identified para-aortic SNs. The concomitant use of the
      RI method is required to detect para-aortic SNs.

PMID- 28562471
TI  - Trends in Survival of Patients With Uterine Serous Carcinoma From 1988 to 2011: A
      Population-Based Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our study used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result database
      to determine if the changes in treatment paradigm observed over the last 2
      decades have improved outcomes in patients with uterine serous carcinoma (USC).
      METHODS: Women with USC were identified using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and
      End Result database from 1988 to 2011 (n = 8230) and grouped into 3 cohorts (1988
      1997, 1998-2004, and 2005-2011). Disease-specific survival and overall survival
      were estimated. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression models were used.
      RESULTS: Disease-specific survival (59 vs 94 months vs not reached; P < 0.001)
      and overall survival (31 vs 37 vs 45 months; P < 0.001) improved over time. In
      univariable analyses, only those with stage I-III and those who reside in the
      Western or Central regions were noted to have improvement over time. In
      multivariable analyses when adjusting for age, race, marital status, stage,
      geographic location, cancer-related surgery, extent of lymphadenectomy, and
      adjuvant radiation, patients who received the diagnosis during 2005 to 2011 were
      22% less likely to die of uterine cancer (hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 0.70-0.87; P < 0.001) and 17% less likely to die of any cause (HR,
      0.83; 95% CI, 0.76-0.90; P < 0.0001) compared with patients who received a
      diagnosis during 1988-1997. Similarly, patients who received a diagnosis during
      1998-2004 were 15% less likely to die of uterine cancer (HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.77
      0.94; P = 0.0015) and 10% less likely to die of any cause (HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.83
      0.97; P = 0.0048) compared with patients who received a diagnosis during 1988
      1997. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in treatment trends for USC over the last 2 decades
      have resulted in an improvement in outcome especially those with stage I-III
      disease.

PMID- 28562472
TI  - Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist Combined With a Levonorgestrel-Releasing
      Intrauterine System or Letrozole for Fertility-Preserving Treatment of
      Endometrial Carcinoma and Complex Atypical Hyperplasia in Young Women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety with
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) combined with a levonorgestrel
      releasing intrauterine system or an aromatase inhibitor (letrozole) in young
      women with well-differentiated early endometrial carcinoma (EC) and complex
      atypical hyperplasia (CAH). METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis
      including the clinical characteristics of 29 patients younger than 45 years with
      early well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the uterus (EC) or CAH
      who were treated at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union
      Medical College Hospital, from January 2012 to April 2016. Eighteen patients were
      treated with the combination of intramuscular injections of GnRHa every 4 weeks
      with the levonorgestrel intrauterine hormonal system (Mirena(r) Bayer Health Care
      Pharmaceutical Inc, Wayne, NY) was inserted. Eleven patients were treated with
      the combination of intramuscular injections of GnRHa every 4 weeks with oral
      letrozole 2.5 mg daily. The patients underwent follow-up with endometrial
      sampling by hysteroscopy and curettage for endometrial response every 3 months.
      RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 18.7 months (range, 5.6-54.9 months), 15
      women (88.2%) in the EC group and 12 women (100%) in the CAH group had complete
      response (CR) after GnRHa combination treatment. Among the women who achieved CR,
      1 woman (8.3%) with CAH and 1 woman (5.9%) with EC had recurrence after CR, and
      they finally underwent a hysterectomy. Time to CR was similar in the 2 groups
      (4.5 +/- 1.9 months in the CAH group vs 5.0 +/- 2.9 months in the EC group). Ten
      women (34.5%) had CR after the first 3 months, 8 women (27.6%) had CR after 6
      months, and 9 women (31.0%) had CR after 9 months. CONCLUSIONS: Both GnRHa with
      the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system and GnRHa with letrozole are
      alternative treatments for women with CAH and EC who desire fertility
      preservation. A larger multicenter trial of the fertility-preserving treatment is
      warranted.

PMID- 28562473
TI  - Trends in Utilization and Cost of Cervical Spine Surgery Using the National
      Inpatient Sample Database, 2001 to 2013.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective review. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      determine national rates of cervical spine surgery and to examine factors that
      underlie cost variation. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There has been an increase
      in the rate and cost of spinal surgery over the past decades, but there is little
      understanding of the drivers of cost variation at the national level. METHODS: We
      analyzed 419,830 patients who underwent cervical spine surgery (anterior cervical
      fusion, posterior cervical fusion, posterior cervical decompression, combined
      anterior/posterior cervical fusion) for degenerative conditions in the 2001 to
      2013 NIS database. We determined the rates of surgery by time and geographic
      region, and then created univariate and multivariate models to evaluate the
      effect of these factors on total hospital costs: patient age, gender, race,
      insurance, income, county of residence, elective versus nonelective case, length
      of stay, risk of mortality, severity of illness, hospital bed size, wage index,
      hospital type, and geographic region. RESULTS: The most common type of cervical
      spine surgery was anterior fusion (80.6% of all surgeries). The national rates of
      all cervical spine surgery decreased slightly from 2001 to 2013 (75.34 to 72.20
      per 100,000 adults), while the mean inflation-adjusted cost increased 64%, from
      $11,799 to $19,379, during this time period. Multivariate analyses showed that
      older age, male gender, black/other race, private insurance, greater risk of
      mortality/severity of illness, and longer length of stay were associated with
      higher costs. The wage index was positively correlated with cost, and hospitals
      in the western U.S. were 27% more expensive than those in the Northeast.
      CONCLUSION: The rate of cervical spine surgery decreased slightly, while the mean
      case cost increased at a rate double that of inflation from 2001 to 2013. Even
      after controlling for patient and hospital factors including wage index, there
      was significant geographic variation in the cost for cervical spine surgery.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28562474
TI  - Responsiveness of the functioning and disability parts of the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health core sets in postacute
      stroke patients.
AB  - To study the responsiveness of the International Classification of Functioning,
      Disability, and Health (ICF) core set with respect to human functioning and
      disability in stroke patients. Postacute stroke patients who were admitted to the
      convalescent rehabilitation wards were included in this observational cohort
      study. The comprehensive ICF core set for neurological conditions for postacute
      care and the ICF rehabilitation set were evaluated at admission and discharge
      using five-grade qualifiers. Extension indexes were calculated for entire two ICF
      core sets. Responsiveness was measured as change in the extension indexes in the
      ICF core sets. The correlation between changes in ICF core sets and improvement
      in the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) was analyzed using Spearman's
      correlation coefficient. The study included 108 poststroke patients (49 women,
      mean age 70.8 years, mean FIM score improvement: 23.0). The mean percentage of
      categories that showed changes with at least one qualifier level was 19.5% in the
      comprehensive ICF core set for neurological conditions for postacute care and
      35.9% in the ICF rehabilitation set. Effect sizes in each ICF core set were
      moderate to large (0.79-0.80). Improvement in the two ICF core sets correlated
      significantly with changes in the FIM score. Our results indicate that
      functioning and disability parts of these two ICF core sets can detect changes in
      functioning and disability in patients who receive an inpatient rehabilitation
      program for postacute stroke.

PMID- 28562475
TI  - Duration of Untreated Cardiac Arrest and Clinical Relevance of Animal
      Experiments: The Relationship Between the "No-Flow" Duration and the Severity of
      Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome in a Porcine Model.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The study investigated the effect of untreated cardiac arrest (CA),
      that is, "no-flow" time, on postresuscitation myocardial and neurological injury,
      and survival in a pig model to identify an optimal duration that adequately
      reflects the most frequent clinical scenario. METHODS: An established model of
      myocardial infarction followed by CA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was used.
      Twenty-two pigs were subjected to three no-flow durations: short (8-10 min),
      intermediate (12-13 min), and long (14-15 min). Left ventricular ejection
      fraction (LVEF) was assessed together with thermodilution cardiac output (CO) and
      high sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT). Neurological impairment was
      evaluated by neurological scores, serum neuron specific enolase (NSE), and
      histopathology. RESULTS: More than 60% of animals survived when the duration of
      CA was <=13 min, compared to only 20% for a duration >=14 min. Neuronal
      degeneration and neurological scores showed a trend toward a worse recovery for
      longer no-flow durations. No animals achieved a good neurological recovery for a
      no-flow >=14 min, in comparison to a 56% for a duration <=13 min (P = 0.043).
      Serum NSE levels significantly correlated with the no-flow duration (r = 0.892).
      Longer durations of CA were characterized by lower LVEF and CO compared to
      shorter durations (P < 0.05). The longer was the no-flow time, the higher was the
      number of defibrillations delivered (P = 0.043). The defibrillations delivered
      significantly correlated with LVEF and plasma hs-cTnT. CONCLUSIONS: Longer no
      flow durations caused greater postresuscitation myocardial and neurological
      dysfunction and reduced survival. An untreated CA of 12-13 min may be an optimal
      choice for a clinically relevant model.

PMID- 28562476
TI  - FN14 Blockade on Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells Improves the Outcome
      of Sepsis-Induced Acute Lung Injury.
AB  - Pulmonary microvascular leakage is one of the characteristics of blood-air
      barrier dysfunction in septic acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress
      syndrome (ALI/ARDS). Fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14) exerts diverse
      functions under certain circumstances. However, the role of Fn14 on the integrity
      of pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) during sepsis remains
      unknown. Septic ALI was induced via cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Fn14
      expression on PMVECs was measured 24 h after surgery. The effects of Fn14
      blockade on septic ALI were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Compared with the
      Sham group, Fn14 expressed in septic PMVECs was increased significantly 24 h
      after surgery. The protein level in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, the lung wet to
      dry ratio, and neutrophil/macrophage infiltration in lungs were reduced in septic
      mice after Fn14 blockade. Similarly, ICAM-1 and MCP-1 levels were attenuated
      after Fn14 blockade or knockdown in lungs or human pulmonary microvascular
      endothelial cells (HPMECs). Furthermore, Fn14 silencing reduced Caspase-3 levels
      and upregulated the transendothelial electrical resistance level in TNF-like weak
      inducer of apoptosis-treated HPMECs. In addition, the degree of lung fibrosis was
      ameliorated and the survival of CLP mice was improved significantly after Fn14
      blockade. In conclusion, Fn14 on PMVECs plays an important role in the progress
      of septic ALI. Fn14 blockade may prove to be an innovative lung-protective
      strategy for the treatment of septic ALI.

PMID- 28562477
TI  - Sepsis-Induced Channelopathy in Skeletal Muscles is Associated with Expression of
      Non-Selective Channels.
AB  - Skeletal muscles (~50% of the body weight) are affected during acute and late
      sepsis and represent one sepsis associate organ dysfunction. Cell membrane
      changes have been proposed to result from a channelopathy of yet unknown cause
      associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and muscle atrophy. We hypothesize that
      the channelopathy might be explained at least in part by the expression of non
      selective channels. Here, this possibility was studied in a characterized mice
      model of late sepsis with evident skeletal muscle atrophy induced by cecal
      ligation and puncture (CLP). At day seven after CLP, skeletal myofibers were
      found to present de novo expression (immunofluorescence) of connexins 39, 43, and
      45 and P2X7 receptor whereas pannexin1 did not show significant changes. These
      changes were associated with increased sarcolemma permeability (~4 fold higher
      dye uptake assay), ~25% elevated in intracellular free-Ca concentration (FURA-2),
      activation of protein degradation via ubiquitin proteasome pathway (Murf and
      Atrogin 1 reactivity), moderate reduction in oxygen consumption not explained by
      changes in levels of relevant respiratory proteins, ~3 fold decreased
      mitochondrial membrane potential (MitoTracker Red CMXRos) and ~4 fold increased
      mitochondrial superoxide production (MitoSox). Since connexin hemichannels and
      P2X7 receptors are permeable to ions and small molecules, it is likely that they
      are main protagonists in the channelopathy by reducing the electrochemical
      gradient across the cell membrane resulting in detrimental metabolic changes and
      muscular atrophy.

PMID- 28562478
TI  - Neuroprotection with the P53-Inhibitor Pifithrin-MU after Cardiac Arrest in a
      Rodent Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The small molecule pifithrin-MU reversibility inhibits the
      mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. The neuronal effects of pifithrin-MU applied
      after cardiac arrest are unknown. We hypothesized that pifithrin-MU reduces
      neuronal damage in the most vulnerable brain region, the hippocampus, after
      cardiac arrest. METHODS: In two randomized controlled series we administered
      pifithrin-MU or control in 109 rats resuscitated after 8 or 10 min of cardiac
      arrest. Neuronal damage was blindly assessed with histology (Fluoro Jade B: FJB,
      cresyl violet: CV) in the most vulnerable brain region (CA1 segment of
      hippocampus) and with a series of neurobehavioral tests (Open Field Task, Tape
      Removal Test, Morris Water Maze test). Mixed ANOVA was used to combine both
      series, simple comparisons were done with t tests or Mann-Whitney U test.
      RESULTS: Pifithrin-MU reduced the number of degenerating, FJB-positive neurons by
      25% (mixed ANOVA p group = 0.014). This was more prominent after 8 min cardiac
      arrest (8 min arrest pifithrin-MU 94 +/- 47 vs control 128 +/- 37; n = 11 each;
      10 min arrest pifithrin-MU 78 +/- 44, n = 15 vs control 101 +/- 31, n = 18; p
      group* arrest length interaction = 0.622). The reduction of ischemic CV-positive
      neurons in pifithrin-MU animals was not significant (ANOVA p group = 0.063). No
      significant group differences were found in neurobehavioral testing. CONCLUSION:
      Temporarily inhibition of apoptosis with pifithrin-MU after cardiac arrest
      decreases the number of injured neurons in the CA1 segment of hippocampus in a
      cardiac arrest rat model, without clinical correlate. Further studies should
      elucidate the role of this neuroprotective agent in different settings and with
      longer cardiac arrest.

PMID- 28562479
TI  - Sepsis Upregulates CD14 Expression in a MyD88-Dependent and Trif-Independent
      Pathway.
AB  - An overwhelming immune response, particularly from macrophages, plays a critical
      role in survival and organ damage in sepsis patients. Toll-like receptors (TLRs)
      are important receptors to recognize the conserved motifs expressed by invading
      bacteria. The TLRs except TLR3 signal via a MyD88-dependent pathway. TLR3 uses a
      TRIF-dependent pathway, while TLR4 uses both MyD88 and TRIF-dependent pathways.
      Previous studies indicated that CD14 was necessary for TLRs-dependent production
      of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Blocking CD14 protected against the deleterious
      systemic inflammatory response associated with sepsis. The aim of this study was
      to determine the signaling pathway of TLR activation-induced CD14 expression in
      models of polymicrobial sepsis and in peritoneal macrophages. We found that CD14
      expression was upregulated in the lung, liver, and kidney of septic mice induced
      by cecal ligation puncture. In cultured peritoneal macrophages, specific agonists
      for all TLRs, except for TLR3, increased CD14 expression. Lipopolysaccharide
      induced upregulation of CD14 was abolished in peritoneal macrophages from MyD88
      KO mice but increased in TRIF inhibitor, resveratrol pretreated wild-type
      macrophages. Moreover, MyD88 KO, but not TRIF KO mice, showed a decreased CD14
      expression in the tissue of septic mice, which was associated with a strongly
      attenuated inflammatory response and increased survival rate. These data suggest
      that a MyD88-dependent and TRIF-independent pathway of TLR is activated in
      upregulating CD14 expression under septic conditions. This study deciphers a
      critical cross-talk between TLRs and CD14.

PMID- 28562480
TI  - Indinavir Plus Methylprednisolone Ameliorates Experimental Acute Lung Injury In
      Vitro and In Vivo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An abnormal HMGB1 activation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of
      ALI. METHODS: In this study, the effects of Indinavir plus methylprednisolone on
      the LPS-mediated activation in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells
      (HPMECs), on the injury of AT I in vitro, and on rats with LPS-induced two-hit
      model with or without methylprednisolone were investigated. RESULTS: Indinavir
      treatment resulted in a reduction of HMGB1, its receptor TLR-4, and HMGB1's
      downstream p-NF-kappaB, attenuating a decrease of VE-cadherin in LPS-stimulated
      HPMECs. Apoptosis of AT I was attenuated with an increase of RAGE and aquaporin
      5. Compared to methylprednisolone alone, methylprednisolone plus Indinavir
      attenuated the decrease of GRalpha and IkappaB-alpha in cytoplasm and avoid
      GRalpha deficiency in LPS-stimulated HPMECs for 96 h, attenuated the increase of
      p-NF-kappaB in nucleus. Indinavir ameliorated histopathological changes of two
      hit ALI model of rats with reductions in microvascular permeability, lower HMGB1,
      TLR4, p-NF-kappaB, and MPO expression, whereas higher RAGE, aquaporin 5, and VE
      cadherin in LPS-instilled lungs. Compared to methylprednisolone alone,
      methylprednisolone plus Indinavir attenuated the decrease of GRalpha and IkappaB
      alpha in cytoplasm, decreased p-NF-kappaB in nucleus of lung tissue of two-hit
      ALI rats, and enhanced the anti-inflammatory effect of methylprednisolone for
      avoiding GRalpha deficiency. CONCLUSION: It demonstrated that Indinavir prevented
      experimental ALI model of rats by modulating the HMGB1/TLR-4 pathway to resolve
      systemic inflammation response in a greater degree with methylprednisolone,
      reduced the use time and dose of methylprednisolone, and avoided GRalpha
      deficiency in ALI and ARDS.

PMID- 28562481
TI  - Extracorporeal Life Support Increases Survival After Prolonged Ventricular
      Fibrillation Cardiac Arrest in the Rat.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) for cardiopulmonary resuscitation
      (CPR) may increase end organ perfusion and thus survival when conventional CPR
      fails. The aim was to investigate, if after ventricular fibrillation cardiac
      arrest in rodents ECLS improves outcome compared with conventional CPR. METHODS:
      In 24 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (460-510 g) resuscitation was started after
      10 min of no-flow with ECLS (consisting of an open reservoir, roller pump, and
      membrane oxygenator, connected to cannulas in the jugular vein and femoral
      artery, n = 8) or CPR (mechanical chest compressions plus ventilations, n = 8)
      and compared with a sham group (n = 8). After return of spontaneous circulation
      (ROSC), all rats were maintained at 33 degrees C for 12 h. Survival to 14 days,
      neurologic deficit scores and overall performance categories were assessed.
      RESULTS: ECLS leads to sustained ROSC in 8 of 8 (100%) and neurological intact
      survival to 14 days in 7 of 8 rats (88%), compared with 5 of 8 (63%) and 1 of 8
      CPR rats. The median survival time was 14 days (IQR: 14-14) in the ECLS and 1 day
      (IQR: 0 to 5) for the CPR group (P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: In a rat model of
      prolonged ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest, ECLS with mild hypothermia
      produces 100% resuscitability and 88% long-term survival, significantly better
      than conventional CPR.

PMID- 28562484
TI  - Sex differences in the association between gray matter volume and verbal
      creativity.
AB  - The explanation for why significant sex differences are found in creativity has
      become an increasingly important topic. The current study applied a cognitive
      neuroscience perspective and voxel-based morphometry to investigate the sex
      differences for the association between verbal creativity and gray matter volume
      (GMV) in a large sample of healthy adults from the Chinese Mainland (163 men and
      193 women). Furthermore, we sought to determine which brain regions are
      responsible for these differences. Our behavioral results showed a significant
      sex difference. Specifically, women scored higher than men on originality. The
      voxel-based morphometry results indicated that the relationship between
      originality and GMV differed between men and women in the left temporo-occipital
      junction. Higher originality scores in women were associated with more GMV. In
      contrast, higher originality scores in men were related to less GMV. These
      findings suggest the left temporo-occipital junction GMV plays a unique role in
      the sex differences in verbal creativity because women usually surpass men in
      semantic processing, which is the major function of the left temporal region.

PMID- 28562483
TI  - Investigation of the expression of apoptosis-inducing factor-mediated apoptosis
      in Hirschsprung's disease.
AB  - One of the widely accepted hypotheses of Hirschsprung's disease (HD) is that the
      absence of ganglion cells in the distal part of the intestine is caused by the
      death of enteric neural crest-derived cells following migration. Although a
      caspase-dependent pathway has not yet been detected in the HD bowel, it is
      unclear whether a caspase-independent pathway contributes toward aganglionosis.
      In the current study, we observed highly condensed marginal heterochromatin in
      nuclei only in the transitional segment using electron microscopy and a high
      proportion of TUNEL-positive cells were observed in the transitional segment.
      Activation of caspase was not observed in any segments of the HD bowel upon
      characterization of the apoptotic pathway. Rather, real-time PCR results showed
      that apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) and calpain-1 mRNAs were highly expressed in
      the transitional segment, whereas autophagy protein 5 (Atg5) was highly expressed
      in the narrow segment. Western blot results were consistent with mRNA levels,
      with increased AIF, calpain-1, and Atg5 expressions in the transitional segment
      compared with the dilated segment. Furthermore, correlation analysis indicated an
      inverse correlation between calpain-1 and Atg5 mRNA levels in both the narrow
      segment and the transitional segment. These results indicated that apoptosis
      occurs in the HD bowel. The detection of related genes indicates that the AIF
      mediated apoptotic pathway may be responsible for the absence of ganglion cells
      in HD and calpain-1 may act as the regulatory switch between autophagy and
      apoptosis.

PMID- 28562485
TI  - Antihyperalgesic effect by herpes vector-mediated knockdown of NaV1.7 sodium
      channels after skin incision.
AB  - Postincisional hyperalgesia and allodynia play an important role in perioperative
      medicine. NaV1.7 sodium channel has proven to be a key player in several pain
      states, including acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic pain. This study
      investigated the effects of silencing NaV1.7 through Herpes-based gene therapy
      with an antisense transcript on pain states after incision of the skin in
      rodents. Seventy-six Balb/C mice were subdivided into six groups and were treated
      with no virus, control virus, or NaV1.7 antisense vector before lateral hindpaw
      skin incision or sham procedure. All mice were tested for mechanical allodynia,
      cold allodynia, and thermal hyperalgesia. For time series analysis, a two-way
      analysis of variance with post-hoc Bonferroni testing was used. After incision
      mice developed significant hypersensitivity to mechanical, cold, and heat
      stimuli. The NaV1.7 antisense vector blocked the hypersensitivity to mechanical,
      cold, and heat stimuli that was normally observed 24 and 48 h after incision. We
      demonstrated that a gene therapy-based NaV1.7 knockdown affects postincisional
      hyperalgesia and allodynia. The data provide evidence that the incision model
      leads to periwound hypersensitivity after incision and that application of the
      NaV1.7 antisense virus prevents this sensitization. This then, in turn, provides
      presumptive support to the hypothesis that overexpression of the NaV1.7 channel
      is an important mechanism underlying hyperalgesia and allodynia following skin
      incision.

PMID- 28562486
TI  - Diagnostics and laboratory role in outbreaks.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The review describes the investigative benefits of traditional
      and novel molecular epidemiology techniques, while acknowledging the limitations
      faced by clinical laboratories seeking to implement these methods. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Pulse-field gel electrophoresis and other traditional techniques remain
      powerful tools in outbreak investigations and continue to be used by multiple
      groups. Newer techniques such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time
      of flight mass-spectrometry and whole genome sequencing show great promise.
      However, there is a lack of standardization regarding definitions for genetic
      relatedness, nor are there established criteria for accuracy and reproducibility.
      There are also challenges regarding availability of trained bioinformatics staff,
      and concerns regarding reimbursement. SUMMARY: There are many tools available for
      molecular epidemiologic investigation. Epidemiologists and clinical laboratorians
      should work together to determine which testing methods are best for each
      institution.

PMID- 28562487
TI  - The extracellular matrix in IBD: a dynamic mediator of inflammation.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a frequently overlooked
      component of the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the
      functional and clinically significant interactions between immune as well as
      nonimmune cells with the ECM have important implications for disease
      pathogenesis. In this review, we discuss how the ECM participates in process
      associated with IBD that involves diverse cell types of the intestine. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Remodeling of the ECM is a consistent feature of IBD, and studies have
      implicated key ECM molecules in IBD pathogenesis. While the majority of prior
      studies have focused on ECM degradation by proteases, more recent studies have
      uncovered additional degrading enzymes, identified fragments of ECM components as
      potential biomarkers, and revealed that ECM synthesis is increased in IBD. These
      new studies support the notion that the ECM, rather than acting as a passive
      element, is an active participant in promoting inflammation. SUMMARY: New studies
      have offered exciting clues about the function of the ECM during IBD
      pathogenesis. The balance of ECM synthesis and turnover is altered in IBD, and
      the molecules involved exhibit discreet biological functions that regulate
      inflammation on the basis of specific cell type and matrix molecule.

PMID- 28562488
TI  - Does obesity increase the risk of hot flashes among midlife women?: a population
      based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between vasomotor symptoms and obesity in
      climacteric women. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional population-based study
      of 749 women aged 45 to 60 years. The dependent variable was intensity of
      menopausal symptoms evaluated by the menopause rating scale questionnaire.
      Independent variables were sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, and
      obesity evaluated by body mass index. RESULTS: There was no significant
      difference in the majority of clinical and sociodemographic characteristics
      between the body mass index groups. Obese women had less physical activity (P =
      0.019) and a higher prevalence of hypertension (P < 0.001), diabetes (P = 0.002),
      urinary incontinence (P < 0.001), and urge incontinence (P = 0.0006). The total
      mean menopause rating scale score was 9.7. Scores for hot flashes increased
      progressively and were higher for participants with body mass index greater than
      30 kg/m (P = 0.027). Joint and muscle pain scores also increased with increased
      body mass index (P < 0.001). Regarding urogenital symptoms, there was a
      significant difference in urinary problems only, which were more intense in obese
      women (body mass index >30 kg/m) (P < 0.0001). There was no significant
      difference in any psychological symptoms on the menopause rating scale. Factors
      associated with hot flash scores were higher body mass index, presence of urinary
      urgency, and vaginal dryness. CONCLUSIONS: We found that menopausal symptoms,
      including vasomotor, joint, and urinary symptoms, were related to obesity. Hot
      flashes were associated with higher body mass index, urinary urgency, and vaginal
      dryness. Understanding this relationship may contribute to the development of
      healthcare strategies aimed at minimizing the impact of obesity on several health
      issues of climacteric women.

PMID- 28562489
TI  - A theory of eu-estrogenemia: a unifying concept.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to propose a unifying theory for the role of
      estrogen in postmenopausal women through examples in basic science, randomized
      controlled trials, observational studies, and clinical practice. METHODS: Review
      and evaluation of the literature relating to estrogen. DISCUSSION: The role of
      hormone therapy and ubiquitous estrogen receptors after reproductive senescence
      gains insight from basic science models. Observational studies and individualized
      patient care in clinical practice may show outcomes that are not reproduced in
      randomized clinical trials. The understanding gained from the timing hypothesis
      for atherosclerosis, the critical window theory in neurosciences, randomized
      controlled trials, and numerous genomic and nongenomic actions of estrogen
      discovered in basic science provides new explanations to clinical challenges that
      practitioners face. Consequences of a hypo-estrogenemic duration in women's lives
      are poorly understood. The Study of Women Across the Nation suggests its
      magnitude is greater than was previously acknowledged. We propose that the
      healthy user bias was the result of surgical treatment (hysterectomy with
      oophorectomy) for many gynecological maladies followed by pharmacological and
      physiological doses of estrogen to optimize patient quality of life. The past
      decade of research has begun to demonstrate the role of estrogen in homeostasis.
      CONCLUSIONS: The theory of eu-estrogenemia provides a robust framework to unify
      the timing hypothesis, critical window theory, randomized controlled trials, the
      basic science of estrogen receptors, and clinical observations of patients over
      the past five decades.

PMID- 28562491
TI  - New findings of oxidative stress biomarkers in nutritional research.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this article is to present a brief overview of
      recently published articles assessing oxidative stress markers in nutritional
      studies. RECENT FINDINGS: Intervention and observational studies were carried out
      in both, healthy subjects and patients and describe the association of foodstuffs
      as well as isolated nutrients with biomarkers of oxidative stress. The results
      from human intervention studies on healthy participants and patients are
      controversial. Long-term interventions (>8 weeks) seem to be more effective than
      short-term or single-dose interventions. Results are difficult to compare because
      not only the methods used, also the assessed biomarkers and outcomes were very
      diverse. In addition, studies vary in the compounds and doses used, duration,
      participants and so on. Different biomarkers (damaged molecules together with
      antioxidants from different compartments) should be assessed to evaluate the true
      'redox-status' of an individual and the impact of a nutritional intervention.
      SUMMARY: Both observational and interventional studies performed in healthy
      participants and patients show possible beneficial effects of nutrients and
      foodstuffs by improving oxidative stress markers and antioxidant enzyme
      activities. Biomarkers should be standardized to allow better comparison of
      results of antioxidant intervention studies.

PMID- 28562490
TI  - Assessing nutritional status in cancer: role of the Patient-Generated Subjective
      Global Assessment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The Scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG
      SGA) is used internationally as the reference method for proactive risk
      assessment (screening), assessment, monitoring and triaging for interventions in
      patients with cancer. This review aims to explain the rationale behind and data
      supporting the PG-SGA, and to provide an overview of recent developments in the
      utilization of the PG-SGA and the PG-SGA Short Form. RECENT FINDINGS: The PG-SGA
      was designed in the context of a paradigm known as 'anabolic competence'.
      Uniquely, the PG-SGA evaluates the patient's status as a dynamic rather than
      static process. The PG-SGA has received new attention, particularly as a
      screening instrument for nutritional risk or deficit, identifying treatable
      impediments and guiding patients and professionals in triaging for
      interdisciplinary interventions. The international use of the PG-SGA indicates a
      critical need for high-quality and linguistically validated translations of the
      PG-SGA. SUMMARY: As a 4-in-1 instrument, the PG-SGA can streamline clinic work
      flow and improve the quality of interaction between the clinician and the
      patient. The availability of multiple high-quality language versions of the PG
      SGA enables the inclusion of the PG-SGA in international multicenter studies,
      facilitating meta-analysis and benchmarking across countries.

PMID- 28562493
TI  - In This Issue: Contributions to CEHP Research and Practice.

PMID- 28562492
TI  - Congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia in children: should we defer surgery until
      3 years old?
AB  - Currently, the timing of surgery for congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia (CPT)
      remains controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the results of
      treatment of pseudarthrosis of the tibia in children younger than 3 years of age.
      A retrospective study was carried out to explore the relationship between
      postoperative complications and the age of surgery in children with CPT. The
      analysis was carried out on 42 patients with Crawford type IV CPT treated with a
      combined surgical technique between 2008 and 2012. Patients were divided into two
      groups according to their age: group A (<3 years) and group B (>3 years). The
      incidence rates of refracture, ankle valgus, tibial valgus, and limb-length
      discrepancy of the two groups were evaluated. Primary bone union was achieved in
      28 out of 29 (97%) patients in group A and 12 out of 13 (92%) patients in group B
      (P>0.05). In group A, six (21%) patients developed a refracture; 14 (48%)
      patients had ankle valgus with a mean degree of 11 degrees  (range: 5 degrees -25
      degrees ); 11 (38%) patients had tibial valgus with a mean tibial valgus
      deformity of 8.6 degrees  (range: 5 degrees -20 degrees ); and 12 (41%) patients
      had limb-length discrepancy with a mean limb length of 2.9 cm (range: 0.5-4 cm).
      In group B, five (38%) patients developed refracture; seven (54%) patients had
      ankle valgus with a mean degree of 14 degrees  (range: 5 degrees -30 degrees );
      seven (54%) patients had tibial valgus with a mean tibial valgus deformity of
      10.7 degrees  (range: 5 degrees -20 degrees ); and 10 (77%) patients had limb
      length discrepancy with a mean limb length of 2.8 cm (range: 1.5-3 cm). Groups A
      and B were significantly different in limb-length discrepancy (P=0.033). This
      study suggests that there is no need to defer surgery for pseudarthrosis of the
      tibia until the child is older than 3 years of age.

PMID- 28562494
TI  - Factors Affecting the Development and Sustainability of Communities of Practice
      Among Primary Care Physicians in Hong Kong.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Primary care physicians (PCPs) maintain high standards of medical
      care by partaking in continuous learning. The learning model of communities of
      practice (COPs) is increasingly being used in the field of health care. This
      study explores the establishment and maintenance of COPs among PCPs in Hong Kong.
      METHODS: Sequential, semi-structured individual interview and focus group
      interview were conducted to explore the purposes for partaking in continuous
      learning, as well as barriers and facilitators for attendance among private
      nonspecialist PCPs in Hong Kong. Data were drawn from the discourses related to
      COPs. Thematic analysis with constant comparison was performed until data
      saturation was reached. RESULTS: PCPs voluntarily established COPs to solve
      clinical problems from the existing networks. Clinical interest, practice
      orientation, and recruitment of new members through endorsement by the existing
      members fostered group coherence. Conversation and interaction among members
      generated the "best" practice with knowledge that was applicable in specific
      clinical scenarios in primary care setting. COPs rejected commercial sponsorship
      to minimize corporate influences on learning. Updating medical knowledge, solving
      clinical problems, maintaining openness, engendering a sense of trust and
      ownership among members, and fulfilling psychosocial needs were integral to
      sustainability. Seeking secretariat support to aid in the logistics of meetings,
      enhancing external learning resources, and facilitation skills training of
      facilitators from professional bodies may further incentivize members to maintain
      COPs. DISCUSSION: Autonomy of group learning activities, recruiting specialists
      and allied health professionals, training facilitators, and undertaking
      discussion in multimedia may achieve the sustainability of COPs.

PMID- 28562495
TI  - Development of a Self-Rated Mixed Methods Skills Assessment: The National
      Institutes of Health Mixed Methods Research Training Program for the Health
      Sciences.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Demand for training in mixed methods is high, with little research
      on faculty development or assessment in mixed methods. We describe the
      development of a self-rated mixed methods skills assessment and provide validity
      evidence. The instrument taps six research domains: "Research question,"
      "Design/approach," "Sampling," "Data collection," "Analysis," and
      "Dissemination." Respondents are asked to rate their ability to define or explain
      concepts of mixed methods under each domain, their ability to apply the concepts
      to problems, and the extent to which they need to improve. METHODS: We
      administered the questionnaire to 145 faculty and students using an internet
      survey. We analyzed descriptive statistics and performance characteristics of the
      questionnaire using the Cronbach alpha to assess reliability and an analysis of
      variance that compared a mixed methods experience index with assessment scores to
      assess criterion relatedness. RESULTS: Internal consistency reliability was high
      for the total set of items (0.95) and adequate (>=0.71) for all but one subscale.
      Consistent with establishing criterion validity, respondents who had more
      professional experiences with mixed methods (eg, published a mixed methods
      article) rated themselves as more skilled, which was statistically significant
      across the research domains. DISCUSSION: This self-rated mixed methods assessment
      instrument may be a useful tool to assess skills in mixed methods for training
      programs. It can be applied widely at the graduate and faculty level. For the
      learner, assessment may lead to enhanced motivation to learn and training focused
      on self-identified needs. For faculty, the assessment may improve curriculum and
      course content planning.

PMID- 28562496
TI  - Can Source Triangulation Be Used to Overcome Limitations of Self-Assessments?
      Assessing Educational Needs and Professional Competence of Pharmacists Practicing
      in Qatar.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Continuing professional development activities should be designed
      to meet the identified personal goals of the learner. This article aims to
      explore the self-perceived competency levels and the professional educational
      needs of pharmacists in Qatar and to compare these with observations of pharmacy
      students undergoing experiential training in pharmacies (students) and pharmacy
      academics, directors, and managers (managers). METHODS: Three questionnaires were
      developed and administered to practicing pharmacists, undergraduate pharmacy
      students who have performed structured experiential training rotations in
      multiple pharmacy outlets in Qatar and pharmacy managers. The questionnaires used
      items extracted from the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities
      (NAPRA) Professional competencies for Canadian pharmacists at entry to practice
      and measured self- and observed pharmacists' competency and satisfaction with
      competency level. RESULTS: Training and educational needs were similar between
      the pharmacists and observers, although there was trend for pharmacists to choose
      more fact-intensive topics compared with observers whose preferences were toward
      practice areas. There was no association between the competency level of
      pharmacists as perceived by observers and as self-assessed by pharmacists (P <=
      .05). Pharmacists' self-assessed competency level was consistently higher than
      that reported by students (P <= .05). DISCUSSION: The results suggest that the
      use of traditional triangulation might not be sufficient to articulate the
      professional needs and competencies of practicing pharmacists as part of a
      strategy to build continuing professional development programs. Pharmacists might
      have a limited ability to accurately self-assess, and observer assessments might
      be significantly different from self-assessments which present a dilemma on which
      assessment to consider closer to reality. The processes currently used to
      evaluate competence may need to be enhanced through the use of well-designed
      rubrics or other strategies to empower and to better inform respondents and
      subsequently improve their ability to self-assess their competencies.

PMID- 28562497
TI  - Incorporating Lifelong Learning From Residency to Practice: A Qualitative Study
      Exploring Psychiatry Learners' Needs and Motivations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There has been an increased focus on lifelong learning (LLL) as a
      core competency to develop master learners in medical education across the
      learner continuum. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of
      psychiatry residents and faculty about LLL implementation, motivation, and
      training needs. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted in a large, urban,
      multisite psychiatry training program as part of a larger mixed methods study of
      LLL in psychiatry education. Using a purposive sampling approach, psychiatry
      residents were recruited to participate in focus groups; early career
      psychiatrists and psychiatry educators were recruited to participate in
      semistructured interviews. Content analysis of interviews and focus groups was
      done using the iterative, inductive method of constant comparative analysis.
      RESULTS: Of the 34 individuals participating in the study, 23 were residents, six
      were psychiatry educators, and five were early career psychiatrists. Three
      predominant themes were identified in participants' transcripts related to (1)
      the need for LLL training in residency training; (2) the implementation of LLL in
      residency training and practice; and (3) the spectrum of motivation for LLL from
      residency training into practice. DISCUSSION: This study identified the lack of
      preparation for LLL in residency training and the impact of this gap for
      psychiatrists transitioning into practice. All participants described the
      importance of integrating LLL training within clinical rotations and the
      importance of grounding LLL within the clinical workplace early in residency
      training to support the delivery of effective, high-quality patient care.

PMID- 28562499
TI  - Building Sustainable Professional Development Programs: Applying Strategies From
      Implementation Science to Translate Evidence Into Practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multisite and national professional development (PD) programs for
      educators are challenging to establish. Use of implementation science (IS)
      frameworks designed to convert evidence-based intervention methods into effective
      health care practice may help PD developers translate proven educational methods
      and models into successful, well-run programs. Implementation of the national
      Educational Scholars Program (ESP) is used to illustrate the value of the IS
      model. METHODS: Four adaptable elements of IS are described: (1) replication of
      an evidence-based model, (2) systematic stages of implementation, (3) management
      of implementation using three implementation drivers, and (4) demonstration of
      program success through measures of fidelity to proven models and sustainability.
      RESULTS: Implementation of the ESP was grounded on five established principles
      and methods for successful PD. The process was conducted in four IS stages over
      10 years: Exploration, Installation, Initial Implementation, and Full
      Implementation. To ensure effective and efficient processes, attention to IS
      implementation drivers helped to manage organizational relationships, build
      competence in faculty and scholars, and address leadership challenges. We
      describe the ESP's fidelity to evidence-based structures and methods, and offer
      three examples of sustainability efforts that enabled achievement of targeted
      program outcomes, including academic productivity, strong networking, and career
      advancement of scholars. DISCUSSION: Application of IS frameworks to program
      implementation may help other PD programs to translate evidence-based methods
      into interventions with enhanced impact. A PD program can follow systematic
      developmental stages and be operationalized by practical implementation drivers,
      thereby creating successful and sustainable interventions that promote the
      academic vitality of health professions educators.

PMID- 28562498
TI  - Development and Feasibility of an Academic Detailing Intervention to Improve
      Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Use Among Physicians.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: South Carolina (SC) ranks 10th in opioid prescriptions per capita
      33% higher than the national average. SC is also home to a large military and
      veteran population, and prescription opioid use for chronic pain is alarmingly
      common among veterans, especially those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. This
      article describes the background and development of an academic detailing (AD)
      educational intervention to improve use of a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
      among SC physicians who serve military members and veterans. The aim of this
      intervention was to improve safe opioid prescribing practices and prevent
      prescription opioid misuse among this high-risk population. METHODS: A
      multidisciplinary study team of physicians, pharmacists, psychologists,
      epidemiologists, and representatives from the SC's Prescription Monitoring
      Program used the Medical Research Council complex interventions framework to
      guide the development of the educational intervention. The theoretical and
      modeling phases of the AD intervention development are described and preliminary
      evidence of feasibility and acceptability is provided. RESULTS: Ninety-three
      physicians consented to the study from 2 practice sites. Eighty-seven AD visits
      were completed, and 59 one-month follow-up surveys were received. Participants
      rated the AD intervention high in helpfulness of information, intention to use
      information, and overall satisfaction with the intervention. The component of the
      intervention felt to be most helpful was the AD visit itself. Characteristics of
      the participants and the intervention, as well as anticipated barriers to
      behavior change are detailed. DISCUSSION: Preliminary results support the
      feasibility of AD delivery to veteran and community patient settings, the
      feasibility of facilitating Prescription Drug Monitoring Program registration
      during an AD visit, and that AD visits were generally found satisfying to
      participants and helpful in improving knowledge and confidence about safe opioid
      prescribing practices. The component of the intervention felt to be most helpful
      to the participants was the actual AD visit, and most participants rated their
      intentions high to use the information and tools from the visit. Intervention key
      messages, preliminary outcome measures, and successes and challenges in
      developing and delivering this intervention are discussed to advance best
      practices in developing educational interventions in this important area of
      public health.

PMID- 28562500
TI  - Evaluation of the Diabetes, Multidisciplinary, Experiential (DIAMANTE) Program
      for Retail Pharmacists: A Mixed-Method Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Diabetes, Multidisciplinary, Experiential (DIAMANTE) program
      was established to enhance collaboration between retail pharmacists and the
      diabetes care team in the health institutions through interprofessional
      education. This article describes the program and reports on an evaluation of its
      impact on attitudes, knowledge, and confidence of the participants in managing
      diabetic patients. METHODS: This study utilized a mixed-method design with focus
      group (FG), exit assessment, and survey. Ten participants were approached to
      complete the 2-week DIAMANTE program with hands-on training from a
      multidisciplinary diabetes team. In addition to an exit assessment and a pre-post
      online survey to assess attitudes of participants toward diabetes care, diabetes
      knowledge, and confidence in managing diabetic patients, FG was used to obtain
      the qualitative feedback of pharmacists. Feedback of the preceptors related to
      the program and pharmacist performance was also sought through an online survey.
      Survey data and FGs were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test and thematic
      analysis, respectively. RESULTS: All participants completed the program
      successfully. The FGs revealed four themes: program design, participants' view on
      preceptors, participants' perceptions of program benefits, and program's outlook.
      Participants perceived the program content as comprehensive and relevant. With
      experiential learning, the pharmacists reported improved counseling skills and
      increased understanding of the roles of different healthcare members. Their
      knowledge and confidence in managing diabetic patients was improved (P = .008).
      All participants passed the exit assessment. In general, the preceptors were
      satisfied with the program design, assessment content, and participant
      performance. DISCUSSION: The overall view of DIAMANTE appeared positive. The
      program also improved knowledge and confidence of the participants in managing
      diabetic patients.

PMID- 28562501
TI  - Collaborative Clinical Reasoning-A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Health care delivery involves multiple health professions, and
      increasingly, diagnostic and therapeutic decisions are made through
      interprofessional teamwork. We define collaborative clinical reasoning (CCR) as
      the process in which two or more health care team members negotiate diagnostic,
      therapeutic, or prognostic issues of an individual patient resulting in an
      illness or treatment plan (and to reduce uncertainty). In a systematic review, we
      aimed to answer the following research question: Which empirically observable
      factors are considered crucial influences on performance in CCR in current
      empirical research? METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted. We
      included empirical studies taking place in a hospital setting, with a clear focus
      on CCR and published between January 1990 and September 2014. The studies were
      only included when at least one physician was part of the team. Nine articles
      were included in the review. RESULTS: The factors crucially influencing the CCR
      performance (ie, diagnosis or treatment plan of patients) are (1) the initial
      distribution of information over team members, (2) clinical experience of
      physicians within a team, (3) information exchange within a team, and (4)
      individual retrieval of information from the team or information representation.
      DISCUSSION: Despite the sparse empirical evidence on CCR, four factors
      influencing performance were extracted from the literature. Overall, there is
      little evidence though how each of these factors actually influences CCR
      performance. Thus, we need more empirical studies to better understand and foster
      CCR performance.

PMID- 28562502
TI  - Prescribers' Knowledge and Skills for Interpreting Research Results: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Appropriate medication prescribing may be influenced by a
      prescriber's ability to understand and interpret medical research. The objective
      of this review was to synthesize the research related to prescribers' critical
      appraisal knowledge and skills-defined as the understanding of statistical
      methods, biases in studies, and relevance and validity of evidence. METHODS: We
      searched PubMed and other databases from January 1990 through September 2015. Two
      reviewers independently screened and selected studies of any design conducted in
      the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada that involved prescribers and
      that objectively measured critical appraisal knowledge, skills, understanding,
      attitudes, or prescribing behaviors. Data were narratively synthesized. RESULTS:
      We screened 1204 abstracts, 72 full-text articles, and included 29 studies. Study
      populations included physicians. Physicians' extant knowledge and skills were in
      the low to middle of the possible score ranges and demonstrated modest increases
      in response to interventions. Physicians with formal education in epidemiology,
      biostatistics, and research demonstrated higher levels of knowledge and skills.
      In hypothetical scenarios presenting equivalent effect sizes, the use of relative
      effect measures was associated with greater perceptions of medication
      effectiveness and intent to prescribe, compared with the use of absolute effect
      measures. The evidence was limited by convenience samples and study designs that
      limit internal validity. DISCUSSION: Critical appraisal knowledge and skills are
      limited among physicians. The effect measure used can influence perceptions of
      treatment effectiveness and intent to prescribe. How critical appraisal knowledge
      and skills fit among the myriad of influences on prescribing behavior is not
      known.

PMID- 28562503
TI  - Rebooting Kirkpatrick: Integrating Information System Theory Into the Evaluation
      of Web-based Continuing Professional Development Interventions for
      Interprofessional Education.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Information system research has stressed the importance of theory
      in understanding how user perceptions can motivate the use and adoption of
      technology such as web-based continuing professional development programs for
      interprofessional education (WCPD-IPE). A systematic review was conducted to
      provide an information system perspective on the current state of WCPD-IPE
      program evaluation and how current evaluations capture essential theoretical
      constructs in promoting technology adoption. METHODS: Six databases were searched
      to identify studies evaluating WCPD-IPE. Three investigators determined
      eligibility of the articles. Evaluation items extracted from the studies were
      assessed using the Kirkpatrick-Barr framework and mapped to the Benefits
      Evaluation Framework. RESULTS: Thirty-seven eligible studies yielded 362
      evaluation items for analysis. Most items (n = 252) were assessed as Kirkpatrick
      Barr level 1 (reaction) and were mainly focused on the quality (information,
      service, and quality) and satisfaction dimensions of the Benefits Evaluation.
      System quality was the least evaluated quality dimension, accounting for 26 items
      across 13 studies. WCPD-IPE use was reported in 17 studies and its antecedent
      factors were evaluated in varying degrees of comprehensiveness. DISCUSSION:
      Although user reactions were commonly evaluated, greater focus on user
      perceptions of system quality (ie, functionality and performance), usefulness,
      and usability of the web-based platform is required. Surprisingly, WCPD-IPE use
      was reported in less than half of the studies. This is problematic as use is a
      prerequisite to realizing any individual, organizational, or societal benefit of
      WCPD-IPE. This review proposes an integrated framework which accounts for these
      factors and provides a theoretically grounded guide for future evaluations.

PMID- 28562504
TI  - Health Professions Education Graduate Programs Are a Pathway to Strengthening
      Continuing Professional Development.
AB  - The need to strengthen the preparation of individuals leading and providing
      continuing professional development (CPD) programs has grown dramatically within
      the current health care context. CPD is an integral part of the continuum of
      health professions education and cuts across the multiple disciplines and
      professions delivering health care. Each health care profession needs not only to
      keep up to date on new information within their specific discipline but also
      continue to develop and expand skills in areas that link interdisciplinary areas,
      such as quality of care delivery and communication skills, across various
      professions. In this article, we examine the changing context in which CPD is
      provided and explain how graduate programs in health professions education can be
      used as a strategy to strengthen the preparation of individuals for CPD practice
      and advance the delivery of CPD through evidence-based and innovative strategies.

PMID- 28562507
TI  - Dealing with large-scale supply lines when introducing new regimens.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As programs plan the introduction of a new antiretroviral as
      part of a regimen for HIV treatment, supply chain considerations need to be taken
      into account. The key to success is balancing the introduction of a new regimen
      with the phasing out of an old regimen in a manner that does not result in either
      a shortage or an excess supply of either product while ensuring that patients
      continue receiving their medications. This necessitates that country programs,
      donors, and procurement entities possess an appreciation of the global
      antiretroviral market and understand the dynamics that the manufacturing of new
      antiretrovirals will have on the transition. RECENT FINDINGS: Supply, demand, and
      financial considerations affect the capacity of the supply chain to facilitate a
      successful antiretroviral transition. Although this commentary draws on United
      States Agency for International Development experiences under the President's
      Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief from earlier antiretroviral treatment shifts, the
      approaches are applicable to other institutions and to future transitions. Three
      approaches were employed: ensuring the engagement of all key stakeholders in
      transition planning and execution, including clinicians, advocacy groups, supply
      chain professionals, ministry, and donors; conducting and updating regularly the
      national quantification and supply plans for all regimens; and introducing
      antiretroviral products into programs from regional warehouses based on firm
      orders. SUMMARY: Extensive planning and accounting for supply chain factors is
      essential to ensuring a smooth transition to a new regimen and to enable the
      global antiretroviral market to respond adequately.

PMID- 28562509
TI  - Clinic Attendance of Youth With Sickle Cell Disease on Hydroxyurea Treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to describe rates of clinic attendance
      of youth with sickle cell disease prescribed hydroxyurea and examine potential
      demographic and medical factors related to consistent clinic attendance. METHODS:
      Participants included 148 youth diagnosed with sickle cell disease and prescribed
      hydroxyurea during a single calendar year. Clinic attendance and potential
      demographic and medical factors related to attendance were extracted via
      systematic retrospective medical chart review. RESULTS: Youth attended 90.3% of
      scheduled appointments and 85.1% of youth attended at least 80% of scheduled
      clinic appointments during the study window. Adjusting for other factors,
      multivariate analysis revealed families with fewer children in the household,
      families with private insurance, youth experiencing fever, and youth not
      experiencing pain during the calendar year were more likely to consistently
      attend clinic visits. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to clinic appointments is critical
      to optimizing health outcomes for youth with sickle cell disease and integral for
      adequate monitoring of youth prescribed hydroxyurea, in particular. Findings may
      aid providers in appropriately identifying possible barriers to clinic attendance
      to develop attendance promotion interventions.

PMID- 28562508
TI  - Biallelic PMS2 Mutation and Heterozygous DICER1 Mutation Presenting as
      Constitutional Mismatch Repair Deficiency With Corpus Callosum Agenesis: Case
      Report and Review of Literature.
AB  - Constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome is a cancer predisposition
      syndrome caused by autosomal recessive biallelic (homozygous) germline mutations
      in the mismatch repair genes (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2). The clinical spectrum
      includes neoplastic and non-neoplastic manifestations. We present the case of a 7
      year-old boy who presented with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma and glioblastoma,
      together with non-neoplastic manifestations including corpus callosum agenesis,
      arachnoid cyst, developmental venous anomaly, and hydrocephalus. Gene mutation
      analysis revealed pathogenic biallelic mutations of PMS2 and heterozygous DICER1
      variant predicted to be pathogenic. This report is the first to allude to a
      possible interaction of the mismatch repair system with DICER1 to cause corpus
      callosum agenesis.

PMID- 28562510
TI  - Pancytopenia and Hypothyroidism in a Patient With Leukemic Infiltration of the
      Thyroid as the First Presentation of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - We report the case of a 16-year-old female patient with hypothyroidism, goiter,
      and pancytopenia. Biopsy of the thyroid showed leukemic infiltration. After
      confirmation of the diagnosis of B-lymphoblastic leukemia, treatment was started.
      Histologic follow-up at day 33 and 79 showed no residual signs of leukemic
      infiltration. Hypothyroidism persisted despite successful antileukemic treatment.
      Leukemic infiltration of the thyroid should be considered as a differential
      diagnosis in patients with hypothyroidism, goiter, and pancytopenia. We suggest
      that follow-up of thyroid function and histology should be incorporated in the
      follow-up of rare patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia with thyroid
      infiltration.

PMID- 28562511
TI  - Kawasaki Disease Complicated With Macrophage Activation Syndrome: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), also known as secondary hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis, is a rare and potentially fatal complication of Kawasaki
      disease (KD). We report 2 cases, performed a literature search, and analyze the
      characteristics of MAS associated with KD. A total of 69 patients were evaluated,
      34 reported the date of the diagnosis of MAS and KD, 6% had a diagnosis of MAS
      before KD, 21% had a simultaneous presentation, and 73% had the diagnosis of MAS
      after KD. Different treatment approaches were observed with corticosteroids
      administered in 87%, cyclosporine in 49%, etoposide (VP-16) in 39%, and
      monoclonal anti-TNF in 6% of cases. Coronary abnormalities were especially high
      in this group of patients (46%) and 9 patients died (13%). The persistence of
      fever with splenomegaly, hyperferritinemia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated
      aspartate aminotransferase (AST) should prompt the consideration of MAS
      complicating KD.

PMID- 28562512
TI  - An Unusual Cause of Fever and Rash in a Child With Severe Aplastic Anemia.
AB  - A 4-year-old girl with severe aplastic anemia and 2 previous failed T-depleted
      haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplants developed persistent
      neutropenic fever and multiple erythematous maculopapular rashes 2 days after her
      third T-replete haploidentical bone marrow transplant. Skin biopsy confirmed the
      diagnosis of Trichosporon asahii infection. She was on caspofungin prophylaxis
      which is not effective against Trichosporon. A high index of suspicion, prompt
      investigation, and appropriate treatment with voriconazole for 4 months was
      instrumental in controlling the infection and she remains well presently 9 months
      posttransplant with full donor chimerism and free from infection.

PMID- 28562513
TI  - Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters in Pediatric Oncology Patients: A 15-Year
      Population-based Review From Maritimes, Canada.
AB  - The present population-based study evaluates the management and complications of
      peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) in all pediatric oncology patients
      diagnosed in Maritimes, Canada from 2000 to 2014. A total of 107 PICCs were
      placed in 87 (10.1%) pediatric oncology patients. A high percentage (33% and 44%,
      respectively) of the first and second PICC lines was associated with
      complications. Thrombosis, occlusion, and infection were the most frequent
      complications. Age above 10 years and left body side of insertion were
      significantly associated with PICC complications. Given the frequent use of PICCs
      and the high incidence (>33%) of complications, there is a need to mitigate PICC
      line complications.

PMID- 28562514
TI  - ACTN1-related Macrothrombocytopenia: A Novel Entity in the Progressing Field of
      Pediatric Thrombocytopenia.
AB  - : The most common cause of thrombocytopenia in children is immune
      thrombocytopenia. Nevertheless, some atypical cases should evoke the hypothesis
      of genetic thrombocytopenia. Indeed, in the past years, 30 new genes had been
      described in the field of inherited thrombocytopenia. We report a series of 11
      cases of a newly diagnosed entity: ACTN1-related macrothrombocytopenia. Mutations
      in the gene ACTN1 cause mild macrothrombocytopenia characterized by elevated mean
      platelet volume and elevated immature platelet fraction, and low bleeding
      tendency. Its transmission is autosomal dominant. Molecular diagnosis is made by
      sequencing the ACTN1 gene. Its potential role in hematological malignancy
      predisposition remains unclear and should be clarified. CONCLUSION: We identified
      11 patients with ACTN1-related macrothrombocytopenia diagnosed through pediatric
      probands. The aim was to underline the specificities of this entity, especially
      in children, and bring it to the knowledge of pediatricians.

PMID- 28562515
TI  - Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistocytosis in a Child With Brucellosis.
AB  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistocytosis (HLH) is a potentially fatal hyperinflammatory
      syndrome that is characterized by proliferation of histiocytes and
      hemophagocytosis in different organs. The diagnostic criteria include fever,
      hepatosplenomegaly, bicytopenia, high serum ferritin level, decreased natural
      killer cell activity, elevated soluble CD25 level, high serum fasting
      triglyceride level or low fibrinogen level, and hemophagocytosis in the bone
      marrow, spleen, or lymph nodes. HLH can be classified as primary and secondary.
      Secondary HLH can be related to infections. Here we report a case of Brucella
      related HLH, which has been rarely reported in the literature.

PMID- 28562516
TI  - The Collagen Gel Droplet-embedded Culture Drug Sensitivity Test in Relapsed
      Hepatoblastoma.
AB  - There are few treatment options for patients with unresectable or refractory
      hepatoblastoma which has failed to respond to the standard treatment. The rarity
      of the disease and lack of experimental materials have hampered the development
      of new treatments. In this study, the collagen gel droplet-embedded culture drug
      sensitivity test was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the multikinase
      inhibitors sorafenib and sunitinib, and other drugs, in relapsed hepatoblastoma
      tumor tissues. Tumor samples from 6 patients with relapsed hepatoblastoma were
      tested for drug sensitivity by the collagen gel droplet-embedded culture drug
      sensitivity test; evaluable results were obtained from 5 of them. All samples
      were judged to be sensitive to sorafenib with a 50% growth inhibitory
      concentration (IC50) of 0.5 to 3.1 MUg/mL. Sunitinib did not achieve IC50 in 2 of
      3 samples within the tested concentration range based on clinically observed
      serum concentrations. In the drug combination assay using a hepatoblastoma cell
      line, sorafenib showed synergistic effects with SN-38, an active metabolite of
      irinotecan. Our results provide the basic science background warranting future
      clinical trials of a combination of sorafenib and irinotecan for relapsed or
      refractory hepatoblastoma.

PMID- 28562517
TI  - Intravenous Iron Sucrose for Children With Iron Deficiency Anemia.
AB  - Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency in
      children. Most children with IDA are treated with oral iron preparations.
      However, intravenous (IV) iron is an alternative for children with severe IDA who
      have difficulty in adhering to or absorbing oral iron. We sought to describe the
      safety and effectiveness of IV iron sucrose for treatment of IDA in children.
      Pharmacy records of children who received IV iron sucrose at a children's
      hospital between 2004 and 2014 were reviewed. Laboratory markers of anemia and
      iron studies were obtained and preinfusion and postinfusion values were compared.
      Records were also reviewed for adverse reactions. A total of 142 patients
      received IV iron sucrose over 10 years. The mean age was 11 years, 9 months. One
      patient of 142 developed cough and wheezing during the infusion. No other adverse
      events were found. IV iron sucrose resulted in a statistically significant and
      clinically meaningful increase in hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, serum
      iron, ferritin, and % iron saturation, with a corresponding decrease in total
      iron binding capacity. The use of IV iron sucrose in pediatric patients with IDA
      is safe and leads to a moderate increase in hemoglobin and substantial
      improvement in iron studies.

PMID- 28562518
TI  - Iron Overload in Survivors of Childhood Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients transfused with packed red blood cells (PRBC), including
      childhood cancer survivors (CCS), experience complications. We describe iron
      overload (ferritin>500 ng/mL) prevalence and identify risk factors in CCS.
      OBSERVATIONS: Of 116 participants, 3 (2.6%) had elevated ferritin. All were
      teenagers at cancer diagnosis and received >8000 mL PRBC. Total PRBC volume
      correlated best with elevated ferritin (r=0.74; P<0.0001). PRBC (8000 mL) had the
      best positive and negative predictive value (75% and 100%, respectively) for iron
      overload. CONCLUSIONS: CCS may have iron overload. Overall prevalence is low. At
      risk include teenagers at diagnosis and those receiving higher total PRBC
      volumes.

PMID- 28562519
TI  - Epigenetic Combination Therapy for Children With Secondary Myelodysplastic
      Syndrome (MDS)/Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Concurrent Solid Tumor Relapse.
AB  - Secondary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)/acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare
      but devastating complication of solid tumor treatment involving high-dose
      topoisomerase II inhibitor and alkylator chemotherapy. For relapsed or elderly
      MDS and AML patients ineligible for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,
      epigenetic therapies, including DNA methyltransferase inhibitors and histone
      deacetylase inhibitors, have been utilized as palliative therapy, offering a well
      tolerated approach to disease stabilization, prolonged survival, and quality of
      life. Literature on the use of epigenetic therapies for both primary and relapsed
      disease is scarce in the pediatric population. Here, we report 2 pediatric
      patients with secondary AML and MDS, respectively, due to prior therapy for
      metastatic solid tumors. Both patients were ineligible for hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation due to concurrent solid tumor relapse, but were treated with
      the epigenetic combination therapy, decitabine and vorinostat, and achieved
      stabilization of marrow disease, outpatient palliation, and family-reported
      reasonable quality of life.

PMID- 28562521
TI  - How Secure Is the Diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis in Children, Even After
      Colectomy?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We reviewed all children who have undergone a colectomy for
      ulcerative colitis (UC) in our tertiary referral centre in a 12-year period to
      assess the rate of reclassification as Crohn disease (CD). In contrast to CD, a
      colectomy is considered to be definitive treatment for patients with UC.
      Distinguishing between the 2 can be challenging when disease is manifest only
      within the colon-even histological examination of a colectomy specimen may be
      inconclusive. Historically, the recognised "rediagnosis" rate (post-colectomy)
      was reported at approximately 3% to 7%. A recent study suggested that a higher
      rate of 13% should be expected in children. This has implications in terms of pre
      operative counselling and surgical decision making. METHODS: A retrospective case
      note review of all patients who underwent a colectomy for UC between 2003 and
      2014 in a single paediatric tertiary referral centre was performed. RESULTS: Of
      the 570 children diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease in this period, 190
      were diagnosed as UC. Of these 190 cases, 29 underwent a colectomy. None of these
      was re-classified following histological examination of the colectomy sample.
      Seven out of the 29 patients (24%) were subsequently diagnosed with CD (median
      follow-up 7.6 years). This is significantly higher than previously reported rates
      (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that later manifestation of CD is more
      common than previously thought (24%). Therefore, a diagnosis of UC in children
      should be regarded as provisional and a potential later diagnosis of CD taken
      into account when considering colectomy and J-pouch formation.

PMID- 28562520
TI  - Langerhans' Cell Histiocytosis Mimicking a Pott Puffy Tumor.
AB  - Langherans' cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease mostly affecting children
      in the first decade of life. As clinical presentation is extremely heterogenous,
      a prompt diagnosis may be challenging, sometimes leading to a diagnostic delay,
      especially when the disease involves a single site. Herein, we report a case of a
      child with an unusual presentation of (LCH) mimicking a Pott puffy tumor with
      extracranial and epidural abscesses, surgically treated. Through this unique case
      we summarize possible manifestations of LCH with bone involvement and we
      underline the importance of considering possible complications due to bone
      erosions such as infection, to avoid a misdiagnosis.

PMID- 28562522
TI  - A Child With Ichthyosis and Liver Failure.

PMID- 28562523
TI  - Risk of Eating Disorders in Patients With Celiac Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Several cases of eating disorders (EDs) have been reported in
      patients with celiac disease (CD), suggesting that ED could be a comorbidity
      associated with CD. Few epidemiological studies have, however, assessed this
      potential association. We aimed to evaluate the risk of EDs in individuals
      diagnosed with CD in comparison to healthy controls. METHODS: A total of 98 cases
      and 98 controls matched for sex, age, and body mass index between 10 and 23 years
      old were studied. A questionnaire was completed on medical history and
      sociodemographic as well as anthropometric characteristics. Various ED screening
      self-reported tests were administered. RESULTS: A total of 61.2% of the study
      population were girls with a mean age of 15.3 +/- 3.7 years old. Patients with CD
      scored nonsignificantly higher on all the ED screening tests than control
      participants. No differences were observed between study groups in terms of the
      frequency of individuals who exceeded the clinical cutoff identifying those at
      risk of ED. Patients with CD above 13 years old were associated with a 2.15-point
      increase in the Eating Attitude Test score compared with controls [beta
      coefficient = 2.15 SE 1.04; P = 0.04] after adjusting for various confounders.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although being a patient with CD was associated with a significantly
      higher Eating Attitude Test score in individuals older than 13 years old, no
      clear differences were observed between individuals with CD and controls in terms
      of risk of ED when other screening tests were used. More studies with larger
      samples and prospective designs are warranted to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28562524
TI  - The Work-Rate of Elite Hurling Match-Play.
AB  - Collins, DK, McRobert, A, Morton, JP, O'Sullivan, D, and Doran, DA. The work-rate
      of elite hurling match-play. J Strength Cond Res 32(3): 805-811, 2018-This study
      describes the global work-rate of elite hurling match-play and the influence
      which positional difference has on work-rate is considered. The movement of
      ninety-four players was recorded using global positioning system, sampling at 4
      Hz in a total of 12 games. Data were classified according to the positional line
      on the field and period of the match. The total and high-speed distance of match
      play was 7,617 +/- 1,219 m (95% confidence interval [CI], 7,367-7,866) and 1,134
      +/- 358 m (95% CI, 1,060-1,206), respectively. The maximum speed attained was
      29.8 +/- 2.3 km.h with a mean speed of 6.1 +/- 1 km.h. The second {271 +/- 107 m
      (p = 0.001; effect size [ES] = 0.25)}, third (278 +/- 118 m [p = 0.001; ES =
      0.21]), and fourth quarter (255 +/- 108 m [p = 0.001; ES = 0.31]) high-speed
      running distance differed significantly from that of the first quarter (330 +/-
      120 m). There was a significant difference in total (p = 0.001; ES = 0.01-0.85),
      high-speed running (p = 0.001; ES = 0.21-0.76), and sprint (p = 0.013; ES = 0.01
      0.39) distance across the positions, with midfielders undertaking the highest
      volume of work, followed by the half-forward and half-back lines and finally the
      full-forward and full-back lines. A decrease in high-speed running distance seems
      to occur through out the game and in particular at the latter stages of each
      half. Distinct positional work profiles are evident. The present finding provide
      a context on which training which replicates the work-rate of match-play may be
      formulated, thus helping to improve the physical preparation of elite players.

PMID- 28562525
TI  - Ophthalmoplegia associated with lung adenocarcinoma in a patient with the Lambert
      Eaton myasthenic syndrome: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: The Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is a neuromuscular
      disease; its unique symptoms of LEMS include dry mouth with a metallic taste,
      constipation, and erectile dysfunction. As it is quite rare, isolated ocular
      muscle impairment associated with LEMS east to ignore. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 65
      year-old man presented with alternating ptosis and diplopia. Isolated ocular
      muscle impairment had lasted for 6 years, and the patient was initially diagnosed
      with ocular myasthenia gravis (MG). Treatment with azathioprine only slightly
      improved symptoms over the first 2 months; long-term treatment was not effective.
      DIAGNOSES: Dynamic observation of chest computed tomography images revealed a
      slowly progressing nodule in the lower lobe of the left lung. The subsequent
      pathologic examination following mass resection confirmed a diagnosis of lung
      adenocarcinoma. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was ultimately diagnosed with the
      Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome associated with pulmonary adenocarcinoma.
      OUTCOMES: Resection of the lung tumor relieved all symptoms. LESSONS: Other
      causes of ocular MG symptoms should be considered when standard MG therapy is
      ineffective, especially the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome.

PMID- 28562527
TI  - Successful treatment of infliximab in a patient with scleroderma: a case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Systemic Scleroderma (SSc) is a rare connective tissue disease
      clinically characterized by cutaneous sclerosis and variable systemic
      involvement. No drug is currently available to effectively reverse the fibrotic
      process in SSc. Previous reports have suggested that the tumor necrosis factor
      (TNF) antagonists could be useful for the treatment of fibrotic disorders.
      However, TNFalpha has long been considered as an antifibrotic cytokine. Whether
      TNF antagonist is effective for SSc patients needs to be tested. PATIENT CONCERNS
      DIAGNOSIS: Here we report a case with a 2-year history of SSc who was effectively
      treated with infliximab in our clinic. INTERVENTIONS: The patient manifested skin
      thickening, chest tightness and arthralgia. Before admitted to our clinic, he was
      treated with methylprednisolone, prostacyclin, D-penicillamine and calcium
      antagonists but without significant improvement of his signs and symptoms. In our
      clinic, the patient was treated with infliximab. OUTCOMES: His signs and symptoms
      were continued improving during the course of treatment. His skin biopsy showed
      significant reduction in fibroplasia finally. LESSONS: TNF antagonist is an
      effective treatment for SSc.

PMID- 28562526
TI  - Efficacy of antidepressive medication for depression in Parkinson disease: a
      network meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson disease (PD) was considered as the 2nd most prevalent
      neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer disease, while depression is a
      prevailing nonmotor symptom of PD. Typically used antidepression medication
      includes tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
      (SSRI), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), monoamine
      oxidase inhibitors (MAOI), and dopamine agonists (DA). Our study aimed at
      evaluating the efficacy of antidepressive medications for depression of PD.
      METHODS: Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library were searched
      for related articles. Traditional meta-analysis and network meta-analysis (NMA)
      were performed with outcomes including depression score, UPDRS-II, UPDRS-III, and
      adverse effects. Surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) was also
      performed to illustrate the rank probabilities of different medications on
      various outcomes. The consistency of direct and indirect evidence was also
      assessed by node-splitting method. RESULTS: Results of traditional pairwise meta
      analysis were performed. Concerning depression score, significant improvement was
      observed in AD, MAOI, SSRI, and SNRI compared with placebo. NMA was performed and
      more information could be obtained. DA was illustrated to be effective over
      placebo concerning UPDRS-III, MAOI, and SNRI. DA demonstrated a better prognosis
      in UPDRS-II scores compared with placebo and MAOI. However, DA and SSRI
      demonstrated a significant increase in adverse effects compared with placebo. The
      SUCRA value was calculated to evaluate the ranking probabilities of all
      medications on investigated outcomes, and the consistency between direct and
      indirect evidences was assessed by node-splitting method. CONCLUSION: SSRI had a
      satisfying efficacy for the depression of PD patients and could improve
      activities of daily living and motor function of patient but the adverse effects
      are unneglectable. SNRI are the safest medication with high efficacy for
      depression as well while other outcomes are relatively poor.

PMID- 28562528
TI  - MicroRNA profiling in the dentate gyrus in epileptic rats: The role of miR-187
      3p.
AB  - This study aimed to explore the role of aberrant miRNA expression in epilepsy and
      to identify more potential genes associated with epileptogenesis.The miRNA
      expression profile of GSE49850, which included 20 samples from the rat epileptic
      dentate gyrus at 7, 14, 30, and 90 days after electrical stimulation and 20
      additional samples from sham time-matched controls, was downloaded from the Gene
      Expression Omnibus database. The significantly differentially expressed miRNAs
      were identified in stimulated samples at each time point compared to time-matched
      controls, respectively. The target genes of consistently differentially expressed
      miRNAs were screened from miRDB and microRNA.org databases, followed by Gene
      Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analysis and regulatory network
      construction. The overlapping target genes for consistently differentially
      expressed miRNAs were also identified from these 2 databases. Furthermore, the
      potential binding sites of miRNAs and their target genes were analyzed.Rno-miR
      187-3p was consistently downregulated in stimulated groups compared with time
      matched controls. The predicted target genes of rno-miR-187-3p were enriched in
      different GO terms and pathways. In addition, 7 overlapping target genes of rno
      miR-187-3p were identified, including NFS1, PAQR4, CAND1, DCLK1, PRKAR2A, AKAP3,
      and KCNK10. These 7 overlapping target genes were determined to have a different
      number of matched binding sites with rno-miR-187-3p.Our study suggests that miR
      187-3p may play an important role in epilepsy development and progression via
      regulating numerous target genes, such as NFS1, CAND1, DCLK1, AKAP3, and KCNK10.
      Determining the underlying mechanism of the role of miR-187-3p in epilepsy may
      make it a potential therapeutic option.

PMID- 28562529
TI  - Body mass index and risk of diabetic retinopathy: A meta-analysis and systematic
      review.
AB  - Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a frequent cause of acquired blindness worldwide.
      Various studies have reported the effects of body mass index (BMI) on the risk of
      DR, but the results remain controversial. Therefore, a meta-analysis was
      performed to evaluate the relationship between BMI and the risk of DR.A
      systematic search was performed using the Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Embase
      databases to obtain articles published through December 2016. Articles regarding
      the association between BMI and the risk of DR were retrieved. The adjusted odds
      ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were included and then
      pooled with a random effects model.A total of 27 articles were included in this
      meta-analysis. When BMI was analyzed as a categorical variable, neither being
      overweight (OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.75-1.07; P = .21; I = 65%) nor obesity (OR =
      0.97, 95% CI 0.73-1.30; P = .86) were associated with an increased risk of DR
      when compared with normal weight. When BMI was analyzed as a continuous variable,
      a higher BMI was not associated with an increased risk of DR (OR = 0.99, 95% CI
      0.97-1.01; P = .25; I2 = 79%). The pooled results did not significantly change
      after the sensitivity analysis.Based on the current publications, neither being
      overweight nor obesity is associated with an increased risk of DR. Further
      studies should confirm these findings.

PMID- 28562530
TI  - Adjuvant endocrine therapy alone in patients with node-positive, luminal A type
      breast cancer.
AB  - Luminal A breast cancer has a much better prognosis than other subtypes, with a
      low risk of local or regional recurrence. However, there is controversy around
      under- versus overtreatment with regard to adjuvant treatment of node-positive,
      luminal A breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify whether
      adjuvant systemic chemotherapy has any benefit in node-positive, luminal A breast
      cancer and to evaluate feasibility of endocrine therapy without chemotherapy in
      this group.This was a retrospective study of 11,025 patients who were surgically
      treated for invasive breast cancer at Samsung Medical Center between January 2004
      and December 2013. Luminal A subtype was defined as ER+, HER2-, and Ki-67 < 14%.
      We compared AC based (AC: doxorubicin or epirubicin, plus cyclophosphamide)
      adjuvant chemotherapy versus endocrine therapy without chemotherapy in patients
      with node-positive, luminal A breast cancer.We performed 1: n matching, with a
      maximum n of 8 on endocrine therapy group (n = 50) to chemotherapy group (n =
      642). The median age of the patients in each group at the time of surgery was
      58.3 +/- 9.5 years in the chemotherapy group and 58.7 +/- 11.7 in the endocrine
      therapy only group. The median follow-up time was 51.9 months (range, 1-125
      months). In multivariable analysis, omission of adjuvant chemotherapy in luminal
      A cancer had no influence on OS and DFS. Axillary lymph node metastasis and
      progesterone receptor (PR) status were significantly different between the
      endocrine therapy alone group and the chemotherapy group in terms of OS. Nuclear
      grade, PR status, and adjuvant radiotherapy were significantly different between
      the endocrine therapy alone group and the chemotherapy group with regard to DFS.
      In survival analysis, there were no differences in OS (P = .137) and DFS (P =
      .225) between the 2 groups.Adjuvant chemotherapy could provide little benefit to
      postmenopausal patients with luminal A, node-positive breast cancer, and
      endocrine therapy alone may help reduce morbidity. Future studies with a large
      number of patients and longer follow-up time are necessary to determine whether
      chemotherapy might be avoided in this patient population.

PMID- 28562531
TI  - Widely differing screening and treatment practice for osteoporosis in patients
      with inflammatory bowel diseases in the Swiss IBD cohort study.
AB  - Low bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis remain frequent problems in
      patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Several guidelines with
      nonidentical recommendations exist and there is no general agreement regarding
      the optimal approach for osteoporosis screening in IBD patients. Clinical
      practice of osteoporosis screening and treatment remains insufficiently
      investigated.In the year 2014, a chart review of 877 patients included in the
      Swiss IBD Cohort study was performed to assess details of osteoporosis
      diagnostics and treatment. BMD measurements, osteoporosis treatment, and IBD
      medication were recorded.Our chart review revealed 253 dual-energy x-ray
      absorptiometry (DXA) scans in 877 IBD patients; osteoporosis was prevalent in 20%
      of tested patients. We identified widely differing osteoporosis screening rates
      among centers (11%-62%). A multivariate logistic regression analysis identified
      predictive factors for screening including steroid usage, long disease duration,
      and perianal disease; even after correction for all risk factors, the study
      center remained a strong independent predictor (odds ratio 2.3-21 compared to the
      center with the lowest screening rate). Treatment rates for patients with
      osteoporosis were suboptimal (55% for calcium, 65% for vitamin D) at the time of
      chart review. Similarly, a significant fraction of patients with current steroid
      medication were not treated with vitamin D or calcium (treatment rates 53% for
      calcium, 58% for vitamin D). For only 29% of patients with osteoporosis
      bisphosphonate treatment was started. Treatment rates also differed among
      centers, generally following screening rates. In patients with longitudinal DXA
      scans, calcium and vitamin D usage was significantly associated with improvement
      of BMD over time.Our analysis identified inconsistent usage of osteoporosis
      screening and underuse of osteoporosis treatment in IBD patients. Increasing
      awareness of osteoporosis as a significant clinical problem in IBD patients might
      improve patient care.

PMID- 28562532
TI  - Evaluation of a combined posterior lateral and anteromedial approach in the
      treatment of terrible triad of the elbow: A retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This retrospective study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety
      of a combined posterior lateral and anteromedial approach in the treatment of
      terrible triad of the elbow (TTE). METHODS: TTE patients who received a
      combination of posterior lateral and anteromedial approach or other conservative
      treatments were included in the present study. The postoperative functions of the
      elbow and the severity of traumatic arthritis were assessed using the Mayo Elbow
      Performance Score (MEPS) and visual analog scale (VAS). Extension-flexion of
      elbow joint and rotation of forearm were also measured. RESULTS: A combined
      posterior lateral and anteromedial approach or other conservative treatments
      showed significant improvements in the activity of the elbow, MEPS, VAS, the
      excellent rate, and x-ray results. The postoperative healing time and
      complication rate of patients who received a combined posterior lateral and
      anteromedial approach significantly decreased compared to those who received
      other conservative treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with TTE who received a
      combined posterior lateral and anteromedial treatment had an increased fracture
      healing rate, showed improved recovery of elbow functions and had fewer
      complications.

PMID- 28562534
TI  - Serial renography for evaluation of the impact of capecitabine therapy on renal
      function: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Cancer can cause renal dysfunction and disease either directly or
      indirectly, through adverse effects of therapies, including chemotherapy and
      radiation. The assessment of renal function in cancer patients is necessary in
      clinical practice. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 31-year-old woman had proctoscopy
      performed in our hospital for a principal complaint of bloody stool for 6 months
      and worsening 1 month prior to presentation. DIAGNOSES: Following proctoscopy,
      she was diagnosed with a signet-ring cell carcinoma of the rectum. Hartman
      surgery was performed. Metastasis of the carcinoma to regional lymph nodes around
      the rectum was verified by postoperative pathology. INTERVENTIONS: The patient
      was treated with capecitabine, and renal function was monitored over the course
      of treatment by renography before, during, and after chemotherapy. OUTCOMES: We
      found that capecitabine caused a reversible decline of renal function. However,
      the value of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Cr) remained within
      the normal range during chemotherapy. The patient's chemotherapy regimen was
      altered after her oncologists concluded that she was developing nephrotoxicity
      from capecitabine. She was treated with tegafur, gimeracil and oteracil potassium
      capsules. This patient was followed over the next 6 months, and no abnormal renal
      function re-occurred. LESSONS: Our experience with capecitabine shows that dosing
      adjustments can be warranted for chemotherapy in cancer patients, requiring
      monitoring of renal function. Renography may provide an early warning to protect
      the renal function of tumor patients when they receive chemotherapy.

PMID- 28562533
TI  - miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis of heart failure: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the rapid development of molecular biology, the kind of mircoRNA
      (miRNA) has been introduced into emerging role both in cardiac development and
      pathological procedure. Thus, we conduct this meta-analysis to find out the role
      of circulating miRNA as a biomarker in detecting heart failure. METHODS: We
      searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and
      World Health Organization clinical trials registry center to identify relevant
      studies up to August 2016. We performed meta-analysis in a fixed/random-effect
      model using Meta-disc 1.4. We used STATA 14.0 to estimate the publication bias
      and meta-regression. Besides, we took use of SPSS 17.0 to evaluate variance
      between several groups. Information on true positive, false positive, false
      negative, and true negative, as well as the quality of research was extracted.
      RESULTS: We use results from 10 articles to analyze the pooled accuracy. The
      overall performance of total mixed miRNAs (TmiRs) detection was: pooled
      sensitivity, 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 0.75); pooled
      specificity, 0.69 (95%CI, 0.67 to 0.71); and area under the summary receiver
      operating characteristic curves value (SROC), 0.7991. The miRNA-423-5p (miR-423
      5p) detection was: pooled sensitivity, 0.81 (95%CI, 0.76 to 0.85); pooled
      specificity, 0.67 (95%CI, 0.61 to 0.73); and SROC, 0.8600. However, taken the
      same patients population, we extracted the data of BNP for detecting heart
      failure and performed meta-analysis with acceptable SROC as 0.9291. Among the
      variance analysis, the diagnostic performance of miR-423-5p claimed significant
      advantages of other pooled results. However, the combination of miRNAs and BNP
      could increase the accuracy of detecting of heart failure. Unfortunately, there
      was no dramatic advantage of miR-423-5p compared to BNP protocol. CONCLUSION:
      Despite interstudy variability, the performance test of miRNA for detecting heart
      failure revealed that miR-423-5p demonstrated the potential to be a biomarker.
      However, other miRNAs were not able to provide enough evidence on promising
      diagnostic value for heart failure based on the current data. Moreover, the
      combination of miRNAs and BNP could work as a better method to detection.
      Unfortunately, BNP was still the most convinced biomarker for such disease.

PMID- 28562535
TI  - The structural changes of upper airway and newly developed sleep breathing
      disorders after surgical treatment in class III malocclusion subjects.
AB  - Bimaxillary surgery is the traditional treatment of choice for correcting class
      III malocclusion which is reported to cause an alteration of oropharyngeal
      structures and upper airway narrowing that might be a predisposing factor for
      obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This study aimed to analyze sleep parameters in
      class III malocclusion subjects and ascertain the prevalence of snoring or OSA
      following bimaxillary surgery.A total of 22 patients with Le Fort I osteotomy and
      mandibular setback for class III malocclusion were prospectively enrolled. All
      patients received endoscopic examination, cephalometry, 3-dimensional computed
      tomography (3D-CT), and sleep study twice at 1 month before and 3 months after
      surgery.The patient population consisted of 5 males and 17 females with a mean
      body mass index of 22.5 kg/m and mean age of 22.1 years. No patients complained
      of sleep-related symptoms, and the results of sleep study showed normal values
      before surgery. Three patients (13%) were newly diagnosed with mild or moderate
      OSA and 6 patients (27%) showed increased loudness of snoring (over 40 dB) after
      bimaxillary surgery. According to cephalometric analysis and 3D-CT results, the
      retropalatal and retroglossal areas were significantly narrowed in class III
      malocclusion patients, showing snoring and sleep apnea after surgery. In
      addition, the total volume of the upper airway was considerably reduced following
      surgery in the same patients.Postoperative narrowing of the upper airway and a
      reduction of total upper airway volume can be induced, and causes snoring and OSA
      in class III malocclusion subjects following bimaxillary surgery.

PMID- 28562537
TI  - Recombinant human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor in deep second
      degree burn wound healing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore the effects of recombinant human
      granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) on deep second-degree
      burn wound healing. METHODS: In this study, 95 patients with a total of 190 burn
      wounds were treated with either rhGM-CSF or placebo, separated into 2 groups by
      treatment type. Wound healing rate, wound healing time, histopathological
      condition, and scar scale were all compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: The
      healing rates in the rhGM-CSF group were remarkably higher than those in the
      placebo group (P < .01). The wound healing time in the rhGM-CSF group (18.8 +/-
      7.6 days) was significantly shorter than that in the placebo group (25.5 +/- 4.6
      days, P < .01). On the 14th day and 28th day, the average optical density of
      vascular endothelial factor (VEGF) in the rhGM-CSF group was larger than that in
      the placebo group. Meanwhile, the average optical density of fibroblast growth
      factor (FGF) in the rhGM-CSF group was also larger than that in the placebo
      group. Furthermore, the Vancouver scar scale scores of pigmentation, pliability,
      height, and vascularity were notable lower in the rhGM-CSF group than those in
      the placebo group (P < .01). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that rhGM-CSF can
      significantly accelerate deep second-degree burn wound healing.

PMID- 28562536
TI  - Acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy after fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy: A
      case series and review of the literature.
AB  - Acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy induced by fluoropyrimidines (FPs) is a rare
      complication. Its pathophysiology remains unclear, especially given the currently
      used regimens, including intermediate-doses of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or oral FP
      agents. We aimed to characterize the clinical manifestations in cancer patients
      who developed hyperammonemic encephalopathy after receiving FP-based
      chemotherapy.We retrospectively reviewed 1786 patients with gastrointestinal or
      primary-unknown cancer who received FP-based regimens between 2007 and 2012.
      Eleven patients (0.6%) developed acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy. The
      incidence according to the administered anticancer drugs were as follows: 5-FU (8
      of 1176, 0.7%), S-1 (1 of 679, 0.1%), capecitabine (2 of 225, 0.9%), and tegafur
      uracil (UFT) (0 of 39, 0%). Ten patients (90.9%) had at least 1 aggravating
      factor, including infection, dehydration, constipation, renal dysfunction, and
      muscle loss. All the 10 patients met the definition of sarcopenia. Median time to
      the onset of hyperammonemic encephalopathy in the cycle was 3 days (range: 2-21).
      Three patients (27.3%) developed encephalopathy during the first cycle of the
      regimen and the remaining 8 patients during the second or more cycles. Seven
      patients (63.6%) had received at least 1 other FP-containing regimen before
      without episodes of encephalopathy.All patients recovered soon after immediate
      discontinuation of chemotherapy and supportive therapies, such as hydration,
      infusion of branched-chain amino acids, and oral lactulose intake, with a median
      time to recovery of 2 days (range: <1-7). Four patients (36.4%) received FP-based
      regimens after improvement of symptoms; 3 patients were successfully managed with
      dose reduction, and 1 patient, who had developed encephalopathy due to S-1
      monotherapy, received modified FOLFOX-6 therapy without encephalopathy later.FP
      associated acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy is extremely rare, but a possible
      event at any time and even during the administration of oral FP agents.
      Particular attention is warranted when giving FP-based therapy for patients with
      aggravating factors, such as sarcopenia. This complication can be properly
      managed with early detection.

PMID- 28562538
TI  - Quick outpatient diagnosis in small district or general tertiary hospitals: A
      comparative observational study.
AB  - While quick diagnosis units (QDUs) have expanded as an innovative cost-effective
      alternative to admission for workup, studies investigating how QDUs compare are
      lacking. This study aimed to comparatively describe the diagnostic performance of
      the QDU of an urban district hospital and the QDU of its reference general
      hospital.This was an observational descriptive study of 336 consecutive
      outpatients aged >=18 years referred to the QDU of a urban district hospital in
      Barcelona (QDU1) during 2009 to 2016 for evaluation of suspected severe
      conditions whose physical performance allowed them to travel from home to
      hospital and back for visits and examinations. For comparison purposes, 530
      randomly selected outpatients aged >=18 years referred to the QDU of the
      reference tertiary hospital (QDU2), also in Barcelona, were included. Clinical
      and QDU variables were analyzed and compared.Mean age and sex were similar (61.97
      (19.93) years and 55% of females in QDU1 vs 60.0 (18.81) years and 52% of females
      in QDU2; P values = .14 and .10, respectively). Primary care was the main
      referral source in QDU1 (69%) and the emergency department in QDU2 (59%).
      Predominant referral reasons in QDU1 and 2 were unintentional weight loss (UWL)
      (21 and 16%), anemia (14 and 21%), adenopathies and/or palpable masses (10 and
      11%), and gastrointestinal symptoms (10 and 19%). Time-to-diagnosis was longer in
      QDU1 than 2 (12 [1-28] vs 8 [4-14] days; P < .001). Malignancy was more common in
      QDU2 than 1 (19 vs 13%; P = .001). Patients from both groups with malignancy,
      aged >=65 years and requiring >2 visits to be diagnosed were in general more
      likely to be males, to have UWL and adenopathies and/or palpable masses but less
      likely anemia, to undergo more examinations except endoscopy, and to be referred
      onward to specialist outpatient clinics.Despite some differences, results showed
      that, for diagnostic purposes, the overall performance and effectiveness of QDUs
      of urban district and reference general hospitals in evaluating patients with
      potentially serious conditions were similar. This study, the first to compare the
      performance of 2 hospital-based QDUs, adds evidence to the opportunity of
      producing standardized guidelines to optimize QDUs infrastructure, functioning,
      and efficiency.

PMID- 28562539
TI  - False positive 18FDG PET-CT results due to exogenous lipoid pneumonia secondary
      to oily drug inhalation: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Exogenous lipoid pneumonia is a rare condition due to abnormal
      presence of oily substances in the lungs. It is a rarely known cause for false
      positive FDG PET-CT results and can sometimes lead to invasive investigations.
      Searching and finding the source of the oily substance is one of the keys to the
      diagnosis. Inhalation of oily drugs during snorting has rarely been described.
      PATIENT CONCERNS: A patient with well controlled HIV infection was referred for
      an FDG PET-CT to assess extension of Kaposi's disease, recently removed from his
      right foot. The patient had no particular symptoms. DIAGNOSES: Abnormal uptake of
      FDG was found in a suspicious lung nodule. An experienced radiologist thought the
      nodule was due to lipoid pneumonia. INTERVENTIONS: Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      did not contain lipid-laden macrophages but bronchoscopy showed violet lesions
      resembling Kaposi's disease lesions. Lobectomy was performed after a
      multidisciplinary discussion. OUTCOMES: Anatomopathological analysis revealed the
      nodule was due to lipoid pneumonia. The patient's quality of life did not
      diminish after the operation and he is still in good health. The source of the
      oily substance causing lipoid pneumonia was found after the surgery: the patient
      used to snort oily drugs. LESSONS: The presence of a suspicious lung nodule
      possibly due to lipoid pneumonia in a patient with known Kaposi's disease was
      difficult to untangle and lead to invasive surgery. It is possible that if a
      source of exogenous lipoid pneumonia had been found beforehand, surgery could
      have been prevented.

PMID- 28562540
TI  - Excess intraoperative fluid volume administration is associated with pancreatic
      fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy: A retrospective multicenter study.
AB  - Recent studies on perioperative fluid administration in patients undergoing
      pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) have suggested that increased fluid loads are
      associated with worse perioperative outcomes. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate the relationship between intraoperative fluid (IOF) administration
      and postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF), and to determine additional risk
      factors affecting pancreatic fistula in patients undergoing PD.From 2005 to 2014,
      a total of 182 patients with various periampullary diseases after PD were
      reviewed retrospectively at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Chung-Ang
      University Hospital, and Dongnam Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences.
      Patients were assigned to high or low IOF groups based on more or less fluid
      administration for supplementation of estimated blood loss and maintenance volume
      (12.5 mL/kg/h) than planned, respectively. The associations between IOF
      administration, pancreatic fistula development, and perioperative outcomes were
      evaluated.A total of 98 patients were assigned to the high-IOF group, and 84 to
      the low-IOF group. Risk factors for pancreatic fistula after univariate analysis
      were assignment to the high-IOF group, higher preoperative serum hemoglobin
      level, ampullary or bile duct cancer, pylorus preserving PD, small pancreatic
      duct, duct-to-mucosa pancreatojejunostomy, use of a stent, and mesh application
      to pancreatojejunal anastomosis. Among these, assignment to the high-IOF group
      (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.501, 95% CI 1.624-18.632, P = .006) and a small (<4 mm)
      pancreatic duct (HR = 4.129, 95% CI 1.569-14.658, P = .035) were identified as
      independent risk factors for the development of pancreatic fistula after
      multivariate analysis. However, long-term survival rate did not differ according
      to IOF group or duct size.Excessive IOF volume administration is associated with
      an increased incidence of pancreatic fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

PMID- 28562541
TI  - Preoperative flap-site injection with ropivacaine and epinephrine in BABA robotic
      and endoscopic thyroidectomy safely reduces postoperative pain: A CONSORT
      compliant double-blinded randomized controlled study (PAIN-BREKOR trial).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical trials on bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA)
      thyroidectomy show that levobupivacaine and ropivacaine significantly reduce
      postoperative pain, but they focused on BABA robotic thyroidectomy only and did
      not identify specific sites of significant pain relief. Our objective was to
      assess the pain reduction at various sites and safety of ropivacaine-epinephrine
      flap injection in BABA thyroidectomy. METHODS: This prospective double-blinded
      randomized controlled trial was conducted in compliance with the revised CONSORT
      statement (ClinicalTrials.gov registration no. NCT02112370). Patients were
      randomized into the ropivacaine-epinephrine arm or control (normal saline) arm.
      RESULTS: From January 2014 to May 2016, 148 patients participated. The primary
      endpoint was site-specific pain, as measured by numeric rating scale 12 hours
      after surgery. The ropivacaine-epinephrine group exhibited significantly less
      swallowing difficulty (P = .008), anterior neck pain (P = .016), and right (P =
      .019) and left (P = .035) chest pain. Secondary endpoints were systolic (P =
      .402), diastolic (P = .827) blood pressure, and pulse rate (P = .397) after
      injection before incision and during surgery. The vital signs of the groups just
      after injection did not differ. During surgery, the ropivacaine-epinephrine
      patients had higher pulse rates (99 +/- 13.3 vs 88 +/- 16.1, P < .001) but within
      normal range. There were no adverse events such as postoperative nausea and
      vomiting. There was no significant difference in pain scores in either patient
      group between patients who underwent robotic or endoscopic interventions.
      CONCLUSION: BABA flap-site injection with ropivacaine and epinephrine mix before
      incision effectively and safely reduced postoperative pain. Future studies should
      focus on tailoring ropivacaine and epinephrine dosage for individuals.

PMID- 28562543
TI  - Clinical features and prognostic factors of adult secondary hemophagocytic
      syndrome: Analysis of 47 cases.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the relationship between clinical features and
      prognosis of adult secondary hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS).A retrospective
      analysis was conducted on the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, laboratory
      examinations, treatment options, and prognosis of 47 patients with adult
      secondary HPS diagnosed from January 2013 to December 2015.The average age at
      disease onset was (46.26 +/- 18.98) years with a male:female ratio of 1:1.14.
      Thirteen patients died, with the highest mortality rate in patients with HPS
      underlying blood system malignancy (33.33%, 2/6). The mortality rate in patients
      with HPS underlying autoimmune disorders was the lowest (18.75%, 3/16). The
      Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that signs of hemorrhage, pulmonary and nervous
      system involvement, serous effusion, and decrease in the blood platelet count
      were associated with death. The Cox regression analysis revealed that signs of
      hemorrhage, pulmonary involvement, serous effusion, and nervous system
      involvement were independent risk factors of patient death.Adult secondary HPS
      has multiple etiologies and diversified clinical features. The risk of death
      increases in patients with signs of hemorrhage, serous effusion, pulmonary
      involvement, and nervous system involvement.

PMID- 28562542
TI  - Association between interleukin-8 levels and chronic periodontal disease: A
      PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current publications present contradictory findings regarding
      interleukin-8 (IL-8) levels in patients with chronic periodontitis (CP). This
      systematic review compile evidences of the IL8 mRNA and protein levels in
      gingival tissue, saliva, and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) investigated in
      patients with CP. Moreover, 2 meta-analyses were made focusing on the IL-8 levels
      in GCF and saliva of patients with or without CP. METHODS: Electronic searches of
      the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were conducted for publications
      up to February 2016 that investigated the levels of IL-8 detected in individuals
      with CP compared with health individuals. A total of 31 publications were
      included in the systematic review. For meta-analyses, the strength of association
      was calculated by pooled odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals using RevMan
      5.1 software. Heterogeneity was examined using Higgins I-squared, tau-squared,
      and chi tests. RESULTS: In biopsies of gingival tissue of CP patients, all
      studies found higher IL8 mRNA levels, and the majority of studies showed higher
      IL-8 protein levels in this tissue of individuals with moderate to severe CP.
      Four studies investigating the IL-8 levels in saliva showed inconclusive results.
      In spite of some studies seemed to indicate higher levels of IL-8 in GCF of CP
      patients, the meta-analysis results showed significantly lower IL-8 levels
      (pg/MUL) in GCF of CP patients in comparison with periodontally healthy subjects.
      CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that IL8 gene expression and IL-8 protein levels were
      higher in gingival tissues of CP patients when compared to periodontally health
      individuals. Meta-analysis of studies that measured IL-8 (pg/uL) in GCF found
      lower levels in CP patients. There are conflicting evidences regarding IL-8
      levels in saliva.

PMID- 28562544
TI  - Endoscopic management of massive mercury ingestion: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Ingestion of a massive amount of metallic mercury was thought to be
      harmless until the last century. After that, in a number of cases, mercury
      ingestion has been associated with appendicitis, impaired liver function, memory
      deficits, aspiration leading to pneumonitis and acute renal failure. Treatment
      includes gastric lavage, giving laxatives and chelating agents, but rapid removal
      of metallic mercury with gastroscopy has not been used. PATIENT CONCERNS: An 18
      year-old man was admitted to our emergency department after drinking 1000 g of
      metallic mercury as a suicide attempt. DIAGNOSIS: Except from mild umbilical
      tenderness, he had no other symptoms. Radiography showed a metallic density in
      the area of the stomach. INTERVENTION: Gastroscopy was performed to remove the
      mercury. One large pool and several small droplets of mercury were removed from
      the stomach. OUTCOMES: Blood and urine mercury levels of the patient remained low
      during hospitalization. No symptoms of mercury intoxication developed during the
      follow-up period. LESSONS: Massive mercury ingestion may cause several symptoms,
      which can be prevented with prompt treatment. We used endoscopy to remove the
      mercury, which shortened the exposure time and minimized the risk of aspiration.
      This is the first case where endoscopy was used for the management of mercury
      ingestion.

PMID- 28562545
TI  - Sumatriptan-induced angle-closure glaucoma: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Drug-induced bilateral angle-closure glaucoma is a rare event and
      should be treated correctly and promptly to prevent visual loss. PATIENT
      CONCERNS: We report a rare case of sumatriptan-induced bilateral angle-closure
      glaucoma in a young woman with migraine, and explore the possible mechanism.
      DIAGNOSES: We describe the clinical outcome of a patient with sumatriptan-induced
      bilateral angle-closure glaucoma. The patient presented with bilateral acute
      elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP) and myopic shift. INTERVENTIONS: The
      clinical symptoms and signs resolved rapidly after treatment with a topical
      cycloplegic agent, topical steroid, and aqueous suppressant. OUTCOMES: Based on
      the suspicious of malignant glaucoma, we prescribed topical phenylephrine, whose
      application immediately lowered the IOP. All symptoms resolved after treatment
      with a long-acting cycloplegic agent, topical steroid, and aqueous suppressant
      for 3 days. LESSONS: We presume that the mechanism underlying sumatriptan-induced
      bilateral angle-closure glaucoma may be correlated to the malignant glaucoma.
      Timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment are essential for resolving this
      ophthalmic emergency.

PMID- 28562546
TI  - Clinical outcome of laminoplasty for cervical ossification of the posterior
      longitudinal ligament with K-line (-) in the neck neutral position but K-line (+)
      in the neck extension position: A retrospective observational study.
AB  - Patients with cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL)
      who are K-line (-) are thought to have poor clinical outcomes after laminoplasty.
      The aim of this study is to compare the clinical results of patients with OPLL
      who were K-line (-) in the neck neutral position but K-line (+) in the neck
      extension position (NEP group) with patients with OPLL who were K-line (+) in the
      neck neutral position (NNP group).Retrospectively, 42 patients who underwent
      cervical laminoplasty for OPLL by our surgical group during 2012 and 2013 were
      reviewed and were followed for at least 2 years. The patients were divided into 2
      groups according to K-line status. Standing plain radiographs of the cervical
      spine were obtained pre- and postoperatively. Cervical spine alignment parameters
      included the C2-7 Cobb angle and range of motion (ROM) measured on lateral
      radiographs. Clinical evaluation included pre- and postoperative JOA, NDI, and
      VAS scores.Ten patients were classified in the NEP group, and 32 patients were
      classified in the NNP group. Preoperatively, the OPLL involved segments were 4.10
      +/- 1.66 in the NEP group and 2.53 +/- 1.16 in the NNP group (P = .005). The
      canal-occupying ratios were 58.40 +/- 11.11% in the NEP group and 29.08 +/-
      11.38% in the NNP group (P < .001). The mean Cobb angle of both the groups had
      not changed significantly at the last follow-up. The mean cervical ROM of both
      the groups had decreased at the last follow-up. The mean JOA score of the NEP
      group improved significantly from 9.70 +/- 2.16 to 12.50 +/- 2.27 (P = .014). The
      mean JOA score of the NNP group improved significantly from 11.91 +/- 1.69 to
      14.93 +/- 1.58 (P < .001). The mean JOA recovery rate was 32.71 +/- 40.45% in the
      NEP group and 59.00 +/- 33.80% in the NNP group (P = .036). The NDI scores of
      both groups were significantly decreased, and the VAS scores of both groups had
      not changed significantly at the last follow-up.Laminoplasty is a relatively
      effective and safe procedure for patients with K-line (-) in the neck neutral
      position but K-line (+) in the neck extension position. Instead of anterior
      surgery, we recommend laminoplasty for those patients with OPLL extending to 3 or
      more segments.

PMID- 28562547
TI  - Hepatic perivascular epithelioid cell tumor treated by transarterial embolization
      plus radiofrequency ablation: A case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perivascular epithelioid cell tumors (PEComas) are extremely rare
      mesenchymal entities with potentially malignant properties; the liver cases are
      not encountered frequently. Owing to themalignant potential, these tumors are
      treated by surgical methods to ensure total resection. In the present report, a
      case of liver PEComa treated by embolization combined with radiofrequency
      ablation (RFA) has been described. CASE SUMMARY: A 40-year-old female was
      admitted for the detection of a liver mass during an annual physical examination.
      The patient did not have any liver disease background, enhanced computed
      tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance revealed a huge mass in the right lobe.
      Pathology gave the diagnosis of PEComa, for disagreement of open surgery, a
      combination of transarterial embolization (TAE) and RFA were applied for
      treatment and the outcomes were acceptable, the patient was under follow-up to
      observe the long-term effect. CONCLUSION: Interventional procedures such as TAE
      and RFA are feasible and effective for such lesions and may serve as an alternate
      when resection is not indicated. Prospective studies are warranted to verify the
      long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28562548
TI  - Pedicle screw versus hybrid posterior instrumentation for dystrophic
      neurofibromatosis scoliosis.
AB  - Surgical management of severe rigid dystrophic neurofibromatosis (NF) scoliosis
      is technically demanding and produces varying results. In the current study, we
      reviewed 9 patients who were treated with combined anterior and posterior fusion
      using different types of instrumentation (i.e., pedicle screw, hybrid, and all
      hook constructs) at our institute.Between September 2001 and July 2010 at our
      institute, 9 patients received anterior release/fusion and posterior fusion with
      different types of instrumentation, including a pedicle screw construct (n = 5),
      a hybrid construct (n = 3), and an all-hook construct (n = 1). We compared the
      pedicle screw group with the hybrid group to analyze differences in preoperative
      curve angle, immediate postoperative curve reduction, and latest follow-up curve
      angle.The mean follow-up period was 9.5 +/- 2.9 years. The average age at surgery
      was 10.3 +/- 3.9 years. The average preoperative scoliosis curve was 61.3 +/-
      13.8 degrees , and the average preoperative kyphosis curve was 39.8 +/- 19.7
      degrees . The average postoperative scoliosis and kyphosis curves were 29.7 +/-
      10.7 degrees  and 21.0 +/- 13.5 degrees , respectively. The most recent follow-up
      scoliosis and kyphosis curves were 43.4 +/- 17.3 degrees  and 29.4 +/- 18.9
      degrees , respectively. There was no significant difference in the correction
      angle (either coronal or sagittal), and there was no significant difference in
      the loss of sagittal correction between the pedicle screw construct group and the
      hybrid construct group. However, the patients who received pedicle screw
      constructs had significantly less loss of coronal correction (P < .05). Two
      patients with posterior instrumentation, one with an all-hook construct and the
      other with a hybrid construct, required surgical revision because of progression
      of deformity.It is difficult to intraoperatively correct dystrophic deformity and
      to maintain this correction after surgery. Combined anterior release/fusion and
      posterior fusion using either a pedicle screw construct or a hybrid construct
      provide similar curve corrections both sagittally and coronally. After long-term
      follow-up, sagittal correction was maintained with both constructs. However,
      patients treated with posterior instrumentation using pedicle screw constructs
      had significantly less loss of coronal correction.

PMID- 28562549
TI  - Identification of groups with poor cost-effectiveness of peginterferon plus
      ribavirin for naive hepatitis C patients with a real-world cohort and database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For decades, peginterferon and ribavirin (PegIFN/RBV) have been the
      standard-of-care for chronic hepatitis C virus (CHC) infection. However, the
      actual cost-effectiveness of this therapy remains unclear. We purposed to explore
      the real-world cost effectiveness for subgroups of treatment-naive CHC patients
      with PegIFN/RBV therapy in a large real-world cohort using a whole population
      database. METHODS: A total of 1809 treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) patients (829 HCV genotype 1 [G1] and 980 HCV G2) treated with PegIFN/RBV
      therapies were linked to the National Health Insurance Research Database,
      covering the entire population of Taiwan from 1998 to 2013 to collect the total
      medical-care expenses of outpatient (antiviral agents, nonantiviral agents,
      laboratory, and consultation costs) and inpatient (medication, logistic,
      laboratory, and intervention costs) visits. The costs per treatment and the cost
      per sustained virological response (SVR) achieved were calculated. RESULTS: The
      average medical-care cost was USD $4823 (+/-$2984) per treatment and $6105 (+/
      $3778) per SVR achieved. With SVR rates of 68.6% and 87.8%, the cost/SVR was
      significantly higher in G1 than those in G2 patients, respectively ($8285 vs
      $4663, P < .001). Treatment-naive G1 patients of old ages, those with advanced
      fibrosis, high viral loads, or interleukin-28B unfavorable genotypes, or those
      without a rapid virological response (RVR: undetectable HCV RNA at week 4), or
      those with complete early virological response (cEVR: undetectable HCV RNA at
      week 12). Treatment-naive G2 patients with high viral loads or without RVR or
      cEVR incurred significantly higher costs per SVR than their counterparts. The
      cost/SVR was extremely high among patients without RVR and in patients without
      cEVR. CONCLUSION: We investigated the real-world cost effectiveness data for
      different subgroups of treatment-naive HCV patients with PegIFN/RBV therapies,
      which could provide useful, informative evidence for making decisions regarding
      future therapeutic strategies comprising costly direct-acting antivirals.

PMID- 28562550
TI  - Tricyclic antidepressants for preventing migraine in adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Migraine, ranked as the 7th-highest specific cause of disability
      worldwide, has caused an enormous burden on the economy and society. Tricyclic
      antidepressant (TCA) is one of the most commonly drugs for migraine prevention.
      However, evidence about the efficacy and tolerability of TCAs in the prophylaxis
      of migraine in adults is somewhat confusing. METHODS: A computerized literature
      search of the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases from
      inception to July 2016 was conducted. We reviewed all randomized controlled
      trials that assigned adults with a clinical diagnosis of migraine to TCAs or
      other treatments (placebo or other antidepressants). Reduction in migraine
      frequency or index and response rates to treatment were defined as the efficacy
      outcomes. Rates of dropout due to adverse effects were defined as the
      tolerability outcomes. RESULTS: In total 12 trials consisting of 1006
      participants were identified: 9 trials compared TCAs with placebo, and the other
      3 compared amitriptyline with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or
      serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). A significant advantage of
      TCAs compared with placebo in the prevention of migraine in adults was observed
      (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -1.05
      to -.46; P < .00001). Participants receiving TCAs were more likely to experience
      an >=50% reduction in their headache burden than those receiving placebo (risk
      ratio [RR] =1.40; 95% CI = 0.89-2.20; P = .14). In addition, the efficacy between
      amitriptyline and SSRIs or SNRIs did not differ for migraine prevention in adults
      (SMD = -.01; 95% CI = -0.31 to 0.28; P = .94) based on the available limited
      trials. However, TCAs were less well tolerated than placebo (RR = 1.73; 95% CI =
      1.00-2.99; P = .05) and SSRI or SNRI (RR = 2.85; 95% CI = 0.97-8.41; P = .06) on
      account of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: This research reveals that TCAs were more
      effective than placebo, but no more than SSRI or SNRI in ameliorating the
      headache burden in adults with migraine. However, TCAs appeared to be less
      tolerated than placebo and SSRIs or SNRIs for some side effects.

PMID- 28562551
TI  - Final diagnoses and probability of new reason-for-encounter at an urban clinic in
      Japan: A 4-year observational study.
AB  - Past clinical data are not currently used to calculate pretest probabilities, as
      they have not been put into a database in clinical settings. This observational
      study was designed to determine the initial reasons for utilizing home visits or
      visits to an outpatient urban clinic in Japan.All family medical clinic
      outpatients and patients visited by the clinic (total = 11,688) over 1460 days
      were enrolled.We used a Bayes theorem-based clinical decision support system to
      analyze codes for initial reason-for-encounter (examination and final diagnosis:
      pretest probability) and final diagnosis of patients with fever (conditional
      pretest probability).Total number of reasons-for-encounter: 96,653 (an average of
      1.2 reasons per visit). Final diagnosis: 62,273 cases (an average of 0.75 cases
      per visit). The most common reasons for initial examination were immunizations,
      physical examinations, and upper respiratory conditions. Regarding the final
      diagnosis, the combination of physical examinations and acute upper respiratory
      infections comprised 73.4% of cases. In cases where fever developed, the bulk of
      the final diagnoses were infectious diseases such as influenza, strep throat, and
      gastroenteritis of presumed infectious origin. For the elderly, fever often
      occurred with other health issues such as pneumonia, dementia, constipation, and
      sleep disturbances, though the cause of the fever remained undetermined in 40% of
      the cases.The pretest probability changed significantly based on the reason or
      the combination of reasons for which patients requested a medical examination.
      Using accumulated data from past diagnoses to modify subsequent subjective
      diagnoses, individual diagnoses can be improved.

PMID- 28562552
TI  - Plasma rich in growth factors for the treatment of rapidly progressing refractory
      corneal melting due to erlotinib in nonsmall cell lung cancer.
AB  - RATIONALE: Erlotinib, an antineoplastic agent, is indicated for the treatment of
      patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer. Most common adverse events are
      manageable, although more severe ones require dose reduction or discontinuation
      of erlotinib treatment. PATIENT CONCERNS: We present a case of severe corneal
      ulcer treated with autologous plasma rich in growth factors. DIAGNOSES: A 76-year
      old woman with stage IVB (cT2a N0 M1c) lung cancer under erlotinib treatment
      presented with rapidly progressing corneal ulcer. Evolution was torpid and
      refractory to conventional treatment. INTERVENTIONS: Surgical options were
      dismissed because of the poor performance status of the patient. Despite
      temporary discontinuation of erlotinib treatment, the corneal ulcer continued to
      worsen with peripheral corneal neovascularization, stromal thinning, corneal
      edema, and profuse inflammation of the ocular surface. OUTCOMES: Treatment with
      autologous plasma rich in growth factors prevented an imminent corneal
      perforation and improved the corneal ulcer for over a year of follow-up. LESSONS:
      Considering the poor results of conventional treatment, both medical and
      surgical, management of the inflammation of the ocular surface together with the
      stimulation of the healing processes through regenerative therapy such as PRGF,
      can be an option worth considering in these cases.

PMID- 28562553
TI  - Efficiency and safety of tranexamic acid in reducing blood loss in total shoulder
      arthroplasty: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficiency and safety of
      tranexamic acid for reducing blood loss and transfusion requirements in patients
      undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty. METHODS: A systematic search was
      performed in Embase (1980-2017.04, embase.com), Medline (1966-2017.04,
      medline.com), PubMed (1966-2017.04, pubmed.com), ScienceDirect (1985-2017.04,
      sciencedirect.com), and Web of Science (1950-2017.04, webofknowledge.com). Study
      which assessed the efficiency and safety of tranexamic acid in total shoulder
      arthroplasty was selected. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 11.0 software.
      RESULTS: In all, 484 patients from 2 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 2
      non-RCTs were subjected to meta-analysis. The present meta-analysis demonstrated
      that there was less total blood loss (mean difference [MD] -172.16, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] -35.46 to -308.87, P = .01, d = 0.33) and transfusion
      rate (odds ratio 0.34, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.91, P = .03, d = 0.29) in tranexamic acid
      groups compared with the control groups. There were no significant differences in
      duration of surgery (MD 0.02, 95% CI -0.12 to 0.22, P = .89, d = 0.19), length of
      stay (MD -0.06, 95% CI -0.26 to 0.14, P = .56, d = 0.20), or incidence of adverse
      effects such as deep venous thrombosis (odds ratio 1.15, 95% CI 0.33 to 4.00, P =
      .83, d = 0.53). CONCLUSION: Clinical application of tranexamic acid seemed to
      result in significant reductions in total blood loss, hemoglobin decline and
      transfusion requirements following total shoulder arthroplasty. Moreover, no
      increased risk of the thrombotic events was identified. Due to the limited
      quality of the evidence currently available, higher quality RCTs are required.

PMID- 28562554
TI  - Effectiveness of entecavir or telbivudine therapy in patients with chronic
      hepatitis B virus infection pre-treated with interferon compared with de novo
      therapy with entecavir and telbivudine.
AB  - Little is known about the optimal treatment following the initial failure of
      interferon therapy and the potential different efficacy with de novo therapy with
      entecavir (ETV) or telbivudine (LDT) and following the interferon therapy
      failure.ETV or LDT therapy following the interferon therapy failure was compared
      with that of de novo therapy with ETV or LDT in patients with chronic hepatitis B
      virus (HBV) infection. Treatment parameters included virological response,
      hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
      normalization.Of 180 patients studied, 56 received de novo telbivudine
      monotherapy (LDT group); 45 received entecavir monotherapy (ETV group); 40
      received LDT following interferon (interferon-telbivudine [IFN-LDT] group); and
      39 received ETV following interferon (interferon-entecavir [IFN-ETV] group). At
      week 52, virological response occurred in significantly more patients in the IFN
      ETV group than the ETV group (87.2% vs 57.8%, P = .003). At week 104, HBeAg
      seroconversion occurred in significantly more patients in the IFN-ETV group than
      the ETV group (44.4% vs 22.2%, P = .03). At week 52, virological response was
      achieved by significantly more patients in the IFN-LDT group than the LDT group
      (85.0% vs 64.3%, P = .02).This study showed that switch to rescue therapy with
      ETV or LDT therapy after failure of interferon therapy resulted in more rapid
      virologic response than with de novo treatment with either ETV or LDT; rescue
      therapy with ETV resulted in a greater HBeAg seroconversion rate.

PMID- 28562555
TI  - Impact of type 2 diabetes mellitus on the long-term mortality in patients who
      were treated by coronary artery bypass surgery: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent scientific reports have mainly focused on the comparison
      between coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary
      intervention. However, the impact of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on mortality
      in patients who were treated by CABG was often ignored. Therefore, we aimed to
      compare the long-term mortality following CABG in patients with and without T2DM.
      METHODS: Studies comparing the long-term adverse outcomes following CABG in
      patients with and without T2DM were searched from electronic databases. Total
      number of deaths (primary outcome) and events of myocardial infarction (MI),
      major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events (MACCEs), stroke, and
      repeated revascularization (secondary outcomes) were carefully extracted. An
      analysis was carried out whereby odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals
      (CIs) were calculated using the RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: Eleven studies with
      a total number of 12,965 patients were included. Current results showed that
      mortality was significantly higher in patients with T2DM with OR: 1.54, 95% CI:
      1.37 to 1.72, P < .00001; OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.36 to 1.72, P < .00001; and OR:
      1.53, 95% CI: 1.26 to 1.87, P < .0001 at 1 to 15, 5 to 15, and 7 to 15 years,
      respectively. However, MI, repeated revascularization, MACCEs, and stroke were
      not significantly different with OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.81 to 1.64, P = .44; OR:
      1.09, 95% CI: 0.88 to 1.36, P = .43; OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.83 to 1.48, P = .48; and
      OR: 1.69, 95% CI: 0.93 to 3.07, P = .08, respectively. CONCLUSION: Following
      CABG, a significantly higher rate of mortality was continually observed in
      patients with T2DM compared to patients without T2DM showing that the former
      apparently has a high impact on the long-term mortality. However, even if T2DM is
      an independent risk factor for mortality, it should not be ignored that CABG
      remains the best revascularization strategy in these patients.

PMID- 28562556
TI  - Low utility of blood culture in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia: An
      observational study on 2705 patients admitted to the emergency department.
AB  - To investigate the utility of blood cultures performed on previously healthy
      children and adolescents with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) at a tertiary
      care hospital emergency department (ED).We reviewed 3235 patients with CAP aged 6
      months to 18 years who underwent blood cultures at the ED from 2009 through 2016.
      CAP was defined according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th
      Revision codes for pneumonia and the requirement of antibiotic treatment plus any
      of the following: radiologically confirmed, hospitalized, or moderate to severe
      disease. Blood cultures were retrospectively justified by the Infectious Diseases
      Society of America guidelines. We measured the yield (true positive results of
      blood culture) and impact (blood culture-directed change in the antibiotic
      regimen).Of 2705 previously healthy patients with CAP, 833 (30.8%; 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 29.1-32.6) underwent blood cultures justified by the current
      guidelines. We found 12 patients (0.4%; 95% CI: 0.2-0.8) having positive results
      of blood culture, 7 of whom underwent justified blood cultures. Of these 7
      patients, 3 (0.11%; 95% CI: 0.02-0.3) had the yield, Streptococcus pneumoniae. No
      impact was made in these 3 patients with S pneumoniae.We confirmed a low utility
      of blood cultures in previously healthy children and adolescents with CAP who
      were admitted to the ED. This finding suggests the need to refine the current
      guidelines for obtaining blood cultures in the ED for pediatric CAP.

PMID- 28562557
TI  - Correlation between respiratory function and spine and thorax deformity in
      children with mild scoliosis.
AB  - Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is the most common 3-dimensional deformation
      abnormality of the spine with direct effects on the thoracic cage and can
      potentially affect respiratory function.The purpose of the present study was to
      recognize whether the 3-dimensional displacement of the spine and trunk as a
      consequence of IS directly influences and diminishes respiratory function in
      children with mild IS.The study involved 68 children aged 10 to 12 years with
      mild thoracic or thoracolumbar IS who were the outpatients of the local Center
      for Corrective Gymnastics. The study consisted of 2 interrelated parts: the body
      posture examination using a Moire topography and the spirometric examination
      including measurements of basic ventilatory parameters (vital capacity [VC],
      forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], and
      FEV1/FVC).For the majority of subjects, the results of VC were within the normal
      range and did not confirm the existence of features characteristic for
      ventilatory functional restriction. The VC does not depend on the curvature angle
      value or the degree of rotation of vertebral bodies. It was observed that VC in
      children with mild IS of 20 to 30 degree depended on thoracic kyphosis, that is,
      length, depth, and the thoracic kyphosis length/depth indicator.The results of
      performed study showed that in children with mild IS the lung volumes are reduced
      not only by an increased angle of the lateral curvature but also by the degree of
      loss of normal thoracic kyphosis. The regular respiratory function testing and
      back-shape analysis are advisable in children with thoracic and thoracolumbar
      mild IS.

PMID- 28562558
TI  - Clinicopathological parameters associated with histological background and
      recurrence after surgical intervention of vocal cord leukoplakia.
AB  - Histological examination of biopsy shows usefulness in the diagnosis of vocal
      cord leukoplakia; however, in considerable amount of cases, the examination
      cannot provide definitive diagnosis of malignancy from benign conditions such as
      hyperplasia and dysplasia. The present work therefore was aimed to identify
      clinicopathological factors and molecular markers predictive of recurrence and
      malignant transformation of vocal cord leukoplakia.Clinical data of 555 cases of
      vocal cord leukoplakia enrolled from July 1999 to June 2014 were analyzed. The
      cohort consisted of keratosis (n = 137), hyperplasia (n = 139), dysplasia (n =
      177), and primary (n = 10) and invasive (n = 46) carcinoma. Correlations between
      patients' backgrounds, clinicopathological factors, molecular markers (p53, p16,
      Ki67, cytokeratin, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen), and histology
      backgrounds were examined using by Pearson Chi-squared or Fisher exact test.
      Reflux symptom index (RSI) and reflux finding score (RFS) before and after
      treatment were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Risk factors for disease
      recurrence were identified using Cox proportional hazards models of multivariate
      analysis. Time to recurrence was analyzed using log-rank test of Kaplan-Meier
      method.In the present cohort, alcohol drinking was found associated with GRBAS
      grade (P = .0258) and the site (P = .0298) of leukoplakia. For the different
      disease types, chief complaint (P = .0179), GRBAS grade (P = .0101), mucosal wave
      (P < .0001), and molecular markers p53 (P < .0001) and Ki67 (P < .0001) were
      identified as correlates. RSI and RFS were significantly lowered by surgical
      intervention. A single side of leukoplakia was predictive of a lower risk of
      recurrence (odds ratio, 0.378; 95% confidence interval, 0.197-0.723; P = .0033).
      Absence of mucosal wave was associated with a shorter time-to-recurrence (P =
      .0357).The present work identified clinicopathological factors and molecular
      markers associated with the different histology of vocal cord leukoplakia, and
      also the prognostic factor for the low risk of recurrence after surgery.

PMID- 28562559
TI  - Differences between healthy adults and patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in
      reactivity of toe microcirculation by ultrasound combined with a warm bath test.
AB  - The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility and clinical value of
      ultrasound combined with a warm bath test in assessing the differences in
      reactivity of toe microcirculation between healthy adults and patients with type
      2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).A total of 56 T2DM patients were recruited as case
      group, whereas 50 healthy volunteers were enrolled as control group.Fasting blood
      glucose, glycated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol in T2DM group were significantly higher than in control
      group. Under stationary condition, peak systolic velocity (PSV), end-diastolic
      velocity (EDV), and mean velocity (MV) were lower, but pulsatility index (PI) and
      resistance index (RI) were higher in patients with T2DM than in controls both in
      dorsalis pedis artery (DPA) and plantar digital artery (PDA). On response to the
      warm test, PSV, EDV, and MV increased and PI and RI decreased both in DPA and PDA
      in these 2 groups. Moreover, the change rate in PSV, EDV, MV, PI, and RI of PDA
      was significantly lower in T2DM group than in control group.Color Doppler
      combined with a warm bath test may be used as a new method in evaluating the
      differences in reactivity of distal limb microvascular between healthy adults and
      patients with T2DM.

PMID- 28562560
TI  - Triglyceride glucose-body mass index is effective in identifying nonalcoholic
      fatty liver disease in nonobese subjects.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an increasingly common condition that
      is highly correlated with obesity; however, it is not uncommon among nonobese
      individuals. Triglyceride (TG) and glucose index combined with body mass index
      (TyG-BMI) has been proposed as a favorable marker of insulin resistance. We
      sought to investigate the effectiveness of TyG-BMI in identifying NAFLD in
      nonobese subjects.We conducted a cross-sectional study in a nonobese (BMI <25.0
      kg/m) Chinese population (N = 6809) of adults who underwent health examinations,
      including abdominal ultrasonography.The prevalence of ultrasonography-detected
      NAFLD was 23.9% in nonobese subjects. After adjusting for potential confounders,
      every 1-standard deviation increase in TyG-BMI had an odds ratio (OR) of 3.4 [95%
      confidence interval (95% CI), 3.0-3.9] for NAFLD. Compared with the lowest
      quartile of TyG-BMI, multivariable-adjusted ORs were 2.4 (1.6-3.6), 6.4 (4.2
      9.7), and 15.3 (9.8-23.9) for those in the second, third, and fourth quartile,
      respectively. According to the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis,
      TyG-BMI was effective in diagnosing patients with NAFLD with an area under the
      curve of 0.835 (95% CI, 0.824-0.845). In comparison, TyG-BMI was superior to its
      components, including TyG, BMI, TG, and fasting plasma glucose, for identifying
      nonobese subjects at risk for NAFLD.In this study, the prevalence of NAFLD was
      over one-fifth in the nonobese population. TyG-BMI was an effective marker to
      detect NAFLD in nonobese subjects.

PMID- 28562561
TI  - Comparison of mid-term efficacy of spastic flatfoot in ambulant children with
      cerebral palsy by 2 different methods.
AB  - To compare the treatment efficacy of spastic flatfoot surgery by 2 different
      surgical methods: nonfusion subtalar arthroereisis using subtalar joint
      stabilizer (SJS) and Dennyson-Fulford subtalar arthrodesis (D-FSA).A total of 26
      cases of ambulant children with cerebral palsy diagnosed as spastic flatfoot were
      surgically treated from January 2011 to December 2014. Preoperative and
      postoperative American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society-Ankle and Hindfoot
      (AOFAS-AH) scores, anteroposterior-talocalcaneal angles (ATAs), and lateral talar
      first metatarsal angles (Meary angles) of the affected foot were recorded.Among
      12 children in the SJS group, the AOFAS-AH scores were median preoperative score
      of 61 (58-64) versus median postoperative score of 83 (75-92), with significant
      difference (P < .05). Of the 20 feet treated, only 1 foot developed occasional
      pain. Postoperative ATA was decreased from preoperative 35 degrees  (20 degrees 
      50 degrees ) to 19 degrees  (12 degrees -25 degrees ); lateral X-ray films showed
      that the Meary angle was decreased from preoperative 20 degrees  (15 degrees -40
      degrees ) to postoperative 0 degrees  (0 degrees -3 degrees ). The differences in
      both findings were statistically significant (P < .05). Fourteen children (22
      treated feet) formed the D-FSA group; all demonstrated fusion of the
      talocalcaneal joint; AOFAS-AH scores were median preoperative score of 61 (58-64)
      versus median postoperative score of 83 (75-92), with significant difference (P <
      .05). Only 1 foot had occasional pain. Postoperative ATA was decreased from
      preoperative 35 degrees  (20 degrees -45 degrees ) to 16 degrees  (12 degrees -25
      degrees ); lateral X-ray films showed that the Meary angle was decreased from
      preoperative 19 degrees  (10 degrees -40 degrees ) to postoperative 2 degrees  (0
      degrees -5 degrees ); the differences in both findings were statistically
      significant (P < .05).Both nonfusion subtalar arthroereisis using SJS and D-FSA
      were effective for the surgical treatment of spastic flatfoot, with similar
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28562562
TI  - The photoplethysmographic amplitude to pulse pressure ratio can track sudden
      changes in vascular compliance and resistance during liver graft reperfusion: A
      beat-to-beat analysis.
AB  - During liver transplantation, the thermodilution cardiac output (CO) technique
      cannot respond to sudden hemodynamic changes associated with postreperfusion
      syndrome. Photoplethysmography (PPG) can reflect changes in intravascular volume
      and thus can be used to assess vasomotor tone and arterial stiffness on the
      pressure-volume relation. We investigated whether a beat-to-beat analysis of the
      arterial pressure-PPG relationship can estimate dynamic changes in vascular
      characteristics immediately after liver graft reperfusion.In 10 recipients,
      arterial blood pressure and PPG waveforms recorded simultaneously were analyzed
      from the beginning of fall to nadir in systolic blood pressure immediately after
      reperfusion. On a beat-to-beat basis, we compared the ratio of the amplitude of
      PPG to arterial pulse pressure (PPGamp/PP, as relative vascular compliance) to
      total peripheral resistance (TPR) and Windkessel compliance (Cwk) obtained from
      the Modelflow CO algorithm.Following graft reperfusion, PPGamp/PP and Cwk
      increased (median 41.5%; P = .005 and 42.0%; P < .001, respectively), whereas TPR
      decreased (median -46.4%; P < .001). Beat-to-beat PPGamp/PP was negatively
      correlated with TPR (median r = -0.80 [95% CI -0.85 to -0.76] on linear
      regression and r = 0.84 [95% CI 0.73-0.92] on curvilinear regression), and was
      positively correlated with Cwk (median r = 0.86 [95% CI 0.81-0.91] on linear
      regression and r = 0.88 [95% CI 0.75-0.96] on curvilinear regression).Our results
      suggest that relative compliance, obtained from beat-to-beat analysis of PPG and
      arterial pressure waveforms, can track abrupt changes in vascular characteristics
      associated with postreperfusion syndrome. This simple index would contribute to
      differential diagnoses of sudden hypotension.

PMID- 28562563
TI  - Surgery of the primary tumor improves survival in women with stage IV breast
      cancer in Southwest China: A retrospective analysis.
AB  - The International Consensus Guidelines for advanced breast cancer (ABC) considers
      that the surgery of the primary tumor for stage IV breast cancer patients does
      not usually improve the survival. However, studies have showed that resection of
      the primary tumor may benefit these patients. The correlation between surgery and
      survival remains unclear.The impact of surgery and other clinical factors on
      overall survival (OS) of stage IV patients is investigated in West China
      Hospital. Female patients diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer between 1999 and
      2014 were included (N = 223). Univariate and multivariate analysis assessed the
      association between surgery and OS.One hundred seventy-seven (79.4%) underwent
      surgery for the primary tumor, and 46 (20.6%) had no surgery. No significant
      differences were observed in age at diagnosis, T-stage, N-stage, histological
      grade, molecular subtype, hormone receptor (HR), and number of metastatic sites
      between 2 groups. Patients in the surgery group had dramatically longer OS (45.6
      vs 21.3 months, log-rank P < .001). In univariate analysis, survival was
      associated with surgical treatment, residence, tumor size, lymph node, HR status,
      hormonal therapy, and radiotherapy. In multivariate analysis, surgery was an
      independent prognostic factor for OS [hazard ratio (HR), 0.569; 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 0.329-0.984, P = .044]. Additional independent prognostic factors
      were hormonal therapy (HR, 0.490; 95% CI 0.300-0.800) and radiotherapy (HR,
      0.490; 95% CI 0.293-0.819). In addition, a favorable impact of surgery was
      observed by subgroup analysis.Our study showed that surgery of the primary breast
      tumor has a positive impact on OS in with stage IV breast cancer patients.

PMID- 28562564
TI  - Daily sedentary time and its association with risk for colorectal cancer in
      adults: A dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
AB  - Sedentary behavior is emerging as an independent risk factor for health. However,
      previous studies have indicated that sedentary behaviors are associated with the
      colorectal cancer risk, but presented controversial results.Studies in PubMed and
      EMBASE were searched update to February 2017 to identify and quantify the
      potential dose-response association between daily sedentary time and colorectal
      cancer.Twenty-eight eligible studies involving a total of 47,84,339 participants
      with 46,071 incident cases were included in this meta-analysis. Our results
      showed statistically significant association between prolong television viewing
      time and colorectal cancer (odds ratio [OR] 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      1.09-1.24, P < .001). Additionally, we obtained the best fit at an inflection
      point of 2 hours per day in piecewise regression analysis, the summary relative
      risk (RR) of colorectal cancer for an increase of 2 hours per day television
      viewing was 1.07 (95% CI 1.05-1.10, P < .001). Furthermore, prolong occupational
      sitting time was correlated with a significantly higher risk of colorectal cancer
      (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.08-1.22, P < .001), increasing 2 hours per day of occupational
      sitting time per day was associated with a 4% incremental in the risk of
      colorectal cancer (RR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.08). Additionally, prolong total
      sitting time was associated with a significantly higher risk of colorectal cancer
      (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03-1.09, P < .001). Increasing 2 hours of total sitting time
      per day was associated with a 2% incremental in the risk of colorectal cancer (RR
      1.02, 95% CI 1.01-1.06). Subgroup meta-analyses in study design, study quality,
      number of participants, and number of cases showed consistent with the primary
      findings.Prolonged television viewing, occupational sitting time, and total
      sitting time are associated with increased risks of colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28562565
TI  - Perivascular epithelial cell tumor (PEComa) of the pancreas: A case report and
      review of literature.
AB  - RATIONALE: Perivascular epithelial cell tumors (PEComas) of the pancreas are rare
      mesenchymal tumors and, to our knowledge, only 20 cases have been reported to
      date. PATIENT CONCERNS: We report a 43-year-old female who presented with upper
      abdominal pain for 1 year. She underwent an exploratory laparotomy at a local
      hospital, which failed to resect the tumor. Five months later, she came to the
      Chinese National Cancer Center for surgery. Preoperative imaging revealed an 11.5
      cm-sized mass located in the head of the pancreas. At the microscopic level, the
      tumor was composed of epithelioid and spindle cells possessing clear to focally
      granular eosinophilic cytoplasm, which grew in a nested and alveolar pattern
      around blood vessels. The tumor cells showed immunoreactivity for human melanoma
      black 45 (HMB-45), but did not express epithelial or endocrine markers.
      DIAGNOSES: Pancreatic PEComa. INTERVENTIONS: Pancreaticoduodenectomy, partial
      hepatectomy, and vascular replacement were performed. After the surgery, the
      patient received 4 cycles of chemotherapy. OUTCOMES: The patient is free of
      recurrence and metastasis 1.5 years after surgical resection. LESSONS: PEComa
      should be recognized as a preoperative differential diagnosis of pancreatic
      tumors. For treatment, removal of the tumor should be attempted, and in the case
      of tumors with malignant tendencies, the addition of chemotherapy should be
      considered.

PMID- 28562566
TI  - Prognostic role of the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio in colorectal cancer: An up
      to-date meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although previous meta-analyses have proved that lymphocyte-to
      monocyte ratio (LMR) is a prognostic factor in solid cancers, its prognostic role
      in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial. We, therefore, conducted this
      up-to-date meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic role of the LMR in CRC.
      METHODS: A systematic search was performed in PubMed and Embase for relevant
      studies in November 2016. Article assessing the prognostic role of LMR in CRC was
      enrolled in this meta-analysis. Data and characteristics of each study were
      extracted. A meta-analysis was performed to generate pooled hazard ratio (HR) and
      95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for overall survival (OS) and disease-free
      survival. Begg funnel plot was used to evaluate publication bias. RESULTS: Eleven
      studies published between 2014 and 2016 with a total of 9045 patients were
      enrolled in this meta-analysis. Our findings indicated that a low LMR predicted a
      worse OS (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.30-1.90, P < .001) and disease-free survival. (HR
      1.25, 95% CI 1.13-1.39, P < .001) for patients with CRC. Subgroup analyses
      according to stage (I-III and IV) and LMR cut-off value (<3.00 and >=3.00) showed
      a significant prognostic value of LMR on OS. Begg funnel plot showed that
      publication bias existed in this meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: This up-to-date meta
      analysis shows that a low LMR is associated with poor survival in patients with
      CRC, although the publication bias is existed. Large-sample multicenter
      prospective cohort is needed to assess the role of the LMR in CRC patients.

PMID- 28562568
TI  - Rapid Improvement of thyroid storm-related hemodynamic collapse by aggressive
      anti-thyroid therapy including steroid pulse: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Heart failure is relatively common in patients with hyperthyroidism,
      but thyrotoxic cardiomyopathy with poor left ventricular (LV) systolic function
      is very rare. PATIENT CONCERNS: We experienced a representative case of a patient
      who presented with severe LV dysfunction related to thyroid storm and needed
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) temporally. DIAGNOSIS: Thyrotoxic
      cardiomyopathy. INTERVENTIONS AND OUTCOMES: Aggressive antithyroid therapy,
      including steroid pulse to hyperthyroidism, leads to the dramatic improvement of
      cardiac function and she was successfully weaned from ECMO. LESSONS: The most
      outstanding feature of the current case was the rapid decrease of cardiac injury
      and improvement of cardiac function by strengthening antithyroid therapy,
      including steroid pulse, without thyroid hormone level normalization. In thyroid
      storm, various systemic inflammatory reactions have different time courses and
      among them, the cardiac phenotype emerges in most striking and critical ways.

PMID- 28562567
TI  - Successful treatment of refractory cancer pain with morphine and ropivacaine: A
      case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Pain is one of the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by
      cancer patients. Cancer pain is a complex phenomenon with physical,
      psychological, social, and cognitive domains. Although opioids remain a
      cornerstone of cancer pain management, they are not effective in all patients.
      This case highlights the successful treatment of an opioid-refractory severe
      cancer pain crisis with ropivacaine infusion and subsequent rapid tapering of
      opioid dose. PATIENT CONCERNS: This report illustrates the use of ropivacaine for
      cancer pain. A 62-year-old man with metastatic lung cancer was admitted to the
      hospital with uncontrolled chest-back and abdominal pain. DIAGNOSES: The patient
      was diagnosed as refractory cancer pain. INTERVENTIONS: Successful treatment with
      morphine and ropivacaine was performed to obtain longer opioid refractory severe
      cancer pain. OUTCOMES: At 1, 3, and 6 months postoperative review, 70-75% relief
      of pain was achieved with overall activity was improved. The analgesic effect was
      stable during the 6-month follow-up period. No complications were reported during
      the follow-up period. LESSONS: Our report demonstrates that ropivacaine is
      successful treatment for cancer pain in this case. It will supply us a novel
      navigation in cancer pain treatments. Meanwhile, this finding still needs
      additional study for confirmation.

PMID- 28562569
TI  - Traumatic open depressed cranial fracture causing occlusion of posterior superior
      sagittal sinus: Case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: The superior sagittal sinus (SSS) is the major dural sinuses that
      receive a considerable amount of venous drainage. Interruption of its posterior
      third has been suggested to cause intracranial hypertension and lead to
      potentially fatal consequences. PATIENT CONCERNS: We presented a 22-year-old man
      with a severe headache and scalp bleeding after a head chop wound. Physical
      examination identified a 20-cm straight laceration in his parietooccipital scalp.
      Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a depressed cranial fracture (DCF) in the
      left parietooccipital bone, a fracture line across the midline to the right side,
      and penetrations of bone fragments into the brain parenchyma. DIAGNOSES:
      Traumatic open DCF in left parietooccipital bone. INTERVENTIONS: An emergent left
      parietooccipital craniotomy, followed by cranioplasty to restore the depressed
      bone flap, was delivered to the patient. Postoperative CT confirmed successful
      elevation of the DCF and removal of intracerebral bone fragments. However,
      postoperative CT angiography (CTA) demonstrated an absence of venous flow distal
      to the fracture, suggesting occlusion of the posterior third of SSS. MRV revealed
      a persistent absence of venous flow in the posterior third of SSS with dilated
      cortical venous drainage. Anticoagulation treatment was initiated 3 days after
      surgery, and follow-up CTA and digital subtraction angiography showed gradually
      improved patency in the anterior and middle two-thirds of SSS. OUTCOMES: Despite
      occlusion of the posterior third of SSS, patient's symptoms resolved after the
      operation and he was discharged without complications. LESSONS: The favorable
      clinical outcome after complete occlusion of the posterior third of the SSS has
      rarely been reported and it might be explained by our timely surgical
      intervention and development of compensatory cerebral collateral circulation.

PMID- 28562570
TI  - Adjacent segmental degeneration following Wallis interspinous stabilization
      implantation: Biomechanical explanations and the value of magnetic resonance
      imaging.
AB  - Adjacent segmental degeneration (ASD) is a major issue after pedicular fixation.
      This study examined the degeneration of the adjacent levels due to the insertion
      of the Wallis interspinous stabilization system compared with discectomy, using
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Thirty-eight patients diagnosed with lumbar
      degeneration disorders at L4-L5 were reviewed: 19 patients underwent discectomy
      and Wallis system implantation (group A), and 19 patients underwent discectomy
      (group B). The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were
      assessed preoperatively and postoperatively. ASD was evaluated by MRI.There was
      no difference in the preoperative ODI scores between the 2 groups (non-normal
      distribution, median, 50 (40, 50) vs 50 (50, 50), P = .331), but the
      postoperative ODI scores were different (non-normal distribution, median, 0 (0,
      32) vs 20 (20, 30), P < .005). Similar results were observed for VAS. In group A,
      ASD occurred in 4 patients (21.1%) in the disc and 8 (42.1%) in the facet joint
      at L3/4, and in 4 (21.1%) in the disc and 5 (26.3%) in the facet joint at L5/S1.
      In Group B, ASD occurred in 3 patients (15.8%) in the disc at L3/4, and in 4
      (21.1%) in the disc at L5/S1. In general, there was no difference between the 2
      groups (P > .05), except at L3/4 (P = .015).ASD of the facet joint in the cranial
      segment occurred after Wallis system implantation, suggesting that the Wallis
      system cannot prevent ASD of the facet joint, but could have some other benefits
      for the discs.

PMID- 28562571
TI  - Hemodynamic instability after pulmonary veins isolation in a patient with dual
      chamber pacemaker: The phantom injury of the ventricular lead.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The standard treatment of sinus node dysfunction (SND) is the
      pacemaker implantation, and the ideal methodology for the management of atrial
      fibrillation (AF) is rhythm control, but this is sometimes very hard to
      accomplish. For such actions, complete isolation of all pulmonary veins (PVI) is
      currently widely accepted as the best endpoint. CASE PRESENTATION: In this case,
      we report a female patient, 81 years old, with controlled hypertension, without
      coronary artery disease, bearer of bilateral knee replacement, and dual chamber
      pacemaker implanted 1.5 years ago owing to sinus node disease, presenting the
      following symptoms: presyncope episodes associated with sustained irregular
      palpitation tachycardia. The evaluation of the pacemaker-recorded episodes of
      atrial fibrillation, the echocardiogram-presented normal systolic function and
      measurements, as well as the resting myocardial scintigraphy and with drug use
      did not demonstrate ischemia and/or fibrosis. The patient was in use of valsartan
      320 mg daily, amlodipine 10 mg daily, sotalol hydrochloride 120 mg 2 times daily,
      and dabigatran 110 mg 2 times daily. At the end of the PVI, the patient presented
      hemodynamic instability, with a decrease in heart rate to 30 bpm and invasive
      arterial blood pressure to 60/30 mmHg. The pericardial puncture was quickly
      carried out with the possibility of cardiac tamponade as the first hypothesis,
      but no pericardial effusion was found. Next, we detected acute capture loss from
      the ventricular pacemaker lead, unvarying with high voltage and pulse width, even
      with stable impedance, sense and keeping the same position visualized by
      fluoroscopy. And there was soon afterwards induction of sustained ventricular
      tachycardia degenerating to spontaneous ventricular fibrillation. Electrical
      cardioversion-defibrillation was performed with 200J, and the sinus rhythm was
      reestablished, but there was a dead short, and the pacemaker generator was burned
      and disabled. CONCLUSIONS: So, we can speculate that application of atrial
      radiofrequency for PVI diffused through the tissues, affecting in some way the
      tip of the ventricular electrode, causing a microlesion in this structure and
      making it impossible to capture the right ventricle by the pacemaker. As we
      cannot see it, we can call it of phantom injury of the ventricular lead.

PMID- 28562572
TI  - The association of six single nucleotide polymorphisms and their haplotypes in
      CDH13 with T2DM in a Han Chinese population.
AB  - T-cadherin (CDH13) is an adiponectin receptor. Genome-wide association studies
      have identified the CDH13 gene as one of the most important candidate genes in
      influencing plasma adiponectin levels. Several studies recently reported single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CDH13 gene were associated with T2DM. The
      purpose of this study was to investigate the association between T2DM and 6 SNPs
      (rs11646213, rs12596316, rs3865188, rs12444338, rs12051272, and rs7195409) in the
      CDH13 gene in a Han Chinese population. A total of 674 subjects with T2DM and 588
      subjects without T2DM were genotyped using the TaqMan method. Our data showed
      that there was an association between the SNP-rs12596316 genotype and T2DM (P <
      .05). Moreover, an overdominant model of inheritance showed that being an
      rs12596316AG heterozygote increased the risk of T2DM (P = .0041, odds ratio =
      1.39; 95% confidence interval 1.11-1.73) in comparison with rs12596316AA-GG. The
      other 5 SNPs did not show associations with T2DM, either in the allele levels or
      in different inheritance models. The haplotype analysis showed that there were no
      associations between any haplotypes and T2DM. Our results revealed that genetic
      variations in the CDH13 gene were associated with T2DM susceptibility in a Han
      Chinese population. These results highlight the need to study the functional
      effects of these CDH13 gene variants in relation to the risk of developing T2DM.

PMID- 28562573
TI  - Predictors of secondary amputation in patients with grade IIIC lower limb
      injuries: A retrospective analysis of 35 patients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for failure of limb salvage
      surgery in grade IIIC lower extremity injuries.A single-institution,
      retrospective review was performed of all patients with grade IIIC lower limb
      injuries presenting from January 2009 to April 2014. We gathered the data on each
      patient who underwent limb salvage and analyzed the final outcome for these
      patients (limb salvage vs secondary amputation).Grade IIIC lower limb injuries
      were identified in 41 patients. Primary amputation was performed in 6 patients
      (15%) as the initial procedure. Thirty-five patients (85%) underwent vascular
      reconstruction and other surgical procedures to salvage the limb. Limb salvage
      was successful in 23 patients (66%); 12 patients (34%) ultimately underwent
      secondary amputation. The median time from injury to secondary amputation was
      22.5 days (range 4-380 days). The mean Mangled Extremity Severity Score (MESS)
      was 7.2 +/- 1.5 (range 5-10). The MESS was significantly higher in the secondary
      amputation group compared with the limb salvage group. Additionally, statistical
      testing revealed that the limb ischemia time, complex fractures, rate of
      fasciotomy, and number of vascular reconstruction were significantly higher in
      the secondary amputation group. Muscle necrosis and extensive soft tissue defect
      were the main reasons for secondary amputation.The findings indicate that MESS of
      7 or greater, complex fractures, limb ischemia time equal to or greater than 6
      hours, and osteofascial compartment syndrome were associated with an increased
      risk of delayed amputation. The MESS is highly prognostic but not perfect;
      decision-making in patients with an MESS of 7 or greater should be re-evaluated
      for clinical use.

PMID- 28562574
TI  - Incidence and risk factors of deep venous thrombosis following arthroscopic
      posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
AB  - The objective of this study was to identify the incidence and associated risk
      factors for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) after arthroscopic posterior cruciate
      ligament (PCL) reconstruction.This study included 128 patients who underwent
      arthroscopic PCL reconstruction. Venography was performed on the operated leg 3
      days postoperatively. The patients were divided into 2 groups based on whether
      they had DVT. A correlation analysis was performed to determine the factors
      associated with DVT.Of all the 128 patients, 28 patients (21.9%) developed DVT,
      with 4 (3.1%) in a proximal location. Significant differences were found in the
      mean age, time of application of tourniquet, mean VAS scores, mean D-dimer level,
      mean cholesterol level, and various surgical procedures in patients with DVT
      compared with those without DVT. DVT is difficult to diagnose solely based on
      clinical symptoms.The incidence of DVT was 21.9% in patients who underwent
      arthroscopic PCL reconstruction. The rate of asymptomatic clots in the calf
      region was rather high after PCL reconstruction, and the rate of proximal clots
      was 4%. Older age, longer durations of tourniquet application, higher VAS scores
      and D-dimer levels, and complex surgical procedures were all substantial risk
      factors for DVT after PCL reconstruction. The treatment of DVT with batroxobin
      and anticoagulants was effective and safe.

PMID- 28562575
TI  - Predictability and stability of laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy with
      mitomycin C for the correction of high myopia.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictability and stability of
      laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (LASEK) with mitomycin C (MMC) in
      correction of high myopia (<=-6.0 diopters [D]) as compared to low-to-moderate
      myopia (>-6.0 D).This is a retrospective, comparative, cohort study which
      included 43 eyes of 43 consecutive patients who underwent LASEK with MMC in a
      private hospital in Hong Kong by a single surgeon. Twenty-five eyes had high
      myopia (mean spherical equivalent [SE] = -8.53 +/- 1.82 D) and 18 eyes had low-to
      moderate myopia (mean SE = -3.99 +/- 1.37 D) before surgery.In terms of
      refractive predictability, mean SE was significantly better in eyes with
      preoperative low-to-moderate myopia than high myopia at 6 months (0.04 +/- 0.23
      vs 0.31 +/- 0.52 D, P = .035). In terms of refractive stability, between 1 and 3
      months, both groups had mean absolute change of SE of around 0.25 D. Between 3
      and 6 months, preoperative low-to-moderate myopia group had significantly less
      absolute change of SE compared to high myopia group (0.07 vs 0.23 D, P = .003).
      More eyes with preoperative high myopia changed SE by more than 0.25 D than those
      with low-to-moderate myopia between 3 and 6 months (32.0% vs 5.6%, P = .057).In
      conclusion, LASEK with MMC is more unpredictable and unstable in correction of
      high myopia than low-to-moderate myopia. The refractive outcome of most low-to
      moderate myopia correction stabilizes at 3 months. Stability is not achieved
      until after 6 months in high myopia correction.

PMID- 28562577
TI  - Bowel management program for pediatric postoperative fecal incontinence in China:
      A surgeon's experience.
AB  - The purpose of this article is to report the status of the efficacy of and long
      term adherence to the Bowel Management Program (BMP) for fecal incontinence (FI)
      postoperation in China.Children over 3 years of age with FI postoperation
      referred to our medical center were included in the study. Evaluations were
      performed before and 2 years after their clinic visit. The cost of bowel care,
      improvement in incontinence, health-related quality of life, and family
      functioning with the BMP were analyzed.A total of 48 children with FI were
      included in our study, of whom 38 were boys. The median treatment fee was 660.1
      dollars. The complications included abdominal pain (4 patients, 8%), occasional
      vomiting (2 patients, 4%), and hypoglycemia (1 patient, 2%). The incontinence
      status and health-related quality of life improved significantly after the BMP.
      Despite the good outcome of the BMP, half of the patients discontinued the
      program.The BMP is an effective approach to manage FI and improve the patients'
      quality of life. Poor long-term adherence is currently the main challenge
      affecting the BMP application in China.

PMID- 28562576
TI  - Prevalence trends in the characteristics of patients with allergic asthma in
      Beijing, 1994 to 2014.
AB  - This study aimed to determine the clinical profiles and prevalence trends during
      1994 to 2014 among patients with allergic asthma (AA), which is a clinical
      phenotype of asthma.We retrospectively analyzed the characteristics of 319
      patients who were diagnosed with AA between March 1, 1994 and February 28, 2014
      at 3 Beijing centers.The patients included 155 males and 164 females, and the
      mean age was 50.86 +/- 15.27 years (range 13-86 years). The proportions of asthma
      attacks in summer and autumn were 60.7% (1994-1999), 61.8% (1999-2004), 56.4%
      (2004-2009), and 33.1% (2009-2014). The most frequently used medication at home
      was theophylline (27.9%), which was followed by inhaled corticosteroids (20.38%),
      inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting beta-2-agonists (10.66%), and leukotriene
      receptor antagonists (9.4%). The elderly group had the highest rates of summer
      and autumn attacks, multiple hospitalizations, reduced pulmonary function,
      smoking history, and positive allergen tests. The middle-aged group had the
      lowest rates of summer and autumn attacks, and multiple hospitalizations. The
      youngest group had the lowest rates of reduced pulmonary function, smoking
      history, and positive allergen tests. The top 5 allergens were dust (9.1%), mites
      (8.8%), seafood (8.2%), pollen (6.3%), and animal fur (6%). Women were
      significantly more likely to have a positive allergen test (93 women vs 68
      men).The present study revealed the characteristics of Chinese patients with AA,
      and allergen-specific differences in sex and age during 1994 to 2014. The use of
      therapeutic drugs at home remains insufficient.

PMID- 28562578
TI  - A comparative study of Danhong injection and Salvia miltiorrhiza injection in the
      treatment of cerebral infarction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate systematically the clinical effectiveness and safety of
      Danhong injection (DI) and Salvia miltiorrhiza injection (SMI) in the treatment
      of cerebral infarction. METHODS: A literature search was conducted for retrieving
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on cerebral infarction treated by Danhong
      injection and SMI in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, China Biology Medicine
      disc, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, China Science and
      Technology Journal Database, Wanfang Database up to January 22, 2017. Two
      reviewers extracted information and independently assessed the quality of
      included RCTs by the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool; then data were
      analyzed with Review Manager 5.3 software. RESULTS: Twelve RCTs involving 1044
      patients were included. The result of DI group was about 27% superior to SMI
      group in the clinical total effective rate (relative risk 1.27, 95% confidence
      interval 1.19-1.35, P < .00001). In addition, DI could prefect neurologic
      impairment (standardized mean difference -1.22, 95% confidence interval -1.90 to 
      0.54, P = .0004), and adjust hemorheological parameters. Three RCTs occurred 4
      cases of adverse drug reactions/adverse drug events, but there were no serious
      adverse drug reactions/adverse drug events. CONCLUSION: Comparing with SMI
      combined with western medicine, DI combined with conventional therapy is more
      effective in improving the clinical total effective rate and neurologic
      impairment, but more evidence-based medicine research needed to support our study
      further.

PMID- 28562579
TI  - MicroRNAs in the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous group of
      tumors characterized by their aggressive nature and poor associated survival.
      MicroRNAs (miRs) have been found to play an important role in the occurrence and
      development of human cancers, but their role in the prognosis of TNBC patients
      remains unclear. We performed a meta-analysis to explore the prognostic value of
      miRs in TNBC. METHODS: We systematically searched the PubMed, Embase, and Web of
      Science databases to identify eligible studies. A meta-analysis was performed to
      estimate the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) for the associations between levels of miR expression (predictive
      factors) and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) (outcomes) in
      patients with TNBC. RESULTS: After performing the literature search and review,
      21 relevant studies including 2510 subjects were identified. Six miRs (miR-155,
      miR-21, miR-27a/b, miR-374a/b, miR-210, and miR-454) were assessed in the meta
      analysis. Decreased expression of miR-155 was associated with reduced OS
      (adjusted HR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.34-0.99; crude HR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.58-0.79). High
      miR-21 expression was also predictive of reduced OS (crude HR = 2.50, 95% CI:
      1.56-4.01). We found that elevated levels of miR-27a/b, miR-210, and miR-454
      expression were associated with shorter OS, while the levels of miR-454 and miR
      374a/b expression were associated with DFS. CONCLUSIONS: Specific miRs could
      serve as potential prognostic biomarkers in TNBC. Due to the limited research
      available, the clinical application of these findings has yet to be verified.

PMID- 28562580
TI  - Increased serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor in male schizophrenic patients
      with metabolic syndrome.
AB  - Increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found in patients with
      schizophrenia. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) was involved in energy
      metabolism and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, but differently in males and
      females. We aimed to investigate the serum BDNF levels in patients with
      schizophrenia with and without metabolic syndrome.Patients with schizophrenia
      were recruited. Their demographic data were collected. Metabolic profiles and
      serum BDNF levels were measured. Clinical symptoms were evaluated with Positive
      and Negative Syndrome Scale. Metabolic syndrome was determined with the criteria
      provided by Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan. Framingham Risk Score (FRS)
      for estimate of 10-year risk for coronary heart disease was provided by National
      Institutes of Health.Of the 81 participants, 40.7% had metabolic syndrome. Those
      with metabolic syndrome had higher FRS. Using analysis of covariance adjusted for
      age and body mass index, male patients with schizophrenia with metabolic syndrome
      had higher serum BDNF levels than those without (4.6 +/- 4.7 vs 3.3 +/- 3.8
      ng/mL, P = .022). No statistical difference was found between female patients
      with and without metabolic syndrome.Significant differences of serum BDNF levels
      were found between male patients with schizophrenia with and without metabolic
      syndrome, but not in females. This finding suggested the gender difference behind
      the mechanism of BDNF in metabolic syndrome in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28562581
TI  - Prevalence and Risk Factors of Chronic Constipation Among Women Aged 50 Years and
      Older in Shanghai, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND Chronic constipation (CC) is a major public health problem worldwide,
      especially in elderly women. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and
      risk factors of CC among women aged 50 years and older in Shanghai, China.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1950 women aged 50
      years and older, randomly sampled in Yangpu District of Shanghai from April to
      October 2015. Information on demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits,
      medical history, and defecation situation was collected through in-person
      interviews. CC was defined according to Rome III criteria. The data were analyzed
      by chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS The
      response rate to the survey was 80.4%. Of the 1568 participants, 77 were
      diagnosed with CC, with a prevalence of 4.9%. Moreover, the prevalence increased
      with advancing age. Multiple logistic analyses showed that body mass index (BMI)
      >=25.0 kg/m2, non-manual occupation, premenopausal period, no delivery history,
      poor sleep quality, meat-based diet, and less physical exercise were significant
      risk factors for CC in the population of women aged 50 years and older.
      CONCLUSIONS CC was a common health problem among women aged 50 years and older in
      Shanghai, and the prevalence was positively associated with BMI >=25.0 kg/m2, non
      manual occupation, premenopausal period, no delivery history, poor sleep quality,
      meat-based diet, and less physical exercise. Further studies are needed to
      identify the risk factors and potential interventions for CC.

PMID- 28562583
TI  - Neurodegenerative disease: RNA repeats put a freeze on cells.

PMID- 28562582
TI  - The B-cell receptor controls fitness of MYC-driven lymphoma cells via GSK3beta
      inhibition.
AB  - Similar to resting mature B cells, where the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR)
      controls cellular survival, surface BCR expression is conserved in most mature B
      cell lymphomas. The identification of activating BCR mutations and the growth
      disadvantage upon BCR knockdown of cells of certain lymphoma entities has led to
      the view that BCR signalling is required for tumour cell survival. Consequently,
      the BCR signalling machinery has become an established target in the therapy of B
      cell malignancies. Here we study the effects of BCR ablation on MYC-driven mouse
      B-cell lymphomas and compare them with observations in human Burkitt lymphoma.
      Whereas BCR ablation does not, per se, significantly affect lymphoma growth, BCR
      negative (BCR-) tumour cells rapidly disappear in the presence of their BCR
      expressing (BCR+) counterparts in vitro and in vivo. This requires neither
      cellular contact nor factors released by BCR+ tumour cells. Instead, BCR loss
      induces the rewiring of central carbon metabolism, increasing the sensitivity of
      receptor-less lymphoma cells to nutrient restriction. The BCR attenuates glycogen
      synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3beta) activity to support MYC-controlled gene
      expression. BCR- tumour cells exhibit increased GSK3beta activity and are rescued
      from their competitive growth disadvantage by GSK3beta inhibition. BCR- lymphoma
      variants that restore competitive fitness normalize GSK3beta activity after
      constitutive activation of the MAPK pathway, commonly through Ras mutations.
      Similarly, in Burkitt lymphoma, activating RAS mutations may propagate
      immunoglobulin-crippled tumour cells, which usually represent a minority of the
      tumour bulk. Thus, while BCR expression enhances lymphoma cell fitness, BCR
      targeted therapies may profit from combinations with drugs targeting BCR- tumour
      cells.

PMID- 28562586
TI  - Molecular biology: Local metabolites linked to memory.

PMID- 28562584
TI  - Structure of the Cpf1 endonuclease R-loop complex after target DNA cleavage.
AB  - Cpf1 is an RNA-guided endonuclease that is emerging as a powerful genome-editing
      tool. Here we provide insight into its DNA-targeting mechanism by determining the
      structure of Francisella novicida Cpf1 with the triple-stranded R-loop generated
      after DNA cleavage. The structure reveals the machinery involved in DNA unwinding
      to form a CRISPR RNA (crRNA)-DNA hybrid and a displaced DNA strand. The
      protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) is recognized by the PAM-interacting domain. The
      loop-lysine helix-loop motif in this domain contains three conserved lysine
      residues that are inserted in a dentate manner into the double-stranded DNA.
      Unzipping of the double-stranded DNA occurs in a cleft arranged by acidic and
      hydrophobic residues facilitating the crRNA-DNA hybrid formation. The PAM single
      stranded DNA is funnelled towards the nuclease site through a mixed hydrophobic
      and basic cavity. In this catalytic conformation, the PAM-interacting domain and
      the helix-loop-helix motif in the REC1 domain adopt a 'rail' shape and 'flap-on'
      conformations, respectively, channelling the PAM strand into the cavity. A steric
      barrier between the RuvC-II and REC1 domains forms the 'septum', separating the
      displaced PAM strand and the crRNA-DNA hybrid, avoiding DNA re-annealing.
      Mutations in key residues reveal a mechanism linking the PAM and DNA nuclease
      sites. Analysis of the Cpf1 structures proposes a singular working model of RNA
      guided DNA cleavage, suggesting new avenues for redesign of Cpf1.

PMID- 28562585
TI  - Crystal structure of the GLP-1 receptor bound to a peptide agonist.
AB  - Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) regulates glucose homeostasis through the control
      of insulin release from the pancreas. GLP-1 peptide agonists are efficacious
      drugs for the treatment of diabetes. To gain insight into the molecular mechanism
      of action of GLP-1 peptides, here we report the crystal structure of the full
      length GLP-1 receptor bound to a truncated peptide agonist. The peptide agonist
      retains an alpha-helical conformation as it sits deep within the receptor-binding
      pocket. The arrangement of the transmembrane helices reveals hallmarks of an
      active conformation similar to that observed in class A receptors. Guided by this
      structural information, we design peptide agonists with potent in vivo activity
      in a mouse model of diabetes.

PMID- 28562587
TI  - Evolution: Differences can hold populations together.

PMID- 28562588
TI  - A Cryptosporidium PI(4)K inhibitor is a drug candidate for cryptosporidiosis.
AB  - Diarrhoeal disease is responsible for 8.6% of global child mortality. Recent
      epidemiological studies found the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium to be a
      leading cause of paediatric diarrhoea, with particularly grave impact on infants
      and immunocompromised individuals. There is neither a vaccine nor an effective
      treatment. Here we establish a drug discovery process built on scalable
      phenotypic assays and mouse models that take advantage of transgenic parasites.
      Screening a library of compounds with anti-parasitic activity, we identify
      pyrazolopyridines as inhibitors of Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium
      hominis. Oral treatment with the pyrazolopyridine KDU731 results in a potent
      reduction in intestinal infection of immunocompromised mice. Treatment also leads
      to rapid resolution of diarrhoea and dehydration in neonatal calves, a clinical
      model of cryptosporidiosis that closely resembles human infection. Our results
      suggest that the Cryptosporidium lipid kinase PI(4)K (phosphatidylinositol-4-OH
      kinase) is a target for pyrazolopyridines and that KDU731 warrants further
      preclinical evaluation as a drug candidate for the treatment of
      cryptosporidiosis.

PMID- 28562589
TI  - RNA phase transitions in repeat expansion disorders.
AB  - Expansions of short nucleotide repeats produce several neurological and
      neuromuscular disorders including Huntington disease, muscular dystrophy, and
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A common pathological feature of these diseases is
      the accumulation of the repeat-containing transcripts into aberrant foci in the
      nucleus. RNA foci, as well as the disease symptoms, only manifest above a
      critical number of nucleotide repeats, but the molecular mechanism governing foci
      formation above this characteristic threshold remains unresolved. Here we show
      that repeat expansions create templates for multivalent base-pairing, which
      causes purified RNA to undergo a sol-gel transition in vitro at a similar
      critical repeat number as observed in the diseases. In human cells, RNA foci form
      by phase separation of the repeat-containing RNA and can be dissolved by agents
      that disrupt RNA gelation in vitro. Analogous to protein aggregation disorders,
      our results suggest that the sequence-specific gelation of RNAs could be a
      contributing factor to neurological disease.

PMID- 28562590
TI  - Genetic wiring maps of single-cell protein states reveal an off-switch for GPCR
      signalling.
AB  - As key executers of biological functions, the activity and abundance of proteins
      are subjected to extensive regulation. Deciphering the genetic architecture
      underlying this regulation is critical for understanding cellular signalling
      events and responses to environmental cues. Using random mutagenesis in haploid
      human cells, we apply a sensitive approach to directly couple genomic mutations
      to protein measurements in individual cells. Here we use this to examine a suite
      of cellular processes, such as transcriptional induction, regulation of protein
      abundance and splicing, signalling cascades (mitogen-activated protein kinase
      (MAPK), G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), protein kinase B (AKT), interferon,
      and Wingless and Int-related protein (WNT) pathways) and epigenetic modifications
      (histone crotonylation and methylation). This scalable, sequencing-based
      procedure elucidates the genetic landscapes that control protein states,
      identifying genes that cause very narrow phenotypic effects and genes that lead
      to broad phenotypic consequences. The resulting genetic wiring map identifies the
      E3-ligase substrate adaptor KCTD5 (ref. 1) as a negative regulator of the AKT
      pathway, a key signalling cascade frequently deregulated in cancer. KCTD5
      deficient cells show elevated levels of phospho-AKT at S473 that could not be
      attributed to effects on canonical pathway components. To reveal the genetic
      requirements for this phenotype, we iteratively analysed the regulatory network
      linked to AKT activity in the knockout background. This genetic modifier screen
      exposes suppressors of the KCTD5 phenotype and mechanistically demonstrates that
      KCTD5 acts as an off-switch for GPCR signalling by triggering proteolysis of
      Gbetagamma heterodimers dissociated from the Galpha subunit. Although biological
      networks have previously been constructed on the basis of gene expression,
      protein-protein associations, or genetic interaction profiles, we foresee that
      the approach described here will enable the generation of a comprehensive genetic
      wiring map for human cells on the basis of quantitative protein states.

PMID- 28562591
TI  - Acetyl-CoA synthetase regulates histone acetylation and hippocampal memory.
AB  - Metabolic production of acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is linked to histone
      acetylation and gene regulation, but the precise mechanisms of this process are
      largely unknown. Here we show that the metabolic enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase 2
      (ACSS2) directly regulates histone acetylation in neurons and spatial memory in
      mammals. In a neuronal cell culture model, ACSS2 increases in the nuclei of
      differentiating neurons and localizes to upregulated neuronal genes near sites of
      elevated histone acetylation. A decrease in ACSS2 lowers nuclear acetyl-CoA
      levels, histone acetylation, and responsive expression of the cohort of neuronal
      genes. In adult mice, attenuation of hippocampal ACSS2 expression impairs long
      term spatial memory, a cognitive process that relies on histone acetylation. A
      decrease in ACSS2 in the hippocampus also leads to defective upregulation of
      memory-related neuronal genes that are pre-bound by ACSS2. These results reveal a
      connection between cellular metabolism, gene regulation, and neural plasticity
      and establish a link between acetyl-CoA generation 'on-site' at chromatin for
      histone acetylation and the transcription of key neuronal genes.

PMID- 28562593
TI  - Frequency dependence limits divergent evolution by favouring rare immigrants over
      residents.
AB  - Two distinct forms of natural selection promote adaptive biological diversity.
      Divergent selection occurs when different environments favour different
      phenotypes, leading to increased differences between populations. Negative
      frequency-dependent selection occurs when rare variants within a population are
      favoured over common ones, increasing diversity within populations. These two
      diversifying forces promote genetic variation at different spatial scales, and
      may act in opposition, but their relative effects remain unclear because they are
      rarely measured concurrently. Here we show that negative frequency-dependent
      selection within populations can favor rare immigrants over locally adapted
      residents. We reciprocally transplanted lake and stream ecotypes of threespine
      stickleback into lake and stream habitats, while manipulating the relative
      abundance of residents versus immigrants. We found negative frequency-dependence:
      survival was highest for the locally rare ecotype, rather than natives. Also,
      individuals with locally rare major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class IIb
      genotypes were infected by fewer parasites. This negative frequency-dependent
      selection will tend to favour rare immigrants over common residents, amplifying
      the effect of migration and undermining the efficacy of divergent natural
      selection to drive population differences. The only signal of divergent selection
      was a tendency for foreign fish to have higher parasite loads than residents,
      after controlling for MHC genotype rarity. Frequency-dependent ecological
      interactions have long been thought to promote speciation. Our results suggest a
      more nuanced view in which negative frequency dependence alters the fate of
      migrants to promote or constrain evolutionary divergence between populations.

PMID- 28562592
TI  - Dynamic corticostriatal activity biases social bonding in monogamous female
      prairie voles.
AB  - Adult pair bonding involves dramatic changes in the perception and valuation of
      another individual. One key change is that partners come to reliably activate the
      brain's reward system, although the precise neural mechanisms by which partners
      become rewarding during sociosexual interactions leading to a bond remain
      unclear. Here we show, using a prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) model of
      social bonding, how a functional circuit from the medial prefrontal cortex to
      nucleus accumbens is dynamically modulated to enhance females' affiliative
      behaviour towards a partner. Individual variation in the strength of this
      functional connectivity, particularly after the first mating encounter, predicts
      how quickly animals begin affiliative huddling with their partner. Rhythmically
      activating this circuit in a social context without mating biases later
      preference towards a partner, indicating that this circuit's activity is not just
      correlated with how quickly animals become affiliative but causally accelerates
      it. These results provide the first dynamic view of corticostriatal activity
      during bond formation, revealing how social interactions can recruit brain reward
      systems to drive changes in affiliative behaviour.

PMID- 28562594
TI  - Guided self-organization and cortical plate formation in human brain organoids.
AB  - Three-dimensional cell culture models have either relied on the self-organizing
      properties of mammalian cells or used bioengineered constructs to arrange cells
      in an organ-like configuration. While self-organizing organoids excel at
      recapitulating early developmental events, bioengineered constructs reproducibly
      generate desired tissue architectures. Here, we combine these two approaches to
      reproducibly generate human forebrain tissue while maintaining its self
      organizing capacity. We use poly(lactide-co-glycolide) copolymer (PLGA) fiber
      microfilaments as a floating scaffold to generate elongated embryoid bodies.
      Microfilament-engineered cerebral organoids (enCORs) display enhanced
      neuroectoderm formation and improved cortical development. Furthermore,
      reconstitution of the basement membrane leads to characteristic cortical tissue
      architecture, including formation of a polarized cortical plate and radial units.
      Thus, enCORs model the distinctive radial organization of the cerebral cortex and
      allow for the study of neuronal migration. Our data demonstrate that combining 3D
      cell culture with bioengineering can increase reproducibility and improve tissue
      architecture.

PMID- 28562596
TI  - Perspectives of older people about contingency planning for falls in the
      community: A qualitative meta-synthesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Despite consistent evidence for the positive impact of contingency
      planning for falls in older people, implementation of plans often fail. This is
      likely due to lack of recognition and knowledge about perspectives of older
      people about contingency planning. The objective of this research was to explore
      the perspectives of older people living in the community about use of contingency
      planning for getting help quickly after a fall. METHOD: A systematic literature
      search seeking qualitative research was conducted in April 2014, with no limit
      placed on date of publication. Medline, EMBASE, Ageline, CINAHL, HealthSource-
      Nursing/Academic Edition, AMED and Psych INFO databases were searched. Three main
      concepts were explored and linked using Boolean operators; older people, falls
      and contingency planning. The search was updated until February 2016 with no new
      articles found. After removal of duplicates, 562 articles were assessed against
      inclusion and exclusion criteria resulting in six studies for the meta-synthesis.
      These studies were critically appraised using the McMaster critical appraisal
      tool. Bespoke data extraction sheets were developed and a meta-synthesis approach
      was adopted to extract and synthesise findings. FINDINGS: Three themes of 'a mix
      of attitudes', 'careful deliberations' and 'a source of anxiety' were
      established. Perspectives of older people were on a continuum between regarding
      contingency plans as necessary and not necessary. Levels of engagement with the
      contingency planning process seemed associated with acceptance of their risk of
      falling and their familiarity with available contingency planning strategies.
      CONCLUSION: Avoiding a long lie on the floor following a fall is imperative for
      older people in the community but there is a lack of knowledge about contingency
      planning for falls. This meta-synthesis provides new insights into this area of
      health service delivery and highlights that implementation of plans needs to be
      directed by the older people rather than the health professionals.

PMID- 28562595
TI  - Pre-transplant immune factors may be associated with BK polyomavirus reactivation
      in kidney transplant recipients.
AB  - BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) reactivation in kidney transplant recipients can lead to
      allograft damage and loss. The elements of the adaptive immune system that are
      permissive of reactivation and responsible for viral control remain incompletely
      described. We performed a prospective study evaluating BKPyV-specific T-cell
      response, humoral response and overall T-cell phenotype beginning pre-transplant
      through one year post-transplant in 28 patients at two centers. We performed an
      exploratory analysis of risk factors for the development of viremia and viruria
      as well as compared the immune response to BKPyV in these groups and those who
      remained BK negative. 6 patients developed viruria and 3 developed viremia. BKPyV
      specific CD8+ T-cells increased post-transplant in viremic and viruric but not BK
      negative patients. BKPyV-specific CD4+ T-cells increased in viremic, but not
      viruric or BK negative patients. Anti-BKPyV IgG antibodies increased in viruric
      and viremic patients but remained unchanged in BK negative patients. Viremic
      patients had a greater proportion of CD8+ effector cells pre-transplant and at 12
      months post-transplant. Viremic patients had fewer CD4+ effector memory cells at
      3 months post-transplant. Exploratory analysis demonstrated lower CD4 and higher
      total CD8 proportions, higher anti-BKPyV antibody titers and the cause of renal
      failure were associated BKPyV reactivation. In conclusion, low CD4, high CD8 and
      increased effector CD8 cells were found pre-transplant in patients who became
      viremic, a phenotype associated with immune senescence. This pre-transplant T
      cell senescence phenotype could potentially be used to identify patients at
      increased risk of BKPyV reactivation.

PMID- 28562597
TI  - Experience with speech sounds is not necessary for cue trading by budgerigars
      (Melopsittacus undulatus).
AB  - The influence of experience with human speech sounds on speech perception in
      budgerigars, vocal mimics whose speech exposure can be tightly controlled in a
      laboratory setting, was measured. Budgerigars were divided into groups that
      differed in auditory exposure and then tested on a cue-trading identification
      paradigm with synthetic speech. Phonetic cue trading is a perceptual phenomenon
      observed when changes on one cue dimension are offset by changes in another cue
      dimension while still maintaining the same phonetic percept. The current study
      examined whether budgerigars would trade the cues of voice onset time (VOT) and
      the first formant onset frequency when identifying syllable initial stop
      consonants and if this would be influenced by exposure to speech sounds. There
      were a total of four different exposure groups: No speech exposure (completely
      isolated), Passive speech exposure (regular exposure to human speech), and two
      Speech-trained groups. After the exposure period, all budgerigars were tested for
      phonetic cue trading using operant conditioning procedures. Birds were trained to
      peck keys in response to different synthetic speech sounds that began with "d" or
      "t" and varied in VOT and frequency of the first formant at voicing onset. Once
      training performance criteria were met, budgerigars were presented with the
      entire intermediate series, including ambiguous sounds. Responses on these trials
      were used to determine which speech cues were used, if a trading relation between
      VOT and the onset frequency of the first formant was present, and whether speech
      exposure had an influence on perception. Cue trading was found in all birds and
      these results were largely similar to those of a group of humans. Results
      indicated that prior speech experience was not a requirement for cue trading by
      budgerigars. The results are consistent with theories that explain phonetic cue
      trading in terms of a rich auditory encoding of the speech signal.

PMID- 28562598
TI  - Inhibition of insect olfactory behavior by an airborne antagonist of the insect
      odorant receptor co-receptor subunit.
AB  - Response to volatile environmental chemosensory cues is essential for insect
      survival. The odorant receptor (OR) family is an important class of receptors
      that detects volatile molecules; guiding insects towards food, mates, and
      oviposition sites. ORs are odorant-gated ion channels, consisting of a variable
      odorant specificity subunit and a conserved odorant receptor co-receptor (Orco)
      subunit, in an unknown stoichiometry. The Orco subunit possesses an allosteric
      site to which modulators can bind and noncompetitively inhibit odorant activation
      of ORs. In this study, we characterized several halogen-substituted versions of a
      phenylthiophenecarboxamide Orco antagonist structure. Orco antagonist activity
      was assessed on ORs from Drosophila melanogaster flies and Culex quinquefasciatus
      mosquitoes, expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes and assayed by two-electrode
      voltage clamp electrophysiology. One compound, OX1w, was also shown to inhibit
      odorant activation of a panel of Anopheles gambiae mosquito ORs activated by
      diverse odorants. Next, we asked whether Orco antagonist OX1w could affect insect
      olfactory behavior. A Drosophila melanogaster larval chemotaxis assay was
      utilized to address this question. Larvae were robustly attracted to highly
      diluted ethyl acetate in a closed experimental chamber. Attraction to ethyl
      acetate was Orco dependent and also required the odorant specificity subunit
      Or42b. The addition of the airborne Orco antagonist OX1w to the experimental
      chamber abolished larval chemotaxis towards ethyl acetate. The Orco antagonist
      was not a general inhibitor of sensory behavior, as behavioral repulsion from a
      light source was unaffected. This is the first demonstration that an airborne
      Orco antagonist can alter olfactory behavior in an insect. These results suggest
      a new approach to insect control and emphasize the need to develop more potent
      Orco antagonists.

PMID- 28562600
TI  - Effects of flood irrigation on the risk of selected zoonotic pathogens in an arid
      and semi-arid area in the eastern Kenya.
AB  - To investigate the effects of irrigation on land cover changes and the risk of
      selected zoonotic pathogens, we carried out a study in irrigated, pastoral and
      riverine areas in the eastern Kenya. Activities implemented included secondary
      data analyses to determine land use and land cover (LULC) changes as well as
      human, livestock and wildlife population trends; entomological surveys to
      characterize mosquitoes population densities and species distribution by habitat
      and season; and serological surveys in people to determine the risk of Rift
      Valley fever virus (RVFV), West Nile fever virus (WNV), dengue fever virus (DFV),
      Leptospira spp. and Brucella spp. Results demonstrate a drastic decline in
      vegetation cover over ~25 years particularly in the irrigated areas where
      cropland increased by about 1,400% and non-farm land (under closed trees, open to
      closed herbaceous vegetation, bushlands and open trees) reduced by 30-100%. The
      irrigated areas had high densities of Aedes mcintoshi, Culex spp. and Mansonia
      spp. (important vectors for multiple arboviruses) during the wet and dry season
      while pastoral areas had high densities of Ae. tricholabis specifically in the
      wet season. The seroprevalences of RVFV, WNV and DFV were higher in the irrigated
      compared to the pastoral areas while those for Leptospira spp and Brucella spp.
      were higher in the pastoral compared to the irrigated areas. It is likely that
      people in the pastoral areas get exposed to Leptospira spp by using water fetched
      from reservoirs that are shared with livestock and wildlife, and to Brucella spp.
      by consuming raw or partially cooked animal-source foods such as milk and meat.
      This study suggests that irrigation increases the risk of mosquito-borne
      infections while at the same time providing a protective effect against zoonotic
      pathogens that thrive in areas with high livestock population densities.

PMID- 28562599
TI  - Arabidopsis RAD51, RAD51C and XRCC3 proteins form a complex and facilitate RAD51
      localization on chromosomes for meiotic recombination.
AB  - Meiotic recombination is required for proper homologous chromosome segregation in
      plants and other eukaryotes. The eukaryotic RAD51 gene family has seven ancient
      paralogs with important roles in mitotic and meiotic recombination. Mutations in
      mammalian RAD51 homologs RAD51C and XRCC3 lead to embryonic lethality. In the
      model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, RAD51C and XRCC3 homologs are not essential for
      vegetative development but are each required for somatic and meiotic
      recombination, but the mechanism of RAD51C and XRCC3 in meiotic recombination is
      unclear. The non-lethal Arabidopsis rad51c and xrcc3 null mutants provide an
      opportunity to study their meiotic functions. Here, we show that AtRAD51C and
      AtXRCC3 are components of the RAD51-dependent meiotic recombination pathway and
      required for normal AtRAD51 localization on meiotic chromosomes. In addition,
      AtRAD51C interacts with both AtRAD51 and AtXRCC3 in vitro and in vivo, suggesting
      that these proteins form a complex (es). Comparison of AtRAD51 foci in meiocytes
      from atrad51, atrad51c, and atxrcc3 single, double and triple heterozygous
      mutants further supports an interaction between AtRAD51C and AtXRCC3 that
      enhances AtRAD51 localization. Moreover, atrad51c-/+ atxrcc3-/+ double and
      atrad51-/+ atrad51c-/+ atxrcc3-/+ triple heterozygous mutants have defects in
      meiotic recombination, suggesting the role of the AtRAD51C-AtXRCC3 complex in
      meiotic recombination is in part AtRAD51-dependent. Together, our results support
      a model in which direct interactions between the RAD51C-XRCC3 complex and RAD51
      facilitate RAD51 localization on meiotic chromosomes and RAD51-dependent meiotic
      recombination. Finally, we hypothesize that maintenance of RAD51 function
      facilitated by the RAD51C-XRCC3 complex could be highly conserved in eukaryotes.

PMID- 28562602
TI  - Drivers of abundance and spatial distribution of reef-associated sharks in an
      isolated atoll reef system.
AB  - We investigated drivers of reef shark demography across a large and isolated
      marine protected area, the British Indian Ocean Territory Marine Reserve, using
      stereo baited remote underwater video systems. We modelled shark abundance
      against biotic and abiotic variables at 35 sites across the reserve and found
      that the biomass of low trophic order fish (specifically planktivores) had the
      greatest effect on shark abundance, although models also included habitat
      variables (depth, coral cover and site type). There was significant variation in
      the composition of the shark assemblage at different atolls within the reserve.
      In particular, the deepest habitat sampled (a seamount at 70-80m visited for the
      first time in this study) recorded large numbers of scalloped hammerhead sharks
      (Sphyrna lewini) not observed elsewhere. Size structure of the most abundant and
      common species, grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos), varied with
      location. Individuals at an isolated bank were 30% smaller than those at the main
      atolls, with size structure significantly biased towards the size range for young
      of year (YOY). The 18 individuals judged to be YOY represented the offspring of
      between four and six females, so, whilst inconclusive, these data suggest the
      possible use of a common pupping site by grey reef sharks. The importance of low
      trophic order fish biomass (i.e. potential prey) in predicting spatial variation
      in shark abundance is consistent with other studies both in marine and
      terrestrial systems which suggest that prey availability may be a more important
      predictor of predator distribution than habitat suitability. This result supports
      the need for ecosystem level rather than species-specific conservation measures
      to support shark recovery. The observed spatial partitioning amongst sites for
      species and life-stages also implies the need to include a diversity of habitats
      and reef types within a protected area for adequate protection of reef-associated
      shark assemblages.

PMID- 28562604
TI  - An appetite for understanding appetite.

PMID- 28562603
TI  - Evaluation of three molecular markers for identification of European primary
      parasitoids of cereal aphids and their hyperparasitoids.
AB  - Aphids are major pests of cereal crops and a suite of hymenopteran primary
      parasitoids play an important role in regulating their populations. However,
      hyperparasitoids may disrupt the biocontrol services provided by primary
      parasitoids. As such, understanding cereal aphid-primary parasitoid
      hyperparasitoid interactions is vital for a reliable parasitoid-based control of
      cereal aphids. For this, the ability to identify the different primary and
      hyperparasitoid species is necessary. Unfortunately, this is often difficult due
      to a lack of morphologically diagnostic features. DNA sequence-based species
      identification of parasitoids can overcome these hurdles. However, comprehensive
      DNA sequence information is lacking for many of these groups, particularly for
      hyperparasitoids. Here we evaluate three genes [cytochrome c oxidase subunit I
      (COI), 16S ribosomal RNA (16S) and 18S ribosomal RNA (18S)] for their suitability
      to identify 24 species of primary parasitoids and 16 species of hyperparasitoids
      associated with European cereal aphids. To identify aphelinid primary parasitoid
      species and hyperparasitoids, we found 16S to be more suitable compared to COI
      sequences. In contrast, the Aphidiinae are best identified using COI due to
      better species-level resolution and a more comprehensive DNA sequence database
      compared to 16S. The 18S gene was better suited for group-specific identification
      of parasitoids, but did not provide resolution at the species level. Our results
      provide a DNA sequence database for cereal aphid primary parasitoids and their
      associated hyperparasitoids in Central Europe, which will allow further
      improvement of our understanding of cereal aphid-primary parasitoid
      hyperparasitoid interactions in relation to aphid biological control.

PMID- 28562601
TI  - Multifunctional glial support by Semper cells in the Drosophila retina.
AB  - Glial cells play structural and functional roles central to the formation,
      activity and integrity of neurons throughout the nervous system. In the retina of
      vertebrates, the high energetic demand of photoreceptors is sustained in part by
      Muller glia, an intrinsic, atypical radial glia with features common to many
      glial subtypes. Accessory and support glial cells also exist in invertebrates,
      but which cells play this function in the insect retina is largely undefined.
      Using cell-restricted transcriptome analysis, here we show that the ommatidial
      cone cells (aka Semper cells) in the Drosophila compound eye are enriched for
      glial regulators and effectors, including signature characteristics of the
      vertebrate visual system. In addition, cone cell-targeted gene knockdowns
      demonstrate that such glia-associated factors are required to support the
      structural and functional integrity of neighboring photoreceptors. Specifically,
      we show that distinct support functions (neuronal activity, structural integrity
      and sustained neurotransmission) can be genetically separated in cone cells by
      down-regulating transcription factors associated with vertebrate gliogenesis
      (pros/Prox1, Pax2/5/8, and Oli/Olig1,2, respectively). Further, we find that
      specific factors critical for glial function in other species are also critical
      in cone cells to support Drosophila photoreceptor activity. These include ion
      transport proteins (Na/K+-ATPase, Eaat1, and Kir4.1-related channels) and
      metabolic homeostatic factors (dLDH and Glut1). These data define genetically
      distinct glial signatures in cone/Semper cells that regulate their structural,
      functional and homeostatic interactions with photoreceptor neurons in the
      compound eye of Drosophila. In addition to providing a new high-throughput model
      to study neuron-glia interactions, the fly eye will further help elucidate glial
      conserved "support networks" between invertebrates and vertebrates.

PMID- 28562606
TI  - The first specimen of Camarasaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from Montana: The
      northernmost occurrence of the genus.
AB  - A partial skeleton from the Little Snowy Mountains of central Montana is the
      first referable specimen of the Morrison Formation macronarian sauropod
      Camarasaurus. This specimen also represents the northernmost occurrence of a
      sauropod in the Morrison. Histological study indicates that, although the
      specimen is relatively small statured, it is skeletally mature; this further
      emphasizes that size is not a undeviating proxy to maturity in dinosaurs, and
      that morphologies associated with an individual's age and stature may be more
      nebulous in sauropods.

PMID- 28562605
TI  - The Agassiz's desert tortoise genome provides a resource for the conservation of
      a threatened species.
AB  - Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a long-lived species native to
      the Mojave Desert and is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species
      Act. To aid conservation efforts for preserving the genetic diversity of this
      species, we generated a whole genome reference sequence with an annotation based
      on deep transcriptome sequences of adult skeletal muscle, lung, brain, and blood.
      The draft genome assembly for G. agassizii has a scaffold N50 length of 252 kbp
      and a total length of 2.4 Gbp. Genome annotation reveals 20,172 protein-coding
      genes in the G. agassizii assembly, and that gene structure is more similar to
      chicken than other turtles. We provide a series of comparative analyses
      demonstrating (1) that turtles are among the slowest-evolving genome-enabled
      reptiles, (2) amino acid changes in genes controlling desert tortoise traits such
      as shell development, longevity and osmoregulation, and (3) fixed variants across
      the Gopherus species complex in genes related to desert adaptations, including
      circadian rhythm and innate immune response. This G. agassizii genome reference
      and annotation is the first such resource for any tortoise, and will serve as a
      foundation for future analysis of the genetic basis of adaptations to the desert
      environment, allow for investigation into genomic factors affecting tortoise
      health, disease and longevity, and serve as a valuable resource for additional
      studies in this species complex.

PMID- 28562608
TI  - Correction: Active zone proteins are transported via distinct mechanisms
      regulated by Par-1 kinase.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006621.].

PMID- 28562607
TI  - Migratory bats respond to artificial green light with positive phototaxis.
AB  - Artificial light at night is spreading worldwide at unprecedented rates, exposing
      strictly nocturnal animals such as bats to a novel anthropogenic stressor.
      Previous studies about the effect of artificial light on bats focused almost
      exclusively on non-migratory species, yet migratory animals such as birds are
      known to be largely affected by light pollution. Thus, we conducted a field
      experiment to evaluate if bat migration is affected by artificial light at night.
      In late summer, we presented artificial green light of 520 nm wavelength to bats
      that were migrating south along the shoreline of the Baltic Sea. Using a light on
      off treatment, we observed that the activity of Pipistrellus nathusii and P.
      pygmaeus, the two most abundant migratory species at our site, increased by more
      than 50% in the light-on compared to the light-off treatment. We observed an
      increased number of feeding buzzes during the light-on compared to the light-off
      treatment for P. nathusii. However, feeding activity was low in general and did
      not increase disproportionately during the light-on treatment in relation to the
      overall echolocation call activity of bats. Further, P. nathusii were attracted
      towards the green light at a distance of about 23 m, which is way beyond the
      echolocation detection range for insects of Nathusius' bats. We therefore infer
      that migratory bats were not attracted to artificial green light because of high
      insect densities, but instead by positive phototaxis. We conclude that artificial
      light at night may potentially impact bat migration in a yet unrecognized way.

PMID- 28562609
TI  - Diagnostic value of repeated ice tests in the evaluation of ptosis in myasthenia
      gravis.
AB  - Twenty-six patients with ptosis related to Myasthenia gravis (MG) and 38 controls
      with ptosis other than MG were included. All patients were tested with the ice
      test 2 times on separate days in the afternoon. The margin reflex distance (MRD)
      was measured before and immediately after 2-minute application of ice on the
      eyelids. The ice test was judged positive if there was an improvement of at least
      2.0 mm of MRD after the ice test. Among the patients with negative test results,
      'equivocal' was defined by improvement of MRD from at least 1.0 mm to less than
      2.0 mm after the ice test. Repeated ice test results showed an agreement of 61.5%
      in MG, and 97.4% in nonmyasthenic ptosis. Repeated ice tests increased the
      sensitivity by 34.6% compared to a single test. Among the patients with
      repeatedly negative test results, 63.6% of those who showed equivocal results at
      least once turned out to be MG. Of those with repeated non-equivocal negative
      results, nobody turned out to be MG. There was no significant difference of the
      ice test results between ocular MG and generalized MG (p = 0.562).

PMID- 28562610
TI  - Beyond causes of death: The social determinants of mortality among children aged
      1-59 months in Nigeria from 2009 to 2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Millions of children worldwide suffer and die from conditions for
      which effective interventions exist. While there is ample evidence regarding
      these diseases, there is a dearth of information on the social factors associated
      with child mortality. METHODS: The 2014 Verbal and Social Autopsy Study was
      conducted based on a nationally representative sample of 3,254 deaths that
      occurred in children under the age of five and were reported on the birth history
      component of the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. We conducted a
      descriptive analysis of the preventive and curative care sought and obtained for
      the 2,057 children aged 1-59 months who died in Nigeria and performed regional
      (North vs. South) comparisons. RESULTS: A total of 1,616 children died in the
      northern region, while 441 children died in the South. The majority (72.5%) of
      deceased children in the northern region were born to mothers who had no
      education, married at a young age, and lived in the poorest two quintiles of
      households. When caregivers first noticed that their child was ill, a median of 2
      days passed before they sought or attempted to seek healthcare for their
      children. The proportion of children who reached and departed from their first
      formal healthcare provider alive was greater in the North (30.6%) than in the
      South (17.9%) (p<0.001). A total of 548 children were moderately or severely sick
      at discharge from the first healthcare provider, yet only 3.9%-18.1% were
      referred to a second healthcare provider. Cost, lack of transportation, and
      distance from healthcare facilities were the most commonly reported barriers to
      formal care-seeking behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal, household, and healthcare
      system factors contributed to child mortality in Nigeria. Information regarding
      modifiable social factors may be useful in planning intervention programs to
      promote child survival in Nigeria and other low-income countries in sub-Saharan
      Africa.

PMID- 28562611
TI  - Direct estimates of cause-specific mortality fractions and rates of under-five
      deaths in the northern and southern regions of Nigeria by verbal autopsy
      interview.
AB  - Nigeria's under-five mortality rate is the eighth highest in the world.
      Identifying the causes of under-five deaths is crucial to achieving Sustainable
      Development Goal 3 by 2030 and improving child survival. National and
      international bodies collaborated in this study to provide the first ever direct
      estimates of the causes of under-five mortality in Nigeria. Verbal autopsy
      interviews were conducted of a representative sample of 986 neonatal and 2,268 1
      59 month old deaths from 2008 to 2013 identified by the 2013 Nigeria Demographic
      and Health Survey. Cause of death was assigned by physician coding and
      computerized expert algorithms arranged in a hierarchy. National and regional
      estimates of age distributions, mortality rates and cause proportions, and zonal-
      and age-specific mortality fractions and rates for leading causes of death were
      evaluated. More under-fives and 1-59 month olds in the South, respectively, died
      as neonates (N = 24.1%, S = 32.5%, p<0.001) and at younger ages (p<0.001) than in
      the North. The leading causes of neonatal and 1-59 month mortality, respectively,
      were sepsis, birth injury/asphyxia and neonatal pneumonia, and malaria, diarrhea
      and pneumonia. The preterm delivery (N = 1.2%, S = 3.7%, p = 0.042), pneumonia (N
      = 15.0%, S = 21.6%, p = 0.004) and malaria (N = 34.7%, S = 42.2%, p = 0.009)
      fractions were higher in the South, with pneumonia and malaria focused in the
      South East and South South; while the diarrhea fraction was elevated in the North
      (N = 24.8%, S = 13.2%, p<0.001). However, the diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria
      mortality rates were all higher in the North, respectively, by 222.9% (Z = -10.9,
      p = 0.000), 27.6% (Z = -2.3, p = 0.020) and 50.6% (Z = -5.7, p = 0.000), with the
      greatest excesses in older children. The findings support that there is an
      epidemiological transition ongoing in southern Nigeria, suggest the way forward
      to a similar transition in the North, and can help guide maternal, neonatal and
      child health programming and their regional and zonal foci within the country.

PMID- 28562613
TI  - Weather, day length and physical activity in older adults: Cross-sectional
      results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
      (EPIC) Norfolk Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A wide range of environmental factors have been related to active
      ageing, but few studies have explored the impact of weather and day length on
      physical activity in older adults. We investigate the cross-sectional association
      between weather conditions, day length and activity in older adults using a
      population-based cohort in England, the European Prospective Investigation into
      Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Norfolk study. METHODS: Physical activity was
      measured objectively over 7 days using an accelerometer and this was used to
      calculate daily total physical activity (counts per minute), daily minutes of
      sedentary behaviour and light, moderate and vigorous physical activity (LMVPA).
      Day length and two types of weather conditions, precipitation and temperature,
      were obtained from a local weather station. The association between these
      variables and physical activity was examined by multilevel first-order
      autoregressive modelling. RESULTS: After adjusting for individual factors, short
      day length and poor weather conditions, including high precipitation and low
      temperatures, were associated with up to 10% lower average physical activity
      (p<0.01) and 8 minutes less time spent in LMVPA but 15 minutes more sedentary
      time, compared to the best conditions. CONCLUSION: Day length and weather
      conditions appear to be an important factor related to active ageing. Future work
      should focus on developing potential interventions to reduce their impact on
      physical activity behaviours in older adults.

PMID- 28562612
TI  - Decreased emergence of HIV-1 drug resistance mutations in a cohort of Ugandan
      women initiating option B+ for PMTCT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2012, WHO guidelines for the prevention of mother-to-child
      transmission (PMTCT) of HIV-1 in resource-limited settings recommend the
      initiation of lifelong antiretroviral combination therapy (cART) for all pregnant
      HIV-1 positive women independent of CD4 count and WHO clinical stage (Option B+).
      However, long-term outcomes regarding development of drug resistance are lacking
      until now. Therefore, we analysed the emergence of drug resistance mutations
      (DRMs) in women initiating Option B+ in Fort Portal, Uganda, at 12 and 18 months
      postpartum (ppm). METHODS AND FINDINGS: 124 HIV-1 positive pregnant women were
      enrolled within antenatal care services in Fort Portal, Uganda. Blood samples
      were collected at the first visit prior starting Option B+ and postpartum at week
      six, month six, 12 and 18. Viral load was determined by real-time RT-PCR. An RT
      PCR covering resistance associated positions in the protease and reverse
      transcriptase HIV-1 genomic region was performed. PCR-positive samples at 12/18
      ppm and respective baseline samples were analysed by next generation sequencing
      regarding HIV-1 drug resistant variants including low-frequency variants.
      Furthermore, vertical transmission of HIV-1 was analysed. 49/124 (39.5%) women
      were included into the DRM analysis. Virological failure, defined as >1000 copies
      HIV-1 RNA/ml, was observed in three and seven women at 12 and 18 ppm,
      respectively. Sequences were obtained for three and six of these. In total, DRMs
      were detected in 3/49 (6.1%) women. Two women displayed dual-class resistance
      against all recommended first-line regimen drugs. Of 49 mother-infant-pairs no
      infant was HIV-1 positive at 12 or 18 ppm. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that
      the WHO-recommended Option B+ for PMTCT is effective in a cohort of Ugandan HIV-1
      positive pregnant women with regard to the low selection rate of DRMs and
      vertical transmission. Therefore, these results are encouraging for other
      countries considering the implementation of lifelong cART for all pregnant HIV-1
      positive women.

PMID- 28562614
TI  - Properties of genes essential for mouse development.
AB  - Essential genes are those that are critical for life. In the specific case of the
      mouse, they are the set of genes whose deletion means that a mouse is unable to
      survive after birth. As such, they are the key minimal set of genes needed for
      all the steps of development to produce an organism capable of life ex utero. We
      explored a wide range of sequence and functional features to characterise
      essential (lethal) and non-essential (viable) genes in mice. Experimental data
      curated manually identified 1301 essential genes and 3451 viable genes. Very many
      sequence features show highly significant differences between essential and
      viable mouse genes. Essential genes generally encode complex proteins, with
      multiple domains and many introns. These genes tend to be: long, highly
      expressed, old and evolutionarily conserved. These genes tend to encode ligases,
      transferases, phosphorylated proteins, intracellular proteins, nuclear proteins,
      and hubs in protein-protein interaction networks. They are involved with
      regulating protein-protein interactions, gene expression and metabolic processes,
      cell morphogenesis, cell division, cell proliferation, DNA replication, cell
      differentiation, DNA repair and transcription, cell differentiation and embryonic
      development. Viable genes tend to encode: membrane proteins or secreted proteins,
      and are associated with functions such as cellular communication, apoptosis,
      behaviour and immune response, as well as housekeeping and tissue specific
      functions. Viable genes are linked to transport, ion channels, signal
      transduction, calcium binding and lipid binding, consistent with their location
      in membranes and involvement with cell-cell communication. From the analysis of
      the composite features of essential and viable genes, we conclude that essential
      genes tend to be required for intracellular functions, and viable genes tend to
      be involved with extracellular functions and cell-cell communication. Knowledge
      of the features that are over-represented in essential genes allows for a deeper
      understanding of the functions and processes implemented during mammalian
      development.

PMID- 28562615
TI  - Screening test for neutralizing antibodies against yellow fever virus, based on a
      flavivirus pseudotype.
AB  - Given the possibility of yellow fever virus reintroduction in epidemiologically
      receptive geographic areas, the risk of vaccine supply disruption is a serious
      issue. New strategies to reduce the doses of injected vaccines should be
      evaluated very carefully in terms of immunogenicity. The plaque reduction test
      for the determination of neutralizing antibodies (PRNT) is particularly time
      consuming and requires the use of a confinement laboratory. We have developed a
      new test based on the use of a non-infectious pseudovirus (WN/YF17D). The
      presence of a reporter gene allows sensitive determination of neutralizing
      antibodies by flow cytometry. This WN/YF17D test was as sensitive as PRNT for the
      follow-up of yellow fever vaccinees. Both tests lacked specificity with sera from
      patients hospitalized for acute Dengue virus infection. Conversely, both assays
      were strictly negative in adults never exposed to flavivirus infection or
      vaccination, and in patients sampled some time after acute Dengue infection. This
      WN/YF17D test will be particularly useful for large epidemiological studies and
      for screening for neutralizing antibodies against yellow fever virus.

PMID- 28562616
TI  - Demystifying the Capitella capitata complex (Annelida, Capitellidae) diversity by
      morphological and molecular data along the Brazilian coast.
AB  - The sibling species of Capitella capitata are globally known for their tolerance
      to disturbed habitats and the C. capitata complex is often used as an ecological
      indicator. A recent re-description proposed that C. capitata, originally
      described in Greenland is restricted to the Artic and Subarctic regions. Given
      their ecological relevance, we conducted a morphological and molecular analyses
      based on mtDNA sequences to investigate the diversity and distribution of the C.
      capitata complex along the Brazilian coast. Our morphological and molecular data
      were congruent and revealed the existence of four new species distinct from C.
      capitata, collected from the type locality. This study is the first
      characterization of the biodiversity and distribution of Capitella species made
      along the Brazilian coast and yielded a set of morphological characters
      corroborated by the mtDNA sequences for species identification. Our results
      increase the biodiversity of the genus along the Brazilian coast by describing
      four new species (Capitella aracaensis sp. n., Capitella biota sp. n., Capitella
      neoaciculata sp. n. and Capitella nonatoi sp. n.). One species was collected from
      only one sampling site, while the others are distributed along the coast.

PMID- 28562617
TI  - Taxonomy based analysis of force exchanges during object grasping and
      manipulation.
AB  - The flexibility of the human hand in object manipulation is essential for daily
      life activities, but remains relatively little explored with quantitative
      methods. On the one hand, recent taxonomies describe qualitatively the classes of
      hand postures for object grasping and manipulation. On the other hand, the
      quantitative analysis of hand function has been generally restricted to precision
      grip (with thumb and index opposition) during lifting tasks. The aim of the
      present study is to fill the gap between these two kinds of descriptions, by
      investigating quantitatively the forces exerted by the hand on an instrumented
      object in a set of representative manipulation tasks. The object was a
      parallelepiped object able to measure the force exerted on the six faces and its
      acceleration. The grasping force was estimated from the lateral force and the
      unloading force from the bottom force. The protocol included eleven tasks with
      complementary constraints inspired by recent taxonomies: four tasks corresponding
      to lifting and holding the object with different grasp configurations, and seven
      to manipulating the object (rotation around each of its axis and translation).
      The grasping and unloading forces and object rotations were measured during the
      five phases of the actions: unloading, lifting, holding or manipulation,
      preparation to deposit, and deposit. The results confirm the tight regulation
      between grasping and unloading forces during lifting, and extend this to the
      deposit phase. In addition, they provide a precise description of the regulation
      of force exchanges during various manipulation tasks spanning representative
      actions of daily life. The timing of manipulation showed both sequential and
      overlapping organization of the different sub-actions, and micro-errors could be
      detected. This phenomenological study confirms the feasibility of using an
      instrumented object to investigate complex manipulative behavior in humans. This
      protocol will be used in the future to investigate upper-limb dexterity in
      patients with sensory-motor impairments.

PMID- 28562618
TI  - Hebbian learning of hand-centred representations in a hierarchical neural network
      model of the primate visual system.
AB  - A subset of neurons in the posterior parietal and premotor areas of the primate
      brain respond to the locations of visual targets in a hand-centred frame of
      reference. Such hand-centred visual representations are thought to play an
      important role in visually-guided reaching to target locations in space. In this
      paper we show how a biologically plausible, Hebbian learning mechanism may
      account for the development of localized hand-centred representations in a
      hierarchical neural network model of the primate visual system, VisNet. The hand
      centered neurons developed in the model use an invariance learning mechanism
      known as continuous transformation (CT) learning. In contrast to previous
      theoretical proposals for the development of hand-centered visual
      representations, CT learning does not need a memory trace of recent neuronal
      activity to be incorporated in the synaptic learning rule. Instead, CT learning
      relies solely on a Hebbian learning rule, which is able to exploit the spatial
      overlap that naturally occurs between successive images of a hand-object
      configuration as it is shifted across different retinal locations due to
      saccades. Our simulations show how individual neurons in the network model can
      learn to respond selectively to target objects in particular locations with
      respect to the hand, irrespective of where the hand-object configuration occurs
      on the retina. The response properties of these hand-centred neurons further
      generalise to localised receptive fields in the hand-centred space when tested on
      novel hand-object configurations that have not been explored during training.
      Indeed, even when the network is trained with target objects presented across a
      near continuum of locations around the hand during training, the model continues
      to develop hand-centred neurons with localised receptive fields in hand-centred
      space. With the help of principal component analysis, we provide the first
      theoretical framework that explains the behavior of Hebbian learning in VisNet.

PMID- 28562619
TI  - Story time turbocharger? Child engagement during shared reading and cerebellar
      activation and connectivity in preschool-age children listening to stories.
AB  - Expanding behavioral and neurobiological evidence affirms benefits of shared
      (especially parent-child) reading on cognitive development during early
      childhood. However, the majority of this evidence involves factors under
      caregiver control, the influence of those intrinsic to the child, such as
      interest or engagement in reading, largely indirect or unclear. The cerebellum is
      increasingly recognized as playing a "smoothing" role in higher-level cognitive
      processing and learning, via feedback loops with language, limbic and association
      cortices. We utilized functional MRI to explore the relationship between child
      engagement during a mother-child reading observation and neural activation and
      connectivity during a story listening task, in a sample of 4-year old girls.
      Children exhibiting greater interest and engagement in the narrative showed
      increased activation in right-sided cerebellar association areas during the task,
      and greater functional connectivity between this activation cluster and language
      and executive function areas. Our findings suggest a potential cerebellar "boost"
      mechanism responsive to child engagement level that may contribute to emergent
      literacy development during early childhood, and synergy between caregiver and
      child factors during story sharing.

PMID- 28562620
TI  - Reprimo tissue-specific expression pattern is conserved between zebrafish and
      human.
AB  - Reprimo (RPRM), a member of the RPRM gene family, is a tumor-suppressor gene
      involved in the regulation of the p53-mediated cell cycle arrest at G2/M. RPRM
      has been associated with malignant tumor progression and proposed as a potential
      biomarker for early cancer detection. However, the expression and role of RPRM,
      as well as its family, are poorly understood and their physiology is as yet
      unstudied. In this scenario, a model system like the zebrafish could serve to
      dissect the role of the RPRM family members in vivo. Phylogenetic analysis
      reveals that RPRM and RPRML have been differentially retained by most species
      throughout vertebrate evolution, yet RPRM3 has been retained only in a small
      group of distantly related species, including zebrafish. Herein, we characterized
      the spatiotemporal expression of RPRM (present in zebrafish as an infraclass
      duplication rprma/rprmb), RPRML and RPRM3 in the zebrafish. By whole-mount in
      situ hybridization (WISH) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), we
      demonstrate that rprm (rprma/rprmb) and rprml show a similar spatiotemporal
      expression profile during zebrafish development. At early developmental stages
      rprmb is expressed in somites. After one day post-fertilization, rprm
      (rprma/rprmb) and rprml are expressed in the notochord, brain, blood vessels and
      digestive tube. On the other hand, rprm3 shows the most unique expression
      profile, being expressed only in the central nervous system (CNS). We assessed
      the expression patterns of RPRM gene transcripts in adult zebrafish and human
      RPRM protein product in tissue samples by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC)
      staining, respectively. Strikingly, tissue-specific expression patterns of the
      RPRM transcripts and protein are conserved between zebrafish and humans. We
      propose the zebrafish as a powerful tool to elucidate the both physiological and
      pathological roles of the RPRM gene family.

PMID- 28562621
TI  - Adherence to secondary prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease is underestimated
      by register data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In high-burden Australian states and territories, registers of
      patients with acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease are maintained
      for patient management, monitoring of system performance and research. Data
      validation was undertaken for the Australian Northern Territory Rheumatic Heart
      Disease Register to determine quality and impact of data cleaning on reporting
      against key performance indicators: overall adherence, and proportion of patients
      receiving >=80% of scheduled penicillin doses for secondary prophylaxis. METHODS:
      Register data were compared with data from health centres. Inconsistencies were
      identified and corrected; adherence was calculated before and after cleaning.
      RESULTS: 2780 penicillin doses were validated; 426 inconsistencies were
      identified, including 102 incorrect dose dates. After cleaning, mean adherence
      increased (63.5% to 67.3%, p<0.001) and proportion of patients receiving >=80% of
      doses increased (34.2% to 42.1%, p = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: The Northern Territory
      Rheumatic Heart Disease Register underestimates adherence, although the key
      performance indicator of >=80% adherence was not significantly affected. Program
      performance is better than hitherto appreciated. However some errors could affect
      patient management, as well as accuracy of longitudinal or inter-jurisdictional
      comparisons. Adequate resources are needed for maintenance of data quality in
      acute rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease registers to ensure provision of
      evidence-based care and accurate assessment of program impact.

PMID- 28562622
TI  - SUV-quantification of physiological lung tissue in an integrated PET/MR-system:
      Impact of lung density and bone tissue.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of lung density
      changes as well as bone proximity on the attenuation correction of lung
      standardized uptake values (SUVs). METHODS AND MATERIALS: 15 patients with mostly
      oncologic diseases were examined in 18F-FDG-PET/CT and subsequently in a fully
      integrated PET/MR scanner. From each PET dataset acquired in PET/MR, four
      different PET reconstructions were computed using different attenuation maps (MU
      maps): i) CT-based MU-map (gold standard); ii) CT-based MU-map in which the
      linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) of the lung tissue was replaced by the lung
      LAC from the MR-based segmentation method; iii) based on reconstruction ii), the
      LAC of bone structures was additionally replaced with the LAC from the MR-based
      segmentation method; iv) the vendor-provided MR-based MU-map (segmentation-based
      method). Those steps were performed using MATLAB. CT Hounsfield units (HU) and
      SUVmean was acquired in different levels and regions of the lung. Relative
      differences between the differently corrected PETs were computed. RESULTS:
      Compared to the gold standard, reconstruction ii), iii) and iv) led to a relative
      underestimation of SUV in the posterior regions of -9.0%, -13.4% and -14.0%,
      respectively. Anterior and middle regions were less affected with an
      overestimation of about 6-8% in reconstructions ii)-iv). CONCLUSION: It could be
      shown that both, differences in lung density and the vicinity of bone tissue in
      the MU-map may have an influence on SUV, mostly affecting the posterior lung
      regions.

PMID- 28562623
TI  - Relationship between nugent score and vaginal epithelial exfoliation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Clue cells characteristic of bacterial vaginosis (BV) are thought to
      arise due to exfoliation of the vaginal epithelium; however, there is little
      published data connecting total numbers of epithelial cells to markers of BV. The
      purpose of this study was to enumerate exfoliated epithelial cells (independent
      of clue cells) and examine the relationship to Nugent score. STUDY DESIGN: We
      conducted a cross-sectional sub-study of the Contraceptive CHOICE Project cohort.
      Vaginal swabs were used to create vaginal smears for Gram staining and these
      smears were later scored using the Nugent method, and then two blinded observers
      used microscopy to enumerate exfoliated epithelial cells. The degree of
      epithelial cell exfoliation was compared between women diagnosed as BV-negative
      (Nugent score 0-3), BV-intermediate (Nugent score 4-6), and BV-positive (Nugent
      score 7-10). BV specimens (Nugent 7-10) were randomly matched to specimens in the
      two other groups (Nugent low and Nugent-intermediate), in order to avoid
      comparing groups of women with potentially confounding baseline demographics.
      RESULTS: Exfoliated epithelial cell counts were higher in the vaginal smears from
      BV-positive women compared with BV-negative women. Higher levels of epithelial
      exfoliation were also evident in BV-intermediate women compared to those with low
      Nugent scores. After adjustment for clustering introduced by matching, the
      incidence ratio of increased epithelial cell counts was 2.09 (95% CI 1.50-2.90)
      for the BV-intermediate women and 1.71 (95% CI 1.23-2.38) for the BV positive
      women. CONCLUSION: A vaginal epithelial exfoliation phenotype was measured in
      both Nugent-defined BV-positive and BV-intermediate women. Bacterial vaginosis
      and intermediate status (Nugent score >3) was associated with significantly more
      vaginal epithelial exfoliation compared to women with Lactobacillus-dominated
      microbiotas (Nugent 0-3).

PMID- 28562624
TI  - Application of a single-flicker online SSVEP BCI for spatial navigation.
AB  - A promising approach for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) employs the steady
      state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) for extracting control information. Main
      advantages of these SSVEP BCIs are a simple and low-cost setup, little effort to
      adjust the system parameters to the user and comparatively high information
      transfer rates (ITR). However, traditional frequency-coded SSVEP BCIs require the
      user to gaze directly at the selected flicker stimulus, which is liable to cause
      fatigue or even photic epileptic seizures. The spatially coded SSVEP BCI we
      present in this article addresses this issue. It uses a single flicker stimulus
      that appears always in the extrafoveal field of view, yet it allows the user to
      control four control channels. We demonstrate the embedding of this novel SSVEP
      stimulation paradigm in the user interface of an online BCI for navigating a 2
      dimensional computer game. Offline analysis of the training data reveals an
      average classification accuracy of 96.9+/-1.64%, corresponding to an information
      transfer rate of 30.1+/-1.8 bits/min. In online mode, the average classification
      accuracy reached 87.9+/-11.4%, which resulted in an ITR of 23.8+/-6.75 bits/min.
      We did not observe a strong relation between a subject's offline and online
      performance. Analysis of the online performance over time shows that users can
      reliably control the new BCI paradigm with stable performance over at least 30
      minutes of continuous operation.

PMID- 28562625
TI  - Estimating blue whale skin isotopic incorporation rates and baleen growth rates:
      Implications for assessing diet and movement patterns in mysticetes.
AB  - Stable isotope analysis in mysticete skin and baleen plates has been repeatedly
      used to assess diet and movement patterns. Accurate interpretation of isotope
      data depends on understanding isotopic incorporation rates for metabolically
      active tissues and growth rates for metabolically inert tissues. The aim of this
      research was to estimate isotopic incorporation rates in blue whale skin and
      baleen growth rates by using natural gradients in baseline isotope values between
      oceanic regions. Nitrogen (delta15N) and carbon (delta13C) isotope values of blue
      whale skin and potential prey were analyzed from three foraging zones (Gulf of
      California, California Current System, and Costa Rica Dome) in the northeast
      Pacific from 1996-2015. We also measured delta15N and delta13C values along the
      lengths of baleen plates collected from six blue whales stranded in the 1980s and
      2000s. Skin was separated into three strata: basale, externum, and sloughed skin.
      A mean (+/-SD) skin isotopic incorporation rate of 163+/-91 days was estimated by
      fitting a generalized additive model of the seasonal trend in delta15N values of
      skin strata collected in the Gulf of California and the California Current
      System. A mean (+/-SD) baleen growth rate of 15.5+/-2.2 cm y-1 was estimated by
      using seasonal oscillations in delta15N values from three whales. These
      oscillations also showed that individual whales have a high fidelity to distinct
      foraging zones in the northeast Pacific across years. The absence of oscillations
      in delta15N values of baleen sub-samples from three male whales suggests these
      individuals remained within a specific zone for several years prior to death.
      delta13C values of both whale tissues (skin and baleen) and potential prey were
      not distinct among foraging zones. Our results highlight the importance of
      considering tissue isotopic incorporation and growth rates when studying
      migratory mysticetes and provide new insights into the individual movement
      strategies of blue whales.

PMID- 28562626
TI  - Evaluation of awareness & utilisation of clinical practise guideline for
      management of adult Dengue infection among Malaysia doctors.
AB  - Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) provides evidence-based guidance for the
      management of Dengue Infection in adult patients. A cross sectional study was
      conducted to evaluate awareness and utilization of CPG among doctors in public or
      private hospitals and clinics in Malaysia. Doctors practicing only at hospital
      Medical and Emergency Departments were included, while private specialist clinics
      were excluded in this study. A multistage proportionate random sampling according
      to region (Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern, Sabah and Sarawak) was performed
      to select study participants. The overall response rate was 74% (84% for public
      hospitals, 82% for private hospitals, 70% for public clinics, and 64% for private
      clinics). The CPG Awareness and Utilization Feedback Form were used to determine
      the percentage in the study. The total numbers of respondent were 634 with
      response rate of 74%. The mean lengths of service of the respondent were 13.98
      (11.55).A higher percentages of doctors from public facilities (99%) were aware
      of the CPG compared to those in private facilities (84%). The percentage of
      doctors utilising the CPG were also higher (98%) in public facilities compared to
      private facilities (86%). The percentage of Medical Officer in private facilities
      that utilizing the CPG were 84% compares to Medical Officer in public facilities
      98%. The high percentage of doctors using the CPG in both public (97%) and
      private (94%) hospitals were also observed. However, only 69% of doctors in
      private clinics utilised the CPG compared to doctors in public clinics (98%).
      Doctors in both public and private facilities were aware of the dengue CPG.
      However, most doctors in private clinic were less likely to utilise the CPG.
      Therefore, there is a need to increase the level of CPG utilisation especially in
      private clinics.

PMID- 28562627
TI  - Unconditional government cash transfers in support of orphaned and vulnerable
      adolescents in western Kenya: Is there an association with psychological
      wellbeing?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orphaned and vulnerable adolescents (OVA) in sub-Saharan Africa are
      at greater risk for adverse psychological outcomes compared with their non-OVA
      counterparts. Social interventions that provide cash transfers (CTs) have been
      shown to improve health outcomes among young people, but little is known about
      their impact on the psychological wellbeing of OVA. OBJECTIVE: Among OVA in
      western Kenya, we assessed the association between living in a household that
      received monthly unconditional government CTs and psychological wellbeing.
      METHODS: We examined the likelihood of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress
      symptoms (PTSS) and positive future outlook among 655 OVA aged between 10 and 18
      years who lived in 300 randomly selected households in western Kenya that either
      received or did not receive unconditional monthly CTs. RESULTS: The mean age was
      14.0 (SD 2.4) years and 329 (50.2%) of the participants were female while 190
      (29.0%) were double orphans whose biological parents were both deceased. After
      adjusting for socio-demographic, caregiver, and household characteristics and
      accounting for potential effects of participant clustering by sub-location of
      residence, OVA living in CT households were more likely to have a positive future
      outlook (odds ratio [OR] 1.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08, 1.99), less
      likely to be anxious (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.42, 0.78), and less likely to have
      symptoms of post-traumatic stress (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29, 0.89). We did not find
      statistically significant differences in odds of depression by CT group.
      CONCLUSION: OVA in CT households reported better psychological wellbeing compared
      to those in households not receiving CTs. CT interventions may be effective for
      improving psychological wellbeing among vulnerable adolescents in
      socioeconomically deprived households.

PMID- 28562628
TI  - Introduced bullfrogs are associated with increased Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
      prevalence and reduced occurrence of Korean treefrogs.
AB  - Bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeianus, have been described as major vectors of the
      amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Bd is widespread
      throughout the range of amphibians yet varies considerably within and among
      populations in prevalence and host impact. In our study, the presence of L.
      catesbeianus is correlated with a 2.5 increase in Bd prevalence in treefrogs, and
      the endangered Dryophytes suweonensis displays a significantly higher Bd
      prevalence than the more abundant D. japonicus for the 37 sites surveyed. In
      addition, the occurrence of L. catesbeianus was significantly correlated with a
      decrease in presence of D. suweonensis at sites. We could not determine if it is
      the presence of bullfrogs as competitors or predators that is limiting the
      distribution of D. suweonensis or whether this is caused by bullfrogs acting as a
      reservoir for Bd. However, L. catesbeianus can now be added to the list of
      factors responsible for the decline of D. suweonensis populations.

PMID- 28562629
TI  - A retrospective observational study of glucocorticoid-induced diabetes mellitus
      with IgA nephropathy treated with tonsillectomy plus methylprednisolone pulse
      therapy.
AB  - AIMS: To evaluate the incidence of GC-DM among patients with immunoglobulin A
      nephropathy (IgAN) and to confirm the risk factors for the development of GC-DM.
      METHODS: The medical records of patients with IgAN newly treated with the
      protocol of tonsillectomy combined with steroid pulse therapy were reviewed. The
      primary outcome was the development of GC-DM within the hospitalization period
      and during one year of follow-up. RESULTS: During hospitalization, 19 of the 95
      patients developed GC-DM (20.0%), and the patients with GC-DM were significantly
      older and had a higher rate of family history of diabetes and higher HbA1c
      levels. The prevalence of hypertension was higher and the eGFR was numerically
      lower in patients with GC-DM than in those without. Older age (>=45 years) and a
      family history of diabetes emerged as independent risk factors for the
      development of GC-DM (odds ratio [OR], 6.3 and 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6
      27.6; OR, 4.4 and 95% CI, 1.2-16.6, respectively). No patients were newly
      diagnosed with GC-DM during 1-year observation period at out-patient clinic.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among the patients with IgAN, 20% developed GC-DM during the
      hospitalization period, confirming the family history of diabetes is clinically
      necessary before starting GC therapy.

PMID- 28562630
TI  - The influence of N-terminal acetylation on micelle-induced conformational changes
      and aggregation of alpha-Synuclein.
AB  - The biological function of alpha-Synuclein has been related to binding to lipids
      and membranes but these interactions can also mediate alpha-Synuclein
      aggregation, which is associated to Parkinson's disease and other
      neuropathologies. In brain tissue alpha-Synuclein is constitutively N-acetylated,
      a modification that plays an important role in its conformational propensity,
      lipid and membrane binding, and aggregation propensity. We studied the
      interactions of the lipid-mimetic SDS with N-acetylated and non-acetylated alpha
      Synuclein, as well as their early-onset Parkinson's disease variants A30P, E46K
      and A53T. At low SDS/protein ratios alpha-Synuclein forms oligomeric complexes
      with SDS micelles with relatively low alpha-helical structure. These micellar
      oligomers can efficiently nucleate aggregation of monomeric alpha-Synuclein, with
      successive formation of oligomers, protofibrils, curly fibrils and mature amyloid
      fibrils. N-acetylation reduces considerably the rate of aggregation of WT alpha
      Synuclein. However, in presence of any of the early-onset Parkinson's disease
      mutations the protective effect of N-acetylation against micelle-induced
      aggregation becomes impaired. At higher SDS/protein ratios, N-acetylation favors
      another conformational transition, in which a second type of alpha-helix-rich,
      non-aggregating oligomers become stabilized. Once again, the Parkinson's disease
      mutations disconnect the influence of N-acetylation in promoting this transition.
      These results suggest a cooperative link between the N-terminus and the region of
      the mutations that may be important for alpha-Synuclein function.

PMID- 28562631
TI  - Synergistic antibiofilm efficacy of a gallotannin 1,2,6-tri-O-galloyl-beta-D
      glucopyranose from Terminalia chebula fruit in combination with gentamicin and
      trimethoprim against multidrug resistant uropathogenic Escherichia coli biofilms.
AB  - In recent years the emergence of multiple drug resistance microbes has become a
      global public health problem. The aim of the present investigation was to
      evaluate possible antibiofilm efficacy of a gallotannin 1,2,6-tri-O-galloyl-beta
      D-glucopyranose from Terminalia chebula fruits alone and in combination with
      gentamicin and trimethoprim against preformed biofilms of multidrug-resistant
      (MDR) uropathogenic E. coli isolates using microbroth dilution, checkerboard
      titration and kill kinetics methods. Test gallotannin showed > 50% antibiofilm
      efficacy after 24 h when administered alone whereas gentamicin and trimethoprim
      failed to do so. But in combination, test gallotannin/gentamicin and test
      gallotannin/trimethoprim showed 71.24+/-6.75% and 93.4+/-8.46% antibiofilm
      activity respectively. On the basis of FICI values, test gallotannin/gentamicin
      showed synergistic interactions against 71.42% and test gallotannin/trimethoprim
      against 85.71% biofilm forming test bacterial isolates. Kill-kinetics study
      confirmed their synergistic interactions. Thus, gentamicin and trimethoprim in
      combination with test gallotannin may have potential for treatment of urinary
      tract infections caused by biofilm forming MDR uropathogenic E. coli.

PMID- 28562632
TI  - DrugSig: A resource for computational drug repositioning utilizing gene
      expression signatures.
AB  - Computational drug repositioning has been proved as an effective approach to
      develop new drug uses. However, currently existing strategies strongly rely on
      drug response gene signatures which scattered in separated or individual
      experimental data, and resulted in low efficient outputs. So, a fully drug
      response gene signatures database will be very helpful to these methods. We
      collected drug response microarray data and annotated related drug and targets
      information from public databases and scientific literature. By selecting top 500
      up-regulated and down-regulated genes as drug signatures, we manually established
      the DrugSig database. Currently DrugSig contains more than 1300 drugs, 7000
      microarray and 800 targets. Moreover, we developed the signature based and target
      based functions to aid drug repositioning. The constructed database can serve as
      a resource to quicken computational drug repositioning. Database URL:
      http://biotechlab.fudan.edu.cn/database/drugsig/.

PMID- 28562633
TI  - Bioinformatics identification and transcript profile analysis of the mitogen
      activated protein kinase gene family in the diploid woodland strawberry Fragaria
      vesca.
AB  - Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play essential roles in mediating
      biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. However, the MAPK gene family in
      strawberry has not been systematically characterized. Here, we performed a genome
      wide survey and identified 12 MAPK genes in the Fragaria vesca genome. Protein
      domain analysis indicated that all FvMAPKs have typical protein kinase domains.
      Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis classified the FvMAPK genes into
      four different groups. Conserved motif and exon-intron organization supported the
      evolutionary relationships inferred from the phylogenetic analysis. Analysis of
      the stress-related cis-regulatory element in the promoters and subcellular
      localization predictions of FvMAPKs were also performed. Gene transcript profile
      analysis showed that the majority of the FvMAPK genes were ubiquitously
      transcribed in strawberry leaves after Podosphaera aphanis inoculation and after
      treatment with cold, heat, drought, salt and the exogenous hormones abscisic
      acid, ethephon, methyl jasmonate, and salicylic acid. RT-qPCR showed that six
      selected FvMAPK genes comprehensively responded to various stimuli. Additionally,
      interaction networks revealed that the crucial signaling transduction controlled
      by FvMAPKs may be involved in the biotic and abiotic stress responses. Our
      results may provide useful information for future research on the function of the
      MAPK gene family and the genetic improvement of strawberry resistance to
      environmental stresses.

PMID- 28562634
TI  - The significance of elevated plasma expression of microRNA 106b~25 clusters in
      gastric cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Concentrating on oncogenic role and increased plasma expression of
      microRNA(miR) 106b~25 clusters (involving miR 106b, miR 93 and miR 25), we
      evaluated significance of the over-expression of plasma miR 106b~25 in GC.
      METHODS: Based on 65 pairs matched GC patients and health controls, we explored
      clinical significance of miR 106b~25 for GC and compared their diagnostic
      performance with conventional tumor biomarkers including CA724, CA242, CA199 and
      CEA. RESULTS: Both miR 106b~25 cluster and conventional tumor biomarkers were
      significantly elevated in GC (All P<0.05). In ROC curves, miR 106b had the
      highest AUC (0.898) in diagnosing GC with optimal sensitivity of 86.2% and
      specificity of 92.3% at the cut-off value of 1.385. MiR 25 had moderate
      diagnostic efficacy (AUC = 0.817) with sensitivity of 87.6% and specificity of
      76.9% at the threshold of 1.015. The AUC of miR 93 (0.756) was the lowest. The
      AUC, sensitivity, accuracy and Youden index of miR 106b were higher than all of
      four conventional biomarkers, while its specificity is higher than CA242 and
      CA724. The AUC of miR 25 was also higher than CA724, CA242 and CA199, while AUC
      of miR 93 was only higher than CA199 and CA724. Compared the diagnostic efficacy
      via ROC curves, miR 106b was significantly higher diagnostic efficacy than CA724,
      CA242 and CA199, the diagnostic efficacies of miR 93 and miR 25 were
      significantly higher than CA199(all P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Plasma miR 106b~25
      cluster, especially miR 106b, were significantly increased in GC patients and may
      be hopeful diagnostic biomarkers.

PMID- 28562635
TI  - Physicians' beliefs about placebo and nocebo effects in antidepressants - an
      online survey among German practitioners.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While substantial placebo and nocebo effects have been documented in
      antidepressant clinical trials, physicians' awareness of the nonspecific effects
      in routine antidepressant treatment remains unclear. The study investigated
      physicians' beliefs and explanatory models regarding the desired effects and
      undesired side effects of antidepressants, with specific emphasis on nonspecific
      effects accounted for by placebo and nocebo mechanisms. METHODS: An online survey
      was conducted among 87 physicians (40.2% psychiatrists, 25.3% neurologists, 24.1%
      general practitioners, 12.6% internists, 21.8% other). The survey assessed the
      physician's beliefs in antidepressant effectiveness, as well as 6 explanatory
      models regarding antidepressant effectiveness and 8 explanatory models for the
      occurrence of side effects. RESULTS: Most physicians (89.7%) believed in the
      effectiveness of antidepressants while acknowledging a considerable role of the
      placebo effect by attributing around 40% of the total effects to nonspecific
      factors. For both antidepressant effectiveness and the occurrence of side
      effects, pharmacological effects were rated as most important (93.1% and 80.5%
      agreement), but physicians also attributed a substantial role to the patients'
      expectations (63.2% and 58.6%) and experiences (60.9% and 56.3%). Concerning the
      physician's own role in promoting nonspecific effects in antidepressant
      effectiveness, highest endorsements were found for the quality of the physician
      patient-relationship (58.6%) and own expectations (41.4%). When asked about side
      effects, fewer participants agreed that informing the patient about known side
      effects (25.2%) or the physicians' expectations themselves (17.2%) could induce
      side effects. CONCLUSION: Physicians, when prescribing antidepressants, are
      generally open towards nonspecific treatment mechanisms. However, they consider
      their own influence as less important than the patient's side, especially when it
      comes to the explanation of unwanted side effects. Awareness of the possible
      beneficial as well as malicious role of nonspecific mechanisms should be fostered
      as the first step towards optimizing antidepressant treatment by promoting
      placebo while avoiding nocebo effects.

PMID- 28562636
TI  - A systematic review of the asymmetric inheritance of cellular organelles in
      eukaryotes: A critique of basic science validity and imprecision.
AB  - We performed a systematic review to identify all original publications describing
      the asymmetric inheritance of cellular organelles in normal animal eukaryotic
      cells and to critique the validity and imprecision of the evidence. Searches were
      performed in Embase, MEDLINE and Pubmed up to November 2015. Screening of titles,
      abstracts and full papers was performed by two independent reviewers. Data
      extraction and validity were performed by one reviewer and checked by a second
      reviewer. Study quality was assessed using the SYRCLE risk of bias tool, for
      animal studies and by developing validity tools for the experimental model,
      organelle markers and imprecision. A narrative data synthesis was performed. We
      identified 31 studies (34 publications) of the asymmetric inheritance of
      organelles after mitotic or meiotic division. Studies for the asymmetric
      inheritance of centrosomes (n = 9); endosomes (n = 6), P granules (n = 4), the
      midbody (n = 3), mitochondria (n = 3), proteosomes (n = 2), spectrosomes (n = 2),
      cilia (n = 2) and endoplasmic reticulum (n = 2) were identified. Asymmetry was
      defined and quantified by variable methods. Assessment of the statistical
      reliability of the results indicated only two studies (7%) were judged to have
      low concern, the majority of studies (77%) were 'unclear' and five (16%) were
      judged to have 'high concerns'; the main reasons were low technical repeats
      (<10). Assessment of model validity indicated that the majority of studies (61%)
      were judged to be valid, ten studies (32%) were unclear and two studies (7%) were
      judged to have 'high concerns'; both described 'stem cells' without providing
      experimental evidence to confirm this (pluripotency and self-renewal). Assessment
      of marker validity indicated that no studies had low concern, most studies were
      unclear (96.5%), indicating there were insufficient details to judge if the
      markers were appropriate. One study had high concern for marker validity due to
      the contradictory results of two markers for the same organelle. For most studies
      the validity and imprecision of results could not be confirmed. In particular,
      data were limited due to a lack of reporting of interassay variability, sample
      size calculations, controls and functional validation of organelle markers. An
      evaluation of 16 systematic reviews containing cell assays found that only 50%
      reported adherence to PRISMA or ARRIVE reporting guidelines and 38% reported a
      formal risk of bias assessment. 44% of the reviews did not consider how relevant
      or valid the models were to the research question. 75% reviews did not consider
      how valid the markers were. 69% of reviews did not consider the impact of the
      statistical reliability of the results. Future systematic reviews in basic or
      preclinical research should ensure the rigorous reporting of the statistical
      reliability of the results in addition to the validity of the methods. Increased
      awareness of the importance of reporting guidelines and validation tools is
      needed for the scientific community.

PMID- 28562637
TI  - Identification of diagnostic peptide regions that distinguish Zika virus from
      related mosquito-borne Flaviviruses.
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV) is a member of the Flavivirus genus of positive-sense single
      stranded RNA viruses, which includes Dengue, West Nile, Yellow Fever, and other
      mosquito-borne arboviruses. Infection by ZIKV can be difficult to distinguish
      from infection by other mosquito-borne Flaviviruses due to high sequence
      similarity, serum antibody cross-reactivity, and virus co-circulation in endemic
      areas. Indeed, existing serological methods are not able to consistently
      differentiate ZIKV from other Flaviviruses, which makes it extremely difficult to
      accurately calculate the incidence rate of Zika-associated Guillain-Barre in
      adults, microcephaly in newborns, or asymptomatic infections within a
      geographical area. In order to identify Zika-specific peptide regions that could
      be used as serology reagents, we have applied comparative genomics and protein
      structure analyses to identify amino acid residues that distinguish each of 10
      Flavivirus species and subtypes from each other by calculating the specificity,
      sensitivity, and surface exposure of each residue in relevant target proteins.
      For ZIKV we identified 104 and 116 15-mer peptides in the E glycoprotein and NS1
      non-structural protein, respectively, that contain multiple diagnostic sites and
      are located in surface-exposed regions in the tertiary protein structure. These
      sensitive, specific, and surface-exposed peptide regions should serve as useful
      reagents for seroprevalence studies to better distinguish between prior
      infections with any of these mosquito-borne Flaviviruses. The development of
      better detection methods and diagnostic tools will enable clinicians and public
      health workers to more accurately estimate the true incidence rate of
      asymptomatic infections, neurological syndromes, and birth defects associated
      with ZIKV infection.

PMID- 28562638
TI  - Every antibiotic, every day: Maximizing the impact of prospective audit and
      feedback on total antibiotic use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The success of antimicrobial stewardship is dependent on how often it
      is completed and which antimicrobials are targeted. We evaluated the impact of an
      antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in three non-ICU settings where all
      systemic antibiotics, regardless of spectrum, were targeted on the first weekday
      after initiation. METHODS: Prospective audit and feedback (PAAF) was initiated on
      the surgical, respiratory, and medical wards of a community hospital on July 1,
      2010, October 1, 2010, and April 1, 2012, respectively. We evaluated rates of
      total antibiotic use, measured in days on therapy (DOTs), among all patients
      admitted to the wards before and after PAAF initiation using an interrupted time
      series analysis. Changes in antibiotic costs, rates of C. difficile infection
      (CDI), mortality, readmission, and length of stay were evaluated using univariate
      analyses. RESULTS: Time series modelling demonstrated that total antibiotic use
      decreased (+/- standard error) by 100 +/- 51 DOTs/1,000 patient-days on the
      surgical wards (p = 0.049), 100 +/- 46 DOTs/1,000 patient-days on the respiratory
      ward (p = 0.029), and 91 +/- 33 DOTs/1,000 patient-days on the medical wards (p =
      0.006) immediately following PAAF initiation. Reductions in antibiotic use were
      sustained up to 50 months after intervention initiation, and were accompanied by
      decreases in antibiotic costs. There were no significant changes to patient
      outcomes on the surgical and respiratory wards following intervention initiation.
      On the medical wards, however, readmission increased from 4.6 to 5.6 per 1,000
      patient-days (p = 0.043), while mortality decreased from 7.4 to 5.0 per 1,000
      patient-days (p = 0.001). CDI rates showed a non-significant declining trend
      after PAAF initiation. CONCLUSIONS: ASPs can lead to cost-effective, sustained
      reductions in total antibiotic use when interventions are conducted early in the
      course of therapy and target all antibiotics. Shifting to such a model may help
      strengthen the effectiveness of ASPs in non-ICU settings.

PMID- 28562639
TI  - Fast smooth second-order sliding mode control for systems with additive colored
      noises.
AB  - In this paper, a fast smooth second-order sliding mode control is presented for a
      class of stochastic systems with enumerable Ornstein-Uhlenbeck colored noises.
      The finite-time mean-square practical stability and finite-time mean-square
      practical reachability are first introduced. Instead of treating the noise as
      bounded disturbance, the stochastic control techniques are incorporated into the
      design of the controller. The finite-time convergence of the prescribed sliding
      variable dynamics system is proved by using stochastic Lyapunov-like techniques.
      Then the proposed sliding mode controller is applied to a second-order nonlinear
      stochastic system. Simulation results are presented comparing with smooth second
      order sliding mode control to validate the analysis.

PMID- 28562640
TI  - Anchoring plant metallothioneins to the inner face of the plasma membrane of
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells leads to heavy metal accumulation.
AB  - In this study we engineered yeast cells armed for heavy metal accumulation by
      targeting plant metallothioneins to the inner face of the yeast plasma membrane.
      Metallothioneins (MTs) are cysteine-rich proteins involved in the buffering of
      excess metal ions, especially Cu(I), Zn(II) or Cd(II). The cDNAs of seven
      Arabidopsis thaliana MTs (AtMT1a, AtMT1c, AtMT2a, AtMT2b, AtMT3, AtMT4a and
      AtMT4b) and four Noccaea caerulescens MTs (NcMT1, NcMT2a, NcMT2b and NcMT3) were
      each translationally fused to the C-terminus of a myristoylation green
      fluorescent protein variant (myrGFP) and expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      cells. The myrGFP cassette introduced a yeast myristoylation sequence which
      allowed directional targeting to the cytosolic face of the plasma membrane along
      with direct monitoring of the intracellular localization of the recombinant
      protein by fluorescence microscopy. The yeast strains expressing plant MTs were
      investigated against an array of heavy metals in order to identify strains which
      exhibit the (hyper)accumulation phenotype without developing toxicity symptoms.
      Among the transgenic strains which could accumulate Cu(II), Zn(II) or Cd(II), but
      also non-canonical metal ions, such as Co(II), Mn(II) or Ni(II), myrGFP-NcMT3
      qualified as the best candidate for bioremediation applications, thanks to the
      robust growth accompanied by significant accumulative capacity.

PMID- 28562641
TI  - PGCA: An algorithm to link protein groups created from MS/MS data.
AB  - The quantitation of proteins using shotgun proteomics has gained popularity in
      the last decades, simplifying sample handling procedures, removing extensive
      protein separation steps and achieving a relatively high throughput readout. The
      process starts with the digestion of the protein mixture into peptides, which are
      then separated by liquid chromatography and sequenced by tandem mass spectrometry
      (MS/MS). At the end of the workflow, recovering the identity of the proteins
      originally present in the sample is often a difficult and ambiguous process,
      because more than one protein identifier may match a set of peptides identified
      from the MS/MS spectra. To address this identification problem, many MS/MS data
      processing software tools combine all plausible protein identifiers matching a
      common set of peptides into a protein group. However, this solution introduces
      new challenges in studies with multiple experimental runs, which can be
      characterized by three main factors: i) protein groups' identifiers are local,
      i.e., they vary run to run, ii) the composition of each group may change across
      runs, and iii) the supporting evidence of proteins within each group may also
      change across runs. Since in general there is no conclusive evidence about the
      absence of proteins in the groups, protein groups need to be linked across
      different runs in subsequent statistical analyses. We propose an algorithm,
      called Protein Group Code Algorithm (PGCA), to link groups from multiple
      experimental runs by forming global protein groups from connected local groups.
      The algorithm is computationally inexpensive and enables the connection and
      analysis of lists of protein groups across runs needed in biomarkers studies. We
      illustrate the identification problem and the stability of the PGCA mapping using
      65 iTRAQ experimental runs. Further, we use two biomarker studies to show how
      PGCA enables the discovery of relevant candidate protein group markers with
      similar but non-identical compositions in different runs.

PMID- 28562642
TI  - Enhancement of multitasking performance and neural oscillations by transcranial
      alternating current stimulation.
AB  - Multitasking is associated with the generation of stimulus-locked theta (4-7 Hz)
      oscillations arising from prefrontal cortex (PFC). Transcranial alternating
      current stimulation (tACS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that
      influences endogenous brain oscillations. Here, we investigate whether applying
      alternating current stimulation within the theta frequency band would affect
      multitasking performance, and explore tACS effects on neurophysiological
      measures. Brief runs of bilateral PFC theta-tACS were applied while participants
      were engaged in a multitasking paradigm accompanied by electroencephalography
      (EEG) data collection. Unlike an active control group, a tACS stimulation group
      showed enhancement of multitasking performance after a 90-minute session (F1,35 =
      6.63, p = 0.01, etap2 = 0.16; effect size = 0.96), coupled with significant
      modulation of posterior beta (13-30 Hz) activities (F1,32 = 7.66, p = 0.009,
      etap2 = 0.19; effect size = 0.96). Across participant regression analyses
      indicated that those participants with greater increases in frontal theta, alpha
      and beta oscillations exhibited greater multitasking performance improvements.
      These results indicate frontal theta-tACS generates benefits on multitasking
      performance accompanied by widespread neuronal oscillatory changes, and suggests
      that future tACS studies with extended treatments are worth exploring as
      promising tools for cognitive enhancement.

PMID- 28562643
TI  - Alcohol-dysregulated microRNAs in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - Alcohol consumption and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are two well
      established risk factors for Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, there
      remains a limited understanding of the molecular pathway behind the pathogenesis
      and progression behind HCC, and how alcohol promotes carcinogenesis in the
      context of HBV+ HCC. Using next-generation sequencing data from 130 HCC patients
      and 50 normal liver tissues, we identified a panel of microRNAs that are
      significantly dysregulated by alcohol consumption in HBV+ patients. In
      particular, two microRNAs, miR-944 and miR-223-3p, showed remarkable correlation
      with clinical indication and genomic alterations. We confirmed the dysregulation
      of these two microRNAs in liver cell lines treated by alcohol and acetaldehyde,
      and showed that manipulation of miR-223-3p and miR-944 expression induces
      significant changes in cellular proliferation, sensitivity to doxorubicin, and
      the expression of both direct-binding and downstream mRNA targets. Together, the
      results of this study suggest that alcohol consumption in HBV+ HCCs regulates
      microRNAs that likely play previously uncharacterized roles in the alcohol
      associated carcinogenesis of HCC, and future studies of these microRNAs may be
      valuable for furthering the understanding and treatment of alcohol and HBV
      associated HCC.

PMID- 28562644
TI  - A quantitative indicator diagram for lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases reveals
      the role of aromatic surface residues in HjLPMO9A regioselectivity.
AB  - Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) have changed our understanding of
      lignocellulosic degradation dramatically over the last years. These
      metalloproteins catalyze oxidative cleavage of recalcitrant polysaccharides and
      can act on the C1 and/or C4 position of glycosidic bonds. Structural data have
      led to several hypotheses, but we are still a long way from reaching complete
      understanding of the factors that determine their divergent regioselectivity.
      Site-directed mutagenesis enables the investigation of structure-function
      relationship in enzymes and will be of major importance in unraveling this
      intriguing matter. In this context, it is crucial to have an enzyme assay or
      screening approach with a direct correlation with the desired functionality.
      LPMOs render this search extra challenging due to their insoluble substrates,
      complex pattern of reaction products and lack of synthetic standards of most
      oxidized products. Here, we describe a regioselectivity indicator diagram based
      on the time-course of only 2 HPAEC-PAD signals. The diagram was successfully used
      to confirm the hypothesis that aromatic surface residues influence the C1/C4
      oxidation ratio in Hypocrea jecorina LPMO9A. Consequently, the diagram should
      become a valuable tool in the search towards better understanding and engineering
      of regioselectivity in LPMOs.

PMID- 28562645
TI  - Characterization of single cell derived cultures of periosteal progenitor cells
      to ensure the cell quality for clinical application.
AB  - For clinical applications of cells and tissue engineering products it is of
      importance to characterize the quality of the used cells in detail. Progenitor
      cells from the periosteum are already routinely applied in the clinics for the
      regeneration of the maxillary bone. Periosteal cells have, in addition to their
      potential to differentiate into bone, the ability to develop into cartilage and
      fat. However, the question arises whether all cells isolated from periosteal
      biopsies are able to differentiate into all three tissue types, or whether there
      are subpopulations. For an efficient and approved application in bone or
      cartilage regeneration the clarification of this question is of interest.
      Therefore, 83 different clonal cultures of freshly isolated human periosteal
      cells derived from mastoid periosteum biopsies of 4 donors were generated and
      growth rates calculated. Differentiation capacities of 51 clonal cultures towards
      the osteogenic, the chondrogenic, and the adipogenic lineage were investigated.
      Histological and immunochemical stainings showed that 100% of the clonal cultures
      differentiated towards the osteogenic lineage, while 94.1% demonstrated
      chondrogenesis, and 52.9% could be stimulated to adipogenesis. For osteogenesis
      real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of BGLAP and RUNX2 and for adipogenesis
      of FABP4 and PPARG confirmed the results. Overall, 49% of the cells exhibited a
      tripotent potential, 45.1% showed a bipotent potential (without adipogenic
      differentiation), 3.9% bipotent (without chondrogenic differentiation), and 2%
      possessed a unipotent osteogenic potential. In FACS analyses, no differences in
      the marker profile of undifferentiated clonal cultures with bi- and tripotent
      differentiation capacity were found. Genome-wide microarray analysis revealed 52
      differentially expressed genes for clonal subpopulations with or without
      chondrogenic differentiation capacity, among them DCN, NEDD9, TGFBR3, and TSLP.
      For clinical applications of periosteal cells in bone regeneration all cells were
      inducible. For a chondrogenic application a fraction of 6% of the mixed
      population could not be induced.

PMID- 28562646
TI  - Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject
      drugs.
AB  - AIMS: To determine whether the self-reported personal wellbeing of a cohort of
      people who inject drugs (PWID) changes over time, and to identify longitudinal
      correlates of change. METHODS: We used Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) scores
      reported between April 2008 and February 2015 by 757 PWID (66% male) enrolled in
      the Melbourne Injecting Drug Use Cohort Study (2,862 interviews; up to seven
      follow-up waves). A mixed-effects model was used to identify correlations between
      changes in temporal variables and changes in individual PWI scores while
      controlling for demographic variables. RESULTS: The cohort's mean PWI score did
      not significantly differ over time (between 54.4/100 and 56.7/100 across the
      first four interview waves), and was 25-28% lower than general Australian
      population scores (76.0/100). However, there were large variations in
      individuals' PWI scores between interviews. Increased psychological distress,
      moving into unstable accommodation, reporting intentional overdose in the past 12
      months and being the victim of assault in the past six months were associated
      with declines in PWI scores. CONCLUSIONS: Participants experienced substantially
      lower levels of personal wellbeing than the general Australian population,
      influenced by experiences of psychological distress, assault, overdose and harms
      related to low socioeconomic status. The results of this study suggest a need to
      ensure referral to appropriate housing and health support services for PWID.

PMID- 28562647
TI  - Impact of adipose tissue or umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells on the
      immunogenicity of human cord blood derived endothelial progenitor cells.
AB  - The application of autologous endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) transplantation
      is a promising approach in therapeutic cardiovascular diseases and ischemic
      diseases. In this study, we compared the immunogenicity of EPCs, adipose tissue
      (AD)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and umbilical cord (UC)-derived MSCs
      by flow cytometry and the mixed lymphocyte reaction. The impact of AD-MSCs and UC
      MSCs on the immunogenicity of EPCs was analyzed by the mixed lymphocyte reaction
      and cytokine secretion in vitro and was further tested by allogenic peripheral
      blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) induced immuno-rejection on a cell/matrigel graft
      in an SCID mouse model. EPCs and AD-MSCs express higher levels of MHC class I
      than UC-MSCs. All three kinds of cells are negative for MHC class II. UC-MSCs
      also express lower levels of IFN-gamma receptor mRNA when compared with EPCs and
      AD-MSCs. EPCs can stimulate higher rates of proliferation of lymphocytes than AD
      MSCs and UC-MSCs. Furthermore, AD-MSCs and UC-MSCs can modulate immune response
      and inhibit lymphocyte proliferation induced by EPCs, mainly through inhibition
      of the proliferation of CD8+ T cells. Compared with UC-MSCs, AD-MSCs can
      significantly improve vessel formation and maintain the integrity of neovascular
      structure in an EPC+MSC/matrigel graft in SCID mice, especially under allo-PBMC
      induced immuno-rejection. In conclusion, our study shows that AD-MSC is a
      powerful candidate to minimize immunological rejection and improve vessel
      formation in EPC transplantation treatment.

PMID- 28562648
TI  - Surviving anoxia in marine sediments: The metabolic response of ubiquitous
      benthic foraminifera (Ammonia tepida).
AB  - High input of organic carbon and/or slowly renewing bottom waters frequently
      create periods with low dissolved oxygen concentrations on continental shelves
      and in coastal areas; such events can have strong impacts on benthic ecosystems.
      Among the meiofauna living in these environments, benthic foraminifera are often
      the most tolerant to low oxygen levels. Indeed, some species are able to survive
      complete anoxia for weeks to months. One known mechanism for this, observed in
      several species, is denitrification. For other species, a state of highly reduced
      metabolism, essentially a state of dormancy, has been proposed but never
      demonstrated. Here, we combined a 4 weeks feeding experiment, using 13C-enriched
      diatom biofilm, with correlated TEM and NanoSIMS imaging, plus bulk analysis of
      concentration and stable carbon isotopic composition of total organic matter and
      individual fatty acids, to study metabolic differences in the intertidal species
      Ammonia tepida exposed to oxic and anoxic conditions. Strongly contrasting
      cellular-level dynamics of ingestion and transfer of the ingested biofilm
      components were observed between the two conditions. Under oxic conditions,
      within a few days, intact diatoms were ingested, degraded, and their components
      assimilated, in part for biosynthesis of different cellular components: 13C
      labeled lipid droplets formed after a few days and were subsequently lost
      (partially) through respiration. In contrast, in anoxia, fewer diatoms were
      initially ingested and these were not assimilated or metabolized further, but
      remained visible within the foraminiferal cytoplasm even after 4 weeks. Under
      oxic conditions, compound specific 13C analyses showed substantial de novo
      synthesis by the foraminifera of specific polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs),
      such as 20:4(n-6). Very limited PUFA synthesis was observed under anoxia.
      Together, our results show that anoxia induced a greatly reduced rate of
      heterotrophic metabolism in Ammonia tepida on a time scale of less than 24 hours,
      these observations are consistent with a state of dormancy.

PMID- 28562649
TI  - Floral organ MADS-box genes in Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Cercidiphyllaceae):
      Implications for systematic evolution and bracts definition.
AB  - The dioecious relic Cercidiphyllum japonicum is one of two species of the sole
      genus Cercidiphyllum, with a tight inflorescence lacking an apparent perianth
      structure. In addition, its systematic place has been much debated and, so far
      researches have mainly focused on its morphology and chloroplast genes. In our
      investigation, we identified 10 floral organ identity genes, including four A
      class, three B-class, two C-class and one D-class. Phylogenetic analyses showed
      that all ten genes are grouped with Saxifragales plants, which confirmed the
      phylogenetic place of C. japonicum. Expression patterns of those genes were
      examined by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR, with some variations that did
      not completely coincide with the ABCDE model, suggesting some
      subfunctionalization. As well, our research supported the idea that thebract
      actually is perianth according to our morphological and molecular analyses in
      Cercidiphyllum japonicum.

PMID- 28562651
TI  - Correction: Alcohol-related changes in the intestinal microbiome influence
      neutrophil infiltration, inflammation and steatosis in early alcoholic hepatitis
      in mice.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174544.].

PMID- 28562650
TI  - Wearing lower-body compression garment with medium pressure impaired exercise
      induced performance decrement during prolonged running.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of wearing a lower body compression garment
      (CG) exerting different pressure levels during prolonged running on exercise
      induced muscle damage and the inflammatory response. METHODS: Eight male
      participants completed three exercise trials in a random order. The exercise
      consisted of 120 min of uphill running at 60% of VO2max. The exercise trials
      included 1) wearing a lower-body CG with 30 mmHg pressure [HIGH]; 2) wearing a
      lower-body CG with 15 mmHg pressure [MED]; and 3) wearing a lower-body garment
      with < 5 mmHg pressure [CON]. Heart rate (HR), and rate of perceived exertion for
      respiration and legs were monitored continuously during exercise. Time-course
      change in jump height was evaluated before and immediately after exercise. Blood
      samples were collected to determine blood glucose, lactate, serum creatine
      kinase, myoglobin, free fatty acids, glycerol, cortisol, and plasma interleukin-6
      (IL-6) concentrations before exercise, 60 min of the 120 min exercise period,
      immediately after exercise, and 60 min after exercise. RESULTS: Jump height was
      significantly higher immediately after the exercise in the MED trial compared
      with that in the HIGH trial (P = 0.04). Mean HR during the 120 min exercise was
      significantly lower in the MED trial (162 +/- 4 bpm) than that in the CON trial
      (170 +/- 4 bpm, P = 0.01). Plasma IL-6 concentrations increased significantly
      with exercise in all trials, but the area under the curve during exercise was
      significantly lower in the MED trial (397 +/- 58 pg/ml.120 min) compared with
      that in the CON trial (670 +/- 86 pg/ml.120 min, P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Wearing a
      lower body CG exerting medium pressure (approximately 15 mmHg) significantly
      attenuated decrease in jump performance than that with wearing a lower body CG
      exerting high pressure (approximately 30 mmHg). Furthermore, exercise-induced
      increases in HR and the inflammatory response were significantly smaller with CG
      exerted 15mmHg than that with garment exerted < 5 mmHg.

PMID- 28562652
TI  - Correction: Passive hypothermia (>=35 - <36 degrees C) during transport of
      newborns with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170100.].

PMID- 28562653
TI  - Correction: Constitutive Association of Tie1 and Tie2 with Endothelial Integrins
      is Functionally Modulated by Angiopoietin-1 and Fibronectin.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163732.].

PMID- 28562654
TI  - Correction: The Gastroprotective Effect of Vitex pubescens Leaf Extract against
      Ethanol-Provoked Gastric Mucosal Damage in Sprague-Dawley Rats.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157431.].

PMID- 28562655
TI  - Assessment of the proliferation status of glioblastoma cell and tumour tissue
      after nanoplatinum treatment.
AB  - Glioblastoma is one of the most frequent primary brain tumours of the central
      nervous system, with a poor survival time. With inefficient chemotherapy, it is
      urgent to develop new strategies for tumour therapy. The present approach is
      based on the inhibition of cell proliferation using platinum nanoparticles (NP
      Pt). The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the antiproliferative
      properties of NP-Pt and cisplatin against U87 and U118 glioma cell lines and U87
      tumour tissue. NP-Pt and cisplatin were incubated with U87 and U118 glioma cells
      or administered directly into glioma tumour tissue. Cell morphology, the level of
      DNA synthesis, the migration of cells, protein expression levels of proliferating
      cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and the level of DNA oxidation in glioma tumours were
      investigated. The results showed that NP-Pt treatment of U87 and U118 glioma
      cells decreased the level of DNA synthesis and the migration of cancer cells but
      also downregulated the level of PCNA protein expression in tumour tissue.
      Furthermore, NP-Pt caused oxidative DNA damage in tumour tissue to a higher
      degree than cisplatin. Consequently, NP-Pt can be considered as an effective
      inhibitor of glioblastoma tumour cell proliferation. However, the mechanism of
      action and potential side effects need to be elucidated further.

PMID- 28562656
TI  - Sympatric, temporally isolated populations of the pine white butterfly Neophasia
      menapia, are morphologically and genetically differentiated.
AB  - Temporal isolation remains an understudied, and potentially under-appreciated,
      mechanism of reproductive isolation. Phenological differences have been
      discovered in populations of the pine white butterfly (Neophasia menapia), a
      typically univoltine species found throughout western North America. At two
      locations in the Coast Range of California there are two periods of adult
      emergence per year, one in early summer (July) and one in late summer/autumn
      (September/October). Differences in flight time are accompanied by differences in
      wing shape and pigmentation. Here we use a combination of population genomics and
      morphological analyses to assess the extent to which temporal isolation is able
      to limit gene flow between sympatric early and late flights. Not only did we
      detect both genetic and morphological differences between early and late flights
      at the two sites, we also found that the patterns of differentiation between the
      two flights were different at each location, suggesting an independent origin for
      the two sympatric flights. Additionally, we found no evidence that these
      sympatric flights originated via colonization from any of the other sampled
      localities. We discuss several potential hypotheses about the origin of these
      temporally isolated sympatric flights.

PMID- 28562657
TI  - Correction: Oral Administration of Linoleic Acid Induces New Vessel Formation and
      Improves Skin Wound Healing in Diabetic Rats.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165115.].

PMID- 28562658
TI  - New insight into the mechanism of mitochondrial cytochrome c function.
AB  - We investigate functional role of the P76GTKMIFA83 fragment of the primary
      structure of cytochrome c. Based on the data obtained by the analysis of
      informational structure (ANIS), we propose a model of functioning of cytochrome
      c. According to this model, conformational rearrangements of the P76GTKMIFA83
      loop fragment have a significant effect on conformational mobility of the heme.
      It is suggested that the conformational mobility of cytochrome c heme is
      responsible for its optimal orientation with respect to electron donor and
      acceptor within ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase (complex III) and
      cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV), respectively, thus, ensuring electron transfer
      from complex III to complex IV. To validate the model, we design several mutant
      variants of horse cytochrome c with multiple substitutions of amino acid residues
      in the P76GTKMIFA83 sequence that reduce its ability to undergo conformational
      rearrangements. With this, we study the succinate-cytochrome c reductase and
      cytochrome c oxidase activities of rat liver mitoplasts in the presence of mutant
      variants of cytochrome c. The electron transport activity of the mutant variants
      decreases to different extent. Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) and surface
      enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) data demonstrate, that all mutant cytochromes
      possess heme with the higher degree of ruffling deformation, than that of the
      wild-type (WT) cytochrome c. The increase in the ruffled deformation of the heme
      of oxidized cytochromes correlated with the decrease in the electron transport
      rate of ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase (complex III). Besides, all mutant
      cytochromes have lower mobility of the pyrrol rings and methine bridges, than WT
      cytochrome c. We show that a decrease in electron transport activity in the
      mutant variants correlates with conformational changes and reduced mobility of
      heme porphyrin. This points to a significant role of the P76GTKMIFA83 fragment in
      the electron transport function of cytochrome c.

PMID- 28562660
TI  - A droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assay to detect Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera:
      Noctuidae) in bulk trap samples.
AB  - Moths in the genus Helicoverpa are some of the most important agricultural pests
      in the world. Two species, H. armigera (Hubner) and H. zea (Boddie), cause the
      majority of damage to crops and millions of dollars are spent annually on control
      of these pests. The recent introduction of H. armigera into the New World has
      prompted extensive survey efforts for this species in the United States. Surveys
      are conducted using bucket traps baited with H. armigera pheromone, and, because
      the same pheromone compounds attract both species, these traps often capture
      large numbers of the native H. zea. Adult H. armigera and H. zea are very similar
      and can only be separated morphologically by minor differences in the genitalia.
      Thus, a time consuming genitalic dissection by a trained specialist is necessary
      to reliably identify either species, and every specimen must be dissected.
      Several molecular methods are available for differentiating and identifying H.
      armigera and H. zea, including two recently developed rapid protocols using real
      time PCR. However, none of the published methods are capable of screening
      specimens in large batches. Here we detail a droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assay
      that is capable of detecting a single H. armigera in a background of up to 999 H.
      zea. The assay has been tested using bulk extractions of 1,000 legs from actual
      trap samples and is effective even when using poor quality samples. This study
      provides an efficient, rapid, reproducible, and scalable method for processing H.
      armigera survey trap samples in the U.S. and demonstrates the potential for
      applying ddPCR technology to screen and diagnose invasive species.

PMID- 28562659
TI  - Naive helper T cells with high CD5 expression have increased calcium signaling.
AB  - The adaptive immune response is orchestrated by T helper cells and their function
      is dependent upon interactions between the T cell receptor (TCR), peptide MHC
      (pMHC) and co-receptors. TCR-pMHC interactions initiate calcium signaling
      cascades which determine T cell activation, survival, proliferation and
      differentiation. CD5 is a co-receptor that plays an important role in regulating
      T cell signaling and fate during thymocyte education. CD5 surface expression on
      mature single positive thymocytes correlates with the TCR signal strength for
      positive selecting self-ligands. CD5 also plays a role in T cell function after
      thymic development is complete. Peripheral T cells with higher CD5 expression
      respond better to foreign antigen than those with lower CD5 expression and CD5
      high T cells are enriched in memory populations. In our study, we examined the
      role of CD5 expression and calcium signaling in the primary response of T cells
      using two Listeria monocytogenes specific T helper cells (LLO118 and LLO56).
      These T cells recognize the same immunodominant epitope (LLO190-205) of L.
      monocytogenes and have divergent primary and secondary responses and different
      levels of CD5 expression. We found that each T cell has unique calcium
      mobilization in response to in vitro stimulation with LLO190-205 and that CD5
      expression levels in these cells changed over time following stimulation. LLO56
      naive T helper cells, which expresses higher levels of CD5, have higher calcium
      mobilization than naive LLO118 T cells. Three days after in vitro stimulation,
      LLO118 T cells had more robust calcium mobilization than LLO56 and there were no
      differences in calcium mobilization 8 days after in vitro stimulation. To further
      evaluate the role of CD5, we measured calcium signaling in CD5 knockout LLO118
      and LLO56 T cells at these three time points and found that CD5 plays a
      significant role in promoting the calcium signaling of naive CD5-high LLO56 T
      cells.

PMID- 28562661
TI  - Effects of patient load and travel distance on HIV transmission in rural China:
      Implications for treatment as prevention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sustained viral suppression through ART reduces sexual HIV
      transmission risk, but may require routine access to reliable and effective
      medical care which may be difficult to obtain in resource constrained areas. We
      investigated the roles of patient load and travel distance to HIV care clinic on
      transmission risk in HIV serodiscordant couples in Henan Province, China.
      METHODS: Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare HIV transmission
      events across couples living near, medium, or farther distances from their
      assigned HIV care clinics, as well as those attending clinics where clinicians
      bore high versus low patient loads. RESULTS: Most (84.4%) of the 3695
      serodiscordant couples lived within 10 kilometers of their assigned HIV clinic,
      and most (73.5%) attended clinics with patient-to-provider ratios of at least
      100:1. In adjusted Cox models, attending clinics where clinicians bore average
      patient loads of 100 or more elevated HIV transmission risk (aHR, 1.50, 95% CI,
      1.00-4.84), an effect amplified in village tier clinics (aHR = 1.55; 95% CI, 1.23
      6.78). Travel distance was associated with HIV transmission only after
      stratification; traveling medium distances to village clinics (5-10km) increased
      transmission risk (aHR = 1.83, 95% CI, 1.04-3.21) whereas traveling longer
      distances to township or county level clinics lowered transmission risk (aHR =
      0.10, 95% CI, 0.01-0.75). CONCLUSION: Higher patient loads at HIV clinics was
      associated with risk of HIV transmission in our population, particularly at
      village level clinics. Farther travel distance had divergent effects based on
      clinic tier, suggesting unique mechanisms operating across levels of resource
      availability. The resource intensity of long-term HIV treatment may place
      significant strains on small rural clinics, for which investments in additional
      support staff or time-saving tools such as point-of-care laboratory testing may
      bring about impactful change in treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28562662
TI  - Active microrheology determines scale-dependent material properties of
      Chaetopterus mucus.
AB  - We characterize the lengthscale-dependent rheological properties of mucus from
      the ubiquitous Chaetopterus marine worm. We use optically trapped probes (2-10
      MUm) to induce microscopic strains and measure the stress response as a function
      of oscillation amplitude. Our results show that viscoelastic properties are
      highly dependent on strain scale (l), indicating three distinct lengthscale
      dependent regimes at l1 <=4 MUm, l2~4-10 MUm, and l3>=10 MUm. While mucus
      response is similar to water for l1, suggesting that probes rarely contact the
      mucus mesh, the response for l2 is distinctly more viscous and independent of
      probe size, indicative of continuum mechanics. Only for l3 does the response
      match the macroscopic elasticity, likely due to additional stiffer constraints
      that strongly resist probe displacement. Our results suggest that, rather than a
      single lengthscale governing crossover from viscous to elastic, mucus responds as
      a hierarchical network with a loose biopolymer mesh coupled to a larger scaffold
      responsible for macroscopic gel-like mechanics.

PMID- 28562663
TI  - Cellular interactions between L-arginine and asymmetric dimethylarginine:
      Transport and metabolism.
AB  - This study was aimed to examine the effect of L-arginine (ARG) exposure on the
      disposition of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) in human endothelial cells.
      Although the role of ADMA as an inhibitor of endothelial nitric oxide synthase
      (eNOS) is well-recognized, cellular interactions between ARG and ADMA are not
      well-characterized. EA.hy926 human vascular endothelial cells were exposed to
      15N4-ARG, and the concentrations of 15N4-ARG and ADMA in the cell lysate and
      incubation medium were determined by a liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem
      mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay. Nitric oxide (NO) production was estimated by
      utilizing cumulative nitrite concentration via a fluorometric assay. Cells
      incubated with 15N4-ARG exhibited enhanced nitrite production as well as 15N4-ARG
      cellular uptake. These changes were accompanied by a decrease in cellular ADMA
      level and increase in extracellular ADMA level, indicating an efflux of
      endogenous ADMA from the cell. The time courses of ADMA efflux as well as nitrite
      accumulation in parallel with 15N4-ARG uptake were characterized. Following
      preincubation with 15N4-ARG and D7-ADMA, the efflux of cellular 15N4-ARG and D7
      ADMA was significantly stimulated by high concentrations of ARG or ADMA in the
      incubation medium, demonstrating trans-stimulated cellular transport of these two
      amino acids. D7-ADMA metabolism was inhibited in the presence of added ARG. These
      results demonstrated that in addition to an interaction at the level of eNOS, ARG
      and ADMA may mutually influence their cellular availability via transport and
      metabolic interactions.

PMID- 28562665
TI  - Correction: A Conserved Nuclear Cyclophilin Is Required for Both RNA Polymerase
      II Elongation and Co-transcriptional Splicing in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006227.].

PMID- 28562664
TI  - Towards the automated localisation of targets in rapid image-sifting by
      collaborative brain-computer interfaces.
AB  - The N2pc is a lateralised Event-Related Potential (ERP) that signals a shift of
      attention towards the location of a potential object of interest. We propose a
      single-trial target-localisation collaborative Brain-Computer Interface (cBCI)
      that exploits this ERP to automatically approximate the horizontal position of
      targets in aerial images. Images were presented by means of the rapid serial
      visual presentation technique at rates of 5, 6 and 10 Hz. We created three
      different cBCIs and tested a participant selection method in which groups are
      formed according to the similarity of participants' performance. The N2pc that is
      elicited in our experiments contains information about the position of the target
      along the horizontal axis. Moreover, combining information from multiple
      participants provides absolute median improvements in the area under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve of up to 21% (for groups of size 3) with respect
      to single-user BCIs. These improvements are bigger when groups are formed by
      participants with similar individual performance, and much of this effect can be
      explained using simple theoretical models. Our results suggest that BCIs for
      automated triaging can be improved by integrating two classification systems: one
      devoted to target detection and another to detect the attentional shifts
      associated with lateral targets.

PMID- 28562668
TI  - Correction: Introducing the Outbreak Threshold in Epidemiology.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003277.].

PMID- 28562667
TI  - Therapeutic silence of pleiotrophin by targeted delivery of siRNA and its effect
      on the inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis.
AB  - Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a secreted cytokine that is expressed in various cancer
      cell lines and human tumor such as colon cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer and
      melanoma. It plays significant roles in angiogenesis, metastasis, differentiation
      and cell growth. The expression of PTN in the adult is limited to the hippocampus
      in an activity-dependent manner, making it a very attractive target for cancer
      therapy. RNA interference (RNAi) offers great potential as a new powerful
      therapeutic strategy based on its highly specific and efficient silencing of a
      target gene. However, efficient delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) in vivo
      remains a significant hurdle for its successful therapeutic application. In this
      study, we first identified, on a cell-based experiment, applying a 1:1 mixture of
      two PTN specific siRNA engenders a higher silencing efficiency on both mRNA and
      protein level than using any of them discretely at the same dose. As a
      consequence, slower melanoma cells growth was also observed for using two
      specific siRNA combinatorially. To establish a robust way for siRNA delivery in
      vivo and further investigate how silence of PTN affects tumor growth, we tested
      three different methods to deliver siRNA in vivo: first non-targeted in-vivo
      delivery of siRNA via jetPEI; second lung targeted delivery of siRNA via
      microbubble coated jetPEI; third tumor cell targeted delivery of siRNA via
      transferrin-polyethylenimine (Tf-PEI). As a result, we found that all three in
      vivo siRNAs delivery methods led to an evident inhibition of melanoma growth in
      non-immune deficiency C57BL/6 mice without a measureable change of ALT and AST
      activities. Both targeted delivery methods showed more significant curative
      effect than jetPEI. The lung targeted delivery by microbubble coated jetPEI
      revealed a comparable therapeutic effect with Tf-PEI, indicating its potential
      application for target delivery of siRNA in vivo.

PMID- 28562666
TI  - Quantitative analysis of the CD4+ T cell response to therapeutic antibodies in
      healthy donors using a novel T cell:PBMC assay.
AB  - Many biopharmaceuticals (BPs) are known to be immunogenic in the clinic, which
      can result in modified pharmacokinetics, reduced efficacy, allergic reactions and
      anaphylaxis. During recent years, several technologies to predict immunogenicity
      have been introduced, but the predictive value is still considered low. Thus,
      there is an unmet medical need for optimization of such technologies. The
      generation of T cell dependent high affinity anti-drug antibodies plays a key
      role in clinical immunogenicity. This study aimed at developing and evaluating a
      novel in vitro T cell:PBMC assay for prediction of the immunogenicity potential
      of BPs. To this end, we assessed the ability of infliximab (anti-TNF-alpha),
      rituximab (anti-CD20), adalimumab (anti-TNF-alpha) and natalizumab (anti-alpha4
      integrin), all showing immunogenicity in the clinic, to induce a CD4+ T cells
      response. Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and cytomegalovirus pp65 protein (CMV)
      were included as neo-antigen and recall antigen positive controls, respectively.
      By analyzing 26 healthy donors having HLA-DRB1 alleles matching the European
      population, we calculated the frequency of responding donors, the magnitude of
      the response, and the frequency of BP-specific T cells, as measured by 3[H]
      thymidine incorporation and ELISpot IL-2 secretion. KLH and CMV demonstrated a
      strong T cell response in all the donors analyzed. The frequency of responding
      donors to the BPs was 4% for infliximab, 8% for adalimumab, 19% for rituximab and
      27% for natalizumab, which is compared to and discussed with their respective
      observed clinical immunogenicity. This study further complements predictive
      immunogenicity testing by quantifying the in vitro CD4+ T cell responses to
      different BPs. Even though the data generated using this modified method does not
      directly translate to the clinical situation, a high sensitivity and immunogenic
      potential of most BPs is demonstrated.

PMID- 28562669
TI  - Design and preliminary analysis of a vaginal inserter for speculum-free cervical
      cancer screening.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cervical cancer screening usually requires use of a speculum to
      provide a clear view of the cervix. The speculum is one potential barrier to
      screening due to fear of pain, discomfort and embarrassment. The aim of this
      paper is to present and demonstrate the feasibility of a tampon-sized inserter
      and the POCkeT Colposcope, a miniature pen sized-colposcope, for comfortable,
      speculum-free and potentially self-colposcopy. STUDY DESIGN: We explored
      different designs using 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software and performed
      mechanical testing simulations on each. Designs were rapid prototyped and tested
      using a custom vaginal phantom across a range of vaginal pressures and uterine
      tilts to select an optimal design. Two final designs were tested with fifteen
      volunteers to assess cervix visualization, comfort and usability compared to the
      speculum and the optimal design, the curved-tip inserter, was selected for
      testing in volunteers. RESULTS: We present a vaginal inserter as an alternative
      to the standard speculum for use with the POCkeT Colposcope. The device has a
      slim tubular body with a funnel-like curved tip measuring approximately 2.5 cm in
      diameter. The inserter has a channel through which a 2 megapixel (MP) mini camera
      with LED illumination fits to enable image capture. Mechanical finite element
      testing simulations with an applied pressure of 15 cm H2O indicated a high factor
      of safety (90.9) for the inserter. Testing of the device with a custom vaginal
      phantom, across a range of supine vaginal pressures and uterine tilts
      (retroverted, anteverted and sideverted), demonstrated image capture with a
      visual area comparable to the speculum for a normal/axial positioned uteri and
      significantly better than the speculum for anteverted and sideverted uteri
      (p<0.00001). Volunteer studies with self-insertion and physician-assisted cervix
      image capture showed adequate cervix visualization for 83% of patients. In
      addition, questionnaire responses from volunteers indicated a 92.3% overall
      preference for the inserter over the speculum and all indicated that the inserter
      was more comfortable than the speculum. The inserter provides a platform for self
      cervical cancer screening and also enables acetic acid/Lugol's iodine application
      and insertion of swabs for Pap smear sample collection. CONCLUSION: This study
      demonstrates the feasibility of an inserter and miniature-imaging device for
      comfortable cervical image capture of women with potential for synergistic HPV
      and Pap smear sample collection.

PMID- 28562671
TI  - Integrative genomic analyses for identification and prioritization of long non
      coding RNAs associated with autism.
AB  - Genetic studies have identified many risk loci for autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
      although causal factors in the majority of cases are still unknown. Currently,
      known ASD risk genes are all protein-coding genes; however, the vast majority of
      transcripts in humans are non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) which do not encode proteins.
      Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were shown to be highly expressed in the
      human brain and crucial for normal brain development. We have constructed a
      computational pipeline for the integration of various genomic datasets to
      identify lncRNAs associated with ASD. This pipeline utilizes differential gene
      expression patterns in affected tissues in conjunction with gene co-expression
      networks in tissue-matched non-affected samples. We analyzed RNA-seq data from
      the cortical brain tissues from ASD cases and controls to identify lncRNAs
      differentially expressed in ASD. We derived a gene co-expression network from an
      independent human brain developmental transcriptome and detected a convergence of
      the differentially expressed lncRNAs and known ASD risk genes into specific co
      expression modules. Co-expression network analysis facilitates the discovery of
      associations between previously uncharacterized lncRNAs with known ASD risk
      genes, affected molecular pathways and at-risk developmental time points. In
      addition, we show that some of these lncRNAs have a high degree of overlap with
      major CNVs detected in ASD genetic studies. By utilizing this integrative
      approach comprised of differential expression analysis in affected tissues and
      connectivity metrics from a developmental co-expression network, we have
      prioritized a set of candidate ASD-associated lncRNAs. The identification of
      lncRNAs as novel ASD susceptibility genes could help explain the genetic
      pathogenesis of ASD.

PMID- 28562670
TI  - Increased threshold of short-latency motor evoked potentials in transgenic mice
      expressing Channelrhodopsin-2.
AB  - Transgenic mice that express channelrhodopsin-2 or its variants provide a
      powerful tool for optogenetic study of the nervous system. Previous studies have
      established that introducing such exogenous genes usually does not alter
      anatomical, electrophysiological, and behavioral properties of neurons in these
      mice. However, in a line of Thy1-ChR2-YFP transgenic mice (line 9, Jackson lab),
      we found that short-latency motor evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by
      transcranial magnetic stimulation had a longer latency and much lower amplitude
      than that of wild type mice. MEPs evoked by transcranial electrical stimulation
      also had a much higher threshold in ChR2 mice, although similar amplitudes could
      be evoked in both wild and ChR2 mice at maximal stimulation. In contrast, long
      latency MEPs evoked by electrically stimulating the motor cortex were similar in
      amplitude and latency between wild type and ChR2 mice. Whole-cell patch clamp
      recordings from layer V pyramidal neurons of the motor cortex in ChR2 mice
      revealed no significant differences in intrinsic membrane properties and action
      potential firing in response to current injection. These data suggest that
      corticospinal tract is not accountable for the observed abnormality. Motor
      behavioral assessments including BMS score, rotarod, and grid-walking test showed
      no significant differences between the two groups. Because short-latency MEPs are
      known to involve brainstem reticulospinal tract, while long-latency MEPs mainly
      involve primary motor cortex and dorsal corticospinal tract, we conclude that
      this line of ChR2 transgenic mice has normal function of motor cortex and dorsal
      corticospinal tract, but reduced excitability and responsiveness of
      reticulospinal tracts. This abnormality needs to be taken into account when using
      these mice for related optogenetic study.

PMID- 28562672
TI  - Rapid detection and strain typing of Chlamydia trachomatis using a highly
      multiplexed microfluidic PCR assay.
AB  - Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are recommended by the CDC for detection
      of Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) urogenital infections. Current commercial NAATs
      require technical expertise and sophisticated laboratory infrastructure, are time
      consuming and expensive, and do not differentiate the lymphogranuloma venereum
      (LGV) strains that require a longer duration of treatment than non-LGV strains.
      The multiplexed microfluidic PCR-based assay presented in this work
      simultaneously interrogates 13 loci to detect Ct and identify LGV and non-LGV
      strain-types. Based on amplified fragment length polymorphisms, the assay
      differentiates LGV, ocular, urogenital, and proctocolitis clades, and also
      serovars L1, L2, and L3 within the LGV group. The assay was evaluated in a
      blinded fashion using 95 clinical swabs, with 76 previously reported as
      urogenital Ct-positive samples and typed by ompA genotyping and/or Multi-Locus
      Sequence Typing. Results of the 13-plex assay showed that 51 samples fell within
      urogenital clade 2 or 4, 24 samples showed both clade 2 and 4 signatures,
      indicating possible mixed infection, gene rearrangement, or inter-clade
      recombination, and one sample was a noninvasive trachoma biovar (either a clade 3
      or 4). The remaining 19 blinded samples were correctly identified as LGV clade 1
      (3), ocular clade 3 (4), or as negatives (12). To date, no NAAT assay can provide
      a point-of-care applicable turnaround time for Ct detection while identifying
      clinically significant Ct strain types to inform appropriate treatment. Coupled
      with rapid DNA processing of clinical swabs (approximately 60 minutes from swab
      in to result-out), the assay has significant potential as a rapid POC diagnostic
      for Ct infections.

PMID- 28562673
TI  - Analysis of ParB-centromere interactions by multiplex SPR imaging reveals
      specific patterns for binding ParB in six centromeres of Burkholderiales
      chromosomes and plasmids.
AB  - Bacterial centromeres-also called parS, are cis-acting DNA sequences which,
      together with the proteins ParA and ParB, are involved in the segregation of
      chromosomes and plasmids. The specific binding of ParB to parS nucleates the
      assembly of a large ParB/DNA complex from which ParA-the motor protein,
      segregates the sister replicons. Closely related families of partition systems,
      called Bsr, were identified on the chromosomes and large plasmids of the multi
      chromosomal bacterium Burkholderia cenocepacia and other species from the order
      Burkholeriales. The centromeres of the Bsr partition families are 16 bp
      palindromes, displaying similar base compositions, notably a central CG
      dinucleotide. Despite centromeres bind the cognate ParB with a narrow
      specificity, weak ParB-parS non cognate interactions were nevertheless detected
      between few Bsr partition systems of replicons not belonging to the same genome.
      These observations suggested that Bsr partition systems could have a common
      ancestry but that evolution mostly erased the possibilities of cross-reactions
      between them, in particular to prevent replicon incompatibility. To detect novel
      similarities between Bsr partition systems, we have analyzed the binding of six
      Bsr parS sequences and a wide collection of modified derivatives, to their
      cognate ParB. The study was carried out by Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging
      (SPRi) mulitplex analysis enabling a systematic survey of each nucleotide
      position within the centromere. We found that in each parS some positions could
      be changed while maintaining binding to ParB. Each centromere displays its own
      pattern of changes, but some positions are shared more or less widely. In
      addition from these changes we could speculate evolutionary links between these
      centromeres.

PMID- 28562675
TI  - Addressing tuberculosis control in fragile states: Urban DOTS experience in
      Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009-2015.
AB  - Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Afghanistan, but experience
      in implementing effective strategies to prevent and control TB in urban areas and
      conflict zones is limited. This study shares programmatic experience in
      implementing DOTS in the large city of Kabul. We analyzed data from the 2009-2015
      reports of the National TB Program (NTP) for Kabul City and calculated treatment
      outcomes and progress in case notification using rates, ratios, and confidence
      interval. Urban DOTS was implemented by the NTP in partnership with United States
      Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded TB projects, the World Health
      Organization (WHO), and the private sector. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of
      DOTS-providing centers in Kabul increased from 22 to 85. In total, 24,619 TB
      patients were enrolled in TB treatment during this period. The case notification
      rate for all forms of TB increased from 59 per 100,000 population to 125 per
      100,000. The case notification rate per 100,000 population for sputum-smear
      positive TB increased from 25 to 33. The treatment success rate for all forms of
      TB increased from 31% to 67% and from 47% to 77% for sputum-smear-positive TB
      cases. The treatment success rate for private health facilities increased from
      52% in 2010 to 80% in 2015. In 2013, contact screening was introduced, and the TB
      yield was 723 per 100,000-more than two times higher than the estimated national
      prevalence of 340 per 100,000. Contact screening contributed to identifying 2,509
      child contacts of people with TB, and 76% of those children received isoniazid
      preventive therapy. The comprehensive urban DOTS program significantly improved
      service accessibility, TB case finding, and treatment outcomes in Kabul. Public-
      and private-sector involvement also improved treatment outcomes; however, the
      treatment success rate remains higher in private health facilities. While the
      treatment success rate increased significantly, it remains lower than the
      national average, and more efforts are needed to improve treatment outcomes in
      Kabul. We recommend that the urban DOTS approach be replicated in other countries
      and cities in Afghanistan with settings similar to Kabul.

PMID- 28562674
TI  - How does functionality proceed in ACL reconstructed subjects? Proceeding of
      functional performance from pre- to six months post-ACL reconstruction.
AB  - This is the first study examining functionality of subjects with anterior
      cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and a subsequent reconstruction comprehensively by
      multiple test sessions from pre- to six months post-reconstruction. The purpose
      was to evaluate if a generally applied rehabilitation program restores
      functionality to levels of healthy controls. Subjects with unilateral tears of
      the ACL were compared to matched healthy controls throughout the rehabilitation.
      20 recreational athletes were tested: T1 (preoperative), 6 weeks after tear; T2,
      6 weeks, T3, 3 months, T4, 6 months post-reconstruction. At all test sessions,
      subjects self-evaluated their activity level with the Tegner activity score and
      their knee state with the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score. Passive
      range of motion during knee flexion and extension and leg circumference were
      measured as functional clinical tests. Bilateral countermovement jumps, one-leg
      jumps for distance and isometric force tests in knee flexion and extension with
      90 degrees  and 110 degrees  knee angle were conducted as functional performance
      tests. For determination of functionality, leg symmetry indices (LSIs) were
      calculated by dividing values of the injured by the uninjured leg. In the ACL
      group most LSIs decreased from T1 to T2, and increased from T2 and T3 to T4. LSIs
      of ACL subjects remained lower than LSIs of healthy controls at 6 months post
      reconstruction in nearly all parameters. Self-evaluation of ACL subjects showed,
      additionally, that activity level was lower than the pre-injury level at 6 months
      post-reconstruction. Low LSIs and low self-evaluation indicate that knee joint
      functionality is not completely restored at 6 months post-reconstruction. The
      study shows that multiple comprehensive testing throughout the rehabilitation
      gives detailed images of the functional state. Therefore, the functional state of
      ACL reconstructed individuals should be evaluated comprehensively and
      continuously throughout the rehabilitation to detect persisting deficiencies
      detailed and adapt rehabilitation programs individually depending on the
      functionality.

PMID- 28562676
TI  - Nasal colonization and bacterial contamination of mobile phones carried by
      medical staff in the operating room.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mobile phones (MPs) have been an essential part of the lives of
      healthcare professionals and have improved communication, collaboration, and
      sharing of information. Nonetheless, the widespread use of MPs in hospitals has
      raised concerns of nosocomial infections, especially in areas requiring the
      highest hygienic standards such as operating rooms (ORs). This study evaluated
      the incidence of bacterial contamination of the MPs carried by medical staff
      working in the OR and determined its association with bacterial colonization of
      this personnel. METHODS: This is an observational cohort study. Medical staffs
      working in the OR were asked to take bacterial cultures from their MPs, anterior
      nares, and dominant hands. To identify the relation between MP contamination and
      bacterial colonization of the medical staff, genotyping of Staphylococcus aureus
      (SA) was done via Staphylococcus protein A gene (spa) typing and pulsed-field gel
      electrophoresis (PFGE). RESULTS: A total of 216 swab samples taken from 72
      medical-staff members were analyzed. The culture-positive rate was 98.1%
      (212/216). In 59 (27.3%) samples, the bacteria were possible clinical pathogens.
      The anterior nares were the most common site of colonization by clinical
      pathogens (58.3%, 42/72), followed by MPs (13.9%, 10/72) and the dominant hand
      (9.7%, 7/72). SA was the most commonly isolated clinical pathogen and was found
      in 43 (19.9%) samples. In 66 (94.3%) of the 70 staff members for whom bacteria
      were detected on their MPs, the same bacteria were detected in nares or hand.
      Among 31 medical staff who were carriers of SA in the anterior nares or dominant
      hand, 8 (25.8%) were found to have SA on their MPs, and genotyping confirmed the
      same SA strain in 7 (87.5%) of them. CONCLUSION: A high rate of bacterial nasal
      colonization and MPs contamination were found among the OR medical staff. An MP
      may be a reservoir for pathogen contamination in the OR.

PMID- 28562677
TI  - Correction: Helios expression and Foxp3 TSDR methylation of IFNy+ and IFNy- Treg
      from kidney transplant recipients with good long-term graft function.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173773.].

PMID- 28562678
TI  - Comparison of three nudge interventions (priming, default option, and perceived
      variety) to promote vegetable consumption in a self-service buffet setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dietary choices in out-of-home eating are key for individual as well
      as for public health. These dietary choices are caused by a wide array of
      determinants, one of which is automatic decision-making. Nudging is attracting
      considerable interest due to its understanding and application of heuristic
      biases among consumers. The aim of this study is to test and compare three nudges
      in promoting vegetable consumption among test persons in a food lab-based
      experiment. METHODS: The initial sample consisted of 88 participants recruited in
      Copenhagen, Denmark. Each study participant was randomly assigned to one of the
      three experiments: priming, default and perceived variety. The priming arm of the
      experiment consisted of creating a leafy environment with green plants and an
      odour of herbs. In the default arm of the experiment, the salad was pre-portioned
      into a bowl containing 200g of vegetables. The third experiment divided the pre
      mixed salad into each of its components, to increase the visual variety of
      vegetables, yet not providing an actual increase in items. Each individual was
      partaking twice thus serving as her/his own control, randomly assigned to start
      with control or experimental setting. RESULTS: The default experiment
      successfully increased the energy intake from vegetables among the study
      participants (124 kcal vs. 90 kcal in control, p<0.01). Both the priming
      condition and perceived variety reduced the total energy intake among the study
      participants (169 kcal, p<0.01 and 124 kcal, p<0.01, respectively), mainly
      through a decrease in the meat-based meal component. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable
      progress has been made with regard to understanding the use of nudging in
      promoting a healthier meal composition, including increasing vegetable intake.
      This study suggests that the nature of a nudge-based intervention can have
      different effects, whether it is increasing intake of healthy components, or
      limiting intake of unhealthy meal components. This work has demonstrated that
      consumer behaviour can be influenced without restricting or providing incentives
      for behaviour change. The present findings have promising application to the
      foodservice sector.

PMID- 28562679
TI  - Change in clinical outcomes during the transition of adjuvant chemotherapy for
      stage III colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are robust data supporting the contribution of oxaliplatin (L
      OHP) regarding clinical outcomes for colorectal cancer (CRC) in an adjuvant
      setting in European and US trials; however, there is no Japanese clinical
      evidence although L-OHP has been approved since 2009. We examined the transition
      of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colorectal cancer in our institute.
      METHODS: A total of 642 patients with histopathologically confirmed stage III CRC
      underwent curative surgery from 2005 to 2010. We examined disease free survival
      (DFS), overall survival (OS) and prognostic factors for stage III CRC patients
      who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 509 patients received
      adjuvant chemotherapy. 3-year DFS and 5-year OS rates were 74.5% and 87.5%,
      respectively. The frequency of inclusion of L-OHP as adjuvant chemotherapy was
      increased after 2008. A total of 189 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy from
      2005 to 2007 increasing to 320 patients from 2008 to 2010; the 5-year OS rates
      were 82.4% and 91.5%, respectively, and the 3-year DFS rates were 69.2% and
      76.6%, respectively (OS, P = 0.007; DFS, P = 0.023). In univariate analysis,
      adjuvant chemotherapy including L-OHP was no significant deference compared to FU
      monotherapy. (OS: HR 0.88, 95%CI 0.4-1.91, p = 0.75, DFS: HR 0.78, 95%CI 0.21
      2.3, p = 0.29). In multivariate analysis, the OS was predicted by means of N
      stage (HR = 2; 95%CI, 1.1-3.8; P = 0.02) and pathology (HR = 0.28; 95%CI, 0.13
      0.59; P = 0.0008). The DFS was predicted by means of N stage (HR = 2.67; 95%CI,
      1.82-3.9; P < 0.05), T stage (HR = 1.61; 95%CI, 1.1-2.3; P = 0.01) pathology (HR
      = 0.47; 95%CI, 0.29-0.75; P < 0.05) and venous invasion (HR = 2.06; 95%CI, 1.12
      3.77; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical outcomes of stage III CRC patients
      receiving adjuvant chemotherapy improved. The frequency of L-OHP usage was
      increasing annually, however it was no influence for clinical outcomes in this
      study. It will be necessary to reevaluate additional effect of L-OHP with more
      patients.

PMID- 28562681
TI  - An optimization design proposal of automated guided vehicles for mixed type
      transportation in hospital environments.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this paper is to present an optimization proposal in the
      automated guided vehicles design used in hospital logistics, as well as to
      analyze the impact of its implementation in a real environment. METHOD: This
      proposal is based on the design of those elements that would allow the vehicles
      to deliver an extra cart by the towing method. So, the proposal intention is to
      improve the productivity and the performance of the current vehicles by using a
      transportation method of combined carts. RESULTS: The study has been developed
      following concurrent engineering premises from three different viewpoints. First,
      the sequence of operations has been described, and second, a proposal of design
      of the equipment has been undertaken. Finally, the impact of the proposal has
      been analyzed according to real data from the Hospital Universitario Rio Hortega
      in Valladolid (Spain). In this particular case, by the implementation of the
      analyzed proposal in the hospital a reduction of over 35% of the current time of
      use can be achieved. This result may allow adding new tasks to the vehicles, and
      according to this, both a new kind of vehicle and a specific module can be
      developed in order to get a better performance.

PMID- 28562680
TI  - Genome-wide association study provides strong evidence of genes affecting the
      reproductive performance of Nellore beef cows.
AB  - Reproductive traits are economically important for beef cattle production;
      however, these traits are still a bottleneck in indicine cattle since these
      animals typically reach puberty at older ages when compared to taurine breeds. In
      addition, reproductive traits are complex phenotypes, i.e., they are controlled
      by both the environment and many small-effect genes involved in different
      pathways. In this study, we conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) and
      functional analyses to identify important genes and pathways associated with
      heifer rebreeding (HR) and with the number of calvings at 53 months of age (NC53)
      in Nellore cows. A total of 142,878 and 244,311 phenotypes for HR and NC53,
      respectively, and 2,925 animals genotyped with the Illumina Bovine HD panel
      (Illumina(r), San Diego, CA, USA) were used in GWAS applying the weighted single
      step GBLUP (WssGBLUP) method. Several genes associated with reproductive events
      were detected in the 20 most important 1Mb windows for both traits. Significant
      pathways for HR and NC53 were associated with lipid metabolism and immune
      processes, respectively. MHC class II genes, detected on chromosome 23 (window 25
      26Mb) for NC53, were significantly associated with pregnancy success of Nellore
      cows. These genes have been proved previously to be associated with reproductive
      traits such as mate choice in other breeds and species. Our results suggest that
      genes associated with the reproductive traits HR and NC53 may be involved in
      embryo development in mammalian species. Furthermore, some genes associated with
      mate choice may affect pregnancy success in Nellore cattle.

PMID- 28562682
TI  - An elevated serum alkaline phosphatase level in hepatic metastases of grade 1 and
      2 gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors is unusual and of prognostic value.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In our clinical practice we have observed that despite a high hepatic
      metastatic tumor burden, serum alkaline phosphatase (AP) levels are frequently
      normal in cases of metastatic neuroendocrine tumor (NET). PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients with grade 1 and 2 NETs with
      liver metastases but without bone metastases seen at our institution in 2013. In
      total, 49 patients were included (22 female), with a median age of 60 years
      (range: 28 to 84 years). The primary tumors were located in the duodenum/pancreas
      (n = 29), small bowel (n = 17) or colon/rectum (n = 3); 10 cases were grade 1 and
      39 grade 2. Hepatic involvement was bulky, with more than 10 lesions in 23
      patients and a tumor burden above 10% of the liver volume in 26 patients.
      RESULTS: Serum AP levels were elevated (>= upper limit of normal (ULN)) in 16
      patients. In multiparametric analysis, elevated serum AP levels were not
      associated with the primary site, grade, or number or volume of metastases. In
      multiparametric analysis, progression-free survival was only correlated with
      grade (p = 0.010) and AP level (p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Serum AP levels are
      frequently normal in liver metastases from NET, even in the event of a major
      tumor burden, and the serum AP level can be of prognostic value.

PMID- 28562683
TI  - Quantitating morphological changes in biological samples during scanning electron
      microscopy sample preparation with correlative super-resolution microscopy.
AB  - Sample preparation is critical to biological electron microscopy (EM), and there
      have been continuous efforts on optimizing the procedures to best preserve
      structures of interest in the sample. However, a quantitative characterization of
      the morphological changes associated with each step in EM sample preparation is
      currently lacking. Using correlative EM and superresolution microscopy (SRM), we
      have examined the effects of different drying methods as well as osmium tetroxide
      (OsO4) post-fixation on cell morphology during scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
      sample preparation. Here, SRM images of the sample acquired under hydrated
      conditions were used as a baseline for evaluating morphological changes as the
      sample went through SEM sample processing. We found that both chemical drying and
      critical point drying lead to a mild cellular boundary retraction of ~60 nm. Post
      fixation by OsO4 causes at least 40 nm additional boundary retraction. We also
      found that coating coverslips with adhesion molecules such as fibronectin prior
      to cell plating helps reduce cell distortion from OsO4 post-fixation. These
      quantitative measurements offer useful information for identifying causes of cell
      distortions in SEM sample preparation and improving current procedures.

PMID- 28562684
TI  - Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing
      container for reforestation in developing countries.
AB  - Reforestation is needed globally to help restore degraded sites, combat
      desertification, protect watersheds, and provide forest products. This involves
      planting forest tree seedlings grown in local nurseries, but technologies to
      produce quality seedlings are lacking in developing countries. Modern nursery
      containers used to propagate seedlings have internal-surface barriers (ribs or
      ridges) or side-slits to prevent root spiraling. These are cost prohibitive or
      unavailable in developing countries and so polybags (plastic bags) are more
      commonly used, despite their tendency to produce seedlings with deformed root
      systems that have less potential to establish on field sites. Discarded plastic
      bottles, which are readily available worldwide, may be a feasible alternative for
      seedling propagation. We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of
      repurposed plastic beverage bottles to grow quality trees: 1) Container
      Comparison-to evaluate Arizona walnut (Juglans major [Toor.] Heller) and Afghan
      pine (Pinus eldarica Medw.) seedling root and shoot development in two plastic
      bottle types compared to modern nursery containers and polybags, and 2) Bottle
      Modification-to examine the effects of root spiraling prevention techniques (side
      slits, internal-ridges, and control) and container opacity (green, black, and
      clear) on Afghan pine seedling morphological attributes. Nursery growth and first
      year seedling field performance were evaluated for both experiments. In
      experiment one, seedlings of both species had fewer spiraled roots in bottle
      containers compared to polybags. Arizona walnut had more fibrous root systems in
      polybags, while Afghan pine root system fibrosity was greatest in bottle
      containers. First-year field performance of both species was not affected by
      container type. In experiment two, less spiraled roots occurred in containers
      with air-slits and interior-ridges compared to the control. The effects of
      container opacity on seedling morphology were inconsistent. Root spiral
      prevention and opacity had no influence on Afghan pine one-year survival, field
      height and diameter, with the exception of opacity for height growth, whereby
      seedlings grown in green containers were taller than those grown in black
      containers, but seedlings grown in clear containers were similar to both. Our
      results provide the first evidence that plastic bottle containers may provide an
      effective alternative for production of high quality seedlings, which may benefit
      agroforestry, reforestation, restoration, and conservation programs in developing
      countries.

PMID- 28562685
TI  - Gender difference in relationship between serum ferritin and 25-hydroxyvitamin D
      in Korean adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study was conducted to assess the gender difference in
      the relationship between serum ferritin and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in
      Korean adults. METHODS: A total of 5,147 adults (2,162 men, 1,563 premenopausal
      women, and 1,422 postmenopausal women) aged >= 20 years from the Korean National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data (2012) were analyzed. A
      covariance test adjusted for covariates was performed for serum ferritin levels
      in relation to vitamin D status (vitamin D deficiency, 25(OH)D < 10.0 ng/mL;
      vitamin D insufficiency, 25(OH)D >= 10.0, < 20.0 ng/mL; vitamin D sufficiency,
      25(OH)D >= 20.0 ng/mL). RESULTS: The key study results were as follows: First, in
      men, in terms of serum ferritin levels by serum 25(OH)D level after adjusting for
      age, smoking, alcohol drinking, regular exercise, SBP, DBP, WM. TC, TGs, HDL-C,
      FPG, Hb, Hct, MCV, and Fe, serum ferritin levels were inversely increased with
      the increasing of serum 25(OH)D level (P = 0.012). Second, in premenopausal
      women, after adjusting for related variables, serum ferritin levels were
      increased with the increasing of serum 25(OH)D level (P = 0.003). Third, in
      postmenopausal women, after adjusting for related variables, serum ferritin
      levels were not significantly increased with the increasing of serum 25(OH)D
      level (P = 0.456). CONCLUSION: Serum 25(OH)D level was inversely associated with
      the serum ferritin levels in men, but was positively associated with the serum
      ferritin levels in premenopausal women, and was not associated with the serum
      ferritin levels in postmenopausal women.

PMID- 28562686
TI  - Consolation in the aftermath of robberies resembles post-aggression consolation
      in chimpanzees.
AB  - Post-aggression consolation is assumed to occur in humans as well as in
      chimpanzees. While consolation following peer aggression has been observed in
      children, systematic evidence of consolation in human adults is rare. We used
      surveillance camera footage of the immediate aftermath of nonfatal robberies to
      observe the behaviors and characteristics of victims and bystanders. Consistent
      with empathy explanations, we found that consolation was linked to social
      closeness rather than physical closeness. While females were more likely to
      console than males, males and females were equally likely to be consoled.
      Furthermore, we show that high levels of threat during the robbery increased the
      likelihood of receiving consolation afterwards. These patterns resemble post
      aggression consolation in chimpanzees and suggest that emotions of empathic
      concern are involved in consolation across humans and chimpanzees.

PMID- 28562687
TI  - The four-transmembrane protein MAL2 and tumor protein D52 (TPD52) are highly
      expressed in colorectal cancer and correlated with poor prognosis.
AB  - The four-transmembrane protein MAL2 and tumor protein D52 (TPD52) have been shown
      to be involved in tumorigenesis of various cancers. However, their roles in
      colorectal cancer (CRC) remain unclear. In this study, we explored the
      expressions of MAL2 and TPD52 in tumor specimens resected from 123 CRC patients
      and the prognostic values of the two proteins in CRC. Immunohistochemical
      analyses showed that MAL2 (P<0.001) and TPD52 (P<0.001) were significantly highly
      expressed in primary carcinoma tissues compared with adjacent non-cancerous
      mucosa tissues. And TPD52 exhibited frequent overexpression in liver metastasis
      tissues relative to primary carcinoma tissues (P = 0.042), while MAL2 in
      lymphnode and liver metastasis tissues showed no significant elevation. Real-time
      quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) showed the identical results. Correlation analyses by
      Pearson's chi-square test demonstrated that MAL2 in tumors was positively
      correlated with tumor status (pathological assessment of regional lymph nodes
      (pN, P = 0.024)), and clinic stage (P = 0.017). Additionally, the expression of
      TPD52 was detected under the same condition and was shown to be positively
      correlated withtumor status (pathological assessment of the primary tumor (pT, P
      = 0.035), distant metastasis (pM, P = 0.001)) and CRC clinicopathology(P =
      0.024). Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that positive MAL2 (P<0.001) and
      TPD52 (P<0.001) expressions were associated with poor overall survival (OS) in
      CRC patients. Multivariate analysis showed that MAL2 and TPD52 expression was an
      independent prognostic factor for reduced OS of CRC patients. Moreover,
      overexpression of TPD52 in CRC SW480 cells showed an increased cell migration (P
      = 0.023) and invasion (P = 0.012) through inducing occurrence of epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT) and activating focal adhesion kinase (FAK)-mediated
      integrin signalling and PI3K/Akt signalling.Whereas TPD52-depleted cells showed
      the reverse effect. These data suggested that MAL2 and TPD52 might be potential
      biomarkers for clinical prognosis and might be a promising therapeutic target for
      CRC.

PMID- 28562688
TI  - Smooth muscle cell-specific Notch1 haploinsufficiency restricts the progression
      of abdominal aortic aneurysm by modulating CTGF expression.
AB  - AIMS: Infiltration of macrophages and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells
      (VSMCs) promote the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Previously,
      we demonstrated that global Notch1 deficiency prevents the formation of AAA in a
      mouse model. Herein, we sought to explore the cell-specific roles of Notch1 in
      AAA development. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cell-specific Notch1 haploinsufficient
      mice, generated on Apoe-/- background using Cre-lox technology, were infused with
      angiotensin II (1000 ng/min/kg) for 28 days. Notch1 haploinsufficiency in myeloid
      cells (n = 9) prevented the formation of AAA attributed to decreased
      inflammation. Haploinsufficiency of Notch1 in SMCs (n = 14) per se did not
      prevent AAA formation, but histoarchitectural traits of AAA including elastin
      degradation and aortic remodeling, were minimal in SMC-Notch1+/-;Apoe-/- mice
      compared to Apoe-/- mice (n = 33). Increased immunostaining of the contractile
      SMC-phenotype markers and concomitant decreased expression of synthetic SMC
      phenotype markers were observed in the aortae of SMC-Notch1+/-;Apoe-/- mice.
      Expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a matrix-associated protein
      that modulates the synthetic VSMC phenotype, increased in the abdominal aorta of
      Apoe-/- mice and in the adventitial region of the abdominal aorta in human AAA.
      Notch1 haploinsufficiency decreased the expression of Ctgf in the aorta and in
      vitro cell culture system. In vitro studies on SMCs using the Notch1
      intracellular domain (NICD) plasmid, dominant negative mastermind-like (dnMAML),
      or specific siRNA suggest that Notch1, not Notch3, directly modulates the
      expression of CTGF. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that lack of Notch1 in SMCs
      limits dilation of the abdominal aorta by maintaining contractile SMC-phenotype
      and preventing matrix-remodeling.

PMID- 28562689
TI  - Comparison of single-marker and multi-marker tests in rare variant association
      studies of quantitative traits.
AB  - In genetic association studies of rare variants, low statistical power and
      potential violations of established estimator properties are among the main
      challenges of association tests. Multi-marker tests (MMTs) have been proposed to
      target these challenges, but any comparison with single-marker tests (SMTs) has
      to consider that their aim is to identify causal genomic regions instead of
      variants. Valid power comparisons have been performed for the analysis of binary
      traits indicating that MMTs have higher power, but there is a lack of conclusive
      studies for quantitative traits. The aim of our study was therefore to fairly
      compare SMTs and MMTs in their empirical power to identify the same causal loci
      associated with a quantitative trait. The results of extensive simulation studies
      indicate that previous results for binary traits cannot be generalized. First, we
      show that for the analysis of quantitative traits, conventional estimation
      methods and test statistics of single-marker approaches have valid properties
      yielding association tests with valid type I error, even when investigating
      singletons or doubletons. Furthermore, SMTs lead to more powerful association
      tests for identifying causal genes than MMTs when the effect sizes of causal
      variants are large, and less powerful tests when causal variants have small
      effect sizes. For moderate effect sizes, whether SMTs or MMTs have higher power
      depends on the sample size and percentage of causal SNVs. For a more complete
      picture, we also compare the power in studies of quantitative and binary traits,
      and the power to identify causal genes with the power to identify causal rare
      variants. In a genetic association analysis of systolic blood pressure in the
      Genetic Analysis Workshop 19 data, SMTs yielded smaller p-values compared to MMTs
      for most of the investigated blood pressure genes, and were least influenced by
      the definition of gene regions.

PMID- 28562690
TI  - Initial computed tomography imaging details during first-line systemic therapy is
      of significant prognostic value in patients with naive, unresectable metastatic
      renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to determine the prognostic significance of computed tomography
      imaging parameters of unresectable primary renal tumor lesions, obtained at
      baseline and at first follow-up, on overall survival in naive, unresectable
      metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients during first-line systemic therapy.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinicopathological parameters of 56 patients treated
      between 2007 and 2015, including imaging parameters (such as the longest tumor
      diameter, necrotic area diameter, and attenuation in primary renal tumor lesions
      on baseline vs. follow-up computed tomography), were retrospectively reviewed to
      derive predictive factors of overall survival. The best overall response was
      measured according to the RECIST v1.1. RESULTS: The median treatment period was
      206.3 days and the median follow-up was 14.6 months. Forty-four (78.6%) patients
      progressed after a median 4.6 months of progression-free survival, and 6 (10.7%)
      patients survived with a median overall survival of 12.5 months. Multivariate
      analysis showed that the baseline tumor diameter (hazard ratio [HR] 0.903) and
      mean attenuation (HR 0.936), change of tumor diameter (HR 0.714) and necrosis
      diameter (HR 0.861), change in the percentage of tumor diameter (HR 1.483) and of
      necrosis diameter (HR 1.028) between baseline and follow-up computed tomography
      images; treatment duration (HR 0.986) and baseline serum hemoglobin (HR 1.790)
      and albumin level (HR 0.060) were significant factors for overall survival
      (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The study showed that baseline and first follow-up computed
      tomography findings of primary renal lesions during first-line systemic therapy
      are useful and significant predictors of OS in patients with naive unresectable
      mRCC.

PMID- 28562691
TI  - Chronic treatment with paeonol improves endothelial function in mice through
      inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated oxidative stress.
AB  - Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress leads to endothelial dysfunction which is
      commonly associated in the pathogenesis of several cardiovascular diseases. We
      explored the vascular protective effects of chronic treatment with paeonol (2'
      hydroxy-4'-methoxyacetophenone), the major compound from the root bark of Paeonia
      suffruticosa on ER stress-induced endothelial dysfunction in mice. Male C57BL/6J
      mice were injected intraperitoneally with ER stress inducer, tunicamycin (1
      mg/kg/week) for 2 weeks to induce ER stress. The animals were co-administered
      with or without paeonol (20 mg/kg/oral gavage), reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      scavenger, tempol (20 mg/kg/day) or ER stress inhibitor, tauroursodeoxycholic
      acid (TUDCA, 150 mg/kg/day) respectively. Blood pressure and body weight were
      monitored weekly and at the end of treatment, the aorta was isolated for
      isometric force measurement. Protein associated with ER stress (GRP78, ATF6 and p
      eIF2alpha) and oxidative stress (NOX2 and nitrotyrosine) were evaluated using
      Western blotting. Nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability were determined using total
      nitrate/nitrite assay and western blotting (phosphorylation of eNOS protein). ROS
      production was assessed by en face dihydroethidium staining and lucigenin
      enhanced chemiluminescence assay, respectively. Our results revealed that mice
      treated with tunicamycin showed an increased blood pressure, reduction in body
      weight and impairment of endothelium-dependent relaxations (EDRs) of aorta, which
      were ameliorated by co-treatment with either paeonol, TUDCA and tempol.
      Furthermore, paeonol reduced the ROS level in the mouse aorta and improved NO
      bioavailability in tunicamycin treated mice. These beneficial effects of paeonol
      observed were comparable to those produced by TUDCA and tempol, suggesting that
      the actions of paeonol may involve inhibition of ER stress-mediated oxidative
      stress pathway. Taken together, the present results suggest that chronic
      treatment with paeonol preserved endothelial function and normalized blood
      pressure in mice induced by tunicamycin in vivo through the inhibition of ER
      stress-associated ROS.

PMID- 28562692
TI  - Mannose-binding lectin-deficient genotypes as a risk factor of pneumococcal
      meningitis in infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate to evaluate the role of
      mannose-binding-lectin deficient genotypes in pneumococcal meningitis (PM) in
      children. METHODS: We performed a 16-year retrospective study (January 2001 to
      March 2016) including patients <= 18 years with PM. Variables including attack
      rate of pneumococcal serotype (high or low invasive capacity) and MBL2 genotypes
      associated with low serum MBL levels were recorded. RESULTS: Forty-eight patients
      were included in the study. Median age was 18.5 months and 17/48 episodes (35.4%)
      occurred in children <= 12 months old. Serotypes with high-invasive disease
      potential were identified in 15/48 episodes (31.2%). MBL2 deficient genotypes
      accounted for 18.8% (9/48). Children <= 12 months old had a 7-fold risk (95% CI:
      1.6-29.9; p < 0.01) of having a MBL2 deficient genotype in comparison to those >
      12 months old. A sub-analysis of patients by age group revealed significant
      proportions of carriers of MBL2 deficient genotypes among those <= 12 months old
      with PM caused by opportunistic serotypes (54.5%), admitted to the PICU
      (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) (46.7%) and of White ethnicity (35.7%). These
      proportions were significantly higher than in older children (all p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that differences in MBL2 genotype in children
      <=12 months old affects susceptibility to PM, and it may have an important role
      in the episodes caused by non-high invasive disease potential serotypes.

PMID- 28562693
TI  - From medical imaging data to 3D printed anatomical models.
AB  - Anatomical models are important training and teaching tools in the clinical
      environment and are routinely used in medical imaging research. Advances in
      segmentation algorithms and increased availability of three-dimensional (3D)
      printers have made it possible to create cost-efficient patient-specific models
      without expert knowledge. We introduce a general workflow that can be used to
      convert volumetric medical imaging data (as generated by Computer Tomography
      (CT)) to 3D printed physical models. This process is broken up into three steps:
      image segmentation, mesh refinement and 3D printing. To lower the barrier to
      entry and provide the best options when aiming to 3D print an anatomical model
      from medical images, we provide an overview of relevant free and open-source
      image segmentation tools as well as 3D printing technologies. We demonstrate the
      utility of this streamlined workflow by creating models of ribs, liver, and lung
      using a Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printer.

PMID- 28562694
TI  - Correction: CD40 Activation Rescues Antiviral CD8+ T Cells from PD-1-Mediated
      Exhaustion.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003490.].

PMID- 28562697
TI  - Classificatory volatility and (in)consistency of racial inequality.
AB  - Monitoring racial inequalities, whether socioeconomic or health-related, assumes
      stability in racial classification. Otherwise, the dynamics of these inequalities
      could result from racial reclassification rather than from processes related to
      socioeconomic and health inequalities per se. The study proposes a typology of
      uncertainty in racial classification (contextual - temporal, geographic,
      procedural - and sampling) and draws on the literature and nationally
      representative secondary data to discuss the magnitude of racial variability in
      Brazil according to these five dimensions. The results show that at least two of
      these uncertainties - geographic and procedural - are substantial, but have
      little influence on the racial gap in income. We address the impacts of these
      results on the existence and extent of racial inequalities in health and conclude
      that the structure of inequalities between whites and blacks is consistent,
      although skin color classification is volatile.

PMID- 28562695
TI  - Label-free pathology by spectrally sliced femtosecond stimulated Raman scattering
      (SRS) microscopy.
AB  - Optical "virtual biopsy" is an attractive way to improve disease diagnosis and
      surgical guidance. Many optical microscopy techniques have been developed to
      provide diagnostic information without the need for tissue sectioning or
      staining. Among these techniques, label-free chemical imaging is the most
      desirable. Recently, it has been shown that narrowband, picosecond stimulated
      Raman scattering (SRS) can achieve comparable morphological contrast to
      hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E staining), the 'gold standard' of pathology.
      However, to translate the technique from the bench to the bedside, optimal laser
      sources and parameters have yet to be identified. Here we describe an improvement
      to the narrowband SRS microscopy techniques for label-free tissue imaging.
      Through spectral slicing of broadband, femtosecond pulses, we are able to
      maintain the same protein/lipid contrast as narrowband SRS while achieving a
      higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Our method draws upon the benefits of
      femtosecond pulses (e.g. higher peak power) while preserving those of picosecond
      pulses (e.g. adequate spectral resolution). We demonstrate this achievement
      through protein/lipid signal and contrast quantification of mouse brain tissue as
      a function of bandwidth, and comparison with numerical simulations. Further
      method validation is provided through imaging of additional mouse tissues: liver,
      kidney, and skin.

PMID- 28562696
TI  - PTH[1-34] improves the effects of core decompression in early-stage steroid
      associated osteonecrosis model by enhancing bone repair and revascularization.
AB  - Steroid-associated osteonecrosis (SAON) might induce bone collapse and
      subsequently lead to joint arthroplasty. Core decompression (CD) is regarded as
      an effective therapy for early-stage SAON, but the prognosis is unsatisfactory
      due to incomplete bone repair. Parathyroid hormone[1-34] (PTH[1-34]) has
      demonstrated positive efficacy in promoting bone formation. We therefore
      evaluated the effects of PTH on improving the effects of CD in Early-Stage SAON.
      Distal femoral CD was performed two weeks after osteonecrosis induction or
      vehicle injection, with ten of the ON-induced rabbits being subjected to six-week
      PTH[1-34] treatment and the others, including ON-induced and non-induced rabbits,
      being treated with vehicle. MRI confirmed that intermittent PTH administration
      improved SAON after CD therapy. Micro-CT showed increased bone formation within
      the tunnel. Bone repair was enhanced with decreased empty osteocyte lacunae and
      necrosis foci area, resulting in enhanced peak load and stiffness of the tunnel.
      Additionally, PTH enlarged the mean diameter of vessels in the marrow and
      increased the number of vessels within the tunnels, as well as elevated the
      expression of BMP-2, RUNX2, IGF-1, bFGF and VEGF, together with serum OCN and
      VEGF levels. Therefore, PTH[1-34] enhances the efficacy of CD on osteogenesis and
      neovascularization, thus promoting bone and blood vessels repair in the SAON
      model.

PMID- 28562698
TI  - Measurement and modeling of race and health in Brazil: continuing the discussion.
AB  - Recent reviews have discussed the conceptualization of race in health studies in
      Brazil. This review further documents and discusses specific measurement and
      modeling issues with regard to race and how this can impact result
      interpretation. Three scientific databases were used to search the literature on
      race and three health outcomes. The search yielded 38 empirical studies on birth
      outcomes, self-rated health, and weight. Results suggest that, while there are
      racial patterns in the overall literature, conceptual and methodological
      challenges can be addressed to clarify the ways in which racial group membership
      is linked to health.

PMID- 28562699
TI  - Sociodemographic characteristics of indigenous population according to the 2000
      and 2010 Brazilian demographic censuses: a comparative approach.
AB  - The sociodemographic profiles of different segments of the Brazilian population
      have been the object of multiple inter-census comparisons. This study compared
      the age distribution, number of household residents, formal schooling, and income
      of indigenous persons according to the population censuses of 2000 and 2010.
      There was an important decrease in the number of residents per occupied
      household, and slight aging of the indigenous population, except in the urban
      North. Meanwhile, there was a proportional increase in individuals with per
      capita household income up to one minimum wage, along with a reduction in the
      income bracket of more than two minimum wages in the country's five major
      geographic regions, in both urban and rural areas. Although schooling also
      increased, the increments differed according to geographic region and urban
      versus rural area; the urban Southeast showed larger gains in schooling, while
      the rural North and Central displayed smaller increases. The study emphasizes the
      need for more in-depth research focusing on specificities and backing the
      evaluation and implementation of public policies for the indigenous population.

PMID- 28562700
TI  - Adaptation and validation of the Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale to
      Brazilian Portuguese.
AB  - Objective:: to perform the cultural adaptation and validation of the Diabetes
      Management Self-efficacy Scale for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with a
      Brazilian population sample. Method:: cross-sectional methodological study in
      which the adaptation and validation process included the stages recommended in
      the literature. Construct validity and reliability were assessed with 200 adults
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results:: the items indicated by the panel of
      judges and by the target population were adjusted in the cultural adaptation to
      improve clarity and understanding. The instrument's four factors remained in the
      confirmatory factor analysis with factor loadings of items greater than 0.30,
      except for factor 4; convergent validity, verified by the multitrait-multimethod
      analysis, presented inter-item correlations from 0.37 to 0.92, while for
      discriminant validity, 100% of the items presented greater correlation in their
      own factors. Cronbach's coefficient alpha for the total scale was 0.78, ranging
      from 0.57 to 0.86 among factors. Conclusion:: semantic, cultural, conceptual and
      idiomatic equivalences were achieved and the instrument's Brazilian version also
      presented psychometric properties that showed evidence of reliability and
      validity. Thus, it can be applied both in clinical practice and research. Self
      efficacy is useful for planning and assessing educational interventions, as well
      as predicting behavior modification in self-care.

PMID- 28562701
TI  - Role of Primary Health Care in child hospitalization due to pneumonia: a case
      control study.
AB  - Objective:: to evaluate the association of primary health care and other
      potential factors in relation to hospitalization due to pneumonia, among children
      aged under five years. Method:: epidemiological study with a case-control,
      hospital-based design, which included 345 cases and 345 controls, matched
      according to gender, age and hospital. Data were collected using a pre-coded
      questionnaire and the Primary Care Assessment Tool, analyzed by means of
      multivariate logistic regression, following the assumptions of a hierarchical
      approach. Results:: the protective factors were: family income >US$216.12
      (OR=0.68), weight gain during pregnancy >=10 kg (OR=0.68), quality of Primary
      Health Care (OR for scores >3.41=0.57; OR for scores >3.17 and <=3.41=0.50),
      gastro-esophageal reflux (OR=0.55), overweight (OR=0.37) and birth interval >=48
      months (OR=0.28). The risk factors included: parity (2 childbirths: OR=4.60; >=3
      childbirths: OR=3.25), out-of-date vaccination (OR=2.81), undernutrition
      (OR=2.53), history of wheezing (>=3 episodes OR=2.37; 1 episode: OR=2.13),
      attendance at daycare center (OR=1.67), and use of medicines over the past month
      (OR=1.67). Conclusion:: primary health care and its child health care practices,
      such as nutritional monitoring, immunization, care to prevalent illnesses,
      prenatal care and family planning need to be prioritized to avoid child
      hospitalization due to pneumonia.

PMID- 28562702
TI  - A new contribution to the classification of stressors affecting nursing
      professionals.
AB  - Objective:: to identify and classify the most important occupational stressors
      affecting nursing professionals in the medical units within a hospital. Method::
      quantitative-qualitative, descriptive and prospective study performed with Delphi
      technique in the medical units of a general university hospital, with a sample of
      30 nursing professionals. Results:: the stressors were work overload, frequent
      interruptions in the accomplishment of their tasks, night working, simultaneity
      of performing different tasks, not having enough time to give emotional support
      to the patient or lack of time for some patients who need it, among others.
      Conclusion:: the most consensual stressors were ranked as work overload, frequent
      interruptions in the accomplishment of their tasks, night working and, finally,
      simultaneity of performing different tasks. These results can be used as a tool
      in the clinical management of hospital units, aiming to improve the quality of
      life of nursing professionals, organizational models and, in addition, continuous
      improvement in clinical treatment.

PMID- 28562703
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PMID- 28562704
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PMID- 28562705
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PMID- 28562706
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PMID- 28562707
TI  - Period prevalence and anthropometric predictors of premature rupture of membranes
      in Mexican women, 2009-2012.

PMID- 28562708
TI  - ?

PMID- 28562709
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PMID- 28562710
TI  - ?

PMID- 28562711
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PMID- 28562712
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PMID- 28562714
TI  - [Changes in prices of taxed sugar-sweetened beverages and nonessential energy
      dense food in rural and semi-rural areas in Mexico].
AB  - Objective:: To estimate changes in prices associated with the implementation of
      the tax to sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) and to nonessential energy dense food
      in 2014. Materials and methods:: Price data were collected in rural and semi
      rural areas in December 2013, and April and December 2014. Fixed effects models
      were used to estimate changes in prices of beverages and nonessential energy
      dense food, stratified by region, retailer and package size. Results:: The SSB
      tax did not pass completely through prices: prices increased on average 0.73
      pesos per liter. For nonessential energy dense food, the tax passed completely or
      was overshifted for cookies, cereal bars and cereal boxes. Conclusion:: The
      potential effect of the taxes on consumption could be attenuated in rural areas
      as the pass through prices was incomplete.

PMID- 28562716
TI  - [Effective coverage of treatment of hypertension in Mexican adults by states].
AB  - Objective:: To estimate the effective coverage (EC) of treatment of hypertension
      (HT) in Mexican adults in 2012 and compared with those reported in 2006.
      Materials and methods:: The National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 was
      analyzed. The EC has three dimensions: health need as prevalence of HT,
      utilization of health services when the need is real and quality as recovering
      health after the treatment. The EC of treatment of HT was estimated using
      instrumental variables. Results:: In 2012, the EC national of treatment of HT was
      28.3% (95%CI 26.5-30.1), ranging from Michoacan with 19.3% (15.3-23.4) to State
      of Mexico with 39.7% in (25.3-54.0). From 2006 to 2012 the national EC increased
      22.5%. Conclusion:: The EC treatment of hypertension is low and heterogeneous.
      The use of synthetic indicators should be a daily exercise of measurement,
      because report summarizes the performance of state health systems.

PMID- 28562715
TI  - Evaluation of HIV, STI and CD4 results among voluntary attendees at the HIV/AIDS
      program of Mexico City.
AB  - Objective:: To describe results of HIV, sexually transmitted diseases (STI) and
      CD4 counts at the HIV-specialized Condesa Clinic (CC) in Mexico City. Materials
      and methods:: Individuals who requested voluntary counseling and testing at CC
      were studied. We identified antibodies against HIV, syphilis, hepatitis C, and
      hepatitis B HBsAg. CD4 cell counts and viral load of HIV positive individuals
      were also obtained. Late HIV infection diagnosis was established if CD4 counts
      were lower than 200 cells/MUL. Results:: Global seroprevalence of HIV, syphilis,
      HBsAg, and anti HCV markers was of 20.1, 6, 1 and 1, respectively. Men displayed
      higher seroprevalence of infection markers than women. Among men, HIV infection
      was related to age and with all STI markers. Late HIV diagnosis was 31.8%. The
      risk of late HIV diagnosis was higher among women and it increased as age
      increased. Conclusions:: Differences between genders regarding HIV and STIs
      prevalence as well as risk factors for HIV infection and late HIV diagnosis were
      observed.

PMID- 28562713
TI  - Smokefree implementation in Colombia: Monitoring, outside funding, and business
      support.
AB  - Objective:: To analyze successful national smokefree policy implementation in
      Colombia, a middle income country. Materials and methods:: Key informants at the
      national and local levels were interviewed and news sources and government
      ministry resolutions were reviewed. Results:: Colombia's Ministry of Health
      coordinated local implementation practices, which were strongest in larger cities
      with supportive leadership. Nongovernmental organizations provided technical
      assistance and highlighted noncompliance. Organizations outside Colombia funded
      some of these efforts. The bar owners' association provided concerted education
      campaigns. Tobacco interests did not openly challenge implementation.
      Conclusions:: Health organization monitoring, external funding, and hospitality
      industry support contributed to effective implementation, and could be cultivated
      in other low and middle income countries.

PMID- 28562717
TI  - [Quality and compliance with Clinical Practice Guidelines of Chronic
      Noncommunicable Diseases in primary care].
AB  - Objective:: To assess the quality and compliance of clinical practice guidelines
      (CPG) applicable to chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) in primary
      healthcare (CS), and views of staff on the barriers, facilitators and their use.
      Materials and methods:: 18 valued CPG with AGREEII, 3 are selected to develop
      indicators and assess compliance using lot quality acceptance sample (LQAS,
      standard 75 / 95% threshold 40 / 75% respectively, alpha:0. 05, beta:0. 10) on 5
      CS. 70 professionals surveyed about knowledge and use of CPG. Results:: Average
      quality of the CPG was 57.2%; low rating in domains: "Applicability" (<25%),
      "Stakeholder involvement" (43.5%) and "Rigour of development" (55.0%). Compliance
      in CS ranges from 39 to 53.4%. Professionals show uneven knowledge of CPG; 44 to
      45% (according to CPG), they declare that they are not used, they identify as
      main barriers the lack of training, and their difficult accessibility and
      management. Conclusions:: The quality and implementation of evaluated CPG is
      deficient constituting an opportunity of improvement in health services.

PMID- 28562718
TI  - [Economic and health impact of prenatal care in pregnant women with public health
      insurance in Colombia during 2014].
AB  - Objective:: To estimate health care costs of live births and the impact of
      prenatal care visit (PCV) in women from poor households. Materials and methods::
      A randomized sample of 9 244 pregnant women (out of total= 25 000). Mean
      differences and proportions were calculated to compare results in both groups of
      women. The costs were estimated in American Dollars (USD) 2014, from the payer's
      perspective. Results:: 75% of women live in urban areas. The mean age was 23
      years old (CI95% 23.5-23.8). The average cost with PCV was USD 609.1 (CI95%: 581
      632.7) and without PCV was USD 857.8 (CI95%: 774.7-923.8) and 87% of women
      attended at least one PCV. The health care costs increased in 32% (CI95% 27.1-41)
      in women who did not attended PCV. Conclusion:: The PCV is an efficient and
      effective intervention for managing the risk of maternal health.

PMID- 28562719
TI  - [Validation of a scale to assess the labour quality of life in public hospitals
      from Tlaxcala].
AB  - Objective:: To validate a scale for assessing the labour quality of life in
      public hospitals (LQL-PH) from Tlaxcala, Mexico. Materials and methods:: The
      instrument was validated among 669 health workers from six hospitals from the
      Ministry of Health of Tlaxcala, Mexico. Content validity was by inquiry to
      experts, construct validity by factor analysis, criterion validity by comparing
      with other scales, and reliability with Cronbach's Alpha. Results:: The factor
      analysis uncovered four dimensions: "individual welfare", "conditions and labour
      environment", "organization", and "well-being accomplished by the work";
      reliability was 0.921. Workers who perceibed better LQL-PH were: under 50 years
      old, with temporary contract, with less seniority in job, with work schedule at
      daytime of weekends, and those with academic degree. Conclusions:: LQL-PH showed
      to be an instrument phsycometrically valid and reliable. It's recommendable to
      prove this scale in other public and private health institutions, as well as its
      relationship with key health care indicators of labour performance and
      management.

PMID- 28562720
TI  - [An epidemiological but invisibilized marker: indebtedness within an Afromexican
      town in Oaxaca].
AB  - Objective:: To explore indebtedness dynamics in an Afromexican town by an
      inclusive epidemiological approach. Materials and methods:: Qualitative study
      through 75 questionnaires, 20 interviews to depth and six focal groups in a
      support process to the Municipal Health Commission in Santiago Tapextla, Oaxaca.
      Results:: Catastrophic expenses due to insufficient medical care were the
      principal causal item. Indebtedness processes with patrimonial loss are dominant,
      generating dependence spirals of difficult resolution that impact the familiar
      dynamics and the pathology evolution. Conclusions:: In spite of its inexistence
      within sanitary official programs, indebtedness dynamics constitute an
      epidemiological marker by the uncovering of structural inattention conditions
      that reflect the imposed, naturalized and pathogenic hierarchization proper of
      coloniality. To analyze this process at local and global levels is a complex but
      essential public health task.

PMID- 28562721
TI  - [Salud Colectiva awarded DOAJ Seal].

PMID- 28562722
TI  - [Social health insurance in China: principal reforms and inequalities].
AB  - This article analyzes the social health insurance system in China, its reforms
      and the principal social inequalities uncovered. Based in the work of a number of
      authors of reference, it is possible to observe that rural and urban reforms
      follow the same pattern: large systems that were gradually reduced and then again
      expanded relatively quickly. Improvements notwithstanding, some of China's
      historical problems persist, especially the rural-urban gap and regional
      disparities. The lack of integration of workers that migrate from the country to
      the city is reproduced in the current Chinese public health system, constituting
      one of the primary challenges to be faced at present.

PMID- 28562723
TI  - [Commercial sexual exploitation of children: Meanings and practices of people who
      work and reside in downtown Medellin (Colombia), 2015].
AB  - The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a public health problem and a
      serious violation of the rights of children and adolescents. The response to this
      problem has been affected by the meanings and practices of the actors involved.
      In order to contribute to a better understanding of the problem, a qualitative
      social study using a grounded theory approach was carried out between 2014 and
      2015. The aim was to understand the meanings and practices regarding this issue
      of people who spend time in an area of the city center with a high presence of
      commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The techniques used
      were participant observation and semi-structured interviews. We found that the
      predominate conceptions lead to practices that aggravate and perpetuate rights
      violations. Although practices of protection towards victims were identified,
      these were limited to critical aspects of the context. Actions to eradicate
      commercial sexual exploitation should work with the community and the meanings
      within the community regarding sexual exploitation so as to potentiate the victim
      protection practices carried out and reduce barriers to such practices.

PMID- 28562724
TI  - [Mesothelioma mortality in Argentina, 1980-2013].
AB  - Mesothelioma mortality and its socio-demographic and temporal patterns in
      Argentina from 1980 to 2013 were estimated using data from death certificates
      obtained from the Vital Statistics System of Argentina's National Ministry of
      Health. There were 3,259 mesothelioma deaths corresponding to an age-adjusted
      mortality of 3.1/1,000,000 in 1980 and 5.7/1,000,000 in 2013, an average increase
      of 84.1% in 34 years. This raising trend became clearer after 1997. Males had
      higher mortality estimates compared with women in every year of the series; these
      findings suggest past exposure to asbestos. It is plausible that the asbestos
      exposure was mostly occupational, which is more common among men. Actions related
      to reinforcing the asbestos ban already in place and strengthening health
      surveillance directed at workplaces, previously exposed workers, and the
      population in general are recommended.

PMID- 28562725
TI  - [The individual and the State as agents responsible for the production of healthy
      societies: a thematic analysis from the perspective of health professionals in
      Catalonia (Spain)].
AB  - This article aims to analyze the meanings upon which health promotion
      intervention practices are based, and the consequences of these meanings in the
      identification of responsibilities in health. The passage of Catalonia's Public
      Health Law 18/2009 facilitated the development of the Demonstrative Project of
      the Public Health Agency, in the framework of which fieldwork for the Plan for
      Health Education and Promotion in Children and Adolescents in La Garrotxa (region
      of Catalonia) was carried out. In this way, 20 interviews with key informants
      were conducted. Through a thematic analysis, it was found that the State and the
      individual are identified as the primary agents responsible for the production of
      healthy societies. It was also evidenced that, in the articulation between the
      discourses referring to free and rational decision-making and those referring to
      the social, political and economic environment, different approaches towards
      responsibility are construed, with effects related to the potentiation (or lack
      thereof) of the State as a guarantor of the population's health in opposition to
      blaming of the individual.

PMID- 28562726
TI  - [Contraception and maternity: Findings of a quali-quantitative study with 18- and
      19-year-olds in four provinces of Argentina].
AB  - The article analyzes the factors that facilitate or hinder access and effective
      use of contraception by 18- and 19-year-olds living in the cities of Resistencia
      (province of Chaco), Posadas (province of Misiones) and Santiago del Estero
      (province of Santiago del Estero) as well as the health regions V and VII of the
      province of Buenos Aires. Data comes from a survey applied to a purposeful sample
      of 480 adolescent females (including respondents without children, with one
      child, and with more than one child) and 21 semi-structured interviews with a
      population of the same profile. In response to the survey, 74.2% reported using
      contraception "always" and 12.2% "most of the time." The pill and condoms were
      the most widely used methods (41.7% and 37.0% respectively). Only 13.2% used a
      mid- to long-term method (intrauterine device or injectable contraceptive). The
      main reasons reported by those who "never" use a method (13.6%) were: wanting to
      become pregnant (27.6%) and partner refusal (27.6%). The interviews revealed
      difficulties in the use of contraception methods and deficits in contraception
      counseling.

PMID- 28562727
TI  - [Capabilities and challenges in monitoring the availability of and access to
      health services in Argentina].
AB  - Monitoring the utilization, quality and performance of health services through
      indicators is a growing necessity of decision makers. Given the importance of
      indicators related to availability of, quality of and access to health services
      by the population, the objective of this article is to research the capacity of
      information sources produced officially in Argentina since 2000 to generate such
      indicators, and to identify the extent that such sources comply with the
      requirements of frequency, disaggregation and publication. The research results
      show that the information officially available in the country does not allow for
      the calculation of all indicators, or allows for their construction at only some
      moments in time, evidencing the need to incorporate new sources or adapt existing
      ones.

PMID- 28562728
TI  - [Distribution of dental caries and its association with variables of social
      protection in children 12 years of age in the county of Avellaneda, Province of
      Buenos Aires].
AB  - Different international organizations have indicated the need to analyze the
      conditions of each population in order to identify groups and individuals at risk
      as an operational strategy in pursuit of greater equity, efficacy and efficiency
      in the health system. The aim of this study was to identify differentials in the
      dental caries profiles of children attending public schools in the county of
      Avellaneda (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina) and their association with
      variables of social protection. In 2014, an observational, analytical and cross
      sectional study was performed with a sample of 656 students 12 years of age from
      40 public schools in the 8 county districts (out of a total universe of 3580
      individuals distributed in 70 schools). The dental status of 12-year-old
      schoolchildren living in the localities evaluated showed an unequal distribution;
      sub-groups with high caries prevalence, morbidity and severity were identified,
      requiring the targeting of health interventions. An association between untreated
      disease and lack of social protection was observed.

PMID- 28562729
TI  - [Geographical distribution of fluoride in the public water supply in the province
      of Tucuman, Argentina].
AB  - This work studied the geographical distribution of fluoride content in the public
      water supply in the province of Tucuman, Argentina. A total of 1,210 samples were
      collected in 190 localities of the 17 departments of the province during the 2008
      2012 period. The analytical determination was performed using the SPADNS method
      and QGis 2.16 was used for processing the information. The fluoride content
      requirements in the studied localities were determined according to the Argentine
      Food Code. The results showed that 94% of population studied consumed water with
      fluoride concentrations below the recommended limits, 5% were exposed to fluoride
      concentrations above the required maximum limit and 1% consumed water at optimal
      fluoride concentrations. The maps showed a heterogeneous geographical
      distribution of fluorides, in which areas with deficit, excess and recommended
      values of fluorides can be differentiated; in some departments an inverse
      relationship between the density of the hydrological network and fluoride
      concentration can be observed. In the capital of the province, the average value
      found was 0.32 mg/l, presenting a homogeneous geographical distribution. The
      information obtained is indispensable for the proper management of fluoride, so
      as to improve public health through policy.

PMID- 28562730
TI  - [Socio-epidemiological and cultural aspects of cutaneous leishmaniasis:
      conceptions, attitudes and practices in the populations of Tierralta and Valencia
      (Cordoba, Colombia)].
AB  - This article focuses on the conceptions, attitudes and practices of the
      inhabitants from four villages (veredas) in Tierralta and Valencia (Cordoba,
      Colombia), who have suffered from or are aware of the existence of cutaneous
      leishmaniasis. A mixed methodology was implemented based in a qualitative design
      using interviews and focus groups (n=45) and an epidemiological design which
      included applying the Montenegro test (n=251), uncovering suspected cases of
      cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans, (n=5) and applying epidemiological surveys
      (n=409). Among the results, a lack of knowledge regarding the vector was found;
      although respondents could identify the Lutzomyia (known as "alu"), they did not
      correlate it with cutaneous leishmaniasis. In addition, traditional home
      treatments were more frequently used, increasing the underrecording of cases.
      With respect to healthcare personnel, flaws in diagnosis and treatment were
      found, which reinforces adherence to home treatments. This scenario calls for a
      reflection upon the challenges of the health care system in relation to the
      interventions of health personnel in communities situated in endemic areas.

PMID- 28562731
TI  - [Helminthology according to the philosophy of science of Imre Lakatos].
AB  - Lakatos's philosophy of science has been used for different branches of biology,
      however this has not been true for helminthology. Therefore, this article
      examines the possibility of using his methodology of scientific research
      programmes (SRP) for reconstructing the history of the discipline of
      helminthology. It is upheld that the first SRP in biology was inaugurated by
      Aristotle, and its protective belt included a small group of auxiliary hypotheses
      referring to helminths. This programme continued up until the 17th century, when
      two rival programmes in helminthology arose: the internalist and the externalist.
      After the second half of the 19th century the internalist SRP was abandoned,
      while the externalist considerably broadened its protective belt during the 20th
      century. The internalist programme was abandoned due to the crucial experiments
      of Kuchenmeister, which permitted the consolidation of the externalist SRP.

PMID- 28562732
TI  - [Salt in the diet: opinions, guides and evidence].

PMID- 28562733
TI  - Randomized clinical study on the analgesic effect of local infiltration versus
      spinal block for hemorrhoidectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:: Postoperative analgesia and early recovery are
      important for hospital discharge. The primary objective of this study was to
      compare the analgesic effectiveness of perianal infiltration and subarachnoid
      anesthesia for hemorrhoidectomy. The secondary objective was to compare time to
      discharge, adverse effects and complications. DESIGN AND SETTING:: Randomized,
      prospective and comparative study at Dr. Mario Gatti Hospital. METHODS:: Forty
      patients aged 18-60, in American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status
      category 1 or 2, were included. The local group (LG) received local infiltration
      (0.75% ropivacaine) under general anesthesia; the spinal group (SG) received
      subarachnoid block (2 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine). Analgesic supplementation
      consisted of fentanyl for LG and lidocaine for SG. Postoperative pain intensity,
      sphincter relaxation, lower-limb strength, time to discharge, analgesic dose over
      one week and adverse effects were assessed. RESULTS:: Eleven LG patients (52.4%)
      required supplementation, but no SG patients. Pain intensity was higher for LG up
      to 120 min, but there were no differences at 150 or 180 min. There were no
      differences in the need for paracetamol or tramadol. Times to first analgesic
      supplementation and hospital discharge were longer for SG. The adverse effects
      were nausea, dizziness and urinary retention. CONCLUSIONS:: Pain intensity was
      higher in LG than in SG over the first 2 h, but without differences after 150 and
      180 min. Time to first supplementation was shorter in LG. There were no
      differences in doses of paracetamol and tramadol, or in adverse effects.
      REGISTRATION:: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02839538.

PMID- 28562734
TI  - Simultaneous meningioma and brain metastasis from renal cell carcinoma - a rare
      presentation. Case report.
AB  - CONTEXT:: Brain metastases are the most common tumors of the central nervous
      system. Because of their high frequency, they may be associated with rare
      situations. Among these are tumor-to-tumor metastasis and an even a rarer
      situation called simultaneous brain tumors, which are more related to primary
      tumors of the reproductive and endocrine systems. CASE REPORT:: A 56-year-old
      male patient with a history of renal cell carcinoma (which had previously been
      resected) presented with a ventricular lesion (suggestive of metastatic origin)
      and simultaneous olfactory groove lesion (probably a meningioma). First, only the
      ventricular lesion was dealt with, but after a year, the meningothelial lesion
      increased and an occipital lesion appeared. Therefore, both of these were
      resected in a single operation. All the procedures were performed by the same
      neurosurgeon. The patient evolved without neurological deficits during the
      postoperative period. After these two interventions, the patient remained well
      and was referred for adjuvant treatment. CONCLUSIONS:: This study provides the
      first description of an association between these two tumors. Brain metastases
      may be associated with several lesions, and rare presentations such as
      simultaneity with meningioma should alert neurosurgeons to provide the best
      oncological treatment.

PMID- 28562735
TI  - Dieulafoy's disease of the bronchial tree: a case report.
AB  - CONTEXT:: Dieulafoy's disease of the bronchial tree is a very rare condition. Few
      cases have been reported in the literature. It can be asymptomatic or manifest
      with massive hemoptysis. This disease should be considered among heavy smokers
      when recurrent massive hemoptysis is present amid otherwise normal findings. The
      treatment can be arterial embolization or surgical intervention. CASE REPORT:: A
      16-year-old girl was admitted to the emergency department due to hemoptysis with
      an unknown lesion in the bronchi. She had suffered massive hemoptysis and
      respiratory failure one week before admission. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed a
      lesion in the bronchus of the right lower lobe, which was suspected to be a
      Dieulafoy lesion. Segmentectomy of the right lower lobe and excision of the
      lesion was carried out. The outcome for this patient was excellent. CONCLUSION::
      Dieulafoy's disease is a rare vascular anomaly and it is extremely rare in the
      bronchial tree. In bronchial Dieulafoy's disease, selective embolization has been
      suggested as a method for cessation of bleeding. Nevertheless, standard
      anatomical lung resection is a safe and curative alternative.

PMID- 28562737
TI  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and bariatric surgery: a comprehensive review.
AB  - CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE:: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been
      increasingly diagnosed worldwide and is now recognized as a source of public
      health concern. It comprises a wide spectrum of histological features that range
      from simple steatosis to severe forms of fibrosis, steatohepatitis and even
      cirrhosis. The impact of bariatric surgery on the course of NAFLD in individuals
      with obesity has been extensively studied. DESIGN AND SETTING:: Narrative review;
      public university hospital. METHODS:: A comprehensive review was conducted based
      on an online search on the electronic databases MEDLINE and LILACS using the MeSH
      terms "fatty liver" and "bariatric surgery". RESULTS:: The exact mechanisms that
      lead to improvement in NAFLD following bariatric surgery are not completely
      understood. Since Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is the bariatric surgical
      procedure most performed worldwide, it is also the one from which the effects on
      NAFLD have been most studied, although there is also consistent evidence
      regarding the effects from gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and
      biliopancreatic diversions. CONCLUSION:: According to the currently available
      evidence, bariatric surgery leads to significant improvement in NAFLD. Further
      research, especially by means of randomized controlled trials enrolling larger
      cohorts of individuals, is needed to determine the optimal procedure for this
      group of subjects.

PMID- 28562736
TI  - Bariatric surgery as a treatment for pseudotumor cerebri: case study and
      narrative review of the literature.
AB  - CONTEXT: Pseudotumor cerebri occurs when there is an increase in intracranial
      pressure without an underlying cause, usually leading to loss of vision. It is
      most commonly observed in obese women of child-bearing age. CASE REPORT: A 46
      year-old woman presented at our service with idiopathic intracranial hypertension
      that had been diagnosed two years earlier, which had led to chronic refractory
      headache and an estimated 30% loss of visual acuity, associated with bilateral
      papilledema. She presented partial improvement of the headache with
      acetazolamide, but the visual loss persisted. Her intracranial pressure was 34
      cmH2O. She presented a body mass index of 39.5 kg/m2, also associated with high
      blood pressure. Computed tomography of the cranium with endovenous contrast did
      not show any abnormalities. She underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass with
      uneventful postoperative evolution. One month following surgery, she presented a
      24% excess weight loss. An ophthalmological examination revealed absence of
      visual loss and remission of the papilledema. There were no new episodes of
      headache following the surgery. There was also complete resolution of high blood
      pressure. The intracranial pressure decreased to 24 cmH2O, six months after the
      surgery. CONCLUSION: Although the condition is usually associated with obesity,
      there are few reports of bariatric surgery among individuals with pseudotumor
      cerebri. In cases studied previously, there was high prevalence of resolution or
      improvement of the disease following bariatric surgery. There is no consensus
      regarding which technique is preferable. Thus, further research is necessary in
      order to establish a specific algorithm.

PMID- 28562738
TI  - Metastatic adenocarcinoma involving the right ventricle and pulmonary artery
      leading to right heart failure: case report.
AB  - CONTEXT: Obstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract due to metastatic
      disease is rare. Clinical recognition of cardiac metastatic tumors is rare and
      continues to present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. CASE REPORT: We
      present the case of a patient who had severe respiratory insufficiency and whose
      clinical examinations revealed a giant tumor mass extending from the right
      ventricle to the pulmonary artery. We discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic
      options. CONCLUSION: In patients presenting with acute right heart failure, right
      ventricular masses should be kept in mind. Transthoracic echocardiography appears
      to be the most easily available, noninvasive, cost-effective and useful technique
      in making the differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28562739
TI  - Breaking bad news: doctors' skills in communicating with patients.
AB  - CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE:: Breaking bad news is one of doctors' duties and it
      requires them to have some skills, given that this situation is difficult and
      distressful for patients and their families. Moreover, it is also an
      uncomfortable condition for doctors. The aim of this study was to evaluate
      doctors' capacity to break bad news, ascertain which specialties are best
      prepared for doing this and assess the importance of including this topic within
      undergraduate courses. DESIGN AND SETTING:: Observational cross-sectional
      quantitative study conducted at a university hospital in Belo Horizonte (MG),
      Brazil. METHODS:: This study used a questionnaire based on the SPIKES protocol,
      which was answered by 121 doctors at this university hospital. This questionnaire
      investigated their attitudes, posture, behavior and fears relating to breaking
      bad news. RESULTS:: The majority of the doctors did not have problems regarding
      the concept of bad news. Nevertheless, their abilities diverged depending on the
      stage of the protocol and on their specialty and length of time since graduation.
      Generally, doctors who had graduated more than ten years before this survey felt
      more comfortable and confident, and thus transmitted the bad news in a better
      conducted manner. CONCLUSION:: Much needs to be improved regarding this
      technique. Therefore, inclusion of this topic in undergraduate courses is
      necessary and proposals should be put forward and verified.

PMID- 28562740
TI  - Intensive care unit team perception of palliative care: the discourse of the
      collective subject.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To learn the perception of health professionals in an intensive care
      unit towards palliative care. METHOD: This was a descriptive and qualitative
      study based on the converging care approach conducted at an intensive care unit
      in the South of Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the
      understanding of the professionals about palliative care in this unit. The data
      were organized and analyzed using the discourse of the collective subject method
      with the help of Qualiquantisoft(r) software. RESULTS: Participants included 37
      professionals (12 nurses, 11nursing technicians, 5 physical therapists and 9
      doctors). The key ideas extracted from the interviews were: care in the end stage
      of life that avoids futile measures; comfort care; lack of standardized care and
      lack of team training. CONCLUSION: The professionals perceived palliative care as
      appropriate in the last stages of life, with no need for futile treatment or as
      comfort measures. However, they are aware of the lack of standardization and lack
      of capacity building in this area, which leads them to conceive palliative care
      as terminal care, and measures are recommended to break with this stigma.
      OBJETIVO: Conhecer a percepcao dos profissionais de saude de uma Unidade de
      Terapia Intensiva acerca do cuidado paliativo. METODO: Pesquisa descritiva,
      qualitativa do tipo Convergente Assistencial realizada em uma Unidade de Terapia
      Intensiva da regiao sul do Brasil. Utilizou-se de entrevista semiestruturada que
      investigou o entendimento e a compreensao sobre cuidado paliativo nesta unidade.
      Os dados foram organizados e analisados pela tecnica do discurso do sujeito
      coletivo com auxilio do software Qualiquantisoft(r). RESULTADOS: Participaram do
      estudo 37 profissionais (12 enfermeiros, 11 tecnicos de enfermagem, cinco
      fisioterapeutas e nove medicos). As ideias centrais extraidas dos relatos:
      cuidado na fase terminal da vida sem medidas futeis; cuidados de conforto; falta
      uniformizar a assistencia e falta capacitacao para a equipe. CONCLUSAO: Os
      profissionais percebem o cuidado paliativo apropriado na fase terminal da vida,
      sem necessidade de medidas futeis de tratamento e promotoras de conforto. No
      entanto, estao conscientes da falta de uniformizacao e da sua capacitacao nesta
      materia, o que os leva a conceber o paliativismo como cuidado de terminalidade,
      pelo que se recomendam medidas para romper com este estigma.

PMID- 28562741
TI  - Self-efficacy scale for the establishment of good relationships with families in
      neonatal and pediatric hospital settings.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop and test the psychometric
      properties of the Self-efficacy Scale for the Establishment of Good Relationships
      with Families in Neonatal and Pediatric Hospital Settings. METHOD: Methodological
      study grounded on self-efficacy theory was conducted in three phases: conceptual
      and operational definition (review of the literature and interviews with the
      target population), content validity (opinion of five experts e three clinical
      nurses), and exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency reliability
      (cross-sectional survey with a valid sample of 194 nurses). RESULTS: A ten-point
      Likert scale with 40-item was designed and one item was excluded after review by
      experts. Three factors emerged from the exploratory factor analysis. The
      Cronbach's alpha for all items was 0.983 with item-total correlations in the
      range 0.657 to 0.847. Cronbach's alpha value if item deleted were less than or
      equal to 0.983. CONCLUSION: The final version of the scale demonstrated
      psychometric adequacy. It is a useful tool to be administered in the clinical,
      educational and research nursing fields to measure nurses' self-efficacy beliefs
      concerning the establishment of good relationships with families. OBJETIVO: El
      proposito de este estudio fue desarrollar y probar las propiedades psicometricas
      de la Escala de Autoeficacia para el Establecimiento de Buenas Relaciones con las
      Familias en Ambientes Neonatales y Pediatricos. METODO: Estudio metodologico
      fundamentado en la teoria de la auto-eficacia se realizo en tres fases:
      conceptual y definicion operacional (revision de la literatura y entrevistas con
      la poblacion objetivo), la validez de contenido (opinion de cinco expertos y tres
      enfermeras clinicas), y el factor de analisis exploratorio e fiabilidad interna
      de consistencia (estudio transversal con una muestra valida de 194 enfermeras).
      RESULTADOS: La escala de Likert de diez puntos con 40 items fue disenada y un
      elemento fue excluido despues de la revision por expertos. Hay tres factores que
      emergieron del analisis factorial exploratorio. El alfa de Cronbach para todas
      las partidas fue 0,983, con correlaciones item-total en el rango de 0,657 a
      0.847. El Valor alfa de Cronbach excluyendo el item quedo inferior o igual a
      0.983. CONCLUSION: La version final de la escala demostro psicometria adecuada.
      Se trata de una herramienta util para ser administrada en los campos clinicos,
      educativos y de enfermeria de investigacion para medir las creencias de
      autoeficacia de enfermeros sobre el establecimiento de buenas relaciones con las
      familias.

PMID- 28562742
TI  - Factors associated with the incidence of pressure ulcer during hospital stay.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Estimating the incidence rate of pressure ulcers and verifying factors
      associated with this occurrence in a cohort of hospitalized patients. METHOD:
      This is a cohort study in which the considered outcome was the time until
      pressure ulcer occurrence. Estimated effect of the variables on the cumulative
      incidence ratio of the outcome was performed using the Cox proportional hazards
      model. Variable selection occurred via the Logrank hypothesis test. RESULTS: The
      sample consisted of 442 adults, with 25 incidents of pressure ulcers. Patients
      with high scores on the Braden scale presented a higher risk of pressure ulcer
      incidence when compared to those classified into the low score category.
      CONCLUSION: These results reinforce the importance of using the Braden Scale to
      assist in identifying patients more likely to develop pressure ulcers. OBJETIVO:
      Estimar a taxa de incidencia de ulcera por pressao e verificar fatores associados
      a essa ocorrencia em uma coorte de pacientes hospitalizados. METODO: Trata-se de
      estudo de coorte no qual o desfecho foi a ocorrencia da ulcera por pressao. A
      estimativa do efeito das variaveis para a proporcao de incidencia acumulada do
      desfecho foi realizada utilizando o modelo de riscos proporcionais de Cox. A
      selecao das variaveis ocorreu por meio do teste de hipoteses Logrank. RESULTADOS:
      A amostra foi composta de 442 adultos, com 25 casos incidentes de ulcera por
      pressao. Pacientes com altos escores na escala de Braden apresentaram maior risco
      de incidencia de ulcera por pressao quando comparados com aqueles classificados
      na categoria de baixo escore. CONCLUSAO: Os resultados reforcam a importancia do
      uso da Escala de Braden para auxiliar na identificacao dos pacientes com maior
      probabilidade de desenvolver ulcera por pressao.

PMID- 28562743
TI  - Reproductive aspects and knowledge of family planning among women with Acquired
      Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the reproductive aspects and knowledge of family planning
      among women with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). METHOD: Cross
      sectional and descriptive study carried out from January to December, 2015, in
      the outpatient care of infectious disease unit in a hospital located in
      Fortaleza, Ceara. Data were collected through a form applied by interview in a
      private setting. RESULTS: 102 women participated in the study. Most were aware
      that they were serologically positive with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
      during prenatal care (96.1%) and did not intend to have more children (63.7%).
      Women who were less than 39 years of age, had a higher educational level, and a
      shorter time of antiretroviral therapy had better chances of having children
      (p<=0.05). Having a steady partner increased the chance of desiring to have
      children, while tubal ligation was higher among women that did not receive
      counseling on family planning. Knowledge of family planning was limited because
      of lack of assistance provided by health professionals. OBJETIVO: Analisar
      aspectos reprodutivos e conhecimento sobre planejamento familiar de mulheres com
      sindrome da imunodeficiencia adquirida (Aids). METODO: Estudo transversal,
      descritivo, realizado de janeiro a dezembro de 2015, no ambulatorio de
      infectologia de um hospital em Fortaleza, Ceara. Os dados foram coletados por
      meio de formulario, aplicado por entrevista em ambiente privativo. RESULTADOS:
      Participaram do estudo 102 mulheres. A maioria delas teve conhecimento da
      sorologia positiva para virus da imunodeficiencia humana (HIV) durante o pre
      natal (96,1%), e estas nao pretendiam mais ter filhos (63,7%). Mulheres com idade
      menor que 39 anos, maior escolaridade e menor tempo de terapia antirretroviral
      tiveram maiores chances de ter filhos (p<=0,05). Mulheres com idade menor que 39
      anos e maior escolaridade tiveram maiores chances de ter informacoes corretas
      sobre ter filhos na vigencia do HIV (p<=0,05). Ter parceiro fixo aumentou a
      chance de desejar ter filhos, enquanto a laqueadura tubaria foi maior em mulheres
      que nao receberam orientacoes sobre planejamento familiar. CONCLUSAO: A maioria
      das mulheres com Aids nao pretendem mais ter filhos. O conhecimento sobre o
      planejamento familiar foi limitado por falta de orientacoes pelos profissionais
      de saude. OBJETIVO: Analizar aspectos reproductivos y el conocimiento acerca de
      planificacion familiar de las mujeres con sindrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida
      (SIDA). METODO: Estudio transversal, descriptivo realizado de enero a diciembre
      de 2015, en la sala de enfermedades infecciosas de un hospital de Fortaleza,
      Ceara. Los datos fueron recolectados a traves de una entrevista semiestructurada
      de forma de cuestionario en un ambito privado. RESULTADOS: El estudio incluyo a
      102 mujeres. La mayoria de ellos tenian conocimiento de ser seropositivas para el
      virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH) durante la atencion prenatal (96,1%),
      y que no tenia intencion de tener mas hijos (63,7%). Mujeres menores de 39 anos,
      con educacion superior y terapia antirretroviral mas corta eran mas propensas a
      tener hijos (p=0,05). Mujeres con edades de menos de 39 anos y mas educacion
      tenian mas probabilidades de tener la informacion correcta acerca de tener hijos
      en presencia del VIH (p=0,05). Tener pareja estable aumento la posibilidad de
      desear tener hijos, mientras que la ligadura de trompas fue mayor en las mujeres
      que no han recibido orientacion sobre la planificacion familiar. CONCLUSION: La
      mayoria de las mujeres con SIDA no tienen intencion de tener hijos. El
      conocimiento acerca de la planificacion familiar se vio limitada por la falta de
      orientacion por los profesionales de la salud.

PMID- 28562744
TI  - Common mental disorders and associated factors: a study of women from a rural
      area.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identifying the prevalence of Common Mental Disorders and analyzing
      the influence of sociodemographic, economic, behavioral and reproductive health
      variables on Common Mental Disorders in women of childbearing age living in the
      rural area of Uberaba-MG, Brazil. METHOD: An observational and cross-sectional
      study. Socio-demographic, economic, behavioral and reproductive health
      instruments were used, along with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) to
      identify common mental disorders. Multiple logistic regression was used for
      multivariate data analysis. RESULTS: 280 women participated in the study. The
      prevalence of Common Mental Disorders was 35.7%. In the logistic regression
      analysis, the variables of living with a partner and education level were
      associated with Common Mental Disorders, even after adjusting for the other
      variables. CONCLUSION: Our findings evidenced an association of social and
      behavioral factors with Common Mental Disorders among rural women. Identification
      and individualized care in primary health care are essential for the quality of
      life of these women. OBJETIVO: Identificar a prevalencia do transtorno mental
      comum e analisar a influencia de variaveis sociodemograficas, economicas,
      comportamentais e de saude reprodutiva sobre o transtorno mental comum em
      mulheres em idade fertil, residentes na zona rural do municipio de Uberaba-MG,
      Brasil. METODO: Estudo observacional e transversal. Foram utilizados instrumentos
      de caracterizacao sociodemografica, economica, comportamental e de saude
      reprodutiva, e o Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) para identificar os
      transtornos mentais comuns. Na analise multivariada dos dados, foi utilizada a
      regressao logistica multipla. RESULTADOS: Participaram do estudo 280 mulheres. A
      prevalencia do transtorno mental comum foi de 35,7%. Na analise de regressao
      logistica, as variaveis convivencia com o companheiro e escolaridade, associaram
      se ao transtorno mental comum, mesmo apos o ajuste para as demais variaveis.
      CONCLUSAO: Os achados evidenciaram a associacao de fatores sociais e
      comportamentais com o transtorno mental comum, entre mulheres rurais. A
      identificacao e a assistencia individualizada na atencao primaria de saude sao
      essenciais para a qualidade de vida destas mulheres. OBJETIVO: Identificar la
      prevalencia de trastornos mentales comunes y analizar la influencia de las
      variables socio-demograficas, economicas, de comportamiento y de salud
      reproductiva en el trastorno mental comun en las mujeres en edad fertil, que
      viven en el municipio rural de Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brasil. METODO: Estudio
      observacional y transversal. Se usaron instrumentos sociodemograficos,
      economicos, de comportamiento y salud reproductiva, y el Self-Reporting
      Questionnaire (SRQ-20) para identificar los trastornos mentales comunes. En el
      analisis multifactorial de los datos, se utilizo la regresion logistica multiple.
      RESULTADOS: El estudio incluyo a 280 mujeres. La prevalencia de los trastornos
      mentales comunes fue de 35,7%. En el analisis de regresion logistica, las
      variables convivencia con su pareja y la escolarizacion se asociaron con
      trastorno mental comun, incluso despues de ajustar por otras variables.
      CONCLUSION: Los resultados muestran la relacion entre los factores sociales y de
      comportamiento con el trastorno mental comun entre las mujeres rurales. La
      identificacion y la atencion individual en la atencion primaria de salud son
      esenciales para la calidad de vida de las mujeres.

PMID- 28562745
TI  - The nursing department's view towards moroccan patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the Melilla Hospital Nursing Department's attitude
      towards Moroccan patients. METHOD: Descriptive ex post facto study. A
      questionnaire has been handed over to staff, on the Immigration Attitude Scale
      for Nursing. RESULTS: In general, nurses exhibit negative attitudes towards
      Moroccan patients, such as: the increase in crime is caused by the arrival of
      immigrants, those who commit offenses must be expelled from Spain, they take
      advantage of the Spanish health system and too many resources are devoted to
      immigration. The worst-rated immigrants are the Moroccans, considering that they
      do not pay much attention to their personal hygiene and do not adapt to their
      host countries. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to work with the nursing staff to
      change these attitudes. Future degree students must be trained in cultural skills
      and the care of immigrants will improve with a greater commitment towards
      cultural differences. OBJETIVO: Conocer la actitud de enfermeria del Hospital de
      Melilla hacia los pacientes marroquies. METODO: Estudio ex post facto
      descriptivo. Se ha pasado un cuestionario de Escala de Actitud ante la
      Inmigracion para Enfermeria. RESULTADOS: En general las enfermeras presentan
      actitudes negativas ante los pacientes marroquies, como: el aumento de la
      delincuencia es provocado por la llegada de inmigrantes, los que delinquen deben
      ser expulsados de Espana, se aprovechan del sistema sanitario y se dedican
      demasiados recursos para la inmigracion. Los inmigrantes peores valorados son los
      marroquies, considerando que son pocos cuidadosos con su higiene personal y no se
      adaptan a los paises de acogida. CONCLUSION: Es necesario trabajar con el
      personal de enfermeria para que cambien estas actitudes. Las futuras promociones
      de Grado deben estar formadas en competencias culturales y mejoraran los cuidados
      a los inmigrantes como un mayor compromiso con la diferencia cultural.

PMID- 28562746
TI  - Perioperative fasting time among cancer patients submitted to gastrointestinal
      surgeries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the length of perioperative fasting among patients
      submitted to gastrointestinal cancer surgeries. METHOD: Retrospective cohort
      study, developed by consulting the medical records of 128 patients submitted to
      gastrointestinal cancer surgeries. RESULTS: The mean of total length of fasting
      was 107.6 hours. The total length of fasting was significantly associated with
      the number of symptoms presented before (p=0.000) and after the surgery
      (p=0.007), the length of hospital stay (p=0.000), blood transfusion (p=0.013),
      nasogastric tube (p=0.001) and nasojejunal tube (p=0,003), postoperative
      admission at ICU (p=0.002), postoperative death (p=0.000) and length of
      preoperative fasting (p=0.000). CONCLUSION: The length of fasting is associated
      with complications that affect the quality of the patients' postoperative
      recovery and nurses' work. The nursing team should be alert to this aspect and
      being responsible for overseeing the patients' interest, should not permit the
      unnecessary extension of fasting. OBJETIVO: Identificar la duracion del ayuno
      perioperatorio entre los pacientes sometidos a cirugias de cancer
      gastrointestinal. METODO: Estudio de cohorte retrospectivo, por consulta de los
      registros medicos de 128 pacientes sometidos a cirugias de cancer
      gastrointestinal. RESULTADOS: La media de la duracion total del ayuno fue de
      107,6 horas. La duracion total del ayuno se asocio significativamente con el
      numero de sintomas presentados antes (p=0,000) y despues de la cirugia (p=0,007),
      la duracion de la estancia hospitalaria (p=0,000), transfusion de sangre
      (p=0,013),tubo nasogastrico (P=0,003), ingreso postoperatorio en la UCI
      (p=0,002), muerte postoperatoria (p=0,000) y duracion del ayuno preoperatorio
      (p=0,000). CONCLUSION: La duracion del ayuno se asocia con complicaciones que
      afectan la calidad de la recuperacion postoperatoria de los pacientes y el
      trabajo de enfermeria. El equipo de enfermeria debe estar alerta en relacion a
      este aspecto y ser responsable de supervisar el interes de los pacientes, no
      permitiendo la extension innecesaria del ayuno.

PMID- 28562747
TI  - Pain assessment and management in patients undergoing endovascular procedures in
      the catheterization laboratory.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe how pain is assessed (characteristic, location, and
      intensity) and managed in clinical practice in patients undergoing endovascular
      procedures in the catheterization laboratory setting. METHOD: Cross-sectional
      study with retrospective data collection. RESULTS: Overall, 345 patients were
      included; 116 (34%) experienced post-procedural pain; in 107 (92%), pain
      characteristics were not recorded; the location of pain was reported in 100% of
      patients, and its intensity in 111 (96%); management was largely pharmacologic;
      of the patients who received some type of management (n=71), 42 (59%) underwent
      reassessment of pain. CONCLUSION: The location and intensity of pain are well
      reported in clinical practice. Pharmacologic pain management is still prevalent.
      Additional efforts are needed to ensure recording of the characteristics of pain
      and its reassessment after interventions. OBJETIVO: Describir como se evalua el
      dolor (caracteristicas, localizacion e intensidad) y su manejo en la practica
      clinica en pacientes sometidos a procedimientos endovasculares en el laboratorio
      de cateterizacion. METODO: Estudio transversal con recoleccion retrospectiva de
      datos. RESULTADOS: En total, se incluyeron 345 pacientes; 116 (34%)
      experimentaron dolor post-procedimiento; en 107 (92%), no se registraron las
      caracteristicas del dolor; la localizacion del dolor se informo en el 100% de los
      pacientes, y su intensidad en 111 (96%); el manejo fue en gran medida
      farmacologico; de los pacientes que recibieron algun tipo de tratamiento (n=71),
      42 (59%) fueron sometidos a reevaluacion del dolor. CONCLUSION: La ubicacion y la
      intensidad del dolor se informan bien en la practica clinica. El manejo
      farmacologico del dolor sigue siendo frecuente. Se necesitan esfuerzos
      adicionales para asegurar el registro de las caracteristicas del dolor y su
      reevaluacion despues de las intervenciones.

PMID- 28562748
TI  - Implications of SNPs on toll-like receptor genes in malaria: what do we know?

PMID- 28562749
TI  - A meta-analysis of TLR4 and TLR9 SNPs implicated in severe malaria.
AB  - Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical mediators of the inflammatory response to
      malarial infection, and gene polymorphisms affecting TLR function may be
      partially responsible for inter-individual variation in disease manifestation.
      However, there are inconsistencies in the associations of common genetic variants
      of TLR4 (D299G) and TLR9 (T-1237C and T-1486C) with malaria outcome. A
      comprehensive search was conducted to identify relevant and independent
      Plasmodium falciparum-infected case-control studies, and meta-analysis including
      six studies for each SNP was performed to obtain more precise estimates of the
      pooled effects of these variants. The results showed significant associations of
      the -1486C allele with the risk of severe malaria in allele contrast (T vs. C, p
      = 0.004, OR = 1.26) and homozygous (TT vs. CC, p = 0.03, OR = 1.51) genetic
      models. There was no association between the D299G or T-1237C variants and
      uncomplicated or severe malaria using any of the genetic models tested. However,
      in stratified analysis, -1237C was associated with the risk of severe malaria in
      Indian adults (TT vs. TC, p = 0.06, OR = 2.13; TT vs. TC+CC, p <0.00001, OR =
      2.65), suggesting that our results must be considered preliminary. The robustness
      of -1486C as a risk factor warrants investigation into its functionality in
      malaria pathogenesis. Further, the lack of an association with the T-1237C
      variant was weak, and future studies examining more detailed individual data from
      different ethnic groups are essential for confirmation of its genetic
      contribution to malaria.

PMID- 28562750
TI  - Circulating microRNA as a marker for predicting liver disease progression in
      patients with chronic hepatitis B.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) constitutes an important risk factor for
      cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The link between circulating
      microRNAs and HBV has been previously reported, although not as a marker of liver
      disease progression in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The aim of this study was to
      characterize miRNA expression profiles between CHB with and without cirrhosis or
      HCC. METHODS: : A total of 12 subjects were recruited in this study. We employed
      an Affymetrix Gene Chip miRNA 3.0 Array to provide universal miRNA coverage. We
      compared microRNA expression profiles between CHB with and without cirrhosis/HCC
      to discover possible prognostic markers associated with the progression of CHB.
      RESULTS: : Our results indicated 8 differently expressed microRNAs, of which
      miRNA-935, miRNA-342, miRNA-339, miRNA-4508, miRNA-3615, and miRNA-3200 were up
      regulated, whereas miRNA-182 and miRNA-4485 were down-regulated in patients with
      CHB who progressed to cirrhosis/HCC as compared to those without progression.
      CONCLUSIONS: : We demonstrated the differential expression of miRNA-935, miRNA
      342, miRNA-339, miRNA-4508, miRNA-3615, miRNA-3200, miRNA-182, and miRNA-4485
      between patients with HBV without cirrhosis/HCC and those who had progressed to
      these more severe conditions. These miRNAs may serve as novel and non-invasive
      prognostic markers for early detection of CHB-infected patients who are at risk
      of progression to cirrhosis and/or HCC.

PMID- 28562751
TI  - Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii contamination in an intensive care
      unit.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Acinetobacter baumannii is a major pathogen causing infections in
      intensive care units (ICUs). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the presence of
      A. baumannii in an ICU environment and gloves from ICU workers and to
      characterize the antimicrobial resistance of the isolates in comparison with
      those isolated from ICU patients at the same hospital. METHODS:: ICU samples were
      collected from March to November 2010. Isolates biochemically characterized as
      Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii complex were evaluated by PCR
      targeting the 16S rDNA and bla OXA-51 genes. Antimicrobial susceptibility was
      determined using the disk diffusion method, and carbapenem-resistant isolates
      were also evaluated for the minimum inhibitory concentration of imipenem using
      broth microdilution. The presence of the bla OXA-23 gene was evaluated in
      isolates with reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. RESULTS:: A. baumannii was
      detected in 9.5% (84) of the 886 samples collected from the ICU environment,
      including from furniture, medical devices, and gloves, with bed rails being the
      most contaminated location (23.8%; 20/84). Multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii
      was found in 98.8% (83/84) of non-clinical and 97.8% (45/46) of clinical
      isolates. Reduced susceptibility to carbapenems was detected in 83.3% (70/84) of
      non-clinical and 80.4% (37/46) of clinical isolates. All isolates resistant to
      carbapenems harbored bla OXA-23. CONCLUSIONS:: We found a strong similarity
      between the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of non-clinical and clinical A.
      baumannii isolates. Such data highlight the ICU environment as a potential origin
      for the persistence of MDR A. baumannii, and hence the ICU may be a source of
      hospital-acquired infections caused by this microorganism.

PMID- 28562752
TI  - Phenotypic methods for screening carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and
      assessment of their antimicrobial susceptibility profile.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: : In this study, we used phenotypic methods to screen carbapenem
      resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CREs) and evaluated their antimicrobial sensitivity
      profile. METHODS:: One hundred and seventy-eight CREs were isolated at a
      university hospital in south Brazil in a one-year period. Samples were assessed
      using disk diffusion tests with inhibitors of beta-lactamases such as
      phenylboronic acid (AFB), cloxacillin (CLOXA), and ethylenediaminetetraacetic
      acid (EDTA). Strains with differences in zone diameters >= 5mm for disks
      supplemented or not were considered producers of carbapenemases. RESULTS: :
      Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most prevalent CRE, which appeared in 80.3% cases
      (n = 143). Among clinical materials, the rectal swab was responsible for 43.4% of
      the isolations (n = 62), followed by urine (18.9%; n = 27). Among the CREs
      identified in this study, the growth of 56.7% (n = 101) isolates, which were
      putative producers of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC), were inhibited
      by AFB, whereas 7.3% (n = 13) isolates were inhibited by both AFB and CLOXA and
      were considered as putative producers of plasmid-mediated AmpC; approximately
      3.4% (n = 6) were inhibited by EDTA, which possibly produced metallo-beta
      lactamase. Lastly, 32.6% (n = 58) cases showed negative results for AFB, CLOXA,
      and EDTA sensitivity, and represented another class of beta-lactamases and/or
      mechanism of resistance. CONCLUSIONS:: Phenotypic screening of CREs is important
      for clinical laboratories that monitor outbreaks of resistant microbes.
      Phenotypic tests that use carbapenemase inhibitors and enhancers such as AFB,
      CLOXA, and EDTA are necessary since they are good screening methods for the
      detection of carbapenemases.

PMID- 28562753
TI  - Group B Streptococcus detection in pregnant women via culture and PCR methods.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Group B Streptococcus (GBS), a source of neonatal infection,
      colonizes the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts of pregnant women.
      Routine screening for maternal GBS in late pregnancy and consequent intrapartum
      antibiotic prophylaxis have reduced the incidence of early-onset GBS neonatal
      infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of PCR, compared
      to culture (gold standard), in GBS colonization screening of pregnant women, and
      to establish the prevalence of GBS colonization among this population. METHODS::
      Vaginal introitus and perianal samples were collected from 204 pregnant women,
      between the 35th and 37th weeks of pregnancy, at the Obstetrics and Gynecology
      Unit of the University of Caxias do Sul General Hospital between June 2008 and
      September 2009. All samples were cultured after enrichment in a selective medium
      and then assayed by culture and PCR methods. RESULTS:: The culture and PCR
      methods yielded detection rates of vaginal/perianal GBS colonization of 22.5% and
      26%, respectively (sensitivity 100%; specificity 95.6%; positive and negative
      predictive values 86.8% and 100%, respectively). A higher prevalence of GBS
      colonization was detected in the combined vaginal and perianal samples by both
      culture and PCR assay analyses. CONCLUSIONS:: PCR is a faster and more efficient
      method for GBS screening, allowing for optimal identification of women who should
      receive intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent newborn infection.

PMID- 28562754
TI  - Evaluation of antioxidant therapy in experimental Chagas disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Stimulation of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and
      chemokines may cause oxidative stress in Chagas disease. In this study, we
      evaluated the merit of vitamins C and E as antioxidant therapy to minimize the
      oxidative stress-induced damage in an experimental model of Chagas disease.
      METHODS:: Ninety-six Swiss mice were infected with Trypanosoma cruzi QM2 and
      treated with vitamins C, E, or both (C/E) for 60 and 120 days, and their effects
      compared to placebo administration were evaluated in the acute and chronic
      disease phases. RESULTS: : There was no difference in parasitemia among treatment
      groups. However, histological analysis showed more severe inflammation in the
      skeletal muscle in the vitamin supplementation groups at both the acute and
      chronic phases. Biochemical analyses during the acute phase showed increased
      ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) and glutathione (GSH) levels in the
      vitamin C and C/E groups. In the chronic phase, a decrease in GSH levels was
      observed in the vitamin E group and a decrease in thiobarbituric acid reactive
      substances (TBARS) was observed in the vitamin C/E group. Moreover, there was a
      decrease in TBARS in the cardiac tissues of the vitamin C and C/E groups compared
      to that of the placebo group, although this level was greater in the vitamin E
      group than in the vitamin C group. CONCLUSIONS: : The antioxidant action of
      vitamins C and E reduced oxidative stress in both the acute and chronic phases of
      Chagas disease, with a marked effect from joint administration, indicating their
      inherent synergism.

PMID- 28562755
TI  - Evaluating respiratory musculature, quality of life, anxiety, and depression
      among patients with indeterminate chronic Chagas disease and symptoms of
      pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Chagas disease (CD) is progressive and incapacitating, especially
      when cardiopulmonary function is affected. For example, respiratory muscle
      weakness can cause dyspnea upon exertion and fatigue, which may be exacerbated
      when it is associated with pulmonary hypertension (PH). The present study aimed
      to evaluate respiratory musculature, quality of life, anxiety, and depression
      among patients with indeterminate chronic CD and symptoms of PH. METHODS:: All
      individuals completed a clinical evaluation, spirometry, a 6-min walking test,
      respiratory musculature testing using maximum inspiratory pressure (PImax) and
      maximum expiratory pressure (PEmax), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale,
      and the SF-36 questionnaire. RESULTS:: We evaluated 107 patients who were
      assigned to a control group with only CD (G1, 8 patients), a group with CD and
      possible PH (G2, 93 patients), and a group with CD and echocardiography evidence
      of PH (G3, 6 patients). The three groups had similar values for PImax and PEmax.
      Compared to the G1 and G2 groups, the G3 group covered significantly less
      distance during the 6-min walking test and had a significantly shorter predicted
      distance (p < 0.05 vs. the G1 group). All three groups had similar values for
      their spirometry results, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores, and SF-36
      questionnaire results. CONCLUSIONS:: Patients with indeterminate chronic CD and
      symptoms of PH did not experience significant impairment in the studied
      variables, with the exception of the 6-min walking test, which suggests a low
      exercise tolerance.

PMID- 28562756
TI  - Concordance between IFNgamma gene +874 A/T polymorphism and interferon-gamma
      expression in a TB-endemic indigenous setting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: : Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) plays a crucial role in resistance
      to mycobacterial diseases; accordingly, variants of the gene encoding this
      cytokine may be associated with elevated risk of contracting pulmonary
      tuberculosis (TB). METHODS:: Blood samples were collected from 135 Warao
      indigenous individuals with newly diagnosed sputum culture-positive TB. Of these,
      24 were diagnosed with active tuberculosis (ATB). The study comprised 111
      participants, who were grouped as follows: 1) 14 tuberculin skin test (TST)
      positive Warao indigenous individuals and 4 that were QuantiFERON-TB?Gold In-Tube
      (QFT-IT) test-positive, collectively comprising the latent TB infection group
      (LTBI), n = 18), and 2) healthy controls who were QFT-IT- and TST-negative,
      comprising the control group (CTRL, n = 93). Detection of the IFN gamma gene
      (IFNG) +874A/T polymorphism was performed via PCR and quantification of IFNG
      expression via qPCR. RESULTS: : Relative to indigenous and white Americans, ATB
      and CTRL groups had a higher frequency of the IFNG SNP (+874A): 23 (95.8%) and
      108 (97.3%), respectively. Indigenous Warao individuals homozygous for the IFNG
      (+874) A allele exhibited 3.59-fold increased risk of developing TB (95%
      confidence interval, 2.60-4.96, p =0.0001). A decreased frequency of the AT
      genotype was observed in individuals with pulmonary TB (4.16%) and controls
      (0.90%). The frequency of the TT genotype was decreased among controls (1.80%);
      none of the patients with TB were found to have this genotype. The differences in
      IFNG expression between the groups, under unstimulated and stimulated conditions,
      were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS:: Preliminary results demonstrate
      concordance between IFNG +874 A/A genotype and low expression of IFNG.

PMID- 28562757
TI  - Analysis of clinical data and T helper 1/T helper 2 responses in patients with
      different clinical forms of leprosy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: : Currently, there are no laboratory tests or sensitive and
      specific molecular markers for the early diagnosis of leprosy. The aim of this
      study was to analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with leprosy and
      investigate their immunological profile, comparing this with the type of lesion
      and the presence or absence of a Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination scar.
      METHODS:: Statistical analyzes were performed by employing comparative tests
      (Pearson's chi-square) to evaluate the variables in different clinical forms,
      considering significance at the 5% level. RESULTS: : The study identified a
      predominance of lepromatous leprosy (26.9%) in patients aged between 34-53 years.
      Caucasians predominantly had borderline tuberculoid (BT) clinical forms (42%); a
      predominance of males with borderline lepromatous (19%) and lepromatous leprosy
      (26.9%) forms was observed; and the presence of BCG vaccination scars (27.5%) and
      lower limb nerves were more affected (38%) predominantly in the BT clinical form.
      Significant differences were identified, which included hypochromic lesions
      predominantly in the BT clinical form (24%); diffuse-type lesions predominantly
      in the tuberculoid (TT) clinical form (28%); ill-defined lesion border dominance
      in lepromatous leprosy (LL) clinical forms (30%); an irregular lesion limit
      predominantly in LL clinical forms (32%); and a predominant Th1 immune response
      in the BT clinical form (41.7%). CONCLUSIONS: : The evaluation of the
      immunological profile in leprosy patients may contribute to the more detailed
      diagnosis and possibly better characterization of the prognosis for these
      individuals.

PMID- 28562758
TI  - Presence of Mycobacterium leprae genotype 4 in environmental waters in Northeast
      Brazil.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: This study quantified Mycobacterium leprae bacilli in
      environmental water samples from five municipalities in the State of Ceara by
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and compared the identified
      genotypes with those obtained from leprosy patient biopsies. METHODS:: We
      collected five replicas from each of the 30 selected reservoirs and skin lesion
      biopsies from 25 new leprosy cases treated at a reference center in Fortaleza,
      Ceara from 2010 to 2013. The 16S rRNA gene region of M. leprae was amplified by
      qPCR and a standard curve was created with the pIDTBlue 16SrRNAMlep plasmid. The
      Juazeiro do Norte water samples and the biopsies were genotyped (single
      nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] 1 to 4) and the SNP 4 genotypes were subtyped.
      RESULTS:: Of the 149 water samples analyzed, 54.4% were positive for the M.
      leprae DNA. The M. leprae bacilli copy number ranged from 1.42 * 10 -1 to 1.44 *
      10 + 2 . Most biopsies showed SNP type 4 (64%), while all samples from Juazeiro
      do Norte were SNP type 4, with subtype 4-N appearing at the highest frequency.
      CONCLUSIONS:: We suggest that environmental waters containing M. leprae bacilli
      play an important role in disease transmission, justifying PGL-1 seropositivity
      in individuals living in areas where there is no reported case, and in leprosy
      cases individuals who report no previous contact with other case. Therefore,
      further investigation is needed to clarify disease transmission in this region
      and to explore the role of the environment. We also suggest that in this area
      surveillance for leprosy cases should be intensified.

PMID- 28562759
TI  - Assessment of the sensory and physical limitations imposed by leprosy in a
      Brazilian Amazon Population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Leprosy often results in sensory and physical limitations. This
      study aimed to evaluate these limitations using a quantitative approach in
      leprosy patients in Belem (Para, Brazil). METHODS: This epidemiological, cross
      sectional study measured the sensory impairment of smell and taste through the
      use of a questionnaire and evaluated activity limitations of daily life imposed
      by leprosy through the Screening of Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness
      (SALSA) Scale. Data were collected from 84 patients and associations between the
      degree of disability and clinical and epidemiological characteristics were
      assessed. RESULTS: The majority of patients were men (64.3%), married (52.4%),
      age 31-40 years old (26.2%), had primary education (50%), and were independent
      laborers (36.9%). The multibacillary operational classification (81%), borderline
      clinical form (57.1%), and 0 degrees of physical disability (41.7%) were
      predominant. SALSA scores ranged from 17 to 59 points, and being without
      limitations was predominant (53.6%). The risk awareness score ranged from 0 to 8,
      with a score of 0 (no awareness of risk) being the most common (56%). Evaluation
      of smell and taste sensory sensitivities revealed that 70.2% did not experience
      these sensory changes. Patients with leprosy reactions were 7 times more likely
      to develop activity limitations, and those who had physical disabilities were
      approximately four times more likely to develop a clinical picture of activity
      limitations. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients showed no sensory changes, but patients
      with leprosy reactions were significantly more likely to develop activity
      limitations. Finally, further studies should be performed, assessing a higher
      number of patients to confirm the present results.

PMID- 28562760
TI  - ?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: : Bottlenecks still exist during human immunodeficiency virus care
      that may delay the achievement of better outcomes. METHODS: : We established a
      monitoring system to trace patients throughout the human immunodeficiency
      virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome care process in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, to
      identify potential bottlenecks. RESULTS: : Among 250 patients, 17.6% abandoned
      follow-up. Our monitoring system tracked 86.4% of patients through the medication
      logistics control system and 2.3% through the mortality information system. Two
      percent of patients were not located by our monitoring system. CONCLUSIONS: : A
      pathway care process contributes to a better understanding of the barriers to the
      treatment cascade.

PMID- 28562761
TI  - Ascogregarina taiwanensis infection in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in
      Santa Catarina, South Brazil.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study registers Ascogregarina spp. infection in field
      populations of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in a subtropical region of
      Brazil. METHODS: Mosquito larvae collected in tires placed in four municipalities
      of Santa Catarina were identified morphologically and assessed for Ascogregarina
      sp. infection using morphological and molecular methods. RESULTS: Both mosquito
      species harbored Ascogregarina taiwanensis, whose genomic DNA was confirmed in
      both the Aedes species by PCR. DNA sequences were deposited in GenBank.
      Conclusion: Both Ae. albopictus e Ae. aegypti harbor Ascogregarina sp.

PMID- 28562762
TI  - A duplex endpoint PCR assay for rapid detection and differentiation of Leptospira
      strains.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: This study aimed to develop a duplex endpoint PCR assay for rapid
      detection and differentiation of Leptospira strains. METHODS:: Primers were
      designed to target the rrs (LG1/LG2) and ligB (LP1/LP2) genes to confirm the
      presence of the Leptospira genus and the pathogenic species, respectively.
      RESULTS:: The assay showed 100% specificity against 17 Leptospira strains with a
      limit of detection of 23.1pg/ul of leptospiral DNA and sensitivity of 103
      leptospires/ml in both spiked urine and water. CONCLUSIONS:: Our duplex endpoint
      PCR assay is suitable for rapid early detection of Leptospira with high
      sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28562763
TI  - Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of non-fermenting Gram-negative
      bacilli isolated from clinical samples at a tertiary care hospital.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: We compared the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of non
      fermenting gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) isolated from clinical samples at a
      Brazilian tertiary care hospital in 2008 and 2013. METHODS:: Collected data
      included patient's name, age, sex, inpatient unit, laboratory record number, type
      of biological material, culture test result, and antimicrobial susceptibility of
      isolated strains. RESULTS:: Out of 19,112 culture tests analyzed, 926 (4.8%) were
      positive for NFGNB. Among these, 45.2% were metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL)
      producing strains. CONCLUSION: : Between 2008 and 2013, the number of MBL
      producing NFGNB isolates increased by 21.5%, which was accompanied by a
      consequent reduction in susceptibility to antimicrobials.

PMID- 28562764
TI  - Serosurvey of anti- Leptospira sp. and anti- Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in
      capybaras and collared and white-lipped peccaries.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Brazilian native species are reemerging as increasingly free
      ranging populations. METHODS:: Sera from 31 capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
      and 28 peccaries (Pecari tajacu and Tayassu pecari) were tested for anti
      Leptospira and anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies using microscopic
      seroagglutination test. RESULTS:: Nineteen percent of free-ranging and 10.0% of
      captive capybaras, along with 31.8% of collared peccaries, were seropositive for
      T. gondii. None was seropositive for Leptospira sp. CONCLUSIONS:: The present
      findings indicated low risk of disease, particularly among capybaras and white
      lipped peccaries; however, active surveillance programs are important for
      monitoring wildlife health and public health once they are in public parks around
      cities.

PMID- 28562765
TI  - Leprosy in Southern Brazil: a twenty-year epidemiological profile.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: This study evaluated leprosy rates in Rio Grande do Sul, an area
      with a historically low prevalence. However, recent studies are lacking.
      METHODS:: Data extracted from a National Database were analyzed for clinical
      features and compared to 1980s data. Tendency was assessed via stationarity
      analysis. RESULTS:: Between 1990 and 2011, 4,770 cases were reported (0.21/10,000
      inhabitants; 95% CI = 0.19-0.24). Detection was slightly higher among males, 1.9%
      cases were among children and most multibacillary (74.7%) at diagnosis.
      CONCLUSIONS:: Leprosy is controlled in RS, but most cases are multibacillary.
      Early identification is important to avoid disabilities due to late diagnosis.

PMID- 28562766
TI  - Wuchereria bancrofti infection in Haitian immigrants and the risk of re-emergence
      of lymphatic filariasis in the Brazilian Amazon.
AB  - INTRODUCTION:: Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a public health problem in Haiti.
      Thus, the emigration of Haitians to Brazil is worrisome because of the risk for
      LF re-emergence. METHODS:: Blood samples of Haitian immigrants, aged >=18 years,
      who emigrated to Manaus (Brazilian Amazon), were examined using thick blood
      smears, membrane blood filtration, and immunochromatography. RESULTS: : Of the
      244 immigrants evaluated, 1 (0.4%) tested positive for W. bancrofti; 11.5%
      reported as having received LF treatment in Haiti. CONCLUSIONS: : The re
      emergence of LF in Manaus is unlikely, due to its low prevalence and low density
      of microfilaremia among the assessed Haitian immigrants.

PMID- 28562767
TI  - Infrared thermography to diagnose and manage venomous animal bites and stings.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infrared imaging (IR) is a noninvasive technique that quantifies
      body surface temperature, producing a digital color image. IR has been used to
      study diseases in which skin temperature can reflect the presence of
      inflammation. METHODS: This was an observational pilot study of eight patients
      envenomed by snakes, spiders, and scorpions. All patients were examined using a
      thermal camera. RESULTS: In all cases, we obtained infrared images that
      corroborated clinical findings indicating localized effects of venom,
      specifically inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: IR has potential for use as a research,
      diagnostic, and monitoring tool for localized effects of animal venoms.

PMID- 28562768
TI  - Chikungunya virus infection with severe neurologic manifestations: report of four
      fatal cases.
AB  - Here, we present four patients with confirmed Chikungunya virus infection showing
      atypical neurologic manifestations and death. This case series includes patients
      ranging in age from five to 92 years, with or without comorbidities. This report
      is important, as very few cases in the literature reporting death due to atypical
      Chikungunya virus infection are available.

PMID- 28562769
TI  - Intralesional treatment with meglumine antimoniate in three patients with New
      World cutaneous leishmaniasis and large periarticular lesions with comorbidities.
AB  - Although New World cutaneous leishmaniasis is not itself a life-threatening
      disease, its treatment with systemic antimonials can cause toxicity that can be
      dangerous to some patients. Intralesional meglumine antimoniate provides a
      viable, less toxic alternative. Herein, we describe an alternative treatment with
      subcutaneous intralesional injections of meglumine antimoniate into large
      periarticular lesions of three patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and
      comorbidities. This treatment was safe, successful, and well tolerated. This case
      series suggests that intralesional meglumine antimoniate is an effective therapy
      for cutaneous leishmaniasis, even with periarticular lesions. This hypothesis
      should be tested in controlled clinical trials.

PMID- 28562770
TI  - Paracoccidioidomycosis with sarcoid-like lesions:a diagnostic challenge.
AB  - Clinical presentation of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) can be diverse. Morphology
      and quantity of skin lesions depends on interactions between host immunity and
      fungus virulence. Diagnosis can be a challenge considering that this fungus has
      low virulence and some individuals have immunity to microorganism, which results
      in well-marked granulomas without visible microorganisms. We report herein a
      clinical presentation of sarcoid-like PCM, initially diagnosed as tuberculoid
      leprosy. This rare type of PCM is often mistaken for other types of chronic
      granulomatous diseases. Diagnosis was confirmed after 4 years when a special
      stain analysis helped in the identification of the specific etiologic agent.

PMID- 28562771
TI  - Facial botryomycosis-like pyoderma in an HIV-infected patient: remission after
      initiation of darunavir and raltegravir.
AB  - Botryomycosis is an uncommon, chronic, suppurative, bacterial infection that
      primarily affects the skin and subcutaneous tissues. It has long been associated
      with defects of cellular immunity. We report a 28-year-old woman who presented
      with a chronic, ulcerated lesion with draining sinuses in the right malar region.
      Predisposing factors were HIV infection with poor immunological control,
      alcoholism, and a previous trauma to the right cheek. Several courses of
      antimicrobial therapy provided only partial and temporary remission. Complete
      clinical remission was only achieved 5 years later when a novel antiretroviral
      regimen composed of darunavir and raltegravir was initiated.

PMID- 28562772
TI  - Spleen damage in a dog naturally infected by Leishmania infantum.

PMID- 28562773
TI  - ?

PMID- 28562774
TI  - Physiological, cellular and molecular aspects of the desiccation tolerance in
      Anadenanthera colubrina seeds during germination.
AB  - During germination, orthodox seeds become gradually intolerant to desiccation,
      and for this reason, they are a good model for recalcitrance studies. In the
      present work, physiological, biochemical, and ultrastructural aspects of the
      desiccation tolerance were characterized during the germination process of
      Anadenanthera colubrina seeds. The seeds were imbibed during zero (control), 2,
      8, 12 (no germinated seeds), and 18 hours (germinated seeds with 1 mm protruded
      radicle); then they were dried for 72 hours, rehydrated and evaluated for
      survivorship. Along the imbibition, cytometric and ultrastructural analysis were
      performed, besides the extraction of the heat-stable proteins. Posteriorly to
      imbibition and drying, the evaluation of ultrastructural damages was performed.
      Desiccation tolerance was fully lost after root protrusion. There was no increase
      in 4C DNA content after the loss of desiccation tolerance. Ultrastructural
      characteristics of cells from 1mm roots resembled those found in the recalcitrant
      seeds, in both hydrated and dehydrated states. The loss of desiccation tolerance
      coincided with the reduction of heat-stable proteins.

PMID- 28562776
TI  - Parasitism by Monogenoidea in Piaractus mesopotamicus (Characiformes, Characidae)
      cultivated in Parana River (Brazil).
AB  - This study investigated the occurrence, prevalence, mean abundance and mean
      intensity of monogenoidean parasites in Piaractus mesopotamicus farmed in cages
      in the reservoir of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station, Parana River, Brazil.
      The parasite distribution pattern and the correlation of prevalence and abundance
      with the total length of hosts were also investigated. Four monogenoidean species
      were collected: Anacanthorus penilabiatus, A. toledoensis, Mymarothecium
      ianwhitingtoni and M. viatorum. All the parasites collected in P. mesopotamicus
      showed the typical aggregated distribution pattern, and the abundance and the
      prevalence did not shown any correlation with the total length of hosts.

PMID- 28562775
TI  - Acetylcholine produces contractions mediated by the cyclooxygenase pathway in
      arterial vessels in the Chilean frog (Calyptocephalella gayi).
AB  - Previous studies performed in marine fish (I. conceptionis and G. laevifrons)
      showed that indomethacin blocked arterial contraction mediated by acetylcholine
      (ACh). The objective of this study was to determine if contraction induced by
      acetylcholine is mediated by the cyclooxygenase pathway in several arterial
      vessels in the Chilean frog Calyptocephalella gayi. Arteries from the pulmonary
      (PA), dorsal (DA), mesenteric (MA) and iliac (IA) regions were dissected from 6
      adult specimens, and isometric tension studies were done using dose response
      curves (DRC) for ACh (10-13 to 10-3 M) in presence of a muscarinic antagonist
      (Atropine 10-5 M) and an unspecific inhibitor of cyclooxygenases (Indomethacin,
      10-5M). All the studied arteries exhibited vasoconstriction mediated by ACh. This
      vasoconstriction was abolished in the presence of atropine in DA, MA and IA and
      attenuated in PA. Indomethacin abolished the vasoconstriction in MA and
      attenuated the response in PA, DA and IA. Similar to marine fish, C. gayi have an
      ACh-mediated vasoconstrictor pattern regulated by muscarinic receptors that
      activate a cyclooxygenase contraction pathway. These results suggest that the
      maintenance in vasoconstrictor mechanisms mediated by ACh->COX ->vasoconstriction
      is conserved from fish to frogs.

PMID- 28562777
TI  - Proteic and phenolics compounds contents in Bacupari callus cultured with
      glutamine and nitrogen sources.
AB  - In this study was evaluated the influence of glutamine supplementation on the
      endogenous content of amino acids, proteins, total phenolics, flavonoids and
      proanthocyanidins in Bacupari callus. The explants were inoculated in MS medium,
      MS with half concentration of the nitrogen salts (MS1/2) and nitrogen-free MS,
      supplemented with glutamine (5, 10, 30 and 60mM) named as Gln5, Gln10, Gln30 and
      Gln60. Amino acids and proteins were analyzed after 20, 80 and 140 days and the
      secondary metabolites on the 140th day. There was no difference in the amino
      acids on the 20th day. On the 80th day the treatments MS and MS1/2 presented the
      lowest levels. On the 140th day MS and MS1/2 presented the lowest amino acid
      concentration and Gln10 the highest. Concerning proteins, there was difference
      only on the 140th day, being the highest concentrations observed in Gln5, and the
      lowest in MS1/2 treatment. Total phenolics content was higher in the treatment
      Gln60 and lowest in MS. Treatments Gln5, Gln10, Gln30 and MS1/2 were
      statistically equal. For flavonoids, the highest values occurred in the
      treatments Gln30, Gln60 and MS1/2 and the lowest in Gln5, Gln10 and MS.
      Similarly, for the proanthocyanidins the highest concentrations were observed in
      treatment Gln60 and the lowest in Gln5 and MS. In conclusion, the treatment with
      60mM of glutamine favors the protein accumulation and production of secondary
      metabolites in Bacupari callus.

PMID- 28562779
TI  - Record of Leptoglossus cinctus (Hemiptera: Coreidae) associated with the native
      tree Byrsonima sericea (Malpighiaceae) and the cashew tree Anacardium occidentale
      (Anacardiaceae).

PMID- 28562778
TI  - The beetle Costalimaita ferruginea (Coleoptera: Chysomelidae) in Eucalyptus
      plantations in transition area of Amazon and Cerrado Biomes.
AB  - Costalimaita ferruginea (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) attacks Eucalyptus plants
      causing severe damage through netting of the leaves. Recently, this Coleoptera
      has been reported attacking Myrtaceae in Mato Grosso State and, studies about the
      occurrence of this beetle in commercial plantations of eucalypts has been the
      subject of researchers through monitoring programmes in the forest protection
      area. With the beginning of the rainy season, adults were observed causing damage
      in eucalypt plantations in four cities that are part of the transition region of
      Amazon and Cerrado Biomes. The spots where these insects were observed are
      located in Feliz Natal, Lucas do Rio Verde, Sorriso and Vera. The purpose of this
      study was to report the new occurrences and to characterize the attack period of
      the beetle C. ferruginea in Eucalyptus plantations in Middle-North region of Mato
      Grosso State, region of Biomes Transition.

PMID- 28562780
TI  - First record of leucism for Atractus reticulatus (Serpentes: Dipsadidae).

PMID- 28562781
TI  - Potential distribution and conservation of the Colobosauroides carvalhoi Soares
      and Caramaschi, 1998: a rare and endemic lizard of Northeast Brazil.
AB  - Ecological niche modeling has contributed to the investigation of the
      geographical distribution and conservation of rare or little recorded species.
      Therefore, we studied the known and potential distributions of Colobosauroides
      carvalhoi Soares and Caramaschi 1998 and discuss the implications for its
      conservation. Data were obtained by manual collections made in quarterly
      samplings in three different regions, considering the regions with occurrence
      records and surrounding areas. The known distribution was determined by
      occurrence records and literature data, and potential distribution was estimated
      with an ecological niche model by the MaxEnt algorithm. Twenty-five specimens
      were collected exclusively in forest formations of Caatinga and Caatinga-Cerrado.
      Our data corroborated the relative rarity of C. carvalhoi and reflected the
      biogeographical history of the group, where it is restricted to forest formations
      with milder environmental conditions. The occurrence records indicated new
      records of C. carvalhoi, but the known distribution value is compatible with a
      restricted distribution. The ecological niche model estimated few areas with
      environmental suitability for the species and corroborated the restricted and
      relict distribution patterns. Finally, the known and potential distribution
      values were compatible with criteria for threatened species. These results
      suggest a worrisome scenario for C. carvalhoi conservation. However, the limited
      data about the species population do not allow the proper definition of its
      conservation status. Therefore, we suggest using potential distribution values
      with alternative criteria for redefining the conservation status of C. carvalhoi
      and the development of new studies that support a better assessment of its
      conservation aspects.

PMID- 28562783
TI  - Occurrence of Allorhogas sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Doryctinae) associated
      with galls on seeds of Inga vera (Fabaceae) in Brazil.

PMID- 28562782
TI  - First record of Solmundella bitentaculata (Cnidaria: Aeginidae) in Para State
      Shelf, Brazil.

PMID- 28562784
TI  - Karyosystematic and karyotype evolution of Panstrongylus lutzi (Neiva & Pinto,
      1923) (Hemiptera, Triatominae).

PMID- 28562785
TI  - Cytogenetic analysis in different populations of Rhodnius prolixus and R. nasutus
      from different countries of South America.

PMID- 28562786
TI  - Structure dynamics of a fish community over ten years of formation in the
      reservoir of the hydroelectric power plant in upper Uruguay River.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the structure of the fish assemblage
      in the ten years following the closing of the lake of the Ita Hydroelectric Power
      Plant. Seasonal collections were conducted from 2001 to 2010. During this period,
      44,834 fish were captured, totaling 3,818.01 kg, among 8 orders, 24 families and
      84 species. In general, profound changes were not observed in the fish assemblage
      in the ten years after the formation of the Ita lake. Few species changed in
      dominance over time, while many were rare in the environment. The ichthyofauna in
      the reservoir was dominated by small and medium size opportunist species that
      conduct short or no migratory movements. Among the most abundant, six species
      were responsible for more than 50% of the numeric representation: Steindachnerina
      brevipinna, Astyanax fasciatus, Apareiodon affinis, Hypostomus isbrueckeri,
      Iheringichthys labrosus and Loricariichthys anus. The increase in the
      representation of the later species stood out. The biomass was dominated by
      Steindachneridion scriptum, Prochilodus lineatus, I. laborsus, Schizodon nasutus,
      Hoplias malabaricus, Acestrorhynchus pantaneiro, Hoplias lacerdae, H. isbrueckeri
      and L. anus. Despite the presence of large migrators in the region of the
      reservoir, their vulnerability was revealed by the low numeric abundance and
      accidental capture. The k-dominance curve of numerical abundance and biomass
      indicates a moderately disturbed community, in which the representation of small
      species was also important to the amounts of biomass.

PMID- 28562787
TI  - Effect of land use in seasonal abundance of Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata) in
      Southwestern Brazil.
AB  - Changes at the landscape scale associated with expansion in agricultural land use
      and changes in agricultural practices are common causes of alteration in patterns
      of abundance and composition of avian communities. Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata
      - Des Murs, 1847) is among the most common species in the Neotropics, considered
      both as game and pest in some countries. Here we characterized the regional and
      seasonal patterns of Eared Doves abundance in Southwestern Brazil and examined
      the relationship between landscape features and these abundance patterns. We
      counted Eared Doves using the point count system along routes in summer and
      winter and recorded land use at two scales. We used linear regressions to model
      the effect of landscape matrix and land use at local scale with Doves abundance
      in two seasons. At the landscape scale, in winter, the abundance was greater in
      routes crossing landscapes dominated by plantations. In summer, it was lower in
      routes with large tracts of forests and mixed farming. While in winter, at the
      local scale, the Doves abundance was greater in routes with higher frequency of
      maize plantations, in summer higher abundances were observed in routes with
      higher frequency of sugar cane and soybean plantations. Agricultural settings,
      which include both sustained production of food in the form of grains as well as
      and large stretches of habitat suitable for reproduction, favor large population
      of Eared Doves.

PMID- 28562788
TI  - Economic valuation of the ecosystem services provided by a protected area in the
      Brazilian Cerrado: application of the contingent valuation method.
AB  - Considering that the economic valuation of ecosystem services is a useful
      approach to support the conservation of natural areas, we aimed to estimate the
      monetary value of the benefits provided by a protected area in southeast Brazil,
      the Serra do Cipo National Park. We calculated the visitor's willingness to pay
      to conserve the ecosystems of the protected area using the contingent valuation
      method. Located in a region under intense anthropogenic pressure, the Serra do
      Cipo National Park is mostly composed of rupestrian grassland ecosystems, in
      addition to other Cerrado physiognomies. We conducted a survey consisting of 514
      interviews with visitors of the region and found that the mean willingness to pay
      was R$ 7.16 year-1, which corresponds to a total of approximately R$ 716,000.00
      year-1. We detected that per capita income, the household size, the level of
      interest in environmental issues and the place of origin influenced the
      likelihood that individuals are willing to contribute to the conservation of the
      park, as well as the value of the stated willingness to pay. This study conveys
      the importance of conserving rupestrian grassland and other Cerrado physiognomies
      to decision makers and society.

PMID- 28562789
TI  - Nursing in cardiology: state of the art and frontiers of knowledge.

PMID- 28562790
TI  - Validation of an instrument regarding nursing intervention in patients in
      vasoactive therapy.
AB  - Objective: to validate the content of a Standard Operational Procedure, regarding
      nursing interventions in emergency patients treated with vasoactive drugs.
      Method: methodological study, carried out from December 2015 to January 2016.
      Content validity was determined by 16 experts (13 nurses, 2 pharmacists and one
      biomedical scientist), who judged it through a four-point Likert scale. The items
      were evaluated in terms of: feasibility, objectivity, simplicity, clearness,
      pertinence and accuracy. The Content Validity Index was applied, accepting the
      value >= 0.90. Results: two rounds of evaluation were required to achieve the
      minimum index. The items were reviewed regarding writing, dilution, indication
      and replacement interval. The instrument was validated with 33 items and with
      total Content Validity Index of 0.99. Conclusion: the instrument was considered
      appropriate, fractionally and globally, for nursing care for the patient treated
      with vasoactive drugs in emergency, in a safe and reliable way.

PMID- 28562791
TI  - Terms of the specialized nursing language for the care of ostomates.
AB  - Objectives:: to identify terms of the specialized nursing language for the care
      of ostomates from the literature of the area, and to map the identified terms
      with terms of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP(r)).
      Method:: descriptive study of quantitative approach guided by the guidelines for
      the elaboration of terminology subsets of the ICNP(r). The terms were collected
      in 49 scientific articles, extracted using a computational tool, selected
      according to the relevance for the theme, and normalized and mapped with the
      ICNP(r). Results:: 20,668 terms were extracted. The standardization process
      resulted in 425 relevant terms (151 were constant in ICNP(r) and 274 were not
      contained in ICNP(r)), of which 154 were similar, 19 were more comprehensive, 50
      were more restricted, and 51 were not in concordance. Conclusion:: the use of
      standardized language can minimize the ambiguities and redundancies identified in
      the mapping. The existence of terms not in concordance with the ICNP(r)
      reinforces the need for constant updating of this classification. Objetivos::
      identificar termos da linguagem especializada de enfermagem para o cuidado a
      pessoa ostomizada, a partir da literatura da area; e mapear os termos
      identificados com termos da Classificacao Internacional para a Pratica de
      Enfermagem (CIPE(r)). M: etodo: pesquisa descritiva, de abordagem quantitativa,
      orientada pelas diretrizes para a elaboracao de subconjuntos terminologicos da
      CIPE(r). Os termos foram coletados em 49 artigos cientificos, extraidos com uso
      de ferramenta computacional, selecionados de acordo com a pertinencia ao tema,
      normalizados e mapeados com a CIPE(r). Resultados:: foram extraidos 20.668
      termos. A normalizacao resultou em 425 termos pertinentes, sendo: 151 termos
      constantes e 274 nao constantes na CIPE(r); dos quais 154 similares, 19 mais
      abrangentes, 50 mais restritos e 51 sem concordancia. Conclusao:: o uso de
      linguagem padronizada pode minimizar ambiguidades e redundancias identificadas no
      mapeamento. A existencia de termos sem concordancia com a CIPE(r) reforca a
      necessidade de atualizacao constante dessa classificacao.

PMID- 28562792
TI  - Nursing appointment and cardiometabolic control of diabetics: a randomized
      clinical trial.
AB  - Objective: to verify the effect of nursing appointment on cardiometabolic profile
      of people with Diabetes Mellitus type 2. Method: randomized controlled trial,
      developed with 134 individuals chosen for two groups: intervention and control.
      The intervention consisted of three nursing appointments alternated bimonthly,
      with two phone calls, over five months. The control group received usual care
      offered by the Health Unit. Data were collected through semi-structured
      interviews before and after the intervention, in addition to conducting
      laboratory tests. Results: after the intervention, a significant difference was
      shown in the amount of glycated hemoglobin (p = 0.006) and in the systolic blood
      pressure (p = 0.031), which were higher in the control group. Conclusion: besides
      being low-cost and easy to develop on the monitoring routine of people with
      diabetes, the intervention performed influenced positively the biochemical
      profile. Objetivo: verificar o efeito da consulta de enfermagem sobre o perfil
      cardiometabolico de pessoas com Diabetes Mellitus tipo 2. Metodo: ensaio clinico
      controlado e randomizado, desenvolvido com 134 individuos sorteados para dois
      grupos: intervencao e controle. A intervencao consistiu em tres consultas de
      enfermagem bimensais alternadas, com duas ligacoes telefonicas, ao longo de cinco
      meses. O grupo-controle recebeu os cuidados habituais oferecidos pela Unidade de
      Saude. Os dados foram coletados mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas antes e
      apos a intervencao, alem da realizacao de exames laboratoriais. Resultados: apos
      a intervencao, foi evidenciada diferenca significativa no valor da hemoglobina
      glicada (p=0,006) e da pressao arterial sistolica (p=0,031), que se mostraram
      mais elevadas no grupo-controle. Conclusao: a intervencao realizada, alem de ser
      de baixo custo e de facil desenvolvimento na rotina de acompanhamento da pessoa
      com diabetes, influenciou positivamente a melhora do perfil bioquimico.

PMID- 28562794
TI  - Cost of nursing most frequent procedures performed on severely burned patients.
AB  - Objective: to identify the mean direct cost (MDC) of the most frequent procedures
      performed by nursing professionals on severely burned patients in an Intensive
      Care Unit. Method: exploratory-descriptive quantitative single-case study. The
      MDC was calculated by multiplying time (timed) spent by nursing professionals in
      the performance of the procedures by the unit cost of direct labor, and adding
      the costs of material and medicine/solutions. Results: a MDC of US$ 0.65
      (SD=0.36) was obtained for "vital signs monitoring"; US$ 10.00 (SD=24.23) for
      "intravenous drug administration"; US$ 5.90 (SD=2.75) for "measurement of
      diuresis"; US$ 0.93 (SD=0.42) for "capillary blood glucose monitoring"; and US$
      99.75 (SD=129.55) for "bandaging". Conclusion: the knowledge developed can
      support managerial decision-making, contribute to the efficiency distribution of
      the resources involved and, when possible, provide cost-containment or cost
      minimization strategies without impairing the quality of nursing care.

PMID- 28562793
TI  - Nursing Activities Score and Acute Kidney Injury.
AB  - Objective:: to evaluate the nursing workload in intensive care patients with
      acute kidney injury (AKI). Method:: A quantitative study, conducted in an
      intensive care unit, from April to August of 2015. The Nursing Activities Score
      (NAS) and Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) were used to measure
      nursing workload and to classify the stage of AKI, respectively. Results:: A
      total of 190 patients were included. Patients who developed AKI (44.2%) had
      higher NAS when compared to those without AKI (43.7% vs 40.7%), p <0.001.
      Patients with stage 1, 2 and 3 AKI showed higher NAS than those without AKI. A
      relationship was identified between stage 2 and 3 with those without AKI (p =
      0.002 and p <0.001). Conclusion:: The NAS was associated with the presence of
      AKI, the score increased with the progression of the stages, and it was
      associated with AKI, stage 2 and 3. Objetivo:: avaliar a carga de trabalho de
      enfermagem em pacientes de terapia intensiva com lesao renal aguda (LRA).
      Metodo:: estudo quantitativo, em Unidade de Terapia Intensiva, no periodo de
      abril a agosto de 2015. O Nursing Activities Score (NAS) e o Kidney Disease
      Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) foram utilizados para medir a carga de trabalho
      de enfermagem e classificar o estagio da LRA, respectivamente. Resultados:: foram
      incluidos 190 pacientes. Os pacientes que desenvolveram LRA (44,2%) possuiam NAS
      superiores quando comparados aos sem LRA (43,7% vs 40,7%), p<0,001. Os pacientes
      com LRA nos estagios 1, 2 e 3 de LRA demonstraram NAS superiores aos sem LRA,
      houve relacao entre os estagios 2 e 3 com os sem LRA, p=0,002 e p<0,001.
      Conclusao:: o NAS apresentou associacao com a existencia de LRA, visto que seu
      valor aumenta com a progressao dos estagios, tendo associacao com os estagios 2 e
      3 de LRA.

PMID- 28562795
TI  - Low completion rate of hepatitis B vaccination in female sex workers.
AB  - Objective:: to assess predictive factors for noncompletion of the hepatitis B
      vaccination schedule in female sex workers in the city of Teresina, Northeastern
      Brazil. Method:: 402 women were interviewed and, for those who did not wish to
      visit specialized sites, or did not know their hepatitis B vaccination status,
      the vaccine was offered at their workplaces. Bi- and multivariate analyses were
      performed to identify potential predictors for noncompletion of the vaccination
      schedule. Results:: of the 284 women eligible for vaccination, 258 (90.8%)
      received the second dose, 157/258 (60.8%) and 68/258 (26.3%) received the second
      and third doses, respectively. Working at clubs and consuming illicit drugs were
      predictors for noncompletion of the vaccination schedule. Conclusion:: the high
      acceptability of the vaccine's first dose, associated with low completion rates
      of the vaccination schedule in sex workers, shows the need for more persuasive
      strategies that go beyond offering the vaccine at their workplaces. Objetivo::
      avaliar fatores preditores de nao completude do esquema vacinal contra hepatite B
      em mulheres que se prostituem em Teresina, Nordeste do Brasil. Metodo:: Um total
      de 402 mulheres foi entrevistado e, para as que se negaram a irem a lugares
      especializados, ou desconheciam sua situacao vacinal contra hepatite B, a vacina
      foi oferecida no local do trabalho. Analises bi e multivariadas foram realizadas
      para identificar potenciais preditores de nao completude do esquema vacinal.
      Resultados:: Das 284 mulheres elegiveis para vacinacao, 258 (90,8%) receberam a
      primeira dose, 157/258 (60,8%) e 68/258 (26,3%) receberam a segunda e terceira
      doses. Trabalhar em boates e consumir drogas ilicitas foram preditores de nao
      completude do esquema vacinal (p<0,05). Conclusao:: A elevada aceitabilidade da
      primeira dose da vacina, associada a baixa completude do esquema vacinal em
      profissionais do sexo, evidencia a necessidade de estrategia mais persuasiva que
      va alem da oferta da vacina no local de trabalho.

PMID- 28562796
TI  - Care path of person with stroke: from onset to rehabilitation.
AB  - Objective:: to describe the care path of the person with stroke goes through and
      to identify the important events in this path. Method:: qualitative descriptive
      exploratory research, using the semi-structured interview technique based on
      Meleis's Middle-Range Theory. The sample was composed of 13 people who became
      dependent after a stroke and were admitted to two hospital units in the region of
      Vale do Ave, Portugal. Data were collected between January and October 2013.
      Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results:: The data revealed that
      the person's care path goes from recognition of the symptoms to preparation for
      hospital discharge. Adapting to the new situation of dependence brings the need
      for new competencies. Final considerations:: The research aims to contribute to
      the improvement of nursing care regarding care for people with stroke including
      onset, recovery and rehabilitation, and home care. Objetivo:: Descrever o
      percurso da pessoa com Acidente Vascular Encefalico e identificar os
      acontecimentos significativos neste percurso. Metodo:: Abordagem qualitativa e
      natureza exploratoria- descritiva, valeu-se da tecnica de entrevista
      semiestruturada baseada na Teoria de Medio Alcance de Meleis. Participaram 13
      pessoas que se tornaram dependentes devido a Acidente Vascular Encefalico e
      recorreram a duas Unidades da regiao do Vale do Ave, Portugal. A colheita de
      dados deu-se durante Janeiro a Outubro de 2013. Para analise dos dados foi
      utilizada a analise de conteudo. Resultados:: Os dados revelaram que o trajeto da
      pessoa vai desde o reconhecimento dos sintomas ate a preparacao da alta
      hospitalar. A dependencia traz a necessidade de adquirir competencias para se
      adaptar a nova situacao. Consideracoes finais:: Espera-se contribuir para a
      melhoria dos cuidados de enfermagem no atendimento das pessoas acometidas com
      Acidente Vascular Encefalico, desde o acometimento, recuperacao e reabilitacao,
      ate aos cuidados domiciliares.

PMID- 28562797
TI  - Integrality of care: challenges for the nurse practice.
AB  - Objective: to understand the role of the nurse in the collegiate management model
      of a teaching hospital, in the integrality of care perspective. Method: a single
      case study with multiple units of analysis, with the theoretical proposition
      "integrality of care is a result of the care offered to the user by multiple
      professionals, including the nurse". Data were obtained in a functional unit of a
      teaching hospital through interviews with 13 nurses in a non-participant
      observation and document analysis. Results: from the analytical categories
      emerged subcategories that allowed understanding that the nurse promotes
      integrality of care through nursing management, team work and integration of
      services. Final considerations: the theoretical proposition was confirmed and it
      was verified that the nursing management focus on attending to health care needs
      and is a strategy to provide integrality of care.

PMID- 28562798
TI  - Violence against children and adolescents: the perspective of Primary Health
      Care.
AB  - Objective: To analyze the care provided by Basic Health Units (BHU) to families
      involved in domestic intrafamily violence against children and adolescents.
      Method: Qualitative research, based on the Paradigm of Complexity. Data
      collection was performed with 41 professionals through focus groups and semi
      structured interviews. Results: The following categories emerged from data
      analysis: 'Everything comes here', which reflects the legitimate place of BHUs
      for the population and the actions taken to build care for families; and 'We only
      do what is really necessary', which brings the look to violence still based on
      the positivist and biomedical paradigm. Final considerations: The model of
      understanding and construction of work processes in the BHU is structured in the
      aforementioned paradigm. Nurses have the possibility to become agents of change,
      both in professionals' training and in the care thought and provided to
      communities.

PMID- 28562799
TI  - Promoting oral care in the preschool child: effects of a playful learning
      intervention.
AB  - Objective: To compare the number of appropriate behaviors for tooth brushing
      before and after a playful learning intervention with preschool children. Method:
      A quasi-experimental, quantitative, before and after study design was conducted
      in an early childhood educational institution, with children between three and
      five years of age. The intervention consisted of three meetings with educational
      activities about tooth brushing, whose outcome was evaluated by means of
      observation of ten behaviors suitable for tooth brushing. Results: Forty-four
      children participated in the study. The mean of adequate behaviors was 4.4 before
      the intervention, and 8.5 after the intervention. A significant increase in the
      adoption of appropriate behaviors for tooth brushing (p <0.01) was identified.
      Conclusion: Nurses can enhance oral health promotion actions with preschoolers in
      preschool institution using playful learning interventions.

PMID- 28562800
TI  - Guide of attributes of the nurse's political competence: a methodological study.
AB  - Objective: To build and validate a guide of attributes of the nurse's political
      competence. Method: Methodological research. This study comprised the
      construction of the instrument through literature review; experts validation of
      pre-established attributes for composing the guide; and clinical validation in
      the nurses work environment/reality. The data collection took place in the months
      from August to October 2014, and the analysis was based on the content analysis
      of Bardin and use of Epi info 3.5. All ethical precepts have been complied with.
      Results: From 29 attributes found in the literature, 25 have been validated by
      experts. Clinical/practical validation involved the participation of 43 nurses,
      who observed that the attributes are not articulated with the professional
      practices developed by them. Conclusion: The attributes of the nurse's political
      competence were identified with support of literature. It is concluded that the
      professionals still have limited and fragmented perception of political
      competence, expressing difficulty/limitation.

PMID- 28562801
TI  - Cancellation of elective surgeries in a Brazilian public hospital: reasons and
      estimated reduction.
AB  - Objective: To characterize cancellations of elective surgeries according to
      clinical and non-clinical reasons, as well as to verify seasonal influence and
      determine the estimated reduction of the index. Method: Quantitative, descriptive
      and retrospective study with secondary data extracted from the Public Hospital of
      the State of Sao Paulo database. Results: Out of the 8,443 (100%) elective
      surgeries scheduled, 7,870 (93.21%) were performed and 573 (6.79%) were canceled.
      Out of these 573 (100%) people, 48.33% were canceled for clinical reasons and
      46.40% were for non-clinical reasons. Among the non-clinical reasons for surgery
      cancellations, those related to medical reasons stood out: at the request of the
      surgeon/change of approach (17.93%), followed by non-hospitalized patient
      (8.96%). There was no indication of seasonality regarding the reasons for
      cancellation in the assessed period. Conclusion: Although the rate of elective
      surgeries cancellations is lower than that of other hospitals with similar
      characteristics, it is still possible to reduce it from 6.79% to 1.36%,
      considering that 80% of the reasons for cancellation are avoidable.

PMID- 28562802
TI  - Contributions of Public Health to nursing practice.
AB  - Objective:: Analyze the perceptions of undergraduate nursing students about the
      contributions of public health to nursing practice in the Unified Health System.
      Method:: Qualitative Descriptive Study. Data collection was carried out through
      semi-directed interviews with 15 students. The language material was analyzed
      according to content and thematic analysis. Results:: Thematic categories were
      established, namely: "Perceptions about Public Health" and "Contribution of
      Public Health to nursing practice in the Unified Health System". Final
      considerations:: Perceptions about Public Health are diversified, but converge to
      the recognition of this field as the basis for training nurses qualified to work
      in the SUS with technical competence, autonomy and focusing on the integrality in
      health care. Objetivo:: Analisar as percepcoes de alunos do curso de bacharelado
      em Enfermagem acerca das contribuicoes da Saude Coletiva para o trabalho de
      enfermeiros no Sistema Unico de Saude. Metodo:: Estudo descritivo, com abordagem
      qualitativa. A coleta de dados foi realizada mediante a tecnica da entrevista
      semidirigida com 15 alunos. O material de linguagem foi analisado segundo a
      tecnica de analise de conteudo tematico-categorial. Resultados:: Foram produzidas
      as categorias tematicas "Percepcoes acerca da Saude Coletiva" e "Contribuicao da
      Saude Coletiva ao trabalho do enfermeiro no Sistema Unico de Saude".
      Consideracoes finais:: As percepcoes sobre a Saude Coletiva sao plurais, mas
      convergem para o reconhecimento desse campo como base de sustentacao da formacao
      de enfermeiros habilitados a trabalhar no SUS com competencia tecnica, autonomia
      e com foco na integralidade do cuidado em saude.

PMID- 28562803
TI  - The experience of rural families in the face of cancer.
AB  - Objective: To understand the meanings of cancer within the experience of rural
      families and how such meanings influence family dynamics. Method: Qualitative
      study guided by Symbolic Interactionism as a theoretical framework and Grounded
      Theory as a methodological framework. Six rural families (18 participants)
      undergoing the experience of having a relative with cancer participated in the
      interview. Results: Constant comparative analysis of data allowed the elaboration
      of an explanatory substantive theory, defined by the main category Caregiving to
      support the family world, which represents the family's symbolic actions and
      strategies to reconcile care for the patient and care for family life. Final
      considerations: Throughout the experience, rural families seek to preserve the
      interconnected symbolic elements that provide support for the family world:
      family unit, land, work and care.

PMID- 28562804
TI  - Validation of the adherence questionnaire for Brazilian chronic kidney disease
      patients under hemodialysis.
AB  - Objective: To validate the evaluation questionnaire on adherence of chronic
      kidney disease (CKD) patients under hemodialysis. Method: We verified the
      following psychometric properties of the instrument: reliability (stability and
      internal consistency) and validity (face, content, and construct). Results: The
      intraclass correlation coefficient reached a value of 0.98 for the adherence
      questions and 0.91 for the perception questions. Regarding the kappa of the 14
      questions examined, 12 had a value > 0.8, whereas the Cronbach's alpha had a
      value of 0.57. Experts ensured the face and content validity of the instrument,
      giving it an overall content validity index of 0.96. Construct validity, analyzed
      by Mann-Whitney test, was achieved as all domains showed a significant
      association with p<0.01. Conclusion: We verified, by the presented results, that
      the instrument has been validated for use in Brazil.

PMID- 28562805
TI  - High prevalence of enteroparasites in children from Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo,
      Brazil.
AB  - Objective:: To determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and possible
      associated factors. Method:: Cross-sectional epidemiological study of 962
      children (3-12-years) from an area within the scope of a basic health unit in
      Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Data were collected by home interviews and
      three-sample stool analysis and evaluated with the chi-square and Fisher's exact
      tests (p<0.05). Results:: The prevalence of intestinal parasites was
      significantly high (57.5%). Giardia lamblia was the most prevalent (50.8%),
      followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (17.8%), Entamoeba histolytica, Hymenolepis
      nana, Entamoeba coli and Enterobius vermiculares (5.6-7.3%) and other parasites
      of lower prevalence, such as Schistosoma japonicum (1%) and Schistosoma mansoni
      (0.5%). No statistically significant associations were detected between
      prevalence and the risk factors analyzed. Conclusion:: Since the area presents
      good conditions of environmental sanitation, health education programs should be
      implemented that emphasize hygiene procedures for the hands and for food and
      water to be consumed by the population.

PMID- 28562806
TI  - Virtual learning object and environment: a concept analysis.
AB  - Objective: To analyze the concept of virtual learning object and environment
      according to Rodgers' evolutionary perspective. Method: Descriptive study with a
      mixed approach, based on the stages proposed by Rodgers in his concept analysis
      method. Data collection occurred in August 2015 with the search of dissertations
      and theses in the Bank of Theses of the Coordination for the Improvement of
      Higher Education Personnel. Quantitative data were analyzed based on simple
      descriptive statistics and the concepts through lexicographic analysis with
      support of the IRAMUTEQ software. Results: The sample was made up of 161 studies.
      The concept of "virtual learning environment" was presented in 99 (61.5%)
      studies, whereas the concept of "virtual learning object" was presented in only
      15 (9.3%) studies. Conclusion: A virtual learning environment includes several
      and different types of virtual learning objects in a common pedagogical context.

PMID- 28562807
TI  - Power relations in the family health team: focus on nursing.
AB  - Objective: to analyze the power relations that permeate the work of the family
      health team, and to discuss perspectives of emancipation of these subjects,
      focusing on nursing and community health agents. Method: a qualitative study with
      a family health team from a municipality in the countryside of the state of Sao
      Paulo. Data were collected through systematic observation and interview with
      workers. A thematic content analysis was performed. Results: three categories
      were identified: the work of the family health team and power relations; power
      relations between the nurse and the healthcare team; and the relations among the
      nursing team and between community agents and the nurse. The team produces
      relations of power moved by hierarchical knowledge that move in the search for
      the reordering of powers. Final considerations: it is necessary to review the
      contradictions present in the performance scenario of the family health teams,
      with a view toward making power relations more flexible.

PMID- 28562808
TI  - Validation of the self-assessment of communication skills and professionalism for
      nurses.
AB  - Objectives:: to translate, adapt cross-culturally and validate into Brazilian
      Portuguese the following instrument: "Self-assessment of communication skills and
      professionalism in residents" for the nursing professional, and to determine if
      personal characteristics and performance of the nurse interfere in the self
      assessment about professionalism and interpersonal communication. Method::
      quantitative study. Results:: the sample consisted of 110 nurses with mean age of
      32 years old (+/- 7.3), most of them were women (n = 80; 72.7%). The internal
      consistency of the scale "Autoavaliacao sobre profissionalismo e comunicacao
      interpessoal entre enfermeiro e paciente" presented moderate and satisfactory
      reliability (alpha=0,712). Factorial analysis identified four factors:
      Interpersonal Skills, Exchange of Information, Honesty in the Relationship and
      Professionalism. Conclusion:: the instrument is valid and reliable in Portuguese
      and for Brazilian culture. Interpersonal Skills changed with gender and marital
      status. Ability to exchange information was influenced by gender and working
      sector. Self-assessment of professionalism changed with marital status.
      Objetivos:: traduzir, adaptar culturalmente e validar para o portugues o
      instrumento Self-assessment of communication skills and professionalism in
      residents para o profissional enfermeiro e avaliar se caracteristicas pessoais e
      de atuacao do enfermeiro interferem na autoavaliacao sobre o profissionalismo e
      comunicacao interpessoal. Metodo:: estudo metodologico quantitativo. Resultados::
      A amostra foi de 110 enfermeiros com media de idade de 32 anos (+/-7,3) e a
      maioria mulheres (n=80; 72,7%). A consistencia interna da escala "Autoavaliacao
      sobre profissionalismo e comunicacao interpessoal entre enfermeiro e paciente"
      apresentou confiabilidade moderada e satisfatoria (alpha=0,712). A analise
      fatorial identificou quatro fatores: Habilidade Interpessoal, Troca de
      Informacao, Sinceridade na Relacao e Profissionalismo. Conclusao:: o instrumento
      e valido e confiavel na lingua portuguesa e para a cultura brasileira. A
      habilidade interpessoal modificou-se com sexo e estado civil. A troca de
      informacoes foi influenciada pelo sexo e setor de atuacao. A autoavaliacao do
      profissionalismo modificou-se com estado civil.

PMID- 28562809
TI  - Use of technologies in intravenous therapy: contributions to a safer practice.
AB  - Objectives: To identify what are the difficulties of the nursing staff in the
      management of technologies during intravenous therapy (IVT) and discuss the
      difficulties identified under the perspective of patient's safety. Method:
      Descriptive study of qualitative approach with data collected by semi-structured
      interview and analyzed by the Alceste software. Results: The greatest difficulty
      of cognitive and technical emphasis was the lack of training; and regarding
      administrative emphasis, the greatest difficulty was the lack of material and
      human resources. Infusion pumps and their proper use were highlighted as the
      technological resource that most contributed to patient safety. Final
      considerations: The lack of training is presented as the greatest difficulty of
      nursing professionals and permeates safety issues of both patient and
      professional when using the hard technologies in IVT. Training is essential to
      the development of techniques, considered nursing tools.

PMID- 28562810
TI  - Teaching-learning evaluation on the ICNP(r) using virtual learning environment.
AB  - Objective: Evaluating the teaching-learning process of undergraduates and nursing
      professionals on the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP(r))
      through a course on Moodle Platform. Method: Mixed research conducted with 51
      nursing students and nurses. Many technological and educational resources were
      used. To collect data, two semi-structured questionnaires were applied and focus
      groups were carried out. Statistical and thematic analysis of the data was
      performed. Results: There was a correlation between the Wiki variable, the
      Animation Video (p = 0.002) and the Arch Method (p = 0.04), as well as a
      correlation between the Forum, the Virtual Book (P < 0.001) and time (p = 0.009).
      Three topics emerged: innovation in the application of technological resources,
      distance education in the professional education and permanent education and the
      teaching-learning process on the ICNP(r) in a collaborative way. Conclusion:
      Teaching-learning strategies and technological resources used were pointed out as
      innovative and helped students have a better performance.

PMID- 28562811
TI  - Use of the Diffusion of Innovation Model in venous ulcers by specialized
      professionals.
AB  - Objective:: To analyze the influence of the evidence and of the opinion of peers
      on the decisions of specialists regarding the agreement with recommendations for
      prevention and treatment of venous ulcer. Methods:: This is a quasi-experimental
      study with two interventions: provision of studies with the evidence of the
      recommendations and provision of the opinion of peers, with sample of 73
      specialized doctors and nurses. Delphi technique was used in the search for
      agreement, with three rounds. Results:: The participants evaluated 82
      recommendations organized into eight domains: evaluation of patient and wound;
      documentation of clinical findings; care with the wound and surrounding skin;
      indication of dressing; use of antibiotics; improvement of venous return and
      prevention of recurrence; referrals of patients; and professional training. The
      interventions resulted in statistically significant changes in four domains.
      Conclusion:: The interventions were able to change the opinion of participants,
      leading them to agreement regarding the recommendations, regardless of the level
      of evidence. Objetivo:: Analisar a influencia das evidencias e da opiniao dos
      pares sobre as decisoes dos especialistas quanto a concordancia com recomendacoes
      para prevencao e tratamento de ulcera venosa. Metodo:: Estudo quase-experimental
      com duas intervencoes: fornecimento de estudos com as evidencias das
      recomendacoes e opiniao dos pares, com amostra de 73 especialistas medicos e
      enfermeiros. Utilizou-se a tecnica Delphi na busca de concordancia, com 3
      rodadas. Resultados:: Os participantes avaliaram 82 recomendacoes organizadas em
      8 dominios: avaliacao do paciente e de sua lesao; documentacao dos achados
      clinicos; cuidado com a lesao e pele ao redor; indicacao da cobertura; uso de
      antibiotico; melhoria do retorno venoso e prevencao de recidiva; encaminhamentos
      dos pacientes; e capacitacao profissional. As intervencoes resultaram em mudancas
      estatisticamente signifi cativas em 4 dominios. Conclusao:: As intervencoes foram
      capazes de modificar a posicao dos participantes, levando-os para a posicao de
      concordancia a respeito das recomendacoes, independentemente do nivel de
      evidencia.

PMID- 28562812
TI  - Insulin therapy waste produced in the households of people with diabetes
      monitored in Primary Care.
AB  - Objective: To analyze the insulin therapy waste disposal produced in the
      households of people with diabetes mellitus (DM). Method: Cross-sectional study
      with 105 Primary Care patients. Socio-demographic and clinical variables and
      insulin therapy practice were analyzed through the absolute and relative
      frequencies, Fisher's exact test and prevalence ratio (PR). Results: The
      association between types of insulin (60.0%), administered with a disposable
      syringe attached to a needle (80.9%), and a high percentage of reuse and disposal
      in normal household waste (57.1%) stood out. The professionals who most
      frequently provided guidance to people with diabetes were the nurses. Patients
      who had received instructions about disposal were 21 times more likely to dispose
      of waste properly than those who had not (PR 21.5; P < 0.0001). Age, gender, skin
      color, education, marital status, occupational status and type of DM did not
      interfere in the disposal (P > 0.05). Conclusion: People with diabetes served in
      Primary Health Care require guidance and material resources to carry out the
      appropriate disposal of insulin therapy waste.

PMID- 28562813
TI  - Opioid analgesic administration in patients with suspected drug use.
AB  - Objective:: To identify the prevalence of patients suspected of drug use
      according to the nursing professionals' judgement, and compare the behavior of
      these professionals in opioid administration when there is or there is no
      suspicion that patient is a drug user. Method:: A cross-sectional study with 507
      patients and 199 nursing professionals responsible for administering drugs to
      these patients. The Chi-Square test, Fisher's Exact and a significance level of
      5% were used for the analyzes. Results:: The prevalence of suspected patients was
      6.7%. The prevalence ratio of administration of opioid analgesics 'if necessary'
      is twice higher among patients suspected of drug use compared to patients not
      suspected of drug use (p = 0.037). Conclusion:: The prevalence of patients
      suspected of drug use was similar to that of studies performed in emergency
      departments. Patients suspected of drug use receive more opioids than patients
      not suspected of drug use. Objetivo:: Identificar a prevalencia de pacientes com
      suspeita de uso de drogas conforme opiniao de profissionais de enfermagem e
      comparar a conduta desses profissionais na administracao de opioides quando ha ou
      nao suspeita de que o paciente seja usuario de drogas. Metodo:: Estudo
      transversal com 507 pacientes e 199 profissionais de enfermagem responsaveis pela
      administracao de medicamentos a esses pacientes. Para as analises foram
      utilizados os testes de Qui-Quadrado, Exato de Fisher e um nivel de significancia
      de 5%. Resultados:: A prevalencia de pacientes suspeitos foi 6,7%. A razao de
      prevalencia de administracao de analgesicos opioides "se necessario" e duas vezes
      maior entre os pacientes suspeitos em relacao aos nao suspeitos (p=0,037).
      Conclusao:: A prevalencia de suspeitos foi semelhante a de estudos realizados em
      departamentos de emergencia. Os suspeitos de serem usuarios de drogas recebem
      mais opioides do que os nao suspeitos.

PMID- 28562814
TI  - Comprehension of the education handout and health literacy of pacemaker users.
AB  - Objective: To verify the comprehension of the education handout and the level of
      Functional Health Literacy of individuals with cardiac pacemaker (PM) and whether
      there is correlation between the comprehension and Functional Health Literacy
      (FHL). Method: Cross-sectional study with 63 individuals with PM who answered to
      comprehension tests of the handout, literacy assessment (SAHLPA-50) and cognition
      (MMSE). Measurements of dispersion, Pearson correlation and multiple linear
      regression were calculated. Results: Most women, study time <= 9 years, 66.21
      (average age) presented no cognitive changes. An adequate literacy level was
      evidenced in 50.8% individuals with PM and satisfactory comprehension of the
      handout. No correlation was identified between FHL, handout comprehension, age,
      years of study and cognition. Conclusion: The handout comprehension assessed by
      individuals with appropriate FHL indicated that it can be a printed material
      suitable for use, aiming to improve care process and knowledge of individuals
      with PM.

PMID- 28562815
TI  - Health Conditions and Memory Performance: a study with older adult women.
AB  - Objective: to verify the correlation between health condition and memory
      performance of older adult women in the community. Method: Analytical cross
      sectional study developed with 28 older adult women living in Cuiaba-MT. They
      answered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and a shortened Geriatric
      Depression Scale (GDS-15) to screen for dementia and depression symptoms. Memory
      skills were assessed through Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Results:
      The mean age was 66.36 years and 75% of the participants had educational level
      higher than 7 years. The MMSE mean score was 28.45. The correlations found were:
      educational level and immediate memory (r = 0.49; p = 0.008); delayed recall and
      immediate memory (r = 0.71; p < 0.001); memory recognition and immediate memory
      (r = 0.43; p = 0.021) and recognition memory with delayed recall (r = 0.47; p =
      0.012). Conclusion: High scores in the MMSE and a satisfactory health perception
      among the participants were evident. There was no correlation between memory
      performance and health perception.

PMID- 28562816
TI  - Influence of hormonal contraceptives and the occurrence of stroke: integrative
      review.
AB  - Objective:: To identify scientific evidence regarding the influence of hormonal
      contraceptive use and the occurrence of stroke. Method:: Integrative review of
      the literature, through database search using the descriptors "contraceptive
      agents", "contraceptive devices", "contraceptives, Oral" and "Stroke". Original
      studies in Portuguese, Spanish and English, published in full and available
      online were included. Studies that did not answer our guiding questions and
      duplicated studies were excluded. Results:: Women using combined oral
      contraceptives have higher risk of stroke, even with a lower hormonal dosage and
      different types of progestogen, regardless of the duration of use. The use of
      contraceptives associated with smoking, hypertension, migraine,
      hypercholesterolemia, obesity and sedentary lifestyle increases the chance of
      stroke. Contraceptive patch and vaginal ring are associated to increased risk.
      Conclusion:: Use of combined hormonal contraceptives, except for the injectable
      and the transdermal ones, increases the chance of occurrence of the event.
      Progestogen-only contraceptives were considered safe. Objetivo:: Identificar
      evidencias cientificas acerca da influencia do uso de anticoncepcionais hormonais
      na ocorrencia do acidente vascular cerebral (AVC). Metodo:: Revisao integrativa
      da literatura, com pesquisa em bases de dados, utilizando os descritores
      "contraceptive agents", "contraceptive devices", "contraceptives, Oral" e
      "stroke". Foram incluidos artigos originais nos idiomas portugues, espanhol e
      ingles, publicados na integra e disponiveis eletronicamente. Foram excluidos
      artigos que nao respondiam as questoes norteadoras e repetidos. Resultados::
      Usuarias de anticoncepcional oral combinado apresentam risco maior de AVC, mesmo
      com dosagem hormonal menor e diferentes tipos de progestageno, independente do
      tempo de uso. A presenca associada de tabagismo, hipertensao arterial, enxaqueca,
      hipercolesterolemia, obesidade e sedentarismo aumenta a chance desse desfecho.
      Adesivo anticoncepcional e anel vaginal sao relacionados ao aumento desse risco.
      Conclusao:: A exposicao aos anticoncepcionais hormonais combinados aumenta a
      chance de ocorrencia do evento, exceto o injetavel e o transdermico. Os
      exclusivos de progestageno foram considerados seguros.

PMID- 28562817
TI  - Continuing education in health from the perspective of Augustine of Hippo.
AB  - Objective:: To reflect about continuing education from the perspective of
      Augustine of Hippo and his theories based on the construction of knowledge and
      the learning process. Method:: This is a theoretical reflection study whose aim
      is to propose dimensions of analysis, emphasizing the history and challenges of
      continuing education. Such dimensions analyze the production of knowledge in
      Augustinian pedagogy, its historical aspects and its close relationship with
      lifelong education in health professions. Results:: The results show the
      difficulty of continuing education to reach adequate importance in health
      services, and that of academia in appropriating the thoughts of renowned
      philosophers such as Augustine. This is a result of ignorance about the
      convergence of these principles and their relevance. Final considerations::
      Continuing education and Augustinian pedagogy walk hand in hand in terms of care,
      meeting the needs that originate from practice and that are reflected in it,
      challenging isolated knowledge and putting different areas of knowledge to work
      together. Objetivo:: Refletir sobre a educacao permanente na perspectiva de
      Agostinho de Hipona e suas teorias pautadas na construcao do conhecimento e no
      processo de aprendizagem. Metodo:: Trata-se de uma reflexao teorica cujo intuito
      e propor dimensoes de analise, enfatizando a historia e os desafios da educacao
      permanente. Tais dimensoes analisam a producao do conhecimento na pedagogia
      agostiniana, seus aspectos historicos e sua relacao proxima com a educacao
      permanente em saude. Resultados:: Revela a dificuldade da educacao permanente em
      ter sua dimensao alcancada noservico de saude, tal qual a da academia de
      apropriar-se do pensamento de filosofos renomados como Agostinho, fruto do
      desconhecimento da convergencia desses pressupostos e de sua relevancia.
      Consideracoes Finais:: Considera-se que a educacao permanente e a pedagogia
      agostiniana caminham juntas no cuidar, atendendo as necessidades advindas da
      pratica e nela refletida, confrontando os saberes isolados e com eles operando em
      conjunto.

PMID- 28562818
TI  - Clinical reasoning in nursing: teaching strategies and assessment tools.
AB  - Objective:: To present the concept and development of teaching strategies and the
      assessment tools regarding clinical reasoning for accurate practice. Method::
      This is a theoretical reflection based on scientific studies. Results::
      Comprehension of the essential concepts of the thought process and its
      articulation with the different teaching strategies and the assessment tools
      which has allowed presenting ways to improve the process of diagnostic or
      therapeutic clinical reasoning. Conclusion:: The use of new strategies and
      assessment tools should be encouraged in order to contribute to the development
      of skills that lead to safe and effective decision making. Objetivo:: Apresentar
      o conceito de raciocinio clinico, seu desenvolvimento, as estrategias para seu
      ensino e os instrumentos de avaliacao para uma pratica acurada. Metodo:: Trata-se
      de uma reflexao teorica fundamentada em estudos cientificos. Resultados:: A
      compreensao dos conceitos essenciais do processo de pensamento e sua articulacao
      com as diferentes estrategias de ensino e com os instrumentos de avaliacao
      permitiram exemplificar meios de aprimorar o processo de raciocinio clinico
      diagnostico ou terapeutico. Conclusao:: A utilizacao de novas estrategias e
      instrumentos de avaliacao deve ser estimulado para contribuir com o
      desenvolvimento das habilidades que culminam na tomada de decisao segura e
      eficaz.

PMID- 28562820
TI  - Entropy Generation Minimization Analysis of Active Magnetic Regenerators.
AB  - A performance assessment of active magnetocaloric regenerators using entropy
      generation minimization is presented. The model consists of the Brinkman
      Forchheimer equation to describe the fluid flow and coupled energy equations for
      the fluid and solid phases. Entropy generation contributions due to axial heat
      conduction, fluid friction and interstitial heat transfer are considered. Based
      on the velocity and temperature profiles, local rates of entropy generation per
      unit volume were integrated to give the cycle-average entropy generation in the
      regenerator, which is the objective function of the optimization procedure. The
      solid matrix is a bed of gadolinium spherical particles and the working fluid is
      water. Performance evaluation criteria of fixed cross-section (face) area (FA)
      and variable geometry (VG) are incorporated into the optimization procedure to
      identify the most appropriate parameters and operating conditions under fixed
      constraints of specified temperature span and cooling capacity.

PMID- 28562821
TI  - A potent larvicidal agent against Aedes aegypti mosquito from cardanol.
AB  - Cardanol is a constituent of Cashew Nut Shell Liquid that presents larvicidal
      activity against Aedes aegypti. The isolation of cardanol is somewhat
      troublesome, however, in this work we describe an efficient and inexpensive
      method to obtain it as a pure material. The compound was used as starting
      material to make chemical transformation leading to saturated cardanol, epoxides
      and, halohydrins. These derivatives were tested for toxicity against Aedes
      aegypti larvae. The results showed that iodohydrins are very promising compounds
      for making commercial products to combat the vector mosquito larvae presenting a
      LC50 of 0.0023 ppm after 72 h of exposure.

PMID- 28562822
TI  - Commemorative Volume of the Centenary of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

PMID- 28562823
TI  - Transcolonic Perirectal NOTES Access (PNA): A feasibility study with survival in
      swine model.
AB  - Transrectal access still has some unsolved issues such as spatial orientation,
      infection, access and site closure. This study presents a simple technique to
      perform transcolonic access with survival in a swine model series. A new
      technique for NOTES perirectal access to perform retroperitoneoscopy,
      peritoneoscopy, liver and lymphnode biopsies was performed in 6 pigs, using
      Totally NOTES technique. The specimens were extracted transanally. The flexible
      endoscope was inserted through a posterior transmural incision and the
      retrorectal space. Cultures of bacteria were documented for the retroperitoneal
      space and intra abdominal cavity after 14 days. Rectal site was closed using non
      absorbable sutures. There was no bowel cleansing, nor preoperative fasting. The
      procedures were performed in 6 pigs through transcolonic natural orifice access
      using available endoscopic flexible instruments. All animals survived 14 days
      without complications, and cultures were negative. Histopathologic examination of
      the rectal closure site showed adequate healing of suture line and no micro
      abscesses. The results of feasibility and safety of experimental Transcolonic
      NOTES potentially brings new frontiers and future wider applications for
      minimally invasive surgery. The treatment of colorectal, abdominal and
      retroperitoneal diseases through a flexible Perirectal NOTES Access (PNA) is a
      promising new approach.

PMID- 28562824
TI  - Insect Galls of the Parque Nacional do Itatiaia (Southeast Region, Brazil).
AB  - The Parque Nacional do Itatiaia (PNI) (Brazilian Southeast Region) was surveyed
      monthly for insect galls from February/2014 to December/ 2015. A total of 432
      gall morphotypes were found. This number places the PNI as the richest Atlantic
      forest area in number of gall morphotypes. The galls were found on 47 plant
      families. Among them, Asteraceae were pointed out as the superhost. The gall
      richness in the lower part of the PNI is higher than that of the plateau. The
      insect galls were found in 154 native, 56 endemic and only one exotic plant
      species. Concerning the conservational status, the host plants include two
      vulnerable species with three morphotypes together. Several new botanical records
      were reported. Leaves were the most galled plant organ, followed by stems.
      Globoid, green, glabrous and one-chambered galls were the most frequent.
      Cecidomyiidae were the most common gallers. Parasitoids, successors and
      inquilines composed the associated fauna.

PMID- 28562825
TI  - Shallow aquifer response to climate change scenarios in a small catchment in the
      Guarani Aquifer outcrop zone.
AB  - Water availability restrictions are already a reality in several countries. This
      issue is likely to worsen due to climate change, predicted for the upcoming
      decades. This study aims to estimate the impacts of climate change on groundwater
      system in the Guarani Aquifer outcrop zone. Global Climate Models (GCM) outputs
      were used as inputs to a water balance model, which produced recharge estimates
      for the groundwater model. Recharge was estimated across different land use types
      considering a control period from 2004 to 2014, and a future period from 2081 to
      2099. Major changes in monthly rainfall means are expected to take place in dry
      seasons. Most of the analysed scenarios predict increase of more than 2 oC in
      monthly mean temperatures. Comparing the control and future runs, our results
      showed a mean recharge change among scenarios that ranged from ~-80 to ~+60%,
      depending on the land use type. As a result of such decrease in recharge rates,
      the response given by the groundwater model indicates a lowering of the water
      table under most scenarios.

PMID- 28562826
TI  - Looking for attitudes related to amphibian species decline: how are peer-reviewed
      publications of education activities compared to ecological research?
AB  - Biodiversity decline has been the focus of discussions in the last decade,
      especially on the amphibian species decline. After a scientometric analysis using
      international databases, we found that the number of peer-reviewed articles
      considering education practices related to the theme increased along with the
      number of ecological researches. However, the increase in ecological researches
      is much higher than the increase in publications of education practices. Studies
      suggest that conservation attitudes are important and that education practices
      are an important tool for improving human perceptions on this subject. In this
      sense, increase the publication of projects and programs results related to local
      education practices in international journals could help the dissemination of
      efficient methods for conservation, as well as facilitating access to information
      internationally, since species decline, especially for amphibians, is a global
      concern. Then, we suggest that educational practices, at least when related to
      conservation, should follow a more standardized protocol, and be published in
      international journals, as the efficiency of such practices should be evaluated
      and methods once published could help other nations to improve their ecological
      literacy.

PMID- 28562827
TI  - Partitioning of the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically
      available irradiance in a deep dendritic tropical lake.
AB  - We studied the effects of particulate and dissolved optically active components
      on the attenuation of photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) in a tropical lake.
      The temporal and spatial distribution of tripton, Chl-a and aCDOM(440) and their
      relative contribution to the diffuse PAR attenuation coefficient (Kd) was
      investigated at 21 sites (dry and wet seasons and two intermediate periods) and
      at monthly interval at 1 pelagic site. Higher values of  Kd were observed during
      the mixing period, characterized by a higher concentration of tripton and Chl-a
      compared to the stratified rainy season. In the spatial sampling PAR attenuation
      was dominated by tripton absorption/scattering (average relative contribution of
      79%), followed by Chl-a (average 11.6%). In the monthly sampling tripton and Chl
      a accounted for most of the Kd with relative contributions of 47.8% and 35.6%,
      respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that Chl-a and tripton
      in combination explained 97% of the monthly variation in Kd (p<0.001), but Chl-a
      had more influence (higher regression coefficient). Thus, although most of light
      attenuation was due to tripton, seasonal variations in phytoplankton abundance
      were responsible for most of the temporal fluctuations in Kd.

PMID- 28562828
TI  - Inhibitory effects on the production of inflammatory mediators and reactive
      oxygen species by Mori folium in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages and
      zebrafish.
AB  - Mori folium, the leaf of Morus alba L. (Moraceae), has been traditionally used
      for various medicinal purposes from ancient times to the present. In this study,
      we examined the effects of water extract of Mori folium (WEMF) on the production
      of inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2),
      and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine
      RAW 264.7 macrophages. Our data indicated that WEMF significantly suppressed the
      secretion of NO and PGE2 in RAW 264.7 macrophages without any significant
      cytotoxicity. The protective effects were accompanied by a marked reduction in
      their regulatory gene expression at the transcription level. WEMF attenuated LPS
      induced intracellular ROS production in RAW 264.7 macrophages. It inhibited the
      nuclear translocation of the nuclear factor-kappa B p65 subunit and the
      activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases in LPS-treated RAW 264.7
      macrophages. Furthermore, WEMF reduced LPS-induced NO production and ROS
      accumulation in zebrafish. Although more efforts are needed to fully understand
      the critical role of WEMF in the inhibition of inflammation, the findings of the
      present study may provide insights into the approaches for Mori folium as a
      potential therapeutic agent for inflammatory and antioxidant disorders.

PMID- 28562829
TI  - Differences between NMRI and DBA/2J mice in the development of somites and
      susceptibility to methylnitrosourea-induced skeleton anomalies.
AB  - The development of DBA/2J mouse strain embryos is nearly 12 h - or 6 somite pairs
      - delayed as compared to the outbred NMRI mouse embryos of the same age on
      gestation days (GD) 8-12. To evaluate inter-strain differences in susceptibility
      to teratogens, dams were treated with methylnitrosourea (MNU, 5 mg/kg body weight
      i.p.) on defined gestation days (NMRI: GD 9, 91/2 or 10; DBA/2J: GD 10 or 101/2).
      Skeletal anomalies produced by MNU on both mouse strains varied with the GD of
      treatment. The pattern of anomalies produced by MNU on a given GD markedly
      differed between the two mouse strains, yet they were similar -with a few
      exceptions- when exposures at equivalent embryonic stages are compared. Findings
      from this study indicated that strain-dependent differences in the developmental
      stage of mouse embryos of the same gestational age occur, a possibility that has
      been often neglected when inter-strain differences in susceptibility to
      developmental toxicants are interpreted.

PMID- 28562830
TI  - Systemic Arterial Hypertension in Patients Exposed to Cesium-137 in Goiania-GO:
      Prevalence Study.
AB  - Background:: Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) in the Brazilian population, in
      populations not exposed to Cesio-137, presents a prevalence of 28% nationwide.
      However, in the group of radioactivity victims, these values are unknown.
      Objective:: To analyze the prevalence of hypertension in patients exposed to
      Cesium-137 in Goiania, enrolled in the Sistema de Monitoramento dos
      Radioacidentados (SISRAD) (Radioactivtity Victims Monitoring System) of the
      Centro de Assistencia aos Radioacidentados (C.A.R.A) (Assistence Center for
      Radioactivity Victims). Methods:: This is a descriptive, observational cross
      sectional epidemiological study carried out in Goiania-Goias, from August 2013 to
      October 2014, with a group of patients enrolled in the Sistema de Monitoramento
      dos Radioacidentados (SISRAD) of the Centro de Assistencia a Radioacidentados
      (C.A.R.A.). A total of 102 radioactive patients were divided into two groups:
      group 1 with 40 and group 2 with 62 participants. A field survey was conducted
      with a closed and semi-structured questionnaire in which the following contexts
      were addressed: sociodemographic profile, life habits and personal background. A
      database was created using the Google Forms application from the Google Web
      technologies company. The duly collected and stored data were imported and
      analyzed in the statistical software SPSS, version 21. Results:: The prevalence
      of SAH reached a total of 25% (12 individuals) of the 48 interviewees, 50% of
      women (24) and 50% of men (24), of which 22.9% (11) of the radioactivity victims
      revealed to be smokers. Conclusion:: The prevalence of SAH in the radioactivity
      victims population is similar to that of the population in general. Fundamentos::
      A Hipertensao Arterial Sistemica (HAS) na populacao brasileira, em populacoes nao
      expostas ao Cesio-137, apresenta prevalencia de 28% em ambito nacional. Porem, no
      grupo de radioacidentados, esses valores sao desconhecidos. Objetivo:: Analisar a
      prevalencia da HAS em pacientes expostos ao Cesio-137 ocorrido em Goiania,
      cadastrados no Sistema de Monitoramento dos Radioacidentados (SISRAD) do Centro
      de Assistencia aos Radioacidentados (C.A.R.A). Metodos:: Estudo epidemiologico do
      tipo descritivo, observacional de carater transversal realizado em Goiania-Goias,
      no periodo de agosto de 2013 a outubro de 2014, com grupo de pacientes
      cadastrados no Sistema de Monitoramento dos Radioacidentados (SISRAD) do Centro
      de Assistencia aos Radioacidentados (C.A.R.A). Participaram da pesquisa 48
      radioacidentados de um total de 102 que foram subdivididos em dois grupos: grupo
      1 com 40 e o grupo 2 com 62 participantes. Realizou-se uma pesquisa de campo com
      questionario fechado e semi-estruturado em que foram abordados os seguintes
      contextos: perfil sociodemografico, habitos de vida e antecedentes pessoais.
      Criou-se um banco de dados utilizando-se o aplicativo Google Forms, da empresa de
      tecnologias na Web Google. Os dados devidamente coletados e armazenados foram
      importados e analisados no software estatistico SPSS, versao 21. Resultados:: Dos
      48 entrevistados a prevalencia de HAS atingiu um total 25% deles (12 individuos),
      sendo 50% de mulheres (24) e 50% de homens (24), dentre estes, 22,9% (11) dos
      radioacidentados revelaram ser tabagistas. Conclusao:: A prevalencia de HAS na
      populacao de radioacidentados se manifesta de forma semelhante ao da populacao em
      geral.

PMID- 28562831
TI  - Three-Dimensional Volumetric Assessment of Diastolic Function by Cardiac Magnetic
      Resonance Imaging: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).
AB  - Background:: Cardiac Magnetic Resonance is in need of a simple and robust method
      for diastolic function assessment that can be done with routine protocol
      sequences. Objective:: To develop and validate a three-dimensional (3D) model
      based volumetric assessment of diastolic function using cardiac magnetic
      resonance (CMR) imaging and compare the results obtained with the model with
      those obtained by echocardiography. Methods:: The study participants provided
      written informed consent and were included if having undergone both
      echocardiography and cine steady-state free precession (SSFP) CMR on the same
      day. Guide points at the septal and lateral mitral annulus were used to define
      the early longitudinal relaxation rate (E'), while a time-volume curve from the
      3D model was used to assess diastolic filling parameters. We determined the
      correlation between 3D CMR and echocardiography and the accuracy of CMR in
      classifying the diastolic function grade. Results:: The study included 102
      subjects. The E/A ratio by CMR was positively associated with the E/A ratio by
      echocardiography (r = 0.71, p < 0.0001). The early diastolic relaxation velocity
      by tissue Doppler and longitudinal relaxation rate for the lateral mitral annulus
      displacement were positively associated (p = 0.007), as were the ratio between
      Doppler E/e' and CMR E/E' (p = 0.01). CMR-determined normalized peak E (NE) and
      deceleration time (DT) were able to predict diastolic dysfunction (areas under
      the curve [AUCs] = 0.70 and 0.72, respectively). In addition, the lateral E/E'
      ratio showed good utility in identifying diastolic dysfunction (AUC = 0.80).
      Overall, echocardiography and CMR interobserver and intraobserver agreements were
      excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient range 0.72 - 0.97). Conclusion:: 3D
      modeling of standard cine CMR images was able to identify study subjects with
      reduced diastolic function and showed good reproducibility, suggesting a
      potential for a routine diastolic function assessment by CMR. Fundamento:: A
      ressonancia magnetica cardiaca necessita de um metodo simples e robusto para a
      avaliacao da funcao diastolica que pode ser feito com sequencias protocolares de
      rotina. Objetivo:: Desenvolver e validar a avaliacao volumetrica da funcao
      diastolica atraves de um modelo tridimensional (3D) com utilizacao de imagens de
      ressonancia magnetica cardiaca (RMC) e comparar os resultados obtidos com este
      modelo com os obtidos por ecocardiografia. Metodos:: Os participantes do estudo
      assinaram um termo de consentimento e foram incluidos se tivessem sido submetidos
      no mesmo dia tanto a ecocardiografia quanto a cine RMC com precessao livre no
      estado estacionario (steady-state free precession, SSFP). Pontos-guia foram
      utilizados no anel mitral septal e lateral para definir a velocidade de
      estiramento no inicio da diastole (E'), enquanto curvas de volume-tempo do modelo
      3D foram utilizadas para avaliar os parametros de enchimento diastolico. Foram
      determinadas a correlacao entre a RMC 3D e a ecocardiografia, alem da acuracia da
      RMC em classificar o grau de funcao diastolica. Resultados:: Ao todo, 102
      sujeitos foram incluidos no estudo. A razao E/A pela RMC esteve positivamente
      associada com a razao E/A obtida pela ecocardiografia (r = 0,71, p < 0,0001).
      Estiveram positivamente associadas a velocidade de relaxamento diastolico inicial
      ao Doppler tecidual e a velocidade de relaxamento longitudinal de deslocamento do
      anel mitral lateral (p = 0,007), bem como a razao entre E/e' por Doppler e E/E'
      pela RMC (p = 0,01). A velocidade normalizada de pico de enchimento (EM)
      determinada pela RMC e o tempo de desaceleracao (TD) foram capazes de predizer a
      disfuncao diastolica (areas sob a curva [AUCs] = 0,70 e 0,72, respectivamente).
      Alem disso, a razao E/E' lateral mostrou boa utilidade para a identificacao da
      disfuncao diastolica (AUC = 0,80). No geral, a ecocardiografia e a RMC
      apresentaram excelente concordancia interobservador e intraobservador
      (coeficiente de correlacao intraclasse 0,72 - 0,97). Conclusao:: Uma modelagem 3D
      de imagens padroes de cine RMC foi capaz de identificar os individuos do estudo
      com funcao diastolica reduzida e mostrou uma boa reprodutibilidade, sugerindo ter
      potencial na avaliacao rotineira da funcao diastolica por RMC.

PMID- 28562832
TI  - Thromboembolism and bleeding risk scores and predictors of cardiac death in a
      population with atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia, with risk of
      systemic embolism and death. It presents rheumatic etiology in up to 32% of
      developing countries, whose anticoagulation and evolution data are scarce.
      Objectives: to determine the predictors of cardiac death considering the clinical
      profile, thromboembolism and bleeding scores of patients with AF of a single
      center, with high prevalence of rheumatic heart disease. Methods: 302 patients
      with AF were studied, mean age 58.1 years; 161 women; 96 pts with rheumatic
      etiology. Patients underwent clinical and laboratory evaluation, measurement of
      risk scores and the mean follow-up of 12.8 months. Results: 174 were using
      warfarin. The averages of the HAS-BLED and ATRIA scores were 1.4 and 1.2,
      respectively. Percent time in therapeutic range of international normalized ratio
      was 45.8%. Thirty patients (9.9%) had cardiac death and 41 had some type of
      bleeding due to warfarin. By univariate analysis, there was statistical
      significance between cardiac death and permanent AF, blood pressure, systolic
      dysfunction, R2CHADS2, CCS, EHRA and HAS-BLED. There was no association with
      valvular AF. By multivariate analysis, systemic arterial and pulmonary artery
      pressures, classification CCS and systolic dysfunction showed statistical
      significance. Conclusions: There was no association between cardiac death and
      valvular AF. Independent predictors of cardiac death were low measures of blood
      pressure, higher score CCS classification and the presence of systolic
      ventricular dysfunction.

PMID- 28562834
TI  - Hypertriglyceridemic Waist Phenotype and Changes in the Fasting Glycemia and
      Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents Over One-Year Follow-Up Period.
AB  - Background:: The hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTW) phenotype is defined as the
      simultaneous presence of increased waist circumference (WC) and serum
      triglycerides (TG) levels and it has been associated with cardiometabolic risk in
      children and adolescents. Objective:: The objective was to evaluate the influence
      of HTW phenotype in the fasting glycemia and blood pressure in children and
      adolescents over one-year follow-up period. Methods:: It is a cohort study
      involving 492 children and adolescents from 7 to 15 years old, both genders, who
      were submitted to anthropometric, biochemical and clinical evaluation at the
      baseline, and also after 6 and 12 months of follow-up. Generalized Estimating
      Equation (GEE) models were calculated to evaluate the longitudinal influence of
      the HTW phenotype in the glycemia and blood pressure over one-year. Results:: It
      was observed a prevalence of 10.6% (n = 52) of HTW phenotype in the students. The
      GEE models identified that students with HTW phenotype had an increase of 3.87
      mg/dl in the fasting glycemia mean (CI: 1.68-6.05) and of 3.67mmHg in the
      systolic blood pressure (SBP) mean (CI: 1.55-6.08) over one-year follow-up, after
      adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusions:: The results of this study
      suggest that HTW phenotype is a risk factor for longitudinal changes in glycemia
      and SBP in children and adolescents over one-year follow-up period. Fundamento::
      O fenotipo de cintura hipertrigliceridemica (CHT) e definido como a presenca
      simultanea de circunferencia de cintura (CC) e niveis sericos de triglicerides
      (TG) aumentados e tem sido associado com risco cardiometabolico em criancas e
      adolescentes. Objetivo:: Avaliar a influencia do fenotipo CHT na glicemia de
      jejum e na pressao arterial em criancas e adolescentes em um periodo de
      acompanhamento de um ano. Metodos:: Trata-se de um estudo de coorte envolvendo
      492 criancas e adolescentes de 7 a 15 anos de ambos os sexos, que foram
      submetidos a avaliacao antropometrica, bioquimica e clinica no inicio e tambem
      apos 6 e 12 meses de seguimento. Os modelos de Equacao de Estimulacao
      Generalizada (GEE) foram calculados para avaliar a influencia longitudinal do
      fenotipo CHT na glicemia e na pressao arterial ao longo de um ano. Resultados::
      Foi observada uma prevalencia de 10,6% (n = 52) do fenotipo CHT nos estudantes.
      Os modelos GEE identificaram que os estudantes com fenotipo CHT apresentaram
      aumento de 3,87 mg/dl na media de glicemia em jejum (IC: 1,68-6,05) e de 3,67
      mmHg na pressao arterial sistolica media (PAS) (IC: 1,55-6,08) depois de um ano
      de acompanhamento, apos ajuste para variaveis de confusao. Conclusoes:: Os
      resultados deste estudo sugerem que o fenotipo CHT e um fator de risco para
      alteracoes longitudinais da glicemia e da PAS em criancas e adolescentes em um
      periodo de um ano de seguimento.

PMID- 28562835
TI  - Academic Achievement of American Indian and Alaska Native Students: Does Social
      Emotional Competence Reduce the Impact of Poverty.
AB  - Social-emotional competence may be a protective factor for academic achievement
      among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. This study used
      Fisher's r to Z transformations to test for group differences in the magnitude of
      relationships between social-emotional competence and achievement. Hierarchical
      linear modeling was used to determine the variance in academic achievement
      explained by student race, poverty, and social-emotional competence, and the
      schoolwide percentage of students by race. Data are from 335 students across 6
      schools. This study suggests that promoting social-emotional competence among
      AI/AN students could be a strategy for reducing disparities in academic
      achievement and the consequences of these disparities.

PMID- 28562836
TI  - Healing the Spirit: Exploring Sexualized Trauma and Recovery among Indigenous Men
      in Toronto.
AB  - Colonial policies in Canada have led to social disruption and intergenerational
      trauma across Indigenous nations, contributing to high rates of sexualized
      violence within many communities. While mental health and social science
      discourse has identified the harmful impacts of violence against Indigenous women
      in Canada, there continues to be a lack of focus on the unique mental health
      needs of Indigenous men in this regard. This article reviews the results of a
      nationally funded research study which looked at the mental health and healing
      needs of Indigenous men in Toronto who have experienced sexualized trauma. This
      study followed Indigenous protocols for research and was conducted in partnership
      with Anishnawbe Health Toronto, a culture-based community health center. The
      methodology utilized a narrative inquiry and interviewed six community men about
      their recovery journeys and ten community healers and counselors about recovery
      through a gendered lens. The results explore the discourses that contribute to
      the social construction of masculinity(ies) and the impacts of these social norms
      on help-seeking behaviors. These results inform culturally appropriate and gender
      relevant mental health service provision for Indigenous male clients recovering
      from sexualized trauma.

PMID- 28562833
TI  - The Effect of Physical Resistance Training on Baroreflex Sensitivity of
      Hypertensive Rats.
AB  - Background:: Baroreceptors act as regulators of blood pressure (BP); however, its
      sensitivity is impaired in hypertensive patients. Among the recommendations for
      BP reduction, exercise training has become an important adjuvant therapy in this
      population. However, there are many doubts about the effects of resistance
      exercise training in this population. Objective:: To evaluate the effect of
      resistance exercise training on BP and baroreceptor sensitivity in spontaneously
      hypertensive rats (SHR). Method:: Rats SHR (n = 16) and Wistar (n = 16) at 8
      weeks of age, at the beginning of the experiment, were randomly divided into 4
      groups: sedentary control (CS, n = 8); trained control (CT, n = 8); sedentary SHR
      (HS, n = 8) and trained SHR (HT, n = 8). Resistance exercise training was
      performed in a stairmaster-type equipment (1.1 * 0.18 m, 2 cm between the steps,
      80 degrees  incline) with weights attached to their tails, (5 days/week, 8
      weeks). Baroreceptor reflex control of heart rate (HR) was tested by
      loading/unloading of baroreceptors with phenylephrine and sodium nitroprusside.
      Results:: Resistance exercise training increased the soleus muscle mass in SHR
      when compared to HS (HS 0.027 +/- 0.002 g/mm and HT 0.056 +/- 0.003 g/mm).
      Resistance exercise training did not alter BP. On the other hand, in relation to
      baroreflex sensitivity, bradycardic response was improved in the TH group when
      compared to HS (HS -1.3 +/- 0.1 bpm/mmHg and HT -2.6 +/- 0.2 bpm/mmHg) although
      tachycardia response was not altered by resistance exercise (CS -3.3 +/- 0.2
      bpm/mmHg, CT -3.3 +/- 0.1 bpm/mmHg, HS -1.47 +/- 0.06 bpm/mmHg and HT -1.6 +/-
      0.1 bpm/mmHg). Conclusion:: Resistance exercise training was able to promote
      improvements on baroreflex sensitivity of SHR rats, through the improvement of
      bradycardic response, despite not having reduced BP. Fundamento:: Os
      barorreceptores atuam como reguladores da pressao arterial (PA); no entanto, sua
      sensibilidade encontra-se prejudicada em pacientes hipertensos. Dentre as
      recomendacoes para a reducao da PA, o treinamento fisico tem se tornado um
      importante adjunto na terapia dessa populacao. Porem, ainda ha diversos
      questionamentos sobre os efeitos de treinamento fisico resistido nessa populacao.
      Objetivo:: Avaliar o efeito do treinamento fisico resistido na PA e na
      sensibilidade de barorreceptores em ratos espontaneamente hipertensos (SHR).
      Metodo:: Ratos SHR (n = 16) e Wistar (n = 16) com 08 semanas de idade foram
      aleatoriamente divididos em 4 grupos: controle sedentario (CS, n = 8); controle
      treinado (CT, n = 8); SHR sedentario (HS, n = 8) e SHR treinado (HT, n = 8). O
      treinamento fisico foi realizado em aparato com degraus (1,1 * 0,18 m, 2 cm entre
      os degraus, 80 degrees  inclinacao) com peso fixado na cauda, (5 vezes por semana
      durante 8 semanas). O controle barorreflexo da frequencia cardiaca (FC) foi
      testado com estimulos de fenilefrina e nitroprussiato de sodio. Resultados:: O
      treinamento resistido foi capaz de aumentar a massa muscular do soleo em ratos
      SHR (HS 0,027 +/- 0,002 g/mm e HT 0,056 +/- 0,003 g/mm). Nao houve alteracao da
      PA com o treinamento. Por outro lado, houve melhora na resposta bradicardica da
      sensibilidade barorreflexa no grupo HT (HS -1,3 +/- 0,1 bpm/mmHg e HT -2,6 +/-
      0,2 bpm/mmHg), no entanto, a resposta taquicardica nao foi alterada pelo
      exercicio resistido (CS -3,3 +/- 0,2 bpm/mmHg, CT -3,3 +/- 0,1 bpm/mmHg, HS -1,47
      +/- 0,06 e HT -1,6 +/- 0,1). Conclusao:: O exercicio fisico resistido foi capaz
      de otimizar a sensibilidade barorreflexa dos ratos SHR por meio da melhora a
      resposta bradicardica, apesar de nao alterar a PA.

PMID- 28562837
TI  - Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for Urban American Indians and Alaska
      Natives, Part I: Services and Staff.
AB  - Although residential substance abuse treatment is utilized extensively by urban
      American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), there are few detailed descriptions
      of this care. This study delineated services provided by and interviewed staff
      working at residential programs designed for chemically dependent urban AI/ANs.
      Study agencies were compared to national data from residential programs serving
      general population clients. Study agencies delivered arrays of services
      substantially broader than those provided by general population programs. As well
      as culturally specific programs tailored for AI/ANs plus so-called "mainstream"
      substance abuse treatments, study facilities provided numerous ancillary
      services, such as care for clients' children.

PMID- 28562838
TI  - Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for Urban American Indians and Alaska
      Natives, Part II: Costs.
AB  - The present study examined costs of two residential substance abuse treatment
      programs designed for urban American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs). Costs
      for one agency were well within national norms, while costs at the other program
      were less than expected from nationwide data. Economies of scale accounted for
      much of the difference between observed and expected costs. Culturally specific
      residential substance abuse treatment services can be provided to urban AI/ANs
      within budgets typically found at mainstream programs.

PMID- 28562839
TI  - Changes in Physical Activity Barriers among American Indian Elders: A Pilot
      Study.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to assess whether selfreported physical
      activity barriers could be reduced among American Indian elders who participated
      in a 6-week randomized physical activity trial that compared the use of a
      pedometer only to that of pedometers with step-count goal setting. Elders (N =
      32) were compared on the Barriers to Being Physically Active Quiz after
      participating in a pilot physical activity trial. Elders were classified into
      high- and low-barrier groups at baseline and compared on self-reported physical
      activity, health-related quality of life, pedometer step counts, and 6-minute
      walk performance. At the conclusion of the 6-week trial, only the lack of
      willpower subscale significantly decreased. The low-barrier group reported
      significantly higher physical activity engagement and improved mental health
      quality of life than the high-barrier group. The groups did not differ on daily
      step counts or 6-minute walk performance. Additional research is needed with a
      larger sample to understand relevant activity barriers in this population and
      assess whether they can be modified through participation in structured physical
      activity and exercise programs.

PMID- 28562840
TI  - Mental health service and provider preference among American Indians with type 2
      diabetes.
AB  - In this study, we investigated mental health service and provider preferences of
      American Indian adults with type 2 diabetes from two tribes in the northern
      Midwest. Preferences were determined and compared by participant characteristics.
      After controlling for other factors, living on reservation lands was associated
      with increased odds of Native provider preference, and decreased odds of
      biomedical service preference. Anxiety also was associated with decreased odds of
      biomedical service preference. Spiritual activity engagement and past health care
      discrimination were associated with increased odds of traditional service
      preference. We discuss implications for the types of mental health services
      offered and characteristics of providers who are recruited for tribal
      communities.

PMID- 28562841
TI  - Native VOICES: Adapting a video-based sexual health intervention for American
      Indian teens and young adults using the ADAPT-ITT model.
AB  - American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth experience disproportionate rates
      of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Despite their need for culturally
      appropriate sexual health interventions, few evidence-based programs have been
      designed for or rigorously evaluated with AI/AN youth. The primary goal of this
      study was to adapt a video-based HIV/STI intervention for AI/AN teens and young
      adults (15-24 years old) living in urban and reservation settings. To capture the
      heterogeneous experience of AI/AN youth, as well as the viewpoints of adult
      stakeholders, formative research activities were carried out in collaboration
      with three geographically dispersed communities in the Pacific Northwest using
      focus groups and key informant interviews, following the ADAPT-ITT model. Based
      on participants' feedback, the team produced a culturally tailored intervention
      toolkit containing a Users Guide, the Native VOICES video, condom and dental dam
      demonstration videos, and a selection of condoms and dental dams. Forthcoming
      analyses are evaluating the effectiveness of the Native VOICES intervention with
      AI/AN youth living across the U.S.

PMID- 28562842
TI  - Participatory visual methods for American Indian communities and mental health
      conversations.
AB  - Visual methods serve a unique purpose in that they help generate data that
      uncover experiences, knowledge, and contextual factors that lead to a greater
      shared understanding about a topic. We describe the process and results of one
      American Indian community-based organization's success using visual methods to
      prompt community conversations about mental health and substance abuse. We
      uncovered community members' mental health perspectives and experiences through
      visual vignettes. Our hope is that other communities and funding agencies see the
      value and promise of visual methods as a valid approach that promotes shared
      dialogue, decision making, and conversations for future generations.

PMID- 28562843
TI  - The prostitution and trafficking of American Indian/Alaska Native women in
      Minnesota.
AB  - We examined social and physical violence experienced by American Indian/Alaska
      Native (AI/AN) women in prostitution and their impacts on the mental and physical
      health of 105 women (81% Anishinaabe, mean age = 35 years) recruited through
      service agencies in three Minnesota cities. In childhood, abuse, foster care,
      arrests, and prostitution were typical. Homelessness, rape, assault, racism, and
      pimping were common. The women's most prevalent physical symptoms included muscle
      pain, impaired memory or concentration, and headaches. Symptoms of post-traumatic
      stress disorder and dissociation were common, with more severe psychological
      symptoms associated with worse health. Most of the women wanted to leave
      prostitution and they most often identified counseling and peer support as
      necessary to accomplish this. Most saw colonization and prostitution of AI/AN
      women as connected.

PMID- 28562845
TI  - EVOLUTION AND HYBRIDIZATION IN THE UTETHEISA ORNATRIX COMPLEX
      (LEPIDOPTERA:ARCTIIDAE). I. INTER- AND INTRAPOPULATION VARIATION AND ITS RELATION
      TO HYBRIDIZATION.

PMID- 28562844
TI  - Development and piloting of a brief intervention for suicidal American Indian
      adolescents.
AB  - American Indian (AI) adolescents have the highest suicide death and attempt rates
      of any U.S. group, yet few interventions have been developed or evaluated for
      this population. This paper presents the first adaptation of a brief evidence
      based intervention for AI adolescents from one reservation who made a suicide
      attempt. We describe our community-driven approach to intervention development
      and a small pilot study (n = 13). Preliminary findings indicate reductions in
      adolescents' negative thinking, depression, and suicidal ideation, and an
      increase in psychological service utilization. Key innovations include delivery
      by AI paraprofessionals and potential to strengthen the continuum of care between
      emergency department and outpatient settings.

PMID- 28562846
TI  - THERIAN AND QUASI-MAMMALS.

PMID- 28562847
TI  - COMPETITIVE INTERACTIONS AND THE EVOLUTION OF ECOLOGICAL NICHES AS ILLUSTRATED BY
      THE AUSTRALIAN HONEYEATER GENUS MELITHREPTUS (MELIPHAGIDAE).

PMID- 28562848
TI  - THE FREQUENCY OF INTERBREEDING BETWEEN TWO SIBLING SPECIES OF DACUS (DIPTERA) IN
      WILD POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28562850
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF E. COLI, YEAST, AND RABBIT LIVER sRNA
      METHYLATION.

PMID- 28562849
TI  - MIMETIC VERSUS DISRUPTIVE COLORATION IN INTERGRADING POPULATIONS OF LIMENITIS
      ARTHEMIS AND ASTYANAX BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28562851
TI  - ISLAND PATTERNS IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS BIRD FAUNA.

PMID- 28562852
TI  - POSTMATING ISOLATION IN THE HYLA EWINGI COMPLEX (ANURA : HYLIDAE).

PMID- 28562853
TI  - SIZE-FECUNDITY RELATIONSHIPS AND THEIR EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS IN FIVE
      DESMOGNATHINE SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28562854
TI  - PARTIAL REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN THE GENUS PARTULA (GASTROPODA) ON MOOREA.

PMID- 28562856
TI  - SUPERNUMERARY CHROMOSOMES IN HAPLOPAPPUS VALIDUS (RYDB.) CORY.

PMID- 28562855
TI  - COMPONENTS OF VARIANCE OF ODONTOMETRIC TRAITS IN A WILD-DERIVED POPULATION OF
      PEROMYSCUS LEUCOPUS.

PMID- 28562857
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF PREMATING ISOLATION IN THE HYLA EWINGI COMPLEX
      (ANURA : HYLIDAE).

PMID- 28562858
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA. VIII. OVIPOSITION AND
      ITS RELATION TO PATTERNS OF OVIPOSITION IN OTHER BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28562859
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC COMBAT AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CAPRINI.

PMID- 28562860
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SPECIATION OF EUPHRASIA IN EUROPE.

PMID- 28562861
TI  - GENOTYPE FREQUENCY AND MATING SUCCESS IN THE WILLISTONI SPECIES GROUP OF
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28562862
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF MYCOPHAGY IN STORED-PRODUCT ARTHROPODA.

PMID- 28562864
TI  - HYPOTHETICAL MECHANISM OF SPECIATION.

PMID- 28562865
TI  - CHANGES IN GENETIC CONSTITUTION OF A POPULATION OF SPHAEROMA RUGICAUDA
      (CRUSTACEA: ISOPODA).

PMID- 28562866
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION IN THE POCKET MOUSE, PEROGNATHUS GOLDMANI OSGOOD.

PMID- 28562867
TI  - CONSTANCY OF THE PENTAMEROUS COROLLA PHENOTYPE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF
      LINANTHUS.

PMID- 28562868
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIP OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY TO PHENETIC TAXONOMY.

PMID- 28562869
TI  - COLOR-PHASE IN GIBBONS.

PMID- 28562870
TI  - SELECTION FOR REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO POPULATIONS OF MAIZE, ZEA MAYS
      L.

PMID- 28562871
TI  - THE DEPENDENCE OF BEE-MEDIATED POLLEN AND GENE DISPERSAL UPON PLANT DENSITY.

PMID- 28562872
TI  - ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF FUNCTION OF THE MESONYCHID CONDYLARTH FEEDING MECHANISM.

PMID- 28562873
TI  - GLOGER'S RULE AND PIGMENTATION OF COLLEMBOLA.

PMID- 28562874
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON HYBRIDIZATION AND SEXUAL ISOLATION BETWEEN SOME APHYTIS
      SPECIES (HYMENOPTERA: APHELINIDAE). III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF REPRODUCTIVE
      ISOLATION BETWEEN INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS AND PARENTAL SPECIES.

PMID- 28562875
TI  - NEW EVIDENCE ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HEXAPLOID OATS.

PMID- 28562876
TI  - SELECTIVE MATING AND EYE PIGMENTATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE VISUAL COMPONENT IN THE
      COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28562877
TI  - EXTINCTION-ORIGINATION EQUILIBRIA IN LATE CENOZOIC LAND MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA.

PMID- 28562878
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION AND EVOLUTION IN PSEUDOSINELLA VIOLENT A (FOLSOM).

PMID- 28562879
TI  - RELATIVE FITNESS OF INTROGRESSED AND PARENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      MOJAVENSIS AND D. ARIZONENSIS.

PMID- 28562880
TI  - A CYTOLOGICAL STUDY ON SOME RECENTLY COLLECTED STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28562882
TI  - MEASUREMENT OF SELECTION USING DISTANCE STATISTICS IN THE PREHISTORIC ORANG-UTAN
      PONGO PYGMAEUS PALAEOSUMATRENSIS.

PMID- 28562883
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN LABORATORY POPULATIONS OF DACUS (TEPHRITIDAE:
      DIPTERA).

PMID- 28562884
TI  - EVOLUTION OF WING REDUCTION IN CRANE FLIES (DIPTERA : TIPULIDAE).

PMID- 28562885
TI  - LEVELS OF INTEGRATION IN MAMMALIAN DENTITIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF CORRELATIONS IN
      NESOPHONTES MICRUS (INSECTIVORA) AND ORYZOMYS COUESI (RODENTIA).

PMID- 28562886
TI  - MICROTUS POPULATION BIOLOGY. II. GENETIC CHANGES AT THE TRANSFERRIN LOCUS IN
      FLUCTUATING POPULATIONS OF TWO VOLE SPECIES.

PMID- 28562887
TI  - AN ATTEMPT TO VERIFY MIMETIC ADVANTAGE IN A NEOTROPICAL ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28562888
TI  - SUBSPECIES AND SYMPATRY IN DARWIN'S FINCHES.

PMID- 28562889
TI  - HERITABILITY OF SOME LINEAR BODY MEASUREMENTS AND THEIR RATIOS IN THE LEOPARD
      FROG RANA PIPIENS.

PMID- 28562890
TI  - BERGMANN'S RULE AND CLIMATIC ADAPTATION IN WOODRATS (NEOTOMA).

PMID- 28562891
TI  - SYMPATRIC HOST RACE FORMATION AND SPECIATION IN FRUGIVOROUS FLIES OF THE GENUS
      RHAGOLETIS (DIPTERA, TEPHRITIDAE).

PMID- 28562892
TI  - THE RELATION BETWEEN MODE OF REPRODUCTION AND EXTENT OF SPECIATION IN WOODY
      GENERA OF THE CALIFORNIA CHAPARRAL.

PMID- 28562893
TI  - THE EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE PERISSODACTYLA.

PMID- 28562894
TI  - MATING PROPENSITY, CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM, AND DEPENDENT CONDITIONS IN
      DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS II. FACTORS BETWEEN LARVAE AND BETWEEN ADULTS.

PMID- 28562895
TI  - "ISOLATING MECHANISMS" IN THE BLUE-WINGED WARBLER-GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER COMPLEX.

PMID- 28562896
TI  - COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF ARRANGEMENTS WITHIN AND BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28562899
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AND ITS TAXONOMIC IMPLICATIONS IN THE SCAEVOLA GAUDICHAUDIANA
      COMPLEX OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

PMID- 28562900
TI  - SELECTION FOR AND AGAINST ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA
      AND DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS.

PMID- 28562897
TI  - SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY ALLELES IN THE POPULATION OF OENOTHERA ORGANENSIS.

PMID- 28562901
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF MOUNTAIN SHEEP HORNS.

PMID- 28562902
TI  - THE BIOTA OF LONG-DISTANCE DISPERSAL. IV. GENETIC SYSTEMS IN THE FLORAS OF
      OCEANIC ISLANDS.

PMID- 28562903
TI  - THE PERIODICAL CICADA PROBLEM. II. EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28562904
TI  - CYTOGENETICS OF RUBUS. V. NATURAL HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN R. PROCERUS P. J. MUELL.
      AND R. LACINIATUS WILLD.

PMID- 28562906
TI  - CLIMATOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF A GRASSHOPPER SUPERNUMERARY CHROMOSOME.

PMID- 28562905
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF INTRASPECIFIC POLYPLOIDY: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
      FROM SOLANUM CHACOENSE.

PMID- 28562907
TI  - ESTIMATION OF CONSERVATISM OF CHARACTERS BY CONSTANCY WITHIN BIOLOGICAL
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28562908
TI  - BODY SIZES OF POIKILOTHERM VERTEBRATES AT DIFFERENT LATITUDES.

PMID- 28562909
TI  - IMMUNOLOGY AND RATES OF ENZYME EVOLUTION IN THE AMPHIBIA IN RELATION TO THE
      ORIGINS OF CERTAIN TAXA.

PMID- 28562910
TI  - PREMATING ISOLATING MECHANISMS IN SYMPATRIC AND ALLOPATRIC HYLA REGILLA AND HYLA
      CALIFORNIAE.

PMID- 28562912
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA. IV. SPERM PRECEDENCE
      A PRELIMINARY REPORT.

PMID- 28562911
TI  - THE MIMETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF ERYTHROLAMPRUS AESCULAPII OCELLATUS PETERS FROM
      TOBAGO.

PMID- 28562913
TI  - MONTHLY FREQUENCY CHANGES OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA THIRD CHROMOSOME GENE
      ARRANGEMENTS IN A CALIFORNIA LOCALITY.

PMID- 28562914
TI  - BIRDS AS AGENTS OF LONG-DISTANCE DISPERSAL FOR DISJUNCT PLANT GROUPS OF THE
      TEMPERATE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.

PMID- 28562915
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION BY CLIMATE ON THE LAND-SNAIL CEPAEA NEMORALIS (L.).

PMID- 28562916
TI  - LONG-TERM CHANGES IN CHROMOSOMALLY POLYMORPHIC LABORATORY STOCKS OF DROSOPHILA
      PAVANI.

PMID- 28562917
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE ECOLOGY OF THE SPECIES GROUPS OF THE GENUS LEPTODACTYLUS (AMPHIBIA,
      LEPTODACTYLIDAE).

PMID- 28562918
TI  - A NOTE ON STABILITY AND CONVERGENCE OF GENETIC SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28562919
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN TROPICAL HARDWOODS.

PMID- 28562920
TI  - ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO EVOLUTIONARY SUCCESS AS EXHIBITED BY AFRICAN CICHLID FISHES
      OF THE GENUS TILAPIA AND THE SPECIES FLOCKS OF THE GREAT LAKES.

PMID- 28562921
TI  - MICROEVOLUTION WITHIN THREE SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28562922
TI  - ECOTYPIC VARIATION IN THE NON-BREEDING SEASON IN MIGRATORY POPULATIONS: A STUDY
      OF TARSAL LENGTH IN SOME FRINGILLIDAE.

PMID- 28562923
TI  - ON THE USE OF CONSTANCY IN ESTIMATING CONSERVATISM OF CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28562924
TI  - CHROMOSOME TRANSLOCATIONS IN GAYOPHYTUM (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28562925
TI  - TRANSITIONAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28562926
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL VARIATION OF MALES AND FEMALES IN POLISTES EXCLAMANS.

PMID- 28562927
TI  - DEFICIENCIES OF THE SYNTHETIC THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28562928
TI  - THE EFFECT OF COROLLA COLOR AND OUTLINE ON INTERSPECIFIC POLLEN FLOW IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28562929
TI  - PROTEIN POLYMORPHISM AND GENIC HETEROZYGOSITY IN TWO EUROPEAN SUBSPECIES OF THE
      HOUSE MOUSE.

PMID- 28562931
TI  - PHENETIC SIMILARITY AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG STRAINS OF ORYZA
      PERENNIS, ESTIMATED BY METHODS OF NUMERICAL TAXONOMY.

PMID- 28562930
TI  - THE PRINCIPLE OF METACHROMISM: A CRITIQUE.

PMID- 28562932
TI  - UNORTHODOXIES IN REPTILIAN PHYLOGENY.

PMID- 28562933
TI  - SQUASH AND GOURD BEES (PEPONAPIS, XENOGLOSSA) AND THE ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED
      CUCURBITA.

PMID- 28562934
TI  - A BIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF POPULATIONS OF POA ANNUA L.

PMID- 28562935
TI  - DYNAMICS OF CLONAL MICROSPECIES IN CHOLLA CACTUS.

PMID- 28562936
TI  - A REAPPRAISAL OF MATING CALL DIFFERENTIATION IN HYLA CADAVERINA (= HYLA
      CALIFORNIAE) AND HYLA REGILLA.

PMID- 28562937
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATING SPEED AND WING LENGTH IN DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28562938
TI  - EVOLUTION IN THE HOUSE SPARROW. II. ADAPTIVE DIFFERENTIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28562939
TI  - GEOGRAPHY OF THE SIBLING SPECIES RELATED TO DROSOPHILA WILLISTONI, AND OF THE
      SEMISPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM COMPLEX.

PMID- 28562940
TI  - ON REVERSIONS TO FORMER ANCESTRAL CONDITIONS IN MEGADRILE OLIGOCHAETES.

PMID- 28562941
TI  - SOUND PRODUCTION DURING COURTSHIP IN SIX SPECIES OF SUNFISH (CENTRARCHIDAE).

PMID- 28562943
TI  - COADAPTATION OF THE PAYNE INVERSION WITH A PREVIOUSLY UNRELATED GENETIC
      BACKGROUND IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28562942
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC AND REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC POPULATIONS OF
      PANAMANIAN BATHYGOBIUS.

PMID- 28562944
TI  - FERTILITY AND FITNESS OF XO MALES IN DROSOPHILA I. QUALITATIVE STUDY.

PMID- 28562945
TI  - WHITTAKER'S FIVE KINGDOMS OF ORGANISMS: MINOR REVISIONS SUGGESTED BY
      CONSIDERATIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF MITOSIS.

PMID- 28562946
TI  - A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN THE PUPAE OF THREE SPECIES OF
      CULICOIDES (DIPTERA: CERATOPOGONIDAE).

PMID- 28562947
TI  - THE ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE SALAMANDER AMBYSTOMA LATERALE TO ITS ALL
      FEMALE, GYNOGENETIC ASSOCIATE.

PMID- 28562948
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN ANOPHELES CRUCIANS AND ANOPHELES BRADLEYI.

PMID- 28562949
TI  - POLLINATOR FLIGHT DIRECTIONALITY AND ITS EFFECT ON POLLEN FLOW.

PMID- 28562950
TI  - ORGANOPHYLETIC TRENDS IN SEVERAL MICROMORPHOLOGICAL FLORAL TRAITS IN THE
      HEXAPLOID CULTIVATED OATS (AVENA).

PMID- 28562951
TI  - MULTIPLE CHARACTER ANALYSIS AND CHROMOSOME STUDIES IN THE TRIPSACUM LANCEOLATUM
      COMPLEX.

PMID- 28562952
TI  - THE ALLOPATRIC MODEL AND PHYLOGENY IN PALEOZOIC INVERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28562953
TI  - ESTIMATION OF RELATIVE VIABILITY AND FECUNDITY OF COLOR POLYMORPHISMS IN ANURANS.

PMID- 28562954
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY STATUS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN POPULATION OF WOOD FROGS.

PMID- 28562955
TI  - WIND POLLINATION IN THE ANGIOSPERMS: EVOLUTIONARY AND ENVIRONMENTAL
      CONSIDERATIONS.

PMID- 28562957
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DENTAL GROWTH AND ADAPTATION IN MAMMALIAN CARNIVORES.

PMID- 28562956
TI  - THE SENSORY BASIS OF MATE SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28562958
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS AND PHYLOGENETIC INTERPRETATIONS IN THE GENUS AQUILEGIA.

PMID- 28562959
TI  - MATING SELECTION IN THE CALIFORNIA OAK MOTH (LEPIDOPTERA, DIOPTIDAE).

PMID- 28562960
TI  - QUANTITATIVE STUDIES ON MATING SYSTEMS. III. METHODS FOR THE ESTIMATION OF MALE
      GAMETOPHYTIC SELECTIVE VALUES AND DIFFERENTIAL OUTCROSSING RATES.

PMID- 28562961
TI  - THE VERTEBRATE NOSE, REMARKS ON ITS STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ADAPTATION AND
      EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28562962
TI  - FECUNDITY IN PRIMITIVE PLETHODONTID SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28562963
TI  - VARIANCE OF GENE FREQUENCIES.

PMID- 28562964
TI  - SEED-EATERS VERSUS SEED SIZE, NUMBER, TOXICITY AND DISPERSAL.

PMID- 28562965
TI  - SMALL ISLANDS AND THE EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF INSULAR BIOGEOGRAPHY.

PMID- 28562966
TI  - ON THE ADAPTIVE VALUE OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM: II. UNISEXUALITY.

PMID- 28562967
TI  - MUTANT GENES AND THE EMIGRATION BEHAVIOR OF PHAENICIA SERICATA (DIPTERA,
      CALLIPHORIDAE).

PMID- 28562968
TI  - THE MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF THE PLACENTAL CARNIVORES.

PMID- 28562969
TI  - THE EVOLUTION, FUNCTIONING AND BREAKDOWN OF HETEROMORPHIC INCOMPATIBILITY
      SYSTEMS. I. THE PLUMBAGINACEAE.

PMID- 28562970
TI  - COEVOLUTION OF MUTUALISM BETWEEN ANTS AND ACACIAS IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

PMID- 28562971
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE RADIATION OF THE PHENACODONTID CONDYLARTHS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE
      PERISSODACTYLA.

PMID- 28562972
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF DIOECISM FROM HETEROSTYLY IN NYMPHOIDES (MENYANTHACEAE).

PMID- 28562973
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF GASTROPOD TORSION.

PMID- 28562974
TI  - FEEDING SPECIALIZATIONS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF TERRESTRIAL SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28562975
TI  - FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF THE CERATOPSIAN DINOSAURS.

PMID- 28562976
TI  - POPULATION VARIABILITY OF CERCOCARPUS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA AS
      RELATED TO HABITAT.

PMID- 28562977
TI  - ZOOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28562978
TI  - NEARLY ROOTED INCISORS IN AN ABNORMAL RAT, AND CONTROL OF TOOTH GROWTH.

PMID- 28562980
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE TREE SHREWS: THE EVIDENCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

PMID- 28562979
TI  - VARIATION IN BLOOD GROUP FREQUENCIES IN POPULATIONS OF SONG SPARROWS OF THE SAN
      FRANCISCO BAY REGION.

PMID- 28562981
TI  - GENETICS OF NATURAL POPULATIONS. XXXVIII. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA IN WESTERN UNITED STATES.

PMID- 28562982
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AS A SOURCE OF VARIATION FOR ADAPTATION TO NEW ENVIRONMENTS.

PMID- 28562983
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF THREE DIPLOID SPECIES OF OENOTHERA SUBGENUS ANOGRA (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28562984
TI  - THE INTERIOR SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28562985
TI  - POTENTIAL EXTINCTION THROUGH COMPETITION BETWEEN TWO SPECIES OF TERRESTRIAL
      SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28562986
TI  - SELF-FERTILITY IN MARITIME AND ZINC MINE POPULATIONS OF ARMERIA MARITIMA (MILL.)
      WILLD.

PMID- 28562987
TI  - FURTHER GENETIC STUDIES OF THE SOUTH AMHERST POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28562988
TI  - POLYMORPHISM AND EGG-SIZE IN THE SHEEP NEMATODE, HAEMONCHUS CONTORTUS.

PMID- 28562989
TI  - ANALYSIS OF A GENERAL POPULATION GENETIC MODEL OF MEIOTIC DRIVE.

PMID- 28562990
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF THE DESERT WOODRAT, NEOTOMA LEPIDA.

PMID- 28562991
TI  - QUANTITATIVE VARIATION AND CHROMOSOMAL ARRANGEMENTS IN A POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA
      PERSIMILIS FROM THE REDWOODS.

PMID- 28562992
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY IN SPECIES AND HYBRIDS OF LIATRIS.

PMID- 28562993
TI  - COMPETITION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND D. SIMULANS ON MEDIA SUPPLEMENTED
      WITH SACCHAROMYCES AND SCHIZOSACCHAROMYCES.

PMID- 28562994
TI  - METACHROMISM LIKE IT IS.

PMID- 28562995
TI  - A MODEL FOR THE EVOLUTION OF PINNIPED POLYGYNY.

PMID- 28562996
TI  - POPULATION FITNESS OF GEOGRAPHIC STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA SERRATA AS MEASURED BY
      INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION.

PMID- 28562998
TI  - STUDIES ON NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA XI. FITNESS COMPONENTS AND
      COMPETITION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA FUNEBRIS AND D. VIRILIS.

PMID- 28562997
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF ANNUAL GRASSLAND HEMIPARASITES. II. REPRODUCTIVE
      PATTERNS IN ORTHOCARPUS.

PMID- 28562999
TI  - PARALLEL EVOLUTION IN THE ADAPTIVE ECOLOGY OF LEPTODACTYLID FROGS OF SOUTH
      AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA.

PMID- 28563000
TI  - METABOLIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION TO HETEROGENOUS ENVIRONMENTS BY THE
      PACIFIC TREE TOAD, HYLA REGULA.

PMID- 28563001
TI  - CHANGES OF CYTOPLASMIC FACTORS DURING THE EVOLUTION OF THE CULTIVATED POTATO.

PMID- 28563002
TI  - PHENOTYPIG DIMORPHISM AND POPULATIONAL FITNESS IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28563003
TI  - CYNODONT POSTCRANIAL ANATOMY AND THE "PROTOTHERIAN" LEVEL OF MAMMALIAN
      ORGANIZATION.

PMID- 28563004
TI  - TAXONOMIC DIVERSITY OF ISLAND BIOTAS.

PMID- 28563005
TI  - A BIOMETRICAL STUDY ON THE SEMISPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM COMPLEX.

PMID- 28563006
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGIES IN LIZARD REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28563007
TI  - THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE PAYNE INVERSION AND GENETIC BACKGROUND IN THE
      TUMOROUS-HEAD STRAIN OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563008
TI  - GENETICS OF LUPINUS. II. THE SELECTIVE DISADVANTAGE OF THE PINK FLOWER COLOR
      MUTANT IN LUPINUS NANUS.

PMID- 28563009
TI  - A MULTIVARIATE MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF DIVERGENCE IN SKULL MORPHOLOGY AMONG
      GEOGRAPHICALLY CONTIGUOUS AND ISOLATED GROUPS OF WHITE-TAILED DEER (ODOCOILEUS
      VIRGINIANUS) IN MICHIGAN.

PMID- 28563010
TI  - PLANKTON EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563011
TI  - ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE ON SEXUAL ISOLATION WITHIN DROSOPHILA BIRCHII.

PMID- 28563012
TI  - THE B-CHROMOSOME SYSTEM OF MYRMELEOTETTIX MACULATUS (THUNB). IV. THE DYNAMICS.

PMID- 28563013
TI  - ON THE MAINTENANCE OF A SHELL PATTERN AND BEHAVIOR POLYMORPHISM IN ACMAEA
      DIGITALIS, A LIMPET.

PMID- 28563014
TI  - MEASUREMENTS BY DNA HYBRIDIZATION IN VITRO OF THE GENETIC BASIS OF PARASITIC
      REDUCTION.

PMID- 28563015
TI  - NATURAL CROSSING BETWEEN APIS MELLIFERA ADANSONII AND APIS MELLIFERA LIGUSTICA.

PMID- 28563016
TI  - COMMENTS ON INTROGRESSION AND REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATING MECHANISMS IN THE BLUE
      WINGED WARBLER-GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER COMPLEX.

PMID- 28563017
TI  - A COMPUTER SIMULATION STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF TWO BEHAVIORAL TRAITS ON THE
      GENETIC STRUCTURE OF SEMI-ISOLATED POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563018
TI  - RODENT DNA: COMPARISONS BETWEEN SPECIES.

PMID- 28563020
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES IN PITHECELLOBIUM AND ENTEROLOBIUM-FURTHER INFORMATION.

PMID- 28563019
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF CROSSING BARRIERS BETWEEN ORYZA PERENNIS SUBSP. BARTHII AND
      ITS RELATED TAXA.

PMID- 28563021
TI  - HABITAT SELECTION AND COMPETITION AMONG SIBLING SPECIES OF SATYRID BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28563022
TI  - A REPLY TO DR. FARRIS' COMMENT ON EVOLUTION IN THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA SPECIES
      GROUP.

PMID- 28563023
TI  - STRATEGIES FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

PMID- 28563024
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE NATURE OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN SCATOPHAGA
      STERCORARIA L. (DIPTERA: SCATOPHAGIDAE). IX. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF
      FERTILIZATION RATES AND EVOLUTION OF MALE SEARCH STRATEGY WITHIN THE REPRODUCTIVE
      AREA.

PMID- 28563025
TI  - GENETIC AND REPRODUCTIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE SUBSPECIES, DROSOPHILA
      EQUINOXIALIS CARIBBENSIS.

PMID- 28563026
TI  - A COMMENT ON EVOLUTION IN THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA SPECIES GROUP.

PMID- 28563027
TI  - EPISTATIC GENE INTERACTION, CROSSING OVER, AND LINKED AND UNLINKED INVERSIONS IN
      DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563028
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION, SELECTION AND SPECIATION IN THOMOMYS TALPOIDES POCKET GOPHERS.

PMID- 28563029
TI  - ON TOOTH SUCCESSION IN DIADEMODON.

PMID- 28563030
TI  - RIGID AND FLEXIBLE CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISMS IN NEIGHBORING POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563032
TI  - ANALYTICAL ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563031
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SKATES (RAJIDAE) AND ITS POSSIBLE ROLE IN DIFFERENTIAL NICHE
      UTILIZATION.

PMID- 28563033
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL GENETICS OF SUNFISH. I. GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND SUBSPECIFIC
      INTERGRADATION IN THE BLUEGILL, LEPOMIS MACROCHIRUS.

PMID- 28563034
TI  - A NOTE ON THE SPEED OF GENE FREQUENCY CHANGES IN REVERSE DIRECTIONS IN A FINITE
      POPULATION.

PMID- 28563035
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEMS OF TREE SPECIES OF A LOWLAND TROPICAL COMMUNITY.

PMID- 28563036
TI  - ON THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR AND SUSTAINED POLYMORPHISM OF THE RT LOCUS IN
      LABORATORY POPULATIONS OF EPHESTIA KUHNIELLA.

PMID- 28563037
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND MORPHOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE IN THE PRAIRIE DOGS, CYNOMYS
      GUNNISONI AND CYNOMYS LEUCURUS I. MORPHOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL ANALYSES.

PMID- 28563038
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN PRIMITIVELY SOCIAL BEES: A MULTIVARIATE
      ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28563039
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALARM CALLS GIVEN BY SHOREBIRDS ON THEIR WINTER
      FEEDING GROUNDS.

PMID- 28563040
TI  - CONSEQUENCES OF LONG-TERM ARTIFICIAL SELECTION, INBREEDING, AND ISOLATION IN
      PHLOX: I. THE EVOLUTION OF CROSS-INCOMPATIBILITY.

PMID- 28563041
TI  - ISOZYME VARIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA BUZZATII.

PMID- 28563042
TI  - CRUISING SPEED DURING MIGRATION OF THE STRIPED MULLET (MUGIL CEPHALUS L.): AN
      EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE TO PREDATION?

PMID- 28563043
TI  - DEVONIAN AMPHIBIANS: DID THEY EXCRETE CARBON DIOXIDE VIA SKIN, GILLS, OR LUNGS?

PMID- 28563044
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION AND RANDOM GENETIC DRIFT IN PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563045
TI  - PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO ENHANCE REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN
      SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28563046
TI  - MORTALITY AND ADAPTIVE MECHANISMS OF ORYZA PERENNIS STRAINS.

PMID- 28563047
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND RESOURCE-ACCRUING ABILITIES IN ANOLIS GARMANI.

PMID- 28563048
TI  - STRAINS OF NEUROSPORA COLLECTED FROM NATURE.

PMID- 28563049
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND MORPHOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE IN THE PRAIRIE DOGS. CYNOMYS
      GUNNISONI AND CYNOMYS LEUCURUS II. GENETIC ANALYSES.

PMID- 28563050
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETICAL CORRELATES OF DISRUPTIVE COLORATION IN THE WATER
      SNAKE, NATRIX S. SIPEDON.

PMID- 28563051
TI  - FERTILE GLUMES IN PRIMITIVE CULTIVATED WHEATS.

PMID- 28563052
TI  - SELECTION AND STABILITY IN THE COMPLEX POLYMORPHISM OF MORABA SCURRA.

PMID- 28563053
TI  - EVOLUTION IN MIXED POPULATIONS OF TRIBOLIUM.

PMID- 28563054
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF RHUS INTEGRIFOLIA AND RHUS OVATA (ANACARDIACEAE).

PMID- 28563055
TI  - NUMBERS OF BIRD SPECIES ON THE CALIFORNIA ISLANDS.

PMID- 28563056
TI  - RANDOM VS. NON-RANDOM MATING IN THE SULFUR BUTTERFLIES, COLIAS EURYTHEME AND
      COLIAS PHILODICE (LEPIDOPTERA: PIERIDAE).

PMID- 28563057
TI  - SOME FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF MOLAR EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563059
TI  - COURTSHIP INTERACTION IN THE SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28563058
TI  - RAPID POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN A MOSAIC ENVIRONMENT. II. MORPHOLOGICAL
      VARIATION IN ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM.

PMID- 28563060
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF ZAHNREIHEN.

PMID- 28563061
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF THE USE OF TOOLS BY FEEDING ANIMALS.

PMID- 28563062
TI  - POLLINATION BIOLOGY OF NEMOPHILA MENZIESII (HYDROPHYLLACEAE) WITH COMMENTS ON THE
      EVOLUTION OF OLIGOLECTIC BEES.

PMID- 28563063
TI  - MAINTENANTE OF CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN A POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA: VIABILITY UNDER CROWDED AND UNCROWDED CONDITIONS.

PMID- 28563064
TI  - DNA CONTENT IN RELATION TO PHYLOGENY OF SELECTED BOREAL FOREST PLANTS.

PMID- 28563065
TI  - COMPETITION BETWEEN METAL TOLERANT AND NORMAL PLANT POPULATIONS ON NORMAL SOIL.

PMID- 28563066
TI  - EFFECTS OF POPULATION DENSITY ON THE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION IN THE
      ESTERASE-6 LOCUS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563067
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN NUCLEAR VOLUME IN FOUR CONIFERS.

PMID- 28563068
TI  - EMBRYONIC TEMPERATURE ADAPTATIONS AND GENETIC COMPATIBILITY IN TWO ALLOPATRIC
      POPULATIONS OF THE SPADEFOOT TOAD, SCAPHIOPUS HAMMONDI.

PMID- 28563070
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SPINY LOBSTERS (PALINURIDAE): A STUDY OF EVOLUTION IN THE MARINE
      ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28563069
TI  - MATING PROPENSITY, CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM, AND DEPENDENT CONDITIONS IN
      DROSPHILA PERSIMILIS.

PMID- 28563071
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR AUTOPOLYPLOIDY IN EPILOBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28563072
TI  - LATENT NEOMORPHS AND THE EVOLUTION OF DOMINANCE.

PMID- 28563073
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND CLIMATIC ADAPTATION IN A FIELD CRICKET (ORTHOPTERA:
      GRYLLIDAE).

PMID- 28563074
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION, EGG CANNIBALISM AND THE LENGTH OF LARVAL INSTARS IN
      TRIBOLIUM.

PMID- 28563075
TI  - SELECTION AND INVERSION POLYMORPHISM IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA INITIATED WITH THE CHROMOSOMAL CONSTITUTIONS OF NATURAL
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563076
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF SORGHUM BICOLOR. II. DISTRIBUTION AND DOMESTICATION.

PMID- 28563077
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN SOLANUM X EDINENSE, A HYBRID OF THE COMMON POTATO.

PMID- 28563078
TI  - THE MEASUREMENT OF ISOLATION ON ARCHIPELAGOS, AND ITS RELATION TO INSULAR FAUNAL
      SIZE AND ENDEMISM.

PMID- 28563079
TI  - SUPPORT FOR BAKER'S LAW-AS A RULE.

PMID- 28563080
TI  - RANDOM SAMPLING AND THE RATE OF GENE REPLACEMENT.

PMID- 28563081
TI  - COMPARISONS OF PRIMATE CATALASE TRYPTIC PEPTIDES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY
      OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563082
TI  - BEHAVIOR OF MALE SUNFISHES (GENUS LEPOMIS) TOWARDS FEMALES OF THREE SPECIES.

PMID- 28563083
TI  - FORAMEN PSEUDOVALE AND QUASI-MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563084
TI  - WHY DOES THE GENOTYPE NOT CONGEAL?

PMID- 28563085
TI  - THE EFFECT OF REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE ON THE DOMESTICATION OF THE PRAIRIE
      DEERMOUSE, PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS BAIRDII.

PMID- 28563087
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION FOR REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28563088
TI  - EARLY REPTILIAN EVOLUTION RE-VIEWED.

PMID- 28563089
TI  - COEVOLUTION OF PLANTS AND HERBIVORES: PASSION FLOWER BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28563090
TI  - EFFECTS OF LARVAL BIOTIC RESIDUES ON VIABILITY IN FOUR SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563091
TI  - BIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MARSUPIAL-PLACENTAL DICHOTOMY.

PMID- 28563092
TI  - SIMULTANEOUS SELECTIVE PREDATION ON TWO FEATURES OF A MIXED SIBLING SPECIES
      POPULATION.

PMID- 28563093
TI  - ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF ANTS.

PMID- 28563094
TI  - THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF AVIAN WINTER PLUMAGE VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28563096
TI  - BULLETIN.

PMID- 28563097
TI  - CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN THE RADIOLARIAN GENUS, EUCYRTIDIUM.

PMID- 28563098
TI  - ECOLOGICAL COMPETITION AND THE ADVANTAGE OF THE RARE TYPE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563100
TI  - THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF LABORATORY ISLANDS.

PMID- 28563099
TI  - THE GENETIC COMPOSITION OF PHILAENUS SPUMARIUS POPULATIONS IN ISLAND HABITATS
      VARIABLY AFFECTED BY VOLES.

PMID- 28563101
TI  - LATE CENOZOIC EVOLUTION OF TROPICAL LOWLAND VEGETATION IN VERACRUZ, MEXICO.

PMID- 28563102
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION AND ANEUPLOID REDUCTION IN CALYCADENIA PAUCIFLORA
      (ASTERACEAE).

PMID- 28563103
TI  - REVERSED SEX-LIMITED MIMICRY IN A BEETLE.

PMID- 28563104
TI  - A CYTOGENETIC STUDY OF THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLLIS
      (GMELIN).

PMID- 28563105
TI  - SATURNIID MOTHS AS MIMICS: AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION OF ATTEMPTS TO
      DEMONSTRATE MIMETIC ADVANTAGE IN NATURE.

PMID- 28563106
TI  - IS THERE A CONSTANT FITNESS VALUE FOR A GIVEN GENOTYPE? NO!

PMID- 28563107
TI  - EVOLUTION OF FOOD-PLANT PREFERENCE IN THE BUTTERFLY EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA.

PMID- 28563108
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM OF JEPSONIA HETERANDRA.

PMID- 28563109
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF CROWDING ON CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM OF DROSOPHILA PAVANI.

PMID- 28563110
TI  - THE OPERATION OF SELECTION IN SITUATIONS OF INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION.

PMID- 28563111
TI  - THE DYNAMICS OF PLANT DOMESTICATION: CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS WITH ORYZA PERENNIS
      AND ITS HYBRID WITH O. SATIVA.

PMID- 28563112
TI  - A NEW APPROACH TO MEASURING GENETIC SIMILARITY.

PMID- 28563113
TI  - PHENOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF SOME ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA, THEIR DIPTERAN MIMICS,
      AND INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.

PMID- 28563115
TI  - LEVELS OF GENETIC COMPATIBILITY OF RANA AREOLATA WITH SOUTHWESTERN MEMBERS OF THE
      RANA PIPIENS COMPLEX (ANURA: RANIDAE).

PMID- 28563114
TI  - FURTHER STUDIES OF THE ETIOLOGY OF HYBRID MALE STERILITY IN DROSOPHILA
      PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28563116
TI  - CYTOGENETIC STUDIES IN CLARKIA, SECTION PRIMIGENIA. V. INTERSPECIFIC
      HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN C. AMOENA HUNTIANA AND C. LASSENENSIS.

PMID- 28563117
TI  - TRACHEAL DEAD SPACE IN THE RESPIRATION OF BIRDS.

PMID- 28563118
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF PREDATION ON ARTIFICIAL MIMETIC POLYMORPHISMS WITH PERFECT AND
      IMPERFECT MIMICS AT VARYING FREQUENCIES.

PMID- 28563119
TI  - INDUSTRIAL MELANISM IN THE TWO-SPOT LADYBIRD AND SMOKE ABATEMENT.

PMID- 28563120
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN CLARKIA, SECTION MYXOCARPA.

PMID- 28563121
TI  - ADAPTIVE ZONES AND THE ORDERS OF MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563122
TI  - THE YAHOOS RIDE AGAIN.

PMID- 28563123
TI  - GENE FREQUENCIES IN A MARINE ECTOPROCT: A CLINE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS RELATED TO
      SEA TEMPERATURE.

PMID- 28563124
TI  - EVOLUTION IN CONSTANT AND FLUCTUATING ENVIRONMENTS: THERMAL TOLERANCES OF DESERT
      PUPFISH (CYPRINODON).

PMID- 28563125
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE OUTCROSSING DIPLOID ANNUAL SPECIES OF
      STEPHANOMERIA (COMPOSITAE).

PMID- 28563126
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28563127
TI  - THE COMPONENTS OF SEXUAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28563128
TI  - ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTABILITY IN CESTODES
      (CYCLOPHYLLIDEA: TAENIIDAE).

PMID- 28563129
TI  - EVOLUTION-SCIENCE VERSUS CREATION-SCIENCE.

PMID- 28563130
TI  - ALDEHYDE OXIDASE DISTRIBUTION IN PICTURE-WINGED HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA: EVOLUTIONARY
      TRENDS.

PMID- 28563131
TI  - HAWKMOTHS AND THE GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF FLORAL VARIATION IN AQUILEGIA CAERULEA.

PMID- 28563132
TI  - INBREEDING IN AN ISLAND POPULATION OF THE GREAT TIT.

PMID- 28563133
TI  - MATE CHOICE IN THE WOOD FROG, RANA SYLVATICA.

PMID- 28563134
TI  - A GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE ECOLOGY OF COMPOUND LEAVES.

PMID- 28563135
TI  - DIVERGENCE IN ALLOPATRY: MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN SEA
      URCHINS SEPARATED BY THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

PMID- 28563136
TI  - FLORAL SEX RATIOS AND LIFE HISTORY IN ARALIA NUDICAULIS (ARALIACEAE).

PMID- 28563137
TI  - ESTIMATING THE DEGREE OF POLYANDRY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563138
TI  - STRAINING AT GNATS AND SWALLOWING RATIOS: CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT.

PMID- 28563139
TI  - EFFECTS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DIVERSITY ON DETERMINING THE
      GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A POPULATION OF THE WILD RABBIT, ORYCTOLAGUS CUNICULUS.

PMID- 28563140
TI  - COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTIONARY STATUS OF THE HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA PRIMAEVA
      HARDY AND KANESHIRO.

PMID- 28563141
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HOST PLANT UTILIZATION IN LABORATORY POPULATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN
      COWPEA WEEVIL, CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS FABRICIUS (COLEOPTERA: BRUCHIDAE).

PMID- 28563143
TI  - COMMUNITY-WIDE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT REEXAMINED.

PMID- 28563142
TI  - ALGEBRA OF INCLUSIVE FITNESS.

PMID- 28563144
TI  - PATTERNS OF SIZE VARIATION IN BEES AND EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28563145
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF DELAYED ATTAINMENT OF PLUMAGE IN MALE AMERICAN
      REDSTARTS: TESTS OF TWO HYPOTHESES.

PMID- 28563146
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE HORSESHOE CRAB LIMULUS POLYPHEMUS.

PMID- 28563147
TI  - PARENTAL CARE AND MODE OF FERTILIZATION IN ECTOTHERMIC VERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28563148
TI  - PLEIOTROPY AND PARAPATRIC SPECIATION.

PMID- 28563149
TI  - THE BREEDING SYSTEM OF GILIA ACHILLEIFOLIA: VARIATION IN FLORAL CHARACTERISTICS
      AND OUTCROSSING RATE.

PMID- 28563150
TI  - RAPID DIVERGENCE OF PLANT POPULATIONS IN RESPONSE TO RECENT CHANGES IN SOIL
      CONDITIONS.

PMID- 28563151
TI  - GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN PITCH PINE (PINUS RIGIDA MILL.).

PMID- 28563152
TI  - MATE RECOGNITION AND MECHANICAL ISOLATION IN ENALLAGMA DAMSELFLIES (ODONATA:
      COENAGRIONIDAE).

PMID- 28563153
TI  - SEX DETERMINING TEMPERATURES IN TURTLES: A GEOGRAPHIC COMPARISON.

PMID- 28563154
TI  - ON THE ROLE OF CHROMOSOMAL INVERSIONS IN SPECIATION.

PMID- 28563155
TI  - BREEDING SYNCHRONY IN THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS): I.
      GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF HATCH DATE VARIABILITY AND THEIR EFFECTS
      ON HATCH SYNCHRONY.

PMID- 28563156
TI  - HERITABILITY OF BLUE TIT TARSUS LENGTH FROM NORMAL AND CROSS-FOSTERED BROODS.

PMID- 28563157
TI  - SELECTION FOR HOST MODIFICATION BY INSECT PARASITOIDS.

PMID- 28563158
TI  - ALLOZYME VARIATION IN COREOPSIS NUECENSOIDES AND C. NUECENSIS (COMPOSITAE), A
      PROGENITOR-DERIVATIVE SPECIES PAIR.

PMID- 28563159
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL BASIS FOR REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN THE SYMPATRIC
      ENCHENOPA BINOTATA COMPLEX (HOMOPTERA. MEMBRACIDAE).

PMID- 28563160
TI  - MICROHABITAT DIFFERENCES AMONG GENETICALLY SIMILAR SPECIES OF PARTULA.

PMID- 28563161
TI  - PINNIPED THERMOREGULATION: COMMENTS ON THE "EFFECTS OF COLD ON THE EVOLUTION OF
      PINNIPED BREEDING SYSTEMS".

PMID- 28563163
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1982
      Meetings.

PMID- 28563162
TI  - IS HOST CASTRATION AN EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY OF BOT FLIES?

PMID- 28563164
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN ARALIA NUDICAULIS L. (ARALIACEAE).

PMID- 28563165
TI  - SPECIATION RATES AND MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE IN FISHES: TESTS OF GRADUAL VERSUS
      RECTANGULAR MODES OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE.

PMID- 28563166
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL CHANGES IN RESOURCE STRUCTURE AND MALE DENSITY: SIZE-RELATED
      DIFFERENCES IN MATING SUCCESS AMONG MALE SCATOPHAGA STERCORARIA.

PMID- 28563167
TI  - ORIGIN OF INVERSIONS AND WALLACE'S RULE OF TRIADS.

PMID- 28563168
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN A BRENTID WEEVIL.

PMID- 28563169
TI  - GROUP SELECTION VERSUS INDIVIDUAL SELECTION: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28563170
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND THE BREEDING SYSTEM OF GILIA ACHILLEIFOLIA.

PMID- 28563171
TI  - RAPID ORIGIN OF SEXUAL ISOLATION AND CHARACTER DIVERGENCE IN A CLINE.

PMID- 28563172
TI  - RATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND ADAPTATION IN THE COPEPOD EURYTEMORA AFFINIS.

PMID- 28563173
TI  - EXTREME LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN TWO RED SEA CERITHIUM SPECIES
      (GASTROPODA: CERITHIDAE).

PMID- 28563174
TI  - HERITABILITY OF SEX RATIO IN TURTLES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SEX DETERMINATION.

PMID- 28563175
TI  - ON THE QUANTIFICATION OF PROMISCUITY (OR "PROMYSCUS" MANICULATUS ?).

PMID- 28563176
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS OF THE BROWN SNAIL (HELIX ASPERSA). I.
      MICROGEOGRAPHIC VARIATION.

PMID- 28563177
TI  - ADAPTIVE DIFFERENTIATION WITH LITTLE GENIC CHANGE BETWEEN TWO NATIVE CALIFORNIA
      MINNOWS.

PMID- 28563178
TI  - SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA ATHABASCA DISTINGUISHABLE BY MALE COURTSHIP SOUNDS.

PMID- 28563179
TI  - COMPETITION BETWEEN METAL TOLERANT AND NORMAL PLANT POPULATIONS; A FIELD
      EXPERIMENT ON NORMAL SOIL.

PMID- 28563180
TI  - CHIASMA FREQUENCY AND ADAPTABILITY IN LOCUSTS.

PMID- 28563181
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SUBDIOECY IN MORPHOLOGICALLY GYNODIOECIOUS SPECIES OF FUCHSIA
      SECT. ENCLIANDRA (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28563182
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES OF CEPAEA NEMORALIS.

PMID- 28563183
TI  - SELECTION FOR MATING ACTIVITY IN TWO CHROMOSOMAL ARRANGEMENTS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563184
TI  - ALLOZYMES OF GALAPAGOS TOMATOES: POLYMORPHISM, GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION, AND
      AFFINITIES.

PMID- 28563185
TI  - MORE ON COMPLEX LIFE CYCLES.

PMID- 28563186
TI  - THE NOVEL FLAVONOID CHEMISTRY AND PHYLOGENETIC ORIGIN OF PHLOX FLORIDANA.

PMID- 28563187
TI  - HIGH FREQUENCY OF ONE ELEMENT OF SEGREGATION DISTORTER IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563188
TI  - CORRELATIONS BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS AND ENZYME GENOTYPES IN AVENA
      BARBATA.

PMID- 28563189
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX LIFE CYCLES.

PMID- 28563190
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY AND ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AQUILEGIA FORMOSA AND A.
      PUBESCENS (RANUNCULACEAE), TWO PERENNIAL PLANTS.

PMID- 28563191
TI  - SEXUAL DRIVE OF NORMAL AND SR FLIES OF DROSOPHILA NEBULOSA.

PMID- 28563192
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND SPECIATION IN NEW WORLD CICHLIDS.

PMID- 28563193
TI  - CONTROLS OF NUMBER OF BIRD SPECIES ON MONTANE ISLANDS IN THE GREAT BASIN.

PMID- 28563194
TI  - HARD AND SOFT SELECTION REVISITED.

PMID- 28563196
TI  - PHENOTYPIC VARIATION AND THE OUTCOME OF INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION IN HYLID
      TADPOLES.

PMID- 28563195
TI  - VARIATION IN THE BREEDING SYSTEM OF ELYMUS CANADENSIS.

PMID- 28563197
TI  - LATITUDINAL GRADIENTS IN THE SPECIES DIVERSITY OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563199
TI  - SELECTIVE MORTALITY AND REPRODUCTION IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF BUFO BOREAS.

PMID- 28563198
TI  - PATTERNS OF ALLOZYMIC SIMILARITY IN ECOLOGICALLY CENTRAL AND MARGINAL POPULATIONS
      OF HORDEUM JUBATUM IN UTAH.

PMID- 28563200
TI  - SALE OF BACK ISSUES OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563201
TI  - DIVERGENCE IN THE ENCHENOPA BINOTATA SAY COMPLEX (HOMOPTERA: MEMBRACIDAE)
      EFFECTED BY HOST PLANT ADAPTATION.

PMID- 28563202
TI  - THE INVERSION POLYMORPHISM OF KEYACRIS SCURRA AND THE ADAPTIVE TOPOGRAPHY.

PMID- 28563203
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF AN ESTERASE POLYMORPHISM IN MACROGYNES AND MICROGYNES OF
      MYRMICA RUBRA LATREILLE.

PMID- 28563204
TI  - PAEDOMORPHOSIS IN RELATION TO RATES OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR EVOLUTION IN
      THE SALAMANDER ANEIDES FLAVIPUNCTATUS (AMPHIBIA, PLETHODONTIDAE).

PMID- 28563205
TI  - FLORAL MIMICRY BY EPIDENDRUM IBAGUENSE (ORCHIDACEAE) IN PANAMA.

PMID- 28563206
TI  - MALADAPTATION IN A MARGINAL POPULATION OF THE MOSQUITO FISH, GAMBUSIA AFFINIS.

PMID- 28563207
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF PAIR-BONDING IN SOLDIER BEETLES.

PMID- 28563209
TI  - Joint Meeting of The Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of
      Naturalists Tucson, Arizona June 29-July 2, 1980.

PMID- 28563208
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE WHITE-LIPPED LAND SNAIL, TRIODOPSIS ALBOLABRIS:
      GENETIC VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28563210
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTIONS OF GENDER IN FOUR ANGIOSPERM SPECIES ILLUSTRATING TWO
      EVOLUTIONARY PATHWAYS TO DIOECY.

PMID- 28563211
TI  - THE IMPLICATIONS OF OVUM SIZE VARIABILITY FOR OFFSPRING FITNESS AND CLUTCH SIZE
      WITHIN SEVERAL POPULATIONS OF SALAMANDERS (AMBYSTOMA).

PMID- 28563212
TI  - EVOLUTION AND SPECIATION OF HOST PLANT SPECIFIC YEASTS.

PMID- 28563213
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND DIMORPHISM IN TWO DEMES OF A SYMBIOTIC, PAIR-BONDING
      SNAPPING SHRIMP.

PMID- 28563214
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON COLOR PATTERNS IN POECILIA RETICULATA.

PMID- 28563215
TI  - AN EXAMINATION OF THE TROPHIC RESOURCE STABILITY THEORY USING OYSTER SPECIES OF
      THE FAMILY OSTREIDAE.

PMID- 28563216
TI  - ENZYME VARIATION IN SEMI-ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF THE MOUNTAIN FLY CHAMAEMYIA
      HERBARUM.

PMID- 28563217
TI  - INHIBITION OF CANNIBALISM IN CICHLA OCELLARIS AND HYPOTHESIS OF PREDATOR MIMICRY
      AMONG SOUTH AMERICAN FISHES.

PMID- 28563218
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN POA ANNUA.

PMID- 28563219
TI  - PHOSPHOGLUCOSE ISOMERASE POLYMORPHISM AND NATURAL SELECTION IN THE SAND CRAB,
      EMERITA TALPOIDA.

PMID- 28563220
TI  - EXTINCTION, REPOPULATION, AND POPULATION SIZE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF
      AMBUSHBUGS.

PMID- 28563221
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY EFFECTS OF METALLIFEROUS AND OTHER ANOMALOUS SOILS IN SOUTH
      CENTRAL AFRICA.

PMID- 28563222
TI  - ADAPTIVE FEATURES OF MAMMALIAN REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28563223
TI  - AN EXAMPLE OF SPORANGIAL INDEHISCENCE IN THE FILICOPSIDA.

PMID- 28563224
TI  - GENERAL CONCEPTS ON THE EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF PARASITES.

PMID- 28563225
TI  - EVOLUTION AT THE alpha-GPDH LOCUS IN DROSOPHILIDAE.

PMID- 28563226
TI  - STATISTICAL TESTS FOR NATURAL SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28563227
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOGAMY IN SPECIES OF THE MUSTARD GENUS LEAVENWORTHIA.

PMID- 28563228
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATIONS OF MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS IN RANDOMBRED HOUSE
      MICE.

PMID- 28563229
TI  - A SUGGESTION CONCERNING THE CRETACEOUS RISE TO DOMINANCE OF THE ANGIOSPERMS.

PMID- 28563230
TI  - THE LANSING EFFECT REVISITED. II.-CUMULATIVE AND SPONTANEOUSLY REVERSIBLE
      PARENTAL AGE EFFECTS ON FECUNDITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563231
TI  - ON THE SUPPOSED SPECTRUM BETWEEN BATESIAN AND MULLERIAN MIMICRY.

PMID- 28563232
TI  - WHAT IS FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION?

PMID- 28563233
TI  - TRANSLOCATION HETEROZYGOSITY, GENETIC HETEROZYGOSITY, AND INBREEDING IN CLARKIA
      SPECIOSA.

PMID- 28563234
TI  - BOTTLENECK EFFECTS ON AVERAGE HETEROZYGOSITY AND GENETIC DISTANCE WITH THE
      STEPWISE MUTATION MODEL.

PMID- 28563235
TI  - DINOSAUR HAVERSIAN BONE AND ENDOTHERMY.

PMID- 28563236
TI  - THE EXISTENCE OF MULLERIAN MIMICRY.

PMID- 28563237
TI  - GENIC DIVERSITY IN CAVE-DWELLING CRICKETS (CEUTHOPHILUS GRACILIPES).

PMID- 28563238
TI  - GENETICS OF LUPINUS. X. GENETIC VARIABILITY, HETEROZYGOSITY AND OUTCROSSING IN
      COLONIAL POPULATIONS OF LUPINUS SUCCULENTUS.

PMID- 28563239
TI  - DETECTION OF THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION ON PROTEIN POLYMORPHISMS IN NATURAL
      POPULATIONS BY MEANS OF A DISTANCE ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28563240
TI  - STABILIZING SELECTION FOR SIZE AS RELATED TO MATING FITNESS IN TETRAOPES.

PMID- 28563241
TI  - OUTCROSSING IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. V. ANALYSIS OF OUTCROSSING, INBREEDING, AND
      SELECTION IN CLARKIA EXILIS AND CLARKIA TEMBLORIENSIS.

PMID- 28563242
TI  - ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO. 2. THE SUBSTRUCTURE OF
      FITNESS.

PMID- 28563243
TI  - CYTOGENETICS AND AFFINITIES OF VERNONIA (COMPOSITAE) FROM THE MEXICAN HIGHLANDS
      AND EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.

PMID- 28563245
TI  - CLIMATIC SELECTION IN CEPAEA HORTENSIS AT THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF ITS RANGE IN
      ICELAND.

PMID- 28563244
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE MIGRATION RESPONSE: EMIGRATION BY TRIBOLIUM AND THE INFLUENCE OF
      AGE.

PMID- 28563246
TI  - WHY MALE-HAPLOID AND SEX-LINKED GENETIC SYSTEMS SEEM TO HAVE UNUSUALLY SEX
      LIMITED MUTATIONAL GENETIC LOADS.

PMID- 28563247
TI  - HETEROSIS OVERDOMINANCE AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER AT THE SEPIA LOCUS.

PMID- 28563248
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEM POLYMORPHISM IN A HETEROSTYLOUS SPECIES.

PMID- 28563249
TI  - COMPONENTS OF FITNESS IN THE UNISEXUAL FISH POECILIOPSIS MONACHA-OCCIDENTALIS.

PMID- 28563250
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF THE CAVE BEETLE PTOMAPHAGUS
      HIRTUS.

PMID- 28563251
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN NOTHOBRANCHIUS GUENTHERI (PISCES: CYPRINODONTIDAE).

PMID- 28563252
TI  - ISOLATION BETWEEN AQUILEGIA FORMOSA AND A. PUBESCENS: A REPLY AND
      RECONSIDERATION.

PMID- 28563253
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF MALES AND FEMALES IN HERMAPHRODITE POPULATIONS AND THE EVOLUTION
      OF DIOECY.

PMID- 28563254
TI  - MULTIVARIATE ALLOMETRY AND AUSTRALOPITHECINE VARIATION.

PMID- 28563255
TI  - GENIC DIVERGENCE AND LOCAL POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION BY RANDOM DRIFT IN THE
      POCKET GOPHER GENUS GEOMYS.

PMID- 28563257
TI  - MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF THE INTROGRESSIVE REPLACEMENT OF CLARKIA NITENS BY
      CLARKIA SPECIOSA POLYANTHA (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28563256
TI  - SIZE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTABILITY FOR SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28563258
TI  - ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO. 3. RESOURCE TRACKING BY A
      NATURAL POPULATION.

PMID- 28563260
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL VARIATION IN THE PLAINS WOODRAT: GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THREE
      CHROMOSOMAL MORPHS.

PMID- 28563259
TI  - CONSEQUENCES OF LONG-TERM ARTIFICIAL SELECTION, INBREEDING AND ISOLATION IN
      PHLOX. II. THE ORGANIZATION OF ALLOZYMIC VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28563261
TI  - SELECTION AT TWO LEVELS IN HYBRID POPULATIONS OF MUSCA DOMESTICA.

PMID- 28563262
TI  - INTRA-POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN ANNUAL PLANTS I. VERONICA PEREGRINA L. RAISED
      UNDER NON-COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS.

PMID- 28563263
TI  - ON THE REALITY OF ZAHNREIHEN AND THE NATURE OF REALITY IN MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES.

PMID- 28563264
TI  - UNCORRELATED RANDOM ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON GENE FREQUENCY.

PMID- 28563265
TI  - A MODEL TO EXPLAIN MOLT-BREEDING OVERLAP AND CLUTCH SIZE IN SOME TROPICAL BIRDS.

PMID- 28563266
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES OF PLANTS TO SEED-EATERS: PINE SQUIRREL PREDATION ON
      LODGEPOLE PINE.

PMID- 28563267
TI  - NATURALLY OCCURRING VARIATION IN LARVAL COLOR OF COLIAS BUTTERFLIES: ISOLATION
      FROM TWO COLORADO POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563269
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CLUTCH SIZE AND REPRODUCTIVE RATES IN PARASITIC CUCKOOS.

PMID- 28563268
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATE SELECTION IN MORMONIELLA VITRIPENNIS.

PMID- 28563270
TI  - GENETIC ANALYSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN POPULATIONS OF THE PINK SALMON, ONCORHYNCHUS
      GORBUSCHA, POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR THE NEUTRAL MUTATION-RANDOM DRIFT HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28563271
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF "BIZARRE" STRUCTURES: ANTLER SIZE AND SKULL SIZE IN
      THE "IRISH ELK," MEGALOCEROS GIGANTEUS.

PMID- 28563272
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF AIR-BREATHING IN PALEOZOIC GNATHOSTOME FISHES.

PMID- 28563273
TI  - COADAPTATION AND RECESSIVE LETHAL CONTENT IN DDT RESISTANT POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563274
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE OF DEATH VALLEY PUPFISH SPECIES: BIOCHEMICAL VERSUS
      MORPHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

PMID- 28563276
TI  - GENETIC CONFIRMATION OF THE ORIGIN OF CLARKIA LINGULATA.

PMID- 28563275
TI  - EVOLUTION OF A TRIHYBRID UNISEXUAL FISH (POECILIOPSIS, POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563277
TI  - MUTATION IN SITU AND THE ORIGIN OF LOCALIZED POLYMORPHISM IN AVENA BARBATA.

PMID- 28563278
TI  - AUTOCORRELATED RANDOM ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON GENE FREQUENCY.

PMID- 28563279
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION, HETEROZYGOSITY AND GENE EXCHANGE IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28563280
TI  - DNA-DNA HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES OF BIRDS.

PMID- 28563281
TI  - GROUP SELECTION, SEX, AND FOSSILS.

PMID- 28563282
TI  - REPLY TO COMMENTS ON "CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN PEROMYSCUS".

PMID- 28563283
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA I. CHROMOSOME AND ALLOZYME POLYMORPHISM
      IN D. SETOSIMENTUM AND D. OCHROBASIS FROM THE ISLAND OF HAWAII.

PMID- 28563284
TI  - THE ROLE OF PREDATION IN THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF NATURAL POPULATIONS
      OF THE GUPPY, POECILIA RETICULATA (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563286
TI  - LEPTOTHORAX DULOTICUS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF SLAVERY IN ANTS.

PMID- 28563285
TI  - FECUNDITY IN DISTYLOUS AND SELF-INCOMPATIBLE HOMOSTYLOUS PLANTS OF MITCHELLA
      REPENS (RUBIACEAE).

PMID- 28563287
TI  - GENETICS OF NATURAL POPULATIONS XLII. THREE DECADES OF GENETIC CHANGE IN
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563288
TI  - GREGARIOUS NESTING OF THE MASON BEE HOPLITIS ANTHOCOPOIDES AND THE EVOLUTION OF
      PARASITISM AND SOCIALITY AMONG MEGACHILID BEES.

PMID- 28563289
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC EVOLUTION IN COLUMBIDAE AS REVEALED BY INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF GENETIC
      SYSTEMS OF ANTIGENIC CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28563290
TI  - TOOTH REPLACEMENT: EFFICIENCY, PATTERNS AND EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563292
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOTYPES OF THE LIZARD UTA STANSBURIANA.

PMID- 28563291
TI  - THE BOTTLENECK EFFECT AND GENETIC VARIABILITY IN POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563293
TI  - MONOMORPHIC MIMICRY IN NEARCTIC LIMENITIS BUTTERFLIES: EXPERIMENTAL HYBRIDIZATION
      OF THE L. ARTHEMIS-ASTYANAX COMPLEX WITH L. ARCHIPPUS.

PMID- 28563294
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF INSULAR ADRIATIC LIZARDS.

PMID- 28563295
TI  - DIOECISM IN TROPICAL FOREST TREES.

PMID- 28563296
TI  - AN ELECTROPHORETIC STUDY OF EVOLUTION IN CAPSICUM (SOLANACEAE).

PMID- 28563298
TI  - VARIATION IN DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS OF LARVAL ANURANS IN TEMPORARY PONDS. I.
      PERSISTENT VARIATION WITHIN A HYLA GRATIOSA POPULATION.

PMID- 28563297
TI  - A CASE OF STRESS RELATED HETEROZYGOTE SUPERIORITY IN NATURE.

PMID- 28563299
TI  - A NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION: FIELD DATA ON THE INTRODUCTION OF
      MOSQUITOFISH (GAMBUSIA AFFINIS) TO HAWAII.

PMID- 28563300
TI  - CLONAL DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN A REEF-BUILDING CORAL, ACROPORA
      CERVICORNIS: SELF-RECOGNITION ANALYSIS AND DEMOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION.

PMID- 28563301
TI  - DISTRIBUTION OF SEXUAL AND APOMICTIC POPULATIONS OF ANTENNARIA PARLINII.

PMID- 28563302
TI  - GAMETIC SELECTION AND HEMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISMS IN PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS: A
      REJOINDER.

PMID- 28563303
TI  - A POPULATION GENETICAL STUDY OF THE AFRICAN MOSQUITO ANOPHELES MARSHALLII
      (THEOBALD).

PMID- 28563304
TI  - HYBRID ORIGIN OF POLYPLOIDY IN FRESHWATER SNAILS OF THE GENUS BULINUS (MOLLUSCA:
      PLANORBIDAE).

PMID- 28563305
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28563306
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEM AND HABITAT EFFECTS ON FITNESS COMPONENTS IN THREE NEOTROPICAL
      COSTUS (ZINGIBERACEAE).

PMID- 28563307
TI  - THE ACCUMULATION OF GENETIC VARIATION IN A PARTHENOGENETIC SNAIL.

PMID- 28563308
TI  - SELECTION COMPONENTS AFFECTING HEMOGLOBINS IN PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS: A RE
      EVALUATION.

PMID- 28563309
TI  - TEMPORAL STABILITY OF LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE-A CLINES OF THE HIGH COCKSCOMB,
      ANOPLARCHUS PURPURESCENS.

PMID- 28563310
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN MILKWEED BUGS (ONCOPELTUS:
      HEMIPTERA: LYGAEIDAE).

PMID- 28563311
TI  - A COST OF REPRODUCTION IN A TERRESTRIAL ISOPOD.

PMID- 28563312
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF WING POLYMORPHISM IN THE WATERSTRIDER
      LIMNOPORUS CANALICULATUS.

PMID- 28563313
TI  - ROLE OF CONSTITUTIVE HETEROCHROMATIN IN EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE: RESULTS OF
      CHROMOSOME BANDING AND CONDENSATION INHIBITION STUDIES IN MUS MUSCULUS, MUS
      BOODUGA AND MUS DUNNI.

PMID- 28563314
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC GENETIC VARIATION AND HAPLODIPLOIDY, EUSOCIALITY, AND POLYGYNY IN
      THE HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28563315
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL HETEROGENEITY IN TRIBOLIUM
      CONFUSUM.

PMID- 28563316
TI  - MULTILOCUS CLINES.

PMID- 28563317
TI  - AN IMMIGRATION-HYBRIDIZATION EPISODE IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28563319
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF DIFFERENCES IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS AMONG SIX POPULATIONS OF
      MOSQUITOFISH (GAMBUSIA AFFINIS) THAT SHARED ANCESTORS IN 1905.

PMID- 28563320
TI  - In Memory.

PMID- 28563318
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN SONORAN DESERT DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563321
TI  - ALLOZYMIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN POPULATION SAMPLES OF RUFOUS-COLLARED
      SPARROW, ZONOTRICHIA CAPENSIS, IN RELATION TO VOCAL DIALECTS.

PMID- 28563322
TI  - ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION AND PHYLOGENY IN THE PLANITIBIA SUBGROUP OF HAWAIIAN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563323
TI  - THE NATURE OF NICHE EXPANSION IN WEST INDIAN ANOLIS LIZARDS I: ECOLOGICAL
      CONSEQUENCES OF REDUCED COMPETITION.

PMID- 28563324
TI  - PARENTAL INVESTMENT AND OFFSPRING FITNESS IN THE TERRESTRIAL ISOPOD ARMADILLIDIUM
      VULGARE (LATR.) (CRUSTACEA: ONISCOIDEA).

PMID- 28563325
TI  - MATING-CALL STRUCTURE IN A HYBRID POPULATION OF THE Geocrinia laevis COMPLEX
      (ANURA:LEPTODACTYLIDAE) OVER A SEVEN-YEAR PERIOD.

PMID- 28563326
TI  - SYMPATRY OF PERIODICAL CICADA BROODS AND THE HYPOTHETICAL FOUR-YEAR ACCELERATION.

PMID- 28563328
TI  - PRESENCE OF THE HEREDITARY RHABDOVIRUS SIGMA AND POLYMORPHISM FOR A GENE FOR
      RESISTANCE TO THIS VIRUS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563327
TI  - A POSSIBLE CASE OF MIMICRY IN LARGER MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563329
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AND SPECIATION IN FOSSORIAL MOLE RATS.

PMID- 28563330
TI  - THE ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF FEMALE PATTERN POLYMORPHISM IN THE LIZARD ANOLIS
      SAGREI.

PMID- 28563331
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY OF THE EQUIDAE AND THE ORIGINS OF RUMEN AND CECAL
      DIGESTION.

PMID- 28563332
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS.

PMID- 28563333
TI  - CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SOME MEASURES OF GENETIC DISTANCE.

PMID- 28563334
TI  - FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF FROG TONGUES.

PMID- 28563335
TI  - GENETIC AND BIOCHEMICAL CONSEQUENCES OF POLYPLOIDY IN TRAGOPOGON.

PMID- 28563336
TI  - RATES OF EVOLUTION IN CONIFERS (PINACEAE).

PMID- 28563337
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN THE ANDEAN SEMISPECIES OF DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28563338
TI  - PATTERNS OF MATING IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF XIPHOPHORUS (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).
      I: X. MACULATUS FROM BELIZE AND MEXICO.

PMID- 28563339
TI  - SOCIAL FACILITATION OF MALE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, INTRASEXUAL COMPETITION, AND SEXUAL
      SELECTION IN THE GUPPY, POECILIA RETICULATA (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563340
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28563343
TI  - THE NATURE OF NICHE EXPANSION IN WEST INDIAN ANOLIS LIZARDS II: EVOLUTIONARY
      COMPONENTS.

PMID- 28563342
TI  - COLOR VARIATION AND BISEXUAL MUELLERIAN MIMICRY IN AN APOSEMATIC INSECT.

PMID- 28563345
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE MERYCOIDODONT MASTICATORY APPARATUS (MAMMALIA, ARTIODACTYLA).

PMID- 28563346
TI  - FERTILITY AND FITNESS OF XO MALES IN DROSOPHILA. II. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28563347
TI  - WHY ARE BIRD-VISITED FLOWERS PREDOMINANTLY RED?

PMID- 28563348
TI  - FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR A CHANGE IN INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563350
TI  - EVOLUTION OF MASTICATION IN THE ELEPHANTIDAE.

PMID- 28563349
TI  - A REVIEW OF SOME CURRENT CONCEPTS OF THE FUNCTIONAL EVOLUTION OF THE EAR IN
      TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28563351
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA USED FOR DIAGNOSIS OF
      GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN.

PMID- 28563352
TI  - FLAVERIA CAMPESTRIS (ASTERACEAE): A CASE OF POLYHAPLOIDY OR RELIC ANCESTRAL
      DIPLOIDY?

PMID- 28563353
TI  - ON THE BIOLOGICAL IMPROBABILITY OF ZAHNREIHEN AS EMBRYOLOGICAL UNITS.

PMID- 28563354
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THE DEEP SEA: RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28563355
TI  - PHYLETIC DIVERGENCE DATES OF HOMINOID PRIMATES.

PMID- 28563356
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF GENETIC BACKGROUND ON THE ECOLOGY OF SELECTION IN TRIBOLIUM
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563357
TI  - CLIMATIC ADAPTATION AND PHOTOPERIODIC RESPONSE IN THE BAND-LEGGED GROUND CRICKET.

PMID- 28563359
TI  - GENETIC SIMILARITIES AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE SEMISPECIES OF
      DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM.

PMID- 28563358
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY AND SIMILARITY IN THE ANOLIS LIZARDS OF BIMINI.

PMID- 28563360
TI  - COMPETITION FOR POLLINATOR SERVICE: A STIMULUS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOGAMY.

PMID- 28563361
TI  - PATTERNS OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN KARYOTYPE IN THE POCKET GOPHER, THOMOMYS
      BOTTAE (EYDOUX AND GERVAIS).

PMID- 28563362
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28563363
TI  - MECHANICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE SYNAPSID JAW.

PMID- 28563364
TI  - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHROMOSOMAL VARIANTS.

PMID- 28563365
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND GENETIC DISTANCE IN SIBLING SPECIES OF MEAT ANTS (IRIDOMYRMEX
      PURPUREUS GROUP).

PMID- 28563366
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists.

PMID- 28563367
TI  - PARENTAL EFFORT AND THE EVOLUTION OF NEST-GUARDING TACTICS IN THE THREESPINE
      STICKLEBACK, GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS L.

PMID- 28563368
TI  - SEXUALLY DIMORPHIC RESPONSE TO HOST HABITAT TOXICITY IN DROSOPHILA PARASITIC
      WASPS.

PMID- 28563369
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY AND DIVERGENCE IN CAVE POPULATIONS OF TROGLOPHILUS CAVICOLA
      AND T. ANDREINII (ORTHOPTERA, RHAPHIDOPHORIDAE).

PMID- 28563370
TI  - EVOLUTION OF VOMERONASAL ORGANS IN VERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28563371
TI  - MULTIPLE MATING AND THE "SEX-RATIO" TRAIT IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563372
TI  - HIERARCHICAL PATTERNS OF CHROMOSOME VARIATION IN DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563373
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF TWO SPECIES OF WATERSTRIDERS (GERRIDAE: HEMIPTERA) WITH
      DIFFERING DEGREES OF WINGLESSNESS.

PMID- 28563374
TI  - TAILSPOTS OF XIPHOPHORUS AND THE EVOLUTION OF CONSPICUOUS POLYMORPHISM.

PMID- 28563375
TI  - ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION IN SUBTERRANEAN MOLE RATS.

PMID- 28563376
TI  - POLLINATOR CHOICE AND STABILIZING SELECTION FOR FLOWER COLOR IN DELPHINIUM
      NELSONII.

PMID- 28563377
TI  - GENETIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HYBRIDIZING CYTOTYPES OF THE TENT-MAKING BAT
      (URODERMA BILOBATUM).

PMID- 28563378
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION ALONG HOST PLANT LINES IN THE SYMPATRIC ENCHENOPA
      BINOTATA SAY COMPLEX (HOMOPTERA: MEMBRACIDAE).

PMID- 28563379
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF A MORPH RATIO CLINE IN THE BANANAQUIT (COEREBA FLAVEOLA) ON
      GRENADA, WEST INDIES.

PMID- 28563380
TI  - GENE FLOW IN HOUSE MICE: INTRODUCTION OF A NEW ALLELE INTO FREE-LIVING
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563381
TI  - UNPALATABILITY AS A DEFENSE STRATEGY OF WESTERN CHECKERSPOT BUTTERFLIES
      (EUPHYDRYAS SCUDDER, NYMPHALIDAE).

PMID- 28563382
TI  - CHROMOSOME FLOW BETWEEN CHROMOSOMALLY CHARACTERIZED TAXA OF A VOLANT MAMMAL,
      URODERMA BILOBATUM (CHIROPTERA: PHYLLOSTOMATIDAE).

PMID- 28563383
TI  - SEX RATIO OF RUMEX HASTATULUS: THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND CERTATION.

PMID- 28563384
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY TREES FROM GENE FREQUENCIES AND QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS: FINDING
      MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATES.

PMID- 28563385
TI  - GENETIC COMPONENTS OF SIZE AND SHAPE. II. MULTIVARIATE COVARIANCE PATTERNS IN THE
      RAT AND MOUSE SKULL.

PMID- 28563386
TI  - EFFECT OF SIZE UPON MATING PERFORMANCE WITHIN GEOGRAPHIC STRAINS OF THE HOUSEFLY,
      MUSCA DOMESTICA L.

PMID- 28563387
TI  - SEX RATIO COMPENSATION IN ANT POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563389
TI  - STUDIES ON THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE GENUS VIOLA. II. THE EFFECT OF PLANT
      SIZE ON FITNESS IN VIOLA SORORIA.

PMID- 28563390
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HISTOCOMPATIBILITY DIVERSITY IN AN ASEXUAL VERTEBRATE, POECILIOPSIS
      2 MONACHA-LUCIDA (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563391
TI  - SANTA ROSALIA RECONSIDERED: SIZE RATIOS AND COMPETITION.

PMID- 28563393
TI  - "SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM" BILL IN LOUISIANA BEGAT A FEUD AND A LAWSUIT.

PMID- 28563392
TI  - GENES AFFECTING COURTSHIP SONG AND MATING PREFERENCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER,
      DROSOPHILA SIMULANS AND THEIR HYBRIDS.

PMID- 28563394
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1982
      Meetings.

PMID- 28563395
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN RELATION TO ALLOZYMIC AND CHROMOSOMAL DIFFERENTIATION
      IN THE GRASSHOPPER CALEDIA CAPTIVA.

PMID- 28563396
TI  - BASIS FOR A SKEWED SEX RATIO IN DIAPAUSE-DESTINED FLESH FLIES.

PMID- 28563397
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL ECOLOGICAL GENETICS IN PLANTAGO. V. COMPONENTS OF SEED YIELD IN THE
      RIBWORT PLANTAIN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA L.

PMID- 28563398
TI  - PRE-PARTUM REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF EUTHERIAN MAMMALS.

PMID- 28563399
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION OF GENDER IN ARALIA HISPIDA VENT. (ARALIACEAE).

PMID- 28563400
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY IN REPRODUCTION RATES IN MARINE PHYTOPLANKTON POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563401
TI  - USING FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS TO DETECT SELECTION: INVERSION POLYMORPHISMS IN
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563402
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF MICRODIFFERENTIATION IN NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS
      OF BORRICHIA FRUTESCENS IN RELATION TO SALINITY.

PMID- 28563403
TI  - DOES HIGH FECUNDITY REDUCE SURVIVAL IN SONG SPARROWS?

PMID- 28563404
TI  - SEX RATIO AND PARENTAL INVESTMENT IN AN ANT POPULATION.

PMID- 28563405
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF TIGRIOPUS CALIFORNICUS. II. DIFFERENTIATION AMONG
      NEIGHBORING POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563406
TI  - A TEST OF THE CHITTY HYPOTHESIS: INHERITANCE OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN MEADOW
      VOLES MICROTUS PENNSYLVANICUS.
AB  - The Chitty hypothesis proposes that the demographic changes occurring in
      microtine cycles are mediated by natural selection operating on the genetic
      composition of the population. Implicit in this hypothesis is the assumption that
      a suite of life-history traits is simultaneously undergoing selection and that
      these traits are strongly heritable. We tested this in two ways: first, by
      determining whether the year-to-year differences in phenotypes in fluctuating
      meadow vole populations in the field are maintained in samples of young animals
      raised in the laboratory, and second, whether the variation seen in the field has
      a heritable basis as determined by half-sib analysis. Parents were obtained in
      the springs of successive years from a fluctuating meadow vole population. These
      animals were bred in small field enclosures, and their progeny were raised in the
      laboratory. Animals raised in the laboratory differed significantly from those in
      the natural field population. In the field, young from the year when population
      size was increasing grew more rapidly than those from the peak year; in the
      laboratory, the opposite occurred. The ages at sexual maturity showed similar
      differences. Heritability analysis was performed on body weight, growth rate, and
      age and weight at sexual maturity. Virtually all these traits showed significant
      dam effects, but small or nonexistant sire effects. Thus, most of the variation
      was nongenetic in origin; maternal and other environmental effects were of
      overriding importance. We conclude that the heritabilities of these traits in
      nature are usually lower than necessary for natural selection to operate in the
      time frames characteristic of microtine cycles.

PMID- 28563407
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES OF COADAPTATION: PREFERRED TEMPERATURES VERSUS OPTIMAL
      PERFORMANCE TEMPERATURES OF LIZARDS.
AB  - The view that behavior and physiological performance are tightly coadapted is a
      central principle of physiological ecology. Here, we test this principle using a
      comparative study of evolutionary patterns in thermal preferences and the thermal
      dependence of sprinting in some Australian skinks (Lygosominae). Thermal
      preferences (Tp ) differ strikingly among genera (range 24 degrees  to 35 degrees
      C), but critical thermal maxima (CTMax) (range 38 degrees  to 45 degrees C) and
      optimal temperatures for sprinting (To , 32 degrees  to 35 degrees C) vary less.
      Diurnal genera have relatively high Tp , To , and CTMax. In contrast, nocturnal
      genera have low Tp but have moderate to high To and CTMax. Both nonphylogenetic
      and phylogenetic (minimum-evolution) approaches suggest that coadaptation is
      tight only for genera with high Tp . Phylogenetic analyses suggest that low Tp
      and, thus, partial coadaptation are evolutionarily derived, indicating that low
      thermal preferences can evolve, even if this results in reduced performance. In
      one instance, thermal preferences and the thermal dependence of sprinting may
      have evolved in opposite directions, a phenomenon we call "antagonistic
      coadaptation." We speculate on factors driving partial coadaptation and
      antagonistic coadaptation in these skinks.

PMID- 28563408
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF OUTCROSSING IN THE CLEISTOGAMOUS ANNUAL, IMPATIENS
      CAPENSIS. I. POPULATION-GENETIC STRUCTURE.
AB  - We examined the genetic structure of 11 populations of Impatiens capensis, a
      cleistogamous annual herb, using starch gel electrophoresis. We sampled both
      cleistogamous (CL) and chasmogamous (CH) progeny (if present) from maternal
      parents in each population to infer maternal genotypes and to estimate the extent
      and pattern of inbreeding within and among populations. Only eight of 31 loci
      were polymorphic, with one to six (mean = 3.1) loci varying within each
      population. Mean heterozygosity per individual is quite low (mean = 3.9%) and
      comparable to highly self-fertilized species. Gene flow is low, and genetic
      distances do not parallel geographical distances, suggesting a population
      structure similar to Wright's Island model with drift among the populations.
      Fixation indexes within populations (f or FIS ) span the largest range yet
      reported for a plant species (0.26 to 0.94, mean = 0.57). Further inbreeding
      results from population substructuring (theta^ or FST=0.46), resulting in a total
      average inbreeding coefficient (F or FIT ) of 0.77. Despite these high overall
      levels of inbreeding, chasmogamy significantly reduces fixation, which may
      account for the observed greater fitness of CH progeny.

PMID- 28563409
TI  - EFFECT OF CANNIBALISM ON ALTERNATIVE LIFE HISTORIES IN CHARR.

PMID- 28563410
TI  - FIFTY YEARS OF INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION: GENETICS AND MORPHOMETRICS OF A
      CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT ON THE LAND SNAIL CERION IN THE FLORIDA KEYS.
AB  - An unusually well documented case of secondary hybridization and introgression
      involving two morphologically dissimilar species of land snails is described. In
      1915, 55 Bahamian Cerion casablancae were established on Bahia Honda Key,
      Florida. The introduced snails thrived, bred true to form, and the colony grew
      until about 1928 when it began to hybridize with C. incanum, the unrelated
      Florida species. In 1977, morphological hybrids occupied an area of about 3.5 ha.
      Spatial and temporal aspects of the interaction were characterized
      morphologically (18 shell characters were studied in source populations,
      founders, and hybrids sampled in 1933 and 1977) and genetically (variation at 17
      allozyme loci in relevant populations sampled in 1977). In addition, special
      circumstances permitted us to discern the genetics of the founders: C. incanum is
      isogenic locally, C. casablancae is variable (Po = 0.29-0.35), and the two
      species are well-differentiated (Nei's D = 0.27). Hybrid intermediacy of form and
      continued enhanced variation appeared in characters from three covariance sets,
      while some unique hybrid morphologies resulted from characters in a fourth set.
      Comparison of 1933 with 1977 samples showed that the hybrids are gradually
      approaching C. incanum in phenotype. Regardless of phenotype, the snails on Bahia
      Honda Key were panmictic and outbreeding. There was no evidence for strong
      selection against hybrids, and by 1977 introduced alleles had spread over 5 ha.
      However, no pure C. casablancae remain; low (m = 0.026/generation) but persistent
      gene flow has brought about a 30% diminution of the introduced genome. These
      observations are useful in interpreting Cerion's remarkable variability as
      colonization following hurricane dispersal has undoubtedly played a role in the
      group's complex evolution. More generally, the results are relevant to the
      problem of interpreting hybrid zones of unknown origin, and the differences in
      the generally concordant patterns of morphological and genetic introgression
      reveal constraints on the way components of different coadapted genomes interact.

PMID- 28563411
TI  - THE HERITABLE BASIS OF VARIATION IN LARVAL DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERNS WITHIN
      POPULATIONS OF THE WOOD FROG (RANA SYLVATICA).
AB  - This study compares the heritable basis of variation in larval developmental
      patterns of mountain and lowland populations of the wood frog, Rana sylvatica.
      Additive genetic variances, heritabilities, and genetic correlations for larval
      developmental time and size at metamorphosis are estimated from half-sib and full
      sib crosses. Considerable additive-genetic variances and high heritabilities are
      revealed for developmental time in both the mountain and the lowland population.
      There was a high level of additive-genetic variance and high heritability for
      body size at metamorphosis in the mountain population, but these were very low in
      the lowland population. The genetic correlations between developmental rate and
      larval body size are negative for the mountain population and near zero for the
      lowland population. It is argued that the differences in genetic structure
      between these two populations reflect differences in the selective regimes of
      their respective environments.

PMID- 28563412
TI  - REPEATABILITY OF LOCOMOTOR PERFORMANCE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE LIZARD
      SCELOPORUS MERRIAMI.

PMID- 28563413
TI  - RANDOM-FRAGMENT HYBRIDIZATION ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTION IN THE GENUS NEUROSPORA: THE
      STATUS OF FOUR-SPORED STRAINS.
AB  - A random-fragment hybridization method employing nuclear DNA has been developed
      to explore phylogenetic relationships in the genus Neurospora. Four cloned
      fragments and repetitive rDNA sequences were examined for restriction-fragment
      polymorphisms among 14 strains representing four species. The findings
      demonstrate that variation among randomly selected nuclear fragments can be
      employed to group related taxa with a higher degree of resolution than has been
      obtained with other DNA hybridization methods, isozyme electrophoresis, or
      restriction analysis of repetitive DNA. Based on our analysis of cloned
      fragments, we conclude that four-spored, secondarily-homothallic strains
      collected worldwide represent a monophyletic group. Trees constructed on the
      basis of restriction-fragment cataloging and coarse-structure restriction-site
      maps are for the most part consistent with the present mating-based species
      concept. We are encouraged that this method will provide an additional important
      experimental tool for evolutionary studies.

PMID- 28563414
TI  - COMMUNITY COEVOLUTION: A COMMENT.

PMID- 28563415
TI  - AGGRESSION, DENSITY, AND SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN CHERNETID PSEUDOSCORPIONS
      (ARACHNIDA: PSEUDOSCORPIONIDA).
AB  - The determinants of sexual dimorphism in a family of false scorpions
      (Pseudoscorpionida: Chernetidae) were investigated experimentally and with a
      literature analysis of comparative morphometric and habitat data. Species vary in
      the extent to which males and females differ in size of the pedipalps, and, in
      particular, in size of the pedipalpal chelae. A statistical analysis of
      dimorphism patterns within the Chernetidae suggests that dimorphism is a highly
      variable condition, relatively unconstrained by phylogenetic influences. The
      evolution of species with enlarged male pedipalps appears to be associated with a
      change from nonpairing to pairing sperm-transfer behavior and with aggressive
      mate acquisition by males. Experiments with Dinocheirus arizonensis demonstrate a
      strong correlation between male combat ability and chela size. Manipulations also
      suggest that superior combat ability of large males results in increased mating
      success only under high-density conditions. The greater success in spermatophore
      transfer among large males can be attributed to increased opportunity at high
      density for large males to interrupt matings and aggressively displace smaller
      males. Comparative analysis showed a positive correlation between density and
      enlarged male chela size across chernetid species.

PMID- 28563416
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC POPULATION STRUCTURE AND SPECIES DIFFERENCES IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF
      MOUTHBROODING MARINE CATFISHES (ARIIDAE) AND DEMERSAL SPAWNING TOADFISHES
      (BATRACHOIDIDAE).
AB  - Restriction-fragment length polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were used
      to evaluate population-genetic structure and matriarchal phylogeny in four
      species of marine fishes that lack a pelagic larval stage: the catfishes Arius
      felis and Bagre marinus, and the toadfishes Opsanus tau and O. beta. Thirteen
      informative restriction enzymes were used to assay mtDNAs from 134 specimens
      collected from Massachusetts to Louisiana. Considerable genotypic diversity was
      observed in each species. However, major mtDNA phylogenetic assemblages in
      catfish and toadfish (as identified in Wagner networks and UPGMA phenograms)
      exhibited contrasting patterns of geographic distribution: in catfish, distinct
      mtDNA clades were widespread, while such clades in toadfish tended to be
      geographically localized. By both the criteria of species' ranges and the
      geographic pattern of intraspecific mtDNA phylogeny, populations of marine
      catfish in the western Atlantic have had greater historical interconnectedness
      than have toadfish. Results are also compared to previously published mtDNA data
      in freshwater and other marine fishes. Although mtDNA differentiation among
      conspecific populations of continuously distributed marine fishes is usually
      lower than that among discontinuously distributed freshwater species inhabiting
      separate drainages, it is apparent that historical biogeographic factors can
      importantly influence genetic structure in marine as well as freshwater species.

PMID- 28563417
TI  - TRANSMISSION RATES AND THE EVOLUTION OF PATHOGENICITY.

PMID- 28563418
TI  - ALTRUISM IN MENDELIAN POPULATIONS DERIVED FROM SIBLING GROUPS: THE HAYSTACK MODEL
      REVISITED.
AB  - A group-selection model is presented in which each group is initiated by a single
      fertilized female and persists for several generations before dispersal. Maynard
      Smith (1964) concluded that altruism could not plausibly evolve under these
      circumstances. I show that his conclusion is an artifact of a simplifying
      assumption that amounts to a worst-case scenario for group selection. When the
      standard donor-recipient equations for altruistic behavior are used in Maynard
      Smith's model, Mendelian populations derived from sibling groups are often more
      favorable for the evolution of altruism than are the sibling groups themselves.
      In general, long-term and large-scale aspects of population structure may at
      times be important in the evolution of altruistic and other group-advantageous
      behaviors.

PMID- 28563419
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INVESTMENT IN ATTRACTIVE STRUCTURES ON ALLOCATION TO MALE AND
      FEMALE FUNCTIONS IN PLANTS.
AB  - Expressions for male and female fitnesses of partially self-fertilizing cosexual
      plants are derived, assuming that allocation to pollinator attraction at the time
      of flowering may decrease resources available for male and female primary
      structures. The total female fertility is assumed to be controlled by factors at
      two stages, flowering-time and fruiting-time, with resources for fruit maturation
      being limited so that maximum seed production may be limited by the availability
      of these resources. The fitness formulas are used to calculate ESS
      (evolutionarily stable strategy) allocations at flowering time to primary male
      and female sex functions and to attractive structures. These are compared with
      some data that are available for dry weights of different flower parts. The
      fitnesses of unisexual mutant forms are calculated, assuming that they are
      introduced into a population consisting mostly of the initial cosexual form and
      that they obey the same gain curves as that form. When compared with the fitness
      of the ESS cosexual form, this enables one to ask whether unisexual forms will be
      favored. We show that the spread of females is unlikely, unless there is high
      inbreeding depression and a rather high selfing rate, and that in some
      circumstances a linear relation between number of fertilized ovules and number of
      seeds matured can be less favorable for the invasion of females than is a highly
      concave relation. With a nearly linear relation between numbers of fertilized
      ovules and mature seeds, invasion by females is more likely when investment in
      attraction is low than when it is high. These effects are discussed in relation
      to the distribution of dioecy. The spread of male mutants is never likely in
      these models.

PMID- 28563420
TI  - COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMICAL GENETICS OF THREE FIRE ANT SPECIES IN NORTH AMERICA, WITH
      SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TWO SOCIAL FORMS OF SOLENOPSIS INVICTA (HYMENOPTERA:
      FORMICIDAE).
AB  - An electrophoretic study of the genetics of three fire ant species in North
      America was undertaken with the primary objective of further clarifying the
      genetic relationship between two social forms of Solenopsis invicta. Such social
      forms are common in many groups of ants and may, in some cases, represent
      significant intermediate stages in the speciation process. The monogyne and
      polygyne forms of S. invicta, while differing in a number of important biological
      traits, are genetically indistinguishable, in contrast to the substantial genetic
      differentiation observed between S. invicta and a second, closely related,
      introduced species, S. richteri. The native fire ant, S. geminata, is genetically
      the most distinct of the three species studied, in accord with its taxonomic
      placement in a different species complex. Hypotheses concerning the derivation of
      the polygyne form of S. invicta from the monogyne form which invoke their long
      term reproductive isolation in South America and separate introductions to North
      America appear unfounded. Although S. invicta and S. richteri are known to
      hybridize in North America, our study provided no evidence of gene introgression
      between S. invicta and the native species, S. geminata, in areas where our
      samples were collected. Analyses of population structure in S. invicta failed to
      reveal significant differentiation of populations or local inbreeding. Levels of
      genetic diversity in the three species studied, although not significantly
      different, were in the order predicted from knowledge of the population biology
      and recent history of the taxa, with S. richteri exhibiting the least diversity,
      S. geminata the greatest, and S. invicta having an intermediate level.

PMID- 28563421
TI  - THE FREQUENCY OF LETHAL ALLELES IN FOREST TREE POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563422
TI  - THE DISPERSAL BARRIER IN THE TROPICAL PACIFIC: IMPLICATIONS FOR MOLLUSCAN
      SPECIATION AND EXTINCTION.
AB  - Stretches of deep ocean constitute barriers to the dispersal of many shallow
      water marine species in the tropical Pacific. The purpose of this study was to
      assess the selectivity of these barriers with respect to the habitat
      characteristics, adult size, and predation-related shell architecture of
      gastropods, and to explore the implications of this selectivity for
      macroevolutionary patterns of extinction and speciation. The dispersal barrier
      between continental islands (represented in my collections by species from
      eastern Indonesia, the southern Philippines, and the north coast of New Guinea)
      and the nearby oceanic Palau Islands was studied by evaluating the percentage of
      each architectural and habitat category that is present on the continental
      islands but missing in Palau. The barrier is significantly more effective against
      sand-dwelling species than against rock-dwellers, and among rock-dwellers it is
      most effective against aperturally unarmored taxa. Barriers between Palau and
      Guam, Guam and the Hawaiian Islands, and the Line Islands and the tropical
      Eastern Pacific are generally unselective with respect to substratum type and
      architecture. The fact that narrow-apertured species are less affected by the
      barrier between the continental islands and Palau than are other rock-dwelling
      gastropods is consistent with the interpretation that this group has been
      unusually resistant to extinction and highly susceptible to founder speciation
      when oceanic circulation is altered. These patterns of susceptibility and
      geographical distribution may explain why armored gastropods have increased in
      numbers relative to unarmored ones in the tropical Pacific during the Cenozoic.

PMID- 28563423
TI  - MALE MATING DISCRIMINATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER, D. SIMULANS AND THEIR
      HYBRIDS.

PMID- 28563424
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF A GYNOGENETIC FISH, POECILIA FORMOSA, THE AMAZON MOLLY.

PMID- 28563425
TI  - VARIATION IN PHOTOPERIODIC RESPONSE WITHIN AND AMONG SPECIES OF MILKWEED BUGS
      (ONCOPELTUS).

PMID- 28563426
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM, SEXUAL SELECTION, AND ADAPTATION IN POLYGENIC CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28563427
TI  - GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF THE COLOR MORPHS OF THE SERRANID FISH HYPOPLECTRUS
      UNICOLOR.

PMID- 28563428
TI  - HOST ABUNDANCE, JUVENILE SURVIVAL, AND OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE IN BATTUS PHILENOR.

PMID- 28563429
TI  - CLUTCH SIZE, BREEDING SUCCESS, AND PARENTAL SURVIVAL IN THE TREE SWALLOW
      (IRIDOPROCNE BICOLOR).

PMID- 28563430
TI  - THE ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF SPECIALIZED CAVE ANIMALS: A BIOCLIMATIC MODEL.

PMID- 28563431
TI  - THE APPORTIONMENT OF GENETIC VARIATION WITHIN AND AMONG POPULATIONS OF DESMODIUM
      NUDIFLORUM.

PMID- 28563432
TI  - EVOLUTION OF AN ENZYME SYSTEM: ASCORBIC ACID BIOSYNTHESIS IN MONOTREMES AND
      MARSUPIALS.

PMID- 28563433
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION, ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY AND NULL HYPOTHESES.

PMID- 28563434
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES IN THE SURFPERCHES. I. MULTIPLE INSEMINATION IN NATURAL
      POPULATIONS OF THE SHINER PERCH, CYMATOGASTER AGGREGATA.

PMID- 28563435
TI  - BRAIN STRUCTURE IN CHIROPTERA: SOME MULTIVARIATE TRENDS.

PMID- 28563436
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF DROSOPHILA AMYLASE III. INTERSPECIFIC VARIATION.

PMID- 28563437
TI  - SEX RATIO IN THE SAILFIN MOLLY, POECILIA LATIPINNA.

PMID- 28563438
TI  - ALBUMIN EVOLUTION IN MARSUPIAL FROGS (HYLIDAE: GASTROTHECA).

PMID- 28563439
TI  - A COMMENT ON "MATE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS".

PMID- 28563440
TI  - TROPHIC DIFFERENTIATION IN ILYODON, A GENUS OF STREAM-DWELLING GOODEID FISHES:
      SPECIATION VERSUS ECOLOGICAL POLYMORPHISM.

PMID- 28563442
TI  - Joint Meeting of The Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of
      Naturalists Tucson, Arizona June 29-July 2, 1980.

PMID- 28563441
TI  - VARIATION IN BODY SIZE AND FLIGHT PERFORMANCE IN MILKWEED BUGS (ONCOPELTUS).

PMID- 28563443
TI  - COADAPTATION AND TAXONOMIC DIFFERENTIATION OF SPERM AND SPERMATHECAE IN
      FEATHERWING BEETLES.

PMID- 28563444
TI  - VARIATION IN HIGHLY AND LOWLY HERITABLE MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS AMONG SOCIAL GROUPS
      OF RHESUS MACAQUES (MACACA MULATTA) ON CAYO SANTIAGO.

PMID- 28563445
TI  - SONG DIALECTS AS BARRIERS TO DISPERSAL: A RE-EVALUATION.

PMID- 28563446
TI  - MULTIGENIC RESPONSE TO ETHANOL IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563447
TI  - SKEPTICISM TOWARDS SANTA ROSALIA, OR WHY ARE THERE SO FEW KINDS OF ANIMALS?

PMID- 28563449
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL SHIFTS OF SOME ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF EUTAMIAS (RODENTIA:
      SCIURIDAE) IN DIFFERENT CONGENERIC ASSEMBLAGES.

PMID- 28563448
TI  - INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON THE FLORAL SEX RATIO OF MONOECIOUS PLANTS.

PMID- 28563450
TI  - THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563451
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN THE REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE AND PHOTOPERIODIC DIAPAUSE OF
      DROSOPHILA PHALERATA AND D. TRANSVERSA (DROSOPHILIDAE:DIPTERA).

PMID- 28563452
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1981
      Meetings.

PMID- 28563453
TI  - ADAPTIVE CHANGES IN ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR OF A GRASSHOPPER DURING DEVELOPMENT.

PMID- 28563454
TI  - FEMALE DRY WEIGHT AND FEMALE CHOICE IN CHAULIOGNATHUS PENNSYLVANICUS.

PMID- 28563455
TI  - A COMPARISON OF DROSOPHILA HABITATS ACCORDING TO THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF
      THE ASSOCIATED YEAST COMMUNITIES.

PMID- 28563457
TI  - Important Notice.

PMID- 28563456
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF DROSOPHILA BUZZATII. I. NATURAL CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM
      IN COLONIZED POPULATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD.

PMID- 28563458
TI  - SEROTINY, GEOGRAPHY, AND FIRE IN THE PINE BARRENS OF NEW JERSEY.

PMID- 28563459
TI  - GAMETIC DISEQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN ESTERASE LOCI IN POPULATIONS OF CEPAEA NEMORALIS
      IN WESTERN NEW YORK.

PMID- 28563460
TI  - STUDIES OF ESTERASE 6 IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. V. PROGENY PRODUCTION AND SPERM
      USE IN FEMALES INSEMINATED BY MALES HAVING ACTIVE OR NULL ALLELES.

PMID- 28563461
TI  - SPECIES NUMBER, GENERATION LENGTH, AND THE MOLECULAR CLOCK.

PMID- 28563462
TI  - LATERAL PLATE POLYMORPHISM AND ONTOGENY OF THE COMPLETE PLATE MORPH OF THREESPINE
      STICKLEBACKS (GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS).

PMID- 28563463
TI  - CONVERGENCE AND PARALLELISM IN FOOT MORPHOLOGY IN THE NEOTROPICAL SALAMANDER
      GENUS BOLITOGLOSSA. I. FUNCTION.

PMID- 28563464
TI  - RESPONSE TO "SONG DIALECTS AS BARRIERS TO DISPERSAL: A RE-EVALUATION".

PMID- 28563465
TI  - SELECTION COMPONENTS OF FOUR ALLOZYMES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF PEROMYSCUS
      MANICULATUS.

PMID- 28563466
TI  - EVOLUTION SOCIETY NEWS.

PMID- 28563467
TI  - FECUNDITY IN POPULATIONS OF OXALIS ALPINA IN SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA.

PMID- 28563468
TI  - In Memory.

PMID- 28563469
TI  - ALLOZYME LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIA AMONG CHROMOSOME COMPLEXES IN THE PERMANENT
      TRANSLOCATION HETEROZYGOTE OENOTHERA BIENNIS.

PMID- 28563470
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SEX RATIOS IN THE ISOPOD, VENEZILLO EVERGLADENSIS.

PMID- 28563471
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF INFLORESCENCE SIZE IN ASCLEPIAS (ASCLEPIADACEAE).

PMID- 28563472
TI  - GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO INTERFERTILE
      SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563473
TI  - ADAPTIVE FLEXIBILITY OF "MARGINAL" VERSUS "CENTRAL" POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      WILLISTONI.

PMID- 28563474
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DORMANCY AND ITS PHOTOPERIODIC CONTROL IN PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITOES.

PMID- 28563475
TI  - SELECTION INTENSITY IN NORTH AMERICAN HOUSE SPARROWS (PASSER DOMESTICUS).

PMID- 28563476
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE BETWEEN TWO POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563477
TI  - COMMUNAL CARE AND KIDNAPPING OF YOUNG BY PARENTAL CICHLIDS.

PMID- 28563478
TI  - BERGMANN'S RULE AND VARIATION IN STRUCTURES RELATED TO FEEDING IN THE GRAY
      SQUIRREL.

PMID- 28563479
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28563480
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT CHOICE, MINORITY ADVANTAGES, AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT NATURAL
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28563481
TI  - DO INTERTIDAL SNAILS SPAWN IN THE RIGHT PLACES?

PMID- 28563482
TI  - INBREEDING EFFECTS UPON ANIMALS DERIVED FROM A WILD POPULATION OF MUS MUSCULUS.

PMID- 28563483
TI  - VARIABILITY AND EVOLUTIONARY RATES OF CHARACTERS.

PMID- 28563484
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC ADAPTATION OF THE HOUSEFLY, MUSCA DOMESTICA L., IN THE UNITED
      STATES.

PMID- 28563485
TI  - CANARY ISLAND BLUE TITS AND ENGLISH COAL TITS: CONVERGENT EVOLUTION?

PMID- 28563486
TI  - THE ORGANIZATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN PHLOX DRUMMONDII.

PMID- 28563487
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF POLYMORPHISM IN AN ISLAND POPULATION OF THE CALIFORNIA VOLE,
      MICROTUS CALIFORNICUS.

PMID- 28563488
TI  - ANALYSIS OF HEAD SHAPE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO INTERFERTILE SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563489
TI  - WHY 300 SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA? THE SEXUAL SELECTION HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28563490
TI  - COEVOLUTION OF PIERID BUTTERFLIES AND THEIR CRUCIFEROUS FOODPLANTS. II. THE
      DISTRIBUTION OF EGGS ON POTENTIAL FOODPLANTS.

PMID- 28563491
TI  - HIGH LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THREE MALE-HAPLOID SPECIES (HYMENOPTERA:
      ARGIDAE, TENTHREDINIDAE).

PMID- 28563492
TI  - A MODEL FOR THE EVOLUTION OF ASYMMETRICAL MALE HYBRID STERILITY AND ITS
      IMPLICATIONS FOR SPECIATION.
AB  - Chromosomal analysis of several cases of asymmetrical male hybrid sterility in
      Drosophila has implicated the X- or the Y-chromosome and one or more autosomes.
      Here, I develop a model for the evolution of this phenomenon. An autosomal locus
      is assumed to affect viability and to interact with a Y-linked or an X-linked
      locus to determine male fertility. In a new environment, selection for viability
      favors a new allele at the autosomal locus, but incompatibility of this new
      allele with the sex-chromosome-linked gene generates male sterility. The
      incompatibility can be resolved if a new allele at the sex-linked locus invades
      the population. This results in nonreciprocal male hybrid sterility, the
      direction of the nonreciprocity being determined by the dominance or
      recessiveness of the new autosomal gene in its effect on fertility. It is shown
      that stable polymorphism for the autosomal locus is possible and that, if the
      equilibrium frequency of the new allele is above a critical value, the population
      will be constantly at the verge of speciation, "waiting" for the sex-linked
      mutation to occur. The appearance of this mutation causes a runaway process
      leading to rapid fixation of the new autosomal and sex-linked alleles. If the
      equilibrium frequency of the new autosomal allele is less than the critical
      value, deterministic speciation is impossible, but random drift may increase the
      frequency above the critical value and predispose the population to the invasion
      of the new sex-linked allele. Thus, both deterministic and stochastic modes of
      speciation are possible. Because deterministic speciation requires large
      selection coefficients, which impose a severe genetic load on the population, and
      because stochastic speciation requires repeated population bottlenecks, it is
      concluded that relative to the number of successful speciation events there will
      be many more events of deme extinction.

PMID- 28563493
TI  - SOME MODELS FOR DEVELOPMENT, GROWTH, AND MORPHOMETRIC CORRELATION.
AB  - Genetic and phenotypic correlations between morphometric traits can be a direct
      consequence of shared developmental history and common systems of growth
      regulation. Correlation between traits, therefore, need not imply direct
      functional or adaptive constraints on those traits. Useful models of the
      developmental origins of correlations will consider mechanisms that can reduce
      initially high correlation of traits that arise from a single developmental
      precursor. Several models presented here predict such correlations for different
      modes of fission of a precursor. Timing of developmental events may also affect
      correlations and respond to selection on adult traits. The models may apply to
      development of the tetrapod limb bud, including variance and covariance induced
      by known developmental mutants.

PMID- 28563494
TI  - CONSTRAINTS ON CHEMICAL COEVOLUTION: WILD PARSNIPS AND THE PARSNIP WEBWORM.
AB  - The parsnip webworm (Depressaria pastinacella) and the wild parsnip (Pastinaca
      sativa) together represent a potentially "coevolved" system in that throughout
      their ranges the plant has relatively few other herbivores and the insect has
      virtually no other hosts. Individual wild parsnip plants within a central
      Illinois population vary in their content and composition of furanocoumarins,
      secondary compounds with insecticidal properties. Half-sib and parent-offspring
      regression estimates of the heritability of furanocoumarins demonstrate that this
      variation is genetically based. Wild parsnip plants also vary in their resistance
      to damage by the parsnip webworm, which feeds on flowers and developing seeds. In
      an experimental garden, seed production in the primary umbel ranged from 0 to
      1,664 seeds among individuals, and mean seed production of half-sib families
      ranged from 3.7 seeds to 446.0 seeds. Approximately 75% of the variation in
      resistance among half-sib families to D. pastinacella was attributable to four
      furanocoumarin characteristics-resistance is positively related to the proportion
      of bergapten and the amount of sphondin in seeds, and negatively related to the
      amount of bergapten and the proportion of sphondin in leaves. Each of the four
      resistance factors had significant heritability. Thus, resistance in wild parsnip
      to the parsnip webworm is to a large extent chemically based and genetically
      controlled. Genetic correlations among fitness and resistance characters,
      however, tend to limit coevolutionary responses between herbivore and plant. In
      greenhouse plants protected from herbivory, several of the resistance factors
      have negative genetic correlations with potential seed production. Ostensibly,
      highly resistant plants in the absence of herbivory would be at a competitive
      disadvantage in the field. The selective impact of the herbivore is also limited
      in this population by a negative genetic correlation among resistance factors.
      Selection to increase one resistance factor (e.g., the proportion of bergapten in
      the seed) would at the same time decrease the amount of a second resistance
      factor (e.g., the amount of sphondin in the seed). The wild parsnip and the
      parsnip webworm, then, appear to have reached an evolutionary "stalemate" in the
      coevolutionary arms race.

PMID- 28563495
TI  - MEASURING THE COST OF REPRODUCTION: A COMMENT ON PAPERS BY BELL.

PMID- 28563496
TI  - CLINAL VARIATION ASSOCIATED WITH EDAPHIC ECOTONES IN HYBRID POPULATIONS OF
      GAILLARDIA PULCHELLA.
AB  - The variety pulchella of the outcrossing annual plant species Gaillardia
      pulchella consists of two edaphic races in central Texas which are divergent for
      one morphological and four electrophoretic characters. Reduced pollen
      stainability in F1 hybrids suggests the races are also divergent in chromosome
      structure. The recent proliferation of this species on roadsides and in pastures
      has led to hybridization between these races. An analysis of character variation
      in three hybrid populations revealed significant clinal variation associated with
      edaphic ecotones, and the width of these clines was found to vary among
      characters in a consistent pattern. It is argued that this pattern is the result
      of different characters experiencing different effective selection regimes, with
      narrower clines reflecting greater differentials in effective selection. Several
      mechanisms are discussed by which selection may impede the transgression of
      alleles across the ecotones in these populations. The results of this study are
      compared to the results of parallel studies on the autogamous annual species
      Avena barbata in California, and it is suggested that the difference between
      these two species in the width of clines separating edaphic ecotypes may be
      accounted for by their different breeding systems.

PMID- 28563497
TI  - THE GENETICS OF ASYMMETRICAL MALE STERILITY IN DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS AND
      DROSOPHILA ARIZONENSIS HYBRIDS: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE Y-CHROMOSOME AND
      AUTOSOMES.
AB  - Crosses between Drosophila mojavensis and D. arizonensis produce fertile females,
      but the males from the cross ? D. mojavensis * ? D. arizonensis are sterile. The
      chromosomal basis of sperm immotility was studied in these hybrids. Interspecific
      crossing-over was avoided by crossing hybrid males to pure-species females, and
      chromosomal identification in backcross progeny was possible by means of
      electrophoretic markers. The main findings are as follows. The Y-chromosome and
      two autosomes are involved in the determination of sperm motility. The other
      autosomes, with the exception of the sixth which was not tested, appear to have
      no effect. The effect of the D. arizonensis X-chromosome was not examined, but it
      is established that the D. mojavensis X-chromosome has no effect on sperm
      motility in males carrying the D. arizonensis Y-chromosome and any combination of
      autosomes. The Y-chromosome and the two autosomes interact with each other in a
      simple and predictable way, so that certain combinations of these chromosomes
      always produce motile sperm and others immotile sperm. Thus, asymmetrical male
      hybrid sterility may have a simple genetic basis. In contrast to ethological
      isolation, the genetic basis for this postmating isolating mechanism does not
      appear to vary among conspecific populations, an observation which suggests that
      postmating isolation antedates ethological isolation in these species.

PMID- 28563498
TI  - CONTINUING STUDIES ON THE SOUTH AMHERST DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER NATURAL
      POPULATION DURING THE 1970'S AND 1980'S.
AB  - Continuing investigations on the South Amherst Drosophila melanogaster natural
      population following the significant decline and recovery of lethal (le) and
      semilethal (sle) frequencies in the late 1960's (Ives, 1970) show that the
      population has been remarkably stable although it contains MR (male
      recombination) and/or P DNA elements (Kidwell et al., 1977a; Green, 1980). A 13
      year study affirms that the lethals present are nonrandomly distributed along the
      second chromosome and deficient on the right; they differ significantly in
      distribution from spontaneous (Ives, 1973) and delta-induced lethals (Minamori
      and Ito, 1971). Between 1970 and 1977, a total of 4,083 second chromosomes from
      the Markert subpopulation were analyzed; 28.9% of the chromosomes were lethal and
      7.25% were semilethal in homozygous condition. Frequencies are similar for early
      summer and late fall collections although the rate of allelism among lethals is
      significantly higher in early summer than in late fall. For the large fall (1970
      1979) Porch site population, 2,519 second chromosomes were analyzed; 29.5% were
      lethal and 8.0% were sublethal as homozygotes; the rate of allelism among lethals
      was 1.50%. At Hockanum, 1977-1983, lethal and semilethal frequencies were lower;
      the rate of allelism among lethals was 1.43%. The chromosome map distribution of
      lethals does not change between summer and late fall at Markert. The overall
      distributions of lethals at the Markert and Hockanum sites are similar. In tests
      for male recombination (MR) activity in the population over a 6-year period, a
      total of 0.47% recombinants were observed; these were uniformly distributed along
      the second chromosome. Comparisons are made with other long studied D.
      melanogaster populations.

PMID- 28563499
TI  - COEVOLUTION AND AVIAN BROOD PARASITISM: COWBIRD EGGS SHOW EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE
      TO HOST DISCRIMINATION.
AB  - The Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus) is an important host of the brood parasitic
      Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) in Uruguay, but not in nearby Buenos Aires
      Province, Argentina. Eggs of the Shiny Cowbird are extremely variable in size,
      and horneros eject cowbird eggs with widths less than about 88% of the widths of
      their own eggs. Uruguayan cowbird eggs are, on average, 12% larger than those
      from Buenos Aires, a geographic pattern in egg size that corresponds to the
      pattern of successful host use. Uruguayan cowbird eggs are also wider per unit
      volume than eggs from Buenos Aires. Allometric analyses of egg width and volume
      indicate that this shape change is apparently an evolutionary response to
      selection exerted by the hornero. Such a response is absent in Buenos Aires
      because interactions between the cowbird and the hornero are probably of recent
      origin there.

PMID- 28563500
TI  - EFFECT OF NONRANDOM LEAF ORIENTATION ON REPRODUCTION IN LACTUCA SERRIOLA L.
AB  - The cauline leaves of an annual, Lactuca serriola L., are naturally oriented
      vertically with the lamina perpendicular to the east and west. Previous
      physiological data indicated that this nonrandom leaf orientation should reduce
      water loss without substantially reducing photosynthesis and could thus influence
      plant growth and reproduction (Werk and Ehleringer, 1984, 1985). The effect of
      leaf orientation on flower and seed production was tested experimentally using
      potted L. serriola grown outdoors. Leaves of half the plants were forced to
      remain approximately horizontal while the other plants were allowed to orient
      naturally. The plants with horizontal leaves lost water more rapidly than the
      plants with naturally oriented leaves. Above-ground weight, below-ground weight,
      seed weight, and the number of seeds per flower were not significantly affected
      by leaf orientation. Flower production was a linear function of plant size for
      both treatments with plants with natural leaf orientation having a significantly
      greater slope. These results indicate that the nonrandom leaf orientation
      observed in L. serriola is a morphological character which can enhance
      reproduction.

PMID- 28563501
TI  - VARIATION IN THE MATING SYSTEM OF EICHHORNIA PANICULATA (SPRENG.) SOLMS.
      (PONTEDERIACEAE).
AB  - A multilocus procedure was used to estimate outcrossing rates from allozyme data
      in nine populations of Eichhornia paniculata from NE Brazil and Jamaica. The
      populations were chosen to represent stages in a proposed model of the
      evolutionary breakdown of tristyly to semi-homostyly; they differed in morph
      structure (trimorphic, dimorphic, or monomorphic) and floral traits likely to
      influence the mating system. The interpopulation range in outcrossing rate, t,
      was 0.96-0.29. Two additional populations from Jamaica, composed exclusively of
      self-pollinating, semi-homostylous, mid-styled plants, were invariant at 21
      isozyme loci, precluding estimates of outcrossing frequency. Trimorphic
      populations from Brazil had uniformly high outcrossing rates of 0.96-0.88. Values
      for the floral morphs within populations were not significantly different. A
      controlled pollination experiment, comparing the competitive ability of self and
      cross pollen using the Got-3 marker locus, provided evidence that the maintenance
      of high outcrossing rates in trimorphic populations results from the prepotency
      of cross pollen and/or the selective abortion of selfed zygotes. Morph-dependent
      variation in t was detected within a dimorphic population with the L morph
      outcrossing with a frequency of 0.76 in comparison with 0.36 in the M morph. The
      difference in the mating system of floral morphs results from modifications in
      position of short-level stamens in flowers of the M morph resulting in automatic
      self-pollination. The occurrence of E. paniculata populations composed
      exclusively of self-pollinating, mid-styled variants is thought to be associated
      with the spread of genes modifying stamen position. The high level of self
      fertilization demonstrated in the M morph would allow automatic selection of
      these genes, augmented by fertility assurance in the absence of specialized
      pollinators.

PMID- 28563502
TI  - GENETIC ANALYSIS OF A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN THE FIRE-BELLIED TOADS, BOMBINA BOMBINA
      AND B. VARIEGATA, NEAR CRACOW IN SOUTHERN POLAND.
AB  - The fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina and B. variegata differ extensively in
      biochemistry, morphology, and behavior. We use a survey of five diagnostic enzyme
      loci across the hybrid zone near Cracow in Southern Poland to estimate the
      dispersal rate, selection pressures, and numbers of loci which maintain this
      zone. The enzyme clines coincide closely with each other and with morphological
      and mitochondrial DNA clines. Although the zone lies on a broad transition
      between environments suitable for bombina and variegata, the close concordance of
      diverse characters, together with increased aberrations and mortality in hybrids,
      suggest that the zone is maintained largely by selection against hybrids. There
      are strong "linkage disequilibria" between each pair of (unlinked) enzyme loci (R
      = 0.129 [2-unit support limits: 0.119-0.139]). These are probably caused by gene
      flow into the zone, and they give an estimate of dispersal (sigma = 890 [790-940]
      m gen-1/2 ). The clines are sharply stepped, with most of the change occurring
      within 6.15 (5.45-6.45) km, but with long tails of introgression on either side.
      This implies that the effective selection pressure on each enzyme marker (due
      largely to disequilibrium with other loci) is s* = 0.17 (0.159-0.181) at the
      center but that the selection acting directly on the enzyme loci is weak or zero
      (se < 0.0038). The stepped pattern implies a barrier to gene flow of 220 (48-415)
      km. This would substantially delay neutral introgression but would have little
      effect on advantageous alleles; the two taxa need not evolve independently.
      Strong selection is needed to maintain such a barrier: hybrid populations must
      have their mean fitness reduced by a factor of 0.65 (0.60-0.77). This selection
      must be spread over a large number of loci to account for the concordant patterns
      and the observed cline widths (N = 300 [80-2,000]).

PMID- 28563503
TI  - EVOLUTION OF RIBOSOMAL DNA: FIFTY MILLION YEARS OF RECORDED HISTORY IN THE FROG
      GENUS RANA.
AB  - Evolution of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) arrays of frogs of the genus Rana was
      examined among 32 species that last shared a common ancestor approximately 50
      million years ago. Extensive variation in restriction sites exists within the
      transcribed and nontranscribed rDNA spacer regions among the species, whereas
      rDNA coding regions exhibit comparatively little interspecific variation in
      restriction sites. The most parsimonious phylogenetic hypothesis for the
      evolution of the group was constructed based on variation in restriction sites
      and internal spacer lengths among the 32 species of Rana and one species of
      Pyxicephalus (examined for outgroup comparison). This analysis suggests that R.
      sylvatica of North America is more closely related to the R. temporaria group of
      Eurasia than to other North American Rana. The hypothesized phylogeny also
      supports the monophyly of the R. boylii group, the R. catesbeiana group, the R.
      palmipes group, the R. tarahumarae group, and the R. pipiens complex.
      Furthermore, the restriction site data provide information about the evolution
      within and among these species groups. This demonstrates that restriction site
      mapping of rDNA arrays provides a useful molecular technique for the examination
      of historical evolutionary questions across considerable periods of time.

PMID- 28563504
TI  - HARDY-WEINBERG AND FERTILITY SELECTION.

PMID- 28563505
TI  - SEX-RATIO MANIPULATION IN COLOR-BANDED POPULATIONS OF ZEBRA FINCHES.
AB  - Significant correlations were found between attractiveness of leg-band color
      (determined by preference tests [Burley et al., 1982]) and sex ratio of offspring
      in two long-term breeding experiments involving zebra finches. In both
      experiments, birds with attractive band colors produced more same-sex offspring,
      while birds with unattractive band colors produced more opposite-sex offspring.
      The results of these experiments are consistent with those of a previous
      experiment (Burley, 1981). To explain the earlier results, I hypothesized that
      parents adjust their allocation to sons and daughters to produce offspring they
      "expect" to be most attractive. The purpose of such sex-ratio manipulation is to
      enhance fitness by the production of offspring with superior mate-getting
      opportunities. Two alternative hypotheses are presented here. One is that sex
      ratios change with parental age and/or experience. Evidence does not support this
      hypothesis. There were no temporal trends in sex ratio independent of band color.
      A second possibility is that sex ratios reflect differential parental ability to
      rear sons and daughters. This hypothesis cannot be conclusively tested on the
      basis of present evidence, but available evidence does not support it. Within
      color classes, weights of sons and daughters did not differ. Evidence indicates
      that parents effect secondary sex-ratio manipulation through the selective
      rejection of young, usually within six days of hatching. There is no evidence of
      manipulation prior to egg-laying. The costs associated with brood reduction
      probably set limits on the extent to which secondary manipulation can be
      profitably employed.

PMID- 28563506
TI  - DYNAMICS OF POLLEN TUBE GROWTH IN THE WILD RADISH, RAPHANUS RAPHANISTRUM
      (BRASSICACEAE). I. ORDER OF FERTILIZATION.
AB  - Gametophytic competition and selection have important effects on patterns of
      mating in plant populations. However, the relative importance of prezygotic
      mechanisms is often unclear due to a paucity of observations on pollen tube
      growth in vivo. In this study, we present observations on pollen tube behavior in
      the gynoecium of wild radish. Significant variation in the order of fertilization
      of the linearly arranged ovules occurred within the radish ovary. This variation
      is evidence that prezygotic mechanisms of gamete selection operate to sort pollen
      tubes nonrandomly to different ovule positions in the ovary. We propose that the
      variation in fertilization patterns can be attributed to variance in pollen tube
      growth rates in the central septum of the radish gynoecium. The path of pollen
      tube growth and gynoecial structure deserve greater attention in future studies
      of gamete competition.

PMID- 28563507
TI  - VARIATION IN MALE REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT AND MALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN WHITE
      SPRUCE.
AB  - An experimental population composed of ramets of white spruce clones was studied
      to determine the influence of different levels of clonal male reproductive
      investment on clonal male reproductive success, where the male reproductive
      success of different clones in the population was defined as the proportion of
      the seed crop sired by each clone. We present a multilocus estimation procedure
      which provides unbiased estimates of the proportion of seed sired by each
      parental genotypic class from pollen gamete frequency data, whenever gametic
      segregation frequencies are known. Significant linear and quadratic components
      were found for the relationship between the number of male cones produced and the
      estimated proportion of the seed crop sired. A clone that produced an
      exceptionally large number of male cones, however, did not have the greatest male
      reproductive success. In general, the results support an assumption made in
      theoretical models of selection on mating system modifiers regarding the
      relationship between male investment and male reproductive success. They also
      support the hypothesis that male reproductive success in wind-pollinated species
      continues to increase substantially with increasing male reproductive investment.

PMID- 28563508
TI  - CHLOROPLAST DNA EVOLUTION AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS IN CLARKIA SECT.
      PERIPETASMA (ONAGRACEAE).
AB  - Restriction-site analysis of chloroplast DNA in Clarkia sect. Peripetasma
      (Onagraceae) was done to test previously proposed phylogenetic models. One
      hundred nineteen restriction-site mutations were identified among the nine
      species using 29 restriction enzymes, and these were used to construct rooted
      most parsimonious trees (Wagner and Dollo). A chloroplast DNA evolutionary clock
      could not be statistically rejected. Branch points of this tree were
      statistically tested by Felsenstein's bootstrap method. This tree 1) provided an
      unambiguous and detailed genealogical history for the section, 2) verified a
      previous partial phylogenetic model for the section based on gene duplications
      and differential silencing, 3) provided details of the phylogenetic model not
      inferred or expected based on morphology and reproductive isolation, and 4)
      indicated that morphology evolves at markedly different rates within and between
      lineages in the section.

PMID- 28563509
TI  - REINFORCEMENT FOR ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN AEDES ALBOPICTUS
      SUBGROUP (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE).

PMID- 28563510
TI  - QUANTUM AND CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION OF DNA BASE COMPOSITION IN THE YEAST GENUS
      PICHIA.
AB  - This paper investigates the noncontinuous nature and evolution of the base
      composition of nuclear DNA (expressed as mol% guanine + cytosine) in species of
      the yeast genus Pichia (sensu Kurtzman, 1984b). The pattern of change in the G +
      C contents in species of this genus, which range from about 27 to 52 mol%, was
      evaluated. When specifically those species of Pichia were analyzed that have
      evolved in necroses of cactus species and associated Drosophila, a periodic
      change in the G + C contents of approximately 3.0-3.2 mol% was detected by a
      "bootstrapping" method, Fourier analysis, and a nonlinear trigonometric model.
      Pichia species occurring in exudates of broad-leaved deciduous trees or
      associated Drosophila and substrates such as soil and water ("other") showed a
      periodicity of 2.5-2.6 mol%, whereas species associated with conifers and
      associated bark beetles showed no significant periodicity. Periodicity in the
      most recent association (cactus and resident Drosophila) as compared to the lack
      of periodicity in the oldest association (conifer-beetle) may indicate mixed
      evolutionary processes. Low mol% G + C values appear more frequently in the
      relatively recent cactus and Drosophila-associated yeast species. In addition,
      low mol% G + C species do not display the ancestral bud-meiosis mode of sexual
      reproduction which occurs frequently in medium to high mol% G + C yeasts. It was
      found that the mol% G + C content of the Drosophila- and cactus-associated Pichia
      species is positively correlated with the number of compounds fermented or
      respired by these yeast species. Possible reasons for the periodic changes in
      mol% G + C content accompanying speciation include aneuploidy, allopolyploidy,
      the presence of nuclear plasmids, and regular differences in moderately
      repetitive portions of DNA. Since significant DNA complementarity is virtually
      limited to species within a relatively narrow G + C group, this suggests that
      there are at least two processes which alter the G + C content between species,
      one saltational and one continuous.

PMID- 28563511
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT NATURAL SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA: EVOLUTION OF PUPATION HEIGHT.

PMID- 28563512
TI  - INCOMPLETE BEHAVIORAL ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO DISTANTLY RELATED DROSOPHILA SPECIES.
AB  - Two sympatric, distantly related Drosophila species, D. affinis and D.
      melanogaster, interact sexually in the laboratory and in the field. When mature
      males from one species are tested with females or sexually attractive males from
      the other species, the mature males perform courtship that, in most cases, is
      indistinguishable from the courtship that attractive conspecific flies elicit.
      Moreover, some of the D. affinis females that elicit courtship from D.
      melanogaster males copulate with them.

PMID- 28563513
TI  - MIGRATION AND GENETIC DRIFT IN HUMAN POPULATIONS.
AB  - In humans and many other species, mortality is concentrated early in the life
      cycle, and is low during the ages of dispersal and reproduction. Yet precisely
      the opposite is assumed by classical population-genetics models of migration and
      genetic drift. We introduce a model in which population regulation occurs before
      migration. In contrast to the conventional model, our model implies that
      geographic variation in the allele frequencies of newborns should exceed that of
      adults. Thus, it is important to distinguish genetic variation of adults from
      that of newborns in species with human-like life cycles. Classical models deal
      with the variance of group allele frequencies about the allele frequency of a
      hypothetical "continent" or "foundation stock." Empirical studies, however, can
      only measure "reduced" variance, i.e., variance about the current population
      mean. Our model deals with reduced variance, and should therefore be more
      relevant to field studies. We show that reduced variance converges faster, which
      implies that populations are more likely to be at equilibrium with respect to
      reduced than unreduced variance. To summarize the effect of migration on genetic
      population structure, we introduce a new parameter, the effective migration rate.
      Unlike most population structure statistics, it does not confound the effects of
      mobility and population size, and it should therefore be useful for comparisons
      between populations. Finally, we show that the difference between geographic
      variation of newborn and adult allele frequencies contains information about both
      effective population size and effective migration rate.

PMID- 28563514
TI  - ADAPTIVE RESPONSES OF PREDATORS TO PREY AND PREY TO PREDATORS: THE FAILURE OF THE
      ARMS-RACE ANALOGY.
AB  - This paper analyzes a number of relatively general models of predator-prey
      adaptation and coadaptation. The motivation behind this work is, in part, to
      evaluate the "race analogy" that has been applied in analyzing predator-prey
      coevolution. The models are based on the assumption that increased investment in
      predation-related adaptations must be paid for by decreased adaptation to some
      other factor. Increased investment in predation-related adaptations by the prey
      lowers the predator's functional response, and increased investment by the
      predator increases the functional response. The models are used to determine how
      each species should respond to an increase in the predation-related investment of
      the other species. Several broad classes of population-dynamics models and
      several alternatives for the cost of predation-related adaptation are
      investigated. The results do not support the general applicability of the race
      analogy. In the type of model analyzed in greatest detail here, predator and prey
      adaptations combine multiplicatively in determining the predator's capture-rate
      constant. In such models, prey usually increase investment in predator avoidance
      or escape when predators increase their investment in capture. However, predators
      often do not change or decrease their investment in response to an increase in
      the prey's investment. The direction of the predator's response depends on the
      particular parameter that pays the cost of increased predation investment, the
      shape of the cost-benefit functions, and the assumptions about the population
      dynamics of the predator-prey system. Similar models are used to determine
      whether increased investment by one species should increase the rate of
      incorporation of mutations that improve the predation-related adaptations of the
      other species. The arms-race analogy also fails for this case. The results cast
      doubt on the usefulness of Dawkins and Krebs (1979) "life-dinner" principle.

PMID- 28563515
TI  - REPLY TO REZNICK ET AL.

PMID- 28563517
TI  - THE BREEDING SYSTEM AND VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF POA ANNUA L.

PMID- 28563518
TI  - ACTIVE DISPERSAL AND PASSIVE TRANSPORT IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563519
TI  - RESPIRATION IN METAZOAN EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563520
TI  - INTERGENOMIC MAPPING OF MAIZE, TEOSINTE AND TRIPSACUM.

PMID- 28563521
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION AT THE PAYNE INVERSION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563522
TI  - TOWARD A PREDICTIVE CAVE BIOGEOGRAPHY: THE GREENBRIER VALLEY AS A CASE STUDY.

PMID- 28563524
TI  - CYTOPLASMIC STERILITIES THAT SEPARATE THE GROUP TUBEROSUM CULTIVATED POTATO FROM
      ITS PUTATIVE TETRAPLOID ANCESTOR.

PMID- 28563523
TI  - GENIC DIFFERENTIATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE EARLY STAGES OF SPECIATON IN THE
      MULLERI SUBGROUP OF DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563525
TI  - SEXUAL VIGOR AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563526
TI  - CHIASMA FREQUENCY EVIDENCE ON THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOGAMY IN LIMNANTHES FLOCCOSA
      (LIMNANTHACEAE).

PMID- 28563527
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN SIDE-BLOTCHED LIZARDS ON ISLANDS IN THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA.

PMID- 28563528
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN LYCOPODIUM LUCIDULUM: A PHYLOGENETIC RELIC.

PMID- 28563529
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF PIGMENT POLYMORPHISMS IN COLIAS BUTTERFLIES. III.
      PROGRESS IN THE STUDY OF THE "ALBA" VARIANT.

PMID- 28563530
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEMS IN CORTADERIA (GRAMINEAE).

PMID- 28563531
TI  - DEMOGRAPHY AND GENETICS IN COLONIZING POPULATIONS OF BLUE GROUSE (DENDRAGAPUS
      OBSCURUS).

PMID- 28563532
TI  - THE ABSENCE OF t ALLELES IN FERAL POPULATIONS OF HOUSE MICE.

PMID- 28563533
TI  - STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPINES AND LATERAL PLATES IN THREESPINE
      STICKLEBACK (GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS).

PMID- 28563534
TI  - THE ROLE OF BODY SIZE IN THE ASSEMBLY OF WEST INDIAN BIRD COMMUNITIES.

PMID- 28563535
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE LOVEBUG, PLECIA NEARCTICA: THE ROLE OF MALE CHOICE.

PMID- 28563536
TI  - WHY ARE JUVENILES SMALLER THAN THEIR PARENTS?

PMID- 28563537
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF DEVELOPMENT: GENETIC CORRELATIONS AMONG AGE-SPECIFIC
      TRAIT VALUES AND THE EVOLUTION OF ONTOGENY.

PMID- 28563538
TI  - CONTINENTAL PATTERNS OF MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN A SOUTH AMERICAN SPARROW.

PMID- 28563540
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF PALEOZOIC OVULE AND CUPULE MORPHOLOGIES ON WIND POLLINATION.

PMID- 28563539
TI  - LARVAL ADAPTATIONS AND PATTERNS OF BRACHIOPOD DIVERSITY IN SPACE AND TIME.

PMID- 28563542
TI  - THE HERITABILITY OF EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY IN DARWIN'S GROUND FINCHES (GEOSPIZA) ON
      ISLA DAPHNE MAJOR, GALAPAGOS.

PMID- 28563541
TI  - COSTS OF THERMOREGULATION IN ADULT PINNIPEDS.

PMID- 28563543
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS OF FORMICA ANTS.

PMID- 28563544
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE NEOTROPICAL SALAMANDER GENUS BOLITOGLOSSA.

PMID- 28563545
TI  - DNA/DNA HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES OF MUROID RODENTS: SYMMETRY AND RATES OF MOLECULAR
      EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563547
TI  - A PITFALL IN USING PAINTED INSECTS IN STUDIES OF PROTECTIVE COLORATION.

PMID- 28563546
TI  - POLLEN-PISTIL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE POLEMONIACEAE.

PMID- 28563548
TI  - A COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL AND ELECTROPHORETIC ASSESSMENTS OF GENETIC STRUCTURE
      IN POPULATIONS OF THE HOUSE SPARROW (PASSER DOMESTICUS).

PMID- 28563549
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION FOR HOST PREFERENCE WITHIN AND AMONG POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      TRIPUNCTATA.

PMID- 28563550
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEM, GENETIC VARIABILITY, AND RESPONSE TO SELECTION IN PLECTRITIS
      (VALERIANACEAE).

PMID- 28563551
TI  - HOMAGE TO SANTA ANITA: THERMAL SENSITIVITY OF SPRINT SPEED IN AGAMID LIZARDS.

PMID- 28563552
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF APOSEMATIC COLORATION IN DISTASTEFUL PREY: AN INDIVIDUAL
      SELECTION MODEL.

PMID- 28563553
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION IN SUBTERRANEAN MOLE RATS.

PMID- 28563554
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL SURVIVORSHIP OF EVOLVING CHROMOSOMAL SPECIES OF MOLE RATS, SPALAX:
      AN UNPLANNED LABORATORY EXPERIMENT.

PMID- 28563555
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28563556
TI  - A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIA I. DURATION OF TAXA.

PMID- 28563557
TI  - APHID GENOTYPES, PLANT PHENOTYPES, AND GENETIC DIVERSITY: A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
      OF EXPERIMENTAL DATA.

PMID- 28563559
TI  - REPLY TO BAWA.

PMID- 28563558
TI  - STATIC AND GROWTH ALLOMETRY OF MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS IN RANDOMBRED HOUSE MICE.

PMID- 28563560
TI  - DENSITY DEPENDENT SEXUAL SELECTION AND POSITIVE PHENOTYPIC ASSORTATIVE MATING IN
      NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE SOLDIER BEETLE, CHAULIOGNATHUS PENNSYLVANICUS.

PMID- 28563562
TI  - THE CHALLENGES TO DARWINISM SINCE THE LAST CENTENNIAL AND THE IMPACT OF MOLECULAR
      STUDIES.

PMID- 28563563
TI  - NICHE BREADTH AND ABUNDANCE AS DETERMINANTS OF GENETIC VARIATION IN POPULATIONS
      OF MYCOPHAGOUS DROSOPHILID FLIES (DIPTERA:DROSOPHILIDAE).

PMID- 28563564
TI  - PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION IN A CRETACEOUS FORAMINIFER.

PMID- 28563565
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEMS AND DISPERSAL-RELATED MATERNAL REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT OF SOUTHERN
      SPANISH BIRD-DISPERSED PLANTS.

PMID- 28563566
TI  - SEED DISPERSAL AND THE EVOLUTION OF DIOECISM IN FLOWERING PLANTS-A RESPONSE TO
      HERRERA.

PMID- 28563568
TI  - MEMO FROM THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE.

PMID- 28563567
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF GEOSPIZA DIFFICILIS IN RELATION TO G. FULIGINOSA IN THE
      GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: TESTS OF THREE HYPOTHESES.

PMID- 28563569
TI  - SPECIATION AND MACROEVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563570
TI  - SEX AND VARIABILITY IN THE COMMON BROWN BUTTERFLY HETERONYMPHA MEROPE MEROPE
      (LEPIDOPTERA: SATYRINAE).

PMID- 28563571
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL POPULATION GENETICS AND SPECIATION.

PMID- 28563572
TI  - ESTIMATES OF FITNESS IN ERODWM POPULATIONS WITH INTRA- AND INTERSPECIFIC
      COMPETITION.

PMID- 28563573
TI  - SIMILARITY OF AMINO ACIDS IN NECTAR AND LARVAL SALIVA: THE NUTRITIONAL BASIS FOR
      TROPHALLAXIS IN SOCIAL WASPS.

PMID- 28563574
TI  - PERSPECTIVES IN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY.

PMID- 28563575
TI  - THE IMPACT OF PREDATION ON LIFE HISTORY EVOLUTION IN TRINIDADIAN GUPPIES: GENETIC
      BASIS OF OBSERVED LIFE HISTORY PATTERNS.

PMID- 28563576
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR THE HYBRID ORIGIN OF THE DIPLOID PLANT STEPHANOMERIA
      DIEGENSIS.

PMID- 28563577
TI  - IS A NEGATIVE REGRESSION OF DeltaP ON P EVIDENCE OF A STABLE POLYMORPHISM?

PMID- 28563578
TI  - A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE ORIGINS OF MORPHOLOGICAL NOVELTIES IN
      THE SALAMANDERS OF THE TRIBE PLETHODONTINI (AMPHIBIA, PLETHODONTIDAE).

PMID- 28563579
TI  - BEHAVIORAL VARIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. II. THE INHERITANCE OF A FEEDING
      RESPONSE IN CROSSES BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC RACES OF THE GARTER SNAKE, THAMNOPHIS
      ELEGANS.

PMID- 28563580
TI  - QUANTITATIVE PREDICTIONS OF DELAYED MATURITY.

PMID- 28563581
TI  - POPULATION BIOLOGY OF CHAMAELIRIUM LUTEUM, A DIOECIOUS LILY. II. MECHANISMS
      GOVERNING SEX RATIOS.

PMID- 28563582
TI  - BEHAVIORAL VARIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. I. PHENOTYPIC, GENETIC AND
      ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATIONS BETWEEN CHEMORECEPTIVE RESPONSES TO PREY IN THE GARTER
      SNAKE, THAMNOPHIS ELEGANS.

PMID- 28563583
TI  - THE COST OF DOMINANCE AND ADVANTAGE OF SUBORDINATION IN A BADGE SIGNALING SYSTEM.

PMID- 28563584
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION IN THE HAWAIIAN SILVERSWORD ALLIANCE (COMPOSITAE-MADIINAE). I.
      CYTOGENETICS OF SPONTANEOUS HYBRIDS.

PMID- 28563585
TI  - FIXATION PROBABILITIES AND FIXATION TIMES IN A SUBDIVIDED POPULATION.

PMID- 28563586
TI  - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REPRODUCTIVE SECURITY AND INTERSEXUAL SELECTION IN A JUMPING
      SPIDER PHIDIPPUS JOHNSONI (ARANEAE: SALTICIDAE).

PMID- 28563587
TI  - PATTERNS OF EVOLUTION AMONG THE ARTIODACTYLA AND PERISSODACTYLA (MAMMALIA).

PMID- 28563588
TI  - BUTTERFLYWEED RE-REVISITED: SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF LEAF SHAPE VARIATION
      IN ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA.

PMID- 28563589
TI  - EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN ESCHERICHIA COLI.

PMID- 28563590
TI  - MUTATION MODIFICATION IN A RANDOM ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28563591
TI  - SEX RATIO VARIATIONS IN XYLOPHILOUS ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28563592
TI  - CONTROL OF LARVAL GROWTH VARIATION IN A POPULATION OF PSEUDACRIS TRISERIATA
      (ANURA: HYLIDAE).

PMID- 28563593
TI  - RIVERINE BARRIERS TO GENE FLOW AND THE DIFFERENTIATION OF FENCE LIZARD
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563594
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1981
      Meetings.

PMID- 28563595
TI  - COEVOLUTION OF HAPLO-DIPLOIDY AND SEX DETERMINATION IN THE HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28563596
TI  - ESTIMATION OF GENE FLOW AND GENETIC NEIGHBORHOOD SIZE BY INDIRECT METHODS IN A
      SELFING ANNUAL, TRITICUM DICOCCOIDES.
AB  - Rates of gene flow and neighborhood area were investigated in the selfing annual,
      Triticum dicoccoides. The collection of seed material was made using a spatial
      hierarchical sampling design in which four collection sites were 5-7 m apart,
      four were 15-17 m apart, and four were 100-120 m apart. Between 25 and 30 plants
      were scored from each site (mean sample size = 28.7). Two procedures for indirect
      estimation of gene flow were used on gene-frequency data from 13 polymorphic
      loci. The estimates of Nm using Wright's (1943a, 1943b) estimation procedure were
      1.265, 0.212, and 0.357, for the closest, intermediate, and most distant distance
      classes, respectively. The estimates of Nm using Slatkin's (1985) private-allele
      procedure were 4.675 (subsample ranges: 1.544-4.675), 0.110 (subsample ranges:
      0.069-0.153), and 0.670 (subsample ranges: 0.129-0.256). The results indicate a
      general agreement between the two procedures. Both indicate a sharp decrease in
      gene flow beyond the first distance class (5-7 m). The large gene-flow values and
      the large variation within the 5-7-m distance class are taken as evidence that a
      genetic neighborhood for this species may cover an area defined by a 5-m radius.
      The results also indicate that gene flow between populations separated by only 10
      or more meters may be quite limited.

PMID- 28563597
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL CORRELATES OF GENOME SIZE IN PLETHODONTID SALAMANDERS AND THEIR
      IMPLICATIONS FOR GENOME EVOLUTION.
AB  - We present an analysis of the evolutionary relationship between genome size (C
      value, mass of DNA per haploid nucleus) and developmental rate using observations
      of limb regeneration in salamanders of the family Plethodontidae. Rates of growth
      and differentiation of regenerating limbs are reported for 27 plethodontid
      species whose C-values range from 14 to 76 picograms. A phylogenetic analysis
      employing Felsenstein's method of independent contrasts indicates that rate of
      differentiation is inversely proportional to genome size, although we have not
      identified any statistically significant association between genome size and the
      growth rate of regenerating tissue. Our results are consistent with an
      interpretation that genome size may place a limit on the maximum rate of
      regeneration attainable in plethodontid salamanders. The implications of our
      findings for the "junk DNA," "nucleotypic DNA," "selfish DNA," and "skeletal DNA"
      hypotheses of genome evolution are discussed.

PMID- 28563598
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN GUPPIES (POECILIA RETICULATA): 1. PHENOTYPIC AND
      GENETIC CHANGES IN AN INTRODUCTION EXPERIMENT.
AB  - Previous investigations (Reznick and Endler, 1982; Reznick, 1982a, 1982b)
      demonstrated that genetic differences in guppy life histories were associated
      with differences in predation. Guppies from localities with the pike cichlid
      Crenicichla alta and associated predators matured earlier, had greater
      reproductive efforts, and produced more and smaller offspring than did guppies
      from localities with only Rivulus harti as a potential predator. Crenicichla
      preys primarily on large, sexually mature size-classes of guppies, while Rivulus
      preys primarily on small, immature size-classes. These patterns of predation are
      hypothesized to alter mean age-specific survival. Theoretical treatments of such
      differences in survival predict the observed trends in age at maturity and
      reproductive effort. We are using introduction experiments to evaluate the role
      of predators in selecting for these life-history patterns. The experiment whose
      results are presented here was conducted in a tributary to the El Cedro River
      (Trinidad), where a waterfall was the upstream limit to the distribution of all
      fish except Rivulus. Guppies collected from the Crenicichla locality immediately
      below the waterfall (the downstream control) were introduced over the waterfall
      in 1981. This introduction released the guppies from Crenicichla predation,
      exposed them instead to Rivulus predation only, and also introduced them to a
      different environment, since the introduction site has greater canopy cover than
      the site of origin. Changes in guppy life-history patterns can be attributed to
      predation and/or the environment. Evidence from fish collected and preserved in
      the field demonstrated that, by mid-1983, guppies from the introduction site
      above the waterfall matured at larger sizes and produced fewer, larger offspring.
      There were no consistent differences in reproductive allotment (weight of
      offspring/total weight). With the exception of reproductive allotment, these
      patterns are identical to previous comparisons between Rivulus and Crenicichla
      localities. A laboratory genetics experiment demonstrated that males from the
      introduction site matured at a later age and at a larger size than did males from
      the control site downstream, as predicted from the "age-specific predation"
      hypothesis. No differences between localities were observed for female age and
      size at maturity or for reproductive effort. The trends for fecundity and
      offspring size were the reverse of those observed in the field. Because only the
      males changed in the predicted fashion, it is not possible either to reject or to
      accept the hypothesis of age-specific predation at this time. We discuss the
      possible causes for these patterns and the high degree of plasticity in the life
      history, as evidenced by the differences in fecundity and offspring size between
      the field and laboratory results.

PMID- 28563599
TI  - PATTERN OF PHENOTYPIC VIABILITY AND FECUNDITY SELECTION IN A NATURAL POPULATION
      OF IMPATIENS PALLIDA.
AB  - Estimates of viability and fecundity selection of 13 phenotypic characters for
      1,536 individuals of Impatiens pallida growing in 24 locations within a single
      natural population were compared. Directional viability selection of cotyledon
      area, day of initial leaf production, number of leaves, and stem length was
      detected throughout this population. Directional fecundity selection of cotyledon
      area, day of initial flower production, number of leaves present on day of
      initial flower production, stem length on day of initial flower production,
      number of leaves, and stem length was also detected. Phenotypic selection of
      these characters was strong in some cases, and the strength of selection was
      significantly heterogeneous among locations. For several of the characters,
      directional phenotypic selection within the population was significantly positive
      in some locations and significantly negative in others separated by only a few
      meters. Fecundity selection was stronger than viability selection for some
      characters, implying that fecundity selection was at least as important as
      viability selection within this population. Soil moisture levels and light
      intensities played a larger role than soil nutrient levels in determining the
      patterns of both viability and fecundity selection, and differences in
      directional viability selection were more strongly related to environmental
      variation than were differences in fecundity selection. The pattern of phenotypic
      selection could not be reliably inferred from the patterns of mortality and
      reproduction alone.

PMID- 28563600
TI  - TESTING SYMMORPHOSIS: DOES STRUCTURE MATCH FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS?

PMID- 28563601
TI  - DIFFERENCES IN INBREEDING COEFFICIENTS DO NOT EXPLAIN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN
      HETEROZYGOSITY AT ALLOZYME LOCI AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN RAINBOW TROUT.

PMID- 28563602
TI  - MOLECULAR EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN CAVE CRICKETS. II. DNA-DNA
      HYBRIDIZATION.
AB  - Single-copy DNA divergence among 23 populations of cave crickets belonging to two
      genera (Euhadenoecus and Hadenoecus) has been determined by DNA-DNA hybridization
      employing the TEACL method. These same populations have been studied for allozyme
      variation (Caccone and Sbordoni, 1987). In addition, a European relative
      (Dolichopoda laetitiae) has been included as an outgroup for rooting the
      phylogeny. One of the most remarkable findings is the large degree of DNA
      divergence among these species and populations. A DeltaTm of up to 5 degrees C
      has been found between populations of the same species; even further divergence
      is indicated by a lowered normalized percentage of reassociation. A phylogeny was
      constructed and tested for synchrony of rates, i.e., a molecular clock.
      Statistically, we could not reject the clock hypothesis. Attempts to calibrate
      the clock led to the conclusion that these insects are among the fastest evolving
      (with respect to single-copy DNA) groups yet studied-at least as fast as
      Drosophila and sea urchins-where a DeltaTm of 1 degrees C indicates 0.5 to 1.5 MY
      since the last common ancestor. In general, the phylogeny derived from the DNA
      data agrees with that derived from isozymes. Nei's D and DeltaTm are correlated;
      in this group a D of 0.1 corresponds to a DeltaTm of about 1.5 degrees C. This
      indicates that, relative to total single-copy DNA, the protein-coding regions of
      the genome are slowly evolving.

PMID- 28563603
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND HETEROCHRONY IN CICHLASOMA MANAGUENSE (PISCES,
      CICHLIDAE) AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR SPECIATION IN CICHLID FISHES.
AB  - Cichlid fishes in African rift lakes have undergone rapid speciation, resulting
      in "species flocks" with more than 300 endemic species in some of the lakes. Most
      researchers assume that there is little phenotypic variation in cichlid fishes. I
      report here extensive phenotypic plasticity in a Neotropical cichlid species. I
      examined the influence of diet on trophic morphology during ontogeny in
      Cichlasoma managuense. Two groups of full siblings were fed two different diets
      for eight months after the onset of feeding; thereafter both groups were fed a
      common diet. Phenotypes that differed significantly at 8.5 months converged
      almost completely at 16.5 months. If feeding on two different diets is continued
      after 8.5 months, the phenotypes remain distinct. Differences in diet and
      possibly in feeding mode are believed to have caused these phenotypic changes.
      Phenotypic plasticity is described in terms of a qualitative model of
      heterochrony in which phenotypic change in morphology is explained as retardation
      of the normal developmental rate. If phenotypic expression of morphology is
      equally plastic in African cichlid species as it may be in the American cichlids,
      as exemplified by C. managuense, then taxonomic, ecological, and evolutionary
      analyses of "species flocks" may be in need of revision. However, Old World
      cichlids may be less phenotypically plastic than New World cichlids, and this may
      contribute to the observed differences in speciation rate and degree of endemism.

PMID- 28563604
TI  - GENETIC LOAD AND THE MATING SYSTEM IN HOMOSPOROUS FERNS.
AB  - The mutational genetic load was calculated assuming mutation-selection-inbreeding
      equilibrium and applied to homosporous ferns. Diploid species with past
      inbreeding should have a low genetic load while outcrossers should have a high
      genetic load. These predictions are consistent with the bimodal pattern of
      genetic load found in 18 diploid homosporous fern species. The prediction that
      tetraploids should have a low genetic load is also consistent with estimates of
      genetic load in several species.

PMID- 28563605
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL SELECTION ON BODY SIZE IN RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.

PMID- 28563606
TI  - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIVERSIFICATION EVENTS: THE EARLY PALEOZOIC VERSUS THE
      MESOZOIC.
AB  - We compare two major long-term diversifications of marine animal families that
      began during periods of low diversity but produced strikingly different numbers
      of phyla, classes, and orders. The first is the early-Paleozoic diversification
      (late Vendian-Ordovician; 182 MY duration) and the other the Mesozoic phase of
      the post-Paleozoic diversification (183 MY duration). The earlier diversification
      was associated with a great burst of morphological invention producing many
      phyla, classes, and orders and displaying high per taxon rates of family
      origination. The later diversification lacked novel morphologies recognized as
      phyla and classes, produced fewer orders, and displayed lower per taxon rates of
      family appearances. The chief difference between the diversifications appears to
      be that the earlier one proceeded from relatively narrow portions of adaptive
      space, whereas the latter proceeded from species widely scattered among adaptive
      zones and representing a variety of body plans. This difference is believed to
      explain the major differences in the products of these great radiations. Our data
      support those models that hold that evolutionary opportunity is a major factor in
      the outcome of evolutionary processes.

PMID- 28563607
TI  - MOLECULAR EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN CAVE CRICKETS. I. ALLOZYME
      VARIATION.
AB  - Forty-nine populations of nine species of North American cave crickets (genera
      Euhadenoecus and Hadenoecus) have been studied for genetic variation at 41 loci
      by electrophoresis. Wright's FST , Slatkin's Nm* gene-flow estimator, and Nei's
      genetic distances (D) have been used to compare closely related species that have
      different ecological requirements (cave vs. forest species), distribution
      patterns, and/or different degrees of geographic isolation among populations.
      Cave and epigean (noncave) species differ greatly in their levels of genetic
      differentiation. Cave species have lower rates of gene exchange (low Nm, high D,
      and FST ) than epigean species. Within cave species the degree of genetic
      differentiation among populations is correlated with the limestone structure of
      the area where the species occur. Species or groups of populations inhabiting
      areas where the limestone is continuous and highly fissured (e.g., H.
      subterraneus populations in the Mammoth Cave region) are genetically less
      differentiated than are populations occurring in regions where the limestone
      distribution is more fragmented, such as the Appalachian Ridge where E. fragilis
      occurs; this effect is more extreme in Central Tennessee where genetically
      differentiated E. insolitus populations occur only a few kilometers apart. This
      suggests that epigean dispersal through forest habitat in cave-dwelling species
      is negligable. For forest species, the data indicate relatively recent radiation
      with ongoing gene exchange among populations. For cave species, the distribution
      of protein polymorphisms is apparently more a function of historical patterns of
      gene exchange rather than current gene exchange. Phylogenetic relationships were
      studied using cluster analyses (UPGMA and Wagner algorithms) of Nei's and
      Edwards' genetic distances and multivariate analysis (correspondence analysis) of
      the raw allele frequencies. Different algorithms result in branching patterns
      that are similar but not entirely concordant with one another or with the
      phylogeny based on morphology.

PMID- 28563608
TI  - HABITAT DURATION, LENGTH OF LARVAL PERIOD, AND THE EVOLUTION OF A COMPLEX LIFE
      CYCLE OF A SALAMANDER, AMBYSTOMA TEXANUM.
AB  - In many organisms, genotypic selection may be a less effective means of adapting
      to unpredictable environments than is selection for phenotypic plasticity. To
      determine whether genotypic selection is important in the evolution of complex
      life cycles of amphibians that breed in seasonally ephemeral habitats, we
      examined whether mortality risk from habitat drying in natural populations of
      small-mouthed salamanders (Ambystoma texanum) corresponded to length of larval
      period when larvae from the same populations were grown in a common laboratory
      environment. Comparisons were made at two levels of organization within the
      species: 1) among geographic races that are under strongly divergent selection
      regimes associated with the use of pond and stream habitats and 2) among
      populations within races that use the same types of breeding habitats.
      Morphological evidence indicates that stream-breeding A. texanum evolved from
      pond-breeding populations that recently colonized streams. Larvae in streams
      incur heavy mortality from stream drying, so the upper bound on length of larval
      period is currently set by the seasonal duration of breeding sites. We
      hypothesized that selection would reduce length of larval period of pond-breeders
      that colonize streams if their larval periods are inherently longer than those of
      stream-breeders. The results of laboratory experiments support this hypothesis.
      When grown individually in a common environment, larvae from stream populations
      had significantly shorter larval periods than larvae from pond populations.
      Within races, however, length of larval period did not correlate significantly
      with seasonal duration of breeding sites. When males of both races were crossed
      to a single pond female, offspring of stream males had significantly shorter
      larval periods than offspring of pond males. Collectively, these data suggest
      that differences in complex life cycles among pond and stream-breeders are due to
      genotypic selection related to mortality from habitat drying. Stream larvae in
      the common-environment experiment were significantly smaller at metamorphosis
      than pond larvae. Yet, the evolution of metamorphic size cannot be explained
      readily by direct selection: there are no intuitively obvious advantages of being
      relatively small at metamorphosis in streams. A positive phenotypic correlation
      was observed between size at metamorphosis and length of larval period in most
      laboratory populations. A positive additive genetic correlation between these
      traits was demonstrated recently in another amphibian. Thus, we suspect that
      metamorphic size of stream-breeders evolved indirectly as a consequence of
      selection to shorten length of larval period.

PMID- 28563609
TI  - DEMOGRAPHY AND SEX RATIO IN SOCIAL SPIDERS.
AB  - Spiders that live in large cooperative societies are scattered among several
      taxonomic groups. All quasisocial species appear to have female-biased sex
      ratios, while congeneric species with less advanced forms of sociality have 1:1
      sex ratios. I present two sex-ratio models that examine the interaction between
      the genetic structure of populations and two aspects of colony demography-the
      changes as the colony grows larger in fecundity per female and in colony
      survivorship. In the first model, I assume that all members of the population
      produce the same sex ratio under all conditions (monomorphic strategy), while in
      the second model I assume that the sex ratio can be adjusted according to stage
      in the colony growth cycle (conditional strategy). The results of these models
      are consistent with the typically observed effects of within-sex competition
      among relatives; the sex ratio is biased toward the sex with less intense
      competition. In addition to these effects, a number of interesting interactions
      are revealed among relatedness, demography, and constraints of the sex
      determining mechanism (monomorphic vs. conditional strategies). For example, when
      survivorship or fecundity increases as the colony grows larger, the predicted sex
      ratio becomes more female-biased. These demographic factors of changing viability
      and fecundity with changing colony size interact synergistically with
      relatedness, and the effect of this interaction on the sex ratio depends on the
      constraints of the sex-determining mechanism. There are two related roles for the
      models presented here. First, these models provide some general predictions about
      how complex variables of demography and population structure interact in shaping
      the evolution of social spider sex ratios. Second, the development of the models
      illustrates a theoretical method that provides a simple description of complex
      interactions between demography and population structure, as well as an example
      of the synergistic interaction between relatedness and cooperation in the context
      of a particular life history.

PMID- 28563610
TI  - OPPORTUNITY FOR SELECTION: AN APPROPRIATE MEASURE FOR EVALUATING VARIATION IN THE
      POTENTIAL FOR SELECTION?

PMID- 28563611
TI  - LIKELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF MITOCHONDRIAL RESTRICTION-CLEAVAGE PATTERNS FOR THE HUMAN
      CHIMPANZEE-GORILLA TRICHOTOMY.
AB  - In spite of considerable work by many evolutionary biologists, it has not been
      possible to separate convincingly the human (H) - chimpanzee (C) - gorilla (G)
      trichotomy into a pair of sequential dichotomies. There are three possible
      phylogenetic groupings [(HC)G, (HG)C, and (CG)H], and each has its proponents.
      The evidence remains ambiguous, and instead of choosing among the available
      phylogenies, it might be better to provide a statement of their relative
      probabilities. We develop a likelihood analysis of mtDNA restriction-pattern data
      that can be used to make such probability statements and illustrate it with data
      on humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons. The results of our
      analyses suggest that the best fitting model is that of the (CG)H grouping, but
      with a very short time span between the first and second splits. For either the
      (HC)G or (HG)C hypothesis, a true trichotomy is the best model (no elapsed time
      between the two splits). Chi-square tests indicate no compelling resolution among
      the three models, however, and all three retain nontrivial posterior
      probabilities. We also compare each model with an alternative allowing for rate
      heterogeneity among lineages, but there is no convincing evidence for such
      heterogeneity. Our results suggest that, while it may eventually be possible to
      resolve the trichotomy into a pair of unambiguously ordered (but very close)
      dichotomies, it is possible that the ancestors of all three taxa (H, C, and G)
      were still conspecific subsequent to the second split, perhaps no more different
      than the "major races" of extant Homo sapiens.

PMID- 28563612
TI  - INTER- AND INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION OF MOSSES IN TOLERANCE TO COPPER AND ZINC.
AB  - Bryophytes are often viewed as slowly evolving with little genetic variation
      within and among populations. A study of heavy-metal tolerance was initiated to
      test the capacity of bryophytes to undergo genetic differentiation in response to
      natural selection. Tolerance of Funaria hygrometrica to copper and zinc was
      greater in populations that originated on soil with high concentrations of these
      metals. Protonemal growth was more inhibited by the metals than was germination,
      and copper was more toxic than zinc. Zinc and copper tolerances were correlated,
      but so were the zinc and copper concentrations of native substrates. The pattern
      of population differentiation for heavy-metal tolerance in this species is much
      like that of flowering plants. Five populations of Physcomitrium pyriforme, which
      does not occur on metal-contaminated soil, were all highly tolerant of zinc but
      extremely intolerant of copper. This species seems to have an inherent tolerance
      to the former. Significant variation in tolerance to copper and zinc occurred
      among populations, but tolerance did not correlate with metal contents in native
      substrates. This pattern differs from that of flowering plants. Normal
      populations of species that colonize contaminated sites tended to be more
      tolerant than populations of species that do not colonize such sites. The
      extensive population differentiation in Funaria hygrometrica augments the
      evidence from electrophoretic data that there is genetic variation among
      populations of mosses and liverworts.

PMID- 28563613
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF BONE.
AB  - Vertebrates are practically unique among the Metazoa in their possession of a
      skeleton made from calcium phosphate rather than calcium carbonate.
      Interpretation of the origin of a phosphatic skeleton in early vertebrates has
      previously centered primarily on systemic requirements for phosphate and/or
      calcium storage or excretion. These interpretations afford no anatomical or
      physiological advantage(s) that would not have been equally valuable to many
      invertebrates. We suggest the calcium phosphate skeleton is distinctly
      advantageous to vertebrates because of their relatively unusual and ancient
      pattern of activity metabolism: intense bursts of activity supported primarily by
      rapid intramuscular formation of lactic acid. Bursts of intense activity by
      vertebrates are followed by often protracted periods of marked systemic acidosis.
      This postactive acidosis apparently generates slight skeletal dissolution,
      associated with simultaneous vascular hypercalcemia. A variety of apparently
      unrelated histological features of the skeleton in a number of vertebrates may
      minimize this postactive hypercalcemia. We present new data that suggest that
      postactive skeletal dissolution would be significantly exacerbated if bone were
      composed of calcium carbonate rather than calcium phosphate. The former is far
      less stable both in vivo and in vitro than is calcium hydroxyapatite, under both
      resting and postactive physiological conditions.

PMID- 28563615
TI  - PARTHENOGENESIS IN THE TROPICAL GEKKONID LIZARD, NACTUS ARNOUXII (SAURIA:
      GEKKONIDAE).
AB  - As currently diagnosed, Nactus arnouxii includes unisexual and bisexual
      populations. The geographic distribution of each type was estimated by sex-ratio
      analysis of samples from southwestern Pacific islands. Males were absent from
      southern Vanuatu (excluding Aneityum), New Caledonia, and all islands to the east
      that have been sampled. Both types of populations appear to be present on
      Aneityum. Chromosome and protein analyses showed that the bisexual populations
      are highly polytypic and probably consist of more than one biological species.
      The unisexual N. arnouxii were diploid, highly heterozygous, and showed no
      genetic segregation. The absence of segregation suggests clonal reproduction,
      substantiating parthenogenesis. The high heterozygosity of the unisexuals
      indicates their origin through hybridization. One parent was genetically similar
      to the extant bisexual population from northern Vanuatu. The other parent has not
      been identified, but its genetic characteristics are predicted by phylogenetic
      analysis.

PMID- 28563614
TI  - CLONAL DIVERSITY IN HIGH-ARCTIC POPULATIONS OF DAPHNIA PULEX, A POLYPLOID
      APOMICTIC COMPLEX.
AB  - Based largely on analogy with latitudinal trends in species diversity, it has
      been proposed that levels of genotypic (clonal) diversity in parthenogenetic
      populations from high latitudes should be lower than those in populations from
      the temperate zone or the tropics. Prior studies have shown that low-arctic
      populations of obligately asexual Daphnia pulex are less clonally diverse than
      temperate-zone populations. To test for the existence of a latitudinal trend, an
      allozymic survey of obligately parthenogenetic populations of D. pulex was
      conducted at a site in the Canadian high-arctic. The study revealed the presence
      of 75 clones in 179 tundra ponds that were surveyed. On average, 4.5 clones
      coexisted in single ponds with a range of 1-14 clones. These diversity values are
      as great (or greater) than those observed in more southerly populations and
      conflict with the notion of reduced levels of genetic variation in arctic
      populations. Mechanisms that may influence genetic (clonal) diversity in
      apomictic complexes are discussed.

PMID- 28563616
TI  - SEASONAL VARIATION IN SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE MOTTLED SCULPIN.
AB  - Seasonal variation in sexual and natural selection in male mottled sculpins
      (Cottus bairdi) can be evaluated by calculating selection differentials, which
      measure the magnitude of phenotypic change resulting from selection, and by
      calculating indices of the opportunity for selection, which indicate the
      potential for phenotypic selection in a given interval. Selection differentials
      are high at the beginning of the breeding season and decline throughout the
      breeding season. The magnitude and direction of selection differentials depend on
      when spawning occurs and are independent of the size or age of the females that
      spawn. Annual selection differentials due to differences in mating success
      (female choice) are nearly constant between years. Annual selection differentials
      associated with hatching success are variable. Opportunities for selection (I =
      fitness variance/[mean fitness]2 ) show clear seasonal patterns. They are highest
      at the beginning and at the end of the spawning season. However, this variation
      is dependent on the mean used to calculate I, and hence variation in I values
      does not indicate a significant change in the variance of male fitness.

PMID- 28563617
TI  - REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF NATURAL SELECTION: STATISTICAL INFERENCE AND BIOLOGICAL
      INTERPRETATION.
AB  - Recent theoretical work in quantitative genetics has fueled interest in measuring
      natural selection in the wild. We discuss statistical and biological issues that
      may arise in applications of Lande and Arnold's (1983) multiple-regression
      approach to measuring selection. We review assumptions involved in estimation and
      hypothesis testing in regression problems, and we note difficulties that
      frequently arise as a result of violation of these assumptions. In particular,
      multicollinearity (extreme intercorrelation of characters) and extrinsic,
      unmeasured factors affecting fitness may seriously complicate inference regarding
      selection. Further, violation of the assumption that residuals are normally
      distributed vitiates tests of significance. For this situation, we suggest
      applications of recently developed jackknife tests of significance. While fitness
      regression permits direct assessment of selection in a form suitable for
      predicting selection response, we suggest that the aim of inferring causal
      relationships about the effects of phenotypic characters on fitness is greatly
      facilitated by manipulative experiments. Finally, we discuss alternative
      definitions of stabilizing and disruptive selection.

PMID- 28563618
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT VARIATION FOR OUTCROSSING RATE AMONG FLOWER-COLOR MORPHS OF
      IPOMOEA PURPUREA.
AB  - In a series of previous studies, it has been shown that populations of the common
      morning glory Ipomoea purpurea are typically polymorphic for flower-color genes
      that bias pollinator service and, hence, the rate of outcrossing. In this study,
      we show that the rate of outcrossing for the white flower-color morph depends on
      its frequency in experimental populations of the morning glory. White flowers are
      visited less often by the primary pollinator, bumblebees, and have lower
      outcrossing rates than colored flowers when they are in the minority. In
      contrast, blue or pink flower morphs are not undervisited and do not have lowered
      outcrossing rates when they are rare. In plant populations where genes that
      increase selling are selectively favored due to their transmission bias,
      undervisitation of rare morphs may act to stabilize genetic variation for
      outcrossing rates.

PMID- 28563619
TI  - SELECTION FOR SEXUAL ISOLATION BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC FORMS OF DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS.
      II. EFFECTS OF SELECTION OF MATING PREFERENCE AND PROPENSITY.

PMID- 28563620
TI  - DISTRIBUTION, COEXISTENCE, AND COMPETITION OF WHIRLIGIG BEETLES.

PMID- 28563621
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY EUPHYDRY AS EDITH A. III. SELECTION AND
      THE PHENETICS OF THE JASPER RIDGE COLONY.

PMID- 28563622
TI  - MASTEROMETRY AND EVOLUTION, AGAIN.

PMID- 28563623
TI  - STUDIES ON THE GENOME CONSTITUTION OF TRITICUM TIMOPHEEVI ZHUK. II. THE T.
      TIMOPHEEVI COMPLEX AND ITS ORIGIN.

PMID- 28563624
TI  - NOTICE OF RESIGNATION OF THE EDITOR.

PMID- 28563625
TI  - CORRELATION AND THE STRUCTURE OF INTROGRESSIVE POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563626
TI  - A CASE OF GENE HOMOLOGY IN CLARKIA.

PMID- 28563627
TI  - THE PERIODICAL CICADA PROBLEM. I. POPULATION ECOLOGY.

PMID- 28563628
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF THE GENUS MONARDA (LABIATAE).

PMID- 28563629
TI  - THE TEMPORAL COMPONENT OF DIVERSITY AMONG SPECIES OF BIRDS.

PMID- 28563630
TI  - A GENERAL THEORY OF CLUTCH SIZE.

PMID- 28563631
TI  - LIFE HISTORY STUDIES OF THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS).
      IV. THE SELECTIVE VALUE OF PLUMAGE POLYMORPHISM: NET VIABILITY, THE TIMING OF
      MATURATION, AND BREEDING PROPENSITY.
AB  - Cooch (1961, 1963) suggested that changes in the genotypic composition of snow
      goose colonies comprising the Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin population could be
      attributed to selection favoring the blue phenotype. In the preceding paper
      (Cooke et al., 1985), we examined potential differences in net fecundity between
      the two phenotypes at La Perouse Bay in northern Manitoba. No substantial
      differences in any component of fecundity were detected. In the present paper, we
      examined potential differences in pre-reproductive and adult viability, age of
      maturation, and breeding propensity. Again, no differences associated with the
      plumage polymorphism were detected in any of these life history characteristics.
      Thus, despite a thorough analysis of the complete life cycle, we were unable to
      uncover any evidence supporting a selection hypothesis for the persistence and
      dynamics of this conspicuous polymorphism. An alternate hypothesis based
      primarily on gene flow and assortative mating appears more plausible.

PMID- 28563633
TI  - DEMOGRAPHIC GENETICS OF THE GRASS DANTHONIA SPICATA: SUCCESS OF PROGENY FROM
      CHASMOGAMOUS AND CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS.

PMID- 28563632
TI  - GENOMIC COADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY WITHIN INTROGRESSED POPULATIONS
      OF ENNEACANTHUS GLORIOSUS AND E. OBESUS (PISCES, CENTRARCHIDAE).
AB  - Using fluctuating bilateral asymmetry as a measure of developmental stability, we
      tested the hypothesis that genomic coadaptation mediates developmental stability
      in natural populations. Hybrid populations were more asymmetrical than
      populations of the parental species, and ranks of overall developmental
      instability were positively correlated with ranks of mean heterozygosity in these
      populations. The failure to find increased asymmetry in previous studies of
      natural hybrid populations (Jackson, 1973a, 1973b; Felley, 1980) suggests that
      such populations may have re-evolved coadapted genomes. Increased asymmetry in
      hybrid Enneacanthus populations may reflect the youthfulness of these
      populations.

PMID- 28563635
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR SELECTION AGAINST HYBRIDS IN THE FAMILY CYPRINIDAE (GENUS NOTROPIS).
AB  - Notropis cornutus and N. chrysocephalus are two cyprinid fishes which hybridize
      extensively in the midwest. In this paper, statistical analysis was used to
      determine if the deficiency of Notropis cornutus * N. chrysocephalus hybrids can
      be attributed partly to selection against hybrids. Principal component analysis
      was used to construct a folded hybrid index (FHI) using morphological and
      electrophoretic characters which distinguish N. cornutus, N. chrysocephalus, and
      their hybrids. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test comparing mean FHI between successive
      age classes within cohorts and regression analysis of FHI on age supported the
      conclusion that hybrids are less fit than parentals in nature; however, this
      analysis did not include a test of selection at zygotic and larval life history
      stages or partial infertility of hybrids. Selection eliminated hybrids at a rate
      of 9.2% per year. Considering the intensity of selection and the age of
      hybridization, it is surprising that premating reproductive isolating mechanisms
      have not been perfected by selection against gametic wastage as predicted by
      classical speciation theory. It appears that the reinforcement of premating
      isolating mechanisms is an extremely slow process, if it occurs at all, despite
      apparently intense selection against hybrids.

PMID- 28563634
TI  - A DEVELOPMENTAL ANALYSIS OF AN EVOLUTIONARY TREND: DIGITAL REDUCTION IN
      AMPHIBIANS.
AB  - In this study, we integrate information from phylogeny, comparative ontogeny, and
      experimental embryology in an attempt to elucidate the mechanisms controlling
      evolutionary trends towards digital reduction and loss observed in amphibians.
      Frogs and salamanders that have lost phalanges and even whole toes have done so
      in a very ordered manner, i.e., certain skeletal elements are lost prior to
      others. This pattern of morphological diversity is described and trends
      elucidated. It is concluded that the process is characterized by striking
      intraordinal convergences coupled with substantial differences between the trends
      observed in frogs as compared to urodeles. We argue that this pattern is
      essentially a reflection of the differences in the ontogenies of the two orders.
      Similarly, the convergences within urodeles and within anurans can be explained
      as the result of regulation of developmental parameters in a resilient
      developmental program. We further explore this hypothesis by experimentally
      perturbing the number of cells in the embryonic limb primordium to show that
      reduction in the number of mesenchymal cells secondarily affects the
      developmental process of pattern formation causing a rearrangement of the
      skeletal morphology of the foot. The same experimental manipulation has different
      effects in frogs as compared to salamanders. However, in both cases, the
      experimentally generated morphologies tend to parallel the phenotypes and trends
      observed in nature. Our conclusion is that most of the patterns of diversity in
      the digital morphology of amphibians can be explained as a reflection of
      developmental properties. In general, we present a methodology that attempts to
      empirically address the issue of identifying developmental constraint in
      morphological evolution.

PMID- 28563637
TI  - RECORDING MARVELS: THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE GAYLORD SIMPSON.

PMID- 28563636
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION IN TRIBOLIUM FLOUR BEETLES: EVIDENCE FROM LINKAGE OF THE
      HEXOKINASE-1 AND MALIC ENZYME LOCI IN T. CASTANEUM AND T. CONFUSUM.

PMID- 28563638
TI  - BIRD PREDATION AS A SELECTIVE AGENT IN A BUTTERFLY POPULATION.
AB  - In a population of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas chalcedona, the detached
      wings of 309 individuals that had been attacked and eaten by birds were collected
      during a single flight season. During this time period a representative sample of
      296 live butterflies in this population was photographed. Comparison of sex ratio
      and coloration of those butterflies that had been attacked with those that had
      not showed, first, that birds attacked slightly more females than males; and
      second, that among males, which are extremely variable in the amount of red on
      the forewing, birds attacked the less red individuals.

PMID- 28563639
TI  - DIFFICULTIES WITH THE INTERPRETATION OF PATTERNS OF GENETIC VARIATION IN THE
      EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28563640
TI  - POLYMORPHIC POSTTRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATION OF ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE IN ESCHERICHIA
      COLI.
AB  - Natural isolates of Escherichia coli have been examined by polyacrylamide gel
      electrophoresis for variant isozyme patterns of alkaline phosphatase. The
      polypeptide chains of this enzyme normally exist in two forms-an unmodified
      polypeptide product of the phoA gene and a posttranslationally modified version
      of the same polypeptide that has had its N-terminal arginine removed through the
      action of the iap gene product. These two forms of the polypeptide aggregate as
      dimers and thus normally form three electrophoretically distinguishable alkaline
      phosphatase isozymes. Among 104 strains screened, three had variant isozyme
      patterns. Two of these were deficient in the posttranslationally modified
      polypeptide, and cotransduction with cysI indicates that they carry mutant iap
      genes. The third variant is deficient in the unmodified form of the polypeptide.
      These results provide an unambiguous case of polymorphic posttranslational
      modification in E. coli.

PMID- 28563641
TI  - STABILITY OF THE NORTHERN FLICKER HYBRID ZONE IN HISTORICAL TIMES: IMPLICATIONS
      FOR ADAPTIVE SPECIATION THEORY.
AB  - The hybrid zone between the Red- and Yellow-shafted Flickers has been stable on
      the United States Great Plains in historical times. This conclusion is based on
      multivariate comparisons of historical and contemporary collections from 18
      locales. Adaptive speciation theory predicts that the hybrid zone should either
      become broader or narrower as a result of introgressive hybridization or
      reinforcement of premating isolating mechanisms. Neither of these predictions was
      borne out. Despite 10,000-13,000 years of hybridization, mating between
      subspecies remains indiscriminate. The data are also inconsistent with a
      dynamicequilibrium hypothesis wherein narrow hybrid zones are maintained by
      hybrid unfitness. According to this hypothesis, the hybrid zone would probably
      "flow" unless it was trapped by a population density trough. The hybrid zone does
      not appear to be associated with such a feature. The data are consistent with a
      bounded hybrid superiority theory of a hybrid zone, but this is more a question
      of survival in a process of elimination than a resounding corroboration.

PMID- 28563642
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN CYCLIC PARTHENOGENS.

PMID- 28563643
TI  - RARE ALLELES AS INDICATORS OF GENE FLOW.
AB  - A. method for estimating the average level of gene flow in a subdivided
      population, as measured by the average number of migrants exchanged between local
      populations, Nm, is presented. The results from a computer simulation model show
      that the logarithm of Nm is approximately linearly related to the logarithm of
      the average frequency of private alleles, p(1), in a sample of alleles from the
      population. It is shown that this result is relatively insensitive to changes in
      parameters of the model other than Nm and the number of individuals sampled per
      population. The dependence of the value of p(1) on the numbers of individuals
      sampled provides a rough way to correct for differences in sample size. This
      method was applied to data from 16 species, showing that estimated values of Nm
      range from much greater than 1 to less than 0.1. These results confirm the
      qualitative analysis of Slatkin (1981). This method was also applied to
      subsamples from a population to show how to measure the extent of isolation of
      local populations.

PMID- 28563644
TI  - A RE-EXAMINATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN DIALICTUS ZEPHYRUS (HYMENOPTERA:
      HALICTIDAE).

PMID- 28563645
TI  - PATTERNS OF VARIATION IN AQUATIC AMBYSTOMATID SALAMANDERS: KINEMATICS OF THE
      FEEDING MECHANISM.
AB  - Patterns of variation in the feeding mechanism of three species of ambystomatid
      salamanders (Ambystoma dumerilii, A. mexicanum, and A. ordinarium) were studied
      to provide insight into the nature of variation in kinematic parameters of the
      jaw mechanism associated with prey capture. A nested analysis of variance design
      provided an assessment of the amount of variation in six kinematic variables
      (measured from 200 frames/sec films of feeding behavior) both among species and
      among individuals within species. For all six variables, a highly significant
      proportion of the variance was explained at the intraspecific level. Among
      species, the most robust discriminators were variables associated with movement
      of the hyoid. The variables reflecting gape and lifting of the head provided no
      significant discrimination among species and had large error variances. The hyoid
      apparatus is the most phylogenetically conservative component of the feeding
      mechanism in lower vertebrates and was the most stereotyped component of feeding
      behavior within the salamander species studied here.

PMID- 28563646
TI  - EUSOCIALITY AND GENETIC VARIABILITY: A RE-EVALUATION.

PMID- 28563647
TI  - EXTENSIVE CHROMOSOMAL DIVERGENCE WITHIN A SINGLE RIVER BASIN IN THE GOODEID FISH,
      ILYODON FURCIDENS.
AB  - Extensive variation in the number of metacentric chromosomes exists among
      populations of the viviparous goodeid fish, Ilyodon furcidens, in the Rio
      Coahuayana basin of south central Mexico (states of Colima and Jalisco). The
      variation can be divided, somewhat arbitrarily, into four "cytotypes" with 0-2, 0
      4, 6 and 10-16 metacentrics. Of these, the first, shared with the closely
      adjacent Rio Armeria and similar to other species of Ilyodon, is probably
      ancestral. The wholly non-Robertsonian nature of the variation and its extent
      appear to be unprecedented among teleosts, but its uniqueness is difficult to
      evaulate because fish chromosome data in general may be biased toward both
      monomorphism and Robertsonian variation. Variation is evident with all cytotypes
      but has been well characterized for only a single population of the 0-4M
      cytotype. That population, unlike most of the others, consists of two
      interbreeding morphs which differ in mouth width. The variation is
      heterogeneously distributed between the morphs; the significance of this
      observation is not yet clear. The distribution of the cytotypes is approximately
      clinal with respect to the number of metacentric chromosomes. Although the cline
      may be a direct response to some gradient in selection intensity, the possibility
      that it is the result of secondary contact of previously isolated populations,
      fostered by tributary transfer, is real. Allozyme comparisons reveal minimal
      genic divergence among the cytotypes. There are no fixed allelic differences, and
      the average unbiased genetic distance between the two extreme cytotypes is 0.042.
      Gene diversity analysis indicates that an average of less than 3% of the total
      variation (HT = 0.072) is partitioned among cytotypes; about 24% is partitioned
      among populations within cytotypes. Genic and chromosomal divergence in Ilyodon
      are clearly uncoupled. Laboratory F1 , backcross, and F2 intercytotype hybrids
      are fully viable, and are indistinguishable in fertility from our stocks derived
      from single populations. F3 intercytotype hybrids are also fully viable but have
      not yet been tested for fertility. This suggests that, during the course of
      chromosomal evolution, single rearrangement heterozygotes were not appreciably
      negatively heterotic, even though the rearrangements are probably pericentric
      inversions. The combined data suggest that the chromosome rearrangements, even in
      multiple form, do not function as significant isolating mechanisms. Chromosomal
      evolution in Ilyodon, though quite marked, has apparently not fostered
      speciation.

PMID- 28563648
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF HANDLING TIME.

PMID- 28563649
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-FERTILIZATION AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PLANTS. II.
      EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS.
AB  - A bimodal distribution of outcrossing rates was observed for natural plant
      populations, with more primarily selfing and primarily outcrossing species, and
      fewer species with intermediate outcrossing rate than expected by chance. We
      suggest that this distribution results from selection for the maintenance of
      outcrossing in historically large, outcrossing populations with substantial
      inbreeding depression, and from selection for selfing when increased inbreeding,
      due to pollinator failure or population bottlenecks, reduces the level of
      inbreeding depression. Few species or populations are fixed at complete selfing
      or complete outcrossing. A low level of selfing in primarily outcrossing species
      is unlikely to be selectively advantageous, but will not reduce inbreeding
      depression to the level where selfing is selectively favored, particularly if
      accompanied by reproductive compensation. Similarly, occasional outcrossing in
      primarily selfing species is unlikely to regularly provide sufficient heterosis
      to maintain selection for outcrossing through individual selection. Genetic,
      morphological and ecological constraints may limit the potential for outcrossing
      rates in selfers to be reduced below some minimum level.

PMID- 28563650
TI  - LIFE HISTORY STUDIES OF THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS).
      III. THE SELECTIVE VALUE OF PLUMAGE POLYMORPHISM: NET FECUNDITY.
AB  - Between 1969 and 1977 the frequency of the blue phenotype of the dimorphic Lesser
      Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) showed a steady increase at the La
      Perouse Bay colony near Churchill, Manitoba. Cooch (1961, 1963) suggested the
      global increase resulted from selection pressures favoring blue individuals. The
      selection hypothesis was evaluated by examining phenotypic differences in net
      fecundity. We partitioned the reproductive cycle into a series of stages, each
      defined by a particular index of fecundity. Despite large samples we were unable
      to detect any significant differences between the two maternal phenotypes in
      those indices that could conceivably influence population dynamics. We cannot,
      however, dismiss selection as the mechanism of population change, nor as a
      contributor to the maintenance of the polymorphism without assessing potential
      phenotypic differences in viability, age of maturation, and breeding propensity.
      These attributes are examined in the following paper (Rockwell et al., 1985).

PMID- 28563651
TI  - A STOCHASTIC SIMULATION STUDY ON SPECIATION BY SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - A two-locus multi-allele sexual isolation model incorporating mutation and
      genetic drift which was first proposed by Nei et al. (1983) is studied here. One
      locus controls the male mating character, and the other controls female
      receptivity. All females are assumed to have equal mating success. Therefore, the
      frequencies of female receptivity alleles are changed by mutation, drift, and
      hitchhiking with male character alleles. Without hitchhiking, development of
      sexual isolation between allopatric populations proceeds faster in smaller
      populations, as expected. The hitchhiking effect, by triggering the mutual
      reinforcement of mating behavior of both sexes (or the runaway process, Fisher
      [1958]), speeds up the evolution of sexual isolation significantly. For
      populations with 2Nv <= 0.2 (N = population size, nu = mutation rate), the rates
      of divergence all approach the maximum possible rate. Sympatric sexual isolation
      develops quite frequently if two favorable conditions are met: 1) There is no
      selection on female phenotype (except in some limited cases), and 2) The
      population size is large enough to carry several female receptivity alleles.
      Because of stochastic factors, these alleles may lead to the formation of two
      discrete groups of females, each group receptive to males of different mating
      characters. The formation of sympatric sexually-isolated groups is also aided
      significantly, at the incipient stage, by the runaway process.

PMID- 28563652
TI  - GENE DIVERSITY IN HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28563653
TI  - TEMPORAL ALLOZYME FREQUENCY CHANGES IN DENSITY FLUCTUATING POPULATIONS OF WILLOW
      GROUSE (LAGOPUS LAGOPUS L.).
AB  - The population density of willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus L.) in northern
      Scandinavia changes in synchrony with the cyclic density variations in
      populations of microtine rodents. To assess the genetic changes accompanying the
      variations in population number, allozyme variation was studied at 23 loci in 640
      willow grouse, representing four mainland and one island locality sampled during
      high and low population density. The average heterozygosity (H = 8.3%) and
      proportion of polymorphic loci (P = 26%) is not lower in willow grouse than in
      avian species with a more stable demography; the recurrent population density
      changes do not appear to affect drastically the long term effective population
      size, presumably because of extensive migration. Significant allele frequency
      differences were found both between populations and between different density
      phases. The genetic distance (D; Nei, 1972) was, in about 50% of the cases,
      larger between two consecutive time periods than between two localities in a
      certain year. Spatial and temporal allele frequency variation each represented
      around 3% of the gene diversity. The temporal heterogeneity may be caused by
      nonrandom sampling of family groups, rather than drift of allele frequencies
      between generations due to small effective population size, as has been suggested
      for microtine species.

PMID- 28563654
TI  - LARGE MAMMALS ARE GENETICALLY LESS VARIABLE?

PMID- 28563655
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-FERTILIZATION AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PLANTS. I.
      GENETIC MODELS.
AB  - The amounts of inbreeding depression upon selfing and of heterosis upon
      outcrossing determine the strength of selection on the selfing rate in a
      population when this evolves polygenically by small steps. Genetic models are
      constructed which allow inbreeding depression to change with the mean selfing
      rate in a population by incorporating both mutation to recessive and partially
      dominant lethal and sublethal alleles at many loci and mutation in quantitative
      characters under stabilizing selection. The models help to explain observations
      of high inbreeding depression (> 50%) upon selfing in primarily outcrossing
      populations, as well as considerable heterosis upon outcrossing in primarily
      selfing populations. Predominant selfing and predominant outcrossing are found to
      be alternative stable states of the mating system in most plant populations.
      Which of these stable states a species approaches depends on the history of its
      population structure and the magnitude of effect of genes influencing the selfing
      rate.

PMID- 28563656
TI  - SPERM MIXING IN THE COCKROACH DIPLOPTERA PUNCTATA.
AB  - Females of the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata store sperm from their
      first mating, and do not remate until after giving birth to their first batch of
      young. The irradiated male technique was used to determine the outcome of sperm
      competition in the second batch of eggs of females mated sequentially to normal
      and irradiated males. It is estimated that the second male to mate with a female
      fertilizes approximately two thirds of the eggs in a female's second batch of
      eggs. Direct evidence for sperm mixing was obtained. Undeveloped eggs (fertilized
      by irradiated sperm) and developing embryos (fertilized by normal sperm) were
      found interspersed throughout oothecae that were extruded from females,
      demonstrating that normal and irradiated sperm were released from the
      spermathecae at oviposition and that they competed for fertilizations.

PMID- 28563657
TI  - TWO KINDS OF GENETIC VARIABILITY AND THE PROBLEM OF SPECIATION.

PMID- 28563659
TI  - DINOSAUR PHYSIOLOGY: A CRITIQUE.

PMID- 28563658
TI  - THE SUBSTITUTIONAL LOAD AND MUTATIONAL LOAD IN A FINITE POPULATION.

PMID- 28563661
TI  - THE PHENETICS AND ECOLOGY OF A NARROW HYBRID ZONE.

PMID- 28563660
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN A POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA. II. FECUNDITY, LONGEVITY, VIABILITY AND COMPETITIVE FITNESS.

PMID- 28563662
TI  - A NON-GENETIC "POLYMORPHISM" IN ANARTIA FATIMA (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE).

PMID- 28563663
TI  - DINOSAURS AS REPTILES.

PMID- 28563664
TI  - AN EXPLANATION FOR COPE'S RULE.

PMID- 28563665
TI  - CHANGING REPRODUCTIVE RATES AND POPULATION CYCLES IN LEMMINGS AND VOLES.

PMID- 28563666
TI  - SIGNIFICANCE OF SYMPATRY TO BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION OF GREAT PLAINS MEADOWLARKS.

PMID- 28563667
TI  - POLYPLOIDY IN FUNGI.

PMID- 28563668
TI  - OCCURRENCE OF SUCCESSFUL MULTIPLE INSEMINATION OF FEMALES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS
      OF DEER MICE (PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS).

PMID- 28563669
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SOME MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF THE UPPER CHEEK TEETH OF THE
      FOSSIL HORSES.

PMID- 28563670
TI  - ASSORTATIVE POLLINATION FOR STATURE IN LYTHRUM SALICARIA.

PMID- 28563671
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE PREDATOR ISOCLINE.

PMID- 28563672
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF MARINE PELECYPODS. II. GENETIC DIFFERENCES IN
      MICROHABITATS OF MODIOLUS DEMISSUS.

PMID- 28563673
TI  - BODY SIZE AND NUMBERS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS.

PMID- 28563674
TI  - EVOLUTION OF LITTER-SIZE IN THE PIKA, OCHOTONA PRINCEPS (RICHARDSON).

PMID- 28563675
TI  - MAJOR ECOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS IN THE EVOLUTION OF COLUBROID SNAKES.

PMID- 28563676
TI  - ON THE NATURE OF THE POLYMORPHISM AND MATE SELECTION PHENOMENA IN ANARTIA FATIMA
      (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE).

PMID- 28563678
TI  - EFFECTS OF HUMMINGBIRD MIGRATION ON PLANT SPECIATION IN THE CALIFORNIA FLORA.

PMID- 28563677
TI  - Forearm skin aging: characterization by instrumental measurements.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The intrinsic ageing and photoaged skin present biomechanical and
      morphological differences, which are reflected in the appearance of roughness,
      superficial and deep wrinkles, atrophy, reduced elasticity, hypo- and
      hyperpigmentation and actinic keratosis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and compare the
      characteristics of the flexor (with a predominance of intrinsic ageing) and
      extensor (chronically exposed to sunlight and other environmental factors, with a
      predominance of photoageing) skin surfaces of the forearms. METHODS:
      Interventional, prospective, diagnostic study, including 23 females, aged over 60
      years. The extensor and flexor faces of forearms were compared in relation to
      clinical parameters and non-invasive instrumental measurements, such as skin
      surface, elasticity, hydration as well as dermal thickness and echogenicity.
      RESULTS: Regarding the water content of the stratum corneum, the flexor face
      presented an average value higher than the extensor face. The average of measures
      obtained through images of high-frequency ultrasound demonstrated greater
      echogenicity of flexor face compared to the extensor face. The measurements of
      the skin surface showed significant differences between the faces. The roughness
      and scaliness were lower in the flexor face. Regarding the depth of wrinkles,
      there was no significant difference between the faces. The average of the
      measurements was slightly higher in the flexor face, which demonstrated that
      wrinkles are present in the intrinsic ageing and photoageing. The presence of
      elastosis and the reduction in elasticity in the clinical aspect of the photoaged
      face of forearms were according to the results of the non-invasive measurements.
      CONCLUSION: Meaningful differences in the biophysical characteristics of the
      extensor and flexor faces of the forearms were detected. Because the non-invasive
      instrumental measurements correlated with clinical findings, they may represent
      useful tools to assess efficacy and safety of skin ageing treatments in clinical
      research.

PMID- 28563679
TI  - PHENETICS OF NATURAL POPULATIONS I. PHENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF INSULAR POPULATIONS
      OF THE SIDE-BLOTCHED LIZARD.

PMID- 28563680
TI  - COMPARATIVE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF MONTANE AND PIEDMONT CHORUS FROGS.

PMID- 28563681
TI  - THE EFFECT OF RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF SPECIES IN COMPETITION: A REAPPRAISAL.

PMID- 28563682
TI  - COMPARATIVE EVOLUTION IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS OF THE BONNEVILLE BASIN.

PMID- 28563683
TI  - ADAPTATIONS OF RESPIRATORY SYSTEMS OF SPIDERS.

PMID- 28563684
TI  - DISTYLY, SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY, AND EVOLUTION IN MELOCHIA.

PMID- 28563685
TI  - SYNCHRONIZATION OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF TREES WITHIN THE DRY SEASON IN CENTRAL
      AMERICA.

PMID- 28563686
TI  - THE PROBABILITY OF FIXATION OF A MUTANT: THE TWO-LOCUS CASE.

PMID- 28563687
TI  - HERPETOGEOGRAPHY OF PUERTO RICO. IV. PALEOGEOGRAPHY, FAUNAL SIMILARITY AND
      ENDEMISM.

PMID- 28563688
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS: MODELS AND ESTIMATION PROCEDURES.

PMID- 28563689
TI  - FURTHER EVIDENCE ON SEXUAL ISOLATION WITHIN DROSOPHILA ATHABASCA.

PMID- 28563690
TI  - THE FITNESS OF SINGLE-SPECIES POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563691
TI  - SURVIVAL PROCESS OF LINKED MUTANT GENES.

PMID- 28563692
TI  - THE SELECTIVE VALUE OF EYE AND PIGMENT LOSS IN MEXICAN CAVE FISH.

PMID- 28563693
TI  - STUDIES OF NATURAL POPULATIONS OF MUS. II. POLYMORPHISM AT THE T LOCUS.

PMID- 28563694
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX LIFE CYCLE PHENOMENA: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.

PMID- 28563695
TI  - SYSTEMATIC SIGNIFICANCE OF LUPINE ALKALOIDS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO BAPTISIA
      (LEGUMINOSAE).

PMID- 28563696
TI  - THE LOSS OF THE OPHIDIAN MIDDLE EAR.

PMID- 28563697
TI  - CYTOGENETIC EVIDENCE FOR LONG CONTINUED STABILITY IN THE GENUS PLANTAGO.

PMID- 28563698
TI  - Iron-Catalyzed Cyclotrimerization of Terminal Alkynes by Dual Catalyst Activation
      in the Absence of Reductants.
AB  - Catalyzing C-C bond-forming reactions with earth-abundant metals under mild
      conditions is at the heart of sustainable synthesis. The cyclotrimerization of
      alkynes is a valuable atom-efficient reaction in organic synthesis that is
      enabled by several metal catalysts, including iron. This study reports an
      effective iron-catalyzed cyclotrimerization for the regioselective synthesis of
      1,2,4-substituted arenes (1 mol % catalyst, toluene, 20  degrees C, 5 min). A
      dual activation mechanism (substrate deprotonation, reductive elimination)
      renders the simple FeII precatalyst highly active in the absence of any
      reductant.

PMID- 28563700
TI  - BIOLOGICAL VARIABILITY IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC GRASSHOPPER WARRAMABA VIRGO (KEY)
      AND ITS SEXUAL RELATIVES. 1. THE EASTERN AUSTRALIAN POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563699
TI  - Stability and crystal structures of His88 mutant human transthyretins.
AB  - Destabilization of human transthyretin (TTR) has been implicated in its
      misfolding and aggregation. A previous study on the neutron crystal structure of
      TTR suggested that a large hydrogen bond network around H88 which includes water
      molecules is significantly involved in the stability of wild-type TTR (WT-TTR).
      Here, we demonstrate that the H88R mutant associated with amyloid cardiomyopathy
      is substantially destabilized compared with WT-TTR. In order to clarify the role
      of H88 and the hydrogen bond network in the stability of TTR, we determined the
      thermodynamic stability and the crystal structure of H88 mutants (H88A, H88F,
      H88Y, and H88S). Our results suggest that in some cases TTR is destabilized due
      to alterations in bound water molecules as well as structural changes in TTR
      itself.

PMID- 28563701
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION FOR A FRUIT DIMORPHISM IN PLECTRITIS CONGESTA (VALERIANACEAE).

PMID- 28563703
TI  - MUTUAL FACILITATION BETWEEN LARVAE OF THE SIBLING SPECIES DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      AND D. SIMULANS.

PMID- 28563704
TI  - GENETICS OF DACUS OLEAE. VIII. SELECTION FOR THE AMOUNT OF ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE
      AFTER ORGANOPHOSPHATE TREATMENT.

PMID- 28563705
TI  - A DARWINIAN INTERPRETATION OF HINDLIMB VARIABILITY IN FROG POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563706
TI  - EVOLUTION OF INSECT LIFE HISTORIES AND HOST PLANT CHEMISTRY: HISPINE BEETLES ON
      HELICONIA.

PMID- 28563707
TI  - SEX RATIO IN THE TROPICAL TREE TRIPLARIS AMERICANA (POLYGONACEAE).

PMID- 28563708
TI  - CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT FOR SEXUAL ISOLATION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS AND
      DROSOPHILA ARIZONENSIS.

PMID- 28563709
TI  - BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE MARSUPIAL-PLACENTAL DICHOTOMY: A REPLY TO LILLEGRAVEN.

PMID- 28563710
TI  - ON THE STRUCTURE OF FITNESS ESTIMATES UNDER POST-OBSERVATIONAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28563711
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS. X. GENETIC LOAD DIFFERENCES IN
      DROSOPHILA WILLISTONI FROM COLOMBIA.

PMID- 28563712
TI  - A REAPPRAISAL OF THE AQUATIC SPECIALIZATIONS OF THE GALAPAGOS MARINE IGUANA
      (AMBLYRHYNCHUS CRISTATUS).

PMID- 28563713
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF MATING CALL VARIATION IN A DIPLOID-TETRAPLOID SPECIES
      COMPLEX OF TREEFROGS (ANURA).

PMID- 28563714
TI  - GENETIC DIVERSITY IN COLONIZING PARTHENOGENETIC COCKROACHES.

PMID- 28563715
TI  - CHIMPANZEE PREDATION AS A POSSIBLE FACTOR IN THE EVOLUTION OF RED COLOBUS MONKEY
      SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.

PMID- 28563716
TI  - VARIATION AND HETEROZYGOSITY IN SEXUALLY VS. CLONALLY REPRODUCING POPULATIONS OF
      POECILIOPSIS.

PMID- 28563717
TI  - SELECTION FOR AMYLASE ALLOZYMES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563718
TI  - LIFESPAN AND FECUNDITY PATTERNS IN ROTIFERS: THE COST OF REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28563719
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN THOMOMYS BOTTAE POCKET GOPHERS: MACROGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS.

PMID- 28563720
TI  - OLFACTORY CUES AS A FACTOR IN FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATE SELECTION IN MORMONIELLA
      VITRIPENNIS.

PMID- 28563721
TI  - THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF AVIAN WINTER PLUMAGE VARIABILITY: A COMMENT.

PMID- 28563722
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BREEDING TERRITORIES IN PUPFISH
      (CYPRINODON).

PMID- 28563724
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION ASSOCIATED WITH GROWTH RATE IN THE AMERICAN OYSTER (CRASSOSTREA
      VIRGIN ICA).

PMID- 28563723
TI  - TEMPORAL DIOECISM: AN ALTERNATIVE TO DIOECISM?

PMID- 28563725
TI  - WHY ARE THERE INBREEDING EFFECTS IN HAPLO-DIPLOID SYSTEMS?

PMID- 28563726
TI  - POPULATION SUBDIVISION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN THE RED-BELLIED NEWT, TARICHA
      RIVULARIS.

PMID- 28563727
TI  - A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIORAL DIVERGENCE AMONG CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES OF
      ENDEMIC HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563728
TI  - COURTSHIP PATTERNS AND EVOLUTION OF THE DROSOPHILA ADIASTOLA AND PLANITIBIA
      SPECIES SUBGROUPS.

PMID- 28563729
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITION FROM AMMONITE SUBPRIONOCYCLUS TO REESIDITES-PUNCTUATED OR
      GRADUAL?

PMID- 28563730
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN TOADS: THE ROLES OF FEMALE CHOICE AND MALE BODY SIZE.

PMID- 28563731
TI  - BIOLOGICAL VARIABILITY IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC GRASSHOPPER WARRAMABA VIRGO (KEY)
      AND ITS SEXUAL RELATIVES. II. THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TAXA.

PMID- 28563732
TI  - SELECTIVE PREDATION OF THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS (GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS) BY GARTER
      SNAKES.

PMID- 28563733
TI  - ON THE MAINTENANCE OF STABILITY IN HINDWING DIVERSITY AMONG MOTHS OF THE GENUS
      CATOCALA (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE).

PMID- 28563734
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN ANNUAL PHLOX: SELF-COMPATIBLE VERSUS SELF-INCOMPATIBLE
      SPECIES.

PMID- 28563735
TI  - PHENOTYPES AND GENOTYPES IN CLADOCERAN POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563736
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF DELAYED EMERGENCE FROM THE NEST BY HATCHLING
      TURTLES.

PMID- 28563737
TI  - MATING PATTERN AND MATING SUCCESS OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA KARYOTYPES IN LARGE
      EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563738
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL HOMOLOGY AND DIVERGENCE BETWEEN SIBLING SPECIES OF DEER MICE:
      PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS AND P. MELANOTIS (RODENTIA, CRICETIDAE).

PMID- 28563739
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF TRIPSACOID MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.).

PMID- 28563740
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR NATURALLY OCCURRING HYBRIDS BETWEEN MYTILUS EDULIS AND
      MYTILUS GALLOPROVINCIALIS.

PMID- 28563741
TI  - VERTEBRATE AIR BREATHING AROSE IN FRESH WATERS AND NOT IN THE OCEANS.

PMID- 28563742
TI  - CORRELATIONS OF QUANTITATIVE PARAMETERS OF FECUNDITY IN AMPHIBIANS.

PMID- 28563743
TI  - DEMOGRAPHIC AND GENETIC RESPONSES OF TWO STRAINS OF TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM TO A
      NOVEL ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28563744
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ADAPTATIONS AMONG VIVIPAROUS FISHES (CYPRINODONTIFORMES:
      POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563745
TI  - DENSITY DEPENDENT FORAGING ON LIATRIS PYCNOSTACHYA.

PMID- 28563747
TI  - DIFFERENTIATION OF A MULTIGENE FAMILY BETWEEN POPULATIONS.
AB  - Differentiation of a multigene family between populations is investigated under
      the forces of intrachromosomal unbiased gene conversion, neutral mutation,
      recombination, and random drift. The infinite-site model without recombination
      within the gene is employed, and the average numbers of the different sites
      between pairs of genes at the same locus and at different loci from two
      populations that divided some time ago are calculated as functions of time. Since
      differentiation is a relative concept in which differences between populations
      are expressed in comparison with those within a population and since there is
      most likely a reduction in population size after the division of populations, the
      time-dependent behavior of the corresponding quantities within a population is
      also investigated using approximate and numerical methods. It is found that
      intrachromosomal unbiased gene conversion promotes differentiation at the same
      locus but promotes or retards that between different loci, depending on the
      parameters in a recently divided population.

PMID- 28563748
TI  - THE AERODYNAMICS OF POLLEN CAPTURE IN TWO SYMPATRIC EPHEDRA SPECIES.
AB  - Wind-tunnel analyses of the behavior of airborne pollen around ovules of two
      Ephedra species (E. trifurca and E. nevadensis) indicate that at certain airflow
      speeds (0.5 m/sec and 1.0 m/sec) each species is capable of biasing pollination
      in favor of conspecific pollen. A computer procedure was designed to evaluate the
      physical basis for this aerodynamic discrimination. This procedure indicates that
      differences in size and density confer significantly different inertial
      properties to the two pollen species. Operating within the specific aerodynamic
      environments generated around ovules from each species, these differences are
      sufficient to account for the biases observed in the probability of pollination.
      Within natural populations, there exists significant variation in pollen size
      (and possibly in density). Accordingly, it is possible that, under certain
      ambient wind conditions, ovules from each species can select subsets of the
      entire airborne population of Ephedra pollen.

PMID- 28563746
TI  - Efficient Homodifunctional Bimolecular Ring-Closure Method for Cyclic Polymers by
      Combining RAFT and Self-Accelerating Click Reaction.
AB  - An efficient metal-free homodifunctional bimolecular ring-closure method is
      developed for the formation of cyclic polymers by combining reversible addition
      fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and self-accelerating click
      reaction. In this approach, alpha,omega-homodifunctional linear polymers with
      azide terminals are prepared by RAFT polymerization and postmodification of
      polymer chain end groups. By virtue of sym-dibenzo-1,5-cyclooctadiene-3,7-diyne
      (DBA) as small linkers, well-defined cyclic polymers are then prepared using the
      self-accelerating double strain-promoted azide-alkyne click (DSPAAC) reaction to
      ring-close the azide end-functionalized homodifunctional linear polymer
      precursors. Due to the self-accelerating property of DSPAAC ring-closing
      reaction, this novel method eliminates the requirement of equimolar amounts of
      telechelic polymers and small linkers in traditional bimolecular ring-closure
      methods. It facilitates this method to efficiently and conveniently produce
      varied pure cyclic polymers by employing an excess molar amount of DBA small
      linkers.

PMID- 28563749
TI  - MALE SPERMATOPHORE INVESTMENT INCREASES FEMALE FECUNDITY IN A GRASSHOPPER.

PMID- 28563750
TI  - EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Several models for sexual selection, both by male-male competition and female
      choice, predict that a character which covaries with mating success should be
      near an equilibrium where the intensity of sexual selection opposes viability
      selection. This prediction was used to design experiments for estimating the
      intensity of sexual and viability selection on wing length in a recently captured
      population of Drosophila melanogaster. Observations of matings by males color
      marked for wing length indicated that the standardized sexual selection
      differential on wing length was 0.24 under a wide range of effective sex ratios.
      After estimating the heritability of wing length to be 0.62, the expected
      standardized response due to sexual selection was calculated as 0.15 (SE = 0.15).
      The response due to viability selection was then estimated by comparing wing
      lengths of progeny of flies that had been randomly mated, thereby preventing
      sexual selection, with progeny of flies that had been allowed to acquire mates in
      a mass-mating chamber. The results support an equilibrium model in that the
      standardized response due to viability selection (-0.31, SE = 0.08) was opposite
      in sign and similar in magnitude to the estimated response due to sexual
      selection. Observations of females orienting in front of males which differed in
      wing length indicated that the mating advantage accruing to long-winged males was
      not due to female choice. Instead, male-male competition in which the larger of
      two randomly chosen males succeeded in mating, explains the observed sexual
      selection. An experimental analysis of genotype-environment interaction revealed
      that larval density had a nonlinear effect on mean wing length within sibships.
      If a population is displaced from equilibrium, therefore, the evolutionary
      trajectory of mean wing length will depend both on the intensity of selection and
      the environment in which that selection is operating.

PMID- 28563751
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY IN GENETICALLY DEFINED CATEGORIES OF ANURAN HYBRIDS.
AB  - Hybridization phenomena in anurans have traditionally been studied through
      morphological comparisons, under the assumption that various hybrids (e.g., F1
      's, backcrosses) are predictably intermediate to parental species. We critically
      evaluate this assumption by examining morphology in genetically categorized
      hybrids between the treefrogs Hyla cinerea and H. gratiosa. A total of 202 frogs
      from a hybridizing population in Alabama were assayed for allozyme and
      mitochondrial DNA genotype and for a large suite of osteological characters.
      Discriminant analyses demonstrated distinct morphological separation between the
      genetically "pure" parental species. Morphometric analyses of genetically
      identified hybrids showed: 1) an extreme range of phenotypic expression within F1
      and backcross classes, and 2) no apparent directional parental bias on the F1
      phenotype. Had morphology alone been used as a guide, over 40 percent of the
      individuals with known hybrid ancestry would have been misclassified as "pure"
      parental species, and about 25 percent of the backcross individuals would not
      have been distinguished from F1 's. These results exemplify the utility of joint
      comparisons of morphology and genotypic constitution in studies of natural
      hybridization, and they emphasize the limitations inherent in describing hybrid
      classes solely by morphological criteria.

PMID- 28563752
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY INFERENCES FROM RESTRICTION MAPS OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA FROM NINE TAXA
      OF XENOPUS FROGS.
AB  - Restriction endonuclease cleavage maps were prepared by the double digestion
      method for mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) purified from Xenopus borealis, X. clivii,
      X. fraseri, X. muelleri, X. ruwenzoriensis, X. vestitus, X. laevis victorianus,
      X. l. laevis, and a variant of X. laevis designated X. laevis "davis." An average
      of 21 cleavage sites per genome were mapped with 11 restriction endonucleases.
      Among the four invariant sites found are three conserved not only among the
      Xenopus mtDNAs tested but also among nearly all vertebrate mtDNAs examined to
      date. Two of these are Sac II sites in the 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes, and
      one is a Hpa I site in the gene for asparagine transfer RNA. These three sites
      permit the alignment and comparison of mtDNAs from different vertebrate classes.
      Although most of the differences observed among the Xenopus maps are attributable
      to point mutations causing gain or loss of restriction sites, the maps also
      differ by three large length mutations in or near the displacement loop.
      Phylogenetic analysis of 30 informative sites suggests that those members of the
      laevis species-group that have 36 chromosomes per somatic cell can be divided
      into three subgroups: 1) X. borealis, X. clivii, and perhaps X. fraseri (the
      "borealis" subgroup), 2) X. muelleri, and 3) the subspecies of X, laevis. The
      mtDNA of the hexaploid (2n = 108) species, X. ruwenzoriensis, is most similar to
      that of taxa in the latter two subgroups, which contrasts with the morphological
      similarity of this species to X. fraseri. X. ruwenzoriensis may be an
      allopolyploid with a mother (the contributor of the cytoplasmic mtDNA genome) on
      the X. laevis or X. muelleri lineage and a father on the X. fraseri lineage. We
      present a model showing how mtDNA and nuclear genomes can yield contrasting
      phytogenies for species-groups that have undergone several rounds of
      interspecific hybridization. Comparison of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence
      divergences suggests that Xenopus mtDNA, like that of mammals and birds, evolves
      faster than nuclear DNA. Genetic distances among mtDNAs of Xenopus species are
      very large, generally approaching or exceeding one substitution per nucleotide.

PMID- 28563753
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITIVE INTERACTIONS AND THE MAINTENANCE OF GENOTYPIC VARIATION
      WITHIN TWO PERENNIAL GRASSES.
AB  - Theoretical models predict that natural selection acting through competitive
      interactions should lead to increased divergence in resource use and to more
      equal competitive abilities among different genotypes. The consequent
      overcompensatory interactions and similar competitive abilities will favor
      maintenance of genotypic diversity. In field experiments we found that naturally
      co-occurring genotypes of two perennial grasses, Danthonia spicata and
      Anthoxanthum odoratum, differed in interspecific competitive performance. The
      competitive performance of a given genotype often depended on the genotypic
      identity of the competing species, especially in Danthonia spicata. Both
      overcompensatory and undercompensatory interactions were found, but neither was
      prevalent for both species. These data indicate that interactions between species
      are complex and have an important genetic component. The results from this
      experiment are compatible with a competitive explanation for the maintenance of
      genetic variation, but the persistence of weakly competitive genotypes cannot be
      explained.

PMID- 28563754
TI  - SEX-RATIO SELECTION WITH MIGRATION: DOES FISHER'S RESULT HOLD?

PMID- 28563755
TI  - MATE CHOICE BASED UPON NATURALLY OCCURRING COLOR-PATTERN VARIATION IN A GUPPY
      POPULATION.
AB  - This study tested the effect of differences in the extent of orange pigment in
      the color pattern of male guppies on the sexual responsiveness of females. Fish
      used in this study were descendants of a single natural population from the Paria
      River of Trinidad. Males from this population have unusually large, brilliant
      orange spots. I used three experimental approaches to test for discrimination by
      females among males based on the relative area of orange in color patterns: 1)
      the time to mating when a male was presented to a virgin female; 2) the frequency
      of sexual responses of females to passing, nondisplaying males; and 3) the
      proportion of a male's courtship displays that elicited a female sexual response.
      In all three experiments, females appeared to discriminate against males with
      less-than-average amounts of orange in their color patterns. In at least one
      experiment, however, the increase in female responsiveness with increasing
      amounts of orange leveled off and possibly decreased at high levels of
      orangeness. This suggests that there may be no advantage of increased amounts of
      orange above a certain level. These results suggest that female choice is a
      mechanism for the evolution of color patterns in guppies and may have contributed
      to the distinctive color pattern of the Paria population.

PMID- 28563756
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE-GENETIC ANALYSIS OF LARVAL LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN HYLA CRUCIFER.
AB  - We used a half-sib design to examine the genetic components of phenotypic
      variance in several life-history traits in Hyla crucifer. Egg viability,
      hatchling size, larval growth rate, length of larval period, and size at
      metamorphosis play critical roles in determining survivorship and are subject to
      persistent selection. Egg viability varied among families considerably, with most
      embryo mortality occurring between gastrulation and neurulation. Hatchling size
      was the only trait in which maternal effects were influential. Dominance genetic
      variance played the predominant role in determining phenotypic variance in
      hatchling size, growth rate, and length of larval period, accounting for,
      respectively, 70, 63, and 47% of the total variance. Size at metamorphosis
      displayed little dominance genetic variance and, unlike the other traits,
      displayed a high heritability. All additive genetic correlations between traits
      were positive. The directions of environmental correlations were the same as the
      directions of changes that have been induced in previous experimental work. The
      correlations due to dominance effects described a principal axis that independent
      ecological studies indicate to be directly correlated with fitness. These results
      agree with theoretical expectations for traits under consistent directional
      selection.

PMID- 28563757
TI  - INFLUENCE OF FAMILIARITY ON FREQUENCY OF INBREEDING IN WILD HORSES.

PMID- 28563758
TI  - ON THE EFFECT OF FOUNDER EVENTS ON EPISTATIC GENETIC VARIANCE.
AB  - Mayr (1963) proposed that small isolated propagules from a large panmictic
      population would occasionally undergo a genetic revolution due to loss of genetic
      variability. More recently Templeton (1980a) has suggested that founder events
      may be much more important in systems that have strong epistasis. Because of the
      work of these and other authors it becomes an interesting theoretical problem to
      study the distribution of epistatic variance in a population following a founder
      event. In the model presented here measures of coancestry (Cockerham, 1967, 1984;
      Cockerham and Weir, 1973; Weir and Cockerham, 1973, 1977; Tachida and Cockerham,
      unpubl.) are used to examine the effect of founder events on additive-by-additive
      epistasis. Using this approach, the coancestries, or intraclass correlations,
      within individuals and within demes, together with the genetic variance
      components in the ancestral population are used to obtain the variance within and
      among demes following a founder event. Examples are analyzed for single founder
      events of 1-25 individuals and multiple founder events of two individuals.
      Following a single founder event, the contribution of the additive variance to
      the variance within demes relative to the additive variance in the ancestral
      population is always less than one. However, the contribution of epistatic
      variance to the variance within demes relative to the epistatic variance in the
      ancestral population is always greater than one. Thus, while a founder event
      decreases the contribution of additive variance to the variance within demes, it
      increases the contribution of epistatic variance to the variance within demes.
      The contribution of epistatic variance to the variance among demes following a
      single founder event is not qualitatively different from the contribution of
      additive variance to the variance among demes. These results indicate that
      epistatic variance is less likely than additive variance to cause a genetic
      revolution following a single founder event. When populations undergo multiple
      founder events the situation changes considerably. Epistatic variance may
      contribute as much as four times its original value to the variance among demes,
      while additive variance can contribute maximally twice its original value to the
      variance among demes. Thus, epistasis, which is relatively unimportant following
      a single founder event, may have major evolutionary implications if drift is
      allowed to continue for several generations.

PMID- 28563759
TI  - A MULTIFACTORIAL BEHAVIORAL STUDY OF COEXISTING DROSOPHILID SPECIES IN NATURE.
AB  - A multifactorial experiment was performed to differentiate among sympatric
      drosophilid species by their responses to several variable factors when selecting
      an oviposition site in nature. D. busckii, D. affinis, and S. pallida were
      significantly more photonegative when ovipositing 150 cm above the ground than
      when ovipositing 30 cm above the ground. D. busckii showed the greatest effect of
      height on photoresponse. D. affinis was the most photonegative at either height.
      There was no evidence for photobehavioral differentiation of the four species
      studied between two collecting sites within the habitat. Similarly, there was no
      difference in oviposition-site preference between flies laying eggs in the
      morning and the afternoon. Three of the four sympatric species can be
      distinguished from the others by their unique behavioral profiles, which are
      probably responsible for maintaining niche separation.

PMID- 28563760
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF INTRAGAMETOPHYTIC SELFING.
AB  - Intragametophytic selfing is a mode of reproduction occurring in homosporous
      ferns where two gametes from the same haploid gametophyte form a completely
      homozygous sporophyte. The inbreeding equilibrium is derived for a population
      with partial intragametophytic selfing, selfing, and outcrossing. Procedures for
      directly estimating the extent of intragametophytic selfing and selfing using
      parent-offspring data are given. The conditions for a stable polymorphism from a
      heterozygous-advantage fitness model are more restrictive for partial
      intragametophytic selfing than for selfing. The rate of decay of gametic
      disequilibrium is slower for partial intragametophytic selfing than for selfing.
      Based on these findings, one would predict that plants with intragametophytic
      selfing would have less polymorphism for loci with a heterozygous advantage and
      more gametic disequilibrium between neutral loci than is expected for populations
      with an equivalent amount of selfing. Data from several studies are consistent
      with these predictions.

PMID- 28563761
TI  - ANALYSIS OF FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN CHEETAHS.

PMID- 28563762
TI  - SELECTION FOR SEXUAL ISOLATION BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC FORMS OF DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS.
      I. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE SELECTED FORMS.
AB  - Drosophila mojavensis comprises three geographic forms occurring in the United
      States, the Baja California peninsula, and mainland Mexico. Peninsular and
      mainland forms were selected for increased sexual isolation from each other,
      while controls were maintained with maximum outbreeding. Response to selection
      was highly asymmetrical in that isolation was very high between selected
      peninsular males and mainland females, but nonexistent between selected mainland
      males and peninsular females. The heightened isolation is primarily due to some
      change in the peninsular males.

PMID- 28563764
TI  - VIABILITIES OF AMYLASE GENOTYPES IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA ON STARCH AND
      MALTOSE FOOD.
AB  - In order to study the relationship between selection on an enzyme and the
      environment, viability was measured for genotypes at the alpha-amylase (Amy)
      locus of D. pseudoobscura on food containing either starch as the primary source
      of carbohydrates or, as a control, maltose, the breakdown product of starch by
      amylase. These conditions were chosen to reveal possible differences among these
      genotypes in their abilities to survive on starch food. Counted numbers of larvae
      were cultured on food with low or high levels of starch, or with maltose, at both
      20 degrees C and 25 degrees C. Only under the most stressful environmental
      conditions, on food with a low starch concentration at 25 degrees C, did the
      genotypes differ significantly in viability. Four population cages maintained on
      food with either maltose or starch as carbohydrate sources were set up to assay
      differences in overall fitness among the Amy genotypes. No selective differences
      were observed over 10 generations, and we infer that components of fitness other
      than viability also differed little among the Amy genotypes on the two types of
      food. Thus our efforts to manipulate the environmental levels of starch, the
      substrate of amylase, led to measurable selective differences only under very
      stressful conditions.

PMID- 28563763
TI  - COEVOLUTION AS AN EVOLUTIONARY GAME.
AB  - Coevolution is modeled as a continuous game where the fitness-maximizing strategy
      of an individual is assumed to be a function of the strategy of other individuals
      who are also under selection to maximize fitness. An evolutionary stable strategy
      (ESS) is sought such that no rare alternative strategies can invade the
      community. The approach can be used to model coevolution because the ESS may be
      composed of a coalition of more than one strategy. This work, by modeling
      frequency-dependent selection, extends the approach of Roughgarden (1976) which
      only considered density-dependent selection. In particular, we show that the
      coevolutionary model of Rummel and Roughgarden (1985) does contain frequency
      dependent selection, and thus, their application of Roughgarden's criterion for
      evolutionary stability to a model for which it is not applicable leads to the
      erroneous conclusion that the ecological and evolutionary processes are in
      conflict. The utility of the game theoretic approach is illustrated by two
      examples. The first considers an ESS composed of a single strategy, the second an
      ESS composed of a coalition of two strategies. Evolution occurs on a frequency
      dependent adaptive landscape. For this reason, the approach is appropriate for
      modeling competitive speciation (Rosenzweig, 1978). Also, the game theoretic
      approach is designed to combine the interplay between the background environment
      (including the biotic components) and the evolutionary potential of the
      populations or organisms. The actual application of this theory will require
      knowledge of both.

PMID- 28563765
TI  - EFFECTS OF POPULATION STRUCTURE AND CONE PRODUCTION ON OUTCROSSING RATES IN
      ENGELMANN SPRUCE AND SUBALPINE FIR.
AB  - Variation in the mating systems of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir was
      examined in two adjacent subpopulations in the Colorado Front Range. Multilocus
      outcrossing rates were estimated from analysis of allozyme variation in embryo
      and megagametophyte tissue. The overall multilocus outcrossing rate of 0.93 for
      spruce was significantly higher than the outcrossing rate of 0.89 for fir.
      Outcrossing rates varied from 0.73 to 0.97 for spruce and from 0.65 to 0.94 for
      fir when trees of each species were grouped according to age, size, spatial
      distribution, maternal heterozygosity, cone production, and year of sampling. In
      both spruce and fir, trees with higher levels of male-cone production and/or more
      clumped spatial distribution had lower outcrossing rates. Temporal variation in
      outcrossing rates within subpopulations, examined only in spruce, was less than
      variation between subpopulations. Male-cone production was significantly
      correlated with tree size, and regression analyses revealed that the highest
      outcrossing rates are expected on trees that are medium to large in size, rather
      than the largest trees in the forest. The results show that, while there is some
      temporal variation, patterns of male cone production and spatial distribution of
      individuals are the most important factors influencing outcrossing levels in
      these wind-pollinated forest trees.

PMID- 28563766
TI  - FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN THE CHEETAH: METHODOLOGICAL AND INTERPRETIVE CONCERNS.

PMID- 28563767
TI  - LIFETIME REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS, SELECTION, AND THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SELECTION IN
      THE WHITE-TAILED SKIMMER PLATHEMIS LYDIA (ODONATA: LIBELLULIDAE).
AB  - We present estimates of lifetime reproductive success in Plathemis lydia, a
      territorial dragonfly. We partition the opportunity for selection into
      multiplicative episodes using the techniques of Arnold and Wade (1984a, 1984b)
      and measure selection on several morphological and behavioral characters. For
      both sexes, variance in survivorship was the largest contribution to variance in
      lifetime reproductive success. Covariance effects are also strong for both sexes,
      suggesting considerable non-independence of episodes. Opportunity for selection
      calculated on a daily basis did not approximate analogous values determined from
      lifetime reproductive success. Phenotypic characters for which we investigated
      selection included body mass, hind wing length, first date of reproduction, and
      (for males) an index of territorial aggressiveness. We failed to find any
      significant direct targets of selection in either males or females. However, the
      combined effects of direct and indirect selection on early reproduction were
      significant for males, acting primarily through increased survivorship and
      increased time per day spent at the pond. Similarly, females present earlier in
      the season had shorter interclutch intervals. Partitioning of selection acting on
      male hind wing length and on aggressiveness reveals relationships between
      selective episodes, possibly indicative of phenotypic trade-offs between natural
      and sexual selection through male-male competition for females. Division of
      selection into episodes is a useful technique for identifying the source of
      selection. However, ordering effects can bias results, except when episodes occur
      in strictly chronological sequence. We present a method for circumventing this
      difficulty.

PMID- 28563768
TI  - RATES OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN CHROMOSOME NUMBERS IN SNAILS AND VERTEBRATES.
AB  - Mollusks and most non-mammalian vertebrates have been characterized as evolving
      an order of magnitude more slowly in morphology and karyotype compared with most
      groups of placental mammals. New calculations of the previously used measures of
      chromosomal rates of evolution for different groups of gastropods, using a larger
      and taxonomically broader sample, indicate that these rates had been previously
      underestimated, although they are still lower than those of the most rapidly
      evolving placental groups. When genera of approximately the same geological age
      are compared, little difference (less than an order of magnitude) in fossil-based
      measures of average rate of karyotypic evolution are found among placental
      mammals, frogs, lizards, and snails. Variation in rates within major groups
      obtained from the limited available data does not allow clear generalizations on
      among-group differences in chromosomal rates of evolution.

PMID- 28563769
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE NUMBER OF SEXES.
AB  - In sexually reproducing isogamous organisms, gametes (or diploid cells in
      ciliates) are classified into two or more groups called sexes, and mating occurs
      only between cells of different sexes. We have studied the evolutionary stability
      of the number of sexes maintained in a population by examining population-genetic
      models. For models in which the diploid genome determines the sex of conjugal
      cells, a one-locus system with three alleles of pecking-order dominance is
      assumed. Unlike traditional bisexual models, the genetic dynamics then depend on
      a rule, called mating kinetics, which determines the proportion of matings
      between each pair of sexes for given proportions of cells of the three sexes. The
      evolutionary consequences greatly depend on the mating kinetics assumed. Of the
      four mating kinetics examined, two give a large advantage to rare sexes whose
      cells quickly find heterosexual partners, which implies an evolutionary increase
      in the number of sexes. In contrast, the other two mating kinetics, in which
      gametes wait for suitable mates without being eliminated from the gamete pool
      during this waiting period, produce neutrally stable dynamics with curves or a
      surface of equilibria. Then random drift or differential fitness among sexes
      would result in the loss of sex alleles until only two remain in the population.
      This suggests a turnover of sexes; a new sex invades and replaces resident sexes
      after temporary coexistence. Similar results are obtained in models with haploid
      sex-determination and with autogamy. These two processes, however, may help to
      maintain many sexes indirectly by preventing the accumulation of recessive lethal
      mutations on sex chromosomes. The relationship of these models to models of self
      sterility factors in plants and sex factors in honeybees is discussed. To
      summarize, the number of sexes should increase when conjugal cells must find
      mates during a limited period of time, otherwise a two-sex system should evolve.
      We conclude that there may be more isogamous species with three or more sexes
      than are currently known.

PMID- 28563770
TI  - INSENSITIVITY OF BRAIN GROWTH TO SELECTION OF FOUR-WEEK BODY MASS IN JAPANESE
      QUAIL.

PMID- 28563771
TI  - THE GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF CONTRASTING BREEDING SYSTEMS IN PLECTRITIS
      (VALERIANACEAE).

PMID- 28563772
TI  - THE GENUS: A MACROEVOLUTIONARY PROBLEM.

PMID- 28563773
TI  - TEMPORAL SHIFTS IN GENE FLOW AND SEED SET: EVIDENCE FROM AN EXPERIMENTAL
      POPULATION OF CUCUMIS SATIVUS.

PMID- 28563774
TI  - SPERM DEPENDENCE OF FEMALE RECEPTIVITY TO REMATING IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563775
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF BRAIN AND BODY SIZE ASSOCIATIONS, THEIR ORIGIN
      AND ONTOGENY: DATA FROM MICE.

PMID- 28563776
TI  - MATING-TEMPERATURE RANGE IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563778
TI  - EVOLUTION IN A PAEDOMORPHIC LINEAGE. II. ALLOMETRY AND FORM IN THE MEXICAN
      AMBYSTOMATID SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28563779
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF EMBRYO ABORTION IN THE HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL CRYPTANTHA FLAVA.

PMID- 28563780
TI  - THE EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ON FEMALE RECEPTIVITY TO REMATING AND ITS
      IMPACT ON REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563781
TI  - FAUNAL TURNOVER AND DEVELOPMENT OF FOSSIL AVIFAUNAS IN SOUTH AMERICA.

PMID- 28563782
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC MODEL FOR THE ORIGIN OF MATING PREFERENCES.

PMID- 28563783
TI  - EVOLUTION IN A PAEDOMORPHIC LINEAGE. I. AN ELECTROPHORETIC ANALYSIS OF THE
      MEXICAN AMBYSTOMATID SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28563785
TI  - DISRUPTIVE SELECTION ON HABITAT PREFERENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE
      ISOLATION: A SIMULATION STUDY.

PMID- 28563786
TI  - PATTERN BENEATH THE CHAOS: THE EFFECT OF RECRUITMENT ON GENETIC PATCHINESS IN AN
      INTERTIDAL LIMPET.

PMID- 28563787
TI  - DISPERSAL RATES OF SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA GROUP: IMPLICATIONS FOR
      POPULATION STRUCTURE.

PMID- 28563788
TI  - REACTION NORMS OF DEVELOPMENT RATE AMONG DIPLOID CLONES OF THE PARTHENOGENETIC
      COCKROACH PYCNOSCELUS SURINAMENSIS.

PMID- 28563789
TI  - GYNODIOECY IN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA L. IV. FITNESS COMPONENTS OF SEX TYPES IN
      DIFFERENT LIFE CYCLE STAGES.

PMID- 28563790
TI  - SPECIATION IN THE GENUS CRINIA (ANURA: MYOBATRACHIDAE) IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA: A
      PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF ALLOZYME DATA SUPPORTING ENDEMIC SPECIATION IN
      SOUTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA.

PMID- 28563791
TI  - ESTIMATING F-STATISTICS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF POPULATION STRUCTURE.

PMID- 28563792
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF POSTMATING REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATING GENES IN POPULATIONS OF THE
      YELLOW MONKEY FLOWER, MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Postmating reproductive isolating barriers are generally believed to arise as the
      chance by-product of genetic differentiation. The classical view is that these
      barriers normally involve differentiation at many loci, and therefore require
      long periods of allopatric isolation. The formal genetics of, and the
      distribution of genes responsible for, such barriers are known in very few cases.
      This paper examines the distribution of the genes responsible for two different
      postmating barriers in 18 populations of the yellow monkey flower, Mimulus
      guttatus. The genetic relatedness of the populations was measured by a
      morphometrical analysis. Widespread polymorphism was found for three of the four
      components of the two genetic systems responsible for the two barriers, with at
      least 13 populations possessing genes for one or both of the barriers. In one
      system (the C7/U8 system; Christie and Macnair, 1984), the distribution of the
      two component genes was correlated with the morphometrical similarity and
      geographical location of the populations. This pattern could be produced by a
      historical association or by an adaptive response. In the other system (the
      Cerig/C10 system; Macnair and Christie, 1983), the genes were more widely
      dispersed, and there was no obvious morphometrical or geographical association.
      Populations possessing the complementary factors causing partial reproductive
      isolation are not always widely separated geographically. These results indicate
      that the spread of postmating reproductive isolating genes through drift,
      selection, or hitchhiking could readily cause reproductive isolation to evolve in
      this species.>.

PMID- 28563793
TI  - PHOSPHOGLUCOMUTASE GENE DUPLICATIONS IN CLARKIA (ONAGRACEAE) AND THEIR
      PHYLOGENETIC IMPLICATIONS.

PMID- 28563794
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL VARIATION IN PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS POPULATIONS ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL
      GRADIENT.

PMID- 28563795
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SIZE OF SAVANNAH SPARROWS
      (PASSERCULUS SANDWICHENSIS): A TEST OF HYPOTHESES.
AB  - The Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) is a widespread and common North
      American bird that shows both geographic variation and sexual dimorphism in size.
      I used information from 24 measurements on 1,791 individuals from 51 populations
      to test two hypotheses (sexual-selection and niche-partitioning) about the
      evolution of sexual dimorphism. Throughout their range male Savannah Sparrows are
      larger, on average, than females. This doubtless reflects Darwinian sexual
      selection, for territorial fights usually involve males, many of whom fail to
      obtain mates. In some parts of their range, Savannah Sparrows are commonly
      polygynous, whereas in others they are characteristically monogamous. Among
      species of American sparrows (subfamily Emberizinae) sexual size dimorphism is
      generally greater in polygynous species than in monogamous ones. However, I did
      not find a similar trend among populations of Savannah Sparrows. The amount of
      dimorphism in all populations of Savannah Sparrows is equivalent in magnitude to
      that of other species of sparrows that are commonly or regularly polygynous, and
      it is greater than that of other sparrow species that are characteristically
      monogamous. The amount of sexual dimorphism, either in overall size or in bill
      size, does not correlate with species diversity and does not differ between
      island and mainland populations. These results do not support the niche-variation
      hypothesis. Size dimorphism is relatively great in populations of Savannah
      Sparrows that are resident in southwestern salt marshes, and these birds are the
      only sparrow-like birds that generally breed in these marshes. Dimorphism is, in
      general, relatively great in marsh-dwelling species in the family Emberizidae.
      These species are commonly, but not always, polygynous; the mating systems of the
      salt-marsh Savannah Sparrows are not known. There are no significant differences
      in the extent of dimorphism among populations of salt-marsh sparrows, and there
      are few among the non-salt-marsh ones, probably reflecting conservatism in the
      evolution of size dimorphism.

PMID- 28563796
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND ESTIMATES OF GENE FLOW IN THE HOMOSPOROUS FERN
      POLYSTICHUM MUNITUM.
AB  - Levels and distribution of genetic variation were investigated in the homosporous
      fern, Polystichum munitum. Homosporous ferns differ from higher vascular plants
      in that they possess potentially bisexual gametophytes which can produce a
      completely homozygous sporophyte in a single generation. Because of this, it has
      long been maintained that ferns possess an inbreeding mating system, resulting in
      low levels of genetic variation and high levels of homozygosity within
      populations. The four populations sampled maintain high levels of genetic
      variation (P = 0.542; H = 0.111; A = 2.23), comparable to that maintained by
      populations of outcrossing seed plants. The mean fixation index, F, for the four
      populations was 0.052, indicating no significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg
      genotypic expectations. Polystichum munitum distributes most of its genetic
      variation within rather than among populations. Population-genetic structure was
      assessed by subdividing each of two large populations into 10 * 10-m
      subpopulations. Comparisons of genetic variation within and among subpopulations
      indicated little genetic substructure within either of the artificially
      subdivided populations. Estimates of interpopulational gene flow (Nm) are
      extremely high, comparable to those reported for gymnosperms. Statistical
      estimates of intragametophytic selling are very low, ranging from 0 to 3%. This
      study suggests that Polystichum munitum is an outcrossing species. Evidence from
      this and other investigations indicates that fern species do not typically self
      fertilize and that mating systems in ferns vary as they do among species of seed
      plants.

PMID- 28563797
TI  - ISOLATING MECHANISMS IN SEABIRDS.
AB  - In most species of birds, differences in plumage coloration or song structure act
      as isolating mechanisms. In seabirds, plumages are generally drab, and vocal
      repertoires are limited so that other phenotypic attributes must act as isolating
      mechanisms. One classic study of gulls suggests that the contrast between eye
      color and head color acts as a reproductive isolating mechanism, but this idea
      has been largely refuted by widespread evidence of hybridization in gulls in the
      last 20 years. An examination of more than 100 species of seabirds that breed
      sympatrically with congeners reveals that species with bills and feet similar in
      color hybridize in all areas where they breed sympatrically. Species that have
      bills or feet of different colors either do not hybridize or they produce rare
      hybrids that are unable to obtain mates as adults. This suggests that bill and
      foot coloration act as the primary isolating mechanisms in all surface-nesting
      seabirds and some burrow nesters. It may be a general pattern in birds that foot
      color acts to supplement bill color in reproductive isolation and mate choice.

PMID- 28563798
TI  - SUBSPECIES OF THE CANADA GOOSE (BRANTA CANADENSIS) HAVE DISTINCT MITOCHONDRIAL
      DNA'S.

PMID- 28563799
TI  - EVOLUTION AND COADAPTATION OF THERMOREGULATORY BEHAVIOR AND WING PIGMENTATION
      PATTERN IN PIERID BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - This paper addresses the question of how the relationship between morphological
      structure and functional performance differs in related groups of organisms. I
      describe the relationship between a suite of phenotypic characters (behavioral
      posture and the pattern of wing pigmentation) and one function of these
      characters (thermoregulatory performance) for two groups of butterflies in the
      family Pieridae, focusing on how behavior and wing pattern interact to affect
      specific aspects of thermoregulation. Using both natural and experimentally
      created variation in wing-melanization patterns, I develop and test a series of
      predictions about the relations among thermoregulatory posture, melanization
      pattern, body temperature, and flight activity. Results show that increased
      melanization in different wing regions has positive, negative, or neutral effects
      in increasing body temperature of Pieris butterflies. The angle of the wings used
      during basking alters the relative importance of different modes of heat transfer
      and thereby determines the contribution of different dorsal wing regions to
      thermoregulation. Experimentally increased dorsal melanization can either
      increase or decrease the onset of flight activity and can directly alter
      thermoregulatory posture. For Pieris, dorsal melanization affects basking and
      flight, while ventral melanization primarily affects overheating. These results
      are used to generate a functional map relating melanization pattern to
      thermoregulatory performance in Pieris. Reflectance-basking posture, white
      background color, and melanization pattern represent coadapted characters in
      Pieris that interact to determine thermoregulatory performance. The differences
      in thermoregulatory posture and background color between pierid butterflies in
      the subfamilies Pierinae and Coliadinae have led to a reorganization and partial
      reversal of the thermoregulatory effects of melanization pattern. I suggest that
      this change in the physical mechanism of thermoregulatory adaption in pierids has
      qualitatively altered the nature of selection on wing-melanization pattern.

PMID- 28563800
TI  - DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION OF THE GENOME IN POPULATIONS OF THE MARINE
      COPEPOD TIGRIOPUS CALIFORNICUS.
AB  - Geographically separated populations of the intertidal copepod Tigriopus
      californicus are sharply differentiated at several enzyme-encoding gene loci. Two
      studies were performed to investigate the extent to which the gene pools of local
      populations are organized into harmoniously interacting (or "coadapted") gene
      complexes. In the first, the effects of interpopulation hybridization on
      development time were assessed. Results showed that while F1 hybrids did not
      differ from parental lines, mean F2 developmental times were as much as 50%
      longer. The second study used two unlinked enzyme polymorphisms as genetic
      markers to determine the genotypic specificity of F2 hybrid breakdown. For two
      sets of parental populations, the relative viabilities of the different two-locus
      genotypes were determined from segregation ratios among the F2 progeny. Sharp
      deviations from Mendelian ratios were observed; in the extreme, a block of genes
      marked by the MeF allozyme from the LJ (La Jolla) population was found to be
      nearly lethal when homozygous in the F2 of LJ * AB (Los Angeles) crosses. This
      same block of genes had a tenfold higher viability in crosses between LJ and SC
      (Santa Cruz). In the AB * LJ crosses, the two marker loci had independent
      (multiplicative) effects on viability. In the SC * LJ crosses, deviations from
      the multiplicative model were observed; the data indicate that parental
      homozygous genotypes have higher viability than predicted by independence, while
      nonparental homozygotes have lower than predicted viability. These results
      suggest that substantial integration of the genome has occurred within natural T.
      californicus populations.

PMID- 28563801
TI  - REALIZED GENE FLOW VIA POLLEN IN ARTIFICIAL POPULATIONS OF MUSK THISTLE, CARDUUS
      NUTANS L.
AB  - Realized gene flow via pollen was measured in four adjacent, artificial
      populations of musk thistle, Carduus nutans L. by observing the distribution of
      electrophoretic markers at two allozyme loci. Realized gene movement declined
      exponentially with distance. Dispersal distances of the marker alleles averaged
      5.0 m. Estimates of effective neighborhood sizes based on the movement of these
      genetic markers ranged from 126 to 378 individuals. When measures of seed
      movement were included, estimates of effective population sizes range from 1,281
      to 3,844 individuals. It is, therefore, unlikely that chance effects play a major
      role in shaping the genetic structure of well-established musk thistle
      populations.

PMID- 28563802
TI  - DELAYED MATURATION, NEOTENY, AND SOCIAL SYSTEM DIFFERENCES IN TWO MANAKINS OF THE
      GENUS CHIROXIPHIA.
AB  - Long-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia linearis) and swallow-tailed manakins (C.
      caudata) are closely related, sexually dichromatic, lek-breeding species in which
      male mating success is highly skewed. Males of both species delay plumage
      maturation. Before reaching the definitive state, they wear a sequence of feather
      coats less conspicuous than that of the adult. Nondefinitive plumages probably
      enhance male survival in the two species; in C. caudata they may also enhance
      breeding success of young males, who may be fully reproductively mature their
      first year. In C. linearis testicular development is retarded along with that of
      plumage, although males may be physiologically capable of breeding prior to the
      acquisition of the definitive plumage. This difference probably reflects
      differences in the social systems of the two species. Five hypotheses have been
      proposed to explain the evolution of delayed plumage maturation. The sexual
      selection, cryptic-breeder, and winter-adaptation hypotheses suggest that it
      functions primarily to enhance survival of young males. The juvenile- and female
      mimicry hypotheses emphasize enhancement of immediate mating success. Support is
      provided for all but the female-mimicry hypothesis; it is argued that data are
      more consistent with juvenile mimicry and a neotenic origin of nondefinitive
      plumages.

PMID- 28563803
TI  - ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT AND NICHE SHIFT. I. ADAPTIVE SHIFTS
      IN RESOURCE USE WHEN THERE IS COMPETITION FOR NUTRITIONALLY NONSUBSTITUTABLE
      RESOURCES.
AB  - This paper analyzes the influence of the nutritional status of resources on the
      adaptive response to interspecific competition in a consumer of those resources.
      The two cases compared are that in which the resources are nutritionally
      perfectly substitutable (in the sense of Leon and Tumpson [1975]) and that in
      which the resources are nonsubstitutable. Each nonsubstitutable resource must be
      consumed at a certain rate for population growth to occur. Evolutionarily stable
      strategies of resource utilization are found using models of competition for two
      resources. If competition occurs solely via the consumer species's effects on
      resource density, the adaptive response in a consumer's resource-acquisition
      traits is: a) divergence away from its competitor's resource-acquisition traits
      if resources are perfectly substitutable and b) convergence towards the
      competitor's resource-acquisition traits if resources are nonsubstitutable.
      Exceptions to both of these generalizations may occur if competitor population
      density affects a consumer species's per capita growth rate independently of
      effects on resource density. Plants and herbivores often use nonsubstitutable
      resources. The lack of studies of adaptive responses to competition in these
      organisms may be responsible for the lack of documented examples of competitive
      convergence.

PMID- 28563804
TI  - THE FUNCTION OF CALL ALTERNATION IN ANURAN AMPHIBIANS: A TEST OF THREE
      HYPOTHESES.
AB  - Males of many species of anurans alternate calls with those of their neighbors in
      a chorus. This pattern of calling reduces signal interference and may: 1)
      facilitate intermale spacing because males can better gauge the intensity of
      neighbors' calls if these calls do not overlap with their own; 2) help preserve
      species-specific temporal information in calls required to attract females;
      and/or 3) make it easier for females to localize males in the chorus. I tested
      these hypotheses with three species that exhibit call alternation, Hyla crucifer,
      H. versicolor, and H. microcephala. Males of all three species gave more
      aggressive calls to high-intensity synthetic stimuli that alternated with their
      calls than to those that overlapped their calls. These results support the first
      hypothesis. Results of four-speaker female choice experiments using alternating
      and overlapping calls indicate that preservation of signal integrity also is
      important in H. versicolor and H. microcephala, species that have fine-scale
      temporal information in their calls. However, the third hypothesis was not
      supported; females failed to discriminate among alternating and overlapping calls
      if the problem of signal disruption was eliminated or irrelevant.

PMID- 28563805
TI  - SEX ALLOCATION AND OUTCROSSING RATE: A TEST OF THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS USING
      BROMEGRASSES (BROMUS).
AB  - Predictions of sex-allocation theory were tested by comparisons among
      hermaphroditic bromegrass (Bromus) species that differed in outcrossing rate.
      Relative maternal and paternal investment were calculated using both the ratio of
      pollen to seed production, and absolute allocations in units of energy, nitrogen,
      phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Outcrossing rate had a large
      effect on sex allocation; species having greater outcrossing rates had relatively
      more paternal reproductive effort. Bromus inermis was obligately outcrossing, and
      nearly half of its reproductive effort was devoted to pollen production. Three
      partially outcrossed species, B. kalmii, B. ciliatus, and B. latiglumis, invested
      between 5% and 11% of reproductive effort in pollen production. Paternal
      investment was less than 2% in the selling species B. tectorum. Estimates of sex
      allocation were relatively unaffected by the resource currency used in
      calculation. The differences among species in sex allocation were mostly due to
      differences in anther size and seed set.>.

PMID- 28563806
TI  - DISSECTING CORRELATED CHARACTERS: ADAPTIVE ASPECTS OF PHENOTYPIC COVARIATION IN
      MELANIZATION PATTERN OF PIERIS BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - In this study we address the question of how much of the covariation among
      phenotypic characters observed in natural populations is adaptive. We examine
      covariation among a set of phenotypic characters that describe the wing
      melanization pattern of Pieris butterflies. Previous functional analyses of
      thermoregulatory performance allow us to predict a priori whether and how
      different wing melanic characters should be correlated. We quantify and analyze
      the variation in the wing-melanization pattern within species for a series of
      Pieris populations from relatively cool environments in North America and compare
      these results with the predictions based on our adaptive hypothesis. We consider
      adaptive covariation both for biogeographic variation among populations and for
      seasonal polyphenism (phenotypic plasticity) within populations. Our hypothesis
      correctly predicts many of the qualitative features of covariation in
      melanization among major regions of the wings, at the level of biogeographic
      variation among populations, for both males and females of Pieris occidentalis.
      When within-population variation is considered, agreement with the adaptive
      predictions varies considerably in different populations for both P. occidentalis
      and P. napi males and females. Agreement for P. napi, particularly the females,
      is generally poorer than for P. occidentalis. In both species, there is a
      consistent difference in melanization pattern between alpine and arctic sites;
      this difference is discussed in relation to the differences in the radiative
      environment between these two types of "cold" habitats. Our results suggest that
      some important aspects of phenotypic correlation among wing melanic characters in
      Pieris are adaptive. We emphasize the important distinction between covariation
      and co-occurrence of characters, and we discuss these results in relation to the
      extensive biogeographic variation and phenotypic plasticity (seasonal
      polyphenism) in Pieris wing-melanization patterns.

PMID- 28563807
TI  - EFFECTS OF AVIAN SEED DISPERSAL ON THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF WHITEBARK PINE
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - We used allozyme analysis to examine family structure, the spatial patterning of
      related individuals, in two populations of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a
      subalpine conifer that commonly displays a multistem form. The individual stems
      within clumps are genetically distinct individuals, having arisen from separate
      seeds. Individuals within a clump are genetically more similar than individuals
      in different clumps, but individuals in neighboring clumps do not appear to be
      more similar than individuals in distant clumps. This family structure appears to
      be a direct result of the seed-caching behavior of Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga
      columbiana), the primary dispersal agent for whitebark pine seeds.

PMID- 28563808
TI  - RANDOM MATING IN THE NORTHERN FLICKER HYBRID ZONE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EVOLUTION
      OF BRIGHT AND CONTRASTING PLUMAGE PATTERNS IN BIRDS.
AB  - The Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted Flickers hybridize in a narrow zone on the
      western Great Plains of North America. The two subspecies are markedly different
      in six plumage traits. Plumage phenotypes were scored for the male and female of
      125 mated pairs from the hybrid zone. Correlation analyses revealed no tendency
      towards pairing of similar phenotypes. A binomial test was performed to determine
      whether flickers that have parental phenotypes and are presumably immigrants
      rather than hybrids tend to choose mates similar to themselves. This test again
      indicated random mating in the hybrid zone. These data complement earlier reports
      in providing an additional test of alternative hybrid zone theories. Random
      mating along with evidence of high reproductive success in hybrids suggests that
      reinforcement of premating reproductive isolation is not occurring and that
      speciation will not result from the dynamics of the hybrid zone. At least some of
      the plumage traits seem to be important in the integrated courtship and
      territorial behaviors of flickers. Since these plumage differences have no
      significance in mate choice, it is inferred that they evolved in an intrasexual
      selection context rather than in intersexual or species-recognition contexts.
      Selection gradients appear to be important in restricting hybridization to a
      narrow zone. The gradients could result from ecological selection or from sexual
      selection.

PMID- 28563809
TI  - SAFETY FACTORS OF TROPICAL VERSUS TEMPERATE LIMPET SHELLS: MULTIPLE SELECTION
      PRESSURES ON A SINGLE STRUCTURE.
AB  - A comparison of the safety factors of tropical and temperate limpet shells in the
      eastern Pacific yielded two results of significance. A safety factor was defined
      as shell strength/maximum tenacity, where maximum tenacity (force required to
      detach foot) determines the maximum prying force that a crab or bird predator can
      exert on the shell. 1) On average, shell strength and foot tenacity for the
      tropical limpets were twice those for the temperate limpets. In contrast, the
      average safety factors for the two groups were approximately equal. This
      comparatively narrow range of safety factors was due to a highly significant
      association of greater shell strengths with greater foot tenacities. The
      implication of this result is that selection has acted to closely link the
      mechanical performances of these two rather independent structures, the shell and
      the foot. 2) The presence of an additional class of predators which feed on the
      tropical limpets was reflected in the safety factors of their shells. Whereas the
      shells of both tropical and temperate limpets are exposed to predator-induced
      prying forces, the shells of the tropical group are also exposed to lateral
      crushing forces generated by fish predators. This additional selection pressure
      was associated with several deviations from a regression of safety factor versus
      variability in shell strength which had been calculated previously for the
      temperate limpets. As predicted, the magnitudes of these deviations were
      correlated with the degree of exposure to this additional selection pressure.
      Hence, the presence of more than one selection pressure appears to have
      influenced the precision with which the shells of these species have become
      adapted to a single selection pressure. The use of safety factor analysis
      provides a very useful methodology for identifying additional selection pressures
      or adaptive constraints on biological structures.

PMID- 28563810
TI  - A TEST OF THE SIB-COMPETITION HYPOTHESIS FOR OUTCROSSING ADVANTAGE IN IMPATIENS
      CAPENSIS.
AB  - One of the potential selective mechanisms invoked in discussions of breeding
      system evolution is that competition within sibships increases the fitness of
      outcrossed progeny relative to selfed progeny. We tested this sib-competition
      hypothesis using cleistogamous (CL) and chasmogamous (CH) seeds of Impatiens
      capensis in a large greenhouse experiment. The experimental design was a double
      replacement series which also allowed us to test for inbreeding depression and
      overall resource partitioning among sibships. We found no evidence for strong
      inbreeding depression in the study population; although plants from CH seeds had
      a slight advantage over plants from CL seeds in total flower and pod production,
      CL plants had slightly higher growth. We also could not detect significant
      resource partitioning among sibships nor any evidence to support the sib
      competition hypothesis for outcrossing advantage. CH sibships were not
      significantly more variable than CL sibships in any of the phenotypic traits
      measured. These results suggest that sibling competition may have little
      importance in the evolution of Impatiens breeding systems.

PMID- 28563811
TI  - ADAPTATION AND RULES OF FORM: CHIRALITY AND SHAPE IN PARTULA SUTURALIS.

PMID- 28563812
TI  - POLLINATION IN FLORAL SCENT MORPHS OF POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM: A MECHANISM FOR
      DISRUPTIVE SELECTION ON FLOWER SIZE.
AB  - Plants of Polemonium viscosum have flowers that are either sweet or skunky in
      scent. The two morphs are preferentially pollinated by insects of strongly
      contrasting body size: bumblebee queens specialize on sweet flowers, flies on
      skunky ones. In this study 13 characters were examined in plant specimens from
      five populations to identify major components of intraspecific variation in
      flower and inflorescence morphology and test their correlation with floral scent.
      Factor analysis identified four major axes of morphological variation. The first
      explained 22% of the variance among specimens and correlated strongly with four
      flower size characters: sepal length, corolla tube length, corolla lobe width,
      and corolla lobe length. Floral scent morphs differed significantly in the
      multivariate representation of flower size defined by these characters. Sweet
      flowers had wider corolla lobes, longer corolla tubes, and longer sepals than
      skunky ones. Corolla lobe width accounted for the greatest amount of intermorph
      divergence. Divergence in flower size between morphs was maintained in mixed
      populations at four locations in alpine Colorado, with corollas of sweet flowers
      significantly broader or more flared than those of skunky flowers. Patterns of
      pollen receipt suggest that this difference is adaptive. In the sweet morph,
      pollination intensity and purity increased significantly with corolla flare.
      Conversely, in the skunky morph, corolla flare had little influence on
      pollination intensity and had a strong negative effect on purity. These findings
      suggest that selection for effective pollination should favor intraspecific
      divergence in flower size in Polemonium viscosum.

PMID- 28563813
TI  - FORAGER BEHAVIOR, POLLEN DISPERSAL, AND INBREEDING IN TWO SPECIES OF HUMMINGBIRD
      POLLINATED PLANTS.

PMID- 28563814
TI  - RAPID GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AND FOUNDER EFFECT IN COLONIZING POPULATIONS OF
      COMMON MYNAS (ACRIDOTHERES TRISTIS).
AB  - Populations of common mynas introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii,
      and South Africa from India during the last century were compared genetically
      with the extant native population using isozyme electrophoresis of 39 presumptive
      loci. Average heterozygosity, mean number of alleles/locus, and the percentage of
      polymorphic loci are lower in the introduced populations, and the 18% loss of
      alleles involves only alleles that are rare in the native population. The native
      population is only weakly subdivided genetically (FST = 0.032) whereas the
      introduced populations are much more differentiated (FST = 0.123), and the mean
      genetic distance among them is significantly greater than among native samples.
      The reduction in mean number of alleles/locus and average heterozygosity is
      greatest in the South African population, consistent with a very small effective
      size in the founder population. In the introduced populations, random drift is
      implicated by the different subsets of polymorphic loci they possess, by their
      greater variance in allele frequencies, and by shifts either side of the native
      means. It is concluded that in the evolutionarily short period of 100-120 years,
      bottlenecks and random drift have promoted genetic shifts equal to those between
      different subspecies of birds.

PMID- 28563815
TI  - IS THE EXTREMELY LOW HETEROZYGOSITY LEVEL IN YPONOMEUTA RORELLUS CAUSED BY
      BOTTLENECKS?
AB  - Among the common and widespread species of the small ermine moths (Yponomeuta)
      the almost complete absence of genetic variability from a sample of 75 protein
      loci is a striking feature of Y. rorellus. Congeners exhibit normal to high H
      levels. At least for soluble proteins, this variation estimate is a real one, not
      resulting from an inability of the zymogram technique to detect variation nor
      from a biased sample of loci. The most likely explanation for the dearth of
      variation observed is a bottleneck at the species' origin. Moreover, ongoing
      population-size fluctations in the historical past of Y. rorellus may have
      prevented the recovery of equilibrium H levels as a consequence of genetic drift
      in small populations.

PMID- 28563817
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL INHERITANCE PATTERNS ACROSS A COTTONWOOD HYBRID ZONE: CYTONUCLEAR
      DISEQUILIBRIA AND HYBRID ZONE DYNAMICS.
AB  - In this study we examine the cytoplasmic inheritance patterns of an interspecific
      hybridizing population of Fremont and narrowleaf cottonwoods, using mitochondrial
      DNA. Three mitochondrial probes showing polymorphisms were used to distinguish
      between trees of known nuclear inheritance. Every tree screened had only one
      cytoplasmic genotype, either Fremont or narrowleaf. Thus, these results
      demonstrate that mitochondria are uniparentally inherited in these trees.
      Previous studies of the nuclear inheritance of this interspecific hybridizing
      population of cottonwood trees indicated an asymmetry in the frequency of
      parental genes. Using mitochondrial markers we tested one hypothesis potentially
      responsible for this asymmetric distribution (i.e., trees of mixed genotypes will
      be sterile or will not survive if their cytoplasm is derived from one or the
      other parent). Our results, however, show that both Fremont and narrowleaf
      mitochondrial markers are found in trees with mixed nuclear genotypes. Thus,
      nuclear-cytoplasmic incompatibilities do not appear to account for the asymmetric
      distribution of nuclear genotypes within the hybrid swarm. An alternative
      explanation for the observed asymmetric distribution of nuclear genotypes is
      advanced. Although nuclear-cytoplasmic incompatibilities do not appear to explain
      the asymmetric distribution of nuclear alleles within the hybrid zone, nonrandom
      associations between nuclear and cytoplasmic genotypes do exist. For example, all
      F1 hybrids had Fremont mitochondrial genotypes. Furthermore, backcrosses between
      F1 hybrid and narrowleaf trees have a higher than expected proportion of
      heterozygous loci and a higher than expected proportion of Fremont mitochondria.
      We propose that seeds, seedlings, or trees with high proportions of heterozygous
      loci are at a disadvantage unless they also have the Fremont mitochondrial
      genotype. While it is generally difficult to infer dynamic processes from static
      patterns, studies such as ours enable one to gain new insights to the dynamics of
      plant hybrid zones. A hybridization pattern of decreasingly complex backcrosses
      as one proceeds from higher to lower elevation within the hybrid swarm, a residue
      of Fremont cytoplasmic DNA within the pure narrowleaf population, and the
      unidirectional nature of these crosses suggest that the narrowleaf population may
      be spreading down the canyon and the Fremont population receding. The eventual
      fate of the hybrid zone, in relation to these processes, is discussed.

PMID- 28563818
TI  - GENETICS OF PRECALLING PERIOD IN THE ORIENTAL ARMYWORM, MYTHIMNA SEPARATA
      (WALKER) (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE), AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MIGRATION.
AB  - Migration in insects usually occurs prereproductively so the precalling period,
      between emergence and the first release of pheromone, determines the number of
      nights over which females of migrants such as Mythimna separata can express their
      migratory potential. Precalling periods (PCP's) ranged from 3 to 21 nights in F1
      females from insects collected in the field in eastern China. As technical
      problems precluded the use of a sib-analysis design, the genetic basis of this
      variation was investigated by analysis of the correlation between daughters' and
      mother's PCP's and by selection in isofemale lines followed by reciprocal
      crosses. The results of these analyses indicated that PCP is strongly influenced
      by genes located on the X chromosome, inherited from the male parent in
      Lepidoptera. Genetic regulation of migratory potential, of which PCP is a crucial
      component, can be expected to evolve in tropical species such as Mythimna
      separata, whose larval habitats are associated with unpredictable tropical
      rainfall. This species has no preimaginal diapause but makes regular seasonal
      incursions every spring and early summer to high temperate latitudes at which it
      cannot overwinter. Where migrants are carried by winds, as occurs in these
      migrations, the predominantly poleward winds at this time of year must create a
      genetic cline across latitude, in which migratory potential of the summer
      populations founded by the migrants increases with increasing latitude. We
      suggest that X-linkage of genes influencing PCP may reduce the genetic load
      associated with this polymorphism by reducing the frequencies of inappropriate
      PCP genotypes in these summer populations. Thus, in autumn when winds are
      predominantly northerly, fewer individuals at any latitude will lack the
      capability to make the return journey southward. Some support for this model is
      provided by the observed distributions of PCP's of F1 females from moths
      collected in the field in central and northern eastern China. If X-linkage of
      genes influencing PCP contributes to the stability of these migratory cycles, it
      can be expected in other species with similar migratory strategies.

PMID- 28563819
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF COSTLY MATE PREFERENCES I. FISHER AND BIASED MUTATION.
AB  - Fisher's runaway process is the standard explanation of the evolution of
      exaggerated female preferences. But mathematical formulations of Fisher's process
      (haploid and additive diploid) show it cannot cause stable exaggeration if female
      preference carries a cost. At equilibrium female fitness must be maximized. Our
      analysis shows that evolutionary stable exaggeration of female preference can be
      achieved if mutation pressure on the male character is biased, that is, mutation
      has a directional effect. At this equilibrium female fitness is not maximized. We
      discuss the reasons and evidence for believing that mutation pressure is
      typically biased. Our analysis highlights the previously unacknowledged
      importance of biased mutation for sexual selection.

PMID- 28563820
TI  - SEXUAL ISOLATION AMONG POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS.

PMID- 28563821
TI  - EVOLUTION OF GENERALISTS AND SPECIALISTS IN SPATIALLY HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - Quantitative genetic models are used to investigate the evolution of generalists
      and specialists in a coarse-grained environment with two habitat types when there
      are costs attached to being a generalist. The outcomes for soft and hard
      selection models are qualitatively different. Under soft selection (e.g., for
      juvenile or male-reproductive traits) the population evolves towards the single
      peak in the adaptive landscape. At equilibrium, the population mean phenotype is
      a compromise between the reaction that would be optimal in both habitats and the
      reaction with the lowest cost. Furthermore, the equilibrium is closer to the
      optimal phenotype in the most frequent habitat, or the habitat in which selection
      on the focal trait is stronger. A specialist genotype always has a lower fitness
      than a generalist, even when the costs are high. In contrast, under hard
      selection (e.g., for adult or female-reproductive traits) the adaptive landscape
      can have one, two, or three peaks; a peak represents a population specialized to
      one habitat, equally adapted to both habitats, or an intermediate. One peak is
      always found when the reaction with the lowest cost is not much different from
      the optimal reaction, and this situation is similar to the soft selection case.
      However, multiple peaks are present when the costs become higher, and the course
      of evolution is then determined by initial conditions, and the region of
      attraction of each peak. This implies that the evolution of specialization and
      phenotypic plasticity may not only depend on selection regimes within habitats,
      but also on contingent, historical events (migration, mutation). Furthermore, the
      evolutionary dynamics in changing environments can be widely different for
      populations under hard and soft selection. Approaches to measure costs in natural
      and experimental populations are discussed.

PMID- 28563822
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON FLORAL TRAITS IN TWO SPECIES OF LOBELIA WITH DIFFERENT
      POLLINATORS.
AB  - Using both multivariate and univariate regression techniques, I measured
      selection acting through female reproductive success in two hermaphroditic
      species with precise pollen placement but different pollinators: hummingbird
      pollinated Lobelia cardinalis and bumblebee-pollinated L. siphilitica. Six traits
      were analyzed in two populations of L. cardinalis and one population of L.
      siphilitica: flower number, mean number of flowers open per day, inflorescence
      height, number of days in flower, median-flower date and nectar-stigma distance.
      In another study it was found that female reproductive success in one population
      of L. cardinalis was much less pollen limited than in the other two populations,
      and it was therefore expected that selection of female reproductive traits in
      this population would be weaker. In the univariate analyses correlations caused
      nearly all traits to have significant directional selection coefficients.
      However, in the multivariate analyses no traits in L. siphilitica experienced
      directional or quadratic selection. Selection acted differently in the two L.
      cardinalis populations. The less pollen-limited population experienced positive
      directional selection on flower number and median-flower date, while in the other
      L. cardinalis population there was positive directional selection on flower
      number and nectar-stigma distance and both positive directional and positive
      quadratic selection on height. The functional significance of floral traits in
      these two species and the probable effect of increased sample sizes are
      discussed.

PMID- 28563823
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL GENOTYPES HAVE NO DETECTABLE EFFECTS ON MERISTIC TRAITS IN
      CUTTHROAT TROUT HYBRID SWARMS.
AB  - Efforts to detect effects of cytoplasmic genes are confounded by the problem of
      partitioning nuclear and cytoplasmic effects. In this study we test for effects
      of mtDNA haplotype on development in hybrid populations of cutthroat trout
      (Oncorhynchus clarki) with randomly associated nuclear and mtDNA genotypes. We
      have previously described several intraspecific hybrid swarms formed by
      interbreeding of westslope cutthroat trout (O. c. lewisi) and Yellowstone
      cutthroat trout (O. c. bouvieri). Genetic distance between these subspecies is
      high (Nei's D = 0.30; mtDNA P = 0.02), and diagnostic alleles at multiple nuclear
      loci and two distinct mtDNA haplotypes are present in the hybrids. Historical
      associations between alleles at nuclear loci and between cytotypes and nuclear
      alleles have largely decayed. We test for differences in meristic characters
      between fish with alternate mtDNA haplotypes. Counts and fluctuating bilateral
      asymmetry for these characters have been previously shown to be sensitive
      indicators of genetic differences that affect development. No differences were
      found between mtDNA types in meristic counts or fluctuating asymmetry. Therefore,
      the alternate mtDNA haplotypes had no detectable effect on development as
      measured by meristic counts in these hybrid populations. However, diagnostic
      alleles at one nuclear allozyme locus (CK-CI) were associated with several fin
      ray counts.

PMID- 28563824
TI  - OIL FLOWERS AND OIL BEES: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR POLLINATOR ADAPTATION.
AB  - We examined foreleg length and body size variation in two species of oil
      collecting bees (Rediviva; Melittidae) in southern Africa. Oil-collecting bees
      harvest oil from host flowers by rubbing their forelegs against oil-secreting
      trichomes. Significant differences in foreleg length occur among populations of
      both species. Rediviva "pallidula" populations vary significantly in mean foreleg
      length (11.34 +/- 0.42 mm to 12.67 +/- 0.36 mm), but not in body length (10.59 +/
      0.74 to 10.80 +/- 0.64), and foreleg length and body size are not significantly
      correlated. Instead, foreleg variation appears to be a function of host plant
      spur length. Ninety-two percent of the variance in foreleg length of R.
      "pallidula" is explained by mean Diascia spur length. Rediviva rufocincta
      populations vary significantly in mean foreleg length (10.12 +/- 0.70 mm to 12.34
      +/- 0.68 mm) and in body length (9.03 +/- 0.26 mm to 10.56 +/- 0.24 mm). Foreleg
      length scales allometrically with body size in this species as 90.5% of the
      variance in foreleg length can be explained as a function of body length. Body
      size appears to be constrained by the morphology of the oil-secreting host plant.
      Both bees collect floral oil with specially modified setae on the tarsi of their
      forelegs. The length of the disti- + mediotarsus (refered to here as "tarsus") in
      relation to the entire foreleg is shorter in R. rufocincta and does not increase
      as rapidly with increasing foreleg length as for R. "pallidula." These
      differences in variation can be attributed to differences in position of oil
      within the flowers of the respective host plants. Rediviva "pallidula" collects
      oil from Diascia species that have the oil deeply situated in narrow floral spurs
      of varying length, while R. rufocincta collects oil from the broadly saccate
      flowers of Bowkeria verticillata and B. citrina.

PMID- 28563825
TI  - THE POTENTIAL FOR GENETIC EXCHANGE BY TRANSFORMATION WITHIN A NATURAL POPULATION
      OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS.
AB  - We have investigated the potential for genetic exchange by transformation within
      a Mojave Desert population of Bacillus subtilis. Almost all strains surveyed were
      competent for transformation, and the strains varied over almost three orders of
      magnitude in their levels of competence. This high degree of variation suggests
      that natural selection toward an optimal level of competence is, at most, very
      weak in this population. Six of 24 competent strains showed sexual isolation from
      laboratory strain 168 (i.e., heterogamic transformation was reduced). Direct
      crosses between selected pairs of Mojave strains indicated sexual isolation
      within the Mojave population. Levels of sexual isolation observed within this
      population of B. subtilis were much less than those previously observed for
      transformation between named Bacillus species. Sexual isolation between 168 and
      Mojave strains, and among Mojave strains, was due to differences in restriction
      modification systems and to DNA sequence divergence.

PMID- 28563826
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY DIFFERENCES IN ADJACENT WATER STRIDER POPULATIONS: PHENOTYPIC
      PLASTICITY OR HERITABLE RESPONSES TO STREAM TEMPERATURE?

PMID- 28563827
TI  - MOLECULAR AND GEOLOGIC EVIDENCE OF SHARED HISTORY BETWEEN HERMIT CRABS AND THE
      SYMBIOTIC GENUS HYDRACTINIA.
AB  - The paleobiogeographic histories of three North Atlantic hermit crab lineages
      were compared with a single-copy DNA-DNA hybridization phylogeny of their
      symbiotic hydroid genus Hydractinia to test hypotheses of shared history between
      these host and symbiont lineages. A survey of the geologic literature suggests
      that two vicariance events in the Quaternary are responsible for existing range
      disjunctions of the host hermit crab lineages. The Hydractinia phylogeny revealed
      two distinct clades, one with a primarily northern and the other with a primarily
      southern distribution. In two of three cases, hydroids associated with closely
      related hermits on both sides of the range disjunction appear as sister taxa in
      the phylogeny. A linear scaling between a measure of hydroid sequence divergence
      and independent geologic estimates of the timing of the vicariant events believed
      to have established the hermit crab range disjunctions is consistent with the
      claim of temporal coincidence of cladogenic and vicariance events. These findings
      provide evidence for shared history of symbiotic associations in two of the three
      cases.

PMID- 28563828
TI  - COMPONENTS OF PHENOTYPIC SELECTION: POLLEN EXPORT AND FLOWER COROLLA WIDTH IN
      IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA.
AB  - In the hummingbird-pollinated herb Ipomopsis aggregata, selection through male
      function during pollination favors wide corolla tubes. We explored the mechanisms
      behind this selection, using phenotypic selection analysis to compare effects of
      corolla width on two components of male pollination success, pollinator visit
      rate and pollen exported per visit. During single visits by captive hummingbirds,
      flowers with wider corollas exported more pollen, and more dye used as a pollen
      analogue, to stigmas of recipient flowers. Corolla width was less strongly
      related to visit rate in the field, and had no direct effect on visit rate after
      nectar production and corolla length were controlled for. Moreover, the
      phenotypic selection differential was 80% higher for the effect on pollen
      exported per visit, suggesting that this is the more important mechanism of
      selection.

PMID- 28563829
TI  - DEVELOPMENT, FUNCTION, AND THE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF WING MELANIN PATTERN IN
      PIERIS BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Do genetic correlations among phenotypic characters reflect developmental
      organization or functional coadaptation of the characters? We test these
      hypotheses for the wing melanin pattern of Pieris occidentalis butterflies, by
      comparing estimated genetic correlations among wing melanin characters with a
      priori predictions of the developmental organization and the functional
      (thermoregulatory) organization of melanin pattern. There were significant broad
      sense heritabilities and significant genetic correlations for most melanin
      characters. Matrix correlation tests revealed significant agreement between the
      observed genetic correlations and both developmental and functional predictions
      in most cases; this occurred even when the overlap between developmental and
      functional predictions was eliminated. These results suggest that both
      developmental organization and functional coadaptation among melanin characters
      influence the genetic correlation structure of melanin pattern in this species.
      These results have two important implications for the evolution of melanin
      pattern in P. occidentalis and other butterflies: 1) most phenotypic variation in
      pattern may reflect variation among, rather than within, sets of developmentally
      homologous wing melanin characters; and 2) in a changing selective environment,
      genetic correlations may retard the disruption of functionally coupled melanin
      characters, thus affecting the evolutionary response to selection.

PMID- 28563830
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF POLISH POPULATIONS OF SOREX ARANEUS L. III.
      INTERCHROMOSOMAL RECOMBINATION IN A HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Two parapatric chromosomal races of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) in Poland
      differ in their complement of metacentric arm combinations: hk, io, gr, nm (race
      IV), and hi, ko, gm, np (race II). In hybrids, these eight race-diagnostic
      metacentrics form two randomly segregating complexes. The first complex (C1 )
      occurs in the form of a ring configuration ok/kh/hi/io, or a chain o/ok/kh/hi/i
      (when there is Robertsonian polymorphism of the element io). The second complex
      (C2 ) always takes the form of a six-element chain configuration r/rg/gm/mn/np/p.
      The C2 complex may be shortened to five or even four elements, when acrocentrics
      g, m and n are present. In the contact zone we found shrews of pure races (race
      II or IV), as well as hybrids with C1 or C2 complexes, and recombinants hi, ko,
      gr, nm. Complex heterozygotes are likely to suffer reduced fertility due to
      malsegregation at meiosis. However, the C1 hybrids with ring configurations occur
      with a high frequency throughout the contact zone. This suggest that their
      fitness is only slightly lowered relative to pure race individuals, in contrast
      to the hybrids with C1 or C2 chain configurations, which presumably have a more
      heavily reduced fertility. On the other hand, at the center of the zone there is
      a high proportion of recombinants, which, being chromosomal homozygotes, should
      display normal meiotic segregation. Furthermore, the high frequencies of
      recombinants within the contact zone should facilitate gene flow between the
      races. The occurrence of recombinants plays a similar role as the appearance of
      the maximum frequencies of acrocentric homozygotes described in several contact
      zones of S. araneus.

PMID- 28563831
TI  - TESTING FOR DEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRAINTS: CARPAL FUSIONS IN URODELES.

PMID- 28563832
TI  - ON EVOLUTION UNDER SEXUAL AND VIABILITY SELECTION: A TWO-LOCUS DIPLOID MODEL.
AB  - A two-locus diploid model of sexual selection is presented in which the two loci
      govern, respectively, a trait limited in expression in one sex (generally male)
      and the mating preferences of the other sex (generally female). The viability of
      a male depends on its genotype at the trait locus. In contrast, all females are
      equally viable and all individuals are equally fertile with respect to the two
      loci. Near fixation at both loci, evolution at the mating locus is neutral and
      hence a new mating preference allele will increase only through random genetic
      drift or through a correlated response to the increase of a new advantageous
      trait allele. If, however, a polymorphism is already maintained at the trait
      locus through overdominance in fitness then the increase of a rare preference
      allele depends only on the recombination rate between the loci and not on the new
      preference scheme.

PMID- 28563833
TI  - STRUCTURE OF AN ASYMMETRIC HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO WATER STRIDER SPECIES
      (HEMIPTERA: GERRIDAE: LIMNOPORUS).
AB  - The water stricter species Limnoporus dissortis and L. notabilis hybridize across
      a broad zone in western Canada. Body length and alleles at four allozyme loci
      show a steep cline along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains in western
      Alberta, while in central British Columbia the parental phenotypes coexist
      without merging fully. One sex-linked locus shows little introgression, while
      there is apparently considerable gene flow at three autosomal loci. Although the
      hybrid zone has characteristics of a broad tension zone, the spatial distribution
      of introgression suggests that habitat patchiness and differential habitat
      associations of the two species also contribute to the pattern of hybridization.
      Asymmetry in interspecific mating success and incompatibilities of sex
      chromosomes with each other or with cytoplasmic factors appear to account for the
      occurrence of L. dissortis genotypes within the range of L. notabilis, and the
      lack of L. notabilis genotypes within the range of L. dissortis. The genetic
      structure of this hybrid zone supports the importance of sex-linked traits in
      maintaining the integrity of species, while its spatial structure suggests that
      extrinsic habitat features can combine with intrinsic genetic incompatibilities
      to produce complex hybrid interactions.

PMID- 28563834
TI  - SEX-SPECIFIC REPRODUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES OF BODY SIZE IN THE SOLITARY
      ECTOPARASITOID, DIGLYPHUS BEGINI.

PMID- 28563835
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF COSTLY MATE PREFERENCES II. THE "HANDICAP" PRINCIPLE.
AB  - We use a general additive quantitative genetic model to study the evolution of
      costly female mate choice by the "handicap" principle. Two necessary conditions
      must be satisfied for costly preference to evolve. The conditions are (i) biased
      mutation pressure on viability and (ii) a direct relationship between the degree
      of expression of the male mating character and viability. These two conditions
      explain the success and failure of previous models of the "handicap" principle.
      Our model also applies to other sources of fitness variation like migration and
      host-parasite coevolution, which cause effects equivalent to biased mutation.

PMID- 28563836
TI  - POECILIA MEXICANA IS THE RECENT FEMALE PARENT OF THE UNISEXUAL FISH P. FORMOSA.

PMID- 28563838
TI  - VARIATION IN PREFERENCE AND SPECIFICITY IN MONOPHAGOUS AND OLIGOPHAGOUS
      SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Although variation in oviposition preference and specificity for host plants has
      been demonstrated within populations of a variety of oligophagous insect species,
      it is unknown whether genetic variation in host choice is lost within populations
      of monophagous species. Analysis of a locally monophagous butterfly species,
      Papilio oregonius, and a locally oligophagous species, P. zelicaon, showed
      significant variation in oviposition preference within populations of both
      species. Females of both species chose primarily their native hosts. Nonetheless,
      the percentages of eggs laid by individual females among the plant species and
      the number of plant species on which individual females laid eggs differed
      significantly among isofemale strains within populations. Moreover, some females
      within all isofemale strains of both species laid a few eggs on Foeniculum
      vulgare, an umbelliferous species that does not occur in the native habitats of
      these populations but is a host for Papilio species in other geographic areas.
      The results suggest that local monophagy and oligophagy in these species reflect
      the relative ranking among potential plant species. Both populations harbor
      variation in oviposition choice that could allow for host shifts if these
      populations invaded new habitats.

PMID- 28563837
TI  - ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN MITOCHONDRIAL AND NUCLEAR GENOTYPES IN CUTTHROAT TROUT
      HYBRID SWARMS.
AB  - We examined mtDNA and nuclear allozyme genotypes in hybrid populations formed
      from interbreeding of westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi) and
      Yellowstone cutthroat trout (O. c. bouvieri). These subspecies show substantial
      genetic divergence (Nei's D = 0.30; mtDNA P = 0.02). Diagnostic alleles at
      multiple nuclear loci and two distinct mtDNA haplotypes segregate in the hybrids.
      Nuclear and mtDNA genotypes are largely randomly associated, although there is
      slight disequilibrium in both nuclear and cytonuclear measures in some samples.
      Consistent positive gametic disequilibria for three pairs of nuclear loci confirm
      one previously reported linkage, and indicate two more. Allele frequencies
      provide no evidence for selection on individual chromosome segments. However,
      westslope mtDNA haplotype frequencies exceed westslope nuclear allele frequencies
      in all samples. This may be explained by differences in the frequency of
      occurrence of reciprocal F1 matings, by viability, fertility, or sex ratio
      differences in the progeny of reciprocal matings, or by weak selection on mtDNA
      haplotypes.

PMID- 28563839
TI  - ONTOGENETIC VARIATION IN PATTERNS OF PHENOTYPIC INTEGRATION IN THE LABORATORY
      RAT.
AB  - I used confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the ability of causal
      developmental models to predict observed phenotypic integration in limb and skull
      measures at five stages of postnatal ontogeny in the laboratory rat. To analyze
      the dynamics of phenotypic integration, I fit successive age-classes
      simultaneously to a common model. Growth was the principal developmental
      explanation of observed phenotypic covariation in the limb and skull. No complex
      morphogenetic model more adequately reconstructed observed covariance structure.
      Models that could not be interpreted in embryological terms, coupled with a
      growth component, provide the best models for observed phenotypic integration.
      During postnatal growth, some aspects of integration vary in both the skull and
      limb. The covariance between factors and the proportion of variance unique to
      each character differ between some sequential age-classes. The factor-pattern is
      invariant in the limb; however, repatterning in the skull occurs in the interval
      between eye-opening and weaning. The temporal variation in the structure of
      covariation suggests that functional interactions among characters may create
      observed patterns of phenotypic integration. The developmental constraints
      responsible for evolutionary modification of phenotypes might be equally dynamic
      and responsive to embryonic functional interactions.

PMID- 28563840
TI  - SEX-INVESTMENT RATIOS AND RELATEDNESS IN THE MONOGYNOUS ANT LASIUS NIGER (L.).
AB  - The genetic variation at two marker loci in three populations of the monogynous
      ant Lasius niger was used to analyze the importance of relatedness structure to
      sex-investment ratios in sexuals produced by colonies living in different
      resource conditions. From a resource-rich monoculture to a population in a
      resource-limited environment, dry weight investment in queens decreased from
      female-biased (0.76) to equality with male investment (Boomsma et al., 1982). The
      investment ratios in sexuals expected from the estimated relatedness ratios,
      resulting from kin-selection theory (Trivers and Hare, 1976), were in good
      agreement with the observed ratios in all populations. This indicated that the
      workers can capitalize on the asymmetry in relatedness, opposing the queen's
      interest, despite the contrast in environmental conditions in the different
      populations. This asymmetry, however, almost disappeared in the marginal
      population, due to a high frequency of double mating and worker production of
      males, resulting in a much reduced queen-worker conflict. We suggest that
      different levels of polyandry might be favored at different points of the
      resource gradient, with the sex ratio secondarily depending on these polyandry
      levels. As there was no population subdivision or spatial structure within the
      populations, group-selection and local-mate-competition models cannot account for
      the observed female-biased ratios, whereas they were rather accurately predicted
      by kin-selection theory.

PMID- 28563841
TI  - RESPONSES TO SELECTION AMONG LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN A NONMIGRATORY POPULATION OF
      MILKWEED BUGS (ONCOPELTUS FASCIATUS).
AB  - Genetic parameters were assessed in the nonmigratory Puerto Rico population of
      the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, and compared with parameters estimated in
      a migratory population from Iowa (Palmer and Dingle, 1986). Offspring-parent
      regression analysis provided initial estimates of heritabilities and phenotypic
      and genetic correlations among wing length, head-capsule width, female age at
      first reproduction, fecundity for the first and second five days of reproduction
      by females, and clutch size for the first and second five days of reproduction by
      females. Replicated bidirectional selection for wing length was then imposed,
      with a direct response to selection revealing substantial additive genetic
      variance for this trait, as was also the case with the Iowa population. Assays
      for correlated response to selection yielded two further similarities to Iowa: a
      positive response in head-capsule width and no consistent response in age at
      first reproduction. In contrast to the results with Iowa bugs, neither regression
      analysis nor selection revealed statistically significant genetic correlations
      between fecundity measures and those of other traits. In both populations the
      potential exists for body-size characters to evolve together independently of age
      at first reproduction; but in the nonmigratory Puerto Rico bugs, fecundity does
      not contribute to a life-history syndrome involving genetic correlations among
      these traits.

PMID- 28563842
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND HETEROCHRONY IN TWO SPECIES OF COWRIES (GENUS CYPRAEA).
AB  - Geographic variation in the marine, Indo-Pacific cowry, Cypraea caputserpentis,
      involves clinal variations that parallel the ontogenetic development of adult
      shell characteristics. Cypraea caputdraconis, a closely related species endemic
      to Easter Island and Sala y Gomez, is morphologically similar to juvenile C.
      caputserpentis. Using multivariate measures of size and shape, I examine these
      patterns as a possible outcome of heterochrony, or changes in the timing of
      developmental events in ontogeny. Whorl-expansion rates of juvenile shells are
      significantly higher in C. caputdraconis when compared to C. caputserpentis and
      are negatively correlated with surface seawater temperatures among populations of
      C caputserpentis. High expansion rates, often associated with slow growth, result
      in a delay in the onset of lateral callus development and subsequent
      paedomorphosis. Ontogenetic trajectories calculated from growth series of adult
      and preadult shells indicate that paedomorphosis results from the combined
      effects of neoteny and post-displacement. Paedomorphosis among cowries may result
      from the advantages of larger body size relative to shell size under reduced
      predation intensities and associated increases in fecundity.

PMID- 28563843
TI  - CONSTRAINTS ON REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT: A COMPARISON BETWEEN AQUATIC AND
      TERRESTRIAL SNAKES.
AB  - Life-history theory predicts that "costs" of reproduction may be important
      evolutionary determinants of reproductive investment; previous studies on
      reptiles indicate that decrements to maternal mobility may be among the most
      important components of such costs. Biomechanical models suggest that
      reproductive investment in aquatic snakes may be constrained by the important
      locomotory role of the posterior part of the body during swimming: carrying eggs
      or offspring in this region would more seriously impair locomotory efficiency in
      swimming than in terrestrial lateral undulation. If this constraint is important,
      aquatic snakes would be expected to have lower clutch masses relative to body
      mass than terrestrial species and to carry the clutch in a more anterior position
      (commencing at the same proportion of maternal body length anteriorly, but not
      extending as far posteriorly). Comparisons between aquatic and terrestrial snakes
      of several families confirm these predictions. Phylogenetic analysis suggests
      that this pattern of reduced reproductive investment has evolved independently in
      each of the four ophidian lineages that contain marine species (acrochordids,
      homalopsine colubrids, laticaudid sea snakes, and hydrophiid sea snakes).
      Although it thus seems likely that these patterns represent adaptations to
      aquatic versus terrestrial life, the nature of the selective forces involved
      remains speculative. The hypothesis based on locomotory impairment of gravid
      females has better empirical support than any alternative hypothesis, as it
      successfully predicts modifications in the position of the clutch within the
      female's body, as well as overall reduced reproductive investment.

PMID- 28563844
TI  - CLONAL-DIVERSITY PATTERNS AND BREEDING-SYSTEM VARIATION IN DAPHNIA PULEX, AN
      ASEXUAL-SEXUAL COMPLEX.
AB  - Some individuals of the cladoceran crustacean, Daphnia pulex, reproduce by cyclic
      parthenogenesis, while others are obligate parthenogens. Cyclic parthenogenesis
      is the primitive breeding system; the transition to obligate parthenogenesis has
      been linked to sex-limited meiosis-suppression. Detailed study of patterns of
      breeding-system distribution and clonal diversity is justified because D. pulex
      is the first species in which the loss of sex has been related to this mechanism.
      The present study investigated the genotypic characteristics of 10 D. pulex
      populations from each of 22 sites in the Great Lakes watershed. This analysis
      revealed that populations reproducing by cyclic parthenogenesis were uncommon and
      restricted to southern sites. Most populations reproduced by obligate
      parthenogenesis, with the electrophoretic survey revealing an average of three
      clones per pond and 145 unique clones over the watershed. A combinatorial
      analysis was used to examine the relationships between clone discovery in the
      asexual populations and both sample size and genetic-sampling intensity. This
      analysis showed that the few clones found in individual ponds were readily
      discriminated, while diversity on a regional scale was underestimated. These
      methods provide a quantitative basis for assessing the level of clonal diversity
      in asexual populations and in asexually transmitted segments of the genome.

PMID- 28563845
TI  - EVALUATING A HYPOTHESIS ABOUT HETEROCHRONY: LARVAL LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS AND
      JUVENILE HIND-LIMB MORPHOLOGY IN HYLA CRUCIFER.
AB  - This paper reports the results of an investigation into whether selection on
      genetically based differences in the timing or rate of development (heterochrony)
      can give rise to nonadaptive morphological differences among individual frogs. We
      used a quantitative-genetics approach to examine the relationships among the life
      history characters time to metamorphosis and larval-growth rate and a
      functionally significant morphological features, relative hind-limb length, in
      the spring peeper, Hyla crucifer. Time to metamorphosis and growth rate had low
      heritabilities in our population. Morphological traits had moderate
      heritabilities. There were positive genetic correlations between the life-history
      traits and the components of relative hind-limb length but no significant
      correlations with the shape variable itself. We used field observations of pond
      drying time and experimental results of selection on growth rate to simulate the
      correlated responses of hind-limb shape to four reasonable selection regimes on
      the life-history traits. We found little evidence to suggest that relative hind
      limb length would display much of a correlated response to such selection. The
      differences in relative hind-limb length seen among closely related species or
      among populations of a single species that appear to be unrelated to performance
      differences are not obviously explicable as neutral correlated responses to
      selection on larval traits.

PMID- 28563846
TI  - A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR ALTRUISM IN HAYSTACKS.

PMID- 28563847
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS, DEVELOPMENT, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION IN HOST STRAINS
      OF FALL ARMYWORM.
AB  - Two genetically differentiated host strains of fall armyworm were reared on their
      own and each other's host plants, rice and corn, to determine whether they were
      physiologically adapted to their natural hosts and whether they exhibited
      genetically based differences in development. Larval host had a greater impact on
      development in the rice strain than in the corn strain, indicating that
      physiology could have facilitated specialization in one strain but not the other.
      Consequently, behavioral mechanisms are also likely to be important in the
      maintenance of host specificity. Comparisons between strains indicated
      significant differences in one trait, the rate at which larvae gained weight.
      Because this character had consistently high heritabilities, genetic
      differentiation in development is indicated. An analysis of genotype-by
      environment interactions within each strain detected significant interactions for
      three of five traits, suggesting that genotypic performance on one host was not
      indicative of performance on the other. Each strain thus exhibited genetic
      variation that would facilitate host-associated divergence and adaptation if
      coupled with a mechanism that reduced gene flow between hosts. Finally,
      significant genetic correlations between several characters were detected when
      strains were reared on their natural hosts but not when they were reared on
      nonnatural hosts. Apparently, feeding on novel hosts caused developmental
      uncoupling of characters. Release from genetic constraints could provide a
      mechanism for physiological adjustments to newly occupied habitats.

PMID- 28563848
TI  - GENETIC COMPONENT OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION IN COAL TITS UNDER COMPETITIVE
      RELEASE.

PMID- 28563849
TI  - THE ROLE OF PHYLLOTACTIC PATTERN AS A "DEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRAINT" ON THE
      INTERCEPTION OF LIGHT BY LEAF SURFACES.
AB  - Computer simulations of model plants are used to assess the influence of leaf
      shape, size, and pattern of arrangement (= phyllotaxy) on the direct solar
      radiation intercepted by leaf surfaces. Changes in phyllotaxy significantly
      influence light interception (and, by inference, net assimilation rate) for
      rosette growth habits. However, changes in leaf shape and orientation and in stem
      length can compensate for the negative effects of leaf overlap produced by
      phyllotactic patterns. Phyllotaxy is viewed as a developmental limiting factor in
      photobiology that may necessitate compensatory changes in other morphological
      features not directly controlled by patterns of leaf initiation. This
      distinguishes it from functioning as a "developmental constraint" sensu stricto
      and may provide a paradigm for other features in plant evolution.

PMID- 28563850
TI  - EVOLUTION OF ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC COD: LOSS OF GENETIC VARIATION AND GENE
      EXPRESSION IN PACIFIC COD.
AB  - An allozyme investigation of 41 protein-coding loci in two morphologically
      similar fishes, Atlantic and Pacific cod, indicates that Pacific cod experienced
      a severe population bottleneck that led to the loss of gene diversity and gene
      expression. Pacific cod possesses a significantly lesser amount of gene diversity
      (H = 0.032) than Atlantic cod (H = 0.125) and lacks gene expression for Me-3.
      Allele-frequency distributions differ between species as predicted by neutral
      theory: Atlantic cod has a U-shaped distribution, which is expected for
      populations in drift-mutation equilibrium, whereas Pacific cod has a J-shaped
      distribution with an excess of low-frequency alleles. This excess may be
      explained by the appearance of new alleles through mutation which have not yet
      reached intermediate frequencies through drift. The population bottleneck in
      Pacific cod was most likely associated with founder populations that dispersed
      into the Pacific Ocean after the Bering Strait opened. Under the molecular-clock
      hypothesis a Nei genetic distance of 0.415 (based on 41 loci) suggests that
      Pacific cod dispersed into the Pacific Ocean soon after the Bering Strait opened
      in the mid-Pliocene, 3.0 to 3.5 million years ago.

PMID- 28563851
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION IN PEROMYSCUS. II.
      ANALYSIS OF SELECTION AND DRIFT.
AB  - The hypothesis that the morphological divergence of local populations of
      Peromyscus is due to random genetic drift was evaluated by testing the
      proportionality of the among-locality covariance matrix, L, and the additive
      genetic covariance matrix, G. Overall, significant proportionality of L and G was
      not observed, indicating the evolutionary divergence of local populations does
      not result from random genetic drift. The forces of selection needed to
      differentiate three taxa of Peromyscus were reconstructed to examine the
      divergence of species and subspecies. The selection gradients obtained illustrate
      the inadequacy of univariate analyses of selection by finding that some
      characters evolve in the direction opposite to the force of selection acting
      directly on them. A retrospective selection index was constructed using the
      estimated selection gradients, and truncation selection on this index was used to
      estimate the minimum selective mortality per generation required to produce the
      observed change. On any of the time scales used, the proportion of the population
      that would need to be culled was quite low, the greatest being of the same order
      of magnitude as the selective intensities observed in extant natural populations.
      Thus, entirely plausible intensities of directional natural selection can produce
      species-level differences in a period of time too short to be resolved in the
      fossil record.

PMID- 28563853
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563852
TI  - SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATION IN GROUP RELATEDNESS: EVIDENCE FROM THE IMPORTED
      WILLOW LEAF BEETLE.
AB  - The distribution of genetic variance within and among socially interacting
      groups, often quantified as the average relatedness or r, is an important
      determinant of the evolution of social behaviors. Models of social evolution
      often treat this average as a constant characteristic of a species. In this
      paper, we present data documenting the degree of temporal and spatial variation
      in the average relatedness of larval groups of imported willow leaf beetles, a
      species whose immatures display several primitive social behaviors. Collections
      of groups were made over three generations at three localities in Virginia and
      three localities in Illinois. Average relatedness was estimated from the
      distribution of electrophoretically determined genotypic frequencies within and
      among groups for each collection. Average relatedness ranged from 0.20 at one
      locality in Illinois to 0.65 at one locality in Virginia. Individual cases of
      pairwise differences between samples indicated that there were both temporal and
      locality effects. Further, statistical analysis showed the set of relatedness
      values to be heterogeneous with significant locality effects. Geographic genetic
      variance was also partitioned among trees sampled within localities in Illinois,
      among localities within each state, and between states. Notably, significant gene
      frequency variation among groups of beetles occupying closely spaced trees was
      detected at several localities.

PMID- 28563854
TI  - SEWALL WRIGHT AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN RELATION TO EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563855
TI  - GENE FLOW IN GROUND BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE) OF DIFFERING HABITAT
      PREFERENCE AND FLIGHT-WING DEVELOPMENT.
AB  - Estimates of gene flow vary 100-fold among five carabid species, ranging from the
      winged lowland subtropical Agonum elongatulum to the flightless montane temperate
      Platynus angustatus. Results based on Wright's (1943) FST method, and Slatkin's
      (1981) graphical and (1985a) private-allele methods are concordant. Genetic
      heterogeneity, measured by Wright's FST , is not correlated with degree of flight
      wing development; one fully winged species exhibits heterogeneity of the same
      order as a vestigially winged species. Genetic heterogeneity is positively
      correlated with the average elevation of collection sites for these species.
      Lower levels of gene flow associated with greater genetic subdivision may occur
      in upland areas because of habitat fragmentation (due to topographic diversity)
      and habitat persistence (leading to a lower extinction rate for populations). In
      at least one species, the distribution of stable infraspecific polymorphisms
      indicates that the high estimate of present-day gene flow is likely to be due to
      historical gene flow and not to present-day conditions.

PMID- 28563856
TI  - GENETIC AND MATERNAL INFLUENCES ON BRAIN AND BODY SIZE IN RANDOMBRED HOUSE MICE.
AB  - Genetic and environmental (chiefly maternal) variance and covariance components
      were estimated for brain and body size in randombred house mice of three
      different ages (one, three, and five months). Heritabilities estimated from
      regressions of offspring on their five-month-old male parents were fairly low
      over all three ages, averaging about 0.2 for brain size and about 0.3 for body
      size. Heritability estimates from female parents were higher, however, presumably
      because of the influence of maternal-environmental components of variance. The
      total maternal impact was estimated from full-sib analyses and, for the more
      reliable three- and five-month ages, averaged 23% for brain size and 20% for body
      size. Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations and regressions of
      brain and body size also were calculated by parent-offspring and sib-correlation
      techniques, the phenotypic correlations generally decreasing from about 0.4 at
      one month to 0.2 at three and five months. Genetic correlations of brain and body
      size estimated from covariances of offspring on male parents were negative
      whereas those from female parents were positive in sign, and this as well as
      positive maternal correlations was taken as evidence of the influence of maternal
      sources of covariance for these traits. It was concluded that, in addition to
      direct genetic effects, indirect genetic sources of variance and covariance
      mediated through the prenatal maternal environment are quite important in the
      determination of brain size and its association with body size.

PMID- 28563857
TI  - DISPERSAL AND POPULATION-GENETIC STRUCTURE OF THE COOPERATIVE SPIDER, AGELENA
      CONSOCIATA, IN WEST AFRICAN RAINFOREST.
AB  - Dispersal experiments and gel electrophoresis of allozyme polymorphisms were used
      to investigate the selective mode underlying cooperative behavior in the
      rainforest spider, Agelena consociata. Previous work has indicated that
      individual selection alone does not explain the cooperative and even altruistic
      behavior noted for this African species, which exists in groups of up to hundreds
      of adults. We found no evidence for active dispersal by reproductives or any age
      class of this spider. Nest fragmentation by falling tree limbs and storms is
      indicated as the cause of new nest formation within local areas, while passive
      dispersal by vertebrate carriers that either have some association with the nests
      (bats) or move through them is indicated as the probable mode of longer-distance
      dispersal. The population-genetic structure observed for A. consociata supports
      the data obtained on dispersal. Wright's FST statistic and G tests for genetic
      heterogeneity indicate that the populations are subdivided into genetically
      heterogeneous colonies. Comparisons utilizing Nei's genetic distance show
      colonies separated by as few as 30 m to be as genetically distinct as are
      colonies separated by many kilometers. There is also a marked scarcity of
      heterozygotes, and individuals within nests and associated colonies are
      genetically related about as much as are full siblings. The results of these
      analyses indicate that kin selection or some type of family-group selection may
      have been important in the evolution of cooperative behavior in the species.

PMID- 28563858
TI  - HERITABLE VARIATION IN FITNESS AS A PREREQUISITE FOR ADAPTIVE FEMALE CHOICE: THE
      EFFECT OF MUTATION-SELECTION BALANCE.

PMID- 28563859
TI  - SPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE IN A POPULATION OF PSYCHOTRIA NERVOSA. I. DISTRIBUTION
      OF GENOTYPES.

PMID- 28563860
TI  - FIELD MEASUREMENTS OF NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE FUNGUS BEETLE,
      BOLITOTHERUS CORNUTUS.
AB  - Selection on three phenotypic traits was estimated in a natural population of a
      fungus beetle, Bolitotherus cornutus. Lifetime fitness of a group of males in
      this population was estimated, and partitioned into five components: lifespan,
      attendance at the mating area, number of females courted, number of copulations
      attempted, and number of females inseminated. Three phenotypic characters were
      measured-elytral length, horn length, and weight; there were strong positive
      correlations among the three characters. Selection was estimated by regressing
      each component of fitness on the phenotypic traits. Of the three traits, only
      horn length was under significant direct selection. This selection was for longer
      horns and was due mainly to differences in lifespan and access to females. The
      positive selection on horn length combined with the positive correlations between
      horn length and the other two characters resulted in positive total selection on
      all three characters.

PMID- 28563861
TI  - PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS AND COLOR POLYMORPHISM IN THE INTERTIDAL SNAIL NUCELLA
      LAPILLUS.
AB  - The intertidal snail Nucella lapillus exhibits considerable variation in shell
      color both within and between populations differentially exposed to wave action.
      Populations from high-wave-energy shores tended to be highly polymorphic and were
      dominated by pigmented morphs (especially brown), while those at more sheltered
      locations exhibited less polymorphism and were predominantly white. Field and
      laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the role of physiological
      stress and selective predation in maintaining the observed distribution of color
      morphs. The results demonstrated that 1) physiological stress from high
      temperature and desiccation during periods of tidal emersion was greater on
      protected shores, 2) under similar natural conditions, brown morphs heated up
      faster, attained higher temperatures, desiccated more rapidly, and suffered
      greater mortality than did white morphs, and 3) when pairs of brown and white
      morphs were tethered intertidally there was virtually no mortality of either
      morph on the exposed shore or in shaded microhabitats on the protected shore, but
      brown morphs suffered much greater mortality in sunny microhabitats on the
      protected shore. These findings demonstrate that the interpopulation variation in
      shell color of N. lapillus is in part a response to a selective gradient in
      physiological stress. Selection for crypsis by visually hunting predators did not
      appear to play a prominent role; however, only adults were considered, and the
      predation experiments were conducted in the fall before shorebirds that prey on
      whelks had arrived from their summer feeding grounds. Further experimentation to
      quantify the effects of visual predators such as birds and fish, particularly on
      juvenile snails, is necessary to assess adequately the importance of predation.

PMID- 28563862
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF THE MATING SYSTEM ON PROGENY PERFORMANCE IN HYLA CRUCIFER (ANURA:
      HYLIDAE).
AB  - We performed a controlled mating experiment to determine whether genetic
      variation in larval traits in Hyla crucifer was predictable on the basis of
      mating status or body size of male parent. Larval growth rate was predictably
      related to body size of the sire. Males from the upper half of the body-size
      distribution sired offspring with 6% higher growth rates than those of offspring
      sired by males from the lower half of the body-size distribution. Offspring sired
      by males that obtained mates in nature had 3% higher growth rates than their half
      siblings sired by males that did not mate in nature. Genetic variation for larval
      period duration and size at metamorphosis was detected; however, neither mating
      status nor body size of sire could be used to predict values of these traits in
      the progeny. Although all three larval traits can affect fitness, there was no
      evidence that the offspring of some sires would always outperform the offspring
      of others in all three traits. The predictable association between adult male
      size and larval growth rate means that the H. crucifer mating system would have a
      directional effect on larval growth rate if male body size influences the outcome
      of male-male competition or female choice.

PMID- 28563863
TI  - MULTIPLE GENETIC MECHANISMS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF SENESCENCE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - We present the results of selection experiments designed to distinguish between
      antagonistic pleiotropy and mutation accumulation, two mechanisms for the
      evolution of senescence. Reverse selection for early-life fitness was applied to
      laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster that had been previously
      selected for late-life fitness. These populations also exhibited reduced early
      age female fecundity and increased resistance to the stresses of starvation,
      desiccation, and ethanol, when compared to control populations. Reverse selection
      was carried out at both uncontrolled, higher larval rearing density and at
      controlled, lower larval density. In the uncontrolled-density selection lines,
      early-age female fecundity increased to control-population levels in response to
      the reintroduction of selection for early-age fitness. Concomitantly, resistance
      to starvation declined in agreement with previous observations of a negative
      genetic correlation between these two characters and in accordance with the
      antagonistic-pleiotropy mechanism. However, resistance to stresses of desiccation
      and ethanol did not decline in the uncontrolled-density lines during 22
      generations of reverse selection for early-life fitness. The latter results
      provide evidence that mutation accumulation has also played a role in the
      evolution of senescence in this set of Drosophila populations. No significant
      response in early-age fecundity or starvation resistance was observed in the
      controlled-density reverse-selection lines, supporting previous observations that
      selection on Drosophila life-history characters is critically sensitive to larval
      rearing density.

PMID- 28563864
TI  - A NEGATIVE MATERNAL EFFECT IN SPRINGT AILS.

PMID- 28563865
TI  - MALE MATING PREFERENCES AND ASSORTATIVE MATING IN THE SOLDIER BEETLE.
AB  - Mating preferences for a color characteristic were examined in three northern
      Georgia populations of the soldier beetle, Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus De Geer,
      by comparing observed and expected frequencies of matings to the same phenotype.
      The three populations are apparently in a zone of secondary contact between
      disparate color morphs. In the most northern population sampled, preferences were
      strong and were associated with positive assortative mating with respect to the
      color characteristic. In the southern population, neither assortative mating nor
      mating preference was strong, while in the middle population, preferences were
      expressed in the absence of assortative mating. Mating preferences cannot be
      attributed to host-plant choice, microhabitat choice, or simple conditioning on
      the phenotype of the last mate. However, they may represent part of a specific
      mate-recognition system which has been maintained in part of the zone of overlap
      but which has eroded in other areas.

PMID- 28563866
TI  - DIPLOID-TRIPLOID MOSAICS AMONG UNISEXUAL HYBRIDS OF THE MINNOWS PHOXINUS EOS AND
      PHOXINUS NEOGAEUS.
AB  - Diploid-triploid mosaics are rarely found in vertebrates, and until now they were
      known to be common in only two vertebrate species complexes. Here we report that
      diploid-triploid mosaics are widespread among unisexual hybrids of the minnows
      Phoxinus eos and Phoxinus neogaeus, a complex already known to contain diploid
      and triploid forms. Using chromosome counts and flow cytometry, we show that the
      mosaics occur throughout the known range of the unisexuals and are abundant in
      many of these natural populations. The mosaics are highly heterogeneous, showing
      individual variation in the ratio of diploid to triploid cells, and as a group
      they appear to form a continuum between the pure diploid and triploid forms.
      Tissue-graft analysis shows that the third genome present in the triploid cells
      of a mosaic is expressed, because grafts made from the mosaics show an incidence
      of rejection intermediate between that of the diploid (clonal) and triploid
      (nonclonal) biotypes.

PMID- 28563867
TI  - ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY IN DEVELOPMENT OF SCAPHIOPUS COUCHII TADPOLES IN DESERT
      PONDS.
AB  - Couch's spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus couchii) breed in ephemeral desert ponds that
      are highly variable in duration. Rapid development is expected to be advantageous
      in short-duration ponds, but slower development, allowing more time for growth,
      may be advantageous in ponds of longer duration. Previous experiments have
      revealed both genetic variation in development time and phenotypic plasticity in
      response to pond drying. In this paper, I examine the norms of reaction of five
      sibships of tadpoles to see whether there is genetic variation in the effect of
      pond duration, i.e., in phenotypic plasticity. Several important results emerged.
      1) Differences among sibships in development time that were seen in the lab were
      also seen in the field. 2) There was no evidence for genetic variation in
      plasticity of development; all sibships exhibited faster development and
      decreased larval period in ponds of short duration. Plasticity in development
      appears to be adaptive, as size at metamorphosis was correlated with duration of
      larval period. The slowest developing sibship, however, suffered higher mortality
      compared to other sibships in short duration ponds. 3) Sibships did not differ in
      growth or size at metamorphosis in short-duration ponds, but the slowest
      developing sibship metamorphosed at the largest size in long duration ponds,
      resulting in a significant genotype x environment interaction for size at
      metamorphosis. Thus, although only one of the five sibships responded
      differently, there appears to be genetic variation for plasticity in growth, and
      a genetically determined trade-off between fitness in short-duration ponds (via
      rapid development) and fitness in long duration ponds (via large size at
      metamorphosis). This may explain the existence of both phenotypic plasticity and
      genetic variation in development. A single genotype, although capable of adaptive
      plasticity, is not sufficiently flexible to have equally high fitness in both
      long- and short-duration ponds.

PMID- 28563868
TI  - EFFECT OF AN EXPERIMENTAL BOTTLENECK ON MORPHOLOGICAL INTEGRATION IN THE
      HOUSEFLY.
AB  - Three measures of multivariate integration were derived from both additive
      genetic covariance and correlation matrices estimated from parent-offspring
      covariances to investigate the effect of bottlenecks of different sizes on
      genetic integration of morphological traits in the housefly, Musca domestica L.
      Bottleneck lines were initiated with one, four, or 16 pairs of flies sampled from
      a natural outbred (control) population. Bottlenecks of intermediate size
      significantly increased the average genetic correlation among traits, resulting
      in nearly isomorphic variation among all traits in these lines. Single-pair
      bottlenecks significantly disrupted the trait interrelationships, and the suites
      of traits identified by principal components of the additive genetic correlation
      and covariance matrices for the control population were no longer evident in
      these bottleneck lines. The alteration of the genetic relationships among traits
      as a result of a bottleneck suggests that nonadditive components of genetic
      variation affecting these traits were present in the control line. We discuss the
      implications of nonadditive gene action, particularly epistasis, for speciation
      via bottlenecks.

PMID- 28563869
TI  - MAJOR-GENE MODELS OF SEXUAL SELECTION UNDER CYCLICAL NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28563870
TI  - SYMPATRIC SPECIATION IN SNAILS; A LARGELY NEGLECTED MODEL.

PMID- 28563871
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY REDUCTION OF COMPLEX LIFE CYCLES: LOSS OF HOST-ALTERNATION IN
      PEMPHIGUS (HOMOPTERA: APHIDIDAE).
AB  - In a Utah canyon, the aphid, Pemphigus betae, exhibits two life cycles: a cycle
      involving host-alternation between cottonwood trees and roots of herbaceous
      plants and a secondarily reduced cycle, in which the cottonwood generations are
      eliminated so that wingless forms live year round on roots. Relative frequencies
      of the two life-cycle types vary along a 30-km stretch of the canyon, with the
      reduced cycle predominating at upper sites. Factors underlying this life-cycle
      variation were examined with common-garden and transfer experiments. Results
      showed 1) a facultative increase in production of alternating forms in response
      to crowding in root colonies, 2) a genetic component to both within- and between
      site variation in tendency to produce alternating morphs, and 3) site-specific
      environmental effects on level of investment in the reduced versus alternating
      life cycles. Thus, the variation in frequency of life-cycle reduction in this
      aphid is dependent on a complex of interdependent factors. These include adaptive
      phenotypic plasticity, microgeographically variable cues affecting mechanisms of
      morph determination, and genetically based variation in tendency to show
      reduction versus alternation. Genetic variation between sites corresponds to
      microgeographic variation in success of life-cycle phases. Where cottonwood hosts
      are absent (lower elevations) or where the cottonwood phase has low survival
      (upper elevations), clones tend to produce fewer migrating morphs, as compared to
      clones from middle elevations, where the cottonwood phase is relatively
      favorable. Such independence between conditions in alternate phases is a general
      feature of complex life cycles and can generate strong site-specific selection
      for permanent life-cycle reduction. Such life-cycle shifts have sometimes been
      followed by extensive radiations in aphids and other groups.

PMID- 28563872
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION FOR LARVAL ANURAN (SCAPHIOPUS COUCHII) DEVELOPMENT TIME IN AN
      UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - Couch's spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus couchii) breed in ponds of uncertain
      duration. In natural ponds, larvae exhibit considerable variation in growth, size
      at metamorphosis, and development time. Phenotypic differences in development
      time may dramatically affect survivorship in these ponds. A quantitative-genetic
      analysis of larval traits was undertaken to determine the potential evolutionary
      relevance of phenotypic variation observed in the field. Additive genetic
      variance was detected for development time, but not for any other trait. Some
      variation in early growth was attributed to maternal effects; maternal effects,
      however, were not apparent for size at metamorphosis or development time.
      Nonadditive genetic effects were not statistically significant for any trait, but
      the nonsignificance of these effects must be interpreted cautiously, as the
      sample of females was relatively small and the mating design used is not very
      effective for detecting interactions. Genetic variation in development time in
      this population is most likely maintained by variability in the direction of
      selection as a consequence of variation in pond duration.

PMID- 28563873
TI  - ALPHA-CHAIN HEMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISMS ARE CORRELATED WITH ALTITUDE IN THE DEER
      MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS.
AB  - In deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) populations in the western United States,
      alpha-globin haplotype frequency, beta-globin haplotype frequency, and base-line
      blood oxygen affinity (measured after acclimation to low altitude) show strong
      correlations with native altitude. The correlations improve when an average
      regional altitude is substituted for the local altitude at collection sites. This
      substitution roughly compensates for the effects of gene exchange between
      populations in areas of highly variable topography. When subspecific effects are
      removed with covariate analyses a significant (P < 0.05) relationship remains
      only for alpha-globin haplotype frequency and altitude. Thus, alpha-globin
      haplotype frequency, beta-globin haplotype frequency, and base-line blood oxygen
      affinity may be explained by either subspecific or altitudinal effects, but
      subspecific effects explain a larger proportion of the variance. Part of the
      subspecific effect may be attributable to an underlying relationship of
      subspecies with altitude. The analyses for the alpha-globins in conjunction with
      other data on the effects of alpha-globins on blood oxygen affinity and whole
      animal physiological performance are consistent with the hypothesis that the
      frequency of the alpha-globins evolved in response to selection resulting from
      the stress of high-altitude hypoxia.

PMID- 28563874
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AND DISTINCT POPULATION STRUCTURES IN TWO TYPES OF THE
      FRESHWATER SHRIMP PALAEMON PAUCIDENS.
AB  - Twenty local populations of the Japanese freshwater shrimp Palaemon paucidens
      were electrophoretically and morphologically surveyed. Based on the diagnostic
      distributions of some alleles at Gpi, Mpi, Mdh-1, and Mdh-2, these populations
      were largely classified into two types (A and B). The A type occurred in lakes,
      ponds, and rivers, while the B type was observed only in rivers. Average Nei's
      genetic distance (D) between the two types fell into the subspecies range (D
      =0.1186). The coefficient of gene differentiation, GST , varied considerably
      between the two types. In 12 populations of the A type, with a GST value of
      0.281, nine pond and lake populations showed a higher GST (0.246) than the three
      river populations (0.151). On the other hand, GST was 0.036 for the eight local
      populations of the B type. The lower rostrum tooth number had a mode of two in
      type A and three in type B. Type-A populations largely varied in the upper
      rostrum tooth number and egg size but type B did not. Under laboratory
      conditions, mating frequently occurred within each type, but not between types.
      Furthermore, no embryonic development was observed in the few cases of intertype
      mating. These results indicate that the A and B types had experienced cladogenic
      separation with pre- or postmating isolation, whereafter the A type, under
      geographic isolation, underwent genetic and phenotypic differentiation, while the
      B type, under extensive gene flow, did not undergo differentiation.

PMID- 28563875
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN BODY SIZE: A MODEL AND A TEST.

PMID- 28563876
TI  - HERITABILITY AND SELECTION ON CLUTCH SIZE IN DARWIN'S MEDIUM GROUND FINCHES
      (GEOSPIZA FORTIS).
AB  - I studied the causes of variation and selection on clutch size in a population of
      Darwin's Medium Ground Finches (Geospiza fortis) on Isla Daphne Major, using data
      collected over a nine-year period (1976-1984). Quantitative-genetic analyses were
      carried out using the first clutch laid by a female in a given year. I used both
      unadjusted clutch-size values and values adjusted for between-year differences in
      mean clutch size for repeatability and regression analyses. Repeatability of
      clutch size was small (<=8%) and nonsignificant in all cases. Sib-sib analyses
      and parent-offspring regressions gave no evidence of a significant additive
      genetic component to clutch-size variation. Slopes of mother-daughter regressions
      were actually negative, suggesting possible maternal effects of mother's clutch
      size on daughter's clutch size. There was a small positive relationship between
      female age and clutch size but no effect of male or female body size or of large
      scale differences in habitat quality on clutch size. Selection on clutch size was
      generally directional and positive: in almost all years in which successful
      breeding occurred, large clutches tended to fledge more chicks and produce more
      young surviving to the following year, possibly because there was no trade-off
      between clutch size and the weights of individual chicks at fledging. Thus,
      sustained directional selection for large clutch size may have reduced additive
      genetic variation in clutch size to low levels in this population. The size of a
      female's clutch may be primarily determined by unidentified proximate
      environmental factors which vary from year to year, rather than by any long-term
      optimization of clutch size with respect to adult survival.

PMID- 28563878
TI  - THE LIMITS OF AMINO ACID SEQUENCE DATA IN ANGIOSPERM PHYLOGENETIC RECONSTRUCTION.
AB  - Amino acid sequence data are available for ribulose biphosphate carboxylase,
      plastocyanin, cytochrome c, and ferredoxin for a number of angiosperm families.
      Cladistic analysis of the data, including evaluation of all equally or almost
      equally parsimonious cladograms, shows that much homoplasy (parallelisms and
      reversals) is present and that few or no well supported monophyletic groups of
      families can be demonstrated. In one analysis of nine angiosperm families and 40
      variable amino acid positions from three proteins, the most parsimonious
      cladograms were 151 steps long and contained 63 parallelisms and reversals
      (consistency index = 0.583). In another analysis of six families and 53 variable
      amino acid positions from four proteins, the most parsimonious cladogram was 161
      steps long and contained 50 parallelisms and reversals (consistency index =
      0.689). Single changes in both data matrices could yield most parsimonious
      cladograms with quite different topologies and without common monophyletic
      groups. Presently, amino acid sequence data are not comprehensive enough for
      phylogenetic reconstruction among angiosperms. More informative positions are
      needed, either from sequencing longer parts of the proteins or from sequencing
      more proteins from the same taxa.

PMID- 28563877
TI  - HEMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISMS IN DEER MICE (PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS): PHYSIOLOGY OF
      BETA-GLOBIN VARIANTS AND ALPHA-GLOBIN RECOMBINANTS.
AB  - Wild populations of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) contain hemoglobin
      polymorphisms at both alpha-globin (Hba, Hbc) and beta-globin (Hbd) loci.
      Population gene frequencies of beta-globin variants (d0 and d1 haplotypes) are
      not correlated with altitude, whereas a1 c1 alpha-globin haplotypes are fixed in
      low-altitude populations, and a0 c0 haplotypes reach near fixation at high
      altitudes. We examined the effects of alpha- and beta-globin variants on blood
      oxygen affinity and on aerobic performance, measured as maximum oxygen
      consumption (VO2max). Exercise and cold exposure were used to elicit VO2max.
      Experiments were performed at low (340 m) and high (3,800 m) altitude to include
      the range of oxygen partial pressures encountered by wild deer mice. Beta-globin
      variants had little effect on blood oxygen affinity or VO2max. Oxygen
      dissociation curves from a0 c0 and a1 c1 homozygotes and heterozygotes had
      similar shapes, but the P50 of a0 c0 homozygotes was significantly lower than
      that of other genotypes. Mice carrying a1 c1 /a1 c1 genotypes had the highest
      VO2max at low altitude, but mice with a0 c0 /a0 c0 genotypes had the highest
      VO2max at high altitude. Mice carrying rare recombinant alpha-globin haplotypes
      (a0 c1 ) had lower VO2max than nonrecombinant genotypes as a whole but in most
      cases were not significantly different from nonrecombinant heterozygotes (a0 c0
      /a1 c1 ). We conclude that genetic adaptation to different altitudes was
      important in the evolution of deer mouse alpha-globin polymorphisms and in the
      maintenance of linkage disequilibrium in the alpha-globin loci but was not a
      significant factor in the evolution of beta-globin polymorphisms.

PMID- 28563879
TI  - EXAMINING SELECTION ON THE MULTIVARIATE PHENOTYPE: PLANT RESISTANCE TO
      HERBIVORES.
AB  - Cost-benefit theory posits that stabilizing selection, produced by a trade-off
      between associated costs and benefits, often maintains phenotypic traits at
      intermediate equilibrium values. Measurement of selection on one type of trait,
      resistance to herbivory, should provide evidence to test this prediction.
      However, most plants host more than one species of herbivore, and resistance to
      various herbivores may be phenotypically correlated. Consequently, selection must
      be measured on a multivariate phenotype, which may produce a very complex
      selection gradient. Canonical analysis of the matrix of quadratic coefficients of
      the phenotypic selection gradient is presented as a method to simplify the
      interpretation of the estimated multidimensional adaptive surface. Because this
      analytical method finds the canonical axes of second-order effects on the
      selection surface, it shows where nonlinear, and possibly stabilizing, selection
      is strongest. The resulting index traits may generate hypotheses regarding
      underlying resistance traits to which more than one type of herbivore responds.

PMID- 28563880
TI  - VARIATION IN OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE OF HELIOTHIS VIRESCENS IN RELATION TO
      MACROEVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF HELIOTHINE HOST RANGE.
AB  - When cotton, geranium, petunia, tobacco, tomato, and velvetleaf were presented
      simultaneously to strains of the Heliothine moth, Heliothis virescens (F.), from
      Arizona (AZ), Mississippi (MS), and North Carolina (NC), oviposition choices were
      similar, while a strain from the Virgin Islands (VI) was significantly different
      from both the AZ and MS strains. In the MS-VI six-host test, the VI strain laid a
      higher proportion of its eggs on tomato and a lower proportion of its eggs on
      petunia than did the MS strain. Since petunia and tomato are in the same plant
      family (Solanaceae), differences between the strains in host preference do not
      appear to involve traits common to all members of a plant family. In the AZ-VI
      six-host test, the AZ strain laid a higher percentage of its eggs on tobacco and
      lower percentages on geranium and velvetleaf (Malvaceae) than did the VI strain.
      The percentages of eggs laid on cotton (Malvaceae) by the two strains were not
      significantly different. When moths were placed in cages with only tobacco and
      geranium, the AZ strain again laid a higher percentage of its eggs on tobacco
      than did the VI strain. However, when host choice was restricted to tobacco and
      cotton or velvetleaf and cotton, no significant difference between strains was
      found. Reciprocal hybrids of the AZ and VI strains were intermediate to the
      parental stocks in their preference for tobacco over geranium, indicating that a
      genetic mechanism was responsible for oviposition preference. The relevance of
      these findings to seemingly rapid fluxes in host range among members of the
      Heliothinae is discussed.

PMID- 28563881
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND KINSHIP IN POLISTES (HYMENOPTERA, VESPIDAE): AN ANALYSIS
      USING RIBOSOMAL DNA AND PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS.
AB  - Six variable protein loci and one variable ribosomal DNA restriction site were
      used for an analysis of population structure in five species of Polistes from
      Texas. A sample-reuse algorithm was developed that estimated FST , FIS , and o
      (the coefficient of kinship) from probabilities of identity. Of the four species
      analyzed in detail only one, Polistes exclamans, had statistically significant
      values of FST . These values may reflect natural constraints on successful
      nesting for migrants of this species. Three of the four species had significant
      values of FIS and three of the four species had significant values of o. In many
      cases o also differed from the expected value under haplodiploidy and random
      mating. Values of o did not differ from expectations under haplodiploidy and
      local inbreeding. These results emphasize that theories of social behavior and
      evolution based on coefficients of kinship should include some explicit
      consideration of population structure.

PMID- 28563882
TI  - SPATIAL PATTERNS OF DIFFERENTIATION FOR GENE FLOW IN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA.

PMID- 28563883
TI  - ALLOPATRIC ORIGIN OF SYMPATRIC POPULATIONS OF LAKE WHITEFISH (COREGONUS
      CLUPEAFORMIS) AS REVEALED BY MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA RESTRICTION ANALYSIS.
AB  - In the paper, restriction-fragment length polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) were studied to test the hypothesis that sympatric populations of lake
      whitefish in the Allegash basin have recently diverged through sympatric
      speciation. Thirteen restriction enzymes were used to analyze mtDNA of 156
      specimens representing 13 populations from eastern Canada and northern Maine
      where normal and dwarf phenotypes of whitefish exist in sympatry and allopatry.
      Two monophyletic assemblages of populations that exhibit different geographic
      distributions were identified. One showed an eastern distribution that expands
      from Cape Breton to the Allegash basin and the other exhibits a more western
      distribution. The Allegash basin was the only area of overlap. The western
      assemblage exhibited the normal size phenotype in all cases, whereas the eastern
      assemblage exhibited the normal size phenotype in allopatric conditions and the
      dwarf size phenotype in sympatry. The existence of sympatric pairs in the
      Allegash basin result from the secondary contact of two monophyletic groups of
      whitefish that evolved allopatrically in separate refugia during the last
      glaciation events. The weak mtDNA difference of sympatric pairs suggests that
      speciation of lake whitefish in eastern North America was accompanied by only
      minor alterations of the ancestral gene pool.

PMID- 28563884
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA POLYMORPHISM AND CYTOPLASMIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN NATURAL
      POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.

PMID- 28563885
TI  - DYNAMICS OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN DIPLOID POPULATIONS.
AB  - We describe results for a diploid, two-locus model for the evolution of a female
      mating preference directed at an attractive male trait that is subject to
      viability and/or fertility selection. Using computer simulation, we studied a
      large, random sample of parameter values, assuming additivity of alleles at the
      preference locus and partial dominance at the trait locus. Simulation results
      were classifiable into nine types of parameter sets, each differing in
      equilibria, evolutionary trajectories, and rates of evolution. For many
      parameters, evolutionary trajectories converged on curves within the allelic
      frequency plane and subsequently evolved along the curves toward fixation.
      Neutrally stable curves of equilibria did not occur in Fisherian models that
      assume only viability and sexual selection unless there is complete dominance at
      the trait locus. The Fisherian models also exhibited oscillation of allelic
      frequencies and unique polymorphic equilibria. "Sexy son" models in which
      attractive males had reduced fertility were much less likely to lead to increase
      in traits and preferences than were the Fisherian models. However, if less
      fertile males had increased viability, trait polymorphisms and fixation of rare
      "sexy" alleles occurred. In general, the behavior of the diploid model was much
      more complex than that of analogous haploid or polygenic models.

PMID- 28563886
TI  - FOOD QUALITY, HETEROZYGOSITY, AND FITNESS CORRELATES IN PEROMYSCUS POLIONOTUS.
AB  - Oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) that are more heterozygous utilize food and
      maintain body weight under varying degrees of dietary stress better than their
      less heterozygous counterparts. Mice were collected in southern Florida and fed
      diets of three qualities. During each dietary treatment, body weight, amount of
      food eaten, amount of food absorbed, and feeding efficiency were determined. Body
      weights for all mice decreased during the experiment. More heterozygous mice
      maintained their weight better during periods of dietary stress than those that
      were less heterozygous. Mice with different levels of genetic variability had
      essentially the same mean feeding efficiency with high quality diets. Mice with
      high heterozygosities maintained the same efficiency with low quality diets, but
      those with lower heterozygosities had decreased feeding efficiencies. A slight
      increase in available energy for mice of different heterozygosities can
      dramatically change fitness correlated characters, such as growth rates, body
      weights, energy stores, and reproductive rates.

PMID- 28563887
TI  - INFERENCES ABOUT INBREEDING DEPRESSION BASED ON CHANGES OF THE INBREEDING
      COEFFICIENT.
AB  - In a mixed-mating population, the fitness of selfed individuals, relative to
      outcrossed individuals, can be estimated from observed changes of the inbreeding
      coefficient F. In general, three measurements of F, or two measurements of F and
      one of the selfing rate, spanning two generations are needed. If however, adult F
      is assumed constant among generations, the adult F and selfing rate of one
      generation are sufficient to estimate relative fitness. Estimates of the relative
      fitness of selfed individuals for 14 Mimulus populations, assuming equilibrium of
      adult F, averaged 0.38, which is significantly lower than the 0.50 threshold
      needed to favor selfing genotypes. However, estimates for some populations showed
      large variance and over the 14 populations, relative fitness did not correlate
      with selfing rate. Violations of the equilibrium assumption causes a positive
      bias of the estimate and a spurious negative correlation of estimates with
      selfing rate. Estimates of relative fitness based on two generations of F do not
      suffer these problems. The need for large sample sizes, multiallelic loci, and
      moderate levels of natural selfing limits the usefulness of using changes of F to
      infer inbreeding depression.

PMID- 28563888
TI  - POLLEN LOADS AND PROGENY VIGOR IN CUCURBITA PEPO: THE NEXT GENERATION.
AB  - Previous research on the Black Beauty bush cv. of zucchini has documented a
      strong positive relationship between the size of the pollen load and the vigor
      (performance) of the progeny. Here we report the results of three studies
      designed to test the hypothesis that the previously observed differences in
      progeny vigor are heritable. Two studies examined the transmission of the pollen
      load effect to subsequent generations through the ovules (female role). The third
      study determined if there is genetic variation for pollen performance and if the
      pollen load effect could be transmitted to a subsequent generation through the
      pollen (male role). In each of these studies the vigor of the progeny from the
      subsequent generation was evaluated in the greenhouse and/or the field. The
      results of these studies reveal (1) that the ability to sire seeds does respond
      to selection imposed by high pollen loads, (2) that only 23 of the 35 total
      traits that we measured in the three studies of transmission to subsequent
      generations changed in the direction predicted by the pollen competition
      hypothesis, (3) that only 5 of the 35 traits were significantly affected by the
      size of the pollen load that produced the previous generation (but all 5 were in
      the direction predicted by the pollen competition hypothesis), and (4) that only
      one study produced an overall significant difference (MANOVA) attributable to the
      size of the pollen load that produced the previous generation (but it too was in
      the direction predicted by the pollen competition hypothesis). From these
      experiments we conclude that pollen competition appears to play a real but minor
      role in the production of differences in vigor between progeny arising from low
      versus high pollen loads. In Black Beauty bush cv. of zucchini, maternal effects,
      pollen-pistil interactions, or nonrandom patterns of seed abortion must play
      important roles as well.

PMID- 28563889
TI  - COMPARISON OF RELATEDNESS ESTIMATORS.

PMID- 28563890
TI  - MULTIPLE EQUILIBRIA AND MAINTENANCE OF ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE IN A MODEL OF
      PLEIOTROPY.
AB  - We describe a multilocus model that incorporates pleiotropic stabilizing
      selection on a large number of characters. We find many different stable
      equilibria with different levels of polymorphism and additive genetic
      variability. The results lend support to Wright's concept of a complex adaptive
      surface with many peaks of different heights. The model assumes that alleles
      contribute additively to the characters. We analyze the multilocus model by first
      considering a two-locus model. The two-locus model depends critically on having
      loci of different effect and on having the optimum phenotype not be that of a
      completely heterozygous individual. The effects of different loci need to differ
      only by less than a factor of two. For the multilocus, multicharacter model, we
      assume that completely heterozygous individuals do not have the optimum
      phenotype. By restricting attention to a two-allele model, we also assume that
      there are no alleles that can affect all characters in all possible combinations
      of directions.

PMID- 28563891
TI  - ELECTROPHORETIC CONFIRMATION OF INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION IN AESCULUS
      (HIPPOCASTANACEAE) AND THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A BROAD HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Within a broad (>200 km wide) hybrid zone involving three parapatric species of
      Aesculus, we observed coincident clines in allele frequency for 6 of 14
      electrophoretic loci. The cooccurrence of alleles characteristic of A. pavia, A.
      sylvatica, and A. flava was used to estimate genetic admixtures in 48 populations
      involving various hybrids between these taxa in the southeastern United States.
      High levels of allelic polymorphism (up to 40% greater than the parental taxa)
      were observed in hybrid populations and also in some populations bordering the
      hybrid zone. A detailed analysis of a portion of the hybrid zone involving A.
      pavia and A. sylvatica revealed a highly asymmetrical pattern of gene flow,
      predominantly from Coastal Plain populations of A. pavia into Piedmont
      populations of A. sylvatica. Computer simulations were used to generate expected
      genotypic arrays for parental, F1 ; and backcross individuals, which were
      compared with natural populations using a character index scoring system. In
      these comparisons, hybrid individuals could be distinguished from either parent,
      but F1 and backcross progeny could not be distinguished from each other. Most
      hybrid populations were found to include hybrids and one of the parental taxa,
      but never both parents. Three populations appeared to be predominantly hybrids
      with no identifiable parental individuals. Hybrids occurred commonly at least 150
      km beyond the range of A. pavia, but usually not more than 25 km beyond the range
      of A. sylvatica. Introgression, suggested by genetically hybrid individuals and
      significant gene admixtures of two or more species in populations lacking
      morphological evidence of hybridization, may extend the hybrid zone further in
      both directions. The absence of one or both parental species from hybrid
      populations implies a selective disadvantage to parentals in the hybrid zone
      and/or that hybridization has occurred through long-distance gene flow via
      pollen, primarily from A. pavia into A. sylvatica. Long-distance pollen movement
      in plants may generate hybrid zones of qualitatively different structure than
      those observed in animals, where gene flow involves dispersal of individuals.

PMID- 28563892
TI  - SELECTION ON LOCOMOTOR PERFORMANCE CAPACITY IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF GARTER
      SNAKES.
AB  - Selection on locomotor performance was determined for a series of marked and
      recaptured individuals from a population of garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis
      fitchi) in Northern California. We measured snake length and mass, burst speed,
      endurance on a treadmill, and the distance crawled around a stationary circular
      track. Size-corrected values (residuals) of mass and locomotor performance were
      generated from the scaling equations of S-V length (SVL). Randomization tests and
      regressions were used to determine the probability that a trait was a significant
      predictor of survivorship, and a nonparametric, cubic spline estimate of the
      fitness function was used to facilitate detection of the patterns of selection.
      From 275 ("cohort") snakes measured and tested within 8 days of birth in 1985, 79
      were recaptured in the spring-summer of 1986 and subsequent years. Birth SVL was
      the only significant (randomization P = 0.022) predictor of neonatal survival
      from 1985 to 1986 with directional selection favoring larger individuals. In
      addition to the lab-born cohort, 382 field-born snakes from all ages in the
      population were captured, tested, and released during spring-summer 1986. Similar
      to the 1985 cohort, the survivorship of 37 of 86 neonates from 1986 to 1987
      showed no significant relationship with any residual value using any statistical
      test. Survivorship from 1986 to 1987 for 127 of 250 yearlings (including 32 lab
      born cohort snakes) analyzed with the randomization test showed that greater
      values of both speed (P = 0.007) and distance residual (P = 0.008) significantly
      favored survival, whereas intermediate values of mass residual (P = 0.006) were
      significantly more likely to survive. Univariate regressions predicting the
      survival of yearlings from 1986 to 1987 gave similar results to the randomization
      test, but in a multiple regression with yearling burst speed residual, distance
      capacity residual, and a quadratic term of mass residual, distance capacity
      residual was the least important predictor variable. For the survivorship of 37
      of the 113 older snakes, greater burst speed residual significantly favored
      survival (randomization P = 0.001).

PMID- 28563893
TI  - WHY MOTHERS DO NOT RESIST INFANTICIDE: A COST-BENEFIT GENETIC MODEL.
AB  - Infanticide has recently been observed in several primate species while female
      counterstrategies are seemingly rare. The question of why mothers do not increase
      their resistance to infanticide is investigated using a haploid two-locus model.
      A hypothesis that mothers can recover lost offspring by gaining more
      grandchildren is rejected in most cases, and it is shown that costs and benefits
      for both males and females have the strongest influence on the evolution of
      infanticide and obedience to it. An estimation of parameters for a natural
      population of hanuman langurs suggests that infanticide is more advantageous than
      noninfanticide and the costs of resistance, compared to obedience, is higher than
      its benefits. Data from other studies on primate infanticide are discussed in the
      light of results of the model.

PMID- 28563894
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AS A CORRELATED CHARACTER UNDER SYMPATRIC
      CONDITIONS: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE.
AB  - A set of experiments is described that tests the general hypothesis that
      sympatric speciation is genetically feasible whenever reproductive isolation
      evolves indirectly as a correlated character. We specifically test the hypothesis
      that disruptive selection on habitat preference can lead to sympatric speciation
      when individuals mate locally within their selected habitat. Drosophila
      melanogaster was used as a model system. A 35-generation experiment using a
      complex habitat maze led to complete reproductive isolation between
      subpopulations using different spatiotemporal habitats. The reproductive
      isolation that developed over the course of the experiment was a result of
      offspring returning to mate in the habitat type selected by their parents, i.e.,
      a gradual breakdown in migration between habitats.

PMID- 28563895
TI  - DISPERSAL, GENE FLOW, AND ALLELIC DIVERSITY BETWEEN LOCAL POPULATIONS OF THOMOMYS
      BOTTAE POCKET GOPHERS IN THE COASTAL RANGES OF CALIFORNIA.
AB  - We studied Thomomys bottae pocket gophers from 1979 to 1982 to determine if the
      amount of gene flow between local populations was sufficient to reduce allele
      frequency differences between them. Dispersal was quantified using three
      different trap techniques, and genetic changes in the population were monitored
      using protein variants. Additional allele frequency data were available for 1976
      and 1977. We observed dispersal to be common in pre-reproductive juvenile females
      throughout the breeding season of their birth. Males on the other hand tended to
      disperse only from the end of the breeding season. Although dispersal was common,
      63% of adults appeared to be recruited within 40 m of where they were born. Gene
      flow occurred into both established populations and into vacant habitat, but it
      was too low to reduce the differences in gene frequencies between the fields over
      seven years. We conclude that allelic diversity in T. bottae populations is a
      balance between random drift due to small effective population size and gene
      flow.

PMID- 28563896
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF FORM AND FUNCTION: MORPHOLOGY AND LOCOMOTOR PERFORMANCE IN WEST
      INDIAN ANOLIS LIZARDS.
AB  - I tested biomechanical predictions that morphological proportions (snout-vent
      length, forelimb length, hindlimb length, tail length, and mass) and maximal
      sprinting and jumping ability have evolved concordantly among 15 species of
      Anolis lizards from Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Based on a phylogenetic hypothesis
      for these species, the ancestor reconstruction and contrast approaches were used
      to test hypotheses that variables coevolved. Evolutionary change in all
      morphological and performance variables scales positively with evolution of body
      size (represented by snout-vent length); size evolution accounts for greater than
      50% of the variance in sprinting and jumping evolution. With the effect of the
      evolution of body size removed, increases in hindlimb length are associated with
      increases in sprinting and jumping capability. When further variables are
      removed, evolution in forelimb and tail length exhibits a negative relationship
      with evolution of both performance measures. The success of the biomechanical
      predictions indicates that the assumption that evolution in other variables
      (e.g., muscle mass and composition) did not affect performance evolution is
      probably correct; evolution of the morphological variables accounts for
      approximately 80% of the evolutionary change in performance ability. In this
      case, however, such assumptions are clade-specific; extrapolation to taxa outside
      the clade is thus unwarranted. The results have implications concerning
      ecomorphological evolution. The observed relationship between forelimb and tail
      length and ecology probably is a spurious result of the correlation between these
      variables and hindlimb length. Further, because the evolution of jumping and
      sprinting ability are closely linked, the ability to adapt to certain
      microhabitats may be limited.

PMID- 28563897
TI  - HABITAT CHOICE BY ALLELIC VARIANTS IN XIPHOPHORUS VARIATUS (PISCES; POECILIIDAE)
      AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC POLYMORPHISM.
AB  - Stream pools in northeastern Mexico exhibit gradients in dissolved oxygen (DO)
      concentration: low DO at the upstream ends and higher DO at the downstream ends.
      These pools contain populations of the variable platyfish, Xiphophorus variatus,
      which are polymorphic at an autosomal locus that affects tailspot pigmentation.
      Previous work showed that adult males of the cut-crescent morph have a lower
      metabolic rate than wild type males (Borowsky, 1984). Field collections were made
      to determine whether the morphs are distributed at random in the pools. As
      predicted, among adult males, all morphs were found in equal proportions at the
      upstream and downstream ends of the pools, except cut-crescents, which were
      distributed preferentially toward the upstream ends. In contrast, the opposite
      distributional pattern was found among adult females. Habitat choice may
      contribute to the stability of the tailspot polymorphism, especially so because
      preferences differing between the sexes can lead to disassortative mating.

PMID- 28563898
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY GENETIC STATUS OF ICELANDIC EELS.
AB  - The Iceland population of Anguilla eels contains an elevated frequency of fish
      with vertebral numbers lower than those typical of European localities. Several
      distinct hypotheses have been advanced to account for these morphologically
      atypical fish: for example, they could represent (1) genetically "pure" American
      expatriates, (2) genetically "pure" European types with ontogenetic
      abnormalities, or (3) hybrids between American and European forms. Here we
      critically test these and other possibilities by examining the joint
      distributions of allozyme markers, mitochondrial DNA markers, and vertebral
      numbers in Icelandic eels. The particular patterns of association among the
      genetic and morphological traits demonstrate that the Iceland population
      includes, in low frequency, the products of hybridization between American and
      European eels. Approximately 2-4% of the gene pool in the Iceland eel population
      is derived from American eel ancestry. This hybrid zone is highly unusual in the
      biological world, because the mating events in catadromous eels presumably take
      place thousands of kilometers from where the hybrids are observed as maturing
      juveniles. The molecular data, in conjunction with the geographic distributions,
      strongly suggest that the differences in migrational behavior and morphology
      between American and European eels include an important additive genetic
      component. Evolutionary hypotheses are advanced to account for the original
      separation of North Atlantic eels into American and European populations, and for
      the presence of hybrids in Iceland.

PMID- 28563899
TI  - RELATIVE FITNESS OF SELFED AND OUTCROSSED PROGENY IN A SELF-COMPATIBLE,
      PROTANDROUS SPECIES, SABATIA ANGULARIS L. (GENTIANACEAE): A COMPARISON IN THREE
      ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - The consequences of selfing were examined for a population of self-compatible,
      protandrous, Sabatia angularis L. (Gentianaceae). Field-collected plants were
      hand-pollinated in the greenhouse to produce selfed progeny and outcrossed
      progeny from parents separated by a maximum of 5 m (near-outcross) and 85 m (far
      outcross) in the field. Self, near-outcross, and far-outcross half sib progeny
      were grown in the greenhouse, a garden plot, and their native habitat. Progeny
      were compared by multiplicative fitness functions based on seed production per
      hand-pollination, seed germination, rosette formation, survival to reproduction,
      and reproduction in each environment. Variation in reproduction among progeny
      groups was influenced by the environment in which they were grown. Significant
      inbreeding depression was detected between the self and far-outcross progeny in
      each environment. Only the natural environment demonstrated a greater than 50%
      reduction in relative fitness of self compared to near-outcross progeny. This is
      of biological relevance since near-outcross hand-pollinations occurred within the
      range of pollen and seed dispersal suggesting that inbreeding depression in S.
      angularis is strong enough to maintain outcrossing in the study population. In
      the field, the far-outcross progeny outperformed the near-outcross progeny
      suggesting local population substructure. The magnitude of the inbreeding
      depression expressed among the self progeny was the greatest in the field,
      intermediate in the garden plot, and the least in the greenhouse.

PMID- 28563900
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR MITOCHONDRIAL DNA INTROGRESSION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA
      SPECIES.
AB  - Differential introgression of mitochondrial genomes has been used to explain the
      occurrence in some species of individuals bearing mtDNA from a related species.
      This situation has been observed for Drosophila mauritiana (endemic to Mauritius)
      where a high proportion of individuals (88%) carries an mtDNA also found in D.
      simulans populations from Madagascar and Reunion. Using these two species,
      experiments were carried out to test for differential mtDNA introgression. A
      single virgin female from one species (initial frequency 0.03) was introduced
      into a population of the other. D. simulans mtDNA can, within three generations,
      almost entirely displace (frequency up to 0.80) D. mauritiana mtDNA. Hybrid male
      sterility probably curtails to a large degree parallel introgression of nuclear
      genes. The progress of cytoplasmic introgression is dependent on the degree of
      inbreeding of the recipient D. mauritiana strains. In reciprocal experiments,
      introgression was much less likely: few D. mauritiana migrant females are
      inseminated and their mtDNA frequency always remains very low. The results of
      these experiments support the hypothesis that a selective advantage of hybrids
      (probably at the nuclear level) has promoted mtDNA transfer from D. simulans
      Madagascar or Reunion populations into D. mauritiana through introgressive
      hybridization.

PMID- 28563901
TI  - The Discussion Section Tells Us Where We Are.

PMID- 28563902
TI  - Of lemurs and louse flies: The biogeochemical and biotic effects of forest
      disturbance on Propithecus edwardsi and its obligate ectoparasite Allobosca
      crassipes in Ranomafana National Park, southeastern Madagascar.
AB  - From alleles to ecosystems and landscapes, anthropogenic activity continues to
      affect the environment, with particularly adverse effects on biodiversity
      hotspots such as Madagascar. Selective logging has been proposed as a "win-win"
      conservation strategy, yet its effects on different components of biodiversity
      are still not fully understood. Here we examine biotic factors (i.e., dietary
      differences) that may be driving differences in biogeochemical stocks between
      disturbed and undisturbed forests. We present the stable nitrogen (delta15 N) and
      carbon (delta13 C) isotope composition of hair from the lemur Propithecus
      edwardsi and of whole bodies of its obligate ectoparasite, the louse-fly
      Allobosca crassipes, from sites in Ranomafana National Park (RNP) that are
      comparable except for the history of logging and subsequent forest regeneration.
      P. edwardsi and A. crassipes from the disturbed (i.e., heavily selectively
      logged) site are lower in 15 N and 13 C relative to P. edwardsi and A. crassipes
      from sites that were minimally selectively logged or not commercially logged at
      all. There is a ~30/00 decrease in 15 N between disturbed and undisturbed sites
      that corresponds to a difference of nearly a full trophic level. Flowers from
      Bakerella clavata, a staple food source for P. edwardsi in disturbed habitats and
      a fallback food for P. edwardsi in primary forests, were also analyzed
      isotopically. B. clavata is delta15 N-depleted in both disturbed and undisturbed
      sites. Data from longitudinal behavioral surveys of P. edwardsi in RNP and other
      forests in eastern Madagascar point to significant differences in consumption
      patterns of B. clavata, with P. edwardsi in disturbed forests consuming almost
      twice as much of this plant. Depletion of 15 N in animal tissues is a complex
      issue, but likely the result of the interaction of physiological and ecological
      factors. Anthropogenic disturbance in RNP from selective logging has had both
      biotic and biogeochemical effects that are observable trophically.

PMID- 28563904
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN SPECIES OF THE RANA PIPIENS COMPLEX IN CENTRAL TEXAS.

PMID- 28563903
TI  - High-Contrast Fluorescence Detection of Metastatic Breast Cancer Including Bone
      and Liver Micrometastases via Size-Controlled pH-Activatable Water-Soluble
      Probes.
AB  - Breast cancer metastasis is the major cause of cancer death in women worldwide.
      Early detection would save many lives, but current fluorescence imaging probes
      are limited in their detection ability, particularly of bone and liver
      micrometastases. Herein, probes that are capable of imaging tiny (<1 mm)
      micrometastases in the liver, lung, pancreas, kidneys, and bone, that have
      disseminated from the primary site, are reported. The influence of the
      poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chain length on the performance of water-soluble, pH
      responsive, near-infrared 4,4'-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY)
      probes is systematically investigated to demonstrate that PEG tuning can provide
      control over micrometastasis tracking with high tumor-to-background contrast (up
      to 12/1). Optimized probes can effectively visualize tumor boundaries and
      successfully detect micrometastases with diameters <1 mm. The bone-metastasis
      targeting ability of these probes is further enhanced by covalent
      functionalization with bisphosphonate. This improved detection of both bone and
      liver micrometastases (<2 mm) with excellent tumor-to-normal contrast (5.2/1). A
      versatile method is thus introduced to directly synthesize modular water-soluble
      probes with broad potential utility. Through a single intravenous injection,
      these materials can image micrometastases in multiple organs with spatiotemporal
      resolution. They thus hold promise for metastasis diagnosis, image-guided
      surgery, and theranostic PEGylated drug therapies.

PMID- 28563905
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY AND FOUNDER EFFECT IN THE PITCHER PLANT SARRACENIA PURPUREA
      L.

PMID- 28563907
TI  - Evolution Meetings-Corrected Dates.

PMID- 28563906
TI  - SELECTION ON AMYLASE ALLOZYMES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: SELECTION EXPERIMENTS
      USING SEVERAL INDEPENDENTLY DERIVED PAIRS OF CHROMOSOMES.

PMID- 28563908
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN THE MELANOGASTER SPECIES GROUP OF THE GENUS
      DROSOPHILA (SOPHOPHORA).

PMID- 28563909
TI  - AN EVOLUTIONARY EXAMINATION OF THE FLORAL DISPLAY of CATALPA SPECIOSA
      (BIGNONIACEAE).

PMID- 28563911
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF THE ECOLOGICAL AMPLITUDE OF SPARTINA PATENS. I. MORPHOMETRIC
      AND PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS.

PMID- 28563913
TI  - COMPARATIVE ALBUMIN AND BIOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN PLETHODONTID SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28563912
TI  - GENE DUPLICATION AND PHYLOGENY IN CLARKIA.

PMID- 28563914
TI  - 17-YEAR CICADAS EMERGING AFTER 18 YEARS: A NEW BROOD?

PMID- 28563915
TI  - Society Election Results.

PMID- 28563916
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION IN MILKWEED BUGS OF THE GENUS ONCOPELTUS (HEMIPTERA: LYGAEIDAE).

PMID- 28563917
TI  - NEIGHBORHOOD SIZE IN VIOLA.

PMID- 28563918
TI  - SPECIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN FIELD CRICKETS: EVIDENCE FROM ELECTROPHORETIC
      COMPARISONS.

PMID- 28563919
TI  - PHENOTYPIC CONSEQUENCES OF PARTHENOGENESIS IN CNEMIDOPHORUS LIZARDS. I.
      VARIABILITY IN PARTHENOGENETIC AND SEXUAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563920
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MAN AND THE APES: ELECTROPHORETIC EVIDENCE.

PMID- 28563921
TI  - POPULATION DYNAMICS OF INDIGO BUNTINGS AND THE EVOLUTION OF AVIAN POLYGYNY.

PMID- 28563922
TI  - NATURAL HYBRIDIZATION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE BETWEEN THE TOADS BUFO BOREAS AND
      BUFO PUNCTATUS.

PMID- 28563923
TI  - ON THE SELECTIVE ADVANTAGE OF FRATRICIDE IN RAPTORS.

PMID- 28563924
TI  - EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN MIXTURES OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER:
      POPULATIONS WITH AN INITIAL ASYMMETRY.

PMID- 28563925
TI  - SALE OF BACK ISSUES OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28563926
TI  - PHENOTYPIC CONSEQUENCES OF PARTHENOGENESIS IN CNEMIDOPHORUS LIZARDS. II.
      SIMILARITY OF C. TESSELATUS TO ITS SEXUAL PARENTAL SPECIES.

PMID- 28563927
TI  - FISH PREDATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF GASTROPOD SHELL SCULPTURE: EXPERIMENTAL AND
      GEOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE.

PMID- 28563928
TI  - GENIC CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SYMPATRY IN ORIOLES OF THE
      GENUS ICTERUS.

PMID- 28563930
TI  - PROTEIN POLYMORPHISM IN THE NARROW ENDEMIC OENOTHERA ORGANENSIS.

PMID- 28563929
TI  - ECOLOGICAL GENERALISM IN DROSOPHILA FALLENI: GENETIC EVIDENCE.

PMID- 28563931
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEMS AND THE EVOLUTION OF DIOECY IN NEW ZEALAND APIOID UMBELLIFERAE.

PMID- 28563932
TI  - THE POPULATION STRUCTURE OF AN ASEXUAL VERTEBRATE, POECILIOPSIS 2 MONACHA-LUCIDA
      (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28563933
TI  - SHELL ARCHITECTURE AND CAUSES OF DEATH OF MICRONESIAN REEF SNAILS.

PMID- 28563934
TI  - COUNTERGRADIENT SELECTION IN THE GREEN FROG, RANA CLAMITANS.

PMID- 28563935
TI  - RATES OF MOLECULAR AND CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28563936
TI  - INFLUENCE OF MICROHABITAT HETEROGENEITY ON GENE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION AND
      GAMETIC PHASE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN AVENA BARBATA.

PMID- 28563937
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND BODY SIZE IN MALE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.

PMID- 28563938
TI  - MUTUAL FACILITATION BETWEEN LARVAE OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER CULTURED ON STEROL
      MUTANT YEAST.

PMID- 28563939
TI  - SEX DIFFERENCES AND FLOWERING PHENOLOGY IN THE COMMON FIG, FICUS CARICA L.

PMID- 28563940
TI  - ARE PARTHENOGENETIC AND RELATED BISEXUAL INSECTS EQUAL IN FERTILITY?

PMID- 28563941
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF DIPLOID-TETRAPLOID SPECIES OF TREEFROGS OF THE GENUS
      HYLA.

PMID- 28563942
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN SYMPATRIC SPECIES OF DAYFLYING MOTHS (HEMILEUCA:
      SATURNIIDAE).

PMID- 28563943
TI  - POLYMORPHISM FOR BREEDING COLORS IN GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS. I. THEIR GENETICS AND
      GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.

PMID- 28563944
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HANDLING TIME: THE FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE OF A PREDATOR TO THE DENSITY
      OF SYMPATRIC AND ALLOPATRIC STRAINS OF PREY.

PMID- 28563945
TI  - ON PREMATING ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28563946
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN EGG-EATING BEHAVIOR OF FLOUR BEETLES IN MIXED-SPECIES
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563947
TI  - THE MORPHOLOGY OF A "HYBRID ZONE" IN CERION: VARIATION, CLINES, AND AN
      ONTOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO "SPECIES" IN CUBA.

PMID- 28563948
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATING IN A MODIFIED ALLOZYME LOCUS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28563949
TI  - THE PRIMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF TRIBOLIUM POPULATIONS GROUP SELECTED FOR INCREASED
      AND DECREASED POPULATION SIZE.

PMID- 28563950
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA VI. SEASONALLY-DEPENDENT GENE CHANGES IN
      DROSOPHILA MIMICA.

PMID- 28563951
TI  - GENETIC DRIFT IN SMALL POPULATIONS OF TRIBOLIUM.

PMID- 28563952
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC CONTROL OF GENDER IN THE DIMORPHIC SHRUB HEBE
      SUBALPINA.

PMID- 28563953
TI  - SENESCENCE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF MAMMALS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY.
AB  - Here, I use published mortality data from 56 natural populations of mammals to
      examine evidence for senescence, an increase in the probability of mortality with
      age. Data on extent of senescence and life history characteristics are compared
      across taxa in an attempt to test theories for the evolution of senescence in
      natural populations. In accord with theoretical expectation, senescence is
      highest in short-lived species with short generation times. In contrast to
      theoretical expectation, however, senescent increases in mortality rate do not
      begin until well after age at maturity in most cases. I also present evidence in
      support of the hypothesis that senescence will be lower in large-brained taxa.

PMID- 28563954
TI  - MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF SELECTION IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS DERIVED FROM
      HYBRIDIZATION OF TWO ECOTYPES OF THE ANNUAL PLANT DIODIA TERES W. (RUBIACEAE).
AB  - Morphologically variable F2 genotypes derived from hybridization of coastal and
      inland ecotypes of the annual plant Diodia teres were used to identify selection
      on morphological traits in the natural habitat of each ecotype. These ecotypes
      occur in very different habitats, and have evolved pronounced morphological
      differentiation. Selection analysis can suggest whether present patterns of
      selection can explain morphological differences between ecotypes. F2 genotypes
      were characterized morphologically, clonally replicated, and transplanted into
      the habitat of each ecotype. Selection was measured on six morphological traits.
      Directional and stabilizing selection occurred on many traits; direction and
      strength of selection varied sharply at different stages of growth, as revealed
      by a path-analysis approach that divided selection into a set of independent
      components. Directional selection favored traits of the native population at the
      coastal habitat, but less so at the inland habitat. Selection was of sufficient
      strength to create the observed morphological differences between ecotypes in 25
      100 generations, given constant selection and sufficient genetic variation. In
      effects on fitness, most traits were neither independent nor consistently
      interactive with other traits. Rather, many traits entered into strong but
      evanescent interactions affecting particular components of fitness. Observed
      interactions did not support the hypothesis that the morphology of each ecotype
      was functionally integrated to a high degree.

PMID- 28563955
TI  - GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION FOR JUVENILE GROWTH IN THE HARD CLAM MERCENARIA
      MERCENARIA (L.).
AB  - Offspring from half-sib and full-sib families of the hard clam, Mercenaria
      mercenaria were reared in five locations along the Atlantic Coast to test for the
      presence of genotype-environment interaction for juvenile growth rate. Location
      effects upon growth rate variation were prevalent; of the genetic effects, the
      additive genetic by location variance was predominant with the nonadditive
      genetic by location component contributing to a lesser degree to the interaction
      variance. The additive and nonadditive variation over all environments was
      negligible. Genotype-environment interaction was found to be at least partially
      due to a change in the amount of genetic variation expressed at each location;
      with significant additive variation detected at Charleston and Georgetown, SC
      sites and significant nonadditive variation at Millsboro, DE. Genetic
      covariance/correlation analysis indicated that reversals in relative family
      performance across locations were prevalent, implying the possibility of habitat
      specialization among genotypes. In addition, graphical analysis produced no
      evidence of a ubiquitously superior genotype. These analyses suggest that
      genotype-environment interaction should act to constrain the evolution of
      juvenile growth rate in Mercenaria, preserve any heritable variation associated
      with this trait and may lead to the development of phenotypic plasticity for
      growth.

PMID- 28563956
TI  - CORRELATIONS BETWEEN HETEROZYGOSITY AND PHENOTYPIC VARIABILITY IN COTTUS
      (TELEOSTEI: COTTIDAE): CHARACTER COMPONENTS.

PMID- 28563957
TI  - SPERM COMPETITION SELECTS FOR NUPTIAL FEEDING IN A BUSHCRICKET.

PMID- 28563958
TI  - A MORPHOLOGIC AND GENETIC STUDY OF THE ISLAND FOX, UROCYON LITTORALIS.
AB  - The Island Fox, Urocyon littoralis, is a dwarf form found on six of the Channel
      Islands located 30-98 km off the coast of southern California. The island
      populations differ in two variables that affect genetic variation: effective
      population size and duration of isolation. We estimate that the effective
      population size of foxes on the islands varies from approximately 150 to 1,000
      individuals. Archeological and geological evidence suggests that foxes likely
      arrived on the three northern islands minimally 10,400-16,000 years ago and
      dispersed to the three southern islands 2,200-4,300 years ago. We use
      morphometrics, allozyme electrophoresis, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction
      site analysis, and analysis of hypervariable minisatellite DNA to measure
      variability within and distances among island fox populations. The amount of
      within-population variation is lowest for the smallest island populations and
      highest for the mainland population. However, the larger populations are
      sometimes less variable, with respect to some genetic measures, than expected. No
      distinct trends of variability with founding time are observed. Genetic distances
      among the island populations, as estimated by the four techniques, are not well
      correlated. The apparent lack of correspondence among techniques may reflect the
      effects of mutation rate and colonization history on the values of each genetic
      measure.

PMID- 28563959
TI  - CALLING SONG DISPLACEMENT IN A ZONE OF OVERLAP AND HYBRIDIZATION.
AB  - The ground crickets Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius meet in a mosaic zone of
      overlap and hybridization stretching from the East Coast to at least Illinois. To
      test whether male calling song differences were enhanced in sympatry, we analyzed
      the songs of crickets from inside and outside the zone of overlap along two
      transects. No evidence of calling song displacement was found in A. socius males
      from populations within the zone of overlap. On the other hand, A. fasciatus
      displayed calling song displacement in three populations. Our results are
      consistent with the hypothesis that the selective pressure exerted by the
      challenge from a related species is frequency dependent. While not a conclusive
      demonstration, the observed shifts in calling song are strongly suggestive of
      reproductive character displacement.

PMID- 28563960
TI  - THE RESPONSES OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER TO ARTIFICIAL SELECTION ON BODY WEIGHT
      AND ITS PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN TWO LARVAL FOOD ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - To investigate the potential response to natural selection of reaction norms for
      age and size at maturity, fresh body weight at eclosion was mass selected under
      rich and poor larval food conditions in Drosophila melanogaster. The sensitivity
      of dry weight at eclosion to the difference between rich and poor larval food was
      selected using differences in sensitivities among families. For both experiments,
      the correlated response to selection of age at eclosion was examined. The flies
      were derived from wild populations and had been mass cultured in the lab for more
      than six months before the experiments started. These flies responded to
      selection on body weight upwards and downwards on both rich and poor larval food.
      Selection on increased or decreased sensitivity of body weight was also
      successful in at least one direction. Sensitivity was reduced by selection
      upwards in a poor environment and downwards in a rich environment.

PMID- 28563961
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL MUTANTS OF VOLVOX: DOES MUTATION RECREATE THE PATTERNS OF
      PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY?
AB  - The nature of the variation which is created by mutation can show how the
      direction of evolution is constrained by internal biases arising from development
      and pre-existing design. We have attempted to quantify these biases by measuring
      eight life history characters in developmental mutants of Volvox carteri. Most of
      the mutants in our sample were inferior to the wild type, but deviated by less
      than tenfold from the wild-type mean. Characters differed in mutability,
      suggesting different levels of canalisation. Most correlations between life
      history characters among strains were positive, but there was a significant
      negative correlation between the size and the number of reproductive cells,
      suggesting an upper limit to the total quantity of germ produced by individuals.
      The most extreme phenotypes in our sample were very vigorous, showing that not
      all mutations of large effect are unconditionally deleterious. We investigated
      the effect of developmental constraints on the course of evolution by comparing
      the variance and covariance patterns among mutant strains with those among
      species in the family Volvocaceae. A close correspondence between patterns at
      these two levels would suggest that pre-existing design has a strong influence on
      evolution, while little or no correspondence shows the action of selection. The
      variance generated by mutation was equal to that generated by speciation in the
      family Volvocaceae, the genus Volvox, or the section Merillosphaera, depending on
      the character considered. We found that mutation changes the volume of somatic
      tissue independently of the quantity of germ tissue, so that the interspecific
      correlation between soma and germ can be attributed to selection. The negative
      correlation between size and number of germ cells among mutants of V. carteri is
      also seen among the larger members of the family (Volvox spp.), but not among the
      smaller members, suggesting a powerful design constraint that may be responsible
      for the absence of larger forms in the entire group.

PMID- 28563962
TI  - PHYLOGENY AND COADAPTATION OF THERMAL PHYSIOLOGY IN LIZARDS: A REANALYSIS.

PMID- 28563963
TI  - THE GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF WORKER ANT POLLINATION IN A SELF-COMPATIBLE, CLONAL
      ORCHID.
AB  - The self-compatible orchid Microtis parviflora is pollinated by the flightless
      worker caste of the ant Iridomyrmex gracilis. The orchid is clonal and forms
      small patches, usually less than 1 m2 , of disconnected individual ramets. Ant
      pollinators visited and revisited a limited proportion of available
      inflorescences, and 40% of all flower visits occurred within plants promoting
      self-pollination. Pollen labels indicated that self-pollination accounted for 51%
      of the pollen transfers, although pollen carryover extended beyond 16 flowers on
      2 or 3 inflorescences. The distribution of ant movements between plants was
      leptokurtic with a mean of 12.4 +/- 14.9 cm and a maximum of 89 cm, but a high
      proportion of movements were within clones accentuating the level of self
      pollination. However, some pollen transfers between inflorescences of unlike
      genotypes contributed to a low incidence (max = 8%) of outcrossing. In 12 patches
      examined by electrophoresis, the density varied from 11 to 61 inflorescences per
      m2 and a maximum of only 4 genotypes were detected. Electrophoretic analysis
      revealed populations were highly inbred: only 23% (N = 17) of the loci were
      polymorphic and the mean gene diversity h, was 2.7%. Heterozygotes were observed
      in only one population given a mean fixation index F, of 0.982. These results
      reflect the combined effects of restricted ant foraging and clonality.
      Nevertheless, while ant foraging was restricted, some outcrossing occurred and in
      the absence of clonality it is likely that ant foraging would have yielded a
      mixed mating system similar to those reported for a wide array of insect
      pollinators. Given the ability of ants to generate pollen flow, the reasons for
      the rarity of ant pollination appear to lie elsewhere.

PMID- 28563964
TI  - RAPID EVOLUTION OF GASTRULATION MECHANISMS IN A SEA URCHIN WITH LECITHOTROPHIC
      LARVAE.
AB  - This study documents evolutionary modifications in mechanisms of gastrulation in
      Heliocidaris erythrogramma, an echinoid with lecithotrophic larvae. Radially
      symmetrical cell rearrangements and changes in cell shape drive elongation of the
      archenteron in the ancestral mode of echinoid gastrulation. Cell marking
      experiments indicate that in H. erythrogramma, however, prolonged movement of
      cells over the ventral lip of the blastopore accompanies extension of the
      archenteron. Evolutionary modifications to archenteron extension in H.
      erythrogramma thus include utilization of a different type of cellular movement
      as well as the imposition of dorsoventral asymmetry in cellular movements. The
      conservation of gastrulation mechanisms among phylogenetically divergent
      echinoids with planktotrophic development suggests that the plesiomorphic
      condition has persisted at least 250 million years and perhaps much longer. Yet
      H. erythrogramma diverged from an ancestor with planktotrophic development only
      about 10 mya, indicating that morphogenetic mechanisms of early development can
      undergo substantial evolutionary changes, even after long periods of stasis.

PMID- 28563966
TI  - ECOLOGICAL VERSUS EVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESES: DEMOGRAPHIC STASIS AND THE MURRAY
      NOLAN CLUTCH SIZE EQUATION.

PMID- 28563965
TI  - POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE TRANS-ARCTIC EXCHANGE: MtDNA SEQUENCE SIMILARITY
      BETWEEN PACIFIC AND ATLANTIC SEA URCHINS.
AB  - MtDNAs from 2 protein coding regions comprising 576 base pairs were sequenced
      from 17 individual sea urchins of the species Strongylocentrotus pallidus
      collected from the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans. Twelve of 17
      individual sequences were identical. Two of these were further sequenced in a
      third, 441 base pair region, and were also found to be identical. We show how to
      interpret these results using a simplified Markov model of mtDNA evolution at
      silent sites. The model was calibrated using 3 urchin species with a published
      fossil record, and shows that identical S. pallidus mtDNAs in different oceans
      shared a common ancestor at most 90,000-150,000 years ago (95% confidence
      interval of upper limit of divergence). The Markov model, used to examine
      patterns of genetic distance within and between species, shows unexpected
      variation in the rate of base substitution. The rate of change of G's at fourfold
      sites is nearly 20 times greater than the rate of change of C's. At twofold
      sites, this range is less extreme, although purines consistently have a higher
      rate of change than pyrimidines. Striking genetic similarity and recent genetic
      exchange between oceans for these urchins is in marked contrast to most other
      trans-Arctic marine populations, which usually show morphological and genetic
      differentiation at the species or subspecies level. Recent fossil evidence shows
      that the north Atlantic and northeastern Pacific have been the scene of radical
      faunal changes during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The genetic results presented
      here extend this conclusion to intraspecific patterns of genetic variability, and
      direct attention to the northwest Pacific where higher productivity and less
      environmental change may have left a heritage of greater marine genetic
      diversity.

PMID- 28563967
TI  - COMPARING POLLEN DISPERSAL AND GENE FLOW IN A NATURAL POPULATION.

PMID- 28563968
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE MONOGAMOUS BARN SWALLOW (HIRUNDO RUSTICA). I.
      DETERMINANTS OF TAIL ORNAMENT SIZE.
AB  - The proportion of phenotypic variance in the length of the sexually selected tail
      of the monogamous barn swallow Hirundo rustica that is attributable to genetic
      variance was studied in the field in Denmark during a seven-year period. Tail
      length was on average 20% greater in males than in females. Tail length
      correlated with wing length, but not with other morphological traits. Tail length
      increased with the first molt, but remained constant during subsequent years.
      Changes in tail length between years, owing to molt were significantly affected
      by sex and by degree of infection with an haematophagous mite (Ornithonyssus
      bursa). There were significant differences in sexual size dimorphism between
      years, apparently as a result of environmental conditions in the African winter
      quarters during molt. Tail length was a highly repeatable morphological trait,
      and standardization of tail length for age effects only marginally increased
      repeatability. Heritability of tail length as estimated from regression of values
      for sons on those of their fathers was 0.59. This suggests that secondary sexual
      traits affected by strong directional selection still may show a statistically
      significant heritability.

PMID- 28563969
TI  - SSE ANNUAL MEETING.

PMID- 28563970
TI  - CONSTANCY OF POPULATION PARAMETERS FOR LIFE-HISTORY AND FLORAL TRAITS IN RAPHANUS
      SATIVUS L. II. EFFECTS OF PLANTING DENSITY ON PHENOTYPE AND HERITABILITY
      ESTIMATES.
AB  - To determine the effect of growing conditions on population parameters in wild
      radish, (Raphanus sativus L.: Brassicaceae), we replicated maternal and paternal
      half-sib families of seed across three planting densities in an experimental
      garden. A nested breeding design performed in the greenhouse produced 1,800 F1
      seeds sown in the garden. We recorded survivorship, measured phenotypic
      correlations among and estimated narrow-sense and broad-sense heritabilities (h2
      ) of: days to germination, days to flowering, petal area, ovule number/flower,
      pollen production/flower, and modal pollen grain volume. Survivorship declined
      with increasing density, but the relative abundances of surviving families did
      not differ significantly among densities. Seeds in high-density plots germinated
      significantly faster than seeds sown in medium- or low-density plots, but they
      flowered significantly later. Plants in high-density plots had fewer ovules per
      flower than those in the other treatments. Petal area and pollen characters did
      not differ significantly among densities. Densities differed with respect to the
      number and sign of significant phenotypic correlations. Analyses of variance were
      conducted to detect additive genetic variance (Va ) of each trait in each
      density. At low density, there were significant paternal effects on flowering
      time and modal pollen grain volume; in medium-density plots, germination time,
      flowering time and ovule number exhibited significant paternal effects; in high
      density plots, only pollen grain volume differed among paternal sibships. The
      ability to detect maternal effects on progeny phenotype also depended on density.
      Narrow-sense h2 estimates differed markedly among density treatments for
      germination time, flowering time, ovule number and pollen grain volume. Maternal,
      paternal and error variance components were estimated for each trait and density
      to examine the sources of variation in narrow-sense h2 across densities. Variance
      components did not change consistently across densities; each trait behaved
      differently. To provide qualitative estimates of genetic correlations between
      characters, correlation coefficients were estimated using paternal family means;
      these correlations also differed among densities. These results demonstrate that:
      a) planting density influences the magnitude of maternal and paternal effects on
      progeny phenotype, and of h2 estimates, b) traits differ with respect to the
      density in which heritability is greatest, c) density affects the variance
      components that comprise heritability, but each trait behaves differently, and d)
      the response to selection on any target trait should result in different
      correlated responses of other traits, depending on density.

PMID- 28563971
TI  - INTEGRATING PHYLOGENY AND EXPERIMENTAL ETHOLOGY: FROM PATTERN TO PROCEs.
AB  - Phylogenetic systematics offers ethologists a method for uncovering
      macroevolutionary patterns of behavioral diversity, which can be used to generate
      predictions for experimental investigation of microevolutionary processes. I used
      phylogenetic methods to disentangle the contributions of various selection
      pressures in the evolution of sexually dimorphic nuptial coloration in
      gasterosteid fishes in general, and Gasterosteus aculeatus in particular. Based
      upon the phylogenetic relationships between breeding colors and breeding
      behaviors in the gasterosteids, three predictions relevant to a discussion of
      nuptial coloration in G. aculeatus were proposed. The origin and elaboration of
      nuptial coloration was (1) weakly associated with male/male interactions
      (intrasexual selection), (2) moderately associated with parental care (natural
      selection) and (3) strongly associated with male/female interactions (intersexual
      selection). I tested the hypothesized macroevolutionary relationships between
      male breeding color and behavior in two sets of experiments studying changes in
      male nuptial coloration across the breeding cycle and female choice based on
      intensity of male color. The results of these experiments at the
      microevolutionary level of analysis corroborated the macroevolutionary
      predictions and confirmed the original intuition of previous researchers: male
      body color intensity is an important component of female mate choice in G.
      aculeatus. This study demonstrates that a phylogenetic hypothesis can generate
      predictions that are experimentally testable and falsifiable.

PMID- 28563972
TI  - RAPID BEHAVIORAL CHANGES IN MEDAKA (ORYZIAS LATIPES) CAUSED BY SELECTION FOR
      COMPETITIVE AND NONCOMPETITIVE GROWTH.
AB  - Behavior is a major component of growth rate variation in fish, but the genetic
      relationship between behavior and growth is largely unknown. In particular, it is
      not known how behavior responds to natural or artificial selection on growth. It
      has been argued that artificial selection for fast growth in competitive
      environments might lead to higher levels of overall aggression, and therefore
      there would be no net gain in assimilation efficiency or growth. The contrary has
      also been argued. It is not immediately obvious, therefore, whether fish that
      avoid interacting with conspecifics should grow faster, or whether more
      aggressive, dominant individuals should grow faster. In the present study, we
      artificially selected fish on the basis of growth in two environments that
      differed in the intensity of social interactions. In the high interaction
      environment (HI), food was provided to excess inside a floating cork ring, which
      limited access to the food and allowed fish to attempt to monopolize the food
      supply. In the low interaction environment (LI), an equivalent amount of food was
      spread over the container's surface. In each social environment, fish were
      selected within family for fast and for slow growth rate during two generations
      (G1 and G2 ). The response was measured in the third generation (G3 ) on the
      directly selected trait (growth) and on a correlated trait (agonistic behavior).
      The magnitude of the direct response to selection on growth in medaka was
      directly related to population density, i.e., selection was most effective at
      high densities. Agonistic behavior was inversely related to growth when
      individuals were raised and selected in an environment where enforced social
      interaction took place, so long as food was not limited in quantity.

PMID- 28563973
TI  - Phototherapy for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
AB  - Approximately 60 years ago in England, phototherapy for neonatal
      hyperbilirubinemia was used in clinical practice. It was introduced in Japan
      approximately 50 years ago. At that time, the mechanism underlying the serum
      bilirubin concentration decrease by phototherapy was still unknown. The mechanism
      was identified by chemists, biochemists, and pediatricians. Clarification started
      with the report that unconjugated bilirubin was excreted into bile after
      photoirradiation in Gunn rats. After confirmation of the molecular structure of
      bilirubin on X-ray analysis, the mechanism for bile excretion of unconjugated
      bilirubin was verified based on geometric configurational photoisomers in the
      Gunn rat. Finally, the reaction and excretion of structural bilirubin
      photoisomers was proved to be the main mechanism for the decrease in serum
      bilirubin during phototherapy for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, which differs from
      the mechanism in the Gunn rat. The most effective and safest light source and the
      optimal method to evaluate phototherapy, however, remain unknown. Moreover, as
      for bronze baby syndrome, which is a well-known adverse reaction to phototherapy,
      the etiology is unclear. Hence, we review phototherapy for hyperbilirubinemia
      including a fundamental understanding of the bilirubin photochemical reactions,
      and discuss the subclinical carcinogenic risk of phototherapy and the increased
      mortality rate of extremely low-birthweight infants due to aggressive
      phototherapy, which is becoming an increasing problem.

PMID- 28563975
TI  - MODES OF SPECIATION AND INFERENCES BASED ON GENETIC DISTANCES.

PMID- 28563976
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CORRELATES IN TWO NEW WORLD SPARROWS (EMBERIZIDAE).

PMID- 28563974
TI  - Performance of a new real-time continuous glucose monitoring system: A
      multicenter pilot study.
AB  - AIMS/INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to investigate the performance of a
      new real-time continuous glucose monitoring system. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Interstitial glucose levels were monitored for 7 days in 63 patients with type 1
      or type 2 diabetes using the Medtrum A6 TouchCare(r) CGM System. Venous blood was
      collected on a randomized day of the wear period. Plasma glucose levels were
      measured as reference values. RESULTS: Among 1,678 paired sensor-reference
      values, 90.5% (95% confidence interval 89.1-91.9%) were within +/-20%/20 mg/dL of
      the reference values, with a mean absolute relative difference of 9.1 +/- 8.7%
      (95% CI: 8.9-9.2%). The percentages of paired sensor-reference values falling
      within zone A and B of the Clarke error grid analysis (EGA) and the type 1
      diabetes consensus EGA were 99.1 and 99.8%. Continuous EGA showed that the
      percentages of accurate readings, benign errors, and erroneous readings were
      89.9, 6.3 and 3.8%, respectively. Surveillance EGA showed that 90.6, 9.2, and
      0.2% of sensor-reference values with no, slight and lower moderate risk,
      respectively. The mean absolute relative difference was 16.6, and 96.0% of the
      sensor values fell within zones A and B of the consensus EGA for hypoglycemia.
      More than 85% of sensor values were within +/-20%/20 mg/dL of reference values,
      the mean absolute relative difference was <11, and >99.5% of the sensor values
      fell in zones A and B of the consensus EGA. CONCLUSIONS: The Medtrum real-time
      continuous glucose monitoring system was numerically and clinically accurate over
      a large glucose range across 7 days of wear.

PMID- 28563977
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN THE STRAWBERRY FRAGARIA CHILOENSIS.

PMID- 28563978
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF CHIRONOMUS STIGMATERUS SAY (DIPTERA: CHIRONOMIDAE): II.
      PROTEIN VARIABILITY IN POPULATIONS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES.

PMID- 28563979
TI  - GROUP SELECTION: THE PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC DIFFERENTIATION OF SMALL
      POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28563980
TI  - SYSTEMATICS AND HYBRIDIZATION IN THE FOUR LIVING SPECIES OF HORSESHOE CRABS.

PMID- 28563981
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC DIFFERENTIATION IN NEW ZEALAND POPULATIONS OF THE HOUSE SPARROW
      (PASSER DOMESTICUS).

PMID- 28563982
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF OUTCROSSING IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS (BALSAMINACEAE).

PMID- 28563983
TI  - THE EFFECT OF X-CHROMOSOME INHERITANCE ON MATE-SELECTION BEHAVIOR IN THE SULFUR
      BUTTERFLIES, COLIAS EURYTHEME AND C. PHILODICE.

PMID- 28563984
TI  - GENE FLOW, EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZES, AND GENETIC VARIANCE COMPONENTS IN BIRDS.

PMID- 28563985
TI  - GROUP SELECTION: THE GENETIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC BASIS FOR THE PHENOTYPIC
      DIFFERENTIATION OF SMALL POPULATIONS OF TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.

PMID- 28563986
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF BUMBLE BEE COLOR PATTERNS: A MIMETIC
      INTERPRETATION.

PMID- 28563987
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN ASCLEPIAS: LOCK AND KEY HYPOTHESIS RECONSIDERED.

PMID- 28563988
TI  - SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HYBRIDS DERIVED FROM THE SULFUR BUTTERFLIES, COLIAS
      EURYTHEME AND C. PHILODICE: PHENOTYPIC EFFECTS OF THE X-CHROMOSOME.

PMID- 28563989
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY OF A NEUTRAL LOCUS LINKED TO A SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY LOCUS OR A
      BALANCED LETHAL.

PMID- 28563990
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT AND DENSITY-INDEPENDENT CAUSES OF EXTINCTION OF A SALAMANDER
      POPULATION.

PMID- 28563991
TI  - A MULTIFACTORIAL GENETIC INVESTIGATION OF SPECIATION THEORY USING DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28563992
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF THE THREE SEX CHROMOSOME POLYMORPHISM IN THE PLATYFISH,
      XIPHOPHORUS MACULATUS.

PMID- 28563993
TI  - COMPONENTS OF FITNESS AND FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT OVERDOMINANCE IN HERMAPHRODITE
      PLANTS.

PMID- 28563994
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE AMONG FISHES OF THE EASTERN PACIFIC AND THE CARIBBEAN: SUPPORT
      FOR THE MOLECULAR CLOCK.

PMID- 28563995
TI  - Can we improve the efficacy of modern cataract surgery by using different tip
      designs? A comparison of balanced and tapered tip in femtosecond laser-assisted
      cataract surgery and manual phacoemulsification.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Different tip designs in modern cataract surgery have not been
      studied between the reported systems. BACKGROUND: Aim of this study is to assess
      the efficacy of two tip designs, Intrepid(r) balanced tip (BT) and Kelman tapered
      tip (TT), in femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) and the
      microcoaxial torsional phacoemulsification. DESIGN: Prospective randomized
      unmasked cohort outcome study (hospital setting). PARTICIPANTS: Threehundert
      forty-three eyes of 343 patientes underwent cataract surgery. METHODS: Data of n
      = 196 FLACS and n = 147 manual phacoemulsification were analysed. Intrepid(r)
      balanced tip and Kelman tapered tip, Alcon, USA, were tested in FLACS (LenSx
      Alcon, USA) und manual phaco (Alcon Centurion System, USA). Four study cohorts
      were formed; FLACS BT (n = 90, 70.2 years), FLACS TT (n = 106, 68.1years), Manual
      BT (n = 70, 71.3 years), Manual TT (n = 77, 71.8 years). The nuclei were graded
      in Lens Opacities Classification System (LOCS) II,III and IV. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Cumulative dissipated energy (CDE%s), balanced salt solution volume
      (BSSml), total longitudinal energy (%s) and torsional amplitude (%s). RESULTS:
      Lower CDE values were seen in FLACS compared to manual phacoemulsification (CDE
      %s median FLACS BT 3.28, FLACS TT 4.07, Manual BT 5.57, Manual TT 6.27). There
      was a significant difference between CDE FLACS BT and FLACS TT (p = 0.038), and
      between FLACS BT and Manual TT (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The right
      choice of tip designs in advanced phacoemulsification systems is a key factor in
      increasing efficacy in cataract surgery. The balanced tip showed a considerable
      energy-saving advantage in FLACS and manual phacoemulsification compared to the
      tapered tip.

PMID- 28563996
TI  - VARIATION IN THE CODING OF SPECIES IDENTITY IN THE ADVERTISEMENT CALLS OF LITORIA
      VERREAUXI (ANURA: HYLIDAE).
AB  - Variation within and among males was documented in two properties of the
      advertisement call of Litoria verreauxi; comparisons were also made between
      populations of L. verreauxi that were allopatric and sympatric with L. ewingi.
      Pulse rate, a property of known importance in mate recognition, was stereotyped.
      However, a character upon which the full expression of pulse rate depends, the
      depth of amplitude modulation (AM) or pulsing, was significantly lower and more
      variable in populations of L. verreauxi that coexisted with L. ewingi than in
      allopatric populations of L. verreauxi. Furthermore, there were significant
      changes in the depth of AM in the calls of sympatric males recorded from one
      night to another within the breeding season. The within-male variation (between
      recordings) in this character within sympatric populations was so great that
      statistically significant differences between males could not be detected. Thus,
      even if gravid females in sympatry choose a male on the basis of the degree to
      which his calls are pulsed, the evolutionary response to such selection would
      probably be very limited. The change that appears to be occurring in the temporal
      code for species identity vis-a-vis L. ewingi in sympatry (a change from a
      quantitative difference [pulse rate] to a qualitative one [pulsed versus unpulsed
      calls]) is probably a passive consequence of the shift to higher pulse rates.

PMID- 28563997
TI  - HOW SIMILAR ARE GENETIC CORRELATION STRUCTURES? DATA FROM MICE AND RATS.
AB  - An integral assumption of many models of morphometric evolution is the equality
      of the genetic variance-covariance structure across evolutionary time. To examine
      this assumption, the quantitative-genetic aspects of morphometric form are
      examined for eight pelvic traits in laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) and
      random-bred ICR mice (Mus musculus). In both species, all traits are
      significantly heritable, and there are significant phenotypic and genetic
      correlations among traits, although environmental correlations among the eight
      traits are low. The size relations among the pelvic variables are isometric.
      Three matrix-permutation tests are used to examine similarity of phenotypic,
      genetic, and environmental covariance and correlation matrices within and between
      species. Independent patterns of morphometric covariation and correlation arise
      from genetic and environmental effects within each species and from environmental
      effects between species. The patterns of phenotypic and genetic covariation and
      correlation are similar within each species, and the phenotypic and genetic
      correlations are also similar between these species. However, genetic covariance
      matrices show no significant statistical association between species. It is
      suggested that the assumption of equality of genetic variance-covariance
      structures across divergent taxa should be approached with caution.

PMID- 28563998
TI  - PATTERNS AND PROCESSES OF DIVERSIFICATION: SPECIATION AND HISTORICAL CONGRUENCE
      IN SOME NEOTROPICAL BIRDS.
AB  - This paper documents congruence in geographical patterns of speciation for four
      clades of birds having taxa endemic to the same areas within the Neotropics. Two
      genera, Pionopsitta parrots and Selenidera toucans, corroborate a well known
      biogeographic disjunction in which taxa endemic to southern Central America and
      the Choco region of northwestern South America are the sister-group to a
      radiation within the Amazon basin. These two genera, along with two lineages
      within the toucan genus Pteroglossus, also document a pattern of historical
      interrelationships for four well known areas of endemism within Amazonia: Guyanan
      + (Belem-Para + (Inambari + Napo)). These generalized historical patterns are
      interpreted to have arisen via fragmentation (vicariance) of a widespread
      ancestral biota. A review of the paleogeographic evidence suggests that these
      vicariance events could have originated as a result of several different
      mechanisms operating at various times during the Cenozoic. The inference that
      diversification of the Neotropical biota is primarily the result of the most
      recent of these possible vicariance events, namely isolation within Quaternary
      forest refugia, is unwarranted, given present data. These patterns of historical
      congruence are also interpreted as direct evidence against the hypothesis that
      diversification of the forest biota was a consequence of parapatric
      differentiation along recently established ecological gradients.

PMID- 28563999
TI  - MIXED MATING SYSTEMS IN HAWAIIAN BIDENS (ASTERACEAE).
AB  - Floral features related to the breeding system were studied for 11 species of
      Hawaiian Bidens. Protandry and male sterility promote outcrossing, while self
      compatibility and geitonogamy contribute to inbreeding. The combination of these
      floral mechanisms results in a mixed mating system in all species studied.
      Outcrossing rates of 15 populations of these species ranged from 0.43 to 0.88,
      averaging 0.65. Apparent selling rates of females ranged from 0 to 0.25 in seven
      gynodioecious populations surveyed, suggesting that there is variation in the
      level of biparental inbreeding among populations. The presence of females
      increased the level of outcrossing by an average of 9% in gynodioecious
      populations. This study indicates that the efficiency of gynodioecy as an
      outcrossing mechanism largely depends on the current outcrossing rate of
      hermaphrodites, the frequency of females, and the extent of genetic
      substructuring in populations. On average, autogamy contributed 4%, geitonogamy
      contributed 24%, and consanguineous mating contributed 15% to the realized
      selfing rate (43%) in the hermaphrodites of these species.

PMID- 28564000
TI  - ESTIMATING VARIANCE COMPONENTS: REPLY TO GROETERS.

PMID- 28564001
TI  - THE DIVERGENCE OF NEUTRAL QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS AMONG PARTIALLY ISOLATED
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - The neutral model of phenotypic evolution has yielded several simple predictions
      about the long-term rates of between-population divergence of polygenic traits
      and about the equilibrium level of within-population variance when mutation and
      random genetic drift are the sole evolutionary forces. These conclusions must be
      modified if populations are only partially isolated. A quantitative model is
      presented for the development of within- and between-population variance for
      neutral quantitative characters in pairs of populations with arbitrary effective
      sizes and migration rates. Both the variance in the base population and
      subsequent variance generated by mutation are considered, and several dynamical
      and equilibrium properties are shown to be adequately described by simple
      approximations. The resultant formulations provide some insight into the
      sensitivity of measures of morphological distance to gene flow, the necessity of
      isolation for the accumulation of variation between incipient species, and the
      consequences of gene flow into captive populations of endangered species.

PMID- 28564002
TI  - ACCURACY OF PHYLOGENETIC-ESTIMATION METHODS UNDER UNEQUAL EVOLUTIONARY RATES.
AB  - A comparative study of the accuracy of three different approaches to phylogenetic
      estimation was made on simulated data with differing rates of change in different
      lineages. The three approaches were maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony, and
      phenetic clustering. The data were generated by simulating genetic drift with
      different population sizes over a simple four-species tree topology. Although the
      accuracy of all three approaches was found to be dependent on the number of loci
      (characters), maximum likelihood was found to perform considerably and
      consistently better than maximum parsimony or phenetic clustering.

PMID- 28564003
TI  - FLORAL DISPLAY IN PHYLA INCISA: CONSEQUENCES FOR MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE
      SUCCESS.
AB  - The inflorescences of Phyla incisa consist of flowers in two phases: younger,
      nectar-containing flowers that have yellow corolla throats and older, nectar
      lacking flowers that have dark purple corolla throats. Observations of pollinator
      visitation patterns to both natural and manipulated inflorescences were made to
      determine the role of each flower phase in pollinator attraction. The effect of
      older-phase flowers on male and female reproductive success was determined by
      comparing stigmatic pollen loads and estimates of pollen removal from
      inflorescences having different numbers of these flowers. The pollinators of
      Phyla selected larger inflorescences more often than expected based upon the size
      distribution of inflorescences available to them. Both younger- and older-phase
      flowers contributed to the attraction of pollinators, but the latter were less
      effective in this function. The presence of older-phase flowers significantly
      increased the visitation rate to inflorescences and the amount of pollen removed
      but had little effect on pollen deposition on stigmas. The lack of correspondence
      between pollen deposition and pollinator-visitation rate was not due to stigma
      saturation, since stigma loads varied greatly. The data indicate that the
      deposition of pollen on stigmas in this species is a relatively stochastic
      process, whereas pollen removal from inflorescences occurs at a much more regular
      rate. Old-phase flower retention appears to contribute to reproductive success
      through increased pollen donation when pollinator activity is high and may also
      increase the probability of seed set when pollinators are rare.

PMID- 28564004
TI  - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBSERVED COMPONENTS OF VARIANCE AND CAUSAL COMPONENTS OF
      VARIANCE IN A SPLIT-FAMILY, HALF-SIB, FULL-SIB ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28564005
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF PLEIOTROPY AND EPISTASIS IN ESCHERICHIA COLI. I.
      VARIATION IN COMPETITIVE FITNESS AMONG MUTANTS RESISTANT TO VIRUS T4.
AB  - Mutants selected for novel phenotypes frequently exhibit maladaptive pleiotropic
      effects. One may reasonably ask whether these effects are properties of the novel
      phenotypes per se, or whether these effects depend upon the particular genotypes
      conferring the novel phenotypes. To address this issue, I examined an array of
      independent mutants, derived from Escherichia coli B, that were all completely
      resistant to the virus T4. Each resistant mutant had maladaptive pleiotropic
      effects, but there was highly significant variation in competitive fitness among
      mutants. The degree of reduction in competitive fitness was strongly associated
      with cross-resistance to virus T7 and with the inferred position of the mutated
      gene in a complex metabolic pathway. This variation in competitive fitness
      permits refinement of the resistant phenotype by selection among resistant
      genotypes. This mechanism complements refinement of the resistant phenotype by
      selection for epistatic modifiers of maladaptive pleiotropic effects.

PMID- 28564006
TI  - EPISTASIS AND THE EFFECT OF FOUNDER EVENTS ON THE ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE.
AB  - Models of founder events have focused on the reduction in the genetic variation
      following a founder event. However, recent work (Bryant et al., 1986; Goodnight,
      1987) suggests that when there is epistatic genetic variance in a population, the
      total genetic variance within demes may actually increase following a founder
      event. Since the additive genetic variance is a statistical property of a
      population and can change with the level of inbreeding, some of the epistatic
      genetic variance may be converted to additive genetic variance during a founder
      event. The model presented here demonstrates that some of the additive-by
      additive epistatic genetic variance is converted to additive genetic variance
      following a founder event. Furthermore, the amount of epistasis converted to
      additive genetic variance is a function of the recombination rate and the
      propagule size. For a single founder event of two individuals, as much as 75% of
      the epistatic variance in the ancestral population may become additive genetic
      variance following the founder event. For founder events involving two
      individuals with free recombination, the relative contribution of epistasis to
      the additive genetic variance following a founder event is equal to its
      proportion of the total genetic variance prior to the founder event. Traits
      closely related to fitness are expected to have relatively little additive
      genetic variance but may have substantial nonadditive genetic variance. Founder
      events may be important in the evolution of fitness traits, not because they lead
      to a reduction in the genetic variance, but rather because they lead to an
      increase in the additive genetic variance.

PMID- 28564007
TI  - EVALUATION OF THE RESTRICTED MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD METHOD FOR ESTIMATING
      PHYLOGENETIC TREES USING SIMULATED ALLELE-FREQUENCY DATA.
AB  - Comparisons are made of the accuracy of the restricted maximum-likelihood, Wagner
      parsimony, and UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages)
      clustering methods to estimate phylogenetic trees. Data matrices were generated
      by constructing simulated stochastic evolution in a multidimensional gene
      frequency space using a simple genetic-drift model (Brownian-motion, random-walk)
      with constant rates of divergence in all lineages. Ten differentphylogenetic tree
      topologies of 20 operational taxonomic units (OTU's), representing a range of
      tree shapes, were used. Felsenstein's restricted maximum-likelihood method,
      Wagner parsimony, and UPGMA clustering were used to construct trees from the
      resulting data matrices. The computations for the restricted maximum-likelihood
      method were performed on a Cray-1 supercomputer since the required calculations
      (especially when optimized for the vector hardware) are performed substantially
      faster than on more conventional computing systems. The overall level of accuracy
      of tree reconstruction depends on the topology of the true phylogenetic tree. The
      UPGMA clustering method, especially when genetic-distance coefficients are used,
      gives the most accurate estimates of the true phylogeny (for our model with
      constant evolutionary rates). For large numbers of loci, all methods give similar
      results, but trends in the results imply that the restricted maximum-likelihood
      method would produce the most accurate trees if sample sizes were large enough.

PMID- 28564008
TI  - HISTORICAL FACTORS AND ANISOPLETHIC POPULATION STRUCTURE IN TRISTYLOUS PONTEDERIA
      CORDATA: A REASSESSMENT.
AB  - Theoretical models of floral-morph frequencies in tristylous species predict a
      single equilibrium with all three morphs represented in equal proportions
      (isoplethy). North American populations of Pontederia cordata exhibit
      considerable heterogeneity of morph frequencies between populations, with the
      short-styled morph often in excess of isoplethic expectations and the long-styled
      morph commonly underrepresented. In a previous study, it was proposed that
      anisoplethic population structure in P. cordata is the result of differential
      male fertility, owing to genetic differences in pollen production among the
      morphs. In this study, the influence of historical factors on morph frequencies
      prior to equilibrium was investigated using a deterministic computer model.
      Nonequilibrium frequencies are strongly influenced by the genotypes of founding
      individuals, and, because tristyly is under the control of two diallelic loci,
      phenotypic equilibrium is approached asymptotically. The model indicates that in
      nonequilibrium populations the short-styled morph will be in excess and the long
      styled morph will be underrepresented. This suggests that historical factors play
      an important role in determining population structure in P. cordata. Several
      features of the population ecology of the species lend support to this
      interpretation. Historical factors should be taken into account when interpreting
      data from population surveys of morph frequencies in tristylous species and of
      other genetic polymorphisms not under single-locus control.

PMID- 28564009
TI  - ON THE CAUSES OF MONOPHAGY IN DROSOPHILA QUINARIA.

PMID- 28564010
TI  - COURTSHIP FEEDING AND THE FITNESS OF FEMALE KATYDIDS (ORTHOPTERA: TETTIGONIIDAE).
AB  - Katydid males (Requena verticalis) produce spermatophores with a large sperm-free
      spermatophylax, which is eaten by the female after mating. In this study, I asked
      1) how do spermatophylax nutrients affect the fitness of the mated female and her
      progeny? 2) does this male-produced food substitute for other food in the diet of
      the female, or is it a source of specialized nutrients? and 3) does an increase
      in the size of the spermatophylax eaten influence female reproduction in the same
      way as the additional spermatophylaxes that would be obtained from multiple
      mating? An experimental increase either in dietary protein or the number of
      spermatophylaxes eaten increased the number of eggs produced. However,
      spermatophylax size had no effect on egg number. An increase in either the size
      or number of spermatophylaxes eaten resulted in an increase in egg size. There
      was no influence of protein in the general diet on egg size. This suggests that
      males provide nutrition not available from other sources. Although there were no
      direct effects of number of spermatophylaxes eaten by females on the
      overwintering survival of their progeny, offspring from females producing larger
      eggs had a relatively higher probability of surviving winter. The amount of
      spermatophylax eaten had no influence on the mean adult size of progeny but
      significantly increased the mean date at which sons matured to adulthood. There
      was no influence of dietary protein on these variables. Since maturation date is
      positively correlated with adult size in both sexes, it is suggested that the
      influence of courtship feeding on maturation date may result in an increase in
      adult size and thus the fitness of sons. A significant correlation between the
      size of the female and the mean size of her sons (but not daughters) suggests
      that there is also a heritable component to body size.

PMID- 28564011
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF PLEIOTROPY AND EPISTASIS IN ESCHERICHIA COLI. II.
      COMPENSATION FOR MALADAPTIVE EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH RESISTANCE TO VIRUS T4.
AB  - Mutations in Escherichia coli that confer resistance to virus T4 also have
      maladaptive effects that reduce competitive fitness. After resistant populations
      had evolved for 400 generations in the absence of T4, their fitness approached
      that of sensitive populations allowed to evolve under identical conditions.
      However, the resistant populations had not reverted to sensitivity. Instead, this
      convergence in fitness resulted from genetic changes that compensated for
      maladaptive pleiotropic effects of the resistance mutations. An allele selected
      in an evolving resistant population reduced the competitive disadvantage
      associated with resistance by almost half. Interestingly, this allele was also
      beneficial in sensitive populations, although its fitness advantage was only
      about one-fifth as great as it was in the resistant population. These results run
      counter to a commonly held view that trade-offs between components of fitness
      should become more pronounced as populations approach their "selective
      equilibria." If a trade-off derives from some limiting energetic or material
      currency, then it is likely to become more pronounced as a population becomes
      more finely adapted. If a trade-off derives from the disruption of genetic
      integration, then it is likely to be diminished with further adaptation.

PMID- 28564012
TI  - QUEEN NUMBER IN COLONIES OF SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA AS A KIN-SELECTED ADAPTATION.
AB  - Using a series of kin-selection models, I examine factors that favor multiple egg
      laying queens (polygyny) in eusocial Hymenoptera colonies. One result is that
      there is a theoretical conflict of interest between the founding queens and their
      daughter workers over how many and which individuals should be the extra
      reproductives. Both castes should prefer their full sisters. Therefore, primary
      polygyny (multiple related foundresses) may favor queens while secondary polygyny
      (related queens added to mature colonies) may favor workers. Polygyny, itself,
      was found to be favored by high colony survivorship and low probability of queens
      contributing eggs to successive broods. Polygyne colonies, however, did not need
      to produce more offspring per brood to be selectively favored; they could be half
      as productive per brood as monogyne ones and still have higher lifetime fitness
      under some conditions. For reproductive data from eight ant species with both
      monogyne and polygyne colonies, the model generates results that are consistent
      with a kin-selection explanation of polygyny in all of them. It is proposed that
      queen number is an ecologically flexible trait that is influenced by a broad set
      of factors but is not necessarily linked to specific habitat types. Furthermore,
      neither polygyny nor monogyny may be reliably considered as the primitive or
      ancestral Hymenopteran social system. The optimal queen number within a species
      may evolutionarily increase or decrease, depending on the direction of
      environmental change.

PMID- 28564013
TI  - INBREEDING AND VARIANCE EFFECTIVE POPULATION NUMBERS.
AB  - In this paper, a correction and extension of earlier work, we derive expressions
      for the inbreeding effective number, NeI , and the variance effective number, NeV
      , with various models. Diploidy, random mating, and discrete generations are
      assumed and formulas for NeI are given for six situations: isogamous monoecious
      populations with self-fertilization permitted or excluded; monoecious
      populations, male and female gametes distinguished, with self-fertilization
      permitted or excluded; and separate sexes with or without male and female progeny
      distinguished. NeV is given for monoecious and separate-sexed populations. Most
      higher animals have separate sexes, and male and female progeny are
      distinguished. Letting the subscript t represent the generation in which the
      inbreeding effect is manifest, the inbreeding effective number is [Formula: see
      text] in which sigmasm,sf is the covariance of the number of male (m) and female
      (f) progeny of a parent of sex s (s = m or f), MUsm and MUsf are the mean numbers
      of sons and daughters of a parent of sex s, and Ns,t-2 is the number in the
      grandparental generation. For the variance effective number [Formula: see text]
      in which [Formula: see text] and sigmasm2 and sigmasf2 are the variances in the
      number of sons and daughters of a parent of sex s. Observations are made at the
      same age in each generation.

PMID- 28564014
TI  - DETERMINISTIC THEORY OF HETEROPLASMY.

PMID- 28564015
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION IN WESTERN ATLANTIC STONE CRABS (GENUS MENIPPE): EVOLUTIONARY
      HISTORY AND ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT INFLUENCE SPECIES INTERACTIONS.
AB  - Two distinct taxa of marine crabs (Menippe mercenaria and M. adina, sensu
      Williams and Felder [1986]) interbreed extensively in two disjunct areas of the
      coastal southeastern United States. We used variation in coloration and allele
      frequencies at three diagnostic loci to examine in detail the structure of the
      two zones of variation. A narrow hybrid zone in northwest Florida is situated at
      the junction of the present ranges of the two parental forms, in an area of
      strong ecological change and hydrological convergence. Despite extensive
      hybridization in this area, there is a significant deficiency of heterozygotes
      for the Alp-2 locus, nonrandom associations of alleles for two diagnostic loci,
      and an absence of certain combinations of phenotypes and genotypes. Along the
      Atlantic coast (east central Florida into South Carolina), a broad zone of
      increased variability exists within the range of M. mercenaria. Allele
      frequencies throughout this zone are similar to those of M. mercenaria but
      reflect apparent introgression from M. adina. In contrast, color patterns are
      quite variable, but only in the center of this zone. There is little evidence of
      a heterozygote deficiency, and the preferred habitat of M. mercenaria is not
      present. The Atlantic zone of variability is apparently expanding, with alleles
      at enzyme loci introgressing more rapidly than color characteristics. Despite
      these differences, certain features are common to both zones. These include 1)
      asymmetry in terms of the direction of introgression, 2) differential
      introgression of alleles, and 3) an almost complete absence of M. adina
      phenotypes that carry high proportions of M. mercenaria alleles. Differences
      between the two zones illustrate the influence that environmental setting, time
      of contact in relation to time of divergence, and location of the zone relative
      to the parental species ranges can have on hybridization events. However,
      observed similarities between the zones suggest that certain patterns of
      introgression and recombination may be independent of environmental setting.
      Thus, we suggest that factors inherent to the organism (intrinsic factors) and
      factors inherent to the environment (extrinsic factors) both act to structure and
      maintain the two hybrid zones.

PMID- 28564016
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SILENE LATIFOLIA
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE). I. GENETIC VARIATION.
AB  - It is widely recognized that there are basic conflicts between the resource needs
      of a plant for paternal versus maternal functions. In dioecious species, these
      divergent demands, and the selection pressures they impose, can lead to the
      evolution of sexual dimorphism. The present study was conducted to assess the
      potential for the evolution of sexual dimorphism in Silene latifolia by
      evaluating the genetic variation and genetic correlation between characters and
      between the sexes for a range of growth and reproductive characters. Sexual
      dimorphism is largely restricted to reproductive characters, particularly flower
      number and flower size. A canonical correlation analysis revealed considerable
      intercorrelation between growth characters, such as germination date, height, and
      leaf size, and reproductive characters; plants that grow fast early on also
      flower earlier, and plants that produce big leaves also produce big flowers.
      There was genetic variation for several sexually dimorphic characters; much of
      the focus in this analysis was on flower size, particularly calyx diameter.
      Finally, genetic correlations within and between the sexes were found that limit
      the rate of evolutionary divergence between the sexes. The genetic results
      suggest that S. latifolia has been subject to divergent selection on the two
      sexes for a long period of time, bringing about a gradual fixation of sex-limited
      gene effects, so that the remaining genetic effects are expressed in both sexes.
      Genetic correlations between the sexes that arise from this residual variation
      impose limits on further evolutionary change.

PMID- 28564017
TI  - CHLOROPLAST DNA INTROGRESSION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUNFLOWERS.

PMID- 28564018
TI  - ARE PARALLEL MORPHOLOGIES OF CAVE ORGANISMS THE RESULT OF SIMILAR SELECTION
      PRESSURES?
AB  - The amphipod Gammarus minus is present in both caves and springs, with cave
      populations showing elaborated (size and antennae) and reduced (eye) characters
      relative to spring populations. Earlier studies have shown that cave populations
      resulted from independent invasions of hydrologically isolated subterranean
      drainages and that there is genetic variation for both elaborated and reduced
      characters. In this study we tested the hypothesis that a similar pattern of
      selection on isolated cave populations is responsible for the parallel evolution
      of cave morphologies. We used variation in mating success and fecundity to test
      for the presence of directional selection on eye, antennal, and body size
      characters in a set of cave and spring populations during a series of seasonal
      cross-sectional samplings. We found significant directional selection for smaller
      eyes in caves and larger eyes in springs, which supports the hypothesis that
      selection is responsible for reduced eye size in cave populations. We also found
      selection for larger body and antennal size in cave populations, which is
      consistent with the hypothesis that parallel patterns of selection in caves are
      responsible for the elaboration of body and antennal size. However, we found
      selection for larger body and antennal size in spring populations that is not
      consistent with the observed divergence of spring and cave populations. We
      suggest that unmeasured components of viability selection could be more important
      in springs than in caves and may act against the selection for larger size found
      in spring populations.

PMID- 28564019
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC MODELS FOR DEVELOPMENT, EPIGENETIC SELECTION, AND PHENOTYPIC
      EVOLUTION.
AB  - Herein we describe a general multivariate quantitative genetic model that
      incorporates two potentially important developmental phenomena, maternal effects
      and epigenetic effects. Maternal and epigenetic effects are defined as partial
      regression coefficients and phenotypic variances are derived in terms of age
      specific genetic and environmental variances. As a starting point, the
      traditional quantitative genetic model of additive gene effects and random
      environmental effects is cast in a developmental time framework. From this
      framework, we first extend a maternal effects model to include multiple
      developmental ages for the occurrence of maternal effects. An example of maternal
      effects occurring at multiple developmental ages is prenatal and postnatal
      maternal effects in mammals. Subsequently, a model of intrinsic and epigenetic
      effects in the absence of maternal effects is described. It is shown that genetic
      correlations can arise through epigenetic effects, and in the absence of other
      developmental effects, epigenetic effects are in general confounded with age
      specific intrinsic genetic effects. Finally, the two effects are incorporated
      into the basic quantitative genetic model. For this more biologically realistic
      model combining maternal and epigenetic effects, it is shown that the phenotypic
      regressions of offspring on mother and offspring on father can be used in some
      cases to estimate simultaneously maternal effects and epigenetic effects.

PMID- 28564020
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF REACTION NORMS.
AB  - We extend methods of quantitative genetics to studies of the evolution of
      reaction norms defined over continuous environments. Our models consider both
      spatial variation (hard and soft selection) and temporal variation (within a
      generation and between generations). These different forms of environmental
      variation can produce different evolutionary trajectories even when they favor
      the same optimal reaction norm. When genetic constraints limit the types of
      evolutionary changes available to a reaction norm, different forms of
      environmental variation can also produce different evolutionary equilibria. The
      methods and models presented here provide a framework in which empiricists may
      determine whether a reaction norm is optimal and, if it is not, to evaluate
      hypotheses for why it is not.

PMID- 28564021
TI  - ON THE SPREAD OF NEW GENE COMBINATIONS IN THE THIRD PHASE OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING
      BALANCE.

PMID- 28564022
TI  - THE ECOLOGY AND GENETICS OF FITNESS IN CHLAMYDOMONAS. V. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
      GENETIC CORRELATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIANCE.

PMID- 28564023
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON ADAPTIVE POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN
      ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM.
AB  - Maximum-likelihood estimates of environmental and broad sense genetic
      (co)variance components were obtained for the growth and reproductive output of
      clones of the grass Anthoxanthum odoratum. The clones were transplanted between a
      mesic and a xeric field site and across-environment genetic correlations were
      used to estimate the strength of genotype-environment interaction. Significant
      across-environment clonal covariance matrices were found for several traits,
      including lifetime reproductive output in one population. None of the matrices
      differed significantly between populations. Significant within-site clonal
      variation was found, but there was no significant across-environment clonal
      covariation. Most broad sense heritability estimates of character states within
      sites were small (median = 0.12), suggesting that only a slow response to
      selection is possible. All significant within-site clonal correlations between
      growth and reproductive output were positive, although the pattern of negative
      clonal correlations suggests that there may be a cost to first year reproduction,
      which might constrain future selection response.

PMID- 28564024
TI  - EFFECTS OF POPULATION BOTTLENECKS ON GENETIC DIVERSITY AS MEASURED BY ALLOZYME
      ELECTROPHORESIS.
AB  - Low levels of allozyme heterozygosity in populations are often attributed to
      previous population bottlenecks; however, few experiments have examined the
      relationship between heterozygosity and bottlenecks under natural conditions. The
      composition and number of founders of 55 experimental populations of the eastern
      mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), maintained under simulated field conditions,
      were manipulated to examine the effects of bottlenecks on three components of
      allozyme diversity. Correlations between observed and expected values of allozyme
      heterozygosity, proportions of polymorphic loci, and numbers of alleles per locus
      were 0.423, 0.602, and 0.772, respectively. The numbers of polymorphic loci and
      of alleles per locus were more sensitive indicators of differences in genetic
      diversity between the pre-bottleneck and post-bottleneck populations than was
      multiple-locus heterozygosity. In many populations, single- and multiple-locus
      heterozygosity actually increased as a result of the founder event. The weak
      relationship between a population's heterozygosity and the number and composition
      of its founders resulted from an increase in the variance of heterozygosity due
      to drift of allele frequencies. There was little evidence that selection
      influenced the loss of allozyme variation. When it is not possible to estimate
      heterozygosity at a large number of polymorphic loci, allozyme surveys attempting
      to detect founder events and other types of bottlenecks should focus on levels of
      locus polymorphism and allelic diversity rather than on heterozygosity.

PMID- 28564025
TI  - NEUTRAL THEORY OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC VARIANCE IN AN ISLAND MODEL WITH LOCAL
      EXTINCTION AND COLONIZATION.
AB  - Additive genetic variance maintained by mutation in a selectively neutral
      quantitative character is analyzed for an ideal population distributed on n
      islands, each with local effective size N, that exchange migrants at a small
      rate, m. In a stable population structure, the expected genetic variance
      maintained within islands is identical to that in a panmictic population of the
      same total size, regardless of the migration rate (m > 0). This result contrasts
      with Wright's classical conclusion, based on inbreeding coefficients, that at
      least one immigrant per island every other generation (Nm > 1/2) is necessary for
      the genetic variance within local populations to approach that under panmixia.
      The expected genetic variance maintained among islands is inversely proportional
      to m and increases with the number of islands, but is independent of N. Local
      extinction and colonization diminish the genetic variance maintained within
      islands by reducing the effective size of island populations through the founder
      effect, although the expected genetic variance within islands is nearly as large
      as that in a panmictic population of the same total effective size. If the
      founders of new colonies originate from more than one island, rates of local
      extinction and colonization larger than about twice the migration rate will
      substantially reduce the genetic variance maintained among islands. These results
      indicate the importance of mutation and migration in maintaining quantitative
      genetic variance within small local populations.

PMID- 28564026
TI  - THE MIXED-MODEL ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE APPLIED TO QUANTITATIVE GENETICS: BIOLOGICAL
      MEANING OF THE PARAMETERS.
AB  - The mixed-model factorial analysis of variance has been used in many recent
      studies in evolutionary quantitative genetics. Two competing formulations of the
      mixed-model ANOVA are commonly used, the "Scheffe" model and the "SAS" model;
      these models differ in both their assumptions and in the way in which variance
      components due to the main effect of random factors are defined. The biological
      meanings of the two variance component definitions have often been unappreciated,
      however. A full understanding of these meanings leads to the conclusion that the
      mixed-model ANOVA could have been used to much greater effect by many recent
      authors. The variance component due to the random main effect under the two-way
      SAS model is the covariance in true means associated with a level of the random
      factor (e.g., families) across levels of the fixed factor (e.g., environments).
      Therefore the SAS model has a natural application for estimating the genetic
      correlation between a character expressed in different environments and testing
      whether it differs from zero. The variance component due to the random main
      effect under the two-way Scheffe model is the variance in marginal means (i.e.,
      means over levels of the fixed factor) among levels of the random factor.
      Therefore the Scheffe model has a natural application for estimating genetic
      variances and heritabilities in populations using a defined mixture of
      environments. Procedures and assumptions necessary for these applications of the
      models are discussed. While exact significance tests under the SAS model require
      balanced data and the assumptions that family effects are normally distributed
      with equal variances in the different environments, the model can be useful even
      when these conditions are not met (e.g., for providing an unbiased estimate of
      the across-environment genetic covariance). Contrary to statements in a recent
      paper, exact significance tests regarding the variance in marginal means as well
      as unbiased estimates can be readily obtained from unbalanced designs with no
      restrictive assumptions about the distributions or variance-covariance structure
      of family effects.

PMID- 28564027
TI  - POLYGENIC MUTATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: ESTIMATES FROM DIVERGENCE AMONG
      INBRED STRAINS.
AB  - A highly inbred line of Drosophila melanogaster was subdivided into 25 replicate
      sublines, which were independently maintained for 100 generations with 10 pairs
      of unselected flies per generation. The polygenic mutation rate (VM ) for two
      quantitative traits, abdominal and sternopleural bristle number, was estimated
      from divergence among sublines at 10 generation intervals from generations 30
      100, and from response of each line to divergent selection after more than 65
      generations of mutation accumulation. Estimates of VM averaged over males and
      females both from divergence among lines and from response to selection within
      lines were 3.3 * 10-3 VE for abdominal bristles and 1.5 * 10-3 VE for
      sternopleural bristles, where VE is the environmental variance. The actual rate
      of production of mutations affecting these traits may be considerably higher if
      the traits are under stabilizing selection, and if mutations affecting bristle
      number have deleterious effects on fitness. There was a substantial component of
      variance for sex * mutant effect interaction and the sublines evolved highly
      significant mutational variation in sex dimorphism of abdominal bristle number.
      Pleiotropic effects on sex dimorphism may be a general property of mutations at
      loci determining bristle number.

PMID- 28564028
TI  - BEHAVIORAL DEFENSES AGAINST AVIAN BROOD PARASITISM IN SYMPATRIC AND ALLOPATRIC
      HOST POPULATIONS.
AB  - The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a widespread, obligate brood
      parasite of North American passerine birds. In southern Manitoba, where hosts are
      sympatric with cowbirds, American robins (Turdus migratorius) ejected parasitic
      eggs from all experimentally parasitized clutches (N = 25) and no eggs were
      accepted for more than four days. In contrast, robins in northern Manitoba, an
      area where cowbirds do not breed, accepted parasitic eggs in 33% of nests (N =
      18) for at least five days. Acceptance of experimental cowbird eggs by a second
      host, the yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia), was similar in allopatric (100% of
      20 nests) and sympatric (88.6% of 35 nests) populations, but models of a female
      cowbird elicited greater nest defense by warblers in the area of sympatry.
      Neither host rejected eggs of conspecifics, thus, rejection of cowbird eggs was
      not an epiphenomenon of conspecific brood parasitism. These results support the
      hypothesis that recognition of cowbirds and their eggs evolved as adaptations to
      counter cowbird parasitism and not some other selection pressure. The expression
      of anti-parasite defenses by some individuals within allopatric populations
      further suggests these traits may be controlled genetically but persist in such
      areas either through the continued introgression of rejecter genes from sympatric
      populations or because of the low cost of rejection behavior when parasitism is
      absent or rare.

PMID- 28564029
TI  - UNUSUAL POPULATION GENETICS OF A PARASITIC NEMATODE: mtDNA VARIATION WITHIN AND
      AMONG POPULATIONS.
AB  - Very little is known about the distribution of genetic variance within and among
      populations of parasitic helminths. In this study we used mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) restriction fragment analysis to describe the population genetic
      structure of Ostertagia ostertagi, a nematode parasite of cattle, in the United
      States. Estimates of within-population mtDNA diversity are 5 to 10 times greater
      than typical estimates reported for species in other taxa. Although populations
      are genetically differentiated for a key life-history trait, greater than 98% of
      the total genetic diversity is partitioned within populations, and the geographic
      distribution of individual mtDNA haplotypes suggests high gene flow among
      populations.

PMID- 28564030
TI  - RESPONSE TO WAPLES'S COMMENT ON HETEROZYGOSITY AND LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN BONY
      FISHES.

PMID- 28564031
TI  - A GENERAL MODEL FOR KIN SELECTION.
AB  - Inclusive fitness theory is central to our understanding of the evolution of
      social behavior. By showing the importance of genetic transmission through
      nondescendent relatives, it helps to explain the evolution of reproductively
      altruistic behaviors, such as those observed in the social insects. Inclusive
      fitness thinking is quantified by Hamilton's rule, but Hamilton's rule has often
      been criticized for being inexact or insufficiently general. Here I show how
      adopting a genic perspective yields a very general version that remains
      pleasingly simple and transparent.

PMID- 28564032
TI  - A WIDESPREAD B CHROMOSOME POLYMORPHISM MAINTAINED WITHOUT APPARENT DRIVE.
AB  - The transmission rates of the three main types of B chromosome present in the
      grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans were studied by two different methods: (i)
      cytological observation of their meiotic behavior in males and females and (ii)
      karyological analysis of the embryo offspring obtained either from gravid females
      collected in the field or from controlled crosses. We conclude that Bs are
      inherited in a random manner with no tendency toward accumulation or loss from
      either sex. The possible factors that might be responsible for the maintenance of
      this widespread polymorphism are discussed.

PMID- 28564033
TI  - MULLER'S RATCHET AND THE ADVANTAGE OF SEX IN THE RNA VIRUS ?6.
AB  - Population genetic models have shown that if genetic drift is strong and the rate
      of deleterious mutations is high, Muller's ratchet provides an advantage to sex.
      A previous study tested for the possibility that Muller's ratchet could work in
      RNA viruses, which are known to have very high mutation rates. Muller's ratchet
      was found to operate when lineages of the RNA bacteriophage phi6 were subjected
      to intensified genetic drift. The study did not determine, however, whether sex
      is advantageous to these viruses. We have examined whether sex can reverse the
      effects of Muller's ratchet by crossing nine phi6 lineages that were subjected to
      the ratchet in Chao's study. To determine whether there was a net advantage to
      sex, we analyzed the effect of crossing three lineages to all other lineages.
      Crossing increased significantly the fitness of two lineages, but it did not
      significantly affect the fitness of the third lineage. We argue that the minimal
      advantage of sex to these nine lineages is small, but positive. These results
      provide a possible scenario for the evolution of sex in an RNA phage like phi6.

PMID- 28564034
TI  - GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE AND LEVELS OF GENE FLOW IN THE STREAM DWELLING
      WATERSTRIDER, AQUARIUS (=GERRIS) REMIGIS (HEMIPTERA: GERRIDAE).
AB  - Gene flow, in combination with selection and drift, determines levels of
      differentiation among local populations. In this study we estimate gene flow in a
      stream dwelling, flightless waterstrider, Aquarius remigis. Twenty-eight Aquarius
      remigis populations from Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Iowa, North Carolina,
      and California were genetically characterized at 15 loci using starch gel
      electrophoresis. Sampling over two years was designed for a hierarchical analysis
      of population structure incorporating variation among sites within streams,
      streams within watersheds, watersheds within regions, and regions within North
      America. Hierarchical F statistics indicated that only sites within streams
      maintained enough gene flow to prevent differentiation through drift (Nm = 27.5).
      Above the level of sites within streams gene flow is highly restricted (Nm <=
      0.5) and no correlation is found between genetic and geographic distances. This
      agrees well with direct estimates of gene flow based on mark and recapture data,
      yielding an Ne of approximately 170 individuals. Previous assignment of
      subspecific status to Californian A. remigis is not supported by genetic
      distances between those populations and other populations in North America.
      Previous suggestion of specific status for south-eastern A. remigis is supported
      by genetic distances between North Carolina populations and other populations in
      North America, and a high proportion of region specific alleles in the North
      Carolina populations. However, because of the high degree of morphological and
      genetic variability throughout the range of this species, the assignment of
      specific or subspecific status to parts of the range may be premature.

PMID- 28564035
TI  - MODELS OF CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT AND THE THEORETICAL ROBUSTNESS OF TAXON CYCLES.
AB  - The appropriateness of the techniques used in modeling character displacement has
      been the focus of vigorous debate. In this paper, the three competing methods
      (the coevolutionarily stable community (CSC), the evolutionarily stable strategy
      (ESS), and quantitative genetic recursion (QGR)) are compared in models using a
      common ecological setting. Specific predictions of the CSC model have been used
      to understand features of character displacement among Cnemidophorous lizards on
      islands off Mexico, Anolis lizards in the Lesser Antilles and Galapagos finches.
      Nonetheless, the validity of the approach has been repeatedly questioned.
      Conceptually the three formalisms vary in the degree to which within species
      variability is allowed in the models. The predictions of the CSC are found not to
      be robust to even small violation of its fundamental assumption of absolute
      species monomorphy. We show by simulation and analytical observations that the
      CSC is not valid under frequency dependent selection, and that the ESS is the
      limiting case of QGR as intraspecific phenotypic variation goes to zero. Thus the
      ESS and the QGR models agree closely when the between-phenotype component (BPC)
      of the niche width is small. However, as the BPC increases, quantitative
      discrepancies between ESS and QGR predictions increase, although model behavior
      remains qualitatively similar. A fourth approach, termed "Quantitative Genetic
      Optimization" (QGO) analysis, is suggested, combining advantages of both the ESS
      and QGR. Although all approaches support the possibility of taxon cycles, the
      cycle patterns predicted are qualitatively different and strongly model
      dependent.

PMID- 28564036
TI  - COMPETITION-DEPENDENT ABSCISSION OF SELF-POLLINATED FLOWERS OF PHORMIUM TENAX
      (AGAVACEAE): A SECOND ACTION OF SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY AT THE WHOLE FLOWER LEVEL?
AB  - The relative success of fruit from paired self- and cross-pollinations was
      examined in Phormium tenax when the contrasted pollinations were separated by
      different distances on the same and different inflorescences. We determined
      whether the retention of selfed fruits differed from that of crossed fruits and
      whether it depended on the level of competition with crossed fruit, the number of
      seeds per fruit, and/or the presence of earlier developing fruit. We found that
      the success of selfed fruits is determined by the degree of competition with
      crossed fruits and may be an expression of self-incompatibility. Competition
      dependence of the abscission of selfed flowers has not been documented
      previously. It is parallel to cryptic self-incompatibility in which individual
      self-pollen grains are not as successful as cross-pollen when competing on the
      same pistil. The competition-dependent abscission of self-pollinations considered
      here, however, operates at the level of whole flowers. The phenomenon of
      competition-dependent abscission of selfed flowers in P. tenax also has
      implications for the measurement and interpretation of self-incompatibility in
      other species. Self-incompatibility is a quantitative phenomenon. The facultative
      success of selfing shows that the effective strength of self-incompatibility can
      be highly susceptible to the conditions of competition under which it is
      measured. The competition-dependent abscission of selfed flowers allows a high
      level of outcrossing to be achieved while it assures seed set when pollinations
      are scarce. Several other causes of intermediate selfing frequencies can also be
      explained by this "best-of-both-worlds" hypothesis.

PMID- 28564037
TI  - SPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE IN TWO TAMARACK [LARIX LARICINA (DU ROI) K. KOCH]
      POPULATIONS WITH DIFFERING ESTABLISHMENT HISTORIES.

PMID- 28564038
TI  - INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN SPERM COMPETITION SUCCESS OF YELLOW DUNG FLIES,
      SCATOPHAGA STERCORARIA.
AB  - Intraspecific variation in the proportion of offspring sired by the second male
      to mate with a female (P2 ) is an aspect of sperm competition that has received
      little attention. We examined variation in the sperm competition success of
      individual male dung flies, Scatophaga stercoraria. In unmanipulated matings,
      copula duration was dependent on male size with smaller males copulating for
      longer. A principal component analysis was used to generate uncorrelated scores
      based on a male's size and copula duration. Using these scores demonstrated that
      P2 values were dependent both on the relative size and copula durations of
      competing males. When copula duration was held constant, the success of an
      individual male increased as his body size, relative to the first male,
      increased. We interrupted copulations of "large" and "small" second males and
      fitted the resultant P2 values to a linear model of sperm competition with
      unequal ejaculates. The data fit well to a model of sperm displacement in which
      sperm mix quickly on introduction to the sperm stores. Furthermore, they show
      that "large" males have a greater rate of sperm displacement than "small" males.
      The levels of prey availability during testis maturation may influence a male's
      success in sperm competition although his immediate mating history does not. We
      show why an understanding of variation in sperm competition success is important
      for understanding the mechanisms and evolutionary significance of sperm
      competition.

PMID- 28564039
TI  - A SEX DIFFERENCE IN THE PROPENSITY TO ENTER DIRECT/DIAPAUSE DEVELOPMENT: A RESULT
      OF SELECTION FOR PROTANDRY.
AB  - In monandrous mating systems with discrete nonoverlapping generations males
      should maximize the expected number of matings by starting to emerge before
      females. This is known as protandry. Moreover, Evolutionarily Stable Strategies
      (ESS) models show that the male emergence curve should be abruptly truncated
      before female emergence has ceased. In temperate areas where many insects have
      partial second generations, we accordingly predict that males should enter
      diapause development at an earlier date than should females, as a result of late
      emerging males being penalized in terms of fewer mating opportunities. The
      decision to diapause or to develop directly is usually mediated by response to
      environmental stimuli of which day length is the most important. Hence we predict
      that the mechanism by which males enter diapause at an earlier date than females
      will be that of the male reaction norm for diapause development being shifted
      towards longer day lengths when compared to that of females. As a result of the
      greater tendency of males to enter diapause development, partial second
      generations that develop directly should be female biased. As a corollary, first
      generations should be male biased because some males of the first generation are
      from the previous year. The prediction that males should enter diapause
      development earlier in the season, i.e., at longer day lengths, as compared to
      females was corroborated by rearing Pieris napi under a variety of critical day
      length regimes producing mixed broods of directly developing and diapausing
      individuals, and by outdoor rearings of cohorts of larvae of P. napi and P. rapae
      initiated throughout the season. The prediction that partial second generations
      should be female biased was corroborated by laboratory rearings at constant
      temperature of P. napi (Pieridae), Polygonia c-album (Nymphalidae), and Pararge
      aegeria (Satyridae) under critical day length conditions, producing female-biased
      sex ratio under direct, and male-biased sex ratio under diapause development.

PMID- 28564040
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF POLYGENIC VARIATION IN SPATIALLY STRUCTURED POPULATIONS: ROLES FOR
      LOCAL MATING AND GENETIC REDUNDANCY.
AB  - Although heritable genetic variation is critical to the evolutionary process, we
      know little about how it is maintained. Obviously, mutation-selection balance
      must play a role, but there is considerable doubt over whether it can account for
      heritabilities as high as 0.5, which are commonly found in natural populations.
      Most models of mutation-selection balance assume panmictic populations. In this
      paper we use Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effect of isolation by
      distance on the variation maintained by mutation in a polygenic trait subject to
      optimizing selection. We show that isolation by distance can substantially
      increase the total variation maintained in continuous populations over a wide
      range of dispersal patterns, but only if more than one genotype produces the
      optimal phenotype (genetic redundancy). Isolation by distance alone has only a
      slight effect on the variation maintained in the total population for neutral
      alleles. The combined effect of isolation by distance and genetic redundancy,
      however, allows the maintenance of substantial variation despite strong
      stabilizing selection. The mechanism is straightforward. Isolation by distance
      allows mutation and drift to operate independently in different parts of the
      population. Because of their independent evolutionary histories, different parts
      of the population independently draw from the available set of redundant
      genotypes. Because the genotypes are redundant, selection does not discriminate
      among them, and they will persist until eliminated by drift. The population as a
      whole maintains many distinct genotypes. We show that this process allows
      mutation to maintain high levels of variation, even under strong stabilizing
      selection, and that over a moderate range of dispersal patterns the amount of
      variation maintained in the entire population is independent of both the strength
      of selection and the variance of the dispersal distance. Furthermore, we show
      that individual heterozygosity is increased in locally mating populations when
      selection is strong. Finally, our simulations provide a rough picture of how
      selection and the dispersal pattern influence the spatial distribution of genetic
      and phenotypic variation.

PMID- 28564041
TI  - GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF MATING SYSTEM EVOLUTION IN PLANTS.

PMID- 28564042
TI  - REVISING A CLASSIC BUTTERFLY MIMICRY SCENARIO: DEMONSTRATION OF MULLERIAN MIMICRY
      BETWEEN FLORIDA VICEROYS (LIMENITIS ARCHIPPUS FLORIDENSIS) AND QUEENS (DANAUS
      GILIPPUS BERENICE).
AB  - Batesian and Mullerian mimicry relationships differ greatly in terms of selective
      pressures affecting the participants; hence, accurately characterizing a mimetic
      interaction is a crucial prerequisite to understanding the selective milieux of
      model, mimic, and predator. Florida viceroy butterflies (Limenitis archippus
      floridensis) are conventionally characterized as palatable Batesian mimics of
      distasteful Florida queens (Danaus gilippus berenice). However, recent
      experiments indicate that both butterflies are moderately distasteful, suggesting
      they may be Mullerian comimics. To directly test whether the butterflies
      exemplify Mullerian mimicry, I performed two reciprocal experiments using red
      winged blackbird predators. In Experiment 1, each of eight birds was exposed to a
      series of eight queens as "models," then offered four choice trials involving a
      viceroy (the putative "mimic") versus a novel alternative butterfly. If mimicry
      was effective, viceroys should be attacked less than alternatives. I also
      compared the birds' reactions to solo viceroy "mimics" offered before and after
      queen models, hypothesizing that attack rate on the viceroy would decrease after
      birds had been exposed to queen models. In Experiment 2, 12 birds were tested
      with viceroys as models and queens as putative mimics. The experiments revealed
      that (1) viceroys and queens offered as models were both moderately unpalatable
      (only 16% entirely eaten), (2) some birds apparently developed conditioned
      aversions to viceroy or queen models after only eight exposures, (3) in the
      subsequent choice trials, viceroy and queen "mimics" were attacked significantly
      less than alternatives, and (4) solo postmodel mimics were attacked significantly
      less than solo premodel mimics. Therefore, under these experimental conditions,
      sampled Florida viceroys and queens are comimics and exemplify Mullerian, not
      Batesian, mimicry. This compels a reassessment of selective forces affecting the
      butterflies and their predators, and sets the stage for a broader empirical
      investigation of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of mimicry.

PMID- 28564043
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MATERNAL-AGE EFFECTS ON DIAPAUSE IN A CRICKET.

PMID- 28564044
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF HOST PLANT ADAPTATION IN A SPATIAL PATCHWORK:
      DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABILITY AMONG RECIPROCALLY TRANSPLANTED PEA APHID CLONES.
AB  - Populations of insect herbivores that feed on several host plant species may
      experience different selective forces on each host. When the hosts cooccur in a
      local area, herbivore populations can provide useful models for the study of
      evolutionary mechanisms in patchy environments. A first step in such a study
      involves determination of the genetic structure of host adaptation in the region:
      how is genetic variation for host use structured within and between
      subpopulations of herbivores on each host? The structure of genetic variation for
      host use reveals patterns of local adaptation, probable selective consequences of
      migration between hosts, and the potential for further evolution. To estimate the
      population structure of host adaptation in a patchwork, 7-11 pea aphid clones
      were collected at the beginning of the summer from each of two alfalfa and two
      red clover fields within a very localized area (about 15-20 km2 ). Using a
      reciprocal transplant in the field, replicates of these 35 clones were allowed to
      develop individually on each of the two crops. A complete life table was made for
      each replicate. Individual fitness was calculated from the life tables as the
      expected rate of population increase; longevity, age at first reproduction, and
      total fecundity were also measured for each clonal replicate. Currently,
      experimental estimates of genetic variation in complete life tables are virtually
      nonexistent for natural populations, even for single environments (Charlesworth,
      1987); field studies are even less common. Because clones from each of two source
      crops were tested reciprocally on both hosts, variation in relative genotypic
      fitness on alfalfa and clover could be partitioned among clones within source
      crops, between fields of the same crop, and between source crops (alfalfa or red
      clover), providing a view of population structure. Significant clonal variation
      in relative performance on alfalfa and red clover was found: clones tended to
      have higher fitness on the crop from which they had been collected (the "home"
      crop) than they did on the "away" crop, suggesting local adaptation in response
      to patchy patterns of selection. Clonal variability within collections from the
      two crops suggests the potential for changes in the genetic constitution of these
      aphid populations within established fields as a result of clonal selection
      during the summer season. Significantly negative genetic correlations across
      crops were found for fitness and its major components. The possibility that these
      negative cross-environment correlations could act as evolutionary constraints on
      adaptation to the patchwork is considered.

PMID- 28564045
TI  - THE INTERACTION PHENOTYPE IN THE DROSOPHILA WILLISTONI-SPIROPLASMA SYMBIOSIS.
AB  - Both the population and coevolutionary dynamics of hereditary male-lethal
      endosymbionts, found in a wide range of insect species, depend on host fitness
      and endosymbiont transmission rates. This paper reports on fitness effects and
      transmission rates in three lines of Drosophila willistoni infected with either
      male-lethal spiroplasmas or a spontaneous nonmale-lethal mutant. Overall fitness
      measures were reduced or unaffected by the infection; however, some infected
      females produced more offspring in early broods. Maternal transmission rates were
      high, but imperfect, and varied with a female's age, host line, and spiroplasma
      type. No evidence for paternal or horizontal transmission was found. If an
      altered temporal pattern of reproduction is not a factor in countering the loss
      of spiroplasma hosts through imperfect maternal transmission, persistence of this
      endoparasitism remains unexplained. Tolerance of the infection and ability to
      transmit bacteria varied with both host and spiroplasma line. Analysis of the
      interaction between the spontaneous nonmale-lethal mutant and its host suggests
      this symbiosis has undergone coevolution under laboratory culture.

PMID- 28564046
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF THE MATING SYSTEM ON SEED SIZE VARIATION IN CRINUM ERUBESCENS
      (AMARYLLIDACEAE).
AB  - We present evidence that extreme seed size variation in fruits of Crinum
      erubescens (range: 0.1 to 66.5 g per seed) occurs when mating pairs are inbred,
      either from selfing or biparental inbreeding. Several relatively uniform seeds of
      intermediate size are produced when pollen from several pollen donors is applied
      simultaneously to a flower. Selfed fruits and some fruits pollinated with a
      single pollen donor produce both large and small seeds, although selfed fruits
      produce fewer seeds than outcrossed fruit. These results are contrary to the
      hypothesis that variation in seed size is attributable to either pollen
      competition or differential allocation of maternal resource to seeds of different
      genotypes.

PMID- 28564047
TI  - THE ECOLOGY AND GENETICS OF FITNESS IN CHLAMYDOMONAS. IV. THE PROPERTIES OF
      MIXTURES OF GENOTYPES OF THE SAME SPECIES.
AB  - The properties of mixtures of genotypes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were
      investigated by growing them in monoculture and in all possible pairwise
      combinations in chemically defined axenic medium. Two sets of genotypes produced
      by crossing wild-type isolates were cultured in each of two physical
      environments. Mixtures were consistently more productive and less variable over
      environments than were their constituent monocultures. The average performance of
      a genotype in mixture was tightly correlated with its performance in monoculture.
      Reisolation of spores from mixtures at the end of growth showed that the mixtures
      became dominated by the component with the greater performance in monoculture, so
      that the properties of mixtures were attributable to replacement rather than to
      complementation. These results differ from those of similar trials using a range
      of different species of Chlamydomonas, where genetic interactions were found to
      be important. They are discussed in relation to theories of diversity and
      diversification, and related to the agronomic use of crop mixtures.

PMID- 28564048
TI  - A CHLOROPLAST DNA INVERSION MARKS AN EVOLUTIONARY SPLIT IN THE GENUS OENOTHERA.

PMID- 28564049
TI  - RESTRICTED GENE FLOW IN A MOVING HYBRID ZONE OF THE NEWTS TRITURUS CRISTATUS AND
      T. MARMORATUS IN WESTERN FRANCE.
AB  - Two hybridizing species of newts, Triturus cristatus and T. marmoratus, with
      overlapping distributions show a parapatric distribution when surveyed in detail.
      The factors that govern the distribution of cristatus vs. marmoratus in the
      departement (province) of Mayenne in western France are identified as forestation
      and relief. The parapatric hybrid zone running through Mayenne is narrow but
      widens to approximately 20 km in an area with mixed habitat. In this area most
      breeding sites are shared and F1 hybrids form about 4% of the total population.
      Analysis of survey data collected about 30 years previously also shows an
      essentially parapatric distribution. Comparison of past and present distribution
      maps reveals that cristatus has superseded marmoratus over large areas in the
      south of Mayenne. An area where marmoratus replaced cristatus also exists, but it
      is more limited in size. Gene flow between cristatus and marmoratus is analyzed
      using 10 diagnostic genetic markers [9 protein loci and mitochondrial (mt) DNA].
      In syntopic populations nuclear gene flow is bidirectional with a mean frequency
      of introgressed alleles (f) of 0.3%. In allotopic populations of cristatus and
      marmoratus gene flow is present in areas of species replacement (f = 0.3%), while
      gene flow appears to be absent in those areas that have been continuously
      occupied by a single species. At the biogeographic level, the presence or absence
      of introgression is paralleled by the persistence or absence, respectively, of
      pockets of cristatus-marmoratus syntopy. All F1 hybrids possess the cristatus
      type mtDNA. This may be due to asymmetric interspecific mate choice and would
      explain the observed absence of introgression of the maternally inherited mtDNA
      genome in areas where cristatus replaced marmoratus. The cristatus-marmoratus
      hybrid zone bears characteristics of both the clinal (parapatric) hybrid zone
      model and the mosaic hybrid zone model. Such a mixed model-for which we propose
      the term "reticulate hybrid zone"-can be appreciated only if studied over a two
      dimensional geographic area and also through time.

PMID- 28564050
TI  - PHENOTYPE FIXATION AND GENOTYPIC DIVERSITY IN THE COMPLEX LIFE CYCLE OF THE APHID
      PEMPHIGUS BETAE.
AB  - The aphid Pemphigus betae typically shows a complex life cycle, with annual
      alternation between cottonwood trees, where it forms leaf galls, and herbaceous
      plants, where it lives on roots. Distinct phenotypes are associated with each
      phase. In a population in Utah, aphid clones vary in their tendencies to undergo
      the cottonwood phase of the life cycle, with certain clones rarely producing the
      winged migrants that initiate the cottonwood phase. To examine the extent of
      genotypic variability in life cycle traits and to determine the consequences of
      phase deletion for fitness in the remaining phase of the life cycle, I compared
      performances of sets of clones that differed in their tendencies to delete the
      cottonwood phase. Performances of 35 aphid clones were compared on root hosts in
      the laboratory, by quantifying size (a correlate of fecundity), developmental
      time, and mortality for clonal sublines. Clones that tend to delete the
      cottonwood phase and remain on roots developed faster, showed lower mortality,
      and were larger as compared to clones that tend to undergo an annual migration to
      cottonwood. These laboratory comparisons of individual clones agree with earlier
      findings from field experiments. Performance also varied significantly among
      clones within sets, with the set of clones not previously subjected to selection
      on root hosts showing higher variance than clones isolated following selection in
      the root-inhabiting phase. These data suggest that selection in the cottonwood
      phase opposes selection in the root phase. Thus, even in cases of polyphenism, in
      which divergent developmental pathways confer some independence of phenotypic
      expression in alternative phases, antagonistic pleiotropy limits adaptation
      within a phase. These findings on the correlates of intrapopulational variation
      in frequency of phase expression provide some of the best evidence for character
      release following reduction of a complex life cycle, and they support the
      hypothesis that the advantages of polyphenism may be limited by negative genetic
      correlations among fitness traits of alternative phenotypes.

PMID- 28564051
TI  - SELECTION OF BENEVOLENCE IN A HOST-PARASITE SYSTEM.
AB  - A paradigm for the evolution of cooperation between parasites and their hosts
      argues that the mode of parasite transmission is critical to the long-term
      maintenance of cooperation. Cooperation is not expected to be maintained whenever
      the chief mode of transmission is horizontal: a parasite's progeny infect hosts
      unrelated to their parent's host. Cooperation is expected to be maintained if the
      chief mode of transmission is vertical: a parasite's progeny infect only the
      parent's host or descendants of that host. This paradigm was tested using
      bacteria and filamentous bacteriophage (f1). When cells harboring different
      variants of these phage were cultured so that no infectious spread was allowed,
      ensuring that all parasite transmission was vertical, selection favored the
      variants that were most benevolent to the host-those that least harmed host
      growth rate. By changing the culture conditions so that horizontal spread of the
      phage was allowed, the selective advantage of the benevolent forms was lost.
      These experiments thus support the theoretical arguments that mode of
      transmission is a major determinant in the evolution of cooperation between a
      parasite and its host.

PMID- 28564052
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF THE LAKE WHITEFISH (COREGONUS
      CLUPEAFORMIS) AND ITS RELATION TO PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS.
AB  - Restriction-fragment length polymorphisms were employed to evaluate the
      phylogenetic relationships, the genetic diversity and the geographic structure in
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages of the lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis.
      Thirteen restriction enzymes that produced 148 restriction fragments were used to
      assay mtDNAs of 525 specimens collected among 41 populations. The sampling
      covered the entire range of the species, from Alaska to Labrador. Four distinct
      phylogeographic assemblages were identified. The Beringian assemblage, confined
      to Yukon and Alaska, was phylogenetically distinct from other assemblages and
      exhibited the highest level of nucleotide diversity. The Acadian assemblage was
      confined to southeastern North America and composed of a unique mtDNA clade. The
      Atlantic assemblage was confined to southern Quebec and the northeastern United
      States and was also observed among anadromous populations of northern Hudson Bay.
      This group was highly polymorphic and responsible for most of the mtDNA diversity
      observed outside Beringia. The Mississippian assemblage occupied most of the
      actual range of lake whitefish, from the Mackenzie delta to Labrador. Ninety-two
      percent of all whitefish of this proposed origin belonged to a single mtDNA
      haplotype. Overall, the diversity, the geographic structure and the times of
      divergence of mtDNA phylogenetic assemblages correlate with the Pleistocene
      glaciations classically assumed to have dramatically altered the genetic
      diversity of northern fishes in recent evolutionary times. Our results emphasize
      the dominant role of these catastrophic events in shaping the population genetic
      structure of lake whitefish.

PMID- 28564053
TI  - THE EXTENT OF INTROGRESSION OUTSIDE THE CONTACT ZONE BETWEEN NOTROPIS CORNUTUS
      AND NOTROPIS CHRYSOCEPHALUS (TELEOSTEI: CYPRINIDAE).
AB  - The cyprinid fishes, Notropis cornutus and N. chrysocephalus, hybridize in a
      long, narrow zone in the midwestern United States. To quantify the extent of
      introgression of genetic markers outside of this zone, samples were collected
      along transects starting near the region of contact (as defined by morphological
      characters), followed by samples progressively more distant. Diagnostic allozymic
      and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction site markers were used to estimate the
      extent of introgression outside of the zone, while polymorphic allozyme and mtDNA
      markers were used to evaluate the potential for gene flow among populations
      within transects. Analysis of populations from the northern transect provided
      evidence for differentiation of populations for some of the markers; however, on
      average, enough gene flow has occurred to overcome substantial differentiation.
      Introgressed mtDNA and allozyme haplotypes were rare and found only in the
      population closest to the contact zone. The rarity of introgressed alleles in the
      more northern populations is consistent with the recent origin of these
      populations after the Wisconsin glaciation (less than 12,000 years bp) and/or
      selection maintaining the northern boundary of the contact zone. Analysis of
      populations from the southern transect revealed evidence for population
      subdivision but no evidence for introgression at the diagnostic allozyme loci;
      however, nearly all individuals from this transect possessed introgressed mtDNA
      haplotypes, with samples furthest from the contact zone exhibiting the highest
      frequencies of introgression. Patterns of variation for one of the polymorphic
      allozyme markers (Est-A) and introgressed mtDNAs were highly correlated,
      suggesting that allozymic heterogeneity at this locus is also the result of
      introgression. The most likely explanation for these data is that these
      introgressed haplotypes are indicators of a more southern position of the contact
      zone during the Pleistocene, with the contact zone shifting northward with the
      recession of the glacial front. Such movement implicates selection in the
      maintenance of distributional limits of these species, and hence, the width and
      position of the contact zone.

PMID- 28564054
TI  - A TEST OF THE SEQUENTIAL ASSESSMENT GAME: FIGHTING IN THE BOWL AND DOILY SPIDER
      FRONTINELLA PYRAMITELA.
AB  - Male bowl and doily spiders (Frontinella pyramitela: Linyphiidae) engage in
      dangerous fights over access to females. Relatively smaller individuals are more
      at risk of fatal injury than their larger opponents. Males assess relative
      fighting ability during contests: smaller individuals tend to give up quickly.
      Fights occur between a male with information about the value of the contested
      female (number of fertilizable eggs) and an intruding male with less information.
      In this paper, a sequential assessment game (a game theory model of fighting
      behavior) is adapted to male combat in the bowl and doily spider to attempt a
      quantitative test. The model makes predictions about fight duration, probability
      of winning, and the occurrence of fatalities as a function of resource value and
      size asymmetry. Comparison with empirical data from staged contests yields a
      generally good quantitative agreement with the predictions. A few deviations are
      also noted.

PMID- 28564055
TI  - HERITABLE VARIATION IN RESOURCE UTILIZATION AND RESPONSE IN A WINERY POPULATION
      OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - It has been found that Drosophila melanogaster lines from the "Chateau Tahbilk"
      winery cellar had higher larval ethanol resistance than lines originating from
      outside the cellar. Because the adaptive significance of this trait is unclear,
      we have reexamined genetic microdifferentiation at Tahbilk with other resources
      and different tests for ethanol adaptation. Cellar stocks tended to be more
      resistant to starvation after exposure to wine seepage than stocks originating
      from orchard traps outside the cellar. Lines from a grape residue pile were also
      more resistant to starvation after seepage exposure than orchard stocks even
      though these collection sites were a few meters apart. Cellar and orchard stocks
      did not differ in ethanol resistance as measured by larval viability tests on low
      sucrose medium. However, stocks from the grape residue pile showed an increase in
      adult longevity over ethanol vapor compared to those from the cellar or orchard
      stocks. These differences were not due to maternal effects. In laboratory tests
      of behavioral responses, cellar stocks were relatively more attracted to seepage
      than orchard stocks in one year but not in the other two years. The findings
      suggest some adaptive differentiation related to resource heterogeneity at
      Tahbilk.

PMID- 28564056
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PLUMAGE COLOR IN MALE PIED FLYCATCHERS (FICEDULA HYPOLEUCA):
      EVIDENCE FOR FEMALE MIMICRY.
AB  - We present the first evidence for sexual deception by female mimicry in birds.
      Using live, caged birds we show that territorial male pied flycatchers behave
      aggressively toward bright-colored males but display sexually toward female-like
      male intruders. We also show that the males that are fooled are those that lack
      recent sexual experience. All male pied flycatchers are dull-colored in winter.
      It is possible that young males are more constrained during the spring molt than
      older males since the former are more dull-colored in spring. According to the
      molt-constraints hypothesis a subadult plumage would be maladaptive in the
      breeding season. Analysis of male settling pattern at breeding sites in spring
      suggests that brownish males are allowed to settle closer to already-established
      males than dark-colored males. This result suggests an adaptive value of having a
      subadult plumage color, in particular for young males arriving late from spring
      migration. However, we also show that mimicry incurs a cost, that of increased
      aggression from females, which may explain why female-like males have reduced
      mating success.

PMID- 28564057
TI  - DISPERSAL AND GENETIC STRUCTURE IN KANGAROO RATS.
AB  - We used spatial autocorrelation of allele frequencies to examine local structure
      in a population of bannertailed kangaroo rats for which Wright's isolation-by
      distance model seems applicable, and for which we can estimate neighborhood size
      based on 10 years of data on demography and dispersal. The uniform dispersion and
      strong philopatric tendencies of this species provide a test case for the idea
      that restricted dispersal can lead to local genetic structure in small mammals.
      Whether we considered such complications as nonnormal dispersal distances,
      variation in lifetime reproductive success, fluctuating population density, and
      adult as well as juvenile dispersal, our estimate of effective population size
      was fewer than 15 animals. Nevertheless, data from four polymorphic allozyme loci
      analyzed over a range of separations between 50 m (approximately one home range
      diameter) and 1,000 m detected no evidence for spatial clustering of alleles. One
      resolution of this apparent paradox is that "gamete dispersal," caused by the
      movements of males away from their residences during the breeding season, may be
      a significant (and unmeasured) component of gene dispersal. Our analyses also
      demonstrate that a decline in population density may actually increase
      neighborhood size. A more general implication is that even extremely philopatric
      mammals have effective population sizes large enough to prevent the development
      of local genetic structure.

PMID- 28564058
TI  - ON THE LOW HERITABILITY OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS.
AB  - Life-history traits such as longevity and fecundity often show low heritability.
      This is usually interpreted in terms of Fisher's fundamental theorem to mean that
      populations are near evolutionary equilibrium and genetic variance in total
      fitness is low. We develop the causal relationship between metric traits and life
      history traits to show that a life-history trait is expected to have a low
      heritability whether or not the population is at equilibrium. This is because it
      is subject to all the environmental variation in the metric traits that affect it
      plus additional environmental variation. There is no simple prediction regarding
      levels of additive genetic variance in life-history traits, which may be high at
      equilibrium. Several other patterns in the inheritance of life-history traits are
      readily predicted from the causal model. These include the strength of genetic
      correlations between life-history traits, levels of nonadditive genetic variance,
      and the inevitability of genotype-environment interaction.

PMID- 28564059
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AND HETEROZYGOSITY IN PINYON PINE ASSOCIATED WITH
      RESISTANCE TO HERBIVORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS.
AB  - Arizona's Sunset Crater began erupting in 1064 AD and for the next 200 years
      buried over 2,000 km2 in ash, cinders, and lava. Soil analyses indicate that
      pinyon pines (Pinus edulis) currently colonizing the cinder fields are faced with
      a highly stressful environment. Many of these pinyons suffer chronic, intense
      insect herbivory that reduces plant growth and eliminates female cone production.
      In contrast, herbivory among pinyons growing in neighboring sandy-loam soils is
      minimal. Furthermore, numerous trees within the heavily infested cinder field
      population suffer relatively low herbivory and maintain normal growth and
      reproduction. We used four polymorphic enzymes to examine the relationship
      between herbivore attack, environmental stress and genotypes of the adjacent
      cinder field, and sandy-loam soil pinyon populations. Our results demonstrate
      that 1) resistant trees display significant genetic differences and are more
      heterozygous for two enzymes associated with herbivory than susceptible trees;
      and 2) the cinder-soil pinyons exhibit significant genetic differences and are
      more heterozygous for an enzyme associated with environmental stress than the
      neighboring sandy-loam soil pinyons. We conclude that heterozygosity of specific
      or closely linked loci may facilitate pinyon resistance to herbivory and
      environmental stress, and that strong selection across narrow geographic
      boundaries resulted in rapid genetic differentiation of pinyon populations.

PMID- 28564060
TI  - UTERINE EFFECTS, EPIGENETICS, AND POSTNATAL SKELETAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOUSE.
AB  - Reciprocal embryo transfer experiments show that skeletal dimensions in adult
      mice are significantly influenced by the genotype of the female providing the
      uterine environment in which they were raised. Embryo transfers among C3HeB/FeJ,
      SWR/J, and the C3SWF, hybrid strain (C3H females x SWR males) permit separation
      of uterine maternal genotype effects from effects arising from the progeny's own
      genotype. Many different aspects of adult skeletal form are significantly
      influenced by uterine genotype and, in some instances, the pattern of these
      effects correlates with events during skeletal embryology. Analyses involving the
      highly heterozygous C3SWF1 strain demonstrate the existence of significant
      dominance in maternal genes affecting skeletal development in the progeny.
      Further, there is a large skeletal effect due to progeny heterosis. Uterine Utter
      size can be manipulated as a nonheritable component of variability in embryo
      transfer experiments, and it has a large and systemic effect on skeletal growth
      and morphogenesis that persists in adult mice. Heritable uterine maternal effects
      are epigenetic interactions during development that can be incorporated into
      models of evolutionary change to provide a more complete picture of the causal
      agents producing morphological change.

PMID- 28564061
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INBREEDING ON SEED SURVIVORSHIP IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28564062
TI  - INTROGRESSION OF COYOTE MITOCHONDRIAL DNA INTO SYMPATRIC NORTH AMERICAN GRAY WOLF
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genotypes of gray wolves and coyotes from localities
      throughout North America were determined using restriction fragment length
      polymorphisms. Of the 13 genotypes found among the wolves, 7 are clearly of
      coyote origin, indicating that genetic transfer of coyote mtDNA into wolf
      populations has occurred through hybridization. The transfer of mtDNA appears
      unidirectional from coyotes into wolves because no coyotes sampled have a wolf
      derived mtDNA genotype. Wolves possessing coyote-derived genotypes are confined
      to a contiguous geographic region in Minnesota, Ontario, and Quebec, and the
      frequency of coyote-type mtDNA in these wolf populations is high (>50%). The
      ecological history of the hybrid zone suggests that hybridization is taking place
      in regions where coyotes have only recently become abundant following conversion
      of forests to farmlands. Dispersing male wolves unable to find conspecific mates
      may be pairing with female coyotes in deforested areas bordering wolf
      territories. Our results demonstrate that closely related species of mobile
      terrestrial vertebrates have the potential for extensive genetic exchange when
      ecological conditions change suddenly.

PMID- 28564063
TI  - SEX RATIO IN A NEW SPECIES OF NASONIA WITH FULLY-WINGED MALES.

PMID- 28564064
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC VARIABILITY IN CONTINENTAL AND ATLANTIC ISLAND POPULATIONS OF
      CHAFFINCHES (FRINGILLA COELEBS).
AB  - The magnitudes of phenotypic variances in peripherally isolated populations of
      common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) in the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries
      relative to their continental source populations in Iberia and Morocco have
      played a pivotal role in the formulation of competing hypotheses of phenotypic
      evolution in these isolates. Because Van Valen's niche variation hypothesis and
      Grant's model of island evolution were based on museum skins prone to measurement
      error and temporal variation, we re-examined the patterns of phenotypic
      variability using more precise skeletal measurements from freshly collected
      specimens. Levene's tests showed that univariate character variances were
      homogeneous in all island and continental populations, although there was a
      consistent trend for the magnitude of the variances to be lower for all
      characters in all Canary island populations. Multivariate Levene's tests,
      however, revealed significantly reduced total variances in the Hierro and Madeira
      populations compared to some Azores and continental populations. The Azores and
      continental populations did not differ in variability, and lower variances in the
      Canaries were not related to the presence or absence of the congeneric blue
      chaffinch (F. teydea), contrary to the predictions of Van Valen's niche variation
      hypothesis. Population variability was not inversely related to differentiation
      or isolation within the Azores or Canaries archipelagoes, opposite to the
      association reported by Grant. Our results also differ from both previous studies
      which reported much larger differences in population variabilities, and this
      likely reflects the use of heterogeneous samples of museum specimens, less
      precise external characters, and the use of tests sensitive to sample size.
      Differentiation among populations has been markedly greater in the Canary
      islands, implicating founder events and possibly historically stronger
      directional selection as determinants of this enhanced divergence relative to the
      Azores. These variance-reducing processes are unlikely to explain current lower
      levels of phenotypic variability because there has been sufficient time since
      colonization for replenishment of variability in polygenic characters. Average
      heterozygosities at putatively neutral allozyme loci are 1.6 times higher in the
      Azores compared to the Canaries, and support the view that effective population
      sizes are smaller in the latter archipelago. We argue that reduced variances in
      the Canary island populations represent lower equilibrium levels maintained by
      drift and mutation in populations with smaller long-term effective sizes,
      consistent with Lynch and Hill's neutral model of phenotypic evolution. Although
      episodes of selection in the past may have been interspersed with long periods of
      effective neutralism and drift, adaptationist hypotheses invoking a primary role
      for variance-reducing selection appear to be unwarranted.

PMID- 28564065
TI  - TESTING INFERENCES ABOUT MICRO-EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES BY MEANS OF SPATIAL
      AUTOCORRELATION ANALYSIS.
AB  - We generated numerous simulated gene-frequency surfaces subjected to 200
      generations of isolation by distance with, in some cases, added migration or
      selection. From these surfaces we assembled six data sets comprising from 12 to
      15 independent allele-frequency surfaces, to simulate biologically plausible
      population samples. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether spatial
      autocorrelation analysis will correctly infer the microevolutionary processes
      involved in each data set. The correspondence between the simulated processes and
      the inferences made concerning them is close for five of the six data sets.
      Errors in inference occurred when the effect of migration was weak, due to low
      gene frequency differential or low migration strength; when selection was weak
      and against a background with a complex pattern; and when a random process
      isolation by distance-was the only one acting. Spatial correlograms proved more
      sensitive to detecting trends than inspection of gene-frequency surfaces by the
      human eye. Joint interpretation of the correlograms and their clusters proved
      most reliable in leading to the correct inference. The inspection and clustering
      of surfaces were useful for determining directional components. Because this
      method relies on common patterns across loci, as many gene frequencies as
      feasible should be used. We recommend spatial autocorrelation analysis for the
      detection of microevolutionary processes in natural populations.

PMID- 28564066
TI  - SELECTION ON COPULATION DURATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: PREDICTABILITY OF
      DIRECT RESPONSE VERSUS UNPREDICTABILITY OF CORRELATED RESPONSE.
AB  - Estimates of heritabilities and genetic correlations for seven reproductive
      attributes had previously been obtained from parent-offspring regression (Gromko,
      1987, 1989). Copulation duration was shown to have a heritability of 0.23 and to
      be genetically correlated with courtship vigor (rA = -0.41) and with fertility
      (rA = 0.27). These observations form the basis for the prediction of direct and
      correlated responses to selection for increased and decreased copulation
      duration, which are reported here. The direct response corresponded closely to
      prediction, but the correlated responses did not provide consistent qualitative
      fit. A hypothesis is proposed to explain this difference in predictability of
      direct and correlated response to selection. The major postulate is that the
      different polygenes involved in the direct response to selection for copulation
      duration have different pleiotropic effects.

PMID- 28564067
TI  - HOST-PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF LINUM MARGINALE AND
      MELAMPSORA LINI: I. PATTERNS OF RESISTANCE AND RACIAL VARIATION IN A LARGE HOST
      POPULATION.
AB  - Populations of wild flax, Linum marginale and its associated rust fungus
      Melampsora lini growing at Kiandra, New South Wales, Australia, were sampled
      during the 1986-1987 growing season. Thirteen different races of M. lini were
      detected in a sample of 96 isolates. The distribution of isolates was uneven:
      race A comprised 73% of the samples; race N, 8%; and race H, 5%; while the
      remaining races were represented by only one or two samples. The dominance of
      race A increased over the course of the growing season, comprising 67% of the
      early season samples and increasing to 78% for those collected late in the
      season. The overall diversity of the pathogen population decreased late in the
      growing season, but this trend was not statistically significant. The average
      virulence of individual isolates of the pathogen population increased during the
      growing season. This trend was most pronounced among the minor races, where the
      mean number of differential hosts infected increased from 4.58 for early season
      samples to 5.12 and 5.08 for mid and late season samples, respectively. In
      contrast to the virulence pattern in the pathogen, the L. marginale population
      displayed a more even distribution of resistance. In a sample of 67 plants 10
      resistance phenotypes were detected from their pattern of
      resistance/susceptibility to seven pathogen isolates. No phenotype had a
      frequency that exceeded 30%. Resistance phenotypes were randomly distributed on
      both a population level and on a fine scale.

PMID- 28564068
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE OF PREDATORS TO DANGEROUS PREY-REDUCTION OF TOXICITY OF
      NEWTS AND RESISTANCE OF GARTER SNAKES IN ISLAND POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28564069
TI  - MALE DIMORPHISMS IN BEETLES AND EARWIGS AND THE QUESTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL
      CONSTRAINTS.
AB  - Analysis of 17 species from six families indicates that male dimorphisms in
      weapon design may be common, at least in homed beetles. This flexibility in
      developmental programs constitutes evidence against the idea that the forms of
      these animals' weapons are the result of developmental constraints.

PMID- 28564070
TI  - THE COMPARISON OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC PARAMETERS BETWEEN POPULATIONS.
AB  - A statistical method for comparing matrices of genetic variation and covariation
      between groups (e.g., species, populations, a single population grown in distinct
      environments) is proposed. This maximum-likelihood method provides a test of the
      overall null hypothesis that two covariance component matrices are identical.
      Moreover, when the overall null hypothesis is rejected, the method provides a
      framework for isolating the particular components that differ significantly
      between the groups. Simulation studies reveal that discouragingly large
      experiments are necessary to obtain acceptable power for comparing genetic
      covariance component matrices. For example, even in cases of a single trait
      measured on 900 individuals in a nested design of 100 sires and three dams per
      sire in each population, the power was only about 0.5 when additive genetic
      variance differed by a factor of 2.5. Nevertheless, this flexible method makes
      valid comparison of covariance component matrices possible.

PMID- 28564071
TI  - EVOLUTION OF BIPARENTAL CARE IN THE HERMAPHRODITIC POLYCHAETE WORM OPHRYOTROCHA
      DIADEMA.
AB  - Ophryotrocha diadema is a simultaneously hermaphroditic polychaete worm with a
      brief adolescent protandrous phase. In the mating system of this worm, pairs are
      formed preferentially between simultaneous hermaphrodites. Both partners of a
      pair regularly alternate sex roles, reciprocate egg exchange, and care for
      developing embryos. It was experimentally shown that neglected eggs have a 31%
      probability of dying, but eggs cared for by both parents, by a single parent, or
      even by an unrelated individual have a 95% probability of developing. In pairs
      experimentally prevented from caring for eggs, intruders succeeded in
      substituting one of the partners significantly more frequently than in pairs
      allowed to care for eggs. Thus, the main adaptive value of biparental care would
      be to guarantee a partner for egg reciprocation. Protandrous males are
      inefficient brooders, and biparental care becomes fully established only when
      individuals are able to reciprocate egg exchange, i.e., they have reached the
      simultaneously hermaphroditic stage.

PMID- 28564072
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN A FUNGAL PATHOGEN: RESPONSE TO HOST DEFENSIVE CHEMICALS.
AB  - In response to infection by shoot infecting pathogens, Scots pine releases
      cortical resin into affected tissues. The resin contains a mixture of monoterpene
      compounds (alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, 3-carene, beta-myrcene, limonene and beta
      phellandrene) that retard the growth of a range of pathogens. The proportion of
      each monoterpene in the resin shows substantial variation among trees within a
      population. Thus pathogens on different trees encounter quite different
      monoterpene environments. To investigate the evolutionary response of pathogens
      to the chemically heterogeneous environment provided by Scots pine, isolates of
      the ascomycete canker pathogen Crumenulopsis sororia were collected from trees
      within a range of natural Scots pine populations. Growth rates of these isolates
      were measured in the presence and absence of five host monoterpenes. Substantial
      heritable variation for growth rate in the presence and absence of monoterpenes,
      and for monoterpene tolerance was recorded, suggesting the potential for the
      evolution of chemically specialized pathogen subpopulations on different trees
      within a wood. However, genetic correlations between growth rates in different
      monoterpene environments and between tolerance of different monoterpenes were
      either positive or non-significant, and there was no evidence of "tradeoffs" in
      performance under different monoterpene regimes. The results suggest that, on its
      own, the presence of monoterpene variability within Scots pine will not lead to
      disruptive selection on the C. sororia population. The relationship between
      defensive chemical diversity and pest resistance is discussed in the light of
      these results.

PMID- 28564073
TI  - REPTILIAN PHYSIOLOGY AND THE FLIGHT CAPACITY OF ARCHAEOPTERYX.
AB  - Current scenarios frequently interpret the Late Jurassic bird Archaeopteryx as
      having had an avian-type physiology and as having been capable of flapping
      flight, but only from "the trees downward." It putatively lacked capacity for
      takeoff and powered flight from the ground upward. Data from extant reptiles
      indicate that if Archaeopteryx were physiologically reptilian, it would have been
      capable of ground upward takeoff from a standstill, as well as "trees downward"
      powered flight. This conclusion is based largely on a previously unrecognized
      attribute of locomotory (skeletal) muscle in a variety of extant reptiles: During
      "burst-level" activity, major locomotory muscles of a number of active
      terrestrial taxa generate at least twice the power (watts kg-1 muscle tissue) as
      those of birds and mammals. Reptilian physiological status also helps resolve the
      apparently uneven development of various flight support structures in
      Archaeopteryx (e.g., well-developed flight features but relatively unspecialized
      pectoral girdle, supracoracoideus muscles, etc.). Endothermy and capacity for
      longer-distance powered flight probably evolved only in Early Cretaceous birds,
      which were the first birds to have a keeled sternum, strap-like coracoid, and
      hypocleidium-bearing furcula.

PMID- 28564074
TI  - SPERM-MEDIATED GENE FLOW AND THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A POPULATION OF THE
      COLONIAL ASCIDIAN BOTRYLLUS SCHLOSSERI.
AB  - The genetic structure of populations of sessile and sedentary organisms is often
      characterized by microgeographic differentiation in gene frequencies and
      deviations from panmixia. In many terrestrial botanical systems, restricted gene
      flow via seed and pollen dispersal may have an important role in promoting such
      genetic patterns. Until recently, however, limited dispersal of the sexual
      propagules of benthic invertebrates has not been considered to play a comparable
      role in aquatic systems. Based on paternity analyses in the field using rare
      allozyme markers, it appears that concentrations of sibling sperm of the sessile,
      colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri decline rapidly within 50 cm of a source
      colony. In combination with spatially restricted dispersal of brooded larvae,
      limited dispersal of sperm should enhance the potential for genetic
      diversification and inbreeding. However, analysis of allelic and genotypic
      frequencies at three independent, polymorphic allozyme loci using F-statistics
      provides little evidence for microgeographic variation in gene frequencies. This
      lack of differentiation can be explained in terms of the absolute number (rather
      than concentration) of gametes and larvae dispersing from a point source, which
      depending on diffusion and geometric assumptions-may actually increase with
      distance. In contrast to the absence of differentiation, levels of inbreeding are
      high, even within the confines of 25 times 25-cm quadrats. The absence of genetic
      diversification and presence of inbreeding caution against inferring levels and
      causes of gene flow from indirect analysis of genetic structure and, conversely,
      making predictions about genetic and breeding structure based solely on direct
      analysis of gene flow.

PMID- 28564075
TI  - NATAL DISPERSAL AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN A MIGRATORY SONGBIRD, THE INDIGO
      BUNTING.
AB  - Male and female indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea) were equally likely to return
      and breed in their natal areas. The distances and number of territories between
      natal and breeding sites were similar between the sexes. The breeding site was
      not limited by prior occupation of sites by breeding adults closer to the natal
      territory. Dispersal distances were independent of whether parents or siblings of
      either sex returned in the same year. Variation in distance within the natal area
      appeared to be independent of local population density, social competition,
      active kin recognition, and avoidance of incest, but was affected by date of
      birth. The local distribution of dispersal distances approximated a neutral model
      with a decreasing probability of settling with distance from the natal site. A
      population inbreeding coefficient DeltaF of 0.01 was estimated from known
      genealogies and matings. The proportion of nestlings recaptured in a later year
      on their natal area was 1.65% of 1,212 nestlings at the George Reserve and 8.78%
      of 1,332 nestlings at Niles. Locally born birds comprised 1.6% and 13.0% of the
      breeding population in areas of 10 and 4 km2 . Evidently most buntings settle and
      breed more than 2 km from their natal site. The results are inconsistent with
      predictions of social and avoidance-of-inbreeding hypotheses that are based on
      the local natal demographic environment. The results are consistent with a model
      of neutral dispersal within a genetically open population.

PMID- 28564076
TI  - MICROGEOGRAPHIC GENETIC STRUCTURE OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND LIFE HISTORY TRAITS IN A
      NATURAL POPULATION OF IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - To investigate the microgeographic spatial structure of genetic variation for
      quantitative traits in a natural population of Impatiens capensis, we performed a
      common-garden greenhouse experiment. Seedlings were collected at 10-m intervals
      from a 40 times 40-m permanent grid in a natural population and grown to maturity
      in a greenhouse. From these parents, 3 self-fertilized seed families per grid
      point were then grown in a randomized design in the greenhouse and scored for a
      variety of morphological and life-history traits. Virtually all of the traits
      displayed significant variation among families, and many were significantly
      heterogeneous among grid points, indicating microgeographic genetic
      differentiation on a fine spatial scale. Overall morphological divergence,
      measured as Mahalanobis distances between grid points, increased with
      geographical distance. In general, spatial autocorrelation coefficients of grid
      point character means were positive at 11-20 m and negative beyond 40 m, although
      power for significance testing was low. The first factor in a principal component
      analysis of grid point means was positively loaded on height-related traits and
      negatively loaded on total reproduction at 50 days, accounting for 31% of the
      variation. This factor displayed significant positive spatial autocorrelation at
      11-20 m and negative autocorrelation at >40 m. The remaining factors showed no
      detectable spatial structuring among grid points. These differences in spatial
      pattern among characters suggest that forces other than drift may have influenced
      the genetic structure of the population. There was no evidence for density
      dependent selection; seedling density was not significantly correlated with the
      grid point mean of any trait.

PMID- 28564077
TI  - COUNTERVAILING SELECTION IN DIFFERENT FITNESS COMPONENTS IN FEMALE RED DEER.
AB  - In individually monitored red deer (Cervus elaphus) living in the North Block of
      the Isle of Rhum, Scotland, juvenile survival is related to the genotype at the
      enzyme loci Mpi and Idh-2 (each with two alleles, f and s). To establish whether
      other fitness components also are related to genetic differences, we examined
      whether age at first breeding, fecundity, and adult survival of females were
      related to genotype at the same loci. Fertility in females shot outside the study
      area was also analyzed in relation to Mpi and Idh-2 genotype. The analyses
      controlled for phenotypic and environmental factors affecting female reproductive
      performance. At Mpi, f-carrying females in the study area bred earlier than ss
      individuals and tended to be more fecund. However, no association was found
      between Mpi genotype and adult survival. In culled females, Mpi f-carriers were
      more likely to be pregnant than ss females. At Idh-2, homozygous females in the
      study area started breeding earlier than heterozygous females. Idh-2 fs and ss
      females were more fecund than ff females though this relationship was complicated
      by an interaction with spring temperature in the year of birth. When the
      population was at high density, adult survival of Idh-2 ss females was better
      than survival of ff females, which was, in turn, better than survival of fs
      females. No association was found between Idh-2 genotype and fertility in culled
      females. Overall, the associations found in female reproductive measures favor
      those genotypes that survive particularly badly over the first two years of life.
      This result supports the idea that countervailing selection in different fitness
      components (antagonistic pleiotropy) is a common and powerful force maintaining
      polymorphism in natural populations. It may also explain how fitness components
      can have large heritabilities while overall fitness may have a low heritability.

PMID- 28564078
TI  - VARIATION IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF AEDES SPECIES (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE).
AB  - Relationships among seven species of the Aedes scutellaris subgroup and four of
      the Aedes albopictus subgroup were determined using restriction fragment analysis
      of mtDNA. Considerable polymorphism was found among species, with an average
      proportion of 0.338 restriction fragments being shared among them. Fitch
      Margoliash, Wagner parsimony and UPGMA analyses revealed that the phylogeny based
      on mtDNA was only partially congruent with that based on allozymes and
      morphology. All three analyses, however, suggested that three species pairs, A.
      flavopictus-A. pseudalbopictus, A. pseudoscutellaris-A. riversi, and A.
      albopictus-A. polynesiensis were monophyletic with regard to their mtDNA. The
      results indicated that although the species in the A. scutellaris and the A.
      albopictus subgroups do not exhibit significant morphological divergence, their
      mtDNA has diverged extensively.

PMID- 28564079
TI  - RANDOM OFFSPRING MORTALITY AND VARIATION IN PARENTAL FITNESS.

PMID- 28564080
TI  - EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE MORPHOLOGIES IN PEA POPULATIONS.
AB  - We investigated the hypothesis that plant form can dramatically affect plant
      competitive ability, and that forms with dense canopies can invade populations of
      plants with more open canopies regardless of initial relative frequencies. Under
      controlled field conditions, we examined the effects of plant form on growth
      rate, size variation, mortality, and reproduction in high-density monocultures
      and mixtures of two morphologically distinct varieties of peas. These two
      varieties differ genetically at only the afila locus. In high-density
      monocultures and mixtures, peas with finely dissected, minute leaflets (af/af)
      grew more slowly and produced fewer seeds than Af/-individuals with large
      leaflets that cast more shade on neighbors. After as few as four generations,
      mixtures begun with 10% Af/- peas would be expected to evolve to Af/-
      monocultures. We conclude that an increase in morphological complexity (e.g.,
      virtually leafless to leafy) can have dramatic ecological and evolutionary
      impacts on plant population dynamics.

PMID- 28564081
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF FITNESS TRAITS IN A WILD POPULATION OF PHLOX.
AB  - To determine if the evolution of fitness traits in the annual plant, Phlox
      drummondii, is constrained by lack of genetic variation, we calculated the
      heritability and genetic correlation of 16 traits in a field population. Full-
      and half-sib families of seeds were generated in the greenhouse and planted back
      into the study population. Of 855 seeds that germinated, 609 survived to produce
      fruit. For each plant we measured several aspects of plant size and three
      components of female fecundity: total number of fruits produced, number of seeds
      per fruit, and mass of individual seeds. Heritability of traits ranged from 0.00
      to 0.15. Several traits showed significant levels of additive genetic variance,
      but we found no evidence of additive genetic variance in components of female
      fecundity and no evidence of negative genetic correlation between fitness traits.
      These results suggest that evolution in this population would be constrained by
      lack of heritable variation in fitness traits.

PMID- 28564082
TI  - CHAOBORUS PREDATION AND LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN DAPHNIA PULEX: TEMPORAL PATTERN
      OF POPULATION DIVERSITY, FITNESS, AND MEAN LIFE HISTORY.
AB  - The effect of predation by the aquatic dipteran larva Chaoborus americanus on
      genetic diversity and life-history evolution in the cladoceran Daphnia pulex was
      investigated in large replicate laboratory populations. Instantaneous daily loss
      rates of clonal diversity and genetic variance for fitness indicate that 93-99%
      of initial genetic diversity can be removed from populations during the 8-12
      generations of clonal reproduction that occur each year in natural populations.
      In the absence of predation, the principal evolved changes in mean population
      life history were smaller immature body size and increased and earlier fecundity.
      In the presence of size-selective Chaoborus predation, populations evolved toward
      larger body size and increased and earlier reproduction. The difference between
      these two trajectories is an estimate of the direct additive effect of Chaoborus
      predation. This effect was manifested as evolution toward larger body size with a
      trend toward earlier and increased reproduction.

PMID- 28564083
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF NORTH AMERICAN URSIDS BASED ON ANALYSIS OF
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.

PMID- 28564084
TI  - ISLAND AREA AND BODY SIZE OF INSULAR MAMMALS: EVIDENCE FROM THE TRI-COLORED
      SQUIRREL (CALLOSCIURUS PREVOSTI) OF SOUTHEAST ASIA.

PMID- 28564085
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN SPECIES OF THE GENUS SPEYERIA (LEPIDOPTERA:
      NYMPHALIDAE).

PMID- 28564086
TI  - SELECTION FOR TRYPTOPHAN AUXOTROPHS OF ESCHERICHIA COLI IN GLUCOSE-LIMITED
      CHEMOSTATS AS A TEST OF THE ENERGY CONSERVATION HYPOTHESIS OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28564087
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF GYNODIOECY AND SUBDIOECY.

PMID- 28564089
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISMS OF LIMB LOSS IN TETRAPODS.

PMID- 28564088
TI  - SELECTION AT ELECTROPHORETIC LOCI FOR REPRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS IN ISLAND AND
      MAINLAND VOLES.

PMID- 28564090
TI  - GENIC VARIABILITY IN THE LONGNOSE DACE, RHINICHTHYS CATARACTAE.

PMID- 28564091
TI  - A NOTE ON GILLESPIE'S MODEL OF ENZYME VARIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28564092
TI  - GENETIC POLYMORPHISM AND PHYLOGENY OF DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28564093
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH-RAT, RATTUS
      FUSCIPES.

PMID- 28564094
TI  - EVOLUTION OF WILD SHEEP IN IRAN.

PMID- 28564095
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN SALAMANDERS OF THE DESMOGNATHUS OCHROPHAEUS COMPLEX
      (PLETHODONTIDAE).

PMID- 28564096
TI  - DIRECTIONAL REDUCTION OF LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE ISOZYMES IN TELEOSTS.

PMID- 28564097
TI  - THE COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIP OF THREE WOODLAND SEDGES AND ITS BEARING ON THE
      EVOLUTION OF ANT-DISPERSAL OF CAREX PEDUNCULATA.

PMID- 28564098
TI  - POLLINATOR CONSTANCY AS A PRE-POLLINATION ISOLATING MECHANISM BETWEEN SYMPATRIC
      SPECIES OF CERCIDIUM.

PMID- 28564099
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF LITTER SIZE IN PEROMYSCUS LEUCOPUS.

PMID- 28564100
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28564101
TI  - THERMAL RELATIONS AND NATURAL SELECTION BY CLIMATE.

PMID- 28564102
TI  - Photoactivation of Anticancer Ru Complexes in Deep Tissue: How Deep Can We Go?
AB  - Activation of anticancer therapeutics such as ruthenium (Ru) complexes is
      currently a topic of intense investigation. The success of phototherapy relies on
      photoactivation of therapeutics after the light passes through skin and tissue.
      In this paper, the photoactivation of anticancer Ru complexes with 671-nm red
      light through tissue of different thicknesses was studied. Four photoactivatable
      Ru complexes with different absorption wavelengths were synthesized. Two of them
      (Ru3 and Ru4) were responsive to wavelengths in the "therapeutic window" (650-900
      nm) and could be activated using 671-nm red light after passing through tissue up
      to 16-mm-thick. The other two (Ru1 and Ru2) could not be activated using red
      light. Additionally, activated Ru4 caused inhibition of cancer cells. These
      results suggest that photoactivatable Ru complexes are promising for applications
      in deep-tissue phototherapy.

PMID- 28564103
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SURVIVAL AND GROWTH IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - When variation in life-history characters is caused by many genes of small
      effect, then quantitative-genetic parameters may quantify constraints on rate and
      direction of microevolutionary change. I estimated heritabilities and genetic
      correlations for 16 life-history and morphological characters in two populations
      of Impatiens capensis, a partially self-pollinating herbaceous annual. The
      Madison population had little or no additive genetic variance for any of these
      characters, while the Milwaukee population had significant narrowsense
      heritabilities and genetic correlations for several traits, including adult size,
      which is highly correlated with fitness. All genetic correlations among fitness
      components were positive, hence there is no evidence for antagonistic pleiotropy
      among these traits. Dissimilarity of heritabilities in the two populations
      supports theoretical predictions that long-term changes in genetic variance
      covariance patterns may occur when population sizes are small and selection is
      strong, as may occur in many plant species.

PMID- 28564104
TI  - DO FLIES ADAPT?

PMID- 28564105
TI  - A ZONE OF OVERLAP AND HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN TWO GROUND CRICKET SPECIES.
AB  - In this paper I describe a zone of overlap and hybridization between the ground
      crickets, Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). The
      former occurs in the northeastern United States, the latter is found in the
      southeastern United States. They meet in a contact zone of variable width that
      extends from the East Coast to at least Ohio. In the Allegheny Mountains, where
      appropriate habitats for a species adapted to a northern climate and a species
      adapted to a southern climate are patchily distributed and widely intermingled,
      the zone is broad-at least 200 km. Along the coastal plain of New Jersey, where
      appropriate habitats are not as widely intermingled, the zone is comparatively
      narrow (5-100 km). Levels of hybridization were assessed by analyzing
      electrophoretic data, using population genetic models and a character index
      approach. Both methods of data analysis agreed-where the zone is broader, levels
      of hybridization appear reduced.

PMID- 28564106
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BASIS OF VARIABLE SEX RATIOS IN LABORATORY STRAINS OF
      POECILIOPSIS LUCIDA.
AB  - Skewed sex ratios are common among several species of Poeciliopsis, a viviparous
      fish from northwestern Mexico. Since previous, unrelated studies from this
      laboratory (Angus and Schultz, 1983) suggested that deviation from a 1:1 sex
      ratio might be influenced by temperature, two inbred strains of P. lucida were
      tested for temperature-dependent sex determination by comparing sex ratios of
      offspring from pregnant females held at different water temperatures. Different
      sex ratios were produced by the two strains at the same temperature: one strain
      produced almost all-male offspring at 30 degrees C and female-biased sex ratios
      at 24 degrees C, while the other strain produced a 1:1 sex ratio at both
      temperatures. At intermediate temperatures, the labile strain produced
      sequentially fewer males with decreasing temperatures. The other strain produced
      a consistent sex ratio regardless of temperature. Poeciliopsis lucida apparently
      has a genetic polymorphism for temperature-influenced sex determination. An
      hypothesis is offered for the evolutionary origin of environmental sex
      determination.

PMID- 28564107
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY AND ASYMMETRY IN THE CHEETAH (ACINONYX JUBATUS), A
      GENETICALLY UNIFORM SPECIES.
AB  - The African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is an unusual species because of its
      extremely low amount of biochemical genetic variation. A comparative analysis of
      morphological variation of 16 cranial characters from four species of Felidae
      (ocelot, Leopardus pardalus; margay, L. wiedii; leopard, Panthera pardus; and
      cheetah) was undertaken to evaluate the consequence of biochemical monomorphism
      on morphological variation. The species were selected because the cheetah has
      been shown previously to possess extremely low amounts of biochemical genetic
      variation as opposed to the other three species which retain comparatively high
      levels of allozyme heterozygosity. The cheetah sample showed dramatically greater
      fluctuating asymmetry but was not outstanding in morphological variability.
      Elevated levels of fluctuating asymmetry have been interpreted as a reflection of
      developmental instability, which is a common consequence of inbreeding. The
      inverse correlation of genetic variation and developmental stability
      (homeostasis) observed here fulfills prior expectations and further emphasizes
      the genetic invariability of the cheetah species.

PMID- 28564109
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN HOUSE FLY SIZE: ADAPTATION OR LARVAL CROWDING?

PMID- 28564108
TI  - COMPARATIVE PATTERNS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CRICETINE RODENTS AND THE
      EVOLUTION OF ONTOGENY.
AB  - The quantitative description of growth curves for morphometric traits provides a
      basis for assessing the ontogenetic patterns underlying differences in
      morphological structure, as demonstrated with comparisons among neotomine
      peromyscine rodents. Morphometric differences among contemporary rodent species
      are shown to result from relatively simple changes in relative growth rates and
      timing. Quantitative ontogenetic studies add a dynamic component to the
      assessment of morphological similarity, thus providing a more robust procedure
      for detecting homoplasy than static comparison of adult morphology. Applying the
      principles of phylogenetic systematics to studies of developmental timing among
      closely related taxa may be a useful and informative complement to studies based
      on molecular similarity or static comparison of adult morphology. Interspecific
      and intraspecific differences in allometric scaling of anatomical structures may
      reflect differences in growth patterns among the taxa compared; caution is
      warranted in inferring patterns of genetic correlation from data on phenotypic
      scaling.

PMID- 28564110
TI  - FURTHER GENETIC ANALYSES OF A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN LEOPARD FROGS (RANA PIPIENS
      COMPLEX) IN CENTRAL TEXAS.
AB  - Additional animals were collected from a previously described hybrid zone between
      two species of leopard frogs. The material now includes 1,054 specimens collected
      over a five-year period. The new and the original data were reanalyzed using two
      multilocus techniques: an analysis of linkage disequilibrium (Hill, 1975); and an
      analysis of the variance of the distribution of individual heterozygosities
      (Brown et al., 1980). An analysis of cline shape (Barton and Hewitt, 1983) also
      was performed. The zone appears to be stable in position. There are major year-to
      year changes in allele frequencies, but these do not show concordant patterns
      between localities. This is probably the result of local stochastic factors. The
      shapes and position of clines at five loci are similar. Multilocus analysis shows
      the greatest disequilibrium values in the center of the zone. The ratio of
      observed to expected variance of individual heterozygosity is also largest in the
      central localities. Analysis of a single cohort during a three-month period that
      included both the larval and post-metamorphic stages shows a strong shift in
      genotypes. The froglet population had more animals with parental genotypes and
      fewer hybrid combinations. This probably is a result of differential mortality
      due to developmental incompatibilities when hybrids begin to metamorphose. We
      compare the usefulness of the two multilocus analytical techniques and make
      recommendations about collecting procedures for future studies of hybrid zones.

PMID- 28564111
TI  - SEX RATIO, PARENTAL INVESTMENT, AND INTERPARENT VARIABILITY IN NESTING SUCCESS IN
      A SOLITARY BEE.
AB  - Observations of uniquely marked females of the solitary, twig-nesting bee, Osmia
      bruneri, were conducted under greenhouse conditions to test several predictions
      of sex-ratio and parental-investment theory. In support of Fisher's (1958)
      theory, we found that the observed sex-ratio of progeny in this dimorphic species
      did not differ from that expected on the basis of average male and female
      weights. Investment patterns also exhibited a seasonal component: female parents
      produced more female than male offspring early in the nesting season but reversed
      this pattern later. Interfemale variability was large for all nesting parameters
      examined. Neither female-parent size nor the rate at which females completed
      cells was significantly related to several estimates of parent fitness. Parent
      offspring heritability for size was also low. We found no evidence to support the
      hypothesis that progeny sex-ratios are influenced by maternal condition. Variance
      in progeny sex-ratios was large, but the population sex-ratio probably departs
      frequently from the equilibrium value. The results marginally support Kolman's
      (1960) prediction of large variance in progeny sex-ratios in large panmictic
      populations. We conclude that variability among females in investment patterns
      and variability in size among progenies are probably maintained by such factors
      as resource heterogeneity and the shape of the adult survivorship curve.

PMID- 28564112
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR PREDATION AS A FACTOR IN DETERMINING SHELL COLOR FREQUENCIES IN A
      MANGROVE SNAIL LITTORINA SP. (PROSOBRANCHIA: LITTORINIDAE).
AB  - It was hypothesized that in Littorina populations living on Avicennia marina in
      Moreton Bay, Queensland, yellow shelled individuals are at a selective advantage
      over other shell colors and that this advantage is due to differential selection
      by predators. Yellow shelled individuals were more likely to be recaptured than
      others, indicating a higher survival rate of yellows. When predation was
      restricted on ten mangrove trees, the apparent advantage of yellow shells was
      removed. After 18 months, the relative frequency of yellow shelled individuals
      was significantly lower on experimental trees than on control trees. A
      combination of selection for crypsis and for the less common morph is suggested
      as the mechanism maintaining the high levels of variation in this species.

PMID- 28564113
TI  - CONSTRAINTS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF FUNCTIONALLY COUPLED CHARACTERS: A NONLINEAR
      ANALYSIS OF A PHENOTYPIC MODEL.
AB  - On the basis of a phenotypic model of R. Lande a nonlinear analysis is performed
      to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of functionally coupled quantitative
      traits. The underlying fitness topography has multiple peaks with a ridge and two
      hills adjacent to a saddle. Evolution of a complex of functionally constrained
      characters corresponds precisely to moving uphill along a ridge. For modelling
      the topology of the ridge, I follow ideas of Rechenberg and Wagner and use a so
      called corridor model. The analysis reveals certain population-genetic
      constraints for the evolutionary emergence of a selectively favored complex of
      functionally constrained characters. Due to the population-genetic structure, as
      reflected in the pattern of variation and covariation, a population will often
      not be allowed to become adapted to existing physiological requirements, such as
      functional coupling of characters. Instead, within the present model where
      extinction cannot occur, it will evolve in some other direction toward an optimum
      that may be physiologically rather remote. In particular, there exists an optimal
      pattern of genetic and phenotypic variances and covariances in the following
      sense: on the one hand an increasing deviation from this pattern imposes
      increasing restrictions on the set of initial conditions enabling a population to
      move uphill along the ridge; on the other hand, an increasing deviation leads to
      a decreasing rate of adaptation along the ridge. Finally, some consequences of
      these constraints for possible interpretations of certain empirical results are
      discussed.

PMID- 28564114
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL RATE IN A STRAIN OF RAINBOW TROUT (SALMO
      GAIRDNERI).
AB  - Rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) with greater heterozygosity at enzyme loci also
      have greater developmental stability, as measured by bilateral symmetry of five
      meristic traits. Fish with increased amounts of liver phosphoglucomutase activity
      have greater developmental stability and develop faster than fish with normal
      activity. These observations suggest that the differences in developmental
      stability between homozygotes and heterozygotes may be the result of differences
      in developmental rate. Faster developmental rates are expected to decrease the
      probability of accidents during critical periods of development, resulting in a
      more stable or uniform phenotype. As indicated by differences in hatching time,
      heterozygotes tend to develop more rapidly than homozygotes. This association is
      not strongly expressed within families at any locus except Pgm1-t. However,
      heterozygotes for Mdh3,4 and Hex hatched significantly sooner than homozygotes in
      a population sample. These results suggest that differences in developmental rate
      between homozygotes and heterozygotes may account for the positive association
      between developmental stability and heterozygosity in rainbow trout.

PMID- 28564115
TI  - SEX-RATIO DETERMINATION WITHIN COLONIES OF ANTS.

PMID- 28564116
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION OF ALLOZYME POLYMORPHISMS: A MICROSITE TEST REVEALING
      ECOLOGICAL GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN WILD BARLEY.
AB  - Allozymic variation in proteins encoded by 25 loci was analyzed
      electrophoretically in 1982 and 1983 in 356 individual plants from a dense
      population of wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, the progenitor of cultivated
      barley. The test involved six microniches organized in a mosaic pattern in the
      open Tabor oak forest at Neve Ya'ar, Israel. The microniches were i) sun-soil,
      ii) sun-rock, iii) shade-soil, iv) shade-rock, and the contact zones: v) soil
      periphery of the sun-rock microniche, and vi) soil periphery of the shade-rock
      microniche. Discriminant analysis indicated significant multilocus allozymic
      differentiation between the microniches. Our results suggest that allozyme
      polymorphisms in wild barley are at least partly adaptive and differentiate
      predominately by microniche ecological selection, rather than by stochastic
      processes and/or neutrality of allozymic variants.

PMID- 28564117
TI  - THE INHERITANCE OF COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR AND ITS ROLE AS A REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATING
      MECHANISM IN TWO SPECIES OF SCHIZOCOSA WOLF SPIDERS (ARANEAE; LYCOSIDAE).
AB  - The courtship behaviors of two morphologically similar spider species, Schizocosa
      ocreata and S. rovneri, are distinctive and prevent interbreeding. We used
      "forced" copulation between these species to investigate the mode of inheritance
      of the courtship behavior and to determine whether postmating isolating
      mechanisms exist. F1 hybrids proved to be behaviorally sterile, but they were
      capable of producing viable offspring when forced to interbreed. Analysis of the
      courtship behaviors of F1 , F2 , and backcross progeny showed that the
      inheritance of some aspects of these behaviors is consistent with models
      involving single autosomal loci. The inheritance of secondary sexual
      characteristics in the males is also investigated. The genes for courtship
      behavior and secondary sexual characteristics do not assort independently. The
      origin of the premating isolating mechanisms may be explained by either an
      initial habitat separation between the two groups, or by a founding event with
      each group subsequently diverging in slightly different habitats. It is suggested
      that the differences in the microhabitats may have a profound effect on what type
      of signal (visual or vibratory) would be effective.

PMID- 28564118
TI  - THE BIOGEOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE PLEISTOCENE FOREST REFUGE HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - The prevailing explanation for the observed distributional patterns and areas of
      endemism of tropical forest organisms is the Pleistocene refuge hypothesis, which
      proposes that wide-ranging ancestral taxa were isolated into forest refuges
      during certain glacial periods, and that this isolation provided them with the
      opportunity to speciate. John Endler has recently argued that two predictions of
      the refuge hypothesis-that contact zones between vicars should be between refuges
      and that contact zones of rapidly reproducing butterflies should be wider than
      those of more slowly reproducing birds-are not borne out by the evidence. Endler
      therefore rejects the refuge hypothesis. We show that the data available are far
      too imprecise to permit any conclusions regarding contact zone widths and that,
      according to our reanalysis of the African bird data used by Endler, all the
      contact zones between vicars do indeed occur between refuges, exactly where they
      are expected. Additional strong support for the refuge hypothesis comes from the
      existence of many taxa endemic to the particular forest areas which have been
      postulated as refuges and from fragmented taxa which are still allopatric, never
      having come into secondary contact.

PMID- 28564119
TI  - PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CONTROLS ON LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION: THE EVOLUTION OF
      LITTER SIZE IN WHITE-FOOTED MICE (PEROMYSCUS LEUCOPUS).
AB  - Recruitment of litter-mates of nest-box-inhabiting white-footed mice was
      monitored to study the evolution of litter size. The frequency distribution of
      litter sizes was nonsymmetrical, and the most frequent litter size was less than
      the optimum. This was not the result of differential parental survival, which was
      independent of litter size produced. Recruitment remained constant or increased
      slightly to a peak in litters of five young, and then dropped precipitously for
      larger litters. The single optimum litter size of five did not appear to have any
      physiological correlates. Instead, the equally low probability of successful
      recruitment of any young from any given litter may have given rise to a bet
      hedging strategy of frequent iterated reproductions. A theoretical analysis of
      optimal parental investment in offspring was initiated under the assumption that
      optimal brood size represents a maximization of differences between age-specific
      costs and benefits of reproduction, both of which should be measured in constant
      currency of inclusive fitness. In the past, benefit has been measured by current
      fecundity, and cost by residual reproductive value. However, reproductive value
      is an appropriate estimate of inclusive fitness only for organisms in which
      parental investment has little effect on the subsequent survival of offspring to
      reproductive age. Reproductive value weighted by offspring survival and devalued
      by the degree of genetic relatedness defines a new currency, replacement value,
      which is more appropriate for evaluating the costs and benefits of parent
      offspring conflict over parental investment in current as opposed to future
      young. Total parent-offspring conflict intensifies with increases in current
      brood size. For species with severe reproductive constraints, such as post-partum
      estrus in white-footed mice, such conflict may force parents to curtail
      investment in current offspring at or near parturition of subsequent litters,
      even if that means reducing the survival of current young.

PMID- 28564120
TI  - OPTIMALITY AND CONSTRAINT IN A SELF-FERTILIZED ALGA.

PMID- 28564121
TI  - BIOTYPING CONFIRMS A NEARLY CLONAL POPULATION STRUCTURE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - A. reference collection of 72 natural isolates of Escherichia coli (the ECOR
      collection) has been examined with respect to eight metabolic capabilities
      (biotype characters) plus motility and resistance or sensitivity to five common
      antibiotics. Data from biotype characters were analyzed by means of unweighted
      pair-group cluster analysis, and the genetic variation among the strains defines
      three major clusters of strains with substantial variation within each cluster
      but greater genetic similarity of strains within a cluster than between clusters.
      These clusters define an infraspecific population structure in E. coli, which
      reflects the predominantly clonal mode of reproduction in this organism. The
      clusters identified by the biotype characters are in good agreement with those
      resulting from an analysis of 11 enzyme polymorphisms (allozymes) among the
      strains, and these are in good agreement with the infraspecific structure
      detected by factor analysis of allozyme data. The clusters of strains also differ
      in several genetic characteristics that are independent of those used in making
      the classification.

PMID- 28564122
TI  - PATTERNS OF FRUIT-SET: WHAT CONTROLS FRUIT-FLOWER RATIOS IN PLANTS?
AB  - Fruit-set values for 447 species of plants were examined for variations due to
      compatibility, breeding system, life form, latitude, type of fruit, and type of
      pollination. The results indicate significant differences between self-compatible
      and self-incompatible species in terms of 1) average fruit-set and 2) the effect
      of the independent variables. Breeding system, life form, and latitude were found
      to be the only significant independent variables for self-incompatible species,
      while fruit type and latitude were found to be significant for self-compatible
      plants. Although latitude was a significant variable for self-compatible and self
      incompatible species, it was correlated with other variables and may actually
      have no direct effect on fruit-flower ratios in plants. Hypotheses explaining the
      effect of the significant independent variables on fruit-flower ratios were then
      examined and, when possible, predictions were tested. The results indicate that
      the selective-abortion and bet-hedging hypotheses may be important factors
      contributing to the low fruit-set in self-incompatible plants, while the male
      function hypothesis may explain the lower fruit-flower ratios in hermaphrodites.

PMID- 28564123
TI  - SYNAPTIC ADAPTATION IN DEER MICE: A CELLULAR MECHANISM FOR KARYOTYPIC
      ORTHOSELECTION.

PMID- 28564124
TI  - LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM AND A CONTACT ZONE IN PLETHODON CINEREUS ON THE DEL-MAR-VA
      PENINSULA.
AB  - A contact zone between two electrophoretically differentiated forms of Plethodon
      cinereus extends across the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula. Based on the presumed nature of
      regional climates during the late Pleistocene, it is suggested that the climate
      was inhospitable for P. cinereus on the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula at the Wisconsin
      maximum. It is postulated that, after the Laurentide ice sheet receded about
      14,000 years BP, the peninsula was invaded by populations of P. cinereus from the
      north and south. When the two forms of P. cinereus met, a secondary zone of
      contact was produced. This contact zone is now apparent in an area in which six
      electrophoretic loci have concordant clinal changes in allele frequency. The lack
      of evidence for heterozygote deficiencies, the broad width of the contact zone,
      and the overall symmetry of introgression suggest that fusion of the populations
      is occurring freely. Two esterase loci are in linkage disequilibrium in four of
      eight populations to the north of the contact zone. As all populations of P.
      cinereus studied to date have disequilibrium coefficients of similar sign,
      selection is likely important in the maintenance of this linkage disequilibrium.
      Within the contact zone, the incidence of the linkage disequilibrium increases,
      but exchange of genes between the two introgressing populations may account for
      the higher incidence of linkage disequilibrium.

PMID- 28564125
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE COST, AGE-SPECIFIC SURVIVAL AND A COMPARISON OF THE REPRODUCTIVE
      STRATEGY IN TWO EUROPEAN TITS (GENUS PARUS).
AB  - Theoretical analyses of optimal reproductive rates usually assume a trade-off
      between offspring production and parental survival. This study verified a
      survival cost for willow tit males; nonbreeding males survived better than males
      attending a brood. Theory also predicts a smaller clutch size in birds that are
      less successful in transforming reproductive investments into mature offspring.
      As predicted, we found that crested tits, suffering a higher nest predation rate,
      laid smaller clutches than willow tits. The generally lower survival rate of
      willow tit adults may largely be attributed to their higher reproductive
      commitment (larger willow tit clutch size), because no significant interspecific
      survival difference remained between nonbreeding males. Finally, in willow tits
      we found a positive correlation between average clutch size and juvenile survival
      rate (density-dependent) the ensuing year, suggesting that willow tits may adjust
      clutch size in response to changing survival prospects for their young by using
      the breeding density as a cue.

PMID- 28564126
TI  - Prehabilitation for kidney transplant candidates: Is it time?
AB  - Many patients become frail with diminished cardiorespiratory fitness while
      awaiting kidney transplantation. Frailty and poor fitness powerfully predict
      mortality, transplant graft survival, and healthcare utilization after kidney
      transplantation. Efforts to intervene with post-transplant physical therapy have
      been met with limited success, in large part due to high study dropout. We
      reviewed the literature on chronic kidney disease and exercise to propose a
      clinical framework for physical therapy interventions to improve fitness,
      scheduled for before the transplant. This framework may lead to better patient
      retention and compliance, and thus demonstrate better efficacy in mitigating the
      effects of frailty and poor fitness after kidney transplantation.

PMID- 28564127
TI  - Impact of terlipressin infusion during and after live donor liver transplantation
      on incidence of acute kidney injury and neutrophil gelatinase-associated
      lipocalin serum levels: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Acute kidney injury (AKI) with liver transplantation (LT) is
      not uncommon. Impact of terlipressin infusion on AKI, hemodynamics, and plasma
      concentration of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) was studied.
      METHODS: Patients (n=50) were randomized (NCT02059460, USA) into two equal
      groups: terlipressin vs Controls. Terlipressin (1-4 MUg/kg/h) was administrated
      for 5 days. Intraoperative transesophageal Doppler for hemodynamic management.
      Renal functions, peak portal vein blood flow velocity (PPV), and hepatic artery
      resistive index (HARI) were recorded. Plasma NGAL (pNGAL) was measured baseline,
      2 and 24 hours postreperfusion. RESULTS: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was the main
      etiology. Age, sex, model of end-stage liver disease (MELD), and renal functions
      were comparable. Postoperative AKI incidence and NGAL concentrations were
      comparable (P>.05) between terlipressin and controls groups (44% vs 48% and
      112.5+/-9 vs 93.1+/-8 ng/mL), respectively, but intraoperative NGAL in both
      groups increased significantly 2 hours postreperfusion (P<.05). The three NGAL
      readings were comparable (P>.05) between AKI (n=23) and non-AKI developers
      (n=27). Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) was maintained in both groups with
      less systemic vascular resistance (SVR) fluctuations with terlipressin. Median
      norepinephrine consumption was lower in terlipressin vs controls (8 vs 12 mg;
      P=.04). The PPV and HARI were not affected by terlipressin at any stage (P>.05).
      CONCLUSION: Postliver transplant AKI was not prevented by terlipressin use nor
      predicted by NGAL levels.

PMID- 28564128
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF AN ANTIPREDATOR REACTION NORM: DAPHNIA PULEX AND
      CHAOBORUS AMERICANUS.
AB  - Ponds containing the parthenogenetic zooplankter Daphnia pulex with and without
      chaoborid predators were sampled over the course of a season. A significant (P <
      0.05) Spearman rank correlation was found between predator density and the
      expression of an antipredator defense (neckteeth) by the Daphnia. The reaction
      norms (percent induction of a single genotype versus predator density) of clones
      isolated from predator-free and predator-rich habitats were determined in a
      laboratory setting. There was a statistically significant different response
      among the six clones tested (P < 0.05). Clones isolated from chaoborid ponds
      showed significantly greater sensitivity to the presence of predator than clones
      from predator-free ponds (P < 0.05). In the laboratory, food levels under which
      prey were cultured affected induction of the antipredator response. Highest
      induction was found at the lowest food level used.

PMID- 28564129
TI  - GENETIC VARIANCE FOR RATE OF POPULATION INCREASE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF FLOUR
      BEETLES, TRIBOLIUM SPP.
AB  - The genetic and ecological effects of population subdividsion were investigated
      for two wild strains of Tribolium castaneum and two wild strains of T. confusum
      and compared with the effects of population subdivision on the synthetic
      laboratory strain of T. castaneum (c-SM), used extensively in earlier
      experiments. For the c-SM strain, it has been shown repeatedly, for a variety of
      different population structures (different combinations of effective numbers, Ne
      , and migration rates, m), that large heritable differences in population growth
      rate arise among demes during 10 to 15 generations of population subdivision.
      Because this laboratory strain was synthesized by mass mating several "inbred"
      strains in 1973 (80 to 100 generations ago), it is possible that it has genetic
      variation for fitness (measured as the heritable variance among demes in the rate
      of population increase) unusually large compared to natural populations of flour
      beetles. In this paper, I report that natural populations of flour beetle exhibit
      as much or more phenotypic and genetic variation in the effects of population
      structure on fitness than the laboratory strain, c-SM. The observation of
      substantial heritable variation for fitness in natural populations is unexpected
      under additive theory and may be indicative of nonadditive genetic variance.

PMID- 28564130
TI  - WHY ARE CLUTCH SIZES MORE VARIABLE IN SOME SPECIES THAN IN OTHERS?
AB  - Animal species differ in the variability of their clutch sizes, as well as in
      mean clutch sizes. This phenomenon is particularly obvious in lizards, where
      virtually invariant clutch sizes have evolved independently in at least 23
      lineages in seven families. Reduced variance in clutch size may arise either as
      an adaptation (because females with less variable clutch sizes have higher
      fitness) or as an indirect by-product of selection on other life-history
      characteristics. Comparative data on Australian scincid lizards indicate that
      variance in clutch sizes is lowest among species with low mean clutch sizes,
      small body sizes and a low variance in body sizes of adult females. Phylogenetic
      analysis shows that evolutionary decreases in the variance of clutch size have
      accompanied decreases in mean clutch sizes and decreases in the variance of adult
      female body sizes. Tropical lizards may also exhibit lower variance in clutch
      size. Most of these characteristics are correlated in occurrence, and may be
      allometrically tied to small body size. Hence, low variance in clutch size may be
      a consequence of allometric effects on a correlated suite of life-history
      characteristics. Exceptions to the general patterns noted above-especially,
      lizard species with invariant clutch sizes but large body sizes-may be due to
      loss of genetic variance for clutch sizes in lineages that have passed through a
      "bottleneck" of small body sizes and hence, low variance in clutch sizes.

PMID- 28564131
TI  - COMPARATIVE POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A PARASITE (FASCIOLOIDES MAGNA) AND
      ITS DEFINITIVE HOST.
AB  - The population genetic structure of the American liver fluke, Fascioloides magna,
      and its definitive host the white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, was
      examined in South Carolina. Flukes were significantly more common in deer from
      river-swamp habitat than upland areas and prevalence increased with host age. The
      distribution of flukes among deer occurred as a negative binomial with the mean
      dispersion parameter, k, equal to 0.17 and the range from 0.10 to 1.11 within
      local areas. Significant spatial genetic differentiation was observed for flukes
      and deer. Patterns of genetic distance in flukes were not concordant with those
      of the definitive host nor were they related to geographic distance between
      sample locations. Spatial genetic differentiation among flukes reflected the
      tendency for individual hosts to harbor multiple individuals from a limited
      number of parasite clones. The large population size of the parasite and
      movements of the definitive host tend to counteract factors that lead to spatial
      differentiation.

PMID- 28564132
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF DISPERSAL IN A MODEL OF MIXED SELFING AND RANDOM MATING.

PMID- 28564133
TI  - WHOLE- AND PART-FLOWER SELF-POLLINATION IN GLYCINE CLANDESTINA AND G. ARGYREA AND
      THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOGAMY.
AB  - The overall rate of self-fertilization can be viewed as the sum of two distinct
      processes: 1) self-pollination of all ovules in a flower (whole-flower self
      pollination); and 2) self-pollination of some of the ovules in a flower,
      occurring together with outcrossing of the remaining ovules (part-flower self
      pollination). In some situations these processes may be equated with different
      modes of self-pollination. A model of the mating system in which the progeny of
      separate fruits serve as the unit of observation is presented. The model
      partitions the overall rate of self-pollination into components attributable to
      whole- and part-flower selfing. When the mating system is estimated using
      information on marker genotypes from chasmogamous fruits in two species of
      Glycine together with the whole- and part-flower selfing model, the results
      indicate that the chasmogamous flowers in a subalpine population of G.
      clandestina underwent a significant level of whole-flower selfing, whereas in
      another, lower elevation population of G. clandestina and in a subtropical
      population of G. argyrea, they did not. This difference is thought to be related
      to the contrast in the variability of environmental conditions for insect
      mediated pollination between the habitats sampled. In particular, the large
      component of whole-flower selfing observed in the subalpine population of G.
      clandestina may be due to self-pollination that is induced during periods
      unfavorable to insect-mediated pollination. It can be demonstrated that such
      induced selfing will be selected whenever environmental conditions are such that
      pollinator activity limits seed set, and moreover that induced selfing can result
      in the selection of overall levels of self-pollination that are intermediate
      between 0 and 1. Monte Carlo simulation is employed to show that ignoring the
      correlation of self-fertilization events that result from whole- and part-flower
      selfing may lead to biased estimates of mating system parameters.

PMID- 28564134
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON HYDROID COLONY MORPHOLOGY BY INTRASPECIFIC COMPETITION.
AB  - Previous work on colonial hydroids in the genus Hydractinia has demonstrated that
      colony morphology is highly variable and determines intraspecific competitive
      ability. Competitive encounters are known to be common in nature, suggesting that
      intraspecific competition may be a major selective force acting on morphological
      variation. A replicated common garden experiment demonstrated a genetic basis to
      morphological variation and two data sets provided correlative support for the
      hypothesis of selection by intraspecific competition. First, morphologies
      inferior in competitive ability were less abundant in two adult, postcompetition,
      samples than in juvenile, precompetition, samples from the same populations.
      Second, among eight populations, the relative frequency of different morphologies
      was correlated with the frequency of intraspecific competition observed in each
      population. The direction of selection by competition on the morphological
      variation present in this species conflicts with recent predictions based on
      surveys across diverse taxa, suggesting limitations to the inference of
      competition as a past selective agent on the basis of present day correlations
      among species.

PMID- 28564135
TI  - HOST-PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF LINUM MARGINALE AND
      MELAMPSORA LINI: II. LOCAL AND REGIONAL VARIATION IN PATTERNS OF RESISTANCE AND
      RACIAL STRUCTURE.
AB  - Spatial variation in the resistance structure of Linum marginale (wild flax)
      populations to the rust fungus Melampsora lini, and in the racial structure of
      this pathogen, was investigated by sampling 10 populations distributed throughout
      the Kosciusko National Park, New South Wales, Australia. Considerable differences
      were found among populations in the structure of both host and pathogen. Host
      populations were divided into three broad categories: (1) populations susceptible
      to all testing races; (2) populations containing a strictly limited number of
      resistant phenotypes; and (3) populations with a considerable diversity of
      resistant phenotypes. The pathogen populations also showed a range of diversity.
      The major differences between these populations were determined by the occurrence
      and frequency of four common races of pathogen (races A, E, K, and N). These
      differences were apparent both at a regional spatial scale (over the 100 km
      separation of the most distant populations) and at a local scale where major
      differences were detected between two populations only 300 m apart. The
      distribution of the four common races of M. lini was consistent with the
      hypothesis that a fitness cost was associated with unnecessary virulence. In
      general, however, differences in the structure of pathogen populations from
      genetically very similar host populations implied that, in addition to host
      resistance genes, other evolutionary forces are also important in determining the
      genetic structure of individual pathogen populations.

PMID- 28564136
TI  - HALDANE'S RULE: A DEFENSE OF THE MEIOTIC DRIVE THEORY.

PMID- 28564137
TI  - LIGULA LENGTH AND COURTSHIP IN OCTOPUS DIGUETI: A POTENTIAL MECHANISM OF MATE
      CHOICE.

PMID- 28564138
TI  - PLASTICITY OF JAW AND SKULL MORPHOLOGY IN THE NEOTROPICAL CICHLIDS GEOPHAGUS
      BRASILIENSIS AND G. STEINDACHNERI.
AB  - I examined plasticity of jaw and skull morphology induced by feeding different
      diets in two species of the neotropical cichlid genus Geophagus. The two species
      possess different modes of development, which affect the size at which young
      begin feeding. I hypothesized that the difference in size at first feeding could
      lead to a difference in the amount of change inducible in the two species. The
      young of the substrate-spawning species, G. brasiliensis, which begin feeding at
      a smaller size, were predicted to be more plastic than those of the mouthbrooding
      species, G. steindachneri. The two diets used to induce differences were brine
      shrimp nauplii and chironomid larvae. Numerous measures of the jaw and skull
      differed significantly between groups fed the two diets but the amount of
      plasticity induced was small and would not present a problem for taxonomists.
      Contrary to my prediction, both the magnitude and pattern of plasticity induced
      in the two species was similar. Thus, mode of parental care and the size at which
      young begin feeding do not affect the degree of plasticity. Fish fed brine shrimp
      nauplii were longer in oral jaw region, but were shorter and shallower in the
      area behind the oral jaws. An additional group of G. brasiliensis was fed flake
      food to compare the results of this study to other studies. The differences in
      measures between fish fed brine shrimp diets and flake food diets were greater
      than those between fish fed brine shrimp and chironomid larvae. A possible role
      of plasticity for enhancing rather than retarding morphological evolution is
      discussed.

PMID- 28564139
TI  - A NEW MEASURE OF GENETIC IDENTITY BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL
      SPECIES.
AB  - We define a new genetic identity measure that is especially well suited for
      asexual polyploid species as it circumvents errors in the estimation of gene
      frequencies. It also can be applied to sexuals allowing the study of phylogenetic
      relationships in species complexes consisting of sexuals and asexuals of
      different ploidy levels. The measure groups genotypes into classes dependent on
      homozygosity vs heterozygosity and the number of ancestral allele types vs the
      number of presumed new mutations. Its value is related to evolutionary time since
      divergence. The application of the method is illustrated by using electrophoretic
      data on the species group Solenobia triquetrella (Lepidoptera: Psychidae). A high
      similarity of estimated relationships among the proposed as well as other genetic
      identity measures is shown in the case of diploid sexual and asexual races of
      this species group. The phylogenetic relationships within the group are
      reanalyzed and monophyletic vs polyphyletic origin of parthenogenesis in this
      species complex is discussed. The genetic identity values found by the proposed
      procedure are explained by a polyphyletic origin of parthenogenesis, though a
      monophyletic origin of parthenogenesis in a broader sense cannot be excluded. The
      explanation of the phylogenetic relationships is based on the assumption of
      hybridization between related species and the extinction of one ancestral
      species. Furthermore, the genetic diversity is compared among sexual and
      parthenogenetic races of the species.

PMID- 28564140
TI  - THE EFFECT OF A PARTIAL BARRIER ON THE MOVEMENT OF A HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Computer simulations of clines (Brues, 1972; Endler, 1977) as well as theoretical
      arguments (Nagylaki, 1975), have shown that steps in gene frequencies will be
      pulled to partial barriers (areas of reduced gene flow) if they form within
      approximately a cline width of the partial barrier. The behavior of a hybrid zone
      between two chromosomal taxa ("Moreton" and "Torresian") of the acridine
      grasshopper Caledia captiva in southeast Queensland has been analyzed and found
      to comform qualitatively with a model of altered gene flow patterns. Clines in
      four enzyme systems were analyzed for 1983 and 1986 along a transect across the
      hybrid zone. The clines have shifted towards an area of regenerating forest,
      while homozygote frequencies have increased at this point. This forest barrier
      has broken the continuity of the spatial distribution of C. captiva, forming
      population islands in part of the hybrid zone, and thus reducing the amount of
      gene flow. The distance between the barrier and the original cline is
      approximately of the order of a cline width, so that they would be expected to
      interact. Historical information suggests that the secondary contact between the
      "Moreton" and "Torresian" taxa occurred very recently (1844-1940), due to the
      intensive land-clearing activities during the European settlement.

PMID- 28564141
TI  - HALDANE'S RULE REVISITED.

PMID- 28564142
TI  - THE EFFECT OF HOST PLANT PATCH SIZE VARIATION ON THE POPULATION STRUCTURE OF A
      SPECIALIST HERBIVORE INSECT, TETRAOPES TETRAOPHTHALMUS.
AB  - The patchy local distribution of the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca,
      organizes populations of a beetle that feeds on it, Tetraopes tetraophthalmus,
      into numerous local demes. Genetic and ecological characteristics of demes of
      adult milkweed beetles occupying two naturally occurring size classes of patches,
      defined as large and small, were studied in order to describe the effect of patch
      size variation on local population structure. Allele frequency variance in two of
      three protein polymorphisms was significantly greater in collections of beetles
      from an array of 13 small patches when compared to collections from an array of
      11 large populations. A multivariate measure of variance using information from
      all 3 genetic markers confirmed that the small patches displayed greater overall
      genetic differentiation. This was further quantified by computing an Fst value,
      combined across loci, of 0.018 for the small patches and 0.004 for the large
      patches. No significant difference between patch size classes in mean allele
      frequency was detected. Mark and recapture studies of the adults found in five
      small and four large patches showed the residence times of adults in small
      patches to be less than half of those found in large patches. This was
      interpreted as resulting from higher emigration rates from small patches. It is
      proposed that greater genetic differentiation is found among demes from smaller
      patches because smaller patches support smaller population sizes and further
      because smaller patches act as net exporters of migrants while larger patches act
      as net migrant importers.

PMID- 28564143
TI  - PEMPHIGUS REVISITED: CHANGES IN GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION BUT CONSTANCY IN VARIABILITY
      AND COVARIATION.
AB  - Samples of the gall-forming aphids Pemphigus populicaulis and P.
      populitransversus (both elongate and globular morphs) were re-collected at sites
      in eastern North America after 13 to 16 years. Twenty-three morphometric
      characters of the galls, stem mothers, and alate fundatrigeniae were analyzed by
      univariate and multivariate methods. Varying proportions of the variance of each
      character are attributable to the four levels of variation-locality, year, year
      by locality interaction, and among galls (within one year and locality). The year
      by locality interaction level generally has the greatest variation and is highly
      significant. Year and locality effects tend to be lower and not significant. The
      variance components do not exhibit trends with time. Geographic variation
      patterns of single variables or factor scores in the original and revisited
      populations show significant spatial structure overall but lack clear-cut spatial
      patterns, especially clines. Observable patterns of variation match results of
      the spatial analyses: most characters lack clear trends; patterns in the
      revisited data do not resemble patterns for the same variables in the original
      data. Variability profiles for characters change little over the time span and
      are comparable among and within localities. Covariation among characters over
      localities is largely maintained during the time interval despite the changes in
      patterns. Fluctuating interclonal competition among aphids on secondary hosts is
      believed to cause the marked heterogeneity in space and time among the aphids in
      the galls.

PMID- 28564144
TI  - IS HALDANE'S RULE SIGNIFICANT?

PMID- 28564145
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF RARITY IN ASTER FURCATUS (ASTERACEAE), A THREATENED, SELF
      INCOMPATIBLE PLANT.
AB  - Aster furcatus is a rare, self-incompatible plant with fewer than 50 known
      populations throughout its range. We verified self-incompatibility in A. furcatus
      by conducting experimental self- and cross-pollinations and by examining seed set
      in a small population comprised of a single clonal genet. We examined variation
      at 22 electrophoretic loci in 23 populations of A. furcatus from across its range
      in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Except for two rare alleles found
      in single individuals in three populations, all loci but one of those examined
      were fixed for single alleles. The only variable locus (triosephosphate
      isomerase, TPI-1) tended to exhibit genotype frequencies in Hardy-Weinberg
      equilibrium or with a slight excess of heterozygotes. Although overall gene
      diversity was extremely low, TPI genotype frequencies were indicative of an
      outcrossing plant. We examined the subpopulation genetic structure among clonal
      plants within one Wisconsin population in greater detail. F statistics indicated
      that much of the genetic variation at the polymorphic TPI locus was due to
      differentiation among populations. We discuss the implications of self
      incompatibility and low levels of genetic variation for the evolution and
      conservation of Aster furcatus and other rare plants with similar breeding
      systems.

PMID- 28564146
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA ANALYSES AND THE ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF PARTHENOGENETIC
      LIZARDS (GENUS CNEMIDOPHORUS). II. C. NEOMEXICANUS AND THE C. TESSELATUS COMPLEX.
AB  - Restriction-endonuclease analyses of mitochondrial DNAs from all six color
      pattern classes (A-F) of the parthenogenetic lizard Cnemidophorus tesselatus
      yield estimates of nucleotide divergence that are extremely low (pi = 0.06%). In
      digests of 75 C. tesselatus mtDNAs with 20 different restriction enzymes, only
      four cleavage-site differences were noted, three of which were found only in
      pattern class F. The near-identity of these mitochondrial DNAs with those from C.
      tigris marmoratus shows unequivocally that C. t. marmoratus was the species to
      which the maternal parent(s) of all C. tesselatus belonged. Mitochondrial-DNA
      analyses of another unisexual species, C. neomexicanus, led to the same
      conclusion. Mitochondrial DNAs from 96 individuals of these three species were
      extensively analyzed for cleavage-site differences; only 13 were found. The low
      interspecific sequence diversity found within C. neomexicanus and the C.
      tesselatus complex suggests a recent origin for both. Based on diversity data for
      mitochondrial DNA and allozymes, we estimate that a minimum of two hybridizations
      were required to produce all diploid C. tesselatus (C-F), followed by at least
      two more to generate the triploids (A and B). These data and those presented in
      the two accompanying papers indicate that events leading to parthenogenesis in
      Cnemidophorus are rare and strengthen the hypothesis that interspecific
      hybridization is a necessary, causal event in its establishment.

PMID- 28564147
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF OUTCROSSING IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS: TESTS OF THE FREQUENCY
      DEPENDENT AND SIB-COMPETITION MODELS.
AB  - Using field and greenhouse experiments, we tested two hypotheses that could
      account for the maintenance of outcrossing in Impatiens capensis. Seedlings
      derived from cleistogamous (CL) and chasmogamous (CH) flowers were grown under
      competitive conditions while flanked by neighbors that were either related or
      unrelated. In both experiments, CH progeny sometimes expressed more phenotypic
      variability than CL progeny. In the greenhouse experiment, CH progeny attained
      the same weight as CL progeny, and the relatedness of neighboring plants did not
      affect the growth of either type. In the field experiment, CL and CH progeny
      performed similarly when grown with related competitors. However, CH progeny were
      somewhat larger when planted with nonsibs, while CL progeny were somewhat smaller
      under those conditions. Thus, there is no evidence that either frequency
      dependent selection or the avoidance of competition among siblings favors the
      maintenance of outcrossing in this species. We also modeled the relative
      variability of selfed and outcrossed progeny under several reproductive systems.
      When females mate with one male (progeny are full sibs), selfed progeny are often
      more variable than outcrossed progeny. When females engage in both selfing and
      outcrossing, variation among progeny is frequently maximized at an intermediate
      selfing rate. The sib-competition mechanism, under a range of genetic models, is
      not apt to promote outcrossing, since selfed progeny are commonly more variable
      than outcrossed progeny.

PMID- 28564148
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF PARTHENOGENESIS IN HETERONOTIA BINOEI (GEKKONIDAE):
      EXTENSIVE GENOTYPIC DIVERSITY AMONG PARTHENOGENS.
AB  - Variation at 18 allozyme loci was assayed among representatives of the
      geographically widespread, triploid parthenogenetic form of Heteronotia binoei. A
      minimum of 52 different genotypes were observed among 143 individuals. Virtually
      all localities sampled had multiple genotypes among the unisexuals. This
      represents unusually high genotypic diversity for a unisexual vertebrate.
      Heterozygosity in the triploids was higher than in diploid bisexual populations
      of H. binoei. Comparison with the alleles present in the diploid bisexuals
      confirms that the parthenogens are hybrids and indicates that most of the
      genotypic diversity stems from repetitive hybrid origins. However, the presence
      of some alleles unique to the parthenogens suggests that mutation adds to their
      genetic diversity. The genetic structure of this geographically widespread
      parthenogen suggests the hypothesis that the persistence and spread of the
      unisexual lineages is facilitated by genotypic diversity.

PMID- 28564149
TI  - PROXIMITY-DEPENDENT CROSS-COMPATIBILITY IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28564150
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BY HOST SPECIFICITY IN A PAIR OF PHYTOPHAGOUS LADYBIRD
      BEETLES.
AB  - Crossing experiments and food-choice tests show that two sympatric species of
      phytophagous ladybird beetles, Epilachna niponica and E. yasutomii, are
      reproductively isolated by host-plant specificity. Adult beetles selected their
      natural hosts when given choices, though some accepted the host of the other
      species when no choice was offered. In each species, survival of larvae to the
      second instar was significantly higher on their own host plant. No evidence for
      sexual isolation, gametic isolation, hybrid inviability, or reduced hybrid
      fertility was detected. Reproductive isolation by host specificity is an
      important prerequisite for certain models of sympatric speciation. Although the
      present example supports the plausibility of such models, an allopatric origin of
      host-plant specificity cannot be discounted.

PMID- 28564151
TI  - DNA DIVERGENCE AMONG HOMINOIDS.
AB  - We have determined the degree of single-copy DNA divergence among the extant
      members of the Hominoidea employing the technique of DNA-DNA hybridization. The
      species studied include humans, two species of chimpanzees, gorillas, two
      subspecies of orangutans, and two species of gibbons; as an outgroup we have used
      a member of the Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae), the baboon. Our methods are
      different from those previously used and allow us to control for two factors
      other than base-pair mismatch that can affect the thermal stability of DNA
      duplexes: the base composition and duplex length. In addition, we have studied
      more than one individual for most species and thus are able to assess the effect
      of intraspecific variation on phylogenetic conclusions. The results indicate that
      the closest extant relatives of humans are the chimpanzees. Gorillas are the next
      closest, followed by orangutans and gibbons. This result is strongly supported
      statistically, as there is virtually no overlap in measurements between different
      taxa. Our conclusions are in agreement with a growing amount of molecular
      evidence supporting this pattern of relatedness. The data behave as a reasonably
      good molecular clock, and we do not see an indication of slowdown in molecular
      evolution in the clade containing humans and African apes, contrary to what has
      been documented for protein-coding regions. Because of the clocklike nature of
      the results, we have estimated that the divergence of humans and chimpanzees
      occurred about 6-8 million years ago. Results from orangutans indicate that the
      Borneo and Sumatra populations are genetically distinct, about as different as
      the named species of chimpanzees.

PMID- 28564152
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. VI.
      A GREENHOUSE TEST OF THE SIB-COMPETITION HYPOTHESES.
AB  - This study tests the hypothesis that competition among groups of sexual and
      asexual siblings generates an advantage for sexual females. Individual tillers of
      Anthoxanthum odoratum were planted singly, among other siblings from the same
      family, and among groups of sexual and asexual siblings from different families
      in pots in an unheated greenhouse. Unlike previous field experiments, there was
      little difference between the performance of sexual and clonal tillers after two
      years, despite strong treatment effects and high mortality. The results
      demonstrate that sib competition does not generate an advantage for sexual
      reproduction in biotically simple environments.

PMID- 28564153
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA DIVERSITY AND THE ORIGIN OF THE MENIDIA CLARKHUBBSI COMPLEX OF
      UNISEXUAL FISHES (ATHERINIDAE).
AB  - Restriction-endonuclease analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the unisexual
      M. clarkhubbsi complex and close sexual relatives indicated that the unisexual
      complex arose through multiple, nonreciprocal hybridizations involving females of
      M. peninsulae. High-resolution analyses using restriction endonucleases that
      cleave at 4-bp sites revealed mtDNA sequence diversity that was low among
      unisexuals but high among individuals of M. peninsulae. The identification of M.
      peninsulae as a parent of the unisexuals conflicts with some details of previous
      allozyme comparisons. One possibility is that the unisexuals were derived from
      hybridization involving M. beryllina and a recently extinct form of M.
      peninsulae. In contrast to the unisexuals, contemporary hybrids of M. peninsulae
      and M. beryllina are formed by reciprocal matings. The origins of extant
      unisexual lineages from nonreciprocal hybridizations, together with their low
      mtDNA diversity relative to the maternal ancestor, implies strong constraints on
      origins of unisexuality via hybridization. Data on reproduction by contemporary
      F1 hybrids reveal one form of genetic/developmental constraint: M. peninsulae and
      M. beryllina may now have diverged beyond the point where the hybrid origin of
      new unisexual lineages is possible.

PMID- 28564154
TI  - A TEST FOR PROXIMITY-DEPENDENT OUTCROSSING IN THE ALPINE SKYPILOT, POLEMONIUM
      VISCOSUM.

PMID- 28564155
TI  - ELECTROPHORETIC VARIATION IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC GRASSHOPPER WARRAMABA VIRGO AND
      ITS SEXUAL RELATIVES.
AB  - Allozyme variation was examined within and between parthenogenetic clones of
      Warramabo virgo and the sexual ancestors, undescribed species P196 and P169. Both
      sexual species can be separated into northern and southern races using six loci,
      and the separate hybrid origin for the two major groups of parthenogenetic clones
      (the Standard Phylad and the Boulder-Zanthus Phylad) is substantiated by the
      racial variation in the sexual ancestors. Heterozygosity values in the
      parthenogenetic species are 6-9 times higher than those in the sexual species,
      and there is evidence for the accumulation of new variation subsequent to the
      hybrid origin of both phylads. The new variation is the result of either new
      mutations, recombination, or both. Three loci in the Standard Phylad clones
      reveal "orphan" alleles not found in the sexual ancestors; these alleles probably
      arose subsequent to hybridization but prior to the dispersal of the
      parthenogenetic clones. These data, in combination with those from other genetic
      studies, suggest that new variation may arise as a consequence of hybridization.
      Collectively, the allozyme, chromosome, molecular, and morphological data suggest
      that the Standard Phylad clones are of a more ancient but restricted origin, with
      clonal variation being the result of multiple hybridizations between individuals
      of P196 and P169.

PMID- 28564156
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN PASSERCULUS SANDWICHENSIS AS IT IS.

PMID- 28564157
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. V.
      A FIELD TEST OF THE SIB-COMPETITION LOTTERY HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - Sexually and asexually derived tillers of Anthoxanthum odoratum were planted
      directly in the field to test the hypothesis that competition among groups of
      sexual and asexual siblings favors the maintenance of sexual reproduction in
      populations. The results showed a substantial fitness advantage for sexual
      tillers. However, in contrast with the models, the advantage of sex did not
      increase with increasing numbers of colonists in the patch, there were multiple
      survivors among colonists, and an advantage was observed even for singly planted
      tillers. When a truncation-selection scheme was imposed ex post facto on the
      data, the relative performance of sexual tillers was similar to that predicted by
      the Bulmer (1980) model, suggesting that sib-competition models fail due to the
      violation of the assumption of truncation selection. The advantage of sex was not
      correlated with the presence of other species, total percentage cover, or species
      diversity, although sites where sex was favored were physically clustered.

PMID- 28564158
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA ANALYSES AND THE ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF PARTHENOGENETIC
      LIZARDS (GENUS CNEMIDOPHORUS). IV. NINE SEXLINEATUS-GROUP UNISEXUALS.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) from nine morphologically distinct unisexual species
      and five bisexual species of lizards, all from the sexlineatus species-group of
      Cnemidophorus, were compared using restriction endonucleases. The unisexual
      lizards have mtDNAs that are identical at all or nearly all of the 128 sites
      cleaved. Although differing little in sequence, some mtDNAs differed in size due
      to the presence of tandem sequence duplications. Phylogenetic analysis of
      cleavage maps indicates that the mtDNAs of the unisexuals are most similar to
      that of the bisexual species C. inornatus. Considerable mtDNA diversity exists
      among C. inornatus populations, and one geographically restricted subspecies, C.
      i. arizonae, was identified as the most probable maternal ancestor of all nine
      unisexuals. All but one of these are triploid, and all have at least one C.
      inornatus gene complement. This, together with the homogeneity of their mtDNAs,
      suggests that all stem from one or a small number of allodiploid females
      (presumably parthenogenetic) that originated in a restricted geographic area in
      the recent past. These data, when combined with those from allozyme studies,
      preclude the possibility that most of the triploid unisexuals could have arisen
      via fertilization of an unreduced diploid ovum from one species by a haploid
      sperm from a different species.

PMID- 28564159
TI  - OPTIMAL OUTCROSSING IN IPOMOPSIS AGGREGAT A: SEED SET AND OFFSPRING FITNEs.
AB  - Restricted gene flow and localized selection should establish a correlation
      between physical proximity and genetic similarity in many plant populations.
      Given this situation, fitness may decline in crosses between nearby plants
      (inbreeding depression), and in crosses between more widely separated plants
      ("outbreeding depression") mostly as a result of disruption of local adaptation.
      It follows that seed set and offspring fitness may be greatest in crosses over an
      intermediate "optimal outcrossing distance." This prediction was supported for
      Ipomopsis aggregata, a long-lived herbaceous plant pollinated by hummingbirds. In
      six replicate pollination experiments, mean seed set per flower was higher with
      an outcrossing distance of 1-10 m than with selfing or outcrossing over 100 m. A
      similar pattern appeared in the performance of offspring from experimental
      crosses grown under natural conditions and censused for a seven-year period.
      Offspring from 10-m crosses had higher survival, greater chance of flowering, and
      earlier flowering than those from 1-m or 100-m crosses. As a result, 1-m and 100
      m offspring achieved only 47% and 68%, respectively, of the lifetime fitness of
      10-m offspring. Offspring fitness also declined with planting distance from the
      seed parent over a range of 1-30 m, so that adaptation to the maternal
      environment is a plausible mechanism for outbreeding depression. Censuses in a
      representative I. aggregata population indicated that the herbaceous vegetation
      changes over a range of 2-150 m, suggesting that there is spatial variation in
      selection regimes on a scale commensurate with the observed effects of
      outbreeding depression and planting distance. We discuss the possibility that
      differences in seed set might in part reflect maternal mate discrimination and
      emphasize the desirability of measuring offspring fitness under natural
      conditions in assessing outcrossing effects.

PMID- 28564160
TI  - POLYPHYLETIC ORIGINS OF ASEXUALITY IN DAPHNIA PULEX. II. MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA
      VARIATION.
AB  - Allozyme studies of the cladoceran Daphnia pulex have shown that most populations
      reproduce by obligate parthenogenesis, although some cyclically parthenogenetic
      populations remain throughout the southern portion of its range. Clonal diversity
      within the obligate parthenogens is extremely high and has been attributed to the
      polyphyletic origin of asexuality. Specifically, it has been proposed that the
      clonal diversity in the obligate parthenogens was generated via the spread of a
      sex-limited meiosis suppressor through populations of a cyclically
      parthenogenetic ancestor. In this study, analysis of polymorphism of restriction
      endonuclease sites in the mitochondrial genome, in conjunction with allozyme
      analysis, was used to determine whether obligate parthenogenesis has a
      monophyletic or polyphyletic origin in D. pulex. An allozyme survey of 77
      populations from Ontario and Michigan was first conducted to determine breeding
      systems and levels of clonal diversity (Hebert et al., 1989). Mitochondrial-DNA
      variation was then surveyed in one isolate of each clone from each population
      reproducing by obligate parthenogenesis and in 2-4 isolates from each population
      reproducing by cyclic parthenogenesis. Seventeen restriction enzymes were used in
      this analysis. Thirty-five mitochondrial genotypes were found among the 36
      obligate clones (as identified by allozyme analysis), while 17 mitochondrial
      genotypes were identified among 40 cyclic isolates from 14 populations. Five
      mitochondrial genotypes were found in both groups. Parsimony and phenetic
      clustering methods were used to construct trees showing the genetic relationship
      among mitochondrial genotypes. The results clearly show that obligate
      parthenogenesis had a polyphyletic origin in this species. The close relationship
      between cyclic and obligate parthenogens in the Great Lakes region suggests that
      many obligate clones have recently been derived from cyclic populations and that
      the generation of clones is still occurring in this area. Patterns of clonal
      diversity based on the joint consideration of allozyme and mitochondrial-DNA data
      are discussed.

PMID- 28564161
TI  - SPARROW SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AND TESTIS SIZE: A COMMENT.

PMID- 28564162
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA ANALYSES AND THE ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF PARTHENOGENETIC
      LIZARDS (GENUS CNEMIDOPHORUS). III. C. VELOX AND C. EXSANGUIS.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) of two unisexual, parthenogenetically reproducing
      species of whiptail lizards (Cnemidophorus velox and C. exsanguis) and their
      bisexual relatives were compared by restriction-enzyme analysis to assess levels
      of mtDNA variation and to establish the maternal ancestry of the unisexuals. No
      cleavage-site differences were found to be diagnostic between C. velox and C.
      exsanguis mtDNAs, suggesting an ancestry rooted in the same maternal lineage. The
      mtDNA of the unisexuals is relatively homogeneous, indicating that these lineages
      are of recent origin. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the maternal ancestor
      of both C. velox and C. exsanguis was most probably C. burti stictogrammus, C.
      costatus barrancorum, or an unidentified taxon closely related to them. In
      addition, the mtDNA analyses demonstrate conclusively that the triploid species
      C. velox could not have been formed by the fertilization of an unreduced
      (diploid) C. inornatus egg, further strengthening the hypothesis that
      parthenogenesis in Cnemidophorus results from hybridization.

PMID- 28564163
TI  - HIGH LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THE HAPLOID MOSS PLAGIOMNIUM CILIARE.
AB  - Horizontal starch-gel electrophoresis was used to measure variability at 14
      enzyme loci from 13 natural populations of the dioecious moss Plagiomnium
      ciliare. Overall levels of genetic polymorphism were unexpectedly high for a
      haploid organism. Using a 1% frequency criterion, 71% of the loci surveyed were
      polymorphic for the species as a whole. The number of alleles per polymorphic
      locus for the species as a whole was 2.82 +/- 0.34 (mean +/- standard error), and
      mean gene diversity per locus was 0.078 +/- 0.035. While total gene diversity (HT
      = 0.178) was similar to that observed for highly outcrossed diploid plants such
      as pines, the variance within (HS = 0.098 +/- 0.027) and among (DST = 0.080 +/-
      0.033) populations was more evenly distributed than that reported for populations
      of conifers. Genetic distances between populations ranged from 0.0002 to 0.2064,
      with mosses from the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States showing
      less differentiation among populations than did mosses from the Appalachian
      Mountains. Gene diversity was much reduced in populations from disturbed,
      secondary forests in the Piedmont (0.058 +/- 0.018) relative to those from
      minimally disturbed, primary forests in the mountains (0.146 +/- 0.048).
      Intensive sampling within populations revealed heterogeneity even within small (5
      * 5 cm) clumps. The discovery of high levels of genetic variability in a plant
      with a dominant haploid life cycle challenges the traditional view of bryophytes
      as a genetically depauperate group. Multipleniche selection is proposed as a
      possible explanation for this anomaly, but the data are also consistent with the
      view that allozyme polymorphisms are selectively neutral.

PMID- 28564164
TI  - POLYPHYLETIC ORIGINS OF ASEXUALITY IN DAPHNIA PULEX. I. BREEDING-SYSTEM VARIATION
      AND LEVELS OF CLONAL DIVERSITY.
AB  - There is growing evidence that transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction
      are often provoked by internal genetic factors rather than extrinsic selection
      pressures. In the cladoceran crustacean Daphnia pulex, the shift to asexuality
      has been linked to sex-limited meiosis suppression. Most populations of this
      species reproduce by obligate parthenogenesis, but cyclically parthenogenetic
      populations persist in the southern portion of its range. The meiosis-suppressor
      model predicts that asexuality in D. pulex has polyphyletic origins and that the
      coexistence of cyclically parthenogenetic lines with male-producing obligately
      asexual clones should be unstable. For the present study, we examined the
      genotypic structure of D. pulex populations from a region in which there is an
      abrupt microgeographical shift in breeding system. Populations in Michigan
      largely reproduce by cyclic parthenogenesis, while those in Ontario are
      obligately asexual. Allozyme studies on 77 populations from this area revealed 50
      obligately asexual clones, divisible into two groups: one derived from a single
      parent species and the other derived via interspecific hybridization. Although
      nearly 50% of the clones retained male production, there was, as predicted, no
      evidence of coexistence between cyclically parthenogenetic populations and male
      producing obligately asexual clones. The survey did, however, reveal a low
      incidence of cyclically parthenogenetic populations in Ontario. The high
      genotypic diversity of these populations suggests that they are not only
      resistant to meiosis suppression, but able to rework genetic variation gained
      from asexual clones into a sexual breeding system.

PMID- 28564165
TI  - RIBOSOMAL-DNA VARIATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN RUDBECKIA MISSOURIENSIS.

PMID- 28564166
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF VARIATION IN EGG SIZE AND FOOD ABUNDANCE IN BROOK TROUT
      SALVELINUS FONTINALIS.
AB  - Relationships between egg size and juvenile survival in brook trout, Salvelinus
      fontinalis, were determined experimentally at two levels of food abundance and
      then incorporated into a model that related maternal fitness to egg size and food
      supply. Egg volume was positively correlated with juvenile size at hatching and
      size at yolk sac resorption but had no significant effect on embryonic survival
      or development time. Juvenile survival was linearly related to egg size
      throughout the first 50 days of exogenous feeding at high and low food levels.
      The effects of egg size and food abundance on juvenile survival were not
      additive. Decreased food abundance significantly increased mortality among the
      smallest eggs but had a negligible effect on the largest eggs. Model simulations
      indicate that maternal fitness is a curvilinear function of egg size and that
      food supply influences both the height and the shape of the function. The fitness
      functions provide empirical support for the hypothesis that selection favors an
      increase in offspring size with reductions in resource abundance.

PMID- 28564167
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN MONARCH BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28564168
TI  - METHODS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF COMPARATIVE DATA IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY.
AB  - Inferences regarding phylogenetic patterns and constraints on the evolution of
      characters often can be derived only from comparisons of extant species. If the
      phylogeny of these species is known, then the mean phenotypes of taxa can be
      partitioned into heritable phylogenetic effects and nonheritable residual
      components. Methods are presented for the estimation of phylogenywide means of
      characters, the variance-covariance structure of the components of taxon-specific
      means, and the mean phenotypes of ancestral taxa. These methods, which are
      largely an extension of maximum-likelihood techniques used in quantitative
      genetics, make an efficient use of the data, are unbiased by phylogenetically
      uninformative contributions to mean phenotypes, and take into account fully the
      nonindependence of data resulting from evolutionary relationships. Statistical
      tests are introduced for evaluating the significance of phylogenetic heritability
      and of correlations between traits, and expressions are given for the standard
      errors of ancestral mean phenotype estimates. It is argued that the covariance
      structure of phylogenetic effects provides a description of a macroevolutionary
      pattern, whereas that for the residual effects, when corrected for sampling
      error, is more closely related to a microevolutionary pattern.

PMID- 28564169
TI  - EFFECTS OF NONRANDOM SEED ABORTION ON PROGENY PERFORMANCE IN PHASEOLUS COCCINEUS
      L.
AB  - In this study, we sought to determine if Phaseolus coccineus normally aborts
      potentially viable seeds, and whether seed abortion is nonrandom with respect to
      progeny vigor. The ovaries of Phaseolus coccineus typically have six linearly
      arranged ovules. The three ovule positions at the stylar end are more likely to
      mature seeds than the three ovules at the basal end of the ovary. When we
      destroyed the developing ovules at the stylar end of the fruit after
      fertilization but before seed abortion, there was a significant increase in the
      probability that the ovules in the three basal positions would produce a mature
      seed. The probability of seed maturation in control fruits (no ovules destroyed)
      ranged from 38.3 to 42.7% over the three field seasons, whereas in the
      experimental fruits it ranged from 64.3 to 79.7% (similar to that of ovules at
      the stylar end in control fruits). We did not find any significant change in the
      probability of seed production in the three ovule positions in the stylar end of
      the ovary (the positions with high probability of seed maturation) when the basal
      ovules were experimentally destroyed. These results indicate that potentially
      viable seeds are regularly aborted in P. coccineus, with seed abortion more
      frequent in the basal ovule positions than at the stylar positions. In two
      greenhouse studies and one field study, we compared the vigor of progeny produced
      in the control fruits with the vigor of progeny produced in fruits where three
      ovules (either stylar or basal end) were destroyed. We found that the performance
      of the progeny from the three positions at the stylar end of the control fruits
      did not differ from the performance of the progeny from experimental fruits in
      which the three basal ovule positions were destroyed. In contrast, the progeny
      from the basal positions of the control fruits outperformed the progeny from the
      experimental fruits when the seeds were produced in the three basal ovules
      (stylar ovules destroyed). Our findings indicate that when the experimental
      treatment increased the probability of seed maturation, there was a significant
      decrease in the average vigor of the progeny in the remaining (basal) ovule
      positions.

PMID- 28564170
TI  - TOPOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY, ZONE WIDTH, AND THE STRENGTH OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN
      A ZONE OF OVERLAP AND HYBRIDIZATION.
AB  - Two closely related species of ground crickets, Allonemobius fasciatus and A.
      socius, overlap and hybridize in a contact zone in the eastern United States. In
      earlier work, Howard (1986) described geographic variation in the width of the
      zone and in the strength of reproductive isolation between the two ground
      crickets. The zone was wider in the hills and mountains of southeastern Ohio and
      West Virginia than along the eastern coastal plain, and reproductive isolation
      appeared to be stronger where the zone was wider. Howard attributed the greater
      width in the mountains to the wide intermingling and patchy distribution of
      habitats appropriate for a species adapted to a northern climate and for a
      species adapted to a southern climate. He also pointed out that the mosaicism and
      the increased breadth of the zone in the mountains enhanced the probability of
      occurrence of reinforcement. We tested three predictions that emerged from
      Howard's hypothesized links among topographic diversity, zone width, and the
      strength of reproductive isolation. The first two predictions were fulfilled. The
      northern cricket, A. fasciatus, occurred in the high mountains south of its
      previously known distributional limit; and the zone narrowed considerably in
      Illinois, an area of low topographic diversity. These results provide further
      evidence for the importance of the environment in determining the structure of
      the zone. The third prediction was falsified. Contrary to the prediction, the
      strength of reproductive isolation between the two species was as strong in
      Illinois as in the Appalachian Mountains. This result suggests that if
      reinforcement has occurred in the zone, the width of the zone has not been a
      major factor in the process.

PMID- 28564171
TI  - GENE FLOW AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN THE KILLIFISH, FUNDULUS
      HETEROCLITUS.
AB  - Two subspecies of killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus, inhabit the Atlantic coast of
      the United States. The contact zones between them are typified by morphological,
      physiological, nuclear gene, and mitochondrial DNA clines. Considerable debate
      exists about the importance of restricted gene flow and natural selection in
      maintaining these clines. To evaluate the relative importance of these two
      evolutionary forces we employed analysis of mtDNA as an independent measure of
      gene flow. Solutions of equilibrium diffusion equations suggested that killifish
      dispersal must be less than 2 km to maintain previously observed allozyme
      frequency clines in the absence of strong selection. To determine whether
      populations separated by distances greater than 2 km accumulate significant
      genetic differences we examined a total of N = 480 individuals from five
      killifish populations spanning a continuous shoreline distance of 8.4 km.
      Distribution of the 25 detected haplotypes indicated that most of the variation
      was within rather than between sampling locations. No evidence of geographic
      structure was detected, nor were there any significant genetic differences
      between killifish populations. With these data, gene flow was evaluated by
      estimating effective migration rate (Ne m) between the populations. Ne m was
      estimated from Gst (Ne m = 49.4), from Fst (Ne m = 24.1), by the private alleles
      approach (Ne m = 18.5) and via four phylogenetic analyses (Ne m ranged from 11.4
      to 16.9). Regardless of the analysis, Ne m was greater than one; the threshold
      level at which gene flow is strong enough to prevent differentiation due to
      genetic drift. This suggests that while the characteristics that distinguish
      Fundulus subspecies may have arisen in isolation, the current clinal
      distributions exhibited along the Atlantic coast are most likely maintained by
      selection.

PMID- 28564172
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN BONY FISHES: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW.

PMID- 28564173
TI  - NULL MODELS FOR THE NUMBER OF EVOLUTIONARY STEPS IN A CHARACTER ON A PHYLOGENETIC
      TREE.
AB  - Random trees and random characters can be used in null models for testing
      phylogenetic hypothesis. We consider three interpretations of random trees:
      first, that trees are selected from the set of all possible trees with equal
      probability; second, that trees are formed by random speciation or coalescence
      (equivalent); and third, that trees are formed by a series of random partitions
      of the taxa. We consider two interpretations of random characters: first, that
      the number of taxa with each state is held constant, but the states are randomly
      reshuffled among the taxa; and second, that the probability each taxon is
      assigned a particular state is constant from one taxon to the next. Under null
      models representing various combinations of randomizations of trees and
      characters, exact recursion equations are given to calculate the probability
      distribution of the number of character state changes required by a phylogenetic
      tree. Possible applications of these probability distributions are discussed.
      They can be used, for example, to test for a panmictic population structure
      within a species or to test phylogenetic inertia in a character's evolution.
      Whether and how a null model incorporates tree randomness makes little difference
      to the probability distribution in many but not all circumstances. The null
      model's sense of character randomness appears more critical. The difficult issue
      of choosing a null model is discussed.

PMID- 28564174
TI  - HERITABLE VARIATION IN ETHANOL TOLERANCE AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH BIOCHEMICAL
      TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - To help elucidate mechanisms of larval ethanol tolerance seven isochromosomal
      lines of Drosophila melanogaster with different second chromosomes were fed a
      growth-limiting concentration of ethanol (4.5% v/v) and examined for associations
      between growth traits and biochemical characteristics that had previously been
      implicated in the determination of tolerance variation. Repeated measures of
      survival and development time over four generations verified the inherited nature
      of these traits. Significant variation among the lines were evident for flux from
      ethanol into lipid, for activity levels of alcohol dehydrogenase and glycerol-3
      phosphate oxidase (GPO), and for levels of long chain and unsaturated fatty
      acids. A high degree of positive association occurred among the variables. A
      partial correlation analysis controlling for performance of the lines on ethanol
      free medium revealed a strong association between the degree of long chain fatty
      acid content and line survival when ethanol was fed. The correlation between GPO
      activity and survival in an ethanol environment appeared to depend on the
      association of GPO activity with long chain fatty acid content. The positive
      correlations of flux from ethanol into lipid with many of the other variables
      suggested that the ADH pathway influenced the level of ethanol tolerance. These
      associations are all consistent with the hypothesis that the lipid content of
      body tissues, especially the levels of long chain and unsaturated fatty acids in
      cell membranes, may have an important influence on both spatial and interspecific
      variation in the ethanol tolerance of larvae.

PMID- 28564175
TI  - MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF MORPHOMETRIC DATA FROM NATURAL PLANT POPULATIONS: INSIGHTS
      INTO ONTOGENETIC, GENETIC, AND SELECTIVE CORRELATIONS IN DALECHAMPIA SCANDENS.
AB  - I examined patterns of covariation of three morphometric blossom characters
      [gland area (GA), gland-stigma distance (GSD), and bract length (BL)] within
      genets, among genets, and among populations of the tropical vine, Dalechampia
      scandens (Euphorbiaceae). Covariance between BL and GA was evenly distributed
      among the three levels. This observation, coupled with developmental information,
      indicates that the two characters change size similarly during development, that
      there is probably genetic covariance between them (apparently caused by
      pleiotropy), and that the genetic covariance may have constrained (at least
      proximally) the course of population differentiation with respect to these
      characters. Most covariance between GSD and GA occurred at the among-population
      level. This observation, coupled with developmental information, indicates that
      there is negligible ontogenetic covariance and that within populations there is
      probably little or no genetic covariance between the two characters. Among
      population covariance has probably been caused by natural selection operating in
      a correlated fashion on characters that functionally interact in pollination.

PMID- 28564176
TI  - SELF-FERTILIZATION VERSUS CROSS-FERTILIZATION IN THE HERMAPHRODITIC FRESHWATER
      SNAIL BULINUS GLOBOSUS.
AB  - Self-fertilization depression of fitness in the freshwater hermaphroditic snail
      Bulinus globosus, an intermediate host of the parasitic trematode Schistosoma,
      has been studied in a strain originating from Niger. B. globosus is an outcrosser
      that can self-fertilize when isolated before any copulation has occurred. The
      self-fertilization depression has been estimated during two successive
      generations. In the first generation, selfing was compared to outcrossing. Within
      each mating system group, selfing and outcrossing were compared again in the
      second generation. A striking difference was shown in favor of cross
      fertilization for the number of eggs laid, the survival at birth of young snails
      and the number of snails reaching sexual maturity. The overall self-fertilization
      depression is 0.920 after two generations of selfing. We discuss the relative
      role of selfing and outcrossing in the evolution of freshwater snail populations.

PMID- 28564177
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF SPOROPHYTIC AND GAMETOPHYTIC POPULATIONS OF THE MOSS,
      FUNARIA HYGROMETRICA HEDW.
AB  - Patterns of phenotypic and genotypic variability in two populations of the moss,
      Funaria hygrometrica, were investigated using measurements of gametophytic and
      sporophytic morphology, sporophytic reproductive output, spore germination,
      gametophytic growth rates and tolerances of copper, cadmium, and low nutrient
      conditions, and electrophoretically detectable enzyme variation. The two
      populations differed in all traits measured, but complete monomorphism within
      populations at 14 enzyme loci suggested that each represented a single clone.
      Variability in gametophytic growth rates and responses to different experimental
      media, however, occurred among haploid sib families (families of meiotic progeny
      derived from the same sporophyte) and among sibs within families within both
      populations, suggesting high levels of genetic variability. Low mean reproductive
      output and a high level of variability among sporophytes in a mine site
      population probably reflected heavy metal toxicity. Based on this study, in
      combination with previous work on F. hygrometrica (Shaw, 19906), somatic mutation
      and/or nongenetic effects appear to contribute significantly to phenotypic
      variability in natural populations.

PMID- 28564178
TI  - FLUCTUATING ODONTOMETRIC ASYMMETRY, MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY, AND GENETIC
      MONOMORPHISM IN THE CHEETAH ACINONYX JUBATUS.
AB  - The magnitudes of dimensional variability and fluctuating asymmetry in dental
      dimensions are reported for a sample of South African cheetah Acinonyx jubatus.
      To test the hypothesis that elevated levels of variability and asymmetry are
      associated with the increased developmental instability reported for this
      species, our results were contrasted to those for two other felids: Felis lybica
      and F. caracal. These findings suggest that dental dimensions in cheetahs are not
      significantly more variable or asymmetric. Hence, it is concluded that the
      cheetah may not be as developmentally unstable as was previously supposed.

PMID- 28564179
TI  - SEX-RATIO SELECTION WITH GENERAL MIGRATION SCHEMES: FISHER'S RESULT DOES HOLD.

PMID- 28564180
TI  - MEASURING SELECTION ON A POPULATION OF DAMSELFLIES WITH A MANIPULATED PHENOTYPE.
AB  - The estimation of the relationship between phenotype and fitness in natural
      populations is constrained by the distribution of phenotypes available for
      selection to act on. Because selection is blind to the underlying genotype, a
      more variable phenotypic distribution created by using environmental effects can
      be used to enhance the power of a selection study. I measured selection on a
      population of adult damselflies (Enallagma boreale) whose phenotype had been
      modified by raising the larvae under various levels of food availability and
      density. Selection on body size (combination of skeletal and mass at emergence)
      and date of emergence was estimated in two consecutive episodes. The first
      episode was survival from emergence to sexual maturity and the second was
      reproductive success after attaining sexual maturity. Female survival to sexual
      maturity was lower, and therefore opportunity for selection greater, than males
      in both years. Opportunity for selection due to reproductive success was greater
      for males. The total opportunity for selection was greater for males one year and
      for females the other. Survival to sexual maturity was related to mass gain
      between emergence and sexual maturity. Females gained more mass and survived less
      well than males in both years but there was no linear relationship between size
      at emergence and survival for females in either year. However, females in the
      tails of the phenotype distribution were less likely to survive than those near
      the mean. In contrast, small males consistently gained more mass than large males
      and survived less well in one year. There was significant selection on timing of
      emergence in both years, but the direction of selection changed due to
      differences in weather; early emerging females were more successful one year and
      late emerging males and females the other. The number of clutches laid by females
      was independent of body size. Because the resources used to produce eggs are
      acquired after emergence and this was independent of size at emergence, female
      fitness did not increase with size. Small males may have had lower survival to
      sexual maturity but they had higher mating success than large males. Resources
      acquired prior to sexual maturity are essential for reproductive success and may
      in some species alter their success in inter- and intrasexual competition.
      Therefore, ignoring the mortality associated with resource acquisition will give
      an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of selection on the phenotype.

PMID- 28564181
TI  - ECOTYPIC DIVERGENCE IN ALPINE POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM: GENETIC STRUCTURE,
      QUANTITATIVE VARIATION, AND LOCAL ADAPTATION.
AB  - Polemonium viscosum has a continuous distribution from 3,500 m in the krummholz
      to 4,025 m on the summit ridges of Pennsylvania Mountain, Colorado. Seeds
      produced by plants at opposite ends of this cline, 1.5 km apart, differed
      significantly at allozyme loci in two consecutive breeding seasons. Mean
      multilocus Fst values for both years (0.015 and 0.069) were significantly
      different from zero, indicating restricted gene exchange between subpopulations.
      Average allele frequencies at two individual loci also differed significantly
      between families comprising krummholz and summit subpopulations. Progeny of
      plants growing on the summit had higher leaf production rates, more densely
      packed leaflets, and lower resistance to aphids than progeny of plants growing in
      the krummholz site, when tested under greenhouse conditions. These differences
      probably reflect the restricted opportunities for growth and severe exposure at
      high elevations, and the increased risk from herbivores near timberline. The two
      subpopulations did not differ in leaf length (stature), leaf width, or
      pubescence. Reciprocal transplanting of seedlings between krummholz and summit
      sites confirmed that the differences were adaptive, since progeny from each
      subpopulation performed significantly better in their parent's habitat.
      Coordinated studies of genetic structure, quantitative variation, and local
      adaptation across the elevational range of P. viscosum provide a comprehensive
      view of ecotypic divergence in this widespread alpine plant.

PMID- 28564182
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28564183
TI  - SIX INDEPENDENT LOSSES OF THE CHLOROPLAST DNA rpl2 INTRON IN DICOTYLEDONS:
      MOLECULAR AND PHYLOGENETIC IMPLICATIONS.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that in several angiosperms and the liverwort
      Marchantia the chloroplast gene rpl2, encoding ribosomal protein L2, is
      interrupted by an intron, but that in spinach (Spinacia oleracea, Caryophyllales)
      this intron has been lost. We have determined the distribution of the rpl2 intron
      for 390 species representing 116 angiosperm families. Filter hybridizations
      reveal that the intron is absent from the chloroplast genomes of all examined
      families of the Caryophyllales, suggesting that the intron was lost in the common
      ancestor of the order. Sequencing of the rpl2 gene in five genera of the
      Caryophyllales and in Rumex (Polygonales) not only confirms the filter
      hybridization results, but also shows that for all taxa lacking the intron, the
      rpl2 gene has undergone a precise deletion of the intron. In all cases, it is the
      original rpl2 gene that has sustained loss of its intron. This implies that in
      chloroplast DNA, integration of exogenous genes (e.g., a reverse transcript of a
      spliced mRNA) occurs mainly by homologous, replacement recombination, rather than
      by illegitimate recombination elsewhere in the genome. Filter hybridizations also
      reveal that the rpl2 intron was lost independently in the common ancestors of at
      least five other lineages of dicotyledons: Saxifragaceae (s.s.), Convolvulaceae
      (including Cuscuta), Menyanthaceae, two genera of Geraniaceae, and one genus of
      Droseraceae. The molecular and phylogenetic implications of these independent
      intron losses are discussed.

PMID- 28564184
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON BODY SIZE AND LAYING DATE IN THE TREE SWALLOW.
AB  - I measured natural selection on body size and laying date in a population of tree
      swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) from 1986 to 1988. There was little evidence of
      selection on body size associated with overwinter survival. Disruptive selection
      on tarsus length, associated with female reproductive success, was detected in
      one of three years. Both repeatability and mother-daughter regression suggested
      that laying date was heritable. I found weak evidence of selection on laying
      date, associated with both overwinter survival and reproduction in females. The
      ecological implications of both tarsus length and laying date variation in this
      population could not be identified. Consequently, although I was able to identify
      the targets of natural selection, the ecological link between trait variation and
      selection remains unknown.

PMID- 28564185
TI  - COMPARISON OF VARIANCE COMPONENTS BETWEEN TWO POPULATIONS OF HOLCUS LANATUS: A
      REANALYSIS.

PMID- 28564186
TI  - THE COVARIANCE STRUCTURE OF LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS IN DAPHNIA PULEX.
AB  - The genetic covariance structure for life-history characters in two populations
      of cyclically parthenogenetic Daphnia pulex indicates considerable positive
      correlation among important fitness components, apparently at odds with the
      expectation if antagonistic pleiotropy is the dominant cause of the maintanence
      of genetic variation. Although there is no genetic correlation between offspring
      size and offspring number, present growth and present reproduction are both
      strongly positively correlated genetically with future reproduction, and early
      maturity is genetically correlated with larger clutch size. Although the ubiquity
      of antagonistic pleiotropy has been recently questioned, there are peculiarities
      of cyclical parthenogenesis that could lead to positive life-history covariance
      even when negative covariance would be expected in a similar sexual species.
      These include the influence of nonadditive gene action on evolution in clonally
      reproducing organisms, and the periodic release of hidden genetic variance within
      populations of cyclical parthenogens. Examination of matrix similarity, using the
      bootstrap for distribution-free hypothesis testing, reveals no evidence to
      suggest that the genetic covariance matrices differ between the populations.
      However, there is considerable evidence that the phenotypic and environmental
      covariance matrices differ between populations. These results indicate
      approximate stability of the genetic covariance matrix within species, an
      important assumption of many phenotypic evolution models, but should caution
      against the use of phenotypic in place of genetic covariance matrices.

PMID- 28564188
TI  - COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SEX-INVESTMENT RATIOS IN SLAVE-MAKING ANTS.

PMID- 28564187
TI  - NONADAPTIVE EVOLUTION OF DISEASE RESISTANCE IN AN ANNUAL LEGUME.
AB  - Local populations of the plant Amphicarpaea bracteata often contain genetically
      divergent lineages that differ strongly in disease resistance toward the
      specialist pathogen Synchytrium decipiens. In one population, lineages with
      disease resistance were observed to significantly decrease in frequency over a
      two-year period, despite the continued presence of pathogens. Extensive self
      pollination in A. bracteata restricts the opportunity for recombination of
      alleles affecting separate traits, resulting in strong correlations between
      disease resistance and other ecologically important characters, including plant
      morphology, phenology, and patterns of reproductive allocation. Natural selection
      on these correlated characters may thus cause nonadaptive changes in disease
      resistance. These results imply that A. bracteata's mating system is a basic
      constraint interfering with its adaptation to pathogen attack.

PMID- 28564189
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN DICAMPTODON (CAUDATA: DICAMPTODONTIDAE).
AB  - The salamander genus Dicamptodon consists of at least four genetically divergent
      groups of populations with 10-19 fixed allelic differences (out of 31 loci
      scored) between populations in alternative groups. One of these groups
      corresponds to D. copei; the other three until now usually have been considered
      to belong to the single morphologically homogeneous species D. ensatus. Two
      instances of geographic contact between genetic units occur in the genus, one
      between D. copei and "D. ensatus" in northern Oregon and the other between two
      highly divergent types of "D. ensatus" in coastal northern Calfornia. In the
      former case no hybridization occurs, while in the latter a narrow hybrid zone has
      been observed. There appears to be selection against hybrids within this hybrid
      zone, and introgression beyond the zone is apparently nonexistent. The population
      groups therefore appear to be genetically independent units, and Dicamptodon is
      best considered to consist of four species: D. copei, D. ensatus, D. tenebrosus,
      and D. aterrimus.

PMID- 28564190
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF OUTCROSSING IN THE CLEISTOGAMOUS ANNUAL, IMPATIENS
      CAPENSIS. II. OUTCROSSING RATES AND GENOTYPIC CORRELATIONS.
AB  - The genetic consequences of a plant's mating system depend on both the degree of
      outcrossing and the genetic relationship between mates. We examined the
      electrophoretic genotypes of seeds derived from cleistogamous (CL) and
      chasmogamous (CH) flowers in six populations of the facultatively cleistogamous
      annual, Impatiens capensis. Multilocus estimates of the outcrossing rates for the
      strongly protandrous CH flowers ranged from 0.29 to 0.71 and were higher than
      estimates based on single-locus data. Such results suggest that the CH flowers
      experience variable levels of both geitonogamous self-fertilization and
      biparental inbreeding. A new and generally applicable technique based on the
      relative level of inbreeding within progeny groups provided direct estimates of
      the correlation between the genotypic values of outcrossed mates. These
      correlations varied widely among populations and contributed up to half of the
      inbreeding observed among the CH progeny. Such biparental inbreeding biases
      estimates of the outcrossing rate based on the mixed-mating model downward and
      influences mating-system evolution by decreasing the "cost of meiosis."

PMID- 28564191
TI  - THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE POLYMORPHISMS AT THE Adh AND alphaGpdh LOCI AND THE
      In(2L)t INVERSION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER IN RELATION TO TEMPERATURE.
AB  - Substantial allele-frequency changes were observed at the Adh and alphaGpdh loci
      in a seminatural population of Drosophila melanogaster kept in a tropical
      greenhouse during 1972-1985. Further analysis of the changes at the Adh and
      alphaGpdh loci showed that linkage disequilibrium between these loci occurred for
      a prolonged period due to the presence of In(2L)t, a long inversion on the left
      arm of the second chromosome. We observed increases in the frequencies of In(2L)t
      and of short inversions on the left arm of the second chromosome in
      subpopulations kept at 29.5 degrees C or 33 degrees C. These inversion-frequency
      increases were accompanied by an increase in Adhs and a decrease in alphaGpdhs
      frequency. In populations kept at 20 degrees C and 25 degrees C, inversion
      frequencies decreased, while alphaGpdhs allele frequencies decreased at 25
      degrees C and increased at 20 degrees C. At 33 degrees C, egg-to-adult survival
      of individuals possessing In(2L)t, either in the homokaryotypic or the
      heterokaryotypic state, was higher than that of the other karyotypes of identical
      allozyme constitution (i.e., Adhs alphaGpdhF ). Thus it seems that In(2L)t has a
      selective advantage at high temperature. We argue that the observed changes in
      allele frequencies at the Adh and alphaGpdh loci are, in part, due to genic
      selection and are not merely the result of selection acting on the chromosome
      rearrangements and hitchhiking of the allozymes. The results are discussed with
      respect to the latitudinal clines found for In(2L)t, Adh, and alphaGpdh.

PMID- 28564192
TI  - PHENOTYPIC CORRELATES OF GENOME SIZE VARIATION IN AEDES ALBOPICTUS.

PMID- 28564193
TI  - RAPID, GEOGRAPHICALLY EXTENSIVE GENETIC INTROGRESSION AFTER SECONDARY CONTACT
      BETWEEN TWO PUPFISH SPECIES (CYPRINODON, CYPRINODONTIDAE).
AB  - Apparently between 1980 and 1984, Cyprinodon variegatus was introduced into an
      area of the Pecos River in Texas, where it hybridized with an endemic species, C.
      pecosensis. Protein electrophoresis indicated that, by 1985, panmictic admixtures
      of these two pupfishes occupied approximately 430 river-kilometers of the Pecos
      River, roughly one-half of the historic range of the endemic species. The average
      frequency of introduced alleles at four diagnostic loci ranged from 0.18 to 0.84
      at the 15 sites sampled from the Pecos River in Texas. Clinal patterns in allele
      frequencies suggest that C. variegatus was introduced into a mid-reach of the
      river and that this was followed by both upstream and downstream dispersal of the
      introduced alleles. All pairwise combinations of loci showed significant linkage
      disequilibrium. The level of disequilibrium indicates chromosomal linkage for one
      gene-pair, Gpi-A and Est-1. The change in pupfish allele frequencies in the Pecos
      River represents an extreme example of rapid natural selection in a seminatural
      situation.

PMID- 28564194
TI  - CORRELATED MATINGS IN THE PARTIAL SELFER MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - In partially selfing populations, siblings may be correlated for both selling and
      paternity. A model of the mating system based upon sampling pairs of progeny from
      a maternal parent is described. The model separates the correlation of selfing
      from the correlation of outcrossed paternal alleles and is an approach to
      paternity analysis suited for larger populations with fewer marker loci. Its
      parameters determine the components of genetic covariance between sibs and
      provide information about the average number of fathers in a maternal sibship.
      Electrophoretic markers were used to obtain estimates of correlated matings for
      two Mimulus guttatus populations. In both populations, about 50% selfing was
      observed. For two sibs randomly selected from the same capsule, the correlations
      of selfing between these sibs were 17% and 12% in the two populations, and the
      correlations of paternity (the proportion of full-sibs among outcrossed sib
      pairs) were 37% and 44%. Sibs from different capsules were not correlated for
      selfing, and the paternity correlation dropped to near 20% in both populations.
      However, estimates of correlated matings have high variance, lack statistical
      independence, and can be difficult to obtain. The use of marker loci with many
      alleles can alleviate these problems.

PMID- 28564195
TI  - A TEST OF THE ROLE OF EPISTASIS IN DIVERGENCE UNDER UNIFORM SELECTION.
AB  - Five populations of Drosophila melanogaster have previously been shown to be
      replicably different in their responses to artificial selection for knockdown
      resistance to ethanol fumes (Cohan and Hoffmann, 1986). The present study tests
      whether this divergence could be attributed to the epistatic mechanism assumed by
      Wright's shifting-balance model of evolution, in which alleles favored in the
      genetic background of one population are not favored in that of another. If this
      were the mechanism of divergence, crosses between selected lines from different
      populations would be expected to yield an epistatic loss of the selected
      phenotype. However, all such crosses showed a good fit to an additive model with
      dominance. Divergence by an epistatic mechanism may also be associated with
      epistatic variance within populations, but no evidence for such epistasis was
      found. The populations therefore appear to have responded in different ways to
      selection not because of epistasis but because knockdown-resistance alleles that
      were common in some populations were absent (or at least less common) in others.

PMID- 28564196
TI  - FLORAL HERBIVORY IN PASTINACA SATIVA: DO COMPENSATORY RESPONSES OFFSET REDUCTIONS
      IN FITNESS?

PMID- 28564197
TI  - ONTOGENETIC VARIATION IN PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION IN
      SKULLS OF SIGMODON FULVIVENTER.
AB  - Patterns of variation and covariation within populations can influence how
      characters respond to natural selection and random genetic drift and so constrain
      the ability of natural selection to modify the phenotype. We examined several
      potential developmental and functional explanations of character covariation
      throughout ontogeny using known-age samples of the cotton rat (Sigmodon
      fulviventer) to identify the causes of covariation and to assess the variability
      of patterns of covariation throughout postnatal growth. Competing developmental
      and functional models were fit to samples of orofacial and neurocranial measures
      by confirmatory factor analysis and evaluated for their ability to reconstruct
      observed variance-covariance matrices. Samples of successive ages were
      simultaneously fit to a common model to test the hypothesis that the patterns of
      developmental and functional integration were invariant between ages. Orofacial
      characters derived from the same branchial-arch primordium covary early in
      ontogeny. Subsequently, there is a repatterning of integration that may reflect a
      transition from developmental to functional sources of integration. Neurocranial
      characters exhibit even more variation in patterns of covariation: initially,
      characters appear to comprise a single integrated unit; before puberty, they
      appear to respond to localized bone growth; after puberty, they form separate
      calvarial and basicranial components. This ontogenetic variation in patterns of
      covariation suggests that developmental constraints are transient and flexible
      and that the consequences of selection may depend upon the age at which it acts.

PMID- 28564198
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL FIELD STUDY OF ANTHER-SMUT DISEASE OF SILENE ALBA CAUSED BY
      USTILAGO VIOLACEA: GENOTYPIC VARIATION AND DISEASE INCIDENCE.
AB  - Twenty cloned genotypes of Silene alba differed greatly (0-100%) in the
      percentage of flowering plants that became diseased by the anther-smut fungus
      Ustilago violacea following natural spore dispersal in a two-year field
      experiment. Male genotypes with the highest percentage of disease had high rates
      of flower production; this trait may increase the probability of spore deposition
      on flowers, a common site of infection. Because of this relationship, male
      genotypes with the highest percentage of disease also produced the most healthy
      flowers in the two-year period. Flowering early in the season was also a
      predictor of high disease levels for male genotypes in the first year. Variation
      among female genotypes in disease levels was not correlated with either flower
      production or phenology, suggesting that the sexes differ in their interaction
      with the pathogen. Plants of both sexes that remained nonreproductive the first
      year but flowered the second year could become diseased due to infection of
      vegetative tissue. Disease levels of the genotypes following natural spore
      dispersal were not correlated with disease levels of the genotypes following
      inoculation of vegetative tissue. This discrepancy points out that the
      methodology used to investigate genetic variation in disease resistance may
      affect the results obtained.

PMID- 28564199
TI  - FLOW-CYTOMETRIC ANALYSES OF NUCLEAR DNA CONTENT IN FOUR FAMILIES OF NEOTROPICAL
      BATS.
AB  - Flow-cytometric analyses of 29 species of microchiropteran bats representing four
      families and 20 genera revealed that bats possess only 79% (5.43 pg) of the DNA
      content of a "typical" mammal (e.g., Mus musculus strain C57BL; 7 pg).
      Chiroptera, the second largest order of mammals, is thus an exception to the
      prevailing view that mammals possess a minimum nuclear DNA content of 7 pg.
      Limitations on cell size resulting from a high metabolic rate may have
      constrained evolution of DNA content and could explain why the extensive
      heterochromatic additions that are common in some groups of mammals are absent in
      bats. Chromosomes of bats have been well studied; detailed chromosomal banding
      data are available for nearly all the species used in this investigation.
      However, no significant correlations were found between DNA content and
      karyotypic characteristics such as 2n, fundamental number, and rate or pattern of
      chromosomal evolution.

PMID- 28564200
TI  - MEASURING POLLINATOR-MEDIATED SELECTION ON MORPHOMETRIC FLORAL TRAITS: BUMBLEBEES
      AND THE ALPINE SKY PILOT, POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM.
AB  - Sweet-flowered plants of Polemonium viscosum in Colorado are visited by a fly
      dominated pollinator fauna at timberline (krummholz), but almost exclusively by
      bumblebees in higher-elevation tundra habitats. Significant increases in flower
      size and height are associated with increasing elevation along this habitat
      gradient. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to test
      whether bumblebees exert sufficient selection on morphometric floral phenotypes
      to account for the clinal shifts seen in natural populations. Two populations of
      sweet-flowered plants of krummholz origin were established: one randomly
      pollinated, the other solely bumblebee-pollinated. I tested the effects of two
      independent axes of floral variation, obtained by principal-components analysis,
      on mean seed set per flower of plants in each population. PC1, with strong
      correlations to corolla diameter, corolla length, and stem height, explained a
      significant amount of variance in seed set for bumblebee-pollinated plants but
      had no bearing on that of randomly pollinated plants. PC2, with strong
      correlation to flower number, did not influence seed set in either population.
      Bumblebee behavior was correlated with variation in PC1 scores of the selected
      population, yielding positive directional selection on morphometric floral traits
      associated with PC1. Selection coefficients for PC1, corolla length, corolla
      diameter, and inflorescence height were estimated, respectively, as 0.11, 0.09,
      0.07, and 0.06 (P < 0.025 in all cases). These results support the hypothesis
      that pollinator-mediated selection can bring about changes in floral form, and
      can explain shifts in floral morphology of P. viscosum along natural habitat
      gradients.

PMID- 28564201
TI  - MOLECULAR HETEROCHRONIES AND HETEROTOPIES IN EARLY ECHINOID DEVELOPMENT.
AB  - By comparing the spatial and temporal distribution of three proteins during early
      development in seven echinoid species, we demonstrate that both heterochronies
      and heterotopies in gene-product expression have accompanied the radiation of
      post-Paleozoic echinoids. All three proteins examined showed significant
      alterations in time of expression, site of expression, or both. These molecular
      heterochronies and heterotopies indicate that early development is not
      necessarily as evolutionarily conservative as morphology of embryos alone would
      suggest. Evolutionary alterations in early development may be more common than is
      generally assumed.

PMID- 28564202
TI  - COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR AND CONTROL OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN DROSOPHILA
      MOJAVENSIS.

PMID- 28564203
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR GENETIC VARIATION IN COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN THE FUNGUS
      ATKINSONELLA HYPOXYLON AND ITS THREE HOST GRASSES.
AB  - Variation in compatibility has been documented within and among several natural
      plant populations infected by fungal pathogens. In this study, seeds and isolates
      of the fungus Atkinsonella hypoxylon (Ascomycetes, Clavicipitaceae) were
      collected from three populations of the grass Danthonia spicata, two populations
      of D. compressa, and four populations of Stipa leucotricha. Each fungal strain
      was reciprocally inoculated into seedlings grown in aseptic culture from its
      original host population, into seedlings from other conspecific host populations,
      and into seedlings from the other two host species. There were three distinct
      patterns of compatibility, as evidenced by the ability of the fungus to grow on
      the seedling and to colonize new tillers. Fungal strains from one host genus were
      incompatible with seedlings from the other host genus. Strains from the two
      Danthonia species were broadly compatible among Danthonia populations and had
      very high rates of infection, while strains from Stipa also were broadly
      compatible among Stipa populations but had relatively low rates of infection.
      Literature surveys indicate that, in contrast to pathogenic microorganisms,
      mutualistic microorganisms typically exhibit broad patterns of compatibility
      among hosts, which lack resistance to infection. The effect of A. hypoxylon on
      host fitness is most detrimental in Stipa, where the fewest seedlings became
      infected, and most beneficial in Danthonia, where most seedlings became infected.

PMID- 28564204
TI  - BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS OF SEXUAL ISOLATION AMONG ALLOPATRIC POPULATIONS OF THE
      MOUNTAIN DUSKY SALAMANDER, DESMOGNATHUS OCHROPHAEUS.
AB  - The behavioral basis of sexual isolation was investigated in 11 crosses staged
      between individuals from nine allopatric populations of the Appalachian mountain
      dusky salamander, Desmognathus ochrophaeus. Scan-sampled observations of within
      population (homotypic) and between-population (heterotypic) heterosexual
      encounters yielded the following results. 1) Fewer heterotypic encounters than
      homotypic encounters resulted in insemination of females. Indices of the strength
      of sexual isolation based on insemination data ranged from 0.26 (lowest) to 0.82
      (highest), indicating that mechanisms that confer sexual isolation may evolve
      during allopatric differentiation. 2) Heterotypic encounters that progressed as
      far as the stage of courtship during which the male stimulates the female to mate
      did so at the same time as homotypic encounters, although the number of the
      former reaching this stage was lower. 3) The time interval from courtship
      initiation to insemination was longer in heterotypic encounters than homotypic
      encounters. In some crosses, males did not attempt to initiate heterotypic
      encounters, indicating that this sex is responsible for sexual isolation in these
      instances. We use our results to formulate specific hypotheses concerning the
      behavioral basis of sexual isolation in these salamanders, and some possible
      experimental approaches are suggested.

PMID- 28564205
TI  - FLORAL COLOR CHANGE IN LUPINUS ARGENTEUS (FABACEAE): WHY SHOULD PLANTS ADVERTISE
      THE LOCATION OF UNREWARDING FLOWERS TO POLLINATORS?
AB  - I examined the adaptive significance of two floral traits in the perennial herb,
      Lupinus argenteus: 1) the retention of corollas on "spent" flowers, i.e., flowers
      containing inviable pollen, unreceptive stigmas, and negligible pollinator
      rewards and 2) a change in corolla color of retained "spent" flowers, which is
      restricted to a spot on the banner petal. At anthesis, this spot is yellow, and
      approximately four days later, it changes to purple. After the change, purple
      flowers remain on plants an additional 5-7 days before corolla abscission occurs;
      purple flowers were avoided by pollinators, presumably because they contained
      less pollen (rewards) than yellow ones. I experimentally tested the hypothesis
      that purple flowers contribute to the floral display of the plant by removing
      varying numbers of spent flowers and assessing the effect on pollination
      visitation. Pollinators preferentially approached and foraged on plants with
      greater numbers of flowers per inflorescence; they did not discriminate between
      yellow (rewarding) and purple (nonrewarding) flowers at interplant distances
      greater than 0.4 meters but would preferentially forage on plants with more total
      flowers, even if these individuals contained fewer rewarding flowers. Thus, spent
      flowers increased the overall attractiveness of plants to pollinators. In theory,
      color change may benefit plants in two ways. First, by directing pollinators to
      rewarding flowers, the change may increase pollinator foraging efficiency, with
      the result that pollinators visit more flowers before leaving plants (pollinator
      tenure mechanism). Second, by directing pollinators to receptive flowers, the
      color change may prevent incoming pollen from being wasted on unreceptive stigmas
      and may prevent collection of inviable pollen (pollination-efficiency mechanism).
      I tested the pollinator-tenure mechanism experimentally by removing pollen from
      yellow flowers, thereby reducing the reliability of the color-reward signal.
      Pollinators visited fewer total flowers on experimental plants than on controls,
      resulting in reduced seed production in one year.

PMID- 28564206
TI  - POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION AND RACIAL ADMIXTURE IN THE AFRICANIZED HONEYBEE (APIS
      MELLIFERA L.).
AB  - To study the degree of interpopulational differentiation and racial admixture in
      Africanized honeybees, we collected worker bees from three regions of Brazil (the
      northeast, the state of Sao Paulo, and Porto Alegre) and from Uruguay and
      determined their genotypes for 10 enzyme loci. We also performed a morphometric
      analysis on forewing measurements of worker bees from the northeast and Porto
      Alegre regions of Brazil and from Paysandu, Uruguay. Comparative analysis of
      interpopulational heterogeneity snowed that there are significant differences,
      especially at the Mdh locus, among the populations from different regions. An
      increase in the frequency of the MdhB allele was observed from north to south,
      with predominance in the Uruguayan populations. A small component of
      interpopulational variability was detected in the populations studied. Racial
      admixture was calculated from information obtained for Mdh in Africa and Europe.
      The percentages of racial admixture differed slightly but significantly among
      Brazilian regions. The morphometric study based on canonical variables exhibited
      a similar pattern. The greater proportions of Apis mellifera adansonii alleles in
      the admixture may be explained by selection during the initial stage of migration
      of Africanized bees and by preferential mating between individuals of the same
      race. Differences in the proportions of A. m. adansonii alleles between regions
      indicate incipient populational differentiation of Africanized bees. We suggest
      that greater gene flow from the European races in the south of Brazil could be
      one of the causes of this phenomenon.

PMID- 28564207
TI  - POLYPLOIDY IN PROSERIATA (PLATYHELMINTHES) AND ITS PHYLOGENETICAL IMPLICATIONS.

PMID- 28564209
TI  - A COEVOLUTIONARY ISOMORPHISM APPLIED TO LABORATORY STUDIES OF COMPETITION.
AB  - Some empirical consequences of an isomorphism between the Lotka-Volterra
      competitive model and a coevolutionary competitive model are developed. In both
      the Lotka-Volterra and coevolutionary models, four competitive outcomes are
      possible: 1) species one wins, 2) species two wins, 3) indeterminate outcome, and
      4) stable coexistence. These two models are isomorphic in the sense that the
      inequalities associated with a particular competitive outcome of the Lotka
      Volterra model correspond in a one-to-one manner with similar inequalities
      associated with the same competitive outcome of the coevolutionary model. The
      inequalities of the Lotka-Volterra model involve the competition coefficients
      themselves, while the inequalities of the coevolutionary model involve the
      genetic variances and covariances of the competition coefficients. The
      isomorphism suggests some alternative interpretations of the results of classical
      laboratory studies of competition. The Lotka-Volterra (or ecological) hypotheses
      postulate that the competition coefficients are constant and that genetic
      considerations play no role in determining the competitive outcome. By contrast,
      the evolutionary hypotheses derived from the coevolutionary model postulate that
      the competition coefficients are variables and that the genetic variances and
      covariances of the competition coefficients determine the competitive outcome.
      The isomorphism is applied to competitive exclusion and coexistence, and to
      competitive indeterminacy in Tribolium. In particular, the evolutionary
      hypotheses isomorphic to the two classical explanations of competitive
      indeterminacy, the demographic stochasticity and genetic founder effect
      hypotheses, are constructed. The theory developed here and in a previous paper
      (Pease, 1984) provides one perspective on the relation among the Lotka-Volterra
      competition theory, quantitative genetics, competitive exclusion, the reversal of
      competitive dominance, coexistence, competitive indeterminacy in Tribolium, and
      experiments investigating the relation between genetic variability and the rate
      of evolution of fitness.

PMID- 28564208
TI  - Commissioning and quality assurance for VMAT delivery systems: An efficient time
      resolved system using real-time EPID imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: An ideal commissioning and quality assurance (QA) program for Volumetric
      Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) delivery systems should assess the performance of
      each individual dynamic component as a function of gantry angle. Procedures
      within such a program should also be time-efficient, independent of the delivery
      system and be sensitive to all types of errors. The purpose of this work is to
      develop a system for automated time-resolved commissioning and QA of VMAT control
      systems which meets these criteria. METHODS: The procedures developed within this
      work rely solely on images obtained, using an electronic portal imaging device
      (EPID) without the presence of a phantom. During the delivery of specially
      designed VMAT test plans, EPID frames were acquired at 9.5 Hz, using a frame
      grabber. The set of test plans was developed to individually assess the
      performance of the dose delivery and multileaf collimator (MLC) control systems
      under varying levels of delivery complexities. An in-house software tool was
      developed to automatically extract features from the EPID images and evaluate the
      following characteristics as a function of gantry angle: dose delivery accuracy,
      dose rate constancy, beam profile constancy, gantry speed constancy, dynamic MLC
      positioning accuracy, MLC speed and acceleration constancy, and synchronization
      between gantry angle, MLC positioning and dose rate. Machine log files were also
      acquired during each delivery and subsequently compared to information extracted
      from EPID image frames. RESULTS: The largest difference between measured and
      planned dose at any gantry angle was 0.8% which correlated with rapid changes in
      dose rate and gantry speed. For all other test plans, the dose delivered was
      within 0.25% of the planned dose for all gantry angles. Profile constancy was not
      found to vary with gantry angle for tests where gantry speed and dose rate were
      constant, however, for tests with varying dose rate and gantry speed, segments
      with lower dose rate and higher gantry speed exhibited less profile stability.
      MLC positional accuracy was not observed to be dependent on the degree of
      interdigitation. MLC speed was measured for each individual leaf and slower leaf
      speeds were shown to be compensated for by lower dose rates. The test procedures
      were found to be sensitive to 1 mm systematic MLC errors, 1 mm random MLC errors,
      0.4 mm MLC gap errors and synchronization errors between the MLC, dose rate and
      gantry angle controls systems of 1 degrees . In general, parameters measured by
      both EPID and log files agreed with the plan, however, a greater average
      departure from the plan was evidenced by the EPID measurements. CONCLUSION: QA
      test plans and analysis methods have been developed to assess the performance of
      each dynamic component of VMAT deliveries individually and as a function of
      gantry angle. This methodology relies solely on time-resolved EPID imaging
      without the presence of a phantom and has been shown to be sensitive to a range
      of delivery errors. The procedures developed in this work are both comprehensive
      and time-efficient and can be used for streamlined commissioning and QA of VMAT
      delivery systems.

PMID- 28564210
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF FOOD PREFERENCE IN DROSOPHILA
      TRIPUNCTATA.
AB  - Mark-release-recapture field experiments involving two isofemale strains of
      Drosophila tripunctata revealed that strain identity strongly and consistently
      affected the preferences of both males and females for mushrooms versus tomatoes.
      Females, but not males, showed an augmented preference for the type of food on
      which they had been kept prior to release. The behavior of F2 flies from
      reciprocal crosses between the two strains demonstrated that genetic variation
      for food preference is autosomal and largely additive. Because mating often
      occurs in the vicinity of food in the wild, positive assortative mating with
      respect to genes for food preference may lead to greater phenotypic variance in
      preference, which could increase the variety of food resources used by a
      population.

PMID- 28564211
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN THE DROSOPHILA ATHABASCA COMPLEX.

PMID- 28564212
TI  - LATITUDINAL CLINE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER FOR KNOCKDOWN RESISTANCE TO ETHANOL
      FUMES AND FOR RATES OF RESPONSE TO SELECTION FOR FURTHER RESISTANCE.
AB  - We have introduced a device for selecting Drosophila for increased resistance to
      very high concentrations of ethanol fumes. This device has enabled us to: 1)
      select quickly and easily over a thousand flies at a time, and 2) score the
      knockdown time of every fly in the distribution, while causing very little injury
      to the flies. A sample of nine west coast populations of Drosophila melanogaster
      showed a significant trend toward higher knockdown resistance in more northern
      populations. A population's level of knockdown resistance was virtually
      uncorrelated with its alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) allele frequencies. Five of the
      above nine populations were then subjected to selection for further knockdown
      resistance. Each population was divided randomly into four groups of 256 flies:
      two lines to be selected, and two lines to remain unselected as control lines. In
      every generation each selected line was measured for knockdown resistance, and
      the last quartile of flies to be knocked down was saved to continue the selection
      cycle. Population sizes of the selected and unselected lines were all maintained
      at 256. Realized heritability, based on the responses to selection of the first
      four generations, was calculated for each selected line. The five populations
      were significantly heterogeneous for heritability estimates; the average
      heritability of the five populations pooled was 0.143 +/- 0.019. Over the course
      of twelve generations, the ten selected lines increased their knockdown times by
      an average factor of 2.40. Before selection, the five populations were
      heterogeneous for knockdown resistance, and resistance was greatest among the
      most northern populations. The amount of change of knockdown resistance over the
      course of selection was also correlated with latitude: the most southern
      population increased its knockdown time by a factor of 2.23, and the most
      northern population increased it by a factor of 2.55. After ten generations of
      selection, the cline of knockdown resistance was about 4.5 times as steep as that
      before selection. Small phenotypic differences among populations before selection
      were thus exaggerated by the action of selection. The differences among
      populations in their rates of response to selection were attributed to genetic
      differences that existed before selection. The pattern of change of Adh
      frequencies over the course of selection was very inconsistent, both among and
      within populations. From this inconsistency of change of Adh alleles with
      selection, and the lack of correlation between Adh frequencies and knockdown
      resistance before selection, we concluded that Adh frequency changes could not
      have had much effect on the responses of the selected lines.

PMID- 28564213
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH RHAGOLETIS.
AB  - All Rhagoletis reportedly establish associations with one or more bacterial
      species, but the bases for these interactions and their implications for host
      race formation and speciation are poorly understood. Here we present the results
      of four studies designed to increase our understanding of these relationships. In
      the first study, we identify the bacteria associated with seven Rhagoletis taxa
      by surveying the inhabitants of the esophageal bulb, an organ whose major
      function appears to be the housing of microorganisms. The results suggest that no
      bacterium has entered into an obligate symbiotic relationship with any of the
      Rhagoletis taxa surveyed, although one bacterium, Klebsiella oxytoca, is a very
      common associate of six of the seven. In the second study we use horizontal
      starch gel electrophoresis to determine the genetic similarity of K. oxytoca
      clones isolated from different Rhagoletis populations. This analysis provides a
      rare look into the genetic structure of natural populations of an enteric
      bacterium and permits the construction of a dendrogram for the clones-a
      dendrogram which indicates that there is no clear-cut pattern to the distribution
      of K. oxytoca genotypes among Rhagoletis. Taken together, the above studies
      provide indirect evidence that the bacteria associated with Rhagoletis are not
      important determinants of host plant specificity. The third and fourth studies
      assess two possible functions associated bacteria may perform for Rhagoletis:
      pectic substances degradation and nitrogen fixation. Our results do not lend
      support to either function.

PMID- 28564214
TI  - FEMALE-BIASED SEX RATIOS: INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP SELECTION?
AB  - The evolution of biased sex ratios in a randomly structured population stems from
      individual selection acting through local parental control (LPC) of the sex ratio
      and hence of the mating success of the sons and/or daughters. As a general rule,
      the sex ratio is biased away from the sex whose fitness is most affected by
      changes in the local sex ratio. This is the sex whose fitness is subject to the
      most effective parental control. The bias acts to increase the fitness of the
      rarer, controlled sex and to increase parental productivity. In the specific case
      of the evolution of the female-biased Hamiltonian ratios, LPC can affect the
      mating success of sons but has no effect on the success of daughters. It is
      argued here and elsewhere (Nunney, unpubl.) that group selection can only promote
      the spread of a genotype through the maintenance of a positive association of
      individuals of that genotype. The importance of positive association is well
      established in the special case of kin selection. Given such a definition, group
      selection plays no part in the evolution of the Hamiltonian sex ratios, although
      it is possible to conceive of circumstances under which group selection could
      favor an even more extreme sex ratio bias. In general, such circumstances involve
      kin selection. It is argued that the examination of differences in group
      productivity is not a useful way of looking at the process of natural selection,
      since (i) by dividing up almost any evolving population into random groups, some
      groups (those with the highest frequency of the fittest individuals) will be more
      productive than others; and (ii) in the specific case of the evolution of the
      Hamiltonian ratios, it is possible to develop models either with or without a
      group structure and get the same result. Hamilton (1967) originally suggested
      that a female-biased sex ratio arose in his model because of the advantage of
      reducing local mate competition (specifically, reducing competition between
      brothers for mates). This possibility was eliminated by developing a model in
      which competition between the brothers was prevented regardless of the sex ratio.
      It was found that the optimum sex-ratio strategy was unaffected. On the other
      hand, the idea of local parental control has, in each case examined, been able to
      account for the predicted optimum strategy.

PMID- 28564215
TI  - AN EMPIRICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE LABILITY OF HETEROZYGOSITY ESTIMATES.

PMID- 28564216
TI  - PROXIMATE MECHANISMS OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN WOOD FROGS.
AB  - Observations and several types of field experiments on the mating behavior of
      wood frogs have revealed the proximate mechanisms for a size-related reproductive
      advantage in both males and females. For females, larger individuals produce
      larger clutches; for males, larger individuals can better remain clasped to
      females when contested by rival males and can better depose males clasped to
      other females. No results obtained support of the existence of mate choice in
      either males or females. Males were estimated to be 4.74 times as variable as
      females in the number of zygotes produced per individual per season; however,
      much of the variation in male RS resulted from a male-biased sex ratio at the
      breeding site rather than from sexual selection. After taking sex ratio effects
      into consideration, males were estimated to be only 1.63 times as variable as
      females. Patterns of variation in RS in males and females are associated with
      numerous sex-specific differences in life history and morphology. Life history
      differences include differential growth rates, ages at sexual maturity, and rates
      of mortality. Interpretation of how the body size dimorphism (females larger than
      males) in this species relates to sexual selection is consistent with information
      on how similar variations in body size influence RS for each sex, and how males
      and females differ in the functional relationship between body size and RS.
      Average RS increases more with body size in females than in males. Although body
      size directly influences RS for females, the possibility exists that, for males,
      other anatomical features correlated with body size more directly affect RS.
      Preliminary evidence suggests that sexual selection influences male arm length
      and that the male body size : RS relationship results as an incidental
      correlation.

PMID- 28564217
TI  - THE COMPARATIVE DEMOGRAPHY OF RECIPROCALLY SOWN POPULATIONS OF PHLOX DRUMMONDII
      HOOK. I. SURVIVORSHIPS, FECUNDITIES, AND FINITE RATES OF INCREASE.
AB  - Comparative demography of reciprocally sown populations for all stages of the
      life cycle of the winter annual, Phlox drummondii, was recorded for two seasons
      in natural sites. The sites investigated covered the natural range of the species
      and were separated by linear distances ranging from 10 to over 500 kilometers.
      Interpopulational variation was observed in all stages of the life cycle.
      Prereproductive survivorship ranged from 0 to 92 percent. Fecundity per plant
      ranged from 0 to 81 seeds. Finite rates of increase ranged from 0 to 34.1 yr-1 .
      The experimental populations with low values were growing in sites that received
      little rainfall or had experienced an insect or fungal infestation. The
      populations with high growth rates occurred in the northern sites which received
      greater rainfall. The relative fitness of individuals from the alien populations
      was compared to the local populations for all stages of the life cycle. The alien
      relative fitness for survivorship averaged 0.72. The average relative fitness of
      aliens for fecundity was 0.71 and that for finite rate of increase was 0.57. The
      life history parameters found in Phlox populations differ from one part of the
      range to another so that aliens have lower relative fitnesses than individuals
      indigenous to the site.

PMID- 28564218
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF CLONAL DIVERSITY IN ALSOPHILA POMETARIA
      (LEPIDOPTERA: GEOMETRIDAE).
AB  - A survey of spatial and temporal variation in the frequency of
      electrophoretically defined genotypes in the geometrid moth Alsophila pometaria
      revealed a high diversity of uncommon or rare asexual genotypes and clinal
      distributions of two of the more common clones. There was substantial year-to
      year variation in genotype frequencies in seven of eleven sites. Progeny tests
      have revealed that sexual reproduction is uncommon in two populations and that
      new asexual genotypes arise from the sexual population. The recurrent origin of
      asexual genotypes is likely to account for the high genetic and ecological
      diversity of the asexual contingent of this species' populations, in contrast to
      the lower genetic diversity in some obligately asexual species in which such
      recruitment does not occur.

PMID- 28564219
TI  - QUANTITATIVE VARIATION OF PROGENY FROM CHASMOGAMOUS AND CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS IN
      THE GRASS DANTHONIA SPICATA.
AB  - Progeny from chasmogamous (CH) and cleistogamous (CL) flowers of the grass
      Danthonia spicata were raised in their native habitat and in the greenhouse in
      order to determine how genetic variation was distributed among families and
      between CH and CL progeny within families. Twelve quantitative characters were
      measured on clones from individuals known to have arisen from either CH or CL
      flowers on a particular plant. Significant genetic variation existed for all
      characters measured. Most genetic variation was between families and two
      morphologically similar groups of families were identified. Relatively little
      genetic variation was found within families (approximately 5% of the total
      phenotypic variance). In field-raised plants, variance component analysis
      suggested that CL progeny were genetically more similar to each other than were
      CH progeny from the same plant. Levene's test of the average deviation of CH and
      CL progenies from their group means was nonsignificant but suggested there was a
      trend (0.05 < P < 0.10) for CH progeny to be more variable than CL progeny in the
      field but less variable in the greenhouse. The amount and distribution of genetic
      variation in the study population indicates that selective differentials would be
      larger among families than within families.

PMID- 28564220
TI  - SELF-RECOGNITION IN SPONGES AND CORALS?

PMID- 28564221
TI  - BARRIERS TO GENE EXCHANGE BETWEEN CLOSELY RELATED CRICKET SPECIES. II. LIFE CYCLE
      VARIATION AND TEMPORAL ISOLATION.
AB  - The closely related field crickets Gryllus firmus and Gryllus pennsylvanicus are
      known to hybridize in a zone of contact that extends over more than 800 km from
      the Blue Ridge in Virginia to southern Connecticut. Here I present evidence that
      the extent of temporal reproductive isolation of the two cricket species varies
      along the length of the zone. Adults of G. firmus and G. pennsylvanicus occur
      synchronously in Connecticut but G. firmus matures significantly later than G.
      pennsylvanicus along the Blue Ridge in Virginia. Variation in the extent of
      temporal isolation is a consequence of intrinsic differences in the egg-to-adult
      development time of G. firmus from the two localities. In laboratory rearing
      experiments, there is little variation in development time among crickets from G.
      pennsylvanicus populations ranging from Vermont to Virginia. However, G. firmus
      from Virginia takes significantly longer to mature than G. firmus from
      Connecticut. Comparisons between species from neighboring localities show that
      lowland Virginia G. firmus take much longer to develop and are larger as adults
      than montane Virginia G. pennsylvanicus. In Connecticut, crickets of the two
      species differ very little in development time and body size. Patterns of
      variation in development time and body size are compared with similar data for
      frogs along one of the same environmental gradients and for field crickets along
      similar gradients elsewhere. Although G. firmus and G. pennsylvanicus are
      temporally isolated in Virginia, adults of the two species do occur together.
      Examination of Esterase genotypes of field-inseminated females and their progeny
      from a mixed population on the Blue Ridge suggests that pre-mating barriers other
      than temporal isolation are not effective in preventing gene exchange.

PMID- 28564222
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC LIFE HISTORY VARIATION IN A POND SNAIL: THE ROLES OF POPULATION
      DIVERGENCE AND PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY.
AB  - Two approaches were used to determine the degree of divergence in life histories
      among populations of the pond snail, Lymnaea elodes. Juvenile snails were
      reciprocally transferred between ponds differing in permanence and productivity,
      and the resulting variation in life history traits was recorded. In a second
      experiment, parents and their offspring from both a vernal and a permanent pond
      population were reared in the same pond. Proximal factors had by far the greatest
      effects on life history traits in the transfer experiment, with snails reared in
      a more productive pond showing earlier reproduction at a larger size, higher
      fecundity, and longer life cycle length. Snails from the more uncertain pond in
      terms of drying date did reproduce at an earlier age and smaller size and grew
      less in each pond. However, these population differences, for the most part,
      disappeared when snails were reared for two generations in the same environment.
      Much of the intraspecific variation in life histories seen in this species must
      therefore be considered the result of phenotypic plasticity. I argue that the
      plasticity in life histories itself may be adaptive to this inhabitant of
      unpredictable, vernal ponds.

PMID- 28564223
TI  - INHERITANCE OF MERISTIC VARIATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN
      RAINBOW TROUT.
AB  - We found relatively high heritabilities in the narrow sense for seven of eight
      meristic characters in a population of rainbow trout using regression of mean
      progeny values on mid-parent values. In sharp contrast, there is no statistically
      significant additive genetic variance controlling developmental stability, as
      measured by fluctuating asymmetry (h2 = 0.02). However, there is a significant
      correlation between the average heterozygosity of each family at isozyme loci and
      the average number of asymmetric traits per individual. We have previously
      reported a strong correlation between heterozygosity at protein loci and
      decreased fluctuating asymmetry in this and other salmonid populations. Thus,
      there is little or no additive, but substantial dominance, genetic variation
      affecting fluctuating asymmetry. This suggests that there has been directional
      selection for increased developmental stability.

PMID- 28564224
TI  - EXCLUSION OF THE ROLE OF SECONDARY CONTACT IN AN ALLELE FREQUENCY CLINE IN THE
      MUSSEL MYTILUS EDULIS.
AB  - We examined the hypothesis that secondary contact generates an allele-frequency
      cline at the aminopeptidase-I locus (Lap) in the marine mussel, Mytilus edulis.
      It has been proposed that variation at the Lap locus is neutral and that the
      cline results from secondary contact between differentiated oceanic and estuarine
      populations (Levinton, 1980). We tested this hypothesis by comparing the
      genotypic distributions in samples from the cline to distributions that
      incorporate mixing effects. We employed a statistical model that determines the
      degree of contact using a maximum likelihood estimator and then incorporates the
      mixing estimates into an expected distribution of genotypes. Wahlund effects
      resulting from possible admixture are thereby incorporated into the expected
      distribution. Failure of the model to reconcile the observed with the expected
      distribution of genotypes indicates that the observed population structure does
      not result from admixture. The null hypothesis of mixing was unable to explain
      about 33% of the samples. Combined tests demonstrated the general departure from
      the mixing model to be highly significant. The distribution of heterozygote
      discrepancies across the cline was inconsistent with the expectations of a mixing
      model. Therefore we reject explanations for the structure of the Lap cline that
      involve secondary contact. Selection directed at the Lap locus appears necessary
      to explain the genotypic structure of clinal populations.

PMID- 28564225
TI  - TERTIARY SPECIATION MODELS IN AUSTRALIAN ANURANS: MOLECULAR DATA CHALLENGE
      PLEISTOCENE SCENARIO.
AB  - Similarities between frogs in the faunas of southwestern and southeastern
      Australia have long been viewed as indicators of close genetic relationships and
      recent (Pleistocene) divergences. We studied albumin evolution in 16 east-west
      species pairs of frogs representing six genera to assess the validity of these
      conclusions. Analysis of albumin evolution in western species of Heleioporus and
      some species of Litoria suggested recent speciation in these genera, with the
      closest sister groups occurring in the western and not among the eastern fauna.
      All divergences measured between eastern and western cognate species point to a
      Tertiary separation extending from the late Miocene to the early Oligocene. Micro
      complement fixation studies provide an independent estimation of both genetic
      relationships between species pairs and the time of divergence of each species
      pair, allowing the testing of models of speciation and vicariance biogeography in
      a way not possible with earlier methodologies.

PMID- 28564226
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL GENETICS OF MOSQUITOFISH. IV. CHANGES OF ALLELE FREQUENCIES THROUGH
      TIME AND SPACE.
AB  - Gene frequency data from samples of Gambusia affinis populations at 76 localities
      across the Savannah River drainage were used to investigate temporal and spatial
      patterns in population genetic structure. Localities in the Par Pond system on
      the Savannah River Plant were sampled in 1971, 1977, and 1979. Allelic
      frequencies in these populations were generally stable through time, although
      significant temporal changes were observed among samples from Pond C, an
      impoundment receiving thermal effluent. Significant spatial heterogeneity in
      allele frequencies was observed on both microgeographic and regional scales.
      Populations within the Par Pond system were spatially subdivided at four of the
      five loci surveyed (mean FST = 0.051). Subdivision was even more pronounced when
      samples from across the Savannah River drainage were compared (mean FST = 0.196).
      A hierarchial analysis of gene diversity (GST ) demonstrated that most of the
      genic diversity across the drainage exists as within-subdivision diversity. Even
      when populations from such contrasting habitats as rivers, creeks, ponds, and
      reservoirs are compared, an average of only 13% of the total gene diversity was
      attributed to between-group diversity. Greatest between-group gene diversity was
      observed when reservoirs were compared with one another. This general pattern of
      low between-habitat diversity suggests that differential selection pressures are
      not playing a major role in producing the observed levels of subdivision. In the
      Par Pond system, neither single locus nor multilocus genetic distances were
      significantly associated with geographic distance or with its reciprocal. For
      samples from over the Savannah River drainage, significant correlations between
      genetic and geographic distance were observed only for the Gpi-2 and Pgm-2 loci.
      Thus, there was a general lack of concordance between genetic and geographic
      distances. Spatial autocorrelation demonstrated patterns consistent with Wright's
      isolation by distance model. Significant positive correlations in allelic
      frequencies among neighboring populations were observed for five of six alleles;
      allelic frequencies in more distantly separated populations were typically not
      correlated.

PMID- 28564227
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN RHOGEESSA (CHIROPTERA: VESPERTILIONIDAE): POSSIBLE
      SPECIATION BY CENTRIC FUSIONS.
AB  - Within the Rhogeessa tumida-parvula complex, there are seven cytotypes involving
      diploid numbers of 30, 32, 34, 42, 44, and 52. Based on G-band analysis, the 30,
      32, 34, and 44 forms differ from each other by centric fusions (13 different
      fusions were identified). Two 2n = 32 samples (one from Belize and one from
      Nicaragua) having essentially identical standard karyotypes differed from each
      other by eight fusion events. Cytotypes are allozymically distinct; however,
      other studies indicate that the cytotypes are morphologically very similar if not
      indistinguishable (LaVal, 1973; Baker, 1984). G-band chromosomal data are best
      interpreted as indicating that, within this complex, several species exist which
      should be maintained by a post-mating isolating mechanism resulting from meiotic
      problems in F1 individuals. Mus musculus (Capanna et al., 1977; Capanna, 1982;
      White, 1978) and the Rhogeessa tumida-parvula complex are unusual among mammalian
      species thus far studied in their pattern of chromosomal variation and
      presumptive mode of speciation. Strong evidence exists suggesting that in both
      groups populations differing by multiple centric fusions are biological species.
      It appears that the population and reproductive biology of Mus and Rhogeessa are
      quite different and any model that attempts to explain the mode of speciation in
      these two diverse taxa, must be compatible with their different biological
      characteristics.

PMID- 28564228
TI  - A STATISTICAL STUDY OF MATE CHOICE: SEXUAL SELECTION IN A PLETHODONTID SALAMANDER
      (DESMOGNATHUS OCHROPHAEUS).
AB  - Our experiment revealed the existence of significant variation in mating success
      in a salamander species in which males do not provide courtship feeding, nest
      sites, or parental care. Differences in mating success were based on natural
      variation among adult males and females, rather than on traits of an artificially
      selected set of potential mates. Courtship encounters deliberately involved only
      one male and one female, thus eliminating the potentially confounding effects of
      male-male competition and variations in mate encounter rate. Even after
      eliminating these effects and random error, some females were more likely than
      others to elicit spermatophore deposition by a male, and some males were more
      likely than others to inseminate a female. Such variation among individuals
      represents an opportunity for sexual selection to act on phenotypic characters
      that affect mating success. We advocate the use of a factorial experimental
      design to analyze sexual selection. This approach permits the statistical
      evaluation of separate male and female effects, interaction between these
      effects, and random effects. Designs which combine the evaluations of mating
      success and courtship behaviors could estimate the force of sexual selection on
      behavior.

PMID- 28564229
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF PSEUDOGAMY.
AB  - A. density- and frequency-dependent model for the evolution and maintenance of
      pseudogamous females is developed and analyzed. Ecological as well as
      evolutionary aspects of pseudogamy are discussed. Criteria are described for the
      stable coexistence of sexual females and pseudogamous females under natural
      conditions. The conditions for invasion of a normal bisexual population by
      pseudogamous females are less stringent than the conditions for stable
      coexistence. Hence, we expect that some populations will be characterized by
      unstable sex ratios over time (with the resulting local extinction due to lack of
      males) while other populations will be characterized by stable sex ratios over
      time. If high population sex ratios (i.e., many females to few males) are to be
      stable, the net population growth rate must be large, and there can be no
      successful male preference for sexual females.

PMID- 28564230
TI  - POLLEN AND GENE DISPERSAL: THE INFLUENCES OF COMPETITION FOR POLLINATION.
AB  - Pollinators that forage indiscriminately can transfer pollen from one species to
      another, reducing the amount that reaches conspecific flowers. I present evidence
      that the presence of another plant species visited by the same pollinators can
      also reduce pollen dispersal distances and outcrossing. This has the potential to
      influence gene flow and reproductive success. Pollen carryover and movement
      patterns were measured for the shared insect pollinators of Stellaria pubera and
      Claytonia virginica in North Carolina. Bee flies deposited similar amounts of
      Stellaria pollen on a series of pistillate Claytonia flowers as on a series of
      pistillate Stellaria flowers. In arrays of potted plants, flies and solitary bees
      visited most flowers on a plant before leaving and then flew to a nearby plant
      chosen independently of species; 95% of moves were to one of 12 nearest
      neighbors. These measures of pollen carryover and movement patterns were used in
      a set of computer simulations to predict pollen dispersal distances. The
      simulations suggested that C. virginica substantially reduces outcrossing and
      pollen flow in S. pubera. These predictions were tested by tracking dye movement
      from anthers in populations of potted plants. Addition of C. virginica reduced
      the mean squared distance moved by dye to receptive S. pubera flowers by 23% and
      reduced the amount of dye moved by 51%. The estimated pollen component of gene
      flow was also much lower in a natural population of 5. pubera mixed with C.
      virginica than in the synthetic single-species populations.

PMID- 28564231
TI  - MICROGEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF MEADOW VOLES (MICROTUS
      PENNSYLVANICUS) IN RELATION TO POPULATION DENSITY.
AB  - We examined mitochondrial-DNA (mtDNA) sequence heterogeneity on four adjacent
      trapping grids in an island population of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus)
      at two different population densities. Four restriction endonucleases revealed 20
      different mtDNA composite phenotypes in samples totaling 198 meadow voles. There
      were significant heterogeneities in the distribution of four common mtDNA
      composite phenotypes among the four trapping grids, suggesting that there is
      population subdivision on a fine scale. Genetic distances between grids, mtDNA
      diversity within grids, and GST also varied during the study period. We found a
      decrease in genetic distance and an increase in diversity when the population
      density was high and vice versa when the population density was low. When
      population density was high, the coefficient of gene differentiation was smaller
      than the same coefficient observed when the population density was low. These
      changes in population subdivision and diversity are consistent with theoretical
      expectations of population structure in which effective female population size
      and dispersal are the critical variables. The data also support the hypothesis of
      maintenance of mtDNA diversity by population subdivision, rapid population growth
      rate, and dispersal.

PMID- 28564232
TI  - ENIGMATIC REPTILIAN SEX RATIOS.

PMID- 28564233
TI  - SEX RATIO, SEED PRODUCTION, BIOMASS ALLOCATION, AND THE COST OF MALE FUNCTION IN
      CUCURBITA FOETIDISSIMA HBK (CUCURBITACEAE).
AB  - In the gynodioecious plant Cucurbita foetidissima (Cucurbitaceae), females were
      common in all eight populations examined and made up 32% of adult plants. Females
      produced 1.5 (SE = 0.2) times as many seeds as did hermaphrodites. The observed
      difference in seed production alone is not great enough to explain the
      maintenance of females, especially at their current frequency. Females and
      hermaphrodites did not differ in number of nodes per stem, stems per plant,
      internode length, or size of leaves. Females produced more female biomass (fresh
      or dry weight) than hermaphrodites, but total investment in sexual biomass did
      not differ. Thus, the biomass of male flowers produced by hermaphrodites was
      about equal to the extra female biomass produced by females. The results support
      the existence of a trade-off between male and female reproduction.

PMID- 28564234
TI  - GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE OF DROSOPHILA TRIPUNCTATA: PATTERNS OF VARIATION AND
      COVARIATION OF TRAITS AFFECTING RESOURCE USE.
AB  - Drosophila tripunctata is an ecological generalist, using both fruits and
      mushrooms as breeding sites. Isofemale strains of this species were established
      from seven populations over a wide part of its range and assayed for
      electrophoretic variability, oviposition-site preference, and larval performance
      on several types of substrates. Significant variation among strains within
      populations was found for oviposition-site preference, larval development time on
      tomatoes versus mushrooms, and tolerance (as measured by development time) of the
      mushroom toxin alpha-amanitin. Even populations at the periphery of the range,
      which electrophoretic data suggest have been through bottlenecks, harbored levels
      of variation for oviposition-site preference approximately equal to that found in
      central populations. All correlations between preference and various measures of
      larval performance were close to zero. Thus, there is no evidence for sympatric
      divergence of host races or for coadapted complexes of genes related to host
      specificity. Strains with higher-than-average amanitin tolerance tended to
      develop more rapidly on tomatoes than on nontoxic mushrooms, whereas the less
      tolerant strains had slower development on tomatoes. This suggests that there may
      be genetically based correlations and trade-offs in larval performance on
      different breeding sites. No geographic differentiation among populations was
      found for either oviposition-site preference or any measure of larval
      performance. There is also very little electrophoretic variation among
      populations. Thus, the species as a whole, rather than local populations, appears
      to be the unit of evolution with respect to resource use in D. tripunctata.

PMID- 28564235
TI  - BODY SIZE, SPERM COMPETITION, AND DETERMINANTS OF REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN MALE
      SAVANNA BABOONS.
AB  - One component of sexual selection is sperm competition. It has been reasoned that
      the intensity of sperm competition may be reflected in the relative testicular
      sizes of animals. Among males residing in multimale breeding systems, testicular
      size is relatively larger than among males residing in unimale mating systems.
      Information on whether differences in testicular size within a species can
      account for differences in male reproductive success is unavailable for natural
      populations of primates. A population of six troops of savanna baboons in Kenya
      was surveyed for morphometric analysis, and one of these troops was the subject
      of extensive behavioral observations afterwards. Testicular weights could not be
      obtained, but measurements of linear dimensions were transformed into volumetric
      estimates. Male weight accounted for 30% of the variance in testicular volume.
      Neither body size nor testicular volume was associated with differences in male
      reproductive activity. The outcome of fights over access to females could not be
      related to male body size, and ejaculatory patterns of males were independent of
      testicle size. Both sperm competition and aggressive competition intensified
      during the four-day optimum conception period, but fights over access to consort
      females were infrequent. Among savanna baboons, the probability of an ejaculation
      resulting in a conception is fairly low, which may account for the infrequency of
      injurious fights. Although testicle size influences sperm production, it does not
      influence either the timing of mating or the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa,
      and both of these factors probably account for a substantial fraction of the
      variance in male baboon paternity. Sperm competition is an adjunct to agonistic
      competition as a mechanism affecting male baboon reproductive success. It is
      concluded that male reproductive success in baboons is affected more by social
      factors than by morphological traits associated with size.

PMID- 28564236
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE BREEDING SEX RATIO UNDER PARTIAL SEX CHANGE.

PMID- 28564237
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PARTIALLY SELF-FERTILIZING PHLOX.
AB  - Inbreeding depression was measured in terms of the relative survivorship of self
      versus cross seed in 14 Phlox drummondii cultivars and 10 populations of P.
      cuspidata. The cultivars are predominantly outcrossing; P. cuspidata is
      predominantly self-fertilizing. The relative survivorship of self versus cross
      seed averages 0.84 in the cultivars and 0.99 in P. cuspidata. In wild P.
      drummondii, the average is 0.83. The mean number of lethal equivalents per zygote
      averages 0.69 in the cultivars and 0.05 in P. cuspidata, versus 0.79 in the wild
      P. drummondii. There is a significant negative correlation between the amount of
      automatic self-seed produced by a cultivar and the number of lethal equivalents
      it carries (r = -0.60). Phlox cuspidata has a lower level of cross-seed abortion
      than P. drummondii, which probably is not due to a difference in the incidence of
      lethal genes in their populations.

PMID- 28564238
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY OF SEXUAL AND APOMICTIC ANTENNARIA: DO APOMICTS HAVE
      GENERAL-PURPOSE GENOTYPES?
AB  - The fact that apomictic taxa typically occupy a wider range of environments than
      their sexual relatives has generated the hypothesis that apomicts are more likely
      to possess "general-purpose genotypes," i.e., genotypes whose performance is
      relatively insensitive to changes in environmental conditions. This hypothesis
      was tested by cloning sexual and apomictic females of Antennaria parvifolia
      (Asteraceae) and growing each genotype in six growth-chamber environments varying
      in temperature and moisture levels. A joint regression analysis revealed that the
      survival of apomictic genotypes was significantly less sensitive to environmental
      conditions than that of sexual genotypes but demonstrated no differences with
      regard to flowering or biomass. However, the coefficient of variation in biomass
      across the six environments was significantly lower for apomicts than for
      sexuals, and the geometric mean of survival over the six environments was
      significantly higher for apomicts. Apomicts significantly exceeded sexuals in
      mean survival, mean flower-head production, and mean biomass. These results
      support the hypothesis that apomictic genotypes are more "general-purpose" than
      sexuals, and increase the difficulty of explaining the persistence of sexual
      reproduction in A. parvifolia.

PMID- 28564239
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE FUNGUS BEETLE, BOLITOTHERUS CORNUTUS.
AB  - The hypothesis that population density can affect sexual selection on male horn
      size was tested in a three-year study of a fungus beetle, Bolitotherus cornutus.
      Males of this species have horns that vary greatly in length. These horns are
      used in fights over females; longer-horned males win the majority of fights,
      regardless of population density. However, density does affect the relationship
      between horn length and access to females. In six populations of naturally and
      experimentally varying densities, longer-horned males gained a greater advantage
      in access to females in low-density populations than at high density. This
      increase in access to females causes an increase in the number of females
      inseminated by longer-horned males; thus, sexual selection for longer horns is
      stronger at lower densities.

PMID- 28564240
TI  - MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR A MISSING WILD RELATIVE OF MAIZE AND THE INTROGRESSION OF
      ITS CHLOROPLAST GENOME INTO ZEA PERENNIS.

PMID- 28564242
TI  - COMMENT ON A RATE TEST.

PMID- 28564241
TI  - THE DISSOLUTION OF A COMPLEX GENETIC POLYMORPHISM: THE EVOLUTION OF SELF
      FERTILIZATION IN TRISTYLOUS EICHHORNIA PANICULATA (PONTEDERIACEAE).
AB  - Eichhornia paniculata (Pontederiaceae) displays a wide range of outcrossing
      levels as a result of the dissolution of the tristylous genetic polymorphism and
      the evolution of semihomostyly. Population surveys, comparison of fitness
      components of the style morphs, and computer simulations were used to investigate
      the breakdown of tristyly and the selective mechanisms responsible for the
      evolution of self-fertilization. Of 110 populations surveyed in northeast Brazil
      and Jamaica, 53% were trimorphic, 25% were dimorphic, and 22% were monomorphic
      for style morph. The short (S) morph was underrepresented in trimorphic
      populations and absent from nontrimorphic populations. The mid (M) morph
      predominated in dimorphic populations and was the only morph in monomorphic
      populations. Stamen modifications promoting selfing, associated with
      semihomostyle evolution, were largely confined to the M morph. They were rare in
      trimorphic populations, common in dimorphic populations, and often fixed in
      monomorphic populations. Stochastic simulations and comparisons of fruit set in
      natural populations indicate that founder events, population bottlenecks, and
      lowered fertility of the S morph due to an absence of long-tongued pollinators
      can each account for loss of the S morph from trimorphic populations. A reduced
      level of disassortative mating can accentuate the rate at which the S morph is
      lost by both random and deterministic processes. Nontrimorphic populations occur
      at the geographical margins of the region surveyed and tend to be smaller and
      less dense than trimorphic populations. These observations and the higher fruit
      set of the M morph relative to the L morph in dimorphic populations suggest that
      reproductive assurance, favoring selfing variants of the M morph under conditions
      of low pollinator service, has been of primary importance in the origin of most
      monomorphic populations. Where pollinator service is reliable, however, automatic
      selection of selfing genes, aided by mating asymmetries between the morphs, can
      cause the M morph to spread to fixation in dimorphic populations.

PMID- 28564243
TI  - VARIATION IN POLLEN FLOW WITHIN AND AMONG POPULATIONS OF IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA.
AB  - Pollen dispersal is a major component of gene flow in plant populations. It can
      influence microevolution within and among populations as well as the evolution of
      floral characters that affect dispersal. Most previous studies have relied on
      point estimates to characterize dispersal distances, even though there is likely
      to be substantial intrapopulational and interpopulational variation. We measured
      variation in pollen dispersal for the hummingbird-pollinated herb Ipomopsis
      aggregata (Polemoniaceae), using powdered fluorescent dyes to estimate pollen
      movement. Analysis of 5-6 natural populations in each of three years indicated
      that mean and mean squared distances of pollen dispersal, measured over the
      reproductive lifespan of individual plants, varied more than threefold among
      populations and years. Dispersal distances also shifted over the season within a
      given population. Unlike the variation among populations, these seasonal changes
      were associated in part with changes in flower density. The mean distance of
      pollen dispersal from an individual plant was unrelated to the date of first
      flowering, but did reflect two floral characters. Plants with higher variance in
      stamen length across flowers delivered pollen farther on average, as predicted by
      computer simulations of pollen carryover. Plants with lower mean stamen lengths
      also delivered pollen farther. Such effects of plant characters on pollen
      dispersal are a critical prerequisite for dispersal to evolve in response to its
      effects on fitness.

PMID- 28564244
TI  - HYPOTHESES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF EXCESS ZYGOTES: MODELS OF BET-HEDGING AND
      SELECTIVE ABORTION.
AB  - Two hypotheses can explain the overproduction of zygotes. Bet-hedging assumes
      that optimal brood size varies unpredictably among breeding attempts. Excess
      zygotes are produced so that the number of independent offspring can be flexibly
      adjusted downward to the optimum number for that attempt. Selective abortion
      suggests that parents overproduce zygotes, identify those with the highest
      fitness expectations, then kill or abandon those with lower fitness in order to
      concentrate investment in those with the best prospects. Both hypotheses for the
      overproduction of zygotes work in principle, alone or together, and can lead to
      impressive levels of zygote overproduction. For both hypotheses, high levels of
      zygote overproduction are only attained when the unit cost of an aborted embryo
      is low relative to the cost of an independent offspring. Under bet-hedging, it is
      also important that the variability of environmental conditions important for
      breeding success be high. The two hypotheses together make clear when a parent
      could increase its fitness by killing or abandoning its offspring.

PMID- 28564245
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS OF FEMALE THALASSOMA BIFASCIATUM
      (PISCES: LABRIDAE). 1. MANIPULATIONS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN TESTS FOR ADAPTIVE
      SHIFTS OF LIFE-HISTORY ALLOCATIONS.
AB  - Optimal-life-history theory is based on the relative benefit of immediate versus
      future reproduction. We apply this theory to the life-history tactics of female
      Thalassoma bifasciatum, a sex-changing coral-reef fish. Local social structure
      varies in this species and influences a female's chances of achieving high future
      reproductive success as a territorial terminal-phase male. We predicted that
      female life-history allocations would be flexible and responsive to variation in
      future reproductive prospects. We altered population size structure on four
      reefs, removing large fish and adding small fish. These alterations enhanced the
      residual reproductive value of the remaining larger female residents. The
      predicted response to the manipulation was a reduction in reproductive activity
      and an increase in growth. Our results do not support this hypothesis. Possible
      interpretations are that: 1) the theory, or our application of the theory, is
      flawed; 2) female Thalassoma are unresponsive to changes in future reproductive
      prospects; or 3) the design of our study was ineffectual at detecting a response.
      We report here an approach to the study of adaptive life-history strategies that
      deserves implementation in other systems.

PMID- 28564246
TI  - TESTING MACROEVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESES WITH CLADISTIC ANALYSIS: EVIDENCE AGAINST
      RECTANGULAR EVOLUTION.
AB  - The properties of cladistic data sets from small monophyletic groups (6-12
      species) are investigated using computer simulations of macroevolution. Two
      evolutionary models are simulated: gradualism and the punctuated-equilibrium
      hypothesis. Under the conditions of our simulations these two models of evolution
      make consistently different predictions about the distribution of autapomorphies
      among species. When strict stasis is enforced, the punctuated-equilibrium
      hypothesis predicts that the most expected number of autapomorphies per species
      will be zero, no matter how many characters are used in the analysis. As the
      number of characters used in the analysis increases, the distribution of the
      number of autapomorphies per species becomes bimodal. Under gradualism, the
      distribution of autapomorphies remains unimodal under all conditions, but the
      number of species without autapomorphies can fall to zero. A survey of real
      cladograms of extant monophyletic groups from a wide range of taxa indicates that
      the predictions of the punctuated-equilibrium hypothesis about autapomorphies do
      not hold. This constitutes strong evidence against the punctuated-equilibrium
      hypothesis.

PMID- 28564247
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION BY THE HANDICAP MECHANISM.
AB  - The handicap mechanism of sexual selection by female choice has been strongly
      criticized because it does not cause sexual selection to reinforce viability
      selection and it cannot account for the origin of mating preferences. However,
      several models indicate that the handicap mechanism can have important effects
      when operating in conjunction with Fisher's mechanism in polygynous populations.
      These models have been criticized because they require that fitness remains
      heritable indefinitely. I develop a simple haploid model of the handicap
      mechanism based on nonheritable variation in paternal investment, thus
      eliminating the problem of heritable fitness. This model produces the same
      evolutonary dynamics as both simple and quantitative genetic models of the
      handicap mechanism based on heritable fitness. If the parameters are such that
      Fisherian runaway selection does not occur in the null model (i.e., the
      polymorphic equilibria, which lie along the "Fisher line," are stable), then the
      handicap mechanism turns the Fisher line into an evolutionary trajectory upon
      which all other trajectories converge. This occurs because Fisher's mechanism
      generates no net selection on female preference when the population is on the
      Fisher line, so that any additional source of selection (direct or indirect) on
      female choice causes the population to evolve deterministically along the Fisher
      line. This change in the evolutionary dynamics has the important consequence of
      eliminating the potential for rapid population divergence for mating systems via
      genetic drift along the Fisher line.

PMID- 28564248
TI  - THE ADDITIVE PARTITIONING OF SELECTION GRADIENTS.

PMID- 28564249
TI  - EMBRYO GROWTH AND SEED SIZE IN RAPHANUS SATIVUS: MATERNAL AND PATERNAL EFFECTS IN
      VIVO AND IN VITRO.
AB  - Theories on the evolution of the angiosperm seed disagree as to the effects of
      different plant tissues on embryo growth. To examine the relative contributions
      of maternal and paternal genes on embryo growth, we conducted controlled crosses
      in the greenhouse with wild radish plants (Raphanus sativus), looked for
      maternal, paternal, and interaction effects on embryo development, and compared
      the performance of embryos within fruits and in embryo culture. Maternal plant
      identity affected fruit set, seeds per fruit, embryo developmental stage, and
      mean seed weight. In embryo culture, maternal effects were found for cotyledon
      size and embryo weight. Paternal effects were fewer or smaller in magnitude than
      maternal effects. The identity of the pollen donor affected embryo developmental
      stage and mean seed weight. In culture, paternal effects were detected for
      cotyledon size and embryo weight. Our results demonstrate that both maternal and
      paternal elements affect embryo growth. The fact that maternal effects are
      greater than paternal effects on embryo development in culture may result from
      cytoplasmic elements or maternal nuclear genes. Embryo performance in vivo
      compared to that in vitro varied among maternal plants. The interaction between
      an embryo and its endosperm and maternal tissues may be either positive or
      negative, depending upon the maternal plant and the embryo's developmental stage.

PMID- 28564251
TI  - ADAPTATION TO SEASONALITY IN A CRICKET: PATTERNS OF PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC
      VARIATION IN BODY SIZE AND DIAPAUSE EXPRESSION ALONG A CLINE IN SEASON LENGTH.
AB  - This paper investigates patterns of phenotypic variation in the striped ground
      cricket (Allonemobious fasciatus) along a cline in season length and tests the
      hypothesis that variation in body size and diapause propensity is the result of
      diversifying selection due to different local conditions. We examined 83
      populations and found that A. fasciatus produced a single generation per year
      (univoltine) north of 37 degrees N latitude and was bivoltine south of 35 degrees
      30'N. Body size generally increased with increasing season length, with a sudden
      drop in the region corresponding to the transition from univoltine to bivoltine
      life cycles, reflecting the division of total season length in two within
      bivoltine populations. We reared ten populations in our laboratory and found that
      much of the interpopulation variance in body size observed in the field could be
      attributed to genetic differences. Diapause expression also varied significantly
      among populations and was strongly correlated with season length. The
      heritability of body size did not differ between populations, but full-sib
      estimates greatly exceeded parent-offspring estimates (h  po2=0.15+/-0.05; h
      fs2=0.45+/-0.04) suggesting that there are important nonadditive genetic effects.
      The heritability of diapause expression, determined from analysis of full sibs,
      varied significantly between populations (0.33 +/- 0.10 to 1.31 +/- 0.21) with an
      average of 0.74 +/- 0.16. Body size and diapause expression were genetically
      correlated in transition-zone populations, but not in univoltine or bivoltine
      populations. Our findings support the suggestion that clinal variation in body
      size and diapause expression in the striped ground cricket reflect adaptation to
      season length.

PMID- 28564250
TI  - A COMPARISON OF THREE INDIRECT METHODS FOR ESTIMATING AVERAGE LEVELS OF GENE
      FLOW.
AB  - Three methods for estimating the average level of gene flow in natural population
      are discussed and compared. The three methods are FST , rare alleles, and maximum
      likelihood. All three methods yield estimates of the combination of parameters
      (the number of migrants [Nm] in a demic model or the neighborhood size
      [4piDsigma2 ] in a continuum model) that determines the relative importance of
      gene flow and genetic drift. We review the theory underlying these methods and
      derive new analytic results for the expectation of FST in stepping-stone and
      continuum models when small sets of samples are taken. We also compare the
      effectiveness of the different methods using a variety of simulated data. We
      found that the FST and rare-alleles methods yield comparable estimates under a
      wide variety of conditions when the population being sampled is demographically
      stable. They are roughly equally sensitive to selection and to variation in
      population structure, and they approach their equilibrium values at approximately
      the same rate. We found that two different maximum-likelihood methods tend to
      yield biased estimates when relatively small numbers of locations are sampled but
      more accurate estimates when larger numbers are sampled. Our conclusion is that,
      although FST and rare-alleles methods are expected to be equally effective in
      analyzing ideal data, practical problems in estimating the frequencies of rare
      alleles in electrophoretic studies suggest that FST is likely to be more useful
      under realistic conditions.

PMID- 28564252
TI  - THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING DIFFERENT: SINISTRAL COILING IN CERION.
AB  - The overwhelming predominance of dextral coiling in gastropods is an outstanding
      and puzzling phenomenon. A few sinistral specimens (left coiling individuals)
      have been found in many dextral species. Only six sinistral shells have ever been
      found in Cerion; we base this analysis on the five available shells. We ask
      whether reversed symmetry is a simple either-or switch without further
      consequences for shell form, or whether sinistrality engenders associated
      effects, making left-coiling shells unlike their dextral deme-mates in other
      ways. All five sinistral shells differ in features of size and coiling late in
      growth, leading to relatively small apertures and a slight twist in the axis of
      coiling. We detect and measure this effect as follows: in multivariate
      morphospace, sinistrals occupy peripheral positions among their dextral deme
      mates; in univariate analysis, sinistrals are consistently different for a set of
      characters involving covariance patterns never before seen in a decade of studies
      on ontogenetic and age-standardized variation in dextrals; a bootstrap procedure
      does not recover similar patterns in randomly constituted samples of dextrals
      matching the true sinistral distribution; direct x-ray measures of the coiling
      axis detect its slight twist in sinistrals. We discuss the implications of these
      unsuspected associations for the issues of developmental constraint upon the
      evolution of morphology.

PMID- 28564253
TI  - ON THE RATE OF ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28564254
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN PHLOX.
AB  - Plants of the red- and pink-flowered P. drummondii were introduced into a natural
      population of P. cuspidata. Their seeds were progeny-tested, and the percentage
      hybrid seed determined for each variant. Thirty-eight percent of the seed from
      the pink variant were hybrid compared to 13% of the red. The difference in hybrid
      production is best explained by corolla color. The self- and cross-compatibility
      of nine sympatric and nine allopatric populations were studied in the greenhouse.
      On the average, sympatric populations are more self-compatible than allopatric
      populations. Pollen germination is 13.7% vs. 7.3%, the difference being
      statistically significant. The self-compatibility differential was accompanied by
      a self seedset differential. On the average, sympatric populations are more cross
      compatible with P. cuspidata than are allopatric populations. The germination of
      P. cuspidata pollen on sympatric P. drummondii stigmas was 13.3% vs. 9.8% on
      allopatric stigmas. However, the difference is not statistically significant. The
      presence of P. cuspidata has promoted reproductive character divergence in P.
      drummondii. The shift in corolla color and the increase in self-compatibility
      reduce the potential for gametic wastage and interspecific hybridization.

PMID- 28564255
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF PARTHENOGENESIS. II. INBREEDING AND THE COST OF MEIOSIS.
AB  - Quantitative models of genetic change were analyzed to study the effect of
      inbreeding on the conditions for the evolution of parthenogenesis. Although
      inbreeding has been proposed as a key factor that may resolve the apparent
      paradox between the success of biparental reproduction and the genetic advantages
      of uniparental reproduction, the results indicate that inbreeding does not
      greatly change the cost of meiosis in diploids and actually increases it in
      haplodiploids. Inbreeding increases parent-offspring relatedness and the
      reproductive value of females. These direct effects act antagonistically on the
      cost of meiosis: higher relatedness between parents and biparentally-derived
      offspring promotes biparental reproduction, and high reproductive value of
      females promotes thelytoky. In diploids the two effects cancel one another, while
      in haplodiploids the latter predominates. A survey by Hamilton (1967) showed that
      a high proportion of haplodiploid species that undergo close inbreeding have
      thelytokous relatives, an association that is consistent with the result obtained
      here that, apart from its effect on the sex ratio, inbreeding directly promotes
      parthenogenesis in haplodiploids.

PMID- 28564256
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY AND HIGH MERISTIC COUNTS IN INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS OF
      SALMONID FISHES.
AB  - Interspecific hybrids have been proposed to have reduced developmental stability
      in comparison to their parental species because the parental genomes have not
      undergone selection for the maintenance of developmental stability when they
      occur together. We present data from four interspecific hybrids of salmonid
      fishes that support this view. Natural hybrids of bull trout (Salvelinus
      confluentus) with brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and laboratory hybrids of
      rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) with Yellowstone (Salmo clarki bouvieri),
      westslope (S. c. lewisi), and coastal (S. c. clarki) cutthroat trout all have
      higher levels of fluctuating asymmetry than either of their parental species
      raised in the same environment. Thus, the hybrids have reduced developmental
      stability. The hybrids do not have meristic counts intermediate to the counts of
      the parental species. The hybrids usually have counts as high as the species with
      the higher count for those characters that differ between the parental species
      and often have higher counts for those characters that do not differ between the
      parental species. We suggest that the tendency for interspecific hybrids to have
      high meristic counts may be related to differences between the species in the
      length and timing of the developmental periods during which the counts of the
      characters are determined.

PMID- 28564257
TI  - TITANOTHERE ALLOMETRY, HETEROCHRONY, AND BIOMECHANICS: REVISING AN EVOLUTIONARY
      CLASSIC.
AB  - A reanalysis of Osborn's titanothere data indicates that extrapolative growth of
      a constant allometric relationship alone ("hypermorphosis") does not account for
      the trend toward body and horn size increase. Empirically, we also observe
      possible positive changes in the y-intercept ("predisplacement" or early onset of
      development), and possibly, changes in the slope ("acceleration/neoteny" or
      changes in growth rate) between the Oligocene and Eocene groups. Theoretically,
      these may be responses to more massive body shapes, perforce accompanying size
      increase, which increase the amount of force to which the horns were subjected.

PMID- 28564258
TI  - FOUNDER-FLUSH SPECIATION: AN UPDATE OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WITH DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28564259
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN PERIODICAL CICADAS BASED ON
      SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ALLOZYME FREQUENCIES.
AB  - There are twelve major broods, or year classes, of 17-year periodical cicadas and
      three major broods of 13-year cicadas. Previous allozyme studies of three 13-year
      broods and two 17-year broods suggested that broods are distinct evolutionary
      units, exhibiting homogeneity within broods and heterogeneity among broods.
      Results from numerical phylogenetic analysis of allozyme data from these broods
      supported Lloyd and Dybas's (1966a, 1966b) evolutionary hypothesis and were
      consistent with biogeographical patterns. In the present paper, we use spatial
      statistics to extend the analysis of biogeographical patterns for periodical
      cicadas by examining geographic variation in allozyme frequencies within and
      among ten broods for the three most variable loci. The results from our analysis
      show that each gene frequency surface exhibits marked spatial autocorrelation.
      Three major geographic areas of similarity are indicated by the data: the eastern
      seaboard, the Mississippi Valley, and the eastern edge of the Great Plains. When
      localities are adjusted for regional membership, the autocorrelation disappears.
      In biological terms, broods are homogeneous breeding units. Geographically
      distinct localities within the same brood show little differentiation.
      Differentiation among populations within broods and among broods within regions
      exists but is less pronounced than the differentiation among geographic regions.
      For the particular enzymes examined, allozyme frequency differences appear to
      reflect the phylogenetic history of the broods rather than their environmental
      surroundings.

PMID- 28564260
TI  - UNIFYING GENETIC MODELS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE CHOICE.
AB  - A best-of-N rule of female mating preferences can give rise to lines of unstable
      equilibria in a two-locus haploid model of sexual selection. Under the best-of-N
      rule, which corresponds to choice at a lek, male fitnesses can exhibit a form of
      positive frequency-dependence that is not seen under fixed-relative-preference
      rules (Kirkpatrick, 1982). This positive frequency-dependence can be strongly
      destabilizing. Lande's (1981) criterion for the stability of the equilibria in
      quantitative-genetic models of sexual selection applies exactly and in general to
      the related family of simple population-genetic models. This offers some insight
      into the workings of these models and greatly simplifies their analysis.

PMID- 28564261
TI  - THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF NATURAL SELECTION AT THE LAP LOCUS.
AB  - An extensive research program was undertaken to evaluate the contribution of
      genetic variation at the Lap locus to variation in physiological traits under
      natural conditions. Rates of carbon and nitrogen metabolism were monitored in a
      population of the mussel Mytilus edulis near the center of the Lap allele
      frequency cline on the north shore of Long Island. The goal of this research was
      to establish whether the previously described genotype-dependent differences in
      physiological phenotype are meaningful in ecologically relevant circumstances. It
      was predicted from laboratory studies that, in nature, genotype-dependent
      differences will exist for rates of nitrogen excretion and that other aspects of
      the animal's physiology, particularly rates of carbon metabolism, will be
      unaffected by Lap genotype. Rates of amino acid and ammonia excretion were
      significantly dependent upon Lap genotype; individuals with the Lap94 allele
      exhibited greater rates of nitrogen loss. These differences among genotypes were
      most evident in the fall, between September and December. The genotype-dependent
      component of rates of nitrogen loss were also largest relative to the total rate
      of excretion during the fall period. As predicted, other aspects of the nitrogen
      metabolism (acquisition) and rates of carbon metabolism were independent of Lap
      genotype. There was a striking congruity among a variety of observations that all
      indicate that phenotypic differences in nitrogen metabolism are the basis of
      natural selection at the Lap locus in Long Island Sound. Rates of growth were
      minimal during the fall months (Hilbish, 1985) and mussels are known to lose
      weight in a genotype-specific manner during this period (Koehn et al., 1980).
      Rates of elemental gain and loss were summed to produce carbon and nitrogen
      budgets; these data show the fall to be a period of extended deficit in carbon
      and nitrogen balance. Genotype-dependent losses of ammonia and amino acids were
      greatest during the fall months. Finally, selection against the Lap94 allele
      occurs predominantly in the fall (Hilbish, 1985). The data indicate that the
      depletion of nitrogen resources provides the basis for selection against Lap94
      genotypes during the fall months.

PMID- 28564262
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPECIATION IN LAYIA (COMPOSITAE).
AB  - Electrophoretic variability was examined in six species of Layia (Compositae),
      native to California, which have previously been studied by Clausen, Keck, and
      Hiesey, and are regarded as a classic example of geographic speciation in plants.
      The study was carried out to test the hypothesis that the extent of divergence in
      structural genes coding enzymes is concordant with divergence in morphological
      characteristics, ecological traits, and reproductive isolation. Eleven enzymes
      specified by 17 loci were analyzed. The genetic identity values were consistent
      with those expected on the model that the species diverged gradually as they
      adapted to geographically separate habitats. Thus, the values between the three
      species complexes proposed by Clausen, Keck, and Hiesey (L. chrysanthemoides/L.
      fremontii; L. jonesii/L. leucopappa/L. munzii; L. platyglossa) were substantially
      lower than the values between species within the complexes. The results provide
      an important contrast to the very high genetic identities between species which
      originated rapidly from their progenitors. The electrophoretic results also
      provided evidence that the cytosolic isozyme of phosphoglucomutase and the
      cytosolic NADP-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase in the six species are coded by
      duplicate genes.

PMID- 28564263
TI  - THE USE OF PHYLOGENY IN BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY.

PMID- 28564264
TI  - LOCALIZED ADAPTATION OF CLONES OF THE SEA ANEMONE ACTINIA TENEBROSA.
AB  - Adult Actinia tenebrosa were reciprocally transplanted within and between
      colonies separated by 2 or 4 km. These experiments revealed powerful genetic and
      environmental effects on adult size and asexual fecundity and demonstrate that
      clones may be highly locally adapted. Local adults displayed significantly
      greater asexual fecundity than do adults transplanted from other colonies,
      although all groups showed similar survivorships. This provides the first
      demonstration of fine scale adaptation, in either terrestrial or marine
      environments, for a clonal species with large, panmictic sexually breeding
      populations. These findings, together with the results of earlier studies of this
      species, strongly support the assumptions and predictions of the Strawberry-Coral
      Model (Williams, 1975).

PMID- 28564265
TI  - PARASITE PRESSURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF AMANITIN TOLERANCE IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Approximately one-half of the members of the Drosophila quinaria species-group
      are mycophagous. The mushroom-breeding species D. falleni, D. recens, and D.
      phalerata are far more tolerant of the mushroom toxin alpha-amanitin than are D.
      guinaria, D. palustris, and D. subpalustris, which breed in decaying water
      plants. The non-mycophagous species, however, are physiologically capable of
      larval development in mushrooms, showing that high levels of amanitin tolerance
      are not necessary for mycophagy. A primary selective advantage of amanitin
      tolerance among the mycophagous species is that it allows them to breed in
      mushrooms that are toxic to nematodes that infest Drosophila in other fungi and
      render them infertile. Parasitism, then, may be an important factor governing
      evolutionary patterns of resource utilization in these species.

PMID- 28564266
TI  - GENE FLOW IN CAVE ARTHROPODS: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE APPROACH.
AB  - Slatkin's method (1981) for analyzing gene flow levels is applied to eleven
      species of cave arthropods. This provides insights into the strength of gene flow
      as a force affecting the evolution of cave organisms, while serving as a test of
      Slatkin's method. The results show that patterns of gene flow are consistent with
      the dispersal abilities and the ecological requirements of each species.
      Troglobites in general have lower gene flow values than troglophiles or
      trogloxenes. However, the geology of the area, its vegetation profile, and the
      geographic distance among the populations considered are also important in
      determining the gene flow levels. Gene flow patterns in three cave species,
      Ptomaphagus hirtus, Neaphaenops tellkampfii tellkampfii and Hadenoecus
      subterraneus, are compared in detail. These species inhabit the same highly
      interconnected karst area in south-central Kentucky but differ in their
      ecological requirements. The results suggest that gene flow levels are more
      dependent upon the intrinsic characteristics of each species than upon the
      availability of routes for dispersal. Overall estimates of gene flow were coupled
      with a more detailed population-structure analysis in four terrestrial cave
      arthropods: Speonomus delarouzeei, Hadenoecus cumberlandicus, Hadenoecus
      subterraneus and Euhadenoecus puteanus. The results stress the need for this type
      of analysis for subdivided species, in which estimates of the average gene flow
      can produce misleading results. Moreover, they show how these types of measures
      are more relevant in describing historical patterns of gene exchange than in
      indicating current levels of gene flow.

PMID- 28564267
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PHYLOGENETIC CONSTRAINTS IN COMPARATIVE ANALYSES:
      SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN BODY WEIGHT AMONG PRIMATES.
AB  - We have presented a formal model for the quantitative analysis of phylogenetic
      and specific effects on the distribution of trait values among species. Total
      trait values are divided into phylogenetic values, inherited from an ancestral
      species, and specific values, the result of independent evolution. This allows a
      quantitative assessment of the strength of the phylogenetic inertia, or burden,
      displayed by a character in a lineage, so that questions concerning the relative
      importance of phylogenetic constraints in evolution can be answered. The
      separation of phylogenetic from specific effects proposed here also allows
      phylogenetic factors to be explicitly included in cross-species comparative
      analyses of adaptation. This solves a long-standing problem in evolutionary
      comparative studies. Only species' specific values can provide information
      concerning the independent evolution of characters in a set of related species.
      Therefore, only correlations among specific values for traits may be used as
      evidence for adaptation in cross-species comparative analyses. The phylogenetic
      autocorrelation model was applied to a comparative analysis of the determinants
      of sexual dimorphism in weight among 44 primate species. In addition to sexual
      dimorphism in weight, mating system, habitat, diet, and size (weight itself) were
      included in the analysis. All of the traits, except diet, were substantially
      influenced by phylogenetic inertia. The comparative analysis of the determinants
      of sexual dimorphism in weight indicates that 50% of the variation among primate
      species is due to phylogeny. Size, or scaling, could account for a total of 36%
      of the variance, making it almost as important as phylogeny in determining the
      level of dimorphism displayed by a species. Habitat, mating system, and diet
      follow, accounting for minor amounts of variation. Thus, in attempting to explain
      why a particular modern primate species is very dimorphic compared to other
      primates, we would say first because its ancestor was more dimorphic than
      average, second because it is a relatively large species, and third because it is
      terrestrial, polygynous, and folivorous.

PMID- 28564268
TI  - STATISTICS OF SEXUAL ISOLATION.

PMID- 28564269
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF FLOWER COLOR ON OUTCROSSING RATE AND MALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS
      IN IPOMOEA PURPUREA.
AB  - Experimental populations of the annual plant, Ipomoea purpurea, composed of
      individuals belonging to two flower color morphs were studied to determine the
      effect of flower color on outcrossing rate and reproductive success as a male
      parent. Analyses of parent and offspring genotypes show that the pigmented and
      white morphs outcross at similar rates, but that the white morph is favored as a
      pollen donor. The result suggests that the dynamics of selection occurring at the
      locus coding for white versus pigmented flowers are more complex than previously
      believed. Factors such as frequency-dependent outcrossing rates and epistatic
      effects of the white allele may be operating. The results also suggest that
      pollinator observations are unreliable indicators of the actual mating system.

PMID- 28564270
TI  - COMPETITION AND THE EVOLUTION OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR IN TWO SPECIES OF
      TERRESTRIAL SALAMANDERS.
AB  - The effects of competition on the evolution of interspecific interference
      mechanisms were studied by comparing the aggressive behavior of two terrestrial
      salamander species from two localities that differ in the intensity of
      interspecific competition. Plethodon jordani and P. glutinosus are closely
      related, ecologically similar species that are sympatric at intermediate
      elevations in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Previous removal and transplant
      experiments showed that interspecific competition is more intense in the
      northeastern Great Smoky Mountains, where the species are narrowly sympatric,
      than in the nearby Balsam Mountains, where sympatry is broader. In laboratory
      encounters, P. glutinosus from the Great Smoky Mountains were more aggressive to
      heterospecific and conspecific intruders than were P. glutinosus from the Balsam
      Mountains. For P. jordani, however, the variation in interspecific and
      intraspecific aggressive behavior among individuals within populations was as
      great as the variation between populations. Alpha-selection (i.e., improved
      competitive ability by the acquisition of interspecific interference mechanisms)
      has occurred in populations of P. glutinosus under conditions of intense
      interspecific competition. The evolution of aggressive behavior appears to have
      been influenced by the intensity of intraspecific competition as well.

PMID- 28564271
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE AND CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN TWO PHENOTYPICALLY
      VARIABLE, COMPETING SPECIES.
AB  - Theoretical studies of character displacement lead to the view that evolutionary
      divergence depends primarily on incomplete utilization of available resources.
      Those models which incorporate constraints preventing complete utilization of
      resources, even in the absence of competitors, all predict character
      displacement. Those models which allow greater flexibility of resource use within
      a species predict correspondingly less divergence. Indeed, Matessi and Jayakar
      (1980, 1981) based their conditions for occurrence of character displacement on
      underutilization of resources. I extend a model used by Slatkin (1980, 1983) and
      Taper and Case (1985) which allows each species to fully utilize its resources in
      the absence of competitors. I concentrate on the biologically reasonable case in
      which the species, though similar, differ in their ecological characteristics. As
      a result of this greater biological realism, I arrive at a different conclusion
      regarding the conditions which lead to character displacement. The presence of a
      variety of biological differences between species-including as a subset those
      which result from resource underutilization-leads to divergence with respect to a
      quantitatively inherited character, due to interspecific competitive
      interactions. The resulting displacement can be large and depends little on the
      parameters chosen. The only exception, involving a character with very low
      heritability, occurs when the non-interactive phenotypic differences are much
      greater than those associated with studies of character displacement in natural
      populations. Thus, under conditions comparable to those encountered in the field,
      involving similar yet not identical species, evolutionary divergence is a
      consequence of interspecific competition.

PMID- 28564272
TI  - BERGMANN'S RULE, SEASONALITY, AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN BODY SIZE OF HOUSE
      SPARROWS.
AB  - Body size of House Sparrows is positively correlated with seasonality (annual
      temperature range) in both North America and Europe. Previously used climatic
      variables gave inconsistent or contrasting results for the two continental
      samples. The physiological advantage of large size in seasonal environments
      appears to be increased fasting ability, but this may be offset somewhat,
      particularly for females, by other factors, e.g., competitive interactions that
      influence rates of energy intake or ability to initiate breeding in the spring.
      It is proposed that minimization of maintenance energy costs on a per individual
      basis, and thus small size, is advantageous in equable (and predictable)
      environments.

PMID- 28564273
TI  - Kidney transplantation from donors with rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure.
AB  - Rhabdomyolysis in deceased donors usually causes acute renal failure (ARF), which
      may be considered a contraindication for kidney transplantation. From January
      2012 to December 2016, 30 kidneys from 15 deceased donors with severe
      rhabdomyolysis and ARF were accepted for transplantation at our center. The peak
      serum creatinine (SCr) kinase, myoglobin, and SCr of the these donors were 15
      569+/-8597 U/L, 37 092+/-42 100 MUg/L, and 422+/-167 MUmol/L, respectively. Two
      donors received continuous renal replacement therapy due to anuria. Six kidneys
      exhibited a discolored appearance (from brown to glossy black) due to myoglobin
      casts. The kidney transplant results from the donors with rhabdomyolysis donors
      were compared with those of 90 renal grafts from standard criteria donors (SCD).
      The estimated glomerular filtration rate at 2 years was similar between kidney
      transplants from donors with rhabdomyolysis and SCD (70.3+/-14.6 mL/min/1.73 m2
      vs 72.3+/-15.1 mL/min/1.73 m2 ). We conclude that excellent graft function can be
      achieved from kidneys donors with ARF caused by rhabdomyolysis.

PMID- 28564274
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL GENE GENEALOGY AND GENE FLOW AMONG ISLAND AND MAINLAND POPULATIONS
      OF A SEDENTARY SONGBIRD, THE GREY-CROWNED BABBLER (POMATOSTOMUS TEMPORALIS).
AB  - Distinguishing between ongoing gene flow and purely historical association of
      populations can be difficult without data on times of population separation and
      effective population sizes. To help discriminate between these two scenarios, I
      examined mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in three geographically close
      populations of the grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis) separated by
      water barriers of known age in the Northern Territory, Australia, using the
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR), direct sequencing, and genealogical methods of
      inference. PCR primers were designed to obtain sequences from region I, a highly
      variable segment of the control region. Sequence diversity in all populations was
      consistent with neutrality. In the population on Melville Island, a Pleistocene
      land-bridge island, sequence variability is as high as on the mainland and
      consists of two mitochondrial lineages differing by 2%. Phylogenetic analyses of
      the sequence variation observed among 44 individuals suggest that the number of
      times lineages in one population trace back to ancestors of a different
      population (between-population coalescent events) was too high to be compatible
      with a model of population divergence solely by drift since rising of the water
      barriers, implying instead recent or ongoing gene flow across water barriers.
      Similar estimates of Fst , the fraction of genetic diversity apportioned among
      populations, were obtained when calculated using the divergence times of alleles
      and when estimated from Nm values derived from trees and ranging from 0.29-0.55.
      Both the phylogenies and patterns of allelic divergence suggest that the
      population on Melville Island exchanges migrants with both continental
      populations, although statistical tests indicated that some alternative
      phylogenies implying restricted gene flow among the populations could not be
      discounted.

PMID- 28564275
TI  - THE GENETICS OF CENTRAL AND MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SERRATA. I.
      GENETIC VARIATION FOR STRESS RESISTANCE AND SPECIES BORDERS.
AB  - A selection experiment was used to determine if levels of genetic variance in an
      ecologically important trait, desiccation resistance, were different in central
      and marginal populations. Four populations of Drosophila serrata were sampled
      from central and marginal areas of its distribution, along a 3000-km stretch of
      Australia's east coast. Rainfall patterns along this stretch of coastline change
      from a tropical cycle in the north to a temperate cycle in the south. Replicate
      lines from the four populations underwent selection for desiccation resistance
      for 14 generations. Realized heritabilities calculated after 10 and 14
      generations of selection indicated that the four populations differed
      significantly in the level of genetic variation for desiccation resistance
      available to selection. Populations from the more southern marginal areas had
      lower realized heritabilities than more northern central populations. However, a
      corresponding increase in mean desiccation resistance toward the margin was not
      found. A mechanism by which D. serrata seemed to have responded to selection was
      a reduction in the extent that metabolic rate was increased when flies were
      exposed to low humidity. This response indicates genetic variation for the
      control of metabolic rate. In contrast, increased desiccation resistance was not
      associated with lipid or glycogen levels. Increased resistance to desiccation was
      accompanied by increased starvation resistance, but radiation resistance was not
      affected. Selection did not affect the degree that replicate lines or populations
      had diverged.

PMID- 28564276
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN POLYGONUM PERSICARIA. II. NORMS OF REACTION TO SOIL
      MOISTURE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC DIVERSITY.
AB  - Adaptive phenotypic plasticity is the predicted evolutionary response to fine
      grained fluctuation in major environmental factors, such as soil moisture in
      plant habitats. This study examines genotypes from two natural populations of
      Polygonum persicaria, one from a relatively homogeneous, moderately moist site,
      and one from a site in which severe drought and root flooding occur within single
      growth seasons. Norms of reaction (phenotypic response curves) were determined
      for a random sample of eight and ten cloned genotypes, respectively, from each of
      the populations over a controlled moisture gradient ranging from drought to
      flooding.

PMID- 28564277
TI  - SEARCHING FOR EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS IN THE SHAPE OF A PHYLOGENETIC TREE.
AB  - If all species in a clade are equally likely to speciate or become extinct, then
      highly symmetric and highly asymmetric phylogenetic trees are unlikely to result.
      Variation between species in speciation and extinction rates can cause excessive
      asymmetry. We developed six non-parametric statistical tests that test for
      nonrandom patterns of branching in any bifurcating tree. The tests are
      demonstrated by applying them to two published phylogenies for genera of beetles.
      Comparison of the power of the six statistics under a simple model of biased
      speciation suggests which of them may be most useful for detecting nonrandom tree
      shapes.

PMID- 28564278
TI  - POLLEN APERTURE POLYMORPHISM AND GAMETOPHYTE PERFORMANCE IN VIOLA DIVERSIFOLIA.
AB  - Pollen aperture polymorphism is studied in Viola diversifolia, where all plants
      produce three- and four-apertured pollen grains. We tested whether there are
      genetic differences among plants for the proportions of the different pollen
      morphs, and whether the morphs differ in gametophytic performance. Results show
      that the more apertures a pollen grain has, the more quickly it germinates but
      that few-apertured pollen grains have faster growing pollen tubes and longer life
      expectancies. The proportions of the different pollen morphs, together with
      pollen tube growth rates, may be inherited traits based on differences among
      maternal families. These results suggest that the different pollen morphs are
      favored in different pollination ecology situations. The production of several
      pollen morphs by the same individual could therefore be evolutionarily
      advantageous.

PMID- 28564279
TI  - GENOTYPIC VARIATION AND CLONAL STRUCTURE IN CORAL POPULATIONS WITH DIFFERENT
      DISTURBANCE HISTORIES.
AB  - Genotypic diversity in six populations of the endemic Hawaiian reef coral,
      Porites compressa, was directly related to habitat-disturbance history. The
      highest diversity (lowest amount of clonal proliferation) was found in
      populations that had been intensely or recently disturbed. In these populations,
      space was not limited and mean colony size was small (< 500 cm2 ), suggesting
      early stages of recolonization. In an undisturbed, protected habitat, lower
      genotypic diversity was a result of a significant degree of clonal replication of
      established genotypes. Unoccupied substratum was rare in this habitat, and
      average colony size was large (> 2500 cm2 ). Populations in intermediately
      disturbed habitats showed intermediate levels of diversity and clonal structure
      as a result of the combined contributions of sexual and asexual reproduction.
      Individual clones were distributed over small areas (< 4 m2 ) or distances (< 1
      m) in young populations, and more broadly (> 256 m2 ) and over longer distances
      (> 90 m) in the older, undisturbed population. Interpretations of life-history
      parameters and estimates of total genetic variability in species that have the
      potential to reproduce asexually are dependent upon an assessment of the overall
      clonal structure of populations. The power of genotypic assays to reliably detect
      clonal versus unique colonies, as well as the spatial scales over which clonal
      populations are sampled, are critical to such assessments.

PMID- 28564280
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF THE DROSOPHILA VIRILIS SPECIES GROUP AS ASSESSED BY
      RATE TESTS FOR NATURAL SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS.
AB  - Two rate tests for assessing natural selection on quantitative traits are
      discussed for their usefulness in macroevolutionary and adaptational studies. The
      underlying assumptions and parameter estimation for the constant-heritability
      (CH) and mutation-drift-equilibrium (MDE) models, which are the bases for these
      tests, are discussed. The purpose of these rate tests is to determine whether
      morphological change has occurred either too fast to be explained by neutral
      drift, which suggests directional selection, or too slow, which suggests
      stabilizing selection. Previous formulations of these rate tests have ignored the
      phylogenetic component. Several models of evolution are considered to help
      account for phylogeny in the context of rate tests. The MDE rate test for
      stabilizing selection was performed on nine morphological characters among
      several species of the Drosophila virilis species group. These tests can be
      interpreted to suggest that stabilizing selection has probably been a major
      factor in producing the observed similarity among the Drosophila species
      examined.

PMID- 28564281
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN POLYGONUM PERSICARIA. I. DIVERSITY AND UNIFORMITY IN
      GENOTYPIC NORMS OF REACTION TO LIGHT.
AB  - Several aspects of genotype-environment interaction may act to modulate natural
      selection in populations that encounter variable environments. In this study the
      norms of reaction (phenotypic responses) of 20 cloned genotypes from two natural
      populations of the annual plant Polygonum persicaria were determined over a broad
      range of controlled light environments (8%-100% full sun). These data reveal both
      the extent of functionally adaptive phenotypic plasticity expressed by individual
      genotypes, and the patterns of diversity among genotypes for characters relevant
      to fitness, in response to an environmental factor that is both highly variable
      within populations and critical to growth and reproduction.

PMID- 28564282
TI  - BADGE SIZE, PHENOTYPIC QUALITY, AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN THE HOUSE SPARROW: A
      STUDY ON HONEST ADVERTISEMENT.
AB  - Honest signaling theory suggests that advertising traits must be costly to their
      bearer; thus, only individuals of high phenotypic quality can exhibit maximal
      expression of these traits. Males of the sexually dichromatic house sparrow,
      Passer domesticus, have a black throat patch that functions as a badge of status.
      I investigated whether badge size honestly shows phenotypic quality. Badge size
      increases with age and decreases with advancing fledging date in yearling males;
      thus, badge size was larger in older individuals even though age differences were
      small. Badge size also increased with physical condition independent of age.
      These results indicate that badge size functions as an honest signal, possibly
      because there are costs involved in its production. I also found that males with
      enlarged badges acquired more nest sites than either control males or males with
      reduced badges. However, males with enlarged badges possessing a nest site raised
      fewer fledglings per year than did males with reduced badges, suggesting that
      cheating has no selective benefit. Further studies that accurately measure the
      energy expenditure allocated to badge production and that quantify additional
      fitness components are needed to clarify how reliable badges are maintained.

PMID- 28564283
TI  - COST OF REPRODUCTION IN POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM: PHENOTYPIC AND GENETIC APPROACHES.
AB  - I measured the effect of early reproduction on subsequent growth and survival in
      the alpine perennial wildflower, Polemonium viscosum. Measurements were made over
      4 yr on 34 maternal sibships under natural conditions. A significant phenotypic
      cost of early reproduction characterized the study population. Plants that
      flowered after only one year's growth had twice as many leaves and 25% more
      shoots than nonflowering individuals of equal age. However, early flowering
      decreased leaf number by 18% in the subsequent year and survivorship by 20% after
      two years relative to changes in leaf number and survival of nonflowering plants.
      For such trade-offs to shape the further evolution of reproductive schedules,
      flowering probability and those age-specific components of plant size that
      represent the energetic currency for reproductive costs must be heritable.
      Although families showed significant heterogeneity in the probability of early
      flowering, most (62%) entirely failed to flower. Moreover, phenotypic variation
      in vegetative size components at ages 1 and 2 had little genetic basis. Only at
      ages 3 and 4, after vegetative and demographic costs of early reproduction had
      been incurred, did vegetative size components (leaf length and number, and shoot
      number) vary significantly among families. Results of this study provide little
      evidence of a genetically based trade-off between early reproduction and
      subsequent survival in P. viscosum.

PMID- 28564284
TI  - SPERMATOPHORE SIZE IN BUSHCRICKETS: COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE FOR NUPTIAL GIFTS AS A
      SPERM PROTECTION DEVICE.
AB  - During courtship and copulation, males of many insect species provide the female
      with a nuptial gift of a prey item or synthesized material. These gifts may be
      explained as a form of paternal investment by increasing female reproductive
      output, or in terms of mating effort by increasing male fertilization success.
      These explanations, while not mutually exclusive, are controversial. While
      experimental studies examine the maintenance of nuptial gifts in single species,
      comparative studies are required to indicate more general evolutionary trends.
      Male bushcrickets provide females with a nuptial gift, a spermatophylax, which is
      transferred to females at mating along with the sperm-containing ampulla.
      Analysis of comparative data of 28 species of bushcrickets (Orthoptera:
      Tettigoniidae), reveals that male spermatophore size (spermatophylax and ampulla
      weight) is positively correlated with female refractory period, which, in turn,
      correlates with male fertilization success. Moreover, gift size (the
      spermatophylax) covaries with ejaculate size (the ampulla), which is consistent
      with the hypothesis that it serves as a sperm protection device. In contrast,
      there is no significant correlation between any measure of female fecundity and
      male spermatophylax size. This indicates that the variation in spermatophore size
      among bushcrickets is better explained by a mating-effort function than a
      paternal investment function.

PMID- 28564285
TI  - FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT DEPENDS ON THE DEGREE OF ORNAMENTATION OF THEIR MATES.
AB  - Sexual selection theory assumes that secondary sexual characters do not influence
      female reproductive effort. Female animals may invest relatively more in
      reproduction if they acquire mates of high phenotypic quality, because offspring
      sired by preferred males may be relatively more viable than offspring sired by
      less preferred males. Here we report for the first time in a field study that
      females of the monogamous barn swallow Hirundo rustica adjust their reproductive
      effort to the attractiveness of their mates. Experimental manipulation of male
      tail length, which is a trait currently subject to a directional female mating
      preference, affected the reproductive effort by females in single broods as well
      as their decision on the seasonal number of clutches. These results, and those of
      previous experiments, demonstrate that female barn swallows assess the quality of
      their mates throughout the reproductive season and adjust their reproductive
      decisions accordingly. This result has important implications for the theory of
      sexual selection and for the possibility of testing current models of female mate
      preferences, because the viability of offspring will be confounded by
      differential reproductive effort.

PMID- 28564287
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS IN COASTAL NORTH AMERICAN TIGER BEETLES (CICINDELA
      DORSALIS SAY) INFERRED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES.
AB  - Genetic variation was assessed in the tiger beetle, Cicindela dorsalis, by
      sequencing of three regions of the mtDNA genome. Populations of four
      morphologically distinguishable subspecies were sampled from 28 representative
      locations covering almost the entire geographic range of the species in coastal
      North America. In 78 individuals analyzed for 656 base pairs from four different
      genes, 17 different haplotypes could be distinguished. A cladistic analysis
      grouped the haplotype sequences into two main lineages, one from the Atlantic
      Ocean and one from the Gulf of Mexico. Haplotypes within the two clades were very
      similar to each other. Most of the characters that distinguished these closely
      related haplotypes were homoplastic. The geographic distribution of haplotypes
      did not coincide with the distribution of morphological subspecies, but no
      evidence for hybridization between two subspecies could be inferred from this
      observation. The implications of these findings for the evolution of gene
      sequences at and below the species level are discussed.

PMID- 28564288
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY AND POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION INFERRED FROM DNA
      FINGERPRINTING IN SILVEREYES (AVES: ZOSTEROPIDAE).
AB  - This study evaluated DNA fingerprinting as a tool for estimating population
      genetic diversity and differentiation by comparing minisatellite variation in
      island and mainland populations of silvereyes (Aves: Zosterops lateralis). Three
      populations with different recent histories were compared: (1) Heron Island and
      neighboring islands, colonized 3000 to 4000 yr ago; (2) Lady Elliot Island,
      colonized within the past two decades; and (3) an adjacent mainland population,
      which presumably has existed for thousands of years. The degree of genetic
      variability within the three populations reflected both their size and the time
      since their colonization. Minisatellite diversity was highest in the mainland
      population, intermediate in the Capricorn Island group (which was shown to
      represent a single admixture), and lowest in the Lady Elliot Island population,
      possibly because of a recent population bottleneck during colonization. Mean band
      sharing between any two populations was less than the mean within either of those
      populations, and four fingerprint bands common to island birds were rare or
      absent in the fingerprints of mainland birds. In the absence of significant gene
      flow between the mainland and the islands, the populations have apparently become
      distinct at minisatellite loci, as evidenced by differences in both allelic
      diversity and in the frequencies of specific fragments. Within the Heron Island
      population, cohort analyses demonstrated the temporal stability of the
      fingerprint profile over 6 yr. This study demonstrates that length polymorphisms
      at minisatellite loci may be stable enough over time to retain information about
      recent historical and demographic effects on the relative genetic variability and
      differentiation of small, closely related populations.

PMID- 28564289
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF BACTERIOPHAGE T7.
AB  - We present an analysis of molecular evolution in a laboratory-generated phylogeny
      of the bacteriophage T7, a virus of 40 kilo-base pairs of double-stranded DNA.
      The known biology of T7 is used in concert with observed changes in restriction
      sites and in DNA sequences to produce a model of restriction-site convergence and
      divergence in the experimental lineages. During laboratory propagation in the
      presence of a mutagen, the phage lineages changed an estimated 0.5%-1.5% in base
      pairs; most change appears to have been G -> A or C -> T, presumably because of
      the mutagen employed. Some classes of restriction-site losses can be explained
      adequately as simple outcomes of random processes, given the mutation rate and
      the bias in mutation spectrum. However, some other classes of sites appear to
      have undergone accelerated rates of loss, as though the losses were selectively
      favored. Overall, the wealth of knowledge available for T7 biology contributes
      only modestly to these explanations of restriction-site evolution, but rates of
      restriction-site gains remain poorly explained, perhaps requiring an even deeper
      understanding of T7 genetics than was employed here. Having measured these
      properties of molecular evolution, we programmed computer simulations with the
      parameter estimates and pseudo-replicated the empirical study, thereby providing
      a data base for statistical evaluation of phylogeny reconstruction methods. By
      these criteria, replicates of the experimental phylogeny would be correctly
      reconstructed over 97% of the time for the three methods tested, but the methods
      differed significantly both in their ability to recover the correct topology and
      in their ability to predict branch lengths. More generally, the study illustrates
      how analyses of experimental evolution in bacteriophage can be exploited to
      reveal relationships between the basics of molecular evolution and abstract
      models of evolutionary processes.

PMID- 28564290
TI  - THE ONTOGENY OF POSTCRANIAL INTEGRATION IN THE COMMON TERN, STERNA HIRUNDO.
AB  - Empirical and theoretical work supports the concept that developmentally or
      functionally related characters tend to covary and hence evolve together.
      However, the dynamics of the developmental processes that establish within
      population covariance structures are not well understood. This paper focuses on a
      description of the relative growth of 16 postcranial skeletal elements during
      embryonic and posthatching development in the common tern, Sterna hirundo, and on
      a comparative analysis of ontogenetic and adult patterns of variation.
      Multivariate methods are used to assess the relative contributions of general
      growth and size-independent "shape" transformations during three major
      development phases. The observed patterns of integration generally correspond to
      functional units that tend to show greater relative growth during development
      immediately preceding when a unit will first be functionally required. Such age
      dependent functional adaptations provide an opportunity for selection to act
      directly on ontogenies with consequences that will be age dependent. Size and
      shape contributions to adult covariances, which tend to be generated during
      different phases of development, appear to reflect ontogenetic integration
      patterns characteristic of periods when global constraints, such as overall size,
      are most relaxed, but more localized constraints, most likely linked to age
      dependent functional requirements, are relatively intense.

PMID- 28564291
TI  - THE GENETICS OF CENTRAL AND MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SERRATA. II.
      HYBRID BREAKDOWN IN FITNESS COMPONENTS AS A CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION FOR
      DESICCATION RESISTANCE.
AB  - Multiple-peak epistasis is one of the four premises that underlie Wright's
      shifting-balance theory of evolution. A selection experiment was conducted in an
      attempt to push different geographic populations to different fitness peaks as a
      correlated response to selection for an additively controlled character
      (desiccation resistance). Four populations of Drosophila serrata, sampled from
      central and marginal areas of its distribution along a 3000-km stretch of
      Australia's east coast, underwent selection for desiccation resistance for 14
      generations. After selection had ceased, control lines from each of the
      populations were crossed to determine the amount of hybrid breakdown that existed
      before selection and selected lines were crossed to determine the amount of
      hybrid breakdown after selection. Hybrid breakdown was measured in three fitness
      traits: developmental time, viability, and fecundity. When the individual crosses
      were examined, virtually no evidence was found for hybrid breakdown between these
      populations. However, the level of hybrid breakdown in development time in the
      control lines increased as the distance between the populations in the field
      increased. This relationship was lost in the selected lines. Therefore, selection
      for desiccation resistance influenced the level of hybrid breakdown in a fitness
      trait, although selection may need to be maintained for longer than 14
      generations if a new relationship between hybrid breakdown and distance is to be
      formed.

PMID- 28564292
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN POLYGONUM PERSICARIA. III. THE EVOLUTION OF ECOLOGICAL
      BREADTH FOR NUTRIENT ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - Norms of reaction for a number of growth and reproductive characters were
      determined for 15 randomly sampled Polygonum persicaria genotypes, from two
      natural populations originating in sites with very different nutrient
      availabilities. Under severely limiting nutrient conditions, these genotypes
      shared not only plastic responses such as increased root-to-shoot ratio, but a
      surprising constancy in such functionally essential characters as leaf area
      ratio, leaf nitrogen concentration, and propagule nitrogen content. Because
      functional homeostasis depends on flexibility in underlying characters, similar
      homeostatic results can be achieved through different combinations of underlying
      plastic and fixed responses in genetically different entities. For example,
      plants in each population maintained a relatively constant propagule nitrogen
      content under extreme low-nitrogen conditions by varying either the size or the
      tissue nitrogen concentration of propagules. These genotypes also tolerated
      excessive nutrient levels toxic to many plants, evidently by storing excess
      nutrients in shoots. Although development was altered under such circumstances,
      reproductive fitness was maintained.

PMID- 28564293
TI  - THE EFFECT OF BIASED INCLUSION OF TAXA ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN DISCRETE
      CHARACTERS IN PHYLOGENETIC TREES.
AB  - In a published paper, a method for testing the correlation between two discrete
      characters was presented and applied to test whether in butterfly larvae origins
      of gregariousness are concentrated to lineages with aposematic coloration. The
      relationship was found to be nonsignificant. However, the butterfly data on which
      the test was applied had been compiled in another study to investigate
      evolutionary sequences and was biased, because there was an overrepresentation of
      aposematic, as compared to cryptic, branches in the sample. In the paper
      presented here, aposematic and cryptic clades of the original phylogeny were
      resolved to the same degree, and the resulting set of branches may be regarded as
      unbiased with respect to the hypothesis being tested. A method for testing the
      contingency of states in two characters was then applied to the new data set,
      resulting in a highly significant relationship between origins of gregariousness
      and aposematic coloration. I argue that when using statistical methods on
      phylogenetic data, it is crucial to resolve various parts of the phylogeny to the
      same comparable systematic unit in order not to get a distorted sample of
      taxa/branches.

PMID- 28564295
TI  - THE GENETICS AND COST OF CHEMICAL DEFENSE IN THE TWO-SPOT LADYBIRD (ADALIA
      BIPUNCTATA L.).
AB  - Ladybirds (Coccinellidae) defend themselves against attack by vertebrate
      predators by exuding a fluid from the femero-tibial joints. This fluid carries a
      noxious or toxic alkaloid. The amount of fluid produced during a single attack
      can be very high (up to 20% of fresh body weight), and the weight of the self
      synthesized alkaloid can amount to several percent of the weight of the fluid. A
      study was carried out on these two defense characters and two other fitness
      characters (body weight and growth rate) to demonstrate a cost to defense in the
      form of genetic trade-offs between characters. The two sexes were analyzed
      separately, and a jackknife procedure was used to attach errors to the estimates
      of Va and cova . All four characters were associated with high levels of Va , but
      the cova values were mixed, some being negative and others positive. Principal
      component analysis indicated the operation of factors constraining the cova
      values in males, and further possible reasons for the appearance of so many
      positive values are explored. A matrix analysis showed that the genetic
      variance/covariance matrices of the two sexes were significantly different from
      each other. Breeding values derived from sons plotted on breeding values from
      daughters had correlation coefficients significantly less than +1. This finding
      indicated that a substantial amount of sex-dependent gene expression was
      occurring.

PMID- 28564294
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF POPULATION SIZE AND PLANT DENSITY ON OUTCROSSING RATES IN LOCALLY
      ENDANGERED SALVIA PRATENSIS.
AB  - Multilocus outcrossing rates were estimated in natural and experimental
      populations of Salvia pratensis, an entomophilous, gynodioecious, protandrous
      perennial. Male steriles were used to check the estimation procedure of
      outcrossing rates in hermaphrodites. Estimates of outcrossing rates in
      hermaphroditic plants ranged from 38.2% to 81.8% in natural populations and from
      71.5% to 95.5% in experimental populations. No correlations were found between
      outcrossing rates and population size. However, outcrossing in hermaphrodites was
      promoted by high plant densities and low frequencies of male steriles. It is
      argued that effective management to preserve genetic variation in populations of
      S. pratensis should provide for the maintenance of high plant densities.

PMID- 28564296
TI  - MOLECULAR TESTS OF THE HYPOTHESIZED HYBRID ORIGIN OF TWO DIPLOID HELIANTHUS
      SPECIES (ASTERACEAE).
AB  - Enzyme electrophoresis and restriction-fragment analysis of chloroplast DNA
      (cpDNA) and nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were used to test the hypothesis that
      both Helianthus neglectus and H. paradoxus are stabilized hybrid derivatives of
      H. annuus and H. petiolaris. The four species are annuals, diploid outcrossers,
      and have the same chromosome number. Helianthus annuus and H. petiolaris had the
      same allele in highest frequency for 16 of the 18 isozyme loci examined and had
      different majority alleles for only 6-Pgd3 and Pgi2. The two species had
      divergent rDNAs that could be distinguished by seven diagnostic restriction site
      mutations and three length mutations, and their cpDNAs could be differentiated by
      three diagnostic restriction site mutations. The alleles observed in H. neglectus
      were not a combination of those observed in H. annuus and H. petiolaris. Although
      H. neglectus had only one unique allele, it possessed none of the three alleles
      specific to H. annuus. In contrast, it had four of the seven alleles specific to
      H. petiolaris. Furthermore, H. neglectus had the same rDNA type as H. petiolaris
      and had the same cpDNA as that found in two populations of H. petiolaris ssp.
      fallax. These data allowed us to speculate that H. neglectus may be a recent
      derivative of H. petiolaris ssp. fallax, rather than a stabilized hybrid
      derivative as originally proposed. In contrast, H. paradoxus combined the alleles
      of H. annuus and H. petiolaris and had no unique alleles. At Adh2, H. paradoxus
      was monomorphic for an allele found only in H. petiolaris ssp. fallax, whereas at
      6-Pgd3 and Pgi2, it was monomorphic for high frequency H. annuus alleles.
      Furthermore, H. paradoxus combined the rDNA repeat types of both proposed parents
      and had the chloroplast genome of H. annuus. These data provide compelling
      evidence that H. paradoxus, in contrast to H. neglectus, was derived via
      hybridization.

PMID- 28564297
TI  - PREDICTING HOST RANGE EVOLUTION: COLONIZATION OF CORONILLA VARIA BY COLIAS
      PHILODICE (LEPIDOPTERA: PIERIDAE).
AB  - Extensive sympatry is currently arising between the common sulfur butterfly,
      Colias philodice Latreille (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) and a potential leguminous
      host plant, Coronilla varia (L.). In laboratory trials, larval surviviorship and
      growth were higher on the primary host, Medicago sativa (L.), than on the nonhost
      C. varia. However, because females reared from C. varia were on average more
      fecund than females reared from M. sativa, fitness on C. varia (approximately as
      survivorship times fecundity) was commensurate with fitness on M. sativa. Thus,
      it is predicted that selection would favor oviposition on C. varia, if such
      behavior were to arise. In addition, significant among-family variation exists
      for several measures of larval performance on both C. varia and M. sativa,
      indicating that C. philodice can potentially respond to selection for increased
      performance on each species. Moreover, larval performance was significantly
      positively correlated across these species, suggesting that selection for
      increased performance on each species will facilitate, not constrain, evolution
      of increased performance on the other. It is concluded that behavioral rather
      than physiological barriers currently account for the absence of C. philodice
      from C. varia and that, if such barriers are overcome, C. philodice will expand
      its host plant range to include C. varia.

PMID- 28564298
TI  - PHYLOGENESIS OF INSECT/PLANT INTERACTIONS: HAVE PHYLLOBROTICA LEAF BEETLES
      (CHRYSOMELIDAE) AND THE LAMIALES DIVERSIFIED IN PARALLEL?
AB  - The relative importance of conservative versus locally adapted traits for species
      interactions is an increasingly common theme in evolutionary ecology. Obligate
      interactions such as those between parasites and hosts often exhibit such strong
      phylogenetic conservatism that current associations may reflect diversification
      in parallel. Parallel phylogenesis, documented for animal parasites, has been
      doubted for insect/plant interactions, but phylogenetic studies of highly
      specific insect/plant associations are very few. A comparison of phylogeny
      estimates for the strictly monophagous Phyllobrotica leaf beetles and their
      lamialean hostplants shows nearly complete concordance, strongly supporting the
      hypothesis of parallel diversification. The cladogram concordance is significant
      or nearly so (consensus index values equalling or exceeding the critical value)
      under randomization distributions based on Adams (though not Nelson) consensus
      trees. The one clear exception shows unusual natural history, suggesting an
      isolated host transfer. Insect distributions and plant fossil ages are consistent
      with a mid-Tertiary age for both clades, further disfavoring the alternative
      hypothesis of entirely subsequent evolution. The dependence of both larval and
      adult beetles on the hostplants, larval endophagy, and possible dependence of
      beetles on toxic host compounds for defense against predators are suggested to
      underlie the evolutionary persistence of this interaction. Current host use in
      these beetles appears to reflect primarily the phylogeny of the interaction,
      strengthening the thesis that history can play a major role in structuring
      insect/plant relationships.

PMID- 28564299
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF TETRAPOD FEEDING BEHAVIOR: KINEMATIC HOMOLOGIES IN PREY
      TRANSPORT.
AB  - One of the major features of the aquatic-to-terrestrial transition in vertebrate
      evolution was the change in the mechanism used to transport prey from the jaws to
      the throat. Primarily, vertebrates use hydraulic transport, but the transition to
      terrestrial life was accompanied by modifications of the hyobranchial apparatus
      that permit tongue-based transport. Despite an extensive data base on amniote
      feeding systems and mechanisms of intraoral prey transport, few data are
      available on the mechanism of prey transport in anamniote tetrapods. Transport
      cycles of four Ambystoma tigrinum (Amphibia) feeding on worms and crickets were
      filmed at 150 flames per second to produce quantitative profiles of the intraoral
      transport cycles for the two prey types. During the transport cycle the head and
      body remain stationary relative to the background: transport in Ambystoma
      tigrinum thus does not involve inertial movements of the head or body. Prey type
      had little effect on the kinematics of prey transport. The process of prey
      transport may be divided into four phases: preparatory, fast opening, closing,
      and recovery. The preparatory phase itself is divided into two parts: an extended
      segment that may include slight slow opening and a static phase prior to mouth
      opening where no change in gape occurs. The kinematic profile of transport in
      terrestrial salamanders is extremely similar to that used by fishes during
      hydraulic (aquatic) prey transport. We hypothesize that the distinct recovery and
      preparatory phases in the transport cycle of anamniote tetrapods are together
      homologous to the slow opening phases of the amniote cycle, and that during the
      evolution of terrestrial prey processing systems the primitive extended
      preparatory phase has become greatly compressed and incorporated into the amniote
      gape cycle.

PMID- 28564300
TI  - HYBRIDS AND PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS I. PATTERNS OF CHARACTER EXPRESSION IN
      HYBRIDS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR CLADISTIC ANALYSIS.
AB  - Interspecific hybridization is considered common among plants, but the methods of
      cladistic systematics produce only divergently branching phylogenetic hypotheses
      and thus cannot give the correct phylogeny if an analysis includes hybrids.
      Empirical studies of the impact of known hybrids on phylogenetic analysis are
      lacking, and are necessary to begin to understand the problems that we face if
      hybrids are often included in cladistic analysis. Examination of the implications
      of hybrids for cladistics must begin with patterns of character expression in
      hybrids. This study includes 17 hybrids and their nine parental taxa that are
      Central American species of Aphelandra (Acanthaceae), analyzed using a set of 50
      morphological characters. The hybrids are overwhelmingly intermediate as
      quantitatively scored for phylogenetic analysis. They express maternal and
      paternal, and primitive and derived characters in equal frequencies, showing no
      evidence of predominant inheritance of derived character states as has been
      assumed by most cladists who have considered hybrids theoretically. Because of
      their known genetic constitution, hybrids were useful in homology assessment and
      ordering character states. The parental character set was generally robust, but
      some changes were made to reflect the special evidence offered by the hybrids.
      These hybrids suggest that the inclusion of hybrids in phylogenetic analysis will
      not lead to unresolved cladograms with rampant homoplasy, as has been predicted
      by other authors. Instead, the patterns of character inheritance in these hybrids
      lead to the prediction that a hybrid will be placed by phylogenetic analysis as a
      basal lineage to the clade that includes its most derived parent, with relatively
      little effect on homoplasy. These predictions will be evaluated by incorporation
      of the hybrids in phylogenetic analyses, to be reported in a subsequent paper.

PMID- 28564301
TI  - PATERNITY ANALYSIS IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF ASCLEPIAS EXALTATA: MULTIPLE
      PATERNITY, FUNCTIONAL GENDER, AND THE "POLLEN-DONATION HYPOTHESIS".
AB  - Recently, some evolutionary biologists have argued that selection on the male
      component of fitness shapes the evolution of reproductive characters in
      angiosperms. Floral features, such as inflorescence size, that lead to increased
      insect visitation without a concomitant increase in seed production are viewed as
      adaptations to enhance the probability of fathering seeds on other plants. In
      tests of this "pollen donation hypothesis," male reproductive success has usually
      been measured indirectly by flower production, pollinator visitation, or pollen
      removal. We tested the pollen donation hypothesis directly by quantifying the
      number of seeds sired by individual genotypes in a natural population of poke
      milkweed, Asclepias exaltata, in southwestern Virginia. Multiple paternity was
      low within fruits, a fact which allowed us to use genotypes of progeny arrays to
      identify a unique pollen parent for 85% of the fruits produced in the population.
      Seeds sired (male success) and seeds produced (female success) were significantly
      correlated with flower number per plant (for male success, r = 0.32, P > 0.05;
      for female success, r = 0.66, P > 0.001). While the number of pollinaria removed,
      the usual estimator of male success in milkweeds, was highly correlated with
      numbers of seeds sired (r = 0.47; P > 0.001), it was even more highly correlated
      with numbers of seeds produced (r = 0.71, P > 0.001). Analysis of functional
      gender indicated that plants with many flowers did not behave primarily as males.
      In fact, individuals with the highest total reproductive success contributed
      equally as males and females. Furthermore, estimates of gender based on numbers
      of flowers produced or pollinaria removed overestimated the number of functional
      males in the population. In pollen-limited species, such as many milkweeds,
      proportional increases in both male and female reproductive success indicate the
      potential for selection to shape the evolution of large floral displays through
      both male and female functions.

PMID- 28564302
TI  - PAEDOMORPHOSIS IN AMBYSTOMA TALPOIDEUM: MAINTENANCE OF POPULATION VARIATION AND
      ALTERNATIVE LIFE-HISTORY PATHWAYS.
AB  - A "common garden" experiment using artifical ponds was performed to test if
      differences in frequency of paedomorphosis and metamorphosis among six natural
      populations of the salamander Ambystoma talpoideum resulted from the drying
      regime of the aquatic habitat acting as an agent of selection. Our experiment
      supports the hypothesis of genetic differentiation in the propensity to
      metamorphose among the populations, but gave mixed evidence that pond-drying
      regime is the selective force directing evolution of this trait. Some populations
      appear to have evolved phenotypic plasticity whereas others may have a genetic
      polymorphism in their propensity to metamorphose as ponds dry.

PMID- 28564303
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND TERRITORIALITY IN WILLOW PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS LAGOPUS
      LAGOPUS).
AB  - We examined eight polymorphic esterase loci in 526 juvenile and adult willow
      ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus lagopus) collected during autumn and spring over five
      years. The genetic structure of territorial birds during spring differed from
      birds on the study area in autumn. This can not be explained by selective winter
      mortality since juvenile birds in the autumn had the same genetic structure as
      the adults who had lived through at least one winter. In the spring, birds with
      intermediate heterozygosity had the largest territories and were more frequently
      mated than expected from random mating among autumn birds. The results suggest
      selective access to territories by genotype and stabilizing selection, especially
      among males, since natural selection is assumed to favor large territories and
      reproduction. Our data also suggest that the spring population consisted of both
      territorial and non-territorial birds. The genetic relationship between birds of
      established pairs in spring was lower than that between randomly drawn birds on
      the study area in the autumn. This together with the finding that parents with an
      intermediate level of genetic relationship produced the largest broods, suggest
      that optimal rather than maximal outbreeding is the most successful breeding
      strategy in this species.

PMID- 28564304
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF COMMUNITY EVOLUTION II: THE ECOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE
      RESPONSE TO COMMUNITY SELECTION.
AB  - Community selection, defined as the differential proliferation and/or extinction
      of communities, can bring about a response that may be qualitatively different
      from the response to selection acting at lower levels. This is because community
      selection can result in genetic changes in all of the species within the
      community by acting on the interaction among species. In the experiment presented
      here, a series of one generation assays were performed on the coevolved
      communities of two species of flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum,
      discussed by Goodnight (1990). Two community assays and one single-species assay
      were performed. Taken together, these provide insights into the genetic basis of
      the response to community selection. The first community assay involved measuring
      the selected traits on the original coevolved communities that had been subjected
      to community selection. This assay indicated that all of the selection treatments
      resulted in a significant response to selection in the original coevolved
      communities. The single-species assay involved separating the coevolved
      communities into their constituent single-species populations and again measuring
      the selected traits on these populations. None of the single-species populations
      exhibited a significant response to selection; thus the responses to community
      selection observed in the first community assay are expressed only in a community
      context. The second community assay again involved separating the coevolved
      communities into their constituent single-species populations; however, in this
      assay a competitor of the opposite species that had never been exposed to
      community selection was added to each population to form a "reconstructed"
      community. The results of this assay were that for two traits, emigration rate in
      T. castaneum and emigration rate in T. confusum, the genetic identity of the
      competing species did not affect the response to selection. This indicates that
      the competing species was acting like a nonevolving part of the environment. For
      the other two traits measured, population size in T. castaneum and population
      size in T. confusum, the results were very different. For these traits there was
      no detectable response to selection in the reconstructed communities. This
      indicates that for these traits the response to selection cannot be attributed to
      a genetic change in either species independently of the other species in the
      community. Rather it resides in the interaction between the two species.

PMID- 28564305
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND COMPETITION AMONG KIN IN THE CHORUS FROG (PSEUDACRIS
      TRISERIATA).
AB  - In natural populations on Isle Royale, tadpoles of the chorus frog live in small
      pools on the shore of Lake Superior. Hatchling densities are high and sufficient
      to cause competitive impact on survivorship, growth, and development. The
      temporal and spatial pattern of egg laying indicates that tadpoles in many of the
      pools belong to single sibships. I calculated average coefficients of
      relationship among tadpoles under the assumption that eggs laid together are the
      products of the same breeding pair; the coefficients indicate that relationship
      among competing larvae averages approximately 0.35, and varies widely among
      larval subpopulations, from less than 0.1 to about 0.5. Two growth experiments
      were carried out in pens to test whether growth trajectories and larval
      characteristics at metamorphosis are influenced by relationship among competing
      tadpoles. In both experiments, initial density was crossed with average
      relationship; relationship was controlled by varying the number of sibships per
      pen from one to four. The same sibships were used in both experiments, but one
      experiment had lower initial densities and less water volume per pen than the
      other. In both experiments, density reduced growth, developmental rate, size at
      metamorphosis, survivorship to the onset of metamorphosis, and the proportion of
      survivors which actually attained metamorphosis by the end of the experiment. Kin
      effects occurred only in the experiment carried out in small pens at high initial
      densities: in this experiment, pure sib populations grew faster, and a higher
      proportion attained metamorphosis. However, there were no kin effects on larval
      period or body size at metamorphosis. The chorus frog appears to have a
      population structure conducive to kin-group selection. Furthermore, high variance
      in the average coefficient of relationship among pools should favor kin
      recognition and kin-specific interference behavior. The growth experiments
      suggest that the tadpoles respond to the genetic relationship of competitors,
      with significant effects on the distribution of fitness at metamorphosis among
      members of the group.

PMID- 28564306
TI  - ACCURACY OF ESTIMATED PHYLOGENIES: EFFECTS OF TREE TOPOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY
      MODEL.
AB  - A simulation study was carried out to investigate the relative importance of tree
      topology (both balance and stemminess), evolutionary rates (constant, varying
      among characters, and varying among lineages), and evolutionary models in
      determining the accuracy with which phylogenetic trees can be estimated. The
      three evolutionary context models were phyletic (characters can change at each
      simulated time step), speciational (changes are possible only at the time of
      speciation into two daughter lineages), and punctuational (changes occur at the
      time of speciation but only in one of the daughter lineages). UPGMA clustering
      and maximum parsimony ("Wagner trees") methods for estimating phylogenies were
      compared. All trees were based on eight recent OTUs. The three evolutionary
      context models were found to have the largest influence on accuracy of estimates
      by both methods. The next most important effect was that of the stemminess *
      context interaction. Maximum parsimony and UPGMA performed worst under the
      punctuational models. Under the phyletic model, trees with high stemminess values
      could be estimated more accurately and balanced trees were slightly easier to
      estimate than unbalanced ones. Overall, maximum parsimony yielded more accurate
      trees than UPGMA-but that was expected for these simulations since many more
      characters than OTUs were used. Our results suggest that the great majority of
      estimated phylogenetic trees are likely to be quite inaccurate; they underscore
      the inappropriateness of characterizing current phylogenetic methods as being for
      reconstruction rather than for estimation.

PMID- 28564307
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF INTRASPECIFIC NEST PARASITISM IN SNOW
      GEESE.
AB  - The reproductive efficiency, defined as the number of breeding recruits produced
      per egg laid; of intraspecific nest parasites; of hosts in parasitized nests; and
      of unparasitized nesting females, was measured for 14 years for lesser snow geese
      Anser caerulescens caerulescens nesting near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
      Relative efficiencies were 0.71-0.88, 0.91, and 1.0 for eggs of parasites, hosts,
      and unparasitized birds, respectively. Differences in the hatching probabilities
      of the three classes of eggs produced the efficiency differences. Parasitic
      success was limited by the parasites' failure to place more eggs than expected by
      chance into nests at the appropriate time relative to host incubation. Host
      nesting success was lower when more than one parasitic egg was added to the
      clutch. No differences in gosling survival and breeding recruitment probabilities
      were detected among any categories of goslings. Thus, hatching parasitic young
      are at no disadvantage relative to parental young, and there is no support for
      the hypothesis that increased success of host young at later stages of
      reproduction might offset negative effects at the egg stage. The hatching
      efficiency of parasitic eggs declined more rapidly than that of parental eggs as
      the parasitism rate increased. Efficiencies were similar when 3-4% of the eggs
      laid per year were parasitic, but relative parasitic efficiency was significantly
      lower when the parasitism rate was 8-9% or more. Using ancillary information and
      assumptions about the fecundity, viability, and behavioral flexibility of
      parasitic and parental females, we conclude that intraspecific nest parasitism
      could compete with nesting as a reproductive strategy in this population. The
      conditional use of parasitism by a large component of the population in certain
      years, however, combined with negative-frequency dependent success, limits the
      potential spread of a purely parasitic strategy in this population.

PMID- 28564308
TI  - LOCAL VARIATION IN THE GENETIC BASIS OF PAEDOMORPHOSIS IN THE SALAMANDER
      AMBYSTOMA TALPOIDEUM.
AB  - The hypothesis that local isolated populations differed in the genetic basis for
      life-history traits was tested in the salamander Ambystoma talpoideum. Genetic
      basis was defined as the specific genetic architecture (additive and nonadditive)
      that contributes, along with maternal and environmental factors, to the
      phenotype. All crosses within and between three populations were made to produce
      nine F1 populations. Nine within-population crosses produced the F2 generation.
      This design does not permit an estimation of the exact nature of the genetic
      basis (e.g., additive, nonadditive) for any trait within populations. However,
      hybrid dissimilarity in the F2 generation was taken as evidence of a different
      genetic basis for a trait in each population. The genetic basis of life-history
      pathway (metamorphosis vs. paedomorphosis) and per capita fecundity differed
      between two populations. The genetic basis of life-history pathway, per capita
      fecundity, survival, and growth rate was similar between the remaining sets of
      populations. This study and related ones (Semlitsch and Wilbur, 1989; Semlitsch
      et al., 1990) suggest that a heterochronic shift that causes rapid morphological
      evolution between metamorphosis and paedomorphosis (a macroevolutionary pattern)
      can evolve independently and does not require a macromutation or other
      nonmicroevolutionary mechanisms.

PMID- 28564309
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF COMMUNITY EVOLUTION I: THE RESPONSE TO SELECTION AT THE
      COMMUNITY LEVEL.
AB  - Coevolution generally refers to the process of two or more organisms adapting to
      each other as a result of individual selection. Another possibility, however, is
      that coevolution may result from selection acting directly at the community
      level. Certain types of multispecies associations, such as lichens, which are a
      symbiotic association between an alga and a fungus, are examples of simple two
      species communities that may be units of selection. The study presented here uses
      two species communities of Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum in an
      investigation of selection acting at the community level. Selection at the
      community level is performed on one trait measured in one species and correlated
      responses in other traits measured both within species and among species are
      monitored. I demonstrate that community selection, defined as the differential
      survival and or reproduction of communities, can result in significant changes in
      the phenotype of a community. The observed changes in the phenotype of a
      community as a result of community selection included changes in the trait under
      selection (direct effects of selection), as well as changes in traits that are
      not under selection (correlated responses to selection). Furthermore, two types
      of correlated responses to selection were observed. The first, within-species
      correlated responses to selection, are changes in a trait measured in one species
      as a result of community selection acting on another trait measured in the same
      species. The second, between-species correlated responses to selection, are
      changes in a trait measured in one species as a result of community selection
      acting on a trait measured in another species. Between species correlated
      responses to selection are of particular interest because they cannot be mediated
      by pathways of gene action that are internal to an individual, rather they can be
      mediated only through ecological pathways. In other words, between-species
      correlated responses to selection suggest that genetically based interactions
      among individuals are contributing to the response to community selection. These
      among species ecological pathways of gene action cannot contribute to a response
      to selection at a lower level; thus community selection may be able to bring
      about a response to selection that is qualitatively different from the response
      selection that would occur as a result of selection acting at a lower level.

PMID- 28564310
TI  - DIPLOID MALES IN A PRIMITIVELY EUSOCIAL BEE, LASIOGLOSSUM (DIALICTUS) ZEPHYRUM
      (HYMENOPTERA: HALICTIDAE).
AB  - Hymenoptera are characterized by a haplo-diploid mechanism of sex determination.
      Females are diploid and males are haploid. However, in many species diploid males
      may occur if individuals are homozygous at a sex determining locus. Diploid males
      were found in three out of four populations (nest aggregations) of the
      primitively eusocial, halictine bee Lasioglossum zephyrum for which samples of
      males were examined electrophoretically. The frequency of diploid males was
      greater in a small, geographically isolated population (the "Robinson" nest
      aggregation) than in a large population that had nearby neighboring populations
      (the "Salmon Creek A" nest aggregation). In addition, the proportion of
      polymorphic loci was lower in the Robinson nest aggregation suggesting that a
      bottleneck event or loss of alleles due to small population size occurred in the
      Robinson population that involved a loss in the number of alleles at the sex
      determining locus.

PMID- 28564311
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF DNA DIVERGENCE IN THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA GROUP.
AB  - Using DNA-DNA hybridization, we have determined the degree of single-copy DNA
      (scDNA) divergence among eight species of the Drosophila obscura group. These
      include Old World and New World species as well as members of two subgroups.
      Contrary to classical systematics, members of the affinis subgroup are more
      closely related to American members of the obscura subgroup than are Old World
      species. The Old World species are not a monophyletic group. The degree of scDNA
      divergence among species is not necessarily correlated with morphology,
      chromosomal divergence, or ability to form hybrids. A unique pattern of hybrid
      formation was found: species separated by a DeltaTm of 6.5 degrees C can form
      hybrids whereas species separated by a DeltaTm of 2.5 degrees C cannot. As with
      other groups of Drosophila, the obscura group has discrete parts of the genome
      evolving at very different rates. The slow evolving fraction of the nuclear
      genome is evolving at about the same rate as mitochondrial DNA. The additional
      scDNA divergence accompanying the step from partial reproductive isolation
      (between North American pseudoobscura and the isolated Bogota population) to full
      isolation is very small. The resolution of the technique was challenged by five
      closely related taxa with a maximum DeltaTm of 2.5 degrees C separating them; the
      taxa were unambiguously resolved and the "correct" phylogeny recovered. Finally,
      there is some indication that scDNA in the obscura group may be evolving
      considerably slower than in the melanogaster subgroup.

PMID- 28564312
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL SEED PRODUCTION IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS IN RESPONSE TO INCREASING
      CONCENTRATIONS OF COPPER IN THE PISTIL BY POLLEN FROM COPPER TOLERANT AND
      SENSITIVE SOURCES.
AB  - Selection can occur in the pistil, during a series of stages that include both
      pre-zygotic (pollen germination, pollen tube growth, and fertilization) and post
      zygotic events. This study explores the extent to which selection, at this level,
      could be due to the environmental conditions under which the maternal parent is
      growing. Five plants of Mimulus guttatus, tolerant to copper, were vegetatively
      cloned and each clone was grown in control and in solutions to which copper was
      added. The maternal plants received pollen from plants either tolerant or
      sensitive to copper. Seeds and ovules were counted to estimate the number of
      seeds/capsule, the seed/ovule ratio, the percent fertilization, and the
      proportion of zygotes aborting for each clone, treatment and pollen source
      combination. There were large differences among the pollen recipients for each of
      the measurements. However, there was a consistent pattern to seed production
      depending on the pollen source and copper treatment. The seed/ovule ratio was
      unaffected if pollen came from tolerant sources but was reduced by an average of
      24% for both copper supplemented treatments if pollen came from copper sensitive
      sources. Thus, the data indicated that selection due to environmental factors
      could occur within the pistil. Differences in percent fertilization were not
      statistically significant, but the seed/zygote ratio showed a pattern that was
      similar to seed production suggesting that abortion of immature seeds was
      responsible for most of the difference in seed production.

PMID- 28564313
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN MUROID RODENTS I. CONSERVATIVE PATTERNS OF
      CRANIOMETRIC COVARIANCE AND THEIR ONTOGENETIC BASIS IN THE NEOTROPICAL GENUS
      ZYGODONTOMYS.
AB  - Analyses of craniodental measurement data from 15 wild-collected population
      samples of the Neotropical muroid rodent genus Zygodontomys reveal consistent
      patterns of relative variability and correlation that suggest a common latent
      structure. Eigenanalysis of each sample covariance matrix of logarithms yields a
      first principal component that accounts for a large fraction of the total
      variance. Variances of subsequent sample principal components are much smaller,
      and the results of bootstrap resampling together with asymptotic statistics
      suggest that characteristic roots of the covariance matrix after the first are
      seldom distinct. The coefficients of normalized first principal components are
      strikingly similar from sample to sample: inner products of these vectors reveal
      an average between-sample correlation of 0.989, and the mean angle of divergence
      is only about eight degrees. Since first principal component coefficients
      identify the same contrasts among variables as comparisons of relative
      variability and correlation, we conclude that a single factor accounts for most
      of the common latent determination of these sample dispersions. Analyses of
      variance based on toothwear (a coarse index of age) and sex in the wild-collected
      samples, and on known age and sex in a captive-bred population, reveal that
      specimen scores on sample first principal components are age- and sex-dependent;
      residual sample dispersion, however, is essentially unaffected by age, sex, or
      age * sex interaction. The sample first principal component therefore reflects
      the covariance among measured dimensions induced by general growth, and its
      coefficients are interpretable as exponents of postnatal growth allometry. Path
      analytic models that incorporate prior knowledge of the equivalent allometric
      effects of general growth within these samples can be used to decompose the
      between-sample variance by factors corresponding to other ontogenetic mechanisms
      of form change. The genetic or environmental determinants of differences in
      sample mean phenotypes induced by such mechanisms, however, can be demonstrated
      only by experiment.

PMID- 28564315
TI  - Tenth Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society.

PMID- 28564314
TI  - HOMOSPORY AND THE COST OF ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28564316
TI  - NATURAL HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN IRIS FULVA AND IRIS HEXAGONA: PATTERN OF RIBOSOMAL
      DNA VARIATION.
AB  - Genetic variation associated with the natural hybridization of Iris fulva and I.
      hexagona was investigated to test for the occurrence of introgression. These
      species have been viewed as a classic example of the process of introgressive
      hybridization (Anderson, 1949). However, more recent studies have concluded that
      there has not been an exchange of genetic material between I. fulva and I.
      hexagona (Randolph et al., 1967). Our analysis has involved the examination of
      both allopatric and parapatric populations of I. fulva and I. hexagona with
      reference to diagnostic ribosomal DNA markers. The pattern of variation in the
      parapatric population indicates the presence of the repeated backcrossing
      necessary to the process of introgressive hybridization. Indeed, in the region of
      parapatry, we suggest that localized introgression of ribosomal sequences has
      occurred into both I. fulva and I. hexagona. Significantly, we have also detected
      the presence of the diagnostic ribosomal markers from each species in allopatric
      populations of the alternate species. Our findings suggest that not only is
      introgressive hybridization presently occurring in parapatry between I. fulva and
      I. hexagona, but that past hybridization between these species has resulted in
      introgression into areas of allopatry.

PMID- 28564317
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG HOST-ASSOCIATED POPULATIONS OF THE GALLMAKER
      EUROSTA SOLIDAGINIS (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE).
AB  - Eurosta solidaginis, a gallmaking tephritid (Diptera), infests at least two
      species of Solidago in the eastern United States. We used horizontal starch gel
      electrophoresis of enzymes to examine whether populations on the two principal
      host plant species, Solidago altissima and S. gigantea, have diverged
      genetically. At the d-beta-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBDH) locus, the
      predominant allele in all nine populations from S. altissima (HBDH1.00 ) was
      absent or uncommon in all but 1 of the 12 populations from S. gigantea. At the
      phosphoglucomutase locus (PGM), the most common allele in all populations was
      PGM1.00 , but the frequency of this allele was, with one exception, higher in
      populations from S. gigantea than in populations from S. altissima. Genetic
      heterozygosity was usually greater in populations from S. altissima (H = 0.028)
      than in populations from S. gigantea (H = 0.009). A phylogenetic tree derived
      from a genetic distance matrix clustered gallmaker populations from the same host
      plant together.

PMID- 28564318
TI  - COMPONENTS OF FLOWERING TIME VARIATION IN A DESERT ANNUAL.
AB  - How much of the variation seen in life histories is consistent with adaptive
      hypotheses, and how much requires other kinds of explanation? Differences in
      flowering time between Sonoran (earlier flowering) and Chihuahuan Desert (later
      flowering) populations of the desert annual Eriogonum abertianum Torr.
      (Polygonaceae) are significant, repeatable between greenhouse experiments, and
      persist into a second greenhouse generation. These apparent genetic differences
      are consistent with a hypothesis of local adaptation: field demographic studies
      (Fox, 1989b) show that many fewer Sonoran than Chihuahuan Desert plants survive
      to the summer rainy season, suggesting selection for earlier flowering in the
      Sonoran Desert. Within natural populations there is considerable phenological
      complexity: time of first flowering varies by up to six months, and individuals
      may have zero, one, or several reproductive episodes. Greenhouse sib analyses
      revealed only marginal among-family genetic variation for flowering size. The
      resemblance between parents and offspring for size and time of flowering varied
      with growth conditions, suggesting that this marginal variation among families
      may be at least partly due to factors other than additive genetic variance. On
      the other hand, moisture limitation significantly delayed the onset of flowering
      in two independent experiments. Variation in moisture availability in both time
      and space is characteristic of desert environments. The phenological complexity
      in natural populations may thus be generated by random variation in moisture
      availability, possibly in conjunction with variation in germination date and
      plant size. The results call into question the claim that drought generally
      induces flowering in desert annuals.

PMID- 28564319
TI  - HETEROCHRONIC VARIATION IN THE DEVELOPMENTAL TIMING OF CRANIAL OSSIFICATIONS IN
      POECILIID FISHES (CYPRINODONTIFORMES).
AB  - The quantitative description of ossification sequences and other developmental
      events with respect to body size provides a basis for assessing the ontogenetic
      patterns underlying differences in morphological structure. To the extent that
      such sequences are evolutionarily conservative, they may also provide a basis for
      phylogenetic inference. Ossification profiles were examined in five species of
      poeciliid fishes of the genera Poecilia, Xiphophorus, and Poeciliopsis, selected
      to represent three lineages of varying evolutionary distinctiveness. Although
      ossification sequences are highly correlated among species, numerous small timing
      differences and reversals are evident, differences that are accentuated more
      among than within genera. The timing profiles by themselves, when used to
      construct hypothetical phylogenetic trees, contain sufficient historical
      information to recover evolutionary relationships consistent with conventional
      systematic criteria based primarily on adult osteology and external morphology.
      Character-state changes mapped onto the resulting trees can be interpreted
      directly as heterochronic accelerations and retardations of ossification.

PMID- 28564320
TI  - POLLINATOR ADAPTATION TO OIL-SECRETING FLOWERS-REDIVIVA AND DIASCIA.

PMID- 28564321
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION, GENETIC LOAD, AND THE EVOLUTION OF OUTCROSSING RATES IN A
      MULTILOCUS SYSTEM WITH NO LINKAGE.
AB  - We studied deterministic models of multilocus systems subject to mutation
      selection balance with all loci unlinked, and with multiplicative interactions of
      the loci affecting fitness, in partially self-fertilizing populations. The aim
      was to examine the fitnesses of the zygotes produced by outcrossing and by
      selling, and the magnitude of inbreeding depression, in populations with
      different levels of inbreeding. The fates of modifiers of the outcrossing rate
      were also examined. With biologically plausible parameter values, inbreeding
      depression can be very large in moderately selfing populations, particularly when
      the mutant alleles are fairly recessive and selection is weak. A modifier allele
      reducing the selfing rate can be favored under these circumstances. In more
      inbred populations, inbreeding depression is lower, and selection favors alleles
      that increase the selfing rate. When inbreeding depression is caused by mutant
      alleles with strong selective disadvantage, modifiers causing large increases in
      selfing can often be favored even when the inbreeding depression exceeds one
      half, though in these circumstances modifiers increasing selfing by smaller
      amounts are usually eliminated. Weaker selection appears to be more favorable to
      the maintenance of outcrossing.

PMID- 28564322
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CLUTCH SIZE. II. A TEST OF THE MURRAY-NOLAN EQUATION.
AB  - We test the Murray-Nolan equation for calculating clutch sizes of birds with
      demographic data from a long-term study of the Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma c.
      coerulescens). The predicted value, 3.43, is very close to the observed clutch
      size, 3.33. This result provides further support for the equation's being an
      adequate description of the relationship among the factors affecting the clutch
      size of birds.

PMID- 28564323
TI  - APOSEMATISM EVOLVES BY INDIVIDUAL SELECTION: EVIDENCE FROM MARINE GASTROPODS WITH
      PELAGIC LARVAE.

PMID- 28564324
TI  - SAFETY FACTORS IN VERTICAL STEMS: EVIDENCE FROM EQUISETUM HYEMALE.
AB  - Predictions from a mechanical model for hollow vertical stems are tested against
      morphometric and mechanical studies of the vertical stems of Equisetum hyemale.
      The model predicts 1) that the wall thickness of hollow internodes must be at
      least 15% of the external radius of shoots, 2) that the elastic modulus of stems
      is quantitatively related to the ratio of apoplast (cell walls) to symplast
      (cytoplasm) areas in transverse sections through stems, and that (3) hollow stems
      are designed to sustain an additional and significant proportion of their own
      weight. The "safety factors" predicted for a hollow vertical stem are used to
      examine two adaptationist explanations for hollow stems: 1) "economy in design,"
      which argues that natural selection will favor a reduction in the metabolic cost
      in constructing an organ, and 2) "mechanical design," which argues that stems are
      designed to maximize their mechanical stability during vertical growth. Evidence
      from E. hyemale indicates that 1) there is a developmental limit to the maximum
      allotment of biomass invested in the construction of stems, 2) as stem height
      increases, morphometric adjustments in internodal wall thickness occur which
      converge on predicted safety limits, and 3) the elastic modulus of stems changes
      as a function of the ratio of apoplast to symplast areas seen in transverse
      sections through shoots. Biomechanical and developmental evidence and the
      allometry of E. hyemale stems are consistent with the view that stems are
      designed for safety and are inconsistent with some predictions based on the
      economy in design.

PMID- 28564325
TI  - HOW MUCH HERITABLE VARIATION CAN BE MAINTAINED IN FINITE POPULATIONS BY MUTATION
      SELECTION BALANCE?
AB  - The joint effects of stabilizing selection, mutation, recombination, and random
      drift on the genetic variability of a polygenic character in a finite population
      are investigated. A simulation study is performed to test the validity of various
      analytical predictions on the equilibrium genetic variance. A new formula for the
      expected equilibrium variance is derived that approximates the observed
      equilibrium variance very closely for all parameter combinations we have tested.
      The computer model simulates the continuum-of-alleles model of Crow and Kimura.
      However, it is completely stochastic in the sense that it models evolution as a
      Markov process and does not use any deterministic evolution equations. The
      theoretical results are compared with heritability estimates from laboratory and
      natural populations. Heritabilities ranging from 20% to 50%, as observed even in
      lab populations under a constant environment, can only be explained by a mutation
      selection balance if the phenotypic character is neutral or the number of genes
      contributing to the trait is sufficiently high, typically several hundred, or if
      there are a few highly variable loci that influence quantitative traits.

PMID- 28564326
TI  - FEMALE CHOICE AND SEXUAL SELECTION OF MALE WING MELANIN PATTERN IN PIERIS
      OCCIDENTALIS (LEPIDOPTERA).
AB  - Using field experiments, I examined the role of 13 melanin-pattern elements in
      mate choice by female Pieris occidentalis butterflies. Males that mated
      successfully differed significantly from unsuccessful males in the extent of
      marginal forewing melanization but not on the basis of the entire forewing
      pattern. Deletion of the marginal forewing melanin characters significantly
      reduced the mating success of manipulated males relative to controls under field
      conditions. Female choice in P. occidentalis may act to maximize divergence of
      male color pattern from that of its close relative Pieris protodice. Sexual
      selection for increased melanization of the marginal dorsal forewing is generated
      by the strong preference of females for males with such wings and may be
      constrained by correlations between forewing melanin characters that have
      different functional roles.

PMID- 28564328
TI  - HERITABILITY OF BODY SIZE IN CROSS-FOSTERED TREE SWALLOW BROODS.

PMID- 28564327
TI  - INBREEDING INCREASES GENETIC VARIANCE FOR VIABILITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564329
TI  - ON THE ORIGIN OF INCIPIENT REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION: THE CASE OF DROSOPHILA
      ALBOMICANS AND D. NASUTA.
AB  - The nasuta subgroup of Drosophila consists of 12 known species classified within
      the immigrans group. D. nasuta and D. albomicans are two sibling species widely
      distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific tropics, which, although morphologically
      indistinguishable, have different meta-phase-chromosome configurations:
      chromosomes X and 3 are attached in D. albomicans, so that about 60% of its genes
      are sex-linked. Our experiments show that, at least in the laboratory, there is
      no sexual, mechanical, or gametic isolation between the two species. There is,
      however, hybrid "breakdown" expressed in three ways: 1) reduction in the number
      of F2 hybrids produced per culture; 2) reduction in the fertility of F2 (males)
      and F3 (males and females) hybrid progenies; and 3) abnormal sex ratios in the
      progenies of crosses between strains of certain localities. In experimental
      populations, the karyotypes of both species are still present in substantial
      frequencies after 20 generations, although the frequencies of the two karyotypes
      vary depending on the geographic origin of the strains. Our results support the
      hypothesis that, in allopatry, the evolution of postzygotic isolation precedes
      that of prezygotic isolation. The mtDNA is polymorphic in both D. nasuta and D.
      albomicans and fairly similar between them. Assuming typical rates of mtDNA
      evolution, the two species would have diverged from each other about 500,000
      years ago, whereas the African and Indian populations of D. nasuta (considered to
      be different subspecies by some authors) might have diverged some 350,000 years
      ago.

PMID- 28564330
TI  - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION PATTERNS IN THE PAPIONINS.
AB  - Comparative studies of intraspecific variation patterns are important in attempts
      to reconstruct the differential selection pressures experienced by related
      species and in assessing the resultant observed interspecific variation.
      Reconstruction of past selection depends on an assumption of relatively stable
      patterns of genetic variance and covariance through time and across related
      species. Models by Lande (1979) and Turelli (1988a, 1988b) lead to contrasting
      expectations of stability versus lability of variation patterns, respectively, at
      least for closely related species. I report on a comparative study of phenotypic
      variance and correlation patterns in seven species of papionins, including
      macaques, baboons, and mangabeys, in order to determine the stability of
      variation patterns in this group. The three-dimensional coordinates of 12 bony
      landmarks on the face were used in a finite-element scaling analysis in order to
      measure local size variation at each landmark. Variances and correlations for
      these local size metrics were calculated using pooled sex-specific values.
      Variation patterns were compared across species using vector and matrix
      correlations in combination with various randomization-based significance tests.
      Patterns of variation and correlation were generally quite similar across the
      seven species, although some differences were also apparent. The overall
      magnitude of correlation is also similar among species, as only a few
      interspecific comparisons showed significant differences. Thus, it is concluded
      that patterns of variation and correlation in facial morphology have tended to
      remain stable in this group of primates. This result should allow for
      reconstruction of past differential selection pressures in the clade. The pattern
      of similarity among correlation structures for these species showed no
      association with their phylogenetic relationships.

PMID- 28564331
TI  - IS LIFETIME DATA ALWAYS NECESSARY FOR EVALUATING THE "INTENSITY" OF SELECTION?

PMID- 28564332
TI  - ADAPTATION BY A PARASITIC TREMATODE TO LOCAL POPULATIONS OF ITS SNAIL HOST.
AB  - In each of two reciprocal cross-infection experiments, a digenetic trematode
      (Microphallus sp.) was found to be significantly more infective to snails
      (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) from its local host populations. This gives strong
      evidence for local adaptation by the parasite and indicates that there is a
      genetic basis to the host-parasite interaction. It is suggested that the parasite
      should be able to track common snail genotypes within populations and, therefore,
      that it could be at least partially responsible for the persistence of sexual
      subpopulations of the snail in those populations that have both obligately sexual
      and obligately parthenogenetic females.

PMID- 28564333
TI  - PHYLOGENIES OF PLANT FAMILIES: A DEMONSTRATION OF PHYLOGENETIC RANDOMNESS IN DNA
      SEQUENCE DATA DERIVED FROM PROTEINS.

PMID- 28564334
TI  - GENETIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN BACILLUS SUBTILIS AND BACILLUS LICHENIFORMIS: VARIABLE
      HYBRID STABILITY AND THE NATURE OF BACTERIAL SPECIES.
AB  - Experiments employing both broth and soil cultures demonstrated the capacity for
      bidirectional genetic exchange between the eubacterial species Bacillus subtilis
      and Bacillus licheniformis. The process was studied using standard laboratory
      strains and wild isolates of these species. The genetic exchange in soil occurs
      spontaneously. The interspecific recombination involved markers for antibiotic
      resistance and for the use of specific carbon sources (API characters). Hybrids
      frequently had unstable phenotypes, i.e., lacked a consistent expression of
      foreign genes over repeated transfer and growth. This instability often involved
      a "correction" back toward the phenotype of one or the other of the parental
      species for many differentiating characters; the final phenotype was always that
      of the more probable or actually known recipient species. This "correction"
      process is reminiscent of phenomena associated with the instability of artificial
      fusion protoplasts or noncomplementing diploids of B. subtilis, as well as the
      merodiploids formed by intergeneric crosses with enteric bacteria. The hybrids
      observed here must also be diploid, in some manner, because they sequentially
      express traits of both parental species at rates well above the frequency of
      mutation. Among the unstable changes in hybrids of the wild strains there was a
      3:1 bias in favor of "correction." The dynamics of the hybridization process in
      soil are described. It appears that the hybrids are formed most rapidly following
      outgrowth from spores and during the early growth of parental vegetative cell
      populations. Later on, the hybrids are much less frequent in the soil cultures,
      suggesting that they are competitively inferior to the parental species. It is
      argued that the capacity for recombination found between B. subtilis and B.
      licheniformis could locally erase their distinctness, even though they possess
      only about 15% DNA sequence homology. Yet they remain distinct in the wild. The
      methods and results of these experiments prepare the way for detailed studies of
      the nature of species and species boundaries throughout the genus Bacillus.

PMID- 28564335
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN THE DAPHNIA PULEX COMPLEX.
AB  - In the midwestern United States the Daphnia pulex complex consists of a mosaic of
      sexual and asexual populations, providing a useful model system for studying the
      evolutionary forces underlying the maintenance of sex. One asexual and two sexual
      populations were surveyed for genetic variation for isozymes, mitochondrial DNA,
      and life-history characters. While the sexual populations exhibited substantial
      levels of genetic variance for fitness characters, no variation was detected in
      the asexual population at any level. However, a parallel survey among asexual
      clones derived from other ponds revealed large amounts of quantitative variation
      among clones, even among those with the same molecular profile. As a group, the
      asexuals are more variable for life histories than are the sexual populations.
      The molecular data indicate a relatively recent origin for the extant asexual D.
      pulex. The polyphyletic origin of these clones, combined with their
      microevolutionary potential, provides an explanation for their broad geographic
      distribution. The distribution of sex in the complex cannot be explained with the
      standard models that assume an invariant asexual population in reproductive
      isolation from the parental species. Although the frequency of asexuality may be
      driven by the spread of a sex-limited meiosis suppressor through sexual
      populations, the complete displacement of sexuality may be prevented by
      ecological distinctions between the two classes of individuals. On average, the
      asexuals are larger but produce smaller clutches than the sexuals.

PMID- 28564336
TI  - HUTCHINSONIAN RATIOS AND STATISTICAL POWER.

PMID- 28564337
TI  - VARIATION IN RIBOSOMAL DNA AMONG BIOLOGICAL SPECIES OF ARMILLARIA, A GENUS OF
      ROOT-INFECTING FUNGI.
AB  - Armillaria is a genus of root-infecting fungi composed of several biological
      species in North America and Europe. To examine relatedness among biological
      species, ribosomal DNA (rDNA) from one isolate was cloned and rDNAs from 30
      isolates were mapped for eight restriction enzymes. The positions of the large
      (26S) and small (18S) rRNA cistrons were found by Northern hybridizations of
      total cellular RNA with rDNA subclones and by alignment of maps with conserved
      restriction sites present in rRNA genes of other fungi. Nine restriction-site and
      two length polymorphisms were observed. Eight North American (Roman numerals) and
      five European (species epithets) biological species could be placed in six
      classes with respect to rDNA maps (rDNA class 1: I and A. ostoyae; class 2: II;
      class 3: A. borealis; class 4: V, IX, and X; class 5: III, VII, A. lutea, and A.
      cepistipes; and class 6: VI and A. mellea). Most, but not all, polymorphisms were
      in intergenic regions.

PMID- 28564338
TI  - PATTERNS OF VARIATION IN LEVELS OF HOMOPLASY.
AB  - Patterns of variation in levels of homoplasy were explored through statistical
      analyses of standardized consistency indexes. Data were obtained from 60 recent
      cladistic analyses of a wide variety of organisms based on several different
      kinds of characters. Consistency index is highly correlated with the number of
      taxa included in an analysis, with homoplasy increasing as the number of taxa
      increases. This observation is compatible with a simple model of character
      evolution in which 1) the probability of character-state change increases with
      the total number of branches in a tree and 2) the number of possible states of a
      character is limited. Consistency index does not show a significant relationship
      to the number of characters utilized in an analysis or to the taxonomic rank of
      the terminal taxa. When the relationship between consistency index and number of
      taxa is taken into account, there is no significant difference between plant and
      animal data sets in the amount of homoplasy. Likewise, the level of homoplasy in
      morphological and molecular data sets does not appear to differ significantly,
      although there are still too few molecular studies to be confident of this
      result. Future comparisons of consistency indexes, including studies along the
      lines established here, must take into account the influence of the number of
      taxa on homoplasy.

PMID- 28564339
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CLUTCH SIZE. I. AN EQUATION FOR PREDICTING CLUTCH SIZE.
AB  - We derive an equation for calculating the clutch sizes of birds and other long
      lived animals from Murray's (1979) theory on the evolution of clutch size. For
      the Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor) in Indiana, this equation predicts an
      average clutch size of 3.49, less than half an egg smaller than the recorded
      average clutch size of 3.89. We attribute the discrepancy to sampling error and
      suggest that the equation satisfactorily identifies the important factors
      affecting the evolution of clutch size. The success of the equation in predicting
      clutch size of the Prairie Warbler provides additional support for Murray's
      theory on the evolution of clutch size.

PMID- 28564340
TI  - RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN GENETIC VARIABILITY AND LIFE-HISTORY FEATURES OF BONY
      FISHES.
AB  - Correlations between genetic variation and life-history variables were obtained
      for 80 species of bony fishes as a means of testing the hypothesis that genetic
      variation is directly related to 1) opportunity for balancing selection, as
      indicated by fecundity, and 2) environmental variation, as indicated by capacity
      for population increase. Genetic data were taken from the literature, and data on
      longevity, age at maturity, egg size, body size, and lifetime fecundity were
      taken from the literature where available and were otherwise estimated from other
      variables. Average heterozygosity does not increase significantly with increasing
      fecundity. However, heterozygosity is significantly associated with short
      generation times, quick maturation, small maximum size, and small eggs. Thus,
      heterozygosity appears to increase on a demographic continuum toward maximum
      values in species that are most strongly selected for maximizing the intrinsic
      rate of increase. Such species are associated with less stable environments.
      Thus, the results indicate a predominate role for environmental variation in
      controlling genetic variation of bony fishes.

PMID- 28564341
TI  - A FIELD TEST OF DIFFERENTIAL HOST-PLANT USAGE BETWEEN TWO SIBLING SPECIES OF
      RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA FRUIT FLIES (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR
      SYMPATRIC MODELS OF SPECIATION.

PMID- 28564342
TI  - DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTION OF A GLUCOSEPHOSPHATE ISOMERASE DUPLICATION IN THE
      LEGUMINOSAE.
AB  - In the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, two loci encode cytosolic
      glucosephosphate isomerase (GPI) subunits, whereas in the garden pea, Pisum
      sativum, only one locus is expressed. As a working model, we proposed that this
      change in isozyme number was produced by a gene-duplication event in the lineage
      leading to Phaseolus after divergence from that leading to Pisum. This model was
      tested by analyzing the GPI phenotypes in 119 legume genera, representing all
      three subfamilies and 23 of the 30 tribes of the Papilionoideae. The duplication
      was detected in 13 of the 20 papilionoid tribes surveyed, including several
      members of the putatively primitive tribe Sophoreae. Thus, the duplication
      appears to be an ancient event, a finding incompatible with the initial
      hypothesis. Instead, gene silencing is postulated to account for the absence of
      the duplicated phenotype in many tribes, including such advanced groups as
      Vicieae, Trifolieae, and Cicereae. Furthermore, silencing has occurred numerous
      times at lower taxonomic levels, including the subtribe Phaseolinae (Phaseoleae),
      a monophyletic group in which ten genera were found to have duplicated phenotypes
      and only one (Strophostyles) appeared to have an unduplicated phenotype. Analysis
      of GPI phenotypes also revealed numerous cases of partial silencing of duplicate
      loci as well as nearly equal expression of both loci in many, taxonomically
      widely scattered species. If our revised hypothesis is correct, this latter
      result implies that most of the subtribes had formed before significant
      divergence between the GPI isozymes occurred and, thus, that the radiation of the
      Papilionoideae was rapid relative to the rate of gene silencing.

PMID- 28564343
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF POLYGENIC VARIATION IN FINITE POPULATIONS.
AB  - Models of the maintenance of genetic variance in a polygenic trait have usually
      assumed that population size is infinite and that selection is weak.
      Consequently, they will overestimate the amount of variation maintained in finite
      populations. I derive approximations for the equilibrium genetic variance, V^G in
      finite populations under weak stabilizing selection for triallelic loci and for
      an infinite "rare alleles" model. These are compared to results for neutral
      characters, to the "Gaussian allelic" model, and to Wright's approximation for a
      biallelic locus under arbitrary selection pressures. For a variety of parameter
      values, the three-allele, Gaussian, and Wrightian approximations all converge on
      the neutral model when population size is small. As expected, far less
      equilibrium genetic variance can be maintained if effective population size, N,
      is on the order of a few hundred than if N is infinite. All of the models predict
      that comparisons among populations with N less than about 104 should show
      substantial differences in V^G. While it is easier to maintain absolute V^G when
      alleles interact to yield dominance or overdominance for fitness, less additivity
      also makes V^G more susceptible to differences in N. I argue that experimental
      data do not seem to reflect the predicted degree of relationship between N and
      V^G. This calls into question the ability of mutation-selection balance or simple
      balancing selection to explain observed V^G. The dependence of V^G on N could be
      used to test the adequacy of mutation-selection balance models.

PMID- 28564344
TI  - MALE ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES IN A MARINE ISOPOD CRUSTACEAN
      (PARACERCEIS SCULPTA): THE USE OF GENETIC MARKERS TO MEASURE DIFFERENCES IN
      FERTILIZATION SUCCESS AMONG alpha-, beta-, AND gamma-MALES.
AB  - Three discrete male morphs coexist in Paracerceis sculpta, a marine isopod
      crustacean inhabiting the northern Gulf of California. Ornamented alpha-males
      establish themselves in the spongocoels of intertidal sponges, where females
      congregate to breed. Smaller beta-males, resembling sexually mature females,
      enter spongocoels by deception, while tiny gamma-males invade spongocoels by
      stealth. Isopods breed year-round, and the operational sex ratio fluctuates
      widely over short durations. When females are abundant, receptive females
      accumulate in spongocoels, and these spongocoels are preferentially invaded by
      beta- and gamma-males. To test the hypothesis that the density of receptive
      females affects relative fertilization success among male morphs, individual beta
      and gamma-males, heterozygous for a dominant cuticular pigmentation allele, were
      placed in artificial spongocoels with an unmarked alpha-male and densities of
      one, two, and three unmarked, receptive females. The fertilization success of
      each male was determined by counting the number of marked and unmarked progeny
      each female produced. Alpha-males guard females effectively and sire nearly all
      young when one female is in a spongocoel. The success of beta- and gamma-males
      increases, however, and may even exceed the success of alpha-males when two or
      three females are present. The regular occurrence of more than one receptive
      female in the harems of alpha-males may contribute to the persistence of beta-
      and gamma-males in this species.

PMID- 28564345
TI  - RESPONSES TO SELECTION ON FLIGHT BEHAVIOR IN A MIGRATORY POPULATION OF MILKWEED
      BUG (ONCOPELTUS FASCIATUS).

PMID- 28564346
TI  - CROSS ABILITY OF MIMULUS GUTTATUS IN RELATION TO COMPONENTS OF GENE FIXATION.
AB  - The joint effects of parental gene fixation and consanguinity of mates upon the
      fitness of matings was examined in Mimulus guttatus. Plants from four populations
      were crossed at five levels of genetic relatedness, and five viability characters
      were scored in progeny. Parental gene fixation at 12 polymorphic allozyme loci
      was partitioned into local, subpopulation, and population components. A model is
      proposed wherein parental gene fixation influences distance-dependent crossing
      success. At a fixed locus, inbreeding is favored if natural selection caused
      allele fixation, or is disfavored if gene fixation was random. The distance
      between mates required to eliminate gene fixation depends upon patch size of
      fixation. When selective fixation and patch size differ among loci, an optimal
      crossing distance is possible. In M. guttatus, progeny viability generally
      decreased with greater relatedness between mates, but this decrease was often
      heterogeneous among populations. The highest pollen viability and the lowest seed
      set were found at an intermediate relatedness between mates. To determine whether
      parental gene fixation influences these crossing patterns, a type of mutational
      load analysis was performed. Progeny fitness was regressed on parent F and
      fitness estimated at F = 1. This was done for each component of F, for a) crosses
      that maintain gene fixation and b) crosses that eliminate gene fixation. A
      multiplicative, composite measure of fitness indicates that, in M. guttatus,
      genes fixed during local or population differentiation favor outbreeding, while
      genes fixed during subpopulation differentiation favor inbreeding. This predicts
      that random mating within subpopulations confers highest progeny fitness,
      exclusive of between-population matings. However, predictions did not fit the
      observed patterns of crossing success very well, perhaps because gene fixation
      was relatively low or was not adequately measured at loci influencing fitness.

PMID- 28564347
TI  - RELATEDNESS AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE PRIMITIVELY EUSOCIAL BEE LASIOGLOSSUM
      ZEPHYRUM (HYMENOPTERA: HALICTIDAE) IN KANSAS.
AB  - Lasioglossum zephyrum is a primitively eusocial bee, which nests in small
      colonies of up to 20 individuals. The nests occur in patchily distributed
      aggregations of from a few to over 1,000 nests along periodically disturbed
      stream and river banks in eastern North America. We used five polymorphic
      allozyme loci to test for geographic structure and estimate relatedness in eight
      patches of nests from five aggregations in Douglas Co., Kansas. Autocorrelation
      analysis of gene frequencies, plus a multilocus G test, revealed a low but
      significant tendency for differentiation among nests within patches, among
      patches within aggregations, and among aggregations. Small numbers of nests
      restricted estimation of relatedness to three patches, of which only one had a
      sample size large enough to yield confidence limits narrow enough to be
      informative. The limits from this patch of 20 nests are 0.64 < 0.8245 < 1.01.
      While these limits are consistent with the true value being 0.75 (that expected
      under male-haploidy if each nest results from the reproduction of a single, once
      mated female), the occurrence of some nests with three or more genotypes shows
      that nest makeup is more complex than this, so that a lower value, say 0.7, is
      more plausible. This value is sufficiently high to indicate that kin selection is
      probably important in these populations.

PMID- 28564348
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF EVOLUTION OF THE MALE COURTSHIP SOUNDS IN THE DROSOPHILA
      VIRILIS GROUP.
AB  - When courting, males of the Drosophila virilis group vibrate their wings and emit
      species-specific courtship sounds consisting of trains of polycyclic sound
      pulses. To analyze the genetic basis of evolutionary changes in the sounds we
      made an F1 diallel set of reciprocal crosses between the members of the virilis
      phylad of the group (two stocks of D. virilis and one of D. americana americana,
      D. a. texana, D. novamexicana, and D. lummei). We also crossed the D. virilis
      stocks with the members of the montana phylad of the same group (D. kanekoi, D.
      littoralis, D. borealis, D. flavomontana, D. lacicola, and D. montana) and made a
      backcross (D. virilis x D. littoralis) x D. virilis using a D. virilis marker
      stock (b; sv t tb gp; cd; pe). The sounds of the hybrids were analyzed using the
      following parameters: the length of a pulse train (PTL), the number of pulses in
      a train (PN), the interpulse interval (IPI), the length of a pulse (PL), the
      number of cycles in a pulse (CN), and the length of a cycle (CL). In the virilis
      phylad, the differences between species appeared to be determined mainly by
      autosomal genes in each sound trait. The heritabilities (narrow-/broad-sense)
      obtained from the diallel tables were the following: PTL 0.662/0.817, PN
      0.651/0.841, IPI 0.193/0.546, PL 0.408/0.552, CN 0.425/0.719, and CL 0.361/0.764.
      The direction of dominance is for longer PTL, higher PN and CN, and shorter IPI
      and CL. PL shows ambidirectional dominance. In the sounds of the virilis phylad
      species, PTL and PL seem to be phenotypically the most important parameters,
      since their components (PN and IPI for PTL, CN and CL for PL) are negatively
      correlated. In crosses between D. virilis and D. littoralis or D. flavomontana
      reciprocal hybrids differed from each other in PTL, IPI, PL, and CN indicating X
      chromosomal or cytoplasmic inheritance. In the backcrosses between D. virilis and
      D. littoralis the role of the X chromosome was ascertained to be decisive. We
      conclude that an X-chromosomal major change allowing variation in IPI has
      occurred during the separation of the two D. virilis group phylads, the long IPI
      allowing variation also in PL (and CN). The evolution of the sounds in the
      virilis phylad has probably gone towards longer and denser pulse trains, while in
      the montana phylad the sounds have evolved in different directions.

PMID- 28564349
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF BODY MASS, PHYLOGENY, HABITAT, AND TROPHIC LEVEL ON MAMMALIAN AGE
      AT FIRST REPRODUCTION.
AB  - I examined age at first reproduction of 547 mammalian species to determine the
      influence of diet and habitat on the evolution of life-history traits. Body mass
      correlated positively with age at first reproduction, explaining 56% of the
      variance. Habitat and trophic groups deviated significantly from the allometric
      curve in a pattern generally consistent with predictions from r/K selection
      theory and its modifications. However, mammalian orders also deviated
      significantly from the allometric curve, and different habitat and diet groups
      contained different ratios of mammalian orders. When the effects of orders were
      removed, residual deviations did not differ among ecological groups. Adjusting
      for ecological differences did not eliminate the differences between orders.
      These results suggest that body mass (or some correlated factor) and phylogeny
      strongly constrain age at first reproduction. Ecological factors appear to have
      little effect on the evolution of age at first reproduction. Apparent differences
      in weight-specific ages at first reproduction within habitats and trophic groups
      may be the result of ecological selection of order composition in the present,
      rather than ecologically driven evolution of life history in the past.

PMID- 28564350
TI  - COVARIATION OF SELFING RATES WITH PARENTAL GENE FIXATION INDICES WITHIN
      POPULATIONS OF MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Wright's gene fixation index F and two single-locus effective selfing rates-the
      selfing rate at loci with fixed alleles, and the selfing rate at loci without
      fixed alleles-were estimated in five populations of Mimulus guttatus. These two
      effective selfing rates describe the inbreeding observed at a single locus when
      both uniparental and biparental inbreeding are practiced. Estimates were made
      using progeny arrays assayed for six allozyme loci and two morphological loci
      exhibiting dominance. The average of the two selfing rates computed for
      subpopulations (ca. 10 m diameter) ranged from 24% to 59%, with a mean of 37%.
      When computed for populations (ca. 1 km diameter), average selfing rates were
      about 10% higher. In four populations, the selfing rate at loci with fixed
      alleles was higher than the selfing rate at loci without fixed alleles. Thus, the
      covariance of selfing with parental gene fixation was positive. In one of the
      populations, estimates for individual plants sampled along a transect gave
      positive correlations for selfing rates and for gene-fixation indices between
      adjacent plants. A highly positive correlation between selfing rate and gene
      fixation of individual plants was also observed. In another population, the
      covariance of selfing with gene fixation was higher for a locus causing leaf
      spots than for allozyme loci. This covariance is partially caused by 1) variation
      in homozygosity among neighborhoods and 2) biparental inbreeding within
      neighborhoods. The consequences of this covariance are discussed.

PMID- 28564351
TI  - INCORPORATION OF A EUROPEAN WEED INTO THE DIET OF A NORTH AMERICAN HERBIVORE.
AB  - Populations of the butterfly Euphydryas editha living within a 30 times 100-km
      region on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range were compared for
      oviposition preference and ability of larvae to grow and survive on two host
      plants, Collinsia parviflora and Plantago lanceolata. Since its introduction
      approximately 100 years ago, P. lanceolata has been incorporated in the diet of
      E. editha in one of the study populations. The populations differed in
      oviposition preference; only the population that uses P. lanceolata contains some
      individuals that prefer P. lanceolata. Larvae from two populations, one using
      both P. lanceolata and C. parviflora, the other using only C. parviflora, were
      not found to differ in relative abilities to grow or survive on P. lanceolata.
      The potential for E. editha to use P. lanceolata appears in populations that have
      had no prior exposure to this plant, while oviposition preference for this plant
      has evolved in the population in which the plant now grows.

PMID- 28564352
TI  - MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD APPROACHES APPLIED TO QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF NATURAL
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - Growing interest in adaptive evolution in natural populations has spurred efforts
      to infer genetic components of variance and covariance of quantitative
      characters. Here, I review difficulties inherent in the usual least-squares
      methods of estimation. A useful alternative approach is that of maximum
      likelihood (ML). Its particular advantage over least squares is that estimation
      and testing procedures are well defined, regardless of the design of the data. A
      modified version of ML, REML, eliminates the bias of ML estimates of variance
      components. Expressions for the expected bias and variance of estimates obtained
      from balanced, fully hierarchical designs are presented for ML and REML. Analyses
      of data simulated from balanced, hierarchical designs reveal differences in the
      properties of ML, REML, and F-ratio tests of significance. A second simulation
      study compares properties of REML estimates obtained from a balanced, fully
      hierarchical design (within-generation analysis) with those from a sampling
      design including phenotypic data on parents and multiple progeny. It also
      illustrates the effects of imposing nonnegativity constraints on the estimates.
      Finally, it reveals that predictions of the behavior of significance tests based
      on asymptotic theory are not accurate when sample size is small and that
      constraining the estimates seriously affects properties of the tests. Because of
      their great flexibility, likelihood methods can serve as a useful tool for
      estimation of quantitative-genetic parameters in natural populations.
      Difficulties involved in hypothesis testing remain to be solved.

PMID- 28564353
TI  - PLOIDY AND DEVELOPMENTAL RATE IN A SALAMANDER HYBRID COMPLEX (GENUS AMBYSTOMA).

PMID- 28564354
TI  - A TEST OF THE SPONTANEOUS HETEROSIS HYPOTHESIS FOR UNISEXUAL VERTEBRATES.
AB  - The coupling between clonal modes of reproduction and hybridization in unisexual
      vertebrates has led to the hypothesis that heterosis accounts for their
      ecological success (the "spontaneous heterosis" hypothesis). High levels of genic
      heterozygosity characteristic of unisexual-hybrid vertebrates are believed to
      result in enhanced growth, survivorship, and fertility relative to their sexual
      ancestors. To test this hypothesis, we synthesized 33 new unisexual-hybrid
      strains of fishes in the genus Poeciliopsis (Atheriniformes: Poeciliidae). On
      average, the synthetic unisexuals had lower survivorship and a higher incidence
      of birth defects than either of the sexual ancestors or two natural strains of
      unisexuals. However, a subset of these synthetic unisexuals exhibited
      characteristics within the range of the sexual ancestors and natural unisexual
      strains. These results support the alternative hypothesis that the ecological
      success of natural unisexuals results from selection of the most fit clones from
      a broad spectrum of genotypes that arose via multiple hybrid events. We propose
      that the coupling between unisexuality and hybridization in the vertebrates
      exists because hybridization is a dysgenic process that can disrupt normal
      gametogenesis and thus lead to clonal reproduction.

PMID- 28564355
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA AND PROTEIN DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN HYBRIDIZING CYTOTYPES OF
      THE WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS LEUCOPUS.
AB  - Restriction-enzyme analysis of mitochondrial DNA and protein electrophoresis were
      used to document patterns of gene flow across a hybrid zone between chromosomal
      races of Peromyscus leucopus. Chromosomal markers (three inversions) are such
      that individuals can be classified as potential F1 's, backcrosses, or parental
      types. Allozymic characterization of the hybrid zone is congruent with the
      chromosomal data (Stangl, 1986) and indicates an assymetrical distribution of
      markers, with the northeastern markers being distributed at a higher frequency
      into southwestern populations. Restriction patterns of mtDNA suggest that the two
      cytotypes may have had different evolutionary histories, and the distribution of
      haplotypes is concordant with other genetic markers used to identify the hybrid
      zone. Concordant changes in chromosomes, allozymes, and mtDNA suggest that the
      most viable hypothesis for the origin of the zone is secondary contact. A unique
      aspect of this study is that the same individuals were used for protein
      electrophoresis, mtDNA analysis, and chromosomal analysis. Thus, patterns of
      genetic variation can be interpreted free of any historical bias associated with
      samples collected at different times.

PMID- 28564356
TI  - WHY HERMAPHRODITIC PLANTS PRODUCE MANY MORE FLOWERS THAN FRUITS: EXPERIMENTAL
      TESTS WITH AGAVE MCKELVEYANA.
AB  - Five hypotheses explaining the low fruit-to-flower ratios in self-incompatible
      hermaphroditic plants are tested for Agave mckelveyana. Results from pruning,
      bagging, and hand-pollination experiments indicate that "excess" flowers (i.e.,
      flowers that fail to produce mature fruits) do not contribute to female fitness
      (i.e., fruit or seed production). These flowers are aborted regardless of their
      pollination history. Additional data on nectar production imply that these
      flowers act as pollen donors and contribute to male fitness.

PMID- 28564357
TI  - ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN CESTODES (CYCLOPHYLLIDEA: TAENIIDAE): ECOLOGICAL AND
      PHYLOGENETIC INFLUENCES.
AB  - Asexual reproduction, a rare trait among cestodes in general, occurs in the
      "larval" (metacestode) stage of species of the family Taeniidae. The distribution
      of this trait among taeniid species is not consistent with an ecological
      hypothesis of current environmental predictability. We therefore chose a subset
      of the family and studied their phylogenetic relationships by Wagner parsimony
      analysis as a test of historical influences on asexual reproduction. We produced
      a consensus tree based on four 50-step trees with consistency indices of 0.38.
      Given these hypothetical relationships, we found that asexual reproduction either
      arose or was lost multiple times. Moreover, this consensus tree is incongruent
      with both definitive and intermediate host phylogenies, and asexual reproduction
      does not correlate with host transfers inferred from these phylogenies.
      Developmental and phylogenetic constraints on asexual reproduction therefore
      appear to have been minimal. Given current information, neither historical
      constraint nor explanations invoking adaptation based on environmental
      predictability can account for life-history variation in these cestodes.

PMID- 28564358
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF HETEROCHRONY.
AB  - A model of quantitative-genetic variation in developmental processes is
      introduced and analyzed. The model is of a bifurcating sequence of events in
      which traits develop from the same tissue until a transition occurs, after which
      they develop partially independently. Genetic and environmental variation in both
      the rates of tissue growth and in the timing of transitions is considered. The
      model shows how genetic variation in developmental parameters governs variation
      and covariation in phenotypic traits and how selection on the phenotype alters
      the distributions of developmental parameters. Particular attention is paid to
      the conditions under which selection will lead to changes in the average times of
      developmental events.

PMID- 28564359
TI  - EGG VOLUME AND ENERGETIC CONTENT ARE NOT CORRELATED AMONG SIBLING OFFSPRING OF
      STARFISH: IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE-HISTORY THEORY.

PMID- 28564360
TI  - GRADUAL CHANGE IN HUMAN TOOTH SIZE IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND POST-PLEISTOCENE.
AB  - Starting with the onset of the last glaciation approximately 100,000 years ago
      and continuing to the end of the Late Pleistocene approximately 10,000 years ago,
      human tooth size began to reduce at a rate of 1% every 2,000 years. Both the
      mesial-distal and the buccal-lingual dimensions of mandibular and maxillary teeth
      were undergoing the same rate of reduction. From the beginning of the Post
      Pleistocene until the present, the overall rate of dental reduction doubled,
      becoming approximately 1% per thousand years. Buccal-lingual dimensions are now
      reducing twice as fast as mesial-distal dimensions, and maxillary teeth are
      reducing at an even more rapid rate than mandibular teeth. Late Pleistocene rates
      are comparable in Europe and the Middle East. The Post-Pleistocene rates are also
      the same for Europe, the Middle East, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. It is
      suggested that the cookery at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene allowed the
      earlier changes to occur. The use of pottery within the last 10,000 years further
      reduced the amount of selection that had previously maintained usable tooth
      substance. Reduction then occurred as a consequence of the Probable Mutation
      Effect (Brace, 1963; McKee, 1984).

PMID- 28564361
TI  - ANALYSIS OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA POLYMORPHISMS AMONG CHANNEL ISLAND DEER MICE.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 131 deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, collected
      on the eight California Channel Islands and from seven southern California
      mainland locations, was isolated and analyzed for restriction endonuclease
      fragment polymorphisms. A total of 26 mtDNA genotypes were distinguishable among
      the deer mice sampled. All of the island samples had mtDNA restriction-fragment
      patterns not found among the mainland samples. Distributions of specific
      restriction-fragment patterns provide evidence for at least four separate
      colonization events to the Channel Islands. The estimated percentage of sequence
      divergence between all mtDNA's in this study was less than 1%, suggesting that
      colonization of the islands occurred fairly recently, probably within the last
      500,000 years. Levels of mtDNA heterogeneity were much lower within island
      populations than within mainland populations.

PMID- 28564362
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COLONIES OF COLUMBIAN GROUND SQUIRRELS AS SHOWN
      BY MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 71 Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus
      columbianus) collected in 12 locations in western Canada were assayed for
      restriction-site variation with 10 endonucleases. Five of these endonucleases
      revealed variant patterns, and the composite genotypes were used to develop a
      linear transformation series among the mtDNA genotypes. Two of the four clones
      had a wide distribution, while the remaining two clones were geographically
      restricted. The mtDNA of Columbian ground squirrels was also compared to two
      other species of Sciuridae: Richardson's ground squirrels (S. richardsonii) and
      Arctic ground squirrels (S. parryii). Calculation of divergences from fragment
      length and restriction-site data indicated that Arctic ground squirrels and
      Richardson's ground squirrels were more closely related to each other than either
      was to Columbian ground squirrels. The transformation series among clones within
      the Columbian ground squirrels was rooted using Richardson's and Arctic ground
      squirrels as out-groups. From these data, we conclude that the colonization by
      female founders of Columbian ground squirrel populations occurred after
      deglaciation along the eastern ranges of the Rocky Mountains, while colonies on
      the western ranges may have been present before extensive deglaciation occurred,
      having existed in refugia in northwestern Alberta.

PMID- 28564363
TI  - THE FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE-LOCUS HETEROZYGOSITY: THE RELATIONSHIP
      BETWEEN HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH RATE IN PITCH PINE (PINUS RIGIDA MILL.).
AB  - Positive correlations between measures of "fitness" and the number of
      electrophoretic loci for which an individual is heterozygous have been observed
      in many species. Two major hypotheses have been proposed to explain this
      phenomenon: inbreeding depression and overdominance. Until recently, there has
      been no way to distinguish between these hypotheses. The overdominance model
      devised by Smouse (1986) is used here in a reanalysis of Ledig et al.'s (1983)
      study of heterozygosity and growth rate in eight populations of pitch pine and is
      contrasted with an inbreeding-depression analysis. Ledig et al. (1983) regressed
      mean growth rate per heterozygosity class on the number of heterozygous loci, a
      method of analysis which, although it points to general trends in the data, does
      not differentiate between hypotheses. The correlations they obtained in four
      populations were significant only because regressing on the means eliminates most
      of the sum of squares for error and does not weight the unequally sized
      heterozygosity classes. Reanalysis of Ledig et al.'s data using individuals, not
      means, showed no significant correlations between heterozygosity and fitness. A
      major assumption of Smouse's overdominance model is that genetic polymorphism is
      in part a reflection of selection for heterozygotes at genetic equlibrium. The
      homozygote for the most frequent allele at a locus should be more fit than a
      homozygote for a less frequent allele, with the heterozygote superior to both
      homozygotes. Smouse's model predicts a negative, linear relationship between
      fitness and "adaptive distance," a variable that for a heterozygote is zero and
      for homozygotes is equal to the inverse of the frequency of the corresponding
      allele. The adaptive-distance model accounted for between 15% and 50% of the
      variation in growth rate within eight P. rigida population samples by accounting
      for genotypic differences at eight polymorphic loci. This is over twice as much
      of the variation in growth rate accounted for by Ledig et al.'s (1983) analysis
      using individuals. Significant correlations were found between adaptive distance
      and growth rate in four of the eight populations, but in only two of the
      populations were more of the partial coefficients negative than positive, as
      would be predicted by the overdominance hypothesis. The remaining two populations
      in which correlations were significant did not lend themselves to such clear-cut
      interpretation, as the majority of the partial coefficients were positive.
      Positive partial coefficients indicate that the growth rate of the heterozygote
      is inferior to that of at least one of the homozygotes. The adaptive-distance
      analysis provides evidence that specific genotypes do play a role in determining
      growth rate in pitch pine. The correlation between growth rate and adaptive
      distance increased significantly with the age of the population, possibly
      reflecting competition subsequent to crown closure.

PMID- 28564364
TI  - THE ACCUMULATION OF SEXUALLY ANTAGONISTIC GENES AS A SELECTIVE AGENT PROMOTING
      THE EVOLUTION OF REDUCED RECOMBINATION BETWEEN PRIMITIVE SEX CHROMOSOMES.

PMID- 28564365
TI  - THE STABILITY OF THE SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN DIOECIOUS FIGS AND THEIR POLLINATORS: A
      STUDY OF FICUS CARICA L. AND BLASTOPHAGA PSENES L.
AB  - Each Ficus species depends on a specific mutualistic wasp for pollination. The
      wasp breeds on the fig, each larva destroying a female flower. It is, however,
      not known why the wasps have not evolved the ability to use all female flowers.
      In "dioecious" figs, the wasp can only breed in the female flowers of the "male"
      trees, so that pollination of a female tree is always lethal. The wasps should
      therefore be selected to avoid female trees. Field data is presented showing that
      the fruiting phenology of the dioecious fig Ficus carica is such that this
      selection does not occur: syconia are not receptive at the same time on "male"
      and female trees. Most wasps are forced to emerge from the syconia of "male"
      trees at a time when they will not be able to reproduce, whether they avoid
      female trees or not. This aspect of the life cycle of the wasp, although noticed,
      has been obscured in most previous studies. It is shown that the fruiting
      phenology of Ficus carica, which stabilizes the symbiosis, is the result of short
      term selective pressures on the male function of the trees. Such selective
      pressures suggest a possible pathway from monoecy to dioecy in Ficus under
      seasonal climates.

PMID- 28564366
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY STEPS AND TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: THE
      MISSING RP TYPE OBTAINED BY GENETIC TRANSFORMATION.
AB  - The I-R and P-M hybrid dysgenesis systems in Drosophila melanogaster have been
      interpreted as due to recent invasions of the genome by the I and P mobile
      genetic elements. Temporal and geographical surveys have never shown individuals
      harboring P sequences but devoid of active I elements. We describe here the
      successful genetic transformation by autonomous P elements of embryos initially
      devoid of active I elements and any P sequences. The results demonstrate that P
      elements may invade the genome of Drosophila melanogaster in the absence of
      active I elements. Using gel blotting, in situ hybridization techniques, and
      genetic experiments, we have monitored the behavior of newly introduced P
      elements in several transformed lines over 30 generations. The switch of cytotype
      from M to P occurred very slowly and the number of P copies simultaneously
      increased to about 25. These RP lines possess the properties required to induce P
      M hybrid dysgenesis but totally retain the R cellular state. Consequently, this
      new mobile element combination presents a strong reciprocal post-zygotic
      isolation with IM strains due to both P-M and I-R hybrid dysgenesis systems. This
      genomic incompatibility could be considered as a first step toward speciation in
      Drosophila populations.

PMID- 28564367
TI  - Organometallic-Mediated Alternating Radical Copolymerization of tert-Butyl-2
      Trifluoromethacrylate with Vinyl Acetate and Synthesis of Block Copolymers
      Thereof.
AB  - Organometallic-mediated radical polymerization (OMRP) has given access to well
      defined poly(vinyl acetate-alt-tert-butyl-2-trifluoromethacrylate)-b-poly(vinyl
      acetate) and poly(VAc-alt-MAF-TBE) copolymers composed of two electronically
      distinct monomers: vinyl acetate (VAc, donor, D) and tert-butyl-2
      trifluoromethacrylate (MAF-TBE, acceptor, A), with low dispersity (<=1.24) and
      molar masses up to 57 000 g mol-1 . These copolymers have a precise 1:1
      alternating structure over a wide range of comonomer feed compositions. The
      reactivity ratios are determined as rVAc = 0.01 +/- 0.01 and rMAF-TBE = 0 at 40 
      degrees C. Remarkably, from a feed containing >50% molar VAc content, poly(VAc
      alt-MAF-TBE)-b-PVAc block copolymers are produced via a one-pot synthesis. Such
      diblock copolymers exhibit two glass transition temperatures attributed to the
      alternating and homopolymer sequences. The OMRP of this fluorine-containing
      alternating monomer system may provide access to a wide range of new polymer
      materials.

PMID- 28564368
TI  - THE SENSORY BASIS OF SEXUAL SELECTION FOR COMPLEX CALLS IN THE TUNGARA FROG,
      PHYSALAEMUS PUSTULOSUS (SEXUAL SELECTION FOR SENSORY EXPLOITATION).
AB  - Male tungara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) vocalize to attract females, and
      enhance the attractiveness of their simple, whine-only call by adding chucks to
      produce complex calls. Complex calls contain more total energy and are of longer
      duration. By virtue of the greater frequency range of the chuck, complex calls
      also simultaneously stimulate both the amphibian papilla and the basilar papilla
      of the frog's inner ear. Female phonotaxis experiments using synthetic stimuli
      demonstrate that an increase in the call's acoustic energy is not sufficient to
      account for the enhanced attractiveness of the complex call. However, the
      stimulation of either or both of the female's sound-sensitive inner-ear organs is
      sufficient to elicit her preference. We suggest that the female's sensory system
      generates selection that equally favors at least three evolutionary alternatives
      for enhancing call attractiveness and that historical constraints imposed by the
      male's morphology determined which of the alternatives was more likely to evolve.
      These data are consistent with our hypothesis of sensory exploitation, which
      states that selection favors those traits that elicit greater stimulation from
      the female's sensory system and which emphasizes the nonadaptive nature of female
      preference.

PMID- 28564369
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN BROOD SIZE.

PMID- 28564370
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS: CONDITIONS FOR ESTABLISHMENT IN BACTERIAL
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - Previous theoretical studies have shown that bacterial transposons can become
      established in populations by infectious transfer, even if they reduce the
      fitness of their host cells. Conditions for the persistence of "parasitic"
      transposons are, however, restrictive: i) transposition must be replicative,
      rather than conservative; ii) the rate of transposition must be greater than the
      loss in host fitness caused by the transposon; and iii) cells must exchange
      plasmids at rates greater than the fitness cost of the transposon. I sought to
      test the validity of the model underlying this theory by performing experiments
      with laboratory populations of the bacterium Escherichia coli, the conjugative
      plasmid R100, and the transposons Tn3 and Tn5. A plasmid-borne transposon was
      introduced at low frequency into a population of bacteria carrying the same
      plasmid without the transposon in a habitat where the transposon offered no
      benefit to its host. The fate of the invading transposon was followed by tracking
      the various bacterial populations appearing in the cultures. Using independent
      estimates of the parameters of the model, predicted population changes were
      generated with numerical solutions of the model, and these were compared to
      experimental results. Plasmids transferred into new hosts as predicted by the
      model, and the resulting transconjugant populations either maintained a steady
      low density or rose slowly in abundance. Transposition appeared to play no role
      in population changes. Abundance of all cell types fit theoretical predictions of
      a system with no transposition, despite evidence that transposition was taking
      place. This is exactly what the model predicted. It thus appears unlikely that
      deleterious or neutral transposons have much impact on the genetics of bacterial
      populations. This is consistent with the hypothesis that most bacterial
      transposons are not parasitic DNA, but rather invade and persist in populations
      by providing a fitness advantage to cells carrying them.

PMID- 28564371
TI  - THE COIL POLYMORPHISM IN PARTULA SUTURALIS DOES NOT FAVOR SYMPATRIC SPECIATION.

PMID- 28564372
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA DIVERSITY IN THE SEA URCHINS STRONGYLOCENTROTUS PURPURATUS AND
      S. DROEBACHIENSIS.
AB  - Restriction-fragment analysis was used to measure mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      variability in 79 individuals of two species of temperate sea urchins. For the
      purple urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, individuals were collected 1,500 km
      apart in 1985 and again from the same localities in 1988 (about one urchin
      generation). Twenty mtDNA genotypes belonging to four clades were found among 38
      individuals. All four clades were found in both localities and in both years.
      Genetic structure was further tested by calculating the degree of interdeme
      genetic variation (GST ) and comparing this value to the GST 's from randomly
      shuffled data. No geographic structure was found. For S. droebachiensis, only six
      mtDNA genotypes were found among 41 individuals collected from the Pacific and
      Atlantic oceans. More than 80% of the individuals belonged to two genotypes. The
      genotype that dominated collections in the Pacific also occurred in the Atlantic;
      however, a common Atlantic genotype was never found in the Pacific. These two
      genotypes were identical at 64 of 65 restriction sites, and were only 0.2%
      divergent from each other. GST analysis confirmed that there were significant
      genetic differences between Atlantic and Pacific populations. The small
      divergence between genotypes suggests recent, but not continuous, migration.
      These marine species show smaller genotypic differences than terrestrial species
      over similar spatial and temporal scales. Both recruitment of adults from
      planktonic larval pools and the spread of sibling larvae over large distances
      from parents probably act as buffers to genetic differences in species with
      planktonic life-history phases.

PMID- 28564373
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE PATERNITY IN WILD RADISH, RAPHANUS SATIVUS.
AB  - In natural populations, wild radish plants typically mate with 6-8 pollen donors,
      and seeds of individual fruits are usually sired by 1-4 fathers. Since radish
      fruits are indehiscent and gravity-dispersed, progeny are most likely to compete
      with a mixture of full and half siblings. The fitness consequences of single and
      multiple paternity were investigated in a greenhouse experiment. Seeds of every
      possible cross in a 5 times 5 reciprocal diallel mating design were assigned to
      one of three competition regimes (four full siblings, four maternal half
      siblings, or four unrelated individuals per pot) or were grown as singletons.
      After 14 weeks, the aboveground biomass of all plants was harvested and oven
      dried. The dry weight of singletons was more than three times that of progeny
      grown in competition, indicating that intraspecific competition had occurred.
      Full- and half-sib progenies did not differ in mean dry weight. Thus, there was
      no evidence that multiple paternity enhances this aspect of maternal fitness.
      However, the competition regime dramatically affected the coefficient of
      variation in dry weight of progeny within a pot. Weight hierarchies were much
      more pronounced in pots of half sibs and unrelated neighbors than in pots of full
      sibs. Also variance in dry weight attributable to sire was greatest in the half
      sib and "unrelated neighbors" competition regimes. These results suggest that
      weight hierarchies reinforce genetic differences among the offspring.

PMID- 28564374
TI  - PARAMYXOVIRUS PHYLOGENY: TISSUE TROPISM EVOLVES SLOWER THAN HOST SPECIFICITY.

PMID- 28564375
TI  - OLFACTORY-BULB SIZE AND NOCTURNALITY IN BIRDS.
AB  - Recent evidence shows that, despite earlier beliefs, many birds have a functional
      sense of smell. There is also considerable variation in olfactory-bulb size among
      bird species, yet the evolutionary significance of this variation has remained
      elusive. We argue that birds living under low-light conditions, where vision is
      less efficient, should have evolved or maintained an increased olfactory ability
      and, hence, larger olfactory bulbs. Using a family-level comparative analysis to
      control at least partially for taxonomic artifacts, we show that none of a series
      of ecological variables (diet, nest type, development, nest dispersion, and
      migratory behavior) accounts for variation in olfactory-bulb size once the
      effects of body size and brain size (measured by cerebral-hemisphere length) have
      been controlled. Activity timing, however, accounts for significant variation
      even after the removal of these other variables. We discovered 13 independent
      cases in which nocturnal or crepuscular lineages have evolved a diurnal habit, or
      vice versa, and compared relative olfactory-bulb sizes between each branch pair.
      In all but one case, nocturnal or crepuscular birds have larger olfactory bulbs
      than their diurnal counterparts. We therefore demonstrate a widespread
      relationship between ecology and the evolutionary development of a part of the
      brain.

PMID- 28564376
TI  - THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH OF DEER FETUSES IS NOT
      EXPLAINED BY EFFECTS OF THE LOCI EXAMINED.

PMID- 28564377
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LOSS OF THE CHLOROPLAST-DNA INVERTED REPEAT IN
      THE LEGUMINOSAE SUBFAMILY PAPILIONOIDEAE.
AB  - The distribution of a rare chloroplast-DNA structural mutation, the loss of a
      large inverted repeat, has been determined for 95 species representing 77 genera
      and 25 of the 31 tribes in the legume subfamily Papilionoideae. This mutation,
      which is regarded as a derived feature of singular origin within the subfamily,
      marks a group comprising six temperate tribes, the Galegeae, Hedysareae,
      Carmichaelieae, Vicieae, Cicereae, and Trifolieae, an assemblage traditionally
      considered to be monophyletic. This mutation also occurs in the chloroplast
      genome of Wisteria, a member of the tropical tribe Millettieae whose other
      members so far surveyed lack the mutation. These new DNA data, together with
      traditional evidence, support the hypothesis that Wisteria is an unspecialized
      member of a lineage that gave rise to the temperate tribes marked by the
      chloroplast-DNA mutation; the probable paraphylesis of Millettieae is revealed.
      Two other tribes, Loteae and Coronilleae (traditionally regarded as a derived
      element of the aforesaid temperate tribes) do not possess this chloroplast-DNA
      structural mutation and, therefore, presumably represent a distinct temperate
      lineage. This hypothesis is supported by additional evidence from pollen,
      inflorescence, and root-nodule morphology that suggests that the Loteae and
      Coronilleae share a more recent ancestry with tropical tribes such as Phaseoleae
      and Millettieae than with other temperate tribes.

PMID- 28564378
TI  - THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A REFINED METHOD FOR ESTIMATING GENE FLOW FROM
      ANGIOSPERM PATERNITY ANALYSIS.
AB  - While gene flow is an important factor determining the genetic structure of
      populations, there are few studies that quantify it empirically. Paternity
      exclusion analysis has recently been employed to assess the number of seeds
      fathered by individuals from outside of a study population (gene flow by pollen),
      but appropriate estimation procedures have been limited to special cases. In this
      report, we illustrate a general Monte Carlo method that provides an approximate
      maximum-likelihood estimate of gene flow by pollen from paternity-exclusion
      analysis. We also show that the method can be used to estimate the number of
      foreign gametes received by individuals in the study population. Using these
      methods, we estimated that 7% and 6.3% of the seeds assayed from two wild radish
      populations were fathered by foreign pollen (95% confidence intervals = 5.0-9.0%
      and 5.4-7.2%, respectively). Each population was isolated from other radish
      populations by at least 150 m. Estimates of the number of foreign gametes
      received by individuals in a population were not correlated with selected
      reproductive or genetic characters, which included total flower production, total
      fruit production, seeds per fruit, flower color, floral phenology, and number of
      heterozygous marker loci.

PMID- 28564379
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL AND GENETIC STRUCTURE OF LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN MILKWEED BUGS
      (HEMIPTERA: LYGAEIDAE: ONCOPELTUS).
AB  - Life-history variation was investigated using crosses within and among the
      laboratory-bred descendants of six geographic samples of the large milkweed bug,
      Oncopeltus fasciatus. These samples spanned the species' range, from permanent
      (year-round) populations on tropical islands to seasonal middle-latitude
      populations found in temperate North America. The seasonal populations must be
      refounded each year by colonists from more southern populations. Marked
      differences in life-history traits (particularly in age at first reproduction,
      clutch size, and rate of egg production) were observed among the six population
      samples, with tropical-island and west-coast populations being the most distinct.
      In the eastern and central United States, there was a marked north-south
      difference in life history. Crossing experiments demonstrated a genetic basis for
      these differences. F1 and F2 hybrids from crosses between continental populations
      tended to have intermediate phenotypes. The similarity of the seasonal middle
      latitude populations' life histories and the consistency of the distribution of
      life-history characteristics among populations (across years) may indicate that
      the north-south difference in life history is due to selection on these traits
      during the annual northward movement or that migrants represent a distinct
      genetic form of this species.

PMID- 28564380
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR OF FEMALE BUNTINGS: ISOLATING MECHANISMS IN A HYBRIDIZING
      PAIR OF SPECIES.
AB  - The plumage characteristics of male Indigo and Lazuli Buntings are distinct, but
      the two species can learn each other's songs. Populations comprising Indigo,
      Lazuli and hybrid individuals occur in the Great Plains of North America, and
      assortative mating has been inferred from morphometric data. We devised a
      laboratory assay for determining female preferences for visual and vocal
      characteristics of conspecific and heterospecific males and for mixtures of these
      characteristics, such as might be encountered in an overlap population. Females
      of both species gave more copulation-solicitation displays when exposed to
      conspecific plumage and vocalizations than when exposed to heterospecific plumage
      and vocalizations. Females gave intermediate and similar responses to the
      combinations of conspecific plumage with heterospecific vocalizations and
      heterospecific plumage with conspecific vocalizations. Thus, in the absence of
      other potentially important variables, female reproductive behavior is consistent
      with the hypothesis of assortative mating, based upon both vocal and visual
      traits of the males and caused by female choice in this semispecies pair.

PMID- 28564381
TI  - ETHANOL IN DROSOPHILA CULTURES AS A SELECTIVE FACTOR.

PMID- 28564382
TI  - A CHLOROPLAST-DNA PHYLOGENY OF THE WILD PERENNIAL RELATIVES OF SOYBEAN (GLYCINE
      SUBGENUS GLYCINE): CONGRUENCE WITH MORPHOLOGICAL AND CROSSING GROUPS.
AB  - Hypotheses of evolutionary relationships among the Australian wild perennial
      relatives of soybean (Glycine subgenus Glycine) are based largely on patterns of
      meiotic pairing in intra- and interspecific experimental hybrids. This evidence
      has indicated a number of genome groupings within the subgenus but has not
      resolved most phylogenetic relationships. Restriction-endonuclease site variation
      of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) within the perennial subgenus is reported here,
      representing a sampling of approximately 3% of the approximately 150-kilobase
      plastome. Seven hundred twenty-one unique restriction sites were compared within
      Glycine using 29 restriction endonucleases; 157 sites varied within the genus.
      Distance and parsimony methods using these data yielded congruent results,
      recognizing the existence of three major groups within subgenus Glycine: the
      species-rich and geographically diverse A clade consisting of G. canescens and
      related taxa; the B clade, which includes the stoloniferous species; and the C
      group, containing two species with distinctive curved pods. These results are in
      general agreement with hypotheses based on genome analysis; inconsistencies
      involve the inclusion of genetically divergent taxa such as G. falcata in well
      supported plastome clades comprised of otherwise interfertile species. Such
      findings are not unexpected if crossing barriers are considered to be unique
      features of such anomalous species, paralleling their often numerous
      morphological and cpDNA autapomorphies. Consideration of cpDNA divergence within
      the three major clades of subgenus Glycine indicates that the rate of plastome
      evolution is uncoupled from rates of morphological or ecological diversification.

PMID- 28564383
TI  - PHASE THREE OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING-BALANCE THEORY.
AB  - We examine the third phase of Wright's shifting-balance theory of evolution, the
      exportation by migration of favorable gene combinations from a fitter subgroup to
      the rest of the population. The equations are deterministic and are studied
      numerically. Most of the models studied involve 2-9 loci in which all
      intermediates between two extreme genotypes are equally unfit. If the favored
      combination consists of dominant alleles, it is usually fixed even if the
      migration rate is two orders of magnitude less than the selection coefficient,
      and if the combination is recessive, one order. Although Wright thought of
      migration as being essentially one-way, two-way migration does not significantly
      alter the results. We conclude that, whatever weaknesses the Wright theory may
      have, they are not in phase III.

PMID- 28564384
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF MATERNAL INVESTMENT IN LIZARDS: AN EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE
      ANALYSIS OF EGG SIZE AND ITS EFFECTS ON OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE.
AB  - I used comparative and experimental analysis of egg size in a Sceloporus lizard
      to examine a fundamental tenet of life-history theory: the presumed trade-offs
      among offspring number, offspring size, and performance traits related to
      offspring size that are likely to influence fitness. I analyzed latitudinal and
      elevational patterns of egg life-history characteristics among populations and
      experimentally manipulated egg size and hatchling size by removing yolk from the
      eggs to examine the causal bases of population differences in offspring traits.
      Mean clutch size among populations increased to the north (seven vs. 12
      eggs/clutch, California vs. Washington), whereas egg size decreased (0.65 g vs.
      0.40 g). The elevational patterns in southern California paralleled the
      latitudinal trends. Several offspring life-history traits that are correlated
      with egg size also varied geographically; these traits included incubation time,
      hatchling size, growth rate, and hatchling sprint performance. Hatchling
      viability of experimentally reduced eggs was remarkably high (~70%), even when up
      to 50% of the yolk was removed. The experimentally reduced eggs and hatchlings
      demonstrated the degree to which size influences each of the offspring life
      history traits considered. Northern eggs hatched sooner, in part because of their
      small size. Though growth rate is allometrically related to size within each
      population (i.e., smaller hatchlings grow faster on a mass-specific basis),
      population differences in growth rate, as measured in the laboratory, are likely
      to reflect genetic differentiation in the underlying physiology of growth.
      Moreover, smaller juveniles, because of experimental reduction, had slower sprint
      speeds than larger juveniles. The slower sprint speed of hatchlings from
      Washington compared to hatchlings from California is thus largely due to the fact
      that eggs are smaller in the Washington population. These results provide a basis
      for interpreting the evolutionary divergence of the suite of traits involved in
      the evolution of maternal investment per offspring in lizards. For example,
      evolutionary divergence in some offspring traits functionally related to size
      (e.g., sprint speed) may be constrained, relative to traits that are determined
      by other aspects of development or physiology (e.g., growth). I also discuss
      issues relating to the evolution of maternal investment that could be tested in
      laboratory and natural populations using experimentally reduced offspring.

PMID- 28564385
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM BY SEXUAL SELECTION: THE SEPARATE EFFECTS OF
      INTRASEXUAL SELECTION AND INTERSEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - Libellula luctuosa, a pond dragonfly found in eastern North America, is
      apparently sexually dimorphic. Previous studies of the mating behavior in this
      species suggested that both male-male competition and female mate choice are
      important influences. Males compete for territories, where they attract females
      and where mating occurs. Female behavior influences both the copulation success
      and the fertilization success of males. Because of temporal and spatial
      separation of these episodes of sexual selection, multivariate and nonparametric
      statistical techniques could be used to investigate the influence of components
      of sexual selection on various sexually dimorphic traits. Sexual dimorphism in L.
      luctuosa was first quantified; then the direct effects and the form of selection
      were estimated. Sexually dimorphic wing size, body size, wing coloration, and
      body coloration are distributed either continuously or discontinuously between
      the sexes in L. luctuosa. These traits have apparently diverged between the sexes
      as a result of directional sexual selection. Body size is further influenced by
      stabilizing selection. Intrasexual selection (success in gaining access to a
      territory) and intersexual selection (success in copulation and fertilization)
      can influence the same or different sexually dimorphic characters. Body size is
      influenced by directional selection during the intrasexual phase of sexual
      selection and is also influenced by stabilizing selection during intersexual
      selection. The size of the brown wing patch is influenced by directional
      selection, primarily during the intersexual phase of sexual selection. There is
      directional selection on the white wing patch during both phases. Thus, the
      different proximate mechanisms of sexual selection may jointly or separately
      affect the evolution of sexually dimorphic characters. Further empirical and
      theoretical investigations into the differences in the effects of intrasexual
      selection and intersexual selection are needed to clarify the circumstances
      leading to separate consequences of these two mechanisms of sexual selection.

PMID- 28564386
TI  - INTRACLONAL VARIATION IN MORPHOLOGY, GROWTH RATE, AND COPPER TOLERANCE IN THE
      MOSS, FUNARIA HYGROMETRICA.

PMID- 28564387
TI  - GENE GENEALOGIES WITHIN THE ORGANISMAL PEDIGREES OF RANDOM-MATING POPULATIONS.
AB  - Using computer simulations, we generated and analyzed genetic distances among
      selectively neutral haplotypes transmitted through gene genealogies with random
      mating organismal pedigrees. Constraints and possible biases on haplotype
      distances due to correlated ancestry were evaluated by comparing observed
      distributions of distances to those predicted from an inbreeding theory that
      assumes independence among haplotype pairs. Results suggest that: 1) mean time to
      common ancestry of neutral haplotypes can be a reasonably good predictor of
      evolutionary effective population size; 2) the nonindependence of haplotype paths
      of descent within a given gene genealogy typically produces significant
      departures from the theoretical probability distributions of haplotype distances;
      3) frequency distributions of distances between haplotypes drawn from "replicate"
      organismal pedigrees or from multiple unlinked loci within an organismal pedigree
      exhibit very close agreement with the theory for independent haplotypes. These
      results are relevant to interpretations of current molecular data on genetic
      distances among nonrecombining haplotypes at either nuclear or cytoplasmic loci.

PMID- 28564388
TI  - THE STRUCTURE OF INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN MIOCENE GLOBOROTALIA.
AB  - Analysis of probability distributions of individual organisms provides a common
      language to describe synchronic and diachronic diversity. When based on an
      appropriate quantitative description of morphology, this language can be used to
      explore the temporal component of diversity embedded in the fossil record.
      Miocene Globorotalia (planktonic foraminifera) from Deep Sea Drilling Project
      site 593 are described using two-point registration of landmarks in two views
      (spiral and apertural) and medial-axis analysis of the shape of the final
      chamber. The equiangular spiral parameters Theta (the angle of increment), r (the
      expansion rate), and t (the rate of translation down the spiral axis) appear as
      principal components of the landmark data. Chamber shape variation is described
      by three principal components of medial-axis curvature. Partial-least-squares
      analysis demonstrates that the first components of within-morphospace variation
      also explain the patterns of correlation between the landmark and chamber-shape
      morphospaces. In the landmark morphospaces, the distribution of sampled
      individuals is continuous and roughly elliptical with few stratigraphic changes.
      In the chamber-shape morphospace, the distribution is continuous but shows
      complex features beyond the elliptical; the occupied morphospace changes
      stratigraphically, but neither strict cladogenesis nor strict anagenesis explains
      the derivation of new morphologies. Exemplars of named morphospecies are
      scattered across these spaces with continuous variation among all forms. These
      names cannot be assumed to represent discrete entities.

PMID- 28564389
TI  - ENHANCEMENT OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION BY DOMINANCE AND SUPPRESSION IN IMPATIENS
      CAPENSIS.
AB  - We investigated the effect of intraspecific competition on the magnitude of
      inbreeding depression in Impatiens capensis by planting seeds from chasmogamous
      (CH) and cleistogamous (CL) flowers in three experimental greenhouse treatments:
      in individual pots, in flats in dense pure stands according to seed type, and in
      flats with the two seed types intermixed in a checkerboard array. The size
      distributions of plants grown in flats were significantly more hierarchical than
      those of plants grown individually, indicating that larger plants competitively
      suppressed smaller plants in the high-density treatments. The magnitude of
      inbreeding depression at high density depended upon the planting arrangement of
      CL and CH seeds. CH advantage was greatest when CH and CL seedlings were grown in
      competition with one another, suggesting that fitness differences between
      outcrossed and inbred individuals were intensified by dominance and suppression.
      For plants grown individually, the effects of maternal parent, seed weight, and
      emergence date on seedling size disappeared with plant age, whereas at high
      density these effects remained at the final harvest. Thus, plant density may
      influence patterns of natural selection both on mating system and on juvenile
      traits in natural Impatiens populations.

PMID- 28564391
TI  - THE DYNAMICS OF TWO HYBRID ZONES IN APPALACHIAN SALAMANDERS OF THE GENUS
      PLETHODON.
AB  - Two zones of intergradation between populations of Plethodon have been studied
      for 18 and 20 years, respectively. The data consist of systematic scores of
      colors, made at least twice annually. Near Heintooga Overlook in the Balsam
      Mountains (Great Smoky Mountains National Park), the salamanders' cheeks are
      gray. Proceeding north toward the Smokies, there is increasing frequency and
      intensity of red color at two, four, and six miles. There has been no change in
      the scores at any location. The width of the zone and our failure to detect any
      change can be explained by assuming neutrality of the character and random
      diffusion during the probable time since contact between the two intergrading
      forms, which most likely took place after the Hypsithermal Interval, 8,000-5,000
      BP. At Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the Nantahala Mountains, Plethodon
      jordani and P. glutinosus hybridize at intermediate elevations. The lateral white
      spots of glutinosus decrease and the red on the legs of jordani increases with
      elevation from 685 m to 1,052 m. At the higher elevation, the proportion of
      animals scored as "pure" jordani declined significantly from 1974 to 1990, an
      indication that the hybrid zone is spreading upward. The rate of spread is too
      great to be explained by random diffusion, so selection for glutinosus characters
      is the best explanation. The rate of spread of the hybrid zone indicates that
      hybridization began 60-65 years ago, at the end of the time of intense timbering.
      Such human disturbances have caused hybridization in other organisms.

PMID- 28564392
TI  - MATRIARCHAL POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE IN AN AVIAN SPECIES WITH FEMALE NATAL
      PHILOPATRY.
AB  - We employ mitochondrial (mt) DNA markers to examine the matrilineal component of
      population genetic structure in the snow goose Chen caerulescens. From banding
      returns, it is known that females typically nest at their natal or prior nest
      site, whereas males pair with females on mixed wintering grounds and mediate
      considerable nuclear gene flow between geographically separate breeding colonies.
      Despite site philopatry documented for females, mtDNA markers show no clear
      distinctions between nesting populations across the species' range from Wrangel
      Island, USSR to Baffin Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Two major mtDNA
      clades (as well as rare haplotypes) are distributed widely and provide one of the
      few available examples of a phylogeographic pattern in which phylogenetic
      discontinuity in a gene tree exists without obvious geographic localization
      within a species' range. The major mtDNA clades may have differentiated in
      Pleistocene refugia, and colonized current nesting sites through recent range
      expansion via pulsed or continual low-level dispersal by females. The contrast
      between results of banding returns and mtDNA distributions in the snow goose
      raises general issues regarding population structure: direct contemporary
      observations on dispersal and gene flow can in some cases convey a misleading
      impression of phylogeographic population structure, because they fail to access
      the evolutionary component of population connectedness; conversely, geographic
      distributions of genetic markers can provide a misleading impression of
      contemporary dispersal and gene flow because they retain a record of evolutionary
      events and past demographic parameters that may differ from those of the present.
      An understanding of population structure requires integration of both
      evolutionary (genetic) and contemporary (direct observational) perspectives.

PMID- 28564390
TI  - Development of an epitope panel for consistent identification of antigen-specific
      T-cells in humans.
AB  - We aimed to establish a panel of MHC-peptide multimers suitable as a positive
      control in the detection of HLA A*0201 restricted antigen specific T cells (ASTC)
      by flow cytometry. MHC Dextramers were loaded with HLA A*0201 binding peptides
      from viral antigens and melanoma targets identified from a literature search and
      in silico prediction. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy
      donors were analysed with the MHC Dextramers using flow cytometry. The best
      performing epitopes were tested on PBMC from patients undergoing testing for
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to assess the coverage of this epitope
      panel. Of 21 candidate epitopes, ASTC could be detected against 12 (57.1%) in at
      least one of 18 healthy blood donors. Reactivity to two or more epitopes was seen
      in 17 of the 18 donors (94.4%). We selected the six best-performing epitopes and
      demonstrated a positive response in 42 (97.7%) of 43 patient samples (healthy,
      latent and active M. tuberculosis infection). The selected panel of six antigenic
      epitopes sufficed as a positive control in the detection of ASTC in HLA A*0201.
      Performance was robust in different stages of latent and active M. tuberculosis
      infection, indicating reliability also during infection.

PMID- 28564393
TI  - RELATIVE RESISTANCE OF GOLDENROD TO APHID ATTACK: CHANGES THROUGH THE GROWING
      SEASON.

PMID- 28564394
TI  - THE FUNCTIONAL BASIS OF NATURAL SELECTION FOR VERTEBRAL TRAITS OF LARVAE IN THE
      STICKLEBACK GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated selective predation for vertebral traits of
      larvae in the stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. I tested the hypothesis that
      this selection results from a direct functional advantage to particular vertebral
      phenotypes by direct measurement of the burst swimming performance of larvae.
      Within a narrow window of lengths, burst speed did depend on vertebral phenotype.
      As in the previous predation experiments, performance was related more directly
      to the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae (VR) than to the total number of
      vertebrae (VN), and the optimal VR decreased as larval length increased. Changes
      with length in the vertebral phenotype frequencies of wild larvae provided
      evidence of selection for VR and for VN in the wild. Larvae with particular VR
      increased in frequency in the wild at just those lengths when their relative
      performance was superior in the laboratory. The observed pattern of length
      dependent selection for vertebral number provides an explanation for the
      widespread trends in vertebral number that occur among populations of related
      fishes.

PMID- 28564395
TI  - ABRUPT CLINE FOR SEX CHROMOSOMES IN A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO SPECIES OF MICE.
AB  - We compared the patterns of movement of sex chromosomal and autosomal loci along
      a 160 km transect across a zone of hybridization between M. domesticus and M.
      musculus in southern Germany and western Austria using seven genetic markers.
      These included one Y-specific DNA sequence (YB10), two X-specific loci (DXWas68
      and DXWas31), and four autosomal isozyme loci (Es-10, Es-1, Mpi-1, and Np-1).
      Random effects logistic regression analysis enabled us to examine the
      relationship between M. domesticus allele frequency and geographic distance from
      the western edge of the hybrid zone and allowed statistical evaluation of
      differences in cline midpoint and width among loci. More limited movement was
      observed for all three sex chromosomal markers across the zone compared with
      three of the four autosomal markers. If differential movement reflects fitness
      differences of specific alleles (or alleles at closely linked loci) on a hybrid
      background, then alleles that move to a limited extent across a hybrid zone may
      contribute to hybrid breakdown between two species. The limited flow of both X-
      and Y-specific alleles suggest that sex chromosomes have played an important role
      in Mus speciation.

PMID- 28564396
TI  - REINFORCEMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN GASTROPHRYNE
      CAROLINENSIS AND G. OLIVACEA (ANURA: MICROHYLIDAE): A REEXAMINATION.
AB  - Tape-recorded advertisement calls of Gastrophryne carolinensis and G. olivacea,
      obtained in Texas and southern Louisiana, were analyzed by means of an analogue
      audiospectrograph. Samples were grouped into four areas: allopatric and sympatric
      for G. carolinensis, and combined adjacent allopatric/shallow sympatric, and
      sympatric for G. olivacea. Three attributes of the advertisement call (call
      duration, pulse rate, and dominant frequency) were investigated, with water
      temperature at the calling site as the independent variable. Values for dominant
      frequency do not overlap between species, across the full range of recording
      temperatures, and those of sympatric G. carolinensis are displaced away from
      those of both groups of G. olivacea (which are very similar)-thus indicating a
      pattern of geographic variation consistent with reproductive character
      displacement. There is considerable overlap in the values for duration and for
      pulse rate of each species when considered alone, but there is only slight
      overlap of the scatters of points for the pairs of values. For both species, no
      consistent patterns of correlation were detected between the three attributes of
      the call and the snout-vent length of the emitter, thus reducing the likelihood
      that the divergence in calls is due to pleiotropic effects of body size.

PMID- 28564397
TI  - POLLEN DISPERSAL DYNAMICS IN AN ALPINE WILDFLOWER, POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM.
AB  - The alpine wildflower, Polemonium viscosum, depends on insect visitors for
      effective pollination. Here, I examine experimentally the effects of pollinator
      visitation on pollen removal, pollen dispersal success, paternity, and gene flow.
      Bumble bee pollinators visited donor individuals homozygous for marker alleles at
      an isozyme (GOT-2) encoding locus and then were presented with arrays of
      recipient plants lacking the marker alleles. Four aspects of male fitness were
      estimated for each donor: the number of pollen grains dispersed to flowers of the
      first recipient visited, the number of offspring sired on that recipient, the
      proportion of offspring sired in the full array, and the proportion of mates in
      the array bearing seeds of the donor. Pollen removal was strongly influenced by
      the number of bee visits to donor flowers. The amount of pollen removed in turn
      significantly affected the number of pollen grains reaching flowers of the first
      recipient. However, because seed production decelerates with stigma pollen load,
      the relationship between pollen export and paternal success at this proximate
      scale showed diminishing returns. The probability of reaching mates within the
      array also increased with pollen export. These findings show that floral
      characters enhancing pollinator visitation rate in P. viscosum have positive
      effects on paternity and gene flow.

PMID- 28564398
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR RAPID SPECIATION FOLLOWING A FOUNDER EVENT IN THE LABORATORY.

PMID- 28564399
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN CACTOPHILIC DROSOPHILA FOR OVIPOSITION ON NATURAL YEAST
      SUBSTRATES.
AB  - Theory predicts that environmental heterogeneity in space or in time can maintain
      genetic polymorphism. Stable polymorphisms are expected to be more readily
      maintained if there are genotype specific habitat preferences. Genotype specific
      preferences for oviposition sites in Drosophila could be a major factor promoting
      habitat selection, and thus the maintenance of genetic variation. This hypothesis
      is being tested using the cactophilic species, D. buzzatii and D. aldrichi, where
      available evidence indicates a potential for such habitat selection, the habitats
      (oviposition sites) being yeast species found in the natural environment of these
      flies (cactus rots). Genetic variation for oviposition preferences was tested
      using isofemale lines-for D. buzzatii, a total of 60 lines from seven localities
      widely distributed through the species range in Australia, and for D. aldrichi,
      21 lines from three of these localities. Females were given a choice of five
      yeast species as oviposition sites. Genetic variation for oviposition preferences
      on these natural substrates was demonstrated. There was significant variation
      among isofemale lines within populations in their patterns of preferences for
      oviposition on the five yeast species. However, analyses of preferences for each
      yeast species separately showed that the genetic variation for preferences
      relates to only three of the five species. Heritabilities of individual female
      preferences for these three species were low, ranging up to 9%. Little geographic
      differentiation was apparent among populations, most likely due to similar
      selection regimes within each population. Within populations, this kind of
      habitat selection could act to maintain polymorphisms, both at loci determining
      the habitat preferences and at other loci in linkage disequilibrium with them.

PMID- 28564400
TI  - INJURIES ON STICKLEBACK FROM ATTACKS BY A TOOTHED PREDATOR (ONCORHYNCHUS) AND
      IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF LATERAL PLATES.

PMID- 28564401
TI  - HETEROCHRONIC DEVELOPMENTAL PLASTICITY IN LARVAL SEA URCHINS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
      FOR EVOLUTION OF NONFEEDING LARVAE.
AB  - Preexisting developmental plasticity in feeding larvae may contribute to the
      evolutionary transition from development with a feeding larva to nonfeeding
      larval development. Differences in timing of development of larval and juvenile
      structures (heterochronic shifts) and differences in the size of the larval body
      (shifts in allocation) were produced in sea urchin larvae exposed to different
      amounts of food in the laboratory and in the field. The changes in larval form in
      response to food appear to be adaptive, with increased allocation of growth to
      the larval apparatus for catching food when food is scarce and earlier allocation
      to juvenile structures when food is abundant. This phenotypic plasticity among
      full siblings is similar in direction to the heterochronic evolutionary changes
      in species that have greater nutrient reserves within the ova and do not depend
      on particulate planktonic food. This similarity suggests that developmental
      plasticity that is adaptive for feeding larvae also contributes to correlated and
      adaptive evolutionary changes in the transition to nonfeeding larval development.
      If endogenous food supplies have the same effect on morphogenesis as exogenous
      food supplies, then changes in genes that act during oogenesis to affect nutrient
      stores may be sufficient to produce correlated adaptive changes in larval
      development.

PMID- 28564402
TI  - A MODEL OF A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO CHROMOSOMAL RACES OF THE COMMON SHREW (SOREX
      ARANEUS).
AB  - The common shrew (Sorex araneus) is subdivided into several karyotypic races in
      Britain. Two of these races meet near Oxford o form the "Oxford-Hermitage" hybrid
      zone. We present a model which describes this system a; a "tension zone," i.e., a
      set of clines maintained by a balance between dispersal and selection against
      chromosomal heterozygotes. The Oxford and Hermitage races differ by Robertsonian
      fusions with monobrachial homology (kq, no versus ko), and so Fl hybrids between
      them would have low fertility. However, the acrocentric karyotype is found at
      high frequency within the hybrid zone, so that complex Robertsonian heterozygotes
      (kg no/q ko n) are replaced by more fertile combinations, such as (kg no/k q n
      o). This suggests that the hybrid zone has been modified so as to increase hybrid
      fitness. Mathematical analysis and simulation show that, if selection against
      complex heterozygotes is sufficiently strong relative to selection against simple
      heterozygotes, acrocentrics increase, and displace the clines for kg and no from
      the cline for ko. Superimposed on this separation is a tendency for the hybrid
      zone to move in favor of the Oxford (kg no) race. We compare the model with
      estimates of linkage disequilibrium and cline shape made from field data.

PMID- 28564403
TI  - MOLECULAR GENETICS OF ADAPTATION IN AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF COOPERATION.
AB  - The evolution of cooperation was studied in an empirical system utilizing a
      parasitic bacteriophage (f1) and a bacterial host. Infected cells were propagated
      by serial passage so that a phage could increase its representation among
      infected hosts only by enhancing the rate of growth of its host. Loss of
      infectivity was therefore without selective penalty, and phage benevolence could
      potentially evolve through a variety of genetic changes. The infected hosts
      evolved to grow faster over the course of the study, but the genetic bases of
      this phenotypic change were more difficult to anticipate. Two fundamentally
      different types of genetic changes in the phage were revealed. One involved the
      loss of some phage genes, resulting in a noninfectious plasmid that continued to
      replicate via the parental phage replicon. The second change involved integration
      of the phage genome into host DNA by a process that, at low frequency, could be
      reversed to produce infectious phage particles. Integration is a previously
      unknown property of wild-type f1, and in the system studied, may have resulted
      from the use of a phage bearing an insert containing nonfunctional DNA. The
      evolution of this novel function apparently depended only on the presence of a
      small region in the phage genome that provided some homology to the host DNA,
      with the host providing all necessary functions. Although f1 is one of the
      simplest phages known, these observations suggest that host-parasite interactions
      of the filamentous phages are more complicated than previously thought. More
      generally, the f1 system offers a useful model for many problems concerning the
      genetic basis of adaptation.

PMID- 28564404
TI  - THE EFFECT OF FLOWER PRODUCTION ON MALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN WILD RADISH
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - Flower production is the major determinant of pollen yield and an important
      component in pollinator attraction. Consequently differences among plants in
      flower production are expected to have a substantial impact on their relative
      success at fathering seed. We examined this prediction using one natural and
      three structured populations of wild radish. We found that a plant's relative
      success at fathering seed on another plant in the population (male fertility)
      increased with flower production. Nonetheless, the increase in fertility
      exhibited a diminishing marginal gain, with the relationship varying among
      populations. The relationship between the estimates of total number of seeds
      sired and flower production varied substantially among the populations examined,
      ranging from a weakly linear to strongly negative quadratic. Not surprisingly,
      the spatial structure of the population with respect to seed yield had a powerful
      effect on the total number of seeds sired because male fertility decreased
      exponentially with intermate distance. This exponential relationship occurred in
      all populations examined. Other covariates important to male fertility were
      flower color, time, the specific identity of the male parent, and male by female
      interaction. The identity of the male parent consistently accounted for a large
      portion of the variation in male fertility, indicating that other unmeasured
      features of the plant influenced its success.

PMID- 28564405
TI  - ATTRACTIVE STRUCTURES AND THE STABILITY OF HERMAPHRODITIC SEX EXPRESSION IN
      FLOWERING PLANTS.
AB  - Plant attributes serving both male and female sex functions are thought to favor
      hermaphroditic breeding systems over systems where sex expression is separated
      between individuals. Morphological features used by plants to attract biotic
      pollinators can be considered in this light, because such "attractive" structures
      are prerequisite for both pollen donation and receipt. A model involving
      allocation of a limiting resource between attractive structures benefiting both
      sex functions, structures benefiting male function only, and structures
      benefiting female function only, is constructed and analyzed using the
      evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) approach. Contrary to expectation, conditions
      resulting in large allocation to attractive structures tend to destabilize
      hermaphroditism, although the effect is slight. Substantial asymmetry in the
      benefits accruing to male and female fertility for a given investment in
      pollinator attraction produces more pronounced effects, reducing the parameter
      space in which hermaphroditism is expected. Results of this model are used to
      assess the importance of "accelerating gain" curves previously suggested for the
      evolution of dioecy in flowering plants. Accelerating gains associated with fruit
      production and dispersal represent female function only, and can be sufficient to
      initiate evolution toward dioecy. Accelerating gains associated with pollinator
      attraction may contribute to the evolution of separate sexes only if male
      function benefits from increased investment in attractive structures at a
      disproportionate rate compared to female function. Even in this instance, though,
      hermaphroditism may be evolutionarily stable.

PMID- 28564406
TI  - A RAPID, SEXUALLY SELECTED SHIFT IN MEAN BODY SIZE IN A POPULATION OF SNAKES.

PMID- 28564407
TI  - MEASURING SELECTION AND CONSTRAINT IN THE EVOLUTION OF GROWTH.
AB  - We present a quantitative genetic model for the evolution of growth trajectories
      that makes no assumptions about the shapes of growth trajectories that are
      possible. Evolution of a population's mean growth trajectory is governed by the
      selection gradient function and the additive genetic covariance function. The
      selection gradient function is determined by the impact of changes in size on the
      birth and death rates at different ages, and can be estimated for natural
      populations. The additive genetic covariance function can also be estimated
      empirically, as we demonstrate with four vertebrate populations. Using the
      genetic data from mice, a computer simulation shows that evolution of a growth
      trajectory can be constrained by the absence of genetic variation for certain
      changes in the trajectory's shape. These constraints can be visualized with an
      analysis of the covariance function. Results from four vertebrate populations
      show that while each has substantial genetic variation for some evolutionary
      changes in its growth trajectory, most types of changes have little or no
      variation available. This suggests that constraints may often play an important
      role in the evolution of growth.

PMID- 28564408
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF DISPERSAL PATTERNS AND MATING SYSTEM ON GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION
      WITHIN AND BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF THE RED HOWLER MONKEY (ALOUATTA SENICULUS).
AB  - The relationship between social structure and partitioning of genetic variance
      was examined in two red howler monkey populations (W and G) in Venezuela, one of
      which (G) was undergoing rapid growth through colonization by new troops. Rates
      and patterns of gene flow had been determined through radiotelemetry and direct
      observation data on solitary migrants, and 10 years of troop censusing. Standard
      electrophoresis techniques were used to examine 29 loci in blood samples taken
      from 137 of the study animals. Analysis of genetic variance demonstrated: (1) a
      significantly high level of genetic variation among troops within populations
      (FST = 0.225 for W and 0.142 for G), and (2) a significant excess of
      heterozygosity within troops relative to expected (FIS = -0.136 for W and -0.064
      for G), despite relatively high levels of observed and inferred inbreeding in W.
      Differences between the populations in FST values conformed to those predicted
      based on differences in colonization rate. Comparison of partitioning of genetic
      variance among different genealogical subsets of troops demonstrated that the
      pattern of genetic differentiation observed among troops within populations was
      promoted by an essentially single-male harem breeding structure, a very low rate
      of random exchange of breeding males among troops, and a high degree of
      relatedness among troop females. Between-troop genetic differentiation (FST ) was
      thereby increased relative to that expected from other types of social
      organization, while the correlation between uniting gametes within troops (FIS )
      was decreased. Genetic differentiation between populations (2%) corresponded to
      that predicted from migration rates. Such a mosaic of genetic variation, combined
      with differences in reproductive success observed among troops and a high troop
      failure rate, create conditions in which interdemic selection could result in
      more rapid spread of advantageous gene combinations than would be expected in a
      panmictic population, particularly in a colonizing situation in which the founder
      population is small.

PMID- 28564409
TI  - NUCLEAR RIBOSOMAL DNA VARIATION AMONG RAMETS AND GENETS OF WHITE CLOVER.

PMID- 28564410
TI  - GLOBAL POPULATION STRUCTURE AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GREEN TURTLE (CHELONIA
      MYDAS) IN TERMS OF MATRIARCHAL PHYLOGENY.
AB  - To address aspects of the evolution and natural history of green turtles, we
      assayed mitochondrial (mt) DNA genotypes from 226 specimens representing 15 major
      rookeries around the world. Phylogenetic analyses of these data revealed (1) a
      comparatively low level of mtDNA variability and a slow mtDNA evolutionary rate
      (relative to estimates for many other vertebrates); (2) a fundamental
      phylogenetic split distinguishing all green turtles in the Atlantic-Mediterranean
      from those in the Indian-Pacific Oceans; (3) no evidence for matrilineal
      distinctiveness of a commonly recognized taxonomic form in the East Pacific (the
      black turtle C.m. agassizi or C. agassizi); (4) in opposition to published
      hypotheses, a recent origin for the Ascension Island rookery, and its close
      genetic relationship to a geographically proximate rookery in Brazil; and (5) a
      geographic population substructure within each ocean basin (typically involving
      fixed or nearly fixed genotypic differences between nesting populations) that
      suggests a strong propensity for natal homing by females. Overall, the global
      matriarchal phylogeny of Chelonia mydas appears to have been shaped by both
      geography (ocean basin separations) and behavior (natal homing on regional or
      rookery-specific scales). The shallow evolutionary population structure within
      ocean basins likely results from demographic turnover (extinction and
      colonization) of rookeries over time frames that are short by evolutionary
      standards but long by ecological standards.

PMID- 28564411
TI  - STOCHASTIC LOSS OF STYLE MORPHS FROM POPULATIONS OF TRISTYLOUS LYTHRUM SALICARIA
      AND DECODON VERTICILLATUS (LYTHRACEAE).
AB  - Despite the theoretical importance of stochastic processes in evolution there
      have been few empirical studies of the interaction between genetic drift and
      selection on the maintenance of polymorphisms in plant populations. We used
      computer models to investigate the interaction between drift and frequency
      dependent selection in affecting style morph frequencies in populations of
      tristylous species. Drift produces a distinct pattern of morph frequency
      variation involving: 1) the loss of the S morph and, to a lesser extent, the M
      morph; 2) no consistent bias in frequencies within populations; 3) a restricted
      pattern of variation involving a deficiency of one morph and equal excesses of
      the other two. Morph frequencies were surveyed in 137 populations of Lythrum
      salicaria from both its native range in Europe (N = 35) and recent adventive
      range in Ontario (N = 102), and 133 populations of Decodon verticillatus from
      four regions in eastern North America with different glacial histories to assess
      these theoretical predictions. There was a negative relationship between morph
      loss and population size in both species; the relationship was weaker in D.
      verticillatus than in L. salicaria. Morph loss was more frequent in the adventive
      than native range of L. salicaria, and in populations of D. verticillatus from
      glaciated northern regions compared with the unglaciated southern portion of its
      range. Simulations incorporating variation in life history, regeneration strategy
      and mating patterns revealed that the degree of morph loss was strongly
      influenced by year to year survival, clonal propagation, self-fertilization and
      departures from disassortative mating. Comparing the pattern of morph frequency
      variation between species supported these predictions. Morph loss was lower in
      self-incompatible L. salicaria (0% in Europe; 23% in Ontario), which reproduces
      through seed compared to self-compatible, clonal D. verticillatus (52%). A
      stochastic model provides the most parsimonious explanation for observed patterns
      of morph frequency variation in both species.

PMID- 28564412
TI  - RELATIVE SUCCESS OF SELF AND OUTCROSS POLLEN COMPARING MIXED- AND SINGLE-DONOR
      POLLINATIONS IN AQUILEGIA CAERULEA.
AB  - Flowers frequently receive both self (S) and outcross (OC) pollen, but S pollen
      often sires proportionally fewer seeds. Failure of S pollen can reflect evolved
      mechanisms that promote outcrossing and/or inbreeding depression expressed during
      seed development. The relative importance of these two processes was investigated
      in Aquilegia caerulea, a self-compatible perennial herb. In the field I performed
      single-donor (S or OC) and mixed-donor (S plus OC) pollinations to compare the
      relative success of both pollen types at various stages from pollen germination
      to seed maturity. Single-donor S pollinations produced significantly fewer and
      lighter seeds (x decrease = 12% and 3%, respectively) than OC pollinations.
      Abortion rates differed by an average of 38% whereas fertilization rates differed
      by only 5%, indicating that most differences in seed number arose
      postzygotically. This suggests that inbreeding depression was responsible for
      most failure of S pollen. One prezygotic effect measured was that 10% fewer S
      than OC pollen tubes reached ovaries after 42 hr, suggesting S pollen might
      fertilize proportionately fewer ovules after mixed pollination. Using allozyme
      markers, I found mixed-donor pollinations produced significantly more and heavier
      outcrossed than selfed seeds. However, the proportion of selfed seed, fertilized
      ovules, and aborted seeds for mixed-donor fruits were each predictable from
      pollen performance in single-donor fruits, suggesting that differential paternity
      is best explained by inbreeding depression during seed development. Even given
      these similarities between mixed- and single-donor fruits in the relative
      performance of S and OC pollen, both individual seed weight and seed set were
      significantly higher in multiply-sired fruits.

PMID- 28564413
TI  - SPATIAL VARIATION IN SELECTIVE REGIMES: SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE WATER STRIDER,
      GERRIS ODONTOGASTER.
AB  - Studies of phenotypic selection in natural populations are often concerned with
      simply detecting selection. In adopting a more mechanistic approach, this study
      compares the sexual selection regimes in natural populations of the water strider
      Gerris odontogaster with a priori predictions of selection, based on a number of
      previous field and laboratory studies of the behavioral mechanisms of selection.
      In this species, a general reluctance of females to mate allows for intersexual
      selection for ability to subdue reluctant females in males. Female reluctance to
      mate has been shown to decrease with increasing population density, suggesting
      that sexual selection should be weaker in high density populations. Three
      different populations with large differences in population density were studied.
      A number of traits including parasite load, body mass, body size and male
      abdominal process length were found to experience significant sexual selection.
      The investigated populations differed considerably with regard to the total
      strength of selection on the measured traits and the form of selection on single
      traits. In general, males in the population with the highest density experienced
      the weakest selection for grasping ability. This pattern is ascribed to density
      related alterations of female mating behavior. Selection for male grasping
      ability, as reflected by selection on male abdominal process length, is reduced
      in high-density populations where reluctant females are more easily subdued.
      Further, the studied populations differed significantly in mean phenotype and
      phenotypic variance for male abdominal process length. It is suggested that
      interpopulational differences in selective regimes may generate local adaptations
      with respect to male abdominal process length, and that gene flow may contribute
      to the maintenance of the high genetic variation in this trait. It is further
      suggested that more empirical effort should be made in quantifying and
      understanding spatial and temporal variation in selection in natural populations,
      since this may provide information on the prevalence of local adaptations in
      metric traits and on the mechanisms of selection.

PMID- 28564414
TI  - THE MICRO AND MACRO IN BODY SIZE EVOLUTION.
AB  - The diversity of body sizes of organisms has traditionally been explained in
      terms of microevolutionary processes: natural selection owing to differential
      fitness of individual organisms, or to macroevolutionary processes: species
      selection owing to the differential proliferation of phylogenetic lineages. Data
      for terrestrial mammals and birds indicate that even on a logarithmic scale
      frequency distributions of body mass among species are significantly skewed
      towards larger sizes. We used simulation models to evaluate the extent to which
      macro- and microevolutionary processes are sufficient to explain these
      distributions. Simulations of a purely cladogenetic process with no bias in
      extinction or speciation rates for different body sizes did not produce skewed
      log body mass distributions. Simulations that included size-biased extinction
      rates, especially those that incorporated anagenetic size change within species
      between speciation and extinction events, regularly produced skewed
      distributions. We conclude that although cladogenetic processes probably play a
      significant role in body size evolution, there must also be a significant
      anagenetic component. The regular variation in the form of mammalian body size
      distributions among different-sized islands and continents suggests that
      environmental conditions, operating through both macro- and microevolutionary
      processes, determine to a large extent the diversification of body sizes within
      faunas. Macroevolution is not decoupled from microevolution.

PMID- 28564415
TI  - A HIERARCHICAL ANALYSIS OF GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN A MONTANE LEAF BEETLE
      CHRYSOMELA AENEICOLLIS (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE).
AB  - Herbivorous insects that use the same host plants as larvae and adults can have a
      subdivided population structure that corresponds to the distribution of their
      hosts. Having a subdivided population structure favors local adaptation of
      subpopulations to small-scale environmental differences and it may promote their
      genetic divergence. In this paper, I present the results of a hierarchical study
      of population structure in a montane willow leaf beetle, Chrysomela aeneicollis
      (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). This species spends its entire life associated with
      the larval host (Salix spp.), which occurs in patches along high-elevation
      streams and in montane bogs. I analyzed the genetic differentiation of C.
      aeneicollis populations along three drainages in the Sierra Nevada mountains of
      California at five enzyme loci: ak-1, idh-2, mpi-1, pgi-1, and pgm-1, using
      recent modifications of Wright's F-statistics. My results demonstrated
      significant differentiation (FST = 0.043) among drainages that are less than 40
      kilometers apart. One locus, pgi-1, showed much greater differentiation than the
      other four (FST = 0.412), suggesting that it is under natural selection. C.
      aeneicollis populations were also subdivided within drainages, with significant
      differentiation 1) among patches of willows (spanning less than three kilometers)
      and 2) in some cases, among trees within a willow patch. My results demonstrate
      that this species has the capacity to adapt to local environmental variation at
      small spatial scales.

PMID- 28564416
TI  - AN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION BETWEEN RELATIVES: ALTRUISM,
      MANIPULATION, COMPROMISE.

PMID- 28564417
TI  - SELECTIVE PREDATION FOR VERTEBRAL PHENOTYPE IN GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS: REVERSAL
      IN THE DIRECTION OF SELECTION AT DIFFERENT LARVAL SIZES.
AB  - Variation in the number of vertebrae is widespread in fishes, and is partly
      genetic in origin. The adaptive significance of this variation was tested by
      exposing larvae of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to
      predation by sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Two vertebral characters were
      considered: the total number (VN) and the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae
      (VR). Predation was selective for both characters, but selection was more
      directly related to VR than to VN. The direction of selection depended on larval
      length: as length increased, optimal VR decreased. Total selection for VR was a
      combination of direct selection and an indirect effect of selection acting on a
      correlated trait, the ratio of precaudal to caudal length. Direct and indirect
      selection were in opposing directions at a given larval length. Variation in
      vertebral number may be maintained in populations partly because the strength of
      selection is reduced by opposing directions between direct and indirect
      selection, and between total selection at different larval lengths.

PMID- 28564418
TI  - ONTOGENY OF INTEGRATED SKULL GROWTH IN THE COTTON RAT SIGMODON FULVIVENTER.
AB  - Because development is epigenetic, diverse aspects of morphology are integrated
      during ontogeny. Using the method of thin-plate splines, and the decomposition of
      these splines by their principal warps, we examine the ontogeny of integrated
      features of skull growth of the cotton rat, Sigmodon fulviventer as observed in
      landmark locations in the ventral view. Postnatal growth of the skull in Sigmodon
      is not adequately described by the familiar contrast between relatively rapid
      facial elongation and slow, precocial growth of the cranial base. No
      developmental units corresponding to "facial skull" and "cranial base" emerge
      from analysis of geometric shape change. Rather, skull growth is both more
      integrated and more complex, exhibiting both skull-wide integration and locally
      individualized regions. Like skull shape, integration has an ontogeny; different
      regions of the skull can be partitioned into developmentally individualized parts
      in different ways at different ages. The effective count of individualized parts
      decreases substantially before weaning occurs, suggesting that the integration
      required by the functionally demanding activity of chewing gradually develops
      before the functional transition occurs. Our description of skull growth and
      integration does not depend upon arbitrary a priori choices about what to
      measure; rather, we base our decomposition of the whole into parts upon results
      of the data analysis. Our approach complicates the study of heterochrony, but,
      because it expresses the spatiotemporal organization of ontogeny, it enables the
      study of heterotopy.

PMID- 28564419
TI  - PARTHENOGENESIS IN A FRESHWATER SNAIL: REPRODUCTIVE ASSURANCE VERSUS PARASITIC
      RELEASE.
AB  - Two alternative (but not mutually exclusive) hypotheses were contrasted for their
      abilities to explain the distribution of parthenogenesis in the freshwater snail
      Potamopyrgus antipodarum: the reproductive assurance hypothesis, which predicts
      that parthenogenesis will be favored in sparse populations where mates are
      difficult to find, and the Red Queen hypothesis, which predicts that
      parthenogenesis will be favored in populations that have a low risk of
      parasitism. The results were inconsistent with the prediction of the reproductive
      assurance hypothesis; male frequency was not significantly or positively
      correlated with snail density. Thus, there was no support for any of the
      hypotheses for the maintenance of sex that rely on selection for reproductive
      assurance to explain the distribution of parthenogenesis (e.g., recombinational
      repair). The results, however, were consistent with the Red Queen hypothesis;
      male frequency was positively and significantly correlated with the frequency of
      individuals infected by trematodes. This correlation suggests that
      parthenogenetic females have replaced sexual females in populations where
      parasites are rare, and that sexual females have persisted in populations where
      parasites are common.

PMID- 28564420
TI  - HOST RACE RADIATION IN THE SOAPBERRY BUG: NATURAL HISTORY WITH THE HISTORY.
AB  - Evolution by natural selection is remarkably well documented in the
      diversification of soapberry bug populations on their native and recently
      introduced host plants. In this century, populations of this native seed-eating
      insect have colonized three plant species introduced to North America. Each new
      host differs in fruit size from the native hosts, providing an unplanned
      experiment in natural selection of the insect's beak length. In each of three
      host shifts, beak length has increased or decreased in the direction predicted
      from fruit size. Furthermore, museum specimens show historical changes consistent
      with the host shift scenario inferred from beak length values in contemporary
      populations. The extent to which beak length evolution has been accompanied by
      evolution in other body size characters differs between the races, suggesting
      that the evolution has proceeded differently in each case. In all cases,
      significant evolution has occurred in as little as 20-50 years (40-150
      generations), creating a species-level mosaic of response to simultaneous
      directional, diversifying, and normalizing selection.

PMID- 28564421
TI  - DISPERSAL IN THE WOOD FROG (RANA SYLVATICA): IMPLICATIONS FOR GENETIC POPULATION
      STRUCTURE.
AB  - Recapture of marked juvenile and adult wood frogs in five Appalachian Mountain
      ponds showed adults to be 100% faithful to the ponds in which they first bred,
      but approximately 18% of the juveniles dispersed to breed in ponds other than the
      one of origin. Effective population sizes were generally smaller than the
      population censuses and genetic neighborhoods had an average radius of 1,126
      meters. Values of standardized genetic variance based on effective population
      size and mating success were relatively small. Genetic population structure
      estimated from the dispersal data suggested that ponds within about a 1,000 meter
      radius should show little genetic differentiation; ponds separated by a distance
      greater than 1,000 meters should experience little gene flow and show higher
      genetic differentiation. Wood frogs in these ponds do not show a meta-population
      structure as suggested for newts.

PMID- 28564422
TI  - COMMENTS ON THE CAUSES OF NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28564423
TI  - TARGETS OF SEXUAL SELECTION: SONG AND PLUMAGE OF WOOD WARBLERS.
AB  - Extant hypotheses predict that, in the face of sexual selection, avian song and
      plumage may evolve in a concerted fashion, in an antagonistic fashion, or in ways
      unrelated to each other. To test these ideas regarding which traits sexual
      selection targets, and the consequences for other traits, we analyzed patterns of
      song complexity and plumage dimorphism in 56 species of wood warblers
      (Parulinae). Overall, males of more dimorphic species sang shorter songs more
      often, but did not have more complex songs. However, when monomorphic species
      were excluded from the analysis, we found that the total time spent singing and
      repertoire size increased with plumage dimorphism. Monomorphic species are
      predominantly ground-nesters and the greater risk of nest predation for these
      species may constrain males from becoming more visually conspicuous. Thus, sexual
      selection may have been restricted to targeting song in these species. Even
      though song may have been the only target of sexual selection in ground-nesting
      species, overall, song in those species is not more complex than in species that
      nest above the ground. We propose that traits targeted by sexual selection evolve
      in concert, except when constrained by some ecological factor.

PMID- 28564424
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF CHLOROPLAST DNA RESTRICTION SITE DATA AT HIGHER
      TAXONOMIC LEVELS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE ASTERACEAE.
AB  - Chloroplast DNA variation was examined among 57 genera of Asteraceae representing
      15 currently recognized tribes. Complete cleavage maps were constructed for 11
      six-base pair restriction enzymes, and a total of 927 cleavage site differences
      was detected, 328 of which are phylogenetically informative. The data were used
      to construct phylogenetic trees using both Wagner and Dollo parsimony and the
      resulting monophyletic groups were evaluated statistically using the bootstrap
      method. The level of homoplasy in the restriction site data is 54-56% (excluding
      autapomorphies), most of which is due to parallel site losses. The most
      parsimonious trees generated by both parsimony methods have nearly identical
      topologies at lower taxonomic levels, but differ in subfamilial circumscriptions
      and tribal groupings. Dollo parsimony provides support for the monophyly of two
      subfamilies, the Lactucoideae (excluding the Barnadesiinae) and Asteroideae, but
      Wagner parsimony supports the monophyly of the Asteroideae only. This
      incongruence is due to different assumptions of the two parsimony methods about
      relative rates of parallel site gains and losses. After eliminating the six most
      rapidly changing restriction sites or performing successive approximation, Wagner
      parsimony produces trees with the same subfamilial groupings as the Dollo trees.
      We conclude that the Dollo tree with two monophyletic subfamilies is the best
      estimate of phylogenetic relationships in the Asteraceae because this method more
      accurately reflects the evolution of restriction sites. We also demonstrate that
      in spite of high levels of homoplasy in chloroplast DNA restriction site data at
      these higher taxonomic levels, it is possible to make statistically supported
      estimates of phylogenetic relationships.

PMID- 28564425
TI  - HALDANE'S RULE AND SEX BIASSED GENE FLOW BETWEEN TWO HYBRIDIZING FLYCATCHER
      SPECIES (FICEDULA ALBICOLLIS AND F. HYPOLEUCA, AVES: MUSCICAPIDAE).
AB  - The collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) and the pied flycatcher (F.
      hypoleuca) hybridize where their geographic ranges overlap. Restriction fragment
      comparison of 5% of the mitochondrial genome showed a sequence divergence of 10%
      between these flycatcher species. This degree of sequence divergence between a
      closely related pair of bird species is unusually high and contrasts with the low
      level of divergence between F. albicollis and F. hypoleuca in nuclear genes
      (Nei's D = 0.0006) revealed by enzyme electrophoresis. The low nuclear
      differentiation is explained by sex biassed gene flow and introgression in
      nuclear genes (via fertile male hybrids), while the high mitochondrial DNA
      sequence divergence is preserved by sterility of female hybrids, which prevents
      mitochondrial introgression. This pattern is in accordance with Haldane's rule
      and is supported by field data on hybrid fertility. The high mtDNA
      differentiation could be explained by transfer of mitochondrial DNA from a third
      species during a past period of hybridization.

PMID- 28564426
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF HYBRIDIZATION IN EUCALYPTUS.

PMID- 28564427
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND HOST USE IN HYBRIDIZING SUBSPECIES OF PAPILIO GLAUCUS
      (LEPIDOPTERA: PAPILIONIDAE).
AB  - Two parapatric subspecies of the eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio
      glaucus glaucus and P. g. canadensis, differ greatly in larval survival and
      growth on host plants in the Magnoliaceae, Salicaceae, and Betulaceae. In the
      first part of this study, butterflies were collected from 17 sites along a
      transect from Georgia to Quebec and used for allozyme electrophoresis. Two X- (or
      Z-)linked enzyme loci (Ldh and Pgd) showed allele frequency differences that
      delineated a hybrid zone between the subspecies in northern Pennsylvania and
      south-central New York. No significant linkage disequilibrium could be detected
      among allozyme loci within the hybrid zone samples. Genetic differentiation at
      Ldh and Pgd coincides with subspecies differences in diapause control and female
      mimicry, which are also sex-linked. Larval offspring of butterflies from 13 of
      the sites were then tested in the laboratory for survival and growth on
      Liriodendron tulipifera (Magnoliaceae), Populus deltoides (Salicaceae) and Betula
      lutea (Betulaceae). Steep clines in survival rates matched the position of the
      hybrid zone. Hybrid zone larvae showed intermediate survival rates and
      significant heterogeneity among families on all three plants, indicating presence
      of substantial genetic variation. The results suggest that differential host use
      by P. g. glaucus and P. g. canadensis is maintained primarily by independent
      clines in selection intensity for ability to use allopatric sets of host plants,
      coupled with restricted gene flow across the hybrid zone.

PMID- 28564428
TI  - FUNCTIONAL COMPLEXES AND ADDITIVITY IN PERFORMANCE: A TEST CASE WITH "FLYING"
      FROGS.

PMID- 28564429
TI  - EXAMINING HYPOTHESES GENERATED BY FIELD MEASURES OF SEXUAL SELECTION ON MALE
      LIZARDS, UTA PALMERI.
AB  - I examined sexual selection in the iguanid lizard Uta palmeri by measuring
      phenotypic selection in a cohort of males. Relative fitness was estimated by
      copulation rate from one breeding season, and I analyzed selection on five
      morphological traits (snout-vent length, mass, jaw length, head width, and head
      depth) and on male territory quality. Only territory quality and head depth were
      identified as direct targets of selection in a linear selection gradient
      analysis. Head depth was suggested to also be subject to quadratic selection. All
      traits exhibited significant directional selection differentials, suggesting
      indirect selection also was present because of the correlation of these traits
      with direct targets of selection. I used these results to generate hypotheses
      about the mechanisms of selection. For traits not identified as direct targets of
      selection (snout-vent length, mass, head width, jaw length), I could accept the
      null hypothesis of no female preference for the analyzed male traits; if these
      morphological traits were preferred by females in mate choice, they would have
      been identified as direct targets of selection. Exploring possible functional
      relationships within the cohort, I found that all five morphological traits
      contributed to explaining variation in territorial status. And in staged
      aggressive interactions between males that were similar in snout-vent length and
      mass, winning was associated only with greater head depth and not with head width
      or jaw length. Several possible interpretations of these results are presented.
      This study suggests that differential mating success arising from variation in
      territory quality gives rise to indirect selection on morphology. The possible
      mechanisms giving rise to the proposed direct selection on head depth require
      further study.

PMID- 28564430
TI  - RETROTRANSPOSON MYS IS CONCENTRATED ON THE SEX CHROMOSOMES: IMPLICATIONS FOR COPY
      NUMBER CONTAINMENT.
AB  - Chromosomal distribution of the mys retrotransposon was examined by in situ
      hybridization with a biotinylated probe. Thirty-six mice from four species of the
      Peromyscus leucopus/maniculatus complex were examined. Mys hybridized to every
      chromosome in all individuals examined. However, the pattern of hybridization was
      nonrandom. Mys elements were excluded from C-banding regions of the autosomes,
      and hybridized preferentially to G-bands. The most prominent feature of these
      hybridizations was the preferential accumulation of mys on the X and Y
      chromosomes of all four species examined. Accumulation of mys on the X is
      incompatible with the hypothesis that selection acting on deleterious mutations
      is the major mechanism regulating the copy number of this element. Rather, this
      supports the Langley model for containment of transposable element copy number by
      unequal exchange during meiosis.

PMID- 28564431
TI  - GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION FOR CLIMATE AND COMPETITION IN A NATURAL
      POPULATION OF FLOUR BEETLES, TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.
AB  - The norm of reaction, the set of average phenotypes produced by a genotype in
      different environments, can be affected by spatial variation in natural selection
      especially when there exists genotype-environment interaction. In subdivided
      populations, the greater the genotype-environment interaction variance and the
      lower the migration rate, the more independent are the possible evolutionary
      trajectories for local adaptation. I examined genotype-environment interaction in
      the rate of population increase for lineages randomly derived from a wild
      population of Tribolium castaneum across a series of ecologically important
      environments. The lineages were derived from an outbred, wild-caught population
      by 14 generations of random genetic drift, during which the effective size of
      each lineage was approximately 22 breeding adults. The environments studied were
      the classic temperate-wet and cold-dry climates of Park (1954) in factorial
      combination with two genetic strains of a congeneric competitor, T. confusum.
      Much among-lineage genetic variation for rate of population increase was found
      for each of these ecologically important environments of climate and competition.
      Genotype-environment interaction accounted for 40.5% of the total among-lineage
      variance in rate of population increase signifying that the performance of a
      lineage in one environment is not necessarily a good predictor of its performance
      in another. Changing the genetic identity of the competitor changed the rate of
      increase of some lineages as much or more than changing the climatic conditions
      of temperature and humidity. This is the first empirical study to characterize
      the genotype-environment interaction variance associated with genetic variation
      in a competing congeneric species. This competitor-specific genetic variation in
      competitive ability may play an important role in coevolution in subdivided
      populations.

PMID- 28564432
TI  - ALLOZYME DIVERGENCE WITHIN THE BOVIDAE.
AB  - We describe a phylogeny of the Bovidae based on 40 allozyme loci in 27 species,
      representing 10 of the 14 bovid tribes described by Vrba (1985). Giraffe
      represented a related family (Giraffidae). A phenogram was derived using the
      unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA), based on Nei's
      genetic distances (ND) between species. A tree was also derived using the
      neighbor-joining technique, also based on ND. To provide a cladistic
      interpretation, the data were analyzed by a maximum parsimony method
      (phylogenetic analysis using parsimony, PAUP). We found marked divergence within
      the Bovidae, consistent with the appearance of the family in the early Miocene.
      Unexpectedly, the most divergent species was the impala, which occupied a basal
      position in all trees. Species in the tribe Alcelaphini were the most derived
      taxa in all trees. These patterns conflict strongly with the previous taxonomic
      alliance, based on immuno-distance and anatomical evidence, of the impala as a
      sister group of the Alcelaphini. All trees agreed that tribes described by Vrba
      (1985) are monophyletic, except the Neotragini, which was polyphyletic, with suni
      occupying a long branch by itself. The dikdik and klipspringer were consistently
      placed as sister taxa to species in the Antilopini. Three tribes (Aepycerotini,
      Tragelaphini and Cephalophini), whose fossils have not been found outside Africa,
      were basal in all trees, suggesting that bovids originated in Africa. Nodes
      connecting the remaining tribes were closely clustered, a pattern that agrees
      with fossil evidence of rapid divergence within the Bovidae in the mid-Miocene
      (about 15 mybp). The allozyme data suggested a second phase of rapid divergence
      within tribes during the Plio-Pleistocene, a pattern that also agrees with fossil
      evidence. Rates of bovid divergence have therefore been far from constant.
      However, the clustering of nodes imparts considerable uncertainty to the
      branching order leading to the derived tribes, and to a lesser extent, species
      within tribes. The classical division of the Bovidae into the Boodontia and
      Aegeodontia does not agree with the phylogenetic grouping of tribes presented in
      this analysis. However, the maximum parsimony tree derived using 'local' branch
      swapping clustered all grazing species into a derived, monophyletic group,
      suggesting that grazing may have evolved only once in bovid evolution.

PMID- 28564433
TI  - PHYLOGENY AND THE EVOLUTION OF HOST PLANT ASSOCIATIONS IN THE LEAF BEETLE GENUS
      OPHRAELLA (COLEOPTERA, CHRYSOMELIDAE).
AB  - Species of Ophraella, a North American genus of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae),
      feed variously on eight genera in four tribes of Asteraceae. A phylogenetic
      analysis, based on morphological features and allozymes, was undertaken to deduce
      the history of host affiliation within the genus. The two data sets are combined
      to arrive at a provisional phylogeny of the species, onto which host associations
      are parsimoniously mapped. Among and within the 12 species studied, at least two
      shifts are postulated to have occurred among congeneric plant species, five
      between genera in the same tribe, and four between different tribes of
      Asteraceae. The phylogeny of Ophraella appears not to be congruent with that of
      its hosts. This and other evidence indicates that many host shifts in Ophraella
      postdate the divergence of the host plants, a conclusion that may apply commonly
      to phytophagous insects. A phenetic analysis of the plants' secondary compounds
      provides modest support for the hypothesis that host shifts are facilitated by
      commonalities in plant chemistry. A possible trend in host shifts is evident,
      from chemically simpler to chemically more forbidding plants. The chemical
      barriers to host shifts in Ophraella appear to require adaptation in both
      behavior and in physiological attributes. There is no evidence that the host
      associations of these insects or the divergence in secondary chemistry of their
      hosts can be attributed to coevolution.

PMID- 28564434
TI  - THE CAUSES OF NATURAL SELECTION.
AB  - We discuss the necessary and sufficient conditions for identifying the cause of
      natural selection on a phenotypic trait. We reexamine the observational methods
      recently proposed for measuring selection in natural populations and illustrate
      why the multivariate analysis of selection is insufficient for identifying the
      causal agents of selection. We discuss how the observational approach of
      multivariate selection analysis can be complemented by experimental manipulations
      of the phenotypic distribution and the environment to identify not only how
      selection is operating on the phenotypic distribution but also why it operates in
      the observed manner. A significant point of departure of our work from recent
      discussions is in regard to the role of the environment in the study of natural
      selection. Instead of viewing the environment as a source of unwanted variation
      that obscures the relationship between phenotype and fitness, we view fitness as
      arising from the interaction of the phenotype with the environment. The biotic
      and abiotic environment is the context that gives rise to the relationship
      between phenotype and fitness (selection). The analysis of the causes of
      selection is in essence a problem in ecology. The experimental study of the
      association between selection gradients and environmental characteristics is
      necessary to identify the agents of natural selection. We recommend research
      methods for identifying the agency of selection that depend upon a reciprocity
      between the observational approach of multivariate selection analysis and the
      manipulative approach of field experiments in evolutionary ecology.

PMID- 28564435
TI  - EVOLUTION OF OBLIGATE SIBLICIDE IN BOOBIES. 2: FOOD LIMITATION AND PARENT
      OFFSPRING CONFLICT.
AB  - Proximate limitation on parental food delivery has long been invoked to explain
      the evolution of single-chick broods of pelagic seabirds such as masked boobies
      (Sula dactylatra). A second possible proximate limit on brood size is siblicide
      driven by genetic parent-offspring conflict (POC) over brood size, if siblicidal
      offspring can reduce brood size to one even if the parents' optimal brood size is
      greater than one. I tested these two hypotheses by experimentally suppressing
      obligate siblicide in masked booby broods and comparing breeding parameters of
      these broods with unmanipulated single-chick control broods. Per capita mortality
      rate of experimental nestlings was higher than that of controls, but this deficit
      was more than made up by larger brood size. Parents of experimental broods
      brought more food to offspring, had higher fledging success, and apparently
      incurred no additional major short-term cost of reproduction, relative to parents
      of control broods, thus refuting the food limitation hypothesis. Estimates of
      inclusive fitness of chicks in experimental broods were higher than were those of
      control nestlings, a result inconsistent with the POC hypothesis that the
      siblicidal offspring's optimal brood size is one while the parents' optimum is
      greater than one. This discrepency between natural brood size and apparent brood
      size optima might be resolved in several ways: experimental artifacts may give
      misleading estimates of optimal brood size; experimental and control offspring
      may have different reproductive values at the time of fledging; nestling masked
      boobies may face a special frequency-dependent case of POC in which the high risk
      of sharing a nest with a siblicidal sibling makes invasion of other behavioral
      genotypes difficult even when offspring and parent inclusive fitnesses are higher
      from a nonsiblicidal brood of two than from a brood of one.

PMID- 28564436
TI  - RESISTANCE OF GENETIC CORRELATION STRUCTURE TO DIRECTIONAL SELECTION IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - The genetic covariance and correlation matrices for five morphological traits
      were estimated from four populations of fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, to
      measure the extent of change in genetic covariances as a result of directional
      selection. Two of the populations were derived from lines that had undergone
      selection for large or small thorax length over the preceding 23 generations. A
      third population was constituted using flies from control lines that were
      maintained with equivalent population sizes as the selected lines. The fourth
      population contained flies from the original cage population from which the
      selected and control lines had been started. Tests of the homogeneity of
      covariance matrices using maximum likelihood techniques revealed significant
      changes in covariance structure among the selected lines. Prediction of base
      population trait means from selected line means under the assumption of constant
      genetic covariances indicated that genetic covariances for the small population
      differed more from the base population than did the covariances for the large
      population. The predicted small population means diverged farther from the
      expected means because the additive genetic variance associated with several
      traits increased in value and most of the genetic covariances associated with one
      trait changed in sign. These results illustrate that genetic covariances may
      remain nearly constant in some situations while changing markedly in others.
      Possible developmental reasons for the genetic changes are discussed.

PMID- 28564437
TI  - SYSTEMATICS AND POPULATION GENETICS OF FIRE ANTS (SOLENOPSIS SAEVISSIMA COMPLEX)
      FROM ARGENTINA.
AB  - Specimens of seven fire ant species collected from their native ranges in
      Argentina were studied by protein electrophoresis and morphological analysis.
      Concordance between the genetic and morphological character sets is strong (96%
      agreement on identifications), suggesting that recognition of reproductively
      isolated populations and partitioning of intra- and interspecific variation can
      in most cases be achieved using appropriate characters of either type in this
      taxonomically difficult group. Genetic differentiation between native (Argentina)
      and introduced (USA) conspecific populations of two species, Solenopsis invicta
      and S. richteri, is rather typical of the differentiation existing between
      conspecific populations found within either country. Furthermore, there appears
      to have been little reduction of variability (heterozygosity) at enzyme loci
      following colonization by either species of the United States, although some rare
      alleles have been lost in the introduced populations. Hybridization is rare
      between S. invicta and S. richteri where their native ranges overlap in central
      Argentina, in contrast to the extensive hybridization of these species in the
      United States, suggesting that prezygotic barriers to gene flow have been
      compromised in introduced populations. Phylogenetic analysis of the seven species
      indicates that S. invicta and S. richteri are relatively distantly related within
      the S. saevissima complex. Given that hybrids between these species in the United
      States suffer little apparent loss of fitness, genomic incompatibilities
      generally may be insufficient to create effective postzygotic barriers to
      interspecific gene flow in this group of ants.

PMID- 28564438
TI  - INBREEDING EFFECTS IN CLARKIA TEMBLORIENSIS (ONAGRACEAE) POPULATIONS WITH
      DIFFERENT NATURAL OUTCROSSING RATES.
AB  - Inbreeding depression is commonly observed in natural populations. The
      deleterious effects of forced inbreeding are often thought to be less pronounced
      in populations with self-pollinating mating systems than in primarily outcrossing
      populations. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the performance of plants
      produced by artificial self- and cross-pollination from three populations whose
      outcrossing rate estimates were 0.03, 0.26, and 0.58. Outcrossing rates and
      inbreeding coefficients were estimated using isozyme polymorphisms as genetic
      markers. Analysis of F statistics suggests that biparental inbreeding as well as
      self-fertilization contribute to the level of homozygosity in the seed crop.
      Biparental inbreeding will reduce the heterozygosity of progeny produced by
      outcrossing, relative to random outcrossing expectations, and hence will reduce
      the effects of outcrossing versus self-fertilization. Heterotic selection may
      increase the average heterozygosity during the life history. Selfed and
      outcrossed seeds from all three populations were equally likely to germinate and
      survive to reproduce. However, inbreeding depression was observed in fecundity
      traits of plants surviving to reproduction in all three populations. Even in the
      population whose natural self-fertilization rate was 97%, plants grown from seed
      produced by self-pollination produced fewer fruits and less total seed weight
      than plants grown from outcrossed seed. There was no detectable inbreeding
      depression in estimated lifetime fitness. Inbreeding effects for all reproductive
      yield characters were most severe in the accession from the most outcrossing
      population and least severe in the accession from the most self-fertilizing
      population.

PMID- 28564439
TI  - THE INTERACTION OF BEHAVIORAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE EVOLUTION OF A
      NOVEL LOCOMOTOR TYPE: "FLYING" FROGS.
AB  - "Flying" frogs have evolved independently several times among anurans. In all
      cases flyers are distinguished from their nonflying arboreal relatives by a
      unique set of morphological features and behavioral postures. Using both live
      animal field tests and wind tunnel models, this study examines the importance of
      this characteristic morphology and limb position on five aerial performance
      variables: horizontal traveling distance, minimum glide speed, maximum time
      aloft, maneuverability, and stability. Comparison of relative performance between
      a model frog with a generalized nonflying morphology and limb position and a
      model frog with flying morphology and limb position reveals that the
      morphological and positional features associated with "flying" actually decrease
      horizontal traveling distance but improve maneuverability. This finding suggests
      that maneuverability rather than horizontal travel may be the key performance
      parameter in the evolution of "flying" frogs. More generally, this study
      illustrates that (1) derived morphological and postural features do not
      necessarily change a suite of performance variables in the same way, and (2) the
      performance consequences of postural shifts are a function of morphology. These
      findings indicate that the potential complexity of morphological and behavioral
      interactions in the evolution of new adaptive types is much greater than
      previously considered.

PMID- 28564440
TI  - ALTERED MATING BEHAVIOR IN A CARSONIAN POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA SECHELLIA.
AB  - Mating behavior was studied in two laboratory populations of Drosophila sechellia
      and their reciprocal hybrids. The ancestral population was reared on a special
      medium, optimal for this species, while the derived population was reared on a
      standard Drosophila food, and underwent a bottleneck while adapting to this new
      medium, in a manner similar to the "founder-flush" process of Carson (1971). A
      significant tendency towards mating asymmetry was found, with ancestral females
      mating significantly less frequently with derived males than derived females with
      ancestral males. Analysis of hybrids suggested an important role for the male's X
      chromosome or for a maternal effect. No significant differences were found among
      parental types for their main female cuticular hydrocarbons, the proportion of
      courtship spent in various behavioral elements, body weight, or wing length.
      Significant differences were found in the structure of courtship, male locomotor
      activity, male cuticular hydrocarbon levels, and male courtship song inter-pulse
      interval (i.p.i.). None of these differences showed an X-linked effect in the
      reciprocal hybrids. Hypotheses put forward to explain interspecific mating
      asymmetries are discussed in the light of these results.

PMID- 28564441
TI  - ONTOGENETIC STUDIES OF FLORETS IN POA (GRAMINEAE): ALLOMETRY AND HETEROCHRONY.
AB  - Species distinctions in grasses are based on differences in sizes of parts,
      particularly floral parts, and on differences in distribution of hairs; both sets
      of characters are apparently subject to repeated parallel evolution.
      Developmental studies of florets in the genus Poa reveal that there are only two
      developmental trajectories for lemma length relative to anther length (a measure
      of time to maturity): either lemma growth is continuous with anther growth, or
      the lemma reaches its adult size well before the anthers do. The tuft of long,
      cobweb-like hairs on the callus of many species forms early in lemma development,
      as might be expected for a character that marks a large group of species. The
      five possible patterns of hair distribution on the lemma itself represent stages
      of a single developmental pathway; differences between species presumably reflect
      differences in timing of onset or truncation of the developmental program
      (heterochrony).

PMID- 28564442
TI  - TWO NEUTRALITY TESTS OF Y-LINKED RDNA VARIATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - The evolutionary significance of Y-chromosomal ribosomal DNA sequence variation
      was tested by two different means. A single sample of males and females was
      collected from a peach orchard in central Pennsylvania. Wild-caught males and
      sons of wild-caught, wild-inseminated females were crossed to virgin females
      having an X-linked rDNA deficiency. Genomic DNA from male progeny of these
      crosses was extracted and digested with the single restriction endonuclease,
      DraI. Southern blots of these digestions, when probed with the complete rDNA
      probe, revealed 10 distinct patterns of restriction fragments. A chisquare test
      for the homogeneity of the frequency distributions of the sample of wild males
      and sons of wild females failed to reject a neutral null hypothesis. The allele
      frequency configuration was tested with the Ewens-Watterson test, and the
      departure from the infinite alleles neutral model was not significant.
      Simulations were performed to test the sensitivity of the tests to
      misclassification and to quantify the power of the two tests.

PMID- 28564443
TI  - THE EFFECT OF DISTANCE FROM THE PARENTAL SITE ON OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE AND
      INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS: A TEST OF THE LOCAL ADAPTATION
      HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - If microgeographic variation in selection within a natural plant population has
      resulted in local adaptation, then offspring fitness should decline with distance
      from the parental site. If outcrossed progeny are less well-adapted to the
      parental environment than inbred progeny, but perform better in environments
      different from that of the parent, then the fitness of inbred progeny relative to
      outcrossed progeny should decrease with dispersal distance from the parent. To
      test these predictions, we collected seedlings at 10-m intervals from a 40 times
      40-m permanent grid in a natural population of Impatiens capensis, grew them in a
      greenhouse, and crossed them to produce outcrossed chasmogamous seeds. Seedlings
      from outcrossed chasmogamous and self-fertilized cleistogamous seeds were planted
      back into the source population in the original site of their maternal parents
      and in arcs 3 and 12 m from the parental location and censused weekly for
      survival and reproduction. The fitness of inbred offspring declined significantly
      and the magnitude of observed inbreeding depression increased with distance from
      the parental site, supporting the local adaptation hypothesis.

PMID- 28564444
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF HYBRIDIZATION IN EUCALYPTUS.

PMID- 28564445
TI  - SYMMETRY, LOCOMOTION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF AN ANTERIOR END: A LESSON FROM SEA
      URCHINS.
AB  - Bilaterally symmetrical, "regular" sea urchins in the Family Echinometridae
      (Class Echinoidea; Phylum Echinodermata) were found to lack a locomotor anterior.
      Heterocentrotus mammillatus and Echinometra mathaei were observed while
      locomoting. Members of both ellipsoidal species were found to proceed with their
      short or long axis foremost with statistically equivalent frequencies. This
      finding demonstrates that the evolution of bilateral symmetry is not always
      accompanied by the evolution of a locomotor "anterior" end. The elliptical
      echinometrid sea urchins provide a particularly appropriate study group for
      investigating the relationship between the evolution of body form and locomotor
      behavior. Although the radially symmetrical regular sea urchins, from which the
      echinometrids sprang, lack a locomotor anterior, all "irregular" echinoids, which
      are also derived from a regular ancestor but are bilaterally symmetrical, possess
      an "obligate" locomotor anterior. The symmetry and behavior exhibited by the
      elliptical echinometrid sea urchins therefore demonstrates that the first
      irregular echinoids (which exhibit bilateral symmetry by definition) need not
      have possessed a locomotor anterior as they do today.

PMID- 28564446
TI  - EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BODY SIZE AND CELL SIZE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      IN RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE.
AB  - We examined the evolutionary and developmental responses of body size to
      temperature in Drosophila melanogaster, using replicated lines of flies that had
      been allowed to evolve for 5 yr at 25 degrees C or at 16.5 degrees C. Development
      and evolution at the lower temperature both resulted in higher thorax length and
      wing area. The evolutionary effect of temperature on wing area was entirely a
      consequence of an increase in cell area. The developmental response was mainly
      attributable to an increase in cell area, with a small effect on cell number in
      males. Given its similarity to the evolutionary response, the increase in body
      size and cell size resulting from development at low temperature may be a case of
      adaptive phenotypic plasticity. The pattern of plasticity did not evolve in
      response to temperature for any of the traits. The selective advantage of the
      evolutionary and developmental responses to temperature is obscure and remains a
      major challenge for future work.

PMID- 28564447
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF KINSHIP ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN TADPOLES OF RANA CASCADAE.

PMID- 28564448
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR RESTRICTED GENE FLOW IN THE VIVIPAROUS CORAL SERIATOPORA HYSTRIX ON
      AUSTRALIA'S GREAT BARRIER REEF.
AB  - Viviparous, branching corals such as Seriatopora hystrix are expected to generate
      most recruits through asexual reproduction (fission or fragmentation) but are
      expected to use sexual reproduction to produce widely dispersed colonists. In
      this study, allozyme electrophoresis was used to test for variation in the
      relative contributions of sexual and asexual reproduction to recruitment and to
      assess the apparent scale of larval dispersal (gene flow) in the central Great
      Barrier Reef. Fifty-seven collections (within <= 25 m2 ) of fragments from sets
      of approximately 40 colonies were made (where possible) within each of five
      habitats on each of 12 reefs. These reefs, within the central region of the Great
      Barrier Reef, were separated by up to 90 km and included one inner-shelf
      continental island and groups of seven midshelf reefs and four outer-shelf reefs.
      Most collections contained a high level of multilocus genotypic diversity and
      hence showed little evidence of recruitment through fragmentation, although the
      majority of collections displayed large and consistent deficits of heterozygotes.
      Allele frequencies varied greatly among collections (FST = 0.43), and this
      variation was sufficient to explain two-thirds of observed deficiencies of
      heterozygotes via a Wahlund effect. A hierarchical assessment of FST values
      revealed that 45% of allelic variation occurred among reefs (FST = 0.20), and
      only 16% of variation within reefs was explained by variation among five major
      habitat types (FST = 0.05). A relatively small component of the total variation
      among samples was attributable to across-shelf variation among the groups of
      middle- and outer-shelf reefs (FST = 0.03); however, the outer-shelf reefs form a
      single UPGMA cluster separate from all but 4 of the other 43 collections. These
      data imply that widespread dispersal does occur but that the direction or
      magnitude of gene flow may be influenced by the along-shelf movement of major
      ocean currents and weather-dependent currents on or near reefs. Each reef,
      therefore, forms a partially isolated and highly subdivided population.

PMID- 28564449
TI  - GENE GENEALOGY AND DIFFERENTIATION AMONG ARBOREAL SPINY RATS (RODENTIA:
      ECHIMYIDAE) OF THE AMAZON BASIN: A TEST OF THE RIVERINE BARRIER HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - Sequence variation in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was examined in the
      arboreal spiny rat, Mesomys hispidus, collected at 15 sites along the Rio Jurua
      in western Amazonia, Brazil, to determine the importance of riverine barriers in
      the diversification of this taxon. Twenty individual haplotypes were uncovered,
      most of which were unique to single localities but some of which were shared
      among adjacent sites either along or across the river. Genealogical analyses
      suggest that gene flow is limited and, in combination with the unique
      distribution of most haplotypes, suggest that populations of this species are
      strongly substructured along the river. Thus, most sharing of haplotypes between
      adjacent localities is probably caused by historical association rather than to
      ongoing gene flow. Two haplotype clades were uncovered, but these correspond to
      headwaters versus mouth areas, not to opposite sides of the river, as would be
      expected by the Riverine Barrier Hypothesis. Moreover, haplotype sharing across
      the river was greater at its mouth than in the headwaters, a pattern opposite
      that expected if the river were a substantive barrier. Broader scale
      phylogeographic patterns of this species show that both clades have relationships
      to areas well outside the Rio Jurua basin. This suggests that the basin
      represents a relatively recent point of invasion between two more broadly
      distributed and differentiated geographic units of the species.

PMID- 28564450
TI  - ADAPTIVE DISTANCE AND THE GENETIC BASIS OF HETEROSIS.

PMID- 28564451
TI  - HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE BANANAQUIT (COEREBA FLAVEOLA) IN THE CARIBBEAN
      REGION: A MITOCHONDRIAL DNA ASSESSMENT.
AB  - We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction-site variation in bananaquit
      (Coereba flaveola; Aves, Coerebinae) populations sampled on 12 Caribbean islands
      and at 5 continental localities in Central America and northern South America.
      Multiple fixed restriction-site differences genetically defined several regional
      bananaquit populations. An mtDNA clade representing all Jamaican bananaquits was
      the most divergent; the estimated average sequence divergence (dxy ) between
      Jamaican and all other mtDNA haplotypes surveyed was 0.027. Three groups of
      populations, representing Central America, northern South America, and the
      eastern Antilles (Puerto Rico to Grenada) were nearly equally differentiated
      among themselves (average dxy = 0.014), and may represent a single, recent range
      expansion. Within the eastern Antilles, three geographically restricted haplotype
      groups were identified: Puerto Rico, north-central Lesser Antilles (U.S. Virgin
      Islands to St. Lucia), and Grenada-St. Vincent. The evolutionary relationships of
      these groups were not clear. Genetic homogeneity of the island populations from
      the U.S. Virgin Islands to St. Lucia suggested a recent spread of a specific
      north-central Lesser Antillean haplotype through most of those islands. Haplotype
      variation across this region indicated that this spread may have occurred in two
      waves, first through the southernmost islands of St. Lucia, Martinique, and
      Dominica, and more recently from Guadeloupe to the north. The geographic
      distribution of mtDNA haplotypes, and of bananaquit populations, suggests periods
      of invasiveness followed by relative geographic quiescence. Although most genetic
      studies of bird populations have revealed homogeneity over large geographic
      areas, our findings provide a remarkable counterexample of strong geographic
      structuring of mtDNA variation over relatively small distances. Furthermore,
      although the mtDNA data were consistent with several subspecific distinctions, it
      was clear that named subspecies do not define equally differentiated evolutionary
      entities.

PMID- 28564452
TI  - COMPARATIVE EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS OF METABOLISM IN NINE DROSOPHILA SPECIES.
AB  - To attain balanced and efficient metabolism, the genes encoding enzymes involved
      in intermediary metabolism must be coordinately regulated. Gross misregulation of
      these genes can result in deleterious metabolic imbalances, as seen in transgenic
      laboratory organisms with altered gene dosage. By quantifying the expression of
      enzymes in nine related species of Drosophila, we hoped to see patterns of
      coordinated changes that could be related to evolutionary constraints on
      regulation. The storage pools of triacylglycerols and glycogen were measured, and
      the activities of 12 enzymes in intermediary metabolism were also quantified.
      When these phenotypes were placed on the phylogeny of the Drosophila species,
      quantitative cladistic hypotheses could be tested. The method of independent
      phylogenetic contrasts provides a formal statistical test of the null hypothesis
      that phenotypic changes of pairs of characters on a phylogenetic tree are
      independent. For example, G6PD and 6PGD exhibited a wide range of activity
      variation among species, and interspecific comparisons suggested significant
      coregulation. Significant coordinated changes among clades of the Drosophila
      phylogeny were also seen for 6PGD-malic enzyme, glycogen synthase-fatty acid
      synthase, G6PD-GPDH, and 6PGD-glycogen synthase, which in most cases exhibited
      positive intraspecific genetic correlation. This was to be contrasted with the
      relation between fatty-acid synthesis and fat storage, which exhibits a strong
      positive correlation within D. melanogaster but no significant interspecific
      correlation. Limitations of inferring evolutionary constraints by contrasting
      intraspecific phenotypic variation to interspecific divergence are briefly
      discussed.

PMID- 28564453
TI  - MULTIPLE COLONIZATIONS OF ASPLENIUM ADIANTUM-NIGRUM ONTO THE HAWAIIAN
      ARCHIPELAGO.
AB  - The extreme isolation and mid-Pacific origin of the Hawaiian archipelago has
      ensured that all indigenous organisms have arrived via long-distance dispersal or
      have evolved from successfully colonizing species. Although this isolation has
      also produced high rates of species endemism in angiosperms (89% or more), that
      rate in pteridophytes is considerably less (76%). The ratio of native species to
      the estimated number of original successful colonizing species in angiosperms
      (3.4) is more than double that for pteridophytes (1.6). One possible explanation
      for the lower speciation rate in pteridophytes is that populations of these
      species are more likely to experience interpopulational gene flow because of the
      great vagility of their wind-dispersed spores. We conducted isozymic surveys of
      populations from the island of Hawaii of the indigenous allotetraploid species
      Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, putatively derived from two strictly European diploid
      taxa. Our data support multiple hybrid origins for the populations surveyed, with
      a minimum of 3, and possibly as many as 17, discrete hybridization events having
      produced the genetic diversity observed. Since the parental taxa are not found in
      Hawaii, each hybrid lineage must have arrived in the archipelago independently of
      the others. Similar long-distance, repeated dispersal events may be occurring
      between insular and noninsular populations of other native pteridophytes in
      Hawaii and in other insular regions of the world, thus contributing to the
      relatively low rates of speciation and insular endemism in this ancient group of
      plants.

PMID- 28564454
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PARTIALLY SELF-FERTILIZING DECODON VERTICILLATUS
      (LYTHRACEAE): POPULATION-GENETIC AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES.
AB  - Inbreeding depression is a major selective force favoring outcrossing in
      flowering plants. Some self-fertilization, however, should weaken the harmful
      effects of inbreeding by exposing genetic load to selection. This study examines
      the maintenance of inbreeding depression in partially self-fertilizing
      populations of the long-lived, herbaceous wetland plant, Decodon verticillatus
      (L.) Ell. (Lythraceae). Estimates from ten populations indicate that 30% of
      offspring are produced through self-fertilization. Population-genetic estimates
      of inbreeding depression (delta = 1 - relative mean fitness of selfed progeny)
      based on changes in the inbreeding coefficient for the same ten populations were
      uniformly high, ranging from 0.49 to 1.79 and averaging 1.11 +/- 0.29 SE.
      Although confidence intervals of individual population estimates were large,
      estimates were significantly greater than 0 in six populations and greater than
      0.5 in four. Inbreeding depression was also estimated by comparing growth,
      survival, and flowering of experimentally selfed and outcrossed offspring from
      two of these populations in a 1-yr glasshouse experiment involving three density
      regimes; after which offspring were transplanted into garden arrays and two field
      sites and monitored for two consecutive growing seasons. Overall delta^ for
      survival averaged 0.27 +/- 0.01 in the glasshouse, 0.33 +/- 0.04 in the garden,
      and 0.46 +/- 0.04 in the field. The glasshouse experiment also revealed strong
      inbreeding depression for growth variables, especially above-soil dry weight
      (delta^ = 0.42 +/- 0.03). The fitness consequences of inbreeding depression for
      these growth variables approximately doubles if survival to maturity is
      determined by severe truncation selection. Despite substantial selfing,
      inbreeding depression appears to be a major selective force favoring the
      maintenance of outcrossing in D. verticillatus.

PMID- 28564455
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF PLUMAGE BRIGHTNESS IN BIRDS IS RELATED TO EXTRAPAIR PATERNITY.
AB  - A positive association between plumage brightness of male birds and the degree of
      polygyny may be the result of sexual selection. Although most birds have a
      socially monogamous mating system, recent paternity analyses show that many
      offspring are fathered by nonmates. Extrapair paternity arises from extrapair
      copulations which are frequently initiated by females. Not all females will be
      able to mate with a male of the preferred phenotype, because of the mating
      decisions of earlier paired females; extrapair copulations may be a means for
      females to adjust their precopulation mate choice. We use two comparative
      analyses (standardized linear contrasts and pairwise comparisons between closely
      related taxa) to test the idea that male plumage brightness is related to
      extrapair paternity. Brightness of male plumage and sexual dimorphism in
      brightness were positively associated with high levels of extrapair paternity,
      even when potentially confounding variables were controlled statistically. This
      association between male brightness and extrapair paternity was considerably
      stronger than the association between male brightness and the degree of polygyny.
      Cuckoldry thus forms an important component of sexual selection in birds.

PMID- 28564456
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE PYGMY-FOREST EDAPHIC SUBSPECIES OF PINUS CONTORT A ACROSS AN
      ECOLOGICAL STAIRCASE.
AB  - Patterns of allozyme variation within and between two of the subspecies of Pinus
      contorta were examined for the evolutionary relationship between them. In coastal
      northern California, these subspecies are parapatric. Pinus contorta ssp.
      contorta occurs on grassy coastal bluffs on the lowest and youngest of a sequence
      of five marine terraces; P. contorta ssp. bolanderi is endemic to a pygmy forest
      ecosystem that occurs on the increasingly older and harsher soils of the third,
      fourth, and fifth terraces. The soils of the upper three terraces are
      characterized by extreme podzolization, low pH, low nutrient availability, summer
      drought (with periodic fires), and winter surface flooding above the hardpan.
      Dune and cliff soils support a tall redwood and Douglas-fir forest between the
      terraces. Analyses of seeds collected from 11 pygmy-forest and 6 coastal
      populations showed ssp. bolanderi to have significantly less allozyme variation
      than spp. contorta. The two subspecies did not show the phylogenetic dichotomy in
      allozyme allelic constitutions expected for subspecific classification. Within
      ssp. bolanderi, the pattern of genetic distances correlated better with edaphic
      differences among sites than with geographic distance. It appears that ssp.
      bolanderi is a recently evolved derivative of ssp. contorta, and that the low
      degree of allozyme differentiation among the bolanderi populations may be due to
      colonization of the sites by small numbers of individuals, or to hitchhiking of
      allozyme loci linked to loci undergoing strong selection imposed by the severe
      edaphic conditions typical of bolanderi sites.

PMID- 28564457
TI  - LONG-TERM LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF A GENETIC LIFE-HISTORY TRADE-OFF IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER. 2. STABILITY OF GENETIC CORRELATIONS.
AB  - Experiments in laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster have shown a
      negative genetic correlation between early-life fecundity on the one hand and
      starvation resistance and longevity on the other. Selection for late-life
      reproductive success resulted in long-lived populations that had increased
      starvation resistance but diminished early-life fecundity relative to short-lived
      controls. This pattern of differentiation proved, however, to be unstable. When
      assayed in a standard high-fecundity environment, the relative early fecundity of
      the long- and short-lived stocks reversed over a decade. That is, the long-lived
      populations came to have greater relative early-life fecundity, late-life
      fecundity, longevity and starvation resistance. Nevertheless, when these
      populations were assayed in other assay environments, the original trade-off was
      still present. We investigated the genetic structure of the short- and long-lived
      populations, to ask whether the inconstancy of the trade-off, as inferred from
      among population comparisons, is reflected in the pattern of genetic correlations
      within populations. For this purpose, lines from each of the short- and long
      lived populations that had been selected for starvation resistance were compared
      with unselected controls. The direct and correlated responses of these starvation
      selected populations suggest that (1) the original genetic trade-off was still
      present in the ancestral short- and long-lived populations, even when it was no
      longer apparent from their comparison; (2) the trade-off was present in both
      assay environments; and (3) selectable genotype * environment variation exists
      for early fecundity. We suggest that a failure of the pattern of differentiation
      among populations to reflect the pattern of genetic correlations, if common in
      natural populations, will prevent the reliable inference of genetic trade-offs
      from comparisons of most natural populations.

PMID- 28564458
TI  - POSTDISPERSAL SIBLING COMPETITION AND THE EVOLUTION OF SINGLE-SEEDEDNESS IN
      CRYPTANTHA FLAVA.

PMID- 28564459
TI  - WHEN MORPHOLOGY MISLEADS: INTERPOPULATION UNIFORMITY IN SEXUAL SELECTION MASKS
      GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN HARLEQUIN BEETLE-RIDING PSEUDOSCORPION POPULATIONS.
AB  - Differences in secondary sexual characteristics of males often provide the most
      conspicuous means of distinguishing between closely related species. Does this
      therefore imply that the absence of differentiation in exaggerated male traits
      between allopatric populations provides evidence of a single, genetically
      cohesive species? We addressed this question with a comprehensive investigation
      of two populations (French Guiana and Panama) of the harlequin beetle-riding
      pseudoscorpion, Cordylochernes scorpioides. This highly sexually dimorphic
      pseudoscorpion is currently described as a single species, ranging throughout the
      Neotropics. Our morphometric analyses detected minimal differentiation between
      the two populations in all nine external morphological characters measured,
      including sexually dimorphic traits in males. Only in traits of the spermatophore
      was there any appreciable level of differentiation. Behavior differentiation and
      prezygotic reproductive isolation were also limited: 78.3% of males successfully
      transferred sperm to "foreign" females, and in 63.9% of these cases, females'
      eggs were successfully fertilized. By contrast, extensive divergence existed in
      two of nine electrophoretic loci, including an essentially fixed-allele
      difference at the Ldh locus. Most significantly, postzygotic reproductive
      isolation was complete, with heteropopulation zygotes invariably aborting early
      in development. These results strongly suggest that the two populations are, in
      fact, sibling species, a conclusion supported by our recently published findings
      on their marked divergence in minisatellite DNA. How can such interpopulation
      homogeneity in male sexually dimorphic traits exist in the face of strong genetic
      divergence? We propose that sexual selection, oscillating between favoring small
      and then large males, maintains such high levels of male variability within each
      population that it has obscured a speciation event in which genetic divergence
      and postzygotic incompatibility have clearly outpaced the evolution of prezygotic
      reproductive isolation.

PMID- 28564460
TI  - ENCAPSULATION OF EGGS BY MARINE GASTROPODS: EFFECT OF VARIATION IN CAPSULE FORM
      ON THE VULNERABILITY OF EMBRYOS TO PREDATION.
AB  - Representatives of many plant and animal taxa enclose their embryos within some
      form of protective structure. Inter- and intraspecific differences in the
      morphology of these egg coverings may have profound effects on the development
      and survival of encapsulated embryos, yet in many taxa little is known about the
      causes or potential consequences of this variation. Comparisons of capsule
      morphology among populations of the rocky shore gastropod, Nucella emarginata,
      revealed significant variation in the thickness of capsule walls, the only
      barrier separating developing embryos from the external environment. Laboratory
      experiments demonstrated that thicker-walled capsules were more resistant to
      predation by a co-occurring isopod, Gnorimosphaeroma oregonense, than were
      thinner-walled capsules. Control experiments confirmed that these differences in
      vulnerability were not caused by differences in the palatability of the capsule
      wall or attractiveness of the capsule contents. The actual mechanism by which
      thick-walled capsules differentially protect developing embryos remains unclear,
      although decreased vulnerability of thick-walled capsules to these isopods may
      simply result from increased handling time by predators. Subtle differences in
      capsule morphology thus appear to have substantial effects on the survival of
      encapsulated embryos. Hence, predators may have played an important role in
      selecting for the production of thick-walled capsules among populations of N.
      emarginata.

PMID- 28564461
TI  - TRANSPOSON ABUNDANCE IN SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL POPULATIONS OF CHLAMYDOMONAS
      REINHARDTII.

PMID- 28564462
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR LONG-DISTANCE POLLEN DISPERSAL IN MILKWEEDS (ASCLEPIAS EXALTATA).
AB  - We investigated pollen-mediated gene flow and interspecific matings in natural
      populations of poke milkweed, Asclepias exaltata. Genetic data from 16
      polymorphic isozymes allowed unambiguous identification of the diploid paternal
      genotype for 225 singly sired fruits collected from six populations in Shenandoah
      National Park, Virginia. Paternity analysis of progeny arrays revealed that 29%
      50% (39.2%, mean) of the seeds produced in these populations were sired by plants
      located outside each target population. Variation among populations appears to be
      related to isolation distance (Kendall's tau = -0.69, N = 6, P > 0.1), although
      the negative correlation was statistically significant only when the results from
      a previous study of A. exaltata were also included in the analysis (Kendall's tau
      = -0.78, N = 7, P < 0.05). The coupling of standard paternity exclusion analysis
      on individual seeds (12 seeds/fruit) with estimation of cryptic gene flow from
      Monte Carlo simulations accounted for only 65% of the gene flow detected using
      the progeny-array analysis. These results suggest that standard paternity
      exclusion, incorporating cryptic gene flow, will inherently underestimate actual
      gene flow rates when the number of paternal parents is smaller than the number of
      seeds per fruit (i.e., matings are correlated). Indirect estimates of the number
      of migrants per generation (Nm ~ 2.3) obtained from Nei's genetic diversity
      statistic (GST ) are much smaller than realized gene flow measured in 1990 (Nm =
      9.4, progeny-array method). In addition, interspecific hybridization with common
      milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, via long-distance pollen dispersal was detected in
      two fruits (0.8%). Thus, pollen-mediated gene flow and infrequent interspecific
      matings provide mechanisms to lower genetic differentiation among populations to
      maintain novel, low-frequency alleles within populations of A. exaltata.

PMID- 28564463
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. III. ADAPTATION OF ESCHERICHIA COLI TO A
      TEMPORALLY VARYING ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - Six lines of the bacterium Escherichia coli were propagated for 2,000 generations
      in a temporally varying environment. The imposed environmental regime consisted
      of alternating days at 32 degrees C and 42 degrees C, with rapid transitions
      between them. These derived lines are competitively superior to their ancestor in
      this variable temperature regime. We also measured changes in the fitness of
      these lines, relative to their common ancestor, in both the constant (32 degrees
      C and 42 degrees C) and transition (from 32 degrees C to 42 degrees C and from 42
      degrees C to 32 degrees C) components of this temporally varying environment, to
      determine whether the bacteria had adapted to the particular constant
      temperatures or the transitions between them, or both. The experimentally evolved
      lines had significantly improved fitness in each of the constant environmental
      components (32 degrees C and 42 degrees C). However, the experimental lines had
      not improved in making the sudden temperature transitions that were a potentially
      important aspect of the temporally variable environment. In fact, fitness in
      making at least one of the transitions (between 32 degrees C and 42 degrees C)
      unexpectedly decreased. This reduced adaptation to the abrupt transitions between
      these temperatures is probably a pleiotropic effect of mutations that were
      responsible for the increased fitness at the component temperatures. Among the
      six experimental lines, significant heterogeneity occurred in their adaptation to
      the constant and transition components of the variable environment.

PMID- 28564464
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY, AGGRESSION, AND POPULATION FLUCTUATIONS IN MEADOW VOLES (MICROTUS
      PENNSYLVANICUS).
AB  - We tested whether variation in heterozygosity could produce cyclic changes in
      population size in meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus). For this to occur,
      three conditions must be met: (1) populations are more outbred (heterozygotic) at
      high than low population density, (2) heterozygotic voles are more aggressive
      than relatively inbred individuals, and (3) heterozygotic voles have lower
      reproductive fitness, though being superior at defending resources. We found no
      evidence that heterozygosity varied with population size or that reproductive
      success varied with heterozygosity. However, the former test was indirect and
      relatively weak. We directly measured aggression and heterozygosity of individual
      voles. Aggression was significantly related to heterozygosity: higher
      heterozygosity correlated with more aggression in males and less aggression in
      females. The proportion of variance in aggression that could be explained by
      heterozygosity was small. These results suggest that changes in population size
      of meadow voles could not be driven by systematic changes in heterozygosity with
      population size.

PMID- 28564465
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SILENE LATIFOLIA
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE). II. RESPONSE TO SEX-SPECIFIC SELECTION.
AB  - A well-established theoretical relationship exists between genetic correlations
      between the sexes and the dynamics of response to sex-specific selection. The
      present study investigates the response to sex-specific selection for two
      sexually dimorphic traits that have been documented to be genetically variable,
      calyx diameter and flower number, in Silene latifolia. Following the
      establishment of a base generation with a known genetic background, selection
      lines were established and two generations of sex-specific selection were
      imposed. Calyx diameter responded directly to sex-specific selection, and the
      positive genetic correlation between the sexes was reflected in correlated
      responses in the sex that was not the basis for selection within a particular
      line. Flower number showed a more erratic response to sex-specific selection in
      that selection in some lines was initially in the wrong direction, that is,
      selection for a decrease in flower number resulted in an increase. These erratic
      responses were attributable to genotype-environment interaction as reflected in
      significant heteroscedasticity in variance among families. Correlated responses
      to selection in the sex that was not the immediate basis for selection indicated
      the possible existence of a negative genetic correlation between the sexes for
      this trait. These results test for the first time the impact of genetic
      correlations between the sexes on the evolutionary dynamics of sexually dimorphic
      traits in a plant species.

PMID- 28564466
TI  - INVERSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL MATURITY AND EXPONENTIAL GROWTH RATE OF
      AVIAN SKELETAL MUSCLE: A CONSTRAINT ON EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE.
AB  - In this study, we investigate whether a tissue-level constraint can explain the
      general inverse relationship between growth rate and precocity of development in
      birds. On the whole, altricial (dependent) chicks grow three to four times faster
      than the less dependent, more able chicks of precocial species of similar adult
      mass. We suggest that an antagonism between growth and acquisition of mature
      function in skeletal muscle constrains postnatal growth and development in most
      species of birds. Altricial species, represented by European starlings in this
      study, hatch with skeletal muscle having low capacity for generating force but
      grow rapidly. Conversely, precocial species (northern bobwhite quail and Japanese
      quail), hatch with relatively mature skeletal muscle, especially in their legs,
      but grow more slowly. As development proceeds in all species, exponential growth
      rates decrease as muscles acquire adult levels of function. Among four variables
      associated with muscle function, exponential growth rate (EGR) was negatively
      correlated with pyruvate kinase activity (glycolysis), potassium concentration
      (electrical potential), and dry weight fraction (contractile proteins) in both
      pectoral and leg muscles but not with citrate synthase activity (aerobic
      metabolism) in either set of muscles. For pectoral muscle, these variables
      accounted for 87% of the total variation in EGR in all three species combined
      despite a twofold difference in growth rates between the starling and quail. EGRs
      of leg muscle (51% of variation accounted for) were less than predicted by the
      pectoral-muscle equation in quail during the early part of the postnatal period
      and in starlings during the late postnatal period. This result would not
      contradict a growth rate/maturity constraint hypothesis if EGRs were down
      regulated for allometric or other considerations.

PMID- 28564468
TI  - SEX ALLOCATION IN THE ANT COLOBOPSIS NIPPONICUS (WHEELER). I. POPULATION SEX
      RATIO.
AB  - The relative power of queens and workers at controlling sex allocation in the ant
      Colobopsis nipponicus is investigated in this study. Results show that C.
      nipponicus completely satisfies Hamilton's assumptions concerning colony social
      structure: monogyny, monoandry, and no worker reproduction. A genetic survey of
      the population structure rejects possibilities of local mate competition, local
      resource enhancement, and local resource competition, which all can bias
      population-allocation ratios from 0.5. Although these factors are absent, the
      observed sex-allocation ratio (male investment/total sexual investment; 0.250 +/-
      0.027) is significantly biased toward females and is not different from the
      estimated optimal ratio for workers (0.252). Thus, it appears that workers are
      likely to win in conflicts over sex allocation with queens.

PMID- 28564467
TI  - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENETIC EROSION IN THE PROCESS OF EXTINCTION. IV. INBREEDING
      LOAD AND HETEROSIS IN RELATION TO POPULATION SIZE IN THE MINT SALVIA PRATENSIS.
AB  - If, because of genetic erosion, the level of homozygosity in small populations is
      high, additional selfing will result in small reductions of fitness. In addition,
      in small populations with a long inbreeding history selection may have purged the
      population of its genetic load. Therefore, a positive relationship between
      population size (or level of genetic variation) and level of additional
      inbreeding depression, here referred to as inbreeding load, may be expected. In a
      previous study on the rare and threatened perennial Salvia pratensis, a positive
      correlation between population size and level of allozyme variation has been
      demonstrated. In the present study, the inbreeding load in six populations of
      varying size and allozyme variation was investigated. In the greenhouse,
      significant inbreeding load in mean seed weight, proportion of germination, plant
      size, regenerative capacity, and survival was demonstrated. In a field experiment
      with the two largest and the two smallest populations, survival of selfed progeny
      was 16% to 63% lower than survival of outcrossed progeny. In addition, survival
      of outcrossed progeny was, with the exception of the largest population, lower
      (16% to 37%) than of hybrid progeny, resulting from crosses between populations.
      Effects on plant size were qualitatively similar to the effects on survival, but
      these effects were variable in time because of differential survival of larger
      individuals. In all populations the total inbreeding load, that is, the effects
      on size and survival multiplicated, increased in time. It was demonstrated that
      inbreeding load in different characters may be independent. At no time and for no
      character was inbreeding load or the heterosis effect correlated to the mean
      number of alleles per locus, indicating that allozyme variation is not
      representative for variation at fitness loci in these populations. Combined with
      results of previous investigations, these results suggest that the small
      populations are in an early phase of the genetic erosion process. In this phase,
      allozyme variation, which is supposed to be (nearly) neutral, has been affected
      by genetic erosion but the selectively nonneutral variation is only slightly
      affected. These results stress the need for detailed information about the
      inbreeding history of small populations. The relative performance of selfed
      progeny was lowest in all populations, in the greenhouse as well as in the field,
      and inbreeding depression could still influence the extinction probabilities of
      the small populations.

PMID- 28564469
TI  - GENETICS OF MORTALITY IN THE BEAN BEETLE CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS.

PMID- 28564470
TI  - HIERARCHICAL GENETIC STRUCTURE AND GENE FLOW IN MACROGEOGRAPHIC POPULATIONS OF
      THE EASTERN TENT CATERPILLAR (MALACOSOMA AMERICANUM).
AB  - Genetic structure and inferred rates of gene flow in macrogeographic populations
      of the eastern tent caterpillar Malacosoma americanum were analyzed at two
      hierarchical scales: local demes and regional subpopulations. Wright's F
      statistics were used to estimate population genetic structure using multilocus
      genotypic data generated electrophoretically. Estimated values of FST and the
      distribution of private alleles were then used to obtain indirect estimates of
      gene flow. We found modest, though significant, genetic structure at both spatial
      scales, a pattern consistent with high rates of gene flow over the large
      distances involved. Modest values obtained for Nei's genetic distance also
      suggested high levels of gene flow across the range of this species, although
      some gene-flow restriction resulting from isolation by distance was suggested by
      a positive regression of genetic distance on geographic distance. The observed
      homogeneity at enzyme loci across the range of M. americanum parallels the
      reported uniformity in morphology, suggesting a general absence of local genetic
      differentiation in this widely distributed species. The genetic homogeneity
      observed in this wide-ranging insect is discussed in terms of organism-specific
      environmental experience at different spatial scales. Some organisms occupying
      apparently heterogeneous environments may ameliorate unsuitable local conditions
      through microhabitat selection or behavioral modification of their
      microenvironment. This may be accomplished in M. americanum through group shelter
      construction and behavioral thermoregulation, closely tying thermoregulation to
      social biology in this species. If in this way the tent helps produce an
      effectively homogeneous environment for this species across its extensive range,
      this system may provide a unique example of how social behavior can influence the
      distribution of genetic variation in a population.

PMID- 28564471
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN AMERICAN TOADS: A TEST OF A GOOD-GENES HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - Adaptive mate choice in species lacking male resource control and/or paternal
      care might be maintained by selection because preferred males sire genetically
      superior offspring. For such a process to occur, some male phenotypic trait(s)
      must both reliably indicate male genetic quality and influence the pattern of
      mate choice by females. In American toads, Bufo americanus, male body length has
      been documented to influence female mating patterns: females usually mate with
      males that are larger than average. However, the relationship between male size
      and male genetic quality is unknown. We conducted a controlled breeding
      experiment using 48 sires and 19 dams to determine if larger males sire offspring
      with superior larval performance characteristics (greater survival to
      metamorphosis, larger mass at metamorphosis, and earlier metamorphosis). We also
      aged each sire to test the hypothesis that older males are, on average,
      genetically superior to younger males. We crossed each female with three sires
      representing three body size categories (mean and 1 SD +/- mean snout-ischium
      length). Hatchlings (500 from each cross) were reared to metamorphosis in
      seminatural ponds in the field. Metamorph weight (log transformed) and age at
      metamorphosis showed significant heritability and were genetically correlated
      with each other. Hence, sires differed in genetic quality. However, none of the
      three measures of offspring performance was correlated with sire body size or
      age. Thus, we obtained no support for the prediction that sire body size or age
      is related to genetic quality.

PMID- 28564472
TI  - FOOD PROVISIONING IN RELATION TO REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY IN ALTRICIAL BIRDS: A
      COMPARISON OF TWO HYPOTHESES.

PMID- 28564473
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AND CHLOROPLAST DNA VARIATION IN A PINUS SPECIES COMPLEX FROM ASIA.
AB  - Heterologous hybridization of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) involving 30
      endonucleaseprobe combinations was used to analyze cpDNA variation in multiple
      individuals and populations of Pinus tabulaeformis (Carr.), Pinus yunnanensis
      (Franchet) and Pinus massoniana (Lamb.). Restriction fragment patterns detected
      by several combinations distinguished among the three species. The obtained cpDNA
      markers were subsequently used to examine cpDNA variation of Pinus densata
      (Masters), a putative tertiary hybrid between P. tabulaeformis and P.
      yunnanensis. The analysis demonstrated that P. densata populations harbor three
      different haplotypes. Two of these haplotypes are characteristic of P.
      tabulaeformis and P. yunnanensis. However, the third haplotype found in P.
      densata appears to be absent in other extant Asian Pinus species. It is suggested
      that the observed cpDNA composition of P. densata populations is a result of past
      hybridization involving P. tabulaeformis, P. yunnanensis, and a third unknown or
      extinct taxon. Chloroplast DNA polymorphism in P. densata was much greater than
      that for nuclear allozyme markers in this and the other Pinus species. Population
      differentiation was also substantial in P. densata and exceeded that for allozyme
      markers. In contrast, no cpDNA polymorphism was detected in populations of P.
      tabulaeformis, P. yunnanensis, and P. massoniana. The study suggests that
      interspecific gene exchange may lead to the creation of stable cpDNA polymorphism
      in conifer hybrids.

PMID- 28564474
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL HETEROZYGOSITY AND MORPHOLOGIC VARIATION IN A COLONY OF PAPIO
      HAMADRYAS HAMADRYAS BABOONS.
AB  - This analysis examines the association between genetic heterozygosity and
      individual morphologic variation in a captive population of Papio hamadryas
      hamadryas consisting of 403 juveniles and adults. The population structure of the
      colony was artificially generated and maintained and is thus rigorously defined.
      Subpopulations delimited by age, sex, and degree of inbreeding are also explored.
      Heterozygosity, as enumerated from six simple Mendelian biochemical loci, is
      compared with the residual morphologic variation of each individual for each of
      20 quantitative traits. Use of a sequential Bonferroni technique nullifies all
      significant correlations. Principal-components analysis reduces the morphometrics
      to a single or few significant axes in each population. The first axis of the
      total population contains 86.07% of the variation in the sample and the absolute
      values of the factor scores exhibit a significant positive correlation with
      heterozygosity at P < 0.05. Correcting for age- and sex-related variation in the
      total population with a linear model subsequently demonstrates that no
      significant correlation between heterozygosity and morphologic variation exists.
      No significant relationship is found in the inbred animals or subpopulations when
      age and sex are controlled. Previous studies have indicated that individuals
      proximal to the population mean for a specific polygenic trait exhibit a higher
      biochemical heterozygosity than individuals distant from the mean. The results
      presented here, which are based on more loci than many studies and a well-defined
      population, do not support this relationship. Substructuring of a population by
      age and sex can lead to spurious correlations with univariate or multivariate
      techniques. Comprehensive indices of genetic variation and rigorous statistical
      techniques should be used in future analyses. Studies that fail to recognize
      these design elements should be interpreted with caution.

PMID- 28564475
TI  - PROVINCIALISM IN PLANKTON: ENDEMISM AND ALLOPATRIC SPECIATION IN AUSTRALIAN
      DAPHNIA.
AB  - Zooplankton species are generally considered poor candidates for allopatric
      speciation because of their broad distributions and capabilities for long
      distance dispersal. We examined the validity of this conclusion by determining
      both species distributions and the extent of gene frequency divergence in the
      Daphnia fauna of southeastern Australia, a mature landscape dominated by members
      of the carinata complex. Although delimitation of species boundaries was
      complicated by the prevalence of interspecific hybrids and variation in breeding
      systems, allozyme analysis of 187 populations indicated the presence of at least
      seven species. All of these species had restricted distributions, and several
      were narrowly endemic. Gene frequency divergence was often apparent between
      populations separated by only a few kilometers but was least prominent in species
      from inland areas. The extent of regional gene frequency shifts varied among
      species-two narrowly distributed (projecta, thomsoni) and one broadly distributed
      (carinata) species showed little divergence between sites, but two other common
      species (cephalata, longicephala) showed marked gene frequency shifts coincident
      with physiographic barriers. Together, the limited species distributions and
      regional gene-pool fragmentation suggest that allopatric speciation has played an
      important role in the origin of taxon diversity in the Daphnia carinata complex.

PMID- 28564476
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.
AB  - Patterns of overwinter mortality in the sexually dimorphic red-winged blackbird
      (Agelaius phoeniceus) were examined to test the predictions of the sexual
      selection hypothesis that male size is limited by directional selection favoring
      small males and that female size is maintained by stabilizing selection wherein
      extreme phenotypes experience higher mortality. Museum specimens collected from
      Ontario over a 95-yr period were used to compare the sizes of males and females
      collected in fall and spring. In a separate field study, body sizes of returning
      and nonreturning male and female red-winged blackbirds were compared over a 6-yr
      period. Overall, there was no evidence of higher overwinter mortality among
      larger males. Among adult (ASY) males, large individuals appeared to have higher
      survival than small individuals, although among subadult (SY) males, large size
      may have been disadvantageous. Weak evidence of stabilizing selection on female
      body size was found. Among adults, sexual size dimorphism seemed more pronounced
      after winter than before winter. Our results do not support the hypothesis that
      body size in male red-winged blackbirds is limited by selective mortality outside
      the breeding season. It is possible that size selection occurs earlier in life,
      when males are still in the nest. Our results suggest that caution should be
      exercised when interpreting interspecific evidence showing higher adult male than
      female mortality in sexually dimorphic species. Such patterns could arise as a
      cost to males of sexual selection and yet provide no insight into how natural
      selection opposes sexual selection for increased male size.

PMID- 28564477
TI  - EVOLUTION OF VEGETATIVE INCOMPATIBILITY IN FILAMENTOUS ASCOMYCETES. I.
      DETERMINISTIC MODELS.
AB  - In ascomycetes vegetative incompatibility can prevent the somatic exchange of
      genetic material between conspecifics. It must occur frequently in natural
      populations, since in all species studied many vegetative compatibility groups
      (VCGs) are found. Using a population-genetic approach, this paper explores two
      possible selective explanations for the evolution of vegetative incompatibility
      in asexual fungi: selection by a nuclear parasitic gene, and selection by a
      harmful cytoplasmic element. In a deterministic model, assuming a random spatial
      distribution of VCGs in an infinitely sized population, it is found that neither
      of these forms of frequency-dependent selection can explain the large number of
      VCGs found in nature. The selective pressure for more VCGs disappears once a
      limited number of VCGs exist, because the frequency of compatible interactions
      decreases when the number of VCGs increases. In comparing the two selective
      explanations, selection by a cytoplasmic element seems a more plausible
      explanation than selection by a nuclear gene.

PMID- 28564478
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF KIN-STRUCTURED COLONIZATION ON NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC GENETIC
      DIVERSITY.
AB  - We investigate kin-structured migration and its effects on patterns of genetic
      variation in cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes. We show that colonization events
      involving close relatives, such as those that might characterize range expansion
      and the invasion of new habitats, can change the patterns of nuclear and
      cytoplasmic genetic variation expected at equilibrium. The difference in the
      patterns of variation between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes suggests that
      it may be possible to estimate the time of the effective kin-structured
      colonization event. Observations in several taxa are discussed in light of these
      findings and in relation to their known geological history.

PMID- 28564479
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL BASIS OF WING PATTERN VARIATION IN
      THE BUTTERFLY BICYCLUS ANYNANA.
AB  - We have studied interactions between developmental processes and genetic
      variation for the eyespot color pattern on the adult dorsal forewing of the
      nymphalid butterfly, Bicyclus anynana. Truncation selection was applied in both
      an upward and a downward direction to the size of a single eyespot consisting of
      rings with wing scales of differing color pigments. High heritabilities resulted
      in rapid responses to selection yielding divergent lines with very large or very
      small eyespots. Strong correlated responses occurred in most of the other
      eyespots on each wing surface. The cells at the center of a presumptive eyespot
      (the "focus") act in the early pupal stage to establish the adult wing pattern.
      The developmental fate of the scale cells within an eyespot is specified by the
      "signaling" properties of the focus and the "response" thresholds of the
      epidermis. The individual eyespots can be envisaged as developmental homologues.
      Grafting experiments performed with the eyespot foci of the selected lines showed
      that additive genetic variance exists for both the response and, in particular,
      the signaling components of the developmental system. The results are discussed
      in the context of how constraints on the evolution of this wing pattern may be
      related to the developmental organization.

PMID- 28564480
TI  - THE GENETICS OF VIABILITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: EFFECTS OF INBREEDING AND
      ARTIFICIAL SELECTION.
AB  - Inbreeding and artificial selection experiments were conducted to investigate the
      genetic properties of egg-to-pupa viability in a population of Drosophila
      melanogaster. The effect of different levels of inbreeding (F = 0, 0.25, 0.50,
      and 0.73) was studied. Up to F = 0.50, a linear depression of the mean viability
      was observed, accompanied by a significant increase of both within-line additive
      variance and between-line variance. At F = 0.73, no further changes were
      detected. This can be attributed to natural selection opposing high levels of
      homozygosity. In parallel, artificial selection to increase viability was
      performed for 27 generations in (1) a single undivided population (U) and (2) two
      populations with cycles of subdivision and between-line selection, followed by
      reconstitution of selected lines (SO and SI ). During the first cycle
      (generations 0-4), most of the final total response was achieved under all
      selection regimes. An advantage of the SO and SI strategies was observed after
      the completion of the first cycle. However, the same limit was reached in all
      cases because of a delayed response experienced by line U. Reverse selection for
      viability resulted in positive correlated responses for fecundity and mating
      success. Both inbreeding and selection results are compatible with the genetic
      variance of viability in the base population being generated by segregation at a
      few loci with substantial additive effects and several deleterious recessives at
      low initial frequencies. Possible reasons for the maintenance of that variance in
      natural populations are discussed.

PMID- 28564481
TI  - COSTS OF REPRODUCTION INFLUENCE THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN
      SNAKES.

PMID- 28564482
TI  - DIVERGENCE IN MORPHOLOGY AND MATING SIGNALS, AND ASSORTATIVE MATING AMONG
      POPULATIONS OF CHORTHIPPUS PARALLELUS (ORTHOPTERA: ACRIDIDAE).
AB  - Three geographically widely separated populations of the grasshopper Chorthippus
      parallelus (Orthoptera: Acrididae) have been examined for morphological
      divergence, divergence in characteristics of the acoustic sexual signals of
      males, and assortative mating. Significant assortative mating existed between two
      of the three pairwise combinations of populations in multiple-choice tests. This
      may be caused by divergence in three of the four acoustic signal parameters
      measured. The populations also differed in morphology, including characters
      associated with signal production. The results are discussed in relation to
      theories for the origin of premating isolation, and it is argued that the
      observed divergence has developed rapidly, possibly indicating the action of
      selection. However, this selection could not have been caused by interactions
      with closely related taxa.

PMID- 28564483
TI  - GENETIC, ACCLIMATIZATION, AND ONTOGENETIC EFFECTS ON HABITAT SELECTION BEHAVIOR
      IN DAPHNIA PULICARIA.
AB  - Daphnia pulicaria from three different populations were observed to express
      within-population variation in habitat-choice behavior in field assays.
      Individuals from different habitats (i.e., lake depths) were isolated and
      cultured as clonal lines under standard conditions. Habitat choices by clonal
      descendants were then estimated in the field, using replicate experimental
      columns. There was significant heritable and ontogenetic variation in habitat
      choice, but the heritable effect was small relative to the phenotypic variation
      of the original isolates. In a second set of experiments, D. pulicaria that were
      acclimatized to different habitats showed a strong tendency to choose the habitat
      to which they had been acclimatized. These data suggest that a given genotype can
      use a wide range of habitats, given appropriate acclimatization. Although genetic
      variation is significant, we hypothesize that natural selection on correlated
      ecological traits is more likely to maintain patterns of genotypic segregation
      among habitats in Daphnia.

PMID- 28564484
TI  - HOW TO COMPENSATE FOR COSTLY SEXUALLY SELECTED TAILS: THE ORIGIN OF SEXUALLY
      DIMORPHIC WINGS IN LONG-TAILED BIRDS.
AB  - Recent work on birds suggests that certain morphological differences between the
      sexes may have evolved as an indirect consequence of sexual selection because
      they offset the cost of bearing extravagant ornaments used for fighting or mate
      attraction. For example, long-tailed male sunbirds and widowbirds also have
      longer wings than females, perhaps to compensate for the aerodynamic costs of
      tail elaboration. We used comparative data from 57 species to investigate whether
      this link between sexual dimorphism in wing and tail length is widespread among
      long-tailed birds. We found that within long-tailed families, variation in the
      extent of tail dimorphism was associated with corresponding variation in wing
      dimorphism. One nonfunctional explanation of this result is simply that the
      growth of wings and tails is controlled by a common developmental mechanism, such
      that long-tailed individuals inevitably grow long wings as well. However, this
      hypothesis cannot account for a second pattern in our data set: as predicted by
      aerodynamic theory, we found that, comparing across long-tailed families, sexual
      dimorphism in wing length varied with tail shape as well as with sex differences
      in tail length. Thus, wing dimorphism was generally greater in species with
      aerodynamically costly graduated tails than in birds with cheaper, streamer
      shaped tails. This result was not caused by confounding phylogenetic effects,
      because it persisted when phylogeny was controlled for, using an independent
      comparisons method. Our findings therefore confirm that certain aspects of sexual
      dimorphism may sometimes have evolved through selection for traits that reduce
      the costs of elaborate sexually selected characters. We suggest that future work
      aimed at understanding sexual selection by investigating patterns of sexual
      dimorphism should attempt to differentiate between the direct and indirect
      consequences of sexual selection.

PMID- 28564485
TI  - LONG-TERM LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF A GENETIC LIFE-HISTORY TRADE-OFF IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER. 1. THE ROLE OF GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION.
AB  - Trade-offs among life-history traits are often thought to constrain the evolution
      of populations. Here we report the disappearance of a trade-off between early
      fecundity on the one hand, and late-life fecundity, starvation resistance, and
      longevity on the other, over 10 yr of laboratory selection for late-life
      reproduction. Whereas the selected populations showed an initial depression in
      early-life fecundity, they later converged upon the controls and then surpassed
      them. The evolutionary loss of the trade-off among life-history traits is
      considered attributable to the following factors: (1) the existence of
      differences in the culture regimes of the short- and long-generation populations
      other than the demographic differences deliberately imposed; (2) adaptation of
      one or both of these sets of populations to the unique aspects of their culture
      regimes; (3) the existence of an among-environment trade-off in the expression of
      early fecundity in the two culture regimes, as reflected in assays that mimic
      those regimes. The trade-off between early and late-life reproductive success, as
      manifest among divergently selected populations, is apparent or not depending on
      the assay environment. This demonstration that strong genotype-by-environment
      interactions can obscure a fundamental trade-off points to the importance of
      controlling all aspects of the culture regime of experimental populations and the
      difficulty of doing so even in the laboratory.

PMID- 28564486
TI  - HIGH INBREEDING DEPRESSION, SELECTIVE INTERFERENCE AMONG LOCI, AND THE THRESHOLD
      SELFING RATE FOR PURGING RECESSIVE LETHAL MUTATIONS.
AB  - The evolutionary dynamics of recessive or slightly dominant lethal mutations in
      partially self-fertilizing plants are analyzed using two models. In the identity
      equilibrium model, lethals occur at a finite number of unlinked loci among which
      genotype frequencies are independent in mature plants. In the Kondrashov model,
      lethals occur at an infinite number of unlinked loci with identity disequilibrium
      produced by partial selfing. If the genomic mutation rate to (nearly) recessive
      lethal alleles is sufficiently high, such that the mean number of lethals (or
      lethal equivalents) per mature plant maintained at equilibrium under complete
      outcrossing exceeds 10, selective interference among loci creates a sharp
      discontinuity in the mean number of lethals maintained as a function of the
      selfing rate. Virtually no purging of the lethals occurs unless the selfing rate
      closely approaches or exceeds a threshold selfing rate, at which there is a
      precipitous drop in the mean number of lethals maintained. Identity
      disequilibrium lowers the threshold selfing rate by increasing the ratio of
      variance to mean number of lethals per plant, increasing the opportunity for
      selection. This theory helps to explain observations on plant species that
      display very high inbreeding depression despite intermediate selfing rates.

PMID- 28564487
TI  - SUBSTITUTION PROCESSES IN MOLECULAR EVOLUTION. II. EXCHANGEABLE MODELS FROM
      POPULATION GENETICS.
AB  - Substitution processes are of two sorts: origination processes record the times
      at which nucleotide mutations that ultimately fix in the population first appear,
      and fixation processes record the times at which they actually fix. Substitution
      processes may be generated by combining models of population genetics-here the
      symmetrical-neutral, overdominance, underdominance, TIM, and SAS-CFF models-with
      the infinite-sites, no-recombination model of the gene. This paper is mainly
      concerned with a computer simulation study of these substitution processes. The
      rate of substitution is shown to be remarkably insensitive to the strength of
      selection for models with strong balancing selection caused by the genealogical
      drift of mutations through alleles held in the population by selection. The
      origination process is shown to be more regular than Poisson for the
      overdominance, TIM, and SAS-CFF models but more clustered for the underdominance
      model. A class of point processes called Sawyer processes is introduced to help
      explain these observations as well as the observation that the times between
      successive originations are nearly uncorrelated. Fixation processes are shown to
      be more complex than origination processes, with regularly spaced bursts of
      multiple fixations. An approximation to the fixation process is described. One
      important conclusion is that protein evolution is not easily reconciled with any
      of these models without adding perturbations that recur on a time scale that is
      commensurate with that of molecular evolution.

PMID- 28564488
TI  - Noninvasive beat-to-beat finger arterial pressure monitoring during orthostasis:
      a comprehensive review of normal and abnormal responses at different ages.
AB  - Over the past 30 years, noninvasive beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) monitoring
      has provided great insight into cardiovascular autonomic regulation during
      standing. Although traditional sphygmomanometric measurement of BP may be
      sufficient for detection of sustained orthostatic hypotension, it fails to
      capture the complexity of the underlying dynamic BP and heart rate responses.
      With the emerging use of noninvasive beat-to-beat BP monitoring for the
      assessment of orthostatic BP control in clinical and population studies, various
      definitions for abnormal orthostatic BP patterns have been used. Here, age
      related changes in cardiovascular control in healthy subjects will be reviewed to
      define the spectrum of the most important abnormal orthostatic BP patterns within
      the first 180 s of standing. Abnormal orthostatic BP responses can be defined as
      initial orthostatic hypotension (a transient systolic BP fall of >40 mmHg within
      15 s of standing), delayed BP recovery (an inability of systolic BP to recover to
      a value of >20 mmHg below baseline at 30 s after standing) and sustained
      orthostatic hypotension (a sustained decline in systolic BP of >=20 mmHg
      occurring 60-180 s after standing). In the evaluation of patients with light
      headedness, pre(syncope), (unexplained) falls or suspected autonomic dysfunction,
      it is essential to distinguish between normal cardiovascular autonomic regulation
      and these abnormal orthostatic BP responses. The prevalence, clinical relevance
      and underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of these patterns differ
      significantly across the lifespan. Initial orthostatic hypotension is important
      for identifying causes of syncope in younger adults, whereas delayed BP recovery
      and sustained orthostatic hypotension are essential for evaluating the risk of
      falls in older adults.

PMID- 28564489
TI  - Graphene Oxide/Ag Nanoparticles Cooperated with Simvastatin as a High Sensitive X
      Ray Computed Tomography Imaging Agent for Diagnosis of Renal Dysfunctions.
AB  - Graphene oxides (GO) are attracting much attention in the diagnosis and therapy
      of the subcutaneous tumor as a novel biomaterial, but its diagnosis to tissue
      dysfunction is yet to be found. Here, a novel application of GO for diagnosis of
      renal dysfunction via contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) is proposed. In
      order to serve as contrast-enhanced agent, Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) are
      composited on the surface of GO to promote its X-ray absorption, and then
      simvastatin is coinjected for eliminating in vivo toxicity induced by AgNPs. It
      is found that GO/AgNPs can enhance the imaging of CT into the lung, liver, and
      kidney of mice for a long circulation time (~24 h) and a safety profile in vivo
      in the presence of simvastatin. Interestingly, the lower dose of GO/AgNPs (~0.5
      mg per kg bw) shows an excellent performance for CT imaging of renal perfusion,
      and visually exhibits the right renal dysfunction in model mice. Hence, this work
      suggests that graphene nanoparticles will play a vital role for the future
      medical translational development including drug carrier, biosensing, and disease
      therapy.

PMID- 28564490
TI  - Effect of Comonomers on Physical Properties and Cell Attachment to Silica
      Methacrylate/Acrylate Hybrids for Bone Substitution.
AB  - Hybrids with a silica network covalently bonded to a polymer are promising
      materials for bone repair. Previous work on synthesizing methyl methacrylate
      (MMA) based copolymers by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)
      polymerization gives high tailorability of mechanical properties since
      sophisticated polymer structures can be designed. However, more flexible hybrids
      would be beneficial. Here, n-butyl methacrylate (BMA) and methyl acrylate (MA)
      based hybrids are produced. Unlike MMA, BMA and MA hybrids do not show plastic
      deformation, and BMA hybrid has strain to failure of 33%. Although the new
      hybrids are more flexible, preosteoblast cells do not adhere on their surfaces,
      due to higher hydrophobicity and lower stiffness. Comonomer choice is crucial for
      bone regenerative hybrids.

PMID- 28564491
TI  - Attenuation of Follicular Helper T Cell-Dependent B Cell Hyperactivity by
      Abatacept Treatment in Primary Sjogren's Syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of abatacept (CTLA-4Ig), which limits T cell
      activation, on homeostasis of CD4+ T cell subsets and T cell-dependent B cell
      hyperactivity in patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (SS). METHODS: Fifteen
      patients with primary SS treated with abatacept were included. Circulating CD4+ T
      cell and B cell subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry at baseline, during the
      treatment course, and after treatment was completed. CD4+ effector T cell subsets
      and Treg cells were identified based on expression of CD45RA, CXCR3, CCR6, CCR4,
      CXCR5, programmed death 1, inducible costimulator (ICOS), and FoxP3. Serum levels
      of anti-SSA/anti-SSB and several T cell-related cytokines were measured.
      Expression of ICOS and interleukin-21 (IL-21) protein was examined in parotid
      gland tissue at baseline and after treatment. Changes in laboratory parameters
      and associations with systemic disease activity (EULAR Sjogren's Syndrome Disease
      Activity Index [ESSDAI]) over time were analyzed using generalized estimating
      equations. RESULTS: Abatacept selectively reduced percentages and numbers of
      circulating follicular helper T (Tfh) cells and Treg cells. Other CD4+ effector T
      cell subsets were unaffected. Furthermore, expression of the activation marker
      ICOS by circulating CD4+ T cells and expression of ICOS protein in parotid gland
      tissue declined. Reduced ICOS expression on circulating Tfh cells correlated
      significantly with lower ESSDAI scores during treatment. Serum levels of IL-21,
      CXCL13, anti-SSA, and anti-SSB decreased. Among circulating B cells, plasmablasts
      were decreased by treatment. After cessation of treatment, all parameters
      gradually returned to baseline. CONCLUSION: Abatacept treatment in patients with
      primary SS reduces circulating Tfh cell numbers and expression of the activation
      marker ICOS on T cells. Lower numbers of activated circulating Tfh cells
      contribute to attenuated Tfh cell-dependent B cell hyperactivity and may underlie
      the efficacy of abatacept.

PMID- 28564492
TI  - Photoinitiated Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly of Glycidyl Methacrylate for
      the Synthesis of Epoxy-Functionalized Block Copolymer Nano-Objects.
AB  - Herein, a novel photoinitiated polymerization-induced self-assembly formulation
      via photoinitiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer dispersion
      polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) in ethanol-water at room
      temperature is reported. It is demonstrated that conducting polymerization
      induced self-assembly (PISA) at low temperatures is crucial for obtaining
      colloidal stable PGMA-based diblock copolymer nano-objects. Good control is
      maintained during the photo-PISA process with a high rate of polymerization. The
      polymerization can be switched between "ON" and "OFF" in response to visible
      light. A phase diagram is constructed by varying monomer concentration and degree
      of polymerization. The PGMA-based diblock copolymer nano-objects can be further
      cross-linked by using a bifunctional primary amine reagent. Finally, silver
      nanoparticles are loaded within cross-linked vesicles via in situ reduction,
      exhibiting good catalytic properties.

PMID- 28564493
TI  - Sustainable, Oxidative, and Metal-Free Annulation.
AB  - Annulation has received steadily growing interest in the interplay with the
      increasing emphasis towards selective C-H bond functionalization reactions. Metal
      free oxidative annulation through functionalization of inert and abundant C-H
      bonds offers great improvements in terms of atom- and step-economics as well as
      reduced waste production under mild reaction conditions. Annulation is considered
      to be a highly efficient strategy for the construction of cyclic molecules
      because at least two new bonds are formed within a single reaction step. The
      combination of annulation and direct C-H bond functionalization allows the
      efficient and straightforward synthesis of carbo- and heterocyclic molecules
      using simple and non-prefunctionalized precursors. This Concept highlights novel
      strategies and recent breakthroughs for metal-free annulation through C-H bond
      functionalization giving access to a variety of important structural motifs.

PMID- 28564494
TI  - How people from Chinese backgrounds make sense of and respond to the experiences
      of mental distress: Thematic analysis.
AB  - RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY: Many Chinese people do not contact mental health
      services when they first develop mental health problems. It is therefore
      important to find out reasons for low uptake of services so that strategies can
      be identified to promote early intervention. WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THE
      TOPIC?: Most Chinese people only come into contact with mental health services
      during crisis situations. Language difference, lack of knowledge of mainstream
      services and stigma attached to mental health problems are barriers to access and
      utilize mental health services. WHAT THE STUDY ADDS TO THE INTERNATIONAL
      EVIDENCE?: Chinese people apply both Western medication and traditional healing
      to manage distress caused by mental health problems. Because of the extreme
      stigma associated with mental health problems, Chinese people are reluctant to
      accept support from their own cultural groups outside their family. Family plays
      a major role in caring for relatives with mental health problems. Families are
      prepared to travel across the world in search of folk healing if not available in
      Western societies. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: It is important to
      recognize the different approaches to understanding and managing mental health
      problems among Chinese people, otherwise they will be dissuaded from engaging
      with mental health services if their beliefs are disregarded and invalidated.
      Services that involve Chinese speaking mental health workers can address the
      issue of language differences and sensitive mental health issues within the
      Chinese community. ABSTRACT: Introduction Late presentation and low utilization
      of mental health services are common among Chinese populations. An understanding
      of their journey towards mental health care helps to identify timely and
      appropriate intervention. Aim We aimed to examine how Chinese populations make
      sense of the experiences of mental distress, and how this understanding
      influences their pathways to mental health care. Method We undertook in-depth
      interviews with fourteen people with mental health problems (MHPs) and sixteen
      family members. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Results/Discussions
      Different conceptualization of mental distress and the stigma attached to MHPs
      explained why most participants accessed services at crisis points. Because of
      mental illness stigma, they were reluctant to seek help outside of the family.
      Participants used a pragmatic pluralistic approach to incorporate ritual healing
      and Western interventions to manage mental distress as they travelled further on
      the pathway journey. Families play a key role in the journey and are prepared to
      visit different parts of the world to seek traditional healers. Implications for
      practice Mental health nurses need to adopt a transcultural working approach to
      address mental health issues so that family will get the support needed to
      continue their caring role.

PMID- 28564496
TI  - Acute chest pain in an adolescent with cystic fibrosis in September: Would you
      have thought about this?
AB  - Acute chest pain is common in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Here we report
      the case of an adolescent who suffered acute chest pain in September after an
      history of acute abdominal pain and fever. The reason for this clinical sceneriao
      was found to be Coxsackievirus B3, known to be responsible of Bornholm disease, a
      frequent but under recognized viral myositis. The diagnosis is mainly clinical,
      but evocating this diagnosis may avoid unnecessary exam.

PMID- 28564497
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION IN ALLELE FREQUENCIES: TESTING THE RIGHT HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - Although standard statistical tests (such as contingency chi-square or G tests)
      are not well suited to the analysis of temporal changes in allele frequencies,
      they continue to be used routinely in this context. Because the null hypothesis
      stipulated by the test is violated if samples are temporally spaced, the true
      probability of a significant test statistic will not equal the nominal alpha
      level, and conclusions drawn on the basis of such tests can be misleading. A
      generalized method, applicable to a wide variety of organisms and sampling
      schemes, is developed here to estimate the probability of a significant test
      statistic if the only forces acting on allele frequencies are stochastic ones
      (i.e., sampling error and genetic drift). Results from analyses and simulations
      indicate that the rate at which this probability increases with time is
      determined primarily by the ratio of sample size to effective population size.
      Because this ratio differs considerably among species, the seriousness of the
      error in using the standard test will also differ. Bias is particularly strong in
      cases in which a high percentage of the total population can be sampled (for
      example, endangered species). The model used here is also applicable to the
      analysis of parent-offspring data and to comparisons of replicate samples from
      the same generation. A generalized test of the hypothesis that observed changes
      in allele frequency can be satisfactorily explained by drift follows directly
      from the model, and simulation results indicate that the true alpha level of this
      adjusted test is close to the nominal one under most conditions.

PMID- 28564495
TI  - Enhanced Inflammasome Activity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Is Mediated via
      Type I Interferon-Induced Up-Regulation of Interferon Regulatory Factor 1.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The inflammasome complex is a driver of organ damage in patients with
      systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Although type I interferons (IFNs) are well
      established as mediators of SLE pathogenesis, their role in inflammasome
      activation in SLE has not been assessed. The aim of this study was to examine
      type I IFNs as regulators of the inflammasome. METHODS: SLE patients fulfilled
      >=4 American College of Rheumatology criteria and were recruited from the
      University of Michigan Lupus Cohort. Primary monocytes were isolated from SLE
      patients or healthy controls by negative selection, treated with inflammasome
      activators in the presence or absence of IFNalpha, and IL-1beta secretion was
      measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression levels of IFN and
      inflammasome-related molecules were assessed by real-time polymerase chain
      reaction and Western blotting. IFN regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1) expression was
      specifically down-regulated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection and a
      chemical inhibitor. RESULTS: Monocytes from patients with SLE exhibited increased
      expression and enhanced activation of the inflammasome by ATP when compared with
      control monocytes. Expression of inflammasome and IFN-regulated genes was
      significantly correlated in monocytes from SLE patients but not in control
      monocytes. Inflammasome activity was increased after prolonged exposure to
      IFNalpha. Reduction of IRF-1 expression via siRNA blocked caspase 1 up-regulation
      after treatment with IFNalpha. Importantly, hyperactivity of the inflammasome in
      the monocytes of SLE patients was significantly reduced after knockdown or
      inhibition of IRF-1. CONCLUSION: Prolonged type I IFN exposure, as seen in SLE
      patients, primes monocytes for robust inflammasome activation in an IRF-1
      dependent manner. IRF-1 inhibition may serve as a novel target for treatment of
      SLE-associated inflammation and organ damage.

PMID- 28564498
TI  - INFLUENCES OF MATERNAL BODY WEIGHT, AGE, AND PARITY ON SEX RATIO IN
      SEMIDOMESTICATED REINDEER (RANGIFER T. TARANDUS).

PMID- 28564499
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN GUPPIES: 2. REPEATABILITY OF HELD OBSERVATIONS AND THE
      EFFECTS OF SEASON ON LIFE HISTORIES.
AB  - Natural populations of guppies that co-occur with the pike cichlid Crenicichla
      alta and associated predators mature at smaller body sizes, produce more and
      smaller offspring per litter reproduce more frequently, and have higher
      reproductive allotments (weight of developing embryos/total body weight) than
      guppies that co-occur with just the killifish Rivulus harti (Reznick and Endler,
      1982). I here consider three forms of repeatability in these life-history
      patterns: i) among replicate samples collected on the same day from the same
      locality, ii) between Crenicichla and Rivulus communities among a new series of
      localities, and iii) among a smaller series of Crenicichla and Rivulus localities
      sampled in two wet and two dry seasons. In the analysis of replicate collections
      from two localities, seven of eight statistical comparisons revealed no
      significant difference. The usual methodology for estimating these variables
      therefore accurately represents guppy life-history patterns at a given locality.
      Differences among guppies from Rivulus and Crenicichla localities, covering a
      wider geographical area than considered by Reznick and Endler (1982), were
      virtually identical to the previous comparison. Wet-season samples were
      associated with significant decreases in reproductive allotment and fecundity and
      significant increases in the size of mature males and the minimum size of
      reproducing females. Differences between guppies from Rivulus and Crenicichla
      localities persisted across all samples and were consistent with all other
      observations, although they tended to be smaller during the wet season.
      Discriminant analyses on female reproductive traits showed that fecundity and
      offspring size made strong, independent contributions to discriminating between
      guppies from the two types of localities. The contribution from reproductive
      allotment was considerably smaller. There was more overlap between predator
      treatments during the wet season. Only 8.5% of the individuals were misclassified
      during the dry season, but 19.5% were misclassified during the wet season.

PMID- 28564500
TI  - GENE TREES AND ORGANISMAL HISTORIES: A PHYLOGENETIC APPROACH TO POPULATION
      BIOLOGY.
AB  - A "gene tree" is the phylogeny of alleles or haplotypes for any specified stretch
      of DNA. Gene trees are components of population trees or species trees; their
      analysis entails a shift in perspective from many of the familiar models and
      concepts of population genetics, which typically deal with frequencies of
      phylogenetically unordered alleles. Molecular surveys of haplotype diversity in
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have provided the first extensive empirical data
      suitable for estimation of gene trees on a microevolutionary (intraspecific)
      scale. The relationship between phylogeny and geographic distribution constitutes
      the phylogeographic pattern for any species. Observed phylogeographic trees can
      be interpreted in terms of historical demography by comparison to predictions
      derived from models of gene lineage sorting, such as inbreeding theory and
      branching-process theory. Results of such analyses for more than 20 vertebrate
      species strongly suggest that the demographies of populations have been
      remarkably dynamic and unsettled over space and recent evolutionary time. This
      conclusion is consistent with ecological observations documenting dramatic
      population-size fluctuations and range shifts in many contemporary species. By
      adding an historical perspective to population biology, the gene-lineage approach
      can help forge links between the disciplines of phylogenetic systematics (and
      macroevolutionary study) and population genetics (microevolution). Preliminary
      extensions of the "gene tree" methodology to haplotypes of nuclear genes (such as
      Adh in Drosophila melanogaster) demonstrate that the phylogenetic perspective can
      also help to illuminate molecular-genetic processes (such as recombination or
      gene conversion), as well as contribute to knowledge of the origin, age, and
      molecular basis of particular adaptations.

PMID- 28564501
TI  - DIVERGENCE IN CACTOPHILIC DROSOPHILA: THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF ADULT
      ETHANOL METABOLISM.

PMID- 28564502
TI  - CAN GENE FLOW PREVENT REINFORCEMENT?
AB  - A model of reinforcement in a hybrid zone is developed in which an allele causing
      reinforcement may only be favored in the center of the hybrid zone and is
      selected against elsewhere. When reinforcement is favored only in the hybrid
      zone, the swamping effect of gene flow severely impedes the evolution of
      reinforcement: reinforcement can only occur when beta < sgamma2 /4 (s is
      selection against hybrids, gamma is the strength of reinforcement, and beta is
      the strength of selection against reinforcement). Although the region in which
      reinforcement can occur is narrower when selection against hybrids is stronger,
      strong selection is still more likely to be reinforced despite the effects of
      gene flow. Another modifier is considered which reduces postmating isolation. The
      conditions for increase in frequency of this modifier reduce to the same
      conditions as those for the reinforcing allele. Both kinds of modification reduce
      the strength of selection and, therefore, cause the cline to widen. Reinforcement
      causes an increase in premating isolation between races, while modification of
      selection reduces postmating isolation.

PMID- 28564503
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY OF ISLAND POPULATIONS OF CROSSBILLS.

PMID- 28564504
TI  - INBREEDING IN DARWIN'S MEDIUM GROUND FINCHES (GEOSPIZA FORTIS).
AB  - We studied the frequency and causes of inbreeding and its effect on reproductive
      success in a population of Darwin's Medium Ground Finches (Geospiza fortis) on
      Isla Daphne Major, Galapagos, during four breeding seasons (1981, 1983, 1984, and
      1987). Pedigree analysis showed that levels of inbreeding were low but comparable
      with those observed in other passerine birds. For pairs with at least half of
      their grandparents known, approximately 20% of all pairings were between
      detectably related birds. The frequency of pairings between closely related birds
      (coefficient of kinship [phi] >= 0.250) among all pairs was 0.6%. We detected no
      effect of inbreeding on reproductive success, although sample sizes were small.
      The observed reproductive output of related pairs was not significantly different
      from the output of unrelated pairs, and there was no correlation between a pair's
      kinship coefficient and an estimate of the potential magnitude of inbreeding
      depression. Comparisons with a study of Great Tits (Parus major) by van Noordwijk
      and Scharloo (1981) suggest that, even if present, the fitness costs of
      inbreeding in this population of G. fortis would be low. Observed levels of
      inbreeding in each breeding episode were accurately predicted by simulations of
      random mating in which relatedness had no influence on pairing between
      individuals. This result suggests that levels of inbreeding in this population
      are determined more by demographic factors than by behavioral avoidance of mating
      with kin.

PMID- 28564505
TI  - COMPOSITE TRAITS, SELECTION RESPONSE, AND EVOLUTION.
AB  - It is very difficult to relate macroevolutionary patterns to the
      microevolutionary processes described by quantitative-genetic models.
      Quantitative-genetic parameters are statistical abstractions. Their long-term
      significance and evolution might be understood if they can be related to
      development, physiology, and other biological properties. Most continuous traits
      are composites of other traits that may contribute differentially to selection
      response and long-term divergence. The operation of selection on continuous
      traits can be indirect, with intermediate optima caused by correlated fitness
      components. Few realistic models are available, and heritable maternal effects
      can further complicate selection response. Examples involving allometry of brain
      and body size in mammals suggest that prenatal and postnatal growth have
      contributed differently to body-size evolution, with different correlated changes
      in brain size. Several different models could explain these patterns, and
      interpretation is further complicated by statistical difficulties in comparative
      biology. Quantitative-genetic models may become more informative and predictive
      if variation in their parameters can be explained by developmental and other
      biological processes that have been shaped by the previous history of the
      population.

PMID- 28564506
TI  - FEMALE RECEPTIVITY TO REMATING AND EARLY FECUNDITY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564507
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE RECOVERY POTENTIAL OF RYEGRASS POPULATIONS FROM
      GENETIC STRESS RESULTING FROM RESTRICTION OF POPULATION SIZE.

PMID- 28564508
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MATING SYSTEM, SEED WEIGHT, AND EMERGENCE DATE IN A
      WINTER ANNUAL, COLLINSIA VERNA.
AB  - Selfed and outcrossed progeny of 60 maternal parents were produced to investigate
      the joint and individual effects of mating system, seed weight, and emergence
      date on the expression of characters related to fitness and adult fecundity. A
      series of analyses of variance investigated these effects through time and
      indicated that 1) mating system explained 56% of the variance in seed weight, 2)
      seed weight explained 51% and mating system explained 38% of the variance in
      emergence date, and 3) mating system explained 71% and seed weight explained 15%
      of the variance in fecundity. Outcrossed-seed means differed significantly from
      selfed-seed means for all traits measured. On average, outcrossed seeds were
      larger, germinated earlier, had higher percentage emergence, and produced plants
      that were more fecund than selfed seeds. The coefficient of inbreeding depression
      increased through time in this study, from 0.05 for seed weight to 0.23 for
      fecundity. Seed weight and emergence date were positively correlated, both
      phenotypically and genetically, for both mating systems. Genetically, this
      indicates that genes that increase the value of seed weight also increase the
      value of emergence date and vice versa. Phenotypically, the positive correlation
      indicates that larger seeds germinate later. Outcrossed seeds were significantly
      larger but germinated earlier than selfed seeds, suggesting that mating system
      has an overriding effect in influencing fitness. In light of the selection on
      emergence date quantified in a previous study, seed weight, emergence date, and
      mating system may be functioning as a cluster of characters on which selection
      acts jointly in this species.

PMID- 28564509
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS AND THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF HOMOLOGY.
AB  - A homolog is a part of the phenotype that is homologous to equivalent parts in
      other species. A biological homology concept is expected to explain three
      properties of homologs: 1) the conservation of those features that are used to
      define a homolog, 2) the individualization of the homolog with regard to the rest
      of the body, and 3) the uniqueness of homologs, i.e., their specificity for
      monophyletic groups. The main obstacle to describing a mechanistic basis for
      homology is the variability of the developmental pathways of undoubtedly
      homologous characters. However, not all aspects of the developmental pathway are
      of equal importance. The only organizational features of the developmental system
      that matter are those that have been historically acquired and cause
      developmental constraints on the further evolutionary modification of the
      characters. Two main factors contribute to historically acquired developmental
      constraints: generative rules of pattern formation and ontogenetic networks. In
      particular, hierarchical and cyclical inductive networks have the required
      properties to explain homology. How common such networks are is an open empirical
      question. The development and variation of pectoral fin hooks in blenniid fishes
      is presented as a model for the study of a simple ontogenetic network.

PMID- 28564510
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AS A CONSEQUENCE OF ADAPTIVE DIVERGENCE IN DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28564511
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF FLORAL COLOR CHANGE: POLLINATOR ATTRACTION VERSUS PHYSIOLOGICAL
      CONSTRAINTS IN FUCHSIA EXCORTICATA.
AB  - Field experiments showed that the green-to-red color change in the flowers of
      Fuchsia excorticata is age-dependent, rather than pollination-induced. Nectar is
      produced only in green and, to a lesser extent, intermediate-phase flowers; red
      flowers are postreproductive and are avoided by pollinators (bellbirds).
      Additional experiments suggested that the red flowers are retained because pollen
      tubes require at least three days to reach the ovaries, and abscission of the
      floral tube and accompanying style requires at least another 1.5 days. The change
      in color directs pollinators away from the postreproductive flowers while these
      physiological processes are occurring, thereby increasing foraging efficiency and
      visitation to flowers that are still capable of receiving and donating pollen. No
      evidence was found to suggest that red-phase flowers function to attract
      pollinators. Finally, we suggest that the color change evolved through neotenous
      retention of the green coloration of buds and is a derived trait reflecting an
      interaction between natural selection and physiological constraints.

PMID- 28564512
TI  - PHYLOGENIES AND THE ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTIONARY SEQUENCES, WITH EXAMPLES FROM SEED
      PLANTS.
AB  - Studies of character evolution have frequently relied on ahistorical correlations
      rather than on phylogenies. However, correlations do not estimate the number of
      times that a trait evolved, and they are insensitive to the direction or the
      temporal sequence of character transformation. In contrast, cladograms can
      provide this information. A cladistic test of the hypothesis that the evolution
      of dioecy is favored in animal-dispersed plants indicates that dioecy may have
      originated somewhat more often in such lineages. Nevertheless, differences in
      rates of speciation or extinction must largely account for the observed species
      level correlation between dispersal and breeding system. In considering the
      evolution of individual traits, cladograms help identify the context in which a
      feature evolved and specify which organisms should be compared in evaluating the
      causes of character change. Determining whether a feature and a performance
      advantage were strictly historically correlated or followed one another in
      sequence helps to distinguish whether the trait is an adaptation or an exaptation
      for the function. For example, cladograms of seed plants suggest that double
      fertilization arose incidentally prior to the origin of angiosperms and that the
      resulting product was later co-opted and elaborated as a nutritive tissue for the
      developing embryo. The order of character assembly in a lineage also bears on the
      evolution of functional and developmental interdependencies. In particular, it
      may be possible to trace the evolution of a character's "burden" from an initial
      period, during which change is more likely, through later stages, wherein
      successful modification is less likely owing to the evolution of dependent
      characters. The evolution of vessels and of floral phyllotaxis in angiosperms may
      exemplify this pattern. Recognition that the likelihood of character
      transformation may change during the evolution of a group warns against character
      weighting in phylogenetic analysis.

PMID- 28564513
TI  - GENETIC BASIS FOR ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE TACTICS IN THE PYGMY SWORDTAIL,
      XIPHOPHORUS NIGRENSIS.
AB  - Differences in adult male size and age at sexual maturity in the Rio Coy (Mexico)
      population of Xiphophorus nigrensis (Pisces; Poeciliidae) are controlled by
      genetic variation at a Y-linked locus. Four genetic size-classes have been
      identified. The mating behavior of the males of the three largest size-classes
      consists exclusively of an elaborate courtship display, whereas that of the
      genetically small males ranges from display to a sneak-chase attempt at
      copulation. In the presence of large males, small males switch to the sneak-chase
      behavior. Females prefer the display of large males. In mating-competition
      experiments (two females with one large male and one small male), the large males
      are dominant and deny the small males access to females. From 20 such
      experiments, 601 large-male and 200 small-male progeny were obtained, indicating
      that the switch to sneak-chase behavior by small males is not particularly
      effective in overcoming the large-male advantage. By using the largest males of
      the genetically smallest size class and the smallest males of the genetically
      next-larger size-class, size was kept constant, whereas genotype was varied. When
      these males were tested in competition with genetically large males, only the
      males of the genetically smallest size class showed sneak-chase behavior. These
      observations suggest that the difference in mating behavior is not an indirect
      developmental effect of size but, rather, is under direct genetic control.

PMID- 28564514
TI  - VISUALIZING MULTIVARIATE SELECTION.
AB  - Recent developments in quantitative-genetic theory have shown that natural
      selection can be viewed as the multivariate relationship between fitness and
      phenotype. This relationship can be described by a multidimensional surface
      depicting fitness as a function of phenotypic traits. We examine the connection
      between this surface and the coefficients of phenotypic selection that can be
      estimated by multiple regression and show how the interpretation of multivariate
      selection can be facilitated through the use of the method of canonical analysis.
      The results from this analysis can be used to visualize the surface implied by a
      set of selection coefficients. Such a visualization provides a compact summary of
      selection coefficients, can aid in the comparison of selection surfaces, and can
      help generate testable hypotheses as to the adaptive significance of the traits
      under study. Further, we discuss traditional definitions of directional,
      stabilizing, and disruptive selection and conclude that selection may be more
      usefully classified into two general modes, directional and nonlinear selection,
      with stabilizing and disruptive selection as special cases of nonlinear
      selection.

PMID- 28564515
TI  - Autoerotic Asphyxiation: A Case Report.

PMID- 28564516
TI  - Treatment of Hypersexuality in an Elderly Patient With Frontotemporal Dementia in
      a Long-Term Care Setting.

PMID- 28564517
TI  - Intestinal Bioengineering.
AB  - This review summarizes bioengineering innovations in the treatment of patients
      with short bowel syndrome. Bioengineering approaches aim to increase the overall
      intestinal tissue mass. While the morphology of the intestine is clearly altered
      by these interventions, it remains to be shown that the overall function of the
      intestine is improved. Continued innovations will likely bring about new
      therapeutic options for patients with short bowel syndrome. Careful evaluations
      of the impact of these interventions await controlled clinical trials.

PMID- 28564518
TI  - Long-term Outcomes in Intestinal Rehabilitation in Children.
AB  - Long-term outcomes for pediatric patients with intestinal failure have
      significantly improved with advances in management of parenteral nutrition and
      the associated comorbidities. These changes have been driven by the development
      of multidisciplinary intestinal rehabilitation teams. Overall survival and
      transplant-free survival rates have increased while the introduction of new
      management strategies has decreased complications such as central line infections
      and intestinal failure associated liver disease. Factors have been identified
      that aid in prediction of duration of parenteral nutrition and time to enteral
      autonomy. Close long-term monitoring of growth and early evaluation of
      development are needed as abnormalities in both areas are common. With the
      improved survival, an important focus going forward will be the study of and
      improvement in quality of life for both children with intestinal failure and
      their families.

PMID- 28564519
TI  - Donor-Specific HLA Antibodies: A Review of Data Published in 2016.
AB  - The results from continued research regarding the role of anti-human leukocyte
      antigen (anti-HLA) antibodies and donor-specific antibodies (DSA) in
      transplantation has strengthened the association between DSA and allograft
      rejection. The formation of de novo DSAs is particularly detrimental to allograft
      function and survival. Paradoxically, grafts of patients without DSA may fail and
      patients with DSA may continue to have extended post-transplant graft function.
      An explanation for this inconsistency in outcomes must be found to utilize anti
      HLA DSA as a biomarker of allograft rejection. This review highlights multiple
      studies regarding DSA and secondary characteristics of DSA, including C1q
      binding, mean fluorescence, and immunoglobulin G subtype, which have been useful
      in stratifying DSA-positive patients into low- and high-risk groups of allograft
      rejection.

PMID- 28564520
TI  - Cytokines as Biomarkers for Renal Transplant Recipients: What is New?
AB  - Poor long-term graft survival remains a major problem in the field of organ
      transplantation. This could be attributed at least in part, to the lack of
      reliable biomarkers that allow for accurate, noninvasive monitoring of graft
      status and individualized immunosuppressive therapy. To this end, cytokines and
      chemokines have been investigated in a number of studies to evaluate their
      potential to serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers for kidney
      transplantation. Based on our review of recent publications, urinary chemokine C
      C motif ligand 2, chemokine C-XC motif ligand (CXCL) 9, and CXCL10 are identified
      as potential novel biomarkers of renal graft outcomes. Although there are
      numerous considerations to accurately analyze cytokine and chemokine profiles of
      transplant patients, continuing efforts in this field of research hold promise
      for improving the long-term outcomes of renal transplant recipients.

PMID- 28564521
TI  - The Clinical Impact of Non-HLA Antibodies in Solid Organ Transplantation.
AB  - Antibody-mediated rejection in solid organ transplantation is associated with
      significant organ dysfunction and allograft loss. Donor-specific antibodies
      against human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) have been a major focus for research,
      clinical testing, and therapies. Recently, non-HLA autoantibodies to various
      endothelial antigens including angiotensin II type 1 receptor, endothelin-1 type
      A receptor, Major Histocompatibility Complex Class 1-Related Chain A, perlecan,
      and collagen V are emerging as both potential mediators of allograft dysfunction
      and targets for intervention. Incorporation of non-HLA antibodies into clinical
      practice is currently not standardized due to a lack of consensus regarding the
      pathogenic effects on the allograft. Treatment strategies for non-HLA antibodies
      are evolving and remain an area that warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28564522
TI  - Non-HLA Antibodies in Clinical Transplantation.
AB  - Organ transplantation overcomes conservative therapy to improve patient
      longevity. Despite the improvement of donor-recipient compatibility tests and
      intensified immunosuppressive agents, long-term graft survival remains poor
      because of acute and chronic injury driven by immunologic and non-immunologic
      factors. The significant immunological barrier for graft longevity is antibody
      mediated rejection. Antibodies reactive to donor-specific human leukocyte
      antigens (HLA) have been shown to have adverse effects on the transplanted organ.
      However, there is minimal or controversial data supporting a pathogenic effect of
      antibodies against non-HLAs. This review discusses non-HLA antibodies and
      relevant antigen targets that have been uncovered by molecular medicine and
      correspond with acute rejection and chronic allograft injury. Updated proteomic
      evaluation may improve our knowledge of the immune response by enhancing
      immunologic epitope determination outside the scope of HLA.

PMID- 28564523
TI  - HLA Epitopes - Are We Ready for Clinical Prime Time? Historic Perspective and
      Future Needs.
AB  - A significant barrier to long-term transplant success is the development of de
      novo donor-specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies. The best approach
      to minimize the risk of developing such antibodies is an HLA identical
      transplant, but the likelihood of finding such an organ is very low. The
      alternative is to identify "permissible mismatches" - HLA antigen mismatches that
      are less likely to induce an immune response. In the past few years, it has
      become clear that matching at the "epitope level" is the likely solution;
      however, we are still struggling with how to define HLA epitopes. Herein, we
      provide a short review of the development of the epitope concept within the HLA
      field, with the hope that it sheds light on present knowledge. We follow with our
      personal opinion on where the future is leading us.

PMID- 28564524
TI  - HLA Epitopes and Shared Molecular Eplet Characterization and Their Implication on
      Transplant Outcome: The Experience of One Center.
AB  - We report three interesting cases concerning antibody-mediated rejection (AMR),
      associated or not with anti-donor-specific antibodies, and detection of
      implicated molecular epitopes. The first report presents a case of intra-allele
      sensitization. The second case presents an interesting case concerning Luminex
      mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) levels considered to be low risk antibodies
      (<1000), but producing AMR. The third case occurred after a second kidney
      transplantation mediated by antibodies directed against HLA-C antigens (MFI<1000)
      in the previous transplantation (which was considered to be an indicator of low
      risk of AMR).

PMID- 28564525
TI  - Acute Rejection, Kidney Allograft Function, and Graft Survival in Patients with
      Circulating Pre-Transplant IgG Antibodies Directed Against Donor HLA-A, -B, or -C
      Locus Determined Antigens.
AB  - The relationship between circulating pre-transplant immunoglobulin G (IgG)
      antibodies to donor human leukocyte antigen (HLA) -C locus determined antigens
      alone and acute rejection, kidney allograft function, and graft survival is not
      fully defined. Also, the impact of circulating pre-transplant IgG antibodies to
      donor HLA-C locus antigens alone on these outcomes has not been compared with the
      impact of circulating pre-transplant IgG antibodies to donor HLA-A or -B locus
      antigens. We conducted a retrospective review of records of 1252 kidney allograft
      recipients transplanted at our center between January 2010 and January 2016 to
      identify patients with circulating pre-transplant IgG antibodies directed at
      kidney donor HLA-A, -B, or -C locus determined antigens. Antibodies were detected
      and reported using the LABScreen Single Antigen Bead assay with microbeads coated
      with single HLA class I antigens. Pre-transplant and post-transplant data were
      collected and the graft outcomes of 16 kidney graft recipients with antibodies to
      HLA-C locus antigens were compared to the outcomes in 56 recipients with
      antibodies to HLA-A or -B locus determined antigens. The one-year acute rejection
      rate was 6% in those with donor-specific antibodies (DSA) to HLA-C locus antigens
      and 20% in those with DSA to HLA-A or -B locus antigens. The graft survival rate
      was 100% in those with DSA to HLA-C locus antigens and 95% in those with DSA to
      HLA-A or -B locus antigens. None of the numerical differences were statistically
      significant (p>0.05). The presence of circulating pre-transplant IgG antibodies
      directed at kidney donor HLA-C locus antigens alone may not be associated with an
      increased risk of acute rejection or a decreased graft survival rate. Our
      observations support the concept that circulating pre-transplant IgG antibodies
      directed at kidney donor HLA-C locus antigens alone do not negatively impact
      kidney allograft outcomes and that the mean fluorescence intensities of the
      antibodies directed at HLA-C locus alone should not be used to list unacceptable
      HLA-C locus antigens for kidney allocation. A study with a larger cohort is
      needed to investigate our hypothesis.

PMID- 28564526
TI  - Pre-empting Antibody-Mediated Rejection: A Program of DSA Monitoring and
      Treatment Can Effectively Prevent Antibody Mediated Rejection.
AB  - Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) remains a problem without a reliable treatment
      in the care of kidney transplant patients. We proposed and tested a program of
      screening for donor specific antibodies (DSA) to initiate treatment of patients
      before AMR was detected and to prevent its occurrence. Starting in April 2012, we
      stratified patients into high-, medium-, and low-risk groups for the development
      of DSA and instituted a program of screening for and treatment of these
      antibodies. We used a historic control group of patients transplanted at our
      center as a comparator and looked at rates of DSA testing and development as well
      as rates of development of AMR, cell-mediated rejection, and graft loss. 614
      patients were transplanted under the protocol compared with 266 patients in the
      control group. Length of follow-up was similar in both groups. The group
      undergoing DSA screening had lower rates of DSA development (17.6% versus 24.8%,
      p=0.016) and that DSA was found at a significantly earlier time post-transplant
      (147 versus 248 days, p=0.02). Incidence of AMR was dramatically lower in the
      screened group (1.3% versus 8.6%, p<0.0001) with no grafts lost due to AMR. AMR
      was found to occur at an average of 181 days post-transplant. Rates of acute
      cellular rejection did not decrease in a manner similar to AMR rates. In
      conclusion, a program of universal risk-stratified DSA testing in kidney
      transplant patients can dramatically reduce rates of AMR and virtually eliminate
      graft loss due to AMR.

PMID- 28564527
TI  - Incidence and Factors Associated with De Novo DSA After BK Viremia in Renal
      Transplant Recipients.
AB  - BK polyomavirus infection and de novo donor-human leukocyte antigen (HLA)
      specific antibodies (dnDSA) are two well-known and distinct complications
      occurring after kidney transplantation. Recent literature suggests an association
      between the two events. This study aims to examine the relationship between BK
      viremia (BKV) and dnDSA and to identify potential risk factors for dnDSA
      following BKV in kidney transplant recipients. A retrospective review of 1019
      recipients from Houston Methodist Hospital was conducted. All patients underwent
      routine screening for BKV and dnDSA. Median follow-up was 44 months. BKV was
      detected in 186 (18%) patients at a median of 107 (82-205) days post-transplant.
      dnDSA occurred in 283 (28%) patients at a median of 272 (62-575) days post
      transplant. Of the 69 dnDSA-positive/BKV-positive patients, dnDSA detection
      occurred after BKV onset in 46 patients. Thus, 46 (28%) previously DSA-negative
      patients later became dnDSA-positive following BKV, not significantly different
      from the rate seen in BKV-negative patients (26%; p=0.5). Median time to DSA
      detection following BKV onset was 232 days (interquartile range, 119-460) post
      BKV detection. Multivariate analysis revealed a greater number of HLA mismatches
      and viral clearance as risk factors for development of dnDSA following BKV,
      whereas delayed graft function was associated with a lower risk of dnDSA. In
      conclusion, despite being considered a result of over-immunosuppression, BKV can
      still be followed by dnDSA in a substantial proportion of patients. Monitoring
      for dnDSA in patients being managed for BKV may be warranted.

PMID- 28564528
TI  - Late Antibody-Mediated Rejection in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Outcomes after
      Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy.
AB  - Development of acute antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is associated with graft
      loss and can occur both early (<3 months) and late (>3 months) post-transplant.
      Treatment and prognosis differ in early and late AMR. Herein, we present a single
      center experience using high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) (2g/kg) for
      the treatment of late AMR. All kidney recipients with negative T- and B-cell flow
      crossmatch at transplant and biopsy-proven late AMR were included (2009-2013,
      n=126). All patients were treated with IVIg at 2g/kg over divided doses and high
      dose intravenous methylprednisolone. Variables collected included demographics,
      Banff 2007 renal allograft biopsy scoring criteria, and laboratory values.
      Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to identify factors
      predictive of graft loss. Median age was 46 years, with 60% male and 47.6%
      African American. Median time from transplant to rejection was 3.8 years.
      Baseline serum creatinine was 1.6 mg/dl and median serum creatinine at diagnosis
      was 2.6 mg/dl. Fifty-eight patients (46%) eventually lost their grafts at a
      median of 12 months (interquartile range: 4-21) from diagnosis. Serum creatinine
      >5.3 mg/dl at time of diagnosis was associated with a 94% probability of graft
      loss, and after controlling for multiple recipient and donor factors, only serum
      creatinine and urine protein creatinine ratio at diagnosis were predictive of
      graft loss. Late AMR has a poor prognosis, with 46% graft loss at a median follow
      up of 12 months. Serum creatinine was a better predictor of subsequent graft
      failure than histological characteristics in late AMR. These findings help inform
      treatment plans as well as prognosis.

PMID- 28564529
TI  - Outcomes in Simultaneous Liver Kidney Transplants in the Setting of a Positive
      Crossmatch: A Single Center Experience.
AB  - Recent literature suggests that a positive crossmatch adversely impacts outcomes
      in simultaneous liver-kidney transplant (SLKT). The aim of this study was to
      evaluate outcomes of SLKT with a positive flow crossmatch (+FCXM) at our center.
      We retrospectively analyzed all of the SLKTs between January 1, 2000, and
      September 30, 2010. A total of 2793 kidney transplants and 892 liver transplants
      were performed in this time period, of which, 31 were SLKT (3%). Seven of the 31
      (22%) SLKTs had a +FCXM. There were 3 major adverse events: 1 patient mortality
      at 9 months with liver failure; 1 allograft nephrectomy for primary nonfunction
      secondary to hyper-acute rejection; and, 1 recurrent liver allograft rejection
      with eventual graft loss and death at 26 months post-transplant. The median
      follow-up time was 34 months. The 3-year overall SLKT patient survival in the
      negative FCXM (-FCXM) patients was 85% compared with 71% in the +FCXM group. The
      rates of acute liver and kidney rejection were 6% and 10%, respectively, in the 
      FCXM group compared to 14% and 28%, respectively, in the +FCXM group. A very
      strongly +FCXM with a mean channel shift above 4 times the positive cut-off and
      the presence of multiple strong donor-specific antibodies (DSA) with mean
      fluorescence intensity (MFI) above 10,000 were associated with poorer outcome. In
      conclusion, in patients with very strongly +FCXM with high MFI DSA, proceeding
      with the transplantation leads to poor outcomes.

PMID- 28564530
TI  - C1q Donor-Specific Antibody Associates with Post-transplant Biopsy Findings in
      Highly- Sensitized Kidney Transplant Recipients.
AB  - Donor-specific anti-human leukocyte antigen antibodies (DSA) are associated with
      antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in kidney transplantation, but the spectrum of
      graft injury seen in patients with DSA ranges from no damage to florid rejection.
      Since immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies with cytotoxic potential can be
      distinguished by their binding complement fraction C1q, the level of C1q-binding
      IgG (C1q+) DSA may be useful for stratifying risk or diagnosing AMR. We therefore
      investigated the value of IgG and C1q+ DSA in predicting pathologic features of
      AMR on kidney biopsies. We tested the associations between DSA at different cut
      off levels and pathologic features of AMR on biopsy in a cohort of consecutive,
      highly-sensitized patients transplanted after December 2014 who had 1-, 3-, and 6
      month protocol kidney biopsies and monitoring for IgG and C1q+ DSA. Eight
      patients with cPRA >90% and negative flow crossmatch underwent kidney transplant
      and completed six months of follow-up contributing 23 pairs of biopsy/ serum
      samples for analysis. C1q+ DSA was significantly associated with C4d finding on
      biopsy at mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) cut-offs of >100 (p=0.046) and >300
      (p=0.008) and showed superior positive and negative predictive value in
      comparison to conventional IgG DSA. C1q+ DSA also showed significant association
      and good predictive value for any AMR feature on biopsy (p=0.003, for >100 MFI;
      p=0.005 for >300 MFI), while IgG DSA showed no association. In a small cohort of
      high cPRA transplant recipients, C1q+ DSA outperformed IgG DSA as an indicator of
      AMR biopsy findings. Including C1q+ DSA testing in post-transplant DSA monitoring
      of highly-sensitized patients may aid the timely diagnosis of AMR.

PMID- 28564531
TI  - Acute Rejection in 6-Antigen HLA-Matched Kidney Transplant Recipients: Risk
      Factors and Outcomes from the Wisconsin Allograft Recipient Database (WisARD).
AB  - Acute rejection in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched kidney transplant
      recipients is uncommon and the mechanisms involved are not well understood. Data
      from 6-antigen HLA-matched recipients transplanted between 1994 and 2014 were
      analyzed to identify the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes associated with
      biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR). A total of 278 HLA-matched recipients were
      identified, of which, 155 (55.8%) received a graft from a sibling donor. Ten
      patients (3.6%) experienced BPAR over a median follow-up of 10 years (0.41 cases
      per 100 person-years). Median time to rejection was 36.5 months (standard
      deviation +/-56.4). Recipients who experienced rejection did not differ from
      those who did not in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, induction agent, panel
      reactive antibody, or sensitizing events. Acute cellular, antibody-mediated, and
      mixed rejection occurred in 5, 3, and 2 patients, respectively. The most common
      biopsy classification was Banff IA (n=4). Four out of 10 patients had documented
      nonadherence to maintenance immunosuppression. Thirty percent of HLA-matched
      recipients who rejected had graft loss and 10% died, compared to 30.8% graft loss
      and 28.4% deaths in non-rejectors (p=0.57 and 0.20, respectively). In conclusion,
      acute cellular and antibody-mediated rejection are infrequent in HLA-matched
      kidney transplant recipients. Nonadherence appears to be relatively common among
      those experiencing rejection. Acute rejection was not associated with higher
      graft loss or death. The pathogenesis of acute rejection in HLA-matched
      recipients remains to be determined.

PMID- 28564532
TI  - Post-transplant Desensitization for Deceased Donor Kidney Transplant Recipients:
      A Single Center Experience.
AB  - The highly-sensitized kidney transplant candidate with no available living donors
      remains at a major disadvantage with decreased access and worse outcomes post
      transplant. We have previously reported our initial data on both pre-transplant
      and post-transplant desensitization. We observed only a modest decline in
      unacceptable antigens with pretransplant intravenous immunoglobin (IVIG) and
      rituximab. Due to these observations, we have focused on a peri-operative post
      transplant desensitization protocol in our program. Beginning in 2006, we
      implemented a simple point-based algorithm [variables included: panel reactive
      antibody (PRA) status; flow cytometric crossmatch (FCXM); and delayed graft
      function] to identify kidney transplant recipients who would undergo peri
      operative plasmapheresis/IVIG to abrogate preformed antibody-mediated allograft
      rejection (AMR). Our previous results suggested acceptable 5-year outcomes. Here,
      in an expanded population (N=66), we report an overall death-censored graft
      survival of 73% at a mean follow-up of 8.5 years post-transplant. Our patients
      were largely African American (85%) and regrafts (39%), with a median PRA of 88%,
      and a mean T- and B-FCXM of 97 mean channel shifts (MCS) and 117 MCS,
      respectively. Although acute AMR rates were acceptable (12%), 22% of patients
      developed chronic AMR. A pre-transplant T-cell FCXM of > 200 MCS (p=0.02) or
      presence of donor specific antibodies (DSA) at most recent follow-up (p=0.02)
      were associated with graft loss. Current studies with revised protocols utilizing
      additional DSA information, surveillance biopsies, and proteasome inhibition are
      ongoing.

PMID- 28564533
TI  - From Accurate Assessment of Anti-HLA Antibody MFI to Complement-Binding Assays.
AB  - Single antigen bead (SAB) and complement-binding assays are commonly used to
      monitor immunization in transplant patients. Like all new diagnostic assays, some
      considerations have to be appreciated to avoid a biased utilization. By truly
      decreasing antibody concentration, SAB monitoring in sensitized patients
      experiencing apheresis offers a good opportunity to explore analytical
      interference. We explored analytical artifacts by analyzing the role of prozone
      and saturation effects through a concrete example of a single patient who
      experienced immunoadsorption. We then assessed, on a larger cohort, the link
      between an accurate assessment of mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) and the C1q
      and C3d binding assays. Finally, we compared MFI with the two main available SAB
      assays. After immunoadsorption, the MFI of some antibodies unexpectedly rose. We
      showed that this increase was due, in part, to both a prozone effect and a
      saturation of the beads. Dithiothreitol treatment appeared to be an efficient way
      to avoid a prozone effect. The analysis of dilution profile was an interesting
      tool to detect a saturation effect. The comparison of the two main SABs revealed
      a systematic difference of 3000 MFI. MFI was a strong predictor of C1q and C3d
      positivity. Complement-positive antibodies had a higher MFI (p<0.01). Despite the
      great contribution of SAB assays in anti-HLA antibody assessment, the knowledge
      of analytical interference is necessary to avoid any misleading conclusions. With
      regard to the interference between MFI and complement-binding assays, their place
      in risk stratification has to be clarified.

PMID- 28564534
TI  - Influenza Immunization and the Generation of Anti-HLA and Anti-MICA Antibodies in
      Patients with Renal Failure and in Kidney Transplant Recipients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine whether the influenza vaccine induces the
      development of anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and anti-major
      histocompatibility complex class I - chain A (MICA) antibodies. We determined the
      presence or de novo development of anti-HLA and anti-MICA antibodies in 3 groups
      of patients vaccinated against influenza: A) 42 healthy adults; B) 40 end-stage
      kidney disease patients; C) 25 kidney transplant recipients; and, D) 22 healthy
      adults who refused vaccination. Serum samples per subject were obtained: prior to
      vaccination, one week after vaccination, and on a monthly basis for 6 months.
      They were analyzed by LABScreen(r) Single Antigen, Luminex. The proportions of de
      novo antibodies (anti-HLA and anti-MICA) in the 4 groups were 2.4%, 17.5%, 20%,
      and 0%, respectively. Some patients developed the antibodies later, unrelated to
      the vaccine. We found preformed antibodies (anti-HLA and anti-MICA) in 67%, 78%,
      88%, and 27% of cases in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively. The presence of
      preformed antibodies was the only predictive factor for the development of de
      novo antibodies. In conclusion, the development of de novo anti-HLA and anti-MICA
      antibodies after an external stimulus other than HLA antigens is possible.
      However, not all cases can be attributed to the vaccine.

PMID- 28564535
TI  - Clinical Relevance of Donor-Specific IgM Antibodies in HLA Incompatible Renal
      Transplantation: A Retrospective Single-Center Study.
AB  - Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against donor human leukocyte antigens (HLA)
      are monitored in the pre-and post-transplant period due to their established role
      in predicting rejection and renal allograft survival. However, the role of
      immunoglobulin M (IgM) anti-HLA donor-specific antibodies (DSA) is not fully
      understood, especially in highly-sensitized patients undergoing direct
      transplantation. We designed this study to determine whether IgM DSA predicts
      rejection episodes and/or graft failure. Samples from 92 patients who had
      undergone HLA-antibody incompatible transplants were tested at 5 time points:
      days -8 (pre-plasmapheresis), 0, 7, 14, and 30 using Luminex microbead assay with
      ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid containing wash buffer (LABScreen(r), One Lambda,
      Canoga Park, CA). IgM was defined positive if the mean fluorescence values were
      greater than 2000. Presence of pre- and post-transplant IgM was correlated with
      early antibody mediated rejection episodes (within 30 days post-transplantation)
      and graft failure. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS IBM software.
      Graft survival estimates were death-censored. The presence of pre-transplant IgM
      DSA did not predict rejection (p=0.83) or graft failure (p=0.424). The post
      transplant IgM DSA levels peaked at day 14 (similar to IgG DSA levels). Presence
      of IgM DSA post-transplant (de novo and resynthesis) was not associated with
      rejection (p=0.83). However, post-transplant IgM was associated with graft
      failure (p=0.037). This study shows additional testing of post-transplant IgM DSA
      over and above IgG is important as post-transplant IgM DSA is associated with
      graft failure.

PMID- 28564536
TI  - Influence of Feed Composition on the Monomeric Structure of Free Bacterial
      Extracellular Polysaccharides in Anaerobic Digestion.
AB  - Six 5.0-L fill-and-draw batch reactors were used with different feed compositions
      containing a range of carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose, fructose) and nitrogen
      sources (urea, NH4Cl) at various concentrations to investigate free extracellular
      polysaccharide (EPS) production during anaerobic digestion (AD). This work
      analyzed not only their monosaccharide components, but also their specific
      linkage patterns and the change associated with different chemical nature in
      carbon substrates or nitrogen sources; all of these parameters can have profound
      biological consequences, and were correlated to macronutrients present in the
      feed. It is believed that feed composition is a major factor which determines the
      physicochemical characteristics of the free EPS. Our findings also suggest that
      the differences associated with the digestion of various carbon substrates and/or
      nitrogen sources could alter monomeric saccharide composition and concentrations
      of the free EPS. Such insights demonstrate that previous studies on feed C/N
      ratios tended to overestimate EPS production, while variations in the chemical
      nature of the nitrogen source were overlooked. Our results also link the
      physiochemical properties of free EPS with underlying biofouling mechanisms, and
      demonstrate that membrane fouling is to some extent dependent upon the prevailing
      nutritional environment and feed composition.

PMID- 28564538
TI  - Mechanism of Off-Target Interactions and Toxicity of Tamoxifen and Its
      Metabolites.
AB  - Tamoxifen is an estrogen modulator that acts to competitively inhibit the binding
      of endogenous estrogens. It is widely used for treatment of breast cancer;
      however, analogous with many antineoplastic agents, tamoxifen is associated with
      numerous adverse effects, most prominently nausea. We have identified several off
      target receptors of tamoxifen and 22 of its metabolites that include histamine H1
      and H3, and muscarinic M1, M4, and M5 subtypes, and dopamine D2 receptor. We have
      shown how they are associated with tamoxifen and its metabolites' toxicity
      through a comprehensive computational analysis of their interaction modes, which
      were also compared to that of the related endogenous substrates of each receptor.
      The results were further evaluated using available in vivo and in vitro data. The
      presented work provides foundational knowledge toward the determination of the
      precise mechanism of nausea induction, and in particular, interactions of
      tamoxifen and its metabolites with the receptors involved in that biomolecular
      pathway. This study can assist in predicting the potential undesired effects of
      the chemicals with common pharmacophores or similar fragments to that of
      tamoxifen and its metabolites and serve drug discovery research in developing
      more effective and tolerable tamoxifen analogues or chemotherapeutic agents.

PMID- 28564539
TI  - Spherulitic Growth of Coral Skeletons and Synthetic Aragonite: Nature's Three
      Dimensional Printing.
AB  - Coral skeletons were long assumed to have a spherulitic structure, that is, a
      radial distribution of acicular aragonite (CaCO3) crystals with their c-axes
      radiating from series of points, termed centers of calcification (CoCs). This
      assumption was based on morphology alone, not on crystallography. Here we measure
      the orientation of crystals and nanocrystals and confirm that corals grow their
      skeletons in bundles of aragonite crystals, with their c-axes and long axes
      oriented radially and at an angle from the CoCs, thus precisely as expected for
      feather-like or "plumose" spherulites. Furthermore, we find that in both
      synthetic and coral aragonite spherulites at the nanoscale adjacent crystals have
      similar but not identical orientations, thus demonstrating by direct observation
      that even at nanoscale the mechanism of spherulite formation is non
      crystallographic branching (NCB), as predicted by theory. Finally, synthetic
      aragonite spherulites and coral skeletons have similar angle spreads, and angular
      distances of adjacent crystals, further confirming that coral skeletons are
      spherulites. This is important because aragonite grows anisotropically, 10 times
      faster along the c-axis than along the a-axis direction, and spherulites fill
      space with crystals growing almost exclusively along the c-axis, thus they can
      fill space faster than any other aragonite growth geometry, and create isotropic
      materials from anisotropic crystals. Greater space filling rate and isotropic
      mechanical behavior are key to the skeleton's supporting function and therefore
      to its evolutionary success. In this sense, spherulitic growth is Nature's 3D
      printing.

PMID- 28564537
TI  - Attach-Pull-Release Calculations of Ligand Binding and Conformational Changes on
      the First BRD4 Bromodomain.
AB  - Bromodomains, protein domains involved in epigenetic regulation, are able to bind
      small molecules with high affinity. In the present study, we report free energy
      calculations for the binding of seven ligands to the first BRD4 bromodomain,
      using the attach-pull-release (APR) method to compute the reversible work of
      removing the ligands from the binding site and then allowing the protein to relax
      conformationally. We test three different water models, TIP3P, TIP4PEw, and
      SPC/E, as well as the GAFF and GAFF2 parameter sets for the ligands. Our
      simulations show that the apo crystal structure of BRD4 is only metastable, with
      a structural transition happening in the absence of the ligand typically after 20
      ns of simulation. We compute the free energy change for this transition with a
      separate APR calculation on the free protein and include its contribution to the
      ligand binding free energies, which generally causes an underestimation of the
      affinities. By testing different water models and ligand parameters, we are also
      able to assess their influence in our results and determine which one produces
      the best agreement with the experimental data. Both free energies associated with
      the conformational change and ligand binding are affected by the choice of water
      model, with the two sets of ligand parameters affecting their binding free
      energies to a lesser degree. Across all six combinations of water model and
      ligand potential function, the Pearson correlation coefficients between
      calculated and experimental binding free energies range from 0.55 to 0.83, and
      the root-mean-square errors range from 1.4-3.2 kcal/mol. The current protocol
      also yields encouraging preliminary results when used to assess the relative
      stability of ligand poses generated by docking or other methods, as illustrated
      for two different ligands. Our method takes advantage of the high performance
      provided by graphics processing units and can readily be applied to other ligands
      as well as other protein systems.

PMID- 28564541
TI  - Comparative Analysis of Methods for Enhancement of the Photostability of CdTe@TGA
      QD Colloid Solutions.
AB  - The employment of colloid quantum dots in a number of applications is limited by
      their instability under light irradiation. Additional methods of photostability
      enhancement of UV+visible-irradiated TGA-stabilized CdTe quantum dots are
      investigated. Photostability enhancement was observed via either addition of
      sodium sulphite in the role of chemical oxygen absorber or addition of 1%
      gelatin, or, finally, by additional stabilization by bovine serum albumine (BSA).
      The latter method is the most promising, since it not only enhances the quantum
      dots' photostability but also makes them more biocompatible and extends the
      possibilities of their biological applications.

PMID- 28564543
TI  - Improved pKa Prediction of Substituted Alcohols, Phenols, and Hydroperoxides in
      Aqueous Medium Using Density Functional Theory and a Cluster-Continuum Solvation
      Model.
AB  - Acid dissociation constants (pKa's) are key physicochemical properties that are
      needed to understand the structure and reactivity of molecules in solution.
      Theoretical pKa's have been calculated for a set of 72 organic compounds with -OH
      and -OOH groups (48 with known experimental pKa's). This test set includes 17
      aliphatic alcohols, 25 substituted phenols, and 30 hydroperoxides. Calculations
      in aqueous medium have been carried out with SMD implicit solvation and three
      hybrid DFT functionals (B3LYP, omegaB97XD, and M06-2X) with two basis sets (6
      31+G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p)). The effect of explicit water molecules on
      calculated pKa's was assessed by including up to three water molecules. pKa's
      calculated with only SMD implicit solvation are found to have average errors
      greater than 6 pKa units. Including one explicit water reduces the error by about
      3 pKa units, but the error is still far from chemical accuracy. With B3LYP/6
      311++G(d,p) and three explicit water molecules in SMD solvation, the mean signed
      error and standard deviation are only -0.02 +/- 0.55; a linear fit with zero
      intercept has a slope of 1.005 and R2 = 0.97. Thus, this level of theory can be
      used to calculate pKa's directly without the need for linear correlations or
      thermodynamic cycles. Estimated pKa values are reported for 24 hydroperoxides
      that have not yet been determined experimentally.

PMID- 28564540
TI  - A Continuum Poisson-Boltzmann Model for Membrane Channel Proteins.
AB  - Membrane proteins constitute a large portion of the human proteome and perform a
      variety of important functions as membrane receptors, transport proteins,
      enzymes, signaling proteins, and more. Computational studies of membrane proteins
      are usually much more complicated than those of globular proteins. Here, we
      propose a new continuum model for Poisson-Boltzmann calculations of membrane
      channel proteins. Major improvements over the existing continuum slab model are
      as follows: (1) The location and thickness of the slab model are fine-tuned based
      on explicit-solvent MD simulations. (2) The highly different accessibilities in
      the membrane and water regions are addressed with a two-step, two-probe grid
      labeling procedure. (3) The water pores/channels are automatically identified.
      The new continuum membrane model is optimized (by adjusting the membrane probe,
      as well as the slab thickness and center) to best reproduce the distributions of
      buried water molecules in the membrane region as sampled in explicit water
      simulations. Our optimization also shows that the widely adopted water probe of
      1.4 A for globular proteins is a very reasonable default value for membrane
      protein simulations. It gives the best compromise in reproducing the explicit
      water distributions in membrane channel proteins, at least in the water
      accessible pore/channel regions. Finally, we validate the new membrane model by
      carrying out binding affinity calculations for a potassium channel, and we
      observe good agreement with the experimental results.

PMID- 28564542
TI  - Repurposing Suzuki Coupling Reagents as a Directed Fragment Library Targeting
      Serine Hydrolases and Related Enzymes.
AB  - Serine hydrolases are susceptible to potent reversible inhibition by boronic
      acids. Large collections of chemically diverse boronic acid fragments are
      commercially available because of their utility in coupling chemistry. We
      repurposed the approximately 650 boronic acid reagents in our collection as a
      directed fragment library targeting serine hydrolases and related enzymes. Highly
      efficient hits (LE > 0.6) often result. The utility of the approach is
      illustrated with the results against autotaxin, a phospholipase implicated in
      cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28564544
TI  - Giant Enhancement of Defect-Bound Exciton Luminescence and Suppression of Band
      Edge Luminescence in Monolayer WSe2-Ag Plasmonic Hybrid Structures.
AB  - We have investigated how the photoluminescence (PL) of WSe2 is modified when
      coupled to Ag plasmonic structures at low temperature. Chemical vapor deposition
      (CVD) grown monolayer WSe2 flakes were transferred onto a Ag film and a Ag
      nanotriangle array that had a 1.5 nm Al2O3 capping layer. Using low-temperature
      (7.5 K) micro-PL mapping, we simultaneously observed enhancement of the defect
      bound exciton emission and quenching of the band edge exciton emission when the
      WSe2 was on a plasmonic structure. The enhancement of the defect-bound exciton
      emission was significant with enhancement factors of up to ~200 for WSe2 on the
      nanotriangle array when compared to WSe2 on a 1.5 nm Al2O3 capped Si substrate
      with a 300 nm SiO2 layer. The giant enhancement of the luminescence from the
      defect-bound excitons is understood in terms of the Purcell effect and increased
      light absorption. In contrast, the surprising result of luminescence quenching of
      the bright exciton state on the same plasmonic nanostructure is due to a rather
      unique electronic structure of WSe2: the existence of a dark state below the
      bright exciton state.

PMID- 28564545
TI  - Reaction Progress Kinetics Analysis of 1,3-Disiloxanediols as Hydrogen-Bonding
      Catalysts.
AB  - 1,3-Disiloxanediols are effective hydrogen-bonding catalysts that exhibit
      enhanced activity relative to silanediols and triarylsilanols. The catalytic
      activity for a series of 1,3-disiloxanediols, including naphthyl-substituted and
      unsymmetrical siloxanes, has been quantified and compared relative to other
      silanol and thiourea catalysts using the Friedel Crafts addition of indole to
      trans-beta-nitrostyrene. An in-depth kinetic study using reaction progress
      kinetic analysis (RPKA) has been performed to probe the catalyst behavior of 1,3
      disiloxanediols. The data confirm that the disiloxanediol-catalyzed addition
      reaction is first order in catalyst over all concentrations studied with no
      evidence of catalyst self-association. 1,3-Disiloxanediols proved to be robust
      and recoverable catalysts with no deactivation under reaction conditions. No
      product inhibition is observed, and competitive binding studies with nitro
      containing additives suggest that 1,3-disiloxanediols bind weakly to nitro groups
      but are strongly activating for catalysis.

PMID- 28564546
TI  - Polyurethane Microgel Based Microtissue: Interface-Guided Assembly and Spreading.
AB  - Colloidal gels are three-dimensional networks of microgel particles and can be
      utilized to design microtissues where the differential adhesive interactions
      between the particles and cells, guided by their surface energetics, are
      engineered to spatially assemble the cellular and colloidal components into three
      dimensional microtissues. In this work we utilized a colloidal interaction
      approach to design cell-polyurethane (PU) microgel bimodal microtissues using
      endothelial cells (ECs) as a normal cell model and a nonmalignant breast cancer
      cell line (MCF-7) as a cancer cell model. PU microgels were developed from a
      library of segmental polyurethanes with poly(ethylene glycol) soft segment and
      aliphatic diisocyanate/l-tyrosine based chain extender as hard segment to
      modulate the interactions between PU colloidal particles and cells. The surface
      energies of the microgel particles and cells were estimated using Zisman's
      critical surface tension and van Oss-Good-Chaudhury theory (vOGCT) from liquid
      contact angle analysis. Binary interaction potentials between colloidal PU
      particles and cells and the ternary interaction between colloidal PU particle,
      cell, and collagen I/Matrigel were calculated to explain the formation of
      microtissues and their spreading in extraneous biomatrix respectively by using
      classical and extended DLVO theory (XDLVO). Furthermore, rheological analysis and
      in silico simulations were used to analyze the assembly and spreading of the PU
      microgel based microtissues. In vitro experiments showed that ECs and MCF-7
      displayed more differentiated (EC spreading/MCF-7 lumen formation) character when
      mixed with microgel particles that were stable in aqueous medium and more
      undifferentiated character (EC nonspreading/MCF-7 spreading) when mixed with
      microgel particles unstable in aqueous medium.

PMID- 28564547
TI  - Challenges to the provision of community aged care services across rural
      Australia: perceptions of service managers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Australian community aged care sector is facing a growing
      workforce crisis, particularly in rural and regional areas. Its predominantly
      female workforce is ageing, and recruiting younger, skilled workers is proving
      difficult. The service sector, too, is proving highly complex and diverse as a
      result of contemporary aged care service reforms as well as ongoing difficulties
      in providing services to the growing numbers of older people living in
      Australia's rural areas. Despite these multiple challenges, there is a gap in
      research that explores how rural aged care services manage their day-to-day
      requirements for skilled workers across the diverse service sector. To address
      this gap, this article reports on the experiences and perceptions of a small
      sample of service managers whose organisations represent this diversity, and who
      are accountable for care provision in regional and rural locations. In such
      areas, recruitment and skill needs are contoured by disproportionate aged
      populations, distance and reduced service availability. METHODS: Eleven service
      managers were interviewed as part of a larger project that examined the skill and
      training needs of community aged care workers within the Riverina, a rural region
      in New South Wales. Qualitative data drawn from semi-structured interviews were
      thematically analysed to identify the managers' individual needs for workers and
      skills in the context of location, service parameters and availability of other
      health and community services. RESULTS: Thematic analysis of the interview data
      elicited three themes: services, roles and skill deployment; older workers and
      gendered roles; and barriers to recruitment. The findings illustrate the
      complexities that characterise the community aged care sector as a whole and the
      impact of these on individual services located in regional and rural parts of
      Australia. The participants reported diverse needs for worker skills in keeping
      with the particular level of service they provide. Significantly, their varying
      perceptions and practices reflect their preference for older, female workers;
      their reluctance to take on younger workers is negatively skewed by a lack of
      capacity to compete for, recruit and retain such workers and to offer incentives
      in the form of enhanced roles and career development. CONCLUSIONS: The findings
      highlight the conceptual ambiguities inherent in definitions of community aged
      care work as broadly skilled and uniformly sought across the sector. On the one
      hand, demands for more and better trained workers to meet growing client
      complexity locate care work as skilled. On the other, managers of narrowly
      defined service activities may rely on a diminishing workforce whose skills they
      downplay in gendered and lay terms. This contradiction corresponds with long-held
      conclusions about the gendered, exploitative reputation of care work, a
      characterisation discursively constructed by privileging the moral dimensions of
      the job over the technical skills required for it. Significantly, the findings
      raise questions about the capacity of services, as they are currently structured
      and differentiated, to reshape and redefine aged care work as a 'good job', one
      that holds appeal and tangible rewards for new and younger skilled workers.

PMID- 28564548
TI  - Feasibility of developing a pediatric telehealth network in Honduras with
      international consultation support.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America, and
      roughly 50% of the population lives in rural areas. A telehealth network linking
      these areas to larger health centers may improve patient access to care, and
      physician access to educational opportunities. This pilot study assessed the
      feasibility of establishing a pediatric telehealth network between underserved
      clinics in Honduras and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). METHODS:
      Two underserved Honduran clinics were identified and invited to participate in
      the telehealth network. Providers from these clinics connected remotely to
      educational conferences at MUSC, and received teleconsults from MUSC physicians
      and physicians from the other Honduran site. Honduran providers completed five
      point Likert scale satisfaction surveys following participation in the
      conferences and teleconsults. RESULTS: Survey feedback was positive, with 100% of
      respondents stating they would utilize telemedicine in the future.
      Dissatisfaction was expressed subjectively in the survey comments with regards to
      poor Internet connectivity and unreliable electrical power. CONCLUSIONS: The
      establishment of a telehealth network between Honduras and MUSC is feasible, and
      rural providers were receptive to the clinical and educational opportunities this
      network provides. Future projects will expand telehealth capabilities to other
      Honduran sites and focus on intra-country collaboration to ensure sustainability.

PMID- 28564549
TI  - The Role of Science in Addressing the Opioid Crisis.

PMID- 28564550
TI  - Deja Vu: Introducing Operations Research to Health Care.

PMID- 28564552
TI  - Prospects for Health Care Reform in the U.S. Senate.

PMID- 28564551
TI  - A Framework for Treatment Decision Making at Prostate Cancer Recurrence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Of the 50,000 men in the US who elect for radical prostatectomy for
      prostate cancer, 24% to 40% will have a prostate-specific antigen (PSA)
      recurrence (PSA-R) within 10 years. Deciding whether to administer salvage
      therapy (ST) at PSA-R presents challenges, as treatment reduces the risk of
      progression to clinical metastasis but incurs unnecessary side effects should the
      man die before metastasis. We have developed a new harm-benefit framework using a
      clinical cohort to inform shared decision making between patients and physicians
      at PSA-R. METHODS: Records of 1,045 Johns Hopkins University Hospital patients
      diagnosed between 1984 and 2013 who had PSA-R following radical prostatectomy
      were analyzed using marginal structural models to estimate the baseline risk of
      metastasis and the effect of ST (radiation therapy with or without hormone
      therapy) while accounting for selection into ST on the basis of PSA growth. The
      estimated model predicts the harm-benefit tradeoffs of ST within patient
      subgroups. The benefit of ST is the absolute reduction in the risk of metastasis
      within 10 years; the harm is the frequency of cancers that would not have
      metastasized in the patient's lifetime in the absence of ST (overtreatment).
      RESULTS: The adjusted hazard ratio associated with ST was 0.41 (95% CI, 0.31 to
      0.55). Providing ST to all men at PSA-R reduced the risk of metastasis from 43%
      to 23% but led to 31% of men being overtreated (harm/benefit = 31/(43-23) = 1.6).
      Providing ST to men with Gleason score >7 reduced the risk of metastasis from 67%
      to 39%, with 13% of men being overtreated (harm/benefit = 13/(67-39) = 0.5).
      CONCLUSIONS: A quantitative framework that evaluates primary harms and benefits
      of ST after PSA-R will facilitate informed decision making. Immediate ST may be
      more appropriate in patient subgroups at elevated risk of metastasis.

PMID- 28564553
TI  - Structural and Mechanistic Insights into Protein Translocation.
AB  - Many proteins are translocated across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane in
      eukaryotes or the plasma membrane in prokaryotes. These proteins use hydrophobic
      signal sequences or transmembrane (TM) segments to trigger their translocation
      through the protein-conducting Sec61/SecY channel. Substrates are first directed
      to the channel by cytosolic targeting factors, which use hydrophobic pockets to
      bind diverse signal and TM sequences. Subsequently, these hydrophobic sequences
      insert into the channel, docking into a groove on the outside of the lateral gate
      of the channel, where they also interact with lipids. Structural data and
      biochemical experiments have elucidated how channel partners, the ribosome in
      cotranslational translocation, and the eukaryotic ER chaperone BiP or the
      prokaryotic cytosolic SecA ATPase in posttranslational translocation move
      polypeptides unidirectionally across the membrane. Structures of auxiliary
      components of the bacterial translocon, YidC and SecD/F, provide additional
      insight. Taken together, these recent advances result in mechanistic models of
      protein translocation.

PMID- 28564555
TI  - Holocarboxylase Synthetase: A Moonlighting Transcriptional Coregulator of Gene
      Expression and a Cytosolic Regulator of Biotin Utilization.
AB  - The vitamin biotin is an essential nutrient for the metabolism and survival of
      all organisms owing to its function as a cofactor of enzymes collectively known
      as biotin-dependent carboxylases. These enzymes use covalently attached biotin as
      a vector to transfer a carboxyl group between donor and acceptor molecules during
      carboxylation reactions. In human cells, biotin-dependent carboxylases catalyze
      key reactions in gluconeogenesis, fatty acid synthesis, and amino acid
      catabolism. Biotin is attached to apocarboxylases by a biotin ligase:
      holocarboxylase synthetase (HCS) in mammalian cells and BirA in microbes. Despite
      their evolutionary distance, these proteins share structural and sequence
      similarities, underscoring their importance across all life forms. However,
      beyond its role in metabolism, HCS participates in the regulation of biotin
      utilization and acts as a nuclear transcriptional coregulator of gene expression.
      In this review, we discuss the function of HCS and biotin in metabolism and human
      disease, a putative role for the enzyme in histone biotinylation, and its
      participation as a nuclear factor in chromatin dynamics. We suggest that HCS be
      classified as a moonlighting protein, with two biotin-dependent cytosolic
      metabolic roles and a distinct biotin-independent nuclear coregulatory function.

PMID- 28564554
TI  - The Nexus Between Nutrition and Early Childhood Development.
AB  - This article looks at both nutrition and early childhood stimulation
      interventions as part of an integrated life cycle approach to development. We
      build on recent systematic reviews of child development, which are comprehensive
      in regard to what is currently known about outcomes reported in key studies. We
      then focus particularly on implementation, scaling, and economic returns, drawing
      mainly on experience in low- and middle-income countries where undernutrition and
      poor child development remain significant public health challenges with
      implications across the life course.

PMID- 28564556
TI  - Brain on Fire: Incentive Salience, Hedonic Hot Spots, Dopamine, Obesity, and
      Other Hunger Games.
AB  - This review examines human feeding behavior in light of psychological
      motivational theory and highlights the importance of midbrain dopamine (DA).
      Prospective evidence of both reward surfeit and reward deficit pathways to
      increased body weight are evaluated, and we argue that it is more complex than an
      either/or scenario when examining DA's role in reward sensitivity, eating, and
      obesity. The Taq1A genotype is a common thread that ties the contrasting models
      of DA reward and obesity; this genotype related to striatal DA is not associated
      with obesity class per se but may nevertheless confer an increased risk of weight
      gain. We also critically examine the concept of so-called food addiction, and
      despite growing evidence, we argue that there is currently insufficient human
      data to warrant this diagnostic label. The surgical and pharmacological
      treatments of obesity are discussed, and evidence is presented for the selective
      use of DA-class drugs in obesity treatment.

PMID- 28564558
TI  - Spiraling Out of Control.

PMID- 28564557
TI  - Trial of Minocycline in a Clinically Isolated Syndrome of Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: On the basis of encouraging preliminary results, we conducted a
      randomized, controlled trial to determine whether minocycline reduces the risk of
      conversion from a first demyelinating event (also known as a clinically isolated
      syndrome) to multiple sclerosis. METHODS: During the period from January 2009
      through July 2013, we randomly assigned participants who had had their first
      demyelinating symptoms within the previous 180 days to receive either 100 mg of
      minocycline, administered orally twice daily, or placebo. Administration of
      minocycline or placebo was continued until a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was
      established or until 24 months after randomization, whichever came first. The
      primary outcome was conversion to multiple sclerosis (diagnosed on the basis of
      the 2005 McDonald criteria) within 6 months after randomization. Secondary
      outcomes included conversion to multiple sclerosis within 24 months after
      randomization and changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 6 months and 24
      months (change in lesion volume on T2-weighted MRI, cumulative number of new
      lesions enhanced on T1-weighted MRI ["enhancing lesions"], and cumulative
      combined number of unique lesions [new enhancing lesions on T1-weighted MRI plus
      new and newly enlarged lesions on T2-weighted MRI]). RESULTS: A total of 142
      eligible participants underwent randomization at 12 Canadian multiple sclerosis
      clinics; 72 participants were assigned to the minocycline group and 70 to the
      placebo group. The mean age of the participants was 35.8 years, and 68.3% were
      women. The unadjusted risk of conversion to multiple sclerosis within 6 months
      after randomization was 61.0% in the placebo group and 33.4% in the minocycline
      group, a difference of 27.6 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.4
      to 43.9; P=0.001). After adjustment for the number of enhancing lesions at
      baseline, the difference in the risk of conversion to multiple sclerosis within 6
      months after randomization was 18.5 percentage points (95% CI, 3.7 to 33.3;
      P=0.01); the unadjusted risk difference was not significant at the 24-month
      secondary outcome time point (P=0.06). All secondary MRI outcomes favored
      minocycline over placebo at 6 months but not at 24 months. Trial withdrawals and
      adverse events of rash, dizziness, and dental discoloration were more frequent
      among participants who received minocycline than among those who received
      placebo. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of conversion from a clinically isolated syndrome
      to multiple sclerosis was significantly lower with minocycline than with placebo
      over 6 months but not over 24 months. (Funded by the Multiple Sclerosis Society
      of Canada; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00666887 .).

PMID- 28564559
TI  - Minocycline in Multiple Sclerosis - Compelling Results but Too Early to Tell.

PMID- 28564561
TI  - A 1980 Letter on the Risk of Opioid Addiction.

PMID- 28564562
TI  - Health Policy Trials.

PMID- 28564563
TI  - The Other Victims of the Opioid Epidemic.

PMID- 28564564
TI  - Adjuvant Capecitabine for Breast Cancer after Preoperative Chemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients who have residual invasive carcinoma after the receipt of
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)
      negative breast cancer have poor prognoses. The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy
      in these patients remains unclear. METHODS: We randomly assigned 910 patients
      with HER2-negative residual invasive breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      (containing anthracycline, taxane, or both) to receive standard postsurgical
      treatment either with capecitabine or without (control). The primary end point
      was disease-free survival. Secondary end points included overall survival.
      RESULTS: The result of the prespecified interim analysis met the primary end
      point, so this trial was terminated early. The final analysis showed that disease
      free survival was longer in the capecitabine group than in the control group
      (74.1% vs. 67.6% of the patients were alive and free from recurrence or second
      cancer at 5 years; hazard ratio for recurrence, second cancer, or death, 0.70;
      95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.92; P=0.01). Overall survival was longer
      in the capecitabine group than in the control group (89.2% vs. 83.6% of the
      patients were alive at 5 years; hazard ratio for death, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.39 to
      0.90; P=0.01). Among patients with triple-negative disease, the rate of disease
      free survival was 69.8% in the capecitabine group versus 56.1% in the control
      group (hazard ratio for recurrence, second cancer, or death, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.39
      to 0.87), and the overall survival rate was 78.8% versus 70.3% (hazard ratio for
      death, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.90). The hand-foot syndrome, the most common
      adverse reaction to capecitabine, occurred in 73.4% of the patients in the
      capecitabine group. CONCLUSIONS: After standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      containing anthracycline, taxane, or both, the addition of adjuvant capecitabine
      therapy was safe and effective in prolonging disease-free survival and overall
      survival among patients with HER2-negative breast cancer who had residual
      invasive disease on pathological testing. (Funded by the Advanced Clinical
      Research Organization and the Japan Breast Cancer Research Group; CREATE-X UMIN
      Clinical Trials Registry number, UMIN000000843 .).

PMID- 28564565
TI  - Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.

PMID- 28564566
TI  - Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis Infections in Women.

PMID- 28564567
TI  - Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis Infections in Women.

PMID- 28564568
TI  - Abuse-Deterrent Opioid Formulations - Putting the Potential Benefits into
      Perspective.

PMID- 28564570
TI  - Delegalizing Advance Directives - Facilitating Advance Care Planning.

PMID- 28564571
TI  - Radiation plus Temozolomide in Patients with Glioblastoma.

PMID- 28564572
TI  - Radiation plus Temozolomide in Patients with Glioblastoma.

PMID- 28564569
TI  - Sofosbuvir, Velpatasvir, and Voxilaprevir for Previously Treated HCV Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients who are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      and who do not have a sustained virologic response after treatment with regimens
      containing direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have limited retreatment
      options. METHODS: We conducted two phase 3 trials involving patients who had been
      previously treated with a DAA-containing regimen. In POLARIS-1, patients with HCV
      genotype 1 infection who had previously received a regimen containing an NS5A
      inhibitor were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either the nucleotide
      polymerase inhibitor sofosbuvir, the NS5A inhibitor velpatasvir, and the protease
      inhibitor voxilaprevir (150 patients) or matching placebo (150 patients) once
      daily for 12 weeks. Patients who were infected with HCV of other genotypes (114
      patients) were enrolled in the sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir group. In
      POLARIS-4, patients with HCV genotype 1, 2, or 3 infection who had previously
      received a DAA regimen but not an NS5A inhibitor were randomly assigned in a 1:1
      ratio to receive sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir (163 patients) or sofosbuvir
      velpatasvir (151 patients) for 12 weeks. An additional 19 patients with HCV
      genotype 4 infection were enrolled in the sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir
      group. RESULTS: In the three active-treatment groups, 46% of the patients had
      compensated cirrhosis. In POLARIS-1, the rate of sustained virologic response was
      96% with sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir, as compared with 0% with placebo.
      In POLARIS-4, the rate of response was 98% with sofosbuvir-velpatasvir
      voxilaprevir and 90% with sofosbuvir-velpatasvir. The most common adverse events
      were headache, fatigue, diarrhea, and nausea. In the active-treatment groups in
      both trials, the percentage of patients who discontinued treatment owing to
      adverse events was 1% or lower. CONCLUSIONS: Sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir
      taken for 12 weeks provided high rates of sustained virologic response among
      patients across HCV genotypes in whom treatment with a DAA regimen had previously
      failed. (Funded by Gilead Sciences; POLARIS-1 and POLARIS-4 ClinicalTrials.gov
      numbers, NCT02607735 and NCT02639247 .).

PMID- 28564573
TI  - Dysphagia after Occipitocervical Fusion.

PMID- 28564574
TI  - Evolution of Purpura Fulminans.

PMID- 28564575
TI  - Seeing the Forest through the Phylogenetic Tree.

PMID- 28564576
TI  - The endocannabinoid system as a target for addiction treatment: Trials and
      tribulations.
AB  - Addiction remains a major public health concern, and while pharmacotherapies can
      be effective, clinicians are limited by the paucity of existing interventions.
      Endocannabinoid signaling is involved in reward and addiction, which raises the
      possibility that drugs targeting this system could be used to treat substance use
      disorders. This review discusses findings from randomized controlled trials
      evaluating cannabinergic medications for addiction. Current evidence suggests
      that pharmacotherapies containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, such as
      dronabinol and nabiximols, are effective for cannabis withdrawal. Dronabinol may
      also reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1)
      inverse agonist rimonabant showed promising effects for smoking cessation but
      also caused psychiatric side effects and currently lacks regulatory approval. Few
      trials have investigated cannabinergic medications for alcohol use disorder.
      Overall, the endocannabinoid system remains a promising target for addiction
      treatment. Development of novel medications such as fatty acid amide hydrolase
      inhibitors and neutral CB1 antagonists promises to extend the range of available
      interventions. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled "A New Dawn in
      Cannabinoid Neurobiology".

PMID- 28564577
TI  - Gene therapy and editing: Novel potential treatments for neuronal
      channelopathies.
AB  - Pharmaceutical treatment can be inadequate, non-effective, or intolerable for
      many people suffering from a neuronal channelopathy. Development of novel
      treatment options, particularly those with the potential to be curative is
      warranted. Gene therapy approaches can permit cell-specific modification of
      neuronal and circuit excitability and have been investigated experimentally as a
      therapy for numerous neurological disorders, with clinical trials for several
      neurodegenerative diseases ongoing. Channelopathies can arise from a wide array
      of gene mutations; however they usually result in periods of aberrant network
      excitability. Therefore gene therapy strategies based on up or downregulation of
      genes that modulate neuronal excitability may be effective therapy for a wide
      range of neuronal channelopathies. As many channelopathies are paroxysmal in
      nature, optogenetic or chemogenetic approaches may be well suited to treat the
      symptoms of these diseases. Recent advances in gene-editing technologies such as
      the CRISPR-Cas9 system could in the future result in entirely novel treatment for
      a channelopathy by repairing disease-causing channel mutations at the germline
      level. As the brain may develop and wire abnormally as a consequence of an
      inherited or de novo channelopathy, the choice of optimal gene therapy or gene
      editing strategy will depend on the time of intervention (germline, neonatal or
      adult). This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'Channelopathies.'

PMID- 28564578
TI  - Metabolic profiling of the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of Ginkgolic acids
      in rats using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-high-definition mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - Ginkgolic acids (GAs) are thought to be the potentially hazardous constituents
      corresponding to the toxic side effects of Ginkgo products. In this study,
      toxicological and metabolomics studies of GAs were carried out by ultra
      performance liquid chromatography-high-definition mass spectrometry (UPLC-HDMS).
      Significant changes in serum clinical chemistry were observed in the both low
      (100 mg/kg) and high (900 mg/kg) doses. Especially the serum enzyme of ALT, AST,
      LDH, and CK decreased in treated groups. The histopathological observation
      demonstrated hepatic steatosis in liver and tubular vacuolar degeneration in
      kidney. These results demonstrated the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of GAs.
      Functional disorders are more likely to be toxic induced by GAs. Metabolic
      profiling within seven days revealed the change of the body status after oral
      administration. The results indicated the body function was significantly
      influenced at the 3rd day and could recover in seven days. Metabolomic analysis
      showed alterations in 14 metabolites from plasma such as LysoPC(18:0),
      LysoPC(18:2) and other lipids. The results suggested that exposure to GAs could
      cause disturbances in liver and kidney function associated with the metabolisms
      of lipids, glucose and the enzyme activity.

PMID- 28564579
TI  - Lipid membranes catalyse the fibril formation of the amyloid-beta (1-42) peptide
      through lipid-fibril interactions that reinforce secondary pathways.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease is associated with the aggregation of amyloid-beta (Abeta)
      peptides into oligomers and fibrils. We have explored how model lipid membranes
      modulate the rate and mechanisms of Abeta(1-42) self-assembly, in order to shed
      light on how this pathological reaction may occur in the lipid-rich environments
      that the peptide encounters in the brain. Using a combination of in vitro
      biophysical experiments and theoretical approaches, we show that zwitterionic
      DOPC lipid vesicles accelerate the Abeta(1-42) fibril growth rate by interacting
      specifically with the growing fibrils. We probe this interaction with help of a
      purpose-developed Forster resonance energy transfer assay that monitors the
      proximity between a fibril-specific dye and fluorescent lipids in the lipid
      vesicle membrane. To further rationalise these findings we use mathematical
      models to fit the aggregation kinetics of Abeta(1-42) and find that lipid
      vesicles alter specific mechanistic steps in the aggregation reaction; they
      augment monomer-dependent secondary nucleation at the surface of existing fibrils
      and facilitate monomer-independent catalytic processes consistent with fibril
      fragmentation. We further show that DOPC vesicles have no effect on primary
      nucleation. This finding is consistent with experiments showing that Abeta(1-42)
      monomers do not directly bind to the lipid bilayer. Taken together, our results
      show that plain lipid membranes with charge and composition that is
      representative of outer cell membranes can significantly augment autocatalytic
      steps in the self-assembly of Abeta(1-42) into fibrils. This new insight suggests
      that strategies to reduce fibril-lipid interactions in the brain may have
      therapeutic value.

PMID- 28564580
TI  - The death pathways in mussel larval cells after a freeze-thaw cycle.
AB  - We analyzed cell viability, caspase activity, plasma membrane alterations and
      cell ultrastructure morphology to estimate the morphological and biochemical
      alterations that occur in bivalve molluscan cell cultures during
      cryopreservation. The use of 5% dymethyl sulfoxide as a cryoprotectant resulted
      in greater cell survival and a scarcity of destroyed cells lacking cytosol among
      dead cells. In this case, almost all cells died through necrosis or apoptosis,
      which appeared to increase in mussel cell cultures after a freeze-thaw cycle.
      Apoptosis was not a main death pathway in mussel cells, but it was induced in a
      significant part of these cells (up to 24%) immediately after thawing and
      depended mostly on the cryoprotectant used. Regardless of the type of the used
      cryoprotectant, we observed some nuclear aberrations in cells after freezing
      thawing, such as few multipolar mitoses or the absence of a division spindle in
      mitotic cells. After analyzing different methods for assessing cell damage, the
      best results were obtained from optimal approaches that could provide information
      regarding the cell disruption level after freezing-thawing and could be
      considered for future studies.

PMID- 28564581
TI  - Identification, characterization, and function analysis of the NF-kappaB
      repressing factor (NKRF) gene from Litopenaeus vannamei.
AB  - The NF-kappaB family transcription factors regulate a wide spectrum of biological
      processes, in particular immune responses. The studies in human suggest that the
      NF-kappaB repressing factor (NKRF) negatively regulates the activity of NF-kappaB
      through a direct protein-protein interaction. However, the function of NKRF has
      not been studied outside mammals up to now. The current study identified a NKRF
      gene (LvNKRF) from the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, which showed
      homology with NKRFs from insects, fishes and mammals. LvNKRF was high expressed
      in intestine, stomach and muscle tissues and was localized in the nucleus. LvNKRF
      could interact with both Dorsal and Relish, the two members of the shrimp NF
      kappaB family. Interestingly, although sharing a similar protein structure with
      that of human NKRF, LvNKRF showed no inhibitory but instead enhancing effects on
      activities of Dorsal and Relish, which was contrary to those of mammalian NKRFs.
      The expression of LvNKRF could not be induced by Gram-positive and -negative
      bacteria and immunostimulants lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and poly (I:C) but was
      significantly up-regulated after white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection.
      Silencing of LvNKRF significantly decreased the mortalities of shrimp caused by
      WSSV infection and down-regulated the WSSV copies and the expression of WSSV
      structural gene in tissues. These suggested that LvNKRF could facilitate the
      infection of shrimp by WSSV, which may be an additional strategy for WSSV to
      hijack the host NF-kappaB pathway to favor its own replication. The current study
      could provide a valuable context for further investigating the evolutionary
      derivation of NKRFs and facilitate the study of regulatory mechanisms of
      invertebrate NF-kappaB pathways.

PMID- 28564582
TI  - MicroRNA-145 protects follicular granulosa cells against oxidative stress-induced
      apoptosis by targeting Kruppel-like factor 4.
AB  - Oxidative stress-induced follicular granulosa cell (GC) apoptosis plays an
      essential role in abnormal follicular atresia, which may trigger ovarian
      dysfunction. To investigate the role of microRNA (miR)-145 in the regulation of
      GC apoptosis and modulation of the apoptotic pathway in the setting of oxidative
      stress, we employed an H2O2-induced in vitro model and a 3-nitropropionic acid
      (NP)-induced in vivo model of ovarian oxidative stress. We demonstrated in vitro
      that miR-145 expression was significantly down-regulated in KGN cells and mouse
      granulosa cells (mGCs) treated with H2O2, whereas miR-145 over-expression
      attenuated H2O2-induced apoptosis in GCs. Moreover, miR-145 protected GCs against
      H2O2-induced apoptosis by targeting KLF4, which promoted H2O2-induced GC
      apoptosis via the BAX/BCL-2 pathway. Importantly, decreased miR-145 expression in
      the in vivo ovarian oxidative stress model promoted apoptosis by up-regulating
      KLF4 expression, whereas GC-specific miR-145 over-expression attenuated apoptosis
      by targeting KLF4. In conclusion, miR-145 protects GCs against oxidative stress
      induced apoptosis by targeting KLF4.

PMID- 28564583
TI  - Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) in cancer: FGF traps as a new therapeutic
      approach.
AB  - Originally characterized as angiogenic factors, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs)
      are pleiotropic factors that exert autocrine and paracrine functions on tumor and
      stromal cells. Thus, they may represent key players in the complex crosstalk
      among angiogenesis, inflammation, tumor growth, and drug resistance, all
      contributing to tumor progression. Given the multiple activities of FGFs,
      inhibitors of the FGF/FGFR system may act as "two compartment" targeting drugs
      able to exert a deep impact on the growth of FGF/FGFR-driven tumors. To date, the
      discovery of drugs targeting the FGF/FGFR system has focused mainly on the
      development of selective and non-selective tyrosine kinase FGFR inhibitors.
      Recently, a different approach has been emerging, aimed at the development of
      extracellular "FGF ligand traps" able to bind and sequester FGFs, thus preventing
      their interaction with cognate signaling receptors. This approach is based on the
      identification of natural FGF ligands followed by the development of small
      molecule mimetics endowed with a significant FGF binding/neutralizing capacity.
      Aim of this review is to provide an overview of the role of the FGF/FGFR system
      in cancer and a comprehensive analysis of the process, based on the study of the
      FGF interactome, which has led to the identification and characterization of FGF
      ligand traps. This approach has allowed the development of promising FGF
      targeting molecules with potential implications for the therapy of FGF-driven
      tumors.

PMID- 28564584
TI  - Hydroalcoholic extract from Nerium oleander L. (Apocynaceae) elicits
      arrhythmogenic activity.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Nerium oleander L. (OLE) has been used
      medicinally and is reported to possess a wide range of pharmacological
      activities. OLE effects are caused by different cardiac glycosides (CG),
      primarily oleandrin, found within the plant. CG can potentially impair sodium
      potassium ATPase (NKA) pump activity and cause positive inotropic effects on the
      heart. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential
      arrhythmogenic effects of hydroalcoholic extracts from N. oleander (OLE).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: OLE hydroalcoholic extracts were obtained from N. oleander
      leaves and analyzed by HPLC. In vivo experiments with guinea pigs consisted if
      oral administration of water, 150mg/kg and 300mg/kg OLE extract. Clinical signs
      and ECG analysis were evaluated. Sample tissues from the heart were processed for
      histopathological and ultra-structural analysis. Autonomic effects were assessed
      through pharmacological blockade and ECG monitoring. In vitro experiments were
      conducted with isolated ventricular myocytes from adult mice. The effects of OLE
      extract on cardiac excitability, Na+/K+ pump current and global Ca2+ transients
      were evaluated. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated that OLE hydroalcoholic extract
      elicited severe cardiac arrhythmias that can lead to death with minimal tissue
      damage. In vitro experiments suggest that OLE causes electromechanical
      disturbances in the heart due to inhibition of Na+/K+ pump, mitochondrial
      swelling, and modulation of the sarco(endo)plasmic Ca2+ ATPase without
      interfering with the autonomic nervous system. Thus, arrhythmias and electrical
      conduction disturbances promoted by OLE are mainly associated with impaired
      cardiomyocyte dysfunction, rather than anatomical tissue remodeling and/or
      autonomic modulation. CONCLUSION: Our data revealed the potential cardiotoxicity
      and positive inotropic effect of OLE and its important role in modulation of
      electrophysiology in cardiomyocytes.

PMID- 28564585
TI  - Hunger, taste, and normative cues in predictions about food intake.
AB  - Normative eating cues (portion size, social factors) have a powerful impact on
      people's food intake, but people often fail to acknowledge the influence of these
      cues, instead explaining their food intake in terms of internal (hunger) or
      sensory (taste) cues. This study examined whether the same biases apply when
      making predictions about how much food a person would eat. Participants (n = 364)
      read a series of vignettes describing an eating scenario and predicted how much
      food the target person would eat in each situation. Some scenarios consisted of a
      single eating cue (hunger, taste, or a normative cue) that would be expected to
      increase intake (e.g., high hunger) or decrease intake (e.g., a companion who
      eats very little). Other scenarios combined two cues that were in conflict with
      one another (e.g., high hunger + a companion who eats very little). In the cue
      conflict scenarios involving an inhibitory internal/sensory cue (e.g., low
      hunger) with an augmenting normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats a lot),
      participants predicted a low level of food intake, suggesting a bias toward the
      internal/sensory cue. For scenarios involving an augmenting internal/sensory cue
      (e.g., high hunger) and an inhibitory normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats
      very little), participants predicted an intermediate level of food intake,
      suggesting that they were influenced by both the internal/sensory and normative
      cue. Overall, predictions about food intake tend to reflect a general bias toward
      internal/sensory cues, but also include normative cues when those cues are
      inhibitory. If people are systematically biased toward internal, sensory, and
      inhibitory cues, then they may underestimate how much food they or other people
      will eat in many situations, particularly when normative cues promoting eating
      are present.

PMID- 28564586
TI  - A 57-year-old chronic cougher with somatically evoked cough.

PMID- 28564587
TI  - Effects of low-frequency electrical stimulation of the anterior piriform cortex
      on kainate-induced seizures in rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent evidence in animals and humans suggests that low-frequency
      stimulation (LFS) has significant antiepileptic properties. The anterior piriform
      cortex (APC) is a highly susceptible seizure-trigger zone and may be critical for
      the initiation and propagation of seizures originating from cortical and limbic
      foci. We used the kainic acid (KA) seizure model in rats to assess the
      therapeutic effect of LFS of the APC on seizures. METHODS: Adult male Sprague
      Dawley rats were implanted with electrodes in the left APC and recording
      electrodes bilaterally in the hippocampal CA3 regions. Rats were monitored
      continuously with video-EEG after the emergence of spontaneous recurrent seizures
      that followed induction of status epilepticus by intraperitoneal KA. After two
      weeks of baseline recordings to determine seizure frequency, LFS of the APC was
      applied 60-min On 15-min Off, for two weeks with 1Hz biphasic square waves, 0.2ms
      pulse width, at 200MUA. Another 2-week period of video-EEG monitoring was done
      after the cessation of LFS to study the carry-over effect. Changes in seizure
      frequency, severity, and duration between baseline, during LFS, and post-LFS were
      analyzed using the Poisson regression model. RESULTS: Overall seizure frequency
      decreased during the post-LFS period to 5% of that at baseline (p=0.003). Severe
      seizures (stages 4 and 5 on the Racine scale) decreased to 0% of the baseline
      during the post-LFS period. CONCLUSIONS: Two weeks of LFS of the APC reduced
      spontaneous seizure frequency and severity in the KA model with the effect
      outlasting the stimulation. Our findings suggest that the APC can be an important
      therapeutic target for stimulation in epilepsy.

PMID- 28564588
TI  - Social, proximal and conditioned threat.
AB  - Responding to threats in the environment is crucial for survival. Certain types
      of threat produce defensive responses without necessitating previous experience
      and are considered innate, whereas other threats are learned by experiencing
      aversive consequences. Two important innate threats are whether an encountered
      stimulus is a member of the same species (social threat) and whether a stimulus
      suddenly appears proximal to the body (proximal threat). These threats are
      manifested early in human development and robustly elicit defensive responses.
      Learned threat, on the other hand, enables adaptation to threats in the
      environment throughout the life span. A well-studied form of learned threat is
      fear conditioning, during which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to
      eliciting defensive responses through pairings with an aversive stimulus. If
      innate threats can facilitate fear conditioning, and whether different types of
      innate threats can enhance each other, is largely unknown. We developed an
      immersive virtual reality paradigm to test how innate social and proximal threats
      are related to each other and how they influence conditioned fear. Skin
      conductance responses were used to index the autonomic component of the defensive
      response. We found that social threat modulates proximal threat, but that neither
      proximal nor social threat modulates conditioned fear. Our results suggest that
      distinct processes regulate autonomic activity in response to proximal and social
      threat on the one hand, and conditioned fear on the other.

PMID- 28564589
TI  - Functional monitoring of peripheral nerves from electrical impedance
      measurements.
AB  - Medical electrical stimulators adapted to peripheral nerves use multicontact cuff
      electrodes (MCC) to provide selective neural interfaces. However, neuroprostheses
      are currently limited by their inability to locate the regions of interest to
      focus. Intended until now either for stimulation or recording, MCC can also be
      used as a means of transduction to characterize the nerve by impedancemetry. In
      this study, we investigate the feasibility of using electrical impedance (EI)
      measurements as an in vivo functional nerve monitoring technique. The monitoring
      paradigm includes the synchronized recording of both the evoked endogenous
      activity as compound action potentials (CAP) and the superimposed sine signal
      from the EI probe. Measurements were conducted on the sciatic nerve of rodents,
      chosen for its branchings towards the peroneal and tibial nerves, with both mono-
      and multi-contact per section electrodes. During stimulation phases, recordings
      showed CAP with consistent fiber conduction velocities. During coupled phases of
      both stimulation and sine perturbation, impedance variations were extracted using
      the mono-contact electrode type for certain frequencies, e.g. 2.941kHz, and were
      temporally coherent with the previous recorded CAP. Using a MCC, localized evoked
      CAP were also recorded but the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was too low to
      distinguish the expected associated impedance variation and deduce an image of
      impedance spatial changes within the nerve. The conducted in vivo measurements
      allowed to distinguish both evoked CAP and associated impedance variations with a
      strong temporal correlation. This indicates the feasibility of functional EI
      monitoring, aiming at detecting the impedance variations in relation to neural
      activity. Further work is needed to improve the in vivo system, namely in terms
      of SNR, and to integrate new multicontact devices in order to move towards EI
      tomography with the detection of spatially-localized impedance variations.
      Eventually, regions that are interesting to be targeted by stimulation could be
      identified through these means.

PMID- 28564590
TI  - Long intergenic non-coding RNA 668 regulates VEGFA signaling through inhibition
      of miR-297 in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to have crucial
      regulatory efficiency in human cancer biology. Long intergenic non-coding RNA 668
      (LINC00668) was regarded as an oncogene in multiple cancers. However, the
      underlying molecular mechanism of LINC00668 in oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (OSCC) has not been studied. In this study, we first demonstrated that LINC00668
      expression was up-regulated, which was correlated with tumor progression, and miR
      297 down-regulated in OSCC tissues and cells. Importantly, LINC00668 expression
      was negatively correlated with miR-297 expression in OSCC tissues. Loss-of
      function of LINC00668 revealed that LINC00668 functioned as a ceRNA for miR-297
      to facilitate VEGFA expression, promoting OSCC progression. Furthermore,
      LINC00668 knockdown suppressed tumor growth and reduced the expression of
      proliferation antigen ki-67 in vivo. Finally, we confirmed that LINC00668
      promoted OSCC activity through VEGFA signaling. In conclusion, these results
      suggest that LINC00668 promotes OSCC tumorigenesis via miR-297/VEGFA axis, which
      may provide a new target for the diagnosis and therapy of OSCC disease.

PMID- 28564591
TI  - Whole-transcriptome screening reveals the regulatory targets and functions of
      long non-coding RNA H19 in epileptic rats.
AB  - Understanding the molecular mechanisms mediating epileptogenesis may lead to the
      development of preventative therapies against epilepsy. Our previous study
      demonstrated that the long non-coding RNA H19 contributes to epileptogenesis by
      aggravating status epilepticus-induced neuronal loss, glial cell activation,
      mossy fiber sprouting, and cognitive impairments in epileptic rats. However, the
      systematic functions and downstream targets of H19 associated with
      epileptogenesis are still unknown. In the present study, high-throughput
      microarray analysis was used to explore the influence of H19 on gene expression
      in an epileptic rat model. A large number of genes were differentially expressed
      at the transcriptional level when H19 was overexpressed or knocked down. Series
      test of cluster analysis further distinguished genes associated with H19.
      Function and pathway analyses demonstrated that H19 has diverse functions related
      to epileptogenesis, including demyelination, immune and inflammatory responses,
      cell apoptosis, and activation of MAPK. This study implicates H19 in a broad
      spectrum of epileptogenic processes, thereby providing a range of targets for
      further mechanistic investigations.

PMID- 28564592
TI  - Alteration of mitochondrial protein PDHA1 in Lewy body disease and PARK14.
AB  - The histopathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy
      bodies (DLB) is the occurrence of insoluble fibrillary aggregates known as Lewy
      bodies. Mitochondria play a vital role in energy production, and the pathogenesis
      of PD is associated with altered cellular metabolism due to mitochondrial
      dysfunction. The pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex provides a primary step in
      aerobic glucose metabolism by catalyzing the oxidative decarboxylation of
      pyruvate to acetyl CoA. Pyruvate dehydrogenase alpha 1 (PDHA1) forms the core
      structure of the PDH complex. Dysfunction of the PDH complex leads to energy
      production failure, resulting in various neurological disorders. However, no
      study has investigated the involvement of PDHA1 in the pathogenesis of PD. In the
      present study, we performed immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting to clarify
      the involvement of PDHA1 in idiopathic PD, DLB, PARK14-linked parkinsonism
      (PARK14; a familial form of PD), and multiple system atrophy, in comparison with
      normal controls. Here we report PDHA1 as a new component of brainstem-type Lewy
      bodies in idiopathic PD, DLB and PARK14, the level of PDHA1 protein being
      significantly decreased in the putamen and substantia nigra of patients with
      idiopathic PD. Our findings suggest that alteration of glucose metabolism through
      dysfunction of the PDH complex might occur in the pathogenesis of Lewy body
      disease and PARK14.

PMID- 28564593
TI  - The occurrence of l-lactate dehydrogenase in the inner mitochondrial compartment
      of pig liver.
AB  - Although pig represents a model species in biomedical research including studies
      dealing with liver patho-physiology, some aspects of liver metabolism need to be
      addressed. In particular, whether and how pig mitochondria can metabolize l
      lactate remains to be established. We show here that pig liver mitochondria (PLM)
      possess their own l-lactate dehydrogenase (mL-LDH). This was shown both via
      immunological analysis and by assaying photometrically the L-LDH reaction in
      solubilised PLM. The mL-LDH reaction shows hyperbolic dependence on the substrate
      concentration, it is inhibited by oxamate and proves to differ from the cytosolic
      activity (cL-LDH), as revealed by the difference found in both pH profiles and
      temperature dependence of m- and cL-LDH. Titration experiments with digitonin
      show that mL-LDH is restricted in mitochondrial inner compartment. In agreement
      with the above findings, three genes in Sus scrofa genome encoded for L-LDH
      subunits which are predicted to have mitochondrial localization, as investigated
      by Target P 1.1 and PredSL analysis.

PMID- 28564594
TI  - Progressive Motor Neuron Pathology and the Role of Astrocytes in a Human Stem
      Cell Model of VCP-Related ALS.
AB  - Motor neurons (MNs) and astrocytes (ACs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but their interaction and the sequence of
      molecular events leading to MN death remain unresolved. Here, we optimized
      directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into highly
      enriched (> 85%) functional populations of spinal cord MNs and ACs. We identify
      significantly increased cytoplasmic TDP-43 and ER stress as primary pathogenic
      events in patient-specific valosin-containing protein (VCP)-mutant MNs, with
      secondary mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Cumulatively, these
      cellular stresses result in synaptic pathology and cell death in VCP-mutant MNs.
      We additionally identify a cell-autonomous VCP-mutant AC survival phenotype,
      which is not attributable to the same molecular pathology occurring in VCP-mutant
      MNs. Finally, through iterative co-culture experiments, we uncover non-cell
      autonomous effects of VCP-mutant ACs on both control and mutant MNs. This work
      elucidates molecular events and cellular interplay that could guide future
      therapeutic strategies in ALS.

PMID- 28564596
TI  - The Histone Variant MacroH2A1 Is a BRCA1 Ubiquitin Ligase Substrate.
AB  - The breast- and ovarian-cancer-specific tumor suppressor BRCA1 and its
      heterodimeric partner BARD1 contain RING domains that implicate them as E3
      ubiquitin ligases. Despite extensive efforts, the bona fide substrates of
      BRCA1/BARD1 remain elusive. Here, we used recombinant GST fused to four UBA
      domains to enrich ubiquitinated proteins followed by a Lys-epsilon-Gly-Gly
      (diGly) antibody to enrich ubiquitinated tryptic peptides. This tandem affinity
      purification method coupled with mass spectrometry identified 101 putative
      BRCA1/BARD1 E3 substrates. We identified the histone variant macroH2A1 from the
      screen and showed that BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitinates macroH2A1 at lysine 123 in vitro
      and in vivo. Primary human fibroblasts stably expressing a ubiquitination
      deficient macroH2A1 mutant were defective in cellular senescence compared to
      their wild-type counterpart. Our study demonstrates that BRCA1/BARD1 is a
      macroH2A1 E3 ligase and implicates a role for macroH2A1 K123 ubiquitination in
      cellular senescence.

PMID- 28564595
TI  - Structural Basis for Regulation of ESCRT-III Complexes by Lgd.
AB  - The ESCRT-III complex induces outward membrane budding and fission through
      homotypic polymerization of its core component Shrub/CHMP4B. Shrub activity is
      regulated by its direct interaction with a protein called Lgd in flies, or CC2D1A
      or B in humans. Here, we report the structural basis for this interaction and
      propose a mechanism for regulation of polymer assembly. The isolated third DM14
      repeat of Lgd binds Shrub, and an Lgd fragment containing only this DM14 repeat
      and its C-terminal C2 domain is sufficient for in vivo function. The DM14 domain
      forms a helical hairpin with a conserved, positively charged tip, that, in the
      structure of a DM14 domain-Shrub complex, occupies a negatively charged surface
      of Shrub that is otherwise used for homopolymerization. Lgd mutations at this
      interface disrupt its function in flies, confirming functional importance.
      Together, these data argue that Lgd regulates ESCRT activity by controlling
      access to the Shrub self-assembly surface.

PMID- 28564597
TI  - Synaptic Remodeling Depends on Signaling between Serotonin Receptors and the
      Extracellular Matrix.
AB  - Rewiring of synaptic circuitry pertinent to memory formation has been associated
      with morphological changes in dendritic spines and with extracellular matrix
      (ECM) remodeling. Here, we mechanistically link these processes by uncovering a
      signaling pathway involving the serotonin 5-HT7 receptor (5-HT7R), matrix
      metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), the hyaluronan receptor CD44, and the small GTPase
      Cdc42. We highlight a physical interaction between 5-HT7R and CD44 (identified as
      an MMP-9 substrate in neurons) and find that 5-HT7R stimulation increases local
      MMP-9 activity, triggering dendritic spine remodeling, synaptic pruning, and
      impairment of long-term potentiation (LTP). The underlying molecular machinery
      involves 5-HT7R-mediated activation of MMP-9, which leads to CD44 cleavage
      followed by Cdc42 activation. One important physiological consequence of this
      interaction includes an increase in neuronal outgrowth and elongation of
      dendritic spines, which might have a positive effect on complex neuronal
      processes (e.g., reversal learning and neuronal regeneration).

PMID- 28564598
TI  - A Glio-Protective Role of mir-263a by Tuning Sensitivity to Glutamate.
AB  - Glutamate is a ubiquitous neurotransmitter, mediating information flow between
      neurons. Defects in the regulation of glutamatergic transmission can result in
      glutamate toxicity, which is associated with neurodegeneration. Interestingly,
      glutamate receptors are expressed in glia, but little is known about their
      function, and the effects of their misregulation, in these non-neuronal cells.
      Here, we report a glio-protective role for Drosophila mir-263a mediated by its
      regulation of glutamate receptor levels in glia. mir-263a mutants exhibit a
      pronounced movement defect due to aberrant overexpression of CG5621/Grik, Nmdar1,
      and Nmdar2. mir-263a mutants exhibit excitotoxic death of a subset of astrocyte
      like and ensheathing glia in the CNS. Glial-specific normalization of glutamate
      receptor levels restores cell numbers and suppresses the movement defect.
      Therefore, microRNA-mediated regulation of glutamate receptor levels protects
      glia from excitotoxicity, ensuring CNS health. Chronic low-level glutamate
      receptor overexpression due to mutations affecting microRNA (miRNA) regulation
      might contribute to glial dysfunction and CNS impairment.

PMID- 28564600
TI  - Oxysterol-Binding Protein-Related Protein 1L Regulates Cholesterol Egress from
      the Endo-Lysosomal System.
AB  - Lipoprotein cholesterol is delivered to the limiting membrane of late
      endosomes/lysosomes (LELs) by Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1). However, the mechanism of
      cholesterol transport from LELs to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is poorly
      characterized. We report that oxysterol-binding protein-related protein 1L
      (ORP1L) is necessary for this stage of cholesterol export. CRISPR-mediated
      knockout of ORP1L in HeLa and HEK293 cells reduced esterification of cholesterol
      to the level in NPC1 knockout cells, and it increased the expression of sterol
      regulated genes and de novo cholesterol synthesis, indicative of a block in
      cholesterol transport to the ER. In the absence of this transport pathway,
      cholesterol-enriched LELs accumulated in the Golgi/perinuclear region.
      Cholesterol delivery to the ER required the sterol-, phosphatidylinositol 4
      phosphate-, and vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein (VAP)
      binding activities of ORP1L, as well as NPC1 expression. These results suggest
      that ORP1L-dependent membrane contacts between LELs and the ER coordinate
      cholesterol transfer with the retrograde movement of endo-lysosomal vesicles.

PMID- 28564599
TI  - ER Stress Inhibits Liver Fatty Acid Oxidation while Unmitigated Stress Leads to
      Anorexia-Induced Lipolysis and Both Liver and Kidney Steatosis.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR), induced by endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress, regulates the expression of factors that restore protein folding
      homeostasis. However, in the liver and kidney, ER stress also leads to lipid
      accumulation, accompanied at least in the liver by transcriptional suppression of
      metabolic genes. The mechanisms of this accumulation, including which pathways
      contribute to the phenotype in each organ, are unclear. We combined gene
      expression profiling, biochemical assays, and untargeted lipidomics to understand
      the basis of stress-dependent lipid accumulation, taking advantage of enhanced
      hepatic and renal steatosis in mice lacking the ER stress sensor ATF6alpha. We
      found that impaired fatty acid oxidation contributed to the early development of
      steatosis in the liver but not the kidney, while anorexia-induced lipolysis
      promoted late triglyceride and free fatty acid accumulation in both organs. These
      findings provide evidence for both direct and indirect regulation of peripheral
      metabolism by ER stress.

PMID- 28564601
TI  - Replication-Coupled Dilution of H4K20me2 Guides 53BP1 to Pre-replicative
      Chromatin.
AB  - The bivalent histone modification reader 53BP1 accumulates around DNA double
      strand breaks (DSBs), where it dictates repair pathway choice decisions by
      limiting DNA end resection. How this function is regulated locally and across the
      cell cycle to channel repair reactions toward non-homologous end joining (NHEJ)
      in G1 and promote homology-directed repair (HDR) in S/G2 is insufficiently
      understood. Here, we show that the ability of 53BP1 to accumulate around DSBs
      declines as cells progress through S phase and reveal that the inverse
      relationship between 53BP1 recruitment and replicated chromatin is linked to the
      replication-coupled dilution of 53BP1's target mark H4K20me2. Consistently,
      premature maturation of post-replicative chromatin restores H4K20me2 and rescues
      53BP1 accumulation on replicated chromatin. The H4K20me2-mediated chromatin
      association of 53BP1 thus represents an inbuilt mechanism to distinguish DSBs in
      pre- versus post-replicative chromatin, allowing for localized repair pathway
      choice decisions based on the availability of replication-generated template
      strands for HDR.

PMID- 28564602
TI  - Mad2 Overexpression Uncovers a Critical Role for TRIP13 in Mitotic Exit.
AB  - The mitotic checkpoint ensures proper segregation of chromosomes by delaying
      anaphase until all kinetochores are bound to microtubules. This inhibitory signal
      is composed of a complex containing Mad2, which inhibits anaphase progression.
      The complex can be disassembled by p31comet and TRIP13; however, TRIP13 knockdown
      has been shown to cause only a mild mitotic delay. Overexpression of checkpoint
      genes, as well as TRIP13, is correlated with chromosomal instability (CIN) in
      cancer, but the initial effects of Mad2 overexpression are prolonged mitosis and
      decreased proliferation. Here, we show that TRIP13 overexpression significantly
      reduced, and TRIP13 reduction significantly exacerbated, the mitotic delay
      associated with Mad2 overexpression, but not that induced by microtubule
      depolymerization. The combination of Mad2 overexpression and TRIP13 loss reduced
      the ability of checkpoint complexes to disassemble and significantly inhibited
      the proliferation of cells in culture and tumor xenografts. These results
      identify an unexpected dependency on TRIP13 in cells overexpressing Mad2.

PMID- 28564603
TI  - 2-HG Inhibits Necroptosis by Stimulating DNMT1-Dependent Hypermethylation of the
      RIP3 Promoter.
AB  - 2-hydroxyglutarate-(2-HG)-mediated inhibition of TET2 activity influences DNA
      hypermethylation in cells harboring mutations of isocitrate dehydrogenases 1 and
      2 (IDH1/2). Here, we show that 2-HG also regulates DNA methylation mediated by
      DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1). DNMT1-dependent hypermethylation of the RIP3
      promoter occurred in both IDH1 R132Q knockin mutant mouse embryonic fibroblast
      (MEFs) and 2-HG-treated wild-type (WT) MEFs. We found that 2-HG bound to DNMT1
      and stimulated its association with the RIP3 promoter, inducing hypermethylation
      that reduces RIP3 protein and consequently impaired RIP3-dependent necroptosis.
      In human glioma samples, RIP3 protein levels correlated negatively with IDH1
      R132H levels. Furthermore, ectopic expression of RIP3 in transformed IDH1-mutated
      MEFs inhibited the growth of tumors derived from these cells following
      transplantation into nude mice. Thus, our research sheds light on a mechanism of
      2-HG-induced DNA hypermethylation and suggests that impaired necroptosis
      contributes to the tumorigenesis driven by IDH1/2 mutations.

PMID- 28564605
TI  - A TLR3-Specific Adjuvant Relieves Innate Resistance to PD-L1 Blockade without
      Cytokine Toxicity in Tumor Vaccine Immunotherapy.
AB  - Cancer patients having anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/PD ligand 1 (L1)
      unresponsive tumors may benefit from advanced immunotherapy. Double-stranded RNA
      triggers dendritic cell (DC) maturation to cross-prime antigen-specific cytotoxic
      T lymphocytes (CTLs) via Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3). The TLR3-specific RNA
      agonist, ARNAX, can induce anti-tumor CTLs without systemic cytokine/interferon
      (IFN) production. Here, we have developed a safe vaccine adjuvant for cancer that
      effectively implements anti-PD-L1 therapy. Co-administration of ARNAX with a
      tumor-associated antigen facilitated tumor regression in mouse models, and in
      combination with anti-PD-L1 antibody, activated tumor-specific CTLs in lymphoid
      tissues, enhanced CTL infiltration, and overcame anti-PD-1 resistance without
      cytokinemia. The TLR3-TICAM-1-interferon regulatory factor (IRF)3-IFN-beta axis
      in DCs exclusively participated in CD8+ T cell cross-priming. ARNAX therapy
      established Th1 immunity in the tumor microenvironment, upregulating genes
      involved in DC/T cell/natural killer (NK) cell recruitment and functionality.
      Human ex vivo studies disclosed that ARNAX+antigen induced antigen-specific CTL
      priming and proliferation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs),
      supporting the feasibility of ARNAX for potentiating anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in
      human vaccine immunotherapy.

PMID- 28564604
TI  - Cancer-Associated IDH1 Promotes Growth and Resistance to Targeted Therapies in
      the Absence of Mutation.
AB  - Oncogenic mutations in two isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-encoding genes (IDH1
      and IDH2) have been identified in acute myelogenous leukemia, low-grade glioma,
      and secondary glioblastoma (GBM). Our in silico and wet-bench analyses indicate
      that non-mutated IDH1 mRNA and protein are commonly overexpressed in primary
      GBMs. We show that genetic and pharmacologic inactivation of IDH1 decreases GBM
      cell growth, promotes a more differentiated tumor cell state, increases apoptosis
      in response to targeted therapies, and prolongs the survival of animal subjects
      bearing patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). On a molecular level, diminished IDH1
      activity results in reduced alpha-ketoglutarate (alphaKG) and NADPH production,
      paralleled by deficient carbon flux from glucose or acetate into lipids,
      exhaustion of reduced glutathione, increased levels of reactive oxygen species
      (ROS), and enhanced histone methylation and differentiation marker expression.
      These findings suggest that IDH1 upregulation represents a common metabolic
      adaptation by GBMs to support macromolecular synthesis, aggressive growth, and
      therapy resistance.

PMID- 28564606
TI  - Genome-wide Analysis of STAT3-Mediated Transcription during Early Human Th17 Cell
      Differentiation.
AB  - The development of therapeutic strategies to combat immune-associated diseases
      requires the molecular mechanisms of human Th17 cell differentiation to be fully
      identified and understood. To investigate transcriptional control of Th17 cell
      differentiation, we used primary human CD4+ T cells in small interfering RNA
      (siRNA)-mediated gene silencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by
      massive parallel sequencing (ChIP-seq) to identify both the early direct and
      indirect targets of STAT3. The integrated dataset presented in this study
      confirms that STAT3 is critical for transcriptional regulation of early human
      Th17 cell differentiation. Additionally, we found that a number of SNPs from loci
      associated with immune-mediated disorders were located at sites where STAT3 binds
      to induce Th17 cell specification. Importantly, introduction of such SNPs alters
      STAT3 binding in DNA affinity precipitation assays. Overall, our study provides
      important insights for modulating Th17-mediated pathogenic immune responses in
      humans.

PMID- 28564607
TI  - Specification and Diversification of Pericytes and Smooth Muscle Cells from
      Mesenchymoangioblasts.
AB  - Elucidating the pathways that lead to vasculogenic cells, and being able to
      identify their progenitors and lineage-restricted cells, is critical to the
      establishment of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) models for vascular diseases
      and development of vascular therapies. Here, we find that mesoderm-derived
      pericytes (PCs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) originate from a clonal
      mesenchymal progenitor mesenchymoangioblast (MB). In clonogenic cultures, MBs
      differentiate into primitive PDGFRbeta+CD271+CD73- mesenchymal progenitors, which
      give rise to proliferative PCs, SMCs, and mesenchymal stem/stromal cells. MB
      derived PCs can be further specified to CD274+ capillary and DLK1+ arteriolar PCs
      with a proinflammatory and contractile phenotype, respectively. SMC maturation
      was induced using a MEK inhibitor. Establishing the vasculogenic lineage tree,
      along with identification of stage- and lineage-specific markers, provides a
      platform for interrogating the molecular mechanisms that regulate vasculogenic
      cell specification and diversification and manufacturing well-defined mural cell
      populations for vascular engineering and cellular therapies from hPSCs.

PMID- 28564608
TI  - Structural Basis of the Human Endoglin-BMP9 Interaction: Insights into BMP
      Signaling and HHT1.
AB  - Endoglin (ENG)/CD105 is an essential endothelial cell co-receptor of the
      transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) superfamily, mutated in hereditary
      hemorrhagic telangiectasia type 1 (HHT1) and involved in tumor angiogenesis and
      preeclampsia. Here, we present crystal structures of the ectodomain of human ENG
      and its complex with the ligand bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9). BMP9
      interacts with a hydrophobic surface of the N-terminal orphan domain of ENG,
      which adopts a new duplicated fold generated by circular permutation. The
      interface involves residues mutated in HHT1 and overlaps with the epitope of
      tumor-suppressing anti-ENG monoclonal TRC105. The structure of the C-terminal
      zona pellucida module suggests how two copies of ENG embrace homodimeric BMP9,
      whose binding is compatible with ligand recognition by type I but not type II
      receptors. These findings shed light on the molecular basis of the BMP signaling
      cascade, with implications for future therapeutic interventions in this
      fundamental pathway.

PMID- 28564609
TI  - Sequential Steps of CRAC Channel Activation.
AB  - Interaction between the endoplasmic reticulum protein STIM1 and the plasma
      membrane channel ORAI1 generates calcium signals that are central for diverse
      cellular functions. How STIM1 binds and activates ORAI1 remains poorly
      understood. Using electrophysiological, optical, and biochemical techniques, we
      examined the effects of mutations in the STIM1-ORAI1 activating region (SOAR) of
      STIM1. We find that SOAR mutants that are deficient in binding to resting ORAI1
      channels are able to bind to and boost activation of partially activated ORAI1
      channels. We further show that the STIM1 binding regions on ORAI1 undergo
      structural rearrangement during channel activation. The results suggest that
      activation of ORAI1 by SOAR occurs in multiple steps. In the first step, SOAR
      binds to ORAI1, partially activates the channel, and induces a rearrangement in
      the SOAR-binding site of ORAI1. That rearrangement of ORAI1 then permits
      sequential steps of SOAR binding, via distinct molecular interactions, to fully
      activate the channel.

PMID- 28564610
TI  - Effect of Human Genetic Variability on Gene Expression in Dorsal Root Ganglia and
      Association with Pain Phenotypes.
AB  - Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) relay sensory information to the brain, giving rise to
      the perception of pain, disorders of which are prevalent and burdensome. Here, we
      mapped expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in a collection of human DRGs.
      DRG eQTLs were enriched within untranslated regions of coding genes of low
      abundance, with some overlapping with other brain regions and blood cell cis
      eQTLs. We confirm functionality of identified eQTLs through their significant
      enrichment within open chromatin and highly deleterious SNPs, particularly at the
      exon level, suggesting substantial contribution of eQTLs to alternative splicing
      regulation. We illustrate pain-related genetic association results explained by
      DRG eQTLs, with the strongest evidence for contribution of the human leukocyte
      antigen (HLA) locus, confirmed using a mouse inflammatory pain model. Finally, we
      show that DRG eQTLs are found among hits in numerous genome-wide association
      studies, suggesting that this dataset will help address pain components of non
      pain disorders.

PMID- 28564611
TI  - Quantitative Cell Cycle Analysis Based on an Endogenous All-in-One Reporter for
      Cell Tracking and Classification.
AB  - Cell cycle kinetics are crucial to cell fate decisions. Although live imaging has
      provided extensive insights into this relationship at the single-cell level, the
      limited number of fluorescent markers that can be used in a single experiment has
      hindered efforts to link the dynamics of individual proteins responsible for
      decision making directly to cell cycle progression. Here, we present
      fluorescently tagged endogenous proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) as an
      all-in-one cell cycle reporter that allows simultaneous analysis of cell cycle
      progression, including the transition into quiescence, and the dynamics of
      individual fate determinants. We also provide an image analysis pipeline for
      automated segmentation, tracking, and classification of all cell cycle phases.
      Combining the all-in-one reporter with labeled endogenous cyclin D1 and p21 as
      prime examples of cell-cycle-regulated fate determinants, we show how cell cycle
      and quantitative protein dynamics can be simultaneously extracted to gain
      insights into G1 phase regulation and responses to perturbations.

PMID- 28564612
TI  - Impact of food grade and nano-TiO2 particles on a human intestinal community.
AB  - Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) are used as an additive (E171 or
      INS171) in foods such as gum, candy and puddings. To address concerns about the
      potential hazardous effects of ingested NPs, the toxicity of these food-grade NPs
      was investigated with a defined model intestinal bacterial community. Each
      titania preparation (food-grade TiO2 formulations, E171-1 and E171-6a) was tested
      at concentrations equivalent to those found in the human intestine after sampling
      1-2 pieces of gum or candy (100-250 ppm). At the low concentrations used, neither
      the TiO2 food additives nor control TiO2 NPs had an impact on gas production and
      only a minor effect on fatty acids profiles (C16:00, C18:00, 15:1 w5c, 18:1 w9c
      and 18:1 w9c, p < 0.05). DNA profiles and phylogenetic distributions confirmed
      limited effects on the bacterial community, with a modest decrease in the
      relative abundance of the dominant Bacteroides ovatus in favor of Clostridium
      cocleatum (-13% and +14% respectively, p < 0.05). Such minor shifts in the
      treated consortia suggest that food grade and nano-TiO2 particles do not have a
      major effect on human gut microbiota when tested in vitro at relevant low
      concentrations. However, the cumulative effects of chronic TiO2 NP ingestion
      remain to be tested.

PMID- 28564613
TI  - High dose tetrabromobisphenol A impairs hippocampal neurogenesis and memory
      retention.
AB  - Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a brominated flame retardant that is commonly
      used in commercial and household products, such as, computers, televisions,
      mobile phones, and electronic boards. TBBPA can accumulate in human body fluids,
      and it has been reported that TBBPA possesses endocrine disruptive activity.
      However, the neurotoxic effect of TBBPA on hippocampal neurogenesis has not yet
      been investigated. Accordingly, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the
      effect of TBBPA on adult hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive function. Male
      C57BL/6 mice were orally administrated vehicle or TBBPA (20 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, or
      500 mg/kg daily) for two weeks. TBBPA was observed to significantly and dose
      dependently reduce the survival of newly generated cells in the hippocampus but
      not to affect the proliferation of newly generated cells. Numbers of hippocampal
      BrdU and NeuN positive cells were dose-dependently reduced by TBBPA, indicating
      impaired neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Interestingly, glial activation without
      neuronal death was observed in hippocampi exposed to TBBPA. Furthermore, memory
      retention was found to be adversely affected by TBBPA exposure by a mechanism
      involving suppression of the BDNF-CREB signaling pathway. The study suggests high
      dose TBBPA disrupts hippocampal neurogenesis and induces associated memory
      deficits.

PMID- 28564614
TI  - Enhanced barrier functions and anti-inflammatory effect of cultured coconut
      extract on human skin.
AB  - Natural plant oils have been used as a translational alternative to modern
      medicine. Particularly, virgin coconut oil (VCO) has gained popularity because of
      its potential benefits in pharmaceutical, nutritional, and cosmetic applications.
      Cultured coconut extract (CCE) is an alternative end product of VCO, which
      undergoes a further bacterial fermentation process. This study aimed to
      investigate the effects of CCE on human skin. We analyzed the expression of skin
      barrier molecules and collagens after applying CCE on human explanted skin. To
      evaluate the anti-inflammatory properties of CCE, the expression of inflammatory
      markers was analyzed after ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation. The CCE-treated group
      showed increased expression of cornified cell envelope components, which
      contribute to protective barrier functions of the stratum corneum. Further, the
      expression of inflammatory markers was lower in the CCE-treated group after
      exposure to UVB radiation. These results suggest an anti-inflammatory effect of
      CCE against UVB irradiation-induced inflammation. Additionally, the CCE-treated
      group showed increased collagen and hyaluronan synthase-3 expression. In our
      study, CCE showed a barrier-enhancing effect and anti-inflammatory properties
      against ex vivo UVB irradiation-induced inflammation. The promising effect of CCE
      may be attributed to its high levels of polyphenols and fatty acid components.

PMID- 28564615
TI  - A comparison of untagged gamma-ray and tagged-neutron yields from 241AmBe and
      238PuBe sources.
AB  - Untagged gamma-ray and tagged-neutron yields from 241AmBe and 238PuBe mixed-field
      sources have been measured. Gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements from 1 to 5MeV
      were performed in an open environment using a CeBr3 detector and the same
      experimental conditions for both sources. The shapes of the distributions are
      very similar and agree well with previous data. Tagged-neutron measurements from
      2 to 6MeV were performed in a shielded environment using a NE-213 liquid
      scintillator detector for the neutrons and a YAP(Ce) detector to tag the
      4.44MeVgamma-rays associated with the de-excitation of the first-excited state of
      12C. Again, the same experimental conditions were used for both sources. The
      shapes of these distributions are also very similar and agree well with previous
      data, each other, and the ISO recommendation. Our 238PuBe source provides
      approximately 2.6 times more 4.44MeVgamma-rays and 2.4 times more neutrons over
      the tagged-neutron energy range, the latter in reasonable agreement with the
      original full-spectrum source-calibration measurements performed at the time of
      their acquisition.

PMID- 28564616
TI  - Comparative clinical characteristics and natural history of three variants of
      sclerosing cholangitis: IgG4-related SC, PSC/AIH and PSC alone.
AB  - There is increased interest and recognition of the clinical variants of
      Sclerosing Cholangitis (SC) namely IgG4-SC, PSC/AIH overlap and PSC. For most
      Centers, the characteristic of IgG4-SC has not been thoroughly clinically
      compared with other sclerosing cholangitis variants. Further there are relatively
      few PSC/AIH overlap patients and the clinical outcome is not well characterized,
      especially for the PSC/AIH overlap syndrome. Our objective herein is to clarify
      the differences and similarities of the natural history of IgG4-SC, the PSC/AIH
      overlap and PSC alone. We also place in perspective the diagnostic value of serum
      IgG4 for IgG4-SC and investigate biomarkers for predicting the prognosis of
      sclerosing cholangitis. In this study, we took advantage of our large and well
      defined patient cohort to perform a retrospective cohort study including 57 IgG4
      SC, 36 PSC/AIH overlap patients, and 55 PSC patients. Firstly, as expected, we
      noted significant differences among immunoglobulin profiles and all patients
      exhibited similar cholestatic profiles at presentation. Cirrhotic events were
      found in 20 of total 57 IgG4-SC, 15 of 36 PSC/AIH overlap, and 18 of 55 PSC
      patients. Serum IgG4 was elevated in 92.65% of IgG4-SC patients with an 86%
      sensitivity and 98% specificity for diagnosis. IgG4-SC patients had a better
      treatment response at 6-month and 1-year than PSC/AIH patients, while the latter
      responded better with steroids than PSC patients. Importantly the adverse outcome
      free survival of IgG4-SC patients was reduced, unlike earlier reports, and
      therefore similar to the PSC/AIH overlap syndrome. Serum IgG and total bilirubin
      were useful to predict long-term survival of IgG4-SC and PSC/AIH, respectively.
      In conclusion, serum IgG4?1.25 ULN shows an excellent predictability to
      distinguish IgG4-SC among SC patients. IgG4-SC appears to be immune-mediated
      inflammatory process, while PSC/AIH overlap more tends to be cholestatic disease.

PMID- 28564617
TI  - Recent advances in our understanding of giant cell arteritis pathogenesis.
AB  - Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a granulomatous vasculitis affecting large
      arteries, especially the aorta and the extracranial branches of the external
      carotid artery. Its exact pathogenesis is not fully understood but major progress
      has been made in recent years, leading to new therapeutic targets like inhibition
      of the interleukin-6 pathway or the modulation of immune checkpoints. The cause
      of GCA has not been clearly identified but it is thought that GCA occurs on a
      genetic background and is triggered by unknown environmental factors that could
      activate and lead to the maturation of dendritic cells localized in the
      adventitia of normal arteries. These activated dendritic cells then produce
      chemokines which trigger the recruitment of CD4+ T cells, which in turn become
      activated, proliferate and polarize into Th1 and Th17 cells, which produce IFN
      gamma and IL-17, respectively. Exposed to IFN-gamma, endothelial cells and
      vascular smooth muscle cells produce chemokines leading to the recruitment of
      further Th1 cells, CD8+ T cells and monocytes. The latter differentiate into
      macrophages, which, when persistently exposed to IFN-gamma, form giant cells, the
      histological hallmark of GCA. With the contribution of vascular smooth muscle
      cells, immune cells then trigger the destruction and remodeling of the arterial
      wall, thus leading to the formation of a neo-intima resulting in progressive
      occlusion of the arterial lumen, which is responsible for the ischemic symptoms
      of GCA. In this paper, we review recent progress in our understanding of GCA
      pathogenesis in the fields of genetics, epigenetics, infections, immunology and
      vascular remodeling.

PMID- 28564619
TI  - Repeated pulses of methyl-prednisolone with reduced doses of prednisone improve
      the outcome of class III, IV and V lupus nephritis: An observational comparative
      study of the Lupus-Cruces and lupus-Bordeaux cohorts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the clinical course of patients with class III, IV and V
      lupus nephritis (LN) treated at Hospital Universitario Cruces (CC) and at
      Bordeaux University Hospital (BC). METHODS: The Lupus-Cruces nephritis protocol
      combines pulses of 125mg of methyl-prednisolone with each fortnightly pulse of
      cyclophosphamide and prednisone <=30mg/day with tapering over 12-14weeks until
      2.5-5mg/day. The BC followed international lupus nephritis guidelines, combining
      high-dose prednisone and either mycophenolate mofetil or cyclophosphamide,
      followed by maintenance therapy with low dose prednisone and immunosuppressive
      drugs. The main outcomes were complete renal remission (CR) and glucocorticoid
      toxicity. RESULTS: 44 patients from BC and 29 from CC were included. The mean
      maximum prednisone dose was 42.5 (BC) vs. 21mg/day (CC), p<0.001. The average 6
      month prednisone dose was 21 (BC) vs. 8.3mg/d (CC), p<0.001.The mean number of
      methyl-prednisolone pulses was 3 (BC) vs. 9.3 (CC), p<0.001. HCQ was used by 64%
      (BC) vs. 100% (CC), p<0.001. CR rates were 30% (BC) vs. 69% (CC), p=0.001, and
      42% (BC) vs. 86% (CC), p<0.001, at 6 and 12months, respectively. Patients from
      the CC more frequently achieved CR (adjusted HR 3.8, 95%CI 2.05-7-09). The number
      of pulses of methyl-prednisolone were associated with CR (adjusted HR 1.09, 95%CI
      1.03-1.15). Patients in the CC had a lower risk of GC-related side effects
      (adjusted HR 0.19, 95%CI 0.04-0.89). CONCLUSION: The Lupus-Cruces nephritis
      protocol improves the outcome of LN. Repeated methyl-prednisolone pulses help
      reduce the dose of oral glucocorticoids and enhance clinical response.

PMID- 28564618
TI  - Very early and early systemic sclerosis in the Spanish scleroderma Registry
      (RESCLE) cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: According to the existence of subclinical organ involvement pre
      scleroderma should be divided into two subsets: very early and early disease. Pre
      scleroderma patients included in the Spanish Scleroderma Registry (RESCLE) Cohort
      were reclassified into subsets. Differences were evaluated and the risk of
      progression to definite systemic sclerosis was estimated. METHODS: The
      characteristics of very early and early SSc patients were compared. A logistic
      regression model was used to determine the risk factors of progression. RESULTS:
      1632 patients were included, 36 (2.2%) in the very early subset and 111 (6.8%) in
      the early subset. There were no differences in sex, age at disease onset,
      duration of Raynaud's phenomenon, antinuclear antibodies or capillaroscopic
      findings. Three (8.3%) very early SSc patients evolved to definite SSc, 2 (5.6%)
      of them meeting the ACR/EULAR 2013 criteria, unlike 31 (28%) early SSc patients,
      20 (24%) of them meeting the criteria (p=0.034). Digestive involvement was an
      independent risk factor of progression (OR 17; 95% CI, 6.1-47.2). CONCLUSIONS:
      The classification of early forms of scleroderma identifies patients with
      different prognostic risk of progression. The evolution to definite SSc is more
      frequent in early than in very early SSc patients. Digestive involvement is a
      risk factor of progression. An active assessment of organ damage in preclinical
      stages allows a correct classification and risk stratification, with implications
      for monitoring and treatment.

PMID- 28564620
TI  - Survivin in autoimmune diseases.
AB  - Survivin is a protein functionally important for cell division, apoptosis, and
      possibly, for micro-RNA biogenesis. It is an established marker of malignant cell
      transformation. In non-malignant conditions, the unique properties of survivin
      make it indispensable for homeostasis of the immune system. Indeed, it is
      required for the innate and adaptive immune responses, controlling
      differentiation and maintenance of CD4+ and CD8+ memory T-cells, and in B cell
      maturation. Recently, survivin has emerged as an important player in the
      pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Under the conditions of unreserved
      inflammation, survivin enhances antigen presentation, maintains persistence of
      autoreactive cells, and supports production of autoantibodies. In this context,
      survivin takes its place as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in rheumatoid
      arthritis, psoriasis, systemic sclerosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension,
      neuropathology and multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel diseases and oral
      lichen planus. In this review, we summarise the knowledge about non-malignant
      properties of survivin and focus on its engagement in cellular and molecular
      pathology of autoimmune diseases. The review highlights utility of survivin
      measures for clinical applications. It provides rational for the survivin
      inhibiting strategies and presents results of recent reports on survivin
      inhibition in modern therapies of cancers and autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28564621
TI  - The characteristics and impact of source of infection on sepsis-related ICU
      outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Source of infection is an independent predictor of sepsis-related
      mortality. To date, studies have failed to evaluate differences in septic
      patients based on the source of infection. METHODS: Retrospective study of all
      patients with sepsis admitted to the ICU of a university hospital within a
      12month time period. RESULTS: Sepsis due to intravascular device and multiple
      sources had the highest number of positive blood cultures and microbiology
      whereas lung and abdominal sepsis had the least. The observed hospital mortality
      was highest for sepsis due to multiple sources and unknown cause, and was lowest
      when due to abdominal, genitourinary (GU) or skin/soft tissue. Patients with
      sepsis due to lungs, unknown and multiple sources had the highest rates of multi
      organ failure, whereas those with sepsis due to GU and skin/soft tissue had the
      lowest rates. Those with multisource sepsis had a significantly higher median ICU
      length of stay and hospital cost. CONCLUSION: There are significant differences
      in patient characteristics, microbiology positivity, organs affected, mortality,
      length of stay and cost based on the source of sepsis. These differences should
      be considered in future studies to be able to deliver personalized care.

PMID- 28564622
TI  - Suitability of functional evaluation embedded in serious game rehabilitation
      exercises to assess motor development across lifespan.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine if the results of activities performed
      using specially developed serious games for physical rehabilitation could be used
      as an indicator of the natural maturation and decline of motor control in healthy
      participants. Eighty-one participants (19 children (5-15 years old), 40 adults
      (18-65 years old) and 22 aged subjects (60-88 years old) participated in this
      study. Motions performed were recorded using the Kinect sensor. Three different
      exercises embedded in the games were used to assess upper limb, trunk and lower
      limb control. The trial duration and accuracy, measures of gross motor function
      and fine motor control, respectively, were computed for each participant. ANOVA
      tests shows statistically significant differences between the three groups for
      duration (53+/-15, 27+/-10 and 119+/-30s for children, adults and elderly
      subjects respectively) and accuracy (87+/-5, 89+/-10 and 70+/-8% for children,
      adults and elderly subjects respectively). The slopes of the curves that
      approximated the evolution of the performance over various ages are coherent with
      previous studies about motor control development and physiological decline. The
      proposed solution, i.e. serious games rehabilitation exercises coupled to motion
      analysis, seems to be an interesting tool to assess global motor function.
      Further studies are needed to study the influence of pathologies on the studied
      parameters.

PMID- 28564623
TI  - The challenges that parents of children with epilepsy face: A qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This qualitative study explored the challenges that Greek
      parents/caregivers of children with controlled epilepsy (CwE) face regarding the
      disorder. METHODS: Interviews were conducted based on open-ended questions guided
      by a review of the literature. A total of 91 parents/caregivers were recruited by
      neurologists at the neurology clinics of two Athens public hospitals. A
      hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to explore parent/caregiver
      experiences. The data were grouped and analyzed through a textual interpretation.
      RESULTS: Two key challenges were identified for parents of CwE: the disclosure of
      epilepsy and the absence of adequate information about coping with epilepsy.
      Parents in Greece were hesitant to reveal their child's epilepsy to school staff
      and their wider social milieu. Also, although satisfied with the patient-centered
      approach they experienced with their hospital doctor, parents/caregivers found
      that they needed more education about the existing sources of psychosocial and
      emotional support to cope with their child's epilepsy personally and as a family.
      Finally, the parents/caregivers who let their child know about the epilepsy and
      discussed the implications with the child found that parent-child communication
      improved. CONCLUSION: This study provides valuable insight into the impact of
      epilepsy on parents of CwE, which might help hospital and school staff support
      families with greater understanding, sensitivity, and skill. The findings suggest
      that Greek authorities should staff hospitals and schools with experts and more
      systematically advertise sources of information about epilepsy and ways to cope
      with it.

PMID- 28564624
TI  - Dissolved rare earth elements in the central-western sector of the Ross Sea,
      Southern Ocean: Geochemical tracing of seawater masses.
AB  - The present essay contributes to the existing literature on rare earth elements
      (REEs) in the southern hemisphere by presenting the first data, to our knowledge,
      on the vertical profiles of dissolved REEs in 71 samples collected in the central
      western sector of the Ross Sea (Southern Ocean-SO). The REEs were measured in the
      water samples collected during the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 austral summers. 4
      samples were collected and analysed in the framework of a test experiment, as
      part of the WISSARD Project (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research
      Drilling). Our results show significant differences between the REE patterns of
      the main water masses present in the SO: we could observe specific signature in
      the High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW), Ice Shelf Water (ISW) and Low Salinity
      Shelf Water (LSSW). A significant increase in Terbium (Tb) concentration was
      observed in the HSSW and ISW, the two principal water masses contributing to the
      formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) in the Ross Sea area, and in LSSW.
      Some of the HSSW samples show enrichment in Neodymium (Nd). Dissolved REE could
      therefore be used as tracers to understand the deep circulation of the SO
      (Pacific sector). We hypothesize that: (I) the characteristic dissolved REE
      pattern may derive from the composition of source area and from the hydrothermal
      activity of the central-western area of the Ross Sea; (II) the Tb anomaly
      observed in the AABW on the South Australian platform could be partially
      explained by the contribution of AABW generated in the Ross Sea region.

PMID- 28564625
TI  - Dynamics of inorganic components in lake waters from Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica.
AB  - Water and Suspended Particulate Material (SPM) samples analysed in this work were
      collected in the austral summer 2011/12 from six shallow Antarctic lakes
      (Carezza, Edmonson Point 14 and 15a, Gondwana, Inexpressible Island 10b and Tarn
      Flat 20) of Terra Nova Bay (Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica). The total
      concentrations of a large suite of inorganic analytes were determined, in order
      to gain insight into the natural processes regulating species distribution,
      define natural background values and detect possible present or future local
      and/or global anthropogenic contamination. Lake water composition was found to be
      influenced by marine spray, lake geographical position and meltwater input.
      Seasonal variability was also evaluated for each analyte, and explained
      considering the natural transport processes involving each species. Multivariate
      chemometric techniques were used in order to identify groups of samples with
      similar characteristics and find out similarities and correlations among
      variables. The variability observed within the water samples is closely connected
      to the marine aerosol input; hence, it is primarily a consequence of geographical
      and meteorological factors, such as distance from the ocean and period of year.
      Higher element concentrations have been found in SPM than in water, suggesting
      that weathering plays an important role on the chemistry of these lakes or that
      adsorption processes take place. SPM samples were also examined with a Scanning
      Electron Microscope (SEM), and many diatoms belonging to different species were
      detected. No clear evidence of a relevant metal contamination was found in the
      investigated area.

PMID- 28564626
TI  - Pesticide incidence in poisoned baits: A 10-year report.
AB  - The incidence of pesticides in poisoned baits recovered from 2005 to 2014 in
      Italian northern regions of Emilia Romagna and Lombardy was analysed. A total of
      956 baits tested positive for pesticides during the study period. In 9.3% (n=89)
      of the baits analysed more than one toxic compound was present. Insecticides
      (53.2%) proved to be the pesticides most commonly involved followed by
      rodenticides (34.3%), molluscicides (12.3%) and herbicides (0.2%). Among
      insecticides, the anticholinesterases (organophosphates and carbamates) were the
      most frequently detected (59.1%, n=412) followed by organochlorines (39.8%;
      n=277). Anticoagulants proved to be the rodenticides most commonly involved
      (78.5%; n=353) with many baits containing brodifacoum or bromadiolone, while
      metaldehyde was the most used molluscicide (88.2%; n=142). A high number of baits
      contained banned pesticides such as endosulfan, methamidophos, carbofuran and
      strychnine indicating that the restrictions and the bans on the use of toxic and
      highly toxic pesticides are not accompanied by a lower use in poisoned baits. The
      high incidence of banned pesticides detected in the present survey is extremely
      worrying and poses the question of where and how these compounds were obtained.
      Efforts have to be made to reduce this illegal practice and its environmental
      impact. Moreover, education and awareness campaigns should be instituted.

PMID- 28564627
TI  - Assessing the influence of confounding biological factors when estimating
      bioaccumulation of PCBs with passive samplers in aquatic ecosystems.
AB  - Passive samplers are promising surrogates for organisms, mimicking
      bioaccumulation. However, several biological characteristics disturb the passive
      partitioning process in organisms by accelerating or restraining bioaccumulation,
      resulting in species-specific body residues of hydrophobic organic contaminants
      (HOCs). In addition to site-specific characteristics and HOC concentrations, age,
      sex, diet, biotransformation capability and habitat-specific characteristics may
      affect body residues. Two passive sampler types, polyethylene (PE) and
      polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were deployed in a PCB-contaminated freshwater lake
      water and sediment, respectively, to assess their bioaccumulation prediction
      capacity. In order to understand the importance of biological characteristics in
      the bioaccumulation process, we explored bioaccumulation in biota from plants and
      plankton to mussels and fish. The PCB concentrations in the PE sheet reflected
      the bioavailable concentration of PCBs slightly better than those in the PDMS
      samplers. Passive samplers were good predictors of PCB concentrations in fish,
      whereas concentrations in algae and invertebrates were overestimated. When
      comparing the measured concentrations in biota to the estimated concentrations
      using the PE samplers, the average regression slope was 0.87 for all biota and
      1.22 for fish, and average modeling efficiency (EF) was 3.02 for all biota and
      0.6 for fish. The best model performance was achieved for fish in trophic levels
      3-4. Bioaccumulation was species-specific and dependent on the trophic level and
      diet. Closer examination revealed that metabolic capability changes during the
      life span, and source of nutrition determined the biomagnification of HOCs, which
      differed between the fish species. Thus, species composition and available prey
      selection compose a unique bioaccumulation scenario and the resulting body
      residues. Due to the existing variation in body residues derived from passive
      samplers, extrapolating the results from one to another ecosystem must be done
      with caution. Passive samplers, however, offer a very powerful tool for risk
      assessment on the ecosystem level.

PMID- 28564629
TI  - Comparison between Roche and Xpert in HIV-1 RNA quantitation: A high concordance
      between the two techniques except for a CRF02_AG subtype variant with high viral
      load titters detected by Roche but undetected by Xpert.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV-1 viral load (VL) testing is important to predict viral
      progression and to monitor the response to antiretroviral therapy. New HIV-1 VL
      tests are continuously introduced to the market. Their performance is usually
      compared to Abbott and/or Roche HIV-1 VL assays, as reference. The Xpert HIV-1 VL
      test was recently introduced, but its performance compared to Roche has not been
      sufficiently studied. OBJECTIVES: To compare the Xpert assay with Roche and to
      assess its use in the HIV clinical laboratory. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 383
      plasma samples of HIV-1 infected patients previously tested by Roche, were
      retrospectively tested by Xpert to determine concordance between the two assays.
      Samples included a diversity of HIV-1 subtypes and a wide range of VLs. RESULTS:
      There was a high concordance between the two assays, except for a CRF02_AG
      subtype variant with high VL titters, that was detected by Roche but undetected
      by Xpert. The 5' long terminal repeat gene region of this virus, targeted by the
      Xpert assay, was amplified and sequenced. A 25 nucleotide insert was identified,
      but was unmatched to any known sequences of HIV-1. This particular insert,
      however could not explain the false-negativity by the Xpert assay. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study underlines the challenge to routine VL testing due to the high genetic
      diversity of HIV-1. Clinicians should, therefore be advised that a negative VL in
      cases where the clinical picture does not match the laboratory report, might in
      fact be, a false-negative result of the VL assay.

PMID- 28564628
TI  - Severity of anxiety- but not depression- is associated with oxidative stress in
      Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is implicated in both depression and anxiety, but it
      is currently unclear whether this relates to syndromal diagnoses or trans
      diagnostic dimensional symptoms. We examined the relationship between oxidative
      stress and severity of depression and anxiety symptoms in individuals with Major
      Depressive Disorder (MDD). METHODS: Plasma oxidative stress markers F2
      isoprostanes and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), and the antioxidant reduced
      glutathione (GSH), were assessed in 69 physically healthy, medication-free MDD
      subjects. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hamilton
      Anxiety (HAM-A) and Hamilton Depression (HAM-D) Rating Scales. Total HAM-A and
      HAM-D scores, along with "core" anxiety and depression subscales, and individual
      HAM-D items "psychic anxiety" and "depressed mood," were related to oxidative
      stress markers. Analyses controlled for age, sex, BMI, and smoking. RESULTS:
      Total HAM-A ratings were positively associated with F2-isoprostanes (beta=.26,
      p=.042) and GSSG (beta=.25, p=.049), but not GSH (beta=.05, p=.711). Core anxiety
      severity was positively associated with F2-isoprostanes (beta=.34, p=.012) and
      GSSG, although this did not reach significance (beta=.24, p=.074). None of the
      biological markers were significantly associated with total HAM-D or core
      depression ratings (all p>.13). Subjects scoring high on "psychic anxiety" had
      elevated F2-isoprostanes (p=.030) and GSSG (p=.020). This was not seen with
      "depressed mood" scores (all p>.12). LIMITATIONS: We assessed peripheral
      oxidative markers, but their relationship to the brain is unclear. CONCLUSIONS:
      Oxidative stress is more closely related to anxiety than depression symptoms in
      MDD. This highlights the importance of relating oxidative stress to specific
      symptoms and could provide new insights into the biological correlates of
      affective disorders.

PMID- 28564631
TI  - Perspectives on dendritic architectures and their biological applications: From
      core to cell.
AB  - The challenges of medicine today include the increasing stipulation for sensitive
      and effective systems that can improve the pathological responses with a
      simultaneous reduction in accumulation and drug side effects. The demand can be
      fulfilled through the advancements in nanomedicine that includes nanostructures
      and nanodevices for diagnosing, treating, and prevention of various diseases. In
      this respect, the nanoscience provides various novel techniques with carriers
      such as micelles, dendrimers, particles and vesicles for the transportation of
      active moieties. Further, an efficient way to improve these systems is through
      stimuli a responsive system that utilizes supramolecular hyperbranched structures
      to meet the above criteria. The stimuli-responsive dendritic architectures
      exhibit spatial, temporal, convenient, effective, safety and controlled drug
      release in response to specific trigger through electrostatic interactions plus
      pi stacking. The stimuli-responsive systems are capable of sequestering the drug
      molecules underneath a predefined set of conditions and discharge them in a
      different environment through either exogenous or endogenous stimulus. The
      incorporation of photoresponsive moieties at various components of dendrimer such
      as core, branches or at the peripheral end exaggerates its significance in
      various allied fields of nanotechnology which includes sensors, photoswitch,
      electronic widgets and in drug delivery systems. This is due to the light
      instigated geometrical modifications at the core or at the surface molecules
      which generates huge conformational changes throughout the hyperbranched
      structure. Further, numerous synthetic methodologies have been investigated for
      utilization of dendrimers in therapeutic drug delivery and its applicability
      towards stimuli responsive systems such as photo-instigated, thermal-instigated,
      and pH-instigated hyperbranched structures and their advancement in the field of
      nanomedicine. This paper highlights the fascinating theoretical advances and
      principal mechanisms of dendrimer synthesis and their ability to capture light
      that strengthens its applicability from radiant energy to medical photonics.

PMID- 28564630
TI  - Green chemical approach towards the synthesis of CeO2 doped with seashell and its
      bacterial applications intermediated with fruit extracts.
AB  - Nanomaterials of CeO2 with A. vera were synthesized by using simple chemical
      method. Grapes drops are used as an oxidizing agent. Structural and morphological
      studies of nanomaterials of cerium oxide (CeO2), were studied for combustion
      method of preparation. The precursor solution was initialized by a hydrothermal
      reaction. Cerium hydroxyl carbonate precursors which involves cerium (III)
      nitrate Ce(NO3)3. 6 H2O with (1.0M) of seashell powder, 3% A. vera, extracts,
      grapes and pomegranate drops and this complex solution was used to produce the
      CeO2 powder particles. We have prepared another sample with 5% of Aloe vera
      extract and found that 3% Aloe vera extract has lesser grain size and enhanced
      band gap values, so the article explained the sample analysis of combination with
      3% extract of Aloe vera. The product has the rod pattern which was the unusual
      features appear to originate from the unique crystal chemistry aspects. From the
      optical absorption spectrum, it has been shown that the CeO2 rods have 3.847eV of
      direct band gap energy. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the
      synthesized compounds exhibited activity towards various microbial pathogens such
      as B. subtilis (15MUg/mL), S. aureus (50MUg/mL), S. epidermidis (20MUg/mL), E.
      faecalis (25MUg/mL) and towards E. coli (100MUg/mL), K. pneumoniae (50MUg/mL) and
      P. aeruginosa (75MUg/mL) respectively. The tests on bacterial activities
      confirmed that the CeO2 rods are suitable hand for the biological applications.
      The seashell structure and the phytochemical contents of A. vera might enhance
      its bacterial activities.

PMID- 28564632
TI  - Manganese in Drinking Water and Cognitive Abilities and Behavior at 10 Years of
      Age: A Prospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional studies have indicated impaired neurodevelopment with
      elevated drinking water manganese concentrations (W-Mn), but potential
      susceptible exposure windows are unknown. OBJECTIVES: We prospectively evaluated
      the effects of W-Mn, from fetal life to school age, on children's cognitive
      abilities and behavior. METHODS: We assessed cognitive abilities and behavior in
      1,265 ten-year-old children in rural Bangladesh using the Wechsler Intelligence
      Scale for Children (WISC-IV) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
      (SDQ), respectively. Manganese in drinking water used during pregnancy and by the
      children at 5 y and 10 y was measured using inductively coupled plasma mass
      spectrometry. RESULTS: The median W-Mn was 0.20 mg/L (range 0.001-6.6) during
      pregnancy and 0.34mg/L (<0.001-8.7) at 10 y. In multivariable-adjusted linear
      regression analyses, restricted to children with low arsenic (As) exposure, none
      of the W-Mn exposures was associated with the children's cognitive abilities.
      Stratifying by gender (p for interaction in general <0.081) showed that prenatal
      W-Mn (3 mg/L) was positively associated with cognitive ability measures in girls
      but not in boys. W-Mn at all time points was associated with an increased risk of
      conduct problems, particularly in boys (range 24-43% per mg/L). At the same time,
      the prenatal W-Mn was associated with a decreased risk of emotional problems
      [odds ratio (OR)=0.39 (95% CI: 0.19, 0.82)] in boys. In girls, W-Mn was mainly
      associated with low prosocial scores [prenatal W-Mn: OR=1.48 (95% CI: 1.06,
      1.88)]. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated prenatal W-Mn exposure was positively associated
      with cognitive function in girls, whereas boys appeared to be unaffected. Early
      life W-Mn exposure appeared to adversely affect children's behavior.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP631.

PMID- 28564636
TI  - Depot-specific differences in fat mass expansion in WT and ob/ob mice.
AB  - The study was designed to investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying the
      differential fat expansion in different fat depots in wild type (WT) and ob/ob
      (OB) mice. At 6 weeks old, no differences in fat mass were found between SAT and
      VAT in WT mice, while O-SAT showed significantly higher weight than that of O
      VAT. The average adipocyte size of SAT (~ 4133.47 MUm2) was smaller than that of
      VAT (~ 7438.91 MUm2) in OB mice. O-SAT preadipocytes gained higher triglyceride
      contents and higher levels of PPARgamma and C/EBPalpha than did O-VAT
      preadipocytes upon in vitro differentiation. W-SAT and W-VAT displayed no
      significant differences in fatty acid uptake, while 1.36 fold significantly
      higher fatty acid uptake was found in O-SAT compared to O-VAT. Approximately 52%
      of the radioactivity recovered in cellular lipids was found in TAG in O-SAT,
      which was significantly higher than the other three adipocyte types.
      Significantly more radiolabelled oleic acid was beta-oxidized to CO2 in
      adipocytes from O-VAT than that from O-SAT. ATP production was significantly
      lower in W-SAT compared with W-VAT, whereas no significantly ATP level was
      observed between O-SAT and O-VAT. Expression of UCP-1 in SAT from either WT or OB
      mice was significantly higher than the counterpart of VAT, which demonstrated
      higher uncoupled respiration and lower oxidative phosphorylation in SAT.
      Together, a combined increase in adipogenesis and FA uptake, and decreases in
      beta-oxidation and ATP production, contributed to greater expansion of SAT
      compared to VAT in obese mice.

PMID- 28564633
TI  - MicroRNA-145 down-regulates mucin 5AC to alleviate airway remodeling and targets
      EGFR to inhibit cytokine expression.
AB  - This study aims to explore how microRNA-145 (miR-145) affects airway remodeling
      and cytokine expression by targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) to
      regulate mucin 5AC (MUC5AC).Mice alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) were divided
      into a control, blank, miR-145 mimics, mimic control, miR-145 inhibitors,
      inhibitor control, si-EGFR and miR-145 inhibitors + si-EGFR group. Asthma mice
      models with airway remodeling were induced with an Ovalbumin (OVA) solution and
      randomly divided into a normal, asthma, asthma + miR-145 mimics, asthma + miR-145
      mimic control, asthma + si-EGFR or asthma + si-EGFR NC group. Airway remodeling
      degree and histomorphology was measured using hematoxylin-eosin (HE), Masson and
      periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining. Flow cytometry was used to detect Th2 and
      Th17 cells in peripheral blood, ELISA was used to measure inflammatory factors.
      qRT-PCR and western blotting was adapted to detect the expressions of EGFR and
      the relevant cytokines that are regulated by miR-145.The control, miR-145 mimics
      and si-EGFR groups showed a higher expression of miR-145 and a lower expression
      of EGFR and cytokines than the blank, mimic control, inhibitor control and miR
      145 inhibitor + si-EGFR groups. Mice in the asthma + miR-145 mimics and asthma +
      si-EGFR groups showed lower WAt/Pbm, WAi/Pbm and WAm/Pbm, less inflammatory
      cells, less airway modeling and alleviated goblet cell hyperplasia and mucus
      obstruction than the asthma group. Furthermore, the expressions of EGFR and
      cytokines of transfected cells and lung tissues were negatively related to those
      of miR-145. MiR-145 can down-regulate MUC5AC by negatively targeting EGFR and
      thereby relieving airway remodeling.

PMID- 28564637
TI  - Efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX for borderline resectable
      pancreatic adenocarcinoma: improved efficacy compared with gemcitabine-based
      regimen.
AB  - Borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) is a potentially resectable
      disease but is associated with poorer survival compared to primary resectable
      disease. There has been no prospective trial that compare the efficacy of
      FOLFIRNOX and gemcitabine-based regimen for BRPC. Between February 2013 and
      December 2014, 18 patients with BRPC receiving FOLFIRINOX were reviewed
      retrospectively. For comparative analysis, data for all BRPC patients (n=18) in
      our previous phase 2 study of neoadjuvant fixed-dose rate-gemcitabine plus
      capecitabine were pooled. Patients received a median 6 cycles (range, 3-13) of
      FOLFIRINOX. Surgical resection was performed in 12 patients (67%) and R0
      resection in 9 patients. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall
      survival (OS) were 16.8 (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.4-24.2) and 21.2 (95%
      CI, 14.2-28.2) months, respectively. Patients who underwent surgical resection
      showed significantly better PFS (p=0.01) and OS (p=0.003) than those unresected.
      In the exploratory analysis, patients receiving FOLFIRINOX showed significantly
      longer PFS compared to those receiving fixed-dose rate-gemcitabine plus
      capecitabine (median 16.8 months [95% CI, 9.4-24.2] vs. 6.5 months [1.6-11.3]; p
      = 0.04). There was a trend toward improved OS in patients who received FOLFIRINOX
      (median 21.2 months [95% CI, 14.2-28.2]) compared to those who received fixed
      dose rate-gemcitabine plus capecitabine (13.6 months [11.8-15.4]; p=0.12).
      FOLFIRINOX was feasible and effective as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients
      with BRPC and may have improved efficacy compared to a gemcitabine-based regimen.

PMID- 28564640
TI  - Impact of Diabetes on Extracellular Volume Status in Patients Initiating
      Peritoneal Dialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent reports have highlighted that diabetic patients with kidney
      failure are at increased risk of technique failure and transfer to haemodialysis
      within 90 days of initiating peritoneal dialysis (PD). We wished to determine
      whether there were differences between diabetic and non-diabetic patients within
      the first 3 months of starting PD. METHODS: We reviewed results of corresponding
      bioimpedance and the 1st test of peritoneal membrane function (PET) in
      consecutive patients, 6-10 weeks after initiating PD electively. RESULTS: Adult
      patients numbering 386 - 230 males (59.6%), 152 (39.4%) diabetic, 188 (48.7%)
      white, mean age 57.3 +/-16.9 years - were studied. Although weight, residual
      renal function and peritoneal clearances were not different, diabetic patients
      had greater extracellular water to total body water (ECW/TBW; 40.4 +/- 1.1 vs.
      39.2 +/- 1.4) and % ECW excess (9.6 [6.3-12.3] vs. 4.9 [0.7-8.9]), lower serum
      albumin (35.2 +/- 4.7 vs. 37.8 +/- 4.9 g/L), greater fat mass index (9.5 +/- 4.2
      vs. 7.7 +/- 4.2), and although mean arterial blood pressure was similar, arterial
      pulse pressure was greater (66.9 +/- 10.8 vs. 54.3 +/- 17.3 mm Hg, all p <
      0.001). On multivariate analysis, glycated haemoglobin was associated with pulse
      pressure (standardised beta 0.24, p < 0.001), N terminal brain natriuretic
      peptide (beta 0.24, p < 0.001), ECW/TBW (beta 0.19, p = 0.012) and negatively
      with serum albumin (beta -0.14, p = 0.033) and creatinine (beta -0.18, p = 0.02).
      CONCLUSION: Diabetic patients electively starting PD were found to have greater
      ECW/TBW ratios and ECW excess 6-10 weeks after starting PD compared to non
      diabetics, despite similar PET. Increased ECW could predispose diabetic patients
      to be at greater risk of volume overload.

PMID- 28564641
TI  - The Role of Self-Collection by Vaginal Lavage for the Detection of HPV and High
      Grade Intraepithelial Neoplasia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the results of cervical cytology and high-risk HPV tests
      using samples obtained using two different collection modalities in a population
      of Brazilian women: self-collection (vaginal lavage) and cervical Pap testing.
      METHODS: We enrolled 204 women who were aged 18-64 years and had previously
      obtained abnormal cervical cytology test results; 83.8% of them agreed to
      participate. The sample was divided into two aliquots: one for the cytological
      study and one for the molecular analysis of high-risk HPV. RESULTS: Fifty-eight
      percent of the participants preferred to utilize self-collection as an
      alternative screening method. However, we noticed that the HPV positivity rate
      was significantly lower in self-collected samples when compared to those obtained
      using the conventional collection method (p = 0.035). The cytology tests of the
      samples obtained via self-collection were sensitive and had a positive predictive
      value and an area under the curve (AUC) that were significantly lower than those
      of the Pap test. However, the specificity and negative predictive value of these
      tests were similar. When compared with the HPV test, the self-collected samples
      demonstrated lower accuracy in predicting high-grade cervical intraepithelial
      neoplasia or worse, with a significantly lower sensitivity, positive predictive
      value, and AUC than the cervical Pap test samples. CONCLUSION: Self-collection by
      vaginal lavage is simple and well accepted by women. Due to its limitations,
      however, self-collection by lavage should be utilized with caution.

PMID- 28564642
TI  - Effectiveness of Endoscopic Hemostasis with Soft Coagulation for Non-Variceal
      Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding over a 12-Year Period.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: In this study, investigations were carried out to ascertain
      whether soft coagulation hemostasis for non-variceal upper gastrointestinal
      bleeding (UGIB) has ever been performed in a time-dependent manner. METHODS:
      Medical records of 502 patients who had undergone emergency endoscopic hemostasis
      for non-variceal UGIB from 2003 to 2014 were checked and the modalities were used
      to achieve hemostasis compared between the first period from 2003 to 2008 (197
      patients) and the second period from 2009 to 2014 (305 patients). RESULTS:
      Endoscopic hemostasis was successfully achieved in 96.0% of study patients.
      Peptic ulcers were the main cause of bleeding (89.4%). Endoscopic hemostasis was
      performed by soft coagulation significantly more frequently during the second
      (71.1%) than the first period (11.7%; p < 0.001). Endoscopic hemostasis was
      mainly achieved by trainees during the second period (76.1%); these trainees
      comprised a significantly greater proportion of endoscopists than during the
      first period (56.3%; p < 0.001). Endoscopic-related complications did not differ
      between the 2 periods. The only risk factor for rebleeding after hemostasis was
      Helicobacter pylori infection; the use of soft coagulation and the fact that
      endoscopists were just trainees were not risk factors. CONCLUSION: Our findings
      suggest that using soft coagulation to achieve endoscopic hemostasis for non
      variceal UGIB is safe and effective, even when it is performed by trainees.

PMID- 28564643
TI  - Prevent Pancreatic Fistula after Pancreatoduodenectomy: Possible Role of
      Ultrasound Elastography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the utility of acoustic
      radiation force impulse (ARFI) on pancreatic tissue as a preoperative predictor
      of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF). Studied patients underwent
      exclusively to pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) surgery. METHODS: Shear wave velocity
      of pancreas was measured using ARFI in 71 patients scheduled for PD. An
      intraoperative pancreas palpation was made by surgeons. A postoperative clinical
      evaluation to detect occurrence of POPF was performed. Sensitivity, specificity,
      positive and negative predictive values together with the accuracy of the method
      were investigated. RESULTS: Incidence of fistula observed in 17 patients with
      soft pancreas was approximately 53% vs. 47% without fistula. Percentage of
      patients without fistula was higher (66%) among 24 patients with medium
      parenchymal texture values, and was even higher (69%) in 26 patients with hard
      pancreas. Comparing ARFI and intraoperative pancreatic palpation, low wave
      velocity values (<=1.40 m/s) match 60% with soft parenchyma assessed by palpation
      and high values (>2 m/s) match 59% with hard pancreas on palpation. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study shows that ARFI elastography may be clinically useful as a
      preoperative predictor of pancreatic fistula following PD.

PMID- 28564645
TI  - Chicken Microchromosomes in the Lampbrush Phase: A Cytogenetic Description.
AB  - Lampbrush chromosomes are giant, transcriptionally active, meiotic chromosomes
      found in oocytes of all vertebrates with the exception of mammals. Lampbrush
      chromosomes offer a convenient tool for cytogenetic mapping and, in particular,
      have been instrumental in mapping genes and linkage groups on chicken (GGA)
      chromosomes. Whereas cytogenetic maps of macrochromosome GGA1-10 and
      microchromosome GGA11-16 lampbrush bivalents have been established,
      identification and description of smaller microchromosome bivalents are still
      missing. In this work, we used specific FISH probes for the identification of 12
      chicken lampbrush chromosomes formed by GGA17-28. Our observations on chromomere
      and lateral loop arrangement and chiasma position allowed us to construct the
      respective cytogenetic maps for these microchromosomes. For the 10 smallest
      chicken microchromosomes, GGA29-38, no individual molecular tags are available,
      yet they can be collectively marked using the PO41 repeat. The reported results
      contribute to building of working cytogenetic maps of the chicken karyotype.

PMID- 28564644
TI  - Erythropoietin Hyporesponsiveness in Dialysis Patients: Possible Role of Statins.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypothesizing that statins may be useful as adjuvant treatment for
      renal anemia, we examined the association between statin prescription (Rx) and
      erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) hyporesponsiveness in Japanese
      hemodialysis (HD) patients prescribed ESAs. METHODS: We examined 3,602 patients
      in 60 HD facilities dialyzed 3 times/week for >=4 months from the Japan Dialysis
      Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study phases 3-5 (2005-2015). Statin Rx was
      reported at the end of a 4-month interval (baseline) for each patient. ESA
      hyporesponsiveness in the subsequent 4 months was then defined as a binary
      indicator (mean hemoglobin [Hgb] level <10 g/dL and mean ESA dose >6,000
      units/week) and separately as the ESA resistance index (ERI; mean ESA dose/[dry
      weight * mean Hgb]). We used adjusted logistic and linear regressions to evaluate
      the associations between statin Rx and ESA hyporesponsiveness. RESULTS: At
      baseline, 16.2% of patients reported statin Rx; 12.8% were classified as having
      ESA hyporesponsiveness during 4 months of follow-up. Compared to patients without
      statin Rx, patients with statin Rx had lower odds of ESA hyporesponsiveness (OR
      0.87; 95% CI 0.66-1.15). Similarly, the ERI was lower for those with statin Rx
      than without (ratio of means, 0.94; 95% CI 0.89-0.99) after adjustment for
      possible confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that statins may slightly
      reduce ESA hyporesponsiveness in HD patients. However, any causal inference is
      limited by the observational study design and unmeasured compliance with statin
      Rx.

PMID- 28564647
TI  - 64th ORCA Congress. July 5-8, 2017, Oslo, Norway: Abstracts.

PMID- 28564648
TI  - Provocation of Migraine after Maximal Exercise: A Test-Retest Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise is often recommended in migraine treatment, but strenuous
      physical activity is also reported as a migraine trigger. The main aim of this
      study was to evaluate whether migraine can be triggered by a maximal exercise
      test, using a prospective test-retest method. A secondary aim was to compare the
      participants who responded to the maximal exercise test with a migraine attack
      with those who did not suffer a migraine attack after the test. METHODS: A total
      of 19 patients reporting exercise as a potential trigger for their migraines were
      included in the study. After a baseline period of 1 month with measurements of
      migraine frequency, a cycle ergometer test until exhaustion was used twice on
      each patient. RESULTS: A total of 14 patients were test-retested, and of these, 3
      reported migraine following both tests, 5 after one of the tests, and 6 did not
      report migraine after either test. We observed a higher risk of migraine after 1
      or 2 tests in patients with a higher baseline migraine frequency (p = 0.036).
      CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the study showed that although maximal aerobic
      exercise can trigger migraine attacks, it does not always provoke an attack even
      in those who report exercise as a migraine trigger.

PMID- 28564646
TI  - Constitutive Activation of Smoothened in the Renal Collecting Ducts Leads to
      Renal Hypoplasia, Hydronephrosis, and Hydroureter.
AB  - Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling plays a major role in and is essential for
      regulation, patterning, and proliferation during renal development. Smoothened
      (Smo) plays a pivot role in transducing the Shh-glioma-associated oncogene
      Kruppel family member. However, the cellular and molecular mechanism underlying
      the role of sustained Smo activation in postnatal kidney development is still not
      clearly understood. Using a conditional knockin mouse model that expresses a
      constitutively activated form of Smo (SmoM2) upon Homeobox-B7-mediated
      recombination (Hoxb7-Cre), the effects of Shh signaling were determined in
      postnatal kidney development. SmoM2;Hoxb7-Cre mutant mice showed growth
      retardation with a reduction of body weight. Constitutive activation of Smo in
      the renal collecting ducts caused renal hypoplasia, hydronephrosis, and
      hydroureter. The parenchymal area and glomerular numbers were reduced, but the
      glomerular density was increased in SmoM2;Hoxb7-Cre mutant mice. The expression
      of Patched 1, the receptor of Shh and a downstream target gene of the Shh
      signaling pathway, was highly restricted and it was upregulated in the inner
      medullary collecting ducts of the kidney. The proliferative cells in the
      mesenchyme and collecting ducts were decreased in SmoM2;Hoxb7-Cre mutant mice.
      This study showed for the first time that sustained Smo inhibits postnatal kidney
      development by suppressing the proliferation of the mesenchyme and medullary
      collecting ducts in mice.

PMID- 28564649
TI  - Oral Vancomycin and Gentamicin for Treatment of Very Early Onset Inflammatory
      Bowel Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is complex and
      involves the contribution of genetic and environmental factors. Many patients
      with very early onset IBD are difficult to treat. The current antibiotic
      medication that targets gram-negative and anaerobic bacteria provides only
      moderate efficacy in subsets of patients with IBD. METHODS: We report a case
      series of 5 children with a mean age of 1.6 years (range 6 months to 2.7 years)
      during IBD onset, who were previously refractory to standard treatments and who
      received oral vancomycin with or without gentamicin. RESULTS: Four out of 5
      children demonstrated substantial therapeutic effect, and the effect was
      sustained in 3 children over a follow-up period of 12-33 months. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings are consistent with model systems and suggest that randomized trials are
      required to establish whether a change in therapeutic paradigm, that is,
      targeting gram-positive bacteria with nonabsorbable antibiotics, may have
      therapeutic benefits.

PMID- 28564651
TI  - Pro-Angiogenesis Therapy and Aging: A Mini-Review.
AB  - Apart from major illnesses and chronic afflictions, the elderly experience lesser
      ailments, such as muscle weakness, cold intolerance, and transient memory lapses.
      Physical signs in the aged include wrinkled skin and the slow healing of skin
      abrasions. These ailments and signs are grouped together because they may be due
      in part to an age-linked, waning microcirculation. A reduced capillary density
      (CD) throughout the body of aged people and animals has been reported in over 40
      papers. The reduced CD is due in turn to declining levels of angiogenic growth
      factors (AGFs) throughout the body during old age, as documented in 7 reports in
      the literature. From this perspective, old age is a deficiency state of AGFs,
      much like the reduced testosterone levels in elderly males. The above data on
      reduced CD and AGFs are the basis for the "angiogenesis hypothesis of aging",
      whose corollary suggests pro-angiogenesis therapy for symptoms and signs of old
      age. Several AGFs are now available in recombinant forms (e.g., vascular
      endothelial growth factor) and have been used safely in animal experiments and in
      short-term clinical trials.

PMID- 28564650
TI  - The Metabolic Phenotype in Obesity: Fat Mass, Body Fat Distribution, and Adipose
      Tissue Function.
AB  - The current obesity epidemic poses a major public health issue since obesity
      predisposes towards several chronic diseases. BMI and total adiposity are
      positively correlated with cardiometabolic disease risk at the population level.
      However, body fat distribution and an impaired adipose tissue function, rather
      than total fat mass, better predict insulin resistance and related complications
      at the individual level. Adipose tissue dysfunction is determined by an impaired
      adipose tissue expandability, adipocyte hypertrophy, altered lipid metabolism,
      and local inflammation. Recent human studies suggest that adipose tissue
      oxygenation may be a key factor herein. A subgroup of obese individuals - the
      'metabolically healthy obese' (MHO) - have a better adipose tissue function, less
      ectopic fat storage, and are more insulin sensitive than obese metabolically
      unhealthy persons, emphasizing the central role of adipose tissue function in
      metabolic health. However, controversy has surrounded the idea that metabolically
      healthy obesity may be considered really healthy since MHO individuals are at
      increased (cardio)metabolic disease risk and may have a lower quality of life
      than normal weight subjects due to other comorbidities. Detailed metabolic
      phenotyping of obese persons will be invaluable in understanding the
      pathophysiology of metabolic disturbances, and is needed to identify high-risk
      individuals or subgroups, thereby paving the way for optimization of prevention
      and treatment strategies to combat cardiometabolic diseases.

PMID- 28564653
TI  - Skin Perfusion Changes within 12 h after Axillary Plexus Block.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: An improvement of the blood flow would be beneficial in
      microvascular upper-extremity reconstruction and in digit replantation. In the
      present work, skin perfusion changes and their duration due to axillary plexus
      block were quantified. METHODS: The peripheral blood flow of the upper
      extremities in 20 patients undergoing trapeziectomy under axillary plexus block
      was analyzed. RESULTS: Laser Doppler spectrophotometry was used to measure
      perfusion factors over a 12-h period, with the contralateral hand acting as the
      control. Axillary plexus block produced a significant increase of peripheral
      oxygen saturation (117 +/- 35% vs. control 93 +/- 22%, p = 0.019), peripheral
      blood flow (220 +/- 166% vs. 130 +/- 77%, p = 0.037), and velocity (164 +/- 58%
      vs. 117 +/- 45%, p = 0.011). CONCLUSION: Axillary plexus block produces an
      improvement of peripheral tissue oxygen saturation of the upper extremities over
      the first 6 h after the inception of anesthesia. This suggests a potential
      benefit especially for critically perfused tissues.

PMID- 28564652
TI  - Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Improves Hepatic Glucose Metabolism Involving Down
      Regulation of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B in Obese Rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study was initiated to investigate the effects of Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery on hepatic glucose metabolism and hepatic
      expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) in obese rats. METHODS:
      Body weight, glucose, intraperitoneal glucose, insulin, and pyruvate tolerance
      tests were performed pre- and postoperatively, and plasma lipid, insulin and
      glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) were measured. The mRNA levels of G6Pase, Pepck,
      Gsk-3beta and Gys-2, and the expression levels of PTP1B mRNA, protein, and other
      components of the insulin signaling pathway were measured by using RT-PCR and
      western blotting. The intracellular localization of PTP1B and hepatic glycogen
      deposition was also observed. RESULTS: RYGB surgery-treated rats showed
      persistent weight loss, significantly improved glucose tolerance, pyruvate
      tolerance, and dyslipidemia, as well as increased insulin sensitivity, hepatic
      glycogen deposition and increased plasma GLP-1 in obese rats. RT-PCR analyses
      showed Pepck, G6Pase, and Gsk-3beta mRNA to be significantly decreased, and Gys-2
      mRNA to be significantly increased in liver tissue in the RYGB group (p < 0.05
      vs. high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD + sham group); in addition, the expression of
      PTP1B were significantly decreased and insulin signaling were improved in the
      RYGB group (p < 0.05 vs. HFD or HFD + sham group). CONCLUSION: RYGB can improve
      hepatic glucose metabolism and down-regulate PTP1B in obese rats. An increased
      circulating GLP-1 concentration may be correlated with the effects following RYGB
      in obese rats.

PMID- 28564654
TI  - High-Dose Cannabidiol Induced Hypotension after Global Hypoxia-Ischemia in
      Piglets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cannabidiol (CBD) is considered a promising neuroprotectant after
      perinatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI). We have previously studied the effects of CBD 1
      mg/kg in the early phase after global HI in piglets. In contrast to prior
      studies, we found no evidence of neuroprotection and hypothesized that higher
      doses might be required to demonstrate efficacy in this animal model. OBJECTIVE:
      To assess the safety and potential neuroprotective effects of high-dose CBD.
      METHODS: Anesthetized newborn piglets underwent global HI by ventilation with 8%
      O2 until the point of severe metabolic acidosis (base excess -20 mmol/L) and/or
      hypotension (mean arterial blood pressure <=20 mm Hg). Piglets were randomized to
      intravenous treatment with vehicle (n = 9) or CBD (n = 13). The starting dose,
      CBD 50 mg/kg, was reduced if adverse effects occurred. The piglets were
      euthanized 9.5 h after HI and tissue was collected for analysis. RESULTS: CBD 50
      mg/kg (n = 4) induced significant hypotension in 2 out of 4 piglets, and 1 out of
      4 piglets suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. CBD 25 mg/kg (n = 4) induced
      significant hypotension in 1 out of 4 piglets, while 10 mg/kg (n = 5) was well
      tolerated. A significant negative correlation between the plasma concentration of
      CBD and hypotension during drug infusion was observed (p < 0.005).
      Neuroprotective effects were evaluated in piglets that did not display
      significant hypotension (n = 9) and CBD did not alter the degree of neuronal
      damage as measured by a neuropathology score, levels of the astrocytic marker
      S100B in CSF, magnetic resonance spectroscopy markers (Lac/NAA and Glu/NAA
      ratios), or plasma troponin T. CONCLUSIONS: High-dose CBD can induce severe
      hypotension and did not offer neuroprotection in the early phase after global HI
      in piglets.

PMID- 28564655
TI  - Aqueous Humor Levels of Soluble Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor and
      Inflammatory Factors in Diabetic Macular Edema.
AB  - Aqueous levels of soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (sVEGFR)
      and inflammatory factors were measured in 35 patients (37 eyes) with diabetic
      macular edema (DME) receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      therapy. Aqueous levels of growth factors (VEGF, placental growth factor [PlGF],
      and platelet-derived growth factor AA [PDGF-AA]), sVEGFR-1 and -2, soluble
      intercellular adhesion molecule 1, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1,
      interleukin (IL)-6, -8, -12, and -13, and interferon-inducible 10-kDa protein (IP
      10) were significantly higher in the DME group than in the nondiabetic control
      group. The sVEGFR-2 level was significantly correlated with the neurosensory
      retinal thickness, as well as with the levels of growth factors (VEGF and PDGF
      AA) and inflammatory factors (MCP-1, IL-6, and IL-8). Three growth factors (VEGF,
      PlGF, and PDGF-AA) were also significantly correlated with each other, as were
      sVEGFR-1 or -2 and the inflammatory factors (MCP-1, IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10). These
      findings suggest that sVEGFRs and growth/inflammatory factors have an important
      role in DME.

PMID- 28564657
TI  - Relationship between Elevated Intraocular Pressure and Divided Peripapillary
      Sector Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in a Cynomolgus Monkey Laser-Induced
      Ocular Hypertension Model.
AB  - AIMS: We investigated the relationship between elevated intraocular pressure
      (IOP) and changes in global and peripapillary sector retinal nerve fiber layer
      (RNFL) thickness around the optic nerve head (ONH) in the laser-induced ocular
      hypertension monkey model. METHODS: To induce high IOP, green laser
      photocoagulation burns were applied around the trabecular meshwork of 1 eye from
      each of 12 cynomolgus monkeys. The animals had been acclimated to IOP measurement
      under conscious conditions for more than 2 months, and IOP was chronologically
      measured. RNFL thickness was measured for 6 peripapillary sectors and global area
      using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. RESULTS: After model
      induction, marked IOP elevation and enlarged optic disk cupping were observed.
      Thinning of the RNFL associated with elevated IOP was observed around the ONH
      from 6 until 9 weeks after laser treatment, and the degree of reduction in RNFL
      thickness varied between the peripapillary sectors. Correlations between
      cumulative IOP elevation and RNFL thickness reduction were statistically
      significant for the temporal-superior (p = 0.024), nasal-inferior (p = 0.044),
      and temporal (p = 0.049) sectors, and global RNFL (p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that this model reflected the pathology of clinical glaucoma in
      terms of the specific pattern of RNFL thinning around the ONH.

PMID- 28564656
TI  - Association Study of Three Gene Polymorphisms Recently Identified by a Genome
      Wide Association Study with Obesity-Related Phenotypes in Chinese Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine associations of three single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) with obesity-related phenotypes in Chinese children. These
      SNPs were identified by a recent genome-wide association (GWA) study among
      European children. Given that varied genetic backgrounds across different
      ethnicity may result in different association, it is necessary to study these
      associations in a different ethnic population. METHODS: A total of 3,922
      children, including 2,191 normal-weight, 873 overweight and 858 obese children,
      from three independent studies were included in the study. Logistic and linear
      regressions were performed, and meta-analyses were conducted to assess the
      associations between the SNPs and obesity-related phenotypes. RESULTS: The pooled
      odds ratios of the A-allele of rs564343 in PACS1 for obesity and severe obesity
      were 1.180 (p = 0.03) and 1.312 (p = 0.004), respectively. We also found that
      rs564343 was nominally associated with BMI, BMI standard deviation score (BMI
      SDS), waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We
      showed for the first time that the rs564343 in PACS1 was associated with risk of
      severe obesity in a non-European population. This SNP was also found to be
      associated with common obesity and various obesity-related phenotypes in Chinese
      children, which had not been reported in the original study. The results
      demonstrated the value of conducting genetic researches in populations with
      different ethnicity.

PMID- 28564658
TI  - The Upstream Determinants of Adult Obesity.
AB  - Over-consumption of high-energy foods and a lack of physical activity are the
      main behavioural risk factors for people to develop obesity. These behaviours are
      influenced by a range of individual-level factors which are nested within
      contexts that contain influencing characteristics further upstream. In this
      paper, we define these upstream determinants. We also provide a historical
      background, summarise the current evidence base regarding these determinants
      across various types of environments and put them in perspective.

PMID- 28564659
TI  - Life-Threatening Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Previously Undiagnosed Acute T-Cell
      Lymphoblastic Leukemia with Blast Crisis: A Nightmare in Neurosurgeon's Life?
AB  - Spontaneous, nontraumatic intracerebral hemorrhage is a significant cause of
      morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the
      most common cancer diagnosed in children. According to the literature, only 6
      cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting as intracerebral hemorrhage have
      been reported. Five out of the 6 patients were managed conservatively; 3 out of
      these 6 patients survived with correction of coagulopathy. Surgical intervention
      was performed in only 1 of the previously reported cases in which the patient
      could not be salvaged. We report a case of life-threatening intracerebral
      hemorrhage in previously undiagnosed acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia with
      blast crisis, in which the patient was salvaged from the catastrophic
      complication after surgical intervention.

PMID- 28564660
TI  - Crimes against humanity.

PMID- 28564661
TI  - Workplace violence in hospitals and measures to address it.

PMID- 28564662
TI  - Introduction to Recent Advances in Neurosurgery.

PMID- 28564663
TI  - Current Treatment of Metastatic Spine Tumors - Surgery and Stereotactic
      Radiosurgery.
AB  - There has been significant progress and innovation in the treatment of patients
      with metastatic spinal tumors over the last two to three decades that has
      impacted our ability to provide individualized care that improves a patient's
      quality of life and degree of neurologic impairment. Advances in surgical
      techniques and radiation delivery modalities have dramatically improved our
      ability to decrease local tumor recurrence rates, improve pain control, and
      provide more durable spinal stability. Modern day spine tumor resection and
      reconstruction techniques have been shown to improve and prolong patients'
      ability to ambulate, maintain continence, and reduce the need for pain
      medications. Spinal radiosurgery, the focused delivery of radiation to a target
      in the spine, has significantly enhanced the ability to provide a high degree of
      local tumor control in a non-invasive manner, even for tumors that are deemed
      radioresistant by conventional radiation therapy standards. In most patients, a
      combination of treatment modalities, including both surgery and radiation, is the
      mainstay of any comprehensive treatment plan for metastatic spinal tumors. [Full
      article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564664
TI  - The Role of Radiation Therapy in the Treatment of Metastatic Brain Disease.
AB  - Brain metastasis is the most frequent central nervous system malignancy. Although
      surgery and chemotherapy have roles to play in the treatment of brain metastasis,
      radiation therapy remains a mainstay of therapy. We will review the role of
      fractionated radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery in the treatment of newly
      diagnosed and recurrent brain metastasis. [Full article available at
      http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564665
TI  - Current Strategies in the Surgical Management of Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - Stroke is a major cause of death and disability in the United States and rapid
      evaluation and treatment of stroke patients are critical to good outcomes.
      Effective surgical treatments aim to restore adequate cerebral blood flow,
      prevent secondary brain injury, or reduce the likelihood of recurrent stroke.
      Patient evaluation in centers with a comprehensive stroke program and a dedicated
      neuro- vascular team is recommended. [Full article available at
      http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564666
TI  - A Comprehensive Approach to Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders.
AB  - Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-established form of neuromodulation, used
      primarily for movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Essential
      Tremor (ET). The selection of patients who will benefit most from DBS depends on
      a team of clinicians from various disciplines, including neurology, neurosurgery,
      psychiatry, neuropsychology and rehabilitation specialists. The actual surgical
      procedure can take many forms. We apply a combination of multidisciplinary, team
      based evaluations and intra-operative neurophysiology, test stimulation and
      imaging to optimize DBS therapy for individual patients. [Full article available
      at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564667
TI  - Rhode Island Hospital's Contribution to the Field of Endoscopic Spine Surgery.
AB  - The first academic program in endoscopic spine surgery in the United States
      opened its doors at Rhode Island Hospital in 2012. Published advances in the
      field since its inception have included treatments for a myriad of pathologies
      including lumbar and thoracic disc herniations, spondylolisthesis, spine tumors
      as well as treatments for complications of other spinal procedures including
      spinal fusion, kyphoplasty, and total disc replacement. In this issue of the
      Rhode Island Medical Journal we summarize the history of the procedure as well as
      some of the interesting progress going on in this field in Rhode Island. [Full
      article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564668
TI  - Updates On Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Mediated Glioblastoma Immunotherapy.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant of the primary central
      nervous system (CNS) neoplasms, accounting for nearly 80% of all primary brain
      tumors and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Immunotherapy is
      proving to be a fertile ground for next-generation GBM therapy, with large
      translational research projects and clinical trials currently underway. One
      particularly promising area is the chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) in the
      context of lymphocyte adoptive cell therapy (ACT), which has achieved success in
      the treatment of hematological malignancies. In this review, we will discuss CARs
      and review current challenges facing their use in GBM therapy. [Full article
      available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564669
TI  - Recent Advances in the Treatment of Gliomas - Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center.
AB  - Gliomas are a class of primary brain tumors arising from the supporting
      structures of the brain, the astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, which range from
      benign lesions to its most malignant form, the glioblastoma. Treatment for these
      lesions includes maximal surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.
      Recently, novel therapies such as immune modulatory therapies and electrical
      field treatment of the most malignant form, the glioblastoma, have shown promise
      in improving survival. We will review recent advances in clinical trials, explore
      the role of multimodal care in brain tumor therapy, as well as explore advances
      in molecular biology and nanotechnology which offer new hope for treatment of
      this class of disease. [Full article available at
      http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564670
TI  - Current Concepts in the Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Management of Type I Chiari
      Malformations.
AB  - Type 1 Chiari malformations (CMs) are a group of congenital or acquired disorders
      which include the abnormal presence of the cerebellar tonsils in the upper spinal
      canal, rather than the posterior fossa. The resulting anatomic abnormality causes
      crowding of the structures at the craniocervical junction and can impair the
      normal flow of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) in this region. This impairment in CSF
      flow dynamics can led to the development of syringomyelia or hydrocephalus. Type
      1 CMs have been associated with a wide array of symptoms resulting from either
      cerebellar and brainstem compression and distortion or disturbances in CSF
      dynamics, and can affect both children and adults. The clinical diagnosis may be
      difficult. Age usually matters in the clinical presentation, and in symptomatic
      patients, surgical intervention is usually required. [Full article available at
      http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-06.asp].

PMID- 28564672
TI  - The Myth of Patient Centeredness in the Trauma Bay.

PMID- 28564671
TI  - Effects of Smoking and Smoking Cessation during Pregnancy on Adverse Birth
      Outcomes in Rhode Island, 2012-2014.

PMID- 28564673
TI  - Postoperative Multimodal Analgesia Pain Management With Nonopioid Analgesics and
      Techniques: A Review.
AB  - Importance: Amid the current opioid epidemic in the United States, the enhanced
      recovery after surgery pathway (ERAS) has emerged as one of the best strategies
      to improve the value and quality of surgical care and has been increasingly
      adopted for a broad range of complex surgical procedures. The goal of this
      article was to outline important components of opioid-sparing analgesic regimens.
      Observations: Regional analgesia, acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
      agents, gabapentinoids, tramadol, lidocaine, and/or the N-methyl-d-aspartate
      class of glutamate receptor antagonists have been shown to be effective adjuncts
      to narcotic analgesia. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents are not associated
      with an increase in postoperative bleeding. A meta-analysis of 27 randomized
      clinical trials found no difference in postoperative bleeding between the groups
      taking ketorolac tromethamine (33 of 1304 patients [2.5%]) and the control groups
      (21 of 1010 [2.1%]) (odds ratio [OR], 1.1; 95% CI, 0.61-2.06; P = .72). After
      adoption of the multimodal analgesia approach for a colorectal ERAS pathway, most
      patients used less opioids while in the hospital and many did not need opioids
      after hospital discharge, although approximately 50% of patients received some
      opioid during their stay. Conclusions and Relevance: Multimodal analgesia is
      readily available and the evidence is strong to support its efficacy. Surgeons
      should use this effective approach for patients both using and not using the ERAS
      pathway to reduce opioid consumption.

PMID- 28564675
TI  - Incomplete Author Name in Byline.

PMID- 28564676
TI  - New Blood Pressure-Lowering Targets-Finding Clarity.

PMID- 28564677
TI  - Defining Treatment-Resistant Depression.

PMID- 28564674
TI  - Association of a Policy Mandating Physician-Patient Communication With
      Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Postmastectomy Breast Reconstruction.
AB  - Importance: With the stabilization of breast cancer incidence and substantial
      improvement in survival, more attention has focused on postmastectomy breast
      reconstruction (PBR). Despite its demonstrated benefits, wide disparities in the
      use of PBR remain. Physician-patient communication has an important role in
      disparities in health care, especially for elective surgical procedures.
      Recognizing this, the State of New York enacted Public Health Law (NY PBH Law)
      2803-o in 2011 mandating that physicians communicate about reconstructive surgery
      with patients undergoing mastectomy. Objective: To evaluate whether mandated
      physician-patient communication is associated with reduced racial/ethnic
      disparities in immediate PBR (IPBR). Design, Setting, and Participants: This
      retrospective study used state inpatient data from January 1, 2008, through
      December 31, 2011, in New York and California to evaluate a final sample of 42
      346 women aged 20 to 70 years, including 19 364 from New York (treatment group)
      and 22 982 from California (comparison group). The primary hypothesis tested the
      effect of the New York law on racial/ethnic disparities, using California as a
      comparator. The National Academy of Medicine's (formerly Institute of Medicine)
      definition of a disparity was applied, and a difference-in-differences method
      (before-and-after comparison design) was used to evaluate the association of NY
      PBH Law 2803-o mandating physician-patient communication with disparities in
      IPBR. Data were analyzed from July 1, 2016, to February 24, 2017. Exposures: New
      York PBH Law 2803-o was implemented on January 1, 2011. The preexposure period
      included January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2010 (3 years); the postexposure
      period, January 1 through December 31, 2011 (1 year). Main Outcomes and Measures:
      The primary outcome was use of IPBR among white, African American, Hispanic, and
      other minority groups before and after the implementation of NY PBH Law 2803-o.
      Results: Among the 42 346 women (mean [SD] age, 53 [10] years), 65.3% (27 654)
      were white, 12.7% (5365) were Hispanic, 9.4% (3976) were African American, and
      12.6% (5351) were other minorities. The new legislation was not associated with
      the overall IPBR rate or disparity in IPBR between whites and African Americans
      (reduction of 1 percentage point; 95% CI, -0.02 to 0.04), but it was associated
      with a reduction in disparities in IPBR between Hispanic and white patients by 9
      (95% CI, 0.06-0.11) percentage points and between other minorities and white
      patients by 13 (95% CI, 0.11-0.16) percentage points. Conclusions and Relevance:
      Physician-patient communication may help to address inequity in the use of
      elective surgical procedures, such as IPBR. However, lack of patient trust and/or
      effective physician-patient communication may reduce the potential effect of
      mandatory communication for some subpopulations, including African American
      individuals.

PMID- 28564678
TI  - Association Between Skin and Aortic Vascular Inflammation in Patients With
      Psoriasis: A Case-Cohort Study Using Positron Emission Tomography/Computed
      Tomography.
AB  - Importance: Inflammation is critical in the development of atherosclerosis.
      Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that is associated with
      increased vascular inflammation by 18fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography in vivo and future cardiovascular events. It
      provides a human model to understand the effect of treating inflammation in a
      target organ (eg, the skin) on vascular diseases. Objective: To investigate the
      association between change in skin disease severity and change in vascular
      inflammation at 1 year and to characterize the impact of 1 year of anti-tumor
      necrosis factor therapy on vascular inflammation. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: In this prospective cohort study, 220 participants from outpatient
      practices were recruited at the US National Institutes of Health. A total of 115
      consecutively recruited patients with psoriasis were followed up at 1 year. The
      study was conducted from January 1, 2013, through October 31, 2016, with data
      analyzed in November 2016. Exposure: Skin inflammation measured as Psoriasis Area
      and Severity Index (PASI) score. Main Outcomes and Measures: Vascular
      inflammation assessed as target-to-background ratio by 18fluorodeoxyglucose
      positron emission tomography/computed tomography. Results: Among the 115
      patients, the mean (SD) age at 1-year follow-up was 50.8 (12.8) years and 68 were
      men (59%). The cohort had a low cardiovascular risk by Framingham risk score and
      mild-to-moderate psoriasis, with a median PASI score of 5.2 (interquartile range,
      3.0-8.9). At follow-up, the total cohort had a median improvement in PASI score
      of 33%, with use of topical therapy (60%), biological therapy (66%, mostly anti
      tumor necrosis factor) and phototherapy (15%) (P < .001). Moreover, improvement
      in PASI score was associated with improvement in target-to-background ratio of
      6%, mainly driven by those with higher responses in PASI score (P < .001). This
      association persisted beyond traditional risk factors (beta = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.012
      0.375; P = .03) and was the strongest in those initiated with anti-tumor necrosis
      factor therapy (beta = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.269-1.311; P = .03). Conclusions and
      Relevance: Improvement in psoriasis skin disease severity was associated with
      improvement in aortic vascular inflammation by 18fluorodeoxyglucose positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography, with greater improvement in aortic
      vascular inflammation observed in those who had higher than 75% reduction in skin
      disease severity. These findings suggest that controlling remote target organ
      inflammation (eg, in the skin) may improve vascular diseases; however, randomized
      clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28564680
TI  - Suicide Risk After Psychiatric Hospital Discharge.

PMID- 28564679
TI  - Difficulties in Testing the Instrument Strength Independent of Direct Effect
      Assumption in Mendelian Randomization.

PMID- 28564683
TI  - Consciousness as Sequential Dynamics, Robustness, and Mental Disorders.

PMID- 28564682
TI  - Systolic Blood Pressure Reduction and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and
      Mortality: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: Clinical trials have documented that lowering blood pressure reduces
      cardiovascular disease and premature deaths. However, the optimal target for
      reduction of systolic blood pressure (SBP) is uncertain. Objective: To assess the
      association of mean achieved SBP levels with the risk of cardiovascular disease
      and all-cause mortality in adults with hypertension treated with antihypertensive
      therapy. Data Sources: MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from inception to
      December 15, 2015, supplemented by manual searches of the bibliographies of
      retrieved articles. Study Selection: Studies included were clinical trials with
      random allocation to an antihypertensive medication, control, or treatment
      target. Studies had to have reported a difference in mean achieved SBP of 5 mm Hg
      or more between comparison groups. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Data were
      extracted from each study independently and in duplicate by at least 2
      investigators according to a standardized protocol. Network meta-analysis was
      used to obtain pooled randomized results comparing the association of each 5-mm
      Hg SBP category with clinical outcomes after adjusting for baseline risk. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: Cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Results:
      Forty-two trials, including 144 220 patients, met the eligibility criteria. In
      general, there were linear associations between mean achieved SBP and risk of
      cardiovascular disease and mortality, with the lowest risk at 120 to 124 mm Hg.
      Randomized groups with a mean achieved SBP of 120 to 124 mm Hg had a hazard ratio
      (HR) for major cardiovascular disease of 0.71 (95% CI, 0.60-0.83) compared with
      randomized groups with a mean achieved SBP of 130 to 134 mm Hg, an HR of 0.58
      (95% CI, 0.48-0.72) compared with those with a mean achieved SBP of 140 to 144 mm
      Hg, an HR of 0.46 (95% CI, 0.34-0.63) compared with those with a mean achieved
      SBP of 150 to 154 mm Hg, and an HR of 0.36 (95% CI, 0.26-0.51) compared with
      those with a mean achieved SBP of 160 mm Hg or more. Likewise, randomized groups
      with a mean achieved SBP of 120 to 124 mm Hg had an HR for all-cause mortality of
      0.73 (95% CI, 0.58-0.93) compared with randomized groups with a mean achieved SBP
      of 130 to 134 mm Hg, an HR of 0.59 (95% CI, 0.45-0.77) compared with those with a
      mean achieved SBP of 140 to 144 mm Hg, an HR of 0.51 (95% CI, 0.36-0.71) compared
      with those with a mean achieved SBP of 150 to 154 mm Hg, and an HR of 0.47 (95%
      CI, 0.32-0.67) compared with those with a mean achieved SBP of 160 mm Hg or more.
      Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that reducing SBP to levels below
      currently recommended targets significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular
      disease and all-cause mortality. These findings support more intensive control of
      SBP among adults with hypertension.

PMID- 28564684
TI  - Skin and Vascular Disease-Inside-Out/Outside-In.

PMID- 28564681
TI  - Association of Microvascular Dysfunction With Late-Life Depression: A Systematic
      Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: The etiologic factors of late-life depression are still poorly
      understood. Recent evidence suggests that microvascular dysfunction is associated
      with depression, which may have implications for prevention and treatment.
      However, this association has not been systematically reviewed. Objective: To
      examine the associations of peripheral and cerebral microvascular dysfunction
      with late-life depression. Data Sources: A systematic literature search was
      conducted in MEDLINE and EMBASE for and longitudinal studies published since
      inception to October 16, 2016, that assessed the associations between
      microvascular dysfunction and depression. Study Selection: Three independent
      researchers performed the study selection based on consensus. Inclusion criteria
      were a study population 40 years of age or older, a validated method of detecting
      depression, and validated measures of microvascular function. Data Extraction and
      Synthesis: This systematic review and meta-analysis has been registered at
      PROSPERO (CRD42016049158) and is reported in accordance with the PRISMA and MOOSE
      guidelines. Data extraction was performed by an independent researcher. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: The following 5 estimates of microvascular dysfunction
      were considered in participants with or without depression: plasma markers of
      endothelial function, albuminuria, measurements of skin and muscle
      microcirculation, retinal arteriolar and venular diameter, and markers for
      cerebral small vessel disease. Data are reported as pooled odds ratios (ORs) by
      use of the generic inverse variance method with the use of random-effects models.
      Results: A total of 712 studies were identified; 48 were included in the meta
      analysis, of which 8 described longitudinal data. Data from 43 600 participants,
      9203 individuals with depression, and 72 441 person-years (mean follow-up, 3.7
      years) were available. Higher levels of plasma endothelial biomarkers (soluble
      intercellular adhesion molecule-1: OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.28-1.96), white matter
      hyperintensities (OR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.19-1.39), cerebral microbleeds (OR, 1.18;
      95% CI, 1.03-1.34), and cerebral (micro)infarctions (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.21-1.39)
      were associated with depression. Among the studies available, no significant
      associations of albuminuria and retinal vessel diameters with depression were
      reported. Longitudinal data showed a significant association of white matter
      hyperintensities with incident depression (OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.09-1.30).
      Conclusions and Relevance: This meta-analysis shows that both the peripheral and
      cerebral forms of microvascular dysfunction are associated with higher odds of
      (incident) late-life depression. This finding may have clinical implications
      because microvascular dysfunction might provide a potential target for the
      prevention and treatment of depression.

PMID- 28564686
TI  - Bayesian depth estimation from monocular natural images.
AB  - Estimating an accurate and naturalistic dense depth map from a single monocular
      photographic image is a difficult problem. Nevertheless, human observers have
      little difficulty understanding the depth structure implied by photographs. Two
      dimensional (2D) images of the real-world environment contain significant
      statistical information regarding the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the
      world that the vision system likely exploits to compute perceived depth,
      monocularly as well as binocularly. Toward understanding how this might be
      accomplished, we propose a Bayesian model of monocular depth computation that
      recovers detailed 3D scene structures by extracting reliable, robust, depth
      sensitive statistical features from single natural images. These features are
      derived using well-accepted univariate natural scene statistics (NSS) models and
      recent bivariate/correlation NSS models that describe the relationships between
      2D photographic images and their associated depth maps. This is accomplished by
      building a dictionary of canonical local depth patterns from which NSS features
      are extracted as prior information. The dictionary is used to create a
      multivariate Gaussian mixture (MGM) likelihood model that associates local image
      features with depth patterns. A simple Bayesian predictor is then used to form
      spatial depth estimates. The depth results produced by the model, despite its
      simplicity, correlate well with ground-truth depths measured by a current
      generation terrestrial light detection and ranging (LIDAR) scanner. Such a strong
      form of statistical depth information could be used by the visual system when
      creating overall estimated depth maps incorporating stereopsis, accommodation,
      and other conditions. Indeed, even in isolation, the Bayesian predictor delivers
      depth estimates that are competitive with state-of-the-art "computer vision"
      methods that utilize highly engineered image features and sophisticated machine
      learning algorithms.

PMID- 28564685
TI  - Histopathologic and Immunohistochemical Correlates of Confocal Descriptors in
      Pigmented Facial Macules on Photodamaged Skin.
AB  - Importance: Pigmented facial macules on photodamaged skin are a clinical,
      dermoscopic, and histopathologic challenge. Objectives: To clinically and
      dermoscopically characterize, by means of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM),
      ambiguous pigmented facial macules and establish a correlation between RCM,
      histopathologic, and immunohistochemical findings. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: A prospective study of ambiguous pigmented facial macules on
      photodamaged skin was conducted in a tertiary referral center for dermatology
      between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2015. Sixty-one patients with 63
      ambiguous pigmented facial macules and 12 control photodamaged facial areas were
      included in the study. Melanocyte density in 1-mm basal layers was determined in
      skin biopsy specimens from all lesions stained with hematoxylin-eosin and
      immunohistochemical markers (melan-A, microphthalmia-associated transcription
      factor, and SRY-related HMG-box gene 10). Dermoscopic, RCM images, and
      histopathologic preparations were systematically evaluated for the presence of
      lentigo maligna (LM) criteria. Confocal evaluation was blinded to clinical and
      dermoscopic diagnosis. Sensitivity and specificity of RCM for LM diagnosis and
      kappa value to establish correlations between dermoscopy, RCM, and histopathology
      were performed. Main Outcomes and Measures: Sensitivity and specificity of RCM
      for LM diagnosis. Results: Of the 61 patients included in the study, 31 (51%)
      were women; mean (SD) age was 71.8 (13.1) years. Twenty-four of the 63 (38%)
      lesions were diagnosed as LM or LM melanoma (LMM) and 39 (62%) as benign
      pigmented lesions. Reflectance confocal microscopy enhanced the diagnosis of
      pigmented facial macules with 91.7% sensitivity and 86.8% specificity.
      Multivariate analysis showed 2 dermoscopic and 2 confocal features associated
      with LM or LMM: (1) asymmetric follicular pigmentation and targetlike structures,
      and (2) round, large pagetoid cells and follicular localization of atypical
      cells, respectively. Continuous proliferation of atypical melanocytes was found
      in 21 (88%) LM or LMM and in 3 (77%) benign lesions. Asymmetric pigmented
      follicular openings by dermoscopy correlated with follicular localization of
      pagetoid cells by RCM (kappa = 0.499, P < .001). The presence of 3 or more
      atypical cells at the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ) by RCM correlated with
      hyperplasia of melanocytes in hematoxylin-eosin sections (kappa = 0.422, P <
      .001). Conclusions and Relevance: Reflectance confocal microscopy improves LM
      diagnosis in photodamaged skin with good histopathologic correlation although
      false-positive and false-negative cases exist. False-positives obtained with RCM
      in photodamaged skin are due to the presence of basal melanocyte hyperplasia and
      intraepidermal Langerhans cells. Histopathologic features of these lesions
      sometimes are not enough for a definite diagnosis and immunohistochemical studies
      may be required.

PMID- 28564687
TI  - Scan patterns during real-world scene viewing predict individual differences in
      cognitive capacity.
AB  - From the earliest recordings of eye movements during active scene viewing to the
      present day, researchers have commonly reported individual differences in eye
      movement scan patterns under constant stimulus and task demands. These findings
      suggest viewer individual differences may be important for understanding gaze
      control during scene viewing. However, the relationship between scan patterns and
      viewer individual differences during scene viewing remains poorly understood
      because scan patterns are difficult to analyze. The present study uses a powerful
      technique called Successor Representation Scanpath Analysis (Hayes, Petrov, &
      Sederberg, 2011, 2015) to quantify the strength of the association between
      individual differences in scan patterns during real-world scene viewing and
      individual differences in viewer intelligence, working memory capacity, and speed
      of processing. The results of this analysis revealed individual differences in
      scan patterns that explained more than 40% of the variance in viewer intelligence
      and working memory capacity measures, and more than a third of the variance in
      speed of processing measures. The theoretical implications of our findings for
      models of gaze control and avenues for future individual differences research are
      discussed.

PMID- 28564688
TI  - Defining Treatment-Resistant Depression-Reply.

PMID- 28564689
TI  - Laser-induced micropore formation and modification of cartilage structure in
      osteoarthritis healing.
AB  - Pores are vital for functioning of avascular tissues. Laser-induced pores play an
      important role in the process of cartilage regeneration. The aim of any treatment
      for osteoarthritis is to repair hyaline-type cartilage. The aims of this study
      are to answer two questions: (1) How do laser-assisted pores affect the
      cartilaginous cells to synthesize hyaline cartilage (HC)? and (2) How can the
      size distribution of pores arising in the course of laser radiation be
      controlled? We have shown that in cartilage, the pores arise predominately near
      chondrocytes, which promote nutrition of cells and signal molecular transfer that
      activates regeneration of cartilage. In vivo laser treatment of damaged cartilage
      of miniature pig joints provides cellular transformation and formation of HC. We
      propose a simple model of pore formation in biopolymers that paves the way for
      going beyond the trial-and-error approach when choosing an optimal laser
      treatment regime. Our findings support the approach toward laser healing of
      osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28564691
TI  - Single-image structured illumination using Hilbert transform demodulation.
AB  - Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) achieves sectioning at depth by removing
      undesired light from out-of-focus planes within a specimen. However, it generally
      requires at least three modulated images with discrete phase shifts of 0, 120,
      and 240 deg to produce sectioning. Using a Hilbert transform demodulation, it is
      possible to produce both sectioning and depth information relative to a reference
      plane (i.e., a coverslip) using only a single image. The specimen is modulated at
      a known frequency, and the unmodulated portion of the image is estimated. These
      two components are used to provide a high-quality sectioned image containing both
      axial and lateral information of an object. The sectioning resolution with a
      single image is on par with that of a control three-image SIM. We are also able
      to show that when used with three images of discrete phase, this method produces
      better contrast within a turbid media than the traditional SIM technique. Because
      the traditional SIM requires alignment of three different phases, small
      differences in optical path length can introduce strong artifacts. Using the
      single-image technique removes this dependency, greatly improving sectioning in
      turbid media. Multiple targets with various depths and opaqueness are considered,
      including human skin in vivo, demonstrating a quick and useful way to provide
      noninvasive sectioning in real time.

PMID- 28564690
TI  - Volume holographic imaging endoscopic design and construction techniques.
AB  - A reflectance volume holographic imaging (VHI) endoscope has been designed for
      simultaneous in vivo imaging of surface and subsurface tissue structures. Prior
      utilization of VHI systems has been limited to ex vivo tissue imaging. The VHI
      system presented in this work is designed for laparoscopic use. It consists of a
      probe section that relays light from the tissue sample to a handheld unit that
      contains the VHI microscope. The probe section is constructed from gradient index
      (GRIN) lenses that form a 1:1 relay for image collection. The probe has an outer
      diameter of 3.8 mm and is capable of achieving 228.1 ?? lp / mm resolution with
      660-nm Kohler illumination. The handheld optical section operates with a
      magnification of 13.9 and a field of view of 390 ?? ? m * 244 ?? ? m . System
      performance is assessed through imaging of 1951 USAF resolution targets and soft
      tissue samples. The system has also passed sterilization procedures required for
      surgical use and has been used in two laparoscopic surgical procedures.

PMID- 28564693
TI  - Vesicular Rash in a Neutropenic Infant.

PMID- 28564692
TI  - Simulated altitude exposure assessment by hyperspectral imaging.
AB  - Testing the human body's reaction to hypoxia (including the one generated by high
      altitude) is important in aeronautic medicine. This paper presents a method of
      monitoring blood oxygenation during experimental hypoxia using hyperspectral
      imaging (HSI) and a spectral unmixing model based on a modified Beer-Lambert law.
      A total of 20 healthy volunteers (males) aged 25 to 60 years were included in
      this study. A line-scan HSI system was used to acquire images of the faces of the
      subjects. The method generated oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin distribution
      maps from the foreheads of the subjects at 5 and 10 min of hypoxia and after
      recovery in a high oxygen breathing mixture. The method also generated oxygen
      saturation maps that were validated using pulse oximetry. An interesting pattern
      of desaturation on the forehead was discovered during the study, showing one of
      the advantages of using HSI for skin oxygenation monitoring in hypoxic
      conditions. This could bring new insight into the physiological response to high
      altitude and may become a step forward in air crew testing.

PMID- 28564694
TI  - Background and Room Illumination in Color Identification of Skin Lesions: A Cross
      sectional Study.

PMID- 28564696
TI  - A Framework for the Assessment of Graduate Medical Education.

PMID- 28564695
TI  - Efficacy and Tolerance of Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha Agents in Cutaneous
      Sarcoidosis: A French Study of 46 Cases.
AB  - Importance: Evidence for the long-term efficacy and safety of anti-tumor necrosis
      factor alpha agents (anti-TNF) in treating cutaneous sarcoidosis is lacking.
      Objective: To determine the efficacy and safety of anti-TNF in treating cutaneous
      sarcoidosis in a large observational study. Design, Setting, and Participants:
      STAT (Sarcoidosis Treated with Anti-TNF) is a French retrospective and
      prospective multicenter observational database that receives data from teaching
      hospitals and referral centers, as well as several pneumology, dermatology, and
      internal medicine departments. Included patients had histologically proven
      sarcoidosis and received anti-TNF between January 2004 and January 2016. We
      extracted data for patients with skin involvement at anti-TNF initiation. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: Response to treatment was evaluated for skin and visceral
      involvement using the ePOST (extra-pulmonary Physician Organ Severity Tool)
      severity score (from 0 [not affected] to 6 [very severe involvement]).
      Epidemiological and cutaneous features at baseline, efficacy, steroid-sparing,
      safety, and relapses were recorded. The overall cutaneous response rate (OCRR)
      was defined as complete (final cutaneous ePOST score of 0 or 1) or partial
      response (ePOST drop >=2 points from baseline but >1 at last follow-up). Results:
      Among 140 patients in the STAT database, 46 had skin involvement. The most
      frequent lesions were lupus pernio (n = 21 [46%]) and nodules (n = 20 [43%]). The
      median cutaneous severity score was 5 and/or 6 at baseline. Twenty-one patients
      were treated for skin involvement and 25 patients for visceral involvement.
      Reasons for initiating anti-TNF were failure or adverse effects of previous
      therapy in 42 patients (93%). Most patients received infliximab (n = 40 [87%]),
      with systemic steroids in 28 cases (61%) and immunosuppressants in 32 cases
      (69.5%). The median (range) follow-up was 45 (3-103) months. Of the 46 patients
      with sarcoidosis and skin involvement who were treated with anti-TNF were
      included, median (range) age was 50 (14-78) years, and 33 patients (72%) were
      women. The OCRR was 24% after 3 months, 46% after 6 months, and 79% after 12
      months. Steroid sparing was significant. Treatment was discontinued because of
      adverse events in 11 patients (24%), and 21 infectious events occurred in 14
      patients (30%). Infections were more frequent in patients treated for visceral
      involvement than in those treated for skin involvement (n = 12 of 25 [48%] vs n =
      2 of 21 [9.5%], respectively; P = .02). The relapse rate was 44% 18 months after
      discontinuation of treatment. Relapses during treatment occurred in 35% of cases,
      mostly during anti-TNF or concomitant treatment tapering. Conclusions and
      Relevance: Anti-TNF agents are effective but suspensive in cutaneous sarcoidosis.
      The risk of infectious events must be considered.

PMID- 28564697
TI  - Activation of Protein Kinase C epsilon in Merkel Cell Polyomavirus-Induced Merkel
      Cell Carcinoma.

PMID- 28564698
TI  - Intralesional Sodium Thiosulfate Treatment for Calcinosis Cutis in the Setting of
      Lupus Panniculitis.

PMID- 28564700
TI  - Nighttime Driving in Older Adults: Effects of Glare and Association With Mesopic
      Visual Function.
AB  - Purpose: To examine the associations between nighttime driving performance of
      older drivers and photopic, mesopic, and glare-based tests of visual function.
      Methods: Participants included 26 older drivers (71.8 +/- 6.3 years), with
      minimal or no eye disease, but who reported vision-related nighttime driving
      difficulties. Nighttime driving performance was assessed on a closed-road
      circuit, which included intermittent glare. An overall driving performance score
      was calculated based on detection of signs, pedestrians, wooden animals and road
      markings, lane-keeping, and avoidance of low contrast hazards. Visual function
      tests included photopic and mesopic visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity
      (CS). Tests of glare (Berkeley Glare and Aston Halometer) and mesopic motion
      sensitivity were also assessed. Regression analyses were used to explore the
      associations between these vision measures and nighttime driving performance.
      Results: The overall driving performance score was significantly reduced by
      intermittent glare (P = 0.002); notably, pedestrian detection decreased by 38% in
      the presence of intermittent glare (P < 0.001). Overall driving scores were most
      strongly associated with motion sensitivity (P = 0.001) and mesopic high contrast
      VA (P = 0.002), rather than photopic or glare-based tests. Motion sensitivity
      accounted for more than twice the variation in driving performance compared to
      photopic high contrast VA (29% vs. 14%). Conclusions: Glare reduced several
      aspects of nighttime driving performance. Mesopic tests of visual function,
      including motion sensitivity and mesopic high contrast VA, were more strongly
      associated with nighttime driving performance than photopic high-contrast VA.
      These results highlight the potential importance of nonstandard vision tests for
      assessing older drivers' visual capacity to drive at night.

PMID- 28564701
TI  - The Impact of Lens Opacity on SD-OCT Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Bruch's
      Membrane Opening Measurements Using the Anatomical Positioning System (APS).
AB  - Purpose: To evaluate the impact of lens opacity on retinal nerve fiber layer
      thickness (RNFLT) and Bruch's membrane opening (BMO) measurements. Methods: Fifty
      nine randomly selected patients without any other relevant ocular pathology
      undergoing elective routine cataract surgery in two specialized eye clinics were
      enrolled. RNFLT, BMO area, and BMO minimum rim width (BMO-MRW) were assessed with
      the Heidelberg Engineering Spectralis OCT using the anatomical positioning system
      (APS) prior to and 1 day after cataract surgery using a ring scan at different
      eccentricities of the disc (3.5, 4.1 and 4.7 mm). Lens opacity was quantified
      using densitometry based on Scheimpflug images (Oculus Pentacam AXL). Results:
      RNFLT, BMO area, and BMO-MRW were virtually identical before and following
      removal of the cataractous lens. This held when assessed overall, within the six
      sectors for the 3.5-mm scan, or at any other eccentricity. Baseline RNFLT was not
      associated with lens opacity. Conclusions: Using the APS, RNFLT remained
      unchanged following cataract surgery, contrary to results reported by previous
      studies. Our results imply that the APS may have contributed to more precise
      spectral-domain optical coherence measurements, minimizing the influence of
      cataract on RNFLT and BMO assessments in our cohort.

PMID- 28564699
TI  - Suicide Rates After Discharge From Psychiatric Facilities: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: High rates of suicide after psychiatric hospitalization are reported
      in many studies, yet the magnitude of the increases and the factors underlying
      them remain unclear. Objectives: To quantify the rates of suicide after discharge
      from psychiatric facilities and examine what moderates those rates. Data Sources:
      English-language, peer-reviewed publications published from January 1, 1946, to
      May 1, 2016, were located using MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and EMBASE with the search
      terms ((suicid*).ti AND (hospital or discharg* OR inpatient or in-patient OR
      admit*).ab and ((mortality OR outcome* OR death*) AND (psych* OR mental*)).ti AND
      (admit* OR admis* or hospital* OR inpatient* OR in-patient* OR discharg*).ab.
      Hand searching was also done. Study Selection: Studies reporting the number of
      suicides among patients discharged from psychiatric facilities and the number of
      exposed person-years and studies from which these data could be calculated. Data
      Extraction and Synthesis: The meta-analysis adhered to Preferred Reporting Items
      for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) and Meta-analysis of
      Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. A random-effects model
      was used to calculate a pooled estimate of postdischarge suicides per 100 000
      person-years. Main Outcomes and Measures: The suicide rate after discharge from
      psychiatric facilities was the main outcome, and the association between the
      duration of follow-up and the year of the sampling were the main a priori
      moderators. Results: A total of 100 studies reported 183 patient samples (50
      samples of females, 49 of males, and 84 of mixed sex; 129 of adults or
      unspecified patients, 20 of adolescents, 19 of older patients, and 15 from long
      term or forensic discharge facilities), including a total of 17 857 suicides
      during 4 725 445 person-years. The pooled estimate postdischarge suicide rate was
      484 suicides per 100 000 person-years (95% CI, 422-555 suicides per 100 000
      person-years; prediction interval, 89-2641), with high between-sample
      heterogeneity (I2 = 98%). The suicide rate was highest within 3 months after
      discharge (1132; 95% CI, 874-1467) and among patients admitted with suicidal
      ideas or behaviors (2078; 95% CI, 1512-2856). Pooled suicide rates per 100 000
      patients-years were 654 for studies with follow-up periods of 3 months to 1 year,
      494 for studies with follow-up periods of 1 to 5 years, 366 for studies with
      follow-up periods of 5 to 10 years, and 277 for studies with follow-up periods
      longer than 10 years. Suicide rates were higher among samples collected in the
      periods 1995-2004 (656; 95% CI, 518-831) and 2005-2016 (672; 95% CI, 428-1055)
      than in earlier samples. Conclusions and Relevance: The immediate postdischarge
      period is a time of marked risk, but rates of suicide remain high for many years
      after discharge. Patients admitted because of suicidal ideas or behaviors and
      those in the first months after discharge should be a particular focus of
      concern. Previously admitted patients should be able to access long-term care and
      assistance.

PMID- 28564703
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28564704
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28564702
TI  - Associations Between beta-Peripapillary Atrophy and Reticular Pseudodrusen in
      Early Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
AB  - Purpose: Choroidal thinning has been associated with reticular pseudodrusen (RPD)
      and beta-peripapillary atrophy (beta-PPA), which have been linked to normal
      tension glaucoma (NTG). This analysis sought to determine whether RPD are
      independently associated with beta-PPA in early AMD patients. Secondary outcomes
      included the association of RPD and preexisting diagnosis of glaucoma, cup-to
      disc ratio (CDR), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and IOP. Methods: This
      prospective cross-sectional study examined 78 age- and sex-matched early AMD
      patients: 43 RPD patients (63 eyes) and 35 non-RPD patients (64 eyes). Exclusion
      criteria included advanced AMD, high myopia, and vitreoretinal
      conditions/surgery. RPD and non-RPD groups were identified by confocal scanning
      laser ophthalmoscopy. beta-PPA as well as CDR were graded on digital,
      nonstereoscopic fundus photos. SFCT was measured on spectral-domain optical
      coherence tomography for 69 patients (35 RPD and 34 non-RPD). IOP and glaucoma
      diagnosis were extracted from charts. Results: beta-PPA had a greater prevalence
      in RPD than non-RPD (44% vs. 19%, P = 0.002); however, this relationship was not
      significant when SFCT was added to the model (P = 0.150). A preexisting diagnosis
      of glaucoma (P = 0.156), CDR (P = 0.176), and IOP (P = 0.98) was not different
      between groups. Conclusions: RPD in early AMD are associated with presence of
      beta-PPA, but choroidal thickness is a confounder in this relationship. Because
      beta-PPA is a common finding in NTG, focusing on a potential shared pathway
      between RPD and NTG could improve the understanding of pathophysiology and expand
      therapies for each condition.

PMID- 28564705
TI  - A Histologic Categorization of Aqueous Outflow Routes in Familial Open-Angle
      Glaucoma and Associations With Mutations in the MYOC Gene in Japanese Patients.
AB  - Purpose: This study evaluated specific relationships between pathogenic
      mechanisms and genetic polymorphisms in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). We
      analyzed the morphologies of trabeculectomy specimens obtained from patients with
      familial POAG. Methods: We used light microscopy and transmission electron
      microscopy to examine specimens obtained from 17 eyes of 14 patients with
      familial POAG. We also conducted exome analyses of two families and used targeted
      Sanger sequencing to analyze samples obtained from the remaining patients.
      Results: The POAG cases examined in this study were divided into two groups based
      on morphologic characteristics. Group A eyes (7 eyes from 5 patients) had an
      abnormally thick trabecular meshwork (TM), whereas group B eyes (10 eyes from 9
      patients) had a TM of normal thickness. The characteristics of the outflow routes
      in group A eyes were remarkable and included apoptotic TM cells, abnormally
      thickened TM basement membranes, fused TM beams, and occluded Schlemm's canals.
      All group A patients harbored mutations (F369L, P370L, T377M, and T448P) in the
      myocilin (MYOC) gene that were not found in group B patients. Conclusions:
      Although age matching of morphologic changes in the outflow routes was impossible
      due to the small sample size, this study suggests that abnormal TM cells may
      cause sequential damage in abnormally thickened TM basement membranes, TM cell
      apoptosis, TM beam fusion, and the occlusion of Schlemm's canals. The four
      detected MYOC mutations appeared to be associated with morphologic changes in the
      TM and the underlying pathogenesis of a subtype of familial POAG.

PMID- 28564706
TI  - Patient Experiences of Trauma Resuscitation.
AB  - Importance: Patient satisfaction is an increasingly common feature of quality
      measurement, and patient-centered care is a key aspect of high-quality clinical
      care. Incorporating patient preferences in an acute context, such as trauma
      resuscitation, presents distinct challenges; however, to our knowledge, patients'
      experiences of trauma resuscitation have not been explored. Objectives: To
      describe patient experiences of trauma resuscitation and to identify
      opportunities to improve patient experience without compromising speed or
      thoroughness. Design, Setting, and Participants: This qualitative, descriptive
      study was conducted at an urban, academic, level I trauma center. Semistructured
      interviews and video observations were conducted from May to December 2015.
      Interview participants were adult English-speaking patients who had experienced
      trauma resuscitation and were clinically stable with no alteration in
      consciousness. We recruited interview participants and conducted video
      observations until thematic saturation was reached, resulting in 30 interviews
      and 20 observations. Video observation patients did not overlap with interview
      participants. The purposive sample included equal numbers of violently and
      nonviolently injured patients. Data were analyzed for thematic content from June
      2015 to April 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcomes reported are
      themes of patient experience. Results: Of 30 interview participants, 25 were men
      (83.3%), and 21 were black (70.0%). Of 20 video observation patients, 16 were men
      (80.0%), and 17 were black (85.0%). Salient aspects of patient experience of
      trauma resuscitation included emotional responses, physical experience,
      nonclinical concerns, treatment and procedures, trauma team members'
      interactions, communication, and comfort. Participants drew satisfaction from
      trauma team members' demeanor, expertise, and efficiency and valued clear
      clinical communication, as well as words of reassurance. Dissatisfaction stemmed
      from the perceived absence of these attributes and from participants' emotional
      or physical discomfort. Observation data added insight into the components of
      care that may have contributed to participants' responses and those aspects of
      care that were not salient to participants. Conclusions and Relevance: Although
      the urgency of trauma care limits explicit discussion and consideration of
      patient priorities, we found that patient concerns corresponded well with trauma
      team goals. Patients perceived trauma team members as competent, efficient, and
      caring. Focusing on patient communication could further improve patient
      centeredness in this setting.

PMID- 28564707
TI  - Treatment of First-Time Perianal Abscess in Childhood, Balance Recurrence and
      Fistula Formation Rate with Medical Intervention.
AB  - PURPOSE:  Because of differences in therapy for first-time perianal abscess, a
      wide range of recurrences and/or development of fistula-in-ano (RF) rates have
      been reported. The indication for determining when surgical intervention is
      needed remains obscure and controversial. This retrospective study sought to
      compare outcomes of conservative treatment with those after incision and drainage
      (ID) to determine the optimal time for surgical intervention. METHODS:  A total
      of 697 patients with first-time perianal abscess were included in this study. The
      median patient age at the time of onset was 129 days (range: 5-5,110 days). The
      median follow-up period was 395 days (range: 120-760 days). RESULTS:  Of the 697
      patients with first-time perianal abscess, 355 (50.9%) patients who received
      conservative treatment had 12.7% (45/355) RF rate, which is less than that of
      abscesses treated with ID (24.6%, 72/297; p < 0.001). The median course was 23
      (2,466) days, which did not differ significantly from that of abscesses with ID
      (18 [3,510] days) (p = 0.609). Forty-six (6.6%) patients with abscesses that
      perforated spontaneously had 10.9% (5/46) RF rate, which was less than that of
      abscesses with ID (p = 0.019), and the median course was 9 (3,316) days, which
      was shorter than that of abscesses with ID (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION:  Conservative
      treatment is a safe and effective technique for most first-time perianal
      abscesses with less recurrence and a lower fistula formation rate. Incision must
      be performed when an abscess is likely to spread or shows no sign of spontaneous
      perforation.

PMID- 28564708
TI  - Modulation of the Early Host Response to Electrospun Polylactic Acid Matrices by
      Mesenchymal Stem Cells from the Amniotic Fluid.
AB  - PURPOSE:  The reconstruction of congenital diaphragmatic hernia or other
      congenital soft tissue defects often requires implants. These can be either
      degradable or permanent, each having their advantages. Whatever type is being
      used, the host response induced by implants plays a crucial role to determine the
      outcome. Macrophages are pivotal during implant remodeling; they are plastic and
      acquire in response to environmental stimuli either an inflammatory status and
      mediate subsequent fibrosis or a regulatory status and facilitate functional
      remodeling. Matrices engineered with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the
      capacity to modulate the host immune reaction. MSCs are believed to promote
      constructive remodeling of the implant through a regulatory macrophage response
      among others. Herein, we evaluate this potential of MSC derived from the amniotic
      fluid (AF-MSC), an interesting MSC type for neonatal reconstruction, on
      electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds. METHODS:  We seeded AF-MSC at a
      density of 1.105/cm2 on electrospun PLA matrices and determined cell viability.
      In vivo, we used cell-seeded or cell-free PLA matrices for subcutaneous
      implantation in immune competent rats. The host immune response was evaluated by
      histomorphometry at 14 days postoperatively. RESULTS:  The PLA matrix supported
      adherence and proliferation of AF-MSC. Fourteen days after implantation, PLA
      matrices were well penetrated by inflammatory cells, new blood vessels, and
      collagen fibers. AF-MSC-seeded scaffolds were associated with a similar response
      yet with a decreased number of eosinophils, increased matrix degradation and
      collagen fiber deposition compared with controls. The amount of total macrophages
      and of M2-subtype was similar for all animals. CONCLUSION:  Electrospun PLA
      matrices are a suitable substrate for short-term culture of AF-MSC. In rats,
      addition of AF-MSC to PLA matrices modulates the host response after subcutaneous
      implantation, yet without a difference in macrophage profile compared with
      control.

PMID- 28564709
TI  - [Primary mixed adeno-neuroendocrine carcinoma (MANEC) of the urinary bladder: a
      rare entity].
AB  - A 67-year-old male patient underwent transurethral resection for a bladder tumour
      at the lower posterior wall found incidentally on imaging for an unrelated
      disease. The initial histomorphological examination suggested an adenocarcinoma
      with partial neuroendocrine differentiation. Imaging of the thorax and the
      abdomen, showed no evidence of another primary tumour. Due to the unusual
      diagnosis, the case was sent to our department of pathology for expert
      consultation, which confirmed the diagnosis of a primary mixed adeno
      neuroendocrine carcinoma of the bladder (MANEC). Mixed adeno-neuroendocrine
      carcinomas are rare tumours that mostly occur in the colorectum. To our
      knowledge, this case is the fifth case report of a MANEC primarily arising in the
      urinary bladder.

PMID- 28564710
TI  - [Unreported Intentional Life-Ending Acts in Physicians and Nurses].
AB  - Introduction Intentional life-ending acts (LA) including euthanasia and
      termination of life without explicit request are illegal in Germany and have not
      been extensively studied. In a pilot study, unreported LA administered by
      physicians and nurses in German health care were explored. Methods All hospitals
      and nursing homes registered in 2015 (n = 13 393) were contacted via mail or e
      mail and physician and nursing staff were asked to complete an anonymous online
      survey or the identical attached paper-pencil questionnaire. 4629 participants,
      including physicians (n = 356), nurses (n = 3121) und geriatric nurses (n = 1152)
      from a predominant in-patient working area responded to questions about LA at
      their workplace, requests for euthanasia and performance of LA. Results 2.25 -
      4.01 % (172 participants) of all physicians and nurses indicated to have heard of
      euthanasia at their workplace in the last 12 months and 1.42 - 3.39 % (77
      participants) indicated to have performed LA themselves. LA was more frequently
      administered by male participants, physicians and on intensive care units. More
      than one third of all participants who had administered LA (38.10 - 41.67 %) were
      never asked for it. Discussion This pilot study indicates that beside legal forms
      of passive and indirect euthanasia, illegal intentional life-ending acts are
      administered by physicians and nurses in all health-care areas under
      investigation.

PMID- 28564711
TI  - [Linkage Between Promotion of Employment and Promotion of Health in the Community
      Setting - Results of the Pilot Project of the Federal Employment Agency and the
      Statutory Health Insurance].

PMID- 28564712
TI  - [Quality Controls in Hospitals by MDK Hessen: A Practice Report of Experiences
      and Outlook].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Hospital Structure Act introduced S 275a SGB V into the German
      Social Code. It specifies and expands the legal requirements for future quality
      controls in hospitals performed by the Medical Review Board of the Statutory
      Health Insurance Funds (MDK). These controls are intended to ensure high-quality,
      patient-centered and needs-based medical care of the population. Based on 10
      years of experience of the Hessian MDK, the practicability of the quality
      controls is to be demonstrated. METHODS: The hospital quality controls carried
      out so far concern either the examination of the structural quality according to
      the regulations of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) for the quality assurance
      of special care complexes/procedures or the specifications of the German
      Institute of Medical Documentation and Information (DIMDI) for complex
      procedures. All quality controls in the Hessian hospitals are performed as on
      site inspections by a specialized MDK-team of 2 medical examiners. The quality
      controls involve the responsible medical staff as well as members of the hospital
      management. RESULTS: From 2006-2016 a total of 357 quality controls were carried
      out according to the regulations of the G-BA for 10 different special care
      complexes/procedures. In about 20% of cases, the requirements were not fulfilled.
      During the same period, 1624 quality controls were carried out according to the
      specifications of the DIMDI for 33 different complex procedures. In about 40% of
      cases the required standards were not fulfilled. CONCLUSION: The deficits
      revealed demonstrate the need for quality control by an independent and qualified
      body. The quality controls contribute to quality assurance and thus to the
      quality of structures, processes and outcomes in hospitals. The quality control
      practice established by the Hessian MDK is transferable to nationwide quality
      controls to be performed in future.

PMID- 28564713
TI  - Direct peroral cholangioscopy for diagnosis of bile duct lesions using an I-SCAN
      ultraslim endoscope: a pilot study.
AB  - : Background and study aims I-SCAN is a computed virtual chromoendoscopy (CVC)
      system designed to enhance surface and vascular patterns. In this study, we
      evaluated the usefulness of direct peroral cholangioscopy (POC) using I-SCAN
      compared with a conventional white-light image (WLI) to diagnose bile duct
      lesions. Patients and methods Patients with mucosal lesions in the bile duct
      detected during direct POC were enrolled prospectively. The quality of endoscopic
      visualization and the visual diagnosis were assessed using I-SCAN and WLI modes,
      respectively, during direct POC. Results A total of 20 patients (9 malignant and
      11 benign lesions) underwent I-SCAN to evaluate lesions in the bile duct using
      direct POC. The quality of endoscopic visualization using direct POC with I-SCAN
      was significantly higher than that of WLI for surface structure (P = 0.04),
      surface microvascular architecture (P = 0.01), and margins (P = 0.02). Overall
      diagnostic accuracy of the visual diagnosis was not different between I-SCAN and
      WLI (90.0 % vs. 75.0 %; P = 0.20). Conclusion Direct POC using CVC by I-SCAN
      seems to be helpful for evaluating mucosal lesions of the bile duct, without the
      interference from bile. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN000021009.

PMID- 28564714
TI  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastric cancer: are expanded resection
      criteria safe for Western patients?
AB  - : Background and study aims Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is the
      standard treatment for early gastric cancer (EGC) fulfilling guideline resection
      criteria or the expanded resection criteria in Asia. It is unclear whether the
      expanded criteria can be transferred to European patients, and long-term follow
      up data are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term follow-up
      data after ESD of EGCs in Europe. Patients and methods Patients with EGC who
      underwent ESD were included in this single-center study at a German referral
      center. Patient and lesion characteristics, procedure characteristics, and follow
      up data were recorded prospectively. Results A total of 179 patients with 191
      EGCs were included over a period of 141 months, with 29.6 % of lesions meeting
      guideline criteria and 48.6 % meeting expanded criteria. The en bloc resection
      rate was 98.4 % for guideline criteria and 89.0 % for expanded criteria lesions
      (P = 0.09), and the R0 resection rate was 90.2 % and 73.6 %, respectively (P =
      0.02). The main reason for the expanded criteria was a lesion diameter > 20 mm
      (81.6 %). COMPLICATIONS: perforation 1 %, delayed bleeding 6.3 %, stricture 2.1
      %, procedure-related mortality 1.1 %. Local recurrence rate was 0 % for guideline
      criteria and 4.8 % for expanded criteria lesions (P = 0.06), and the rate of
      metachronous neoplasia was 15.1 % and 7.1 %, respectively (median follow-up 51
      and 56 months, respectively); 92.9 % of metachronous neoplasia were treated
      curatively with repeat ESD. One patient developed lymph node metastasis after ESD
      of a submucosal invasive expanded criteria lesion. Long-term-survival was
      comparable between the two criteria (P = 0.58). No gastric cancer-related death
      was observed in either group. Conclusions ESD can achieve high rates of long-term
      curative treatment using the expanded criteria in EGCs in Western countries. We
      recommend ESD as treatment of choice not only for guideline criteria EGCs but
      also for intramucosal nonulcerated EGCs regardless of their diameter.

PMID- 28564715
TI  - Two-stage endoscopic mucosal resection is a safe and effective salvage therapy
      after a failed single-session approach.
AB  - Background and study aims Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) of laterally
      spreading colonic lesions >= 20 mm (LSLs) is ideally performed in a single
      session (ssEMR) and avoids surgery in > 90 % of patients. We investigated whether
      a second attempt is safe or useful when ssEMR fails at a tertiary center.
      Patients and methods In a multicenter prospective observational study of patients
      with LSL treated by EMR at four tertiary centers over 8 years, incompletely
      resected LSLs were referred for surgery or underwent two-stage EMR (tsEMR). At
      tsEMR, the scar was located and all visible residual tissue removed by snare,
      with thermal treatment permitted thereafter. Scheduled surveillance was performed
      at 5 months (SC1) and 18 months (SC2). The primary outcome was avoidance of
      surgery. Results A total of 1944 LSLs (median size 35 mm) underwent EMR. ssEMR
      was unsuccessful in 127 lesions, 43 of which underwent tsEMR, with success in 36
      (83.7 %). Compared with ssEMR, tsEMR lesions were larger (median size 50 mm vs.
      30 mm; P < 0.001), exhibited more submucosal fibrosis (P < 0.001), and histology
      was more often tubular adenoma and less often serrated (P = 0.005). Lesions
      mainly required tsEMR for nonlifting (41.9 %) or poor endoscopic access (37.2 %).
      Failure of tsEMR was predicted by larger LSL (P = 0.03). Safety was comparable to
      ssEMR. Of the 33 LSLs that underwent tsEMR for benign disease and completed first
      surveillance, 27 (81.8 %) avoided surgery to long term follow-up. Conclusions
      tsEMR shows promise as a salvage therapy for LSLs that cannot be resected in a
      single session for patients in whom other options such as surgery are not
      preferred or not possible.Trial registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01368289).

PMID- 28564717
TI  - The Importance of Facts and the Role of Academic Publishers in Today's World-A
      Publisher's View.

PMID- 28564716
TI  - Clinical utility of a functional lumen imaging probe in management of dysphagia
      following head and neck cancer therapies.
AB  - Background and aims Chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer (HNC) with/without
      laryngectomy commonly causes dysphagia. Pharyngoesophageal junction (PEJ)
      stricturing is an important contributor. We aimed to validate a functional lumen
      imaging probe (the EndoFLIP system) as a tool for quantitating pretreatment PEJ
      distensibility and treatment-related changes in HNC survivors with dysphagia and
      to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of EndoFLIP-derived distensibility in
      detecting PEJ strictures. Methods We studied 34 consecutive HNC survivors with
      long-term (> 12 months) dysphagia who underwent endoscopic dilation for suspected
      strictures. Twenty non-dysphagic patients undergoing routine endoscopy served as
      controls. PEJ distensibility was measured at endoscopy with the EndoFLIP system
      pre- and post-dilation. PEJ stricture was defined as the presence of a mucosal
      tear post-dilation. Results PEJ stricture was confirmed in 22/34 HNC patients (65
      %). During distension up to 60 mmHg, the mean EndoFLIP-derived narrowest cross
      sectional area (nCSA) in HNC patients with strictures, without strictures, and in
      controls were 58 mm2 (95 % confidence interval [CI] 22 to 118), 195 mm2 (95 %CI
      129 to 334), and 227 mm2 (95 %CI 168 to 316), respectively. A cutoff of 114 mm2
      for the nCSA at the PEJ had perfect diagnostic accuracy in detecting strictures
      (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 1). In patients with
      strictures, a single session of dilation increased the nCSA by 29 mm2 (95 %CI 20
      to 37; P < 0.001). In patients with no strictures, dilation caused no change in
      the nCSA (mean difference 13 mm2 [95 %CI -4 to 30]; P = 0.13). Conclusions
      EndoFLIP is a highly accurate technique for the detection of PEJ strictures.
      EndoFLIP may complement conventional diagnostic tools in the detection of
      pharyngeal outflow obstruction.

PMID- 28564718
TI  - Clinical Trial Design for Immune-Based Therapy of Hepatitis B Virus.
AB  - The treatment paradigm in hepatitis B virus is on the cusp of major development,
      with a multitude of novel agents undergoing testing for clinical efficacy. Such
      new immune therapies are urgently required for the treatment of chronic hepatitis
      B virus. The current direct antiviral therapies, although able to control viral
      replication and limit the progression to cirrhosis, require lifelong
      administration due to frequent viral rebound on treatment cessation, and immune
      modulation with interferon is only effective in a subpopulation of patients. Here
      the authors discuss novel agents in the pipeline along with whom and how best to
      utilize these immune therapies to achieve functional cure with defined treatment
      endpoints in chronic hepatitis B virus.

PMID- 28564719
TI  - Immunotolerance in Liver Transplantation.

PMID- 28564720
TI  - Inflammasomes in Liver Fibrosis.
AB  - Cell death and inflammation are two central elements in the development of liver
      fibrosis. Inflammasomes are intracellular multiprotein complexes expressed in
      both hepatocytes and nonparenchymal cells in the liver that are key regulators of
      inflammation and cell fate. They respond to cellular danger signals by activating
      caspase 1, releasing the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1beta and IL-18, as well as
      initiating a novel pathway of programmed cell death termed "pyroptosis." These
      processes can initiate and perpetuate an abnormal wound-healing response with the
      principle cellular target being the activation of hepatic stellate cells. From
      the various inflammasomes, the NLRP3 inflammasome has been increasingly
      implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory liver diseases, including
      nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a disease process that is soaring and has evolved
      as a primary cause of liver fibrosis and need for liver transplantation. In this
      review, the authors highlight the growing evidence for both indirect and direct
      effects of inflammasomes in triggering liver fibrosis as well as potential novel
      targets for antifibrotic therapies.

PMID- 28564721
TI  - The Human Gut Microbiome in Liver Diseases.

PMID- 28564723
TI  - Emerging Concepts and Human Trials in Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency Liver
      Disease.

PMID- 28564722
TI  - Update on the Mechanisms of Liver Regeneration.
AB  - Liver possesses many critical functions such as synthesis, detoxification, and
      metabolism. It continually receives nutrient-rich blood from gut, which
      incidentally is also toxin-rich. That may be why liver is uniquely bestowed with
      a capacity to regenerate. A commonly studied procedure to understand the cellular
      and molecular basis of liver regeneration is that of surgical resection. Removal
      of two-thirds of the liver in rodents or patients instigates alterations in
      hepatic homeostasis, which are sensed by the deficient organ to drive the
      restoration process. Although the exact mechanisms that initiate regeneration are
      unknown, alterations in hemodynamics and metabolism have been suspected as
      important effectors. Key signaling pathways are activated that drive cell
      proliferation in various hepatic cell types through autocrine and paracrine
      mechanisms. Once the prehepatectomy mass is regained, the process of regeneration
      is adequately terminated. This review highlights recent discoveries in the
      cellular and molecular basis of liver regeneration.

PMID- 28564725
TI  - Disorders in Hepatic Copper Secretion: Wilson's Disease and Pleomorphic
      Syndromes.

PMID- 28564726
TI  - [Orphan diseases - on the way to better patient care].

PMID- 28564727
TI  - [Management of Pregnancy-Associated Venous Thromboembolism - Current
      Recommendations].

PMID- 28564724
TI  - Epigenetics in the Primary Biliary Cholangitis and Primary Sclerosing
      Cholangitis.

PMID- 28564728
TI  - [Recent Findings on Primary Hyperparathyroidism].

PMID- 28564729
TI  - [Status of Ambulant Geriatrics].

PMID- 28564730
TI  - [Current Aspects in Diagnosis and Therapy of Plasma Cell Myeloma].

PMID- 28564731
TI  - [Update on Tick-Borne Diseases in Germany].

PMID- 28564732
TI  - [Inotropic Support During Infarct-related Cardiogenic Shock].

PMID- 28564733
TI  - [Update Dyslipidaemias - Comments on the 2016 ESC/EAS Guidelines for the
      Management of Dyslipidaemias].

PMID- 28564734
TI  - [Diagnostics and Non-Dialytic Management of AKI - Update].

PMID- 28564735
TI  - [Sarcoidosis - Recent Advances].

PMID- 28564736
TI  - [Primary Immunodeficiency in Adults].

PMID- 28564737
TI  - [Hepatitis E - More than a Rare Travel-Associated Infectious Disease!]

PMID- 28564738
TI  - [31-year-old Male with Epigastric Pain].

PMID- 28564739
TI  - [Histologic Remission following Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy in a Patient with Lynch
      Syndrome and Primarily Unresectable Relapse of Rectum Carcinoma].
AB  - Clinical History A 43-year-old male patient was diagnosed to have rectum
      carcinoma cT4N2M0 with underlying Lynch-Syndrome. After initializing neoadjuvant
      radio-chemotherapy followed by operation, the patient presents with an extensive
      locoregional relapse within a short time. In order to achieve resectability, a
      second line treatment with FOLFOXIRI protocol in addition to Bevacizumab was
      conducted. However, after completing six cycles of this intensiv treatment
      protocol, the tumour showed further progression. Clinical Course Having no
      evidence of distance metastasis, we decided to initiate off-label use of
      Pembrolizumab, a PD-1-receptor inhibitor. Clinical symptoms decreased rapidly and
      after receiving six cycles, PET/CT imaging showed regression. The side effects
      were limited to subclinical autoimmune thyroiditis. After re-operation no
      evidence of malignancy were found in the resectates of exenteration of the
      pelvis. Currently the patient is capable of working with only limited symptoms.
      Conclusion Pembrolizumab offers new treatment options for patients with DNA
      repair-deficiency mismatch, e. g. Lynch-Syndrome. A phase II study already showed
      effectiveness in this particular group of patients. The striking and unexpected
      histo-pathologic results showing full remission should draw attention to the use
      of Pembrolizumab in neoadjuvant settings.

PMID- 28564740
TI  - Message for the Readers of European Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

PMID- 28564741
TI  - The Young Pediatric Surgeon.

PMID- 28564742
TI  - Prophylactic Bracing Has No Effect on Lower Extremity Alignment or Functional
      Performance.
AB  - Prophylactic ankle bracing is commonly used during physical activity.
      Understanding how bracing affects body mechanics is critically important when
      discussing both injury prevention and sport performance. The purpose is to
      determine if ankle bracing affects lower extremity mechanics during the Landing
      Error Scoring System test (LESS) and Sage Sway Index (SSI). Thirty physically
      active participants volunteered for this study. Participants completed the LESS
      and SSI in both a braced and unsupported conditions. Total errors were recorded
      for the LESS. Total errors and time (seconds) were recorded for the SSI. The
      Wilcoxon signed-rank test was utilized to evaluate any differences between the
      brace conditions for each dependent variable. A priori alpha level was set at
      p<0.05. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test yielded no significant difference between
      the braced and unsupported conditions for the LESS (Z=-0.35, p=0.72), SSI time
      (Z=-0.36, p=0.72), or SSI Errors (Z=-0.37, p=0.71). Ankle braces had no effect on
      subjective clinical assessments of lower extremity alignment or postural
      stability. Utilization of a prophylactic support at the ankle did not
      substantially alter the proximal components of the lower kinetic chain.

PMID- 28564743
TI  - Forced Retirement from Professional Rugby Union is Associated with Symptoms of
      Distress.
AB  - Rugby has a higher injury burden than other popular sports, such as football.
      Athletes who are forced to retire as a result of injury are associated with poor
      mental health. With its high injury burden, professional rugby players might be
      at risk of mental health conditions associated with injury-related forced
      retirement. This study aimed to compare mental health between former professional
      rugby players who were and weren't forced to retire. A questionnaire including
      the 4DSQ (distress), GHQ-12 (anxiety/depression), PROMIS short-form (sleep
      disturbance) and AUDIT-C (alcohol misuse) was completed by retired professional
      players from Ireland, France and South Africa. The questionnaire asked players
      whether or not they were forced to retire, as well as the reason for retirement.
      Players forced to retire were more than twice as likely to report symptoms of
      distress in comparison to those that retired voluntarily (odds ratio: 2.1, 95%
      confidence interval: 1.2-3.6, p<0.001). None of the other mental health measures
      (anxiety/depression, sleep disturbance or alcohol misuse) were associated with
      forced retirement. In conclusion, rugby players that were forced to retire may
      require support structures and longitudinal monitoring. Future studies should
      begin monitoring players during their careers to accurately assess the effect of
      retirement on mental health.

PMID- 28564744
TI  - Locomotion Mode Affects the Physiological Strain during Exercise at Walk-Run
      Transition Speed inElderly Men.
AB  - This study investigated cardiorespiratory responses and rating of perceived
      exertion (RPE) during prolonged walking and running exercise performed at the
      walk-run transition speed (WRTS) in untrained healthy elderly men. 20 volunteers
      (mean+/-SE, age: 68.4+/-1.2 yrs; height: 170.0+/-0.02 cm; body mass: 74.7+/-2.3
      kg) performed the following bouts of exercise: a) maximal cardiopulmonary
      exercise test (CPET); b) specific protocol to detect WRTS; and c) two 30-min
      walking and running bouts at WRTS. Expired gases were collected during exercise
      bouts via the Ultima CardiO2 metabolic analyzer. Compared to walking, running at
      the WRTS resulted in higher oxygen uptake (>0.27 L.min-1), pulmonary ventilation
      (>7.7 L.min-1), carbon dioxide output (>0.23 L.min-1), heart rate (>15 beats.min
      1), oxygen pulse (>0.88 15 mL.beats-1), energy expenditure (>27 kcal) and cost of
      oxygen transport (>43 mL.kg-1.km-1.bout-1). The increase of overall and local
      RPEs with exercise duration was similar across locomotion modes (P<0.001). In all
      participants, %HRR and %VO2R throughout walking and running bouts were around or
      above the gas exchange threshold. In conclusion, elderly men exhibited higher
      cardiorespiratory responses during 30-min bouts of running than walking at WRTS.
      Nevertheless, walking corresponded to relative metabolic intensities compatible
      with preservation or improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness and should be
      preferable over running at WRTS in the untrained elderly characterized by poor
      fitness and reduced exercise tolerance.

PMID- 28564746
TI  - THE BIOTA OF LONG-DISTANCE DISPERSAL. II. LOSS OF DISPERSIBILITY IN PACIFIC
      COMPOSITAE.

PMID- 28564747
TI  - ON THE ORIGIN OF THE JUMPING MECHANISM IN FROGS.

PMID- 28564745
TI  - Cardiorespiratory Responses of Adults and Children during Normoxic and Hypoxic
      Exercise.
AB  - We aimed to elucidate potential differential effects of hypoxia on
      cardiorespiratory responses during submaximal cycling and simulated skiing
      exercise between adults and pre-pubertal children. Healthy, low-altitude
      residents (adults, N=13, Age=40+/-4yrs.; children, N=13, age=8+/-2yrs.) were
      tested in normoxia (Nor: PiO2=134+/-0.4 mmHg; 940 m) and normobaric hypoxia (Hyp:
      PiO2=105+/-0.6 mmHg; ~3 000 m) following an overnight hypoxic acclimation (>=12
      hrs). On both days, the participants underwent a graded cycling test and a
      simulated skiing protocol. Minute ventilation (VE), oxygen uptake (VO2), heart
      rate (HR) and capillary-oxygen saturation (SpO2) were measured throughout both
      tests. The cycling data were interpolated for 2 relative workload levels (1 W.kg
      1 & 2 W.kg-1). Higher resting HR in hypoxia, compared to normoxia was only noted
      in children (Nor:78+/-17; Hyp:89+/-17 beats.min-1; p<0.05), while SpO2 was
      significantly lower in hypoxia (Nor:97+/-1%; Hyp:91+/-2%; p<0.01) with no between
      group differences. The VE, VO2 and HR responses were higher during hypoxic
      compared to normoxic cycling test in both groups (p<0.05). Except for greater HR
      during hypoxic compared to normoxic skiing in children (Nor:155+/-19; Hyp:167+/
      13 (beats.min-1); p<0.05), no other significant between-group differences were
      noted during the cycling and skiing protocols. In summary, these data suggest
      similar cardiorespiratory responses to submaximal hypoxic cycling and simulated
      skiing in adults and children.

PMID- 28564748
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND CYTOGENETIC STUDIES OF DROSOPHILA FLAVOPILOSA, A NEOTROPICAL
      SPECIES LIVING IN CESTRUM FLOWERS.

PMID- 28564749
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL FITNESS CHANGES IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS
      FROM TIMBERLINE. II. RE-EXTRACTED CHROMOSOMES.

PMID- 28564750
TI  - INTRASPECIES COMPETITION, VIABILITY, AND LONGEVITY IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28564751
TI  - SELECTION FOR INCREASED FERTILITY OF FEMALE QUAIL WHEN MATED TO MALE CHICKENS.

PMID- 28564752
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL RATE AND COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN TRIBOLIUM.

PMID- 28564753
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA AND DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS.

PMID- 28564754
TI  - EXPERIMENTS ON RANDOM GENETIC DRIFT AND NATURAL SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28564755
TI  - ORIGIN OF DECIDUOUS AND EVERGREEN HABITS IN TEMPERATE FORESTS.

PMID- 28564756
TI  - METACHROMISM OR THE PRINCIPLE OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN MAMMALIAN TEGUMENTARY
      COLORS.

PMID- 28564757
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF PIGMENT POLYMORPHISMS IN COLIAS BUTTERFLIES. I.
      VARIATION OF MELANIN PIGMENT IN RELATION TO THERMOREGULATION.

PMID- 28564758
TI  - THE GENOME CONSTITUTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN PHLOX AMPHIPLOIDS.

PMID- 28564759
TI  - POPULATION STUDIES IN PREDOMINANTLY SELF-POLLINATED SPECIES. XI. GENETIC
      DIVERGENCE AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE FESTUCA MICROSTACHYS COMPLEX.

PMID- 28564760
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF THREE HYBRID POPULATIONS OF POCKET GOPHERS (GENUS THOMOMYS).

PMID- 28564761
TI  - CRETACEOUS DINOSAUR EXTINCTION.

PMID- 28564762
TI  - ADAPTATION TO HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS. I. VARIATION IN HETEROPHYLLY IN
      RANUNCULUS FLAMMULA L.

PMID- 28564763
TI  - THE ROLE OF HETEROSTYLY IN NARCISSUS AND MIRABILIS.

PMID- 28564764
TI  - STUDIES ON COMPETITION IN RICE. III. THE MECHANISM OF COMPETITION AMONG
      PHENOTYPES.

PMID- 28564765
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY STATUS OF A RELICT POPULATION OF BUFO HEMIOPHRYS COPE.

PMID- 28564766
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION FOR AND AGAINST A POLYMORPHISM WHICH INTERACTS WITH SEX.

PMID- 28564767
TI  - CONSIDERATIONS ON SPECIATION IN CHALCIDOIDEA (HYMENOPTERA).

PMID- 28564768
TI  - BREAKDOWN OF ISOLATION MECHANISMS IN TWO SPECIES OF CAPTIVE JUNGLEFOWL (GALLUS
      GALLUS AND GALLUS SONNERATII).

PMID- 28564769
TI  - SELECTION MECHANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH INTRASPECIFIC SHELL VARIATION IN LITTORINA
      PICTA (PROSOBRANCHIA: MESOGASTROPODA).

PMID- 28564770
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS. IV. SUMMER ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES AND LETHAL
      AND SEMILETHAL FREQUENCIES IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564771
TI  - PROPENSITY FOR MULTIPLE MATING IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER FEMALES.

PMID- 28564772
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN TRIDACNA MAXIMA, AN ECOLOGICAL ANALOG OF SOME UNSUCCESSFUL
      EVOLUTIONARY LINEAGES.

PMID- 28564773
TI  - INTRA- AND INTERSPECIES VARIATIONS IN GYPIDULID BRACHIOPODS.

PMID- 28564774
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION OF KARYOTYPICALLY DIFFERENTIATED POPULATIONS IN THE SCELOPORUS
      GRAMMICUS COMPLEX (IGUANIDAE).

PMID- 28564776
TI  - WEATHER, CLIMATE, AND THE EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY OF PACIFIC TREE TOADS.

PMID- 28564775
TI  - PREFERENTIAL MATING AND THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SEX-LIMITED DIMORPHISM IN PAPILIO
      GLAUCUS: EVIDENCE FROM LABORATORY MATINGS.

PMID- 28564777
TI  - STUDIES OF LINKAGE IN POPULATIONS. VI. PERIODIC SELECTION FOR X-CHROMOSOME GENE
      ARRANGEMENT COMBINATIONS.

PMID- 28564778
TI  - CHANCE, HABITAT AND DISPERSAL IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN THE WEST INDIES.

PMID- 28564779
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN BODY SIZE AMONG EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA KEPT AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES.

PMID- 28564780
TI  - ENZYME DIFFERENTIATION AND PHYLOGENY IN CLARKIA FRANCISCANA, C. RUBICUNDA AND C.
      AMOENA.

PMID- 28564781
TI  - THE NUMBERS OF SPECIES OF HUMMINGBIRDS IN THE WEST INDIES.

PMID- 28564782
TI  - PREDATOR POLYMORPHISM AND APOSTATIC SELECTION.

PMID- 28564783
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION WITHOUT ISOLATION IN THE AMERICAN EEL, ANGUILLA ROSTRATA.

PMID- 28564785
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN HAPLOPAPPUS GRACILIS: A CENTRIC TRANSPOSITION RACE.

PMID- 28564784
TI  - COMPARATIVE EVOLUTION OF CEREALS.

PMID- 28564786
TI  - MODE OF POLLINATION AND FLORAL SEXUALITY IN THALICTRUM.

PMID- 28564787
TI  - DEMONSTRATION OF THE SELECTIVE ADVANTAGE OF MIMETIC LIMENITIS BUTTERFLIES
      PRESENTED TO CAGED AVIAN PREDATORS.

PMID- 28564788
TI  - DINOSAUR PHYSIOLOGY AND THE ORIGIN OF MAMMALS.

PMID- 28564789
TI  - RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WEEDY AND CULTIVATED FORMS IN SOME SPECIES OF CHILI PEPPERS
      (GENUS CAPSICUM).

PMID- 28564790
TI  - GROUP SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF DISPERSAL.

PMID- 28564791
TI  - PHYLETIC DIVERGENCE DATES OF HOMINOID PRIMATES: A COMPARISON OF FOSSIL AND
      MOLECULAR DATA.

PMID- 28564792
TI  - AN EXAMPLE OF PARALLEL EVOLUTION IN EPILOBIUM (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28564793
TI  - CYTOGENETICS OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN AKODONT RODENTS (CRICETIDAE). I. A PROGRESS
      REPORT OF ARGENTINIAN AND VENEZUELAN FORMS.

PMID- 28564794
TI  - VARIATION IN THE TARSUS LENGTH OF BIRDS IN ISLAND AND MAINLAND REGIONS.

PMID- 28564795
TI  - ANTHOCYANIDINS OF SOME IMPATIENS SPECIES.

PMID- 28564796
TI  - GENETIC CHANGES IN FLUCTUATING VOLE POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28564797
TI  - "GRYPHAEA," EVOLUTION, AND NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28564798
TI  - THE STRUCTURE OF A POLYSPECIES HYBRID SWARM IN LIATRIS.

PMID- 28564799
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION AND EVOLUTION IN PSEUDOSINELLA HIRSUTA.

PMID- 28564800
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH NUCLEIC ACID SIMILARITIES.

PMID- 28564801
TI  - A COMPARISON OF THE ESTIMATED SIZE AND THE "EFFECTIVE SIZE" OF BREEDING
      POPULATIONS OF THE LEOPARD FROG, RANA PIPIENS.

PMID- 28564802
TI  - COMPETITION AND CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN TWO SYMPATRIC PINE-DWELLING WARBLERS
      (DENDROICA, PARULIDAE).

PMID- 28564803
TI  - RELATION OF INFECTION TO POPULATION STRUCTURE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564804
TI  - VARIATION AND SELECTION IN AN ISOLATED SERIES OF POPULATIONS OF LYSIMACHIA
      VOLKENSII ENGL.

PMID- 28564805
TI  - DIPLOID-TETRAPLOID-HAPLOID CYCLES AND THE ORIGIN OF VARIABILITY IN DICHANTHIUM
      AGAMOSPECIES.

PMID- 28564806
TI  - THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENTIAL VIABILITY ON THE POPULATION DYNAMICS OF t ALLELES IN
      THE HOUSE MOUSE.

PMID- 28564807
TI  - MIGRATION AND COMPETITION IN DROSOPHILA I. COMPETITION BETWEEN WILD AND VESTIGIAL
      STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER IN A CAGE AND MIGRATION-TUBE POPULATION.

PMID- 28564808
TI  - STUDIES ON COMPETITION IN RICE II. COMPETITION IN SEGREGATING POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28564809
TI  - PARTIAL UNILATERAL INCOMPATIBILITY IN LEAVENWORTHIA (CRUCIFERAE).

PMID- 28564810
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS EDITH A VII. HAS E. EDITH A
      EVOLVED A SERPENTINE RACE?

PMID- 28564811
TI  - THE GENETICS OF POLYMORPHISM IN THE GOOSE ANSER CAERULESCENS.

PMID- 28564812
TI  - SOCIAL MIMICRY; CHARACTER CONVERGENCE VERSUS CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT.

PMID- 28564813
TI  - SIBLING SPECIES IN ARTEMIA (CRUSTACEA:BRANCHIOPODA).

PMID- 28564814
TI  - UNIFORM HETEROKARYOTYPIC SUPERIORITY FOR VIABILITY IN A COLORADO POPULATION OF
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28564815
TI  - CUMULATIVE PARENTAL AGE EFFECTS IN DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28564816
TI  - SEASONAL SELECTION IN THE LEOPARD FROG, RANA PIPIENS.

PMID- 28564817
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL AND GENETIC HOMEOSTASIS IN TWO SPECIES OF FLOUR BEETLES.

PMID- 28564818
TI  - THE EFFECT OF WATER ON POLLEN GERMINATION IN TWO SPECIES OF PRIMULA.

PMID- 28564819
TI  - THE CORRELATION OF CLIMATE AND HOST PLANT MORPHOLOGY WITH A GEOGRAPHIC GRADIENT
      OF AN INVERSION POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA PACHEA.

PMID- 28564820
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY IN EDAPHICALLY RESTRICTED AND WIDESPREAD PLANT SPECIES.

PMID- 28564821
TI  - INTERDEMIC SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISM: A COMPUTER SIMULATION STUDY.

PMID- 28564825
TI  - COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MENIDIA.

PMID- 28564822
TI  - ANALYSIS OF A GENERIC LEVEL TRANSITION IN CRETACEOUS AMMONITES.

PMID- 28564823
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION IN PEROMYSCUS.

PMID- 28564826
TI  - MARINE FAUNAL DOMINANCE AND MOLLUSCAN SHELL FORM.

PMID- 28564827
TI  - LACK OF ALLOZYMIC VARIABILITY IN THREE BEE SPECIES.

PMID- 28564828
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HOMOSEQUENTIAL SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28564829
TI  - EFFECTIVE POPULATION NUMBERS IN THE SNAIL CEPAEA NEMORALIS.

PMID- 28564830
TI  - SPATIAL SEGREGATION OF PINS AND THRUMS IN POPULATIONS OF HEDYOTIS NIGRICANS.

PMID- 28564832
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION DURING THE SPECIATION PROCESS IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28564831
TI  - GENIC AND CHROMOSOMAL DIFFERENTIATION IN POCKET GOPHERS OF THE GEOMYS BURSARIUS
      GROUP.

PMID- 28564833
TI  - CHANGES IN MATING BEHAVIOR PRODUCED BY SELECTION FOR ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION
      BETWEEN EBONY AND VESTIGIAL MUTANTS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564834
TI  - ENZYME VARIABILITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DAPHNIA MAGNA I. POPULATION
      STRUCTURE IN EAST ANGLIA.

PMID- 28564835
TI  - DARK CO2 FIXATION, HABITAT PREFERENCE AND EVOLUTION WITHIN THE BROMELIACEAE.

PMID- 28564836
TI  - INCHOATE SPECIATION IN CERATOPTERIS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SYNTHESIZED HYBRID C.
      RICHARDII X C. PTERIDOIDES.

PMID- 28564837
TI  - REPLY TO "DINOSAURS AS REPTILES".

PMID- 28564838
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEMS AND RESISTANCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS IN CILIATES.

PMID- 28564839
TI  - GALAPAGOS SEA LIONS ARE PATERNAL.

PMID- 28564840
TI  - GENIC HETEROZYGOSITY IN THE 13-YEAR CICADA, MAGICICADA.

PMID- 28564841
TI  - EVOLUTION OF APPALACHIAN GYPIDULID BRACHIOPODS: A REPLY TO ELDREDGE (1974).

PMID- 28564842
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF SEXUAL SELECTION AND INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION ON MOCKINGBIRD
      SONG (MIMUS POLYGLOTTOS).

PMID- 28564843
TI  - POLYMORPHISM IN CRICKET FROGS: AN HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28564844
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD FAUNA OF AQUATIC FREE-LIVING ARTHROPODS.

PMID- 28564845
TI  - A PATERNAL ROLE IN GALAPAGOS SEA LIONS?

PMID- 28564846
TI  - A FINAL WORD.

PMID- 28564847
TI  - TESTING EVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESES IN PALEONTOLOGY: A COMMENT ON MAKURATH AND
      ANDERSON (1973).

PMID- 28564848
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF. HYBRID INVIABILITY.

PMID- 28564849
TI  - THE CONGRUENCE OF MORPHOMETRIC SHAPE IN RELATION TO GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN FOUR
      RACES OF MORABINE GRASSHOPPERS (ORTHOPTERA: EUMASTACIDAE).

PMID- 28564850
TI  - SCHOOLING BEHAVIOR IN THE GUPPY (POECILIA RETICULATA): AN EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE
      TO PREDATION.

PMID- 28564851
TI  - PALEONTOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY.

PMID- 28564852
TI  - DINOSAUR BIOENERGETICS-A REPLY TO BENNETT AND DALZELL, AND FEDUCCIA.

PMID- 28564853
TI  - ENDOTHERMY, DINOSAURS, AND ARCHAEOPTERYX.

PMID- 28564854
TI  - ADULT MOVEMENTS AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA.

PMID- 28564855
TI  - POLYMORPHIC MIMICRY AND NATURAL SELECTION: A REPLY TO J. AND M. EDMUNDS.

PMID- 28564856
TI  - RELATIVE GROWTH OF THE TITANOTHERE HORN: A NEW APPROACH TO AN OLD PROBLEM.

PMID- 28564857
TI  - DINOSAURS AS DINOSAURS.

PMID- 28564858
TI  - THE ROLE OF GENETIC DRIFT IN THE DIFFERENTIATION OF ICELANDIC AND NORWEGIAN
      CATTLE.

PMID- 28564859
TI  - POLYMORPHIC MIMICRY AND NATURAL SELECTION: A REAPPRAISAL.

PMID- 28564860
TI  - THE UTILITY OF ELECTROPHORETIC ANALYSIS OF LONG-LIVED PLANTS AND SEEDS FOR THE
      STUDY OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28564861
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT
      SEX DETERMINATION.
AB  - The evolutionary significance of sex-determining mechanisms, particularly
      temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) in reptiles, has remained
      unresolved despite extensive theoretical work. To investigate the evolutionary
      significance of this unusual sex-determining mechanism, I incubated eggs of the
      common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) at a male-producing temperature (26
      degrees C), a female-producing temperature (30 degrees C), and an intermediate
      temperature that produced both sexes about equally (28 degrees C). Laboratory
      experiments indicated that two performance variables, but no morphological
      measurements, were significantly influenced by incubation temperature (P <=
      0.05): hatchlings from cooler incubation treatments swam faster than turtles from
      warmer incubation treatments, and hatchlings from 28 degrees C exhibited a
      greater propensity to run than did individuals from 26 degrees C and 30 degrees
      C. In the field, hatchlings from the all-male and all-female producing
      temperatures had significantly higher first-year survivorship than did consexuals
      from the incubation temperature that produced both sexes (G = 6.622, P = 0.03).
      Significant directional selection was detected on propensity of hatchlings to run
      (beta' = -0.758, P = 0.05): turtles that tended to remain immobile had a higher
      probability of first-year survivorship than did individuals that moved readily.
      Thus, the effects of the gender * incubation temperature interaction on
      survivorship of hatchling turtles observed in the field experiment may have been
      mediated by temperature-dependent antipredator behavior. These results provide a
      possible functional explanation for the evolutionary significance of TSD in
      turtles that is consistent with predictions of theoretical models.

PMID- 28564863
TI  - PERSPECTIVE A UNITS-OF-EVOLUTION PERSPECTIVE ON THE ENDOSYMBIONT THEORY OF THE
      ORIGIN OF THE MITOCHONDRION.
AB  - Discussions of mitochondria and their hosts often conceptualize this relationship
      in a more or less modern form, focusing on the metabolic benefits of mitochondria
      to the host cell or on the possibility of intragenomic conflict. A more inclusive
      units-of-evolution perspective recognizes that both costs and benefits must be
      viewed from the level of the cells that initiated this interaction, the
      protomitochondrion and the primitive host cell. From this perspective, ecological
      and physiological considerations become central to the characterization of
      initial and subsequent host-mitochondria associations. Foremost among these
      considerations is the generation of superoxide radicals by modern mitochondria
      and the deleterious effects of these endogenous oxidants on modern eukaryotic
      cells. Because of their photosynthetic and aerobic ecologies, protomitochondria
      likely were relatively tolerant of such oxidants; anaerobic, heterotrophic,
      primitive host cells, on the other hand, likely were not. In the initial
      association of host and symbiont, the latter may have manipulated the former's
      life history by means of both endogenous oxidants and a superabundance of ATP. A
      resolution of this units-of-evolution conflict was necessary to continue this
      association, and this resolution, in a ritualized form, may have shaped the
      evolution of many features of modern eukaryotic cells and mitochondria, for
      example, the messenger functions of calcium ions, the regulatory role of
      phosphorylation cascades in cell-division cycles, the absence from the
      mitochondrial genome of replication factors, transcription factors, and adenine
      nucleotide carrier genes. The initial host-mitochondria interaction may have
      further channeled the evolution of multicellular eukaryotes, particularly
      animals, resulting in the association of mitochondria and the germinal plasm and
      in the use of extracellular ATP and endogenous oxidants as developmental signals.
      Evolutionary explanations for "free-radical" theories of development and aging
      are thus suggested.

PMID- 28564862
TI  - INTERSEXUAL SELECTION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY: DOES FEMALE CHOICE ENHANCE
      FITNESS?
AB  - Adaptive hypotheses of female choice predict that females use male courtship
      displays as an indicator of male quality. A test of whether female choice is
      adaptive measuring direct and indirect effects of mate choice on females was made
      using a laboratory population of a lek-mating species, the Mediterranean fruit
      fly. The nonrandom mating observed in this species is thought to be strongly
      influenced by female choice. Whether female choice acts to increase fecundity or
      offspring quality was assessed using two different statistical tests. Multiple
      regression showed that females generally do not receive direct benefits as a
      result of mating with males which are successful in copulating with many females.
      However, in one trial the relationship between male quality and female benefit
      was nonlinear. Females which mate with males that obtain few matings (<2), and
      females which mate with males that obtain many matings (>6) enjoy increased
      fecundity. Mate choice does not, however, appear to enhance offspring quality as
      father/son correlation and sibling analysis showed no heritable component to male
      copulatory success.

PMID- 28564864
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS IN PLANTS: THE EFFECT OF THE BREEDING SYSTEM ON GENETIC
      VARIABILITY.
AB  - The expected effects of breeding system on quantitative genetic variation under
      various models for the maintenance of such variation are examined, with
      particular emphasis on the contrast between randomly mating and highly self
      fertilizing populations. Estimates of quantitative genetic parameters from plant
      populations are reviewed. There is some evidence for reduced within-population
      genetic variance in highly inbreeding populations, compared with outbreeders, but
      more empirical work appears necessary. Although the estimate of the magnitude of
      the effect of breeding system is subject to considerable error, the reduction in
      genetic variance in inbreeding populations appears greater than expected if the
      variation were maintained by overdominance, or if it were due to neutral
      mutations. It is more consistent with models involving mutation-selection
      balance, although a rather larger reduction in genetic variance is estimated than
      is expected theoretically. We discuss some possible reasons for the lower level
      of genetic variance in selfers than is predicted by such models.

PMID- 28564865
TI  - FINE-SCALE SPATIAL STRUCTURE: CORRELATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL GENOTYPES DIFFER FROM
      THOSE FOR LOCAL GENE FREQUENCIES.

PMID- 28564866
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF A PARTHENOFORM, THE AMAZON MOLLY POECILIA FORMOSA, ON THE
      BASIS OF A MOLECULAR GENEALOGY.
AB  - The appearance of vertebrate species that reproduce without genetic recombination
      has been explained by their origin from a rare hybridization event between
      members of two distantly related species. For the first recognized vertebrate
      unisexual, the Amazon molly Poecilia formosa, mostly morphological and
      biochemical genetic information has been available so far with respect to its
      evolutionary origin. DNA sequence analyses of transcribed portions of the genome
      (tyrosine kinase proto-oncogenes) demonstrated its hybrid state unequivocally.
      Both alleles can be traced in a DNA sequence-based phylogenetic tree to extant
      species that represent the parental species or that are closely related to the
      corresponding extinct forms, namely P. mexicana limantouri and a so far
      taxonomically ill-defined north Mexican subspecies of the P. latipinna/P.
      velifera complex. A rough estimate from the mutation rates dates the
      hybridization event further back than would have been predicted on the basis of
      "Muller's ratchet" for an ecologically successful species.

PMID- 28564867
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SPRINT SPEED IN LACERTID LIZARDS: MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND
      BEHAVIORAL COVARIATION.
AB  - Organismal performance abilities occupy a central position in phenotypic
      evolution; they are determined by suites of interacting lower-level traits (e.g.,
      morphology and physiology) and they are a primary focus of natural selection. The
      mechanisms by which higher levels of organismal performance are achieved during
      evolution are therefore fundamentally important for understanding correlated
      evolution in general and coadaptation in particular. Here we address correlated
      evolution of morphological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics that
      influence interspecific variation in sprint speed in a clade of lacertid lizards.
      Phylogenetic analyses using independent contrasts indicate that the evolution of
      high maximum sprinting abilities (measured on a photocell-timed racetrack) has
      occurred via the evolution of (1) longer hind limbs relative to body size, and
      (2) a higher physiologically optimum temperature for sprinting. For ectotherms,
      which experience variable body temperatures while active, sprinting abilities in
      nature depend on both maximum capacities and relative performance levels (i.e.,
      percent of maximum) that can be attained. With respect to temperature effects,
      relative performance levels are determined by the interaction between thermal
      physiology and thermoregulatory behavior. Among the 13 species or subspecies of
      lizards in the present study, differences in the optimal temperature for
      sprinting (body temperature at which lizards run fastest) closely matched
      interspecific variation in median preferred body temperature (measured in a
      laboratory photothermal gradient), indicating correlated evolution of thermal
      physiology and thermal preferences. Variability of the preferred body
      temperatures maintained by each species is, across species, negatively correlated
      with the thermal-performance breadth (range of body temperatures over which
      lizards can run relatively fast). This pattern leads to interspecific differences
      in the levels of relative sprint speed that lizards are predicted to attain while
      active at their preferred temperatures. The highest levels of predicted relative
      performance are achieved by species that combine a narrow, precise distribution
      of preferred temperatures with the ability to sprint at near-maximum speeds over
      a wide range of body temperatures. The observed among-species differences in
      predicted relative speed were positively correlated with the interspecific
      variation in maximum sprinting capacities. Thus, species that attain the highest
      maximum speeds are (1) also able to run at near-maximum levels over a wide range
      of temperatures and (2) also maintain body temperatures within a narrow zone near
      the optimal temperature for sprinting. The observed pattern of correlated
      evolution therefore has involved traits at distinct levels of biological
      organization, that is, morphology, physiology, and behavior; and trade-offs are
      not evident. We hypothesize that this particular trait combination has evolved in
      response to coadaptational selection pressures. We also discuss our results in
      the context of possible evolutionary responses to global climatic change.

PMID- 28564868
TI  - PENGUINS, PETRELS, AND PARSIMONY: DOES CLADISTIC ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR REFLECT
      SEABIRD PHYLOGENY?
AB  - Whether or not behavior accurately reflects evolutionary relationships
      (phylogeny) has been hotly debated by ethologists and comparative psychologists.
      Previous studies attempting to resolve this question have generally lacked a
      quantitative, phylogenetic approach. In this study we used behavior and life
      history (BLH) information (72 characters) to generate phylogenetic trees for 18
      seabird species (albatrosses, petrels, and penguins). We compared these trees
      with trees obtained from isozyme electrophoretic analysis of blood proteins (15
      loci and 98 electromorphs) and partial mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA sequences
      (381 base pairs). Cladistic analysis of the BLH data set generated three MP trees
      (tree length = 243, CI = 0.52, RI = 0.57) with significant cladistic structure.
      The BLH characters were classified into four types (foraging, agonistic,
      reproductive, and life history) and levels of homoplasy for each type were
      measured. No significant differences were found among these categories. The BLH
      trees were shown to be significantly more congruent with the electrophoretic and
      12S sequence trees than expected by chance. This indicates that seabird BLH data
      contains phylogenetic signal. Areas of incongruence between BLH trees and a
      phylogeny generated by combining the data sets were predicted to result from
      ecological constraints that did not covary with phylogeny. These predictions were
      supported by the results of a concentrated changes test. This study found that
      this BLH data set was no more homoplasious than molecular data and that BLH trees
      were significantly congruent with molecular trees.

PMID- 28564869
TI  - EARLY LIFE HISTORIES, OCEAN CURRENTS, AND THE POPULATION GENETICS OF CARIBBEAN
      REEF FISHES.
AB  - Tropical reef fishes, along with many benthic invertebrates, have a life cycle
      that includes a sedentary, bottom-dwelling reproductive phase and a planktonic
      stage that occurs early in development. The adult benthic populations occupy
      disjunct, patchy habitats; the extent of gene flow due to dispersal of the
      planktonic life stage is generally unknown.

PMID- 28564870
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION AGAINST WHITE PETALS IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28564871
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF PEROGNATHUS AMPLUS AND PEROGNATHUS
      LONGIMEMBRIS (RODENTIA: HETEROMYIDAE): A POSSIBLE MAMMALIAN RING SPECIES.
AB  - Substantiated cases of ring species in mammals are rare. I examined the variation
      in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Perognathus amplus and P. longimembris in and
      around Arizona to test the hypothesis proposed by Hoffmeister (1986) that these
      two taxa are members of a single ring species demonstrating circular overlap.
      Through digestion of purified mtDNA from 45 P. amplus and 35 P. longimembris with
      16 type II restriction enzymes, I identified 38 distinct haplotypes that belong
      to eight different evolutionary lineages. I then amplified and directly sequenced
      a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b region from individuals
      representative of the lineages identified by restriction fragments, and used
      these data for phylogeny reconstruction in both a parsimony and neighbor-joining
      setting. The resulting phylogeny was consistent with the ring hypothesis, but,
      based on the incompleteness of the ring of subspecies and the apparent timing of
      evolutionary events in this group, I conclude that P. amplus and P. longimembris
      are distinct lineages that have completed the speciation process.

PMID- 28564872
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF SEASONAL POLYPHENISM IN WESTERN WHITE BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - The western white butterfly, Pontia occidentalis, has distinctly different wing
      phenotypes during spring and summer generations as a result of phenotypic
      plasticity (seasonal polyphenism). We experimentally generated different seasonal
      phenotypes in the lab by altering photoperiodic conditions during rearing, and
      released the resulting butterflies in the field. Mark-recapture studies were then
      used to estimate the effects of the polyphenism on activity patterns and adult
      survival in both late-spring (one study) and summer (two studies) conditions.
      There were no significant effects of rearing treatment on temporal patterns of
      behavioral activity during either the late-spring or the summer field studies.
      Recapture probabilities were consistently higher for males than females in all
      three field studies; in the summer 1992 study, recapture probabilities were
      higher for long-day (LD) than for short-day (SD) treatment groups. During the
      late-spring 1992 study, there were no significant differences between LD and SD
      treatment groups for survival probabilities. In the two summer studies, there
      were significant effects of photoperiodic treatment on survival probabilities; in
      the summer 1992 study, LD individuals consistently had higher survival
      probabilities than SD individuals; in the summer 1991 study, there was a
      significant interaction between treatment and time period on survival
      probabilities, such that survival probabilities were higher for LD than for SD
      individuals in two of four time periods. The consistent differences in survival
      probabilities between treatment groups in the summer 1992 study can be accounted
      for by the differences in wing traits between the treatment groups.
      Micrometeorological data from the study site showed that midday ambient
      temperatures averaged ~3 degrees C hotter during the 1992 than the 1991 summer
      study and that ambient conditions during the late-spring 1992 study were
      relatively warm and sunny for the season. These results document the varying
      relationships between phenotype and fitness in the temporally fluctuating
      environments experienced by this population.

PMID- 28564873
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF ENDOTHERMY: TESTING THE AEROBIC CAPACITY MODEL.
AB  - One of the most important events in vertebrate evolution was the acquisition of
      endothermy, the ability to use metabolic heat production to elevate body
      temperature above environmental temperature. Several verbal models have been
      proposed to explain the selective factors leading to the evolution of endothermy.
      Of these, the aerobic capacity model has received the most attention in recent
      years. The aerobic capacity model postulates that selection acted mainly to
      increase maximal aerobic capacity (or associated behavioral abilities) and that
      elevated resting metabolic rate evolved as a correlated response. Here we
      evaluate the implicit evolutionary and genetic assumptions of the aerobic
      capacity model. In light of this evaluation, we assess the utility of phenotypic
      and genetic correlations for testing the aerobic capacity model. Collectively,
      the available intraspecific data for terrestrial vertebrates support the notion
      of a positive phenotypic correlation between resting and maximal rates of oxygen
      consumption within species. Interspecific analyses provide mixed support for this
      phenotypic correlation. We argue, however, that assessments of phenotypic or
      genetic correlations within species and evolutionary correlations among species
      (from comparative data) are of limited utility, because they may not be able to
      distinguish between the aerobic capacity model and plausible alternatives, such
      as selection acting directly on aspects of thermoregulatory abilities. We suggest
      six sources of information that may help shed light on the selective factors
      important during the evolution of high aerobic metabolic rates and, ultimately,
      the attainment of endothermy. Of particular interest will be attempts to
      determine, using a combination of mechanistic physiological and quantitative
      genetic approaches, whether a positive genetic correlation between resting and
      maximal rates of oxygen consumption is an ineluctable feature of vertebrate
      physiology.

PMID- 28564874
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HOMOGENEITY IN THE PHENOTYPICALLY DIVERSE REDPOLL FINCH COMPLEX
      (AVES: CARDUELINAE: CARDUELIS FLAMMEA-HORNEMANNI).
AB  - Breeding redpoll finches (Aves: Carduelinae) show extensive plumage and size
      variability and, in many cases, a plumage polymorphism that is not related to age
      or sex. This has been ascribed to extreme phenotypic variation within a single
      taxon or to moderate variability within distinct taxa coupled with hybridization.
      The predominant view favors the recognition of two largely sympatric species:
      Carduelis flammea, comprised of four well-marked subspecies-flammea, cabaret,
      islandica, and rostrata; and C. hornemanni, comprised of two subspecies
      hornemanni and exilipes. We studied representative samples of these putative
      subspecies (except islandica) for variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Using
      20 informative restriction enzymes that recognized 124 sites (642 base pairs [bp]
      of sequence or ~ 3.7% of the molecule), we identified 17 RFLP haplotypes in the
      31 individuals surveyed. The haplotypes formed a simple phylogenetic network with
      most clones diverging by a single site difference from a common haplotype found
      in almost half of the individuals. Within populations and taxa, levels of mtDNA
      diversity were similar to those observed in other avian species. The pattern of
      mtDNA divergence among populations was statistically unrelated to their
      geographic or traditional taxonomic relationships, and the estimated distance
      between the two traditionally recognized species was very small relative to those
      typically observed among avian sister species.

PMID- 28564875
TI  - COLOR-PATTERN VARIATION IN LAKE ERIE WATER SNAKES: THE ROLE OF GENE FLOW.
AB  - In an effort to clarify the evolutionary processes influencing color-pattern
      variation in Lake Erie island water snake (Nerodia sipedon) populations, rates of
      gene flow among island and mainland populations were estimated from patterns of
      allozymic variation detected using electrophoresis. Rates of gene flow were high
      with Nm, the number of migrants per generation, averaging 25.5 among island
      sites, 9.2 between the Ontario mainland and the islands, and 3.6 between the Ohio
      mainland and the islands. Based on estimates of current population size from mark
      recapture work and of past population size extrapolated from the extent of
      shoreline habitat, values of m between island and mainland populations ranged
      from 0.0008-0.01. Synthesis of estimates of the rate of gene flow with
      information on inheritance of color pattern, the strength of natural selection,
      and population history supports the hypothesis that color-pattern variation in
      island populations results from a balance between gene flow and natural
      selection. However, depending on the mode of inheritance of color pattern,
      stochastic processes such as drift may have been important in the initial stages
      of differentiation between island and mainland populations.

PMID- 28564876
TI  - A HISTORY OF HOST ASSOCIATIONS AND EVOLUTIONARY DIVERSIFICATION FOR OPHRAELLA
      (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE): NEW EVIDENCE FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.

PMID- 28564877
TI  - LOCAL ADAPTATION AND AGENTS OF SELECTION IN A MOBILE INSECT.
AB  - The deme-formation hypothesis states that selection can produce adaptive genetic
      variation within and among phytophagous insect populations. We conducted three
      field experiments and tested this prediction by transferring eggs and measuring
      performance of a mobile leafmining insect, Stilbosis quadricustatella. In
      Experiment 1, we compared the rate of mine initiation of leafminers transferred
      to natal and novel sites. In Experiment 2, we compared mine-initiation rate of
      leafminers transferred to natal and novel host-plant species. In Experiment 3, we
      compared the mine-initiation rate, mine-completion rate, and sources of mortality
      of miners transferred to neighboring natal and novel Quercus geminata trees. In
      the first, second, and third experiments, leafminer larvae initiated
      significantly more mines at the natal site, on the natal plant species, and on
      the natal Q. geminata tree, evidence for adaptive differentiation. Furthermore,
      plant-mediated mortality was significantly lower among miners transferred to
      natal Q. geminata trees. This result supports a key assumption of the deme
      formation hypothesis: insects adapt to the defensive phenotypes of individual
      trees. However, natural-enemy mortality was significantly higher among miners
      transferred to natal trees, essentially reversing the plant effect. Therefore,
      rates of successful mine completion were similar on natal (19%) and novel (17%)
      trees. This experiment suggests that host plants and natural enemies may
      represent opposing forces of selection. Leafminers adapted to individual trees
      may realize a selective advantage only when natural-enemy densities are low.

PMID- 28564878
TI  - VIABILITY SELECTION ON SEASONALLY POLYPHENIC TRAITS: WING MELANIN PATTERN IN
      WESTERN WHITE BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Wing melanin pattern varies seasonally among generations in many populations of
      the butterfly Pontia occidentalis, leading to distinctly different wing
      phenotypes during spring and summer generations. Estimates of directional
      selection on wing pattern can therefore quantify the imperfection of this
      phenotypically plastic (polyphenic) response in generating "optimal" phenotypes
      for each seasonal generation. Mark-release-recapture (MRR) studies were used to
      estimate directional selection on six wing traits in a natural population of P.
      occidentalis during both spring and summer weather conditions. Estimated survival
      and recapture probabilities varied substantially among the four MRR studies. When
      differences between males and females were detected, the survival and recapture
      probabilities were higher for males than for females. Estimated selection
      coefficients suggested that the direction of selection on one wing trait
      important for thermoregulation, melanin on the base of the dorsal hindwings
      (trait hb), fluctuated seasonally; there was evidence of directional selection
      for increased hb in the spring studies and for decreased hb in the summer
      studies. Such fluctuating seasonal selection on hb implies that the seasonal
      polyphenic response may not be sufficient to eliminate selection on this trait;
      the slope of the reaction-norm mapping hb onto seasonal environmental cues is too
      shallow, resulting in further selection on the reaction norm. Adaptive evolution
      of the reaction norm may be constrained by phenotypic and genetic correlations
      with other wing traits that experience different patterns of selection and by
      variable weather conditions within seasons and among years.

PMID- 28564879
TI  - RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND MATING SYSTEMS IN BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - A cross-taxonomic comparison of resources allocated to reproductive reserves at
      adult eclosion reveals that females belonging to polyandrous species receive more
      ejaculate material and allocate proportionally less of their total reserves to
      potential reproduction compared to females belonging to monandrous species. These
      results suggest that adult females of polyandrous species have a higher expected
      nutrient income and are consistent with the idea that females can benefit from
      male nutrient donations transferred during mating. Males show the opposite
      pattern: males of polyandrous species allocate proportionally more to
      reproduction. This is expected since males in polyandrous species have both
      proportionally heavier ejaculates and have a higher ejaculative production
      capacity than do males in monandrous species. Interestingly, adults of the genus
      Heliconius which can obtain nutrients crucial to reproduction by pollen feeding
      do not seem to follow these patterns as strong as only nectar-feeding
      butterflies. Instead, the association between degree of polyandry and resources
      allocated to reproduction is relaxed.

PMID- 28564880
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE LIMBS OF TARICHA GRANULOSA (CAUDATA:
      SALAMANDRIDAE): EVOLUTIONARY AND PHYLOGENETIC IMPLICATIONS.
AB  - Variation in the limb skeleton was studied in a large sample (452 individuals) of
      adult newts (Taricha granulosa) from a single population in central California. A
      standard morphology is found in the hands and feet in more than 70% of
      individuals, but there is important variation in the remainder of the sample.
      Although twice as many individuals express variant tarsal (18.9%) than carpal
      (9.3%) patterns, the carpus reveals a greater diversity of variant conditions.
      Only a few of the many possible arrangements (including loss, addition, and
      amalgamation) of the seven carpal and nine tarsal elements are encountered. Most
      of the observed patterns are readily classified on the basis of phylogenetic
      relationship and models of development. Five patterns are bilaterally
      symmetrical. Two of these five arrangements are atavisms that represent
      plesiomorphic states. The other three symmetrical variants duplicate patterns
      found elsewhere among derived urodele taxa. These homoplastic patterns correspond
      to apomorphies of other genera within the same family or apomorphies of deeply
      nested and highly specialized members of other families (e.g., several
      plethodontid genera). This variation reveals the potential of the generative
      system and suggests the existence of limited domains of phenotypic expression.
      Both the origin of novelty and the restoration of ancestral states reflect the
      action of design constraints that not only place limits but also provide
      opportunities during the morphologic and phyletic diversification of urodeles.

PMID- 28564881
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF SELECTED GENES IN THE MOSQUITO CULEX
      PIPIENS.
AB  - To determine the outcome of the combined effects of gene flow, genetic drift, and
      selection on the evolution of insecticide-resistance genes in the mosquito Culex
      pipiens, samples were collected along three transects crossing treated and
      nontreated areas in northern Spain and southern France. Electrophoretic
      polymorphisms of five presumably neutral genes disclosed that differentiation
      among samples was low, and that both Wright F-statistics and Slatkin private
      alleles methods provided a high estimate for Nm. In contrast, there was a strong
      differentiation in the distribution of resistance genes closely associated with
      insecticide treatments. These divergent situations are explained in relation to
      both the very recent origin of some resistance genes that are still localized
      geographically (A2-B2 and C1), and the high fitness cost of the older and
      ubiquitous ones in nontreated areas (A1, A4-B4, and AceR ).

PMID- 28564882
TI  - GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON MACROEVOLUTION: THE EVOLUTION OF HOST AFFILIATION IN THE
      LEAF BEETLE GENUS OPHRAELLA.
AB  - We hypothesize that the evolution of an ecologically important character, the
      host associations of specialized phytophagous insects, has been influenced by
      limitations on genetic variation. Using as a historical framework a phylogenetic
      reconstruction of the history of host associations in the beetle genus Ophraella
      (Chrysomelidae), we have employed quantitative-genetic methods to screen four
      species for genetic variation in larval survival, oviposition (in one species
      only), and feeding responses to their congeners' host plants, in the Asteraceae.
      We here report results of studies of one species and evaluate the results from
      all four. Analysis of half-sib/full-sib families and of progenies of wild females
      of O. notulata, a specialist on Iva (Ambrosiinae), provided evidence of genetic
      variation in larval consumption of five of six test plants and in adult
      consumption of four of six. Larval mortality was complete on five plants; only on
      Ambrosia, a close relative of the natural host, was there appreciable, and
      genetically variable, survival. Oviposition on Ambrosia showed marginally
      significant evidence of genetic variation; a more distantly related plant
      elicited no oviposition at all. In compiling results from four Ophraella species,
      reported in this and two other papers, we found no evidence of genetic variation
      in 18 of 39 tests of feeding responses and 14 of 16 tests of larval survival on
      congeners' hosts. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that absence or
      paucity of genetic variation may constrain or at least bias the evolution of host
      associations. The lower incidence of genetic variation in survival than in
      feeding behavior may imply, according to recent models, that avoidance is a more
      common evolutionary response to novel plants than adaptation. The usually great
      disparity between mean performance on congeners' hosts and the species' natural
      hosts, and an almost complete lack of evidence for negative genetic correlations,
      argue against the likelihood that speciation has occurred by sympatric host
      shift. The presence versus apparent absence of genetic variation in consumption
      was correlated with the propinquity of relationship between the beetle species
      tested and the species that normally feeds on the test plant, suggesting that the
      history of host shifts in Ophraella has been guided in part by restrictions on
      genetic variation. It was also correlated with the propinquity of relationship
      between a test plant and the beetle's natural host. The contributions of plant
      relationships and insect relationships, themselves correlated in part, to the
      pattern of genetic variation, are not readily distinguishable, but together
      accord with phylogenetic evidence that these and other phytophagous insects adapt
      most readily to related plants. In this instance, therefore, the macroevolution
      of an ecologically important character appears to have been influenced by genetic
      constraints. We hypothesize that absence of the structural prerequisites for
      genetic variation in complex characters may affect genetic variation and the
      trajectory of evolution.

PMID- 28564883
TI  - UNDERSTANDING THE POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF GLEDITSIA TRIACANTHOS L.: THE
      SCALE AND PATTERN OF POLLEN GENE FLOW.
AB  - Spatial and temporal patterns of gene flow determine the extent to which
      populations can differentiate from one another as a result of natural selection
      or genetic drift. In this study, we investigated pollen-mediated gene flow in two
      eastern Kansas populations of the subdioecious tree species, Gleditsia
      triacanthos L. (Leguminosae), or honeylocust. In 2 yr at each site, we used
      paternity-exclusion analysis to estimate the proportion of seeds sired by
      immigrant pollen. We also used a single-parent and parent-pair exclusion analysis
      on naturally established seedlings and saplings to estimate gene flow into one
      site over a 12-yr period and into the second site over a 22-yr period. Results of
      both analyses showed high minimum estimates of pollen gene flow into each site
      (17%-30%). In each population, we found significantly less gene flow in years of
      high fruit production than in years of low fruit production, but in one
      population, we observed little variation in gene-flow rates among age classes of
      seedlings and saplings. The level of pollen gene flow showed weak negative
      dependence on the relative isolation distances of the maternal trees sampled (140
      240 m at one site vs. 85-120 m at the second site), and gene-flow estimates from
      naturally established juveniles were very similar at the two sites. Within
      populations, a multiple regression model showed that maximum-likelihood estimates
      of male fertility were negatively associated with distances between mates and
      positively associated with male size as measured by stem diameter. In neither
      population, however, did the regression explain more than 16% of the total
      variation in male fertilities.

PMID- 28564884
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE OF A HERBIVOROUS INSECT AND ITS HOST PLANT ON A
      MICROGEOGRAPHIC SCALE.

PMID- 28564885
TI  - CONSERVATION OF MOLECULAR PREPATTERNS DURING THE EVOLUTION OF CUTICLE MORPHOLOGY
      IN DROSOPHILA LARVAE.
AB  - We are using patterns of cuticle specialization in Drosophila larvae as models to
      investigate the molecular, genetic, and developmental bases of morphological
      evolution. Members of the virilis species group differ markedly from one another
      in the distribution of hairs on the dorsal surface of first instar larvae. In
      particular, characteristic bands of hairs cover about 20% of each trunk segment
      in some species but about 70% in others. These major types do not correlate with
      recently proposed phylogenetic relationships, suggesting that similar phenotypes
      have arisen independently in different lineages. The patterns of expression of
      several genes that control or reflect intrasegmental patterning are
      indistinguishable in species with very different cuticle morphologies. We
      conclude that, in this case, morphology probably has evolved via altered response
      to a conserved molecular prepattern.

PMID- 28564886
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF BRYOZOAN PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION. I. RATE TESTS FOR RANDOM
      CHANGE VERSUS SELECTION IN DIFFERENTIATION OF LIVING SPECIES.
AB  - The possible roles of random genetic change and natural selection in bryozoan
      speciation were analyzed using quantitative genetic methods on breeding data for
      traits of skeletal morphology in two closely related species of the cheilostome
      Stylopoma. The hypothesis that morphologic differences between the species are
      caused entirely by mutation and genetic drift could not be rejected for
      reasonable rates of mutation maintained for as few as 103 to 104 generations.
      Divergence times this short or shorter are consistent with the abrupt appearances
      of many invertebrate species in the fossil record, commonly followed by millions
      of years of morphologic stasis. To produce these differences over 103 generations
      or fewer, directional selection acting alone would require unrealistically high
      levels of minimum selective mortality throughout divergence. Thus, selection is
      unnecessary to explain the divergence of these species, except as a means of
      accelerating the effects of random genetic change on shorter time scales
      (directional selection), or decelerating them over longer ones (stabilizing
      selection). These results are consistent with a variety of models of phenotypic
      evolution involving random shifts between multiple adaptive peaks. Similar
      results were obtained by substituting trait heritabilities and genetic
      covariances reconstructed by partitioning within- and among-colony phenotypic
      variance in place of the values based on breeding data. Quantitative genetic
      analysis of speciation in fossil bryozoan lineages is thus justified.

PMID- 28564887
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: THE EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF AGING, SEXUAL REPRODUCTION, AND DNA
      REPAIR.
AB  - Three recent books on the evolutionary biology of aging and sexual reproduction
      are reviewed, with particular attention focused on the provocative suggestion by
      Bernstein and Bernstein (1991) that senescence and genetic recombination are
      related epiphenomena stemming from the universal challenge to life posed by DNA
      damages and the need for damage repair. Embellishments to these theories on aging
      and sex are presented that consider two relevant topics neglected or
      underemphasized in the previous treatments. The first concerns discussion of
      cytoplasmic genomes (such as mtDNA), which are transmitted asexually and
      therefore do not abide by the recombinational rules of nuclear genomes; the
      second considers the varying degrees of cellular and molecular autonomy which
      distinguish unicellular from multicellular organisms, germ cells from somatic
      cells, and sexual from asexual genomes. Building on the Bernsteins' suggestions,
      two routes to immortality for cell lineages appear to be available to life: an
      asexual strategy (exemplified by some bacteria), whereby cell proliferation
      outpaces the accumulation of DNA damages, thereby circumventing Muller's ratchet;
      and a sexual strategy (exemplified by germlines in multicellular organisms),
      whereby recombinational repair of DNA damages in conjunction with cell
      proliferation and gametic selection counter the accumulation of nuclear DNA
      damages. If true, then elements of both the recombinational strategy (nuclear
      DNA) and replacement strategy (cytoplasmic DNA) may operate simultaneously in the
      germ-cell lineages of higher organisms, producing at least some gametes that are
      purged of the DNA damages accumulated during the lifetime of the somatic parent.
      For multicellular organisms, production of functionally autonomous and
      genetically screened gametic cells is a necessary and sufficient condition for
      the continuance of life.

PMID- 28564888
TI  - VARIATION IN REACTION NORMS AMONG POPULATIONS OF THE GRASS BOUTELOUA RIGIDISETA.
AB  - Recent research has emphasized the importance of investigating the reaction norms
      of quantitative traits to understand evolution in natural environments. In this
      study, genetic differences in reaction norms among eight populations of the grass
      Bouteloua rigidiseta were examined using clonal replicates of genotypes planted
      in a common garden with two levels of competition (single B. rigidiseta without
      competition and single B. rigidiseta surrounded by four Erioneuron pilosum). The
      populations were found to be genetically differentiated for a variety of traits.
      Differences in reaction norms of size-specific fecundity (spikelet clusters per
      tiller number) were detected among the populations: some showed little response
      to competition; in others size-specific fecundity was much greater in the absence
      of competition. This divergence in reaction norms among these populations may be
      the result of past selection (including the cost of plasticity), or genetic
      drift.

PMID- 28564889
TI  - PREFERENCE HIERARCHIES AND THE ORIGIN OF GEOGRAPHIC SPECIALIZATION IN HOST USE IN
      SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Four allopatric populations of the widely distributed western anise swallowtail
      butterfly, Papilio zelicaon, use different plant genera as hosts, but
      simultaneous choice experiments showed that these populations have diverged only
      slightly in oviposition preference. Of the four populations-two from southeastern
      Washington State, one from coastal southwestern Washington State, and one from
      central California-three use hosts that are not available to any of the others.
      Although variation for the degree of preference for particular plant species
      occurred within and among populations, all four populations ranked hosts in the
      same overall order. Monophagy on a local, low-ranking host outside the range of
      high-ranking hosts did not necessarily lead to the loss of preference for those
      high-ranking hosts, thereby indicating that the high-ranking hosts would still be
      accepted, and in some cases even preferred, if a population encountered them
      again. Hence, the overall preference hierarchy among P. zelicaon populations
      appears to be evolutionarily conservative. Analyses of differences among families
      within the California population indicated that increased preference for some
      hosts is inversely correlated, whereas preference for other hosts may be
      uncorrelated. Positive correlations may also occur but were not observed among
      the plant species tested. Overall, the results indicate local monophagy on
      different plant species in P. zelicaon has not involved major reorganizations in
      the preference hierarchy of ovipositing females, even in populations that may
      have fed on a low-ranking host for many generations. Instead, small increases in
      preference for local hosts have occurred within an evolutionarily conservative
      preference hierarchy.

PMID- 28564890
TI  - THE ROLE OF DEME SIZE, REPRODUCTIVE PATTERNS, AND DISPERSAL IN THE DYNAMICS OF t
      LETHAL HAPLOTYPES.
AB  - The t-lethal haplotypes (t) found in house mouse (Mus musculus) populations are
      recessive lethals favored by gametic selection whereby male heterozygotes exhibit
      a non-Mendelian transmission ratio of about 95% t. The expected equilibrium
      frequency is 0.385; however, empirical values are lower, averaging close to 0.13.
      We examined the hypothesis that interdemic selection is the cause of the low
      empirical values by using a deme-structured simulation model that included
      overlapping generations, a realistic breeding system, differential deme
      productivity, and a large total population. We found that under some conditions
      interdemic selection could lower t frequency below 0.13 in the face of
      immigration rates up to 5%. Low frequencies were correlated with effective deme
      size (ne ), regardless of whether ne was changed through changing deme size (n)
      or through changing the proportion of breeding adults. Earlier workers showed how
      the first two phases of interdemic selection (random genetic differentiation and
      mass selection) interacted to reduce the haplotype frequency, but here we show
      the importance of the third phase (differential productivity of demes) once demes
      are linked by dispersal. The effect of this phase is not due to the (negative)
      covariation between deme productivity and haplotype frequency, but occurs when
      differential deme productivity generates a difference in t frequency between the
      population of juveniles recruited into their natal deme and the population of
      juvenile dispersers. This difference was maximized when the average productivity
      of demes was low, either because few adult females bred at any one time and/or
      because fecundity was low. Contrary to an earlier prediction, male-biased
      dispersal also reduced haplotype frequency, and this probably stems from the
      relative excess of wild-type genotypes among dispersers compared to the deme
      residents. Another unexpected finding was that the randomly generated excess of
      heterozygotes (FIS < 0) found in small demes favored t haplotypes; however, the
      effect was only seen when the more powerful influence of the third phase of
      interdemic selection was removed. Simulations of neutral polymorphisms showed
      that a deme structure giving FST <= 0.6 is inconsistent with a haplotype
      frequency below 0.13. Based on current empirical estimates of FST (about 0.2), we
      concluded that immigration rates in the field are too high for interdemic
      selection alone to cause the observed deficit of lethal haplotypes. One factor
      that could combine with population structure effects is the observation that the
      transmission ratio is lowered to around 0.6 in litters produced from postpartum
      estrus (PPE). Incorporating this factor, we showed that interdemic selection
      could be effective in lowering the frequency of t below 0.13 when FST was above
      0.43 even when migration rates were up to 10%. These results suggest that if
      empirical haplotype and FST estimates are accurate, then additional factors such
      as a lowered fitness of heterozygotes may be involved.

PMID- 28564891
TI  - EXTREME KARYOTYPIC VARIATION IN A MUS MUSCULUS DOMESTICUS HYBRID ZONE: THE
      TOBACCO MOUSE STORY REVISITED.
AB  - The Robertsonian fusion is a common chromosomal mutation among mammal species and
      is especially prevalent in the West European house mouse, Mus musculus
      domesticus. More than 40 races of the house mouse exist in Europe, including the
      famous "tobacco mouse" (Poschiavo race) of Val Poschiavo, Switzerland. Documented
      here is the discovery of an extreme case of karyotypic variation in the
      neighboring Upper Valtellina, Italy. In a 20-km stretch of the valley, 32
      karyotypes were observed, including five chromosomal races and 27 hybrid types.
      One previously unknown race is reported, the "Mid Valtellina" race, with a
      diploid number of 2n = 24 and the Robertsonian fusions Rb(1.3), Rb(4.6),
      Rb(5.15), Rb(7.18), Rb(8.12), Rb(9.14), Rb(11.13), and Rb(16.17). The Poschiavo
      race (2n = 26), Upper Valtellina race (2n = 24), Lower Valtellina race (2n = 22)
      and all-acrocentric race (2n = 40) were also present. The races form a patchy
      distribution, which we term a "mottled hybrid zone." Geographical position,
      isolation, extinction, recolonization, and selection against hybrids are all
      believed to be instrumental in the origin and evolution of this complex system.
      Previous studies of house mice from Upper Valtellina indicated that two of the
      races in the valley (the Upper Valtellina and Poschiavo races) may have speciated
      in the village of Migiondo. We discuss the possibility that there may have been a
      reinforcement event in this village.

PMID- 28564892
TI  - MALE MATE CHOICE AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE PLUMAGE COLORATION IN THE HOUSE
      FINCH.
AB  - The house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) is a sexually dichromatic passerine in
      which males display colorful plumage and females are generally drab brown. Some
      females, however, have a subdued version of the same pattern of ornamental
      coloration seen in males. In previous research, I found that female house finches
      use male coloration as an important criterion when choosing mates and that the
      plumage brightness of males is a reliable indicator of male nest attentiveness.
      Male house finches invest substantially in the care of young and, like females,
      stand to gain by choosing high-quality mates. I therefore hypothesized that a
      female's plumage brightness might be correlated with her quality and be the basis
      for male mate choice. In laboratory mate choice experiments, male house finches
      showed a significant preference for the most brightly plumaged females presented.
      Observations of a wild population of house finches, however, suggest that female
      age is the primary criterion in male choice and that female plumage coloration is
      a secondary criterion. In addition, yearling females tended to have more brightly
      colored plumage than older females, and there was no relationship between female
      plumage coloration and overwinter survival, reproductive success, or condition.
      These observations fail to support the idea that female plumage coloration is an
      indicator of individual quality. Male mate choice for brightly plumaged females
      may have evolved as a correlated response to selection on females to choose
      brightly colored males.

PMID- 28564893
TI  - WHAT METAZOAN PARASITES TELL US ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN
      EELS.

PMID- 28564894
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND GENETIC ASSOCIATIONS IN AN IRIS HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) markers and 12 nuclear (random amplified polymorphic DNA,
      or RAPD) markers were used to examine the distribution of genetic variation among
      individuals and the genetic and ecological associations in a hybrid iris
      population. Plants in the population occurred at various distances from the edge
      of a bayou in a relatively undisturbed mixed hardwood forest and in an adjacent
      pasture dominated by herbaceous perennials with interspersed oak and cypress
      trees. The majority of plants sampled possessed combinations of markers from the
      different Iris species. Genetic markers diagnostic for Iris fulva and I.
      brevicaulis occurred at high frequencies, whereas markers diagnostic for I.
      hexagona were infrequent. For the majority of the nuclear markers, significant
      levels of cytonuclear disequilibria existed because of intraspecific associations
      among the markers in both the pasture and the forest. The distribution of nuclear
      markers among individuals was bimodal; intermediate genotypes were absent and the
      majority of RAPD markers were associated with their intraspecific cpDNA
      haplotypes. Strong intraspecific associations existed among RAPD markers in the
      forest, but associations tended to be weaker in the pasture area. Ecological
      correlations were detected for all but one of the I. fulva and I. brevicaulis
      RAPD markers. The ecological associations of hybrids similar to I. brevicaulis
      resembled associations of I. brevicaulis parental genotypes, suggesting that
      these hybrid genotypes may be relatively fit in the same habitats. The hybrids
      similar to I. fulva, however, were distributed in habitats that were unique
      relative to the parental species. The patterns of genetic and environmental
      associations along with other available data suggest that (1) only advanced
      generation hybrids were present in the population; (2) formation of F1 hybrids
      among Louisiana irises is rare, leading to sporadic formation of hybrid
      populations; and (3) selection and assortative mating have contributed to the
      formation of hybrid genotypes that tend to be similar to parental genotypes. The
      patterns of ecological and genetic associations detected in this population
      suggest that assortative mating and environmental and viability selection are
      important in the structuring and maintenance of this hybrid zone.

PMID- 28564895
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF ALTERNATE MORPHOLOGIES: FITNESS AND WING MORPHOLOGY IN MALE SAND
      CRICKETS.
AB  - Many organisms show distinct morphological types. We argue that the evolution of
      these alternate morphologies depends upon both fitness differences between morphs
      within each sex and the genetic correlation between sexes. In this paper, we
      examine the evolution of alternate morphologies using wing dimorphism in insects
      as a model system. Many insect species are wing dimorphic, one morph having wings
      and being capable of flight, the other lacking functional wings. While there is a
      well established trade-off in females between macroptery and reproduction, there
      are few data on the possible costs in males. We examine trade-offs between
      macroptery and life-history traits in male sand crickets, Gryllus firmus, and
      estimate the genetic correlation of wing dimorphism between the sexes.
      Macropterous males develop faster than micropterous males and are either larger
      or the same size depending upon rearing conditions. There is no difference in
      absolute or relative testis size at eclosion or 7 d thereafter. Finally, there is
      no difference between macropterous and micropterous males in relative success at
      siring offspring. Thus, with respect to the above traits, there are no costs
      associated with being winged in male G. firmus. It is possible that there may be
      a trade-off between calling rate and macroptery. A comparison of the relative
      frequency of macroptery between males and female across different orders of
      insects supports this hypothesis. The genetic correlation of wing dimorphism
      between the sexes is high (r8 = 0.86), and hence the frequency of macroptery in
      males may be strongly influenced by selection acting on females.

PMID- 28564896
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF MATING SYSTEM AND OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS ON EFFECTIVE
      POPULATION SIZE.
AB  - The effective population size (Ne ) depends strongly on mating system and
      generation time. These two factors interact such that, under many circumstances,
      Ne is close to N/2, where N is the number of adults. This is shown to be the case
      for both simple and highly polygynous mating systems. The random union of gametes
      (RUG) and monogamy are two simple systems previously used in estimating Ne , and
      here a third, lottery polygyny, is added. Lottery polygyny, in which all males
      compete equally for females, results in a lower Ne than either RUG or monogamy!
      Given nonoverlapping generations the reduction is 33% for autosomal loci and 25%
      for sex-linked loci. The highly polygynous mating systems, harem polygyny and
      dominance polygyny, can give very low values of Ne /N when the generation time
      (T) is short. However, as T is lengthened, Ne approaches N/2. The influence of a
      biased sex ratio depends on the mating system and, in general, is not
      symmetrical. Biases can occur because of sex differences in either survival or
      recruitment of adults, and the potential for a sex-ratio bias to change Ne is
      much reduced given a survival bias. The number of juveniles present also has some
      influence: as the maturation time is lengthened, Ne increases.

PMID- 28564897
TI  - INBREEDING EFFECTS IN A GYNODIOECIOUS POPULATION OF THE COLONIZING SPECIES
      TRIFOLIUM HIRTUM ALL.
AB  - The demographic consequences of one and two generations of selfing were examined
      in a gynodioecious population of rose clover (Trifolium hirtum). Seeds collected
      from a roadside population were used to create an experimental population that
      consisted of seeds of open-pollinated individuals (S0 ), and seeds obtained after
      one (S1 ) and two (S2 ) generations of selfing. Seeds from the three groups were
      equally likely to germinate. However, inbreeding effects were observed in the
      vigor and survivorship of the seedlings. The proportion of the transplanted
      seedlings that reached the reproductive stage was 0.42, 0.31, and 0.14 for the S0
      , S1 , and S2 groups, indicating a reduction of 26% and 66% by one and two
      generations of selfing, respectively. Inbreeding effects on reproductive
      components of fitness were nonsignificant. Groups were compared by multiplicative
      fitness functions based on germination, survival to reproduction, and fecundity.
      The relative fitness of the S1 and S2 groups were 0.64 and 0.23 relative to the
      S0 group, representing a reduction in lifetime fitness of 36% and 77%,
      respectively. The differences in relative fitness among the groups were caused
      mainly by differences in survivorship. Thus, inbreeding depression is apparently
      an important factor in the maintenance of the gynodioecious breeding system in
      rose clover.

PMID- 28564898
TI  - ANNUAL DIFFERENCES IN FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AFFECT SPATIAL AND COHORT
      SPECIFIC GENOTYPIC HETEROGENEITY IN PAINTED TURTLES.
AB  - Long-term ecological data were used to evaluate the relative importance of
      movements, breeding structure, and reproductive ecological factors to the degree
      of spatial and age-specific variation in genetic characteristics of painted
      turtles (Chrysemys picta) on the E. S. George Reserve in southeastern Michigan.
      Estimates of the degree of spatial genetic structuring were based on the
      proportion of total genotypic variance partitioned within and between
      subpopulations (inferred from hierarchical F-statistics based on variation at 18
      protein loci), and in terms of gene correlations (co-ancestry among individuals
      derived from reproductive data on full-sib families of females nesting at
      specific nesting areas). Little variation in allele frequency was observed among
      turtles from different marshes (Fmt = 0.003), though significant variation was
      observed among turtles from different nesting areas associated with each marsh
      (Fnm = 0.046). Gene correlations among individuals within nesting areas varied
      greatly over years (0.032-0.171; mean = 0.069) and were negatively correlated to
      the proportion of females that successfully nested during each year. General
      concordance between independent estimates of genotypic correlations (i.e., Fnm
      derived from protein electrophoretic variation vs. mean co-ancestry) suggests
      that allozyme data, when collected over spatial scales consistent with species
      behavioral characteristics and reproductive ecology, may accurately reflect the
      apportionment of gene diversity within and among subpopulations. The magnitude
      and patterning of allelic variation among nesting areas and individuals appears
      to be primarily a function of gametic correlations among members of full-sib
      families, irrespective of the degree of gene flow or female nesting-site
      fidelity. Comparisons of genetic characteristics among 11 cohorts (1974-1984)
      revealed that heterozygosity (H) and inbreeding coefficients (F) varied greatly.
      Cohort estimates of H and F were correlated to female nesting success and to
      estimates of co-ancestry for the same years. Results clearly reflect the
      concomitant importance of ecological factors (principally the proportion of the
      female population that successfully produce offspring during each year) in
      determining the magnitude and patterning of gene correlations within and among
      groups, and to the genotypic composition of offspring born during each year.

PMID- 28564899
TI  - PHENOTYPIC VARIATION OF GROWTH TRAJECTORIES IN FINCHES.
AB  - Evolution cannot proceed without phenotypic variation for selection to act on.
      This is particularly true of ontogenetic parameters because it is changes in
      these parameters that give rise to new phenotypes. I analyzed the amount and
      dimensionality of phenotypic variation on growth trajectories in early ontogeny
      in three species of finches (Fringillidae) using the recently developed infinite
      dimensional model. For two species, eight traits were analyzed, and for a third,
      six traits. Growth data were analyzed only up to 6 d of age in two species and 8
      d of age in the third. The results were very similar for all species and traits.
      A very large proportion of the phenotypic variation in growth trajectories was
      confined to a single dimension. This dimension corresponded to a simultaneous
      increase/decrease at all ages in early ontogeny. The eigenfunctions, each
      describing a family of similar-shaped growth trajectories, were highly collinear
      among traits. A high covariance existed among traits at the same and different
      ages. If some part of the phenotypic variation has an additive genetic basis,
      then any selection for a change in size at one age in one trait will lead to a
      response in a size at subsequent ages and in the other traits. This in turn
      suggests that morphological evolution frequently will move along a multivariate
      size axis, as has indeed been found in several taxa.

PMID- 28564900
TI  - GENETIC CONTROL OF THE RATE OF EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT: SELECTION FOR FASTER
      DEVELOPMENT AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES.

PMID- 28564901
TI  - MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATES OF SELECTION COEFFICIENTS FROM DNA SEQUENCE DATA.
AB  - Selection can have a significant effect on sequence evolution and this will be
      reflected in the information contained within the phylogenetic relationships
      between species. Selection will reduce the frequency of any deleterious
      nucleotides, and this can be used to test for the presence of selection. The
      frequencies of different nucleotides can be predicted theoretically and compared
      to observed values. If a sample of sequences has an usually low frequency of a
      particular nucleotide then selection might be inferred to have acted upon these
      sequences. This conclusion can be true only if the sequences are not too closely
      related and if sufficient mutations have occurred during their evolution.
      Otherwise, the unusual pattern of nucleotides in the sequences may be caused by
      recent common ancestry. An algorithm is presented to obtain maximum-likelihood
      estimates of selection coefficients using the phylogenetic information contained
      within sequence data. A k-allele model is developed that uses the phylogeny to
      measure relative mutation rates and degrees of relatedness and to evaluate the
      likelihood in the presence of selection. The method is illustrated with examples
      from the NS2 genes of influenza viruses and the MHC genes of mice. It is shown
      that the maximum-likelihood estimate for mutation rates are very large for.
      influenza viruses and that statistically significant selection acts to maintain a
      specific coding sequence. Overall, the MHC genes also have significant selection
      to preserve the coding sequence, but at the antigen recognition site, this
      selection is reversed to promote genetic variation. Maximum-likelihood estimates
      of these selection coefficients are provided.

PMID- 28564902
TI  - CLADOGRAM VERSATILITY: EVOLUTION AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF ACANTHUROID FISHES.
AB  - A highly corroborated cladogram of acanthuroid fishes is used to explore several
      aspects of the biogeographic and microevolutionary events during the evolution of
      the group. Five events in acanthuroid evolution are documented here, which
      demonstrate not only the power of cladograms to provide adaptational hypotheses,
      but also how they can be used to frame significant questions for further
      research. Biogeographic analysis indicates that basal cladogenesis of the
      acanthuroids must have occurred prior to the Eocene (50-55 mya), because at least
      the basal lineages of the Acanthuridae, one of the last acanthuroid families to
      have evolved, were present at that time. In addition, optimization of current
      distributions suggests that the ancestors of the Acanthurinae, of the
      Acanthuridae, and of the Acanthuroidei each had an Indo-West Pacific
      distribution. Subsequent dispersion and/or speciation in one or more of these
      lineages may have been related either to the closure of the Tethys (ca 20 mya),
      or to colonization from the Pacific of the Caribbean/Atlantic prior to the
      formation of the Panamanian isthmus. Hypotheses about adaptation in acanthuroids
      begin with a discussion of several cases of dietary plasticity. The importance of
      information from fossils is illustrated in an investigation of predorsal bone
      evolution. Morphologically divergent and convergent tendencies in the
      modification of the pelvic fins concludes the examples. The morphologically most
      derived genus, Ctenochaetus, seems the least active taxon evolutionarily in the
      characters investigated.

PMID- 28564903
TI  - GENETIC SUBDIVISIONS AMONG SMALL CANIDS: MITOCHONDRIAL DNA DIFFERENTIATION OF
      SWIFT, KIT, AND ARCTIC FOXES.
AB  - Gene flow can effectively suppress genetic divergence among widely separated
      populations in highly mobile species. However, the same may not be true of
      species that typically disperse over shorter distances. Using mtDNA restriction
      site and sequence analyses, we evaluate the extent of divergence among
      populations of two small relatively sedentary North American canids, the kit and
      swift foxes (genus Vulpes). We determine the significance of genetic
      differentiation among populations separated by distance and those separated by
      discrete topographic barriers. Our results show the among-population component of
      genetic variation in kit and swift foxes is large and similar to that of small
      rodents with limited dispersal ability. In addition, we found two distinct
      groupings of genotypes, separated by the Rocky Mountains, corresponding to the
      traditional division between kit and swift fox populations. Previous workers have
      characterized these morphologically similar populations either as separate
      species or subspecies. Our mtDNA data also suggest that kit and swift fox
      populations hybridize over a limited geographic area. However, the sequence
      divergence between kit and swift foxes is similar to that between these taxa and
      the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus), a morphologically distinct species commonly
      placed in a separate genus. This result presents a dilemma for species concepts,
      and we conclude that kit and swift foxes should be recognized as separate
      species.

PMID- 28564904
TI  - GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON THE INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE
      CHARACTERS IN THE TRISTYLOUS PLANT LYTHRUM SALICARIA.
AB  - Here we test whether the potential exists for the independent evolution of
      allocation to male, female, and attractive functions within a flower. We employed
      half-sib and parent-offspring regression methods in the tristylous plant Lythrum
      salicaria to determine whether there is additive genetic variation for characters
      important to male and female reproductive success and whether genetic
      correlations could constrain the independent evolution of male and female
      function. Although significance levels were not consistent among morph types or
      between populations, there were significant narrow-sense heritabilities for
      several traits including stamen mass, pistil mass, perianth mass, petal length,
      and calyx length. Traits that might be under strong stabilizing selection to
      promote specific pollen transfer, such as stamen and style lengths, had little
      heritable variation. In the majority of cases in which heritable variation was
      present, there were positive genetic correlations among floral traits. A strong
      positive genetic correlation appeared between stamen and pistil mass in the short
      styled morph from one of the populations studied. This suggests that selection
      might not be able to act independently on biomass allocation to male and female
      flower parts. No evidence of negative genetic correlations appeared that would
      suggest trade-offs and that could augment a selection response towards sexual
      specialization. The observed positive correlations could be explained if we
      consider the "functional architecture" that underlies the covariance structure.
      If there is more covariance generated by pleiotropic loci controlling overall
      flower size than at loci controlling male versus female allocation, it could
      result in the observed positive covariance. At the phenotypic level, we did find
      significant negative partial correlations between male and female traits when
      flower size was controlled, but these trade-offs were among rather than within
      morphs.

PMID- 28564905
TI  - A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF HALDANE'S RULE.

PMID- 28564906
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PLANT POLLINATION SYSTEMS: HYPOTHESES AND TESTS WITH THE NEOTROPICAL
      VINE DALECHAMPIA.
AB  - The results of pollination and mating-system studies were integrated with a
      phylogenetic study of 40 Neotropical species of Dalechampia L. (Euphorbiaceae) to
      reconstruct the history of evolutionary change in pollination systems. The
      results of this analysis were treated as a hypothesis and tested for circularity
      problems and robustness in the face of changes in the data set. The historical
      hypothesis was used to make specific predictions about details of pollination
      ecology and reward biochemistry; the predictions were supported by independent
      observations. I conclude that pollination systems in Dalechampia have been
      evolutionarily labile, relative to most morphological features, with repeated
      parallelisms and reversals. Transitions among the three pollination systems
      evolved by Dalechampia (pollination by resin-collecting bees, fragrance
      collecting male euglossine bees, and pollen-collecting bees) have been
      facilitated by biochemical exaptation (preadaptation). Pollination by male
      euglossine bees is relatively rare in the genus but has originated independently
      three to four times. In contrast, pollination by resin-collecting female bees is
      very common, but has originated only once. Eighty-six to 97% of transitions
      between pollination systems involved an intermediate phase during which both old
      and new pollinators were effective, but 3 to 14% of transitions may have been
      "instantaneous," lacking the intermediate phase. Clades of species secreting
      resin rewards are about 10 times as species rich as clades of species secreting
      fragrance rewards; circumstantial evidence suggests that different extinction
      rates may be responsible for this difference. Relatively allogamous (cross
      pollinating) species have evolved from more autogamous (self-pollinating) species
      up to 13 times, and autogamous species have evolved from more allogamous ones up
      to 11 times. Species occurring in disturbed habitats are facultatively
      autogamous, whereas species of undisturbed habitats are often highly allogamous.

PMID- 28564907
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TEN SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA REPLETA GROUP FROM
      SOUTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES.

PMID- 28564908
TI  - CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - We are interested in elucidating the extent to which lekking Hawaiian Drosophila
      species have diverged from their continental counterparts, which engage in sexual
      behavior at communal food sources, with regard to the chemical communication
      systems that the flies employ. Accordingly, we have analyzed flies from three
      closely related Hawaiian Drosophila species in the adiastola subgroup. These
      species are of interest because the males engage in a unique behavior: while
      courting, they raise their abdomens over their heads and emit anal droplets.
      Analysis of the flies' behavior, the hydrocarbons in males' anal droplets, and
      males' cuticular hydrocarbons suggest that females' responses to males may be
      mediated by cuticular pheromones and/or pheromones in males' extruded droplets
      that enable the females to distinguish conspecific from heterospeciflc males.
      Conversely, perception of cuticular hydrocarbons from conspecific females enables
      D. adiastola males to distinguish females from a closely related species from
      conspecific females. On the basis of these observations, we suggest that the
      adiastola subgroup species are unique among drosophilids in that they utilize an
      anal droplet-mediated pheromone communication system, some or all components of
      which are species specific. However, the lekking Hawaiian Drosophila species are
      similar to D. melanogaster and related continental species in that the Hawaiian
      flies employ a cuticular pheromone communication system, some components of which
      are sex and species-specific.

PMID- 28564909
TI  - MODERN AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR NATURAL HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN SYMPATRIC
      SPECIES IN MANDARINA (PULMONATA: CAMAENIDAE).
AB  - Geographical and temporal variation in gene exchange between two endemic land
      snail species, Mandarina aureola and Mandarina ponderosa, was studied on Hahajima
      Island of the Bonin Islands. Allozyme variation in modern samples, and variation
      in the color and shell morphology of modern and fossil samples, suggest a complex
      geographical and historical pattern of hybridization. These two species occur in
      sympatry, and their shell morphologies and protein genotypes are markedly
      divergent. However, many specimens of M. aureola, collected from the middle
      region of the island, exhibit intermediate shell morphologies and possess marker
      alleles of M. ponderosa. Fossil samples of the two species strongly suggest that
      these intermediates were hybrids with M. ponderosa that were produced since the
      end of the Pleistocene. Each of these species, in addition, is subdivided into
      two genetically and morphologically divergent parapatric races. Interspecific
      hybridization appears to have produced genetical and morphological admixture
      among these four distinctive groups of populations. The past distribution and
      geographic variation of M. ponderosa can be traced in the distribution of M.
      ponderosa-derived genotypes in current populations of M. aureola. Temporal
      changes of the color pattern in the fossil populations of hybrids suggest that
      the traits introduced from M. ponderosa to M. aureola have been affected by
      natural selection and could replace traits of living species when advantageous.
      Moreover, these introgressed genes appeared to provide novel properties that
      enabled M. aureola to advance into a new environment. Relatively independent
      change in shell color and morphology further suggests mosaic evolution following
      the hybridization events. Connectively, these data reveal how hybridization
      events may be an important source of evolutionary novelties and make it clear
      that the phenomenon of reticulate evolution cannot be ignored.

PMID- 28564910
TI  - LONG-TERM COST OF REPRODUCTION WITH AND WITHOUT ACCELERATED SENESCENCE IN
      CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS: ANALYSIS OF AGE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY.
AB  - Age-specific mortality is measured to characterize the costs of reproduction in
      the beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, providing explicit details of the timing,
      duration, magnitude, and acceleration of mortality. We experimentally manipulated
      reproductive effort in four cohorts of 200 individually housed females by
      controlling exposure to males and to an artificial oviposition substrate. We
      demonstrate that (1) early reproduction produces long-term increases in age
      specific mortality; (2) egg-laying effort affects the onset of age-specific
      mortality but not its shape or rate of change; and (3) mating with subsequent
      reproduction increases the rate of change in age-specific mortality relative to
      virgins. Accelerated senescence is defined demographically as an increase in the
      rate of change of age-specific mortality. Our results challenge the hypothesis
      that reproductive effort accelerates senescence but provides evidence that mating
      itself may have this effect.

PMID- 28564912
TI  - AN UNUSUAL PATTERN OF GENE FLOW BETWEEN THE TWO SOCIAL FORMS OF THE FIRE ANT
      SOLENOPSIS INVICTA.
AB  - Uncertainty over the role of shifts in social behavior in the process of
      speciation in social insects has stimulated interest in determining the extent of
      gene flow between conspecific populations differing in colony social
      organization. Allele and genotype frequencies at 12 neutral polymorphic protein
      markers, as well as the numbers of alleles at the sex-determining locus (loci),
      are shown here to be consistent with significant ongoing gene flow between two
      geographically adjacent populations of Solenopsis invicta that differ in colony
      queen number. Data from a thirteenth protein marker that is under strong
      differential selection in the two social forms confirm that such gene flow
      occurs. Data from this selected locus, combined with knowledge of the
      reproductive biology of the two social forms, further suggest that interform gene
      flow is largely unidirectional and mediated through males only. This unusual
      pattern of gene flow results from the influence of the unique social enviroments
      of the two forms on the behavior of workers and on the reproductive physiology of
      sexuals.

PMID- 28564913
TI  - EFFECTS OF THIRTY YEARS HYBRIDIZATION ON THE TOADS BUFO AMERICANUS AND BUFO
      WOODHOUSII FOWLERI AT BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA.

PMID- 28564914
TI  - DEWLAP COLOR VARIATION AND ELECTROPHORETICALLY DETECTED SIBLING SPECIES IN A
      HAITIAN LIZARD, ANOLIS BREVIROSTRIS.

PMID- 28564915
TI  - FERTILITY GENES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. III.
      SUPERIORITY OF INVERSION HETEROZYGOTES.

PMID- 28564916
TI  - CLARKIA RUBICUNDA: A MODEL OF PLANT EVOLUTION IN SEMIARID REGIONS.

PMID- 28564917
TI  - THE AGE STRUCTURE OF A HYBRID SWARM IN LIATRIS (COMPOSITAE).

PMID- 28564918
TI  - A FURTHER ANALYSIS OF BUMPUS' DATA: THE INTENSITY OF NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28564919
TI  - INTERACTION EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY ON PUPAL SURVIVAL IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANICA.

PMID- 28564920
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF POLLEN NUCLEAR NUMBER IN THE EUPHORBIACEAE.

PMID- 28564921
TI  - ADAPTIVE COLOR POLYMORPHISM IN CRICKET FROGS.

PMID- 28564922
TI  - ON THE ETHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF DROSOPHILA ANANASSAE AND DROSOPHILA
      PALLIDOSA IN SAMOA.

PMID- 28564923
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL OF SEASONAL VARIATION IN THE BUTTERFLY COLIAS EURYTHEME. I.
      ADAPTIVE ASPECTS OF A PHOTOPERIODIC RESPONSE.

PMID- 28564924
TI  - ADAPTIVE CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA MELANICA.

PMID- 28564925
TI  - A MODEL RELATING DEVELOPMENTAL INTERACTION AND DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTIONARY
      REDUCTION OF TOOTH SIZE.

PMID- 28564926
TI  - BARRIERS TO HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN THE HOUSE FLY, MUSCA DOMESTICA L., AND THE FACE
      FLY, M. AUTUMNALIS DE GEER (DIPTERA: MUSCIDAE).

PMID- 28564927
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL, ELECTROPHORETIC, AND BREEDING STUDIES OF SELECTED POPULATIONS OF
      DEER MICE (PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS) AND BLACK-EARED MICE (P. MELANOTIS).

PMID- 28564928
TI  - STUDIES OF LINKAGE IN POPULATIONS. VII. TEMPORAL VARIATION AND X-CHROMOSOMAL
      LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUMS.

PMID- 28564929
TI  - ADAPTIVE VARIATION IN BODY SIZE AND SKELETAL PROPORTIONS OF HORNED LARKS OF THE
      SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES.

PMID- 28564930
TI  - EXTRAPOLATION OF THE PREDOMESTICATED HEXAPLOID CULTIVATED OATS.

PMID- 28564931
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF SOFTCHESS (BROMUS MOLLIS L.).

PMID- 28564932
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR AND THE NATURE OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN SCATOPHAGA
      STERCORARIA L. (DIPTERA: SCATOPHAGIDAE). VII. THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE
      PASSIVE PHASE.

PMID- 28564934
TI  - IMPORTANT NOTICE.

PMID- 28564933
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN STEGOMYIA MOSQUITOES. II. HYBRID BREAKDOWN BETWEEN
      AEDES AEGYPTI AND A. MASCARENSIS.

PMID- 28564935
TI  - A NEW PENTAPLOID MEXICAN WILD POTATO AND ITS PROGENY.

PMID- 28564936
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PAIR COOPERATION IN A TROPICAL HUMMINGBIRD.

PMID- 28564937
TI  - HOST SPECIFICITY OF FIG WASPS (AGAONIDAE).

PMID- 28564938
TI  - THE GENETICS OF DACUS OLEAE. IV. RELATION BETWEEN ADULT ESTERASE GENOTYPES AND
      SURVIVAL TO ORGANOPHOSPHATE INSECTICIDES.

PMID- 28564939
TI  - EXTRACHROMOSOMAL ELEMENT DELTA IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. IV. VARIATION AND
      PERSISTENCE OF DELTA-ASSOCIATING SECOND CHROMOSOMES IN A NATURAL POPULATION.

PMID- 28564940
TI  - ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIATION AND CONSERVATISM.

PMID- 28564941
TI  - CYTOPLASMIC STERILITIES THAT SEPARATE THE CULTIVATED POTATO FROM ITS PUTATIVE
      DIPLOID ANCESTORS.

PMID- 28564942
TI  - ON ECOTYPIC VARIATION IN BIRDS.

PMID- 28564943
TI  - CYTOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF KEY DIPLOID MEMBERS OF THE MIMULUS GLABRATUS COMPLEX
      (SCROPHULARIACEAE).

PMID- 28564944
TI  - MEASUREMENTS BY DNA RENATURATION OF THE GENETIC BASIS OF PARASITIC REDUCTION.

PMID- 28564945
TI  - RESPIRATION IN EARLY TETRAPODS-THE FROG IS A RED HERRING.

PMID- 28564946
TI  - COMMENT ON: "A POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONARY BASIS FOR AESTHETIC APPRECIATION IN MEN AND
      APES".

PMID- 28564947
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DIOECY FROM GYNODIOECY.

PMID- 28564948
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF GENE FREQUENCIES IN POLYMORPHIC POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564950
TI  - MICROEVOLUTIONARY SEQUENCES AS A FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT IN MACROEVOLUTIONARY MODELS.

PMID- 28564949
TI  - DISTRIBUTION, ADAPTATION AND PROBABLE ORIGIN OF AN ALL-FEMALE FORM OF
      POECILIOPSIS (PISCES: POECILIIDAE) IN NORTHWESTERN MEXICO.

PMID- 28564951
TI  - CYTOGENETICS, DISTRIBUTION, AND AMPHITROPICAL AFFINITIES OF SOUTH AMERICAN
      CAMISSONIA (ONAGRACEAE).

PMID- 28564952
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. I. FITNESS RESPONSES OF ESCHERICHIA COLI
      TO CHANGES IN ITS THERMAL ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - We used bacteria to study experimentally the process of genetic adaptation to
      environmental temperature. Replicate lines of Escherichia coli, founded from a
      common ancestor, were propagated for 2,000 generations in 4 different thermal
      regimes as 4 experimental groups: constant 32, 37, or 42 degrees C (thermal
      specialists), or a daily alternation between 32 and 42 degrees C (32/42 degrees
      C: thermal generalists). The ancestor had previously been propagated at 37
      degrees C for 2,000 generations. Adaptation of the groups to temperature was
      measured by improvement in fitness relative to the ancestor, as estimated by
      competition experiments. All four experimental groups showed improved relative
      fitness in their own thermal environment (direct response of fitness). However,
      rates of fitness improvement varied greatly among temperature groups. The 42
      degrees C group responded most rapidly and extensively, followed by the 32 and
      32/42 degrees C groups, whose fitness improvements were indistinguishable. The 37
      degrees C group, which experienced the ancestral temperature, had the slowest and
      least extensive fitness improvement. The correlated fitness responses of each
      group, again relative to the common ancestor, were measured over the entire
      experimental range of temperatures. No necessary tradeoff between direct and
      correlated responses of fitness was apparent: for example, the improved fitness
      of the 42 degrees C group at 42 degrees C was not accompanied by a loss of
      fitness at 37 degrees C or 32 degrees C. However, the direct fitness responses
      were usually greater than the correlated responses, judged both by comparing
      direct and correlated responses of a single group at different temperatures and
      by comparing direct and correlated responses of different groups at a single
      temperature. These comparisons indicate that the observed adaptation was, in
      fact, largely temperature specific. Also, the fitness responses of the generalist
      group across a range of temperatures were less variable than those of the thermal
      specialist groups considered as whole.

PMID- 28564953
TI  - mtDNA PHYLOGENY OF ANDEAN MICE: A TEST OF DIVERSIFICATION ACROSS ECOLOGICAL
      GRADIENTS.
AB  - Parapatric speciation across sharp ecological gradients is an alternative to the
      more usual allopatric model as both a general explanation of organismal
      diversification and as an explicit statement regarding differentiation of
      tropical forest biotas (Endler, 1977, 1982a, 1982b). The relevance of this model
      to species of small mammals distributed across a 3,000 meter gradient on the
      eastern flank of the Peruvian Andes is examined here by phylogenetic analysis of
      comparative mitochondrial DNA sequences, relying on both freshly collected
      samples and extracts taken from skins preserved in museum collections. These
      analyses falsify the applicability of the gradient model in this case. Moreover,
      the phylogenetic approach employed here provides an explicit test of the
      feasibility of the gradient model for any other taxon, either plant or animal, of
      the lowland Amazonian forest.

PMID- 28564954
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN LIZARDS AND SNAKES.
AB  - Life history theory suggests that the optimal evolved level of reproductive
      effort (RE) for an organism depends upon the degree to which additional current
      reproductive investment reduces future reproductive output. Future reproduction
      can be decreased in two ways, through (i) decreases in the organism's survival
      rate, and/or (ii) decreases in the organism's growth (and hence subsequent
      fecundity). The latter tradeoff-that is, the "potential fecundity cost"-should
      affect the evolution of RE only in species with relatively high survival rate, a
      relatively high rate of fecundity increase with body size, or a relatively high
      reproductive frequency per annum. Unless these conditions are met, the probable
      benefit in future fecundity obtained from decreasing present reproductive output
      is too low for natural selection to favor any reduction in RE below the maximum
      physiologically possible. Published data on survival rate, reproductive frequency
      and relative clutch mass (RCM) suggest that many lizard species fall well below
      the level at which natural selection can be expected to influence RE through such
      "potential fecundity" tradeoffs. Hence, the relative allocation of resources
      between growth and reproduction is unlikely to be directly optimized by natural
      selection in these animals. Instead, energy allocation should influence the
      evolution of RE only indirectly, via effects on an organism's probability of
      survival during reproduction. Survival costs of reproduction may be the most
      important evolutionary determinants of RE in many reptiles, and information on
      the nature and extent of such costs is needed before valid measures of reptilian
      RE can be constructed.

PMID- 28564955
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION IN FLORAL TRAITS AFFECTING OUTCROSSING RATE
      IN CLARKIA TEMBLORIENSIS (ONAGRACEAE).
AB  - Clarkia tembloriensis exhibits a wide range of variation among its natural
      populations in outcrossing rate and in separation of male and female function in
      space (anther-stigma separation or herkogamy) and in time (protandry). Here we
      show that outcrossing rate is highly correlated with protandry and anther-stigma
      separation. Both genetic and environmental variation contribute to inter- and
      intrapopulation variation in protandry and anther-stigma separation.
      Interpopulation differentiation for protandry and anther-stigma separation was
      found to be polygenic. Genetic variation for protandry and anther-stigma
      separation within populations was demonstrated by a significant among-family
      variance in two populations with contrasting breeding systems. Environmental
      effects on the expression of mating system traits were manifested in two ways.
      First, significant variation among lathhouse benches suggests that small-scale
      environmental heterogeneity may affect the development of floral traits. Second,
      protandry was shortened under hot summer conditions. Hence, hotter and drier
      habitats, typical of the more self-pollinating populations of C. tembloriensis,
      can promote self-pollination purely through environmental effects.

PMID- 28564956
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF MORPHOLOGICALLY DIFFERENTIATED POPULATIONS OF THE AMPHIPOD
      GAMMARUS MINUS.

PMID- 28564957
TI  - SEASONAL DECLINES IN OFFSPRING FITNESS AND SELECTION FOR EARLY REPRODUCTION IN
      NYMPH-OVERWINTERING GRASSHOPPERS.
AB  - In this study, I examine the effects of natural and experimentally induced
      variation in life cycle timing on offspring fitness in Arphia sulphurea and
      Chortophaga viridifasciata, to understand the selective pressures shaping
      phenology in these two species of nymph-overwintering grasshoppers. Because these
      species lack embryonic diapause, hatching varies over a two month range under
      natural conditions. I used a cold treatment to delay hatching of some egg pods
      and extend the natural range of hatching dates. Due to the shorter time for
      growth and poorer growing conditions late in the fall, late-hatching nymphs of
      both species grew to a smaller size before winter and suffered higher overwinter
      mortality, compared to early nymphs. In addition, late nymphs that did survive
      the winter became reproductive later in the following year's breeding season.
      Size- dependent mortality of offspring during the winter is a strong selective
      pressure favoring early reproduction in these species. Female adult life history
      traits appear responsive to the seasonal declines in offspring fitness, in that
      late-maturing females began reproducing sooner after adult maturation and
      reproduced at a more rapid rate, even at the expense of having shorter adult
      longevity and producing fewer total egg pods. Experimental manipulations were
      crucial in understanding the fitness consequences of intrapopulation variation in
      the timing of specific life-cycle events for these species.

PMID- 28564958
TI  - EVOLUTION OF beta-GLUCURONIDASE REGULATION IN THE GENUS MUS.
AB  - Despite the central role suggested for regulatory mutations in many evolutionary
      scenarios, there is relatively little information available about the type and
      extent of regulatory differences between species, or to what extent differences
      between species are independent of variation within species. To address this
      issue we have studied the regulatory system of beta-glucuronidase, a gene
      implicated in a murine androgen-inducible pheromone-signalling system. We
      examined the changes in beta-glucuronidase hormonal regulation which have
      occurred during the radiation of a group of 12 closely related species of mice by
      assaying beta-glucuronidase activity in six different tissues after treatment
      with estrogen, and with androgen alone and in combination with either estrogen or
      growth hormone. We also examined in some detail the extent of variation in
      regulatory responses within species. We found extensive variation in regulatory
      phenotypes both within and among the species surveyed, suggesting that many of
      the species examined are currently polymorphic for various regulatory factors
      that affect inducibility of beta-glucuronidase. The variation we observed
      reflects changes in the ability of the beta-glucuronidase gene to respond to
      hormonal influences, rather than changes in aspects of the hormonal signalling
      system exterior to the gene. The marked differences among species in the renal
      and uterine responses to hormonal induction of beta-glucuronidase are not easily
      related to the phylogeny of the genus Mus. If hormonal induction of the gene for
      beta-glucuronidase is subject to natural selection, it appears to be subject to
      widely fluctuating selective forces. We review evidence that the apparently
      disorderly evolution of the hormonal responsiveness of beta-glucuronidase does
      not appear to be a unique property of this regulatory system. In contrast to the
      evolution of many protein sequences, which are tightly correlated with phylogeny
      and proceed at a relatively constant rate, some, perhaps many, regulatory
      phenotypes are in rapid evolutionary flux, providing an extensive range of
      phenotypes upon which selection can act.

PMID- 28564959
TI  - PHYLOGENIES FROM RESTRICTION SITES: A MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD APPROACH.
AB  - Restriction sites data can be analyzed by maximum likelihood to obtain estimates
      of phylogenies. The likelihood methods of Smouse and Li, who were able to compute
      likelihoods for up to four species under a simplified model of base change, can
      be extended numerically to deal with any number of species. The computational
      methods for doing so are outlined. The resulting algorithms are slow but take
      multiple gains and losses of restriction sites fully into account, unlike
      parsimony methods. They allow for the failure to observe potential sites that are
      absent from all species. Analysis of the five-species hominoid data of Ferris and
      coworkers confirms the pattern found by Smouse and Li with four species-that a
      chimpanzee-gorilla clade is favored, but not statistically significantly over
      other tree topologies. A large data set produced by computer simulation has also
      been analyzed to confirm that the method works properly. The methods used here do
      not allow for different rates of transitions and transversions. They can be
      extended to do so, but only at a cost of considerably slower computations. The
      present method is available in a computer program.

PMID- 28564960
TI  - HYBRID ZONES AND HOST-PARASITE RELATIONSHIPS: EFFECT ON THE EVOLUTION OF
      PARASITIC SPECIFICITY.
AB  - In southern France, Diplozoon gracile (Monogenea, Polyopisthocotylea),
      parasitizes four sympatric cyprinids. One of these host species, Barbus
      meridionalis, naturally hybridizes with another species of barbel, Barbus barbus,
      which is never parasitized by D. gracile under natural conditions. This
      hybridization has previously been studied and described as an introgression of B.
      barbus by B. meridionalis. The hybrids are parasitized by D. gracile, and
      parasite prevalence increases in proportion to the introgression rate, i.e., the
      percentage of B. meridionalis genes. The causes for this preferential
      distribution of the parasite in the hybrid population are analysed on the basis
      of ecological and ethological differences between the two parent species.

PMID- 28564961
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF DIOECY IN THE HAWAIIAN SHRUB WIKSTROEMIA
      (THYMELAEACEAE).
AB  - Dioecy is unusually common in the Hawaiian Islands, yet little is known about the
      evolutionary biology of this breeding system. A native shrub, Wikstroemia, has an
      unusually diverse array of breeding systems: two forms of dioecy, cryptic and
      morphological dioecy, as well as hermaphroditism (perfect flowers). The existence
      of two forms of dioecy is significant for three reasons: 1) the presence of
      cryptic unisexuals that are functionally unisexual, but retain the appearance of
      hermaphroditism in both sexes, is strong evidence for the ancestral status of
      hermaphroditism; 2) the production of nonfunctional pollen, by female cryptic
      unisexuals, is a new instance of a phenomenon which has previously been reported
      for a few other species; 3) the two forms of dioecy are morphological markers
      which are useful in hybridization studies for tracing the genetic basis of their
      inheritance. Crosses were made between cryptically unisexual individuals (C),
      between morphologically unisexual individuals (M), and between the two types of
      unisexuality. The offspring of crosses between individuals with the same sex type
      usually resulted in offspring with that sex type, but most of the progeny of
      between-sex type crosses were, unexpectedly, perfect-flowered hermaphrodites.
      These results show that genetic control of sex determination is not homologous in
      all populations, suggesting that dioecy has evolved at least twice in Hawaiian
      Wikstroemia. The genetic data further suggest that males are the heterozygous
      sex.

PMID- 28564962
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF THICK-BILLED MURRE (URIA LOMVIA) POPULATIONS EXAMINED USING
      DIRECT SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF AMPLIFIED DNA.

PMID- 28564963
TI  - LIFE-CYCLE COMPONENTS OF SELECTION IN ERIGERON ANNUUS: II. GENETIC VARIATION.
AB  - Genetic variation for seedling and adult fitness components was measured under
      natural conditions to determine the relative importance of the seedling stage for
      lifetime fitness in Erigeron annuus. Variation in lifetime reproductive success
      can result from both the persistent effects of genetic variation expressed among
      seedlings and from variation in adult fitness components. Analysis of covariance
      was used to separate the stage specific from the cumulative effects of genetic
      variance expressed earlier in the life cycle. E. annuus produces seeds through
      apomixis, which allowed measurement of the fitness of replicate genotypes from
      germination through the entire life cycle. There were significant differences
      among genotypes for date of emergence, seedling size, survivorship and fecundity,
      but heritabilities were low, indicating slow response to selection. For all
      characters, environmental components of variance were one to two orders of
      magnitude larger than genetic variance components, resulting in broad sense
      heritabilities less than 0.1. For seedling size and fecundity, all of the genetic
      variance was in the form of genotype-environment interactions, often with large
      negative genetic correlations across environments. In contrast, genotypes
      differed in mean survivorship through one year, but there were no genotype
      environment interactions for viability. Genetic differences in viability were
      primarily expressed as differences in overwinter survivorship. Genotype *
      environment interactions among sites and blocks were generated early in the life
      cycle while the genotype * environment interactions in response to competitive
      environment (open, annual cover, perennial cover) first appeared in adult
      fecundity. Genetic variation in lifetime fitness was not significant, despite a
      fourfold difference in mean fitness among genotypes.

PMID- 28564964
TI  - ASSOCIATION BETWEEN LATITUDINAL VARIATION FOR EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT TIME AND
      CHROMOSOME STRUCTURE IN THE GRASSHOPPER CALEDIA CAPTIVA (ORTHOPTERA: ACRIDIDAE).
AB  - From southeastern Queensland to southern Victoria, over a transect of 11 degrees 
      latitude, the Moreton taxon of the Australian grasshopper Caledia captiva
      exhibits a cline in chromosome structure that involves change from a metacentric
      to an acrocentric genome. In this study, we show that embryonic development time
      covaries with chromosome structure along the transect. Both development time and
      chromosome short arm length exhibit an overall negative correlation with
      latitude, but with maxima just south of the northern limit of the taxon's
      distribution. Selection for such a pattern appears to arise from changes in
      voltinism along the cline in season length that exists along the transect.
      Populations with the highest temperature thresholds for avoidance of embryonic
      diapause also have the slowest development time and probably represent the
      northern extreme of a primarily univoltine life cycle. North of this region
      bivoltinism increases in frequency and, as expected from a split of the season
      length, development time decreases. Maximum chromosome short arm length occurs in
      the vicinity of the northern univoltine populations, rather than at the limit of
      distribution where bivoltinism prevails. We conclude that variation in chromosome
      structure could be contributing to the heritable variation for development time
      that forms the basis for adaptive change in this trait. These results provide
      justification for investigating causal relationships between chromosome structure
      and development time, with an ultimate aim of understanding the adaptive
      significance of chromosomal variation in C. captiva.

PMID- 28564965
TI  - MEASURING EVOLUTIONARY CONSTRAINTS: A MARKOV MODEL FOR PHYLOGENETIC TRANSITIONS
      AMONG SEED DISPERSAL SYNDROMES.
AB  - I introduce a Markov probabilistic model of transitions among discrete
      morphological states as a method for describing and testing nonrandom patterns of
      evolutionary change. The Markov model assumes one-generational dependency, i.e.,
      that the future direction of evolutionary change depends on the current
      morphology of a species, not on any history of changes. This model is very
      flexible, allowing for any number of discrete states to describe morphology, yet
      permit rigorous testing of even complex evolutionary hypotheses. I apply this
      model to changes in seed dispersal mechanisms within 571 genera of Neotropical
      plants, using cladistic methods to infer the ancestral and derived states within
      each genus. I then test a series of progressively more complex hypotheses about
      the constraints that might shape the patterns of observed evolutionary
      transitions: 1) no transition constraints; 2) all dispersal mechanisms are
      equally labile evolutionarily; 3) the probability of particular evolutionary
      transitions among dispersal mechanisms depends on the descendant state but not on
      the ancestral state; 4) transition probabilities differ among pairs of dispersal
      mechanisms, but are reciprocal within such pairs. More complex hypotheses matched
      the data significantly better than did simpler hypotheses. However, only one of
      the hypotheses (reciprocal transitions) fit the observed data and then only for
      the most cautious interpretation of the frequencies of transitions within genera.
      These results suggest that evolutionary transitions among major adaptive
      syndromes are indeed ordered, and the observed patterns of transitions suggest
      possible reasons for such macroevolutionary structure.

PMID- 28564966
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HETEROSTYLY.
AB  - Heterostyly has been viewed as both an antiselfing device and a mechanism that
      increases the proficiency of pollen transfer between plants. We used experimental
      manipulation of the morph structure of garden populations of self-compatible,
      tristylous Eichhornia paniculata to investigate the function of floral
      polymorphism. Outcrossing rates (t), levels of intermorph mating (d), and morph
      specific male and female reproductive success were compared in replicate
      trimorphic and monomorphic populations. In trimorphic populations, t and d
      averaged 0.81 (2 SE = 0.03) and 0.77 (2 SE = 0.03) respectively, with no
      difference in either parameter among morphs. Ninety-five percent of outcrossed
      seeds were therefore the result of intermorph fertilizations. Male reproductive
      success of the long-styled morph was low, especially in comparison with plants of
      the short-styled morph. Outcrossing rates for each morph were higher in
      trimorphic than monomorphic populations where t averaged 0.71 (2 SE = 0.01), 0.30
      (2 SE = 0.04) and 0.43 (2 SE = 0.1) for the long-, mid-, and short-styled morphs,
      respectively. Seed set was lower in monomorphic populations, particularly those
      composed of the L morph, reflecting reduced pollen deposition. Floral
      polymorphism therefore increased both outcrossing rate and fecundity but the
      magnitude of the differences varied among morphs. If the ancestral condition in
      heterostylous groups resembled the L morph, as has been suggested, data from this
      study suggests that the selective basis for the establishment of floral
      polymorphism could have been increased pollen transfer rather than higher levels
      of outcrossing.

PMID- 28564967
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE DEATH VALLEY PUPFISHES
      (CYPRINODON, CYPRINODONTIDAE).
AB  - A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was used
      to examine the geographic history of the Cyprinodon nevadensis complex of
      pupfishes, a group of four species (seven extant subspp.) in two endorheic
      (closed) basins of the Death Valley System in California and Nevada (Owens River
      Valley and Ash Meadows-Death Valley). The mtDNA results suggest that the group
      contains mtDNAs from two divergent clades. One such clade is represented by the
      mtDNAs of the Owens Valley pupfish (C. radiosus) and the existing species in the
      Colorado River (C. macularius), while the other includes the mtDNAs of the Ash
      Meadows-Death Valley species (C. nevadensis, C. salinus, and C. diabolis) and a
      species located much farther to the east (C. fontinalis from the Guzman Basin,
      Chihuahua, Mexico). These results, together with evidence from other studies,
      suggest two separate invasions of the Death Valley System by pupfishes carrying
      phylogenetically divergent mtDNAs. The C. nevadensis complex apparently is either
      an artificial group or else it is monophyletic and its genetic history includes
      loss of the original mtDNA in either Owens Valley or Ash Meadows-Death Valley
      following genetic introgression after an invasion by a pupfish carrying a
      divergent mtDNA.

PMID- 28564968
TI  - POLLINATION SYSTEMS, DISPERSAL MODES, LIFE FORMS, AND DIVERSIFICATION RATES IN
      ANGIOSPERM FAMILIES.

PMID- 28564969
TI  - LIFE-CYCLE COMPONENTS OF SELECTION IN ERIGERON ANNUUS: I. PHENOTYPIC SELECTION.
AB  - The magnitude and direction of phenotypic selection on emergence date and
      seedling size in Erigeron annuus was measured to determine the heterogeneity of
      selection among sites and the proportion of fitness variance explained by
      seedling size and emergence date. Three disturbance treatments (open, annual
      vegetation, perennial vegetation) were imposed to test the hypothesis of stronger
      selection on seedlings in competitive environments. Selection was most
      heterogeneous early in the life cycle, with significant spatial heterogeneity in
      the magnitude of selection on a local scale. The disturbance treatments affected
      only fecundity selection gradients and selection was strongest in open plots.
      Significant variation in the sign of selection differentials on emergence date
      was observed for establishment and fall viability selection episodes; at later
      stages selection varied in magnitude but not direction. Seedlings in the earliest
      cohort experienced high mortality during establishment, but increased size and
      fecundity later in the life cycle. Both stabilizing and disruptive selection on
      emergence date were observed during establishment, but in general selection was
      purely directional. At Stony Brook most selection on emergence date operated
      indirectly through seedling size, whereas at the Weld Preserve direct selection
      was stronger. There were persistent effects of both seedling emergence date and
      rosette diameter on adult fitness components, and October rosette diameter
      explained 18% of the total phenotypic variance in fecundity. Overall, viability
      fitness components were much more important than fecundity selection. Winter
      survivorship was the single most important episode of selection.

PMID- 28564970
TI  - GENETIC AND SOCIAL INHERITANCE OF BODY AND EGG SIZE IN THE BARNACLE GOOSE (BRANTA
      LEUCOPSIS).
AB  - We present heritability estimates for final size of body traits and egg size as
      well as phenotypic and genetic correlations between body and egg traits in a
      recently established population of the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) in the
      Baltic area. Body traits as well as egg size were heritable and, hence, could
      respond evolutionarily to phenotypic selection. Genetic correlations between body
      size traits were significantly positive and of similar magnitude or higher than
      the corresponding phenotypic correlations. Heritability estimates for tarsus
      length obtained from full-sib analyses were higher than those obtained from
      midoffspring-midparent regressions, and this indicates common environment effects
      on siblings. Heritabilities for tarsus length obtained from midoffspring-mother
      regressions were significantly higher than estimates from midoffspring-father
      regressions. The results suggest that this discrepancy is not caused by maternal
      effects through egg size, nor by extra-pair fertilizations, but by a socially
      inherited foraging site fidelity in females.

PMID- 28564971
TI  - THE ROLE OF COURTSHIP SONGS IN REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AMONG POPULATIONS OF GREEN
      LACEWINGS OF THE GENUS CHRYSOPERLA (NEUROPTERA: CHRYSOPIDAE).
AB  - Male and female lacewings tremulate during courtship, establishing duets that
      always precede copulation. Three distinct courtship songs are found in
      populations of the green lacewing Chrysoperla plorabunda (P1, P2 and P3 song
      morphs). Analysis of five features of the songs for individuals collected from
      Connecticut, Idaho, Oregon and California showed few differences within song
      morphs, but sympatric song morphs differed significantly in temporal features of
      the songs and their mode of presentation. Playback experiments using recorded
      songs were performed on females with all possible sympatric and allopatric
      combinations of females and recorded songs. The results showed that females
      strongly prefer to duet with recordings of males of their own song type and
      usually showed no responses to songs of other types. Thus, song differences are
      effective barriers to reproduction between the sympatric morphs. Our results
      support the hypothesis that the three song morphs are true biological species.

PMID- 28564972
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA ANALYSES AND THE ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF PARTHENOGENETIC
      CNEMIDOPHORUS: PHYLOGENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON HYBRID ORIGINS.
AB  - Within the genus Cnemidophorus, parthenogenesis has arisen by hybridization
      several times. This provides the opportunity to investigate general features of
      hybridization events that result in the formation of parthenogenetic lineages.
      The relationships of mtDNA from all bisexual species of Cnemidophorus known to be
      parents of parthenogens were investigated to evaluate phylogenetic constraints on
      the hybrid-origin of parthenogenesis. No phylogenetic clustering of the parental
      species, either maternal or paternal, was apparent. However, the combination of
      bisexual species that have resulted in parthenogenetic lineages are generally
      distantly related or genetically divergent. This contrasts with the expectation
      if parthenogenesis in hybrids is due to the action of a single rare allele, but
      is consistent with the hypothesis that some minimal level of divergence is
      necessary to stimulate parthenogenetic reproduction in hybrids.

PMID- 28564974
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN HUMAN BODY SIZE.
AB  - A classical data set is used to predict the effect of selection on sexual
      dimorphism and on the population means of three characters-stature, span, and
      cubit-in humans. Given selection of equal intensity, the population means of
      stature and of cubit should respond more than 60 times as fast as dimorphism in
      these characters. The population mean of span should also respond far more
      rapidly than dimorphism, but no numerical estimate of the ratio of these rates
      was possible. These results imply that sexual dimorphism in these characters can
      evolve only very slowly. Consequently, hypotheses about the causes of sexual
      dimorphism cannot be tested by comparing the dimorphism of different human
      societies. It has been suggested that primate sexual dimorphism may be an
      allometric response to selection for larger body size. We show that such
      selection can indeed generate sexual dimorphism, but that this effect is too weak
      to account for the observed relationship between dimorphism and body size in
      primates.

PMID- 28564973
TI  - DIRECT AND CORRELATED RESPONSES TO SELECTION ON AGE AT REPRODUCTION IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Aging may be a consequence of mutation accumulation or of negative pleiotropic
      correlations between performance late and earlier in the lifespan. This study
      used artificial selection on flies derived from two different base stocks to
      produce "young" and "old" lines, propagated by breeding from young and old adults
      respectively. Virgin and mated adults of both sexes from the "old" lines lived
      longer than "young" line flies. "Young" and "old" mated females did not differ in
      fecundity or fertility early in the lifespan, but "old" line females had higher
      fecundity and fertility late in life. The results therefore suggested either that
      the response to selection had revealed the effect of mutation accumulation, or
      that pleiotropy involving characters other than early fecundity must have been
      involved. Development time from egg to adult was longer in the "old" lines.
      Competition of selected line larvae from one base stock against mutant marked
      larvae from the same base stock revealed that, at a wide range of larval
      densities, "old" line larvae showed lower survival rates than "young" line
      larvae. Thorax length and wet weight were significantly greater in the "old" line
      flies from one base stock. The results may imply that the selection regime in the
      "old" lines favored extended growth during development to produce a more durable
      adult soma, despite the cost in increased larval mortality and delayed
      reproduction, because the potential reproductive benefits later in life were
      increased. However, the differences between larvae from "old" and "young" lines
      could also be attributable to density differences, and this possibility needs
      systematic investigation.

PMID- 28564975
TI  - ON THE MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION BY DISRUPTIVE SELECTION AMONG HOSTS IN A
      PHYTOPHAGOUS MITE.

PMID- 28564976
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATING MECHANISMS IN THE BLUE-WINGED WARBLER - GOLDEN-WINGED
      WARBLER COMPLEX.

PMID- 28564977
TI  - TRANSLOCATION HETEROZYGOTES AND SUPERNUMERARY CHROMOSOMES IN WILD POPULATIONS OF
      CLARKIA WILLIAMSONII.

PMID- 28564978
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF VERTEBRATE FOETAL MEMBRANES.

PMID- 28564979
TI  - MONOPHYLY OR DIPHYLY IN THE ORIGIN OF WHALES.

PMID- 28564980
TI  - LOCAL GENE DISPERSAL IN PHLOX.

PMID- 28564981
TI  - THE SELECTIVE ADVANTAGE OF TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE AMONG THE PROGENY OF FROGS WITH
      VERTEBRAL FUSIONS.

PMID- 28564982
TI  - POLLINATION BY EUGLOSSINE BEES.

PMID- 28564983
TI  - THE BEGINNINGS OF PRIMATES.

PMID- 28564984
TI  - A MEASURE OF DISCRIMINATION IN MATING.

PMID- 28564985
TI  - EVOLUTION OF FITNESS. II. CORRELATED EFFECTS OF NATURAL SELECTION ON THE
      PRODUCTIVITY AND SIZE OF EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SERRATA.

PMID- 28564986
TI  - BREAKDOWN OF POLYMORPHISM OF THE RED-BACKED SALAMANDER ON LONG ISLAND.

PMID- 28564988
TI  - ORIGIN AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF MARSUPIALS.

PMID- 28564987
TI  - DEFENSE OF FEEDING AREAS BY ADULT HERRING GULLS AND INTRUSION BY YOUNG.

PMID- 28564989
TI  - STUDIES ON COMPETITION IN RICE I. COMPETITION IN MIXTURES OF VARIETIES.

PMID- 28564990
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF THE BUTTERFLY EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA: VI. PHENETICS OF THE
      JASPER RIDGE COLONY, 1965-66.

PMID- 28564991
TI  - THE COMPOSITION OF A HYBRIDIZING POPULATION OF BAPTISIA SPHAEROCARPA AND BAPTISIA
      LEUCOPHAEA.

PMID- 28564992
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS III. THE GENETIC ROLE OF HETEROZYGOUS
      INDIVIDUALS IN VARIOUS COLOMBIAN POPULATIONS OF D. MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28564993
TI  - THE ROLE OF COMPETITION IN THE EVOLUTION OF MIGRATION.

PMID- 28564994
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES IN POPULATIONS OF COPPER TOLERANT AGROSTIS TENUIS Sibth.

PMID- 28564995
TI  - CHROMOSOME NUMBER DIFFERENCE IN THE AMPHIBIAN GENUS BUFO: THE BUFO REGULARIS
      SPECIES GROUP.

PMID- 28564996
TI  - INTROGRESSION BETWEEN CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA IN PANAMA.

PMID- 28564997
TI  - AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF PREDICTIONS OF TWO COMPETING MODELS FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND
      FATE OF HYBRID ZONES: BOTH MODELS ARE SUPPORTED IN A HARD-CLAM HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Two models developed to discern the mode of selection in hybrid zones differ in
      some predictions. The tension-zone model predicts that selection acts against
      hybrids and independently of the environment (endogenous selection) and that
      selection is invariant throughout the hybrid zone. The ecological selection
      gradient, or ecotone, model maintains that fitness of different genotypes varies
      in response to environmental variation (exogenous selection) and thus, that in a
      region of the zone, fitness of hybrids is at least equal to that of the parental
      species. Therefore, to assess the predominant mode of selection operating in a
      hybrid zone, it is fundamental to evaluate whether selection is acting
      specifically against hybrid individuals, that is, whether hybridity alone is the
      basis for deficiencies of hybrids, and to evaluate whether the relative fitness
      of hybrids versus that of pure species varies across the zone. In a hardclam
      (genus Mercenaria) hybrid zone located in a polyhaline lagoon in east-central
      Florida, we used age-specific and location-specific analyses to determine that a
      hybrid deficit occurrs, that the deficit seems to be due to selection against
      hybrids, and that selection varies across the zone. Various measures of deviation
      from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, linkage disequilibrium analyses, and shifts in
      allele frequencies at semidiagnostic loci support the idea that selection is
      strongest in the northern region of the lagoon, the zone of sympatry and
      hybridization. Southward, into the range of M. mercenaria (the numerically
      predominant species), the percentage of hybrids remains relatively high and
      selection against hybrids decreases. For some genetic linkage groups, selection
      for M. mercenaria alleles seems to be occurring, but selection seems to be acting
      principally against alleles characteristic of M. mercenaria and, to a lesser
      degree, for alleles characteristic of M. campechiensis (the rarer species). These
      findings and others from previous analyses we have done on this hybrid zone
      demonstrate that selection in the zone is complex, and that characteristics of
      both the tension-zone and ecotone models are present. Supporting the tension-zone
      model, selection against hybrids per se clearly occurs, but specific genotypes
      seem to be at a selective disadvantage, whereas others have a selective
      advantage, and selection operates differentially on the two parental species
      within the zone. Supporting the ecotone model, the strength of overall selection
      varies throughout the zone, and environmentally mediated selection in which each
      species and hybrids have an advantage in specific habitats occurs, but some
      selection against hybrids is invariant throughout the zone. Thus, the structure
      and genetic architecture of this hybrid zone appear to be products of a
      complicated interaction between both types of selective forces cited in the two
      competing models.

PMID- 28564998
TI  - TREE BALANCE AND TREE COMPLETENESS.

PMID- 28564999
TI  - PHENOTYPIC SELECTION IN AN ARTIFICIAL POPULATION OF IMPATIENS PALLIDA: THE
      IMPORTANCE OF THE INVISIBLE FRACTION.
AB  - Multiple-regression techniques for measuring phenotypic selection have been used
      in a large number of recent field studies. One benefit of this technique is its
      ability to discern the direct action of selection on traits by removing effects
      of correlated traits. However, covariation among traits expressed at different
      stages in an organism's life history is often poorly estimated because
      individuals that die before reaching adulthood cannot be measured as adults.
      Accurate estimates of trait covariances are necessary for the correct
      interpretation of the direct action of selection on a trait. If phenotypic
      characters expressed at different life-history stages are of interest, and
      mortality occurs between stages, the components of the selection model will be
      biased by not including those individuals that died (the "invisible fraction").

PMID- 28565000
TI  - NEW PERSPECTIVES ON COMPARATIVE TESTS OF ANTAGONISTIC PLEIOTROPY USING
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28565001
TI  - VARIANCE-INDUCED PEAK SHIFTS.
AB  - The increase in phenotypic variance that occurs in some populations as a result
      of bottlenecks and founder events can cause a dramatic increase in the
      probability of a peak shift from one adaptive state to another. Periods of small
      population size allow drift in the amount of phenotypic variance. Increases in
      phenotypic variance, coupled with a constant individual fitness function with
      multiple peaks, can cause the mean fitness landscape to change from bimodal to
      unimodal, thereby allowing the population's mean phenotype to change
      deterministically by selection. As the amount of phenotypic variance is returned
      to an equilibrium state, the multiple peaks reemerge, but the population has
      moved from one stable state to another. These variance-induced peak shifts allow
      punctuational evolution from one peak to another at a rate that can be much
      higher than that predicted by Wright's shifting-balance process alone.

PMID- 28565002
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN THE FUNGUS ATKINSONELLA HYPOXYLON INFECTING
      SYMPATRIC DANTHONIA GRASSES.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine how host identity and geographic
      proximity were related to genetic variation in the fungus Atkinsonella hypoxylon
      infecting four sympatric Danthonia grasses. We analyzed 192 A. hypoxylon isolates
      from 48 geographic sites for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation by restriction
      digestion of total DNA with EcoRI, BamHI, and PstI, and subsequent hybridization
      with purified A. hypoxylon mtDNA. Thirtynine haplotypes were identified. UPGMA
      cluster analysis showed that mtDNA type is highly correlated with host-species
      group; isolates from Danthonia compressa and D. spicata formed one branch of the
      phenogram, and isolates from D. epilis and D. sericea formed the other.
      Restriction maps of the most common mtDNA haplotypes infecting each host-species
      pair revealed a 30-kb size difference and a minimum of eight length changes and
      one restrictionsite change between them. Mapping of the mutation differences
      among all haplotypes occurring at North Carolina sites resulted in two distinct
      gene trees corresponding to the two Danthonia species groups, corroborating the
      phenetic analysis. The results indicate a high degree of host-dependent isolation
      and establish the existence of host races in A. hypoxylon. Possible mechanisms
      responsible for this isolation are discussed. Little differentiation existed
      between isolates from within a Danthonia species pair, and some variation was
      explained by geographic origin. Analysis of progeny from a natural sexual cross
      revealed that mitochondria are maternally inherited in A. hypoxylon.

PMID- 28565003
TI  - PROBABILISTIC OPTIMIZATION OF BODY SIZE: A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN GENETIC AND
      PHENOTYPIC OPTIMA.

PMID- 28565004
TI  - LIFETIME ESTIMATES OF BIPARENTAL INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN THE SELF-INCOMPATIBLE
      ANNUAL PLANT RAPHANUS SATIVUS.
AB  - Studies of inbreeding depression in plant populations have focused primarily on
      comparisons of selfing versus outcrossing in self-compatible species. Here we
      examine the effect of five naturally occurring levels of inbreeding (f ranging
      from 0 to 0.25 by pedigree) on components of lifetime fitness in a field
      population of the self-incompatible annual, Raphanus sativus. Pre- and
      postgermination survival and reproductive success were examined for offspring
      resulting from compatible cross-pollinations. Multiple linear regression of
      inbreeding level on rates of fruit and seed abortion as well as seed weight and
      total seed weight per fruit were not significant. Inbreeding level was not found
      to affect seed germination, offspring survival in the field, date of first
      flowering, or plant biomass (dry weight minus fruit). The effect of inbreeding on
      seedling viability in the greenhouse and viability to flowering was significant
      but small and inconsistently correlated with inbreeding level. Maternal
      fecundity, however, a measure of seed yield, was reduced almost 60% in offspring
      from full-sib crosses (f = 0.25) relative to offspring resulting from
      experimental outcross pollinations (f = 0). Water availability, a form of
      physiological stress, affected plant biomass but did not affect maternal
      fecundity, nor did it interact with inbreeding level to influence these
      characters. The delayed expression of strong inbreeding depression suggests that
      highly deleterious recessive alleles were not a primary cause of fitness loss
      with inbreeding. Highly deleterious recessives may have been purged by
      bottlenecks in population size associated with the introduction of Raphanus and
      its recent range expansions. In general, reductions in total relative fitness of
      greater than 50% associated with full-sib crosses should be sufficient to
      prohibit the evolution of self-compatibility via transmission advantage in
      Raphanus.

PMID- 28565005
TI  - ESTIMATING EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE: A REPLY TO NUNNEY.

PMID- 28565006
TI  - PREDICTING MICROEVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES TO DIRECTIONAL SELECTION ON HERITABLE
      VARIATION.
AB  - Microevolution of quantitative traits in the wild can be predicted from a
      knowledge of selection and genetic parameters. Testing the predictions requires
      measurement of the offspring of the selected group, a requirement that is
      difficult to meet. We present the results of a study of Darwin's finches on the
      Galapagos island of Daphne Major where this requirement is met. The study
      demonstrates microevolutionary consequences of natural selection.

PMID- 28565007
TI  - REPEATED REVERSALS OF HOST-PREFERENCE EVOLUTION IN A SPECIALIST INSECT HERBIVORE.
AB  - A tree of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes was constructed to estimate the
      number of evolutionary changes of host-plant preference needed to account for
      variation among 24 populations of the butterfly Euphydryas editha. Using 17
      restriction endonucleases, 22 mtDNA haplotypes were found among 24 populations of
      this butterfly species. We allowed for the possibility of haplotypes to acquire
      particular preferences either from evolutionary change at their local sites or
      from migration to populations where those preferences occurred. After we had
      taken these estimates of migration into account, a minimum of 10 evolutionary
      changes of host preference (reduced from 22) was needed to explain the pattern of
      use of five host-plant genera among these populations. Analysis of allozyme
      variation among a partially overlapping set of populations also suggested
      multiple host shifts. Although genetic variation of host preference is largely
      responsible for interpopulation variation of diet, repeated reversals of
      preference evolution have occurred. However, host preferences were not
      distributed randomly with respect to phylogeny, and some tendency toward
      evolutionary conservation of preference also was indicated. The haplotype of E.
      editha most closely related to the sister species, E. chalcedona, used a
      principal host of E. chalcedona. Our results suggest that host shifts occur
      frequently in E. editha, are a result of both migration and local evolution, and
      have not been associated with speciation in these insects.

PMID- 28565008
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS OF SCHIEDEA
      LYDGATEI (CARYOPHYLLACEAE) IN TWO ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - We compared inbreeding depression in hermaphroditic Schiedea lydgatei and its
      gynodioecious sister species, S. salicaria, to infer the level of inbreeding
      depression in their common ancestor. With measurements of selfing rates, this
      information can be used to assess the importance of inbreeding depression in the
      evolution of breeding systems in S. lydgatei and S. salicaria. Morphological and
      physiological characters related to fitness were compared for inbred and
      outcrossed S. lydgatei in high- and low-fertilizer environments in the
      greenhouse. Seed mass, number of seeds per capsule, germination, survival,
      biomass, number of flowers, and age at first flowering were compared for inbred
      versus outcrossed progeny. We also measured inbreeding depression in maximal
      rates of photosynthetic carbon assimilation and stomatal conductance to water
      vapor, traits that affect fitness through their influence on plant carbon balance
      and water-use efficiency (ratio of carbon gain to water loss). All traits except
      number of seeds per capsule in parents and survival showed inbreeding depression,
      with the magnitude depending on family and environment. High inbreeding
      depression is likely in the ancestor of S. lydgatei and S. salicaria, indicating
      that, with sufficiently high selfing rates, females could spread in populations.
      Hermaphroditism in S. lydgatei is probably favored by low selfing rates. In
      contrast, the evolution of gynodioecy in S. salicaria apparently has been favored
      by relatively high selfing rates in combination with high inbreeding depression.

PMID- 28565009
TI  - MEASURING THE RATIO OF EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE TO ADULT NUMBERS USING GENETIC
      AND ECOLOGICAL DATA.

PMID- 28565010
TI  - THE FOUNDING OF A NEW POPULATION OF DARWIN'S FINCHES.
AB  - We report the natural colonization of the small Galapagos island Daphne Major by
      the large ground finch (Geospiza magnirostris). Immigrants of this species were
      present in every year of a 22-yr study, 1973-1994. Typically they arrived after a
      breeding season and left at the beginning of the next one. Geospiza magnirostris
      bred on the island for the first time in the exceptionally wet El Nino year of
      1982-1983, and bred in all subsequent years except drought years. In agreement
      with theoretical expectations the frequency of inbreeding was unusually high.
      Pronounced fluctuating asymmetry in tarsus length, together with slightly reduced
      breeding success of inbreeding pairs, suggests a low level of inbreeding
      depression. Despite this, the population increased from 5 breeding individuals in
      1983 to 20 breeding individuals in 1992, and probably more than twice that number
      in 1993, largely through recruitment of locally born birds.

PMID- 28565011
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE PHENOTYPE DISTRIBUTION IN A RANDOM ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - In an unpredictably changing environment, phenotypic variability may evolve as a
      "bet-hedging" strategy. We examine here two models for evolutionarily stable
      phenotype distributions resulting from stabilizing selection with a randomly
      fluctuating optimum. Both models include overlapping generations, either survival
      of adults or a dormant propagule pool. In the first model (mixed-strategies
      model) we assume that individuals can produce offspring with a distribution of
      phenotypes, in which case, the evolutionarily stable population always consists
      of a single genotype. We show that there is a unique evolutionarily stable
      strategy (ESS) distribution that does not depend on the amount of generational
      overlap, and that the ESS distribution generically is discrete rather than
      continuous; that is, there are distinct classes of offspring rather than a
      continuous distribution of offspring phenotypes. If the probability of extreme
      fluctuations in the optimum is sufficiently small, then the ESS distribution is
      monomorphic: a single type fitted to the mean environment. At higher levels of
      variability, the ESS distribution is polymorphic, and we find stability
      conditions for dimorphic distributions. For an exponential or similarly broad
      tailed distribution of the optimum phenotype, the ESS consists of an infinite
      number of distinct phenotypes. In the second model we assume that an individual
      produces offspring with a single, genetically determined phenotype (pure
      strategies model). The ESS population then contains multiple genotypes when the
      environmental variance is sufficiently high. However the phenotype distributions
      are similar to those in the mixed-strategies model: discrete, with an increasing
      number of distinct phenotypes as the environmental variance increases.

PMID- 28565012
TI  - SPATIAL POPULATION STRUCTURE IN THE WHIRLIGIG BEETLE DINEUTUS ASSIMILIS:
      EVOLUTIONARY INFERENCES BASED ON MITOCHONDRIAL DNA AND FIELD DATA.
AB  - The spatial population structure of the pond-living water beetle Dineutus
      assimilis (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) was investigated through a field study of
      population dynamics and dispersal, with a concurrent assessment of the spatial
      distribution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction-fragment-length
      polymorphism (RFLP). A comprehensive 2-yr survey within a 60-km2 study area
      revealed pronounced fluctuations in local abundances, including extinctions and
      colonizations. The recapture of marked individuals showed that dispersal among
      ponds is frequent in both males and females and connects populations on a large
      geographic scale (maximum observed flight distance: 20 km). The population
      structure of D. assimilis is thus characterized by both pronounced genetic drift
      and frequent gene flow. Together, these two forces generate a pattern of very
      local and transient genetic differentiation. Mitochondrial DNA samples collected
      within a few kilometers indicate highly significant spatial structure, if newly
      founded demes or those that experienced recent bottlenecks are included. These
      results based on four demes within the study area were placed into a regional
      context by further samples collected at distances of 100 km and 200 km. Fst
      estimates computed on increasing spatial scales were variable but showed no
      increasing trend. Thus, gene flow exerts a strong homogenizing force over a wide
      geographic range but is counteracted locally by genetic drift. These findings
      highlight the need to supplement estimates of Fst with additional data to arrive
      at valid interpretations of the genetic information. More generally, this study
      raises questions about how to capture the relevant features of dynamic,
      subdivided populations to understand their evolutionary dynamics.

PMID- 28565013
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF BRYOZOAN PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION. III. PHENOTYPIC
      PLASTICITY AND THE MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION.
AB  - Cheilostome bryozoan species show long-term morphologic stasis, implying
      stabilizing selection sustained for millions of years, but nevertheless retain
      significant heritable variation in traits of skeletal morphology. The possible
      role of within-genotype (within-colony) phenotypic variability in preserving
      genetic diversity was analyzed using breeding data for two species of Stylopoma
      from sites along 110 km of the Caribbean coast of Panama. Variation among zooids
      within colonies accounts for nearly two-thirds of the phenotypic variance on
      average, increases with environmental heterogeneity, and includes significant
      genotype-environment interaction. Thus, within-colony variability apparently
      represents phenotypic plasticity, at least some of which is heritable, rather
      than random "developmental noise." Almost all of the among-colonies component of
      phenotypic variance is accounted for by additive genetic differences in trait
      means, suggesting that within-colony plasticity includes virtually all of the
      environmental component of phenotypic variance in these populations of Stylopoma.
      Thus, heritable within-colony plasticity could play a significant part in
      maintaining genetic diversity in cheilostomes, but it is also possible that rates
      of polygenic mutation alone are sufficient to balance the effects of selection.

PMID- 28565014
TI  - ESTIMATING SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE TRAITS USING CAPTURE-RECAPTURE DATA.

PMID- 28565015
TI  - CLUTCH SIZE AND EGG SIZE IN FREE-LIVING AND PARASITIC COPEPODS: A COMPARATIVE
      ANALYSIS.
AB  - The evolution of reproductive strategies and the trade-off between number and
      size of eggs were investigated in a comparative analysis of free-living and
      parasitic copepods. Data from 1038 copepod species were used to obtain family
      averages for 105 families; the phylogenetic relationships among these families
      include 94 branching events or 94 independent contrasts on which the analysis was
      based. Transition from a free-living existence to parasitism on invertebrates
      resulted in small increases in body size. Transition from parasitism on
      invertebrates to parasitism on fish was associated with greater increases in body
      size. After controlling for body size, a switch to fish hosts resulted in an
      increase in the number of eggs produced and a reduction in egg size. Among all
      contrasts, there was a negative relationship between changes in relative clutch
      size and changes in relative egg size, suggesting the existence of a trade-off
      between egg size and numbers. However, opposite changes in these measures of
      clutch size and egg size were not quite more frequent than expected by chance,
      therefore indicating that investments into egg numbers are not necessarily made
      at the expense of egg size, and vice versa. Latitude affected copepod body size,
      clutch size, and egg size, whereas the effects of freshwater colonization or size
      of the fish host were not significant. Comparative analyses at either the genus
      or species levels within given taxa of copepods parasitic on fish provided
      limited support for a trade-off between clutch size and egg size, but were
      hampered by the small number of independent phylogenetic contrasts available.
      From the family-level comparative analysis, it appears that the evolutionary
      transition from a free life to parasitism on invertebrates, and the transition
      from parasitism on invertebrates to parasitism on fish, have led to changes in
      life-history traits in response to the different selective pressures associated
      with the different modes of life.

PMID- 28565016
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE, LOCAL MATE COMPETITION, AND SEX-ALLOCATION PATTERN IN THE
      ANT MESSOR ACICULATUS.
AB  - Population-genetic structure and sex-allocation ratios were investigated for the
      ant Messor aciculatus, a species that conducts mass nuptial flights. An
      electrophoretic survey on two polymorphic loci revealed excessive homozygosities
      in two populations. Because inbreeding inside nests does not occur, the
      heterozygote deficiency may result from population subdivision rather than
      assortative inbreeding during nuptial flights. Assuming no inbreeding, a
      simulation based on the observed genotype distribution in the study site
      suggested that, on average, a breeding swarm consists of alates from only 1.7
      colonies. This population genetic structure seems to cause local mate competition
      (LMC), a factor that can shift population sex ratio toward females. The sex
      allocation ratio to males in the population (0.166 +/- 0.030; mean +/- SE) was
      significantly female biased and lower than the expected optima for queens (0.5)
      and for workers (0.25) without LMC. Sex-ratio variability among colonies was
      explained by a pattern of constant male investment, which is predictable assuming
      LMC. Thus, the study provides the first evidence of LMC in ants with mass nuptial
      flights and contradicts previous assumptions about breeding structure in swarming
      ants. The results suggest that LMC can affect sex-allocation patterns for ant
      colonies and populations.

PMID- 28565017
TI  - ASYNCHRONY OF INFECTION TIMING, HABITAT PREFERENCE, AND SYMPATRIC SPECIATION OF
      SCHISTOSOME PARASITES.

PMID- 28565018
TI  - PHENETIC ANALYSIS AND THE PHYLOGENY OF THE DIPLOID SPECIES OF GOSSYPIUM L.
      (MALVACEAE).

PMID- 28565019
TI  - PARALLELISM AND CONVERGENCE IN THE EVOLUTION OF SIZE AND SHAPE IN HOLARCTIC HYLA.

PMID- 28565020
TI  - AN EXAMPLE OF PARALLELISM IN CARNIVORE BRAIN EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28565021
TI  - THE GENETICS OF DACUS OLEAE. V. CHANGES OF ESTERASE POLYMORPHISM IN A NATURAL
      POPULATION FOLLOWING INSECTICIDE CONTROL-SELECTION OR DRIFT?

PMID- 28565022
TI  - THE MONOECIOUS AND DIOECIOUS CONDITIONS IN SAGITTARIA LATIFOLIA L.
      (ALISMATACEAE).

PMID- 28565023
TI  - THE RELATIONS BETWEEN POPULATION STRUCTURE AND RATE OF INBREEDING.

PMID- 28565024
TI  - A DEVELOPMENTAL BASIS FOR DIFFERENTIAL TOOTH REDUCTION DURING HOMINID EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28565025
TI  - LETHAL ALLELES NEAR LOCUS T IN HOUSE MOUSE POPULATIONS ON THE JUTLAND PENINSULA,
      DENMARK.

PMID- 28565026
TI  - REVERSIBLE TETRAPLOIDY AS AN EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISM.

PMID- 28565027
TI  - THE GENETICS OF POLYMORPHISM IN THE ROSS' GOOSE (ANSER ROSSII).

PMID- 28565028
TI  - CHANGES IN MICROGEOGRAPHIC VARIATION PATTERNS OF PEMPHIGUS POPULITRANSVERSUS OVER
      A SIX-YEAR SPAN.

PMID- 28565029
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF RELATIVE FITNESS IN TRANSFERRIN GENOTYPES OF MICROTUS
      OCHROGASTER.

PMID- 28565030
TI  - GENETIC INTERPRETATION OF REGRESSIVE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES: STUDIES ON HYBRID
      EYES OF TWO ASTYANAX CAVE POPULATIONS (CHARACIDAE, PISCES).

PMID- 28565031
TI  - TWO THOUSAND GENERATIONS OF HYBRIDISATION IN A HELICONIUS BUTTERFLY.

PMID- 28565032
TI  - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CAUSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN
      ADULTS AND PUPAE OF CULICOIDES: A FACTOR ANALYSIS AND MULTIPLE REGRESSION STUDY.

PMID- 28565033
TI  - TOWARD THE ORIGIN OF ARTIODACTYLS.

PMID- 28565034
TI  - MATING PROPENSITY OF GENE ARRANGEMENT CARRIERS FROM A REDWOODS POPULATION OF
      DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS.

PMID- 28565035
TI  - Clinical experience with white blood cell-PET/CT in autosomal dominant polycystic
      kidney disease patients with suspected cyst infection: A prospective case series.
AB  - AIMS: Cyst infection (CI) is a common problem in patients with autosomal dominant
      polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Localization is of great importance in CI. We
      describe the clinical experience with [18F] FDG-labelled white-blood cell (WBC)
      PET/CT in detecting CI in ADPKD. METHODS: Nineteen ADPKD patients (M:F = 7:12)
      suspected of having CI were enrolled in this prospective study. All underwent WBC
      PET/CT and MRI or CT. The degree of their WBC accumulation was evaluated from the
      maximal standardized uptake value of cystic wall. RESULTS: Cyst infection was
      diagnosed in 14 cases [definite (n = 6), probable (n = 1), or possible (n = 7);
      kidney (n = 11), or liver (n = 3)]. There was no difference in fever or
      laboratory findings (White blood cell count, C-reactive protein, culture results,
      and eGFR). The blood culture was positive only in a subset of CI patients (n =
      4). Cyst fluid culture yielded bacterial growth in 80% of aspirates. WBC-PET/CT
      detected 64% of CI cases, whereas conventional imaging, 50%. WBC-PET/CT showed
      false-positive results in two of five cases with no CI. The reasons for false
      negatives with WBC-PET/CT were poor host immune reaction, low virulence, or prior
      antibiotic therapy. Haemorrhagic cysts were the most common cause of false
      positivity in WBC-PET/CT. However, WBC-PET/CT detected CI in three cases, in
      which the conventional imaging failed to find CI. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical
      information may play little role in the diagnosis of CI. WBC-PET/CT can be used
      to detect CI with better sensitivity in ADPKD patients, circumventing the
      exposure to contrast media.

PMID- 28565036
TI  - GENETIC CHANGES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28565037
TI  - BUTTERFLY PALATABILITY AND MIMICRY: EXPERIMENTS WITH AMEIVA LIZARDS.

PMID- 28565038
TI  - INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON FREQUENCIES OF CERTAIN CHROMOSOMAL
      INVERSIONS IN CHIRONOMUS TENTANS FABRICIUS.

PMID- 28565039
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF GENETIC VARIABILITY ON WING SYMMETRY IN HONEYBEES (APIS
      MELLIFERA).

PMID- 28565040
TI  - A COMMENT ON THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION IN MAINTAINING POLYMORPHISMS IN
      NATURAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28565041
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC PROTEIN VARIATION AND DIVERGENCE IN POPULATIONS OF THE SALAMANDER
      PLETHODON CINEREUS.

PMID- 28565042
TI  - RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR AND GENIC HETEROZYGOSITY IN THE OLD
      FIELD MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS POLIONOTUS.

PMID- 28565043
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION IN WOODRATS, GENUS NEOTOMA (RODENTIA: CRICETIDAE).

PMID- 28565044
TI  - POPULATION GENETIC STUDIES IN BEES. 2. SEX-LIMITED GENES.

PMID- 28565045
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN AND INTELLIGENCE: COMMENT ON RADINSKY'S REVIEW.

PMID- 28565046
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF MARINE PELECYPODS. IV. SELECTION, MIGRATION AND GENETIC
      DIFFERENTIATION IN THE BLUE MUSSEL MYTILUS EDULIS.

PMID- 28565047
TI  - SIB-MATING POPULATIONS IN AN UNPREDICTABLE ENVIRONMENT: EFFECTS ON COMPONENTS OF
      FITNESS.

PMID- 28565048
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN SPECIOSE VERSUS DEPAUPERATE PHYLADS: EVIDENCE FROM THE
      CALIFORNIA MINNOWS.

PMID- 28565049
TI  - EFFECTS OF LARVAL BIOTIC RESIDUES ON CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM OF DROSOPHILA
      PAVANI.

PMID- 28565050
TI  - STUDIES IN WARNING COLORATION AND MIMICRY. VII. EVOLUTIONARY CONSEQUENCES OF A
      BATESIAN-MULLERIAN SPECTRUM: A MODEL FOR MULLERIAN MIMICRY.

PMID- 28565051
TI  - EFFECTIVE POPULATION NUMBER IN CEPAEA: A MODIFICATION.

PMID- 28565052
TI  - EFFECTS OF AGE, REARING AND MATING EXPERIENCES ON FREQUENCY DEPENDENT SEXUAL
      SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28565053
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF NON-MIMETIC FORMS IN A DIMORPHIC BATESIAN MIMIC SPECIES.

PMID- 28565054
TI  - THE INTERRELATION BETWEEN VARIABILITY OF CHARACTERS, EFFECTIVENESS OF ENERGY
      UTILISATION, AND KARYOTYPE STRUCTURE IN FISHES.

PMID- 28565055
TI  - POLYMORPHIC MIMICRY AND NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28565056
TI  - CHARACTER CONVERGENCE IN MEXICAN FINCHES.

PMID- 28565057
TI  - COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF SEED PROTEINS OF SPECIES OF GOSSYPIUM BY GEL
      ELECTROPHORESIS.

PMID- 28565058
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL INTROGRESSION IN THE GENUS PHASEOLUS. I. EFFECT OF MATING SYSTEMS ON
      INTERSPECIFIC GENE FLOW.

PMID- 28565059
TI  - A POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONARY BASIS FOR AESTHETIC APPRECIATION IN MEN AND APES.

PMID- 28565060
TI  - CONVERGENT EVOLUTION OF MEDITERRANEAN-CLIMATE EVERGREEN SCLEROPHYLL SHRUBS.

PMID- 28565062
TI  - INTROGRESSION ACROSS ISOLATING BARRIERS IN WILD AND CULTIVATED ORYZA SPECIES.

PMID- 28565061
TI  - ELECTROPHORESIS OF PROTEINS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF PARTULA (GASTROPODA).

PMID- 28565063
TI  - STAGE OF TAXON CYCLE AND DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS ON JAMAICA, GREATER ANTILLES.

PMID- 28565064
TI  - RAPID POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN A MOSAIC ENVIRONMENT. I. THE RESPONSE OF
      ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM POPULATIONS TO SOILS.

PMID- 28565065
TI  - THE POPULATION BIOLOGY OF ANNUAL GRASSLAND HEMIPARASITES. I. THE HOST
      ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28565066
TI  - POPULATION CONSEQUENCES OF NON-MENDELIAN SEGREGATION AMONG MULTIPLE ALLELES.

PMID- 28565067
TI  - PLASTICITY OF TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS OF THE QUEENSLAND FRUIT FLIES DACUS TRYONI AND
      DACUS NEOHUMERALIS (TEPHRITIDAE).

PMID- 28565069
TI  - THE GONADS AND REPRODUCTION OF THREE INTERGENERIC SUNFISH (FAMILY CENTRARCHIDAE)
      HYBRIDS.

PMID- 28565068
TI  - ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE CAVE COMMUNITIES I. CAVES AS ISLANDS.

PMID- 28565070
TI  - APOMIXIS, POLYPLOIDY, AND SPECIATION IN DICHANTHIUM.

PMID- 28565071
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN THE HORSESHOE CRAB (LIMULUS POLYPHEMUS), A PHYLOGENETIC
      "RELIC".

PMID- 28565072
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION FOR SIZE DIFFERENCES IN TWO SPECIES OF SANDPIPERS.

PMID- 28565073
TI  - ORNITHISCHIAN DINOSAURS AND THE ORIGIN OF BIRDS.

PMID- 28565074
TI  - THE EXPLOITATION OF POLLINATORS BY SPECIES AND HYBRIDS OF PHLOX.

PMID- 28565075
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTIONARY STATE OF SOME REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS IN THE MAMMALIAN ORDER
      LAGOMORPHA.

PMID- 28565076
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL MODE AND SPECIES GEOGRAPHIC RANGE IN REGULAR SEA URCHINS
      (ECHINODERMATA: ECHINOIDEA).
AB  - Among marine benthic organisms, the ability to disperse, primarily during the
      larval stage, is widely thought to influence the extent of species geographic
      range. Because related species often differ in their modes of larval development
      (pelagic, feeding larvae; pelagic, nonfeeding larvae; or brooded development),
      and these can have dramatically different planktonic intervals, the mode of
      development may influence geographic range. A global survey of 215 regular
      echinoids shows that species with pelagic, feeding larvae have significantly
      larger ranges than those with pelagic, nonfeeding larvae, but there is no
      difference in ranges between species with pelagic, nonfeeding larvae and those
      with brooded development. These patterns are maintained within the Cidaroida and
      the Temnopleuroida, which account for the great majority of species with pelagic,
      nonfeeding development and brooded development. This limited effect of
      developmental mode on geographic range is found among species occurring
      predominantly in waters shallower than 100 m. For species occurring deeper than
      100 m, there is no significant difference in geographic range related to type of
      development. The relationship between developmental mode and species range was
      examined more closely for circa 30 species for which the developmental period was
      known from laboratory observations. Adjusting the developmental times to a common
      temperature, 20 degrees C, using realistic values for Q10 from 2.0 to 3.6, showed
      a highly significant, negative correlation between egg volume and developmental
      time, indicating the potential for developmental mode to influence the planktonic
      interval. However, there was no relationship between time in the plankton,
      estimated from unadjusted developmental times, and extent of species geographic
      range. These results suggest that developmental mode may influence extent of
      species geographic ranges indirectly through the consequences of dispersal for
      gene flow or recovery from disturbance.

PMID- 28565077
TI  - CLINAL VARIATION IN MALE-TO-MALE ANTAGONISM AND WEAPONRY IN A SUBSOCIAL MITE.
AB  - Male aggressiveness is highly variable among populations of a subsocial spider
      mite that occurs throughout Japan. The average level of aggressiveness is
      positively correlated with mean winter temperature and with the relative size
      among males of leg I, which is used as a weapon in this species. The relatedness
      of males within nests is influenced by rates of overwinter survival, with high
      survivorship leading to low relatedness, increased aggressiveness, and larger
      legs I. Within this species, variation in the intensity of sexual selection may
      therefore be influenced both by natural selection and by kin selection.

PMID- 28565078
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF MALE LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Alternative models of the maintenance of genetic variability, theories of life
      history evolution, and theories of sexual selection and mate choice can be tested
      by measuring additive and nonadditive genetic variances of components of fitness.
      A quantitative genetic breeding design was used to produce estimates of genetic
      variances for male life-history traits in Drosophila melanogaster. Additive
      genetic covariances and correlations between traits were also estimated. Flies
      from a large, outbred, laboratory population were assayed for age-specific
      competitive mating ability, age-specific survivorship, body mass, and fertility.
      Variance-component analysis then allowed the decomposition of phenotypic
      variation into components associated with additive genetic, nonadditive genetic,
      and environmental variability. A comparison of dominance and additive components
      of genetic variation provides little support for an important role for balancing
      selection in maintaining genetic variance in this suite of traits. The results
      provide support for the mutation-accumulation theory, but not the antagonistic
      pleiotropy theory of senescence. No evidence is found for the positive genetic
      correlations between mating success and offspring quality or quantity that are
      predicted by "good genes" models of sexual selection. Additive genetic
      coefficients of variation for life-history characters are larger than those for
      body weight. Finally, this set of male life-history characters exhibits a very
      low correspondence between estimates of genetic and phenotypic correlations.

PMID- 28565079
TI  - PHENOLOGICAL ISOLATION, GENE FLOW AND DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES AMONG LOW- AND
      HIGH-ELEVATION POPULATIONS OF EUPHILOTES ENOPTES (LEPIDOPTERA: LYCAENIDAE).
AB  - Populations of the specialist herbivore, Euphilotes enoptes (Lepidoptera:
      Lycaenidae), along three elevational transects in the mountains of central
      Washington state, differed markedly in the phenology of adult flight. In spite of
      this apparent limitation to gene flow, six allozyme loci revealed substantial
      gene exchange among populations along these gradients. The elevational
      difference, and thus the phenological difference, between populations has not
      influenced the extent of gene flow between them. Because the direct exchange of
      genes between low- and high-elevation populations is very unlikely, gene flow
      between them has probably occurred in a stepwise fashion via intermediate
      populations. It is hypothesized that such gene flow has been biased in an uphill
      direction due to the combined effects of source size and oviposition behavior.
      Adult emergence times of populations in the same region are positively correlated
      with elevation in a nonlinear fashion, consistent with the hypothesis that gene
      flow from low-elevation populations has been swamping selection at higher
      altitudes.

PMID- 28565080
TI  - LOCAL VARIATION IN THE GENETIC BASIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN THE SALAMANDER
      AMBYSTOMA TALPOIDEUM.

PMID- 28565081
TI  - THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL VARIANCE-COVARIANCE STRUCTURE IN PREDICTING
      EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES.

PMID- 28565082
TI  - A GENETIC PERSPECTIVE OF MAMMALIAN VARIATION AND EVOLUTION IN THE INDONESIAN
      ARCHIPELAGO: BIOGEOGRAPHIC CORRELATES IN THE FRUIT BAT GENUS CYNOPTERUS.
AB  - This study investigated allozyme and morphometric variability within the genus
      Cynopterus, with particular emphasis on C. nusatenggara, which is endemic to
      Wallacea, the area encompassing the Oriental-Australian biogeographic interface.
      The genetic distances between Cynopterus species are small by mammalian standards
      and suggest that this genus has undergone a recent series of speciation events.
      The genetic distance between populations of C. nusatenggara is strongly
      correlated with both the contemporary sea-crossing distance between islands and
      the estimated sea crossing at the time of the last Pleistocene glacial maximum,
      18,000 b.p. This observation, together with low levels of population substructure
      within islands as shown by F-statistics, indicates that the sea is a primary and
      formidable barrier to gene exchange. The genetic distance and the great-circle
      geographical distance between the populations of C. nusatenggara are not
      correlated, although a principal-coordinates analysis of genetic distance reveals
      relationships between the populations that are similar to their geographical
      arrangement. A strong negative correlation exists between the level of
      heterozygosity within island populations of C. nusatenggara and the minimum sea
      crossing distance to the nearest large source population. This is interpreted as
      reflecting an isolation effect of the sea, leading to reduced heterozygosity in
      populations that have larger sea barriers between them and the large source
      islands. Independently of this, heterozygosity is negatively associated with
      longitude, which in turn is associated with systematic changes in the environment
      such as a gradual decline in rainfall from west to east. The association between
      heterozygosity and longitude is interpreted as reflecting an association between
      genetic and environmental variance and supports the niche-width theory of genetic
      variance. Morphometric variability did not show any of the main effects
      demonstrated in the genetic data. Furthermore, there was no evidence that, at the
      level of individuals, genetic and morphometric variability were associated.

PMID- 28565083
TI  - DELETERIOUS MUTATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF GENETIC LIFE CYCLES.
AB  - It is often proposed that the ability of diploids to mask deleterious mutations
      leads to an evolutionary advantage over haploidy. In this paper, we studied the
      evolution of the relative duration of haploid and diploid phases using a model of
      recurrent deleterious mutations across the entire genome. We found that a
      completely diploid life cycle is favored under biologically reasonable
      conditions, even when prolonging the diploid phase reduces a population's mean
      fitness. A haploid cycle is favored when there is complete linkage throughout the
      genome or when mutations are either highly deleterious or partially dominant.
      These results hold when loci interact multiplicatively and for synergistic
      epistasis. The strength of selection generated on the life cycle can be
      substantial because of the cumulative effect of selection against mutations
      across many loci. We did not find conditions that support cycles that retain both
      phases, such as those found in some plants and algae. Thus, selection against
      deleterious mutations may be an important force in the evolution of life cycles
      but may not be sufficient to explain all the patterns of life cycles seen in
      nature.

PMID- 28565084
TI  - THE POTENTIAL FOR COEVOLUTION IN A HOST-PARASITOID SYSTEM. II. GENETIC VARIATION
      WITHIN A POPULATION OF WASPS IN THE ABILITY TO PARASITIZE AN APHID HOST.
AB  - Much of the study of coevolution has focused on the adaptations that have
      resulted from interactions between species. For reciprocal evolution to occur,
      there must be genetic variation in each species for traits that directly affect
      their interaction. Here I report evidence of significant additive genetic
      variance within a population of parasitic wasps in the ability to successfully
      parasitize an aphid host. These data, combined with companion work documenting
      clonal variation in a population of aphids from the same site, provide evidence
      that within the same population both a host and its parasitoid have the potential
      for specific and reciprocal genetic interactions.

PMID- 28565085
TI  - EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE SELFING RATES OF HERMAPHRODITIC PLANTS IN COMPETING AND
      DELAYED SELFING MODES WITH ALLOCATION TO ATTRACTIVE STRUCTURES.
AB  - I present a resource-allocation model to analyze how patterns of allocation to
      reproductive structures influence the evolution of selfing rates in
      hermaphrodites subject to competing and delayed forms of self-fertilization. The
      evolutionarily stable state does not depend on the mode of pollination. In
      contrast to previous models in which the number and the size of flowers were not
      considered, intermediate selfing is not evolutionarily stable with linear
      constraints on flower number and size. In contrast, intermediate selfing can be
      evolutionarily stable with nonlinear constraints on flower number and size.
      Optimal allocations to attractive structures increase and selfing rates decrease
      in the presence of inbreeding depression. In particular, stable intermediate
      levels of selfing may be favored when flower number is strongly constrained.
      Thus, nonlinear constraints on flower number and size could favor the evolution
      of intermediate selfing in either the delayed or the competing modes of selfing.
      Outcrossing is not favored in the absence of inbreeding depression, a result
      inconsistent with Holsinger's results in which allocation to attractive
      structures was not considered.

PMID- 28565086
TI  - EPISTASIS AND THE INCREASE IN ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR PHASE 1
      OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING-BALANCE PROCESS.
AB  - Central to Wright's shifting-balance theory is the idea that genetic drift and
      selection in systems with gene interaction can lead to the formation of "adaptive
      gene complexes." The theory of genetic drift has been well developed over the
      last 60 years; however, nearly all of this theory is based on the assumption that
      only additive gene effects are acting. Wright's theory was developed recognizing
      that there was a "universality of interaction effects," which implies that
      additive theory may not be adequate to describe the process of differentiation
      that Wright was considering. The concept of an adaptive gene complex implies that
      an allele that is favored by individual selection in one deme may be removed by
      selection in another deme. In quantitative genetic terms, the average effects of
      an allele relative to other alleles changes from deme to deme. The model
      presented here examines the variance in local breeding values (LBVs) of a single
      individual and the covariance in the LBVs of a pair of individuals mated in the
      same deme relative to when they are mated in different demes. Local breeding
      value is a measure of the average effects of the alleles that make up that
      individual in a particular deme. I show that when there are only additive effects
      the covariance between the LBVs of individuals equals the variance in the LBV of
      an individual. As the amount of epistasis in the ancestral population increases,
      the variance in the LBV of an individual increases and the covariance between the
      LBVs of a pair of individuals decreases. The divergence in these two values is a
      measure of the extent to which the LBV of an individual varies independently of
      the LBVs of other individuals. When this value is large, it means that the
      relative ordering of the average effects of alleles will change from deme to
      deme. These results confirm an important component of Wright's shifting-balance
      theory: When there is gene interaction, genetic drift can lead to the reordering
      of the average effects of alleles and when coupled with selection this will lead
      to the formation of the adaptive gene complexes.

PMID- 28565087
TI  - THE POTENTIAL FOR COEVOLUTION IN A HOST-PARASITOID SYSTEM. I. GENETIC VARIATION
      WITHIN AN APHID POPULATION IN SUSCEPTIBILITY TO A PARASITIC WASP.
AB  - For coevolution to occur, there must be genetic variation in each species for
      traits relevant to their interaction. Here, statistically significant variation
      in susceptibility to a parasitic wasp was found among pea-aphid clones collected
      from a single population. In a subset of clones that was tested further, wasps
      were found to oviposit in aphids from both resistant and susceptible lines, but
      eggs failed to develop in resistant hosts. Significant genetic variance in
      susceptibility provides evidence that this aphid population has the potential to
      evolve resistance in response to selection by one of its major natural enemies.
      Predictions of an expected response to selection based on the experimental
      measures of variation and field parasitism rates suggested that there should be a
      detectable change in susceptibility over the course of a season. However, an
      experimental comparison of mean susceptibility of clones collected early and late
      in the summer, a period of several generations, revealed no response to selection
      by the wasps. Aphids collected late in the season were as susceptible, on the
      average, as those collected early in the summer. Possible constraints on the
      response of the aphids to selection by this natural enemy are considered.

PMID- 28565088
TI  - FLORAL CORRELATES AND FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MATING-SYSTEM VARIATION IN TURNERA
      ULMIFOLIA.
AB  - Outcrossing rates varied from 0% to 69% among Jamaican populations of Turnera
      ulmifolia. A correlation between increasing herkogamy and outcrossing rate
      occurred among populations. Predictions from sex-allocation theory were tested by
      estimating allocation to reproductive functions. Significant differences in
      allocation patterns occurred among populations, but they were not correlated with
      outcrossing rates. The fitness consequences of inbreeding were assessed in high-
      and low-density greenhouse experiments for nine populations with variable
      outcrossing rates. No evidence for inbreeding depression occurred in early
      portions of the life history, but multiplicative fitness functions provide
      evidence for inbreeding depression. We tested the prediction that selfing
      populations have lower levels of inbreeding depression than outcrossing
      populations but found no significant correlation.

PMID- 28565089
TI  - SYMPATRIC CONVERGENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATION BETWEEN TWO LAND-SNAIL
      SPECIES.
AB  - In the southern Appalachian region of North America, the phylogenetically
      convergent shells of the polygyrid snails Triodopsinae Neohelix major (Binney)
      and Polygyrinae Mesodon normalis (Pilsbry) are even more convergent in size and
      shape in sympatry (7 sites) than in allopatry (23 and 10 sites). Environmental
      correlations account for 34% and 30% of size and shape variations in N. major
      (larger, taller, and more loosely coiled at northern, high-altitude, sheltered
      sites), but for only 14% and 9% in M. normalis (larger, flatter, and more loosely
      coiled at south-facing, exposed sites). The statistical significance of the
      sympatric convergence dropped out when these correlations were removed. This
      phenomenon helps account for the many cases in eastern North America of nearly
      identical land-snail shells in sympatry and questions the importance of
      competitive character displacement in the evolution of land-snail shell
      morphology. This apparently nonmimetic case of sympatric convergence provides an
      unusually precise and well-delimited, naturally replicated experiment in
      evolutionary morphology, which is analyzed for controlling factors in a follow-up
      paper.

PMID- 28565090
TI  - THE SELECTION BARRIER BETWEEN POPULATIONS SUBJECT TO STABILIZING SELECTION.
AB  - The introgression of genes carried by a small group of immigrants is studied. The
      recipient and the donor populations differ at several autosomal loci subject to
      weak selection, and two allelic forms of each gene are considered. Fitness
      variation is determined by additive allelic effects, by dominance effects, and by
      two-locus additive-by-additive epistatic interaction of the effects of the
      alleles. The fate of the group of immigrants is quantified by the selection
      barrier that describes the cumulative mean fitness of the hybrids and hybrid
      descendants relative to the fitness of the resident population. The monomorphic
      and the polymorphic loci of the recipient population contribute differently to
      the selection barrier. If the genetic difference between recipient and donor
      population is small, then the contribution of the monomorphic loci is dominated
      by a positive term dependent on the difference in gene frequencies. The
      contribution of the polymorphic loci depends only on the difference of the
      leading order in the pairwise linkage disequilibria between the two populations.
      This contribution may be positive or negative; and, thus, polymorphic loci may
      either contribute to the barrier or inflate the introgression.

PMID- 28565091
TI  - LOWER MITE INFESTATIONS IN AN ASEXUAL GECKO COMPARED WITH ITS SEXUAL ANCESTORS.
AB  - What advantage do sexually reproducing organisms gain from their mode of
      reproduction that compensates for their twofold loss in reproductive rate
      relative to their asexual counterparts? One version of the Red Queen hypothesis
      suggests that selective pressure from parasites is strongest on the most common
      genotype in a population, and thus genetically identical clonal lineages are more
      vulnerable to parasitism over time than genetically diverse sexual lineages. Our
      surveys of the ectoparasites of an asexual gecko and its two sexual ancestral
      species show that the sexuals have a higher prevalence, abundance, and mean
      intensity of mites than asexuals sharing the same habitat. Our experimental data
      indicate that in one sexual/asexual pair this pattern is at least partly
      attributable to higher attachment rates of mites to sexuals. Such a difference
      may occur as a result of exceptionally high susceptibility of the sexuals to
      mites because of their low genetic diversity (relative to other more-outbred
      sexual species) and their potentially high stress levels, or as a result of
      exceptionally low susceptibility of the asexuals to mites because of their high
      levels of heterozygosity.

PMID- 28565092
TI  - RAPID LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF ADULT LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER IN RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE.
AB  - Three replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster were cultured at each of two
      temperatures (16.5 degrees C and 25 degrees C) in population cages for 4 yr. The
      lifespans of both sexes and the fecundity and fertility of the females were then
      measured at both experimental temperatures. The characters showed evidence of
      adaptation; flies of both sexes from each selection regime showed higher
      longevity, and females showed higher fecundity and fertility, than flies from the
      other selection regime when they were tested at the experimental temperature at
      which they had evolved. Calculation of intrinsic rates of increase under
      different assumptions about the rate of population increase showed that the
      difference between the lines from the two selection regimes became less the
      higher the rate of population increase, because the lines were more similar in
      early adulthood than they were later. Despite the increased adaptation of the low
      temperature lines to the low temperature, like the high temperature lines they
      produced progeny at a higher rate at the higher temperature. The lines may have
      independently evolved adaptations to their respective thermal regimes during the
      experiment, or there may have been a trade-off between adaptation to the two
      temperatures, or mutation pressure may have lowered adaptation to the temperature
      that the flies no longer encountered.

PMID- 28565093
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN FEMALE PREFERENCES FOR MALE TRAITS IN POECILIA
      RETICULATA.
AB  - We examined the preferences of female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from 11
      localities in Trinidad with respect to male color-pattern elements, body shape
      and size, and overall color and brightness contrast. Females are on average more
      attracted to males from their own population than from alien populations, and
      populations appear to vary in the criteria used in female choice. Multiple
      regression analysis suggests that mate-preference criteria vary among localities
      in intensity, sign, and the number of traits used. Although preference estimators
      and color-pattern parameters are unique to each population, only orange, black,
      and color contrast showed a correlation between degree of male trait and degree
      of preference for that trait. There is a clear effect of water color and a
      possible effect of predation intensity. The results are discussed in light of
      various models of sexual selection and the early stages of speciation.

PMID- 28565094
TI  - HONEST SIGNALING AND THE SURVIVAL COST OF BADGES IN THE HOUSE SPARROW.

PMID- 28565095
TI  - KIN-MEDIATED MORPHOGENESIS IN FACULTATIVELY CANNIBALISTIC TADPOLES.
AB  - Inclusive fitness theory predicts that organisms can increase their fitness by
      helping or not harming relatives, and many animals modify their behavior toward
      kin in a manner consistent with this prediction. Morphogenesis also may be
      sensitive to kinship environment, particularly in species where certain
      individuals facultatively develop structures that can be used against
      conspecifics as weaponry. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether and how
      consanguinity affected the probability that a structurally distinctive carnivore
      phenotype, which is opportunistically cannibalistic, would be produced in plains
      spadefoot toad tadpoles (Spea bombifrons) and southern spadefoot toad tadpoles
      (S. multiplicata). For tadpoles of S. multiplicata, individuals were
      significantly more likely to express the carnivore phenotype in mixed sibship
      groups than in pure sibship groups. For tadpoles of S. bombifrons, individuals
      were significantly more likely to express the carnivore phenotype when reared
      alone than in pure sibship groups. Both outcomes were independent of food
      availability or sibship specific differences in size or growth rate, and
      waterborne chemical signals from nonkin were sufficient to trigger expression of
      the carnivore phenotype. Our results suggest that morphogenesis may be responsive
      to kinship environment in any species or population that occurs as multiple,
      environmentally induced forms (polyphenism) that differ in their ability to help
      or to harm others.

PMID- 28565096
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN CLARKIA DUDLEYANA. II. CONSTANCY
      OF WITHIN-POPULATION GENETIC VARIANCE.
AB  - Recent quantitative genetic studies have attempted to infer long-term selection
      responsible for differences in observed phenotypes. These analyses are greatly
      simplified by the assumption that the within-population genetic variance remains
      constant through time and over space, or for the multivariate case, that the
      matrix of additive genetic variances and covariances (G matrix) is constant. We
      examined differences in G matrices and the association of these differences with
      differences in multivariate means (Mahalanobis D2 ) among 11 populations of the
      California endemic annual plant, Clarkia dudleyana. Based on nine continuous
      morphological traits, the relationship between Mahalanobis D2 and a distance
      measure summarizing differences in G matrices reflected no concomitant change in
      (co)variances with changes in means. Based on both broad- and narrow-sense
      analyses, we found little evidence that G matrices differed between populations.
      These results suggest that both the additive and nonadditive (co)variances for
      traits have remained relatively constant despite changes in means.

PMID- 28565097
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF THRESHOLD TRAITS: A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE
      PHYSIOLOGICAL AND LIFE-HISTORY CORRELATES OF WING DIMORPHISM IN THE SAND CRICKET.
AB  - Many traits are phenotypically discrete but polygenically determined. Such traits
      can be understood using the threshold model of quantitative genetics that posits
      a continuously distributed underlying trait, called the liability, and a
      threshold of response, individuals above the threshold displaying one morph and
      individuals below the threshold displaying the alternate morph. For many
      threshold traits the liability probably consists of a hormone or a suite of
      hormones. Previous experiments have implicated juvenile hormone esterase (JHE), a
      degratory enzyme of juvenile hormone, as a physiological determinant of wing
      dimorphism in the crickets Gryllus rubens and G. firmus. The present study uses a
      half-sib experiment to measure the heritability of JHE in the last nymphal
      stadium of G. firmus and its genetic correlation with fecundity, a trait that is
      itself genetically correlated with wing morph. The phenotypic and genetic
      parameters are consistent with the hypothesis that JHE is a significant component
      of the liability. Comparison of sire and dam estimates suggest that nonadditive
      effects may be important. Two models have been proposed to account for the
      fitness differences between morphs: the dichotomy model, which assumes that each
      morph can be characterized by a particular suite of traits, and the continuous
      model, which assumes that the associated fitness traits are correlated with the
      liability rather than the morphs themselves. The latter model predicts that the
      fitness differences will not be constant but change with the morph frequencies.
      Variation in fecundity and flight muscle histolysis are shown to be more
      consistent with the continuous model. Data from the present experiment on JHE are
      inconclusive, but results from a previous selection experiment also suggest that
      variation in JHE is consistent only with the continuous model.

PMID- 28565098
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY. III. HAPLO-DIPLOIDY: ARE MALES MORE
      UNSTABLE THAN FEMALES?

PMID- 28565099
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF HOST DEMOGRAPHY ON THE EVOLUTION OF VIRULENCE OF A
      MICROSPORIDIAN GUT PARASITE.
AB  - It is predicted that host exploitation should evolve to maximize parasite fitness
      and that virulence (= parasite-induced host mortality) evolves along with the
      rate of host exploitation. If the life expectancy of a parasite is short, it is
      expected to evolve a higher rate of host exploitation and therefore higher
      virulence because the penalty to the parasite for killing the host is reduced. We
      tested this hypothesis by keeping for 14 months the horizontally transmitted
      microsporidian parasite Glugoides intestinalis in mono-clonal host cultures
      (Daphnia magna) under conditions of high and low host background mortality. High
      host mortality, and thus parasite mortality, was achieved by replacing weekly 70
      80% of all hosts in a culture with uninfected hosts from stock cultures
      (Replacement lines). In the low-mortality treatment no replacement took place.
      Contrary to our expectation, parasites from the Replacement lines evolved a lower
      within-host growth rate and virulence than parasites from the Nonreplacement
      lines. Across lines we found a strong positive correlation between within-host
      growth rate and virulence. We did further experiments to answer the question why
      our data did not support the predictions. Sporophorous vesicles (SVs, spore
      clusters) were smaller in doubly infected than in singly infected host-gut cells,
      indicating that competition within cells bears costs for the parasite. Due to our
      experimental protocol, the average life span of infections had been much higher
      in the Nonreplacement lines. Since the number of parasites inside a host
      increases with the time since infection, long-lasting infections led to high
      frequencies of multiply infected host-gut cells. Therefore, we speculated that
      within-cell competition was more severe in the Nonreplacement lines and may have
      led to selection for accelerated within-host growth. SVs in the Nonreplacement
      lines were indeed significantly larger. Our results point out that single-factor
      explanations for the evolution of virulence can lead to wrong predictions and
      that multiple infections are an important factor in virulence evolution.

PMID- 28565100
TI  - PARALLEL EVOLUTION OF LAKE-STREAM PAIRS OF THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS (GASTEROSTEUS)
      INFERRED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION.
AB  - Three drainage systems in British Columbia, Canada, contain divergent parapatric
      lake-stream pairs of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus): Drizzle
      and Mayer Lakes on Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, and Misty Lake on
      northeastern Vancouver Island. Ecological and morphological differences between
      members of all three lake-stream pairs are strikingly similar; lake fish are
      melanistic and slim bodied with smaller mouths and more gill rakers than the
      mottled-brown and robust-bodied stream sticklebacks. We estimated the level of
      genetic divergence between lake and stream fish in Misty Lake and tested
      hypotheses of single versus multiple origins of the pairs by assaying
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction site variation in samples from the three
      lake systems. MtDNA analysis revealed the existence of two highly divergent
      lineages differing by 2.7% in sequence. One lineage predominated in Misty stream
      fish (73%), whereas the other lineage predominated in Misty Lake samples (96%).
      Comparable forms (lake or stream) in the different lakes did not cluster together
      in terms of mtDNA nucleotide divergence, suggesting that the pairs have had
      independent origins. We concluded that: (1) divergent mtDNA lineages in North
      Pacific sticklebacks stem from historical isolation in the two major glacial
      refugia proposed for the North Pacific (Beringia and Cascadia); (2) the stream
      and lake pair in Misty Lake are distinct gene pools; (3) the divergence between
      parapatric lake and stream Gasterosteus represents parallel evolution having
      occurred at least twice in the North Pacific; and (4) different scales of
      evolutionary divergence exist in North Pacific Gasterosteus, that is, a
      relatively ancient divergence of mtDNA clades as well as recent (i.e.,
      postglacial) divergence of ecotypes within major clades.

PMID- 28565101
TI  - TESTS FOR SEXUAL INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN TWO NEWT SPECIES, TRITURUS VULGARIS AND
      TRITURUS MONTANDONI: NO-CHOICE MATING DESIGN.

PMID- 28565102
TI  - PREY ADAPTATION AS A CAUSE OF PREDATOR-PREY CYCLES.
AB  - We analyze simple models of predator-prey systems in which there is adaptive
      change in a trait of the prey that determines the rate at which it is captured by
      searching predators. Two models of adaptive change are explored: (1) change
      within a single reproducing prey population that has genetic variation for
      vulnerability to capture by the predator; and (2) direct competition between two
      independently reproducing prey populations that differ in their vulnerability.
      When an individual predator's consumption increases at a decreasing rate with
      prey availability, prey adaptation via either of these mechanisms may produce
      sustained cycles in both species' population densities and in the prey's mean
      trait value. Sufficiently rapid adaptive change (e.g., behavioral adaptation or
      evolution of traits with a large additive genetic variance), or sufficiently low
      predator birth and death rates will produce sustained cycles or chaos, even when
      the predator-prey dynamics with fixed prey capture rates would have been stable.
      Adaptive dynamics can also stabilize a system that would exhibit limit cycles if
      traits were fixed at their equilibrium values. When evolution fails to stabilize
      inherently unstable population interactions, selection decreases the prey's
      escape ability, which further destabilizes population dynamics. When the predator
      has a linear functional response, evolution of prey vulnerability always promotes
      stability. The relevance of these results to observed predator-prey cycles is
      discussed.

PMID- 28565103
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY PREDICTABILITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS: DO MATING SYSTEM AND
      NONADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE INTERACT TO AFFECT HERITABILITIES IN PLANTAGO
      LANCEOLATA?
AB  - Quantitative genetics has been an immensely powerful tool in manipulating the
      phenotypes of domesticated plants and animals. Much of the predictive power of
      quantitative genetics depends on the breeder's control over the context in which
      phenotype and mating are being expressed. In the natural world, these contexts
      are often difficult to describe, let alone control. We are left, therefore, with
      a poor understanding of the limits of quantitative genetics in natural
      populations. One of the crucial contextual elements for assessing breeding value
      is the genetic background in which an individual's genes are being assessed. When
      interacting genes are polymorphic within a population, the degree of mating among
      relatives can influence the correlations among mates and the predictions of a
      response to selection. Population structure can strongly influence the degree to
      which dominance and epistasis influences additive genetic variance and
      heritability. The extent of inbreeding can also influence heritabilities through
      its effect on the environmental component of phenotypic variance. The
      applicability of standard quantitative genetic breeding designs to the
      measurement of heritabilities in natural populations therefore depends in part
      on: (1) the mating system of the population; and (2) the importance of gene
      interactions in determining phenotypic variation. We tested for an effect of
      mating structure on the partitioning of phenotypic variance and heritability by
      comparing two breeding designs in a common environment. Both breeding designs
      used 139 pollen parents taken from mapped locations in a population of Plantago
      lanceolata L., and crossed to 280 seed parents from the same population. One
      design was random-mating, the second was biased toward near-neighbor matings to
      an extent determined by field measure of pollen-mediated gene flow distances. The
      offspring were grown randomly mixed in a common garden. Nine traits were
      measured: central corm diameter, number of leaves, area of the most recently
      fully expanded leaf, density of hairs (cm-2 ) on the leaves, dry weight per unit
      leaf area, photosynthetic capacity, transpiration rates, water use efficiency,
      and reproductive dry weight. Heritabilities and variance components from the two
      designs were compared using randomization tests. None of the variance components
      or the heritabilities differed significantly between breeding designs at the 0.05
      level. The test could distinguish differences between the heritabilities measured
      in the two breeding designs as small as 0.11, on average. Thus, for the degree of
      inbreeding normally exhibited in P. lanceolata there is insufficient gene
      interaction present within populations to influence the partitioning of variance
      between additive and nonadditive components or to influence heritability
      estimates to a meaningful extent. We suggest that for Plantago other sources of
      variation in heritability estimates, such as maternal effects and genotype *
      environment interactions, are more important influences than the interaction
      between inbreeding and gene interactions, and standard heritability estimate
      based on random breeding is as accurate as one taking the natural mating
      structure into account.

PMID- 28565104
TI  - LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN THE BEAN WEEVIL (ACANTHOSCELIDES
      OBTECTUS): THE EFFECTS OF DENSITY-DEPENDENT AND AGE-SPECIFIC SELECTION.
AB  - Four types of laboratory populations of the bean weevil (Acanthoscelides
      obtectus) have been developed to study the effects of density-dependent and age
      specific selection. These populations have been selected at high (K) and low
      larval densities (r) as well as for reproduction early (Y) and late (O) in life.
      The results presented here suggest that the r- and K-populations (density
      dependent selection regimes) have differentiated from each other with respect to
      the following life-history traits: egg-to-adult viability at high larval density
      (K > r), preadult developmental time (r > K), body weight (r > K), late fecundity
      (K > r), total realized fecundity (r > K), and longevity of males (r > K). It was
      also found that the following traits responded in statistically significant
      manner in populations subjected to different age-specific selection regimes: egg
      to-adult viability (O > Y), body weight (O > Y), early fecundity (Y > O), late
      fecundity (O > Y), and longevity of females and males (O > Y). Although several
      life-history traits (viability, body weight, late fecundity) responded in similar
      manner to both density-dependent and age-specific selection regimes, it appears
      that underlying genetic and physiological mechanisms responsible for
      differentiation of the r/K and Y/O populations are different. We have also tested
      quantitative genetic basis of the bean weevil life-history traits in the
      populations experiencing density-dependent and age-specific selection. Among the
      traits traded-off within age-specific selection regimes, only early fecundity
      showed directional dominance, whereas late fecundity and longevity data indicated
      additive inheritance. In contrast to age-specific selecton regimes, three life
      history traits (developmental time, body size, total fecundity) in the density
      sependent regimes exhibited significant dominance effects. Lastly, we have tested
      the congruence between short-term and long-term effects of larval densities. The
      comparisons of the outcomes of the r/K selection regimes and those obtained from
      the low- and high-larval densities revealed that there is no congruence between
      the selection results and phenotypic plasticity for the analyzed life-history
      traits in the bean weevil.

PMID- 28565105
TI  - FLUCTUATING POPULATION SIZE AND THE RATIO OF EFFECTIVE TO CENSUS POPULATION SIZE.

PMID- 28565106
TI  - RECENT EVOLUTION AND DIVERGENCE AMONG POPULATIONS OF A RARE MEXICAN ENDEMIC,
      CHIHUAHUA SPRUCE, FOLLOWING HOLOCENE CLIMATIC WARMING.
AB  - Fragmentation and reduction in population size are expected to reduce genetic
      diversity. However, examples from natural populations of forest trees are scarce.
      The range of Chihuahua spruce retreated northward and fragmented coincident with
      the warming climate that marked the early Holocene. The isolated populations vary
      from 15 to 2441 trees, which provided an opportunity to test whether census
      number is a good predictor of genetic diversity. Mean expected heterozygosity, He
      , based on 24 loci in 16 enzyme systems, was 0.093 for 10 sampled populations,
      which is within the range reported for conifers. However, estimates varied more
      than twofold among populations and He was closely related to the logarithm of the
      number of mature trees in the population (rHe,N = 0.93). Diversity among
      populations, FST , was 24.8% of the total diversity, which is higher than that
      observed in almost all conifer species studied. Nei's genetic distance, D, was
      not related to geographic distance between populations, and D was 0.033, which is
      higher than estimates for most wide-ranging species. Most populations had excess
      homozygosity and the fixation index, FIS , was higher than that reported for all
      but one species of conifer. Nm, the number of migrants per generation, was 0.43
      to 0.76, depending on estimation procedure, and is the smallest observed in
      conifers. The data suggest that populations of Chihuahua spruce have
      differentiated by drift and that they are effectively isolated. The results
      illustrate how a combination of paleontological observation and molecular markers
      can be used to illuminate recent evolutionary events. Multilocus estimates of
      outcrossing for two small populations were zero (complete selfing) and 0.153,
      respectively, which are in striking contrast to the near complete outcrossing
      observed in most conifers. The high fixation index and a high proportion of empty
      seeds (45%) suggest that inbreeding may be a serious problem for conservation of
      Chihuahua spruce.

PMID- 28565107
TI  - OPTIMISTIC GROWTH: COMPETITION AND AN ONTOGENETIC NICHE-SHIFT SELECT FOR RAPID
      GROWTH IN PUMPKINSEED SUNFISH (LEPOMIS GIBBOSUS).
AB  - Intrinsic growth rate is emerging as an important life-history trait that can be
      modified by natural selection. One factor determining optimal intrinsic growth
      rates is the pattern of resource availability. Organisms that experience
      chronically low resource levels tend to have slow intrinsic growth rates.
      However, this does not necessarily hold if resource levels change as an organism
      grows. We present a theoretical model showing that rapid growth is favored when
      resource levels for small size classes are low relative to resource levels for
      large size classes. We call such a growth strategy "optimistic" because rapid
      growth is based on an expectation that resources will improve once a minimum size
      is reached. We provide empirical support for this hypothesis by examining the
      intrinsic growth rates of pumpkinseed sunfish derived from three populations
      sympatric with bluegill sunfish (an important competitor with small size classes)
      to three populations allopatric with bluegill sunfish raised under common
      conditions. Rapid growth has evolved in the sympatric fish to reach the size
      refuge from competition as quickly as possible.

PMID- 28565108
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF POLYMORPHISM PROMOTED BY SEX-SPECIFIC FITNESS PAYOFFS.

PMID- 28565109
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF WINTER LENGTH ON THE GENETICS OF APPLE AND HAWTHORN RACES OF
      RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE).
AB  - Host plant-associated fitness trade-offs are central to models of sympatric
      speciation proposed for certain phytophagous insects. But empirical evidence for
      such trade-offs is scant, which has called into question the likelihood of
      nonallopatric speciation. Here, we report on the second in a series of studies
      testing for host-related selection on pupal life-history characteristics of apple
      (Malus pumila L.) and hawthorn- (Crataegus mollis L. spp.) infesting races of
      the Tephritid fruit fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh). In particular, we examine
      the effects of winter length on the genetics of these flies. We have previously
      found that the earlier fruiting phenology of apple trees exposes apple-fly pupae
      to longer periods of warm weather preceding winter than hawthorn-fly pupae.
      Because R. pomonella has a facultative diapause, we hypothesized that this
      selects for pupae with more recalcitrant pupal diapauses (or slower
      metabolic/development rates) in the apple-fly race. A study in which we
      experimentally manipulated the length of the prewintering period for hawthorn
      origin pupae supported this prediction. If the period preceding winter is
      important for apple- and hawthorn-fly pupae, then so too should be the length
      (duration) of winter; the rationale for this prediction is that "fast developing"
      pupae that break diapause too early will deplete their energy reserves and
      disproportionately die during long winters. To test this possibility, we chilled
      apple- and hawthorn-origin pupae collected from a field site near Grant,
      Michigan, in a refrigerator at 4 degrees C for time periods ranging from one week
      to two years. Our a priori expectation was that longer periods of cold storage
      would select against allozyme markers that were associated with faster rates of
      development in our earlier study. Since these electromorphs are typically found
      at higher frequencies in hawthorn flies, extending the overwintering period
      should favor "apple-fly alleles" in both races. The results from this
      "overwinter" experiment supported the diapause hypothesis. The anticipated
      genetic response was observed in both apple and hawthorn races, as allele
      frequencies became significantly more "apple-fly-like" in eclosing adults
      surviving longer chilling periods. This indicates that it is the combination of
      environmental conditions before and during winter that selects on the host races.
      Many tests for trade-offs fail to adequately consider the interplay between
      insect development, host plant phenology, and local climatic conditions. Our
      findings suggest that such oversight may help to explain the paucity of reported
      fitness trade-offs.

PMID- 28565110
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DISPERSAL RATES IN METAPOPULATION MODELS: BRANCHING AND CYCLIC
      DYNAMICS IN PHENOTYPE SPACE.
AB  - We study the evolution of dispersal rates in a two patch metapopulation model.
      The local dynamics in each patch are given by difference equations, which,
      together with the rate of dispersal between the patches, determine the ecological
      dynamics of the metapopulation. We assume that phenotypes are given by their
      dispersal rate. The evolutionary dynamics in phenotype space are determined by
      invasion exponents, which describe whether a mutant can invade a given resident
      population. If the resident metapopulation is at a stable equilibrium, then
      selection on dispersal rates is neutral if the population sizes in the two
      patches are the same, while selection drives dispersal rates to zero if the local
      abundances are different. With non-equilibrium metapopulation dynamics, non-zero
      dispersal rates can be maintained by selection. In this case, and if the patches
      are ecologically identical, dispersal rates always evolve to values which induce
      synchronized metapopulation dynamics. If the patches are ecologically different,
      evolutionary branching into two coexisting dispersal phenotypes can be observed.
      Such branching can happen repeatedly, leading to polymorphisms with more than two
      phenotypes. If there is a cost to dispersal, evolutionary cycling in phenotype
      space can occur due to the dependence of selection pressures on the ecological
      attractor of the resident population, or because phenotypic branching alternates
      with the extinction of one of the branches. Our results extend those of Holt and
      McPeek (1996), and suggest that phenotypic branching is an important evolutionary
      process. This process may be relevant for sympatric speciation.

PMID- 28565111
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF GENE FLOW ON REINFORCEMENT.
AB  - We explore the possibility that differences in the pattern of gene flow between
      populations may affect the evolution of reinforcement by comparing pairs of
      populations undergoing one-way migration versus symmetric migration. The case of
      symmetric migration is modeled by a two-island model, where the two populations
      exchange equal proportions of migrants each generation. One-way migration is
      modeled by a continent-island model, where migration is in one direction from a
      large continental population with a fixed genotype to an island population whose
      genotype frequencies can vary. Hybrid inviability is assumed to be caused by
      epistatic interactions between background loci. We examine the spread of an
      introduced preference allele for a previously unpreferred male trait that
      characterizes one of the populations. Computer simulations indicate that with a
      weak introduced preference, reinforcement is possible under a wide range of
      parameter values in a symmetric migration model but cannot occur in a one-way
      migration model. Reinforcement with one-way migration can occur only with a very
      strong introduced preference and very strong selection against hybrids. Our
      results suggest that the speciation of a peripheral isolate, which undergoes
      essentially one-way migration, may be difficult to complete if secondary contact
      occurs before reproductive isolation is fully developed.

PMID- 28565112
TI  - THE SEX-RATIO TRAIT IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS: GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF
      DISTORTION AND RESISTANCE.
AB  - The sex-ratio trait we describe here in Drosophila simulans results from X-linked
      meiotic drive. Males bearing a driving X chromosome can produce a large excess of
      females (about 90%) in their progeny. This is, however, rarely the case in the
      wild, where resistance factors, including autosomal suppressors and insensitive Y
      chromosomes, prevent the expression of the driver. In this study, we searched for
      drive and resistance factors in strains of Drosophila simulans collected all over
      the world. Driving X chromosomes were found in all populations whenever a good
      sample size was available. Their frequency may reach up to 60%. However, the
      presence of driving X chromosomes never results in an excess of females, due to
      the systematic co-occurrence of resistance factors. The highest frequencies of
      driving X chromosomes were observed in islands, while populations from East and
      Central Africa (the supposed center of origin of the species) showed the highest
      level of resistance. The geographical pattern of drive and resistance factors, as
      well as the results of crosses between strains from different geographical areas,
      suggest that the sex-ratio system described here has a unique and ancient origin
      in the species.

PMID- 28565113
TI  - PLEIOTROPIC EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL GENE LOCI ON MANDIBULAR MORPHOLOGY.
AB  - The genotypic basis of morphological variation is largely unknown. In this study
      we examine patterns of pleiotropic effects on mandibular morphology at individual
      gene loci to determine whether the pleiotropic effects of individual genes are
      restricted to functionally and developmentally related traits. Mandibular
      measurements were obtained from 480 mice from the F2 generation of an intercross
      between the LG/J and SM/J mouse strains. DNA was also extracted from these
      animals, and 76 microsatellite loci covering the autosomes were scored. Interval
      mapping was used to detect chromosomal locations with significant effects on
      various mandibular measurements. Sets of traits mapping to a common chromosomal
      region were considered as being affected by a single quantitative trait locus
      (QTL) for mandibular morphology. Thirty-seven such chromosomal regions were
      identified spread throughout the autosomes. Gene effects were small to moderate
      with the allele derived from the LG/J strain typically leading to larger size.
      When dominance was present, the LG/J allele was typically dominant to the SM/J
      allele. Most loci affected restricted functional and developmental regions of the
      mandible. Of the 26 chromosomal regions affecting more than two traits, 50%
      affect the muscular processes of the ascending ramus, 27% affect the alveolar
      processes carrying the teeth, and 23% affect the whole mandible. Four additional
      locations affecting two traits had effects significantly associated with alveolar
      regions. Pleiotropic effects are typically restricted to morphologically
      integrated complexes.

PMID- 28565114
TI  - IS PINUS SYLVESTRIS RESISTANCE TO PINE TWIST RUST ASSOCIATED WITH FITNESS COSTS
      OR BENEFITS?
AB  - Seven-year-old Pinus sylvestris were studied in two field trials with respect to
      height growth and injury caused by the fungal pathogen Melampsora pinitorqua.
      Each trial comprised single-tree progenies from two to 11 parent trees from each
      of 45 pine populations in northern Sweden (open pollinated) and Finland (control
      pollinated with a pollen mixture from 22 north Swedish trees). Heritability
      estimates were in the range of 6-18%. Most of genetic variation in height growth
      and rust resistance in Swedish populations and in height growth in Finnish
      populations occurred within populations (86-100%). In populations of Finnish
      origin variation in rust resistance consisted of more equal among- and within
      population components (68% and 32%, respectively). Family genetic correlations
      between pathogen resistance and tree height the previous year (disease-free
      environment) were positive among Finnish populations and Swedish coast
      populations, suggesting that pathogen resistance confers fitness benefits even in
      the absence of disease, whereas Swedish inland populations showed a negative
      correlation indicative of fitness costs. Patterns of genetic correlations at the
      population level tended to be just the reverse compared with those found at the
      family level. No genotype * trial interactions were detected for any of the
      examined characters. Prerequisites for establishment of a genecological balance
      between host and parasite are discussed.

PMID- 28565115
TI  - SPECIATIONAL HISTORY IN A DIVERSE CLADE OF HABITAT-SPECIALIZED SPIDERS (ARANEAE:
      NESTICIDAE: NESTICUS): INFERENCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC-BASED SAMPLING.
AB  - This paper summarizes the results of an initial effort to reconstruct the
      speciational history of cave spiders (Nesticus) from the southern Appalachian
      Mountains of eastern North America. The Appalachian Nesticus fauna includes a
      large series of about 30 species distributed across islandlike cave and montane
      habitats. Many of the species are geographically restricted; all of the species
      are found in allopatry. Observed patterns of morphological variation and
      biogeographic evidence suggest that species diversification in this lineage may
      have occurred recently, perhaps in response to Pleistocene climatic fluctuations.
      To address questions about the spatial and temporal dynamics of Nesticus
      speciation, while accounting for potential phylogenetic difficulties, I have
      gathered nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences for a sample of individuals from
      81 populations representing 28 Nesticus species. Analyses of these data indicate
      that considerable genetic divergence exists within and among currently recognized
      morphological species. Consistent with relatively deep species divergences, most
      of which likely predate the Pleistocene, is a prevailing pattern of phylogenetic
      concordance between taxonomic species and monophyletic gene tree lineages. The
      few deviations from monophyly detected can be tentatively attributed to a
      peripatric mode of speciation. Although species limits as inferred by the
      molecular data are generally concordant with patterns of morphological continuity
      and discontinuity in genitalia, there is evidence to suggest that cryptic
      phylogenetic lineages exist within some morphologically continuous units. This
      observation, in combination with the general depth of species lineages, makes any
      argument about rapid evolution in Nesticus genitalic characteristics unnecessary.

PMID- 28565116
TI  - CONSEQUENCES OF INBREEDING ON INVERTEBRATE HOST SUSCEPTIBILITY TO PARASITIC
      INFECTION.

PMID- 28565117
TI  - MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN ASTERINID STARFISH.
AB  - We analyzed phylogenetic relationships among 12 nominal species of starfish in
      the genera Patiriella and Asterina (Order Valvatida, Family Asterinidae), based
      on complete sequences for a mitochondrial protein coding gene (cytochrome oxidase
      subunit I) and five mitochondrial transfer RNA genes (alanine, leucine,
      asparagine, glutamine, and proline) (1923 bp total). The resulting phylogeny was
      used to test a series of hypotheses about the evolution of life-history traits.
      (1) A complex, feeding, planktonic larva is probably ancestral for these
      starfish, but this is not the most parsimonious reconstruction of ancestral
      larval states. (2) The feeding larval form was lost at least four times among
      these species, and three of these losses occurred among members of a single
      clade. (3) Small adult size evolved before both cases of hermaphroditism and
      viviparous brooding, but viviparity was not always preceded by an intermediate
      form of external brooding. (4) An ordered transformation series from feeding
      planktonic development to viviparous brooding has been predicted for starfish,
      but we could not find an example of this transformation series. (5) Viviparity
      evolved recently (< 2 Mya). (6) Both species selection and transformation of
      lineages may have contributed to the accumulation of species with nonfeeding
      development among these starfish. (7) Neither Asterina nor Patiriella are
      monophyletic genera. Larval forms and life-history traits of these starfish have
      evolved freely under no obvious constraints, contrary to the widely assumed
      evolutionary conservatism of early development.

PMID- 28565118
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY INDUCED PHENOTYPES IN TADPOLES.
AB  - Models suggest that phenotypic plasticity is maintained in situations where the
      optimal phenotype differs through time or space, so that selection acts in
      different directions in different environments. Some empirical work supports the
      general premise of this prediction because phenotypes induced by a particular
      environment sometimes perform better than other phenotypes when tested in that
      environment. We have extended these results by estimating the targets of
      selection in Pseudacris triseriata tadpoles in environments without predators and
      with larval Anax dragonflies. Tadpoles displayed significant behavioral and
      morphological plasticity when reared in the presence and absence of nonlethal
      dragonflies for 32 days in cattle tanks. We measured selection in the absence of
      free predators by regressing growth and survival in the tanks against activity
      and several measures of tail and body shape. We measured selection in the
      presence of predators by exposing groups of 10 tadpoles to Anax in overnight
      predation trials and regressing the average phenotype of survivors against the
      number of tadpoles killed. Selection in the two environments acted in opposite
      directions on both tail and body shape, although the affected fitness components
      were different. In the presence of Anax, tadpoles with shallow and narrow body,
      deep tail fin, and wide tail muscle survived best. In the absence of free
      predators, tadpoles with narrow tail muscle grew significantly faster, and those
      with shallow tail fin and deep body grew somewhat faster. Activity was unrelated
      to survival or growth in either environment. Developmental plasticity in tail
      shape closely paralleled selection, because tail fin depth increased after long
      term exposure to Anax and tail muscle width tended to increase. In contrast,
      there was no plasticity in body shape in spite of strong selection for decreasing
      body depth. Thus, when confronted with a dragonfly predator, P. triseriata
      tadpoles adjusted their tail shape (but not body shape) almost exactly in the
      direction of selection imposed by Anax. These results suggest that phenotypic
      plasticity in some morphological traits, such as tail depth and tail muscle
      width, has evolved under intermittent selection by dragonflies. Other traits that
      undergo selection by dragonflies, such as body morphology, appear developmentally
      rigid, perhaps because of historically strong opposing selection in nature or
      other constraints.

PMID- 28565119
TI  - THE PRICE EQUATION, FISHER'S FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM, KIN SELECTION, AND CAUSAL
      ANALYSIS.
AB  - A general framework is presented to unify diverse models of natural selection.
      This framework is based on the Price Equation, with two additional steps. First,
      characters are described by their multiple regression on a set of predictor
      variables. The most common predictors in genetics are alleles and their
      interactions, but any predictor may be used. The second step is to describe
      fitness by multiple regression on characters. Once again, characters may be
      chosen arbitrarily. This expanded Price Equation provides an exact description of
      total evolutionary change under all conditions, and for all systems of
      inheritance and selection. The model is first used for a new proof of Fisher's
      fundamental theorem of natural selection. The relations are then made clear among
      Fisher's theorem, Robertson's covariance theorem for quantitative genetics, the
      Lande-Arnold model for the causal analysis of natural selection, and Hamilton's
      rule for kin selection. Each of these models is a partial analysis of total
      evolutionary change. The Price Equation extends each model to an exact, total
      analysis of evolutionary change for any system of inheritance and selection. This
      exact analysis is used to develop an expanded Hamilton's rule for total change.
      The expanded rule clarifies the distinction between two types of kin selection
      coefficients. The first measures components of selection caused by correlated
      phenotypes of social partners. The second measures components of heritability via
      transmission by direct and indirect components of fitness.

PMID- 28565120
TI  - THE GENETICS OF ADAPTATION: THE GENETIC BASIS OF RESISTANCE TO WASP PARASITISM IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - There have been very few genetic analyses of "natural" adaptations, that is,
      those not involving artificial selection or responses to human disturbance. Here
      we analyze the genetic basis of geographic variation in Drosophila melanogaster's
      resistance to parasitism by a wasp, Asobara tabida. Our results suggest that
      population differences in ability to encapsulate parasitoid eggs have a fairly
      simple genetic basis: 60% of the D. melanogaster genome plays no role in
      differences between resistant and susceptible populations. Instead, resistance
      gene(s) are restricted to chromosome two, and may be further restricted to the
      centromeric region of this chromosome. This finding suggests that natural
      adaptations-like many responses to artificial selection and human disturbance
      sometimes have a simple genetic basis.

PMID- 28565121
TI  - SALIVARY ANDROGEN-BINDING PROTEIN (ABP) MEDIATES SEXUAL ISOLATION IN MUS
      MUSCULUS.
AB  - We wanted to determine whether the microevolution of the mouse salivary androgen
      binding protein (ABP) Alpha subunit gene (Abpa) could mediate sexual selection
      and thereby have a potential role in maintaining gene pool integrity where
      radiating mouse subspecies make secondary contact. This hypothesis is based upon
      previous work in this laboratory, which has shown that each subspecies apparently
      has its own allele and that these alleles have a 25-fold excess of
      nonsynonymous/synonymous base substitutions compared to an average protein under
      purifying selection. We provide direct evidence for ABP-assortative mate
      selection in a laboratory setting: Mus musculus domesticus and M. m. musculus
      female mice recognize and discriminate between the territories of male mice that
      essentially differ solely in their Abpa genotype and, when the males are present,
      the female prefers to mate with the one of her own ABP type. The observation that
      females could differentiate between the territories of the two males when those
      mice were absent suggests that the males marked their territories with ABP. In
      this study, we also detected ABP on the pelts of male mice and in their
      environment. It is likely that the animals apply the protein to their pelts by
      licking and that it is then deposited in their surroundings. We suggest that
      females of the two subspecies are able to discriminate between males of those
      subspecies on the basis of this protein molecule. Mouse salivary ABP might
      present a worthwhile system with which to study a prezygotic isolation mechanism
      in a mammal.

PMID- 28565122
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF FIVE GENERATIONS OF ENFORCED SELFING ON POTENTIAL MALE AND FEMALE
      FUNCTION IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - In prior work we detected no significant inbreeding depression for pollen and
      ovule production in the highly selfing Mimulus micranthus, but both characters
      showed high inbreeding depression in the mixed-mating M. guttatus. The goal of
      this study was to determine if the genetic load for these traits in M. guttatus
      could be purged in a program of enforced selfing. These characters should have
      been under much stronger selection in our artificial breeding program than
      previously reported characters such as biomass and total flower production
      because, for example, plants unable to produce viable pollen could not contribute
      to future generations. Purging of genetic load was investigated at the level of
      both the population and the individual maternal line within two populations of M.
      guttatus. Mean ovule number, pollen number, and pollen viability declined
      significantly as plants became more inbred. The mean performance of outcross
      progeny generated from crosses between pairs of maternal inbred lines always
      exceeded that of self progeny and was fairly constant for each trait through all
      five generations. The consistent performance of outcross progeny and the
      universally negative relationships between performance and degree of inbreeding
      are interpreted as evidence for the weakness of selection relative to the quick
      fixation of deleterious alleles due to drift during the inbreeding process. The
      selective removal (purging) of deleterious alleles from our population would have
      been revealed by an increase in performance of outcross progeny or an attenuation
      of the effects of increasing homozygosity. The relationships between the mean of
      each of these traits and the expected inbreeding coefficient were linear, but one
      population displayed a significant negative curvilinear relationship between the
      log of male fertility (a function of pollen number and viability) and the
      inbreeding coefficient. The generally linear form of the responses to inbreeding
      were taken as evidence consistent with an additive model of gene action, but the
      negative curvilinear relationship between male fertility and the inbreeding
      coefficient suggested reinforcing epistasis. Within both populations there was
      significant genetic variation among maternal lineages for the response to
      inbreeding in all traits. Although all inbred lineages declined at least somewhat
      in performance, several maternal lines maintained levels of performance just
      below outcross means even after four or five generations of selfing. We suggest
      that selection among maternal lines will have a greater effect than selecting
      within lines in lowering the genetic load of populations.

PMID- 28565123
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL SIGNALS: MORPHOLOGICAL, FUNCTIONAL, AND GENETIC
      INTEGRATION OF THE SEX PHEROMONE IN NAUPHOETA CINEREA.
AB  - Social signals that mediate intraspecific interactions can be complex, conveying
      considerable information concerning the probable behavior of individuals and
      minimizing overt aggression and wasted energy. In the cockroach Nauphoeta
      cinerea, male-male competition and female mate choice are mediated by a
      multicomponent male-produced sex pheromone. In this study, I examine variation in
      this pheromone. First I measure differences among males in both individual
      pheromone compounds and the overall composition of the pheromone. Principal
      component analysis is used to quantify and describe pheromone composition. Next,
      I explore some of the causes and consequences of this variation by examining the
      pheromone of males with different social experiences. Compared to subordinate
      males, dominant males have significantly less variable quantities of the
      individual pheromone compounds and are significantly less variable in the
      composition of their pheromone. Because of an association between status and
      mating success, male-male competition can result in stabilizing sexual selection
      on the sex pheromone. Finally, I test the hypothesis that the pheromone compounds
      evolve in a manner consistent with their function. As predicted for
      morphologically integrated characters, the patterns of phenotypic, genetic, and
      environmental correlations among my measures of pheromone compounds and
      composition match functional patterns suggested by this study and the
      developmental patterns demonstrated in my previous studies. Based on these
      studies of the N. cinerea sex pheromone, I argue that stabilizing sexual
      selection shapes the evolution of pheromonal communication involved in social
      interactions among male N. cinerea. Further, I argue that coordinated evolution
      of social signals may be possible due to the morphological integration of their
      multiple compounds.

PMID- 28565124
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THERMAL SENSITIVITY OF PARASITIZATION CAPACITY IN EGG PARASITOIDS.

PMID- 28565125
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF A CLINE IN THE MARINE SNAIL LITTORINA SAXATILIS: THE ROLE OF
      HOME SITE ADVANTAGE AND HYBRID FITNESS.
AB  - Steep clinal transitions in one or several inherited characters between
      genetically distinct populations are usually referred to as hybrid zones.
      Essentially two different mechanisms may maintain steep genetic clines. Either
      selection acts against hybrids that are unfit over the entire zone due to their
      mixed genetic origin (endogenous selection), or hybrids and parental types attain
      different fitness values in different parts of the cline (exogenous selection).
      Survival rate estimates of hybrids and parental forms in different regions of the
      cline may be used to distinguish between these models to assess how the cline is
      maintained. We used reciprocal transplants to test the relative survival rates of
      two parental ecotypes and their hybrids over microscale hybrid zones in the
      direct-developing marine snail Littorina saxatilis (Olivi) on the rocky shores of
      Galicia, Spain. One of the parental forms occupies upper and the other lower
      shores, and the hybrids are found at various proportions (1-38%) along with both
      parental forms in a midshore zone a few meters wide. The survival rate over one
      month was 39-52% of the native ecotype on upper shores, but only 2-8% for the
      lower-shore ecotype. In contrast, only 4-8% of the upper-shore ecotype but 53% of
      large (> 6 mm) and 8% of small (3-6 mm) native lower-shore ecotype survived in
      the lower shores. In the midshores, both the two parental ecotypes and the
      hybrids survived about equally well. Thus there is a considerable advantage for
      the native ecotypes in the upper and lower shores, while in the hybrid zone none
      of the morphs, hybrids included, are favored. This indicates that the dimorphism
      of L. saxatilis is maintained by steep cross-shore selection gradients, thus
      supporting the selection-gradient model of hybrid zones. We performed field and
      laboratory experiments that suggest physical factors and predation as important
      selective agents. Earlier studies indicate assortative mating between the two
      ecotypes in the midshore. This is unexpected in a hybrid zone maintained by
      selection gradients, and it seems as if the reproductive barrier compresses the
      hybrid zone considerably.

PMID- 28565126
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY OF NUMBER OF TRUNK VERTEBRAE IN
      SLENDER SALAMANDERS, BATRACHOSEPS (CAUDATA: PLETHODONTIDAE).
AB  - To understand the evolutionary significance of geographic variation, one must
      identify the factors that generate phenotypic differences among populations. I
      examined the causes of geographic variation in and evolutionary history of number
      of trunk vertebrae in slender salamanders, Batrachoseps (Caudata:
      Plethodontidae). Number of trunk vertebrae varies at many taxonomic levels within
      Batrachoseps. Parallel clines in number occur along an environmental gradient in
      three lineages in the Coast Ranges of California. These parallel clines may
      signal either adaptation or a shared phenotypically plastic response to the
      environmental gradient. By raising eggs from 10 populations representing four
      species of Batrachoseps, I demonstrated that number of trunk vertebrae can be
      altered by the developmental temperature; however, the degree of plasticity is
      insufficient to account for geographic variation. Thus, the geographic variation
      results largely from genetic variation. Number of trunk vertebrae covaries with
      body size and shape in diverse vertebrate taxa, including Batrachoseps. I
      hypothesize that selection for different degrees of elongation, possibly related
      to fossoriality, has led to the extensive evolution of number of trunk vertebrae
      in Batrachoseps. Analysis of intrapopulational variation revealed sexual
      dimorphism in both body shape and number of trunk vertebrae, but no correlation
      between these variables in either sex. Females are more elongate than males, a
      pattern that has been attributed to fecundity selection in other taxa. Patterns
      of covariation among different classes of vertebrae suggest that some
      intrapopulational variation in number results from changes in vertebral identity
      rather than changes in segmentation.

PMID- 28565127
TI  - BATESIAN MIMICRY AND SIGNAL ACCURACY.

PMID- 28565128
TI  - LIKELIHOOD OF ANCESTOR STATES IN ADAPTIVE RADIATION.
AB  - Theories of ecological diversification make predictions about the timing and
      ordering of character state changes through history. These theories are testable
      by "reconstructing" ancestor states using phylogenetic trees and measurements of
      contemporary species. Here we use maximum likelihood to estimate and evaluate the
      accuracy of ancestor reconstructions. We present likelihoods of discrete ancestor
      states and derive probability distributions for continuous ancestral traits. The
      methods are applied to several examples: diets of ancestral Darwin's finches;
      origin of inquilinism in gall wasps; microhabitat partitioning and body size
      evolution in scrubwrens; digestive enzyme evolution in artiodactyl mammals;
      origin of a sexually selected male trait, the sword, in platies and swordtails;
      and evolution of specialization in Anolis lizards. When changes between discrete
      character states are rare, the maximum-likelihood results are similar to
      parsimony estimates. In this case the accuracy of estimates is often high, with
      the exception of some nodes deep in the tree. If change is frequent then
      reconstructions are highly uncertain, especially of distant ancestors. Ancestor
      states for continuous traits are typically highly uncertain. We conclude that
      measures of uncertainty are useful and should always be provided, despite
      simplistic assumptions about the probabilistic models that underlie them. If
      uncertainty is too high, reconstruction should be abandoned in favor of
      approaches that fit different models of trait evolution to species data and
      phylogenetic trees, taking into account the range of ancestor states permitted by
      the data.

PMID- 28565129
TI  - SYMPATRIC SPECIATION VIA HABITAT SPECIALIZATION DRIVEN BY DELETERIOUS MUTATIONS.
AB  - Theoretical studies have suggested that the evolution of habitat (host) races,
      regarded as a prelude to sympatric speciation, requires strong trade-offs in
      adaptation to different habitats: alleles that improve fitness in some habitats
      and have deleterious effects of similar magnitude in other habitats must be
      segregating in the population. I argue that such trade-offs are not necessary;
      the evolution of habitat races can also be driven by genetic variation due to
      loci that affect fitness in one habitat and are neutral or nearly so in others,
      that is, when performance in different habitats is genetically independent. One
      source of such genetic variation are deleterious mutations with habitat-specific
      fitness effects. I use deterministic two-locus and multilocus models to show that
      the presence of such mutations in the gene pool results in indirect selection
      favoring habitat fidelity or habitat preference over acceptance of both suitable
      habitats. This leads to the evolution of largely genetically isolated populations
      that use different habitats, from a single panmictic population of individuals
      accepting both habitats. This study suggests that the conditions favoring habitat
      race formation, and thus possibly sympatric speciation, are much less stringent
      than previously thought.

PMID- 28565130
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL ANALYSIS OF HEAT-SHOCK TOLERANCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER EVOLVING
      AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES IN THE LABORATORY.
AB  - We investigated the heat tolerance of adults of three replicated lines of
      Drosophila melanogaster that have been evolving independently by laboratory
      natural selection for 15 yr at "nonextreme" temperatures (18 degrees C, 25
      degrees C, or 28 degrees C). These lines are known to have diverged in body size
      and in the thermal dependence of several life-history traits. Here we show that
      they differ also in tolerance of extreme high temperature as well as in induced
      thermotolerance ("heat hardening"). For example, the 28 degrees C flies had the
      highest probability of surviving a heat shock, whereas the 18 degrees C flies
      generally had the lowest probability. A short heat pretreatment increased the
      heat tolerance of the 18 degrees C and 25 degrees C lines, and the threshold
      temperature necessary to induce thermotolerance was lower for the 18 degrees C
      line than for the 25 degrees C line. However, neither heat pretreatment nor
      acclimation to different temperatures influenced heat tolerance of the 28 degrees
      C line, suggesting the loss of capacity for induced thermotolerance and for
      acclimation. Thus, patterns of tolerance of extreme heat, of acclimation, and of
      induced thermotolerance have evolved as correlated responses to natural selection
      at nonextreme temperatures. A genetic analysis of heat tolerance of a
      representative replicate population each from the 18 degrees C and 28 degrees C
      lines indicates that chromosomes 1, 2, and 3 have significant effects on heat
      tolerance. However, the cytoplasm has little influence, contrary to findings in
      an earlier study of other stocks that had been evolving for 7 yr at 14 degrees C
      versus 25 degrees C. Because genes for heat stress proteins (hsps) are
      concentrated on chromosome 3, the potential role of hsps in the heat tolerance
      and of induced thermotolerance in these naturally selected lines is currently
      unclear. In any case, species of Drosophila possess considerable genetic
      variation in thermal sensitivity and thus have the potential to evolve rapidly in
      response to climate change; but predicting that response may be difficult.

PMID- 28565132
TI  - WHEN DID EVE LIVE? AN EVOLUTIONARY DETECTIVE STORY.
AB  - Various estimates of the time at which the human mitochondrial Eve lived have
      ranged from as little as 60,000 yr to more than 500,000 yr ago. Because of this
      immense range, it is impossible to distinguish between single-origin and multiple
      origins hypotheses for the evolution of our species. In an attempt to reduce the
      uncertainty, I have examined the largest available body of sequence information,
      comprising the mitochondrial control region, for clues to how the observed
      diversity arose. In this region it is possible to show, by examining the
      distribution of polymorphic sites, that transitions have occurred at some sites
      at a much higher rate than at others. Computer simulations can, when two rates
      for transitions are postulated, provide close approximations to the distribution
      of substitutions seen in the actual data. The "best fit" was obtained when the
      rate at 3/4 of the sites was 4 times the transversion rate, and the rate at the
      remainder 160 times the transversion rate. The likelihood of such a high rate at
      some sites helps to explain why tree-building methods employing these data have
      provided so little phylogenetic information. Furthermore, it is possible to show
      that transversions do not appear to occur preferentially at these transition "hot
      spot" sites and that such huge differences in substitution rates are not seen for
      transversions, suggesting that the rules governing the mutation and acceptance or
      rejection of transversions are different from those governing transitions. The
      great majority of transversions appear to occur at a low rate throughout the
      region. Thus, methods for determining the age of Eve that are based on recent
      divergence in human populations, or on applying a mutation probability matrix
      based on an assumption of uniform mutation rates, are likely to result in
      underestimates. The rate of accumulation of transversions is shown to be a more
      accurate estimator of the age of Eve. The conclusion is reached that Eve probably
      lived (depending on when the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees diverged)
      between 436,000 and 806,000 yr ago.

PMID- 28565131
TI  - INFERRING PHYLOGENIES FROM mtDNA VARIATION: MITOCHONDRIAL-GENE TREES VERSUS
      NUCLEAR-GENE TREES.
AB  - An accurately resolved gene tree may not be congruent with the species tree
      because of lineage sorting of ancestral polymorphisms. DNA sequences from the
      mitochondrially encoded genes (mtDNA) are attractive sources of characters for
      estimating the phylogenies of recently evolved taxa because mtDNA evolves
      rapidly, but its utility is limited because the mitochondrial genes are inherited
      as a single linkage group (haplotype) and provide only one independent estimate
      of the species tree. In contrast, a set of nuclear genes can be selected from
      distinct chromosomes, such that each gene tree provides an independent estimate
      of the species tree. Another aspect of the gene-tree versus species-tree problem,
      however, favors the use of mtDNA for inferring species trees. For a three-species
      segment of a phylogeny, the branching order of a gene tree will correspond to
      that of the species tree if coalescence of the alleles or haplotypes occurred in
      the internode between the first and second bifurcation. From neutral theory, it
      is apparent that the probability of coalescence increases as effective population
      size decreases. Because the mitochondrial genome is maternally inherited and
      effectively haploid, its effective population size is one-fourth that of a
      nuclear-autosomal gene. Thus, the mitochondrial-haplotype tree has a
      substantially higher probability of accurately tracking a short internode than
      does a nuclear-autosomal-gene tree. When an internode is sufficiently long that
      the probability that the mitochondrial-haplotype tree will be congruent with the
      species tree is 0.95, the probability that a nuclear-autosomalgene tree will be
      congruent is only 0.62. If each of k independently sampled nuclear-gene trees has
      a probability of congruence with the species tree of 0.62, then a sample of 16
      such trees would be required to be as confident of the inference based on the
      mitochondrial-haplotype tree. A survey of mtDNA-haplotype diversity in 34 species
      of birds indicates that coalescence is generally very recent, which suggests that
      coalescence times are typically much shorter than internodal branch lengths of
      the species tree, and that sorting of mtDNA lineages is not likely to confound
      the species tree. Hybridization resulting in transfer of mtDNA haplotypes among
      branches could also result in a haplotype tree that is incongruent with the
      species tree; if undetected, this could confound the species tree. However,
      hybridization is usually easy to detect and should be incorporated in the
      historical narrative of the group, because reticulation, as well as cladistic
      events, contributed to the evolution of the group.

PMID- 28565133
TI  - HOST POPULATION STRUCTURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF VIRULENCE: A "LAW OF DIMINISHING
      RETURNS".
AB  - Structure in a population of host individuals, whether spatial or temporal, can
      have important effects on the transmission and evolutionary dynamics of its
      pathogens. One of these is to limit dispersal of pathogens and thus increase the
      amount of contact between a given pair or within a small group of host
      individuals. We introduce a "law of diminishing returns" that predicts an
      evolutionary decline of pathogen virulence whenever there are on average more
      possibilities of pathogen transmission between the same pair of hosts. Thus, the
      effect of repeated contact between hosts will be to shift the balance of any
      trade-off between virulence and transmissibility toward lower virulence.

PMID- 28565134
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND REACTION NORMS IN TEMPERATE AND TROPICAL POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: OVARIAN SIZE AND DEVELOPMENTAL TEMPERATURE.
AB  - The plasticity of ovariole number relative to developmental temperature was
      studied in three populations of Drosophila melanogaster at both ends of the
      cline: a temperate French population and two equatorial Congolese. Ovary size was
      much greater in the French flies, in agreement with an already known latitudinal
      cline. Among isofemale lines, significant differences in genetic variability were
      observed between populations with a maximum variability at intermediate
      temperatures. Parameters of phenotypic variability (CV and FA) were not
      statistically different among lines or populations, but a significant increase at
      low temperature was demonstrated for both. The shapes of the response curves
      (i.e., the norm of reaction) were analyzed by adjusting the data to a quadratic
      equation. The parameters of the equation were highly variable among lines. On the
      other hand, the temperature for maximum value of ovarioles (TMV) was much less
      variable and exhibited only a slightly significant difference between temperate
      and tropical flies (22.2 degrees C vs. 22.7 degrees C). During its geographic
      extension toward colder places, D. melanogaster underwent a large, presumably
      adaptative, increase in ovariole number but very little change in the norm of
      reaction of that trait.

PMID- 28565135
TI  - HYBRID BREAKDOWN BETWEEN TWO HAPLODIPLOID SPECIES: THE ROLE OF NUCLEAR AND
      CYTOPLASMIC GENES.
AB  - A central question in evolutionary biology concerns the population and genetic
      processes by which new species arise. Here, the genetic basis of hybrid breakdown
      between two haplodiploid species, Nasonia vitripennis and N. giraulti is
      investigated. Hybridization between the two species is normally prevented by
      microorganisms that cause bidirectional incompatibility. However, after
      elimination of microorganisms, F1 hybrids females are readily produced (due to
      haplodiploidy, males develop from unfertilized eggs and are therefore not
      hybrids). F1 hybrid females are viable and fecund, but recombinant (haploid) F2
      male offspring suffer from severe hybrid breakdown (larval and pupal mortality).
      This is typically interpreted as evidence for the existence of different
      coadapted gene complexes in the two species, which are broken up by
      recombination. F2 recombinant eggs were rescued by fertilization with the
      complete chromosome complement from either species, supporting the view that
      hybrid lethality genes tend to be recessive. Negative epistatic interactions
      occur between nuclear genes of the two species, and between cytoplasmically
      inherited factors (cytoplasmic genes) of giraulti and nuclear genes of
      vitripennis. Interactions between nuclear genes and cytoplasmic genes are
      asymmetric. Experiments clearly demonstrate that the latter incompatibility is
      not due to maternal-effect genes, but to cytoplasmically inherited elements.
      Nuclear-mitochondrial interactions are possibly involved.

PMID- 28565136
TI  - THE IMPACT OF TREE SQUIRRELS (TAMIASCIURUS) ON LIMBER PINE SEED DISPERSAL
      ADAPTATIONS.
AB  - Tree squirrels (Tamiasciurus) are important selective agents on conifer
      reproductive strategies (Smith 1970, 1975). Although this is well established for
      wind-dispersed pines, the impact of tree squirrels on bird-dispersed pines has
      been largely ignored. I assessed the impact of tree squirrels on the allocation
      of reproductive energy in the bird-dispersed limber pine (Pinus flexilis) by
      comparing its cone and seed traits from three sites in the Rocky Mountains where
      tree squirrels (Tamiasciurus) are present to those from three mountain ranges in
      the Great Basin where tree squirrels are absent. As predicted, differences
      between the two regions in individual cone and seed traits are consistent with
      the hypothesis that tree squirrels are important selective agents on these
      traits. In the absence of tree squirrels, limber pine allocates more than twice
      as much energy to kernel compared with that invested in putative seed defenses
      (cone, resin, and seed coat) as does limber pine where tree squirrels are
      present. Such a large difference is particularly striking, because tree squirrels
      may have become extinct in the Great Basin in only the last 12,000 yr. Although
      many factors influence the allocation of energy to cones and seeds, no single
      factor other than the presence of tree squirrels is compatible with the large and
      consistent differences between limber pine in the Rocky Mountains and Great
      Basin. These results show that tree squirrels are an important constraint on the
      evolution of cone and seed traits that promote the dispersal of seeds by birds.

PMID- 28565137
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTIONAL RESPONSE IN RELATION TO A POPULATION BOTTLENECK.
AB  - Selection for increased morphometric shape (ratio of wing length to thorax width)
      was compared between control (nonbottlenecked) populations and bottlenecked
      populations founded with two male-female pairs of flies. Contrary to neutral
      expectation, selectional response was not reduced in bottlenecked populations,
      and the mean realized heritabilities and additive genetic variances were higher
      for the bottlenecked lines than for the nonbottlenecked lines. Additive genetic
      variances based on these realized heritabilities were consistent with independent
      estimates of genetic variances based on parent-offspring covariances. Joint
      scaling tests applied to the crosses between selected lines and their controls
      revealed significant nonadditive components of genetic variance in the ancestor,
      which were not detected in the crosses involving bottlenecked lines. The
      nonbottlenecked lines responded principally by changes in one trait or the other
      (wing length or thorax width) but not in both, and regardless of which trait
      responded, larger trait size was dominant and epistatic to smaller size.
      Stabilizing selection for morphometric shape in the ancestor likely molded the
      genetic architecture to include nonadditive genetic effects.

PMID- 28565138
TI  - EFFECT OF ECTOPARASITIC MITES ON SEXUAL SELECTION IN A SONORAN DESERT FRUIT FLY.
AB  - We conducted a field study and a laboratory experiment to test whether
      ectoparasitic mites, Macrocheles subbadius, generate parasite-mediated sexual
      selection in the Sonoran desert endemic fruit fly, Drosophila nigrospiracula.
      Male flies gather on the outer surfaces of necrotic saguaro cacti where they
      engage in male-male competitive interactions and vigorous female-directed
      courtship. At these sites, operational sex ratios were significantly skewed
      toward males. The degree to which mites were aggregated among flies varied across
      the 25 fly populations sampled. The degree of mite aggregation across fly
      populations was strongly positively related to the mean number of mites per fly
      (intensity of infestation). Both the intensity and prevalence of infestation
      (fraction of flies infested) increased with the age of the cactus necrosis.
      Infested flies of both sexes were significantly less likely to be found in copula
      than uninfested flies, and mean intensity of infestation was significantly more
      pronounced in noncopulating than in copulating flies. The effect of attached
      mites on copulatory success exhibited dose-dependency, and this effect was more
      stringent in males: males or females with more than two and four mites,
      respectively, were never found in copula. The magnitude of parasite-mediated
      sexual selection was estimated for 12 fly populations by calculating selection
      differentials for each sex separately. The relation between intensity of
      infestation and magnitude of parasite-mediated sexual selection was stronger in
      males but significant for both sexes. We also assayed copulatory success of field
      caught males in the laboratory, both during infestation and after experimental
      removal of mites. Males infested with two mites copulated less frequently than
      uninfested individuals, and in mating trials after mites had been removed,
      previously infested males copulated as many times as flies with no history of
      infestation. These findings, and the lack of difference in the number of mite
      induced scars on copulating and single individuals in nature, strongly suggest
      that the reduced copulatory success of infested flies is attributable to an
      effect of mites per se, rather than to a character correlated with parasitism or
      previous parasite infestation.

PMID- 28565139
TI  - SELECTION ON FECUNDITY AND VARIATION IN THE DEGREE OF SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM
      AMONG SPIDER SPECIES (CLASS ARANEAE).

PMID- 28565140
TI  - INFERRING THE RATES OF BRANCHING AND EXTINCTION FROM MOLECULAR PHYLOGENIES.
AB  - Molecular techniques provide ancestral phylogenies of extant taxa with estimated
      branching times. Here we studied the pattern of ancestral phylogeny of extant
      taxa produced by branching (or cladogenesis) and extinction of taxa, assuming
      branching processes with time-dependent rates. (1) If the branching rate b and
      extinction rate c are constant, the semilog plot of the number of ancestral
      lineages over time is not a straight line but is curvilinear, with increasing
      slope toward the end, implying that ancestral phylogeny shows apparent increase
      in the branching rate near the present. The estimate of b and c based on
      nonlinear fitting is examined by computer simulation. The estimate of branching
      rate can be usable for a large phylogeny if b is greater than c, but the estimate
      of extinction rate c is unreliable because of large bias and variance. (2)
      Gradual decrease in the slope of the semilog plot of the number of ancestral
      lineages over time, as was observed in a phylogeny of bird families based on DNA
      hybridization data, can be explained equally well by either the decreasing
      branching rate or the increasing extinction rate. Infinitely many pairs of
      branching and extinction rates as functions of time can produce the same
      ancestral phylogeny. (3) An explosive branching event in the past would appear as
      a quick increase in the number of ancestral lineages. In contrast, mass
      extinction occurring in a brief period, if not accompanied by an increase in
      branching rate, does not produce any rapid change in the number of ancestral
      lineages at the time. (4) The condition in which the number of ancestral lineages
      of extant species changes in parallel with the actual number of species in the
      past is derived.

PMID- 28565141
TI  - ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN TWO COMPETING
      SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The evolution of components of interspecific competitive ability was examined in
      three different environments for three replicate pairs of Drosophila melanogaster
      and D. simulans populations. Populations evolved enhanced competitive ability in
      three ways: (1) increased effectiveness at reducing the numbers of the competitor
      species; (2) increased resistance to the inhibitory effects of the competitor
      species; or (3) a combination of the two. Considerable variation was seen in the
      evolutionary outcomes of competition among environments, and also among replicate
      populations within environments. Significant replicate-by-environment
      interactions were also observed. The results suggest that the evolutionary routes
      to the evolution of enhanced competitive abilities can potentially differ among
      subdivided populations, creating a geographic mosaic of outcomes.

PMID- 28565142
TI  - DIRECT SELECTION ON LIFE SPAN IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - An important issue in the study of the evolution of aging in Drosophila
      melanogaster is whether decreased early fecundity is inextricably coupled with
      increased life span in selection experiments on age at reproduction. Here, this
      problem has been tackled using an experimental design in which selection is
      applied directly to longevity. Selection appeared successful for short and long
      life, in females as well as males. Progeny production of females selected for
      long life was lower than for short-lived females throughout their whole life. No
      increase of late-life reproduction in long-lived females occurred, as has been
      found in selection experiments on age at reproduction. This discrepancy is
      explained in terms of the inadequacy of the latter design to separate selection
      on life span from selection on late-life fecundity. Moreover, starvation
      resistance and fat content were lower for adults selected for short life. In
      general, the data support the negative-pleiotropy-disposable-soma theory of
      aging, and it is hypothesized that the pleiotropic allocation of resources to
      maintenance versus to reproduction as implicated in the theory might involve
      lipid metabolism. It is argued that further research on this suggestion is urgent
      and should certainly comprise observations on male reproduction because these are
      for the greater part still lacking. In conclusion, the longevity of D.
      melanogaster can be genetically altered in a direct-selection design, and such an
      increase is accompanied by a decreased general reproduction and thus early
      reproduction.

PMID- 28565143
TI  - MAGPIE HOST MANIPULATION BY GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOOS: EVIDENCE FOR AN AVIAN MAFIA?
AB  - Why should the hosts of brood parasites accept and raise parasitic offspring that
      differ dramatically in appearance from their own? There are two solutions to this
      evolutionary enigma. (1) Hosts may not yet have evolved the capability to
      discriminate against the parasite, or (2) parasite-host systems have reached an
      evolutionary equilibrium. Avian brood parasites may either gain renesting
      opportunities or force their hosts to raise parasitic offspring by destroying or
      preying upon host eggs or nestlings following host ejection of parasite
      offspring. These hypotheses may explain why hosts do not remove parasite
      offspring because only then will hosts avoid clutch destruction by the cuckoo.
      Here we show experimentally that if the egg of the parasitic great spotted cuckoo
      Clamator glandarius is removed from nests of its magpie Pica pica host, nests
      suffer significantly higher predation rates than control nests in which parasite
      eggs have not been removed. Using plasticine model eggs resembling those of
      magpies and observations of parasites, we also confirm that great spotted cuckoos
      that have laid an ejected egg are indeed responsible for destruction of magpie
      nests with experimentally ejected parasite eggs. Cuckoos benefit from destroying
      host offspring because they thereby induce some magpies to renest and
      subsequently accept a cuckoo egg.

PMID- 28565144
TI  - UNPREDICTABILITY OF CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION: PLEIOTROPY AND SAMPLING
      INTERACT.
AB  - Given a set of loci that contribute additive genetic variation for a trait being
      selected, the pleiotropic effects of these loci on a second trait may vary. I
      simulated selection on genetic systems having different combinations of
      pleiotropic effects to investigate the variability of correlated responses to
      selection. The simulation shows that there are many possible combinations of
      pleiotropic effects that are characterized by the same value of the genetic
      correlation; the genetic correlation does not uniquely determine a set of
      pleiotropic effects. Furthermore, for a given value of the genetic correlation,
      differences in pleiotropic effects have a substantial impact on the variation in
      correlated responses. Some combinations of pleiotropic effects constrain
      correlated response to a narrow range of possible values; others allow a wide
      range, including some correlated responses in a direction opposite the sign of
      the genetic correlation. The genetic correlation is not a reliable predictor of
      pleiotropic constraint. Whereas it has been previously established that genetic
      correlations are not necessarily constraints, the alternative is also true:
      correlated response can be strictly constrained despite a genetic correlation of
      zero. Given the frequency of correlated responses in a direction opposite to the
      one predicted by the genetic correlation, it follows that correlated response is
      not a reliable predictor of genetic correlation in the base population.

PMID- 28565145
TI  - DISCORDANCE BETWEEN NUCLEAR AND CHLOROPLAST PHYLOGENIES IN THE HEUCHERA GROUP
      (SAXIFRAGACEAE).
AB  - Various factors, including taxon density, sampling error, convergence, and
      heterogeneity of evolutionary rates, can potentially lead to incongruence between
      phylogenetic trees based on different genomes. Particularly at the generic level
      and below, chloroplast capture resulting from hybridization may distort
      organismal relationships in phylogenetic analyses based on the chloroplast
      genome, or genes included therein. However, the extent of such discord between
      chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) trees and those trees based on nuclear genes has rarely
      been assessed. We therefore used sequences of the internal transcribed spacer
      regions (ITS-1 and ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) to reconstruct
      phylogenetic relationships among members of the Heuchera group of genera
      (Saxifragaceae). The Heuchera group presents an important model for the analysis
      of chloroplast capture and its impact on phylogenetic reconstruction because
      hybridization is well documented within genera (e.g., Heuchera), and intergeneric
      hybrids involving six of the nine genera have been reported. An earlier study
      provided a well-resolved phylogenetic hypothesis for the Heuchera group based on
      cpDNA restriction-site variation. However, trees based on ITS sequences are
      discordant with the cpDNA-based tree. Evidence from both morphology and nuclear
      encoded allozymes is consistent with the ITS trees, rather than the cpDNA tree,
      and several points of phylogenetic discord can clearly be attributed to
      chloroplast capture. Comparison of the organellar and ITS trees also raises the
      strong likelihood that ancient events of chloroplast capture occurred between
      lineages during the early diversification of the Heuchera group. Thus, despite
      the many advantages and widespread use of cpDNA data in phylogeny reconstruction,
      comparison of relationships based on cpDNA and ITS sequences for the Heuchera
      group underscores the need for caution in the use of organellar variation for
      retrieving phylogeny at lower taxonomic levels, particularly in groups noted for
      hybridization.

PMID- 28565146
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR A PLEISTOCENE POPULATION EXPLOSION.
AB  - Expansions of population size leave characteristic signatures in mitochondrial
      "mismatch distributions." Consequently, these distributions can inform us about
      the history of changes in population size. Here, I study a simple model of
      population history that assumes that, t generations before the present, a
      population grows (or shrinks) suddenly from female size N0 to female size N1 .
      Although this model is simple, it often provides an accurate description of data
      generated by complex population histories. I develop statistical methods that
      estimate theta0 = 2uN0 , theta1 = 2uN1 , and tau = 2ut (where u is the mutation
      rate), and place a confidence region around these estimates. These estimators are
      well behaved, and insensitive to simplifying assumptions. Finally, I apply these
      methods to published mitochondrial data, and infer that a major expansion of the
      human population occurred during the late Pleistocene.

PMID- 28565147
TI  - ARTIFICIAL SELECTION FOR DEVELOPMENTAL TIME IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER IN
      RELATION TO THE EVOLUTION OF AGING: DIRECT AND CORRELATED RESPONSES.
AB  - A wild-type strain of Drosophila melanogaster was successfully selected for both
      fast and slow larval development. The realized heritabilities (h2 ) ranged from
      0.20 to 0.30 for the fast lines and 0.35 to 0.60 for the slow lines. The
      selection applied is relevant in relation to the evolution of aging. The
      longevity of adults, either virgin or mated, was not affected by selection for
      developmental time, indicating that developmental time is not a causal
      determinant of life span, thus confirming the results of the studies on
      environmental effects on aging (Zwaan et al. 1991, 1992). However, adult body
      weights were higher in the slow developmental lines and lower in the fast lines,
      relative to the control flies. Furthermore, slow females showed relatively high
      early fecundity and low late fecundity, as compared with control and fast
      females. Mated longevities and total lifetime progeny productions were not
      statistically different. Previous results obtained by other authors from
      selection experiments on age at reproduction either supported the mutation
      accumulation or the negative pleiotropy theory of aging (Luckinbill et al. 1984;
      Rose 1984b). The impact of the reported results on the interpretation of these
      studies is discussed, and it is noted that direct selection on adult longevity is
      needed to settle this issue.

PMID- 28565148
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION MEDIATED BY BEHAVIOR IN THE DAMSELFLIES OF TWO
      COMMUNITIES.
AB  - Behavior can play a mediating role in determining the selective pressures that
      influence the evolution of morphological structures. To examine this, I
      quantified patterns of morphological variation among larvae of Enallagma
      damselfly species (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) that use different behaviors to avoid
      the major predators found in each of two communities, lakes with and without
      fish. Specifically, I quantified the sizes and shapes of the abdomens and caudal
      lamellae (used for swimming) and legs for three species from fishless lakes and
      six species from lakes with fish. A preliminary cladistic analysis indicates that
      species within each lake type are not members of a single clade, which supports
      the conclusions of previous odonate taxonomists. Previous studies have shown that
      species in fishless lakes are very active, running and swimming frequently and at
      high rates of speed in the absence of predators, and they avoid their primary
      predators, large dragonflies, by swimming. These species have the widest
      abdomens, the largest caudal lamellae relative to overall body size, and the
      longest legs of the species studied, which should make them powerful swimmers and
      runners. Furthermore, species in fishless lakes are morphologically very similar
      to one another and differ greatly from fish-lake species, although each is more
      closely related to species in fish lakes. In contrast, species from lakes with
      fish move very slowly and infrequently in the absence of predators and do not
      attempt to evade attacking predators. However, despite their behavioral
      similarity, large interspecific variation in morphology exists among the fish
      lake species, and the only morphological patterns were differences associated
      with membership in the two primary clades identified in the cladistic analysis. A
      modification of Felsenstein's (1985) method of evolutionary contrasts which
      allows character change to be isolated along single branches is introduced and is
      used to reconstruct the evolutionary histories of these characters. This analysis
      suggests that large increases in caudal lamella size, abdominal segment lengths
      and widths, and leg length accompany speciation events associated with habitat
      shifts from fish-lakes to fishless lakes. Following habitat shifts selection
      pressures exerted by dragonfly predation apparently favored swimming as an escape
      tactic, which mediated selection pressures onto morphologies used in swimming to
      increase swimming performance; morphological patterns in extant species reflect
      this adaptation to a new environment. Mechanisms by which behaviorally mediated
      selection could have accelerated evolutionary dynamics following founder events
      are discussed.

PMID- 28565149
TI  - RUNAWAY EVOLUTION TO SELF-EXTINCTION UNDER ASYMMETRICAL COMPETITION.
AB  - We analyze a popular model of the evolution of traits related to performance in
      exploitative competition. This model has previously been used to explain a
      mechanism by which interspecific competition can cause taxon cycles. We show that
      purely intraspecific competition can cause evolution of extreme competitive
      abilities that ultimately result in extinction, without any influence from other
      species. The only change in the model required for this outcome is the assumption
      of a nonnormal distribution of resources of different sizes measured on a
      logarithmic scale. This suggests that taxon cycles, if they exist, may be driven
      by within- rather than between-species competition. Self-extinction does not
      occur when the advantage conferred by a large value of the competitive trait
      (e.g., size) is relatively small, or when the carrying capacity decreases at a
      comparatively rapid rate with increases in trait value. The evidence regarding
      these assumptions is discussed. The results suggest a need for more data on
      resource distributions and size-advantage in order to understand the evolution of
      competitive traits such as body size.

PMID- 28565150
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY IN THE YELLOW WARBLER (DENDROICA PETECHIA), AND
      IMPLICATIONS FOR AVIAN BIOGEOGRAPHY IN THE WEST INDIES.
AB  - A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was used
      to examine the evolutionary history of populations of yellow warbler (Dendroica
      petechia) sampled from North America, Central America, South America, and the
      West Indies. Thirty-seven haplotypes were identified, and only one was found in
      more than one of these regions. Estimated sequence divergence among haplotypes
      ranged from 0.14 to 3.17%, and mtDNAs from North American migratory populations
      clearly were differentiated from those of most tropical sedentary populations.
      Parsimony analysis of haplotypes suggested multiple colonizations of the West
      Indies archipelago and of individual Caribbean islands. The inference of multiple
      colonizations has important implications for studies of avian ecology and
      evolution in this region.

PMID- 28565151
TI  - SINGLE- AND MULTIPLE-LOCUS GENOTYPES AND LIFE-HISTORY RESPONSES OF GAMBUSIA
      HOLBROOKI REARED AT TWO TEMPERATURES.
AB  - Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) were reared from birth to 10 wk of age
      at 25 degrees C and 32 degrees C. Relationships of growth, time to maturity, and
      developmental stability to isozyme genotype were used to examine the hypothesis
      that more heterozygous individuals should exhibit superior performances,
      especially under thermally stressful (32 degrees C) conditions. More heterozygous
      fish grew faster than homozygous individuals, especially at 32 degrees C.
      Significant differences in time to maturity were detected among allozyme
      genotypes but not with heterozygosity. Multiple-locus heterozygosity was
      negatively related to fluctuating asymmetry. Thus, life-history traits were
      affected by both multiple-locus heterozygosity and single-locus genotype.

PMID- 28565152
TI  - COSTS AND BENEFITS OF PLANT RESPONSES TO DISEASE: RESISTANCE AND TOLERANCE.
AB  - A major assumption of models of the evolution of plant resistance to disease is
      that plant resistance involves fitness costs. To test this assumption, a field
      experiment was performed so that a quantitative-genetic analysis could be used to
      detect fitness costs to Ipomoea purpurea of resistance to different fungal
      isolates of Colletotrichum dematium, a pathogenic fungus causing the disease
      anthracnose. This experiment yielded no evidence that resistance to anthracnose
      involves direct fitness costs. Nevertheless, trade-offs in plant fitness that
      were unrelated to resistance were detected between different disease
      environments. Tolerance, defined as the ability to compensate in part for fitness
      decrements caused by disease, was found to involve fitness costs. Halfsib
      families that were more tolerant of disease had lower fitness in the absence of
      disease. The possibility that the cost of tolerance could obscure fitness costs
      of resistance is explored.

PMID- 28565153
TI  - MECHANISMS OF LARGE-SCALE EVOLUTIONARY TRENDS.
AB  - Large-scale evolutionary trends may result from driving forces or from passive
      diffusion in bounded spaces. Such trends are persistent directional changes in
      higher taxa spanning significant periods of geological time; examples include the
      frequently cited long-term trends in size, complexity, and fitness in life as a
      whole, as well as trends in lesser supraspecific taxa and trends in space. In a
      driven trend, the distribution mean increases on account of a force (which may
      manifest itself as a bias in the direction of change) that acts on lineages
      throughout the space in which diversification occurs. In a passive system, no
      pervasive force or bias exists, but the mean increases because change in one
      direction is blocked by a boundary, or other inhomogeneity, in some limited
      region of the space. Two tests have been used to distinguish these trend
      mechanisms: (1) the test based on the behavior of the minimum; and (2) the
      ancestor-descendant test, based on comparisons in a random sample of ancestor
      descendant pairs that lie far from any possible lower bound. For skewed
      distributions, a third test is introduced here: (3) the subclade test, based on
      the mean skewness of a sample of subclades drawn from the tail of a terminal
      distribution. With certain restrictions, a system is driven if the minimum
      increases, if increases significantly outnumber decreases among ancestor
      descendant pairs, and if the mean skew of subclades is significantly positive. A
      passive mechanism is more difficult to demonstrate but is the more likely
      mechanism if decreases outnumber increases and if the mean skew of subclades is
      negative. Unlike the other tests, the subclade test requires no detailed
      phylogeny or paleontological time series, but only terminal (e.g., modern)
      distributions. Monte Carlo simulations of the diversification of a clade are used
      to show how the subclade test works. In the empirical cases examined, the three
      tests gave concordant results, suggesting first, that they work, and second, that
      the passive and driven mechanisms may correspond to natural categories of causes
      of large-scale trends.

PMID- 28565154
TI  - USING HITCHHIKING GENES TO STUDY ADAPTATION AND DIVERGENCE DURING SPECIATION
      WITHIN THE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER SPECIES COMPLEX.
AB  - Several studies of intraspecific and interspecific DNA sequence variation from
      Drosophila loci have revealed a pattern of low intraspecific variation from
      genomic regions of low recombination. The mechanisms consistently invoked to
      explain these patterns are the selective sweep of advantageous mutations together
      with genetic hitchhiking of linked loci. To examine the effect of selective
      sweeps on genetic divergence during speciation, we studied two loci in different
      genomic regions thought to be subject to selective sweeps. We obtained DNA
      sequences from 1.1kb pair portions of the fourth chromosome locus cubitus
      interruptus Dominant (ciD ) and from the asense locus near the telomere of the X
      chromosome. At ciD , we found very low variation among multiple lines of
      Drosophila mauritiana and D. sechellia. This finding is consistent with an
      earlier report of very low variation in D. melanogaster and D. simulans at ciD
      and supports the conclusion of selective sweeps and genetic hitchhiking on the
      nonrecombining fourth chromosome. The pattern of variation found at asense
      suggests that a selective sweep has occurred recently at the tip of the X
      chromosome in D. simulans, but not in D. melanogaster or D. mauritiana. The data
      from ciD and asense are compared with data from three X chromosome loci (period,
      zeste, and yolk protein 2) that experience normal levels of recombination. By
      examining estimated genealogies and the rates at which different classes of
      mutations have accumulated, we conclude that selective sweeps are common
      occurrences on the fourth chromosome but less common near the tip of the X
      chromosome. An interesting pattern of low variation at ciD among D. simulans, D.
      mauritiana, and D. sechellia suggests that a selective sweep may have occurred
      among these forms even after divergence into separate species had begun.

PMID- 28565155
TI  - PARSIMONY, MOLECULAR EVOLUTION, AND BIOGEOGRAPHY: THE CASE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN
      GIANT SALAMANDER.
AB  - To draw biogeographic conclusions about the Central Highlands region of the
      United States, we reconstructed the phylogeny of hellbender (Cryptobranchus
      alleganiensis) populations from restriction-site variation in mtDNA. We were
      unable to root the phylogeny using an outgroup and therefore could not weight
      restriction-site gains more heavily than site losses. As a result, maximum
      parsimony results in low phylogenetic resolution because of high levels of
      homoplasy in the data set. Use of a recently published algorithm based on an
      explicit model of molecular evolution yielded much greater resolution of the
      mtDNA relationships. This phylogeny indicates the two subspecies of hellbenders
      are paraphyletic with respect to one another. Hellbenders found in the southern
      Ozarks (C. a. bishopi) are either most closely related to populations of C. a.
      alleganiensis inhabiting the Tennessee River drainage or are so divergent that
      phylogenetic affinities are undetectable. Extremely low levels of divergence
      among mtDNA haplotypes found in populations from Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois,
      and the northern Missouri Ozarks suggest a recent, probably post-Pleistocene,
      invasion of this region from a refugium in one of these areas. Biogeographic
      hypotheses of the causes and timing of hellbender distributions differ
      significantly from those postulated from analyses of fish species relationships.
      Possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed.

PMID- 28565156
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF SEED DISPERSAL IN THREE SYMPATRIC FOREST HERBS. II.
      MICROSPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE WITHIN POPULATIONS.
AB  - Significant spatial genetic differentiation over short distances was detected by
      F-statistics and spatial autocorrelation within populations of the temperate
      forest herbs Cryptotaenia canadensis, Osmorhiza claytonii and Sanicula odorata
      (Apiaceae). Differences among the three species were consistent with estimates of
      their seed-dispersal abilities. Populations of Cryptotaenia, with the most
      limited seed dispersal, are characterized by genetic structure at smaller spatial
      scales than those of Osmorhiza or Sanicula, as indicated by higher estimates of
      theta(Fst ), larger autocorrelation coefficients, and correlograms with more
      distant x-intercepts. Although spatial autocorrelation was somewhat more
      sensitive to the distribution of rare alleles than F-statistics, the two methods
      were generally concordant. Genetic structure was more pronounced, and inbreeding
      coefficients larger, in low-density, patchy populations than in a high-density
      site. Observed patterns of spatial autocorrelation, particularly for
      Cryptotaenia, were in agreement with expectations based on simulations of
      isolation by distance. The magnitude of observed autocorrelations was less than
      those typically produced in computer-simulation studies, but this discrepancy
      between empirical and theoretical results probably is derived from a lack of
      genetic and demographic equilibrium in natural populations. Isolation by distance
      can be an important evolutionary force organizing spatial genetic structure in
      plant populations, particularly in predominantly self-fertilizing species such as
      those studied here.

PMID- 28565157
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SEXUAL AND ALL-FEMALE TAXA OF CYPRINOTUS
      (OSTRACODA: CYPRIDIDAE).
AB  - Freshwater ostracodes show both an exceptionally high incidence of transitions to
      unisexuality and, in some cases, an extraordinary level of clonal diversity.
      There is no understanding of the agents promoting these transitions to thelytoky,
      although it has been suggested that their frequency may set the stage for sexual
      taxa to infuse clonal diversity into unisexuals. This study examines the nature
      and origins of clonal diversity in the unisexual ostracode Cyprinotus
      incongruens. A combination of allozyme and cytogenetic studies revealed the
      presence of two diploid clones of this species at three temperate sites and ten
      clones at one arctic site including three diploids, five triploids, and two
      tetraploids. The low heterozygosity (0%-20%) of its diploid clones suggests that
      parthenogenesis has arisen spontaneously in C. incongruens rather than through
      hybridization, as in vertebrate asexuals. Polyploid clones appear to owe their
      origin to genome additions from sexual taxa, although subsequent mutational
      divergence has played a role in further enhancing diversity. Two triploid clones
      have apparently originated from the incorporation of a haploid genome from the
      sexually reproducing C. glaucus, as evidenced by their high heterozygosity and
      possession of alleles otherwise found only in that species. Other polyploid
      clones have likely arisen as a result of interbreeding between bisexual and
      unisexual C. incongruens. These results suggest that both the incidence of
      spontaneous transitions to clonality and the frequency of interbreeding with
      relatives may be the key processes that govern clonal diversity in unisexual
      ostracodes.

PMID- 28565158
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER SELECTED FOR POSTPONED
      SENESCENCE.
AB  - The role of development in the evolution of postponed senescence is poorly
      understood despite the existence of a major gerontological theory connecting
      developmental rate to aging. We investigate the role of developmental rate in the
      laboratory evolution of aging using 24 distinct populations of Drosophila
      melanogaster. We have found a significant difference between the larval
      developmental rates of our Drosophila stocks selected for early (B) and late-life
      (O) fertility. This larval developmental time difference of approximately 12% (O
      > B) has been stable for at least 5 yr, occurs under a wide variety of rearing
      conditions, responds to reverse selection, and is shown for two other O-like
      selection treatments. Emerging adults from lines with different larval
      developmental rates show no significant differences in weight at emergence,
      thorax length, or starvation resistance. Long-developing lines (O, CO, and CB)
      have greater survivorship from egg to pupa and from pupa to adult, with and
      without strong larval competition. Crosses between slower developing populations,
      and a variety of other lines of evidence, indicate that neither mutation
      accumulation nor inbreeding depression are responsible for the extended
      development of our late-reproduced selection treatments. These results stand in
      striking contrast to other recent studies. We argue that inbreeding depression
      and inadvertent direct selection in other laboratories' culture regimes explain
      their results. We demonstrate antagonistic pleiotropy between developmental rate
      and preadult viability. The absence of any correlation between longevity and
      developmental time in our stocks refutes the developmental theory of aging.

PMID- 28565159
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND SURVIVAL IN NORTH AMERICAN WATERFOWL.

PMID- 28565160
TI  - ADAPTATION AND CONSTRAINT IN THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIALIZATION OF BAHAMIAN ANOLIS
      LIZARDS.
AB  - Interspecific interactions affect habitat use and subsequent morphological
      adaptation in Anolis lizards. We examined populations of two species of Anolis
      lizards that evolved in the species-rich communities of Cuba and are now
      widespread in the Bahamas. Because the species occupy islands in the Bahamas that
      vary in the number of lizard species present and other characteristics, we
      predicted that directional selection should have led to morphological
      differentiation. In particular, we expected that populations on one-species
      islands should have evolved toward a generalist morphology because of the lack of
      competitors. Divergence in both species has been adaptive; populations that use
      wider perches have longer legs. Nonetheless, these differences are relatively
      minor, and none of the populations appears to have differentiated from its
      ancestral "ecomorph" type toward a more generalized morphology. This stasis
      mirrors a trend observed in the radiation of Caribbean anoles, which exhibits
      repeated instances of evolutionary specialization, but few or no cases of
      reversion to a more generalized condition. The explanation for this
      directionality of evolution is not obvious but probably involves the tendency of
      specialized species to continue using and further adapting the niches for which
      they are specialized even as conditions change.

PMID- 28565161
TI  - ASSORTATIVE MATING AND NATURAL SELECTION IN AN IRIS HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - The phenology of different genotypes and the distribution of genetic variation
      among flowering plants and their progeny were examined to assess the levels of
      assortative mating and selection in a hybrid population of Iris. This study and a
      previous survey of RAPD nuclear markers and chloroplast markers indicate that the
      population consists of parental genotypes and recombinant hybrid genotypes that
      are similar to the parental species (I. fulva and I. brevicaulis), although
      lacking intermediate genotypes. Early in the season only I. fulva genotypes
      produced flowers, but as flowering in these plants decreased, the hybrid
      genotypes and I. brevicaulis genotypes began flowering, resulting in a 24-d
      period of coincidental flowering. The genotypic distribution of seeds produced
      during the period of flowering overlap contained a high frequency of intermediate
      genotypes that were not present in the adult generation. The degree of effective
      assortative mating was examined by comparing the observed progeny genotypic
      distributions with expected distributions from a mixed-mating model. The model
      included selfing and random outcrossing to the nearest plants that had pollen
      bearing flowers on the day the recipient flower was receptive. The observed
      genotypic distribution of progeny from plants with I. brevicaulis chloroplast DNA
      (cpDNA) was not significantly different from the expected distribution. For I.
      fulva genotypes, however, there were higher than expected frequencies in the
      extreme genotypic classes, although intermediate genotypes were absent,
      indicating that these plants were preferentially mating with similar genotypes.
      Compared with the extreme genotypes, a larger proportion of the intermediate seed
      progeny produced were aborted, indicating that intermediate genotypes have lower
      viability. On the basis of the observed progeny genotypes and genetic
      disequilibria estimates for the adults and the progeny, there appears to be a
      pattern of effective asymmetrical mating in this population. This asymmetry is
      most likely due to pollen-style interactions that reduce the fertilization
      ability of genetically dissimilar pollen, or preferential abortion of genetically
      intermediate zygotes by I. fulva-like genotypes. The lack of any apparent
      discrimination by I. brevicaulis-like genotypes creates a directional exchange of
      nuclear genetic elements that will have implications for introgression and the
      evolution of hybrid genotypes.

PMID- 28565162
TI  - RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INFERRED LEVELS OF GENE FLOW AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE IN A
      PHILOPATRIC CORAL, BALANOPHYLLIA ELEGANS.
AB  - When the dispersal capability of a species is considerably less than its
      geographic range, genetic differences between populations should increase with
      the distance separating those populations. This pattern should be most evident in
      linearly distributed species. The sessile solitary cup coral Balanophyllia
      elegans lives along nearly the entire Pacific coast of North America, yet its
      crawling larvae usually settle within 40 cm of their birthplace. In this paper, I
      document geographic patterns of allozyme differentiation within and among
      populations of B. elegans and estimate the proportion of observed geographic
      pattern attributable to gene flow between adjacent populations. Genetic
      subdivision among localities separated by up to 3000 km was high (FST = 0.283, SE
      = 0.038). Inferred gene flow between pairs of localities (M?, individuals per
      generation) correlated inversely with the geographic distance between those
      localities, consistent with the pattern expected for a species at equilibrium in
      which gene flow occurred exclusively between adjacent localities. Within
      localities, patches separated by 4 to 30 m were also significantly subdivided,
      but genetic differentiation between patches did not vary significantly with the
      distance separating them. Simulations revealed that the power to detect genetic
      pattern expected from gene flow between adjacent populations increased with both
      the number of loci used to infer gene flow and the heterozygosity of those loci.
      Simulations also verified that when geographic distance poorly approximated the
      number of steps between populations, reduced major-axis regression more
      accurately portrayed the structural relationship between gene flow and separation
      than did ordinary least-squares regression. Attenuation of gene flow with
      distance explained 15% of the between-locality pattern of genetic differentiation
      in B. elegans. The remaining variation appeared to be due to neither natural
      selection nor a recent rangewide recolonization. Loci from the northern sampled
      localities, however, had fewer alleles than those from the remainder of the
      range, suggesting these localities had been recolonized recently following
      Pleistocene cooling.

PMID- 28565163
TI  - FINE-SCALE GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC STRUCTURE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF BACILLUS
      SUBTILIS AND BACILLUS LICHENIFORMIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR BACTERIAL EVOLUTION AND
      SPECIATION.
AB  - The genetic and phenotypic structure of sympatric populations of wild bacteria
      traditionally identified as Bacillus subtilis and B. licheniformis was analyzed.
      Small soil samples were taken from a single, tiny site in the Sonoran Desert of
      Arizona, USA, to provide a true population analysis, in contrast to many analyses
      of genetic structure using bacterial strain collections of widely heterogeneous
      origin. Genetic analyses of isolates used multilocus enzyme electrophoresis,
      mismatches in restriction fragment length polymorphism, and variants from
      Southern hybridization with B. subtilis DNA probes. Phenotypic analyses of
      isolates used the API test system for detection of growth and acid production on
      specific carbon sources. The two species were distinct both phenotypically and
      genetically, despite their known potential for genetic exchange in laboratory
      experiments. Genic and genotypic diversity were high in both species, and only
      16% of observed allozyme variants might possibly be common to both species.
      Hence, there is probably modest genetic exchange, if any, between the species in
      nature. Clear hierarchies of population-genetic structure were found for both
      species. Different types of genetic data yield concordant population structures
      for B. subtilis. For both species, two-locus and multilocus statistical analyses
      of linkage demonstrated modest to strong disequilibrium at the species level but
      truly panmictic subunits within each species. The evidence for extensive genetic
      recombination within these fine-scale subdivisions is unequivocal, indicating
      that the sexuality of these bacteria can be well expressed in nature. The
      relation of these results to processes of bacterial evolution and speciation is
      discussed.

PMID- 28565164
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF THE RELATIVE GEOGRAPHIC SCALES OF GENE FLOW AND SELECTION ON MORPH
      FREQUENCIES IN THE WALKING-STICK TIMEMA CRISTINAE.
AB  - Gene frequencies in large populations are determined by a balance between
      selection and gene flow between neighborhoods of different selection regimes.
      This balance is affected by the area of the patches of a given selection regime
      relative to the gene-flow distance. If patches are small relative to gene-flow
      distance, similarity in the total area occupied by different patch types is a
      crucial condition for the stability of polymorphisms. However, if patches are
      larger than the gene-flow distance, then the relative area of different patch
      types is less important because of reduced gene flow resulting from isolation by
      distance. Two morphs (striped and unstriped) of the walking-stick Timema
      cristinae were each strongly associated with patches of distinct species of food
      plants on which they are most cryptic. The frequency of a morph was high on the
      plant on which it is most cryptic when either: (1) the area occupied by the food
      plant (patch) was very large; (2) the patch was completely isolated from other
      patches; or (3) the patch was larger than adjacent patches. Results (1) and (2)
      are consistent with isolation-by-distance models, and result (3) is consistent
      with Levene's multiple-niche polymorphism model.

PMID- 28565165
TI  - MOLECULAR HETEROCHRONY IN THE PATTERN OF FIBRONECTIN EXPRESSION DURING
      GASTRULATION IN AMPHIBIANS.

PMID- 28565166
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION FOR PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN THE LARVAL LIFE HISTORY OF
      SPADEFOOT TOADS (SCAPHIOPUS COUCHII).
AB  - Phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits is common. The relationship between
      phenotype and environment, or reaction norm, associated with life-history
      plasticity can evolve by natural selection if there is genetic variation within a
      population for the reaction norm and if the traits involved affect fitness. As
      with other traits, selection on plasticity in a particular trait or in response
      to a particular environmental factor may be constrained by trade-offs with other
      traits that affect fitness. In this paper, I experimentally evaluated broad-sense
      genetic variation in the reaction norms of age and size at metamorphosis in
      response to two environmental factors, food level and temperature. Differences
      among full-sib families in one or both traits were evident in all treatments.
      However, variation among families in their responses to each treatment (genotype
      environment interaction) resulted in variation among treatments in estimated
      heritabilities and genetic correlations. Age at metamorphosis was equally
      sensitive to temperature in all families, but size at metamorphosis was more
      sensitive to temperature in some families than in others. Size at metamorphosis
      was equally sensitive to food level in all families, but age at metamorphosis was
      sensitive to food in some families but not in others. At high temperature or low
      food, the genetic correlation between age and size at metamorphosis was positive,
      generating a potential trade-off between metamorphosing early to attain higher
      larval survival and metamorphosing later to achieve larger size. This trade-off
      extends across treatments: families with the largest average size at
      metamorphosis achieved larger size with the longest average and greatest
      plasticity in age at metamorphosis. Other families achieved shorter average
      larval periods by exhibiting greater plasticity in size at metamorphosis but had
      the smallest average size at metamorphosis. This trade-off may reflect an
      underlying functional constraint on the ability to respond optimally to all
      environments, resulting in persistent genetic variation in reaction norms.

PMID- 28565167
TI  - NUCLEO-CYTOPLASMIC MALE STERILITY AND ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO DIOECY.
AB  - Population-genetic models of nucleo-cytoplasmic gynodioecy are shown to allow
      invasion of males and conversion to dioecy in a single cytotype. Pleiotropic
      effects of restorer alleles on fertility through male or female function can
      maintain a cytoplasmic polymorphism in a population that prevents evolution to
      dioecy regardless of the pollen fertility of males. However, a cytoplasmic
      polymorphism has little effect on, and may even reduce, the minimum pollen
      fertility required for the spread of males into an equilibrium gynodioecious
      population. Where the thresholds for dioecy are similar, the presence of males
      during a transient preequilibrium high frequency of females can accelerate
      evolution to dioecy by more than 50 times relative to nuclear male sterility.
      However, the appearance of a nonrestorable male-sterile cytotype generally
      eliminates males from both subdioecious and dioecious populations, converting
      them to purely cytoplasmic gynodioecy. These models contradict the previously
      suggested notion that nucleo-cytoplasmic gynodioecy represents a "stable"
      intermediate breeding system and instead show that such gynodioecy can generally
      evolve to subdioecy, and often to dioecy, as easily as nuclear gynodioecy.

PMID- 28565168
TI  - GLOBAL PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE LOGGERHEAD TURTLE (CARETTA CARETTA) AS INDICATED BY
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOTYPES.
AB  - Restriction-site analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the loggerhead sea
      turtle (Caretta caretta) reveal substantial phylogeographic structure among major
      nesting populations in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans and the
      Mediterranean sea. Based on 176 samples from eight nesting populations, most
      breeding colonies were distinguished from other assayed nesting locations by
      diagnostic and often fixed restriction-site differences, indicating a strong
      propensity for natal homing by nesting females. Phylogenetic analyses revealed
      two distinctive matrilines in the loggerhead turtle that differ by a mean
      estimated sequence divergence p = 0.009, a value similar in magnitude to the
      deepest intraspecific mtDNA node (p = 0.007) reported in a global survey of the
      green sea turtle Chelonia mydas. In contrast to the green turtle, where a
      fundamental phylogenetic split distinguished turtles in the Atlantic Ocean and
      the Mediterranean Sea from those in the Indian and Pacific oceans, genotypes
      representing the two primary loggerhead mtDNA lineages were observed in both
      Atlantic-Mediterranean and Indian-Pacific samples. We attribute this aspect of
      phylogeographic structure in Caretta caretta to recent interoceanic gene flow,
      probably mediated by the ability of this temperate-adapted species to utilize
      habitats around southern Africa. These results demonstrate how differences in the
      ecology and geographic ranges of marine turtle species can influence their
      comparative global population structures.

PMID- 28565169
TI  - A SPECIATIONAL HISTORY OF "LIVING FOSSILS": MOLECULAR EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS IN
      HORSESHOE CRABS.
AB  - Horseshoe crabs' exceptional morphological conservatism over the past 150 My has
      led to their reputation as "living fossils," but also has served to obscure
      phylogenetic relationships within the complex. Here we employ nucleotide
      sequences from two mitochondrial genes to assess molecular evolutionary rates and
      patterns among all extant horseshoe crab species. The American species Limulus
      polyphemus proved to be the sister taxon to a clade composed of the Asiatic
      species Tachypleus gigas, T. tridentatus, and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, whose
      relationships inter se were not resolved definitively. Both absolute and relative
      rate tests suggest a moderate slowdown in sequence evolution in horseshoe crabs.
      Nonetheless, dates of the lineage separations remain uncertain primarily because
      of reservations about molecular-clock calibrations resulting from large rate
      variances at examined loci across Arthropods and other animal lineages, as
      inferred in this and prior studies. Thus, ironically, separation dates as
      estimated by molecular evidence in general may remain most insecure in taxonomic
      groups for which such information is needed most-those lacking strong
      biogeographic or fossil benchmarks for internal-clock calibrations. In any event,
      the current results show that large numbers of molecular characters distinguish
      even these most morphologically conservative of organisms. Furthermore,
      comparisons against previously published mitochondrial sequence data in the
      morphologically dynamic hermit crab-king crab complex demonstrates that striking
      heterogeneity in levels of morphotypic differentiation can characterize Arthropod
      lineages at similar magnitudes of molecular divergence.

PMID- 28565170
TI  - CENTRAL MOMENTS AND PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION OF COLLESS'S COEFFICIENT OF TREE
      IMBALANCE.
AB  - The great increase in the number of phylogenetic studies of a wide variety of
      organisms in recent decades has focused considerable attention on the balance of
      phylogenetic trees-the degree to which sister clades within a tree tend to be of
      equal size-for at least two reasons: (1) the degree of balance of a tree may
      affect the accuracy of estimates of it; (2) the degree of balance, or imbalance,
      of a tree may reveal something about the macroevolutionary processes that
      produced it. In particular, variation among lineages in rates of speciation or
      extinction is expected to produce trees that are less balanced than those that
      result from phylogenetic evolution in which each extant species of a group has
      the same probability of speciation or extinction. Several coefficients for
      measuring the balance or imbalance of phylogenetic trees have been proposed. I
      focused on Colless's coefficient of imbalance (7) for its mathematical
      tractability and ease of interpretation. Earlier work on this statistic produced
      exact methods only for calculating the expected value. In those studies, the
      variance and confidence limits, which are necessary for testing the departure of
      observed values of I from the expected, were estimated by Monte Carlo simulation.
      I developed recursion equations that allow exact calculation of the mean,
      variance, skewness, and complete probability distribution of I for two different
      probability-generating models for bifurcating tree shapes. The Equal-Rates Markov
      (ERM) model assumes that trees grow by the random speciation and extinction of
      extant species, with all species that are extant at a given time having the same
      probability of speciation or extinction. The Equal Probability (EP) model assumes
      that all possible labeled trees for a given number of terminal taxa have the same
      probability of occurring. Examples illustrate how these theoretically derived
      probabilities and parameters may be used to test whether the evolution of a
      monophyletic group or set of monophyletic groups has proceeded according to a
      Markov model with equal rates of speciation and extinction among species, that
      is, whether there has been significant variation among lineages in expected rates
      of speciation or extinction.

PMID- 28565171
TI  - THE ROLES OF FLUCTUATING SELECTION AND LONG-TERM DIAPAUSE IN MICROEVOLUTION OF
      DIAPAUSE TIMING IN A FRESHWATER COPEPOD.
AB  - Direct observations of selection response in natural, unmanipulated populations
      in the wild are rare. Those that exist have resulted from major changes in
      environment during an ongoing study. Selection response should be more common and
      more readily observable in short-lived organisms where the direction of selection
      changes from year to year. We examined how the interaction of fluctuating
      selection, and emergence from long-term diapause, caused ongoing
      microevolutionary change over eight years in an important life-history trait
      (diapause timing) in the freshwater calanoid copepod Diaptomus sanguineus.
      Emergence from long-term diapause releases into the population lineages that did
      not experience the most recent bout of selection, thereby promoting the
      maintenance of the heritable trait variation that allows continual selection
      response. A mechanistic selection model was created on the basis of field and
      laboratory studies to predict how interannual variations in predation intensity
      generate year-to-year changes in mean diapause timing and in net reproductive
      success for alternate trait values. The predicted selection response and the
      estimated effect of emergence from diapause were both significantly correlated
      with observed changes in trait mean. A linear model combining selection response
      and emergence from diapause explained 59% of the variance in year-to-year changes
      in trait mean. According to this model, strong selection occurred in about half
      of the years studied, and the average annual contributions to changes in trait
      mean from selection and emergence were roughly equal. Thus, both fluctuating
      natural selection and emergence from prolonged diapause affect the expression of
      diapause timing by D. sanguineus. Fluctuating selection is ubiquitous in nature
      and may provide opportunities in other populations to witness ongoing natural
      selection without directional trends in mean phenotype.

PMID- 28565172
TI  - TRAIT MAPPING AND SALIENCE IN THE EVOLUTION OF EUSOCIAL VESPID WASPS.
AB  - The multiple independent origins of eusociality in the insect order Hymenoptera
      are clustered in only four of more than 80 families, and those four families are
      two pairs of closely related taxa in a single part of the order. Therefore,
      although ordinal-level characteristics can contribute to hymenopteran eusocial
      evolution, more important roles have been played by traits of infraordinal taxa
      that contain the eusocial forms. Many factors have been proposed and discussed,
      but assessments of traits' salience to eusocial evolution have heretofore not
      been joined to phylogenetics. In the present analysis, cladograms of
      superfamilies and families of Hymenoptera and of the family Vespidae are used to
      ordinate the appearance of traits that play roles in vespid eusociality.
      Proximity of traits' first appearance to the origin of eusocial Vespidae is taken
      as one measure of traits' salience to vespid eusocial evolution. Traits that
      subtend only eusocial taxa and that are uniquely associated with eusociality have
      foundations in more general traits that subtend more inclusive taxa. No single
      trait is uniquely causative of vespid eusocial evolution. High-salience traits
      that closely subtend vespid eusociality include nesting, oviposition into an
      empty nest cell, progressive provisioning of larvae, adult nourishment during
      larval provision malaxation, and inequitable food distribution among nestmates.
      The threshold characteristic of Polistes-grade eusociality is life-long
      alloparental brood care by first female offspring who remain, uninseminated, at
      their natal nest. Traits directly associated with occurrence of such workers are
      larva-adult trophallaxis, which can foster relatively low larval nourishment
      early in a colony cycle, and protogyny and direct larval development, which
      combine to yield restricted mating opportunities for female offspring that are
      the first to emerge in the colony cycle. Trait mapping suggests no role for
      asymmetry of relatedness due to haplodiploidy, but it suggests high salience for
      haplodiploidy as a mechanism enabling the production of all-female clutches of
      first offspring.

PMID- 28565173
TI  - COLOR PATTERN EVOLUTION, ASSORTATIVE MATING, AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN
      BRIGHTLY COLORED BUTTERFLYFISHES (CHAETODONTIDAE).
AB  - In butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae), color pattern evolves rapidly and is often
      the only morphological trait separating closely related species. Vivid coloration
      is frequently assumed to provide critical signals for mate recognition and mate
      choice, but few direct experimental tests are available. Here we analyze the
      relationship between color pattern change, mate choice, and genetic
      differentiation in a group of three very closely related allopatric
      butterflyfishes. We found that in only one member of this group, Chaetodon
      multicinctus, is color pattern evolution associated with mate preference and
      genetic divergence. For its two sister species, C. punctatofasciatus and C.
      pelewensis, color pattern change has not resulted in assortative mating (based on
      laboratory pairing experiments and field observations) or in significant mtDNA or
      allozyme differentiation. In a contact zone on reefs in the Solomon Islands and
      Papua New Guinea, hybridization between the two forms has nearly homogenized
      color pattern differences. Outside these areas, however, color pattern remains
      distinct. Genetic variation is homogeneous over a much larger geographic scale.
      Sequence variation in the tRNA-proline end of the mitochondrial control region
      and allozyme variation was distributed widely within C. punctatofasciatus and C.
      pelewensis, which suggests few constraints to mitochondrial or nuclear gene flow
      across the color pattern boundary. These contrasting patterns strongly suggest
      that selection is maintaining color pattern differences in allopatry in the face
      of potentially homogenizing levels of gene flow. The mating pattern data show
      that this selection is not operating on mate recognition in the strictest sense,
      but probably on some other aspect of the social system of these territorial fish.
      In this case, divergence in mating preference can follow color pattern evolution,
      but is not contemporaneous with it.

PMID- 28565174
TI  - GENETICS OF SEX RATIO VARIATION AMONG NATURAL POPULATIONS OF A DIOECIOUS PLANT.
AB  - The female-biased sex ratio in the genus Silene is the most widely documented
      example of sex ratio bias in plants. It has recently been shown that the genetic
      basis of sex ratio in this species involves a system of sex ratio distorters and
      restorers, but it is not known if these genetic elements are of fundamental
      importance in natural populations. I crossed plants from natural populations with
      known testers to examine the frequencies of sex ratio distorters and restorers in
      eight populations of S. alba, and to determine the extent that these elements are
      responsible for the sex ratio variation in nature. The genetic basis of sex ratio
      varied from one population to another, suggesting that sex ratio evolution occurs
      over a relatively small spatial scale and is asynchronous among local demes. The
      resulting variation in the frequency of sex ratio alleles among populations
      explained most of the sex ratio variation seen in nature, which suggests that the
      ecology and evolution of this trait in natural populations is governed primarily
      by underlying dynamics of selfish genetic elements. The possible causes and the
      evolutionary consequences of population structure at genes controlling sex ratio
      are discussed, as are the implications of these results for the overall
      importance of selfish genetic elements in natural populations.

PMID- 28565175
TI  - COMPETITION AND GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION IN NATURAL BREEDING
      SUBSTRATES OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Although empirical studies frequently suggest that genotype-by-environment (G X
      E) interaction can maintain genetic variation, very few data are available to
      test for the specific conditions necessary for the existence of a protected
      polymorphism (i.e., the property of persistence of an allele even when initially
      rare). Drosophila species live in patchy environments and their local population
      structure may be characterized to some extent by Levene's migration pattern,
      namely by a single pool of individuals that presumably mate at random and breed
      on discrete and ephemeral resources. We present here a field experiment that
      links Drosophila ecology and population genetics, which used the alcohol
      dehydrogenase (Adh) and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (alphaGpdh)
      polymorphic loci in D. melanogaster flies raised from Opuntia ficus-indica fruits
      (prickly pears). The results show that there is density-dependent mortality in
      those fruits with a relatively high number of larvae (i.e., selection is "soft")
      and suggest that there is differential viability for alphaGpdh genotypes.
      Additionally, a pattern of G X E interaction for fitness values, which is fully
      compatible with the theoretical conditions required for the existence of a
      protected polymorphism, was found after weighting the fitness estimates by the
      relative contribution that each fruit makes to the total adult population. The
      strong association between AdhS and alphaGpdhF alleles suggests that the
      occurrence of the common cosmopolitan inversion In(2L)t in the population might
      be responsible for the negative frequency-dependent selection predicted by
      Levene's model when genetic variation persists in heterogeneous environments.

PMID- 28565176
TI  - CORRECTING FOR SAMPLING BIAS IN QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF SELECTION WHEN FITNESS
      IS DISCRETE.
AB  - We show with a simulation that nonrepresentative sampling of two discrete fitness
      classes leads to biased estimates of selection. Systematic underestimation occurs
      if the selected class is overrepresented in the sample and overestimation if the
      unselected class is overrepresented. The bias is greater the stronger the
      selection intensity, the smaller the true fraction of individuals favored by
      selected, and the lower the sample size. We present a simple method that allows a
      posteriori statistical correction in cases of biased sampling given a separate
      estimate of the actual class representation, describe its practical
      implementation, and show that it works.

PMID- 28565177
TI  - THE QUANTITATIVE AND MOLECULAR GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF A SUBDIVIDED SPECIES.
AB  - In an effort to elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms that determine the genetic
      architecture of a species, we have analyzed 17 populations of the microcrustacean
      Daphnia pulex for levels of genetic variation at the level of life-history
      characters and molecular markers in the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. This
      species is highly subdivided, with approximately 30% of the variation for nuclear
      molecular markers and 50% of the variation for mitochondrial markers being
      distributed among populations. The average level of genetic subdivision for
      quantitative traits is essentially the same as that for nuclear markers, which
      superficially suggests that the life-history characters are diverging at the
      neutral rate. However, the existence of a strong correlation between the levels
      of population subdivision and broadsense heritabilities of individual traits
      argues against this interpretation, suggesting instead that the among-population
      divergence of some quantitative traits (most notably body size) is being driven
      by local adaptation to different environments. The fact that the mean phenotypes
      of the individual populations are also strongly correlated with local levels of
      homozygosity indicates that variation in local inbreeding plays a role in
      population differentiation. Rather than being a passive consequence of local
      founder effects, levels of homozygosity may be selected for directly for their
      effects on the phenotype (adaptive inbreeding depression). There is no
      relationship between the levels of variation within populations for molecular
      markers and quantitative characters, and this is explained by the fact that the
      average standing genetic variation for life-history characters in this species is
      equivalent to only 33 generations of variation generated by mutation.

PMID- 28565178
TI  - VARIATION IN GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF CALLING SONG AMONG POPULATIONS OF
      ALLONEMOBIUS SOCIUS, A. FASCIATUS, AND A HYBRID POPULATION: DRIFT OR SELECTION?
AB  - Predictions using quantitative genetic models generally assume that the variance
      covariance matrices remain constant over time. This assumption is based on the
      supposition that selection is generally weak and hence variation lost through
      selection can be replaced by new mutations. Whether this is generally true can
      only be ascertained from empirical studies. Ideally for such a study we should be
      able to make a prediction concerning the relative strength of selection versus
      genetic drift. If the latter force is prevalent then the variance-covariances
      matrices should be proportional to each other. Previous studies have indicated
      that females in the two sibling cricket species Allonemobius socius and A.
      fasciatus do not discriminate between males of the two species by their calling
      song. Therefore, differences between the calling song of the two males most
      likely result from drift rather than sexual selection. We test this hypothesis by
      comparing the genetic architecture of calling song of three populations of A.
      fasciatus with two populations of A. socius. We found no differences among
      populations within species, but significant differences in the G (genetic) and P
      (phenotypic) matrices between species, with the matrices being proportional as
      predicted under the hypothesis of genetic drift. Because of the proportional
      change in the (co)variances no differences between species are evident in the
      heritabilities or genetic correlations. Comparison of the two species with a
      hybrid population from a zone of overlap showed highly significant
      nonproportional variation in genetic architecture. This variation is consistent
      with a general mixture of two separate genomes or selection. Qualitative
      conclusions reached using the phenotypic matrices are the same as those reached
      using the genetic matrices supporting the hypothesis that the former may be used
      as surrogate measures of the latter.

PMID- 28565179
TI  - REPLY TO COMMENTS ON THE CHASE-AWAY MODEL OF SEXUAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28565180
TI  - PATTERNS OF DESCENT IN CLONAL LINEAGES AND THEIR MULTILOCUS FINGERPRINTS ARE
      RESOLVED WITH COMBINED GENE GENEALOGIES.
AB  - Clonal lineages in the filamentous ascomycete (fungi) Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
      were determined by analysis of genealogies of four loci: the intergenic spacer of
      the nuclear ribosomal repeat (IGS; approximately 4 kb), the translation
      elongation factor (EF-1alpha; approximately 300 bp), an anonymous region (44.11;
      approximately 700 bp), and the calmodulin gene (CAL; approximately 400 bp). Three
      of the four loci are physically unlinked. The combined analysis of the four loci
      provided the best estimate of phylogeny, which is consistent with a pattern of
      some recombination among clonal lineages against a background of predominant
      clonality. Comparison of gene genealogies with a phylogeny inferred from DNA
      fingerprints and a combined phylogeny of the entire dataset identified convergent
      or parallel changes in fingerprints. Analysis of the entire data matrix allowed
      us to resolve patterns of descent among clonal lineages that could not be
      inferred from fingerprints alone and to discern recent episodes of divergence
      that were not detected in gene genealogies. Prerequisites for applying this
      approach to other systems are a haploid context for inferring multiple gene
      genealogies (such as the mitochondrial genome) that indicate limited
      recombination and another data matrix that identifies recently evolved genotypes.

PMID- 28565181
TI  - POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE AND GENE FLOW ACROSS ARID VERSUS MESIC ENVIRONMENTS:
      A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO PARAPATRIC SENECIO SPECIES FROM THE NEAR EAST.
AB  - To shed light on the potential effects of xeric/arid versus mesic environments on
      plant population genetic structure and patterns of gene flow, we have compared
      allozyme and cpDNA haplotype variation in populations of two closely related,
      highly outcrossed, and largely wind-dispersed winter annuals of Senecio
      (Asteraceae). The species form a distinctive zone of parapatric distribution in
      the Near East by differing in their ecogeographical regimes. Senecio vernalis
      mainly thrives in the mesic Mediterranean life zone of Israel, whereas S. glaucus
      inhabits either xeric maritime or arid (semi-) desert sites. Significant
      differences in allozymic population subdivision among S. vernalis (thetan = 0.04;
      Nmn = 5.85) and S. glaucus (thetan = 0.12; Nmn = 1.85) largely resulted from
      topogeographical substructuring present within the latter species. Because of the
      similarity of within-region estimates of population structure for S. glaucus with
      those measured among populations of S. vernalis, it appears unlikely that
      ecological "aridity" factors per se are important in influencing levels of
      population differentiation in these species. Based on hierarchical F-statistics
      and tests of isolation by distance, we further conclude that geographical
      topologies influence the level and mode of nuclear gene flow (via pollen and/or
      seed) among and within subsets of S. glaucus populations, although without
      providing a complete barrier to interregional dispersal (dNmreg = 2.16) and
      without promoting allopatric differentiation via drift. The allozymic data
      further suggested that S. vernalis and S. glaucus form a zone of secondary
      contact in the Near East, accompanied by an almost complete interspecific barrier
      to nuclear gene flow (dnNmsp = 0.253). However, to account for the considerable
      sharing of cpDNA haplotypes, both at the intra- and interspecific level, it is
      necessary to invoke either (1) selection acting against alien nuclear but not
      cytoplasmic DNA; or (2) the sporadic immigration of cpDNA via seed with large
      homogenizing effects on cytoplasmic population structure over time.

PMID- 28565182
TI  - SUPPRESSION OF SEX-RATIO MEIOTIC DRIVE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF Y-CHROMOSOME
      POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Like several other species of Drosophila, D. quinaria is polymorphic for X
      chromosome meiotic drive; matings involving males that carry a "sex-ratio" X
      chromosome (XSR ) result in the production of strongly female-biased offspring
      sex ratios (Jaenike 1996). A survey of isofemale lines of D. quinaria from
      several populations reveals that there is genetic variation for partial
      suppression of this meiotic drive. Crossing experiments show that there is Y
      linked, and probably autosomal, variation for suppression of drive. Y-linked
      suppressors of X-chromosome drive have now been described in several species of
      Diptera. I develop a simple model for the maintenance of Y-chromosome
      polymorphism in species polymorphic for X-linked meiotic drive. One interesting
      feature of this model is that, if there is a stable Y-chromosome polymorphism,
      then the equilibrium frequency of the standard and sex-ratio X chromosomes is
      determined solely by Y-chromosome parameters, not by the fitness effects of the
      different X chromosomes on their carriers. This model suggests that Y-chromosome
      polymorphism may be easier to maintain than previously thought, and I hypothesize
      that karyotypic variation in Y chromosomes will be found to be associated with
      suppression of sex-ratio meiotic drive in other species of Drosophila.

PMID- 28565183
TI  - MATERNAL EFFECTS AND THE PERVASIVE IMPACT OF NESTLING HISTORY ON EGG SIZE IN A
      PASSERINE BIRD.
AB  - Environmental conditions experienced during ontogeny may have important and
      permanent consequences for life-history traits of individuals. The aim of this
      work was to determine whether conditions experienced during early life, as
      expressed by prefledgling condition, have any bearing on the volume of eggs
      subsequently laid by females in a small passerine bird species, the pied
      flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca). I first show a genetic influence on egg volume
      by dam-offspring regression. The existence of maternal effects is shown by
      comparing resemblances between average egg volumes of offspring to those of their
      paternal and maternal grandmothers. Path analysis shows that when controlling for
      the influence of maternal egg volume, the average volume of eggs produced in a
      lifetime is positively related to the body condition of a female measured while
      she is still at the nest. Thus, body condition at fledgling affects egg volume
      beyond the ability of maternal egg volume to predict offspring egg volume.
      Although there may be a persistent maternal effect of egg volume on itself or
      linked to a property correlated with egg volume, the maternal performance trait
      involved remains unknown, except for maternal egg volume itself. Given the
      effects that egg volume may have on reproductive success, which are partly
      determined prior to leaving the nest, maternal effects may have important
      consequences for lifetime fitness of offspring.

PMID- 28565184
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR AN EXTREME BOTTLENECK IN A RARE MEXICAN PINYON: GENETIC DIVERSITY,
      DISEQUILIBRIUM, AND THE MATING SYSTEM IN PINUS MAXIMARTINEZII.
AB  - Maxipinon (Pinus maximartinezii Rzedowski), which is confined to a single
      population of approximately 2000 to 2500 mature trees, covers about 400 ha in
      southern Zacatecas, Mexico. Genetic diversity measured by expected heterozygosity
      was 0.122, which is moderate for pines. However, percentage polymorphic loci was
      low, 30.3%. The fixation index (F) of 0.081 indicated only slight heterozygote
      deficiency. Mating system analysis indicated a significant but low level of
      selling; the multilocus outcrossing rate, tm , was 0.816. The mean of single
      locus estimates, ts , was smaller (0.761), perhaps suggesting mating among
      relatives, although the difference between tm and ts was not statistically
      significant. The most striking features of maxipinon's genetic structure were
      that no polymorphic locus had more than two alleles and most alleles at
      polymorphic loci were at intermediate frequencies. This is in contrast to other
      pines, which often have three to five or more alleles at some loci and in which
      the distribution of allele frequencies is U-shaped, most alleles being present at
      frequencies less than 10% or greater than 90%. A population with only two alleles
      per locus and at intermediate frequencies could occur if the population had been
      reduced to an extreme bottleneck and then expanded rapidly before random drift
      modified allele frequencies. A novel origin from a hybridization event would also
      explain the results. Significant gametic disequilibrium was detected at several
      pairs of loci in both maternal and paternal gametes. The presence of
      disequilibrium is in agreement with an origin from an extreme bottleneck, perhaps
      even a single seed. Furthermore, it demands that the event be relatively recent.
      The number of generations, as calculated from the observed mean disequilibrium,
      suggested that maxipinon derived from an extreme bottleneck four to five
      generations ago, which is less than 1000 years in this species.

PMID- 28565185
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION ON MATURATION TIME AND BODY SIZE IN SPHENARIUM PURPURASCENS
      (ORTHOPTERA: PYRGOMORPHIDAE): CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION.
AB  - We measured in the field the intensity and mode (i.e., directional, stabilizing)
      of sexual selection acting jointly on body size and time of sexual maturity in
      the univoltine, polygamous grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens. Statistical
      analyses indicated that selection favored large and protandrous males in terms of
      a higher mating success. At the same time, evidence of correlational selection
      acting simultaneously on body size and time to sexual maturity was found. Thus,
      selection should strengthen the relationship between body size and the time of
      sexual maturity. Theoretical work suggests the existence of a trade-off between
      reaching a large size and early sexual maturation in insects. The present study
      does not support the existence of this kind of trade-off. Recent theoretical and
      empirical work like the one reported here suggests that such a trade-off may not
      be necessarily expected if growth rates (which are often assumed to be
      invariable) are affected by environmental and genetic factors.

PMID- 28565186
TI  - CHASE-AWAY SEXUAL SELECTION AS NOISY RELIABLE SIGNALING.

PMID- 28565187
TI  - THE EFFECTIVE SIZE OF A HIERARCHICALLY STRUCTURED POPULATION.
AB  - A knowledge of the effective size of a population (Ne ) is important in
      understanding its current and future evolutionary potential. Unfortunately, the
      effective size of a hierarchically structured population is not, in general,
      equal to the sum of its parts. In particular, the inbreeding structure has a
      major influence on Ne . Here I link Ne to Wright's hierarchical measures of
      inbreeding, FIS and FST , for an island-structured population (or metapopulation)
      of size NT . The influence of FST depends strongly on the degree to which island
      productivity is regulated. In the absence of local regulation (the interdemic
      model), interdemic genetic drift reduces Ne . When such drift is combined with
      local inbreeding under otherwise ideal conditions, the effects of FIS and FST are
      identical: increasing inbreeding either within or between islands reduces Ne ,
      with Ne = NT /[(1 + FIS )(1 + FST ) - 2FIS FST ]. However, if islands are all
      equally productive because of local density regulation (the traditional island
      model), then Ne = NT /[(1 + FIS )(1 -FST )] and the effect of FST is reversed.
      Under the interdemic model, random variation in the habitat quality (and hence
      productivity) of islands act to markedly decrease Ne . This variation has no
      effect under the island model because, by definition, all islands are equally
      productive. Even when no permanent island structure exists, spatial differences
      in habitat quality can significantly increase the overall variance in
      reproductive success of both males and females and hence lower Ne . Each of these
      basic results holds when other nonideal factors are added to the model. These
      factors, deviations from a 1:1 sex ratio, greater than Poisson variance in female
      reproductive success, and variation in male mating success due to polygynous
      mating systems, all act to lower Ne . The effects of male and female variance on
      Ne have important differences because only females affect island productivity.
      Finally, it is noted that to use these relationships, FIS and FST must be
      estimated according to Wright's definition (and corrected to have a zero
      expectation under the null model). A commonly used partitioning (theta, thetag )
      can be biased if either island size or the number of islands is small.

PMID- 28565188
TI  - INTERTIDAL MICROHABITAT AND SELECTION AT MPI: INTERLOCUS CONTRASTS IN THE
      NORTHERN ACORN BARNACLE, SEMIBALANUS BALANOIDES.
AB  - Barnacles were sampled from various microhabitats in the rocky intertidal at
      multiple sites in two years. At sites in which there were large differences among
      microhabitats in temperature profiles, Mpi genotype frequencies were consistently
      and significantly different. Genotype frequencies for another allozyme locus
      (Gpi) as well as a DNA marker shown to be neutral (the mtDNA control region) were
      statistically homogeneous among thermal microhabitats at all sites in both years.
      The data indicate that temperature and/or desiccation mediated selection is
      operating at Mpi or a linked locus and that Mpi genotypes experience differential
      mortality in the various habitat types. If the relative fitness of genotypes is
      dependent on habitat type, the Mpi polymorphism may be actively maintained by a
      Levene model of balancing selection (Levene 1953). Because barnacle larvae are
      produced in abundance each year and spend five to eight weeks dispersing in the
      water column, there is little opportunity for the accumulation of adaptive
      divergence over the environmental grain size relevant in intertidal habitats. The
      Mpi polymorphism may be an important component of a suite of traits involved in
      the adaptation of barnacles to heterogeneous environments. Due to the relatively
      high concentration of mannose in a variety of algal groups, the metabolism of
      mannose may substantially affect individual performance and fitness in this and
      other species that feed on algae and phytoplankton. Because the Mpi locus is one
      of the most strongly polymorphic in marine organisms, these findings may be
      relevant for a diversity of other such species.

PMID- 28565189
TI  - COST OF GLANDULAR TRICHOMES, A "RESISTANCE" CHARACTER IN DATURA WRIGHTII REGEL
      (SOLANACEAE).
AB  - Models regarding the evolution of plant resistance to herbivory often assume that
      the primary mechanism maintaining resistance polymorphisms is the balance between
      benefits of increased resistance to herbivores and costs associated with the
      production of a resistance character. However, rarely has it been demonstrated
      that genetically based resistance traits are costly. Here, we document costs
      associated with the production of glandular trichomes, a resistance character in
      Datura wrightii that is predominantly under the control of a single gene of large
      effect. In the absence of herbivores, plants with glandular trichomes (sticky)
      produced 45% fewer viable seeds than plants with nonglandular trichomes
      (velvety). Although both plant types flowered with similar frequency, sticky
      plants matured fewer capsules and fewer of their seeds germinated. The fitness
      difference between the types in herbivore-free conditions was not mitigated by
      the addition of water, a potentially limiting resource for sticky plants. Under
      herbivore pressure, there was no significant fitness difference between the
      types, although the fitness of velvety plants was still higher than that of
      sticky plants. This occurred even though velvety plants sustained more herbivore
      damage than sticky plants and were more likely to be attacked by most herbivore
      species present. The fitness difference between the plant types was especially
      reduced when herbivore-attacked plants were watered, which indicates that sticky
      plants may have higher tolerance for damage than velvety plants when supplied
      with a potentially limiting resource. Yet, the maintenance of a fitness deficit
      (albeit small and nonsignificant) for sticky plants when attacked by herbivores
      indicates no net benefit associated with the production of glandular trichomes in
      this first year of our study. These results add to our current understanding that
      herbivore resistance characters can be costly and raise the question of how this
      genetic polymorphism is maintained in wild populations.

PMID- 28565190
TI  - THE ONTOGENY OF ASYMMETRY IN EARWIG FORCEPS.
AB  - Fluctuating asymmetry may play an important role in the evolution of naturally
      selected and secondary sexual traits. However, very little is known about how
      asymmetries arise or how organisms maintain symmetry during development. Here I
      propose three mutually exclusive patterns for the development of asymmetries
      through consecutive growth stages: (1) compensatory growth, in which growth of
      the shorter side is greatest at the following growth stage; (2) persistent
      growth, in which growth of the longer side is greatest at the following growth
      stage; and (3) uncorrelated growth in which growth of the following stage is
      unrelated to the asymmetry at the previous one. I followed the growth in the
      forceps of male earwigs through four successive instars. Dyar's rule was used as
      a null model of insect growth. In the molt from the second to third instar,
      asymmetries increased through uncorrelated growth and with the magnitude but not
      the sign expected from Dyar's rule. However, following this, at the molts between
      instars 3-4 and 4-5, compensatory growth maintained asymmetries at a lower level
      than expected from Dyar's rule. Although there was no reduction in the absolute
      magnitude of asymmetry, relative asymmetry did decline. The net growth of forceps
      length did not follow Dyar's rule. The interpretation of patterns of growth were
      more sensitive and informative than the interpretation of the relations between
      asymmetries at consecutive instars.

PMID- 28565192
TI  - FINE-SCALE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF WHITEBARK PINE (PINUS ALBICAULIS): ASSOCIATIONS
      WITH WATERSHED AND GROWTH FORM.
AB  - The fine-scale genetic structure of a subalpine conifer, whitebark pine (Pinus
      albicaulis Engelm.), was studied at nested geographic levels from watershed to
      adjacent stems in the eastern Sierra Nevada Range of California. A combination of
      several characteristics contributed to unpredicted genetic structure in this
      species. This includes being one of only 20 pine species worldwide with wingless,
      bird-dispersed seeds; having the reputed capacity to reproduce vegetatively; and
      forming distinct growth morphologies at different elevations in this part of its
      natural range. Genetic differentiation, as measured with 21 allozyme loci, among
      the three studied watersheds is virtually negligible (FST = 0.004). This is a
      surprising result because the upper-elevation sites vary somewhat in slope
      aspect; thus, aspect was confounded with watershed effect. Differentiation
      between the upper-elevation prostrate krummholz thickets and lower-elevation
      upright tree clump growth forms is modest (FST = 0.051). Much stronger
      differentiation was measured among the individual thickets and clumps within
      their sample sites (FST = 0.334). Within krummholz thickets, multiple individuals
      are present and genetic relationships often resemble half- to full-sibling family
      structure (mean r = 0.320). Canonical trend surface analysis in two intensively
      sampled thickets indicates greatest genotypic variation in the direction of the
      prevailing wind. At lower elevations, most (72%) of the tree clumps contained
      more than one genotype; the remaining clumps are probably multistemmed trees.
      Within tree clumps, family relationships are closer than those for krummholz
      thickets-commonly full-sibling to selfed structure (mean r = 0.597). Genetic
      structure is apparently profoundly influenced by the seed-caching behavior of
      Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana Wilson). Western pine species typically
      show little among-population differentiation and high levels of within-population
      genetic variation. In whitebark pine in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California,
      genetic variation is highly structured, especially within the natural groupings
      krummholz thickets and upright tree clumps.

PMID- 28565191
TI  - COMPARATIVE POPULATION STRUCTURE AND GENE FLOW OF A BROOD PARASITE, THE GREAT
      SPOTTED CUCKOO (CLAMATOR GLANDARIUS), AND ITS PRIMARY HOST, THE MAGPIE (PICA
      PICA).
AB  - The amount of gene flow is an important determinant of population structure and
      therefore of central importance for understanding coevolutionary processes. We
      used microsatellite markers to estimate population structure and gene flow rates
      of the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) and its main host in Europe,
      the magpie (Pica pica), in a number of populations (seven and 15, respectively)
      across their distribution range in Europe. The genetic analysis shows that there
      exists a pattern of isolation by distance in both species, although the cuckoo
      data are only indicative due to a small sample size. Gene flow seems to be
      extensive between nearby populations, higher for magpies than cuckoos, and
      especially high for magpie populations within the area of distribution of the
      great spotted cuckoo. There is no correlation between genetic distances between
      magpie populations and genetic distances between cuckoo populations. We discuss
      the implications of extensive gene flow between magpie populations in sympatry
      with cuckoos for the population dynamics of hosts, in particular for the
      occurrence of egg rejection behavior in host populations and how the different
      rates of migration for both species can affect the dynamics of coevolutionary
      processes.

PMID- 28565193
TI  - GENETIC CORRELATIONS BETWEEN LIFE-HISTORY AND BEHAVIORAL TRAITS CAN CAUSE
      REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION.
AB  - Reproductive isolation may often evolve as an indirect (pleiotropic) consequence
      of populations adapting to different environments or habitats. For example,
      niches that are temporally or seasonally offset can select for organisms with
      different developmental characteristics. These developmental differences can
      inadvertently cause reproductive isolation by a variety of means including shifts
      in mating activity patterns. Here, we show a genetic correlation between a life
      history trait (developmental period) and a behavioral trait (time of mating) that
      causes significant premating isolation in the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae
      (Diptera: Tephritidae). Fly lines selected for short and long developmental
      periods differ in their preferred times of mating during the evening. This
      difference translates into significant prezygotic isolation, as measured by mate
      choice tests. If the time of mating between two populations differed more than
      one hour, the isolation index was significantly higher than zero. These indicate
      that premating isolation can be established if the developmental period is
      divergently selected for. If such genetic correlations are ubiquitous in many
      organisms, multifarious divergent selection for life-history traits would often
      accelerate the evolution of reproductive isolation. We speculate that
      reproductive isolation may have been evolved via genetic correlations among time
      related traits, for example, developmental period and time of mating, as in other
      organisms.

PMID- 28565194
TI  - CHASE-AWAY SEXUAL SELECTION: RESISTANCE TO "RESISTANCE".

PMID- 28565195
TI  - THE ZOOGEOGRAPHY AND CENTERS OF ORIGIN OF THE CRAYFISH SUBGENUS PROCERICAMBARUS
      (DECAPODA: CAMBARIDAE).
AB  - The Central Highlands region in the central United States is a taxonomically
      diverse region with a high incidence of stream endemism. Based on the
      distributions of the diverse ichthyofauna in the region, a pre-Pleistocene
      pattern of diversity due to vicariant events has been proposed to explain high
      levels of endemism and species richness. We tested this hypothesis using crayfish
      phylogenies and distributional patterns for species distributed in the Central
      Highlands region. We concluded that both pre-Pleistocene and Pleistocene
      hypotheses are compatible with the crayfish distributions and these distributions
      are likely due to a combination of both vicariant and dispersal events.
      Furthermore, we suggest a Pleistocene center of origin for the crayfish subgenus
      Procericambarus within the Ozark region and a pre-Pleistocene center of origin
      for the genus Orconectes within the Eastern Highlands region.

PMID- 28565196
TI  - DID VICARIANCE MOLD PHENOTYPES OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN FISHES? EVIDENCE FROM
      GILA RIVER CYPRINIDS.
AB  - Pairwise, two- and three-way Mantel tests were used to evaluate a null hypothesis
      of no significant covariation when morphological features of three cyprinid fish
      taxa of the genus Gila were compared. Tests involved ecological conditions and
      past and present hydrography in the Gila River Basin of western North America. A
      vicariance hypothesis was the only model statistically proficient in explaining
      diversity of fish phenotypes. Of paleohydrographic reconstructions compared,
      those of the mid-Miocene and Pliocene epochs were significantly associated with
      present-day distributions of phenotypes. Of these, the Pliocene was paramount.

PMID- 28565197
TI  - COPULATORY BEHAVIOR, GENITAL MORPHOLOGY, AND MALE FERTILIZATION SUCCESS IN WATER
      STRIDERS.
AB  - Recent theoretical and empirical interest in postmating processes have generated
      a need for increasing our understanding of the sources of variance in
      fertilization success among males. Of particular importance is whether such
      postmating sexual selection merely reinforces the effects of premating sexual
      selection or whether other types of male traits are involved. In the current
      study, we document large intraspecific variation in last male sperm precedence in
      the water strider Gerris lateralis. Male relative paternity success was
      repeatable across replicate females, showing that males differ consistently in
      their ability to achieve fertilizations. By analyzing shape variation in male
      genital morphology, we were able to demonstrate that the shape of male
      intromittent genitalia was related to relative paternity success. This is the
      first direct experimental support for the suggestion that male genitalia evolve
      by postmating sexual selection. A detailed analysis revealed that different
      components of male genitalia had different effects, some affecting male ability
      to achieve sperm precedence and others affecting male ability to avoid sperm
      precedence by subsequent males. Further, the effects of the shape of the male
      genitalia on paternity success was in part dependent on female morphology,
      suggesting that selection on male genitalia will depend on the frequency
      distribution of female phenotypes. We failed to find any effects of other
      morphological traits, such as male body size or the degree of asymmetry in leg
      length, on fertilization success. Although males differed consistently in their
      copulatory behavior, copulation duration was the only behavioral trait that had
      any significant effect on paternity.

PMID- 28565198
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN TIME AND SPACE: MICROSATELLITE ANALYSIS OF EXTINCT AND
      EXTANT POPULATIONS OF ATLANTIC SALMON.
AB  - Information on genetic composition of past and present populations may be
      obtained by analyzing DNA from archival samples. A study is presented on the
      genetic population structure of extant and extinct local populations of Atlantic
      salmon from 1913 to 1989 using dried scales as a source of DNA. Variation at six
      microsatellite loci was studied. Tests for differentiation among populations and
      among time series within populations showed that population structure was stable
      over time. This was also confirmed by a neighbor-joining dendrogram, which showed
      a clear clustering of samples from individual rivers that covered a time span of
      up to 76 years. These results suggest that salmon populations evolve as semi
      independent units connected by modest amounts of gene flow. Additionally, a clear
      association between geographic and genetic distance was found. This relationship
      has otherwise been difficult to establish in several recent studies. The
      discrepancy may be due to impact of human activities on the genetic structure of
      present populations, whereas old samples represent populations in a more
      unaffected state. However, other explanations related to differences in the
      sampling of past and present populations may be equally valid.

PMID- 28565199
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF POPULATION SIZE AND ISOLATION ON GENE FLOW BY POLLEN IN SILENE
      ALBA.
AB  - In a series of experiments conducted over two seasons, we used arrays of
      experimental populations to examine the effects of flower number and distance
      between patches on gene flow by pollen. For this study we used the dioecious,
      short-lived perennial plant Silene alba (Caryophyllaceae). This species lives in
      disturbed roadside and agricultural habitats and displays a weedy population
      dynamic with high colonization and extinction rates. The motivation for the study
      was to understand what factors may be influencing genetic connectedness among
      newly colonized populations within a regional metapopulation. By using
      experimental populations composed of genotypes homozygous at a diagnostic locus,
      it was possible to identify explicitly pollen movement into a focal patch as a
      function of flower number and distance to the nearest neighboring patch. Overall,
      the mean immigration rate (measured as the fraction of seeds sired by males
      outside the focal patch) at 20 m was just over 47%, whereas at 80 m immigration
      rates were less than 6%. In addition, by knowing the context in which each of
      these gene-flow events occurred, it was possible to understand some of the
      factors that influenced the exchange of genes. Both the number of flowers in the
      focal population (target) and in the neighboring populations (source) had a
      significant effect on the frequency of gene flow. Our experimental data also
      demonstrate that factors that influence gene flow at one spatial scale may not
      act in the same way at another. Specifically, the influence of target size and
      the relative size of the target and source patches on rates of gene flow depended
      on whether the patches were separated by 20 m or 80 m. These data suggest that
      the patterns of gene flow within a metapopulation system can be complex and may
      vary within a growing season.

PMID- 28565200
TI  - A FIELD TEST FOR HOST-PLANT DEPENDENT SELECTION ON LARVAE OF THE APPLE MAGGOT
      FLY, RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA.
AB  - Host-plant dependent fitness trade-offs refer to traits that enhance the
      performance of an insect on one plant species to its detriment on others. Such
      trade-offs are central to models of sympatric speciation via host shifts, but
      have proven difficult to empirically demonstrate. Here, we test for host-plant
      dependent selection on larvae of apple (Malus pumila L.)- and hawthorn (Crataegus
      mollis L. spp.)-infesting races of Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh). Samples of
      larvae were reared in the field and under protective conditions in a garage. Our
      rationale was that the garage should slow rates of fruit rot relative to the
      field, relaxing selection pressures associated with declining fruit quality. Four
      findings emerged from the study. (1) Larvae suffered higher mortality in fruits
      in the field than the garage. (2) The increase in mortality was greater for
      larvae in haws. (3) Larvae possessing the alleles Me 100, Acon-2 95, and Mpi 37,
      three allozymes displaying host-related differentiation in R. pomonella that map
      to linkage group II in the fly, left fruits earlier than other genotypes. (4)
      Allele frequencies for Me 100, Acon-2 95, and Mpi 37 were significantly higher in
      both apple and haw larvae surviving the field versus the garage treatment. Our
      results suggested that field conditions favored larvae that rapidly developed and
      left rotting fruits. Since these individuals tended to possess the alleles Me
      100, Acon-2 95, and Mpi 37, frequencies of these allozymes were higher in the
      field. Selection on larvae was directional for Me 100, Acon-2 95, and Mpi 37 (or
      linked genes) in both host races. We previously showed that these same alleles
      can be disfavored in the pupal stage, especially in the apple race, where they
      correlate with premature diapause termination. Fitness trade-offs in Rhagoletis
      may therefore be due as much to differences in the relative strengths of
      directional selection pressures acting on different life stages as to disruptive
      selection affecting any one particular stage. The necessity to consider details
      of the entire life-cycle highlights one of the many challenges posed to
      documenting fitness trade-offs for phytophagous insects.

PMID- 28565201
TI  - EPISTATIC INTERACTIONS CAN LOWER THE COST OF RESISTANCE TO MULTIPLE CONSUMERS.
AB  - It is widely assumed that resistance to consumers (e.g., predators or pathogens)
      comes at a "cost," that is, when the consumer is absent the resistant organisms
      are less fit than their susceptible counterparts. It is unclear what factors
      determine this cost. We demonstrate that epistasis between genes that confer
      resistance to two different consumers can alter the cost of resistance. We used
      as a model system the bacterium Escherichia coli and two different viruses
      (bacteriophages), T4 and Lambda, that prey upon E. coli. Epistasis tended to
      reduce the costs of multiple resistance in this system. However, the extent of
      cost savings and its statistical significance depended on the environment in
      which fitness was measured, whether the null hypothesis for gene interaction was
      additive or multiplicative, and subtle differences among mutations that conferred
      the same resistance phenotype.

PMID- 28565202
TI  - DIFFERENTIATION OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA POLYMORPHISMS IN POPULATIONS OF FIVE
      JAPANESE ABIES SPECIES.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism of 40 populations of five Abies species was
      investigated using PCR-amplified coxI and coxIII gene probes. Using four
      combinations of probe and restriction enzyme, we detected three major haplotypes
      and 15 total haplotypes. We also found varied levels of gene diversity for the
      different species: 0.741, 0.604, 0.039, 0.000, and 0.292 for A. firma, A.
      homolepis, A. veitchii, A. mariesii, and A. sachalinensis, respectively. The
      marginal and southern populations of A. firma and A. homolepis have unique
      haplotypes, especially the Kyushu, Shikoku, and Kii Peninsula populations, which
      inhabit areas coinciding with probable refugia of the last glacial period and
      possess high levels of mtDNA genetic diversity. The haplotypes in some
      populations suggested mtDNA capture also occurred between species through
      introgression/hybridization. The strong mtDNA population differentiation in Abies
      is most likely due to the maternal inheritance of mitochondria and restricted
      seed dispersal. A phenetic tree based on the genetic similarity of the mtDNA
      suggests that some species are polyphyletic. Based on mtDNA variation, the five
      Abies species could be divided roughly into three groups: (1) A. firma and A.
      homolepis, (2) A. veitchii and A. sachalinensis, and (3) A. mariesii. However, we
      found that all these Abies species, except A. mariesii, are genetically very
      closely related according to an analysis of their cpDNA sequences. This showed
      that the chloroplast rbcL gene differed by only one base substitutions among the
      four species. We believe that the mtDNA variation and cpDNA similarity clearly
      reflect relationships among, and the dissemination processes affecting these
      Abies species since the last glacial period.

PMID- 28565203
TI  - ANALYSIS OF MECHANISMS OF MICROEVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN CEPPHUS GUILLEMOTS USING
      PATTERNS OF CONTROL REGION VARIATION.
AB  - We surveyed population-level sequence variation in part of the mitochondrial
      control region for three species including eight subspecies of Cepphus guillemots
      (Charadriiformes: Alcidae) to test specific predictions about mechanisms of
      population differentiation. We found that sequences of spectacled guillemots (C.
      carbo) were more closely related to those of pigeon guillemots (C. columba; both
      found in the Pacific Ocean) than to those of black guillemots (C. grylle; Arctic
      and Atlantic Oceans), despite dissimilarities in plumage between spectacled
      guillemots and the other species. Distributions of species and timing of
      divergence events suggest that speciation involved allopatric and microallopatric
      populations isolated by Pleistocene glaciers. Control region sequences were
      significantly differentiated among populations within species and suggest that
      gene flow is low; however, populations are probably not in genetic equilibrium,
      so these results probably reflect historical isolation of colonies. In contrast,
      phylogenetic relationships among sequences within species were poorly resolved,
      probably because of a combination of incomplete lineage sorting and contemporary
      gene flow. Indices of genetic diversity provided no suggestion of recent
      bottlenecks in most populations, although two populations apparently underwent
      recent severe bottlenecks. Genetic divergence among populations was not
      correlated with geographic distance, which argues against isolation by distance.
      Results of these analyses, combined with breeding distributions and timing of
      divergence events, suggest that populations diverged during isolation in glacial
      refugia. Our results are consistent with earlier hypotheses posed by Storer and
      Udvardy.

PMID- 28565204
TI  - AN EVOLUTIONARY ARGUMENT FOR TIME LIMITATION.

PMID- 28565205
TI  - ESTIMATING HIERARCHICAL F-STATISTICS.
AB  - This paper presents an analysis of variance (ANOVA) approach by which estimation
      of F-statistics can be made from data with an arbitrary s-level hierarchical
      population structure. Assuming a complete random-effect model, a general ANOVA
      procedure is developed to estimate F-statistics as ratios of different variance
      components for all levels of population subdivision in the hierarchy. A
      generalized relationship among F-statistics is also derived to extend the well
      known relationship originally found by Sewall Wright. Although not entirely free
      from the bias particular to small number of subdivisions at each hierarchy and
      extreme gene frequencies, the ANOVA estimators of F-statistics consider sampling
      effects at each level of hierarchy, thus removing the bias incurred in the other
      estimators that are commonly based on direct substitution of unknown gene
      frequencies by their sample estimates. Therefore, the ANOVA estimation procedure
      presented here may become increasingly useful in analyzing complex population
      structure because of increasing use of the estimated hierarchical F-statistics to
      infer genetic and demographic structures of natural populations within and among
      species.

PMID- 28565206
TI  - SEX AND SPECIATION: GENETIC ARCHITECTURE AND EVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL OF SEXUAL
      VERSUS NONSEXUAL TRAITS IN THE SIBLING SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      COMPLEX.
AB  - Phenotypic divergence in the male reproductive system (genitalia and gonads)
      between species of the Drosophila melanogaster complex and their hybrids was
      quantified to decipher the role of these traits in species differentiation and
      speciation. Internal as well as external, sexual and nonsexual traits were
      analyzed with respect to genetic variation and trait asymmetry between strains
      within species, genetic divergence between species, and dominance and asymmetry
      in species and hybrids. The variation between strains within species was
      significant among sexual traits, and only external traits were less asymmetric
      than internal ones, which suggests that sexual traits are not strongly
      constrained within species. Three main findings show that sexual traits are most
      divergent between species: (1) testis length and area, and the area of the
      posterior lobe of the genital arch (sexual traits) showed the highest proportion
      of variation between species; (2) linear discriminant functions with the highest
      components associated to sexual traits were better predictors of species
      membership; and (3) testis length and area revealed a departure from a linear
      relationship between members of the species group. Examination of interspecific
      hybrids showed that sexual traits had higher asymmetry in species hybrids than in
      the parental species and that sexual traits showed additivity or dominance
      whereas nonsexual traits showed overdominance (with the exception of malpighian
      tubules length). These results suggest that sexual traits have undergone more
      genetic changes and, as a result, tend to show higher divergence and stronger
      hybrid breakdown between species than nonsexual traits. We propose that sexual
      selection in the broad sense, affecting all aspects of sexuality, may be
      responsible for the diversified appearance of sexual traits among closely related
      species and that the genetic architecture underlying sexual traits may be more
      prone to disruption during the early stages of speciation.

PMID- 28565207
TI  - DOES THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION SELECT FOR FEMALE-BIASED
      SEXUAL ALLOCATION IN COSEXUAL PLANTS?
AB  - We analyzed sexual allocation in cosexual plants while taking the trade-off
      between growth and reproduction into consideration and showed that this trade-off
      does not select for female-biased sexual allocation. There are two problems in
      sexual allocation: optimizing the amount of resources allocated to reproduction
      in a growing season and equalizing the resources allocated to the male and the
      female functions. If these two are possible at the same time, equal resource
      allocation to the male and the female functions is the evolutionarily stable
      strategy (ESS; given that the fitness gains through the male and the female
      functions are proportional to the amount of the resources allocated to these
      functions). Biased sexual allocation only occurs when constraints make it
      impossible to simultaneously optimize allocation to reproduction and allocation
      to male and female functions. However, even if female-biased sexual allocation
      occurs due to the addition of other constraints, the trade-off between growth and
      reproduction itself is not an important factor that selects for female-biased
      sexual allocation.

PMID- 28565208
TI  - ORIGIN AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF AESCULUS L. (HIPPOCASTANACEAE): A MOLECULAR
      PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - Sequences of chloroplast gene matK and internal transcribed spacers of nuclear
      ribosomal RNA genes were used for phylogenetic analyses of Aesculus, a genus
      currently distributed in eastern Asia, eastern and western North America, and
      southeastern Europe. Phylogenetic relationships inferred from these molecular
      data are highly correlated with the geographic distributions of species. The
      identified lineages closely correspond to the five sections previously recognized
      on the basis of morphology. Ancestral character-state reconstruction, a molecular
      clock, and fossil evidence were used to infer the origin and biogeographic
      history of the genus within a phylogenetic framework. Based on the molecular
      phylogenetic reconstruction of the genus, sequence divergence, and
      paleontological evidence, we infer that the genus originated during the
      transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary (~65 M.Y.B.P.) at a high latitude
      in eastern Asia and spread into North America and Europe as an element of the
      "boreotropical flora"; the current disjunct distribution of the genus resulted
      from geological and climatic changes during the Tertiary.

PMID- 28565209
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF WEST EUROPEAN SUBSPECIES OF HONEYBEES (APIS MELLIFERA): NEW
      INSIGHTS FROM MICROSATELLITE AND MITOCHONDRIAL DATA.
AB  - Apis mellifera is composed of three evolutionary branches including mainly
      African (branch A), western and northern European (branch M), and southeastern
      European (branch C) populations. The existence of morphological clines extending
      from the equator to the Polar Circle through Morocco and Spain raised the
      hypothesis that the branch M originated in Africa. Mitochondrial DNA analysis
      revealed that branches A and M were characterized by highly diverged lineages
      implying very remote links between both branches. It also revealed that mtDNA
      haplotypes from lineages A coexisted with haplotypes M in the Iberian Peninsula
      and formed a south-north frequency cline, suggesting that this area could be a
      secondary contact zone between the two branches. By analyzing 11 populations
      sampled along a France-Spain/Portugal-Morocco-Guinea transect at 8 microsatellite
      loci and the DraI RFLP of the COI-COII mtDNA marker, we show that Iberian
      populations do not present any trace of "africanization" and are very similar to
      French populations when considering microsatellite markers. Therefore, the
      Iberian Peninsula is not a transition area. The higher haplotype A variability
      observed in Spanish and Portuguese samples compared to that found in Africa is
      explained by a higher mutation rate and multiple and recent introductions.
      Selection appears to be the best explanation to the morphological and allozymic
      clines and to the diffusion and maintenance of African haplotypes in Spain and
      Portugal.

PMID- 28565210
TI  - HETEROCHRONY AND DEVELOPMENTAL INNOVATION: EVOLUTION OF FEMALE GAMETOPHYTE
      ONTOGENY IN GNETUM, A HIGHLY APOMORPHIC SEED PLANT.
AB  - Seed plant female gametophytes are focal points for the evolutionary modification
      of development. From a structural perspective, the most divergent female
      gametophytes among all seed plants are found in Gnetum, a clade within Gnetales.
      Coenocytic organization at sexual maturity, absence of defined egg cells (free
      nuclei are fertilized), lack of centripetal cellularization, and
      postfertilization development of embryo-nourishing tissues are features of the
      female gametophytes of Gnetum unparalleled among seed plants. Although the female
      gametophyte of Gnetum retains the three basic phases of somatic development
      common to female gametophytes of plesiomorphic seed plants (free nuclear
      development, cellularization, cellular growth), the timing of fertilization has
      been accelerated relative to the rate of somatic development. As a consequence,
      the female gametophyte of Gnetum matures sexually (is fertilized) at a juvenile
      (compared with the ancestral somatic ontogeny) and free nuclear stage of somatic
      development, thereby precluding differentiation of egg cells. Unlike progenetic
      animals, where truncation of somatic ontogeny evolves in tandem with acceleration
      in the timing of sexual maturation, the female gametophyte of Gnetum completes
      the entire ancestral somatic ontogeny after precocious sexual maturation. This
      results in the evolution of postfertilization development of embryo-nourishing
      female gametophyte tissues, a phenomenon unique among seed plants.
      Nonheterochronic developmental innovations have also played important roles in
      the evolution of the female gametophyte of Gnetum. Centripetal cellularization,
      which is always associated with the phase change from coenocytic to cellular
      organization among plesiomorphic seed plant female gametophytes, is lacking in
      Gnetum. Instead, during early phases of development, apomorphic free nuclear
      organization is coupled with a highly anomalous pattern of cellularization. Stage
      specific innovations during early development in the female gametophyte of Gnetum
      do not affect plesiomorphic aspects of later phases of development. Thus, a
      complex array of heterochronic and nonheterochronic developmental innovations
      have played critical roles in the ontogenetic evolution of the highly apomorphic
      female gametophyte of Gnetum.

PMID- 28565211
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF THE FROGS GEOCRINIA LUTEA AND GEOCRINIA ROSEA REFLECTS
      EXTREME POPULATION DIVERGENCE AND RANGE CHANGES, NOT DISPERSAL BARRIERS.
AB  - I describe the genetic structure of two frog species, Geocrinia rosea and
      Geocrinia lutea, using allozyme electrophoresis to understand population
      structure and thereby possible mechanisms of divergence and speciation. The
      sampling regimes represented the entire range of both species and provided
      replicated tests of the impact of ridges, rivers, and dry forest on gene flow.
      Geocrinia rosea and G. lutea were highly genetically subdivided (FST = 0.69,
      0.64, respectively). In the extreme, there were fixed allelic differences between
      populations that were only 4 km (G. rosea) or 1.25 km (G. lutea) apart. In
      addition to localized divergence, two-dimensional scaling of genetic distance
      allowed the recognition of broad-scale genetic groups, each consisting of several
      sample sites. Patterns of divergence were unrelated to the presence of ridges,
      rivers, or dry forest. I argue that range contraction and expansion, combined
      with extreme genetic divergence in single, isolated populations, best accounts
      for the genetic structure of these species.

PMID- 28565212
TI  - EFFECTS OF MORTALITY RISK AND GROWTH ON A MODEL OF REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT: WHY THE
      SHINE AND SCHWARZKOPF MODEL IS NOT GENERAL.
AB  - Using data and reanalysis of a model published by Shine and Schwarzkopf (1992) we
      reject the two unsubstantiated assertions made by Shine et al. (1996) about
      modeling the evolution of reproductive effort in squamate reptiles: (1) mortality
      schedules do not affect predictions of the Shine and Schwarzkopf (1992) model;
      and (2) growth rates that would affect the predictions of the original model are
      biologically unreasonable. On the basis of these two points alone, we strongly
      reject Shine et al.'s (1996) claim that a critique by Niewiarowski and Dunham
      (1994) actually reinforces the original conclusions of Shine and Schwarzkopf
      (1992). Furthermore, results and data presented here are strong enough to
      severely circumscribe the generality of the Shine and Schwarzkopf (1992) model.
      Though we do not provide data or new analyses of the potential effects of
      offspring size variation, we reaffirm the position of Niewiarowski and Dunham
      (1994) that the sensitivity of the Shine and Schwarzkopf (1992) model to such
      effects should be explored before using it as a basis for structuring future
      research on the evolution of reproductive effort in squamate reptiles.

PMID- 28565213
TI  - THE POPULATION GENETICS OF ADAPTATION: THE DISTRIBUTION OF FACTORS FIXED DURING
      ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION.
AB  - We know very little about the genetic basis of adaptation. Indeed, we can make no
      theoretical predictions, however heuristic, about the distribution of phenotypic
      effects among factors fixed during adaptation nor about the expected "size" of
      the largest factor fixed. Study of this problem requires taking into account that
      populations gradually approach a phenotypic optimum during adaptation via the
      stepwise substitution of favorable mutations. Using Fisher's geometric model of
      adaptation, I analyze this approach to the optimum, and derive an approximate
      solution to the size distribution of factors fixed during adaptation. I further
      generalize these results to allow the input of any distribution of mutational
      effects. The distribution of factors fixed during adaptation assumes a pleasingly
      simple, exponential form. This result is remarkably insensitive to changes in the
      fitness function and in the distribution of mutational effects. An exponential
      trend among factors fixed appears to be a general property of adaptation toward a
      fixed optimum.

PMID- 28565214
TI  - CYTOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PREMEIOTIC VERSUS POSTMEIOTIC DEFECTS PRODUCING
      HYBRID MALE STERILITY AMONG SIBLING SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      COMPLEX.
AB  - In accordance with Haldane's rule, hybridizations between species of the
      Drosophila simulans clade produce fertile females but sterile males. In this
      study, a comprehensive characterization was undertaken on the six types of F1
      males that were the result of the crosses between D. simulans, D. sechellia, and
      D. mauritiana. With the use of light and electron microscopy, it was shown that
      while each particular hybrid genotype exhibited a specific sterility phenotype,
      these phenotypes fell into two distinct classes. The two hybrid genotypes that
      possessed D. mauritiana X-chromosomes contained spermatogenic defects that caused
      arrests in premeiotic spermatogenic stages. The other four F1 hybrids possessed
      postmeiotic spermatogenic defects. Nonsynchronous cell divisions, underdeveloped
      mitochondrial derivative-axonemal associations, and microtubule abnormalities
      were common to all of these hybrids. Each particular postmeiotically defective
      hybrid genotype demonstrated characteristically distinct profiles in sperm bundle
      number in addition to characteristic spermiogenic arrests in the furthest
      developed spermatids. These results in species hybrids contrast with the absence
      of significant differences in spermatogenic characters between species of this
      clade. In addition, by utilizing an attached-X cross, we investigated the
      influence of maternal effects and cytoplasmic factors on the sterility of D.
      simulans F1 hybrids and found none. However, we discovered a strain of D.
      simulans (2119) that caused a large shift in sterility from postmeiotic to
      premeiotic when crossed to D. sechellia. This suggests that D. simulans is
      polymorphic for genes involving premeiotic and postmeiotic sterility and that the
      two types of sterilities between species may have a simple genetic basis.

PMID- 28565215
TI  - RANDOM TREES AND THE COMPARATIVE METHOD: A CAUTIONARY TALE.
AB  - One of the toughest problems facing comparative biology is the paucity of robust
      phylogenetic hypotheses for many taxonomic groups. Martins (1996) proposed a
      method to analyze comparative data in the absence of a known phylogeny using
      randomly generated trees. Before applying this method, however, researchers
      should be aware that (1) parameter estimates derived from this method essentially
      assume a star phylogeny, and thus, estimate the same evolutionary regression or
      correlation coefficient as traditional cross-species analyses; and (2)
      statistical conclusions derived from this method may be so conservative as to
      mask evolutionary patterns, such as Rensch's rule, and should be interpreted with
      caution.

PMID- 28565216
TI  - BEST-FIT MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD MODELS FOR PHYLOGENETIC INFERENCE: EMPIRICAL TESTS
      WITH KNOWN PHYLOGENIES.
AB  - Despite the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated models of DNA sequence
      evolution, choosing among models remains a major problem in phylogenetic
      reconstruction. The choice of appropriate models is thought to be especially
      important when there is large variation among branch lengths. We evaluated the
      ability of nested models to reconstruct experimentally generated, known
      phylogenies of bacteriophage T7 as we varied the terminal branch lengths. Then,
      for each phylogeny we determined the best-fit model by progressively adding
      parameters to simpler models. We found that in several cases the choice of best
      fit model was affected by the parameter addition sequence. In terms of
      phylogenetic performance, there was little difference between models when the
      ratio of short: long terminal branches was 1:3 or less. However, under conditions
      of extreme terminal branch-length variation, there were not only dramatic
      differences among models, but best-fit models were always among the best at
      overcoming long-branch attraction. The performance of minimum-evolution-distance
      methods was generally lower than that of discrete maximum-likelihood methods,
      even if maximum-likelihood methods were used to generate distance matrices.
      Correcting for among-site rate variation was especially important for overcoming
      long-branch attraction. The generality of our conclusions is supported by earlier
      simulation studies and by a preliminary analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear
      sequences from a well-supported four-taxon amniote phylogeny.

PMID- 28565217
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN CALLING AND WING MORPH IN MALES OF THE
      CRICKET GRYLLUS FIRMUS.
AB  - Wing dimorphisms exist in a wide range of insects. In wing-dimorphic species one
      morph is winged has functional flight muscles (LW), and is flight-capable,
      whereas the other has reduced wings (SW) and cannot fly The evolution and
      maintenance of wing dimorphisms is believed to be due to trade-offs between
      flight capability and fitness-related traits. Although there are well-established
      phenotypic trade-offs associated with wing dimorphism in female insects, there
      only exist two studies that have established a genetic basis to these trade-offs.
      The present study provides the first evidence for a genetically based trade-off
      in male insects, specifically in the sand cricket Gryllus firmus. Because they
      have to expend energy to maintain the flight apparatus (especially flight
      muscles), LW males are predicted to call less and therefore to attract fewer
      females. To be of evolutionary significance, call duration wing morph, and wing
      muscle condition (size and functionality) should all have measurable
      heritabilities and all be genetically correlated. Differences between morphs in
      male G. firmus in the likelihood of attracting a female were tested in the
      laboratory using a T-maze where females chose between a LW male and a SW male.
      Call duration for each male was recorded on the sixth day of adult life. A
      significant difference in call duration was found between SW and LW males (SW =
      0.86 +/- 0.01, LW = 0.64 +/- 0.01 h). SW males attracted significantly more
      females than did LW males (63% vs. to 37%). All the traits involved in the trade
      off had significant heritabilities (call = 0 75 +/- 0 33; wing morph = 0.22 +/-
      007; muscle weight = 0.38 +/- 0.09) and genetic correlations (call and wing morph
      = -0.46 +/- 0.20 for SW, -0.68 +/- 0.16 for LW; LW call and muscle weight = -0.80
      +/- 0.14). These results provide the first documented evidence that trade-offs
      between a dimorphic trait and a fitness-related character in males has a genetic
      basis and hence can be of evolutionary significance.

PMID- 28565218
TI  - A PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN TANAGERS
      (THRAUPIDAE): THE ROLE OF FEMALE VERSUS MALE PLUMAGE.
AB  - The evolution of sexual dichromatism in tanagers (family Thraupidae) was studied
      from a phylogenetic perspective using a molecular-based phylogeny. Mapping
      patterns of sexual dimorphism in plumage onto the phylogeny reveals that changes
      in female plumage occur more frequently than changes in male plumage. Possible
      explanations for this pattern include sexual selection acting on female plumage
      and natural selection for background matching. The results of this study and
      other recent phylogenetic and comparative studies suggest that factors affecting
      female plumage are important in shaping patterns of sexual dimorphism.

PMID- 28565219
TI  - TESTS FOR ANCIENT SPECIES FLOCKS BASED ON MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC APPRAISALS OF
      SEBASTES ROCKFISHES AND OTHER MARINE FISHES.
AB  - The concept of species flocks has been central to previous interpretations of
      patterns and processes of explosive species radiations within several groups of
      freshwater fishes. Here, molecular phytogenies of species-rich Sebastes
      rockfishes from the northeastern Pacific Ocean were used to test predictions of
      null theoretical models that assume random temporal placements of phylogenetic
      nodes. Similar appraisals were conducted using molecular data previously
      published for particular cichlid fishes in Africa that epitomize, by virtue of a
      rapid and recent radiation of species, the traditional concept of an
      intralacustrine "species flock." As gauged by the magnitudes of genetic
      divergence in cytochrome b sequences from mitochondrial DNA, as well as in
      allozymes, most speciation events in the Sebastes complex were far more ancient
      than those in the cichlids. However, statistical tests of the nodal placements in
      the Sebastes phylogeny suggest that speciation events in the rockfishes were
      temporally nonrandom, with significant clustering of cladogenetic events in time.
      Similar conclusions also apply to an ancient complex of icefishes (within the
      Notothenioidei) analyzed in the same fashion. Thus, the rockfishes (and
      icefishes) may be interpreted as ancient species flocks in the marine realm. The
      analyses exemplified in this report introduce a conceptual and operational
      approach for extending the concept of species flocks to additional environmental
      settings and evolutionary timescales.

PMID- 28565220
TI  - BREEDING SYSTEM AND GENETIC VARIANCE IN THE MONOGAMOUS, SEMI-SOCIAL SHREW,
      CROCIDURA RUSSULA.
AB  - The population-genetic consequences of monogamy and male philopatry (a rare
      breeding system in mammals) were investigated using microsatellite markers in the
      semisocial and anthropophilic shrew Crocidura russula. A hierarchical sampling
      design over a 16-km geographical transect revealed a large genetic diversity (h =
      0.813) with significant differentiation among subpopulations (FST = 5-6%), which
      suggests an exchange of 4.4 migrants per generation. Demic effective-size
      estimates were very high, due both to this limited gene inflow and to the inner
      structure of subpopulations. These were made of 13-20 smaller units (breeding
      groups), comprising an estimate of four breeding pairs each. Members of the same
      breeding groups displayed significant coancestries (FLS = 9-10%), which was
      essentially due to strong male kinship: syntopic males were on average related at
      the half-sib level. Female dispersal among breeding groups was not complete
      (~39%), and insufficient to prevent inbreeding. From our results, the breeding
      strategy of C. russula seems less efficient than classical mammalian systems
      (polygyny and male dispersal) in disentangling coancestry from inbreeding, but
      more so in retaining genetic variance.

PMID- 28565221
TI  - HOST-PARASITE COEVOLUTION: EVIDENCE FOR RARE ADVANTAGE AND TIME-LAGGED SELECTION
      IN A NATURAL POPULATION.
AB  - In theory, parasites can create time-lagged, frequency-dependent selection in
      their hosts, resulting in oscillatory gene-frequency dynamics in both the host
      and the parasite (the Red Queen hypothesis). However, oscillatory dynamics have
      not been observed in natural populations. In the present study, we evaluated the
      dynamics of asexual clones of a New Zealand snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, and
      its trematode parasites over a five-year period. During the summer of each year,
      we determined host-clone frequencies in random samples of the snail to track
      genetic changes in the snail population. Similarly, we monitored changes in the
      parasite population, focusing on the dominant parasite, Microphallus sp., by
      calculating the frequency of clones in samples of infected individuals from the
      same collections. We then compared these results to the results of a computer
      model that was designed to examine clone frequency dynamics for various levels of
      parasite virulence. Consistent with these simulations and with ideas regarding
      dynamic coevolution, parasites responded to common clones in a time-lagged
      fashion. Finally, in a laboratory experiment, we found that clones that had been
      rare during the previous five years were significantly less infectible by
      Microphallus when compared to the common clones. Taken together, these results
      confirm that rare host genotypes are more likely to escape infection by
      parasites; they also show that host-parasite interactions produce, in a natural
      population, some of the dynamics anticipated by the Red Queen hypothesis.

PMID- 28565222
TI  - LOW FREQUENCY OF t HAPLOTYPES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF HOUSE MICE (MUS MUSCULUS
      DOMESTICUS).
AB  - t haplotypes are a naturally occurring, autosomal, meiotic-drive system found on
      chromosome 17 of the house mouse. They show non-Mendelian transmission from
      heterozygous +/t males, such that 90% or more of the male's offspring inherit the
      t-bearing chromosome. Although they are expected to become rapidly fixed, surveys
      of natural populations typically report low overall frequencies of only ~15-25%
      +/t heterozygotes. Generally, such studies of t haplotypes in wild populations
      have sampled only small numbers of individuals due to the need to genotype mice
      by breeding, thus we have conducted a large survey of wild mice, Mus musculus
      domesticus, using DNA markers to examine the frequency and distribution of t
      haplotypes in natural populations. The overall frequency of +/t heterozygotes
      from our entire sample was 0.062, which is much lower than all previous estimates
      of t haplotype frequency. t haplotypes were patchily distributed and rare, and
      were present in only 46% of the populations we sampled. There were no significant
      sex-specific differences in the frequency of t haplotypes. Our data suggest that
      the frequency of +/t heterozygotes in independent populations varies with respect
      to population size and stability: t haplotypes were at low frequency in all
      large, relatively persistent populations, whereas they were at more variable, and
      often higher, frequencies in small, temporally unstable populations. The
      extinction and recolonization of many of the smaller populations may contribute
      to the greater variation in t haplotype frequency observed, and small populations
      may be important reservoirs of t haplotypes in the wild. The highest frequencies
      of t haplotypes were obtained from populations with semilethal, or complementing
      lethal, t haplotypes, where t/t homozygous mice were present.

PMID- 28565223
TI  - THE DETECTION OF PLASTICITY GENES IN HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - The molecular genetic mechanisms for phenotypic plasticity across heterogeneous
      macro- and microenvironments were examined using the Populus genomic map
      constructed by DNA-based markers. Three hypotheses have been suggested to explain
      genetic variation in phenotypic response to varying environments (i.e., reaction
      norm): Lerner's homeostasis, allelic sensitivity, and gene regulation. The
      homeostasis hypothesis, which predicts that heterozygotes are less sensitive to
      the environment than homozygotes, was supported for phenotypic plasticity to
      unpredictable environments (microenvironmental plasticity) at the whole-genome
      level, but for phenotypic plasticity to predictable environments
      (macroenvironmental plasticity) the hypothesis was supported only at functioning
      quantitative trait loci (QTLs). For all growth traits studied, gene regulation
      was suggested to play a prevailing role in determining the norms of reaction to
      environments. Indirect evidence for gene regulation is that there tend to be more
      QTLs with larger effects on the phenotype in optimal growing conditions than
      suboptimal growing conditions because the expression of these QTLs identified is
      mediated by regulatory genes. Direct evidence for gene regulation is the
      identification of some loci that differ from QTLs for trait values within
      environments and exert an environmentally dependent control over structural gene
      expression. In this study, fewer environmentally sensitive QTLs were detected
      that display unparalleled allelic effects across environments. For stem height,
      there were more regulatory loci and more structural loci (whose expression is
      determined by gene regulation) affecting phenotypic plasticity than for basal
      area. It was found that microenvironmental plasticity was likely controlled by
      different genetic systems than those for macroenvironmental plasticity.

PMID- 28565224
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN CRICKET CALLING SONG ACROSS A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO
      SIBLING SPECIES.
AB  - The sibling ground crickets Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius meet along a
      mosaic hybrid zone at ~ 40 degrees N latitude in eastern North America. In this
      paper we report the findings of a genetic analysis of calling-song variation
      within and among six cricket populations sampled along a transect through the
      hybrid zone in southern New Jersey. We compared aspects of the calling song of
      both wild-caught and laboratory-reared crickets to test the hypothesis that
      population differences in song observed in the wild were genetically based. We
      found significant, species-level differences in all aspects of the calling song,
      and these differences persisted even after a generation of common-garden rearing
      in the laboratory, supporting the hypothesis that interspecific variation
      observed in the wild largely reflects genetic differentiation between the two
      taxa. A discriminant function analysis indicated that individual crickets could
      be assigned to the proper taxon with less than 10% error, supporting the premise
      that calling song could be used by female crickets as a mechanism for species
      recognition. One population, collected from within the hybrid zone and containing
      significant numbers of hybrid individuals, was intermediate in its calling song,
      presumably reflecting this population's mixed genetic makeup. In this hybrid zone
      population, song phenotype was highly correlated to a hybrid index score
      generated using species-specific alleles at four diagnostic allozyme markers,
      suggesting a multigenic basis to calling-song variation in these crickets as well
      as linkage disequilibrium between markers and song. Based on an analysis of
      laboratory-reared full-sib families, broad-sense heritabilities for calling-song
      characteristics were generally significant in the two A. socius populations,
      whereas many components of song showed no significant family effects in the three
      A. fasciatus populations. The genotypically mixed, hybrid zone population showed
      very high heritabilities for most calling-song components, which likely reflect
      the influence of interspecific gene flow on genetic variation for quantitative
      traits.

PMID- 28565225
TI  - CRYPTIC FEMALE CHOICE: CRITERIA FOR ESTABLISHING FEMALE SPERM CHOICE.
AB  - In this paper, I consider the criteria necessary to demonstrate the
      postcopulatory ability of females to favor the sperm of one conspecific male over
      another, that is, sperm choice. In practice it is difficult to distinguish
      between sperm competition and sperm choice, and sperm choice can be demonstrated
      only if the effects of sperm competition can be controlled. Few studies have used
      experimental protocols that do this, so evidence for sperm choice is limited.
      Moreover, in those studies in which sperm choice occurs, it does so to avoid
      incompatible genetic combinations and is therefore unlikely to result in
      directional sexual selection.

PMID- 28565226
TI  - INTROGRESSIVE HYBRIDIZATION AND NONCONCORDANT EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF MATERNAL
      AND PATERNAL LINEAGES IN NORTH AMERICAN DEER.
AB  - Introgressive hybridization between mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and white
      tailed deer (O. virginianus) was studied using sequence analysis of the
      paternally inherited, Y-linked, Zfy gene. The distribution of Zfy genotypes
      indicate that male white-tailed deer disperse into the range of mule deer and
      successfully breed with mule deer does. In western Texas, F1 hybrids are rare,
      but a relatively high proportion of backcross individuals was observed.
      Phylogenetic analysis of Zfy among white-tailed, mule, and black-tailed deer was
      consistent with traditional systematic placement of the latter two being sister
      taxa, whereas previous mtDNA studies suggested mule and white-tailed deer were
      sister taxa.

PMID- 28565227
TI  - DOES BATEMAN'S PRINCIPLE APPLY TO BROADCAST-SPAWNING ORGANISMS? EGG TRAITS
      INFLUENCE IN SITU FERTILIZATION RATES AMONG CONGENERIC SEA URCHINS.
AB  - Evolutionary biologists generally invoke male competition and female choice as
      mechanisms driving sexual selection. However, in broadcast-spawning organisms
      sperm may be limiting and females may compete, in the Darwinian sense, for
      increased mating success. In this study, I investigate how species differences in
      egg and sperm traits result in different patterns of fertilization among three
      closely related sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, S. franciscanus, and
      S. droebachiensis). Field studies demonstrate that all three species achieve
      similar percentages of eggs fertilized when eggs and sperm are released
      simultaneously. However, when sperm must disperse before encountering eggs,
      differences arise among species such that those with the smaller eggs and faster
      but shorter-lived sperm achieve relatively fewer fertilizations than do species
      with larger eggs and slower but longer-lived sperm. A field hybridization
      experiment, field estimates of sperm dispersal, correlations of egg size to field
      rates of fertilization, laboratory studies of fertilization kinetics, and a
      simulation model all suggest that it is attributes of the egg (probably egg size)
      that are responsible for the differences. These patterns of fertilization match
      the species' patterns of dispersion; species that do well only when sperm and
      eggs are released in close proximity are more aggregated, species that do
      relatively well when sperm and eggs are released farther apart are more
      dispersed. These results are consistent with the notion that eggs of different
      species are adapted to maximize reproductive success under different degrees of
      sperm limitation and suggest that male competition and female choice may not be
      an appropriate dichotomy in broadcast-spawning organisms.

PMID- 28565229
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565228
TI  - BODY SIZE DECLINES DESPITE POSITIVE DIRECTIONAL SELECTION ON HERITABLE SIZE
      TRAITS IN A BARNACLE GOOSE POPULATION.
AB  - Analyses of more than 2000 marked barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) in the
      largest Baltic colony, Sweden, showed that structurally large females generally
      produced larger clutches and larger eggs, hatched their broods earlier in the
      season, and produced more and heavier young than smaller females. In males, the
      corresponding relationships between reproductive parameters and structural body
      size were weaker or nonsignificant. Because structural body size traits have
      previously been found to be significantly heritable and positively genetically
      correlated, an increase in mean structural body size of individuals as a response
      to selection might have been expected. By contrast, we found that the mean adult
      head length and mean adult tarsus length decreased significantly in the largest
      colony by approximately 0.7 and 0.5 standard deviations, respectively, in both
      males and females during the 13-year study period. Environmental factors, such as
      the amount of rain in different years, were found to affect the availability of
      high-quality food for growing geese. As a consequence of this temporal
      variability in the availability of high-quality food, the mean adult structural
      body size of different cohorts differed by up to 1.3 standard deviations.
      Comparisons of mean body size of cohorts born in different colonies suggest that
      the most likely explanation for the body-size decline in the main study colony is
      that a density-dependent process, which mainly was in effect during the very
      early phase of colony growth, negatively affected juvenile growth and final size.
      We conclude that large environmental effects on growth and final structural body
      size easily can mask microevolutionary responses to selection. Analyses of
      environmental causes underlying temporal and spatial body size variation should
      always be considered in the reconstruction and prediction of evolutionary changes
      in natural populations.

PMID- 28565230
TI  - SAMPLING PROPERTIES OF GENEALOGICAL PATHWAYS UNDERLYING POPULATION PEDIGREES.
AB  - In sexual species, autosomal alleles are transmitted through multigeneration
      organismal pedigrees via pathways of descent involving both genders. Here, models
      assess the sampling properties of these gender-described transmission pathways.
      An isolation-by-distance model of mating was used to construct a series of
      computer population pedigrees by systematically varying neighborhood size and the
      timing of isolation events in sundered populations. For each known pedigree, a
      matrix of true coancestry coefficients between all individuals in the final
      generation was calculated and compared (using cophenetic correlations) to mean
      pairwise times to common ancestry as estimated by sampling varying numbers of
      gender-defined lineage routes available to individual alleles through that
      pedigree. When few lineage routes were sampled, agreement between the estimated
      and the true pedigree was poor and showed a large variance. Agreement improved as
      more lineage routes were incorporated and asymptotically approached plateau
      levels predictably relatable to the magnitude of population structure. Results
      underscore a distinction between the composite genealogical information in a
      population pedigree and the subsets of that information registered in allelic
      lineage pathways.

PMID- 28565231
TI  - A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF THE DROSOPHILA WILLISTONI GROUP: CONFLICTS BETWEEN
      SPECIES CONCEPTS?
AB  - The six sibling species of the Neotropical Drosophila willistoni group have a
      long history in studies of evolutionary biology, yet to date only one molecular
      study, which used allozymes, has been published on the phylogeny of the group.
      Here we present a phylogeny of the siblings based on the sequences of two nuclear
      genes, period (per) and Alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh), as well as the mitochondrial
      gene Cytochrome oxidase I (COI). Taken individually, only per has a strong
      phylogenetic signal supporting a well-resolved phylogeny of the group, and this
      phylogeny is different from that obtained using allozymes. The COI dataset by
      itself produces trees that disagree with per, and neither that data nor the Adh
      data have a strong phylogenetic signal, as indicated by low bootstrap values for
      all analyses. Combining the Adh and COI datasets results in the same tree as per
      alone. Combining all three genes results in the same topology, which is strongly
      supported. Two problematic taxa, D. pavlovskiana and a "Carmody strain," which
      were identified as potentially separate species based on reproductive isolation,
      clearly cluster in the phylogenetic analyses within D. paulistorum and D.
      equinoxialis, respectively. Thus, there appears to be a conflict between the
      biological species concept and the phylogenetic species concept.

PMID- 28565232
TI  - CHANGES IN THE HERITABILITY OF FIVE MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS UNDER COMBINED
      ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Heritabilities and evolvabilities for morphological traits were compared between
      two environments in Drosophila melanogaster using parent-offspring comparisons.
      One of the environments was favorable. The other stressful environment involved a
      combination of repeated cold shocks, poor nutrition, and ethanol added to the
      medium, which markedly decreased viability. For wing traits, heritabilities were
      relatively lower in the stressful environment, while heritabilities for bristle
      traits were not influenced by conditions. Heritability changes were largely due
      to an increase in the environmental variance under stress, whereas levels of
      additive genetic variance were relatively constant. Evolvabilities were similar
      between environments except for crossvein length.

PMID- 28565233
TI  - MATERNAL INHERITANCE AND ITS EFFECT ON ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION: A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC
      ANALYSIS OF MATERNAL EFFECTS IN A NATURAL PLANT POPULATION.
AB  - A mother can influence a trait in her offspring both by the genes she transmits
      (Mendelian inheritance) and by maternal attributes that directly affect that
      trait in her offspring (maternal inheritance). Maternal inheritance can alter the
      direction, rate, and duration of adaptive evolution from standard Mendelian
      models and its impact on adaptive evolution is virtually unexplored in natural
      populations. In a hierarchical quantitative genetic analysis to determine the
      magnitude and structure of maternal inheritance in the winter annual plant,
      Collinsia verna, I consider three potential models of inheritance. These range
      from a standard Mendelian model estimating only direct (i.e., Mendelian) additive
      and environmental variance components to a maternal inheritance model estimating
      six additive and environmental variance components: direct additive (sigmaAo2)
      and environmental (sigmaEo2) variances; maternal additive (sigmaAm2) and
      environmental (sigmaEm2) variances; and the direct-maternal additive (sigmaApAm)
      and environmental (sigmaEm2) covariances. The structure of maternal inheritance
      differs among the 10 traits considered at four stages in the life cycle. Early in
      the life cycle, seed weight and embryo weight display substantial sigmaAm2, a
      negative sigmaAoAm, and a positive sigmaEoEm. Subsequently, cotyledon diameter
      displays sigmaAo2 and sigmaAm2 of roughly the same magnitude and negative
      sigmaAoAm. For fall rosettes, leaf number and length are best described by a
      Mendelian model. In the spring, leaf length displays maternal inheritance with
      significant sigmaAo2 and sigmaAm2 and a negative sigmaAoAm. All maternally
      inherited traits show significant negative sigmaAoAm. Predicted response to
      selection under maternal inheritance depends on sigmaAo2 and sigmaAm2 as well as
      sigmaAoAm. Negative sigmaAoAm results in predicted responses in the opposite
      direction to selection for seed weight and embryo weight and predicted responses
      near zero for all subsequent maternally inherited traits. Maternal inheritance
      persists through the life cycle of this annual plant for a number of size-related
      traits and will alter the direction and rate of evolutionary response in this
      population.

PMID- 28565234
TI  - SELECTION ON THE COLOR POLYMORPHISM IN HAWAIIAN HAPPY-FACE SPIDERS: EVIDENCE FROM
      GENETIC STRUCTURE AND TEMPORAL FLUCTUATIONS.
AB  - Throughout this century genetic polymorphisms for color have been widely used as
      a research tool to allow insights into key evolutionary processes. Although color
      variants can often be diverse within populations, frequencies of different morphs
      may be similar across populations, either as a result of balancing selection or
      gene flow. Under these circumstances selection can be extremely difficult to
      demonstrate. Here we test for balancing selection on the naturally occurring
      color forms of the Hawaiian happy-face spider, Theridion grallator with two
      approaches. First, allozyme loci are used to generate a null model against which
      to test selection. Frequencies of alleles involved in the color polymorphism of
      T. grallator are used to generate another estimate for comparison. The results
      suggest that statistically similar frequencies of color morphs among populations
      of T. grallator may be maintained by some form of balancing selection. Second, we
      make use of an unusual event in which the normally stable frequencies of
      unpatterned and patterned morphs within a population were found to have shifted
      toward an excess of unpatterned morphs. We scored offspring of all fertilized,
      unpatterned (bottom-recessive) females found during this period of skewed morph
      frequencies and also in a year when morph frequencies were normal to deduce
      paternal color phenotypes. Mating was found to be random in the normal year, but
      in the perturbed year females had mated with rare (patterned) males twice as
      frequently as expected on the basis of the frequency of this morph type in the
      population. Both of these results are consistent with selection operating on the
      color polymorphism, and we speculate that apostatic selection, perhaps mediated
      by bird predators, may provide the mechanism.

PMID- 28565235
TI  - HIGHER FITNESS FOR PHILOPATRIC THAN FOR IMMIGRANT MALES IN A SEMI-ISOLATED
      POPULATION OF GREAT REED WARBLERS.
AB  - To compare the fitness of philopatric and immigrant individuals we examined the
      lifetime reproductive success of 116 male and 137 female great reed warblers. The
      study was carried out in a semi-isolated population in Sweden and covered
      breeding adults hatched between 1985 and 1993. Lifetime fitness, measured as life
      time number of fledglings and offspring recruits, was lower for immigrant than
      for philopatric males. We found no such relationships for females. The difference
      in reproductive success could not be explained by immigrant males having lower
      phenotypic quality because they had similar life span, spring arrival date, and
      territory quality as philopatric males. The lower lifetime fitness among
      immigrant than philopatric males appeared to result from reduced mating success.
      This suggests that females are reluctant to mate with immigrant males despite
      their apparently similar phenotypic quality. Though it is not known whether
      females gain in fitness by avoiding matings with immigrant males, it is notable
      that immigrant males have smaller song repertoires than philopatric males. Large
      repertoires, previously shown to sexually arouse great reed warbler females,
      correlate with the occurrence of extrapair paternity and postfledging survival of
      offspring in our population.

PMID- 28565236
TI  - ESTIMATING THE HERITABILITY OF FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN FIELD DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Some studies have found intermediate heritabilities for fluctuating asymmetry
      (FA) in traits, but almost all of these are flawed and/or based on laboratory
      experiments. We therefore tested if there was heritable variation for FA in
      bristle and wing traits in three field collections of Drosophila melanogaster by
      rearing F1 s from field flies under laboratory conditions. One of the collections
      was reared to the F2 generation in the laboratory to compare heritability
      estimates from the laboratory with those from the field-laboratory comparison.
      Trait means indicated an increase in size under laboratory rearing. FAs increased
      in one collection, decreased in another collection, and showed no changes in the
      third collection under laboratory rearing. FAs from the collections tended to
      converge under laboratory conditions. Morphological traits were heritable under
      field conditions. However, FA was not significantly heritable for any of the
      individual traits or when FA was determined by combining traits. Comparisons of
      the two laboratory generations showed that FA heritability was low under
      laboratory conditions, in contrast to the morphological traits themselves. These
      findings suggest a very low heritability for FA in field and laboratory
      Drosophila. FA in bristle and wing traits may therefore be a poor indicator of
      genetic quality in Drosophila.

PMID- 28565237
TI  - TEMPORAL CHANGE OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOTYPE FREQUENCIES AND FEMALE EFFECTIVE
      SIZE IN A BROWN TROUT (SALMO TRUTTA) POPULATION.
AB  - We report data on genetic drift of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes in a
      natural brown trout (Salmo trutta) population in Sweden. Large temporal frequency
      shifts were observed over the 14 consecutive year classes studied. The observed
      rate of drift was used to estimate the effective size of the population. This
      effective size applies to the female segment of the population as mtDNA is
      maternally inherited. The magnitude of mtDNA haplotype frequency change is
      compared with the corresponding allele frequency changes at 14 allozyme loci in
      the same population. The female effective size is estimated as 58, which is
      approximately half the effective size of 97 for the total population (both sexes)
      previously obtained from the shifts of allozyme allele frequencies.

PMID- 28565238
TI  - FINE-GRAINED SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATION IN SELECTION DOES NOT MAINTAIN
      GENETIC VARIATION IN ERIGERON ANNUUS.
AB  - Because interactions among plants are spatially local, the scale of environmental
      heterogeneity can have large effects on evolutionary dynamics. However, very
      little is known about the spatial patterns of variation in fitness and the
      relative magnitude of spatial and temporal variation in selection. Replicates of
      12 genotypes of Erigeron annuus (Asteraceae) were planted in 288 locations within
      a field, separated by distances of 0.1 to 30.0 m, and replicated in two years. In
      a given year, most spatial variation in relative fitness (genotype-environment [G
      * E] interactions for fitness) occurred over distances of only 50 cm. Year
      effects were as large or larger than the spatial variation in fitness; in
      particular there was a large, three-way, genotype-year-environment interaction at
      the smallest spatial scale. The genetic correlation of fitness across years at a
      given location was near zero, 0.03. Thus, the relative fitness of genotypes is
      spatially unpredictable and a map of the selective environment has constantly
      shifting locations of peaks and valleys. Including measurements of soil nutrients
      as covariates in the analysis removed most of the spatial G * E interaction.
      Vegetation and microtopography had no effect on the G * E terms, suggesting that
      differential response to soil nutrients is the cause of spatial variation in
      fitness. However, the slope of response to NH4 and P04 was negative; therefore
      the soil nutrients are probably just indicators of other, unknown, environmental
      factors. We explored via simulation the evolutionary consequences of spatial and
      temporal variation in fitness and showed that, for this system, the spatial scale
      of variation was too fine grained (by a factor of 3 to 5) to be a powerful force
      maintaining genetic variation in the population. The inclusion of both spatial
      and temporal variation in fitness actually reduced the coexistence of genotypes
      compared to pure spatial models. Thus the presence of spatial or temporal
      variation in selection does not guarantee that it is an effective evolutionary
      force maintaining diversity. Instead the pattern of selection favors generalist
      genotypes.

PMID- 28565239
TI  - A MICROSATELLITE ASSESSMENT OF SNEAKED FERTILIZATIONS AND EGG THIEVERY IN THE
      FIFTEENSPINE STICKLEBACK.
AB  - Attempts by males to steal fertilizations from other males are common in many
      species. In some sticklebacks, males also are known to steal eggs from the nests
      of rivals and to carry them back to their own nests. However the genetic
      consequences of these nest-raiding behaviors seldom have been investigated. Here
      we assess genetically the prevalence of sneaked fertilizations and egg stealing,
      and we describe the mating system in a natural population of the fifteenspine
      stickleback. Six microsatellite markers were developed and employed to assay a
      total of 1307 embryos from 28 nests. Guardian males and all nest-holding males in
      the local area also were genotyped for two to six loci Analysis of male genotypes
      and those of embryos revealed that five of the 28 nests (18%) contained progeny
      from sneaked fertilizations, and that four of the 24 nests (17%) with resident
      males contained stolen egg clutches Comparisons of the composite DNA genotypes of
      nest-holding males against those of inferred sneakers implicated one nest holder
      as the sneaker of a nest seven meters from his own. Also, the genetic data
      demonstrated that nests of males frequently contain eggs from multiple females.
      The multilocus genotypes of inferred mothers indicated that females mate with
      multiple males, sometimes over distances greater than one kilometer.

PMID- 28565240
TI  - MUTATION, SELECTION, AND THE MAINTENANCE OF LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION IN A NATURAL
      POPULATION.
AB  - In an effort to provide insight into the role of mutation in the maintenance of
      genetic variance for life-history traits, we accumulated spontaneous mutations in
      10 sets of clonal replicates of Daphnia pulex for approximately 30 generations
      and compared the variance generated by mutation with the standing level of
      variation in the wild population. Mutations for quantitative traits appear to
      arise at a fairly high rate in this species, on the order of at least 0.6 per
      character per generation, but have relatively small heterozygous effects,
      changing the phenotype by less than 2.5% of the mean. The mean persistence time
      of a new mutation affecting life-history/body-size traits is approximately 40
      generations in the natural population, which requires an average selection
      coefficient against new mutations of approximately 3% in the heterozygous state.
      These data are consistent with the idea that the vast majority of standing
      genetic variance for life-history characters may be largely a consequence of the
      recurrent introduction of transient cohorts of mutations that are at least
      conditionally deleterious and raise issues about the meaning of conventional
      measures of standing levels of variation for fitness-related traits.

PMID- 28565241
TI  - HISTORICAL ALLOPATRY AND THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF SPECIATION IN THE PROSOBRANCH SNAIL
      GENUS NUCELLA.
AB  - Two recently diverged northeastern Pacific sibling snail species, Nucella ostrina
      and N. emarginata, currently inhabit adjacent zoogeographic provinces. Their
      distributions overlap in central California to the north of a major faunal
      boundary at Point Conception, California (PC). To test the hypothesis that modern
      sympatry is due to a recent northward range expansion by N. emarginata, I
      analyzed the population structures of both species with nuclear (allozyme) and
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. Populations of N. emarginata in the region of
      overlap exhibit significantly lower heterozygosity and allelic diversity than
      either populations to the south of PC or populations of N. ostrina. A single
      mtDNA haplotype characterizes all but one population of N. emarginata sampled in
      this region, but no haplotype to the south of PC is found at more than one
      locality. MtDNA haplotypes and allozyme allele frequencies also indicate
      monophyly of central California populations of N. emarginata. Sharp differences
      in allelic diversity over small geographic distances may reflect the action of
      natural selection, but because both nuclear and mtDNA markers display concordant
      patterns, a range expansion across PC best explains patterns of genetic variation
      in N. emarginata. Allozymes and mtDNA also reveal that the geologically older N.
      ostrina is paraphyletic with respect to N. emarginata. This pattern is consistent
      with, but not indicative of, a peripheral isolation model of speciation. Low
      genetic diversity is also expected if a significant bottleneck occurred at
      speciation. However, low allelic diversity is not universal throughout the
      geographic range of N. emarginata; high allelic diversity at the southern end of
      the distribution of N. emarginata suggests that in the past N. emarginata has
      been geographically restricted much further south than PC. A northward range
      expansion across PC by N. emarginata may thus represent only the most recent
      postglacial movement by the species. The thermal and oceanographic
      discontinuities found at PC may not have been directly involved in geographic
      isolation if N. emarginata originated much further south of this modern boundary.
      Despite uncertainty regarding the exact spatial distribution of populations at
      speciation, genetic data indicate that even though N. ostrina and N. emarginata
      currently exhibit a broad range of geographic overlap, speciation was likely
      allopatric and was initiated by physical isolation of populations in different
      zoogeographic provinces.

PMID- 28565242
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN THE COLLARED FLYCATCHER,
      FICEDULA ALBICOLLIS.
AB  - Quantitative genetic theory predicts that evolution of sexual size dimorphism
      (SSD) will be a slow process if the genetic correlation in size between the sexes
      is close to unity, and the heritability of size is similar in both sexes.
      However, there are very few reliable estimates of genetic correlations and sex
      specific heritabilities from natural populations, the reasons for this being that
      (1) offspring have often been sexed retrospectively, and hence, selection acting
      differently with respect to body size in the two sexes between measuring and sex
      identification can bias estimates of SSD; and (2) in many taxa, parents may be
      incorrectly assigned to offspring either because of assignment errors or because
      of extrapair paternity. We used molecular sex and paternity identification to
      overcome these problems and estimated sex-specific heritabilities and the genetic
      correlation in body size between the two sexes in the collared flycatcher,
      Ficedula albicollis. After exclusion of the illegitimate offspring, the genetic
      correlation in body size between the sexes was 1.00 (SE = 0.22), implying a
      severe constraint on the evolution of SSD in this species. Furthermore, sex
      specific heritability estimates were very similar, indicating that neither sex
      will be able to evolve faster than the other. By using estimated genetic
      parameters, together with empirically derived estimates of sex-specific selection
      gradients, we further demonstrated that the predicted selection response in
      female tarsus length is displaced about 200% in the opposite direction from that
      to be expected if there were no genetic correlation between the sexes. The
      correspondence between the biochemically estimated rate of extrapair paternity
      (about 15 % of the young) and that estimated from the "heritability method" (11%)
      was good. However, the estimated rate of extrapair paternity with the
      heritability method after exclusion of the illegitimate young was 22%, adding to
      increasing evidence that factors other than extrapair paternity (e.g., maternal
      effects) may be resposible for the commonly observed higher mother-offspring than
      father-offspring resemblance.

PMID- 28565243
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLOWER BREEDING DROSOPHILA HIBISCI BOCK
      (DROSOPHILIDAE) IN EASTERN AUSTRALIA: GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF
      OVARIOLE NUMBER.
AB  - Quantitative genetic analysis of the ovariole number of the Australian Hibiscus
      flower-breeding Drosophila hibisci Bock was conducted on populations from two
      localities along a latitudinal cline in ovariole number previously observed in
      the species (Starmer et al., in press). Parental strains, F1 , F1r (reciprocal),
      F2 , backcross, and backcross reciprocal generations were used in a line-cross
      (generation means) analysis. This analysis revealed both additive and epistatic
      effects as important determinants of variation in ovariole number when larvae
      were reared at 25 degrees C. Maternal effects and maternal-by-progeny genetic
      interactions were not significant. These results are comparable to previous
      studies that document epistatic components as genetic determinants of ovariole
      number in D. melanogaster. Parallel studies on ovariole number in D. hibisci
      parental and hybrid generations (F1 and F1r ) reared as larvae at three
      temperatures (18 degrees , 21.5 degrees , and 25 degrees C) showed environmental
      effects and genotype-by-environment interactions as significant influences on the
      phenotype. Maternal effects were present when temperature of larval development
      was considered and significant, nonlinear environmental effects were detected.
      Field collections of D. hibisci females showed that field conditions result in
      significant departure of ovariole number from comparable laboratory reared
      females. The significant epistatic genetic effects, genotype-by-environment
      interactions, and maternal effects indicate that the genetic architecture of
      traits, such as ovariole number, may be more complex than often acknowledged and
      thus may be compatible with Wright's view of a netlike relationship between the
      genome and complex characters (Wright 1968).

PMID- 28565244
TI  - EFFECTIVENESS OF SELECTION IN REDUCING THE GENETIC LOAD IN POPULATIONS OF
      PEROMYSCUS POLIONOTUS DURING GENERATIONS OF INBREEDING.
AB  - It has been hypothesized that natural selection reduces the "genetic load" of
      deleterious alleles from populations that inbreed during bottlenecks, thereby
      ameliorating impacts of future inbreeding. We tested the efficiency with which
      natural selection purges deleterious alleles from three subspecies of Peromyscus
      polionotus during 10 generations of laboratory inbreeding by monitoring pairing
      success, litter size, viability, and growth in 3604 litters produced from 3058
      pairs. In P. p. subgriseus, there was no reduction across generations in
      inbreeding depression in any of the fitness components. Strongly deleterious
      recessive alleles may have been removed previously during episodes of local
      inbreeding in the wild, and the residual genetic load in this population was not
      further reduced by selection in the lab. In P. p. rhoadsi, four of seven fitness
      components did show a reduction of the genetic load with continued inbreeding.
      The average reduction in the genetic load was as expected if inbreeding
      depression in this population is caused by highly deleterious recessive alleles
      that are efficiently removed by selection. For P. p. leucocephalus a population
      that experiences periodic bottlenecks in the wild, the effect of further
      inbreeding in the laboratory was to exacerbate rather than reduce the genetic
      load. Recessive deleterious alleles may have been removed from this population
      during repeated bottlenecks in the wild; the population may be close to a
      threshold level of heterozygosity below which fitness declines rapidly. Thus, the
      effects of selection on inbreeding depression varied substantially among
      populations, perhaps due to different histories of inbreeding and selection.

PMID- 28565245
TI  - MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION OF POPULATION DIVERGENCE TIMES AND POPULATION
      PHYLOGENY IN MODELS WITHOUT MUTATION.
AB  - In this paper we present a method for estimating population divergence times by
      maximum likelihood in models without mutation. The maximum-likelihood estimator
      is compared to a commonly applied estimator based on Wright's FST statistic.
      Simulations suggest that the maximum-likelihood estimator is less biased and has
      a lower variance than the FST -based estimator. The maximum-likelihood estimator
      provides a statistical framework for the analysis of population history given
      genetic data. We demonstrate how maximum-likelihood estimates of the branching
      pattern of divergence of multiple populations may be obtained. We also describe
      how the method may be applied to test hypotheses such as whether populations have
      maintained equal population sizes. We illustrate the method by applying it to two
      previously published sets of human restriction fragment length polymorphism
      (RFLP) data.

PMID- 28565246
TI  - HERITABILITY OF EXPRESSION OF THE 70KD HEAT-SHOCK PROTEIN IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE EVOLUTION OF THERMOTOLERANCE.
AB  - The principle inducible heat-shock protein of Drosophila melanogaster, Hsp70,
      contributes to thermotolerance throughout the entire life cycle of the species
      but may also reduce fitness in some life stages. In principle, selection might
      maximize the benefits of Hsp70 expression relative to its costs by adjusting the
      magnitude of Hsp70 expression for each life-cycle stage independently. Therefore
      we examined whether the magnitude of Hsp70 expression varied during the life
      cycle and the relationship of this variation to several life-history traits. For
      28 isofemale lines derived from a single natural population, estimates of
      heritable variation in Hsp70 expression ranged between 0.25 and 0.49, and the
      association among variation in first- and third-instar larvae and in adults
      correlated highly. Thus, Hsp70 expression is genetically coupled at these
      developmental stages. A line engineered with extra copies of the hsp70 gene
      produced more Hsp70 and survived heat shock much better than did a control
      strain. Among natural lines, Hsp70 expression was only weakly related to
      tolerance of heat shock and to larva-to-adult survival and developmental time at
      permissive temperatures. Additionally, lines with high adult survival developed
      slowly as larvae, which is a possible trade-off. These and other findings suggest
      that trade-offs may maintain quantitative variation both in heat-shock protein
      expression and in life-history traits that associate with thermotolerance.

PMID- 28565247
TI  - PATTERNS OF MATING IN WILD SUNFLOWER HYBRID ZONES.
AB  - Theory predicts that homoploid hybrid speciation will be facilitated by selfing,
      yet most well-documented hybrid species are outcrossers. One possible explanation
      for this puzzle is that conditions in hybrid populations may favor selfing, even
      in otherwise outcrossing species. For example, in self-incompatible plants,
      mixtures of self and interspecific pollen often induce selfing. Here, we examine
      patterns of mating in three hybrid zones and four "pure" populations of
      Helianthus annuus and H. petiolaris, wild, self-incompatible sunflower species
      that are thought to have parented three homoploid hybrid species. Fourteen to 16
      maternal families from each pure population and 44-46 maternal families from each
      hybrid zone were analyzed for seven polymorphic isozyme loci. Maximum-likelihood
      (ML) methods were used to estimate multilocus outcrossing rates (Tm ) and
      hybridization frequencies for each maternal family, each phenotypic group within
      each hybrid zone (annuus-like, hybrid, and petiolaris-like), and each population.
      As predicted for self-incompatible species, all four parental populations have
      outcrossing rate ML estimates of 1.0. Within the hybrid zones, outcrossing rates
      were lowest in the H. annuus-like fraction of the population (0.73, 0.72, and
      0.74 in the three hybrid zones, respectively), largely intermediate in the H.
      petiolaris-like group (0.94, 0.90, and 0.94), and highest in the hybrid group
      (0.97, 0.93, and 0.97). Although outcrossing rates are lower in hybrid zones than
      in pure populations, it is unlikely that the observed decrease facilitates hybrid
      speciation because outcrossing rates in the critical hybrid fraction of the
      population do not differ significantly from 1.0. Dividing the outcrossed pollen
      pool into intraspecific and interspecific components revealed that maternal
      plants are largely fertilized by conspecific pollen, confirming an important role
      for pollen competition as a reproductive barrier. Highly sterile hybrid plants do
      not appear to discriminate between parental species pollen, but hybrids with
      higher fertility tend to be fertilized by pollen from the parental group they
      resemble genetically. Thus, gametic selection leads to substantial assortative
      mating in these hybrid zones.

PMID- 28565248
TI  - SPECIATION AND FEATHER ORNAMENTATION IN BIRDS.
AB  - The hypothesis that sexual selection promotes speciation has rarely been tested.
      We identified 70 evolutionarily independent events of feather ornaments in birds.
      For each focal species we noted the number of ornamented and nonornamented
      species belonging to its genus and its number of subspecies, as well as its
      mating system and the extent of its geographic range. For purposes of comparison,
      we randomly chose a second, nonornamented species for which we obtained
      information on the number of subspecies, and in cases in which the nonornamented
      species was in the same genus, we chose a third, nonornamented species in a
      related genus and obtained the same information. We then noted the number of
      species in each genus and the difference in numbers of species, or species
      richness, between paired genera. For the genera of the focal ornamented species,
      we regressed number of ornamented species on number of nonornamented species and
      found a positive relationship. As number of species per genus rose, number of
      ornamented species per genus rose more rapidly, indicating that more speciose
      genera have a higher proportion of ornamented species than less speciose genera.
      We then took the deviations from this regression, the residual number of species,
      and regressed them on the differences in species richness between the paired
      genera. This relationship was positive indicating that ornamented genera with
      more than the expected number of ornamented species were more speciose with
      respect to their paired genera than were genera with fewer than the expected
      number of ornamented species. Finally, we compared the deviations from this
      regression, the residual number of ornamented species, with species' mating
      system and found a greater residual number of ornamented species among species
      whose mating system is associated with greater skew in male mating success and
      thus more intense sexual selection. Ornamented species had more subspecies than
      nonornamented species, even when controlling for geographic range, suggesting an
      association between subspeciation and ornaments.

PMID- 28565249
TI  - CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN SOCIAL INSECTS: MALE PRODUCTION IN TWO SPECIES OF
      POLISTES.
AB  - In social insects, reproduction is often monopolized by queens even though in
      many species are workers capable of laying male eggs. Because it is difficult to
      see how one or a few queens can suppress the much more numerous workers,
      collective worker control, or policing, offers an attractive solution. When
      workers are less related to other workers than they are to queens, workers should
      be selected to suppress each other in favor of the queen's male offspring, if
      other things are equal. Otherwise, they should allow each other to lay male eggs.
      For two species of Polistes, we used DNA microsatellites to estimate these two
      relatednesses, to determine the sex of brood, and to determine whether male brood
      was produced by queens or workers. Workers were significantly more related to
      each other (0.63 and 0.73 for P. bellicosus and P. dorsalis, respectively) than
      they were to queens (0.40 and 0.54, respectively) so they were predicted to allow
      each other to lay the male eggs. However, workers did not lay male-destined eggs
      in either species, so the results do not support collective worker control. There
      are two possible explanations for this result. Queens may be able to physically
      dominate in these small colonies. Alternatively, this may be a conventional
      settlement that minimizes conflict and the attendant costs.

PMID- 28565250
TI  - HERITABILITIES OF DOMINANCE-RELATED TRAITS IN MALE BANK VOLES (CLETHRIONOMYS
      GLAREOLUS).
AB  - A number of studies have shown that in several animal species females prefer
      dominant males as mating partners, but fewer attempts have been made to measure
      possible indirect benefits of this choice. One reason for this may be that, even
      though dominance is a widely used concept, the definition of dominance still
      remains controversial Furthermore, defining and measuring the heritability of
      social behaviors is problematic because they are not individual traits but, by
      definition, involve interactions between at least two individuals. In this study
      we estimated heritabilities and coefficients of additive genetic variances (CVA )
      for male traits that are closely associated with dominance and female mating
      preferences in bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus). The heritability values were
      estimated using father-offspring regression. All heritability estimates were
      relatively high ranging from 0.531 (urine marking) to 0.767 (preputial glands).
      The CVA -values indicated high levels of additive genetic variance especially in
      the characters most closely related to dominance: the weight of preputial glands
      and urine marking behavior. All phenotypic correlations among the traits measured
      were significantly positive and the genetic correlations were of similar
      magnitude as the corresponding phenotypic counterparts. Even though
      heritabilities may be lower in the natural environment than under controlled
      laboratory conditions, our results suggest that characters closely related to
      dominance may be at least partly genetically determined.

PMID- 28565251
TI  - BAKER'S LAW REVISITED: REPRODUCTIVE ASSURANCE IN A METAPOPULATION.
AB  - Baker's Law states that it is more likely for self-compatible than for self
      incompatible individuals to establish sexually reproducing colonies after long
      distance dispersal, because only the former can do so with a single individual.
      This hypothesis, proposed by H. G. Baker 40 years ago is based largely on the
      observation that self-compatibility is particularly frequent among colonists of
      oceanic islands. Here we argue that the principle of Baker's Law applies equally
      in the context of a metapopulation in which frequent local extinction is balanced
      by recolonization of sites by seed dispersal: metapopulation dynamics will select
      for an ability to self-fertilize. We review several studies that support this
      hypothesis and present a metapopulation model in which the seed productivity
      required by obligate outcrossers for their maintenance in a metapopulation is
      compared with that of selfers. Our model also estimates the reduction in the
      advantage of reproductive assurance to selfers as a result of perenniality and
      seed dormancy. In general, selection for reproductive assurance is greatest when
      the colony occupancy rate, p, is low and is much reduced when p approaches its
      maximum. This provides an explanation for the observation that many highly
      successful colonizers, in which p is often high, are self-incompatible. The basic
      model we present also lends itself to comparisons of metapopulation effects
      between unisexuality and cosexuality and between different modes of self
      incompatibility.

PMID- 28565252
TI  - GENERAL-PURPOSE GENOTYPES FOR HOST SPECIES UTILIZATION IN A NEMATODE PARASITE OF
      DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The nematode Howardula aoronymphium parasitizes several species of mushroom
      feeding Drosophila. A survey of isofemale strains of H. aoronymphium and a 25
      generation selection experiment revealed that this species does not comprise host
      races, and that it harbors little heritable variation for adaptation to specific
      hosts No tradeoffs in performance on the different host species were evident.
      General-purpose genotypes, which can utilize all host species, characterize H.
      aoronymphium. An important feature of the natural history of these nematodes
      correlated epidemiology across host species-is postulated to be both a cause and
      a consequence of the evolution of general-purpose genotypes in this species.

PMID- 28565253
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION OF RESISTANCE IN BRASSICA RAPA: CORRELATED RESPONSE OF
      TOLERANCE IN LINES SELECTED FOR GLUCOSINOLATE CONTENT.
AB  - The evolutionary response of plant populations to selection for increased defense
      may be constrained by costs of defense. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate such constraints on the evolution of defense due to a cost of defense
      manifested as a trade-off between defense and tolerance. Variation in the
      response to artificial damage (tolerance) among lines of Brassica rapa that had
      been artificially selected for foliar glucosinolate content (defense) was
      examined. Leaf area was removed from replicates of three selection lines (high
      glucosinolates, control, and low glucosinolates) at three damage levels (0%, 20%,
      and 60% damage). An external cost of defense would result in a statistically
      significant selection line by damage treatment interaction, with those selected
      for high defense expressing less tolerance than those selected for low defense.
      Damage treatment had a significant overall effect on estimated total fitness,
      with fitness declining with increasing damage level. Further, selection line also
      had a significant overall effect on estimated total fitness, with low-defense
      selection lines having higher fitness compared to both control and high-defense
      selection lines. More importantly, a cost of defense in terms of tolerance was
      demonstrated by a significant selection line-by-damage treatment interaction.
      This interaction was in the direction to demonstrate a genetic trade-off between
      defense and tolerance, with low-defense selection lines decreasing estimated
      total fitness in response to damage less than both control and high-defense
      selection lines. Variation in tolerance among selection lines was due to the
      greater ability of low-defense lines to maintain fruit and seed production
      despite the presence of damage. In terms of tolerance, this cost of glucosinolate
      production in B. rapa could constrain the evolution of increased defense and, in
      so doing, maintain individuals within the population that are poorly defended yet
      tolerant.

PMID- 28565254
TI  - EVOLUTION OF ALLORECOGNITION IN BOTRYLLID ASCIDIANS INFERRED FROM A MOLECULAR
      PHYLOGENY.
AB  - Despite the functional and phyletic ubiquity of highly polymorphic genetic
      recognition systems, the evolution and maintenance of these remarkable loci
      remain an empirical and theoretical puzzle. Many clonal invertebrates use
      polymorphic genetic recognition systems to discriminate kin from unrelated
      individuals during behavioral interactions that mediate competition for space.
      Space competition may have been a selective force promoting the evolution of
      highly polymorphic recognition systems, or preexisting polymorphic loci may have
      been coopted for the purpose of mediating space competition. Ascidian species in
      the family Botryllidae have an allorecognition system in which fusion or
      rejection between neighboring colonies is controlled by allele-sharing at a
      single, highly polymorphic locus. The behavioral sequence involved in
      allorecognition varies in a species-specific fashion with some species requiring
      extensive intercolony tissue integration prior to the allorecognition response,
      while other species contact opposing colonies at only a few points on the outer
      surface before resolving space conflicts. Due to an apparent species-specific
      continuum of behavioral variation in the degree of intercolony tissue integration
      required for allorecognition, this system lends itself to a phylogenetic analysis
      of the evolution of an allorecognition system. We constructed a molecular
      phylogeny of the botryllids based on 18S rDNA sequence and mapped allorecognition
      behavioral variation onto the phylogeny. Our phylogeny shows the basal
      allorecognition condition for the group is the most internal form of the
      recognition reaction. More derived species show progressively more external
      allorecognition responses, and in some cases loss of some features of internal
      function. We suggest that external allorecognition appears to be a secondary
      function of a polymorphic discriminatory system that was already in place due to
      other selective pressures such as gamete, pathogen, or developmental cell lineage
      recognition.

PMID- 28565255
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN TWO MEADOW KATYDID CONTACT ZONES.
AB  - In this study, previously unrecognized hybridization was documented between two
      meadow katydids in each of two disjunct contact zones, in the southeastern United
      States and along the Potomac River near Washington, DC. These two zones have very
      different histories and dynamics of interaction between the two taxa. Orchelimum
      nigripes and O. pulchellum (Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae) are distributed west
      and east, respectively, of the Appalachian Mountains, from the Great Lakes to the
      Gulf Coast and along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from New York to the Florida
      Keys, but are not found in the Appalachians themselves. In addition, during this
      century O. nigripes has become established in a small area east of the
      Appalachians, in the Potomac River basin, where it has completely replaced O.
      pulchellum along the river corridor above Washington, DC. I sampled katydids from
      40 sites across both hybrid zones and mapped geographic patterns of genetic
      variation (allele frequencies at two diagnostic loci) and variation in a
      morphometric index for males. Although the two taxa are quite distinct over most
      of their extensive distributions, there is clear evidence of introgression in
      both contact zones. In the Deep South, samples from a transect along the Gulf
      Coast define a broad hybrid zone of about 50-100 km, while samples from a
      transect 200 km to the north define a zone of about 150-250 km in width. Only one
      Deep South population shows a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at either
      locus, and there is no evidence of linkage disequilibrium in any Deep South
      population. In the Potomac region, there is a narrow upstream-downstream hybrid
      zone along the river. Within the Potomac River floodplains downriver from
      Washington, DC, as well as outside the floodplains throughout the region, O.
      pulchellum is present in abundance, but O. nigripes markers are virtually absent.
      Within the floodplains upriver from Washington, DC, O. nigripes is abundant, but
      O. pulch***ellum markers are virtually absent. All four mixed ancestry Potomac
      populations sampled show strong and highly significant linkage disequilibrium,
      although only one clearly deviates from single-locus Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
      The position of the Deep South hybrid zone is generally consistent with
      interspecific and intraspecific phylogeographic patterns previously reported for
      numerous taxa from the southeastern United States. The observed genetic and
      morphometric clines appear to be the result of neutral introgression over
      thousands of years. In the much younger Potomac hybrid zone, O. nigripes appears
      to be spreading downriver, interbreeding with O. pulchellum, and replacing it.
      The mechanism for this replacement remains uncertain, but may be clarified by
      ongoing behavioral, genetic, and breeding studies.

PMID- 28565256
TI  - RECOGNIZING AND TESTING HOMOLOGY OF COURTSHIP DISPLAYS IN STORKS (AVES:
      CICONIIFORMES: CICONIIDAE).
AB  - Ethological studies in the 1940s and 1950s, most notably those of Lorenz and
      Tinbergen, emphasized a historical perspective. By the 1970s, the notion that
      behavioral traits are too plastic to retain historical information became
      prevalent, and evolutionary approaches in behavioral studies were largely
      abandoned. However, several recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral
      characters are remarkably consistent with phylogenies obtained from other data
      and not particularly prone to homoplasy. In this study, I coded descriptions of
      courtship display behaviors in stork species (Aves: Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae) as
      a matrix of discrete characters. I mapped each behavioral character onto a
      phylogeny based on DNA-DNA hybridization distances to test the homology of
      individual characters. Generally, displays occurring early in courtship were
      congruent with phylogenetic relationships and showed little homoplasy, while
      displays occurring late in courtship were more homoplastic. I also performed a
      phylogenetic analysis of the behavioral data matrix using maximum parsimony. The
      strict consensus of the 24 most-parsimonious trees was congruent with the DNA-DNA
      hybridization tree in all nodes having greater than 70% bootstrap support.

PMID- 28565257
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CANALIZATION AND THE BREAKING OF VON BAER'S LAWS: MODELING THE
      EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT WITH EPISTASIS.
AB  - Evolution can change the developmental processes underlying a character without
      changing the average expression of the character itself. This sort of change must
      occur in both the evolution of canalization, in which a character becomes
      increasingly buffered against genetic or developmental variation, and in the
      phenomenon of closely related species that show similar adult phenotypes but
      different underlying developmental patterns. To study such phenomena, I develop a
      model that follows evolution on a surface representing adult phenotype as a
      function of underlying developmental characters. A contour on such a "phenotype
      landscape" is a set of states of developmental characters that produce the same
      adult phenotype. Epistasis induces curvature of this surface, and degree of
      canalization is represented by the slope along a contour. I first discuss the
      geometric properties of phenotype landscapes, relating epistasis to canalization.
      I then impose a fitness function on the phenotype and model evolution of
      developmental characters as a function of the fitness function and the local
      geometry of the surface. This model shows how canalization evolves as a
      population approaches an optimum phenotype. It further shows that under some
      circumstances, "decanalization" can occur, in which the expression of adult
      phenotype becomes increasingly sensitive to developmental variation. This process
      can cause very similar populations to diverge from one another developmentally
      even when their adult phenotypes experience identical selection regimes.

PMID- 28565258
TI  - DESICCATION AND STARVATION TOLERANCE OF ADULT DROSOPHILA: OPPOSITE LATITUDINAL
      CLINES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THREE DIFFERENT SPECIES.
AB  - Desiccation and starvation tolerance were measured along latitudinal transects in
      three Drosophilid species (Drosophila ananassae, D. melanogaster, and Zaprionus
      indianus) of the Indian subcontinent. In each case, significant latitudinal
      clines were observed; desiccation tolerance increased with latitude while
      starvation tolerance decreased. Such field observations suggest that desiccation
      and starvation tolerance are fitness related traits that are independently
      selected in nature and genetically independent. It was, however, difficult to
      relate these genetic changes with precise climatic variables, except winter
      temperature. The overall negative correlation between the two traits, which was
      evidenced in natural populations, contrasts with a positive correlation generally
      observed in various laboratory selection experiments and that also seems to exist
      between different species. These observations point to the difficulty of
      interpreting correlations among fitness-related traits when different
      evolutionary levels are compared, and also different sets of data, that is, field
      versus laboratory studies.

PMID- 28565259
TI  - DNA HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH RATE IN THE ATLANTIC COD GADUS MORHUA (L).
AB  - Relationships between growth rate and the degree of individual heterozygosity at
      ten nuclear RFLP loci were examined in two populations of the Atlantic cod, Gadus
      morhua, from northern Norway. A highly significant positive correlation was
      observed between growth rate and DNA heterozygosity in one population (Balsfjord)
      but not in the other (Barents Sea). Our results provide support for an important
      prediction of the associative overdominance hypothesis that heterozygosity
      fitness correlations can be detected at neutral genetic markers and suggest that
      environmental conditions might play a dominant role in the manifestation of the
      correlation.

PMID- 28565260
TI  - EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF INBREEDING ON PROGENY FITNESS IN PLANTAGO
      CORONOPUS.
AB  - Inbreeding depression (delta) is a major selective force favoring outcrossing in
      flowering plants. Many phenotypic and genetic models of the evolution of selfing
      conclude that complete outcrossing should evolve whenever inbreeding depression
      is greater than one-half, otherwise selfing should evolve. Recent theoretical
      work, however, has challenged this view and emphasized (1) the importance of
      variation in inbreeding depression among individuals within a population; and (2)
      the nature of gene action between deleterious mutations at different loci
      (epistasis) as important determinants for the evolution of plant mating systems.
      The focus of this study was to examine the maintenance of inbreeding depression
      and the relationship between inbreeding level and inbreeding depression at both
      the population and the individual level in one population of the partially self
      fertilizing plant Plantago coronopus (L.). Maternal plants, randomly selected
      from an area of about 50 m2 in a natural population, were used to establish lines
      with expected inbreeding coefficients (f) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 0.875.
      Inbreeding depression was estimated both in the greenhouse and at the site of
      origin of the maternal plants by comparing growth, survival, flowering, and seed
      production of the progeny with different inbreeding coefficients. No significant
      inbreeding depression for these fitness traits was detected in the greenhouse
      after 16 weeks. This was in strong contrast to the field, where the traits all
      displayed significant inbreeding depression and declined with increased
      inbreeding. The results were consistent with the view that mutation to mildly
      deleterious alleles is the primary cause of inbreeding depression. At the family
      level, significantly different maternal line responses (maternal parent *
      inbreeding level interaction) provide a mechanism for the invasion of a selfing
      variant into the population through any maternal line exhibiting purging of its
      genetic load. At the population level, evidence for synergistic epistasis was
      detected for the probability of flowering, but not for total seed production. At
      the family level, however, a significant interaction between inbreeding level and
      maternal families for both traits was observed, indicating that epistasis could
      play a role in the expression of inbreeding depression among maternal lines.

PMID- 28565261
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC PHYLOGEOGRAPHY ACROSS THE POINT CONCEPTION BIOGEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARY.
AB  - Recent studies of intraspecific phylogeography have suggested that the geographic
      location of genetic discontinuities, or phylogeographic breaks, may frequently
      coincide with biogeographic boundaries. The concordance is hypothesized to
      reflect similarity in the processes governing species boundaries and
      intraspecific lineage boundaries. This concordance has not, however, been widely
      tested. In the case of the Point Conception biogeographic boundary between the
      Oregonian and Californian marine biotas, only the supralittoral copepod Tigriopus
      californicus has been found to have a coincident phylogeographic break. Here I
      show that the apparent relationship between this break and Point Conception was,
      in fact, an artifact of insufficient geographic sampling. Mitochondrial DNA
      analyses of T. californicus populations between Morro Bay and San Diego reveal at
      least five equally deep phylogeographic breaks in the region (where only one
      biogeographic boundary is recognized). Limited nuclear DNA sequence data and
      allozyme data also support the occurrence of multiple genetic discontinuities
      along this geographic range. Lack of one-to-one correspondence between
      intraspecific phylogeography and biogeographic boundaries indicates that the
      processes affecting the genetic differentiation of populations of T. californicus
      differ from those responsible for determining species distributional limits at
      the Point Conception biogeographic boundary. A review of genetic data from other
      species also fails to provide evidence for concordance of biogeography and
      intraspecific phylogeography across Point Conception. I suggest that the
      concordance of phylogeography with biogeography will only be pronounced where the
      biogeographic boundary separates biotas that are phylogenetically related. The
      numerous cases of interspecific hybrid zones in the region of Cape Canaveral, for
      example, indicate that many sister-species pairs occur across this biogeographic
      boundary. Such hybrid zones are not common at Point Conception, and there appears
      to be no cases of intraspecific phylogeographic breaks associated with this well
      recognized biogeographic boundary.

PMID- 28565262
TI  - TOPIARY PRUNING AND WEIGHTING REINFORCE AN AFRICAN ORIGIN FOR THE HUMAN
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA TREE.
AB  - A method is presented for removing recent homoplastic events from a phylogenetic
      tree. This "topiary pruning" method produces a series of progressively modified
      duplicates of the original set of data, from which more and more of the most
      recent substitutions have been removed. The edited sets of data have increased
      amounts of information per remaining taxon, while similar but randomized data
      sets subjected to topiary pruning do not. The ability of topiary pruning to
      "unscramble" artificial data sets that have high levels of homoplasy is
      demonstrated, and is shown to be similar in its effects to the weighting method
      of Kluge and Farris (1969), although with the additional advantage of reducing
      the number of taxa to the point where bootstrapping is feasible. Pruning and
      weighting used together produce closer approximations to the "true" tree than
      either method used separately. It is further shown that in these artificial data
      sets midpoint rooting is more likely to be accurate than outgroup rooting. When
      pruning and weighting are applied to the extensive sets of mitochondrial DNA data
      of Cann et al. (1987) and Vigilant et al. (1991), trees result that have deep
      branch points, some of which lead to entirely African branches. In the case of
      the Vigilant et al. data, the three African branches have bootstrap values
      between 0.94 and 1.0, and the consensus and bootstrap midpoint roots also have
      high bootstrap values and occur on these African branches near their junction. An
      African origin of the human mitochondrial tree is not proved by this approach,
      particularly since sequences from non-African groups are underrepresented in
      current data sets, but it is rendered more likely.

PMID- 28565263
TI  - ADAPTATION TO FINE-GRAINED ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION: AN ANALYSIS OF WITHIN
      INDIVIDUAL LEAF VARIATION IN AN ANNUAL PLANT.
AB  - Recent studies of evolution in heterogeneous environments have concentrated on
      the role of coarse-grained environmental variation. Here I explore the potential
      for a modular organism to adapt to fine-grained environmental variation through
      within-individual variation among modules. I describe the pattern of variation
      among leaves of single individuals and report results of initial analyses of
      genetic variation for within-individual variability in leaf traits and of genetic
      correlations that could influence the rate of further evolution of within
      individual variation of these traits. Plants from 24 paternal half-sib families
      were raised in growth chambers, and five traits were measured for two leaves
      produced by each plant. Four of the five traits differed significantly between
      sampling times. Genetic analyses revealed significant additive genetic variation
      for within-individual variation in several traits. Estimates of family mean
      correlations between traits expressed at different times suggest few
      relationships that would be expected to impede response to selection for changes
      in the pattern of within-individual variation in leaf traits. These results
      support the possibility that within-individual variation could evolve as an
      adaptive response to fine-grained environmental variation and suggest a need for
      further investigation to improve understanding of evolution in heterogeneous
      environments.

PMID- 28565264
TI  - ARTIFICIAL SELECTION ON HORN LENGTH-BODY SIZE ALLOMETRY IN THE HORNED BEETLE
      ONTHOPHAGUS ACUMINATUS (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE).
AB  - Males of the horned beetle Onthophagus acuminatus Har. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)
      exhibit horn length dimorphism due to a sigmoidal allometric relationship between
      horn length and body size: the steep slope of the allometry around the inflection
      of the sigmoid curve separates males into two groups; those larger than this
      inflection possess long horns, and those smaller than this inflection have short
      horns or lack horns. I examined the genetic basis of the allometric relationship
      between horn length and body size by selecting males that produced unusually long
      horns, and males that produced unusually short horns, for their respective body
      sizes. After seven generations of selection, lines selected for relatively long
      horns had significantly longer horn lengths for a given body size than lines
      selected for relatively short horns, indicating a heritable component to
      variation in the allometry. The sigmoidal shape of the allometry was not affected
      by this selection regime. Rather, selected lines differed in the position of the
      allometry along the body size axis. One consequence of lateral shifts in this
      allometric relationship was that the body size separating horned from hornless
      males (the point of inflection of the sigmoid curve) differed between selection
      lines: lines in which males were selected for relatively long horns began horn
      production at smaller body sizes than lines selected for relatively short horns.
      These results suggest that populations can evolve in response to selection on
      male horn length through modification of the growth relationship between horn
      length and body size.

PMID- 28565265
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF POLYGENIC VARIATION VIA A MIGRATION-SELECTION BALANCE UNDER
      UNIFORM SELECTION.

PMID- 28565266
TI  - ON PHASE THREE OF THE SHIFTING-BALANCE THEORY.
AB  - A common conclusion in several recent publications devoted to the deterministic
      analysis of the third phase of Wright's shifting-balance theory is that under
      reasonable conditions phase three should proceed easily. I argue that the
      mathematical equations analyzed in these papers do not correspond to the
      biological situation they were meant to describe. I present a more appropriate
      study of the third phase of the shifting balance. My results show that the third
      phase can proceed only under much more restricted conditions than the previous
      studies suggested. Migration should be neither too strong not too weak relative
      to selection. The higher peak should be sufficiently dominant over the lower
      peak. Recombination can greatly reduce the plausibility of this phase or
      completely preclude peak shifts. A very important determinant of the ultimate
      outcome of the competition between different peaks is the topological structure
      of the network of demes. Peak shifts in two-dimensional networks of demes are
      more difficult than in one-dimensional networks. Phase three can be accomplished
      easiest if it is initiated in one of the peripheral demes.

PMID- 28565267
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC CHLOROPLAST DNA VARIATION AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN
      LIRIODENDRON L. (MAGNOLIACEAE).
AB  - Restriction site variation in chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) was surveyed to analyze
      population dynamics in Liriodendron tulipifera L., a woody angiosperm found in
      eastern North America. Two cpDNA haplotypes, differing by the presence or absence
      of five restriction site changes (nucleotide sequence divergence estimated as
      approximately 0.15%) are geographically structured; 61 widespread populations
      possess the "northern" haplotype and three isolated populations of central
      Florida possess the "southern" haplotype. This geographic break in cpDNA
      distribution corresponds to patterns of geographic distribution revealed by a
      previous survey of allozyme variation, with the exception that analyses of
      allozyme data further divided the populations containing the northern cpDNA
      haplotype into two groups, a widespread upland group and a coastal intermediate
      group. Analyses of these two independent data sets together support the
      hypothesis that L. tulipifera survived the glacial advances of the Pleistocene in
      two distinct refugia, possibly as different taxa, and the intermediate coastal
      group was putatively formed from recent hybridizations between these entities.

PMID- 28565268
TI  - BERGMANN SIZE CLINES: A SIMPLE EXPLANATION FOR THEIR OCCURRENCE IN ECTOTHERMS.
AB  - In general ectothermic organisms grow larger at both lower temperatures and
      higher latitudes. Adult size in the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans reared
      at 10 degrees C was approximately 33% greater than worms grown at 25 degrees C.
      Nematode egg size and fish red blood cell size showed similar size increases at
      lower temperatures. These results indicate that body size differences in many
      ectotherms may simply be a consequence of developmental processes that cause
      cells to grow larger at lower temperatures. This would provide a general
      explanation for the increased size of ectotherms at lower temperatures
      independent of species-specific ecology.

PMID- 28565269
TI  - REACTION NORMS FOR AGE AND SIZE AT MATURITY IN LASIOMMATA BUTTERFLIES:
      PREDICTIONS AND TESTS.

PMID- 28565270
TI  - INFERENCES ABOUT QUANTITATIVE INHERITANCE BASED ON NATURAL POPULATION STRUCTURE
      IN THE YELLOW MONKEYFLOWER, MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - We used a nonmanipulative, marker-based method to study quantitative genetic
      inheritance in two habitats of a common monkeyflower population. The method
      involved regressing quantitative trait similarity on marker-estimated relatedness
      between individuals sampled in the field. We sampled 300 adult plants from each
      of two transects, one along a stream habitat and another through a meadow
      habitat. For each plant we measured 10 quantitative characters and assayed 10
      polymorphic isozyme loci. In the meadow habitat, relatedness of plants within 1 m
      was moderate (r = 0.125, corresponding to half-sibs) as was actual variance of
      relatedness (Vr = 0.044). Significant heritabilities of 50-70% were found for
      corolla width and the fitness characters of flower number and plant weight.
      Genetic correlations were strongly positive, but sharing of environmental effects
      within 1 m was weak. In the stream habitat, levels of relatedness were lower and
      similar heritabilities were indicated. To detect dominance variance and the
      correlation of phenotypes due to shared inbreeding, we also estimated higher
      order coefficients of relationship and inbreeding, but these did not
      significantly differ from zero. Laboratory-based estimates of heritability in the
      field were lower than the marker-based estimates, indicating that natural
      heritabilities and genetic correlations may be stronger than indicated by
      controlled studies.

PMID- 28565271
TI  - ACCLIMATION, CROSS-GENERATION EFFECTS, AND THE RESPONSE TO SELECTION FOR
      INCREASED COLD RESISTANCE IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The way populations respond to selection can be altered when populations are
      acclimated prior to selection. To examine this possibility, the responses of
      replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans to selection for
      increased resistance to cold were compared. Flies were selected without hardening
      or after they had been hardened by holding them at 4 degrees C for one hour. The
      selection response in both species was much greater when flies were not cold
      hardened. Cold resistance in both sets of selected lines reached a plateau after
      a few generations. Surprisingly, continued selection for increased resistance
      resulted in decreasing levels of resistance. This decrease was no longer evident
      after selection had been relaxed for a generation, suggesting cross-generation
      effects. The magnitude of the cross-generation effects increased with additional
      generations of selection. Cross-generation effects were also detected for fitness
      components. Relaxing selection for a generation increased fecundity, weight,
      viability, and development time. Comparisons of relaxed lines and control lines
      indicated that only fecundity was influenced by selection. Both sets of selected
      lines had a lower fecundity than control lines. Crosses between control and
      selected lines and among replicate selected lines indicated that this decrease in
      fecundity was not associated with inbreeding. The direct and correlated responses
      to selection for cold resistance can therefore be influenced by acclimation and
      cross-generation effects.

PMID- 28565272
TI  - SEX-SPECIFIC COSTS OF RESISTANCE TO THE FUNGAL PATHOGEN USTILAGO VIOLACEA
      (MICROBOTRYUM VIOLACEUM) IN SILENE ALBA.
AB  - Costs of resistance are often invoked to explain the maintenance of polymorphisms
      for resistance to fungal pathogens in natural plant populations. To investigate
      such costs, 27 half-sib families of Silene alba, collected from a single host
      population, were grown in experimental populations in the presence and absence of
      the anther-smut fungus Ustilago violacea, a host-sterilizing pathogen transmitted
      by insects that are both pollinators and vectors of the disease. Host families
      differed significantly in resistance to inoculation, indicating the presence of
      genetic variation for mechanisms that impede fungal growth once the disease is
      encountered ("biochemical" resistance) within the host population. In addition,
      host families differed significantly in onset of flowering and in flower
      production in the absence of the disease. Path analysis revealed that late onset
      of flowering in male host families made a direct contribution to high field
      resistance (P < 0.01), probably due to a reduced rate of contact between hosts
      and vectors carrying high spore loads (avoidance, or "phenological" resistance).
      The contribution of low flower production to field resistance only approached
      significance (P < 0.10). There was a significantly positive genetic association
      between biochemical and phenological resistance, suggesting that delayed
      flowering is either a pleiotropic effect of biochemical resistance, or that genes
      governing these traits are in linkage disequilibrium. Path analysis revealed that
      biochemical resistance made both a direct contribution to field resistance (P <
      0.01) and a positive indirect contribution via its association with phenology and
      flower production (P < 0.05) in male hosts. Costs of resistance were sex
      specific. Male host families with high field resistance had significantly lower
      reproductive success in healthy populations, indicating a fitness cost of field
      resistance (P < 0.01), whereas no costs were detected for female hosts. Path
      analysis revealed that the biochemical component of field resistance made no
      direct contribution to the observed fitness cost in male hosts, whereas its
      indirect effect through phenology was only marginally significant (P < 0.10).
      This finding indicates that fitness costs were mainly due to the phenological
      component of field resistance. Because the host population had no known history
      of disease, it is not clear whether the fitness costs are responsible for
      maintenance of the resistance polymorphism or whether the polymorphism is present
      for reasons unrelated to pathogen infection. Interactions between host families
      and pathogen strains with respect to inoculation success were not significant.
      Hence, there was no evidence for indirect costs of biochemical resistance, that
      is, reduced resistance to alternative strains. Infection rates in experimental
      populations with an initially patchy distribution of the pathogen were lower than
      in populations with a uniform pathogen distribution, suggesting that the
      effective pathogen pressure and hence the relative success of susceptible and
      resistant individuals may, in addition to fitness costs of resistance, depend on
      the spatial population structure of the pathogen.

PMID- 28565273
TI  - WITHIN- AND BETWEEN-GENERATION EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND
      PHYSIOLOGY OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - We investigated the effects of developmental and parental temperatures on several
      physiological and morphological traits of adult Drosophila melanogaster. Flies
      for the parental generation were raised at either low or moderate temperature (18
      degrees C or 25 degrees C) and then mated in the four possible sex-by-parental
      temperature crosses. Their offspring were raised at either 18 degrees C or 25
      degrees C and then scored as adults for morphological (dry body mass, wing size,
      and abdominal melanization [females only]), physiological (knock-down
      temperature, and thermal dependence of walking speed), and life history (egg
      size) traits. The experiment was replicated, and the factorial design allows us
      to determine whether and how paternal, maternal, and developmental temperatures
      (as well as offspring sex) influence the various traits. Sex and developmental
      temperature had major effects on all traits. Females had larger bodies and wings,
      higher knock-down temperatures, and slower speeds (but similar shaped performance
      curves) than males. Development at 25 degrees C (versus at 18 degrees C)
      increased knock-down temperature, increased maximal speed and thermal performance
      breadth, decreased the optimal temperature for walking, decreased body mass and
      wing size, reduced abdominal melanization, and reduced egg size. Parental
      temperatures influenced a few traits, but the effects were generally small
      relative to those of sex or developmental temperature. Flies whose mother had
      been raised at 25 degrees C (versus at 18 degrees C) had slightly higher knock
      down temperature and smaller body mass. Flies whose father had been raised at 25
      degrees C had relatively longer wings. The effects of paternal, maternal, and
      developmental temperatures sometimes differed in direction. The existence of
      significant within- and between-generation effects suggests that comparative
      studies need to standardize thermal environments for at least two generations,
      that attempts to estimate "field" heritabilities may be unreliable for some
      traits, and that predictions of short-term evolutionary responses to selection
      will be difficult.

PMID- 28565274
TI  - PATERNAL GENOTYPE INFLUENCES INCUBATION PERIOD, OFFSPRING SIZE, AND OFFSPRING
      SHAPE IN AN OVIPAROUS REPTILE.
AB  - Theoretical models for the evolution of life-history traits assume a genetic
      basis for a significant proportion of the phenotypic variance observed in
      characteristics such as hatching date and offspring size. However, recent
      experimental work has shown that much of the phenotypic variance in hatchling
      reptiles is induced by nongenetic factors, such as maternal nutrition and
      thermoregulation, and the physical conditions experienced during embryogenesis.
      Thus, there is no unambiguous evidence for strictly genetic (intraspecific)
      influences on the phenotypes of hatchling reptiles. We report results from a
      technique that uses a genetic marker trait and DNA fingerprinting to determine
      paternity of offspring from multiply sired clutches of European sand lizards,
      Lacerta agilis. By focusing on paternal rather than maternal effects, we show
      that hatchling genotypes exert a direct influence on the duration of incubation,
      the size (mass, snout-vent length) and shape (relative tail length) of the
      hatchling, and subsequent growth rates of the lizard during the first 3 mo of
      life. Embryos with genes that code for a few days' delay in hatching are thereby
      larger when they hatch, having undergone further differentiation (and hence, have
      changed in bodily proportions), and are able to grow faster after hatching. Our
      data thus provide empirical support for a crucial but rarely tested assumption of
      life-history theory, and illuminate some of the proximate mechanisms that produce
      intraspecific variation in offspring phenotypes.

PMID- 28565275
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF ASYMMETRY IN SEXUAL ISOLATION: A MODEL AND A TEST CASE.
AB  - We constructed a model for the evolution of sexual isolation by extending Lande's
      (1981) model of sexual selection. The model predicts that asymmetric sexual
      isolation is a transient phenomenon, characteristic of intermediate stages of
      divergence in sexually selected traits. Unlike the Kaneshiro (1976, 1980)
      proposal, our model does not depend upon drift and the loss of courtship elements
      to produce asymmetries in sexual isolation. According to our model, the direction
      of evolution cannot be predicted from asymmetry in sexual isolation. We tested
      some features of the model using data from an experimental study of sexual
      isolation in the salamander Desmognathus ochrophaeus. We tested for sexual
      isolation between 12 allopatric populations and found significant asymmetry in
      sexual isolation in about a quarter of the test cases. The highest degrees of
      asymmetry were associated with intermediate levels of divergence. A curvilinear
      relationship between isolation asymmetry and divergence was predicted by our
      model and was supported by statistical analysis of the salamander data.

PMID- 28565276
TI  - MEASUREMENTS OF NATURAL SELECTION ON FLORAL TRAITS IN WILD RADISH (RAPHANUS
      RAPHANISTRUM). II. SELECTION THROUGH LIFETIME MALE AND TOTAL FITNESS.
AB  - It has often been suggested that selection on floral traits in hermaphroditic
      plants should occur primarily through differences in male fitness. However,
      measurements of selection on floral traits through differences in lifetime male
      fitness have been lacking. We measured selection on a variety of wild radish
      floral traits using lifetime male fitness measures derived from genetic paternity
      analysis. These male fitness estimates were then combined with estimates of
      lifetime female fitness of the same plants to produce measurements of selection
      based on lifetime total fitness. Contrary to the prediction above, there was no
      strong evidence for selection on floral morphology through male fitness
      differences in any of the three years of the study, but there was strong
      selection for increased flower size through female fitness differences in one
      year. The main determinant of both male and female fitness in all years was
      flower number; this lead to moderately positive correlations between male and
      female fitness in all three years.

PMID- 28565277
TI  - ANDROGENETICS AND TRIPLOIDS FROM AN INTERACTING PARTHENOGENETIC HYBRID AND ITS
      ANCESTORS IN STICK INSECTS.
AB  - Populations of unisexual organisms are often assumed to be genetically invariant
      (clones) and destined to a short existence on an evolutionary timescale.
      Unisexual organisms are most often obligate parthenogens and, by definition,
      ought to be completely isolated reproductively from related bisexual organisms.
      The assumption of complete reproductive isolation between amphimictic ancestors
      and thelytokous hybrids is common to most hypotheses on the evolution of sex and
      its adaptive significance. Stick insects of the genus Bacillus however provide
      evidence for reproductive interactions between allodiploid parthenogens and their
      ancestors, because pure species progeny (androgenetics) and triploid descendants
      are produced. These findings demonstrate that, through androgenesis, offspring of
      parthenogenetic hybrid females can contribute specimens of both sexes to the
      fathering species when fertilized by syntopic ancestral males and the
      parthenogenetic egg of strictly clonal females, when fertilized, allows a third
      genome to be added to the allodiploid chromosome set. These triploid genomes
      promote further genetic diversification and evolution of the unisexual
      populations through the formation of new clones by recombination during the
      changed maturation mode of allotriploid eggs. All this argues for much more
      complex breeding systems and evolutionary pathways than are usually assumed for
      hybrid unisexual organisms.

PMID- 28565278
TI  - TEMPORAL CHANGES IN CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM OF DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA RELATED TO
      CLIMATIC CHANGES.

PMID- 28565279
TI  - A MARKER-BASED METHOD FOR INFERENCES ABOUT QUANTITATIVE INHERITANCE IN NATURAL
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - A marker-based method for studying quantitative genetic characters in natural
      populations is presented and evaluated. The method involves regressing
      quantitative trait similarity on marker-estimated relatedness between
      individuals. A procedure is first given for estimating the narrow sense
      heritability and additive genetic correlations among traits, incorporating shared
      environments. Estimation of the actual variance of relatedness is required for
      heritability, but not for genetic correlations. The approach is then extended to
      include isolation by distance of environments, dominance, and shared levels of
      inbreeding. Investigations of statistical properties show that good estimates do
      not require great marker polymorphism, but rather require significant variation
      of actual relatedness; optimal allocation generally favors sampling many
      individuals at the expense of assaying fewer marker loci; when relatedness
      declines with physical distance, it is optimal to restrict comparisons to within
      a certain distance; the power to estimate shared environments and inbreeding
      effects is reasonable, but estimates of dominance variance may be difficult under
      certain patterns of relationship; and any linkage of markers to quantitative
      trait loci does not cause significant problems. This marker-based method makes
      possible studies with long-lived organisms or with organisms difficult to
      culture, and opens the possibility that quantitative trait expression in natural
      environments can be analyzed in an unmanipulative way.

PMID- 28565280
TI  - GENETIC CONSTRAINTS TO LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO,
      WYEOMYIA SMITHII.
AB  - Life-history theory relies heavily on the hypothesis that genetic tradeoffs among
      the components of fitness constrain their independent evolution and joint
      maximization. Herein we show that selection on preadult development time in the
      pitcher-plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, leads to a correlated response in
      cohort mean generation time but no correlated response in survivorship,
      fecundity, or cohort replacement rate. Lines selected for fast development
      achieve a higher capacity for increase (rc ) than lines selected for slow
      development, independently of larval density. These results imply that tradeoffs
      due to underlying antagonistic pleiotropy affecting growth, development,
      survivorship, and reproduction are not necessary constraints to life-history
      evolution. Previous work with W. smithii has shown a positive genetic correlation
      between development time and a general, genetically coordinated diapause
      syndrome. We propose that the observed nontradeoffs among the components of rc
      may be subsumed into an even more fundamental tradeoff between performance during
      the summer generations and synchronization of development and reproduction with
      the changing seasons. Consequently, critical tests of genetic tradeoffs as a
      constraint to the independent evolution or simultaneous optimization of fitness
      components may need to consider the seasonal context.

PMID- 28565281
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL AND LOCAL GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN A PHENOTYPICALLY
      PLASTIC TRAIT OF A CYCLICAL PARTHENOGEN, DAPHNIA MAGNA.
AB  - The frequent use of neutral markers to quantify genetic variation in natural
      populations emphasizes the role of stochastic events in explaining genetic
      differentiation between populations. Complementary studies on ecologically
      relevant traits are needed to assess the role of natural selection acting on
      adaptive variation in the development of local genetic differentiation. To test
      the hypothesis of local adaptation in the cyclical parthenogenetic species
      Daphnia magna, the phototactic behavior in the absence and presence of fish
      kairomone was assayed for 30 clones derived from resting eggs isolated from three
      habitats characterized by a different predation pressure by fish. Clones derived
      from populations in which fish are present were, on average, more negatively
      phototactic in and more responsive to the presence of fish kairomone than clones
      derived from a fishless habitat. In addition, the results show a high genetic
      diversity for the traits studied in all three gene pools investigated, indicating
      a high potential for microevolutionary changes in behavior of these Daphnia
      populations in the face of changes in predation pressure. The results of the
      present study indicate that working with large samples at the expense of having
      less precise estimates of genotypic values for specific genotypes may result in a
      loss of information with regard to the evolutionary potential of local
      populations.

PMID- 28565282
TI  - THE RESPONSE TO SELECTION FOR FAST LARVAL DEVELOPMENT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      AND ITS EFFECT ON ADULT WEIGHT: AN EXAMPLE OF A FITNESS TRADE-OFF.
AB  - A selection experiment using Drosophila melanogaster revealed a strong trade-off
      between adult weight and larval development time (LDT), supporting the view that
      antagonistic pleiotropy for these two fitness traits determines mean adult size.
      Two experimental lines of flies were selected for a shorter LDT (measured from
      egg laying to pupation). After 15 generations LDT was reduced by an average of
      7.9%. The response appeared to be controlled primarily by autosomal loci. A
      correlated response to the selection was a reduction in adult dry weight:
      individuals from the selected populations were on average 15.1% lighter than the
      controls. The lighter females of the selected lines showed a 35% drop in
      fecundity, but no change in longevity. Thus, there is no direct relationship
      between LDT and adult longevity. The genetic correlation between weight and LDT,
      as measured from their joint response to selection, was 0.86. Although there was
      weak evidence for dominance in LDT, there was none for weight, making it unlikely
      that selection acting on this antagonistic pleiotropy could lead to a stable
      polymorphism. In all lines, sex differences in weight violated expectations based
      on intrasex genetic correlations: Females, being larger than males, ought to
      require a longer LDT, whereas there was a slight trend in the opposite direction.
      Because the sexual dimorphism in size was not significantly altered by selection,
      it appears that the controlling loci are either invariant or have very limited
      pleiotropic effect on developmental time. It is suggested that they probably
      control some intrinsic, energy-intensive developmental process in males.

PMID- 28565283
TI  - INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF OFFSPRING SIZE AND TIMING OF REPRODUCTION ON OFFSPRING
      REPRODUCTION: EXPERIMENTAL, MATERNAL, AND QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ASPECTS.
AB  - We demonstrate that egg size in side-blotched lizards is heritable (parent
      offspring regressions) and thus will respond to natural selection. Because our
      estimate of heritability is derived from free-ranging lizards, it is useful for
      predicting evolutionary response to selection in wild populations. Moreover, our
      estimate for the heritability of egg size is not likely to be confounded by
      nongenetic maternal effects that might arise from egg size per se because we
      estimate a significant parent-offspring correlation for egg size in the face of
      dramatic experimental manipulation of yolk volume of the egg. Furthermore, we
      also demonstrate a significant correlation between egg size of the female parent
      and clutch size of her offspring. Because this correlation is not related to
      experimentally induced maternal effects, we suggest that it is indicative of a
      genetic correlation between egg size and clutch size. We synthesize our results
      from genetic analyses of the trade-off between egg size and clutch size with
      previously published experiments that document the mechanistic basis of this
      trade-off. Experimental manipulation of yolk volume has no effect on offspring
      reproductive traits such as egg size, clutch size, size at maturity, or
      oviposition date. However, egg size was related to offspring survival during
      adult phases of the life history. We partitioned survival of offspring during the
      adult phase of the life history into (1) survival of offspring from winter
      emergence to the production of the first clutch (i.e., the vitellogenic phase of
      the first clutch), and (2) survival of the offspring from the production of the
      first clutch to the end of the reproductive season. Offspring from the first
      clutch of the reproductive season in the previous year had higher survival during
      vitellogenesis of their first clutch if these offspring came from small eggs. We
      did not observe selection during these prelaying phases of adulthood for
      offspring from later clutches. However, we did find that later clutch offspring
      from large eggs had the highest survival over the first season of reproduction.
      The differences in selection on adult survival arising from maternal effects
      would reinforce previously documented selection that favors the production of
      small offspring early in the season and large offspring later in the season-a
      seasonal shift in maternal provisioning. We also report on a significant parent
      offspring correlation in lay date and thus significant heritable variation in lay
      date. We can rule out the possibility of yolk volume as a confounding maternal
      effect-experimental manipulation of yolk volume has no effect on lay date of
      offspring. However, we cannot distinguish between genetic effects (i.e.,
      heritable) and nongenetic maternal effects acting on lay date that arise from the
      maternal trait lay date per se (or other unidentified maternal traits).
      Nevertheless, we demonstrate how the timing of female reproduction (e.g., date of
      oviposition and date of hatching) affect reproductive attributes of offspring.
      Notably, we find that date of hatching has effects on body size at maturity and
      fecundity of offspring from later clutches. We did not detect comparable effects
      of lay date on offspring from the first clutch.

PMID- 28565284
TI  - DOES EVOLUTIONARY PLASTICITY EVOLVE?
AB  - During the development of a multicellular organism from a zygote, a large number
      of epigenetic interactions take place on every level of suborganismal
      organization. This raises the possibility that the system of epigenetic
      interactions may compensate or "buffer" some of the changes that occur as
      mutations on its lowest levels, and thus stabilize the phenotype with respect to
      mutations. This hypothetical phenomenon will be called "epigenetic stability."
      Its potential importance stems from the fact that phenotypic variation with a
      genetic basis is an essential prerequisite for evolution. Thus, variation in
      epigenetic stability might profoundly affect attainable rates of evolution. While
      representing a systemic property of a developmental system, epigenetic stability
      might itself be genetically determined and thus be subject to evolutionary
      change. Whether or not this is the case should ideally be answered directly, that
      is, by experimentation. The time scale involved and our insufficient quantitative
      understanding of developmental pathways will probably preclude such an approach
      in the foreseeable future. Preliminary answers are sought here by using a
      biochemically motivated model of a small but central part of a developmental
      pathway. Modeled are sets of transcriptional regulators that mutually regulate
      each other's expression and thereby form stable gene expression patterns. Such
      gene-expression patterns, crucially involved in determining developmental pattern
      formation events, are most likely subject to strong stabilizing natural
      selection. After long periods of stabilizing selection, the fraction of mutations
      causing changes in gene-expression patterns is substantially reduced in the
      model. Epigenetic stability has increased. This phenomenon is found for widely
      varying regulatory scenarios among transcription factor genes. It is discussed
      that only epistatic (nonlinear) gene interactions can cause such change in
      epigenetic stability. Evidence from paleontology, molecular evolution,
      development, and genetics, consistent with the existence of variation in
      epigenetic stability, is discussed. The relation of epigenetic stability to
      developmental canalization is outlined. Experimental scenarios are suggested that
      may provide further evidence.

PMID- 28565285
TI  - MEASUREMENTS OF NATURAL SELECTION ON FLORAL TRAITS IN WILD RADISH (RAPHANUS
      RAPHANISTRUM). I. SELECTION THROUGH LIFETIME FEMALE FITNESS.
AB  - Although the role of natural selection in the evolution of floral traits has been
      of great interest to biologists since Darwin, studies of selection on floral
      traits through differences in lifetime fitness have been rare. We measured
      selection acting on flower number, flower size, stigma exsertion, and ovule
      number per flower using field data on lifetime female fitness (seed production)
      in wild radish, Raphanus raphanistrum. The patterns of selection were reasonably
      consistent across three field seasons, with strong directional selection for
      increased flower production in all three years, weaker selection for increased
      ovule number per flower in two years, and selection for increased flower size in
      one year. The causes of the selection were investigated using path analysis
      combined with multiplicative fitness components. Increased flower production
      increased fruit production directly, and increased numbers of ovules per flower
      increased the number of seeds per fruit in all three years; pollinator visitation
      did not influence either of these fitness components. Increased flower size was
      associated with increases in both the number of fruit and the number of seeds per
      fruit in one year, with the latter relationship being stronger. Total lifetime
      seed production was affected more strongly by differences in fruit production
      than by differences in either the number of seeds per fruit or the proportion of
      fertilized seeds that were viable, but all three fitness components were
      positively correlated with total seed production.

PMID- 28565286
TI  - THE EFFECT OF COEXISTENCE ON COMPETITIVE OUTCOME IN TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM AND
      TRIBOLIUM CONFUSUM.
AB  - We describe an experiment exploring the effects of coexistence and population
      differentiation on the competitive outcome of two species of Tribolium flour
      beetles, T. castaneum and T. confusum. The only manipulation was whether the
      populations used in the competitive phase of the study were raised initially in
      mixed-species communities, single-species populations, or in the standard culture
      conditions used to maintain stocks in the laboratory. Any treatment effects
      observed were due to natural selection acting within populations and genetic
      drift. In the competitive phase, we examined 10 mixed-species communities and 10
      pairs of single-species populations. We replicated each community 15 times to
      provide an assessment of the distribution of competitive outcome. Statistical
      analysis demonstrates the lineages within the treatments became highly
      differentiated for all measures of competitive outcome: the outcome of
      competition (which species won), time to extinction of one of the competing
      species, and census history. The fraction of the variance that is among lineages
      has been referred to as the group or community heritability. All of these
      measures of competitive outcome had high community level heritabilities
      indicating that competitive ability would evolve rapidly as a result of group or
      community level selection. In contrast, competitive outcome was not affected by
      whether the two species had coexisted prior to the competitive phase. This
      indicates that the outcome of competition was not systematically changed by
      processes acting within the two species communities.

PMID- 28565287
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL BUFFERING AND SELECTION.

PMID- 28565288
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF PREDATION ON THE AGE AND SIZE OF MATURITY OF PREY.
AB  - The effects of nonselective predation on the optimal age and size of maturity of
      their prey are investigated using mathematical models of a simple life history
      with juvenile and adult stages. Fitness is measured by the product of survival to
      the adult stage and expected adult reproduction, which is usually an increasing
      function of size at maturity. Size is determined by both age at maturity and the
      value of costly traits that increase mean growth rate (growth effort). The
      analysis includes cases with fixed size but flexible time to maturity, fixed time
      but flexible size, and adaptively flexible values of both variables. In these
      analyses, growth effort is flexible. For comparison with previous theory, models
      with a fixed growth effort are analyzed. In each case, there may be indirect
      effects of predation on the prey's food supply. The effect of increased predation
      depends on (1) which variables are flexible; (2) whether increased growth effort
      requires increased exposure to predators; and (3) how increased predator density
      affects the abundance of food for juvenile prey. If there is no indirect effect
      of predators on prey food supply, size at maturity will generally decrease in
      response to increased predation. However, the indirect effect from increased food
      has the opposite effect, and the net result of predation is often increased size.
      Age at maturity may either increase or decrease, depending on functional forms
      and parameter values; this is true regardless of the presence of indirect
      effects. The results are compared with those of previous theoretical analyses.
      Observed shifts in life history in response to predation are reviewed, and the
      role of size-selective predation is reassessed.

PMID- 28565289
TI  - DEPENDENCE OF GENE FLOW ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE IN TWO SOLITARY CORALS WITH
      DIFFERENT LARVAL DISPERSAL CAPABILITIES.
AB  - When the level of gene flow among populations depends upon the geographic
      distance separating them, genetic differentiation is relatively enhanced.
      Although the larval dispersal capabilities of marine organisms generally
      correlate with inferred levels of average gene flow, the effect of different
      modes of larval development on the association between gene flow and geographic
      distance remains unknown. In this paper, I examined the relationship between gene
      flow and distance in two co-occurring solitary corals. Balanophyllia elegans
      broods large, nonfeeding planulae that generally crawl only short distances from
      their place of birth before settling. In contrast, Paracyathus stearnsii free
      spawns and produces small planktonic larvae presumably capable of broad dispersal
      by oceanic currents. I calculated F-statistics using genetic variation at six (P.
      stearnsii) or seven (B. elegans) polymorphic allozyme loci revealed by starch gel
      electrophoresis, and used these F-statistics to infer levels of gene flow.
      Average levels of gene flow among twelve Californian localities agreed with
      previous studies: the species with planktonic, feeding larvae was less
      genetically subdivided than the brooding species. In addition, geographic
      isolation between populations appeared to affect gene flow between populations in
      very different ways in the two species. In the brooding B. elegans, gene flow
      declined with increasing separation, and distance explained 31% of the variation
      in gene flow. In the planktonically dispersed P. stearnsii distance of separation
      between populations at the scale studied (10-1000 km) explained only 1% of the
      variation in gene flow between populations. The mechanisms generating geographic
      genetic differentiation in species with different modes of larval development
      should vary fundamentally as a result of these qualitative differences in the
      dependence of gene flow on distance.

PMID- 28565290
TI  - EFFECTS OF INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC FACTORS ON POPULATION FRAGMENTATION IN THREE
      SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN MINNOWS (TELEOSTEI: CYPRINIDAE).
AB  - Geographic patterns of genetic variation (mitochondrial DNA [mtDNA] and
      allozymes) were used to examine effects of intrinsic characteristics (e.g.,
      vagility, habitat specificity, and reproductive behaviors) and extrinsic factors
      (e.g., climatic and geological history) on population fragmentation. The three
      species of cyprinid fishes examined (Tiaroga cobitis, Meda fulgida, and Agosia
      chrysogaster) occupied similar historical ranges within the lower Colorado River
      drainage, but differ in intrinsic characteristics conducive to population
      fragmentation. Relationships among populations were similar across species,
      reflecting common historical influences, but results indicate the distribution of
      variation among species is strongly affected by intrinsic characteristics.
      Variation within two species (T. cobitis and M. fulgida) is subdivided among
      populations, suggesting little gene flow among rivers. In contrast, similarity of
      A. chrysogaster populations throughout the Gila River drainage supports the
      hypothesis that levels of gene flow are high for this species. Levels of mtDNA
      divergence were much higher than expected for both T. cobitis and A. chrysogaster
      suggesting long-term isolation of geographic regions. These results indicate that
      both long-term and short-term extrinsic factors have shaped basic patterns of
      variation within these fishes; however, the intrinsic characteristics of each
      species have strongly affected the population genetic structure of these fishes.

PMID- 28565291
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: COMPLEX ADAPTATIONS AND THE EVOLUTION OF EVOLVABILITY.
AB  - The problem of complex adaptations is studied in two largely disconnected
      research traditions: evolutionary biology and evolutionary computer science. This
      paper summarizes the results from both areas and compares their implications. In
      evolutionary computer science it was found that the Darwinian process of
      mutation, recombination and selection is not universally effective in improving
      complex systems like computer programs or chip designs. For adaptation to occur,
      these systems must possess "evolvability," i.e., the ability of random variations
      to sometimes produce improvement. It was found that evolvability critically
      depends on the way genetic variation maps onto phenotypic variation, an issue
      known as the representation problem. The genotype-phenotype map determines the
      variability of characters, which is the propensity to vary. Variability needs to
      be distinguished from variations, which are the actually realized differences
      between individuals. The genotype-phenotype map is the common theme underlying
      such varied biological phenomena as genetic canalization, developmental
      constraints, biological versatility, developmental dissociability, and
      morphological integration. For evolutionary biology the representation problem
      has important implications: how is it that extant species acquired a genotype
      phenotype map which allows improvement by mutation and selection? Is the genotype
      phenotype map able to change in evolution? What are the selective forces, if any,
      that shape the genotype-phenotype map? We propose that the genotype-phenotype map
      can evolve by two main routes: epistatic mutations, or the creation of new genes.
      A common result for organismic design is modularity. By modularity we mean a
      genotype-phenotype map in which there are few pleiotropic effects among
      characters serving different functions, with pleiotropic effects falling mainly
      among characters that are part of a single functional complex. Such a design is
      expected to improve evolvability by limiting the interference between the
      adaptation of different functions. Several population genetic models are reviewed
      that are intended to explain the evolutionary origin of a modular design. While
      our current knowledge is insufficient to assess the plausibility of these models,
      they form the beginning of a framework for understanding the evolution of the
      genotype-phenotype map.

PMID- 28565292
TI  - COSTS OF REPRODUCTION IN THE WILD: PATH ANALYSIS OF NATURAL SELECTION AND
      EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF CAUSATION.
AB  - During 1991 through 1994, natural selection on reproductive effort in side
      blotched lizards was indexed by measuring total clutch mass produced on the first
      clutch of the reproductive season and assessing how such effort in current
      reproduction affects subsequent survival and clutch production. In addition,
      selection was also experimentally assessed in free-ranging female side-blotched
      lizards by (1) surgically decreasing total clutch mass (direct ovarian
      manipulation) and enhancing clutch mass using (2) exogenous gonadotropin, and (3)
      exogenous corticosterone. Surgical reduction of clutch mass uniformly enhanced
      survival. However, increasing clutch mass had more complex effects depending on
      year. Experimentally enhanced clutch mass enhanced survival in 1991, had no
      effect on survival in 1992, and decreased survival in 1993. Despite the
      complexity of these experimental results, they are corroborated by our
      comparative data. It is important to note that local environmental effects can
      obscure detection of costs arising from natural variation in reproductive effort,
      and we removed such effects using path analysis. The striking shift in natural
      selection favoring females laying a large clutch mass (1991) to selection against
      females laying a large clutch mass (1993) is associated with an end of a severe
      multiyear drought. Our natural-history observations suggest that the correlated
      increase in predatory snake activity on our study site, coincident with the end
      of the drought, is the agent of natural selection. Although the actual agents of
      selection (e.g., snake predation versus drought-related effects) are not
      resolved, the patterns of natural selection measured in our comparative and
      experimental data are also consistent with year-to-year changes in clutch mass
      and egg size that would be indicative of rapid short-term evolution in these
      traits.

PMID- 28565293
TI  - CONTRASTING THE UNDERLYING PATTERNS OF ACTIVE TRENDS IN MORPHOLOGIC EVOLUTION.
AB  - Gastropod evolution during the early Paleozoic featured active trends (i.e.,
      differential replacement of morphologies) for at least three shell characters.
      Selective sorting, either of individual organisms or of whole species, is an
      obvious mechanism for such active trends. Sorting of individuals should result in
      a disproportionate number of ancestor to descendant transitions being in the same
      direction as the trend, whereas sorting of species should result in species with
      particular morphologies producing more daughter species. Sorting of species can
      occur over long periods of time or it can be concentrated over a particular
      interval, such as an extinction event. Constraints on morphologic evolution also
      can drive trends, especially in cases where it is easier to produce a particular
      morphology than it is to change it. Finally, active trends can be artifacts of
      unrelated differential diversification within a clade (i.e., species
      hitchhiking), which might result from sorting of species based on
      phylogenetically associated characters or simply by chance. Unlike other active
      trends, trends attributable to species hitchhiking do not support hypotheses
      about selection or evolutionary constraints.

PMID- 28565294
TI  - Rice, W. R., and S. D. Gaines. 1994. "Heads I win, tails you lose": Testing
      directional alternative hypotheses in ecological and evolutionary research.
      Trends Ecol. & Evol. 9:235-237.

PMID- 28565295
TI  - DROUGHT STRESS AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN LYCHNIS FLOS-CUCULI
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).
AB  - Interactions between drought stress and inbreeding depression were studied in
      Lychnis flos-cuculi. Four inbreeding levels (F = 0, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75), and
      three watering treatments were used. Performance was scored for germination rate
      and proportion, survival, plant size, proportion of plants flowering, flowering
      date, stem height, number of flowers, flower size, anther weight, fruiting
      proportion and number of capsules. Multiplicative fitness values were estimated
      from these traits. Inbreeding affected most of the traits studied, and a severe
      inbreeding depression was found for the combined fitness estimates. The higher
      inbreeding depression found here relative to the same family groups in a former
      experiment may reflect greater dominance and suppression in the present
      experiment at higher density.

PMID- 28565296
TI  - ADAPTATION AND CONSTRAINT IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE PHYSIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF THE
      NAMIB DESERT TENEBRIONID BEETLE GENUS ONYMACRIS.
AB  - A comparative phylogenetic approach was used to test the following adaptive
      hypotheses pertaining to the physiological abilities of the Namib desert
      tenebrionid beetle genus Onymacris to withstand the hot, dry desert environment:
      (1) Desert-interior species evolved longer legs (relative to body size) than
      beetles in the cooler coastal region to facilitate stilting, i.e., elevating
      their bodies out of the hot boundary layer of air close to the substrate. (2) Wax
      blooms on the exoskeleton, which reduce evaporative water loss, are more likely
      to evolve in desert-interior species than in coastal species. (3) The high costs
      of activity in the extreme climates select for perfect coadaptation of preferred
      body temperatures (i.e., optimal temperatures for activity) and those they
      achieve in the field. All three of these adaptive hypotheses were supported by
      the results of squared-change parsimony and independent-contrasts analyses.
      Additionally, a parsimony approach suggested that a novel means of obtaining
      water from periodic fogs, known as fog basking, has evolved independently on two
      occasions.

PMID- 28565297
TI  - ADAPTATION TO HEAVY METALS IN THE AQUATIC OLIGOCHAETE LIMNODRILUS HOFFMEISTERI:
      EVIDENCE FOR CONTROL BY ONE GENE.

PMID- 28565298
TI  - EPISTASIS AS A SOURCE OF INCREASED ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE AT POPULATION
      BOTTLENECKS.
AB  - The role of epistasis in evolution and speciation has remained controversial. We
      use a new parameterization of physiological epistasis to examine the effects of
      epistasis on levels of additive genetic variance during a population bottleneck.
      We found that all forms of epistasis increase average additive genetic variance
      in finite populations derived from initial populations with intermediate allele
      frequencies. Average additive variance continues to increase over many
      generations, especially at larger population sizes (N = 32 to 64). Additive-by
      additive epistasis is the most potent source of additive genetic variance in this
      situation, whereas dominance-by-dominance epistasis contributes smaller amounts
      of additive genetic variance. With additive-by-dominance epistasis, additive
      genetic variance decreases at a relatively high rate immediately after a
      population bottleneck, rebounding to higher levels after several generations.
      Empirical examples of epistasis for murine adult body weight based on measured
      genotypes are provided illustrating the varying effects of epistasis on additive
      genetic variance during population bottlenecks.

PMID- 28565299
TI  - DEMOGRAPHIC GENETICS OF A PIONEER TROPICAL TREE SPECIES: PATCH DYNAMICS, SEED
      DISPERSAL, AND SEED BANKS.
AB  - We consider whether changes in population-genetic structure through the life
      cycle of Cecropia obtusifolia, a tropical pioneer tree, reflect its gap-dependent
      demography and the role of evolutionary processes that are important for this
      species. We asked whether the spatial scale at which population-genetic
      subdivision occurs corresponds to the scale of habitat patchiness created by gap
      dynamics; whether patterns of seed dispersal and storage in the soil affect
      spatial genetic patterns; and whether spatial genetic patterns change through the
      species life cycle. We estimated Wright's F-statistics for six successive life
      history stages for individuals grouped into subpopulations according to
      occurrence in natural gaps, physical proximity, or occurrence within large
      quadrats. For each life stage, FST -statistics were significantly higher when
      individuals were grouped by gaps, although concordant patterns across life stages
      for the three grouping methods were obtained. This supports the hypothesis that
      patchy recruitment in gaps or among-gap heterogeneity influences the species'
      genetic structure. F-statistics of seeds collected from females before dispersal
      (tree seeds), seed-rain seeds, soil seeds, seedlings, juveniles, and adults
      grouped by gaps, were, respectively: FIT = 0.004, 0.160, 0.121, 0.091, -0.0002, 
      0.081; FIS = -0.032, 0.124, 0.118, 0.029, -0.016, -0.083; and FST = 0.035, 0.041,
      0.003, 0.063, 0.015, 0.002. Spatial genetic differentiation in rain seeds was not
      significantly lower than that of tree seeds. The loss of genetic structure in the
      soil seed bank, relative to that found in the seed rain may be due to sampling
      artifacts, but alternative explanations, such as microsite selection or temporal
      Wahlund effect are also discussed. If structure among soil seeds is unbiased, the
      peak in seedling FST may be due to microsite selection. FIS of seeds in the rain
      and soil were significantly greater than zero. A Wahlund effect is the most
      likely cause of these positive FIS values. Such fine-scale substructuring could
      be caused by correlated seed deposition by frugivores. The decrease in FIS from
      seedlings to adults could result from loss of fine-scale genetic structure during
      stand thinning or from selection.

PMID- 28565300
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR SYMPATRIC GENETIC DIVERGENCE OF ANADROMOUS AND NONANADROMOUS MORPHS
      OF SOCKEYE SALMON (ONCORHYNCHUS NERKA).
AB  - Anadromous and nonanadromous morphs of the Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus nerka
      spawn in close physical proximity in tributaries to Takla Lake, British Columbia,
      yet differ in morphology, gill raker number, allozyme allele frequencies, and
      reproductive traits. Both morphs are semelparous typically maturing at age four,
      the anadromous morph (sockeye) at fork lengths of 38-65 cm and the nonanadromous
      morph (kokanee) at 17-22 cm. When reared together, pure and hybrid morphs also
      exhibited different growth rates and maturity schedules. Collectively, these
      large differences between the morphs confirm that sockeye and kokanee exist as
      reproductively isolated populations. Average gene flow (m) was estimated to be
      0.1-0.8% between morphs, 1.7-3.7% among tributaries for kokanee, and 0.3-5.6%
      among tributaries for sockeye. We conclude that divergence has occurred in
      sympatry and examine potential isolating mechanisms.

PMID- 28565301
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC AND OPTIMALITY ANALYSES OF LIFE-HISTORY PLASTICITY IN THE
      EASTERN MOSQUITOFISH, GAMBUSIA HOLBROOKI.

PMID- 28565302
TI  - ENVIRONMENT-DEPENDENCE OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC PARAMETERS IN IMPATIENS PALLIDA.
AB  - Population response to selection depends on the presence of additive genetic
      variance for traits under selection. When a population enters an alien
      environment, environment-induced changes in the expression of genetic variance
      may occur. These could have large effects on the response to selection. To
      investigate the environment-dependence of genetic variance, we conducted a
      reciprocal transplant experiment between two ecotypically differentiated
      populations of Impatiens pallida using the progeny of a standard mating design.
      The floodplain site was characterized by high water availability, moderate
      temperatures, and continuous dense stands of Impatiens. The hillside site was
      drier, with larger temperature extremes and supported only scattered patches of
      Impatiens with significantly lower seed production and earlier mortality.
      Estimates of heritability were low for each of the 13 traits measured in each
      population and site (range from 0-28%). Additive genetic variance for life
      history traits tended to be larger than for morphological traits, but genetic
      variance in fitness was estimated to be not significantly different from zero in
      all cases. Significant heritability was detected in both populations for one
      trait (date of first cleistogamous flower) known to be closely related to fitness
      on the hillside. In general, heritability was reduced for populations when grown
      in the hillside site relative to the floodplain site, suggesting that stress acts
      to reduce the expression of genetic variance and the potential to respond to
      selection there. Consistent reductions in heritability associated with more
      stressful environments suggest that populations invading such sites may undergo
      little adaptive differentiation and be more prone to local extinction.

PMID- 28565303
TI  - BENEFITS OF MULTIPLE MATES IN THE CRICKET GRYLLUS BIMACULATUS.
AB  - Despite the importance of polyandry for sexual selection, the reasons why females
      frequently mate with several males remain poorly understood. A number of genetic
      benefits have been proposed, based on the idea that by taking multiple mates,
      females increase the likelihood that their offspring will be sired by genetically
      more compatible or superior males. If certain males have intrinsically "good
      genes," any female mating with them will produce superior offspring.
      Alternatively, if some males have genetic elements that are incompatible with a
      particular female, then she may benefit from polyandry if the sperm of such males
      are less likely to fertilize her eggs. We examined these hypotheses in the field
      cricket Gryllus bimaculatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). By allocating females
      identical numbers of matings but different numbers of mates we investigated the
      influence of number of mates on female fecundity, and both short- and long-term
      offspring fitness. This revealed no effect of number of mates on number of eggs
      laid. However, hatching success of eggs increased with number of mates. This
      effect could not be attributed to nongenetic effects such as the possibility that
      polyandry reduces variance in the quantity or fertilizing ability of sperm
      females receive, because a control group receiving half the number of copulations
      showed no drop in hatching success. Offspring did not differ in survival, adult
      mass, size, or development time with treatment. When males were mated to several
      different females there were no repeatable differences between individual males
      in the hatching success of their mate's eggs. This suggests that improved
      hatching success of polyandrous females is not due to certain males having genes
      that improve egg viability regardless of their mate. Instead, our results support
      the hypothesis that certain males are genetically more compatible with certain
      females, and that this drives polyandry through differential fertilization
      success of sperm from more compatible males.

PMID- 28565304
TI  - SINGLE FOUNDER-FLUSH EVENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION.
AB  - By demonstrating the evolution of significant premating isolation, previous
      laboratory experiments have provided some evidence for the founder-flush model of
      speciation. However, these experiments are subject to a number of criticisms,
      including the use of hybrid populations recently collected from the wild and the
      use of multiple bottlenecks. Here we present the results of a test of founder
      flush speciation using a single, well-adapted laboratory stock of Drosophila
      melanogaster subjected to one founder-flush event. The experiment was replicated
      at larger scale than previous studies, and results indicate that none of 50
      independent founder-flush lines evolved significant assortative mating relative
      to the control (base) population. This suggests a diminished emphasis on
      population bottlenecks in speciation of D. melanogaster and perhaps in general.

PMID- 28565305
TI  - BIOGEOGRAPHY OF A WIDESPREAD FRESHWATER CRUSTACEAN: PSEUDOCONGRUENCE AND CRYPTIC
      ENDEMISM IN THE NORTH AMERICAN DAPHNIA LAEVIS COMPLEX.
AB  - The lack of morphological variation in many freshwater invertebrates over vast
      distances has been cited as evidence for their frequent, long-distance dispersal.
      This scenario implies that vicariance will be an insignificant determinant of
      species distributions or diversity. We carried out a phylogeographic and
      population genetics study of one widespread crustacean group, the North American
      Daphnia laevis complex. Allozyme and sequence variation of two mtDNA genes (12S
      and 16S rRNA) clearly indicates the existence of five morphologically cryptic,
      largely allopatric groups (Daphnia dubia, D. laevis laevis, D. laevis gessneri,
      D. magniceps magniceps, and D. magniceps pacifica ssp. n.). Within each of these
      groups, there is weak or no genetic differentiation over large geographic areas
      suggesting their recent long-distance dispersal. The present-day distributions
      and phylogeography of the regional groups suggests the occurrence of both deep
      and shallow vicariance events. Although divergence times from mtDNA sequences do
      indicate both deep and shallow divergences, these estimates are incongruent with
      their proposed vicariance times. The results show that even within closely
      related freshwater invertebrates, a complex biogeography exists, whose analysis
      is made difficult by long-distance dispersal, cryptic endemism, and
      pseudocongruence.

PMID- 28565306
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF GENE FLOW IN DARTERS (TELEOSTEI:
      PERCIDAE).
AB  - Life history should relate to gene flow (Nm) through its influence on dispersal
      and effective population size. Comparative studies designed to elucidate this
      relationship must contend with historical events that can yield misleading
      estimates of gene flow and statistical problems associated with inclusion of life
      history traits correlated with phylogeny. We studied the relationships of life
      history characters and gene flow in 15 species of darters, a monophyletic group
      of stream fishes. Populations of coexisting species were sampled in three
      geographic regions with different Pleistocene glaciation histories. Gene flow was
      estimated indirectly from allozymes using two methods, 8 and private alleles.
      Isolation-by-distance was also tested using regression of pairwise estimates of
      gene flow (M) on distance. Theta and private-alleles methods produced congruent
      estimates of Nm, except in a study region hypothesized to have been historically
      fragmented and then united following Pleistocene glaciation. A relatively weak
      association between life-history traits and Nm (based on theta) was observed when
      species from the historically fragmented region were included in stepwise
      regression analysis, because Nm was low despite life-history differences among
      taxa in this region. Excluding observations from this region produced stronger
      associations between clutch size and Nm (r2 = 0.57), and between female size, egg
      size, and Nm (r2 = 0.95). Additional analyses that corrected for female body size
      and phylogenetic nonindependence agreed that darters with high fecundity and
      small eggs exhibited high gene flow, whereas darters with small clutches and
      large eggs had low gene flow. The latter combination of life-history traits
      primarily is exhibited in species from headwater habitats where parental
      investment presumably confers survivorship on offspring. Reduced gene flow and
      genetic divergence among demes appear to be evolutionary consequences of this
      strategy.

PMID- 28565307
TI  - INFECTIVITY, MULTIPLE INFECTIONS, AND THE GENETIC CORRELATION BETWEEN WITHIN-HOST
      GROWTH AND PARASITE VIRULENCE: A REPLY TO HOCHBERG.
AB  - Two experimental studies, Ebert (1994) and Ebert and Mangin (1997), described a
      genetic correlation between parasite virulence and the number of transmission
      stages found in the hosts. It was concluded that this correlation is evidence
      that within-host growth rate of the parasite is positively correlated with
      virulence. Hochberg (1998) has criticized this interpretation, arguing that
      differential infectivity and density-dependent parasite growth could confound the
      results. Here I point out that density dependence is unlikely to have confounded
      the results, but, at least for Ebert (1994), differential infectivity is likely
      to have been a confounding factor. However, Ebert and Mangin (1997) measured
      infectivity and showed that strains with higher infectivity had lower virulence,
      which is contrary to Hochberg's hypothesis. In summary, I conclude that
      differential infectivity played a role in the assessment of the correlation
      between parasite reproduction and virulence, but that differential within-host
      growth remains the most likely explanation for the correlation observed in Ebert
      and Mangin (1997).

PMID- 28565308
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN GYNODIOECIOUS LOBELIA SIPHILITICA: AMONG-FAMILY
      DIFFERENCES OVERRIDE BETWEEN-MORPH DIFFERENCES.
AB  - If inbreeding depression is caused by deleterious recessive alleles, as suggested
      by the partial dominance hypothesis, a negative correlation between inbreeding
      and inbreeding depression is predicted. This hypothesis has been tested several
      times by comparisons of closely related species or comparisons of populations of
      the same species with different histories of inbreeding. However, if one is
      interested in whether this relationship contributes to mating-system evolution,
      which occurs within populations, comparisons among families within a population
      are needed; that is, inbreeding depression among individuals with genetically
      based differences in their rate of selfing should be compared. In gynodioecious
      species with self-compatible hermaphrodites, hermaphrodites will have a greater
      history of potential inbreeding via both selfing and biparental inbreeding as
      compared to females and may therefore express a lower level of inbreeding
      depression. We estimated the inbreeding depression of female and hermaphrodite
      lineages in gynodioecious Lobelia siphilitica in a greenhouse experiment by
      comparing the performance of selfed and outcrossed progeny, as well as sibling
      crosses and crosses among subpopulations. We did not find support for lower
      inbreeding depression in hermaphrodite lineages. Multiplicative inbreeding
      depression (based on seed germination, juvenile survival, survival to flowering,
      and flower production in the first growing season) was not significantly
      different between hermaphrodite lineages (delta = 0.30 +/- 0.08) and female
      lineages (delta = 0.15 +/- 0.18), although the trend was for higher inbreeding
      depression in the hermaphrodite lineages. The population-level estimate of
      inbreeding depression was relatively low for a gynodioecious species (delta =
      0.25) and there was no significant inbreeding depression following biparental
      inbreeding (delta = 0.01). All measured traits showed significant variation among
      families, and there was a significant interaction between family and pollination
      treatment for four traits (germination date, date of first flowering, number of
      flowers, and aboveground biomass). Our results suggest that the families
      responded differently to selfing and outcrossing: Some families exhibited lower
      fitness following selfing whereas others seemed to benefit from selfing as
      compared to outcrossing. Our results support recent simulation results in that
      prior inbreeding of the lineages did not determine the level of inbreeding
      depression. These results also emphasize the importance of determining family
      level estimates of inbreeding depression, relative to population-level estimates,
      for studies of mating-system evolution.

PMID- 28565309
TI  - EFFECTS OF POSTGLACIAL RANGE EXPANSION ON ALLOZYME AND QUANTITATIVE GENETIC
      VARIATION OF THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO, WYEOMYIA SMITHII.
AB  - We determined allozyme variability of 34 populations of the pitcher-plant
      mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, from Florida (30 degrees N) to northern Manitoba (54
      degrees N) and compared allozyme variability with the additive genetic variance
      for preadult development time and photoperiodic response determined previously
      for six populations over a similar range (30-50 degrees N). Phylogenetic analysis
      of allozymes shows a well-defined split between Gulf Coast and lowland North
      Carolina populations, similar to previously observed phylogeographic patterns in
      a wide variety of taxa. A deeper split in the phylogeny of W. smithii coincides
      with the location of the maximum extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Furthermore,
      both average heterozygosity and patterns of isolation-by-distance decline in
      populations north of the former glacial border. It is likely that northern
      populations are the result of a range expansion that occurred subsequent to the
      late-Wisconsin retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and that these populations
      have not yet reached a drift-migration equilibrium. The northern decline in
      allozyme heterozygosity contrasts sharply with the northern increase in additive
      genetic variance of development time and photoperiodic response found in previous
      studies. These previous studies also showed that the genetic divergence of
      populations has involved stochastic variation in the contribution of dominance
      and epistasis to the genetic architecture underlying demographic traits,
      including preadult development time, and photoperiodic response. When taken
      together, the present and prior studies identify the genetic processes underlying
      the lack of concordance between geographic patterns of allozyme and quantitative
      genetic variation in natural populations of W. smithii. In the presence of
      nonadditive genetic variation, isolation and drift can result in opposite
      patterns of genetic variation for structural genes and quantitative traits.

PMID- 28565310
TI  - EVOLUTION OF A POLYMORPHISM FOR OUTCROSSING RATE IN SENECIO VULGARIS: INFLUENCE
      OF GERMINATION BEHAVIOR.
AB  - A difference in germination behavior between the highly selling, nonradiate
      variant of Senecio vulgaris and the more outcrossing, radiate form had a large
      effect on the relative female fitness of these two morphs raised in mixed stands
      under conditions similar to those experienced in the wild. Of particular
      significance was the finding that female fitness differences between morphs were
      reversed in early- and late-sown plots. This was because a greater proportion of
      nonradiate than radiate seed germinated directly after sowing, and in early-sown
      plots a relatively large proportion of early-germinated nonradiate seedlings
      survived winter to produce large, highly fecund plants the following summer, that
      contributed greatly to the total female fitness of the nonradiate morph. In
      contrast, in late-sown plots (i.e., sown two weeks later), survivorship of early
      germinated seedlings was much reduced, and the radiate morph had an advantage
      because most radiate seed delayed germination until spring, therefore avoiding
      seedling mortality during winter. The effect of the association between morph
      type and germination behavior on morph female fitness in S. vulgaris is clearly
      important in regard to the evolution of the polymorphism for outcrossing rate in
      the species. This, in turn, emphasizes the point that an understanding of factors
      responsible for the evolution and maintenance of polymorphisms for outcrossing
      rate in the wild should be based on a detailed examination of the ecological
      genetics of such polymorphisms that extend beyond traditional studies of pollen
      discounting and inbreeding depression.

PMID- 28565311
TI  - LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN THE BEAN WEEVIL (ACANTHOSCELIDES
      OBTECTUS): THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION ON DEVELOPMENTAL TIME IN POPULATIONS WITH
      DIFFERENT PREVIOUS HISTORY.
AB  - In this study we examined the direct and correlated responses for fast and slow
      preadult development time in three laboratory populations of the bean weevil
      (Acanthoscelides obtectus). The first population ("base," B) has experienced
      laboratory conditions for more than 10 years; the second ("young," Y) and the
      third ("old," O) populations were selected for early and late reproduction,
      respectively, before the onset of the present experiments. All three populations
      are successfully selected for both fast and slow preadult development. The
      realized heritabilities are very similar in all populations, suggesting a similar
      level of the additive genetic variance for preadult development. We studied the
      correlated responses on the following life-history traits: egg-to-adult
      viability, wet body weight, early fecundity, late fecundity, total realized
      female fecundity, and adult longevity. All life-history traits examined here,
      except for the egg-to-adult viability, are affected by selection for preadult
      development in at least in one of the studied populations. In all three
      populations, beetles selected for slow preadult development are heavier and live
      longer than those from the fast-selected lines. The findings with respect to
      adult longevity are unexpected, because the control Y and O populations, selected
      for short- and long-lived beetles, respectively, do not show significant
      differences in preadult development. Thus, our results indicate that some kind of
      asymmetrical correlated responses occur for preadult development and adult
      longevity each time that direct selection has been imposed on one or the other of
      these two traits. In contrast to studies with Drosophila, it appears that for
      insect species that are aphagous as adults, selection for preadult development
      entails selection for alleles that also change the adult longevity, but that age
      specific selection (applied in the Y and O populations) mostly affects the
      alleles that have no significant influence on the preadult development.
      Implications of these findings on the developmental and evolutionary theories of
      aging are also discussed.

PMID- 28565312
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION OF SENESCENCE: AN ANALYSIS USING A "HETEROGENEITY"
      MORTALITY MODEL.
AB  - A long-term laboratory selection experiment has produced replicated populations
      of fruit flies that differ in mean life span by more than twofold. An analysis of
      age-specific mortality rates indicated that differences in mean life span have
      been achieved principally by evolution of patterns of senescence. These results
      provide empirical confirmation that senescence can be modified within species by
      appropriate forms of natural selection, which is a fundamental prediction of
      theories regarding the genetic basis and evolution of senescence. Mortality data
      were fit to a model that accounts for the leveling off of cohort mortality rates
      at older ages, but that does not necessarily imply that very old individuals
      cease to senesce.

PMID- 28565313
TI  - INBREEDING AND FITNESS IN THE FRESHWATER SNAIL LYMNAEA PEREGRA: AN EVALUATION
      OVER TWO GENERATIONS OF SELF-FERTILIZATION.
AB  - Inbreeding depression was estimated from an outbreeding population of the
      freshwater snail Lymnaea peregra, on the basis of two successive generations of
      enforced selling and outcrossing, and 70 maternal lineages. Outcrossing was
      analyzed under two treatments, groups of two and five individuals. The fitness
      parameters measured included fecundity, growth, and survival. In the first
      generation, we contrasted three treatments (selfers vs. paired outcrossers and
      group outcrossers). Very similar results were obtained between the two
      outcrossing treatments. A strong self-fertilization depression (which includes
      parental fecundity and progeny fitness) was detected in the selling treatment
      (about 90%). In the second generation, there was again marked evidence for self
      fertilization depression, with the highest contributions coming from parental
      fecundity and progeny hatching rate. Our results suggest that the decreased
      parental fecundity is a consequence of the mating system in the previous
      generation, although the role of partial self-incompatibility and the copulation
      behavior could not be ruled out. Hatching rate and early survival data are
      suggestive of purging of lethal mutations. Significant variation in fitness among
      selfing lineages was found for most fitness traits. Our experimental design also
      allowed to test for interactions among fitness loci. Only one trait of the nine
      studied behaved as expected under synergistic interactions. However we cannot
      rule out some purging during the experiment, which could have biased results
      towards linearity. Inbreeding depression was also inferred from the change of
      inbreeding level across generations in the same population. We obtained a value
      similar to the experimental estimate.

PMID- 28565314
TI  - TESTING HYPOTHESES OF NEURAL EVOLUTION IN GYMNOTIFORM ELECTRIC FISHES USING
      PHYLOGENETIC CHARACTER DATA.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a method to test alternative hypotheses of phenotypic
      evolution. The method compares patterns observed in phylogenetic character data
      with patterns expected by explicit models of evolutionary process. Observed
      patterns of character-state diversity are assessed from four properties of
      character-state change derived from a phylogenetic analysis: the sequence and
      correlation of transformations on a cladogram and the spatial and functional
      localization of these transformations to parts of an organism. Patterns expressed
      in terms of the localization of transformations are compared with the
      expectations of null models that the number of transformations is proportional to
      measures of size or complexity. Deviations from the values expected by the null
      models are then compared with qualitative expectations of the models. The method
      is applied to characters in the nervous system of gymnotiform electric fishes.
      Patterns in the diversity of 63 reconstructed character-state changes are
      compared with the expectations of 10 published models of neural evolution. A
      total of 63 expectations are reviewed, of which 33 (52%) are found to be
      consistent with the gymnotiform neural data. In general, the models reviewed are
      not successful at making global predictions, in part because they have been cast
      in excessively general terms. The data support the conclusion that evolution in
      the nervous system of gymnotiforms has involved a mosaic of processes, each
      operating differentially on functional and developmental systems and at different
      spatial and temporal scales. The results also indicate that more refined models
      are required, each making more explicit predictions.

PMID- 28565315
TI  - ESTABLISHING GENETIC CORRELATIONS INVOLVING PARASITE VIRULENCE.
AB  - For many host-parasite interactions, virulence is necessarily affected by
      population densities, transmission biology of the parasite, and proliferation of
      the parasite at the expense of its host. Attempts to experimentally demonstrate
      genetic correlations involving virulence therefore need to employ protocols
      controlling for variation in the number of successful infections (i.e., the end
      point of transmissibility). If protocols are not controlled, then correlations
      may be spurious, as appears to be the case in recent experimental studies by
      Ebert (1994) and Ebert and Magnin (1997). There is a need to explore the modes of
      the evolution of each of the many sequential steps in nonsymbiotic and symbiotic
      phases of host-parasite associations and the implication of such evolution for
      overall virulence. I argue that it is the interdependence of these sequential
      steps (and not overall virulence) that should be at the center of attempts to
      establish genetic correlations.

PMID- 28565316
TI  - LOGISTIC REGRESSION FOR EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF MULTIVARIATE SELECTION.
AB  - Understanding the mechanics of adaptive evolution requires not only knowing the
      quantitative genetic bases of the traits of interest but also obtaining accurate
      measures of the strengths and modes of selection acting on these traits. Most
      recent empirical studies of multivariate selection have employed multiple linear
      regression to obtain estimates of the strength of selection. We reconsider the
      motivation for this approach, paying special attention to the effects of
      nonnormal traits and fitness measures. We apply an alternative statistical
      method, logistic regression, to estimate the strength of selection on multiple
      phenotypic traits. First, we argue that the logistic regression model is more
      suitable than linear regression for analyzing data from selection studies with
      dichotomous fitness outcomes. Subsequently, we show that estimates of selection
      obtained from the logistic regression analyses can be transformed easily to
      values that directly plug into equations describing adaptive microevolutionary
      change. Finally, we apply this methodology to two published datasets to
      demonstrate its utility. Because most statistical packages now provide options to
      conduct logistic regression analyses, we suggest that this approach should be
      widely adopted as an analytical tool for empirical studies of multivariate
      selection.

PMID- 28565317
TI  - COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GALL MORPHOLOGY IN AUSTRALIAN GALL THRIPS: THE EVOLUTION
      OF EXTENDED PHENOTYPES.
AB  - We used a combination of morphometric, phylogenetic, and life-history information
      to analyze the evolution and possible adaptive significance of gall morphology in
      a clade of 24 species of gall-inducing thrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera) on
      Australian Acacia trees. Principal components analysis revealed that galls varied
      in morphology along two main axes, spherical versus elongate (PC1) and general
      size (PC2). A high degree of conservation of gall shape on an independently
      derived phylogeny of the insects and the presence of nine species of Acacia each
      bearing two or three morphologically disparate gall forms induced by different
      thrips species indicate that interspecific variation in gall form is determined
      predominantly by the insects. Character optimization of PC1 on the phylogeny of
      gall thrips suggested that the ancestral gall form was a simple roll or curl. The
      diversification of gall form involved four main processes: (1) the convergent
      evolution of relatively spherical galls in two clades; (2) the evolution of small
      elongate and hemispherical galls in one clade; (3) the evolution of a lobed
      interior in a species with a spherical gall and multiple within-gall generations;
      and (4) the evolution of intraspecific gall polymorphism in a clade of apparent
      sibling species. Comparative analyses indicated that gall sphericity was
      associated with the presence of physogastry (foundress hyperfecundity) and that
      small elongate and hemispherical forms may be associated with the presence of
      multiple generations in a gall and, perhaps, with the presence of soldier castes.
      The evolution of a lobed interior in one species, which greatly increases inner
      surface area, coincided with the evolution of multiple generations. In the clade
      with intraspecific gall polymorphism in some species, patterns of intraspecific
      variation mirror patterns of interspecific variation within the clade as a whole.
      This is the first study to analyze the evolution of gall size and shape in a
      phylogenetic context and to investigate the life-history correlates of
      evolutionary changes in gall form. Taken together, our findings indicate that the
      main selective pressures driving the evolution of gall form in Australian gall
      thrips on Acacia involve inner surface area to volume relationships, which change
      in concert with foundress fecundity and the number of within-gall generations.

PMID- 28565318
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE-BIASED SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM: A POPULATION-LEVEL
      COMPARATIVE STUDY IN HORNED LIZARDS (PHRYNOSOMA).
AB  - Female-biased sexual size dimorphism is uncommon among vertebrates and
      traditionally has been attributed to asymmetric selective pressures favoring
      large fecund females (the fecundity-advantage hypothesis) and/or small mobile
      males (the small-male advantage hypothesis). I use a phylogenetically based
      comparative method to address these hypotheses for the evolution and maintenance
      of sexual size dimorphism among populations of three closely related lizard
      species (Phrynosoma douglasi, P. ditmarsi, and P. hernandezi). With independent
      contrasts I estimate evolutionary correlations among female body size, male body
      size, and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) to determine whether males have become
      small, females have become large, or both sexes have diverged concurrently in
      body size during the evolutionary Xhistory of this group. Population differences
      in degree of SSD are inversely correlated with average male body size, but are
      not correlated with average female body size. Thus, variation in SSD among
      populations has occurred predominantly through changes in male size, suggesting
      that selective pressures on small males may affect degree of SSD in this group. I
      explore three possible evolutionary mechanisms by which the mean male body size
      in a population could evolve: changes in size at maturity, changes in the
      variance of male body sizes, and changes in skewness of male body size
      distributions. Comparative analyses indicate that population differentiation in
      male body size is achieved by changes in male size at maturity, without changes
      in the variance or skewness of male and female size distributions. This study
      demonstrates the potential of comparative methods at lower taxonomic levels
      (among populations and closely related species) for studying microevolutionary
      processes that underlie population differentiation.

PMID- 28565319
TI  - APPEARANCE AND SWEEP OF A GENE DUPLICATION: ADAPTIVE RESPONSE AND POTENTIAL FOR
      NEW FUNCTIONS IN THE MOSQUITO CULEX PIPIENS.
AB  - Evolution of a new gene function is a fundamental process of adaptation. Gene
      duplication followed by divergence due to relaxed selection on redundant copies
      has been viewed as the predominant mechanism involved in this process. At a
      macroevolutionary scale, evidence for this scenario came from the analysis of
      sequences of genes families. However, even if several genetic models have
      described the different potential microevolutionary scenario for a new function
      to evolve, little is really known about the initial evolutionary dynamics of such
      processes. We analyze such early dynamics in natural populations of the mosquito
      Culex pipiens polymorphic for a duplication at Ace.1, a locus involved in
      insecticide resistance. The date of occurrence and the selective advantages of
      the duplication were estimated using frequency data. We propose a scenario where
      the spread of a duplication is driven, from the very beginning, by selection due
      to insecticide treatment.

PMID- 28565320
TI  - NEGATIVE MATERNAL EFFECT REVISITED: A TEST ON TWO POPULATIONS OF ORCHESELLA
      CINCTA L. (COLLEMBOLA: ENTOMOBRYIDAE).
AB  - A Dutch population of Orchesella cincta had been demonstrated to exhibit a
      negative maternal effect on age at first reproduction, which caused alternation
      of short and long generations. The adaptive significance of such a mechanism was
      assumed to be associated with the bivoltine life cycle of Dutch O. cincta. We
      expected that it would be absent in a non bivoltine population sampled in Siena,
      Italy. To test this hypothesis we performed a parent-offspring regression
      experiment with both populations simultaneously. The experiment showed that there
      was no negative maternal effect in both populations. We leave open the question
      of the cause of the discrepancy between the previous result with the Dutch
      population and the present result. The results of our experiment were also used
      to determine heritabilities of the traits age, mass and number of molts at first
      reproduction, and size of the first clutch. The estimates of heritabilities were
      often not significantly different from zero, especially in the Italian population
      which had only one significant heritability.

PMID- 28565321
TI  - SELECTION AND STRAIN SPECIFICITY OF COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN SNAIL INTERMEDIATE
      HOSTS AND THEIR PARASITIC SCHISTOSOMES.
AB  - Many theoretical models of host-parasite coevolution assume that variation in
      host resistance to parasite infection is, at least partially, genetically
      determined and specific to the strain of infecting parasite. However, very few
      experimental studies have been conducted to test this assumption in animal
      parasite systems. Biomphalaria glabrata snails serve as the intermediate hosts of
      Schistosoma mansoni. Although some snails are resistant to infection, there is no
      evidence of fixation of resistance in field populations. Two possible
      explanations for this are high fitness costs associated with resistance and a
      dynamic coevolution between parasite and host, perhaps involving matching alleles
      or gene-for-gene interactions. Two strains of B. glabrata were artificially
      selected for either resistance or susceptibility to each of two strains of S.
      mansoni parasite for three generations. Third-generation snails were then were
      exposed to either the parasite strain to which they had been selected or to a
      different parasite strain. In both host strains, resistance and susceptibility
      (compatibility) were found to be heritable. Moreover, compatibility to one
      parasite strain was not associated with compatibility to another strain, implying
      no genetic trade-off. Our results are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms
      of resistance in this host-parasite system and their implications to general
      coevolutionary theory.

PMID- 28565322
TI  - ISOLATING A ROLE FOR NATURAL SELECTION IN SPECIATION: HOST ADAPTATION AND SEXUAL
      ISOLATION IN NEOCHLAMISUS BEBBIANAE LEAF BEETLES.
AB  - Muller (1942) and Mayr (1963) hypothesized that natural selection indirectly
      causes the evolution of reproductive barriers between allopatric populations by
      causing adaptive genetic divergence that pleiotropically promotes prezygotic or
      postzygotic incompatibility. Under this mechanism, herbivorous insect populations
      should be more prone to speciate if they are adapting to different host plants,
      because the evolution of reproductive isolation will be accelerated above the
      rate promoted by genetic drift and host-independent sources of selection alone.
      Although the Muller-Mayr hypothesis is widely accepted, little direct evidence
      has been collected in support of selection's role in allopatric speciation. This
      paper offers a method for isolating and evaluating the contribution of host plant
      related natural selection pressures to the reproductive isolation between
      allopatric herbivore populations. The host-related selection hypothesis (HRSH)
      predicts that herbivore populations using different host plants should be more
      reproductively isolated than those using the same host, other things being equal.
      Here, I test this hypothesis using Neochlamisus bebbianae, an oligophagous leaf
      beetle with a geographically variable host range. In each of two sets of
      experiments (contrast I, contrast II), I compared two beetle populations (Georgia
      and New York) that use the same host (Acer) in nature and a third population that
      natively uses a different host (Betula in Oklahoma [CI], Salix in Ontario [CII]).
      Experiments showed that "different-host" populations were more strongly
      differentiated in host-use traits (oviposition, host fidelity, feeding response,
      larval performance) than were "same-host" populations and that each population
      most readily uses foliage from its native host. As predicted by the HRSH, sexual
      isolation was also greater between the adaptively divergent different-host
      populations (from Betula vs. Acer, from Salix vs. Acer) than between the same
      host populations (from Acer), which were undifferentiated in host-use traits.
      Interpreting these results in a historical context provided by mtDNA sequences
      from test populations indicated: (1) that Acer- and Betula-associated N.
      bebbianae represent separate sibling species whose causal origins have been lost
      to history, and whose incomplete sexual isolation is fortified by host-associated
      ecological and "physiological" isolation; and (2) that incipiently speciating
      Acer- and Salix-associated populations are more closely related to each other
      than are the two Acer-associated populations, which is consistent with the HRSH.
      This study thus illustrates the consequences of host-related selection for both
      the origin and maintenance of reproductive isolation. More important, it provides
      evidence that the pleiotropic effects of natural selection promote allopatric
      speciation.

PMID- 28565323
TI  - TIMING OF PARTURITION AS A MATERNAL CARE TACTIC IN AN ALPINE LIZARD SPECIES.
AB  - Lack of ability to buffer postparturient offspring mortality risks may put a
      female under strong selection to time the birth of her young with benign
      environmental conditions. We provide support for timing of parturition as an
      adaptation in Tasmanian snow skinks (Niveoscincus) by demonstration of (1)
      ongoing selection against poorly timed parturitions, (2) retention of full-term
      young through episodes of unfavorable conditions, and (3) phylogenetic shifts
      from autumn to spring parturition in taxa where costs of autumn parturition are
      expected to be relatively higher.

PMID- 28565324
TI  - CONSPIRATORIAL WHISPERS AND CONSPICUOUS DISPLAYS: GAMES OF SIGNAL DETECTION.
AB  - Recent models of signaling have assumed that the expenditure required to ensure
      detection of a display is negligible and have concentrated instead on the costs
      that may be necessary to maintain honesty. Such models predict that individuals
      who share the same interests are likely to communicate using "conspiratorial
      whispers," signals that are cheap and inconspicuous. Here, I present a game
      theoretical model of signal detection (in a noisy environment, in the presence of
      potential eavesdroppers), which demonstrates that the idea of conspiratorial
      whispers is far too simplistic. It is true that in "cooperative" signaling
      systems (where signalers attempt to elicit responses that are beneficial for
      receivers), signal cost is not required to maintain honesty. However, some level
      of expenditure is still needed to ensure that a signal is reliably detected.
      Moreover, there exists a conflict of interest between signalers and receivers
      over the division of this expenditure. To predict the stable level of display in
      such cases, one needs to know how this conflict of interest will be resolved. The
      model reveals that the outcome may range from a whisper to a conspicuous and
      costly (though still conspiratorial) display. The more closely related the
      receiver is to the signaler, the greater the level of signal exaggeration that is
      expected-the opposite prediction to that of honest signaling models.

PMID- 28565325
TI  - EVOLUTION OF STARVATION RESISTANCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: ASPECTS OF
      METABOLISM AND COUNTER-IMPACT SELECTION.
AB  - An artificial selection experiment for increased female starvation resistance
      employed five selected lines and five control lines of Drosophila melanogaster.
      Females responded to selection within the first five generations, but a
      substantial male response was not observed until starvation resistance was
      assessed at generation 15. By measuring respiration rate in selected and control
      lines, it was possible to test the hypothesis that reduced metabolic rate is a
      general mechanism for stress resistance. There was no association between
      starvation resistance and respiration rate and thus no support for the
      hypothesis. Studies using vertebrates have shown that starvation causes a
      decrease in intermediary metabolism enzyme activity, but this relationship is not
      well documented in invertebrates. In the present study, intermediary metabolism
      enzyme activities decreased in response to starvation in control-line females and
      males, and in selected-line males. However, the selected females showed no
      overall decrease in enzyme activities in response to starvation. One
      interpretation is that selected females evolved to resist the phenotypic impact
      of stress. The concept of "counter-impact selection" is discussed in relationship
      to the use of phenotypic manipulations for the study of evolution.

PMID- 28565327
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565326
TI  - PATTERNS OF POSTZYGOTIC ISOLATION IN FROGS.
AB  - From literature data on 116 taxa crosses involving 46 species of frogs, we found
      a positive correlation between degree of divergence (measured as Nei's genetic
      distance, D) and degree of postzygotic isolation. In anurans, hybrid sterility
      appears to evolve more quickly than inviability, which is consistent with the
      conclusions of other studies that involved Drosophila species. The lower
      threshold of D = 0.30 for evolution of hybrid inviability that we found is
      similar to that observed for Drosophila. This consistency suggests that there may
      be a general pattern in the acquisition of reproductive isolation in animals.

PMID- 28565328
TI  - A SPATIALLY EXPLICIT STOCHASTIC MODEL DEMONSTRATES THE FEASIBILITY OF WRIGHT'S
      SHIFTING BALANCE THEORY.
AB  - Recently there has been a resurgence of theoretical papers exploring Wright's
      Shifting Balance Theory (SBT) of evolution. The SBT explains how traits which
      must pass through an adaptive valley may evolve in substructured populations. It
      has been suggested that Phase III of the SBT (the spread of new advantageous
      traits through the populations) proceeds only under a very restricted set of
      conditions. We show that Phase III can proceed under a much broader set of
      conditions in models that properly incorporate a key feature of Wright's theory:
      local, random migration of discrete individuals.

PMID- 28565329
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF SPECIES IN THE MANGROVE GENUS AVICENNIA
      (AVICENNIACEAE) IN THE INDO-WEST PACIFIC.
AB  - Allozyme variation in species of the mangrove genus Avicennia was screened in 25
      populations collected from 22 locations in the Indo-West Pacific and eastern
      North America using 11 loci. Several fixed gene differences supported the
      specific status of Avicennia alba, A. integra, A. marina, and A. rumphiana from
      the Indo-West Pacific, and A. germinans from the Atlantic-East Pacific. The three
      varieties of A. marina, var. marina, var. eucalyptifolia, and van australasica,
      had higher genetic similarities (Nei's I) and no fixed gene differences,
      confirming their conspecific status. Strong genetic structuring was observed in
      A. marina, with sharp changes in gene frequencies at the geographical margins of
      varietal distributions. The occurrence of alleles found otherwise in only one
      variety, in only immediately adjacent populations of another variety, provided
      evidence of introgession between varieties. The varieties appear to have diverged
      recently in the Pleistocene and are apparently not of ancient Cretaceous origin,
      as suggested earlier. Despite evidence of high degrees of outcrossing, gene flow
      among populations was relatively low (Ne m < 1-2), except where populations were
      geographically continuous, questioning assumptions that these widespread mangrove
      species achieve high levels of long-distance dispersal.

PMID- 28565330
TI  - IS SPECIALIZATION A DEAD END? THE PHYLOGENY OF HOST USE IN DENDROCTONUS BARK
      BEETLES (SCOLYTIDAE).
AB  - Ecological explanations for the prevalence of resource specialists are abundant,
      whereas phylogenetic evidence on their origins is scarce. In this paper, we
      provide a molecular phylogenetic study of the 19 specialist or generalist species
      in the bark beetle genus Dendroctonus, which collectively attack species in four
      different genera in the conifer family Pinaceae. Given substantial variation in
      diet breadth, we asked two general questions concerning the evolution of resource
      use in this group. How conservative is the evolution of host use in these
      insects? Does specialization tend to be derived (i.e., a "dead end")? To answer
      these questions, we estimated the phylogeny of Dendroctonus using mitochondrial
      DNA sequences and mapped transitions in resource use on the resulting phylogeny
      estimate. The evolution of affiliations with Pinus and Picea hosts in
      Dendroctonus was conservative among beetle species (PTP test; P < 0.012), but
      there was no significant correspondence between the phylogeny of these beetles
      and the phylogeny among their Pinaceae hosts (among genera, P = 0.28; among Pinus
      species, P = 0.82). Degree of specialization, as measured in the proportion of
      hosts used, was bimodally distributed with "generalist" species utilizing < 60%
      of the congeneric hosts within their range and six specialist species utilizing <
      40% of the available hosts. Among the generalists, we found a strong correlation
      between the number of hosts encountered and the number of hosts utilized (R =
      0.97, P < 0.0001), whereas there was no significant correlation among the
      specialists (R = 0.27, P = 0.59). The evolution of specialization in Dendroctonus
      proved highly labile-specialists arose from generalists at least six separate
      times (without reversal) all in derived positions, and closer examination of some
      specialists revealed instances where they appear to have lost particular host
      species from their diet. However, evidence from the ecological literature also
      suggests that several Dendroctonus generalists may have increased their range of
      host genera within the Pinaceae.

PMID- 28565331
TI  - PHOSPHOGLUCONATE DEHYDROGENASE POLYMORPHISM AND SALINITY IN THE WHITE SANDS
      PUPFISH.
AB  - The phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (Pgdh) locus is the only polymorphic allozyme
      locus observed among 37 loci examined in all four populations of a New Mexico
      state Endangered species, the White Sands pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa). We
      report evidence suggesting that this polymorphism may be associated with
      salinity. Salinity levels vary widely within and between habitats occupied by
      White Sands pupfish. The frequency of the Pgdh100 allozyme was correlated with
      salinity but not with temperature. Frequency of Pgdh100 differed between low
      (3.76 parts per thousand (ppt)) and high (9.23 ppt) salinity sites at Malpais
      Spring despite no obvious barriers to fish movement. Frequencies of Pgdh100 in
      two introduced populations differed from that of the presumptive founding stock
      and correlated with salinity in the current habitats.

PMID- 28565332
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: THE THEORIES OF FISHER AND WRIGHT IN THE CONTEXT OF METAPOPULATIONS:
      WHEN NATURE DOES MANY SMALL EXPERIMENTS.
AB  - We critically review the two major theories of adaptive evolution developed early
      in this century, Wright's shifting balance theory and Fisher's large population
      size theory, in light of novel findings from field observations, laboratory
      experiments, and theoretical research conducted over the past 15 years.
      Ecological studies of metapopulations have established that the processes of
      local extinction and colonization of demes are relatively common in natural
      populations of many species and theoretical population genetic models have shown
      that these ecological processes have genetic consequences within and among local
      demes. Within demes, random genetic drift converts nonadditive genetic variance
      into additive genetic variance, increasing, rather than limiting, the potential
      for adaptation to local environments. For this reason, the genetic differences
      that arise by drift among demes, can be augmented by local selection. The
      resulting adaptive differences in gene combinations potentially contribute to the
      genetic origin of new species. These and other recent findings were not discussed
      by either Wright or Fisher. For example, although Wright emphasized epistatic
      genetic variance, he did not discuss the conversion process. Similarly, Fisher
      did not discuss how the average additive effect of a gene varies among demes
      across a metapopulation whenever there is epistasis. We discuss the implications
      of such recent findings for the Wright-Fisher controversy and identify some
      critical open questions that require additional empirical and theoretical study.

PMID- 28565333
TI  - TESTS OF PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC MODELS WITH NUCLEAR AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCE
      VARIATION IN THE STONE CRABS, MENIPPE ADINA AND MENIPPE MERCENARIA.
AB  - Evolutionary relationships among stone crabs (Menippe) from the Gulf of Mexico
      and western Atlantic were investigated by comparisons of restriction sites within
      anonymous nuclear DNA sequences and nucleotide sequences of both mitochondrial
      and a duplicated nuclear form of the mitochondrial large subunit ribosomal RNA
      (LSrDNA) gene. A survey of over 100 restriction sites by Southern blot analysis
      with 10 anonymous nuclear DNA sequence probes failed to reveal any differences
      between Menippe adina and M. mercenaria. Sequence comparisons of both
      mitochondrial and nuclear forms of the LSrDNA gene also did not distinguish these
      species. Although both LSrDNA gene sequences were variable, some haplotypes were
      shared by the two species, implying either incomplete gene lineage sorting or
      introgressive hybridization. Based on molecular clock calibrations, we estimate
      that all of the observed mitochondrial LSrDNA sequences share a common ancestor
      between 1.5 and 2.7 million years before present (M.Y.B.P.). However, because
      identical sequences are shared by the two species, these data are also compatible
      with a more recent common ancestry. These findings conflict with a previously
      proposed biogeographic scenario for North American Menippe, which featured a
      relict hybrid zone on the Atlantic Coast. We suggest an alternative scenario
      based on relatively recent events and ongoing, rather than historical, gene flow.

PMID- 28565334
TI  - MOLECULAR GENETIC DISSECTION OF SPAWNING, PARENTAGE, AND REPRODUCTIVE TACTICS IN
      A POPULATION OF REDBREAST SUNFISH, LEPOMIS AURITUS.
AB  - Despite a great diversity of reproductive behaviors in fishes, few studies have
      examined the genetic consequences of alternative reproductive tactics. Here we
      develop and employ microsatellite markers to assess genetic paternity and
      maternity of progeny cohorts in a population of redbreast sunfish (Lepomis
      auritus), a species in which males build and tend nests. Nearly 1000 progeny from
      25 nests, plus nest-attendant males and nearby adults, were genotyped at
      microsatellite loci that displayed more than 18 alleles each. The genetic data
      demonstrate that multiple females (at least two to six) spawned in each nest,
      their offspring were spatially dispersed across a nest, and more than 90% of the
      young were sired by the attendant male. However, about 40% of the nests also
      showed genetic evidence of low-level reproductive parasitism, and two nests were
      tended by males that had fathered none of the sampled offspring. Genetically
      deduced reproductive behaviors in this population of redbreast sunfish contrast
      with those reported previously in bluegill sunfish (L. macrochirus) wherein
      heteromorphic males specialized for parasitism or for parental care coexist in
      high frequency. Thus, nest-parasitic reproductive behaviors in fishes appear to
      be evolutionary labile.

PMID- 28565335
TI  - PAIRWISE VERSUS DIFFUSE NATURAL SELECTION AND THE MULTIPLE HERBIVORES OF SCARLET
      GILIA, IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA.
AB  - Recent theoretical studies have argued that plant-herbivore coevolution proceeds
      in a diffuse rather than a pairwise manner in multispecies interactions when at
      least one of two conditions are met: (1) genetic correlations exist between plant
      resistances to different herbivore species; and (2) ecological interactions
      between herbivores sharing a host plant cause nonadditive impacts of herbivory on
      plant fitness. We present results from manipulative field experiments
      investigating the single and interactive fitness effects of three types of
      herbivory on scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) over two years of study. We
      utilize these data to test whether selection imposed by herbivore attack on date
      of first flowering is pairwise (independent) or diffuse (dependent) in nature.
      Our results reveal complex patterns of the fitness effect of herbivores.
      Simulated early season browsing had a strong negative fitness effect on plants
      and also reduced subsequent insect attack. Surprisingly, this ecological
      interaction did not translate into significant interactions between clipping and
      insect manipulations on plant fitness. However, we detected a significant
      interaction between seed fly and caterpillar herbivory on plant fitness, with the
      negative effect of either insect being greatest when occurring alone. These
      results suggest that herbivore-imposed selection may have pairwise and diffuse
      components. In our selection analysis of flowering phenology, we discovered
      significant pairwise linear selection imposed by clipping, diffuse linear
      selection imposed by insects, and diffuse nonlinear selection imposed by clipping
      and insect attack acting simultaneously. Our results reveal that the evolution of
      flowering phenology in scarlet gilia may be in response to diffuse and pairwise
      natural selection imposed by multiple herbivores. We discuss the evolution of
      resistance characters in light of diffuse versus pairwise forms of linear and
      nonlinear selection and stress the complexity of selection imposed by suites of
      interacting species.

PMID- 28565336
TI  - POLLEN TRANSFER BY NATURAL HYBRIDS AND PARENTAL SPECIES IN AN IPOMOPSIS HYBRID
      ZONE.
AB  - Models of hybrid zones differ in their assumptions about the relative fitnesses
      of hybrids and the parental species. These fitness relationships determine the
      form of selection across the hybrid zone and, along with gene flow, the
      evolutionary dynamics and eventual outcome of natural hybridization. We measured
      a component of fitness, export and receipt of pollen in single pollinator visits,
      for hybrids between the herbaceous plants Ipomopsis aggregata and I. tenuituba
      and for both parental species. In aviary experiments with captive hummingbirds,
      hybrid flowers outperformed flowers of both parental species by receiving more
      pollen on the stigma. Although hummingbirds were more effective at removing
      pollen from anthers of I. aggregata, hybrid flowers matched both parental species
      in the amount of pollen exported to stigmas of other flowers. These patterns of
      pollen transfer led to phenotypic stabilizing selection, during that stage of the
      life cycle, for a stigma position intermediate between that of the two species
      and to directional selection for exserted anthers. Pollen transfer between the
      species was high, with flowers of I. aggregata exporting pollen equally
      successfully to conspecific and I. tenuituba flowers. Although this study showed
      that natural hybrids enjoy the highest quality of pollinator visits, a previous
      study found that I. aggregata receives the highest quantity of pollinator visits.
      Thus, the relative fitness of hybrids changes over the life cycle. By combining
      the results of both studies, pollinator-mediated selection in this hybrid zone is
      predicted to be strong and directional, with hybrid fitness intermediate between
      that of the parental species.

PMID- 28565337
TI  - SELECTION ON A FLORAL COLOR POLYMORPHISM IN THE COMMON MORNING GLORY (IPOMOEA
      PURPUREA): THE EFFECTS OF OVERDOMINANCE IN SEED SIZE.

PMID- 28565338
TI  - EXTRAPAIR PATERNITY AND THE EFFECTIVE SIZE OF SOCIALLY MONOGAMOUS POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28565339
TI  - THE OCCURRENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF EPISTATIC VARIANCE FOR QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS
      AND ITS MEASUREMENT IN HAPLOIDS.
AB  - Epistatic genetic variance for quantitative traits may play an important role in
      evolution, but detecting epistasis in diploid organisms is difficult and requires
      complex breeding programs and very large sample sizes. We develop a model for
      detecting epistasis in organisms with a free-living haploid stage in their life
      cycles. We show that epistasis is indicated by greater variance among families of
      haploid progeny derived from individual diploids than among clonally replicated
      haploid sibs from the same sporophyte. Simulations show that the power to detect
      epistasis is linearly related to the number of sporophytes and the number of
      haploids per sporophyte in the dataset. We illustrate the model with data from
      growth variation among gametophytes of the moss, Ceratodon purpureus. The
      experiment failed to detect epistatic variance for biomass production, although
      there was evidence of additive variance.

PMID- 28565340
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE UNDERLYING FITNESS IN THE PITCHER-PLANT
      MOSQUITO, WYEOMYIA SMITHII.
AB  - We examined the genetic basis for evolutionary divergence among geographic
      populations of the pitcher-plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, using protein
      electrophoresis and line-cross analysis. Line-cross experiments were performed
      under both low density, near-optimal conditions, and at high, limiting larval
      densities sufficient to reduce fitness (rc ) in parental populations by
      approximately 50%. We found high levels of electrophoretic divergence between
      ancestral and derived populations, but low levels of divergence between two
      ancestral populations and between two derived populations. Assessed under near
      optimal conditions, the genetic divergence of fitness (rc ) between ancestral and
      derived populations, but not between two derived populations or between two
      ancestral populations, has involved both allelic (dominance) and genic
      (epistatic) interactions. The role of dominance and epistasis in the divergence
      of rc among populations affects its component traits in a pattern that is unique
      to each cross. Patterns of genetic differentiation among populations of W.
      smithii provide evidence for a topographically complex "adaptive landscape" as
      envisioned by Wright in his "shifting balance" theory of evolution. Although we
      cannot definitively rule out the role of deterministic evolution in the
      divergence of populations on this landscape, ecological inference and genetic
      data are more consistent with a stochastic than a deterministic process. At high,
      limiting larval density, hybrid vigor is enhanced and the influence of epistasis
      disappears. Thus, under stressful conditions, the advantages to fitness due to
      hybrid heterozygosity can outweigh the deleterious effects of fragmented gene
      complexes. These results have important implications for the management of inbred
      populations. Outbreeding depression assessed in experimental crosses under benign
      lab, zoo, or farm conditions may not accurately reveal the increased advantages
      of heterozygosity in suboptimal or marginal conditions likely to be found in
      nature.

PMID- 28565341
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF PATERNITY AND TAIL ORNAMENTATION IN THE BARN SWALLOW
      (HIRUNDO RUSTICA).
AB  - Previous studies of the socially monogamous barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) have
      shown that males that most frequently engage in extrapair copulations and whose
      partners are least involved in copulations with extrapair males are those with
      long tail ornaments. In this study, through the use of three highly polymorphic
      microsatellite markers, we analyze the relationships between length of tail
      ornaments of male barn swallows and proportion of nestlings fathered in own
      broods, number of offspring fathered in broods of other pairs, and total number
      of offspring fathered, using both a correlational and an experimental approach.
      Consistent with our predictions, we show that males with either naturally long or
      experimentally elongated tails have higher paternity (proportion of biological
      offspring in own broods), and they produce more biological offspring during the
      whole breeding season than males with naturally short or experimentally shortened
      tails. Males with naturally long tails also had more offspring in extrapair
      broods than short-tailed males, but the effect of tail manipulation on the number
      of offspring fathered in extrapair broods, although being in the predicted
      direction, was not statistically significant. Cuckolded males that did not
      fertilize extrapair females had smaller postmanipulation tail length than
      cuckolders. We conclude that there is a causal, positive relationship between
      male tail length and paternity. Since female barn swallows have extensive control
      over copulation partners and heritability of tail length is high, this study
      shows that female choice is a component of selection for larger male ornaments.
      Benefits from extrapair fertilizations to females may arise because they acquire
      "good" genes for sexual attractiveness or high viability for their offspring.

PMID- 28565342
TI  - BERGMANN'S RULE IN ECTOTHERMS: IS IT ADAPTIVE?

PMID- 28565343
TI  - ANTHER SMUT DISEASE IN DIANTHUS SILVESTER (CARYOPHYLLACEAE): NATURAL SELECTION ON
      FLORAL TRAITS.
AB  - Mating opportunities, pollination intensity, and pollen dispersal ability may
      vary with variation in floral traits such as color, size, and shape. Where these
      traits are selected by pollinators for enhanced elaboration, they should evolve
      toward the equilibrium between selection for further elaboration and selection
      against this through reduced fecundity or vitality. Here we show that pollinator
      borne fungal diseases of plants may be a factor influencing the position of this
      equilibrium. Populations of the rock pink, Dianthus silvester often contain
      individuals infected with the anther smut fungus Microbotryum violaceum (=
      Ustilago violacea). In a naturally infected population in the Alps of eastern
      Switzerland we investigated how intrapopulation variation in flower size and
      nectar rewards influenced spore deposition and how floral traits varied with
      disease status. We found that spore deposition increased with increasing petal
      size, suggesting that large-flowered plants were at a greater risk of disease.
      Spore deposition was also higher for plants growing in patches with many or a
      high proportion of diseased neighbors. Multiple regression analyses showed that
      petal size or nectar reward influenced spore deposition when the effects of
      neighborhood disease abundance were controlled statistically. In sequential
      analyses, after removing the effects of disease density or frequency and plant
      gender, petal length explained significant variation in spore deposition.
      Diseased plants had reduced female reproductive organs, but calyx size was
      intermediate between that of healthy perfect and female flowers of this
      gynodioecious-gynomonoecious species, and diseased plants bore flowers with the
      largest petals. This may reflect a symptom of this disease or the cause, if
      larger-flowered plants are more likely to become infected. We conclude that
      investment to pollinator attraction may bring an enhanced risk of contracting
      this sterilizing pollinator-borne disease, so natural selection by the fungus M.
      violaceum acts to lower attractiveness to pollinators.

PMID- 28565344
TI  - CAN A PATCHY POPULATION STRUCTURE AFFECT THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION STRATEGIES?
AB  - Simulation models are described that examine the effect of a patchy population
      structure on the evolution of competition strategies. The results of the models
      suggest that a patchy population structure will make the evolution of scramble
      competition strategies more likely than in a single undivided population. The
      outcome of the models depends on the details of the population structure, in
      particular the number of individuals that found patches, the number of
      generations of competition within a patch, and the point at which founding
      females mate can all affect the evolutionary outcome. The results of the models
      are compared to those of previous models examining the effects of a structured
      population on the evolution of female-biased sex ratios, and altruistic behavior.
      The results of the model may help to explain the patterns of larval competition
      strategies observed in bruchid beetles.

PMID- 28565345
TI  - TESTING FOR HOMOGENEITY OF GAMETIC DISEQUILIBRIUM AMONG POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28565346
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT NATURAL SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA: EVOLUTION OF GROWTH RATE AND
      BODY SIZE.
AB  - Drosophila melanogaster populations subjected to extreme larval crowding (CU
      lines) in our laboratory have evolved higher larval feeding rates than their
      corresponding controls (UU lines). It has been suggested that this genetically
      based behavior may involve an energetic cost, which precludes natural selection
      in a density-regulated population to simultaneously maximize food acquisition and
      food conversion into biomass. If true, this stands against some basic predictions
      of the general theory of density-dependent natural selection. Here we investigate
      the evolutionary consequences of density-dependent natural selection on growth
      rate and body size in D. melanogaster. The CU populations showed a higher growth
      rate during the postcritical period of larval life than UU populations, but the
      sustained differences in weight did not translate into the adult stage. The
      simplest explanation for these findings (that natural selection in a crowded
      larval environment favors a faster food acquisition for the individual to attain
      the same final body size in a shorter period of time) was tested and rejected by
      looking at the larva-to-adult development times. Larvae of CU populations starved
      for different periods of time develop into comparatively smaller adults,
      suggesting that food seeking behavior in a food depleted environment carries a
      higher cost to these larvae than to their UU counterparts. The results have
      important implications for understanding the evolution of body size in natural
      populations of Drosophila, and stand against some widespread beliefs that body
      size may represent a compromise between the conflicting effects of genetic
      variation in larval and adult performance.

PMID- 28565347
TI  - A POPULATION GENETIC THEORY OF CANALIZATION.
AB  - Canalization is the suppression of phenotypic variation. Depending on the causes
      of phenotypic variation, one speaks either of genetic or environmental
      canalization. Genetic canalization describes insensitivity of a character to
      mutations, and the insensitivity to environmental factors is called environmental
      canalization. Genetic canalization is of interest because it influences the
      availability of heritable phenotypic variation to natural selection, and is thus
      potentially important in determining the pattern of phenotypic evolution. In this
      paper a number of population genetic models are considered of a quantitative
      character under stabilizing selection. The main purpose of this study is to
      define the population genetic conditions and constraints for the evolution of
      canalization. Environmental canalization is modeled as genotype specific
      environmental variance. It is shown that stabilizing selection favors genes that
      decrease environmental variance of quantitative characters. However, the
      theoretical limit of zero environmental variance has never been observed. Of the
      many ways to explain this fact, two are addressed by our model. It is shown that
      a "canalization limit" is reached if canalizing effects of mutations are
      correlated with direct effects on the same character. This canalization limit is
      predicted to be independent of the strength of stabilizing selection, which is
      inconsistent with recent experimental data (Sterns et al. 1995). The second model
      assumes that the canalizing genes have deleterious pleiotropic effects. If these
      deleterious effects are of the same magnitude as all the other mutations
      affecting fitness very strong stabilizing selection is required to allow the
      evolution of environmental canalization. Genetic canalization is modeled as an
      influence on the average effect of mutations at a locus of other genes. It is
      found that the selection for genetic canalization critically depends on the
      amount of genetic variation present in the population. The more genetic
      variation, the stronger the selection for canalizing effects. All factors that
      increase genetic variation favor the evolution of genetic canalization (large
      population size, high mutation rate, large number of genes). If genetic variation
      is maintained by mutation-selection balance, strong stabilizing selection can
      inhibit the evolution of genetic canalization. Strong stabilizing selection
      eliminates genetic variation to a level where selection for canalization does not
      work anymore. It is predicted that the most important characters (in terms of
      fitness) are not necessarily the most canalized ones, if they are under very
      strong stabilizing selection (k > 0.2Ve ). The rate of decrease of mutational
      variance Vm is found to be less than 10% of the initial Vm . From this result it
      is concluded that characters with typical mutational variances of about 10-3 Ve
      are in a metastable state where further evolution of genetic canalization is too
      slow to be of importance at a microevolutionary time scale. The implications for
      the explanation of macroevolutionary patterns are discussed.

PMID- 28565348
TI  - COSTS AND BENEFITS OF MOSQUITO REFRACTORINESS TO MALARIA PARASITES: IMPLICATIONS
      FOR GENETIC VARIABILITY OF MOSQUITOES AND GENETIC CONTROL OF MALARIA.
AB  - The problem of fitness costs associated with host resistance to parasitism is
      related to the evolution of parasite virulence, population genetic diversity and
      the dynamics of host-parasite relationships, and proposed strategies for disease
      control through the genetic manipulation of mosquito vectors. Two Aedes aegypti
      populations, refractory and susceptible to Plasmodium gallinaceum, were
      previously selected from the Moyo-In-Dry strain (MOYO) through inbreeding (F =
      0.5). Reproductive success and survivorship of the two populations were compared,
      and the influence of the parasite on mosquito fitness also was evaluated. Fitness
      components studied include fecundity, adult survivorship and egg-to-adult
      developmental time, blood-meal size, and adult body size. The refractory
      population has a significantly shorter egg-to-adult developmental time and a
      smaller body size, takes a smaller blood meal, and subsequently lays fewer eggs
      than the susceptible population. The mean longevity of the refractory population
      is significantly shorter than the susceptible population. Exposure to the
      parasite exhibited little effect on the survivorship and fecundity of either
      population. Several factors may contribute to the lower fitness of the refractory
      population, including founder effect, inbreeding depression, the effect of other
      uncharacterized genes linked to genes conferring refractoriness, and pleiotropic
      effects associated with these genes. The results are discussed in relation to the
      genetic diversity of natural mosquito populations and their implications for the
      genetic control of malaria.

PMID- 28565349
TI  - EVOLUTION OF BREEDING DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE OLD WORLD LEAF WARBLERS (GENUS
      PHYLLOSCOPUS).
AB  - Among Palearctic warblers of the genus Phylloscopus those species that breed
      farther north occupy larger geographical ranges than those which breed farther
      south (Rapoport's rule). We suggest that much of this pattern is a consequence of
      the differential ability of species to occupy areas rendered inhospitable during
      the Pleistocene. In support of this suggestion, the midpoint of breeding range in
      a north-south direction has been an exceptionally labile trait through
      evolutionary time. Comparisons of ecological attributes of those species breeding
      in the Himalayas with close relatives in Siberia implies a role for habitat
      tracking in determining which species have been able to colonize northern areas;
      hypotheses based on climate and climatic variability have less support. In
      addition there is a likely role for geographic barriers and/or biotic
      interactions in preventing some taxa from spreading from small southern ranges.

PMID- 28565350
TI  - ECTOTHERMS FOLLOW THE CONVERSE TO BERGMANN'S RULE.

PMID- 28565351
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS OF A MONOCARPIC
      PERENNIAL: A DECADE-LONG FIELD EXPERIMENT.
AB  - Directional and stabilizing selection tend to deplete additive genetic variance.
      On the other hand, genetic variance in traits related to fitness could be
      retained through polygenic mutation, spatially varying selection, genotype
      environment interaction, or antagonistic pleiotropy. Most estimates of genetic
      variance in fitness-related traits have come from laboratory studies, with few
      estimates of heritability made under natural conditions, particularly for longer
      lived organisms. Here I estimated additive genetic variance in life-history
      characters of a monocarpic herb, Ipomopsis aggregata, that lives for up to a
      decade. Experimental crosses yielded 229 full-sibships nested within 32 paternal
      half-sibships. More than 5000 offspring were planted as seeds into natural field
      sites and were followed in most cases through their entire life cycle. Survival
      showed substantial additive genetic variance (genetic coefficient of variation ~
      54%). Small differences at seedling emergence were magnified over time, such that
      the genetic variability in survival was only detectable by tracking the success
      of offspring for several years starting from seed. In contrast to survival,
      reproductive traits such as flower number, seeds per flower, and age at flowering
      showed little or no genetic variability. Despite relatively high levels of
      additive genetic variation for some life-history characters, high environmental
      variance in survival resulted in very low heritabilities (0-9%) for all of these
      characters. Maternal effects were evident in seed mass and remained strong
      throughout the lengthy vegetative period. No negative genetic correlations
      between major components of female fitness were detected. Mean corolla width for
      a paternal family was, however, negatively correlated with the finite rate of
      increase based on female fitness. That negative correlation could help to
      maintain additive genetic variance in the face of strong selection through male
      function for wide corollas.

PMID- 28565352
TI  - MICROSATELLITES REVEAL HIGH POPULATION VISCOSITY AND LIMITED DISPERSAL IN THE ANT
      FORMICA PARALUGUBRIS.
AB  - We used microsatellites to study the fine-scale genetic structure of a highly
      polygynous and largely unicolonial population of the ant Formica paralugubris.
      Genetic data indicate that long-distance gene flow between established nests is
      limited and new queens are primarily recruited from within their natal nest. Most
      matings occur between nestmates and are random at this level. In the center of
      the study area, budding and permanent connections between nests result in strong
      population viscosity, with close nests being more similar genetically than
      distant nests. In contrast, nests located outside of this supercolony show no
      isolation by distance, suggesting that they have been initiated by queens that
      participated in mating flights rather than by budding from nearby nests in our
      sample population. Recruitment of nestmates as new reproductive individuals and
      population viscosity in the supercolony increase genetic differentiation between
      nests. This in turn inflates relatedness estimates among worker nestmates (r =
      0.17) above what is due to close pedigree links. Local spatial genetic
      differentiation may favor the maintenance of altruism when workers raise queens
      that will disperse on foot and compete with less related queens from neighboring
      nests or disperse on the wing and compete with unrelated queens.

PMID- 28565353
TI  - VARIABILITY OF A VESTIGIAL STRUCTURE: FIRST METACARPAL IN COLOBUS GUEREZA AND
      ATELES GEOFFROYI.
AB  - A tenet of evolutionary theory is that, under conditions of stabilizing
      selection, phenotypic variability is inversely related to selection intensity.
      Correspondingly, a nonfunctional, vestigial structure is expected to be highly
      variable relative to its functional homologue. This study tests the hypothesis
      that species with a vestigial pollex, Colobus guereza and Ateles geoffroyi, have
      a first metacarpal whose length is both highly variable relative to, and poorly
      correlated with, the lengths of the other metapodials. The results are consistent
      with the hypothesis, though this combination of traits is also found in Presbytis
      rubicunda and Presbytis cristata. The latter two species have functional, albeit
      miniature, pollices. This study also demonstrates a general, inverse relationship
      among anthropoid primates between relative length of the first metapodial and its
      relative variability. These results suggest that elevated variability accompanies
      structural reduction.

PMID- 28565354
TI  - STATISTICAL TESTS OF HOST-PARASITE COSPECIATION.
AB  - A history of cospeciation (synchronous speciation) among ecologically associated,
      but otherwise distantly related, species is often revealed by a strong
      correspondence of their phylogenies. In this paper, we present several tests of
      cospeciation that use maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods of phylogenetic
      estimation. The hypotheses tested include: (1) topological agreement of
      phylogenies for coevolving groups; (2) identical speciation times of associated
      species; and (3) identical evolutionary rates in genes of associated species.
      These tests are applied to examine a possible instance of host-parasite
      coevolution among pocket gophers and lice using mitochondrial COI DNA sequences.
      The observed differences between gopher and louse trees cannot be explained by
      sampling error and are consistent with a rate of host switching about one-third
      the host speciation rate. A subset of the gopher-louse data is consistent with a
      common history of evolution (i.e., the topologies and speciation times are
      identical). However, the relative rate of nucleotide substitution is two to four
      times higher in the lice than in the gophers.

PMID- 28565355
TI  - LOCAL CYTONUCLEAR EXTINCTION OF THE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER.
AB  - I compared the mtDNA compositions of two adjacent populations of Vermivora
      chrysoptera (golden-winged warbler) at different stages of transient
      hybridization with its sister species V. pinus (blue-winged warbler). Pinus mtDNA
      introgresses asymmetrically and perhaps rapidly into chrysoptera phenotypes
      without comparable reverse introgression of chrysoptera mtDNA into replacing
      pinus populations. Pinus mtDNA was virtually fixed (98%) in an actively
      hybridizing lowland population with varied phenotypes. Pinus mtDNA increased from
      27% (n = 11) in 1988 to 70% (n = 10) in 1992 in successive samples of a highland
      population in the initial stages of hybridization. This population comprised
      mostly pure and slightly introgressed chrysoptera phenotypes. The rapid pace of
      asymmetrical introgression may be the result of initial invasion of chrysoptera
      populations by pioneering female pinus and/or an unknown competitive advantage of
      pinus females and their daughters over chrysoptera females.

PMID- 28565356
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PHYLOGENIES FOR THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA GROUP.
AB  - Species belonging to the obscura group of the genus Drosophila have long held a
      central position in evolutionary studies, especially in experimental population
      genetics. Despite the considerable amount of accumulated knowledge, many of the
      phylogenetic relationships of the species in the group remain unclear. Here we
      present DNA sequence data for the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase I (COI)
      for 13 species native to both the Old and New Worlds. We combine these data with
      seven other mitochondrial gene sequences from previous studies, for a total of
      over 3 kb per species. Strongly supported conclusions include: (1) the two North
      American subgroups, pseudoobscura and affinis, are each monophyletic; and (2)
      among Eurasian species two unambiguous clades are identified, one containing D.
      tristis, D. ambigua, and D. obscura and the other containing D. guanche, D.
      subobscura, and D. madeirensis. Constructing firm hypotheses connecting these
      four major clades is problematic with all datasets. Major ambiguities are the
      number of invasions giving rise to the North American obscura species and the
      relationships among the Eurasian species. The inadequacy of the mtDNA data to
      resolve these ambiguities does not reside in lack of changes; the transversions
      only parsimony tree has 283 informative characters. Rather, the problems are
      likely intrinsic to the history of the group: while radiating in temperate
      Eurasia, North America was colonized once or twice, followed by one or two
      radiations in the New World.

PMID- 28565357
TI  - A PERFORMANCE CONSTRAINT ON THE EVOLUTION OF TRILLED VOCALIZATIONS IN A SONGBIRD
      FAMILY (PASSERIFORMES: EMBERIZIDAE).
AB  - Behavioral evolution can be influenced by constraints, for example, of phylogeny
      and performance. In this paper I describe a pattern in the evolution of birdsongs
      that may reflect a constraint on vocal performance. Trilled vocalizations from 34
      species of songbirds (Passeriformes: Emberizidae) were analyzed. Two acoustic
      variables, trill rate and frequency bandwidth, were measured for different trill
      types. In most species, maximal values of frequency bandwidth were found to
      decrease with increasing trill rates. Further, trills with low trill rates
      exhibited wide variance in frequency bandwidth, and trills with high trill rates
      exhibited only narrow frequency bandwidths. The bounded nature of this pattern
      suggests that performance constraints have limited the evolutionary
      diversification of trills. In particular, I explore the role of constraints
      associated with vocal tract modulations during song production and evolution.
      Identification of this constraint may enhance our ability to explain particular
      patterns of trill evolution.

PMID- 28565358
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-GENE TREES VERSUS NUCLEAR-GENE TREES, A REPLY TO HOELZER.

PMID- 28565359
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATING-SYSTEM CHARACTERS AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN
      MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Several recent theoretical considerations of mating-system evolution predict
      within-population covariation between levels of inbreeding depression and
      genetically controlled mating-system characters. If inbreeding depression is
      caused by deleterious recessive alleles, families with characters that promote
      self-pollination should show lower levels of inbreeding depression than families
      with characters that promote outcrossing. The converse is expected if inbreeding
      depression is due to overdominant allelic interactions. Whether these
      associations between mating-system and viability loci evolve will have important
      consequences for mating-system evolution. The evolution of selfing within the
      genus Mimulus is associated with a reduction in stigma-anther separation (i.e., a
      loss of herkogamy) and high autogamous seed set. In this study we compared
      families from two M. guttatus populations that differed genetically in their
      degree of stigma-anther separation. In one of these populations we also compared
      families that differed genetically in the degree to which they autogamously set
      seed in a pollinator-free greenhouse. Dams often differed significantly in levels
      of inbreeding depression for aboveground biomass and flower production, but
      variation in inbreeding depression was never explained by herkogamy class or
      autogamy class. Several factors might account for why families with traits
      associated with selfing did not show lower inbreeding depression, and these are
      discussed. Our study also demonstrated significant variation among self progeny
      from a given female likely due to differences in pollination date and position of
      fruit maturation. The detection of significant dam * sire interactions suggests
      biparental inbreeding or differences in combining ability for specific pairs of
      parents.

PMID- 28565360
TI  - SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AND SELECTION IN THE WILD IN THE WATERSTRIDER AQUARIUS
      REMIGIS: LIFETIME FECUNDITY SELECTION ON FEMALE TOTAL LENGTH AND ITS COMPONENTS.
AB  - Darwin's fecundity advantage model is often cited as the cause of female biased
      size dimorphism, however, the empirical studies of lifetime selection on male and
      female body size that would be required to demonstrate this are few. As a
      component of a study relating sexual size dimorphism to lifetime selection in
      natural populations of the female size-biased waterstrider Aquarius remigis
      (Hemiptera: Gerridae), we estimated coefficients for daily fecundity selection,
      longevity selection, and lifetime fecundity selection acting on female body size
      and components of body size for two consecutive generations. Daily fecundity was
      estimated using females confined in field enclosures and reproductive survival
      was estimated by twice-weekly recaptures. We found that daily fecundity selection
      favored females with longer total length through direct selection acting on
      abdomen length. Longevity selection favored females with smaller total length.
      When daily fecundity and reproductive longevity were combined to estimate
      lifetime fecundity we found significant balancing selection acting on total
      length in both years. The relationship between daily fecundity and reproductive
      longevity also reveals a significant cost of reproduction in one of two years. We
      relate these selection estimates to previous estimates of sexual selection on
      male body size and consider the relationship between contemporary selection and
      sexual size dimorphism.

PMID- 28565361
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF PHENOTYPIC COVARIANCE STRUCTURE. II. RECONSTRUCTING
      MATRIX EVOLUTION.
AB  - A modified minimum evolution approach is used to estimate covariance matrices for
      hypothetical ancestors. Branch lengths are calculated as the mean disparity in
      corresponding ancestor-descendent covariances. Branches are longest leading to
      terminal populations and subspecies, while interspecific branches are relatively
      short, indicating a general conservation of covariance structure among species
      despite a high degree of intraspecific variability. Absolute deviations in
      covariance structure are not correlated with phenotypic divergence. Interpreted
      in light of other studies, the analyses suggest that deviations in covariance
      structure are most strongly associated with the formation of diagnosably distinct
      taxa and stochastic sampling of genotypes at the population level. There is no
      evidence for restructuring of phenotypic covariance structure in association with
      reproductive isolation. The results suggest that phenotypic covariances are
      dynamic over short time scales and do not support attempts to extrapolate genetic
      covariance structure to explain or predict macroevolutionary change. This study
      further demonstrates that branch lengths, which are not usually analyzed in
      detail, contain valuable evolutionary information complementary to that residing
      in the branching pattern.

PMID- 28565362
TI  - ALLOZYME VARIATION IN A SNAIL (LITTORINA SAXATILIS)-DECONFOUNDING THE EFFECTS OF
      MICROHABITAT AND GENE FLOW.
AB  - It is commonly observed that a restricted gene flow among populations of a
      species generates genetic differentiation in, for example, allozyme markers.
      However, recent studies suggest that microhabitat-specific variation may
      contribute to the total differentiation. To appreciate the relative contributions
      of geographic variation and habitat-specific variation, we sampled 42
      subpopulations of the intertidal snail Littorina saxatilis from three different
      microhabitats (boulders, low and high rocky intertidal) on five small islands
      within a distance of 15 km. We used a modified orthogonal version of Nei's gene
      diversity analysis with a modified analysis of variance (ANOVA) that estimated
      the significance of habitat and geographic separation and the interaction between
      them. Between subpopulation differentiation (GST ) was usually in the range of 5%
      to 10% but was exceptionally high in one locus (Aat; 53%). Genetic
      differentiation attributable to different habitats accounted for 10% to 81% (mean
      35%) of the between subpopulation variation and was significant (P < 0.05) in six
      loci. Differentiation due to geographic separation accounted for 11% to 61% (mean
      36%) and was significant (P < 0.05) in seven loci. Furthermore, three loci showed
      interactions between habitat and island, suggesting varying effects of habitat in
      different islands. Microhabitat-specific variation, probably through spatially
      varying fitness, seems particularly likely in Aat and Pgm-2. Moderate levels of
      habitat associated variation added to the observed differentiation due to gene
      flow in Pgi, Pnp, and Pgm-1, whereas in the remaining three loci either the
      habitat effect was confused by strong habitat-island interaction (Ark) or was
      virtually absent (Pep and Mpi).

PMID- 28565363
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PUFFERFISH INFLATION BEHAVIOR.
AB  - The evolution of the extraordinary inflation mechanism of pufferfishes was
      studied in the light of an independently derived phylogenetic hypothesis of
      tetraodontiform fishes. Inflation behavior is found in all members of the puffer
      sister taxa Tetraodontidae and Diodontidae. However, most other tetraodontiform
      fishes exhibit two functionally similar behaviors. All taxa exhibit a "coughing"
      behavior and, with the exception of the sister-group to all other
      tetraodontiforms, represented by the Triacanthidae, all lineages "blow" strong
      jets of water out of their mouth to excavate prey. Functional specializations
      associated with the three behaviors were identified from anatomical analyses and
      electromyographic recordings of muscle activity in representatives of the major
      lineages of the order. The phylogenetic distribution of the three buccal
      compression behaviors and their functional bases indicates the following: (1) the
      evolution of inflation behavior involved major structural modifications of the
      head that function in a novel mechanism that links depression of the floor of the
      mouth to posterior expansion of the buccal cavity; (2) the contraction patterns
      of four key head muscles used in the three behaviors are generally similar both
      across behaviors and taxa; (3) however, the distribution of the two significant
      modifications of muscle activity are consistent with the hypothesis that the
      three behaviors represent a transformation series from coughing to water blowing
      to inflation. The motor pattern for water blowing is a slightly modified version
      of that seen in coughing, and the inflation motor pattern retains the blowing
      specialization and adds a single additional modification. The convergent
      evolution of a poorly developed inflation behavior in at least one genus of
      filefish provides evidence that tetraodontiform fishes are predisposed to the
      evolution of this unusual defensive behavior. The presence of a well developed
      water-blowing behavior in most tetraodontiform lineages may represent an
      intermediate functional specialization that increased the probability of the
      evolution of inflation.

PMID- 28565364
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INBREEDING ON POPULATION-LEVEL GENETIC CORRELATIONS IN THE RED
      FLOUR BEETLE TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.

PMID- 28565365
TI  - EXPRESSION OF GENETIC VARIATION IN BODY SIZE OF THE COLLARED FLYCATCHER UNDER
      DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS.
AB  - Heritability of body size in two experimentally created environments,
      representing good and poor feeding conditions, respectively, was estimated using
      cross-fostered collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis nestlings. Young raised
      under poor feeding conditions attained smaller body size (tarsus length) than
      their full-sibs raised under good feeding conditions. Parent-offspring
      regressions revealed lower heritability (h2 ) of body size under poor than under
      good feeding conditions. Hence, as the same set of parents were used in the
      estimation of h2 in both environments, this suggests environment-dependent change
      in additive genetic component of variance (VA ), or that the genetic correlation
      between parental and poor offspring environment was less than that between
      parental and good offspring environment. However, full-sib analyses failed to
      find evidence for genotype-environment interactions, although the power of these
      tests might have been low. Full-sib heritabilities in both environments tended to
      be higher than estimates from parent-offspring regressions, indicating that
      prehatching or early posthatching common environment/maternal effects might have
      inflated full-sib estimates of VA . The effect of sibling competition on
      estimates of VA was probably small as the nestling size-hierarchy at day 2
      posthatch was not generally correlated with size-hierarchy at fledging.
      Furthermore, there was no correlation between maternal body condition during the
      incubation and final size of offspring, indicating that direct maternal effects
      related to nutritional status were small. A review of earlier quantitative
      genetic studies of body size variation in birds revealed that in eight of nine
      cases, heritability of body size was lower in poor than in good environmental
      conditions. The main implication of this relationship will be a decreased
      evolutionary response to selection under poor environmental conditions. On the
      other hand, this will retard the loss of genetic variation by reducing the
      accuracy of selection and might help explain the moderate to high heritabilities
      of body-size traits under good environmental conditions.

PMID- 28565366
TI  - INFERRING PHYLOGENIES FROM mtDNA VARIATION: MITOCHONDRIAL-GENE TREES VERSUS
      NUCLEAR-GENE TREES REVISITED.

PMID- 28565367
TI  - INCREASED PROBABILITY OF EXTINCTION DUE TO DECREASED GENETIC EFFECTIVE POPULATION
      SIZE: EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF CLARKIA PULCHELLA.
AB  - We established replicated experimental populations of the annual plant Clarkia
      pulchella to evaluate the existence of a causal relationship between loss of
      genetic variation and population survival probability. Two treatments differing
      in the relatedness of the founders, and thus in the genetic effective population
      size (Ne ), were maintained as isolated populations in a natural environment.
      After three generations, the low Ne treatment had significantly lower germination
      and survival rates than did the high Ne treatment. These lower germination and
      survival rates led to decreased mean fitness in the low Ne populations: estimated
      mean fitness in the low Ne populations was only 21% of the estimated mean fitness
      in the high Ne populations. This inbreeding depression led to a reduction in
      population survival: at the conclusion of the experiment, 75% of the high Ne
      populations were still extant, whereas only 31% of the low Ne populations had
      survived. Decreased genetic effective population size, which leads to both
      inbreeding and the loss of alleles by genetic drift, increased the probability of
      population extinction over that expected from demographic and environmental
      stochasticity alone. This demonstrates that the genetic effective population size
      can strongly affect the probability of population persistence.

PMID- 28565368
TI  - MEASURING PHENOTYPIC SELECTION ON AN ADAPTATION: LAMELLAE OF DAMSELFLIES
      EXPERIENCING DRAGONFLY PREDATION.
AB  - Previous studies suggest that the evolution of increased caudal lamellae size to
      increase swimming speed was an adaptation of Enallagma damselflies for coexisting
      with large, predatory dragonflies in fishless lakes. To test whether dragonfly
      predation still exerts selection pressures for increased lamellae size, I
      performed a field experiment in which I manipulated the abilities of dragonfly
      larvae to inflict mortality on Enallagma boreale larvae and compared differences
      in lamellae size and shape between treatments. In cages where dragonflies were
      free to forage on damselflies, surviving E. boreale larvae had lamellae that were
      larger in lateral surface area, and that were wider relative to their length, as
      compared with larvae recovered from treatments in which dragonflies were not
      permitted to forage on damselflies. Selection differentials of about 0.25
      phenotypic standard deviation units were measured for both of these characters.
      These results indicate that dragonfly predation still exerts significant
      selection pressures on damselfly antipredator adaptations. The results of this
      study are discussed in the context of studies of adaptation.

PMID- 28565369
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF PHENOTYPIC COVARIANCE STRUCTURE. I. CONTRASTING RESULTS
      FROM MATRIX CORRELATION AND COMMON PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSES.
AB  - Applications of quantitative techniques to understanding macroevolutionary
      patterns typically assume that genetic variances and covariances remain constant.
      That assumption is tested among 28 populations of the Phyllotis darwini species
      group (leaf-eared mice). Phenotypic covariances are used as a surrogate for
      genetic covariances to allow much greater phylogenetic sampling. Two new
      approaches are applied that extend the comparative method to multivariate data.
      The efficacy of these techniques are compared, and their sensitivity to sampling
      error examined. Pairwise matrix correlations of correlation matrices are
      consistently very high (> 0.90) and show no significant association between
      matrix similarity and phylogenetic relatedness. Hierarchical decomposition of
      common principal component (CPC) analyses applied to each clade in the phylogeny
      rejects the hypothesis that common principal component structure is shared in
      clades more inclusive than subspecies. Most subspecies also lack a common
      covariance structure as described by the CPC model. The hypothesis of constant
      covariances must be rejected, but the magnitudes of divergence in covariance
      structure appear to be small. Matrix correlations are very sensitive to sampling
      error, while CPC is not. CPC is a powerful statistical tool that allows detailed
      testing of underlying patterns of covariation.

PMID- 28565370
TI  - ON THE ADAPTIVE NATURE OF BERGMANN SIZE CLINES: A REPLY TO MOUSSEAU, PARTRIDGE
      AND COYNE.

PMID- 28565371
TI  - HOST IMMUNE STATUS DETERMINES SEXUALITY IN A PARASITIC NEMATODE.
AB  - We examine the hypothesis that sexual reproduction by parasites is an adaptation
      to counter the somatic evolution of vertebrate immune responses. This is
      analogous to the idea that antagonistic coevolution between hosts and their
      parasites maintains sexual reproduction in host populations. Strongyloides ratti
      is a parasitic nematode of rats. It can have a direct life cycle, with clonal
      larvae of the wholly parthenogenetic parasites becoming infective, or an indirect
      life cycle, with clonal larvae developing into free-living dioecious adults.
      These free-living adults produce infective larvae by conventional meiosis and
      syngamy. The occurrence of the sexual cycle is determined by both environmental
      and genetic factors. By experimentally manipulating host immune status using
      hypothymic mutants, corticosteroids, whole-body gamma-irradiation and previous
      exposure to S. ratti, we show that larvae from hosts that have acquired immune
      protection are more likely to develop into sexual adults. This effect is
      independent of the method of manipulation, larval density, and the number of days
      postinfection. This immune-determined sexuality is consistent with the idea that
      sexual reproduction by parasites is adaptive in the face of specific immunity, an
      idea which, if true, has clinical and epidemiological consequences.

PMID- 28565372
TI  - PATTERNS OF VARIATION AND LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN A FIELD CRICKET HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - The distribution of multilocus genotypes found within a natural hybrid zone is
      determined by the sample of genotypes present when the hybrid zone first formed,
      by subsequent patterns of genetic exchange between the hybridizing taxa, and by
      drift and selection within each of the hybrid zone populations. We have used
      anonymous nuclear DNA restriction fragment polymorphisms (RFLPs) to characterize
      the array of multilocus genotypes present within a well-studied hybrid zone
      between two eastern North American field crickets, Gryllus pennsylvanicus and
      Gryllus firmus. These crickets hybridize along a zone of contact that extends
      from New England to Virginia. Previous studies have shown that both premating and
      postmating barriers exist between the two cricket species, but the absence of
      diagnostic morphological and allozyme markers has made it difficult to assess the
      consequences of these barriers for genetic exchange. Analyses based on four
      diagnostic anonymous nuclear markers indicate that hybrid zone populations in
      Connecticut contain few F1 hybrids, and that nonrandom associations persist among
      nuclear gene markers, between nuclear and cytoplasmic markers, and between
      molecular markers and morphology. Field cricket populations within the hybrid
      zone are not "hybrid swarms" but consist primarily of crickets that are very much
      like one or the other of the parental species. Despite ample opportunity for
      genetic exchange and evidence for introgression at some loci, the two species
      remain quite distinct. Such a pattern appears to be characteristic of many
      natural hybrid zones.

PMID- 28565373
TI  - ABSOLUTE VERSUS RELATIVE MEASUREMENTS OF SEXUAL SELECTION: ASSESSING THE
      CONTRIBUTIONS OF ULTRASONIC SIGNAL CHARACTERS TO MATE ATTRACTION IN LESSER WAX
      MOTHS, ACHROIA GRISELLA (LEPIDOPTERA: PYRALIDAE).
AB  - When females choose a mate among a group of signaling males concentrated in a
      small area, a male's mating success is often determined not only by his absolute
      attractiveness but by the attractiveness of his neighbors as well. Multivariate
      analyses of sexual selection measurements based on absolute values of predictor
      variables are then misleading, because such analyses assume that the fitness of a
      given individual is not influenced by others. We addressed this problem of
      relative fitness in sexual selection by developing two adjustments of the
      predictor variables in the multivariate analyses by including group means in
      addition to absolute values and by using relative values, deviations from group
      means. In the lesser wax moth, Achroia grisella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae),
      aggregated males produce ultrasonic signals attractive to females in the vicinity
      of honey bee colonies. Playback experiments showed that females prefer signals
      whose pulses are louder, longer, delivered at a faster rate, and include lengthy
      silent gaps within pulse pairs (long asynchrony intervals). To measure sexual
      selection on ultrasonic signals, attractiveness was assessed by observing the
      number of females orienting toward given males in four-choice trials. The various
      signal characters of the males were computed from ultrasound recordings.
      Multivariate regression and nonparametric analyses revealed that peak amplitude,
      asynchrony interval, and pulse rate were the direct targets of selection.
      Nonlinear stabilizing and correlational selection were also detected. Comparisons
      of results from multivariate analyses based on absolute values and on the two
      relative adjustments indicated that the quality of a four-male group did not
      affect the strength or direction of linear selection but changed the strength of
      nonlinear selection. Both relative adjustments improved the prediction of male
      attractiveness. Three-dimensional surface plots generated by the nonparametric
      regression analyses showed that attractiveness increased monotonically with any
      combination of the signal characters. This graphical technique also showed that
      female choice in A. grisella was based on a relative, as opposed to a threshold,
      decision rule. Overall, male attractiveness for the population remained
      consistent between testing days. However, attractiveness values for some
      individual males changed between successive testing days. In these cases, the
      change in attractiveness was related only to the change in peak amplitude.

PMID- 28565375
TI  - SYMPATRIC SEA SHELLS ALONG THE SEA'S SHORE: THE GEOGRAPHY OF SPECIATION IN THE
      MARINE GASTROPOD TEGULA.
AB  - Uncertainty and controversy surround the geographical and ecological
      circumstances that create genetic differences between populations that eventually
      lead to reproductive isolation. Two aspects of marine organisms further
      complicate this situation: (1) many species possess planktonic larvae capable of
      great dispersal; and (2) obvious barriers to movement between populations are
      rare. Past studies of speciation in the sea have focussed on identifying the
      effects of past land barriers and on biogeographical breakpoints. However,
      assessing the role such undeniable barriers actually play in the initial
      divergence leading to reproductive isolation requires phylogenetic studies of
      recent radiations living in varying degrees of sympatry and allopatry to see
      which barriers (if any) tend to separate sister species. Here I infer
      phylogenetic relationship between 23 species of the marine snail Tegula using DNA
      sequences from two regions of the mitochondrial genome: cytochrome c oxidase I
      (COI) and the small ribosomal subunit (12S) These snails possess planktonic
      larvae with moderate dispersal capabilities and have speciated rapidly with over
      40 extant species arising since the genus first appeared in the mid-Miocene
      (about 15 M.Y.B.P.). Trees constructed from the COI and 12S regions (which
      yielded 205 and 137 phylogenetically informative sites, respectively) were robust
      with respect to tree-building method, bootstrapping, and the relative weightings
      of transitions, transversions, and gaps Within clades where all extant species
      have been sampled, five of six identified sister species pairs broadly coexist on
      the same side of biogeographical boundaries. These data suggest strong
      geographical barriers to gene flow may not always be required for speciation in
      the sea; transient allopatry or even ecological barriers may suffice. A survey of
      the geographic distributions of marine radiations suggests that coastal
      distributions may favor the sympatry of sister taxa more than island
      distributions do.

PMID- 28565374
TI  - EVOLUTION OF COURTSHIP SONG AND REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN THE DROSOPHILA
      WILLISTONI SPECIES COMPLEX: DO SEXUAL SIGNALS DIVERGE THE MOST QUICKLY?
AB  - Reproductive isolation increases with genetic distance between species. Although
      sexual selection may drive divergence of sexual signals and traits, causing rapid
      evolution of sexual isolation, quantitative data supporting this idea are rare.
      We examine the rates of divergence of a species-specific courtship signal, sexual
      isolation, and postmating isolation in the Drosophila willistoni group. Both
      types of isolation increase with genetic distance and postmating isolation is the
      most strongly correlated with genetic divergence, suggesting this has the least
      variable divergence rate. Song divergence is not correlated with genetic
      divergence. Homoplasy in song pattern results in poorly resolved phylogenies that
      are different from molecular phylogenies. Song evolves more quickly than sexual
      isolation, which evolves more quickly than postmating isolation.

PMID- 28565376
TI  - CYTONUCLEAR THEORY FOR HAPLODIPLOID SPECIES AND X-LINKED GENES. II. STEPPING
      STONE MODELS OF GENE FLOW AND APPLICATION TO A FIRE ANT HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - We develop cytonuclear, hybrid zone models for haplodiploid species or X-linked
      genes in diploid species using a stepping-stone framework of migration, in which
      migration rates vary with both direction and sex. The equilibrium clines for the
      allele frequencies, cytonuclear disequilibria, and frequencies of pure parental
      types are examined for species with diagnostic markers, under four important
      migration schemes: uniform migration of both sexes in both directions, greater
      migration of both sexes from one direction, greater migration of females, and
      greater migration of males. Of the three cytonuclear variables examined, the
      allele frequency clines are the most informative in differentiating among the
      various migration patterns. The cytonuclear disequilibria and the frequency of
      the pure parental types tend to be useful only in revealing directional
      asymmetries in migration. The extent of hybrid zone subdivision has quantitative
      but not qualitative effects on the distribution of cytonuclear variables, in that
      the allele frequency clines become more gradual, the cytonuclear disequilibria
      decrease in magnitude, and the frequencies of pure parentals decline with
      increasing subpopulation number. Also, the only major difference between the X
      linked and haplodiploid frameworks is that a higher frequency of pure parentals
      is found when considering haplodiploids, in which male production does not
      require mating. The final important theoretical result is that censusing after
      migration yields greater disequilibria and parental frequencies than censusing
      after mating. We analyzed cytonuclear data from two transects from a naturally
      occurring hybrid zone between two haplodiploid fire ant species, Solenopsis
      invicta and S. richteri, using our stepping-stone framework. The frequency of S.
      invicta mtDNA exceeds the frequency of the S. invicta nuclear markers through
      much of this hybrid zone, indicating that sex differences in migration or
      selection may be occurring. Maximum-likelihood estimates for the migration rates
      are very high, due to an unexpectedly large number of pure parental types in the
      hybrid zone, and differ substantially between the two transects. Overall, our
      model does not provide a good fit, in part because the S. invicta-S. richteri
      hybrid zone has not yet reached equilibrium.

PMID- 28565377
TI  - ARE RATES OF DIVERSIFICATION IN SUBTERRANEAN SOUTH AMERICAN TUCO-TUCOS (GENUS
      CTENOMYS, RODENTIA: OCTODONTIDAE) UNUSUALLY HIGH?
AB  - Subterranean rodents have been used frequently as examples of explosive
      speciation in mammals. We tested for differential rates of diversification by
      using information from molecular phylogenies to focus primarily on tuco-tucos
      (Rodentia: Octodontidae), the most speciose lineage of subterranean rodents. Tuco
      tucos were not significantly more diverse than their sister taxon (octodontines);
      however, a lineages-through-time analysis suggests an increase in diversification
      at the base of the tuco-tuco clade.

PMID- 28565379
TI  - LATITUDINAL VARIATION OF WING:THORAX SIZE RATIO AND WING-ASPECT RATIO IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - In dipterans, the wing-beat frequency, and, hence, the lift generated, increases
      linearly with ambient temperature. If flight performance is an important target
      of natural selection, higher wing:thorax size ratio and wing-aspect ratio should
      be favored at low temperatures because they increase the lift for a given body
      weight. We investigated this hypothesis by examining wing: thorax size ratio and
      wing-aspect ratio in Drosophila melanogaster collected from wild populations
      along a latitudinal gradient and in their descendants reared under standard
      laboratory conditions. In a subset of lines, we also studied the phenotypic
      plasticity of these traits in response to temperature. To examine whether the
      latitudinal trends in wing:thorax size ratio and wing-aspect ratio could have
      resulted from a correlated response to latitudinal selection on wing area, we
      investigated the correlated responses of these characters in lines artificially
      selected for wing area. In both the geographic and the artificially selected
      lines, wing:thorax size ratio and wing-aspect ratio decreased in response to
      increasing temperature during development. Phenotypic plasticity for either trait
      did not vary among latitudinal lines or selective regimes. Wing:thorax size ratio
      and wing-aspect ratio increased significantly with latitude in field-collected
      flies. The cline in wing:thorax size ratio had a genetic component, but the cline
      in wing-aspect ratio did not. Artificial selection for increased wing area led to
      a statistically insignificant correlated increase in wing:thorax size ratio and a
      decrease in wing-aspect ratio. Our observations are consistent with the
      hypotheses that high wing-thorax size ratio and wing aspect ratio are per se
      selectively advantageous at low temperatures.

PMID- 28565378
TI  - AN EIGENVECTOR METHOD FOR ESTIMATING PHYLOGENETIC INERTIA.
AB  - We propose a new method to estimate and correct for phylogenetic inertia in
      comparative data analysis. The method, called phylogenetic eigenvector regression
      (PVR) starts by performing a principal coordinate analysis on a pairwise
      phylogenetic distance matrix between species. Traits under analysis are regressed
      on eigenvectors retained by a broken-stick model in such a way that estimated
      values express phylogenetic trends in data and residuals express independent
      evolution of each species. This partitioning is similar to that realized by the
      spatial autoregressive method, but the method proposed here overcomes the problem
      of low statistical performance that occurs with autoregressive method when
      phylogenetic correlation is low or when sample size is too small to detect it.
      Also, PVR is easier to perform with large samples because it is based on well
      known techniques of multivariate and regression analyses. We evaluated the
      performance of PVR and compared it with the autoregressive method using real
      datasets and simulations. A detailed worked example using body size evolution of
      Carnivora mammals indicated that phylogenetic inertia in this trait is elevated
      and similarly estimated by both methods. In this example, Type I error at alpha =
      0.05 of PVR was equal to 0.048, but an increase in the number of eigenvectors
      used in the regression increases the error. Also, similarity between PVR and the
      autoregressive method, defined by correlation between their residuals, decreased
      by overestimating the number of eigenvalues necessary to express the phylogenetic
      distance matrix. To evaluate the influence of cladogram topology on the
      distribution of eigenvalues extracted from the double-centered phylogenetic
      distance matrix, we analyzed 100 randomly generated cladograms (up to 100
      species). Multiple linear regression of log transformed variables indicated that
      the number of eigenvalues extracted by the broken-stick model can be fully
      explained by cladogram topology. Therefore, the broken-stick model is an adequate
      criterion for determining the correct number of eigenvectors to be used by PVR.
      We also simulated distinct levels of phylogenetic inertia by producing a trend
      across 10, 25, and 50 species arranged in "comblike" cladograms and then adding
      random vectors with increased residual variances around this trend. In doing so,
      we provide an evaluation of the performance of both methods with data generated
      under different evolutionary models than tested previously. The results showed
      that both PVR and autoregressive method are efficient in detecting inertia in
      data when sample size is relatively high (more than 25 species) and when
      phylogenetic inertia is high. However, PVR is more efficient at smaller sample
      sizes and when level of phylogenetic inertia is low. These conclusions were also
      supported by the analysis of 10 real datasets regarding body size evolution in
      different animal clades. We concluded that PVR can be a useful alternative to an
      autoregressive method in comparative data analysis.

PMID- 28565380
TI  - A REEVALUATION OF THE ORIGIN OF PENTADACTYLY.
AB  - The hypothesis suggested by Coates that pentadactyly arose twice is based on the
      presumed affinities between Tulerpeton, embolomeres, and amniotes. Flaws were
      found in the coding of some characters that supported this clade and, once
      corrected, the matrix fails to support the proposed phylogeny. Furthermore,
      interpretation of the phylogeny of Coates is difficult because no amniotes and no
      lissamphibians were included in this analysis. A reappraisal of the affinities of
      Tulerpeton using a matrix composed of a greater range of taxa suggests that it is
      a stem-tetrapod, that pentadactyly arose only once, and that the first tetrapod
      was already pentadactyl.

PMID- 28565381
TI  - INHERITANCE OF MALE COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR, AGGRESSIVE SUCCESS, AND BODY SIZE IN
      DROSOPHILA SILVESTRIS.
AB  - We describe a combined phenotypic and quantitative genetic investigation of the
      traits that may contribute to reproductive success in the picture-winged fly,
      Drosophila silvestris. These were courtship behavior, aggressive success, and
      body size and shape. Behavioral tests were conducted on wild-caught sires and
      their laboratory-reared sons. Neither size, shape, nor aggressive success
      predicted mating success. In both generations, males that spent more time
      courting and in wing-vibration were more likely to mate. However, components of
      courtship, overall aggressive success, and overall mating success had very low
      and nonsignificant heritabilities. The genetic estimates did not depend on
      whether they were based on males reared in both environments or reared only in
      the laboratory.

PMID- 28565382
TI  - GENETIC INTERACTIONS AND NATURAL SELECTION IN LOUISIANA IRIS HYBRIDS.
AB  - Hybridization between divergent lineages has long been assumed to give rise to
      unfavorable interactions between the parental genomes. These deleterious genetic
      interactions are further assumed to result in the production of hybrid offspring
      with decreased levels of viability and/or fertility. To test this assumption, we
      investigated the role of both nuclear and cytonuclear epistatic interactions in
      determining the frequencies of F2 genotypes produced in crosses between two
      species of Louisiana iris, Iris fulva and I. brevicaulis. Overall, these crosses
      revealed a significant deficit of intermediate hybrid genotypes accompanied by an
      excess of parental-like genotypes, suggesting that genetic interactions may
      promote postmating reproductive isolation between these species. However,
      analyses of single and multilocus segregation patterns revealed a variety of
      negative and positive interactions between the genomes of the parental taxa at
      the nuclear and cytonuclear levels. Taken together, these results indicate that
      the traditional view that interactions between divergent genomes are always
      deleterious is an oversimplification. Rather, it seems likely that crosses
      between divergent lineages can lead to the production of both fit and unfit
      hybrid genotypes.

PMID- 28565383
TI  - A TEST OF QUEEN RECRUITMENT MODELS USING NUCLEAR AND MITOCHONDRIAL MARKERS IN THE
      FIRE ANT SOLENOPSIS INVICTA.
AB  - We assess nestmate queen relatedness and the genetic similarity of neighboring
      nests in the polygyne (multiple-queen) social form of the introduced fire ant
      Solenopsis invicta using both nuclear and mitochondrial markers. We find that
      estimates of queen relatedness calculated with both types of markers do not
      differ statistically from zero. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship
      between the genetic similarity and geographic proximity of nests in each of six
      study sites. In contrast to these findings, sites show strong mitochondrial, but
      no nuclear, genetic differentiation. Our results suggest that nonnestmate queen
      recruitment occurs at a high frequency in introduced populations of this species.
      Moreover, queens within nests seem to represent a random sample of the queens
      within the site in which they reside. Therefore, kin selection models that rely
      on the recruitment of only nestmate queens to explain the persistence of polygyny
      in ants do not apply to polygyne S. invicta in its introduced range.

PMID- 28565384
TI  - AMONG-FAMILY VARIATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SEX DETERMINATION IN REPTILES.
AB  - Unlike birds and mammals, in many reptiles the temperature experienced by a
      developing embryo determines its gonadal sex. To understand how temperature
      dependent sex determination (TSD) evolves, we must first determine the nature of
      genetic variation for sex ratio. Here, we analyze among-family variation for sex
      ratio in three TSD species: the American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis),
      the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) and the painted turtle
      (Chrysemys picta). Significant family effects and significant temperature effects
      were detected in all three species. In addition, family-by-temperature
      interactions were evident in the alligator and the snapping turtle, but not in
      the painted turtle. Overall, the among-family variation detected in this study
      indicates potential for sex-ratio evolution in at least three reptiles with TSD.
      Consequently, climate change scenarios that are posited on the presumption that
      sex-ratio evolution in TSD reptiles is genetically constrained may require
      reevaluation.

PMID- 28565385
TI  - RESOURCE ACQUISITION AND THE EVOLUTION OF STRESS RESISTANCE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Resistance to environmental stress is one of the most important forces molding
      the distribution and abundance of species. We investigated the evolution of
      desiccation stress resistance using 20 outbred Drosophila melanogaster
      populations directly selected in the laboratory for adult desiccation resistance
      (D), postponed senescence (O), and their respective controls (C and B). Both
      aging and desiccation selection increased desiccation resistance relative to
      their controls, creating a spectrum of desiccation resistance levels across
      selection treatments. We employed an integrative approach, merging data on the
      life histories of these populations with a detailed physiology of water balance.
      The physiological basis of desiccation resistance may be mechanisms enhancing
      either resource conservation or resource acquisition and allocation. Desiccation
      resistant populations had increased water and carbohydrate stores, and showed age
      specific patterns of desiccation resistance consistent with the resource
      accumulation mechanism. A significant proportion of the resources relevant to
      resistance of the stress were accumulated in the larval stage. Males and females
      of desiccation-selected lines exhibited distinctly different patterns of
      desiccation resistance and resource acquisition, in a manner suggesting
      intersexual antagonism in the evolution of stress resistance. Preadult viability
      of stress-selected populations was lower than that of controls, and development
      was slowed. Our results suggest that there is a cost to preadult resource
      acquisition, pointing out a complex trade-off architecture involving characters
      distributed across distinct life-cycle stages.

PMID- 28565386
TI  - INTENSE NATURAL SELECTION ON BODY SIZE AND WING AND TAIL ASYMMETRY IN CLIFF
      SWALLOWS DURING SEVERE WEATHER.
AB  - Extreme climatic disturbances provide excellent opportunities to study natural
      selection in wild populations because they may cause measurable directional
      shifts in character traits. Insectivorous cliff swallows (Petrochelidon
      pyrrhonota) in the northern Great Plains must often endure periods of cold
      weather in late spring that reduce food availability, and if cold spells last
      four or more days, mortality due to starvation may result. We analyzed
      morphological shifts associated with viability selection, and how patterns of
      bilateral symmetry were affected by survival selection, during a four-day period
      of cold weather in 1992 and a six-day period in 1996 in southwestern Nebraska.
      Birds that died during the cold were compared to those still alive when the
      severe weather ended. The event in 1992 killed relatively few birds, but the cold
      spell in 1996 killed thousands of cliff swallows and reduced their population by
      about 53%. Climatological records suggest that mortality events comparable to
      that of 1996 have occurred in only one other year since 1875. Larger birds were
      favored in the 1996 event. Selection was more intense in 1996 than in 1992
      because of more stressful conditions in 1996. Directional selection gradient
      analysis showed that measures of skeletal body size (tarsus length, culmen width
      and length) and wing length were targets of selection in 1996. Survivors had
      lower wing and outer tail asymmetry, and wing and tail asymmetry were targets of
      selection in both events. Mortality patterns did not differ by sex, but older
      birds suffered heavier mortality; morphological traits generally did not vary
      with age. Nonsurvivors were not in poorer apparent condition prior to the weather
      event than survivors, suggesting that selection acted directly on morphology
      independent of condition. Selection on body size in cliff swallows was more
      intense than in studies of body size evolution in other bird species. Larger
      swallows were probably favored in cold weather due to the thermal advantages of
      large size and the ability to store more fat. Swallows with low asymmetry were
      favored probably because low asymmetry in wing and tail made foraging more
      efficient and less costly, conferring survival advantages during cold weather.
      This population of cliff swallows may have undergone relatively recent body size
      evolution.

PMID- 28565387
TI  - NEUTRAL GENE FLOW ACROSS SINGLE LOCUS CLINES.
AB  - We study the strength of the genetic barrier to neutral gene flow in a general
      one-locus, two-allele model that includes viability selection as well as
      fertility selection and premating isolation. We have separately considered adult
      migration and pollen migration. Our theoretical results suggest that selection
      against hybrid formation in the form of fertility selection or assortative mating
      is more effective in preventing introgression of neutral alleles than is
      reduction in hybrid viability. We argue that in experimental studies of
      introgression testing of F1 hybrids is as important as testing of parental forms.
      To illustrate the utility of this approach, we estimate the strength of the
      barrier to neutral gene flow between Piriqueta caroliniana and P. viridis,
      between Iris hexagona and I. fulva, and between Chorthippus brunneus and C.
      biguttulus.

PMID- 28565388
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF FLOWER COLOR AND INTER-TRAIT CORRELATIONS IN AN
      IPOMOPSIS HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Flower color is often viewed as a trait that signals rewards to pollinators, such
      that the relationship between flower color and plant fitness might result from
      its association with another trait. We used experimental manipulations of flower
      color and nectar reward to dissociate the natural character correlations present
      in a hybrid zone between Ipomopsis aggregata and Ipomopsis tenuituba. Isozyme
      markers were used to follow the male and female reproductive success of these
      engineered phenotypes. One field experiment compared fitnesses of I. aggregata
      plants that varied only in flower color. Plants with flowers painted red received
      more hummingbird visits and sired more seeds than did plants with flowers painted
      pink or white to match those of hybrids and I. tenuituba. Our second field
      experiment compared fitnesses of I. aggregata, I. tenuituba, and hybrid plants in
      an unmanipulated array and in a second array where all flowers were painted red.
      In the unmanipulated array, I. aggregata received more hummingbird visits, set
      more seeds per flower, and sired more seeds per flower. These fitness differences
      largely disappeared when the color differences were eliminated. The higher male
      fitness of I. aggregata was due to its very high success at siring seeds on
      conspecific recipients. On both I. tenuituba and hybrid recipients, hybrid plants
      sired the most seeds, despite showing lower pollen fertility than I. aggregata in
      mixed donor pollinations in the greenhouse. Ipomopsis tenuituba had a fitness of
      only 13% relative to I. aggregata when traits varied naturally, compared to a
      fitness of 36% for white relative to red flowers when other traits were held
      constant.

PMID- 28565389
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF WORKER STERILITY IN HONEY BEES: AN INVESTIGATION INTO A
      BEHAVIORAL MUTANT CAUSING FAILURE OF WORKER POLICING.
AB  - Normally, worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) only lay eggs when their colony is
      queenless. When a queen is present, worker egg-laying is controlled by mutual
      "policing" behavior in which any rare worker-laid eggs are eaten by other
      workers. However, an extremely rare behavioral phenotype arises in which workers
      develop functional ovaries and lay large numbers of eggs despite the presence of
      the queen. In this study, microsatellite analysis was used to determine the
      maternity of drones produced in such a colony under various conditions. One
      subfamily was found to account for about 90% of drone progeny, with the remainder
      being laid by other subfamilies or the queen. No evidence of queen policing was
      found. After a one-month period of extreme worker oviposition in spring, the
      colony studied reverted to normal behavior and showed no signs of worker
      oviposition. However, upon removal of the queen, workers commenced oviposition
      very quickly. Significantly, the subfamily that laid eggs when the queen was
      present did not contribute to the drone production when the colony was queenless.
      However, another subfamily contributed a disproportionately large number of
      drones. The frequency of worker oviposition appears to be determined by opposing
      selective forces. Individual bees benefit from personal reproduction, whereas
      other bees and the colony are disadvantaged by it. Thus a behavioral polymorphism
      can be maintained in the population in which some workers can escape worker
      policing, with balancing selection at the colony level to detect and eliminate
      these mutations.

PMID- 28565390
TI  - GENITAL LOCK-AND-KEY AS A SELECTIVE AGENT AGAINST HYBRIDIZATION.
AB  - We demonstrate experimentally that differences in genital characters impose a
      direct cost of interspecific copulation on two closely related carabid species,
      Carabus (Ohomopterus) maiyasanus and C. (O.) iwawakianus, that share a narrow
      hybrid zone. Males of both species attempted copulation indiscriminately between
      conspecific and heterospecific females. Females experiencing heterospecific
      mating often suffered mortality due to rupture of their vaginal membranes. Those
      without fatal injury laid eggs which developed into F1 adults, but the
      fertilization rate was much lower than for intraspecific pairs. Males of C.
      maiyasanus, but not C. iwawakianus, often had broken genital parts (copulatory
      pieces) following interspecific copulations, which may prevent normal copulation
      in subsequent matings. Because of female mortality and low fertilization rate,
      the estimated fitness cost of interspecific mating was very large in terms of the
      reduction in the number of offspring (hatching larvae) for both sexes and both
      species. Thus, genital lock-and-key appears to exert significant selection
      against hybridization in the hybrid zone of these carabid beetles.

PMID- 28565391
TI  - INFERENCE OF SPERM COMPETITION FROM BROODS OF FIELD-CAUGHT DROSOPHILA.
AB  - In field studies of multiple mating and sperm competition there typically is no
      experimental control over the number of times that a female mates, the interval
      between matings, or the genetic identity of multiple fathers contributing to a
      brood. Irrespective of this complexity, high-resolution molecular markers can be
      used to assign paternity with considerable confidence. This study employed two
      highly heterozygous microsatellite loci to assess multiple paternity and sperm
      displacement in a sample of broods taken from a natural population of Drosophila
      melanogaster. The large number of alleles present at each of the loci makes it
      difficult to derive explicit maximum-likelihood estimates for multiple paternity
      and sperm displacement from brood samples. Monte Carlo simulations were used to
      estimate maximum-likelihood parameters for the distribution of female remating
      frequency and the proportion of offspring sired by the second or subsequent
      mating males. Estimates were made based on genotypes scored at two distinct
      marker loci because they were found to give statistically homogeneous results.
      Fitting a Poisson distribution of number of matings, the mean number of males
      mated by a female was 1.82. The sperm displacement parameter estimated from
      doubly mated females were 0.79 and 0.86 for the two loci (0.83 for the joint
      estimate). The overall probability that a multiply mated female will be
      misclassified as singly mated was only 0.006, which indicates that
      microsatellites can provide excellent resolution for identifying multiple mating.
      In addition, microsatellites can be used to generate relatively precise estimates
      of sperm precedence in brood-structured samples from a natural population.

PMID- 28565392
TI  - GENETIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND CONDITION-DEPENDENT EFFECTS ON FEMALE AND MALE
      ORNAMENTATION IN THE BARN OWL TYTO ALBA.
AB  - Secondary sexual characters are thought to indicate individual quality.
      Expression of sex-limited traits in an extravagant state may require both the
      underlying genes and the available nutrient resources. The assessment of the
      relative contribution of genes, environment, and body condition is relevant for
      understanding to that extent the extravagant trait may signal genotypic or
      phenotypic quality of the individual. In birds, usually only the males are
      ornamented. In the barn owl, Tyto alba, both females and males display sex
      limited plumage traits. Males are commonly lighter colored and females spottier.
      In an experiment with combined cross-fostering and brood size manipulation we
      determined the relative contribution of genes, environment, and body condition to
      the variation in plumage coloration and plumage spottiness. The partial cross
      fostering experiment tested the relative importance of shared genes and a shared
      environment for the resemblance of related birds. Siblings raised in different
      nests converged toward similar trait values, offspring resembled the true but not
      the foster parents, and plumage traits of unrelated nestlings sharing the same
      nest were not correlated. Results were not inflated by maternal effects
      detectable in the mother's phenotype, because middaughter to mother resemblance
      was not higher than midson to father resemblance. This suggests that plumage
      coloration and spottiness are largely genetically inherited traits, and that the
      rearing environment does not have a strong impact on the expression of these
      traits. To further investigate whether the two sex-limited traits are condition
      dependent, brood sizes were manipulated. Enlargement or reduction of broods by
      two nestlings resulted in lower and higher body mass of nestlings, respectively.
      However, nestlings raised in enlarged or reduced broods did not show either a
      significantly darker or lighter or a more or less spotted plumage. We did not
      detect any genotype-by-environment interaction. In conclusion, simultaneous cross
      fostering and brood size manipulation demonstrate that additive genetic variance
      for plumage coloration and spottiness is maintained and that both the rearing
      environment and body condition do not account for a large proportion of the
      phenotypic variance in female and male ornamentations.

PMID- 28565393
TI  - HIGH LEVELS OF COLICIN RESISTANCE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - Colicins are plasmid-encoded antibiotics that are produced by and kill
      Escherichia coli and other related species. The frequency of colicinogeny is
      high, on average 30% of E. coli isolates produce colicins. Initial observations
      from one collection of 72 strains of E. coli (the ECOR collection) suggest that
      resistance to colicin killing is also ubiquitous, with over 70% of strains
      resistant to one or more colicins. To determine whether resistance is a common
      trait in E. coli, three additional strain collections were surveyed. In each of
      these collections levels of colicin production were high (from 15 to 50% of the
      strains produce colicins). Levels of colicin resistance were even higher, with
      most strains resistant to over 10 colicins. A survey of 137 non-E. coli isolates
      revealed even higher levels of resistance. We discuss a mechanism (pleiotropy)
      that could result in the co-occurrence of such high levels of colicin production
      and colicin resistance.

PMID- 28565394
TI  - HOST SPECIFICITY AND THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF TWO YUCCA MOTH SPECIES IN A YUCCA
      HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Host specialization is an important mechanism of diversification among
      phytophagous insects, especially when they are tightly associated with their
      hosts. The well-known obligate pollination mutualism between yucca moths and
      yuccas represent such an association, but the degree of host specificity and
      modes of specialization in moth evolution is unclear. Here we use molecular tools
      to test the morphology-based hypothesis that the moths pollinating two yuccas,
      Yucca baccata and Y. schidigera, are distinct species. Host specificity was
      assessed in a zone of sympatry where the hosts are known to hybridize. Because
      the moths are the only pollinators, the plant hybrids are evidence that the moths
      occasionally perform heterospecific pollination. Nucleotide variation was
      assessed in a portion of the mitochondrial gene COI, and in an intron within a
      nuclear lysozyme gene. Moths pollinating Y. baccata and Y. schidigera were
      inferred to be genetically isolated because there was no overlap in alleles at
      either locus, and all but one of the moths was found on their native host in the
      hybrid zone. Moreover, genetic structure was very weak across the range of each
      moth species: estimates of FST for the lysozyme intron were 0.043 (SE = +/-
      0.004) and 0.021 (SE = +/- 0.006) for the baccata and schidigera pollinators,
      respectively; estimated FST for COI in the baccata moths was 0.228 (+/- 0.012),
      whereas schidigera pollinators were fixed for a single allele. These results
      reveal a high level of migration among widely separated moth populations. We
      predict that pollen-mediated gene flow among conspecific yuccas is considerable
      and hypothesize that geographic separation is a limited barrier both for yuccas
      and for yucca moths.

PMID- 28565395
TI  - FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN CENTRAL AND MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF LYCHNIS VISCARIA IN
      RELATION TO GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS.
AB  - Developmental instability in the form of increased fluctuating asymmetry can be
      caused by either genetic or environmental stress. Because extinctions can be
      attributed broadly to these factors, fluctuating asymmetry may provide a
      sensitive tool for detecting such stresses. We studied the level of fluctuating
      asymmetry of flowers of a perennial outcrossing plant species, Lychnis viscaria,
      both in natural and common-garden populations. The degree of flower asymmetry was
      higher in small, isolated, and marginal populations of the species range. These
      marginal populations also were the most homozygous. In the core area of the
      species' range, flowers were more symmetrical The level of asymmetry was
      correlated with both population size and heterozygosity. However, a partial
      correlation analysis revealed that when the impact of population size was
      controlled for, there was a negative relationship between fluctuating asymmetry
      and heterozygosity, whereas when controlling for heterozygosity, no relationship
      between population size and fluctuating asymmetry was found. This indicates that
      genetic consequences of small population size probably underlie the relationship
      between the level of asymmetry and population size. Results from a
      transplantation experiment showed that individuals subjected to a higher
      environmental stress had an increased level of asymmetry compared to control
      plants. In the common-garden conditions the level of fluctuating asymmetry did
      not differ between the central and marginal populations. This suggests that
      presumably both genetic and environmental factors affected to the higher level of
      asymmetry among marginal populations compared to central ones. In all we conclude
      that even though fluctuating asymmetry seems to be a sensitive tool for detecting
      stresses, results from studies focusing on only one factor should be interpreted
      with caution.

PMID- 28565396
TI  - ADAPTIVE PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, AND BODY SIZE IN THE
      YELLOW DUNG FLY.
AB  - Life-history theory predicts that age and size at maturity of organisms should be
      influenced by time and food constraints on development. This study investigated
      phenotypic plasticity in growth, development, body size, and diapause in the
      yellow dung fly, Scathophaga stercoraria. Full-sib families were allowed to
      develop under predator-free field conditions. The time before the onset of winter
      was varied and each brood was split into three environments differing in the
      amount of dung a set number of larvae had as a resource. When resources were
      abundant and competition was minimal, individuals of both sexes grew to larger
      body sizes, took longer time to mature, and were able to increase their growth
      rates to attain large body sizes despite shorter effective development periods
      later in the season. In contrast, limited larval resources and strong competition
      constrained individuals to mature earlier at a smaller adult size, and growth
      rates could not be increased but were at least maintained. This outcome is
      predicted by only two life-history optimality models, which treat mortality due
      to long development periods and mortality due to fast growth as independent.
      Elevated preadult mortality indicated physiological costs of fast growth
      independent of predation. When larval resources were limited, mortality increased
      with heritable variation in development time for males, and toward the end of the
      season mortality increased as larval resources became more abundant because this
      induced longer development periods. Sexual and fecundity selection favoring large
      body size in this species is thus opposed by larval viability selection favoring
      slower growth in general and shorter development periods when time and resources
      are limited; this overall combination of selective pressures is presumably
      shaping the reaction norms obtained here. Flexible growth rates are facilitated
      by low genetic correlations between development time and body size, a possible
      consequence of selection for plasticity. Heritable variation was evident in all
      traits investigated, as well as in phenotypic plasticity of these traits
      (genotype X interactions). This is possibly maintained by unpredictable
      spatiotemporal variation in dung abundance, competition, and hence selection.

PMID- 28565397
TI  - DESCRIBING THE EVOLUTION OF REACTION NORM SHAPE: BODY PIGMENTATION IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - If phenotypic plasticity is a trait subject to selection and evolution, we need
      to quantify reaction norms and to identify the potential target(s) of selection.
      Previously we proposed the use of polynomial coefficients as reaction norm
      descriptors. However, the interpretation of these coefficients is not
      straightforward if the reaction norm is not linear. Therefore, we instead propose
      the use of characteristic values to describe reaction norms. We depict such
      characteristic values for linear, quadratic, and logistic reaction norms, discuss
      how they might evolve, and illustrate their estimation using data on abdominal
      pigmentation of Drosophila simulans.

PMID- 28565398
TI  - INTENSE SELECTION OF MITE CLONES IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - Genetic diversity within obligatorily parthenogenic species can be high, contrary
      to common views of the evolutionary consequences of this reproductive system. How
      this clonal diversity is maintained within populations is not clearly understood.
      Previous studies showing high clonal diversity have used parthenogenic organisms
      with known sexual forms or relatives. Here we report significant spatial and
      temporal clonal diversity within two populations of an obligatorily parthenogenic
      mite, Penthaleus major, which has no known sexual form or close sexual relative.
      Fitness estimates from temporal sampling at two sites and manipulated field plots
      reveal intense natural selection acting on ecologically different clones. We
      propose that environmental heterogeneity contributes to the maintenance of clonal
      diversity within populations of P. major and that selection is strong enough to
      overcome the problems of relative niche size.

PMID- 28565399
TI  - REPTILIAN VIVIPARITY AND DOLLO'S LAW.
AB  - It has been suggested repeatedly that the evolutionary transition from oviparity
      (egg-laying) to viviparity (live-bearing) in reptiles is irreversible. However,
      these adaptive arguments have yet to be tested by detailed examination of the
      phylogenetic distribution of oviparity and viviparity across a broad range of
      taxa. Using available data on reproductive modes and phylogenetic relationships
      within reptiles, we here quantify the numbers and directions of evolutionary
      transitions between oviparity and viviparity. Phylogenetic relationships among
      three diverse squamate groups (scincid lizards, colubrid snakes, elapid snakes)
      are currently inadequately known for inclusion in this study Among the remaining
      reptiles, oviparity has given rise to viviparity at least 35 times. Five possible
      instances of reversals (from viviparity to oviparity) are identified, but closer
      examination indicates that all have weak empirical support (i.e., they could be
      "unreversed" with little loss in parsimony, and/or are based on poorly
      substantiated phylogenetic hypotheses). Viviparity is clearly more frequently
      (and presumably easily) gained than lost in several disparate groups so far
      examined (reptiles, fishes, polychaete worms); this evolutionary bias should be
      considered when reproductive mode is optimized on a phylogeny or employed in
      phylogenetic reconstruction.

PMID- 28565400
TI  - QUORUM SENSING AND GROUP SELECTION.
AB  - Bacteria respond to cell density by expressing genes whose products are
      beneficial to the population as a whole. This response is brought about through
      the release into the medium of signaling molecules of the class N-acyl homoserine
      lactones, the concentration of which determines the level of gene expression.
      This form of communication between cells has been termed "quorum sensing," and
      has been found to operate in the control of many functions in a variety of gram
      negative bacteria. As with all signaling between individuals, if fitness costs
      are associated with the release of and response to the signal, the inclusive
      fitness of alleles responsible for the phenomenon depends upon genetic
      relatedness between signaler and responder. The situation is considered in
      explicit models for bacterial population genetics, in which the critical
      parameter determining the success of quorum sensing is the mean number of cells
      founding a population sharing a patch of resource. It is found that extensive
      polymorphism for the presence or absence of quorum sensing is expected for a wide
      range of parameter space. If local communities of bacteria contain diverse
      species, community stability may be the consequence of these interactions rather
      than polymorphism.

PMID- 28565401
TI  - GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRICS OF DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY: ANALYZING PATTERNS OF
      FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY WITH PROCRUSTES METHODS.
AB  - Although fluctuating asymmetry has become popular as a measure of developmental
      instability, few studies have examined its developmental basis. We propose an
      approach to investigate the role of development for morphological asymmetry by
      means of morphometric methods. Our approach combines geometric morphometrics with
      the two-way ANOVA customary for conventional analyses of fluctuating asymmetry
      and can discover localized features of shape variation by examining the patterns
      of covariance among landmarks. This approach extends the notion of form used in
      studies of fluctuating asymmetry from collections of distances between
      morphological landmarks to an explicitly geometric concept of shape characterized
      by the configuration of landmarks. We demonstrate this approach with a study of
      asymmetry in the wings of tsetse flies (Glossina palpalis gambiensis). The
      analysis revealed significant fluctuating and directional asymmetry for shape as
      well as ample shape variation among individuals and between the offspring of
      young and old females. The morphological landmarks differed markedly in their
      degree of variability but multivariate patterns of landmark covariation
      identified by principal component analysis were generally similar between
      fluctuating asymmetry (within-individual variability) and variation among
      individuals. Therefore there is no evidence that special developmental processes
      control fluctuating asymmetry. We relate some of the morphometric patterns to
      processes known to be involved in the development of fly wings.

PMID- 28565402
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS AND THE MAINTENANCE OF SEX IN A FRESHWATER SNAIL.
AB  - Synergism among mutations can lead to an advantage to sexual reproduction,
      provided mutation rates are high enough (the mutational deterministic
      hypothesis). Here we tested the idea that competition for food can increase the
      advantage to sexual reproduction, perhaps by increasing the synergism among
      mutations in asexual individuals. We compared the survivorship of sexual and
      asexual snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) under two treatments: starved and fed.
      We predicted higher mortality for asexual snails when starved, but found that
      sexual and asexual individuals survived at the same rate, independent of
      treatment. These results suggest that the distribution of sex in this snail may
      not be explained by variation in competition among populations.

PMID- 28565403
TI  - RESPONSE TO SELECTION IN PARTIALLY SELF-FERTILIZING POPULATIONS. I. SELECTION ON
      A SINGLE TRAIT.
AB  - Self-fertilization is a common form of reproduction in plants and it has
      important implications for quantitative trait evolution. Here, I present a model
      of selection on quantitative traits that can accommodate any level of self
      fertilization. The "structured linear model" (SLM) predicts the evolution of the
      mean phenotype as a function of three distinct quantities: the mean additive
      genetic value, the directional dominance, and the mean inbreeding coefficient.
      Stochastic simulations of truncation selection demonstrate the accuracy of the
      SLM in predicting changes in the mean and variance of a quantitative trait over
      the full range of selfing rates. They also illustrate how complex interactions
      between selection and mating system determine the population distribution of
      inbreeding coefficients and also the amount of linkage disequilibrium. Changes in
      the genetic variance due to linkage disequilibria, which are commonly referred to
      as the "Bulmer effect," are greatly magnified by selfing. This complicates the
      relationship between selfing rate and response to selection. Like the random
      mating theory, the parameters of the SLM can be estimated from phenotypic data.

PMID- 28565404
TI  - ACCELERATED EVOLUTION OF LAND SNAILS MANDARINA IN THE OCEANIC BONIN ISLANDS:
      EVIDENCE FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES.
AB  - An endemic land snail genus Mandarina of the oceanic Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands
      shows exceptionally rapid evolution not only of morphological and ecological
      traits, but of DNA sequence. A phylogenetic relationship based on mitochondrial
      DNA (mtDNA) sequences suggests that morphological differences equivalent to the
      differences between families were produced between Mandarina and its ancestor
      during the Pleistocene. The inferred phylogeny shows that species with similar
      morphologies and life habitats appeared repeatedly and independently in different
      lineages and islands at different times. Sequential adaptive radiations occurred
      in different islands of the Bonin Islands and species occupying arboreal,
      semiarboreal, and terrestrial habitat arose independently in each island. Because
      of a close relationship between shell morphology and life habitat, independent
      evolution of the same life habitat in different islands created species possesing
      the same shell morphology in different islands and lineages. This rapid evolution
      produced some incongruences between phylogenetic relationship and species
      taxonomy. Levels of sequence divergence of mtDNA among the species of Mandarina
      is extremely high. The maximum level of sequence divergence at 16S and 12S
      ribosomal RNA sequence within Mandarina are 18.7% and 17.7%, respectively, and
      this suggests that evolution of mtDNA of Mandarina is extremely rapid, more than
      20 times faster than the standard rate in other animals. The present examination
      reveals that evolution of morphological and ecological traits occurs at extremely
      high rates in the time of adaptive radiation, especially in fragmented
      environments.

PMID- 28565405
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MOLECULAR VARIANCE WITHIN THE BLUE MARLIN (MAKAIRA
      NIGRICANS): A HIERARCHICAL ANALYSIS OF ALLOZYME, SINGLE-COPY NUCLEAR DNA, AND
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA MARKERS.
AB  - This study presents a comparative hierarchical analysis of variance applied to
      three classes of molecular markers within the blue marlin (Makaira nigricans).
      Results are reported from analyses of four polymorphic allozyme loci, four
      polymorphic anonymously chosen single-copy nuclear DNA (scnDNA) loci, and
      previously reported restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Samples were collected within and among the Atlantic
      and Pacific Oceans over a period of several years. Although moderate levels of
      genetic variation were detected at both polymorphic allozyme (H = 0.30) and
      scnDNA loci (H = 0.37), mtDNA markers were much more diverse (h = 0.85). Allele
      frequencies were significantly different between Atlantic and Pacific Ocean
      samples at three of four allozyme loci and three of four scnDNA loci. Estimates
      of allozyme genetic differentiation (thetaO ) ranged from 0.00 to 0.15, with a
      mean of 0.08. The thetaO values for scnDNA loci were similar to those of
      allozymes, ranging from 0.00 to 0.12 with a mean of 0.09. MtDNA RFLP divergence
      between oceans (thetaO = 0.39) was significantly greater than divergence detected
      at nuclear loci (95% nuclear confidence interval = 0.04-0.11). The fourfold
      smaller effective population size of mtDNA and male-mediated gene flow may
      account for the difference observed between nuclear and mitochondrial divergence
      estimates.

PMID- 28565406
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. VII. EXTENSION OF THE UPPER THERMAL LIMIT
      OF ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - What factors influence the ability of populations to adapt to extreme
      environments that lie outside their current tolerance limits? We investigated
      this question by exposing experimental populations of the bacterium Escherichia
      coli to lethally high temperatures. We asked: (1) whether we could obtain
      thermotolerant mutants with an extended upper thermal limit by this selective
      screen; (2) whether the propensity to obtain thermotolerant mutants depended on
      the prior selective history of the progenitor genotypes; and (3) how the fitness
      properties of these mutants compared to those of their progenitors within the
      ancestral thermal niche. Specifically, we subjected 15 independent populations
      founded from each of six progenitors to 44 degrees C; all of the progenitors had
      upper thermal limits between about 40 degrees C and 42 degrees C. Two of the
      progenitors were from populations that had previously adapted to 32 degrees C,
      two were from populations adapted to 37 degrees C, and two were from populations
      adapted to 41-42 degrees C. All 90 populations were screened for mutants that
      could survive and grow at 44 degrees C. We obtained three thermotolerant mutants,
      all derived from progenitors previously adapted to 41-42 degrees C. In an earlier
      study, we serendipitously found one other thermotolerant mutant derived from a
      population that had previously adapted to 32 degrees C. Thus, prior selection at
      an elevated but nonlethal temperature may predispose organisms to evolve more
      extreme thermotolerance, but this is not an absolute requirement. It is evidently
      possible to obtain mutants that tolerate more extreme temperatures, so why did
      they not become prevalent during prior selection at 41-42 degrees C, near the
      upper limit of the thermal niche? To address this question, we measured the
      fitness of the thermotolerant mutants at high temperatures just within the
      ancestral niche. None of the four thermotolerant mutants had an advantage
      relative to their progenitor even very near the upper limit of the thermal niche;
      in fact, all of the mutants showed a noticeable loss of fitness around 41 degrees
      C. Thus, the genetic adaptations that improve competitive fitness at high but
      nonlethal temperatures are distinct from those that permit tolerance of otherwise
      lethal temperatures.

PMID- 28565407
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DRIVING X CHROMOSOMES AND RESISTANCE FACTORS IN EXPERIMENTAL
      POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.
AB  - Sex-ratio drive is a particular case of meiotic drive, described in several
      Drosophila species, that causes males bearing driving X chromosome to produce a
      large excess of females in their progeny. In Drosophila simulans, driving X
      chromosomes and resistance factors located on the Y chromosome and on the
      autosomes have been previously reported. In this paper, we report the study of
      the dynamics of sex-ratio factors in experimental populations. We followed the
      evolution in frequency of driving X chromosomes in the absence of resistance
      factors and the evolution of resistance factors in the presence of driving X
      chromosomes. The driving X chromosome was lost, contrarily to theoretical
      expectations that predict its rapid invasion. Autosomal resistances increased in
      frequency, and resistant Y chromosomes invaded the population very quickly, as
      predicted by theoretical models. Fitness measurements showed that the loss of the
      driving X chromosome was due to a strong deleterious effect that was expressed
      only when distorting males were in competition with standard males. However, the
      spread of autosomal resistances reduced this deleterious effect. Implications for
      the maintenance of polymorphism in natural populations are discussed.

PMID- 28565408
TI  - INVERSION POLYMORPHISM, LONGEVITY, AND BODY SIZE IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF
      DROSOPHILA BUZZATII.
AB  - In this study we present the results of an analysis of differential longevity
      associated with Drosophila buzzatii second chromosome inversion karyotypes based
      on the assessment of more than 1000 individuals collected in a natural
      population. Comparisons of inversion frequencies between emerged and bait
      collected flies showed not only that inversion arrangements were associated with
      differential longevity, but also that selection was sex specific. Because each
      individual fly was scored for thorax length and karyotype, we were able to show
      that longevity selection favoring larger flies coupled with the average effect of
      inversions on thorax length can account for the change of inversion frequencies
      due to longevity in females. The observed genotypic-by-sex interaction could be
      an important mechanism involved in the maintenance of the polymorphism.
      Arrangement 2Jz3 , which was shown to impaired fecundity in two independent
      previous studies, exhibited a positive effect on longevity. This pattern of
      negative pleiotropy may be another plausible mechanism accounting for the
      maintenance of the polymorphism.

PMID- 28565409
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: HIGHLY VARIABLE LOCI AND THEIR INTERPRETATION IN EVOLUTION AND
      CONSERVATION.
AB  - Although highly variable loci, such as microsatellite loci, are revolutionizing
      both evolutionary and conservation biology, data from these loci need to be
      carefully evaluated. First, because these loci often have very high within
      population heterozygosity, the magnitude of differentiation measures may be quite
      small. For example, maximum GST values for populations with no common alleles at
      highly variable loci may be small and are at maximum less than the average within
      population homozygosity. As a result, measures that are variation independent are
      recommended for highly variable loci. Second, bottlenecks or a reduction in
      population size can generate large genetic distances in a short time for these
      loci. In this case, the genetic distance may be corrected for low variation in a
      population and tests to detect bottlenecks are advised. Third, statistically
      significant differences may not reflect biologically meaningful differences both
      because the patterns of adaptive loci may not be correlated with highly variable
      loci and statistical power with these markers is so high. As an example of this
      latter effect, the statistical power to detect a one-generation bottleneck of
      different sizes for different numbers of highly variable loci is discussed. All
      of these concerns need to be incorporated in the utilization and interpretation
      of patterns of highly variable loci for both evolutionary and conservation
      biology.

PMID- 28565410
TI  - DYNAMIC AND GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF VARIATION IN HORIZONTAL TRANSMISSION FOR A
      MICROPARASITIC INFECTION.
AB  - Transmission to a new host is a critical step in the life cycle of a parasite.
      Variation in the characteristics of the transmission process, for example, due to
      host demography, is assumed to select for different variants of the parasite. We
      have experimentally tested how variation in the time to transmission (early or
      late after infection) and exposure to adverse conditions outside the host
      (immediate or delayed contact with new host) interact to determine the success of
      the infection in the next host, using the trypanosome Crithidia bombi infecting
      its bumblebee host, Bombus terrestris. These two experimentally manageable steps
      mimic the processes of within- and among-host selection for the parasite. We
      found that early transmission led to higher infection success in the next host as
      did immediate contact with the new host. However, there was no interaction
      between the two parameters as would be expected if early-transmitted variants,
      resulting from rapid multiplication within the host, would be less adapted to the
      conditions encountered during the between-host transfer or infection of the next
      host. Furthermore, typing the genetic variability of the parasites with
      microsatellites showed that the four different transmission routes of our
      experiment selected for different degrees of allelic diversity of the infecting
      parasite populations. The results support the idea that variation in the
      transmission process selects for different genotypic variants of the parasite. At
      the same time, the relationship of allelic diversity with infection intensity
      suggested that the coinfection model of May and Nowak (1995) may be appropriate,
      where each parasite is able to infect and multiply independent of others within
      the same host.

PMID- 28565411
TI  - FEMALE-FEMALE COMPETITION IN KATYDIDS: SEXUAL SELECTION FOR INCREASED SENSITIVITY
      TO A MALE SIGNAL?
AB  - In contrast to studies of sex-specific weaponry and other sexually selected
      traits, there has been no examination of Darwin's (1871, p. 418) suggestion that
      elaborations or enlargements of "the organs of sense" function to enhance mating
      success. In certain katydids the size of thoracic spiracles, which are a main
      input into the hearing system, determines auditory sensitivity of females. Here
      we present evidence that sexual dimorphism in the spiracle size of a pollen
      katydid, Kawanaphila nartee, is a result of sexual selection on females competing
      to locate nuptial-gift giving males. In field experiments in which female K.
      nartee were attracted to a calling male, we show a pairing advantage to females
      with larger auditory spiracles. The spiracle-size advantage was not a correlated
      result of a larger body size or mass of winners. Finally, there was no spiracle
      size advantage or body-mass advantage for mating females in a later stage of
      competition when experimental females struggled for access to a silent male. We
      suggest that research on the detection of displays has lagged behind work on the
      displays themselves; the focus has been on the species specificity of signal
      perception rather than on the fitness consequences of variation in the ability to
      detect cues from mates or predators.

PMID- 28565412
TI  - INTEGRATING DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS AND MECHANISMS: A CASE STUDY
      USING THE GASTROPOD RADULA.
AB  - Determining the connection between ontogeny and phylogeny continues to be a major
      theme in biology. However, few studies have combined dissection of pattern and
      process that lead to transformation of complex morphological structures. Here we
      examine the patterns and processes of shape change in a model system-the
      gastropod radula. This system is a simple one having only two processes: initial
      secretion and postsecretional movement of teeth. However, it produces a
      tremendous amount of shape variability and fusion patterns. To determine both
      pattern and mechanism of shape change in an evolutionary context, we use three
      complementary approaches and datasets. First, we use a phylogenetic hypothesis to
      determine the polarity of developmental events. Second, we perform a morphometric
      analysis of shape change using relative warp analysis that allows us to locate
      and compare the direction and magnitude of ontogenetic and phylogenetic shape
      divergence. These comparisons are the basis for testing hyptheses of heterochrony
      and heterotopy, and we show how our results do not conform to expectations of
      pure heterochrony. The rejection of heterochrony as a hypothesis is based on
      empirically demonstrating (1) initial shape differs in each taxon; (2) a single
      dimension of shape variability does not simultaneously describe ontogenetic and
      evolutionary shape changes; and (3) a significantly different shape and size
      covariance between taxa. This rejection is probably based on spatial changes in
      initial conditions and not spatial changes caused by the process itself. Finally,
      we construct a mechanistic model that explains how shape change happens based on
      the sequence of events during ontogeny. By using the parameters in the model as
      characters in the phylogenetic dataset, we show that different parts of the
      system have arisen at different times and become co-opted into the process. By
      integrating our analyses together we show that spatial process parameters can be
      responsible for our nonspatial patterns and that different ontogenetic processes
      can create similar end morphologies.

PMID- 28565413
TI  - TESTS OF INBREEDING EFFECTS ON HOST-SHIFT POTENTIAL IN THE PHYTOPHAGOUS BEETLE
      OPHRAELLA COMMUNA.
AB  - Although inbreeding, on average, decreases additive genetic variance, some inbred
      populations may show an increase in phenotypic variance for some characters. In
      those populations with increased phenotypic variance, character changes by peak
      shifts may occur because of the effects of the higher variance on the adaptive
      landscape. A population's increased phenotypic variance may place it in the
      domain of attraction of a new adaptive peak or increase the likelihood of a
      selection-driven peak shift as the landscape of mean fitness flattens. The focus
      of this study was to test for increased variance, in inbred populations, in a
      behavioral character involved in adaptive diversification and probably
      speciation. We examined the effect of inbreeding on feeding responses of the leaf
      beetle Ophraella communa in a series of inbred lineages across a range of levels
      of inbreeding (f = 0.25, 0.375, 0.5). We measured the feeding response of inbred
      lineages of O. communa on its normal host, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, and on two
      novel plants, Chrysopsis villosa and Iva frutescens, that are the hosts of other
      Ophraella species. The results show that feeding responses on the different
      plants are not correlated, indicating that the feeding responses to the different
      plants are to some degree genetically independent. Despite apparent genetic
      variation in lineage feeding responses, we could not statistically demonstrate
      increases in phenotypic variance within the lineages. Thus, the experimental
      results do not support the idea that host shifts in this beetle evolved by peak
      shifts in bottlenecked populations.

PMID- 28565414
TI  - THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TIME AND EGGS TO THE COST OF REPRODUCTION.
AB  - Whether the trade-off between current and future reproduction in insect
      parasitoids is mediated by the costs of time or eggs remains an issue of
      contention. Life-history models predict that parasitoids have some risk of
      exhausting their lifetime supply of oocytes. I develop a simple conceptual model
      that assesses the relative contributions of time and eggs to the cost of
      reproduction by placing them in a common currency: foregone future fitness
      returns. Although rates of egg limitation observed in nature are modest, eggs
      still often make the dominant contribution to the overall cost of oviposition.
      Therefore, models of parasitoid reproduction must recognize the costliness of
      both time and eggs.

PMID- 28565415
TI  - THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY, TRAIT VARIABILITY, TRAIT
      HERITABILITY, AND STRESS: A MULTIPLY REPLICATED EXPERIMENT ON COMBINED STRESSES
      IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - A number of hypotheses have been proposed about the association between
      developmental stability phenotypic variability, heritability, and environmental
      stress. Stress is often considered to increase both the asymmetry and phenotypic
      variability of bilateral traits, although this may depend on trait heritability.
      Empirical studies of such associations often yield inconsistent results. This may
      reflect the diversity of traits and conditions used or a low repeatability of any
      associations. To test for repeatable associations between these variables,
      multiply replicated experiments were undertaken on Drosophila melanogaster using
      a combination stress at the egg, larval and adult stages of reduced protein,
      ethanol in the medium, and a cold shock. Both metric and meristic traits were
      measured and levels of heritable variation for each trait estimated by maximum
      likelihood and parent-offspring regression over three generations. Trait means
      were reduced by stress, whereas among-individual variation increased Fluctuating
      asymmetry (FA) was increased by stress in some cases, but few comparisons were
      significant. Only one trait orbital bristle, showed consistent increases in FA.
      Changes in trait means, trait phenotypic variability, and developmental stability
      as a result of stress were not correlated. Extreme phenotypes tended to have
      higher levels of FA but only the results for orbital bristles were significant.
      All traits had low to intermediate heritabilities except orbital bristle, which
      showed no heritable variation. Only traits with low heritability and high levels
      of phenotypic variability may show consistent increases in FA under stress.
      Overall, the independence of phenotypic variability, plasticity, and the
      developmental stability of traits extend to changes in these measures under
      stressful conditions.

PMID- 28565416
TI  - KIN-STRUCTURED COLONIZATION AND SMALL-SCALE GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN SILENE
      DIOICA.
AB  - We investigated the genetic structure of a single island population of the
      dioecious plant Silene dioica in the Skeppsvik Archipelago, Umea, Sweden. The
      population is less than 10 years old and consists of approximately 700
      individuals growing within an area of about 200 m2 . Despite the small scale of
      the study, levels of genetic differentiation among contiguous patches are greater
      than or comparable to what is observed over larger scales in the archipelago. The
      results suggest that the small-scale structuring occurs during population
      expansion, soon after island colonization, and that the observed patterns of
      genetic differentiation can be attributed to the population being substructured
      into family groups. This family structure results from kin-structured dispersal
      processes (colonization and migration) as the population expands over the island.
      As plant densities increase over time, either spatial fusion or temporal fusion
      of patches reduce the among patch variation. These processes, however, do not
      completely eradicate the genetic differentiation established by the kin
      structured dispersal processes. We discuss some implications of kin structuring
      for evolution through either kin or interdemic selection.

PMID- 28565417
TI  - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-FERTILITY, ALLOCATION OF GROWTH, AND INBREEDING
      DEPRESSION IN THREE CONIFEROUS SPECIES.
AB  - Mortality and growth of self and outcross families of three wind-pollinated,
      mixed-mating, long-lived conifers, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), ponderosa
      pine (Pinus ponderosa), and noble fir (Abies procera) were followed from
      outplanting to age 26 (25 for noble fir) in spaced plantings at a common test
      site. Response to inbreeding differed greatly among species over time and in all
      regards. Only Douglas-fir and noble fir will be contrasted here, because
      ponderosa pine usually was intermediate to the other two in its response to
      inbreeding. In earlier reports, compared to noble fir Douglas-fir had a higher
      rate of primary selfing and larger inbreeding depression in seed set. Douglas-fir
      continued to have higher inbreeding depression in nursery and early field
      survival. The species differed in time courses of inbreeding depression in height
      and in allocation of growth due to crowding. Between ages 6 and 12, the relative
      elongation rate (dm . dm-1 . yr-1 ) of Douglas-fir was significantly greater in
      the selfs than in the outcrosses. The response was not observed in noble fir. At
      final measurement, inbreeding depression in diameter relative to inbreeding
      depression in height was greater in Douglas-fir than in noble fir. At final
      measurement inbreeding depression in height was inversely related to inbreeding
      depression in survival. Cumulative inbreeding depressions from time of
      fertilization to final measurement were 0.98, 0.94, and 0.83 for Douglas-fir,
      ponderosa pine, and noble fir, respectively, which indicates that selfs will not
      contribute to the mature, reproductive populations.

PMID- 28565418
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION ON BODY SIZE AND SHAPE IN THE WESTERN HARVESTER ANT,
      POGONOMYRMEX OCCIDENTALIS CRESSON.
AB  - Mating in social insects has generally been studied in relation to reproductive
      allocation and relatedness. Despite the tremendous morphological diversity in
      social insects, little is known about how individual morphology affects mating
      success. We examined the correlation of male size and shape with mating success
      in the western harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Larger males had
      significantly higher mating success in two independent collections of males at
      mating aggregations. We also detected significant linear and nonlinear selection
      on aspects of male shape that were consistent across years. These shape
      components are independent of size, suggesting that male mating success is a
      complex function of size and shape. Successful males had elongate thoraxes and
      short mandibles relative to males collected at random at the lek. Overall, mated
      males also had longer postpetioles relative to body size, but there was also
      evidence of nonlinear selection on relative postpetiole length in both years. We
      found no evidence of assortative mating based on size or multivariate shape
      measures in either year, but in one year we found weak assortative mating based
      on some univariate traits.

PMID- 28565419
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF AN ADAPTIVE MATERNAL EFFECT: EGG SIZE PLASTICITY IN
      A SEED BEETLE.
AB  - In many organisms, a female's environment provides a reliable indicator of the
      environmental conditions that her progeny will encounter. In such cases, maternal
      effects may evolve as mechanisms for transgenerational phenotypic plasticity
      whereby, in response to a predictive environmental cue, a mother can change the
      type of eggs that she makes or can program a developmental switch in her
      offspring, which produces offspring prepared for the environmental conditions
      predicted by the cue. One potentially common mechanism by which females
      manipulate the phenotype of their progeny is egg size plasticity, in which
      females vary egg size in response to environmental cues. We describe an
      experiment in which we quantify genetic variation in egg size and egg size
      plasticity in a seed beetle, Stator limbatus, and measure the genetic constraints
      on the evolution of egg size plasticity, quantified as the genetic correlation
      between the size of eggs laid across host plants. We found that genetic variation
      is present within populations for the size of eggs laid on seeds of two host
      plants (Acacia greggii and Cercidium floridum; h2 ranged between 0.217 and
      0.908), and that the heritability of egg size differed between populations and
      hosts (higher on A. greggii than on C. floridum). We also found that the
      evolution of egg size plasticity (the maternal effect) is in part constrained by
      a high genetic correlation across host plants (rG > 0.6). However, the cross
      environment genetic correlation is less than 1.0, which indicates that the size
      of eggs laid on these two hosts can diverge in response to natural selection and
      that egg size plasticity is thus capable of evolving in response to natural
      selection.

PMID- 28565420
TI  - GENETICS OF FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY: A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF DEVELOPMENTAL
      INSTABILITY.
AB  - Although numerous studies have found that fluctuating asymmetry (FA) can have a
      heritable component, the genetic and developmental basis of FA is poorly
      understood. We used a developmental model of a trait, according to a diffusion
      threshold process, whose parameters are under genetic control. We added a small
      amount of random variation to the parameter values of this model to simulate
      developmental noise. As a result of the nonlinearity of the model, different
      genotypes differed in their sensitivity to developmental noise, even though the
      noise is completely random and independent of the genotype. The heritable
      component of FA can thus be understood as genetically modulated expression of
      variation that is itself entirely nongenetic. The loci responsible for this
      genetic variation of FA are the same that affect the left/right mean of the
      trait, showing that genetic variation for FA does not require genes that
      specifically control FA. Furthermore, the model offers alternative explanations
      for phenomena widely discussed in the literature on FA, for instance, the
      correlations between FA and heterozygosity and between FA and trait size. The
      model underscores the importance of dominance and epistasis, and therefore unites
      the study of FA with the classical theory of quantitative genetics.

PMID- 28565421
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION OF HSP70 EXPRESSION AND THERMOTOLERANCE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - To examine whether recent evolutionary history affects the expression of Hsp70,
      the major heat-induced-heat shock protein in Drosophila melanogaster, we measured
      Hsp70 expression, thermotolerance, and hsp70 gene number in replicate populations
      undergoing laboratory evolution at different temperatures. Despite Hsp70's
      ancient and highly conserved nature, experimental evolution effectively and
      replicably modified its expression and phenotype (thermotolerance). Among five D.
      melanogaster populations founded from a common ancestral population and raised at
      three different temperatures (one at 18 degrees C, two each at 25 degrees C and
      28 degrees C) for twenty years, Hsp70 expression varies in a consistent pattern:
      the replicate 28 degrees C lines expressed 30-50% less Hsp70 than the other lines
      at a range of inducing temperatures. This modification was refractory to
      acclimation, and correlated with thermotolerance: the 28 degrees C lines had
      significantly lower inducible tolerance of 38.5 degrees C and 39 degrees C. We
      verified the presence of five hsp70 genes in the genome of each line, excluding
      copy number variation as a candidate molecular basis of the evolved difference in
      expression. These findings support the ability of Hsp70 levels in D. melanogaster
      populations to change over microevolutionary time scales and implicate constancy
      of environmental temperature as a potentially important selective agent.

PMID- 28565422
TI  - APPLICABILITY OF THE HYPERGEOMETRIC PHENOTYPIC MODEL TO HAPLOID AND DIPLOID
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - We show that the phenotypic hypergeometric model of a quantitative trait can
      exactly describe both haploid and diploid populations. The condition necessary
      for this is equiprobability of genotypes within each phenotype. This requires
      equal allele frequencies across the loci, which may be the case when the
      population is under disruptive selection.

PMID- 28565423
TI  - FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN A SALIX HYBRID SYSTEM: THE IMPORTANCE OF GENETIC VERSUS
      ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES.
AB  - To examine the effects of hybridization and environmental stress on developmental
      instability, we examined fluctuating asymmetry (FA), the variance in random
      deviations from perfect symmetry in bilaterally symmetrical traits, for leaf
      symmetry in a Salix hybrid system. An abiotic environmental stress (water
      stress), an interspecific biotic stress (pathogen attack), and an intraspecific
      biotic stress (competition) were examined to determine which factors increase
      developmental instability. None of these three environmental stressors
      significantly increased FA. However, genetic stress through hybridization was
      detected; hybrid plants showed significantly higher levels of FA than parental
      species. In contrast to hybridization providing greater developmental stability
      through heterozygosity, these results suggest that complex, nonadditive
      interactions provided developmental stability and that developmental instability
      increased when coadapted gene complexes were disrupted through hybridization. In
      addition, plant biomass was significantly, negatively correlated with FA,
      suggesting that those individuals that were more able to buffer themselves
      against the disruptive effects of environmental stress may have a selective
      advantage over those that are less able to buffer themselves against these
      disruptive effects.

PMID- 28565424
TI  - SIZE, SYMMETRY, AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE HOUSEFLY, MUSCA DOMESTICA.
AB  - Relationships between measures of body size, asymmetry, courtship effort, and
      mating success were investigated in the housefly, Musca domestica (Diptera:
      Muscidae). A previous study indicated that both male and female flies with low
      fluctuating asymmetry enjoyed enhanced mating success. The aim of our
      investigations was to determine whether the greater success of symmetrical males
      is due to variation in male mating effort or to female choice and whether males
      exhibited mate choice. However, our study found directional rather than
      fluctuating asymmetry with both male and female flies having, on average, longer
      left wings than right. Also, asymmetry was not related to mating success in
      either sex. Rather, both males and females appeared to exhibit choice on the
      basis of the size of potential mates, with males preferring females with long
      bodies and females preferring heavy males. Possible benefits from choice of large
      mates are discussed. The initial mating strikes (in which the male leaps onto the
      back of the female) did not appear to be targeted according to female morphology,
      and their frequency did not vary according to male morphology. This indicates
      that mate choice by both sexes according to size probably occurs during the later
      stages of courtship, when the flies are in intimate contact. Possible reasons for
      the absence of choice according to asymmetry are discussed.

PMID- 28565425
TI  - COSTS OF EXPLOITING POISONOUS PREY: EVOLUTIONARY TRADE-OFFS IN A PREDATOR-PREY
      ARMS RACE.
AB  - Evolutionary trade-offs often are expected to arise between traits that share
      similar functions or resources. Such costs are well known from a variety of
      coevolutionary systems, but examples are conspicuously absent from predator-prey
      interactions. We present evidence of a trade-off between two disparate functions
      predatory and anti-predatory ability-in a species of garter snake that has
      evolved resistance to the neurotoxin of its prey. Patterns of among-family
      variation suggest a genetic basis to the trade-off. Both resistant and
      nonresistant populations of snakes exhibit the trade-off, suggesting that it
      stems from a fundamental aspect of organismal performance. This cost may help to
      explain the geographic mosaic of predator exploitative ability and prey defense
      that exists in this system.

PMID- 28565426
TI  - COINCIDENT BIOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS: INDO-WEST PACIFIC OCEAN.
AB  - The majority of tropical marine families demonstrate their greatest concentration
      of species within the relatively small East Indies Triangle. In every direction,
      the species diversity decreases with distance from the East Indies. Other
      patterns suggest that the East Indies is where the average generic age is
      youngest, where some historical routes of dispersal originate, where the most
      apomorphic species occur, where genetic diversity is the greatest, and where
      extinctions are likely to originate. These coincident patterns provide support
      for the hypothesis that the East Indies has been operating as a center of
      evolutionary radiation. The driving force for this dynamic system is apparently
      the predominance of successful speciation involving relatively large populations
      with higher genetic diversity. This mechanism fits the centrifugal speciation
      model that was proposed more than 50 years ago.

PMID- 28565427
TI  - SUPPRESSION OF SEX-RATIO MEIOTIC DRIVE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF Y-CHROMOSOME
      POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28565428
TI  - RESPONSE TO SELECTION IN PARTIALLY SELF-FERTILIZING POPULATIONS. II. SELECTION ON
      MULTIPLE TRAITS.
AB  - The structured linear model (SLM) is generalized to treat selection on multiple,
      correlated characters. Four different causes of phenotypic correlations are
      distinguished by the SLM: environmental covariance, identity disequilibrium,
      pleiotropy, and linkage disequilibrium. Each is characterized by distinct
      variables because they have different implications for character evolution.
      Correlations due to identity disequilibrium and linkage disequilibrium depend on
      both the mating system and the selection regime. As a consequence, they will
      evolve rapidly under selection. Correlations due to pleiotropy or environmental
      factors will evolve more slowly and are characterized by parameters that can be
      estimated from comparisons among relatives. These parameters include several
      novel "inbreeding covariance components" that emerge from the interaction of
      inbreeding and genetic dominance. Although data are limited, current estimates
      suggest that the expression of these components may substantially alter the
      pattern of multitrait evolution in self-fertilizing populations.

PMID- 28565429
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN A SELF-COMPATIBLE, ANDRODIOECIOUS CRUSTACEAN, EULIMNADIA
      TEXANA.
AB  - The observation that offspring produced by the mating of close relatives are
      often less fit than those produced by matings between unrelated individuals
      (i.e., inbreeding depression) has commonly been explained in terms of the
      increased probability of expressing deleterious recessive alleles among inbred
      offspring (the partial dominance model). This model predicts that inbreeding
      depression should be limited in regularly inbreeding populations because the
      deleterious alleles that cause inbreeding depression (i.e., the genetic load)
      should be purged by regularly exposing these alleles to natural selection. We
      indirectly test the partial dominance model using four highly inbred populations
      of an androdioecious crustacean, the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana. These shrimp
      are comprised of males and hermaphrodites, the latter capable of either self
      fertilizing or mating with a male (i.e., outcrossing between hermaphrodites is
      impossible). Hermaphrodites are further subdivided into monogenics (produced via
      self-fertilization) and amphigenics (produced via self-fertilization or
      outcrossing). Electrophoretic evidence suggests significant differences in
      heterozygosity among populations, but that selfing rates were not statistically
      different (average s = 0.67). Additional electrophoretic analyses reveal that
      three previously described sex-linked loci (Fum, Idh-1, and Idh-2) are all
      tightly linked to each other, with crossing over on the order of 1% per
      generation. Although selfing rates are clearly high, we present evidence that
      early inbreeding depression (hatching rates, juvenile survival, and age at sexual
      maturity) exists in all four populations. For all of these factors, inbreeding
      depression was inferred by the positive correlation of multilocus heterozygosity
      and fitness. Cumulative inbreeding depression (8) is between 0.41 and 0.47 across
      all populations, which appears to be too low to limit the effects of purging via
      identity disequilibrium. Instead, we suggest that the maintenance of inbreeding
      depression in these populations is due to the observed linkage group, which we
      suggest contains a large number of genes including many related to fitness.
      Segregation of such a large linkage group would explain our observations of the
      predominance of amphigenic hermaphrodites in our field samples and of survival
      differences between monogenics and amphigenics within selfed clutches. We propose
      that a modified form of the overdominance model for inbreeding depression
      operating at the level of linkage groups maintains the observed levels of
      inbreeding depression in these populations even in the face of high rates of
      selfing.

PMID- 28565430
TI  - LOCOMOTOR PERFORMANCE AT LOW TEMPERATURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF NOCTURNALITY IN
      GECKOS.
AB  - Nocturnal geckos are active at body temperatures 10-35 degrees C below the
      thermal optima for maximum rate of aerobic metabolism (V.O2max) of diurnal
      lizards. Therefore, given ancestral (diurnal) lizard physiology, nocturnality
      causes a substantial thermal handicap in locomotor performance. In prior studies,
      we hypothesized that a low minimum cost of locomotion (Cmin ) in geckos was an
      adaptation that increased locomotor endurance capacity at low, nocturnal
      temperatures. However, Cmin is only part of an integrated system that, in
      conjunction with the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, sets the maximum speed
      that can be sustained aerobically (termed the maximum aerobic speed or MAS). We
      conducted the first phylogenetic analysis of MAS and V.O2max lizards and found
      that the greatest changes in MAS, Cmin and V.O2max (at activity temperatures) in
      the evolutionary history of lizards all coincided with the evolution of
      nocturnality in geckos. Geckos active at 15-25 degrees C did not become optimized
      for nocturnal temperatures, or fully offset the thermal effects of nocturnality
      by evolving maximal rates of oxygen consumption comparable to diurnal lizards
      active at 35 degrees C. Geckos did evolve MAS twice that of diurnal lizards
      running at low temperatures by evolving a remarkably low Cmin . Allometric
      analysis and phylogenetically independent contrasts of V.O2max, Cmin , and MAS
      indicate a 72% evolutionary decrease in V.O2max, (at activity temperatures) and a
      50% evolutionary decrease in Cmin concordant with the evolution of nocturnality
      in geckos. Experimental measurements show that decreased Cmin in six species of
      gecko increased MAS by 50-120% compared to diurnal lizards at low temperatures.
      Thus, geckos sufficiently overcame the near paralyzing effects of nocturnal
      temperatures, but only offset about 50% of the decrease in MAS resulting from the
      low maximum rate of oxygen consumption. Although the nocturnal environment
      remains severely suboptimal, the evolution of a low cost of locomotion in the
      ancestor of geckos was highly adaptive for nocturnality. We also present a
      generalized approach to ecophysiological evolution that integrates phylogeny with
      the causal relationships among environment, physiology, and performance capacity.
      With respect to a clade, two hypotheses are central to our integrative approach:
      (1) a change of an environmental variable (e.g., temperature) causes a
      performance handicap; and (2) evolution of a physiological variable (e.g.,
      minimum cost of locomotion [Cmin ]) increases performance in the derived
      environment. To test the hypothesis that evolution of a physiological variable is
      adaptive in nature, we suggest determining if individuals in nature perform at
      levels exceeding the performance capacity of their hypothetical ancestors and if
      this additional performance capacity is due to the evolution of the physiological
      variable in question.

PMID- 28565432
TI  - RARER NEED NOT BE BETTER IF COMMONER IS WORSE: FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION FOR
      DEVELOPMENTAL TIME AT THE ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE LOCUS OF THE OLIVE FRUIT FLY,
      BACTROCERA OLEAE.
AB  - Whereas the importance of frequency-dependent selection in life-history traits,
      behavioral characters and source allocation patterns is widely accepted, its role
      in governing biochemical and molecular polymorphisms remains poorly understood.
      Here we demonstrate a case of allozyme frequency-dependent selection. When olive
      fruit flies (Bactrocera oleae) are reared on an artificial larval medium, an
      allele at the alcohol dehydrogenase locus that is present in very low frequency
      in natural populations increases to about one-third in less than five
      generations. We show here that the time from the hatching of the egg to the
      eclosion of the adult is affected by the genotype composition of the larval
      population that grows in the same cup of food. Cultures consisting of one
      genotype only have the longest developmental time, and two-allele cultures in
      which the two homozygotes and the heterozygote occur in a 1:1:2 ratio show the
      shortest developmental time. Cultures with intermediate genotypic compositions
      show intermediate levels of developmental time. The results can be explained by
      assuming that the developmental time of a genotype depends on the frequency array
      of all genotypes in the larval population and is not merely a function of its own
      frequency. It is even possible that the developmental time of a genotype becomes
      longer as the genotype becomes rarer, yet the genotype will be favored because
      the developmental times of the competing genotypes become even longer owing to
      the associated increase of their frequencies. Given that developmental time is
      inversely related to fitness, this generates a frequency-dependent selection,
      with developmental times changing progressively until the population arrives at
      an equilibrium. One optimum population composition that provides a satisfactory
      fit to allele frequency changes in our experimental populations is when the two
      alleles occur in equal frequencies and genotypes are in Hardy-Weinberg
      proportions. We argue that this type of selection is consistent with the role of
      alcohol dehydrogenase as a detoxifying enzyme in a medium that undergoes
      continuous chemical changes during its use by the feeding larvae.

PMID- 28565431
TI  - LOCAL MALADAPTATION IN THE ANTHER-SMUT FUNGUS MICROBOTRYUM VIOLACEUM TO ITS HOST
      PLANT SILENE LATIFOLIA: EVIDENCE FROM A CROSS-INOCULATION EXPERIMENT.
AB  - Conventional wisdom holds that parasites evolve more rapidly than their hosts and
      are therefore locally adapted, that is, better at exploiting sympatric than
      allopatric hosts. We studied local adaptation in the insect-transmitted fungal
      pathogen Microbotryum violaceum and its host plant Silene latifolia. Infection
      success was tested in sympatric (local) and allopatric (foreign) combinations of
      pathogen and host from 14 natural populations from a metapopulation. Seedlings
      from up to 10 seed families from each population were exposed to sporidial
      suspensions from each of four fungal strains derived from the same population,
      from a near-by population (< 10 km distance), and from two populations at an
      intermediate (< 30 km) and remote (< 170 km) distance, respectively. We obtained
      significant pathogen X plant interactions in infection success (proportion of
      diseased plants) at both fungal population and strain level. There was an overall
      pattern of local maladaptation of this pathogen: average fungal infection success
      was significantly lower on sympatric hosts (mean proportion of diseased plants =
      0.32 +/- 0.03 SE) than on allopatric hosts (0.40 +/- 0.02). Five of the 14 fungal
      populations showed no strong reduction in infection success on sympatric hosts,
      and three even tended to perform better on sympatric hosts. This pattern is
      consistent with models of time-lagged cycles predicting patterns of local
      adaptation in host-parasite systems to emerge only on average. Several factors
      may restrict the evolutionary potential of this pathogen relative to that of its
      host. First, a predominantly selfing breeding system may limit its ability to
      generate new virulence types by sexual recombination, whereas the obligately
      outcrossing host 5. latifolia may profit from rearrangement of resistance alleles
      by random mating. Second, populations often harbor only a few infected
      individuals, so virulence variation may be further reduced by drift. Third,
      migration rates among host plant populations are much higher than among pathogen
      populations, possibly because pollinators prefer healthy over diseased plants.
      Migration among partly isolated populations may therefore introduce novel host
      plant resistance variants more often than novel parasite virulence variants. That
      migration contributes to the coevolutionary dynamics in this system is supported
      by the geographic pattern of infectivity. Infection success increased over the
      first 10-km range of host-pathogen population distances, which is likely the
      natural range of gene exchange.

PMID- 28565433
TI  - SUCCESSFUL FATHERS SIRE SUCCESSFUL SONS.
AB  - The theory of sexual selection holds a central role in evolutionary biology. Its
      key assumption is the heritability of traits associated with reproductive
      success. Strong indirect evidence supporting this assumption comes from the
      numerous studies that have identified heritable traits associated with mating
      success. However, there remain only a handful of studies that have attempted to
      demonstrate directly that successful fathers have successful sons. We present the
      results of an experimental study of the mating success and phenotype of male
      field crickets Gryllus bimaculatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) and their offspring.
      These reveal that sons of successful males obtain significantly more copulations
      than sons of unsuccessful males. There was no difference in body size of sons of
      either group, but sons of successful males had significantly longer development
      times. This may represent a naturally selected cost to traits associated with
      success that could balance their sexually selected advantages.

PMID- 28565434
TI  - THE AGE AND RELATIONSHIPS OF THE MAJOR ANIMAL PHYLA.
AB  - Given the uncertainties in the fossil record and the paucity of informative
      morphological characters, there is still considerable uncertainty as to the
      phylogenetic affinities and times of origins of essentially all of the phyla of
      animals. A multilocus analysis of amino-acid sequence data for mitochondrial
      genes suggests that the major triploblast phyla began diverging approximately 630
      million years ago. These results support the hypothesis that the so-called
      Cambrian radiation of animals actually initiated about 100 million years prior to
      the Cambrian, as the fossil evidence suggests. In addition, phylogenetic analysis
      supports the monophyly of animals, an early (~900 million years ago) branching
      off of the cnidarian lineage, the monophyly of deuterostomes and protostomes, and
      the inclusion of nematodes in the protostome lineage. The results of this study
      suggest that, with appropriate levels of taxon sampling and a focus on conserved
      regions of protein-coding sequence, complete mitochondrial genome analysis may be
      sufficiently powerful to elucidate the genealogical relationships of many of the
      animal phyla.

PMID- 28565435
TI  - GAMETE INTERACTIONS AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG THREE SYMPATRIC
      POLYCHAETES.
AB  - The evolution of gamete incompatibility between free-spawning marine invertebrate
      species has been explained by three hypotheses: (1) independent divergence at
      gamete recognition loci; (2) selection against hybrids; and (3) a process of
      sexual selection involving polymorphic gamete recognition loci (Metz and Palumbi
      1996). The first two hypotheses predict that gamete incompatibility appears only
      after gene flow has been halted for other reasons and the third that gamete
      incompatibility appears simultanously with blocks to gene flow. Here I show that
      gametes of three sympatric polychaetes in the genus Arctonoe are compatible in
      all crosses, over a broad range of gamete concentrations and contact times.
      Although at least some hybrid crosses produce fertile adults, allozyme and
      mitochondrial DNA sequence data indicate that the three species do not regularly
      exchange genes. These data are consistent with predictions of the first two
      hypotheses for the evolution of gamete incompatibility, but allow rejection of
      the third hypothesis. Gametes of the three species are compatible despite
      estimated divergence times of 1-3 M.Y.B.P.; in several other marine
      invertebrates, divergence times of the same magnitude are associated with
      asymmetric or complete gamete incompatibility. It appears likely that segregation
      of symbiotic adults on their respective host species restricts mating
      opportunities, and thus gene flow, among Arctonoe species.

PMID- 28565436
TI  - COASTAL REFUGIA AND POSTGLACIAL RECOLONIZATION ROUTES: A REPLY TO DEMBOSKI,
      STONE, AND COOK.

PMID- 28565437
TI  - POPULATION SEX STRUCTURE AND REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS IN GYNODIOECIOUS SIDALCEA
      MALVIFLORA MALVIFLORA (MALVACEAE).
AB  - The spatial distribution of females and hermaphrodites within gynodioecious
      populations is expected to exert considerable selective pressure on gender
      fitness through pollen limitation of seed set. If pollen flow is predominantly
      local, seed set in individual plants may be sensitive to the proximity of pollen
      donors; pollen limitation of seed set may occur if hermaphrodites are locally
      rare. Under such circumstances, female fitness will be negatively frequency
      dependent and hermaphrodite fitness will be positively frequency dependent. Given
      local seed dispersal, a nonrandom clumped distribution of the genders is expected
      in gynodioecious populations due to the heritability of gender in gynodioecious
      species. If gender fitness is frequency dependent, such structure should favor
      hermaphrodites and select against females. To test this hypothesis, I quantified
      the distribution of the genders in terms of nearest neighbors and neighborhood
      sex ratio in two populations of gynodioecious Sidalcea malviflora malviflora. I
      then measured the effect of neighborhood sex ratio on open-pollinated seed set
      and pollen limitation in both manipulated and unmanipulated neighborhoods.
      Results indicate that the genders have a patchy distribution and that both
      genders are pollen limited and show an increase in seed set with an increase in
      neighborhood hermaphrodite frequency. The observed population sex structure
      favors hermaphrodites and disadvantages females. These results highlight the
      importance that population-level traits can have in determining individual
      fitness and the evolution of sex ratios in gynodioecious species.

PMID- 28565438
TI  - INSIGHT INTO SPECIATION FROM HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY IN THE PHYTOPHAGOUS BEETLE
      GENUS OPHRAELLA.
AB  - Speciation in phytophagous insects is commonly associated with shifts in host
      use. Using a phylogenetic framework to identify recently diverged taxa that have
      undergone a radical host shift, this study focuses on how reconstruction of the
      historical demography of a species, in conjunction with branching patterns
      between species, provides insight into mode of speciation. Analyses of
      mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequences indicate that the leaf beetle
      Ophraella communa exhibits significant population structure, as shown by patterns
      of genealogical relationships among mitochondrial haplotypes and high FST 
      values. However, the absence of regional localization of old clades of
      haplotypes, negative Tajima's D, and unimodal rather than bimodal frequency
      distribution of the number of pairwise differences between sequences suggests an
      absence of long-term barriers to gene flow. Furthermore, we found no evidence of
      isolation by distance. This pattern of genetic variation is consistent with
      episodes of gene flow on a large geographic scale, perhaps owing to Pleistocene
      changes in climate. Ophraella communa and its sister species O. bilineata
      diverged during the early Pleistocene. The evidence of dynamic population
      structure in O. communa, potentially including episodic but massive gene flow,
      suggests that reproductive isolation evolved quite rapidly on a localized
      geographic scale, because speciation would probably have been reversed by gene
      flow if the evolution of reproductive isolation had been prolonged. That is, gene
      flow occasioned by range shifts during the Pleistocene would likely have
      interrupted speciation unless it occurred very rapidly. Sequence diversity
      implies a large effective population size (> 106 ) in both O. communa and O.
      bilineata. However, a model based on a drastic bottleneck did not have a lower
      likelihood than a model with no bottleneck, simply because the time since
      speciation has been great enough for coalescence to a single ancestor that
      existed after the speciation event. Sequence diversity in itself, without
      reference to the time since speciation, cannot provide evidence on the demography
      of speciation.

PMID- 28565439
TI  - CYTOCHROME C OXIDASE ACTIVITY IN INTERPOPULATION HYBRIDS OF A MARINE COPEPOD: A
      TEST FOR NUCLEAR-NUCLEAR OR NUCLEAR-CYTOPLASMIC COADAPTATION.
AB  - The respiratory enzyme cytochrome c oxidase (COX) is composed of subunits encoded
      by both nuclear and mitochondrial genes; thus, COX activity reflects, to some
      extent, the coordinated function of the two genomes. Because extensive mtDNA
      differentiation exists between populations of the copepod Tigriopus californicus,
      we hypothesized that laboratory hybridizations that disrupt natural combinations
      of nuclear and mitochondrial genes might negatively impact COX activity. Although
      experimental results varied greatly among different crosses, replicate sets of
      crosses between two particular populations showed consistent evidence for nuclear
      cytoplasmic coadaptation.

PMID- 28565440
TI  - SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AND REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT BY FEMALE SPIDERS: A
      COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.
AB  - We investigate the association between female reproductive investment, absolute
      size, and sexual size dimorphism in spiders to test the predictions of the
      fecundity-advantage hypothesis. The relationships between absolute size and
      sexual size dimorphism and aspects of female reproductive output are examined in
      comparative analyses using phylogenetically independent contrasts. We provide
      support for the idea that allometry for sexual dimorphism is the result of
      variation in female size more so than male size. Regression analyses suggest
      selection for increased fecundity in females. We argue that fecundity selection
      provides the only general explanation for the evolution of sexual size dimorphism
      in spiders.

PMID- 28565441
TI  - DO IMAGE-FORMING EYES PROMOTE EVOLUTIONARY DIVERSIFICATION?
AB  - It has been suggested that image-forming eyes promote the evolutionary
      diversification (measured by species richness) of the groups that possess them.
      Several different processes could give rise to this effect, including
      diversifying selection in a new adaptive zone (or zones) and a reduced rate of
      extinction due to enhanced competitive abilities. I tested the generality of the
      hypothesis that imaging eyes increase net speciation by comparing extant species
      numbers of 12 groups that have such eyes (as categorized by Land and Fernald
      1992) with those of their cladistic sister groups that lack such organs. Even
      assuming the published hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships that most favor
      increased net speciation of visual groups, these comparisons show no significant
      association between imaging eyes and species richness. Increased activity, as
      indicated by published accounts of locomotory speed, is significantly associated
      with the evolution of image-forming eyes. This suggests that a large "visual
      adaptive zone" might be characterized by relatively high activity. However, when
      diversity comparisons are limited to eight cases in which the evolution of
      imaging eyes is associated with increased activity, there is still no significant
      association between such eyes and species richness. The fossil record indicates
      that the only visual groups that have undergone major evolutionary radiations
      evolved imaging eyes early in the history of metazoans (before the Silurian). The
      radiations of these early groups may have largely filled up niches for visual
      animals and thus prevented the subsequent proliferation of other groups with
      image-forming eyes. Alternatively, it may be that image-forming eyes have no
      exceptional effect on diversification or that their effects are obscured by other
      factors in the long run.

PMID- 28565442
TI  - MAJOR GENETIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH (ACANTHASTER PLANCI)
      POPULATIONS IN THE INDIAN AND PACIFIC OCEANS.
AB  - Spatial variation in allelic frequencies at nine allozyme loci were assayed in 20
      populations of the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, collected
      throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These data were analyzed together with
      published data, for the same loci, from an additional 19 populations, giving a
      total sample size of approximately 1800 individuals. There was a marked
      discontinuity between the Indian and Pacific Ocean populations, but those off
      Western Australia and from the Southeast Asian region had a strong Pacific
      affinity. The genetic groups were congruent with the distributions of two color
      morph groups: gray-green to red-brown forms in the Pacific and a blue to pale red
      form in the Indian Ocean. These patterns of genetic structure are similar to
      those described for the starfish Linckia laevigata, which has similar life
      history characteristics. Vicariant events may have influenced some populations
      within the Pacific, but the allozyme data cannot resolve the effects of these
      events clearly. Patterns of variation within regions were consistent with
      isolation by distance, but, at larger scales, were obscured by regional
      vicariance and some outliers, particularly by apparently high levels of gene flow
      between Japan and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Apparent gene flow between
      population pairs was not closely related to present-day ocean currents. The
      results demonstrate a strong influence of allopatric separation on genetic
      divergence at large geographic scales, but also show evidence of slow rates of
      change in gene frequencies consistent with the large population sizes of this
      species. Low levels of divergence between groups demonstrate the genetic
      structure is recent (Pleistocene) and are likely responses to changes in climate
      and sea level.

PMID- 28565443
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR VARIATION ACROSS A MIGRATORY DIVIDE IN WILLOW
      WARBLERS, PHYLLOSCOPUS TROCHILUS.
AB  - A migratory divide is a narrow region in which two populations showing different
      migratory directions meet arid presumably also mate and hybridize. Banding of
      willow warblers, Phylloscopus trochilus, in Europe has demonstrated a migratory
      divide latitudinally across central Scandinavia. In autumn, southern birds
      migrate southwest to tropical West Africa, whereas northern birds migrate
      southeast to East and South Africa. The migratory divide is associated with
      concordant differences in size and plumage coloration. Based on morphology, we
      estimate the width of the transition zone between northern and southern willow
      warblers to be less than 350 km. We found indication of linkage disequilibria
      around the migratory divide, in that measures of body size were correlated with
      plumage coloration within the contact zone, but uncorrelated within the
      populations south or north of the contact zone. The presence of linkage
      disequilibria and the fact that several morphological clines occur together
      suggest that the hybrid zone is a result of secondary contact between populations
      that have differentiated in allopatry. This interpretation is in accord with the
      knowledge of the recolonization pattern of the Scandinavian peninsula after the
      last glaciation; animals and plants appeared to have colonized either from the
      south or from the north around the northern bay of the Baltic Sea. If northern
      and southern willow warblers resided in allopatric populations during late
      Pleistocene glaciations and the hybrid zone is a result of postglacial range
      expansions, we would expect some degree of genetic differentiation accumulated
      during the period in isolation. In contrast, northern and southern willow
      warblers are near panmictic in the frequencies of alleles of mitochondrial DNA
      and at two microsatellite loci. The observed pattern, clear morphological and
      behavioral differentiation without genetic differentiation at neutral loci,
      suggests either that the differences are maintained by strong selection on the
      expressed genes in combination with high levels of current gene flow or, in the
      case of weak gene flow, that the divergence in morphology and behavior is very
      recent.

PMID- 28565444
TI  - FURTHER PERSPECTIVES ON THE HAIDA GWAII GLACIAL REFUGIUM.

PMID- 28565445
TI  - MEASURING NATURAL SELECTION ON PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY.
AB  - To understand natural selection we need to integrate its measure across
      environments. We present a method for measuring phenotypic selection that
      combines the potential for both environmental variation and phenotypic
      plasticity. The method uses path analysis and a measure of selection that is
      analogous to selection on breeding values. For individuals growing in alternative
      environments, paths are created that represent potential changes in the
      environment. The probabilities for these changes are then multiplied by the path
      coefficients to calculate selection coefficients. Selection on plasticity is
      measured as the difference in selection within each environment. We illustrate
      these methods using data on selection in an experimental population of
      Arabidopsis thaliana. Individuals from 36 families were grown in one of four
      environments, a factorial combination of shaded/open and early/late shading. For
      final height of the inflorescence, there was positive selection in both the open
      and shaded environments and negative selection on plasticity of height. For
      bolting time, there was also positive selection in both environments, but no
      selection on plasticity. We show how to use this information to examine how
      selection would change with changes in environmental frequencies and their
      transition probabilities. These methods can be expanded to encompass continuous
      traits and continuous environments as well as other complexities of natural
      selection.

PMID- 28565446
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION ASSOCIATED WITH ANTIPREDATOR ADAPTATION IN DAMSELFLIES.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that at least two lineages of Enallagma damselflies
      (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) shifted from inhabiting lakes with fish as top
      predators to inhabiting ponds and lakes with large dragonflies as the top
      predators. In adapting to living with the new predator type, these lineages
      evolved much greater swimming speeds to avoid attacking dragonflies. In this
      paper, I test whether biochemical adaptations to fuel swimming arose in concert
      with previously identified morphological changes that increase swimming speed. I
      assayed the mass-specific enzyme activities of three enzymes involved in fueling
      strenuous activity: pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (enzymes involved
      in glycolysis) and arginine kinase (the enzyme that recharges the ATP pool).
      Enzyme activities were determined for 14 Enallagma species from across the genus.
      Species that coexist with dragonfly predators had significantly higher mass
      specific arginine kinase activities than species that coexist with fish, and the
      results of evolutionary contrasts analyses indicate that this difference between
      the two groups is the result of evolutionary change associated with the habitat
      shifts of lineages from fish lakes to dragonfly lakes. Although significant
      evolution was documented for lactate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase across the
      genus, evolutionary change in the activities of these enzymes was not consistent
      with adaptation to coexisting with dragonfly predators. Swimming bouts to avoid
      dragonfly predators last for only a few seconds, and the action of arginine
      kinase to phosphorylate ADP to make ATP will extend the duration of maximal
      exertion for swimming for a few seconds. However, much longer time periods (over
      45 sec) are required to generate ATP via glycolysis. Therefore, selection may
      have favored adaptation only at the arginine kinase locus.

PMID- 28565447
TI  - GENETIC LOAD OF THE YEAST SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE UNDER DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL
      CONDITIONS.
AB  - Fitness effect of spontaneous mutations accumulated in mismatch-repair deficient
      strains of yeast was estimated by measuring their maximum growth rate. Several
      environments with different energetic substrates, nutritional conditions, and
      temperature were tested. Genetic load of haploid strains was about 20-30% under
      most of these conditions. Because such a pronounced effect was caused by
      relatively small lesions (point mutations) affecting probably less than 1% of
      genes, resistance of the yeast genome to DNA damage appears to be rather limited.
      Fitness transitions among environments were orderly, in the sense that some
      strains tended to be more or less fit than others in all circumstances. One of
      the environments (an extremely high temperature, 38 degrees C) was stressful to
      the strains that accumulated mutations, as some of them stopped to grow, whereas
      the mutation-free strains were only moderately affected. These results imply that
      the impact of random point mutations is substantial and generally not dependent
      on a particular environment. Under stressful conditions, however, natural
      selection may be especially effective in purging mutations that, if commonly met,
      could slow down the rate of mutation accumulation.

PMID- 28565448
TI  - NATURAL GENETIC VARIATION OF LIFE SPAN, REPRODUCTION, AND JUVENILE GROWTH IN
      DAPHNIA.
AB  - The evolutionary theory of senescence predicts that high extrinsic mortality in
      natural populations should select for accelerated reproductive investment and
      shortened life span. Here, we test the theory with natural populations of the
      Daphnia pulex-pulicaria species complex, a group of freshwater zooplankton that
      spans an environmental gradient of habitat permanence. We document substantial
      genetic variation in demographic life-history traits among parent and hybrid
      populations of this complex. Populations from temporary ponds have shorter life
      spans, earlier and faster increases of intrinsic mortality risk, and earlier and
      steeper declines in fecundity than populations from permanent lakes. We also
      examine the age-specific contribution to fitness, measured by reproductive value,
      and to expected lifetime reproduction; these traits decline faster in populations
      from temporary ponds. Despite having more rapid senescence, pond Daphnia exhibit
      faster juvenile growth and higher early fitness, measured as population growth
      rate (r). Among populations within this species complex we observed negative
      genetic correlations between r and indices of life-history timing, suggesting
      trade-offs between early- and late-life performance. Our results cannot be
      explained by a trade-off between survival and fecundity or by nonevolutionary
      theories of senescence. Instead, our data are consistent with the evolutionary
      theory of senescence because the genetic variation in life histories we observed
      is roughly congruent with the temporal scale of environmental change in the
      field.

PMID- 28565449
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: THE PACE OF MODERN LIFE: MEASURING RATES OF CONTEMPORARY
      MICROEVOLUTION.
AB  - We evaluate methods for measuring and specifying rates of microevolution in the
      wild, with particular regard to studies of contemporary, often deemed "rapid,"
      evolution. A considerable amount of ambiguity and inconsistency persists within
      the field, and we provide a number of suggestions that should improve study
      design, inference, and clarity of presentation. (1) Some studies measure change
      over time within a population (allochronic) and others measure the difference
      between two populations that had a common ancestor in the past (synchronic).
      Allochronic studies can be used to estimate rates of "evolution," whereas
      synchronic studies more appropriately estimate rates of "divergence." Rates of
      divergence may range from a small fraction to many times the actual evolutionary
      rates in the component populations. (2) Some studies measure change using
      individuals captured from the wild, whereas others measure differences after
      rearing in a common environment. The first type of study can be used to specify
      "phenotypic" rates and the later "genetic" rates. (3) The most commonly used
      evolutionary rate metric, the darwin, has a number of theoretical shortcomings.
      Studies of microevolution would benefit from specifying rates in standard
      deviations per generation, the haldane. (4) Evolutionary rates are typically
      specified without an indication of their precision. Readily available methods for
      specifying confidence intervals and statistical significance (regression,
      bootstrapping, randomization) should be implemented. (5) Microevolutionists
      should strive to accumulate time series, which can reveal temporal shifts in the
      rate of evolution and can be used to identify evolutionary patterns. (6)
      Evolutionary rates provide a convenient way to compare the tempo of evolution
      across studies, traits, taxa, and time scales, but such comparisons are subject
      to varying degrees of confidence. Comparisons across different time scales are
      particularly tenuous. (7) A number of multivariate rate measures exist, but
      considerable theoretical development is required before their utility can be
      determined. We encourage the continued investigation of evolutionary rates
      because the information they provide is relevant to a wide range of theoretical
      and practical issues.

PMID- 28565450
TI  - AGE AND POLYPHYLETIC ORIGINS OF HYBRID AND SPONTANEOUS PARTHENOGENETIC CAMPELOMA
      (GASTROPODA: VIVIPARIDAE) FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES.
AB  - We used mtDNA sequence variation to assess the origin, age, and spatial patterns
      of sequence divergence of triploid hybrid and diploid spontaneous parthenogens
      from southeastern United States populations of the freshwater snail Campeloma.
      There was strong support for multiple origins of both parthenogens using
      likelihood-ratio tests, and we argue that parthenogens are recently derived from
      sexuals. Atlantic coastal populations of C. limum or C. floridense were the
      maternal ancestors of Gulf Coast triploid hybrids in the Florida Panhandle.
      Sequence divergence within monophyletic groups of both parthenogens is similar to
      within-population divergence found in sympatric sexuals, and monophyletic clades
      of hybrid and spontaneous parthenogens are geographically widespread throughout
      the Atlantic and Gulf Coast rivers. These patterns are consistent with higher
      dispersal rates and recent range expansion of parthenogens, which should reduce
      the effects of mutation accumulation or parasitism. Range expansion may have
      occurred through interdrainage transfer during Pleistocene glacial periods.

PMID- 28565451
TI  - THE HISTORICAL PATTERN OF GENE FLOW AMONG MIGRATORY AND NONMIGRATORY POPULATIONS
      OF PRAIRIE WARBLERS (AVES: PARULINAE).
AB  - Within a group of interbreeding organisms, the balance of gene flow among
      populations and microevolutionary forces acting within populations is expected to
      result in clinal transitions in the phenotypes possessed by members of
      differentiated populations. Discontinuous variation between geographically
      adjacent populations suggests the presence of a significant barrier to gene flow.
      Here I present genetic evidence for restricted gene flow between migratory and
      nonmigratory populations of prairie warblers. The nonmigratory form of this
      species is restricted to coastal mangroves in Florida and is morphologically
      distinguishable from the typical, migratory form that occurs across the remainder
      of the eastern United States. Pairs of migratory populations exhibited little
      population subdivision (PhiST ? 0.09), whereas pairs of migratory and
      nonmigratory populations are much more differentiated (PhiST = 0.27-0.42). A
      phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes did not offer evidence of
      long-term isolation of migratory and nonmigratory populations. Together with the
      population genetic analysis, the phylogenetic relationship of haplotypes suggests
      that isolation between these forms must have arisen relatively recently in their
      history. Evidence for significant population structure is unexpected, given the
      geographic proximity of migratory and nonmigratory populations, the capacity for
      long-distance movements (e.g., migration) by prairie warblers, and several
      previous studies of population structure in North American birds. However, the
      findings are consistent with the geographic distribution of morphological and
      behavioral variation and demonstrate that significant boundaries between
      populations of vagile organisms may be relatively cryptic.

PMID- 28565452
TI  - OPTIMAL SAMPLING DESIGNS FOR STUDIES OF GENE FLOW-A CHALLENGING TRADE-OFF: A
      REPLY TO KLEIN AND LAREDO.

PMID- 28565453
TI  - MUTATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENETIC VARIANCE-COVARIANCE MATRICES: AN EXPERIMENTAL
      APPROACH USING INDUCED MUTATIONS IN ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA.
AB  - Genetic potential for evolutionary change and covariational constraints are
      typically summarized as the genetic variance-covariance matrix G, and there is
      currently debate over the extent to which G remains effectively constant during
      the course of adaptive evolution. However, G provides only a temporally
      restricted view of constraints that ignores possible biases in how new mutations
      affect multivariate phenotypes. We used chemical mutagenesis to study the effect
      of mutations as summarized by the mutational covariance matrix, M, in Arabidopsis
      thaliana. By introducing mutations into three isogenic strains of A. thaliana, we
      were able to quantify M directly as the genetic variance-covariance matrix of
      mutagenized lines. Induced mutations generally did not alter the means of the six
      morphology and life-history traits we measured, but they did affect the levels of
      available genetic variation and the covariances among traits. However, these
      effects were not consistent among the three isogenic lines; that is, there were
      significant differences among the lines in both the number of mutations produced
      by ethyl-methane-sulfonate treatment and the M matrices they induced. The
      evolutionary implications of the dependence of M on the number of mutations, the
      particular genetic background, and the mutagenic sampling of loci in the genome
      are discussed in light of commonly applied models of multivariate evolution and
      the potential for the genetic architecture itself to change in ways that
      facilitate the coordinated evolution of complex phenotypes.

PMID- 28565454
TI  - LIMITS TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF DROSOPHILA SERRATA: COLD RESISTANCE, HERITABLE
      VARIATION, AND TRADE-OFFS.
AB  - There are a number of evolutionary hypotheses about why species distributions are
      limited, but very little empirical information to test them. We present data
      examining whether the southern distribution of Drosophila serrata is limited by
      cold responses. Species comparisons were undertaken for cold resistance,
      development time, and viability at 15 degrees C and 25 degrees C for D. serrata
      and other species with a more southerly distribution (D. melanogaster, D.
      simulans, and D. immigrans). Relative to the other species, D. serrata had a long
      development time at both temperatures and a low level of cold resistance. Using
      isofemale lines collected in different seasons, central and marginal populations
      were compared for cold resistance, as well as development time and viability at
      14 degrees C. The border population had a relatively higher resistance to cold
      shock in postwinter collections, but there was no population differentiation for
      prewinter collections or for the other traits. The presence of variation among
      isofemale lines within the border populations suggests that genetic variation as
      measured in the laboratory is unlikely to limit range expansion. Population cages
      were used in the field to determine if D. serrata persisted over winter at
      borders. Although all cages yielded adult offspring at northern sites, only a few
      produced offspring at or just south of the border. In contrast, all cages with D.
      simulans produced adult offspring, suggesting that climatic factors limited D.
      serrata numbers. Offspring from surviving adults showed a phenotypic trade-off
      between fecundity and cold resistance. Comparisons of the cold resistance of
      field males and females with their laboratory-reared offspring provided evidence
      for heritable variation in field-reared flies. Overall, the results suggest that
      cold stress is important in limiting the southern distribution of D. serrata, but
      it seems unlikely that a lack of genetic variation restricts range expansion.

PMID- 28565455
TI  - ENHANCING THE RETRDEVABILITY OF POPULATION GENETIC SURVEY DATA? AN ASSESSMENT OF
      ANIMAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA STUDIES.
AB  - Surveys of genetic variation in natural populations represent a valuable and
      often irreplaceable resource. It may be desirable to reanalyze data as new
      methods are developed for comparisons with other populations or for comparisons
      with the same populations at different times. We evaluated existing mechanisms of
      data preservation in a survey of 627 published surveys of mitochondrial DNA
      variation in animal and found that over half of the datasets (56%) contained
      insufficient information for reanalysis. In many cases, publication of complete
      data would not have added excessively to the length of the publication. Because
      at present, publications represent the main archive of population genetic data,
      we offer recommendations for how the essential data from mtDNA surveys can be
      presented in a form that is complete and concise.

PMID- 28565456
TI  - THE EFFECT OF NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC GENES ON FITNESS AND LOCAL ADAPTATION IN AN
      ANNUAL LEGUME, CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA.
AB  - The role of nuclear genes in local adaptation has been well documented. However,
      the role of maternally inherited cytoplasmic genes to the evolution of natural
      populations has been relatively unstudied. To evaluate the contribution of
      cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes and their interactions to local adaptation we
      created second-generation backcross hybrids between a Maryland and an Illinois
      population of the annual legume Chamaecrista fasciculata. Backcross progeny were
      planted in the sites native to each population for two years and we quantified
      germination, survivorship, fruit production, vegetative biomass, and cumulative
      fitness. We found limited evidence for the contribution of either cytoplasmic or
      nuclear genes to local adaptation. In Maryland plants had greater survivorship,
      biomass, fruit production, and cumulative fitness if their nuclear genome was
      composed predominately of native Maryland genes; cytoplasmic genes did not affect
      fitness. In Illinois local cytoplasm marginally enhanced fitness, whereas
      Maryland nuclear genes outperformed local nuclear genes. Interactions between
      cytoplasmic and nuclear genes influenced seed weight, vegetative biomass, and
      fitness and therefore may affect evolution of these characters. Genetic effects
      were stronger acting through seed size than directly on characters. However, seed
      size differences between the two populations were largely genetic and therefore
      selection on fitness components is likely to result in evolutionary change. The
      contribution of nuclear and cytoplasmic genes to fitness components varied across
      sites and years, suggesting that experiments should be replicated and conducted
      under natural conditions to understand the influence of these genomes and their
      interactions to population differentiation.

PMID- 28565457
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION IN LEOPARD FROGS (RANA PIPIENS COMPLEX): LARVAL FITNESS COMPONENTS
      IN SINGLE-GENOTYPE POPULATIONS AND MIXTURES.
AB  - Recognizing the predominant mode of selection in hybrid systems is important in
      predicting the evolutionary fate of recombinant genotypes. Natural selection is
      endogenous if hybrid genotypes are at a disadvantage relative to parental species
      independent of environment. Alternatively, relative fitness can vary in response
      to environmental variation (exogenous selection), and hybrid genotypes can
      possess fitness values equal to or greater than that of parental species. I
      investigated the nature of natural selection in a leopard frog hybrid system by
      rearing larvae of hybrid and parental genotypes between Rana blairi and R.
      sphenocephala in 1000-L outdoor experimental ponds. Three hybrid (F1 , backcrossj
      [B1 ], backcross2 [B2 ]) and two parental (R. blairi [BB] and R. sphenocephala
      [SS]) larval genotypes were produced by artificial fertilzations using adult
      frogs from a natural population in central Missouri. Resultant larvae were reared
      in single-genotype populations and two-way mixtures at equal total numbers from
      hatching to metamorphosis. In single-genotype ponds, F1 hybrid larvae had highest
      survival and BB were largest at metamorphosis. When F1 and SS larvae were mixed
      together, F1 hybrids had reduced survival and both F1 and SS larvae metamorphosed
      at larger body masses than when reared separately. When mixed, both B1 and SS
      larvae had shorter larval period lengths than when reared alone. Higher
      proportion of B1 metamorphs were produced when larvae were mixed with either
      parental species than when reared alone. Larval fitness components as measured by
      survival, body mass at metamorphosis, proportion of survivors metamorphosing, and
      larval period length for B2 hybrid and BB larvae were similar in single-genotype
      populations and mixtures. Comparison of composite fitness component estimates
      indicated hybrid genotypes possess equivalent or higher larval fitness relative
      to both parental species for the life-history fitness components measured.
      Despite reduced survival of F1 hybrids in mixtures, backcross-generation hybrid
      genotypes demonstrated high levels of larval growth, survival, and metamorphosis
      in mixtures with parental species. Consequently, this study suggests natural
      hybridization and subsequent backcrossing between R. blairi and R. sphenocephala
      can produce novel and relatively fit hybrid genotypes capable of successful
      existence with parental species larvae. Thus, the evolutionary fate of hybrid and
      parental genotypes in this system may be influenced by exogenous selection
      mediated by genotypic composition of larval assemblages.

PMID- 28565458
TI  - HETEROSIS AND OUTBREEDING DEPRESSION IN INTERPOPULATION CROSSES SPANNING A WIDE
      RANGE OF DIVERGENCE.
AB  - The intertidal copepod Tigriopus californicus was used as a model organism to
      look at effects of crossing distance on fitness and to investigate the genetic
      mechanisms responsible. Crosses were conducted between 12 pairs of populations
      spanning a broad range of both geographic distance (5 m to 2007 km) and genetic
      distance (0.2% to 22.3% sequence divergence for a 606-bp segment of the
      mitochondrial COI gene). For each pair of populations, three fitness components
      (hatching number, survivorship number, and metamorphosis number) were measured in
      up to 16 cohorts including parentals, reciprocal F1 , F2 , F3 , and first
      generation backcross hybrids. Comparisons of each set of cohorts allowed
      estimation of within- and between-locus gene interaction. Relative to parentals,
      F1 hybrids showed a trend toward increased fitness, with no correspondence with
      population divergence, and a decrease in variance, which in some cases correlated
      with population divergence. In sharp contrast, F2 hybrids had a decrease in
      fitness and an increase in variance that both corresponded to population
      divergence. Genetic interpretation of these patterns suggests that both the
      beneficial effects of dominance and the detrimental effects of breaking up
      coadaptation are magnified by increasing evolutionary distance between
      populations. Because there is no recombination in T. californicus females,
      effects of recombination can be assessed by comparing F1 hybrid males and females
      backcrossed to parentals. Both recombinant and nonrecombinant backcross hybrids
      showed a decline in fitness correlated with population divergence, indicating
      that segregation among chromosomes contributes to the breakup of coadaptation.
      Although there was no difference in mean fitness between the two backcross types,
      recombinational backcrosses showed greater variance for fitness than
      nonrecombinational backcrosses, suggesting that the breakup of parental gene
      ombinations within chromosomes has both beneficial and detrimental effects.

PMID- 28565459
TI  - CORRELATION OF PAIRWISE GENETIC AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE MEASURES: INFERRING THE
      RELATIVE INFLUENCES OF GENE FLOW AND DRIFT ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF GENETIC
      VARIABILITY.
AB  - Attempts to relate estimates of regional FST to gene flow and drift via Wright's
      (1931) equation FST ~ 1/ (4Nm + 1) are often inappropriate because most natural
      sets of populations probably are not at equilibrium (McCauley 1993), as assumed
      by the island model upon which the equation is based, or ineffective because the
      influences of gene flow and drift are confounded in the product Nm. Evaluations
      of the association between genetic (FST ) and geographic distances separating all
      pairwise populations combinations in a region allows one to test for regional
      equilibrium, to evaluate the relative influences of gene flow and drift on
      population structure both within and between regions, and to visualize the
      behavior of the association across all degrees of geographic separation. Tests of
      the model using microsatellite data from 51 populations of eastern collared
      lizards (Crotaphytus collaris collaris) collected from four distinct geographical
      regions gave results highly consistent with predicted patterns of association
      based on regional differences in various historical and ecological factors that
      affect the amount of drift and gene flow. The model provides a prerequisite for
      and an alternative to regional FST analyses, which often simply assume regional
      equilibrium, thus potentially leading to erroneous and misleading inferences
      regarding regional population structure.

PMID- 28565460
TI  - OPTIMAL SAMPLING DESIGNS FOR STUDIES OF GENE FLOW: A COMMENT ON ASSUNCAO AND
      JACOBI.

PMID- 28565461
TI  - THE ROLE OF GENES OF LARGE EFFECT ON INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Severe inbreeding depression is routinely observed in outcrossing species. If
      inbreeding load is due largely to deleterious alleles of large effect, such as
      recessive lethals or steriles, then most of it is expected to be purged during
      brief periods of inbreeding. In contrast, if inbreeding depression is due to the
      cumulative effects of many deleterious alleles of small effect, then it will be
      maintained in the face of periodic inbreeding. Whether or not inbreeding
      depression can be purged with inbreeding in the short term has important
      implications for the evolution of mating systems and the probability that a small
      population will go extinct. In this paper I evaluate the extent to which the
      tremendous inbreeding load in a primarily outcrossing population of the
      wildflower, Mimulus guttatus, is due to alleles of large effect. To do this, I
      first constructed a large outbred "ancestral" population by randomly mating
      plants collected as seeds from a natural population. From this population I
      formed 1200 lines that were maintained by self-fertilization and single seedling
      descent: after five generations of selling, 335 lines had survived the inbreeding
      process. Selection during the line formation is expected to have largely purged
      alleles of large effect from the collection of highly inbred lines. Because
      alleles with minor effects on fitness should have been effectively neutral, the
      inbreeding depression due to this class of genes should have been unchanged. The
      inbred lines were intercrossed to form a large, outcrossed "purged" population.
      Finally, I estimated the fitness of outbred and selfed progeny from the ancestral
      and purged populations to determine the contribution of major deleterious alleles
      on inbreeding depression. I found that although the average fitness of the
      outcrossed progeny nearly doubled following purging, the limited decline in
      inbreeding depression and limited increase in inbred fitness indicates that
      alleles of large effect are not the principle cause of inbreeding depression in
      this population. In aggregate, the data suggest that lethals and steriles make a
      minority contribution to inbreeding depression and that the increased outbred
      fitness is due primarily to adaptation to greenhouse conditions.

PMID- 28565462
TI  - EVOLUTION OF MULTIPLE KINDS OF FEMALE SPERM-STORAGE ORGANS IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Females of all species belonging to the family Drosophilidae have two kinds of
      sperm-storage organs: paired spherical spermathecae and a single elongate tubular
      seminal receptacle. We examined 113 species belonging to the genus Drosophila and
      closely allied genera and describe variation in female sperm-storage organ use
      and morphology. The macroevolutionary pattern of organ dysfunction and
      morphological divergence suggests that ancestrally both kinds of organs stored
      sperm. Loss of use of the spermathecae has evolved at least 13 times;
      evolutionary regain of spermathecal function has rarely if ever occurred. Loss of
      use of the seminal receptacle has likely occurred only once; in this case, all
      descendant species possess unusually elaborate spermathecae. Data further
      indicate that the seminal receptacle is the primary sperm-storage organ in
      Drosophila. This organ exhibits a pattern of strong correlated evolution with the
      length of sperm. The evolution of multiple kinds of female sperm-storage organs
      and the rapidly divergent and correlated evolution of sperm and female
      reproductive tract morphology are discussed.

PMID- 28565463
TI  - MICROSATELLITE LOCI REVEAL SEX-DEPENDENT RESPONSES TO INBREEDING AND OUTBREEDING
      IN RED DEER CALVES.
AB  - Mean d2 is a recently devised microsatellite-based measure that is hypothesised
      to allow the detection of inbreeding depression and heterosis in free-living
      populations. Two studies that have investigated the measure have both
      demonstrated an association between mean d2 and traits related to fitness. Here
      we present an association between mean d1 and an important component of fitness,
      first-year overwinter survival, in a population of red deer on the Isle of Rum,
      Scotland. The association between survival and mean d2 differed between males and
      females. As predicted, outbred female calves (high mean d2 ) survived better than
      those that were inbred (low mean d2 ). However, the association was in the
      opposite direction in male calves. We suggest that this difference is due to
      different early growth strategies between the sexes. The association between mean
      d2 and survival was not significantly influenced by any single locus.
      Decomposition of mean d2 into a recent inbreeding component and an outbreeding
      component showed that it was the degree of outbreeding that influenced survival
      in males and both the degree of outbreeding and recent inbreeding that influenced
      survival in females. Our analyses suggest that mean d2 is an easy-to-calculate
      measure of inbreeding and degree of outbreeding that can reveal interesting
      interactions between genetics and ecology.

PMID- 28565464
TI  - POLLINATOR-MEDIATED COMPETITION, REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT, AND THE
      EVOLUTION OF SELFING IN ARENARIA UNIFLORA (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).
AB  - Ecological factors that reduce the effectiveness of cross-pollination are likely
      to play a role in the frequent evolution of routine self-fertilization in
      flowering plants. However, we lack empirical evidence linking the reproductive
      assurance value of selfing in poor pollination environments to evolutionary
      shifts in mating system. Here, we investigated the adaptive significance of prior
      selfing in the polymorphic annual plant Arenaria uniflora (Caryophyllaceae), in
      which selfer populations occur only in areas of range overlap with congener A.
      glabra. To examine the hypothesis that secondary contact between the two species
      contributed to the evolution and maintenance of selfing, we used field
      competition experiments and controlled hand-pollinations to measure the female
      fitness consequences of pollinator-mediated interspecific interactions. Uniformly
      high fruit set by selfers in the naturally pollinated field arrays confirmed the
      reproductive assurance value of selfing, whereas substantial reductions in
      outcrosser fruit set (15%) and total seed production (20-35%) in the presence of
      A. glabra demonstrated that pollinator-mediated interactions can provide strong
      selection for self-pollination. Heterospecific pollen transfer, rather than
      competition for pollinator service, appears to be the primary mechanism of
      pollinator-mediated competition in Arenaria. Premating barriers to hybridization
      between outcrossers and A. glabra are extremely weak. The production of a few
      inviable hybrid seeds after heterospecific pollination and intermediate seed set
      after mixed pollinations indicates that A. glabra pollen can usurp A. uniflora
      ovules. Thus, any visit to A. uniflora by shared pollinators carries a potential
      female fitness cost. Moreover, patterns of fruit set and seed set in the
      competition arrays relative to controls were consistent with the receipt of mixed
      pollen loads, rather than a lack of pollinator visits. Competition through pollen
      transfer favors preemptive self-pollination and may be responsible for the
      evolution of a highly reduced floral morphology in A. uniflora selfers as well as
      their current geographical distribution.

PMID- 28565465
TI  - SPECIES FLOCK IN THE NORTH AMERICAN GREAT LAKES: MOLECULAR ECOLOGY OF LAKE
      NIPIGON CISCOES (TELEOSTEI: COREGONIDAE: COREGONUS).
AB  - Studies on north temperate fish species indicate that new habitat availability
      following the last ice sheet retreat has promoted ecological speciation in
      postglacial lakes. Extensive ecophenotypic polymorphisms observed among the North
      American Great Lakes ciscoes suggest that this fish group has radiated through
      trophic adaptation and reproductive isolation. This study aims at relating the
      ecomorphological and genetic polymorphisms expressed by the Lake Nipigon ciscoes
      to evaluate the likelihood of an intralacustrine divergence driven by the
      exploitation of alternative resources. Morphological variation and trophic and
      spatial niches are characterized and contrasted among 203 individuals. Genetic
      variation at six microsatellite loci is also analyzed to appraise the extent of
      genetic differentiation among these morphotypes. Ecomorphological data confirm
      the existence of four distinct morphotypes displaying various levels of trophic
      and depth niche overlap and specialization. However, ecological and morphological
      variations were not coupled as expected, suggesting that trophic morphology is
      not always predictive of ecology. Although extensive genetic variability was
      observed, little genetic differentiation was found among morphotypes, with only
      one morph being slightly but significantly differentiated. Contrasting patterns
      of morphological, ecological, and genetic polymorphisms did not support the
      hypothesis of ecological speciation: the most ecologically different forms were
      morphologically most similar, while the only genetically differentiated morph was
      the least ecologically specialized. The low levels of genetic differentiation and
      the congruence between theta and phi estimates altogether suggest a recent (most
      likely postglacial) process of divergence and/or high gene flow among morphs A,
      C, and D, whereas higher phi estimates for comparison involving morph B suggest
      that this morph may be derived from another colonizing lineage exchanging little
      genes with the other morphs. Patterns of ecophenotypic and genetic diversity are
      also compatible with a more complex evolutionary history involving hybridization
      and introgression.

PMID- 28565466
TI  - ADAPTIVE PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND ITS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNIVOLTINE AND
      MULTIVOLTINE POPULATIONS IN A BRUCHID BEETLE, KYTORHINUS SHARPIANUS.
AB  - The multivoltine bruchid Kytorhinus sharpianus shows seasonal phenotypic
      plasticity in adult longevity, the preoviposition period, and the number of eggs
      laid without feeding between the diapausing and nondiapausing generations. This
      study compared the norms of reaction in three life-history traits between the
      univoltine Aomori and multivoltine Mitsuma populations. The directions of
      response in the norms of reaction were similar in both populations, although
      their response curves differed between populations. This result indicated a
      potential for variation in seasonal phenotypic plasticity in the univoltine
      population. However, the variation in the norms of reaction was small in both
      populations, suggesting strong selection pressure on the plasticity in the
      multivoltine population. These results also suggest that the univoltine Aomori
      population may have originated from a multivoltine population.

PMID- 28565467
TI  - MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DICHROMATISM AMONG POPULATIONS OF
      THE YARROW'S SPINY LIZARD (SCELOPORUS JARROVII).
AB  - Understanding evolution of geographic variation in sexually dimorphic traits is
      critical for understanding the role that sexual selection may play in speciation.
      We performed a phylogenetic analysis of geographic variation in sexual
      dichromatism in the Yarrow's spiny lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii), a taxon that
      exhibits remarkable diversity in male coloration among populations (e.g., black,
      red, green, yellow, blue, brown). An mtDNA phylogeny based on approximately 880
      bp from the 12S ribosomal RNA gene and 890 bp from the ND4 gene was reconstructed
      for 30 populations of S. jarrovii and eight other species of the torquatus
      species group using maximum-likelihood and parsimony methods. The phylogeny
      suggests that S. jarrovii consists of at least five evolutionary species, none of
      which are sister taxa. Although intraspecific diversity in male coloration is
      less than indicated by previous taxonomy, two species formerly referred to as S.
      jarrovii exhibit impressive geographic variation in sexual dichromatism. In one
      of these species, the phylogeny shows the independent evolution of a distinctive
      blue color morph in different parts of the species range. This pattern suggests
      that sexual selection may lead to striking phenotypic divergence among
      conspecific populations and striking convergence. Results also demonstrate the
      importance of a phylogenetic perspective in studies of evolutionary processes
      within nominal species and the problematic nature of "polytypic" species
      recognized under the biological species concept.

PMID- 28565468
TI  - HIERARCHICAL PATTERNS OF GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE IN BLACK RAT SNAKES (ELAPHE
      OBSOLETA OBSOLETA) AS REVEALED BY MICROSATELLITE DNA ANALYSIS.
AB  - We investigated the distribution of variation at six microsatellite loci in the
      black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta). Sampling occurred at three
      hierarchical scales ranging from communal hibernacula to regional populations,
      with most locales situated within the Frontenac Axis region of eastern Ontario.
      We detected no statistically significant pairwise differentiation (FST and RST )
      between hibernacula within the same subpopulations (interhibernaculum distance <6
      km). However, isolation-by-distance was evident among locales within the
      Frontenac Axis (maximum of 50 km) and among regional populations (maximum of 1500
      km). Conservative estimates of Nc derived from heterozygosity values ranged from
      approximately 600 to 2000. These values suggest relatively large genetic
      neighborhoods encompassing many communal hibernacula. Our results considered
      together suggest viscosity of gene flow over relatively short distances (tens of
      kilometers), but substantial genetic exchange among local hibernacula.

PMID- 28565469
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR LIMITED INTERCONTINENTAL GENE FLOW IN THE COSMOPOLITAN MUSHROOM,
      SCHIZOPHYLLUM COMMUNE.
AB  - The genetic structure of populations of Schizophyllum commune was inferred from
      electrophoretic variation among 136 individuals at 11 polymorphic allozyme loci
      to determine the extent of geographic differentiation in this widespread mushroom
      species. The majority of the genetic variation was contained within populations;
      however, considerable genetic differentiation was observed among populations
      (global GST = 0.214). Clustering analysis demonstrated that genetic distance was
      correlated with geographic distance and that a large component of the genetic
      variation was due to allele frequency differences among populations from the
      eastern and western hemispheres. Our results also suggest that populations are
      large and geographically widespread. The lack of fixed genetic differences among
      intercontinental populations at any of the allozyme loci suggests that long
      distance spore dispersal may counter the effects of genetic drift in this
      cosmopolitan species. These results are contrasted with a previous description of
      the same collection, in which the mating allele distribution of the species
      displayed no population substructure at any geographic scale (Raper et al. 1958).
      Broader implications of this study are that both species and mating allele
      distributions may not be correlated with long-distance gene flow in basidiomycete
      fungi.

PMID- 28565470
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HAPLODIPLOIDY IN DERMANYSSINE MITES (ACARI: MESOSTIGMATA).
AB  - Haplodiploidy, a widespread phenomenon in which males are haploid and females are
      diploid, can be caused by a number of different underlying genetic systems. In
      the most common of these, arrhenotoky, males arise from unfertilized eggs,
      whereas females arise from fertilized eggs. In another system, pseudoarrhenotoky,
      males arise from fertilized eggs, but they eliminate the paternal genome at some
      point prior to spermatogenesis, with the consequence that they do not pass this
      genome to their offspring. In 1931 Schrader and Hughes-Schrader suggested that
      arrhenotoky arises through a series of stages involving pseudoarrhenotokous
      systems such as those found in many scale insects (Homoptera: Coccoidea),
      however, their hypothesis has been largely ignored. We have used a phylogenetic
      analysis of 751 base pairs of 28S rDNA from a group of mites (Mesostigmata:
      Dermanyssina) that contains arrhenotokous, pseudoarrhenotokous, and ancestrally
      diplodiploid members to test this hypothesis. Neighbor-joining, maximum
      parsimony, and maximum-likelihood methods all indicate that the arrhenotokous
      members of this group form a clade that arose from a pseudoarrhenotokous
      ancestor, rather than directly from a diplodiploid one. This provides unequivocal
      support for the hypothesis of Schrader and Hughes-Schrader. The wider
      implications of this result for the evolution of uniparental genetic systems are
      discussed.

PMID- 28565471
TI  - A TEST OF THE GLACIAL REFUGIUM HYPOTHESIS USING PATTERNS OF MITOCHONDRIAL AND
      NUCLEAR DNA SEQUENCE VARIATION IN ROCK PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS MUTUS).
AB  - The glacial refugium hypothesis (GRH) proposes that glaciers promoted
      differentiation and generation of intraspecific diversity by isolating
      populations in ice-free refugia. We tested three predictions of this hypothesis
      for the evolutionary divergence of rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) during the
      Wisconsin glaciation of the late Pleistocene. To do this, we examined subspecies
      distributions, population genetic structure, and phylogenetic relationships in 26
      populations across North America and the Bering Sea region. First, we analyzed
      sequence variation in the mitochondrial control region, in a nuclear intron
      (Gapdh), and in an internal transcribed spacer (ITS1). Control region sequences
      of 154 rock ptarmigan revealed strong population and phylogeographic structure.
      Variation in intron sequences of 114 rock ptarmigan also revealed significant
      population structure compatible with results for the control region. Rock
      ptarmigan were invariant for ITS1. Second, we show that five known Nearctic
      refugia and an Icelandic refugium are concordant with the current distribution of
      morphologically distinct subspecies; five of these six refugia are geographically
      concordant with the distribution of closely related control region haplotypes.
      Third, our estimates of the time since phylogenetic lineages diverged predated
      the last glacial maximum for all but two lineages. In addition, all lines of
      evidence suggest that two unknown refugia in the Bering Sea region supported rock
      ptarmigan during the Wisconsin glaciation. Overall, our results are most
      consistent with the hypothesis that isolated populations of rock ptarmigan
      diverged in multiple refugia during the Wisconsin and that geographic variation
      reflects patterns of recolonization of the Nearctic after the ice receded. The
      GRH may therefore offer the most plausible explanation for similar biogeographic
      patterns in a variety of Nearctic vertebrates.

PMID- 28565472
TI  - THE RATE AND EFFECTS DISTRIBUTION OF VIABILITY MUTATION IN DROSOPHILA: MINIMUM
      DISTANCE ESTIMATION.
AB  - The empirical distribution of the mean viability of mutation accumulation lines,
      obtained from three published experiments, was analyzed using minimum-distance
      estimation. In two cases (Mukai et al. 1972; Ohnishi 1977), mutations were
      allowed to accumulate in copies of chromosome II protected from natural selection
      and recombination. In the other one (Fernandez and Lopez-Fanjul 1996), they
      accumulated in inbred lines derived from an isogenic stock. In contrast with
      currently accepted hypotheses, we consistently estimated low (about 0.01) genomic
      viability mutation rates, lambda, and a small kurtosis of the distribution of
      mutational effects on viability (a) in the three datasets. Minimum-distance
      estimates of the per-generation mean viability change due to mutation
      (lambdaE[a]) were also obtained. These were very similar for both chromosomal
      datasets, their absolute values being about five times smaller than estimates
      obtained from the observed change in mean viability during the mutation process.
      It must be noted that, in both experiments, viability was measured relative to
      the Cy chromosome of a Cy/Pm stock. Thus, an unnoticed viability increase in this
      Cy chromosome may have resulted in overestimation of the mean viability reduction
      in the lines. In parallel, minimum-distance estimation of lambdaE(a) from inbred
      lines data (where the selective pressure during the accumulation process was
      larger) was even somewhat smaller, in absolute value, and very close to the
      estimate obtained by comparing the mean viability of the lines with that of the
      control isogenic line. The evolutionary importance of these results, as well as
      their relevance to the solution of the mutational load paradox, is discussed.

PMID- 28565473
TI  - ORIGIN AND MAINTENANCE OF A FEMALE MATING PREFERENCE.
AB  - We investigated the role of maintenance and origin of female mating preferences
      in three species of fish. Poecilia latipinna and P. mexicana are sexual species
      that hybridized to form the gynogenetic clonal P. formosa, which reproduces
      asexually but requires sperm to initiate embryogenesis. We demonstrate that all
      three species display almost identical and statistically indistinguishable
      preferences for large males. Although processes of good genes, runaway sexual
      selection, and direct selection could maintain preferences in the sexual species,
      good genes and runaway sexual selection are unlikely to operate in the asexual
      species. Furthermore, we found that the most likely direct selection benefit, an
      increase in fecundity, can also be excluded in the gynogens. We conclude that the
      most parsimonious explanation for this P. formosa preference is that it was
      inherited from the parental species and is maintained without forces generated by
      good genes, runaway selection, or direct selection for increased fecundity. This
      preference may be maintained because of pleiotropic effects (e.g., sensory bias)
      or mate searching costs.

PMID- 28565474
TI  - ANIMAL COMMUNICATION AND EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28565475
TI  - LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI. VII. MECHANISMS MAINTAINING
      GENETIC VARIABILITY WITHIN POPULATIONS.
AB  - Six replicate populations of the bacterium Escherichia coli were propagated for
      more than 10,000 generations in a defined environment. We sought to quantify the
      variation among clones within these populations with respect to their relative
      fitness, and to evaluate the roles of three distinct population genetic processes
      in maintaining this variation. On average, a pair of clones from the same
      population differed from one another in their relative fitness by approximately
      4%. This within-population variation was small compared with the average fitness
      gain relative to the common ancestor, but it was statistically significant.
      According to one hypothesis, the variation in fitness is transient and reflects
      the ongoing substitution of beneficial alleles. We used Fisher's fundamental
      theorem to compare the observed rate of each population's change in mean fitness
      with the extent of variation for fitness within that population, but we failed to
      discern any correspondence between these quantities. A second hypothesis supposes
      that the variation in fitness is maintained by recurrent deleterious mutations
      that give rise to a mutation-selection balance. To test this hypothesis, we made
      use of the fact that two of the six replicate populations had evolved mutator
      phenotypes, which gave them a genomic mutation rate approximately 100-fold higher
      than that of the other populations. There was a marginally significant
      correlation between a population's mutation rate and the extent of its within
      population variance for fitness, but this correlation was driven by only one
      population (whereas two of the populations had elevated mutation rates). Under a
      third hypothesis, this variation is maintained by frequency-dependent selection,
      whereby genotypes have an advantage when they are rare relative to when they are
      common. In all six populations, clones were more fit, on average, when they were
      rare than when they were common, although the magnitude of the advantage when
      rare was usually small (~1% in five populations and ~5% in the other). These
      three hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but frequency-dependent selection
      appears to be the primary force maintaining the fitness variation within these
      experimental populations.

PMID- 28565476
TI  - AN INTERACTION BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE AND GENETIC VARIATION FOR BODY
      SIZE FOR THE FITNESS OF ADULT FEMALE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - - Drosophila and other ectotherms show geographic genetic variation in body size,
      with larger individuals at higher latitudes and altitudes. Temperature is
      implicated as an important selective agent because long-term laboratory culture
      of Drosophila leads to the evolution of larger body size at lower temperatures.
      In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that, in Drosophila melanogaster, larger
      size is favored at lower temperatures in part because of selection on adult
      females. We used replicated lines of D. melanogaster artificially selected for
      increased and decreased wing area with constant cell area. The resulting size
      differences between the selected lines were due solely to differences in cell
      number, and thereby were similar to the cellular basis of clinal variation in
      body size in nature. We examined life-history traits of adult females at 18 and
      25 degrees C. Rearing for two generations at the two temperatures did not affect
      the extent of the size differences between lines from the different selection
      regimes. There was a strong interaction between temperature and size selection
      for both survival and lifetime reproductive success, with larger females living
      significantly longer and producing more offspring over their lifetime only when
      reared and tested in the colder environment. There was also an increase in
      average daily progeny production in large-line females relative to the control
      and small lines again, only in the colder environment. Thus, the females from the
      large selection lines were relatively fitter at the colder temperature. At both
      experimental temperatures, especially the lower one, the small- line females
      rescheduled their progeny production to later ages. Larger body size may have
      evolved at higher latitudes and altitudes because of the advantages to the adult
      female of being larger at lower temperatures.

PMID- 28565477
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY, FITNESS, AND TRAIT SIZE IN LABORATORY HYBRIDS BETWEEN
      EUROPEAN SUBSPECIES OF THE HOUSE MOUSE.
AB  - The effects of hybridization on developmental stability and size of tooth
      characters were investigated in intersubspecific crosses between random-bred wild
      strains of the house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus and M. m. musculus).
      Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and trait size were compared within and between
      parental, F1 , backcross, and F2 hybrid groups. The relationship between FA and
      reproductive fitness within the F1 hybrids was also studied. The results
      indicated that both FA and character size levels differed significantly between
      the two subspecies. The F1 hybrids and the recombined groups (backcrosses and F2
      hybrids) showed heterosis for both parameters. No significant differences in the
      FA of fertile and sterile F1 hybrid individuals were found. Comparison of the FA
      levels obtained in this study with those found in wild populations from the
      hybrid zone in Denmark showed that the levels of FA were lower in laboratory-bred
      samples than in the wild populations. This study provides further evidence that,
      in hybrids, the developmental processes underlying most of the morphological
      traits we studied benefit from a heterotic effect, despite the genomic
      incompatibilities between the two European house mice revealed by previous
      genetical and parasitological studies.

PMID- 28565478
TI  - FITNESS VARIATION ACROSS A SUBDIVIDED POPULATION OF THE ANNUAL PLANT IMPATIENS
      CAPENSIS.
AB  - The evolution of a subdivided population depends on whether subpopulations with
      high mean fitness make a greater per capita contribution to the next generation
      than subpopulations with lower mean fitness. I distinguish two different models
      of ecological population structure, denoted local compensation and global
      compensation. Local compensation restricts the differential contribution of
      subpopulations, whereas global compensation allows subpopulations to contribute
      in direct proportion to their mean fitness. I describe a simple regression-based
      method that distinguishes these alternatives as points on a continuum of possible
      population structures. The method is applied to field measurements of local
      abundance and reproduction in a subdivided population of the annual plant
      Impatiens capensis. These data suggest that the global compensation model is a
      more accurate description of the population studied. This result is surprising
      because local density effects on growth and reproduction occur in I. capensis.
      The implications of ecological population structure for both geographical
      variation in selection and kin selection are discussed.

PMID- 28565480
TI  - FINE-GRAINED SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE IN THE MARINE
      BIVALVE SPISULA OVALIS.

PMID- 28565479
TI  - BUTTERFLY EYESPOTS: THE GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLOR RINGS.
AB  - The butterfly Bicyclus anynana has a series of distal eyespots on its wings. Each
      eyespot is composed of a white pupil, a black disc, and a gold outer ring. We
      applied artificial selection to the large dorsal eyespot on the forewing to
      produce a line with the gold ring reduced or absent (BLACK) and another line with
      a reduced black disc and a broad gold ring (GOLD). High heritabilities, coupled
      with a rapid response to selection, produced two lines of butterflies with very
      different phenotypes. Other eyespots showed a correlated change in the proportion
      of their color rings. Surgical experiments were performed on pupal wings from the
      different lines at the time of eyespot pattern specification. They showed that
      the additive genetic variance for this trait was in the response of the wing
      epidermis to signaling from the organizing cells at the eyespot center (the
      focus). This response was found to vary across different regions of the wing and
      also between the sexes. The particular eyespot color composition found for each
      sex, as well as the maintenance of the high genetic variation, are discussed with
      reference to the ecology of the butterfly, sexual selection, and visual selection
      by predators.

PMID- 28565481
TI  - GENETIC AND COLOR INTERACTIONS AT A CONTACT ZONE OF ACANTHOCHROMIS POLYACANTHUS:
      A MARINE FISH LACKING PELAGIC LARVAE.
AB  - - Acanthochromis polyacanthus is an unusual tropical marine damselfish that
      uniquely lacks pelagic larvae and has lost the capacity for broad-scale dispersal
      among coral reefs. Different color morphs exist in different regions of the Great
      Barrier Reef, and morphs from northern and southern regions are genetically
      distinct. In the Hydrographers Passage area, which is a large break through the
      reef matrix in the central Great Barrier Reef that may have acted as a bottleneck
      on the migration of these animals during sea level rise, three morphs recognized
      from other regions were found on neighboring reefs. The transition between them
      is abrupt with three loci (AAT-2*, GPI-1*, and PGM*) showing allelic frequency
      patterns close to fixation between opposite alleles within a few kilometers. On
      two reefs (Hyde, Bebe), a pair of morphs was found to coexist and exhibited a
      habitat partitioning pattern with each morph restricted to one side on the reef
      and steep transitions in between. Outside these transition zones, phenotypes and
      genotypes matched those on surrounding reefs without coexistence and were little
      changed from reefs several hundred kilometers away. An electrophoretic survey
      across one transition zone on Hyde Reef showed steep genetic gradients along one
      kilometer of reef slope. Significant linkage disequilibria in samples collected
      in Hyde Reef as a result of dispersal of parental combinations of alleles into
      the center or because parental combinations of alleles confer greater fitness,
      allowed us to estimate the dispersal rate (189 m/generation) and the selection
      pressure on the marker loci (0.411). Finally, we investigated models that could
      lead to such a steep transition in genotypic and phenotypic combinations. Both
      contact zones on each side of Hyde Reef were associated with geomorphological
      discontinuities in the reef structure. We suggest that assortative mating may be
      a proximal mechanism for maintaining isolated each color morph, which could be
      reinforced by selective predation against hybrids outside the zone of their
      formation (i.e., the frequency-dependent selection model of Mallet and Barton
      (1989). Acanthochromis is a midwater planktivore and, when in coexistence, the
      two morphs forage in different habitats amid multispecific flocks of other
      damselfishes of matching colors.

PMID- 28565482
TI  - HABITAT CONTINUITY AND THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF DROSOPHILA POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28565483
TI  - MODELING THE GENETIC BASIS OF HETEROSIS: TESTS OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES.
AB  - Houle (1994) showed that marker-associated heterosis due to general inbreeding
      depression could not be distinguished from direct overdominance at the marker
      locus by examining mean genotypic fitnesses, in the one-locus case. Indeed, both
      hypotheses equally fit the same regression model, referred to as the "adaptive
      distance model" (Smouse 1986). I here extend the analysis to several loci and to
      the relationship between marker genotype and variance in fitness. Several
      predictions differ between the overdominance and inbreeding hypotheses: (1) all
      locus-specific effects are equal under inbreeding, whereas they are not under
      overdominance; (2) the adaptive distance model has an increasingly low fit when
      the number of loci increases, under inbreeding, whereas it always explains the
      whole variance in fitness under overdominance; (3) a negative relationship is
      predicted between mean fitness and the variance in fitness, under inbreeding,
      which is not predicted under overdominance. Some statistical tests are derived
      from these predictions, that help to identify the genetic basis of heterosis.
      Simulations show that the power of these tests allows their application to real
      datasets.

PMID- 28565484
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF OVARIOLE NUMBER IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. I.
      SEGREGATING VARIATION AND FITNESS.
AB  - The number of ovarioles of the Drosophila melanogaster ovary is a trait thought
      to be associated with female fecundity, and therefore is expected to be under
      strong natural selection. This hypothesis may be tested by examining patterns of
      genetic and environmental variation for ovariole number in natural populations,
      and by determining the association between ovariole number and fitness in
      isogenic lines derived from a natural population. We measured ovariole number,
      and competitive fitness and its components, for 48 homozygous chromosome 3
      substitution lines in a standard inbred background; and body size in a sample of
      15 chromosome 3 substitution lines. We found significant segregating genetic
      variation for ovariole number, with a broad-sense heritability (H2 ) of 0.403 and
      correspondingly high coefficients of genetic variation (CVC = 20.8) and residual
      variation (CVR = 25.3). Estimates of quantitative genetic parameters for body
      size (H2 = 0.191, CVG = 2.15, and CVR = 3.87) are similar to those previously
      reported for this trait. Although the isogenic chromosome 3 substitution lines
      varied significantly for components of fitness, there was no significant linear
      or quadratic association of ovariole number and body size with fitness. There
      was, however, highly significant sex * genotype interaction for fitness among
      these lines. This special case of genotype * environment interaction for fitness
      may contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation for fitness in natural
      populations.

PMID- 28565485
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON AVIAN BREEDING TIME: CAUSALITY, FECUNDITY-DEPENDENT, AND
      FECUNDITY-INDEPENDENT SELECTION.
AB  - Natural selection on breeding time through postfledgling survival was
      investigated in a population of blue tits, Parus caeruleus, between 1993 and
      1996. In particular, selection acting through large brood sizes among early
      breeders (fecundity-dependent selection) was separated from selection acting
      through fitness benefits unrelated to the numerical benefits of large brood sizes
      (fecundity-independent selection). There was evidence that natural selection
      favored early breeding in 1993 and 1995 (significantly so in 1993), whereas in
      1994 there was a tendency for selection to be stabilizing. Analyses of selection
      gradients further showed that there was direct selection for both early breeding
      and large brood sizes in 1993. Experimentally delayed pairs produced a lower
      proportion of surviving young among their fledglings compared to early pairs,
      indicating that the seasonal fitness trend is a causal one and not caused by
      differences between early and late breeders in territory or individual quality.
      There was no evidence for significant heritability for four reproductive traits
      (clutch sizes, laying dates, hatching dates, and brood size at fledging) although
      repeatability values ranged from 0.26 to 0.53. The importance of year-specific
      selective regimes in the evolution of avian breedings times are discussed and a
      role for population density in this context is proposed.

PMID- 28565486
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE MATING SYSTEM IN AMSINCKIA (BORAGINACEAE).
AB  - A survey of restriction site variation in the chloroplast genome of the annual
      plant genus Amsinckia, together with estimation of outcrossing rates, was
      conducted to analyze the evolutionary history of the mating system. Species, and
      in some cases populations within species, differ markedly in their mating system.
      Five taxa are distylous and predominantly outcrossing, or show mixed mating
      systems, while the remaining taxa are homostylous and predominantly self
      fertilizing. Reconstruction of the molecular phylogeny of the group places
      different distylous and homostylous taxa at four separate branch tips. When
      distyly is treated as ancestral in the group, or when the loss of distyly is
      assumed to be more common than its gain, the results of the phylogenetic analysis
      support the hypothesis that the self-fertilizing taxa are of recent origin from
      outcrossing relatives. These findings are discussed with respect to theory for
      the evolution and breakdown of distyly and the probability of extinction of
      selfing lineages.

PMID- 28565487
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN DISPERSAL STRATEGIES ON THE GENETIC
      STRUCTURE OF PLANTHOPPER POPULATIONS.
AB  - The hypothesis that levels of gene flow among populations are correlated with
      dispersal ability has typically been tested by comparing gene flow among species
      that differ in dispersal abilities, an approach that potentially confounds
      dispersal ability with other species-specific differences. In this study, we take
      advantage of geographic variation in the dispersal strategies of two wing
      dimorphic planthopper species, Prokelisia marginata and P. dolus, to examine for
      the first time whether levels of gene flow among populations are correlated with
      intraspecific variation in dispersal ability. We found that in both of these
      coastal salt marsh-inhabiting species, population-genetic subdivision, as
      assessed using allozyme electrophoresis, parallels geographic variation in the
      proportion of flight-capable adults (macropters) in a population; in regions
      where levels of macroptery are high, population genetic subdivision is less than
      in regions where levels of macroptery are low. We found no evidence that
      geographic variation in dispersal capability influences the degree to which gene
      flow declines with distance in either species. Thus, both species provided
      evidence that intraspecific variation in dispersal strategies influences the
      genetic structure of populations, and that this effect is manifested in
      population-genetic structure at the scale of large, coastal regions, rather than
      in genetic isolation by distance within a region. This conclusion was supported
      by interspecific comparisons revealing that: (1) population-genetic structure
      (GST ) of the two Prokelisia species correlated negatively with the mean
      proportion of flight-capable adults within a region; and (2) there was no
      evidence that the degree of isolation by distance increased with decreasing
      dispersal capability. Populations of the relatively sedentary P. dolus clustered
      by geographic region (using Nei's distances), but this was not the case for the
      more mobile P. marginata. Furthermore, gene flow among the two major regions we
      surveyed (Atlantic and Gulf Coasts) has been substantial in P. marginata, but
      relatively less in P. dolus. The results for P. marginata suggest that
      differences in the dispersal strategies of Atlantic and Gulf Coast populations
      occur despite extensive gene flow. We argue that gene flow is biased from
      Atlantic to Gulf Coast populations, indicating that selection favoring a
      reduction in flight capability must be intense along the Gulf. Together, the
      results of this study provide the first rigorous evidence of a negative
      relationship within a species between dispersal ability and the genetic structure
      of populations. Furthermore, regional variation in dispersal ability is
      apparently maintained by selective differences that outweigh high levels of gene
      flow among regions.

PMID- 28565488
TI  - HITCH-HIKER PARASITES OR HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THE STRATEGY OF ANOTHER PARASITE.

PMID- 28565489
TI  - HYBRID ZONES WITH DOBZHANSKY-TYPE EPISTATIC SELECTION.
AB  - Dobzhansky's model of epistatic selection assumes that viable genotypes form
      "clusters" in genotype space so that populations can evolve from one state to a
      reproductively isolated state following a "ridge" of well-fit genotypes without
      crossing any deep adaptive valleys. Recently, the importance of Dobzhansky-type
      models in evolutionary studies has been reemphasized by Gavrilets (1997a) and
      Gavrilets and Gravner (1997) who argue that the existence of "ridges" of well-fit
      genotypes connecting reproductively isolated genotypes is actually a general
      property of multidimensional adaptive landscapes. Using rigorous techniques and
      numerical simulations, I analyze clines in the frequencies of selected and
      neutral alleles maintained by a balance of migration and Dobzhansky-type
      epistatic selection acting on two diallelic loci. I show that Dobzhansky-type
      epistatic selection can build up a very strong barrier to neutral gene flow. I
      describe properties of clines that are indicative of Dobzhansky-type selection.

PMID- 28565490
TI  - FITNESS COSTS OF FEMALE REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28565491
TI  - FOUNDER EFFECTS AND PEAK SHIFTS WITHOUT GENETIC DRIFT: ADAPTIVE PEAK SHIFTS OCCUR
      EASILY WHEN ENVIRONMENTS FLUCTUATE SLIGHTLY.
AB  - Two similar evolutionary theories, the shifting balance theory and founder-flush
      models, invoke random genetic drift to allow evolution on complex adaptive
      landscapes. These models, in their usual incarnations, deal with fitness as a
      static entity, and the probability of transition from one form to another is
      predicted to be quite small by analysis of these models. Fitness itself can
      change, however, and the amount of change in the parameters of the fitness
      functions required to allow deterministic evolution to new adaptive peaks is very
      small. The probability of environmental changes sufficient to allow substantial
      morphological evolution or reproductive isolation is large relative to the
      probability that similar changes could occur by processes requiring genetic
      drift, even with very small population sizes. The rapid evolution or speciation
      following a population founding event is more closely linked with environmental
      changes than genetic drift.

PMID- 28565492
TI  - INVERSION LENGTH AND BREAKPOINT DISTRIBUTION IN THE DROSOPHILA BUZZATII SPECIES
      COMPLEX: IS INVERSION LENGTH A SELECTED TRAIT?
AB  - Length and position of breakpoints are characteristics of inversions that can be
      precisely determined on the polytene chromosomes of Drosophila species, and they
      provide crucial information about the processes that govern the origin and
      evolution of inversions. Eighty-six paracentric inversions described in the
      Drosophila buzzatii species complex and 18 inversions induced by introgressive
      hybridization in D. buzzatii were analyzed. In contrast to previous studies,
      inversion length and breakpoint distribution have been considered simultaneously.
      We conclude that: (1) inversion length is a selected trait; rare inversions are
      predominantly small while evolutionarily successful inversions, polymorphic and
      fixed, are predominantly intermediate in length; a nearly continuous variation in
      length, from small to medium sized, is found between less and more successful
      inversions; (2) there exists a significant negative correlation between length
      and number of polymorphic inversions per species which explains 39% of the
      inversion length variance; (3) natural selection on inversion length seems the
      main factor determining the relative position of breakpoints along the
      chromosomes; (4) the distribution of breakpoints according to their band location
      is non-random, with chromosomal segments that accumulate up to eight breakpoints.

PMID- 28565493
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCE-BASED PHYLOGENY AND THE EVOLUTION OF VIVIPARITY IN THE
      SCELOPORUS SCALARIS GROUP (REPTILIA, SQUAMATA).
AB  - The lizard genus Sceloporus contains both oviparous and viviparous species. The
      scalaris complex is the only monophyletic group within the genus that includes
      both reproductive modes, thus it is particularly well suited for studies of the
      evolution of viviparity. Approximately 874 nucleotides of mtDNA sequence data,
      collected from 38 specimens, comprising 25 populations of all five recognized
      species within the group, were used in a phylogenetic analysis of the origin of
      viviparity. Viviparity appears to have evolved twice in this group: once in S.
      goldmani, included in a clade formed by a northern group consisting of S.
      scalaris, S. chaneyi, and S. goldmani, and one more time in S. bicanthalis,
      included in the southern group formed by S. bicanthalis and S. aeneus. An
      oviparous population of S. bicanthalis nested within that viviparous clade,
      indicates that reversal from viviparity to oviparity may be possible. Degree of
      sequence divergence among several S. bicanthalis individuals pertaining to a
      population in which both parity modes occur, was no larger between oviparous and
      viviparous lizards than among viviparous lizards. This suggests that this
      population is a single species, and it may represent a transition from oviparity
      to viviparity or vice-versa.

PMID- 28565494
TI  - LOCAL ADAPTATION IN TWO SUBSPECIES OF AN ANNUAL PLANT: IMPLICATIONS FOR MIGRATION
      AND GENE FLOW.
AB  - Plant populations often adapt to local environmental conditions. Here we
      demonstrate local adaptation in two subspecies of the California native annual
      Gilia capitata using standard reciprocal transplant techniques in two sites
      (coastal and inland) over three consecutive years. Subspecies performance in each
      site was measured in four ways: probability of seedling emergence, early
      vegetative size (length of longest leaf), probability of flowering, and total
      number of inflorescences produced per plant. Analysis of three of the four
      variables demonstrated local adaptation through site-by-subspecies interactions
      in which natives outperformed immigrants. The disparity between natives and
      immigrants in their probability of emergence and probability of flowering was
      greater at the coastal site than at the inland site. Treated in isolation, these
      two fitness components suggest that migration from the coast to the inland site
      may be less restricted by selection than migration in the opposite direction. Two
      measurements of individual size (leaf length and number of inflorescences),
      suggest (though not strongly) that immigrants may be subject to weaker selection
      at the coastal site than at the inland site. A standard cohort life table is used
      to compare replacement rates (R0 ) for each subspecies at each site. Comparisons
      of R0 s suggest that immigrants are under a severe demographic disadvantage at
      the coastal site, but only a small disadvantage at the inland site. The results
      point out the importance of integrating over several fitness components when
      documenting the magnitude of local adaptation.

PMID- 28565495
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF FITNESS-ASSOCIATED TRAITS AMONG RAPIDLY EVOLVING
      POPULATIONS OF THE SOAPBERRY BUG.
AB  - In this study we used reciprocal rearing experiments to test the hypothesis that
      there is a genetic basis for the adaptive differences in host-use traits among
      host-associated soapberry bug populations (described in Carroll and Boyd 1992).
      These experiments were conducted on two host races from Florida, in which
      differences in beak length and development were found between natural populations
      on a native host plant species and those on a recently introduced plant species
      (colonized mainly post-1950). Performance was generally superior on the host
      species from which each lab population originated (i.e., on the "Home" host
      species): in analysis of variance, there was significant population-by-host
      interaction for size, development time, and growth rate. These results indicate
      that the population differences in nature are evolved rather than host induced.
      Increased performance on the introduced host was accompanied by reduced
      performance on the native host, a pattern that could theoretically promote
      further differentiation between the host races.

PMID- 28565496
TI  - EVOLUTION OF A BENEFICIAL ALLELE UNDER PARTIAL SELFING AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION.

PMID- 28565497
TI  - FLAT REACTION NORMS AND "FROZEN" PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN CLONAL SNAILS
      (POTAMOPYRGUS ANTIPODARUM).
AB  - The Frozen Niche-Variation hypothesis (FNV) suggests that clones randomly sample
      and "freeze" the genotypes of their ancestral sexual populations. Hence, each
      clone expresses only a fraction of the total niche-use variation observed in the
      sexual population, which may lead to selection for ecological specialization and
      coexistence of clones. A generalized form of the FNV model suggests that the same
      is true for life-history (as well as other) traits that have important fitness
      consequences, but do not relate directly to niche use. We refer to the general
      form of the model as the Frozen Phenotypic Variation (FPV) model. A mixed
      population of sexual and parthenogenetic snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) in a
      New Zealand lake allowed us to examine the phenotypic variation expressed by
      coexisting clones in two benthic habitats, and to compare that variation to the
      sexual population. Three clones were found primarily in an aquatic macrophyte
      zone composed of Isoetes kirkii (1.5-3.0 m deep), and three additional clones
      were found in a deeper macrophyte zone composed of Elodea canadensis (4.0-6.0 m
      deep). These clones showed significant variation between habitats, which mirrored
      that observed in the sexual population. Specifically, clones and sexuals from the
      deeper habitat matured at a larger size and had larger broods. There was also
      significant among-clone variation within habitats; and as expected under the FPV
      model, the within-clone coefficients of variation for size at maturity were low
      in both habitats when compared to the sexual population. In addition, we found
      four clones that were common in both macrophyte zones. The reaction norms of
      these clones were flat across habitats, suggesting little phenotypic plasticity
      for morphology or life-history traits. Flat reaction norms, high among-clone
      variation, and low coefficients of variation (relative to the sexual population)
      are in accordance with the FPV model for the origin of clonal lineages. We also
      measured the prevalence of infection by trematode larvae to determine whether
      clones are inherently more or less infectable, or whether they are freezing
      phenotypic variation for resistance from the sexual population. We did this in
      the deep habitats of the lake where recycling of the parasite by the vertebrate
      host is unlikely, thereby reducing the complications raised by frequency
      dependent responses of parasites to host genotypes. We found no indication that
      clones are either more or less infectable than the resident sexual population.
      Taken together, our results suggest that phenotypic variation for both life
      history traits and resistance to parasites is frozen by clones from the local
      sexual population.

PMID- 28565498
TI  - WHAT DETERMINES FITNESS WHEN DISPERSAL IS LIMITED?
AB  - Simple evolutionary models typically assume a homogeneous environment in which
      all individuals have equal access to resources. However, when dispersal is
      limited this assumption is unlikely to correspond to reality. Instead, the
      offspring of relatively fecund parents can be expected to find that resources are
      scarce because of competition from their relatively large number of siblings. We
      show that these factors lead to selection for decreased variation in the number
      of offspring produced. We investigate the relationship between fitness and
      variation in fertility for a variety of different circumstances. Our results
      indicate that, in some cases, selection for reduced variation in fertility can be
      very substantial.

PMID- 28565499
TI  - REACTION NORMS OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA: ADAPTIVE SHAPE CHANGES IN A
      STENOTHERM CIRCUMTROPICAL SPECIES?
AB  - Reaction norms of wing length, thorax length, and ovariole number were studied
      according to growth temperature in the circumtropical Drosophila ananassae, and
      compared to similar data from the cosmopolitan D. melanogaster. In the two
      species convex reaction norms were observed, but they were not parallel and
      sometimes exhibited intersections either at high (wing) or at low (thorax)
      temperature. On average, D. ananassae may be considered as a species with a
      bigger thorax but shorter wings than D. melanogaster. The shapes of reaction
      norms were analyzed and compared after quadratic polynomial adjustments.
      Significant differences were observed, in several cases between polynomial
      parameters, and in all cases between characteristic points that is, Maximum Value
      (MV) and Temperature of Maximum Value (TMV). The wing/thorax ratio may also be
      considered as a specific trait related to wing loading. Major differences were
      observed between the two species for the mean value and the shape of the response
      curves of this trait. The main observation of this work was however a shift of
      TMVs for wing and thorax length and ovariole number in D. ananassae toward higher
      temperatures. These variations in the reaction norms corresponded to a shift in
      the species thermal range, suggesting that temperature adaptation was accompanied
      by a modification of the shape of the response curves.

PMID- 28565500
TI  - COMPETITION AMONG TADPOLES OF COEXISTING HEMICLONES OF HYBRIDOGENETIC RANA
      ESCULENTA: SUPPORT FOR THE FROZEN NICHE VARIATION MODEL.
AB  - Vertebrate animals reproducing without genetic recombination typically are
      hybrids, which have large ranges, are locally abundant, and live in disturbed or
      harsh habitats. This holds for the hemiclonal hybridogenetic frog Rana esculenta:
      it is widespread in Europe and commonly is found in disturbed habitats such as
      gravel pits. We hypothesize that its widespread occurrence may either be the
      result of natural selection for a single hemiclone acting as a broadly adapted
      "general-purpose" genotype, or of interclonal selection, which maintains multiple
      hemiclones that each are relatively narrowly adapted and perform differently
      across environments, that is, the Frozen Niche Variation model. We tested these
      competing hypotheses using 1000-L outdoor artificial ponds to rear tadpoles of
      the parental species (Rana lessonae [LL] and Rana ridibunda [RR]) alone, and each
      of three hemiclones of Rana esculenta (GUT1, GUT2, GUT3) alone, and in mixed
      hemiclonal populations from hatching to metamorphosis. Tadpoles of three
      coexisting hemiclones from a single natural population (near Gutighausen,
      Switzerland) were reared in both two- and three-way mixtures in equal total
      numbers at high and low density. For each species and hemiclone, the proportion
      of tadpoles metamorphosing decreased as the density of tadpoles increased, with
      the three hemiclones spanning the range of values exhibited by the two parental
      species. LL and GUT1 tadpoles produced the highest proportion of metamorphs,
      whereas tadpoles of RR produced the fewest metamorphs at both densities. GUT1
      tadpoles also produced the largest metamorphs at low density, GUT2 and GUT3
      tadpoles produced smaller metamorphs than did GUT1 tadpoles at the low density,
      but the three hemiclones did not differ from each other at high density. The
      parental species (LL and RR) were intermediate in metamorphic size to the
      hemiclones at low density, but all genotypes converged on a similar size at high
      density. Length of the larval period also was affected by density, but its effect
      was dependent on genotype. GUT1 tadpoles had the shortest larval period at the
      low density, but larval period was longer and not different between GUT1, GUT3,
      and LL at high density. RR tadpoles had the longest larval period at both
      densities. The most dramatic results were that three genotypes (GUT1, GUT2, and
      RR) maintained rank order and increased days to metamorphosis from low to high
      density, whereas two genotypes (GUT3 and LL) changed rank order and decreased
      days to metamorphosis from low to high density. Mixtures of hemiclones in two-
      and three-way combinations facilitated the proportion of tadpoles metamorphosing
      for GUT1 and GUT2 at both densities, but only at the low density for GUT3
      tadpoles. Results from this experiment are incompatible with the General-Purpose
      Genotype model as a global explanation of hybrid abundance in these frogs.
      Alternatively, the Frozen Niche Variation prediction of general performance
      superiority of clonal mixtures relative to single clone populations is strongly
      supported. The data confirm that fitness advantages of hemiclones change,
      depending on the environment, such that in temporally and spatially heterogeneous
      habitats like ponds, frequency-dependent selection among hemiclones may promote
      coexistence in hemiclonal assemblages. Yet, differential dispersal or
      colonization ability and historical factors affecting hemiclone distribution may
      also be important in shaping patterns of clonal coexistence.

PMID- 28565501
TI  - A BIG BOOK AND A SMALL BOOK ON SELECTION.

PMID- 28565502
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF PARASITES FROM THEIR HOSTS: A CASE STUDY IN THE PARASITIC RED
      ALGAE.
AB  - Morphological similarities of many parasites and their hosts have led to
      speculation that some groups of plant, animal, fungal, and algal parasites may
      have evolved directly from their hosts. These parasites, which have been termed
      adelphoparasites in the botanical literature, and more recently, agastoparasites
      in the insect literature, may evolve monophyletically from one host and radiate
      secondarily to other hosts or, these parasites may arise polyphyletically, each
      arising from its own host. In this study we compare the internal transcribed
      spacer regions of the nuclear ribosomal repeats of species and formae specialis
      (host races) included in the red algal parasite genus Asterocolax with its hosts,
      which all belong to the Phycodrys group of the Delesseriaceae and with closely
      related nonhost taxa of the Delesseriaceae. These analyses reveal that species of
      Asterocolax have evolved polyphyletically. Asterocolax erythroglossi from the
      North Atlantic host Erythroglossum laciniatum appears to have evolved from its
      host, whereas taxa included in the north Pacific species Asterocolax gardneri
      have had two independent origins. Asterocolax gardneri from the host Polyneura
      latissima probably arose directly from this host. In contrast, all other A.
      gardneri formae specialis appear to have originated from either Phycodrys
      setchellii or P. isabelliae and radiated secondarily onto other closely related
      taxa of the Phycodrys group, including Nienburgia andersoniana and Anisocladella
      pacifica. Gamete crossing experiments confirm that A. gardneri from each host is
      genetically isolated from both its host, and from other A. gardneri and their
      hosts. Cross-infection experiments reveal that A. gardneri develops normally only
      on its natural host, although some abberrant growth may occur on alternate hosts.
      The ability of red algal parasites to radiate secondarily to other red algal
      taxa, where they may become isolated genetically and speciate, suggests that this
      process of speciation is not a "genetic dead end" but one that may give rise to
      related clusters of parasite species.

PMID- 28565503
TI  - INCIPIENT SPECIATION BY SEXUAL ISOLATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: VARIATION IN
      MATING PREFERENCE AND CORRELATION BETWEEN SEXES.
AB  - Genetic divergence for characters pertaining to reproductive isolation is of
      considerable interest in evolutionary biology. Since most studies concentrate on
      sibling species (for recent reviews, see Wu et al. 1996), we would like to know
      how much genetic variation exists between populations that are at an incipient
      stage of speciation. To answer this question, we have begun measuring variations
      in mating preference among natural isolates of Drosophila melanogaster,
      represented by the cosmopolitan and Zimbabwe sexual races. We quantify the
      variation in mating preference and success in both sexes by using a multiple
      choice design and an index that is suited to cases of strong asymmetry in mate
      choice. Different designs and indices for measuring sexual isolation are also
      discussed. These sexual traits are entirely genetically determined. Surveying
      four populations in southern Africa and additional cosmopolitan lines, we observe
      extensive genetic variation in sexual characters as well as strong correlation
      between sexes. The populations are highly differentiated and represent various
      stages of evolution between the African and the cosmopolitan type of sexual
      behaviors. The genetic variation and correlation for these sexual characters
      coupled with their geographical pattern have interesting implications for models
      of speciation by sexual selection.

PMID- 28565504
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE OF DIPODOMYS INGENS (HETEROMYIDAE): THE ROLE OF SPATIAL
      HETEROGENEITY IN MAINTAINING GENETIC DIVERSITY.
AB  - The giant kangaroo rat, Dipodomys ingens (Heteromyidae), is an endangered rodent
      that inhabits approximately 3% of its estimated historic range. Its current
      distribution is centered in two geographic areas, situated about 150 km apart, in
      south-central California. We sequenced a 293 base-pair fragment at the 5' end of
      the control region in 95 giant kangaroo rats from nine localities to examine the
      genetic structure of extant populations. We determine that mutations in this
      section of the control region follow a negative binominal distribution, rather
      than a Poisson. However, the distance between haplotypes is small enough that the
      difference between a tree that corrects for the non-Poisson distribution of
      mutations and one that does not, is minimal. This implies that the use of methods
      that assume a Poisson distribution of mutations, such as those based on
      coalescent theory, are justified. We find that the correlation between levels of
      genetic diversity and estimated census size is poor. This suggests that
      population sizes have fluctuated over time or that populations have not been
      isolated from one another, or both. We also examine the hierarchical structure of
      populations and find that the southern populations are not genetically subdivided
      but that there is significant subdivision between northern and southern
      populations and between some northern subpopulations. The phylogeographic
      relationship between northern and southern populations can primarily be
      attributed to isolation by distance, although the time since divergence between
      them appears to be less than the age of either. To examine the phylogeographic
      relationships in more detail we construct a minimum spanning tree based on Tamura
      Nei gamma-corrected distances and superimpose on it the geographic position of
      haplotypes. This reveals that there is more genetic distance between some
      northern haplotypes than between any northern and southern haplotypes, despite
      the geographic distance separating north from south and the larger size of the
      southern population. It also reveals that one northern population, in the Panoche
      Valley, contains old allelic lineages and shares ancestral polymorphism with
      several other populations. It also shows that two, small, geographically remote
      populations contain a surprising amount of genetic diversity, but that different
      population/geographic processes have affected the structure of that diversity. We
      estimate the average migration rate among all populations to be 7.5 per
      generation, and conclude that a disproportionate number of migration events
      involve gene flow with one northern population, the Panoche Valley. We find
      evidence for the hypothesis that there has been an increase in population size in
      the remaining populations in the north and suggest that the Panoche Valley could
      play a role in these expansions. Finally we discuss the probabilitiy that the
      genetic structure of the southern populations has been affected by fluctuations
      in size. These results are briefly compared to other studies on the genetic
      structure of rodent populations.

PMID- 28565505
TI  - THE EFFECT OF HABITAT ON PARENTAL AND HYBRID FITNESS: TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENTS WITH
      LOUISIANA IRISES.
AB  - We performed transplant experiments with Louisiana irises to test the assumptions
      of three models of hybrid zone structure: the bounded hybrid superiority model,
      the mosaic model, and the tension zone model. Rhizomes of Iris fulva, I.
      hexagona, and F1 and F2 hybrids were planted at four sites in southeastern
      Louisiana in 1994. Wild irises grew at all four sites, but differed in genotypic
      composition among sites. The sites were characterized by (1) pure I. fulva
      plants; (2) I. fulva-like hybrids; (3) I. hexagona-like hybrids; and (4) pure I.
      hexagona plants. The sites differed significantly in light availability, soil
      moisture and chemical composition, and vegetation. Survival of transplants was
      high in all sites and did not differ significantly among plant classes. Iris
      hexagona produced significantly more leaf material than I. fulva at the I.
      hexagona and I. hexagona hybrid sites. The two species did not differ in leaf
      production at the I. fulva and I. fulva hybrid sites. Leaf production by both
      classes of hybrid was as great as, or significantly greater than, both parental
      classes in all sites. Iris hexagona rhizomes gained mass in the I. hexagona and
      I. hexagona hybrid sites, but lost mass in the I. fulva and I. fulva hybrid
      sites. Iris fulva rhizomes lost mass in all sites. There were no significant
      differences in rhizome growth among classes at the I. fulva site. At all other
      sites, F1 rhizomes grew significantly more than all other classes except for I.
      hexagona at the I. hexagona hybrid site. There were no significant differences
      among classes in the production of new ramets. Overall blooming frequencies were
      30% for I. fulva, 10% for F1 s, 3% for F2 s, and 0.7% for I. hexagona. Blooming
      frequency did not differ among sites for I. fulva, but significantly more F1 s
      bloomed at the I. hexagona site than at the I. fulva site. These results are
      inconsistent with all three models of hybrid zone structure. They suggest that
      once rhizomes become established, hybrids can reproduce by clonal growth as
      successfully as parents in all habitats, and can outperform them in some
      habitats. Clonal reproduction may ensure the long-term survival of early
      generation hybrids and allow the establishment of introgressed populations,
      despite the fact that F1 hybrids are rarely produced in nature.

PMID- 28565506
TI  - MATE CHOICE IN THE SAILFIN MOLLY, POECILIA LATIPINNA.
AB  - We examined both female and male mate choice in the sailfin molly, Poecilia
      latipinna. Female mollies preferred larger males over smaller ones when comparing
      males from their own populations. Although the expression of this preference
      depends on a female's receptive state, the level of female preference does not
      appear to be associated with any other attribute of the female or of the males.
      When presented with males of the same size from different populations, females
      preferred native over foreign males in some but not all population combinations.
      These results cannot be explained by a bias for higher size-specific rates of
      courtship displays that is shared by all females. Males preferred larger over
      smaller females; larger males exhibited stronger preferences, and preference for
      the larger female also increased as the disparity in size between the two object
      females increased. We found no evidence that males preferred native over foreign
      females when encountered singly or in size-matched combinations. These results
      indicate that discrimination among populations arises because females exercise
      divergent directional preferences for size-specific trait values that are
      associated with differences among males in these values. This result implies an
      active role for sexual selection in contributing to the maintenance of the
      behavioral or morphological distinctions among males observed within and among
      populations.

PMID- 28565507
TI  - ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FEEDING RATE AND PARASITOID RESISTANCE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster have been selected for increased
      resistance against one of two species of parasitoid wasp, Asobara tabida and
      Leptopilina boulardi. In both cases, it has been shown that an improved ability
      to mount an immunological defense against the parasitoid's egg is associated with
      reduced survival when the larvae are reared under conditions of low resource
      availability and thus high competition. We show here that in both sets of
      selected lines, lower competitive ability is associated with reduced rates of
      larval feeding, as measured by the frequency of retractions of the
      cephalopharyngeal skeleton. This suggests that the same or similar physiological
      processes are involved in the trade-off between competition and resistance
      against either parasitoid and shows how the interaction between adaptations for
      competition and natural enemy resistance may be mediated.

PMID- 28565508
TI  - ADAPTIVE DYNAMICS IN ALLELE SPACE: EVOLUTION OF GENETIC POLYMORPHISM BY SMALL
      MUTATIONS IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - We demonstrate how a genetic polymorphism of distinctly different alleles can
      develop during long-term frequency-dependent evolution in an initially
      monomorphic diploid population, if mutations have only small phenotypic effect.
      As a specific example, we use a version of Levene's (1953) soft selection model,
      where stabilizing selection acts on a continuous trait within each of two
      habitats. If the optimal phenotypes within the habitats are sufficiently
      different, then two distinctly different alleles evolve gradually from a single
      ancestral allele. In a wide range of parameter values, the two locally optimal
      phenotypes will be realized by one of the homozygotes and the heterozygote,
      rather than by the two homozygotes. Unlike in the haploid analogue of the model,
      there can be multiple polymorphic evolutionary attractors with different
      probabilities of convergence. Our results differ from the population genetic
      models of short-term evolution in two aspects: (1) a polymorphism that is
      population genetically stable may be invaded by a new mutant allele and, as a
      consequence, the population may fall back to monomorphism, (2) long-term
      evolution by allele substitutions may lead from a population where polymorphism
      is not possible into one where polymorphism is possible.

PMID- 28565509
TI  - PLANT POLYPLOIDY AND POLLINATION: FLORAL TRAITS AND INSECT VISITS TO DIPLOID AND
      TETRAPLOID HEUCHERA GROSSULARIIFOLIA.
AB  - In many polyploid species, polyploids often have different suites of floral
      traits and different flowering times than their diploid progenitor species. We
      hypothesized that such differences in floral traits in polyploids may
      subsequently affect their interactions with pollinating and other insect
      visitors. We measured floral morphology and flowering phenology in 14 populations
      of diploid and autotetraploid Heuchera grossulariifolia Rydb. (Saxifragaceae),
      determined if repeated evolution of independent polyploid lineages resulted in
      differentiation in floral morphology among those lineages, and ascertained if
      there was a consistent pattern of differentiation among genetically similar
      diploid and autotetraploid populations. In addition, we evaluated the differences
      in suites of floral visitors within a natural community where diploids and
      autotetraploids occur sympatrically. Overall, flowers of autotetraploid plants
      were larger and shaped differently than those of diploids, had a different
      flowering phenology than that of diploids, and attracted different suites of
      floral visitors. In comparison with flowers of diploids, tetraploid floral
      morphology varied widely from pronounced differences between cytotypes in some
      populations to similar flower shapes and sizes between ploidal levels in other
      populations. Observations of floral visitors to diploids and autotetraploids in a
      natural sympatric population demonstrated that the cytotypes had different suites
      of floral visitors and six of the 15 common visitors preferentially visited one
      ploidy more frequently. Moreover, we also found that floral morphology differed
      among independent autotetraploid origins, but there was no consistent pattern of
      differentiation between genetically similar diploid and autotetraploid
      populations. Hence, the results suggest that the process of polyploidization
      creates the potential for attraction of different suites of floral visitors.
      Multiple origins of polyploidy also presents the opportunity for new or different
      plant-insect interactions among independent polyploid lineages. These differences
      in turn may affect patterns of gene flow between diploids and polyploids and also
      among plants of independent polyploid origin. Polyploidy, therefore, may result
      in a geographic mosaic of interspecific interactions across a species' range,
      contributing to diversification in both plant and insect groups.

PMID- 28565510
TI  - NO EVIDENCE OF BOTTLENECK IN THE POSTGLACIAL RECOLONIZATION OF EUROPE BY THE
      NOCTULE BAT (NYCTALUS NOCTULA).
AB  - During the Pleistocene, the habitat of the noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) was
      limited to small refuge areas located in Southern Europe, whereas the species is
      now widespread across this continent. Using mtDNA (control region and ND1 gene)
      polymorphisms, we asked whether this recolonization occurred through bottlenecks
      and whether it was accompanied by population growth. Sequences of the second
      hypervariable domain of the control region were obtained from 364 noctule bats
      representing 18 colonies sampled across Europe. This yielded 108 haplotypes that
      were depicted on a minimum spanning tree that showed a starlike structure with
      two long branches. Additional sequences obtained from the ND1 gene confirmed that
      the different parts of the MST correspond to three clades which diverged before
      the Last Glacial Maximum (18,000 yrC14 BP), leading to the conclusion that the
      noctule bat survived in several isolated refugia. Partitioning populations into
      coherent geographical groups divided our samples (phiCT = 0.17; P = 0.01) into a
      group of highly variable nursing colonies from central and eastern Europe and
      less variable, isolated colonies from western and southern Europe. Demographic
      analyses suggest that populations of the former group underwent demographic
      expansions either after the Younger Dryas (11,000-10,000 yrC14 BP), assuming a
      fast mutation rate for HV II, or during the Pleistocene, assuming a conventional
      mutation rate. We discuss the fact that the high genetic variability (h = 0.69
      0.96; pi = 0.006-0.013) observed in nursing colonies that are located some
      distance from potential Pleistocene refugia is probably due to the combined
      effect of rapid evolution of the control region in growing populations and a
      range shift of noctule populations parallel to the recovery of forests in Europe
      after the last glaciations.

PMID- 28565511
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565512
TI  - PATTERNS OF HYBRIDIZATION IN THE PIRIQUETA CAROLINIANA COMPLEX IN CENTRAL
      FLORIDA: EVIDENCE FOR AN EXPANDING HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - We have identified a broad zone of hybridization between two morphologically and
      ecologically distinct herbaceous perennial taxa (morphotypes) within the
      Piriqueta caroliniana complex, which extends more than 300 km across the central
      Florida peninsula. Phylogeographic analyses indicate that the caroliniana
      morphotype has been present in north and central Florida since the early
      Pleistocene and that the viridis morphotype has immigrated into southern Florida
      much more recently. We examine the distribution of diagnostic morphological
      characters and nuclear genetic markers to assess the extent and patterns of
      introgression in this system. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that
      this hybrid zone has expanded north in recent history as viridis alleles have
      introgressed into regions that were previously occupied by populations of
      caroliniana. Genetic markers diagnostic for caroliniana have consistently high
      frequencies across the hybrid zone, whereas markers for viridis are extremely
      variable among populations with frequency reversals in adjacent populations. The
      latter pattern is probably the result of the combined stochastic effects of
      dispersal and drift on viridis alleles as they introgressed northward. Additional
      evidence for the recent expansion of this hybrid zone comes from patterns of
      variation for morphological and genetic markers. As expected for an expanding
      hybrid zone, within-population morphological variation was greatest toward the
      advancing front of introgression and levels of genetic variation for neutral
      diagnostic markers were greatest in the region of initial contact and lower in
      areas of recent expansion. The observed patterns of variation suggest that at
      least some hybrid genotypes have high fitnesses, which has led to the expansion
      of the hybrid zone via the displacement of parental genotypes in central Florida.

PMID- 28565513
TI  - MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF PgiC IN A TETRAPLOID PLANT AND ITS DIPLOID
      RELATIVES.
AB  - Allotetraploid plant species combine the genomes of related diploid species, but
      little is known about whether homologous genes from the diploid genomes are
      expressed, how they interact, or whether they evolve differently when in a common
      tetraploid nucleus. Polyploidy may lead to gene silencing, but few molecular
      characterizations of silenced genes encoding enzymes in polyploids and related
      diploids have been reported. Here we describe the PgiC genes in the tetraploid
      Clarkia gracilis and related diploid species, which are native from California to
      southern Washington. PgiC encodes the cytosolic isozyme of phosphoglucose
      isomerase (PGIC; EC 5.3.1.9). The gene was duplicated in the basal stock of
      Clarkia and now both genes, PgiC1 and PgiC2, are active in about half of the
      diploid species, whereas only PgiC1 is active in the others. Clarkia gracilis was
      found to have three PgiC genes: two PgiC1s and a PgiC2. Reverse-transcriptase
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) experiments, starting with mRNAs prepared from
      seedling leaves of C. gracilis, showed that the three genes are expressed.
      Analysis of their sequences showed they are evolving at similar rates to their
      homologues and that they have the same intron-exon structure. The presence of an
      expressed PgiC2 in C. gracilis was unexpected because all related diploid
      species, including one identified as a parent, have only active PgiC1s. The donor
      of the PgiC2 is now presumed extinct, but parsimony analysis identified its
      phylogenetic position. None of the PgiC genes that were active when C. gracilis
      arose were silenced. A possible example of gene conversion involving a 300
      nuclectide region of one PgiC1 and PgiC2 was identified, but it probably occurred
      in the diploid parental species rather than in C. gracilis. PgiC2 is the first
      known example of an active locus in a tetraploid plant species that is no longer
      expressed in its diploid relatives.

PMID- 28565514
TI  - MOLECULAR MARKERS INDICATE RARE SEX IN A PREDOMINANTLY ASEXUAL PARASITOID WASP.
AB  - The parasitoid wasp genus Lysiphlebus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae)
      contains a taxonomically poorly resolved group of both sexual (arrhenotokous)
      species and asexual (thelytokous) clones. Maximum-parsimony and maximum
      likelihood analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequence data from specimens collected
      across Western Europe showed that asexuality, which does not appear to be caused
      by the bacterium Wolbachia, is concentrated in two geographically widespread
      lineages, the older of which diverged from the closest extant sexual taxa
      approximately 0.5 million years ago. However, the DNA sequences of a nuclear
      intron (elongation factor-1alpha) showed no congruence with this pattern, and a
      much higher frequency of heterozygotes with very high allelic diversity was
      observed among the asexual females compared to that among females from the sexual
      species. This pattern is consistent with maternally inherited asexuality coupled
      with a history of rare sex with members of several closely related sexual
      populations or species. Our observations reinforce recent arguments that rare sex
      may be more important for the persistence of otherwise asexual lineages than
      hitherto appreciated.

PMID- 28565515
TI  - BATHYMETRIC PATTERNS OF BODY SIZE IN DEEP-SEA GASTROPODS.
AB  - The shift to smaller body size in marine invertebrates at the deep-sea threshold
      and size-depth clines within the deep-sea ecosystem are global biogeographic
      phenomena that remain poorly understood. We present the first standardized
      measurements of larval and adult size among ecologically and phylogenetically
      similar species across a broad and continuous depth range, using the largest
      family of deep-sea gastropods (the Turridae). Size at all life stages increases
      significantly with depth from the upper bathyal region to the abyssal plain.
      These consistent clines may result from selection favoring larger size at greater
      depths because of its metabolic and competitive advantages. The unusually small
      size of deep-sea mollusks, in general, may represent an independent evolutionary
      process that favors invasion by inshore taxa composed of small organisms.

PMID- 28565516
TI  - ECOLOGICAL COSTS OF PLANT RESISTANCE TO HERBIVORES IN THE CURRENCY OF
      POLLINATION.
AB  - In this paper, we examine how ecological costs of resistance might be manifested
      through plant relationships with pollinators. If defensive compounds are
      incorporated into floral structures or if they are sufficiently costly that fewer
      rewards are offered to pollinators, pollinators may discriminate against more
      defended plants. Here we consider whether directional selection for increased
      resistance to herbivores could be constrained by opposing selection through
      pollinator discrimination against more defended plants. We used artificial
      selection to create two populations of Brassica rapa plants that had high and low
      myrosinase concentrations and, consequently, high and low resistance to flea
      beetle herbivores. We measured changes in floral characters of plants in both
      damaged and undamaged states from these populations with different resistances to
      flea beetle attack. We also measured pollinator visitation to plants, including
      numbers of pollinators and measures of visit quality (numbers of flowers visited
      and time spent per flower). Damage from herbivores resulted in reduced petal
      size, as did selection for high resistance to herbivores later in the plant
      lifetime. In addition, floral display (number of open flowers) was also altered
      by an interaction between these two effects. Changes in floral traits translated
      into overall greater use of low-resistance, undamaged plants based on total
      amount of time pollinators spent foraging on plants. Total numbers of pollinators
      attracted to plants did not differ among treatments; however, pollinators spent
      significantly more time per flower on plants from the low-resistance population
      and tended to visit more flowers on these plants as well. Previous work by other
      investigators on the same pollinator taxa has shown that longer visit times are
      associated with greater male and female plant fitness. Because initial numbers of
      pollinators did not differ between selection regimes, palatability and/or amount
      of rewards offered by high- and low-resistance populations are likely to be
      responsible for these patterns. During periods of pollinator limitation, less
      defended plants may have a selective advantage and pollinator preferences may
      mediate directional selection imposed by herbivores. In addition, if pollinator
      preferences limit seed set in highly defended plants, then lower seed set
      previously attributed to allocation costs of defense may also reflect greater
      pollinator limitation in these plants relative to less defended plants.

PMID- 28565517
TI  - POPULATION DIVERGENCE IN SEXUAL ORNAMENTS: THE WHITE FOREHEAD PATCH OF NORWEGIAN
      PIED FLYCATCHERS IS SMALL AND UNSEXY.
AB  - Models of sexual selection suggest that populations may easily diverge in male
      secondary sexual characters. Studies of a Spanish population of the pied
      flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca, and a Swedish population of the closely related
      collared flycatcher, F. albicollis, have indicated that the white forehead patch
      of males is a sexually selected trait. We studied the white forehead patch of
      male pied flycatchers (n = 487) in a Norwegian population over seven years. Males
      with large forehead patches were in general more brightly colored, but patch
      height was not correlated to body mass, body size, or parasite loads. Conditions
      during the nestling period did not seem to influence patch height as an adult.
      Patch height increased slightly from the first to the second year as adults, but
      then remained relatively constant at higher ages. Patch height was not related to
      survival. Year-to-year changes showed that males who increased in patch height
      also increased in body mass, suggesting that expression of the forehead patch may
      be partly condition dependent. However, changes in body mass explained only a
      small proportion of the variance in patch height between males. Thus, patch
      height would not be a good indicator of male quality. Furthermore, patch size was
      also not related to male ability to feed nestlings, indicating that females would
      not obtain direct benefits by choosing males with large patches. However, patch
      height could be a Fisher trait, but this requires heritability and there was no
      significant father-son resemblance in patch height. Comparisons of the males
      visited by each female during the mate sampling period indicated that chosen
      males did not have larger forehead patches than rejected males. Experimental
      manipulation of patch height did not affect male mating success. These results
      indicate that females do not use patch size as a mate choice cue. Finally, patch
      height did not predict the outcome of male contests for nestboxes, suggesting
      that the forehead patch is not an intrasexually selected cue of status. Norwegian
      pied flycatchers have smaller forehead patches than both Spanish pied flycatchers
      and Swedish collared flycatchers. We suggest that this pattern may be explained
      by the lack of sexual selection on the forehead patch in the Norwegian population
      as compared to the other populations, where the patch is apparently sexually
      selected. We discuss possible reasons for these population divergences, such as
      female choice on an alternative secondary sexual character (general plumage
      color) and speciation among Ficedula flycatchers.

PMID- 28565518
TI  - GENETIC DIVERSITY AND CAPILLARIA HEPATICA (NEMATODA) PREVALENCE IN MICHIGAN DEER
      MOUSE POPULATIONS.
AB  - There have been few field tests of the hypothesis that homozygous populations are
      prone to high levels of disease. I tested for a negative correlation between
      genetic diversity and parasitism by estimating the allozyme heterozygosity,
      population density, and proportion of individuals infected by Capillaria hepatica
      (Nematoda) in nine Michigan populations of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus).
      Parasite prevalence was correlated negatively with heterozygosity when the
      effects of density were held constant, but was not correlated with population
      density after controlling for the effects of genetic diversity. These data
      support the prediction that inbred populations will be more susceptible to
      parasite infestations.

PMID- 28565519
TI  - POLLEN PERFORMANCE AND SEX-RATIO EVOLUTION IN A DIOECIOUS PLANT.
AB  - There has been a proliferation of studies, in a variety of taxa, that have
      detected sex-linked or cytoplasmic genes that enhance their own transmission via
      sex-ratio distortion. One of the most important parameters influencing the
      dynamics of these elements is the magnitude of their transmission advantage. In
      many systems, the mechanism of sex-ratio distortion is to abort X- or Y-bearing
      gametes. With this mechanism, the transmission advantage associated with sex
      ratio distortion is diminished when the production of male gametes limits
      offspring production or when competition among the gametes of different males is
      intense. In this study, we analyzed the outcome of pollen competition between
      males that produced different sex ratios in the dioecious plant, Silene alba, and
      estimated how the sex-ratio bias influenced the transmission properties of the
      sex chromosomes. We varied the intensity of pollen competition by controlling the
      quantity of pollen used in crosses and used a combination of single-male
      pollinations and pollen mixtures to evaluate the effects of multiple paternity.
      Paternity in pollen mixtures was estimated using allozymes. Sex-ratio bias was
      directly influenced by the quantity of pollen, but the magnitude of this effect
      was small. The relative performance of pollen from different males varied
      substantially, especially when there was multiple paternity. Specifically, males
      with biased sex ratios sired far fewer offspring of either sex in pollen
      mixtures. In crosses involving single males, however, these "sex-ratio" males
      produced the same number of offspring as other males, so the female bias caused a
      significant transmission advantage for X-linked genes. X-linked genes could
      enhance their transmission via sex-ratio distortion in Silene populations, but
      the magnitude of this transmission advantage will depend on the ecological
      circumstances that influence the opportunity for multiple paternity.

PMID- 28565520
TI  - WOLBACHIA AND THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA RECENS
      AND DROSOPHILA SUBQUINARIA.
AB  - Endosymbiotic bacteria of the genus Wolbachia are widespread among insects and in
      many cases cause cytoplasmic incompatibility in crosses between infected males
      and uninfected females. Such findings have been used to argue that Wolbachia have
      played an important role in insect speciation. Theoretical models, however,
      indicate that Wolbachia alone are unlikely to lead to stable reproductive
      isolation between two formerly conspecific populations. Here we analyze the
      components of reproductive isolation between Drosophila recens, which is infected
      with Wolbachia, and its uninfected sister species Drosophila subquinaria.
      Laboratory pairings demonstrated that gene flow via matings between D. recens
      females and D. subquinaria males is hindered by behavioral isolation. Matings
      readily occurred in the reciprocal cross (D. quinaria females * D. recens males),
      but very few viable progeny were produced. The production of viable hybrids via
      this route was restored by antibiotic curing of D. recens of their Wolbachia
      symbionts, indicating that hybrid offspring production is greatly reduced by
      cytoplasmic incompatibility in the crosses involving infected D. recens males.
      Thus, behavioral isolation and Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility act
      as complementary asymmetrical isolating mechanisms between these two species. In
      accordance with Haldane's rule, hybrid females were fertile, whereas hybrid males
      invariably were sterile. Levels of mtDNA variation in D. recens are much lower
      than in either D. subquinaria or D. falleni, neither of which is infected with
      Wolbachia. The low haplotype diversity in D. recens is likely due to an mtDNA
      sweep associated with the spread of Wolbachia. Nevertheless, the existence of
      several mtDNA haplotypes in this species indicates that Wolbachia have been
      present as a potential isolating mechanism for a substantial period of
      evolutionary time. Finally, we argue that although Wolbachia by themselves are
      unlikely to bring about speciation, they can increase the rate of speciation in
      insects.

PMID- 28565521
TI  - ARE ENZYME LOCI SELECTIVELY NEUTRAL IN HAPLOID POPULATIONS OF NONVASCULAR PLANTS?
AB  - Enzyme data from 12 previously published studies of haploid bryophyte populations
      were subjected to tests of selective neutrality and population equilibrium.
      Altogether 280 samples were tested using the Ewens-Watterson test, the Ewens
      exact test, and Chakraborty's test. The Ewens-Watterson and the Ewens exact tests
      revealed neutrality in 84.6% of the cases, whereas the Chakraborty test revealed
      neutrality in 100% of the cases. Neutrality may thus explain the relatively high
      amounts of genetic variation found in these organisms. Possible hidden population
      sub-structuring and nonrandom field sampling of genotypes in many of the studies
      could make Chakraborty's test more reliable than the two others.

PMID- 28565522
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS OF THE ANT LION, MYRMELEON
      IMMACULATUS: EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF BERGMANN'S RULE.
AB  - In eastern North America, body size of the larval ant lion Myrmeleon immaculatus
      increases from south to north, following Bergmann's rule. We used a common-garden
      experiment and a reciprocal-transplant experiment to evaluate the effects of food
      and temperature on ant lion growth, body size, and survivorship. In the
      laboratory common-garden experiment, first-instar larvae from two southern
      (Georgia, South Carolina) and two northern (Connecticut, Rhode Island)
      populations were reared in incubators under high- and low-food and high- and low
      temperature regimes. For all populations, high food increased final body mass and
      growth rate and decreased development time. Growth rates were higher at low
      temperatures, but temperature did not affect larval or adult body mass.
      Survivorship was highest in high-food and low-temperature treatments. Across all
      food and temperature treatments, northern populations exhibited a larger final
      body mass, shorter development time, faster growth rate, and greater survivorship
      than did southern populations. Results were similar for a field reciprocal
      transplant experiment of third-instar larvae between populations in Connecticut
      and Oklahoma: Connecticut larvae grew faster than Oklahoma larvae, regardless of
      transplant site. Conversely, larvae transplanted to Oklahoma grew faster than
      larvae transplanted to Connecticut, regardless of population source. These
      results suggest that variation in food availability, not temperature, may account
      for differences in growth and body size of northern and southern ant lions.
      Although northern larvae grew faster and reached a larger body size in both
      experiments, northern environments should suppress growth because of reduced food
      availability and a limited growing season. This study provides the first example
      of countergradient selection causing Bergmann's rule in an ectotherm.

PMID- 28565523
TI  - BREEDING STRUCTURE OF A YUCCA FILAMENTOSA (AGAVACEAE) POPULATION.
AB  - Yucca filamentosa and its species-specific pollinator, the yucca moth, Tegeticula
      yuccasella (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae), form a relationship that is often cited as
      a classic example of a coevolved plant-pollinator mutualism. Observations of the
      moth's behavior have led to predictions that moth dispersal is relatively limited
      and that, as a consequence, the self-compatible Y. filamentosa should experience
      relatively high rates of self-fertilization. In contrast, analyses of its mating
      system indicated that Y. filamentosa was predominantly outcrossed. To better
      understand effective breeding patterns in Y. filamentosa populations, 10
      polymorphic allozyme loci were investigated to analyze the breeding structure of
      a natural Y. filamentosa population. Analyses revealed that Y. filamentosa is
      predominantly outcrossed, has multiply sired fruits, and that each fruit was
      sired by a different set of pollen donors. The effective number of pollen donors
      per fruit ranged from 1.56 to 3.13, indicating that some correlated mating exists
      within fruits. Paternity analyses revealed that pollen moved from 6 m to 293 m
      (mean = 118 m) within the study population and that a minimum of 10% of the
      progeny were sired by pollen originating outside of the population. These results
      are discussed in the context of the yucca-yucca moth mutualism.

PMID- 28565525
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSIFICATION AND ADAPTIVE RADIATION: A COMPARISON OF TWO DIVERSE
      LIZARD CLADES.
AB  - We compared the morphological diversity (i.e., the amount of morphological space
      occupied) of two similar clades, the lizard genera Anolis and Sceloporus. These
      species-rich monophyletic clades are similar in body size, age of origin, and
      many aspects of their natural history. We examined a number of morphological
      traits whose variation is likely to represent adaptation to different aspects of
      the environment, including body size, limb proportions, head dimensions, and tail
      length. Examination of the position of species in multidimensional space, based
      on a principal components analysis, indicates that the morphological diversity of
      Anolis, which we refer to as disparity, is significantly greater than that of
      Sceloporus. One potential explanation for this pattern is that morphological
      diversification in Anolis was facilitated by the evolution of subdigital toe
      pads, which allow anoles to use the environment in ways not available to
      Sceloporus. The geographic location of diversification (tropical and subtropical
      for Anolis, arid for Sceloporus) may also have been important.

PMID- 28565524
TI  - COSTS OF INDUCED RESPONSES AND TOLERANCE TO HERBIVORY IN MALE AND FEMALE FITNESS
      COMPONENTS OF WILD RADISH.
AB  - Theory predicts that plant defensive traits are costly due to trade-offs between
      allocation to defense and growth and reproduction. Most previous studies of costs
      of plant defense focused on female fitness costs of constitutively expressed
      defenses. Consideration of alternative plant strategies, such as induced defenses
      and tolerance to herbivory, and multiple types of costs, including allocation to
      male reproductive function, may increase our ability to detect costs of plant
      defense against herbivores. In this study we measured male and female
      reproductive costs associated with induced responses and tolerance to herbivory
      in annual wild radish plants (Raphanus raphanistrum). We induced resistance in
      the plants by subjecting them to herbivory by Pieris rapae caterpillars. We also
      induced resistance in plants without leaf tissue removal using a natural chemical
      elicitor, jasmonic acid; in addition, we removed leaf tissue without inducing
      plant responses using manual clipping. Induced responses included increased
      concentrations of indole glucosinolates, which are putative defense compounds.
      Induced responses, in the absence of leaf tissue removal, reduced plant fitness
      when five fitness components were considered together; costs of induction were
      individually detected for time to first flower and number of pollen grains
      produced per flower. In this system, induced responses appear to impose a cost,
      although this cost may not have been detected had we only quantified the
      traditionally measured fitness components, growth and seed production. In the
      absence of induced responses, 50% leaf tissue removal, reduced plant fitness in
      three out of the five fitness components measured. Induced responses to herbivory
      and leaf tissue removal had additive effects on plant fitness. Although plant
      sibships varied greatly (49-136%) in their level of tolerance to herbivory, costs
      of tolerance were not detected, as we did not find a negative association between
      the ability to compensate for damage and plant fitness in the absence of damage.
      We suggest that consideration of alternative plant defense strategies and
      multiple costs will result in a broader understanding of the evolutionary ecology
      of plant defense.

PMID- 28565526
TI  - THE FITNESS OF MANIPULATING PHENOTYPES: IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDIES OF FLUCTUATING
      ASYMMETRY AND MULTIVARIATE SELECTION.
AB  - Phenotypic manipulation (or phenotypic engineering) that alters trait
      distributions provides a way to increase the statistical power of detecting
      relationships between traits and fitness. Manipulations relying on plastic
      responses, however, assume a specific relationship between the perturbation and
      the alteration of the traits when multiple traits are involved. We measured
      several traits, including condition measured as fluctuating asymmetry, in the
      ladybird beetle Harmonia axyridis under six different diets to examine how
      altered environments affected multiple traits and their distributions. Although
      diet affected fluctuating asymmetry, we found no consistent relationship between
      degree of asymmetry and other phenotypic measures. As expected, individual traits
      were altered by our treatments. Contrary to expectation, relationships among
      traits were not constant among diets. Our results suggest that assumptions about
      the relationship between condition and trait values, especially fluctuating
      asymmetry, cannot be made. Further, studies that use manipulated phenotypes to
      statistically determine the form of selection must first demonstrate that the
      pattern of the phenotypic correlation matrix is not itself altered by the
      manipulation. If the phenotypic correlation matrix is not constant, then
      experimental estimates of selection coefficients may not reflect selection that
      occurs in the wild.

PMID- 28565527
TI  - THE PHENOTYPIC AND FITNESS EFFECTS OF COLICIN RESISTANCE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI K
      12.
AB  - Previous studies indicate that most natural isolates of Escherichia coli are
      resistant to most or all colicins (antibiotics produced by E. coli) when assessed
      in the laboratory. Additionally, resistance to different colicin types appears to
      arise in a nonindependent manner. One possible mechanism to explain this
      nonindependence is pleiotropy: Multiple resistances are selected after exposure
      to a single colicin. This study, which was designed to address the role of
      pleiotropy in the generation of colicin resistance, revealed that 96% of colicin
      resistant mutants were resistant to two or more colicins. Mutational class was
      important because putative translocation mutants (Tol pathway mutants) resisted
      fewer colicins than putative receptor mutants. To determine whether colicin
      resistance is costly, the effects of colicin resistance mutations on maximal
      growth rate in a rich medium were also examined. Relative to the sensitive
      ancestor, translocation mutations lowered maximal growth rates by 17%, whereas
      putative receptor mutations did not significantly lower growth rates. Thus, when
      nutrients are abundant, the most advantageous forms of colicin resistance may not
      impose a cost. The ecological consequences of pleiotropic colicin resistance
      could involve population cycling between colicin sensitivity and resistance.
      Additionally, if the cost of resistance depends on the environment, ecological
      diversification could result.

PMID- 28565528
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION OF PHENOTYPIC VARIANCE WITH INBREEDING.
AB  - Fifty-two inbred populations of Drosophila melanogaster, each founded from a
      single pair, and a large number of control, outbred flies were measured for
      fitness and a set of six traits. A survey of the literature on the effects of
      inbreeding and population bottlenecks demonstrates that the commonly observed
      pattern of an apparent variance among characters and among species in changes of
      phenotypic variance may in fact be largely the result of sampling error, given
      the pattern of change that we demonstrate within a species for the same
      character. In our study, population bottlenecks on average decrease the amount of
      phenotypic variance for a suite of wing characteristics and size, but there is
      large and significant variation among lines in the amount of phenotypic variance.
      As a result, several lines increased in variance in spite of the average
      decrease. Interestingly, the changes in phenotypic variance for fitness are in
      sharp contrast to those seen for phenotypic variance for morphological traits.
      The amount of phenotypic variance for fitness varies highly significantly among
      lines but, on average, is increased by bottlenecks. The changes in phenotypic
      variance as a result of population bottlenecks are large enough to significantly
      affect the probability of peak shifts by the variance-induced peak shift model.

PMID- 28565529
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY IN WILD CHROMOSOMAL HYBRIDS OF THE HOUSE MOUSE.
AB  - In wild populations of the house mouse from Tunisia, fluctuating asymmetry and
      character size of tooth traits were compared between chromosomal races (2n = 40,
      all acrocentric standard karyotype, and 2n = 22, with nine fixed Robertsonian
      fusions) and their natural hybrids. Developmental stability was impaired in
      hybrids compared to both parental groups. Because genetic divergence measured by
      allozyme markers was low, genomic incompatibilities were not expected between the
      chromosomal races. This suggests that differentiation of gene systems
      specifically involved in development may have occurred between the chromosomal
      races. Support for the latter was found in the study of character size which
      showed that the 2n = 22 mice had smaller teeth than either the hybrid or the
      standard mice. The study of Tunisian chromosomal races thus shows that
      chromosomal evolution may lead to important changes in coadapted gene systems
      without involving extensive genic differentiation.

PMID- 28565530
TI  - CONVERGENT EVOLUTION OF COURTSHIP SONGS AMONG CRYPTIC SPECIES OF THE CARNEA GROUP
      OF GREEN LACEWINGS (NEUROPTERA: CHRYSOPIDAE: CHRYSOPERLA).
AB  - Although traits of related species are likely to be similar due to common
      ancestry, mating signals are an exception. In singing insects, for example, song
      similarity has been documented only for allopatric or allochronic species pairs,
      and even then, not often. Where song similarity does occur, it has been logically
      attributed to the inheritance of ancestral traits rather than convergence. It is
      quite common for related, sympatric insect species to differ dramatically in
      calling song, which is predicted by evolutionary theory to maximize intraspecific
      mating success. Given that there are a limited number of ways to make sounds on
      anatomically similar organs and given that there would be no selective pressure
      for songs to differ in widely separated geographic areas, convergence in songs
      among related species living on different continents might be expected. Here we
      present the first well-documented case of such convergence, in a group of
      sibling, cryptic species characterized by substrate-borne vibrational mating
      songs. In this example from green lacewings of the carnea group of the genus
      Chrysoperla, a variety of statistical tests shows that one species in North
      America and another in Asia possess songs that are strikingly similar to each
      other. DNA data demonstrate that the species involved belong to divergent
      speciose lineages, and behavioral data demonstrate that the convergent songs are
      readily accepted by members of both species.

PMID- 28565531
TI  - A COMPARISON OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN LIFE-HISTORY AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN
      ANIMALS.
AB  - The current study tests the hypothesis that life-history traits (closely related
      to fitness) show greater inbreeding depression than morphological traits (less
      closely related to fitness). The mean and median slope of the standardized
      coefficient of inbreeding depression (the slope of the linear relationship
      between F and the trait value) for life-history and morphological traits were
      compared. Slopes for life-history traits were higher than those for morphological
      traits. At F = 0.25 (full-sibling mating), life-history traits experienced a
      median reduction of 11.8% in trait value, whereas morphological traits showed a
      depression in trait value of approximately 2.2%.

PMID- 28565532
TI  - LOSS OF SEX IN CLONAL POPULATIONS OF A FLOWERING PLANT, DECODON VERTICILLATUS
      (LYTHRACEAE).
AB  - The loss of traits that no longer increase fitness is a pervasive feature of
      evolution, although detailed studies of the genetic, developmental, and
      evolutionary factors involved are few. Most perennial plants practice both sexual
      and clonal reproduction, and it has been hypothesized that populations with
      little sexual recruitment may lose the capacity for sexual reproduction by fixing
      mutations that disable one or more of the many processes involved in sex. The
      clonal, tristylous aquatic plant, Decodon verticillatus, exhibits marked
      geographical variation in sexual recruitment. Populations at the northern limit
      of the range are usually monomorphic for style length consist of single
      genotypes, and produce almost no seed, due, in part, to environmental conditions
      that inhibit pollination, fertilization, and seed maturation. Controlled crosses
      in a greenhouse provided evidence for greatly reduced sexual capacity in an
      exclusively clonal, monomorphic population. Plants from this infertile population
      produced only 3-18% as many seeds per pollination as fertile populations.
      Observations of pollen tube growth indicated that infertility is due to severe
      reductions in pollen tube numbers both early after pollination and later when
      pollen tubes were traversing the ovary, due primarily to the inability of pistils
      to support normal tube growth. A three-year greenhouse experiment comparing
      fertility, survival, and growth of F1 progenies produced from reciprocal crosses
      between plants from the infertile population and those from nearby fertile
      populations suggested that the genetic basis for infertility is simple and may
      involve a single recessive mutation. In addition, the results did not reveal any
      association between infertility and other aspects of survival and vegetative
      vigor. The infertile genotype was likely fixed in the population through founder
      effect rather than indirect selection resulting from antagonistic pleiotropy or
      direct selection of advantages associated with reduced investment in sexual
      reproduction. A broader comparison of sexual fertility in 15 clonal, monomorphic
      populations and five genotypically diverse, trimorphic populations under
      greenhouse conditions revealed substantial infertility in all but one monomorphic
      population. Populations varied somewhat in the stage at which infertility was
      expressed, however, pollen tube growth was impaired in all populations. These
      results provide strong support for the hypothesis that complex traits like sex
      are degraded by mutation when they no longer increase fitness.

PMID- 28565533
TI  - EVIDENCE THAT AN OUTCROSSING POPULATION IS A DERIVED LINEAGE IN A HERMAPHRODITIC
      FISH (RIVULUS MARMORATUS).
AB  - Rivulus marmoratus is the only known vertebrate with obligate, synchronous
      hermaphroditic fertilization. Males can be experimentally induced in the
      laboratory and are rare or absent in most populations, but at the isolated Twin
      Cays, Belize, locality, males are relatively abundant. At this locality, evidence
      of outcrossing has been documented in this otherwise automictic cloning species.
      Phylogenetic analysis of restriction sites and sequence characters revealed that
      all Florida and Belize western Caribbean populations (including Twin Cays) are
      phyletically indistinguishable yet divergent from eastern populations in Brazil
      and the Bahamas. Further, these western lineages shared a common ancestor more
      recently than all other populations. Therefore, the Twin Cays population is not a
      remnant ancestral outcrossing population. Outcrossing is suspected to have
      evolved as a phenotypically plastic character, and its expression in R.
      marmoratus may be dormant unless triggered by some ecological factor that is not
      well understood.

PMID- 28565534
TI  - COMPARATIVE PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF A SIBLING PAIR OF RAINFOREST DROSOPHILA SPECIES
      (DROSOPHILA SERRATA AND D. BIRCHII).
AB  - Drosophila serrata and D. birchii are presumed sibling species; the former is a
      widespread generalist and the latter is restricted to rainforests. Comparison of
      the mtDNA sequence phylogeographies revealed two highly divergent, geographically
      distinct lineages of D. serrata that are as distinct from each other as either is
      from D. birchii. However, diversity in D. birchii is low and unstructured. The
      low diversity in D. birchii corresponds with a late-Pleistocene-Holocene
      contraction of lowland rainforests. We suggest that future studies of speciation
      and adaptation should compare the two lineages of D. serrata to each other as
      well as to D. birchii.

PMID- 28565535
TI  - EPISTASIS AND THE EVOLUTION OF ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE IN POPULATIONS THAT PASS
      THROUGH A BOTTLENECK.
AB  - Traditional models of genetic drift predict a linear decrease in additive genetic
      variance for populations passing through a bottleneck. This perceived lack of
      heritable variance limits the scope of founder-effect models of speciation. We
      produced 55 replicate bottleneck populations maintained at two male-female pairs
      through four generations of inbreeding (average F = 0.39). These populations were
      formed from an F2 intercross of the LG/J and SM/J inbred mouse strains. Two
      contemporaneous control strains maintained with more than 60 mating pairs per
      generation were formed from this same source population. The average level of
      within-strain additive genetic variance for adult body weight was compared
      between the control and experimental lines. Additive genetic variance for adult
      body weight within experimental bottleneck strains was significantly higher than
      expected under an additive genetic model This enhancement of additive genetic
      variance under inbreeding is likely to be due to epistasis, which retards or
      reverses the loss of additive genetic variance under inbreeding for adult body
      weight in this population. Therefore, founder-effect speciation processes may not
      be constrained by a loss of heritable variance due to population bottlenecks.

PMID- 28565536
TI  - HYDROTHERMAL-VENT ALVINELLID POLYCHAETE DISPERSAL IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC. 2. A
      METAPOPULATION MODEL BASED ON HABITAT SHIFTS.
AB  - Marine organisms typically fall into two main categories: those with a high level
      of population structuring and those with a low one. The first are often found to
      be poor dispersers, following isolation by distance or stepping-stone theoretical
      predictions. The second are commonly associated with high-dispersal taxa and are
      best described by the island model. Deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems represent
      a good model for studying one-dimensional metapopulations. Whereas isolation by
      distance might be expected to be the rule in such a system for species with
      limited dispersal capabilities, a biological paradox can be observed: an apparent
      genetic homogeneity in some vent species with short-scale dispersal potential, in
      a one-dimensional fragmented habitat. This can be explained if one key assumption
      of the existing models is not met: gene flow between populations and genetic
      drift may not have the time to equilibrate. Geophysical models revealed that
      hydrothermal convection is intrinsically unstable, inducing processes of
      coalescence or splitting of venting areas in a chaotic manner. This is likely to
      generate frequent extinctions and recolonizations. Theoretical genetic
      predictions derived from extinctions/recolonizations cannot satisfactorily model
      a situation where habitat shifts are frequent and constantly affect the
      metapopulation equilibrium. Because neither the island and the stepping-stone
      models nor the classical metapopulation models resemble the hydrothermal vent
      reality, we present here a realistic model developed to provide a compromise
      between existing conceptual models and what is currently known of the biology and
      ecology of one of the most peculiar and best-studied vent species, the polychaete
      Alvinella pompejana. This model allows us to define the boundaries between which
      the metapopulation is evolutionary stable in an unstable context. Simulations
      show different patterns in which metapopulation size and recolonization vary but
      reach an equilibrium despite chaotic vent extinctions. In contrast, the model
      also shows that displacing habitat continuously affects the equilibrium between
      gene flow and drift. As a consequence, the time required to balance these
      evolutionary forces can never be attained, leading to chaotic fluctuations in F
      statistics. Those fluctuations are mainly due to stochastic changes of the
      interpatch distance which affect migration rates. The shifting of active zones of
      venting can episodically counterbalance differentiation and allow a long-term
      genetic homogenization at the ridge scale. These findings lead to a new concept
      in which the exchanges between populations would mainly depend on the habitat's
      movements along the ridge axis rather than the organim's dispersal. We therefore
      propose a new model based on patch-network displacements in which transient
      contact zones allow low levels of gene flow throughout the metapopulation.

PMID- 28565538
TI  - SUPPRESSION OF SEX-RATIO MEIOTIC DRIVE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF Y-CHROMOSOME
      POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28565537
TI  - PARASITE-MEDIATED SELECTION AGAINST INBRED SOAY SHEEP IN A FREE-LIVING ISLAND
      POPULATON.
AB  - Parasites are thought to provide a selective force capable of promoting genetic
      variation in natural populations. One rarely considered pathway for this action
      is via parasite-mediated selection against inbreeding. If parasites impose a
      fitness cost on their host and the offspring of close relatives have greater
      susceptibility to parasites due to the increased homozygosity that results from
      inbreeding, then parasite-mediated mortality may select against inbred
      individuals. This hypothesis has not yet been tested within a natural vertebrate
      population. Here we show that relatively inbred Soay sheep (Ovis aries), as
      assessed by microsatellite heterozygosity, are more susceptible to parasitism by
      gastrointestinal nematodes, with interactions indicating greatest susceptibility
      among adult sheep at high population density. During periods of high overwinter
      mortality on the island of Hirta, St. Kilda, Scotland, highly parasitised
      individuals were less likely to survive. More inbred individuals were also less
      likely to survive, which is due to their increased susceptibility to parasitism,
      because survival was random with respect to inbreeding among sheep that were
      experimentally cleared of their gastrointestinal parasite burden by anthelminthic
      treatment. As a consequence of this selection, average microsatellite
      heterozygosity increases with age in St. Kildan Soay sheep. We suggest that
      parasite-mediated selection acts to maintain genetic variation in this small
      island population by removing less heterozygous individuals.

PMID- 28565539
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON THERMOGENIC CAPACITY OF HIGH-ALTITUDE DEER MICE.
AB  - Adaptive explanations that rely on physiological arguments are common, but tests
      of hypotheses about the significance of whole-animal physiological performance
      (e.g., aerobic capacities) are rare. We studied phenotypic selection on the
      thermogenic capacity (i.e., maximal rate of oxygen consumption [VO2 max] elicited
      via cold exposure) of high-altitude (~3800 m) deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus).
      A high VO2 max equates to a high capacity for heat production and should favor
      survival in the cold environments prevalent at high altitude. Strong directional
      selection favored high VO2 max, at least in one year. The selection for increased
      VO2 max is consistent with predictions derived from incorporating our
      physiological data into a biophysical model. During another year, we found weak
      evidence of selection for decreased body mass. Nonlinear selection was not
      significant for any of the selection episodes we studied. The strong directional
      selection for VO2 max that we observed suggests that-given ample genetic
      variation-aerobic metabolism and perhaps endothermy may have evolved rapidly on
      the geological time scale.

PMID- 28565540
TI  - SPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE OF CLONAL AND SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN POPULATIONS OF
      ADENOPHORA GRANDIFLORA (CAMPANULACEAE).
AB  - The spatial distribution of clonal versus sexual reproduction in plant
      populations should generally have differing effects on the levels of biparental
      inbreeding and the apparent selfing rate, produced via mating by proximity
      through limited pollen dispersal. We used allozyme loci, join-count statistics,
      and Moran's spatial autocorrelation statistics to separate the spatial genetic
      structure caused by clonal reproduction from that maintained in sexually
      reproduced individuals in two populations of Adenophora grandiflora, a perennial
      herb. Join-count statistics showed that there were statistically significant
      clustering of clonal genotypes within distances less than 4 m. Both the entire
      populations and the sets of sexually reproduced individuals exhibited significant
      spatial autocorrelation at less than about 12 m, and the sexually reproduced
      individuals are substantially structured in an isolation-by-distance manner,
      consistent with a neighborhood size of about 50.

PMID- 28565541
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF DIAPAUSE IN THE KILLIFISH FAMILY RIVULIDAE (ATHERINOMORPHA,
      CYPRINODONTIFORMES): A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC AND BIOGEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - Phylogenetic relationships within the family Rivulidae (order Cyprinodontiformes)
      are investigated using 1972 aligned base pairs of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for
      samples representing 66 species. Genes analyzed include those encoding the 12S
      ribosomal RNA; transfer RNAs for valine, glutamine, methionine, tryptophan,
      alanine, asparagine, cysteine, and tyrosine; complete NADH dehydrogenase subunit
      II; and part of cytochrome oxidase I. Parsimony analysis of the aligned mtDNA
      sequences results in a single most parsimonious tree. The phylogeny reveals two
      independent origins of developmental diapause within the family Rivulidae. It is
      unlikely that diapause evolved de novo in each group, suggesting that the
      presence or absence of diapause is the result of developmental switches between
      alternative stabilized pathways. Phylogeny of the family Rivulidae shows high
      concordance with predictions derived from the geological history of South America
      and Central America. Basal lineages in the rivulid phylogeny are distributed
      primarily on geologically old areas, whereas more nested lineages occur in
      geologically younger areas. However, there is little concordance between the
      molecular phylogeny and currently available morphological hypotheses and existing
      taxonomies. Based on the mtDNA phylogeny, the genera Pterolebias, Rivulus,
      Pituna, and Plesiolebias are considered nonmonophyletic and warrant taxonomic
      reassessment.

PMID- 28565542
TI  - GENETIC BASIS OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN ARABIS PETRAEA.
AB  - Inbreeding depression may be caused by (partially) recessive or overdominant gene
      action. The relative evolutionary importance of these two modes has been debated;
      the former mode is emphasized in the "dominance hypothesis," the latter in the
      "overdominance hypothesis." We analyzed the genetic basis of inbreeding
      depression in the self-incompatible herb Arabis petraea (L.) Lam.: In the selfed
      progeny of twelve parental plants, we studied the proportion of chlorophyll
      deficient seedlings, the genotypic distributions of marker genes, and
      associations of marker genotypes with viability and quantitative traits. Early
      components of fitness were examined by scoring seed size, germination time, and
      early growth rate and by observing the proportion of chlorophyll-deficient
      seedlings. Later components of fitness, flowering, and root and aboveground
      biomass were also measured. Marker genotypes of young seedlings were scored for
      11 enzyme loci and three microsatellite markers. We found a high proportion
      (about 70%) of families with chlorophyll-deficient seedlings, indicating a high
      mutational load. We found six significant deviations from 1:2:1 ratio at marker
      loci of 60 tests in seedlings, with three of these significant at the
      experimentwide level. Deviations from the expected ratio were assumed to be due
      to linked viability loci. A graphical and a Bayesian method were used to
      distinguish between the overdominance and dominance hypotheses. Most of the
      deviant segregation ratios suggested overdominance instead of recessivity of the
      deleterious allele. Neither the early (seed size, germination time, or early
      growth trait) nor the late quantitative traits (flowering, and root and
      aboveground biomass) showed significant linkage to markers at the experimentwide
      level. Presence of significant associations between markers and early viability,
      but lack thereof for quantitative traits expressed late, suggests either that
      there may be relatively low inbreeding depression in later life stages or that
      individual quantitative trait loci may have smaller effects than loci
      contributing to early viability.

PMID- 28565543
TI  - COLONY SEX RATIOS, CONFLICT BETWEEN QUEENS AND WORKERS, AND APPARENT QUEEN
      CONTROL IN THE ANT PHEIDOLE DESERTORUM.
AB  - Sex-ratio conflict between queens and workers was explored in a study of colony
      sex ratios, relatedness, and population investment in the ant Pheidole
      desertorum. Colony reproductive broods consist of only females, only males, or
      have a sex ratio that is extremely male biased. Colonies producing females
      (female specialists) and colonies producing males (male specialists) occur at
      near equal frequency in the population. Most colonies apparently specialize in
      producing one reproductive sex throughout their life. Allozyme analyses show that
      relatedness does not differ within male-specialist and female-specialist colonies
      and they do not appear to differ in available resources. In the population,
      workers are nearly three times more closely related to females than males;
      however, the investment sex ratio is near equal (1.01, female/male), which is
      consistent with queen control. Selection should be strong on workers to increase
      investment in reproductive females, so why do workers in male-specialist colonies
      produce only (or nearly only) males? One hypothesis is that queens in male
      specialist colonies prevent the occurrence of reproductive females, perhaps by
      producing worker-biased female eggs. An earlier simulation study of genetic
      evolution of sex ratios in social Hymenoptera (Pamilo 1982b) predicts that such
      mechanisms can result in the evolution of bimodal colony sex ratios and queen
      control. Results on P. desertorum are generally consistent with that study;
      however, information is not currently available to test some of the model's
      predictions and assumptions.

PMID- 28565544
TI  - THE DETERMINATION OF GENETIC COVARIANCES AND PREDICTION OF EVOLUTIONARY
      TRAJECTORIES BASED ON A GENETIC CORRELATION MATRIX.
AB  - There is much interest in measuring selection, quantifying evolutionary
      constraints, and predicting evolutionary trajectories in natural populations. For
      these studies, genetic (co)variances among fitness traits play a central role. We
      explore the conditions that determine the sign of genetic covariances and
      demonstrate a critical role of selection in shaping genetic covariances. In
      addition, we show that genetic covariance matrices rather than genetic
      correlation matrices should be characterized and studied in order to infer
      genetic basis of population differentiation and/or to predict evolutionary
      trajectories.

PMID- 28565545
TI  - ANALYSIS OF GENOTYPIC DIFFERENCES IN DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN ANNONA CHERIMOLA.
AB  - The genetic basis of developmental stability, measured as asymmetry (fluctuating
      asymmetry in leaves), was analyzed in leaves and flowers of cherimoya (Annona
      cherimola Mill) and atemoya (A. cherimola * A. squamosa). The individuals
      analyzed belonged to a controlled collection of cultivars (clones) that had
      previously been characterized by means of isozymes. We used a nested design to
      analyze the differences in asymmetry at several sampling levels: individual
      leaves and flowers, individual trees, and genotypes. The clonal repeatability of
      developmental stability was not significantly different from zero, thus
      suggesting the absence of heritability of the asymmetry for leaves and flowers
      under these environmental conditions. No relationship between asymmetry and
      individual heterozygosity was found, but leaf fluctuating asymmetry was
      significantly related to particular isozymic genes. Petal and leaf size showed a
      phenotypically plastic response to the exposure zone of the tree (mainly due to
      light). Leaf fluctuating asymmetry also showed such a plastic response. No
      significant correlation was found between asymmetry and any pomological
      characters (some of these being fitness related). Finally, the hybrid species
      (atemoya) did not show larger developmental instability than did the parental
      species (cherimoya). All these data show that cherimoya asymmetry reveals the
      random nature of developmental noise, with developmental stability for leaves
      being possibly related to specific chromosome regions, but with weak evidence for
      genotypic differences in developmental stability.

PMID- 28565546
TI  - HIERARCHICAL COMPARISON OF GENETIC VARIANCE-COVARIANCE MATRICES. II COASTAL
      INLAND DIVERGENCE IN THE GARTER SNAKE, THAMNOPHIS ELEGANS.
AB  - The time-scale for the evolution of additive genetic variance-covariance matrices
      (G-matrices) is a crucial issue in evolutionary biology. If the evolution of G
      matrices is slow enough, we can use standard multivariate equations to model
      drift and selection response on evolutionary time scales. We compared the G
      matrices for meristic traits in two populations of gaiter snakes (Thamnophis
      elegans) with an apparent separation time of 2 million years. Despite
      considerable divergence in the meristic traits, foraging habits, and diet, these
      populations show conservation of structure in their G-matrices. Using Flury's
      hierarchial approach to matrix comparisons, we found that the populations have
      retained the principal components (eigenvectors) of their G-matrices, but their
      eigenvalues have diverged. In contrast, we were unable to reject the hypothesis
      of equal environmental matrices (E-matrices) for these populations. We propose
      that a conserved pattern of multivariate stabilizing selection may have
      contributed to conservation of G- and E-matrix structure during the divergence of
      these populations.

PMID- 28565547
TI  - MILDLY DELETERIOUS MUTATIONS IN AVIAN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA: EVIDENCE FROM NEUTRALITY
      TESTS.
AB  - To determine whether mildly deleterious mutations (MDMs) are present in
      nonrecombining genomes such as avian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), I analyzed
      molecular data from 14 studies using the neutrality tests of Tajima (1989a) and
      McDonald and Kreitman (1991). The presence of MDMs in mtDNA is inferred from
      trends observed across species in estimates of heterozygosity (theta and pi) and
      by comparisons of polymorphism and divergence using the neutrality index (NI).
      Assuming neutrality, theta equals pi and NI equals one. In this study, however,
      theta is greater than pi more often than expected by chance, which reflects an
      excess of low-frequency alleles, and NI values presented here and elsewhere are
      consistently greater than one, which suggests an excess of nonsynonymous
      mutations within species (polymorphism) relative to between species (divergence).
      These observations suggest that, within species, there is an excess of rare
      haplotypes and that these haplotypes are carrying MDMs. The excess rare
      haplotypes may need to be accounted for when estimating population genetic
      parameters that assume strict neutrality.

PMID- 28565548
TI  - EVOLUTION OF AN APHID-PARASITOID INTERACTION: VARIATION IN RESISTANCE TO
      PARASITISM AMONG APHID POPULATIONS SPECIALIZED ON DIFFERENT PLANTS.
AB  - The evolution of associations between herbivorous insects and their parasitoids
      is likely to be influenced by the relationship between the herbivore and its host
      plants. If populations of specialized herbivorous insects are structured by their
      host plants such that populations on different hosts are genetically
      differentiated, then the traits affecting insect-parasitoid interactions may
      exhibit an associated structure. The pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) is a
      herbivorous insect species comprised of genetically distinct groups that are
      specialized on different host plants (Via 1991a, 1994). Here, we examine how the
      genetic differentiation of pea aphid populations on different host plants affects
      their interaction with a parasitoid wasp, Aphidius ervi. We performed four
      experiments. (1) By exposing pea aphids from both alfalfa and clover to
      parasitoids from both crops, we demonstrate that pea aphid populations that are
      specialized on alfalfa are successfully parasitized less often than are
      populations specialized on clover. This difference in parasitism rate does not
      depend upon whether the wasps were collected from alfalfa or clover fields. (2)
      When we controlled for potential differences in aphid and parasitoid behavior
      between the two host plants and ensured that aphids were attacked, we found that
      pea aphids from alfalfa were still parasitized less often than pea aphids from
      clover. Thus, the difference in parasitism rates is not due to behavior of either
      aphids or wasps, but appears to be a physiologically based difference in
      resistance to parasitism. (3) Replicates of pea aphid clones reared on their own
      host plant and on a common host plant, fava bean, exhibited the same pattern of
      resistance as above. Thus, there do not appear to be nutritional or secondary
      chemical effects on the level of physiological resistance in the aphids due to
      feeding on clover or alfalfa, and therefore the difference in resistance on the
      two crops appears to be genetically based. (4) We assayed for genetic variation
      in resistance among individual pea aphid clones collected from clover fields and
      found no detectable genetic variation for resistance to parasitism within two
      populations sampled from clover. This is in contrast to Henter and Via's (1995)
      report of abundant genetic variation in resistance to this parasitoid within a
      pea aphid population on alfalfa. Low levels of genetic variation may be one
      factor that constrains the evolution of resistance to parasitism in the
      populations of pea aphids from clover, leading them to remain more susceptible
      than populations of the same species from alfalfa.

PMID- 28565549
TI  - GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS IN THE DETERMINATION OF THE SIZE OF A
      SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTER IN THE COLLARED FLYCATCHER (FICEDULA ALBICOLLIS).
AB  - Although genetic variation in characters closely related to fitness is expected
      to either become depleted by selection or masked by environmental variation,
      "good gene" models of sexual selection require moderate to high heritabilities of
      secondary sexual characters to explain the occurrence of costly female mate
      preferences. In this study, I investigated whether the estimated heritability of
      a condition-dependent secondary sexual character (i.e., the white forehead badge)
      in the collared flycatcher varied depending on environmental conditions
      experienced during offspring growth. The data were collected over a period of 14
      years making it possible to exploit natural variation in natal conditions. In
      addition, natal conditions were experimentally altered through brood size
      manipulations. During unfavorable conditions caused by generally poor weather or
      experimentally enlarged brood size, no significant heritability based on father
      sons regressions could be demonstrated (0.19 ? h2 ? 0.27). In contrast, sons
      reared during years with favorable weather or in experimentally reduced broods
      significantly resembled their fathers (0.44 ? h2 ? 0.65). In addition, the
      heritability estimates declined with increasing maternal age. The strong effect
      of natal environmental condition on the estimated heritability of forehead badge
      size suggests that the potential genetic benefit from mate choice vary according
      to environmental conditions (e.g., the benefit is reduced during unfavorable
      rearing conditions). Because sons reared during poor conditions have probably
      experienced a natal environment different from that experienced by their fathers,
      the low heritability estimates obtained under poor conditions seem to be caused
      by low additive genetic variation expressed in such environments and/or a low
      genetic correlation between the expression of the trait in the two different
      environments (i.e., good vs. bad). Both of these explanations imply the presence
      of genotype-by-environment interactions. If such interactions frequently affect
      the expression of secondary sexual characters, this may offer an explanation of
      the high heritabilites sometimes reported for such traits, despite their exposure
      to long-term directional selection.

PMID- 28565550
TI  - EVOLUTION IN A PUTATTVELY ANCIENT ASEXUAL APHID LINEAGE: RECOMBINATION AND RAPID
      KARYOTYPE CHANGE.
AB  - Ancient asexual lineages are of great potential significance for understanding
      the evolutionary biology of sex, but their existence is controversial. In part,
      this is because claims of ancient asexuality have rested on negative evidence-a
      mere absence of evidence for sexuality in a taxon. M. Meselson has suggested a
      method, discussed by Judson and Normark (1996) and by Birky (1996), that has the
      potential to uncover positive evidence of ancient asexuality. Phylogenetic
      relationships between alleles and interallelic divergences are predicted to be
      very different in diploid lineages that lack recombination from those in diploid
      lineages that undergo recombination. I have applied Meselson's method to the
      putatively ancient asexual aphid tribe Tramini (Homoptera: Aphidoidea:
      Lachnidae), using the intron-bearing nuclear protein-coding gene elongation
      factor 1alpha (EF-1alpha). I found heterozygosities much lower than intraspecific
      divergences, indicating that some recombination has occurred, but not
      discriminating between recombination within an asexual lineage (automixis or
      mitotic recombination) and outcrossing sex. Species of Tramini (especially in the
      genus Trama) typically have highly structurally heterozygous karyotypes that
      appear to be incompatible with regular successful meiosis, and have very high
      levels of karyotype variability within species. I found very high levels of
      karyotype variability within lineages with identical EF-1alpha and mitochondrial
      (cytochrome oxidase 1 and 2) genotypes, indicating a high rate of karyotype
      evolution compared to the rate of nucleotide substitution.

PMID- 28565551
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE AND MALE-MEDIATED GENE FLOW IN THE GHOST BAT (MACRODERMA
      GIGAS).
AB  - The Australian ghost bat is a large, opportunistic carnivorous species that has
      undergone a marked range contraction toward more mesic, tropical sites over the
      past century. Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences
      and six nuclear microsatellite loci in 217 ghost bats from nine populations
      across subtropical and tropical Australia revealed strong population subdivision
      (mtDNA phiST = 0.80; microsatellites URST = 0.337). Low-latitude (tropical)
      populations had higher heterozygosity and less marked phylogeographic structure
      and lower subdivision among sites within regions (within Northern Territory [NT]
      and within North Queensland [NQ]) than did populations at higher latitudes
      (subtropical sites; central Queensland [CQ]), although sampling of geographically
      proximal breeding sites is unavoidably restricted for the latter. Gene flow among
      populations within each of the northern regions appears to be male biased in that
      the difference in population subdivision for mtDNA and microsatellites (NT phiST
      = 0.39, URST = 0.02; NQ phiST = 0.60, URST = -0.03) is greater than expected from
      differences in the effective population size of haploid versus diploid loci. The
      high level of population subdivision across the range of the ghost bat contrasts
      with evidence for high gene flow in other chiropteran species and may be due to
      narrow physiological tolerances and consequent limited availability of roosts for
      ghost bats, particularly across the subtropical and relatively arid regions. This
      observation is consistent with the hypothesis that the contraction of the
      species' range is associated with late Holocene climate change. The extreme
      isolation among higher-latitude populations may predispose them to additional
      local extinctions if the processes responsible for the range contraction continue
      to operate.

PMID- 28565552
TI  - MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF SELF-COMPATIBILITY IN LINANTHUS SECTION LEPTOSIPHON
      (POLEMONIACEAE): PHYLOGENETIC EVIDENCE FROM INTERNAL-TRANSCRIBED-SPACER SEQUENCE
      DATA.
AB  - Phylogenetic reconstruction based on sequence variation in the internal
      transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA was used to investigate the evolutionary
      dynamics of homomorphic self-incompatibility in Linanthus section Leptosiphon
      (Polemoniaceae), a group of annual plant species. Hand-pollination experiments
      revealed that five species were self-incompatible and four were self-compatible.
      Optimization of breeding systems onto the tree resulting from maximum-likelihood
      analysis, with no assumptions made about the ancestral condition, indicated that
      self-incompatibility has been lost four times in this section. An alternative
      tree rearrangement conforming to the hypothesis of three losses of self
      incompatibility did not have a significantly lower likelihood than the maximum
      likelihood tree as determined by a paired-sites test, but all rearrangements
      resulting in fewer than three losses were statistically rejected. Linanthus
      bicolor, a selfing species, was found to be polyphyletic, with populations from
      different geographic regions occurring in three well-supported clades.
      Morphological similarity in these distinct lineages is likely to have resulted
      from convergent evolution of traits associated with self-fertilization. Selection
      for reproductive assurance is hypothesized to have played an important role in
      the recurrent transformations from self-incompatibility to selfing in this group
      of annual species.

PMID- 28565553
TI  - HIERARCHICAL COMPARISON OF GENETIC VARIANCE-COVARIANCE MATRICES. I. USING THE
      FLURY HIERARCHY.
AB  - The comparison of additive genetic variance-covariance matrices (G-matrices) is
      an increasingly popular exercise in evolutionary biology because the evolution of
      the G-matrix is central to the issue of persistence of genetic constraints and to
      the use of dynamic models in an evolutionary time frame. The comparison of G
      matrices is a nontrivial statistical problem because family structure induces
      nonindependence among the elements in each matrix. Past solutions to the problem
      of G-matrix comparison have dealt with this problem, with varying success, but
      have tested a single null hypothesis (matrix equality or matrix dissimilarity).
      Because matrices can differ in many ways, several hypotheses are of interest in
      matrix comparisons. Flury (1988) has provided an approach to matrix comparison in
      which a variety of hypotheses are tested, including the two extreme hypotheses
      prevalent in the evolutionary literature. The hypotheses are arranged in a
      hierarchy and involve comparisons of both the principal components (eigenvectors)
      and eigenvalues of the matrix. We adapt Flury's hierarchy of tests to the problem
      of comparing G-matrices by using randomization testing to account for
      nonindependence induced by family structure. Software has been developed for
      carrying out this analysis for both genetic and phenotypic data. The method is
      illustrated with a garter snake test case.

PMID- 28565554
TI  - HYBRID DYSFUNCTION IN FIRE-BELLIED TOADS (BOMBINA).
AB  - Reproductive isolation between two taxa may be due to endogenous selection, which
      is generated by incompatibilities between the respective genomes, to exogenous
      selection, which is generated by differential adaptations to alternative
      environments, or to both. The continuing debate over the relative importance of
      either mode of selection has highlighted the need for unambiguous data on the
      fitness of hybrid genotypes. The hybrid zone between the fire-bellied toad
      (Bombina bombina) and the yellow-bellied toad (B. variegata) in central Europe
      involves adaptation to different environments, but evidence of hybrid dysfunction
      is equivocal. In this study, we followed the development under laboratory
      conditions of naturally laid eggs collected from a transect across the Bombina
      hybrid zone in Croatia. Fitness was significantly reduced in hybrid populations:
      Egg batches from the center of the hybrid zone showed significantly higher
      embryonic and larval mortality and higher frequencies of morphological
      abnormalities relative to either parental type. Overall mortality from day of egg
      collection to three weeks after hatching reached 20% in central hybrid
      populations, compared to 2% in pure populations. There was no significant
      difference in fitness between two parental types. Within hybrid populations,
      there was considerable variation in fitness, with some genotypes showing no
      evidence of reduced viability. We discuss the implications of these findings for
      our understanding of barriers to gene flow between species.

PMID- 28565555
TI  - RAPID AND REPEATED INVASIONS OF FRESH WATER BY THE COPEPOD EURYTEMORA AFFINIS.
AB  - Invasions of fresh water by marine organisms have been of great interest to
      evolutionary biologists and paleontologists because they typically constitute
      major evolutionary transitions. Recent (< 200 years) invasions of fresh water by
      brackish or marine species offer an opportunity to understand mechanisms
      underlying these events, but pathways of invasion from salt water have not been
      confirmed using genetic data. This study employed mitochondrial DNA sequences
      (652 base pairs from the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene) to reconstruct the
      geographic and evolutionary history of freshwater invasion by the common
      estuarine and saltmarsh crustacean Eurytemora affinis (Copepoda; Poppe 1880).
      Phylogenetic analysis of populations from North America, Europe, and Asia
      revealed at least eight independent invasions of fresh water from genetically
      distinct lineages. At least five of these freshwater invasions most likely arose
      independently in different river drainages, recently from saltwater sources
      within each river drainage. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was
      performed at three geographic scales (among continents, among drainages, and
      within drainages) to assess the hierarchical distribution of genetic variance.
      Results indicated that 52% of the genetic variance was explained by differences
      among drainages, 43% by differences among continents, but only 5% by differences
      within drainages, thus supporting geographic patterns of invasions inferred from
      the phylogeny. Physiological experiments were performed to determine whether
      adults and larvae from saltwater populations could tolerate freshwater
      conditions. Transfer to zero salinity resulted in high mortalities, but with some
      survival to the second generation in one population. This study provides genetic
      evidence and physiological support for rapid transitions from a saline life
      history into fresh water, with repeated invasions on a global scale.

PMID- 28565556
TI  - THE MITOCHONDRIAL AND NUCLEAR GENETIC HOMOGENEITY OF THE PHENOTYPICALLY DIVERSE
      DARWIN'S GROUND FINCHES.
AB  - The most extensively studied group of Darwin's finches is the genus Geospiza, the
      ground finches, and yet little is known about the evolutionary history and
      genetic relationships of these birds. Studies using either allozyme or
      morphological data have been unable to resolve relationships between the six
      species and numerous populations of ground finches. In this paper we report the
      results of a study using mitochondrial control region and nuclear internal
      transcribed spacer (ITS) 1 sequence data. The differentiation of the ground finch
      species based on morphological data is not reflected in either mitochondrial or
      nuclear DNA sequence phylogenies. Furthermore, there is little concordance
      between the mitochondrial haplotypes and ITS alleles found within individuals. We
      suggest that the absence of species-specific lineages can be attributed to
      ongoing hybridization involving all six species of Geospiza. There are no long
      term selective pressures against hybridization within this genus, and therefore a
      genetically homogenous genus may be maintained indefinitely. Hybridization has
      apparently played a role in the adaptive radiation of Darwin's finches.

PMID- 28565557
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF GENETIC TRANSILIENCE.

PMID- 28565558
TI  - REINFORCING SELECTION IS EFFECTIVE UNDER A RELATIVELY BROAD SET OF CONDITIONS IN
      A MOSAIC HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Many hybrid zones have a mosaic structure, yet we know of no theoretical work
      that examines the impact of mosaicism on the outcome of evolution. We developed a
      computer simulation model designed to test whether the outcome of reinforcing
      selection differs in a mosaic and a clinal hybrid zone. Our model was a one
      dimensional stepping-stone model. The mosaic and clinal hybrid zones that we
      modeled were, respectively, a mosaic maintained by differential fitness of the
      interacting taxa in patchy habitats and a tension zone. We modeled changes in
      gene frequency at two biallelic loci, A and B. Hybrids at the A locus were
      selected against. An allele at the B locus caused assortative mating at the A
      locus, which promoted reinforcement; there was a selective cost to this allele.
      In a mosaic hybrid zone, spatial variation in the fitness of A-locus homozygotes
      in different patches caused gene and genotype frequencies at the A and B loci to
      differ greatly from those in a tension zone. Compared to a tension zone, a mosaic
      hybrid zone had a broader region in which hybrids could be formed and, thus, a
      broader region in which the assortative-mating allele provided a net selective
      advantage (via decreased production of the less fit A-locus hybrids). This caused
      the assortative-mating allele to be favored under a broader set of conditions in
      a mosaic hybrid zone than in a tension zone. In mosaic and tension hybrid zones,
      both low and high levels of migration could prevent the establishment of the
      allele that promoted reinforcement, but the allele could establish under a wider
      range of migration rates in a mosaic than in a tension zone. In a tension zone,
      both low and high levels of selection against A-locus hybrids could prevent the
      establishment of the assortative-mating allele. In a mosaic hybrid zone, the
      assortative-mating allele established under lower levels of selection against
      hybrids than in a tension zone, and high levels of selection did not impede the
      establishment of this allele. Overall, our work illustrates how the structure of
      a hybrid zone can alter the outcome of an important evolutionary process, in this
      case, reinforcement.

PMID- 28565559
TI  - RAPID MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE IN CHANNEL ISLAND DEER MICE.
AB  - Deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, collected over 90 years from three California
      Channel Islands, were examined for evidence of morphological change. Rapid
      morphological change has occurred in the endemic subspecies from Santa Barbara
      (P. m. elusus), Anacapa (P. m. anacapae), and Santa Cruz Island (P. m.
      santacruzae). Data were divided into two temporal classes, 1897-1941 and 1955
      1988. Of the 16 morphological characters measured, between five and 10 measures
      changed significantly (P ? 0.05) with temporal class in each subspecies, and
      multivariate test statistics were significant (P ? 0.05) for all three
      subspecies. For each subspecies, depth of braincase, total length, tail length,
      and hind foot length became smaller over time, except depth of braincase, which
      became larger in P. m. elusus. The rates of change dramatically exceed those
      estimated from paleontological records and are even higher than those reported in
      some experimental selection studies. Temporal change in two characters exceeds
      differentiation between subspecies. Although changing, each subspecies remained
      well differentiated, and incorporation of temporal change allowed correct
      classification of most specimens. Unlike nearly all previous reports of rapid
      evolution, the changes in these populations were not associated with a founder
      events or recent introductions. This study demonstrates that rapid phenotypic
      change can occur in long-established natural populations and temporal stability
      of morphological characters in such populations, even over short evolutionary
      time periods, cannot be assumed.

PMID- 28565560
TI  - THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF PLASTICITY TO DENSITY IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - Plant responses to crowding may be mediated by resource availability and/or by a
      specific environmental cue, the ratio of red:far red wavelengths (R:FR) perceived
      by phytochrome. This study examined the contribution of phytochrome-mediated
      photomorphogenesis to genetic variation in plastic responses to density in the
      annual plant Impatiens capensis. Inbred lines derived from open and woodland
      populations were grown under low density high density, and high density with
      selective removal of FR wavelengths to block phytochrome-mediated perception of
      neighbor proximity. Genetic variation in plasticity to density and to the R:FR
      cue was detected for several traits Plants grown at high density displayed
      increased internode elongation; decreased branch, flower, and node production;
      increased menstem dormancy; and decreased leaf area and specific leaf weight
      compared to plants grown at low density. Stem elongation responses to density
      were suppressed when phytochrome perception was blocked at high density. For
      these phytochrome-mediated traits, a genotype's plasticity to density was
      strongly correlated with its response to R:FR. Phytochrome-mediated traits were
      tightly correlated with one another, regardless of the density environment.
      However, the responses to density of meristem allocation to branching and leaf
      traits were less strongly phytochrome-mediated. These traits differed in patterns
      of plasticity, and their genetic correlations often differed across environments.
      In particular, genetic trade-offs involving meristem allocation to branching were
      expressed only at low density. The observed density dependence of phenotypic and
      genetic correlations implies that indirect selection and the potential for
      correlated response to selection will depend upon the competitive environment.
      Thus the differential sensitivity of characters to the R:FR cue can influence the
      evolution of integrated plastic responses to density.

PMID- 28565561
TI  - CORRELATED TROPHIC SPECIALIZATION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN SYMPATRIC LAKE
      WHITEFISH ECOTYPES (COREGONUS CLUPEAFORMIS): SUPPORT FOR THE ECOLOGICAL
      SPECIATION HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - There is ample empirical evidence that phenotypic diversification in an adaptive
      radiation is the outcome of divergent natural selection related to differential
      resource use. In contrast, the role of ecological forces in favoring and
      maintaining reproductive isolation in nature remains poorly understood. If the
      same forces driving phenotypic divergence are also responsible for speciation,
      one would predict a correlation between the extent of trophic specialization
      (reflecting variable intensity of divergent natural selection) and that of
      reproductive isolation being reached in a given environment. We tested this
      hypothesis by comparing the extent of morphological and genetic differentiation
      between sympatric dwarf and normal whitefish ecotypes (Coregonus sp.) from six
      lakes of the St. John River basin (eastern Canada and northern Maine). Eight
      meristic variables, 19 morphometric variables, and six microsatellite loci were
      used to quantify morphological and genetic differentiation, respectively. Dwarf
      and normal ecotypes in each lake differed primarily by traits related to trophic
      specialization, but the extent of differentiation varied among lakes. Significant
      but variable genetic divergence between ecotypes within lakes was also observed.
      A negative correlation was observed between the extent of gene flow between
      ecotypes within a lake and that of their morphological differentiation in trophic
      related traits. The extent of reproductive isolation reached between dwarf and
      normal whitefish ecotypes appears to be driven by the potential for occupying
      distinct trophic niches and, thus, by the same selective forces driving tropic
      specialization in each lake. These results therefore support the hypothesis of
      ecological speciation.

PMID- 28565562
TI  - MATERNAL EFFECTS ON OFFSPRING SIZE: VARIATION THROUGH EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF
      CHINOOK SALMON.
AB  - We performed two breeding experiments with chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus
      tshawytscha) to explore maternal effects on offspring size. We estimated the
      magnitude of maternal effects as the differences between sire-offspring and dam
      offspring regression slopes. Early in life, offspring size is largely influenced
      by maternal size, but this influence decreases through early development, with
      the maternal effect becoming negative at intermediate offspring ages
      (corresponding to a period of reduced growth of progeny hatching from large eggs)
      and converging on zero as offspring age. Also, egg size was positively correlated
      with early survival, but negatively correlated with maternal fecundity.

PMID- 28565563
TI  - DOES COSMOPOLITANISM RESULT FROM OVERCONSERVATIVE SYSTEMATICS? A CASE STUDY USING
      THE MARINE SPONGE CHONDRILLA NUCULA.
AB  - The sponge species Chondrilla nucula has a simple morphology and a very wide
      geographical distribution. To verify whether the latter might be an artifact of
      the former, samples of this species were collected across 10,000 km of its range,
      in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the southwestern atlantic. The classical
      (spicule morphology) and molecular (allozymes) systematic approaches were
      compared, to try to define the geographic limits between populations and detect
      possible cryptic species. We found five distinct genetic forms within C. nucula
      that sometimes showed morphological homogeneity and other times plasticity. The
      difference in size of spicules could not be related to the clear-cut genetic
      differences, suggesting that the use of spicule sizes for sponge systematics
      should be reappraised. The population of one of the genetic forms along 3000 km
      of the Brazilian coast was highly structured (FST = 0.21; Ne m = 0.96). Our
      results reject the null hypothesis of cosmopolitanism of C. nucula and indicate
      that the putative worldwide distribution of some marine sponges, and possibly
      many other benthic invertebrates, may be the result of overly conservative
      systematics. Cryptic species appear to be particularly prevalent when genera are
      well defined but species are characterized by only a few morphological
      characters.

PMID- 28565564
TI  - DISPERSAL, VICARIANCE, AND CLOCKS: HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY AND SPECIATION IN A
      COSMOPOLITAN PASSERINE GENUS (ANTHUS: MOTACILLIDAE).
AB  - Dispersal and vicariant hypotheses have for decades been at odds with each other,
      notwithstanding the fact that both are well-established natural processes with
      important histories in biogeographic analyses. Despite their importance, neither
      dispersal nor vicariant methodologies are problem-free. The now widely used
      molecular techniques for generating phylogenies have provided a mechanism by
      which both dispersal- and vicariance-driven speciation can be better tested via
      the application of molecular clocks; unfortunately, substantial problems can also
      exist in the employment of those clocks. To begin to assess the relative roles of
      dispersal and vicariance in the establishment of avifaunas, especially
      intercontinental avifaunas, I applied a test for clocklike behavior in molecular
      data, as well as a program that infers ancestral areas and dispersal events, to a
      phylogeny of a speciose, cosmopolitan avian genus (Anthus; Motacillidae).
      Daughter-lineages above just 25 of 40 nodes in the Anthus phylogeny are evolving
      in a clocklike manner and are thus dateable by a molecular clock. Dating the
      applicable nodes suggests that Anthus arose nearly 7 million yr ago, probably in
      eastern Asia, and that between 6 and 5 million yr ago, Anthus species were
      present in Africa, the Palearctic, and North and South America. Speciation rates
      have been high throughout the Pliocene and quite low during the Pleistocene;
      further evidence that the Pleistocene may have had little effect in generating
      modern species. Intercontinental movements since 5 million yr ago have been few
      and largely restricted to interchange between Eurasia and Africa. Species swarms
      on North America, Africa, and Eurasia (but not South America or Australia) are
      the product of multiple invasions, rather than being solely the result of within
      continent speciation. Dispersal has clearly played an important role in the
      distribution of this group.

PMID- 28565565
TI  - DON'T FORGET THE BIOLOGY: A REPLY TO GREEN.

PMID- 28565566
TI  - DENSITY DEPENDENCE AND UNPREDICTABLE SELECTION IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT:
      COMPROMISE AND POLYMORPHISM IN THE ESS REACTION NORM.
AB  - In quantitative genetic models of the evolution of reaction norms, an individual
      is selected in the habitat in which it develops; as a consequence, selection
      leads to the optimum phenotype in each habitat. Here, individuals are assumed to
      experience unpredictable habitat change between development and selection, so
      that the environment in which an individual is selected may differ from the
      environment in which it developed. The model reveals that unpredictability of the
      selection an individual actually faces leads to the evolutionarily stable bet
      hedging reaction norm constituting a compromise between the phenotypic optima in
      the different patches. We also examine the effect of local density regulation
      before selection, in the patches in which the individuals develop, and after
      selection, in the patches in which they are selected. Density regulation before
      selection has a much lower influence on the evolution of the reaction norm than
      density regulation after selection. The source-sink structure of the environment
      caused by differential productivity of patches strongly affects how the
      compromise bet-hedging strategy weighs the different phenotypic optima and might
      compromise the local evolutionary stability of the evolved reaction norm. If the
      strength and variability among patches of density regulation after selection is
      sufficiently large, no single reaction norm is evolutionary stable: Polymorphic
      reaction norms constitute the evolutionarily stable population. We also show that
      a polymorphic reaction norm is more likely to be observed in a less productive
      habitat. The relations between the present model and the Dempster and the Levene
      models are discussed.

PMID- 28565567
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF FOUNDER-FLUSH: A REPLY TO TEMPLETON.

PMID- 28565568
TI  - THE ROLE OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN MAINTAINING THE MIXED MATING SYSTEM OF THE
      COMMON MORNING GLORY, IPOMOEA PURPUREA.
AB  - Theoretical studies show that, although inbreeding depression (ID) will
      counterbalance the transmission advantage of selfing, it can only maintain a
      mixed mating system in plants when at least one of the following two conditions
      is met: (1) there is a positive association between selfing rates and the level
      of ID; and (2) ID is greater than 0.5 for the female component of fitness, while
      the average ID for male and female fitness is less than 0.5. This study tests
      whether these two conditions hold in the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea,
      which has a mixed mating system with 30% self-fertilization. Inbreeding
      depression was found in all but one fitness component measured in two groups of
      plants with distinct anther-stigma distances (ASD), a character that influences
      selfing rates. However, when examined separately, a negative association was
      found between selfing rates and ID; plants with large ASD (low-selfing-rate
      genotypes) tended to have higher ID than ones with small ASD (high-selfing-rate
      genotypes). Furthermore, the overall lifetime ID for male (12.5%) and female
      (24%) components of fitness, averaged across two ASD groups, were lower than what
      is necessary for ID to maintain an evolutionarily stable mixed mating system.
      Therefore, although inbreeding depression contributes to balancing the
      transmission advantage of selfing, it is not likely to be the primary mechanism
      maintaining the mixed mating system of I. purpurea. The contribution of other
      mechanisms is discussed.

PMID- 28565569
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES OF WING SIZE, FLIGHT, AND SURVIVAL IN THE WESTERN WHITE
      BUTTERFLY.
AB  - Butterflies have distinctively large wings relative to body size, but the
      functional and fitness consequences of wing size for butterflies are largely
      unknown. I use natural and experimentally generated variation in wing surface
      area to examine how decreased wing size affects flight and survival in a
      population of the western white butterfly, Pontia occidentalis. In the
      laboratory, experimental reductions in wing area (reduced-wings manipulation)
      significantly increased wingbeat frequencies of hovering butterflies, whereas a
      control manipulation had no detectable effects. In contrast, behavioral
      observations and mark-release-recapture (MRR) studies in the field detected no
      significant differences in flight activity, initial dispersal rates, or recapture
      probabilities among treatment groups. Estimated selection coefficients indicated
      that natural variation in wing size, body mass, and wing loading in the
      population were not significantly correlated with survival in the two MRR
      studies. In two mark-recapture studies with manipulated butterflies, survival
      probabilities were not significantly different for reduced-wings individuals
      compared with control or unmanipulated individuals. In summary, experimental
      reductions in wing area significantly altered aspects of flight in the
      laboratory, but did not detectably alter flight or survival in the field for this
      population. The large wing size typical of butterflies may reduce the functional
      and survival consequences of wing size variation within populations.

PMID- 28565570
TI  - ADAPTIVE SEX ALLOCATION IN A SIMULTANEOUS HERMAPHRODITE.
AB  - When applied to hermaphrodite organisms, the local mate competition hypothesis
      predicts an increase of the ratio of sperm to ova produced as the number of mates
      increases. Here we test this prediction using a hermaphroditic platyhelminth
      parasite (trematode), Echinostoma caproni. This worm inhabits the small intestine
      of vertebrates, inevitably inducing the formation of highly subdivided
      populations, a condition known to promote local mate competition. Moreover this
      echinostome exhibits an unrestricted mating pattern involving both selfing and
      outcrossing as well as multiple fertilizations. We quantified the investment in
      reproductive organs by estimations of testes, cirrus sac, ovary, and egg size and
      fecundity when echinostomes were isolated alone, in pairs, or in groups of 20
      worms. Adult body size was also recorded as a covariate. When mating group size
      increases (singles, pairs, or groups) we observed a significant increase in
      resource allocation to male function in addition to a significant decrease in
      ovary size. Smaller ovaries do not seem to affect egg size, but do result in a
      reduction in fecundity. Finally, our results are in accordance with the expected
      theoretical relationship between male allocation and the number of potential
      mates given local mate competition.

PMID- 28565571
TI  - ARE CHLOROPLAST AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION SPECIES INDEPENDENT IN OAKS?
AB  - Extensive introgression of cytoplasmic genomes across oak species is now a well
      established fact. To distinguish between ancient hybridization events and ongoing
      introgression, a direct test for the existence of local exchanges is proposed.
      Such local exchanges must be comparatively recent, that is, contemporaneous with
      or later than the last postglacial recolonization. The test is applied to an
      extensive set of data comprising 377 pure or mixed populations (1744 individuals)
      of four white oak species in southern France. After demonstrating that local
      exchanges have occurred frequently between all species pairs, another test is
      performed to check if species status does nevertheless play some role in
      restricting cytoplasmic gene flow. The results vary according to the species
      pairs considered, and the observed pattern may be related to the ecology and/or
      compatibility of interspecific crosses. It is also shown that, for some of these
      oak species, the presence of related species in a population significantly
      influences the intraspecific diversity. Altogether, the results demonstrate that
      (1) intraspecific cytoplasmic gene flow varies according to the species, (2)
      interspecific cytoplasmic gene flow varies according to the species pair, and (3)
      both components of gene flow are at least partly related.

PMID- 28565572
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE OF PREDATORS TO DANGEROUS PREY: PREADAPTATION AND THE
      EVOLUTION OF TETRODOTOXIN RESISTANCE IN GARTER SNAKES.
AB  - Coevolutionary interactions typically involve only a few specialized taxa. The
      factors that cause some taxa and not others to respond evolutionarily to
      selection by another species are poorly understood. Preadaptation may render some
      species predisposed for evolutionary response to new pressures, whereas a lack of
      genetic variation may limit the evolutionary potential of other taxa. We evaluate
      these factors in the predator-prey interaction between toxic newts (Taricha
      granulosa) and their resistant garter snake predators (Thamnophis sirtalis).
      Using a bioassay of resistance to tetrodotoxin (TTX), the primary toxin in the
      prey, we examined phenotypic evolution in the genus Thamnophis. Reconstruction of
      ancestral character states suggests that the entire genus Thamnophis, and
      possibly natricine snakes in general, has slightly elevated TTX resistance
      compared to other lineages of snakes. While this suggests that T. sirtalis is
      indeed predisposed to evolving TTX resistance, it also indicates that the
      potential exists in sympatric congeners not expressing elevated levels of TTX
      resistance. We also detected significant family level variation for TTX
      resistance in a species of Thamnophis that does not exhibit elaborated levels of
      the trait. This finding suggests that evolutionary response in other taxa is not
      limited by genetic variability. In this predator-prey system, species and
      population differences in resistance appear to be largely determined by variation
      in the selective environment rather than preadaptation or constraint.

PMID- 28565573
TI  - ALLOMETRY OF GENITALIA IN INSECTS AND SPIDERS: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.

PMID- 28565575
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565574
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN SYMPATRIC RACES OF PEA APHIDS. I. GENE FLOW
      RESTRICTION AND HABITAT CHOICE.
AB  - Determining the extent and causes of barriers to gene flow between genetically
      divergent populations or races of single species is an important complement to
      post facto analyses of the causes of reproductive isolation between recognized
      species. Sympatric populations of pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris,
      Homoptera: Aphididae) on alfalfa and red clover are highly genetically divergent
      and locally adapted. Here, hierarchical estimates of population structure based
      on Fst suggest that gene exchange between closely adjacent aphid populations on
      the two hosts is highly restricted relative to that among fields of the same host
      plant. Although these host-associated races are presently considered to be the
      same subspecies, they appear to be significantly reproductively isolated,
      suggesting incipient speciation. Habitat (host) choice was investigated as the
      first in a temporal series of factors that could reduce gene exchange between
      these sympatric populations. Field studies of winged colonists to newly planted
      fields of each host suggest pronounced habitat fidelity. This result was verified
      using replicated observations of the host choice behavior of different aphid
      genotypes for which the relative demographic performance on each host was known.
      These laboratory observations of behavior revealed a strong genetic correlation
      between habitat choice (or acceptance) and the relative performance in each
      habitat. Because mating occurs on the host plant, habitat choice in this system
      leads to assortative mating and is therefore a major cause of reproductive
      isolation between the sympatric pea aphid populations on alfalfa and clover.
      However, the extent of dispersal between hosts estimated from the field study of
      winged colonists (9-11%) is too great to be consistent with the genetic
      divergence estimated between the races. This suggests that barriers to gene flow
      other than host choice also exist, such as selection against migrants or hybrids
      in the parental environments, hybrid sterility, or hybrid breakdown.

PMID- 28565576
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF VIRULENCE IN PATHOGENS WITH VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL
      TRANSMISSION.
AB  - The idea that vertical transmission of parasites selects for lower virulence is
      widely accepted. However, little theoretical work has considered the evolution of
      virulence for parasites with mixed horizontal plus vertical transmission. Many
      human, animal, and plant parasites are transmitted both vertically and
      horizontally, and some horizontal transmission is generally necessary to maintain
      parasites at all. We present a population-dynamical model for the evolution of
      virulence when both vertical and horizontal transmission are present. In the
      simplest such model, up to two infectious strains can coexist within one host
      population. Virulent, vertically transmitted pathogens can persist in a
      population when they provide protection against more virulent, horizontally
      transmitted strains. When virulence is maintained by a correlation with
      horizontal transmission rates, increased levels of vertical transmission always
      lower the evolutionarily stable (ESS) level of virulence. Contrary to existing
      theory, however, increases in opportunities for horizontal transmission also
      lower the ESS level of virulence. We explain these findings in light of earlier
      work and confirm them in simulations including imperfect vertical transmission.
      We describe further simulations, in which both vertical and horizontal
      transmission rates are allowed to evolve. The outcome of these simulations
      depends on whether high levels of vertical transmission are possible with low
      virulence. Finally, we argue against the notion of a virulence-avirulence
      continuum between horizontal and vertical transmission, and discuss our results
      in relation to empirical studies of transmission and virulence.

PMID- 28565577
TI  - PLEIOTROPY CAUSES LONG-TERM GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN
      BRASSICA RAPA.
AB  - Fundamental, long-term genetic trade-offs constrain life-history evolution in
      wild crucifer populations. I studied patterns of genetic constraint in Brassica
      rapa by estimating genetic correlations among life-history components by
      quantitative genetic analyses among ten wild populations, and within four
      populations. Genetic correlations between age and size at first reproduction were
      always greater than +0.8 within and among all populations studied. Although
      quantitative genetics might provide insight about genetic constraints if genetic
      parameters remain approximately constant, little evidence has been available to
      determine the constancy of genetic correlations. I found strong and consistent
      estimates of genetic correlations between life-history components, which were
      very similar within four natural populations. Population differentiation also
      showed these same trade-offs, resulting from long-term genetic constraint. For
      some traits, evolutionary changes among populations were incompatible with a
      model of genetic drift. Historical patterns of natural selection were inferred
      from population differentiation, suggesting that correlated response to selection
      has caused some traits to evolve opposite to the direct forces of natural
      selection. Comparison with Arabidopsis suggests that these life-history trade
      offs are caused by genes that regulate patterns of resource allocation to
      different components of fitness. Ecological and energetic models may correctly
      predict these trade-offs because there is little additive genetic variation for
      rates of resource acquisition, but resource allocation is genetically variable.

PMID- 28565578
TI  - INTRASEXUAL COMPETITION ALONE FAVORS A SEXUALLY DIMORPHIC ORNAMENT IN THE
      RUBYSPOT DAMSELFLY HETAERINA AMERICANA.
AB  - I studied the sex-limited red spots on the wings of male rubyspot damselflies
      (Hetaerina americana) in relation to territoriality and fitness in the wild. Both
      observational and experimental (wing spot manipulation) studies indicated that
      wing spots were selected through competition among males for mating territories,
      not through female choice or direct competition for females. Males with naturally
      or artificially large wing spots were more successful at holding territories and
      consequently mated at higher rates than males with relatively small wing spots.
      In contrast, sexual selection on male body size appeared to operate among
      nonterritorial males at the clasping stage of the mating sequence, perhaps
      because larger males were better at clasping females forcibly. Of four models
      proposed to explain the evolution of ornaments through territory competition,
      only the agonistic handicap model makes predictions consistent with the results
      of this study.

PMID- 28565579
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN THE FIELD VOLE (MICROTUS AGRESTIS): REGIONAL
      POPULATION STRUCTURE AND COLONIZATION HISTORY.
AB  - Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      was used to examine the genetic structure among field voles (Microtus agrestis)
      from southern and central Sweden. A total of 57 haplotypes was identified in 158
      voles from 60 localities. Overall mtDNA diversity was high, but both haplotype
      and nucleotide diversity exhibited pronounced geographic heterogeneity.
      Phylogenetic analyses revealed a shallow tree with seven primary mtDNA lineages
      separated by sequence divergences ranging from 0.6% to 1.0%. The geographic
      structure of mtDNA diversity and lineage distribution was complex but strongly
      structured and deviated significantly from an equilibrium situation. The
      extensive mtDNA diversity observed and the recent biogeographic history of the
      region suggests that the shallow mtDNA structure in the field vole cannot be
      explained solely by stochastic lineage sorting in situ or isolation by distance.
      Instead, the data suggest that the genetic imprints of historical demographic
      conditions and vicariant geographic events have been preserved and to a large
      extent determine the contemporary geographic distribution of mtDNA variation. A
      plausible historical scenario involves differentiation of mtDNA lineages in local
      populations in glacial refugia, a moving postglacial population structure, and
      bottlenecks and expansions of mtDNA lineages during the postglacial
      recolonization of Sweden. By combining the mtDNA data with an analysis of Y
      chromosome variation, a specific population unit was identified in southwestern
      Sweden. This population, defined by a unique mtDNA lineage and fixation of a Y
      chromosome variant, probably originated in a population bottleneck in southern
      Sweden about 12,000 to 13,000 calendar years ago.

PMID- 28565580
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT SELECTION ON CONTINUOUS CHARACTERS: A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC
      MODEL.
AB  - A quantitative genetic model of density-dependent selection is presented and
      analysed with parameter values obtained from laboratory selection experiments
      conducted by Mueller and his coworkers. The ecological concept of r- and K
      selection is formulated in terms of selection gradients on underlying phenotypic
      characters that influence the density-dependent measure of fitness. Hence the
      selection gradients on traits are decomposed into two components, one that
      changes in the direction to increase r, and one that changes in the direction to
      increase K. The relative importance of the two components is determined by
      temporal fluctuations in population density. The evolutionary rate of r and K
      (per-generation changes in r and K due to the genetic responses of the underlying
      traits) is also formulated. Numerical simulation has shown that with moderate
      genetic variances of the underlying characters, r and K can evolve rapidly and
      the evolutionary rate is influenced by synergistic interaction between characters
      that contribute to r and K. But strong r-selection can occur only with severe and
      continuous disturbances of populations so that the population density is kept low
      enough to prevent K-selection.

PMID- 28565581
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN CHOKE-INDUCING AND ASYMPTOMATIC
      STRAINS OF THE EPICHLOE GRASS ENDOPHYTE FROM BRACHYPODIUM SYLVATICUM.
AB  - Life cycle and breeding system variation in Epichloe grass endophytes (choke
      disease) is tightly linked to the degree of stroma formation. It is not known
      whether this variation results from differences in host resistance, fungal
      virulence, or environmental conditions. We found genetic differentiation between
      173 asymptomatic (NS) and 93 stromata-forming (S) Epichloe strains isolated from
      one grass species, Brachypodium sylvaticum, based on 13 presumed allozyme loci,
      of which six were variable. The fungal strains originated from 10 sites in
      Switzerland, three sites of which were represented by both NS and S
      subpopulations. In total, 19 allozyme genotypes, that were nonrandomly
      distributed among S and NS were detected. Genetic variation measured as GST
      between S and NS strains isolated from the same site ranged from 0.73 to 0.98.
      Clonality, measured as linkage disequilibrium at one site, was significant in the
      NS subpopulation (P ? 0.001), but not in the S subpopulation (P = 0.21), implying
      asexual reproduction by NS strains as well as successful horizontal transmission
      of S strains. Since all seeds are usually infected vegetatively, horizontal
      transmission implies the occurrence of multiple host infections. Altogether,
      these results provide indirect evidence that NS and S strains do not belong to
      one panmictic population and that differentiation patterns of stroma formation
      found in nature are due to genetic differences among fungi in associations with
      their host plants. We discuss the direction of evolution of disease expression in
      this system. The distribution of genetic variability suggests that the
      asymptomatic strains were derived from stromata-forming populations.

PMID- 28565582
TI  - LONG-DISTANCE GENE FLOW IN THE SEDENTARY BUTTERFLY, EUPHILOTES ENOPTES
      (LEPIDOPTERA: LYCAENIDAE).
AB  - The relationship between gene flow and geographic proximity has been assessed for
      many insect species, but dispersal distances are poorly known for most of these.
      Thus, we are able to assess the concordance between vagility and gene flow for
      only a few species. In this study, I documented variation at six allozyme loci
      among Washington and Oregon populations of the sedentary, patchily distributed,
      lycaenid butterfly, Euphilotes enoptes (Boisduval) to assess whether the
      relationship between gene flow and geographic distance is consistent with the
      dispersal biology of this species. Both a phenogram based on genetic distances
      between populations and a regression analysis of gene flow estimates on
      geographic distances showed a pattern consistent with genetic isolation by
      distance. Many estimates of gene flow among pairs of populations separated by
      more than 100 km exceeded the equivalent of 10 individuals exchanged per
      generation, a value much greater than would be predicted from the limited
      dispersal ability of this species. However, based on the allozyme data, genetic
      neighborhood size was estimated to be approximately 39 individuals, a value that
      is consistent with poor vagility. The results of this study speak to the power of
      stepping-stone gene flow among populations and are compared to the results of
      other studies that have examined the relationship between dispersal and gene flow
      in sedentary insects.

PMID- 28565583
TI  - FACULTATIVE ADJUSTMENT OF THE SEX RATIO IN AN INSECT (PLANOCOCCUS CITRI,
      PSEUDOCOCCIDAE) WITH PATERNAL GENOME LOSS.

PMID- 28565584
TI  - ARE POPULATIONS ISLANDS? ANALYSIS OF CHLOROPLAST DNA VARIATION IN AQUILEGIA.
AB  - The degree to which conspecific populations are interconnected via ongoing gene
      flow remains an important focus of evolutionary biology. One major difficulty in
      distinguishing ongoing gene flow from historical subdivision is that either
      process can generate similar estimates of apparent gene flow. Thus, gene flow
      estimates themselves are insufficient to distinguish between these alternatives.
      However, genetic data coupled with additional information about demography and
      distribution do allow a distinction to be made. Here we address the specific
      question, does gene flow link populations of Aquilegia? In a survey of a 525 B.P.
      chloroplast DNA fragment sampled from 251 individual plants from 18 populations
      of three taxa, five haplotypes were identified. No significant relationship
      between geographic distance and apparent gene flow between population pairs
      existed. Further, the estimated level of gene flow was entirely compatible with a
      historical subdivision of Aquilegia populations during the late Pleistocene or
      early Holocene. Therefore, these patterns of variation are due not to ongoing
      gene flow, but rather to historical association among populations. Thus Aquilegia
      populations may be considered as distinct evolutionary entities with regard to
      seed-mediated processes. As a result, comparative analysis of ecological traits
      undergoing potentially rapid evolution (e.g., life histories, mating systems,
      inbreeding depression) should be possible in these taxa.

PMID- 28565585
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION AMONG POPULATIONS IN PHENOTYPIC VARIANCE WITH INBREEDING.
AB  - The effects of inbreeding on the phenotypic variance within populations were
      measured in a set of 30 bottlenecked lines derived from a single source
      population of Drosophila melanogaster. Inbred lines had significant variance
      among lines in the amount of phenotypic variance within lines, for thorax length,
      and sternopleural bristle scores. When significance levels were corrected on an
      experimentwide basis, no line had significant increases in phenotypic variance
      for sternopleural bristle counts, although two lines had significant increases in
      thorax length variance. These results demonstrate that inbred lines cannot be
      treated as necessarily more uniform than outbred lines and that results on
      changes in variance due to inbreeding should be treated with caution unless there
      has been sufficient replication. These results also demonstrate the validity of
      an important assumption of models of evolution by variance-mediated mechanisms,
      such as the variance-induced peak-shift model.

PMID- 28565586
TI  - DOES INTERFERENCE COMPETITION AMONG POLLEN GRAINS OCCUR IN WILD RADISH?
AB  - Interest in the possibility of sexual selection in plants has focused primarily
      on competition among pollen donors based on the speed of pollen-tube growth.
      However, when pollen arrives on stigmas, there is the opportunity for both races
      for access to ovules (exploitation competition) and interference with the
      germination and growth of pollen from other donors (interference competition). We
      considered whether this second form of competition might occur among pollen
      grains of wild radish in two experiments. In the first, interference likely
      occurred because the amount of pollen germination was less in mixed-donor than in
      single-donor pollinations. This result was duplicated in a second experiment,
      which also showed that interference occurred only when pollen grains from
      different donors were in direct contact with each other. In addition, in the
      second experiment, the opportunity for interference affected the frequency of
      seeds sired by different pollen donors. Because pollen loads are often mixed in
      nature, interference competition among pollen grains may be important in the
      ecology and evolution of plant reproduction.

PMID- 28565587
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND SURVIVAL SELECTION ON WING COLORATION AND BODY SIZE IN THE
      RUBYSPOT DAMSELFLY HETAERINA AMERICANA.
AB  - I review methodological problems that can lead to false evidence for selection on
      secondary sexual characters and present a study of selection in rubyspot
      damselflies (Hetaerina americana) that avoids these pitfalls. Male rubyspots have
      a large red spot on each wing that grows to a terminal size after sexual
      maturity. Selection gradient analyses revealed evidence for positive sexual and
      survival selection on both terminal wing spot size and body size. Phenotype
      manipulations confirmed that wing spot size was subject to direct sexual
      selection, but showed that the positive slope of survival on wing spot size was
      an indirect effect of selection on unmeasured traits. This study provides the
      strongest evidence yet for sexual selection on coloration in Odonata, but also
      provides clear examples of why phenotypic selection statistics must be calculated
      and interpreted cautiously.

PMID- 28565588
TI  - PARASITE VIRULENCE AND HOST IMMUNE DEFENSE: HOST IMMUNE RESPONSE IS RELATED TO
      NEST REUSE IN BIRDS.
AB  - The evolution of parasite virulence has been hypothesized to be related to the
      mode of parasite transmission; horizontally transmitted parasites can afford to
      damage their hosts more than vertically transmitted parasites because increased
      virulence does not reduce the probability of transmission to new hosts. This
      relationship between mode of transmission and virulence would particularly select
      for improved immune defense in hosts that are subject to horizontally transmitted
      parasites. Among avian hosts, hole nesters and colonial nesters frequently reuse
      nest sites because of nest-site limitation, and this results in an increased
      frequency of horizontal transmission. Comparison of the size of two organs
      involved in the immune defense between pairs of bird species being either hole or
      open nesters, or colonially or solitarily nesting birds, respectively, revealed
      that the size of the bursa of Fabricius and the spleen were consistently larger
      in hole nesters than in open nesters, and similarly in colonially breeding bird
      species than in solitarily breeding species. These results support the hypothesis
      that mode of parasite transmission affects the evolution of immune defence in
      hosts.

PMID- 28565590
TI  - EFFECTS OF DIFFERENTIAL POLLEN-TUBE GROWTH ON HYBRIDIZATION IN THE LOUISIANA
      IRISES.
AB  - To elucidate the importance of hybridization in evolution, it is necessary to
      understand the processes that affect hybridization frequency in nature. Here we
      focus on postpollination, prefertilization isolating mechanisms using two
      hybridizing species of Louisiana iris as a study system. We compared the effects
      of differential pollen-tube growth on the frequency of F1 hybrid formation in
      experimental crosses between Iris fulva and Iris hexagona. Analyses of seed
      production in fruits from pure conspecific and heterospecific pollinations
      revealed that more seeds were produced in the top half than the bottom half of
      fruits for all four crosses. Heterospecific pollen was applied to flowers of each
      species at zero to 24 h prior to conspecific pollen, thereby giving a head start
      to the foreign pollen. Using diagnostic isozyme markers, the frequency of hybrid
      progeny was examined at the level of the whole fruit and separately for the top
      and bottom halves of fruits. In both species, the proportion of hybrid seeds per
      fruit increased significantly with increasing head starts, suggesting that
      differences in pollen-tube growth rates affect the frequency of hybridization. In
      I. fulva fruits, the increase in hybrid seeds occurred in both halves of the
      fruits, but in I. hexagona an increase was only detected in the top half of
      fruits. These findings are consistent with a model that assumes attrition of
      pollen tubes due to the greater length of I. hexagona styles. While pollen-tube
      growth rate appears to be the most important factor affecting hybridization
      frequency in I. fulva, both pollen-tube growth rate and pollen-tube attrition
      appear to be important in I. hexagona.

PMID- 28565589
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION ALONG GENETIC LINES OF LEAST RESISTANCE.
AB  - Are measurements of quantitative genetic variation useful for predicting long
      term adaptive evolution? To answer this question, I focus on gmax , the
      multivariate direction of greatest additive genetic variance within populations.
      Original data on threespine sticklebacks, together with published genetic
      measurements from other vertebrates, show that morphological differentiation
      between species has been biased in the direction of gmax for at least four
      million years, despite evidence that natural selection is the cause of
      differentiation. This bias toward the direction of evolution tends to decay with
      time. Rate of morphological divergence between species is inversely proportional
      to theta, the angle between the direction of divergence and the direction of
      greatest genetic variation. The direction of greatest phenotypic variance is not
      identical with gmax , but for these data is nearly as successful at predicting
      the direction of species divergence. I interpret the findings to mean that
      genetic variances and covariances constrain adaptive change in quantitative
      traits for reasonably long spans of time. An alternative hypothesis, however,
      cannot be ruled out: that morphological differentiation is biased in the
      direction gmax because divergence and gmax are both shaped by the same natural
      selection pressures. Either way, the results reveal that adaptive differentiation
      occurs principally along "genetic lines of least resistance."

PMID- 28565591
TI  - LACK OF CALLING SONG DISPLACEMENT BETWEEN TWO CLOSELY RELATED GROUND CRICKETS.
AB  - Thorough examinations of purported cases of reproductive character displacement
      are critical for reaching an understanding of the role of reinforcement in the
      evolution of reproductive barriers between closely related species. In this
      paper, we report the results of an extensive investigation of male calling song
      variation in the ground crickets, Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius. Contrary
      to the results of an earlier study, we uncovered little evidence of displacement
      of songs in areas of overlap. We discuss explanations for the lack of
      displacement as well as for the discrepancies between the results of the current
      study and those of the earlier study.

PMID- 28565592
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION OPERATING IN A WILD POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA ROBUSTA.

PMID- 28565593
TI  - THE EVOLVING GENETIC HISTORY OF A POPULATION OF LATHYRUS SYLVESTRIS: EVIDENCE
      FROM TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE.
AB  - We analyze patterns of genetic microdifferentiation within a natural population
      of Lathyrus sylvestris, a perennial herb with both sexual reproduction and clonal
      growth. In a population from the northern foothills of the Pyrenees in
      southwestern France, a combined demographic and genetic investigation enabled the
      study not only of spatial genetic structure of the population, but also of the
      history of the population's spatial genetic structure over time. Excavation of
      all individuals allowed identification of clonemates. Age of each individual was
      determined by counting annual growth rings in the taproot, a method tested with
      individuals of known age planted in experimental gardens. Each individual was
      mapped, and genotypes of all individuals were determined using allozyme markers
      for a number of polymorphic loci. Distribution patterns and spatial genetic
      structure, both for all individuals and for different age classes, were analyzed
      using spatial autocorrelation statistics (Geary's Index, Moran's Index). Patterns
      of gene flow within the population were also studied using F-statistics and tests
      for random associations of alleles. Because age, allele frequencies, and location
      were known for each individual, it was possible to study how spatial genetic
      structure changed over time. Results from all these diverse approaches are
      consistent with one another, and clearly show the following: (1) founder effects,
      with the study transect being first colonized by individuals at either end of the
      transect that were homozygous for different alleles at one marker locus; (2) a
      difference in spatial distribution of individuals originated from sexual
      reproduction (seedlings) and from clonal growth (connected individuals); (3)
      restricted gene flow, due to inbreeding among related, clumped individuals; and
      (4) increase in heterozygote deficit within the youngest cohort of individuals.
      The results indicate that genetic differentiation in time was much less marked
      than differentiation in space. Nevertheless, the results revealed that the
      studied population is experiencing demographic and genetic variation in time,
      suggesting that it is not at equilibrium. On the one hand, spatial structuring is
      becoming less marked due to the recombination of founder genotypes; on the other
      hand, as establishment of new individuals increases, a new spatial structure
      emerges due to mating between relatives.

PMID- 28565594
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION, NEUTRAL POLYMORPHISM, AND COPULATORY BEHAVIOR IN
      FRESHWATER SNAILS: A SELF-FERTILIZATION SYNDROME.
AB  - This paper examines the consequences of self-fertilization on life-history traits
      and neutral genetic polymorphism in natural populations of three species of
      hermaphrodite freshwater snails: Biomphalaria straminea, Bulinus globosus, and
      the aphallic species Bulinus truncatus. Life-history traits (fecundity, growth,
      hatching rate, and survival of offspring) are compared under laboratory
      conditions between isolated (obligatory selfing) and paired (outcrossing
      possible) snails in one population of B. straminea and B. globosus and two
      populations of B. truncatus. The genetic polymorphism of the same four
      populations is analyzed using electrophoretic markers in B. straminea and B.
      globosus and microsatellite markers in B. truncatus. In B. truncatus and B.
      straminea, isolated snails have a higher fecundity than paired snails, whereas
      the contrary is observed in B. globosus. For all populations, no difference in
      hatching rate and offspring survival is detected between the two treatments.
      Genetic analyses using microsatellite markers conducted in B. truncatus on
      progeny of paired snails reveal a high selfing rate in spite of high copulation
      rates, highlighting the difficulties of obtaining outcrossing in highly selfing
      snails. The high survival of selfed offspring in B. truncatus and B. straminea
      indicates that inbreeding depression is limited. The extent of inbreeding
      depression in B. globosus is less clear. Overall, fitness decrease in this
      species is limited to fecundity. The extent of allozyme polymorphism is very
      limited whereas a much higher variability is observed with microsatellites.
      Biomphalaria straminea and B. truncatus populations are also characterized by
      very low observed heterozygosities and large heterozygote deficiencies, whereas
      the B. globosus population does not exhibit such a deficiency. Overall these
      results allow the definition of a self-fertilization syndrome in hermaphrodite
      freshwater snails: selfing populations (such as those of B. straminea and B.
      truncatus studied here) are characterized by high selfing rates in spite of
      copulations, limited deleterious effects of selfing, limited neutral genetic
      polymorphism, and large heterozygote deficiencies.

PMID- 28565595
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION AND COMPARATIVE PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF DARTERS (PISCES:
      PERCIDAE) FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN CENTRAL HIGHLANDS.
AB  - Phylogeography seeks to evaluate the relationship between genetic variation and
      geographic distribution of a species to examine the influence of historical
      events on divergence. Congruent phylogeographic patterns in codistributed species
      indicate historical association of the taxa being compared, and the uniform
      action of biogeographic events in shaping genetic variation. We sought to
      evaluate the congruence of patterns of genetic variation of five closely related
      fish species across a well-defined biogeographic boundary. We gathered allozymic
      and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data for five species of darters
      (Percidae: Etheostomatini) from populations distributed among biogeographic
      regions in the Ozark and Ouachita highlands of the south-central United States.
      Comparisons among species revealed noncongruence in the magnitude of genetic
      divergence in both allozymes and mtDNA sequences. We hypothesized that
      noncongruence resulted, in part, from differences in life histories of the
      species in our comparison. To address this hypothesis, we evaluated the
      association between gene flow (measured by Ne m) and variation in body size and
      fecundity variables because they have been shown to influence gene flow in
      fishes. Correlation analysis revealed an association between gene flow and
      fecundity (r = 0.88), but not with body size (r = 0.36) or reproductive
      investment per individual (r = -0.23). The result was similar when independent
      contrasts of the original variables were used in correlation analyses.
      Phylogeographic analysis of mtDNA sequence data indicated the importance of
      history, evident in gene trees of Percina nasuta and Percina phoxocephala.
      Divergence rates between these two taxa may differ because of historically
      persistent differences in population sizes, reflected in present-day abundance
      and fecundity differences. Conversely, Percina caprodes showed little evidence of
      divergence in mtDNA sequences and yielded the highest mean Ne m values from
      allozyme data. Comparisons among closely related, codistributed taxa may help
      discriminate among the possibilities for noncongruence in biogeographic studies
      by allowing evaluation of the influence of life history on patterns of gene flow.

PMID- 28565596
TI  - SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AS A CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION ON BODY SIZE: AN
      EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE QUANTITATIVE GENETIC MODEL.
AB  - We artificially selected for body size in Drosophila melanogaster to test Lande's
      quantitative genetic model for the evolution of sexual size dimorphism. Thorax
      width was used as an estimator of body size. Selection was maintained for 21
      generations in both directions on males only, females only, or both sexes
      simultaneously. The correlated response of sexual size dimorphism in each
      selection regime was compared to the response predicted by four variants of the
      model, each of which differed only in assumptions about input parameters. Body
      size responded well to selection, but the correlated response of sexual size
      dimorphism was weaker than that predicted by any of the variants. Dimorphism
      decreased in most selection lines, contrary to the model predictions. We suggest
      that selection on body size acts primarily on growth trajectories. Changes in
      dimorphism are caused by the fact that male and female growth trajectories are
      not parallel and termination of growth at different points along the curves
      results in dimorphism levels that are difficult to predict without detailed
      knowledge of growth parameters. This may also explain many of the inconsistent
      results in dimorphism changes seen in earlier selection experiments.

PMID- 28565597
TI  - BODY SIZE AND HAREM SIZE IN MALE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS: MANIPULATING SELECTION
      WITH SEX-SPECIFIC FEEDERS.
AB  - We experimentally manipulated the strength of selection in the field on red
      winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) to test hypotheses about contrasting
      selective forces that favor either large or small males in sexually size
      dimorphic birds. Selander (1972) argued that sexual selection favors larger
      males, while survival selection eventually stabilizes male size because larger
      males do not survive as well as smaller males during harsh winters. Searcy
      (1979a) proposed instead that sexual selection may be self limiting: male size
      might be stabilized not by overwinter mortality, but by breeding-season sexual
      selection that favors smaller males. Under conditions of energetic stress,
      smaller males should be able to display more and thus achieve higher reproductive
      success. Using feeders that provisioned males or females but not both, we
      produced conditions that mimicked the extremes of natural conditions. We found
      experimental support for the hypothesis that when food is abundant, sexual
      selection favors larger males. But even under conditions of severe energetic
      stress, smaller males did not gain larger harems, as the self-limiting hypothesis
      predicted. Larger males were more energetically stressed than smaller males, but
      in ways that affected their future reproductive output rather than their current
      reproductive performance. Stressed males that returned had smaller wings and
      tails than those that did not return; among returning stressed males, relative
      harem sizes were inversely related to wing and tail length. Thus, male body size
      may be stabilized not by survival costs during the non-breeding season, nor by
      energetic costs during the breeding season, but by costs of future reproduction
      that larger males pay for their increased breeding-season effort.

PMID- 28565598
TI  - PHYLOGENIES, SPATIAL AUTOREGRESSION, AND THE COMPARATIVE METHOD: A COMPUTER
      SIMULATION TEST.
AB  - Brownian motion computer simulation was used to test the statistical properties
      of a spatial autoregressive method in estimating evolutionary correlations
      between two traits using interspecific comparative data. When applied with a
      phylogeny of 42 species, the method exhibited reasonable Type I and II error
      rates. Estimation abilities were comparable to those of independent contrasts and
      minimum evolution (parsimony) methods, and generally superior to a traditional
      nonphylogenetic approach (not taking phylogenies into account at all). However,
      the autoregressive method performed extremely poorly with a smaller phylogeny (15
      species) and with nearly independent ("star") phylogenies. In both of these
      situations, any phylogenetic autocorrelation present in the data was not detected
      by the method. Results show how diagnostic techniques (e.g., Moran's I) can be
      useful in detecting and avoiding such situations, but that such techniques should
      not be used as definitive evidence that phylogenetic correlation is not present
      in a set of comparative data. The correction factor (alpha) proposed by Gittleman
      and Kot (1990) for use in weighting phylogenetic information had little effect in
      most analyses of 15 or 42 species with incorrect phylogenetic information, and
      may require much larger sample sizes before significant improvement is shown.
      With the sample sizes tested in this study, however, the autoregressive method
      implemented with this correction factor and correct phylogenetic information led
      to downwardly biased estimates of the absolute magnitude of the evolutionary
      correlation between two traits. Cautions and recommendations for implemention of
      the spatial autoregressive method are given; computer programs to conduct the
      analyses are available on request.

PMID- 28565599
TI  - POLLEN-TUBE COMPETITION AND MALE FITNESS IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS.
AB  - The stigmas of animal-pollinated flowers often capture more pollen than is needed
      to fertilize all available ovules, and mixed-donor pollen loads are probably
      common. When this is the case, variation in average pollen-tube growth rates can
      potentially affect the number of seeds sired by a given plant. Despite
      considerable interest in effects of postpollination processes on male fitness,
      little is known about the extent of variation in pollen performance among plants
      from natural populations. To examine this question in Hibiscus moscheutos (rose
      mallow), we conducted mixed-donor hand-pollination experiments with 39 pollen
      donors bearing distinctive isozyme markers. Pairs of competing donors were
      compared on sets of 11 to 15 recipient plants per pair. These donors often
      differed in the proportions of seeds they sired, with the maximum deviation from
      an expected ratio of 50:50 being 68:32. Furthermore, three intensively studied
      plants exhibited consistent trends in relative pollen performance when each was
      tested against (1) the same three competitors, and (2) groups of 14 competitors
      chosen at random from the study population. In a separate experiment, we
      investigated the effects of salinity stress and high soil nutrients on pollen
      performance. These environmental factors had anticipated effects on leaf
      production, flower production, and petal length, but style length and (most
      importantly) the number of seeds sired relative to a standard pollen donor were
      not affected. In summary, this study provides the strongest evidence to date that
      pollen-tube competitive ability varies among coexisting plants and may be an
      important component of male fitness in plants.

PMID- 28565601
TI  - AN EVOLUTIONARY ARGUMENT FOR EGG LIMITATION.

PMID- 28565600
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN A WOLF SPIDER: MALE DRUMMING ACTIVITY, BODY SIZE, AND
      VIABILITY.
AB  - Females are often believed to actively choose highly ornamented males (males with
      extravagant morphological signals or intense sexual display), and ornaments
      should be honest signals of male viability. However, this belief is relying only
      on some pieces of empirical evidence from birds. Our study reports active female
      choice on sexual display that indicates male viability in spiders. We established
      trials in which we studied female choice in relation to male courtship drumming
      activity and body size. Females chose the most actively drumming males as mating
      partners, but the body size of the males did not seem to be selected. Male
      drumming activity turned out to be a good predictor of male viability, whereas
      male viability was independent of male body mass. Our results suggest that by
      actively choosing mates according to male drumming performance, but independently
      of male body mass, females are preferring viable males as mates. Because
      Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata males do not provide obvious direct benefits to their
      offspring, females may gain some indirect benefits; offspring may have higher
      chance of survival, or the offspring may inherit the attractiveness of their
      father.

PMID- 28565602
TI  - THEORY OF MAST REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS: STORAGE-SIZE DEPENDENT STRATEGY.
AB  - The amount of available resource can be considered to restrict mast seeding
      behavior in plants, regardless of the cause of masting itself. The reproductive
      strategy of a plant that has stopped growing, but continues to maintain a
      constant size, is based on the allocation of assimilated resources between
      reproduction and storage. If both plant death and population growth rates are
      constant, the plant strategy is dependent only on its own storage size.
      Conditions for the evolution of mast reproduction were analyzed under both
      constant and varying environments, from the view point of storage-size dependent
      strategy, which is influenced by three parameters: the advantage coefficient of
      mast seeding, beta; the cost coefficient of delayed seeding, gamma; and the
      assimilation rate, P. The model indicated that: (1) mast seeding evolves only
      with a greater than linear increase in reproductive success with effort (beta >
      1) under both constant and varying environments; (2) in mast seeding, a critical
      storage size, Sc *, occurs, above which plants utilize all storage for
      reproduction; (3) in a constant environment, Sc * increases with increasing beta
      and P and/or decreasing gamma; (4) concomitant with (3), an intermasting period,
      tau, also increases with increasing beta and decreasing 7, but is independent of
      P; (5) in a varying environment, Sc * and the average of tau increase with
      increasing variance of the assimilation rate, P; and (6) concomitant with (5),
      the intermasting period has a certain probability distribution. In addition,
      reproductive synchrony within the population and the relationship between mast
      seeding and species diversity are discussed.

PMID- 28565603
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF CONTRASTING MODES OF FERTILIZATION ON LEVELS OF INBREEDING IN THE
      MARINE INVERTEBRATE GENUS CORELLA.
AB  - A simple difference in the body design of two species of marine urochordates in
      the ascidian genus Corella suggested that these species may differ in their
      mating systems. The two coexisting species share common life-history traits and
      morphology with the exception of a difference in body design that affects site of
      fertilization and embryonic development. Corella inflata has internal
      fertilization and embryonic development, while C. willmeriana has external
      fertilization and embryonic development. The natural mating system of these two
      species of solitary ascidians was inferred by comparing the relative survival of
      selfed and outcrossed fertilizations in the laboratory. Corella inflata, the
      internal fertilizer, showed no difference in survival between selfed and
      outcrossed fertilizations at any developmental stage through metamorphosis and
      early juvenile development. In contrast, self-fertilized crosses of C.
      willmeriana had significantly lower survival than outcrossed fertilizations even
      at the earliest scorable developmental stages. These results suggest that C.
      inflata may inbreed frequently in nature, while viable C. willmeriana offspring
      are primarily a result of outcrossing. The internally-fertilizing species, C.
      inflata, showed approximately 10% male sterility in laboratory crosses despite
      apparent morphological hermaphroditism. The externally-fertilizing, commonly
      outcrossing species, C. willmeriana, showed no difference in fertility between
      genders.

PMID- 28565604
TI  - DEVELOPMENT OF THE HYBRID SWARM BETWEEN PECOS PUPFISH (CYPRINODONTIDAE:
      CYPRINODON PECOSENSIS) AND SHEEPSHEAD MINNOW (CYPRINODON VARIEGATUS): A
      PERSPECTIVE FROM ALLOZYMES AND mtDNA.
AB  - A comparison of allozyme and mtDNA frequencies was used for insight into a
      situation in the Pecos River, Texas where contact between the endemic pupfish
      (Cyprinodon pecosensis) and an introduced congener (C. variegatus) has resulted
      in rapid, geographically extensive genetic introgression. Temporal changes in
      mean frequencies of diagnostic allozyme markers indicate that the clinal pattern
      of introduced genetic material (Echelle and Connor 1989) is slowly decreasing in
      amplitude. Significant rank concordance in diagnostic allele frequencies among
      sites and across sampling years indicates directional influences upon temporal
      allele frequency change. These observations are consistent with the theory of
      gene flow in neutral clines. Levels of introgression indicated by each of four
      allozyme loci and mtDNA were roughly equivalent. The early history of the hybrid
      swarm is explained by genetic swamping, possibly mediated by selection for C.
      variegatus or C. variegatus * C. pecosensis, at a time when the normally abundant
      endemic species had been catastrophically depleted. High frequencies of an
      introduced GPI-A allele in all samples of intergrades suggests that the
      introduced genome originated with a single founding event.

PMID- 28565605
TI  - ENERGY, RISK, AND REPTILIAN REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT: A REPLY TO NIEWIAROWSKI AND
      DUNHAM.

PMID- 28565606
TI  - FROM FROND TO FAN: ARCHAEOPTERYX AND THE EVOLUTION OF SHORT-TAILED BIRDS.
AB  - Modern birds have extremely short tail skeletons relative to Archaeopteryx and
      nonavialian theropod dinosaurs. Long- and short-tailed birds also differ in the
      conformation of main tail feathers making up the flight surface: frond shaped in
      Archaeopteryx and fan shaped in extant fliers. Mechanisms of tail fanning were
      evaluated by electromyography in freely flying pigeons and turkeys and by
      electrical stimulation of caudal muscles in anesthetized birds. Results from
      these experiments reveal that the pygostyle, rectrices, rectricial bulbs, and
      bulbi rectricium musculature form a specialized fanning mechanism. Contrary to
      previous models, our data support the interpretation that the bulbi rectricium
      independently controls tail fanning; other muscles are neither capable of nor
      necessary for significant rectricial abduction. This bulb mechanism permits rapid
      changes in tail span, thereby allowing the exploitation of a wide range of lift
      forces. Isolation of the bulbs on the pygostyle effectively decouples tail
      fanning from fan movement, which is governed by the remaining caudal muscles. The
      tail of Archaeopteryx, however, differs from this arrangement in several
      important respects. Archaeopteryx probably had a limited range of lift forces and
      tight coupling between vertebral and rectricial movement. This would have made
      the tail of this primitive flier better suited to stabilization than
      maneuverability. The capacity to significantly alter lift and manipulate the
      flight surface without distortion may have been two factors favoring tail
      shortening and pygostyle development during avian evolution.

PMID- 28565607
TI  - WAITING FOR SPECIATION: THE EFFECT OF POPULATION SUBDIVISION ON THE TIME TO
      SPECIATION.
AB  - We study the time required for speciation in a species that is divided into small
      versus large populations. Following Dobzhansky and Muller, we assume that hybrid
      sterility or inviability is caused by "complementary genes," that is, by the
      accumulation of genes that cause sterility or inviability when brought together
      in hybrids but that have no deleterious effect on their normal species genetic
      background. When divergence between populations is caused by genetic drift, we
      show that the time to speciation is independent of population subdivision:
      speciation occurs just as quickly in a species split into a few large populations
      as into many small populations. When divergence is driven by natural selection,
      however, the time to speciation is very sensitive to population subdivision and
      speciation occurs most rapidly when a species is split into two large
      populations. These results contradict several popular intuitions about the effect
      of population size on speciation.

PMID- 28565608
TI  - GENETICS OF BRASSICA RAPA. 3. COSTS OF DISEASE RESISTANCE TO THREE FUNGAL
      PATHOGENS.
AB  - Genetic costs of resistance to pathogens may be an important factor maintaining
      heritable variation for resistance in natural populations. Pleiotropic fitness
      trade-offs occur when genetic resistance causes reduction in other components of
      fitness. Although costs of resistance have an important influence on plant
      pathogen interactions, few previous studies have detected pleiotropic costs of
      resistance in the absence of confounding effects of linkage disequilibrium. To
      avoid this potential problem, we performed artificial selection experiments on
      resistance to two fungal pathogens, Leptosphaeria maculans, and Peronospora
      parasitica, and compared growth rates of resistant and susceptible genotypes of
      Brassica rapa in the absence of pathogens. Leptosphaeria resistance had no effect
      on growth rate, indicating cost-free defense. In contrast, Peronospora-resistant
      genotypes grow 6% slower than Peronospora-susceptible genotypes in pathogen-free
      environments, indicating a significant genetic fitness cost to Peronospora
      resistance. Such genetic trade-offs could maintain genetic variation in the wild.
      Another factor that might explain heritable variation for resistance is
      ecological trade-offs, in which genetic resistance to one species causes
      susceptibility to another. Such ecological trade-offs do not exist for the
      pathogens studied in this system.

PMID- 28565609
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF A FIRE ANT HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Two introduced fire ants, Solenopsis invicta and S. richteri, hybridize over an
      extensive area in the United States spanning central Mississippi, Alabama, and
      western Georgia. We studied a portion of this hybrid zone in northwestern
      Mississippi in detail by sampling ants at many sites along two transects
      extending across the zone and examining gene frequency and size distributions at
      a large number of genetic and morphological markers. The distributional patterns
      at these markers are most consistent with the mosaic hybrid zone model, whereby
      the distribution of various fire ant genotypes is determined initially by the
      historical patterns of colonization of newly available habitats. However, these
      distributional patterns probably do not reflect the equilibrium state of
      interactions because of the very recent secondary contact of the species (< 60
      yr) and the dynamic nature of available nesting habitats in this area. Our data
      suggest that, with prolonged contact and interaction, differential fitness of
      various hybrid genotypes due to intrinsic and extrinsic selective factors is
      important in structuring the hybrid zone. For instance, consistent differential
      introgression of morphological and genetic markers, combined with previous
      evidence of differences in developmental stability among genotypes, suggest
      reduced fitness of hybrids relative to parentals due to intrinsic selection (as
      may be caused by breakup of parental gene complexes). Furthermore, marked
      reductions in the occurrence of parental-like hybrids in areas where the similar
      parental species is common suggest reduced fitness of these parental-like hybrids
      in competition with the parentals (i.e., extrinsic selection). Because the
      relative roles of such deterministic as well as stochastic forces apparently vary
      both spatially and temporally, the eventual distribution of the various fire ant
      genotypes and the fate of the hybrid zone in the United States is difficult to
      predict.

PMID- 28565610
TI  - MALTHUS AND DARWIN: WORLD VIEWS APART.

PMID- 28565611
TI  - INBREEDING AND VARIANCE EFFECTIVE SIZES FOR NONRANDOM MATING POPULATIONS.
AB  - Following an inbreeding approach and assuming discrete generations and autosomal
      inheritance involving genes that do not affect viability or reproductive ability,
      I have derived expressions for the inbreeding effective size, NeI , for a finite
      diploid population with variable census sizes for three cases: monoecious
      populations with partial selfing; dioecious populations of equal numbers of males
      and females with partial sib mating; and unequal numbers of males and females
      with random mating. For the first two cases, recurrence equations for the
      inbreeding coefficient are also obtained, which allow inbreeding coefficients to
      be predicted exactly in both early and late generations. Following the variance
      of change in gene frequency approach, a general expression for variance effective
      size, NeV , is obtained for a population with unequal numbers of male and female
      individuals, arbitrary family size distribution, and nonrandom mating. All the
      parameters involved are allowed to change over generations. For some special
      cases, the equation reduces to the simple expressions approximately as derived by
      previous authors. Comparisons are made between equations derived by the present
      study and those obtained by previous authors. Some of the published equations for
      NeI and NeV are shown to be incomplete or incorrect. Stochastic simulations are
      run to check the results where disagreements with others are involved.

PMID- 28565612
TI  - IDENTICAL MAJOR GENE LOCI FOR HEAVY METAL TOLERANCES THAT HAVE INDEPENDENTLY
      EVOLVED IN DIFFERENT LOCAL POPULATIONS AND SUBSPECIES OF SILENE VULGARIS.
AB  - Heavy metal tolerant Silene vulgaris plants, originating from different
      metalliferous sites in Germany and one in Ireland, were crossed to each other and
      to nontolerant plants from a nonmetalliferous site in The Netherlands. Analysis
      of the crosses suggested that there were two distinct major gene loci for zinc
      tolerance among a total of five tolerant populations. The tolerance loci for
      zinc, copper, and cadmium in the Irish plants were shown to be identical with
      those in the German populations. It is argued that the occurrence of common major
      genes for tolerance among different geographically isolated populations must have
      resulted from independent parallel evolution in local nontolerant ancestral
      populations. Each of the tolerances studied seems to be controlled by only a few
      specific major genes.

PMID- 28565613
TI  - SEVERE INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND RAPID FITNESS REBOUND IN THE BUTTERFLY BICYCLUS
      ANYNANA (SATYRIDAE).
AB  - We established inbred laboratory lines of the satyrid Bicyclus anynana with one,
      three and 10 pairs of butterflies, which were subsequently allowed to increase
      freely to a maximum size of 300 butterflies. Minimally inbred control lines were
      established with 300 randomly selected virgin butterflies of equal sex ratio. We
      measured fecundity, egg weight, egg hatching, adult emergence, adult size, and
      the proportion of crippled adults in generations F2 , F3 , F5 , and F7 (the
      latter two for the one pair bottleneck lines only). The most striking result was
      an unexpectedly large decrease in egg hatching with increase in inbreeding (25%
      per 10% increase in inbreeding). Such a level of inbreeding depression has not
      been reported previously for any insect. The distribution of egg hatching rate
      for individual clutches within inbred lines was markedly skewed, with a large
      fraction of clutches producing no eggs at all. This is interpreted as a
      relatively lower ratio of detrimental to lethal (or sterile) mutation loads than
      is found in Drosophila, the only insects for which mutation loads have been well
      characterized. Possible explanations for this severe inbreeding depression
      include a relatively high rate of mutation to recessive alleles with substantial
      damaging effects and infrequent episodes of inbreeding in nature. In the
      experiments, average egg hatching rate recovered rapidly between F2 and F7 in
      three of the six one-pair lines. We discuss the implications of these results for
      survival of populations through extreme bottlenecks in nature and in captivity.

PMID- 28565614
TI  - THE SELECTION DIFFERENTIAL IN QUANTITATIVE GENETICS AND ESS MODELS.

PMID- 28565615
TI  - GENETIC COMPARISONS OF SEED BANK AND SEEDLING POPULATIONS OF A PERENNIAL DESERT
      MUSTARD, LESQUERELLA FENDLERI.
AB  - Soil seed banks may accumulate and store seed genotypes produced over many
      seasons. If germination and establishment of these soil seeds are influenced by
      seed genotypes, then seed bank and seedling populations may differ genetically. I
      compared the genetic structure of dormant but viable soil seeds of the desert
      mustard Lesquerella fendleri with the genetic structure of Lesquerella seedlings
      at the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Site. In 1991 and 1992, soil seeds
      and seedlings were mapped and genetically analyzed using starch gel
      electrophoresis. When data from all loci were lumped, there were highly
      significant differences in allele frequencies between soil seeds and seedlings at
      the population level (all plots) in both years, in all subpopulation (adjacent
      plots) comparisons in 1991, and three of five subpopulations in 1992. Differences
      at some individual loci were also detected in one or both years. Analysis of data
      pooled across both years revealed highly significant differences in the
      distribution of multilocus soil seed and seedling heterozygosity, but no
      significant differences in mean heterozygosity. Fst values showed small but
      statistically significant genetic differentiation within soil seeds and seedlings
      in both years. Fst values also showed significant genetic differentiation between
      these two groups at three of seven loci in 1991, and at one locus in 1992. Soil
      seeds and seedlings showed a general pattern of decreasing genetic relationship
      with distance, as estimated by the coefficient of coancestry analyses. In 1991,
      seedlings were roughly twice as genetically related to each other than were soil
      seeds at fine spatial scales (0-0.25 and 0.25-0.50 m). This study suggests that
      Lesquerella seedlings in this system represent a nonrandom genetic subset of the
      underlying Lesquerella seed bank. Such temporal genetic change may be an
      important yet frequently overlooked mechanism for generating population genetic
      structure.

PMID- 28565616
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE FIELD CRICKET, GRYLLUS INTEGER.
AB  - Major theories of sexual selection predict heritable variation in female
      preferences and male traits and a positive genetic correlation between preference
      and trait. Here we show that female Texas field crickets, Gryllus integer, have
      heritable genetic variation for the male calling song stimulus level that
      produces the greatest phonotactic response. Approximately 34% of the variation in
      female preferences was due to additive genetic effects. Female choosiness, that
      is, the strength of the female response to her most preferred stimulus relative
      to her average response to all stimuli, did not show significant genetic effects.
      The male calling song character was not related to male size or age but did show
      significant genetic effects. Approximately 39% of the variation in the number of
      pulses per trill was due to additive genetic variation. The genetic correlation
      estimated for the field population was 0.51 +/- 0.17. The number of pulses per
      trill produced by males is under stabilizing sexual selection.

PMID- 28565617
TI  - SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE AND PARASITE-MEDIATED SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - Few studies have investigated the consequences of parasite-mediated sexual
      selection on the parasites involved. In some cases parasite-mediated sexual
      selection could lead to increased virulence, but I develop a simple model that
      shows that, if a parasite is sexually transmitted (i.e., is a sexually
      transmitted disease, or STD) and if mating success of the host is adversely
      affected by the parasite, then less virulent STDs will be selected for because
      transmission of the STD depends on the mating success of the host. This selection
      for reduced virulence could have important consequences for the role of STDs in
      sexual selection.

PMID- 28565618
TI  - ECOLOGICAL SPECIATION IN STICKLEBACKS: ENVIRONMENT-DEPENDENT HYBRID FITNESS.
AB  - "Ecological" speciation occurs when reproductive isolation evolves as a
      consequence of divergent selection between populations exploiting different
      resources or environments. We tested this hypothesis of speciation in a young
      stickleback species pair by measuring the direct contribution of ecological
      selection pressures to hybrid fitness. The two species (limnetic and benthic) are
      strongly differentiated morphologically and ecologically, whereas hybrids are
      intermediate. Fitness of hybrids is high in the laboratory, especially F1 and F2
      hybrids (backcrosses may show some breakdown). We transplanted F1 hybrids to
      enclosures in the two main habitats in the wild to test whether the distribution
      of resources available in the environment generates a hybrid disadvantage not
      detectable in the laboratory. Hybrids grew more slowly than limnetics in the open
      water habitat and more slowly than benthics in the littoral zone. Growth of F1
      hybrids was inferior to the average of the parent species across both habitats,
      albeit not significantly. The contrast between laboratory and field results
      supports the hypothesis that mechanisms of F1 hybrid fitness in the wild are
      primarily ecological and do not result from intrinsic genetic incompatibilities.
      Direct selection on hybrids contributes to the maintenance of sympatric
      stickleback species and may have played an important role in their origin.

PMID- 28565619
TI  - CROSS-RESISTANCE FOLLOWING ARTIFICIAL SELECTION FOR INCREASED DEFENSE AGAINST
      PARASITOIDS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - An increase in resistance to one natural enemy may result in no correlated
      change, a positive correlated change, or a negative correlated change in the
      ability of the host or prey to resist other natural enemies. The type of
      specificity is important in understanding the evolutionary response to natural
      enemies and was studied here in a Drosophila-paxasitoid system. Drosophila
      melanogaster lines selected for increased larval resistance to the endoparasitoid
      wasps Asobara tabida or Leptopilina boulardi were exposed to attack by A. tabida,
      L. boulardi and Leptopilina heterotoma at 15 degrees C, 20 degrees C, and 25
      degrees C. In general, encapsulation ability increased with temperature, with the
      exception of the lines selected against L. boulardi, which showed the opposite
      trend. Lines selected against L. boulardi showed large increases in resistance
      against all three parasitoid species, and showed similar levels of defense
      against A. tabida to the lines selected against that parasitoid. In contrast,
      lines selected against A. tabida showed a large increase in resistance to A.
      tabida and generally to L. heterotoma, but displayed only a small change in their
      ability to survive attack by L. boulardi. Such asymmetries in correlated
      responses to selection for increased resistance to natural enemies may influence
      host-parasitoid community structure.

PMID- 28565620
TI  - NEUTRAL GENETIC DIVERSITY IN A METAPOPULATION WITH RECURRENT LOCAL EXTINCTION AND
      RECOLONIZATION.
AB  - Many species exist as metapopulations in balance between local population
      extinction and recolonization, processes that may strongly affect the
      distribution of neutral genetic diversity within demes and in the metapopulation
      as a whole. In this paper we use both the infinite-alleles and the infinite-sites
      models to reframe Slatkin's propagulepool and migrant-pool models in terms of
      mean within-deme and among-deme genetic diversity; the infinite-sites model is
      particularly relevant to DNA sequence data. Population turnover causes a major
      reduction in neutral genetic diversity within demes, piS , and in the
      metapopulation as a whole, pit . This effect is particularly strong for
      propagulepool colonization, in which colonists are drawn from a single extant
      deme. Because metapopulation dynamics affect both within-deme and total
      metapopulation diversity similarly, comparisons between species with different
      ecologies on the basis of ratios such as FST are difficult to interpret and
      absolute measures of divergence between populations should be used as well.
      Although the value of FST in a metapopulation with local extinction depends
      strongly on the mode of colonization, this has almost no effect on the numerator
      of the FST ratio, pit - piS , so that FST is influenced mainly by the effect of
      the colonization mode on the denominator (pit ). Our results also indicate that
      it is inappropriate to use measures of average within-deme diversity in species
      with population turnover to estimate the scaled mutation rate, theta, because
      extinction can greatly reduce piS . Finally, we discuss the effect of population
      turnover on the effective size of a metapopulation.

PMID- 28565621
TI  - KIN INTERACTIONS IN A COLONIAL HYDROZOAN (HYDRACTINIA SYMBIOLONGICARPUS):
      POPULATION STRUCTURE ON A MOBILE LANDSCAPE.
AB  - Many sessile colonial organisms intensively compete with conspecifics for growing
      space. This competition can result in either cooperative fusion or aggressive
      rejection between colonies, and some species have evolved highly polymorphic
      genetic systems that mediate the outcome of these interactions. Here we
      demonstrate the potential for interactions among close kin as the basis for the
      evolutionary maintenance of a genetically polymorphic allorecognition system in
      the colonial hydroid Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus, which lives on gastropod
      shells occupied by hermit crabs. Fusion between hydroids in the laboratory is
      restricted mainly to encounters between full siblings, whereas other encounters
      result in aggressive rejection. Natural selection acting on the costs or benefits
      of fusion between colonies could be responsible for the present maintenance of
      such a highly specific behavioral response, but only if encounters between
      fusible colonies still occur in contemporary populations. The large size of these
      hydroid populations and the mobility of the crabs should limit the potential for
      interactions among closely related hydroids on the same shell. However, RAPD
      polymorphisms among a large sample of hydroids from a population off the coast of
      Massachusetts indicate that genetically similar colonies are often found together
      on the same shell. Some genetic distances between colonies on the same shell were
      low relative to genetic distances between colonies on different shells or genetic
      distances between known full siblings from laboratory matings. We conservatively
      estimate that 2-18% of co-occurring colonies may be full sibling pairs. These
      observations suggest that encounters between genetically similar hydroids are
      common, despite the mobile nature of their habitat, and these encounters may
      provide frequent opportunities for natural selection to influence the evolution
      of cooperative and agonistic behaviors and their polymorphic genetic basis.

PMID- 28565622
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC CORRELATION PATTERNS OF ADULT BIRDS (FRINGILLIDAE: PASSERIFORMES AND
      COLUMBIFORMES) MIRROR THE EXPRESSION OF DEVELOPMENTAL CONTROL GENES.
AB  - Stimulated by the rapid progress in developmental genetics, recent approaches to
      evolutionary theory focus on the interface function of developmental processes in
      the study of genotype-phenotype mapping. From this viewpoint, the main result of
      the present analysis is that the expression patterns of developmental control
      genes are reflected in the infraspecific correlation patterns of phenotypic
      characters in the adult stage. The study is based on 42 logarithmically scaled
      skeletal measurements of two avian clades, finches (43 species, n = 313) and
      pigeons (27 species, n = 219). First, for each clade an "observed correlation
      matrix" was calculated by computing a bias-reduced pooled-species correlation
      matrix based on the clade-specific pooled within-species variance-covariance
      matrix between measurements. Second, the expression domains of diverse
      developmental control genes, that is, Hox, Msx, Pax, Mhox, Shh, Bmp, and Gdf, in
      characters were represented by "theoretical matrices." Finally, the observed and
      the theoretical matrices were compared by Mantel's test to test hypotheses about
      pattern similarities between phenotypic correlations and the expression of
      developmental control genes. Seventeen percent of the single matrix comparisons
      revealed significant (P <= 0.05) pattern correspondences in finches, whereas 63%
      were significant in pigeons. The multiple comparisons revealed correspondences at
      the highest significance level (P <= 0.001) in both clades and disclosed that 15%
      of the observed matrix patterns are explained in finches versus 22% in pigeons.
      Presumably, as finches have less pronounced correspondences between gene
      expression and phenotypic correlation, they are more derived than pigeons. Out of
      the significant single matrix comparisons, four correspondences are common to
      both clades: one of them is connected with the Gdf gene expression concerning
      limb length relations and also harmonizes with the dominant pattern within the
      infraspecific correlation matrices. The general implication is that the
      significant correspondences detected here between observed and theoretical
      matrices are based on a correspondence between phenotypic and genetic modules.
      Because the phenotypic modules are potential candidates for a direct impact of
      selection, the important role of genotype-phenotype mapping in molding the body
      plan becomes apparent.

PMID- 28565623
TI  - RESPONSES OF FLORAL TRAITS TO SELECTION ON PRIMARY SEXUAL INVESTMENT IN
      SPERGULARIA MARINA: THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SEXES.
AB  - Two widespread assumptions underlie theoretical models of the evolution of sex
      allocation in hermaphroditic species: (1) resource allocations to male and female
      function are heritable; and (2) there is an intrinsic, genetically based negative
      correlation between male and female reproductive function. These assumptions have
      not been adequately tested in wild species, although a few studies have detected
      either genetic variation in pollen and ovule production per flower or evidence of
      trade-offs between male and female investment at the whole plant level. It may
      also be argued, however, that in highly autogamous, perfect-flowered plant taxa
      that exhibit genetic variation in gamete production, strong stabilizing selection
      for an efficient pollen:ovule ratio should result in a positive correlation among
      genotypes with respect to mean ovule and mean pollen production per flower. Here
      we report the results of a three-generation artificial selection experiment
      conducted on a greenhouse population of the autogamous annual plant Spergularia
      marina. Starting with a base population of 1200 individuals, we conducted intense
      mass selection for two generations, creating four selected lines (high and low
      ovule production per flower; high and low anther production per flower) and a
      control line. By examining the direct and correlated responses of several floral
      traits to selection on gamete production per flower, we evaluated the
      expectations that primary sexual investment would exhibit heritable variation and
      that resource-sharing, variation in resource-garnering ability, or developmental
      constraints mold the genetic correlations expressed among floral organs. The
      observed direct and correlated responses to selection on male and female gamete
      production revealed significant heritabilities of both ovule and anther
      production per flower and a significant negative genetic correlation between
      them. When plants were selected for increased ovules per flower over two
      generations, ovule production increased and anther production declined relative
      to the control line. Among plants selected for decreased anthers per flower, we
      observed a decline in anther production and an increase in ovule production
      relative to the control line. In contrast, the lines selected for low ovules per
      flower and for high anthers per flower exhibited no evidence for significant
      genetic correlations between male and female primary investment. Correlated
      responses to selection also indicate a genetically based negative correlation
      between the production of normal versus developmentally abnormal anthers
      (staminoid organs); a positive correlation between the production of ovules
      versus staminoid organs; and a positive correlation between the production of
      anthers and petals. The negative relationship between male versus female primary
      investment supports classical sex allocation theory, although the asymmetrical
      correlated responses to selection indicate that this relationship is not always
      expressed.

PMID- 28565624
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ENDOCRINOLOGY OF JUVENILE HORMONE ESTERASE: FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP
      WITH WING POLYMORPHISM IN THE CRICKET, GRYLLUS FIRMUS.
AB  - The existence, nature, and physiological consequences of genetic variation for
      juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) activity was studied in the wing-polymorphic
      cricket, Gryllus firmus. Hemolymph (blood) JHE activity was sixfold lower in
      nascent short-winged (SW) females, relative to nascent long-winged (LW) females
      during the last juvenile stadium (stage). Morph-associated genetic variation for
      JHE activity had two causes, variation in loci: (1) regulating whole-organism
      enzyme activity; and (2) controlling the degree to which JHE is secreted into the
      blood Reduced JHE activity in nascent SW-selected individuals was associated with
      reduced in vivo juvenile hormone catabolism. This suggests that variation in JHE
      activity during juvenile development may have important physiological
      consequences with respect to the regulation of blood levels of juvenile hormone
      and consequent specification of wing morph. This is the first definitive
      demonstration of genetic variation for hormonal metabolism in any insect and a
      genetic association between hormone metabolism and the subsequent expression of
      morphological variation (wing morph). However, we have not yet firmly established
      whether these associations represent causal relationships In contrast to the
      clear association between JHE activity and wing morph development, we observed no
      evidence indicating that variation in JHE activity plays any direct or indirect
      role in causing the dramatic differences in ovarian growth between adult wing
      morphs. Variation in JHE activity also does not appear to be important in
      coordinating the development of wing morph with the subsequent expression of
      reproductive differences between adult morphs. Finally genetic variation for the
      developmental profiles of JHE activity during juvenile and adult stages are
      remarkably similar in three Gryllus species. This suggests that genetic
      correlations between JHE activities during different periods of development,
      which underlie these activity profiles, have been conserved since the divergence
      of the three Gryllus species.

PMID- 28565625
TI  - GENETIC AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN REJECTION BEHAVIOR OF CUCKOO EGGS BY EUROPEAN
      MAGPIE POPULATIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF REJECTER-GENE FLOW.
AB  - Host responses toward brood parasitism have been shown to differ among
      populations depending on the duration of sympatry between host and parasite,
      although populations not currently parasitized show rejection behavior against
      parasitic eggs. The persistence of rejection behavior in unparasitized host
      populations and rapid increases of rejection rate in parasitized ones have
      sometimes been explained as the result of gene flow of rejecter genes from
      sympatry to allopatry (rejecter-gene flow hypothesis). We present data on the
      rejection behavior of magpies (Pica pica) the main European host of the great
      spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius), in 15 populations (nine sympatric six
      allopatric) across their distribution range in Europe. Rejection rates of mimetic
      and nonmimetic model eggs were significantly higher in sympatric than in
      allopatric magpie populations, although differences in rejection rate of both
      mimetic and nonmimetic model eggs between magpie populations were significantly
      correlated even after controlling tor phylogenetic effects, with differences
      between sympatric and allopatric magpie populations being larger for mimetic than
      for nonmimetic model eggs. Differences in rejection of mimetic model eggs were
      related to both genetic and geographic distances between populations, but
      differences in rejection rate of nonmimetic model eggs were unrelated to these
      distances. However, when comparing only sympatric populations, differences in
      rejection rate of both mimetic and nonmimetic model eggs were related to
      geographic distances. A multiple autocorrelation analysis revealed that
      differences among populations in rejection rates of mimetic model eggs had a
      strong geographic component whereas the main component of rejection rate of
      nonmimetic model eggs was genetic rather than geographic. These results support
      the rejecter-gene flow hypothesis. We discuss differences in rejection rates of
      mimetic and nonmimetic model eggs that suggest the egg-recognition ability of the
      host is genetically based, but is affected by a learning process for fine tuning
      of recognition.

PMID- 28565626
TI  - A PHYLOGENETIC TEST OF ECOMORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION IN CANCER CRABS.
AB  - We used McPeek's (1995a) method of evolutionary contrasts, and phylogenetic trees
      derived from maximum-parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum-likelihood analyses
      of data from the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene to evaluate the hypothesis that
      macroevolutionary changes in habitat use have driven the morphological
      diversification of Cancer crabs. All of our analyses suggested that habitat
      shifts from structurally complex substrates (e.g., the rocky intertidal zone) to
      more homogeneous substrates (e.g., sand or mud) have occurred independently in
      three Cancer lineages. Evolutionary contrasts analyses indicated that these
      habitat shifts were accompanied by increased morphological change toward larger
      body sizes. These macroevolutionary patterns support the hypothesis that the
      morphological diversification of Cancer crabs is strongly related to size
      dependent habitat use; ancillary evidence suggests that increased predation
      pressure in homogeneous habitats represents the main selective agent for
      increased body size.

PMID- 28565627
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: SPONTANEOUS DELETERIOUS MUTATION.
AB  - Mildly deleterious mutation has been invoked as a leading explanation for a
      diverse array of observations in evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution
      and is thought to be a significant risk of extinction for small populations.
      However, much of the empirical evidence for the deleterious-mutation process
      derives from studies of Drosophila melanogaster, some of which have been called
      into question. We review a broad array of data that collectively support the
      hypothesis that deleterious mutations arise in flies at rate of about one per
      individual per generation, with the average mutation decreasing fitness by about
      only 2% in the heterozygous state. Empirical evidence from microbes, plants, and
      several other animal species provide further support for the idea that most
      mutations have only mildly deleterious effects on fitness, and several other
      species appear to have genomic mutation rates that are of the order of magnitude
      observed in Drosophila. However, there is mounting evidence that some organisms
      have genomic deleterious mutation rates that are substantially lower than one per
      individual per generation. These lower rates may be at least partially reconciled
      with the Drosophila data by taking into consideration the number of germline cell
      divisions per generation. To fully resolve the existing controversy over the
      properties of spontaneous mutations, a number of issues need to be clarified.
      These include the form of the distribution of mutational effects and the extent
      to which this is modified by the environmental and genetic background and the
      contribution of basic biological features such as generation length and genome
      size to interspecific differences in the genomic mutation rate. Once such
      information is available, it should be possible to make a refined statement about
      the long-term impact of mutation on the genetic integrity of human populations
      subject to relaxed selection resulting from modern medical procedures.

PMID- 28565628
TI  - HOLARCTIC PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF AN ASEXUAL SPECIES COMPLEX I. MITOCHONDRIAL DNA
      VARIATION IN ARCTIC DAPHNIA.
AB  - Pleistocene glacial cycles undoubtedly altered the evolutionary trajectories of
      many taxa, yet few studies have examined the impact of such events on genetic
      differentiation and phylogeography at large geographic scales. Here we present
      the results of a circumarctic survey of mitochondrial DNA diversity in members of
      the Daphnia pulex complex. The analysis involved the survey of restriction site
      polymorphisms in a 2100-bp fragment of the NADH-4 (ND4) and NADH-5 (ND5) genes
      for 276 populations representing the two major groups (tenebrosa and pulicaria)
      in this complex across their Holarctic range. A comparison of the distribution
      patterns for seven clades in this complex revealed very clear phylogeographic
      structuring. Most notably, pulicaria group lineages were restricted primarily to
      the Nearctic, with some colonization of formerly glaciated portions of northern
      Europe. This group was not detected from vast expanses of northern Eurasia,
      including the Beringian glacial refuge. In contrast, tenebrosa group haplotypes
      showed considerable intercontinental divergence between Eurasian and North
      American lineages, but were absent from Greenland and Iceland, as well as the
      Canadian arctic archipelago. Dispersal in Eurasia was primarily in a westerly
      direction from Beringia, whereas dispersal in the Nearctic followed proglacial
      drainage patterns. Long-distance dispersal of certain lineages was observed in
      both groups, and variation in haplotype richness and nucleotide diversity allowed
      us to make inferences about the positioning of putative glacial refugia. Overall,
      the phylogeographic pattern of diversification in this arctic complex is
      characterized by the apparently unique postglacial histories for each clade,
      indicating that even closely allied taxa can respond independently to the
      allopatric effects of glacial cycles. This is in sharp contrast to other
      phylogeographic studies of species assemblages from more southern (unglaciated)
      latitudes, which are often characterized by concordant patterns.

PMID- 28565629
TI  - ADAPTIVE COLORATION AND GENE FLOW AS A CONSTRAINT TO LOCAL ADAPTATION IN THE
      STREAMSIDE SALAMANDER, AMBYSTOMA BARBOURI.
AB  - Predation is an important selective force that influences animal color patterns.
      Some larval populations of the streamside salamander, Ambystoma barbouri, inhabit
      streams with fish predators. Other larval salamanders are found in shallow,
      ephemeral streams that are predator-free. Quantitative melanophore cell counts
      and estimates of percent body area pigmented indicated that larval coloration is
      strongly correlated with stream type. Larvae that coexist with fish tend to be
      lighter than larvae from streams that are Ashless and ephemeral. Two approaches
      demonstrated that lightly pigmented salamander larvae better match the common
      background in relatively permanent streams and are less conspicuous to fish than
      dark larvae. First, using a model based on the spectral sensitivity of the fish
      and reflectance properties of salamanders and natural stream backgrounds, we
      showed that light larvae are three times more cryptic than dark larvae on rocks.
      Second, lighter larvae had higher survival than darker salamanders on rocks in a
      predator- choice experiment. It is not clear why larvae in ephemeral streams are
      darker. Larvae in ephemeral streams should be active to feed and develop rapidly
      and reach sufficient size to metamorphose before seasonal drying. Several
      hypotheses may explain why larvae tend to be darker in ephemeral streams, such as
      increased thermoregulatory ability, better screening of ultraviolet radiation (in
      these shallower streams), or better background matching to terrestrial predators.
      Among populations where salamander larvae coexist with fish, there are
      differences in relative crypsis. Larvae from populations with fish and relatively
      high gene flow from ephemeral populations (where larvae are dark) tend to be
      darker (with more melanophores) and more conspicuous to predators than those from
      more genetically isolated populations, where larvae are lighter and more cryptic.
      These differences illustrate the role of gene flow as a constraint to adaptive
      evolution.

PMID- 28565630
TI  - RESISTANCE AND VIRULENCE STRUCTURE IN TWO LINUM MARGINALE-MELAMPSORA LINI HOST
      PATHOGEN METAPOPULATIONS WITH DIFFERENT MATING SYSTEMS.
AB  - Different patterns of resistance to six pathotypes of Melampsora lini were
      detected in 11 populations of Linum marginale distributed across two
      metapopulations. The two metapopulations (mountains and plains of New South
      Wales, Australia) differed in the annual cycle of disease development, which
      barely overlapped, and in the growth cycle and mating system of the host. Host
      populations in the mountains metapopulation were highly inbred, whereas those on
      the plains showed appreciable levels of outcrossing. Within each metapopulation
      there was significant variation among component populations in (1) levels of host
      resistance to individual pathogen isolates; (2) mean levels of resistance to all
      six isolates; (3) the number of resistance phenotypes present and the evenness of
      their distribution within the population; and (4) the average number of pathogen
      lines to which individual hosts were resistant. A more limited comparison of
      pathogen populations from the two metapopulations (two from each) found greater
      similarities in the structure of populations and particular virulence frequencies
      within, rather than among, the two metapopulations. Differences in host
      outcrossing rates between the two metapopulations are reflected in marked
      differences in the overall level of resistance, its partitioning within and among
      populations, the number and distribution of resistance phenotypes in the two
      areas, and the level of polymorphism for specific virulence factors in the
      pathogen, with the plains metapopulation showing consistently higher values.
      However, these differences were not significant. In general, variation for all
      parameters was just as great among populations within a metapopulation as between
      the two metapopulations.

PMID- 28565631
TI  - GENETIC BASIS OF A BETWEEN-ENVIRONMENT TRADE-OFF INVOLVING RESISTANCE TO CADMIUM
      IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - In a replicated, laboratory, natural selection experiment Drosophila melanogaster
      populations were maintained for 20 generations either on unpolluted medium or on
      polluted medium containing cadmium chloride at a concentration of 80 MUg/ml.
      Lines maintained on polluted medium evolved resistance. In comparison with
      unpolluted lines, their juvenile survivorship increased from 35% to 46%,
      developmental period decreased from 13.7 days to 13.0 days, and fecundity
      increased from 3 to 29 eggs per two-day period. Emergence weights, however, did
      not change. By contrast the "environmental" effect of moving susceptible flies
      onto polluted medium was that after two generations survivorship fell 62%,
      developmental period increased 40%, and fecundity fell 97%. Emergence weights
      fell 31% in females and 28% in males. Resistant lines paid a fitness cost in
      unpolluted environments, with fecundity being reduced by 44% and emergence
      weights being reduced by 4% in females and 6% in males. Developmental period,
      however, was unaffected. Analyses of crosses and backcrosses between the lines
      suggested that the evolved cadmium resistance was due to a single sex-linked
      gene. Levels of dominance were calculated, and in each life-history character the
      resistant allele was found to be completely dominant. Because the life-history
      effects appear to be produced by a single gene, it is probable that they all
      depend on the same metabolic pathway. Metallothionein production is a likely
      candidate because this is known to be controlled by genes on the X-chromosome.
      The study adds to a small number of examples of single or closely linked genes
      with large antagonistic pleiotropic effects on life histories. The result here is
      a between-environment trade-off, allowing animals increased fitness in polluted
      environments, but only at the cost of reduced growth and reproduction in
      unpolluted environments.

PMID- 28565632
TI  - EXTRAPAIR MATE CHOICE AND HONEST SIGNALING IN COOPERATIVELY BREEDING SUPERB FAIRY
      WRENS.
AB  - In many species of monogamous birds females copulate with males other than their
      social mates, resulting in extrapair fertilizations. Little is known about how
      females choose extrapair mates and whether the traits used to choose them are
      reliable indicators of male quality. Here we identify a novel male trait
      associated with extra-group mating success in the superb fairy-wren (Malurus
      cyaneus), a cooperatively breeding bird with one of the highest known frequencies
      of extra-group mating. Female fairy-wrens chose extra-group mates that molted
      earlier into breeding plumage. Males molted up to five months before the breeding
      season began, and only males that molted at least one month prior to its onset
      gained any extra-group fertilizations. This conclusion held after controlling
      statistically for the effect of age and social status on molt date. Once males
      acquired breeding plumage, they began courtship display to females on other
      territories. Thus, some males were displaying to females for several months
      before the breeding season began. This extraordinarily long period of
      advertisement by males may be facilitated by the long-term ownership of
      territories. We suggest that early acquisition of breeding plumage or the
      subsequent display behavior can be reliable cues for mate choice because they are
      costly to acquire or maintain.

PMID- 28565634
TI  - HISTORICAL SEPARATION AND PRESENT GENE FLOW THROUGH A ZONE OF SECONDARY CONTACT
      IN PONDEROSA PINE.
AB  - I examined the effects of historical division and secondary contact between
      eastern and western varieties of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws Pinaceae)
      on extant patterns of genetic variation. Fossil and biogeographic evidence both
      indicate that the current point of contact between these two varieties represents
      secondary contact following historical separation during the Wisconsin
      glaciation. Current gene flow was assessed by observing the degree of
      introgression of paternally inherited cpDNA and maternally inherited mtDNA
      polymorphisms. Both seeds and pollen are wind dispersed in ponderosa pine.
      Introgression was primarily from west to east, the direction of the prevailing
      wind, for both organelles, but introgression of cpDNA far exceeded that of mtDNA.
      Thus pollen is the main agent of contemporary gene flow between the two
      varieties. Neither seeds nor pollen showed enough introgression since secondary
      contact to have homogenized the two gene pools. However, allozyme differentiation
      was minimal. This calls into question assumptions of selective neutrality for at
      least some of the markers. Theory predicts that nuclear markers will show a high
      locus-to-locus variance of FST following historical separation. This prediction
      is confirmed by the allozyme data for ponderosa pine, and may provide a useful
      means of identifying historical separations from allele frequency data.

PMID- 28565633
TI  - MECHANISM OF SELECTION FAVORING A WIDE TUBULAR COROLLA IN CAMPANULA PUNCTATA.
AB  - A previous study of Campanula punctata pollinated by Bombus diversus showed
      greater male reproductive success in plants with wider corollas when male
      reproductive success was measured by paternity analysis. Pollen removal alone was
      not a good measure of male reproductive success. The aim of the current study is
      to elucidate the mechanism underlying the selection on corolla width in C.
      punctata. Multiple regression analysis of male reproductive success in
      experimental populations revealed that the advantage of a wide corolla to the
      male is independent of the corolla width of pollen recipients, indicating that
      the position of pollen deposited on Bombus may not be an important factor for
      selection. However, the number of pollen grains that fell on the petal or off the
      flower and were lost at the first visit of Bombus (pollen fall) decreased with
      increasing corolla width, so that most pollen grains removed from a wide flower
      were deposited onto the pollinator. In a narrow flower, a greater proportion of
      the pollen removed was wasted through pollen fall. Pollen removal does not
      reflect male reproductive success, at least in part because of the loss of pollen
      in some flowers through pollen fall. The positive relationship between wider
      corollas and reduced loss of pollen through pollen fall is likely to lead to
      greater male reproductive success of wider flowers under repeated visits of
      pollinators. Decreased pollen fall, probably due to more gentle contact between
      pollen and bees in flowers with wider corollas, may be one of the mechanisms
      underlying the selection on corolla width of C. punctata.

PMID- 28565635
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC RECOGNITION AND DISCRIMINATION BASED UPON OLFACTORY CUES IN
      NORTHERN SWORDTAILS.
AB  - Female Xiphophorus montezumae were attracted to olfactory cues from conspecific
      and heterospecific (X. cortezi and X. nigrensis) males when given a choice
      between the stimulus and water. When given a choice between conspecific and
      heterospecific cues, females only demonstrated a strong preference for the
      conspecific stimulus when it was matched against X. nigrensis. Female X.
      nigrensis were attracted to olfactory cues from their close relative, X. cortezi,
      but did not respond to cues from the more distantly related X. montezumae. They
      preferred the scent of their own males to the olfactory cues of both
      heterospecific species. Our results indicate that X. cortezi and X. nigrensis
      share an apomorphic change in some aspect of their olfactory cue-receiver system
      that is not shared with X. montezumae. We also uncovered an asymmetry in response
      based on olfactory stimuli in these fishes: X. montezumae is moderately attracted
      to the cue from X. nigrensis, whereas X. nigrensis does not respond to the cue
      from X. montezumae at all.

PMID- 28565636
TI  - THE ENDOCRINE GENETICS OF WING POLYMORPHISM IN GRYLLUS. A RESPONSE TO ZERA.

PMID- 28565637
TI  - GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PARASITE VIRULENCE AND TRANSMISSION IN THE RODENT
      MALARIA PLASMODIUM CHABAUDI.
AB  - Many parasites evolve to become virulent rather than benign mutualists. One of
      the major theoretical models of parasite virulence postulates that this is
      because rapid within-host replication rates are necessary for successful
      transmission (parasite fitness) and that virulence (damage to the host) is an
      unavoidable consequence of this rapid replication. Two fundamental assumptions
      underlying this so-called evolutionary trade-off model have rarely been tested
      empirically: (1) that higher replication rates lead to higher levels of
      virulence; and (2) that higher replication rates lead to higher transmission.
      Both of these relationships must have a genetic basis for this evolutionary
      hypothesis to be relevant. These assumptions were tested in the rodent malaria
      parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi, by examining genetic relationships between
      virulence and transmission traits across a population of eight parasite clones
      isolated from the wild. Each clone was injected into groups of inbred mice in a
      controlled laboratory environment, and replication rate (measured by maximum
      asexual parasitemia), virulence (measured by live-weight loss and degree of
      anemia in the mouse), and transmission (measured by density of sexual forms,
      gametocytes, in the blood and proportion of mosquitoes infected after taking a
      blood-meal from the mouse) were assessed. It was found that clones differed
      widely in these traits and these clone differences were repeatable over
      successive blood passages. Virulence traits were strongly phenotypically and
      genetically (i.e., across clones) correlated to maximum parasitemia thus
      supporting the first assumption that rapid replication causes higher virulence.
      Transmission traits were also positively phenotypically and genetically
      correlated to parasitemia, which supports the second assumption that rapid
      replication leads to higher transmission. Thus, two assumptions of the parasite
      centered trade-off model of the evolution of virulence were shown to be justified
      in malaria parasites.

PMID- 28565638
TI  - COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES OF TWO PARASITOID-HOST INTERACTIONS.
AB  - Recent studies of parasitoid-host interactions have demonstrated that parasitoids
      and their hosts are geographically structured for traits such as virulence and
      encapsulation defenses, but no studies have yet compared the geographic structure
      of parasitoids and hosts using neutral genetic markers. Such studies of
      geographic structure are needed to evaluate the underlying geographic scale at
      which these interactions evolve and allow assessment of the relative effects of
      selection and gene flow on the geographic structure observed in traits under
      selection. We used sequence data from the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I
      and II subunits to document and compare the geographic structures of the
      parasitoid Agathis thompsoni and its moth host Greya subalba. We also documented
      the geographic structure of G. enchrysa and compared it to the geographic
      structure of its parasitoid Agathis n. sp. The results demonstrated that
      parasitoids and their hosts may have incongruent patterns of geographic structure
      as assessed by molecular markers. As a consequence, the geographic scale at which
      the interaction evolves may be different for each species involved in the
      interaction. Depending on the interplay of selection and gene flow, there may not
      be a one-to-one correspondence of traits important in the interaction between
      parasitoids and their hosts at the level of local populations. The geographic
      structures of A. thompsoni and G. subalba and Agathis n. sp. and G. enchrysa
      provide further evidence of the potential importance of the formation of
      geographic mosaics in coevolving parasitoid-host interactions and evolving
      interactions in general.

PMID- 28565639
TI  - POLYTOMIES AND THE POWER OF PHYLOGENETIC INFERENCE.
AB  - Although phylogenetic hypotheses can provide insights into mechanisms of
      evolution, their utility is limited by our inability to differentiate
      simultaneous speciation events (hard polytomies) from rapid cladogenesis (soft
      polytomies). In the present paper, we tested the potential for statistical power
      analysis to differentiate between hard and soft polytomies in molecular
      phytogenies. Classical power analysis typically is used a priori to determine the
      sample size required to detect a particular effect size at a particular level of
      significance (a) with a certain power (1 - beta). A posteriori, power analysis is
      used to infer whether failure to reject a null hypothesis results from lack of an
      effect or from insufficient data (i.e., low power). We adapted this approach to
      molecular data to infer whether polytomies result from simultaneous branching
      events or from insufficient sequence information. We then used this approach to
      determine the amount of sequence data (sample size) required to detect a positive
      branch length (effect size). A worked example is provided based on the auklets
      (Charadriiformes: Alcidae), a group of seabirds among which relationships are
      represented by a polytomy, despite analyses of over 3000 bp of sequence data. We
      demonstrate the calculation of effect sizes and sample sizes from sequence data
      using a normal curve test for difference of a proportion from an expected value
      and a t-test for a difference of a mean from an expected value. Power analyses
      indicated that the data for the auklets should be sufficient to differentiate
      speciation events that occurred at least 100,000 yr apart (the duration of the
      shortest glacial and interglacial events of the Pleistocene), 2.6 million years
      ago.

PMID- 28565640
TI  - ECOLOGICAL GENETICS OF GYNODIOECY IN SILENE VULGARIS: RELATIVE FITNESS OF FEMALES
      AND HERMAPHRODITES DURING THE COLONIZATION PROCESS.
AB  - Recent theoretical models have addressed the influence of metapopulation dynamics
      on the fitness of females and hermaphrodites in gynodioecious plants. In
      particular, selection is thought to favor hermaphrodites during population
      establishment because that sex should be less prone to pollen limitation,
      especially if self-fertilization is possible. However, inbreeding depression
      could limit this advantage. In this experimental study of Silene vulgaris, a
      weedy gynodioecious plant, the fitness of females and hermaphrodites was
      estimated from seed production in both mixed-sex populations and for individuals
      isolated from these populations by 20, 40, 80, or 160 m. In mixed populations
      females display statistically significant greater per capita seed production
      owing to higher capsule production and higher rates of seed germination. The
      fitness of both sexes declines with increasing isolation, but at different rates,
      such that in the 160-m treatment hermaphrodites are by far the more fit sex.
      Allozyme studies suggest that this differential decline is because the selfing
      rate in hermaphrodites increases as a function of isolation, at least partially
      compensating for a decline in the availability of outcross pollen. Overall, the
      negative effects of pollen limitation on females far outweighs the negative
      effects of inbreeding depression following selfing in hermaphrodites. Thus,
      extinction/recolonization dynamics would appear to favor hermaphrodites as long
      as seed dispersal events exceed some critical distance.

PMID- 28565641
TI  - TEMPERATURE EFFECTS AND GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS IN HYBRIDS:
      HALDANE'S RULE IN FLOUR BEETLES.
AB  - When males of the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, are crossed to females of
      its close relative T. freemani, the sex ratio of the hybrids is female biased,
      owing in part to hybrid male mortality. Morphological abnormalities are also
      frequent in the surviving hybrid males, but not in the hybrid females. The
      finding that the heterogametic sex (male) is more adversely affected in
      interspecific crosses than the homogametic sex is consistent with Haldane's rule,
      which predicts that hybrid dysfunction should emerge as an indirect byproduct of
      divergent adaptation to differing environments. If so, environmental effects and
      genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI) should characterize the expression of
      Haldane's rule and interspecific hybrid traits in general. We used two wild
      collected populations of T. castaneum (from Infantes, Spain, and Madagascar) to
      investigate the effects of environmental variation on the expression of Haldane's
      rule. Males from each population were mated to several T. freemani females and
      the half-sibling hybrid progenies were reared across a series of temperature
      regimes. For both populations, we found that hybrids raised at higher
      temperatures exhibited a more extreme expression of Haldane's rule: The hybrid
      sex ratios were more biased toward females and hybrid males had a much higher
      incidence of morphological abnormalities. The average response to temperature,
      the norm of reaction for Haldane's rule, varied between the two populations, and
      we found considerable and significant GEI for both hybrid traits within both
      populations. The evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed in the
      context of speciation arising as an indirect effect of local adaptation.

PMID- 28565642
TI  - MAGNITUDE AND TIMING OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN SCOTS PINE (PINUS SYLVESTRIS
      L.).
AB  - Inbreeding depression is a major selective force favoring outcrossing in
      flowering plants. However, some self-fertilization should weaken the harmful
      effects of inbreeding by exposing deleterious alleles to selection. This study
      examines the maintenance of inbreeding depression in the predominantly
      outcrossing species Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine). Open-pollinated and self
      fertilized progeny of 23 maternal trees, originating from a natural stand in
      southern Finland, were grown at two sites. We observed significant inbreeding
      depression in two of the four life stages measured. Inbreeding depression was
      largest for seed maturation (delta = 0.74), where seedset in open-pollinated
      strobili (70.9%) was about four times higher than in selfed strobili (18.3%).
      Inbreeding depression in postgermination survival (upto an age of 23 years) was
      also high (delta = 0.62-0.75). No significant differences in height (delta =
      0.05) or flowering (delta = 0.14) of the trees after 23 years were observed.
      Cumulative inbreeding depression was high (delta = 0.90-0.94) and differed
      significantly among maternal families (range 0.45-1.00). The magnitude of
      inbreeding depression among the 23 maternal parents was not significantly
      correlated between early (seed maturation) and later (postgermination survival)
      life stages, suggesting that its genetic basis varies across the life cycle. Size
      differences among the progeny types diminished in time due to nonrandom size
      specific mortality, causing a decrease in the inbreeding depression estimates for
      height over time. Our results indicate that Scots pine exhibits high levels of
      inbreeding depression during both early and later stages of the life cycle. It is
      argued that self-fertilization in Scots pine is inefficient in purging the
      genetic load caused by highly deleterious mutations because of the nearly
      complete loss of selfed individuals over time. This results in an effectively
      random mating outcrossing population.

PMID- 28565643
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AGAINST HYBRIDS BETWEEN SYMPATRIC STICKLEBACK SPECIES: EVIDENCE
      FROM A FIELD EXPERIMENT.
AB  - Sexual selection against viable, fertile hybrids may contribute to reproductive
      isolation between recently diverged species. If so, then sexual selection may be
      implicated in the speciation process. Laboratory measures of the mating success
      of hybrids may underestimate the amount of sexual selection against them if
      selection pressures are habitat specific. Male F1 hybrids between sympatric
      benthic and limnetic sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus complex) do not suffer
      a mating disadvantage when tested in the laboratory. However, in the wild males
      choose different microhabitats and parental females tend to be found in the same
      habitats as conspecific males. This sets up the opportunity for sexual selection
      against male hybrids because they must compete with parental males for access to
      parental females. To test for sexual selection against adult F1 hybrid males, we
      examined their mating success in enclosures in their preferred habitat (open,
      unvegetated substrate) where limnetic males and females also predominate. We
      found significantly reduced mating success in F1 hybrid males compared with
      limnetic males. Thus, sexual selection, like other mechanisms of postzygotic
      isolation between young sister species, may be stronger in a wild setting than in
      the laboratory because of habitat-specific selection pressures. Our results are
      consistent with, but do not confirm, a role for sexual selection in stickleback
      speciation.

PMID- 28565644
TI  - THE ENDOCRINE GENETICS OF WING POLYMORPHISM IN GRYLLUS: CRITIQUE OF RECENT
      STUDIES AND STATE OF THE ART.

PMID- 28565645
TI  - OPTIMAL REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN STOCHASTIC, DENSITY-DEPENDENT ENVIRONMENTS.
AB  - The amount of effort organisms should put into reproducing at any given time has
      been a matter of debate for many years. Early models suggested a simple rule of
      thumb: iteroparity should be favored when juvenile survival is relatively
      variable and semelparity when adult survival is relatively variable. When more
      mathematically complex models were developed, these simple conclusions were found
      to be special cases. Variability can select toward iteroparity or semelparity
      depending on a number of factors irrespective of relative adult/juvenile survival
      (e.g, the density-independent models of Orzack and Tuljapurkar). Using new
      techniques, we estimate the ESS reproductive effort for stage-structured models
      in density-dependent and stochastic conditions. We find that variability causes
      significant changes in reproductive effort, these changes are often small (+/-
      10% of determinstic ESS effort, but up to 50% change in some instances), and the
      amount that effort increases or decreases depends on many factors (e.g., the
      deterministic population dynamics, the vital rates affected by density, the
      amount of variation, the correlations between the vital rates, the distribution
      from which the variation is drawn, and the deterministic ESS effort). In a
      variable environment, semelparity is the ESS in only 3.5% of cases; iteroparity
      is the rule.

PMID- 28565646
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE PANTROPICAL SEA URCHIN EUCIDARIS IN RELATION TO LAND
      BARRIERS AND OCEAN CURRENTS.
AB  - The pantropical sea urchin genus Eucidaris contains four currently recognized
      species, all of them allopatric: E. metularia in the Indo-West Pacific, E.
      thouarsi in the eastern Pacific, E. tribuloides in both the western and eastern
      Atlantic, and E. clavata at the central Atlantic islands of Ascension and St.
      Helena. We sequenced a 640-bp region of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of
      mitochondrial DNA to determine whether this division of the genus into species
      was confirmed by molecular markers, to ascertain their phylogenetic relations,
      and to reconstruct the history of possible dispersal and vicariance events that
      led to present-day patterns of species distribution. We found that E. metularia
      split first from the rest of the extant species of the genus. If COI divergence
      is calibrated by the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama, the estimated date of
      the separation of the Indo-West Pacific species is 4.7-6.4 million years ago.
      This date suggests that the last available route of genetic contact between the
      Indo-Pacific and the rest of the tropics was from west to east through the
      Eastern Pacific Barrier, rather than through the Tethyan Sea or around the
      southern tip of Africa. The second cladogenic event was the separation of eastern
      Pacific and Atlantic populations by the Isthmus of Panama. Eucidaris at the outer
      eastern Pacific islands (Galapagos, Isla del Coco, Clipperton Atoll) belong to a
      separate clade, so distinct from mainland E. thouarsi as to suggest that this is
      a different species, for which the name E. galapagensis is revived from the older
      taxonomic literature. Complete lack of shared alleles in three allozyme loci
      between island and mainland populations support their separate specific status.
      Eucidaris galapagensis and E. thouarsi are estimated from their COI divergence to
      have split at about the same time that E. thouarsi and E. tribuloides were being
      separated by the Isthmus of Panama. Even though currents could easily convey
      larvae between the eastern Pacific islands and the American mainland, the two
      species do not appear to have invaded each other's ranges. Conversely, the
      central Atlantic E. clavata at St. Helena and Ascension is genetically similar to
      E. tribuloides from the American and African coasts. Populations on these islands
      are either genetically connected to the coasts of the Atlantic or have been
      colonized by extant mitochondrial DNA lineages of Eucidaris within the last
      200,000 years. Although it is hard to explain how larvae can cross the entire
      width of the Atlantic within their competent lifetimes, COI sequences of
      Eucidaris from the west coast of Africa are very similar to those of E.
      tribuloides from the Caribbean. FST statistics indicate that gene flow between E.
      metularia from the Indian Ocean and from the western and central Pacific is
      restricted. Low gene flow is also evident between populations of E. clavata from
      Ascension and St. Helena. Rates of intraspecific exchange of genes in E.
      thouarsi, E. galapagensis, and E. tribuloides, on the other hand, are high. The
      phylogeny of Eucidaris confirms Ernst Mayr's conclusions that major barriers to
      the dispersal of tropical echinoids have been the wide stretch of deep water
      between central and eastern Pacific, the cold water off the southwest coast of
      Africa, and the Isthmus of Panama. It also suggests that a colonization event in
      the eastern Pacific has led to speciation between mainland and island
      populations.

PMID- 28565648
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565647
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF SPOTTED OWL (STRIX OCCIDENTALIS) POPULATIONS BASED ON
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES: GENE FLOW, GENETIC STRUCTURE, AND A NOVEL
      BIOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERN.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences of spotted owls (Strix occidentalis)
      allowed us to investigate gene flow, genetic structure, and biogeographic
      relationships among these forest-dwelling birds of western North America
      Estimates of gene flow based on genetic partitioning and the phylogeography of
      haplotypes indicate substantial dispersal within three long-recognized
      subspecies. However, patterns of individual phyletic relationships indicate a
      historical absence of gene flow among the subspecies, which are essentially
      monophyletic. The pattern of haplotype coalescence enabled us to identify the
      approximate timing and direction of a recent episode of gene flow from the Sierra
      Nevada to the northern coastal ranges. The three subspecies comprise phylogenetic
      species, and the northern spotted owl (S. o. caurina) is sister to a clade of
      California (S. o. occidentalis) plus Mexican spotted owls (S o lucida); this
      represents a novel biogeographic pattern within birds. The California spotted owl
      had substantially lower nucleotide diversity than the other two subspecies; this
      result is inconsistent with present patterns of population density A causal
      explanation requires postulating a severe bottleneck or a selective sweep, either
      of which was confined to only one geographic region.

PMID- 28565649
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF TRAIT EVOLUTION AND SPECIES DIVERSITY VARIATION AMONG
      ANGIOSPERM FAMILIES.
AB  - Angiosperm families differ greatly from one another in species richness (S).
      Previous studies have attributed significant components of this variation to the
      influence of pollination mode (biotic/abiotic) and growth form (herbaceous/woody)
      on speciation rate, but these results suffer difficulties of interpretation
      because all the studies ignored the phylogenetic relationships among families. We
      use a molecular phylogeny of the angiosperm families to reanalyse correlations
      between S and family-level traits and use reconstructions of trait evolution to
      interpret the results. We confirm that pollination mode and growth form are
      correlated with S and show that the majority of changes in pollination mode
      involved a change from biotic to abiotic pollination with an associated fall in
      speciation rate. The majority of growth form changes involved the evolution of
      herbaceousness from woodiness with a correlated rise in speciation rate. We test
      the hypothesis of Ricklefs and Renner (1994) that "evolutionary flexibility"
      rather than other trait changes triggered increased speciation rates in some
      families, but find little support for the hypothesis.

PMID- 28565650
TI  - ALLOZYME AND ADVERTISEMENT CALL VARIATION IN THE TUNGARA FROG, PHYSALAEMUS
      PUSTULOSUS.
AB  - We analyzed variation in advertisement calls and allozymes in 30 populations
      along a 5000-km transect throughout most of the range of the tungara frog,
      Physalaemus pustulosus. All 12 call variables measured show significant
      differences among populations despite the importance of the advertisement call in
      species recognition. Some call variables exhibited clinal variation, whereas most
      others differed between the two major allozyme groups that have invaded Panama at
      different times, perhaps 4-4.5 million yr apart. Call variables that primarily
      affect discrimination among conspecifics tended to exhibit greater variation than
      call variables that are crucial for species recognition. The proximate mechanism
      of production underlying a call variable, however, is a better predictor of its
      variation. Contrary to predictions of some sexual selection models, call
      variation exhibits predictable patterns of geographical variation, although a
      substantial portion of variation among populations is not explained by geographic
      position. Although allozymes, calls, and geography usually covary, closer
      populations can have more similar calls independent of allozyme similarity.

PMID- 28565651
TI  - APPARENT DIRECTIONAL SELECTION OF BODY SIZE IN DROSOPHILA BUZZATII: LARVAL
      CROWDING AND MALE MATING SUCCESS.

PMID- 28565653
TI  - SELECTION FOR HEAT-SHOCK RESISTANCE IN LARVAL AND IN ADULT DROSOPHILA BUZZATII:
      COMPARING DIRECT AND INDIRECT RESPONSES.
AB  - Direct and correlated responses in selection for heat-shock resistance in adult
      and in larval Drosophila buzzatii were studied. Two lines were artificially
      selected for higher survival to heat stress as adults, and two other lines were
      reared under a fluctuating thermal environment as larvae, 35 degrees C for 6 h
      and 25 degrees C for 18 h, to "naturally" select for higher resistance as larvae.
      The latter two lines were duplicated after nine generations to yield additional
      lines to be "naturally" selected as larvae at a higher temperature, 38.2 degrees
      C for 6 h. Control lines were maintained separately for the adult and larval
      selection lines. A significant direct response to selection was found for the
      adult selection lines. However, larvae of these adult selection lines were no
      more heat resistant than were larvae of the control lines. One of the two larval
      selection lines increased significantly in heat resistance as larvae. However,
      adult heat resistance was similar for lines selected as larvae and the
      corresponding control lines maintained at 25 degrees C. Changes in developmental
      time accompanied changes in survival after stress in both sets of lines selected
      for increased heat resistance.

PMID- 28565652
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF ALLORECOGNITION IN THE COLONIAL HYDROID HYDRACTINIA
      SYMBIOLONGICARPUS.
AB  - Many sedentary, clonal marine invertebrates compete intensively with conspecifics
      for habitable space. Allorecognition systems mediate the nature and outcome of
      these intraspecific competitive interactions, such that the initiation of
      agonistic behavior and the potential for intergenotypic fusion depend strongly on
      the relatedness of the contestants. The dependence of these behaviors on
      relatedness, along with the extraordinary precision with which self can be
      discriminated from nonself, suggest that allorecognition systems are highly
      polymorphic genetically. However, allotypic specificity of this sort could be
      produced by any number of genetic scenarios, ranging from relatively few loci
      with abundant allelic variation to numerous loci with relatively few alleles per
      locus. At this point, virtually nothing is known of the formal genetics of
      allorecognition in marine invertebrates; consequently, the evolutionary dynamics
      of such systems remain poorly understood. In this paper, we characterize the
      formal genetics of allorecognition in the marine hydrozoan Hydractinia
      symbiolongicarpus. Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus colonizes gastropod shells
      occupied by hermit crabs. When two or more individuals grow into contact, one of
      three outcomes ensues: fusion (compatibility), transitory fusion (a temporary
      state of compatibility), and rejection (incompatibility, often accompanied by the
      production of agonistic structures termed hyperplastic stolons). Observed
      patterns of compatibility between unrelated, half-sib pairs, and full-sib pairs
      show that unrelated and half-sib pairs under laboratory culture have a very low
      probability of being fusible, whereas full sibs have a roughly 30% rate of fusion
      in experimental pairings. The genetic simulations indicate that roughly five
      loci, with 5-7 alleles per locus, confer specificity in this species. In
      ecological terms, the reproductive ecology of H. symbiolongicarpus should promote
      the cosettlement of kin, some of which should be full sibs, and some half sibs.
      Thus, there is potential for kin selection to play a major role in the evolution
      of the H. symbiolongicarpus allorecognition system. In genetic terms, this system
      conforms to theoretical predictions for a recognition system selected to
      distinguish among classes of kin, in addition to self from nonself.

PMID- 28565654
TI  - COMPETITION BETWEEN SEGREGATION DISTORTERS: COEXISTENCE OF "SUPERIOR" AND
      "INFERIOR" HAPLOTYPES AT THE t COMPLEX.
AB  - By means of population genetical models, we investigate the competition between
      sex-specific segregation distorters. Although the models are quite general, they
      are motivated by a specific example, the t complex of the house mouse. Some
      variants at this gene complex, the t haplotypes, distort Mendelian segregation in
      heterozygous males in their favor. The selective advantage at the gamete level is
      counterbalanced by strong negative fitness effects at the individual level (male
      sterility or even lethality in both sexes). A plethora of different t haplotypes
      has been found, both in the field and in the lab. Up to now, however, models have
      focused on the equilibrium frequency of a single t haplotype. In contrast, we
      explicitly model the competition between several t haplotypes. A deterministic
      model for a large, well-mixed population predicts a surprisingly high degree of
      polymorphism. Haplotypes with seemingly inferior fitness characteristics may
      easily coexist with "superior" haplotypes. For instance, a lethal haplotype with
      a low segregation ratio may stably coexist with a sterile haplotype with a high
      segregation ratio. Stable coexistence is even possible for haplotypes with a
      segregation disadvantage. A simple stochastic model shows that the same
      principles apply in the context of a structured metapopulation. Although
      counterintuitive at first sight, all our results can be explained by the fact
      that segregation distorters have an inherent advantage when they are rare. We
      conclude that fitness comparisons are not sufficient to predict the outcome of
      competition when selective forces are acting at different levels.

PMID- 28565655
TI  - NATURAL HERITABILITIES: CAN THEY BE RELIABLY ESTIMATED IN THE LABORATORY?
AB  - The validity of the assumption, that laboratory estimates of heritabilities will
      tend to overestimate natural heritabilities, due to a reduction in environmental
      variability and thus the phenotypic variance of traits, is examined. One hundred
      sixty-five field estimates of narrow sense heritabilities derived from the
      literature are compared with 189 estimates from laboratory studies on wild,
      outbred animal populations derived from the data set of Mousseau and Roff. The
      results indicate that 84% of field heritabilities are significantly different
      from zero and that for morphological, behavioral, and life-history traits there
      are no significant differences between laboratory and field estimates of
      heritability. Unexpectedly, mean heritabilities for morphological and life
      history traits are actually higher in the field than in the lab. Twenty-two cases
      were found for which both laboratory and natural heritabilities had been
      estimated on the same traits. For this subset of the data, laboratory
      heritabilities tended to be higher than field estimates, but the difference was
      not significant. Also, the correlation between lab and field estimates was high
      (r = 0.6, P < 0.001), and the regression slope did not differ significantly from
      one. The major implications of this study are that laboratory estimates of
      heritability should generally provide reasonable estimations of both the
      magnitude and the significance of heritabilities in nature.

PMID- 28565656
TI  - MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF GENDER-ASSOCIATED MITOCHONDRIAL DNA LINEAGES IN BIVALVES
      (MOLLUSCA: BIVALVIA).
AB  - Previous studies have shown that marine mussels (genus Mytilus) and a freshwater
      mussel (Pyganodon grandis) contain two distinct gender-associated mitotypes,
      which is a characteristic feature of the phenomenon of doubly uniparental
      inheritance (DUI) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Here we present evidence for the
      presence of distinct male (M) and female (F) mitotypes in three other bivalve
      species, the mytilid Geukensia demissa, and the unionid species P. fragilis and
      Fusconaia flava. Nucleotide sequences of a segment of the COI gene from the M and
      F mitotypes from each of the three mytilid species (M. edulis, M. trossulus, G.
      demissa) and three unionid species (P. grandis, P. fragilis, F. flava) were used
      for phylogenetic analysis. The analysis suggests three independent origins of M
      and F mitotypes for the six species examined; one for the three unionid species,
      one for the two Mytilus species, and one for Geukensia. The first of these F/M
      divergence events, while of uncertain age, predates the divergence of the two
      unionid genera and is likely older than either of the two F/M divergence events
      in the mytilid taxa. The most parsimonious explanation of multiple F/M divergence
      events is that they represent independent origins of DUI. Another possibility is
      that, in a given taxon, an F or M mitotype assumes the role of the opposite
      mitotype (by virtue of a mechanism that remains to be clarified) and subsequently
      was fixed within its new gender. The fixation of a mtDNA lineage derived from a
      mitotype of switched function would reset the divergence of the gender-associated
      lineages to zero, thereby mimicking a de novo split of F and M lineages from a
      preexisting mtDNA genome that was not gender specific. Further broad-scale
      taxonomic studies of the occurrence of distinct M and F mitotypes may allow for
      the evaluation of the latter hypothesis.

PMID- 28565657
TI  - FEMALE CHOICE FOR AN INDICATOR OF MALE SIZE IN THE SONG OF THE BLACK-HORNED TREE
      CRICKET, OECANTHUS NIGRICORNIS (ORTHOPTERA: GRYLLIDAE: OECANTHINAE).
AB  - The calling song of male crickets, including Oecanthus nigricornis (Walker),
      attracts females for mating and provides a model system of sexual communication.
      We give the first conclusive identification of a feature of cricket song that is
      both attractive to females and indicates a phenotypic feature (body size) that
      determines male mating success and female reproductive benefits. We do this by
      first testing for correlations between song characteristics and aspects of male
      phenotype that are hypothesized to indicate male quality. We show that song is a
      reliable indicator of male size and male age, and that large male size is
      associated with increased female fecundity. We then use playbacks of synthetic
      songs that mimic natural variation in song parameters to study song preferences
      and we compare preferences under different presentation regimes to determine
      whether choices are based on relative song quality or some fixed criterion.
      Females show a preference for the lower frequency songs produced by large males,
      but only during simultaneous playbacks. Thus female choice is based on the
      relative quality of calls that can be sampled simultaneously. These results
      provide strong support for the hypothesis that females use variation in calling
      song to assess male mate quality.

PMID- 28565658
TI  - CHLOROPLAST DNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE COMMON BEECH (FAGUS SYLVATICA L.) IN
      EUROPE.

PMID- 28565659
TI  - HIERARCHICAL ANALYSIS OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PEROMYSCUS POLIONOTUS.
AB  - The severity of inbreeding depression appears to vary among taxa, but few
      ecological or other patterns have been identified that predict accurately which
      taxa are most sensitive to inbreeding. To examine the causes of heterogeneity in
      inbreeding depression, the effects of inbreeding on reproduction, survival, and
      growth were measured in three replicate experimental stocks for each of three
      subspecies of Peromyscus polionotus mice. Inbreeding of the dam reduced the
      probability of breeding, the probability of producing a second litter, and litter
      size. Inbreeding of the litter caused depression of litter size, juvenile
      viability, and mass at weaning, and caused an increase in the within-litter
      variance in mass. In spite of differences between the subspecies in natural
      population sizes, genetic variation, and mean rates of reproduction and survival,
      all variation observed between experimental populations in their responses to
      inbreeding could be attributed to random founder effects. The genetic load of
      deleterious alleles in each replicate was unequally partitioned among its founder
      pairs, and different founders contributed to the load affecting different fitness
      components. Thus, inbreeding depression for any one fitness component, in our
      experimental environment, must be due to relatively few deleterious alleles with
      major effects. Genetic loads so comprised would be expected to diverge among
      natural populations due to both random drift and selective removal of recessive
      deleterious alleles during population bottlenecks. The near universality of
      inbreeding depression would be maintained, however, if different alleles
      contribute to inbreeding depression of different fitness components and in
      different environments.

PMID- 28565661
TI  - LATITUDINAL VARIATION IN DEVELOPMENTAL TIME AND MASS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28565662
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF POLLINATION BY SEXUAL DECEPTION IN THE
      ORCHID CALADENIA TENTACTULATA.
AB  - Only orchids affect pollination by the deceptive sexual attraction of male
      insects, a syndrome particularly well developed in Australia. We examined the
      ecological and genetic consequences of exclusive pollination by sexually
      attracted male thynnine wasps in the orchid Caladenia tentaculata. Male wasps
      respond rapidly to flowers artificially presented in 1 * 1 m2 experimental
      patches. Sixty of 287 wasps approached within centimeters of the flower, but did
      not land. Of the remaining 79% who made floral contact, only 7.5% attempted
      copulation, the step critical for pollination. Wasps only rarely moved among
      patches (19% of flights) and none attempted copulation a second time, resembling
      observations in natural populations. We confirmed outcrossing and long distance
      pollen flow by monitoring how colored pollen moved in natural populations. Pollen
      movements approximated a linear rather than a leptokurtic distribution (mean
      distance: 17 m; maximum: 58 m). Pollinator visits varied independently of flower
      density in three of four populations with most solitary flowers being visited.
      Allozyme analysis revealed within-population fixation indices (F) close to zero
      and low levels of differentiation (FST) among populations. Despite behavioral
      evidence for long distance pollen flow, significant local genetic structure
      exists, perhaps reflecting restricted seed dispersal. Long distance pollen flow
      in C. tentaculata may therefore promote outbreeding by minimizing pollen
      transfers among related neighbors. Although this species is self-compatible,
      outcrossed progeny develop significantly faster than selfed progeny. Effective
      pollination at low flower densities could accentuate this advantage. The data are
      consistent with the predictions that deceptive pollination will result in long
      distance pollen flow, which may be of selective advantage at low density.
      Comparative studies of how food reward, food deceptive, and sexual deceptive
      pollination systems vary within a phylogenetic framework could further illuminate
      the evolution of sexual deception.

PMID- 28565663
TI  - GROWTH TEMPERATURE AND ADULT PIGMENTATION IN TWO DROSOPHILA SIBLING SPECIES: AN
      ADAPTIVE CONVERGENCE OF REACTION NORMS IN SYMPATRIC POPULATIONS?
AB  - Phenotypic plasticity of abdomen pigmentation was investigated in populations of
      the sibling species Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, living in sympatry
      in two French localities. Ten isofemale lines of each population and species were
      grown at different constant temperatures spanning their complete thermal range
      from 12 to 31 degrees C. Genetic variability between isofemale lines was not
      affected by growth temperature, but was consistently less in D. simulans. For all
      traits, the dark pigmentation of the abdominal segments decreased according to
      growth temperature, in agreement with the thermal budget adaptive hypothesis. The
      shapes of the response curves were different between the abdominal segments, but
      for a given segment, quite similar in the two species. On average D. simulans was
      lighter than D. melanogaster, but the difference was mainly expressed at higher
      temperatures. An interesting result was the difference observed between the two
      localities: flies from the colder locality (Villeurbanne) were found to be darker
      than flies from the warmer locality (Bordeaux). Interestingly, this difference
      was expressed only at low temperatures, 21 degrees C and below, that is, at
      temperatures encountered in natural conditions. This suggests an adaptive
      response resulting in a change of the shape of reaction norm and involving
      genotype-environment interactions. When comparing the genetic structure of
      geographic populations for quantitative traits, several laboratory environments
      should be preferred to a single one.

PMID- 28565664
TI  - CULTURAL INHERITANCE OF SONG AND ITS ROLE IN THE EVOLUTION OF DARWIN'S FINCHES.
AB  - Songs of Darwin's finches were studied on the Galapagos Island of Daphne Major
      from 1976 to 1995. A single, structurally simple, and unvarying song is sung
      throughout life by each male of the two common species, Geospiza fortis (medium
      ground finch) and G. scandens (cactus finch). Songs of the two species differ
      strongly in quantitative features, and individual variation among males is much
      broader in G. fortis than in G. scandens. Although there are exceptions, songs of
      sons strongly resemble the songs of their fathers. They also resemble the songs
      of their paternal grandfathers, but not their maternal grandfathers, indicating
      that they are culturally inherited and not genetically inherited. Female G.
      fortis display a tendency to avoid mating with males that sing the same type of
      song as their father. They also avoid mating with males that sing heterospecific
      song, with very rare exceptions. Thus song, an evolving, culturally inherited
      trait, is an important factor in species recognition and mate choice. It
      constrains the mating of females to conspecifics, even when there is no genetic
      penalty to interbreeding, and thus may play a crucial role in species formation
      by promoting genetic isolation on secondary contact. The barrier is leaky in that
      occasional errors in song transmission result in misimprinting, which leads to a
      low incidence of hybridization and introgression. Introgression slows the rate of
      postzygotic isolation, but can produce individuals in novel genetic and
      morphological space that can provide the starting point of a new evolutionary
      trajectory.

PMID- 28565665
TI  - PATTERNS IN PHYLOGENETIC TREE BALANCE WITH VARIABLE AND EVOLVING SPECIATION
      RATES.
AB  - Aspects of phylogenetic tree shape, and in particular tree balance, provide clues
      to the workings of the macroevolutionary process. I use a simulation approach to
      explore patterns in tree balance for several models of the evolutionary process
      under which speciation rates vary through the history of diversifying clades. I
      demonstrate that when speciation rates depend on an evolving trait of
      individuals, and are therefore "heritable" along evolutionary lineages, the
      resulting phylogenies become imbalanced. However, imbalance also results from
      some (but not all) models of "nonheritable" speciation rate variation. The degree
      of imbalance increases with the magnitude of speciation rate variation, and then
      for gradual evolution (but not punctuated equilibria) reaches an asymptote short
      of the theoretical maximum. Very high levels of rate variation are required to
      produce imbalance matching that found in real data (estimated phylogenies from
      the systematic literature). I discuss implications of the simulation results for
      our understanding of macroevolution.

PMID- 28565666
TI  - GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE AND GRADUAL NORTHWARD DECLINE OF GENETIC VARIABILITY
      IN THE GREENFINCH (CARDUELIS CHLORIS).

PMID- 28565667
TI  - THE GEOGRAPHY OF COEVOLUTION: COMPARATIVE POPULATION STRUCTURES FOR A SNAIL AND
      ITS TREMATODE PARASITE.
AB  - Gene flow and the genetic structure of host and parasite populations are critical
      to the coevolutionary process, including the conditions under which antagonistic
      coevolution favors sexual reproduction. Here we compare the genetic structures of
      different populations of a freshwater New Zealand snail (Potamopyrgus
      antipodarum) with its trematode parasite (Microphallus sp.) using allozyme
      frequency data. Allozyme variation among snail populations was found to be highly
      structured among lakes; but for the parasite there was little allozyme structure
      among lake populations, suggesting much higher levels of parasite gene flow. The
      overall pattern of variation was confirmed with principal component analysis,
      which also showed that the organization of genetic differentiation for the snail
      (but not the parasite) was strongly related to the geographic arrangement of
      lakes. Some snail populations from different sides of the Alps near mountain
      passes were more similar to each other than to other snail populations on the
      same side of the Alps. Furthermore, genetic distances among parasite populations
      were correlated with the genetic distances among host populations, and genetic
      distances among both host and parasite populations were correlated with "stepping
      stone" distances among lakes. Hence, the host snail and its trematode parasite
      seem to be dispersing to adjacent lakes in a stepping-stone fashion, although
      parasite dispersal among lakes is clearly greater. High parasite gene flow should
      help to continuously reintroduce genetic diversity within local populations where
      strong selection might otherwise isolate "host races." Parasite gene flow can
      thereby facilitate the coevolutionary (Red Queen) dynamics that confer an
      advantage to sexual reproduction by restoring lost genetic variation.

PMID- 28565668
TI  - SIMPLE GENETIC BASIS FOR IMPORTANT SOCIAL TRAITS IN THE FIRE ANT SOLENOPSIS
      INVICTA.
AB  - Variation in queen phenotype and reproductive role in the fire ant Solenopsis
      invicta has been shown to have a simple genetic basis in a single introduced
      population in the United States. The evidence consists of an association between
      this variation and queen genotype at Pgm-3, a phosphoglucomutase-encoding gene.
      In the present study, we surveyed Pgm-3 allele and genotype frequencies in
      diverse populations from the native and introduced ranges of this ant to learn
      whether this simple genetic basis for reproductive traits is a general feature of
      the species or a genetic anomaly in introduced ants stemming from a recent
      bottleneck or the invasion of novel habitats. No egg-laying queens living in
      polygyne (multiple-queen) nests possessed the homozygous genotype Pgm-3a/a in any
      of the study populations, yet nonreproductive females from such nests (workers as
      well as queens that had not yet initiated oogenesis) possessed this genotype at
      moderate frequencies. Remarkably, Pgm-3a/a was the most common genotype among all
      classes of females, including egg-laying queens, in monogyne (single-queen) nests
      from all populations studied. Genotype proportions at Pgm-3 in polygyne
      populations typically departed strongly from the proportions expected under Hardy
      Weinberg equilibrium, whereas those in monogyne populations did not. These
      patterns establish that a single mendelian gene influences queen reproductive
      role in S. invicta and that this gene uniformly is under strong directional
      selection in the polygyne social form only. Moreover, the perfect association of
      Pgm-3 genotype and reproductive role in all populations, combined with the known
      function of phosphoglucomutase in insect metabolism, suggest that this gene may
      directly influence queen phenotypes rather than merely serving as a marker for a
      linked gene that causes the effects.

PMID- 28565669
TI  - TEMPORAL INSTABILITY OF GENETIC COMPONENTS OF FLORAL TRAIT VARIATION: MATERNAL
      FAMILY AND POPULATION EFFECTS IN SPERGULARIA MARINA (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).

PMID- 28565670
TI  - PATERNAL EFFECTS IN INHERITANCE OF A PATHOGEN RESISTANCE TRAIT IN IPOMOEA
      PURPUREA.
AB  - For continuously variable, polygenic characters, the response to selection
      depends upon the proportion of phenotypic variance that is caused by additive
      genetic variance, or narrow-sense heritability. Thus, a major goal of
      quantitative genetics is to partition phenotypic variance for a trait in a way
      that isolates additive genetic variance from other causes. The variance among
      paternal half-sib families, which is frequently used to estimate additive
      variance, is commonly recognized to include additive epistatic effects. However,
      this variance component can also include non-Mendelian paternal effects. We
      report here the results from a diallel crossing design used to isolate nonnuclear
      effects from the paternal nuclear contribution to disease resistance in the
      common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. In particular, we found that genetic
      variance for resistance to anthracnose, a disease caused by the fungal pathogen
      Colletotrichum dematium, was determined largely by a nonnuclear, additive
      paternal effect. We discuss potential mechanisms for this effect as well as some
      of their evolutionary implications.

PMID- 28565671
TI  - THE CONTRIBUTION OF NEW MUTATIONS TO GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION FOR FITNESS
      IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Many studies have documented the existence of genotype-environment interaction
      (GEI) for traits closely related to fitness in natural populations. A type of GEI
      that is commonly observed is changes in the fitness ranking of genetic groups
      (families, clones, or inbred lines) in different environments. We refer to such
      changes in ranking as crossing of reaction norms for fitness. A common
      interpretation of crossing of reaction norms for fitness is that selection favors
      different alleles in the different environments (i.e., that "trade-offs" exist).
      If this is the case, selection could maintain genetic variation, and even lead to
      reproductive isolation between subpopulations using different environments. Even
      if the same alleles are favored in every environment, however, deleterious
      mutations that vary in the magnitude of their effect depending on environment
      could cause reaction norms for fitness to cross. If deleterious mutations with
      environment-dependent effects are responsible for maintaining much of the
      variation leading to crossing of reaction norms for fitness in natural
      populations, it should be possible to observe crossing of reaction norms for
      fitness among otherwise genetically identical lines bearing newly arisen
      spontaneous mutations. We examined the contribution of new mutations to GEI for
      fitness in Drosophila melanogaster. Eighteen lines were derived from a common,
      highly inbred base stock, and maintained at a population size of 10 pairs for
      over 200 generations, to allow them to accumulate spontaneous mutations. Because
      of the small population size of the lines, selection against mildly deleterious
      mutations should have been relatively ineffective. The lines were tested for
      productivity (number of surviving adult progeny from a standard number of
      parents) in five different environmental treatments, comprising different food
      media, temperatures, and levels of competition. The lines showed highly
      significant GEI for productivity, owing largely to considerable changes in
      ranking in the different environments. We conclude that mutations that are
      deleterious on average, but whose quantitative effects depend on environment,
      could be responsible for maintaining much of the variation leading to crossing of
      reaction norms for fitness that has been observed in samples of D. melanogaster
      from the wild.

PMID- 28565672
TI  - POLLEN-TUBE COMPETITION, SIRING SUCCESS, AND CONSISTENT ASYMMETRIC HYBRIDIZATION
      IN LOUISIANA IRISES.
AB  - Postpollination mechanisms can play an important role in limiting natural
      hybridization in plants. Reciprocal hand pollination experiments were performed
      to study these mechanisms in two species of Louisiana iris: Iris brevicaulis and
      I. fulva. Relative pollen-tube growth rates changed significantly through time,
      with I. fulva tubes increasingly outperforming I. brevicaulis tubes in both
      conspecific and heterospecific styles. However, this pattern of change in
      relative performance was a poor predictor of siring success: the majority of
      seeds sired by both maternal species was conspecific rather than hybrid.
      Experimental crosses and field studies show consistent asymmetric hybridization
      in Louisiana irises, with I. fulva being a more successful father and a more
      selective mother than both I. brevicaulis and a third species, I. hexagona. The
      cause of this pattern is not yet clear, but the pattern itself is unusual.
      Typically, short-styled species tend to be less successful in reciprocal crosses
      than long-styled relatives, but I. fulva has shorter styles than either I.
      brevicaulis or I. hexagona. The effects of pollen-tube competition, differential
      fertilization, and selective abortion in causing this pattern of asymmetric
      hybridization is discussed.

PMID- 28565673
TI  - THERMAL EVOLUTION OF EGG SIZE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - We measured the size of eggs produced by populations of Drosophila melanogaster
      that had been collected along latitudinal gradients in different continents or
      that had undergone several years of culture at different temperatures in the
      laboratory. Australian and South American populations from higher latitudes
      produced larger eggs when all were compared at a standard temperature. Laboratory
      populations that had been evolving at 16.5 degrees C produced larger eggs than
      populations that had evolved at 25 degrees C or 29 degrees C, suggesting that
      temperature may be an important selective agent in producing the latitudinal
      clines. Flies from laboratory populations produced larger eggs at an experimental
      temperature of 16.5 degrees C than at 25 degrees C, and there was no indication
      of genotype-environment interaction for egg size. Evolution of egg size in
      response to temperature cannot be accounted for by differences in adult body size
      between populations. It is not clear which life-history traits are direct targets
      of thermal selection and which are showing correlated responses, and
      disentangling these is a task for the future.

PMID- 28565674
TI  - ECOLOGICAL DIVERSIFICATION AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN THE OLD WORLD LEAF WARBLERS
      (GENUS PHYLLOSCOPUS): A PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - I investigated the historical basis for variation in regional species diversity.
      I used a molecular phylogenetic analysis within a single genus of birds (the Old
      World leaf warblers, genus Phylloscopus) in conjunction with ecological studies
      in Europe, the Himalayas, and Japan to evaluate the importance of historical
      events in shaping the present constellation of morphology and behavior in the
      three different regions. The relatively depauperate assemblages have different
      histories. In Japan, there was invasion of several lineages, which have more
      closely related species elsewhere in Asia, whereas in Europe there was also
      limited in situ speciation. Much of the structure of peripheral communities is
      attributable to invasions from species-rich Asia, with little in situ
      morphological diversification. Within the Phylloscopus there are several
      phylogenetic clades with nonoverlapping size distributions. Major ecological and
      morphological shifts occurred early in the history of diversification within the
      group, and rarely since.

PMID- 28565675
TI  - GOOD GENES AND DIRECT SELECTION IN THE EVOLUTION OF MATING PREFERENCES.
AB  - A model is used to study quantitatively the impact of a good genes process and
      direct natural selection on the evolution of a mating preference. The expression
      of a male display trait is proportional to genetic quality, which is determined
      by the number of deleterious mutations a male carries throughout his genome.
      Genetic variances and covariances, including the covariance between the
      preference and male trait that drives the good genes process, are allowed to
      evolve under an infinitesimal model. Results suggest that the good genes process
      generates only weak indirect selection on preferences, with an effective
      selection intensity of a few percent or less. If preferences are subject to
      direct natural selection of the intensity observed for other characters, the good
      genes process alone is not expected to exaggerate the male trait by more than a
      few phenotypic standard deviations, contrary to what is observed in highly
      sexually selected species. Good genes can, however, cause substantial
      exaggeration if preference genes are nearly selectively neutral. Alternatively,
      direct selection on preference genes, acting on mating behavior itself or on the
      genes' pleiotropic effects, can cause mating preferences and male display traits
      to be exaggerated by any degree. Direct selection of preference genes may
      therefore play an important role in species that show extreme sexual selection.

PMID- 28565676
TI  - EVOLUTION OF MALE PARENTAL CARE IN A BIRD WITH ALMOST COMPLETE CUCKOLDRY.

PMID- 28565677
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF LEARNING-RELATED NEUROMODULATION IN MOLLUSCAN
      MECHANOSENSORY NEURONS.
AB  - In spite of significant advances in our understanding of mechanisms of learning
      and memory in a variety of organisms, little is known about how such mechanisms
      evolve. Even mechanisms of simple forms of learning, such as habituation and
      sensitization, have not been studied phylogenetically. Here we begin an
      evolutionary analysis of learning-related neuromodulation in species related to
      the well-studied opisthobranch gastropod, Aplysia californica. In Aplysia,
      increased spike duration and excitability in mechanosensory neurons contribute to
      several forms of learning-related changes to defensive withdrawal reflexes. The
      modulatory transmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT), is thought to
      play a critical role in producing these firing property changes. In the present
      study, we tested mechanosensory homologs of the tail-withdrawal reflex in species
      related to Aplysia for 5-HT-mediated increases in spike duration and
      excitability. Criteria used to identify homologous tail-sensory neurons included
      position, relative size, resting electrical properties, expression of a sensory
      neuron-specific protein, neuroanatomy, and receptive field. The four ingroup
      species studied (Aplysia californica, Dolabella auricularia, Bursatella leachii,
      and Dolabrifera dolabrifera) belong to two clades (two species each) within the
      family Aplysiidae. In the first clade (Aplysia/Dolabella), we found that the tail
      sensory neurons of A. californica and tail-sensory homologs of a closely related
      species, D. auricularia, responded to bath-applied serotonin in essentially
      similar fashion: significant increases in spike duration as well as excitability.
      In the other clade (Dolabrifera/Bursatella), more distantly related to Aplysia,
      one species (B. leachii) showed spike broadening and increased excitability.
      However, the other species (D. dolabrifera) showed neither spike broadening nor
      increased excitability. The firing properties of tail-sensory homologs of D.
      dolabrifera were insensitive to 5-HT over a wide range of concentrations. We also
      performed experiments on two outgroup species (Akera bullata and Bulla gouldiana)
      and found that spike duration was unaffected by 5-HT, whereas excitability was
      increased. This study suggests that 5-HT-induced spike broadening arose more
      recently in opisthobranch evolution, whereas 5-HT-induced excitability increase
      is a more ancestral trait that may have been expressed in the earliest
      opisthobranchs. Both traits are absent in the aplysiid species D. dolabrifera,
      demonstrating that a lineage can lose learning-related mechanisms. The
      phylogenetic variation observed in the present study presents the opportunity to
      test general models about learning mechanisms and their evolution in unique ways.

PMID- 28565678
TI  - HOST-PLANT SWITCHES AND THE EVOLUTION OF CHEMICAL DEFENSE AND LIFE HISTORY IN THE
      LEAF BEETLE GENUS OREINA.
AB  - Insect-plant interactions have played a prominent role in investigating
      phylogenetic constraints in the evolution of ecological traits. The patterns of
      host association among specialized insects have often been described as highly
      conservative, yet not all specialized herbivorous insect lineages display the
      same degree of fidelity to their host plants. In this paper, we present an
      estimate of the evolutionary history of the leaf beetle genus Oreina. This genus
      displays an amazing flexibility in several aspects of its ecology and life
      history: (1) host plant switches in Oreina occurred between plant families or
      distantly related tribes within families and thereby to more distantly related
      plants than in several model systems that have contributed to the idea of
      parallel cladogenesis; (2) all species of the genus are chemically defended, but
      within the genus a transition between autogenous production of defensive toxins
      and sequestration of secondary plant compounds has occurred; and (3) reproductive
      strategies in the genus range from oviparity to viviparity including all
      intermediates that could allow the gradual evolution of viviparity. Cladistic
      analysis of 18 allozyme loci found two most parsimonious trees that differ only
      in the branching of one species. According to this phylogeny estimate, Oreina
      species were originally associated with Asteraceae, with an inclusion of Apiaceae
      in the diet of one oligophagous species and an independent switch to Apiaceae in
      a derived clade. The original mode of defense appears to be the autogenous
      production of cardenolides as previously postulated; the additional sequestration
      of pyrrolizidine alkaloids could have either originated at the base of the genus
      or have arisen three times independently in all species that switched to plants
      containing these compounds. Viviparity apparently evolved twice in the genus,
      once without matrotrophy, through a retention of the eggs inside the female's
      oviducts, and once in combination with matrotrophy. We hypothesize that the
      combination of autogenous defense and a life history that involves mobile
      externally feeding larvae allowed these beetles to switch host plants more
      readily than has been reported for highly conservative systems.

PMID- 28565679
TI  - NATURAL FORMATION OF IRIS HYBRIDS: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
      HYBRID ZONES.

PMID- 28565680
TI  - EVOLUTION OF INFLORESCENCE DESIGN: THEORY AND DATA.
AB  - Very low fruit set in milkweeds and other flowering plants often has been
      attributed to greater sexual selection on inflorescence size via male, rather
      than female, reproductive success. Although this explanation has been generally
      accepted, alternate explanations have been presented, and recently the "male
      function" or "pollen donation" hypothesis has been sharply criticized. In this
      paper, we make the distinction between selection on total flower number and on
      the size of inflorescence units, both of which have been termed "inflorescence
      size." We present an ESS model for the evolution of inflorescence design that
      considers reproductive success through male and female function. The model
      predicts that selection will balance the proportional changes in female and male
      reproductive success resulting from changes in inflorescence-unit size. We
      conducted a field study of selection on the size of inflorescence units (umbels)
      by manipulating umbel size and number in a natural population of Asclepias
      tuberosa, in southeastern Arizona, during two reproductive seasons. We found that
      the male fitness function reached a maximum at an intermediate umbel size in both
      years (although not significantly different from the smallest umbel size in
      either year), whereas the female fitness function was highest for the smallest
      umbel size in one year, but was constant across umbel sizes in the other year. We
      also found that pollinator visitation rate corresponded well with male, but not
      female, function, and that between-year variation in the male reproductive
      success of different umbel sizes corresponded with variation in the composition
      of the pollinator pool. Our empirical results, when inserted in the model,
      predict ESS umbel sizes similar to those observed in the study population and the
      species throughout its range.

PMID- 28565681
TI  - MOLECULAR GENETIC ANALYSIS OF A STEPPED MULTILOCUS CLINE IN THE AMERICAN OYSTER
      (CRASSOSTREA VIRGINICA).
AB  - Gulf of Mexico versus Atlantic populations of several coastal species in the
      southeastern United States are known to differ sharply in genetic composition,
      but most transitional zones have not previously been examined in detail. Here we
      employ molecular markers from mitochondrial and nuclear loci to characterize
      cytonuclear genetic associations at meso- and microgeographic scales along an
      eastern Florida transitional zone between genetically distinct Atlantic and Gulf
      populations of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica. The single- and
      multilocus cytonuclear patterns display: (1) a cline extending along 340 km of
      the east Florida coastline; (2) a pronounced step in the cline centered at Cape
      Canaveral (shifts in allelic frequencies by 50-75% over a 20 km distance); (3) a
      close agreement of observed genotypic frequencies with Hardy-Weinberg
      expectations within locales; and (4) mild or nonexistent nuclear and cytonuclear
      disequilibria in most local population samples. These results imply: (1)
      considerable restrictions to interpopulational gene flow along the eastern
      Florida coastline; (2) within locales, free interbreeding (as opposed to mere
      population admixture) between Gulf and Atlantic forms of oysters; and (3)
      localized population recruitment in the transition zone localities. These
      findings demonstrate that marine organisms with high dispersal potential via long
      lived pelagic larvae can nonetheless display pronounced spatial population
      genetic structure, and more generally they exemplify the utility of pronounced
      genetic transition zones for the study of population level processes.

PMID- 28565682
TI  - A TEST FOR SEXUAL SELECTION ON HYBRIDS OF TWO SYMPATRIC STICKLEBACKS.
AB  - In this study we assessed whether sexual selection against hybrids contributes to
      reproductive isolation between two sympatric stickleback species. The species are
      recently diverged and possibly in the final stages of speciation. Our aim was to
      find whether mating discrimination of the parental species selects against F1
      hybrids, and what conditions are necessary for such sexual selection to operate.
      We used conservative no-choice laboratory trials with reproductively naive, lab
      reared fish to measure female mating preferences. Females exhibited ranked
      preferences, preferring in order: conspecific, hybrid, then heterospecific males.
      However, intermediate attractiveness does not necessarily imply selection against
      hybrids: two-way ANOVAs suggested that limnetic, benthic, and hybrid males were
      statistically equivalent when averaged across females. Thus, this experiment
      found no evidence for a hybrid mating disadvantage. Our interpretation is that if
      sexual selection against hybrids is present in the wild, then some factor that
      biases encounter rates between hybrids and parental species (e.g., habitat
      selection) is necessary to produce it.

PMID- 28565683
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF BREEDING SITE USE AND alpha-AMANITIN TOLERANCE WITHIN
      THE DROSOPHILA QUINARIA SPECIES GROUP.
AB  - The Drosophila quinaria group is unusual within the genus in that it comprises
      both mycophagous and nonmycophagous species. DNA sequence data from three regions
      of the mitochondrial genome were used to infer relationships among four
      mycophagous species and three that breed on decaying water plants. Phylogenetic
      analysis of these species show that breeding in mushrooms and tolerance of high
      levels of alpha-amanitin were the ancestral states within the group. Thus,
      breeding in decaying water plants and intolerance of alpha-amanitin are derived
      conditions. We also found that the D. quinaria species group does not comprise
      separate mycophagous and nonmycophagous clades, but rather that (1) the shift
      from mushrooms to decaying plants occurred on at least two occasions; or (2)
      mycophagy reevolved within a lineage that had previously shifted to breeding on
      plants. The correlation between mycophagy and alpha-amanitin tolerance is perfect
      across the species we have examined, indicating that there is no detectable time
      lag between an ecological shift to a new breeding site and correlated changes in
      biochemical adaptation. The genetic distance between the mycophagous D. recens
      and the nonmycophagous D. quinaria indicates that these species split only about
      1 M.Y.B.P. In terms of alpha-amanitin tolerance, D. recens and D. quinaria are
      typical of other ecologically similar species within the group. Thus,
      evolutionary changes in alpha-amanitin tolerance can evidently occur on the order
      of about 1 million yr. Our data also indicate that, in comparison to other groups
      of Drosophila, the quinaria species group may be undergoing an adaptive
      radiation.

PMID- 28565684
TI  - SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN BIRDS: IMPORTANCE OF NEST PREDATION AND NEST LOCATION FOR
      FEMALES VERSUS MALES.
AB  - Examinations of variation in plumage dichromatism in birds have focused on male
      plumage brightness and largely neglected variation in female plumage brightness.
      Nest predation previously was concluded to constrain male brightness and thereby
      reduce dimorphism in ground-nesting birds based on an incorrect assumption that
      nest predation is greater for ground nests. Correlations of plumage brightness
      and dichromatism with nest predation have never been tested directly and we do so
      here with data for warblers (Parulinae) and finches (Carduelinae). We show that
      male plumage brightness varies among nest heights, but in a pattern that is not
      correlated with nest predation. Female plumage brightness also varies among nest
      heights, but in a pattern that differs from males, and one in which variation in
      female plumage brightness was negatively correlated with nest predation. These
      results suggest that nest predation may place greater constraints on female than
      male plumage brightness, at least in taxa where only females incubate eggs and
      brood young. These results also show that female plumage patterns vary at least
      partly independently of male patterns and emphasize the need to include
      consideration of both female and male plumage variation in tests of plumage
      dimorphism. Plumage dimorphism differs between ground and off-ground nesters as
      previously described and, if anything, the relationship between plumage
      dimorphism and nest predation was positive rather than negative as previously
      argued.

PMID- 28565685
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST FOR FOOD EFFECTS ON HEAD SIZE ALLOMETRY IN JUVENILE SNAKES.

PMID- 28565686
TI  - SUBOPTIMAL VIRULENCE OF AN INSECT-PARASITIC NEMATODE.
AB  - Recent considerations of parasite virulence have focused on the adverse effects
      that parasites can have on the survival of their hosts. Many parasites, however,
      reduce host fitness by an equally deleterious but different means, by causing
      partial or complete sterility of their hosts. A model of optimal parasite
      virulence is developed in which a quantity of host resources can be allocated to
      either host or parasite reproduction. Increases in parasite reproduction thus
      cause reductions in host fertility. The model shows that under a wide variety of
      ecological conditions, such parasites should completely sterilize their hosts.
      Only when opportunities for horizontal transmission are very limited should the
      parasites appropriate less than all of a host's reproductive resources. Field and
      laboratory evidence shows that the nematode parasite Howardula aoronymphium is
      relatively avirulent to one of its principal host species, Drosophila falleni,
      whereas it is much more virulent to D. putrida and D. neotestacea, suggesting
      that there may be substantial vertical transmission in D. falleni. However,
      epidemiological studies in the field and laboratory assays of host specificity
      strongly suggest that the three host species share a single parasite pool in
      natural populations, indicating that parasites in all three host species
      experience high levels of horizontal transmission. Thus, the low virulence of H.
      aoronymphium to D. falleni is not consistent with the model of optimal parasite
      virulence. It is proposed that this suboptimal virulence in D. falleni is a
      consequence of populations of H. aoronymphium being selected to exploit
      simultaneously several different host species. As a result, virulence may not be
      optimal in any one host. One must, therefore, consider the full range of host
      species in assessing a parasite's virulence.

PMID- 28565687
TI  - A COMPARISON OF TEMPERATURE-INDUCED POLYPHENISM IN AFRICAN BICYCLUS BUTTERFLIES
      FROM A SEASONAL SAVANNAH-RAINFOREST ECOTONE.
AB  - Temperature-induced variation and norms of reaction have been analyzed for wing
      pattern elements of six species belonging to the African butterfly genus Bicyclus
      (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae). Five of these species are sympatric in
      Malawi and exhibit seasonal polyphenism in the savannah-rainforest ecotone. The
      sixth species originated from Cameroonian equatorial rainforest. The organisms
      were laboratory reared under four different temperature conditions ranging from
      17-28 degrees C. The variation in response to temperature is described by
      principal component analysis (PCA). Discrimination on the basis of plastic wing
      pattern characters was performed by discriminant function analysis (DFA) and
      unweighed pair-group method algorithm (UPGMA) clustering. A phylogenetic
      reconstruction based on adaptive plastic wing characters was compared with a
      cladogram built on "nonadaptive" characters. Results demonstrate that: (1)
      Phenotypic plasticity of wing pattern characters in response to temperature in
      laboratory-reared organisms is reminiscent of variation induced by seasonal
      change in the field. (2) Different wing pattern characters are under different
      control: "exposed" characters of butterflies at rest position are highly
      sensitive to temperature variation, whereas "hidden" characters, only visible
      during active behavior, are dominated by species differences. In general the
      sensitivity of the former can be attributed to their proposed function in
      deflecting predators. (3) The sexes differ especially in the size of those
      eyespots that are displayed during active behavior. (4) Species from seasonal and
      aseasonal environments react in a broadly similar manner to temperature
      variation. However, savannah species and species of aseasonal rainforest exhibit
      relatively shallow reaction norms, whereas reaction norms are steeper in species
      from the savannah-rainforest ecotone. Such a strong response was also apparent in
      so-called correlation networks between principal components for these species.
      (5) Phylogenetic distances are to some extent reflected in ordination in both PCA
      space and DFA-space: closely related species of the safitza group remain close in
      both ordinations. The more distantly related species differ in ordination from a
      pattern as suggested by a phylogenetic reconstruction. It is argued that the wing
      pattern variation of these species reflects both adaptive processes and
      historical relationships.

PMID- 28565688
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN RESPONSE TO FLUCTUATING SELECTION.

PMID- 28565689
TI  - META-ANALYSES OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MULTILOCUS HETEROZYGOSITY AND FITNESS.
AB  - Meta-analyses of published correlation coefficients between multilocus
      heterozygosity (MLH) and two fitness surrogates, growth rate and fluctuating
      asymmetry, suggested that the strength of these correlations are generally weak.
      A variety of plants and animals was included in the meta-analyses. A
      statistically homogeneous group of MLH-growth rate correlation coefficients that
      included both plants and animals yielded a common correlation of rz = 0.133. A
      common correlation of rz = -0.170 was estimated for correlations between MLH and
      fluctuating asymmetry in three species of salmonid fishes. These results suggest
      that selection, including overdominance, has at most a weak effect at allozyme
      loci and cast some doubt on the widely held notion that heterozygosity and
      individual fitness are strongly correlated.

PMID- 28565690
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF NORTHERN HEMISPHERE NUCELLA (GASTROPODA, MURICIDAE):
      MOLECULAR, MORPHOLOGICAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND PALEONTOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.
AB  - By combining data from a variety of sources we explore patterns of evolution and
      speciation in Nucella, a widely studied genus of shallow-water marine
      neogastropods. We present a hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships for all of
      the currently recognized species of northern hemisphere Nucella, based on an
      analysis of 718 base pairs of nucleotide sequence from the mitochondrial
      cytochrome b gene. The order of appearance of species in the fossil record is
      congruent with this hypothesis. The topology of the inferred phylogeny of
      Nucella, coupled with ecological, morphological, and fossil evidence, was used to
      address three main questions: (1) At what time and by which route was the North
      Atlantic invaded from the North Pacific compared to prior studies of the trans
      Arctic interchange? (2) Do patterns of molecular variation within species
      corroborate the importance of climatic cycles in driving speciation in north
      temperate marine animals? (3) Was radiation in the direction of increased or
      decreased ecological specialization, body size, or vulnerability to predation?
      Molecular evidence confirmed that the sole North Atlantic species, N. lapillus,
      arose from a North Pacific ancestor. Biogeographic and paleontological evidence
      supported the dispersal of Nucella, and perhaps other interchange species, via
      the Eurasian Arctic. Rather intriguingly, the linkage of N. lapillus to a western
      as opposed to eastern Pacific clade, and the biogeographic origins of the eastern
      Pacific species, parallel closely similar patterns observed in another genus of
      rocky-shore gastropods, Littorina. This congruence, in conjunction with
      information on the climatic and geographic histories of the region, as well as
      the geographic arrangement of mtDNA haplotypes within Nucella species, supports a
      model of speciation in Nucella driven by cycles of climatic amelioration and
      deterioration that began during the Miocene. Calibrations from the fossil record
      of Nucella suggest that third position transitions and transversions accrue at a
      rate of 3-4% and 0.5% respectively per million yr. This supports an early
      participation by Nucella in the trans-Arctic interchange, as suggested by
      paleobiogeographic studies. Consistent with the unstable taxonomic history of
      species of Nucella, we found few nonmolecular traits to be phylogenetically
      informative. Among North Pacific species, more recently derived species (N.
      canaliculata and the N. emarginata clade) were more ecologically specialized
      (narrower diet and habitat range). Consistent with extensive intraspecific
      variation, shell traits were quite labile evolutionarily: neither overall size
      nor development of antipredatory traits exhibited consistent evolutionary trends
      over the history of the genus. Nurse eggs (unfertilized eggs consumed by
      developing embryos) were an ancestral trait that was lost evolutionarily in the
      two clades that also exhibited increased body size, suggesting that these two
      life-history traits may be coupled. The reduced number of chromosomes in N.
      lapillus is clearly a derived state and is consistent with White's (1978)
      observations on chromosome evolution in other clades.

PMID- 28565691
TI  - INDIVIDUAL VARIATION OF ONTOGENIES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF GROWTH AND TIMING.
AB  - This study of growth and developmental time in the water strider Limnoporus
      canaliculatus (Heteroptera: Gerridae) is based on longitudinal data from
      specimens reared individually in the laboratory. I analyzed multivariate
      allometry using a common principal components approach. This technique identified
      patterns of variation that were uncorrelated both within and among instars and
      which remained fairly constant throughout the growth period; in contrast, the
      overall amount of variation increased from young to older instars. Negative
      correlations between size and subsequent growth increments indicated convergent
      growth in the first three instars, but there was a transition to positive
      correlations (divergent growth) in later instars. Analysis of covariation among
      measurements made in different instars showed strong ontogenetic autocorrelation
      and revealed patterns remarkably similar to those found in mammals and birds; yet
      corresponding analyses of growth increments showed mainly independent variation
      in different instars. Therefore, I conclude that the strong correlations among
      stage-specific measurements result from the part-whole relationships inherent to
      these cumulative size data, but do not reflect specific properties of the
      organisms studied. In contrast to size increments, instar durations of water
      striders were highly correlated throughout the larval period, indicating that
      individuals tended to develop at either relatively fast or relatively slow rates
      in all instars. The correlations between growth increments and instar durations
      were nil or negative, contrary to expectations from life-history theory. The
      results of these analyses of individual variation match the findings from other
      water striders and from interspecific comparisons in the genus Limnoporus, but
      information about physiological mechanisms of molting and growth in insects
      cannot completely explain the patterns observed.

PMID- 28565692
TI  - SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AND TRANSITION TO PARASITISM IN COPEPODS.

PMID- 28565693
TI  - PHENOTYPIC SELECTION BY PARASITOIDS ON THE TIMING OF LIFE HISTORY IN A LEAFMINING
      MOTH.
AB  - Direct measurements of phenotypic selection by parasitoids on quantitative traits
      in herbivorous insects have been rare. I analysed episodes of phenotypic
      selection on the timing of life-history events in a multivoltine leafmining moth,
      Phyllonorycter mespilella, and assessed the importance of hymenopterous
      parasitoids as selective influences. Phyllonorycter mespilella has two
      consecutive stages of larval development, the sap-feeding (SF) and tissue-feeding
      (TF) stages. Adult parasitoids host feed predominantly on SF larvae, and oviposit
      predominantly on TF larvae. Oviposition attack on TF larvae caused positive
      directional selection on the date of transition to the the TF stage (TF date) in
      the third generation of P. mespilella in one population in 1991. Overwinter
      mortality caused negative directional selection on TF date in the third
      generation in a second population in 1993. No directional or variance selection
      on TF date was detected in the second population in the second generation of
      1993. Parasitoid females accepted SF larvae for oviposition more often in the
      fall generation than in summer generations in both populations. The relative
      frequencies of SF and TF larvae may alter the pattern of oviposition attack by
      parasitoids, and thus the form of phenotypic selection on TF date.

PMID- 28565694
TI  - CYTONUCLEAR DISEQUILIBRIA IN HYBRID ZONES USING RAPD MARKERS.

PMID- 28565695
TI  - MUTUAL MATE CHOICE AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN CHOOSINESS.
AB  - Sexual competition is associated closely with parental care because the sex
      providing less care has a higher potential rate of reproduction, and hence more
      to gain from competing for multiple mates. Sex differences in choosiness are not
      easily explained, however. The lower-caring sex (often males) has both higher
      costs of choice, because it is more difficult to find replacement mates, and
      higher direct benefits, because the sex providing more care (usually females) is
      likely to exhibit more variation in the quality of contributions to the young.
      Because both the costs and direct benefits of mate choice increase with
      increasing parental care by the opposite sex, general predictions about sex
      difference in choosiness are difficult. Furthermore, the level of choosiness of
      one sex will be influenced by the choosiness of the other. Here, we present an
      ESS model of mutual mate choice, which explicitly incorporates differences
      between males and females in life history traits that determine the costs and
      benefits of choice, and we illustrate our results with data from species with
      contrasting forms of parental care. The model demonstrates that sex differences
      in costs of choice are likely to have a much stronger effect on choosiness than
      are differences in quality variation, so that the less competitive sex will
      commonly be more choosy. However, when levels of male and female care are
      similar, differences in quality variation may lead to higher levels of both
      choice and competition in the same sex.

PMID- 28565696
TI  - MEASURES OF PHENOTYPIC SELECTION ARE BIASED BY PARTIAL INBREEDING.
AB  - When populations are partially inbred due to the population structure or to a
      mixed mating system like partial self-fertilization, some individuals will be
      more inbred than others. This heterogeneity among individuals in the history of
      inbreeding can greatly complicate the interpretation of measures of quantitative
      genetic variability when the traits studied exhibit inbreeding depression.
      Partial inbreeding can also bias measures of phenotypic selection toward the
      detection of strong directional and stabilizing selection. In this paper, data
      are presented from several inbreeding experiments conducted on two partially
      selfing, annual populations of the monkeyflower Mimulus guttatus that show that
      the means of many of the morphological and phenological traits measured were
      affected by inbreeding. These findings imply that estimates of heritabilities and
      additive genetic covariances would not reflect the potential for these
      populations to respond to selection. Phenotypic selection analyses conducted on
      naturally occurring plants, involving linear regressions of relative seed
      production on the traits, revealed significant directional selection on many of
      the same quantitative traits measured in the inbreeding studies. However, when
      the same selection analyses were performed on plants with known histories of
      inbreeding, part of the statistical relationship between relative seed number and
      the traits was found to be due to the mating system: inbred individuals had both
      lower seed production and different mean values for the traits than outcrossed
      individuals. It is also shown, with a hypothetical example, that partial
      inbreeding can bias measures of stabilizing selection toward the detection of
      strong stabilizing selection. Partial inbreeding therefore tends to make
      directional and stabilizing selection appear stronger than it is, and it may be
      that natural selection in the wild is actually weaker than many studies of
      partially inbred species suggest.

PMID- 28565697
TI  - PROBLEMS WITH TESTING INBREEDING AVOIDANCE: THE CASE OF THE COLLARED FLYCATCHER.
AB  - Four year's data on collared flycatchers, Ficedula albicollis, breeding in a
      nestbox plot on the island of Gotland, Sweden, was used to investigate whether
      individuals avoid mating with close kin (i.e., parents or sibs). Only one case of
      close inbreeding (0.5% of all pairs) was observed during the years of study. The
      observed frequency of close inbreeding was compared to expected frequencies based
      on two different null models. Assuming no inbreeding avoidance behaviors (e.g.,
      dispersal or kin recognition), but taking into account the fact that mortality,
      and different arrival and pairing times of individuals reduce the probability of
      mating with close kin, the expected frequency of close inbreeding is 10% and 15%
      for female and male recruits (i.e., born in the study plot), respectively.
      However, assuming mating to be random within the study plot reduced the expected
      frequency of close inbreeding to 1% or less for both males and females.
      Consequently, conclusions drawn concerning inbreeding avoidance depend on the
      null model used. Contrasting estimated costs of tolerating close inbreeding with
      those of avoiding it (by dispersal to other plots), however, suggests that the
      costs of avoiding close inbreeding are substantially greater than those of
      tolerating it. Therefore, although inbreeding avoidance cannot be rejected as a
      cause of dispersal of this species, it is not the primary cause, and particularly
      not for sex-biased dispersal. The general problems of investigating inbreeding
      avoidance are discussed. It is argued that all previous null models based on
      random mating in finite populations produce expected frequencies of close
      inbreeding that in fact include inbreeding avoidance, since they implicitly
      assume random dispersal within a finite population. Thus, comparisons between
      observed and expected frequencies of close inbreeding based on random mating are
      inadequate. The most promising method of investigating inbreeding avoidance is to
      experimentally study individual movements and mating preferences in the presence
      and absence of close kin.

PMID- 28565698
TI  - REPLY TO: FEMALE MATE DISCRIMINATION OR MALE RESPONSES TO FEMALE STIMULATION?

PMID- 28565699
TI  - FIXATION PROBABILITIES OF SELFING RATE MODIFIERS IN SIMULATIONS WITH SEVERAL
      DELETERIOUS ALLELES WITH LINKAGE.
AB  - The fixation rates of selfing rate modifiers were found by stochastic simulation
      in an infinite site model, including effects of several deleterious alleles with
      variable effects, which were randomly distributed in the genome without assuming
      any pollen discounting. Previous results on the evolution of selfing obtained by
      more precise methods were in this study further validated, and it was concluded
      that the effect of genetic associations on the evolution of mating systems is
      small except in the case of full pollen discounting. Furthermore, attention was
      given to the uneven distribution of the genetic load in the population, and the
      accompanying large among-genome variation in fixation rates. This among-genome
      variation will be of significance for the evolution of mating systems.

PMID- 28565700
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN THE WATER
      STRIDER, AQUARIUS REMIGIS.
AB  - Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is often attributed to sexual selection,
      particularly when males are the larger sex. However, sexual selection favoring
      large males is common even in taxa where females are the larger sex, and is
      therefore not a sufficient explanation of patterns of SSD. As part of a more
      extensive study of the evolution of SSD in water striders (Heteroptera,
      Gerridae), we examine patterns of sexual selection and SSD in 12 populations of
      Aquarius remigis. We calculate univariate and multivariate selection gradients
      from samples of mating and single males, for two sexually dimorphic traits (total
      length and profemoral width) and two sexually monomorphic traits (mesofemoral
      length and wing form). The multivariate analyses reveal strong selection favoring
      larger males, in spite of the female-biased SSD for this trait, and weaker
      selection favoring aptery and reduced mesofemoral length. Selection is weakest on
      the most dimorphic trait, profemoral width, and is stabilizing rather than
      directional. The pattern of sexual selection on morphological traits is therefore
      not concordant with the pattern of SSD. The univariate selection gradients reveal
      little net selection (direct + indirect) on any of the traits, and suggest that
      evolution away from the plesiomorphic pattern of SSD is constrained by
      antagonistic patterns of selection acting on this suite of positively correlated
      morphological traits. We hypothesize that SSD in A. remigis is not in
      equilibrium, a hypothesis that is consistent with both theoretical models of the
      evolution of SSD and our previous studies of allometry for SSD. A negative
      interpopulation correlation between the intensity of sexual selection and the
      operational sex ratio supports the hypothesis that, as in several other water
      strider species, sexual selection in A. remigis occurs through generalized female
      reluctance rather than active female choice. The implications of this for
      patterns of sexual selection are discussed.

PMID- 28565701
TI  - TESTING HISTORICAL HYPOTHESES OF MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE: BIOMECHANICAL DECOUPLING
      IN LORICARIOID CATFISHES.
AB  - The "decoupling hypothesis" has been proposed as a mechanistic basis for the
      evolution of novel structure and function. Decoupling derives from the release of
      functional constraints via loss of linkages and/or repetition of individual
      elements as redundant design components, followed by specialization of one or
      more elements. Examples of apomorphic decoupling have been suggested for several
      groups of organisms, however there have been few empirical tests of explicit
      statements concerning functional and morphological consequences of decoupling.
      Using the loricarioid catfishes, we tested one particular consequence of
      decoupling, the prediction that clades possessing decoupled systems having
      increased biomechanical complexity will exhibit greater morphological variability
      of associated structures than outgroups having no such decoupled systems.
      Morphometric procedures based on interlandmark distances were used to quantify
      morphological variance at three levels of design at successive nodes in the
      loricarioid cladogram. Additional landmark-based procedures were used to localize
      major patterns of shape change between clades. We report significantly greater
      within-group morphometric variance at all three morphological levels in those
      lineages associated with decoupling events, confirming our predictions under the
      decoupling hypothesis. Two of 12 comparisons, however, yielded significant
      variance effects where none were predicted. Localization of the major patterns of
      shape change suggests that disassociation between morphological and functional
      evolution may contribute to the lack of fit between variance predictions and
      decoupling in these two comparisons.

PMID- 28565702
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SPRINT RUNNING SPEED AND SWIMMING ENDURANCE IN
      LABORATORY HOUSE MICE (MUS DOMESTICUS).
AB  - We tested the hypothesis that locomotor speed and endurance show a negative
      genetic correlation using a genetically variable laboratory strain of house mice
      (Hsd:ICR: Mus domesticus). A negative genetic correlation would qualify as an
      evolutionary "constraint," because both aspects of locomotor performance are
      generally expected to be under positive directional selection in wild
      populations. We also tested whether speed or endurance showed any genetic
      correlation with body mass. For all traits, residuals from multiple regression
      equations were computed to remove effects of possible confounding variables such
      as age at testing, measurement block, observer, and sex. Estimates of
      quantitative genetic parameters were then obtained using Shaw's (1987) restricted
      maximum-likelihood programs, modified to account for our breeding design, which
      incorporated cross-fostering. Both speed and endurance were measured on two
      consecutive trial days, and both were repeatable. We initially analyzed
      performances on each trial day and the maximal value. For endurance, the three
      estimates of narrow-sense heritabilities ranged from 0.17 to 0.33 (full ADCE
      model), and some were statistically significantly different from zero using
      likelihood ratio tests. The heritability estimate for sprint speed measured on
      trial day 1 was 0.17, but negative for all other measures. Moreover, the additive
      genetic covariance between speeds measured on the two days was near zero,
      indicating that the two measures are to some extent different traits. The
      additive genetic covariance between speed on trial day 1 and any of the four
      measures of endurance was negative, large, and always statistically significant.
      None of the measures of speed or endurance was significantly genetically
      correlated with body mass. Thus, we predict that artificial selection for
      increased locomotor speed in these mice would result in a decrease in endurance,
      but no change in body mass. Such experiments could lead to a better understanding
      of the physiological mechanisms leading to trade-offs in aspects of locomotor
      abilities.

PMID- 28565703
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: INDIRECT MATE CHOICE, COMPETITION FOR MATES, AND COEVOLUTION OF THE
      SEXES.
AB  - When Darwin first proposed the possibility of sexual selection, he identified two
      mechanisms, male competition for mates and female choice of mates. Extending this
      classification, we distinguish two forms of mate choice, direct and indirect.
      This distinction clarifies the relationship between Darwin's two mechanisms and,
      furthermore, indicates that the potential scope for sexual selection is much
      wider than thus far realized. Direct mate choice, the focus of most research on
      sexual selection in recent decades, requires discrimination between attributes of
      individuals of the opposite sex. Indirect mate choice includes all other behavior
      or morphology that restricts an individual's set of potential mates.
      Possibilities for indirect mate choice include advertisement of fertility or
      copulation, evasive behavior, aggregation or synchronization with other
      individuals of the same sex, and preferences for mating in particular locations.
      In each of these cases, indirect mate choice sets the conditions for competition
      among individuals of the opposite sex and increases the chances of mating with a
      successful competitor. Like direct mate choice, indirect mate choice produces
      assortative mating. As a consequence, the genetic correlation between alleles
      affecting indirect choice and those affecting success in competition for mates
      can produce self-accelerating evolution of these complementary features of the
      sexes. The broad possibilities for indirect mate choice indicate that sexual
      selection has more pervasive influences on the coevolution of male and female
      characteristics than previously realized.

PMID- 28565704
TI  - TWO HERBIVORES AND CONSTRAINTS ON SELECTION FOR RESISTANCE IN BRASSICA RAPA.
AB  - Although most plants experience herbivory by several insect species, there has
      been little empirical work directed toward understanding plant responses to these
      simultaneous selection pressures. In an experiment in which herbivory by flea
      beetles (Phyllotreta cruciferae) and diamondback moths (Plutella xylostella) was
      manipulated in a factorial design, I found that selection for resistance to these
      herbivores is not independent in Brassica rapa. Specifically, the effect of flea
      beetle damage on B. rapa fitness depends on the amount of diamondback moth damage
      a plant experiences: damage by these herbivores has a nonadditive effect on plant
      fitness. When diamondbacks are abundant, plants that sustain high levels of
      damage by flea beetles are favored by natural selection, but when diamondbacks
      are rare, a low level of damage by flea beetles is favored. However, resistance
      to the later-feeding diamondback moth is not affected by the presence or absence
      of damage by early-feeding flea beetles. Thus, there are no plant-mediated
      ecological interactions between these herbivores that affect the outcome of
      selection for resistance. Because these herbivores do not independently affect
      plant fitness, neither is likely to develop a pairwise coevolutionary
      relationship with its host. Instead, coevolution is diffuse.

PMID- 28565705
TI  - HISTORICAL DIVERSIFICATION OF BIRDS IN NORTHWESTERN SOUTH AMERICA: A MOLECULAR
      PERSPECTIVE ON THE ROLE OF VICARIANT EVENTS.
AB  - Studies of South American biodiversity have identified several areas of endemism
      that may have enhanced historical diversification of South American organisms.
      Hypotheses concerning the derivation of birds in the Choco area of endemism in
      northwestern South America were evaluated using protein electrophoretic data from
      14 taxonomically diverse species groups of birds. Nine of these groups
      demonstrated that the Choco area of endemism has a closer historical relationship
      to Central America than to Amazonia, a result that is consistent with
      phytogeographic evidence. Within species groups, genetic distances between cis
      Andean (east of the Andes) and trans-Andean (west of the Andes) taxa are, on
      average, roughly twice that between Choco and Central American taxa. The genetic
      data are consistent with the hypotheses that the divergence of most cis-Andean
      and trans-Andean taxa was the result of either the Andean uplift fragmenting a
      once continuous Amazonian-Pacific population (Andean Uplift Hypothesis), the
      isolation of the two faunas in forest refugia on opposite sides of the Andes
      during arid climates (Forest Refugia Hypothesis), or dispersal of Amazonian forms
      directly across the Andes into the trans-Andean region (Across-Andes Dispersal
      Hypothesis). Disentangling these hypotheses is difficult due to the complexity of
      the Andean uplift and to the scant geologic and paleoclimatic information that
      elucidates diversification events in northwestern South America. Regarding the
      divergence of cis- and trans-Andean taxa, the genetic, geologic, and
      paleoclimatic data allow weak rejection of the Andean Uplift Hypothesis and weak
      support for the Forest Refugia and Andean Dispersal Hypotheses. The subsequent
      diversification of Choco and Central American taxa was the result of Pleistocene
      forest refugia, marine transgressions, or parapatric speciation.

PMID- 28565706
TI  - FEMALE MATE DISCRIMINATION OR MALE RESPONSES TO FEMALE STIMULATION?

PMID- 28565707
TI  - DO PHYLOGENETIC METHODS PRODUCE TREES WITH BIASED SHAPES?
AB  - We examine whether phylogenetic methods provide biased estimates of tree shape
      with respect to the random branching model. We investigate the performance of
      five commonly used phylogenetic methods using computer simulation: (1) maximum
      parsimony; (2) neighbor joining; (3) UPGMA with an outgroup taxon; (4) UPGMA
      without an outgroup taxon; and (5) maximum likelihood. All methods provide
      estimates of tree shape that are, on average, more asymmetrical than the true
      tree, especially when rates of evolution are high. We suggest a simple
      explanation for the bias and propose a modified test of tree shape that corrects
      for it.

PMID- 28565708
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF COEXISTING SEXUAL AND CLONAL SUBPOPULATIONS IN A FRESHWATER
      SNAIL (POTAMOPYRGUS ANTIPODARUM).
AB  - We examined clonal diversity and the distribution of both clonal and sexual
      genotypes in a single population of freshwater snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum)
      in which diploid sexual individuals and triploid parthenogens coexist. A genetic
      analysis of individuals from three habitat zones in Lake Alexandrina, New Zealand
      revealed extremely high clonal diversity: 165 genotypes among 605 clonal
      individuals. The frequency of triploid clonal individuals increased with
      increasing depth in the lake, and most of the individual clones were habitat
      specific, suggesting that differences among habitats are important in structuring
      the clonal subpopulation. There were also high levels of clonal diversity within
      habitats, suggesting frequent origins of habitat-specific clones. In contrast,
      diploid sexual individuals were proportionately more common in the shallow
      regions of the lake (where infection by trematode larvae is highest), and there
      was no significant spatial structure in the sexual subpopulation. We suggest that
      habitat specialization by clones, as well as parasite-mediated selection against
      common clones, are important factors affecting the structure of this mixed
      population of sexual and clonal snails.

PMID- 28565709
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION IN GUPPIES (POECILIA RETICULATA) 6. DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY
      AS A MECHANISM FOR NATURAL SELECTION.
AB  - We have previously reported a correlation between the life-history patterns of
      guppies and the types of predators with which they coexist. Guppies from
      localities with an abundance of large predators (high predation localities)
      mature at an earlier age and devote more resources to reproduction than those
      found in localities with only a single, small species of predator (low predation
      localities). We also found that when guppies were introduced from a high to low
      predation locality, the guppy life history evolved to resemble what was normally
      found in this low predation locality. The presumed mechanism of natural selection
      is differences among localities in age/size-specific mortality (the age/size
      specific mortality hypothesis); in high predation localities we assumed that
      guppies experienced high adult mortality rates while in the low predation
      localities we assumed that guppies experienced high juvenile mortality rates.
      These assumptions were based on stomach content analyses of wild-caught predators
      and on laboratory experiments. Here, we evaluate these assumptions by directly
      estimating the mortality rates of guppies in natural populations. We found that
      guppies from high predation localities experience significantly higher mortality
      rates than their counterparts from low predation localities, but that these
      higher mortality rates are uniformly distributed across all size classes, rather
      than being concentrated in the larger size classes. This result appears to
      contradict the predictions of the age/size-specific predation hypothesis.
      However, we argue, using additional data on growth rates and the probabilities of
      survival to maturity in each type of locality, that the age-specific mortality
      hypothesis remains plausible. This is because the probability of survival to
      first reproduction is very similar in each type of locality, but the guppies from
      high predation localities have a much lower probability of survival per unit time
      after maturity. We also argue for the plausibility of two other mechanisms of
      natural selection. These results thus reveal mortality patterns that provide a
      potential cause of natural selection, but expand, rather than narrow, the number
      of possible mechanisms responsible for life-history evolution in guppies.

PMID- 28565710
TI  - RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERS IN PONTEDERIACEAE
      USING PHYLOGENETIC EVIDENCE FROM CHLOROPLAST DNA RESTRICTION-SITE VARIATION.
AB  - We reconstructed the phylogenetic history of Pontederiaceae using chloroplast DNA
      restriction-site variation from approximately two-thirds of the species in this
      family of aquatic monocotyledons. The molecular phylogeny was used to evaluate
      hypotheses concerning the evolution of reproductive characters associated with
      the breeding system. The family has four main genera, two of which (Eichhornia
      and Pontederia) have tristylous, predominantly outcrossing species, while two
      (Monochoria and Heteranthera) have enantiostylous taxa. Self-incompatibility is
      restricted to some but not all tristylous species. In Eichhornia and Pontederia,
      predominantly selfing species with small monomorphic flowers (homostyly) have
      been hypothesized to result from the multiple breakdown of tristyly. Restriction
      site variation provided a well supported phylogeny of ingroup taxa, enabling the
      mapping of reproductive characters onto trees. Two contrasting optimization
      schemes were assessed, differing in the relative weights assigned to shifts in
      character states. The reconstructed sequence of floral character-state change was
      used to assess competing hypotheses concerning the origin and breakdown of
      tristyly, and the relationships between tristylous and enantiostylous syndromes.
      Our results indicate that the class of optimization scheme used was the most
      critical factor in reconstructing character evolution. Despite some topological
      uncertainties and difficulty in reconstructing the primitive floral form in the
      family, several broad conclusions were possible when an unordered, unequally
      weighted optimization scheme was used: (1) tristyly originated either once or
      twice, while the occurrence of enantiostyly in Monochoria and Heteranthera was
      always found to have independent origins; (2) tristyly has repeatedly broken down
      leading to selfing, homostylous taxa; and (3) self-incompatibility probably arose
      after the origin of floral trimorphism, a sequence of events that conflicts with
      some evolutionary models.

PMID- 28565711
TI  - CORRELATED EVOLUTION OF SELF-FERTILIZATION AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION: AN
      EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF NINE POPULATIONS OF AMSINCKIA (BORAGINACEAE).
AB  - The relation between inbreeding depression and rate of self-fertilization was
      studied in nine natural populations of the annual genus Amsinckia. The study
      included two clades (phylogenetic lineages) in which small-flowered, homostylous
      populations or species are believed to have evolved from large-flowered,
      heterostylous, self-compatible ones. In one lineage the small-flowered species is
      tetraploid with disomic inheritance. Rates of self-fertilization were 25% to 55%
      in the four large-flowered, heterostylous populations; 72% in a large-flowered
      but homostylous population; and greater than 99.5% in the four small-flowered,
      homostylous populations, which produce seed autonomously. When present,
      inbreeding depression occurred in the fertility but not the survival components
      of fitness. Using a cumulative fitness measure incorporating both survival and
      fertility (flower number), we found inbreeding depression to be lower in the four
      very highly self-fertilizing populations than in the five intermediate ones. The
      Spearman rank correlation between inbreeding depression and selfing rate for the
      nine populations was -0.50, but was not statistically significant (P = 0.12).
      Inbreeding depression was greater in the two tetraploid populations than in the
      very highly self-fertilizing, diploid ones. Phenotypic stability of progeny from
      self-fertilization tended to be higher in populations with lower inbreeding
      depression. We conclude that levels of self-fertilization and inbreeding
      depression in Amsinckia are determined more by other factors than by each other.
      Estimates of mutation rates and dominance coefficients of deleterious alleles,
      obtained from a companion study of the four highly self-fertilizing populations,
      suggest that a strong relationship may not be expected. We discuss the
      relationship of the present results to current theory of the coevolution of self
      fertilization and inbreeding depression.

PMID- 28565712
TI  - POSTMATING REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN CHRYSOPA QUADRIPUNCTATA AND CHRYSOPA
      SLOSSONAE: MECHANISMS AND GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION.
AB  - In laboratory tests, Chrysopa quadripunctata showed geographic variation in a
      postmating, prezygotic barrier to interbreeding with its sister species, C.
      slossonae. When paired with C. slossonae males, C. quadripunctata females from
      populations that are sympatric with C. slossonae (i.e. from New York and Florida)
      had lower incidences of fertile oviposition than those from allopatric
      populations (i.e. from Kansas and California). Chrysopa quadripunctata females in
      all interspecific pairings were inseminated, but absence of fertile oviposition
      was associated with the lack of sperm transfer from the bursa copulatrix to the
      spermatheca. The C. quadripunctata females that failed to lay fertile eggs when
      crossed with C. slossonae males, invariably produced viable C. quadripunctata
      offspring (no hybrids) within one day after the heterospecific male was replaced
      with a conspecific one. Thus, the barrier to hybridization may involve the
      ability of females to (a) distinguish between heterospecific and conspecific
      sperm and (b) allow the transfer of only conspecific sperm to the spermatheca.
      When C. slossonae females were paired with C. quadripunctata males, the
      incidences of fertile oviposition were high and there was no apparent geographic
      variation in the degree of hybridization. As with C. quadripunctata females,
      unsuccessful hybridization of C. slossonae females was associated with retention
      of sperm in the bursa copulatrix. Hybrids did not differ from intraspecific
      offspring in their viability or sex ratios. However, hybrids whose parents
      originated from sympatric populations had low fertility; thus hybrid infertility
      may constitute an additional barrier to hybridization. The patterns of inter- and
      intraspecific variation in hybridization are consistent with the notions that C.
      quadripunctata harbors variation in the mechanism that controls sperm movement to
      the spermatheca and that the evolution of reproductive isolation between C.
      quadripunctata and C. slossonae may include natural selection for increased
      expression of this mechanism.

PMID- 28565713
TI  - TESTING COLD FUSION OF PHYLA: MATERNITY IN A TUNICATE * SEA URCHIN HYBRID
      DETERMINED FROM DNA COMPARISONS.

PMID- 28565714
TI  - TRANSLATING BETWEEN MICROEVOLUTIONARY PROCESS AND MACROEVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS: THE
      CORRELATION STRUCTURE OF INTERSPECIFIC DATA.
AB  - As species evolve along a phylogenetic tree, we expect closely related species to
      retain some phenotypic similarities due to their shared evolutionary histories.
      The amount of expected similarity depends both on the hierarchical phylogenetic
      structure, and on the specific magnitude and types of evolutionary changes that
      accumulate during each generation. In this study, we show how models of
      microevolutionary change can be translated into the resulting macroevolutionary
      patterns. We illustrate how the structure of phenotypic covariances expected in
      interspecific measurements can be derived, and how this structure depends on the
      microevolutionary forces guiding phenotypic change at each generation. We then
      explore the covariance structure expected from several simple microevolutionary
      models of phenotypic evolution, including various combinations of random genetic
      drift, directional selection, stabilizing selection, and environmental change, as
      well as models of punctuated or burst-like evolution. We find that stabilizing
      selection leads to patterns of exponential decrease of between species covariance
      with phylogenetic distance. This is different from the usual linear patterns of
      decrease assumed in most comparative and systematic methods. Nevertheless, linear
      patterns of decrease can result from many processes in addition to random genetic
      drift, such as directional and fluctuating selection as well as modes of
      punctuated change. Our framework can be used to develop methods for (1)
      phylogenetic reconstruction; (2) inference of the evolutionary process from
      comparative data; and (3) conducting or evaluating statistical analyses of
      comparative data while taking phylogenetic history into account.

PMID- 28565715
TI  - CLEAVAGE PATTERNS AND MESENTOBLAST FORMATION IN THE GASTROPODA: AN EVOLUTIONARY
      PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - The larger gastropod taxa are characterized by distinctive cleavage patterns. The
      cell stage at which the mesentoblast is formed appears to be crucial. In none of
      the taxa is it formed earlier than the 24- and not later than the 63-cell stage.
      A heterochronic shift from late to early mesentoblast formation appears to
      coincide with successive steps in gastropod evolution. Comparison of the early
      cleavage patterns appears to be a powerful method for investigating the
      evolutionary relations between major gastropod taxa.

PMID- 28565716
TI  - METABOLIC AND DIGESTIVE RESPONSES TO ARTIFICIAL SELECTION IN CHICKENS.
AB  - Compared to ancestral wild jungle fowl, domestic broiler chickens have been
      consciously selected for large body size, relatively large pectoral muscles,
      rapid growth, and high feed efficiency. Hence intraspecific comparisons of these
      two strains could help identify consequences of unconscious artificial selection,
      trade-offs in energy allocation, and factors limiting energy budgets. We
      therefore compared our measurements of many corresponding parameters in both
      strains: growth rate, energy intake, digestive efficiency, metabolic rate and its
      components, organ masses, and intestinal brush-border nutrient transporter and
      hydrolase activities and capacities, as functions of age and body mass in zero-
      to nine-week-old chicks. Both strains prove to have the same digestive
      efficiency. Compared to equal-sized jungle fowl, broilers have higher daily
      energy intake and activity costs. Broilers have relatively longer and wider,
      hence heavier, small intestines, and their other gut compartments are also
      relatively larger. Offsetting these increases, broilers have relatively smaller
      brains and leg bones, these being much less important to a captive bird than to a
      wild bird exposed to predators. Broilers have generally lower intestinal
      transporter activities, but relatively higher transporter capacities because of
      their larger guts. Among domestic chicken strains, comparison of broilers with
      layers, the former having been consciously selected for much higher growth rates,
      yields generally similar conclusions. Thus, as recognized in broad outline by
      Darwin, domestication provides clear examples of conscious selection, of
      unconscious selection for traits prerequisite to the consciously selected traits,
      and of unconscious selection against traits rendered less important or competing
      for space or energy.

PMID- 28565717
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28565718
TI  - EVOLUTION OF FLORAL TRAITS IN A HERMAPHRODITIC PLANT: FIELD MEASUREMENTS OF
      HERITABILITIES AND GENETIC CORRELATIONS.
AB  - Genetic variances, heritabilities, and genetic correlations of floral traits were
      measured in the monocarpic perennial Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae). A
      paternal half-sib design was employed to generate seeds in each of four years,
      and seeds were planted back in the field near the parental site. The progeny were
      followed for up to eight years to estimate quantitative genetic parameters
      subject to natural levels of environmental variation over the entire life cycle.
      Narrow-sense heritabilities of 0.2-0.8 were detected for the morphometric traits
      of corolla length, corolla width, stigma position, and anther position. The
      proportion of time spent by the protandrous flowers in the pistillate phase
      ("proportion pistillate") also exhibited detectable heritability of near 0.3. In
      contrast, heritability estimates for nectar reward traits were low and not
      significantly different from zero, due to high environmental variance between and
      within flowering years. The estimates of genetic parameters were combined with
      phenotypic selection gradients to predict evolutionary responses to selection
      mediated by the hummingbird pollinators. One trait, corolla width, showed the
      potential for a rapid response to ongoing selection through male function, as it
      experienced both direct selection, by influencing pollen export, and relatively
      high heritability. Predicted responses were lower for proportion pistillate and
      corolla length, even though these traits also experienced direct selection.
      Stigma position was expected to respond positively to indirect selection of
      proportion pistillate but negatively to selection of corolla length, with the net
      effect sensitive to variation in the selection estimates. Anther position also
      was not directly selected but could respond to indirect selection of genetically
      correlated traits.

PMID- 28565719
TI  - STABILIZING SELECTION DETECTED FOR BRISTLE NUMBER IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Stabilizing selection, which favors intermediate phenotypes, is frequently
      invoked as the selective force maintaining a population's status quo. Two main
      alternative reasons for stabilizing selection on a quantitative trait are
      possible: (1) intermediate trait values can be favored through the causal effect
      of the trait on fitness (direct stabilizing selection); or (2) through a
      pleiotropic, deleterious side effect on fitness of mutants affecting the trait
      (apparent stabilizing selection). Up to now, these alternatives have never been
      experimentally disentangled. Here we measure fitness as a function of the number
      of abdominal bristles within four Drosophila melanogaster lines, one with high,
      one with low, and two with intermediate average bristle number. The four were
      inbred nonsegregating lines, so that apparent selection due to pleiotropy is not
      possible. Individual fitness significantly increased (decreased) with bristles
      number in the low (high) line. No significant fitness-trait association was
      detected within each intermediate line. These results reveal substantial direct
      stabilizing selection on the trait.

PMID- 28565720
TI  - DIVERGENCE IN SYMBIOTIC COMPATIBILITY IN A LEGUME-BRADYRHIZOBIUM MUTUALISM.
AB  - Geographic variation in the mutualism between the legume Amphicarpaea bracteata
      and its nitrogen-fixing root nodule bacteria (Bradyrhizobium sp.) was analyzed by
      sampling genotypes from 11 sites separated by distances ranging from 0.6 km to
      more than 1000 km. Cross inoculation experiments revealed that plants were
      genetically differentiated in traits determining compatibility with mutualist
      partners from different sites. Combinations of plant and bacterial genotypes
      native to the same local habitat yielded 26% higher plant growth relative to non
      native combinations (range across 4 experiments; 9% to 48%). Among non-native
      symbioses, plant growth was unrelated to the geographic distance between sites of
      plant and bacterial origin. However, compatibility varied significantly with the
      genetic distance among host populations (inferred by multilocus enzyme
      electrophoresis): genetically similar plants from separate sites showed superior
      growth with each other's mutualist partners. Nevertheless, the tree structure of
      population genetic similarity was not congruent in plants versus bacteria. This
      implies that adaptive variation in symbiotic compatibility has evolved without
      strictly parallel divergence in the two species.

PMID- 28565721
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF THE WING COLOR PATTERN IN THE BUCKEYE BUTTERFLY (PRECIS
      COENIA AND PRECIS EVARETE): EVIDENCE AGAINST THE CONSTANCY OF G.
AB  - Models for the evolution of continuously varying traits use heritabilities,
      genetic correlations, and the G-matrix to quantify the genetic variation upon
      which selection acts. Given estimates of these parameters, it is possible to
      predict the long-term effects of selection, infer past selective forces
      responsible for observed differences between populations or species, and
      distinguish the effects of drift from selection. Application of these methods,
      however, requires the unproven assumption that the G-matrix remains constant from
      one generation to the next. This study examines the assumption of constancy for
      the wing pattern characteristics of two sibling species of butterflies, Precis
      coenia and P. evarete (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Quantitative genetic parameters
      were estimated from parent-offspring regression. Two approaches were taken to
      test the null hypothesis of equality between species. First, pairwise tests
      between corresponding elements of G and between heritabilities and genetic
      correlations for the two species were constructed. Second, a modification of
      Bartlett's modified likelihood-ratio test was used to test for equality between
      the G-matrices. The matrix test failed to detect any between species differences.
      In contrast, pairwise comparision revealed significant differences. Thus, it
      appears that constancy cannot be assumed at the species level in quantitative
      genetic studies. In particular, the assumption of constancy was violated for the
      trait with the greatest difference in mean phenotype.

PMID- 28565722
TI  - THE ECOLOGY AND GENETICS OF FITNESS IN CHLAMYDOMONAS. VII. THE EFFECT OF SEX ON
      THE VARIANCE IN FITNESS AND MEAN FITNESS.

PMID- 28565723
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF GENETIC CORRELATIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF PATTERNS.
AB  - The genetic correlation is a central parameter of quantitative genetics,
      providing a measure of the rate at which traits respond to indirect selection
      (i.e., selection that does not act upon the traits under study, but some other
      trait with which they have genes in common). In this paper, I review the pattern
      of variation among four combinations of traits: life history * life history (L *
      L), morphological * morphological (M * M), life history * morphological (L * M),
      and behavioral * behavioral (B * B). A few other combinations were investigated,
      but insufficient data were obtained for separate analysis. A total of 1798
      correlations, distributed over 51 different animal and plant species, were
      analyzed. The analysis was conducted at two levels: first by dividing the data
      set solely by trait combination, and second by blocking the data by trait
      combination and species. Because selection will tend to fix alleles that show
      positive correlations with fitness traits faster than those that are negative and
      because the latter are expected to arise more frequently by mutation,
      correlations between life-history traits are predicted to be more often negative
      than those between morphological traits. This prediction was supported, with the
      ranking in decreasing proportion of negative correlations being: L * L > L * M >
      B * B > M * M. The mean magnitude of the genetic correlation shows little
      variation among morphological and life-history combinations, and the distribution
      of values is remarkably flat. However, the estimated standard errors and the
      coefficient of variation (SE/rG ) are large, making it difficult to separate
      biological factors influencing the pattern of dispersion from experimental error.
      Analysis of the phenotypic and genetic correlations suggest that for the
      combinations M * M and L * M, but not L * L or B * B, the phenotypic correlation
      is an adequate estimate of the genetic correlation.

PMID- 28565724
TI  - GENETIC DRIFT AND FOUNDER EFFECT IN NATIVE VERSUS INTRODUCED POPULATIONS OF AN
      INVADING PLANT, LYTHRUM SALICARIA (LYTHRACEAE).
AB  - There are few convincing examples of genetic drift at loci under selection in
      natural populations. The plant sexual polymorphism tristyly provides an
      opportunity to investigate genetic drift because stochastic processes interacting
      with frequency-dependent selection give rise to a diagnostic pattern of morph
      frequency variation. A previous study of 102 Ontario populations of the
      introduced tristylous wetland herb Lythrum salicaria provided evidence for the
      role of stochastic processes during colonization. However, whether stochastic
      effects are greater in these recently introduced populations compared to native
      Eurasian populations remains unclear. The propensity of this species to invade
      disturbed habitats suggests that episodes of colonization and periods of small
      population size must also occur in the native range. A survey of 102 populations
      in southwestern France indicated reduced stochastic effects in native
      populations. Populations exhibited significantly lower morph loss than in Ontario
      (5% vs. 23%) and significantly higher values of morph evenness. The greater
      incidence of trimorphism in French populations was not associated with larger
      population sizes; populations were significantly smaller than those in Ontario
      (means: 266 vs. 487). Morph evenness was positively correlated with population
      size among French but not Ontario populations, providing further evidence of
      nonequilibrium conditions in introduced compared to native populations. The
      incidence of trimorphism was unexpectedly high in small native populations (N <=
      25; 22 of 27 populations trimorphic). Computer simulations indicated that levels
      of gene flow on the order of m >= 0.05 can account for the maintenance of
      tristyly in small populations. The high connectivity of populations within the
      agricultural landscape typical of southwestern France may facilitate levels of
      gene flow sufficient to maintain trimorphism in small populations.

PMID- 28565725
TI  - MICROGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF GENETIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN SAVANNAH
      SPARROWS (PASSERCULUS SANDWICHENSIS).
AB  - Surveys of genetic population structure are often limited to large geographic
      scales because geographically close populations are indistinguishable. Genetic
      uniformity across adjacent demes can be interpreted as evidence for cohesion
      (panmixia) or recent divergence. However, poor genetic resolution at
      microgeographic scales can also arise from the use of overly conservative (slowly
      evolving) markers. This study examines the ability of hypervariable,
      minisatellite loci to discriminate among geographically close populations of
      Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) and to track morphological
      differentiation at a microgeographic scale (interregional distance < 55 km).
      Savannah sparrows breeding at five island and two mainland sites in the Bay of
      Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada, show concordant patterns of variation in external
      morphology (seven characters) and multilocus DNA fingerprinting profiles (Sxy ):
      island sparrows are phenotypically larger and genetically more similar to each
      other than they are to mainland sparrows. This pattern of variation is consistent
      with both adaptive (natural selection) and nonadaptive (genetic drift) mechanisms
      of population divergence. Based on minisatellite diversity, the effective size of
      both island and mainland populations is 37, an estimate substantially lower than
      census population sizes. These data are discordant with observations of sparrow
      vagility and abundance and suggest a closer examination of microgeographic
      patterns in avian systems.

PMID- 28565726
TI  - CYCLICAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AS A FACTOR MAINTAINING GENETIC POLYMORPHISM. 2.
      DIPLOID SELECTION FOR AN ADDITIVE TRAIT.
AB  - The subject of this paper is polymorphism maintenance due to stabilizing
      selection with a moving optimum. It was shown that in case of two-locus additive
      control of the selected trait, global polymorphism is possible only when the
      geometric mean fitnesses of double homozygotes averaged over the period are lower
      than that of the single heterozygotes and of the double heterozygote (with a
      multiplier [1 - r]p , which depends on recombination rate r and period length p).
      But local stability of polymorphism cannot be excluded even if geometric mean
      fitnesses of all double homozygotes are higher than that of all heterozygotes. We
      proved, that for logarithmically convex fitness functions, cyclical changes of
      the optimum cannot help in polymorphism maintenance in case of additive control
      of the selected trait by two equal loci. However, within the same class of
      fitness functions, nonequal gene action and/or dominance effect for one or both
      loci may lead to local polymorphism stability with large enough polymorphism
      attracting domain. The higher the intensity of selection and closer the linkage
      between selected loci the larger is this domain. Note that even simple cyclical
      selection could result in two forms of polymorphic limiting behavior: (a) usually
      expected forced cycle with a period equal to that of environmental changes; and
      (b) "supercycles," nondumping auto-oscillations with a period comprising of
      hundreds of forced oscillation periods.

PMID- 28565727
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THERMAL SENSITIVITY IN THE LOCOMOTOR
      PERFORMANCE CURVE OF APHIDIUS ERVI.
AB  - The thermal sensitivity of locomotor performance in Aphidius ervi, a parasitic
      hymenopteran, conforms to the "jack-of-all-trades is master of none" model of
      specialist-generalist trade-offs. Performance breadth and maximal performance at
      the phenotypic level are negatively correlated in both sexes. A strong, negative
      genetic correlation was found for males, but not for females. In males, the broad
      sense heritability of performance breadth was about 0.16, and that of maximum
      walking velocity was about 0.29. Neither heritability was significantly different
      from zero in females. The broad-sense heritability of body mass was about 0.3 in
      females and 0.6 in males, with a strong negative genetic correlation between size
      and maximum velocity in males only. These data provide the first quantitative
      genetic analysis of performance curves in eukaryotic animals, and one of the few
      demonstrations of the specialist-generalist trade-off that underlies much theory
      in evolutionary ecology.

PMID- 28565728
TI  - GEOLOGICALLY DATED SEA BARRIERS CALIBRATE A PROTEIN CLOCK FOR AEGEAN WATER FROGS.
AB  - Reliable estimates of phylogenetic relationships and divergence times are a
      crucial requirement for many evolutionary studies, but are usually difficult
      because fossils are scarce and their interpretation is often uncertain. Frogs are
      fresh water animals that generally are unable to cross salt water barriers (their
      skin is readily permeable to both salt and water). The geologically determined
      ages of salt water barriers that isolate related frog populations thus provide an
      independent measure of the minimum date of genetic divergence between pairs of
      such populations. For the genetically well-studied western Palearctic water frogs
      (Rana esculenta group), the Aegean region provides an ideal area for determining
      the relationship between genetic divergence and time of spatial isolation, using
      a nested set of geologically determined isolation times (12,000 yr, 200,000 yr,
      1.8 Myr, 2-3 Myr, and 5.2 Myr). Using 31 electrophoretic loci for 33 pairs of
      neighboring frog populations, a linear relationship between geologically
      determined isolation time and Hillis' modified Nei genetic distance was found:
      D*Nei = (0.04 +/- 0.01) + (0.10 +/- 0.01) isolation time [Myr] corresponding to
      an average divergence rate ("molecular clock" pace) of 0.10 D*Nei /Myr (0.10 DNei
      /Myr). This rate is in the range of previous estimates reported for protein
      electrophoretic data; the value is conservative because relatively few of the
      loci used are "fast evolvers" (13%; sAAT, ALB, EST-5, MPI). Removing these fast
      evolvers from the analysis results in 0.08 D*Nei /Myr (0.08 DNei /Myr). The
      confidence limits for estimation of the divergence time given the genetic
      distance are large, but unusually narrow for this kind of study; they permit us
      to estimate divergence times during the Pliocene and Miocene. Few previous
      studies, including sequence analyses, have provided reasonable estimates of
      divergence time for the Pliocene. A test using the outgroup taxa Rana perezi and
      Rana saharica (also isolated for 5.2 Myr by the Strait of Gibraltar) fits the
      calibration well: observed genetic Nei distance D*Nei = 0.55, expected D*Nei =
      0.56. The calculated divergence times, based on this absolute molecular clock,
      suggest a series of speciation events after the Messinian (5.2 Myr), possibly
      triggered by the rapid ecological changes accompanying the desiccation and
      refilling of the Mediterranean Basin.

PMID- 28565729
TI  - Combined Endoscopic and Surgical Treatment of Severe Gastrointestinal Bleeding in
      a Patient with Heart Assist Device under Therapeutic Anticoagulation.
AB  - Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is a common complication after heart assist device
      placement. Reasons for bleeding are multifactorial. Endoscopic therapy is the
      treatment of choice, whereas invasive procedures are avoided in these critically
      ill patients. We present the case of a 65-year-old male patient experiencing
      severe GI bleeding after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and right
      ventricular assist device (RVAD) placement with therapeutic anticoagulation.
      Endoscopically, multiple gastric bleeding sources were found but could not be
      treated effectively due to a large blood clot. A combined endoscopic and surgical
      treatment was initiated, including gastrotomy for blood clot removal, surgical
      transgastric suturing, endoscopic over-the-scope clip (OTSC) placement and
      hemospray application. Postoperative endoscopic visualization showed effective
      bleeding control. The patient unfortunately died due to causes unrelated to the
      treatment. This case shows that a minimal invasive combination of endoscopic and
      surgical techniques can be an alternative treatment for severe upper GI bleeding
      in critically ill and anticoagulated patients.

PMID- 28565730
TI  - Gallbladder Volume Indicated for Gallbladder Dysmotility.

PMID- 28565731
TI  - [Consensus of Chinese experts on diagnosis of disseminated intravascular
      coagulation (version 2017)].

PMID- 28565732
TI  - [Consensus of Chinese expert on the diagnosis and treatment of hemophilia
      (version 2017)].

PMID- 28565733
TI  - [How I treat disseminated intravascular coagulation].

PMID- 28565734
TI  - [How I treat corticosteroid-resistant or relapsed adult patients with primary
      immune thrombocytopenia].

PMID- 28565735
TI  - [A prospective study of the efficacy and safety of maintenance therapy with
      recombinant human thrombopoietin in patients with primary immune
      thrombocytopenia: a multicenter study].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of maintenance therapy with
      reduced dose of rhTPO in the patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP)
      who attained stable platelet (PLT) counts after daily administration of rhTPO.
      Methods: Treatment was started with a daily administration of rhTPO (300 U/kg)
      for 2 consecutive weeks. Patients who attained stable PLT>=50*10(9)/L were
      enrolled to maintenance therapy starting with every other day administration of
      rhTPO, then adjusted dose interval to maintain platelet count (30-100) *10(9)/L.
      Results: A total of 91 eligible patients were enrolled. Fourteen patients
      discontinued the study due to noncompliance (12/14) and investigator decision
      (2/14) . Among 77 patients who completed the study, 38 patients with the
      administration of rhTPO at every other day or less could maintain PLT>=30*10(9)/L
      for 12 weeks. The percentage of patients with a platelet response
      (PLT>=30*10(9)/L) at 4(th) week, 8(th) week and 12(th) week of maintain therapy
      was 92.6% (63/68) , 82.7% (43/52) and 85.0% (34/40) , respectively. Median
      platelet counts remained in the range of (70-124) *10(9)/L. The overall incidence
      of rhTPO-related adverse events was 7.7%. All the adverse events were generally
      mild. Conclusion: Extending the dose interval of rhTPO is feasible to maintain
      stable platelet count in the patients with ITP, but the optimal dose interval is
      uncertain and might vary with individuals.

PMID- 28565736
TI  - [Predictors of fatigue among individuals with primary immune thrombocytopenia in
      China].
AB  - Objective: To study the fatigue symptoms of adult patients with primary immune
      thrombocytopenia (ITP) and to analyze the possible factors that affect the
      severity of fatigue. Methods: Eligible adult patients with ITP who admitted to
      Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital were enrolled in this study and
      the questionnaires including a Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of
      Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-Fatigue) , the Pittsburgh sleep quality
      index (PSQI) , the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) and demographic
      information were completed. The predictors of fatigue were determined with
      multiple linear regression analyses. Results: A total of 207 patients with ITP
      were enrolled, including 70 males (33.8%) and 137 females (66.2%) , the median
      age was 42 (18-72) years old. The FACIT-F score in ITP patients was (37.50+/
      9.05) . The FACIT-F severity of ITP patients was positively correlated with the
      platelet count (r=0.307, P<0.001) . The FACIT-F severity was negatively
      correlated with bleeding severity (r=-0.276, P<0.001) , sleep quality (r=-0.654,
      P<0.001) , depression (r=-0.598, P<0.001) and anxiety (r=-0.616, P<0.001) . A
      multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the severity of ITP-related
      fatigue was significantly correlated with platelet count (P<0.001) , bleeding
      severity (P=0.004) , sleep quality (P<0.001) and depression (P<0.001) .
      Conclusion: Fatigue was determined by complicated factors in adult ITP patients.
      Interventions addressing depressive symptoms, sleep quality, bleeding symptoms
      and platelet count could be potential avenues for treatment of fatigue in
      patients with ITP.

PMID- 28565737
TI  - [A Study on the establishment of immune thrombocytopenia model induced by anti
      platelet GPIbalpha antibodies].
AB  - Objective: To establish primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) animal model
      induced by anti-platelet membrane glycoprotein GPIbalpha antibodies AN51 and
      R300. Methods: Twenty guinea pigs (6-8 week) were divided into 4 groups. Five
      guinea pigs in each group were intravenously injected with different doses of
      AN51 (0.05, 0.1, 0.2 MUg/g) and 0.2 MUg/g IgG as control. The whole blood was
      collected from inner angular venous plexus. Platelets number was determined by an
      automated cell counter and Swiss-Jim method. Then, the similar protocol was used
      to establish ITP nude mice model by intraperitoneal injection of different
      concentrations of anti-platelet GPIbalpha antibody R300, respectively. Results:
      1Five minutes after intravenous injection of AN51 at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 MUg/g, the
      platelet counts of guinea pigs reduced about 0-5%, 50%-60% and 70%-80% compared
      to the control group, respectively. The difference was statistically significant
      (P<0.01) . 2Six hours after intraperitoneal injection of R300 at 0.05, 0.1, 0.2
      MUg/g, the platelet counts of nude mice decreased about 20%-30%, 60%-70% and 80%
      90% compared to the control group, respectively. The difference was statistically
      significant (P<0.01) . The nude mice, injected 0.2 MUg/g R300 once a day for 2
      weeks, showed typical ITP clinical manifestations including large number of
      petechiaes or ecchymoses on limbs, head and abdomen. Conclusion: AN51 at 0.2
      MUg/g and R300 at 0.2 MUg/g could establish stable ITP model in guinea pigs and
      nude mice respectively.

PMID- 28565738
TI  - [Comparative study between two bleeding grading systems of primary immune
      thrombocytopenia].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate prospectively the clinical significance of immune
      thrombocytopenia (ITP) bleeding scale (version 2016 of ITP bleeding scale)
      recommended in consensus of Chinese experts on diagnosis and treatment of adult
      primary immune thrombocytopenia (version 2016) by Chinese Medical Association.
      Methods: A total of 88 patients were assessed by ITP bleeding scale (version
      2016) and ITP specific bleeding assessment tool (ITP-BAT) to analyze the
      association between bleeding score of ITP bleeding scale (version 2016) and
      platelet counts, gender, disease stage, also to evaluate interinstrument
      consistency between two bleeding grading systems. Among 47 newly diagnosed ITP
      patients treated with high dose dexamethasone, bleeding score of ITP bleeding
      scale (version 2016) and platelet counts were assessed before treatment, one week
      and two weeks after treatment, respectively, and the responsiveness of ITP
      bleeding scale (version 2016) was evaluated. Results: Bleeding score of ITP
      patients was negatively correlated with platelet counts (r=-0.515, P<0.001) .
      Gender and disease stage had no significant influence on bleeding score (F=4.255,
      P=0.382; F=5.251, P=0.753) . ITP bleeding scale was in excellent agreement with
      ITP-BAT. Change of bleeding score of 47 ITP patients before and after high dose
      dexamethasone treatment had significant difference (z=-5.612, P<0.001) , also,
      the same result was observed in patients who didn't get complete response (z=
      3.969, P<0.001) . Back-to-back scoring consistency of two doctors was 94.4%
      (k=0.918) . It took less time to accomplish ITP bleeding scale (version 2016)
      than that of ITP-BAT [3 (2-6) min vs 7 (4-13) min, z=-8.213, P<0.001].
      Conclusion: ITP bleeding scale (version 2016) has good responsiveness, strong
      assessment consistency, close correlation with ITP-BAT and less time-consuming in
      clinical application. It can be used as an effective tool of condition judgement,
      risk assessment and efficacy evaluation of ITP patients.

PMID- 28565739
TI  - [Research on the negative immune regulation of NK cells in patients with primary
      immune thrombocytopenia].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the levels of NK cells and their relevant cytokines (IL
      10, TGF-beta and IFN-gamma) in patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia
      (ITP) . Methods: All samples were obtained from 42 patients (22 newly diagnosed
      and 20 in remission) and 20 healthy volunteers. The levels of IL-10 and IFN-gamma
      in blood serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) . The
      percentage of CD3(-) CD56(+) NK cell, CD3(-) CD56(bright) CD16(-) NK cell, CD3(-)
      CD56(dim) CD16(+) NK cell in peripheral blood lymphocyte were detected by flow
      cytometry. The NK cells were isolated by immunomagnetic microbeads. The mRNA
      expression levels of IL-10, TGF-beta, and IFN-gamma in NK cells were detected by
      real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Correlation between the above measured
      results was analyzed. Results: 1 The blood serum level of IFN-gamma in newly
      diagnosed ITP patients [ (653.0+/-221.6) ng/L] was higher than that in remission
      ITP patients [ (484.4+/-219.5) ng/L] and healthy control [ (390.9+/-253.5) ng/L]
      (P=0.022, P=0.001) . The blood serum level of IL-10 in newly diagnosed ITP
      patients was lower than that in healthy control [ (52.09+/-26.66) ng/L vs
      (79.44+/-38.43) ng/L, P=0.007]. 2The percentage of NK cell in newly diagnosed and
      remission ITP patients [ (9.53+/-3.93) %, (9.03+/-3.78) %] were significantly
      lower than that in healthy control [ (13.72+/-7.42) %] (P=0.013, P=0.007) . The
      ratio of CD3(-) CD56(bright) CD16(-) NK cell/total NK cells in newly diagnosed
      ITP patients was higher than that in healthy control [ (6.85+/-4.43) % vs (4.05+/
      2.81) %, P=0.032]. The ratio of CD3(-)CD56(dim) CD16(-) NK cell/total NK cells in
      newly diagnosed ITP patients was lower than that in healthy control [ (93.14+/
      4.43) % vs (95.94+/-2.81) %, P=0.032]. 3 There was no significant difference in
      the mRNA expression level of IFN-gamma in NK cells of ITP patients and healthy
      control (all P>0.05) . The mRNA expression levels of IL-10 and TGF-beta in NK
      cells in newly diagnosed ITP patients were significantly higher than that in
      healthy control (1.82+/-1.32 vs 1.02+/-1.03, P=0.023; 2.80+/-2.31 vs 1.46+/-1.37,
      P=0.028) . The ratio of CD3(-)CD56(bright) CD16(-) NK cell/total NK cells was
      positively correlated with the mRNA expression levels of IL-10, TGF-beta in NK
      cells (r=0.424, P=0.001; r=0.432, P<0.001) . Conclusion: NK cells may compensate
      for the deficiency of the number by enhancing the secretion of negative
      regulation cytokines, acting as "protective" roles in the disease.

PMID- 28565740
TI  - [Retrospectively analysis of the difference of bleeding frequency and hemophilic
      arthropathy between hemophilia A and hemophilia B patients].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the difference of bleeding frequency, plain radiographic (X
      ray) , risk factors in hemophilic arthropathy progression and the Arnold
      Hilgartner classification. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 211
      hemophilia patients hospitalized in our medical center between January 2007 and
      December 2010, some patients with hemarthrosis were followed up for 5 years.
      Results: All patients were male, including 150 hemophilia A (HA) and 61
      hemophilia B (HB) . The HA patients bled more frequently than HB patients with
      annualized total bleeding rate 20.5 (0-48) vs 13 (1-40) ; annualized joint
      bleeding rate 13.5 (0-38) vs 8 (0-33) , especially in moderate hemophilia [26 (1
      48) vs 12 (1-36) , P<0.001; 18 (0-36) vs 7.5 (0-26) , P=0.001], but severe
      hemophilia had no difference in bleeding frequency [33 (1-41) vs 26 (1-40) ,
      P=0.702; 22 (0-36) vs 18 (0-33) , P=0.429]. The condition of the affected joints
      of 108 HA and 54 HB was evaluated on roentgenography. In HA patients, the Arnold
      Hilgartner classification increased with the severity ratings (r=0.063, P=0.004)
      . However, similar associations were not found in HB patients (r=0.045, P=0.082)
      . Five years later, 36 HA and 19 HB patients received the same joint X-ray, there
      were no significant differences in joints radiographic progression between the
      total HA and HB groups (z=1.941, P=0.052) . However, significant difference
      between moderate HA and HB was observed (z=0.076, P=0.002) . Multivariate
      unconditioned Logistic analysis showed that annualized joint bleeding rate
      [P<0.001, OR=1.166 (95%CI 1.097-1.239) ] and articular structural injuries
      [P=0.018, OR=2.842 (95% CI 1.196-6.755) ] were independent risk factors for the
      joints radiographic progression. Conclusion: The study suggests that there was a
      difference in bleeding phenotype between HA and HB, especially in moderate
      hemophilia. HB patients showed mild but progressive development over time,
      compared with HA patients. Annualized joint bleeding rate and articular
      structural injuries were independent risk factors for the joints radiographic
      progression.

PMID- 28565741
TI  - [Analysis of clinical efficacy of recombinant activated factor VII on bleeding in
      patients with hematologic disorders].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the treatment efficacy of recombinant activated factor
      VII (rFVIIa) for bleeding among patients with hematologic disorders. Methods: A
      total of 38 times of bleeding in 31 patients with hematological disease treated
      with rFVIIa were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The clinical effective rate
      of rFVIIa for bleeding management in acquired hemophilia A (AHA)
      patients/hemophilia patients with inhibitor, acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
      patients and patients with non-APL leukemia was 90% (9/10) , 71.4% (5/7) and
      60.0% (3/5) , respectively, which was higher than that in patients following HSCT
      (30.8%) . The clinical effective rate of rFVIIa for patients with bleeding score
      of 2 (100.0%) was higher than that with 3 (66.7%) and 4 (54.1%) . The effective
      rate of rFVIIa was 25.0% (2/5) in 5 patients with cerebral hemorrhage, 66.7%
      (6/9) in 9 patients with hematuria and 41.7% in 12 patients with gastrointestinal
      hemorrhage. The curative effect for 3 patients with joints and muscle bleeding
      and 5 patients with skin, nasal, pharyngeal and gum bleeding was excellent.
      Following HSCT, among patients with bleeding score of 4 points, high dose and
      repeated use of rFVIIa did not necessarily achieve a good effect. Among
      AHA/hemophilia patients with inhibitors and patients with acute leukemia who had
      bleeding score of 4 points, the use of low dose FVIIa could achieve good
      therapeutic effect, however the efficacy of lowest dose (22.5 MUg/kg) rFVIIa was
      poor. Conclusions: The hemostasis efficacy of rFVIIa is affected by various
      factors such as diseases, bleeding sites, bleeding score and so on. The use of
      rFVIIa can achieve good efficacy for bleeding management in AHA
      patients/hemophilia patients with inhibitor, APL patients and patients with non
      APL leukemia. However the efficacy of rFVIIa for bleeding of patients after HSCT
      is poor. Early use of rFVIIa is important for successful hemostatic treatment.
      Management of underlying condition is as important as hemostatic treatment.

PMID- 28565742
TI  - [Sorafenib in combination with chemotherapy as first-line therapy for FLT3-ITD
      positive acute myeloid leukemia].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the clinical features of acute myeloid leukemia patients
      with Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) mutation
      and the therapeutic effect of sorafenib in combination with chemotherapy as first
      line therapy for these patients. Methods: Clinical features and therapeutic
      effect were retrospectively analyzed in 53 AML patients with FLT3-ITD mutation
      diagnosed in Henan Cancer Hospital from January 2013 to August 2016. The
      biological characteristics and clinical efficacy of chemotherapy in combination
      with or without Sorafeinb were analyzed. Results: FLT3-ITD mutation was
      identified in 53 AML patients, 22 cases (41.5%) were M(5) subtype. The median of
      the peripheral WBC was 61.00 (0.98-920.00) *10(9)/L, and there were 50 (94.3%)
      patients with WBC>10*10(9)/L. The median of blast cell in bone marrow was 0.730
      (0.234-0.966) . The total remission rate of all these 53 patients was 56.6%
      (30/53) . The complete remission (CR) rates in patients treated with chemotherapy
      in combination with sorafenib and patients with chemotherapy alone were 86.4%
      (19/22) and 35.5% (11/31) , respectively. The 1-year overall survival rates of
      the two groups were 78.3%% and 50.0% (P=0.041) , and 1-year progression free
      survival rates were 75.9% and 42.4% (P=0.044) , respectively. Conclusion: AML
      patients with FLT3-ITD mutation have the characteristics of high peripheral WBC,
      high blast cells in bone marrow and accompanying with M(5) subtype. Sorafeinb
      combined with chemotherapy can significantly improve CR rate and short term
      survival.

PMID- 28565743
TI  - [Distribution of donor-specific aKIR after unrelated allogeneic hematopoietic
      stem cell transplantation].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the distribution and proportion of donor-specific activated
      killer cell immunoglobulin like receptor (aKIR) genes and their clinical
      application values in unrelated allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (allo-HSCT) . Methods: Retrospective analyses of KIR genotyping
      using polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) were
      performed in 216 pairs of donors and recipients. Results: The frequency of donor
      specific KIR genes was 53.7% (116/216) in 216 patients receiving unrelated allo
      HSCT, with the frequency of 78.3% (112/143) in the KIR genes mismatched group and
      5.5% (4/73) in matched group. Of the 116 patients with detectable donor-specific
      KIR genes, 99.1% (115/116) patients had various donor-specific aKIR genes. Among
      55 pairs of donors' KIR-Bx genotype and patients' KIR-AA genotype group, the most
      commonly observed genotypes were Bx1, Bx2, Bx3, Bx4, in which the donor-specific
      KIR genes were respectively KIR 3DS1, 2DL5A, 2DS5, 2DS1; KIR 3DS1, 2DL5A, 2DS3,
      2DS1; KIR 2DS2, 2DL2; KIR 2DS2, 2DL2, 3DS1, 2DL5A, 2DS5, 2DS1. Of 44 pairs of
      donors' KIR-AA genotype and patients' KIR-Bx (AB) genotype group, 36.4% (16/44)
      recipients had donor-specific KIR2DS4 (FUL) gene. In 143 pairs of KIR mismatched
      group, the frequencies of donor-specific KIR genes were KIR2DS1 (35.7%) , KIR3DS1
      (32.9%) , KIR2DS5 (29.4%) , KIR2DS4 (FUL) (25.9%) , KIR2DL2 (25.2%) , KIR2DS2
      (24.5%) , KIR2DS3 (21.7%) and KIR3DL1 (8.4%) , respectively. Conclusion: The
      donor-specific aKIR genes mainly existed in KIR mismatched group after unrelated
      allo-HSCT, and the different pairs of donors' and patients' KIR genotypes led to
      the diverse donor-specific aKIR. But there were higher specific aKIR genes in
      higher frequency of KIR AA, Bx1, Bx2, Bx3, Bx4 genotypes. All these can provide
      the experimental basis for studying the role of the donor-specific aKIR genes on
      the prognosis of HSCT.

PMID- 28565744
TI  - [Chromosomal large fragment deletion induced by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system].
AB  - Objective: Using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to achieve a number of genes
      co-deletion on the same chromosome. Methods: CRISPR-Cas9 lentiviral plasmid that
      could induce deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes located on mouse 11B3
      chromosome was constructed via molecular clone. HEK293T cells were transfected to
      package lentivirus of CRISPR or Cas9 cDNA, then mouse NIH3T3 cells were infected
      by lentivirus and genomic DNA of these cells was extracted. The deleted fragment
      was amplified by PCR, TA clone, Sanger sequencing and other techniques were used
      to confirm the deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes. Results: The
      CRISPR-Cas9 lentiviral plasmid, which could induce deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b
      Alox8 cluster genes, was successfully constructed. Deletion of target chromosome
      fragment (Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes) was verified by PCR. The deletion
      of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes was affirmed by TA clone, Sanger
      sequencing, and the breakpoint junctions of the CRISPR-Cas9 system mediate
      cutting events were accurately recombined, insertion mutation did not occur
      between two cleavage sites at all. Conclusion: Large fragment deletion of Aloxe3
      Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes located on mouse chromosome 11B3 was successfully
      induced by CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system.

PMID- 28565745
TI  - [Study on autophagy in nucleated red blood cells in patients with myelodysplastic
      syndromes].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the change of autophagy level of bone marrow nucleated
      red blood cell (RBC) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) . Methods:
      Fifty-four MDS patients and thirty-three controls were enrolled in this study.
      The mitophagy were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) . The level
      of autophagy-associated protein LC3B in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC was measured by
      flow cytometry. The expressions of ULK1 and mTOR mRNA in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC
      were measured by real-time PCR. The expression of the mitochondrial outer
      membrane protein TOM20 in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC was detected by Western blot.
      Results: Autophagosomes or autolysosomes were scarcely observed by TEM in MDS
      patients. The expression of LC3B in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC in high-risk MDS
      patients (0.22+/-0.12) was significantly lower than that in normal controls
      (0.43+/-0.22, P<0.001) , and lower than that in low-risk MDS patients (0.40+/
      0.16, P=0.001) . The expression of AMPK [0.26 (0.60) ] in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC
      in high-risk MDS patients was significantly lower than that in controls [1.00
      (2.07) , P<0.017) . The expression of ULK1 mRNA in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC in
      high-risk MDS patients [0.27 (3.31) ] was significantly lower than that in
      controls [1.07 (4.41) , P<0.017]. The level of mTOR mRNA in GlycoA(+) nucleated
      RBC in high-risk MDS patients [1.82 (3.74) ] was significantly higher than that
      in controls [1.26 (1.38) , P<0.017]. The level of LC3B in GlycoA(+) nucleated RBC
      was negatively correlated with the HGB (r=0.529, P=0.009) in high-risk MDS
      patients. The expression of mitochondrial outer membrane protein TOM20 in high
      risk MDS patients was 9.42+/-4.42. Conclusion: Autophagy is impaired in nucleated
      RBC of MDS patients.

PMID- 28565746
TI  - [Clinical analysis of staphylococcus septicemia-associated hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis: seven case reports].

PMID- 28565747
TI  - [Progress of acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura].

PMID- 28565748
TI  - [Advances in Hemophilia A inhibitors].

PMID- 28565749
TI  - Main constituents of polyphenol complex from seagrasses of the genus Zostera,
      their antidiabetic properties and mechanisms of action.
AB  - The present review analyzed the recent experimental studies of the alleviating
      activity of main constituents of the polyphenol complex from seagrasses of the
      genus Zostera, namely rosmarinic acid, luteolin and its sulfated derivatives, on
      carbohydrate and lipid metabolism disorders. A number of studies by our group and
      others, in which various experimental models of diabetes and hyperlipidemia were
      used, show a therapeutic action of the polyphenol complex and the abovementioned
      phenolic constituents, when applied separately and in combination. Based on the
      analysis of the results of these studies, the probable mechanisms of the
      therapeutic action of these compounds in diabetes and hyperlipidemia were
      proposed.

PMID- 28565750
TI  - Myocardial fibrosis in congenital and pediatric heart disease.
AB  - Cardiac fibrosis is a common phenomenon in different types of heart diseases,
      such as ischemic heart disease, inherited cardiomyopathy mutations, diabetes, and
      ageing and is associated with morbidity and mortality. Increased accumulation of
      extracellular matrix (ECM) that impacts cardiac function, is the underlying cause
      of fibrotic heart disease. There are four different types of cardiac fibrosis,
      including, reactive interstitial fibrosis, replacement fibrosis, infiltrative
      interstitial fibrosis and endomyocardial fibrosis. They are involved in the
      activation and transformation of cardiac fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, which
      participate in ECM production and fibrotic process and several inflammatory
      pathways. Besides the ECM proteins, myofibroblasts also express smooth muscle
      alpha-actin, SM22 and caldesmon and other markers related to fibrotic process.
      Most commonly employed techniques to assess myocardial fibrosis include stress
      echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission
      tomography. Because of the involvement of renin-angiotensin-II-aldosterone
      system, transforming growth factor-beta signaling and activin-linked kinase 5 in
      the mechanisms of cardiac fibrosis, these pathways and the involved proteins are
      useful as therapeutic targets. However, because of the importance of these
      pathways in many other physiological functions, their therapeutic targeting needs
      to be approached with caution.

PMID- 28565751
TI  - Application of high-field magnetic resonance imaging in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - The present study aimed to observe the structural changes of the
      extracorticospinal tract in Parkinson's disease (PD) using susceptibility
      weighted imaging (SWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) magnetic resonance (MR)
      scans. The association of DTI parameters and brain-iron accumulation with PD was
      examined and imaging signs useful in the diagnosis of PD were explored. The study
      included 30 patients with PD and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy controls who
      underwent routine MR, SWI and DTI scans. The corrected phase (CP) values of the
      substantia nigra (SN), red nucleus (RN), globus pallidus (GP) and putamen (PUT)
      were measured, and fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient
      (ADC) values were obtained. Significant differences were found in the CP values
      between the PD and control groups in the SN, RN and PUT, but there were no
      differences in other regions of interest (ROIs). The FA values of the SN and PUT
      in the PD group were significantly decreased compared with those of the control
      group, but there was no significant difference in the FA values of the GP.
      Furthermore, there was no significant inter-group difference in the ADC values of
      any ROIs. In conclusion, SWI is a method useful for evaluating brain-iron
      deposition in PD. Increasing iron storage levels have previously been shown to be
      associated with PD pathogenesis but not with the degree of PD severity. FA values
      may be useful for diagnosing PD, and DTI may offer some insight into PD
      pathomechanisms and clinical diagnosis.

PMID- 28565752
TI  - Hepatoprotective activity of chrysin is mediated through TNF-alpha in chemically
      induced acute liver damage: An in vivo study and molecular modeling.
AB  - Chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone) is a naturally occurring flavonoid present at high
      levels in honey, propolis and numerous plant extracts. Chrysin is known to have
      hepatoprotective activity, however, the mechanisms by which it exerts this effect
      remain unclear. In the present study, the effects of chrysin in carbon
      tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced acute liver damage were investigated and the results
      used to infer a possible mechanism behind chrysin's hepatoprotective activity.
      Prior to an intraperitoneal injection of CCl4 (1 ml/kg) to induce acute liver
      damage, chrysin (50 mg/kg) was administered orally to mice for 7 days. The
      positive control group was given 50 mg/kg standardized silymarin, a well-studied
      hepatoprotective flavonoid. Twenty-four h following CCl4 administration, an
      increase in the activity levels of serum aspartate-amino-transferase and alanine
      amino-transferase was found. This was accompanied by extended centrilobular
      necrosis, steatosis and an altered hepatocyte ultrastructure. In addition, CCl4
      induced acute hepatotoxicity was associated with an increase in hepatic tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA)
      protein expression, which was significantly decreased in the livers of mice pre
      treated with chrysin (P<0.001), similar to the results of the silymarin pre
      treated group (P<0.001). Treatment with chrysin prior to CCl4 exposure
      significantly reduced the activity of enzymes used as biochemical markers of poor
      liver function compared with the group which did not receive pre-treatment
      (P<0.001). In addition, the results of histopathological and electron microscopy
      liver examination showed chrysin pre-treatment reduced the effects of CCl4
      treatment. Molecular modeling results demonstrated that the hepatoprotective
      activity of chrysin is mediated through TNF-alpha, as it reduces soluble TNF
      alpha generation via blocking TNF-alpha-converting enzyme activity. In
      conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that inflammatory pathways
      are activated in CCl4-induced acute liver damage, which are ameliorated by
      chrysin pre-treatment. This indicates that chrysin is a potent hepatoprotective
      agent, similarly to silymarin at the same dose, which has the potential to be a
      viable alternative to conventional hepatoprotective treatments.

PMID- 28565753
TI  - Clinical and genomic responses to ultra-short course chemotherapy in spinal
      tuberculosis.
AB  - Traditional treatments for spinal tuberculosis (TB) involve chemotherapy and
      surgery. In the present study, it has been identified that chemotherapy lasting
      <6 months [ultra-short course chemotherapy (UCCT)], rather than the 6-18 months
      of the traditional regimen, is effective in sustaining TB clearance following
      complete surgical debridement. This current study aims to compare the changes in
      peripheral blood gene expression prior to and following UCCT, subsequent to
      complete debridement of spinal TB lesions. The study includes 5 patients without
      TB and 27 patients with spinal, divided into three groups: Group 1 (untreated
      group, n=8); group 2 (UCCT treatment group, n=9); and group 3 (UCCT treatment 1
      year follow-up group, n=10). Gene changes were detected using DNA microarray
      analysis, confirmed through reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-qPCR) and the results were examined using the DAVID Knowledgebase to
      identify the pathways and functions of differentially expressed genes. TB lesions
      were active in group 1, while groups 2 and 3 showed no signs of active TB, as
      indicated by clinical manifestations and imaging. Comparison of the transcription
      profiles of the control and study groups showed that treatment of spinal TB
      resulted in upregulation of genes that are associated with immune response
      pathways; RT-qPCR produced similar findings. In conclusion, these results
      indicate that UCCT is an effective treatment against TB following complete
      surgical debridement. Furthermore, DNA microarray analysis proved a useful tool
      to evaluate the effects of spinal TB treatment on the expression of genes
      associated with immune response pathways.

PMID- 28565754
TI  - Identification of potential biomarkers of sepsis using bioinformatics analysis.
AB  - Sepsis is defined as the systemic inflammatory response to infection and is one
      of the leading causes of mortality in critically ill patients. The goal of the
      present study is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of sepsis. Transcription
      profile data (GSE12624) were downloaded that had a total of 70 samples (36 sepsis
      samples and 34 non-sepsis samples) from the Gene Expression Omnibus database.
      Protein-protein interaction network analysis was conducted in order to
      comprehensively understand the interactions of genes in all samples. Hierarchical
      clustering and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) global test were performed to
      identify the differentially expressed clusters in the networks, followed by
      function and pathway enrichment analyses. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM)
      was performed to classify the clusters, and 10-fold cross-validation method was
      performed to evaluate the classification results. A total of 7,672 genes were
      obtained after preprocessing of the mRNA expression profile data. The PPI network
      of genes under sepsis and non-sepsis status collected 1,996/2,147 genes and
      2,645/2,783 interactions. Moreover, following the ANCOVA global test (P<0.05), 24
      differentially expressed clusters with 12 clusters in septic and 12 clusters in
      non-septic samples were identified. Finally, 207 biomarker genes, including
      CDC42, CSF3R, GCA, HMGB2, RHOG, SERPINB1, TYROBP SERPINA1, FCER1 G and S100P in
      the top six clusters, were collected using the SVM method. The SERPINA1, FCER1 G
      and S100P genes are thought to be potential biomarkers. Furthermore, Gene
      oncology terms, including the intracellular signaling cascade, regulation of
      programmed cell death, regulation of cell death, regulation of apoptosis and
      leukocyte activation may participate in sepsis.

PMID- 28565755
TI  - MitoKATP regulating HIF/miR210/ISCU signaling axis and formation of a positive
      feedback loop in chronic hypoxia-induced PAH rat model.
AB  - In the present study, we studied the mechanism of mitochondrial ATP-sensitive
      potassium (mitoKATP) channels regulating hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)
      1alpha/microRNA (miR)-210/mitochondrial iron-sulfur protein integrin (ISCU)
      signaling axis and forming a positive feedback loop in chronic hypoxia-induced
      pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by using in vivo animal model. Two hundred
      healthy adult SPF Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups:
      Control, a mimic miR-210 agent (mimic-210) intervention, a miR-210 inhibitor
      (anti-210) intervention, a chronic PAH and an anti-210 intervention PAH groups,
      with 40 rats in each group. After the chronic PAH rat model was successfully
      established, the rats were intervened with mimic-210 and anti-210. The pulmonary
      artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) of rats in each group were acutely isolated
      and the activity of mitoKATP and mitochondria-derived oxygen free radicals
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) was detected. RT-qPCR was used to detect the gene
      of HIF-1alpha/miR-210/ISCU and western blot analysis was used to detect the
      protein of HIF-1alpha and ISCU. The gene and protein expression were detected
      again after mitoKATP-specific opener diazoxide and blocker 5-HD was given via
      tail vein and took effect on each group of rats, respectively. Additionally, the
      indicators were detected again after ISCU recombinant protein was given via tail
      vein and ISCU small interfering RNA (siRNA) via nasal feeding and took effect on
      each group of rats, respectively. It was found that the activity of mitoKATP and
      ROS and the gene and protein levels of HIF-1alpha/miR-210/ISCU of the mimic-210
      group were significantly higher than those of the control group while that of the
      anti-210 group was significantly reduced (P<0.05). The indicators in the chronic
      PAH group were significantly higher than those of the control group while those
      of the anti-210 intervention PAH group were significantly reduced (P<0.05). The
      indicators of all the groups were increased after being given mitoKATP specific
      opener diazoxide. The indicators of all the groups were significantly reduced
      after receiving blocker 5-HD (P<0.05). The indicators of all the groups were
      significantly reduced after given ISCU recombinant protein. The indicators of all
      the groups increased following ISCU siRNA, and there was a statistically
      significant difference (P<0.05). In conclusion, the mechanism of mitoKATP
      regulating the HIF-1alpha/miR-210/ISCU signaling axis and formation of a positive
      feedback loop exists in the PAH rat model.

PMID- 28565756
TI  - MicroRNA-98 rescues proliferation and alleviates ox-LDL-induced apoptosis in
      HUVECs by targeting LOX-1.
AB  - Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is a major and critical mediator of
      atherosclerosis, and the underlying mechanism is thought to involve the ox-LDL
      induced dysfunction of endothelial cells (ECs). MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are a
      group of small non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate the
      expression of target genes, have been associated with diverse cellular functions
      and the pathogenesis of various diseases, including atherosclerosis. miRNA-98
      (miR-98) has been demonstrated to be involved in the regulation of cellular
      apoptosis; however, the role of miR-98 in ox-LDL-induced dysfunction of ECs and
      atherosclerosis has yet to be elucidated. Therefore, the present study aimed to
      investigate the role of miR-98 in ox-LDL-induced dysfunction of ECs and the
      underlying mechanism. It was demonstrated that miR-98 expression was markedly
      downregulated in ox-LDL-treated human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs) and that miR-98
      promoted the proliferation and alleviated apoptosis of HUVECs exposed to ox-LDL.
      In addition, the results demonstrated that lectin-like oxidized low-density
      lipoprotein receptor 1 (LOX-1) was a direct target of miR-98 in HUVECs, as
      indicated by a luciferase assay. The results of the present study suggested that
      miR-98 may inhibit the uptake of toxic ox-LDL, maintain HUVEC proliferation and
      protect HUVECs against apoptosis via the suppression of LOX-1.

PMID- 28565757
TI  - An exploratory study into the role of miR-204-5p in pregnancy-induced
      hypertension.
AB  - The molecular mechanism that leads to pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), a
      pregnancy-specific syndrome, remains poorly understood. It has been suggested
      that microRNAs (miRNAs) may be potentially useful biomarkers for severe
      preeclampsia (PE), which is an important condition associated with PIH. The aim
      of the present study was to identify miR-204 by verifying differentially
      expressed serum miRNAs in patients with PIH during pregnancy compared with normal
      controls. Subsequently, the effects of miR-204 on proliferation and apoptosis of
      human choriocarcinoma (JAR) cells in hypoxic microenvironment were investigated.
      Previous studies indicated a number of miRNA candidates and the present study
      validated the expression of eight miRNAs in serum samples using reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). A higher
      expression of miR-204 was identified in patients with PIH. To assess the impact
      of miR-204 inhibition on hypoxic JAR cells function in vitro, cell proliferation
      was detected using a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The rate of apoptosis and cell
      cycle progression was then examined by flow cytometry. RT-qPCR confirmed that
      serum miR-204-5p is more highly expressed in patients with PIH. Further
      statistical analysis indicated that the survival ratio of JAR cells in hypoxic
      microenvironments was increased in the miR-204-5p inhibitor group. However, the
      miR-204-5p inhibitor protected hypoxic JAR cells from apoptosis. The analysis of
      cell-cycle status demonstrated that the percentage of cells in the G2/G1 phase
      was larger compared with the control group. The results of the present study
      suggest that low levels of miR-204-5p may increase cell proliferation and reduce
      cell apoptosis with cell cycle changes in vitro. Therefore, serum miR-204-5p may
      be used as a notable biomarker for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of
      PIH.

PMID- 28565758
TI  - Apigenin in the regulation of cholesterol metabolism and protection of blood
      vessels.
AB  - Hyperlipidemia is a major independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Seeking
      natural compounds in medicinal plants capable of reducing blood fat and studying
      their mechanisms of action has been the focus of research in recent years. The
      aim of the present study was to analyze the mechanisms of apigenin in regulating
      cholesterol metabolism and protecting blood vessels, and to provide a theoretical
      basis for the clinical application of apigenin. The mouse model of hyperlipidemia
      was established to verify the efficacy of apigenin in improving hyperlipidemia
      and to observe the mechanism of action of apigenin in reducing cholesterol
      content. In vitro cell experiments were conducted to evaluate the role of
      apigenin in mediating reverse cholesterol transport. Additionally, H2O2-injured
      human umbilical venous endothelial cells (EA.hy926 cells) were used for further
      study on the roles of apigenin in resisting oxidization and protecting vascular
      endothelial cells. Apigenin significantly regulated blood fat, reduced animal
      weight, and reduced total cholesterol (P=0.024), triglyceride (P=0.031) and low
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.014) in the serum of the high-fat diet mice.
      Apigenin improved the blood lipid metabolism of the hyper-lipidemia model mice.
      Body weight and serum cholesterol content increased abnormally (P=0.003) as a
      consequence of high-fat diet. Apigenin increased the activity of superoxide
      dismutase in EA.hy926 cells (P=0.043) and increased the amount of nitric oxide
      secreted by the cells (P=0.038). Apigenin also inhibited the proliferation of
      vascular smooth muscle cells in a dose-dependent manner (P=0.036). In conclusion,
      apigenin can regulate cholesterol metabolism in vivo and plays a role in reducing
      the level of blood fat by promoting cholesterol absorption and conversion, and
      accelerating reverse cholesterol transport. Apigenin also has a role in resisting
      oxidization and protecting blood vessels.

PMID- 28565759
TI  - Oral administration of ampelopsin protects against acute brain injury in rats
      following focal cerebral ischemia.
AB  - Ampelopsin (AMP) is isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Ampelopsis
      grossedentata (Hand-Mazz) and has been associated with numerous biological and
      pharmacological activities. However, it is not clear whether AMP has a direct
      protective effect on cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury. Therefore, the present
      study investigated its role in acute brain injury following focal cerebral
      ischemia in rats. The current study induced transient focal cerebral ischemia by
      performing middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 60 min, followed by 24 h
      of reperfusion. Rats were exposed to 40, 80 and 160 mg/kg AMP by oral
      administration 30 min prior to MCAO and the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1
      antagonist, pranlukast (0.1 mg/kg, i.p.) was used as a positive control.
      Neurological deficit scores were observed and an inclined board test was used to
      assess behavioral dysfunction. The coronal slices were stained with 3,5
      triphenyltetrazolium chloride to determine the infarct volume and brain edema.
      Neuronal morphology was assessed in brain sections stained with cresyl violet and
      degenerating neurons were identified using Fluoro-Jade B staining. Blood-brain
      barrier permeability was determined with immunoglobulin (Ig)G
      immunohistochemistry. Interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF
      alpha) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid were measured using ELISA kits. AMP at 80
      and 160 mg/kg attenuated neurological deficits, reduced infarct volume, brain
      edema, IgG exudation and neuron degeneration and loss. Similar to pranlukast, AMP
      also inhibited the MCAO-induced IL-1beta and TNF-alpha release. Thus, AMP has a
      neuroprotective effect on acute brain injury following focal cerebral ischemia in
      rats at an effective oral dose of 80-160 mg/kg. The results of the current study
      indicate a therapeutic role for AMP in the treatment of ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28565760
TI  - In silico insight into EGFR treatment in patients with lung carcinoma and T790M
      mutations.
AB  - The T790M mutational basis of treatment failure, following treatment via
      alteration of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, is a well
      known anomaly in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The T790M
      mutation activates the kinase domain, causing tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as
      gefitinib, to elicit little or no response. To overcome this acquired resistance
      in NSCLC cells, the present study utilized a structure-based drug designing
      method to identify a novel lead compound. An in-house traditional Chinese
      medicinal compound database was used and following initial virtual screening, pre
      absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion/Tox and automated docking
      analyses, nardosinon was selected as the most appropriate candidate for further
      analysis. Two NSCLC cell lines, PC9GR4 and H2347, were used to test nardosinon
      and the results were compared with gefitinib. Results from an initial cell death
      assay revealed that nardosinon was able to induce cell death in NSCLC cells with
      and without the T790M mutation. These findings suggest that nardosinon may be an
      effective pharmacological compound for NSCLC treatment, including T790M EGFR
      mutant NSCLC cells.

PMID- 28565761
TI  - Clinical application of intra-aortic balloon pump in patients with cardiogenic
      shock during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery.
AB  - Intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP) have saved many patients with cardiogenic shock
      during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery. However, the ideal insertion
      timing is controversial. In the present study, we aimed to optimize the insertion
      timing, in order to increase the survival rate of the patients. A total of 197
      patients with cardiogenic shock during the perioperative period of cardiac
      surgery and implemented IABP from January 2011 to October 2015 were selected for
      the study. Patients were divided into five groups on the basis of application
      timing of IABP: 0-60, 61-120, 121-180, 181-240 and >240 min. The 30-day
      mortality, application rate of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT),
      duration of mechanical ventilation, duration of hospital stay and hospitalization
      charges were analyzed in the above groups. The risk factors related to mortality
      and the occurrence of IABP complications were also analyzed. The mortality in the
      0-60, 61-120, 121-180, 181-240 and >240 min groups were 42.17, 36.6, 77.3, 72.7
      and 79.3%, respectively. Earlier IABP insertion resulted in less patients
      receiving CRRT from acute renal failure and less daily hospitalization charges.
      However, the IABP application timing had no effect on indexes such as
      hospitalization duration, duration of mechanical ventilation and total
      hospitalization charges. Multifactor logistic regression analysis indicated that
      the independent risk factors of death in patients with cardiogenic shock during
      cardiac surgery were related to IABP support timing and vasoactive-inotropic
      score (VIS) before balloon insertion. In the first 120 min of cardiogenic shock
      during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery, IABP application decreased 30
      day mortality. Mortality was related with VIS score of patients, which can be
      used to predict the prognosis of patients with cardiogenic shock.

PMID- 28565762
TI  - Technique and results in total laparoscopic radical cystectomy with
      sigmoidorectal pouch (Mainz pouch II) - an initial experience.
AB  - We used laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC) with urinary diversion for muscle
      invasive bladder cancer. A series of total LRC is presented with Mainz pouch II
      after we had gained experience of nearly 200 open radical cystectomy and 23 LRC.
      Since from October 2010 to April 2012, we performed totally LRC in 5 patients
      with muscle-invasive bladder cancer with Mainz pouch II as a urinary diversion.
      We analyzed age, pathological staging, continence, operative time, blood loss,
      blood transfusion volume, and complications. The mean age of the patients was
      58.8+/-7.6 years (range, 49-69 years), and the follow-up time was 15.4+/-4.72
      months. The mean operative time was 577.0+/-126.4 min for total LRC, with a mean
      blood loss of 280.0+/-130.38 ml and a mean hospital stay of 29.4+/-9.2 days.
      Blood transfusion was required in two cases, and immediate and late complications
      were observed in 2 cases. In conclusion, total LRC with urinary diversion is
      feasible for the management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer, by experienced
      surgeons, and despite the high level of difficulty of these procedures.

PMID- 28565763
TI  - Effects of glucocorticoid on the expression and regulation of aquaporin 5 in the
      paranasal sinus of rats with chronic rhinosinusitis.
AB  - Aquaporins (AQPs) are water-specific membrane channel proteins that regulate
      water homeostasis for cells and organisms. AQP5 serves an important role in the
      maintenance of mucosal water homeostasis, and potentially contributes to mucosal
      edema and inflammation formation in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). The aim of the
      present study was to explore the expression pattern of AQP5 and the effect of
      glucocorticoids on AQP5 expression in rats with CRS. The rats were randomly
      divided into three equal groups, as follows: CRS, dexamethasone (dexa) treatment
      and control groups. A polyvinyl acetal material containing Staphylococcus aureus
      was inserted into the left nasal cavity of each rat from the CRS and dexa groups.
      On the 90th post-operative day, the dexa group received dexamethasone (2
      mg/kg/day) via intraperitoneal injection for 7 days. The controls did not receive
      any treatment. The expression of AQP5 in the sinonasal mucosa was determined
      using immunohistochemistry and quantitative PCR. The immunoreactivities of AQP5
      were primarily noted in the epithelial lining and glandular cells, the vascular
      endothelium and in the goblet cells in the sinonasal mucosa. The AQP5 mRNA
      expression level was significantly higher in the dexa group than in the control
      and CRS groups (P=0.006 and P=0.014, respectively). However, no significant
      difference was indicated between the CRS and control groups (P=0.760). In
      conclusion, the current study suggests that glucocorticoids induce AQP5
      expression in the sinonasal mucosa of CRS rats, which highlights AQP5 as a
      potential target in the diagnosis and treatment of CRS.

PMID- 28565764
TI  - Evaluation of the maintenance of stemness, viability, and differentiation
      potential of gingiva-derived stem-cell spheroids.
AB  - Gingiva-derived stem cells have been applied for tissue-engineering purposes and
      may be considered a favorable source of mesenchymal stem cells as harvesting stem
      cells from the mandible or maxilla may be performed with ease under local
      anesthesia. The present study was performed to fabricate stem-cell spheroids
      using concave microwells and to evaluate the maintenance of stemness, viability,
      and differentiation potential. Gingiva-derived stem cells were isolated, and the
      stem cells of 4*105 (group A) or 8*105 (group B) cells were seeded into
      polydimethylsiloxane-based, concave micromolds with 600 um diameters. The
      morphology of the microspheres and the change of the diameters of the spheroids
      were evaluated. The viability of spheroids was qualitatively analyzed via
      Live/Dead kit assay. A cell viability analysis was performed on days 1, 3, 6, and
      12 with Cell Counting Kit-8. The maintenance of stemness was evaluated with
      immunocytochemical staining using SSEA-4, TRA-1-60(R) (positive markers), and
      SSEA-1 (negative marker). Osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic
      differentiation potential was evaluated by incubating spheroids in osteogenic,
      adipogenic and chondrogenic induction medium, respectively. The gingiva-derived
      stem cells formed spheroids in the concave microwells. The diameters of the
      spheroids were larger in group A than in group B. The majority of cells in the
      spheroids emitted green fluorescence, indicating the presence of live cells at
      day 6. At day 12, the majority of cells in the spheroids emitted green
      fluorescence, and a small portion of red fluorescence was also noted, which
      indicated the presence of dead cells. The spheroids were positive for the stem
      cell markers SSEA-4 and TRA-1-60(R) and were negative for SSEA-1, suggesting that
      these spheroids primarily contained undifferentiated human stem cells.
      Osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation was more evident with an
      increase of incubation time: Mineralized extracellular deposits were observed
      following Alizarin Red S staining at days 14 and 21; oil globules were increased
      at day 18 when compared with day 6; and Alcian blue staining was more evident at
      day 18 when compared with day 6. Within the limits of this study, stem-cell
      spheroids from gingival cells maintained the stemness, viability, and
      differentiation potential during the experimental periods. This method may be
      applied for a promising strategy for stem-cell therapy.

PMID- 28565765
TI  - Pravastatin reduces radiation-induced damage in normal tissues.
AB  - Pravastatin is an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methyl- glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase
      that has been reported to have therapeutic applications in a range of
      inflammatory conditions. The aim of the present study was to assess the
      radioprotective effects of pravastatin in an experimental animal model. Mice were
      divided into two groups: The control group received ionizing radiation with no
      prior medication, while the pravastatin group received pravastatin prior to
      ionizing radiation. Pravastatin was administered orally at 30 mg/kg body weight
      in drinking water at 24 and 4 h before irradiation. Intestinal crypt epithelial
      cell survival and the incidence of apoptosis in the intestine and lung were
      measured post-irradiation. The effect of pravastatin on intestinal DNA damage was
      determined by immunohistochemistry. Finally, the effect of pravastatin on tumor
      response to radiotherapy was examined in a mouse mesothelioma xenograft model.
      Pravastatin increased the number of viable intestinal crypts and this effect was
      statistically significant in the ileum (P<0.0001). The pravastatin group showed
      significantly lower apoptotic indices in all examined parts of the intestine
      (P<0.0001) and tended to show reduced apoptosis in the lung. Pravastatin reduced
      the intestinal expression of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and gamma-H2AX after
      irradiation. No apparent pravastatin-related differences were observed in the
      response of xenograft tumors to irradiation. In conclusion, pravastatin had
      radioprotective effects on the intestine and lung and reduced radiation-induced
      DNA double-strand breaks. Pravastatin may increase the therapeutic index of
      radiotherapy.

PMID- 28565766
TI  - A recurrent mutation in bone morphogenetic proteins-2-inducible kinase gene is
      associated with developmental dysplasia of the hip.
AB  - Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a complex disorder of the hip joint
      affecting 1-50/00 of newborns. While genetic influence on DDH has been long
      known, DDH has not been ascribed to any specific genetic event. The present study
      reported on variants contributing to DDH susceptibility in a family with four
      individuals affected across three generations. Whole-exome sequencing was
      performed in three affected and two unaffected individuals of a pedigree with
      DDH. Candidate variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing and then validated in
      available family members and 37 sporadic DDH patients. Two novel heterozygous,
      inframe mutations causing multi-nucleotide substitution polymorphisms
      (c.1432_1440delCAGCAGCAG corresponding with p.Gln478_480del and c.1440_1441insCAG
      corresponding with p.Gln480ins) in exon 11 of chromosome 4 in bone morphogenetic
      proteins-2-inducible kinase (BMP2K) were identified; these were found in members
      of the pedigree affected by DDH and in the unaffected grandmother of the proband,
      who was deemed to be the carrier of potential mutations, but not in the
      unaffected normal control saunt of the proband. These two variants shared the
      same genomic coordinate but with different types of mutation in BMP2K. BMP2K is
      known to be associated with bone and cartridge development and heterozygous
      mutations were found to be present in 4/4 (100%) of the affected family members,
      4/15 (26.7%) of the unaffected family members and 0/7 (0%) of the unaffected
      unrelated family members. Genotyping of 37 unrelated, sporadic DDH patients
      showed that three cases were positive for the BMP2K c.1432_1440delCAGCAGCAG
      variants (8.12%). These findings provided strong evidence for the role of BMP2K
      variants in causing DDH and demonstrated that the combination of pedigree
      information and next-generation sequencing is an effective method for identifying
      pathogenic sites associated with DDH.

PMID- 28565768
TI  - Raman spectrum: A potential biomarker for embryo assessment during in vitro
      fertilization.
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate whether Raman spectrum is consistent with
      the morphological scoring of the embryo of day 3 during in vitro fertilization
      (IVF). The spent culture media of embryo of day 3 from 10 patients were collected
      and analyzed. The samples were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and graded
      according to the standard embryo scoring system simultaneously. Data showed that
      the Raman spectra obtained from the droplet of media were useful, as they can act
      as the characteristic signature for protein and amino acids. The Raman
      biospectroscopy-based metabonomics profiling of spent media was consistent with
      the result of conventional morphological evaluation. In conclusion, this
      technology offers great potential for the development of tools allowing rapid non
      invasive assessment of the quality of embryo of day 3 during IVF.

PMID- 28565767
TI  - Hair follicle-derived mesenchymal cells support undifferentiated growth of
      embryonic stem cells.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate whether feeder layers composed of
      human hair follicle-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hHFDCs) are able to support
      human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). hHFDCs and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs)
      were isolated and cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM)/F-12 and
      low-glucose DMEM, respectively. hHFDCs were passaged three times and subsequently
      characterized. hHFDCs and MEFs were mitotically inactivated with mitomycin C for
      3 h prior to co-culture with H9-hESCs. hESCs were initially established on a
      mouse feeder layer, subsequently transferred onto a human feeder layer and split
      every 5 days. Cell morphology, expression of specific 'undifferentiation' markers
      and growth factors, and the differentiation capacity of hESCs grown on the hHFDC
      feeder layer were analyzed. hHFDCs are adherent to plastic, possess the classic
      mesenchymal stem cell phenotype [they express cluster of differentiation (CD)90,
      CD73 and CD105] and are able to differentiate into adipocytes, chondroblasts and
      osteocytes, indicating that these cells are multipotent. Population-doubling time
      analysis revealed that hHFDCs rapidly proliferate over 34.5 h. As a feeder layer,
      hHFDC behaved similarly to MEF in maintaining the morphology of hESCs. The
      results of alkaline phosphatase activity, reverse transcription-quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction analysis of the expression of pluripotency
      transcription factors [octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4), Nanog and
      sex determining region Y-box 2], and immunofluorescence assays of markers (stage
      specific embryonic antigen-4 and Oct4) in hESCs co-cultured over hHFDC, indicated
      that the undifferentiated state of hESCs was preserved. No change in the level of
      growth factor transcripts (bone morphogenetic protein 4, fibroblast growth factor
      2, vascular endothelial growth factor, Pigment epithelium-derived factor and
      transforming growth factor-beta1) was detected for either feeder layer prior to
      or following inactivation. Similar phenotypes of embryoid body formation, size
      and morphology were observed in the hHFDC and MEF feeders. In conclusion, hHFDC
      maintained hESCs in an undifferentiated state comparable to MEF in standard
      conditions, which may be an important finding regarding the establishment of stem
      cell-based translational applications.

PMID- 28565769
TI  - A micro-CT study of microstructure change of alveolar bone during orthodontic
      tooth movement under different force magnitudes in rats.
AB  - The dynamic changes of the microstructure of alveolar bone during orthodontic
      tooth movement in rats was explored by employing micro-computed tomography (micro
      CT) system and to provide theoretical reference for clinical orthodontic
      treatment. Ten rats were selected randomly as control among 70 adult female
      Wistar rats, and the other 60 rats were divided into 25-g and 75-g groups of
      equal number. Orthodontic appliance with force of 25 g and 75 g was installed to
      perform the molar mesial movement. Microstructural parameters for trabecular bone
      mesial to the distobuccal root were evaluated at different time points using
      micro-CT system. Moreover, distance for mesial movement of the molar were
      measured. Microstructural parameters for trabecular bone of two groups showed no
      significant changes from day 0 to day 3 (P>0.05); from day 3 to day 7, bone
      mineral density (BMD), bone volume/total volume (BV/TV) and trabecular thickness
      (Tb.Th) decreased significantly (P<0.05), whereas trabecular separation (Tb.Sp)
      and structure model index (SMI) increased significantly (P<0.05); from day 7 to
      day 14, in 25-g group, BMD, BV/TV and Tb.Th increased significantly (P<0.05),
      while Tb.Sp and SMI decreased significantly (P<0.05). Correspondingly, in 75-g
      group, changes of parameters did not carry any statistical significance (P>0.05).
      Furthermore, the 75-g group showed larger distance than 25-g group only at day 14
      (P<0.05). In conclusion, in order to maintain the health of periodontal tissues,
      adequate time for repair and recovery is needed to ensure reasonable remolding of
      alveolar bone and healthy movement of the orthodontic tooth.

PMID- 28565770
TI  - Dose-dependent effect of Curcuma longa for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Curcuma longa is a plant that belongs to the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It has
      been used in Siddha medicine for thousands of years in Asia. Parkinson's disease
      (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that affects the
      motor system of the brain. Death of dopamine-producing cells in the substantia
      nigra leads to PD. Exposure to salsolinol, which is an endogenous neurotoxin, has
      been associated with damage to dopamine-producing cells. The present study
      assessed the toxicity of salsolinol in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells and
      subsequently investigated the neuroprotective potential of C. longa extract in
      salsolinol-induced toxic conditions in SH-SY5Y cells. Sulphorhodamine-B assay
      showed the protective effect of the anti-apoptotic effect of treated SH-SY5Y
      cells. Fluorescence microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscope analysis
      indicated the anti-apoptotic impact of the C. longa extract. Mitochondria-derived
      reactive oxygen species were reduced in C. longa extract-treated SH-SY5Y cells.
      Downregulated mRNA expression levels of p53, Bcl-2-associated X protein and
      caspase 3 were observed in the C. longa extract-treated SH-SY5Y cells. Caspase 3
      activity was reduced in the C. longa extract-treated SH-SY5Y cells. In
      conclusion, the present findings demonstrated that solsolinol is neurotoxic to SH
      SY5Y cells, and C. longa extract may be useful in the treatment of PD.

PMID- 28565771
TI  - Erythropoietin facilitates the recruitment of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells
      to sites of spinal cord injury.
AB  - Despite the successes of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation
      for the treatment of spinal cord injuries, only a small fraction of grafted cells
      migrate to the target areas. Therefore, there remains a need for more efficient
      strategies of BMSC delivery. The present study was designed to explore this. Rat
      models of spinal cord injury (SCI) were established and exposed to phosphate
      buffered saline (control), BMSCs or BMSCs + erythropoietin (EPO). Basso, Beattie
      and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor scale and grid walk tests were then utilized to
      estimate neurological rehabilitation. Additionally, the following assays were
      performed: Immunofluorescence localization of BMSCs to the site of SCI; the
      transwell migration assay to detect in vitro cellular migration; the terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay to determine the
      apoptotic index of the lesion; and western blotting analysis to evaluate the
      expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and brain derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) at the site of SCI. The BBB scores of the BMSC + EPO
      treated group were significantly increased compared with the BMSC treatment group
      (P<0.05). For example, BMSC + EPO treated rats had a significantly decreased
      number of hind limb slips compared with the BMSC treatment group (P<0.05).
      Furthermore, EPO significantly increased the migration capacity of BMSCs compared
      with the control group (P<0.001). In addition, the apoptotic index of the BMSC +
      EPO group was significantly decreased compared with the BMSC group (P<0.05).
      Green fluorescent protein-labeled BMSCs were detected at the site of SCI in the
      BMSC and BMSCs + EPO groups, with the signal being notably stronger in the
      latter. Moreover, the expression of VEGF and BDNF in the BMSCs + EPO group was
      significantly increased compared with the BMSC group (P<0.05). In conclusion, the
      results of the present study indicate that EPO can facilitate the recruitment of
      BMSCs to sites of SCI, increase expression of BDNF and VEGF, and accelerate
      recovery of neurological function following SCI.

PMID- 28565772
TI  - Association of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection with increased risk of asthma in
      children.
AB  - The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between
      Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection and the risk of asthma among children by
      detecting the rate of MP immunoglobulin M (MP-IgM) and the eosinophil (EOS)
      count. A total of 139 asthmatic children were enrolled as the case group and
      assigned into three groups: Group A (aged <3 years, n=42), group B (aged 3-8
      years, n=45) and group C (aged >8 years, n=52). Additionally, 115 healthy
      children were enrolled in the control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      was used to measure the MP-IgM-positive rate. EOS count was detected in the
      experimental and control groups by using a hemocytometer analyzer. A meta
      analysis was performed by using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 2.0
      software. The positive rates of the MP-IgM and EOS count in the experimental
      group were significantly higher than those in control group (both P<0.001).
      Furthermore, the asthmatic children in group C had a higher MP-IgM-positive rate
      and EOS count as compared to those in groups A and B, respectively (all P<0.05).
      Results from groups A and B were not statistically significant (all P>0.05). The
      meta-analysis further confirmed that asthmatic children had a higher MP-IgM
      positive rate as compared to the healthy controls (P<0.001). Age-stratified
      analysis revealed that the MP-IgM-positive rate in asthmatic children aged >=8
      and <8 years was significantly higher than that in the healthy controls (P=0.003
      and P<0.001). Asthmatic children had a higher MP-IgM-positive rate and EOS count
      as compared with controls, suggesting that the MP infection may be closely
      associated with the risk of asthma. Additionally, the positive rate of MP-IgM may
      indicate an important biological marker in predicting the development of asthma.

PMID- 28565773
TI  - Pien Tze Huang Gan Bao ameliorates carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic injury,
      oxidative stress and inflammation in rats.
AB  - Liver damage results from a variety of insults, including hepatitis and chemical
      toxicity from alcohol, drugs and other toxins. The present study evaluated the
      hepatoprotective effects and potential mechanisms of action of the Traditional
      Chinese Medicine Pien Tze Huang Gan Bao (GB) in a rat model of carbon
      tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were
      randomly divided into six different groups: i) Control, ii) CCl4 injury model and
      groups treated with iii) silymarin as a positive drug control, iv) 150 mg/kg GB,
      v) 300 mg/kg GB and vi) 600 mg/kg GB. Control rats received no treatment, while
      the remaining ones were intraperitoneally injected with CCl4 (2 ml/kg) to induce
      acute liver disease. Silymarin or GB was orally administered prior to CCl4
      treatment in various treatment groups for 7 days. Animals were sacrificed 24 h
      post-CCl4 injection. It was revealed that GB significantly reduced serum
      aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma
      glutamyl transpeptidase and total bilirubin levels in the serum induced by CCl4.
      BG also prevented CCl4-induced changes in liver tissues, as revealed by
      histopathological analysis. CCl4-induced reductions in endogenous liver
      antioxidant enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione and
      glutathione peroxidase as well as increases in malondialdehyde and thiobarbituric
      acid reactive substances were inhibited by GB treatment. Activated NF-kappaB in
      liver tissues was also significantly increased by CCl4, which was attenuated by
      GB as indicated by immunohistochemical and PCR analysis. Furthermore, CCl4
      mediated increases in the inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-alpha and
      interleukin-1beta secretion into the serum and their expression in liver tissues
      were reversed following GB treatment, as revealed by ELISA and PCR, respectively.
      These findings suggested that GB protects against CCl4-induced hepatic injury,
      inflammation and oxidative damage in rats and may be useful in future clinical
      application of liver injury and disease.

PMID- 28565774
TI  - Effects of Ankaferd BloodStopper on bone healing in an ovariectomized
      osteoporotic rat model.
AB  - Bone defects resulting from oncological surgical resections, congenital facial
      anomalies, trauma or infection represent a significant and common clinical
      problem. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a commercially
      available medicinal plant extract product, Ankaferd BloodStopper (ABS), on bone
      healing. The present study was performed on 24 female ovariectomized (OVX) rats.
      A defect on each rat calvarium was created using a trephine burr prior to the
      rats being divided into two groups. Defects were grafted with a gelatin sponge
      soaked with normal saline (control group) or plant extract (experimental group).
      Half of the animals were sacrificed after 2 weeks and the others after 4 weeks.
      In the control group, the defects were not filled with regenerated bone. By
      contrast, in the experimental group, all defect areas had an increased amount of
      regenerated bone and connective tissue. Osteoblastic activity appeared to be
      greater in the experimental group however, osteoclastic activity was observed to
      be higher in the control group. At 2 and 4 weeks, there was a significant
      difference in the amount of newly regenerated bone observed in the experimental
      group compared with the control group (P<0.05). Therefore, the results of the
      present study indicated that local ABS application had a positive effect on bone
      healing in the OVX rat model.

PMID- 28565775
TI  - Identification of key genes and pathways for peri-implantitis through the
      analysis of gene expression data.
AB  - The present study attempted to identify potential key genes and pathways of peri
      implantitis, and to investigate the possible mechanisms associated with it. An
      array data of GSE57631 was downloaded, including six samples of peri-implantitis
      tissue and two samples of normal tissue from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO)
      database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the peri-implantitis
      samples compared with normal ones were analyzed with the limma package. Moreover,
      Gene Ontology annotation and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)
      pathway enrichment analyses for DEGs were performed by DAVID. A protein-protein
      interaction (PPI) network was established using Cytoscape software, and
      significant modules were analyzed using Molecular Complex Detection. A total of
      819 DEGs (759 upregulated and 60 downregulated) were identified in the peri
      implantitis samples compared with normal ones. Moreover, the PPI network was
      constructed with 413 nodes and 1,114 protein pairs. Heat shock protein HSP90AA1
      (90 kDa alpha, member 1), a hub node with higher node degrees in module 4, was
      significantly enriched in antigen processing, in the presentation pathway and
      nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor-signaling pathway.
      In addition, nuclear factor-kappa-B1 (NFKB1) was enriched in the NOD-like
      receptor-signaling pathway in KEGG pathway enrichment analysis for upregulated
      genes. The proteasome is the most significant pathway in module 1 with the
      highest P-value. Therefore, the results of the present study suggested that
      HSP90AA1 and NFKB1 may be potential key genes, and the NOD-like receptor
      signaling pathway and proteasome may be potential pathways associated with peri
      implantitis development.

PMID- 28565776
TI  - (+)-Cholesten-3-one induces osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal
      stem cells by activating vitamin D receptor.
AB  - In our previous reports, it was revealed that steroids in traditional Chinese
      medicine (TCM) have the therapeutic potential to treat bone disease. In the
      present study, an in vitro model of a vitamin D receptor response element (VDRE)
      reporter gene assay in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) was used to identify
      steroids that enhanced osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. (+)-cholesten-3-one
      (CN), which possesses a ketone group that is modified in cholesterol and
      cholesterol myristate, effectively promoted the activity of the VDRE promoter.
      Phenotypic cellular analysis indicated that CN induced differentiation of MSCs
      into osteogenic cells and increased expression of specific osteogenesis markers,
      including alkaline phosphatase, collagen II and Runt-related transcription factor
      2. Furthermore, CN significantly increased the expression of osteopontin, the
      target of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which indicated that CN may activate
      vitamin D receptor signaling. Over-expression of VDR or knockdown studies with
      VDR-small interfering RNA revealed that the pro-differentiation effects induced
      by CN required VDR. Furthermore, the present study determined that the C-terminal
      region of the VDR is responsible for the action of CN. Taken together, the
      present findings demonstrated that CN induced osteogenic differentiation of MSCs
      by activating VDR. The present study explored the regulation of stem cells by
      using a series of similar steroids and provided evidence to support a potential
      strategy for the screening of novel drugs to treat bone disease in the future.

PMID- 28565777
TI  - Expression of pericardial fluid T-cells and related inflammatory cytokines in
      patients with chronic heart failure.
AB  - Pericardial fluid, as a biochemical indicator of heart status, directly indicates
      pathological alteration to the heart. The accumulation of pericardial fluid can
      be attributed to an underlying systemic or local inflammatory process. However,
      the pericardial fluid expression of cellular surface markers, as well as several
      cytokines in chronic heart failure (CHF), remain unclear. In order to evaluate
      these issues further the pericardial fluid expression of several cytokines and
      the surface expression of activity markers between CHF patients and non-heart
      failure (NHF) patients were analyzed. The pericardial fluid expression of
      cytokines was measured by immunofluorescence and biomarker of plasma N-terminal
      propeptide of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), while pericardial fluid
      levels of soluble glycoprotein 130 (sgp130) were analyzed by ELISA in 50 CHF and
      24 NHF patients. In addition, the surface expression of activation markers for T
      cells was measured by immunohistochemistry. Patients with CHF demonstrated
      increased levels of plasma NT-proBNP and pericardial fluid sgp130. Surface
      expression of cellular activation markers CD25 and Foxp3 in the pericardial fluid
      was increased in patients with CHF. Moreover, the pro- and anti-inflammatory
      cytokines interferon (IFN)-gamma, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10 in patients with
      CHF also demonstrated an increased expression within its pericardial fluid. In
      addition, there was infiltration of inflammatory cells and enhanced expression of
      inflammatory cytokines in the pericardial fluid of patients with CHF, which may
      reflect T cell activation, suggesting that systemic inflammation is important in
      the progression of CHF. This evidence could indicate a possible novel target for
      future therapeutics and prevention of CHF.

PMID- 28565778
TI  - Value of a new pathological classification of lumbar intervertebral disc
      herniation based on transforaminal endoscopic observations.
AB  - Removal of herniated disc materials based on an imaging only method may not
      relieve symptoms in many patients. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to
      develop a transforaminal endoscopic method of classifying the pathological type
      of lumber intervertebral disc herniation and to compare the outcomes of surgery
      based on the pathological type with those of conventional endoscopic disc
      removal. The records of patients who received endoscopic transforaminal
      nucleotomy with foraminoplasty for symptomatic lumbar disc herniation between
      2009 and 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were then divided into two
      groups: Group A, which consisted of 275 patients who received conventional
      endoscopic transforaminal nucleotomy with foraminoplasty between 2009 and 2011
      and group B, which consisted of 316 patients who received 'targeted' endoscopic
      transforaminal nucleotomy with foraminoplasty between 2011 and 2013 (based on the
      pathological type of disc herniation identified at surgery, including fresh,
      calcified and scar type based on intraoperative observations). The results showed
      that there were no significant differences in age, gender, body mass index,
      symptom duration, operated segments or previous invasive therapies between the
      two groups. Moreover, evaluation of visual analogue scale pain scores and
      Oswestry disability index scores revealed that the patients in group B had a
      greater improvement in symptoms than those in group A (P<0.05). In addition, an
      age >40 years and a longer symptom duration were associated with the calcified
      type, and previous invasive therapy was associated with the scar type. Therefore,
      specific surgical treatment based on the transforaminal endoscopic pathological
      type can result in better outcomes for patients with lumbar disc herniation.

PMID- 28565779
TI  - Expression of integrin-linked kinase improves cardiac function in a swine model
      of myocardial infarction.
AB  - Previous studies have described the beneficial effects of overexpressing integrin
      linked kinase (ILK) after myocardial infarction (MI) in small animal models.
      However, the effects of ILK in pre-clinical large animals are not known. To move
      closer to clinical translation, we examined the effects of ILK gene transfer in a
      swine model of ischemic heart disease. Swine received percutaneous intracoronary
      injections of adenoviral vector expressing ILK (n=10) or empty ad-null (n=10) in
      the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) following LAD occlusion. Four
      weeks after transfection, we confirmed that transgene expression was restricted
      to the infarcted area in the cardiac tissue. Imaging studies demonstrated
      preserved cardiac function in the ILK group. ILK treatment was associated with
      reduced infarcted scar size and preserved left ventricular (LV) geometry (LV
      diameter and LV wall thickness). Enhanced angiogenesis was preserved in the ILK
      animals, along with reduction of apoptosis. ILK gene therapy improves cardiac
      remodeling and function in swine following MI associated with increased
      angiogenesis, reduced apoptosis, and increased cardiomyocyte proliferation with
      no signs of toxicity. These results may deliver a new approach to treat post
      infarct remodeling and subsequent heart failure.

PMID- 28565780
TI  - Comparison of the purity and vitality of natural killer cells with different
      isolation kits.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that aid in the protection of
      the host from infectious diseases and cancer. In vitro studies of NK cells have
      provided a foundation for developing clinical adoptive NK-cell transferred
      immunotherapy against human tumors. To elucidate the functions and mechanisms of
      NK cell populations, it is important to develop an optimal, highly reproducible
      and reliable isolation method. The present comparative study was performed with
      four different NK cell isolation kits of magnetic bead labeling made by Miltenyi
      and Stemcell companies, including positive selection kits [cluster of
      differentiation (CD)-49b, using the monoclonal antibody DX5) MicroBeads] and
      negative selection kits. In addition, the viability of NK cells isinterleukin-2
      (IL-2)-dependent in vitro and thus the concentration of IL-2 is critical for
      maintaining longer cell viability of NK cells. NK cell purity and viability after
      culturing, for 24, 48 or 72 h, with or without IL-2 (0, 100, 300 or 500 U/ml) was
      investigated in the present study. Purity of NK cells varied depending on the
      purification kit used, despite the same method being applied. Furthermore, more
      granulocytes were present in purified NK cells using Miltenyi sorting kits,
      particularly when using the negative selection kit. The main disadvantage of DX5
      positive selection using the Stemcell and Miltenyi kits was that a high
      percentage of CD3epsilon+ cells were mixed into the isolated NK cells.
      Additionally, a significant difference of NK cell purity (P=0.003) was observed
      while purification was performed using different surface markers. As a
      consequence, the use of the positive selection kit was modified and subsequently
      a significantly higher purity (P=0.002) and yield (P=0.004) of NK cells was
      obtained. Moreover, the purity of NK cells and viability with or without a range
      of concentrations of IL-2 was compared. Results indicated that with a higher IL-2
      concentration, the NK cell purity and viability were significantly higher
      (P<0.05). To our knowledge, this is the first report that has compared the
      disadvantages of four commercial NK cell isolation kits from two well-known
      companies, and identified the effect of NK cell purity and viability, using
      different concentrations of IL-2. To conclude, the results of the present study
      are fundamental in aiding the further development of NK cell therapy protocols
      for murine in vivo models.

PMID- 28565781
TI  - Design and implementation of fast allergy skin test detector for traditional
      Chinese medicine injections.
AB  - Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) injections are prepared from active substances
      extracted from TCMs and other natural medicines to establish scientific and
      technological methods, based on TCM hypotheses and experiences. A device was
      designed to provide a fast allergy skin test detector for TCM injections that
      could be applied to drugs of a single component or complex components. A novel
      fast allergy skin test detector for TCM injections was developed combining direct
      current main, drug solution permeation devices of various shape that were
      compatible with the skin test electrode, nano-sponge patch adsorption, and
      flexible liposome coverage technologies with high-amplitude pulse. The detector
      was characterized by simple structure, easy manipulation, low dose of drug
      required for the skin test, no irritation to human skin, and low-false positive
      rate. According to the pilot clinical use, it was able to meet the clinical
      demand and was promising for the prevention of allergy to TCM injections.

PMID- 28565784
TI  - Molecular mechanisms in microRNA-mediated TRB3 gene and hypertension left
      ventricular hypertrophy.
AB  - The present study investigated the relationship between microRNA-mediated TRB3
      gene and hypertension left ventricular hypertrophy at the molecular level.
      Polymorphic site in TRB3 gene was identified by direct PCR method, and the
      correlation between the SNP site and ventricular hypertrophy was determined.
      MicroRNAs target gene sequence interacting on the TRB3 polymorphic site was
      screened by bioinformatics, and the effect of microRNAs on the TRB3 polymorphic
      site was finally verified by luciferase test. Two polymorphic sites rs6186912 and
      rs6186923 were found in the TRB3 gene, and the direct relationship between
      rs6186923 polymorphic site and the hypertension left ventricular hypertrophy in
      patients with myocardial hypertrophy was compared and analyzed. Pictar software
      was used to analyze the effect of miR-100 on rs6186923, and the argumentation was
      verified by luciferase test. In conclusion, the study showed that the TRB3 gene
      polymorphism rs6186923 was able to affect the TRB3 gene by affecting the binding
      of miR-100, which indirectly caused the formation of hypertension left
      ventricular hypertrophy.

PMID- 28565783
TI  - Traditional Chinese medicine baoxin decoction improves cardiac fibrosis of rats
      with dilated cardiomyopathy.
AB  - We investigated the effect of baoxin decoction (BXD) on myocardial fibrosis and
      clarified the possible mechanism of action. Dilated myocardiopathy was induced by
      doxorubicin injected intraperitoneally for 6 weeks. Rats that demonstrated
      dilated myocardiopathy were randomly divided into five groups plus a control
      group. Three groups were treated with BXD (7.5/kg, 15 g/kg and 30 g/kg) daily for
      4 weeks. One group was treated with 8.75 g/kg of captopril (positive control),
      and with physiologic saline (negative control). Cardiac function was evaluated
      using echocardiography. Hematoxylin and eosin, and Massons trichrome staining
      were performed, PICP and PIIINP were assessed by ELISA, the expression of
      galectin-3 and collagen types I and III was evaluated with reverse transcription
      quantitative PCR, and interrelated proteins were detected by western blot
      analysis. BXD downregulated galectin-3, collagen I and III and was correlated
      with a high expression of fibrosis markers. It also significantly decreased
      myocardial collagen volume fraction (CVF), together with markedly preventing the
      upregulation of collagen I and III. In addition, BXD downregulated the expression
      of TGF-beta1 and Smad3 in the myocardial fibrosis rats. Therefore, BXD treatment
      significantly improved cardiac function and alleviated myocardial fibrosis in a
      rat model of doxorubicin-induced dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is the
      mechanism that may be associated with inhibiting the TGF-beta1 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28565782
TI  - Hybrid composites of mesenchymal stem cell sheets, hydroxyapatite, and platelet
      rich fibrin granules for bone regeneration in a rabbit calvarial critical-size
      defect model.
AB  - The reconstruction of large bone defects remains a major clinical challenge, and
      tissue engineering is a promising technique for resolving this problem. Many
      attempts have been made to optimize bone tissue engineering protocols. The aim of
      the present study was to develop a process incorporating mesenchymal stem cell
      (MSC) sheets with nanoscale hydroxyapatite (nano-HA) and autologous platelet-rich
      fibrin (PRF) granules for enhanced bone formation within a critical-sized rabbit
      cranial defect. MSC sheets and PRF were prepared prior to in vivo experiments.
      The osteogenic differentiation ability of MSCs and the ultrastructure of PRF were
      also studied. A total of 15 New Zealand white rabbits were used in the current
      study and critical-size defects (CSDs) were surgically introduced in the cranium
      (diameter, 15 mm). The surgical defects were treated with MSC/PRF composites, MSC
      composites or left empty. Animals were euthanized at week 8 post-surgery.
      Iconography, histological and histomorphometric analysis were performed to assess
      de novo bone formation. The percentage of new bone in the MSC/PRF group (35.7+/
      5.1%) was significantly higher than that in the MSC (18.3+/-3.2%; P<0.05) and
      empty defect groups (4.7+/-1.5%; P<0.05). The results of the present study
      suggest that combined application of an MSC sheet with nano-HA and granular PRF
      enhances bone regeneration in a rabbit calvarial CSD model, and provides a novel
      insight into bone tissue regeneration for large bone defects.

PMID- 28565785
TI  - Comparison of the iCare rebound tonometer and the Goldmann applanation tonometer.
AB  - Tonometry is a fundamental procedure in routine ophthalmologic examination.
      Although regarded as the reference standard, the Goldmann applanation tonometer
      (GAT) has its limitations. A new portable alternative to the GAT is the iCare
      rebound tonometer (RT). The aim of the present study was to compare the
      intraocular pressure (IOP) results obtained using the RT and GAT and then
      correlate the results with the central corneal thickness (CCT). Moreover, the
      tolerability and safety of the RT were evaluated. The IOP of 336 patients (672
      eyes) was determined by the RT and GAT. The patients were divided into three
      groups (group A, 7-15 mmHg, n=74; group B, 16-22 mmHg, n=218; and group C, 23-50
      mmHg, n=44), based on the GAT IOP readings. Pachymetry and slit lamp inspection
      were also performed. To establish an agreement between the devices, a Bland
      Altman analysis and paired t-test were performed. The correlation between CCT and
      IOP readings obtained by the two devices were assessed using linear regression
      correlation analysis. The mean IOP values of the RT and the GAT were 18.30+/-5.10
      and 18.52+/-4.46 mmHg, respectively. There were no significant differences
      between them (t=-1.31, P=0.19). The 95% confidence interval of the differences
      between the two devices was -5.80-6.24 mmHg. The RT readings are correlated well
      with those of GAT (r=0.806, P=0.001). However, the RT measurements were
      significantly (t=-2.84, P=0.007) lower (-1.66+/-3.87 mmHg) than those obtained
      with GAT when GAT >=23 mmHg. Both the RT (r=0.390, P=0.001) and the GAT (r=0.191,
      P=0.001) showed positive correlations with CCT. The IOP measurement with RT was
      well tolerated. None of the corneal epithelial defects was detected and all
      subjects denied discomfort. The RT is well tolerated and safe, and can be
      considered a reliable alternative to GAT for patients in a low to moderate IOP
      range. However, in patients with high IOP values, the measurements obtained with
      RT did not correlate well with those obtained by GAT. The RT readings are
      influenced more by CCT compared to GAT.

PMID- 28565786
TI  - Expression of S100beta protein in patients with vascular dementia after basal
      ganglia hemorrhage and its clinical significance.
AB  - We investigated the expression levels and clinical significance of S100beta
      protein in patients with vascular dementia (VD) after basal ganglia hemorrhage.
      From June 2014 to December 2015, in 138 patients with basal ganglia hemorrhage,
      we carried out the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive
      Assessment (MoCA) in patients on the day before the operation, the day after the
      operation and 9 days after the operation. Thirty-two patients (blood vessel
      group) had cognitive dysfunction and 106 patients (control group) had VD. One
      hundred thirty-eight cases of healthy adult volunteers were treated in Henan
      Provincial People's Hospital and were selected in the same period as healthy
      controls. The expression levels of serum S100beta in the three groups were tested
      through the ELISA method and the statistical analysis was carried out. In VD
      patients, the serum S100beta levels of patients were significantly higher than VD
      and healthy control groups; differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).
      However, there was no significant difference between those without VD after
      operation and the healthy control group (P>0.05). The correlation analysis was
      carried out with serum S100beta as an independent variable and mean arterial
      pressure, BMI, MMSE and MoCA scores as dependent variables. Our results suggest
      that S100beta expression levels were negatively correlated to the MMSE score (rs=
      4.19) and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The length of
      hospital stay of patients with basal ganglia hemorrhage associated with VD was
      significantly extended, with a mean of 23.4+/-2.8 days. The expression levels of
      S100beta protein in the serum of patients with VD after basal ganglia hemorrhage
      was significantly increased and negatively correlated to the cognitive function
      of patients. Therefore, it can be used as a differential diagnosis indicator of
      VD after the basal ganglia hemorrhage and treatment target point of the VD.

PMID- 28565787
TI  - Clinical observation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell treatment of severe
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: A case report.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a degenerative disease characterized by
      fibrosis. Cell therapy has been considered within the therapeutic options for
      IPF. In this study, we explored the potential benefits of human umbilical cord
      derived mesenchymal stem cell (HUC-MSC) intravenous infusion in the management of
      IPF. We describe a case of a 56-year-old man with IPF who was receiving long-term
      oxygen therapy (LTOT). The patient underwent HUC-MSC intravenous infusion and was
      followed up for 12 months. Clinical and motor tests, as well as questionnaires
      assessing quality of life, were performed prior to and following the
      transplantation. At the end of 12 months, a relevant reduction of LTOT
      requirement was registered; improvements in terms of physical performance,
      quality of life, and respiratory parameters were observed in our patient. In
      conclusion, a program of HUC-MSC intravenous infusion appears to be beneficial to
      patients with IPF and may be considered as an additional therapeutic option.

PMID- 28565789
TI  - Abdominal ultrasonography for patients with abdominal pain as a first-line
      diagnostic imaging modality.
AB  - The utility and limitations of abdominal ultrasonography (US) were
      retrospectively evaluated as a first-line diagnostic imaging modality in patients
      with abdominal pain. Hospital records from patients subjected to abdominal US as
      a first-line diagnostic imaging examination at the National Hospital Organization
      Shimoshizu Hospital (Yotsukaido, Japan) from April 2010 to April 2015 were
      analyzed. Only those patients who underwent abdominal US to diagnose abdominal
      symptoms were included in the present study. All patients with prior diagnostic
      imaging examination findings were excluded from the study in order to reduce bias
      of results. The analyzed patients included 39 males with an average (mean +/-
      standard deviation) age of 65.8+/-18.8 years and 37 females with an average age
      of 53.7+/-19.3 years. Diagnosis with abdominal US was in agreement with the final
      diagnosis in 66 of the 76 patients. Final diagnosis of symptoms by abdominal US
      was not successful in the remaining 10 patients who required further
      investigation. Acute cholangitis, acute cholecystitis, acute pancreatitis, acute
      appendicitis, colonic diverticulitis and spleen rupture were correctly diagnosed.
      Different types of cancer, including colorectal cancer, were also successfully
      diagnosed. Bile duct cancer and sigmoid colon volvulus could not be diagnosed by
      abdominal US due to the presence of intestinal gas. Abnormal findings were
      detected using abdominal US, but the diagnosis required additional consultation
      with gynecologists. Abdominal US was suitable for patients with abdominal
      symptoms. It is recommended that patients undergo further diagnostic imaging or
      consultation with gynecologists when large gas bubbles are present or
      gynecological conditions are suspected.

PMID- 28565788
TI  - Immunosuppressive agents are associated with peptic ulcer bleeding.
AB  - Peptic ulcer bleeding can be fatal. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
      (NSAIDs), corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents are administered for long
      term usage. The present study assessed the association between peptic ulcer
      bleeding and administration of NSAIDs, corticosteroids and immunosuppressive
      agents. Furthermore, the efficacy of lowering the risk of peptic ulcer bleeding
      with proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RA) was
      evaluated. Medical records were retrospectively analyzed for patients subjected
      to an upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy performed at the National Hospital
      Organization Shimoshizu Hospital (Yotsukaido, Japan) from October 2014 to
      September 2015. During this period, a total of 1,023 patients underwent an upper
      GI endoscopy. A total of 1,023 patients, including 431 males (age, 68.1+/-12.9
      years) and 592 females (age, 66.4+/-12.3 years), who had been administered
      NSAIDs, corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents, PPIs and H2RAs, were
      respectively enrolled. Endoscopic findings of the patients were reviewed and
      their data were statistically analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to
      determine the odds ratio of peptic ulcer bleeding for each medication;
      immunosuppressive agents had an odds ratio of 5.83, which was larger than that
      for NSAIDs (4.77). The Wald test was applied to confirm the correlation between
      immunosuppressive agents and peptic ulcer bleeding. Furthermore, chi2 tests were
      applied to the correlation between peptic ulcer bleeding and administration of
      PPIs or H2RAs. Immunosuppressive agents had the largest chi2, and the P-value was
      0.03. Administration of PPIs was significantly correlated with non-peptic ulcer
      bleeding (P=0.02); furthermore, a tendency toward non-peptic ulcer bleeding with
      administration of H2RA was indicated, but it was not statistically significant
      (P=0.12). In conclusion, immunosuppressive agents were correlated with peptic
      ulcer bleeding and PPIs were effective at lowering the risk of peptic ulcer
      bleeding.

PMID- 28565790
TI  - Level of serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin correlates with bone quality
      assessed by calcaneal quantitative ultrasound sonometry in young Japanese
      females.
AB  - The diagnostic criteria of osteoporosis were established based on bone mineral
      density (BMD). Therefore, BMD measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry has
      been recognized as the gold standard to diagnose osteoporosis. However,
      discrepancies between fracture risk and BMD have been recognized. Bone is
      composed of collagen scaffold reinforced by hydroxyapatite. Both protein scaffold
      and hydroxyapatite are involved in bone quality. BMD may indicate bone
      mineralization but potentially fail to assess the protein scaffold. Vitamin K
      contributes to bone mineralization and as a protein scaffold. A deficiency of
      vitamin K upregulates the level of serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC),
      and serum ucOC correlates with fracture risk. However, direct association of ucOC
      and bone quality has not been demonstrated. For the present study, a total of 49
      healthy young Japanese female college students underwent calcaneal; quantitative
      ultrasound sonometry (QUS) and determination of serological bone metabolic
      markers. QUS parameters were significantly correlated with serum 25
      hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-D) concentrations (P<0.05). A significant negative
      correlation was also identified between log transformed serum ucOC concentrations
      [Ln(ucOC)] and a QUS parameter, speed of sound (SOS) (P<0.05). Stepwise multiple
      regression analysis indicated that Ln(ucOC) was an independent determinant of
      SOS, and 25-OH-D was an independent determinant of the other two QUS parameters,
      transmission index (TI) and synthetic parameter osteo-sono-assessment index. As
      vitamin D is involved in bone mineralization, TI may reflect the mineralization.
      Correlation of vitamin K status, indicated by ucOC, with SOS may clarify the
      correlation between vitamin K status and bone quality, although the material
      factors that connect them have not been identified.

PMID- 28565791
TI  - Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration for thyroid cyst
      therapy: A case report.
AB  - Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is
      of limited usefulness for diagnosing thyroid disease, and few studies have
      reported its use in diagnosing and treating thyroid cysts. The present study
      investigated a unique case of diagnosis and treatment of a thyroid cyst by EBUS
      TBNA. A 67-year-old male presented with back pain. Positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography scanning revealed low-density signals in the right
      lobe of the thyroid. Needle aspiration biopsies and drainage at this site was
      performed, and EBUS was used for guidance in diagnosing the thyroid cyst. A
      follow-up chest computed tomography scan indicated that the thyroid lesion had
      subsequently disappeared. The present study concludes that EBUS-TBNA provides an
      alternative approach for diagnosing and treating deep thyroid cysts located close
      to the airway. In all other cases, percutaneous needle aspiration or surgery
      should be the first choice.

PMID- 28565792
TI  - Effect of ozone oxidative preconditioning on oxidative stress injury in a rat
      model of kidney transplantation.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of ozone
      oxidative preconditioning (OOP) on renal oxidative stress injury in a rat model
      of kidney transplantation. Thirty-six male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly
      divided into three groups: A sham (S) group, a kidney transplantation (KT) group
      and an OOP and kidney transplantation (OOP+KT) group. In the S group, the rats'
      abdomens were opened and closed without transplantation. In the KT group, the
      rats received a left kidney from donor SD rats. In the OOP+KT group, donor SD
      rats received 15 OOP treatments by transrectal insufflations (1 mg/kg), once a
      day, at an ozone concentration of 50 ug/ml, before the kidney transplantation.
      Twenty-four hours after transplantation, the parameters of renal function of the
      recipients were measured. The morphology and pathological effects of renal
      allograft were examined using hematoxylin and eosin staining, periodic acid
      Schiff staining, a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling
      assay and immunohistochemistry. Markers of oxidative stress were also detected
      using the thiobarbituric acid method, and expression levels of Nrf-2 and HO-1
      were determined by western blot analysis. Blood urea nitrogen and creatinine
      levels were significantly decreased in the OOP+KT group compared with the KT
      group, and the morphology and pathological changes of renal allograft were also
      less severe. Meanwhile, the renal allograft cell apoptosis index was
      significantly higher in the KT group compared to the OOP+KT group (P<0.05).
      Levels of superoxide dismutase, glutathione and catalase in the renal allografts
      were significantly higher in the OOP+KT group compared to those in the KT group
      (P<0.05), while malondialdehyde levels were significantly lower in the OOP+KT
      group compared to those in the KT group (P<0.05). Western blot analysis indicated
      that the expression levels of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2)
      and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) were significantly higher in the OOP+KT compared to
      the KT group (P<0.05). In conclusion, the mechanism by which OOP alleviates
      oxidative stress injury in renal transplantation may be related to the activation
      of the signaling pathways of Nrf-2/HO-1 and inhibition of renal tubular
      epithelial cell apoptosis.

PMID- 28565793
TI  - Involvement of neuronal pathways in the protective effects of hindlimb
      perconditioning during renal ischemia.
AB  - Remote ischemic perconditioning (RPEC) is a therapeutic intervention that has
      been demonstrated to reduce renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the
      underlying renal protective mechanism remains unclear. The present study
      hypothesized that RPEC may utilize neural pathways to transfer the protective
      signal from the perconditioned hindlimb to the kidney. Following a right
      nephrectomy, rats were randomly allocated into five groups (n=6). The sham group
      underwent the surgical protocol only. In all other groups, the left renal pedicle
      was clamped for 45 min and reperfused for 24 h. The I/R control group then
      underwent 45 min ischemia and 24 h reperfusion (I/R) with no more intervention
      but the I/R-NR control group underwent the ischemia and reperfusion followed by
      left femoral nerve (FN) and sciatic nerve (SN) resection. The RPEC group
      underwent ischemia and reperfusion followed by four cycles of 5 min occlusions of
      the left femoral artery and 5 min reperfusion. Finally, the RPEC-NR group
      underwent ischemia and reperfusion followed by left FN and SN resection.
      Following 24 h, renal functional indices, plasma blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and
      creatinine (Cr) levels, urinary N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase (NAG) release and
      histopathological changes were assessed. Compared with the sham group, ischemia
      and reperfusion in the sham and I/R control groups resulted in renal dysfunction,
      indicated by significantly increased levels of BUN and Cr. This was accompanied
      by increased urinary NAG activity and morphological damage observed in control
      groups. In the RPEC group, renal histology and function were significantly
      improved compared with the control groups. However, FN and SN resection
      eliminated the protection of the kidney, which was induced by RPEC. In
      conclusion, remote hindlimb ischemic perconditioning reduced renal I/R injury in
      the rat kidney in a manner that potentially involves a neural pathway.

PMID- 28565794
TI  - Novel two-step derivation method for the synchronous analysis of inherited
      metabolic disorders using urine.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to conduct preliminary clinical screening and
      monitoring using a novel two-step derivatization process of urine in five
      categories of inherited metabolic disease (IMD). Urine samples (100 ul,
      containing 2.5 mmol/l creatinine) were taken from patients with IMDs. The
      collected urine was then treated using a two-step derivatization method (with
      oximation and silylation at room temperature), where urea and protein were
      removed. In the first step of the derivatization, alpha-ketoacids and alpha
      aldehyde acids were prepared by oximation using novel oximation reagents. The
      second-step of the derivatization was that residues were silylated for analysis.
      Urine samples were examined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
      and a retention time-locking technique. The simultaneous analysis and
      identification of >400 metabolites in >130 types of IMD was possible from the
      GC/MS results, where the IMDs included phenylketonuria, ornithine
      transcarbamylase deficiency, neonatal intrahepatic cholestasis caused by citrin
      deficiency, beta-ureidopropionase deficiency and mitochondrial metabolic
      disorders. This method was demonstrated to have good repeatability. Considering
      alpha-ketoglutarate (alpha-KG) as an example, the relative standard deviations
      (RSDs) of the alpha-KG retention time and peak area were 0.8 and 3.9%,
      respectively, the blank spiked recovery rate was between 89.6 and 99.8%, and the
      RSD was <=7.5% (n=5). The method facilitates the analysis of thermally non-stable
      and semi-volatile metabolites in urine, and greatly expands the range of
      materials that can be synchronously screened by GC/MS. Furthermore, it provides a
      comprehensive, effective and reliable biochemical analysis platform for the
      pathological research of IMDs.

PMID- 28565795
TI  - 1,25-(OH)2D3 and its analogue BXL-628 inhibit high glucose-induced activation of
      RhoA/ROCK pathway in HK-2 cells.
AB  - It has previously been reported that 1,25-(OH)2D3 inhibits high glucose-induced
      epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in HK-2 cells. However, the mechanism
      of this renoprotective action remains unclear. Elocalcitol (BXL-628), a vitamin D
      analog, has been suggested to be effective on the RhoA/Rho associated protein
      kinase (ROCK) pathway, which serves a crucial role in high glucose-induced EMT.
      The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of 1,25-(OH)2D3 and
      its analogue BXL-628 on high glucose-induced activation of the RhoA/ROCK pathway
      in human renal proximal tubular cells. HK-2 cells were co-treated with high
      glucose and either 1,25-(OH)2D3 or BXL-628. The RhoA expression levels and ROCK
      activity of the membrane were assessed via western blot analysis or
      immunofluorescence. alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) and epithelial (E)
      cadherin were detected using western blotting and reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), whereas collagen I and
      fibronectin levels were measured by ELISA and RT-qPCR. The results demonstrated
      that 1,25-(OH)2D3 and BXL-628 both significantly downregulated the expression of
      active RhoA and ROCK activity induced by high glucose (P<0.05). Furthermore, the
      expressions of alpha-SMA, collagen I, and fibronectin were significantly
      downregulated at both protein and mRNA (P<0.05) levels, whereas the expression of
      E-cadherin was significantly increased (P<0.05) by 1,25-(OH)2D3 or BXL-628
      treatment. In conclusion, the vitamin D receptor agonist 1,25-(OH)2D3 and its
      analogue BXL-628 were both able to attenuate high glucose-induced EMT and
      extracellular matrix accumulation of HK-2 cells by suppressing the RhoA/ROCK
      signaling pathway in vitro.

PMID- 28565797
TI  - Factors affecting the accuracy and safety of computed tomography-guided biopsy of
      intrapulmonary solitary nodules <=30 mm in a retrospective study of 155 patients.
AB  - Computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous fine needle biopsy is a common
      method for lung biopsy. The objective of this study was to investigate factors
      affecting the accuracy and safety of CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsy of
      nodules <=30 mm in diameter. Between January 2013 and March 2014, 155 patients
      underwent a CT-guided percutaneous biopsy procedure on an intrapulmonary solitary
      nodule measuring <=30 mm in diameter. Prospectively collected data were
      retrospectively reviewed and examined for the influence of clinical and
      pathological characteristics (age, gender, smoking status, adhesion of nodule to
      the pleura, puncture depth, nodule size and time of biopsy) on the accuracy of
      biopsy and incidence of pneumothorax and hemorrhage. The accuracy of CT-guided
      biopsy was 90.3% (140/155). Biopsies predominantly contained lung adenocarcinoma
      (114/140; 81.4%) or squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (10/140; 7.1%). Accuracy
      was significantly dependent on nodule size, ranging in accuracy from 85 to 97%
      for patients with nodule diameters of <=20 or 21-30 mm, respectively (P<0.05).
      Pleural adherence of the nodule significantly increased the accuracy of the
      biopsy (P<0.05). Patients with a nodule of 11-20 mm in diameter had a
      significantly higher incidence of pneumothorax compared with patients with a
      smaller nodule (P=0.013). In conclusion, the nodule size and adhesion to the
      pleura influenced the accuracy of CT-guided biopsy of intrapulmonary nodules that
      were <=30 mm in diameter. Nodule size may also affect the incidence of severe
      complications. CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsy has a high accuracy and is easy
      and safe to conduct for intrapulmonary solitary nodules of <=30 mm in diameter.

PMID- 28565796
TI  - Hemodynamic effects of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone inhibitor and beta-blocker
      combination therapy vs. beta-blocker monotherapy for portal hypertension in
      cirrhosis: A meta-analysis.
AB  - beta-blockers are commonly used for the treatment of acute variceal bleeding in
      cirrhosis. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone antagonists (angiotensin I-converting
      enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers and aldosterone antagonists) are
      potential therapies for portal hypertension. Several studies have compared the
      renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitor and beta-blocker
      combination therapy vs. beta-blocker monotherapy, with inconsistent results. The
      aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of the RAAS inhibitor and
      beta-blocker combination therapy vs. beta-blocker monotherapy for hepatic vein
      pressure gradient (HVPG) reduction in cirrhosis. Studies were obtained using
      PubMed, Embase, Medline and Cochrane library databases up to July 2015, and the
      weighted mean difference (WMD) in HVPG reduction was used as a measure of
      treatment efficacy. In total, three studies (91 patients) were included. When
      compared to the beta-blocker monotherapy, the RAAS inhibitor and beta-blocker
      combination therapy resulted in a significant HVPG reduction [WMD 1.70; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 0.52-2.88]. However, there was no significant
      difference in the heart rate reduction between the monotherapy and combination
      therapy groups (WMD -0.11; 95% CI: -3.51-3.29). In addition, no significant
      difference in the hemodynamic response was observed between the two groups (WMD
      1.46; 95% CI: 0.93-2.30). In conclusion, the RAAS inhibitor and beta-blocker
      combination therapy reduces portal hypertension significantly and to a greater
      extent than beta-blocker monotherapy. Both therapies reduced the heart rate to
      similar levels; however, the RAAS inhibitor and beta-blocker combination therapy
      reduced the mean arterial pressure to a greater extent. Due to the limited number
      of studies included, the data available do not allow a satisfactory comparison of
      adverse events. Moreover, further larger-scale trials are required in order to
      strengthen the results of the present study.

PMID- 28565799
TI  - Phthiriasis palpebrarum: A case of eyelash infestation with Pthirus pubis.
AB  - Phthiriasis palpebrarum is a rare type of eyelid infestation. In the present
      study, a 63-year-old woman presented with a case of phthiriasis palpebrarum,
      which was initially misdiagnosed as anterior blepharitis. The patient had a 2
      month history of repeated episodes of itching and burning sensations and moderate
      pain in both eyes that were not improved by antibiotic and corticosteroid eye
      drops. Slit lamp examination revealed lice and nits anchored to the eyelashes.
      All eyelashes were removed from the base along with lice and nits. The patient
      recovered fully within 2 weeks with no further management, and no evidence of
      lice or nits was found at the follow up. In conclusion, the findings of the
      present study suggests that patients presenting with itching of the eyelids and
      with clinical findings resembling seborrhea accumulation on the eyelashes should
      be carefully examined by prolonged observation with a slit lamp.

PMID- 28565798
TI  - PCSK9 regulates apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells via endoplasmic
      reticulum stress and mitochondrial signaling pathways.
AB  - Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a member of the
      subtilisin family of PCs that encodes a neural apoptosis-regulated convertase 1.
      However, the precise role of PCSK9 in lung cancer cell apoptosis has remained
      elusive. In the present study, A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells were
      transfected with PCSK9 small interfering (si)RNA to investigate the underlying
      mechanisms of apoptosis. The results indicated that PCSK9 siRNA exhibited anti
      tumor activity by inducing apoptosis as determined by a Cell Counting Kit-8 and
      Hoechst staining analysis. In addition, PCSK9 siRNA significantly increased
      apoptosis of A549 cells in part via activation of caspase-3 and downregulation of
      the anti-apoptotic proteins survivin and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein.
      Moreover, the results demonstrated that perturbations in the mitochondrial
      membrane were associated with the deregulation of the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, which led
      to the release of cytochrome c after PCSK9 siRNA transfection. In addition, PCSK9
      siRNA also induced endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) by increasing the levels of
      78 kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78), GRP94, phosphorylated protein kinase R
      like ER kinase and phosphorylated eukaryotic initiation factor 2alpha. Therefore,
      these results demonstrated that PCSK9 siRNA may exert its anti-tumor activity
      through inducing mitochondrial dysfunction and ERS-associated cell death in A549
      cells.

PMID- 28565801
TI  - Inflammatory response associated with choke vessel remodeling in the extended
      perforator flap model.
AB  - Ischemic necrosis of the surgical flap is a common complication. The behavior of
      choke vessels has an important role in skin flap survival. However, the mechanism
      of choke vessel remodeling has remained elusive. The purpose of the present study
      was to investigate the possible association between inflammatory responses and
      choke vessel remodeling in the extended perforator flap model in rats. After flap
      elevation, the animals were randomly divided into three groups (n=6 in each) for
      tissue analysis at three, five or seven days after flap surgery. Six additional
      rats served as a control group (no flap elevation). Tissue samples were collected
      from the choke zone for histological, western blot and PCR analyses. Monocyte
      chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) as
      inflammatory cytokines were examined in the present study. Histopathological
      analysis showed that dilation of choke vessels and increased vessel wall
      thickness was obvious after flap elevation. It also showed edema, inflammation
      cell aggregation after the operation. Compared with the control group, the
      protein and mRNA expression levels of MCP-1 and TNF-alpha were significantly
      increased at days 3, 5 and 7 after flap elevation, while reaching a maximum at
      day 5. These findings indicated that inflammatory responses may have an important
      role in choke vessel remodeling. MCP-1 and TNF-alpha may be considered as
      potential targets for modulating the behavior of choke vessels.

PMID- 28565800
TI  - MicroRNA-93 promotes cell proliferation by directly targeting P21 in osteosarcoma
      cells.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that are key regulators of gene
      expression by directly binding to the 3'-untranslated region of their target
      mRNAs, resulting in translational repression or degradation of mRNA. It has been
      demonstrated that miRNAs have key roles in a variety of human malignancies,
      including osteosarcoma. The present study aimed to assess the molecular mechanism
      of miR-93 in the regulation of osteosarcoma cell proliferation. Reverse
      transcription quantitative PCR and western blot assays were used to examine mRNA
      and protein expression. An MTT assay and flow cytometry were performed to
      determine the cell proliferation and cell cycle distribution. A luciferase
      reporter assay was performed to confirm the direct targeting of cyclin-dependent
      kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A), also known as P21, by miR-93, which was suggested
      by a bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that the expression of miR-93
      was frequently and significantly increased in a total of 19 osteosarcoma tissues
      compared to their matched adjacent non-tumor tissues, and the upregulation of miR
      93 was associated with the malignant progression of osteosarcoma. Furthermore,
      miR-93 was also upregulated in the human osteosarcoma cell lines Saos-2, U2OS,
      SW1353 and MG63 when compared with that in the human osteoblast cell line
      hFOB1.19. Transfection with miR-93 inhibitor significantly reduced the miR-93
      levels and inhibited the proliferation of U2OS and MG63 osteosarcoma cells. The
      protein levels of P21 were negatively regulated by miR-93 in U2OS and MG63 cells.
      Knockdown of miR-93 caused cell cycle arrest at G1 stage in U2OS and MG63 cells,
      identical to the effect of P21 overexpression. Finally, P21 was found to be
      significantly downregulated in osteosarcoma tissues compared to their matched
      adjacent non-tumor tissues, suggesting that the inhibition of P21 may be due to
      increased miR-93 expression in osteosarcoma tissues. In conclusion, the present
      study demonstrated that miR-93 enhances the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells,
      at least in part via inhibiting P21 expression and thus promoting cell cycle
      progression.

PMID- 28565802
TI  - Continuous-type splenogonadal fusion: A case report.
AB  - Splenogonadal fusion (SGF) is a rare congenital malformation. Since it lacks
      characteristic features, very few cases of SGF have been diagnosed
      preoperatively. Laparoscopy was effective in both diagnosing and surgically
      treating this condition. Herein, we reported left side SGF in a male patient who
      was diagnosed during laparoscopic exploration, and Fowler-Stephens orchidopexy
      was implemented at the same time. The patient was followed up for one year. At a
      6-month follow-up, the left scrotum demonstrated swelling and the internal
      contents were hard. An ultrasound of this testicle indicated non-uniform, splenic
      like organization. However, at the one-year follow-up, the volume of splenic-like
      organization was reduced but the testicular size did not exhibit further atrophy.

PMID- 28565803
TI  - Endovascular treatment and morphology typing of chronic ostial occlusion of the
      subclavian artery.
AB  - Chronic obstructive lesions of the subclavian artery (SCA) often result in
      subclavian steal syndrome, which leads to arm claudication, transient cerebral
      ischemia, and other serious complications. The lesions are classified as stenosis
      and occlusion, according to the degree of obstruction. Unlike totally occlusive
      lesions, including ostial occlusions, stenotic lesions have an excellent
      technical success rate. In the present study, ostial occlusions were classified
      into 4 types according to their angiographic appearance. A total of 8 patients (6
      male, 2 female) with SCA occlusions were treated with percutaneous transluminal
      angioplasty and stenting over a 4-year period. Mean patient age was 65.6 years
      (range, 60-72 years). In total, 9 self-expanding and 1 balloon-expandable stent
      were implanted at the ostia of the SCA in 7 of the patients. One female patient
      did not undergo stenting. Bleeding at the access site was noted in 2 patients and
      was controlled by gauze pressure. The patient that did not undergo stenting was
      lost to follow-up with symptoms of a transient ischemic attack at 3 months. The
      mean follow-up time for the remaining 7 patients was 15.7 months (range, 1-36
      months). No ischemic symptoms, neointimal hyperplasia, or restenosis was observed
      in these patients. The transfemoral artery operation approach is preferred for
      rat-tail and peak type occlusions, whereas the dual approach involving both
      femoral and radial arteries is preferred for hilly and plain type occlusions. The
      angiographic morphology typing used in the present study may serve as a reference
      to decide upon the interventional operation strategy to be used for improving the
      technical success rate.

PMID- 28565804
TI  - Schwann cells promote the capability of neural stem cells to differentiate into
      neurons and secret neurotrophic factors.
AB  - The present study investigated whether co-culturing Schwann cells (SCs) with
      neural stem cells (NSCs) improves viability, direction of differentiation and
      secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell-derived
      neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in NSCs. The three groups assessed were as follows:
      SCs, NSCs, and a co-culture of SCs and NSCs. Cellular morphological changes were
      observed under an inverted phase contrast microscope and quantified. Cells were
      identified by immunofluorescence staining: S100 for SCs, Nestin for NSCs,
      microtubule associated protein (Map) 2 and NeuN for neurons and glial fibrillary
      acidic protein for astrocytes. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay.
      Secretion of BDNF and GDNF was quantified; mRNA expression was quantified by
      reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The majority of
      NSCs in the co-cultured group differentiated into neurons. The cell survival rate
      of the co-culture group was significantly higher than the other groups on days 3,
      5 and 10 (P<0.01). The secretion of BDNF in the co-culture group was
      significantly higher than NSCs on days 3, 5 and 7 (P<0.05), while the amount of
      GDNF in co-culture was significantly higher than both NSCs and SCs on day 1
      (P<0.05). BDNF and GDNF gene expression in the co-culture group was significantly
      higher than SCs (P<0.01). Gene expression of Map2 in co-culture group was also
      significantly higher than both NSC and SC groups (P<0.01). Therefore, co-cultured
      SCs and NSCs promote differentiation of NSCs into neurons and secrete higher
      levels of neurotropic factors including BDNF and GDNF.

PMID- 28565805
TI  - Effects of dual modified resistant indica rice starch on azoxymethane-induced
      incipient colon cancer in mice.
AB  - In this study, the effects of different doses of dual modification-treated (DMT)
      indica rice resistant starch (IR-RS) on azoxymethane (AOM)-induced early colon
      cancer in mice were investigated. The investigated factors included body weight,
      gastrointestinal emptying rate, the number and morphology of aberrant crypt foci
      (ACFs) and the specific expressions of adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), B-cell
      lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and cytochrome c genes. The
      results demonstrated that DMT IR-RS controlled the increase in the body weights
      of the mice, increased the gastrointestinal emptying rates and reduced the
      numbers of ACFs and aberrant crypts. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain
      reaction revealed that DMT IR-RS promoted the expression of APC, Bax and
      cytochrome c and inhibited the expression of Bcl-2. These results demonstrate
      that a DMT IR-RS diet may induce apoptosis and has beneficial health effects in
      AOM-induced early colon cancer in mice.

PMID- 28565806
TI  - Prokinetic effects of LD02GIFRO on functional gastrointestinal disorder in rats.
AB  - LD02GIFRO is a novel prokinetic agent formulated with Poncirus fructus and
      Zanthoxylum sp. fruits. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect
      of LD02GIFRO on delayed gastrointestinal transit (GIT) and colorectal
      hypersensitivity. To investigate the effect of LD02GIFRO, a rat model of delayed
      GIT was induced via three mechanisms; postoperative ileus (POI), morphine, and
      POI plus morphine. Visceromotor responses (VMR) to colorectal distension (CRD)
      were also evaluated. POI was induced by laparotomy surgery and manipulation of
      the small intestine under anesthesia, and GIT was calculated by measuring the
      length that Evans Blue travelled through the gastrointestinal tract in a given
      time. Oral administration of 260 mg/kg LD02GIFRO caused Evans Blue to migrate
      significantly further in the delayed GIT models induced by POI, morphine and POI
      plus morphine compared with the control (P<0.05). This effect was inhibited by
      atropine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist, and completely abolished by GR125487,
      a 5-HT4-receptor antagonist. Furthermore, intraperitoneal administration of 600
      and 900 mg/kg LD02GIFRO significantly reduced VMR to CRD in acute and chronic
      colorectal hypersensitive rat models, induced by acetic acid and
      trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid, to almost normal levels (P<0.01). In the present
      study, LD02GIFRO successfully ameliorated delayed GIT models and colorectal
      hypersensitivity models, suggesting that LD02GIFRO may be an effective
      therapeutic treatment for patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders and
      abnormalities in GIT.

PMID- 28565807
TI  - Arsenic trioxide increases expression of secreted frizzled-related protein 1 gene
      and inhibits the WNT/beta-catenin signaling pathway in Jurkat cells.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the demethylation effect of
      arsenic trioxide (As2O3) on the secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) gene
      and its ability to inhibit the Wingless-type MMTV integration site family (WNT)
      pathway in Jurkat cells. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction was used
      to examine the CpG island methylation status of the SFRP1 gene in leukemia cell
      lines. In addition, the effects on Jurkat cells of treatment with different
      concentrations of As2O3 for 48 h were investigated. Reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction was employed to measure the expression of
      mRNAs, while western blot analysis was used to examine protein expression in
      cells. The SFRP1 gene was methylated in Jurkat cells. However, both methylated
      and unmethylated SFRP1 genes were detected in HL60 and K562 cells. In normal bone
      marrow mononuclear cells, the SFRP1 gene was unmethylated. Following treatment
      with As2O3 for 48 h, the SFRP1 gene was demethylated, and the mRNA and protein
      expression levels of the SFRP1 gene were increased. By contrast, the mRNA and
      protein expression levels of beta-catenin and cyclin Dl were downregulated. The
      protein expression of c-myc was also downregulated, but As2O3 exhibited no
      significant effect on the mRNA expression of c-myc. Abnormal methylation of the
      SFRP1 gene was detected in Jurkat cells. These results suggest that As2O3
      activates SFRP1 gene expression at the mRNA and protein levels in Jurkat cells by
      demethylation of the SFRP1 gene. Furthermore, they indicate that As2O3 regulates
      WNT target genes and controls the growth of Jurkat cells through the WNT/beta
      catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28565808
TI  - Rutin attenuates isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis via modulating JNK and p38
      MAPK pathways in the hippocampi of neonatal rats.
AB  - An increasing number of infants and children undergo surgery and are exposed to
      anesthesia as a part of medical care each year. Isoflurane is a commonly used
      anesthetic in the pediatric population. However, previous studies have reported
      widespread isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis and cognitive impairments in
      neonatal animal models, raising concerns over the administration of isoflurane in
      the pediatric population. The current study investigated the effects of rutin, a
      flavonoid, on isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis in a neonatal rodent model.
      Groups of neonatal rat pups were administered rutin at doses of 10, 20 or 40
      mg/kg body weight from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P15. On P7, pups were exposed to
      0.75% isoflurane for 6 h. Rat pups in the control groups did not receive rutin,
      and did not receive anesthesia in one group. Neuroapoptosis following isoflurane
      exposure was determined by TUNEL assay. The expression levels of cleaved caspase
      3, apoptotic pathway proteins [Bcl2-associated agonist of cell death (Bad),
      phospho-Bad, Bax, B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-xL and mitogen-activated
      protein kinases (MAPK)] signalling pathway proteins [c-Jun N-terminal kinase
      (JNK), phospho-JNK, extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2),
      phosphoERK1/2, p38, phospho-p38 and phospho-c-Jun], were determined by western
      blot analysis. The Morris water maze test was used to assess the learning and
      memory of pups on P30 and P31. The present study found that rutin at the tested
      doses of 10, 20 and 40 mg significantly reduced (P<0.05) the isoflurane-induced
      elevation in apoptotic cell count. The expression levels of caspase-3, Bad, Bax
      and MAPK proteins, which were increased following isoflurane treatment, were
      rescued by rutin treatment. Furthermore, rutin prevented the increase in Bcl-xL,
      Bcl-2 and phospho-Bad expression following isoflurane treatment, and enhanced the
      memory of the rats. Rutin provided neuroprotection against isoflurane-induced
      neuronal apoptosis and improved the learning and memory of rats by effectively
      regulating the expression levels of proteins in the MAPK pathway.

PMID- 28565809
TI  - Clinical study on the association between pregnancy-induced hypertension and
      insulin resistance.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to explore the association between pregnancy
      induced hypertension (PIH) and insulin resistance (IR). A total of 50 cases of
      PIH and 50 healthy pregnant women with a similar gestational age were enrolled.
      The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique was used to evaluate the degree
      of IR and all 100 subjects were divided into an IR and a non-IR group
      accordingly. Subsequently, the correlation between the systolic or diastolic
      blood pressure was assessed; furthermore, a homeostasis model assessment of IR
      (HOMA-IR), a HOMA of the insulin sensitivity index (HOMA-ISI) and a HOMA of beta
      cell function (HOMA-beta%) were performed. Moreover, the effect of IR on PIH was
      assessed and the protein expression of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1,
      phosphorylated (p)-IRS-1, AKT and p-AKT were detected in the placental plasma by
      western blot analysis. The results showed that in the PIH group, the p-IRS-1/IRS
      1 and p-AKT/AKT ratios were decreased compared with those in the control group.
      Blood flow parameters, including perfusion index, retinal resistive index and
      systolic maximum velocity/end-diastolic velocity ratio in the IR group were
      higher, while time averaged velocity was lower compared with that in the non-IR
      group. Furthermore, the HOMA-ISI and HOMA-beta% were decreased, while the HOMA-IR
      was increased in the PIH group compared to that in the control group; alongside
      the blockage of the insulin signaling pathway, these factors may therefore cause
      PIH. The present study may provide novel therapeutic approaches for PIH.

PMID- 28565810
TI  - Anti-atherogenic properties of resveratrol: 4-week resveratrol administration
      associated with serum concentrations of SIRT1, adiponectin, S100A8/A9 and VSMCs
      contractility in a rat model.
AB  - Resveratrol (3, 4', 5-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) is a natural, non-flavonoid
      polyphenol that exerts protective properties against atherosclerosis-associated
      endothelial dysfunction and senescence. The present study aimed to assess the
      influence of resveratrol on vascular contractility and molecular factors
      including sirtuin-1 (SIRT1), adiponectin and calprotectin (S100A8/A9) that are
      considered to be important elements of atherogenesis. A total of 17 male rats
      were divided into a control and treatment group and administered resveratrol or a
      placebo. Pharmacometrics were performed on an isolated and perfused tail artery.
      Serum SIRT1, adiponectin and S100A8/A9 levels were quantified using an ELISA
      assay. The level of SIRT1 in the control and treatment groups at time 0 was 4.26
      and 4.45 ng/ml, respectively. SIRT1 in the control and treatment groups following
      2 weeks of treatment was 4.59 and 6.86 ng/ml, respectively (P<0.05) and following
      4 weeks of treatment was 4.15 and 6.38 ng/ml, respectively (P<0.05). The level of
      adiponectin in the control and treatment groups at time 0 was 1.24 and 1.21
      ng/ml, respectively. Following 2 weeks of treatment, the level of adiponectin in
      the control and treatment groups was 1.22 and 1.2 ng/ml, respectively (P>0.05)
      and following 4 weeks of treatment was 1.26 and 1.58 ng/ml, respectively
      (P<0.05). The S100A8/A9 level in control and treatment groups at time 0 was 0.39
      and 0.33 ng/ml, respectively. The level of S100A8/A9 in control and treatment
      groups following 2 weeks of treatment was 0.37 and 0.35 ng/ml, respectively
      (P>0.05) and following 4 weeks of treatment was 0.34 and 0.32 ng/ml, respectively
      (P>0.05). EC50 values obtained for phenylephrine in resveratrol-pretreated
      arteries were significantly higher than controls in the presence and absence of
      A7-hydrochloride (P<0.05). The results of the present study indicate a
      significant increase in the concentration of SIRT1 and adiponectin in the
      resveratrol-pretreated group (P<0.05). S100A8/A9 serum concentrations remained
      unchanged. Reactivity of resistant arteries was significantly reduced for
      resveratrol-pretreated vessels and this effect was partially independent of
      phosphodiesterase (PDE1). Additionally, there was a synergistic interaction
      observed between resveratrol and the PDE1 inhibitor.

PMID- 28565811
TI  - Severity and distribution of cartilage damage and bone marrow edema in the
      patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joints in knee osteoarthritis determined by MRI.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to analyze the distribution and severity of
      cartilage damage (CD) and bone marrow edema (BME) of the patellofemoral and
      tibiofemoral joints (PFJ and TFJ, respectively) in patients with knee
      osteoarthritis (OA), and to determine whether a correlation exists between BME
      and CD in knee OA, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Forty-five patients
      diagnosed with knee OA (KOA group) and 20 healthy individuals (control group)
      underwent sagittal multi-echo recalled gradient echo sequence scans, in addition
      to four conventional MR sequence scans. Knee joints were divided into 15
      subregions by the whole-organ MRI scoring method. MRIs of each subregion were
      analyzed for the presence of CD, CD score and BME score. The knee joint activity
      functional score was determined using the Western Ontario and McMaster
      Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) in the KOA group. Statistical analyses were
      used to compare the CD incidence; CD score and BME score between the PFJ and TFJ.
      Whether a correlation existed among body mass index, BME score, WOMAC pain score
      and CD score was also examined. Among the 675 subregions analyzed in the KOA
      group, 131 exhibited CD (CD score, 1-6). These 131 subregions were primarily in
      the PFJ (80/131, 61.07%), with the remainder in the TFJ (51/131, 38.93%). Thirty
      three subregions had a CD score of 1, including 24 PFJ subregions (72.73%) and 9
      TFJ subregions (27.27%). Among the 103 subregions with BME, the PFJ accounted for
      60 (58.25%) and the TFJ for 43 (41.75%). A significant positive correlation was
      found between the BME and CD scores. In conclusion, CD and BME occurred earlier
      and more often in the PFJ compared to the TFJ in knee OA, and BME is an indirect
      sign of CD.

PMID- 28565812
TI  - Increased Runx2 expression associated with enhanced Wnt signaling in PDLLA
      internal fixation for fracture treatment.
AB  - Poly-D-L lactide (PDLLA) biodegradable implants to heal fractures are widely
      applied in orthopedic surgeries. However, whether the process of fracture healing
      is regulated differently when PDLLA is used compared with traditional metal
      materials remains unclear. Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) and
      canonical Wnt signaling are essential and may interact reciprocally in the
      regulation of osteogenesis during bone repair. In the present study, a rat
      femoral open osteotomy model was used to compare the curative efficacy of a PDLLA
      rod and Kirschner wire under intramedullary fixation for fracture treatment. The
      dynamic expression of Runx2 and key components of the canonical Wnt signaling in
      callus tissue during fracture healing was also investigated. The results of the
      current study indicate that at weeks 4 and 6 following fixation, the callus bone
      structural parameters of microCT were significantly improved by PDLLA rod
      compared to that of Kirschner wire. In addition, at weeks 4 and 6 after fixation,
      the protein and mRNA expression of Runx2 and the positive regulators of canonical
      Wnt signaling, such as Wnts and beta-catenin, were significantly increased.
      However, the protein and mRNA expression levels of the negative regulators of
      canonical Wnt signaling, such as glycogen synthase kinase-3beta, were
      significantly decreased in callus tissue when treated with PDLLA rod compared
      with Kirschner wire. Collectively, these data indicate that compared to the
      traditional metal material, using PDLLA internal fixation for fracture treatment
      may further improve bone formation, which is associated with the increased
      expression of Runx2 and the enhancement of canonical Wnt signaling.

PMID- 28565813
TI  - Successful treatment of diffuse panbronchiolitis in a child from Western China: A
      case report.
AB  - The present report describes a case of diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) in a child
      from Western China and the favorable outcome associated with early diagnosis. DPB
      is an uncommon presentation in pediatric patients. A 13-year-old Chinese boy was
      admitted to the respiratory outpatient department due to recurrent cough and
      progressive exertional dyspnea that had persisted for 1 year. An initial
      diagnosis of bronchial asthma was made, and the patient was prescribed inhaled
      fluticasone combined with salmeterol (50/250 ug, twice daily), and montelukast (4
      mg daily). However, 2 months later no clinical improvement was observed. The
      disease was re-diagnosed as DPB following the identification of features such as
      centrilobular small nodular opacities, a 'tree-in-bud appearance' and thickening
      of the bronchial walls meeting the diagnostic criteria for DPB. Complete
      resolution of the disease and sustained alleviation of the patient's respiratory
      symptoms were achieved following the early institution of erythromycin therapy,
      and the exacerbation of chronic bronchitis was reduced. In conclusion, it is
      essential to consider that successful treatment for DPB lies in early diagnosis
      and early treatment. DPB may be treated well by use of erythromycin.

PMID- 28565814
TI  - Refractory hypotension induced by Sheehan syndrome with pituitary crisis: A case
      report.
AB  - The present study reported on an unusual case of refractory hypotension induced
      by Sheehan syndrome with pituitary crisis and explored the causes and treatment
      of hypotension in hypopiptuitarism. Refractory hypotension is a rare and severe
      complication of longstanding hypopituitarism induced by Sheehan syndrome with
      pituitary crisis. A 48-year-old Chinese woman with pituitary crisis due to
      Sheehan syndrome developed refractory hypotension and received longstanding
      vasopressor blood pressure support and hormone replacement therapy. Besides
      normalized blood pressure, echocardiography over 3 months revealed partial
      reversibility of her cardiac function with hormone replacement therapy.
      Consistent numerous studies reviewed, hormone replacement therapy may improve
      cardiac function in patients with cardiomyopathy linked to Sheehan syndrome. A
      retrospective study of 77 cases with hypopituitarism encountered at Qilu Hospital
      of Shandong University (Jinan, China) was also performed and the incidence rate
      of hypotension was analyzed, revealing that the present case was the first of
      refractory hypotension induced by Sheehan syndrome with pituitary crisis at this
      institution in 16 years.

PMID- 28565815
TI  - Epidemiology and management of splenic injury: An analysis of a Chinese military
      registry.
AB  - In China, there have been few meta-analyses of the epidemiology and management of
      splenic injury. Due to the success of Chinese military hospitals in the domestic
      treatment of splenic injury, the present study conducted a systematic review of
      such cases, identifying a high occurrence rate of splenic trauma, as well as a
      number of strategies of managing splenic injury in China. Data were collected
      from sixteen Chinese military hospitals between July 2000 and March 2009, and
      retrospectively reviewed. It was observed that between July 2000 and March 2009 a
      total of 7,807 patients (84.32% male and 15.68% female) with splenic injury were
      admitted to hospital. The mean duration of hospital stay was 17.9+/-18.6 days and
      the gender distribution of splenic injury over the successive years did not
      differ significantly (P>0.05, c=0.034). However, there was a significant
      difference in the gender distribution of splenic injury patients in different
      months (P<0.05, c=0.063). In addition, admission numbers for splenic injury were
      highest in September, October and November. It was also found that splenic injury
      may occur at all ages, though patients of working age (20-50 years), which
      comprises 85.59% of patients, the highest proportion of all recorded cases.
      Associations between mortality rate and each management strategy were as follows:
      Operative management, 0.11% and non-operative management, 0.15%. Furthermore,
      multivariate analysis demonstrated that transfusion, New Injury Severity Score
      and management strategies were all correlated with mortality rate. Thus, despite
      a lack of data for inpatients from civilian hospitals, the present study has, in
      part, identified the epidemiology and management strategies of splenic injury in
      China. These findings may supplement those from previous analyses of splenic
      injury in other countries and regions.

PMID- 28565816
TI  - MicroRNA-212 targets FOXA1 and suppresses the proliferation and invasion of
      intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma cells.
AB  - [This retracts the article DOI: 10.3892/etm.2016.3824.].

PMID- 28565818
TI  - Transforming growth factor beta and its role in heart disease.
AB  - Myocardial infarction (MI) is a major form of heart disease that leads to
      immediate cardiomyocyte death due to ischemia and eventually fibrosis and scar
      formation and further dysfunction of myocardium and heart failure. Extracellular
      matrix (ECM) production and tissue repair is conducted by myofibroblasts, which
      are formed from the normal quiescent cardiac fibroblasts following
      transformational changes, through the active participation of transforming growth
      factor beta (TGFbeta) and its signaling pathways. TGFbeta appears to be a 'Master
      of all trades', with respect to cardiac fibrosis, as it can promote cardiomyocyte
      apoptosis and cardiac hypertrophy. TGFbeta signaling involves its binding to
      TGFbeta receptor type II (TGFbetaRII), which recruits TGFbeta receptor type I
      (TGFbetaRI), which are also known as activin receptor-like kinase (ALK) in five
      different isoforms. In canonical signaling pathways, ALK5 activates Smads 2 and
      3, and ALK1 activates Smads 1 and 5. These pairs of Smads form a corresponding
      complex and then bind to Smad 4, to translocate into the nucleus, where
      transcriptional reprogramming is carried out to promote myofibroblast formation
      and ECM production, eventually leading to cardiac fibrosis. TGFbeta levels are
      elevated in MI, thereby aggravating the myocardial injury further. Several
      microRNAs are involved in the regulation of TGFbeta signaling at different steps,
      affecting different components. Therapeutic targeting of TGFbeta signaling at
      ALK1-5 receptor activity level has met with limited success and extensive
      research is needed to develop therapies based on the components of TGFbeta
      signaling pathway, for instance cardiac dysfunction and heart failure.

PMID- 28565817
TI  - Medical perspective in testicular ischemia-reperfusion injury.
AB  - Testicular torsion or torsion of the spermatic cord is one of the most serious
      urological conditions. It causes testicular injury, which potentially leads to
      male subfertility. The turning of the spermatic cord and spermatic structures
      around themselves results in biochemical and histological changes; however,
      following testicular detorsion, tissues undergo reperfusion that causes more
      severe damage than that induced by ischemia. Since the primary causes of
      testicular damage are reactive oxygen species production, an increase in intra
      mitochondrial calcium concentration and an increased rate of cellular apoptosis,
      different medications may potentially be effective. It seems that several
      medications, experimentally and sometimes clinically, serve an adjuvant role in
      the cellular damage that occurs following ischemia-reperfusion. Antioxidants,
      calcium channel blockers, phytotherapeutical medicinals, anaesthetics, hormones
      and platelet inhibitors may potentially create a solid basis for an adjuvant
      restoring therapy and ameliorate testicular function following torsion. The
      current study aimed to review the relevant literature and discuss the actions of
      a number of molecules that may protect the testes during ischemia/reperfusion
      injury.

PMID- 28565819
TI  - Genetic basis of pediatric epilepsy syndromes.
AB  - Childhood epilepsy affects ~0.5-1% in the general population worldwide. Early
      onset epileptic encephalopathies are considered to be severe neurological
      disorders, which lead to impaired motor, cognitive, and sensory development due
      to recurrence of seizures. Many of the observed epilepsy phenotypes are
      associated with specific chromosomal imbalances and thus display gene dosage
      effects, and also specific mutations of a variety of genes ranging from ion
      channels to transcription factors. High throughput sequencing technologies and
      whole exome sequencing have led to the recognition of several new candidate genes
      with a possible role in the pathogenesis of epileptic encephalopathies. The
      mutations causing channelopathies can be either a gain or a loss of ion channel
      function and contribute to the pathogenesis of epilepsy syndrome. Nearly 300
      mutations of SCN1A gene coding for the Nav1.1 channel protein have been
      identified that contribute to the pathology of epilepsy. Besides Na, potassium
      and calcium channels are also implicated in epileptic encephalopathies.
      Therapeutic management of epileptic encephalopathies has been challenging as the
      majority of the medications are not efficient and often have many undesirable
      side effects. A better understanding of the molecular nature of epilepsy in an
      individual is important to design a personalized medication, considering the
      number of possible genetic mutations that can contribute to epileptic
      encephalopathies.

PMID- 28565820
TI  - Beneficial effects of Jiawei Shenqi-wan and treadmill training on deficits
      associated with neonatal hypoxic-ischemia in rats.
AB  - Jiawei Shenqi-wan (JSQW), which comprises Shenqi-wan and two additional medicinal
      herbs, has been widely used for the treatment of various growth impairments,
      including cerebral palsy. In the present study, JSQW was administered to hypoxic
      ischemic Sprague-Dawley rats that underwent treadmill training from 4-7 weeks of
      age to examine the beneficial effects of combined JSQW and treadmill therapy.
      Behavioral examinations were performed and a significant improvement in cylinder
      test performance was observed in rats treated with treadmill training compared
      with hypoxic-ischemia rats (P<0.05), as well as a significant improvement in
      passive avoidance test performance for rats treated with JSQW (P<0.05). The
      thickness of the corpus callosum and the integrated optical density (IOD) of
      myelin basic protein (MBP) were significantly increased by treatment with
      treadmill therapy alone (P<0.01 and P<0.001, respectively) and treatment with
      both JSQW and treadmill significantly increased the IOD of MBP compared with
      hypoxic-ischemia rats (P<0.001). Western blot analysis revealed that the
      expression of neuronal nuclei (NeuN) and doublecortin (Dcx) significantly
      decreased (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively) and MBP expression markedly
      decreased in the ipsilateral subventricular zone of hypoxic-ischemic rats
      compared with the control group; however, the expression of NeuN was
      significantly recovered by treatment with both JSQW and treadmill training
      (P<0.05). Furthermore, Dcx expression was significantly recovered by treatment
      with JSQW (P<0.05), and MBP expression was significantly restored by treatment
      with treadmill training (P<0.01). In the immunohistochemical analyses, a
      significant increase in the number of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) positive cells in
      this region was observed in treadmill-treated rats (P<0.05), whereas significant
      increases in the number of Brdu/Dcx or NeuN or glial fibrillary acidic protein
      double-positive cells were observed only in the group co-treated with JSQW and
      treadmill (P<0.01, P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively). These results suggest that
      JSQW and treadmill training may contribute to behavior recovery following hypoxic
      ischemia, and JSQW treatment was particularly effective in promoting memory
      function via enhancing the differentiation of neuronal progenitor cells. The
      results of the present study therefore suggest that JSQW may provide an
      additional treatment option for functional recovery with treadmill training in
      cerebral palsy.

PMID- 28565821
TI  - Berberis vulgaris extract/beta-cyclodextrin complex increases protection of
      hepatic cells via suppression of apoptosis and lipogenesis pathways.
AB  - Berberis vulgaris (Bv) is well known worldwide for its healing properties.
      However, limited information is available concerning its mechanism of action and
      the increased hepatoprotective activity of formulated extracts. This study
      evaluated the protective effect of Bv bark extract against CCl4-induced
      cytotoxicity in Huh7 cells, as well whether beta-cyclodextrin complexation of the
      extract resulted in increased hepatoprotective effects. Huh7 cells were incubated
      for 48 h with 5, 7.5 and 10 ug/ml of unformulated or formulated Bv extract alone
      and in co-treatment with CCl4. The effects on Huh7 cell growth and apoptosis were
      evaluated by MTT assay, caspase-3/7 activity and caspase-3 expression, whereas
      fatty acid changes were investigated by Oil red O staining and the detection of
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) expression using
      immunofluorescence. Ultrastructural alterations were observed by electron
      microscopy. The MTT assay showed that co-exposure to CCl4 and 7.5 ug/ml
      formulated extract led to a 1.25-fold increase in cell viability compared with
      the non-formulated extract. Caspase-3/7 activity decreased by 50% and 70%
      following co-treatment with unformulated or formulated extract, compared with
      that in cells treated with CCl4 alone. Furthermore, hepatocyte ultrastructure was
      protected from CCl4-induced injury in the two co-treated groups, intracytoplasmic
      lipid accumulation decreased significantly and PPARgamma expression was restored,
      in comparison with CCl4-treated cells alone. Formulated and unformulated extracts
      were efficient against the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic actions of CCl4
      through suppression of CCl4-induced caspase-3 activation and lipid accumulation.
      The protective effect of the formulated extract was more pronounced than that of
      the unformulated one, which may be due to its increased solubility.

PMID- 28565823
TI  - Corticosterone suppresses IL-1beta-induced mPGE2 expression through regulation of
      the 11beta-HSD1 bioactivity of synovial fibroblasts in vitro.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between
      glucocorticoid activity regulation, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis, and
      synovial inflammation inhibition activity, through microsomal prostaglandin E
      synthase-1 (mPGES-1) expression regulated by the glucocorticoid pre-receptor
      regulator, 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1 (11beta-HSD1). In the present
      study, fibroblast-like synovial cells of rats were studied as a cell model. Cells
      were stimulated with 10 ng/ml interleukin (IL)-1beta for 24 h, and were
      subsequently, within the next 24 h, treated with or without 10-6 mmol/l
      corticosterone alone or with 100 nmol/l PF915275. At the end of the second 24 h,
      PGE2 levels in culture supernatants were assayed. Cells were harvested for mRNA
      evaluation of 11beta-HSD1, mPGES-1, IL-1beta and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)
      alpha, and protein detection of 11beta-HSD1 and mPGES-1 using reverse
      transcription-qualitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis,
      respectively. Corticosterone was demonstrated to suppress the mRNA expression
      levels of inflammatory factors, such as TNF-alpha and PGE2, induced by IL-1beta
      in vitro. Simultaneously, expression levels of 11beta-HSD1 decreased
      significantly at the mRNA and protein levels (P<0.05). Cortisol concentration in
      the medium of the group treated with corticosterone was significantly increased
      (P<0.05) compared with that of the control group; however, the cortisol
      concentration was decreased in the medium when the conversion bioactivity of
      11beta-HSD1 was inhibited by PF915275, while the changes in 11beta-HSD1 and mPGES
      1 mRNA expression levels and PGE2 content were reversed in the medium. These
      results indicated that a significant positive correlation (P<0.01) may exist
      between mRNA and protein expression levels. To conclude, 11beta-HSD1 is a key
      regulator for the synthesis of mPGES-1 and PGE2 in the inflammatory synovial
      cells in vitro, suggesting a potential interference target for osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28565822
TI  - Molecular and cellular impact of Psoriasin (S100A7) on the healing of human
      wounds.
AB  - Psoriasin, which is also known as S100A7, is a member of the S100 protein family,
      a group of calcium-responsive signalling proteins. Psoriasin expression remains
      high in patients with psoriasis, whereas it is downregulated in patients with
      invasive breast carcinoma. This observation suggests that this protein may be a
      notable marker of keratinocyte function and differentiation during wound healing.
      The aim of the present study was to determine the cellular impact of Psoriasin in
      keratinocytes, which are the primary cell type associated with wound healing.
      Psoriasin expression in wound tissues was examined using reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunochemical staining. Knockdown of
      Psoriasin in HaCaT cells was performed using anti-Psoriasin ribozyme transgenes
      and the effect on growth, adhesion and migration of keratinocytes was
      subsequently determined using in vitro cellular functional assays. Psoriasin
      expression is upregulated in wounds, particularly at the wound edges. The present
      study demonstrated that Psoriasin is expressed in keratinocytes and is a
      fundamental regulator of keratinocyte migration. Significant increases in the
      rate of keratinocyte adhesion, migration and growth were observed in Psoriasin
      deficient cells (P<0.01 vs. control). Application of small inhibitors identified
      the potential association of neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein, focal
      adhesion primase and rho-associated protein kinase signalling pathways with
      Psoriasin-regulated cell adhesion and motility. In conclusion, Psoriasin serves
      an important role in the wound healing process, suggesting that it may be
      utilized as a potential wound healing biomarker.

PMID- 28565824
TI  - Roscovitine protects murine Leydig cells from lipopolysaccharide-induced
      inflammation.
AB  - Roscovitine is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, which has been previously
      investigated for its anticancer effects. It has also been confirmed that
      roscovitine can downregulate the expression of myeloid cell leukemia-1 protein to
      inhibit inflammation. In the present study, roscovitine was used to treat
      inflammation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced model mice. At the cellular
      level, Leydig cells isolated from mouse testis were assessed for inflammatory
      factors. It was revealed that roscovitine successfully reduced inflammation
      associated injury induced by LPS pretreatment. At the molecular level,
      roscovitine was found to exert this effect through promotion of adenosine
      monophosphate-activated protein kinase phosphorylation. To the best of our
      knowledge, the present study was the first to suggest that roscovitine has a
      protective role in Leydig cells through its anti-inflammatory action.

PMID- 28565825
TI  - A comparison of adeB gene expression levels under conditions of induced
      resistance by different drugs in vitro in Acinetobacter baumannii.
AB  - The present study was designed to analyze the difference of the adeB gene
      expression levels under conditions of induced resistance and to verify the
      significance of the AdeABC efflux pump in the in vitro induction of Acinetobacter
      baumannii (A. baumannii). Strains were isolated from blood or drainage samples in
      the First Hospital of China Medical University. The minimum inhibitory
      concentration (MIC) was determined by a broth microdilution method. In addition,
      an in vitro induction of drug-resistance tests was confirmed with the three
      drugs. The expression level of the adeB was determined by quantitative polymerase
      chain reaction (qPCR), and there were 19, 17 and 25 strains isolated from this
      test that were susceptible to amikacin, netilmicin and imipenem, respectively.
      Furthermore, 11, 15 and 8 stably resistant strains generated against amikacin,
      netilmicin and imipenem, respectively, by in vitro induction. The MIC values of
      all the imipenem-sensitive and imipenem-resistant strains decreased by no more
      than 2-fold under carbonyl cyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP)-containing
      conditions. The MIC values of 10 amikacin-resistant and 14 netilmicin-resistant
      strains decreased 4-fold or more under CCCP-containing conditions. Furthermore,
      qPCR revealed that none of the imipenem-sensitive or the imipenem-resistant
      strains expressed the adeB gene, but there were 10 amikacin-resistant and 5
      netilmicin-resistant strains that expressed the adeB gene. In conclusion, the
      present study confirmed that in vitro induction of drug-resistance tests in
      sensitive A. baumannii strains could produce drug-resistance following long-term
      exposure to low doses of antibacterial drugs. In addition, amikacin and
      netilmicin are more prone to producing drug-resistance compared to imipenem in
      vitro. The results of the efflux phenotype indicate the possible application of
      CCCP in the inhibition of the efflux system in some drugs. The inconsistency
      between efflux phenotype and qPCR of adeB indicates that other mechanisms may
      also be included in the induction of drug-resistance that work with the active
      mechanism in order to increase drug resistance to common clinically-used
      antimicrobial drugs.

PMID- 28565826
TI  - Transcriptional profiling of leukocytes from rheumatoid arthritis patients before
      and after anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy: A comparison of anti-nuclear
      antibody positive and negative subsets.
AB  - Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs) may be induced in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) receiving anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy with TNF
      inhibitors (TNFi), etanercept, infliximab or adalimumab. In the present study, 11
      patients who were TNFi drug naive were started on TNFi at a time of high disease
      activity. Of these, all cases were positive for rheumatoid factor and 9 cases
      tested were positive for anti-citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies prior
      to TNFi treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and serum were
      collected from all patients before and after TNFi therapy. Serum was assayed for
      ANAs over time. Total cellular RNA was extracted from PBMCs and assessed using
      Illumina arrays. Gene expression profiles were examined for alterations in key
      effector pathways. After 3 or more months on TNFi, 6 patients converted to ANA
      positivity. Analysis of transcripts from patients with RA who converted to ANA
      positivity after 3 months on TNFi identified complex gene expression profiles
      that reflected a reduction in cell adhesion, cell stress and lipid metabolism
      transcripts. In summary, unique transcriptional profiles in PBMCs from patients
      with RA were observed after TNFi therapy. This pilot study suggests that
      transcriptional profiling is a precise method of measuring the impact of TNFi
      therapies and reveals novel pathways that likely influence the immune response.

PMID- 28565828
TI  - Effect of sacral slope on the biomechanical behavior of the low lumbar spine.
AB  - The present study investigated the influence of sacral slope (SS) on the
      biomechanical responses of the lumbar spine under specific physiological
      conditions. Firstly, based on computed tomography scan images of a 30-year-old
      healthy male volunteer (SS, 55 degrees ), a three-dimensional finite element (FE)
      model including the L4-S1 segment was established. Flexion, extension, lateral
      bending and torsion motions were simulated and compared with cadaveric test data
      in the literature to validate the lumbar spine FE model. The model was then
      modified with different SS values (40 and 25 degrees ) for the same simulations
      to describe the process of structural compensation. Numerical results showed that
      with the reduction of SS, the range of motions (ROMs) reduced for flexion and
      lateral bending, but increased for extension and torsion. For displacement, the
      maximum magnitudes of L4/5 annulus fibrosus (AF) reduced by 10-25% in flexion,
      lateral bending and torsion, but less effect was observed for extension with only
      a 4% drop. Nearly the same displacement distribution appeared on the L5/S1 AF
      with small changes in the four motions. For the stress field of L4/5 AF, in
      contrast to flexion, the magnitudes for extension and lateral bending varied
      markedly, and under torsion the value increased by ~10%. For L5/S1 AF, the
      stresses changed little under flexion, extension and lateral bending, but
      strongly declined for torsion by ~71.8%. In conclusion, the present study
      indicates that the change in SS due to structural compensation affects the
      biomechanical behavior of the spine structure, and attention should be paid to SS
      when conducting surgical procedures or selecting intervertebral fusion implants.

PMID- 28565827
TI  - Neuroprotective effect of combining tanshinone IIA with low-dose
      methylprednisolone following acute spinal cord injury in rats.
AB  - The present study compared the potential neuroprotective effect of tanshinone IIA
      (TIIA) monotherapy, methylprednisolone (MP) monotherapy and combined treatment in
      an adult acute spinal cord injury (ASCI) rat model. The current study used the
      weight-drop method (Allen's Impactor) in the rat model and the mechanical scratch
      method in primary spinal cord neuron culture to determine whether the combined
      treatment was able to reduce the required dosage of MP in the treatment of ASCI
      to produce a similar or improved therapeutic effect. In vivo male Sprague Dawley
      rats (n=60) were randomly divided into 5 groups, of which 12 rats were selected
      for the sham group and T9-T11 laminectomies, leading to ASCI, were performed on
      48 of the 60 rats using a 10 g *25 mm weight-drop at the level of T10 spinal
      cord. Therefore, the ASCI group (n=12) included the 'laminectomy and weight
      drop'. The remaining 36 ASCI model animals were subdivided into 3 groups (n=12
      each group): TIIA group (30 mg/kg/day), MP group (30 mg/kg) and combined
      treatment group (TIIA 30 mg/kg/day + MP 20 mg/kg). Neuronal function following
      ASCI was evaluated using the Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating
      scale. Levels of the anti-apoptotic factor B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), the pro
      apoptotic factors Bcl-2 associated protein X (Bax) and caspase-3, and the
      inflammatory associated factor nuclear factor-kappaB, were analyzed by western
      blot analysis. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect caspase-3. To investigate
      the underlying mechanism, the anti-oxidative effect of combination TIIA and MP
      treatment was assessed by measuring the activity of malondialdehyde (MDA) and
      superoxide dismutase (SOD) in ASCI. In agreement with the experiment in vivo,
      primary neurons were prepared from the spinal cord of one-day-old Sprague-Dawley
      rats' and co-cultured with astrocytes from the brain cortex. The injury of
      neurons was induced by mechanical scratch and levels of apoptosis factors were
      analyzed by western blot analysis. The results of the current study indicated
      that injured animals in the combined treatment group exhibited a significant
      increase in BBB scores (P<0.05). TIIA + MP combined treatment and MP treatment
      was observed to reduce the expression of pro-apoptotic factors and promote neuron
      survival in vivo and in vitro. Combined treatment may promote neuroprotection
      through reduced apoptosis and inflammation caused by ASCI, similar to MP alone.
      Combined treatment reversed the decrease of SOD and the increase of MDA level
      caused by ASCI. In addition, combined treatment decreased the expression of
      caspase-3 in the neurons following ASCI in rats, as indicated by
      immunofluorescence double labeling. Overall, the present study indicates that the
      combined treatment of TIIA and MP may protect the neurons by stimulating the
      rapid initiation of neuroprotection following ASCI and reduce the dosage of MP in
      the treatment of ASCI required to produce the same or improved neuroprotective
      effects in vivo and in vitro.

PMID- 28565829
TI  - Effects of negative-pressure wound therapy combinedwith microplasma on treating
      wounds of ulcer and the expression of heat shock protein 90.
AB  - The effects of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) combined with microplasma
      on treating wounds of ulcer, and blood perfusion of wound-healing of interface,
      angiogenesis and the expressions of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) were explored.
      We selected continuously 64 patients with wounds of ulcer. The patients were
      divided into the conventional treatment group (just medical foam dressing and 1%
      silver sulfadiazine cream for dressing changes) (n=20 cases), the NPWT group
      (n=22 cases) and the combination group (NPWT combined with microplasma) (n=22
      cases), and compared the effects. It was found that in the 7 and 14 day
      combination group, maturity of granulation tissues and growth degree of
      epithelium were significantly higher than those in other two groups, and the
      areas of ulcer reduced significantly, the healing rate increased significantly
      (P<0.05). In the 7 and 14 day combination group, blood perfusion of wounds and
      density of new vessels were significantly higher than the other two groups
      (P<0.05). In the 7 and 14 day combination group, the expression of HSP90 was
      significantly higher than the other two groups (P<0.05). In conclusion, NPWT
      combined with microplasma can improve the healing of woulds of ulcers, and it is
      related to the upregulated expression of HSP90.

PMID- 28565830
TI  - Correlation between PKB/Akt, GSK-3beta expression and tubular epithelial
      mesenchymal transition in renal allografts with chronic active antibody-mediated
      rejection.
AB  - Chronic antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) is a major cause of the transplant
      renal interstitial fibrosis and transplanted kidney epithelial cell
      transdifferentiation is one of the main mechanisms. The transforming growth
      factor (TGF)-beta1/integrin-linked kinase (ILK) signaling pathway has a
      significant role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular
      epithelial cells; however, the molecular mechanisms of this process have remained
      elusive. The present study confirmed that Akt and glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)
      3beta, as TGF-beta1 downstream signaling factors, are involved in fibrotic
      processes caused by kidney disease, which, however, has been rarely reported in
      the kidney transplant field. Based on the Banff 2009 standard, transplanted
      kidney specimens were classified according to the fibrosis level. The results
      showed that with the reduction of the interstitial fibrosis level, E-cadherin
      expression was gradually reduced, while alpha-smooth muscle actin expression
      progressively increased. The expression of Akt and GSK-3beta in normal human
      kidney tissue was not obvious but showed a marked increase with the aggravation
      of the interstitial fibrosis level, which confirmed the occurrence of EMT during
      the fibrosis process, and that phosphorylated (p)-Akt and GSK-3beta have an
      important role in the EMT process in the transplanted kidney. A correlation
      analysis of p-Akt, GSK-3beta, TGF-beta1 and ILK suggested that overexpression of
      p-Akt and GSK-3beta may induce and mediate the transdifferentiation of renal
      tubular epithelial cells to myofibroblasts and that this proceeds via
      TGFbeta1/ILK signaling pathways.

PMID- 28565831
TI  - Clinical characteristics and epilepsy outcomes following surgery caused by focal
      cortical dysplasia (type IIa) in 110 adult epileptic patients.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of surgical
      intervention of focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) IIa on the outcome of epilepsy,
      and to evaluate the prognostic factors of seizure freedom. Patient data from
      epilepsy surgeries were retrospectively reviewed at the Second Affiliated
      Hospital of Dalian Medical University between 2007 and 2015. A total of 110
      patients with a definite pathological diagnosis of FCD IIa were included.
      Moreover, the clinical characteristics, seizure outcome and quality of life in
      adults with FCD IIa were evaluated. The Engel seizure outcome achievements were
      class I in 72, class II in 20, class III in 11 and class IV in 7 patients. In
      addition, the Engel seizure outcome was relevant with the resection range of the
      lesions (P=0.028). The assessments of electrocorticography (ECoG) patterns and
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are relevant to determining the extent of the
      resection, which may influence the surgery outcome (P=0.001 and P=0.023). Using
      multivariate regression analyses, the extent of resection, seizure frequency,
      preoperative ECoG and location of resection were the most important risk factors
      for seizure recurrence. The results of quality of life in epilepsy-10 scoring
      revealed that the quality of life improved significantly following surgery
      (P<0.01). Moreover, surgical intervention, EcoG, MRI positioning and complete
      resection helped to have improved seizure control, relief of anxiety and quality
      of life. All these observations strongly recommend an early consideration of
      epilepsy surgery in FCD IIa patients.

PMID- 28565832
TI  - Leptin is overexpressed in the tumor microenvironment of obese patients with
      estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the potential role of leptin in the
      progression of breast cancer and the associated cell proliferation signalling
      pathway(s). A total of 44 female patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 24
      healthy donors from Ain Shams University Hospitals (Cairo, Egypt) were enrolled
      in the present study. The present study assessed leptin expression in breast
      cancer tissues at the gene and protein level using reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunohistochemistry. The
      results demonstrate that the expression of leptin was significantly higher in
      tissue of breast cancer samples from obese patients than overweight and control
      samples (P<0.001). ELISA results indicated a significant increase (P<0.001) of
      leptin expression in obese patients. To investigate whether there is any
      difference in leptin expression between the peripheral and tumor microenvironment
      blood of patients with breast cancer, the concentration of leptin was assessed in
      plasma from both using ELISA assays. The results demonstrated a statistically
      significant increase in the level of leptin in plasma samples from the tumor
      microenvironment of obese patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast
      cancer, compared with peripheral plasma samples. Furthermore, the leptin gene was
      overexpressed in obese ER+ breast cancer tissue. RT-qPCR was also performed to
      assess the expression of genes involved in proliferation pathways including
      leptin receptor (LEPR), aromatase, mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and
      signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3). A positive
      association between leptin expression, LEPR, aromatase, MAPK and STAT3 was
      detected in tissue samples of patients with breast cancer. The current study
      concluded that leptin may enhance breast cancer progression by inducing the
      expression of JAK/STAT3, ERK1/2 and estrogen pathways in obese patients breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28565833
TI  - High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treating moderate
      traumatic brain injury in rats: A pilot study.
AB  - Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a method of noninvasive brain
      stimulation that causes neuromodulation by activating neurons or changing
      excitability in a certain brain area. Considering the known effects of TMS and
      the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI), TMS was proposed to have
      potential for treating this condition. Moderate TBI was induced in adult male
      Sprague Dawley rats using Feeney's weight-dropping method. Injured rats were
      divided into a TMS group and a control group. Repetitive TMS (rTMS) was
      administered to rats in the TMS group from post-TBI day 2. At post-TBI days 7, 14
      and 28, three or four of the rats were sacrificed, and harvested brains were
      embedded in paraffin and sectioned. Sections were then treated with hematoxylin
      and eosin and immunohistochemical staining. Three rats from each group underwent
      fludeoxyglucose F 18 micro-positron emission tomography scanning on post-TBI day
      2 and 13. The unexpected mortality rate after injury was lower in the TMS group
      than in the control group. The modified neurological severity score of the TMS
      group was lower compared with the control group at post-TBI day 14. According to
      the results of hematoxylin eosin staining, relative cerebral parenchyma loss was
      lower at post-TBI day 28 in the TMS group compared with the control group.
      However, the aforementioned differences were not found to be statistically
      significant. There was also no significant difference in glucose metabolism
      between the two groups. According to immunohistochemical staining, the TMS group
      showed a significantly higher level of proliferation (indicated by
      bromodeoxyuridine) in the subventricular zone, as compared with the control group
      (P<0.05). A significantly higher rate of neuron survival at day 28 (P<0.05;
      indicated by NeuN) and a significantly reduced rate of apoptosis at days 7 and 14
      (P<0.05; indicated by caspase-3) were observed in the perilesional zone of the
      TMS group, as compared with the control group. The current findings suggest that
      high-frequency rTMS may promote neurogenesis and provide a basis for further
      studies in this area.

PMID- 28565834
TI  - Intravenous infusion umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell in primary
      immune thrombocytopenia: A two-year follow-up.
AB  - Four patients with chronic refractory immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)
      received human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs). The hUC
      MSC dose was 5*107 to 1*108. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in three
      patients in 12 months and one patient in 24 months. Three patients received the
      second hUC-MSC transplantation with the same dose. The median time between hUC
      MSC transplantation and response was 12.5 days (range, 7-16). There were no
      severe adverse events during and post hUC-MSC transplantation. During follow-up
      (median, 17 months; range, 13-24) no other immunosuppressive drugs were used post
      first hUC-MSCs transplantation. In conclusion, hUC-MSC transplantation is a
      reasonable salvage treatment in chronic refractory ITP. Prospective randomized
      large-scale clinical trials are needed to further elucidate the efficacy of hUC
      MSCs transplantation therapy on ITP.

PMID- 28565835
TI  - Intervention treatment on massive hemoptysis of pulmonary aspergilloma.
AB  - Retrospective analysis was carried out on intervention treatment and the effects
      of massive hemoptysis of pulmonary aspergilloma. Twenty-five cases diagnosed as
      massive hemoptysis of pulmonary aspergilloma were performed with imaging of
      bronchial arteries and other related blood vessels in order to assess blood
      vessel type and the number involved in the disease and perform embolotherapy on
      the offending artery. There were 68 bleeding arteries in 25 cases, of which there
      were 36 bronchial arteries (52.94%), 15 intercostal arteries (22.06%), 9 internal
      thoracic arteries (16.17%), 5 inferior phrenic arteries (7.35%), and 3 pulmonary
      arterial branches (4.41%) and all of them were in embolism condition. For 25
      cases, 21 bleeding cases were stopped immediately (84.00%), 3 bleeding cases were
      stopped after the 2nd embolism, and 1 case had a small amount of hemoptysis after
      surgery discontinuously, which was stopped after corresponding treatment with no
      severe complications. Ten cases used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particulate
      embolization solely, 12 cases used PVA with spring coil and 3 cases used PVA,
      spring coil and N-butyl cyanoacrylate (NBCA) glue. In conclusion, patients who
      suffer from massive hemoptysis of pulmonary aspergilloma and whose medical
      treatments are not effective and who are not willing to receive surgical removal,
      intervention treatment is an effective method. PVA, spring coil and NBCA glue can
      be effectively used in hemoptysis embolism and pulmonary artery embolism can be
      considered when systemic embolism is not effective.

PMID- 28565836
TI  - The immune mechanism of intestinal tract Toll-like receptor in mediating EV71
      virus type severe hand-foot-and-mouth disease and the MAPK pathway.
AB  - Immunological response is thought to play a crucial role in the development of a
      severe hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) infection in children, but the
      mechanisms remain largely unknown. This study was designed to help in elucidating
      the immunopathological pathways involved in the disease by quantifying Toll-like
      receptor (TLR) mRNAs, MAPK factors and cytokine levels in children experiencing
      the disease. A total of 86 enterovirus 71 (EV71)-infected HFMD children (49 with
      mild and 27 with severe disease), along with 30 healthy children were involved in
      the study. Peripheral vein blood samples were collected from each individual, and
      used to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) for mRNA extraction
      and sera for measuring levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interferon
      (IFN)-gamma, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10. The average expression levels of TLR3,
      TLR4, TLR7 and TLR8 mRNA in PBMCs of children with severe HFMD were significantly
      higher than those in the other children, the lowest values were found in the
      healthy control group (P<0.05). The expression levels of TLR2 and TLR9 mRNA were
      not significantly different (P>0.05) among the groups. Additionally, the
      expression levels of TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-6 and IL-10 in the serum of the
      children in the severe group were significantly higher than those in the other
      two groups, and the lowest values were again found in the control group (P<0.05).
      Pearson correlation analysis showed that the TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR8 mRNA
      levels in PBMCs were positively correlated with the TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-6
      and IL-10 levels in the serum (P<0.05). Furthermore, the expression levels of the
      ERK, JNK and p38 mRNA in PBMCs of children in the severe group were significantly
      higher than those in the other two groups, with the lowest values being in the
      control group (P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the TLR3, TLR4,
      TLR7 and TLR8 mRNA levels in PBMCs were positively correlated with ERK, JNK and
      p38 mRNA levels (P<0.05). The results of our study seem to indicate that the high
      expression levels of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR8 induced in severe EV71 HFMD
      regulate the expression of cytokines by MAPK signaling pathway and negatively
      affect the ability of the organism to resolve the infection. Further studies are
      needed to test the hypothesis that immuno-modulation would be an effective
      treatment approach in pediatric cases of severe HFMD.

PMID- 28565837
TI  - Artesunate influences Th17/Treg lymphocyte balance by modulating Treg apoptosis
      and Th17 proliferation in a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - CD4+ regulatory T (Treg) cells and T-helper 17 (Th17) cells have been shown to
      have important roles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In our previous study, it was
      demonstrated that artesunate was able to alter the Treg/Th17 ratio in patients
      with RA; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The present study
      established a male Sprague Dawley (SD) rat model of type II collagen-induced
      arthritis (CIA). SD rats were divided into normal control, CIA model and
      artesunate-treated (5, 10 or 20 mg/kg/day) groups. Treg and Th17 cells were
      detected in the synovium by immunohistochemical analysis of forkhead/winged helix
      transcription factor (Foxp3) and interleukin (IL)-17 expression. Subsequently,
      lymphocytes were extracted from the rat spleens, and the proportions of Treg/Th17
      cells were detected by flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that the
      expression levels of Foxp3 were significantly decreased, and those of IL-17 were
      significantly increased, in the CIA model group, as compared with the normal
      control group. The results demonstrated that artesunate decreased the frequency
      of Th17 cells and increased the frequency of Treg cells in CIA rats in a dose
      dependent manner. In conclusion, the present study suggested that artesunate may
      regulate the Th17/Treg balance by inducing Th17-mediated apoptosis. Therefore,
      artesunate may be considered a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of
      patients with RA.

PMID- 28565838
TI  - HOTAIR is a promising novel biomarker in patients with thyroid cancer.
AB  - Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. Lack of effective
      early diagnostic tools is one of the clinical obstacles for TC treatment. Thus,
      enhanced comprehension of the molecular changes in TC tumorigenesis is urgently
      needed to develop novel strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of TC. Long
      non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) manage fundamental biochemical and cellular processes
      in tumorigenesis and development. One of the best-described lncRNAs, HOX
      transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR), functions as a regulatory molecule in a wide
      variety of biological processes, and represses gene expression through
      recruitment of the chromatin modifying complex. However, the function of HOTAIR
      in TC remains unclear. In the current study, the expression of HOTAIR is elevated
      in TC and correlates with metastasis and poor prognosis. Furthermore, the
      expression of HOTAIR is significantly upregulated in human thyroid carcinoma
      cells compared with normal human thyroid cells. Furthermore, knockdown of HOTAIR
      significantly inhibited cell growth and invasion in TPC-1 and SW579 human thyroid
      carcinoma. In summary, HOTAIR is a promising novel biomarker in patients with TC.

PMID- 28565839
TI  - miR-365 induces hepatocellular carcinoma cell apoptosis through targeting Bcl-2.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently ranked as the third leading cause of
      cancer-related mortality worldwide. microRNAs (miRs) serve important roles in the
      development and progression of HCC. miR-365 has been demonstrated to function as
      a tumor suppressor in several types of cancer, including HCC; however, the
      mechanisms by which miR-365 regulates HCC apoptosis remains to be elucidated. In
      the present study, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      was performed to determine miR-365 expression levels in HCC and normal liver
      (LO2) cells. miR-365 overexpression was induced in SMC7721 cells using a plasmid
      based system, and Cell Counting Kit-8 and TUNEL assays were performed to detect
      cell activity and apoptosis following miR-365 transfection. A luciferase assay
      was performed to determine the direct target of miR-365 in apoptosis regulation.
      Furthermore, a subcutaneously transplanted tumor model was established to
      evaluate the effects of miR-365 on tumor growth in vivo. The tumor tissue was
      used for further proliferation and apoptosis detection. The results of the
      present study indicated that miR-365 expression was significantly lower in HCC
      cells compared with LO2 cells (P<0.01). Transfection of SMC7721 cells with miR
      365 plasmid significantly inhibited cell activity by inducing apoptosis (P<0.01).
      Luciferase assay indicated that miR-365 targets B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)
      directly and therefore induces the downstream expression of pro-apoptotic
      proteins. The SMC7721 primary tumor growth was significantly reduced by miR-365
      transfection (P<0.01). Further investigation demonstrated that the miR-365 group
      contained significantly fewer cells that were positive for proliferating cell
      nuclear antigen (P<0.01) and significantly more apoptotic cells (P<0.01). In
      conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that miR-365 may serve
      a role in inducing HCC apoptosis via directly targeting Bcl-2. This may provide a
      novel diagnosis and therapy target for the treatment of patients with HCC.

PMID- 28565840
TI  - Overexpression of miR-155 in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma and its oncogenic
      effect through targeting FOXO3a.
AB  - MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) is overexpressed in numerous human cancer types and has an
      oncogenic role. Previous study has revealed that miR-155 serves an important role
      in the progression of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC); however, the
      underlying mechanism was not completely clarified. The present study aimed to
      investigate the biological role of miR-155 in ccRCC and the underlying molecular
      mechanisms. The expression of miR-155 in 20 ccRCC and adjacent normal kidney
      tissues was determined by PCR. After downregulation of miR-155 expression by miR
      155 inhibitor, cell growth was assessed by MTT and colony formation assays.
      Apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were analyzed by flow cytometry. Cell
      invasion and migration was detected by wound healing and Transwell assays.
      Furthermore, forkhead box O3a (FOXO3a) mRNA and protein expression were detected
      by PCR and immunoblotting. The expression of FOXO3a in 20 ccRCC tissues was also
      examined by immunohistochemistry. The expression of miR-155 was upregulated in
      ccRCC tissues compared to that in adjacent normal tissues. Inhibition of miR-155
      significantly suppressed the proliferation, colony formation, migration and
      invasion, and induced G1 arrest and apoptosis of ccRCC cells in vitro. Moreover,
      inhibition of miR-155 significantly upregulated FOXO3a expression, and miR-155
      expression was inversely correlated with FOXO3a expression in ccRCC tissues. In
      conclusion, miR-155 may have an important role in the genesis of ccRCC through
      targeting FOXO3a and may be a potential target for ccRCC therapy.

PMID- 28565841
TI  - Ultrasound combined with targeted cationic microbubble-mediated angiogenesis gene
      transfection improves ischemic heart function.
AB  - The present study aimed to construct targeted cationic microbubbles (TCMBs) by
      synthesizing cationic microbubbles conjugated to an intercellular adhesion
      molecule-1 (ICAM-1) antibody, and then to use the TCMBs to deliver the
      angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) gene into infarcted heart tissue using ultrasound-mediated
      microbubble destruction. It was hypothesized that the TCMBs would accumulate in
      higher numbers than non-targeted cationic microbubbles (CMBs) in the infarcted
      heart, and would therefore increase the efficiency of targeted Ang-1 gene
      transfection and promote angiogenesis. The results of the study demonstrated that
      the ability of TCMBs to target inflammatory endothelial cells was 18.4-fold
      higher than that of the CMBs in vitro. The accumulation of TCMBs was greater than
      that of CMBs in TNF-alpha-stimulated human umbilical cord veins, indicated by a
      212% higher acoustic intensity. In vivo, the TCMBs specifically accumulated in
      the myocardial infarct area in a rabbit model. Three days after ultrasound
      microbubble-mediated gene transfection, Ang-1 protein expression in the TCMB
      group was 2.7-fold higher than that of the CMB group. Angiogenesis, the thickness
      of the infarct region and the heart function of the TCMB group were all
      significantly improved compared with those in the CMB and control groups at 4
      weeks following gene transfection (all P<0.01). Therefore, the results of the
      current study demonstrate that ultrasound-mediated TCMB destruction effectively
      delivered the Ang-1 gene to the infarcted myocardium, resulting in improved
      cardiac morphology and function in the animal model. Ultrasound-mediated TCMB
      destruction is a promising strategy for improving gene therapy in the future.

PMID- 28565842
TI  - Detection of trisomies 13, 18 and 21 using non-invasive prenatal testing.
AB  - The clinical performance of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in the Down's
      syndrome screening based on 1,901 pregnant women in a Chinese hospital was
      investigated. This was a retrospective analysis of NIPT study in singleton
      pregnancy (n=1,901). The NIPT test is offered routinely as a prenatal screening
      test for common fetal aneuploidies, including trisomy 13 (T13), T18 and T21 to
      pregnant women with risk factors of one or more anomalies. Maternal peripheral
      blood (5 ml) was collected in an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) tube at a
      gestational age of 12+0 to 32+6 weeks. The samples were delivered at -80 degrees
      C to the certified Shenzhen BGI Clinical Laboratory Center. Sequencing data were
      analyzed using a proprietary algorithm. Women with positive NIPT results were
      recommended to receive karyotype analysis and amniotic fluid puncture for further
      validation. The cases were followed up for 56 days after delivery. All the
      patients underwent ultrasound examination, and the majority of patients (91.16%)
      showed normal findings. In contrast, 136 (7.15%) showed ultrasound anomalies. The
      most common anomaly was echogenic heart focus (n=80), accounting for 4.21% of the
      patients. Twenty-two cases were classified by the NIPT to be positive for the T21
      (n=15), T18 (n=5) and T13 (n=2), respectively, while the others (n=1,879) were
      classified to be NIPT negative cases. Among these cases, the fetal outcome data
      were obtained in 1,483 cases, while 396 were lost to follow-up. The majority of
      cases (75.47%) were normal at birth. Neonatal death was observed in 1 case. Five
      pregnant women decided termination of pregnancy despite the presence of NIPT
      negativity. In conclusion, NIPT technique is feasible for the prenatal screening
      of T18 and T21 with higher sensitivity and specificity compared with conventional
      methods.

PMID- 28565843
TI  - Inhibition of centrosomal protein 164 sensitizes rhabdomyosarcoma cells to
      radiotherapy.
AB  - Rhabdomyosarcoma is the second most common malignant tumor of the heart in
      infants and children and cannot often be resected completely. Chemotherapy and
      radiotherapy have a critical role in relieving symptoms and prolonging survival;
      therefore, enhancing the sensitivity of rhabdomyosarcoma to radiotherapy is an
      important area of investigation in order to improve the prognosis of patients. It
      has been reported that centrosomal protein 164 (CEP164) has a key role in the DNA
      damage-activated signaling cascade. CEP164 is often overexpressed in tumors and
      is associated with poor prognosis in various types of cancer. In the present
      study, the influence of CEP164 on the radiosensitivity of rhabdomyosarcoma cells
      was investigated. Results demonstrated that CEP164 is involved in the radiation
      induced cellular response. CEP164 is increased upon radiation and influences the
      cell cycle, cell viability and cell apoptosis. CEP164 depletion enhanced cellular
      sensitivity to radiation, promoted cell apoptosis, decreased cell viability and
      induced gap 2/mitosis arrest of the cell cycle. The present study identified the
      function of CEP164 in radiation resistance in rhabdomyosarcoma, providing a
      potential therapeutic target for rhabdomyosarcoma treatment by disrupting CEP164.

PMID- 28565845
TI  - Significance of new blood vessels in the pathogenesis of temporomandibular joint
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - We studied the significance of new blood vessels in the pathogenesis of
      temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJOA). Fifteen 8-week-old female Sprague
      Dawley rats were selected to establish TMJOA models of gradually induced occlusal
      disorders. Five rats were sacrificed at 4, 8 and 16 weeks, and histological exam
      was conducted along with micro-computed tomography observation on the condyle
      specimen. The distribution and number of new blood vessels breaking were observed
      through the tidemark through CD34 immunofluorescence staining. The proliferation
      of chondrocytes were detected through Ki67 immunohistochemical staining, and the
      differentiation functions of chondrocytes were observed through PTHrP and IHH
      immunohistochemical staining. The degradation functions of cartilage matrix were
      observed through matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 immunohistochemical staining to
      detect the expression of vascular growth promotion and inhibition factors with
      vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), CTGF and CHM-1 immunohistochemical
      staining and screen differentially expressed genes through gene chip analysis
      method. It was found that the condyle tissue full thickness, fiber layer
      thickness and calcified cartilage layer thickness were significantly increased
      with time (P<0.05). Bone mineral density, trabecular thickness and Tb.Sp were
      also increased significantly with time, BS/BV and trabecular number were
      decreased significantly with time (P<0.05). The new blood vessels reached the
      deep layer of calcified cartilage until the tide line was broken and non
      calcified cartilage was invaded. The number of vessels were increased
      significantly with time (P<0.05). Ki67, PTHrP and IHH-positive rates were
      increased significantly (P<0.05). MMP-9, VEGF, CTGF and CHM-1 were increased
      significantly (P<0.05). VEGF, CTGF and CHM-1 mRNA were upregulated differentially
      with the expressed genes. In conclusion, the new blood vessels may be important
      in the pathogenesis of TMJOA.

PMID- 28565844
TI  - Protective effects of choline against hypoxia-induced injuries of vessels and
      endothelial cells.
AB  - The current study aimed to lay a theoretical foundation for further development
      of choline as an anti-hypoxia damage drug. Wild-type, 3- to 5-month-old male
      Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 180-220 g, were used in this study. The rats were
      randomly divided into a normoxic control group (n=16) and a chronic intermittent
      hypoxia (CIH) group (n=16). The effects of CIH on acetylcholine (ACh)-mediated
      endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in the rat cerebral basilar arterioles and
      mesenteric arterioles, as well as the protective effects of choline on the
      arterioles damaged by hypoxia were observed. Moreover, the effects of choline on
      endothelial cell proliferation during hypoxia were observed, and choline's
      functional mechanism further explored. The ACh-mediated vasodilatation of rat
      cerebral basilar and mesenteric arterioles significantly reduced during hypoxia
      (P<0.01). Choline significantly increased dilation in the rat cerebral basilar
      (P<0.01) and mesenteric arterioles (P<0.05) damaged by CIH compared with those in
      the control group. In addition, under hypoxic conditions, choline significantly
      promoted the proliferation of rat aortic endothelial cells (P<0.05) and
      significantly reduced lactate dehydrogenase activity in the cell culture
      supernatant in vitro (P<0.05). Furthermore, the effect of choline could be
      related to its ability to significantly increase the secretion of vascular
      endothelial growth factor (P<0.01) and activation of alpha7 non-neuronal
      nicotinic acetylcholine receptors under hypoxia (P<0.01). This study demonstrated
      that choline could have protective effects against hypoxic injuries.

PMID- 28565846
TI  - Use of DNA microarray chips for the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential development of
      DNA microarray chips to detect rifampicin (RFP) and isoniazid (INH) resistance in
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), using samples from clinical tuberculosis (TB)
      patients in Soochow City, China. The sputum samples of 42 patients with TB in the
      Affiliated Hospital of Infectious Diseases of Soochow University (Soochow, China)
      were collected. The conventional Lowenstein-Jensen culture medium (Gold Standard)
      was used to assess drug sensitivity using the absolute concentration method.
      GeeDom MTB drug detection kits were also used to create a DNA microarray chip and
      examine the RFP-resistance associated gene mutation points rpoB-RRDR 511, 513,
      516, 526, 531 and 533, and the INH-resistance associated gene mutation points
      katG315 and inhA-15 of the sputum samples. Compared with the results from the
      absolute concentration method, the susceptibility and specificity of RFP
      sensitivity detected by the DNA microarray chip were 92.8 and 93.8%,
      respectively. The susceptibility and specificity of INH sensitivity detected were
      66.7 and 81%, respectively. The rpoB-RRDR 526, 531 mutations were the primary
      causes of MTB RFP resistance and the katG315 mutation was the primary cause of
      INH resistance. The detection of rpoB and katG gene mutation points by a DNA
      microarray chip may be used as a rapid, accurate and bulk clinical detection
      method for RFP and INH resistance in MTB. This is very valuable for the control
      of TB epidemics.

PMID- 28565847
TI  - Recombinant Bacille Calmette-Guerin coexpressing Ag85B-IFN-gamma enhances the
      cell-mediated immunity in C57BL/6 mice.
AB  - The only available vaccine against pulmonary tuberculosis is Bacille Calmette
      Guerin (BCG). As the efficacy reported of the vaccine is not up to the mark,
      there is an urgent need to develop improved anti-tuberculosis vaccines. Antigen
      85B (Ag85B) is a very promising vaccine candidate molecule of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis and interferon (IFN)-gamma and has been considered the most
      attractive correlate of protective immunity. The aim of this study was to
      construct a novel recombinant BCG (rBCG) to secrete Ag85B and mouse IFN-gamma
      under control of the Mycobacterial heat shock protein 60 (hsp60) promoter and the
      antigen signal sequence. Second aim of the present study is to evaluate the
      immune response in C57BL/6 elicted by the new rBCG. Expression of the fusion
      protein was readily detectable by western blotting and IFN-gamma bioactivity was
      detected indirectly by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Compared with
      BCG, rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma was substantially more active in inducing the
      production of IFN-gamma and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha from mouse
      splenocytes. ELISA analysis for IgG, IgG1 and IgG2c showed that rBCG::Ag85B-IFN
      gamma induced higher titer of Ag85B and facilitated Th1 type immune response.
      rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma also improved nitric oxide production levels and enhanced
      antigen-specific splenocyte proliferation. Moreover, rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma
      induced human monocytes such as THP-1 cells to enhance expression of CD80, CD86,
      CD40 and HLA-DR. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed that rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma
      significantly activated CD4+ T cells. Assessing combinations of IFN-gamma, TNF
      alpha and interleukin-2 at the single-cell level by multiparameter flow
      cytometry, we found that rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma improved the multifunctional T
      cells level in comparison to BCG. In conclusion, the present study indicates that
      rBCG::Ag85B-IFN-gamma increases cell mediated immune response and is a potential
      candidate vaccine for immunotherapeutic protocols against pulmonary tuberculosis.

PMID- 28565848
TI  - Autophagy activated by the c-Jun N-terminal kinase-mediated pathway protects
      human prostate cancer PC3 cells from celecoxib-induced apoptosis.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of autophagy in
      celecoxib-induced apoptosis in human hormone-insensitive prostate cancer cell
      line PC3 cells and to explore the underlying molecular mechanism leading to
      autophagic activation. A cell viability assay was applied to investigate the
      effect of various concentrations of celecoxib (0, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 umol/l)
      on PC3 cells for 24 and 48 h, respectively. The 50% inhibitory concentration of
      celecoxib for 24 h was chosen for subsequent experiments. Annexin V-fluorescein
      isothiocyanate/propidium iodide double staining flow cytometry, as well as
      caspase 3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase proteins detected by western blotting,
      were applied to analyze cellular apoptosis induced by celecoxib. Ultrastructural
      cellular changes observed by transmission electron microscopy and the level of LC
      3 II and P62 detected by western blotting were used to determine the activation
      of autophagy. It was demonstrated that celecoxib induced apoptosis and activated
      autophagy in PC3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, flow
      cytometry and western blotting were applied to elucidate whether the role of
      autophagy in celecoxib-induced apoptosis is protective or destructive. Blockade
      of autophagy markedly increased apoptosis, suggesting that celecoxib-activated
      autophagy was cytoprotective. Additionally, c-jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) was
      demonstrated to have a role in autophagic activation, and suppression of JNK was
      able to reduce autophagy and increase apoptosis. In conclusion, the results of
      the present study indicate that celecoxib induces apoptosis in PC3 cells;
      however, celecoxib also activates JNK-mediated autophagy, which exerts
      cytoprotective effects in prostate cancer PC3 cells. Blockade of autophagy via
      the JNK-mediated pathway may provide a promising strategy for prostate cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28565849
TI  - Myocardial protective effects of dexmedetomidine in patients undergoing cardiac
      surgery: A meta-analysis and systematic review.
AB  - Arrhythmias are the common complications following cardiac surgery and contribute
      to hemodynamic instability, cognitive impairment, thromboembolic events, and
      congestive heart failure. Prevention of atrial fibrillation following cardiac
      surgery reduces morbidity and among the many available preventive approaches
      dexmedetomidine shows many positive effects on cardiovascular stability. Even
      though many studies indicated the beneficial effects of dexmedetomidine, the
      power of the analysis and conclusion of these studies is rather weak due to
      relatively smaller number of patients in these studies. In the present meta
      analysis, we included a large number of patients, both children and adults,
      undergoing cardiac surgery, to address the efficacy of dexmedetomidine. Several
      databases were searched to identify clinical studies comparing the efficacy of
      dexmedetomidine in myocardial protection in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
      Cardiac function related parameters including heart rate, blood pressure,
      tachycardia, arrhthmias, and bradycardia were measured. In accordance with the
      selection criteria, a total of 18 studies published between 2003 and 2016, with a
      total of 19,225 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. Dosage of
      dexmedetomidine was in the range of 0.5-1 ug/kg body weight loading followed by
      continuous infusion at a rate of 0.2-0.7 ug/kg/h. Dexmedetomidine treatment was
      found to lower heart rate, systolic blood pressure, incidence of tachycardia and
      arrhythmias in both adult and pediatric patients, but elevated the risk of
      bradycardia. In conclusion, results of this meta-analysis indicate that
      dexmedetomidine is an efficacious cardioprotective drug in adults and children
      undergoing cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28565850
TI  - Metabolic acidosis as a risk factor for the development of acute kidney injury
      and hospital mortality.
AB  - Metabolic acidosis has been proved to be a risk factor for the progression of
      chronic kidney disease, but its relation to acute kidney injury (AKI) has not
      been investigated. In general, a diagnosis of metabolic acidosis is based on
      arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis, but the diagnostic role of carbon dioxide
      combining power (CO2CP) in the venous blood may also be valuable to non
      respiratory patients. This retrospective study included all adult non-respiratory
      patients admitted consecutively to our hospital between October 01, 2014 and
      September 30, 2015. A total of 71,089 non-respiratory patients were included, and
      only 4,873 patients were evaluated by ABG analysis at admission. In patients with
      ABG, acidosis, metabolic acidosis, decreased HCO3- and hypocapnia at admission
      was associated with the development of AKI, while acidosis and hypocapnia were
      independent predictors of hospital mortality. Among non-respiratory patients,
      decreased CO2CP at admission was an independent risk factor for AKI and hospital
      mortality. ROC curves indicated that CO2CP was a reasonable biomarker to exclude
      metabolic acidosis, dual and triple acid-base disturbances. The effect sizes of
      decreased CO2CP on AKI and hospital mortality varied according to age and
      different underlying diseases. Metabolic acidosis is an independent risk factor
      for the development of AKI and hospital mortality. In non-respiratory patient,
      decreased CO2CP is also an independent contributor to AKI and mortality and can
      be used as an indicator of metabolic acidosis.

PMID- 28565851
TI  - Pharmacological management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Atorvastatin
      versus pentoxifylline.
AB  - In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pentoxifylline and
      atorvastatin in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The
      study included 98 patients with histologically confirmed NAFLD divided into 2
      groups as follows: group I (57 dyslipidemic patients, receiving atorvastatin 20
      mg/day and group II (41 non-dyslipidemic patients, treated with pentoxifylline,
      800 mg/day). The present study was conducted for a mean of 32.8+/-3.4 weeks. For
      all patients, we determined the body mass index, a liver biopsy was performed,
      and we measured the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate
      aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase
      (ALP), total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) at the beginning and at the
      end of the study period. The NAFLD activity score (NAS) was used to evaluate the
      liver biopsies for steatosis, fibrosis and necroinflammation. The patients in
      group I exhibited a considerable reduction in ALT, AST, GGT, TC, AP and TG levels
      (P<0.0001). Histologically, there were no changes in fibrosis and
      necroinflammation, although the extent steatosis was reduced. The improvement in
      the ALT, AST and GGT values (P<0.05) in group II were similar to those in group
      I; however, no statistically significant decrease was noted in the levels of ALP,
      TC and TG in this group. Our results thus demonstrated that atorvastatin
      attenuated steatosis and improved liver function parameters in patients with
      NAFLD associated with dyslipidemia. Similar results were obtained in the non
      dyslipidemic patients administered pentoxifylline.

PMID- 28565852
TI  - Oxidation of human serum albumin exhibits inter-individual variability after an
      ultra-marathon mountain race.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the oxidation of human serum albumin (HSA)
      caused by oxidative stress following exhaustive and demanding exercise, such as
      an ultra-marathon race. For this purpose, blood samples from 12 adult runners who
      underwent a 103 km mountain ultra-marathon race were collected before the race,
      and also at 24, 48 and 72 h post-race. HSA was partially purified using affinity
      chromatography and consequently subjected to western blot analysis in order to
      determine the levels of disulfide dimers indicating oxidation. For reasons of
      comparison, the results were correlated with those from a previous study, in
      which the same samples were analyzed using different oxidative stress markers.
      The results revealed a good correlation between albumin dimers and protein
      carbonyls at all time points, while there was also a significant correlation with
      static oxidation reduction potential at 24 h, and a negative correlation with
      capacity oxidation reduction potential at 24 and 48 h. In addition, an individual
      analysis of albumin dimers exhibited great inter-individual differences,
      indicating the variation of HSA oxidation between different athletes. Namely, in
      some athletes, HSA seemed to be the main oxidation target of serum proteins,
      while in other athletes, there was even a reduction of HSA. This inter-individual
      variability in the oxidation of HSA may suggest that different interventions
      (e.g., through diet) may be required in order to confront the effects on athletes
      following strenuous exercise. On the whole, this study suggests the importance of
      the assessment of albumin dimers as a predictive marker for exercise-induced
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28565853
TI  - Comparison of acute phase protein and hemodynamic variables in dogs undergoing
      video-assisted thoracoscopic vs. open pneumonectomy.
AB  - It has been demonstrated that video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is
      feasible and safe in humans and animal models. The aim of the present study was
      to compare the surgical outcome using VATS with that of the standard
      transthoracic approach for pneumonectomy in dogs, to determine the acute-phase
      reaction in VATS pneumonectomy, and to analyze the difference between VATS and
      the standard transthoracic approach. A total of 14 dogs were divided into two
      groups (n=7); one group underwent VATS and the other group underwent a
      transthoracic pneumonectomy. Pre-, intra- and post-operative physiologic
      parameters were monitored, in addition to the blood cell count and serum acute
      phase protein (APP) concentrations. The APP and hemodynamic changes between the
      two approaches were analyzed. Mean surgical time in the VATS group (176.7 min)
      was significantly longer compared with the open group (132.4 min). All APP
      concentrations were significantly increased at day 1 postoperation and gradually
      decreased to preoperative concentrations. The serum concentration of C-reactive
      protein on day 3 and the white blood cell count on day 1 were significantly
      higher following surgery in the open group compared with the VATS group (P<0.05).
      No differences were observed in the physiological parameters between the two
      groups. Although VATS took longer, animals experienced smaller incision and less
      stress. Therefore, the VATS approach was satisfactory for total pneumonectomy.

PMID- 28565854
TI  - Effect of icariin on fracture healing in an ovariectomized rat model of
      osteoporosis.
AB  - Osteoporosis is frequently asymptomatic, presenting a significant clinical and
      economic burden, particularly following an osteoporosis-associated fracture.
      Icariin has been reported to inhibit osteoporosis in vitro, and the present study
      investigated whether icariin also promoted bone fracture healing in
      ovariectomized osteoporotic (OVX) rats in vivo. A total of 30 female rats were
      randomly divided into three groups (n=10 per group): i) Sham surgery; ii) OVX;
      and iii) OVX with icariin (OVX + ICA) groups. At 3 months after the ovariectomy,
      a unilateral cross-tibia fracture was made at the proximal right tibia. Animals
      were then sacrificed after 5 weeks of oral treatment. X-rays were taken at 1
      week, 3 weeks and 5 weeks of treatment, and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was
      used to measure the bone mineral density (BMD). Changes to the osteocalcin
      (BGLAP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)
      and estradiol levels in blood were measured. Callus formation and bone union were
      observed, the BMD was significantly higher and the BGLAP, ALP and TRAP levels
      were reduced, but no significant increase was observed in the blood estradiol
      level in the OVX + ICA group compared with the OVX group. The present findings
      indicate that icariin has potential as a novel alternative therapeutic agent for
      fracture healing in postmenopausal osteoporosis.

PMID- 28565855
TI  - Immunosuppressive effect of sinomenine in an allergic rhinitis mouse model.
AB  - Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a chronic allergic airway disease that has become a
      significant global public health issue. Sinomenine (SN), a natural phytochemical
      found in Sinomenium acutum, showed anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effect
      in previous studies. In order to explore the role of SN in the treatment of AR,
      mice were sensitized and challenged by ovalbumin (OVA) to establish an AR mouse
      model. SN was administered to AR mice orally, and compared with dexamethasone
      treatment as a positive control. Nasal symptoms and histopathological changes
      were used to evaluate the effect of SN treatment in the AR mice model. In
      addition, the levels of anti-OVA specific IgE and various cytokines in the serum
      were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while the levels of
      transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) in the mucosa were also detected by
      western blot analysis and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain
      reaction. AR mice that received SN treatment had reduced symptom scores and
      milder eosinophil infiltration. The serum levels of anti-OVA specific IgE and
      interleukin-4 significantly decreased following SN treatment. Furthermore, TGF
      beta expression levels in the serum and nasal mucosa tissue in AR mice increased
      when compared with those in AR mice without treatment. In conclusion, SN
      treatment alleviated the symptoms of AR in mice and had an immunosuppressive
      effect on AR, which may result from the upregulation of TGF-beta.

PMID- 28565856
TI  - Blocking fatty acid synthase inhibits tumor progression of human osteosarcoma by
      regulating the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2/phosphoinositide 3
      kinase/protein kinase B signaling pathway in xenograft models.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated that fatty acid synthase (FASN) is
      overexpressed in osteosarcoma (OS) cells and tissues and, therefore, knockdown of
      FASN may inhibit OS cell proliferation, migration and invasion via regulation of
      the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/phosphoinositide 3-kinase
      (PI3K)/protein kinase B(Akt) signaling pathway in vitro. However, the tumor
      microenvironment has a crucial role in the determination of tumor malignant
      phenotype. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of
      knockdown of FASN on OS progression and the potential molecular mechanism in nude
      mice with orthotopic tumor implants in vivo. Results demonstrated that the
      knockdown of FASN markedly suppressed the growth and metastasis of OS, at least
      partially, by blocking the HER2/PI3K/Akt signal pathway in mice with intratibial
      143B OS xenografts. These results suggest that the FASN/HER2/PI3K/Akt signaling
      pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for OS management.

PMID- 28565857
TI  - Role of the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway in apoptotic cell death in the cerebral
      cortex of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is associated with cognitive dysfunction. Numerous previous
      studies have shown that type 1 diabetes-induced hyperglycaemia causes structural
      brain damage, such as a decrease in whole-brain grey matter. The impact of
      diabetes mellitus on the cerebral cortex is poorly understood and requires
      further clarification. In the present study, diabetes was induced via an
      intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg). Hematoxylin and eosin
      (H&E) staining was performed to detect the morphological changes in the cerebral
      cortex, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling
      (TUNEL) staining was used to detect neuronal apoptosis and western blotting was
      performed to determine protein expression levels. Nine weeks after the induction
      of diabetes, the body weight was significantly lower and the blood glucose levels
      were significantly higher in the diabetic rats than in the control rats (P<0.05).
      H&E staining revealed nuclear chromatin condensation and cytoplasmic shrinkage in
      the cerebral cortex of the diabetic rats and TUNEL staining further indicated
      apoptotic changes in the cerebral cortex of the diabetic rats. The ratio of B
      cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) -associated X protein/Bcl-2 and the expression of
      cytochrome c and activated caspase-3 (cleaved caspase-3) were significantly
      increased, whereas the ratio of phosphorylated AKT/AKT was significantly
      decreased in the diabetic rats compared with that in the control rats (P<0.05).
      Taken together, these results suggested that diabetes mellitus may induce
      neuronal apoptosis in the cerebral cortex by downregulating AKT phosphorylation.

PMID- 28565858
TI  - Neuroprotective effects of phenylethanoid glycosides in an in vitro model of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effects of
      phenylethanol glycosides (PhGs) on H2O2- and beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta)1-42
      induced injury of PC12 cells as an in vitro model of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      The optimal induction conditions were established through screening of various
      incubation times and concentrations. PC12 cells were treated with 0.5 uM Abeta1
      42 and H2O2 in the presence of PhGs for 24 h and the cell viability was then
      evaluated by an MTT assay; lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and
      malondialdehyde (MDA) content were also measured. The optimal conditions for
      establishing the AD model were the treatment of PC12 cells with 0.5 uM Abeta1-42
      for 48 h, or with 25 uM H2O2 dissolved in DMEM with PBS. PhGs at concentrations
      of 5, 25 and 50 ug/ml increased the viability and decreased LDH and MDA release
      by PC12 cells injured with Abeta1-42 or H2O2. In conclusion, the model of Abeta1
      42- and H2O2-induced PC12 cell injury was successfully established. PhGs were
      shown to have a significant neuroprotective effect against Abeta1-42- or H2O2
      induced cell injury.

PMID- 28565859
TI  - Protective effect of a novel antifungal peptide derived from human chromogranin a
      on the immunity of mice infected with Candida krusei.
AB  - Invasive fungal infections threat the life of immunocompromised patients.
      Chromogranin A N-46 (CGA-N46), corresponding to the 31st to 76th amino acids of
      the N-terminus of human chromogranin A, is an antifungal peptide. In order to
      elucidate the antifungal effects of CGA-N46 in vivo, we studied its effects on
      cell-mediated immunity in Candida krusei-infected mice. The results showed that
      the treatment with CGA-N46 increased the average body weight and decreased the
      mortality of the immunocompromised mice model infected with Candida krusei. The
      spleen and thymus indices of treated mice has markedly increased compared with
      that of the control group (P<0.05), and the immune cell levels in peripheral
      blood also increased significantly (P<0.05). The immuno-modulatory effect of CGA
      N46 (60 mg/kg/day) was found to be comparable to that of terbinafine.
      Additionally, CGA-N46 could alleviate or eliminate histopathological symptoms in
      the liver, spleen, kidney, and lung tissues. In conclusion, the present study
      suggests that CGA-N46 may offer a new strategy for antifungal therapeutic option.
      This study is an essential step in elucidating the effect of CGA-N46 in vivo.

PMID- 28565860
TI  - Development of a sustained-release microcapsule for delivery of metoprolol
      succinate.
AB  - Sustained-release (SR) formulations of metoprolol succinate (MS) may minimize
      fluctuations in plasma concentration and decrease the resulting adverse events.
      The aim of the present study was to optimize the loading capacity of
      microcapsules and the SR of MS. A uniform design method was applied to optimize
      the formulation of SR microcapsules, composed of ethyl cellulose and polyethylene
      glycol 6,000, in one step via emulsion-solvent diffusion. In vitro release was
      studied, and the in vivo bioavailability of MS following dosing with novel
      microcapsules was compared with a commercially available MS formulation in beagle
      dogs. The present methodology achieved an entrapment efficiency of 83.2%, with
      96.1% of drug released in vitro in 18 h, and the release was close to linear over
      a 12-h period. Pharmacokinetic studies of MS microcapsules in beagle dogs
      demonstrated a superior SR profile compared with conventional SR tablets. MS
      microcapsules were developed with high encapsulation efficiency, which had
      desirable SR properties in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28565861
TI  - Global methylation and promoter-specific methylation of the P16, SOCS-1, E
      cadherin, P73 and SHP-1 genes and their expression in patients with multiple
      myeloma during active disease and remission.
AB  - Tumor suppressor gene promoter CpG island methylation is a well-recognized
      mechanism in cancer pathogenesis, but its role in multiple myeloma (MM) is
      controversial. The present study investigated the methylation status and
      expression of P16, suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS-1), P73, E-cadherin
      and Src homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase 1 (SHP-1), as well as
      global methylation in patients with MM during active disease and remission. Bone
      marrow samples were obtained from 43 patients at the Multiple Myeloma Clinic,
      Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran (Mexico City,
      Mexico) during active disease and remission. Methylation-specific polymerase
      chain reaction and ELISA were performed on bisulfite-treated or untreated DNA to
      determine promoter-specific or genomic methylation, respectively. Gene expression
      was measured using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. The results
      indicated that SOCS-1 methylation occurred more frequently during active disease
      than remission [29 vs. 3.2% (P=0.021)] and was associated with more advanced
      forms of the disease [international staging system (ISS) 3, 16.67% vs. ISS 1,
      8.3% (P=0.037)]. SHP-1 methylation during active disease was associated with a
      lower probability of survival at 39-month follow up (median), 52.5 vs. 87.5%
      (P=0.025). The percentage of methylation was associated with active disease at
      remission, but this was not significant. Global hypomethylation at remission was
      a negative predictor factor for overall survival (OS). The results indicated that
      methylated P16, SOCS-1 and SHP-1 were associated with clinical variables of poor
      prognosis in MM, likewise the persistence of global hypomethylation at remission.
      The negative impact on OS of global hypomethylation at remission must be
      confirmed in a larger sample. Future studies are necessary to investigate whether
      patients with global hypermethylation at remission should receive more aggressive
      treatments to improve their OS.

PMID- 28565862
TI  - Preliminary evaluation of cone beam computed tomography in three-dimensional
      cephalometry for clinical application.
AB  - The present study was conducted to evaluate the three-dimensional (3D)
      cephalometry accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). A total of 40
      newly diagnosed orthodontic patients (including 18 males and 22 females; age
      range, 12-18 years) were subjected to CBCT scanning and X-ray imaging in order to
      obtain lateral cephalograms. The 3D CBCT cephalograms were reconstructed and
      measured with in vivo 5.1 software, and compared with the results from the
      conventional 2D lateral cephalograms. Measurements in the two images were
      performed twice using the Steiner and Tweed standards and a single analyzer
      paired t-test was used to analyze the differences between the two cephalometric
      methods. The results indicated that the two methods showed significant
      differences in all 12 angle and 5 linear measurements (P<0.05). These findings
      indicated that CBCT is a more accurate technique compared with the conventional
      2D method. In conclusion, CBCT may provide diagnostic and treatment information
      for maxillofacial deformities by using fast computer-aided analysis platform.

PMID- 28565863
TI  - Gambogenic acid induces cell growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest and metastasis
      inhibition in choroidal melanoma in a dose-dependent manner.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to explore the effects of gambogenic acid (GNA)
      on the malignant behaviors of choroidal melanoma cells, including cell viability,
      cell cycle, migration and invasion, and to elucidate the underlying regulatory
      mechanism. The human choroidal melanoma cell line OCM-1 was treated with
      different concentrations of GNA and cell viability, colony formation ability,
      cell cycle, migration and invasion were analyzed. Additionally, cells were
      incubated with or without LY294002, a specific inhibitor of the phosphoinositide
      3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathway, for 24 h. Levels of
      cell cycle-associated proteins (cyclin D1, cyclin E, cyclin-dependent kinase 2
      and P21), epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated molecules
      (epithelial-cadherin, alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin) and phosphorylated
      (p)-AKT/AKT were determined using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase
      chain reaction and western blot analysis. The results demonstrated that GNA
      significantly inhibited cell viability and induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1
      phase in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.01). Furthermore, GNA administration
      significantly suppressed cell migration and invasion in a dose-dependent manner
      (P<0.01). Treatment with GNA or LY294002 induced a marked decrease in the
      expression of p-AKT/AKT, a significant downregulation in cell cycle-associated
      molecules (P<0.01), and a significant decrease in cell viability (P<0.01). Co
      treatment with LY294002 and GNA had an additive effect on the growth of OCM-1
      cells. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that treatment
      with GNA may inhibit cell viability and induce G0/G1 arrest. Furthermore, GNA may
      also inhibit cell metastasis via regulating EMT-associated molecules. The
      PI3K/Akt signaling pathway may be a key mechanism involved in the progression of
      choroidal melanoma, and GNA may serve as a potential therapeutic reagent for the
      treatment of this disease.

PMID- 28565864
TI  - Expression of Kruppel-like factor 4 in breast cancer tissues and its effects on
      the proliferation of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to detect the expression of Kruppel-like factor
      4 (KLF4) in breast cancer tissues and to evaluate the effect on the proliferation
      of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. The expression of KLF4 protein in 239 breast
      cancer tissues and 40 paracancerous tissues were detected by an
      immunohistochemical assay, and its correlation with clinical pathological
      parameters was analyzed. A eukaryotic expression vector, pcDNA3.1-KLF4, was
      constructed by transient transfection of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells with
      liposomes (experimental group). The untransfected cells and those transfected
      with empty plasmid pcDNA3.1 were used as the blank and negative control groups,
      respectively. The expression of the KLF4 gene and protein in the three groups
      were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western
      blotting, respectively. Furthermore, the cell proliferative capacity was detected
      by an MTT assay. The positive expression rate of KLF4 protein in breast cancer
      tissues (39.0%, 93/239) was significantly lower than that of paracancerous
      tissues (77.5%, 31/40) (P<0.05). In addition, KLF4 protein expression in breast
      cancer tissues was correlated with pathological type, histological grade and
      lymphatic metastasis (P<0.05). KLF4 mRNA and protein were both expressed by the
      experimental group, but not by the two control groups. Meanwhile, the
      proliferative capacity of the experimental group was also significantly
      decreased. A significant decrease in the positive expression rate of KLF4 protein
      in breast cancer tissues was correlated with several clinical pathological
      parameters. In addition, transfection of the KLF4 gene inhibited the
      proliferation of breast cancer cells, suggesting that this gene is important in
      the onset and progression of this type of cancer.

PMID- 28565865
TI  - Alterations of Caspr2 and Nav1.6 on myelinated axon damage in a rat model of
      chronic cerebral hypoperfusion.
AB  - Myelinated axons require the correct localization of key proteins that are
      essential for nerve conduction and cognitive function. Little is known regarding
      the altered expression of contactin-associated protein 2 (Caspr2) at the
      juxtaparanodal regions and Nav1.6 at the node of Ranvier in response to chronic
      cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH). The aim of the present study was to examine the
      alterations in the key protein of myelinated axons and the potential mechanisms
      that may follow CCH. We established a rat model of CCH by controllable partial
      narrowing of bilateral common carotid arteries. Then, we detected cerebral blood
      flow (CBF) after surgery. We also evaluated motor-evoked potentials (MEPs),
      assessed the Morris water maze test, analyzed Caspr2 expression through
      immunohistochemistry and Nav1.6 protein expression through western blot analysis
      at 2, 4 and 12 weeks. The results revealed that the mean CBF value was
      significantly decreased to 33.90+/-5.48%. The MEP latencies and the escaping
      latencies were significantly prolonged. There was also an elongation of the first
      time passing of the hidden platform with a reduction of crossing platform times
      in spatial probing. Furthermore, the Caspr2 immunoreactivity demonstrated that
      the Caspr2 level was significantly downregulated with abnormal locations in the
      corpus callosum. The western blot analysis of Nav1.6 protein revealed that the
      level was reduced significantly over time. The results demonstrate that CCH leads
      to central conductive function loss, cognitive function damage and alterations in
      the key protein of myelinated axons, which may provide a molecular basis and key
      link for white matter damage.

PMID- 28565867
TI  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus
      infection: A case report.
AB  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), also termed hemophagocytic syndrome, is
      a severe, life-threatening inflammatory condition that results from an excessive,
      prolonged and ineffective immune response. The syndrome occurs due to overactive
      macrophages from the bone marrow or lymph tissue that phagocytose erythrocytes
      leukocytes and platelets. HLH in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus
      infection has rarely been studied. The present case study described an uncommon
      case of this syndrome in combination with human immunodeficiency virus infection
      in a patient, who eventually succumbed to severe infection and multiple organ
      failure following the refusal of medical treatment.

PMID- 28565866
TI  - Inhibition of PKCalpha reduces the ability of migration of kidney cancer cells
      but has no impact on cell apoptosis.
AB  - Kidney cancer is among the most important causes of cancer-associated mortality
      worldwide. The present study aimed to evaluate protein kinase C alpha (PKCalpha)
      expression in kidney cancer tissues and cell lines, and its significance in
      apoptosis and migration. Expression of PKCalpha was analyzed using quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. In addition, the inhibitor of
      PKCalpha (calphostin C and GO6976) was used to treat kidney cancer cells. The
      ACHN cell line was generated with PKCalpha-small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and a
      stable expression of PKCalpha, in order to facilitate the analysis of apoptosis
      and migration of PKCalpha during knockdown and inactivation. Flow cytometry was
      used to determine the rates of apoptosis. Immunohistochemical staining was used
      to identify the localization of PKCalpha in renal clear cell carcinoma and normal
      sections. PKCalpha expression in normal tissues was found to be greater than in
      cancerous tissues. Furthermore, apoptosis was not promoted with PKCalpha
      inhibitors or PKCalpha-siRNA treatment, and a decrease of the migration ability
      was observed following transfection with PKCalpha-dominant negative. The results
      indicated that inhibition of PKCalpha might not contribute to apoptosis
      progression in kidney carcinoma.

PMID- 28565868
TI  - Proliferative myositis in the right brachioradialis: A case report.
AB  - Proliferative myositis is a rare, self-limiting, benign disease. Its diagnosis
      can be difficult and in many cases is not confirmed until after surgical
      resection. Herein, we report a case of proliferative myositis of the right
      brachioradialis in a 64-year-old man. The patient presented with a rapidly
      growing, painless mass in his right forearm. Magnetic resonance imaging and fine
      needle aspiration biopsy led to a diagnosis of proliferative myositis. Complete
      surgical resection of the mass was performed. Postoperative pathological
      examination confirmed the diagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
      first report of proliferative myositis in the right brachioradialis. Fine-needle
      biopsy is helpful in the diagnosis of proliferative myositis, thus avoiding
      unnecessary surgical trauma and costs.

PMID- 28565869
TI  - Mitochondrial dysfunction on sinoatrial node and pulmonary vein
      electrophysiological activities.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Sinoatrial
      node (SAN) dysfunction increases arrhythmogenesis of pulmonary veins (PVs), which
      is the most important trigger of AF; however, it is not clear whether
      mitochondrial dysfunction differentially regulates electrical activity of SANs
      and PVs. In the present study, conventional microelectrodes were used to record
      the action potentials (APs) in isolated rabbit PVs, SANs, left atrium (LA) and
      right atrium (RA) before and after application of trifluorocarbonylcyanide
      phenylhydrazone (FCCP; a mitochondrial uncoupling agent) at 10, 100 and 300 nM.
      FCCP application at 100 and 300 nM decreased spontaneous rates in PVs and in SANs
      at 10, 100 and 300 nM. FCCP shortened the 20, 50 and 90% AP durations in the LA,
      and shortened only the 20% AP duration in the RA. FCCP caused a greater rate
      reduction in SANs than in PVs; however, in the presence of coenzyme-Q10 (10 uM),
      FCCP reduced the beating rate in PVs and SANs to a similar extent. In SAN-PV
      preparations with intact electrical connections, FCCP (100 nM) application
      shifted the SAN-PV electrical conduction into PV-SAN conduction in 5 (62.5%) of 8
      preparations. In conclusion, mitochondrial dysfunction modulates PV and SAN
      electrical activities, which may contribute to atrial arrhythmogenesis.

PMID- 28565870
TI  - C1QBP is upregulated in colon cancer and binds to apolipoprotein A-I.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the expression of complement component 1,
      q subcomponent-binding protein (C1QBP) in colon cancer cells, and identify
      proteins that interact with C1QBP. Total proteins were extracted from both the
      tumor and normal tissues of 22 patients with colon cancer and analyzed using
      liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to identify proteins that were
      differentially-expressed in tumor tissues. C1QBP overexpression was induced in
      293T cells using a pFLAG-CMV2 expression vector. Overexpressed FLAG-tagged C1QBP
      protein was then immunoprecipitated using anti-FLAG antibodies and C1QBP
      interacting proteins were screened using LC-MS analysis of the
      immunoprecipitates. The C1QBP-interacting proteins were confirmed using reverse
      immunoprecipitation and the differential expression of C1QBP in tissues and cell
      lines was confirmed using western blot analysis. LC-MS analysis revealed that
      C1QBP exhibited a typical tumor expression pattern. Two immune-reactive signals
      (33 and 14 kDa) were detected in normal and tumor tissues from 19 patients.
      Furthermore, 14 kDa C1QBP protein was upregulated in the tumors of 15 patients.
      In total, 39 proteins were identified as candidate C1QBP-interacting proteins,
      and an interaction between C1QBP and apolipoprotein A-I was confirmed. The
      present study indicates that C1QBP is involved in colon cancer carcinogenesis,
      and that the mechanisms underlying the established anti-tumor properties of
      apolipoprotein A-I may include interacting with and inhibiting the activity of
      C1QBP.

PMID- 28565871
TI  - Propofol inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma growth and invasion through the HMGA2
      mediated Wnt/beta-catenin pathway.
AB  - Propofol is a commonly used intravenous anesthetic in tumor surgery. Recently,
      studies have confirmed that propofol has an antitumor effect on hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC); however, the molecular mechanism underlying this effect has not
      been elucidated until now. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism
      of propofol on HepG2 cell proliferation, apoptosis and invasion, focusing on High
      Mobility Group AT-Hook 2 (HMGA2)-mediated Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. The HepG2
      cells were treated with various concentrations of propofol for 24 h, the relative
      protein levels of HMGA2, Wnt3a, beta-catenin, Snail Family Zinc Finger 1 and c
      myc were determined by western blot analysis. HMGA2-pcDNA3.1 plasmid was
      transfected into the HepG2 cells to overexpress HMGA2. Cell proliferation,
      apoptosis and invasion were examined by MTT assays, flow cytometry and Transwell
      matrigel invasion assays, respectively. The results showed that propofol
      suppressed HMGA2 expression and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in a dose-dependent
      manner. Propofol was able to inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, and induce
      cell apoptosis of HepG2 cells; however, these effects were attenuated by HMGA2
      overexpression. The suppressed Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in HepG2 cells by
      treatment with propofol was also reversed by HMGA2 overexpression. In conclusion,
      this study provided a novel mechanism underlying the anti-tumor function of
      propofol on HCC. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to
      demonstrate that propofol could downregulate the expression of HMGA2, which
      inhibited the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, thus leading to the inhibition of cell
      proliferation and invasion, as well as the apoptosis of HepG2 cells.

PMID- 28565872
TI  - MicroRNA-33a promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis by targeting
      PPARalpha in human hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - MicroRNA-33a (miR-33a) is dysregulated in a number of human cancers, where it
      functions as an oncogenic miRNA. However, the clinical significance of miR-33a
      and its underlying molecular pathways regarding the progression of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) are currently unknown. In the present study, it was observed that
      the level of miR-33a expression was significantly increased in HCC tissues,
      relative to adjacent non-tumor tissues. Increased miR-33a expression was
      significantly correlated with poor prognostic features of HCC, including larger
      tumor size, higher Edmondson-Steiner grading and higher tumor-node-metastasis
      tumor stage. Furthermore, high levels of miR-33a expression were associated with
      decreases in the 5-year overall survival rate and recurrence-free survival of
      patients with HCC. In addition, functional experiments indicated that
      overexpression of miR-33a led to increased proliferation and reduced apoptosis of
      the HCC cell line Huh7, while knockdown of miR-33a decreased proliferation and
      induced apoptosis in the HCC cell line HepG2. Furthermore, peroxisome
      proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) was identified as a direct
      target of miR-33a in HCC. Upregulation of miR-33a was found to reduce the levels
      of PPARalpha expression in Huh7 cells, while inhibition of miR-33a lead to a
      downregulation in PPARalpha expression in HepG2 cells. Collectively, these
      results suggest that miR-33a regulates the proliferation and apoptosis of HCC
      cells, and is a potential prognostic marker of HCC.

PMID- 28565873
TI  - miR-148a Suppresses estrogen-induced viability and migration of breast cancer
      cells via inhibition of estrogen receptor alpha expression.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRs) play critical roles in the development and malignant progression
      of human cancers. miR-148a has previously been found to inhibit the migration and
      invasion of breast cancer cells. However, the underlying mechanism of miR-148a in
      regulating the viability and migration of estrogen receptor (ER) alpha-positive
      breast cancer cells is still unknown. In this study, ERalpha-positive breast
      cancer MCF7 cells were treated with estradiol (E2). Data from MTT and wound
      healing assays showed that E2 treatment promoted the viability and migration of
      MCF7 cells. A bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay identified
      ERalpha as a direct target of miR-148a. Ectopic expression of miR-148a
      significantly decreased the protein expression of ERalpha (P<0.01), while
      knockdown of miR-148a significantly increased the ERalpha protein level in MCF7
      cells (P<0.01). Furthermore, miR-148a overexpression significantly inhibited the
      E2-induced viability and migration of MCF7 cells (P<0.01), similar to the effect
      of silencing ERalpha. However, overexpression of ERalpha rescued the suppressed
      viability and migration caused by miR-148a upregulation. Finally, it was found
      that E2 treatment led to a significant decrease in the miR-148a level in MCF7
      cells (P<0.01). These results suggest that miR-148a can suppress the E2-induced
      viability and migration of MCF7 breast cancer cells via inhibition of ERalpha
      protein expression, expanding the understanding of miR function in ERalpha
      positive breast cancer.

PMID- 28565874
TI  - Resistin increases the expression of NOD2 in mouse monocytes.
AB  - Previous studies have indicated that resistin, a type of adipokine, contributes
      to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus, and
      mediates inflammatory reactions. However, a specific receptor for resistin has
      not yet been identified. In this study, the relationship between resistin and
      nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptors, as well as resistin
      signal transduction, was examined through transfection, quantitative polymerase
      chain reaction, western blot analysis and ELISA. The mRNA expression of
      nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2), a key
      immune receptor related to insulin resistance, was significantly increased by
      resistin treatment at concentrations of 100, 150 and 200 ng/ml (P<0.05, P<0.01
      and P<0.01, respectively). The mRNA expression of downstream signaling molecules
      in the NOD2 signaling pathway, receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein
      kinase 2 (RIP2; P<0.01 at 6, 12 and 24 h) and inhibitor of NF-kappaB kinase
      subunit beta (P<0.01 at 3, 6, 12 and 24 h) were significantly increased by
      resistin treatment compared with the control. The mRNA expression of key
      proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL (interleukin)-6 and IL
      1beta, were also significantly increased by resistin treatment compared with the
      control (P<0.01). NOD2 knockdown by small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly
      decreased the expression of NOD2 and RIP2 (P<0.01), and there was no significant
      increase in the levels of cytokines, as compared with treatment with control
      siRNA. These findings indicate that the inflammatory reaction induced by resistin
      involves the NOD2-nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB signaling pathway. The inhibition of
      NF-kappaB significantly decreased the secretion of key inflammatory cytokines
      (P<0.01), suggesting that NF-kappaB signaling mechanisms are essential to the
      resistin-induced inflammatory response.

PMID- 28565875
TI  - Smoothened antagonist GDC-0449 (Vismodegib) inhibits proliferation and triggers
      apoptosis in colon cancer cell lines.
AB  - The sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway has been proven to be involved in embryonic
      development and cancer growth. GDC-0449, an antagonist of the hedgehog signaling
      receptor Smoothened (Smo), was recently approved by the US Food and Drug
      Administration as a prescription for skin basal cell carcinoma. However, the
      efficacy of GDC-0449 in the treatment of colon cancer and other malignancies,
      such as basal cell carcinoma and pancreatic cancer, has remained to be proven.
      The present study assessed the effect of GDC-0449 on the colon cancer cell lines
      Caco-2 and Ht-29. A Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was applied to assess the cell
      proliferation rate and apoptosis was tested by flow cytometry. Reverse
      transcription quantitative PCR and western blot analysis were used for analyzing
      expression levels of target genes. Cell proliferation was inhibited, while
      apoptosis was increased by GDC-0449, whereas the expression of B-cell lymphoma 2
      (Bcl-2), a downstream target of Shh signaling, was decreased. Consistent with the
      inhibition of Gli1 expression, the cancer stem cell markers CD44 and ALDH were
      decreased in the presence of GDC-0449. In conclusion, GDC-0449 was shown to
      inhibit the replication of colon cancer cells and trigger apoptosis through
      downregulating Bcl-2. This may also influence the stemness of cancer stem cells
      as indicated by the decreased stem cell surface markers.

PMID- 28565876
TI  - Effects of 17beta-estradiol and 2-methoxyestradiol on the oxidative stress
      hypoxia inducible factor-1 pathway in hypoxic pulmonary hypertensive rats.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the effects of 17beta-estradiol (E2) and 2
      methoxyestradiol (2ME) on the oxidative stress-hypoxia inducible factor-1 (OS-HIF
      1) pathway in hypoxic pulmonary hypertensive rats. Female Sprague-Dawley rats
      were divided randomly into 4 groups, as follows: i) Control (Group A); ii)
      ovariectomy (OVX) + hypoxia (Group B); iii) OVX + hypoxia + E2 injection (Group
      C); and iv) 2ME injection (Group D). The rats were maintained under hypoxic
      conditions for 8 weeks, and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) and pulmonary
      arteriole morphology were measured. The reactive oxygen species, superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), and copper-zinc
      superoxide dismutase (Cu/ZnSOD) levels in serum were also measured. MnSOD and HIF
      1alpha expression levels in lung tissue were determined by western blotting and
      reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The mPAP and
      arterial remodeling index were significantly elevated following chronic hypoxia
      exposure; however, experimental data revealed a reduced response in E2 and 2ME
      intervention rats. Compared with Group A, Group B had significantly elevated
      oxidative stress levels, as illustrated by increased serum ROS levels, decreased
      serum SOD and MnSOD levels and decreased MnSOD mRNA and protein expression levels
      in lung tissue. Furthermore, HIF-1alpha mRNA and protein expression in Group B
      was significantly elevated compared with Group A. E2 and 2ME intervention
      significantly attenuated the aforementioned parameter changes, suggesting that E2
      and 2ME partially ameliorate hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. The underlying
      mechanism of this may be associated with the increase in MnSOD activity and
      expression and reduction in ROS level, which reduces the levels of transcription
      and translation of HIF-1alpha.

PMID- 28565877
TI  - Elucidating the mechanism of miRNA-214 in the regulation of gingival carcinoma.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression levels of microRNA
      (miRNA)-214 in tumor tissue, blood and saliva of patients with gingival
      carcinoma, and to investigate the mechanisms underlying the infiltration and
      invasion of gingival carcinoma. Between January 2013 and March 2015, blood and
      saliva samples, gingival carcinoma tumor specimens and peritumoral tumor tissues
      were harvested from 56 patients with gingival carcinoma. Blood and saliva samples
      were also harvested from 33 control patients without gingival carcinoma. Reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to
      detect miRNA-214 and protein tyrosine phosphatase gene (PTEN) mRNA levels.
      Western blotting and ELISA were performed to detect PTEN protein levels. The
      results of RT-qPCR demonstrated that the expression of PTEN mRNA in tumor
      tissues, blood and saliva of patients with gingival carcinoma were significantly
      decreased compared with that of the control group (P<0.05). These findings were
      consistent were consistent with the results of PTEN protein expression detected
      via western blotting and ELISA in these samples (P<0.05). Conversely, the
      expression levels of miRNA-214 in these samples were significantly increased
      (P<0.05) in patients with gingival carcinoma compared with the control group. The
      decreased expression of PTEN may be associated with the expression of miRNA-214.
      miRNA-214 may regulate infiltration and invasion of gingival carcinoma via PTEN.
      These results suggest that miRNA-214 may be used as a marker of gingival
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28565878
TI  - Ginsenoside Rb3 strengthens the hypoglycemic effect through AMPK for inhibition
      of hepatic gluconeogenesis.
AB  - Ginsenoside Rb3 is one of the major active components in protopanaxdiol type
      ginsenosides, and has demonstrated anti-diabetic activity. However, the mechanism
      of this action has yet to be elucidated. The present study investigated the
      effects of ginsenoside Rb3 on the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)
      gluconeogenesis pathway. The present study involved the use of HepG2 cells and
      western blot analysis to systematically evaluate the effect of ginsenoside Rb3 on
      AMPK signaling proteins and key factors of gluconeogenesis [phosphoenolpyruvate
      carboxykinase (PEPCK), glucose-6-phosphatase, forkhead transcription factor 1
      (FOXO1) and hepatic nuclear receptor 4alpha (HNF4alpha)]. The results indicated
      that 25 uM ginsenoside Rb3 significantly activated AMPK activity, increased the
      ratio of p-AMPK/total-AMPK, and had synergistic effects with the activator of
      AICAR on the activation of AMPK. Further analysis indicated that the expression
      of the transcription factor FOXO1 and HNF4alpha protein, two important factors in
      the pathway of HepG2 cell gluconeogenesis, was significantly suppressed by
      ginsenoside Rb3. PEPCK and G6Pase were subsequently inhibited, which led to the
      suppression of gluconeogenesis. These effects were partially blocked by the AMPK
      inhibitor, Compound C, which indicated that the inhibition effects of ginsenoside
      Rb3 on hepatic gluconeogenesis were predominantly due to the activation of the
      AMPK signaling pathway. These data suggested that ginsenoside Rb3 can suppress
      hepatic gluconeogenesis, at least partially through stimulation of AMPK activity.

PMID- 28565879
TI  - Difference in protective effects of GIP and GLP-1 on endothelial cells according
      to cyclic adenosine monophosphate response.
AB  - Receptors for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon
      like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are present in vascular endothelial cells. Previous
      studies investigating euglycemic status have demonstrated that GIP is directly
      involved in the physiology of blood vessels by controlling the blood flow rate of
      portal veins and that GLP-1 has a protective effect on blood vessels by acting on
      endothelial cells. However, to the best of our knowledge, the effects of GIP and
      GLP-1 on endothelial cells in patients with hyperglycemia remain unknown.
      Therefore, the present study investigated whether the effect of the incretin
      hormones GLP-1 and GIP differed with regards to the reversal of endothelial cell
      dysfunction caused by hyperglycemia. The production of nitric oxide (NO) was
      measured using the Griess reagent system kit and the expression of cyclic
      adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in the cell was measured at a wavelength of 405 nm
      with the ELISA reader using the cyclic AMP EIA kit. Exposure of human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) to a high glucose concentration decreased NO and
      endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) levels but increased inducible NOS
      (iNOS) levels. However, when HUVECs were pretreated with GLP-1, a reduction of
      iNOS expression was observed and the expression of eNOS and NO were increased, as
      opposed to pretreatment with GIP. The results differed according to the response
      of cAMP, the second messenger of incretin hormones: The GIP pretreatment group
      did not exhibit an increase in cAMP levels while the GLP-1 pretreatment group
      did. The results of the present study provide evidence that GLP-1, but not GIP,
      has a protective effect on endothelial function associated with cardiovascular
      disease, as it is associated with increased eNOS expression and the levels of NO.
      This effect may be due to an increase in the cAMP concentration during
      hyperglycemic events.

PMID- 28565880
TI  - Etanercept attenuates thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia induced by bone cancer.
AB  - Bone cancer pain commonly occurs when tumors originating in the breast, prostate
      or lung metastasize to long bones, spinal vertebrae and/or the pelvis. However,
      the underlying mechanisms of bone cancer pain remain largely unknown. The present
      study aimed to determine the role of spinal tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF
      alpha) in the development of bone cancer pain. Osteosarcoma NCTC 2472 cells were
      implanted into the femoral intramedullary space of C3H/HeJ mice to establish a
      bone cancer model. Resulting pain-related behaviors, namely spontaneous foot
      lifting, paw withdrawal mechanical threshold and paw withdrawal thermal latency
      were observed prior to inoculation and on days 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 thereafter.
      Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction was also performed
      to assess the levels of TNF-alpha mRNA within the spinal cord. In addition, the
      effects of the TNF-alpha antagonist etanercept on TNF-alpha levels and pain
      behaviors were evaluated. It was observed that the levels of TNF-alpha mRNA in
      the spinal cord were significantly higher in tumor-bearing mice 10 days post
      inoculation, which was accompanied by increases in spontaneous flinching,
      mechanical hyperalgesia and thermal hyperalgesia, relative to control mice.
      Etanercept attenuated the bone cancer-induced increase in TNF-alpha and pain
      related behaviors. These results suggest that etanercept may be a potential
      therapeutic for the treatment of bone cancer pain.

PMID- 28565881
TI  - A pilot study: Screening target miRNAs in tissue of nonsyndromic cleft lip with
      or without cleft palate.
AB  - Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCLP) has been recognized
      as a condition resulting from a combination of environmental and genetic factors.
      Studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in embryonic
      development. However, few studies have focused on screening potential target
      miRNAs in human NSCLP tissue. Using microarray-based miRNA expression profiling,
      miRNA expression was compared in tissue samples from 4 NSCLP patients and 4
      healthy control subjects. Two hundred and fifty-four miRNAs were found to be
      differentially expressed. Changes in Homo sapiens (hsa)-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-27b
      3p, hsa-miR-205-5p, hsa-miR-1260b and hsa-miR-720 were of particular interest
      with respect to Wnt signaling (fold-changes were 12.5, 12.2, 12.1, 12.3 and 10.5,
      respectively; P<0.005 for all). The levels of hsa-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-1260b and
      hsa-miR-205-5p were higher in tissues from NSCLP patients than in those from
      controls according to PCR analysis. Hsa-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-1260b and hsa-miR-205
      5p may be candidate miRNAs involved in the etiology of NSCLP via Wnt signaling.

PMID- 28565882
TI  - Association of calreticulin expression with disease activity and organ damage in
      systemic lupus erythematosus patients.
AB  - Measurement of disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
      (SLE) is important for monitoring disease progression and evaluating the
      therapeutic effects. The severity of organ damage correlates with clinical status
      and prognosis. Therefore, it is imperative to find an effective biomarker
      measuring disease activity and organ damage for SLE management. The present study
      investigated the possibility of serum calreticulin (CRT) in the assessment of
      disease activity and organ damage in SLE patients. Serum CRT levels from 80
      patients with SLE, 55 patients with other autoimmune diseases and 60 healthy
      controls (HC) were measured by ELISA. Disease activity was assessed using the
      Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) scores.
      Organ damage was evaluated with the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating
      Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index. CRT levels in SLE were
      significantly higher than that in other autoimmune diseases and HC. CRT was
      correlated with SLEDAI-2K score (r=0.3345, P=0.0024), and with anti-double
      stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) (r=0.4483, P<0.0001). A significant negative
      correlation of CRT levels with complement 3 (r=-0.3635, P=0.0009) and complement
      4 (r=-0.3507, P=0.0014) was observed in patients with SLE. Furthermore, the
      patients with SLE and a positive anti-Ro52 result had higher levels of CRT
      compared with those with a negative anti-Ro52 result (P<0.001). Elevated levels
      of CRT were also reported among patients with SLE who also indicated the presence
      of cumulative organ damage. In addition, increased expression of CRT correlated
      with the presence of lupus nephritis. In conclusion, the results of the current
      report provided that CRT may be used as a potential biomarker for clinical
      diagnosis and of prognosis, providing additional information regarding disease
      activity and organ damage alongside other traditional indices.

PMID- 28565883
TI  - Hydrogen-rich water alleviates the toxicities of different stresses to mycelial
      growth in Hypsizygus marmoreus.
AB  - In plants, hydrogen gas (H2) enhances tolerance to several abiotic stresses,
      including salinity and heavy metals. However, the effect of H2 on fungal growth
      under different stresses remains largely unclear. In this study, hydrogen-rich
      water (HRW) was employed to characterize physiological roles and molecular
      mechanisms of H2 in the alleviation of three different stresses in basidiomycete
      Hypsizygus marmoreus. Our results showed that HRW treatment, of which the H2
      concentration was 0.8 mM, significantly reduced the toxicities of CdCl2, NaCl and
      H2O2, leading to significantly improved mycelial growth and biomass. These
      beneficial effects could be attributed to a significantly decreased formation of
      malondialdehyde (MDA). Besides, HRW treatment significantly increased the
      activities of antioxidants (SOD, CAT and GR) as well as the gene expressions of
      these antioxidants (SOD, CAT, and GR) at the mRNA level. In vivo detection of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS), including H2O2 and O2-, as well as lipid
      peroxidation provided further evidence that HRW could significantly improve
      tolerances of CdCl2, NaCl and H2O2. Furthermore, pyruvate kinase was activated in
      the mycelia treated with HRW, along with its induced gene expression, suggesting
      that HRW treatment enhanced the glucose metabolism. Taken together, our findings
      suggested that the usage of HRW could be an effective approach for contaminant
      detoxification in H. marmoreus, which was similar with the effects of HRW in
      plants, and such effects could be also beneficial in entire agricultural system.

PMID- 28565884
TI  - Mechanical Composite of LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2/Carbon Nanotubes with Enhanced
      Electrochemical Performance for Lithium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2/carbon nanotube (NCA/CNT) composite cathode materials are
      prepared by a facile mechanical grinding method, without damage to the crystal
      structure and morphology of the bulk. The NCA/CNT composite exhibits enhanced
      cycling and rate performance compared with pristine NCA. After 60 cycles at a
      current rate of 0.25 C, the reversible capacity of NCA/CNT composite cathode is
      181 mAh/g with a discharge retention rate of 96%, considerably higher than the
      value of pristine NCA (153 mAh/g with a retention rate of 90%). At a high current
      rate of 5 C, it also can deliver a reversible capacity of 160 mAh/g, while only
      140 mAh/g is maintained for the unmodified NCA. Highly electrical conductive CNTs
      rather than common inert insulating materials are for the first time employed as
      surface modifiers for NCA, which are dispersed homogenously on the surface of NCA
      particles, not only improving the electrical conductivity but also providing
      effective protection to the side reactions with liquid electrolyte of the
      battery.

PMID- 28565885
TI  - Facile Synthesis of Heterostructured WS2/Bi2MoO6 as High-Performance Visible
      Light-Driven Photocatalysts.
AB  - In this paper, novel WS2/Bi2MoO6 heterostructured photocatalysts were
      successfully fabricated via a facile solvothermal growth method using pre
      exfoliated layered WS2 nanoslices as a substrate. The structure, morphology, and
      optical properties of the as-prepared WS2/Bi2MoO6 samples were characterized by
      XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM (HRTEM), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). Results
      confirmed the existence of an excellent nanojunction interface between layered
      WS2 nanoslices and Bi2MoO6 nanoflakes. Under visible light (>420 nm), the
      WS2/Bi2MoO6 composites exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity
      compared with pure Bi2MoO6 toward the decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB).
      Meanwhile, the active species trapping experiments indicated that holes (h+) were
      the main active species during the photocatalytic reaction. The enhanced
      photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the effective light harvesting,
      fast photogenerated electron-hole pairs separation, and excellent charge carrier
      transport of the WS2/Bi2MoO6 heterostructures. Moreover, the prepared WS2/Bi2MoO6
      composites also show good structural and activity stability in repeatability
      experiments.

PMID- 28565886
TI  - Effects of Cholecalciferol Supplementation in Patients with stable heart failure
      and LOw vITamin D levels (ECSPLOIT-D): a double-blind, randomized, placebo
      controlled pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of vitamin D
      (VD) on the interaction among functional, echocardiographic and hormonal
      parameters in patients with heart failure (HF) and VD deficiency. METHODS: In a
      randomized, double blind trial, 35 patients with HF and VD<20 ng/mL, received
      either 300,000 U of oral cholecalciferol followed by 50,000 U/month for 6 months,
      or placebo treatment. RESULTS: Changes in the 6 Minute Walking Test (6MWT)
      assessed at 3 and 6 months in treatment group was the primary end point.
      Secondary endpoints were echocardiographic and hormonal changes. The same targets
      were compared in treated and placebo groups as secondary endpoints. In the
      treatment group the 6MWT improved at 3 (from 210+/-104 mt to 225+/-94 mt;
      P=0.033) but not at 6 months (from 210+/-104 mt to 217+/-94 mt; P=0.288) while
      PTH dropped at 3 (from 76.8+/-50.5 to 50.2+/-20.3 pg/mL; P=0.025), but not at 6
      months. 6MWT improvement was negatively related to baseline VD levels. Variation
      in 6MWT did not significantly differ among groups at 3 (13.6+/-23.3 vs. 3.6+/
      17.3; P 0.175) and 6 months (12.1+/-31.4 vs. 0.2+/-23.2; P 0.225). Left atrial
      size increased in the placebo group (from 50.8+/-20.7 to 61.7+/-36.0 mL/m2;
      P=0.010). Other hormonal parameters remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: In summary,
      the treatment of VD deficiency in patients with HF improved 6MWT after 3 months
      along with a decrease in PTH levels. However when compared with the placebo arm,
      treatment of VD deficiency did not influence the final outcomes.

PMID- 28565887
TI  - Safety and efficacy of catheter-based left atrial appendage closure in patients
      with contraindications for long-term anticoagulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) and the role of
      postinterventional anticoagulation often evokes controversy in daily practice.
      This study aimed to evaluate LAAC in patients with non-rheumatic atrial
      fibrillation, high thromboembolic risk and contraindications for long-term
      anticoagulation in a clinical scenario. METHODS: Between 2010-2015, LAAC was
      attempted in 118 patients (47 women). RESULTS: Devices were successfully
      implanted in 95% (WatchmanTM device: N.=97; AmplatzerTM Cardiac Plug/Amulet:
      N.=14; Amplatzer PFO Occluder: N.=1). Mean age was 75+/-8.35 years. Mean HAS-BLED
      and CHA2DS2VASc scores were 4.3 and 4.9, respectively. Median follow-up was 447
      days (IQR: 183-789 days). The primary safety endpoint was defined as major
      bleeding according to the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis. The
      combined efficacy endpoint included ischemic strokes, transitory ischemic attacks
      (TIA) and systemic embolisms. Procedural complication rate was 3.4%. After
      successful intervention, either a therapy with anticoagulants (N.=62) or dual
      antiplatelet therapy (DAPT, N.=50) was prescribed temporarily. Medication was
      reduced if implantation proved satisfying in a 6-week follow-up transesophageal
      echocardiography, which was the case in 79% of these patients. During follow-up,
      one patient suffered a TIA (0.6%/year). No other efficacy event was observed.
      Eleven major bleedings occurred (6.6%/year): one each under DAPT plus
      phenprocoumon, DAPT plus rivaroxaban, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) plus
      rivaroxaban, two under DAPT, two under ASA plus low molecular weight heparin, and
      four under ASA only. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, catheter-based LAA
      occlusion prevented thromboembolisms with high efficacy. Major bleedings were
      however common in patients with, but also without anticoagulation, independent
      from time course.

PMID- 28565888
TI  - Role of adipokines and inflammatory markers in postmenopausal hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of inflammatory markers and adipokines contributing to the
      development of postmenopausal hypertension, has not been established. The aim of
      our study was to assess the complex association between blood pressure, obesity,
      menopausal status, adipokines and inflammatory mediators in postmenopausal women.
      METHODS: We recruited 38 women seen at our Endocrinology Clinic and collected
      anthropometric measures and blood pressure and obtained serum samples for
      inflammatory markers and adipokine levels. Out of 38 women, 23 (60%) were
      postmenopausal. RESULTS: In the pre-menopausal and postmenopausal women, there
      were no significant differences in measured adipokines and inflammatory markers
      based on hypertensive status. When obesity was eliminated, significantly higher
      levels of EGF, IL-8, MCP1 and TNF-alpha and lower levels of IL-1alpha and IL-3
      were observed in the postmenopausal group (P<0.05). Women with higher waist-to
      hip ratio (WHR) had a significant trend towards lower adiponectin levels as
      compared to those with lower WHR (P=0.014 and P=0.04, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      There was a significant difference in pro-inflammatory markers in non-obese, pre-
      and post-menopausal women. These higher inflammatory markers might play a role in
      the development of post-menopausal hypertension.

PMID- 28565889
TI  - Renal function markers and metformin eligibility.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metformin is the cornerstone of the pharmacological therapy for type
      2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It belongs to the biguanide class of drugs and it
      improves hepatic insulin resistance and enhances GLP-1 and peptide YY secretion.
      Despite being considered safe regarding hypoglycemic risk, renal dysfunction
      remains the main obstacle to its use due to the underlying risk of lactic
      acidosis. In the recent past many authors used creatinine values as the decisive
      marker when it came to choose between pharmacological agents in DM. Serum
      creatinine values equal or above 1.4 and 1.5 mg/dL were considered
      contraindications for metformin use in women and men respectively. Nowadays,
      creatinine is not the only surrogate of renal dysfunction and formulas such as
      the MDRD and CKD-EPI, that besides serum creatinine also include variables such
      as gender, age and race, have replaced serum creatinine as the standard for renal
      function assessment. Furthermore, since the associations between metformin and
      lactic acidosis in renal disease are not straightforward, its use has been
      considered safe down to creatinine clearances of 30 mL/min/1.73 m2. The authors
      describe a population with T2DM being treated with metformin and evaluate the
      impact of the solo evaluation of serum creatinine or CKD-EPI on biguanide
      prescription. METHODS: Retrospective, observational, single-center study. All
      type 2 diabetic patients with regular follow up in a Central University Hospital
      Endocrinology-Diabetology Outpatient Clinic who were being treated with metformin
      and had at least 2 creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
      measurements in the last decade were included. Patients were stratified according
      to renal function-based metformin contraindication criteria: creatinine group
      included patients with serum creatinine levels above 1.4 and 1.5 mg/dL in women
      and men respectively, and eGFR group included patients with eGFR below 30
      mL/min/1.73 m2. The entire population and both groups are described and compared
      regarding comorbidities, demographic and laboratory data. The authors report the
      impact of each renal function marker (serum creatinine or eGFR) when used solo
      regarding metformin prescription eligibility. RESULTS: A total of 2218 patients
      (61.3% females) with a mean age of 70+/-12 years is studied. Mean diabetes
      duration was 11.8+/-8.8 years. No cases with an eGFR below 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 were
      identified. On the other hand, in patients with GFR greater than 30 mL/min/1.73
      m2, creatinine alone would contraindicate therapy in 274 patients (12.4% of the
      study population). Comparing Stage 3 chronic kidney disease patients without
      creatinine contraindication criteria with those with creatinine based
      contraindication, the data reveals that a higher prevalence of males, with longer
      diabetes duration, higher target organ damage (cerebrovascular disease,
      peripheral artery disease, heart failure, neuropathy and retinopathy) and with
      worse glycemic control were prevalent more in the elevated creatinine group. The
      use of serum creatinine as the single marker for renal function would
      significantly reduce metformin eligibility (OR=0.88, 95% CI: 0.8-0.95, P=0.002).
      CONCLUSIONS: Metformin is the first line pharmacological agent in type 2 diabetes
      mellitus patients, being associated with significant HbA1c reductions and
      improvements in both micro and macrovascular outcomes. Avoiding its use due to
      imprecise renal function markers would potentially render the patient deprived of
      optimal pharmacological therapy for T2DM. Creatinine contraindication criteria
      alone are associated with unnecessary under prescription of metformin.

PMID- 28565890
TI  - Influence of nodal status on the surgical outcome for bronchogenic carcinoma
      involving the carina: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bronchogenic carcinomas involving the carina or the tracheo
      bronchial angle represents a challenging surgical procedure because of difficult
      surgical techniques and complex ventilation procedures. Even though surgical
      outcomes for this type of procedure has improved over time, the need for surgical
      management of patients with metastatic mediastinal nodes, that is those that are
      graded N2 or higher according to the TNM classification, is still controversial.
      EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We searched PubMed, Embase, and CNKI for literature in
      English or Chinese reporting on this subject, with information on survival rates
      or survival curves for groups with different grades of nodal status. We then
      performed a meta-analysis by grouping N0 and N1 patients and compared the
      surgical outcomes to those graded as N2 or higher. Hazard Ratios for each study
      were derived from the Kaplan-Meier survival curve. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Seven
      studies were included in this meta-analysis. The calculated hazard ratios ranged
      from 0.146 to 0.455. The weighted average hazard ratio for the N0/N1 group as
      compared to the N2/N3 group was 0.261 (CI: 0.154-0.441). The Galbraith plot
      confirmed the homogeneity of the studies included. CONCLUSIONS: Carinal resection
      and reconstruction remains a challenging surgical procedure and the rather poor
      surgical outcomes for patients graded as N2 or higher, according to nodal
      involvement points to the fact that better pre-operative management is required
      in terms of tumor grading, induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy to decrease
      the risks associated with metastatic mediastinal nodal status.

PMID- 28565891
TI  - The role of surgery in cystic lesions of the pancreas.
AB  - The incidence of cystic neoplasms of the pancreas (CNP) is steadily increasing,
      most likely due to the commonly increased use of cross-sectional abdominal
      imaging. Most of these lesions are benign at the time of initial presentation,
      but some harbor malignant potential that either requires constant surveillance or
      surgical resection. However, it is still unclear when resection is mandated and
      when observation is sufficient. Moreover, the extent of resection and the
      technique used are also a matter of debate since limited resection and minimally
      invasive procedures are becoming more popular. Therefore, the aim of this review
      was to assess the role of surgery for the management of CNPs with an emphasis on
      novel procedures.

PMID- 28565892
TI  - Metabolic surgery and nutritional deficiencies.
AB  - The increasing prevalence of morbid obesity in Germany is associated with an
      increasing number of metabolic surgical interventions. Short-term surgical and
      long-term metabolic complications such as nutrient deficiencies can be considered
      as the main risks of metabolic surgery with its malabsorptive but also
      restrictive procedures. The aim of this review was to characterize the most
      relevant metabolic complications specific for the various bariatric procedures,
      which, subsequently, require a permanent surveillance and supplementation,
      respectively. Furthermore, we aimed to identify if there are diagnostic and
      therapeutic measures that can prevent those complications. Restrictive bariatric
      surgery such as "gastric banding" and "sleeve gastrectomy" can be associated with
      deficiencies related to B-vitamins whereas iron, folate, vitamin B1, B12 and D
      deficiencies are associated with the malabsorptive procedure such as
      "biliopancreatic diversion," "duodenal switch" and "Roux-en-Y gastric bypass".
      Due to possible metabolic and surgical complications after bariatric surgery,
      patients need to undergo life-long medical and dietetic surveillance. The
      recently published guidelines of the "American Association of Bariatric and
      Metabolic Surgery" are the basis for recommendations on supplementation and
      treatment following weight loss surgery.

PMID- 28565893
TI  - Positron emission tomography/computer tomography in gastrointestinal
      malignancies: current potential and challenges.
AB  - The use of 18F-Fluoro-D-deoxy-glucose -positron emission tomography/computed
      tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in gastrointestinal (GI)-malignancies may not be as
      straightforward as in many other cancers, but the potential is clearly there in
      select clinical settings. The challenges include the relative non-specificity of
      FDG, the variable degrees of physiologic FDG-uptake, and the heterogeneous FDG
      uptake in different cell types within the GI-domain, which all together hamper
      the use in primary diagnostics. In general, the literature is older,
      heterogeneous, and based on stand-alone PET, which is now largely considered
      obsolete. There is emerging evidence for use of hybrid PET/CT, but the literature
      is still relatively sparse. The main indications are preoperative staging of
      distant metastases, not only in limited disease but also before curative
      treatment of limited metastatic disease. Controversies remain concerning liver
      metastases but improved technology boast well for the future role of FDG-PET/CT
      not least concerning equivocal findings on conventional imaging. In our opinion,
      an important upcoming indication is early response assessment, perhaps mostly in
      the neoadjuvant settings of upper GI-malignancies, but standardization of
      response assessment criteria is lacking before a more widespread implementation
      is feasible. Finally, there seems to be a significant role in recurrence
      detection, especially in CRC.

PMID- 28565894
TI  - Contemporary strategies to improve the outcome in locally advanced pancreatic
      cancer.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with an overall
      5-year survival rate of less than 7%. After many years of basic and clinical
      research efforts, pancreatic cancer patients presenting with locally advanced,
      unresectable tumors remain a therapeutic challenge. Despite the lack of high
      quality randomized controlled trials, perioperative/neoadjuvant treatment
      strategies seem to be beneficial in these patients. At present the FOLFIRINOX
      regimen, which was established in the palliative setting, is increasingly
      recognized as the backbone of neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced PDAC.
      Surgical resection follows the same principles and guidelines as upfront surgery
      specifically regarding the extent of resection including lymphadenectomy,
      vascular resections and multivisceral resections. Because of the limited
      diagnostic accuracy of restaging after neoadjuvant treatment, an adjusted
      intraoperative strategy is necessary to minimize the risk of debulking procedures
      and maximize the chance of a potential curative resection. Locally advanced PDAC
      requires a multidisciplinary and individualized treatment approach, and further
      research efforts for novel and innovative therapies. This article provides an
      updated overview on strategies to improve the outcome in locally advanced PDAC.

PMID- 28565896
TI  - Effects of magnetically controlled growing rods surgery on pulmonary function in
      young subjects with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and other neuromuscular
      scoliosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of magnetically
      controlled growing rods surgery (MCGRS) of the scoliosis on pulmonary function in
      children with neuromuscular scoliosis. METHODS: Seven patients, 85.7% female
      (mean +/- SD age: 6.7+/-1.2 years), with neuromuscular scoliosis (4 SMA II, 2
      congenital myopathies and 1 VACTER syndrome), received MCGRS of the spine in the
      thoraco-lumbar area. The outcome measures were clinical features and pulmonary
      function (forced vital capacity [FVC] and forced expiratory volume in 1st second
      [FEV1], were collected. All measures were collected at pre-, post-intervention
      and follow-up (short-term [0-6 months], mid-term [7-12 months], and long-term [13
      24 months]). RESULTS: MCGRS reduced Cobb angle after intervention in 100% in
      subjects and this result was maintained at 24-month follow-up (all, P=0.001).
      There was no significant difference in FVC or FEV1 between preoperative and each
      postoperative period, (P>0.05). Analyses of the correlation coefficients
      indicated no significant associations between changes in pulmonary function and
      scoliosis. CONCLUSIONS: The current study found that MCGRS addressed to the
      scoliosis maintained pulmonary function during long-term follow-up; However,
      pulmonary function was not associated with scoiosis in children with
      neuromuscular scoliosis.

PMID- 28565895
TI  - Quality of the tools used to assess aerobic capacity in people with multiple
      sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Assessments of physical fitness, including exercise tolerance
      functions, are valuable in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Many tools with
      widely varying advantages and disadvantages have been used to assess physical
      fitness in research and clinical practice. To date, there are no recommendations
      regarding the best tools to use for this purpose in persons with MS. This study
      aims to systematically review the psychometric properties of the tools used to
      assess exercise tolerance functions in persons with MS, and to propose
      recommendations regarding the best test to use. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The
      literature was searched (PubMed, SPORTdiscus, PEDro, MEDLINE, Embase via Scopus,
      CINAHL, and PsycInfo) to identify the tools most frequently used to assess
      exercise tolerance functions. These tools were systematically analyzed. EVIDENCE
      SYNTHESIS: Forty-eight articles were selected. Six tools or categories of tools
      concerning exercise tolerance functions were identified. Whole-body exercise
      tests combined with gas exchange analysis had the best psychometric properties
      (e.g., validity, reliability) for assessing aerobic capacity in pwMS with mild to
      moderate disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] <=6.5). Although
      sometimes used for this purpose, walk tests seemed to assess walking performance
      rather than exercise tolerance functions. The psychometric properties of other
      tests had scarcely been studied. CONCLUSIONS: The tools vary widely in quality.
      Whole-body exercise testing combined with gas exchange analysis has the best
      psychometric properties of the reviewed tools. If gas exchange analysis is
      feasible, whole-body exercise tests combined with gas exchange analysis, with
      maximal exercise effort for pwMS with EDSS <=4 and submaximal exercise effort for
      pwMS with EDSS >=4.5, should be recommended to assess exercise tolerance, both in
      research and in clinical practice. A selection algorithm is proposed.

PMID- 28565897
TI  - Management of patients with an unruptured intracranial aneurysm and a history of
      malignancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Management of a patient with an unruptured intracranial aneurysm
      (UIA) who has a history of malignancy can be challenging due to considerations
      related to the natural history of the aneurysm and risk of recurrence or
      progression of malignancy. The current study presents our experience with both
      conservative management and interventional treatment of patients with UIAs and a
      remote or recent history of cancer. METHODS: Consecutive patients with a history
      of malignancy and UIA were classified into the following groups: Group I
      (diagnoses of both UIA and cancer within 3 years) and Group II (known cancer with
      new UIA diagnosed >= 3 years after cancer). Patient demographics, clinical
      characteristics, aneurysm/treatment characteristics, and outcomes were collected
      prospectively. We studied the following outcomes: perioperative and mid-/long
      term complications, aneurysm rupture, retreatment/recurrence rates, long-term
      neurological outcome, and possible impact of cancer history on decision-making
      for treatment. RESULTS: A total of 122 patients were included in this study (55
      in Group I and 67 in Group II). Patients in Group I underwent aneurysm treatment
      significantly less often than those in Group II (20.0% versus 46.3%, P=0.002).
      There was no difference in neurological morbidity rates between the two groups
      after a mean follow-up of 22.3 months (3.6% versus 3.0%, P=0.29). Overall,
      untreated patients experienced an annualized rupture rate of 1.6% (95% CI=0.0%
      3.4%, 3/187.6 ruptures/person years). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with an UIA and a
      history of cancer should be considered for management with either conservative
      management or invasive techniques. The optimal UIA management is defined on a
      case-by-case basis carefully comparing the prognosis of the patient's malignancy
      with the natural history of the aneurysm and the risk of interventional
      treatment.

PMID- 28565898
TI  - Vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine status in obese and atopic children: a
      preliminary study.

PMID- 28565899
TI  - Post-infectious persistent cough: pathogenesis and therapeutic options.
AB  - Post-infectious cough is a common symptom associated with common colds and/or
      upper respiratory tract infection. This cough is expected to last for only for
      few days and resolve spontaneously, whilst when persists for longer than three
      weeks is defined "persistent" and is associated tickling or an irritating
      sensation in the throat which often leads to paroxysms of coughing. Persistent
      post-infectious cough can cause morbidity since it may interfere with usual
      living. Despite the recent advances in understanding the mechanisms that regulate
      cough, in physiological and pathological conditions, current therapeutic options
      for post-infectious cough are little or only moderately effective.

PMID- 28565900
TI  - The impact of intrauterine growth restriction on respiratory outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is caused by fetal growth
      below what is normal for its genetic potential. Recent studies have shown a
      distinct association between changes in umbilical artery flow in IUGR subjects
      and an increased risk of respiratory morbidity and was to find the impact of IUGR
      on the respiratory outcomes of premature neonates born with less than 32 weeks
      gestational age. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study targeted infants born
      with less than 32 weeks of gestation, admitted at NCIU, between January 2010 and
      December 2016. Each selected IUGR case was matched according to gestational age
      and sex with an appropriate birthweight newborn at a 1:2 ratio, within a 12-month
      period. RESULTS: The study involved 126 neonates, 42 with IUGR, and 84 control
      subjects. IUGR was not identified as a predictor of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
      (BDP) (OR 4.80, 95% CI 1.14-20.21, p = 0.033). Abnormal umbilical artery flow (OR
      4.80, 95% CI 1.14-20.21, p = 0.033) and late onset sepsis (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.04
      10.56, p = 0.044) were significantly associated with BDP. CONCLUSIONS: It is
      essential to recognize changes in the umbilical artery flow, especially in high
      risk pregnancies such as IUGR, since these represent an a priori risk marker for
      the development of BDP. The individual and combined effect of IUGR, alterations
      on umbilical artery flow and extreme prematurity has not yet been completely
      clarified on the impact on lung morbidity, requiring a larger number of studies.

PMID- 28565901
TI  - The influence of extra-curricular physical activities in the development of
      coordination in pre-school children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to provide information in relation to the
      coordination ability of pre-school children. The study aimed to investigate the
      influence of pre-school physical activity, as part of the enrichment curriculum,
      on the coordination of the pupils. METHODS: A sample of 120 preschool children
      (M=63; F=58) aged 4 and 5 years old (M = 4.47, SD = 0.5), with differing levels
      of physical activity carried out by the Children Body Coordination Test
      instrument (TCCI), Soares (1993). Proceeded to descriptive statistical analysis
      of coordinative benefits students, depending on the variables gender, age group,
      practical activities, years of practice, number of workouts and total weekly
      sessions of physical activity. We conducted an inferential analysis of data for
      comparison of means in the variables under study. RESULTS: Practicing enrichment
      activities has been demonstrated to assist in the development of children's motor
      skills with those having engaged in such activities achieving a higher level of
      performance. CONCLUSIONS: The practice of extracurricular physical activities
      significantly enhances the general coordinative abilities in children aged 4 and
      5 years of age, but it was found that 5 year old children had a significantly
      higher performance compared to 4 year old children.

PMID- 28565902
TI  - The significance of genetics in pathophysiologic models of premature birth.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prematurity is a major health problem in all countries, especially
      in certain ethnic groups and increasing recurrence imply the influence of genetic
      factors. Published genetic polymorphisms are identified in relation to the 4
      pathophysiological models of prematurity described: chorioamniotic-decidual
      inflammation, premature contraction pathway, decidual hemorrhage and
      susceptibility to environmental toxins. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The research
      identified 240 articles, 52 articles are excluded because they are not original,
      not written in English or duplicated. From them 125 articles were included in
      qualitative analysis This review aims to update recent knowledge about genes
      associated with premature birth. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Polymorphisms in specific
      genes are responsible, in varying degrees, for prematurity and the different
      pathogenetic mechanisms are involved. CONCLUSIONS: The fetus is genetically
      different from its mother and is recognized as such by the immune system.
      Generality has shown that maternal physiology adapts to tolerate and nourish the
      fetus and that both mother and fetus play an active role in the birth process.

PMID- 28565903
TI  - Uncatalyzed Carboboration of Seven-Membered-Ring trans-Alkenes: Formation of Air
      Stable Trialkylboranes.
AB  - Seven-membered-ring trans-alkenes undergo rapid, uncatalyzed carboboration
      reactions to form trialkylboranes as single diastereomers. In contrast with other
      trialkylboranes, which can ignite in the presence of oxygen, these
      trialkylboranes are stable in air. Hindered trialkylboranes can undergo reverse
      hydroboration reactions to form allylic silanes or can be oxidized to afford
      highly substituted triols. This reaction sequence permits the construction of
      compounds with up to five consecutive stereocenters. Control experiments and
      computational studies support a concerted mechanism for the migratory insertion
      of the alkene into the carbon-boron bond, similar to the mechanism for
      hydroboration.

PMID- 28565904
TI  - Correction to Development of Comparative Toxicity Potentials of TiO2
      Nanoparticles for Use in Life Cycle Assessment.

PMID- 28565906
TI  - Reversible Generation of Labile Secondary Carbocations from Alcohols in the
      Nanospace of H-Mordenite and Their Long-Lasting Preservation at Ambient
      Temperature.
AB  - Secondary carbocations are rarely observed spectrometrically for prolonged
      durations at ambient temperatures because of their instability. In this study,
      when 4,4'-difluorobenzhydrol (1) was mixed with H-mordenite (H-Mor), the 4,4'
      difluorodiphenylmethyl cation (2) was generated as the main product, identified
      by UV-vis and 13C-MAS NMR spectroscopies, and was preserved for over 1 week at
      ambient temperature. Surprisingly, the polymerization and disproportionation of 1
      barely proceeded within the micropores of H-Mor. However, these side reactions
      prevailed in TfOH and formation of 2 was not observed. Preservation of other
      secondary carbocations from benzhydrol, 4,4'-dichlorobenzhydrol, and 9-fluorenol
      was also realized in H-Mor. It was confirmed that the generation of 2 from 1 was
      controlled by thermodynamic equilibrium rather than kinetic regulations. The
      equilibrium between 2 and 1 was accompanied by reversible chromism, which could
      be easily controlled by altering the moisture content in H-Mor. Moreover, novel
      insights into specific acid catalysis in zeolites densely populated with acid
      sites on the inner surface of micropores are described herein.

PMID- 28565905
TI  - Enantioselective CuH-Catalyzed Hydroacylation Employing Unsaturated Carboxylic
      Acids as Aldehyde Surrogates.
AB  - The direct asymmetric copper hydride (CuH)-catalyzed coupling of alpha,beta
      unsaturated carboxylic acids to aryl alkenes to access chiral alpha-aryl dialkyl
      ketones is reported. A variety of substrate substitution patterns, sensitive
      functional groups, and heterocycles are tolerated in this reaction, which
      significantly expands the range of accessible products compared with existing
      hydroacylation methodology. Although mechanistic studies are ongoing, we propose
      that CuH-catalyzed silylation of unsaturated acids occurs to access a uniquely
      effective acyl electrophilic coupling partner.

PMID- 28565907
TI  - Thermodynamic Characterization of Hydration Sites from Integral Equation-Derived
      Free Energy Densities: Application to Protein Binding Sites and Ligand Series.
AB  - Water molecules play an essential role for mediating interactions between ligands
      and protein binding sites. Displacement of specific water molecules can favorably
      modulate the free energy of binding of protein-ligand complexes. Here, the nature
      of water interactions in protein binding sites is investigated by 3D RISM (three
      dimensional reference interaction site model) integral equation theory to
      understand and exploit local thermodynamic features of water molecules by ranking
      their possible displacement in structure-based design. Unlike molecular dynamics
      based approaches, 3D RISM theory allows for fast and noise-free calculations
      using the same detailed level of solute-solvent interaction description. Here we
      correlate molecular water entities instead of mere site density maxima with local
      contributions to the solvation free energy using novel algorithms. Distinct water
      molecules and hydration sites are investigated in multiple protein-ligand X-ray
      structures, namely streptavidin, factor Xa, and factor VIIa, based on 3D RISM
      derived free energy density fields. Our approach allows the semiquantitative
      assessment of whether a given structural water molecule can potentially be
      targeted for replacement in structure-based design. Finally, PLS-based regression
      models from free energy density fields used within a 3D-QSAR approach (CARMa -
      comparative analysis of 3D RISM Maps) are shown to be able to extract relevant
      information for the interpretation of structure-activity relationship (SAR)
      trends, as demonstrated for a series of serine protease inhibitors.

PMID- 28565909
TI  - Virtual Issue in Memory of David Chandler.

PMID- 28565911
TI  - Spotlights: Volume 8, Issue 11.

PMID- 28565912
TI  - Are Electron Affinity and Ionization Potential Intrinsic Parameters to Predict
      the Electron or Hole Acceptor Character of Amorphous Molecular Materials?

PMID- 28565908
TI  - Synthesis and Preliminary Studies of a Novel Negative Allosteric Modulator, 7
      ((2,5-Dioxopyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl)-4-(2-fluoro-4-[11C]methoxyphenyl) quinoline-2
      carboxamide, for Imaging of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 2.
AB  - Metabotropic glutamate 2 receptors (mGlu2) are involved in the pathogenesis of
      several CNS disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Pharmacological modulation
      of this target represents a potential disease-modifying approach for the
      treatment of substance abuse, depression, schizophrenia, and dementias. While
      quantification of mGlu2 receptors in the living brain by positron emission
      tomography (PET) would help us better understand signaling pathways relevant to
      these conditions, few successful examples have been demonstrated to image mGlu2
      in vivo, and a suitable PET tracer is yet to be identified. Herein we report the
      design and synthesis of a radiolabeled negative allosteric modulator (NAM) for
      mGlu2 PET tracer development based on a quinoline 2-carboxamide scaffold. The
      most promising candidate, 7-((2,5-dioxopyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl)-4-(2-fluoro-4
      [11C]methoxyphenyl) quinoline-2-carboxamide ([11C]QCA) was prepared in 13%
      radiochemical yield (non-decay-corrected at the end of synthesis) with >99%
      radiochemical purity and >74 GBq/MUmol (2 Ci/MUmol) specific activity. While the
      tracer showed limited brain uptake (0.3 SUV), probably attributable to effects on
      PgP/Bcrp efflux pump, in vitro autoradiography studies demonstrated heterogeneous
      brain distribution and specific binding. Thus, [11C]QCA is a chemical probe that
      provides the basis for the development of a new generation mGlu2 PET tracers.

PMID- 28565910
TI  - Photochemical Energy Storage and Electrochemically Triggered Energy Release in
      the Norbornadiene-Quadricyclane System: UV Photochemistry and IR
      Spectroelectrochemistry in a Combined Experiment.
AB  - The two valence isomers norbornadiene (NBD) and quadricyclane (QC) enable solar
      energy storage in a single molecule system. We present a new photoelectrochemical
      infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PEC-IRRAS) experiment, which allows
      monitoring of the complete energy storage and release cycle by in situ
      vibrational spectroscopy. Both processes were investigated, the photochemical
      conversion from NBD to QC using the photosensitizer 4,4'
      bis(dimethylamino)benzophenone (Michler's ketone, MK) and the electrochemically
      triggered cycloreversion from QC to NBD. Photochemical conversion was obtained
      with characteristic conversion times on the order of 500 ms. All experiments were
      performed under full potential control in a thin-layer configuration with a
      Pt(111) working electrode. The vibrational spectra of NBD, QC, and MK were
      analyzed in the fingerprint region, permitting quantitative analysis of the
      spectroscopic data. We determined selectivities for both the photochemical
      conversion and the electrochemical cycloreversion and identified the critical
      steps that limit the reversibility of the storage cycle.

PMID- 28565913
TI  - Outer membrane cytochromes/flavin interactions in Shewanella spp.-A molecular
      perspective.
AB  - Extracellular electron transfer (EET) is intrinsically associated with the core
      phenomena of energy harvesting/energy conversion in natural ecosystems and
      biotechnology applications. However, the mechanisms associated with EET are
      complex and involve molecular interactions that take place at the "bionano
      interface" where biotic/abiotic interactions are usually explored. This work
      provides molecular perspective on the electron transfer mechanism(s) employed by
      Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Molecular docking simulations were used to explain
      the interfacial relationships between two outer-membrane cytochromes (OMC) OmcA
      and MtrC and riboflavin (RF) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN), respectively. OMC
      flavin interactions were analyzed by studying the electrostatic potential, the
      hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface properties, and the van der Waals surface of the
      OMC proteins. As a result, it was proposed that the interactions between flavins
      and OMCs are based on geometrical recognition event. The possible docking
      positions of RF and FMN to OmcA and MtrC were also shown.

PMID- 28565915
TI  - In vitro mineralization of dual grafted polytetrafluoroethylene membranes.
AB  - The modification of biomaterials by radiation induced grafting is a promising
      method to improve their bioactivity. Successful introduction of carboxyl and
      amine functional groups on the surface of a polytetrafluoroethylene membrane was
      achieved by grafting of acrylic acid (AA) and 2-aminoethyl methacrylate
      hydrochloride (AEMA) using simultaneous gamma irradiation grafting. Chemical
      characterization by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of amine
      and carboxylate functionalities and indicated that all protonated amines formed
      ion pairs with carboxyl groups, but not all carboxyl are involved in ion pairing.
      It was found that the irradiation doses (2, 5, or 10 kGy) affected the grafting
      outcome only when sulfuric acid (0.5 or 0.9 M) was added as a polymerization
      enhancer. The use of the inorganic acid successfully enhanced the total graft
      yield (GY), but the changes in the graft extent (GE) were not conclusive. Dual
      functional films were produced by either a one- or a two-step process. Generally,
      higher GY and GE values were observed for the samples produced by the two-step
      grafting of AA and AEMA. The in vitro mineralization in 1.5* simulated body fluid
      (SBF) induced the formation of carbonated hydroxyapatite as verified by FITR. All
      samples showed an increase in weight after mineralization with significantly
      larger increases observed for the samples which had the 1.5* SBF changed every
      third day compared to every seventh. For the dual functional samples, it was
      found that the sample grafted by the one-step method shows a significantly higher
      increase in weight despite a much lower GY compared to the sample prepared by the
      two-step method and this was attributed to the different architecture of grafted
      chains.

PMID- 28565914
TI  - Human melanoma inhibitory protein binds to the FN12-14 Hep II domain of
      fibronectin.
AB  - The heparin binding site (Hep II) of fibronectin plays a major role in tumor cell
      metastasis. Its interaction with heparan sulfate proteoglycans occurs in a
      variety of physiological processes including focal adhesion and migration. The
      melanoma inhibitory activity (MIA) is an important protein that is functionally
      involved in melanoma development, progression, and tumor cell invasion. After its
      secretion by malignant melanoma cells, MIA interacts with fibronectin and thereby
      actively facilitates focal cell detachment from surrounding structures and
      strongly promotes tumor cell invasion and the formation of metastases. In this
      report, the authors have determined the molecular basis of the interaction of MIA
      with the Hep II domain of fibronectin based on nuclear magnetic resonance
      spectroscopic binding assays. The authors have identified the type III modules 12
      to 14 of fibronectin's Hep II as the major MIA binding sites. These results now
      provide a new target protein-protein binding interface for the discovery of novel
      antimetastatic agents against malignant melanoma in the future.

PMID- 28565917
TI  - Differences in carbon source utilization of Salmonella Oranienburg and Saintpaul
      isolated from river water.
AB  - Long-term exposure to river water by non-indigenous micro-organisms such as
      Salmonella may affect metabolic adaptation to carbon sources. This study was
      conducted to determine differences in carbon source utilization of Salmonella
      Oranienburg and Salmonella Saintpaul (isolated from tropical river water) as well
      as the control strain Salmonella Typhimurium exposed to laboratory, river water,
      and host cells (Hep-2 cell line) growth conditions. Results showed that
      Salmonella Oranienburg and Salmonella Saintpaul showed better ability for carbon
      source utilization under the three growth conditions evaluated; however, S.
      Oranienburg showed the fastest and highest utilization on different carbon
      sources, including D-Glucosaminic acid, N-acetyl-D-Glucosamine, Glucose-1
      phosphate, and D-Galactonic acid, while Salmonella Saintpaul and S. Typhimurium
      showed a limited utilization of carbon sources. In conclusion, this study
      suggests that environmental Salmonella strains show better survival and
      preconditioning abilities to external environments than the control strain based
      on their plasticity on diverse carbon sources use.

PMID- 28565916
TI  - Ubiquitin immobilized on mesoporous MCM41 silica surfaces - Analysis by solid
      state NMR with biophysical and surface characterization.
AB  - Deriving the conformation of adsorbed proteins is important in the assessment of
      their functional activity when immobilized. This has particularly important
      bearings on the design of contemporary and new encapsulated enzyme-based drugs,
      biosensors, and other bioanalytical devices. Solid-state nuclear magnetic
      resonance (NMR) measurements can expand our molecular view of proteins in this
      state and of the molecular interactions governing protein immobilization on
      popular biocompatible surfaces such as silica. Here, the authors study the
      immobilization of ubiquitin on the mesoporous silica MCM41 by NMR and other
      techniques. Protein molecules are shown to bind efficiently at pH 5 through
      electrostatic interactions to individual MCM41 particles, causing their
      agglutination. The strong attraction of ubiquitin to MCM41 surface is given
      molecular context through evidence of proximity of basic, carbonyl and polar
      groups on the protein to groups on the silica surface using NMR measurements. The
      immobilized protein exhibits broad peaks in two-dimensional 13C dipolar-assisted
      rotational resonance spectra, an indication of structural multiplicity. At the
      same time, cross-peaks related to Tyr and Phe sidechains are missing due to
      motional averaging. Overall, the favorable adsorption of ubiquitin to MCM41 is
      accompanied by conformational heterogeneity and by a major loss of motional
      degrees of freedom as inferred from the marked entropy decrease. Nevertheless,
      local motions of the aromatic rings are retained in the immobilized state.

PMID- 28565918
TI  - Role for Thrombin Receptor Antagonism With Vorapaxar in Secondary Prevention of
      Atherothrombotic Events: From Bench to Bedside.
AB  - In spite of treatment with the current standard of care antiplatelet regimens
      including dual antiplatelet therapy, recurrence rates of ischemic events remain
      elevated for high-risk patients with atherosclerotic disease. This may be in part
      attributed to the fact that other key platelet activation pathways remain
      uninhibited and can thus continue to trigger platelet activation and lead to
      thrombotic complications. Thrombin is a powerful inducer of platelet activation
      and mediates its effects directly on platelets through protease activator
      receptors (PARs), particularly the PAR-1 subtype, making PAR-1 inhibition an
      attractive approach for reducing atherothrombotic events. These observations have
      led to the development of several PAR-1 antagonists. Vorapaxar is a direct
      inhibitor of PAR-1 and the only agent of this class approved for the prevention
      of recurrent ischemic events in patients with prior myocardial infarction or
      peripheral artery disease. In the present manuscript, we present a review of the
      pathophysiologic role of thrombin on thrombotic complications, the impact of
      vorapaxar on outcomes, including the most recent updates deriving from clinical
      trials, as well as future perspectives in the field.

PMID- 28565919
TI  - Age and Anatomical Location-Related Dermoscopic Patterns of 210 Acral Melanocytic
      Nevi in a Turkish Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dermoscopy is a useful tool for earlier diagnosis and differentiating
      benign lesions from melanoma. OBJECTIVES: We aim to investigate dermoscopic
      features of acral nevi, age, and localisation-related findings of these lesions.
      METHODS: This was an observational, descriptive study. Patients were
      retrospectively collected from the Department of Dermatology. The patients with
      acral nevi were included in the study. Inclusion criteria were Turkish
      nationality and the presence of at least 1 acral nevus diagnosed both clinically
      and dermoscopically. Lesions in dorsal and subungual areas were excluded. All
      nevi were examined by the same dermatologist. RESULTS: The most common
      dermoscopic patterns were as follows: parallel furrow (87 patients; 41.4%),
      globular (24 patients; 11.4%), fibrillar (22 patients; 10.5%), combination
      patterns (19 patients; 9.1%), globulostreak-like (16 patients; 7.6%), lattice
      like (15 patients; 7.1%), homogeneous (12 patients; 5.7%), nontypical (8
      patients; 3.8%), parallel ridge (4 patients; 1.9%), reticular (2 patients; 1.0%),
      and crista dotted pattern (1 patient; 0.5%). The parallel furrow pattern was the
      most common pattern in all localisations. The number of parallel furrow patterns
      (5 lesions) was equal to the globulostreak-like pattern (5 lesions) on the thenar
      area. The number of parallel furrow patterns (4 lesions) was equal to the
      fibrillar pattern (4 lesions) on the heel. Parallel furrow (dotted variants) (11
      lesions) and globulostreak-like patterns (5 lesions) were the most common
      patterns in the pediatric population (0-15 years old). The fibrillar pattern
      showed a tendency for soles (12 lesions), while a lattice-like pattern was seen
      more often in the plantar arch (3 lesions). CONCLUSIONS: Description of the
      dermoscopic features of acral nevi is important to improve management and reduce
      the number of unnecessary excisions. The most common patterns were parallel
      furrow, globular, and fibrillar in our study. Parallel furrow (dotted variants)
      and globulostreak-like patterns were the most common patterns in the pediatric
      population. The fibrillar pattern showed a tendency for soles, while a lattice
      like pattern was seen more often on the plantar arch. Therefore, there may be a
      relation between anatomic localisation, age, and dermoscopic pattern.

PMID- 28565920
TI  - Vulvar Basal Cell Carcinoma: Four Case Reports With Immunohistochemical Study.
AB  - Basal cell carcinomas (BCC) are the most frequent tumours in humans and normally
      appear in photoexposed areas of the skin. It is widely accepted that BCCs
      originate at follicular stem cells and consequently are very rare in nonhairy
      areas. Here, we report 4 cases of vulvar BCC, 3 of which were located in a vulvar
      semimucous area, a nonphotoexposed area, and a nonhairy area. We have determined
      the CK7 and CK19 profile of all cases; both are markers of simple epithelium with
      glandular differentiation. Interestingly, all cases were positively stained for
      CK7 and CK19. Considering that the vulvar region is rich in sebaceous and
      apocrine units, we hypothesise a glandular origin of BCCs situated in the vulvar
      region.

PMID- 28565921
TI  - Interpretation of environmental tracer data for conceptual understanding of
      groundwater flow: an application for fractured aquifer systems in the Klodzko
      Basin, Sudetes, Poland.
AB  - Environmental isotopes and hydrogeological data have been used for the
      construction of a conceptual model of fresh groundwater flow in the Klodzko
      Basin, Sudetes, Poland. The model has allowed the verification of a groundwater
      circulation scheme resulting from the general morphological assumptions and the
      recharge role to the surrounding mountains. Combined interpretation of the
      tritium ages and the isotopic altitude effect allowed determining the volume of
      water-bearing rock Vr and hydrogeological parameters of systems drained by
      springs and wells. Prior to the final determination of the recharge zone of
      individual objects, calculations were made for the thickness of the flow zone (h)
      and the distance from the recharge zone to the drainage point (L). The recharge
      areas for springs are located within a distance of 1-1.5 km and are characterized
      by a width of 0.75-1.65 km. The recharge area of wells is located in
      significantly longer distances of 2.1-12 km but yet definitely lower width. The
      recharge of groundwater from the Western direction seems to be obvious for all
      the wells and springs located westward from Nysa Klodzka River. The eastern
      component of the recharge appeared during the interpretation of the well in
      Dlugopole. Dedicated to Professor Peter Fritz on the occasion of his 80th
      birthday.

PMID- 28565922
TI  - God, heresy trials and psychiatry.

PMID- 28565923
TI  - Cost of high prevalence mental disorders: Findings from the 2007 Australian
      National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this project was to detail the costs associated with the
      high prevalence mental disorders (depression, anxiety-related and substance use)
      in Australia, using community-based, nationally representative survey data.
      METHODS: Respondents diagnosed, within the preceding 12 months, with high
      prevalence mental disorders using the Confidentialised Unit Record Files of the
      2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing were analysed. The use of
      healthcare resources (hospitalisations, consultations and medications),
      productivity loss, income tax loss and welfare benefits were estimated. Unit
      costs of healthcare services were obtained from the Independent Hospital Pricing
      Authority, Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Labour participation
      rates and unemployment rates were determined from the National Survey of Mental
      Health and Wellbeing. Daily wage rates adjusted by age and sex were obtained from
      Australian Bureau of Statistics and used to estimate productivity losses. Income
      tax loss was estimated based on the Australian Taxation Office rates. The average
      cost of commonly received Government welfare benefits adjusted by age was used to
      estimate welfare payments. All estimates were expressed in 2013-2014 AUD and
      presented from multiple perspectives including public sector, individuals,
      private insurers, health sector and societal. RESULTS: The average annual
      treatment cost for people seeking treatment was AUD660 (public), AUD195
      (individual), AUD1058 (private) and AUD845 from the health sector's perspective.
      The total annual healthcare cost was estimated at AUD974m, consisting of AUD700m
      to the public sector, AUD168m to individuals, and AUD107m to the private sector.
      The total annual productivity loss attributed to the population with high
      prevalence mental disorders was estimated at AUD11.8b, coupled with the yearly
      income tax loss at AUD1.23b and welfare payments at AUD12.9b. CONCLUSION: The
      population with high prevalence mental disorders not only incurs substantial cost
      to the Australian healthcare system but also large economic losses to society.

PMID- 28565924
TI  - The securitization of health in the context of the war on terror. National
      security and global health: the conflict of imperatives.
AB  - In this article, I want to show that the securitization of health issues in the
      name of national interests led to the militarization of health care in the
      context of the war against terrorism. However, the connection between health and
      security also gave way to the emergence of the notion of human security, thus,
      converging with the human right to health approach and the cosmopolitan discourse
      on global health. These two perspectives on the relation between health and
      security lead to conflicting imperatives in the current state of counter
      terrorism operations. I argue that when the securitization of health concerns in
      the name of national security conflicts with the provision of health care in the
      name of universal human rights, the higher moral end must trump the prudential
      one. Moreover, it is a duty to promote the human right to health when liberal
      democracies in foreign policies directly violate this moral ideal in the name of
      national security.

PMID- 28565925
TI  - Sexual minority youth and depressive symptoms or depressive disorder: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Research has suggested that sexual minority young people are more
      likely to have depressive symptoms or depressive disorder, but to date most
      studies in the field have relied on convenience-based samples. This study
      overcomes this limitation by systematically reviewing the literature from
      population-based studies and conducting a meta-analysis to identify whether
      depressive disorder and depressive symptoms are elevated in sexual minority
      youth. METHOD: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted and informed
      by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
      statement to determine if rates of depressive symptoms or depressive disorder
      differ for sexual minority youth, relative to heterosexual adolescents. MEDLINE,
      PsycINFO, EMBASE and ERIC databases were searched. Studies reporting depressive
      symptom data or the prevalence of depressive disorder in population-based samples
      of adolescents, which included sexual minority youth and heterosexual young
      people, were included in the review. A meta-analysis was conducted to examine
      differences between groups. RESULTS: Twenty-three articles met the inclusion
      criteria. The proportion of sexual minority youth in the studies ranged from 2.3%
      to 12%. Sexual minority youth reported higher rates of depressive symptoms and
      depressive disorder (odds ratio = 2.94, p < 0.001 and standardized mean
      difference, d = 0.39, p < 0.001) in comparison to heterosexual young people.
      Female sexual minority youth were more likely to report depressive symptoms when
      compared to male sexual minority youth (standardized mean difference, d = 0.34, p
      < 0.001). Limitations included variations in how sexuality was operationalized
      and how depressive symptoms or depressive disorder was measured. CONCLUSIONS:
      There is robust evidence that rates of depressive disorder and depressive
      symptoms are elevated in sexual minority youth in comparison to heterosexual
      young people. Despite the elevated risk of depressive symptoms or depressive
      disorder for sexual minority youth, the treatment for this group of young people
      has received little attention.

PMID- 28565926
TI  - C-peptide: A predictor of cardiovascular mortality in subjects with established
      atherosclerotic disease.
AB  - AIM: Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are independent risk factors for
      cardiovascular diseases. Levels of C-peptide are increased in these patients and
      its role in the atherosclerosis progression was studied in vitro and in vivo over
      the past years. To evaluate the possible use of C-peptide as cardiovascular
      biomarkers, we designed an observational study in which we enrolled patients with
      mono- or poly-vascular atherosclerotic disease. METHODS: We recruited 431
      patients with stable atherosclerosis and performed a yearly follow-up to estimate
      the cardiovascular and total mortality and cardiovascular events. RESULTS: We
      performed a mean follow-up of 56 months on 268 patients. A multivariate Cox
      analysis showed that C-peptide significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular
      mortality [Hazard Ratio: 1.29 (95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.65, p < 0.03513)]
      after adjustment for age, sex, diabetes treatment, estimated glomerular
      filtration rate and known diabetes status. Furthermore, levels of C-peptide were
      significantly correlated with metabolic parameters and atherogenic factors.
      CONCLUSION: C-peptide was associated with cardiovascular mortality independently
      of known diabetes status in a cohort of patients with chronic atherosclerotic
      disease. Future studies using C-peptide into a reclassification approach might be
      undertaken to consider its potential as a cardiovascular disease biomarker.

PMID- 28565927
TI  - Human Papilloma Virus-Associated Lips Verrucous Carcinoma in HIV-Infected Male.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, widely known as the necessary cause of
      cervical cancer, has been established as a major etiologic factor for head and
      neck cancer (HNC). HIV-infected individuals are at higher risk of HPV-associated
      cancers than the general population. We describe a 45-year-old man with HIV and
      HPV coinfection, who presented progressively enlarging verrucous neoformations of
      the lips. The final diagnosis of verrucous carcinoma was delayed. Early detection
      of HPV lesions in oral mucosa and HPV screening activities could be important in
      improving the diagnostic sensitivity for the HIV-infected patients with oral
      cancer.

PMID- 28565928
TI  - Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles as antimicrobials for therapeutics.
AB  - The use of iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (IMNP) in medical and pharmaceutical
      areas dates to the beginning of the 1970s, as carriers. Some other uses to these
      nanoparticles are in vitro separation, magnetic resonance imaging and drug
      targeting agent. Many preparations containing IMNP have been described and used
      in drug delivery, hyperthermia, in vitro separation, tissue repair, cellular
      therapy, for magnetic separation, magnetic resonance imaging, as spoilers for
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and more recently as sensors for metabolites and
      other biomolecules. The use of these nanostructures as antibacterial agents has
      also been reported, which could kill some bacteria species causing no damage to
      the human host cells. Recently, they have been used as hyperthermia agents to
      treat infections or cancer, which are more susceptible than the healthy host's
      cells. Engineering designs, physiochemical characteristics, biomedical
      applications of IMNP, toxicity and magnetic nanotoxicology have been discussed.
      However, the application of IMNP as antimicrobials is very important. Thus, this
      review explores the therapeutic activities of IMNP and their use as antimicrobial
      agents. These nanoparticles can be efficient for the treatment of microbial
      infections, probably acting as membrane permeability enhancer, damaging the cell
      wall or by generating reactive oxygen species.

PMID- 28565929
TI  - Effects of acute and chronic exposure to both 900 MHz and 2100 MHz
      electromagnetic radiation on glutamate receptor signaling pathway.
AB  - PURPOSE: To demonstrate the molecular effects of acute and chronic exposure to
      both 900 and 2100 MHz radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) on the
      hippocampal level/activity of some of the enzymes - including PKA, CaMKIIalpha,
      CREB, and p44/42 MAPK - from N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-related
      signaling pathways. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were divided into the following
      groups: sham rats, and rats exposed to 900 and 2100 MHz RF-EMR for 2 h/day for
      acute (1 week) or chronic (10 weeks), respectively. Western blotting and activity
      measurement assays were used to assess the level/activity of the selected
      enzymes. RESULTS: The obtained results revealed that the hippocampal
      level/activity of selected enzymes was significantly higher in the chronic groups
      as compared to the acute groups at both 900 and 2100 MHz RF-EMR exposure. In
      addition, hippocampal level/activity of selected enzymes was significantly higher
      at 2100 MHz RF-EMR than 900 MHz RF-EMR in both acute and chronic groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides experimental evidence that both exposure
      duration (1 week versus 10 weeks) and different carrier frequencies (900 vs. 2100
      MHz) had different effects on the protein expression of hippocampus in Wistar
      rats, which might encourage further research on protection against RF-EMR
      exposure.

PMID- 28565930
TI  - Current perspectives on the role of chemotherapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - Chemotherapy has long been integral to the treatment of chronic lymphocytic
      leukemia (CLL). Fludarabine/cyclophosphamide, chlorambucil and bendamustine are
      commonly used as a backbone, depending on the patient's age and general health.
      The advent of the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab and
      obinutuzumab, altered the face of treatment, and chemoimmunotherapy still forms
      the current standard first-line approach. However, the landscape is changing
      following the emergence of novel targeted agents, such as ibrutinib, idelalisib
      and venetoclax, which offer the chance for improved efficacy over standard
      therapy alone, with no substantial increase in toxicity. This review focuses on
      the role of chemotherapy in CLL, discussing the characteristics that define a
      state-of-the art chemotherapy, the current role of chemotherapy in the treatment
      of CLL, within the context of guidelines, and its future role in a setting in
      which chemotherapy-free regimens are being increasingly investigated.

PMID- 28565931
TI  - Histopathology and analyses of inflammation intensity in the gills of mussels
      exposed to silver nanoparticles: role of nanoparticle size, exposure time, and
      uptake pathways.
AB  - Environmentally induced perturbation of health parameters lead to morphological
      changes associated to the inflammatory response. Hematoxyline and eosin (H&E)
      stained gill filaments sections were examined for such changes and inflammation
      intensity was scored according to a quantitative model in order to evaluate the
      health status of in vivo exposed (for 3, 6, and 12 h) mussels to silver
      nanoparticles (Ag-NPs <50 nm and Ag-NPs <100 nm) prior and after the inhibition
      of two potential uptake pathways (clathrin- and caveolae-mediated endocytosis)
      with the aid of pharmaceutical inhibitors (amantadine and nystatin). The impacts
      of the nanoparticles (NPs) size, as well as their uptake routes within different
      time of exposure on the inflammatory response were assessed. The results showed
      that Ag-NPs clearly induced morphological changes associated to the inflammatory
      response in gill tissues (Mann-Whitney p values were <.05). It is also clear that
      the length of the exposure as well as the NP size highly impacted inflammation
      intensity (highest histopathological indices recorded with Ag-NPs <100 nm). Also,
      the routes of NPs entry noticed to be major factor underlying inflammatory
      response (significant inflammation intensity reported with Ag-NPs <50 nm after
      blockade of uptake routes; p <.05). Throughout, it was concluded that
      inflammation intensity was related to NPs size and exposure time. Overall, uptake
      routes are shown to be the major factor underlying nanotoxicity.

PMID- 28565932
TI  - Information Transfer Capacity of Articulators in American Sign Language.
AB  - The ability to convey information is a fundamental property of communicative
      signals. For sign languages, which are overtly produced with multiple, completely
      visible articulators, the question arises as to how the various channels co
      ordinate and interact with each other. We analyze motion capture data of American
      Sign Language (ASL) narratives, and show that the capacity of information
      throughput, mathematically defined, is highest on the dominant hand (DH). We
      further demonstrate that information transfer capacity is also significant for
      the non-dominant hand (NDH), and the head channel too, as compared to control
      channels (ankles). We discuss both redundancy and independence in articulator
      motion in sign language, and argue that the NDH and the head articulators
      contribute to the overall information transfer capacity, indicating that they are
      neither completely redundant to, nor completely independent of, the DH.

PMID- 28565934
TI  - Aceclofenac oil drops: characterization and evaluation against ocular
      inflammation.
AB  - Ocular inflammatory diseases, such as uveitis, scleritis, episcleritis and dry
      eye syndrome are commonly treated with eye drop formulations. In the present
      study, attempts were made to prepare aceclofenac oil formulations to evaluate its
      transcorneal permeation and anti-inflammatory effect. Ophthalmic solutions of
      aceclofenac with or without (0.5% v/v) benzyl alcohol were formulated in
      different vegetable oils and permeation studies were carried out. Aceclofenac
      ophthalmic solution in linseed oil containing benzyl alcohol exhibited maximum
      permeation (4.42% in goat, 4.26% in sheep and 3.94% in buffalo) through corneas
      under study. The partition characteristics of aceclofenac in linseed oil
      reinforced the results of permeation studies. The optimized formulation (linseed
      oil containing benzyl alcohol) showed better stability profile. Linseed oil
      aceclofenac formulation showed significant inhibitory effect on ocular
      inflammation induced by arachidonic acid in rabbit eyes (p < .05) and hence it
      can be considered as a potential approach for treatment of ocular inflammatory
      conditions.

PMID- 28565933
TI  - Comparing executive function, evoked hemodynamic response, and gait as predictors
      of variations in mobility for older adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Falls represent a major concern for older adults and may serve as
      clinically salient index events for those presenting in the prodromal stages of
      mild cognitive impairment. Declines in executive function performance and in gait
      consistency have shown promise in predicting fall risk; however, associated
      neurophysiological underpinnings have received less attention. In this study, we
      used a multimodal approach to assess fall risk in a group of older adults with
      and without a previous fall history. METHOD: Processing speed, inductive
      reasoning, verbal fluency, crystallized ability, episodic memory, and executive
      functioning were assessed using standardized neuropsychological tests. Cognitive
      interference was assessed using the Multi-Source Interference Task.
      Spatiotemporal gait parameters were assessed with and without cognitive load
      using a 6.4-m instrumented walkway. Hemodynamic responses were measured using
      functional near-infrared spectroscopy. RESULTS: Whereas no group differences were
      observed in cognitive behavioral performance, during a cognitive interference
      task fallers displayed more oxygenated hemoglobin across the prefrontal cortex
      than nonfallers, suggesting that engaging in the cognitive task was more
      effortful for them overall, therefore eliciting greater cortical activation.
      Between-group differences in spatial as well as temporal gait parameters were
      also observed. CONCLUSIONS: These results are in keeping with assertions that
      diminished executive control is related to fall risk. Notably, the group
      differences observed in prefrontal cortical activation and in gait parameters may
      ultimately precede those observed in cognitive behavioral performance, with
      implications for measurement sensitivity and early identification.

PMID- 28565935
TI  - Why overall survival and not progression free survival improves in era of program
      death inhibitors.

PMID- 28565936
TI  - Osimertinib: A third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor for treatment of
      epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer with the
      acquired Thr790Met mutation.
AB  - Osimertinib is a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved for the treatment of metastatic EGFR
      T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients failing
      previous TKI therapy. The T790M mutation is an acquired resistance mechanism
      found in over half of patients with NSCLC progressing on first-generation TKIs.
      First- and second-generation TKIs do not inhibit the T790M mutation at clinically
      relevant concentrations. Osimertinib is selective for mutated forms of EGFR,
      including the TKI-sensitizing mutations L858R and exon 19 deletions, as well as
      the acquired T790M resistance mutation. In a trial comparing osimertinib to
      platinum doublet therapy among patients with the T790M mutation progressing on
      first-line TKI therapy, median progression-free survival was significantly longer
      in patients receiving osimertinib. Osimertinib has a favorable safety profile
      compared to platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Common adverse events include
      diarrhea, skin rash, dry skin, and paronychia; however, because it spares wild
      type EGFR, these toxicities appear to occur with less frequency and severity
      compared to other TKIs. Serious, but rare, adverse events include pneumonitis,
      interstitial lung disease-like events, QT interval prolongation, and reduced
      ejection fraction. Osimertinib has the unique ability to distribute readily into
      brain tissue compared with other TKIs, giving it a potential role in the
      treatment and/or prevention of CNS metastases; future studies are warranted in
      this area. An ongoing study evaluating osimertinib versus first-generation TKIs
      as first-line treatment for patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC may help
      to define the role of osimertinib as front-line therapy.

PMID- 28565937
TI  - App-guided exposure and response prevention for obsessive compulsive disorder: an
      open pilot trial.
AB  - Although effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exist,
      there are significant barriers to receiving evidence-based care. Mobile health
      applications (Apps) offer a promising way of overcoming these barriers by
      increasing access to treatment. The current study investigated the feasibility,
      acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of LiveOCDFree, an App designed to help
      OCD patients conduct exposure and response prevention (ERP). Twenty-one
      participants with mild to moderate symptoms of OCD were enrolled in a 12-week
      open trial of App-guided self-help ERP. Self-report assessments of OCD,
      depression, anxiety, and quality of life were completed at baseline, mid
      treatment, and post-treatment. App-guided ERP was a feasible and acceptable self
      help intervention for individuals with OCD, with high rates of retention and
      satisfaction. Participants reported significant improvement in OCD and anxiety
      symptoms pre- to post-treatment. Findings suggest that LiveOCDFree is a feasible
      and acceptable self-help intervention for OCD. Preliminary efficacy results are
      encouraging and point to the potential utility of mobile Apps in expanding the
      reach of existing empirically supported treatments.

PMID- 28565938
TI  - N-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzamide derivatives as potential memory
      enhancers: synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular simulation studies.
AB  - The present paper describes the synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular
      simulation studies of a series of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzamide
      derivatives with N,N-dialkylaminoethoxy/propoxy moiety as potential memory
      enhancers with acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting activity having IC50 in low
      micromolar range (4.0-16.5 MUM). All the compounds showed a good degree of
      agreement between in vivo and in vitro results as most of these derivatives
      showed dose-dependent increase in percent retention. Compound 10a showed
      significant % retention of 84.73 +/- 4.51 as compared to piracetam (46.88 +/-
      5.42) at 3 mg kg-1 and also exhibited a maximal percent inhibition of 97% at 50
      MUM. Molecular docking, MM-GBSA and molecular simulation studies were performed
      establishing a correlation between the experimental biology and in silico
      results. In silico results indicate that all the compounds have better docking
      scores and predicted binding free energies as compared to cocrystallized ligand
      with the best potent ligand retaining conserved hydrophobic interactions with
      residues of catalytic triad (HIS447), catalytic anionic site (CAS) (TRP86,
      TYR337, PHE338) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) (TYR72, TYR124, TRP286 and
      TYR341). Root mean square deviation (RMSD = 2.4 A) and root mean square
      fluctuations of 10a-AChE complex during simulation proved its stable nature in
      binding toward acetylcholinesterase. The docked conformation of 10a and other
      analogs at the binding site have also been simulated with polar and nonpolar
      interactions interlining the gorge residues from PAS to catalytic triad.

PMID- 28565939
TI  - Homicide in the western family and background factors of a perpetrator.
AB  - AIMS: Familicide is a multiple-victim homicide incident in which the killer's
      spouse and one or more children are slain. A systematic review was conducted to
      reveal the background factors of western homicide perpetrators. METHODS: The
      systematic search was performed in the Arto, Medic, Cinahl, Medline, EBSCOhost
      Academic Search Premier and Social Services abstracts databases. The keywords
      were familicide, family homicide, familicide-suicide, filicide-suicide, extended
      suicide, child, murder, family, filicide and infanticide. The searches revealed
      4139 references from the databases. The references were filtered and 32 peer
      reviewed research articles revealed in years 2004-2014 were selected as data. The
      articles were analysed using inductive content analysis, by finding all possible
      background factors related to homicide. RESULTS: The factors were described as
      percentages of the range. The background factors of familicide perpetrators were
      categorised as follows: perpetrators who had committed homicide of a child and
      intimate partner and possibly committed suicide; a father had who killed a child;
      a mother who had killed a child; a father who had committed a filicide-suicide;
      and a mother who had committed a filicide-suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological
      instability, violence and crime were found in all these categories of
      familicides. Perpetrators who had committed a suicide in addition to the
      familicide had more often been diagnosed with depression, but they sought
      treatment for mental health problems less often and had violence and self
      destructiveness less often in their background than in other familicide
      categories. Social and healthcare professionals should be more sensitive to
      emerging family problems and be prepared for intervention.

PMID- 28565940
TI  - Exposure to suicide behaviour and individual risk of self-harm: Findings from a
      nationally representative New Zealand high school survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine whether there is an association between students self
      reported suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury and exposure to suicidal
      behaviour among friends, family members or within school communities. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative health and well-being
      survey of 8500 New Zealand high school students conducted from March through
      November 2012. Students' self-reported suicide attempts and repeated non-suicidal
      self-injury was examined in relation to student reports of self-harming behaviour
      among friends and family as well as data from school administrators of completed
      suicides within the school community. RESULTS: Almost 1 in 20 (4.5%) students
      reported a suicide attempt in the last 12 months and 7.9% reported repeated non
      suicidal self-injury in the last 12 months. The risk of both suicide attempts and
      repeated non-suicidal self-injury was highest among females, students from homes
      with economic deprivation and among students reporting an episode of low mood in
      the previous 12 months. Students exposed to suicide attempts or completed suicide
      among friends and/or family members were at increased risk of reporting attempted
      suicide and repeated non-suicidal self-injury in the last year. There was no
      association between completed suicide in school community and students self
      reported suicide attempts or repeated non-suicidal self-injury. CONCLUSIONS: Low
      mood and exposure to suicide attempts of friends and family members are
      associated with suicide attempts and repeated non-suicidal self-injury in New
      Zealand high school students. This research highlights importance of supporting
      adolescents with low mood and exposed to suicide of friends and family.

PMID- 28565942
TI  - Recurrent administration of the nitric oxide donor, isosorbide dinitrate, induces
      a persistent cephalic cutaneous hypersensitivity: A model for migraine
      progression.
AB  - Background A subgroup of migraineurs experience an increase in attack frequency
      leading to chronic migraine. Methods We assessed in rats the roles of dose and
      repeat administration of systemic isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN), a nitric oxide
      donor, on the occurrence and development of cephalic/face and
      extracephalic/hindpaw mechanical allodynia as a surrogate of migraine pain, and
      the effect of acute systemic sumatriptan and olcegepant and chronic systemic
      propranolol on these behavioral changes. Results A single high (H-ISDN) but not
      low (L-ISDN) dose of ISDN induces a reversible cephalic and extracephalic
      mechanical allodynia. However, with repeat administration, L-ISDN produces
      reversible cephalic but never extracephalic allodynia, whereas H-ISDN induces
      cephalic and extracephalic allodynia that are both potentiated. H-ISDN-induced
      cephalic allodynia thus gains persistency. Sumatriptan and olcegepant block
      single H-ISDN-induced behavioral changes, but only olcegepant reduces these acute
      changes when potentiated by repeat administration. Neither sumatriptan nor
      olcegepant prevent chronic cephalic hypersensitivity. Conversely, propranolol
      blocks repeat H-ISDN-induced chronic, but not acute, behavioral changes.
      Conclusions Repeated ISDN administration appears to be a naturalistic rat model
      for migraine progression, suitable for screening acute and preventive migraine
      therapies. It suggests frequent and severe migraine attacks associated with
      allodynia may be a risk factor for disease progression.

PMID- 28565941
TI  - Insulin replacement limits progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy in the low-dose
      streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat.
AB  - Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a major contributor to the increasing burden of heart
      failure globally. Effective therapies remain elusive, in part due to the
      incomplete understanding of the mechanisms underlying diabetes-induced myocardial
      injury. The objective of this study was to assess the direct impact of insulin
      replacement on left ventricle structure and function in a rat model of diabetes.
      Male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered streptozotocin (55 mg/kg i.v.) or
      citrate vehicle and were followed for 8 weeks. A subset of diabetic rats were
      allocated to insulin replacement (6 IU/day insulin s.c.) for the final 4 weeks of
      the 8-week time period. Diabetes induced the characteristic systemic
      complications of diabetes (hyperglycaemia, polyuria, kidney hypertrophy) and was
      accompanied by marked left ventricle remodelling (cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, left
      ventricle collagen content) and diastolic dysfunction (transmitral E/A, left
      ventricle-dP/dt). Importantly, these systemic and cardiac impairments were
      ameliorated markedly following insulin replacement, and moreover, markers of the
      diabetic cardiomyopathy phenotype were significantly correlated with the extent
      of hyperglycaemia. In summary, these data suggest that poor glucose control
      directly contributes towards the underlying features of experimental diabetic
      cardiomyopathy, at least in the early stages, and that adequate replacement
      ameliorates this.

PMID- 28565943
TI  - An analytical GC-MS method to quantify methyl dihydrojasmonate in biocompatible
      oil-in-water microemulsions: physicochemical characterization and in vitro
      release studies.
AB  - Microemulsions (MEs) loaded with methyl dihydrojasmonate (MJ) were developed to
      improve the aqueous solubility of this drug. The composition of the formulations
      ranged according to the oil/surfactant ratio (O/S). The MEs were characterized
      according to diameter of droplets, X-ray diffraction and polarized light
      microscopy. The MJ identification and quantification was performed by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The MJ showed a retention time of ~16.7
      min for all samples. The obtained correlation coefficient from the calibration
      graph was 0.991. The developed analytical method was effective enough to quantify
      low and high concentrations of MJ. The increase of the O/S ME ratio led to a
      reduction of the droplet diameter. All formulations showed an amorphous structure
      and the behavior varied between isotropic and anisotropic systems. A decrease in
      the release of MJ with the increase of the O/S ratio in the formulations was
      observed. The analytical method developed for the quantitative determination of
      MJ is suitable to detect and quantify the drug compound from different
      compositions of MEs in the in vitro release test, and by analogy in other
      prolonged effects related to the drug reservoir effect of these systems was
      observed, revealing that ME can be a promising nanocarrier for MJ delivery to
      tumor cells.

PMID- 28565944
TI  - Linus Pauling, Ph.D. (1901-1994): From Chemical Bond to Civilization.

PMID- 28565946
TI  - OCD in College Athletes.

PMID- 28565948
TI  - Collaboration to Reduce Tragedy and Improve Outcomes: Law Enforcement,
      Psychiatry, and People Living With Mental Illness.

PMID- 28565945
TI  - Association and Causation in Brain Imaging in the Case of OCD: Response to McKay
      et al.

PMID- 28565949
TI  - Cortical Pyramidal Neurons Show a Selective Loss of New Synapses in Chronic
      Schizophrenia.

PMID- 28565951
TI  - CORRECTIONS.

PMID- 28565952
TI  - CORRECTIONS.

PMID- 28565953
TI  - CORRECTIONS.

PMID- 28565954
TI  - The Paradoxes of Unexpected Reward in Anorexia Nervosa.

PMID- 28565955
TI  - Association and Causation in Brain Imaging: The Case of OCD.

PMID- 28565957
TI  - Getting Personalized: Brain Scan Biomarkers for Guiding Depression Interventions.

PMID- 28565958
TI  - Engaging Depressed Patients: An Essential Step in Optimizing Care.

PMID- 28565959
TI  - Grief Process Following the Sudden Death of a Patient.

PMID- 28565960
TI  - Comparison of subjective and fully automated methods for measuring mammographic
      density.
AB  - Background Breast radiologists of the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program
      subjectively classified mammographic density using a three-point scale between
      1996 and 2012 and changed into the fourth edition of the BI-RADS classification
      since 2013. In 2015, an automated volumetric breast density assessment software
      was installed at two screening units. Purpose To compare volumetric breast
      density measurements from the automated method with two subjective methods: the
      three-point scale and the BI-RADS density classification. Material and Methods
      Information on subjective and automated density assessment was obtained from
      screening examinations of 3635 women recalled for further assessment due to
      positive screening mammography between 2007 and 2015. The score of the three
      point scale (I = fatty; II = medium dense; III = dense) was available for 2310
      women. The BI-RADS density score was provided for 1325 women. Mean volumetric
      breast density was estimated for each category of the subjective classifications.
      The automated software assigned volumetric breast density to four categories. The
      agreement between BI-RADS and volumetric breast density categories was assessed
      using weighted kappa (kw). Results Mean volumetric breast density was 4.5%, 7.5%,
      and 13.4% for categories I, II, and III of the three-point scale, respectively,
      and 4.4%, 7.5%, 9.9%, and 13.9% for the BI-RADS density categories, respectively
      ( P for trend < 0.001 for both subjective classifications). The agreement between
      BI-RADS and volumetric breast density categories was kw = 0.5 (95% CI = 0.47
      0.53; P < 0.001). Conclusion Mean values of volumetric breast density increased
      with increasing density category of the subjective classifications. The agreement
      between BI-RADS and volumetric breast density categories was moderate.

PMID- 28565961
TI  - Non-penetrating traumatic injuries of the aortic arch.
AB  - Background In severely injured trauma patients, non-penetrating aortic arch
      injuries (NAAI) have a remarkable incidence and mortality. Both diagnostics and
      therapy of NAAI recently underwent significant changes. Purpose To assess
      mortality, morbidity, and the risk factors associated with NAAI in severely
      injured patients (Injury Severity Score [ISS] >=16) under the light of recent
      technical and procedural advances in trauma care. Material and Methods A total of
      230 consecutive trauma patients with ISS >=16 admitted to our level-I trauma
      center during a 24-month period, were prospectively included and underwent
      standardized whole-body computed tomography (CT) in a 2 * 128-detector-row
      scanner. Incidence, mortality, patient and trauma characteristics, and
      concomitant injuries were recorded for patients with NAAI. Localization of NAAI
      was described referring to Mitchell and Ishimaru; severity was graded according
      to the proposal of Heneghan et al. Results Thirteen of 230 patients had a NAAI,
      yielding an incidence of 5.6%. Mean age and ISS was not elevated in NAAI (44.4 +/
      14.8 years, ISS = 38 +/- 12.4). Mortality was 23.1%. One patient had severe
      neurologic sequelae from a stroke; all surviving patients had to undergo
      (transient) anticoagulant therapy. Trauma mechanism was of high kinetic energy in
      all cases. Concomitant injuries were predominantly thoracic (rib fractures =
      76.9%, thoracic spine fracture = 38.5%). Conclusion Whenever an individual
      possibly encountered a deceleration-acceleration trauma mechanism, a high level
      of suspicion for NAAI should be maintained. It remains to be determined whether
      recent advances in mortality are due to changes in trauma care or due to improved
      vehicle and road safety.

PMID- 28565962
TI  - The role of pro-/anti-inflammation imbalance in Abeta42 accumulation of rat brain
      co-exposed to fine particle matter and sulfur dioxide.
AB  - Taiyuan is a center of coal-based electricity production and many chemicals
      industries, where mixtures of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter may be
      more prominent. The focus of the present study was to determine if there is a
      link between adverse effects in the brain and the combined-exposure to SO2 and
      fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Rats were exposed alternately to PM2.5 with
      different dosages (1.5, 6.0 and 24.0 mg/kg body weight) and SO2 at the level of
      5.6 mg/m3. The results showed that the combined exposure to PM2.5 and SO2
      enhanced the mRNA expression and protein level of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in rat
      cortex and hippocampus relative to the control, SO2 and PM2.5 alone. Instead, TGF
      beta1 mRNA and protein level were down-regulated in the brain. Additionally,
      PM2.5 at medium and/or high dose caused marked increase in Abeta42 level and
      PM2.5 + SO2 induced further increase of Abeta42 level in the cortex and
      hippocampus. It suggests that SO2 and PM2.5 can synergistically exert
      inflammation responses and induce Abeta42 accumulation in the brain. Also, it is
      notable that the Abeta42 accumulation of rat cortex and hippocampus were closely
      associated with pro-/anti-inflammatory cytokines ratio. These results clearly
      demonstrated that the combined exposure to PM2.5 and SO2 can induce the imbalance
      of pro-/anti-inflammatory cytokine, resulting in Abeta42 accumulation of rat
      brain cortex and hippocampus.

PMID- 28565964
TI  - Reporting on self-care in research studies: Guidance to improve knowledge
      building.

PMID- 28565963
TI  - Genomic instability induced in distant progeny of bystander cells depends on the
      connexins expressed in the irradiated cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the time window during which intercellular signaling though
      gap junctions mediates non-targeted (bystander) effects induced by moderate doses
      of ionizing radiation; and to investigate the impact of gap junction
      communication on genomic instability in distant progeny of bystander cells.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A layered cell culture system was developed to investigate
      the propagation of harmful effects from irradiated normal or tumor cells that
      express specific connexins to contiguous bystander normal human fibroblasts.
      Irradiated cells were exposed to moderate mean absorbed doses from 3.7 MeV alpha
      particle, 1000 MeV/u iron ions, 600 MeV/u silicon ions, or 137Cs gamma rays.
      Following 5 h of co-culture, pure populations of bystander cells, unexposed to
      secondary radiation, were isolated and DNA damage and oxidative stress was
      assessed in them and in their distant progeny (20-25 population doublings).
      RESULTS: Increased frequency of micronucleus formation and enhanced oxidative
      changes were observed in bystander cells co-cultured with confluent cells exposed
      to either sparsely ionizing (137Cs gamma rays) or densely ionizing (alpha
      particles, energetic iron or silicon ions) radiations. The irradiated cells
      propagated signals leading to biological changes in bystander cells within 1 h of
      irradiation, and the effect required cellular coupling by gap junctions. Notably,
      the distant progeny of isolated bystander cells also exhibited increased levels
      of spontaneous micronuclei. This effect was dependent on the type of junctional
      channels that coupled the irradiated donor cells with the bystander cells.
      Previous work showed that gap junctions composed of connexin26 (Cx26) or
      connexin43 (Cx43) mediate toxic bystander effects within 5 h of co-culture,
      whereas gap junctions composed of connexin32 (Cx32) mediate protective effects.
      In contrast, the long-term progeny of bystander cells expressing Cx26 or Cx43 did
      not display elevated DNA damage, whereas those coupled by Cx32 had enhanced DNA
      damage. CONCLUSIONS: In response to moderate doses from either sparsely or
      densely ionizing radiations, toxic and protective effects are rapidly
      communicated to bystander cells through gap junctions. We infer that bystander
      cells damaged by the initial co-culture (expressing Cx26 or Cx43) die or undergo
      proliferative arrest, but that the bystander cells that were initially protected
      (expressing Cx32) express DNA damage upon sequential passaging. Together, the
      results inform the roles that intercellular communication play under stress
      conditions, and aid assessment of the health risks of exposure to ionizing
      radiation. Identification of the communicated molecules may enhance the efficacy
      of radiotherapy and help attenuate its debilitating side-effects.

PMID- 28565965
TI  - Challenges in secondary prevention after acute myocardial infarction: A call for
      action.
AB  - Worldwide, each year more than 7 million people experience myocardial infarction,
      in which one-year mortality rates are now in the range of 10%, but vary with
      patient characteristics. The consequences are even more dramatic: among patients
      who survive, 20% suffer a second cardiovascular event in the first year and
      approximately 50% of major coronary events occur in those with a previous
      hospital discharge diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease. The people behind these
      numbers spur this call for action. Prevention after myocardial infarction is
      crucial to reduce risk and suffering. Evidence-based interventions include
      optimal medical treatment with anti-platelets and statins, achieve-ment of blood
      pressure, lipid and blood glucose targets, and appropriate lifestyle changes. The
      European Society of Cardiology and its constituent bodies are determined to
      embrace this challenge by developing a consensus document in which the existing
      gaps for secondary prevention strategies are reviewed. Effective interventions in
      relation to the patients, healthcare providers and healthcare systems are
      proposed and discussed. Finally, innovative strategies in hospital as well as in
      outpatient and long-term settings are endorsed.

PMID- 28565966
TI  - A Vascular Complications Risk (VASCOR) score for patients undergoing invasive
      cardiac procedures in the catheterization laboratory setting: A prospective
      cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vascular complications are still common in the catheterization
      laboratory setting. However, no risk scores for their prediction have been
      described. With a view to bridging this gap, the present study sought to develop
      and validate a score for prediction of vascular complications associated with
      arterial access in patients undergoing interventional cardiology procedures.
      METHODS: This prospective multicenter cohort study included adult patients who
      underwent cardiac catheterization via the femoral or radial route. The outcomes
      of interest were: access site hematoma; major and minor bleeding; and
      retroperitoneal hemorrhage, pseudoaneurysm, or arteriovenous fistula requiring
      surgical repair. Past medical history as well as pre-procedural, intra
      procedural, and post-procedural variables were collected. Patients were randomly
      allocated to the derivation or validation cohorts at a 2:1 ratio. The following
      equation constituted the score: (>6F introducer sheath*4.0)+(percutaneous
      coronary intervention*2.5)+(history of vascular complication after prior
      interventional cardiology procedure*2.0)+(prior use of warfarin or
      phenprocoumon*2.0)+(female sex*1.5)+(age?60 years*1.5). The maximum score is 13.5
      points. RESULTS: A score dichotomized at ?3 (best cutoff for balancing
      sensitivity and specificity) was moderately accurate (sensitivity=0.66 (95%
      confidence interval: 0.59-0.73); specificity=0.59 (95% confidence interval: 0.56
      0.61)). Patients with a score ?3 were at increased risk of complications (odds
      ratio: 2.95; 95% confidence interval: 2.22-3.91). CONCLUSIONS: This study yielded
      a score that is capable of predicting vascular complications and easily applied
      in daily practice by providers working in the catheterization laboratory setting.

PMID- 28565968
TI  - HRT in women with cardiovascular disease: Can we start, should we stop?

PMID- 28565967
TI  - Quality of chest compressions by healthcare professionals using real-time
      audiovisual feedback during in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A high quality of chest compressions, e.g. sufficient depth (5-6
      cm) and rate (100-120 per min), has been associated with survival. The patient's
      underlay affects chest compression depth. Depth and rate can be assessed by
      feedback systems to guide rescuers during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. AIM: The
      purpose of this study was to describe the quality of chest compressions by
      healthcare professionals using real-time audiovisual feedback during in-hospital
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation. METHOD: An observational descriptive study was
      performed including 63 cardiac arrest events with a resuscitation attempt. Data
      files were recorded by Zoll AED Pro, and reviewed by RescueNet Code Review
      software. The events were analysed according to depth, rate, quality of chest
      compressions and underlay. RESULTS: Across events, 12.7% (median) of the
      compressions had a depth of 5-6 cm. Compression depth of >6 cm was measured in
      70.1% (median). The underlay could be identified from the electronic patient
      records in 54 events. The median compression depth was 4.5 cm (floor) and 6.7 cm
      (mattress). Across events, 57.5% (median) of the compressions were performed with
      a median frequency of 100-120 compressions/min and the most common problem was a
      compression rate of <100 (median=22.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Chest compression quality
      was poor according to the feedback system. However, the distribution of
      compression depth with regard to underlay points towards overestimation of depth
      when treating patients on a mattress. Audiovisual feedback devices ought to be
      further developed. Healthcare professionals need to be aware of the strengths and
      weaknesses of their devices.

PMID- 28565969
TI  - Effectiveness of endurance exercise training in patients with coronary artery
      disease: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise interventions apparently reduce the risks of and prevent
      coronary artery disease (CAD). Developing an exercise intervention for patients
      with CAD is a rapidly expanding focus worldwide. The results of previous studies
      are inconsistent and difficult to interpret across various types of exercise
      programme. AIM: This study aimed to update prior systemic reviews and meta
      analyses in order to determine the overall effects of endurance exercise training
      on patients with CAD. METHODS: The databases (PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE and
      Cochrane Library) were searched for the interventions published between January
      1, 2000, and May 31, 2015. Comprehensive meta-analysis software was used to
      evaluate the heterogeneity of the selected studies and to calculate mean
      differences (MDs) while considering effect size. RESULTS: A total of 18 studies
      with 1286 participants were included. Endurance exercise interventions at a
      moderate to high training intensity significantly reduced resting systolic blood
      pressure (MD: -3.8 mmHg, p = 0.01) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD: 
      5.5 mg/dL, p = 0.02), and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD: 3.8
      mg/dL, p < 0.001). There were also significant positive changes in peak oxygen
      consumption (MD: 3.47 mL/kg/min, p < 0.001) and left ventricular ejection
      fraction (MD: 2.6%, p = 0.03) after the interventions. Subgroup analysis results
      revealed that exercise interventions of 60-90 minutes per week with a programme
      duration of >12 weeks had beneficial effects on functional capacity, cardiac
      function and a number of cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Endurance
      exercise training has a positive effect on major modifiable cardiovascular risk
      factors and functional capacity. Nurses can develop endurance exercise
      recommendations for incorporation into care plans of clinically stable CAD
      patients following an acute cardiac event or revascularisation procedure.

PMID- 28565970
TI  - Baclofen systemic toxicity: Experimental histopathological and biochemical study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present study was designed to highlight the toxic impact of
      baclofen on both biochemical and histopathological aspects in rats' liver,
      gastric, lung, kidney, and brain tissues. METHODS: The study was performed on 30
      healthy adult male albino rats divided into four groups with 5 rats in each
      control group, and 10 rats in either experimental groups (two experimental and
      two control groups). Five rats (negative control) were kept in a quite non
      stressful environment, provided with food ad libitum and free access to water.
      Normal saline (1 ml) was given orally as placebo in the positive control group (
      n = 5). Experimental group III, baclofen acute toxicity group (10 rats): Each
      animal received a single dose of lethal dose (LD50) of baclofen orally by gavage.
      It equals 145 mg/kg body weight. The rats were observed for acute toxicity
      manifestations as well as for LD50 deaths. Group IV, (baclofen-dependent group,
      10 rats): Each animal received baclofen (1/10th LD50) in gradually increasing
      doses for 1 month. RESULTS: The levels of blood urea nitrogen, creatinine kinase,
      alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma
      glutamyl transpeptidase, cardiac troponin I, and prothrombin time in both
      baclofen-treated groups showed significant elevation when compared to controls.
      There were brain, lung, gastric, hepatic, and renal histopathological changes in
      baclofen-treated rats whose severity varied between the two experimental groups.
      CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Baclofen toxicity is an under diagnosed emergency.
      Physicians should consider baclofen toxicity in users having hepatorenal
      dysfunction, presenting with altered mental status, bradycardia, and hypotension.

PMID- 28565971
TI  - Monodora myristica (African nutmeg) modulates redox homeostasis and alters
      functional chemistry in sickled erythrocytes.
AB  - The antioxidative effect of Monodora myristica seed acetone extract and its
      effect on chemical functional groups were investigated in sickled erythrocytes as
      well as molecular modeling of the antisickling potentials of its secondary
      metabolites. The extract was subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to
      identify the compounds present, which were then docked into the allosteric
      binding site of deoxy-hemoglobin. The extract was incubated with sickled
      erythrocytes at 37 degrees C for 6, 12, and 24 h and were subjected to
      antioxidative analysis for reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD),
      catalase, and lipid peroxidation (LPO). Chemical functional group of the treated
      cells was analyzed via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The
      predominant compounds identified were 17-octadecynoic acid; oleic acid, androstan
      3-one, 17-hydroxy-2-methyl- (2.beta.,5.beta.,17.beta.)-; estran-3-one, 17
      (acetyloxy)-2-methyl-, (2.alpha., 5.alpha., 17.beta.), and (+)-3-carene, 10
      (acetylmethyl)-. They all fitted well within the active site of Hb with good
      binding affinity, as evidenced by the negative CDocker interaction energies of
      their complexes ranging between -54.4 and -26.7 kcal/mol. Treatment with the
      extract exacerbated SOD and catalase activities as well as GSH level, while LPO
      was suppressed. This antioxidative activity was time and/or dose dependent, with
      6 and 12 h incubation showing the optimum activity. FTIR analysis of the treated
      cells showed the presence of hydrophobic functional groups. The synergetic
      molecular interaction of the major compounds of the extract with the alpha-dimer
      of Hb depicts an antisickling effect of M. myristica acetone extract. This is
      accompanied by exacerbation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes activity and
      modification of the functional chemistry of the cells.

PMID- 28565972
TI  - Effects of insulin+glucose pretreatment on bupivacaine cardiotoxicity in rats.
AB  - A mistaken overdose of bupivacaine into systemic circulation may cause severe
      cardiovascular side effects. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of
      pretreatment with combined intra venous lipid emulsion (ILE) and high-dose
      insulin therapy against cardiotoxicity caused by bupivacaine intoxication. The
      rats were divided into the following three groups: Group B received a saline
      pretreatment plus a bupivacaine, group L received ILE pretreatment plus a
      bupivacaine, and in group I, insulin with glucose was infused intravenously, plus
      ILE pretreatment plus a bupivacaine. The electrocardiogram tracing, invasive
      arterial pressure, and heart rate (HR) of rats were monitored continuously.
      Arterial blood gas analysis was performed in all groups. Arterial blood gas
      analysis revealed that the baseline pH, PaO2, and PaCO2 values were similar
      between groups ( p > 0.05). Widening of Q, R, and S wave complex was found 46.8
      +/- 16.7, 92.0 +/- 5.80, and 106.5 +/- 17.9 s after initiation of bupivacaine
      infusion in groups B, L, and I, respectively. Time elapsed until 25% reduction of
      HR 127.3 +/- 17.7, 248.4 +/- 34.1, and 260.1 +/- 51.3 s for groups B, L, and I,
      and 25% reduction of mean arterial pressure 107.6 +/- 14.1, 253.2 +/- 36.3, and
      292 +/- 57.7 s for groups B, L, and I, respectively. Arrhythmia was observed
      after 142.2 +/- 27.5, 180.7 +/- 17.8, and 190.7 +/- 19.2 s for groups B, L, and
      I, respectively. Finally, asystole occurred after 560.1 +/- 76.4, 782.4 +/- 63.0,
      and 882.5 +/- 105.1 s for groups B, L, and I, respectively. This finding
      indicates that the survival time of rats administered pretreatment with ILE plus
      insulin+glucose and those given ILE was observed to be longer.

PMID- 28565973
TI  - The dimensionality of disclosure of HIV status amongst post-partum women in Cape
      Town, South Africa.
AB  - Disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners and others has been presented as
      positive health behaviour and is widely encouraged by antiretroviral treatment
      (ART) programmes, providers and policies. However, disclosure is also highly
      contextual and its positive effects are not universal. We explore the dimensions
      of disclosure amongst post-partum women who initiated ART during pregnancy in
      Cape Town, South Africa. Forty-seven semi-structured interviews with post-partum
      women were conducted as part of the Maternal Child Health-Antiretroviral Therapy
      (MCH-ART) study. Primary elements of disclosure were coded and interpreted
      according to dominant themes and subthemes. Disclosure was commonplace in the
      sample, ranging from widely disclosing status (rare); to disclosing to some
      family, friends and partners; to tacit disclosure, where participants took
      medication in front of others without explicitly discussing their status. Women
      described reasons for non-disclosure in terms of not being ready, fear of
      negative reactions (including violence and loss of financial support), and fear
      of their status being widely known. Self-reported adherence was uniformly high
      throughout the range of disclosure. Even those who made special efforts to avoid
      disclosure, such as attending clinics distant from their homes, reported good
      adherence. Those who disclosed experienced a range of responses to their
      disclosure, from support to shunning. Despite access to ART, stigma remained a
      persistent feature in descriptions of disclosure, particularly in relation to
      partner disclosure. Our findings suggest that disclosure is not always positive
      and adherence can be maintained within a wide range of disclosure behaviours. It
      is important that clinic settings allow women to retain control over their
      disclosure process.

PMID- 28565974
TI  - PNC27 anticancer peptide as targeting ligand significantly improved antitumor
      efficacy of Doxil in HDM2-expressing cells.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the potential of PNC27 peptide, 12-26 of p53 with high
      affinity for HDM2 protein, as targeting ligand for Doxil to improve its antitumor
      activity. MATERIALS & METHODS: Doxil postinserted with 25, 50, 100 and 200 PNC27
      peptides per liposome. Flow cytometry and confocal analysis were performed on C26
      colon carcinoma (HDM2 positive) and B16F0 melanoma (HDM2 negative) cells. In vivo
      studies were performed on BALB/c mice bearing C26 and C57BL/6 mice bearing B16F0
      tumor models. RESULTS: PNC27-Doxil showed significant cellular uptake and
      cytotoxicity in C26 cells compared with Doxil. PNC27-Doxil (100 PNC27 peptide)
      significantly improved therapeutic efficacy of Doxil without compromising its
      biodistribution in C26 tumor. However, these results were not observed in B16F0
      cells. CONCLUSION: PNC27 is a promising targeting ligand for Doxil against HDM2
      positive cancers.

PMID- 28565975
TI  - Stress, Emotions, and Motivational States Among Traditional Dancers in New
      Zealand and Japan.
AB  - This study used a reversal theory framework to examine motivational dominance and
      changes in motivational state, arousal, stress, and emotions among members of
      traditional Japanese (Nihon Odori Sports Science (NOSS)) and New Zealand (Kapa
      Haka) dance groups. Eighty-four participants (50 in Japan and 34 in New Zealand)
      completed questionnaires on each variable before and after a dance class. The
      findings indicated that the Kapa Haka dancers were significantly more playful and
      arousal-seeking than the NOSS dancers. They also reported higher overall arousal,
      preferred arousal, and effort during performance while the NOSS dancers became
      more serious afterward. Data on emotions matched those of arousal in that the
      Kapa Haka dancers felt significantly more excited and provocative after the
      session. The NOSS dancers were more relaxed and placid, both overall and after
      dancing. These patterns were consistent with the dancers' respective motivational
      states and motivational dominance, and suggest that both dances can be effective
      in reducing negative affect. They also suggest that psychological effects are
      dependent upon performers' personal and cultural affiliation with the two dance
      forms.

PMID- 28565976
TI  - Differences in labour force participation by motherhood status among second
      generation Turkish and majority women across Europe.
AB  - Second-generation Turkish immigrants make up an increasingly important segment of
      European labour markets. These young adults are entering the prime working ages
      and forming families. However, we have only a limited understanding of the
      relationship between labour force participation and parenthood among second
      generation Turkish women. Using unique data from the Integration of the European
      Second Generation survey (2007/08), we compared the labour force participation of
      second-generation Turkish women with their majority-group counterparts by
      motherhood status in four countries. We found evidence that motherhood gaps, with
      respect to labour force participation, were similar for majority and second
      generation Turkish women in Germany and in Sweden; however, there may be larger
      gaps for second-generation mothers than for majority women in the Netherlands and
      France. Cross-national findings were consistent with the view that national
      normative and social policy contexts are relevant for the labour force
      participation of all women, regardless of migrant background.

PMID- 28565977
TI  - Endovascular treatment of blister aneurysms.
AB  - Blister aneurysms are rare cerebrovascular lesions for which the treatment
      methods are reviewed here, with a focus on endovascular options. The reported
      pathogenesis of blister aneurysms varies, and hemodynamic stress, arterial
      dissection, and arteriosclerotic ulceration have all been described. There is
      consensus on the excessive fragility of blister aneurysms and their parent
      vessels, which makes clipping technically difficult. Open surgical treatment is
      associated with high rates of complications, morbidity, and mortality;
      endovascular treatment is a promising alternative. Among endovascular treatment
      options, deconstructive treatment has been associated with higher morbidity
      compared with reconstructive methods such as direct embolization, stent- or
      balloon-assisted direct embolization, stent monotherapy, and flow diversion. Flow
      diversion has been associated with higher technical success rates and similar
      clinical outcomes compared with non-flow diverting treatment methods. However,
      delayed aneurysm occlusion and the need for antiplatelet therapy are potential
      drawbacks to flow diversion that must be considered when choosing among treatment
      methods for blister aneurysms.

PMID- 28565978
TI  - Off-label uses of the Pipeline embolization device: a review of the literature.
AB  - The Pipeline embolization device (PED) is the most widely used flow diverter in
      endovascular neurosurgery. In 2011, the device received FDA approval for the
      treatment of large and giant aneurysms in the internal carotid artery extending
      from the petrous to the superior hypophyseal segments. However, as popularity of
      the device grew and neurosurgeons gained more experience, its use has extended to
      several other indications. Some of these off-label uses include previously
      treated aneurysms, acutely ruptured aneurysms, small aneurysms, distal
      circulation aneurysms, posterior circulation aneurysms, fusiform aneurysms,
      dissecting aneurysms, pseudoaneurysms, and even carotid-cavernous fistulas. The
      authors present a literature review of the safety and efficacy of the PED in
      these off-label uses.

PMID- 28565979
TI  - Flow diversion of tandem cerebral aneurysms: a multi-institutional retrospective
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Flow diversion has proven to be an efficacious means of treating
      cerebral aneurysms that are refractory to other therapeutic means. Patients with
      tandem aneurysms treated with flow diversion have been included in larger,
      previously reported series; however, there are no dedicated reports on using this
      technique during a single session to treat this unique subset of patients.
      Therefore, the authors analyzed the outcomes of patients who had undergone single
      session flow diversion for the treatment of tandem aneurysms. METHODS The authors
      conducted a retrospective review of flow diversion with the Pipeline embolization
      device (PED) for the treatment of tandem aneurysms in a single session at 2
      participating medical centers: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, and
      Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona. Patient demographic data,
      aneurysm characteristics, treatment strategy and results, complications, and
      follow-up data were collected from the medical record and analyzed. RESULTS
      Between January 2011 and December 2015, 17 patients (12 female, 5 male) with a
      total of 38 aneurysms (mean size 4.7 +/- 2.7 mm, mean +/- SD) were treated.
      Sixteen patients had aneurysms in the anterior circulation, and 1 patient had
      tandem aneurysms in the posterior circulation. Twelve patients underwent only
      placement of a PED, whereas 5 underwent adjunctive coil embolization of at least
      1 aneurysm. One PED was used in each of 9 patients, and 2 PEDs were required in
      each of 8 patients. There were 2 intraprocedural complications; however, in both
      instances, the patients were asymptomatic at the last follow-up. The follow-up
      imaging studies were available for 15 patients at a mean of 7 months after
      treatment (216 days, range 0-540 days). The mean initial Raymond score after
      treatment was 2.7 +/- 0.7, and the mean final score was 1.3 +/- 0.7. CONCLUSIONS
      In this series, the use of flow diversion for the treatment of tandem cerebral
      aneurysms had an acceptable safety profile, indicating that it should be
      considered as an effective therapy for this complicated subset of patients.
      Further prospective studies must be performed before more definitive conclusions
      can be made.

PMID- 28565980
TI  - Update on flow diverters for the endovascular management of cerebral aneurysms.
AB  - Flow diversion has become a well-accepted option for the treatment of cerebral
      aneurysms. Given the significant treatment effect of flow diverters, numerous
      options have emerged since the initial Pipeline embolization device studies. In
      this review, the authors describe the available flow diverters, both endoluminal
      and intrasaccular, addressing nuances of device design and function and
      presenting data on complications and outcomes, where available. They also discuss
      possible future directions of flow diversion.

PMID- 28565981
TI  - Complications associated with the use of flow-diverting devices for cerebral
      aneurysms: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to review the literature on the use of
      flow-diverting devices (FDDs) to treat intracranial aneurysms (IAs) and to
      investigate the safety and complications related to FDD treatment for IAs by
      performing a meta-analysis of published studies. METHODS A systematic electronic
      database search was conducted using the Springer, EBSCO, PubMed, Medline, and
      Cochrane databases on all accessible articles published up to January 2016, with
      no restriction on the publication year. Abstracts, full-text manuscripts, and the
      reference lists of retrieved articles were analyzed. Random-effects meta-analysis
      was used to pool the complication rates across studies. RESULTS Sixty studies
      were included, which involved retrospectively collected data on 3125 patients.
      The use of FDDs was associated with an overall complication rate of 17.0% (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 13.6%-20.5%) and a low mortality rate of 2.8% (95% CI
      1.2%-4.4%). The neurological morbidity rate was 4.5% (95% CI 3.2%-5.8%). No
      significant difference in the complication or mortality rate was observed between
      2 commonly used devices (the Pipeline embolization device and the Silk flow
      diverter device). A significantly higher overall complication rate was found in
      the case of ruptured IAs than in unruptured IA (odds ratio 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.3).
      CONCLUSIONS The use of FDDs in the treatment of IAs yielded satisfactory results
      with regard to complications and the mortality rate. The risk of complications
      should be considered when deciding on treatment with FDDs. Further studies on the
      mechanism underlying the occurrence of adverse events are required.

PMID- 28565982
TI  - Introduction. The treatment of cerebral aneurysms: flow diversion and beyond.

PMID- 28565983
TI  - Vision outcomes in patients with paraclinoid aneurysms treated with clipping,
      coiling, or flow diversion: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Patients with paraclinoid aneurysms commonly present with visual
      impairment. They have traditionally been treated with clipping or coiling, but
      flow diversion (FD) has recently been introduced as an alternative treatment
      modality. Although there is still initial aneurysm thrombosis, FD is hypothesized
      to reduce mass effect, which may decompress the optic nerve when treating
      patients with visually symptomatic paraclinoid aneurysms. The authors performed a
      meta-analysis to compare vision outcomes following clipping, coiling, or FD of
      paraclinoid aneurysms in patients who presented with visual impairment. METHODS A
      systematic literature review was performed using the PubMed and Web of Science
      databases. Studies published in English between 1980 and 2016 were included if
      they reported preoperative and postoperative visual function in at least 5
      patients with visually symptomatic paraclinoid aneurysms (cavernous segment
      through ophthalmic segment) treated with clipping, coiling, or FD.
      Neuroophthalmological assessment was used when reported, but subjective patient
      reports or objective visual examination findings were also acceptable. RESULTS
      Thirty-nine studies that included a total of 2458 patients (520 of whom presented
      with visual symptoms) met the inclusion criteria, including 307 visually
      symptomatic cases treated with clipping (mean follow-up 26 months), 149 treated
      with coiling (mean follow-up 17 months), and 64 treated with FD (mean follow-up
      11 months). Postoperative vision in these patients was classified as improved,
      unchanged, or worsened compared with preoperative vision. A pooled analysis
      showed preoperative visual symptoms in 38% (95% CI 28%-50%) of patients with
      paraclinoid aneurysms. The authors found that vision improved in 58% (95% CI 48%
      68%) of patients after clipping, 49% (95% CI 38%-59%) after coiling, and 71% (95%
      CI 55%-84%) after FD. Vision worsened in 11% (95% CI 7%-17%) of patients after
      clipping, 9% (95% CI 2%-18%) after coiling, and 5% (95% CI 0%-20%) after FD. New
      visual deficits were found in patients with intact baseline vision at a rate of
      1% (95% CI 0%-3%) for clipping, 0% (95% CI 0%-2%) for coiling, and 0% (95% CI 0%
      2%) for FD. CONCLUSIONS To the authors' knowledge, this is the first meta
      analysis to assess vision outcomes after treatment for paraclinoid aneurysms. The
      authors found that 38% of patients with these aneurysms presented with visual
      impairment. These data also demonstrated a high rate of visual improvement after
      FD without a significant difference in the rate of worsened vision or iatrogenic
      visual impairment compared with clipping and coiling. These findings suggest that
      FD is an effective option for treatment of visually symptomatic paraclinoid
      aneurysms.

PMID- 28565984
TI  - Novel use of flow diversion for the treatment of aneurysms associated with
      arteriovenous malformations.
AB  - The use of flow-diverting stents for intracranial aneurysms has become more
      prevalent, and flow diverters are now routinely used beyond their initial scope
      of approval at the proximal internal carotid artery. Although flow diversion for
      the treatment of cerebral aneurysms is becoming more commonplace, there have been
      no reports of its use to treat flow-related cerebral aneurysms associated with
      arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The authors report the cases of 2 patients
      whose AVM-associated aneurysms were managed with flow diversion. A 40-year-old
      woman presented with a history of headaches that led to the identification of an
      unruptured Spetzler-Martin Grade V, right parietooccipital AVM associated with 3
      aneurysms of the ipsilateral internal carotid artery. Initial attempts at balloon
      assisted coil embolization of the aneurysms were unsuccessful. The patient
      underwent placement of a flow-diverting stent across the diseased vessel; a 6
      month follow-up angiogram demonstrated complete occlusion of the aneurysms. In
      the second case, a 57-year-old man presented with new-onset seizures, and an
      unruptured Spetzler-Martin Grade V, right frontal AVM associated with an
      irregular, wide-necked anterior communicating artery aneurysm was identified. The
      patient underwent placement of a flow-diverting stent, and complete occlusion of
      the aneurysm was observed on a 7-month follow-up angiogram. These 2 cases
      illustrate the potential for use of flow diversion as a treatment strategy for
      feeding artery aneurysms associated with AVMs. Because of the need for dual
      antiplatelet medications after flow diversion in this patient population,
      however, this strategy should be used judiciously.

PMID- 28565985
TI  - Endovascular management of fusiform aneurysms in the posterior circulation: the
      era of flow diversion.
AB  - Fusiform aneurysms are uncommon compared with their saccular counterparts, yet
      they remain very challenging to treat and are associated with high rates of
      rebleeding and morbidity. Lack of a true aneurysm neck renders simple clip
      reconstruction or coil embolization usually impossible, and more advanced
      techniques are required, including bypass, stent-assisted coiling, and, more
      recently, flow diversion. In this article, the authors review posterior
      circulation fusiform aneurysms, including pathogenesis, natural history, and
      endovascular treatment, including the role of flow diversion. In addition, the
      authors propose an algorithm for treatment based on their practice.

PMID- 28565986
TI  - Pipeline embolization device versus coiling for the treatment of large and giant
      unruptured intracranial aneurysms: a cost-effectiveness analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Rupture of large or giant intracranial aneurysms leads to significant
      morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Both coiling and the Pipeline
      embolization device (PED) have been shown to be safe and clinically effective for
      the treatment of unruptured large and giant intracranial aneurysms; however, the
      relative cost-to-outcome ratio is unknown. The authors present the first cost
      effectiveness analysis to compare the economic impact of the PED compared with
      coiling or no treatment for the endovascular management of large or giant
      intracranial aneurysms. METHODS A Markov model was constructed to simulate a 60
      year-old woman with a large or giant intracranial aneurysm considering a PED,
      endovascular coiling, or no treatment in terms of neurological outcome,
      angiographic outcome, retreatment rates, procedural and rehabilitation costs, and
      rupture rates. Transition probabilities were derived from prior literature
      reporting outcomes and costs of PED, coiling, and no treatment for the management
      of aneurysms. Cost-effectiveness was defined, with the incremental cost
      effectiveness ratios (ICERs) defined as difference in costs divided by the
      difference in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The ICERs < $50,000/QALY
      gained were considered cost-effective. To study parameter uncertainty, 1-way, 2
      way, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. RESULTS The base-case
      model demonstrated lifetime QALYs of 12.72 for patients in the PED cohort, 12.89
      for the endovascular coiling cohort, and 9.7 for patients in the no-treatment
      cohort. Lifetime rehabilitation and treatment costs were $59,837.52 for PED;
      $79,025.42 for endovascular coiling; and $193,531.29 in the no-treatment cohort.
      Patients who did not undergo elective treatment were subject to increased rates
      of aneurysm rupture and high treatment and rehabilitation costs. One-way
      sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the model was most sensitive to
      assumptions about the costs and mortality risks for PED and coiling.
      Probabilistic sampling demonstrated that PED was the cost-effective strategy in
      58.4% of iterations, coiling was the cost-effective strategy in 41.4% of
      iterations, and the no-treatment option was the cost-effective strategy in only
      0.2% of iterations. CONCLUSIONS The authors' cost-effective model demonstrated
      that elective endovascular techniques such as PED and endovascular coiling are
      cost-effective strategies for improving health outcomes and lifetime quality of
      life measures in patients with large or giant unruptured intracranial aneurysm.

PMID- 28565987
TI  - Prolapse of the Pipeline embolization device in aneurysms: incidence, management,
      and outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The Pipeline embolization device (PED) is frequently used in the
      treatment of anterior circulation aneurysms, especially around the carotid
      siphon, with generally excellent results. However, the PED has its own unique
      technical challenges, including the occurrence of device foreshortening or
      migration leading to prolapse into the aneurysm. The authors sought to determine
      the incidence of this phenomenon, the rescue strategies, and outcomes. METHODS
      Four institutional databases of neuroendovascular procedures were reviewed for
      cases of intracranial aneurysms treated with PEDs. Patient and aneurysm data as
      well as angiographic imaging were reviewed for all cases involving device
      prolapse into the aneurysm. RESULTS A total of 413 intracranial aneurysms were
      treated with PEDs during the study period, by 5 neurointerventionalists. Large
      and giant aneurysms (>= 2 cm) accounted for 32 of these aneurysms. Among these 32
      PEDs, prolapse into the aneurysm occurred in 3 patients, with 1 of these PEDs
      successfully rescued and the other 2 left in situ. No patients suffered any
      severe complications. The 2 patients in whom the PEDs were left in situ remained
      on antiplatelet therapy. CONCLUSIONS The PED may foreshorten or migrate during or
      after deployment, leading to prolapse into the aneurysm. This phenomenon appears
      to be associated with large and giant aneurysms, vessel tortuosity, short landing
      zones, and use of balloon angioplasty. Future study and follow-up is needed to
      further evaluate this phenomenon, but some of the observations and techniques
      described in this paper may help to prevent or salvage prolapsed devices.

PMID- 28565988
TI  - Postprocedural, midterm, and long-term results of cerebral aneurysms treated with
      flow-diverter devices: 7-year experience at a single center.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Flow diversion has emerged as a viable treatment option for selected
      intracranial aneurysms and recently has been gaining traction. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of flow-diverter devices
      (FDDs) over a long-term follow-up period. METHODS The authors retrospectively
      reviewed all cerebral aneurysm cases that had been admitted to the Division of
      Neurosurgery of the Universita degli Studi di Napoli between November 2008 and
      November 2015 and treated with an FDD. The records of 60 patients (48 females and
      12 males) harboring 69 cerebral aneurysms were analyzed. The study end points
      were angiographic evidence of complete aneurysm occlusion, recanalization rate,
      occlusion of the parent artery, and clinical and radiological evidence of brain
      ischemia. The occlusion rate was evaluated according to the O'Kelly-Marotta (OKM)
      Scale for flow diversion, based on the degree of filling (A, total filling; B,
      subtotal filling; C, entry remnant; D, no filling). Postprocedural, midterm, and
      long-term results were strictly analyzed. RESULTS Complete occlusion (OKM D) was
      achieved in 63 (91%) of 69 aneurysms, partial occlusion (OKM C) in 4 (6%),
      occlusion of the parent artery in 2 (3%). Intraprocedural technical complications
      occurred in 3 patients (5%). Postprocedural complications occurred in 6 patients
      (10%), without neurological deficits. At the 12-month follow-up, 3 patients (5%)
      experienced asymptomatic cerebral infarction. No further complications were
      observed at later follow-up evaluations (> 24 months). There were no reports of
      any delayed aneurysm rupture, subarachnoid or intraparenchymal hemorrhage,
      ischemic complications, or procedure- or device-related deaths. CONCLUSIONS
      Endovascular treatment with an FDD is a safe treatment for unruptured cerebral
      aneurysms, resulting in a high rate of occlusion. In the present study, the
      authors observed effective and stable aneurysm occlusion, even at the long-term
      follow-up. Data in this study also suggest that ischemic complications can occur
      at a later stage, particularly at 12-18 months. On the other hand, no other
      ischemic or hemorrhagic complications occurred beyond 24 months.

PMID- 28565989
TI  - Pipeline embolization device for recurrence of previously treated aneurysms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The utilization of the Pipeline embolization device (PED) has increased
      significantly since its inception and original approval for use in large, broad
      necked aneurysms of the internal carotid artery. While microsurgical clipping and
      advances in endovascular techniques have improved overall efficacy in achieving
      complete occlusion, recurrences still occur, and the best modality for
      retreatment remains controversial. Despite its efficacy in this setting, the role
      of PED utilization in the setting of recurrent aneurysms has not yet been well
      defined. This study was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of PED in the
      recurrence of previously treated aneurysms. METHODS The authors reviewed a total
      of 13 cases in which patients underwent secondary placement of a PED for aneurysm
      recurrence following prior treatment with another modality. The PEDs were used to
      treat aneurysm recurrence or residual following endovascular coiling in 7 cases,
      flow diversion in 2, and microsurgical clipping in 4. The mean time between
      initial treatment and retreatment with a PED was 28.1 months, 12 months, and 88.7
      months, respectively. Clinical outcomes, including complications and modified
      Rankin Scale (mRS) scores, and angiographic evidence of complete occlusion were
      tabulated for each treatment group. RESULTS All PEDs were successfully placed
      without periprocedural complications. The rate of complete occlusion was 80% at 6
      months after PED placement and 100% at 12 months in these patients who underwent
      PED placement following failed endovascular coiling; there were no adverse
      clinical sequelae at a mean follow-up of 26.1 months. In the 2 cases in which
      PEDs were placed for treatment of residual aneurysms following prior flow
      diversion, 1 patient demonstrated asymptomatic vessel occlusion at 6 months, and
      the other exhibited complete aneurysm occlusion at 12 months. In patients with
      aneurysm recurrence following prior microsurgical clipping, the rate of complete
      occlusion was 100% at 6 and 12 months, with no adverse sequelae noted at a mean
      clinical follow-up of 27.7 months. CONCLUSIONS The treatment of recurrent
      aneurysms with the PED following previous endovascular coiling, flow diversion,
      or microsurgical clipping is associated with a high rate of complete occlusion
      and minimal morbidity.

PMID- 28565990
TI  - Transcirculation Pipeline embolization device deployment: a rescue technique.
AB  - The Pipeline embolization device (PED) has become a very important tool in the
      treatment of nonruptured cerebral aneurysms. However, a patient's difficult
      anatomy or vascular stenosis may affect the device delivery. The purpose of this
      article was to describe an alternate technique for PED deployment when
      ipsilateral anatomy is not amenable for catheter navigation. A 44-year-old woman
      with a symptomatic 6-mm right superior hypophyseal artery aneurysm and a known
      history of right internal carotid artery dissection presented for PED treatment
      of her aneurysm. An angiogram showed persistence of the arterial dissection with
      luminal stenosis after 6 months of dual antiplatelet treatment. The contralateral
      internal carotid artery was catheterized and the PED was deployed via a
      transcirculation approach, using the anterior communicating artery.
      Transcirculation deployment of a PED is a viable option when ipsilateral anatomy
      is difficult or contraindicated for this treatment.

PMID- 28565991
TI  - Platelet testing in flow diversion: a review of the evidence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Although the use of dual antiplatelet therapy with flow diversion is
      recommended and commonplace, the testing of platelet inhibition is more
      controversial. METHODS The authors reviewed the medical literature to establish
      and describe the physiology of platelet adhesion, the pharmacology of
      antiplatelet medications, and the mechanisms of the available platelet function
      tests. Additionally, they present a review of the pertinent neurointerventional
      and interventional cardiology literature. RESULTS Competing reports in the
      neurointerventional literature argue for and against the use of routine platelet
      function testing, with adjustments to the dosage or medications based on the
      results. The interventional cardiology literature has also wrestled with this
      dilemma after percutaneous coronary interventions, with conflicting reports of
      the benefits of platelet function testing. CONCLUSIONS Despite its prevalence,
      the benefits of platelet function testing prior to flow diversion are unproven.
      This practice will likely remain controversial until the level of evidence
      improves through more rigorous testing and reporting.

PMID- 28565992
TI  - Pipeline flow diversion of ruptured blister aneurysms of the supraclinoid carotid
      artery using a single-device strategy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Ruptured blister aneurysms remain challenging lesions for treatment due
      to their broad, shallow anatomy and thin, fragile wall. Historical challenges
      with both open microsurgical approaches and intrasaccular endovascular approaches
      have led to increased use of flow diversion for management of these aneurysms.
      However, the optimum paradigm, including timing of treatment, use of dual
      antiplatelet therapy, and number of flow-diverter devices to use remains unknown.
      The authors describe their experience with ruptured blister aneurysms treated
      with flow diversion at their institution, and discuss rates of rebleeding and
      number of devices used. METHODS All patients presenting with subarachnoid
      hemorrhage from a ruptured blister aneurysm and treated with Pipeline flow
      diversion were identified. Patient demographic data, clinical status and course,
      need for external ventricular drain (EVD), timing of treatment, and angiographic
      details and follow-up were recorded. RESULTS There were 13 patients identified
      (11 women and 2 men), and 4 had multiple aneurysms. Two aneurysms were treated on
      initial angiography, with average time to treatment of 3.1 days for the
      remainder, after discussion with the family and institution of dual antiplatelet
      therapy. Device placement was technically successful in all patients, with 2
      patients receiving 2 devices and the remainder receiving 1 device. There was 1
      intraoperative complication, of a wire perforation causing intracerebral
      hemorrhage requiring decompressive craniectomy. Three patients had required EVD
      placement for management of hydrocephalus. There was no rebleeding from the
      target lesion; however, one patient had worsening intraventricular hemorrhage and
      another had rupture of an unrecognized additional aneurysm, and both died. Of the
      other 11 patients, 10 made a good recovery, with 1 remaining in a vegetative
      state. Nine underwent follow-up angiography, with 5 achieving complete occlusion,
      2 with reduced aneurysm size, and 2 requiring retreatment for aneurysm
      persistence or enlargement. There were no episodes of delayed rupture.
      CONCLUSIONS Pipeline flow diversion is a technically feasible and effective
      treatment for ruptured blister aneurysms, particularly in good-grade patients
      without hydrocephalus. Patients with a worse grade on presentation and requiring
      EVDs may have higher risk for bleeding complications and poor outcome. There was
      no rebleeding from the target lesion with use of a single device in this series.

PMID- 28565993
TI  - Use of the Pipeline embolization device in the treatment of iatrogenic
      intracranial vascular injuries: a bi-institutional experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Flow-diverting devices have been used for the treatment of complex
      intracranial vascular pathology with success, but the role of these devices in
      treating iatrogenic intracranial vascular injuries has yet to be clearly defined.
      Here, the authors report their bi-institutional experience with the use of the
      Pipeline embolization device (PED) for the treatment of iatrogenic intracranial
      vascular injuries. METHODS The authors reviewed a retrospective cohort of
      patients with iatrogenic injuries to the intracranial vasculature that were
      treated with the PED between 2012 and 2016. Data collection included demographic
      data, indications for treatment, number and sizes of PEDs used, and immediate and
      follow-up angiographic and clinical outcomes. RESULTS Four patients with a mean
      age of 47.5 years (range 18-63 years) underwent PED placement for iatrogenic
      vessel injuries. In 3 patients, the intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA)
      was injured during transnasal tumor resection. In 1 patient, a basilar apex
      injury occurred during endoscopic third ventriculostomy. Three patients had a
      pseudoaneurysm as a result of vessel injury, and 1 patient had frank ICA
      laceration and extravasation. All 3 pseudoaneurysms were successfully treated
      with PED deployment. The ICA laceration was refractory to PED placement, and the
      vessel was subsequently occluded endovascularly. All 4 patients had a good
      clinical outcome (modified Rankin Scale score of 0 or 1). CONCLUSIONS The use of
      the PED is feasible in the management of iatrogenic pseudoaneurysms of the
      intracranial vasculature. In cases of frank vessel perforation, an alternative
      strategy such as covered stent placement should be considered. Endovascular or
      surgical vessel occlusion remains the definitive treatment in cases of refractory
      hemorrhage.

PMID- 28565994
TI  - The effects of silver nanoparticles on behavior, apoptosis and nitro-oxidative
      stress in offspring Wistar rats.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the comparative effects of prenatal exposure to silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs) functionalized with citrate and polyphenols on spatial
      cognition and also on nitro-oxidative stress and apoptosis in the hippocampus and
      cerebellum of offsprings. MATERIALS & METHODS: Pregnant Wistar rats were orally
      administered substances from day 10 of gestation until day 21. Six weeks
      postpartum, six male offsprings from each group were used for behavioral
      evaluation and determination of oxidative stress and apoptosis. RESULTS: Both
      groups exhibited hyperactivity and anxiety especially after AgNPs-Sambucus nigra
      L. administration. AgNPs-S. nigra L. group showed increase in induced nitric
      oxide synthase activity and decrease in superoxide dismutase activity and
      apoptosis in the hippocampus, while AgNPs-citrate coated administration exerted a
      moderate toxicity and induced apoptosis. CONCLUSION: AgNPs functionalized with
      natural extracts had a lower toxicity than citrate-coated silver particles.

PMID- 28565995
TI  - Intervention study on school meal habits in Norwegian 10-12-year-old children.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate whether a free school meal every
      day was associated with children's intake of healthy food during school. METHODS:
      A non-randomized study design with an intervention and a control group was used
      to measure change in children's meal habits at lunchtime. In total, 164 children
      participated; 55 in the intervention group and 109 in the control group. Children
      in the intervention group were served a free, healthy school meal every school
      day. Participating children completed a questionnaire at baseline and at 6
      months' follow up. Possible associations were evaluated with a healthy food
      score, which was calculated based on a food frequency questionnaire on lunch
      habits at school. Chi-square and Independent Samples t-test were used to analyse
      the data. RESULTS: At baseline, there was no significant difference in the
      healthy food score between the intervention and the control group ( p = 0.08).
      Children in the intervention group increased their healthy food score
      significantly compared with children in the control group after 6 months ( p ?
      0.01). Change in the healthy food score was mainly due to an increase in the
      intake of fruit ( p ? 0.01), vegetables ( p ? 0.01) and fish spread ( p = 0.02);
      all in favour of the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS: A serving of a free school
      meal every day for 6 months increased children's intake of healthy food at
      lunchtime compared with the control group. Further studies are needed to
      establish possible long-term effects.

PMID- 28565996
TI  - Task utility and norms for the Preschool Executive Task Assessment (PETA).
AB  - Earlier identification of executive deficits in preschool children using an
      ecological approach would give more scope for intervention. The Preschool
      Executive Task Assessment (PETA) was developed to resemble an everyday age
      appropriate task in order to examine the self-direction and integration of
      executive functions during a multistep task. It was designed so that performance
      can be evaluated in a microanalytic way and so individualized feedback and
      support can be easily communicated. The utility of the PETA was assessed with 166
      three-to five-year olds. Results showed improved performance with increasing age
      and verbal intellectual quotient as well as good task reliability and utility.
      Evidence for influence of socioeconomic status, gender, and use of self-talk was
      also observed. Clinical applications and future directions of this novel measure
      are discussed.

PMID- 28565997
TI  - Safety of radiofrequency ablation of benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid
      cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the
      safety of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for the treatment of benign thyroid
      nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ovid-MEDLINE,
      EMBASE, and Library of Cochrane databases were searched up to 12 July 2016 for
      studies on the safety of RFA for treating benign thyroid nodules or recurrent
      thyroid cancers. Pooled proportions of overall and major complications were
      assessed using random-effects modelling. Heterogeneity among studies was
      determined using the chi2 statistic for the pooled estimates and the
      inconsistency index I2. RESULTS: A total of 24 eligible studies were included,
      giving a sample size of 2421 patients and 2786 thyroid nodules. 41 major
      complications and 48 minor complications of RFA were reported, giving a pooled
      proportion of 2.38% for overall RFA complications [95% confidence interval (CI):
      1.42%-3.34%] and 1.35% for major RFA complications (95% CI: 0.89%-1.81%). There
      were no heterogeneities in either overall or major complications (I2 = 1.24%
      21.79%). On subgroup analysis, the overall and major complication rates were
      significantly higher for malignant thyroid nodules than for benign thyroid
      nodules (p = 0.0011 and 0.0038, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: RFA was found to be
      safe for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers.

PMID- 28565999
TI  - Ryk receptors on unmyelinated nerve fibers mediate excitatory synaptic
      transmission and CCL2 release during neuropathic pain induced by peripheral nerve
      injury.
AB  - Background Neuropathic pain is a major pathology of the central nervous system
      associated with neuroinflammation. Ryk (receptor-like tyrosine kinase) receptors
      act as repulsive axon-guidance molecules during development of central nervous
      system and neural injury. Increasing evidence suggests the potential involvement
      of Wnt/Ryk (wingless and Int) signaling in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain.
      However, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. Results The expression and
      location of Ryk receptor as well as its ligand Wnt1 were detected by qPCR,
      Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. We found that Ryk, a specific Wnt
      receptor, was expressed in IB4+ (Isolectin B4) and CGRP+ (calcitonin gene-related
      peptide) dorsal root ganglia neurons and their ascending unmyelinated fibers in
      the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Ryk was upregulated after spinal nerve
      ligation surgery. Wnt1 was also increased in activated astrocytes in the dorsal
      horn after spinal nerve ligation. The presynaptic mechanism of Ryk in regulation
      of neuropathic pain was determined by electrophysiology in spinal slice. Spinal
      nerve ligation model was established, and the therapeutic potential of inhibiting
      Ryk receptor was determined. Spine-specific blocking of the Wnt/Ryk receptor
      signaling attenuated the spinal nerve ligation-induced mechanical allodynia but
      not thermal hyperalgesia. Further, it also blocked Ca2+-dependent signals
      including CaMKII and PKCgamma, subsequent release of CCL2 (CCR-like protein) in
      the dorsal horn. An in vitro study showed that inactivating Ryk receptors with
      anti-Ryk antibodies or lentiviral Ryk shRNA led to the inactivation of Wnt1 for
      excitatory synaptic transmission in spinal slices and subsequent decrease in CCL2
      expression in the dorsal root ganglia neurons. Conclusion These studies
      demonstrate the existence of critical crosstalk between astrocytes and
      unmyelinated fibers, which indicate the presynaptic mechanism of Ryk in cytokine
      transmission of neuropathic pain and the therapeutic potential for Wnt/Ryk
      signaling pathway in the treatment of neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28565998
TI  - GABAB receptors-mediated tonic inhibition of glutamate release from Abeta fibers
      in rat laminae III/IV of the spinal cord dorsal horn.
AB  - Presynaptic GABAB receptors (GABABRs) are highly expressed in dorsal root
      ganglion neurons and spinal cord dorsal horn. GABABRs located in superficial
      dorsal horn play an important antinociceptive role, by acting at both pre- and
      postsynaptic sites. GABABRs expressed in deep dorsal horn could be involved in
      the processing of touch sensation and possibly in the generation of tactile
      allodynia in chronic pain. The objective of this study was to characterize the
      morphological and functional properties of GABABRs expressed on Abeta fibers
      projecting to lamina III/IV and to understand their role in modulating excitatory
      synaptic transmission. We performed high-resolution electron microscopic
      analysis, showing that GABAB2 subunit is expressed on 71.9% of terminals in rat
      lamina III-IV. These terminals were engaged in axodendritic synapses and, for the
      46%, also expressed glutamate immunoreactivity. Monosynaptic excitatory
      postsynaptic currents, evoked by Abeta fiber stimulation and recorded from lamina
      III/IV neurons in spinal cord slices, were strongly depressed by application of
      baclofen (0.1-2.5 uM), acting as a presynaptic modulator. Application of the
      GABABR antagonist CGP 55845 caused, in a subpopulation of neurons, the
      potentiation of the first of two excitatory postsynaptic currents recorded with
      the paired-pulse protocol, showing that GABABRs are endogenously activated. A
      decrease in the paired-pulse ratio accompanied the effect of CGP 55845, implying
      the involvement of presynaptic GABABRs. CGP 55845 facilitated only the first
      excitatory postsynaptic current also during a train of four consecutive stimuli
      applied to Abeta fibers. These results suggest that GABABRs tonically inhibit
      glutamate release from Abeta fibers at a subset of synapses in deep dorsal horn.
      This modulation specifically affects only the early phase of synaptic excitation
      in lamina III-IV neurons.

PMID- 28566001
TI  - Exploring encapsulation mechanism of DNA and mononucleotides in sol-gel derived
      silica.
AB  - The encapsulation mechanism of DNA in sol-gel derived silica has been explored in
      order to elucidate the effect of DNA conformation on encapsulation and to
      identify the nature of chemical/physical interaction of DNA with silica during
      and after sol-gel transition. In this respect, double stranded DNA and dAMP (2'
      deoxyadenosine 5'-monophosphate) were encapsulated in silica using an alkoxide
      based sol-gel route. Biomolecule-encapsulating gels have been characterized using
      UV-Vis, 29Si NMR, FTIR spectroscopy and gas adsorption (BET) to investigate
      chemical interactions of biomolecules with the porous silica network and to
      examine the extent of sol-gel reactions upon encapsulation. Ethidium bromide
      intercalation and leach out tests showed that helix conformation of DNA was
      preserved after encapsulation. For both biomolecules, high water-to-alkoxide
      ratio promoted water-producing condensation and prevented alcoholic denaturation.
      NMR and FTIR analyses confirmed high hydraulic reactivity (water adsorption) for
      more silanol groups-containing DNA and dAMP encapsulated gels than plain silica
      gel. No chemical binding/interaction occurred between biomolecules and silica
      network. DNA and dAMP encapsulated silica gelled faster than plain silica due to
      basic nature of DNA or dAMP containing buffer solutions. DNA was not released
      from silica gels to aqueous environment up to 9 days. The chemical association
      between DNA/dAMP and silica host was through phosphate groups and molecular water
      attached to silanols, acting as a barrier around biomolecules. The helix
      morphology was found not to be essential for such interaction. BET analyses
      showed that interconnected, inkbottle-shaped mesoporous silica network was
      condensed around DNA and dAMP molecules.

PMID- 28566000
TI  - Peripheral KV7 channels regulate visceral sensory function in mouse and human
      colon.
AB  - Background Chronic visceral pain is a defining symptom of many gastrointestinal
      disorders. The KV7 family (KV7.1-KV7.5) of voltage-gated potassium channels
      mediates the M current that regulates excitability in peripheral sensory
      nociceptors and central pain pathways. Here, we use a combination of
      immunohistochemistry, gut-nerve electrophysiological recordings in both mouse and
      human tissues, and single-cell qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction of
      gut-projecting sensory neurons, to investigate the contribution of peripheral KV7
      channels to visceral nociception. Results Immunohistochemical staining of mouse
      colon revealed labelling of KV7 subtypes (KV7.3 and KV7.5) with CGRP around
      intrinsic enteric neurons of the myenteric plexuses and within extrinsic sensory
      fibres along mesenteric blood vessels. Treatment with the KV7 opener retigabine
      almost completely abolished visceral afferent firing evoked by the algogen
      bradykinin, in agreement with significant co-expression of mRNA transcripts by
      single-cell qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for KCNQ subtypes and
      the B2 bradykinin receptor in retrogradely labelled extrinsic sensory neurons
      from the colon. Retigabine also attenuated responses to mechanical stimulation of
      the bowel following noxious distension (0-80 mmHg) in a concentration-dependent
      manner, whereas the KV7 blocker XE991 potentiated such responses. In human bowel
      tissues, KV7.3 and KV7.5 were expressed in neuronal varicosities co-labelled with
      synaptophysin and CGRP, and retigabine inhibited bradykinin-induced afferent
      activation in afferent recordings from human colon. Conclusions We show that KV7
      channels contribute to the sensitivity of visceral sensory neurons to noxious
      chemical and mechanical stimuli in both mouse and human gut tissues. As such,
      peripherally restricted KV7 openers may represent a viable therapeutic modality
      for the treatment of gastrointestinal pathologies.

PMID- 28566002
TI  - A two-stage cold isostatic pressing and gelling approach for fabricating a
      therapeutically loaded amorphous calcium polyphosphate local delivery system.
AB  - Local delivery systems have taken on a greater clinical focus for osteomyelitis
      therapy owing to their ability to overcome many disadvantages of systemic
      delivery. This study reports for the first time the capacity to fabricate
      strontium- and vancomycin-doped calcium polyphosphate beads using a two-stage
      cold isostatic pressing and gelling approach. The fabricated beads were of
      uniform shape and diameter, and upon gelling exhibited reduced porosity. Of
      greatest significance in the subsequent in vitro study was the improvement of
      bead long-term structural stability upon vancomycin incorporation; a
      characteristic that further encourages the extended release of therapeutically
      relevant levels of antibiotic. Overall, this study provides support for the
      inclusion of a cold isostatic pressing step in the fabrication of a
      therapeutically loaded calcium polyphosphate bead-based local delivery system
      intended for osteomyelitis treatment.

PMID- 28566004
TI  - Prevention of heart failure mortality and hospitalizations in SPRINT, EMPA-REG,
      ALLHAT and HYVET: are diuretics the clue?

PMID- 28566003
TI  - Memory and executive functions correlates of self-awareness in traumatic brain
      injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of
      executive functions (EF) components and episodic and working memory variables, as
      well as clinical and demographic factors, to awareness of cognitive ability in
      traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: Sixty-five TBI patients (mild: n = 26;
      moderate/severe: n = 39) took part in the study. Independent stepwise regression
      models were calculated for EF and memory predictors, with awareness being
      measured by patient/informant discrepancy in the Patient Competency Rating Scale.
      RESULTS: Models with EF variables indicated that semantic verbal fluency and age
      are the best predictors of awareness, whereas models including mnemonic functions
      suggested verbal delayed episodic recall and TBI severity as predictors.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results are discussed in relation to clinical implications,
      such as the need to focus efforts of rehabilitation in the cognitive abilities
      related to awareness, and theoretical models.

PMID- 28566005
TI  - Solid-state fermentation and composting as alternatives to treat hair waste: A
      life-cycle assessment comparative approach.
AB  - One of the wastes associated with leather production in tannery industries is the
      hair residue generated during the dehairing process. Hair wastes are mainly
      dumped or managed through composting but recent studies propose the treatment of
      hair wastes through solid-state fermentation (SSF) to obtain proteases and
      compost. These enzymes are suitable for its use in an enzymatic dehairing
      process, as an alternative to the current chemical dehairing process. In the
      present work, two different scenarios for the valorization of the hair waste are
      proposed and assessed by means of life-cycle assessment: composting and SSF for
      protease production. Detailed data on hair waste composting and on SSF protease
      production are gathered from previous studies performed by our research group and
      from a literature survey. Background inventory data are mainly based on Ecoinvent
      version 3 from software SimaPro(r) 8. The main aim of this study was to identify
      which process results in the highest environmental impact. The SSF process was
      found to have lower environmental impacts than composting, due to the fact that
      the enzyme use in the dehairing process prevents the use of chemicals
      traditionally used in the dehairing process. This permits to reformulate an
      industrial process from the classical approach of waste management to a novel
      alternative based on circular economy.

PMID- 28566006
TI  - Arousal (but not valence) amplifies the impact of salience.
AB  - Previous findings indicate that negative arousal enhances bottom-up attention
      biases favouring perceptual salient stimuli over less salient stimuli. The
      current study tests whether those effects were driven by emotional arousal or by
      negative valence by comparing how well participants could identify visually
      presented letters after hearing either a negative arousing, positive arousing or
      neutral sound. On each trial, some letters were presented in a high contrast font
      and some in a low contrast font, creating a set of targets that differed in
      perceptual salience. Sounds rated as more emotionally arousing led to more
      identification of highly salient letters but not of less salient letters, whereas
      sounds' valence ratings did not impact salience biases. Thus, arousal, rather
      than valence, is a key factor enhancing visual processing of perceptually salient
      targets.

PMID- 28566007
TI  - Aging With a Physical Disability in Medicaid Managed Care.
AB  - This study examines health services appraisal (HSA) and unmet health-care needs
      for adults (age 50 and over) with physical disabilities in Medicaid managed care
      (MMC) versus Medicaid fee for service (FFS). Surveys from 309 individuals in MMC
      and 349 in FFS 2 years after MMC implementation included demographics, MMC
      processes, HSA, and unmet health-care needs. Regression analyses with HSA and
      unmet health-care needs as outcomes included demographics and group status (MMC
      or FFS) for the entire sample, and demographics and MMC processes (continuity of
      care, experience with care coordinators and primary care physicians) as
      independent variables for only MMC enrollees. Group status was not associated
      with HSA or unmet needs. Among MMC enrollees, better health and more positive MMC
      processes related to higher HSA and lower unmet needs. It is important to
      consider the perspectives of people aging with disabilities in MMC to better
      serve their needs.

PMID- 28566008
TI  - Aging With Disability: Advancement of a Cross-Disciplinary Research Network.

PMID- 28566009
TI  - Health and Health-Care Utilization of the Older Population of Ireland: Comparing
      the Intellectual Disability Population and the General Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Largely unresearched are the similarities and differences
      compared to the general population in the aging of people with an intellectual
      disability (ID). Data reported here compare the health and health-care
      utilization of the general aging population in Ireland with those who are aging
      with ID. DESIGN: Data for comparisons were drawn from the 2010 The Irish
      Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and the Intellectual Disability Supplement
      (IDS)-TILDA Wave 1 data sets. SETTING: TILDA participants were community dwelling
      only while IDS-TILDA participants were drawn from community and institutional
      settings. PARTICIPANTS: TILDA consists of a sample of 8,178 individuals aged 50
      years and older who were representative of the Irish population. The IDS-TILDA
      consists of a random sample of 753 persons aged 40 and older. Using age 50 as the
      initial criterion, 478 persons with ID were matched with TILDA participants on
      age, sex, and geographic location to create the sample for this comparison.
      MEASUREMENTS: Both studies gathered self-reported data on physical and mental
      health, behavioral health, functional limitations, and health-care utilization.
      RESULTS: Rates of chronic disease appeared higher overall for people with ID as
      compared to the general population. There were also age-related differences in
      the prevalence of diabetes and cancer and different rates of engagement between
      the two groups in relevant behavioral health activities such as smoking. There
      were higher utilization levels among IDS-TILDA participants for allied health and
      general practitioner visits. CONCLUSION: Different disease trajectories found
      among IDS-TILDA participants raise concerns. The longitudinal comparison of data
      for people with ID and for the general population offered a better opportunity
      for the unique experiences of people with ID to be included in data that inform
      health planning.

PMID- 28566010
TI  - Extending the Promise of the Older Americans Act to Persons Aging With Long-Term
      Disability.
AB  - This article discusses the need for Older Americans Act (OAA) programs to
      evaluate and develop where needed the capacity to serve persons aging with long
      term disabilities such as intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and
      physical disabilities including polio, spinal cord injury, and multiple
      sclerosis. The rationale for this work is the universal access to OAA programs
      for all adults over 60, regardless of the disability type, age of onset, or
      severity, acknowledging that other needs-based criteria often need to be met to
      receive services. Recommendations for increasing OAA and aging network capacity
      include addressing long-standing divisions between the fields of aging and
      disability, a comprehensive review of all Administration for Community Living
      programs and policies, engaging in program adaptation to build capacity,
      advancing knowledge and skills of the professional workforce, creating new
      knowledge to support delivery of evidence-based interventions to all older adults
      including those with lifelong and early and midlife onset of disability.

PMID- 28566011
TI  - Types of Family Caregiving and Daily Experiences in Midlife and Late Adulthood:
      The Moderating Influences of Marital Status and Age.
AB  - Guided by the life-course perspective, this study contributes to the family
      caregiving, aging, and disability literature by examining the daily experiences
      of three types of family caregivers in midlife and late adulthood. A sample of
      162 caregivers from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States study
      completed interviews, questionnaires, and a Daily Diary Study. Multilevel models
      showed the patterns of daily time use did not differ by caregiver types.
      Caregivers of sons/daughters with developmental disabilities (DD) experienced
      more daily stressors than caregivers of parents with health conditions (HC) and
      caregivers of spouses with HC. Unmarried caregivers of sons/daughters with DD
      reported spending more time on daily leisure activities and exhibited greater
      daily stressor exposure than other family caregivers. Age did not moderate the
      associations between caregiver types and daily experiences. Findings highlight
      the important consideration of the caregivers' characteristics to better
      determine the quality of their daily experiences in midlife and late adulthood.

PMID- 28566012
TI  - Aging With Disability for Midlife and Older Adults.
AB  - This analysis brings "aging with disability" into middle and older ages. We study
      U.S. adults ages 51+ and ages 65+ with persistent disability (physical, household
      management, personal care; physical limitations, instrumental activities of daily
      living [IADLs], activities of daily living [ADLs]), using Health and Retirement
      Study data. Two complementary approaches are used to identify persons with
      persistent disability, one based directly on observed data and the other on
      latent classes. Both approaches show that persistent disability is more common
      for persons ages 65+ than ages 51+ and more common for physical limitations than
      IADLs and ADLs. People with persistent disability have social and health
      disadvantages compared to people with other longitudinal experiences. The
      analysis integrates two research avenues, aging with disability and disability
      trajectories. It gives empirical heft to government efforts to make aging with
      disability an age-free (all ages) rather than age-targeted (children and youths)
      perspective.

PMID- 28566013
TI  - Sexual harassment and menstrual disorders among Italian university women: A cross
      sectional observational study.
AB  - AIMS: Menstrual disorders and sexual harassment are common among young women and
      interfere with their life and activities. We aimed to describe the association of
      sexual harassment and menstrual disorders among female university students.
      METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational study examined the association
      between sexual harassment and menstrual disorders in a sample of 349 university
      students in Italy. Students answered an anonymous self-administered
      questionnaire. Descriptive bivariate analyses and logistic regression analyses
      were performed. Main outcome measures were associations between levels of
      exposure to sexual harassment (none, levels 1 and 2) and five menstrual disorders
      (premenstrual symptoms, heavy bleeding, pain, irregular cycles, and amenorrhea).
      RESULTS: Among the women interviewed (mean age 20.4 +/- 1.45 years), 146 (41.8%)
      had experienced sexual harassment in the previous 12 months: 91 (26.1%) level 1
      and 55 (15.7%) level 2. The frequency of premenstrual symptoms was 31.9% (
      n=110); heavy bleeding, 35.3% ( n=124); pain, 51.4% ( n=181); irregular cycles,
      55.5% ( n=195); and amenorrhea, 6.7% ( n=23). After adjustment for age, place of
      birth, being in a couple relationship and receiving hormone therapy, the
      frequency of menstrual disorders, except for amenorrhea, was increased with
      sexual harassment, with a regular gradient from no harassment to level 2
      harassment. Introducing factors of depression, specific gynaecological problems
      and lifetime sexual violence did not change the results. For instance, the
      adjusted odds ratios of premenstrual symptoms were 2.10 [1.19-3.68] for women
      with level 1 harassment and 3.58 [1.83-7.03] for women with level 2 compared with
      women without harassment exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual harassment is related to
      the prevalence of menstrual disorders. Healthcare providers should encourage
      dialogue with patients and address the issue of sexual violence or harassment.

PMID- 28566014
TI  - Assessing the culture of safety in cardiovascular perfusion: attitudes and
      perceptions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was developed by the
      Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to assess the culture of safety
      in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to identify specific domains of
      perfusion that are indicators of a high quality culture of safety. METHODS:
      Perfusionists were recruited to participate in the survey through email
      invitation through Perflist, Perfmail and LinkedIn. The survey consisted of 37
      questions across six safety domains. Questions were developed using the AHRQ
      Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. 'Positive scores' were defined as a
      response that either agreed or strongly agreed with a safety standard. Survey
      responses that resulted in a 75 percent or higher positive response rate were
      identified as vital components of a high culture of safety. Logistic regression
      analysis was used to determine importance components of perceived safety.
      RESULTS: Four responses were found to have a significant predictive level of a
      positive safety environment in the work unit: (1) in this unit, we discuss ways
      to prevent errors from happening again; OR=3.09, (2) in this unit, we treat
      others with respect; OR=1.09 (3) my supervisor/manager seriously considers staff
      suggestions for improving patient safety; OR=1.89 and (4) there is good
      cooperation among hospital units that need to work together; OR=1.77. There were
      two predictors of a negative work unit safety environment: (1) staff are afraid
      to ask questions when something does not seem right; OR=0.62 and (2) it is just
      by chance that more serious mistakes don't happen around here; OR=0.55.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results from this survey indicate that effective communication
      secondary to both incident and near-miss reporting is associated with a higher
      perceived culture of safety. A positive safety environment is associated with
      being able to speak up regarding safety issues without fear of negative
      repercussions.

PMID- 28566015
TI  - Judging Total Volumes Of Silhouetted Spheres In Different Numerosities.
AB  - Volume and number are addressed separately rather than combined in perception
      research. Yet, our everyday problems often involve summed continuous volumes of
      countable solid objects with partial depth cues (e.g., food items). The
      participants were presented with a set of black-and-white silhouettes of spheres
      that independently varied in numerosity (from 1 to 6) and total volume (2, 4, 6,
      or 8), and an adjacent silhouette of a partially filled cylinder. They judged how
      much the silhouetted sphere(s) in the set would raise the level of the cylinder
      content if the spheres were immersed into that content. Higher total volumes and
      numerosities of the spheres were judged slower and underestimated. Lower total
      volumes and numerosities were judged faster and overestimated. These effects
      strongly reflected the total silhouette area of the spheres in a set. The
      discontinuous effect of numerosity on judgment accuracy and speed suggested
      separate judgment modes below and above Numerosity 3.

PMID- 28566016
TI  - A computational study to identify the key residues of peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor gamma in the interactions with its antagonists.
AB  - Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) compose a family of nuclear
      receptors, PPARalpha, PPARbeta, and PPARgamma, which mediate the effects of
      lipidic ligands at the transcriptional level. Among these, the PPARgamma has been
      known to regulate adipocyte differentiation, fatty acid storage and glucose
      metabolism, and is a target of antidiabetic drugs. In this work, the interactions
      between PPARgamma and its six known antagonists were investigated using
      computational methods such as molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD)
      simulations, and the hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM). The
      binding energies evaluated by molecular docking varied between -22.59 and -35.15
      kJ mol- 1. In addition, MD simulations were performed to investigate the binding
      modes and PPARgamma conformational changes upon binding of antagonists. Analysis
      of the root-mean-square fluctuations (RMSF) of backbone atoms shows that H3 of
      PPARgamma has a higher mobility in the absence of antagonists and moderate
      conformational changes were observed. The interaction energies between
      antagonists and each PPARgamma residue involved in the interactions were studied
      by QM/MM calculations. These calculations reveal that antagonists with different
      structures show different interaction energies with the same residue of
      PPARgamma. Therefore, it can be concluded that the key residues vary depending on
      the structure of the ligand, which binds to PPARgamma.

PMID- 28566018
TI  - Autoimmune abnormality affects ovulation and oocyte-pick-up in MRL/MpJ-Fas
      lpr/lpr mice.
AB  - Ovulation and oocyte-pick-up are essential processes in fertilization. Herein, we
      found associations between autoimmune disease and the aforementioned processes in
      mice. At three and six months, along with the evaluation of autoimmune disease
      indices, the ovary, mesosalpinx, and oviducts were histologically examined in
      C57BL/6, MRL/MpJ, and MRL/MpJ-Fas lpr/lpr mice as healthy control, mild and
      severe models of autoimmune disease, respectively. In superovulated mice, the
      number of "oocyte cumulus complexes" found in the ampulla was macroscopically
      counted, and that of "ovulated oocytes" was histologically evaluated, as
      indicated by ruptured follicles or corpora hemorrhagica in ovaries. Finally, the
      oocyte-pick-up rate was calculated. In MRL/MpJ-Fas lpr/lpr mice, the oocyte-pick
      up rate decreased with disease-related deterioration, unlike in other mouse
      strains. Further, more ovulated oocytes were found in MRL/MpJ mice than in
      C57BL/6 mice, and this number significantly decreased with aging in MRL/MpJ-Fas
      lpr/lpr mice. Numerous T-cells infiltrated into the infundibulum or a part of the
      mesosalpinx in aged MRL/MpJ-Fas lpr/lpr mice, and their infundibulum showed
      swelling and fewer ciliated epithelial cells compared to that of C57BL/6 mice. In
      conclusion, the progression of severe autoimmune disease affected the oocyte-pick
      up process through histopathological changes in the infundibulum. These results
      provide important insights into female infertility associated with autoimmune
      disease.

PMID- 28566017
TI  - Efficacy and safety of tacrolimus in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with
      refractory thrombocytopenia: a retrospective study.
AB  - Objective We evaluated the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus in systemic lupus
      erythematosus patients with refractory thrombocytopenia. Methods We
      retrospectively reviewed the data for 20 systemic lupus erythematosus patients
      with refractory thrombocytopenia and treated with tacrolimus during the period
      January 2013 to January 2015. In addition to glucocorticoids, all patients were
      treated with tacrolimus, 1 mg taken twice daily. The clinical effect of
      tacrolimus treatment in patients was evaluated by analysis of platelet counts at
      baseline and after one, three and six months of tacrolimus treatment. Levels of
      anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies and complement C3, C4 were determined
      individually. Results After one month of tacrolimus treatment, three patients
      (15%) did not respond, three patients (15%) achieved a complete response and the
      other 14 patients (75%) achieved a partial response. After three months of
      tacrolimus treatment, the platelet counts of all patients were significantly
      improved. A partial response was seen in 14 patients (75%) and the complete
      response rate increased to 25% (five patients). After six months, all patients
      attained partial response or complete response without relapse, and the rate of
      complete response increased to 75%. Compared to pretreatment, anti-double
      stranded DNA antibody levels and the disease activity index score were markedly
      decreased after tacrolimus treatment. The levels of serum C3 and C4 were
      increased significantly ( P < 0.05). Conclusions Our survey revealed that a six
      month course of tacrolimus is a safe and effective treatment for systemic lupus
      erythematosus patients with refractory thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28566020
TI  - Do parents of adolescents request the same universal parental support as parents
      of younger children? A random sample of Swedish parents.
AB  - : Universal parental support intended to enhance parents' capacity for parenting
      is an important aspect of public health strategies. However, support has mostly
      been aimed at parents, especially mothers, of younger children. There is a gap in
      the research concerning parents of adolescents and fathers' interest in parenting
      support. AIM: To investigate and compare the interest in parenting support of
      parents of adolescents and younger children, potential differences between
      mothers and fathers, and their knowledge of what is being offered to them
      already, and to explore their requirements for future universal parental support.
      METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 1336
      parents. Quantitative methods were used to analyze differences between groups and
      qualitative methods were used to analyze open-ended questions in regard to
      parents' requirements for future universal parental support. RESULTS: About 82%
      of the parents of adolescents interviewed think that offering universal parental
      support is most important during child's adolescence. There is a substantial
      interest, particularly among mothers, in most forms of support. Despite their
      interest, parents have limited awareness of the support available. Only 7% knew
      about the local municipality website, although 70% reported a possible interest
      in such a website. Similarly, 3% knew that a parent phone line was available to
      them, while 59% reported a possible interest. CONCLUSIONS: It poses a challenge
      but is nevertheless important for municipalities to develop support targeted at
      parents of adolescents which is tailored to their needs, and to reach out with
      information.

PMID- 28566019
TI  - Using Evidence To Inform Practice and Policy To Enhance the Quality of Care for
      Persons with Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.
AB  - In today's economic climate, there is a need to demonstrate a return on
      investment for healthcare spending and for clinical practice and policy to be
      informed by evidence. Navigating this process is difficult for decision-makers,
      clinicians, and researchers alike. This article will describe how a knowledge
      translation framework and an evidence-based policy-making process were integrated
      to clarify the problem, frame options, and plan implementation, to impact
      clinical practice and policy in the area of traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI).
      The Access to Care and Timing (ACT) project is focused on optimizing the access
      and timing of specialized healthcare delivery for persons sustaining a tSCI in
      Canada. A simulation model was developed that uses current patient data to
      address complex problems faced by the healthcare system. At a workshop,
      participants stressed the importance of linking interventions to short- and long
      term outcomes to drive change. Presently, there are no national, system level
      indicators to monitor performance after tSCI. Although the ideal system of care
      after tSCI is unknown, indicator collection will establish a baseline to measure
      improvement. The workshop participants prioritized two indicators important from
      the clinician and patient perspective-timely admission to rehabilitation and
      meaningful community participation. The ACT simulation model for tSCI care will
      be used to promote the uptake of identified indicators and provide a predictive
      link between interventions on potential outcomes. The standardized collection of
      outcome-oriented indicators will help to evaluate the access and timing of care
      and to define the ideal system of care after SCI.

PMID- 28566021
TI  - First-Person Perspectives on Prescriber-Service User Relationships in Community
      Mental Health Centers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Because of changes in health care, there is a greater focus on brief
      medication management visits as the primary method of providing psychiatric care
      in community mental health settings. Research on the first-person perspectives of
      service users and prescribers in these settings is limited. The objective of this
      study was to describe first-person perspectives on medication management visits
      and the service user-prescriber relationship. METHODS: Researchers conducted
      qualitative interviews as part of a larger comparative effectiveness trial at 15
      community mental health centers, researchers interviewed service users (N=44) and
      prescribers (N=25) about their perspectives on the typical elements of a
      medication management visit and asked service users about their relationship with
      their prescriber. RESULTS: Both service users and prescribers described
      medication management visits as very brief encounters focused on medication and
      symptoms. Most service users reflected on the service user-prescriber
      relationship in positive or neutral terms; they did not describe the development
      of a strong therapeutic relationship or a meaningful clinical encounter with
      prescribing clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: Service users described the service user
      prescriber relationship and medication management visit as largely transactional.
      Despite the transactional nature of these encounters, most service users
      described relationships with prescribing clinicians in positive or neutral terms.
      Their satisfaction with the visit did not necessarily mean that they were
      receiving high-quality care. Satisfaction may instead suggest service users'
      disengagement from care. They may need more support to fully participate in their
      own care.

PMID- 28566022
TI  - Six-Month Follow-Up of Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy for Low-Functioning
      Individuals With Schizophrenia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study examined six-month follow-up results and the impact of
      length of illness on treatment outcomes of recovery-oriented cognitive therapy
      (CT-R). METHODS: Sixty outpatients (mean age 38.4 years, 33% female, 65% African
      American) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and elevated negative
      symptoms were randomly assigned to CT-R or standard treatment. Assessments were
      conducted at baseline, midtreatment (six and 12 months), end of treatment (18
      months), and follow-up (24 months, N=46 after attrition) by assessors blind to
      treatment condition. Global functioning, measured with the Global Assessment
      Scale, was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were negative symptoms
      (avolition-apathy score on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms) and
      positive symptoms (total score on the Scale for the Assessment of Positive
      Symptoms). Length of illness indexed chronicity (less chronic, one to 12 years;
      more chronic, 13 to 40 years). RESULTS: Intent-to-treat analyses (hierarchal
      linear modeling) at follow-up indicated significant benefits for individuals
      assigned to CT-R compared with standard treatment: higher global functioning
      scores (between-group Cohen's d=.53), lower scores for negative symptoms (d=
      .66), and lower scores for positive symptoms (d=-1.36). Length of illness
      moderated treatment effects on global functioning, such that those with a less
      chronic illness began to show improvements earlier (at the trend level by six
      months and reaching significance by the end of treatment), whereas the group with
      a more chronic illness did not show significant improvements until later (at
      follow-up). CONCLUSIONS: CT-R produced durable effects that were present even
      among individuals with the most chronic illness.

PMID- 28566023
TI  - Second-Generation Antipsychotic Prescribing Patterns for Pediatric Patients
      Enrolled in West Virginia Medicaid.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The prescribing of second-generation antipsychotics for young people
      has increased dramatically. Studies have shown that children enrolled in Medicaid
      are more likely than those with private insurance to receive antipsychotics,
      leading many states to require prior authorization (PA) for their use. However,
      little is known about how PA programs affect prescribing patterns for
      antipsychotics or other psychotropic medications. This study examined a PA
      program for second-generation antipsychotic use for children under 18 in West
      Virginia Medicaid. Prescribing rates for antipsychotics and other psychotropic
      classes were assessed. METHODS: Administrative claims from West Virginia Medicaid
      and the Children's Health Insurance Program for September 2014 to July 2016 were
      examined (N=273,369 prescriptions) with an interrupted time-series design.
      Segmented linear regression was used to model both immediate effects and trends
      in prescribing rates before and after implementation of the PA program in August
      2015. RESULTS: After PA program implementation, the prescribing rate for second
      generation antipsychotics immediately dropped by 17% from prior levels, adjusted
      for preexisting trends, and further declined in the following months. Prescribing
      rates for all second-generation antipsychotics except for aripiprazole decreased
      significantly. Benzodiazepine prescribing increased in the month after PA program
      implementation but immediately returned to prepolicy rates, and sustained
      compensatory prescribing was not observed for any psychotropic drug class.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a second-generation antipsychotic PA program for
      children under age 18 resulted in a significant decrease in the prescribing rate
      for this class of medication, without sustained compensatory prescribing of other
      psychotropic classes.

PMID- 28566024
TI  - Fostering Activation Among Latino Parents of Children With Mental Health Needs:
      An RCT.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Latino families raising children with mental health and other special
      health care needs report greater dissatisfaction with care compared with other
      families. Activation is a promising strategy to eliminate disparities. This study
      examined the comparative effectiveness of MePrEPA, an activation intervention for
      Latino parents whose children receive mental health services. METHODS: A
      randomized controlled trial (N=172) was conducted in a Spanish-language mental
      health clinic to assess the effectiveness of MePrEPA, a four-week group
      psychoeducational intervention to enhance parent activation among Latino parents,
      compared with a parent-support control group. Inclusion criteria were raising a
      child who receives services for mental health needs and ability to attend weekly
      sessions. Outcomes were parent activation, education activation, quality of
      school interaction, and parent mental health. Effectiveness of the intervention
      was tested with a difference-in-difference approach estimating linear mixed
      models. Heterogeneity of treatment effect was examined. RESULTS: MePrEPA enhanced
      parent activation (beta=5.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.42-10.53), education
      activation (beta=7.98, CI=3.01-12.94), and quality of school interaction
      (beta=1.83, CI=.14-3.52) to a greater degree than did a parent-support control
      group. The intervention's impact on parent activation and education outcomes was
      greater for participants whose children were covered by Medicaid and were novices
      to therapy and those with low activation at baseline. No statistically
      significant effects were observed in parent mental health. CONCLUSIONS:
      Activation among Latino parents was improved with MePrEPA, which can be readily
      incorporated in current practices by mental health clinics. Future work should
      replicate findings in a large number of sites, adding behavioral measures and
      distal impacts while examining MePrEPA's effects across settings and populations.

PMID- 28566025
TI  - Management of Mental Health Crises Among Youths With and Without ASD: A National
      Survey of Child Psychiatrists.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study compared management by child psychiatrists of mental health
      crises among youths with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: A
      custom online mental health crisis services survey was administered to members of
      the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The survey probed three
      domains of crisis management: willingness to work with youths with a history of
      mental health crisis, comfort level in managing a mental health crisis, and
      availability of external resources during a crisis. Child psychiatrists reporting
      on management of youths with ASD (N=492) and without ASD (N=374) completed the
      survey. RESULTS: About 75% of psychiatrists in both groups were willing to accept
      a child with a history of a mental health crisis in their practice. During a
      crisis, psychiatrists caring for youths with ASD had less access to external
      consultation resources, such as a crisis evaluation center or other mental health
      professionals, compared with those caring for youths without ASD. Psychiatrists
      also expressed concerns about the ability of emergency department professionals
      and emergency responders to manage mental health crises among youths in a safe
      and developmentally appropriate manner, particularly among those with ASD.
      CONCLUSIONS: Child psychiatrists are in need of more external resources to manage
      youths with ASD who are experiencing a mental health crisis. There is also a need
      to develop best practice procedures for emergency responders who are working with
      youths experiencing a mental health crisis.

PMID- 28566026
TI  - Gun Violence Following Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment: Offense Characteristics,
      Sources of Guns, and Number of Victims.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study presents data on the relative contribution to gun violence
      by people with a history of inpatient psychiatric treatment and on federal
      efforts to deter presumptively dangerous persons from obtaining firearms,
      information useful for analyzing the potential public health benefits of gun
      policies targeting people with serious mental illness. The study also estimates
      the reduction in gun violence victims that would be expected if individuals with
      a previous psychiatric hospitalization were prohibited from purchasing firearms.
      METHODS: Data from 838 violent gun offenders from a nationally representative
      sample of state prison inmates were analyzed. Those with and without a history of
      psychiatric hospitalization were compared on a range of offense characteristics,
      including relationship to the victim, number of victims, location of the offense,
      and source of firearms. RESULTS: Inmates with a history of hospitalization
      constituted 12% of all violent gun offenders and accounted for 13% of the
      sample's victims. They were less likely than those without a previous
      hospitalization to victimize strangers (odds ratio=.52) and were no more likely
      to commit gun violence in public or to have multiple victims. Among those with
      previous hospitalizations, 78% obtained guns from sources not subject to federal
      background checks. Of the total 1,041 victims of gun violence, only 3% were
      victimized by participants with a history of hospitalization who obtained guns
      from currently regulated sources. CONCLUSIONS: Prohibiting all individuals with a
      history of psychiatric hospitalization from purchasing firearms, absent expanded
      background checks, was estimated to reduce the number of gun violence victims by
      only 3%.

PMID- 28566027
TI  - Perceived Autonomy Support in the NIMH RAISE Early Treatment Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examined perceived support for autonomy-the extent to which
      individuals feel empowered and supported to make informed choices-among
      participants in the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early
      Treatment Program (RAISE ETP). The aims of this study were to evaluate whether
      NAVIGATE, the active treatment studied in RAISE ETP, was associated with greater
      improvements in perceived autonomy support over the two-year intervention,
      compared with community care, and to examine associations between perceived
      autonomy support and quality of life and symptoms over time and across treatment
      groups. METHODS: This study examined perceived autonomy support among the 404
      individuals with first-episode psychosis who participated in the RAISE ETP trial
      (NAVIGATE, N=223; community care, N=181). Three-level conditional linear growth
      modeling was used given the nested data structure. RESULTS: The results indicated
      that perceived autonomy support increased significantly over time for those in
      NAVIGATE but not in community care. Once treatment began, higher perceived
      autonomy support was related to higher quality of life at six, 12, and 18 months
      in NAVIGATE and at 12, 18, and 24 months in community care. Higher perceived
      autonomy support was related to improved scores on total symptoms and on excited
      symptoms regardless of treatment group and time. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, perceived
      autonomy support increased in NAVIGATE but not for those in community care and
      was related to improved quality of life and symptoms across both treatment
      groups. Future research should examine the impact of perceived autonomy support
      on a wider array of outcomes, including engagement, medication adherence, and
      functioning.

PMID- 28566028
TI  - A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Rochester Forensic Assertive Community
      Treatment Model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Forensic assertive community treatment (FACT) is an adaptation of the
      assertive community treatment model and is designed to serve justice-involved
      adults with serious mental illness. This study compared the effectiveness of a
      standardized FACT model and enhanced treatment as usual in reducing jail and
      hospital use and in promoting engagement in outpatient mental health services.
      METHODS: Seventy adults with psychotic disorders who were arrested for
      misdemeanor crimes and who were eligible for conditional discharge were recruited
      from the Monroe County, New York, court system. Participants were randomly
      assigned to receive either FACT (N=35) or enhanced treatment as usual (N=35) for
      one year. Criminal justice and mental health service utilization outcomes were
      measured by using state and county databases. RESULTS: Forty-nine participants
      (70%) completed the full one-year intervention period. Nineteen (27%) were
      removed early by judicial order, one was removed by county health authorities,
      and one died of a medical illness. Intent-to-treat analysis for all 70
      participants showed that those receiving the FACT intervention had fewer mean+/
      SD convictions (.4+/-.7 versus .9+/-1.3, p=.023), fewer mean days in jail (21.5+/
      25.9 versus 43.5+/-59.2, p=.025), fewer mean days in the hospital (4.4+/-15.1
      versus 23.8+/-64.2, p=.025), and more mean days in outpatient mental health
      treatment (305.5+/-92.1 versus 169.4+/-139.6, p<.001) compared with participants
      who received treatment as usual. CONCLUSIONS: The Rochester FACT model was
      associated with fewer convictions for new crimes, less time in jail and
      hospitals, and more time in outpatient treatment among justice-involved adults
      with psychotic disorders compared with treatment as usual.

PMID- 28566029
TI  - Trainer Fidelity as a Predictor of Crisis Counselors' Behaviors With Callers Who
      Express Suicidal Thoughts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The relationship between trainer fidelity during a two-day suicide
      prevention program for counselors at crisis centers and counselors' behaviors
      during calls from individuals with suicidal thoughts was examined. METHODS: The
      study used two data sets from a randomized control trial of a suicide prevention
      program delivered by counselors at 17 crisis centers who had previously received
      training (train-the-trainer [TTT] approach). One data set examined counselors'
      behaviors by silently monitoring calls (N=764) to the crisis lines, and one
      assessed adherence to manual content and competence in delivery among trainers
      (N=34) by coding training videotapes. Multilevel modeling was used to account for
      nested data. RESULTS: Use of recommended behaviors by counselors was primarily
      related to trainers' competence in delivery of the program rather than adherence
      to the program content. CONCLUSIONS: Trainer selection for competence may be
      particularly critical for group-based TTT programs involving experienced
      counselors and the use of experiential activities.

PMID- 28566030
TI  - Treatment of alumina refinery waste (red mud) through neutralization techniques:
      A review.
AB  - In the Bayer process of extraction of alumina from bauxite, the insoluble product
      generated after bauxite digestion with sodium hydroxide at elevated temperature
      and pressure is known as 'red mud' or 'bauxite residue'. This alumina refinery
      waste is highly alkaline in nature with a pH of 10.5-12.5 and is conventionally
      disposed of in mostly clay-lined land-based impoundments. The alkaline
      constituents in the red mud impose severe and alarming environmental problems,
      such as soil and air pollution. Keeping in view sustainable re-vegetation and
      residue management, neutralization/treatment of red mud using different
      techniques is the only alternative to make the bauxite residue environmentally
      benign. Hence, neutralization techniques, such as using mineral acids, acidic
      waste (pickling liquor waste), coal dust, superphosphate and gypsum as amenders,
      CO2, sintering with silicate material and seawater for treatment of red mud have
      been studied in detail. This paper is based upon and emphasizes the experimental
      work carried out for all the neutralization techniques along with a comprehensive
      review of each of the processes. The scope, applicability, limitations and
      feasibility of these processes have been compared exhaustively. Merits and
      demerits have been discussed using flow diagrams. All the techniques described
      are technically feasible, wherein findings obtained with seawater neutralization
      can be set as a benchmark for future work. Further studies should be focused on
      exploring the economical viability of these processes for better waste management
      and disposal of red mud.

PMID- 28566031
TI  - The link between waste management, climate change and bioeconomy.

PMID- 28566032
TI  - Estimation of construction and demolition waste using waste generation rates in
      Chennai, India.
AB  - A large amount of construction and demolition waste is being generated owing to
      rapid urbanisation in Indian cities. A reliable estimate of construction and
      demolition waste generation is essential to create awareness about this stream of
      solid waste among the government bodies in India. However, the required data to
      estimate construction and demolition waste generation in India are unavailable or
      not explicitly documented. This study proposed an approach to estimate
      construction and demolition waste generation using waste generation rates and
      demonstrated it by estimating construction and demolition waste generation in
      Chennai city. The demolition waste generation rates of primary materials were
      determined through regression analysis using waste generation data from 45 case
      studies. Materials, such as wood, electrical wires, doors, windows and
      reinforcement steel, were found to be salvaged and sold on the secondary market.
      Concrete and masonry debris were dumped in either landfills or unauthorised
      places. The total quantity of construction and demolition debris generated in
      Chennai city in 2013 was estimated to be 1.14 million tonnes. The proportion of
      masonry debris was found to be 76% of the total quantity of demolition debris.
      Construction and demolition debris forms about 36% of the total solid waste
      generated in Chennai city. A gross underestimation of construction and demolition
      waste generation in some earlier studies in India has also been shown. The
      methodology proposed could be utilised by government bodies, policymakers and
      researchers to generate reliable estimates of construction and demolition waste
      in other developing countries facing similar challenges of limited data
      availability.

PMID- 28566033
TI  - Hospital waste management in developing countries: A mini review.
AB  - Health care activities can generate different kinds of hazardous wastes.
      Mismanagement of these wastes can result in environmental and occupational health
      risks. Developing countries are resource-constrained when it comes to safe
      management of hospital wastes. This study summarizes the main issues faced in
      hospital waste management in developing countries. A review of the existing
      literature suggests that regulations and legislations focusing on hospital waste
      management are recent accomplishments in many of these countries. Implementation
      of these rules varies from one hospital to another. Moreover, wide variations
      exist in waste generation rates within as well as across these countries. This is
      mainly attributable to a lack of an agreement on the definitions and the
      methodology among the researchers to measure such wastes. Furthermore, hospitals
      in these countries suffer from poor waste segregation, collection, storage,
      transportation and disposal practices, which can lead to occupational and
      environmental risks. Knowledge and awareness regarding proper waste management
      remain low in the absence of training for hospital staff. Moreover, hospital
      sanitary workers, and scavengers, operate without the provision of safety
      equipment or immunization. Unsegregated waste is illegally recycled, leading to
      further safety risks. Overall, hospital waste management in developing countries
      faces several challenges. Sustainable waste management practices can go a long
      way in reducing the harmful effects of hospital wastes.

PMID- 28566034
TI  - Hunting for valuables from landfills and assessing their market opportunities A
      case study with Kudjape landfill in Estonia.
AB  - Landfill mining is an alternative technology that merges the ideas of material
      recycling and sustainable waste management. This paper reports a case study to
      estimate the value of landfilled materials and their respective market
      opportunities, based on a full-scale landfill mining project in Estonia. During
      the project, a dump site (Kudjape, Estonia) was excavated with the main
      objectives of extracting soil-like final cover material with the function of
      methane degradation. In total, about 57,777 m3 of waste was processed,
      particularly the uppermost 10-year layer of waste. Manual sorting was performed
      in four test pits to determine the detailed composition of wastes. 11,610 kg of
      waste was screened on site, resulting in fine (<40 mm) and coarse (>40 mm)
      fractions with the share of 54% and 46%, respectively. Some portion of the fine
      fraction was sieved further to obtain a very fine grained fraction of <10 mm and
      analyzed for its potential for metals recovery. The average chemical composition
      of the <10 mm soil-like fraction suggests that it offers opportunities for metal
      (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) extraction and recovery. The findings from this study
      highlight the importance of implementing best available site-specific
      technologies for on-site separation up to 10 mm grain size, and the importance of
      developing and implementing innovative extraction methods for materials recovery
      from soil-like fractions.

PMID- 28566035
TI  - Pilot-scale steam aging of steel slags.
AB  - Solid waste management has gained importance in the steel industry in view of
      rising environmental concerns and scarcity of raw materials. In spite of
      significant developments in reducing waste generation and development of
      recycling technologies, steel slag is still a concern for the industry as most of
      it is dumped. Steel slag is similar to stone aggregates in strength, but its
      volumetric instability in contact with water hinders its application as
      aggregates in construction. A part of steel slag is normally exposed to rain and
      sun for natural aging and stabilization for months before use. The natural aging
      process is slow and time-consuming, and thus restricts its usage. The steelmaking
      slag can be put to effective use as coarse aggregates if quickly aged and
      stabilized by pre-reacting the free expansive phases. In the present work, a new
      process has been developed to accelerate the steel slag aging process using steam
      in a 30 T pilot scale facility. The setup has controlled steam injection,
      distribution, and process control system for steam, temperature, flow, and
      pressure. Steam percolates through the minute pores in the slag lumps and
      hydrates the expansive free lime and MgO phases, making it stable. The aged slag
      expansion properties were tested using an in-house developed expansion testing
      apparatus. The process is capable of reducing the expansion of steel slag from
      3.5% to <1.5% (standard requirement) in 7 days. The aged steel slag is currently
      being used in roads at JSW Steel, Vijayanagar Works.

PMID- 28566036
TI  - Relationship Between Supervisor Factors and Therapist Knowledge, Attitudes, and
      Use of EBP in a Large Public Behavioral Health System.

PMID- 28566038
TI  - Public Psychiatry's Accomplishments: Bound for Nowhere?

PMID- 28566037
TI  - Mental Health, Substance Use, and Socioeconomic Needs of Older Persons Paroled or
      Placed on Probation.

PMID- 28566039
TI  - Maintaining ACA's Gains in Insurance Coverage and Improving Access to Behavioral
      Health Care.

PMID- 28566040
TI  - Quality of Inpatient Psychiatric Care and Consumers' Trust in the Mental Health
      Care System.

PMID- 28566042
TI  - 2017: The Year Otolaryngology Had to "Scramble".

PMID- 28566041
TI  - Long-term operational studies of lab-scale pumice-woodchip packed stormwater
      biofilters.
AB  - The performance of three pumice-woodchip packed stormwater biofilter (PWSWBF)
      systems with three packing volume ratios of pumice to woodchip (1:2, 1:1 and 2:1)
      were compared. The results show that the PWSWBF system packed with a lower
      percentage of woodchip attained a higher removal efficiency of TCOD, TN, NH4-N
      and TP, whereas all three systems completely removed nitrate. The highest removal
      efficiencies for TCOD, TN, NH4-N, NO3-N and TP were 95%, 70%, 86%, 100% and 100%,
      respectively. In the biofilter with a lower percentage of woodchip, the
      pollutants that get removed through aerobic biological processes were removed
      more significantly, which is attributed to less oxygen depletion via woodchip
      decomposition, which is common under wet conditions. Nitrate was significantly
      removed via denitrification in all three systems, indicating that the woodchip
      that occupied one-third of the main media was sufficient for denitrification, and
      also that the oxygen condition inside the column was proper for denitrification
      to proceed. A smaller amount of woodchip as the packing material also mitigated
      the adverse effect of the release of organics from the media during the initial
      period. In addition, the system showed very good buffering capacity, in that the
      outflow pH was constant within the optimal range for microorganism growth.

PMID- 28566043
TI  - Highlights from the Current Issue: June 2017.

PMID- 28566044
TI  - Residency Education in Otolaryngology.

PMID- 28566045
TI  - Inpatient Rounding Practices in Otolaryngology Residency Programs.
AB  - Inpatient rounding is an agelong tradition in the field of medicine. Among recent
      changes in health care, rounding is understudied as an area of research. The
      purpose of this study was to assess current methods of inpatient rounding in
      otolaryngology residency programs and assess satisfaction with current practices.
      Survey questions were designed by members of the resident committee of the
      Society of University Otolaryngologists. Surveys were sent to all 450 members,
      and we obtained a 32% response rate. Sixty-four percent of attendings perform
      bedside rounds; 44% of subjects reported that attending physicians participate in
      rounds at least once a week; and 21% reported daily participation. When asked if
      attending participation in rounding is adequate, attendings did not have a strong
      opinion (mean = 3.8). There is a paucity of research on inpatient rounding, and
      future studies should examine specific practices with the goal of maximizing
      patient safety and resident education.

PMID- 28566046
TI  - Are All Manikins Created Equal? A Pilot Study of Simulator Upper Airway Anatomic
      Fidelity.
AB  - This study evaluates the anatomic fidelity of several commercially available
      pediatric and adult manikins, including airway task trainers, which could be used
      in aerodigestive procedure training. Twenty-three experienced otolaryngologists
      assessed the aerodigestive anatomy of 5 adult and 5 pediatric manikins in a
      passive state, using rigid and flexible endoscopy. Anatomic fidelity was rated on
      a 5-point scale for the following: nasal cavity, nasopharynx, oral cavity,
      oropharynx, larynx, trachea, esophagus, and neck. Mean scores and standard
      deviations were tabulated for each manikin at each anatomic site. Ratings by
      survey participants demonstrated variation in the anatomic fidelity of the
      aerodigestive tract in a range of manikins. Radar chart display of the results
      allows comparison of manikin fidelity by anatomic site. Differences in scores may
      allow instructors to select manikins with the best anatomic fidelity for specific
      educational purposes, and they may contribute to recommendations to improve
      future manikin design.

PMID- 28566047
TI  - Implementation of an Intramural Competitive Resident Research Grant.
AB  - Experience with procurement of research funding and grantsmanship is an essential
      skill and one that is rarely taught in a manner that adequately prepares trainees
      for the magnitude of this professional requirement. The aims of the program
      described in this article are (1) to provide a mentored experience in
      grantsmanship through designing and concisely outlining an individual research
      study and (2) to supplement extramural funding mechanisms for clinical trainees
      to produce meaningful and substantive clinical and/or basic science research. A
      total of $10,000 of departmental chair discretionary funds is allocated for
      resident research annually. The first 2 cycles have successfully allocated the
      allotted funding through a competitive, scored grant evaluation process. Awardees
      have already produced meaningful data that have been nationally presented,
      submitted for publication, and integrated into an National Institutes of Health
      grant submission. The feasibility of implementing an intramural competitive
      resident research grant may have broad application within varied training
      environments.

PMID- 28566048
TI  - The P Value Problem in Otolaryngology: Shifting to Effect Sizes and Confidence
      Intervals.
AB  - There is a lack of reporting effect sizes and confidence intervals in the current
      biomedical literature. The objective of this article is to present a discussion
      of the recent paradigm shift encouraging the use of reporting effect sizes and
      confidence intervals. Although P values help to inform us about whether an effect
      exists due to chance, effect sizes inform us about the magnitude of the effect
      (clinical significance), and confidence intervals inform us about the range of
      plausible estimates for the general population mean (precision). Reporting effect
      sizes and confidence intervals is a necessary addition to the biomedical
      literature, and these concepts are reviewed in this article.

PMID- 28566049
TI  - Molecular dynamics simulations of apo and holo forms of fatty acid binding
      protein 5 and cellular retinoic acid binding protein II reveal highly mobile
      protein, retinoic acid ligand, and water molecules.
AB  - Structural and dynamic properties from a series of 300 ns molecular dynamics, MD,
      simulations of two intracellular lipid binding proteins, iLBPs, (Fatty Acid
      Binding Protein 5, FABP5, and Cellular Retinoic Acid Binding Protein II, CRABP
      II) in both the apo form and when bound with retinoic acid reveal a high degree
      of protein and ligand flexibility. The ratio of FABP5 to CRABP-II in a cell may
      determine whether it undergoes natural apoptosis or unrestricted cell growth in
      the presence of retinoic acid. As a result, FABP5 is a promising target for
      cancer therapy. The MD simulations presented here reveal distinct differences in
      the two proteins and provide insight into the binding mechanism. CRABP-II is a
      much larger, more flexible protein that closes upon ligand binding, where FABP5
      transitions to an open state in the holo form. The traditional understanding
      obtained from crystal structures of the gap between two beta-sheets of the beta
      barrel common to iLBPs and the alpha-helix cap that forms the portal to the
      binding pocket is insufficient for describing protein conformation (open vs.
      closed) or ligand entry and exit. When the high degree of mobility between
      multiple conformations of both the ligand and protein are examined via MD
      simulation, a new mode of ligand motion that improves understanding of binding
      dynamics is revealed.

PMID- 28566050
TI  - Running and Osteoarthritis: Does Recreational or Competitive Running Increase the
      Risk?
AB  - Exercise, like running, is good for overall health and, specifically, our hearts,
      lungs, muscles, bones, and brains. However, some people are concerned about the
      impact of running on longterm joint health. Does running lead to higher rates of
      arthritis in knees and hips? While many researchers find that running protects
      bone health, others are concerned that this exercise poses a high risk for age
      related changes to hips and knees. A study published in the June 2017 issue of
      JOSPT suggests that the difference in these outcomes depends on the frequency and
      intensity of running. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(6):391.
      doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.0505.

PMID- 28566051
TI  - Osteoarthritis Management: Time to Change the Deck.
AB  - This Viewpoint highlights the shortcomings of existing osteoarthritis (OA)
      clinical practices and emphasizes the opportunity that can come about by virtue
      of adherence to appropriate management. In an effort to emphasize optimism, there
      are huge missed opportunities with existing efficacious treatments and tremendous
      developments that are currently going on that will positively influence future
      care. How we respond to that opportunity will not only impact the individuals
      disabled by the disease but also make a massive difference to our society through
      reducing underemployment and health care waste. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther
      2017;47(6):370-372. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.0605.

PMID- 28566052
TI  - Buttock Pain and Sciatica Caused by a Femoral Osteochondroma.
AB  - A 26-year-old woman was referred to physical therapy with lower back pain
      extending into the right buttock. Palpation of the right buttock revealed a firm,
      immobile mass of considerable size, which the patient identified as her locus of
      symptoms. Due to the noted palpable mass, her pain, her inability to sit
      normally, and the longevity of symptoms, the physical therapist ordered
      radiographs, which identified multiple osteochondromas. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther
      2017;47(6):442. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.6877.

PMID- 28566053
TI  - Hip Pain and Mobility Deficits-Hip Osteoarthritis: Revision 2017.
AB  - The Orthopaedic Section of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has
      an ongoing effort to create evidence-based practice guidelines for orthopaedic
      physical therapy management of patients with musculoskeletal impairments
      described in the World Health Organization's International Classification of
      Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). The purpose of these revised clinical
      practice guidelines is to review recent peer-reviewed literature and make
      recommendations related to hip pain and mobility deficits. J Orthop Sports Phys
      Ther. 2017;47(6):A1-A37. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.0301.

PMID- 28566054
TI  - Biologics for psoriasis : maintenance treatment and true disease modification.

PMID- 28566055
TI  - Motor behavior of masticatory muscles in individuals with unilateral trans
      incisive foramen cleft lip and palate.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether children with complete unilateral cleft lip and
      palate (CLP) have altered control of masticatory muscles. METHODS: The muscular
      activity of 66 children with CLP (n = 33) and without CLP (n = 33), aged 6-12
      years was assessed during different tasks (rest, isometry, mastication) using
      electromyography. RESULTS: The activation for the analyzed muscles was higher in
      children with CLP at rest (R) and inactive period (IP) (p < 0.05). The muscles of
      children with CLP remained active for longer than those without CLP (p < 0.05),
      and the length of the masticatory cycle was higher in children with CLP (p <
      0.05). CONCLUSION: Children with CLP have longer muscle activation and increased
      cycle time during the chewing cycle, which might be a consequence of
      malocclusion, resulting in difficulty chewing.

PMID- 28566056
TI  - The impact of depression and PTSD symptom severity on trauma memory.
AB  - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression frequently co-occur following
      a traumatic event. Differences in the processing of autobiographical memory have
      been observed in both disorders in the form of overgeneralised memories and
      negative intrusive memories. The current study examined how symptoms of PTSD and
      depression influence the phenomenological characteristics of trauma memories.
      Undergraduate students who had experienced a traumatic event (n = 696) completed
      questionnaires online including measures of PTSD and depressive symptom severity.
      They rated their trauma memory on several phenomenological characteristics using
      the Memory Experiences Questionnaire [Sutin, A. R., & Robins, R. W. (2007).
      Phenomenology of autobiographical memories: The memory experiences questionnaire.
      Memory.]. Moderated multiple regression was used to examine how PTSD and
      depressive symptom severity related to each phenomenological characteristic.
      Symptoms of PTSD and depression were related separately and uniquely to the
      phenomenological characteristics of the trauma memory. PTSD severity predicted
      trauma memories that were more negative, contained higher sensory detail, and
      were more vivid. In contrast, depressive symptom severity predicted trauma
      memories that were less accessible and less coherent. These findings suggest that
      depressive and PTSD symptomatology affect traumatic memory differently and
      support a distinction between these two disorders.

PMID- 28566058
TI  - Recognition of facial expressions is moderated by Islamic cues.
AB  - Recognising emotions from faces that are partly covered is more difficult than
      from fully visible faces. The focus of the present study is on the role of an
      Islamic versus non-Islamic context, i.e. Islamic versus non-Islamic headdress in
      perceiving emotions. We report an experiment that investigates whether briefly
      presented (40 ms) facial expressions of anger, fear, happiness and sadness are
      perceived differently when covered by a niqab or turban, compared to a cap and
      shawl. In addition, we examined whether oxytocin, a neuropeptide regulating
      affection, bonding and cooperation between ingroup members and fostering outgroup
      vigilance and derogation, would differentially impact on emotion recognition from
      wearers of Islamic versus non-Islamic headdresses. The results first of all show
      that the recognition of happiness was more accurate when the face was covered by
      a Western compared to Islamic headdress. Second, participants more often
      incorrectly assigned sadness to a face covered by an Islamic headdress compared
      to a cap and shawl. Third, when correctly recognising sadness, they did so faster
      when the face was covered by an Islamic compared to Western headdress. Fourth,
      oxytocin did not modulate any of these effects. Implications for theorising about
      the role of group membership on emotion perception are discussed.

PMID- 28566057
TI  - Sinecatechins and imiquimod as proactive sequential therapy of external genital
      and perianal warts in adults.
AB  - This review about the proactive sequential therapy (PST) of external genital and
      perianal warts (EGW) is based on the most current available clinical literature
      and on the broad clinical experience of a group of international experts,
      physicians who are well versed in the treatment of human papillomavirus
      associated diseases. It provides a practical guide for the treatment of EGW,
      including epidemiology, etiology, clinical appearance, and diagnostic procedures
      for these viral infections. Furthermore, the treatment goals and current
      treatment options, elucidating provider- and patient-applied therapies, and the
      parameters driving treatment decisions are summarized. Specifically, the mode of
      action of the topical treatments sinecatechins and imiquimod, as well as the PST
      for EGW to achieve rapid and sustained clearance is discussed. The group of
      experts has developed a treatment algorithm giving healthcare providers a
      practical tool for the treatment of EGW which is very valuable in the presence of
      many different treatment options.

PMID- 28566059
TI  - The effect of endograft device on patient outcomes in endovascular repair of
      ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms.
AB  - Objective Endovascular aneurysm repair for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm is
      being increasingly applied as the intervention of choice. The purpose of this
      study was to determine whether survival and reintervention rates after ruptured
      abdominal aortic aneurysm vary between endograft devices. Methods This cohort
      study identified all ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms performed at The Ottawa
      Hospital from January 1999 to May 2015. Data collected included patient
      demographics, stability index at presentation, adherence to device instructions
      for use, endoleaks, reinterventions, and mortality. Kruskal-Wallis test was used
      to compare outcomes between groups. Mortality outcomes were assessed using Kaplan
      Meier survival analysis, and multivariate Cox regression modeling. Results One
      thousand sixty endovascular aneurysm repairs were performed using nine unique
      devices. Ninety-six ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms were performed using
      three devices: Cook Zenith ( n = 46), Medtronic Endurant ( n = 33), and Medtronic
      Talent ( n = 17). The percent of patients presented in unstable or extremis
      condition was 30.2, which did not differ between devices. Overall 30-day
      mortality was 18.8%, and was not statistically different between devices ( p =
      0.16), although Medtronic Talent had markedly higher mortality (35.3%) than Cook
      Zenith (15.2%) and Medtronic Endurant (15.2%). AUI configuration was associated
      with increased 30-day mortality (33.3% vs. 12.1%, p = 0.02). Long-term mortality
      and graft-related reintervention rates at 30 days and 5 years were similar
      between devices. Instructions for use adherence was similar across devices, but
      differed between the ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and elective endovascular
      aneurysm repair cohorts (47.7% vs. 79.0%, p < 0.01). Notably, two patients who
      received Medtronic Talent grafts underwent open conversion >30 days post
      endovascular aneurysm repair ( p = 0.01). Type 1 endoleak rates differed
      significantly across devices (Cook Zenith 0.0%, Medtronic Endurant 18.2%,
      Medtronic Talent 17.6%, p = 0.01). Conclusion Although we identified device
      related differences in endoleak rates, there were no significant differences in
      reintervention rates or mortality outcomes. Favorable outcomes of Cook Zenith and
      Medtronic Endurant over Medtronic Talent reflect advances in endograft technology
      and improvements in operator experience over time. Results support selection of
      endograft by operator preference for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

PMID- 28566061
TI  - Primum non nocere: rethinking our policies on out-of-home care in Australia.

PMID- 28566060
TI  - Topical application of the hematostatic agent Surgiflo(r) could attenuate brain
      injury in experimental TBI mice.
AB  - OBJECT: The pathologies resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been
      thoroughly studied, but rarely have the effects of bleeding and coagulation in
      the early stage of TBI been considered. In this study, we investigated the
      effects of topical Surgiflo(r) application on brain injury in experimental TBI
      mice using S100beta, MAP-2 and mNSS scores. METHODS: TBI was induced by modified
      weight drop injury in male C57BL/6 mice. The mice were then randomly divided into
      (i) the sham group, (ii) TBI mice applied with saline (vehicle), and (iii) TBI
      mice applied with Surgiflo(r) in the same volume. Modified neurological severity
      scores (mNSS) were measured on days 0 (before surgery), 1, 3, 7, and 28 to
      evaluate neurologic functional deficits. At day 28, the mice were sacrificed, and
      the forebrains were sliced. The effects of Surgiflo(r) on microtubule-associated
      protein 2 and serum S100beta protein were examined by immunohistochemistry and
      electro-chemiluminescence immunoassay. RESULTS: Serum S100beta protein levels
      were significantly elevated at different time points (24 h, 3 days, 7 days) in
      the TBI groups (p  <  0.01) compared to normal control groups. Surgiflo(r)
      induced a lower concentration of serum S100beta protein levels at day 3 (p <
      0.05) and day 7 (p < 0.05) compared to the TBI group applied with saline. H&E
      staining showed that Surgiflo(r) treatment led to a 45% decrease in cortical
      brain lesion volume and in subcortical white matter 28 days after TBI. Compared
      with the saline-treated group, the number of MAP2-positive cells was
      significantly increased in the perilesional area of the Surgiflo(r)-treated
      group. The Surgiflo(r)-treated group exhibited lower mNSS scores on days 7 and 28
      than did the saline-treated group. DISCUSSION: Surgiflo(r) treatment produced a
      significant decrease in serum S100beta protein levels in TBI mouse models, which
      may lead to an improvement in the recovery of TBI models.

PMID- 28566064
TI  - Hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement: use escalating beyond the
      evidence.

PMID- 28566062
TI  - Premature deaths of nursing home residents: an epidemiological analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To conduct a descriptive epidemiological analysis of external cause
      deaths (premature, usually injury-related, and potentially preventable) of
      nursing home residents in Australia. DESIGN: Retrospective study of a cohort of
      nursing home residents, using coronial data routinely recorded by the National
      Coronial Information System. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Residents of accredited
      Australian nursing homes, whose deaths were reported to coroners between 1 July
      2000 and 30 June 2013, and determined to have resulted from external causes. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Causes of death, analysed by sex and age group, and by location
      of incidents leading to death and location of death. Rates of death were
      estimated on the basis of Australian Bureau of Statistics population and
      Australian Institute of Health and Welfare nursing home data. RESULTS: Of 21672
      deaths of nursing home residents, 3289 (15.2%) resulted from external causes. The
      most frequent mechanisms of death were falls (2679 cases, 81.5%), choking (261
      cases, 7.9%) and suicide (146 cases, 4.4%). The incidents leading to death
      usually occurred in the nursing home (95.8%), but the deaths more frequently
      occurred outside the nursing home (67.1%). The annual number of external cause
      deaths in nursing homes increased during the study period (from 1.2 per 1000
      admissions in 2001-02 to 5.3 per 1000 admissions in 2011-12). CONCLUSION: The
      incidence of premature and potentially preventable deaths of nursing home
      residents has increased over the past decade. A national policy framework is
      needed to reduce the incidence of premature deaths among Australians living in
      nursing homes.

PMID- 28566065
TI  - Clinical quality registries for clinician-level reporting: strengths and
      limitations.

PMID- 28566066
TI  - The benefits of international health experiences for Australian and New Zealand
      medical education.

PMID- 28566068
TI  - Work-readiness and workforce numbers: the challenges.

PMID- 28566067
TI  - Expectorate the unexpected.

PMID- 28566069
TI  - Averting avoidable deaths of nursing home residents.

PMID- 28566071
TI  - Preparedness for practice: the perceptions of graduates of a regional clinical
      school.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess graduates' self-reported preparedness with reference to a
      range of clinical practice capabilities, including those related to patient
      centred care. DESIGN: A retrospective survey of self-reported preparedness for
      practice, based on a survey developed by the Peninsula Medical School (United
      Kingdom) and adapted to account for Australian circumstances and to provide more
      information about patient-centred care-related capabilities. SETTING AND
      PARTICIPANTS: Launceston Clinical School, a regional clinical school for
      undergraduate medical students. Medical students who had graduated during 2005
      2014 and were contactable by email were invited to participate in the study. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Graduates' self-reported preparedness for practice in 44
      practice areas, measured on a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Responses from 135
      graduates (50% of invited graduates, 38% of the eligible graduate population)
      were received. Most graduates felt prepared in 41 of the 44 practice areas; 80%
      felt at least well prepared in 17 areas. After clustering the 44 areas into six
      thematic groups, no differences were found between men and women who had
      graduated in the past 4 years. As male graduates become more experienced (5-10
      years after graduation), retrospective perceptions of preparedness in some areas
      differed from those of more recent graduates; this was not found for female
      graduates. CONCLUSION: The survey identified strengths and weaknesses in the
      preparation of doctors for practice. It could be more broadly applied in
      Australia to obtain longitudinal data for assessing the quality of learning for
      curriculum planning purposes, and for aligning graduates' needs and expectations
      with those of the medical training and health care employment sectors.

PMID- 28566072
TI  - The sugar content of soft drinks in Australia, Europe and the United States.

PMID- 28566070
TI  - Reducing cardiovascular disease risk in diabetes: a randomised controlled trial
      of a quality improvement initiative.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in
      Australian patients with diabetes; to compare the effectiveness of a quality
      improvement initiative for people with and without diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
      METHODS: Subgroup analyses of patients with and without diabetes participating in
      a cluster randomised trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Indigenous people (>= 35
      years old) and non-Indigenous people (>= 45 years old) who had attended one of 60
      Australian primary health care services at least three times during the preceding
      24 months and at least once during the past 6 months. INTERVENTION: Quality
      improvement initiative comprising point-of-care electronic decision support with
      audit and feedback tools. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Adherence to CVD risk screening
      and prescribing guidelines. RESULTS: Baseline rates of guideline-recommended
      screening were higher for 8829 patients with diabetes than for 44 335 without
      diabetes (62.0% v 39.5%; P < 0.001). Baseline rates of guideline-recommended
      prescribing were greater for patients with diabetes than for other patients at
      high risk of CVD (55.5% v 39.6%; P < 0.001). The proportions of patients with
      diabetes not attaining recommended treatment targets for blood pressure, low
      density lipoprotein-cholesterol or HbA1c levels who were not prescribed the
      corresponding therapy at baseline were 28%, 44% and 24% respectively. The
      intervention was associated with improved screening rates, but the effect was
      smaller for patients with diabetes than for those without diabetes (rate ratio
      [RR], 1.14 v 1.28; P = 0.01). It was associated with improved guideline
      recommended prescribing only for undertreated individuals at high risk; the
      effect size was similar for those with and without diabetes (RR, 1.63 v 1.53; P =
      0.28). CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to CVD risk management guidelines was better for
      people with diabetes, but there is room for improvement. The intervention was
      modestly effective in people with diabetes, but further strategies are needed to
      close evidence-practice gaps.Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
      number: ACTRN12611000478910.

PMID- 28566073
TI  - Emerging infectious disease agents and blood safety in Australia: spotlight on
      Zika virus.
AB  - Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are infectious diseases whose incidence has
      increased in humans in the past 20 years or could increase in the near future.
      EID agents may represent a threat to blood safety if they infect humans, cause a
      clinically significant illness, include an asymptomatic blood phase in the course
      of infection, and are transmissible by transfusion. EID agents are typically not
      well characterised, but there is a consensus that we can expect ongoing
      outbreaks. Strategies to manage the risk to blood safety from EIDs include
      ongoing surveillance, regular risk assessments, modelling transfusion
      transmission risk, and deferral of donors with a recent travel history to
      outbreak areas. The 2015-16 Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in the Americas is the
      largest reported ZIKV outbreak to date, and it highlights the unpredictable
      nature of EID outbreaks and how quickly they can become a major public health
      problem. This ZIKV outbreak has provided evidence of a causal link between the
      virus and microcephaly in newborns. In assessing the potential risk of ZIKV to
      blood safety in Australia, it should be noted that a relatively small number of
      imported ZIKV infections have been reported in Australia, there have been no
      reported cases of local ZIKV transmission, and the geographical distribution of
      the potential ZIKV mosquito vector in Australia (Aedes aegypti) is limited to
      northern Queensland. Moreover, reported transfusion-transmitted ZIKV cases
      worldwide are rare. At present, ZIKV represents a low risk to blood safety in
      Australia.

PMID- 28566074
TI  - [Evaluation of virulence factors in enterococcus species].
AB  - Enterococci have recently become important due to their increased isolation rates
      in community-based and nosocomial infections and resistance to many antibiotics,
      including glycopeptides. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial
      susceptible patterns and virulence factors of various clinical specimens; urine
      (n= 149), blood (n= 38), wound (n= 17), stool (n= 13), and other (n= 12) with a
      total of 229 enterococci including 138 E.faecalis and 91 E.faecium isolates.
      Aggregation factor (AF), enterococcus surface protein (esp), cytolysins and
      gelatinase encoding genes (asa1, esp, cylM, cylBcyl A, cylll, cylls, gelE,
      respectively) were investigated by molecular methods. Haemolysin production and
      gelatinase were studied phenotypically. A total of 30 isolates, 29 of E.faecium
      and one of E.faecalis isolates were resistant to vancomycin. High-level
      gentamicin and high-level streptomycin resistance in E.faecalis were 40.7% and
      63.7% however, they were 47.1% and 55.8% in E.faecalis isolates. All strains were
      susceptible to linezolid. Ampicillin, penicillin and vancomycin resistance in
      E.faecium isolates were found to be higher than E.faecalis isolates (p= 0.001, p=
      0.008 and p< 0.001). Asa1 (p< 0.001), cylll (p= 0.002) and cylls (p< 0.001) as
      well as gelatinase activity in isolates of E.faecalis were significantly higher
      than the isolates of E.faecium (p< 0.001). The most common virulence genes in our
      study were asa1 gene (45%), cyLs gene (33.2%) and esp gene (32.3%). Ciprofloxacin
      resistance in cylLL and cyLs gene positive isolates of E.faecalis were
      significantly higher compared to isolates that do not contain these genes (p=
      0.035 and p= 0.047). Likewise, haemolysin producing E.faecium isolates were
      significantly more resistant to vancomycin compared to isolates that do not
      produce hemolysin (p< 0.001). When the virulence factors of vancomycin resistant
      and susceptible isolates were compared, the esp gene level in VRE E.faecium
      isolates was found to be 24.1%, while no esp gene was found in VRE E.faecalis
      isolates. The existence of asa1was negative in both VRE E.faecium and VRE
      E.faecalis isolates. The activity of hemolysin was found 42.3% for E.faecalis and
      19.3% for E.faecium. In vancomycin-sensitive enterococcus (VSE) species, esp gene
      activity was 35.1% for E.faecalis, 29.4% for E.faecium, asa1 gene activity was
      60.8% for E.faecalis and 47.1% for E.faecium, hemolysin activity was 52.8% for
      E.faecalis and 23.5% for E.faecium. In our study, it was found that VSE isolates
      have more virulence genes than VRE isolates. It should be kept in mind that VRE
      can causeinfections which are difficult-to-treat especially in hospitalized
      patients and VSE have significant virulence factors that can cause severe
      infections.

PMID- 28566075
TI  - [Evaluation of QuantiFERON(r)-TB Gold in Tube Test and Tuberculin Skin Test in
      the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection].
AB  - The aims of this study were to evaluate the sensitivity of QuantiFERON(r)-TB Gold
      in Tube (QFT) test and its agreement with the tuberculin skin test (TST), to
      investigate possible factors associated with indeterminate QFT test results and
      to explore the relationship between latent tuberculosis infection (LTBE)
      prevalence and the rate of tuberculosis (TB) cases in our region. 1455 cases with
      QFT test performed in Ege University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between 2013
      and 2015 were included in the study and simultaneously TST results of 268 of 1455
      cases were reached. TST results were evaluated according to both >= 10 mm and >=
      15 mm cut-off values. The QFT results of the cases were compared according to
      their gender, age groups and clinical characteristics with chi-square test.
      Stratified analyses were also conducted according to age groups. Multivariate
      logistic regression was used to analyse factors associated with QFT positivity
      and indeterminate QFT results. Cohen's kappa was used to test the agreement
      between QFT and TDT, overall and stratified according to age groups. Among 1455
      cases, 396 (27.2%) were QFT positive and 120 (8.2%) had an indeterminate QFT
      result. When the indeterminate results were excluded, QFT positivity was found as
      29.7%. The highest indeterminate results were determined among 0-4 year-old and
      >= 65 year-old groups as 17.6% and 12.1%, respectively and lowest among the 55-64
      age group as 4%. The comparison of the cases without any cellular immunity defect
      and the patients with hematologic malignancies or immune deficiency and patients
      under immunosuppressive treatment had two and 2.44 times more indeterminate QFT
      results, respectively. Among 268 cases with TST results reached, QFT positivity
      was 30.6%; 38.1% for TST >= 10 mm and 25.7% for TST >= 15. After the exclusion of
      indeterminate results, the agreement between QFT and TST >= 10 mm was 71.3% for
      positive cases and 75.5% for negative cases. The highest agreement between QFT
      and TST >= 10 mm was in the age group 35-64 and lowest in the age group >= 65.
      Among 43 culture-positive cases, 32 had QFT positive, six negative and five
      indeterminate results. When indeterminate results were excluded, the sensitivity
      of thetest was 84.2% (32/38) among culture-positive active TB cases. TST results
      were available for 17 of the culture-positive cases, among them QFT sensitivity
      was 76.5% (13/17), TST sensitivity 70.6% (12/17) and the sensitivity of both
      tests was 88.2% (15/17). The ratio of QFT positivity has increased as the age
      increased. Interestingly, QFT positivity was higher among females than males in
      the 15-34 age group and higher among males in the 35-64 age group. The rates of
      QFT positivity were lower among immunocompromised patients. When QFT and TST
      positivities were compared with the rate of TB cases among age groups, QFT
      positivity was observed as parallel to the rate of TB cases. In conclusion,
      although the sensitivity of QFT was higher than TST, it was found that it could
      not be considered as a gold standard in LTBE diagnosis. As active TB cases
      originate from the LTBE pool, QFT test results might be considered a better
      indicator of active TB development risk.

PMID- 28566076
TI  - [Evaluation of viral etiology in central nervous system infections from a
      university hospital point of view in Izmir based on seven years data].
AB  - The serious diseases of the central nervous system (CNS); encephalitis and
      meningitis, have high mortality and morbidity rate especially not diagnosed and
      treated in time. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is the tool of choice for viral
      diagnosis in CNS infections. In this study, viral etiological agents found in
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples sent to our university hospital virology
      laboratory for laboratory diagnosis of CNS infections were retrospectively
      evaluated and results were compared with other reports from our country. Viral
      etiological agents found in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples sent to Ege
      University Faculty of Medicine Department of Medical Microbiology Virology
      Laboratories for laboratory diagnosis of CNS infection between 01.01.2009
      31.12.2015 were evaluated retrospectively. A total of 3778 CSF tests were
      performed for cell culture of enterovirus (EV) in 487 samples and 3291 tests for
      nucleic acid testing (NAT) by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in herpes
      simplex virus 1 (HSV1), herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2), varicella zoster virus
      (VZV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpes virus 6
      (HHV6) and EV. VZV and EV NAT's were performed during the last one and five years
      period, respectively. NAT positive results for HSV1, HSV2, CMV, EBV, VZV, HHV6
      and EV were 1.80% (24/1333), 0.08% (1/1333), 3.28% (19/580), 4.35% (22/506),
      0.46% (1/216), 1.05% (5/478) and 3.37% (6/178), respectively. EV was isolated in
      30 (6.20%) of 487 CSF samples by viral culture. Positive samples were mainly from
      pediatric, neurology and infectious diseases clinics as expected. The number of
      higher positive results were found in samples sentin december (35.3%), july
      (12.9%) and november (10.6%). Overall 80% of positive samples belonged to
      patients over 18 years old. When the results of other studies reported from
      Turkey are examined, although the positivity rates are generally similar, it is
      seen that the rates specific to certain factors are higher in selected smaller
      patient groups like HSV1 and EV. Rapid nucleic acid tests like multiplex PCR and
      microarray will provide more practical and effective laboratory diagnosis
      approach in CNS infections, since many more microorganisms may be causative
      agents.

PMID- 28566077
TI  - [The significance and place of HBsAg neutralization test in the diagnosis and
      algorithm of hepatitis B infection].
AB  - The diagnosis of hepatitis B virus infection is evaluated serologically,
      virologically, biochemically, and with histologic liver indicators. The aim of
      this study was to investigate the place and significance of the HBsAg
      neutralization test in the diagnostic algorithm for hepatitis Binfection. From
      the venous blood samples sent to Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital
      Medical Microbiology Laboratory between September 2014 and May 2016 for HBsAg
      test, serum samples regarded each patient as reactive (>= 0.9 S?CO) , 9 <= S <=
      CO <= 30) were studied twice. A total of 105 samples which were reactive in both
      analyses were included in the study. After the evaluation of these samples by
      neutralization confirmation test, which is routinely performed in our laboratory,
      the samples were stored under optimal conditions and studied for HBV DNA with the
      real-time PCR and for HBeAg, anti-HBeAg, anti-HBc IgM, and anti-HBc total
      antibody assays by ELISA. The 105 samples, in which HBsAg was detected, were
      analyzed with the neutralization test. The presence of HBsAg was confirmed by
      neutralization test in 67 of 105 samples (63.8%), and of these patients, two
      patients (2.3%) had negative HBV DNA and anti-HBc total antibody test (false
      positive neutralization test). Of the 105 samples included in the study, the anti
      HBc total antibody test was positive in 78 patients (74.3%). However, out of
      these 78 patients who were positive for the anti-HBc total antibody test, there
      were 13 patients (16.7%) with negative neutralization and HBV DNA test results
      (false positive anti-HBc total antibody test). The HBV DNA positivity was
      detected significantly lower in samples with HBsAg level <= 5 S/CO compared to
      the samples with HBsAg level > 5 S/CO (p= 0.020). Also, if the unit price of the
      neutralization test used in our study was considered, the cost was 17,00 TL while
      the unit price of HBV DNA test was 55,00 TL. Utilization of the neutralization
      test instead of HBV DNA test provides a saving of 38,00 TL per patient. The use
      of the neutralization test as a validation test when the HBsAg titre was less
      than or equal to 5S/CO will significantly reduce the cost of the test without the
      need for HBV DNA test. We suggest that if both the neutralization test and the
      anti-HBc total antibody test is negative in a sample with an HBsAg titration
      higher than 5 S/CO, the decision can be made without the need for HBV DNA test.
      However; if the neutralization test is negative, but the anti-HBc total antibody
      test is positive, then HBV DNA needs to be determined to eliminate the
      inconsistency between neutralization and anti-HBc total antibody assays. At the
      same time, we found that the use of anti-HBc total antibody test along with HBsAg
      as a screening test did not provide any advantage since the anti-HBc total
      antibody test was detected to have a high false positivity (16.7%) rate.

PMID- 28566078
TI  - [Determination of drug resistance mutations of NS3 inhibitors in chronic
      hepatitis C patients infected with genotype 1].
AB  - Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) such as NS3 protease inhibitors is the first
      class of drugs used for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) treatment. NS3 inhibitors (PI)
      with low genetic barrier have been approved to be used in the CHC genotype 1
      infections, and in the treatment of compensated liver disease including cirrhosis
      together with pegile interferon and ribavirin. Consequently, the development of
      drug resistance during DAA treatment of CHC is a major problem. NS3 resistant
      variants can be detected before treatment as they can occurnaturally. The aim of
      this study was to investigate new and old generation NS3 inhibitors resistance
      mutations before DAA treatment in hepatitis C virus (HCV) that were isolated from
      CHC. The present study was conducted in 2015 and included 97 naive DAA patients
      infected with HCV genotype 1, who were diagnosed in Manisa and Kocaeli cities of
      Turkey. Magnetic particle based HCV RNA extraction and than RNA detection and
      quantification were performed using commercial real-time PCR assay QIASypmhony +
      Rotorgene Q/ArtusHCV QS-RGQ and COBAS Ampliprep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Tests. HCV NS3
      viral protease genome region was amplified with PCR and mutation analysis was
      performed by Sanger dideoxy sequencing technique of NS3 protease codons (codon 32
      185). HCV NS3 protease inhibitors; asunaprevir, boceprevir, faldaprevir,
      grazoprevir, pariteprevir, simeprevir and telaprevir were analysed for resistant
      mutations by Geno2pheno-HCV resistance tool. HCV was genotyped in all patients
      and 88 patients (n= 88/97, 91%) had genotype 1. Eight (n= 8/97, 8.2%) and 80 (n=
      80/97, 82.4%) HCC patients were subgenotyped as 1a and 1b, respectively. Many
      aminoacid substitutions and resistance mutations were determined in 39/88 (44%)
      patients in the study group. Q80L, S122C/N, S138W were defined as potential
      substitutions (6/88 patients; 7%); R109K, R117C, S122G, I132V, I170V, N174S were
      described as potential resistance (34/88 patients; 39%); V36L, T54S, V55A, Q80H
      were characterized as resistance (7/88 patients; 8%) and Q80K, A156S were defined
      as high resistance (3/88 patients; 3%) mutations. Based on resistance and high
      resistance mutations, clinically significant mutations were defined in 10/88
      (11%) of the patients. Our study shows that it is essential to analyse HCV NS3
      protease inhibitors drug resistance before DAA treatment of CHC patients. On the
      other hand, our results pointed out that analysis of NS5A and NS5B genome region
      mutations may also be required in the near future.

PMID- 28566079
TI  - [Investigation of cytokine responses and variations in the expression of beta
      defensin-3 of Caco-2 human colon epidermal adenocarsinoma and THP-1 human
      leukemia monocyte cell lines in response to Toxoplasma gondii under various
      conditions].
AB  - Mononuclear phogocytic cells and epithelial cells are effective during the
      initiation and regulation of the innate immune response. They have an active role
      in mucosal immune response both mechanically and by interaction with other cells
      with cytokine release. Defensins are microbicidal peptides that are expressed in
      various cells and are thought to be effective in the first line defense against
      pathogens. IL-12 and IL-10, showing proinflamatory and antiinflamatory
      activities, respectively, are actors of the cellular immunity and limit the
      infection of the host without causing immunopathology. The aim of this study was
      to observe the differences in the release of IL-12 and IL-10 and the expression
      of human beta-defensin-3 (hBD-3) inCaco-2 (human colon epidermal adenocarcinoma
      cell) and THP-1 (human leukemia monocytic cell) cell lines cultured alone or in
      co-culture, by the stimulation of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites either in direct
      contact with the cells or separated by an insert filter from the cells. Twenty
      four hours after the addition of RH strain tachyzoites to the cells, the
      supernatants were collected from the experiment wells, and commercial ELISA kits
      (Invitrogen) were used according to the manufacturers instructions to measure IL
      12 and IL-10 levels. HBD-3 expression of cells collected from the experiment
      wells afterfour and 24 hourswere analyzed by using real time PCR. For this
      procedure, complementary c-DNA was obtained (Transcriptor High Fidelity cDNA
      Synthesis Kit, Roche Diagnostics, Germany)after the extraction of RNA with a
      commercial kit (High pure RNA isolation kit, Roche Diagnostics, Germany). IL-12
      was higher than IL-10 in all experiment wells. IL-12 was induced more in the co
      culture wells where Caco-2 and THP-1 cells were challenged together, than the
      wells in which the cells infected with T.gondii tachyzoites alone. No differences
      in respect to cytokine response were observed between the cells with which
      tachyzoites were in contact and the cells which were separated from the parasites
      with an insert. In hBD-3 experiments, Caco-2 and THP-1 cells interacted in co
      culture wells when infected with tachyzoites and displayed a higher level of hBD
      3 expression than the condition when they were infected alone. This study showed
      that, IL-12 release and hBD-3 expression, which play a role in innate immunity,
      are greater when various antigens of T.gondii interacted with stimulated
      mononuclear cell and epithelial cells.

PMID- 28566080
TI  - [Molecular epidemiology of human Mycobacterium bovis infection in Aegean Region,
      Turkey].
AB  - Mycobacterium bovis, which has a broader host spectrum as opposed to
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis that generally causes disease in humans, mainly leads
      to chronic progressive pulmonary disease in a large number of domestic and wild
      mammals, particularly cattle. The term "zoonotic tuberculosis (TB)" is used to
      describe M.bovis infection in humans. "Zoonotic TB" can not be differentiated
      clinically, radiologically or pathologically from TB caused by M.tuberculosis.
      The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of M.bovis in epidemiology of
      human TB in Aegean Region, Turkey and to determine M.bovis genotypes responsible
      for human TB. Thirteen M.bovis isolates identified by spoligotyping from 482
      M.tuberculosis complex isolates obtained from clinical specimens sent for routine
      mycobacteriological examination to the Mycobacteriology Laboratory in Medical
      Microbiology Department of Ege University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between
      2009 and 2014 were included in the study. Drug susceptibility tests of the
      isolates were performed by the BACTEC MGIT 960 automated system. It was
      determined that 9 (63.6%) of the 13 spoligotyped M.bovis isolates in this study
      were ST685 (SB0288), 1 (7.7%) was ST 1118 (SB0989) and 1 (7.7%) was ST820
      (SB0856), for two isolates there were no registered data in SpolDB4 and
      Mbovis.org databases. All the isolates were susceptible to first-line
      antituberculosis drugs. It was determined that 13 M.bovis isolates examined in
      the study accounted for 2.7% of the 482 M.tuberculosis complex isolates
      spoligotyped in the same period. In this study, it was determined that 8 (%61.5)
      of 13 patients was male, 5 (38.5%) of them was female, 9 (69.2%) of the 13
      patients had pulmonary TB and 4 (30.8%) had extra pulmonary TB. Seven of nine
      patients with pulmonary TB and two of the four patients with extrapulmonary TB
      were living in the rural area, and two patients with pulmonary TB had
      occupational exposure. Although ST683 (SB0140) is widely seen in the world among
      human isolates, it was not detectedin this study and other studies conducted in
      Turkey. In contrast, ST685 (SB0288) and ST1118 (SB0989), which have been reported
      very few in the world, found to be predominant in this study. This result
      suggested that they may be unique spoligotypes emerging in Anatolia. In
      conclusion, collaborative molecular epidemiological studies are needed in
      conjunction with researchers working in medicine and veterinary fields to
      determine precisely the importance of zoonotic TB in human TB in our country, to
      determine the route of transmission to humans and risk factors for zoonotic TB
      infections, to identify the dominant types between humans and animals and to
      understand the phylogeographic relationships of the strains in our country.

PMID- 28566081
TI  - [A rarely isolated bacterium in microbiology laboratories: Streptococcus uberis].
AB  - Streptococcus uberis is a gram-positive bacterium that is mostly responsible for
      mastitis in cattle. The bacterium rarely has been associated with human
      infections. Conventional phenotyphic methods can be inadequate for the
      identification of S.uberis; and in microbiology laboratories S.uberis is confused
      with the other streptococci and enterococci isolates. Recently, molecular methods
      are recommended for the accurate identification of S.uberis isolates. The aim of
      this report is to present a lower respiratory tract infection case caused by
      S.uberis and the microbiological methods for identification of this bacterium. A
      66-year-old male patient with squamous cell lung cancer who received radiotherapy
      was admitted in our hospital for the control. According to the chest X-Ray,
      patient was hospitalized with the prediagnosis of ''cavitary tumor, pulmonary
      abscess''. In the first day of the hospitalization, blood and sputum cultures
      were drawn. Blood culture was negative, however, Candida albicans was isolated in
      the sputum culture and it was estimated to be due to oral lesions. After two
      weeks from the hospitalization, sputum sample was taken from the patient since he
      had abnormal respiratory sounds and cough complaint. In the Gram stained smear of
      the sputum there were abundant leucocytes and gram-positive cocci, and S.uberis
      was isolated in both 5% sheep blood and chocolate agar media. Bacterial
      identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed by VITEK 2
      (Biomerieux, France) and also, the bacterium was identified by matrix assisted
      laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) based
      VITEK MS system as S.uberis. The isolate was determined susceptible to
      ampicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, levofloxacin, linezolid, penicillin,
      cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, tetracycline and vancomycin. 16S, 23S ribosomal RNA and
      16S-23S intergenic spacer gene regions were amplified with specific primers and
      partial DNA sequence analysis of 16S rRNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
      products were performed by 3500xL Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, USA).
      According to the partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing results, bacterium was
      confirmed as S.uberis. This report makes a significant contribution to the number
      of case reports of human infections caused by S.uberis as the identification was
      performed by current microbiological methods in our case. In conclusion, S.uberis
      should be evaluated as an opportunistic pathogen among the immunosuppressed
      patients and in addition to phenotypic bacteriological methods, the other recent
      microbiological methods should also be utilized for the identification.

PMID- 28566082
TI  - [Femoral hemodialysis catheter-related bacteremia due to Globicatella sanguinis:
      challenges in species identification].
AB  - In this case, catheter-related bacteremia due to Globicatella sanguinis in a 43
      years old female patient undergoing hemodialysis with the diagnosis of diabetic
      nephropathy was presented and the methods in the laboratory diagnosis of the rare
      opportunistic pathogen, Globicatella cins, were nvestigated. A set of peripheral
      blood cultures and simultaneous catheter culture was obtained from the patient in
      third of May 2016. Biochemical tests, Phoenix (Becton Dickinson, USA) and
      MicroScan (Beckman Coulter, USA) automated systems and matrix assisted laser
      desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) based
      Microflex MS (Bruker, Daltonics, Germany) and VITEK MS (database v2.0)
      (bioMerieux, France) systems were used for the identification of the cultured
      bacteria. Partial 16S rDNA sequencing was done by using specific p8FPL 5'-AGT TTG
      ATC ATG GCT CAG-3' and p806R 5'-GGA CTA CCA GGG TAT CTA AT-3' primers. Minimal
      inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for vancomycin, erythromycin, imipenem,
      cefotaxime and benzypenicillin were determined by agar gradient method. The blood
      and catheter cultures yielded the same type of bacterial colonies. Alfa
      hemolytic, catalase negative colonies observed on blood agar plates after an over
      night incubation yielded gram-positive cocci on Gram staining. In Sisli Hamidiye
      Etfal Hospital, the isolate was identifed as G.sulfidifaciens (score value > 2)
      by Bruker MS system and as G.sanguinis by Phoenix automated system. In Inonu
      University, the isolate could not be identified by Microscan automated system
      while VITEK MS named the isolate as 99.9% G.sanguinis and 98.3% G.sulfidifaciens.
      The 16S rDNA sequencing identifed the isolate as 100% G.sanguinis (GenBank
      accessionno. KJ680157.1). The MIC values were 0.38 ug/ml, 1.5 ug/ml, 0.38 ug/ml,
      > 32 ug/ml and 64 ug/ml for vancomycin, eryrthromycin, imipenem, cefotaxime and
      benzylpenicillin, respectively. The patient was diagnosed as catheter-related
      bacteremia and vancomycin (1 x 1 g IV/72 h) was used for up to 10 days. No fever
      and bacterial growth in cultures were present in her control visits. As
      G.sanguinis is not among the commonly encountered pathogens and due to
      difficulties in laboratory diagnosis, it may be missedor mis-identified in
      clinical laboratories. BD Phoenix and Bruker MS data bases lack G.sulfidifaciens
      and G.sanguinis, respectively, while the Globicatella genus is not present in
      MicroScan database. The increased number of medical implementations and the
      increasing number of immunosuppressed patient populations in recenty ears will
      lead to the emergence of rare bacteria. Increasing the diagnostic power of
      clinical microbiology laboratories by conventional and molecular methods and
      renewal of the databases of commercial identification systems by expanding the
      pathogen spectrum are significantly important for the prevention and control of
      infections caused by these agents.

PMID- 28566083
TI  - [A case of coccidioidomycosis in Turkey imported from the United States of
      America].
AB  - Coccidioidomycosis caused by Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii is a
      rare infectious disease except in endemic regions. In this report the third
      documented imported case of coccidioidomycosis in Turkey was presented. A thirty
      year-old male patient was admitted to our hospital with fever and purulent
      drainage from his chest tube. He had worked in Arizona, USA, until 4 months
      before this presentation. While in Arizona, he experienced cough and hemoptysis
      and was diagnosed as pulmonary coccidioidomycosis. He was treated with
      itraconazole for two months and he had no symptoms for 3 years. He then returned
      to Turkey and 2 months after his return to Turkey, he was admitted to another
      hospital in Istanbul with dyspnea and diagnosed as hydro-pneumothorax, and
      pleural fluid obtained from the inserted chest tube was found to be purulent. One
      gram of BID amoxicillin-clavulanate was given. Physical examination on admission
      revealed a purulent drainage on the right side chest tube, a temperature of 38.5
      degrees C and decreased breath sounds on the right lung. Piperacillin-tazobactam
      3 x 4.5 g intravenous and fluconazole 400 mg intravenous once daily were started.
      Human immunodeficiency virus test was negative. Gram-negative diplococci and
      rods, gram-positive cocci and septate hyphae were seen in the Gram stain of his
      pleural fluid. Pleural fluid culture revealed Moraxella catarrhalis after 24
      hours incubation and a mold after 72 hours of incubation. Anti-coccidioidal
      antibodies were found positive in a titer of 1/2. Hydro-pneumothorax, atelectasis
      and a 3 mm nodules in the right lung were seen in his thorax CT. The patient's
      pleural fluid and the culture plates were sent to the Public Health Institute of
      Turkey, Mycology Reference Laboratory (PHIT-MRL), with a clinical suspicion of
      coccidioidomycosis. The specimen and plates were submitted to the PHIT-MRL Bio
      Safety Level-3 laboratory for mycological evaluation. The microscopic examination
      of 15% KOH preparations of pleural fluid specimens revealed septate hyphae which
      appear to be in the early stages of forming arthroconidia. The pleural fluid
      culture grew buff-white coloured colonies with aerial hyphae, which were
      suspected of being a Coccidioides spp. The strain was identified as
      C.immitis/posadasii by direct microscopy and culture, and subsequently confirmed
      by the FDA-approved DNA probe. DNA sequence analysis of the ITS and D1/D2 rDNA
      regions confirmed the isolate to be C.posadasii species [ITS 100% match to
      GenBank Accession No. AB232901 (630/630 base pair match), and D1/D2 100% match to
      GenBank Accession No. AB232884 (617/617 base pair match)]. ITS1 and ITS2 barcode
      analysis also confirmed the species to be C.posadasii, which is the species
      endemic in Arizona. Susceptibility testing was performed according to Clinical
      and Laboratory Standards Institute M38-A2 guidelines in the Fungus Testing
      Laboratory of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and
      minimal inhibitory concentration values were; 0.125 ug/ml for amphotericin B,
      posaconazole and voriconazole, 0.5 ug/ml for itraconazole and 8 ug/ml for
      fluconazole. He had decortication of the pleura and was discharged from hospital
      after six weeks treatment with intravenous fluconazole which was continued orally
      for one year. Anti-coccidioidal antibodies were negative after two months of
      treatment. The patient is currently asymptomatic. The presented case is the third
      case reported from Turkey and provides additional contribution to the existing
      literature with regard to the appearance of arthroconidium, which is the unusual
      hyphal form, instead of the expected spherules in the infected tissue.

PMID- 28566084
TI  - [Multicenter investigation of bufavirus in the etiology of viral central nervous
      system infections of adults and children].
AB  - Bufavirus (BuV) is a newly-identified parvovirus in the family of Parvoviridae.
      Metagenomic analysis of fecal samples from children in Burkina Faso with acute
      diarrhea showed a highly divergent parvovirus, which was named bufavirus (BuV).
      The global distribution, epidemiology and genetic characteristics of BuVs
      infections are obscure. It was first discovered as an agent causing
      gastroenteritis but the association of BuV infections with various clinical
      presentations mostly remain to be explored. The aims of this study were to
      investigate probable impact of BuV in central nervous system infections in a
      region where it was previously reported to cause human infections and to detect
      enteroviruses (EV) which are reported as a cause of central nervous system
      infections in our country. The study was undertaken in three institutions in
      Ankara province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. Patients, clinically diagnosed with
      febrile disease and/or central nervous system infections of presumed viral
      etiology, were enrolled in the study with informed consent. Cerebrospinal fluid
      specimens were collected from 93 children attended to Gazi University Hospital
      and Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Hospital from October 2011-April 2015 and 33 adult
      patients, attended to Hacettepe University Hospital from June 2012 to March 2013.
      Clinical history and follow-up, physical examination and standard laboratory
      findings of the patients were recorded. Nucleic acid extraction was performed via
      commercially available spin-column assays and complementery DNA (cDNA) synthesis
      was performed by using commercially available cDNA synthesis kit with randomised
      hexamer primers. BuV detection was carried out by in house nested-polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) utilized with previously-described primers. EV detection was
      carried out by in house PCR with pan-enterovirus primers. Seventy-four percent
      (93/126) and 26% (33/126) of the patients were children (0-18) and adults (19
      86), respectively. In all patients, bacterial, mycobacterial and fungal cultures
      were negative, as well as PCR for herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2. PCR
      results of all samples were negative for BuV and EV. This is the first study that
      evaluates a probable association of BuV and central nervous system infections.
      Although Parvovirus B19, a well-characterized human pathogen can rarely cause
      encephalitis, our findings did not confirm such an association for BuV in this
      preliminary investigation. However, long-term evaluation of individual cases with
      unknown etiology is required to reveal the relationship of the virus with
      specific environments.

PMID- 28566085
TI  - Prevalence of autoantibodies against cellular antigens in patients with HIV and
      leprosy coinfection in the Amazon region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infectious agents can activate self-reactive T cells. In general,
      infections trigger various mechanisms, including a lack of auto-tolerance,
      induction of costimulatory molecules on antigen presenting cells, and molecular
      simulation, in addition to cross-reactions between microbial antigens and self
      antigens. HIV and leprosy coinfections lead to self-immunity with the production
      of autoantibodies. However, not enough data on the immune behaviour associated
      with this coinfection are available. Therefore, this study focused on the
      detection of autoantibodies against cellular antigens (AACA) in individuals with
      HIV and leprosy coinfection in the Amazon region. METHODS: Patients were
      distributed into four groups according to their infections: (i) coinfection with
      HIV and leprosy (n = 23), (ii) infection with leprosy (n = 33), (iii) infection
      with HIV/AIDS (n = 25), and (iv) healthy blood donor controls (n = 100). AACA
      were identified by indirect immunofluorescence and the samples were tested using
      a commercial diagnosis kit containing the antinuclear antibody HEp-2. RESULTS:
      Morphologically, all stages of cell division were assessed in addition to the
      morphological features associated with the nuclear matrix, nucleolus, mitotic
      spindle, and cytoplasm. There was a high prevalence of AACA in the coinfection
      group (47.8%, n = 11) when compared with the control group of healthy blood
      donors (2.0%). The results showed predominantly cytoplasmic staining in all
      groups analysed, and no difference was observed between the presence or absence
      of AACA and the leprosy forms (paucibacillary and multibacillary) in the
      coinfection group. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that despite the
      tendency of coinfected patients to have higher levels of autoantibodies, no
      correlation was observed between clinical and laboratorial variables and
      morbidity associated with HIV and leprosy coinfections or the levels of AACA in
      the serum of coinfected patients. These data are important to elucidate this
      complex relationship between HIV and leprosy and thus improve the follow-up of
      these patients.

PMID- 28566087
TI  - Development and evaluation of an "emergency access button" in Danish out-of-hours
      primary care: a study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Out-of-hours (OOH) health care for acute medical problems is often
      challenged by long waiting time for callers in need of advice and triage.
      Allowing patients to bypass the OOH telephone waiting line may increase patient
      satisfaction and provide them with a feeling of safety. We aimed to develop an
      "emergency access button" enabling patients to bypass the normal telephone
      waiting line in out-of-hours primary care (OOH-PC) if they perceive their
      condition to be critical and to evaluate the effect of introducing the button in
      terms of patient satisfaction and their feeling of safety. METHODS: All patients
      calling the OOH-PC in two different Danish health care regions during three
      months will be included in this randomized controlled trial. Data will be
      collected through two questionnaires developed for this study: a pop-up
      questionnaire on the relevance of bypassing the normal waiting line to be
      completed by triage professionals after patient contact and a paper/electronic
      questionnaire on perceived safety and satisfaction with the emergency access
      button to be completed by the callers. These questionnaires were developed and
      validated using external and internal expert feedback, focus group interviews and
      a two-week field test. The study will be conducted over three months with an
      estimated user-rate of the emergency access button of 3%. DISCUSSION: We have
      developed an emergency access button and we now want to investigate whether this
      new option will influence upon the level of satisfaction and the feeling of
      safety in the calling patients. Additionally, the study will reveal the assessed
      relevance of the decision to bypass the line by triage professionals. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Registered as NCT02572115 at Clinicaltrials.gov on October 5th
      2015.

PMID- 28566086
TI  - The genetics of gout: towards personalised medicine?
AB  - Over the last decade, there have been major advances in the understanding of the
      genetic basis of hyperuricaemia and gout as well as of the pharmacogenetics of
      urate-lowering therapy. Key findings include the reporting of 28 urate-associated
      loci, the discovery that ABCG2 plays a central role on extra-renal uric acid
      excretion, the identification of genes associated with development of gout in the
      context of hyperuricaemia, recognition that ABCG2 variants influence allopurinol
      response, and the impact of HLA-B*5801 testing in reducing the prevalence of
      allopurinol hypersensitivity in high-risk populations. These advances, together
      with the reducing cost of whole genome sequencing, mean that integrated
      personalised medicine approaches may soon be possible in clinical practice.
      Genetic data may inform assessment of disease prognosis in individuals with
      hyperuricaemia or established gout, personalised lifestyle advice, selection and
      dosing of urate-lowering therapy, and prevention of serious medication adverse
      effects. In this article, we summarise the discoveries from genome-wide
      association studies and discuss the potential for translation of these findings
      into clinical practice.

PMID- 28566088
TI  - Factors associated with utilization of skilled service delivery among women in
      rural Northern Ghana: a cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ghana's current Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 319 per 100,000
      live births makes achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of 70 maternal
      deaths per 100,000 live births or less by 2030 appear to be illusory. Skilled
      assistance during childbirth is a critical strategy to reducing maternal
      mortality, yet the proportion of deliveries taking place within health facilities
      where such assistance is provided is very low in Ghana, with huge disparity
      between urban and rural women. To address the gap in skilled attendance in rural
      Upper East Region, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in 2005 piloted a program that
      involved training of Community Health Officers (CHOs) as midwives. This study
      explored factors associated with skilled delivery services utilization in a
      predominantly rural district in Ghana. METHODS: A cross-sectional study, data was
      collected from a sample of 400 women between the ages of 15 and 49 years who had
      given birth a year prior to the study. We used frequencies and percentages for
      descriptive analysis and chi-square (chi 2 ) test for relationship between
      independents factors and utilization of skilled delivery services. RESULTS: Of
      the 400 women included in the analysis, 93.3% of them delivered in a health
      facility. Almost all of the mothers (97.3%) attended or received antenatal care
      at their last pregnancy with 75.0% of them having four or more ANC visits. The
      proportion of women who received ANC and utilized skilled delivery services was
      high (91.5%). Mother's educational attainment, ANC attendance, frequency of ANC
      visits, satisfaction with ANC services and possession of valid NHIS card
      significantly associated with utilisation of skilled delivery services.
      CONCLUSION: For a predominantly rural district, the percentage of women who
      deliver within health facilities where skilled assistance is available is very
      encouraging and a significant stride towards reducing Ghana's overall MMR. Having
      four or more ANC visits and improving on the quality of care provided has a great
      potential of improving uptake of skilled delivery services.

PMID- 28566089
TI  - Histone H3 lysine 36 methylation affects temperature-induced alternative splicing
      and flowering in plants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Global warming severely affects flowering time and reproductive
      success of plants. Alternative splicing of pre-messenger RNA (mRNA) is an
      important mechanism underlying ambient temperature-controlled responses in
      plants, yet its regulation is poorly understood. An increase in temperature
      promotes changes in plant morphology as well as the transition from the
      vegetative to the reproductive phase in Arabidopsis thaliana via changes in
      splicing of key regulatory genes. Here we investigate whether a particular
      histone modification affects ambient temperature-induced alternative splicing and
      flowering time. RESULTS: We use a genome-wide approach and perform RNA-sequencing
      (RNA-seq) analyses and histone H3 lysine 36 tri-methylation (H3K36me3) chromatin
      immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) in plants exposed to different ambient
      temperatures. Analysis and comparison of these datasets reveal that temperature
      induced differentially spliced genes are enriched in H3K36me3. Moreover, we find
      that reduction of H3K36me3 deposition causes alteration in temperature-induced
      alternative splicing. We also show that plants with mutations in H3K36me3
      writers, eraser, or readers have altered high ambient temperature-induced
      flowering. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a key role for the histone mark H3K36me3
      in splicing regulation and plant plasticity to fluctuating ambient temperature.
      Our findings open new perspectives for the breeding of crops that can better cope
      with environmental changes due to climate change.

PMID- 28566090
TI  - Lymphatic delivery of etanercept via nanotopography improves response to collagen
      induced arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests lymphatic function mediates local rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) flares. Yet biologics that target the immune system are dosed
      systemically via the subcutaneous (SC) administration route, thereby
      inefficiently reaching local lymphatic compartments. Nanotopography has
      previously been shown to disrupt tight cellular junctions, potentially enhancing
      local lymphatic delivery and potentially improving overall therapeutic efficacy.
      METHOD: We first characterized nanotopography (SOFUSATM) delivery of an anti-TNF
      drug, etanercept, by comparing pharmacokinetic profiles to those obtained by
      conventional SC, intravenous (IV), and intradermal (ID) routes of administration,
      and assessed uptake of radiolabeled etanercept in draining lymph nodes (LNs) in
      single dosing studies. We then compared etanercept efficacy in a progressive rat
      model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), administered systemically via SC route
      of administration; via the regional lymphatics through ID delivery; or through a
      nanotopography (SOFUSATM) device at 10, 12, and 14 days post CIA induction.
      Measurements of hind limb swelling and near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging
      of afferent lymph pumping function and reflux were conducted on days 11, 13, and
      18 post CIA induction and compared to untreated CIA animals. Univariate and
      multivariate analysis of variance were used to compare the group differences for
      percentage swelling and lymphatic contractile activity. RESULTS: Even though all
      three modes of administration delivered an equal amount of etanercept, SOFUSATM
      delivery resulted in increased lymphatic pumping and significantly reduced
      swelling as compared to untreated, ID, and SC groups. Pharmacokinetic profiles in
      serum and LN uptake studies showed that using the nanotopography device resulted
      in the greatest uptake and retention in draining LNs. CONCLUSIONS: Locoregional
      lymphatic delivery of biologics that target the immune system may have more
      favorable pharmacodynamics than SC or IV administration. Nanotopography may
      provide a more efficient method for delivery of anti-TNF drugs to reverse
      impairment of lymphatic function and reduce swelling associated with RA flares.

PMID- 28566091
TI  - Health care professionals from developing countries report educational benefits
      after an online diabetes course.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical education is a cornerstone in the global combat against
      diseases such as diabetes and obesity which together affect more than 500 million
      humans. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are educational tools for
      institutions to teach and share their research worldwide. Currently, millions of
      people have participated in evidence-based MOOCs, however educational and
      professional benefit(s) for course participants of such initiatives have not been
      addressed sufficiently. We therefore investigated if participation in a 6 week
      open online course in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity had
      any impact on the knowledge, skills, and career of health care professionals
      contrasting participants from developing countries versus developed countries.
      METHODS: 52.006 participants signed up and 29.469 participants were active in one
      of the three sessions (2014-2015) of Diabetes - a Global Challenge. Using an
      online based questionnaire (nine sections) software (Survey Monkey), email
      invitations were send out using a Coursera based database to the 29.469 course
      participants. Responses were analyzed and stratified, according to the United
      Nations stratification method, by developing and developed countries. RESULTS:
      1.303 (4.4%) of the 29.469 completed the questionnaire. 845 of the 1303 were
      defined as health care professionals, including medical doctors (34%),
      researchers (15%), nurses (11%) and medical students (8%). Over 80% of the health
      care participants report educational benefits, improved knowledge about the
      prevention and treatment therapies of diabetes and furthermore improved
      professional life and practice. Over 40% reported that their professional network
      expanded after course participation. Study participants who did not complete all
      modules of the course reported similar impact as the ones that completed the
      entire course(P = 0.9). Participants from developing countries gained more impact
      on their clinical practice (94%) compared to health care professionals from
      developed regions (88%) (Mean of differences = 6%, P = 0.03. CONCLUSIONS: Based
      on self-reports from course participants, MOOC based medical education seems
      promising with respect to providing accessible and free research-based education
      to health professionals in both developing and developed countries. Course
      participants from developing countries report more benefits from course
      participation than their counterparts in the developed world.

PMID- 28566092
TI  - Increased fragility fracture risk in Korean women who snore: a 10-year population
      based prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Snoring is frequently associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
      Previous studies have shown that bone mineral density was significantly lower in
      patients with OSA than in controls; however, these studies did not focus on
      fractures. Fragility fractures can lead to long-term disabilities and a decrease
      in quality of life. The present study aimed to investigate the association
      between snoring and fragility fractures. METHODS: This study included 2969 men
      and 3220 women aged 40 years and older from the Ansung and Ansan cohort studies
      in Korea. During a 10-year follow-up period, 129 and 273 fracture cases were
      reported in men and women, respectively. RESULTS: Severe snoring (6-7 nights per
      week or sleep disturbance by snoring in the next room) was a statistically
      significant risk factor for fracture (p = 0.006, hazard ratio 1.68, 95%
      confidence interval 1.16-2.43) after adjusting for covariates related to
      fragility fracture in women. However, both snoring and severe snoring groups did
      not show significant associations with the fracture risk in men. CONCLUSIONS:
      Thus, information on the frequency of snoring in women may improve the accuracy
      of fragility fracture risk prediction, which can help in deciding whether
      intervention or treatment is necessary.

PMID- 28566093
TI  - Efficacy and short-term outcomes of preoperative chemoradiotherapy with
      intermittent oral tegafur-uracil plus leucovorin in Japanese rectal cancer
      patients: a single center experience retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various types of preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) have been
      established for rectal cancer; thus, Physicians will need to refine the selection
      of appropriate preoperative CRT for different patients since there are various
      treatment regimens. Oral tegafur-uracil (UFT) plus leucovorin (LV) is commonly
      used to treat rectal cancer in Japan. Oral chemotherapy offers patients many
      potential advantages. Since 2008, we have been performing preoperative CRT with
      intermittent oral UFT plus LV in locally advanced rectal cancer patients to
      prevent postoperative local recurrence. Here, in a retrospective analysis, we
      evaluated the efficacy and short-term outcomes of preoperative CRT with
      intermittent oral UFT plus LV. METHODS: We analyzed data from 62 patients with
      locally advanced rectal cancer, including 31 patients who underwent preoperative
      CRT between 2009 and 2013 (the CRT group) and 31 patients who were treated with
      surgery alone between 2001 and 2008 (the non-CRT group). Clinicopathologically,
      both groups included patients with rectal cancer at clinical tumor stages III-IV
      or clinical node stages 0-III. In the CRT group, curative operations were
      performed >=8 weeks after CRT. Patients were concomitantly treated with 2 cycles
      of oral UFT (300 mg/m2/day, days 1-14 and 29-42) plus LV (75 mg/day, days 1-14
      and 29-42) and 45 Gy of radiotherapy. Chemotherapy was repeated every 28 days,
      followed by a 2-week break. RESULTS: The completion rate of CRT was high at 94%
      (n = 29/31). The downstaging rate of CRT was 61% (n = 19/31). The pathological
      complete response rate was 6.5% (n = 2/31). Significant differences were observed
      in the 3-year local recurrence rate between the two groups (P < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative CRT with intermittent oral UFT plus LV appears to be a
      tolerable and effective treatment for Japanese patients with rectal cancer. A
      further investigation of a diversification of preoperative CRT for Japanese
      rectal cancer patients is required.

PMID- 28566095
TI  - Health-related outcomes of new grocery store interventions: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the evidence of the impact of new food store
      (supermarket/grocery store) interventions on selected health-related outcomes.
      DESIGN: A systematic review following the Effective Public Health Practice
      Project guidelines. All quantitative studies were assessed for their
      methodological quality. Results were synthesized narratively. SETTING: Eight
      electronic databases - MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, ProQuest Public Health, Web of
      Science, Scopus, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library - were searched to identify
      relevant records. SUBJECTS: Peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles on new
      grocery store/supermarket interventions with adult study populations, published
      in the English language after 1995. RESULTS: Eleven records representing seven
      new grocery store interventions were identified. Six were assessed having 'weak'
      methodological quality, one as 'moderate' and two as 'strong'. All studies
      reported fruit and vegetable consumption but results were not consistent, some
      studies reporting significantly more and others no increase in consumption. BMI
      and self-rated health did not show significant improvements. Perceptions of food
      access, neighbourhood satisfaction and psychological health showed significant
      improvements. CONCLUSIONS: Improved food access through establishment of a full
      service food retailer, by itself, does not show strong evidence towards enhancing
      health-related outcomes over short durations. Presently the field is developing
      and the complex linking pathways/mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Further
      evidence, in the form of high-quality research in different communities with
      longer follow-up periods, is needed to inform policy decisions.

PMID- 28566094
TI  - Assessment of cerebral blood flow in adult patients with aortic coarctation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Survival into adult life in patients with aortic coarctation is
      typical following surgical and catheter-based techniques to relieve obstruction.
      Late sequelae are recognised, including stroke, hypertension, and intracerebral
      aneurysm formation, with the underlying mechanisms being unclear. We hypothesised
      that patients with a history of aortic coarctation may have abnormalities of
      cerebral blood flow compared with controls. METHODS: Patients with a history of
      aortic coarctation underwent assessment of cerebral vascular function. Vascular
      responsiveness of intracranial vessels to hypercapnia and degree of cerebral
      artery stiffness using Doppler-derived pulsatility indices were used. Response to
      photic stimuli was used to assess neurovascular coupling, which reflects
      endothelial function in response to neuronal activation. Patient results were
      compared with age- and sex-matched controls. RESULTS: A total of 13 adult
      patients (males=10; 77%) along with 13 controls underwent evaluation. The mean
      age was 36.1+/-3.7 years in the patient group. Patients with a background of
      aortic coarctation were noted to have increased pulse pressure on blood pressure
      assessment at baseline with increased intracranial artery stiffness compared with
      controls. Patients with a history of aortic coarctation had less reactive
      cerebral vasculature to hypercapnic stimuli and impaired neurovascular coupling
      compared with controls. RESULTS: Adult patients with aortic coarctation had
      increased intracranial artery stiffness compared with controls, in addition to
      cerebral vasculature showing less responsiveness to hypercapnic and photic
      stimuli. Further studies are required to assess the aetiology and consequences of
      these documented abnormalities in cerebral blood flow in terms of stroke risk,
      cerebral aneurysm formation, and cognitive dysfunction.

PMID- 28566096
TI  - Attributable Mortality of Healthcare-Associated Infections Due to Multidrug
      Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of multidrug
      resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus (MRSA) healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) on mortality following
      infection, regardless of patient location. METHODS We conducted a retrospective
      cohort study of patients with an inpatient admission in the US Department of
      Veterans Affairs (VA) system between October 1, 2007, and November 30, 2010. We
      constructed multivariate log-binomial regressions to assess the impact of a
      positive culture on mortality in the 30- and 90-day periods following the first
      positive culture, using a propensity-score-matched subsample. RESULTS Patients
      identified with positive cultures due to MDR Acinetobacter (n=218), MDR
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=1,026), and MDR Enterobacteriaceae (n=3,498) were
      propensity-score matched to 14,591 patients without positive cultures due to
      these organisms. In addition, 3,471 patients with positive cultures due to MRSA
      were propensity-score matched to 12,499 patients without positive MRSA cultures.
      Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria were associated with a significantly
      elevated risk of mortality both for invasive (RR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.85-2.92) and
      noninvasive cultures (RR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.22-1.44) during the 30-day period.
      Similarly, patients with MRSA HAIs (RR, 2.77; 95% CI, 2.39-3.21) and
      colonizations (RR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.22-1.50) had an increased risk of death at 30
      days. CONCLUSIONS We found that HAIs due to gram-negative bacteria and MRSA
      conferred significantly elevated 30- and 90-day risks of mortality. This finding
      held true both for invasive cultures, which are likely to be true infections, and
      noninvasive infections, which are possibly colonizations. Infect Control Hosp
      Epidemiol 2017;38:848-856.

PMID- 28566098
TI  - Fish parasites as indicators of organic pollution in southern Brazil.
AB  - Increasing urbanization along riverbanks is a constant source of stressors to the
      aquatic community, and the use of bioindicators is suitable to detect and monitor
      the effect of each stressor. We investigated the parasites of the 'cara' fish
      (Geophagus brasiliensis) as potential bioindicators in a river whose banks are
      subject to increasing anthropogenic pressure. Samples were taken at four points
      of the Sangradouro River, in Florianopolis, southern Brazil, bimonthly for 12
      months. Water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and salinity were
      measured at each point and water samples were taken for nutrient analysis (total
      nitrogen, nitrite, total ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus, phosphate), and
      total and faecal coliforms. A generalized linear model (GLM) was constructed
      using the abundance of each parasite species as the response variable and
      biometric characteristic of the fish and water variables as possible predictors.
      Among the 137 fish examined, 114 (83.2%) were parasitized by at least one
      parasite species. Two species of ectoparasites (Sciadicleithrum guanduensis and
      Neascus-type metacercariae) and two species of endoparasites (Pandosentis aff.
      iracundus and Homalometron pseudopallidum) were observed. This is the first
      record of the genus Pandosentis in Brazilian waters and the first record of the
      species G. brasiliensis as a host for this parasite. Among the analysed groups of
      parasites, monogeneans and acanthocephalans proved to be the most sensitive to
      the concentrations of dissolved oxygen, faecal coliforms and total ammonia
      nitrogen in the water. Our study suggests that the abundance of both monoxenic
      and heteroxenous parasites can be negatively affected by organic pollution in the
      aquatic environment, reinforcing the potential of fish parasites as indicators of
      water quality.

PMID- 28566097
TI  - Bony cochlear nerve canal and internal auditory canal measures predict cochlear
      nerve status.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The bony cochlear nerve canal is the space between the fundus of the
      internal auditory canal and the base of the cochlear modiolus that carries
      cochlear nerve fibres. This study aimed to determine the distribution of bony
      labyrinth anomalies and cochlear nerve anomalies in patients with bony cochlear
      nerve canal and internal auditory canal atresia and stenosis, and then to compare
      the diameter of the bony cochlear nerve canal and internal auditory canal with
      cochlear nerve status. METHODS: The study included 38 sensorineural hearing loss
      patients (59 ears) in whom the bony cochlear nerve canal diameter at the mid
      modiolus was 1.5 mm or less. Atretic and stenotic bony cochlear nerve canals were
      examined separately, and internal auditory canals with a mid-point diameter of
      less than 2 mm were considered stenotic. Temporal bone computed tomography and
      magnetic resonance imaging scans were reviewed to determine cochlear nerve
      status. RESULTS: Cochlear hypoplasia was noted in 44 out of 59 ears (75 per cent)
      with a bony cochlear nerve canal diameter at the mid-modiolus of 1.5 mm or less.
      Approximately 33 per cent of ears with bony cochlear nerve canal stenosis also
      had a stenotic internal auditory canal and 84 per cent had a hypoplastic or
      aplastic cochlear nerve. All patients with bony cochlear nerve canal atresia had
      cochlear nerve deficiency. The cochlear nerve was hypoplastic or aplastic when
      the diameter of the bony cochlear nerve canal was less than 1.5 mm and the
      diameter of the internal auditory canal was less than 2 mm. CONCLUSION: The
      cochlear nerve may be aplastic or hypoplastic even if temporal bone computed
      tomography findings indicate a normal cochlea. If possible, patients scheduled to
      receive a cochlear implant should undergo both computed tomography and magnetic
      resonance imaging of the temporal bone. The bony cochlear nerve canal and
      internal auditory canal are complementary structures, and both should be assessed
      to determine cochlear nerve status.

PMID- 28566099
TI  - HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: THE SCIENTIFIC CAREER OF A POLICY CONCEPT.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work was to provide a comprehensive overview of the
      evolution of the health technology assessment (HTA) concept in the scientific
      literature through a scientometric approach. METHODS: A literature search was
      conducted, by selecting publications, as well as news from the media, containing
      "health technology assessment" in their title, abstracts, or keywords. We then
      undertook a bibliometric and network analysis on the corpus of 2,865 publications
      thus obtained. RESULTS: Since a first publication in 1978, interest in HTA
      remained marginal until a turning point in the late 1980s, when growth of the
      number of publications took off alongside the creation of the U.K.'s NICE agency.
      Since then, publications have spread across several journals. The ranking of the
      organizations that publish such articles does not reflect any hegemonic position.
      However, HTA-related scientific production is strongly concentrated in
      Commonwealth and Nordic countries. Despite its transnational aspects, research on
      HTA has been framed within a small number of scientific networks and by a few
      opinion leaders. CONCLUSIONS: The "career" of the HTA concept may be seen as a
      scientific-knowledge based institutionalization of a public policy. To succeed in
      a country, HTA first needs scientific prerequisites, such as an organized
      scientific community working on the health sector and health services. Then, it
      appears that the recognition of this research by decision makers plays a key role
      in the development of the field.

PMID- 28566100
TI  - Understanding the beta-Lactam/Inhibitor of beta-Lactamase Combinations:
      Reassessment for Better Antimicrobial Stewardship.

PMID- 28566101
TI  - FROM MOTIVES THROUGH DESIRES TO INTENTIONS: INVESTIGATING THE REPRODUCTIVE
      CHOICES OF CHILDLESS MEN AND WOMEN IN POLAND.
AB  - SummaryThis study examined the potential of the theoretical model proposed by
      Warren Miller (the Traits/Motives-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour or TDIB model) for
      investigating the involuntary-voluntary childlessness continuum. The first three
      stages of the theoretical motivational sequence (motives to desires to
      intentions) were examined using a purposive sample of 314 childless Polish men
      and women aged 30-39 (at the time of data collection in September 2013). In
      Poland, this is the age range when the final decision for or against parenthood
      is taken. To model the motivational sequence, the Structural Equation Modelling
      (SEM) technique was applied. The results confirmed the hypothesized relations
      between the constructs for childless individuals in the analysed age group. Their
      childbearing desires were found to be good predictors of reproductive intentions,
      while negative and positive childbearing motives (independently) underpinned
      their desires. Moreover, positive motives appeared to have a stronger effect on
      desires than negative ones. The study also documented the psychometric properties
      of the Polish adaptation of the Childbearing Questionnaire, which was originally
      developed by Miller to measure childbearing motives. The advantages of using this
      tool for investigating the involuntary-voluntary childlessness continuum are
      discussed. Overall, the study validated the theoretical model as well as the
      adaptation of the Childbearing Questionnaire in the new research context: in the
      new cultural setting and for examining reproductive choices of a specific
      subpopulation. Directions for future research that could build on the TDIB model
      and allow for a deeper understanding of permanent childlessness are outlined.

PMID- 28566102
TI  - Real-time parameter estimation of Zika outbreaks using model averaging.
AB  - Early prediction of the final size of any epidemic and in particular for Zika
      disease outbreaks can be useful for health authorities in order to plan the
      response to the outbreak. The Richards model is often been used to estimate
      epidemiological parameters for arboviral diseases based on the reported
      cumulative cases in single- and multi-wave outbreaks. However, other non-linear
      models can also fit the data as well. Typically, one follows the so called post
      selection estimation procedure, i.e., selects the best fitting model out of the
      set of candidate models and ignores the model uncertainty in both estimation and
      inference since these procedures are based on a single model. In this paper we
      focus on the estimation of the final size and the turning point of the epidemic
      and conduct a real-time prediction for the final size of the outbreak using
      several non-linear models in which these parameters are estimated via model
      averaging. The proposed method is applied to Zika outbreak data in four cities
      from Colombia, during the outbreak ocurred in 2015-2016.

PMID- 28566103
TI  - Developing a "toolkit" to measure implementation of concurrent palliative care in
      rural community cancer centers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Despite national guidelines recommending early concurrent palliative
      care for individuals newly diagnosed with metastatic cancer, few community cancer
      centers, especially those in underserved rural areas do so. We are implementing
      an early concurrent palliative care model, ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise,
      Before Life Ends) in four, rural-serving community cancer centers. Our objective
      was to develop a "toolkit" to assist community cancer centers that wish to
      integrate early palliative care for patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer
      and their family caregivers. METHOD: Guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness
      Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework, we undertook an instrument
      development process based on the literature, expert and site stakeholder review
      and feedback, and pilot testing during site visits. RESULTS: We developed four
      instruments to measure ENABLE implementation: (1) the ENABLE RE-AIM Self
      Assessment Tool to assess reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance; (2)
      the ENABLE General Organizational Index to assess institutional implementation;
      (3) an Implementation Costs Tool; and (4) an Oncology Clinicians' Perceptions of
      Early Concurrent Oncology Palliative Care survey. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: We
      developed four measures to determine early palliative care implementation. These
      measures have been pilot-tested, and will be integrated into a comprehensive
      "toolkit" to assist community cancer centers to measure implementation outcomes.
      We describe the lessons learned and recommend strategies for promoting long-term
      program sustainability.

PMID- 28566104
TI  - Attention and Regional Gray Matter Development in Very Preterm Children at Age 12
      Years.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study examines the selective, sustained, and executive attention
      abilities of very preterm (VPT) born children in relation to concurrent
      structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of regional gray matter
      development at age 12 years. METHODS: A regional cohort of 110 VPT (<=32 weeks
      gestation) and 113 full term (FT) born children were assessed at corrected age 12
      years on the Test of Everyday Attention-Children. They also had a structural MRI
      scan that was subsequently analyzed using voxel-based morphometry to quantify
      regional between-group differences in cerebral gray matter development, which
      were then related to attention measures using multivariate methods. RESULTS: VPT
      children obtained similar selective (p=.85), but poorer sustained (p=.02) and
      executive attention (p=.01) scores than FT children. VPT children were also
      characterized by reduced gray matter in the bilateral parietal, temporal,
      prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, bilateral thalami, and left
      hippocampus; and increased gray matter in the occipital and anterior cingulate
      cortices (family-wise error-corrected p<.05). Poorer sustained auditory attention
      was associated with increased gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex
      (p=.04). Poor executive shifting attention was associated with reduced gray
      matter in the right superior temporal cortex (p=.04) and bilateral thalami
      (p=.05). Poorer executive divided attention was associated with reduced gray
      matter in the occipital (p=.001), posterior cingulate (p=.02), and left temporal
      (p=.01) cortices; and increased gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex
      (p=.001). CONCLUSIONS: Disturbances in regional gray matter development appear to
      contribute, at least in part, to the poorer attentional performance of VPT
      children at school age. (JINS, 2017, 23, 539-550).

PMID- 28566105
TI  - Regional differences in dendritic spine density confer resilience to chronic
      social defeat stress.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although alterations in the dendritic spine density in the brain
      regions may play a role in the stress-induced depression-like phenotype, the
      precise mechanisms are unknown. The aim was to investigate the role of spine
      density in the brain regions after chronic social defeat stress (CSDS). METHODS:
      We examined dendritic spine density in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), CA1,
      CA3, dentate gyrus (DG) of hippocampus, nucleus accumbens (NAc), and ventral
      tegmental area (VTA) of susceptible and resilient mice after CSDS. RESULTS: Spine
      density in the prelimbic area of mPFC, CA3, and DG in the susceptible group, but
      not resilient group, was significantly lower than control group. In contrast,
      spine density in the NAc and VTA in the susceptible group, but not resilient
      group, was significantly higher than control group. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      suggest that regional differences in spine density may contribute to resilience
      versus susceptibility in mice subjected to CSDS.

PMID- 28566106
TI  - Burns associated with e-cigarette batteries: A case series and literature review.
AB  - Electronic cigarettes, often referred to as e-cigarettes, have established a
      considerable market in North America over the last decade. In parallel to this
      trend, there has been a surge of e-cigarette battery explosions reported in the
      general media. Given the growing number of such events, acute care physicians
      should recognize the associated risks and injury patterns and initiate
      appropriate treatment. This report presents two cases of burn injuries from e
      cigarette battery explosions requiring surgical management. The accompanying
      comprehensive literature review highlights the emerging importance of e
      cigarettes as an aetiology of burn injury.

PMID- 28566107
TI  - Comparison of outcomes in Australian indigenous and non-indigenous children and
      adolescents undergoing cardiac surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Population-based registries report 95% 5-year survival for children
      undergoing surgery for CHD. This study investigated paediatric cardiac surgical
      outcomes in the Australian indigenous population. METHODS: All children who
      underwent cardiac surgery between May, 2008 and August, 2014 were studied.
      Demographic information including socio-economic status, diagnoses and co
      morbidities, and treatment and outcome data were collected at time of surgery and
      at last follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 1528 children with a mean age 3.4+/-4.6
      years were studied. Among them, 123 (8.1%) children were identified as
      indigenous, and 52.7% (62) of indigenous patients were in the lowest third of the
      socio-economic index compared with 28.2% (456) of non-indigenous patients
      (p?0.001). The indigenous sample had a significantly higher Comprehensive
      Aristotle Complexity score (indigenous 9.4+/-4.2 versus non-indigenous 8.7+/-3.9,
      p=0.04). The probability of having long-term follow-up did not differ between
      groups (indigenous 93.8% versus non-indigenous 95.6%, p=0.17). No difference was
      noted in 30-day mortality (indigenous 3.2% versus non-indigenous 1.4%, p=0.13).
      The 6-year survival for the entire cohort was 95.9%. The Cox survival analysis
      demonstrated higher 6-year mortality in the indigenous group - indigenous 8.1%
      versus non-indigenous 5.0%; hazard ratio (HR)=2.1; 95% confidence intervals (CI):
      1.1, 4.2; p=0.03. Freedom from surgical re-intervention was 79%, and was not
      significantly associated with the indigenous status (HR=1.4; 95% CI: 0.9, 1.9;
      p=0.11). When long-term survival was adjusted for the Comprehensive Aristotle
      Complexity score, no difference in outcomes between the populations was
      demonstrated (HR=1.6; 95% CI: 0.8, 3.2; p=0.19). CONCLUSION: The indigenous
      population experienced higher late mortality. This apparent relationship is
      explained by increased patient complexity, which may reflect negative social and
      environmental factors.

PMID- 28566109
TI  - The role of inorganic nitrate and nitrite in CVD.
AB  - CVD is the leading cause of death worldwide, a consequence of mostly poor
      lifestyle and dietary behaviours. Although whole fruit and vegetable consumption
      has been consistently shown to reduce CVD risk, the exact protective constituents
      of these foods are yet to be clearly identified. A recent and biologically
      plausible hypothesis supporting the cardioprotective effects of vegetables has
      been linked to their inorganic nitrate content. Approximately 60-80 % inorganic
      nitrate exposure in the human diet is contributed by vegetable consumption.
      Although inorganic nitrate is a relatively stable molecule, under specific
      conditions it can be metabolised in the body to produce NO via the newly
      discovered nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway. NO is a major signalling molecule in the
      human body, and has a key role in maintaining vascular tone, smooth muscle cell
      proliferation, platelet activity and inflammation. Currently, there is
      accumulating evidence demonstrating that inorganic nitrate can lead to lower
      blood pressure and improved vascular compliance in humans. The aim of this review
      is to present an informative, balanced and critical review of the current
      evidence investigating the role of inorganic nitrate and nitrite in the
      development, prevention and/or treatment of CVD. Although there is evidence
      supporting short-term inorganic nitrate intakes for reduced blood pressure, there
      is a severe lack of research examining the role of long-term nitrate intakes in
      the treatment and/or prevention of hard CVD outcomes, such as myocardial
      infarction and cardiovascular mortality. Epidemiological evidence is needed in
      this field to justify continued research efforts.

PMID- 28566110
TI  - Society for the Advancement of Disaster Nursing: Exploring the Path to
      Excellence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Major disasters occurring within the Unites States require nursing
      participation as a component of a successful response. Disaster nursing includes
      the care of populations affected by disasters, public health emergencies, and
      mass casualty events, both natural and man-made. A unique knowledge base,
      abilities, and skills are needed to respond appropriately to health care and
      human service needs resulting from these events. METHODS: Despite prior efforts
      to advance disaster nursing as a specialty, none were sustainable and a
      professional framework for establishing standards and guidelines remains lacking.
      RESULTS: Disaster nursing is a complex arena where the intersection of
      competence, scope of practice, regulation, and clinical guidelines continues to
      evolve. Professional credibility and our contribution to disaster response lie in
      our ability to articulate and advance professionalism. Disaster nursing as a
      specialty practice requires a similar foundational framework to nursing
      specialties recognized by the American Nurses Association within a model of
      professional practice in order to ensure population outcomes that are reflective
      of safe, quality, evidence-based practice. CONCLUSIONS: It is time to define a
      disaster nursing scope of practice, establish standards for care, identify best
      practices, and pursue the establishment of an independent professional
      organization within the field of disaster nursing. This will establish the
      necessary foundation for optimizing nursing's contribution to and support of the
      National Health Security Strategy. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness.
      2017;11:641-646).

PMID- 28566112
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28566108
TI  - Cognitive performance of community-dwelling oldest-old individuals with major
      depression: the Pieta study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with late-life depression (LLD) may present cognitive
      symptoms. We sought to determine whether a brief cognitive battery (BCB) could
      identify cognitive and functional deficits in oldest-old individuals with LLD and
      a low level of education. METHODS: We evaluated 639 community-dwelling
      individuals aged 75+ years in Caete (MG), Brazil. We used the MINI and GDS-15 to
      diagnose major depression and evaluate its severity, respectively. The cognitive
      evaluation comprised the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), BCB, clock-drawing
      test, category fluency test (animals) and Pfeffer's Functional Activities
      Questionnaire (FAQ). RESULTS: Fifty-four (11.6%) of the included individuals were
      diagnosed with LLD; on average, these participants were aged 81.0 +/- 4.8 years
      and had 3.9 +/- 3.4 years of schooling, and 77.8% of the subjects with LLD were
      female. Depressed individuals scored lower than subjects without
      dementia/depression on the MMSE overall (p < 0.001) and on several of the MMSE
      subscales, namely, time (p < 0.001) and spatial orientation (p = 0.021),
      attention/calculation (p = 0.019), and language (p = 0.004). Individuals with LLD
      performed worse on the incidental and (p = 0.011) immediate memory (p = 0.046)
      and learning tasks (p = 0.039) of the BCB. Individuals with LLD also performed
      worse on the category fluency test (p = 0.006), clock-drawing test (p = 0.011)
      and FAQ (p < 0.001). Depression severity was negatively correlated with
      incidental memory (rho = -0.412; p = 0.003) and positively correlated with FAQ
      score (rho = 0.308; p = 0.035). In the multiple regression analysis, only
      temporal orientation and FAQ score remained independently associated with LLD.
      CONCLUSION: Individuals with depression and a low level of education presented
      several cognitive and functional deficits. Depression severity was negatively
      correlated with incidental memory and functionality. Our findings serve as a
      description of the presence of cognitive dysfunction in individuals with LLD and
      suggest that these deficits may be identified based on the results of a BCB.

PMID- 28566113
TI  - Group-based education for patients with type 2 diabetes: a survey of Australian
      dietitians.
AB  - Group-based education has the potential to substantially improve the outcomes of
      individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and reduce the enormous burden
      that chronic diseases place on healthcare systems worldwide. Despite this proven
      effectiveness, the utilisation of group services for the management of T2DM by
      Australian dietitians is surprisingly low. This study surveyed a sample of 263
      Australian dietitians to explore the utilisation of group-based education for
      T2DM, as well as dietitians' preferences for practice and training. The results
      of this study indicate that Australian dietitians are currently under-utilising
      group-based education programs for the management of T2DM, with the primary
      reasons identified as a lack of training provided to dietitians in the area,
      limited access to facilities suitable for conducting group education, the
      perceived poor cost-effectiveness of these programs, and the lack of evidence
      based practice guidelines for the group-based management of persons with T2DM.
      Additionally, the majority of preferences for further training were for either
      face-to-face or web-based formal training conducted over 3-6h. Clear, evidence
      based practice guidelines and training resources for group education for the
      management of T2DM are needed in order to encourage better utilisation of group
      based education by Australian dietitians.

PMID- 28566114
TI  - Effects of ovarian disaggregation on adult murine follicle yield and viability.
AB  - Follicles are isolated from ovaries for numerous reasons, including IVM, but
      adult murine yields are <2 folliclesmg-1. The aim of the present study was to
      optimise ovarian disaggregation and develop methods applicable to the rapid
      screening of follicle viability. Ovaries from adult mice (n=7) were halved and
      disaggregated mechanically, or by using collagenase IV (Col-IV; 590UmL-1) or
      animal origin-free collagenase IV (AOF) at 590 or 1180UmL-1. Isolated follicles
      were stained with 4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI; nuclei), chloromethyl-X
      rosamine (CMXRos; mitochondria) or fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti
      alpha-tubulin antibody. Follicle diameters and staining were measured and
      analysed using ImageJ, and data analysed using GraphPad Prism. Col-IV
      disaggregation yielded the highest number of follicles (17+/-10 folliclesmg-1
      ovarian tissue). All disaggregation methods released more secondary follicles
      (86+/-20 per ovary; P<0.05) than any other size cohort. Mechanical and Col-IV
      disaggregation yielded similar numbers of morphologically intact follicles,
      whereas AOF disaggregation caused more damage (P<0.01). As the morphological
      disruption increased, DAPI and CMXRos staining decreased (P<0.05), and tubulin
      localisation became more heterogeneous. Col-IV disaggregation gave the best yield
      of morphologically intact follicles containing viable granulosa cells. In
      conclusion, we improved adult murine follicle yields and applied molecular
      markers to assess follicle morphology, cellular cytoskeleton and mitochondrial
      function.

PMID- 28566115
TI  - Development and evaluation of an endoscopic surgery course for medical students.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Surgical training has changed with the introduction of endoscopic
      surgery. However, a gap in undergraduate medical training has become evident
      regarding theoretical principles of and basic skills training in endoscopic
      surgery. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a course in
      endoscopic surgery for medical students. METHODS: Kern's six-step approach in
      curriculum development was used. A course including interactive, faculty-led
      didactic sessions (14 hours, distributed over three days) and simulation-based
      basic skills training in endoscopic surgery (nine hours, distributed over four
      sessions) was developed. Knowledge was tested using a 35-item test before and
      after the course, and finally the course was evaluated electronically. The
      project group in cooperation with the faculty -developed the goals and
      objectives, the test and the evaluation questionnaire. RESULTS: The test-scores
      significantly improved after the course, p < 0.0001, with a mean difference of
      12.95 (95% confidence interval: 11.47-14.44). A total of 74% (14/19) responded
      that the course increased their interest in a career in a surgical specialty and
      58% (11/19) were considering specialising in a surgical specialty. CONCLUSIONS: A
      course in endoscopic surgery was developed based on Kern's six-step approach. The
      course was positively perceived by the students in terms of contents as well as
      structure and relevance. FUNDING: University of Copenhagen, Aase og Ejner
      Danielsen Fonden, The Juliane Marie Centre for Children, Women and Reproduction,
      Rigshospitalet. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

PMID- 28566116
TI  - Adherence to local antimicrobial guidelines for initial treatment of community
      acquired infections.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adherence to antimicrobial guidelines is key to ensuring a correct
      treatment of severe infections and to lessening misuse of broad-spectrum
      antimicrobials. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study at the
      Emergency Department of Aalborg University Hospital, North Denmark Region. Our
      aim was to examine adherence to local antimicrobial guidelines in the empirical
      treatment of community-acquired infections and to identity any predictors of
      guideline non-adherence. METHODS: We identified 1,555 patients who had blood
      cultures performed and were admitted to the medical emergency department in 2016.
      We reviewed the medical charts of 755 patients and included those who received at
      least one antibiotic prescription within the first 24 hours of admission. We
      excluded patients with known immunodeficiency, severe renal failure or
      hospitalisation within the previous month. RESULTS: Of the 383 included patients,
      203 (53%) received guideline-concordant antibiotic treatment. The treatment was
      guideline-concordant in 41% of patients with suspected sepsis of unknown origin,
      in 44% with pneumonia and in 37% with urinary tract infections. Patients with
      underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (25%) received guideline
      concordant treatment significantly more often (83%, p < 0.01) than other groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to local antimicrobial guidelines was not high. Further
      studies are needed to identify barriers to guideline adherence. FUNDING: None.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered with the Danish Data Protection
      Agency (R. no. 2008-58-0028).

PMID- 28566117
TI  - The impact of acute high-risk abdominal surgery on quality of life in elderly
      patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Undergoing acute high-risk abdominal (AHA) surgery is associated
      with reduced survival and a great risk of an adverse outcome, especially in the
      elderly. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the residential status
      and quality of life in elderly patients undergoing AHA surgery. METHODS: From 1
      November 2014 to 30 April 2015, consecutive patients (>= 75 years) undergoing AHA
      surgery were included for follow-up after six months. The patients included
      answered a health-related quality-of-life questionnaire and a supplemental
      questionnaire regarding residential status. The results were compared with an age
      matched national control group. RESULTS: A total of 52 patients matched the
      inclusion crit-eria. Mortality at six months after surgery was 46%. Out of the 28
      survivors, 22 participated in the study. Quality of life was estimated as good in
      77% of the survivors and they were willing to undergo surgery again, if
      necessary. All study participants were admitted from their own home, and 95% had
      no change in residential status after six months. CONCLUSIONS: The self-reported
      quality of life in elderly survivors six months after AHA surgery was
      surprisingly good in a small study where all findings should be interpreted with
      precaution. The majority had no change in residential status. Our study may
      provide useful information for surgeons advising elderly patients and their
      families about realistic outcomes following AHA surgery. FUNDING: none. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency and
      registered with clinicaltrials.gov.

PMID- 28566118
TI  - NBOMe hallucinogenic drug exposures reported to the Danish Poison Information
      Centre.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: N-benzylmethoxy (NBOMe) is a new class of hallucinogenic designer
      drugs sold on cheap blotter papers. They are potent 5-hydroxytryptamine-2A
      receptor agonists, and since their recent entry into the drug market there have
      been worldwide reports of severe intoxications and even fatalities. This study
      reviews suspected NBOMe drug exposures reported to the Danish Poison Information
      Centre (DPIC). METHODS: Data from the DPIC database were extracted, including all
      enquiries with NBOMe exposures reported from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2016. The
      following data were extracted: age, sex, date of exposure, risk assessment, co
      exposures, geography and reported symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 43 cases were
      identified: one in 2013, five in 2014, 32 in 2015 and five in the first six
      months of 2016. The mean patient age was 21 years (range: 15-34 years) with 32
      (74%) male and 11 (26%) female patients. The patients most frequently presented
      with hallucinations/psychosis (n = 18), tachycardia (n = 18) and agitation (n =
      15). A total of 16 patients were admitted with co-exposures to other drugs such
      as alcohol (n = 9), cannabis (n = 7), amphetamine (n = 5) cocaine (n = 3),
      benzodiazepines (n = 1) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (n = 1). The cases
      were distributed evenly across the entire country with only ten cases having a
      postal address in one of the three major cities of Denmark. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study has shown a steep and sudden rise in reported NBOMe exposures in Denmark
      within 3-4 years. Geographical data demonstrate an even distribution throughout
      the country. However, our results also suggest that the use has started to
      decline. FUNDING: none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was approved by the Danish
      Data Protection Agency. (BFH-2016-070/04985).

PMID- 28566119
TI  - Consultation expectations among patients with respiratory tract infection
      symptoms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat to public health, and
      antibiotic prescribing increases. About 90% of antibiotics are prescribed in
      general practice, mostly for acute respiratory tract infections. It is well known
      that patient expectations and general practitioners' misinterpretation of
      patients' expectations are associated with antibiotic overuse. The aim of this
      study was to explore Danish patients' expectations when consulting a general
      practitioner with symptoms of acute respiratory tract infection, and to determine
      predictors for these expectations. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted
      in Danish primary care during 2014. Patients aged >= 18 years were asked about
      their expectations to the consultation when consulting with symptoms of acute
      respiratory tract infections. Associations between socio-demographic
      characteristics, self-reported antibiotic prescription and patients' expectations
      were also explored. RESULTS: A total of 567 patients with symptoms of acute
      respiratory tract infections were recorded as interested in receiving a
      questionnaire, 361 of whom responded. The majority expected an examination
      (94.6%) and an explanation (85.9%). About one third expected antibiotic treatment
      (32.3%). Patients who expected an antibiotic were more than eight times more
      likely to be prescribed one than were patients not expecting an antibiotic (odds
      ratio = 8.6 (95% confidence interval: 4.63-16.03); p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Most
      Danish patients expected an examination and/or an explanation of their symptoms
      when consulting with their general practitioner. FUNDING: The study was, in part,
      funded by The Council for Quality Assurance in Primary Care in both The Region of
      Southern Denmark and Region Zealand. Malene Plejdrup Hansen received a
      postdoctoral scholarship in general practice and family medicine from The Novo
      Nordic Foundation. The sponsors have not been involved in the design or the
      development of the study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with the
      Danish Data Protection Agency (R. no. 2013-41-2582).

PMID- 28566120
TI  - A simple high-dose gentamicin regimen showed no side effects among neonates.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Treatment of infections in neonates with gentamicin is a balance
      between optimising bactericidal effect and minimising adverse effects.
      Previously, at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Kolding Hospital,
      Denmark, neonates suspected of having infections were treated daily with
      gentamicin 5 mg/kg for the first three days, thus exposing the smallest neonates
      to double gentamicin amounts compared with those used in most Danish NICUs. We
      aimed to evaluate if this regimen increased the trough values and oto- and
      nephrotoxicity. METHODS: Neonates admitted to the NICU between 2008 and 2012 and
      treated with gentamicin were included retrospectively in the study. Neonates with
      trough serum (S)-gentamicin level >= 2.0 mg/l before the third dose were reviewed
      in detail. RESULTS: In total, S-gentamicin level was measured in 253 treated
      neonates of whom 7% displayed elevated trough values. Neonates < 32 weeks of age
      had a slightly higher incidence of S-gentamicin level >= 2.0 mg/l compared with
      less premature and mature infants (16%, 13%, and 2%, respectively). No oto- or
      nephrotoxicity was found despite the high-dose gentamicin regimen. CONCLUSIONS:
      The incidence of elevated S-gentamicin trough levels was increased among very
      premature neonates. However, no evidence of oto- or nephrotoxicity was observed.
      This simple regimen of gentamicin 5 mg/kg for the first three days should be
      considered for all neonates as it potentially minimises the risk of dosing errors
      and bacterial breakthrough infection. FUNDING: none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Danish
      Data Protection Agency (2008-58-0035).

PMID- 28566121
TI  - Danish national guideline: Diagnosis and treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
AB  - National Danish guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of irritable bowel
      syndrome (IBS) in adult patients in secondary and tertiary care have been
      approved by the Danish Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology. IBS can be a
      positive diagnosis in patients fulfilling the Rome III criteria for IBS with no
      alarm signals, a normal physical examination and a normal CRP and hemoglobin. In
      patients < 40 years with IBS and diarrhea, a normal fecal calprotectin excludes
      inflammatory bowel disease with a high probability. Patients with IBS and
      diarrhea should be tested for celiac disease. Endoscopy is not routinely
      recommended. The therapeutic gain of various treatment modalities is small and
      most likely overestimated in older studies. However, side effects are usually
      mild which may justify empirical treatment. The choice of therapy based on IBS
      subtyping is pragmatic and there are only few trials as guidance. The
      significance of previous failure with another treatment modality is unclear.
      There is a lack of long-term treatment trials. The generalizability of the trials
      is poor, mainly due to selection bias.

PMID- 28566122
TI  - Necrotizing enterocolitis - classification and two initial steps towards
      prevention.
AB  - The premature infant suffers from immaturity of all organ systems, one of them
      being the gastrointestinal tract. When the infant is born, the immature
      gastrointestinal tract is exposed to milk and simultaneously colonized by high
      densities of bacteria. The combination of milk, microbiota and an immature gut,
      leaves the infant vulnerable to developing the dreaded intestinal emergency
      necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). NEC is often very aggressive and no cure exists,
      which means that prevention is an utmost important topic to researchers,
      physicians, parents - and infants.   Despite immense research during the last
      decades, no specific test to determine if an infant suffers from NEC exists. Most
      neonatal units use Bell's staging criteria, which are based on clinical and
      radiographic findings, as a diagnostic tool; however the diagnosis given
      according to Bell's stages has not been validated. In study I, we aimed to
      determine the validity of the NEC diagnosis given at discharge. An expert panel
      consisting of a neonatologist, a paediatric surgeon and a paediatric radiologist
      served as the golden standard. We found that the diagnosis given at discharge had
      a poor validity which significantly affected the reported incidence of NEC in the
      neonatal department at Rigshospitalet, Denmark. The validity of the NEC diagnosis
      was worse than the validity of most other paediatric diagnoses that had been
      investigated.   In studies II and III, we aimed to explore possible means of NEC
      prevention. The role of nutrition in NEC development is well established with
      mother's milk as the best option to avoid NEC in the preterm infant. Maternal
      milk is, however, most often not available in sufficient amounts during the first
      days of life, and preterm infant formula or human donor milk is used in its
      absence. Studies in preterm piglets showed that bovine colostrum equally to human
      donor milk protected against NEC compared to infant formula. Furthermore, bovine
      colostrum was superior to human donor milk in stimulating gut immunity and
      digestive functions.   Hence, in study II we aimed to design a pilot study of
      bovine colostrum used as a supplement to maternal milk in the first days of life
      and to determine if the study was feasible. In the paper, we present the protocol
      and the results of the first two phases of the Precolos study in which 12 infants
      were included and received pasteurized, spray-dried and reconstituted bovine
      colostrum during the first days of life as the first infants in the world. We
      found that the infants tolerated bovine colostrum without clinical adverse
      effects, but we also observed a transient hypertyrosinemia on day seven of life
      in five infants. The results were evaluated by a safety management board which
      encouraged us to continue the pilot study with the last phase, which was a
      randomized controlled trial of 20+20 infants comparing supplementation with
      bovine colostrum to supplementation with standard nutrition. The randomized trial
      has just finished recruitment.   At last, we wanted to shed light on a possible
      microbiological angle of NEC prevention. Dysbiosis and bacterial translocation
      are believed to play a crucial role in the development of NEC as intestinal
      pneumatosis, which occurs when bacteria produce gas inside the intestinal wall,
      is a pathognomonic radiographic finding. In a quality improvement study from the
      US published in 2014, NEC incidence was significantly reduced after the
      implementation of several quality improvement interventions. Standardized weekly
      exchange of nasogastric feeding tubes was suggested as one of the potential NEC
      reducing interventions.   In the neonatal unit at Rigshospitalet, Denmark,
      preterm infants are fed 8-12 times daily through a resident nasogastric feeding
      tube which is exposed to body temperature, contains milk residuals from the last
      meal and is handled by both parents and personnel. Since bacterial pollution of
      milk given through the nasogastric feeding tube might be NEC-inducing, we aimed
      in study III to determine the bacterial load given to the infants when feeding
      them through a tube. We collected 92 used nasogastric feeding tubes and flushed
      them with one ml saline each to imitate a meal given through them. Eighty-nine
      percent of the tubes contaminated the meals with more than 1000 colony-forming
      units of bacteria and fifty-five percent contaminated the meals with the possible
      pathogens Enterobacteriaceae or Staphylococcus aureus. The concentration of
      bacteria in the saline flushed through the tubes was as high as 109 colony
      forming units per ml; however, neither the risk of contamination nor the
      concentration of bacteria in the flush was associated with the duration of use.
      Implementation of standardized weekly exchange of feeding tubes would therefore
      not prevent the contamination of meals.   In conclusion, the studies included in
      this thesis serve as a base for future studies investigating the prevention of
      NEC. We found a poor validity of the NEC diagnosis given at discharge. This
      should be kept in mind when conducting epidemiological studies of NEC and
      especially when conducting interventional trials with NEC as an outcome. If the
      findings of the randomized part of the Precolos study indicate a positive effect
      of bovine colostrum and do not give rise to concerns regarding feasibility,
      safety or tolerability, a large-scale randomized controlled study with NEC as the
      primary outcome will be planned. Based on the high concentrations of bacteria
      found in the nasogastric feeding tubes, a randomized controlled trial
      investigating whether the frequency of feeding tube exchange affects the early
      colonization has been commenced in the neonatal department at Rigshospitalet.
      Hopefully, the results of these studies will bring us closer to preventing NEC in
      the future.

PMID- 28566123
TI  - Funen Anorexia Nervosa Study - a follow-up study on outcome, mortality, quality
      of life and body composition.
AB  - Eating disorders (EDs) comprise a wide range of symptoms, with severe
      psychological and physical implications for the patient. EDs include anorexia
      nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and until 2013 eating disorder not otherwise
      specified (EDNOS), if criteria for AN or BN were not met. Patients suffering from
      an ED have poor prognosis, with more than half of AN patients not obtaining
      complete remission. One-fifth develops a chronic disease. EDs have an increased
      risk of premature death and patients with EDs report poorer quality of life (QoL)
      compared to both the general population and other psychiatric/somatic diseases.
      Patients who, apparently, obtain complete remission will still be affected in QoL
      when compared to a healthy reference group. Treatment is complicated by high drop
      out rates, hence making large retrospective follow-up studies difficult to
      conduct. The multiple endocrine disturbances as a result of the severe
      malnourishment in AN often result in amenorrhea and a weight goal for remenorrhea
      has been ambiguous. This thesis encompasses results from four studies examining
      the abovementioned challenges and is based on a large retrospective cohort of ED
      patients referred to a highly specialized ED treatment unit. Study 1: QoL in EDs
      was reported for a large retrospective Danish cohort. Furthermore, meta-analysis
      on existing published literature was performed to determine potential differences
      between the diagnostic groups. QoL in EDs was significantly decreased compared to
      the general population and no difference between the diagnostic groups was
      established. Study 2: ED pathology (measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory - 2
      (EDI-2)) and outcome (measured by the Morgan Russell Outcome Schedule (MROS)) was
      reported for a large retrospective Danish cohort. The correlation between the
      patient-reported measurements (SF-36 & EDI-2) and clinician-assessed
      characteristics (BMI and remission status) was investigated in a group of ED
      patients (n=383). A high association between EDI scores and BMI was observed in
      AN and EDNOS, despite remission status, representing an increase in
      symptomatology with increasing BMI. This was not present in BN. We found no
      association between HRQoL and BMI in any of the diagnostic groups. Study 3: 
      Mortality rates were calculated in a large group of ED patients (n=998) including
      AN, BN and EDNOS with a long follow-up time. We found a SMR of 2.9 for AN, which
      was considerably lower than previous published results. We compared the results
      to data from the same catchment area published prior to the establishment of a
      multidisciplinary ED center. Patients with EDs had a significantly increased risk
      of premature death compared to the general population; however the mortality
      rates had decreased since the formation of the ED unit. Study 4: The association
      between body composition measures and amenorrhea was studied in a cohort of adult
      patients with a history of AN (n=113) and predicted probabilities for the
      resumption of menses was determined. We found a high association between DXA
      scans and BMI in predicting the resumption of menses. Half of the patients were
      predicted to resume their menstrual status at BMI 19/fat percentage 23, however
      at BMI 14/fat percentage 11 still 25% of patients were predicted to resume their
      menses.

PMID- 28566124
TI  - Melatonin for prevention of erythema and oxidative stress in response to
      ultraviolet radiation.
AB  - Skin damage induced by UVR is an escalating problem in dermatology, and
      increasing incidence of skin cancer, especially for non-melanoma skin cancer, has
      been reported worldwide. UVR from sun exposure and the production of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) is known to be a pivotal factor in the aetiology of skin
      cancer. The pineal hormone melatonin is recognized as the most potent endogenous
      antioxidant. Melatonin conducts its antioxidant effects acting directly as a
      radical scavenger and indirectly by up regulation of antioxidant enzymes. It has
      been proposed, that melatonin may have a protective effect against UVR-induced
      skin damage. The aim of this thesis was to: - Clarify melatonin's protective
      effect against UVR-induced skin damage in laboratory and clinical settings trough
      a systematic review of the literature. - To clinically assess the protective
      effect of topical treatment with melatonin against natural sun exposure, and
      determine the optimal concentration. - To clinically evaluate the degree of
      cognitive dysfunction with full body application of topical melatonin. Study 1:
      This was a systematic review using the databases Pubmed, EM-BASE and Cinahl. The
      databases were searched up to January 2013 to identify studies evaluating
      melatonin's protective effect against UVR-induced erythema in humans, and damage
      on a cellular level. Twenty studies were included, four human and 16
      experimental. The results indicated that melatonin had a protective effect
      against UVR-induced erythema if applied before exposure, and this effect was
      probably obtained by melatonin acting directly as an antioxidant, and indirectly
      by regulating gene expression and inducing a DNA stabilizing effect. As these
      results were obtained using artificial UVR-sources and without investigating
      possible side effects, studies using natural sunlight and evaluating possible
      side effects of topical melatonin administration were warranted. Study 2: This
      study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. We evaluated the
      protective effect of three different doses of topical melatonin against erythema
      induced by natural sun-light. The primary outcome was reduction in erythema,
      evaluated by chromatography, after sun exposure, when treated with topi-cal
      melatonin (0.5%, 2.5%, 12.5%) versus placebo and no treatment. A significant
      difference in erythema formation was found between areas treated with melatonin
      12.5% and areas receiving placebo or no treatment. However, this was only seen in
      participants with an erythema reaction to the sun exposure. Further-more, the
      treated skin areas were very small and studies assessing any potential adverse
      effects were necessary. Study 3: This also was a randomized, double-blind,
      placebo-controlled, cross-over study. We assessed the degree of cognitive
      dysfunction with full body application of topical melatonin 12.5%. Cognition was
      evaluated using a neuropsychological test battery consisting of Karolinska
      sleepiness scale (KSS), finger tapping test (FTT) and continuous reaction time
      (CRT). The impact on KSS was the primary outcome. We found no significant effect
      on cognition, however, large inter-individual variation was observed. These
      results support that melatonin is a safe drug for dermal application. The studies
      in this thesis may be valuable in the research field of melatonin's protective
      potential against UVR-induced oxidative skin damage. Increasing incidence of skin
      cancer is reported worldwide, and experts have suggested that the problem will
      only increase further, due to depletion of the ozone layer and the aging
      population. Furthermore, high-risk patient groups are emerging with the widely
      use of immunosuppressive medicine in various diseases, and this high-risk is in
      spite of use of protective measures known today. Therefore, development of new
      and more effective sun protective agents, with other qualities than simple
      chemical reflection of the UVR, is more important than ever. We have supported
      the suggestion of melatonin as a sun protective agent, and added the clinical
      relevant feature, that melatonin also has a protective effect against natural
      sunlight. Furthermore, we have supported the idea of melatonin being a safe drug
      for topical treatment, even in previous unknown high dosages. However, before any
      clinical implementation of melatonin as a sun protective agent can take place,
      further studies evaluating the long-term effects are warranted.

PMID- 28566125
TI  - Weight Changes in General Practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This PhD thesis is about weight changes. What determines long-term
      weight changes in the adult general population? Is it possible that weight loss
      may not always be healthy? The present clinical guidelines for general practice
      advice most overweight persons and patients with type 2 diabetes to lose weight.
      Are the guidelines based on firm evidence?   METHODS: The back-bone of the thesis
      is constituted by three scientific articles based on three different population
      based cohort studies. Multivariable modeling and other epidemiological methods
      were used.   RESULTS: Article 1 examined weight changes in the general population
      in relation to smoking status, and proposed a graphical 'smoking cessation weight
      change model', demonstrating the importance of time, age and smoking status in
      relation to long-term weight changes. Article 2 suggested new methods to improve
      the processing of dietary data. It was demonstrated how median imputation for
      missing values and assumptions about standard portion sizes were inferior to
      stochastic methods conditioning on information about physiology of the
      individual. Article 3 evaluated the influence of prospectively planned
      intentional weight loss on long-term morbidity and mortality in patients with
      type 2 diabetes. Therapeutic intentional weight loss supervised by a medical
      doctor was not associated with reduced morbidity or mortality. In the general
      population the dietary intake of fructose and soft drinks sweetened with sugar
      was not associated with weight change over 9 years. Weight gain rates were large
      in young adults and incrementally smaller in middle aged adults. Subjects more
      than 60 years lost weight on average. Historical weight data suggest that the
      body weight increases throughout life to the age of 60-65years. A study with
      simulated data indicates that bias in baseline BMI may misleadingly have favored
      weight loss in earlier cohort studies of intentional weight loss and mortality.  
      DISCUSSION: The findings regarding weight loss and mortality in patients with
      type 2 diabetes are in opposition to the prevailing observational literature.
      Harrington's meta-analysis of intentional weight loss and the underlying studies
      are evaluated along with the Look AHEAD trial and a number of diabetes prevention
      studies. Difficulties in conducting and interpreting weight change studies are
      discussed.   CONCLUSIONS: Surprisingly, intentional therapeutic weight loss in
      patients with type 2 diabetes, supervised by a medical doctor, did not seem to
      reduce the long-term risk for CVD, CVD-mortality or all-cause mortality. The
      contradictions between our results and the prevailing observational evidence may
      be explained by methodological weaknesses favoring weight loss in earlier
      studies. Consequently, there is no good evidence to support that intentional
      weight loss will reduce the risk of CVD or mortality in any group of patients in
      general practice or in the general population. Age was a powerful determinant of
      weight changes and the 'normal weight development' can be taken into
      consideration when evaluating weight studies, and when general practitioners are
      following their patients over time. Compared with age, sex, education, and
      comorbidity, lifestyle factors like the dietary intake and physical activity
      seemed to be of less importance for long-term weight development. An exception to
      this was smoking or smoking cessation. Based on the scientific literature in the
      field and on the results of article 3, it seems uncertain whether weight loss is
      beneficial or harmful in terms of mortality and cardiovascular morbidity in
      patients with diabetes and in overweight people in general. Improvements in for
      instance psychosocial factors and diabetes prevention may well be short term as
      only few are able to a maintain weight loss. Rather than going for weight loss in
      overweight high risk patients, it seems more rational for general practitioners
      to focus on other lifestyle changes like for instance Mediterranean diet and
      increased exercise.

PMID- 28566126
TI  - Survey on knowledge, attitude and practice about blood donation among continuing
      medical education (CME) students in Sichuan province, China.
AB  - The study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of blood donation
      among continuing medical education students in Sichuan.This study was carried out
      on 841 continuing medical education students using a self-administered structured
      questionnaire. The statistical analysis was done by using the SPSS software.Among
      the 800 students, 424 were donors and 417 were non-donors The score of knowledge
      (mean11.71+/-2.22 VS 8.46+/-3.27) and attitude (mean 9.19+/-2.42 VS 7.08+/-2.02)
      in donors were statistically significant higher than the non-donors. The moral
      responsibility of altruism was the major reason for donating blood and worrying
      of the sanitation and getting infectious disease during donation was the major
      reason for not donating blood. Being male, aged more than 40, worked in
      grassroots hospital were predictors of being a blood donor.Blood services should
      take more efforts to improve donation experience and reinforce the positive KAP
      of CME students through blood donation training could help more grassroots people
      to know the blood donation and abandon the prejudice of blood donation.

PMID- 28566127
TI  - Retraction notice to" Modification of TAK1 by O-linked N-acetylglucosamine
      facilitates TAK1 activation and promotes M1 macrophage polarization" Cellular
      Signalling 28 (2016) 1742-1752.

PMID- 28566128
TI  - If a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon, do we form an Inflammasome?

PMID- 28566129
TI  - Foreword: Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Consumer Products.

PMID- 28566130
TI  - Novel Approaches to Analyze Immunoglobulin Repertoires.
AB  - Analysis of immunoglobulin (Ig) repertoires aims to comprehend Ig diversity with
      the goal of predicting humoral immune responses in the context of infection,
      vaccination, autoimmunity, and malignancies. The first next-generation sequencing
      (NGS) analyses of bulk B cell populations dramatically advanced sampling depth
      over previous low-throughput single-cell-based protocols, albeit at the expense
      of accuracy and loss of chain-pairing information. In recent years the field has
      substantially differentiated, with bulk analyses becoming more accurate while
      single-cell approaches have gained in throughput. Additionally, new platforms
      striving to combine high throughput and chain pairing have been developed as well
      as various computational tools for analysis. Here we review the developments of
      the past 4-5 years and discuss the open challenges.

PMID- 28566131
TI  - Autoantibodies in antimithocondrial antibodies negative primary biliary
      cholangitis.

PMID- 28566132
TI  - Early Diagnostic Performance of Heart-Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein in
      Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of
      Contemporary Studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although cardiac troponin is the cornerstone in diagnosis of acute
      myocardial infarction (AMI), the accuracy is still suboptimal in the early hours
      after chest pain onset. Due to its small size, heart-type fatty acid-binding
      protein (H-FABP) has been reported accurate in diagnosis of AMI, however, this
      remains undetermined. The aim is to investigate the diagnostic performance of H
      FABP alone and in conjunction with high-sensitivity troponin (hs-Tn) within 6
      hours of symptom onset. Furthermore, accuracy in 0h/3h algorithm was also
      assessed. METHODS: Medline and EMBASE databases were searched; sensitivity,
      specificity and area under ROC curve (AUC) were used as measures of the
      diagnostic accuracy. We pooled data on bivariate modelling, threshold effect and
      publication bias was applied for heterogeneity analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-two
      studies with 6602 populations were included, pooled sensitivity, specificity and
      AUC of H-FABP were 0.75 (0.68-0.81), 0.81 (0.75-0.86) and 0.85 (0.82-0.88) within
      6 hours. Similar sensitivity (0.76, 0.69-0.82), specificity (0.80, 0.71-0.87) and
      AUC (0.85, 0.82-0.88) of H-FABP were observed in 4185 (63%) patients in 0h/3h
      algorithm. The additional use of H-FABP improved the sensitivity of hs-Tn alone
      but worsened its specificity (all p<0.001), and resulted in no improvement of AUC
      (p>0.99). There was no threshold effect (p=0.18) and publication bias (p=0.31) in
      this study. CONCLUSIONS: H-FABP has modest accuracy for early diagnosis of AMI
      within 3 and 6 hours of symptom onset. The incremental value of H-FABP seemed
      much smaller and was of uncertain clinical significance in addition to hs-Tn in
      patients with suspected AMI. Routine use of H-FABP in early presentation does not
      seem warranted.

PMID- 28566133
TI  - Variation in Screening Mammography Rates Among Medicare Advantage Plans.
AB  - PURPOSE: Prior studies have shown higher screening mammography rates for
      beneficiaries in capitated managed care Medicare Advantage (MA) plans compared
      with traditional fee-for-service Medicare. The aim of this study was to explore
      variation in screening mammography rates at the level of MA managed care plans.
      METHODS: Using the 2016 MA Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set
      Public Use File, screening mammography rates were identified for all 385
      reporting MA plans. Associations were explored with a range of plan
      characteristics from this file, as well as from the CMS Part C and Part D
      Medicare Star Ratings Data File, Medicare Advantage Plan Directory, and Medicare
      Monthly Enrollment by Plan File. RESULTS: Overall MA plan screening rates were
      high (mean, 72.6 +/- 9.4%) but varied substantially among plans (range, 14.3%
      91.8%). Screening rates were higher in nonprofit versus for-profit plans (77.3%
      versus 71.8%, P < .001), as well as in health maintenance organization or local
      preferred provider organization plans versus private fee-for-service or regional
      preferred provider organization plans (71.9%-73.2% versus 65.5%-66.8%, P = .001).
      Among parent organizations with five or more plans, screening rates were highest
      for Kaiser Foundation (median, 88.4%) and lowest for Molina Healthcare (median,
      65.3%). Screening rates showed small but significant associations with plans'
      contract lengths, enrolled populations, and counties served. Screening rates
      showed strong associations (r = 0.796-0.798) with colorectal cancer screening and
      annual flu vaccine rates and showed moderate associations (r = 0.283-0.365) with
      ambulatory and preventive care visits, osteoporosis screenings, body mass index
      assessments, and nonrecommended prostate-specific antigen screenings after age
      70. CONCLUSIONS: Screening mammography rates vary considerably among MA plans.
      With increased federal interest in promoting the MA program, enhanced
      transparency will be necessary to ensure appropriate Medicare beneficiary
      participation decision making.

PMID- 28566134
TI  - Medicare Claims Data Resources: A Primer for Policy-Focused Radiology Health
      Services Researchers.
AB  - As societal stakeholders call for increased evidence-based health policy,
      considerable attention has focused on Medicare, the country's largest payer.
      Concurrently, medical imaging has come under considerable scrutiny as a
      contributor to rising health care expenditures. Accordingly, many recent studies
      have focused on multiple factors related to the utilization of imaging among
      Medicare beneficiaries. This article summarizes several national Medicare fee-for
      service data sources relevant to supporting ongoing investigations. Aggregated
      100% data sets include the Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary Master Files and
      the Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Physician and Other Supplier
      Public Use File. The former focuses on services, specialties, and sites of
      service; the latter focuses on providers. Both permit high-level national
      assessments of imaging utilization and spending. Individual 5% random-sample
      claims-level data sources include the Carrier Standard Analytical File Limited
      Data Set and the Research Identifiable File, which contain greater beneficiary
      level information. Both facilitate more robust patient- and encounter-level
      analyses and some assessment of downstream outcomes but involve greater costs and
      require greater privacy oversight. More recently, Medicare data are being merged
      with registry data (eg, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare
      Linked Database files), creating opportunities for even more robust analyses
      given richer clinical information. Understanding these data sets and trade-offs
      in their use will aid policy-focused imaging health services researchers in most
      effectively conducting their investigations.

PMID- 28566135
TI  - How to set up a robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery center and training of
      staff.
AB  - The use of computers to assist surgeons in the operating room has been an
      inevitable evolution in the modern practice of surgery. Robotic-assisted surgery
      has been evolving now for over two decades and has finally matured into a
      technology that has caused a monumental shift in the way gynecologic surgeries
      are performed. Prior to robotics, the only minimally invasive options for most
      Gynecologic (GYN) procedures including hysterectomies were either vaginal or
      laparoscopic approaches. However, even with over 100 years of vaginal surgery
      experience and more than 20 years of laparoscopic advancements, most gynecologic
      surgeries in the United States were still performed through an open incision.
      However, this changed in 2005 when the FDA approved the da Vinci Surgical Robotic
      Systemtm for use in gynecologic surgery. Over the last decade, the trend for
      gynecologic surgeries has now dramatically shifted to less open and more
      minimally invasive procedures. Robotic-assisted surgeries now include not only
      hysterectomy but also most all other commonly performed gynecologic procedures
      including myomectomies, pelvic support procedures, and reproductive surgeries.
      This success, however, has not been without controversies, particularly around
      costs and complications. The evolution of computers to assist surgeons and make
      minimally invasive procedures more common is clearly a trend that is not going
      away. It is now incumbent on surgeons, hospitals, and medical societies to
      determine the most cost-efficient and productive use for this technology. This
      process is best accomplished by developing a Robotics Program in each hospital
      that utilizes robotic surgery.

PMID- 28566136
TI  - Extraordinary Cases of Miraculous Healing.

PMID- 28566137
TI  - Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Latent Disease in Patients with Anaphylactic Reaction
      to Cow's Milk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food allergy and eosinophilic esophagitis are a substantial and
      evolving public health issue. Clinicians should know the relationship between
      these diseases and how one may predispose to the other. This can help minimize
      misdiagnosis. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess esophageal
      eosinophilia and eosinophilic esophagitis frequency in patients with persistent
      cow's milk allergy and anaphylaxis manifestations. METHODS: Patients with
      persistent cow's milk allergy with anaphylaxis manifestations were enrolled from
      2012 through 2016 at the Sao Paulo University Hospital, Brazil. All of them were
      submitted to endoscopy despite the presence or absence of gastrointestinal
      symptoms. Demographics data, atopic comorbidities, medication use, endoscopic
      findings, and esophageal eosinophilia frequency were evaluated. RESULTS: Eighty
      nine patients were selected. The median age was 8 years. It was observed that 34
      of 89 patients (38.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 28.14%-49.16%) presented
      with esophageal eosinophilia. Five patients (7.1%) presented proton pump
      inhibitor-responsive esophageal eosinophilia, and 10 patients (14.2%) presented
      eosinophilic esophagitis. We found that 29.4% were asymptomatic patients, 23.5%
      had nonspecific symptoms, 23.5% had persistent typical symptoms, and 23.5% had
      intermittent typical symptoms. There was an association with inflammatory
      endoscopy findings in 21 patients (61.7%). CONCLUSIONS: This description demands
      scientific attention because it is the highest frequency of esophageal
      eosinophilia yet described in a group of patients with cow's milk allergy
      presenting with anaphylaxis. Eosinophilic esophagitis is a condition that can
      coexist "silently" with an IgE-mediated food allergy and is most often
      underestimated and underdiagnosed.

PMID- 28566138
TI  - A newly developed ultraminiature wearable electromyogram system useful for
      analyses of masseteric activity during the whole day.
AB  - PURPOSE: We describe the characteristics of a new data-logger-type ultraminiature
      electromyogram (EMG) system (FLA-500-SD) and methods used for recording and we
      show its potential in clinical applications by presenting an example of a
      clinical case. METHOD: FLA contains electrodes, an amplifier, 12-bit analog-to
      digital (A/D) converter at a sampling frequency of 1kHz, 16-bit CPU, a 3.7-V coin
      shaped lithium battery, and a micro SD card. The size of FLA is 37.0*23.5*8.6mm,
      and its weight is 6g (9g with a battery inserted). The device is wearable and
      patients can attach the device and operate it by themselves in daily life. Data
      recorded in the micro SD card are transferred to a personal computer and
      analyzed. Although the device is ultraminiature and wearable, it has the capacity
      for recording a precise and clear masseteric surface electromyogram that is not
      inferior to that recorded by conventional stationary-type EMG recording systems.
      CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, the device is the smallest and lightest device
      with capacity for the longest consecutive measuring time as a data-logger-type
      electromyograph with built-in electrodes and memory. The device is useful for
      analyses of masseteric activity during the whole day. In the future, it is
      expected that applications of the device will expanded to observation, evaluation
      and diagnosis of normal or abnormal gnathic functions, e.g., assessment of sleep
      and awake bruxism and observation of the chewing state in daily life.

PMID- 28566139
TI  - Arithmetic in the developing brain: A review of brain imaging studies.
AB  - Brain imaging studies on academic achievement offer an exciting window on
      experience-dependent cortical plasticity, as they allow us to understand how
      developing brains change when children acquire culturally transmitted skills.
      This contribution focuses on the learning of arithmetic, which is quintessential
      to mathematical development. The nascent body of brain imaging studies reveals
      that arithmetic recruits a large set of interconnected areas, including
      prefrontal, posterior parietal, occipito-temporal and hippocampal areas. This
      network undergoes developmental changes in its function, connectivity and
      structure, which are not yet fully understood. This network only partially
      overlaps with what has been found in adults, and clear differences are observed
      in the recruitment of the hippocampus, which are related to the development of
      arithmetic fact retrieval. Despite these emerging trends, the literature remains
      scattered, particularly in the context of atypical development. Acknowledging the
      distributed nature of the arithmetic network, future studies should focus on
      connectivity and analytic approaches that investigate patterns of brain activity,
      coupled with a careful design of the arithmetic tasks and assessments of
      arithmetic strategies. Such studies will produce a more comprehensive
      understanding of how the arithmetical brain unfolds, how it changes over time,
      and how it is impaired in atypical development.

PMID- 28566140
TI  - Computer-assisted orthognathic surgery: evaluation of mandible registration
      accuracy and report of the first clinical cases of navigated sagittal split ramus
      osteotomy.
AB  - Intraoperative navigation is a helpful tool in complex anatomical regions or
      procedures. The mobility of the mandible in relation to the skull base limits the
      use of navigation tools on the lower jaw if the reference device is installed on
      the forehead. A new workflow that allows navigation-assisted sagittal split
      osteotomy in orthognathic surgery using a separate non-invasive mandibular
      registration technique has been developed. An evaluation of accuracy in different
      anatomical regions and with different registration techniques was performed on
      skull models and skulls with movable mandibles. The mean inaccuracy was 1.51mm,
      with no significant difference between anatomical sites. Using a splint-based
      reference device allows the movable mandible to be registered independently from
      the midface. Registration using metal points in the splint provides higher
      accuracy than using interdental anatomical landmarks. The workflow could be
      transferred successfully to patient treatment. Navigation-assisted osteotomy by
      Obwegeser-Dal Pont technique was performed without any complication in six
      patients. The mean deviation from the planned osteotomy line was 1.52mm. The
      navigated sagittal split ramus osteotomy seems to be a suitable technique to
      increase patient safety.

PMID- 28566141
TI  - Bibrachial plegia due to Lyme radiculopoliomyelitis-myelitis.
AB  - Nervous system involvement occurs in up to 15% of patients with Lyme disease,
      most commonly manifested as cranial neuropathy, lymphocytic meningitis, and or
      radiculoneuritis. We describe a patient with subacute radiculopoliomyelitis
      myelitis matching the selective involvement of the anterior horns and roots of
      the cervical spinal cord seen on MRI and on electrodiagnostic studies. We
      demonstrate positive CSF Lyme antibodies and document a near-complete recovery
      with antibiotics. This case highlights the importance of recognizing an atypical
      presentation of Lyme disease in the setting of initial radiculitis and or
      myelitis, particularly given the potential for favorable outcomes with
      appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28566142
TI  - Three dimensional video-oculography and thin-slice magnetic resonance imaging in
      a patient with superior oblique myokymia.

PMID- 28566143
TI  - Intracerebral haemorrhage risk in microbleed-positive ischaemic stroke patients
      with atrial fibrillation: Preliminary meta-analysis of cohorts and
      anticoagulation decision schema.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Whether ischaemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and
      cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) on MRI can be safely anticoagulated is a hotly
      debated topic. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published
      aggregate data, to investigate the risk of subsequent intracerebral haemorrhage
      (ICH) based on CMBs presence in this stroke population, generally considered for
      oral anticoagulation. We also suggest a decision-making schema for
      anticoagulation use in this setting. METHODS: We searched PubMed for relevant
      observational studies. Random effects models with DerSimonian-Laird weights were
      used to investigated the association between CMBs presence at baseline MRI and
      ICH or ischaemic stroke during follow-up. RESULTS: Four studies, with slightly
      heterogeneous design, including 990 ischaemic stroke patients were pooled in a
      meta-analysis (crude CMBs prevalence: 25%; 95%CI: 17%-33%). The median follow-up
      ranged between 17 and 37months. The future symptomatic ICH rate was 1.6%
      (16/990), while recurrent ischaemic stroke rate was 5.9% (58/990). Baseline CMB
      presence was associated with increased risk of symptomatic ICH during follow-up
      compared to patients without CMBs (OR: 4.16; 95%CI: 1.54-11.25; p=0.005). There
      was no association between CMBs presence and recurrent ischaemic stroke risk.
      CONCLUSION: We have shown that the presence of CMBs in cohorts of ischaemic
      stroke patients, most with AF on warfarin, is associated with a 4-fold increase
      in subsequent ICH (but not ischaemic stroke) risk (Class III evidence). These
      pooled estimates are useful for future trials design. We propose a simple data
      driven anticoagulation schema which awaits validation and refinement as new
      prospective data are accumulated.

PMID- 28566146
TI  - Marcel Proust's contacts with neurology. Did mistrust in doctors lead him to
      refuse life-saving therapies?

PMID- 28566145
TI  - The brain of Rene Descartes (1650): A neuro-anatomical analysis.
AB  - The skull of Rene Descartes is held in the National Museum of Natural History
      since the 19th c. Up to date, only anthropological examinations were carried out,
      focusing on the cranial capacity and phrenological interpretation of the skull
      morphology. Using CT-scan based 3D technology, a reconstruction of the endocast
      was performed, allowing for its first complete description and inter-disciplinary
      analysis: assessment of metrical and non-metrical features, retrospective
      diagnosis of anatomical anomalies, and confrontation with neuro-psychological
      abilities of this well-identified individual.

PMID- 28566147
TI  - The man behind Duchenne de Boulogne.

PMID- 28566144
TI  - The anteroposterior and primary-to-posterior limbic ratios as MRI-derived
      volumetric markers of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Alzheimer's disease (AD) shows a characteristic pattern of brain
      atrophy, with predominant involvement of posterior limbic structures, and
      relative preservation of rostral limbic and primary cortical regions. We aimed to
      investigate the diagnostic utility of two gray matter volume ratios based on this
      pattern, and to develop a fully automated method to calculate them from
      unprocessed MRI files. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 118
      subjects from the ADNI database, including normal controls and patients with mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. Clinical variables and 3T T1-weighted MRI
      files were analyzed. Regional gray matter and total intracranial volumes were
      calculated with a shell script (gm_extractor) based on FSL. Anteroposterior and
      primary-to-posterior limbic ratios (APL and PPL) were calculated from these
      values. Diagnostic utility of variables was tested in logistic regression models
      using Bayesian model averaging for variable selection. External validity was
      evaluated with bootstrap sampling and a test set of 60 subjects. RESULTS:
      gm_extractor showed high test-retest reliability and high concurrent validity
      with FSL's FIRST. Volumetric measurements agreed with the expected anatomical
      pattern associated with AD. APL and PPL ratios were significantly different
      between groups, and were selected instead of hippocampal and entorhinal volumes
      to differentiate normal from MCI or cognitively impaired (MCI plus AD) subjects.
      CONCLUSION: APL and PPL ratios may be useful components of models aimed to
      differentiate normal subjects from patients with MCI or AD. These values, and
      other gray matter volumes, may be reliably calculated with gm_extractor.

PMID- 28566148
TI  - Assessment of the general public's knowledge of stroke: A cross-sectional study
      in Yaounde, Cameroon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke knowledge and awareness in the general public is important to
      improve stroke prevention and ensure prompt response to disease onset. Addressing
      the dearth of data in Africa, this study aimed to determine the level of
      knowledge on stroke definition, symptoms, risk factors and complications in the
      general population living in Yaounde, Cameroon. METHODS: From February to April
      2015, we conducted a cross-sectional study at the Nicolas Barre Hospital Centre.
      With the exception of the health personnel, we recruited all individuals aged
      >=18years who visited the Centre for one reason or another and who volunteered to
      answer our questionnaire. The level of knowledge on stroke was evaluated on 28
      points corresponding to 28 questions addressing either stroke definition, warning
      signs and symptoms, risk factors or complications. RESULTS: In total, 1.025
      participants (57.4% females) were enrolled. The median age was 34years
      (interquartile range: 26-48); 14.9% and 9.8% of the participants were known
      hypertensive and diabetes patients, respectively. Overall, 99% of participants
      had already heard about stroke. The mean score of knowledge was 81.3+/-11.1%. The
      main sources of information on stroke were the close entourage (83.0%) and the
      health personnel (73.0%); media (television (16.4%), newspaper (8.0%), internet
      (7.7%), and radio (2.2%)) and school (8.0%) were the least represented. Speech
      disturbances (98.3%) and weakness, numbness or paralysis of one part of the body
      (98.0%) were the major warning signs and symptoms cited. Hypertension (98.5%) and
      overweight/obesity (97.8%) were the most known risk factors; 98.7% of people were
      aware of stroke common complications. Younger age (<45years), male sex, lower
      level of education and previous experience of stroke education were independently
      associated with a lower level of knowledge on stroke. CONCLUSION: The general
      public's level of knowledge on stroke in Yaounde is good, though still needing to
      be improved. Media and schools should be capitalized to communicate on stroke, as
      these means will help to reach the youngest and the least educated who seem to
      have lower levels of knowledge.

PMID- 28566150
TI  - Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease: Subcutaneous apomorphine as an
      alternative for patients unable to tolerate surgery under local anesthesia.

PMID- 28566149
TI  - Clinical profile of motor neuron disease patients with lower urinary tract
      symptoms and neurogenic bladder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are frequent in motor neuron
      disease (MND) patients, but clinical factors related to them are unknown. We
      describe differences in LUTS among MND phenotypes and their relationship with
      other clinical characteristics, including prognosis. METHODS: For this study, we
      collected clinical data of a previously published cohort of patients diagnosed
      with classical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (cALS), progressive muscular atrophy
      (PMA) or primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) with and without LUTS. Familial history
      was recorded and the C9ORF72 expansion was analysed in the entire cohort.
      Patients were followed-up for survival until August 2016. RESULTS: Fifty-five ALS
      patients (37 cALS, 10 PMA and 8 PLS) were recruited. Twenty-four reported LUTS
      and neurogenic bladder (NB) could be demonstrated in nine of them. LUTS were not
      influenced by age, phenotype, disability, cognitive or behavioural impairment, or
      disease progression, but female sex appeared to be a protective factor (OR=0.39,
      p=0.06). Neither family history nor the C9ORF72 expansion was linked to LUTS or
      NB. In the multivariate analysis, patients reporting LUTS early in the disease
      course tended to show poorer survival. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, LUTS appear to
      be more frequent in male MND patients, but are not related to age, clinical or
      genetic characteristics. When reported early, LUTS could be a sign of rapid
      disease spread and poor prognosis. Further prospective longitudinal and
      neuroimaging studies are warranted to confirm this hypothesis.

PMID- 28566151
TI  - Mobile health as a viable strategy to enhance stroke risk factor control: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the rapid growth worldwide in cell-phone use, Internet
      connectivity, and digital health technology, mobile health (mHealth) technology
      may offer a promising approach to bridge evidence-treatment gaps in stroke
      prevention. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mHealth for stroke risk
      factor control through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: We
      searched PubMed from January 1, 2000 to May 17, 2016 using the following
      keywords: mobile health, mHealth, short message, cellular phone, mobile phone,
      stroke prevention and control, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia
      and smoking cessation. We performed a meta-analysis of all eligible randomized
      control clinical trials that assessed a sustained (at least 6months) effect of
      mHealth. RESULTS: Of 78 articles identified, 13 met eligibility criteria (6 for
      glycemic control and 7 for smoking cessation) and were included for the final
      meta-analysis. There were no eligible studies for dyslipidemia or hypertension.
      mHealth resulted in greater Hemoglobin A1c reduction at 6months (6 studies; 663
      subjects; SMD: -0.44; 95% CI: [-0.82, -0.06], P=0.02; Mean difference of decrease
      in HbA1c: -0.39%; 95% CI: [-0.74, -0.04], P=0.03). mHealth also lead to
      relatively higher smoking abstinence rates at 6months (7 studies; 9514 subjects;
      OR: 1.54; 95% CI: [1.24, 1.90], P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis
      supports that use of mHealth improves glycemic control and smoking abstinence
      rates.

PMID- 28566153
TI  - Concerning the article "Interleukins 17 and 10 in a sample of Egyptian relapsing
      remitting multiple sclerosis patients".

PMID- 28566152
TI  - Sonographic evaluation of atherosclerosis burden in carotid arteries of ischemic
      stroke patients and its relation to paraoxonase 1 and 2, MTHFR and AT1R genetic
      variants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Common variants of the Paraoxonase (PON), 5-Methyl-Tetrahydrofolate
      Reductase (MTHFR) and Angiotensin-II receptor 1 (AT1R) genes have been associated
      with ischemic stroke (IS) risk. Moreover, carotid atherosclerosis is a common
      cause of IS. The aim of this study is to explore whether variants in these genes
      associate with the severity of ultrasonographic determined atherosclerosis
      assessed in carotid arteries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Etiologic subtype of cerebral
      ischemia was determined according to the TOAST classification. Genotypes were
      detected by PCR and restriction analysis. An ultrasonographic supra-aortic trunks
      study was performed to all patients to assess their atherosclerotic involvement
      based on predefined criteria. RESULTS: In IS patients, none of the analyzed gene
      distributions differed concerning the stenosis degree. Nevertheless, a trend was
      observed for the rs662 and rs7493 variants of the PON1 and PON2 genes
      respectively. When evaluated the results based on different inheritance models, a
      significant contribution of rs7493 variant according to a dominant (OR=2.397, 95%
      CI (1.001-5.376); p=0.045) and log-additive inheritance forms (OR=1.85, 95% CI
      (1.07-3.2); p=0.03) was observed. Only rs7493 reached statistical significance
      (p=0.013), when genotype distribution was analyzed according to carotid intima
      media thickness (cIMT) and remain significant in multivariate logistic regression
      analysis (OR=2.66, 95% CI (1.1 to 6.4); p=0.03). CONCLUSION: In IS patients of
      the north area of the Gran Canaria island the PON2 (rs7493) gene variant
      associates with a worse ultrasonographic profile. Conversely, the Cys311Cys
      homozygosis of the rs7493 variant was also related to a better ultrasonographic
      profile in our study.

PMID- 28566154
TI  - Usefulness of the superior cerebellar peduncle for differential diagnosis of
      progressive supranuclear palsy: A meta-analysis.
AB  - Previous studies have reported the usefulness of superior cerebellar peduncle
      (SCP) abnormalities in diagnosing progressive supranuclear palsy. However, the
      results of these studies were heterogeneous. In the present meta-analysis, we
      aimed to establish more robust evidence of SCP abnormalities in progressive
      supranuclear palsy, and to determine the cause of the previously reported
      heterogeneity. We identified six studies on SCP size and three studies on
      apparent diffusion coefficient. Key features of each study were extracted and
      standardized differences in size and apparent diffusion coefficient values were
      calculated. There was some heterogeneity in terms of the reduction in SCP size in
      patients with progressive supranuclear palsy compared to those with Parkinson's
      disease. Moreover, age and Hoehn-Yahr stage negatively correlated with
      standardized mean difference in SCP size between patients with progressive
      supranuclear palsy and Parkinson's disease. There was homogenous agreement that
      the SCP was smaller in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy compared to
      those with multiple system atrophy. Finally, in terms of apparent diffusion
      coefficient, there was no significant difference between patients with
      progressive supranuclear palsy, Parkinson's disease, or multiple system atrophy.
      Together, these findings suggest that SCP size, when corrected for age and
      disease severity, could be a diagnostic tool for progressive supranuclear palsy.

PMID- 28566155
TI  - DNA damage, DNA susceptibility to oxidation and glutathione redox status in
      patients with Alzheimer's disease treated with and without memantine.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to compare oxidative DNA damage, DNA
      susceptibility to oxidation, and ratio of GSH/GSSG in patients with Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) treated with acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) and combined
      AChEI+memantine. The study included 67 patients with AD and 42 volunteers as
      control. DNA damage parameters (strand breaks, oxidized purines, H2O2-induced DNA
      damage) in lymphocyte DNA and GSH/GSSG ratio in erythrocytes were determined by
      the comet assay and spectrophotometric assay, respectively. DNA damage was found
      to be higher, GSH/GSSG ratio was found to be lower in the AD group than those in
      the control group. DNA strand breaks and H2O2-induced DNA damage were lower in
      the patients taking AChEI+memantine than those in the patients taking AChEI but
      no significant difference was determined between the groups for oxidized purines
      and GSH/GSSG ratio. In conclusion, increased systemic oxidative DNA damage and
      DNA susceptibility to oxidation may be resulted from diminished GSH/GSSG ratio in
      AD patients. Although DNA strand breaks and H2O2-induced DNA damage are lower in
      the AD patients treated with combined AChEI and memantine, this may not indicate
      protective effect of memantine against DNA oxidation due to similar levels of
      oxidized purines in the patients treated with AChEI and AChEI+memantine.

PMID- 28566156
TI  - A preliminary investigation of sleep quality in functional neurological
      disorders: Poor sleep appears common, and is associated with functional
      impairment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Functional neurological disorders (FND) are disabling conditions for
      which there are few empirically-supported treatments. Disturbed sleep appears to
      be part of the FND context; however, the clinical importance of sleep disturbance
      (extent, characteristics and impact) remains largely unknown. We described sleep
      quality in two samples, and investigated the relationship between sleep and FND
      related functional impairment. METHODS: We included a sample recruited online via
      patient charities (N=205) and a consecutive clinical sample (N=20). Participants
      completed validated measures of sleep quality and sleep characteristics (e.g.
      total sleep time, sleep efficiency), mood, and FND-related functional impairment.
      RESULTS: Poor sleep was common in both samples (89% in the clinical range), which
      was characterised by low sleep efficiency (M=65.40%) and low total sleep time
      (M=6.05h). In regression analysis, sleep quality was negatively associated with
      FND-related functional impairment, accounting for 16% of the variance and
      remaining significant after the introduction of mood variables. CONCLUSIONS:
      These preliminary analyses suggest that subjective sleep disturbance (low
      efficiency, short sleep) is common in FND. Sleep quality was negatively
      associated with the functional impairment attributed to FND, independent of
      depression. Therefore, sleep disturbance may be a clinically important feature of
      FND.

PMID- 28566157
TI  - Functional brain neuroimaging-guided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
      in neurodevelopmental disorders: The case of a schizencephaly-related spastic
      dystonia.

PMID- 28566158
TI  - Diagnostic challenges in POEMS syndrome presenting with polyneuropathy: A case
      series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with POEMS
      presenting with polyneuropathy and discuss associated diagnostic challenges.
      METHOD: Retrospective analysis of 6 patients from 2 tertiary-care institutions.
      RESULTS: Six patients presented with progressive sensorimotor deficits
      predominantly or exclusively in the lower extremities and were diagnosed with
      POEMS syndrome. In 4 patients, a diagnosis of chronic inflammatory demyelinating
      polyradiculopathy (CIDP) was mistakenly made. Low concentration of serum
      paraprotein and elevated vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were detected
      in all 6 patients. Initial serum immunofixation and skeletal survey were normal
      in 2 patients each. On nerve conduction studies, motor and sensory responses were
      absent in the lower extremity in all 6 patients. Conduction velocity slowing and
      F-wave latency prolongation appear slightly more pronounced than distal motor
      latency prolongation in the upper extremity. Spinal MRI showed diffuse
      lumbosacral nerve root enhancement in all. In 3 patients, targeted bone marrow
      biopsy was needed for confirming the POEMS diagnosis. Treatment with
      corticosteroids, chemotherapy agent, focal radiation and/or autologous stem cell
      transplantation led to significant improvement in 5 of 6 patients. CONCLUSION:
      Diagnosis of POEMS should be considered in patients with progressive
      polyneuropathies of mixed demyelinating and axon loss features, including CIDP
      patients not responding to standard treatment. A polyradiculoneuropathy rather
      than a pure polyneuropathy seems to exist in POEMS.

PMID- 28566159
TI  - Paroxysmal sensory (spinal) attacks without hyperexplexia in a patient with a
      variant in the GLRA1 gene.

PMID- 28566160
TI  - Bilateral striatal necrosis caused by a founder mitochondrial 14459G>A mutation
      in two independent Japanese families.
AB  - Bilateral striatal necrosis (BSN) has many causes and is characterized by unique
      clinical and neuroradiological features. Herein, we report a clinical and genetic
      analysis of three BSN cases from two independent Japanese families harboring a
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 14459G>A mutation located in a coding region of the
      NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 gene. In the first family, two male siblings from
      non-consanguineous parents exhibited similar phenotypes, with infantile-onset
      generalized dystonia. A third sporadic case involved a male patient with a
      comparatively milder phenotype characterized by juvenile-onset mild truncal
      ataxia and parkinsonism. Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging of these cases
      revealed abnormal signal intensities along the bilateral putaminal area and
      enlarged lateral ventricle anterior horns caused by caudate nuclear atrophy,
      particularly in the sibling pair. The sibling-pair cases shared a homoplasmic
      14459G>A mutation, and the sporadic case showed heteroplasmy of the same
      mutation. Additionally, all three cases harbored the 14605A>G single nucleotide
      polymorphism, which was previously reported as a rare synonymous variation (4.3%)
      in a Japanese population. Plasmid sequencing revealed a genetic linkage of these
      two DNA substitutions, suggesting that the three patients shared a genetic
      founder. Although our mtDNA analysis was only accessible using leukocytes,
      clinical severity might be associated with homoplasmy or heteroplasmy. In
      summary, it is important to evaluate potential mtDNA defects in BSN cases,
      regardless of familial occurrence.

PMID- 28566161
TI  - Long-term safety of repeated high doses of incobotulinumtoxinA injections for the
      treatment of upper and lower limb spasticity after stroke.
AB  - Current guidelines suggested a dosage up to 600units (U) of botulinum toxin type
      A (BoNT-A) (onabotulinumtoxinA or incobotulinumtoxinA) in reducing spastic
      hypertonia with low prevalence of complications, although a growing body of
      evidence showed efficacy with the use of high doses (>800U). The available
      evidence mainly referred to a single set of injections evaluating the efficacy
      and safety of the neurotoxin 30days after the treatment. In a prospective, non
      randomized, open-label study, we studied the safety of repeated higher doses of
      incobotulinumtoxinA in post-stroke upper and lower limb spasticity. Two years
      after the first set of injections, we evaluated in 20 stroke survivors with upper
      and lower limb spasticity the long-term safety of repeated high doses of
      incobotulinumtoxinA (up to 840U) for a total of eight sets of injections.
      Patients reported an improvement of their clinical picture concerning a reduction
      of spasticity measured with the Asworth Scale (AS) for elbow, wrist, fingers and
      ankle flexor muscles and disability measured with the Disability Assessment Scale
      (DAS) 30days after the last set of injections (eighth set) compared to the
      baseline (p<0.0001). No difference in AS and DAS scores has been found between t1
      (30days after the first injection set) and t2 (30days after the eighth set of
      injections), with also similar safety. In a two-year follow-up, repeated high
      doses of incobotulinumtoxinA, administered for eight sets of injections, appeared
      to be safe in patients with upper and lower limb spasticity after stroke without
      general adverse effects.

PMID- 28566162
TI  - Brain positron emission tomography in patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 and
      type 2.
AB  - AIM: To determine regions of reduced brain metabolism in patients with myotonic
      dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and type 2 (DM2) using 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose
      positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and to analyse their potential
      association with cognitive deficit. METHOD: Study included 29 patients (16 DM1
      and 13 DM2). FDG-PET and detailed neuropsychological testing were performed in
      both groups. RESULTS: The most common cognitive findings were executive,
      visuospatial, and naming dysfunction in DM1, and executive and naming dysfunction
      in DM2. FDG-PET showed the most prominent glucose hypometabolism in prefrontal,
      temporal, and pericentral regions in both DM1 and DM2 patients, with additional
      affection of insula and subcortical grey matter in DM2. In DM1 patients, we found
      association between right frontotemporal hypometabolism and executive dysfunction
      (p<0.05). In DM2 patients attention deficit was in association with prefrontal,
      insular, and striatal hypometabolism, as well as right frontotemporal
      hypometabolism (p<0.05). Executive dysfunction in DM2 was more common in patients
      with prefrontal and insular hypometabolism, right parietotemporal and
      frontotemporal hypometabolism, as well as left striatal hypometabolism (p<0.05).
      Patients with parietotemporal defect on FDG-PET were more likely to have naming
      dysfunction (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: FDG-PET findings corresponded well with the
      results of neuropsychological testing. FDG-PET may be a good biomarker of central
      nervous system involvement in DM1 and DM2, but this hypothesis will have to be
      more strongly supported by larger studies.

PMID- 28566163
TI  - Subcutaneous immunoglobulin treatment in CIDP and MMN. Efficacy, treatment
      satisfaction and costs.
AB  - Subcutaneous administration of immunoglobulin (SCIG) in chronic inflammatory
      demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) has
      been reported in several case reports and in a few randomized trials during the
      last decade. In this review we present the studies on SCIG in CIDP and MMN with
      special focus on the clinical effects. Moreover, the effect on quality of life,
      side effects to SCIG and the health economic perspectives are reviewed. Nine case
      studies, three randomized trials and six long-term, follow-up studies were
      identified. Most of the studies are conducted in patients switched from regular
      IVIG to SCIG treatment; one study involves treatment-naive patients. The review
      shows that none of the studies have been powered to demonstrate an effect on
      disability. SCIG can maintain muscle strength for a period of 1 to 2years and
      ability seems preserved for a similar period. Quality of life is generally
      unchanged or improved after switch to SCIG and generalized side-effects seem
      fewer, whereas local reactions at the injection site occur. Health economic
      analyses favour SCIG at the doses used in the reviewed studies.

PMID- 28566164
TI  - Cervical spinal cord and motor unit pathology in a canine model of SOD1
      associated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Development of effective treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) would
      be facilitated by identification of early events in the pathological cascade of
      disease progression. Degenerative myelopathy (DM), a naturally occurring disease
      in dogs, is quite similar to forms of ALS associated with SOD1 mutations and is
      likely to be a good model for these forms of the human disease. The sequence of
      histopathological changes that occur in DM was characterized by analyzing tissue
      samples obtained from affected dogs euthanized at various stages of disease
      progression. Cervical spinal cord and the associated spinal nerve roots, ulnar
      nerve, and the extensor carpi radialis (ECR) muscle were obtained from Pembroke
      Welsh Corgi dogs (PWCs) with early and late stage DM and from age-matched
      unaffected PWCs. In early stage disease there was a substantial change in the
      ratio of the two main muscle fiber types and an increase in mean muscle fiber
      area in the ECR. DM, even in late stage disease, was not accompanied by changes
      in the number of motor neuron cell bodies, in the number of axons in the motor or
      sensory nerve roots, or in the ulnar nerve. In addition, no disease-related
      denervation of the acetylcholine receptors of the ECR was observed at any stage
      of the disease. On the other hand, axon densities in both motor and sensory nerve
      tracts in the cervical cord were reduced in affected dogs. SOD1-immunoreactive
      aggregates were observed in spinal cord motor neuron cell bodies only in late
      stage disease. These findings suggest that some of the earliest pathological
      changes in DM occur in the muscle fibers and upper motor and sensory neuron
      tracts in the spinal cord. Targeting therapeutic interventions to these early
      events in the disease are most likely to be effective in slowing disease
      progression for DM and may translate to therapy of SOD1-related forms of ALS.

PMID- 28566165
TI  - Peripheral neuropathy in idiopathic Parkinson's disease: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) has been associated with peripheral
      neuropathy (PN). PN has been demonstrated in some rare genetic forms of PD (e.g.
      PARK2 mutations) but has also been linked to levodopa exposure. OBJECTIVE: The
      aim of this systematic review is to clarify any evidence of peripheral nervous
      system involvement in idiopathic PD. METHODS: A systematic computer-based
      literature search was conducted on PubMed database. FINDINGS: The pooled estimate
      of the prevalence of large fiber PN in PD was 16.3% (based on 1376 patients). The
      pooled estimate of the prevalence of biopsy-proven small fiber neuropathy was
      56.9% (based on 72 patients). Large fiber PN in PD is in the majority of cases
      distal, symmetrical, axonal and predominantly sensory. There are, however, few
      reports of chronic idiopathic demyelinating polyneuropathy and very occasional
      cases of acute neuropathies. Although nerve conduction studies have been
      performed in the majority of the studies, they included only a limited number of
      nerves, mainly in the lower limbs. There is little evidence to support a direct
      link between levodopa treatment and the development of PN in idiopathic PD. In
      the majority of the cases PN has been linked to abnormalities in vitamin B12,
      methylmalonic acid or fasting homocysteine levels. Additional aetiological risk
      factors for PN may be responsible for any apparent link between PD and PN.
      CONCLUSIONS: Large-scale prospective studies with long-term follow-up with
      detailed baseline assessments are needed in order to understand the natural
      history of PN in PD, both on clinical and neurophysiological parameters.

PMID- 28566166
TI  - Expanding the clinical phenotype of CAPN1-associated mutations: A new case with
      congenital-onset pure spastic paraplegia.

PMID- 28566168
TI  - Management of post-stroke depression in the Middle East and North Africa: Too
      little is known.
AB  - Stroke is among the most common disabilities among adults and most stroke victims
      live in developing countries. However, little is known about services delivered
      in these countries for post-stroke depression, a common comorbidity that
      influences functional outcomes of stroke. In this paper, a physician from Syria
      reviews the literature on post-stroke depression among patients living in
      countries of the Middle East and North Africa region in order to examine whether
      current practices can be improved. Studies of prevalence were found in six of the
      region's countries and only four studies described interventions for stroke
      patients with clinical depression. The limited studies on prevalence confirmed
      that stroke incidence and post-stroke depression are common although diagnosed
      depression appears to vary depending on the economic environment of the country.
      Hence, additional interventions in MENA countries may be warranted to increase
      recognition of depression in stroke patients and to ensure health professionals
      are prepared to deliver appropriate services to stroke patients and their family
      caregivers for depression when it occurs.

PMID- 28566167
TI  - In-vivo reflectance confocal microscopy of Meissner's corpuscles in diabetic
      distal symmetric polyneuropathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate in-vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) of
      Meissner's corpuscles (MC) in diabetic distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DSP).
      METHODS: Forty-three adults with diabetes and 21 control subjects underwent RCM
      of MC density at the fingertip of digit V, thenar eminence (TE), and arch of the
      foot, ankle skin biopsy for epidermal nerve fiber density (ENFD),
      electrophysiological studies, monofilament threshold testing, and timed vibration
      at the toe. Subjects with diabetes were subdivided into groups with and without
      clinical DSP using the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) case definition and
      neuropathy outcomes were compared across groups. RESULTS: Both diabetic groups
      (with and without AAN clinical DSP criteria) had objective evidence of peripheral
      sensory involvement using conventional sensory measures, although those with
      clinical DSP criteria had greater abnormalities. MC densities were lower in the
      entire diabetic group at the TE and digit V relative to controls. MC densities at
      all imaging sites were associated with corresponding conventional sensory
      measures. MC densities were reduced in subjects without AAN clinical DSP criteria
      at the TE and digit V compared to controls whereas conventional upper limb
      sensory measures did not differ between these groups. CONCLUSIONS: In-vivo RCM of
      MC density at digit V is a non-invasive, painless, objective marker in diabetes
      that offers a window into early large fiber sensory nerve terminal loss. Further
      studies are needed to determine whether RCM of MCs can identify quantitative
      changes in DSP associated with disease progression or treatment.

PMID- 28566169
TI  - Transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor vs prefrontal
      cortex in refractory chronic migraine: A pilot randomized controlled trial.
AB  - Although transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) represents a therapeutic
      option for the prophylaxis of chronic migraine, the target area for application
      of the electrical current to the cortex has not yet been well established. Here
      we sought to determine whether a treatment protocol involving 12 sessions of 2mA,
      20min anodal stimulation of the left primary motor (M1) or dorsolateral
      prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) could offer clinical benefits in the management of pain
      from migraine. Thirteen participants were assessed before and after treatment,
      using the Headache Impact Test-6, Visual Analogue Scale and Medical Outcomes
      Study 36 - Item Short - Form Health Survey. After treatment, group DLPFC
      exhibited a better performance compared with groups M1 and sham. On intragroup
      comparison, groups DLPFC and M1 exhibited a greater reduction in headache impact
      and pain intensity and a higher quality of life after treatment. No significant
      change was found in group sham. The participants in group M1 exhibited more
      adverse effects, especially headache, heartburn, and sleepiness, than did those
      in the other two groups. Transcranial direct current stimulation is a safe and
      efficacious technique for treating chronic migraine. However, it should be kept
      in mind that the site of cortical stimulation might modulate the patient's
      response to treatment.

PMID- 28566170
TI  - Is maraviroc useful in multiple sclerosis patients with natalizumab-related
      progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the recent advances in the understanding of natalizumab (NTZ)
      related progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and its associated
      immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (PML-IRIS), the therapeutic options
      are still under investigated. In this context, the beneficial use of maraviroc is
      still an anecdotal observation. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of maraviroc in
      modifying the course of PML preventing IRIS or blunting IRIS manifestations.
      METHODS: Three patients with NTZ PML included in the Italian dataset of PML were
      treated with maraviroc. Their longitudinal clinical and radiological course was
      described in detail. RESULTS: The three patients were characterized by a steady
      clinical worsening not controlled by maraviroc. All the three patients manifested
      PML-IRIS, which emerged, respectively, at 62, 64 and 90days post NTZ withdrawal.
      This is in accordance with the data of the Italian dataset. Clinical and
      radiological stabilization of PML-IRIS occurred only after corticosteroids
      administration. CONCLUSION: In these three cases, maraviroc did not show any
      clear effect in modulating the clinical course of PML preventing IRIS. Moreover,
      once PML-IRIS emerged, the clinical stabilization was achieved only with the use
      of corticosteroids. Thus, the use of maraviroc should be regarded with extreme
      caution due the potential adverse events associated with its use.

PMID- 28566171
TI  - Achieving low density lipoprotein-cholesterol<70mg/dL may be associated with a
      trend of reduced progression of carotid artery atherosclerosis in ischemic stroke
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether an intensive lipid-lowering strategy is more
      beneficial on atherosclerotic plaque progression in the stroke survivors.
      METHODS: We retrospectively assessed data that was prospectively collected on 106
      ischemic stroke patients from one academic stroke center. Patients with various
      degrees of common carotid artery atherosclerosis were followed for one year.
      Patients were classified into intensive lipid-lowering therapy (ILLT) group if
      they achieve low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c)<70mg/dL (n=38) and
      conventional lipid-lowering therapy (CLLT) group if their LDL-c is within 70
      120mg/dL (n=68) at end of one year. Carotid ultrasound was performed at baseline
      lipid-lowering therapy and at one year to characterize the plaques. RESULTS: Mean
      change in atherosclerotic plaque length was -1.4mm (95% CI: [-4.1, 1, 2]; P=0.27)
      in ILLT and 1.1mm in CLLP group (95% CI: [-0.9, 3.1]; P=0.27); no difference
      between groups (P=0.40). Atherosclerotic plaque thickness decreased by 0.2mm (95%
      CI: [-0.4, 0.03]; P=0.09) in ILLT group; while in CLLT group, thickness increased
      by 0.02mm after 1-year therapy (95%CI: [-0.1, 0.2]; P=0.77); no difference
      between groups (P=0.28). CONCLUSIONS: Achieving LDL-c<70mg/dL in ischemic stroke
      patients was associated with a trend of reducing atherosclerotic plaque
      progression at one year. Future larger studies are warranted.

PMID- 28566172
TI  - Pattern of care and outcome in elderly patients with glioblastoma: Data in 151
      patients from 3 Lombardia Hospitals.
AB  - The appropriate treatment approach for elderly patients with glioblastoma
      multiforme (GBM) is unclear, although different studies suggest survival benefit
      in fit patients treated with radiotherapy and chemiotherapy after surgery. We
      performed a retrospective analysis of 151 patients older than 65years with GBM
      treated in 3 Lombardia Hospitals. In univariate regression analysis higher KPS
      (p=0.02), macroscopical total resection (p<0.003), radiotherapy (p<0.0001),
      chemotherapy (p<0.0001) and second line chemotheraphy (p=0.02) were of positive
      prognostic value. On the contrary older age (>70years), presence of seizure at
      onset and additional resection after tumor recurrence did not influence OS.
      Multivariate analysis revealed radiotherapy (HR 0.2 p<0.0001) and extent of
      surgery (HR 0.3, p=0,0063) as positive independent prognostic factors. Patients
      receiving radio-chemiotherapy displayed more treatment-related toxicities with a
      slightly prolonged OS versus those receiving hypofractionated radiotherapy. With
      the limits of a retrospective study, our data suggest that in elderly fit
      patients extensive surgery should be considered, moreover adjuvant treatments led
      to an increase in OS. Randomized controlled study are needed to develop treatment
      guidelines for elderly GBM patients and to assess whether the combination of post
      surgical radio and chemiotherapy may be superior to hypofractionated radiotherapy
      and chemiotherapy in fit patients.

PMID- 28566173
TI  - Vitamin D3 supplementation in multiple sclerosis: Symptoms and biomarkers of
      depression.
AB  - Depressive symptoms are common in multiple sclerosis (MS), and both depression
      and MS have been associated with a poor vitamin D status. As cytokine-mediated
      inflammatory processes play a role in the pathogenesis of both disorders, we
      hypothesized that vitamin D3 supplementation reduces depressive symptoms in MS
      via its immunomodulatory properties. In this randomized pilot study relapsing
      remitting (RR) MS patients received either vitamin D3 supplementation (n=20;
      14.000IU/day) or placebo (n=20) during 48weeks. Pre- and post-supplementation
      depression scores, measured using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS)
      depression subscale (HADS-D), showed a significant decrease within the vitamin D3
      group (median HADS-D 4.0 to 3.0, p=0.02), a trend towards a decrease within the
      placebo group (median HADS-D 3.0 to 2.0, p=0.06), but no significantly different
      reductions between groups (p=0.78). Furthermore, no reductions in pro- and anti
      inflammatory cytokine balances, secreted by stimulated leukocytes and CD8+ T
      cells, were found in the vitamin D3 compared to the placebo arm. Therefore, we
      found no evidence for a reduction of depressive symptoms or related biomarkers
      upon vitamin D3 supplementation in RRMS patients in this exploratory study.
      Whether vitamin D3 supplementation is of benefit in manifest depression in MS
      needs to be assessed by additional studies.

PMID- 28566174
TI  - Role of the "other Babinski sign" in hyperkinetic facial disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The "other Babinski sign" consists in the co-contraction of the
      orbicularis and frontalis muscles, causing an eyebrow elevation during
      ipsilateral eye closure. It cannot be voluntarily reproduced. AIMS OF THE STUDY:
      To determine the utility of this sign in the differential diagnosis of
      hyperkinetic facial disorders. METHODS: The presence of the sign was assessed in
      consecutive patients with blepharospasm, primary hemifacial spasm or post
      paralytic facial syndrome treated in a botulinum toxin outpatient clinic.
      RESULTS: Of the 99 patients identified, 86 were included, 41 with blepharospasm
      (32 female, mean age 71+/-11years), 28 with hemifacial spasm (16 female, mean age
      65+/-12years) and 17 with post-paralytic facial syndrome (14 female, mean age
      50+/-17years). The sign was detected in 67.9% of the patients with hemifacial
      spasm, in 23.5% of the post-paralytic facial syndrome group and in none of the
      patients with blepharospasm, exhibiting a sensitivity of 51% and a specificity of
      100% for the diagnosis of hemifacial spasm/post-paralytic facial syndrome and a
      specificity of 76% for hemifacial spasm, compared to post-paralytic facial
      syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This sign is highly specific for the diagnosis of
      peripherally induced hyperkinetic facial disorders. Its assessment should
      integrate the routine examination of patients with abnormal facial movements.

PMID- 28566176
TI  - Effects of age and glucose levels on lactate levels in cerebrospinal fluid
      examination of neurodegenerative diseases.
AB  - Despite recent studies examining the association between neurodegenerative
      diseases and mitochondrial dysfunction, there are not sufficient data on factors
      that influence cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate levels. Thus, we investigated
      factors that affect CSF lactate levels in neurodegenerative diseases. We
      extracted laboratory findings, including CSF lactate, glucose, and protein
      levels, and demographic and background information, including age and gender,
      from the electronic medical records of patients with neurodegenerative diseases
      in order to explore factors that have an impact CSF lactate levels. These
      patients had been admitted to our department and underwent a CSF examination
      between April 2007 and March 2015. Data from 83 patients (average age 64.5years;
      45 males and 38 females) were analyzed. The patients' diagnoses included
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple system atrophy, spinocerebellar
      degeneration, corticobasal syndrome, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's
      disease. CSF lactate levels were higher in patients with a neurodegenerative
      disease who were aged 65years and older relative to those who were aged under
      65years (p<0.05), and CSF lactate and glucose levels showed a moderate positive
      correlation (r=0.487). Age and CSF glucose levels influenced CSF lactate levels
      even after adjusting for gender, age, CSF protein levels, and CSF glucose levels.
      When investigating CSF lactate levels in neurodegenerative diseases, it is
      necessary to consider patients' age and CSF glucose levels.

PMID- 28566177
TI  - C9ORF72 and parkinsonism: Weak link, innocent bystander, or central player in
      neurodegeneration?

PMID- 28566178
TI  - Expanding the phenotype of phosphomannomutase-2 gene congenital disorder of
      glycosylation: Cervical dystonia.

PMID- 28566175
TI  - Brain iron concentrations in regions of interest and relation with serum iron
      levels in Parkinson disease.
AB  - Brain iron has been previously found elevated in the substantia nigra pars
      compacta (SNpc), but not in other brain regions, of Parkinson's disease (PD)
      patients. However, iron in circulation has been recently observed to be lower
      than normal in PD patients. The regional selectivity of iron deposition in brain
      as well as the relationship between SNpc brain iron and serum iron within PD
      patients has not been completely elucidated. In this pilot study we measured
      brain iron in six regions of interest (ROIs) as well as serum iron and serum
      ferritin, in 24 PD patients and 27 age- gender-matched controls. Brain iron was
      measured on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a T2 prime (T2') method.
      Difference in brain iron deposition between PD cases and controls for the six
      ROIs were calculated. SNpc/white matter brain iron ratios and SNpc/serum iron
      ratios were calculated for each study participant, and differences between PD
      patients and controls were tested. PD patients overall had higher brain iron than
      controls in the SNpc. PD patients had significantly higher SNpc/white matter
      brain iron ratios than controls, and significantly higher brain SNpc iron/serum
      iron ratios than controls. These results indicate that PD patients' iron
      metabolism is disrupted toward a higher partitioning of iron to the brain SNpc at
      the expenses of iron in the circulation.

PMID- 28566179
TI  - Acute unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy in neurosyphilis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neurosyphilis producing basal meningitis presenting as sequential
      transient cranial nerve palsies was well recognized before the antibiotic era.
      OBJECTIVE: To report two patients presenting with acute unilateral peripheral
      vestibulopathy due to syphilitic basal meningitis. RESULTS: In Case 1 basal
      meningitis occurred early in the secondary phase of the infection, in Case 2 in
      the late latent phase. The diagnosis was not made immediately in either case; in
      Case 1 after previous presentation with increasing hearing loss and then with
      facial palsy and then a subsequent presentation with optic neuritis; in Case 2
      after investigation for possible lymphoma. CONCLUSION: Syphilitic basal
      meningitis in either the secondary or in the latent phase can present as acute
      unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy with transient involvement of the facial or
      auditory nerve.

PMID- 28566180
TI  - Improved strength on 5-hydroxytryptophan and carbidopa in spinal cord atrophy.
AB  - There is ample evidence of an important role of descending serotonergic
      projections in modulating spinal motor neuron activation and firing, and
      experimental studies suggest that 5-HT receptor stimulation can improve motor
      function after spinal cord injury; however, relevant clinical data is sorely
      lacking. We describe two sisters with hemiplegic migraine, low CSF and platelet
      serotonin levels, and progressive spastic paraparesis associated with profound
      spinal cord atrophy whose lower extremity strength and ambulation responded to a
      precursor replacement strategy (5-hydroxytryptophan and carbidopa
      administration), an approach that may have broader applicability in myelopathies
      of diverse etiology where descending serotonergic projections are compromised.

PMID- 28566181
TI  - Interleukin 17 and 10 in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.

PMID- 28566182
TI  - NUDT15 p.R139C variant is common and strongly associated with azathioprine
      induced early leukopenia and severe alopecia in Korean patients with various
      neurological diseases.
AB  - Azathioprine (AZA)-induced leukopenia is a relatively common complication in
      Korean patients. In addition to variation in TPMT (thiopurine S
      methyltransferase), the NUDT15 p.R139C variant was recently identified to have a
      strong association with AZA-induced leukopenia. We investigated these
      associations in Korean patients undergoing AZA treatment with various
      neurological diseases. Among 84 enrolled patients, 20 (23.8%; 7 early, 13 late)
      exhibited leukopenia. The NUDT15 p.R139C variant was associated with leukopenia
      (OR: 11.844, 95% CI 3.984-36.024, p=1.327 * 10-5). The allelic frequency of
      NUDT15 p.R139C was as high as 10.7% and the frequency of the C/C, C/T, and T/T
      genotypes was 84.5, 10.7, and 5.9%, respectively. All T/T homozygous patients
      (5/5) developed early severe-grade leukopenia (white blood cells <1000mm-3) and
      severe alopecia. NUDT15 p.R139C was strongly associated with early leukopenia and
      severe alopecia (OR for early leukopenia: 107.624, 95% CI 18.857-614.250, p=1.403
      * 10-7, OR for severe alopecia: 77.152, 95% CI 17.378-342.526, p=1.101 * 10-8).
      The sensitivity and specificity for predicting AZA-induced early leukopenia were
      85.7% and 92.2%, respectively. Therefore, the NUDT15 p.R139C variant is common
      and strongly associated with AZA-induced early leukopenia and severe alopecia in
      Korean patients with various neurological diseases.

PMID- 28566183
TI  - Profile of 26 HIV Seropositive individuals with Cerebral Venous Thrombosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV infection has been found to be prothrombotic condition. However,
      venous thromboembolism associated with HIV is restricted to peripheral
      vasculature with few reports of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). OBJECTIVE: To
      examine the clinical manifestations of CVT among HIV seropositive individuals and
      explore the possible etiological factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: It is a
      prospective study of 26 (M:F-18:8) patients of CVT associated with HIV
      seropositive status. Their age and duration of illness was 33.8+/-6.8years and
      11.3+/-8.5days respectively. Headache and vomiting was the most common symptom
      followed by seizures. Drowsiness with GCS (Glasgow coma score) ranging from 9-14
      was present in two-thirds of the patients. Serum homocysteine was elevated in 70%
      of patients. Vitamin B12 was low in 12.5% and insufficient levels in 25%. 88.5%
      of the patients recovered completely to GCS 15/15 in 2-7days during follow up;
      11.5% patients expired during the acute state. CONCLUSION: This study represents
      the largest series of CVT in HIV seropositive individuals. There is increased
      risk of thrombosis due to elevated homocysteine and low Vitamin B12. They have
      better sensorium inspite of extensive radiological involvement.

PMID- 28566184
TI  - Unexpectedly mild phenotype in an ataxic family with a two-base deletion in the
      APTX gene.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Early onset ataxia with ocular motor apraxia and hypoalbuminemia
      (EAOH)/ataxia with oculomotor apraxia 1 (AOA1) is an autosomal recessive disorder
      caused by mutations in the APTX gene. In contrast to the recent progress on the
      molecular mechanism of aprataxin in DNA repair, the genotype and phenotype
      correlation has not been fully established. A previous study demonstrated that
      patients with truncation mutations had earlier onset of disease than those with
      missense mutations METHODS: Genomic DNA analysis was performed in a
      consanguineous family with relatively late-onset EAOH/AOA1. In addition, mRNA and
      protein analyses were performed. RESULTS: The proband of the family had a
      homozygous two-base deletion in the middle of exon 3. Reverse-transcriptase
      polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assays of mRNA revealed an aberrantly spliced
      mRNA with a cryptic splice site located four bases upstream of the deletion site.
      The newly identified mRNA retained a frameshift mutation and encoded a truncated
      protein. Immunoblot analysis did not detect the truncated protein in the
      patient's fibroblasts, possibly because it was unstable. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      patients with truncation mutations had an earlier onset of disease, our findings
      suggest that patients with a truncation mutation resulting in an undetectable
      protein level can also have a later onset of disease.

PMID- 28566185
TI  - Trends in vascular risk factors, stroke performance measures, and outcomes in
      patients with first-ever ischemic stroke in Taiwan between 2000 and 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the aging of the population in Taiwan, the financial burden of
      stroke on the healthcare system is expected to rise. We aimed to investigate the
      trends in vascular risk factors, adherence to stroke performance measures, and
      stroke outcomes based on a nationwide representative sample. METHODS: Adult
      patients hospitalized for first-ever ischemic stroke between 2000 and 2012 were
      identified from a nationwide administrative database. The study period was
      divided into 1-year intervals. The Cuzick test and the Cochran-Armitage test were
      used to determine the significance of changes over time. Trends in stroke
      outcomes as a function of year were assessed using logistic regression,
      controlling for age, sex, comorbidity, and stroke severity. RESULTS: A total of
      11,462 patients (mean age 67.3years, female 40.9%) were hospitalized. Between
      2000 and 2012, the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia,
      and atrial fibrillation increased while the prevalence of coronary artery disease
      decreased. The proportion of patients taking antihypertensive or antidiabetic
      medication prior to stroke decreased, whereas the proportion of patients taking
      lipid lowering medication increased. Adherence to the five selected performance
      measures significantly improved. A significant decreasing trend in the proportion
      of recurrent stroke or all-cause death within one year was observed regardless of
      whether adjustment for age, sex, comorbidity, and stroke severity was made.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite the rising prevalence of vascular risk factors, improved
      adherence to stroke performance measures was accompanied by better stroke
      outcomes.

PMID- 28566186
TI  - Detection of LGI1 and CASPR2 antibodies with a commercial cell-based assay in
      patients with very high VGKC-complex antibody levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The presence of VGKC-complex antibodies, without LGI1/CASPR2
      antibodies, as a standalone marker for neurological autoimmunity remains
      controversial. Additionally, the lack of an unequivocal VGKC-complex antibody cut
      off level defining neurological autoimmunity makes it important to test for
      monospecific antibodies. We aim to determine the performance characteristics of a
      commercial assay (Euroimmun, Lubeck, Germany) for LGI1/CASPR2 antibody detection
      in patients with very high VGKC-complex antibody levels and report their clinico
      serological associations. METHODS: We identified 8 patients in our cohort with
      the highest VGKC-complex antibody levels (median 2663.5pM, range 933-6730pM) with
      VGKC-complex antibody related syndromes (Group A). Two other groups were
      identified; 1 group with suspected neuronal surface antibody syndromes and
      negative for VGKC-complex antibodies (Group B, n=8), and another group with
      cerebellar ataxia and negative for onconeuronal antibodies (Group C, n=8).
      RESULTS: Seven out of 8 patients (87.5%) in Group A had LGI1 and/or CASPR2
      antibodies. One Group B patient had LGI1 antibodies but was negative on re
      testing with a live cell assay. No Group C patients had monospecific antibodies.
      Inter-rater reliability was high; combining Groups A and B patients, the kappa
      statistic was 0.87 and 1.0 for LGI1 and CASPR2 antibodies respectively.
      CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that a high proportion of patients with very high
      VGKC-complex antibody levels and relevant clinical syndromes have LGI1 and/or
      CASPR2 antibodies detected by the commercial assay. Our findings lend support to
      the use of the assay for rapid and reliable detection of LGI1 and CASPR2
      antibodies.

PMID- 28566187
TI  - VEMPs in a patient with cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy and vestibular areflexia
      (CANVAS).

PMID- 28566188
TI  - Neuroendocrine lung cancer in a patient with limbic encephalopathy due to anti-Hu
      antibodies: A rare association not to be missed.

PMID- 28566189
TI  - Association between leukoaraiosis and hemorrhagic transformation after
      cardioembolic stroke due to atrial fibrillation and/or rheumatic heart disease.
AB  - Cardioembolic stroke due to atrial fibrillation (AF) and/or rheumatic heart
      disease (RHD) often involves hemorrhagic transformation (HT), and we examined
      whether leukoaraiosis (LA) was associated with HT in these cases. We
      prospectively enrolled 251 patients who were admitted to two hospitals within one
      month of experiencing cardioembolic stroke due to AF/RHD. LA severity was
      assessed using three visual rating scales. HT was identified in 99 patients
      (39.4%) based on baseline computed tomography (CT) and post-admission magnetic
      resonance imaging or second CT. Univariate analysis identified risk of HT as
      higher in the presence of frontal LA based on the age-related white matter
      changes scale and in the presence of anterior LA based on the VSS scale.
      Multivariate analysis confirmed that moderate to severe LA was independently
      associated with higher HT risk. Of the various sites affected in LA, frontal LA
      correlated with highest risk of HT (OR 3.199, 95%CI 1.555-6.580). These results
      suggest that moderate to severe LA, especially at periventricular and anterior
      sites, is associated with HT after cardioembolic stroke due to AF/RHD. These
      findings suggest the need to take LA into account as a HT risk factor when
      considering the use of anticoagulation and thrombolysis in these patients.

PMID- 28566190
TI  - The promise of telemedicine for chronic neurological disorders: the example of
      Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Disparities in access to health care, particularly specialist care, exist
      worldwide. As the prevalence of chronic neurological disorders increases with
      ageing populations, access to neurologist care is likely to worsen in many
      regions if there are no changes to models of care. Telemedicine-defined here as
      the use of real-time, synchronous videoconferencing to deliver medical care-could
      be used to improve access to neurologist care for patients with a range of
      chronic neurological disorders. In Parkinson's disease, several studies have
      shown the feasibility and potential benefits of telemedicine-delivered care.
      Further research is needed to establish whether telemedicine can deliver on the
      promise of improved access to neurologist care and whether telemedicine-delivered
      care is comparable to in-person care in terms of clinical outcomes. Many barriers
      to widespread implementation of telemedicine services remain to be addressed,
      including reimbursement, legal considerations, and technological issues.

PMID- 28566191
TI  - Th2 and Th1 Responses: Clear and Hidden Sides of Immunity Against Intestinal
      Helminths.
AB  - Intestinal helminthiases affect millions of people worldwide, mainly in
      developing regions, where they cause a significant negative impact on human
      health and socioeconomic growth of affected populations. However, intestinal
      helminthiases are still among the most neglected tropical diseases. Protective
      immunity against intestinal helminths is associated with development of type 2
      responses. Nevertheless, in some host-intestinal helminth combinations, local Th1
      responses are initiated, inducing chronicity. The usage of helminth-mouse models
      is useful for elucidating the mechanisms behind the initiation of each type of
      response. Herein, the current knowledge on these topics is reviewed, paying
      particular attention to the earliest events of the immune cascade which
      eventually lead to either susceptibility or resistance to infection.

PMID- 28566192
TI  - Association of a synonymous SCN1B variant affecting splicing efficiency with
      Benign Familial Infantile Epilepsy (BFIE).
AB  - Benign Familial Infantile Epilepsy (BFIE) is clinically characterized by clusters
      of brief partial seizures progressing to secondarily generalized seizures with
      onset at the age of 3-7 months and with favorable outcome. PRRT2 mutations are
      the most common cause of BFIE, and found in about 80% of BFIE families. In this
      study, we analyzed a large multiplex BFIE family by linkage and whole exome
      sequencing (WES) analyses. Genome-wide linkage analysis revealed significant
      evidence for linkage in the chromosomal region 19p12-q13 (LOD score 3.48).
      Mutation screening of positional candidate genes identified a synonymous SCN1B
      variant (c.492T>C, p.Tyr164Tyr) affecting splicing by the removal of a splicing
      silencer sequence, shown by in silico analysis, as the most likely causative
      mutation. In addition, the PRRT2 frameshift mutation (c.649dupC/p.Arg217Profs*8)
      was observed, showing incomplete, but high segregation with the phenotype. In
      vitro splicing assay of SCN1B expression confirmed the in silico findings showing
      a splicing imbalance between wild type and mutant exons. Herein, the involvement
      of the SCN1B gene in the etiology of BFIE, contributing to the disease phenotype
      as a modifier or part of an oligogenic predisposition, is shown for the first
      time.

PMID- 28566194
TI  - Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation acutely improves spontaneous cardiac
      baroreflex sensitivity in healthy young men: A randomized placebo-controlled
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite positive outcomes of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation
      (tVNS) via the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (ABVN), the mechanisms
      underlying these outcomes remain unclear. Additionally, previous studies have not
      been controlled the possible placebo effects of tVNS. OBJECTIVE: To test the
      hypothesis that tVNS acutely improves spontaneous cardiac baroreflex sensitivity
      (cBRS) and autonomic modulation, and that these effects are specific to
      stimulation of ABVN. METHODS: Thirteen healthy men (23+/-1yrs) were randomized
      across three experimental visits. In active tVNS, electrodes were placed on the
      tragus of the ear and electrical current was applied by using a Transcutaneous
      Electrical Nerve Stimulation device. A time-control visit was performed with the
      electrodes placed on tragus, but no current was applied (sham-T). Additionally,
      to avoid a placebo effect, another sham protocol was performed with same
      electrical current of the active visit, but the electrodes were placed on the ear
      lobe (an area without cutaneous nerve endings from the vagus - tLS). Beat-to-beat
      heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were monitored at rest, during
      stimulation (active, sham-T and tLS) and recovery. cBRS was measured via sequence
      technique. Both HR (HRV) and BP variability (BPV) were also measured. RESULTS:
      Arterial BP and BPV were not affected by any active or sham protocols (P > 0.05).
      Resting HR and LF/HF ratio of HRV decreased (Delta-3.4 +/- 1% and Delta-15 +/-
      12%, P < 0.05, respectively) and cBRS increased (Delta24 +/- 8%, P < 0.05) during
      active tVNS, but were unchanged during both sham protocols. CONCLUSION: tVNS
      acutely improves cBRS and autonomic modulation in healthy young men.

PMID- 28566193
TI  - Efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation over primary motor cortex
      (anode) and contralateral supraorbital area (cathode) on clinical pain severity
      and mobility performance in persons with knee osteoarthritis: An experimenter-
      and participant-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled pilot clinical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies indicate that transcranial direct current
      stimulation (tDCS) with anode over motor cortex (M1) and cathode over
      contralateral supraorbital region (SO) may be effective in reducing pain, but
      these studies are limited in number and have not focused on older adults with
      osteoarthritis (OA). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the preliminary efficacy and safety
      of M1-SO applied tDCS on clinical pain severity and mobility performance in
      adults with knee OA pain. METHODS: Forty 50- to 70-year-old community-dwelling
      participants with knee OA were randomly assigned to receive five daily sessions
      of 2 mA tDCS for 20 min (n = 20) or sham tDCS (n = 20). We measured clinical pain
      severity via Numeric Rating Scale, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities
      Osteoarthritis Index, and Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire. In addition, we
      measured mobility performance using the 6-Minute Walk Test and the Short Physical
      Performance Battery. Moreover, we obtained a sensation/safety questionnaire and
      measured cognition changes using the PROMIS-Applied Cognition-Abilities-Short
      Form 8a. RESULTS: Active tDCS over M1-SO significantly reduced Numeric Rating
      Scale of pain compared to sham tDCS after completion of the five daily sessions,
      and remained up to three weeks. No other measures were significantly different
      from sham. Participants tolerated tDCS over M1-SO well without serious adverse
      effects or cognition changes. CONCLUSION: Although not consistent in all pain
      measurements, our findings demonstrate promising clinical efficacy for reduction
      in pain perception for older adults with knee OA. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02512393.

PMID- 28566196
TI  - Ataluren and similar compounds (specific therapies for premature termination
      codon class I mutations) for cystic fibrosis.

PMID- 28566195
TI  - Parenting stress in parents of children with refractory epilepsy before and after
      vagus nerve stimulation implantation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate parenting stress in parents
      of children with refractory epilepsy before and after their children received
      vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) implantation. METHODS: Parents of children with
      refractory epilepsy completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) under a
      psychologist's assessment before and at least 12 months after their children
      received VNS implantation. The PSI questionnaire measures parenting stress in two
      domains; a parent domain with seven subscales, and a child domain with six. Age,
      gender, epilepsy comorbidity, VNS implantation date, seizure frequency, and
      anticonvulsant history before and after VNS implantation were obtained from
      reviews of medical charts. RESULTS: In total, 30 parents completed the first and
      follow-up PSI questionnaires. Seventeen of their children (56.7%) were boys. The
      children aged from 1 to 12 years (7.43 +/- 3.59 years, mean +/- SD). After VNS
      implantation, the mean total parenting stress scores decreased from 282.1 +/-
      38.0 to 272.4 +/- 42.9. A significant decrease was found on the spouse subscale
      of the parent domain. For the parents of boys, the mean total parenting stress
      scores decreased significantly. The mean total parenting stress scores also
      decreased significantly for parents of epileptic children without autism and who
      did not taper off the number of different anticonvulsants used after VNS.
      CONCLUSIONS: VNS is an advisable choice to treat refractory epilepsy. Our study
      showed that 12 months or more after VNS implantation, seizure frequency and
      parenting stress typically decreased. However, in some special cases the
      parenting stress may increase, and external help may be required to support these
      patients and their parents.

PMID- 28566197
TI  - Cardiac sarcoidosis: Diagnosis, therapeutic management and prognostic factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is a severe localization, observed mostly in
      cardiology departments. Despite appropriate cardiological treatment, CS is a
      potentially life-threatening condition, and accounts for 13-85% of sarcoidosis
      related deaths. AIMS: This retrospective study aimed to give an overview of CS in
      a non-cardiac unit, to analyse the effect of first-line immunosuppressive
      treatment on outcome and survival and to evaluate factors associated with
      relapses. METHODS: From 534 cases of sarcoidosis, we selected 59 patients with CS
      according to "2006 international criteria". We performed an in-depth analysis
      regarding symptoms, physical signs and cardiac investigation results. Patients
      were followed for a median period of 60 months. RESULTS: The median age at
      cardiac signs was 42 years. Echocardiography abnormalities, isotopic defects and
      abnormal magnetic resonance imaging findings were observed in 81%, 84% and 92% of
      patients, respectively. First-line treatment included steroids alone in 24
      patients and steroids plus immunosuppressive therapy in 35 patients. Forty-seven
      (80%) patients recovered; 12 stabilized or worsened. The recovery rate was 75% in
      the steroids alone group versus 83% in the steroids plus immunosuppressive
      therapy group. Five (9%) patients died during follow-up, with two deaths
      attributed to CS. The overall 1- and 5-year survival rates were 98% and 92%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Our series of patients with CS who received steroids
      alone or combined with immunosuppressive therapy had a good prognosis, with an
      overall 5-year survival rate of 92%. The recovery rate was 85%, with no
      significant difference between patients treated with steroids alone or plus
      immunosuppressive therapy.

PMID- 28566198
TI  - Ebstein's anomaly in adults: Modified cone reconstruction of the tricuspid valve
      is associated with promising outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ebstein's anomaly is a complex malformation. Justification of a
      procedure in mildly symptomatic adults is debatable: repair techniques are
      demanding and valve replacement is associated with poorer outcome. OBJECTIVES: We
      report our initial experience with the cone procedure versus medical follow-up.
      METHODS: Patients aged>=15years with Ebstein's anomaly were enrolled during 2007
      2014. The cone procedure was performed in consecutive patients with severe
      tricuspid regurgitation (TR); those with less severe disease did not undergo
      surgery, although some underwent percutaneous catheter atrial septal defect
      closure. RESULTS: The cone procedure was performed in 20 patients (mean age
      34.3+/-14.4years; TR grade 3.3+/-0.7) because of impaired functional capacity:
      six New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II, 14 class III. No surgical patient
      died during a mean (range) follow-up of 2.8 (0.5-5.0) years. One patient required
      subsequent repair for suture dehiscence 6 months postoperatively. All patients
      presented with mild or less TR at last echocardiographic follow-up. NYHA
      functional class was significantly improved at follow-up (P<0.0001): 16 NYHA
      class I and four class II. Of 24 non-surgical patients (mean age 37.3+/-16.9
      years; TR grade 2.2+/-0.8), seven underwent percutaneous ASD closure. During a
      mean (range) follow-up of 4.8 (3.6-5.0) years, two patients died: one sudden
      death and one stroke. CONCLUSION: The cone repair of the tricuspid valve in
      adults with Ebstein's anomaly provided excellent mid-term results and
      significantly improved functional status. This procedure might be considered even
      in mildly symptomatic patients in the presence of severe valve regurgitation.

PMID- 28566199
TI  - Determinants of left atrial volume index in patients with aortic stenosis: A
      multicentre pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Left atrial (LA) enlargement is frequent in patients with aortic
      stenosis (AS), yet its determinants and prognostic implications are poorly
      understood. AIMS: To identify the echocardiographic variables associated with
      increased LA volume index (LAVI), and test the prognostic value of LAVI in AS.
      METHODS: We prospectively included 715 patients with AS in sinus rhythm at
      enrolment. Echocardiography was performed at baseline. Median follow-up was 22.0
      (9-34) months. Patients were divided into two groups according to the best cut
      off for event prediction during follow-up (45mL/m2). RESULTS: Compared with
      LAVI<45mL/m2, patients with LAVI>=45mL/m2 had a lower stroke volume, cardiac
      output and left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction, greater LV volumes and mass
      and higher filling pressures. By linear regression, LAVI was best correlated with
      E wave mitral velocity (r=0.34), E/A ratio (r=0.34), E/e' ratio (r=0.28), indexed
      LV mass (r=0.29), systolic pulmonary artery pressure (r=0.34) and LV longitudinal
      strain (r=-0.28). Multivariable analysis confirmed the independent association of
      LAVI with age (P<0.001), indexed aortic valve area (P=0.04), indexed LV mass
      (P<0.001), LV ejection fraction (P=0.007), LV end-diastolic volume (P=0.001), E/A
      ratio (P<0.001) and E/e' ratio (P<0.001). LAVI>=45mL/m2 was independently
      predictive of the combined endpoint of cardiovascular death or hospitalization
      for heart failure (adjusted hazard ratio 1.69, 95% confidence interval 1.04
      2.73). CONCLUSION: LA enlargement is correlated with AS severity, but also with
      variables reflecting LV systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Further studies are
      needed to investigate the outcome implication of LA enlargement in patients with
      AS.

PMID- 28566200
TI  - Performance of new automated transthoracic three-dimensional echocardiographic
      software for left ventricular volumes and function assessment in routine clinical
      practice: Comparison with 3 Tesla cardiac magnetic resonance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Three-dimensional (3D) transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is
      superior to two-dimensional Simpson's method for assessment of left ventricular
      (LV) volumes and LV ejection fraction (LVEF). Nevertheless, 3D TTE is not
      incorporated into everyday practice, as current LV chamber quantification
      software products are time-consuming. AIMS: To evaluate the feasibility, accuracy
      and reproducibility of new fully automated fast 3D TTE software (HeartModelA.I.;
      Philips Healthcare, Andover, MA, USA) for quantification of LV volumes and LVEF
      in routine practice; to compare the 3D LV volumes and LVEF obtained with a
      cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) reference; and to optimize automated default
      border settings with CMR as reference. METHODS: Sixty-three consecutive patients,
      who had comprehensive 3D TTE and CMR examinations within 24hours, were eligible
      for inclusion. Nine patients (14%) were excluded because of insufficient
      echogenicity in the 3D TTE. Thus, 54 patients (40 men; mean age 63+/-13 years)
      were prospectively included into the study. RESULTS: The inter- and intraobserver
      reproducibilities of 3D TTE were excellent (coefficient of variation<10%) for end
      diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV) and LVEF. Despite a slight
      underestimation of EDV using 3D TTE compared with CMR (bias=-22+/-34mL;
      P<0.0001), a significant correlation was found between the two measurements
      (r=0.93; P=0.0001). Enlarging default border detection settings leads to frequent
      volume overestimation in the general population, but improved agreement with CMR
      in patients with LVEF<=50%. Correlations between 3D TTE and CMR for ESV and LVEF
      were excellent (r=0.93 and r=0.91, respectively; P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: 3D TTE
      using new-generation fully automated software is a feasible, fast, reproducible
      and accurate imaging modality for LV volumetric quantification in routine
      practice. Optimization of border detection settings may increase agreement with
      CMR for EDV assessment in dilated ventricles.

PMID- 28566201
TI  - Racial Variation in the Outcome of Subsequent Prostate Biopsies in Men With an
      Initial Diagnosis of Atypical Small Acinar Proliferation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: African American (AA) men are known to have more aggressive prostate
      cancer (PCa) compared with Caucasian American men. We sought to determine
      predictors of subsequent detection and risk stratification of PCa in a racially
      diverse group of men with atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP) on initial
      prostate biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on
      data from men with ASAP on initial prostate biopsy who subsequently received
      confirmatory biopsies between September 2000 and July 2015. Biopsies with more
      than 3 years between initial and confirmatory biopsies were excluded. Race, age,
      body mass index, transrectal ultrasound volume, serum prostate-specific antigen
      (PSA), PSA velocity, PSA density, and elapsed time between biopsies were assessed
      for predictive value in subsequent PCa diagnosis after an initial finding of
      ASAP. RESULTS: Of 106 men analyzed, 75 (71%) were AA and 31 (29%) were non-AA.
      Baseline variables revealed AA men had higher PSA levels, PSA velocity, and PSA
      density (all P < .05). PCa was diagnosed in subsequent biopsy in 42 (40%)
      patients without significant racial variation; 30 (40%) AA versus 12 (39%) non
      AA. Of the 42 PCa patients, 25 (24%) met Epstein criteria for significant disease
      without racial variation; 18 (24%) AA versus 7 (23%) non-AA. Only 10 (9%)
      patients had any component of Gleason 4; 7 (9%) AA versus 3 (10%) non-AA. In
      multivariate analysis, increasing age, PSA level, and PSA density were
      significant predictors of PCa. CONCLUSION: AA men diagnosed with ASAP on initial
      prostate biopsy do not have increased risk of PCa on confirmatory biopsy compared
      with non-AA men.

PMID- 28566203
TI  - Physical Model of Clear-Cell Renal Carcinoma With Inferior Vena Cava Extension
      Created From a 3-Dimensional Printer to Aid in Surgical Resection: A Case Report.

PMID- 28566202
TI  - Management of Renal Masses in an Octogenarian Cohort: Is There a Right Approach?
AB  - BACKGROUND: We reviewed the outcomes for an octogenarian population to
      investigate whether active surveillance (AS) provides comparable survival to
      partial nephrectomy (PN) or radical nephrectomy (RN). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data
      were collected from 115 octogenarian patients referred for management of renal
      masses at Moffitt Cancer Center from 2000 to 2013. Patients were treated with AS,
      PN, or RN. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression models measured the
      association between management modality and survival. Kaplan-Meier survival
      analysis was used to calculate survival, and log-rank tests were used to compare
      survival curves. RESULTS: The median age was 82 years (interquartile range, 81-85
      years). The median follow-up period was 51 months (interquartile range, 23-81
      months). Of the 115 patients, 31 (27%) underwent AS, 31 (27%) underwent PN, and
      53 (46%) underwent RN. The patients who underwent RN had a larger mean tumor size
      at 5.5 cm, with 19 patients (36%) having stage >= pT3 (P < .001). We found no
      difference in overall survival or disease-specific survival among the 3
      management strategies on univariable analysis (P = .39 and P = .1, respectively).
      On multivariable analysis for overall survival, only the Charlson comorbidity
      index was associated with worse survival (hazard ratio, 1.2; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.1-1.3; P = .002). In a subgroup analysis of cT1a patients, we also
      found no difference in overall or disease-specific survival among the treatment
      arms on univariable analysis (P = .74 and P = .9, respectively). CONCLUSION:
      Active treatment with PN and RN might not provide a survival advantage compared
      with AS in the octogenarian population with a small renal mass. However, larger
      renal masses should undergo active treatment in appropriately selected patients.

PMID- 28566204
TI  - Is it possible to calculate surface areas of intraoral structures from
      preoperative CT scan?
AB  - Microsurgical reconstruction of intraoral structures requires accurate planning
      of flap shape and dimensions. The goal of this study is to describe a method that
      allows to calculate surfaces of oral structures from preoperative CT-scan in
      order to determine a precise flap design before the surgery. We created casts of
      the human mouth from cadavers with a head and neck CT-scan available using an
      impression material. We digitalized the mouth casts and unwrapped the surfaces of
      the different structures of the mouth in a bi-dimensional plane in order to
      measure the area. Furthermore, we measured distances from pre-determined bony
      landmarks using the CT-scan 3D reconstruction model and we correlated the two
      type of measurements. We performed a simple regression analysis and afterwards a
      multivariate analysis using the more statistically correlated measurements. We
      found a statistical correlation between the surface of the tongue and the surface
      floor of the mouth with three bone distances that let us to create three
      mathematical formulas. With those formulas, we can calculate the surfaces of the
      tongue and the floor of the mouth using simple bony distances that can be easily
      measured from the head and neck preoperative CT scan. Using standard template's
      layouts, we can create a precise preoperative flap design in the reconstruction
      of the tongue and of the floor of the mouth.

PMID- 28566205
TI  - Internationally adopted children with cleft lip and/or palate: A retrospective
      cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The treatment approach for internationally adopted children with cleft
      lip and/or palate differs from locally born children with cleft lip and/or
      palate. They are older at initial presentation, may have had treatment abroad of
      different quality, and are establishing new and still fragile relationships with
      their adoptive parents. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics
      and initial care and treatment of this group. METHODS: A retrospective cohort
      study was performed including all internationally adopted children with cleft lip
      and/or palate presenting to the cleft team outpatient clinic in the Wilhelmina
      Children's Hospital between January 1994 and December 2014. Medical records of
      all patients were reviewed; information concerning demographic characteristics,
      characteristics at initial presentation, and treatment were obtained. RESULTS: A
      total number of 132 adopted patients were included: 15% had cleft lip, 7% had
      cleft palate, and 78% had cleft lip and palate. The average age at the time of
      adoption was 26.5 months. In most cases, China was the country of origin. Seventy
      eight percent had surgery in their country of origin, primarily lip repair.
      Fistulae in need of revision surgery were found in 8% of the patients.
      Pharyngoplasty was needed in 48% of the patients. No significant differences were
      found for mean age at adoption, gender, cleft type, and one- or two-stage palatal
      closure. CONCLUSION: Internationally adopted children with cleft lip and/or
      palate are a very diverse group of patients with challenging treatment. These
      children undergo surgery late and frequently need additional surgery.

PMID- 28566206
TI  - Quality of reporting for randomized controlled trials in the hypospadias
      literature: Where do we stand?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To assess the quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials
      (RCTs) in the hypospadias literature using the 2010 Consolidated Standards of
      Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. It was hypothesized that hypospadias RCTs
      that contained clear descriptions of key methodological items, allocation
      concealment, blinding, and sample size justification would have higher overall
      quality of reporting scores (OQS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive search
      was conducted through MEDLINE to identify RCTs in hypospadias surgical techniques
      and postoperative management during the period 1990-2014. Two reviewers
      independently selected articles, which were evaluated using the CONSORT
      checklist. An overall quality score (%) was calculated to assess the quality of
      reporting. In addition, a methodological index score out of 4 was calculated
      based on the following items: use of intention to treat/sample size
      justification, allocation concealment, specification of randomization type, and
      blinding of outcome assessors. RESULTS: Of the 76 initial results, 39 (51%) were
      excluded due to their predominant focus on anesthesia. After full-text screening,
      10 (13%) citations were further excluded because they were case control studies
      or did not focus on hypospadias techniques, resulting in 27 (36%) studies
      included for analysis. The mean overall quality score was 37 +/- 12% and a median
      of 36% (range: 14-61%). Fifteen (56%) studies were identified as low quality
      (score <40%) and 12 (44%) as moderate quality (40-70%). No studies were
      classified as high quality (>70%). Hypospadias RCTs published between 2007 and
      2014 versus those reported before 2007 (44 +/- 9% vs 33 +/- 11%, P = 0.01), RCTs
      with a sample size >100 patients versus those <100 (47 +/- 8% vs 36 +/- 11%, P =
      0.01), RCTs that disclosed having received funding versus those that did not (56
      +/- 4% vs 38 +/- 10%, P < 0.01) and RCTs that had proof of
      biostatistician/epidemiologist support versus those that did not (58 +/- 5% vs 36
      +/- 11%, P = 0.01) had a higher mean OQS. The number of articles that met
      specific 2010 CONSORT criteria is illustrated in Summary Fig. DISCUSSION: It was
      found that the contemporary hypospadias literature continues to suffer from
      suboptimal reporting standards. There seems to be an improvement in the OQS for
      studies published after 2007 and those with larger sample sizes, usually >100
      patients. Nevertheless, none of the studies obtained high quality of reporting
      (OQS >70%) as per the CONSORT statement checklist. The inadequacies in reporting
      were related to sample size justifications, randomization method, allocation
      concealment strategy, blinding, description of subjects lost to follow-up and
      Intention To Treat (ITT) analysis. These findings were consistent with the poor
      quality of reporting observed in other surgical fields. CONCLUSIONS: The current
      overall quality score in hypospadias literature is suboptimal and efforts must be
      made to improve quality.

PMID- 28566207
TI  - Aberrations in sperm DNA methylation patterns are associated with abnormalities
      in semen parameters of subfertile males.
AB  - Infertility affects about 15% of couples worldwide, with approximately 7% of
      males suffering from infertility problems. This study was designed to assess the
      relationship between alterations in sperm DNA methylation patterns and semen
      parameters in subfertile males. Of a total of 108 males, 30 samples were
      subjected to 450K BeadChip arrays to evaluate the variation in DNA methylation
      level between cases and controls. Three CpG sites showed the highest difference
      in methylation levels (cg09737095, cg14271023, and cg17662493), which are located
      in the KCNJ5, MLPH, and SMC1beta genes, respectively; these were selected for
      further analysis using deep bisulfite sequencing in 78 independent samples (21
      proven fertile "controls", and 57 subfertile "cases"). The results of a
      validation study showed that variation in methylation levels was found in more
      than one CpG site: there was a significant decrease in methylation levels at six
      CpGs (CpG1, CpG3, CpG4, CpG6, CpG7, and CpG8) in the KCNJ5 gene-related amplicon
      (p<=0.001, p<=0.009, p<=0.007, p<=0.007, p<=0.020, and p<=0.016, respectively),
      and at (CpG1, CpG2, and CpG4) in the MLPH gene-related amplicon (p<=0.003,
      p<=0.005, and p<=0.0001, respectively), while there was a significant increase in
      the methylation level at six out of eight CpGs in the SMC1beta gene-related
      amplicon in cases compared to controls. Our results show that three CpGs have a
      significant difference in sperm DNA methylation levels in subfertile males
      compared to proven fertile males.

PMID- 28566208
TI  - Development of WNK signaling inhibitors as a new class of antihypertensive drugs.
AB  - Pseudohypoaldosteronism type II (PHAII) is characterized by hyperkalemia and
      hypertension despite a normal glomerular filtration rate. Abnormal activation of
      the signal cascade of with-no-lysine kinase (WNK) with OSR1 (oxidative stress
      responsive kinase 1)/SPAK (STE20/SPS1-related proline/alanine-rich kinase) and
      NCC (NaCl cotransporter) results in characteristic salt-sensitive hypertension.
      Thus, inhibitors of the WNK-OSR1/SPAK-NCC cascade are candidates for a new class
      of antihypertensive drugs. In this study, we developed novel inhibitors of this
      signal cascade from the 9-aminoacridine lead compound 1, one of the hit compounds
      obtained by screening our chemical library for WNK-SPAK binding inhibitors. Among
      the synthesized acridine derivatives, several acridine-3-amide and 3-urea
      derivatives, such as 10 (IC50: 6.9MUM), 13 (IC50: 2.6MUM), and 20 (IC50: 4.8MUM),
      showed more potent inhibitory activity than the lead compound 1 (IC50: 15.4MUM).
      Compounds 10 and 20 were confirmed to inhibit phosphorylation of NCC in vivo.

PMID- 28566209
TI  - De-escalation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor dose in patients with chronic myeloid
      leukaemia with stable major molecular response (DESTINY): an interim analysis of
      a non-randomised, phase 2 trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy is
      feasible for some patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia with deep molecular
      responses; however, patients with stable major molecular response (MMR), but not
      MR4, have not been studied, nor has the effect of treatment de-escalation rather
      than outright cessation. We aimed to examine the effects of treatment de
      escalation as a prelude to complete cessation, not only in patients with MR4 or
      greater, but also in those with MMR but not MR4. METHODS: We did this interim
      analysis of a non-randomised, phase 2 trial at 20 hospitals in the UK. We
      recruited patients (aged >=18 years) with chronic myeloid leukaemia in first
      chronic phase who had received TKI for 3 years or more and were either in stable
      MR4 (BCR-ABL1:ABL1 ratio <0.01%; MR4 cohort) or in stable MMR (BCR-ABL1:ABL1
      ratio consistently <0.1%) but not MR4 (MMR cohort) for 12 months or longer.
      Participants received half their standard TKI dose (imatinib 200 mg daily,
      dasatinib 50 mg daily, or nilotinib 200 mg twice daily) for 12 months. Molecular
      recurrence was defined as loss of MMR (BCR-ABL1:ABL1 ratio >0.1%) on two
      consecutive samples. The primary endpoint of this interim analysis was the
      proportion of patients who lost MMR on de-escalation and regained MMR on TKI
      resumption. Analyses were by intention to treat. This study is registered with
      ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01804985. FINDINGS: Between Dec 16, 2013 and April
      10, 2015, we enrolled 174 patients into the MMR cohort (n=49) or the MR4 cohort
      (n=125). During the 12 months of half-dose therapy, 12 patients (7%) had
      molecular recurrence, all of whom regained MMR within 4 months of full-dose TKI
      resumption (median time to recovery 77 days). Recurrence was significantly lower
      in the MR4 cohort (three [2%; 90% CI 0.2-4.8] of 121 evaluable patients) than in
      the MMR cohort (nine [19%; 90% CI 9.5-28.0] of 48 evaluable patients; hazard
      ratio 0.12, 90% CI 0.04-0.37; p=0.0007), but was unrelated to previous TKI or TKI
      therapy duration. Adverse events (eg, lethargy, diarrhoea, rash, and nausea)
      improved during the first 3 months of de-escalation, though not thereafter. 16
      serious adverse events were reported, including one fatality due to worsening pre
      existing peripheral arterial occlusive disease in a patient who had received only
      imatinib. INTERPRETATION: TKI de-escalation is safe for most patients with
      excellent responses to TKI therapy, and is associated with improvement in
      symptoms. These findings show that lower TKI doses might maintain responses in
      these patients, implying that such patients could be unnecessarily overtreated.
      Studies of more ambitious de-escalation are warranted. FUNDING: Newcastle
      University and Bloodwise.

PMID- 28566210
TI  - The DESTINY of chronic myeloid leukeamia.

PMID- 28566211
TI  - Carcinogenicity, efficiency and biosafety analysis in xeno-free human amniotic
      stem cells for regenerative medical therapies.
AB  - BACKGROUND AIMS: Human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells (hAMSCs) are a potent
      and attractive stem cell source for use in regenerative medicine. However, the
      safe uses of therapeutic-grade MSCs are equally as important as the efficiency of
      MSCs. To provide efficient, clinic-compliant (safe for therapeutic use) MSCs,
      hAMSC lines that completely eliminate the use of animal products and have been
      characterized for carcinogenicity and biosafety are required. METHODS: Here, we
      have efficiently generated 10 hAMSC lines under human umbilical cord blood serum
      (hUCS)-supplemented medium (xeno-free culture) and fetal bovine serum (FBS)
      supplemented medium (standard culture) and investigated carcinogenicity and
      immunosuppressive properties in the resultant hAMSC lines. All hAMSC lines were
      examined for efficiency (growth kinetics, cryopreservation, telomere length,
      phenotypic characterization, differentiation potential), carcinogenicity (proto
      oncogene and tumor suppressor gene and epigenomic stability) and safety
      (immunosuppressive properties). RESULTS: Stem cell characteristics between the
      xeno-free hAMSC lines and the cell lines generated using the standard culture
      system showed no differences. Xeno-free hAMSC lines displayed normal growth
      proliferation potential, morphological, karyotypic, phenotypic differentiation
      properties and telomere lengths. Additionally, they retained normal
      immunosuppressive effects. As a marker of carcinogenicity and biosafety, proto
      oncogenes expression levels showed no differences in xeno-free hAMSCs, and we
      detected no SNP mutations on hotspot codons of the P53 tumor suppressor gene and
      stable epigenomic imprinting in xeno-free hAMSC lines. CONCLUSIONS: Xeno-free
      hAMSC lines retain essential stem cell characteristics, with a high degree of
      certainty for meeting biosafety and carcinogenicity standards for a xeno-free
      system supplemented with allogenic hUCS. The cell lines are suitable and valuable
      for therapeutic purposes.

PMID- 28566212
TI  - Correction to Lancet Glob Health 2017; 5: e593-603.

PMID- 28566213
TI  - Role of mass drug administration in elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria:
      a consensus modelling study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mass drug administration for elimination of Plasmodium falciparum
      malaria is recommended by WHO in some settings. We used consensus modelling to
      understand how to optimise the effects of mass drug administration in areas with
      low malaria transmission. METHODS: We collaborated with researchers doing field
      trials to establish a standard intervention scenario and standard transmission
      setting, and we input these parameters into four previously published models. We
      then varied the number of rounds of mass drug administration, coverage, duration,
      timing, importation of infection, and pre-administration transmission levels. The
      outcome of interest was the percentage reduction in annual mean prevalence of P
      falciparum parasite rate as measured by PCR in the third year after the final
      round of mass drug administration. FINDINGS: The models predicted differing
      magnitude of the effects of mass drug administration, but consensus answers were
      reached for several factors. Mass drug administration was predicted to reduce
      transmission over a longer timescale than accounted for by the prophylactic
      effect alone. Percentage reduction in transmission was predicted to be higher and
      last longer at lower baseline transmission levels. Reduction in transmission
      resulting from mass drug administration was predicted to be temporary, and in the
      absence of scale-up of other interventions, such as vector control, transmission
      would return to pre-administration levels. The proportion of the population
      treated in a year was a key determinant of simulated effectiveness, irrespective
      of whether people are treated through high coverage in a single round or new
      individuals are reached by implementation of several rounds. Mass drug
      administration was predicted to be more effective if continued over 2 years
      rather than 1 year, and if done at the time of year when transmission is lowest.
      INTERPRETATION: Mass drug administration has the potential to reduce transmission
      for a limited time, but is not an effective replacement for existing vector
      control. Unless elimination is achieved, mass drug administration has to be
      repeated regularly for sustained effect. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates
      Foundation.

PMID- 28566215
TI  - Close Encounters - Probing Proximal Proteins in Live or Fixed Cells.
AB  - The well-oiled machinery of the cellular proteome operates via variable
      expression, modifications, and interactions of proteins, relaying genomic and
      transcriptomic information to coordinate cellular functions. In recent years, a
      number of techniques have emerged that serve to identify sets of proteins acting
      in close proximity in the course of orchestrating cellular activities. These
      proximity-dependent assays, including BiFC, BioID, APEX, FRET, and isPLA, have
      opened up new avenues to examine protein interactions in live or fixed cells. We
      review herein the current status of proximity-dependent in situ techniques. We
      compare the advantages and limitations of the methods, underlining recent
      progress and the growing importance of these techniques in basic research, and we
      discuss their potential as tools for drug development and diagnostics.

PMID- 28566214
TI  - The Growing Toolbox for Protein Synthesis Studies.
AB  - Protein synthesis stands at the last stage of the central dogma of molecular
      biology, providing a final regulatory layer for gene expression. Reacting to
      environmental cues and internal signals, the translation machinery can quickly
      tune the translatome from a pre-existing pool of RNAs, before the transcriptome
      changes. Although the translation reaction itself has been known since the 1950s,
      the quantitative or even qualitative measurement of its efficacy in cells has
      posed experimental and analytic hurdles. In this review, we outline the array of
      state-of-the-art methods that have emerged to tackle the hidden aspects of
      translational control.

PMID- 28566216
TI  - Molecular quantitative assay for esterase-mediated organophosphate resistance in
      Rhipicephalus microplus.
AB  - The use of pesticides is the main tool to control infestations of the cattle tick
      Rhipicephalus microplus, and organophosphate (OP) is one of the most used
      compounds for this purpose. Carboxylesterases (ChEs) are targets for OP
      pesticides in arthropods, and acetylcholinesterase 2 (AChE2) and esterase 1
      (EST1) are metabolic enzymes involved in the xenobiotic detoxification process.
      The increase in the synthesis of these enzymes can be detected by the
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay, which was used to identify
      cattle tick populations resistant to OP pesticides. For that, two field
      populations of R. microplus were used, one previously identified by the larval
      packet test (LPT) as OP -sensitive (LC50=0.13MUg/cm2) and the other OP-resistant
      (LC50=8.14MUg/cm2). To promote the OP enzyme detoxification, groups of 10 females
      of the resistant strain were immersed in solutions of diazinon in technical grade
      at concentrations of 1.0mg/ml, 2.5mg/ml, and 5.0mg/ml. The ticks that survived
      diazinon exposure were submitted to qPCR assay, which enabled observing an
      increase in AChE2 and EST1 synthesis in the OP-resistant strain when compared to
      the susceptible strain. The initial results of expression analysis suggest that
      the qPCR assay can discriminate OP-resistant and susceptible populations. The
      development and improvement of molecular diagnostic tests to identify pesticide
      resistant R. microplus populations are priorities and in the near future it will
      be important to expand the molecular targets involved in OP resistance, which
      could be used for better selection of effective strategies to control cattle tick
      populations.

PMID- 28566217
TI  - Integration of Hands-On Team Training into Existing Curriculum Improves Both
      Technical and Nontechnical Skills in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nontechnical skills are an essential component of surgical education
      and a major competency assessed by the ACGME milestones project. However, the
      optimal way to integrate nontechnical skills training into existing curricula and
      then objectively evaluate the outcome is still unknown. The aim of this study was
      to determine the effect laparoscopic team-based task training would have on the
      nontechnical skills needed for laparoscopic surgery. DESIGN: 9 PGY-1 residents
      underwent an established training curriculum for teaching the knowledge and
      technical skills involved in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Initial training
      involved a didactic session, expert-led practice on a porcine model in a
      simulated operating room and laparoscopic skills practice on a virtual reality
      trainer. Residents then performed a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on the same
      porcine model as a preintervention test. Three to four months following this,
      residents were subjected to specific nontechnical skills training involving 2
      simple team-based laparoscopic tasks. They then practiced a further 4 to 6 hours
      on the virtual reality trainer. A repeat postintervention laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy was then performed 3 to 4 months after nontechnical skills
      training. Both the preintervention and postintervention laparoscopic
      cholecystectomies were audiovisually recorded and then evaluated by 2 independent
      surgeons in a blinded fashion. Technical skills were assessed using objective
      structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS) and a technique specific rating
      scale (TRS) that we developed for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Nontechnical
      skills were assessed using nontechnical skills for surgeons (NOTSS). Residents
      also completed a survey at the beginning and end of the training. SETTING:
      Tertiary care, university based teaching institution. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 9
      general surgery residents at the intern level. RESULTS: The mean OSATS score
      improved from 13.7 +/- 1.24 to 26.7 +/- 0.31 (p < 0.001), the mean TRS score
      improved from 6 +/- 0.46 to 13.1 +/- 0.36 (p < 0.001) and the mean NOTSS score
      improved from 21.7 +/- 1.83 to 36.3 +/- 0.87 (p < 0.001) following the training.
      There was a strong correlation between OSATS and NOTSS scores (Pearson's R =
      0.98) and TRS and NOTSS (R = 0.94). The inter-rater agreement was 0.79 for NOTSS,
      0.9 for OSATS, and 0.82 for TRS. Following completion of the training, residents
      self-reported improvements in exchanging information (p < 0.01), coordinating
      activities (p < 0.01) and coping with pressure in the operating room (p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Simple, team-based nontechnical skills training for laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy that was separate from technical skills training led to a
      sustained increase in residents' nontechnical skills 3 to 4 months after
      training. This was associated with a self-reported improvement in many
      nontechnical skills based on resident survey. Based on these results, we
      recommend that such designated nontechnical skills training is a valid
      alternative to other methods such as coaching and debriefing. We, therefore, plan
      to continue our efforts to develop team-based simulation tasks aimed at improving
      nontechnical skills for multiple surgical modalities.

PMID- 28566219
TI  - Lipoprotein(a) and cardiovascular mortality: mystery still unsolved.

PMID- 28566220
TI  - The relationship between tumour stage, systemic inflammation, body composition
      and survival in patients with colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disease progression in cancer is often associated with loss of weight
      and lean tissue and the development of a systemic inflammatory response (SIR) and
      these have prognostic value. The present study investigated the relationship
      between these factors in patients with operable colorectal cancer. METHODS: The
      study included 322 patients with primary operable colorectal cancer. In addition
      to BMI, pre-operative CT scans were used to define the presence of visceral
      obesity, sarcopenia and myosteatosis. Tumour and patient characteristics were
      recorded. Survival was analysed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression.
      RESULTS: There was no significant association between TNM stage and any measure
      of body composition. The modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS), was associated
      with greater BMI (p = 0.021), sarcopenia (p < 0.001), and myosteatosis (p =
      0.004). On univariate analysis, there was a significant association between age
      (p = 0.002), ASA grade (p = 0.010), TNM stage (p < 0.001), mGPS (p = 0.001) and
      myosteatosis (p = 0.017) and disease specific survival. On multivariate analysis,
      age (HR 1.89, 95% CI 1.27-2.79, p = 0.002), TNM stage (HR 2.27, 95% CI 1.45-3.55,
      p < 0.001) and mGPS (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.08-2.03, p = 0.016) remained prognostic.
      CONCLUSIONS: The SIR is a key hallmark of progressive nutritional and functional
      decline leading to poorer survival in patients with cancer.

PMID- 28566222
TI  - Tissue-specific transcriptomic profiling provides new insights into the
      reproductive ecology and biology of the iconic seagrass species Posidonia
      oceanica.
AB  - Seagrasses form extensive meadows in shallow coastal waters and are among the
      world's most productive ecosystems. Seagrasses can produce both clonally and
      sexually, and flowering has long been considered infrequent, but important for
      maintaining genetically diverse stands. Here we investigate the molecular
      mechanisms involved in flowering of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, an iconic
      species endemic to the Mediterranean. We generated a de novo transcriptome of
      this non-model species for leaf, male and female flower tissue of three
      individuals, and present molecular evidence for genes that may be involved in the
      flowering process and on the reproductive biology of the species. We present
      evidence that suggests that P. oceanica exhibits a strategy of protogyny, where
      the female part of the hermaphroditic flower develops before the male part, in
      order to avoid self-fertilization. We found photosynthetic genes to be up
      regulated in the female flower tissues, indicating that this may be capable of
      photosynthesis. Finally, we detected a number of interesting genes, previously
      known to be involved in flowering pathways responding to light and temperature
      cues and in pathways involved in anthocyanin and exine synthesis. This first
      comparative transcriptomic approach of leaf, male and female tissue provides a
      basis for functional genomics research on flower development in P. oceanica and
      other seagrass species.

PMID- 28566218
TI  - Relations between lipoprotein(a) concentrations, LPA genetic variants, and the
      risk of mortality in patients with established coronary heart disease: a
      molecular and genetic association study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lipoprotein(a) concentrations in plasma are associated with
      cardiovascular risk in the general population. Whether lipoprotein(a)
      concentrations or LPA genetic variants predict long-term mortality in patients
      with established coronary heart disease remains less clear. METHODS: We obtained
      data from 3313 patients with established coronary heart disease in the
      Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study. We tested associations
      of tertiles of lipoprotein(a) concentration in plasma and two LPA single
      nucleotide polymorphisms ([SNPs] rs10455872 and rs3798220) with all-cause
      mortality and cardiovascular mortality by Cox regression analysis and with
      severity of disease by generalised linear modelling, with and without adjustment
      for age, sex, diabetes diagnosis, systolic blood pressure, BMI, smoking status,
      estimated glomerular filtration rate, LDL-cholesterol concentration, and use of
      lipid-lowering therapy. Results for plasma lipoprotein(a) concentrations were
      validated in five independent studies involving 10 195 patients with established
      coronary heart disease. Results for genetic associations were replicated through
      large-scale collaborative analysis in the GENIUS-CHD consortium, comprising 106
      353 patients with established coronary heart disease and 19 332 deaths in 22
      studies or cohorts. FINDINGS: The median follow-up was 9.9 years. Increased
      severity of coronary heart disease was associated with lipoprotein(a)
      concentrations in plasma in the highest tertile (adjusted hazard radio [HR] 1.44,
      95% CI 1.14-1.83) and the presence of either LPA SNP (1.88, 1.40-2.53). No
      associations were found in LURIC with all-cause mortality (highest tertile of
      lipoprotein(a) concentration in plasma 0.95, 0.81-1.11 and either LPA SNP 1.10,
      0.92-1.31) or cardiovascular mortality (0.99, 0.81-1.2 and 1.13, 0.90-1.40,
      respectively) or in the validation studies. INTERPRETATION: In patients with
      prevalent coronary heart disease, lipoprotein(a) concentrations and genetic
      variants showed no associations with mortality. We conclude that these variables
      are not useful risk factors to measure to predict progression to death after
      coronary heart disease is established. FUNDING: Seventh Framework Programme for
      Research and Technical Development (AtheroRemo and RiskyCAD), INTERREG IV
      Oberrhein Programme, Deutsche Nierenstiftung, Else-Kroener Fresenius Foundation,
      Deutsche Stiftung fur Herzforschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Saarland
      University, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Willy Robert
      Pitzer Foundation, and Waldburg-Zeil Clinics Isny.

PMID- 28566223
TI  - Oxidative and biochemical responses in Brycon amazonicus anesthetized and sedated
      with Myrcia sylvatica (G. Mey.) DC. and Curcuma longa L. essential oils.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of rapid anesthesia and long-term sedation
      with the essential oils (EOs) of Myrcia sylvatica (EOMS) and Curcuma longa (EOCL)
      on biochemical and oxidative parameters in matrinxa. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective,
      randomized, laboratory experiment. ANIMALS: A total of 72 matrinxa (Brycon
      amazonicus) adults weighing 404.8 +/- 27.9 g were divided into eight groups of
      nine fish. METHODS: Biochemical and oxidative effects were investigated in plasma
      and tissues of matrinxa subjected to rapid anesthesia (5 minutes) or long-term
      sedation (360 minutes, simulating the practice of transport) with EOMS (200 MUL L
      1 and 10 MUL L-1, respectively) and EOCL (500 MUL L-1 and 40 MUL L-1,
      respectively). RESULTS: Transport simulation without sedation or anesthesia
      increased lipid peroxidation levels in the gills and kidney of fish in the
      control group. Anesthesia and sedation with EOs decreased cortisol concentrations
      and increased lactate concentrations compared with controls. Lipid peroxidation
      was lower in the brain, gills, liver and kidney of sedated and anesthetized fish,
      than in the control group. Anesthesia with EOs increased the activity of
      superoxide dismutase and glutathione-S-transferase in the brain, and catalase in
      the liver and gills, compared with controls. Long-term sedation with EOs
      increased superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase
      activities in the brain, catalase in the liver, glutathione peroxidase and
      glutathione reductase in the gills and superoxide dismutase in the kidney. In
      general, nonprotein thiols content and total reactive antioxidant potential of
      tissues were higher after anesthesia and sedation with EOs compared with the
      control group. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The concentrations of EOMS and
      EOCL used were effective at preventing a stress response and excess of reactive
      oxygen species formation. For these reasons, these substances may be recommended
      for use in the transportation of fish to improve survival and animal welfare.

PMID- 28566221
TI  - Sentinel lymph node mapping and staging in endometrial cancer: A Society of
      Gynecologic Oncology literature review with consensus recommendations.
AB  - The emphasis in contemporary medical oncology has been "precision" or
      "personalized" medicine, terms that imply a strategy to improve efficacy through
      targeted therapies. Similar attempts at precision are occurring in surgical
      oncology. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping has recently been introduced into the
      surgical staging of endometrial cancer with the goal to reduce morbidity
      associated with comprehensive lymphadenectomy, yet obtain prognostic information
      from lymph node status. The Society of Gynecologic Oncology's (SGO) Clinical
      Practice Committee and SLN Working Group reviewed the current literature for
      preparation of this document. Literature-based recommendations for the inclusion
      of SLN assessment in the treatment of patients with endometrial cancer are
      presented. This article examines.

PMID- 28566224
TI  - Response to "Diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in chronic
      pancreatitis: 13C-mixed Triglyceride Breath Test versus Fecal Elastase:
      Methodological issues".

PMID- 28566225
TI  - Treatment and retreatment with omalizumab in chronic spontaneous urticaria: Real
      life experience with twenty-five patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous data have shown the high efficacy of omalizumab in chronic
      spontaneous urticaria (CSU). However, factors that may be effective on the
      response to therapy, relapse rates after drug discontinuation, and efficacy of
      retreatment remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of
      omalizumab in CSU refractory to conventional therapy, to identify possible
      factors affecting treatment response and relapse, and also to evaluate the
      efficacy of retreatment on relapsed disease. METHODS: The data of CSU patients
      treated with 300 mg/month omalizumab for at least 3 months were retrospectively
      analyzed. In order to evaluate the efficacy of treatment and retreatment,
      baseline and follow-up concomitant medication score (CMS) and urticaria activity
      score (UAS) were calculated. Possible factors affecting treatment response and
      relapse were identified. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients were included. The median
      duration of omalizumab therapy was 6 (6-12) months. Of the patients with baseline
      UAS 6 (5.5-6) and CMS 13 (10-15), 8 (32%) had complete response (UAS = 0) and 2
      (8%) were non-responders after 3 months of therapy. None of the complete
      responders were positive for IgG-anti-TPO. After discontinuation of omalizumab
      therapy, 11 (61%) patients experienced relapse and 10 of them received
      retreatment with omalizumab. Half of the patients had complete response, and half
      had partial response (UAS = 1-4) after retreatment. No treatment related adverse
      events were documented. CONCLUSIONS: Omalizumab has high efficacy in both the
      treatment and retreatment of CSU; however, relapse rates after discontinuation
      are high. Autoimmune markers may be helpful in predicting treatment response and
      relapse.

PMID- 28566228
TI  - Viable dual therapy second-line antiretroviral regimen for Africa?

PMID- 28566226
TI  - Optimization of Retinal Gene Therapy for X-Linked Retinitis Pigmentosa Due to
      RPGR Mutations.
AB  - X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) caused by mutations in the RPGR gene is an
      early onset and severe cause of blindness. Successful proof-of-concept studies in
      a canine model have recently shown that development of a corrective gene therapy
      for RPGR-XLRP may now be an attainable goal. In preparation for a future clinical
      trial, we have here optimized the therapeutic AAV vector construct by showing
      that GRK1 (rather than IRBP) is a more efficient promoter for targeting gene
      expression to both rods and cones in non-human primates. Two transgenes were used
      in RPGR mutant (XLPRA2) dogs under the control of the GRK1 promoter. First was
      the previously developed stabilized human RPGR (hRPGRstb). Second was a new full
      length stabilized and codon-optimized human RPGR (hRPGRco). Long-term (>2 years)
      studies with an AAV2/5 vector carrying hRPGRstb under control of the GRK1
      promoter showed rescue of rods and cones from degeneration and retention of
      vision. Shorter term (3 months) studies demonstrated comparable preservation of
      photoreceptors in canine eyes treated with an AAV2/5 vector carrying either
      transgene under the control of the GRK1 promoter. These results provide the
      critical molecular components (GRK1 promoter, hRPGRco transgene) to now construct
      a therapeutic viral vector optimized for RPGR-XLRP patients.

PMID- 28566229
TI  - [Cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular events in the general population of the
      sanitary area of Toledo. RICARTO Study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The main aim of this study is to ascertain the prevalence of
      cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF), target organ damage (TOD), cardiovascular
      disease (CVD), as well as life habits (physical exercise, alcohol consumption,
      and Mediterranean diet) in the population of a Health Area in Toledo, Spain, to
      assess cardiovascular risk (CVR). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Epidemiological and
      observational study that will analyse a sample from the general population aged
      18 years or older, randomly selected from a database of health cards, and
      stratified by age and gender. Clinical history, physical examination, and
      complementary tests will be performed. Aliquots of whole blood and serum samples
      will be stored at a temperature of-85 degrees C to evaluate future genetic
      studies. CVR will be estimated by using SCORE project scales calibrated for
      Spanish population and the Framingham Heart Study scale. When the estimated
      sample size has been achieved and after a minimum follow-up of 5 years, a final
      visit will performed in which CVRF, TOD, CVD, CVRF control, and fatal and non
      fatal outcomes will be evaluated. DISCUSSION: The RICARTO study is aimed to
      assess the prevalence of the main CVRF, TOD and CVD in order to determine the CVR
      in the general population of a health area of Toledo. An analysis will be
      repeated on the final sample after at least 5 years of follow-up to ascertain the
      incidence of CV outcomes and the temporal trends of life style, as well as the
      prevalence of CVRF, TOD, and CVD.

PMID- 28566231
TI  - Representing the sublime in the VIMAP and empirical aesthetics: Reviving Edmund
      Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
      Beautiful: Comment on "Move me, astonish me... delight my eyes and brain: The
      Vienna Integrated Model of top-down and bottom-up processes in Art Perception
      (VIMAP) and corresponding affective, evaluative, and neurophysiological
      correlates" by Matthew Pelowski et al.

PMID- 28566227
TI  - Boosted protease inhibitor monotherapy versus boosted protease inhibitor plus
      lamivudine dual therapy as second-line maintenance treatment for HIV-1-infected
      patients in sub-Saharan Africa (ANRS12 286/MOBIDIP): a multicentre, randomised,
      parallel, open-label, superiority trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite satisfactory efficacy of WHO-recommended second-line
      antiretroviral treatment for patients with HIV in low-income countries, the need
      for simplified, low-cost, and less-toxic maintenance strategies remains high. We
      compared boosted protease inhibitor monotherapy with dual therapy with boosted
      protease inhibitor plus lamivudine in patients on second-line antiretrovial
      therapy (ART). METHODS: We did a multicentre, randomised, parallel, open-label,
      superiority, trial in the HIV services of five hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa
      (Yaounde, Cameroon; Dakar, Senegal; and Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso). We
      recruited patients from the long-term, post-trial cohort of the ANRS 12169/2LADY
      study that compared the efficacy of three second-line combinations based on
      boosted protease inhibitors. Participants for our study were HIV-1 infected with
      multiple mutations including M184V, at first-line failure, aged 18 years and
      older, on boosted protease inhibitor plus two nucleoside reverse transcriptase
      inhibitors (NRTI) for at least 48 weeks with at least 48 weeks follow-up in the
      2LADY trial, with two viral load measurements of less than 200 copies per mL in
      the previous 6 months, CD4 counts of more than 100 cells per MUL, adherence of at
      least 90%, and no change to ART in the past 3 months. We randomly assigned
      participants (1:1) to receive either monotherapy with their boosted protease
      inhibitor (once-daily darunavir 800 mg [two 400 mg tablets] boosted with
      ritonavir 100 mg [one tablet] or coformulation of lopinavir 200 mg with ritonavir
      50 mg [two tablets taken twice per day]) or to boosted protease inhibitor plus
      once-daily lamivudine 300 mg (one 300 mg tablet or two 150 mg tablets). Computer
      generated randomisation was stratified by study site and viral load at screening
      (< 50 copies per mL, and 50-200 copies per mL), and concealed from study
      personnel throughout the inclusion period. After randomisation, treatment
      allocation was not masked from clinicians or patients]. Patients had follow-up
      visits at weeks 4 and 12, and every 3 months until 96 weeks; if viral load
      exceeded 500 copies per mL at any visit, NRTI (tenofovir and lamivudine) were
      reintroduced into treatment. The primary outcome was the proportion of
      participants who had treatment failure at 96 weeks in the intention-to-treat
      analysis, where treatment failure was defined as one of the following: a
      confirmed viral load of more than 500 copies per mL, reintroduction of NRTI, or
      interruption of boosted protease inhibitor. We designed the study to detect a
      difference of 12% between groups in the primary outcome, with an expected 20% of
      patients having treatment failure in the monotherapy group. This study is
      registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01905059. FINDINGS: Between March
      5, 2014, and Jan 26, 2015, 265 participants were assigned to receive monotherapy
      (133) or boosted protease inhibitor plus lamivudine (132). At week 48, an
      independent data safety monitoring board reviewed data, and advised
      discontinuation of the monotherapy group because the number of failures had
      exceeded the expected 20%; therefore results here are for week 48. At this point,
      treatment failure occurred in four (3.0%; 95% CI 0.8-7.6) of 132 participants on
      dual therapy and 33 (24.8%; 17.7-33.0) of 133 participants on monotherapy
      (relative risk 8.2, 95% CI 3.0-22.5; odds ratio 10.6, 95% CI 3.6-42.1). The
      difference between groups (21.8%, 95% CI 13.9-29.7; p<0.0001) showed superiority
      of dual therapy compared with monotherapy. We recorded 46 severe adverse events
      of grade 3 or 4 (29 in the monotherapy group, 17 in the boosted protease
      inhibitor plus lamivudine group); one event in the montherapy group (intoxication
      resulting from co-administration of ritonavir-boosted lopinavir with an
      ergotamine derivate) was deemed related to study drug. Two participants in the
      monotherapy group and one in the dual therapy group died, all from causes not
      related to study drugs or procedures (one from complications from gastric cancer
      surgery, one in a work accident, and one from a lung disease of unknown cause).
      INTERPRETATION: After viral suppression with boosted protease inhibitor plus NRTI
      in second-line ART, maintenance therapy with boosted protease inhibitor plus
      lamivudine was associated with a high rate of success, despite the presence of
      M184V mutations at first-line treatment failure. Results indicated that boosted
      protease inhibitor monotherapy cannot be recommended for these patients. FUNDING:
      Agence National de Recherche sur le Sida et les hepatites and Janssen
      Pharmaceutica.

PMID- 28566230
TI  - Efficacy and safety of indacaterol in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease aged over 65 years: A pooled analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) increases with age, no specific therapeutic approaches are available till
      date for the elderly population. AIM: To assess the efficacy and safety of once
      daily indacaterol 150 and 300 MUg in elderly patients with moderate to severe
      COPD. METHODS: Data were pooled from 11 randomized, double-blind, placebo- and
      active-controlled studies (8445 patients with COPD). The patient population was
      stratified into age groups: young (>=40-<65 years; 52.3%), elderly (>=65-<75
      years; 36.4%), and very elderly (>=75 years; 11.4%). The efficacy outcomes
      included improvements in trough forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1),
      transition dyspnea index (TDI), and health status (St. George's Respiratory
      Questionnaire [SGRQ]); safety was also assessed at 12 weeks. RESULTS: At Week 12,
      the mean improvement in FEV1 with indacaterol 150 MUg versus placebo was
      comparable in the elderly (150 mL), very elderly (160 mL), and young (170 mL)
      groups (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Similar improvement in FEV1 was observed
      with indacaterol 300 MUg versus placebo in each group (p < 0.001). This
      improvement was also significantly higher with indacaterol than formoterol,
      salmeterol, and tiotropium in all groups (p < 0.01). Both TDI and SGRQ scores
      significantly improved with indacaterol versus placebo across age groups (p <
      0.001) and were significantly higher than that for tiotropium (p < 0.001).
      Incidences of adverse events among indacaterol- or placebo-treated patients were
      similar, regardless of the age group. CONCLUSIONS: This pooled analysis suggests
      that the efficacy and safety of indacaterol treatment is similar between elderly
      and younger patients with COPD.

PMID- 28566232
TI  - Identification and diagnostic value of phytanoyl- and pristanoyl-carnitine in
      plasma from patients with peroxisomal disorders.
AB  - Phytanic acid is a branched-chain fatty acid, the level of which is elevated in
      patients with a variety of peroxisomal disorders, including Refsum disease, and
      Rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata type 1 and 5. Elevated levels of both
      phytanic and pristanic acid are found in patients with Zellweger Spectrum
      Disorders, and pristanic acid is elevated in patients with alpha-methylacyl-CoA
      racemase deficiency. For the diagnosis of peroxisomal disorders, a variety of
      metabolites can be measured in blood samples from suspected patients, including
      very long-chain fatty acids, phytanic and pristanic acid. Based on the fact that
      very long-chain fatty acylcarnitines are elevated in tissues and plasma from
      patients with certain peroxisomal disorders, we investigated whether phytanoyl-
      and pristanoyl-carnitine are also present in plasma from patients with different
      peroxisomal disorders. Our study shows that phytanoyl- and pristanoyl-carnitine
      are indeed present in plasma samples from patients with different types of
      peroxisomal disorders, but only when the total plasma levels of their
      corresponding fatty acids, phytanic acid and pristanic acid, are markedly
      elevated. We conclude that the measurement of phytanoyl- and pristanoyl-carnitine
      is not sensitive and specific enough to use these acylcarnitines as conclusive
      diagnostic markers for peroxisomal disorders.

PMID- 28566233
TI  - Expanding the genetic cause of multiple sulfatase deficiency: A novel SUMF1
      variant in a patient displaying a severe late infantile form of the disease.
AB  - Multiple sulfatase deficiency (MSD) is a rare inherited metabolic disease caused
      by defective cellular sulfatases. Activity of sulfatases depends on post
      translational modification catalyzed by formylglycine-generating enzyme (FGE),
      encoded by the SUMF1 gene. SUMF1 pathologic variants cause MSD, a syndrome
      presenting with a complex phenotype. We describe the first Polish patient with
      MSD caused by a yet undescribed pathologic variant c.337G>A [p.Glu113Lys] (i.e.
      p.E113K) in heterozygous combination with the known deletion allele
      c.519+5_519+8del [p.Ala149_Ala173del]. The clinical picture of the patient
      initially suggested late infantile metachromatic leukodystrophy, with
      developmental delay followed by regression of visual, hearing and motor abilities
      as the most apparent clinical symptoms. Transient signs of ichthyosis and minor
      dysmorphic features guided the laboratory workup towards MSD. Since MSD is a rare
      disease and there is a variable clinical spectrum, we thoroughly describe the
      clinical outcome of our patient. The FGE-E113K variant, expressed in cell
      culture, correctly localized to the endoplasmic reticulum but was retained
      intracellularly in contrast to the wild type FGE. Analysis of FGE-mediated
      activation of steroid sulfatase in immortalized MSD cells revealed that FGE-E113K
      exhibited only approx. 15% of the activity of wild type FGE. Based on the crystal
      structure we predict that the exchange of glutamate-113 against lysine should
      induce a strong destabilization of the secondary structure, possibly affecting
      the folding for correct disulfide bridging between C235-C346 as well as
      distortion of the active site groove that could affect both the intracellular
      stability as well as the activity of FGE. Thus, the novel variant of the SUMF1
      gene obviously results in functionally impaired FGE protein leading to a severe
      late infantile type of MSD.

PMID- 28566235
TI  - Investigation of storage time-dependent alterations of enantioselective amino
      acid profiles in kimchi using liquid chromatography-time of flight mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - Although naturally abundant amino acids are represented mainly by l-enantiomers,
      fermented foods are known to contain various d-amino acids. Enantiospecific
      profiles of food products can vary due to fermentation by bacteria, and such
      alterations may contribute to changes in food properties that would not be
      dependent exclusively on l-amino acids. Therefore, more attention should be paid
      to the study of temporal alterations of d-amino acid profiles during fermentation
      process. However, there have been very few studies reporting time-dependent
      profiling of d-amino acids because enantioseparation of widely targeted d-amino
      acids is technically difficult. This study aimed to achieve high throughput
      profiling of amino acids enantiomers. Enantioselective profiling of amino acids
      using CROWNPAK CR-I(+) column, liquid chromatography, time of flight mass
      spectrometry, and principle component analysis was performed to investigate time
      dependent alterations in concentrations of free d- and l-amino acids in kimchi
      stored at 4 degrees C or 25 degrees C. We demonstrated significant changes in d-
      and l-amino acid profiles in kimchi stored at 25 degrees C. In particular,
      concentrations of the amino acids d-Ala, d-Ser, d-allo-Ile, d-Leu, d-Asp, d-Glu,
      and d-Met became higher in kimchi with storage time. This is the first report of
      time-dependent alterations of d- and l-amino acid contents in kimchi. This study
      showed that our analytical method of enantioselective detection of amino acids
      using liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOFMS) with
      CROWNPAK CR-I(+) enables high throughput food screening and can be recommended
      for advanced studies of the relationship between d-amino acid content and food
      properties.

PMID- 28566234
TI  - Enhancement of butanol production by sequential introduction of mutations
      conferring butanol tolerance and streptomycin resistance.
AB  - Ribosome engineering, originally applied to Streptomyces lividans, has been
      widely utilized for strain improvement, especially for the activation of
      bacterial secondary metabolism. This study assessed ribosome engineering
      technology to modulate primary metabolism, taking butanol production as a
      representative example. The introduction into Clostridium
      saccharoperbutylacetonicum of mutations conferring resistance to butanol (ButR)
      and of the str mutation (SmR; a mutation in the rpsL gene encoding ribosomal
      protein S12), conferring high-level resistance to streptomycin, increased butanol
      production 1.6-fold, to 16.5 g butanol/L. Real-time qPCR analysis demonstrated
      that the genes involved in butanol metabolism by C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum
      were activated at the transcriptional level in the drug-resistant mutants,
      providing a mechanism for the higher yields of butanol by the mutants. Moreover,
      the activity of enzymes butyraldehyde dehydrogenase (AdhE) and butanol
      dehydrogenases (BdhAB), the key enzymes involved in butanol synthesis, was both
      markedly increased in the ButR SmR mutant, reflecting the significant up
      regulation of adhE and bdhA at transcriptional level in this mutant strain. These
      results demonstrate the efficacy of ribosome engineering for the production of
      not only secondary metabolites but of industrially important primary metabolites.
      The possible ways to overcome the reduced growth rate and/or fitness cost caused
      by the mutation were also discussed.

PMID- 28566236
TI  - Renaming all spinal autonomic outflows as sympathetic is a mistake.

PMID- 28566237
TI  - Comparing indices of median nerve among diabetic patients with or without
      metabolic syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent among patients with type II
      diabetes and is reported as a strong risk factor for cardiovascular diseases as
      well as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). The aim of the current study was to compare
      median nerve indices among diabetic patients with and without metabolic syndrome.
      METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 105 patients with type II
      diabetes whom participated in the coronary artery disease risk factor study in
      Kerman, Iran (KERCARDS). Patients with type II diabetes were called and those
      with clinical symptoms of CTS were included in the study, and median nerve
      indices were measured according to standard electro diagnosis tests. GEE
      statistical model was used to compare median nerve indices among diabetic
      patients with and without metabolic syndrome. All statistical analysis was done
      using SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 57.57+/-9.53. There
      was no significant difference between the left and right hand regarding median
      nerve indices except median nerve motor amplitude (MA). Furthermore, components
      of metabolic syndrome including BMI and LDL were determined as risk factors for
      CTS according to several indices. CONCLUSION: Components of metabolic syndrome
      had more influence on sensory indices than motor indices and primary control of
      these components might prevent dysfunction of sensory neurons and also motor
      neurons in advanced stages among diabetic patients.

PMID- 28566238
TI  - Correlation of Resistin Serum Level with Fat Mass and Obesity-Associated Gene
      (FTO) rs9939609 Polymorphism in Obese Women with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to detect any association of fat mass and obesity
      associated (FTO) rs9939609 variant to metabolic and anthropometric parameters and
      resistin level as adipokines in Iranian obese women with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Totally, 42 diabetic and 36 non-diabetic women
      were selected. The PCR amplicons of FTO gene were sequenced and metabolic,
      anthropometric parameters and resistin level were measured. RESULTS: Serum
      resistin concentrations were not different between diabetic and non-diabetic
      subjects (p>0.05), while resistin level in diabetic group with AA genotype was
      lower than that with other genotypes in the same group. In rs9939609 SNP adjusted
      analysis, insulin and HOMA levels were high in AA genotype. While levels of FBS
      and HbA1c were higher in AA and AT genotypes. In diabetic group, only TG showed
      significant difference among three genotypes and mean of TG was higher in TA
      genotype. No significant correlation between resistin and anthropometric and
      metabolic parameters was found except for DBP in diabetic patients. CONCLUSION:
      There was no significant association between rs9939609 and resistin serum level
      in type 2 obese diabetic women while percentile ranges (25th, 50th and 75th) of
      resistin concentrations was high in diabetic group.

PMID- 28566240
TI  - Frontiers in planning optimization for lung SBRT.
AB  - Emerging data are showing the safety and the efficacy of Stereotactic Body
      Radiation therapy (SBRT) in lung cancer management. In this context, the very
      high doses delivered to the Planning Target Volume, make the planning phase
      essential for achieving high dose levels conformed to the shape of the target in
      order to have a good prognosis for tumor control and to avoid an overdose in
      relevant healthy adjacent tissue. In this non-systematic review we analyzed the
      technological and the physics aspects of SBRT planning for lung cancer. In
      particular, the aims of the study were: (i) to evaluate prescription strategies
      (homogeneous or inhomogeneous), (ii) to outline possible geometrical solutions by
      comparing the dosimetric results (iii) to describe the technological
      possibilities for a safe and effective treatment, (iv) to present the issues
      concerning radiobiological planning and the automation of the planning process.

PMID- 28566239
TI  - A reduced time to surgery within a 'fast track' pathway for periampullary
      malignancy is associated with an increased rate of pancreatoduodenectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) typically follows preoperative biliary
      drainage (PBD) despite PBD being potentially harmful. This study evaluated a
      pathway to avoid PBD within the framework of the UK's NHS. METHOD: A prospective
      observational study of jaundiced patients undergoing PD for periampullary cancer.
      A pathway to provide early surgery without PBD was introduced at the start of the
      study period. RESULTS: Over 12 months 61 and 32 patients underwent surgery with
      and without PBD respectively; 95% of patients in the PBD group had been stented
      before referral. The time from CT scan to surgery was shorter in the no PBD group
      (16 vs 65 days, p < 0.0001). Significantly more patients underwent PD in the no
      PBD group (31/32 vs 46/61, p = 0.009) and venous resection (10/31 vs 4/46, p =
      0.014). The sensitivity of initial CT scan to define borderline resectable
      disease was worse in the PBD group (91 vs 50%, p = 0.042). CONCLUSIONS: Early
      surgery to avoid PBD is possible within the NHS. By reducing the time to surgery
      it appears that more patients undergo potentially curative resection. It is
      desirable to understand why surgery without PBD is not performed routinely as are
      the development of strategies to support its more widespread practice.

PMID- 28566241
TI  - The global HIV epidemic: What the pathologist needs to know.
AB  - The World Health Organization estimates that at the end of 2015, approximately
      36.7 million people were living with HIV worldwide. An estimated 0.8% of adults
      aged 15-49 years are infected with HIV with women representing a little over half
      of these infections. The burden of the epidemic varies considerably between
      regions of the world and within countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of
      the world with most infections accounting for approximately 70% of people living
      with HIV. In the United States the number of new infections decreased by 19%
      between 2005 and 2014 yet, close to 40,000 new infections occurred in 2015 and,
      as people with HIV live longer and new infections continue, the number of people
      living with HIV in the US now stands at nearly 1.2 million and continues to rise.
      Unprecedented funding initiatives for antiretroviral therapy have resulted in
      coverage of up to 46% of those in need globally. In recent years, studies have
      demonstrated that HIV-infected persons who are on antiretroviral therapy and
      suppressed do not transmit HIV thus the United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS)
      initiative of "treatment is prevention". The UNAIDS goals for 2020 are to have
      diagnosis of 90% of those infected, 90% of those infected will be on treatment
      and in 90% there will be viral suppression. Of note, for two of the goals,
      laboratory system strengthening is paramount.

PMID- 28566242
TI  - Clinical and Genetic Diagnosis of Nonischemic Sudden Cardiac Death.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Nonischemic sudden cardiac death (SCD) is
      predominantly caused by cardiomyopathies and channelopathies. There are many
      diagnostic tests, including some complex techniques. Our aim was to analyze the
      diagnostic yield of a systematic diagnostic protocol in a specialized unit.
      METHODS: The study included 56 families with at least 1 index case of SCD
      (resuscitated or not). Survivors were studied with electrocardiogram, advanced
      cardiac imaging, exercise testing, familial study, genetic testing and, in some
      cases, pharmacological testing. Families with deceased probands were studied
      using the postmortem findings, familial evaluation, and molecular autopsy with
      next-generation sequencing (NGS). RESULTS: A positive diagnosis was obtained in
      80.4% of the cases, with no differences between survivors and nonsurvivors
      (P=.53). Cardiac channelopathies were more prevalent among survivors than
      nonsurvivors (66.6% vs 40%, P=.03). Among the 30 deceased probands, the
      definitive diagnosis was given by autopsy in 7. A diagnosis of cardiomyopathy
      tended to be associated with a higher event rate in the family. Genetic testing
      with NGS was performed in 42 index cases, with a positive result in 28 (66.6%),
      with no differences between survivors and nonsurvivors (P=.21). CONCLUSIONS:
      There is a strong likelihood of reaching a diagnosis in SCD after a rigorous
      protocol, with a more prevalent diagnosis of channelopathy among survivors and a
      worse familial prognosis in cardiomyopathies. Genetic testing with NGS is useful
      and its value is increasing with respect to the Sanger method.

PMID- 28566243
TI  - Timing of Onset and Outcome of New Conduction Abnormalities Following
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Role of Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the timing of onset and
      outcome of conduction abnormalities (CA) following balloon-expandable
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation. The aim of this study was to examine the
      timing of CA and determine the impact of balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) on
      the persistence of these abnormalities. METHODS: A total of 347 patients were
      included. Of these, 75 had a continuous electrocardiogram recording and a 6-lead
      electrocardiogram at each step of the procedure. RESULTS: In the transcatheter
      aortic valve implantation population undergoing continuous electrocardiogram
      monitoring, new-onset left bundle branch block (LBBB) or third-degree
      atrioventricular block occurred in 48 (64%) and 16 (21.3%) patients, with 51.5%
      of CA occurring before valve implantation. Left bundle branch block persisted
      more frequently at hospital discharge (53.8 vs 22.7%; P=.028) and at 1-month
      follow-up (38.5 vs 13.6%; P=.054) when occurring before valve implantation.
      Balloon aortic valvuloplasty prior to valve implantation was used in 264 (76.1%)
      patients, and 78 (22.5%) had persistent LBBB or complete atrioventricular block
      requiring pacemaker implantation. Persistent LBBB or unresolved atrioventricular
      block at 1 month occurred more frequently in the BAV group (76.1 vs 47.6%;
      P=.021), and the use of BAV was associated with a lack of CA resolution (OR, 3.5;
      95%CI, 1.17-10.43; P=.021). CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing a balloon
      expandable transcatheter aortic valve implantation, more than half of CA occurred
      before valve implantation. Early occurrence of CA was associated with a higher
      rate of persistence at 1-month follow-up. The use of BAV was associated with an
      increased risk of CA persistence.

PMID- 28566244
TI  - Paravalvular Leak Correction: Searching for a Balance Between Surgical and
      Percutaneous Techniques.

PMID- 28566246
TI  - Conversion of atrial dissociation with lidocaine in a dog.
AB  - A 3-year-old healthy dog was presented for abdominal surgery following ingestion
      of razor blades. An electrocardiogram revealed a regular sinus bradycardia with
      normal P waves at a heart rate of 45 bpm. In addition, low-amplitude positive
      deflections (p' waves) were visualized at a regular interval and rapid rate of
      250 bpm, dissociated from the normal sinus P waves. A tentative diagnosis of
      atrial dissociation was proposed. Administration of lidocaine abolished the p'
      waves. This case describes atrial dissociation observed following premedication
      that was successfully terminated using lidocaine in a healthy dog.

PMID- 28566245
TI  - Validity Assessment of Low-risk SCORE Function and SCORE Function Calibrated to
      the Spanish Population in the FRESCO Cohorts.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the validity of the original low-risk
      SCORE function without and with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and SCORE
      calibrated to the Spanish population. METHODS: Pooled analysis with individual
      data from 12 Spanish population-based cohort studies. We included 30 919
      individuals aged 40 to 64 years with no history of cardiovascular disease at
      baseline, who were followed up for 10 years for the causes of death included in
      the SCORE project. The validity of the risk functions was analyzed with the area
      under the ROC curve (discrimination) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (calibration),
      respectively. RESULTS: Follow-up comprised 286 105 persons/y. Ten-year
      cardiovascular mortality was 0.6%. The ratio between estimated/observed cases
      ranged from 9.1, 6.5, and 9.1 in men and 3.3, 1.3, and 1.9 in women with original
      low-risk SCORE risk function without and with high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol and calibrated SCORE, respectively; differences were statistically
      significant with the Hosmer-Lemeshow test between predicted and observed
      mortality with SCORE (P < .001 in both sexes and with all functions). The area
      under the ROC curve with the original SCORE was 0.68 in men and 0.69 in women.
      CONCLUSIONS: All versions of the SCORE functions available in Spain significantly
      overestimate the cardiovascular mortality observed in the Spanish population.
      Despite the acceptable discrimination capacity, prediction of the number of fatal
      cardiovascular events (calibration) was significantly inaccurate.

PMID- 28566248
TI  - [Prognostic factors for head and neck cancer reirradiation: A systematic review].
AB  - PURPOSE: To specify the effectiveness of head and neck cancer reirradiation and
      make a synthesis of prognostic factors established by published series of
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Original series of external reirradiation of
      head and neck cancer with at least ten patients were sought in Medline database.
      RESULTS: Exclusive reirradiation with or without concurrent chemotherapy offers
      11 months of median overall survival, versus 6 months for chemotherapy alone, and
      20 to 40% of the patients are still alive two years after treatment.
      Postoperative reirradiation allows 3 years overall survival from 40 to 60%.
      However, side effects of grade 3 or more arise in more than half of patients.
      Patient-related good prognostic factors are male, young age, good performance
      status without comorbidities. Those related to the disease are low rT and rN
      stage, poor differentiation, other than squamous cell carcinomas and a
      nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal or laryngeal location. Concerning the treatment,
      surgical resection, a dose higher than 50 to 60Gy in a smaller-irradiated volume,
      an interval between the two treatments of more than 2 years and the use of an
      innovating technology are the most commonly highlighted prognostic factors.
      Concurrent chemotherapy is often associated with higher toxicity rates, without
      improving overall survival, unless using cisplatin for selected patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Head and neck cancer reirradiation achieves long-term survival
      outcomes. However, regarding to its associated side effects, patients need to be
      carefully selected based on prognostic factors.

PMID- 28566249
TI  - Is palliative care included in care of renal disease?

PMID- 28566250
TI  - Local Somatodendritic Translation and Hyperphosphorylation of Tau Protein
      Triggered by AMPA and NMDA Receptor Stimulation.
AB  - Tau is a major component of the neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) that represent a
      pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although generally considered
      an axonal protein, Tau is found in the somato-dendritic compartment of
      degenerating neurons and this redistribution is thought to be a trigger of
      neurodegeneration in AD. Here, we show the presence of tau mRNA in a dendritic
      ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex that includes Ca2+-calmodulin dependent protein
      kinase (CaMK)IIalpha mRNA and that is translated locally in response to glutamate
      stimulation. Further, we show that Tau mRNA is a component of mRNP granules that
      contain RNA-binding proteins, and that it interacts with Myosin Va, a
      postsynaptic motor protein; these findings suggest that tau mRNA is transported
      into dendritic spines. We also report that tau mRNA localized in the somato
      dendritic component of primary hippocampal cells and that a sub-toxic
      concentration of glutamate enhances local translation and hyperphosphorylation of
      tau, effects that are blocked by the gluatamatergic antagonists MK801 and NBQX.
      These data thus demonstrate that alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole
      propionic acid (AMPA) and N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) stimulation redistributes
      tau to the somato-dendritic region of neurons where it may trigger
      neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28566252
TI  - Stop measles in Switzerland - The importance of travel medicine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In line with the worldwide strive to combat measles, the Swiss
      Federal Office of Public Heath (FOPH) launched a National Strategy for measles
      elimination 2011-2015. In this study, we highlight the importance of travel
      medicine consultations to complement measles vaccination programmes based on data
      from the Travel Clinic of the University of Zurich. METHOD: We analysed measles
      vaccination data from the Zurich Travel Clinic between July 2010 and February
      2016 and focused on three groups: (i) all clients who received the measles
      vaccination, (ii) all clients aged>two years who received the measles vaccination
      ("catch-up vaccination"), and (iii) all clients aged>two years and born after
      1963 ("FOPH recommended catch-up vaccination"). RESULTS: 107,669 consultations
      were performed from 2010 to 2016. In 12,470 (11.6%) of these, a measles
      vaccination was administered; 90.9% measles vaccinations were given during a pre
      travel consultation, and 99.4% were administered to individuals aged>two years
      ("catch-up vaccinations"). An "FOPH recommended catch-up vaccination" was
      received by 13.6% of all Zurich Travel Clinic clients aged >2years and born after
      1963. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we highlight the importance of travel medicine
      consultations to enhance the measles vaccination coverage in the adult Swiss
      population.

PMID- 28566251
TI  - Tenomodulin is Required for Tendon Endurance Running and Collagen I Fibril
      Adaptation to Mechanical Load.
AB  - Tendons are dense connective tissues that attach muscles to bone with an
      indispensable role in locomotion because of their intrinsic properties of storing
      and releasing muscle- generated elastic energy. Tenomodulin (Tnmd) is a well
      accepted gene marker for the mature tendon/ligament lineage and its loss-of 
      function in mice leads to a phenotype with distinct signs of premature aging on
      tissue and stem/progenitor cell levels. Based on these findings, we hypothesized
      that Tnmd might be an important factor in the functional performance of tendons.
      Firstly, we revealed that Tnmd is a mechanosensitive gene and that the C-terminus
      of the protein co-localize with collagen I-type fibers in the extracellular
      matrix. Secondly, using an endurance training protocol, we compared Tnmd knockout
      mice with wild types and showed that Tnmd deficiency leads to significantly
      inferior running performance that further worsens with training. In these mice,
      endurance running was hindered due to abnormal response of collagen I cross
      linking and proteoglycan genes leading to an inadequate collagen I fiber
      thickness and elasticity. In sum, our study demonstrates that Tnmd is required
      for proper tendon tissue adaptation to endurance running and aids in better
      understanding of the structural-functional relationships of tendon tissues.

PMID- 28566253
TI  - A thermostable presentation of the live, attenuated peste des petits ruminants
      vaccine in use in Africa and Asia.
AB  - The research objective was to develop a thermostable vaccine against peste des
      petits ruminants (PPR), a morbilliviral disease of small ruminants targeted for
      eradication that is a major constraint on the livelihoods of the rural poor
      throughout much of Africa and Asia. Although existing PPR vaccines provide life
      long immunity, they require continuous refrigeration. This limits their utility
      in developing countries. Methods for the lyophilization of a related
      morbillivirus, rinderpest (RP), resulted in vaccine that could be used in the
      field for up to 30days without refrigeration which was a major contribution to
      the global eradication of RP completed in 2011. The present research applied the
      rinderpest lyophilization method to the attenuated Nigeria 75/1 PPR vaccine
      strain, and measured thermostability in accelerated stability tests (AST) at 37
      degrees C. The shelf-life of the vaccine was determined as the time a vial
      retained the minimum dose required as a 25-dose presentation at the specified
      temperature. A lactalbumin hydrolysate and sucrose (LS) stabilizer was compared
      to stabilizers based on trehalose. PPR vaccine produced using the Xerovac drying
      method was compared to vaccine produced using the rinderpest lyophilization
      method in AST. LS vaccine was evaluated in AST at 37, 45 and 56 degrees C and an
      Arrhenius plot was constructed for estimation of stability at temperatures not
      tested. Vaccines produced using LS and the rinderpest method of lyophilization
      were the most stable. The shelf-life of the Xerovac preparation was 22.2days at
      37 degrees C. The three LS vaccine batches had shelf-lives at 37 degrees C of
      177.6, 105.0 and 148.9days, respectively, at 37 degrees C. At 56 degrees C, the
      shelf-life was 13.7days. The projected half-life at 25 degrees C was 1.3years.
      This is sufficient thermostability for use without a cold chain for up to 30days
      which will greatly facilitate the delivery of vaccination in the global
      eradication of PPR.

PMID- 28566254
TI  - Challenges of vaccine presentation and delivery: How can we design vaccines to
      have optimal programmatic impact?
AB  - Immunization program delivery strategies that enable high vaccine coverage,
      particularly in inaccessible and remote areas, are critical to achieving optimal
      vaccine impact. In addition to demonstration of safety and efficacy, there are
      many factors that influence whether a newly licensed vaccine will be introduced
      into a country's national immunization program, particularly in resource
      constrained environments. This paper describes three case studies of novel
      approaches that represent the potential for improved programmatic impact by
      increasing vaccine accessibility in different ways. However, the pathway to
      regulatory approval, policy recommendation, and program introduction in low- and
      middle-income countries is complex, requiring engagement with multiple, diverse
      stakeholders. Consideration of aspects that affect uptake in low- and middle
      income countries, during the product development stage, will help better position
      new or second-generation vaccine products for successful implementation to
      achieve public health impact.

PMID- 28566255
TI  - Learning From Experience: Development of a Cognitive Task List to Perform a
      Caesarean Section in the Obese Parturient.

PMID- 28566256
TI  - Validating the Performance of the Modified Early Obstetric Warning System
      Multivariable Model to Predict Maternal Intensive Care Unit Admission.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the performance of the Modified Early Obstetric Warning
      System (MEOWS) to predict maternal ICU admission in an obstetric population.
      DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Two maternity units in Vancouver, Canada,
      one with ICU facilities, between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2011.
      PATIENTS: Pregnant or recently delivered (<=6 weeks) women admitted to the
      hospital for >24 hours. Three control patients were randomly selected per case
      and matched for year of admission. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Retrospective,
      observational, case-control validation study investigating the physiologic
      predictors of admission in the 24-hour period preceding either ICU admission >24
      hours (cases) or following admission (control patients). Model performance was
      assessed based on sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. Forty-six
      women were admitted to the ICU for >24 hours (0.51/1000 deliveries); the study
      included 138 randomly selected control patients. There were no maternal deaths in
      the cohort. MEOWS had high sensitivity (0.96) but low specificity (0.54) for ICU
      admission >24 hours, whereas >=1 one red trigger maintained sensitivity (0.96)
      and improved specificity (0.73). CONCLUSION: Altering MEOWS trigger parameters
      may improve the accuracy of MEOWS in predicting ICU admission. Formal modelling
      of a MEOWS scoring system is required to support evidence-based care.

PMID- 28566257
TI  - Maternal Blood Biomarkers of Placentation to Predict Low-Birth-Weight Newborns: A
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The development of methods for pre-delivery prediction of low-birth
      weight newborns would be clinically advantageous because low birth weight
      contributes to a high infant mortality rate. This study was performed to examine
      whether maternal blood biomarkers of placentation can be used to predict low
      birth-weight newborns. METHODS: Ten databases, including PubMed/Medline, were
      searched. Any English language study that provided all of the true- and false
      positive and true- and false-negative results of this prediction was included in
      the analysis. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment of
      Diagnostic Accuracy Studies. Bivariate diagnostic meta-analysis was performed to
      construct hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves. RESULTS:
      Based on relatively good quality studies, alpha fetoprotein (AFP), human
      chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A)
      (n = 73, 19, and 7, respectively) showed low sensitivity and specificity and low
      diagnostic odds ratio. The informational usability was categorized as "no
      exclusion or confirmation" (i.e., positive likelihood ratio <10 and negative
      likelihood ratio >0.1). The diagnostic accuracy of AFP and hCG or PAPP-A was
      categorized as low (i.e., 0.5 <= area under the curve <=0.7) or could not be
      categorized (i.e., area under the curve <0.5). CONCLUSION: There is no evidence
      that maternal blood levels of AFP, hCG, or PAPP-A used as a single predictor are
      useful to predict low-birth-weight newborns.

PMID- 28566258
TI  - Isolated hepatosplenic sarcoidosis: A pitfall for lymphoma evaluation by 18F-FDG
      PET/CT.

PMID- 28566259
TI  - Multimodal approach in radioguided surgery in a case of multiple paraganglioma.
AB  - The case involves a 34-year-old woman who underwent surgical removal of a
      retroperitoneal paraganglioma adjacent to the left kidney's lower pole,
      previously visualized by CT and MRI. The 123I-MIBG scan was positive for this
      lesion and, in addition, another uptake was observed located caudally at the
      level of L5 and of smaller size and less intensity. The second lesion was not
      considered for surgical removal, due to its lack of morphological definition. One
      week after surgical intervention, the patient presented difficult-to-control high
      blood pressure. A second 123I-MIBG scan was performed. The previously described
      second image was more intense in this study, and surgery was planned to remove
      it. A combination of techniques including freehand-SPECT and a portable hybrid
      gamma camera (with optical camera) were used pre-operatively to identify the
      location of the lesion. The combination of intra-operative laparoscopic gamma
      probe and portable hybrid gamma camera enabled the tumor to be located, excised,
      and its complete removal to be monitored. The histopathology analysis confirmed a
      second paraganglioma.

PMID- 28566260
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT in lung cancer. The added value of quantification.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test a software application for the quantification of metabolic
      heterogeneity and to evaluate its superiority in relation to visual
      interpretation. To investigate if a quantitative analysis adds information to the
      interpretation of 18F-FDG-PET/CT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study analyzed 215
      patients with a 18F-FDG-PET/CT done for the initial staging of lung cancer
      between March 2011 and December 2015. The study included 57 (26.5%) women and 158
      (73.5%) men, with ages ranging from 34 to 88 years (mean+/-SD: 67.23+/-10.04).
      There were 82 surgical stages (I, II, IIIA), and 133 non-surgical stages (IIIB,
      IV). The primary tumour was analyzed quantitatively by obtaining the following
      parameters: SUVmax, metabolic active tumour volume (MATV), total lesion
      glycolysis (TLG), and the entropy heterogeneity index (ET). Heterogeneity was
      assessed visually. Death dates and/or the follow-up time were registered, ranging
      from 0.70 to 67.60 months (mean+/-SD: 23.20+/-17.68). RESULTS: In multivariate
      analysis, ET emerged as a better predictor of survival than visual analysis of
      heterogeneity that was not statistically significant. The C-index determination
      demonstrated that all quantitative parameters were statistically-significant
      predictors of survival. Cut-offs were obtained in order to compare survival
      times. A multivariate analysis was performed. In the total population, the best
      predictor was the TNM stage, but MATV, ET, and male gender were statistically
      significant and independent predictors of survival. In stages without surgical
      indication, the best predictor was the TNM stage, but the MATV and male gender
      were statistically significant and independent predictors of survival. In the
      surgical stages, ET was the only statistically significant and independent
      predictor of survival. CONCLUSIONS: Quantification adds prognostic information to
      the visual analysis of 18F-FDG-PET/CT.

PMID- 28566261
TI  - Fatty thymic involution uptake mimicking a thymic epithelial tumour in a 18F-FDG
      PET/CT study.

PMID- 28566262
TI  - Effect of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition with Tadalafil on SystEmic Right
      VEntricular size and function - A multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo
      controlled clinical trial - SERVE trial - Rational and design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with a systemic right ventricle (RV) have a compromised late
      outcome caused by ventricular dysfunction. Standard medical heart failure therapy
      has not been shown to improve RV function and survival in these patients.
      Phosphodiesterase (PDE)-5 inhibition increases contractility in experimental
      models of RV hypertrophy, but not in the normal RV. In clinical practice, the
      effects of PDE-5 inhibition on systemic RV function and exercise capacity in
      adults with a systemic RV have not been tested. METHODS: The SERVE protocol is a
      double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled multicenter superiority trial to
      study the effect of PDE-5 inhibition with Tadalafil on RV volumes and function in
      patients with either D-transposition of the great arteries repaired with an
      atrial switch procedure or with congenitally corrected transposition of the great
      arteries. Tadalafil 20mg or placebo will be given over a study period of 3years.
      The primary endpoint is the change in mean end-systolic RV volumes from baseline
      to study end at 3years of follow-up (or at the time of permanent discontinuation
      of the randomized treatment if stopped before 3- years of follow-up), and will be
      measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) or by cardiac
      computed tomography in patients with contraindications for CMR. Secondary
      endpoints are changes in RV ejection fraction, VO2max and NT-proBNP. CONCLUSION:
      The objective of this study is to assess the effect of PDE-5 inhibition with
      Tadalafil on RV size and function, exercise capacity and neurohumoral activation
      in adults with a systemic RV over a 3-year follow-up period.

PMID- 28566263
TI  - PREventive Care Infrastructure based On Ubiquitous Sensing (PRECIOUS): A Study
      Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: mHealth has experienced a huge growth during the last decade. It has
      been presented as a new and promising pathway to increase self-management of
      health and chronic conditions in several populations. One of the most prolific
      areas of mHealth has been healthy lifestyles promotion. However, few mobile apps
      have succeeded in engaging people and ensuring sustained use. OBJECTIVE: This
      paper describes the pilot test protocol of the PReventive Care Infrastructure
      based on Ubiquitous Sensing (PRECIOUS) project, aimed at validating the PRECIOUS
      system with end users. This system includes, within a motivational framework, the
      Bodyguard2 sensor (accelerometer with heart rate monitoring) and the PRECIOUS
      app. METHODS: This is a pilot experimental study targeting morbidly obese
      prediabetic patients who will be randomized to three conditions: (1) Group 1 -
      Control group (Treatment as usual with the endocrinologist and the nurse +
      Bodyguard2), (2) Group 2 - PRECIOUS system (Bodyguard2 + PRECIOUS app), and (3)
      Group 3 - PRECIOUS system (Bodyguard2 + PRECIOUS app + Motivational
      Interviewing). The duration of the study will be 3 months with scheduled follow
      up appointments within the scope of the project at Weeks 3, 5, 8, and 12. During
      the study, several measures related to healthy lifestyles, weight management, and
      health-related quality of life will be collected to explore the effectiveness of
      PRECIOUS to foster behavior change, as well as user acceptance, usability, and
      satisfaction with the solution. RESULTS: Because of the encouraging results shown
      in similar scientific work analyzing health apps acceptance in clinical settings,
      we expect patients to widely accept and express satisfaction with PRECIOUS. We
      also expect to find acceptable usability of the preventive health solution. The
      recruitment of the pilot study has concluded with the inclusion of 31 morbidly
      obese prediabetic patients. Results are expected to be available in mid-2017.
      CONCLUSIONS: Adopting and maintaining healthy habits may be challenging in people
      with chronic conditions who usually need regular support to ensure mid/long-term
      adherence to recommendations and behavior change. Thus, mHealth could become a
      powerful and efficient tool since it allows continuous communication with users
      and immediate feedback. The PRECIOUS system is an innovative preventive health
      care solution aimed at enhancing inner motivation from users to change their
      lifestyles and adopt healthier habits. PRECIOUS includes ubiquitous sensors and a
      scientifically grounded app to address three main components of health: physical
      activity, diet, and stress levels. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov
      NCT02818790; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02818790 (Archived by WebCite
      at http://www.webcitation.org/6qfzdfMoU).

PMID- 28566264
TI  - Understanding Environmental and Contextual Influences of Physical Activity During
      First-Year University: The Feasibility of Using Ecological Momentary Assessment
      in the MovingU Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is well established that drastic declines in physical activity
      (PA) occur during young adults' transition into university; however, our
      understanding of contextual and environmental factors as it relates to young
      adults' PA is limited. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to examine the
      feasibility of using wrist-worn accelerometers and the use of ecological
      momentary assessment (EMA) to assess the context and momentary correlates of PA
      on multiple occasions each day during first-year university. METHODS: First-year
      university students were asked to participate in the study. The participants
      completed a brief questionnaire and were subsequently asked to wear an ActiGraph
      GT9X-Link accelerometer and respond to a series of EMA prompts (7/day) via their
      phones for 5 consecutive days. RESULTS: A total of 96 first-year university
      students with smartphones agreed to participate in the study (mean age 18.3 [SD
      0.51]; n=45 females). Overall, there was good compliance for wearing the
      accelerometers, with 91% (78/86) of the participants having >=2 days of >=10
      hours of wear time (mean=3.53 valid days). Students were generally active,
      averaging 10,895 steps/day (SD 3413) or 1123.23 activity counts/min (SD 356.10).
      Compliance to EMA prompts was less desirable, with 64% (55/86) of the
      participants having usable EMA data (responding to a minimum of >=3 days of 3
      prompts/day or >=4 days of 2 prompts/day), and only 47% (26/55) of these
      participants were considered to have excellent EMA compliance (responding to >=5
      days of 4 prompts/day or >= 4 days of 5 prompts/day). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      represents one of the first studies to use an intensive real-time data capture
      strategy to examine time-varying correlates of PA among first-year university
      students. These data will aim to describe the physical and social contexts in
      which PA occurs and examine the relationships between momentary correlates of PA
      among the first-year university students. Overall, current results suggest that
      wrist-worn accelerometers and EMA are feasible methods for data collection among
      the young adult population; however, more work is needed to understand how to
      improve upon compliance to a real-time data capture method such as EMA.

PMID- 28566265
TI  - Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Treat Emotional Distress After
      Stroke: A Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression and anxiety are common complications following stroke.
      Symptoms could be treatable with psychological therapy, but there is little
      research on its efficacy. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate
      (1) the acceptability and feasibility of computerized cognitive behavioral
      therapy (cCBT) to treat symptoms of depression and anxiety and (2) a trial design
      for comparing the efficacy of cCBT compared with an active comparator. METHODS:
      Of the total 134 people screened for symptoms of depression and anxiety following
      stroke, 28 were cluster randomized in blocks with an allocation ratio 2:1 to cCBT
      (n=19) or an active comparator of computerized cognitive remediation therapy
      (cCRT, n=9). Qualitative and quantitative feedback was sought on the
      acceptability and feasibility of both interventions, alongside measuring levels
      of depression, anxiety, and activities of daily living before, immediately after,
      and 3 months post treatment. RESULTS: Both cCBT and cCRT groups were rated as
      near equally useful (mean = 6.4 vs 6.5, d=0.05), while cCBT was somewhat less
      relevant (mean = 5.5 vs 6.5, d=0.45) but somewhat easier to use (mean = 7.0 vs
      6.3, d=0.31). Participants tolerated randomization and dropout rates were
      comparable with similar trials, with only 3 participants discontinuing due to
      potential adverse effects; however, dropout was higher from the cCBT arm (7/19,
      37% vs 1/9, 11% for cCRT). The trial design required small alterations and
      highlighted that future-related studies should control for participants receiving
      antidepressant medication, which significantly differed between groups (P=.05).
      Descriptive statistics of the proposed outcome measures and qualitative feedback
      about the cCBT intervention are reported. CONCLUSIONS: A pragmatic approach is
      required to deliver computerized interventions to accommodate individual needs.
      We report a preliminary investigation to inform the development of a full
      randomized controlled trial for testing the efficacy of computerized
      interventions for people with long-term neurological conditions such as stroke
      and conclude that this is a potentially promising way of improving accessibility
      of psychological support.

PMID- 28566266
TI  - The Development of a Web-Based Program to Reduce Dietary Salt Intake in
      Schoolchildren: Study Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salt intake of schoolchildren in the Australian state of Victoria is
      high. To protect future cardiovascular health, interventions that seek to reduce
      the amount of salt in children's diets are required. OBJECTIVE: We sought to
      develop and pilot test a Web-based program (Digital Education to Limit Salt
      Intake in the Home [DELISH]) that aims to reduce dietary salt intake among
      schoolchildren and to improve child and parent knowledge, attitudes, and
      behaviors related to salt intake. This paper presents the DELISH study protocol,
      along with pilot findings used to inform the development of the program. METHODS:
      The DELISH program is a 5-week Web-based intervention that targets schoolchildren
      aged 7-10 years and their parents. This is a single-arm study with a pretest and
      posttest design. We will assess change in salt intake through analysis of 24-hour
      urinary sodium excretion. Children and parents will complete online surveys
      assessing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to salt intake. We will
      assess feasibility of the program via process measures, which include metrics to
      describe intervention uptake (eg, number of children who complete Web-based
      sessions and of parents who view online newsletters) and evaluation surveys and
      interviews conducted with children, parents, and schoolteachers. The first 2 Web
      sessions developed for children were pilot tested in 19 children aged 8-12 years.
      RESULTS: Findings from pilot testing indicated that most children (session 1:
      18/19, 95%; and session 2: 19/19, 100%) enjoyed completing each session and liked
      the inclusion of comic strips and interactive games. Commonly reported areas of
      improvement related to sessions being text and content heavy. Based on these
      findings, we simplified sessions and developed 3 additional sessions for use in
      the DELISH program. The DELISH program was implemented during June-December 2016.
      We expect to have results from this study at the end of 2017. CONCLUSIONS: To our
      knowledge, this is the first Australian study to examine the effectiveness of a
      Web-based program to reduce salt intake among children in primary school. If
      shown to be acceptable and effective in lowering salt intake, the DELISH program
      could be tested using a more rigorous randomized controlled trial design.

PMID- 28566269
TI  - Ranjit Singh: A geek at heart.

PMID- 28566270
TI  - Halting Zika's resurgence with new rapid tests for the virus.

PMID- 28566268
TI  - High Level of Integration in Integrated Disease Management Leads to Higher Usage
      in the e-Vita Study: Self-Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
      With Web-Based Platforms in a Parallel Cohort Design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Worldwide, nearly 3 million people die of chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) every year. Integrated disease management (IDM) improves
      disease-specific quality of life and exercise capacity for people with COPD, but
      can also reduce hospital admissions and hospital days. Self-management of COPD
      through eHealth interventions has shown to be an effective method to improve the
      quality and efficiency of IDM in several settings, but it remains unknown which
      factors influence usage of eHealth and change in behavior of patients. OBJECTIVE:
      Our study, e-Vita COPD, compares different levels of integration of Web-based
      self-management platforms in IDM in three primary care settings. The main aim of
      this study is to analyze the factors that successfully promote the use of a self
      management platform for COPD patients. METHODS: The e-Vita COPD study compares
      three different approaches to incorporating eHealth via Web-based self-management
      platforms into IDM of COPD using a parallel cohort design. Three groups
      integrated the platforms to different levels. In groups 1 (high integration) and
      2 (medium integration), randomization was performed to two levels of personal
      assistance for patients (high and low assistance); in group 3 there was no
      integration into disease management (none integration). Every visit to the e-Vita
      and Zorgdraad COPD Web platforms was tracked objectively by collecting log data
      (sessions and services). At the first log-in, patients completed a baseline
      questionnaire. Baseline characteristics were automatically extracted from the log
      files including age, gender, education level, scores on the Clinical COPD
      Questionnaire (CCQ), dyspnea scale (MRC), and quality of life questionnaire
      (EQ5D). To predict the use of the platforms, multiple linear regression analyses
      for the different independent variables were performed: integration in IDM (high,
      medium, none), personal assistance for the participants (high vs low),
      educational level, and self-efficacy level (General Self-Efficacy Scale [GSES]).
      All analyses were adjusted for age and gender. RESULTS: Of the 702 invited COPD
      patients, 215 (30.6%) registered to a platform. Of the 82 patients in group 1
      (high integration IDM), 36 were in group 1A (personal assistance) and 46 in group
      1B (low assistance). Of the 96 patients in group 2 (medium integration IDM), 44
      were in group 2A (telephone assistance) and 52 in group 2B (low assistance). A
      total of 37 patients participated in group 3 (no integration IDM). In all, 107
      users (49.8%) visited the platform at least once in the 15-month period. The mean
      number of sessions differed between the three groups (group 1: mean 10.5, SD 1.3;
      group 2: mean 8.8, SD 1.4; group 3: mean 3.7, SD 1.8; P=.01). The mean number of
      sessions differed between the high-assistance and low-assistance groups in groups
      1 and 2 (high: mean 11.8, SD 1.3; low: mean 6.7, SD 1.4; F1,80=6.55, P=.01). High
      assistance participants used more services (mean 45.4, SD 6.2) than low
      assistance participants (mean 21.2, SD 6.8; F1,80=6.82, P=.01). No association
      was found between educational level and usage and between GSES and usage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Use of a self-management platform is higher when participants
      receive adequate personal assistance about how to use the platform. Blended care,
      where digital health and usual care are integrated, will likely lead to increased
      use of the online program. Future research should provide additional insights
      into the preferences of different patient groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Nederlands
      Trial Register NTR4098;
      http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=4098 (Archived by
      WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qO1hqiJ1).

PMID- 28566267
TI  - Toward the Design of Evidence-Based Mental Health Information Systems for People
      With Depression: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Existing research postulates a variety of components that show an
      impact on utilization of technology-mediated mental health information systems
      (MHIS) and treatment outcome. Although researchers assessed the effect of
      isolated design elements on the results of Web-based interventions and the
      associations between symptom reduction and use of components across computer and
      mobile phone platforms, there remains uncertainty with regard to which components
      of technology-mediated interventions for mental health exert the greatest
      therapeutic gain. Until now, no studies have presented results on the therapeutic
      benefit associated with specific service components of technology-mediated MHIS
      for depression. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims at identifying components
      of technology-mediated MHIS for patients with depression. Consequently, all
      randomized controlled trials comparing technology-mediated treatments for
      depression to either waiting-list control, treatment as usual, or any other form
      of treatment for depression were reviewed. Updating prior reviews, this study
      aims to (1) assess the effectiveness of technology-supported interventions for
      the treatment of depression and (2) add to the debate on what components in
      technology-mediated MHIS for the treatment of depression should be standard of
      care. METHODS: Systematic searches in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library
      were conducted. Effect sizes for each comparison between a technology-enabled
      intervention and a control condition were computed using the standard mean
      difference (SMD). Chi-square tests were used to test for heterogeneity. Using
      subgroup analysis, potential sources of heterogeneity were analyzed. Publication
      bias was examined using visual inspection of funnel plots and Begg's test.
      Qualitative data analysis was also used. In an explorative approach, a list of
      relevant components was extracted from the body of literature by consensus
      between two researchers. RESULTS: Of 6387 studies initially identified, 45 met
      all inclusion criteria. Programs analyzed showed a significant trend toward
      reduced depressive symptoms (SMD -0.58, 95% CI -0.71 to -0.45, P<.001).
      Heterogeneity was large (I2>=76). A total of 15 components were identified.
      CONCLUSIONS: Technology-mediated MHIS for the treatment of depression has a
      consistent positive overall effect compared to controls. A total of 15 components
      have been identified. Further studies are needed to quantify the impact of
      individual components on treatment effects and to identify further components
      that are relevant for the design of future technology-mediated interventions for
      the treatment of depression and other mental disorders.

PMID- 28566271
TI  - The making of a WHO director general.

PMID- 28566272
TI  - Shining the light of hope.

PMID- 28566274
TI  - Prenatal antidepressant use and risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
      in offspring: population based cohort study.
AB  - Objective To assess the potential association between prenatal use of
      antidepressants and the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
      in offspring.Design Population based cohort study.Setting Data from the Hong Kong
      population based electronic medical records on the Clinical Data Analysis and
      Reporting System.Participants 190 618 children born in Hong Kong public hospitals
      between January 2001 and December 2009 and followed-up to December 2015.Main
      outcome measure Hazard ratio of maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and
      ADHD in children aged 6 to 14 years, with an average follow-up time of 9.3 years
      (range 7.4-11.0 years).Results Among 190 618 children, 1252 had a mother who used
      prenatal antidepressants. 5659 children (3.0%) were given a diagnosis of ADHD or
      received treatment for ADHD. The crude hazard ratio of maternal antidepressant
      use during pregnancy was 2.26 (P<0.01) compared with non-use. After adjustment
      for potential confounding factors, including maternal psychiatric disorders and
      use of other psychiatric drugs, the adjusted hazard ratio was reduced to 1.39
      (95% confidence interval 1.07 to 1.82, P=0.01). Likewise, similar results were
      observed when comparing children of mothers who had used antidepressants before
      pregnancy with those who were never users (1.76, 1.36 to 2.30, P<0.01). The risk
      of ADHD in the children of mothers with psychiatric disorders was higher compared
      with the children of mothers without psychiatric disorders even if the mothers
      had never used antidepressants (1.84, 1.54 to 2.18, P<0.01). All sensitivity
      analyses yielded similar results. Sibling matched analysis identified no
      significant difference in risk of ADHD in siblings exposed to antidepressants
      during gestation and those not exposed during gestation (0.54, 0.17 to 1.74,
      P=0.30).Conclusions The findings suggest that the association between prenatal
      use of antidepressants and risk of ADHD in offspring can be partially explained
      by confounding by indication of antidepressants. If there is a causal
      association, the size of the effect is probably smaller than that reported
      previously.

PMID- 28566275
TI  - Fibroblast-adapted human CMV vaccines elicit predominantly conventional CD8 T
      cell responses in humans.
AB  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-based vaccines have shown remarkable efficacy in the rhesus
      macaque model of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, enabling 50% of vaccinated
      monkeys to clear a subsequent virulent simian immunodeficiency virus challenge.
      The protective vaccine elicited unconventional CD8 T cell responses that were
      entirely restricted by MHC II or the nonclassical MHC I molecule, MHC-E. These
      unconventional responses were only elicited by a fibroblast-adapted rhesus CMV
      vector with limited tissue tropism; a repaired vector with normal tropism
      elicited conventional responses. Testing whether these unusual protective CD8 T
      responses could be elicited in humans requires vaccinating human subjects with a
      fibroblast-adapted mutant of human CMV (HCMV). In this study, we describe the CD8
      T cell responses of human subjects vaccinated with two fibroblast-adapted HCMV
      vaccines. Most responses were identified as conventional classically MHC I
      restricted, and we found no evidence for MHC II or HLA-E restriction. These
      results indicate that fibroblast adaptation alone is unlikely to explain the
      unconventional responses observed in macaques.

PMID- 28566276
TI  - Fra-2 regulates B cell development by enhancing IRF4 and Foxo1 transcription.
AB  - The role of AP-1 transcription factors in early B cell development and function
      is still incompletely characterized. Here we address the role of Fra-2 in B cell
      differentiation. Deletion of Fra-2 leads to impaired B cell proliferation in the
      bone marrow. In addition, IL-7-stimulated pro-B cell cultures revealed a reduced
      differentiation from large pre-B cells to small B cells and immature B cells.
      Gene profiling and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing analyses unraveled a
      transcriptional reduction of the transcription factors Foxo1, Irf4, Ikaros, and
      Aiolos in Fra-2-deficient B cells. Moreover, expression of IL7Ralpha and Rag 1/2,
      downstream targets of Irf4 and Foxo1, were also reduced in the absence of Fra-2.
      Pro-B cell proliferation and small pre-B cell differentiation were fully rescued
      by expression of Foxo1 and Irf4 in Fra-2-deficient pro-B cells. Hence, Fra-2 is a
      key upstream regulator of Foxo1 and Irf4 expression and influences proliferation
      and differentiation of B cells at multiple stages.

PMID- 28566278
TI  - Emergency departments are struggling to meet asthma care standards, audit shows.

PMID- 28566280
TI  - Erratum for Killiny et al., "A Plant Bacterial Pathogen Manipulates Its Insect
      Vector's Energy Metabolism".

PMID- 28566277
TI  - Enzymatic lipid oxidation by eosinophils propagates coagulation, hemostasis, and
      thrombotic disease.
AB  - Blood coagulation is essential for physiological hemostasis but simultaneously
      contributes to thrombotic disease. However, molecular and cellular events
      controlling initiation and propagation of coagulation are still incompletely
      understood. In this study, we demonstrate an unexpected role of eosinophils
      during plasmatic coagulation, hemostasis, and thrombosis. Using a large-scale
      epidemiological approach, we identified eosinophil cationic protein as an
      independent and predictive risk factor for thrombotic events in humans.
      Concurrent experiments showed that eosinophils contributed to intravascular
      thrombosis by exhibiting a strong endogenous thrombin-generation capacity that
      relied on the enzymatic generation and active provision of a procoagulant
      phospholipid surface enriched in 12/15-lipoxygenase-derived
      hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid-phosphatidylethanolamines. Our findings reveal a
      previously unrecognized role of eosinophils and enzymatic lipid oxidation as
      regulatory elements that facilitate both hemostasis and thrombosis in response to
      vascular injury, thus identifying promising new targets for the treatment of
      thrombotic disease.

PMID- 28566282
TI  - GMC wins right to appeal ruling that registrar's fitness to practise was not
      impaired.

PMID- 28566283
TI  - The safety of antidepressants in pregnancy.

PMID- 28566281
TI  - Double burden or double counting of child malnutrition? The methodological and
      theoretical implications of stuntingoverweight in low and middle income
      countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is increasing concern at research and policy levels about the
      double burden of child malnutrition (DBCM)-with stunting and overweight found
      across different groups of children. Despite some case studies suggesting that
      stunting and overweight can occur concurrently in children, here known as
      'stuntingoverweight', and major drives to reduce all forms of malnutrition in low
      and middle income countries (LMICs), stuntingoverweight is continually
      overlooked. This research evidences the prevalence of stuntingoverweight across
      LMICs, exploring the theoretical and methodological implications of failing to
      acknowledge this form of malnutrition. METHODS: Prevalence estimates of
      stuntingoverweight are constructed from 79 LMICs with nationally representative
      anthropometric survey data. Stunting and overweight estimates are amended to
      exclude stuntedoverweight children. These estimates are compared with those
      published in the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JMEs)-evidencing
      overestimation and double counting of stuntedoverweight children. RESULTS:
      Children can be concurrently stunted and overweight. Stuntedoverweight children
      are found in all LMICs, from 0.3% to 11.7% of under-fives and are included in
      both stunting and overweight rates. Analysed together, this leads to double
      counting of stuntedoverweight children. This artificial inflation of stunting and
      overweight rates can give a false impression of a DBCM, obscuring the true
      diversity of malnutrition present. Over 10 million children are stuntedoverweight
      in the world. CONCLUSIONS: Stuntingoverweight is a newly recognised, understudied
      phenomenon. Affected children are included in both stunting and overweight
      prevalence estimates, introducing unobserved heterogeneity to both individual
      level and population-level research and double counting to population-level
      research. Overlooking stuntedoverweight children has great implications for
      methodology, theory, policies, programmes and the health of affected children.

PMID- 28566284
TI  - Diagnosis and management of deep vein thrombosis in pregnancy.

PMID- 28566285
TI  - Comparison of 19F NMR and 14C Measurements for the Assessment of ADME of BYL719
      (Alpelisib) in Humans.
AB  - The human mass balance study is the definitive study for the assessment of
      absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) properties of a new
      chemical entity in humans. Traditionally this has been carried out by the
      administration of radiolabeled drug substances, typically 14C or occasionally 3H,
      as detection methods for these isotopes allow the absolute quantification of drug
      related material (DRM) in blood, plasma, and excreta. Coupled with the use of
      analytical techniques such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, a picture
      of the metabolic fate of a compound can be elucidated. In this study, we
      demonstrate the capabilities of 19F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
      spectroscopy, applied as an alternative to radiolabeling, for the determination
      of mass balance and for metabolite profiling of an orally administered
      fluorinated drug. To demonstrate the capabilities of NMR, the study was conducted
      on remaining samples from a 14C human mass balance study conducted on Alpelisib
      (BYL719), a compound in late stage development at Novartis for the treatment of
      solid tumors. Quantitative 14C data were used to cross-validate the data obtained
      by NMR. The data show that, using 19F NMR, comparable data can be obtained for
      key human ADME endpoints including mass balance, total DRM determination in
      plasma and metabolite profiling and identification in plasma and excreta.
      Potential scenarios where NMR could be employed as an alternative to
      radiolabeling for the conduct of an early human ADME study are discussed.

PMID- 28566273
TI  - An Expanded Genome-Wide Association Study of Type 2 Diabetes in Europeans.
AB  - To characterize type 2 diabetes (T2D)-associated variation across the allele
      frequency spectrum, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data
      from 26,676 T2D case and 132,532 control subjects of European ancestry after
      imputation using the 1000 Genomes multiethnic reference panel. Promising
      association signals were followed up in additional data sets (of 14,545 or 7,397
      T2D case and 38,994 or 71,604 control subjects). We identified 13 novel T2D
      associated loci (P < 5 * 10-8), including variants near the GLP2R, GIP, and HLA
      DQA1 genes. Our analysis brought the total number of independent T2D associations
      to 128 distinct signals at 113 loci. Despite substantially increased sample size
      and more complete coverage of low-frequency variation, all novel associations
      were driven by common single nucleotide variants. Credible sets of potentially
      causal variants were generally larger than those based on imputation with earlier
      reference panels, consistent with resolution of causal signals to common risk
      haplotypes. Stratification of T2D-associated loci based on T2D-related
      quantitative trait associations revealed tissue-specific enrichment of regulatory
      annotations in pancreatic islet enhancers for loci influencing insulin secretion
      and in adipocytes, monocytes, and hepatocytes for insulin action-associated loci.
      These findings highlight the predominant role played by common variants of modest
      effect and the diversity of biological mechanisms influencing T2D
      pathophysiology.

PMID- 28566286
TI  - Rab35 protein regulates evoked exocytosis of endothelial Weibel-Palade bodies.
AB  - Weibel-Palade bodies (WPB) are secretory organelles of endothelial cells that
      undergo evoked exocytosis following intracellular Ca2+ or cAMP elevation, thereby
      supplying the vasculature with factors controlling hemostasis. Several cytosolic
      and membrane-associated proteins, including the Rab family members Rab3, Rab15,
      and Rab27a, have been implicated in regulating the acute exocytosis of WPB. Here,
      we carried out a genome-wide screen to identify Rab pathways affecting WPB
      exocytosis. Overexpression of a specific subset of Rab GTPase-activating proteins
      (RabGAPs) inhibited histamine-evoked, Ca2+-dependent WPB exocytosis, presumably
      by inactivating the target Rab GTPases. Among these RabGAPs, we concentrated on
      TBC1D10A and showed that the inhibitory effect depends on its GAP activity. We
      confirmed that Rab35 was a target Rab of TBC1D10A in human endothelial cells;
      Rab35 interacted with TBC1D10A, and expression of the GAP-insensitive Rab35(Q67A)
      mutant rescued the inhibitory effect of TBC1D10A overexpression on WPB
      exocytosis. Furthermore, knockdown of Rab35 and expression of a dominant-negative
      Rab35 mutant both inhibited histamine-evoked secretion of the WPB cargos von
      Willebrand factor and P-selectin. Pulldown and co-immunoprecipitation experiments
      identified the ArfGAP with coiled-coil, Ank repeat, and pleckstrin homology
      domain-containing protein ACAP2 as an Rab35 effector in endothelial cells, and
      depletion as well as overexpression approaches revealed that ACAP2 acts as a
      negative regulator of WPB exocytosis. Interestingly, a known ACAP2 target, the
      small GTPase Arf6, supported histamine-evoked WPB exocytosis, as shown by
      knockdown and overexpression of a dominant-negative Arf6 mutant. Our data
      identify Rab35 as a novel regulator of WPB exocytosis, most likely acting through
      the downstream effectors ACAP2 and Arf6.

PMID- 28566287
TI  - The prolyl isomerase Pin1 increases beta-cell proliferation and enhances insulin
      secretion.
AB  - The prolyl isomerase Pin1 binds to the phosphorylated Ser/Thr-Pro motif of target
      proteins and enhances their cis-trans conversion. This report is the first to
      show that Pin1 expression in pancreatic beta cells is markedly elevated by high
      fat diet feeding and in ob/ob mice. To elucidate the role of Pin1 in pancreatic
      beta cells, we generated beta-cell-specific Pin1 KO (betaPin1 KO) mice. These
      mutant mice showed exacerbation of glucose intolerance but had normal insulin
      sensitivity. We identified two independent factors underlying impaired insulin
      secretion in the betaPin1 KO mice. Pin1 enhanced pancreatic beta-cell
      proliferation, as indicated by a reduced beta-cell mass in betaPin1 KO mice
      compared with control mice. Moreover, a diet high in fat and sucrose failed to
      increase pancreatic beta-cell growth in the betaPin1 KO mice, an observation to
      which up-regulation of the cell cycle protein cyclin D appeared to contribute.
      The other role of Pin1 was to activate the insulin-secretory step: Pin1 KO beta
      cells showed impairments in glucose- and KCl-induced elevation of the
      intracellular Ca2+ concentration and insulin secretion. We also identified salt
      inducible kinase 2 (SIK2) as a Pin1-binding protein that affected the regulation
      of Ca2+ influx and found Pin1 to enhance SIK2 kinase activity, resulting in a
      decrease in p35 protein, a negative regulator of Ca2+ influx. Taken together, our
      observations demonstrate critical roles of Pin1 in pancreatic beta cells and that
      Pin1 both promotes beta-cell proliferation and activates insulin secretion.

PMID- 28566290
TI  - Outcome With the Repositionable and Retrievable Boston Scientific Lotus Valve
      Compared With the Balloon-Expandable Edwards Sapien 3 Valve in Patients
      Undergoing Transfemoral Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: New generation devices for transfemoral aortic valve replacement were
      optimized on valve positioning and reduction of residual aortic regurgitation. We
      compared 30-day, 12-month, and 24-month outcomes of the Boston Scientific Lotus
      valve (Lotus) and the balloon-expandable Edwards Sapien 3 (ES3) valve. Primary
      end point was all-cause mortality or disabling stroke within 12 months. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2016, 537 patients were enrolled at our center, and
      202 patients received Lotus and 335 ES3. There was no residual moderate or severe
      aortic regurgitation. Rate of mild aortic regurgitation was lower with the
      repositionable and retrievable Lotus valve compared with the ES3. Rate of
      pacemaker implantation was significantly higher with the Lotus valve compared
      with the ES3 valve (36.1% versus 14.9%, P<0.01). Valve Academic Research
      Consortium-2 early safety end point at 30 days was 7.4% with both devices with no
      difference in all-cause mortality (Lotus, 1.9%; ES3, 1.8%; P=0.87), rate of
      disabling stroke (Lotus, 1.5%; ES3, 2.1%; P=0.62), or major vascular
      complications (Lotus, 2.9%; ES3, 2.4%; P=0.69). The primary end point at 12
      months was similar between groups. In a propensity score-matched comparison,
      there was no difference in the primary end point within 12 months (Lotus, 15.5%;
      ES3, 18.6%; P=0.69) and 24 months (Lotus, 21.9%; ES3, 26.4%; P=0.49).
      CONCLUSIONS: Transfemoral aortic valve replacement with the ES3 and the Lotus
      were associated with similar 30-day, 12-month, and 24-month clinical outcomes.
      Need for permanent pacemaker implantation was significantly higher with the
      repositionable Lotus device. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02162069.

PMID- 28566291
TI  - Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement With a Novel Dual Stent Bioprosthesis.

PMID- 28566288
TI  - Point mutations in the N-terminal domain of transactive response DNA-binding
      protein 43 kDa (TDP-43) compromise its stability, dimerization, and functions.
AB  - Transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) performs multiple tasks in
      mRNA processing, transport, and translational regulation, but it also forms
      aggregates implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. TDP-43's N-terminal
      domain (NTD) is important for these activities and dysfunctions; however, there
      is an open debate about whether or not it adopts a specifically folded, stable
      structure. Here, we studied NTD mutations designed to destabilize its structure
      utilizing NMR and fluorescence spectroscopies, analytical ultracentrifugation,
      splicing assays, and cell microscopy. The substitutions V31R and T32R abolished
      TDP-43 activity in splicing and aggregation processes, and even the rather mild
      L28A mutation severely destabilized the NTD, drastically reducing TDP-43's in
      vitro splicing activity and inducing aberrant localization and aggregation in
      cells. These findings strongly support the idea that a stably folded NTD is
      essential for correct TDP-43 function. The stably folded NTD also promotes
      dimerization, which is pertinent to the protein's activities and pathological
      aggregation, and we present an atomic-level structural model for the TDP-43 dimer
      based on NMR data. Leu-27 is evolutionarily well conserved even though it is
      exposed in the monomeric NTD. We found here that Leu-27 is buried in the dimer
      and that the L27A mutation promotes monomerization. In conclusion, our study
      sheds light on the structural and biological properties of the TDP-43 NTD,
      indicating that the NTD must be stably folded for TDP-43's physiological
      functions, and has implications for understanding the mechanisms promoting the
      pathological aggregation of this protein.

PMID- 28566289
TI  - Microtubule-assisted altered trafficking of astrocytic gap junction protein
      connexin 43 is associated with depletion of connexin 47 during mouse hepatitis
      virus infection.
AB  - Gap junctions (GJs) are important for maintenance of CNS homeostasis. GJ
      proteins, connexin 43 (Cx43) and connexin 47 (Cx47), play a crucial role in
      production and maintenance of CNS myelin. Cx43 is mainly expressed by astrocytes
      in the CNS and forms gap junction intercellular communications between astrocytes
      astrocytes (Cx43-Cx43) and between astrocytes-oligodendrocytes (Cx43-Cx47).
      Mutations of these connexin (Cx) proteins cause dysmyelinating diseases in
      humans. Previously, it has been shown that Cx43 localization and expression is
      altered due to mouse hepatitis virus (MHV)-A59 infection both in vivo and in
      vitro; however, its mechanism and association with loss of myelin protein was not
      elaborated. Thus, we explored potential mechanisms by which MHV-A59 infection
      alters Cx43 localization and examined the effects of viral infection on Cx47
      expression and its association with loss of the myelin marker proteolipid
      protein. Immunofluorescence and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy
      confirmed that MHV-A59 used microtubules (MTs) as a conduit to reach the cell
      surface and restricted MT-mediated Cx43 delivery to the cell membrane. Co
      immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrated that Cx43-beta-tubulin molecular
      interaction was depleted due to protein-protein interaction between viral
      particles and MTs. During acute MHV-A59 infection, oligodendrocytic Cx47, which
      is mainly stabilized by Cx43 in vivo, was down-regulated, and its characteristic
      staining remained disrupted even at chronic phase. The loss of Cx47 was
      associated with loss of proteolipid protein at the chronic stage of MHV-A59
      infection.

PMID- 28566292
TI  - Effect of Permanent Right Internal Mammary Artery Closure on Coronary Collateral
      Function and Myocardial Ischemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to test the effect of permanent right
      internal mammary artery device closure on coronary collateral function and
      myocardial ischemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a prospective, open-label
      clinical trial in 50 patients with coronary artery disease. The primary study end
      point was coronary collateral flow index as obtained during a 1-minute proximal
      right coronary artery (RCA) and left coronary artery balloon occlusion at
      baseline before and at follow-up examination 6 weeks after distal right internal
      mammary artery device closure. Collateral flow index is the ratio between
      simultaneously recorded mean coronary occlusive pressure divided by mean aortic
      pressure, both subtracted by central venous pressure. Secondary study end points
      were fractional flow reserve during vessel patency, the quantitative
      intracoronary ECG ST-segment elevation, and angina pectoris during the same 1
      minute coronary occlusion. Collateral flow index in the untreated RCA and left
      coronary artery changed from 0.071+/-0.082 at baseline to 0.132+/-0.117
      (P<0.0001) at follow-up examination and from 0.106+/-0.092 to 0.081+/-0.079
      (P=0.29), respectively. RCA fractional flow reserve increased significantly
      (P=0.0029) from baseline to follow-up examination, despite deferral of coronary
      intervention in all patients. There was a decrease in intracoronary ECG ST
      elevation during RCA occlusion from baseline to follow-up examination (P=0.0015);
      it did not change in the left coronary artery. Angina pectoris during RCA
      occlusion tended to occur in fewer patients at follow-up versus baseline
      examination (P=0.06). CONCLUSIONS: Permanent right internal mammary artery device
      closure seems to augment extracardiac ipsilateral coronary supply to the effect
      of reducing ischemia in the dependent myocardial region. CLINICAL TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02475408.

PMID- 28566293
TI  - Stimulating Extracardiac Collaterals via Right Internal Mammary Artery Occlusion:
      Another Step Into an Undiscovered Country.

PMID- 28566294
TI  - "The NHS is on its knees, someone needs to stand up"--why doctors are running for
      parliament.

PMID- 28566295
TI  - Significance of Microvascular Function in Visual-Functional Mismatch Between
      Invasive Coronary Angiography and Fractional Flow Reserve.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite a moderate correlation between angiographical stenosis and
      physiological significance, the mechanism of discordance has not been fully
      elucidated, particularly regarding the significance of microvascular function.
      This study sought to clarify whether microvascular function affects visual
      functional mismatch between quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) and
      fractional flow reserve (FFR). METHODS AND RESULTS: We assessed QCA, FFR,
      coronary flow reserve, and the index of microcirculatory resistance in 849 non
      left-main coronary lesions with visually estimated intermediate stenoses from 532
      patients. Clinical and lesion-specific characteristics and physiological
      parameters associated with mismatch and reverse mismatch were studied. Coronary
      flow reserve and index of microcirculatory resistance showed a weak, but
      significant, correlation with FFR (R=0.306, P<0.001 and R=0.158, P<0.001,
      respectively). Four hundred twenty-two lesions were visually nonsignificant
      (diameter stenosis assessed by QCA [QCA-DS] <=50%) and 427 lesions were visually
      significant (QCA-DS >50%). Among visually nonsignificant lesions, FFR <=0.80
      (reverse mismatch) was observed in 129 lesions (30.6%). Among visually
      significant lesions, FFR >0.80 (mismatch) were observed in 179 lesions (41.9%).
      The significant predictors of reverse mismatch were male sex, nonculprit lesions
      of acute coronary syndrome, left anterior descending artery location, smaller QCA
      reference diameter, greater QCA-DS, lower coronary flow reserve, and lower index
      of microcirculatory resistance. Mismatch was associated with right coronary
      artery location, greater QCA reference diameter, smaller QCA-DS, lesion length,
      higher coronary flow reserve, and higher index of microcirculatory resistance.
      CONCLUSIONS: There was a high prevalence of visual-functional mismatches between
      QCA and FFR. The discrepancy was related to clinical characteristics, lesion
      specific factors, and microvascular resistance that was undistinguishable by
      coronary angiography, thus suggesting the importance of physiological lesion
      assessment.

PMID- 28566296
TI  - Shortening of the Short Refractory Periods in Short QT Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of short QT syndrome (SQTS) remains difficult in case of
      borderline QT values as often found in normal populations. Whether some
      shortening of refractory periods (RP) may help in differentiating SQTS from
      normal subjects is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Atrial and right ventricular RP
      at the apex and right ventricular outflow tract as determined during standard
      electrophysiological study were compared between 16 SQTS patients (QTc 324+/-24
      ms) and 15 controls with similar clinical characteristics (QTc 417+/-32 ms).
      Atrial RP were significantly shorter in SQTS compared with controls at 600- and
      500-ms basic cycle lengths. Baseline ventricular RP were significantly shorter in
      SQTS patients than in controls, both at the apex and right ventricular outflow
      tract and for any cycle length. Differences remained significant for RP of any
      subsequent extrastimulus at any cycle length and any pacing site. A cut-off value
      of baseline RP <200 ms at the right ventricular outflow tract either at 600- or
      500-ms cycle length had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 100% for the
      diagnosis of SQTS. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SQTS have shorter ventricular RP
      than controls, both at baseline during various cycle lengths and after premature
      extrastimuli. A cut-off value of 200 ms at the right ventricular outflow tract
      during 600- and 500-ms basic cycle length may help in detecting true SQTS from
      normal subjects with borderline QT values.

PMID- 28566297
TI  - Effect of Coronary Revascularization on the Prognostic Value of Stress Myocardial
      Contrast Wall Motion and Perfusion Imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The assessment of myocardial perfusion (MP) and wall motion (WM)
      using contrast dipyridamole echocardiography (cSE-WMP) improves the sensitivity
      to detect coronary artery disease and the stratification of cardiac events, but
      its long-term value for fatal and nonfatal ischemic cardiac events, also with
      respect to patients undergoing revascularization or not, remains to be
      determined. METHODS AND RESULTS: One-thousand three-hundred and twenty-nine
      patients with suspect or known CAD who underwent cSE-WMP were followed for a
      median 5.5 years. The independent prognostic value of cSE-WMP regarding cardiac
      death or nonfatal myocardial infarction was related to stress WM and MP, rest
      ejection fraction, clinical risk factors, and medications. Patients
      revascularized after cSE-WMP were separately analyzed to determine whether the
      procedure influenced outcome and whether this depends on cSE-WMP results. A total
      of 125 cardiac fatal and nonfatal ischemic events (9.4%) occurred during the
      follow-up (61 deaths, 64 myocardial infarctions). The 5-year event rate with
      normal MP and WM was 5.9%, 9.9% with isolated MP defects (normal WM), and 15.5%
      with both MP and WM abnormalities. In patients not undergoing revascularization
      (n=1111), reversible MP defects added discrimination value over WM response and
      clinical factors/medication data (P=0.001), while in the cohort undergoing
      revascularization (n=218), cSE-WMP results did not influence outcome.
      CONCLUSIONS: cSE-WMP, with both contrast MP and WM assessments, provides
      independent, incremental prognostic information regarding ischemic cardiac events
      at 5 years in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.
      Revascularization reduces cardiac events after an abnormal cSE-WMP, resulting in
      outcomes not different from those in patients with normal cSE-WMP.

PMID- 28566298
TI  - Colchicine Depolymerizes Microtubules, Increases Junctophilin-2, and Improves
      Right Ventricular Function in Experimental Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a lethal disease
      characterized by obstructive pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricular
      (RV) dysfunction. Although RV function predicts outcomes in PAH, mechanisms of RV
      dysfunction are poorly understood, and RV-targeted therapies are lacking. We
      hypothesized that in PAH, abnormal microtubular structure in RV cardiomyocytes
      impairs RV function by reducing junctophilin-2 (JPH2) expression, resulting in t
      tubule derangements. Conversely, we assessed whether colchicine, a microtubule
      depolymerizing agent, could increase JPH2 expression and enhance RV function in
      monocrotaline-induced PAH. METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunoblots, confocal microscopy,
      echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and treadmill testing were used to
      examine colchicine's (0.5 mg/kg 3 times/week) effects on pulmonary hemodynamics,
      RV function, and functional capacity. Rats were treated with saline (n=28) or
      colchicine (n=24) for 3 weeks, beginning 1 week after monocrotaline (60 mg/kg,
      subcutaneous). In the monocrotaline RV, but not the left ventricle, microtubule
      density is increased, and JPH2 expression is reduced, with loss of t-tubule
      localization and t-tubule disarray. Colchicine reduces microtubule density,
      increases JPH2 expression, and improves t-tubule morphology in RV cardiomyocytes.
      Colchicine therapy diminishes RV hypertrophy, improves RV function, and enhances
      RV-pulmonary artery coupling. Colchicine reduces small pulmonary arteriolar
      thickness and improves pulmonary hemodynamics. Finally, colchicine increases
      exercise capacity. CONCLUSIONS: Monocrotaline-induced PAH causes RV-specific
      derangement of microtubules marked by reduction in JPH2 and t-tubule disarray.
      Colchicine reduces microtubule density, increases JPH2 expression, and improves
      both t-tubule architecture and RV function. Colchicine also reduces adverse
      pulmonary vascular remodeling. These results provide biological plausibility for
      a clinical trial to repurpose colchicine as a RV-directed therapy for PAH.

PMID- 28566299
TI  - Predicting Coronary Artery Aneurysms in Kawasaki Disease at a North American
      Center: An Assessment of Baseline z Scores.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate risk prediction of coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs) in North
      American children with Kawasaki disease remains a clinical challenge. We sought
      to determine the predictive utility of baseline coronary dimensions adjusted for
      body surface area (z scores) for future CAAs in Kawasaki disease and explored the
      extent to which addition of established Japanese risk scores to baseline coronary
      artery z scores improved discrimination for CAA development. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      We explored the relationships of CAA with baseline z scores; with Kobayashi,
      Sano, Egami, and Harada risk scores; and with the combination of baseline z
      scores and risk scores. We defined CAA as a maximum z score (zMax) >=2.5 of the
      left anterior descending or right coronary artery at 4 to 8 weeks of illness. Of
      261 patients, 77 patients (29%) had a baseline zMax >=2.0. CAAs occurred in 15
      patients (6%). CAAs were strongly associated with baseline zMax >=2.0 versus <2.0
      (12 [16%] versus 3 [2%], respectively, P<0.001). Baseline zMax >=2.0 had a C
      statistic of 0.77, good sensitivity (80%), and excellent negative predictive
      value (98%). None of the risk scores alone had adequate discrimination. When high
      risk status per the Japanese risk scores was added to models containing baseline
      zMax >=2.0, none were significantly better than baseline zMax >=2.0 alone.
      CONCLUSIONS: In a North American center, baseline zMax >=2.0 in children with
      Kawasaki disease demonstrated high predictive utility for later development of
      CAA. Future studies should validate the utility of our findings.

PMID- 28566300
TI  - Sphingolipids: membrane microdomains in brain development, function and
      neurological diseases.
AB  - Sphingolipids are highly enriched in the nervous system where they are pivotal
      constituents of the plasma membranes and are important for proper brain
      development and functions. Sphingolipids are not merely structural elements, but
      are also recognized as regulators of cellular events by their ability to form
      microdomains in the plasma membrane. The significance of such
      compartmentalization spans broadly from being involved in differentiation of
      neurons and synaptic transmission to neuronal-glial interactions and myelin
      stability. Thus, perturbations of the sphingolipid metabolism can lead to
      rearrangements in the plasma membrane, which has been linked to the development
      of various neurological diseases. Studying microdomains and their functions has
      for a long time been synonymous with studying the role of cholesterol. However,
      it is becoming increasingly clear that microdomains are very heterogeneous, which
      among others can be ascribed to the vast number of sphingolipids. In this review,
      we discuss the importance of microdomains with emphasis on sphingolipids in brain
      development and function as well as how disruption of the sphingolipid metabolism
      (and hence microdomains) contributes to the pathogenesis of several neurological
      diseases.

PMID- 28566303
TI  - Sustained increases in skin blood flow are not a prerequisite to initiate
      sweating during passive heat exposure.
AB  - Some studies have observed a functional relationship between sweating and skin
      blood flow. However, the implications of this relationship during physiologically
      relevant conditions remain unclear. We manipulated sudomotor activity through
      changes in sweating efficiency to determine if parallel changes in vasomotor
      activity are observed. Eight young men completed two trials at 36 degrees C and
      two trials at 42 degrees C. During these trials, air temperature remained
      constant while ambient vapor pressure increased from 1.6 to 5.6 kPa over 2 h.
      Forced airflow across the skin was used to create conditions of high (HiSeff) or
      low (LoSeff) sweating efficiency. Local sweat rate (LSR), local skin blood flow
      (SkBF), as well as mean skin and esophageal temperatures were measured
      continuously. It took longer for LSR to increase during HiSeff at 36 degrees C
      (HiSeff: 99 +/- 11 vs. LoSeff: 77 +/- 11 min, P < 0.01) and 42 degrees C (HiSeff:
      72 +/- 16 vs. LoSeff: 51 +/- 15 min, P < 0.01). In general, an increase in LSR
      preceded the increase in SkBF when expressed as ambient vapor pressure and time
      for all conditions (P < 0.05). However, both responses were activated at a
      similar change in mean body temperature (average across all trials, LSR: 0.26 +/-
      0.15 vs. SkBF: 0.30 +/- 0.18 degrees C, P = 0.26). These results demonstrate that
      altering the point at which LSR is initiated during heat exposure is paralleled
      by similar shifts for the increase in SkBF. However, local sweat production
      occurs before an increase in SkBF, suggesting that SkBF is not necessarily a
      prerequisite for sweating.

PMID- 28566304
TI  - Circulating motilin, ghrelin, and GLP-1 and their correlations with gastric slow
      waves in patients with chronic kidney disease.
AB  - Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) commonly complain upper
      gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, especially anorexia. Hemodialysis (HD) has been
      noted to improve GI symptoms; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear.
      This study was designed 1) to study effects of HD on GI symptoms and gastric slow
      waves; and 2) to investigate possible roles of ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide
      1 (GLP-1): the study recruited 13 healthy controls, 20 CKD patients without HD
      (CKD group), and 18 CKD patients with HD (HD group). Dyspeptic symptoms,
      autonomic functions, gastric slow waves, and plasma level of ghrelin and GLP-1
      were analyzed. First, the CKD patients with HD showed markedly lower scores of
      anorexia (0.6 +/- 0.2 vs. 3.2 +/- 0.4, P < 0.001) compared with patients without
      HD. Second, the CKD group but not HD group showed a significant reduction (25.6%)
      in the percentage of normal gastric slow waves, compared with controls. Third,
      the CKD group exhibited a significantly lower ghrelin level compared with the HD
      group (26.8 +/- 0.9 vs. 34.1 +/- 2.3 ng/l, P < 0.02) and a higher GLP-1 level
      (29.4 +/- 2.8 vs. 20.0 +/- 2.1 pmol/l, P < 0.05) compared with controls.
      Moreover, the percentage of normal slow waves was positively correlated with
      ghrelin (r = 0.385, P = 0.019) but negatively correlated with GLP-1 (r = -0.558,
      P < 0.001) in all CKD patients. Hemodialysis improves upper GI symptoms and
      gastric slow waves in CKD patients. An increase in ghrelin and a decrease in GLP
      1 might be involved in the HD-induced improvement in gastric slow waves.

PMID- 28566305
TI  - Tissue-specific seasonal changes in mitochondrial function of a mammalian
      hibernator.
AB  - Mammalian hibernators, such as golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus
      lateralis; GMGS), cease to feed while reducing metabolic rate and body
      temperature during winter months, surviving exclusively on endogenous fuels
      stored before hibernation. We hypothesized that mitochondria, the cellular sites
      of oxidative metabolism, undergo tissue-specific seasonal adjustments in
      carbohydrate and fatty acid utilization to facilitate or complement this
      remarkable phenotype. To address this, we performed high-resolution respirometry
      of mitochondria isolated from GMGS liver, heart, skeletal muscle, and brown
      adipose tissue (BAT) sampled during summer (active), fall (prehibernation), and
      winter (hibernation) seasons using multisubstrate titration protocols.
      Mitochondrial phospholipid composition was examined as a postulated intrinsic
      modulator of respiratory function across tissues and seasons. Respirometry
      revealed seasonal variations in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation capacity,
      substrate utilization, and coupling efficiency that reflected the distinct
      functions and metabolic demands of the tissues they support. A consistent finding
      across tissues was a greater influence of fatty acids (palmitoylcarnitine) on
      respiratory parameters during the prehibernation and hibernation seasons. In
      particular, fatty acids had a greater suppressive effect on pyruvate-supported
      oxidative phosphorylation in heart, muscle, and liver mitochondria and enhanced
      uncoupled respiration in BAT and muscle mitochondria in the colder seasons.
      Seasonal variations in the mitochondrial membrane composition reflected changes
      in the supply and utilization of polyunsaturated fatty acids but were generally
      mild and inconsistent with functional variations. In conclusion, mitochondria
      respond to seasonal variations in physical activity, temperature, and nutrient
      availability in a tissue-specific manner that complements circannual shifts in
      the bioenergetic and thermoregulatory demands of mammalian hibernators.

PMID- 28566301
TI  - Understanding RNA modifications: the promises and technological bottlenecks of
      the 'epitranscriptome'.
AB  - The discovery of mechanisms that alter genetic information via RNA editing or
      introducing covalent RNA modifications points towards a complexity in gene
      expression that challenges long-standing concepts. Understanding the biology of
      RNA modifications represents one of the next frontiers in molecular biology. To
      this date, over 130 different RNA modifications have been identified, and
      improved mass spectrometry approaches are still adding to this list. However,
      only recently has it been possible to map selected RNA modifications at single
      nucleotide resolution, which has created a number of exciting hypotheses about
      the biological function of RNA modifications, culminating in the proposition of
      the 'epitranscriptome'. Here, we review some of the technological advances in
      this rapidly developing field, identify the conceptual challenges and discuss
      approaches that are needed to rigorously test the biological function of specific
      RNA modifications.

PMID- 28566306
TI  - Association of dietary nitrate with atherosclerotic vascular disease mortality: a
      prospective cohort study of older adult women.
AB  - Background: Nitrate-rich vegetables lower blood pressure and improve endothelial
      function in humans. It is not known, however, whether increased consumption of
      nitrate-rich vegetables translates to a lower risk of atherosclerotic vascular
      disease (ASVD) mortality.Objective: The objective was to investigate the
      association of nitrate intake from vegetables with ASVD mortality.Design: A total
      of 1226 Australian women aged 70-85 y without prevalent ASVD and/or diabetes were
      recruited in 1998 and were studied for 15 y. We assessed demographic and ASVD
      risk factors at baseline (1998), and we used a validated food-frequency
      questionnaire to evaluate dietary intake. Nitrate intake from vegetables was
      calculated by use of a newly developed comprehensive database. The primary
      outcome was any death attributed to ASVD ascertained by using linked data that
      were provided via the Western Australian Data Linkage system. We used Cox
      proportional hazards modeling to examine the association between nitrate intake
      and ASVD mortality before and after adjustment for lifestyle and cardiovascular
      disease risk factors.Results: During a follow-up period of 15,947 person-years,
      238 of 1226 (19.4%) women died of ASVD-related causes. The mean +/- SD vegetable
      nitrate intake was 67.0 +/- 29.2 mg/d. Each SD higher vegetable nitrate intake
      was associated with a lower risk of ASVD mortality in both unadjusted [HR: 0.80
      (95% CI: 0.70, 0.92), P = 0.002] and multivariable-adjusted [HR: 0.79 (95% CI:
      0.68, 0.93), P = 0.004] analyses. This relation was attenuated after further
      adjustment for diet quality [HR: 0.85 (95% CI: 0.72, 1.01), P = 0.072]. Higher
      vegetable nitrate intake (per SD) also was associated with a lower risk of all
      cause mortality [multivariable-adjusted HR: 0.87 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.97), P =
      0.011].Conclusions: Nitrate intake from vegetables was inversely associated with
      ASVD mortality independent of lifestyle and cardiovascular disease risk factors
      in this population of older adult women without prevalent ASVD or diabetes. These
      results support the concept that nitrate-rich vegetables may reduce the risk of
      age-related ASVD mortality. This trial was registered at www.anzctr.org.au as
      ACTRN12617000640303.

PMID- 28566309
TI  - In Memoriam.

PMID- 28566307
TI  - Central adiposity and the overweight risk paradox in aging: follow-up of 130,473
      UK Biobank participants.
AB  - Background: For older groups, being overweight [body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2):
      25 to <30] is reportedly associated with a lower or similar risk of mortality
      than being normal weight (BMI: 18.5 to <25). However, this "risk paradox" is
      partly explained by smoking and disease-associated weight loss. This paradox may
      also arise from BMI failing to measure fat redistribution to a centralized
      position in later life.Objective: This study aimed to estimate associations
      between combined measurements of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with mortality
      and incident coronary artery disease (CAD).Design: This study followed 130,473 UK
      Biobank participants aged 60-69 y (baseline 2006-2010) for <=8.3 y (n = 2974
      deaths). Current smokers and individuals with recent or disease-associated (e.g.,
      from dementia, heart failure, or cancer) weight loss were excluded, yielding a
      "healthier agers" group. Survival models were adjusted for age, sex, alcohol
      intake, smoking history, and educational attainment. Population and sex-specific
      lower and higher WHR tertiles were <0.91 and >=0.96 for men and <0.79 and >=0.85
      for women, respectively.Results: Ignoring WHR, the risk of mortality for
      overweight subjects was similar to that for normal-weight subjects (HR: 1.09; 95%
      CI: 0.99, 1.19; P = 0.066). However, among normal-weight subjects, mortality
      increased for those with a higher WHR (HR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.65) compared
      with a lower WHR. Being overweight with a higher WHR was associated with
      substantial excess mortality (HR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.25, 1.61) and greatly increased
      CAD incidence (sub-HR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.39, 1.93) compared with being normal
      weight with a lower WHR. There was no interaction between physical activity and
      BMI plus WHR groups with respect to mortality.Conclusions: For healthier agers
      (i.e., nonsmokers without disease-associated weight loss), having central
      adiposity and a BMI corresponding to normal weight or overweight is associated
      with substantial excess mortality. The claimed BMI-defined overweight risk
      paradox may result in part from failing to account for central adiposity, rather
      than reflecting a protective physiologic effect of higher body-fat content in
      later life.

PMID- 28566308
TI  - Changes in dietary glycemic index and glycemic load in Australian adults from
      1995 to 2012.
AB  - Background: Australians have used the glycemic index (GI) since 1995; however,
      there are no data on changes in carbohydrate quality over time.Objectives: The
      aim was to compare average dietary GI and glycemic load (GL), and contributing
      carbohydrate foods, in the 2 most recent national dietary surveys.Design: Dietary
      data from adult participants of national nutrition surveys conducted in 1995 (the
      1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey; n = 8703) and 2012 (the 2011-2012
      National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey; n = 6278), collected by a single
      24-h recall, were analyzed. The differences in mean dietary GI and GL between
      surveys were compared by using 1-factor ANOVA. The main sources of dietary GL in
      the 2 surveys were also assessed. Multiple linear regression was performed to
      examine the contributions of the food groups to interindividual variations in
      dietary GI and GL.Results: Overall, dietary GI and GL decreased by 5% and 12%,
      respectively, from 1995 to 2012 (GI on glucose standard: 56.5 +/- 6.2 compared
      with 53.9 +/- 6.8, respectively; GL: 153.3 +/- 62.1 compared with 135.4 +/- 58.5,
      respectively; both P < 0.001). Breads were the main contributor to GL at both
      time points. Potatoes and sweetened beverages contributed less, whereas cereal
      based dishes contributed more in 2012 than in 1995. The top 20 GL-contributing
      food groups explained less interindividual variation in dietary GI (R2: 0.376
      compared with 0.290) and GL (R2: 0.825 compared with 0.770) in 2012 than in
      1995.Conclusion: Although the average dietary GI and GL declined between 1995 and
      2012, trends in specific carbohydrate foods suggest that Australians are avoiding
      potatoes and sugary beverages in favor of a greater variety of carbohydrate
      foods, particularly cereal products.

PMID- 28566310
TI  - Higher densities of fast-food and full-service restaurants are not associated
      with obesity prevalence.
AB  - Background: The obesity epidemic in the United States has been mirrored by an
      increase in calories consumed outside of the home and by expansions in the
      numbers of, and portion sizes at, both fast-food restaurants (FFRs) and full
      service restaurants (FSRs), leading some to blame the epidemic on the restaurant
      industry. If this were indeed true, one would predict that greater per capita
      densities of FFRs and FSRs would lead to greater obesity prevalence.Objective: We
      evaluated the population-level association between both FSRs and FFRs and the
      prevalence of obesity and calculated the proportion of calories consumed in these
      establishments.Design: In this ecological cross-sectional study, we used county
      level data (aggregate-level data) for obesity prevalence across the mainland
      United States in 2012 and matched these data to county-level per capita densities
      of FFRs and FSRs in the same year. Multiple linear regression was used to
      determine the relation between the prevalence of obesity and the densities of
      FFRs and FSRs after adjustment for confounding factors.Results: Contrary to
      expectations, obesity prevalence was highly significantly negatively related to
      the densities of both FFRs and FSRs (combined-effect R2 = 0.195). This was
      principally because greater numbers of both FFRs and FSRs were located in areas
      in which individuals were on average wealthier and more educated. When we
      normalized for these factors (and additional socioeconomic variables), the
      associations between restaurant densities and obesity effectively disappeared
      (pooled R2 = 0.008). Our calculations showed that the percentage of total
      calories consumed in FFRs and FSRs is a mean of only 15.9% of the total intake
      (maximum: 22.6%).Conclusions: Variations in the densities of FFRs and FSRs are
      not linked to the prevalence of obesity in the United States, and food consumed
      in these establishments is responsible for <20% of total energy intake. This
      finding has implications for policy decisions regarding how we aim to tackle the
      obesity epidemic.

PMID- 28566312
TI  - Michael John Rennie, MSc, PhD, FRSE, FHEA, 1946-2017: an appreciation of his work
      on protein metabolism in human muscle.

PMID- 28566311
TI  - Comparing effectiveness of mass media campaigns with price reductions targeting
      fruit and vegetable intake on US cardiovascular disease mortality and race
      disparities.
AB  - Background: A low intake of fruits and vegetables (F&Vs) is a major risk factor
      for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the United States. Both mass media campaigns
      (MMCs) and economic incentives may increase F&V consumption. Few data exist on
      their comparative effectiveness.Objective: We estimated CVD mortality reductions
      potentially achievable by price reductions and MMC interventions targeting F&V
      intake in the US population.Design: We developed a US IMPACT Food Policy Model to
      compare 3 policies targeting F&V intake across US adults from 2015 to 2030:
      national MMCs and national F&V price reductions of 10% and 30%. We accounted for
      differences in baseline diets, CVD rates, MMC coverage, MMC duration, and
      declining effects over time. Outcomes included cumulative CVD (coronary heart
      disease and stroke) deaths prevented or postponed and life-years gained (LYGs)
      over the study period, stratified by age, sex, and race.Results: A 1-y MMC in
      2015 would increase the average national F&V consumption by 7% for 1 y and
      prevent ~18,600 CVD deaths (95% CI: 17,600, 19,500), gaining ~280,100 LYGs by
      2030. With a 15-y MMC, increased F&V consumption would be sustained, yielding a 3
      fold larger reduction (56,100; 95% CI: 52,400, 57,700) in CVD deaths. In
      comparison, a 10% decrease in F&V prices would increase F&V consumption by ~14%.
      This would prevent ~153,300 deaths (95% CI: 146,400, 159,200), gaining ~2.51
      million LYGs. For a 30% price decrease, resulting in a 42% increase in F&V
      consumption, corresponding values would be 451,900 CVD deaths prevented or
      postponed (95% CI: 433,100, 467,500) and 7.3 million LYGs gained. Effects were
      similar by sex, with a smaller proportional effect and larger absolute effects at
      older ages. A 1-y MMC would be 35% less effective in preventing CVD deaths in non
      Hispanic blacks than in whites. In comparison, price-reduction policies would
      have equitable proportional effects.Conclusion: Both national MMCs and price
      reduction policies could reduce US CVD mortality, with price reduction being more
      powerful and sustainable.

PMID- 28566313
TI  - Evaluation of a Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) Assay for Detection
      of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Clinical Samples
      from an Outbreak in South Korea in 2015.

PMID- 28566314
TI  - T2 Magnetic Resonance Assay-Based Direct Detection of Three Lyme Disease-Related
      Borrelia Species in Whole-Blood Samples.
AB  - In early Lyme disease (LD), serologic testing is insensitive and seroreactivity
      may reflect active or past infection. In this study, we evaluated a novel assay
      for the direct detection of three species of Borrelia spirochetes in whole blood.
      The T2 magnetic resonance (T2MR) assay platform was used to amplify Borrelia DNA
      released from intact spirochetes and to detect amplicon. Analytical sensitivity
      was determined from blood spiked with known concentrations of spirochetes, and
      the assay's limit of detection was found to be in the single-cell-per-milliliter
      range: 5 cells/ml for B. afzelii and 8 cells/ml for Borrelia burgdorferi and
      Borrelia garinii Clinical samples (n = 66) from confirmed or suspected early LD
      patients were also analyzed. B. burgdorferi was detected using T2MR in 2/2 (100%)
      of blood samples from patients with confirmed early LD, based on the presence of
      erythema migrans and documentation of seroconversion or a positive real-time
      blood PCR. T2MR detected B. burgdorferi in blood samples from 17/54 (31%) of
      patients with probable LD, based on the presence of erythema migrans without
      documented seroconversion or of documented seroconversion in patients with a
      compatible clinical syndrome but without erythema migrans. Out of 21 clinical
      samples tested by real-time PCR, only 1 was positive and 13 were negative with
      agreement with T2MR. An additional 7 samples that were negative by real-time PCR
      were positive with T2MR. Therefore, T2MR enables a low limit of detection (LoD)
      for Borrelia spp. in whole blood samples and is able to detect B. burgdorferi in
      clinical samples.

PMID- 28566317
TI  - WHO targets medication-related errors.

PMID- 28566315
TI  - Low Cryptococcus Antigen Titers as Determined by Lateral Flow Assay Should Be
      Interpreted Cautiously in Patients without Prior Diagnosis of Cryptococcal
      Infection.
AB  - Detection of Cryptococcus antigen (CrAg) is invaluable for establishing
      cryptococcal disease. Multiple different methods for CrAg detection are
      available, including a lateral flow assay (LFA). Despite excellent performance of
      the CrAg LFA, we have observed multiple cases of low-titer (<=1:5) positive CrAg
      LFA results in patients for whom cryptococcosis was ultimately excluded. To
      investigate the accuracy of low-titer positive CrAg LFA results, we performed
      chart reviews for all patients with positive CrAg LFA results between June 2014
      and December 2016. During this period, serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      samples from 3,969 patients were tested with the CrAg LFA, and 55 patients (1.5%)
      tested positive. Thirty-eight of those patients lacked a history of cryptococcal
      disease and were the focus of this study. Fungal culture or histopathology
      confirmed Cryptococcus infection for 20 patients (52.6%), and CrAg LFA titers in
      serum and CSF samples ranged from 1:5 to >=1:2,560. For the 18 patients (47.4%)
      without culture or histopathological confirmation, the CrAg LFA results were
      considered true-positive results for 5 patients (titer range, 1:10 to >=1:2,560),
      due to clinical improvement with targeted therapy and decreasing CrAg LFA titers.
      The remaining 13 patients had CrAg LFA titers of 1:2 (n = 11) or 1:5 (n = 2) and
      were ultimately diagnosed with an alternative condition (n = 11) or began therapy
      for possible cryptococcosis without improvement (n = 2), leading to an overall
      CrAg LFA false-positive rate of 34%. We recommend careful clinical correlation
      prior to establishing a diagnosis of cryptococcal infection for patients with
      first-time positive CrAg LFA titers of 1:2.

PMID- 28566319
TI  - What next for the cardiovascular polypill?

PMID- 28566318
TI  - Febrile seizures in children: benefits and risks of prophylactic drug management.

PMID- 28566316
TI  - Evaluation of Euroimmun Anti-Zika Virus IgM and IgG Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent
      Assays for Zika Virus Serologic Testing.
AB  - With the emerging Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic, serologic diagnosis relies on a
      labor-intensive IgM antibody capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MAC
      ELISA) and confirmation by a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). To
      streamline serologic testing, several commercial assays have been developed. Our
      aim was to compare the commercial Euroimmun anti-ZIKV IgM and IgG assays to the
      reference MAC-ELISA and PRNT currently in use. Serum specimens submitted to
      Public Health Ontario Laboratory, Canada, were tested for IgM and IgG using the
      Euroimmun assays and the results were compared with those from MAC-ELISA. The
      PRNT was performed on positive or equivocal specimens using either MAC-ELISA or
      Euroimmun assays, MAC-ELISA-inconclusive specimens, and a convenience sample of
      specimens negative by both assays (cohort 1). Another set of specimens selected
      on the basis of PRNT results was subsequently tested by the Euroimmun assays
      (cohort 2). MAC-ELISA was positive, equivocal, negative, and inconclusive in
      57/223, 15/223, 147/223, and 4/223 specimens, respectively. Among the 76
      specimens that were MAC-ELISA positive, equivocal, or inconclusive, 30 (39.5%)
      were Euroimmun IgM and/or IgG positive or equivocal. Among the 147 MAC-ELISA
      negative specimens, 136 (92.5%) were Euroimmun IgM and IgG negative. The
      sensitivity of the combined Euroimmun IgM/IgG against the PRNT was 83% (cohort 1)
      and 92% (cohort 2), whereas the specificity was 81% (cohort 1) and 65% (cohort
      2). The combined Euroimmun IgM/IgG showed good specificity (92.5%) but suboptimal
      sensitivity (39.5%) compared with that of the MAC-ELISA. However, the sensitivity
      of the combined Euroimmun IgM/IgG against the PRNT was significantly higher (83
      to 92%). More studies are needed before commercial assays are implemented for
      routine ZIKV serologic diagnosis.

PMID- 28566320
TI  - EMA recommends suspension of some generic drugs.

PMID- 28566322
TI  - More on gastric acid suppression and C. difficile risk.

PMID- 28566321
TI  - Effect of intensive glucose control on microvascular events in people with type 2
      diabetes.
AB  - Effect of intensive glucose control on microvascular events in people with type 2
      diabetes ? Febrile seizures in children: benefits and risks of prophylactic drug
      management More on gastric acid suppression and C difficile risk ? What next for
      the cardiovascular polypill? ? EMA recommends suspension of some generic drugs ?
      Phototherapy for vitiligo ? WHO targets medication-related errors.

PMID- 28566323
TI  - Phototherapy for vitiligo.

PMID- 28566326
TI  - Retrieval analysis of metal and ceramic femoral heads on a single CoCr stem
      design.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The use of ceramic femoral heads in total hip arthroplasty (THA) has
      increased due to their proven low bearing wear characteristics. Ceramic femoral
      heads are also thought to reduce wear and corrosion at the head-stem junction
      with titanium (Ti) stems when compared with metal heads. We sought to evaluate
      taper damage of ceramic compared with metal heads when paired with cobalt
      chromium (CoCr) alloy stems in a single stem design. METHODS: This retrieval
      study involved 48 total hip arthroplasties (THAs) with CoCr V40 trunnions paired
      with either CoCr (n = 21) or ceramic (n = 27) heads. The taper junction of all
      hips was evaluated for fretting/corrosion damage and volumetric material loss
      using a roundness-measuring machine. We used linear regression analysis to
      investigate taper damage differences after adjusting for potential confounding
      variables. RESULTS: We measured median taper material loss rates of 0.210
      mm3/year (0.030 to 0.448) for the metal head group and 0.084 mm3/year (0.059 to
      0.108) for the ceramic group. The difference was not significant (p = 0.58).
      Moreover, no significant correlation between material loss and implant or patient
      factors (p > 0.05) was found. CONCLUSIONS: Metal heads did not increase taper
      damage on CoCr trunnions compared with ceramic heads from the same hip design.
      The amount of material released at the taper junctions was very low when compared
      with available data regarding CoCr/Ti coupling in metal-on-metal bearings.Cite
      this article: A. Di Laura, H. Hothi, J. Henckel, I. Swiatkowska, M. H. L. Liow, Y
      M. Kwon, J. A. Skinner, A. J. Hart. Retrieval analysis of metal and ceramic
      femoral heads on a single CoCr stem design. Bone Joint Res 2017;6:-350. DOI:
      10.1302/2046-3758.65.BJR-2016-0325.R1.

PMID- 28566325
TI  - Persistent mTORC1 signaling in cell senescence results from defects in amino acid
      and growth factor sensing.
AB  - Mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and cell senescence are
      intimately linked to each other and to organismal aging. Inhibition of mTORC1 is
      the best-known intervention to extend lifespan, and recent evidence suggests that
      clearance of senescent cells can also improve health and lifespan. Enhanced
      mTORC1 activity drives characteristic phenotypes of senescence, although the
      underlying mechanisms responsible for increased activity are not well understood.
      We have identified that in human fibroblasts rendered senescent by stress,
      replicative exhaustion, or oncogene activation, mTORC1 is constitutively active
      and resistant to serum and amino acid starvation. This is driven in part by
      depolarization of senescent cell plasma membrane, which leads to primary cilia
      defects and a resultant failure to inhibit growth factor signaling. Further,
      increased autophagy and high levels of intracellular amino acids may act to
      support mTORC1 activity in starvation conditions. Interventions to correct these
      phenotypes restore sensitivity to the mTORC1 signaling pathway and cause death,
      indicating that persistent signaling supports senescent cell survival.

PMID- 28566327
TI  - The influence of cement thickness on stem subsidence and cement creep in a
      collarless polished tapered stem: When are thick cement mantles detrimental?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Favourable results for collarless polished tapered stems have been
      reported, and cement creep due to taper slip may be a contributing factor.
      However, the ideal cement thickness around polished stems remains unknown. We
      investigated the influence of cement thickness on stem subsidence and cement
      creep. METHODS: We cemented six collarless polished tapered (CPT) stems (two
      stems each of small, medium and large sizes) into composite femurs that had been
      reamed with a large CPT rasp to achieve various thicknesses of the cement mantle.
      Two or three tantalum balls were implanted in the proximal cement in each femur.
      A cyclic loading test was then performed for each stem. The migration of the
      balls was measured three-dimensionally, using a micro-computed tomography (CT)
      scanner, before and after loading. A digital displacement gauge was positioned at
      the stem shoulder, and stem subsidence was measured continuously by the gauge.
      Final stem subsidence was measured at the balls at the end of each stem. RESULTS:
      A strong positive correlation was observed between mean cement thickness and stem
      subsidence in the CT slices on the balls. In the small stems, the balls moved
      downward to almost the same extent as the stem. There was a significant negative
      correlation between cement thickness and the horizontal:downward ratio of ball
      movement. CONCLUSION: Collarless polished tapered stems with thicker cement
      mantles resulted in greater subsidence of both stem and cement. This suggests
      that excessive thickness of the cement mantle may interfere with effective radial
      cement creep.Cite this article: E. Takahashi, A. Kaneuji, R. Tsuda, Y. Numata, T.
      Ichiseki, K. Fukui, N. Kawahara. The influence of cement thickness on stem
      subsidence and cement creep in a collarless polished tapered stem: When are thick
      cement mantles detrimental? Bone Joint Res 2017;6:-357. DOI: 10.1302/2046
      3758.65.BJR-2017-0028.R1.

PMID- 28566324
TI  - Multi-omics analysis identifies ATF4 as a key regulator of the mitochondrial
      stress response in mammals.
AB  - Mitochondrial stress activates a mitonuclear response to safeguard and repair
      mitochondrial function and to adapt cellular metabolism to stress. Using a
      multiomics approach in mammalian cells treated with four types of mitochondrial
      stressors, we identify activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) as the main
      regulator of the stress response. Surprisingly, canonical mitochondrial unfolded
      protein response genes mediated by ATF5 are not activated. Instead, ATF4
      activates the expression of cytoprotective genes, which reprogram cellular
      metabolism through activation of the integrated stress response (ISR).
      Mitochondrial stress promotes a local proteostatic response by reducing
      mitochondrial ribosomal proteins, inhibiting mitochondrial translation, and
      coupling the activation of the ISR with the attenuation of mitochondrial
      function. Through a trans-expression quantitative trait locus analysis, we
      provide genetic evidence supporting a role for Fh1 in the control of Atf4
      expression in mammals. Using gene expression data from mice and humans with
      mitochondrial diseases, we show that the ATF4 pathway is activated in vivo upon
      mitochondrial stress. Our data illustrate the value of a multiomics approach to
      characterize complex cellular networks and provide a versatile resource to
      identify new regulators of mitochondrial-related diseases.

PMID- 28566328
TI  - Somatic Mutations Drive Distinct Imaging Phenotypes in Lung Cancer.
AB  - Tumors are characterized by somatic mutations that drive biological processes
      ultimately reflected in tumor phenotype. With regard to radiographic phenotypes,
      generally unconnected through present understanding to the presence of specific
      mutations, artificial intelligence methods can automatically quantify phenotypic
      characters by using predefined, engineered algorithms or automatic deep-learning
      methods, a process also known as radiomics. Here we demonstrate how imaging
      phenotypes can be connected to somatic mutations through an integrated analysis
      of independent datasets of 763 lung adenocarcinoma patients with somatic mutation
      testing and engineered CT image analytics. We developed radiomic signatures
      capable of distinguishing between tumor genotypes in a discovery cohort (n = 353)
      and verified them in an independent validation cohort (n = 352). All radiomic
      signatures significantly outperformed conventional radiographic predictors (tumor
      volume and maximum diameter). We found a radiomic signature related to
      radiographic heterogeneity that successfully discriminated between EGFR+ and EGFR
      cases (AUC = 0.69). Combining this signature with a clinical model of EGFR
      status (AUC = 0.70) significantly improved prediction accuracy (AUC = 0.75). The
      highest performing signature was capable of distinguishing between EGFR+ and
      KRAS+ tumors (AUC = 0.80) and, when combined with a clinical model (AUC = 0.81),
      substantially improved its performance (AUC = 0.86). A KRAS+/KRAS- radiomic
      signature also showed significant albeit lower performance (AUC = 0.63) and did
      not improve the accuracy of a clinical predictor of KRAS status. Our results
      argue that somatic mutations drive distinct radiographic phenotypes that can be
      predicted by radiomics. This work has implications for the use of imaging-based
      biomarkers in the clinic, as applied noninvasively, repeatedly, and at low cost.
      Cancer Res; 77(14); 3922-30. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566329
TI  - Venetoclax Synergizes with Radiotherapy for Treatment of B-cell Lymphomas.
AB  - Constitutive B-cell receptor signaling leads to overexpression of the
      antiapoptotic BCL-2 protein and is implicated in the pathogenesis of many types
      of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). The BCL-2 small-molecule inhibitor
      venetoclax shows promising clinical response rates in several lymphomas, but is
      not curative as monotherapy. Radiotherapy is a rational candidate for combining
      with BCL-2 inhibition, as DNA damage caused by radiotherapy increases the
      activity of pro-apoptotic BCL-2 pathway proteins, and lymphomas are exquisitely
      sensitive to radiation. We tested B-NHL responses to venetoclax combined with
      either external beam radiotherapy or radioimmunotherapy (RIT), which joins the
      selectivity of antibody targeting with the effectiveness of irradiation. We first
      tested cytotoxicity of cesium-137 irradiation plus venetoclax in 14 B-NHL cell
      lines representing five lymphoma subtypes. Combination treatment synergistically
      increased cell death in 10 of 14 lines. Lack of synergy was predicted by
      resistance to single-agent venetoclax and high BCL-XL expression. We then
      assessed the efficacy of external beam radiotherapy plus venetoclax in murine
      xenograft models of mantle cell (MCL), germinal-center diffuse large B-cell (GCB
      DLBCL), and activated B-cell (ABC-DLBCL) lymphomas. In each model, external beam
      radiotherapy plus venetoclax synergistically increased mouse survival time,
      curing up to 10%. We finally combined venetoclax treatment of MCL and ABC-DLBCL
      xenografts with a pretargeted RIT (PRIT) system directed against the CD20
      antigen. Optimal dosing of PRIT plus venetoclax cured 100% of mice with no
      detectable toxicity. Venetoclax combined with radiotherapy may be a promising
      treatment for a wide range of lymphomas Cancer Res; 77(14); 3885-93. (c)2017
      AACR.

PMID- 28566330
TI  - Monitoring the Vascular Response and Resistance to Sunitinib in Renal Cell
      Carcinoma In Vivo with Susceptibility Contrast MRI.
AB  - Antiangiogenic therapy is efficacious in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).
      However, the ability of antiangiogenic drugs to delay tumor progression and
      extend survival is limited, due to either innate or acquired drug resistance.
      Furthermore, there are currently no validated biomarkers that predict which mRCC
      patients will benefit from antiangiogenic therapy. Here, we exploit
      susceptibility contrast MRI (SC-MRI) using intravascular ultrasmall
      superparamagnetic iron oxide particles to quantify and evaluate tumor fractional
      blood volume (fBV) as a noninvasive imaging biomarker of response to the
      antiangiogenic drug sunitinib. We also interrogate the vascular phenotype of RCC
      xenografts exhibiting acquired resistance to sunitinib. SC-MRI of 786-0
      xenografts prior to and 2 weeks after daily treatment with 40 mg/kg sunitinib
      revealed a 71% (P < 0.01) reduction in fBV in the absence of any change in tumor
      volume. This response was associated with significantly lower microvessel density
      (P < 0.01) and lower uptake of the perfusion marker Hoechst 33342 (P < 0.05). The
      average pretreatment tumor fBV was negatively correlated (R2 = 0.92, P < 0.0001)
      with sunitinib-induced changes in tumor fBV across the cohort. SC-MRI also
      revealed suppressed fBV in tumors that acquired resistance to sunitinib. In
      conclusion, SC-MRI enabled monitoring of the antiangiogenic response of 786-0 RCC
      xenografts to sunitinib, which revealed that pretreatment tumor fBV was found to
      be a predictive biomarker of subsequent reduction in tumor blood volume in
      response to sunitinib, and acquired resistance to sunitinib was not associated
      with a parallel increase in tumor blood volume. Cancer Res; 77(15); 4127-34.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566331
TI  - Pharmacokinetics and Drug Interactions Determine Optimum Combination Strategies
      in Computational Models of Cancer Evolution.
AB  - The identification of optimal drug administration schedules to battle the
      emergence of resistance is a major challenge in cancer research. The existence of
      a multitude of resistance mechanisms necessitates administering drugs in
      combination, significantly complicating the endeavor of predicting the
      evolutionary dynamics of cancers and optimal intervention strategies. A thorough
      understanding of the important determinants of cancer evolution under combination
      therapies is therefore crucial for correctly predicting treatment outcomes. Here
      we developed the first computational strategy to explore pharmacokinetic and drug
      interaction effects in evolutionary models of cancer progression, a crucial step
      towards making clinically relevant predictions. We found that incorporating these
      phenomena into our multiscale stochastic modeling framework significantly changes
      the optimum drug administration schedules identified, often predicting
      nonintuitive strategies for combination therapies. We applied our approach to an
      ongoing phase Ib clinical trial (TATTON) administering AZD9291 and selumetinib to
      EGFR-mutant lung cancer patients. Our results suggest that the schedules used in
      the three trial arms have almost identical efficacies, but slight modifications
      in the dosing frequencies of the two drugs can significantly increase tumor cell
      eradication. Interestingly, we also predict that drug concentrations lower than
      the MTD are as efficacious, suggesting that lowering the total amount of drug
      administered could lower toxicities while not compromising on the effectiveness
      of the drugs. Our approach highlights the fact that quantitative knowledge of
      pharmacokinetic, drug interaction, and evolutionary processes is essential for
      identifying best intervention strategies. Our method is applicable to diverse
      cancer and treatment types and allows for a rational design of clinical trials.
      Cancer Res; 77(14); 3908-21. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566332
TI  - Oncolytic Adenovirus and Tumor-Targeting Immune Modulatory Therapy Improve
      Autologous Cancer Vaccination.
AB  - Oncolytic viruses selectively lyse tumor cells, disrupt immunosuppression within
      the tumor, and reactivate antitumor immunity, but they have yet to live up to
      their therapeutic potential. Immune checkpoint modulation has been efficacious in
      a variety of cancer with an immunogenic microenvironment, but is associated with
      toxicity due to nonspecific T-cell activation. Therefore, combining these two
      strategies would likely result in both effective and specific cancer therapy. To
      test the hypothesis, we first constructed oncolytic adenovirus Delta-24-RGDOX
      expressing the immune costimulator OX40 ligand (OX40L). Like its predecessor
      Delta-24-RGD, Delta-24-RGDOX induced immunogenic cell death and recruit
      lymphocytes to the tumor site. Compared with Delta-24-RGD, Delta-24-RGDOX
      exhibited superior tumor-specific activation of lymphocytes and proliferation of
      CD8+ T cells specific to tumor-associated antigens, resulting in cancer-specific
      immunity. Delta-24-RGDOX mediated more potent antiglioma activity in
      immunocompetent C57BL/6 but not immunodeficient athymic mice, leading to specific
      immune memory against the tumor. To further overcome the immune suppression
      mediated by programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on cancer cells
      accompanied with virotherapy, intratumoral injection of Delta-24-RGDOX and an
      anti-PD-L1 antibody showed synergistic inhibition of gliomas and significantly
      increased survival in mice. Our data demonstrate that combining an oncolytic
      virus with tumor-targeting immune checkpoint modulators elicits potent in situ
      autologous cancer vaccination, resulting in an efficacious, tumor-specific, and
      long-lasting therapeutic effect. Cancer Res; 77(14); 3894-907. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566334
TI  - Antibody-Based Correlates of Protection Against Cholera Analysis of a Challenge
      Study in a Cholera-Naive Population.
AB  - Immunologic correlates of protection can be used to infer vaccine efficacy for
      populations in which challenge trials or field studies are infeasible. In a
      recent cholera challenge trial (WH Cohen et al, Clinical Infectious Disease 62:
      1329-1335, 2016), 134 North American cholera-naive volunteers were randomized to
      receive either the live, attenuated single-dose cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR or
      placebo, and titers of vibriocidal antibodies against classical Inaba were
      assessed 10 days after treatment. Subsequent to the immunologic evaluation, each
      subject ingested a fixed quantity of virulent V. cholerae O1 El Tor Inaba. Data
      from this trial suggest that vaccine-induced increase in vibriocidal antibody
      titer prior to challenge is tightly linked with protection: 51/51 vaccinees with
      post-vaccination vibriocidal titers >= 2560 were protected against
      moderate/severe cholera, and 60/62 vaccinees who seroconverted, or experienced a
      4-fold or greater increase in vibriocidal titer relative to pre-vaccination
      levels, were similarly protected. Atypically high vibriocidal titers were
      observed in some placebo subjects; protection was limited in these individuals
      and differed substantially from the level of protection experienced by vaccinees
      with the same post-vaccination titers. Since only 1 of 66 placebo recipients
      experienced seroconversion, seroconversion was found to be uniquely associated
      with vaccination and insensitive to the effects of factors that can cause titers
      to be elevated but are weakly associated with protection. Thus, vibriocidal
      seroconversion was found to be better than vibriocidal titer for inferring
      vaccine efficacy in cholera-naive populations for which studies based upon
      exposure to V. cholerae are impractical.

PMID- 28566333
TI  - CDK4 phosphorylation status and a linked gene expression profile predict
      sensitivity to palbociclib.
AB  - Cyclin D-CDK4/6 are the first CDK complexes to be activated in the G1 phase in
      response to oncogenic pathways. The specific CDK4/6 inhibitor PD0332991
      (palbociclib) was recently approved by the FDA and EMA for treatment of advanced
      ER-positive breast tumors. Unfortunately, no reliable predictive tools are
      available for identifying potentially responsive or insensitive tumors. We had
      shown that the activating T172 phosphorylation of CDK4 is the central rate
      limiting event that initiates the cell cycle decision and signals the presence of
      active CDK4. Here, we report that the profile of post-translational modification
      including T172 phosphorylation of CDK4 differs among breast tumors and associates
      with their subtypes and risk. A gene expression signature faithfully predicted
      CDK4 modification profiles in tumors and cell lines. Moreover, in breast cancer
      cell lines, the CDK4 T172 phosphorylation best correlated with sensitivity to
      PD0332991. This gene expression signature identifies tumors that are unlikely to
      respond to CDK4/6 inhibitors and could help to select a subset of patients with
      HER2-positive and basal-like tumors for clinical studies on this class of drugs.

PMID- 28566335
TI  - Breadth and Duration of Meningococcal Serum Bactericidal Activity in Health Care
      Workers and Microbiologists Immunized with the MenB-FHbp Vaccine.
AB  - MenB-FHbp is a meningococcal serogroup B vaccine with two factor H binding
      protein (FHbp) antigens from subfamilies A and B. For licensure, efficacy was
      inferred from serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) responses to four reference
      strains. Only limited information is available on the breadth or duration of
      protective SBA responses to genetically diverse disease-causing strains.
      Seventeen health care or laboratory workers were immunized with two (n = 2) or
      three (n = 15) doses of MenB-FHbp at 0, 2, and 6 months. SBA levels were measured
      against 14 serogroup B case isolates, including 6 from U.S. college outbreaks and
      2 from Quebec during hyperendemic disease. Compared with preimmunization titers,
      the proportion of subjects with >=4-fold increases in SBA titer 1 month after 2
      doses of vaccine ranged from 35% to 94% for six isolates with FHbp subfamily A
      and from 24% to 76% for eight isolates with subfamily B FHbp. The respective
      proportions with >=4-fold titer increases at 1 month after dose 3 were 73% to
      100% and 67% to 100%. At that time point, the proportion of subjects with titers
      of >=1:4 (presumed sufficient for short-term protection) ranged from 93% to 100%
      for all 14 isolates. By 9 to 11 months after dose 3, 50% or fewer of the subjects
      with follow-up sera had protective titers of >=1:4 for 4 of 9 isolates tested.
      Three doses of MenB-FHbp elicited short-term protective SBA responses to diverse
      disease-causing serogroup B strains. For some strains, serum titers declined to
      <1:4 by 9 to 11 months, which raises concerns about the duration of broad, long
      term protection. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under
      registration no. NCT02569632.).

PMID- 28566336
TI  - Maternal Humoral Immune Correlates of Peripartum Transmission of Clade C HIV-1 in
      the Setting of Peripartum Antiretrovirals.
AB  - Despite the widespread use of antiretrovirals (ARV), more than 150,000 pediatric
      HIV-1 infections continue to occur annually. Supplemental strategies are
      necessary to eliminate pediatric HIV infections. We previously reported that
      maternal HIV envelope-specific anti-V3 IgG and CD4 binding site-directed
      antibodies, as well as tier 1 virus neutralization, predicted a reduced risk of
      mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV-1 in the pre-ARV era U.S.-based Women
      and Infants Transmission Study (WITS) cohort. As the majority of ongoing
      pediatric HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa, we sought to determine if
      the same maternal humoral immune correlates predicted MTCT in a subset of the
      Malawian Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition (BAN) cohort of HIV
      infected mothers (n = 88, with 45 transmitting and 43 nontransmitting). Women and
      infants received ARV at delivery; thus, the majority of MTCT was in utero (91%).
      In a multivariable logistic regression model, neither maternal anti-V3 IgG nor
      clade C tier 1 virus neutralization was associated with MTCT. Unexpectedly,
      maternal CD4 binding-site antibodies and anti-variable loop 1 and 2 (V1V2) IgG
      were associated with increased MTCT, independent of maternal viral load. Neither
      infant envelope (Env)-specific IgG levels nor maternal IgG transplacental
      transfer efficiency was associated with transmission. Distinct humoral immune
      correlates of MTCT in the BAN and WITS cohorts could be due to differences
      between transmission modes, virus clades, or maternal antiretroviral use. The
      association between specific maternal antibody responses and in utero
      transmission, which is distinct from potentially protective maternal antibodies
      in the WITS cohort, underlines the importance of investigating additional cohorts
      with well-defined transmission modes to understand the role of antibodies during
      HIV-1 MTCT.

PMID- 28566337
TI  - Age-Related Autonomous Aldosteronism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both aging and inappropriate secretion of aldosterone increase the
      risk for developing cardiovascular disease; however, the influence of aging on
      aldosterone secretion and physiology is not well understood. METHODS: The
      relationship between age and adrenal aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) expression
      was evaluated in 127 normal adrenal glands from deceased kidney donors (age, 9
      months to 68 years). Following immunohistochemistry, CYP11B2-expressing area and
      areas of abnormal foci of CYP11B2-expressing cells, called aldosterone-producing
      cell clusters, were analyzed. In a separate ancillary clinical study of 677
      participants without primary aldosteronism, who were studied on both high and
      restricted sodium diets (age, 18-71 years), we used multivariable linear
      regression to assess the independent associations between age and renin
      angiotensin-aldosterone system physiology. RESULTS: In adrenal tissue, the total
      CYP11B2-expressing area was negatively correlated with age (r=-0.431, P<0.0001),
      whereas the total aldosterone-producing cell cluster area was positively
      correlated with age (r=0.390, P<0.0001). The integrated ratio of aldosterone
      producing cell cluster to CYP11B2-expressing area was most strongly and
      positively correlated with age (r=0.587, P<0.0001). When participants in the
      clinical study were maintained on a high sodium balance, renin activity
      progressively declined with older age, whereas serum and urinary aldosterone did
      not significantly decline. Correspondingly, the aldosterone-to-renin ratio was
      positively and independently associated with older age (adjusted beta=+5.54 ng/dL
      per ng/mL per hour per 10 years, P<0.001). In contrast, when participants were
      assessed under sodium-restricted conditions, physiological stimulation of
      aldosterone was blunted with older age (beta=-4.6 ng/dL per 10 years, P<0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Aging is associated with a pattern of decreased normal zona
      glomerulosa CYP11B2 expression and increased aldosterone-producing cell cluster
      expression. This histopathologic finding parallels an age-related autonomous
      aldosteronism and abnormal aldosterone physiology that provides 1 potential
      explanation for age-related cardiovascular risk.

PMID- 28566338
TI  - Associations Between Adding a Radial Artery Graft to Single and Bilateral
      Internal Thoracic Artery Grafts and Outcomes: Insights From the Arterial
      Revascularization Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether the use of the radial artery (RA) can improve clinical
      outcomes in coronary artery bypass graft surgery remains unclear. The ART
      (Arterial Revascularization Trial) was designed to compare survival after
      bilateral internal thoracic artery (BITA) over single left internal thoracic
      artery (SITA). In the ART, a large proportion of patients (~20%) also received an
      RA graft instead of a saphenous vein graft (SVG). We aimed to investigate the
      associations between using the RA instead of an SVG to supplement SITA or BITA
      grafts and outcomes by performing a post hoc analysis of the ART. METHODS:
      Patients enrolled in the ART (n=3102) were classified on the basis of conduits
      actually received (as treated). The analysis included 2737 patients who received
      an RA graft (RA group; n=632) or SVG only (SVG group; n=2105) in addition to SITA
      or BITA grafts. The primary end point was the composite of myocardial infarction,
      cardiovascular death, and repeat revascularization at 5 years. Propensity score
      matching and stratified Cox regression were used to compare the 2 strategies.
      RESULTS: Myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death, and repeat
      revascularization cumulative incidence was 2.3% (95% confidence interval [CI],
      1.1-3.4), 3.5% (95% CI, 2.1-5.0), and 4.4% (95% CI, 2.8-6.0) in the RA group and
      3.4% (95% CI, 2.0-4.8), 4.0% (95% CI, 2.5-5.6), and 7.6% (95% CI, 5.5-9.7) in the
      SVG group, respectively. The composite end point was significantly lower in the
      RA group (8.8%; 95% CI, 6.5-11.0) compared with the SVG group (13.6%; 95% CI,
      10.8-16.3; P=0.005). This association was present when an RA graft was used to
      supplement both SITA and BITA grafts (interaction P=0.62). CONCLUSIONS: This post
      hoc ART analysis showed that an additional RA was associated with lower risk for
      midterm major adverse cardiac events when used to supplement SITA or BITA grafts.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.situ.ox.ac.uk/surgical-trials/art.
      Unique identifier: ISRCTN46552265.

PMID- 28566339
TI  - Myelodysplasia in younger adults: outlier or unique molecular entity?

PMID- 28566340
TI  - Immunoglobulin genes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: key to understanding the
      disease and improving risk stratification.

PMID- 28566341
TI  - Unmet needs in the scientific approach to older patients with lymphoma.

PMID- 28566352
TI  - Mechanisms underlying the control of responses to predator odours in aquatic
      prey.
AB  - In aquatic systems, chemical cues are a major source of information through which
      animals are able to assess the current state of their environment to gain
      information about local predation risk. Prey use chemicals released by predators
      (including cues from a predator's diet) and other prey (such as alarm cues and
      disturbance cues) to mediate a range of behavioural, morphological and life
      history antipredator defences. Despite the wealth of knowledge on the ecology of
      antipredator defences, we know surprisingly little about the physiological
      mechanisms that control the expression of these defensive traits. Here, we
      summarise the current literature on the mechanisms known to specifically mediate
      responses to predator odours, including dietary cues. Interestingly, these
      studies suggest that independent pathways may control predator-specific
      responses, highlighting the need for greater focus on predator-derived cues when
      looking at the mechanistic control of responses. Thus, we urge researchers to
      tease apart the effects of predator-specific cues (i.e. chemicals representing a
      predator's identity) from those of diet-mediated cues (i.e. chemicals released
      from a predator's diet), which are known to mediate different ecological
      endpoints. Finally, we suggest some key areas of research that would greatly
      benefit from a more mechanistic approach.

PMID- 28566353
TI  - Sex reversal induces size and performance differences among females of the
      African pygmy mouse, Mus minutoides.
AB  - Differences in biological performance, at both intra- and inter-specific levels,
      have often been linked to morphology but seldom to behavioural or genotypic
      effects. We tested performance at the intraspecific level by measuring bite force
      in the African pygmy mouse, Mus minutoides. This species displays an unusual sex
      determination system, with sex-reversed, X*Y females carrying a feminizing X*
      chromosome. X*Y females cannot be differentiated from XX females based on
      external or gonadal morphology; however, they are known to be more aggressive. We
      found that bite force was higher in X*Y females than in other females and males.
      We then performed geometric morphometric analyses on their skulls and mandibles
      and found that the higher performance of X*Y females was mainly explained by a
      greater overall skull size. The effects of the X* chromosome thus go beyond
      feminization, and extend to whole-organism performance and morphology. Our
      results also suggest limited effects of behaviour on bite force.

PMID- 28566354
TI  - Disruptive colouration in reef fish: does matching the background reduce
      predation risk?
AB  - Animals use disruptive colouration to prevent detection or recognition by
      potential predators or prey. Highly contrasting elements within colour patterns,
      including vertical or horizontal bars, are thought to be effective at distracting
      attention away from body form and reducing detection likelihood. However, it is
      unclear whether such patterns need to be a good match to the spatial
      characteristics of the background to gain cryptic benefits. We tested this
      hypothesis using the iconic vertically barred humbug damselfish, Dascyllus
      aruanus (Linneaus 1758), a small reef fish that lives among the finger-like
      projections of branching coral colonies. Using behavioural experiments, we
      demonstrated that the spatial frequency of the humbug pattern does not need to
      exactly match the spatial frequency of the coral background to reduce the
      likelihood of being attacked by two typical reef fish predators: slingjaw wrasse,
      Epibulus insidiator (Pallas 1770), and coral trout, Plectropomus leopardus
      (Lacepede 1802). Indeed, backgrounds with a slightly higher spatial frequency
      than the humbug body pattern provided more protection from predation than well
      matched backgrounds. These results were consistent for both predator species,
      despite differences in their mode of foraging and visual acuity, which was
      measured using anatomical techniques. We also showed that a slight mismatch in
      the orientation of the vertical bars did not increase the chances of detection.
      However, the likelihood of attack did increase significantly when the bars were
      perpendicular to the background. Our results provide evidence that fish
      camouflage is more complex than it initially appears, with likely many factors
      influencing the detection likelihood of prey by relevant predators.

PMID- 28566355
TI  - Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes.
AB  - Elucidating the mechanisms of colour production in organisms is important for
      understanding how selection acts upon a variety of behaviours. Spiders provide
      many spectacular examples of colours used in courtship, predation, defence and
      thermoregulation, but are thought to lack many types of pigments common in other
      animals. Ommochromes, bilins and eumelanin have been identified in spiders, but
      not carotenoids or melanosomes. Here, we combined optical microscopy, refractive
      index matching, confocal Raman microspectroscopy and electron microscopy to
      investigate the basis of several types of colourful patches in spiders. We
      obtained four major results. First, we show that spiders use carotenoids to
      produce yellow, suggesting that such colours may be used for condition-dependent
      courtship signalling. Second, we established the Raman signature spectrum for
      ommochromes, facilitating the identification of ommochromes in a variety of
      organisms in the future. Third, we describe a potential new pigmentary-structural
      colour interaction that is unusual because of the use of long wavelength
      structural colour in combination with a slightly shorter wavelength pigment in
      the production of red. Finally, we present the first evidence for the presence of
      melanosomes in arthropods, using both scanning and transmission electron
      microscopy, overturning the assumption that melanosomes are a synapomorphy of
      vertebrates. Our research shows that spiders have a much richer colour production
      palette than previously thought, and this has implications for colour
      diversification and function in spiders and other arthropods.

PMID- 28566342
TI  - Predictors of clinical recovery from concussion: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A systematic review of factors that might be associated with, or
      influence, clinical recovery from sport-related concussion. Clinical recovery was
      defined functionally as a return to normal activities, including school and
      sports, following injury. DESIGN: Systematic review. DATA SOURCES: PubMed,
      PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, Scopus and Web
      of Science. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Studies published by June
      of 2016 that addressed clinical recovery from concussion. RESULTS: A total of
      7617 articles were identified using the search strategy, and 101 articles were
      included. There are major methodological differences across the studies. Many
      different clinical outcomes were measured, such as symptoms, cognition, balance,
      return to school and return to sports, although symptom outcomes were the most
      frequently measured. The most consistent predictor of slower recovery from
      concussion is the severity of a person's acute and subacute symptoms. The
      development of subacute problems with headaches or depression is likely a risk
      factor for persistent symptoms lasting greater than a month. Those with a
      preinjury history of mental health problems appear to be at greater risk for
      having persistent symptoms. Those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
      (ADHD) or learning disabilities do not appear to be at substantially greater
      risk. There is some evidence that the teenage years, particularly high school,
      might be the most vulnerable time period for having persistent symptoms-with
      greater risk for girls than boys. CONCLUSION: The literature on clinical recovery
      from sport-related concussion has grown dramatically, is mostly mixed, but some
      factors have emerged as being related to outcome.

PMID- 28566356
TI  - Functional morphology of tarsal adhesive pads and attachment ability in ticks
      Ixodes ricinus (Arachnida, Acari, Ixodidae).
AB  - The presence of well-developed, elastic claws on ticks and widely pilose hosts
      led us to hypothesise that ticks are mostly adapted to attachment and locomotion
      on rough, strongly corrugated and hairy, felt-like substrates. However, by using
      a combination of morphological and experimental approaches, we visualised the
      ultrastructure of attachment devices of Ixodes ricinus and showed that this
      species adheres more strongly to smooth surfaces than to rough ones. Between
      paired, elongated, curved, elastic claws, I. ricinus bears a large, flexible,
      foldable adhesive pad, which represents an adaptation to adhesion on smooth
      surfaces. Accordingly, ticks attached strongest to glass and to surface profiles
      similar to those of the human skin, generating safety factors (attachment force
      relative to body weight) up to 534 (females). Considerably lower attachment force
      was found on silicone substrates and as a result of thanatosis after jolting.

PMID- 28566357
TI  - Living with a leaky skin: upregulation of ion transport proteins during
      sloughing.
AB  - Amphibian skin is a multifunctional organ providing protection from the external
      environment and facilitating the physiological exchange of gases, water and salts
      with the environment. In order to maintain these functions, the outer layer of
      skin is regularly replaced in a process called sloughing. During sloughing, the
      outermost layer of the skin is removed in its entirety, which has the potential
      to interfere with skin permeability and ion transport, disrupting homeostasis. In
      this study, we measured, in vivo, the effects of sloughing on the cutaneous
      efflux of ions in toads Rhinella marina kept in freshwater conditions. We also
      measured transepithelial potential, cutaneous resistance, active ion transport
      and the distribution, abundance and gene expression of the key ion transport
      proteins sodium-potassium ATPase (NKA) and epithelial sodium channel (ENaC)
      during sloughing. We hypothesised that the increase in transepithelial efflux of
      ions during sloughing is a consequence of increased permeability and/or a
      reduction in the abundance or expression of cutaneous ion transport proteins,
      resulting in disruption of internal ion homeostasis. There was a significant
      increase in sodium and chloride efflux during sloughing in R. marina However,
      although in vitro skin resistance decreased after sloughing, active sodium
      transport increased commensurate with an increase in NKA and ENaC protein
      abundance in the skin. These changes in skin function associated with sloughing
      did not affect the maintenance of internal electrolyte homeostasis. These results
      suggest that during sloughing, amphibians actively maintain internal homeostasis
      by increasing cutaneous rates of ion uptake.

PMID- 28566358
TI  - Heat-resistant cytosolic malate dehydrogenases (cMDHs) of thermophilic intertidal
      snails (genus Echinolittorina): protein underpinnings of tolerance to body
      temperatures reaching 55 degrees C.
AB  - Snails of the genus Echinolittorina are among the most heat-tolerant animals;
      they experience average body temperatures near 41-44 degrees C in summer and
      withstand temperatures up to at least 55 degrees C. Here, we demonstrate that
      heat stability of function (indexed by the Michaelis-Menten constant of the
      cofactor NADH, KMNADH) and structure (indexed by rate of denaturation) of
      cytosolic malate dehydrogenases (cMDHs) of two congeners (E. malaccana and E.
      radiata) exceeds values previously found for orthologs of this protein from less
      thermophilic species. The ortholog of E. malaccana is more heat stable than that
      of E. radiata, in keeping with the congeners' thermal environments. Only two
      inter-congener differences in amino acid sequence in these 332 residue proteins
      were identified. In both cases (positions 48 and 114), a glycine in the E.
      malaccana ortholog is replaced by a serine in the E. radiata protein. To explore
      the relationship between structure and function and to characterize how amino
      acid substitutions alter stability of different regions of the enzyme, we used
      molecular dynamics simulation methods. These computational methods allow
      determination of thermal effects on fine-scale movements of protein components,
      for example, by estimating the root mean square deviation in atom position over
      time and the root mean square fluctuation for individual residues. The minor
      changes in amino acid sequence favor temperature-adaptive change in flexibility
      of regions in and around the active sites. Interspecific differences in effects
      of temperature on fine-scale protein movements are consistent with the
      differences in thermal effects on binding and rates of heat denaturation.

PMID- 28566359
TI  - Three Zika cases are found in India after random tests.

PMID- 28566360
TI  - Social Information Is Integrated into Value and Confidence Judgments According to
      Its Reliability.
AB  - How much we like something, whether it be a bottle of wine or a new film, is
      affected by the opinions of others. However, the social information that we
      receive can be contradictory and vary in its reliability. Here, we tested whether
      the brain incorporates these statistics when judging value and confidence.
      Participants provided value judgments about consumer goods in the presence of
      online reviews. We found that participants updated their initial value and
      confidence judgments in a Bayesian fashion, taking into account both the
      uncertainty of their initial beliefs and the reliability of the social
      information. Activity in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex tracked the degree of
      belief update. Analogous to how lower-level perceptual information is integrated,
      we found that the human brain integrates social information according to its
      reliability when judging value and confidence.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The field of
      perceptual decision making has shown that the sensory system integrates different
      sources of information according to their respective reliability, as predicted by
      a Bayesian inference scheme. In this work, we hypothesized that a similar coding
      scheme is implemented by the human brain to process social signals and guide
      complex, value-based decisions. We provide experimental evidence that the human
      prefrontal cortex's activity is consistent with a Bayesian computation that
      integrates social information that differs in reliability and that this
      integration affects the neural representation of value and confidence.

PMID- 28566361
TI  - Effectiveness of alpha2agonists for sedation in paediatric critical care: study
      protocol for a retrospective cohort observational study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mechanically ventilated children in paediatric intensive care units
      are commonly administered analgesics and sedative agents to minimise pain and
      distress and facilitate cooperation with medical interventions. Opioids and
      benzodiazepines are the most common analgesic and sedative agents but have safety
      concerns. The alpha2 agonists clonidine and dexmedetomidine are alternative
      sedatives in use despite neither having robust evidence to support their use.
      Studies evaluating effectiveness of alpha2 agonists to date have not focused on
      sedation-based outcomes instead focusing on opioid-sparing properties and
      ventilation outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate if an opioid-based
      sedation regimen, with an alpha2 agonist adjunct (clonidine or dexmedetomidine),
      produces a non-inferior proportion of time adequately sedated compared with a
      control group without an alpha2 agonist adjunct, while conferring potential
      additional benefits such as reduced opioid administration and less exposure to
      potential additional agents such as benzodiazepines. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We
      will conduct a retrospective cohort study in two Irish paediatric intensive care
      units using clinical information on patient characteristics, sedation scores and
      drug use. Eligible children admitted between January 2014 and June 2016 who were
      mechanically ventilated and received an opioid infusion will be included.
      Patients will be categorised into two exposure categories (received an alpha2
      agonist or did not receive an alpha2 agonist) and the time adequately sedated
      (measured using the COMFORT Behaviour Score) will be calculated using
      interpolation of nursing sedation scores at each recorded time point. At least
      150 per group is planned for inclusion to ensure adequate study power. Propensity
      score matching will be used in analysis to account for potential confounding by
      indication. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the ethics
      committees of both hospitals. Dissemination will occur via local, national and
      international presentations for academic and healthcare audiences as well as
      through peer reviewed publications.

PMID- 28566362
TI  - Importance and added value of functional impairment to predict mortality: a
      cohort study in Swedish medical inpatients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of prognosis in multimorbid hospital patients
      could improve quality of care. This study aims to determine the relative
      importance and added value of a performance-based activities of daily living
      (ADL) measure with regard to mortality prediction. METHODS: 200 inpatients, aged
      over 60 years, were recruited at the Department of General Internal Medicine at a
      tertiary university hospital. Two nested survival models were built, one with
      established risk factors (age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index, haemoglobin,
      albumin, body mass index and glomerular filtration rate), and one using the same
      covariates with the Gottfries-Brane-Steen (GBS)-ADL measure added. The relative
      importance of GBS-ADL was evaluated in the full model. The added value of GBS-ADL
      was determined by comparing the nested models using four approaches: difference
      in overall chi2, discrimination, continuous net reclassification index (NRI >0)
      and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). RESULTS: In the full model, GBS
      ADL was the single most important predictor of mortality (chi2-df=30, p<0.001).
      The likelihood ratio chi2 test showed significant added value of ADL (p<0.001).
      The C-statistic was 0.78 with ADL and 0.72 without (difference 0.058, 95% CI
      0.022 to 0.094). The NRI >0 was 0.42 (95% CI 0.20 to 0.58) and IDI 0.15 (95% CI
      0.07 to 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with a set of available clinical risk
      factors, impairment in ADL was a stronger predictor of all-cause mortality,
      showing substantial added value. Implementing quantitative ADL measurements could
      enable more appropriate and individual care for the elderly.

PMID- 28566363
TI  - Randomised healthcare policy evaluation of organised primary human papillomavirus
      screening of women aged 56-60.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to implement and reliably evaluate primary
      human papillomavirus (HPV) screening in an established and routinely running
      organised, large-scale population-based screening programme. PARTICIPANTS:
      Resident women in the Stockholm/Gotland region of Sweden, aged 56-60 years were
      randomised to either (1) screening with cervical cytology, with HPV test in
      triage of low-grade cytological abnormalities (old policy) or (2) screening with
      HPV testing, with cytology in triage of HPV positives (new policy). OUTCOME: The
      primary evaluation was the detection rate of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
      grade 2 or worse (CIN2+). RESULTS: During January 2012-May 2014, the organised
      screening programme sent 42 752 blinded invitations with a prebooked appointment
      time to the women in the target age group. 7325 women attended in the HPV policy
      arm and 7438 women attended in the cytology arm. In the new policy, the
      population HPV prevalence was 5.5%, using an accredited HPV test (Cobas 4800).
      HPV16 prevalence was 1.0% (73/7325) and HPV18 prevalence was 0.3% (22/7325). In
      the HPV policy arm, 78/405 (19%) HPV-positive women were also cytology positive.
      There were 19 cases of CIN2+ in histopathology, all among women who were both HPV
      positive and cytology positive. The positive predictive value for CIN2+ in this
      group was 33.3% (19/57). In the cytology policy, 153 women were cytology positive
      and there were 18 cases of CIN2+ in histopathology. Both the total number of
      cervical biopsies and the number of cervical biopsies with benign histopathology
      were much lower in thepositive predictive value policy (49 benign, 87 total vs
      105 benign, 132 total). CONCLUSION: Primary HPV screening had a similar detection
      rate for CIN2+ as cytology-based screening, already before follow-up of HPV
      positive, cytology-negative women with new HPV test and referral of women with
      persistence. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01511328.

PMID- 28566365
TI  - Exploring an adapted Risk Behaviour Diagnosis Scale among Indigenous Australian
      women who had experiences of smoking during pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey
      in regional New South Wales, Australia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Explore Aboriginal women's responses to an adapted Risk Behaviour
      Diagnosis (RBD) Scale about smoking in pregnancy. METHODS AND DESIGN: An
      Aboriginal researcher interviewed women and completed a cross-sectional survey
      including 20 Likert scales. SETTING: Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
      Services, community groups and playgroups and Aboriginal Maternity Services in
      regional New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Aboriginal women (n=20) who
      were pregnant or gave birth in the preceding 18 months; included if they had
      experiences of smoking or quitting during pregnancy. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes: RBD constructs of perceived threat and
      perceived efficacy, dichotomised into high versus low. Women who had quit
      smoking, answered retrospectively. SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: smoking status,
      intentions to quit smoking (danger control), protection responses (to
      babies/others) and fear control responses (denial/refutation). Scales were
      assessed for internal consistency. A chart plotted responses from low to high
      efficacy and low to high threat. RESULTS: RBD Scales had moderate-to-good
      consistency (0.67-0.89 Cronbach's alpha). Nine women had quit and 11 were
      smoking; 6 currently pregnant and 14 recently pregnant. Mean efficacy level 3.9
      (SD=0.7); mean threat 4.3 (SD=0.7). On inspection, a scatter plot revealed a
      cluster of 12 women in the high efficacy-high threat quadrant-of these 11 had
      quit or had a high intention of quitting. Conversely, a group with low threat-low
      efficacy (5 women) were all smokers and had high fear control responses: of
      these, 4 had low protection responses. Pregnant women had a non-significant trend
      for higher threat and lower efficacy, than those previously pregnant. CONCLUSION:
      Findings were consistent with a previously validated RBD Scale showing Aboriginal
      smokers with high efficacy-high threat had greater intentions to quit smoking.
      The RBD Scale could have diagnostic potential to tailor health messages.
      Longitudinal research required with a larger sample to explore associations with
      the RBD Scale and quitting.

PMID- 28566364
TI  - Randomised trial of mitral valve repair with leaflet resection versus leaflet
      preservation on functional mitral stenosis (The CAMRA CardioLink-2 Trial).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The gold-standard treatment of severe mitral regurgitation (MR) due
      to degenerative disease is valve repair, which is surgically performed with
      either a leaflet resection or leaflet preservation approach. Recent data suggest
      that functional mitral stenosis (MS) may occur following valve repair using a
      leaflet resection strategy, which adversely affects patient prognosis. A
      randomised comparison of these two approaches to mitral repair on functional MS
      has not been conducted. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a prospective, multicentre
      randomised controlled trial designed to test the hypothesis that leaflet
      preservation leads to better preservation of mitral valve geometry, and
      therefore, will be superior to leaflet resection for the primary outcome of
      functional MS as assessed by 12-month mean mitral valve gradient at peak
      exercise. Eighty-eight patients with posterior leaflet prolapse will be
      randomised intraoperatively once deemed by the operating surgeon to feasibly
      undergo mitral repair using either a leaflet resection or leaflet preservation
      approach. Secondary end points include comparison of repair strategies with
      regard to mitral valve orifice area, leaflet coaptation height, 6 min walk test
      and a composite major adverse event end point consisting of recurrent MR >=2+,
      death or hospital readmission for congestive heart failure within 12 months of
      surgery. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Institutional ethics approval has been
      obtained from all enrolling sites. Overall, there remains clinical equipoise
      regarding the mitral valve repair strategy that is associated with the least
      likelihood of functional MS. This trial hopes to introduce high-quality evidence
      to help surgical decision making in this context. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      NCT02552771.

PMID- 28566366
TI  - Healthcare costs of asthma comorbidities: a systematic review protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Asthma is associated with many comorbid conditions that have the
      potential to impact on its management, control and outcomes. These comorbid
      conditions have the potential to impact on healthcare expenditure. We plan to
      undertake a systematic review to synthesise the evidence on the healthcare costs
      associated with asthma comorbidity. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will systematically
      search the following electronic databases between January 2000 and January 2017:
      National Health Service (NHS) Economic Evaluation Database, Google Scholar,
      Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), Global Health, PsychINFO,
      Medline, Embase, Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science and
      Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. We will search the
      references in the identified studies for additional potential papers. Additional
      literature will be identified by contacting experts in the field and through
      searching of registers of ongoing studies. The review will include cost
      effectiveness and economic modelling/evaluation studies and analytical
      observational epidemiology studies that have investigated the healthcare costs of
      asthma comorbidity. Two reviewers will independently screen studies and extract
      relevant data from included studies. Methodological quality of epidemiological
      studies will be assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool,
      while that of economic evaluation studies will be assessed using the Drummond
      checklist. This protocol has been published in International Prospective Register
      of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database (No. CRD42016051005). ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: As there are no primary data collected, formal NHS ethical review
      is not necessary. The findings of this systematic review will be disseminated in
      a peer-reviewed journal and presented at relevant conferences.
      PROSPEROREGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42016051005.

PMID- 28566367
TI  - Heme Oxygenase-1 Modulates Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Replication and Lung
      Pathogenesis during Infection.
AB  - Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is the leading cause of severe lower
      respiratory tract infections in children. The development of novel prophylactic
      and therapeutic antiviral drugs against hRSV is imperative to control the burden
      of disease in the susceptible population. In this study, we examined the effects
      of inducing the activity of the host enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) on hRSV
      replication and pathogenesis on lung inflammation induced by this virus. Our
      results show that after hRSV infection, HO-1 induction with metalloporphyrin
      cobalt protoporphyrin IX significantly reduces the loss of body weight due to
      hRSV-induced disease. Further, HO-1 induction also decreased viral replication
      and lung inflammation, as evidenced by a reduced neutrophil infiltration into the
      airways, with diminished cytokine and chemokine production and reduced T cell
      function. Concomitantly, upon cobalt protoporphyrin IX treatment, there is a
      significant upregulation in the production of IFN-alpha/beta mRNAs in the lungs.
      Furthermore, similar antiviral and protective effects occur by inducing the
      expression of human HO-1 in MHC class II+ cells in transgenic mice. Finally, in
      vitro data suggest that HO-1 induction can modulate the susceptibility of cells,
      especially the airway epithelial cells, to hRSV infection.

PMID- 28566369
TI  - T Cell-Mediated Humoral Immune Responses to Type 3 Capsular Polysaccharide of
      Streptococcus pneumoniae.
AB  - Most pathogenic bacteria express surface carbohydrates called capsular
      polysaccharides (CPSs). CPSs are important vaccine targets because they are
      easily accessible and recognizable by the immune system. However, CPS-specific
      adaptive humoral immune responses can only be achieved by the covalent
      conjugation of CPSs with carrier proteins to produce glycoconjugate vaccines. We
      previously described a mechanism by which a model glycoconjugate vaccine can
      activate the adaptive immune system and demonstrated that the mammalian CD4+ T
      cell repertoire contains a population of carbohydrate-specific T cells. In this
      study, we use glycoconjugates of type 3 Streptococcus pneumoniae CPS (Pn3P) to
      assess whether the carbohydrate-specific adaptive immune response exemplified in
      our previous study can be applied to the conjugates of this lethal pathogen. In
      this article, we provide evidence for the functional roles of Pn3P-specific CD4+
      T cells utilizing mouse immunization schemes that induce Pn3P-specific IgG
      responses in a carbohydrate-specific T cell-dependent manner.

PMID- 28566370
TI  - Enhanced Effector Functions Due to Antibody Defucosylation Depend on the Effector
      Cell Fcgamma Receptor Profile.
AB  - Abs of the IgG isotype are glycosylated in their Fc domain at a conserved
      asparagine at position 297. Removal of the core fucose of this glycan greatly
      increases the affinity for FcgammaRIII, resulting in enhanced FcgammaRIII
      mediated effector functions. Normal plasma IgG contains ~94% fucosylated Abs, but
      alloantibodies against, for example, Rhesus D (RhD) and platelet Ags frequently
      have reduced fucosylation that enhances their pathogenicity. The increased
      FcgammaRIII-mediated effector functions have been put to use in various
      afucosylated therapeutic Abs in anticancer treatment. To test the functional
      consequences of Ab fucosylation, we produced V-gene-matched recombinant anti-RhD
      IgG Abs of the four different subclasses (IgG1-4) with and without core fucose
      (i.e., 20% fucose remaining). Binding to all human FcgammaR types and their
      functional isoforms was assessed with surface plasmon resonance. All
      hypofucosylated anti-RhD IgGs of all IgG subclasses indeed showed enhanced
      binding affinity for isolated FcgammaRIII isoforms, without affecting binding
      affinity to other FcgammaRs. In contrast, when testing hypofucosylated anti-RhD
      Abs with FcgammaRIIIa-expressing NK cells, a 12- and 7-fold increased erythrocyte
      lysis was observed with the IgG1 and IgG3, respectively, but no increase with
      IgG2 and IgG4 anti-RhD Abs. Notably, none of the hypofucosylated IgGs enhanced
      effector function of macrophages, which, in contrast to NK cells, express a
      complex set of FcgammaRs, including FcgammaRIIIa. Our data suggest that the
      beneficial effects of afucosylated biologicals for clinical use can be
      particularly anticipated when there is a substantial involvement of FcgammaRIIIa
      expressing cells, such as NK cells.

PMID- 28566368
TI  - Caspofungin Increases Fungal Chitin and Eosinophil and gammadelta T Cell
      Dependent Pathology in Invasive Aspergillosis.
AB  - The polysaccharide-rich fungal cell wall provides pathogen-specific targets for
      antifungal therapy and distinct molecular patterns that stimulate protective or
      detrimental host immunity. The echinocandin antifungal caspofungin inhibits
      synthesis of cell wall beta-1,3-glucan and is used for prophylactic therapy in
      immune-suppressed individuals. However, breakthrough infections with fungal
      pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus are associated with caspofungin prophylaxis. In
      this study, we report in vitro and in vivo increases in fungal surface chitin in
      A. fumigatus induced by caspofungin that was associated with airway eosinophil
      recruitment in neutropenic mice with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IA). More
      importantly, caspofungin treatment of mice with IA resulted in a pattern of
      increased fungal burden and severity of disease that was reversed in eosinophil
      deficient mice. Additionally, the eosinophil granule proteins major basic protein
      and eosinophil peroxidase were more frequently detected in the bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid of lung transplant patients diagnosed with IA that received
      caspofungin therapy when compared with azole-treated patients. Eosinophil
      recruitment and inhibition of fungal clearance in caspofungin-treated mice with
      IA required RAG1 expression and gammadelta T cells. These results identify an
      eosinophil-mediated mechanism for paradoxical caspofungin activity and support
      the future investigation of the potential of eosinophil or fungal chitin-targeted
      inhibition in the treatment of IA.

PMID- 28566372
TI  - Occludin Expression in Epidermal gammadelta T Cells in Response to Epidermal
      Stress Causes Them To Migrate into Draining Lymph Nodes.
AB  - Epidermal gammadelta T cells that reside in the front line of the skin play a
      pivotal role in stress immune surveillance. However, it is not clear whether
      these cells are involved in further induction of immune responses after they are
      activated in dysregulated epidermis. In this study, we found that activated
      gammadelta T cells expressed occludin and migrated into draining lymph nodes in
      an occludin-dependent manner. Epidermal gammadelta T cells in occludin-deficient
      mice exhibited impairments in morphology changes and motility, although they
      expressed activation markers at levels comparable to those in wild-type cells.
      Occludin deficiency weakened the induction of allergen-induced contact
      hypersensitivity, primarily as the result of the impaired migration of epidermal
      gammadelta T cells. Thus, occludin expression by epidermal gammadelta T cells
      upon activation in response to epidermal stress allows them to move, which could
      be important for augmentation of immune responses via collaboration with other
      cells.

PMID- 28566371
TI  - Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Expanded Clones of Islet Antigen-Reactive CD4+
      T Cells in Peripheral Blood of Subjects with Type 1 Diabetes.
AB  - The significance of islet Ag-reactive T cells found in peripheral blood of type 1
      diabetes (T1D) subjects is unclear, partly because similar cells are also found
      in healthy control (HC) subjects. We hypothesized that key disease-associated
      cells would show evidence of prior Ag exposure, inferred from expanded TCR
      clonotypes, and essential phenotypic properties in their transcriptomes. To test
      this, we developed single-cell RNA sequencing procedures for identifying TCR
      clonotypes and transcript phenotypes in individual T cells. We applied these
      procedures to analysis of islet Ag-reactive CD4+ memory T cells from the blood of
      T1D and HC individuals after activation with pooled immunodominant islet
      peptides. We found extensive TCR clonotype sharing in Ag-activated cells,
      especially from individual T1D subjects, consistent with in vivo T cell expansion
      during disease progression. The expanded clonotype from one T1D subject was
      detected at repeat visits spanning >15 mo, demonstrating clonotype stability.
      Notably, we found no clonotype sharing between subjects, indicating a
      predominance of "private" TCR specificities. Expanded clones from two T1D
      subjects recognized distinct IGRP peptides, implicating this molecule as a
      trigger for CD4+ T cell expansion. Although overall transcript profiles of cells
      from HC and T1D subjects were similar, profiles from the most expanded clones
      were distinctive. Our findings demonstrate that islet Ag-reactive CD4+ memory T
      cells with unique Ag specificities and phenotypes are expanded during disease
      progression and can be detected by single-cell analysis of peripheral blood.

PMID- 28566373
TI  - Vimentin Modulates Infectious Internalization of Human Papillomavirus 16
      Pseudovirions.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most common viral infection of the
      reproductive tract, with virtually all cases of cervical cancer being
      attributable to infection by oncogenic HPVs. However, the exact mechanism and
      receptors used by HPV to infect epithelial cells are controversial. The current
      entry model suggests that HPV initially attaches to heparan sulfate proteoglycans
      (HSPGs) at the cell surface, followed by conformational changes, cleavage by
      furin convertase, and subsequent transfer of the virus to an as-yet-unidentified
      high-affinity receptor. In line with this model, we established an in vitro
      infection system using the HSPG-deficient cell line pgsD677 together with HPV16
      pseudovirions (HPV16-PsVs). While pgsD677 cells were nonpermissive for untreated
      HPV16-PsVs, furin cleavage of the particles led to a substantial increase in
      infection. Biochemical pulldown assays followed by mass spectrometry analysis
      showed that furin-precleaved HPV16-PsVs specifically interacted with surface
      expressed vimentin on pgsD677 cells. We further demonstrated that both furin
      precleaved and uncleaved HPV16-PsVs colocalized with surface-expressed vimentin
      on pgsD677, HeLa, HaCaT, and NIKS cells, while binding of incoming viral
      particles to soluble vimentin protein before infection led to a substantial
      decrease in viral uptake. Interestingly, decreasing cell surface vimentin by
      small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown in HeLa and NIKS cells significantly
      increased HPV16-PsV infectious internalization, while overexpression of vimentin
      had the opposite effect. The identification of vimentin as an HPV restriction
      factor enhances our understanding of the initial steps of HPV-host interaction
      and may lay the basis for the design of novel antiviral drugs preventing HPV
      internalization into epithelial cells.IMPORTANCE Despite HPV being a highly
      prevalent sexually transmitted virus causing significant disease burden
      worldwide, particularly cancer of the cervix, cell surface events preceding
      oncogenic HPV internalization are poorly understood. We herein describe the
      identification of surface-expressed vimentin as a novel molecule not previously
      implicated in the infectious internalization of HPV16. Contrary to our
      expectations, vimentin was found to act not as a receptor but rather as a
      restriction factor dampening the initial steps of HPV16 infection. These results
      importantly contribute to our current understanding of the molecular events
      during the infectious internalization of HPV16 and open a new direction in the
      development of alternative drugs to prevent HPV infection.

PMID- 28566374
TI  - The SAT Protein of Porcine Parvovirus Accelerates Viral Spreading through
      Induction of Irreversible Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.
AB  - The SAT protein (SATp) of porcine parvovirus (PPV) accumulates in the endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER), and SAT deletion induces the slow-spreading phenotype. The in
      vitro comparison of the wild-type Kresse strain and its SAT knockout (SAT-)
      mutant revealed that prolonged cell integrity and late viral release are
      responsible for the slower spreading of the SAT- virus. During PPV infection,
      regardless of the presence or absence of SATp, the expression of downstream ER
      stress response proteins (Xbp1 and CHOP) was induced. However, in the absence of
      SATp, significant differences in the quantity and the localization of CHOP were
      detected, suggesting a role of SATp in the induction of irreversible ER stress in
      infected cells. The involvement of the induction of irreversible ER stress in
      porcine testis (PT) cell necrosis and viral egress was confirmed by treatment of
      infected cells by ER stress-inducing chemicals (MG132, dithiothreitol, and
      thapsigargin), which accelerated the egress and spreading of both the wild-type
      and the SAT- viruses. UV stress induction had no beneficial effect on PPV
      infection, underscoring the specificity of ER stress pathways in the process.
      However, induction of CHOP and its nuclear translocation cannot alone be
      responsible for the biological effect of SAT, since nuclear CHOP could not
      complement the lack of SAT in a coexpression experiment.IMPORTANCE SATp is
      encoded by an alternative open reading frame of the PPV genome. Earlier we showed
      that SATp of the attenuated PPV NADL-2 strain accumulates in the ER and
      accelerates virus release and spreading. Our present work revealed that slow
      spreading is a general feature of SAT- PPVs and is the consequence of prolonged
      cell integrity. PPV infection induced ER stress in infected cells regardless of
      the presence of SATp, as demonstrated by the morphological changes of the ER and
      expression of the stress response proteins Xbp1 and CHOP. However, the presence
      of SATp made the ER stress more severe and accelerated cell death during
      infection, as shown by the higher rate of expression of CHOP and alteration of
      the localization of CHOP. The beneficial effect of irreversible ER stress on PPV
      spread was confirmed by treatment of infected cells with ER stress-inducing
      chemicals.

PMID- 28566375
TI  - Rapid Engineering of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine and Challenge Viruses.
AB  - There are seven antigenically distinct serotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus
      (FMDV), each of which has intratypic variants. In the present study, we have
      developed methods to efficiently generate promising vaccines against seven
      serotypes or subtypes. The capsid-encoding gene (P1) of the vaccine strain
      O1/Manisa/Turkey/69 was replaced with the amplified or synthetic genes from the
      O, A, Asia1, C, SAT1, SAT2, and SAT3 serotypes. Viruses of the seven serotype
      were rescued successfully. Each chimeric FMDV with a replacement of P1 showed
      serotype-specific antigenicity and varied in terms of pathogenesis in pigs and
      mice. Vaccination of pigs with an experimental trivalent vaccine containing the
      inactivated recombinants based on the main serotypes O, A, and Asia1 effectively
      protected them from virus challenge. This technology could be a potential
      strategy for a customized vaccine with challenge tools to protect against
      epizootic disease caused by specific serotypes or subtypes of FMDV.IMPORTANCE
      Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) causes significant economic losses. For
      vaccine preparation, the selection of vaccine strains was complicated by high
      antigenic variation. In the present study, we suggested an effective strategy to
      rapidly prepare and evaluate mass-produced customized vaccines against epidemic
      strains. The P1 gene encoding the structural proteins of the well-known vaccine
      virus was replaced by the synthetic or amplified genes of viruses of seven
      representative serotypes. These chimeric viruses generally replicated readily in
      cell culture and had a particle size similar to that of the original vaccine
      strain. Their antigenicity mirrored that of the original serotype from which
      their P1 gene was derived. Animal infection experiments revealed that the
      recombinants varied in terms of pathogenicity. This strategy will be a useful
      tool for rapidly generating customized FMD vaccines or challenge viruses for all
      serotypes, especially for FMD-free countries, which have prohibited the import of
      FMDVs.

PMID- 28566377
TI  - Structural Insight into Nucleoprotein Conformation Change Chaperoned by VP35
      Peptide in Marburg Virus.
AB  - Marburg virus (MARV) encodes a nucleoprotein (NP) to encapsidate its genome by
      oligomerization and form a ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP). According to previous
      investigation on nonsegmented negative-sense RNA viruses (nsNSV), the newly
      synthesized NPs must be prevented from indiscriminately binding to noncognate
      RNAs. During the viral RNA synthesis process, the RNPs undergo a transition from
      an RNA-bound form to a template-free form, to open access for the interaction
      between the viral polymerase and the RNA template. In filoviruses, this
      transition is regulated by VP35 peptide and other viral components. To further
      understand the dynamic process of filovirus RNP formation, we report here the
      structure of MARV NPcore, both in the apo form and in the VP35 peptide-chaperoned
      form. These structures reveal a typical bilobed structure, with a positive
      charged RNA binding groove between two lobes. In the apo form, the MARV NP exists
      in an interesting hexameric state formed by the hydrophobic interaction within
      the long helix of the NPcore C-terminal region, which shows high structural
      flexibility among filoviruses and may imply critical function during RNP
      formation. Moreover, the VP35 peptide-chaperoned NPcore remains in a monomeric
      state and completely loses its affinity for single-stranded RNA (ssRNA). The
      structural comparison reveals that the RNA binding groove undergoes a transition
      from closed state to open state, chaperoned by VP35 peptide, thus preventing the
      interaction for viral RNA. Our investigation provides considerable structural
      insight into the filovirus RNP working mechanism and may support the development
      of antiviral therapies targeting the RNP formation of filovirus.IMPORTANCE
      Marburg virus is one of the most dangerous viruses, with high morbidity and
      mortality. A recent outbreak in Angola in 2005 caused the deaths of 272 persons.
      NP is one of the most essential proteins, as it encapsidates and protects the
      whole virus genome simultaneously with self-assembly oligomerization. Here we
      report the structures of MARV NPcore in two different forms. In the MARV NP apo
      form, we identify an interesting hexamer formed by hydrophobic interaction within
      a long helix, which is highly conserved and flexible among filoviruses and may
      indicate its critical function during the virus RNP formation. Moreover, the
      structural comparison with the NP-VP35 peptide complex reveals a structural
      transition chaperoned by VP35, in which the RNA binding groove undergoes a
      transition from closed state to open state. Finally, we discussed the high
      conservation and critical role of the VP35 binding pocket and its potential use
      for therapeutic development.

PMID- 28566376
TI  - Ruxolitinib and Polycation Combination Treatment Overcomes Multiple Mechanisms of
      Resistance of Pancreatic Cancer Cells to Oncolytic Vesicular Stomatitis Virus.
AB  - Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a promising oncolytic virus (OV). Although
      VSV is effective against a majority of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell
      (PDAC) cell lines, some PDAC cell lines are highly resistant to VSV, and the
      mechanisms of resistance are still unclear. JAK1/2 inhibitors (such as
      ruxolitinib and JAK inhibitor I) strongly stimulate VSV replication and oncolysis
      in all resistant cell lines but only partially improve the susceptibility of
      resistant PDACs to VSV. VSV tumor tropism is generally dependent on the
      permissiveness of malignant cells to viral replication rather than on receptor
      specificity, with several ubiquitously expressed cell surface molecules playing a
      role in VSV attachment to host cells. However, as VSV attachment to PDAC cells
      has never been tested before, here we examined if it was possibly inhibited in
      resistant PDAC cells. Our data show a dramatically weaker attachment of VSV to
      HPAF-II cells, the most resistant human PDAC cell line. Although sequence
      analysis of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR) mRNA did not reveal any
      amino acid substitutions in this cell line, HPAF-II cells displayed the lowest
      level of LDLR expression and dramatically lower LDL uptake. Treatment of cells
      with various statins strongly increased LDLR expression levels but did not
      improve VSV attachment or LDL uptake in HPAF-II cells. However, LDLR-independent
      attachment of VSV to HPAF-II cells was dramatically improved by treating cells
      with Polybrene or DEAE-dextran. Moreover, combining VSV with ruxolitinib and
      Polybrene or DEAE-dextran successfully broke the resistance of HPAF-II cells to
      VSV by simultaneously improving VSV attachment and replication.IMPORTANCE
      Oncolytic virus (OV) therapy is an anticancer approach that uses viruses that
      selectively infect and kill cancer cells. This study focuses on oncolytic
      vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)
      cells. Although VSV is effective against most PDAC cells, some are highly
      resistant to VSV, and the mechanisms are still unclear. Here we examined if VSV
      attachment to cells was inhibited in resistant PDAC cells. Our data show very
      inefficient attachment of VSV to the most resistant human PDAC cell line, HPAF
      II. However, VSV attachment to HPAF-II cells was dramatically improved by
      treating cells with polycations. Moreover, combining VSV with polycations and
      ruxolitinib (which inhibits antiviral signaling) successfully broke the
      resistance of HPAF-II cells to VSV by simultaneously improving VSV attachment and
      replication. We envision that this novel triple-combination approach could be
      used in the future to treat PDAC tumors that are highly resistant to OV therapy.

PMID- 28566378
TI  - Critical Role for Monocytes/Macrophages in Rapid Progression to AIDS in Pediatric
      Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Rhesus Macaques.
AB  - Infant humans and rhesus macaques infected with the human or simian
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV or SIV), respectively, express higher viral loads and
      progress more rapidly to AIDS than infected adults. Activated memory CD4+ T cells
      in intestinal tissues are major primary target cells for SIV/HIV infection, and
      massive depletion of these cells is considered a major cause of immunodeficiency.
      Monocytes and macrophages are important cells of innate immunity and also are
      targets of HIV/SIV infection. We reported previously that a high peripheral blood
      monocyte turnover rate was predictive for the onset of disease progression to
      AIDS in SIV-infected adult macaques. The purpose of this study was to determine
      if earlier or higher infection of monocytes/macrophages contributes to the more
      rapid progression to AIDS in infants. We observed that uninfected infant rhesus
      macaques exhibited higher physiologic baseline monocyte turnover than adults.
      Early after SIV infection, the monocyte turnover further increased, and it
      remained high during progression to AIDS. A high percentage of terminal
      deoxynucleotidyltransferase dUTP nick end label (TUNEL)-positive macrophages in
      the lymph nodes (LNs) and intestine corresponded with an increasing number of
      macrophages derived from circulating monocytes (bromodeoxyuridine positive
      [BrdU+] CD163+), suggesting that the increased blood monocyte turnover was
      required to rapidly replenish destroyed tissue macrophages. Immunofluorescence
      analysis further demonstrated that macrophages were a significant portion of the
      virus-producing cells found in LNs, intestinal tissues, and lungs. The higher
      baseline monocyte turnover in infant macaques and subsequent macrophage damage by
      SIV infection may help explain the basis of more rapid disease progression to
      AIDS in infants.IMPORTANCE HIV infection progresses much more rapidly in
      pediatric cases than in adults; however, the mechanism for this difference is
      unclear. Using the rhesus macaque model, this work was performed to address why
      infants infected with SIV progress more quickly to AIDS than do adults. Earlier
      we reported that in adult rhesus macaques, increasing monocyte turnover reflected
      tissue macrophage damage by SIV and was predictive of terminal disease
      progression to AIDS. Here we report that uninfected infant rhesus macaques
      exhibited a higher physiological baseline monocyte turnover rate than adults.
      Furthermore, once infected with SIV, infants displayed further increased monocyte
      turnover that may have facilitated the accelerated progression to AIDS. These
      results support a role for monocytes and macrophages in the pathogenesis of
      SIV/HIV and begin to explain why infants are more prone to rapid disease
      progression.

PMID- 28566379
TI  - Discovery and Mechanistic Study of Benzamide Derivatives That Modulate Hepatitis
      B Virus Capsid Assembly.
AB  - Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health problem.
      Although the currently approved medications can reliably reduce the viral load
      and prevent the progression of liver diseases, they fail to cure the viral
      infection. In an effort toward discovery of novel antiviral agents against HBV, a
      group of benzamide (BA) derivatives that significantly reduced the amount of
      cytoplasmic HBV DNA were discovered. The initial lead optimization efforts
      identified two BA derivatives with improved antiviral activity for further
      mechanistic studies. Interestingly, similar to our previously reported
      sulfamoylbenzamides (SBAs), the BAs promote the formation of empty capsids
      through specific interaction with HBV core protein but not other viral and host
      cellular components. Genetic evidence suggested that both SBAs and BAs inhibited
      HBV nucleocapsid assembly by binding to the heteroaryldihydropyrimidine (HAP)
      pocket between core protein dimer-dimer interfaces. However, unlike SBAs, BA
      compounds uniquely induced the formation of empty capsids that migrated more
      slowly in native agarose gel electrophoresis from A36V mutant than from the wild
      type core protein. Moreover, we showed that the assembly of chimeric capsids from
      wild-type and drug-resistant core proteins was susceptible to multiple capsid
      assembly modulators. Hence, HBV core protein is a dominant antiviral target that
      may suppress the selection of drug-resistant viruses during core protein
      targeting antiviral therapy. Our studies thus indicate that BAs are a chemically
      and mechanistically unique type of HBV capsid assembly modulators and warranted
      for further development as antiviral agents against HBV.IMPORTANCE HBV core
      protein plays essential roles in many steps of the viral replication cycle. In
      addition to packaging viral pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) and DNA polymerase complex
      into nucleocapsids for reverse transcriptional DNA replication to take place, the
      core protein dimers, existing in several different quaternary structures in
      infected hepatocytes, participate in and regulate HBV virion assembly, capsid
      uncoating, and covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) formation. It is
      anticipated that small molecular core protein assembly modulators may disrupt one
      or multiple steps of HBV replication, depending on their interaction with the
      distinct quaternary structures of core protein. The discovery of novel core
      protein-targeting antivirals, such as benzamide derivatives reported here, and
      investigation of their antiviral mechanism may lead to the identification of
      antiviral therapeutics for the cure of chronic hepatitis B.

PMID- 28566380
TI  - Seneca Valley Virus Suppresses Host Type I Interferon Production by Targeting
      Adaptor Proteins MAVS, TRIF, and TANK for Cleavage.
AB  - Seneca Valley virus (SVV) is an oncolytic RNA virus belonging to the
      Picornaviridae family. Its nucleotide sequence is highly similar to those of
      members of the Cardiovirus genus. SVV is also a neuroendocrine cancer-selective
      oncolytic picornavirus that can be used for anticancer therapy. However, the
      interaction between SVV and its host is yet to be fully characterized. In this
      study, SVV inhibited antiviral type I interferon (IFN) responses by targeting
      different host adaptors, including mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS),
      Toll/interleukin 1 (IL-1) receptor domain-containing adaptor inducing IFN-beta
      (TRIF), and TRAF family member-associated NF-kappaB activator (TANK), via viral
      3C protease (3Cpro). SVV 3Cpro mediated the cleavage of MAVS, TRIF, and TANK at
      specific sites, which required its protease activity. The cleaved MAVS, TRIF, and
      TANK lost the ability to regulate pattern recognition receptor (PRR)-mediated IFN
      production. The cleavage of TANK also facilitated TRAF6-induced NF-kappaB
      activation. SVV was also found to be sensitive to IFN-beta. Therefore, SVV
      suppressed antiviral IFN production to escape host antiviral innate immune
      responses by cleaving host adaptor molecules.IMPORTANCE Host cells have developed
      various defenses against microbial pathogen infection. The production of IFN is
      the first line of defense against microbial infection. However, viruses have
      evolved many strategies to disrupt this host defense. SVV, a member of the
      Picornavirus genus, is an oncolytic virus that shows potential functions in
      anticancer therapy. It has been demonstrated that IFN can be used in anticancer
      therapy for certain tumors. However, the relationship between oncolytic virus and
      innate immune response in anticancer therapy is still not well known. In this
      study, we showed that SVV has evolved as an effective mechanism to inhibit host
      type I IFN production by using its 3Cpro to cleave the molecules MAVS, TRIF, and
      TANK directly. These molecules are crucial for the Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)
      mediated and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor (RLR)-mediated
      signaling pathway. We also found that SVV is sensitive to IFN-beta. These
      findings increase our understanding of the interaction between SVV and host
      innate immunity.

PMID- 28566381
TI  - Hepatitis C Virus Subverts Human Choline Kinase-alpha To Bridge
      Phosphatidylinositol-4-Kinase IIIalpha (PI4KIIIalpha) and NS5A and Upregulates
      PI4KIIIalpha Activation, Thereby Promoting the Translocation of the Ternary
      Complex to the Endoplasmic Reticulum for Viral Replication.
AB  - In this study, we elucidated the mechanism by which human choline kinase-alpha
      (hCKalpha) interacts with nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) and
      phosphatidylinositol-4-kinase IIIalpha (PI4KIIIalpha), the lipid kinase crucial
      for maintaining the integrity of virus-induced membranous webs, and modulates
      hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication. hCKalpha activity positively modulated
      phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P) levels in HCV-expressing cells, and
      hCKalpha-mediated PI4P accumulation was abolished by AL-9, a PI4KIIIalpha
      specific inhibitor. hCKalpha colocalized with NS5A and PI4KIIIalpha or PI4P; NS5A
      expression increased hCKalpha and PI4KIIIalpha colocalization; and hCKalpha
      formed a ternary complex with PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A, supporting the functional
      interplay of hCKalpha with PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A. PI4KIIIalpha inactivation by AL
      9 or hCKalpha inactivation by CK37, a specific hCKalpha inhibitor, impaired the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) localization and colocalization of these three
      molecules. Interestingly, hCKalpha knockdown or inactivation inhibited
      PI4KIIIalpha-NS5A binding. In an in vitro PI4KIIIalpha activity assay, hCKalpha
      activity slightly increased PI4KIIIalpha basal activity but greatly augmented
      NS5A-induced PI4KIIIalpha activity, supporting the essential role of ternary
      complex formation in robust PI4KIIIalpha activation. Concurring with the
      upregulation of PI4P production and viral replication, overexpression of active
      hCKalpha-R (but not the D288A mutant) restored PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A
      translocation to the ER in hCKalpha stable knockdown cells. Furthermore, active
      PI4KIIIalpha overexpression restored PI4P production, PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A
      translocation to the ER, and viral replication in CK37-treated cells. Based on
      our results, hCKalpha functions as an indispensable regulator that bridges
      PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A and potentiates NS5A-stimulated PI4KIIIalpha activity,
      which then facilitates the targeting of the ternary complex to the ER for viral
      replication.IMPORTANCE The mechanisms by which hCKalpha activity modulates the
      transport of the hCKalpha-NS5A complex to the ER are not understood. In the
      present study, we investigated how hCKalpha interacts with PI4KIIIalpha (a key
      element that maintains the integrity of the "membranous web" structure) and NS5A
      to regulate viral replication. We demonstrated that HCV hijacks hCKalpha to
      bridge PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A, forming a ternary complex, which then stimulates
      PI4KIIIalpha activity to produce PI4P. Pronounced PI4P synthesis then redirects
      the translocation of the ternary complex to the ER-derived, PI4P-enriched
      membrane for assembly of the viral replication complex and viral replication. Our
      study provides novel insights into the indispensable modulatory role of hCKalpha
      in the recruitment of PI4KIIIalpha to NS5A and in NS5A-stimulated PI4P production
      and reveals a new perspective for understanding the impact of profound
      PI4KIIIalpha activation on the targeting of PI4KIIIalpha and NS5A to the PI4P
      enriched membrane for viral replication complex formation.

PMID- 28566385
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28566384
TI  - The number of target molecules of the amplification step limits accuracy and
      sensitivity in ultra deep sequencing viral population studies.
AB  - The invention of next generation sequencing techniques (NGS) marked the coming of
      a new era in the detection of genetic diversity of intra-host viral populations.
      A good understanding of the genetic structure of these populations first requires
      being able to identify the different isolates or variants, and second to
      accurately quantify them. However, the initial amplification step of NGS studies
      can impose potential quantitative biases modifying the variant relative
      frequencies. In particular, the number of target molecules (NTM) used during the
      amplification step is vastly overlooked, though of primary importance as it sets
      the limit of the accuracy and the sensitivity of the sequencing procedure. In the
      present article, we investigated quantitative biases in the NGS study of
      populations of a multipartite ssDNA virus at different steps of the procedure. We
      studied 20 independent populations of the ssDNA Faba Bean Necrotic Stunt Virus
      (FBNSV) virus in two host plants, Faba bean and Medicago. The FBNSV is a
      multipartite virus composed of eight genomic segments, whose specific and host
      dependent relative frequencies are defined as the "genome formula". Our results
      show significant distortion of the FBNSV genome formula after the amplification
      and the sequencing steps. We also quantified the genetic bottleneck occurring at
      the amplification step by documenting the NTM of two genomic segments of the
      FBNSV. We argue that the NTM must be documented and carefully considered when
      interpreting the sensitivity and accuracy of NGS studies.Importance The advent of
      next generation sequencing techniques (NGS) now enables studying the genetic
      diversity of viral populations. A good understanding of the genetic structure of
      these populations first requires being able to identify the different isolates or
      variants, and second to accurately quantify them. Prior to sequencing, viral
      genomes need to be amplified, a step that potentially imposes quantitative biases
      and modifies the viral population structure. In particular, the number of target
      molecules (NTM) used during the amplification step is of primary importance as it
      sets the limit of the accuracy and the sensitivity of the sequencing procedure.
      In this work, we used 20 replicated populations of the multipartite Faba Bean
      Necrotic Stunt Virus (FBNSV) to estimate the various limitations of ultra deep
      sequencing studies performed on intra-host viral populations. We report
      quantitative biases during Rolling Circle Amplification and the NTM of two
      genomic segments of the FBNSV.

PMID- 28566382
TI  - Human papillomavirus major capsid protein L1 remains associated with the incoming
      viral genome throughout the entry process.
AB  - During infectious entry, acidification within the endosome triggers uncoating of
      the HPV capsid whereupon host cyclophilins facilitate the release of most of the
      major capsid protein, L1, from the minor capsid protein L2 and the viral genome.
      The L2/DNA complex traffics to the trans-Golgi network (TGN). Following the onset
      of mitosis, HPV-harboring transport vesicles bud from the TGN followed by
      association with mitotic chromosomes. During this time, the HPV genome remains in
      a vesicular compartment until the nucleus has completely reformed. Recent data
      suggests that while most of L1 protein dissociates and is degraded in the
      endosome, some L1 protein remains associated with the viral genome. The L1
      protein has DNA binding activity and L2 protein has multiple domains capable of
      interacting with L1 capsomeres. In this study, we report that some L1 protein
      traffics with L2 and viral genome to the nucleus. The accompanying L1 protein is
      mostly full-length and retains conformation-dependent epitopes, which are
      recognized by neutralizing antibodies. Since more than one L1 molecule
      contributes to these epitopes and require assembly into capsomeres, we propose
      that L1 protein is present in form of pentamers. Furthermore, we provide evidence
      that L1 protein interacts directly with viral DNA within the capsid. Based on our
      findings, we propose that the L1 protein, likely arranged as capsomeres,
      stabilizes the viral genome within the subviral complex during intracellular
      trafficking.IMPORTANCE After internalization, the non-enveloped human
      papillomavirus virion uncoats in the endosome whereupon conformational changes
      result in a dissociation of a subset of the major capsid protein L1 from the
      minor capsid protein L2, which remains in complex with the viral DNA. Recent data
      suggests that some L1 protein may accompany the viral genome beyond the endosomal
      compartment. Herein, we demonstrate that conformationally intact L1 protein,
      likely still arranged as capsomeres, remains associated with the incoming viral
      genome throughout mitosis and transiently resides in the nucleus until after the
      viral DNA is released from the transport vesicle.

PMID- 28566383
TI  - Drug Modulators of B Cell Signaling Pathways and Epstein-Barr Virus Lytic
      Activation.
AB  - Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous human gammaherpesvirus that establishes
      a latency reservoir in B cells. In this work, we show that ibrutinib, idelalisib,
      and dasatinib, drugs that block B cell receptor (BCR) signaling and are used in
      the treatment of hematologic malignancies, block BCR-mediated lytic induction at
      clinically relevant doses. We confirm that the immunosuppressive drugs
      cyclosporine and tacrolimus also inhibit BCR-mediated lytic induction but find
      that rapamycin does not inhibit BCR-mediated lytic induction. Further
      investigation shows that mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2)
      contributes to BCR-mediated lytic induction and that FK506-binding protein 12
      (FKBP12) binding alone is not adequate to block activation. Finally, we show that
      BCR signaling can activate EBV lytic induction in freshly isolated B cells from
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and that activation can be inhibited
      by ibrutinib or idelalisib.IMPORTANCE EBV establishes viral latency in B cells.
      Activation of the B cell receptor pathway activates lytic viral expression in
      cell lines. Here we show that drugs that inhibit important kinases in the BCR
      signaling pathway inhibit activation of lytic viral expression but do not inhibit
      several other lytic activation pathways. Immunosuppressant drugs such as
      cyclosporine and tacrolimus but not rapamycin also inhibit BCR-mediated EBV
      activation. Finally, we show that BCR activation of lytic infection occurs not
      only in tumor cell lines but also in freshly isolated B cells from patients and
      that this activation can be blocked by BCR inhibitors.

PMID- 28566386
TI  - Cost and efficacy examination of alvimopan for the prevention of postoperative
      ileus.
AB  - Opioid analgesics exacerbate ileus through peripheral MU-opioid receptor action.
      Alvimopan, a MU-opioid receptor antagonist, has been proposed to alleviate
      postoperative ileus, leading to decreased time to return of gastrointestinal
      function and hospital discharge. As opioid-induced motility issues are only one
      factor affecting postoperative ileus, continued examination of the cost of the
      use and efficacy of the drug is needed. Data for this study were collected
      retrospectively from the charts of 55 patients who received an anastomosis and
      were given alvimopan at Morristown Medical Center between 2010 and 2013 as well
      as from 58 appropriately matched controls. The billing record and chart for each
      patient was examined, and information on total hospital charges, age, sex, body
      mas index, primary diagnosis, procedure type, length of stay (days), time to
      return of bowel function (hours), and outcomes were recorded for analysis. No
      difference between patients given alvimopan and controls was observed for the
      length of hospital stay (4.6 vs 4.8 days) or for time to return of bowel function
      (68.5 vs 67.3 hours). Total hospital charges were higher for treated patients
      (p=0.0080), averaging $48 705.15 and $41 068.80, respectively. Alvimopan was not
      associated with improved clinical outcome but was associated with an increase in
      hospital charges within this population.

PMID- 28566387
TI  - Acetabular dysplasia: multiple pathologies and myriad solutions.

PMID- 28566388
TI  - Magnetically controlled growing rods in the treatment of early-onset scoliosis: a
      note of caution.
AB  - The MAGnetic Expansion Control (MAGEC) system is used increasingly in the
      management of early-onset scoliosis. Good results have been published, but there
      have been recent reports identifying implant failures that may be associated with
      significant metallosis surrounding the implants. This article aims to present the
      current knowledge regarding the performance of this implant, and the potential
      implications and strategies that may be employed to identify and limit any
      problems. We urge surgeons to apply caution to patient and construct selection;
      engage in prospective patient registration using a spine registry; ensure close
      clinical monitoring until growth has ceased; and send all explanted MAGEC rods
      for independent analysis. The MAGEC system may be a good instrumentation system
      for the treatment of early-onset scoliosis. However, it is innovative and like
      all new technology, especially when deployed in a paediatric population, robust
      systems to assess long-term outcome are required to ensure that patient safety is
      maintained. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:708-13.

PMID- 28566389
TI  - Does the type of graft affect the outcome of revision anterior cruciate ligament
      reconstruction? a meta-analysis of 32 studies.
AB  - AIMS: Our aim was to perform a meta-analysis of the outcomes of revision anterior
      cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, comparing the use of different types of
      graft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search was performed of Medline and Pubmed using
      the terms "Anterior Cruciate Ligament" and "ACL" combined with "revision", "re
      operation" and "failure". Only studies that reported the outcome at a minimum
      follow-up of two years were included. Two authors reviewed the papers, and
      outcomes were subdivided into autograft and allograft. Autograft was subdivided
      into hamstring (HS) and bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB). Subjective and
      objective outcome measures were analysed and odds ratios with confidence
      intervals were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 32 studies met the inclusion
      criteria. Five studies used HS autografts, eight reported using BPTB autografts,
      two used quadriceps tendon autografts and eight used various types. Seven studies
      reported using allografts, while the two remaining used both BPTB autografts and
      allografts. Overall, 1192 patients with a mean age of 28.7 years (22.5 to 39) and
      a mean follow-up of 5.4 years (2.0 to 9.6) were treated with autografts, while
      269 patients with a mean age of 28.4 years (25 to 34.6) and a mean follow-up of
      4.0 years (2.3 to 6.0) were treated with allografts. Regarding allografts,
      irradiation with 2.5 mrad was used in two studies while the graft was not
      irradiated in the seven remaining studies. Reconstructions following the use of
      autografts had better outcomes than those using allograft with respect to laxity,
      measured by KT-1000/2000 (MEDmetric Corporation) and the rates of complications
      and re-operations. Those following the use of allografts had better mean Lysholm
      and Tegner activity scores compared with autografts. If irradiated allografts
      were excluded from the analysis, outcomes no longer differed between the use of
      autografts and allografts. Comparing the types of autograft, all outcomes were
      similar except for HS grafts which had better International Knee Documentation
      Committee scores compared with BPTB grafts. CONCLUSION: Autografts had better
      outcomes than allografts in revision ACL reconstruction, with lower post
      operative laxity and rates of complications and re-operations. However, after
      excluding irradiated allografts, outcomes were similar between autografts and
      allografts. Overall, the choice of graft at revision ACL reconstruction should be
      on an individual basis considering, for instance, the preferred technique of the
      surgeon, whether a combined reconstruction is required, the type of graft that
      was previously used, whether the tunnels are enlarged and the availability of
      allograft. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:714-23.

PMID- 28566390
TI  - The Birmingham Interlocking Pelvic Osteotomy for acetabular dysplasia: 13- to 21
      year survival outcomes.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term clinical and
      radiographic outcomes of the Birmingham Interlocking Pelvic Osteotomy (BIPO).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this prospective study, we report the mid- to long-term
      clinical outcomes of the first 100 consecutive patients (116 hips; 88 in women,
      28 in men) undergoing BIPO, reflecting the surgeon's learning curve. Failure was
      defined as conversion to hip arthroplasty. The mean age at operation was 31 years
      (7 to 57). Three patients (three hips) were lost to follow-up. RESULTS:
      Survivorship was 76% at ten years and 57% at a mean of 17 years. Younger patients
      (< 20 years) had the best survivorship (20 hips at risk; 90% at 17 years; 95%
      confidence interval 65 to 97). Post-operative complications occurred after 12
      operations (10.4%) over the duration of the study. Increasing patient age and hip
      arthritis grade were primary determinants of surgical failure. CONCLUSION: BIPO
      provides good to excellent survivorship in appropriately selected patients, with
      a relatively low rate of complications. Our results are comparable with other
      established methods of periacetabular osteotomy (PAO), such as the Bernese PAO,
      even during the surgeon's initial learning curve. Cite this article: Bone Joint J
      2017;99-B:724-31.

PMID- 28566391
TI  - The direct anterior approach in total hip arthroplasty: a systematic review of
      the literature.
AB  - AIMS: The most effective surgical approach for total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      remains controversial. The direct anterior approach may be associated with a
      reduced risk of dislocation, faster recovery, reduced pain and fewer surgical
      complications. This systematic review aims to evaluate the current evidence for
      the use of this approach in THA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following the Cochrane
      collaboration, an extensive literature search of PubMed, Medline, Embase and
      OvidSP was conducted. Randomised controlled trials, comparative studies, and
      cohort studies were included. Outcomes included the length of the incision, blood
      loss, operating time, length of stay, complications, and gait analysis. RESULTS:
      A total of 42 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most were of medium to low
      quality. There was no difference between the direct anterior, anterolateral or
      posterior approaches with regards to length of stay and gait analysis. Papers
      comparing the length of the incision found similar lengths compared with the
      lateral approach, and conflicting results when comparing the direct anterior and
      posterior approaches. Most studies found the mean operating time to be
      significantly longer when the direct anterior approach was used, with a steep
      learning curve reported by many. Many authors used validated scores including the
      Harris hip score, and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis
      Index. These mean scores were better following the use of the direct anterior
      approach for the first six weeks post-operatively. Subsequently there was no
      difference between these scores and those for the posterior approach. CONCLUSION:
      There is little evidence for improved kinematics or better long-term outcomes
      following the use of the direct anterior approach for THA. There is a steep
      learning curve with similar rates of complications, length of stay and outcomes.
      Well-designed, multi-centre, prospective randomised controlled trials are
      required to provide evidence as to whether the direct anterior approach is better
      than the lateral or posterior approaches when undertaking THA. Cite this article:
      Bone JointJ 2017;99-B:732-40.

PMID- 28566392
TI  - Mid-term results of the BIOLOX delta ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasty.
AB  - AIMS: We conducted a prospective study of a delta ceramic total hip arthroplasty
      (THA) to determine the rate of ceramic fracture, to characterise post-operative
      noise, and to evaluate the mid-term results and survivorship. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Between March 2009 and March 2011, 274 patients (310 hips) underwent
      cementless THA using a delta ceramic femoral head and liner. At each follow-up,
      clinical and radiological outcomes were recorded. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was
      undertaken to estimate survival. RESULTS: Four patients (four hips) died and 18
      patients (20 hips) were lost to follow-up within five years. The remaining 252
      patients (286 hips) were followed for a mean of 66.5 months (60 to 84). There
      were 144 men (166 hips) and 108 women (120 hips) with a mean age of 49.7 years
      (16 to 83) at surgery. The mean pre-operative Harris Hip Score of 47.1 points
      improved to 93.8 points at final follow-up. Six patients reported squeaking in
      seven hips; however, none were audible. Radiolucent lines involving Gruen zones
      one and/or seven were seen in 52 hips (18.2%). No hip had detectable wear, focal
      osteolysis or signs of loosening. One hip was revised because of fracture of the
      ceramic liner, which occurred due to an undetected malseating of the ceramic
      liner at the time of surgery. One hip was revised for a periprosthetic fracture
      of the femur, and one hip was treated for periprosthetic joint infection. The six
      year survivorship with re-operation for any reason as the endpoint was 99.0% (95%
      confidence interval 97.8% to 100%). DISCUSSION: The rate of delta ceramic
      fracture was 0.3% (one of 286). While ceramic head fracture was dominant in
      previous ceramic-on-ceramic THA, fracture of the delta ceramic liner due to
      malseating is a concern. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:741-8.

PMID- 28566393
TI  - The evolution of an uncemented acetabular component in alumina-on-alumina total
      hip arthroplasty has improved clinical outcome: a prospective, comparative five-
      to 15-year follow-up study.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the effect of a change in design of a cementless ceramic
      acetabular component in fixation and clinical outcome after total hip
      arthroplasty PATIENTS AND METHODS: We compared 342 hips (302 patients) operated
      between 1999 and 2005 with a relatively smooth hydroxyapatite coated acetabular
      component (group 1), and 337 hips (310 patients) operated between 2006 and 2011
      using a similar acetabular component with a macrotexture on the entire outer
      surface of the component (group 2). The mean age of the patients was 53.5 (14 to
      70) in group 1 and 53.0 (15 to 70) in group 2. The mean follow-up was 12.7 years
      (10 to 17) for group 1 and 7.2 years (4 to 10) for group 2. RESULTS: No hips were
      revised due to complications related to bearing fracture or to stem loosening. A
      total of 15 acetabular components were revised for aseptic loosening in group 1
      and two in group 2. The survival rate for acetabular component aseptic loosening
      at eight years was 96.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 94.8 to 98.7) for group 1
      and 99.2% (95% CI 98.0 to 100) for group 2. The risk for aseptic loosening of the
      acetabular component was higher in group 1 (p = 0.04, Hazard Ratio (HR) 4.99),
      dysplastic acetabula (p = 0.01, HR 4.12), components outside Lewinnek's zone (p <
      0.001, HR 6.13) and in those with a hip rotation centre distance greater than 5
      mm (p = 0.005, HR 4.09). CONCLUSION: Alumina ceramic-on-ceramic THA is an
      excellent option for young patients. Although newer components appeared to
      improve fixation, acetabular reconstruction is essential to obtain a satisfactory
      outcome. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:749-58.

PMID- 28566394
TI  - Lumbar surgery prior to total hip arthroplasty is associated with worse patient
      reported outcomes.
AB  - AIMS: The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence of previous lumbar
      surgery in patients who undergo total hip arthroplasty (THA) and to investigate
      their patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) one year post-operatively. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Data from the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register and the Swedish Spine
      Register gathered between 2002 and 2012 were merged to identify a group of
      patients who had undergone lumbar surgery before THA (n = 997) and a carefully
      matched one-to-one control group. We investigated differences in the one-year
      post-operative PROMs between the groups. Linear regression analyses were used to
      explore the associations between previous lumbar surgery and these PROMs
      following THA. The prevalence of prior lumbar surgery was calculated as the ratio
      of patients identified with previous lumbar surgery between 2002 and 2012, and
      divided by the total number of patients who underwent a THA in 2012. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of lumbar surgery prior to THA in 2012 was 3.5% (351 of 10 082).
      Linear regression analyses showed an association with more pain (B = 4.35, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) 2.57 to 6.12), worse EuroQol (EQ)-5D index, (B = -0.089,
      95% CI -0.112 to -0.066), worse EQ VAS (B = -6.75, 95% CI -8.58 to -4.92), and
      less satisfaction (B = 6.04, 95% CI 4.05 to 8.02). CONCLUSION: Lumbar spinal
      surgery prior to THA is associated with less reduction of pain, worse health
      related quality of life, and less satisfaction one year after THA. This is useful
      information to share in the decision-making process and may help establish
      realistic expectations of the outcomes of THA in patients who also have
      previously undergone lumbar spinal surgery. Cite this article: Bone Joint J
      2017;99-B:759-65.

PMID- 28566395
TI  - The use of femoral stems with exchangeable necks in primary total hip
      arthroplasty increases the rate of revision.
AB  - AIMS: Femoral stems with exchangeable (modular) necks were introduced to offer
      surgeons an increased choice when determining the version, offset and length of
      the femoral neck during total hip arthroplasty (THA). It was hoped that this
      would improve outcomes and reduce complications, particularly dislocation. In
      2010, the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry
      (AOANJRR) first reported an increased rate of revision after primary THA using
      femoral stems with an exchangeable neck. The aim of this study was to provide a
      more comprehensive up-to-date analysis of primary THA using femoral stems with
      exchangeable and fixed necks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data included all
      primary THA procedures performed for osteoarthritis (OA), reported to the AOANJRR
      between 01 September 1999 and 31 December 2014. There were 9289 femoral stems
      with an exchangeable neck and 253 165 femoral stems with a fixed neck. The
      characteristics of the patients and prostheses including the bearing surface and
      stem/neck metal combinations were examined using Cox proportional hazard ratios
      (HRs) and Kaplan-Meier estimates of survivorship. RESULTS: It was found that
      prostheses with an exchangeable neck had a higher rate of revision and this was
      evident regardless of the bearing surface or the size of the femoral head.
      Exchangeable neck prostheses with a titanium stem and a cobalt-chromium neck had
      a significantly higher rate of revision compared with titanium stem/titanium neck
      combinations (HR 1.83, 95% confidence interval 1.49 to 2.23, p < 0.001).
      Revisions were higher for these combinations compared with femoral stems with a
      fixed neck. CONCLUSION: There appears to be little evidence to support the
      continued use of prostheses with an exchangeable neck in primary THA undertaken
      for OA. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:766-73.

PMID- 28566396
TI  - Successful return to sports in athletes following non-operative management of
      acute isolated posterior cruciate ligament injuries: medium-term follow-up.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to report the outcome of the non-operative
      treatment of high-grade posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries, particularly
      Hughston grade III injuries, which have not previously been described. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: This was a prospective study involving 46 consecutive patients who
      were athletes with MRI-confirmed isolated PCL injuries presenting within four
      weeks of injury. All had Hughston grade II (25 athletes) or III (21 athletes)
      injuries. Our non-operative treatment regimen involved initial bracing, followed
      by an individualised rehabilitation programme determined by the symptoms and
      physical signs. The patients were reviewed until they had returned to sports
      specific training, and were reviewed again at a mean of 5.2 years (3 to 9).
      RESULTS: The mean time to return to sports-specific training was 10.6 weeks and
      the mean time to return to full competitive sport was 16.4 weeks (10 to 40). A
      total of 42 patients (91.3%) were playing at the same or higher level of sport
      two years after the injury, with a mean Tegner activity score of 9 (5 to 10). At
      five years, 32 patients (69.5%) were playing at the same or higher level of
      sport, and 38 patients (82.6%) were playing at a competitive level, with a mean
      Tegner activity score of 9 (5 to 10). CONCLUSIONS: Medium-term review of a series
      of athletes suggests that commencing the non-operative management of isolated,
      Hughston grade II and III PCL injuries within four weeks of injury gives
      excellent functional outcomes with a high proportion returning to the same or
      higher level of sport. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:774-8.

PMID- 28566397
TI  - Mediolateral force distribution at the knee joint shifts across activities and is
      driven by tibiofemoral alignment.
AB  - AIMS: Tibiofemoral alignment is important to determine the rate of progression of
      osteoarthritis and implant survival after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
      Normally, surgeons aim for neutral tibiofemoral alignment following TKA, but this
      has been questioned in recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate
      whether varus or valgus alignment indeed leads to increased medial or lateral
      tibiofemoral forces during static and dynamic weight-bearing activities. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Tibiofemoral contact forces and moments were measured in nine
      patients with instrumented knee implants. Medial force ratios were analysed
      during nine daily activities, including activities with single-limb support (e.g.
      walking) and double-limb support (e.g. knee bend). Hip-knee-ankle angles in the
      frontal plane were analysed using full-leg coronal radiographs. RESULTS: The
      medial force ratio strongly correlated with the tibiofemoral alignment in the
      static condition of one-legged stance (R2 = 0.88) and dynamic single-limb loading
      (R2 = 0.59) with varus malalignment leading to increased medial force ratios of
      up to 88%. In contrast, the correlation between leg alignment and magnitude of
      medial compartment force was much less pronounced. A lateral shift of force
      occurred during activities with double-limb support and higher knee flexion
      angles. CONCLUSION: The medial force ratio depends on both the tibiofemoral
      alignment and the nature of the activity involved. It cannot be generalised to a
      single value. Higher medial ratios during single-limb loading are associated with
      varus malalignment in TKA. The current trend towards a 'constitutional varus'
      after joint replacement, in terms of overall tibiofemoral alignment, should be
      considered carefully with respect to the increased medial force ratio. Cite this
      article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:779-87.

PMID- 28566398
TI  - Discharge on the day of surgery following unicompartmental knee arthroplasty
      within the United Kingdom NHS.
AB  - AIMS: Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been successfully performed in
      the United States healthcare system on outpatients. Despite differences in
      healthcare structure and financial environment, we hypothesised that it would be
      feasible to replicate this success and perform UKA with safe day of surgery
      discharge within the NHS, in the United Kingdom. This has not been reported in
      any other United Kingdom centres. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We report our experience
      of implementing a pathway to allow safe day of surgery discharge following UKA.
      Data were prospectively collected on 72 patients who underwent UKA as a day case
      between December 2011 and September 2015. RESULTS: A total of 61 patients (85%)
      were discharged on the same day. The most common reason for failure was
      logistical; five patients had their operation too late in the day. Three patients
      failed to mobilise safely, two had inadequate control of pain and one had a
      leaking wound. The mean length of stay for those who were not discharged on the
      same day was 1.2 nights (1 to 3). During the same time, 58 patients underwent
      planned inpatient UKA, as they were deemed inappropriate for discharge on the day
      of surgery. However, three of these were safely discharged on the same day.
      Follow-up data, 24 hours post-operatively, were available for 70 patients; 51
      (73%) reported no or mild pain, 14 (20%) had moderate pain and five (7%) had
      severe pain. There were no re-admissions. All patients had a high level of
      satisfaction. CONCLUSION: We found that patients can be safely and effectively
      discharged on the day of surgery after UKA, with high levels of satisfaction.
      This clearly offers improved management of resources and financial savings to
      healthcare trusts. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:788-92.

PMID- 28566399
TI  - Oxidised zirconium versus cobalt alloy bearing surfaces in total knee
      arthroplasty: 3D laser scanning of retrieved polyethylene inserts.
AB  - AIMS: We sought to establish whether an oxidised zirconium (OxZr) femoral
      component causes less loss of polyethylene volume than a cobalt alloy (CoCr)
      femoral component in total knee arthroplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of
      20 retrieved tibial inserts that had articulated with OxZr components were
      matched with 20 inserts from CoCr articulations for patient age, body mass index,
      length of implantation, and revision diagnosis. Changes in dimensions of the
      articular surfaces were compared with those of pristine inserts using laser
      scanning. The differences in volume between the retrieved and pristine surfaces
      of the two groups were calculated and compared. RESULTS: The loss of polyethylene
      volume was 122 mm3 (standard deviation (sd) 87) in the OxZr group and 170 mm3 (sd
      96) in the CoCr group (p = 0.033). The volume loss in the OxZr group was also
      lower in the medial (72 mm3 (sd 67) versus 92 mm3 (sd 60); p = 0.096) and lateral
      (49 mm3 (sd 36) versus 79 mm3 (sd 61); p = 0.096) compartments separately, but
      these differences were not significant. CONCLUSION: Our results corroborate
      earlier findings from in vitro testing and visual retrieval analysis which
      suggest that polyethylene volume loss is lower with OxZr femoral components.
      Since both OxZr and CoCr are hard surfaces that would be expected to create
      comparable amounts of polyethylene creep, the differences in volume loss may
      reflect differences in the in vivo wear of these inserts. Cite this article: Bone
      Joint J 2017;99-B:793-8.

PMID- 28566400
TI  - Arthroscopic decompression not recommended in the treatment of rotator cuff
      tendinopathy: a final review of a randomised controlled trial at a minimum follow
      up of ten years.
AB  - AIMS: Rotator cuff tendinopathy has a multifactorial origin. Rejecting the
      mechanistic theory has also led to abandoning operative treatment at initial
      presentation in the first line. Physiotherapy exercise programmes are the
      accepted first line treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term
      additional benefits of subacromial decompression in the treatment of rotator cuff
      tendinopathy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This randomised controlled trial of 140
      patients (52 men, 88 women, mean age 47.1 years; 18 to 60) with rotator cuff
      tendinopathy extended previous work up to a maximum of 13 years. The patients
      were randomised into two treatment groups: arthroscopic acromioplasty and a
      supervised exercise treatment and a similar supervised exercise treatment alone.
      Self-reported pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS) was the primary outcome
      measure. Secondary measures were disability, working ability, pain at night,
      Shoulder Disability Questionnaire score and the number of painful days during the
      three months preceding the final assessment. RESULTS: A total of 90 patients
      (64%) returned questionnaires at a mean 12 years after randomisation. On an
      intention-to-treat basis, both treatment groups reached statistically significant
      improvement compared with the initial VAS for pain, but there was no significant
      difference between groups. The same was true in the secondary outcome measures.
      Due to group changes, the results were also analysed per protocol: operated or
      not. No significant differences between the groups were found. CONCLUSION: The
      natural history of rotator cuff tendinopathy probably plays a significant role in
      the results in the long-term. Even though the patients who underwent operative
      treatment had a stronger belief in recovery, which is likely to be surgical and
      the effect of placebo, the exercise group obtained similar results. In the
      future, an optimum exercise regime should be searched for, as the most clinically
      and cost-effective conservative treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy. Cite
      this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:799-805.

PMID- 28566401
TI  - Hypertrophy of the extra-articular tendon of the long head of biceps correlates
      with the location and size of a rotator cuff tear.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to assess hypertrophy of the extra-articular
      tendon of the long head of biceps (LHB) in patients with a rotator cuff tear.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study involved 638 shoulders in 334 patients (175 men,
      159 women, mean age 62.6 years; 25 to 81) with unilateral symptomatic rotator
      cuff tears. The cross-sectional area (CSA) of the LHB tendon in the bicipital
      groove was measured pre-operatively in both shoulders using ultrasound. There
      were 154 asymptomatic rotator cuff tears in the contralateral shoulder.
      Comparisons were made between those with a symptomatic tear, an asymptomatic tear
      and those with no rotator cuff tear. In the affected shoulders, the CSAs were
      compared in relation to the location and size of the rotator cuff tear. RESULTS:
      The mean CSA was 21.0 mm2 (4 to 71) in those with a symptomatic rotator cuff
      tear, 19.9 mm2 (4 to 75) in those with an asymptomatic rotator cuff tear and 14.1
      mm2 (5 to 43) in those with no rotator cuff tear. The mean CSA in patients with
      both symptomatic and asymptomatic rotator cuff tears was significantly larger
      than in those with no rotator cuff tear (p < 0.001). In the affected shoulders,
      there were significant differences between patients with more than a medium sized
      posterosuperior cuff tear and those with an antero-superior cuff tear.
      CONCLUSION: Regardless of the symptoms, there was significant hypertrophy of the
      extra-articular LHB tendon in patients with a rotator cuff tear. The values were
      significantly related to the size of the tear. Cite this article: Bone Joint J
      2017;99-B:806-11.

PMID- 28566403
TI  - Kudo type-5 total elbow arthroplasty for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a
      minimum ten-year follow-up study.
AB  - AIMS: We assessed the long-term (more than ten-year) outcomes of the Kudo type-5
      elbow prosthesis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We reviewed 41 elbows (Larsen Grade IV, n = 21; Grade V, n = 20) in 31
      patients with RA who had undergone a Kudo type-5 total elbow arthroplasty (TEA)
      between 1994 and 2003, and had been followed up for more than ten years. The
      humeral component was cementless and the all-polyethylene ulnar component
      cemented in every patient. Clinical outcome was assessed using the Mayo elbow
      performance score. We calculated the revision rate and evaluated potential risk
      factors for revision. The duration of follow-up was a mean 141 months (120 to
      203). RESULTS: Aseptic loosening of the ulnar component occurred in 11 elbows.
      There was no radiolucency around any humeral component. There was one deep
      infection. The survival rate according to Kaplan-Meier survivorship analysis was
      87.8% after five years and 70.7% after ten years. The range of extension/flexion
      was a mean -38 degrees  (-80 degrees  to 0 degrees )/105 degrees  (30 degrees  to
      150 degrees ) before surgery and -40 degrees  (-70 degrees  to -20 degrees )/132
      degrees  (100 degrees  to 150 degrees ) at the final follow-up, while the mean
      Mayo elbow performance score was 43 before surgery and 80 at final follow-up.
      Disease duration of RA up to the TEA of < 15 years and a pre-operative range of
      movement (ROM) of > 85 degrees  were significant risk factors for revision or
      aseptic loosening. CONCLUSION: Although Kudo type-5 prostheses gave satisfactory
      results in the short-term, aseptic loosening increased after five years. In most
      cases, elbow function was maintained in the long-term without loosening of the
      implant. A short duration from the onset of RA to TEA and a large pre-operative
      ROM were significant risk factors for revision or aseptic loosening. Cite this
      article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:818-23.

PMID- 28566402
TI  - Recurrence of frozen shoulder after manipulation under anaesthetic (MUA): the
      results of repeating the MUA.
AB  - AIMS: Manipulation under anaesthetic (MUA) is a recognised form of treatment for
      patients with a frozen shoulder. However, not all patients benefit. Some have
      persistent or recurrent symptoms. There are no clear recommendations in the
      literature on the optimal management of recurrent frozen shoulder after a MUA. We
      aimed to address this issue in this study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analysed a
      prospectively collected, single-surgeon, consecutive series of patients who
      underwent MUA for frozen shoulder between January 1999 and December 2015. The
      Oxford Shoulder Scores (OSS) and range of movement were the outcome measures.
      RESULTS: A total of 730 patients (792 shoulders) underwent MUA during the study
      period. A further MUA was undertaken in 141 shoulders (17.8%), for which we had
      complete data for 126. The mean improvement in OSS for all patients undergoing
      MUA was 16 (26 to 42), and the mean post-operative OSS in those requiring a
      further MUA was 14 (28 to 42; t-test, no difference between mean improvements, p
      = 0.57). Improvement was seen after a further MUA, regardless both of the outcome
      of the initial MUA, and of the time of recurrence. Patients with type-1 diabetes
      mellitus were at a 38% increased risk of requiring a further MUA, compared with
      the 18% increased risk of the group as a whole (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Patients
      with a poor outcome or recurrent symptoms of a frozen shoulder after a MUA should
      be offered a further MUA with the expectation of a good outcome and a low
      complication rate. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:812-17.

PMID- 28566405
TI  - Intraspinal anomalies in early-onset idiopathic scoliosis.
AB  - AIMS: In the United Kingdom, lower incidences of intraspinal abnormalities in
      patients with early onset idiopathic scoliosis have been observed than in studies
      in other countries. We aimed to determine the rates of these abnormalities in
      United Kingdom patients diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis before the age of 11
      years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective study of patients attending an
      urban scoliosis clinic identified 71 patients satisfying a criteria of: clinical
      diagnosis of idiopathic scoliosis; age of onset ten years and 11 months or less;
      MRI screening for intraspinal abnormalities. United Kingdom census data combined
      with patient referral data was used to calculate incidence. RESULTS: Mean age at
      diagnosis was six years with 39 right-sided and 32 left-sided curves. Four
      patients (5.6%) were found to have intraspinal abnormalities on MRI. These
      consisted of: two combined Arnold-Chiari type 1 malformations with syrinx; one
      syrinx with a low lying conus; and one isolated syrinx. Overall annual incidence
      of early onset idiopathic scoliosis was one out of 182 000 (0.0006%). CONCLUSION:
      This study reports the lowest rates to date of intraspinal anomalies in patients
      with early onset idiopathic scoliosis, adding to knowledge regarding current
      incidences of these abnormalities as well as any geographical variation in the
      nature of the disease. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:829-33.

PMID- 28566404
TI  - Pre-operative functional status as a predictor of morbidity and mortality after
      elective cervical spine surgery.
AB  - AIMS: Patients seeking cervical spine surgery are thought to be increasing in
      age, comorbidities and functional debilitation. The changing demographics of this
      population may significantly impact the outcomes of their care, specifically with
      regards to complications. In this study, our goals were to determine the rates of
      functionally dependent patients undergoing elective cervical spine procedures and
      to assess the effect of functional dependence on 30-day morbidity and mortality
      using a large, validated national cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Program data files from 2006 to 2013 was conducted to identify
      patients undergoing common cervical spine procedures. Multivariate logistic
      regression models were generated to analyse the independent association of
      functional dependence with 30-day outcomes of interest. RESULTS: Patients with
      lower functional status had significantly higher rates of medical comorbidities.
      Even after accounting for these comorbidities, type of procedure and pre
      operative diagnosis, analyses demonstrated that functional dependence was
      independently associated with significantly increased odds of sepsis (odds ratio
      (OR) 5.04), pulmonary (OR 4.61), renal (OR 3.33) and cardiac complications (OR
      4.35) as well as mortality (OR 11.08). CONCLUSIONS: Spine surgeons should be
      aware of the inherent risks of these procedures with the functionally dependent
      patient population when deciding on whether to perform cervical spine surgery,
      delivering pre-operative patient counselling, and providing peri-operative
      management and surveillance. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:824-8.

PMID- 28566406
TI  - Long-term survival and risk factors for failure of the native hip joint after
      operatively treated displaced acetabular fractures.
AB  - AIMS: Our aim in this study was to describe the long-term survival of the native
      hip joint after open reduction and internal fixation of a displaced fracture of
      the acetabulum. We also present long-term clinical outcomes and risk factors
      associated with a poor outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 285 patients
      underwent surgery for a displaced acetabular fracture between 1993 and 2005. For
      the survival analysis 253 were included, there were 197 men and 56 women with a
      mean age of 42 years (12 to 78). The mean follow-up of 11 years (1 to 20) was
      identified from our pelvic fracture registry. There were 99 elementary and 154
      associated fracture types. For the long-term clinical follow-up, 192 patients
      with complete data were included. Their mean age was 40 years (13 to 78) with a
      mean follow-up of 12 years (5 to 20). Injury to the femoral head and acetabular
      impaction were assessed with CT scans and patients with an ipsilateral fracture
      of the femoral head were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 36 patients underwent
      total hip arthroplasty (THA). The overall ten-year survival of the hip joint was
      86% (95% confidence interval (CI) 81% to 90%) and the 20-year survival was 82%
      (95% CI 76% to 87%). Injury to the femoral head and acetabular impaction were the
      strongest predictors of failure, with the long-term survival rate falling towards
      50% in these patients. The survival fell to 0% at three years when both these
      risk factors were present in patients aged > 60 years. CONCLUSION: The long-term
      survival of the native hip joint after acetabular fractures was good, but the
      presence of injury to the femoral head and acetabular impaction proved to be
      strong predictors of failure, especially in patients aged > 60 years. These
      patients may be better treated with a combination of open reduction and internal
      fixation and primary arthroplasty. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:834
      40.

PMID- 28566407
TI  - Pelvic reconstruction following resection of malignant bone tumours using a
      stemmed acetabular pedestal cup.
AB  - AIMS: Pelvic reconstruction after the resection of a tumour around the acetabulum
      is a challenging procedure due to the complex anatomy and biomechanics. Several
      pelvic endoprostheses have been introduced, but the rates of complication remain
      high. Our aim was to review the use of a stemmed acetabular pedestal cup in the
      management of these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study involved 48
      patients who underwent periacetabular reconstruction using a stemmed pedestal cup
      (Schoellner cup; Zimmer Biomet Inc., Warsaw, Indiana) between 2000 and 2013. The
      indications for treatment included a primary bone tumour in 27 patients and
      metastatic disease in 21 patients. The mean age of the patients at the time of
      surgery was 52 years (16 to 83). RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 6.6 years (95%
      confidence interval 4.6 to 8.2), local control was achieved in all patients; 19
      patients had died (16 of disease). Complications occurred in 19 patients (40%),
      of which deep infection was the most common, affecting eight patients (17%).
      Seven patients (15%) had a dislocation of the hip. Aseptic loosening was found in
      three patients (6%). Two (4%) underwent hindquarter amputation for non
      oncological reasons. The risk of revision, with death being treated as a
      competing event, was 28% at one year, 39% at five years and 48% at ten years post
      operatively. The mean Musculoskeletal Tumour Society Score at final follow-up was
      71% (27% to 93%). CONCLUSION: This type of reconstruction is a satisfactory
      option for the treatment of patients with a periacetabular tumour. There remains,
      however, a high rate of complication, which may be reduced by future
      modifications of the device such as silver coating and tripolar articulation.
      Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:841-8.

PMID- 28566408
TI  - 5-ALA ameliorates hepatic steatosis through AMPK signaling pathway.
AB  - 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), the first compound in the porphyrin synthesis
      pathway, has been reported to ameliorate the diabetic state in Otsuka Long-Evans
      Tokushima Fatty rats by reducing fat pad weight in the retroperitoneal region.
      Dietary supplementation with 5-ALA has additionally demonstrated the capacity to
      lower blood glucose and HbA1c levels among subjects with diabetes. The etiology
      of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is complex and its typical
      characteristics include obesity and insulin resistance. As 5-ALA supplementation
      has previously normalized glucose and insulin resistance, we sought to
      investigate whether 5-ALA had potential therapeutic effects on NAFLD and
      elucidate the signal pathway mediating these effects. To explore these questions,
      we fed C57BL/6J mice a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce a fatty liver disease and
      supplemented the diet-induced obese (DIO) mice with 5-ALA. The mice in the
      presence of 5-ALA demonstrated a decrease in body weight and hepatic lipid
      content and moderate improvement in glucose homeostasis compared to untreated
      controls. Further, we found that 5-ALA activated AMPK signaling pathway, which
      was correlated with enhanced lipolysis and fatty acid beta-oxidation. Human
      hepatocarcinoma cells (HepG2 cells) treated with 5-ALA were additionally used to
      investigate the mechanics of 5-ALA. Treated cells had a higher expression of
      lipolysis-related genes, including PGC-1alpha. Our data indicated that 5-ALA
      might represent a novel compound that could be useful for the treatment of
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), likely through the restoration of
      phosphorylation levels of AMPK (Thr172) and acetyl-CoA (ACC) (Ser79), further
      enhanced PGC1alpha and CPT1alpha expression.

PMID- 28566409
TI  - Emphysematous gastritis with hepatic portal venous gas: a shift towards
      conservative management.

PMID- 28566410
TI  - Postoperative drug-induced priapism.
AB  - We presented a case of a postoperative patient with low-flow priapism, possibly
      initiated by propofol-based anaesthesia or epidural anaesthesia. The delay in
      diagnosing priapism resulted in emergency interventions with a partially
      successful effect and eventually permanent erectile dysfunction. Due to the delay
      in treatment, erectile dysfunction ensued and was manageable with medication;
      hence, the patient decided against a penile prosthesis.

PMID- 28566411
TI  - Incidental finding of a filamentous mass in the left atrium in a patient
      investigated for endocarditis.

PMID- 28566412
TI  - Rectosigmoid malakoplakia.
AB  - We present a rare case of rectosigmoid malakoplakia treated with fluoroquinolone.

PMID- 28566413
TI  - Hypercalcaemic encephalopathy due to metastatic parathyroid carcinoma.
AB  - A 49-year-old man presented in the emergency department with altered sensorium
      and renal failure and was placed on a ventilator. Evaluation with MRI of the
      brain showed enhancing lesion in the occipital lobe. Biochemical tests revealed
      elevated calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels. Further evaluation
      revealed multiple lesions at both lobes of the lungs and nodular lesion in the
      right inferior pole of the thyroid. Diagnosis of metastatic parathyroid carcinoma
      was suspected. Patient was stabilised with bisphosphonates and haemodialysis and
      planned for surgery. Intraoperatively a hard lesion was found in the right
      inferior parathyroid infiltrating the surrounding structures. En bloc resection
      was done. General condition of the patient improved and he was weaned from the
      ventilator. Histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of parathyroid carcinoma.
      Postoperatively, there was persistent elevation of PTH in spite of a fall in
      calcium levels indicating functioning brain and pulmonary metastases. Due to
      extensive metastases, the patient was given palliative cinacalcet and was kept
      under follow-up.

PMID- 28566414
TI  - Linagliptin-associated blistering and ulceration.
AB  - We present the case of 60-year-old man with type 2 diabetes who developed
      blistering after two sequential exposures to linagliptin. Linagliptin is one of
      the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, a group of oral hypoglycaemic
      agents used commonly for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. On the first exposure
      to linagliptin, he developed blisters on the hands which resolved after stopping
      the drug. After repeat exposure, he developed two large blisters on the left
      foot, which burst giving rise to secondary infection, requiring hospital
      admission for treatment. We discuss the latest research linking DPP-4 inhibitors
      with adverse skin reactions and the effect of ulcers on the morbidity and
      mortality of patients with diabetes. This case report highlights skin reactions
      as an important, rare and lesser known side effect of DPP-4 inhibitors.

PMID- 28566415
TI  - A rare cause of anuria in a case of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
AB  - Renal failure in cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia during induction is
      mainly because of sepsis and tumour lysis syndrome. This 18-year-old man had
      sudden onset anuria with increase in creatine. At this time, patient did not have
      any overt signs or laboratory features suggestive of sepsis. Imaging studies
      documented bilateral hydronephrosis. Ureteroscopy was done, and it showed
      presence of soft tissue mass obstructing the ureter. On the the left side, it was
      noted in its middle part and on the right, at the ureteropelvic junction. The
      mass on the left side was removed under ureteroscopic guidance and was sent for
      histopathology examination. It was confirmed to be fungal ball on histopathology
      examination. Though rare, even in immunocompromised patients, bilateral fungal
      ball should be considered in differential diagnosis in cases of acute leukaemia
      with sudden onset anuria. We share our experience in managing this case for which
      there are no clear guidelines.

PMID- 28566416
TI  - Alport's syndrome with type 4 renal tubular acidosis.
AB  - This case report details a 51-year-old man with Alport's syndrome resulting in
      chronic nephritis with stable renal function and sensorineural deafness. The
      patient was being investigated for persistently raised potassium refractory to
      dietary and pharmacological modification. Subsequently, the patient was found to
      have type 4 renal tubular acidosis, and potassium normalised with the addition of
      fludrocortisone.

PMID- 28566417
TI  - Fascioliasis-a rare cause of hepatic nodules.
AB  - Fascioliasis is a zoonotic disease that can sometimes affect humans. It presents
      with non-specific signs and symptoms which makes it difficult to establish an
      early definitive diagnosis. This can be particularly true in non-endemic
      countries where a high degree of suspicion is needed to make the diagnosis.
      Another confounding factor is that many of the initial complains and findings are
      very similar to those of malignancy. We report a case of an otherwise healthy 47
      year-old male presenting with abdominal pain, night-time sweating, anorexia,
      weight loss and loose stools that had several hepatic nodules visible in the
      abdominal CT scan. Although the initial hypothesis was hepatic malignancy or
      liver metastasis of unknown primary neoplasm, the workup performed led us to the
      correct diagnosis. He was treated successfully for hepatic fascioliasis, with a
      full recovery.

PMID- 28566418
TI  - Radiographic imaging of an intra-aortic balloon pump impersonating a misplacement
      in the superior vena cava due to a right-sided aortic arch.

PMID- 28566419
TI  - Cortical Predictive Mechanisms of Auditory Response Attenuation to Self-Generated
      Sounds.

PMID- 28566420
TI  - Correction: Mittner et al., "When the Brain Takes a Break: A Model-Based Analysis
      of Mind Wandering".

PMID- 28566421
TI  - Correction: Milivojevic, et al., "Coding of Event Nodes and Narrative Context in
      the Hippocampus".

PMID- 28566423
TI  - Radiation therapy primes tumors for nanotherapeutic delivery via macrophage
      mediated vascular bursts.
AB  - Efficient delivery of therapeutic nanoparticles (TNPs) to tumors is critical in
      improving efficacy, yet strategies that universally maximize tumoral targeting by
      TNP modification have been difficult to achieve in the clinic. Instead of
      focusing on TNP optimization, we show that the tumor microenvironment itself can
      be therapeutically primed to facilitate accumulation of multiple clinically
      relevant TNPs. Building on the recent finding that tumor-associated macrophages
      (TAM) can serve as nanoparticle drug depots, we demonstrate that local tumor
      irradiation substantially increases TAM relative to tumor cells and, thus, TNP
      delivery. High-resolution intravital imaging reveals that after radiation, TAM
      primarily accumulate adjacent to microvasculature, elicit dynamic bursts of
      extravasation, and subsequently enhance drug uptake in neighboring tumor cells.
      TAM depletion eliminates otherwise beneficial radiation effects on TNP
      accumulation and efficacy, and controls with unencapsulated drug show that
      radiation effects are more pronounced with TNPs. Priming with combined radiation
      and cyclophosphamide enhances vascular bursting and tumoral TNP concentration, in
      some cases leading to a sixfold increase of TNP accumulation in the tumor,
      reaching 6% of the injected dose per gram of tissue. Radiation therapy alters
      tumors for enhanced TNP delivery in a TAM-dependent fashion, and these
      observations have implications for the design of next-generation tumor-targeted
      nanomaterials and clinical trials for adjuvant strategies.

PMID- 28566425
TI  - Rapamycin keeps the reproductive clock ticking.
AB  - Two weeks of rapamycin administration in young and old female mice leads to long
      term improvements in ovarian function and reproductive longevity.

PMID- 28566426
TI  - A new therapeutic target for myelofibrosis is cause for Gli.
AB  - Myeloproliferative neoplasm cells recruit Gli1 positive mesenchymal stromal cells
      to transdifferentiate into fibrosis-causing myofibroblasts, a process that can be
      inhibited by a Gli inhibitor.

PMID- 28566427
TI  - Say good night to your pain.
AB  - Sleep deprivation induces pain hypersensitivity that can be reversed by
      increasing alertness.

PMID- 28566424
TI  - Neurokinin 1 receptor signaling in endosomes mediates sustained nociception and
      is a viable therapeutic target for prolonged pain relief.
AB  - Typically considered to be cell surface sensors of extracellular signals,
      heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptors (GPCRs) control
      many pathophysiological processes and are the target of 30% of therapeutic drugs.
      Activated receptors redistribute to endosomes, but researchers have yet to
      explore whether endosomal receptors generate signals that control complex
      processes in vivo and are viable therapeutic targets. We report that the
      substance P (SP) neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) signals from endosomes to induce
      sustained excitation of spinal neurons and pain transmission and that specific
      antagonism of the NK1R in endosomes with membrane-anchored drug conjugates
      provides more effective and sustained pain relief than conventional plasma
      membrane-targeted antagonists. Pharmacological and genetic disruption of
      clathrin, dynamin, and beta-arrestin blocked SP-induced NK1R endocytosis and
      prevented SP-stimulated activation of cytosolic protein kinase C and nuclear
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase, as well as transcription. Endocytosis
      inhibitors prevented sustained SP-induced excitation of neurons in spinal cord
      slices in vitro and attenuated nociception in vivo. When conjugated to
      cholestanol to promote endosomal targeting, NK1R antagonists selectively
      inhibited endosomal signaling and sustained neuronal excitation. Cholestanol
      conjugation amplified and prolonged the antinociceptive actions of NK1R
      antagonists. These results reveal a critical role for endosomal signaling of the
      NK1R in the complex pathophysiology of pain and demonstrate the use of
      endosomally targeted GPCR antagonists.

PMID- 28566430
TI  - Erratum for the Research Article: "The caspase-8 inhibitor emricasan combines
      with the SMAC mimetic birinapant to induce necroptosis and treat acute myeloid
      leukemia" by G. Brumatti, C. Ma, N. Lalaoui, N.-Y. Nguyen, M. Navarro, M. C.
      Tanzer, J. Richmond, M. Ghisi, J. M. Salmon, N. Silke, G. Pomilio, S. P. Glaser,
      E. de Valle, R. Gugasyan, M. A. Gurthridge, S. M. Condon, R. W. Johnstone, R.
      Lock, G. Salvesen, A. Wei, D. L. Vaux, P. G. Ekert, J. Silke.

PMID- 28566428
TI  - Rational combination therapy with PARP and MEK inhibitors capitalizes on
      therapeutic liabilities in RAS mutant cancers.
AB  - Mutant RAS has remained recalcitrant to targeted therapy efforts. We demonstrate
      that combined treatment with poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP)
      inhibitors and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MEK) inhibitors
      evokes unanticipated, synergistic cytotoxic effects in vitro and in vivo in
      multiple RAS mutant tumor models across tumor lineages where RAS mutations are
      prevalent. The effects of PARP and MEK inhibitor combinations are independent of
      BRCA1/2 and p53 mutation status, suggesting that the synergistic activity is
      likely to be generalizable. Synergistic activity of PARP and MEK inhibitor
      combinations in RAS mutant tumors is associated with (i) induction of BIM
      mediated apoptosis, (ii) decrease in expression of components of the homologous
      recombination DNA repair pathway, (iii) decrease in homologous recombination DNA
      damage repair capacity, (iv) decrease in DNA damage checkpoint activity, (v)
      increase in PARP inhibitor-induced DNA damage, (vi) decrease in vascularity that
      could increase PARP inhibitor efficacy by inducing hypoxia, and (vii) elevated
      PARP1 protein, which increases trapping activity of PARP inhibitors.
      Mechanistically, enforced expression of FOXO3a, which is a target of the RAS/MAPK
      pathway, was sufficient to recapitulate the functional consequences of MEK
      inhibitors including synergy with PARP inhibitors. Thus, the ability of mutant
      RAS to suppress FOXO3a and its reversal by MEK inhibitors accounts, at least in
      part, for the synergy of PARP and MEK inhibitors in RAS mutant tumors. The
      rational combination of PARP and MEK inhibitors warrants clinical investigation
      in patients with RAS mutant tumors where there are few effective therapeutic
      options.

PMID- 28566431
TI  - A trust approach for sharing research reagents.
AB  - The core feature of trusts-holding property for the benefit of others-is well
      suited to constructing a research community that treats reagents as public goods.

PMID- 28566429
TI  - Complement C3 deficiency protects against neurodegeneration in aged plaque-rich
      APP/PS1 mice.
AB  - The complement cascade not only is an innate immune response that enables removal
      of pathogens but also plays an important role in microglia-mediated synaptic
      refinement during brain development. Complement C3 is elevated in Alzheimer's
      disease (AD), colocalizing with neuritic plaques, and appears to contribute to
      clearance of Abeta by microglia in the brain. Previously, we reported that C3
      deficient C57BL/6 mice were protected against age-related and region-specific
      loss of hippocampal synapses and cognitive decline during normal aging.
      Furthermore, blocking complement and downstream iC3b/CR3 signaling rescued
      synapses from Abeta-induced loss in young AD mice before amyloid plaques had
      accumulated. We assessed the effects of C3 deficiency in aged, plaque-rich
      APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mice (APP/PS1;C3 KO). We examined the effects of C3
      deficiency on cognition, Abeta plaque deposition, and plaque-related
      neuropathology at later AD stages in these mice. We found that 16-month-old
      APP/PS1;C3 KO mice performed better on a learning and memory task than did
      APP/PS1 mice, despite having more cerebral Abeta plaques. Aged APP/PS1;C3 KO mice
      also had fewer microglia and astrocytes localized within the center of
      hippocampal Abeta plaques compared to APP/PS1 mice. Several proinflammatory
      cytokines in the brain were reduced in APP/PS1;C3 KO mice, consistent with an
      altered microglial phenotype. C3 deficiency also protected APP/PS1 mice against
      age-dependent loss of synapses and neurons. Our study suggests that complement C3
      or downstream complement activation fragments may play an important role in Abeta
      plaque pathology, glial responses to plaques, and neuronal dysfunction in the
      brains of APP/PS1 mice.

PMID- 28566432
TI  - The innate and adaptive infiltrating immune systems as targets for breast cancer
      immunotherapy.

PMID- 28566433
TI  - mTORC1 Inhibition Induces Resistance to Methotrexate and 6-Mercaptopurine in Ph+
      and Ph-like B-ALL.
AB  - Elevated activity of mTOR is associated with poor prognosis and higher incidence
      of relapse in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Thus, ongoing clinical
      trials are testing mTOR inhibitors in combination with chemotherapy in B-ALL.
      However, the combination of mTOR inhibitors with standard of care chemotherapy
      drugs has not been studied extensively in high-risk B-ALL subtypes. Therefore, we
      tested whether mTOR inhibition can augment the efficacy of current chemotherapy
      agents in Ph+ and Ph-like B-ALL models. Surprisingly, inhibiting mTOR complex 1
      (mTORC1) protected B-ALL cells from killing by methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine,
      two antimetabolite drugs used in maintenance chemotherapy. The cytoprotective
      effects correlated with decreased cell-cycle progression and were recapitulated
      using cell-cycle inhibitors, palbociclib or aphidicolin. Dasatinib, a tyrosine
      kinase inhibitor currently used in Ph+ patients, inhibits ABL kinase upstream of
      mTOR. Dasatinib resistance is mainly caused by ABL kinase mutations, but is also
      observed in a subset of ABL unmutated cases. We identified dasatinib-resistant
      Ph+ cell lines and patient samples in which dasatinib can effectively reduce ABL
      kinase activity and mTORC1 signaling without causing cell death. In these cases,
      dasatinib protected leukemia cells from killing by 6-mercaptopurine. Using
      xenograft models, we observed that mTOR inhibition or dasatinib increased the
      numbers of leukemia cells that emerge after cessation of chemotherapy treatment.
      These results demonstrate that inhibitors targeting mTOR or upstream signaling
      nodes should be used with caution when combined with chemotherapeutic agents that
      rely on cell-cycle progression to kill B-ALL cells. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(9); 1942
      53. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566434
TI  - JUN-Mediated Downregulation of EGFR Signaling Is Associated with Resistance to
      Gefitinib in EGFR-mutant NSCLC Cell Lines.
AB  - Mutations or deletions in exons 18-21 in the EGFR) are present in approximately
      15% of tumors in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). They lead to
      activation of the EGFR kinase domain and sensitivity to molecularly targeted
      therapeutics aimed at this domain (gefitinib or erlotinib). These drugs have
      demonstrated objective clinical response in many of these patients; however,
      invariably, all patients acquire resistance. To examine the molecular origins of
      resistance, we derived a set of gefitinib-resistant cells by exposing lung
      adenocarcinoma cell line, HCC827, with an activating mutation in the EGFR
      tyrosine kinase domain, to increasing gefitinib concentrations. Gefitinib
      resistant cells acquired an increased expression and activation of JUN, a known
      oncogene involved in cancer progression. Ectopic overexpression of JUN in HCC827
      cells increased gefitinib IC50 from 49 nmol/L to 8 MUmol/L (P < 0.001).
      Downregulation of JUN expression through shRNA resensitized HCC827 cells to
      gefitinib (IC50 from 49 nmol/L to 2 nmol/L; P < 0.01). Inhibitors targeting JUN
      were 3-fold more effective in the gefitinib-resistant cells than in the parental
      cell line (P < 0.01). Analysis of gene expression in patient tumors with EGFR
      activating mutations and poor response to erlotinib revealed a similar pattern as
      the top 260 differentially expressed genes in the gefitinib-resistant cells
      (Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.78, P < 0.01). These findings suggest that
      increased JUN expression and activity may contribute to gefitinib resistance in
      NSCLC and that JUN pathway therapeutics merit investigation as an alternate
      treatment strategy. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8); 1645-57. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566435
TI  - Efficacy of AKT Inhibitor ARQ 092 Compared with Sorafenib in a Cirrhotic Rat
      Model with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related
      mortality worldwide. The AKT pathway has been found activated in 50% of HCC
      cases, making it a promising target. Therefore, we assess efficacy of the
      allosteric AKT inhibitor ARQ 092 compared with untreated control and standard
      treatment, sorafenib, in vitro and in vivo ARQ 092 blocked phosphorylation of AKT
      in vitro and strongly inhibited cell growth with significantly higher potency
      than sorafenib. Similarly, apoptosis and cell migration were strongly reduced by
      ARQ 092 in vitro To mimic human advanced HCC, we used a diethylnitrosamine
      induced cirrhotic rat model with fully developed HCC. MRI analyses showed that
      ARQ 092 significantly reduced overall tumor size. Furthermore, number of tumors
      was decreased by ARQ 092, which was associated with increased apoptosis and
      decreased proliferation. Tumor contrast enhancement was significantly decreased
      in the ARQ 092 group. Moreover, on tumor tissue sections, we observed a vascular
      normalization and a significant decrease in fibrosis in the surrounding liver of
      animals treated with ARQ 092. Finally, pAKT/AKT levels in ARQ 092-treated tumors
      were reduced, followed by downregulation of actors of AKT downstream signaling
      pathway: pmTOR, pPRAS40, pPLCgamma1, and pS6K1. In conclusion, we demonstrated
      that ARQ 092 blocks AKT phosphorylation in vitro and in vivo In the HCC-rat
      model, ARQ 092 was well tolerated, showed antifibrotic effect, and had stronger
      antitumor effect than sorafenib. Our results confirm the importance of targeting
      AKT in HCC. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(10); 2157-65. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566438
TI  - In Vivo Antitumoral Efficacy of PhAc-ALGP-Doxorubicin, an Enzyme-Activated
      Doxorubicin Prodrug, in Patient-Derived Soft Tissue Sarcoma Xenograft Models.
AB  - Given the very limited efficacy of doxorubicin (doxo) in soft tissue sarcoma,
      there is a clear need for more active and less toxic treatments for this family
      of diseases. However, due to the rarity of these malignancies and lack of
      reliable preclinical models, development of new therapies has lagged behind. We
      evaluated the efficacy of PhAc-ALGP-doxorubicin (ALGP-doxo), a prodrug
      metabolized to doxo by peptidases present in tumor cells and/or tumor
      microenvironment, in a synovial sarcoma (SynSa) and two dedifferentiated
      liposarcoma (DDLPS) patient-derived xenograft models. Sixty-eight mice were
      engrafted bilaterally with human DDLPS or SynSa and randomized to control, doxo,
      or ALGP-doxo treatment, which were administered using an intraperitoneal
      minipump. Tumor volume measurement, histopathology, and Western blotting were
      used to assess treatment efficacy. Tumor regrowth was evaluated in a subset of
      mice over a period of 2 weeks after treatment cessation. Although tumor volume in
      the control and doxo groups increased steadily, ALGP-doxo caused tumor volume
      stabilization in the DDLPS xenografts and significant tumor shrinkage in the
      SynSa model, continuing after treatment cessation. A significant decrease in
      proliferation and increase in apoptosis compared with control and doxo was
      observed during and after treatment with ALGP-doxo in all models. In conclusion,
      ALGP-doxo shows considerably higher antitumoral efficacy compared with doxo in
      all patient-derived xenograft models tested. Administration of a 30- to 40-fold
      higher dose of ALGP-doxo than doxo is tolerated without significant adverse
      events. These results warrant further testing of this prodrug in anthracycline
      sensitive and -resistant models of soft tissue sarcoma. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8);
      1566-75. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566436
TI  - Reactivation of the p90RSK-CDC25C Pathway Leads to Bypass of the Ganetespib
      Induced G2-M Arrest and Mediates Acquired Resistance to Ganetespib in KRAS-Mutant
      NSCLC.
AB  - A subset of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) are dependent upon oncogenic
      driver mutations, including the most frequently observed driver mutant KRAS,
      which is associated with a poor prognosis. As direct RAS targeting in the clinic
      has been unsuccessful to date, use of Hsp90 inhibitors appeared to be a promising
      therapy for KRAS-mutant NSCLC; however, limited clinical efficacy was observed
      due to rapid resistance. Furthermore, the combination of the Hsp90 inhibitor
      (Hsp90i), ganetespib, and docetaxel was tested in a phase III clinical trial and
      failed to demonstrate benefit. Here, we investigated the mechanism(s) of
      resistance to ganetespib and explored why the combination with docetaxel failed
      in the clinic. We have not only identified a critical role for the bypass of the
      G2-M cell-cycle checkpoint as a mechanism of ganetespib resistance (GR) but have
      also found that GR leads to cross-resistance to docetaxel. Reactivation of p90RSK
      and its downstream target, CDC25C, was critical for GR and mediated the bypass of
      a G2-M arrest. Overexpression of either p90RSK or CDC25C lead to bypass of G2-M
      arrest and induced ganetespib resistance in vitro and in vivo Moreover,
      resistance was dependent on p90RSK/CDC25C signaling, as synthetic lethality to
      ERK1/2, p90RSK, or CDC25C inhibitors was observed. Importantly, the combination
      of ganetespib and p90RSK or CDC25C inhibitors was highly efficacious in parental
      cells. These studies provide a way forward for Hsp90 inhibitors through the
      development of novel rationally designed Hsp90 inhibitor combinations that may
      prevent or overcome resistance to Hsp90i. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8); 1658-68.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28566440
TI  - DIAGNOSIS OF ENDOCRINE DISEASE: Diagnostic approach to TSH-producing pituitary
      adenoma.
AB  - Thyrotropin (TSH)-secreting adenomas (TSHomas) are the rarest form of pituitary
      adenomas, and most endocrinologists will see few cases in a lifetime, if any. In
      most cases, the diagnostic approach is complicated and cases may be referred
      after being presented as a syndrome of inappropriate TSH secretion or as a
      pituitary mass. This review aims to cover the past, present and possible future
      diagnostic approaches to TSHomas, including different clinical presentations,
      laboratory assessment and imaging advances. The differential diagnoses will be
      discussed, as well as possible coexisting disorders. By evaluating the existing
      reports and reviews describing this rare condition, this review aims to present a
      clinically practical suggestion on the diagnosic workup for TSHomas, Major
      advances and scientific breakthroughs in the imaging area in recent years,
      facilitating diagnosis of TSHomas, support the belief that future progress within
      the imaging field will play an important role in providing methods for a more
      efficient diagnosis of this rare condition.

PMID- 28566437
TI  - Local DNA Repair Inhibition for Sustained Radiosensitization of High-Grade
      Gliomas.
AB  - High-grade gliomas, such as glioblastoma (GBM) and diffuse intrinsic pontine
      glioma (DIPG), are characterized by an aggressive phenotype with nearly universal
      local disease progression despite multimodal treatment, which typically includes
      chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and possibly surgery. Radiosensitizers that have
      improved the effects of radiotherapy for extracranial tumors have been
      ineffective for the treatment of GBM and DIPG, in part due to poor blood-brain
      barrier penetration and rapid intracranial clearance of small molecules. Here, we
      demonstrate that nanoparticles can provide sustained drug release and minimal
      toxicity. When administered locally, these nanoparticles conferred
      radiosensitization in vitro and improved survival in rats with intracranial
      gliomas when delivered concurrently with a 5-day course of fractionated
      radiotherapy. Compared with previous work using locally delivered
      radiosensitizers and cranial radiation, our approach, based on the rational
      selection of agents and a clinically relevant radiation dosing schedule, produces
      the strongest synergistic effects between chemo- and radiotherapy approaches to
      the treatment of high-grade gliomas. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8); 1456-69. (c)2017
      AACR.

PMID- 28566441
TI  - Long-acting PEGylated recombinant human growth hormone (Jintrolong) for children
      with growth hormone deficiency: phase II and phase III multicenter, randomized
      studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We assessed the efficacy and safety of a weekly pegylated human growth
      hormone (PEG-rhGH) (Jintrolong) vs daily rhGH for children with growth hormone
      deficiency (GHD). DESIGN: Phase II and III, multicenter, open-label, randomized
      controlled trials. METHODS: 108 and 343 children with treatment-naive GHD from 6
      hospitals in China were enrolled in the phase II and III studies respectively.
      Patients in the phase II study were randomized 1:1:1 to weekly Jintrolong (0.1
      mg/kg/week PEG-rhGH complex), weekly Jintrolong (0.2 mg/kg/week PEG-rhGH complex)
      or daily rhGH (0.25 mg/kg/week) for 25 weeks. Patients in the phase III study
      were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to weekly Jintrolong (0.2 mg/kg/week) or daily
      rhGH (0.25 mg/kg/week) for 25 weeks. The primary endpoint for both studies was
      height velocity (HV) increase at the end of treatment. Other growth-related
      parameters, safety and compliance were also monitored. RESULTS: The phase II
      study established the preliminary efficacy, safety and recommended dose of
      Jintrolong PEG-rhGH. In the phase III study, we demonstrated significantly
      greater HV increases in patients receiving Jintrolong treatment (from 2.26 +/-
      0.87 cm/year to 13.41 +/- 3.72 cm/year) vs daily rhGH (from 2.25 +/- 0.82 cm/year
      to 12.55 +/- 2.99 cm/year) at the end of treatment (P < 0.05). Additionally,
      significantly greater improvement in the height standard deviation scores was
      associated with Jintrolong throughout the treatment (P < 0.05). Adverse event
      rates and treatment compliance were comparable between the two groups.
      CONCLUSION: Jintrolong PEG-rhGH at a dose of 0.2 mg/kg/week for 25 weeks is
      effective and safe for GHD treatment and is non-inferior to daily rhGH.

PMID- 28566439
TI  - MECHANISMS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY: The sexually dimorphic role of androgens in human
      metabolic disease.
AB  - Female androgen excess and male androgen deficiency manifest with an overlapping
      adverse metabolic phenotype, including abdominal obesity, insulin resistance,
      type 2 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and an increased risk
      of cardiovascular disease. Here, we review the impact of androgens on metabolic
      target tissues in an attempt to unravel the complex mechanistic links with
      metabolic dysfunction; we also evaluate clinical studies examining the
      associations between metabolic disease and disorders of androgen metabolism in
      men and women. We conceptualise that an equilibrium between androgen effects on
      adipose tissue and skeletal muscle underpins the metabolic phenotype observed in
      female androgen excess and male androgen deficiency. Androgens induce adipose
      tissue dysfunction, with effects on lipid metabolism, insulin resistance and fat
      mass expansion, while anabolic effects on skeletal muscle may confer metabolic
      benefits. We hypothesise that serum androgen concentrations observed in female
      androgen excess and male hypogonadism are metabolically disadvantageous,
      promoting adipose and liver lipid accumulation, central fat mass expansion and
      insulin resistance.

PMID- 28566442
TI  - Improving risk estimates for metabolically healthy obesity and mortality using a
      refined healthy reference group.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to re-examine mortality risk estimates for metabolically
      healthy obesity by using a 'stable' healthy non-obese referent group. DESIGN:
      Prospective cohort study. METHODS: Participants were 5427 men and women (aged
      65.9 +/- 9.4 years, 45.9% men) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
      Obesity was defined as body mass index >=30 kg/m2 (vs non-obese as below this
      threshold). Based on blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glycated
      hemoglobin and C-reactive protein, participants were classified as 'healthy' (0
      or 1 metabolic abnormality) or 'unhealthy' (>=2 metabolic abnormalities).
      RESULTS: Totally, 671 deaths were observed over an average follow-up of 8 years.
      When defining the referent group based on 1 clinical assessment, the unhealthy
      non-obese (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.45) and unhealthy obese (HR
      = 1.29; CI: 1.05, 1.60) were at greater risk of all-cause mortality compared to
      the healthy non-obese, yet no excess risk was seen in the healthy obese (HR =
      1.14; CI: 0.83, 1.52). When we re-defined the referent group based on 2 clinical
      assessments, effect estimates were accentuated and healthy obesity was at
      increased risk of mortality (HR = 2.67; CI: 1.64, 4.34). CONCLUSION: An unstable
      healthy referent group may make 'healthy obesity' appear less harmful by
      obscuring the benefits of remaining never obese without metabolic dysfunction.

PMID- 28566443
TI  - Hypoinsulinaemic, hypoketotic hypoglycaemia due to mosaic genetic activation of
      PI3-kinase.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Genetic activation of the insulin signal-transducing kinase AKT2
      causes syndromic hypoketotic hypoglycaemia without elevated insulin. Mosaic
      activating mutations in class 1A phospatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), upstream
      from AKT2 in insulin signalling, are known to cause segmental overgrowth, but the
      metabolic consequences have not been systematically reported. We assess the
      metabolic phenotype of 22 patients with mosaic activating mutations affecting
      PI3K, thereby providing new insight into the metabolic function of this complex
      node in insulin signal transduction. METHODS: Three patients with megalencephaly,
      diffuse asymmetric overgrowth, hypoketotic, hypoinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and no
      AKT2 mutation underwent further genetic, clinical and metabolic investigation.
      Signalling in dermal fibroblasts from one patient and efficacy of the mTOR
      inhibitor Sirolimus on pathway activation were examined. Finally, the metabolic
      profile of a cohort of 19 further patients with mosaic activating mutations in
      PI3K was assessed. RESULTS: In the first three patients, mosaic mutations in
      PIK3CA (p.Gly118Asp or p.Glu726Lys) or PIK3R2 (p.Gly373Arg) were found. In
      different tissue samples available from one patient, the PIK3CA p.Glu726Lys
      mutation was present at burdens from 24% to 42%, with the highest level in the
      liver. Dermal fibroblasts showed increased basal AKT phosphorylation which was
      potently suppressed by Sirolimus. Nineteen further patients with mosaic mutations
      in PIK3CA had neither clinical nor biochemical evidence of hypoglycaemia.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mosaic mutations activating class 1A PI3K cause severe non-ketotic
      hypoglycaemia in a subset of patients, with the metabolic phenotype presumably
      related to the extent of mosaicism within the liver. mTOR or PI3K inhibitors
      offer the prospect for future therapy.

PMID- 28566444
TI  - Prognostic impact of vascular invasion in differentiated thyroid carcinoma: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of vascular invasion (VI) as a prognostic marker in thyroid
      cancer is continuously debated among investigators. In this systematic review and
      meta-analysis, we aimed to investigate the association of VI with tumor
      recurrence and patient mortality in differentiated thyroid cancers (DTCs).
      METHODS: We searched five electronic databases for cases of DTC matching our
      criteria. Data of tumor persistence, locoregional recurrence (LRR), distant
      recurrence (DR) and overall recurrence/persistence (RP) were extracted and pooled
      into odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using
      random effect model. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) for disease-specific survival (DSS)
      was calculated using random effect model weighted by inverse variance method.
      Publication bias was examined by using Egger's test and funnel plot. RESULTS:
      From 1650 studies, we included 26 studies comprising 11 961 DTCs for meta
      analyses. In DTC patients, we found significant associations of VI with tumor
      persistence (OR = 2.75; 95% CI = 1.46-5.18), LRR (OR = 4.44; 95% CI = 2.94-6.71),
      DR (OR = 5.08; 95% CI = 2.95-8.75), overall RP (OR = 3.53; 95% CI = 2.09-5.96)
      and worse DSS (HR = 2.47; 95% CI = 1.45-4.21). Our results also demonstrated that
      the presence of extensive VI is associated with a significantly higher risk for
      DR in follicular thyroid carcinomas as compared with focal VI. CONCLUSION: Our
      study demonstrated a significant impact of VI on tumor recurrence and patient
      survival in DTC patients. The presence and extent of VI should be considered an
      adverse prognostic factor in DTCs.

PMID- 28566445
TI  - Muscle strength in patients with acromegaly at diagnosis and during long-term
      follow-up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with acromegaly have decreased body fat (BF) and increased
      extracellular water (ECW) and muscle mass. Although there is a lack of systematic
      studies on muscle function, it is believed that patients with acromegaly may
      suffer from proximal muscle weakness despite their increased muscle mass. We
      studied body composition and muscle function in untreated acromegaly and after
      biochemical remission. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. METHODS: Patients
      with acromegaly underwent measurements of muscle strength (dynamometers) and body
      composition (four-compartment model) at diagnosis (n = 48), 1 year after surgery
      (n = 29) and after long-term follow-up (median 11 years) (n = 24). Results were
      compared to healthy subjects. RESULTS: Untreated patients had increased body cell
      mass (113 +/- 9% of predicted) and ECW (110 +/- 20%) and decreased BF (67 +/-
      7.6%). At one-year follow-up, serum concentration of IGF-I was reduced and body
      composition had normalized. At baseline, isometric muscle strength in knee
      flexors and extensors was normal and concentric strength was modestly increased
      whereas grip strength and endurance was reduced. After one year, muscle strength
      was normal in both patients with still active disease and patients in remission.
      At long-term follow-up, all patients were in remission. Most muscle function
      tests remained normal, but isometric flexion and the fatigue index were increased
      to 153 +/- 42% and 139 +/- 28% of predicted values, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with untreated acromegaly had increased body cell mass and normal or
      modestly increased proximal muscle strength, whereas their grip strength was
      reduced. After biochemical improvement and remission, body composition was
      normalized, hand grip strength was increased, whereas proximal muscle fatigue
      increased.

PMID- 28566447
TI  - MANAGEMENT OF ENDOCRINE DISEASE: l-Thyroxine replacement therapy in the frail
      elderly: a challenge in clinical practice.
AB  - The number of elderly people, mostly aged over 85 years (the 'oldest old'), is
      increasing worldwide. As a consequence, accompanying morbidity and disability
      have been increasing, and frailty, defined as an age-related condition of decline
      of physiological reserves and vulnerability, represents an emerging problem.
      Caring for older frail people may represent a challenge, since the elderly differ
      significantly from younger adults in terms of comorbidity, polypharmacy,
      pharmacokinetics and greater vulnerability to adverse drug reactions. Specific
      criteria of therapeutic appropriateness and modified goals of care are needed in
      such patients, also in endocrine care settings. Indeed, thyroid dysfunctions are
      among the most common conditions in older, multimorbid populations. The
      prevalence of overt and subclinical hypothyroidism is as high as 20% and thyroid
      hormone prescription is common in the elderly, with a trend toward levothyroxine
      treatment of more marginal degrees of hypothyroidism. In addition, older patients
      have the highest rate of overtreatment during replacement therapy and are more
      susceptible to developing adverse effects from thyroid hormone excess. Recently,
      results of a multicentric randomized controlled trial, the TRUST-IEMO
      collaboration trial, added further insights to the debated question of whether
      and when levothyroxine treatment is required and if it is beneficial in the
      elderly. With this in mind, we revised the relevant literature on the impact of
      thyroid dysfunction and replacement therapy among older people, with the aim to
      better define indications, benefits and risks of l-T4 replacement therapy in the
      frail elderly.

PMID- 28566446
TI  - Cortisol-related metabolic alterations assessed by mass spectrometry assay in
      patients with Cushing's syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Endogenous hypercortisolism is a chronic condition associated with
      severe metabolic disturbances and cardiovascular sequela. The aim of this study
      was to characterize metabolic alterations in patients with different degrees of
      hypercortisolism by mass-spectrometry-based targeted plasma metabolomic profiling
      and correlate the metabolomic profile with clinical and hormonal data. DESIGN:
      Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Subjects (n = 149) were classified according to
      clinical and hormonal characteristics: Cushing's syndrome (n = 46),
      adrenocortical adenomas with autonomous cortisol secretion (n = 31) or without
      hypercortisolism (n = 27). Subjects with suspicion of hypercortisolism, but
      normal hormonal/imaging testing, served as controls (n = 42). Clinical and
      hormonal data were retrieved for all patients and targeted metabolomic profiling
      was performed. RESULTS: Patients with hypercortisolism showed lower levels of
      short-/medium-chain acylcarnitines and branched-chain and aromatic amino acids,
      but higher polyamines levels, in comparison to controls. These alterations were
      confirmed after excluding diabetic patients. Regression models showed significant
      correlation between cortisol after dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and 31
      metabolites, independently of confounding/contributing factors. Among those,
      histidine and spermidine were also significantly associated with catabolic signs
      and symptoms of hypercortisolism. According to an discriminant analysis, the
      panel of metabolites was able to correctly classify subjects into the main
      diagnostic categories and to distinguish between subjects with/without altered
      post-DST cortisol and with/without diabetes in >80% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS:
      Metabolomic profiling revealed alterations of intermediate metabolism
      independently associated with the severity of hypercortisolism, consistent with
      disturbed protein synthesis/catabolism and incomplete beta-oxidation, providing
      evidence for the occurrence of metabolic inflexibility in hypercortisolism.

PMID- 28566448
TI  - Disease progression and regression in sporadic small vessel disease-insights from
      neuroimaging.
AB  - Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is considered the most important vascular
      contributor to the development of dementia. Comprehensive characterization of the
      time course of disease progression will result in better understanding of
      aetiology and clinical consequences of SVD. SVD progression has been studied
      extensively over the years, usually describing change in SVD markers over time
      using neuroimaging at two time points. As a consequence, SVD is usually seen as a
      rather linear, continuously progressive process. This assumption of continuous
      progression of SVD markers was recently challenged by several studies that showed
      regression of SVD markers. Here, we provide a review on disease progression in
      sporadic SVD, thereby taking into account both progression and regression of SVD
      markers with emphasis on white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes and
      microbleeds. We will elaborate on temporal dynamics of SVD progression and
      discuss the view of SVD progression as a dynamic process, rather than the
      traditional view of SVD as a continuous progressive process, that might better
      fit evidence from longitudinal neuroimaging studies. We will discuss possible
      mechanisms and clinical implications of a dynamic time course of SVD, with both
      progression and regression of SVD markers.

PMID- 28566449
TI  - The role of perivascular innervation and neurally mediated vasoreactivity in the
      pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Neuronal death is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and considerable work
      has been done to understand how the loss of interconnectivity between neurons
      contributes to the associated dementia. Often overlooked however, is how the loss
      of neuronal innervation of blood vessels, termed perivascular innervation, may
      also contribute to the pathogenesis of AD. There is now considerable evidence
      supporting a crucial role for the neurovascular unit (NVU) in mediating the
      clearance of the beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide, one of the main pathological
      constituents of AD, from the brain. Moreover, efficient removal appears to be
      dependent on the communication of cells within the NVU to maintain adequate
      vascular tone and pulsatility. This review summarizes the composition of the NVU,
      including the sources of perivascular innervation and how the NVU mediates Abeta
      clearance from the brain. It also explores evidence supporting the hypothesis
      that loss of neurally mediated vasoreactivity contributes to Abeta pathology in
      the AD brain.

PMID- 28566450
TI  - Monocyte subtypes and the CCR2 chemokine receptor in cardiovascular disease.
AB  - Monocytes circulate in the blood and migrate to inflammatory tissues, but their
      functions can be either detrimental or beneficial, depending on their phenotypes.
      In humans, classical monocytes are inflammatory cluster of differentiation
      (CD)14++CD16-CCR2++ cells originated from the bone marrow or spleen reservoirs
      and comprise >=92% of monocytes. Intermediate monocytes (CD14++CD16+CCR2+) are
      involved in the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines [such as interleukin
      (IL)-10], reactive oxygen species (ROS), and proinflammatory mediators [such as
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and IL-1beta). Nonclassical monocytes
      (CD14+CD16++CCR2-) are patrolling cells involved in tissue repair and debris
      removal from the vasculature. Many studies in both humans and animals have shown
      the importance of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and its receptor
      [chemokine receptor of MCP-1 (CCR2)] in pathologies, such as atherosclerosis and
      myocardial infarction (MI). This review presents the importance of these monocyte
      subsets in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and sheds light on new strategies for
      the blocking of the MCP-1/CCR2 axis as a therapeutic goal for treating vascular
      disorders.

PMID- 28566451
TI  - Nuclear factor-kappaB and advanced glycation end-products expression in lacrimal
      glands of aging rats.

PMID- 28566452
TI  - Correction for Zhu et al., "Utp14 Recruits and Activates the RNA Helicase Dhr1 To
      Undock U3 snoRNA from the Preribosome".

PMID- 28566453
TI  - Correction for Sardana et al., "Physical and Functional Interaction between the
      Methyltransferase Bud23 and the Essential DEAH-Box RNA Helicase Ecm16".

PMID- 28566454
TI  - Correction for Kirkham et al., "Dynein Light Chain LC8 Is Required for RNA
      Polymerase I-Mediated Transcription in Trypanosoma brucei, Facilitating Assembly
      and Promoter Binding of Class I Transcription Factor A".

PMID- 28566455
TI  - Correction for Nakano et al., "Rad51-Dependent Aberrant Chromosome Structures at
      Telomeres and Ribosomal DNA Activate the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint".

PMID- 28566456
TI  - Correction for Erker et al., "Arkadia, a Novel SUMO-Targeted Ubiquitin Ligase
      Involved in PML Degradation".

PMID- 28566459
TI  - Development and aging of human spinal cord circuitries.
AB  - The neural motor circuitries in the spinal cord receive information from our
      senses and the rest of the nervous system and translate it into purposeful
      movements, which allow us to interact with the rest of the world. In this review,
      we discuss how these circuitries are established during early development and the
      extent to which they are shaped according to the demands of the body that they
      control and the environment with which the body has to interact. We also discuss
      how aging processes and physiological changes in our body are reflected in
      adaptations of activity in the spinal cord motor circuitries. The complex,
      multifaceted connectivity of the spinal cord motor circuitries allows them to
      generate vastly different movements and to adapt their activity to meet new
      challenges imposed by bodily changes or a changing environment. There are thus
      plenty of possibilities for adaptive changes in the spinal motor circuitries both
      early and late in life.

PMID- 28566458
TI  - Diverse effects of stimulus history in waking mouse auditory cortex.
AB  - Responses to auditory stimuli are often strongly influenced by recent stimulus
      history. For example, in a paradigm called forward suppression, brief sounds can
      suppress the perception of, and the neural responses to, a subsequent sound, with
      the magnitude of this suppression depending on both the spectral and temporal
      distances between the sounds. As a step towards understanding the mechanisms that
      generate these adaptive representations in awake animals, we quantitatively
      characterize responses to two-tone sequences in the auditory cortex of waking
      mice. We find that cortical responses in a forward suppression paradigm are more
      diverse in waking mice than previously appreciated, that these responses vary
      between cells with different firing characteristics and waveform shapes, but that
      the variability in these responses is not substantially related to cortical depth
      or columnar location. Moreover, responses to the first tone in the sequence are
      often not linearly related to the suppression of the second tone response,
      suggesting that spike-frequency adaptation of cortical cells is not a large
      contributor to forward suppression or its variability. Instead, we use a simple
      multilayered model to show that cell-to-cell differences in the balance of
      intracortical inhibition and excitation will naturally produce such a diversity
      of forward interactions. We propose that diverse inhibitory connectivity allows
      the cortex to encode spectro-temporally fluctuating stimuli in multiple parallel
      ways.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Behavioral and neural responses to auditory stimuli are
      profoundly influenced by recent sounds, yet how this occurs is not known. Here,
      the authors show in the auditory cortex of awake mice that the quality of history
      dependent effects is diverse and related to cell type, response latency, firing
      rates, and receptive field bandwidth. In a cortical model, differences in
      excitatory-inhibitory balance can produce this diversity, providing the cortex
      with multiple ways of representing temporally complex information.

PMID- 28566460
TI  - Mesoscale-duration activated states gate spiking in response to fast rises in
      membrane voltage in the awake brain.
AB  - Seconds-scale network states, affecting many neurons within a network, modulate
      neural activity by complementing fast integration of neuron-specific inputs that
      arrive in the milliseconds before spiking. Nonrhythmic subthreshold dynamics at
      intermediate timescales, however, are less well characterized. We found, using
      automated whole cell patch clamping in vivo, that spikes recorded in CA1 and
      barrel cortex in awake mice are often preceded not only by monotonic voltage
      rises lasting milliseconds but also by more gradual (lasting tens to hundreds of
      milliseconds) depolarizations. The latter exert a gating function on spiking, in
      a fashion that depends on the gradual rise duration: the probability of spiking
      was higher for longer gradual rises, even when controlled for the amplitude of
      the gradual rises. Barrel cortex double-autopatch recordings show that gradual
      rises are shared across some, but not all, neurons. The gradual rises may
      represent a new kind of state, intermediate both in timescale and in proportion
      of neurons participating, which gates a neuron's ability to respond to subsequent
      inputs.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We analyzed subthreshold activity preceding spikes in
      hippocampus and barrel cortex of awake mice. Aperiodic voltage ramps extending
      over tens to hundreds of milliseconds consistently precede and facilitate spikes,
      in a manner dependent on both their amplitude and their duration. These voltage
      ramps represent a "mesoscale" activated state that gates spike production in
      vivo.

PMID- 28566461
TI  - Separable systems for recovery of finger strength and control after stroke.
AB  - Impaired hand function after stroke is a major cause of long-term disability. We
      developed a novel paradigm that quantifies two critical aspects of hand function,
      strength, and independent control of fingers (individuation), and also removes
      any obligatory dependence between them. Hand recovery was tracked in 54 patients
      with hemiparesis over the first year after stroke. Most recovery of strength and
      individuation occurred within the first 3 mo. A novel time-invariant recovery
      function was identified: recovery of strength and individuation were tightly
      correlated up to a strength level of ~60% of estimated premorbid strength; beyond
      this threshold, strength improvement was not accompanied by further improvement
      in individuation. Any additional improvement in individuation was attributable
      instead to a second process that superimposed on the recovery function. We
      conclude that two separate systems are responsible for poststroke hand recovery:
      one contributes almost all of strength and some individuation; the other
      contributes additional individuation.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We tracked recovery of the
      hand over a 1-yr period after stroke in a large cohort of patients, using a novel
      paradigm that enabled independent measurement of finger strength and control.
      Most recovery of strength and control occurs in the first 3 mo after stroke. We
      found that two separable systems are responsible for motor recovery of hand: one
      contributes strength and some dexterity, whereas a second contributes additional
      dexterity.

PMID- 28566463
TI  - Functional connectivity between somatosensory and motor brain areas predicts
      individual differences in motor learning by observing.
AB  - Action observation can facilitate the acquisition of novel motor skills; however,
      there is considerable individual variability in the extent to which observation
      promotes motor learning. Here we tested the hypothesis that individual
      differences in brain function or structure can predict subsequent observation
      related gains in motor learning. Subjects underwent an anatomical MRI scan and
      resting-state fMRI scans to assess preobservation gray matter volume and
      preobservation resting-state functional connectivity (FC), respectively. On the
      following day, subjects observed a video of a tutor adapting her reaches to a
      novel force field. After observation, subjects performed reaches in a force field
      as a behavioral assessment of gains in motor learning resulting from observation.
      We found that individual differences in resting-state FC, but not gray matter
      volume, predicted postobservation gains in motor learning. Preobservation resting
      state FC between left primary somatosensory cortex and bilateral dorsal premotor
      cortex, primary motor cortex, and primary somatosensory cortex and left superior
      parietal lobule was positively correlated with behavioral measures of
      postobservation motor learning. Sensory-motor resting-state FC can thus predict
      the extent to which observation will promote subsequent motor learning.NEW &
      NOTEWORTHY We show that individual differences in preobservation brain function
      can predict subsequent observation-related gains in motor learning.
      Preobservation resting-state functional connectivity within a sensory-motor
      network may be used as a biomarker for the extent to which observation promotes
      motor learning. This kind of information may be useful if observation is to be
      used as a way to boost neuroplasticity and sensory-motor recovery for patients
      undergoing rehabilitation for diseases that impair movement such as stroke.

PMID- 28566464
TI  - Activation of ganglion cells and axon bundles using epiretinal electrical
      stimulation.
AB  - Epiretinal prostheses for treating blindness activate axon bundles, causing
      large, arc-shaped visual percepts that limit the quality of artificial vision.
      Improving the function of epiretinal prostheses therefore requires understanding
      and avoiding axon bundle activation. This study introduces a method to detect
      axon bundle activation on the basis of its electrical signature and uses the
      method to test whether epiretinal stimulation can directly elicit spikes in
      individual retinal ganglion cells without activating nearby axon bundles.
      Combined electrical stimulation and recording from isolated primate retina were
      performed using a custom multielectrode system (512 electrodes, 10-MUm diameter,
      60-MUm pitch). Axon bundle signals were identified by their bidirectional
      propagation, speed, and increasing amplitude as a function of stimulation
      current. The threshold for bundle activation varied across electrodes and
      retinas, and was in the same range as the threshold for activating retinal
      ganglion cells near their somas. In the peripheral retina, 45% of electrodes that
      activated individual ganglion cells (17% of all electrodes) did so without
      activating bundles. This permitted selective activation of 21% of recorded
      ganglion cells (7% of expected ganglion cells) over the array. In one recording
      in the central retina, 75% of electrodes that activated individual ganglion cells
      (16% of all electrodes) did so without activating bundles. The ability to
      selectively activate a subset of retinal ganglion cells without axon bundles
      suggests a possible novel architecture for future epiretinal prostheses.NEW &
      NOTEWORTHY Large-scale multielectrode recording and stimulation were used to test
      how selectively retinal ganglion cells can be electrically activated without
      activating axon bundles. A novel method was developed to identify axon activation
      on the basis of its unique electrical signature and was used to find that a
      subset of ganglion cells can be activated at single-cell, single-spike resolution
      without producing bundle activity in peripheral and central retina. These
      findings have implications for the development of advanced retinal prostheses.

PMID- 28566465
TI  - The stochastic nature of action potential backpropagation in apical tuft
      dendrites.
AB  - In cortical pyramidal neurons, backpropagating action potentials (bAPs) supply
      Ca2+ to synaptic contacts on dendrites. To determine whether the efficacy of AP
      backpropagation into apical tuft dendrites is stable over time, we performed
      dendritic Ca2+ and voltage imaging in rat brain slices. We found that the
      amplitude of bAP-Ca2+ in apical tuft branches was unstable, given that it varied
      from trial to trial (termed "bAP-Ca2+ flickering"). Small perturbations in
      dendritic physiology, such as spontaneous synaptic inputs, channel inactivation,
      or temperature-induced changes in channel kinetics, can cause bAP flickering. In
      the tuft branches, the density of Na+ and K+ channels was sufficient to support
      local initiation of fast spikelets by glutamate iontophoresis. We quantified the
      time delay between the somatic AP burst and the peak of dendritic Ca2+ transient
      in the apical tuft, because this delay is important for induction of spike-timing
      dependent plasticity. Depending on the frequency of the somatic AP triplets, Ca2+
      signals peaked in the apical tuft 20-50 ms after the 1st AP in the soma.
      Interestingly, at low frequency (<20 Hz), the Ca2+ peaked sooner than at high
      frequency, because only the 1st AP invaded tuft. Activation of dendritic voltage
      gated Ca2+ channels is sensitive to the duration of the dendritic voltage
      transient. In apical tuft branches, small changes in the duration of bAP voltage
      waveforms cause disproportionately large increases in dendritic Ca2+ influx (bAP
      Ca2+ flickering). The stochastic nature of bAP-Ca2+ adds a new perspective on the
      mechanisms by which pyramidal neurons combine inputs arriving at different
      cortical layers.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The bAP-Ca2+ signal amplitudes in some apical
      tuft branches randomly vary from moment to moment. In repetitive measurements,
      successful AP invasions are followed by complete failures. Passive spread of
      voltage from the apical trunk into the tuft occasionally reaches the threshold
      for local Na+ spike, resulting in stronger Ca2+ influx. During a burst of three
      somatic APs, the peak of dendritic Ca2+ in the apical tuft occurs with a delay of
      20-50 ms depending on AP frequency.

PMID- 28566462
TI  - Neurophysiology and neural engineering: a review.
AB  - Neurophysiology is the branch of physiology concerned with understanding the
      function of neural systems. Neural engineering (also known as neuroengineering)
      is a discipline within biomedical engineering that uses engineering techniques to
      understand, repair, replace, enhance, or otherwise exploit the properties and
      functions of neural systems. In most cases neural engineering involves the
      development of an interface between electronic devices and living neural tissue.
      This review describes the origins of neural engineering, the explosive
      development of methods and devices commencing in the late 1950s, and the present
      day devices that have resulted. The barriers to interfacing electronic devices
      with living neural tissues are many and varied, and consequently there have been
      numerous stops and starts along the way. Representative examples are discussed.
      None of this could have happened without a basic understanding of the relevant
      neurophysiology. I also consider examples of how neural engineering is repaying
      the debt to basic neurophysiology with new knowledge and insight.

PMID- 28566466
TI  - The Ecology of Prions.
AB  - Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects cervids and is the only known prion disease
      readily transmitted among free-ranging wild animal populations in nature. The
      increasing spread and prevalence of CWD among cervid populations threaten the
      survival of deer and elk herds in North America, and potentially beyond. This
      review focuses on prion ecology, specifically that of CWD, and the current
      understanding of the role that the environment may play in disease propagation.
      We recount the discovery of CWD, discuss the role of the environment in indirect
      CWD transmission, and consider potentially relevant environmental reservoirs and
      vectors. We conclude by discussing how understanding the environmental
      persistence of CWD lends insight into transmission dynamics and potential
      management and mitigation strategies.

PMID- 28566467
TI  - Diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease in children.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative
      colitis, are lifelong conditions that often begin in childhood. The implications
      of IBD are of particular importance in children because of the potential negative
      effects on growth, development, psychosocial function, and overall wellbeing. The
      key management strategy is to achieve sustained control of intestinal
      inflammation and monitor for potential complications of the disease and side
      effects of therapies. Overall, the evidence on the management of IBD in children
      is less extensive than in adults, but good quality multicenter studies and
      various guidelines and society consensus statements are available. This review
      summarizes the evidence on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and approaches to
      management of children and adolescents with IBD.

PMID- 28566468
TI  - Smad7 protects against acute kidney injury by rescuing tubular epithelial cells
      from the G1 cell cycle arrest.
AB  - Smad7 plays a protective role in chronic kidney disease; however, its role in
      acute kidney injury (AKI) remains unexplored. Here, we report that Smad7 protects
      against AKI by rescuing the G1 cell cycle arrest of tubular epithelial cells
      (TECs) in ischemia/reperfusion-induced AKI in mice in which Smad7 gene is
      disrupted or restored locally into the kidney. In Smad7 gene knockout (KO) mice,
      more severe renal impairment including higher levels of serum creatinine and
      massive tubular necrosis was developed at 48 h after AKI. In contrast, restored
      renal Smad7 gene locally into the kidney of Smad7 KO mice protected against AKI
      by promoting TEC proliferation identified by PCNA+ and BrdU+ cells. Mechanistic
      studies revealed that worsen AKI in Smad7 KO mice was associated with a marked
      activation of TGF-beta/Smad3-p21/p27 signaling and a loss of CDK2/cyclin E
      activities, thereby impairing TEC regeneration at the G1 cell cycle arrest. In
      contrast, restored Smad7 locally into the kidneys of Smad7 KO mice protected TECs
      from the G1 cell cycle arrest and promoted TEC G1/S transition via a CDK2/cyclin
      E-dependent mechanism. In conclusion, Smad7 plays a protective role in AKI.
      Blockade of TGF-beta/Smad3-p21/p27-induced G1 cell cycle arrest may be a key
      mechanism by which Smad7 treatment inhibits AKI. Thus, Smad7 may be a novel
      therapeutic agent for AKI.

PMID- 28566469
TI  - Visceral adipose tissue activated macrophage content and inflammatory adipokine
      secretion is higher in pre-eclampsia than in healthy pregnancys.
AB  - Obesity increases pre-eclampsia (PE) risk. Adipose tissue inflammation may
      contribute to the clinical syndrome of PE. We compared adipose tissue macrophage
      infiltration and release of pro-inflammatory adipokines in PE and healthy
      pregnancy. Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue biopsies were collected from
      healthy (n=13) and PE (n=13) mothers. Basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      stimulated adipocyte TNFalpha, IL-6, CCL-2, and CRP release was measured. Adipose
      tissue cell densities of activated (cfms+) and total (CD68+) macrophages were
      determined. In PE only, visceral adipose tissue TNFalpha release was increased
      after LPS stimulation (57 [76] versus 81 [97] pg/ml/ug DNA, P=0.030). Basal
      TNFalpha release was negatively correlated insulin sensitivity of visceral
      adipocytes (r = -0.61, P=0.030) in PE. Visceral adipocyte IL-6 release was
      increased after LPS stimulation in PE only (566 [696] versus 852 [914] pg/ml/ug
      DNA, P=0.019). Visceral adipocyte CCL-2 basal (67 [61] versus 187 [219]
      pg/ml/ugDNA, P=0.049) and stimulated (46 [46] versus 224 [271] pg/ml/ug DNA,
      P=0.003) release was greater than in subcutaneous adipocytes in PE only. In PE,
      median TNF mRNA expression in visceral adipose tissue was higher than controls
      (1.94 [1.13-4.14] versus 0.8 [0.00-1.27] TNF/PPIA ratio, P=0.006). In visceral
      adipose tissue, CSF1R (a marker of activated macrophages) mRNA expression
      (24.8[11.0] versus 51.0[29.9] CSF1R/PPIA ratio, P=0.011) and activated (cfms+)
      macrophage count (6.7[2.6] versus 15.2[8.8] % cfms+/adipocyte, P=0.031) were
      higher in PE than in controls. In conclusion, our study demonstrates
      dysregulation of inflammatory pathways predominantly in visceral adipose tissue
      in PE. Inflammation of visceral adipose tissue may mediate many of the adverse
      metabolic effects associated with PE.

PMID- 28566470
TI  - Early life allergen-induced mucus overproduction requires augmented neural
      stimulation of pulmonary neuroendocrine cell secretion.
AB  - Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs) are the only innervated airway epithelial
      cells. To what extent neural innervation regulates PNEC secretion and function is
      unknown. Here, we discover that neurotrophin 4 (NT4) plays an essential role in
      mucus overproduction after early life allergen exposure by orchestrating PNEC
      innervation and secretion of GABA. We found that PNECs were the only cellular
      source of GABA in airways. In addition, PNECs expressed NT4 as a target-derived
      mechanism underlying PNEC innervation during development. Early life allergen
      exposure elevated the level of NT4 and caused PNEC hyperinnervation and nodose
      neuron hyperactivity. Associated with aberrant PNEC innervation, the authors
      discovered that GABA hypersecretion was required for the induction of mucin
      Muc5ac expression. In contrast, NT4-/- mice were protected from allergen-induced
      mucus overproduction and changes along the nerve-PNEC axis without any defects in
      inflammation. Last, GABA installation restored mucus overproduction in NT4-/-
      mice after early life allergen exposure. Together, our findings provide the first
      evidence for NT4-dependent neural regulation of PNEC secretion of GABA in a
      neonatal disease model. Targeting the nerve-PNEC axis may be a valid treatment
      strategy for mucus overproduction in airway diseases, such as childhood asthma.
      Barrios, J., Patel, K. R., Aven, L., Achey, R., Minns, M. S., Lee, Y., Trinkaus
      Randall, V. E., Ai, X. Early life allergen-induced mucus overproduction requires
      augmented neural stimulation of pulmonary neuroendocrine cell secretion.

PMID- 28566471
TI  - Emergency treatment of decompensated aortic stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The optimal treatment of patients with acute and severe decompensation
      of aortic stenosis is unclear due to recent advances in transcatheter
      interventions and supportive therapies. Our aim was to assess the early outcome
      of emergency transcatheter aortic valve implantation (eTAVI) versus emergency
      balloon aortic valvuloplasty (eBAV) followed by TAVI under elective
      circumstances. METHODS: Emergency conditions were defined as: cardiogenic shock
      with requirement of catecholamine therapy, severe acute dyspnoea (NYHA IV),
      cardiac resuscitation or mechanic respiratory support. The data were collected
      according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium 2 (VARC-2) criteria. RESULTS:
      In five German centres, 23 patients (logistic Euroscore 37.7%+/-18.1) underwent
      eTAVI and 118 patients underwent eBAV (logistic Euroscore 35.3%+/-20.8). In the
      eTAVI group, immediate procedural mortality was 8.7%, compared with 20.3% for the
      eBAV group (p=0.19). After 30 days, cardiovascular mortality for the eTAVI group
      was 23.8% and for the eBAV group 33.0% (p=0.40). Analyses adjusting for potential
      confounders did not provide evidence of a difference between groups. Of note, the
      elective TAVI performed after eBAV (n=32, logistic Euroscore 25.9%+/-13.9)
      displayed an immediate procedural mortality of 9.4% and a cardiovascular
      mortality after 30 days of 15.6%. Major vascular complications were significantly
      more likely to occur after eTAVI (p=0.01) as well as stroke (p=0.01). CONCLUSION:
      In this multicentre cohort, immediate procedural and 30-day mortality of eTAVI
      and eBAV were high, and mortality of secondary TAVI subsequent to eBAV was higher
      than expected. Randomised study data are required to define the role of emergency
      TAVI in tertiary care centres with current device generations.

PMID- 28566472
TI  - Pacemaker reuse in low-income/middle-income countries: moral duty or dangerous
      precedent?

PMID- 28566473
TI  - Declining incidence and prevalence of Eisenmenger syndrome in the developed
      world: a triumph of modern medicine.

PMID- 28566474
TI  - Mitral valve repair for degenerative mitral valve disease: surgical approach,
      patient selection and long-term outcomes.
AB  - Mitral valve repair (MVRepair) has become the procedure of choice to correct
      severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR), due to its documented superiority
      to valve replacement regarding long-term survival, freedom from valve-related
      adverse events and preservation of left ventricular (LV) function. The refinement
      of MVRepair techniques has rendered almost all valves (more than 95%) amenable to
      repair with a 15-year freedom from reoperation of 90%. The concept of 'centres of
      excellence for MVRepair' has emerged, encouraging referring doctors to select the
      most experienced institutions or individual surgeons to deal with the most
      complex cases, based on repair volume, appropriate peri-procedural imaging and
      data regarding expected outcomes (repair, mortality and durability of repair).
      Based on the good results, operating on asymptomatic patients with severe MR is
      now widely accepted, prophylactically avoiding the dire consequences of chronic
      MR, such as LV function deterioration/enlargement, and development of atrial
      fibrillation and pulmonary hypertension. In reference centres, where the repair
      rate is over 95% for all types of disease with <1% mortality, it has become
      standard practice in nearly 50%-60% of all patients submitted to MVRepair.
      Finally, recent advances in the surgical treatment with the purpose of reducing
      invasiveness and surgical trauma, through partial sternotomy or mini-thoracotomy
      (video-assisted with or without robotics), are now being increasingly performed
      in 20%-30% of centres, claiming comparable results to conventional surgery. In
      addition, transcatheter technology, particularly the MitraClip, is evolving and
      treading its way in the treatment of high-risk patients with severe MR, but the
      results are still short of ideal.

PMID- 28566476
TI  - A case of metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28566475
TI  - The Pacemaker and ICD Reuse Programme of the Pan-African Society of Cardiology.

PMID- 28566478
TI  - ILC2: There's a New Cell in Town.

PMID- 28566477
TI  - Long-Term Outcome of Steroid-Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome in Children.
AB  - We investigated the value of genetic, histopathologic, and early treatment
      response information in prognosing long-term renal outcome in children with
      primary steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. From the PodoNet Registry, we
      obtained longitudinal clinical information for 1354 patients (disease onset at >3
      months and <20 years of age): 612 had documented responsiveness to intensified
      immunosuppression (IIS), 1155 had kidney biopsy results, and 212 had an
      established genetic diagnosis. We assessed risk factors for ESRD using
      multivariate Cox regression models. Complete and partial remission of proteinuria
      within 12 months of disease onset occurred in 24.5% and 16.5% of children,
      respectively, with the highest remission rates achieved with calcineurin
      inhibitor-based protocols. Ten-year ESRD-free survival rates were 43%, 94%, and
      72% in children with IIS resistance, complete remission, and partial remission,
      respectively; 27% in children with a genetic diagnosis; and 79% and 52% in
      children with histopathologic findings of minimal change glomerulopathy and FSGS,
      respectively. Five-year ESRD-free survival rate was 21% for diffuse mesangial
      sclerosis. IIS responsiveness, presence of a genetic diagnosis, and FSGS or
      diffuse mesangial sclerosis on initial biopsy as well as age, serum albumin
      concentration, and CKD stage at onset affected ESRD risk. Our findings suggest
      that responsiveness to initial IIS and detection of a hereditary podocytopathy
      are prognostic indicators of favorable and poor long-term outcome, respectively,
      in children with steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. Children with multidrug
      resistant sporadic disease show better renal survival than those with genetic
      disease. Furthermore, histopathologic findings may retain prognostic relevance
      when a genetic diagnosis is established.

PMID- 28566479
TI  - Targeted Exome Sequencing Identifies PBX1 as Involved in Monogenic Congenital
      Anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract.
AB  - Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) occur in three to
      six of 1000 live births, represent about 20% of the prenatally detected
      anomalies, and constitute the main cause of CKD in children. These disorders are
      phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous. Monogenic causes of CAKUT in humans
      and mice have been identified. However, despite high-throughput sequencing
      studies, the cause of the disease remains unknown in most patients, and several
      studies support more complex inheritance and the role of environmental factors
      and/or epigenetics in the pathophysiology of CAKUT. Here, we report the targeted
      exome sequencing of 330 genes, including genes known to be involved in CAKUT and
      candidate genes, in a cohort of 204 unrelated patients with CAKUT; 45% of the
      patients were severe fetal cases. We identified pathogenic mutations in 36 of 204
      (17.6%) patients. These mutations included five de novo heterozygous loss of
      function mutations/deletions in the PBX homeobox 1 gene (PBX1), a gene known to
      have a crucial role in kidney development. In contrast, the frequency of SOX17
      and DSTYK variants recently reported as pathogenic in CAKUT did not indicate
      causality. These findings suggest that PBX1 is involved in monogenic CAKUT in
      humans and call into question the role of some gene variants recently reported as
      pathogenic in CAKUT. Targeted exome sequencing also proved to be an efficient and
      cost-effective strategy to identify pathogenic mutations and deletions in known
      CAKUT genes.

PMID- 28566480
TI  - Autoantibodies against C-Reactive Protein Influence Complement Activation and
      Clinical Course in Lupus Nephritis.
AB  - Autoantibodies against the major acute-phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP)
      are frequently found in patients with lupus nephritis. Further defining the
      autoimmune epitopes on CRP may not only improve patient stratification but also,
      hint at mechanisms of CRP action. Herein, we show that amino acids 35-47
      constitute the major epitope recognized by anti-CRP autoantibodies in patients
      with lupus nephritis. Notably, the presence of autoantibodies against amino acids
      35-47 associated with more severe renal damage and predicted worse outcome. This
      epitope is exposed on CRP only after irreversible structure changes, yielding a
      conformationally altered form termed modified or monomeric CRP (mCRP). ELISA and
      surface plasmon resonance assays showed that amino acids 35-47 mediate the
      interaction of mCRP with complement factor H, an inhibitor of alternative pathway
      activation, and this interaction greatly enhanced the in vitro cofactor activity
      of complement factor H. In contrast, autoantibodies against amino acids 35-47
      inhibited these actions of mCRP. Our results thus provide evidence for the in
      vivo generation of mCRP in a human disease and suggest that mCRP actively
      controls the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis by regulating complement activation.
      Therefore, amino acids 35-47 constitute a functional autoimmune epitope on CRP
      that can be targeted therapeutically and diagnostically.

PMID- 28566481
TI  - Defaunation effects on plant recruitment depend on size matching and size trade
      offs in seed-dispersal networks.
AB  - Defaunation by humans causes a loss of large animals in many ecosystems globally.
      Recent work has emphasized the consequences of downsizing in animal communities
      for ecosystem functioning. However, no study so far has integrated network theory
      and life-history trade-offs to mechanistically evaluate the functional
      consequences of defaunation in plant-animal networks. Here, we simulated an avian
      seed-dispersal network and its derived ecosystem function seedling recruitment to
      assess the relative importance of different size-related mechanisms.
      Specifically, we considered size matching (between bird size and seed size) and
      size trade-offs, which are driven by differences in plant or animal species
      abundance (negative size-quantity relationship) as well as in recruitment
      probability and disperser quality (positive size-quality relationship).
      Defaunation led to impoverished seedling communities in terms of diversity and
      seed size, but only if models accounted for size matching. In addition, size
      trade-off in plants, in concert with size matching, provoked rapid decays in
      seedling abundance in response to defaunation. These results underscore a
      disproportional importance of large animals for ecosystem functions. Downsizing
      in ecological networks will have severe consequences for ecosystem functioning,
      especially in interaction networks that are structured by size matching between
      plants and animals.

PMID- 28566482
TI  - Species contributions to ecosystem process and function can be population
      dependent and modified by biotic and abiotic setting.
AB  - There is unequivocal evidence that altered biodiversity, through changes in the
      expression and distribution of functional traits, can have large impacts on
      ecosystem properties. However, trait-based summaries of how organisms affect
      ecosystem properties often assume that traits show constancy within and between
      populations and that species contributions to ecosystem functioning are not
      overly affected by the presence of other species or variations in abiotic
      conditions. Here, we evaluate the validity of these assumptions using an
      experiment in which three geographically distinct populations of intertidal
      sediment-dwelling invertebrates are reciprocally substituted. We find that the
      mediation of macronutrient generation by these species can vary between different
      populations and show that changes in biotic and/or abiotic conditions can further
      modify functionally important aspects of the behaviour of individuals within a
      population. Our results demonstrate the importance of knowing how, when, and why
      traits are expressed and suggest that these dimensions of species functionality
      are not sufficiently well-constrained to facilitate the accurate projection of
      the functional consequences of change. Information regarding the ecological role
      of key species and assumptions about the form of species-environment interactions
      needs urgent refinement.

PMID- 28566484
TI  - Response of bats to light with different spectra: light-shy and agile bat
      presence is affected by white and green, but not red light.
AB  - Artificial light at night has shown a remarkable increase over the past decades.
      Effects are reported for many species groups, and include changes in presence,
      behaviour, physiology and life-history traits. Among these, bats are strongly
      affected, and how bat species react to light is likely to vary with light colour.
      Different spectra may therefore be applied to reduce negative impacts. We used a
      unique set-up of eight field sites to study the response of bats to three
      different experimental light spectra in an otherwise dark and undisturbed natural
      habitat. We measured activity of three bat species groups around transects with
      light posts emitting white, green and red light with an intensity commonly used
      to illuminate countryside roads. The results reveal a strong and spectrum
      dependent response for the slow-flying Myotis and Plecotus and more agile
      Pipistrellus species, but not for Nyctalus and Eptesicus species. Plecotus and
      Myotis species avoided white and green light, but were equally abundant in red
      light and darkness. The agile, opportunistically feeding Pipistrellus species
      were significantly more abundant around white and green light, most likely
      because of accumulation of insects, but equally abundant in red illuminated
      transects compared to dark control. Forest-dwelling Myotis and Plecotus species
      and more synanthropic Pipistrellus species are thus least disturbed by red light.
      Hence, in order to limit the negative impact of light at night on bats, white and
      green light should be avoided in or close to natural habitat, but red lights may
      be used if illumination is needed.

PMID- 28566485
TI  - Adhesion enhancement of cribellate capture threads by epicuticular waxes of the
      insect prey sheds new light on spider web evolution.
AB  - To survive, web-building spiders rely on their capture threads to restrain prey.
      Many species use special adhesives for this task, and again the majority of those
      species cover their threads with viscoelastic glue droplets. Cribellate spiders,
      by contrast, use a wool of nanofibres as adhesive. Previous studies hypothesized
      that prey is restrained by van der Waals' forces and entrapment in the
      nanofibres. A large discrepancy when comparing the adhesive force on artificial
      surfaces versus prey implied that the real mechanism was still elusive. We
      observed that insect prey's epicuticular waxes infiltrate the wool of nanofibres,
      probably induced by capillary forces. The fibre-reinforced composite thus formed
      led to an adhesion between prey and thread eight times stronger than that between
      thread and wax-free surfaces. Thus, cribellate spiders employ the originally
      protective coating of their insect prey as a fatal component of their adhesive
      and the insect promotes its own capture. We suggest an evolutionary arms race
      with prey changing the properties of their cuticular waxes to escape the
      cribellate capture threads that eventually favoured spider threads with viscous
      glue.

PMID- 28566483
TI  - The sources of adaptive variation.
AB  - The role of natural selection in the evolution of adaptive phenotypes has
      undergone constant probing by evolutionary biologists, employing both theoretical
      and empirical approaches. As Darwin noted, natural selection can act together
      with other processes, including random changes in the frequencies of phenotypic
      differences that are not under strong selection, and changes in the environment,
      which may reflect evolutionary changes in the organisms themselves. As
      understanding of genetics developed after 1900, the new genetic discoveries were
      incorporated into evolutionary biology. The resulting general principles were
      summarized by Julian Huxley in his 1942 book Evolution: the modern synthesis
      Here, we examine how recent advances in genetics, developmental biology and
      molecular biology, including epigenetics, relate to today's understanding of the
      evolution of adaptations. We illustrate how careful genetic studies have
      repeatedly shown that apparently puzzling results in a wide diversity of
      organisms involve processes that are consistent with neo-Darwinism. They do not
      support important roles in adaptation for processes such as directed mutation or
      the inheritance of acquired characters, and therefore no radical revision of our
      understanding of the mechanism of adaptive evolution is needed.

PMID- 28566486
TI  - Ecological drift and the distribution of species diversity.
AB  - Ecological drift causes species abundances to fluctuate randomly, lowering
      diversity within communities and increasing differences among otherwise
      equivalent communities. Despite broad interest in ecological drift, ecologists
      have little experimental evidence of its consequences in nature, where
      competitive forces modulate species abundances. We manipulated drift by imposing
      40-fold variation in the size of experimentally assembled annual plant
      communities and holding their edge-to-interior ratios comparable. Drift over
      three generations was greater than predicted by neutral models, causing high
      extinction rates and fast divergence in composition among smaller communities.
      Competitive asymmetries drove populations of most species to small enough sizes
      that demographic stochasticity could markedly influence dynamics, increasing the
      importance of drift in communities. The strong effects of drift occurred despite
      stabilizing niche differences, which cause species to have greater population
      growth rates when at low local abundance. Overall, the importance of ecological
      drift appears greater in non-neutral communities than previously recognized, and
      varies with community size and the type and strength of density dependence.

PMID- 28566487
TI  - Local neighbourhood and regional climatic contexts interact to explain tree
      performance.
AB  - Tree neighbourhood modelling has significantly contributed to our understanding
      of the mechanisms structuring communities. Investigations into the impact of
      neighbouring crowding on tree performance have generally been conducted at local
      scales, missing important regional-scale context such as the suitability of the
      climate for each species. Favourable climates may enhance tree performance, but
      this may come at the cost of increased neighbourhood crowding and competition
      negatively impacting survival and growth. Through the synthesis of continental
      scale forest inventory and trait datasets from the northeast USA and Puerto Rico
      we present an analytical approach that elucidates the important interactions
      between local competitive and regional climatic contexts. Our results show strong
      asymmetries in competitive interactions and significant niche differences that
      are dependent on habitat suitability. The strong interaction between local
      neighbourhood and regional climate highlights the need for models that consider
      the interaction between these two processes that have been previously ignored.

PMID- 28566488
TI  - A fossil protein chimera; difficulties in discriminating dinosaur peptide
      sequences from modern cross-contamination.
AB  - A decade ago, reports that organic-rich soft tissue survived from dinosaur
      fossils were apparently supported by proteomics-derived sequence information of
      exceptionally well-preserved bone. This initial claim to the sequencing of
      endogenous collagen peptides from an approximately 68 Myr Tyrannosaurus rex
      fossil was highly controversial, largely on the grounds of potential
      contamination from either bacterial biofilms or from laboratory practice. In a
      subsequent study, collagen peptide sequences from an approximately 78 Myr
      Brachylophosaurus canadensis fossil were reported that have remained largely
      unchallenged. However, the endogeneity of these sequences relies heavily on a
      single peptide sequence, apparently unique to both dinosaurs. Given the potential
      for cross-contamination from modern bone analysed by the same team, here we
      extract collagen from bone samples of three individuals of ostrich, Struthio
      camelus The resulting LC-MS/MS data were found to match all of the proposed
      sequences for both the original Tyrannosaurus and Brachylophosaurus studies.
      Regardless of the true nature of the dinosaur peptides, our finding highlights
      the difficulty of differentiating such sequences with confidence. Our results not
      only imply that cross-contamination cannot be ruled out, but that appropriate
      measures to test for endogeneity should be further evaluated.

PMID- 28566489
TI  - An evolutionary model to predict the frequency of antibiotic resistance under
      seasonal antibiotic use, and an application to Streptococcus pneumoniae.
AB  - The frequency of resistance to antibiotics in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been
      stable over recent decades. For example, penicillin non-susceptibility in Europe
      has fluctuated between 12% and 16% without any major time trend. In spite of long
      term stability, resistance fluctuates over short time scales, presumably in part
      due to seasonal fluctuations in antibiotic prescriptions. Here, we develop a
      model that describes the evolution of antibiotic resistance under selection by
      multiple antibiotics prescribed at seasonally changing rates. This model was
      inspired by, and fitted to, published data on monthly antibiotics prescriptions
      and frequency of resistance in two communities in Israel over 5 years. Seasonal
      fluctuations in antibiotic usage translate into small fluctuations of the
      frequency of resistance around the average value. We describe these dynamics
      using a perturbation approach that encapsulates all ecological and evolutionary
      forces into a generic model, whose parameters quantify a force stabilizing the
      frequency of resistance around the equilibrium and the sensitivity of the
      population to antibiotic selection. Fitting the model to the data revealed a
      strong stabilizing force, typically two to five times stronger than direct
      selection due to antibiotics. The strong stabilizing force explains that
      resistance fluctuates in phase with usage, as antibiotic selection alone would
      result in resistance fluctuating behind usage with a lag of three months when
      antibiotic use is seasonal. While most antibiotics selected for increased
      resistance, intriguingly, cephalosporins selected for decreased resistance to
      penicillins and macrolides, an effect consistent in the two communities. One
      extra monthly prescription of cephalosporins per 1000 children decreased the
      frequency of penicillin-resistant strains by 1.7%. This model emerges under
      minimal assumptions, quantifies the forces acting on resistance and explains up
      to 43% of the temporal variation in resistance.

PMID- 28566490
TI  - The activation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors downregulates transient outward
      potassium and L-type calcium currents in rat models of depression.
AB  - Major depression is an important clinical factor in ventricular arrhythmia.
      Patients diagnosed with major depression overexpress N-methyl-d-aspartate
      receptors (NMDARs). Previous studies found that chronic NMDAR activation
      increases susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias. We aimed to explore the
      mechanisms by which NMDAR activation may increase susceptibility to ventricular
      arrhythmias. Male rats were randomly assigned to either normal environments as
      control (CTL) group or 4 wk of chronic mild stress (CMS) to produce a major
      depression disorder (MDD) model group. After 4 wk of CMS, depression-like
      behaviors were measured in both groups. Varying doses (1-100 MUM) of NMDA and 10
      MUM NMDA antagonist (MK-801) were perfused through ventricular myocytes isolated
      from MDD rats to measure the L-type calcium current (ICa-L) and transient outward
      potassium current (Ito). Structural remodeling was assessed using serial
      histopathology including Masson's trichrome dye. Electrophysiological
      characteristics were evaluated using Langendorff perfusion. Depression-like
      behaviors were observed in MDD rats. MDD rats showed longer action potential
      durations at 90% repolarization and higher susceptibility to ventricular
      arrhythmias than CTL rats. MDD rats showed lower ICa-L and Ito current densities
      than CTL rats. Additionally, NMDA reduced both currents in a concentration
      dependent manner, whereas there was no significant impact on the currents when
      perfused with MK-801. MDD rats exhibited significantly more fibrosis areas in
      heart tissue and reduced expression of Kv4.2, Kv4.3, and Cav1.2. We observed that
      acute NMDAR activation led to downregulation of potassium and L-type calcium
      currents in a rat model of depression, which may be the mechanism underlying
      ventricular arrhythmia promotion by depression.

PMID- 28566492
TI  - Functional evidence for derivation of systemic histiocytic neoplasms from
      hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells.
AB  - Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and the non-LCH neoplasm Erdheim-Chester
      disease (ECD) are heterogeneous neoplastic disorders marked by infiltration of
      pathologic macrophage-, dendritic cell-, or monocyte-derived cells in tissues
      driven by recurrent mutations activating MAPK signaling. Although recent data
      indicate that at least a proportion of LCH and ECD patients have detectable
      activating kinase mutations in circulating hematopoietic cells and bone marrow
      based hematopoietic progenitors, functional evidence of the cell of origin of
      histiocytosis from actual patient materials has long been elusive. Here, we
      provide evidence for mutations in MAPK signaling intermediates in CD34+ cells
      from patients with ECD and LCH/ECD, including detection of shared origin of LCH
      and acute myelomonocytic leukemia driven by TET2-mutant CD34+ cell progenitors in
      one patient. We also demonstrate functional self-renewal capacity for CD34+ cells
      to drive the development of histiocytosis in xenotransplantation assays in vivo.
      These data indicate that the cell of origin of at least a proportion of patients
      with systemic histiocytoses resides in hematopoietic progenitor cells prior to
      committed monocyte/macrophage or dendritic cell differentiation and provide the
      first example of a patient-derived xenotransplantation model for a human
      histiocytic neoplasm.

PMID- 28566491
TI  - Chronic hypoxia alters fetal cerebrovascular responses to endothelin-1.
AB  - In utero hypoxia influences the structure and function of most fetal arteries,
      including those of the developing cerebral circulation. Whereas the signals that
      initiate this hypoxic remodeling remain uncertain, these appear to be distinct
      from the mechanisms that maintain the remodeled vascular state. The present study
      explores the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia elicits sustained changes in fetal
      cerebrovascular reactivity to endothelin-1 (ET-1), a potent vascular contractant
      and mitogen. In fetal lambs, chronic hypoxia (3,820-m altitude for the last 110
      days of gestation) had no significant effect on plasma ET-1 levels or ETA
      receptor density in cerebral arteries but enhanced contractile responses to ET-1
      in an ETA-dependent manner. In organ culture (24 h), 10 nM ET-1 increased medial
      thicknesses less in hypoxic than in normoxic arteries, and these increases were
      ablated by inhibition of PKC (chelerythrine) in both normoxic and hypoxic
      arteries but were attenuated by inhibition of CaMKII (KN93) and p38 (SB203580) in
      normoxic but not hypoxic arteries. As indicated by Ki-67 immunostaining, ET-1
      increased medial thicknesses via hypertrophy. Measurements of colocalization
      between MLCK and SMalphaA revealed that organ culture with ET-1 also promoted
      contractile dedifferentiation in normoxic, but not hypoxic, arteries through
      mechanisms attenuated by inhibitors of PKC, CaMKII, and p38. These results
      support the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia elicits sustained changes in fetal
      cerebrovascular reactivity to ET-1 through pathways dependent upon PKC, CaMKII,
      and p38 that cause increased ET-1-mediated contractility, decreased ET-1-mediated
      smooth muscle hypertrophy, and a depressed ability of ET-1 to promote contractile
      dedifferentiation.

PMID- 28566493
TI  - Urinary sampling for 5HIAA and metanephrines determination: revisiting the
      recommendations.
AB  - CONTEXT: Biogenic amines such as 5-hydroxy-indole acetic acid (5HIAA) the main
      metabolite of serotonin or metanephrines (catecholamines metabolites) are used as
      biomarkers of neuroendocrine tumours. OBJECTIVE: To re-evaluate the
      recommendations for urinary sampling (preservatives, diet, drugs, etc.) as many
      of the reported analytical interferences supporting these recommendations are
      related to obsolete assays. METHODS: Bibliographic analysis of old and modern
      assays concerning preservation, extraction, assay and interferences. RESULTS:
      5HIAA may degrade as soon as urine is excreted. Thus, acids as preservatives
      (hydrochloric or acetic acid) have to be immediately added. Care should be taken
      not to decrease the pH under 2. Urine preservative for metanephrine assays is not
      mandatory. Diets including serotonin-, tryptophan- and dopamine-rich foods have
      to be avoided depending on the biomarkers investigated (bananas, plantain, nuts,
      etc.). Tryptophan-rich over-the-counter formulas have to be prohibited when 5HIAA
      has to be assayed. Acetaminophen may interfere with electrochemical detection
      depending on high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) parameters. No
      interference is known with mass spectrometric assays but with the one described
      for metanephrines determination. Some drugs interfere however with serotonin and
      catecholamines secretion and/or metabolism (monoamine oxidase inhibitors,
      serotonin or dopamine recapture inhibitors, etc.). CONCLUSION: Revisited
      recommendations are provided for the diet, the drugs and the preservatives before
      HPLC coupled with electrochemical and mass spectrometry assays.

PMID- 28566494
TI  - Zinc-binding structure of a catalytic amyloid from solid-state NMR.
AB  - Throughout biology, amyloids are key structures in both functional proteins and
      the end product of pathologic protein misfolding. Amyloids might also represent
      an early precursor in the evolution of life because of their small molecular size
      and their ability to self-purify and catalyze chemical reactions. They also
      provide attractive backbones for advanced materials. When beta-strands of an
      amyloid are arranged parallel and in register, side chains from the same position
      of each chain align, facilitating metal chelation when the residues are good
      ligands such as histidine. High-resolution structures of metalloamyloids are
      needed to understand the molecular bases of metal-amyloid interactions. Here we
      combine solid-state NMR and structural bioinformatics to determine the structure
      of a zinc-bound metalloamyloid that catalyzes ester hydrolysis. The peptide forms
      amphiphilic parallel beta-sheets that assemble into stacked bilayers with
      alternating hydrophobic and polar interfaces. The hydrophobic interface is
      stabilized by apolar side chains from adjacent sheets, whereas the hydrated polar
      interface houses the Zn2+-binding histidines with binding geometries unusual in
      proteins. Each Zn2+ has two bis-coordinated histidine ligands, which bridge
      adjacent strands to form an infinite metal-ligand chain along the fibril axis. A
      third histidine completes the protein ligand environment, leaving a free site on
      the Zn2+ for water activation. This structure defines a class of materials, which
      we call metal-peptide frameworks. The structure reveals a delicate interplay
      through which metal ions stabilize the amyloid structure, which in turn shapes
      the ligand geometry and catalytic reactivity of Zn2.

PMID- 28566495
TI  - Hidden role of intermolecular proton transfer in the anomalously diffuse
      vibrational spectrum of a trapped hydronium ion.
AB  - We report the vibrational spectra of the hydronium and methyl-ammonium ions
      captured in the C3v binding pocket of the 18-crown-6 ether ionophore. Although
      the NH stretching bands of the CH3NH3+ ion are consistent with harmonic
      expectations, the OH stretching bands of H3O+ are surprisingly broad, appearing
      as a diffuse background absorption with little intensity modulation over 800 cm-1
      with an onset ~400 cm-1 below the harmonic prediction. This structure persists
      even when only a single OH group is present in the HD2O+ isotopologue, while the
      OD stretching region displays a regular progression involving a soft mode at
      about 85 cm-1 These results are rationalized in a vibrationally adiabatic (VA)
      model in which the motion of the H3O+ ion in the crown pocket is strongly coupled
      with its OH stretches. In this picture, H3O+ resides in the center of the crown
      in the vibrational zero-point level, while the minima in the VA potentials
      associated with the excited OH vibrational states are shifted away from the
      symmetrical configuration displayed by the ground state. Infrared excitation
      between these strongly H/D isotope-dependent VA potentials then accounts for most
      of the broadening in the OH stretching manifold. Specifically, low-frequency
      motions involving concerted motions of the crown scaffold and the H3O+ ion are
      driven by a Franck-Condon-like mechanism. In essence, vibrational spectroscopy of
      these systems can be viewed from the perspective of photochemical interconversion
      between transient, isomeric forms of the complexes corresponding to the initial
      stage of intermolecular proton transfer.

PMID- 28566497
TI  - Unique aqueous Li-ion/sulfur chemistry with high energy density and
      reversibility.
AB  - Leveraging the most recent success in expanding the electrochemical stability
      window of aqueous electrolytes, in this work we create a unique Li-ion/sulfur
      chemistry of both high energy density and safety. We show that in the
      superconcentrated aqueous electrolyte, lithiation of sulfur experiences phase
      change from a high-order polysulfide to low-order polysulfides through solid
      liquid two-phase reaction pathway, where the liquid polysulfide phase in the
      sulfide electrode is thermodynamically phase-separated from the superconcentrated
      aqueous electrolyte. The sulfur with solid-liquid two-phase exhibits a reversible
      capacity of 1,327 mAh/(g of S), along with fast reaction kinetics and negligible
      polysulfide dissolution. By coupling a sulfur anode with different Li-ion cathode
      materials, the aqueous Li-ion/sulfur full cell delivers record-high energy
      densities up to 200 Wh/(kg of total electrode mass) for >1,000 cycles at ~100%
      coulombic efficiency. These performances already approach that of commercial
      lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) using a nonaqueous electrolyte, along with intrinsic
      safety not possessed by the latter. The excellent performance of this aqueous
      battery chemistry significantly promotes the practical possibility of aqueous
      LIBs in large-format applications.

PMID- 28566496
TI  - Phosphate is the third nutrient monitored by TOR in Candida albicans and provides
      a target for fungal-specific indirect TOR inhibition.
AB  - The Target of Rapamycin (TOR) pathway regulates morphogenesis and responses to
      host cells in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans Eukaryotic Target of Rapamycin
      complex 1 (TORC1) induces growth and proliferation in response to nitrogen and
      carbon source availability. Our unbiased genetic approach seeking unknown
      components of TORC1 signaling in C. albicans revealed that the phosphate
      transporter Pho84 is required for normal TORC1 activity. We found that mutants in
      PHO84 are hypersensitive to rapamycin and in response to phosphate feeding,
      generate less phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (P-S6) than the WT. The small
      GTPase Gtr1, a component of the TORC1-activating EGO complex, links Pho84 to
      TORC1. Mutants in Gtr1 but not in another TORC1-activating GTPase, Rhb1, are
      defective in the P-S6 response to phosphate. Overexpression of Gtr1 and a
      constitutively active Gtr1Q67L mutant suppresses TORC1-related defects. In
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae pho84 mutants, constitutively active Gtr1 suppresses a
      TORC1 signaling defect but does not rescue rapamycin hypersensitivity. Hence,
      connections from phosphate homeostasis (PHO) to TORC1 may differ between C.
      albicans and S. cerevisiae The converse direction of signaling from TORC1 to the
      PHO regulon previously observed in S. cerevisiae was genetically shown in C.
      albicans using conditional TOR1 alleles. A small molecule inhibitor of Pho84, a
      Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, inhibits TORC1 signaling and
      potentiates the activity of the antifungals amphotericin B and micafungin.
      Anabolic TORC1-dependent processes require significant amounts of phosphate. Our
      study shows that phosphate availability is monitored and also controlled by TORC1
      and that TORC1 can be indirectly targeted by inhibiting Pho84.

PMID- 28566499
TI  - Finally making sense of the double-slit experiment.
AB  - Feynman stated that the double-slit experiment "...has in it the heart of quantum
      mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery" and that "nobody can give
      you a deeper explanation of this phenomenon than I have given; that is, a
      description of it" [Feynman R, Leighton R, Sands M (1965) The Feynman Lectures on
      Physics]. We rise to the challenge with an alternative to the wave function
      centered interpretations: instead of a quantum wave passing through both slits,
      we have a localized particle with nonlocal interactions with the other slit. Key
      to this explanation is dynamical nonlocality, which naturally appears in the
      Heisenberg picture as nonlocal equations of motion. This insight led us to
      develop an approach to quantum mechanics which relies on pre- and postselection,
      weak measurements, deterministic, and modular variables. We consider those
      properties of a single particle that are deterministic to be primal. The
      Heisenberg picture allows us to specify the most complete enumeration of such
      deterministic properties in contrast to the Schrodinger wave function, which
      remains an ensemble property. We exercise this approach by analyzing a version of
      the double-slit experiment augmented with postselection, showing that only it and
      not the wave function approach can be accommodated within a time-symmetric
      interpretation, where interference appears even when the particle is localized.
      Although the Heisenberg and Schrodinger pictures are equivalent formulations,
      nevertheless, the framework presented here has led to insights, intuitions, and
      experiments that were missed from the old perspective.

PMID- 28566498
TI  - Thermal combination therapies for local drug delivery by magnetic resonance
      guided high-intensity focused ultrasound.
AB  - Several thermal-therapy strategies such as thermal ablation, hyperthermia
      triggered drug delivery from temperature-sensitive liposomes (TSLs), and
      combinations of the above were investigated in a rhabdomyosarcoma rat tumor model
      (n = 113). Magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU)
      was used as a noninvasive heating device with precise temperature control for
      image-guided drug delivery. For the latter, TSLs were prepared, coencapsulating
      doxorubicin (dox) and [Gd(HPDO3A)(H2O)], and injected in tumor-bearing rats
      before MR-HIFU treatment. Four treatment groups were defined: hyperthermia,
      ablation, hyperthermia followed by ablation, or no HIFU. The intratumoral TSL and
      dox distribution were analyzed by single-photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT), autoradiography, and fluorescence microscopy.
      Dox biodistribution was quantified and compared with that of nonliposomal dox.
      Finally, the treatment efficacy of all heating strategies plus additional control
      groups (saline, free dox, and Caelyx) was assessed by tumor growth measurements.
      All HIFU heating strategies combined with TSLs resulted in cellular uptake of dox
      deep into the interstitial space and a significant increase of tumor drug
      concentrations compared with a treatment with free dox. Ablation after TSL
      injection showed [Gd(HPDO3A)(H2O)] and dox release along the tumor rim, mirroring
      the TSL distribution pattern. Hyperthermia either as standalone treatment or
      before ablation ensured homogeneous TSL, [Gd(HPDO3A)(H2O)], and dox delivery
      across the tumor. The combination of hyperthermia-triggered drug delivery
      followed by ablation showed the best therapeutic outcome compared with all other
      treatment groups due to direct induction of thermal necrosis in the tumor core
      and efficient drug delivery to the tumor rim.

PMID- 28566501
TI  - Prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy by limb ischemic preconditioning:
      underlying mechanisms and clinical effects.
AB  - Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is an important complication following
      diagnostic radiographic imaging and interventional therapy. It results from
      administration of intravascular iodinated contrast media (CM) and is currently
      the third most common cause of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury. CIN is
      associated with increased morbidity, prolonged hospitalization, and higher
      mortality. Although the importance of CIN is widely appreciated, and its
      occurrence can be mitigated by the use of pre- and posthydration protocols and
      low osmolar instead of high osmolar iodine-containing CM, specific prophylactic
      therapy is lacking. Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC), induced through short
      cycles of ischemia-reperfusion applied to the limb, is an intriguing new strategy
      that has been shown to reduce myocardial infarction size in patients undergoing
      emergency percutaneous coronary intervention. Furthermore, multiple proof-of
      principle clinical studies have suggested benefit in several other ischemia
      reperfusion syndromes, including stroke. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, RIPC also
      is emerging as a promising strategy for CIN prevention. In this review, we
      discuss current clinical and experimental developments regarding the biology of
      CIN, concentrating on the pathophysiology of CIN, and cellular and molecular
      mechanisms by which limb ischemic preconditioning may confer renal protection in
      clinical and experimental models of CIN.

PMID- 28566500
TI  - Gender difference in kidney electrolyte transport. I. Role of AT1a receptor in
      thiazide-sensitive Na+-Cl- cotransporter activity and expression in male and
      female mice.
AB  - We studied gender differences in Na+-Cl- cotransporter (NCC) activity and
      expression in wild-type (WT) and AT1a receptor knockout (KO) mice. In renal
      clearance experiments, urine volume (UV), glomerular filtration rate, absolute
      Na+ (ENa) and K+ (EK), and fractional Na+ (FENa) and K+ excretion were measured
      and compared at peak changes after bolus intravenous injection of
      hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ; 30 mg/kg). In WT, females responded more strongly than
      males to HCTZ, with larger fractional increases of UV (7.8- vs. 3.4-fold), ENa
      (11.7- vs. 5.7-fold), FENa (7.9- vs. 4.9-fold), and EK (2.8- vs. 1.4-fold). In
      contrast, there were no gender differences in the responses to the diuretic in KO
      mice; HCTZ produced greater effects on male KO than on WT but similar effects on
      females. In WT, total (tNCC) and phosphorylated (pNCC) NCC protein expressions
      were 1.8- and 4.6-fold higher in females compared with males (P < 0.05),
      consistent with the larger response to HCTZ. In KO mice, tNCC and pNCC increased
      significantly in males to levels not different from those in females. There were
      no gender differences in the expression of the Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE3) in WT;
      NHE3 protein decreased to similar extents in male and female KO animals,
      suggesting AT1a-mediated NHE3 expression in proximal tubules. The resulting
      increase in delivery of NaCl to the distal nephron may underlie increased NCC
      expression and activity in mice lacking the AT1a receptor.

PMID- 28566503
TI  - Heavy metal suicide.

PMID- 28566504
TI  - Apigenin ameliorates streptozotocin-induced diabetic nephropathy in rats via MAPK
      NF-kappaB-TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1-MAPK-fibronectin pathways.
AB  - Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a microvascular complication of diabetes, has emerged
      as an important health problem worldwide. There is strong evidence to suggest
      that oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis play a pivotal role in the
      progression of DN. Apigenin has been shown to possess antioxidant, anti
      inflammatory, antiapoptotic, antifibrotic, as well as antidiabetic properties.
      Hence, we evaluated whether apigenin halts the development and progression of DN
      in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Male albino Wistar rats were
      divided into control, diabetic control, and apigenin treatment groups (5-20 mg/kg
      po, respectively), apigenin per se (20 mg/kg po), and ramipril treatment group (2
      mg/kg po). A single injection of STZ (55 mg/kg ip) was administered to all of the
      groups except control and per se groups to induce type 1 diabetes mellitus. Rats
      with fasting blood glucose >250 mg/dl were included in the study and randomized
      to different groups. Thereafter, the protocol was continued for 8 mo in all of
      the groups. Apigenin (20 mg/kg) treatment attenuated renal dysfunction, oxidative
      stress, and fibrosis (decreased transforming growth factor-beta1, fibronectin,
      and type IV collagen) in the diabetic rats. It also significantly prevented MAPK
      activation, which inhibited inflammation (reduced TNF-alpha, IL-6, and NF-kappaB
      expression) and apoptosis (increased expression of Bcl-2 and decreased Bax and
      caspase-3). Furthermore, histopathological examination demonstrated reduced
      inflammation, collagen deposition, and glomerulosclerosis in the renal tissue. In
      addition, all of these changes were comparable with those produced by ramipril.
      Hence, apigenin ameliorated renal damage due to DN by suppressing oxidative
      stress and fibrosis and by inhibiting MAPK pathway.

PMID- 28566502
TI  - Inhibition of HDAC enhances STAT acetylation, blocks NF-kappaB, and suppresses
      the renal inflammation and fibrosis in Npr1 haplotype male mice.
AB  - Guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (GC-A/NPRA) plays a critical role
      in the regulation of blood pressure and fluid volume homeostasis. Mice lacking
      functional Npr1 (coding for GC-A/NPRA) exhibit hypertension and congestive heart
      failure. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely less clear. The
      objective of the present study was to determine the physiological efficacy and
      impact of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and sodium butyrate (NaBu) in
      ameliorating the renal fibrosis, inflammation, and hypertension in Npr1 gene
      disrupted haplotype (1-copy; +/-) mice (50% expression levels of NPRA). Both ATRA
      and NaBu, either alone or in combination, decreased the elevated levels of renal
      proinflammatory and profibrotic cytokines and lowered blood pressure in Npr1+/-
      mice compared with untreated controls. The treatment with ATRA-NaBu facilitated
      the dissociation of histone deacetylase (HDAC) 1 and 2 from signal transducer and
      activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and enhanced its acetylation in the kidneys
      of Npr1+/- mice. The acetylated STAT1 formed a complex with nuclear factor-kappaB
      (NF-kappaB) p65, thereby inhibiting its DNA-binding activity and downstream
      proinflammatory and profibrotic signaling cascades. The present results
      demonstrate that the treatment of the haplotype Npr1+/- mice with ATRA-NaBu
      significantly lowered blood pressure and reduced the renal inflammation and
      fibrosis involving the interactive roles of HDAC, NF-kappaB (p65), and STAT1. The
      current findings will help in developing the molecular therapeutic targets and
      new treatment strategies for hypertension and renal dysfunction in humans.

PMID- 28566506
TI  - The balanced and introspective brain.
AB  - Transfers of large-scale neural activity into, within and between corticothalamic
      neural populations and brain hemispheres are analysed using time-integrated
      transfer functions and state parameters obtained from neural field theory for a
      variety of arousal states. It is shown that the great majority of activity
      results from feedbacks within the corticothalamic system, including significant
      transfer between hemispheres, but only a small minority arises via net input from
      the external world, with the brain thus in a near-critical, highly introspective
      state. Notably, the total excitatory and inhibitory influences on cortical
      neurons are balanced to within a few per cent across arousal states. Strong
      negative intrahemispheric feedforward exists to the cortex, and even larger
      interhemispheric positive feedforward, but these are modified by feedback loops
      to yield near-critical positive overall gain. The results underline the utility
      of transfer functions for the analysis of brain activity.

PMID- 28566508
TI  - Curvature-induced stiffening of a fish fin.
AB  - How fish modulate their fin stiffness during locomotive manoeuvres remains
      unknown. We show that changing the fin's curvature modulates its stiffness.
      Modelling the fin as bendable bony rays held together by a membrane, we deduce
      that fin curvature is manifested as a misalignment of the principal bending axes
      between neighbouring rays. An external force causes neighbouring rays to bend and
      splay apart, and thus stretches the membrane. This coupling between bending the
      rays and stretching the membrane underlies the increase in stiffness. Using three
      dimensional reconstruction of a mackerel (Scomber japonicus) pectoral fin for
      illustration, we calculate the range of stiffnesses this fin is expected to span
      by changing curvature. The three-dimensional reconstruction shows that, even in
      its geometrically flat state, a functional curvature is embedded within the fin
      microstructure owing to the morphology of individual rays. As the ability of a
      propulsive surface to transmit force to the surrounding fluid is limited by its
      stiffness, the fin curvature controls the coupling between the fish and its
      surrounding fluid. Thereby, our results provide mechanical underpinnings and
      morphological predictions for the hypothesis that the spanned range of fin
      stiffnesses correlates with the behaviour and the ecological niche of the fish.

PMID- 28566507
TI  - Flagella bending affects macroscopic properties of bacterial suspensions.
AB  - To survive in harsh conditions, motile bacteria swim in complex environments and
      respond to the surrounding flow. Here, we develop a mathematical model describing
      how flagella bending affects macroscopic properties of bacterial suspensions.
      First, we show how the flagella bending contributes to the decrease in the
      effective viscosity observed in dilute suspension. Our results do not impose
      tumbling (random reorientation) as was previously done to explain the viscosity
      reduction. Second, we demonstrate how a bacterium escapes from wall entrapment
      due to the self-induced buckling of flagella. Our results shed light on the role
      of flexible bacterial flagella in interactions of bacteria with shear flow and
      walls or obstacles.

PMID- 28566509
TI  - Gene flow and metacommunity arrangement affects coevolutionary dynamics at the
      mutualism-antagonism interface.
AB  - Interspecific interactions are affected by community context and, as a
      consequence, show spatial variation in magnitude and sign. The selective forces
      imposed by interactions at the mutualism-antagonism interface are a consequence
      of the traits involved and their matching between species. If mutualistic and
      antagonistic communities are linked by gene flow, coevolution between a pair of
      interacting species is influenced by how selection varies in space. Here we
      investigate the effects of metacommunity arrangement, i.e. patterns of connection
      between communities and the number of communities, on the coevolutionary dynamics
      between two species for which the sign and magnitude of the interaction varies
      across the landscape. We quantify coevolutionary outcome as an index that can be
      decomposed into the contribution of intraspecific genetic diversity and
      interspecific interaction. We show that polymorphisms and mismatches are an
      expected outcome, which is influenced by spatial structure, interaction strength
      and the degree of gene flow. The index describes how variation is distributed
      within and between species, and provides information on the directionality of the
      mismatches and polymorphisms. Finally, we argue that depending on metacommunity
      arrangement, some communities have disproportionate roles in maintaining genetic
      diversity, with implications for the coevolution of interacting species in a
      fragmented landscape.

PMID- 28566511
TI  - Covert linear polarization signatures from brilliant white two-dimensional
      disordered wing structures of the phoenix damselfly.
AB  - The damselfly Pseudolestes mirabilis reflects brilliant white on the ventral side
      of its hindwings and a copper-gold colour on the dorsal side. Unlike many
      previous investigations of odonate wings, in which colour appearances arise
      either from multilayer interference or from wing-membrane pigmentation, the
      whiteness on the wings of P. mirabilis results from light scattered by a
      specialized arrangement of flattened waxy fibres and the copper-gold colour is
      produced by pigment-based filtering of this light scatter. The waxy fibres
      responsible for this optical signature effectively form a structure that is
      disordered in two dimensions and this also gives rise to distinct optical linear
      polarization. It is a structure that provides a mechanism enabling P. mirabilis
      to display its bright wing colours efficiently for territorial signalling, both
      passively while perched, in which the sunlit copper-gold upperside is presented
      against a highly contrasting background of foliage, and actively in territorial
      contests in which the white underside is also presented. It also offers a
      template for biomimetic high-intensity broadband reflectors that have a
      pronounced polarization signature.

PMID- 28566510
TI  - Gradual loading ameliorates maladaptation in computational simulations of vein
      graft growth and remodelling.
AB  - Vein graft failure is a prevalent problem in vascular surgeries, including bypass
      grafting and arteriovenous fistula procedures in which veins are subjected to
      severe changes in pressure and flow. Animal and clinical studies provide
      significant insight, but understanding the complex underlying coupled mechanisms
      can be advanced using computational models. Towards this end, we propose a new
      model of venous growth and remodelling (G&R) based on a constrained mixture
      theory. First, we identify constitutive relations and parameters that enable
      venous adaptations to moderate perturbations in haemodynamics. We then fix these
      relations and parameters, and subject the vein to a range of combined loads
      (pressure and flow), from moderate to severe, and identify plausible mechanisms
      of adaptation versus maladaptation. We also explore the beneficial effects of
      gradual increases in load on adaptation. A gradual change in flow over 3 days
      plus an initial step change in pressure results in fewer maladaptations compared
      with step changes in both flow and pressure, or even a gradual change in pressure
      and flow over 3 days. A gradual change in flow and pressure over 8 days also
      enabled a successful venous adaptation for loads as severe as the arterial loads.
      Optimization is used to accelerate parameter estimation and the proposed
      framework is general enough to provide a good starting point for parameter
      estimations in G&R simulations.

PMID- 28566512
TI  - Serpentine locomotion through elastic energy release.
AB  - A model for serpentine locomotion is derived from a novel perspective based on
      concepts from configurational mechanics. The motion is realized through the
      release of the elastic energy of a deformable rod, sliding inside a frictionless
      channel, which represents a snake moving against lateral restraints. A new
      formulation is presented, correcting previous results and including situations
      never analysed so far, as in the cases when the serpent's body lies only
      partially inside the restraining channel or when the body has a muscle relaxation
      localized in a small zone. Micromechanical considerations show that propulsion is
      the result of reactions tangential to the frictionless constraint and acting on
      the snake's body, a counter-intuitive feature in mechanics. It is also
      experimentally demonstrated that the propulsive force driving serpentine motion
      can be directly measured on a designed apparatus in which flexible bars sweep a
      frictionless channel. Experiments fully confirm the theoretical modelling, so
      that the presented results open the way to exploration of effects, such as
      variability in the bending stiffness or channel geometry or friction, on the
      propulsive force of snake models made up of elastic rods.

PMID- 28566513
TI  - Recursively constructing analytic expressions for equilibrium distributions of
      stochastic biochemical reaction networks.
AB  - Noise is often indispensable to key cellular activities, such as gene expression,
      necessitating the use of stochastic models to capture its dynamics. The chemical
      master equation (CME) is a commonly used stochastic model of Kolmogorov forward
      equations that describe how the probability distribution of a chemically reacting
      system varies with time. Finding analytic solutions to the CME can have benefits,
      such as expediting simulations of multiscale biochemical reaction networks and
      aiding the design of distributional responses. However, analytic solutions are
      rarely known. A recent method of computing analytic stationary solutions relies
      on gluing simple state spaces together recursively at one or two states. We
      explore the capabilities of this method and introduce algorithms to derive
      analytic stationary solutions to the CME. We first formally characterize state
      spaces that can be constructed by performing single-state gluing of paths, cycles
      or both sequentially. We then study stochastic biochemical reaction networks that
      consist of reversible, elementary reactions with two-dimensional state spaces. We
      also discuss extending the method to infinite state spaces and designing the
      stationary behaviour of stochastic biochemical reaction networks. Finally, we
      illustrate the aforementioned ideas using examples that include two
      interconnected transcriptional components and biochemical reactions with two
      dimensional state spaces.

PMID- 28566514
TI  - Modelling human skull growth: a validated computational model.
AB  - During the first year of life, the brain grows rapidly and the neurocranium
      increases to about 65% of its adult size. Our understanding of the relationship
      between the biomechanical forces, especially from the growing brain, the
      craniofacial soft tissue structures and the individual bone plates of the skull
      vault is still limited. This basic knowledge could help in the future planning of
      craniofacial surgical operations. The aim of this study was to develop a
      validated computational model of skull growth, based on the finite-element (FE)
      method, to help understand the biomechanics of skull growth. To do this, a two
      step validation study was carried out. First, an in vitro physical three
      dimensional printed model and an in silico FE model were created from the same
      micro-CT scan of an infant skull and loaded with forces from the growing brain
      from zero to two months of age. The results from the in vitro model validated the
      FE model before it was further developed to expand from 0 to 12 months of age.
      This second FE model was compared directly with in vivo clinical CT scans of
      infants without craniofacial conditions (n = 56). The various models were
      compared in terms of predicted skull width, length and circumference, while the
      overall shape was quantified using three-dimensional distance plots. Statistical
      analysis yielded no significant differences between the male skull models. All
      size measurements from the FE model versus the in vitro physical model were
      within 5%, with one exception showing a 7.6% difference. The FE model and in vivo
      data also correlated well, with the largest percentage difference in size being
      8.3%. Overall, the FE model results matched well with both the in vitro and in
      vivo data. With further development and model refinement, this modelling method
      could be used to assist in preoperative planning of craniofacial surgery
      procedures and could help to reduce reoperation rates.

PMID- 28566517
TI  - Heartbeat: Text messaging to improve health.

PMID- 28566516
TI  - The counterbend dynamics of cross-linked filament bundles and flagella.
AB  - Cross-linked filament bundles, such as in cilia and flagella, are ubiquitous in
      biology. They are considered in textbooks as simple filaments with larger
      stiffness. Recent observations of flagellar counterbend, however, show that
      induction of curvature in one section of a passive flagellum instigates a
      compensatory counter-curvature elsewhere, exposing the intricate role of the
      diminutive cross-linking proteins at large scales. We show that this effect, a
      material property of the cross-linking mechanics, modifies the bundle dynamics
      and induces a bimodal L2 - L3 length-dependent material response that departs
      from the Euler-Bernoulli theory. Hence, the use of simpler theories to analyse
      experiments can result in paradoxical interpretations. Remarkably, the
      counterbend dynamics instigates counter-waves in opposition to driven
      oscillations in distant parts of the bundle, with potential impact on the
      regulation of flagellar bending waves. These results have a range of physical and
      biological applications, including the empirical disentanglement of material
      quantities via counterbend dynamics.

PMID- 28566515
TI  - A microfluidics assay to study invasion of human placental trophoblast cells.
AB  - Pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth are major pregnancy
      disorders throughout the world. The underlying pathogenesis of these diseases is
      defective placentation characterized by inadequate invasion of extravillous
      placental trophoblast cells into the uterine arteries. How trophoblast invasion
      is controlled remains an unanswered question but is influenced by maternal
      uterine immune cells called decidual natural killer cells. Here, we describe an
      in vitro microfluidic invasion assay to study the migration of primary human
      trophoblast cells. Each experiment can be performed with a small number of cells
      making it possible to conduct research on human samples despite the challenges of
      isolating primary trophoblast cells. Cells are exposed to a chemical gradient and
      tracked in a three-dimensional microenvironment using real-time high-resolution
      imaging, so that dynamic readouts on cell migration such as directionality,
      motility and velocity are obtained. The microfluidic system was validated using
      isolated trophoblast and a gradient of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating
      factor, a cytokine produced by activated decidual natural killer cells. This
      microfluidic model provides detailed analysis of the dynamics of trophoblast
      migration compared to previous assays and can be modified in future to study in
      vitro how human trophoblast behaves during placentation.

PMID- 28566518
TI  - A case for palliative percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28566519
TI  - Re: A case for palliative percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28566521
TI  - Optical and chemical discoveries recognized for impact on biology and psychiatry.

PMID- 28566522
TI  - Understanding the brain in health and disease: An interview with Karl Deisseroth,
      Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry at Stanford University.

PMID- 28566520
TI  - Mitochondrial permeability transition involves dissociation of F1FO ATP synthase
      dimers and C-ring conformation.
AB  - The impact of the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) on cellular
      physiology is well characterized. In contrast, the composition and mode of action
      of the permeability transition pore complex (PTPC), the supramolecular entity
      that initiates MPT, remain to be elucidated. Specifically, the precise
      contribution of the mitochondrial F1FO ATP synthase (or subunits thereof) to MPT
      is a matter of debate. We demonstrate that F1FO ATP synthase dimers dissociate as
      the PTPC opens upon MPT induction. Stabilizing F1FO ATP synthase dimers by
      genetic approaches inhibits PTPC opening and MPT Specific mutations in the F1FO
      ATP synthase c subunit that alter C-ring conformation sensitize cells to MPT
      induction, which can be reverted by stabilizing F1FO ATP synthase dimers.
      Destabilizing F1FO ATP synthase dimers fails to trigger PTPC opening in the
      presence of mutants of the c subunit that inhibit MPT The current study does not
      provide direct evidence that the C-ring is the long-sought pore-forming subunit
      of the PTPC, but reveals that PTPC opening requires the dissociation of F1FO ATP
      synthase dimers and involves the C-ring.

PMID- 28566523
TI  - Gastric and Postgastric Processing of 13C Markers Renders the 13C Breath Test an
      Inappropriate Measurement Method for the Gastric Emptying of Lipid Emulsions in
      Healthy Adults.
AB  - Background: Breath tests (BTs) present an alternative gastric-emptying (GE)
      measure. However, their efficacy in the measurement of the GE rate of lipid
      emulsions (LEs) is unknown.Objective: The objective of this work was to
      investigate the validity of 13C BTs as a measure of fat GE rate in LEs.Methods:
      The lipophilic 13C octanoate (OCC) BT marker was investigated for fat GE with the
      hydrophilic 13C sodium acetate (ACC) and the triglyceride 13C trioctanoin (TCC)
      markers as comparators. Data from 2 randomized studies were combined [50 healthy
      participants; 25 men, mean +/- SD age: 23 +/- 2.8 y; mean +/- SD body mass index
      (in kg/m2): 22.4 +/- 1.7]. Each participant was given either an acid-stable LE
      (LE1) or an acid-unstable LE (LE4) at each visit. Twenty-three participants
      underwent simultaneous MRI. The effect of LEs on 13CO2 excretion profiles was
      determined. The BT half-emptying times (BT T50) were validated with the MRI half
      emptying time of the ingested fat volume (MRI T50).Results: The effect of LEs on
      13CO2 excretion depended on the properties of the 13C marker. T50 for OCC was
      shorter by 98 min for LE1 than for LE4 (P < 0.001). Other markers showed either
      no LE dependency or a longer T50 for LE1 than for LE4. No difference in T50
      between OCC and ACC was detected in LE1. In LE4, the T50 was longer by 154 min (P
      < 0.0001). There was some concordance between MRI T50 and OCC BT T50 for LE1 (rc
      = 0.7). No other marker showed any concordance with fat GE. 13C-Nuclear magnetic
      resonance in vitro findings were compatible with changes in the kinetics of phase
      transfer of OCC dependent on its protonation state.Conclusions: The structure of
      fat present in the stomach affects 13CO2 excretion. The chemical properties of
      the 13C marker and their gastric and postgastric interaction with fat renders
      13CO2 excretion an inappropriate measure of LE emptying in healthy adults. This
      trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02226029 and NCT02602158.

PMID- 28566524
TI  - A Mediterranean Diet Reduces F2-Isoprostanes and Triglycerides among Older
      Australian Men and Women after 6 Months.
AB  - Background: Health benefits of a Mediterranean dietary pattern have been shown.
      However, there are few data on the effects of increased adherence to a
      Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) in non-Mediterranean countries.Objective: We aimed
      to determine whether adherence to a MedDiet would result in changes in plasma
      lipids, glucose and insulin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and F2
      isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs) in an Australian population.Methods: The study was a 6-mo
      parallel, randomized, controlled dietary intervention trial. We recruited 166
      participants aged >=65 y. Participants were stratified on body mass index, sex,
      and age and assigned to receive either a MedDiet or a habitual diet (HabDiet).
      The primary outcome was cognitive function, reported elsewhere. As secondary
      outcomes, assessment of fasting total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol; triglycerides
      (TGs); glucose; insulin; hs-CRP; and F2-IsoPs was completed at baseline and at 3
      and 6 mo. The MedDiet group followed a prescribed diet containing 15-45 mL extra
      virgin olive oil/d, abundant vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, and whole grains,
      as well as moderate fish, poultry, and dairy foods. Dietary intake was measured
      by 3-d weighed food records at baseline and at 2 and 4 mo. Results were analyzed
      by using linear mixed-effects models.Results: Compared with the HabDiet, the
      MedDiet resulted in lower TGs at 3 mo (mean difference: -0.15 mmol/L; 95% CI: 
      0.23, -0.07 mmol/L; P < 0.001) and 6 mo (mean difference: -0.09 mmol/L; 95% CI: 
      0.18, -0.01 mmol/L; P = 0.03) and lower F2-IsoPs at 3 mo (mean difference: -103.5
      pmol/L; 95% CI: -154.2, -52.7 pmol/L; P < 0.001) and 6 mo (-65.4 pmol/L; 95% CI: 
      117.1, -13.7 pmol/L; P < 0.001). Lipoprotein, glucose and insulin, and hs-CRP
      concentrations were not significantly different between groups.Conclusion: A high
      adherence to a MedDiet for 6 mo resulted in a significant reduction in TGs and F2
      IsoPs among older Australians. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as
      ACTRN12613000602729.

PMID- 28566526
TI  - Modeling Optimal Cutoffs for the Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement
      Scale in a Nationwide Representative Sample.
AB  - Background: This is the second part of a model-based approach to examine the
      suitability of the current cutoffs applied to the raw score of the Brazilian
      Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale [Escala Brasileira de Inseguranca
      Alimentar (EBIA)]. The approach allows identification of homogeneous groups who
      correspond to severity levels of food insecurity (FI) and, by extension,
      discriminant cutoffs able to accurately distinguish these groups.Objective: This
      study aims to examine whether the model-based approach for identifying optimal
      cutoffs first implemented in a local sample is replicated in a countrywide
      representative sample.Methods: Data were derived from the Brazilian National
      Household Sample Survey of 2013 (n = 116,543 households). Latent class factor
      analysis (LCFA) models from 2 to 5 classes were applied to the scale's items to
      identify the number of underlying FI latent classes. Next, identification of
      optimal cutoffs on the overall raw score was ascertained from these identified
      classes. Analyses were conducted in the aggregate data and by macroregions.
      Finally, model-based classifications (latent classes and groupings identified
      thereafter) were contrasted to the traditionally used classification.Results:
      LCFA identified 4 homogeneous groups with a very high degree of class separation
      (entropy = 0.934-0.975). The following cutoffs were identified in the aggregate
      data: between 1 and 2 (1/2), 5 and 6 (5/6), and 10 and 11 (10/11) in households
      with children and/or adolescents <18 y of age (score range: 0-14), and 1/2,
      between 4 and 5 (4/5), and between 6 and 7 (6/7) in adult-only households (range:
      0-8). With minor variations, the same cutoffs were also identified in the
      macroregions. Although our findings confirm, in general, the classification
      currently used, the limit of 1/2 (compared with 0/1) for separating the milder
      from the baseline category emerged consistently in all analyses.Conclusions:
      Nationwide findings corroborate previous local evidence that households with an
      overall score of 1 are more akin to those scoring negative on all items. These
      results may contribute to guide experts' and policymakers' decisions on the most
      appropriate EBIA cutoffs.

PMID- 28566525
TI  - Supplementation with RRR- or all-rac-alpha-Tocopherol Differentially Affects the
      alpha-Tocopherol Stereoisomer Profile in the Milk and Plasma of Lactating Women.
AB  - Background: The naturally occurring alpha-tocopherol stereoisomer RRR-alpha
      tocopherol is known to be more bioactive than synthetic alpha-tocopherol (all-rac
      alpha-tocopherol). However, the influence of this difference on the alpha
      tocopherol stereoisomer profile of human milk is not understood.Objective: We
      investigated whether supplemental RRR-alpha-tocopherol or all-rac-alpha
      tocopherol differentially affected the distribution of alpha-tocopherol
      stereoisomers in milk and plasma from lactating women.Methods: Eighty-nine
      lactating women aged 19-40 y and with a body mass index (in kg/m2) <=30 were
      randomly assigned at 4-6 wk postpartum to receive a daily supplement containing
      45.5 mg all-rac-alpha-tocopherol acetate (ARAC), 22.8 mg all-rac-alpha-tocopherol
      acetate + 20.1 mg RRR-alpha-tocopherol (MIX), or 40.2 mg RRR-alpha-tocopherol
      (RRR). Milk and plasma were analyzed for alpha-tocopherol structural isomers and
      alpha-tocopherol stereoisomers at baseline and after 6 wk supplementation with
      the use of chiral HPLC.Results: There were no significant treatment group or time
      dependent changes in milk or plasma alpha, gamma, or delta-tocopherol. RRR-alpha
      tocopherol was the most abundant stereoisomer in both milk and plasma in each
      group. Supplementation changed both milk and plasma percentage RRR-alpha
      tocopherol (RRR > MIX > ARAC) (P < 0.05) and percentage non-RRR-alpha-tocopherol
      (ARAC > MIX > RRR) (P < 0.05). In the RRR group, percentage RRR-alpha-tocopherol
      increased in milk (mean +/- SEM: 78% +/- 2.3% compared with 82% +/- 1.7%) (P <
      0.05) and plasma (mean +/- SEM: 77% +/- 1.8% compared with 87% +/- 1%) (P <
      0.05). In contrast, the percentage RRR-alpha-tocopherol decreased in the MIX and
      ARAC groups (MIX, P < 0.05; ARAC, P < 0.0001), and percentage non-RRR-alpha
      tocopherol stereoisomers increased (MIX, P < 0.05; ARAC, P < 0.0001) commensurate
      with an accumulation of 2S-alpha-tocopherol stereoisomers (P < 0.05) in both milk
      and plasma. Milk and plasma RRR-alpha-tocopherol was positively correlated at
      baseline (r = 0.67; P < 0.0001) and 6 wk (r = 0.80; P < 0.0001).Conclusion: The
      alpha-tocopherol supplementation strategy differentially affected the alpha
      tocopherol milk and plasma stereoisomer profile in lactating women. RRR-alpha
      tocopherol increased milk and plasma percentage RRR-alpha-tocopherol, whereas all
      rac-alpha-tocopherol acetate reduced these percentages. Because RRR-alpha
      tocopherol is the most bioactive stereoisomer, investigating the impact of
      supplement-driven changes in the milk alpha-tocopherol stereoisomer profile on
      the alpha-tocopherol status of breastfed infants is warranted.

PMID- 28566527
TI  - Interactions between 5-Lipoxygenase Polymorphisms and Adipose Tissue Contents of
      Arachidonic and Eicosapentaenoic Acids Do Not Affect Risk of Myocardial
      Infarction in Middle-Aged Men and Women in a Danish Case-Cohort Study.
AB  - Background: The 5-lipoxygenase pathway has been linked to atherothrombotic
      disease, and a functional tandem repeat polymorphism in the arachidonate
      lipoxygenase-5 (ALOX-5) gene has been associated with the risk of myocardial
      infarction (MI). Interestingly, 2 studies have reported an interaction between
      dietary intakes of the ALOX-5 substrates, arachidonic acid (AA) and
      eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and genotype.Objective: We investigated whether the
      interactions between the ALOX-5 tandem repeat polymorphism (rs59439148) and
      adipose tissue AA and EPA were associated with incident MI.Methods: In the Danish
      Diet, Cancer and Health study, we conducted a case-cohort study including 3089
      participants with incident MI identified from national registries and a randomly
      selected subcohort of 3000 participants. Participants were men and women with a
      median age of 56 y at baseline and no previous history of cancer. Adipose tissue
      and blood samples were collected at baseline along with comprehensive
      questionnaires on lifestyle and demographic data. The ALOX-5 tandem repeat
      polymorphism was genotyped by multititer plate sequencing. Associations were
      analyzed by using Cox proportional hazards models.Results: We observed a higher
      risk of MI for homozygous carriers of the variant alleles in the fifth quintile
      of AA content than for the reference group with the lowest quintile of AA and
      carrying the wild-type allele (HR: 3.02; 95% CI: 1.41, 6.44). In contrast,
      homozygotes for the variant alleles tended to have a higher risk of MI when
      comparing the lowest quintile of EPA content with the reference group with the
      highest quintile of EPA and carrying the wild-type allele (HR: 2.15; 95% CI:
      0.91, 5.09; P = 0.08). Although our results suggested interactions between the
      polymorphism and adipose tissue AA and EPA, a quantitative evaluation of
      interaction by calculating the relative excess risk due to interactions was not
      significant.Conclusions: Adipose tissue EPA and AA and the ALOX-5 tandem repeat
      polymorphism did not significantly interact to affect the risk of MI. However,
      the results should be replicated in larger, heterogeneous populations.

PMID- 28566528
TI  - Vegetables and Mixed Dishes Are Top Contributors to Phylloquinone Intake in US
      Adults: Data from the 2011-2012 NHANES.
AB  - Background: Phylloquinone is the most abundant form of vitamin K in US diets.
      Green vegetables are considered the predominant dietary source of phylloquinone.
      As our food supply diversifies and expands, the food groups that contribute to
      phylloquinone intake are also changing, which may change absolute intakes. Thus,
      it is important to identify the contributors to dietary vitamin K estimates to
      guide recommendations on intakes and food sources.Objective: The purpose of this
      study was to estimate 1) the amount of phylloquinone consumed in the diet of US
      adults, 2) to estimate the contribution of different food groups to phylloquinone
      intake in individuals with a high or low vegetable intake (>=2 or <2 cups
      vegetables/d), and 3) to characterize the contribution of different mixed dishes
      to phylloquinone intake.Methods: Usual phylloquinone intake was determined from
      NHANES 2011-2012 (>=20 y old; 2092 men and 2214 women) and the National Cancer
      Institute Method by utilizing a complex, stratified, multistage probability
      cluster sampling design.Results: On average, 43.0% of men and 62.5% of women met
      the adequate intake (120 and 90 MUg/d, respectively) for phylloquinone, with the
      lowest self-reported intakes noted among men, especially in the older age groups
      (51-70 and >=71 y). Vegetables were the highest contributor to phylloquinone
      intake, contributing 60.0% in the high-vegetable-intake group and 36.1% in the
      low-vegetable-intake group. Mixed dishes were the second-highest contributor to
      phylloquinone intake, contributing 16.0% in the high-vegetable-intake group and
      28.0% in the low-vegetable-intake group.Conclusion: Self-reported phylloquinone
      intakes from updated food composition data applied to NHANES 2011-2012 reveal
      that fewer men than women are meeting the current adequate intake. Application of
      current food composition data confirms that vegetables continue to be the primary
      dietary source of phylloquinone in the US diet. However, mixed dishes and
      convenience foods have emerged as previously unrecognized but important
      contributors to phylloquinone intake in the United States, which challenges the
      assumption that phylloquinone intake is a marker of a healthy diet. These
      findings emphasize the need for the expansion of food composition databases that
      consider how mixed dishes are compiled and defined.

PMID- 28566529
TI  - Unconditional Seasonal Cash Transfer Increases Intake of High-Nutritional-Value
      Foods in Young Burkinabe Children: Results of 24-Hour Dietary Recall Surveys
      within the Moderate Acute Malnutrition Out (MAM'Out) Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Background: Cash transfer programs have the potential to improve dietary intake
      by improving accessibility to food. However, quantitative data on the impact of
      cash transfer programs on children's energy and nutrient intakes are
      lacking.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of seasonal
      unconditional cash transfers on children's energy, micro- and macronutrient, and
      food group intakes during the lean season in Burkina Faso.Methods: Within the
      framework of the MAM'Out (Moderate Acute Malnutrition Out) cluster-randomized
      controlled trial, two 24-h dietary recall surveys were conducted in July and
      August 2014. Daily energy and macro- and micronutrient intakes, breastfeeding
      practices, and food group consumption were analyzed for 322 children aged 14-27
      mo from an intervention group (benefiting from unconditional cash transfer during
      the lean season in 2013 and 2014) and a control group by using mixed linear,
      logistic, and Poisson regression models or a gamma-generalized linear model with
      log-link. A dietary diversity score was calculated on the basis of 7 food
      groups.Results: Unconditional cash transfers during the lean season improved the
      diets of rural children through a higher consumption of eggs (11.3 +/- 1.55
      compared with 3.25 +/- 0.79 g; P < 0.001), fat (20.6 +/- 0.80 compared with 16.5
      +/- 0.89 g; P < 0.01), and vitamin B-12 (0.40 +/- 0.02 compared with 0.34 +/-
      0.02 mg; P < 0.001) compared with controls and higher proportions of children
      consuming dairy products (OR: 4.14; 95% CI: 1.48, 11.6; P < 0.05), flesh foods
      (OR: 2.09; 95% CI: 1.18, 3.70; P < 0.05), and iron-rich or iron-fortified foods
      (OR: 2.23; 95% CI: 1.20, 4.13; P < 0.05). No difference was found in energy
      intake between the 2 groups. The minimum dietary diversity of two-thirds of the
      children who benefited from cash transfers was adequate compared with only one
      third in the control group (P < 0.001).Conclusions: Unconditional seasonal cash
      transfer increases intakes of high-nutritional-value foods in Burkinabe children
      aged 14-27 mo. As such, their use can be recommended in actions addressing
      children's dietary intake during the lean season. This trial was registered at
      clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01866124.

PMID- 28566531
TI  - SDHB mutation carriers with malignant pheochromocytoma respond better to CVD.

PMID- 28566532
TI  - Risk and protective factors for the occurrence of sporadic pancreatic endocrine
      neoplasms.
AB  - Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PNENs) represent 10% of all pancreatic
      tumors by prevalence. Their incidence has reportedly increased over recent
      decades in parallel with that of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. PNENs are relatively
      rare, and of the few institutions that have published potential risk factors,
      findings have been heterogeneous. Our objective was to investigate the
      association between potential risk and protective factors for the occurrence of
      sporadic PNENs across a European population from several institutions. A
      multinational European case-control study was conducted to examine the
      association of selected environmental, family and medical exposure factors using
      a standardized questionnaire in face-to-face interviews. A ratio of 1:3 cases to
      controls were sex and age matched at each study site. Adjusted univariate and
      multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed for statistically
      significant factors. The following results were obtained: In 201 cases and 603
      controls, non-recent onset diabetes (OR 2.09, CI 1.27-3.46) was associated with
      an increased occurrence of PNENs. The prevalence of non-recent onset diabetes was
      higher both in cases with metastatic disease (TNM stage III-IV) or advanced grade
      (G3) at the time of diagnosis. The use of metformin in combination with insulin
      was also associated with a more aggressive phenotype. Drinking coffee was more
      frequent in cases with localized disease at diagnosis. Our study concluded that
      non-recent onset diabetes was associated with an increased occurrence of PNENs
      and the combination of metformin and insulin was consistent with a more
      aggressive PNEN phenotype. In contrast to previous studies, smoking, alcohol and
      first-degree family history of cancer were not associated with PNEN occurrence.

PMID- 28566530
TI  - Rationale for the development of alternative forms of androgen deprivation
      therapy.
AB  - With few exceptions, the almost 30,000 prostate cancer deaths annually in the
      United States are due to failure of androgen deprivation therapy. Androgen
      deprivation therapy prevents ligand-activation of the androgen receptor. Despite
      initial remission after androgen deprivation therapy, prostate cancer almost
      invariably progresses while continuing to rely on androgen receptor action.
      Androgen receptor's transcriptional output, which ultimately controls prostate
      cancer behavior, is an alternative therapeutic target, but its molecular
      regulation is poorly understood. Recent insights in the molecular mechanisms by
      which the androgen receptor controls transcription of its target genes are
      uncovering gene specificity as well as context-dependency. Heterogeneity in the
      androgen receptor's transcriptional output is reflected both in its recruitment
      to diverse cognate DNA binding motifs and in its preferential interaction with
      associated pioneering factors, other secondary transcription factors and
      coregulators at those sites. This variability suggests that multiple, distinct
      modes of androgen receptor action that regulate diverse aspects of prostate
      cancer biology and contribute differentially to prostate cancer's clinical
      progression are active simultaneously in prostate cancer cells. Recent progress
      in the development of peptidomimetics and small molecules, and application of
      Chem-Seq approaches indicate the feasibility for selective disruption of critical
      protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions in transcriptional complexes. Here,
      we review the recent literature on the different molecular mechanisms by which
      the androgen receptor transcriptionally controls prostate cancer progression, and
      we explore the potential to translate these insights into novel, more selective
      forms of therapies that may bypass prostate cancer's resistance to conventional
      androgen deprivation therapy.

PMID- 28566534
TI  - Enhanced self-efficacy after a self-management programme in pituitary disease: a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - CONTEXT: Patients with pituitary disease report impairments in Quality of Life
      (QoL) despite optimal biomedical care. Until now, the effects of a self
      management intervention (SMI) addressing psychological and social issues for
      these patients and their partners have not been studied. OBJECTIVE: To examine
      the effects of a SMI i.e. Patient and Partner Education Programme for Pituitary
      disease (PPEP-Pituitary). DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: A multicentre randomized
      controlled trial included 174 patients with pituitary disease, and 63 partners
      were allocated to either PPEP-Pituitary or a control group. PPEP-Pituitary
      included eight weekly sessions (90 min). Self-efficacy, bother and needs for
      support, illness perceptions, coping and QoL were assessed before the
      intervention (T0), directly after (T1) and after six months (T2). Mood was
      assessed before and after each session. RESULTS: Patients in PPEP-Pituitary
      reported improved mood after each session (except for session 1). In partners,
      mood only improved after the last three sessions. Patients reported higher self
      efficacy at T1 (P = 0.016) which persisted up to T2 (P = 0.033), and less bother
      by mood problems directly after PPEP-Pituitary (P = 0.01), but more bother after
      six months (P = 0.001), although this increase was not different from baseline (P
      = 0.346). Partners in PPEP-Pituitary reported more vitality (P = 0.008) which
      persisted up to T2 (P = 0.034). At T2, partners also reported less anxiety and
      depressive symptoms (P <= 0.014). CONCLUSION: This first study evaluating the
      effects of a SMI targeting psychosocial issues in patients with pituitary disease
      and their partners demonstrated promising positive results. Future research
      should focus on the refinement and implementation of this SMI into clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28566533
TI  - Brown adipose tissue is associated with systemic concentrations of peptides
      secreted from the gastrointestinal system and involved in appetite regulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been proposed as a potential
      therapeutic target against obesity and its related metabolic conditions. Data
      from studies in rodents support a cross talk between BAT and other distal
      tissues. The relation between BAT and peptide hormones secreted from the
      gastrointestinal system (GI) and involved in appetite regulation is not known in
      humans. DESIGN: We studied 18 men during thermoneutral conditions and mild non
      shivering cold exposure (CE). METHODS: 2-Deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-d-glucose positron
      emission tomography-computed tomography scans were conducted after mild cold to
      measure BAT volume. Fasting serum concentration of GI-secreted peptides and
      peptides involved in appetite regulation were measured during thermoneutral
      conditions and mild CE. RESULTS: During thermoneutral conditions, BAT volume was
      associated with lower serum concentration of leptin (P = 0.006), gastric
      inhibitory polypeptide (P = 0.016) and glucagon (P = 0.048) after adjusting for
      age and body fat percent. CE significantly decreased serum leptin (P = 0.004) and
      glucagon concentration (P = 0.020), while cold-induced BAT activation was
      significantly associated with lower serum ghrelin concentration (P = 0.029).
      CONCLUSIONS: BAT is associated with systemic concentrations of GI-secreted
      peptides and peptides involved in appetite regulation, suggesting a potential
      cross talk between BAT and the enteropancreatic axis. Further studies are needed
      to elucidate the potential link of BAT with the postprandial levels of appetite
      regulating peptides and the putative role of BAT in appetite regulation in
      humans.

PMID- 28566535
TI  - Right time, right place: the temporal regulation of developmental gene
      expression.
AB  - Many studies have focused on defining the critical transcription factors that
      specify tissue morphogenesis and differentiation. Our understanding of how these
      spatial regulators are deployed in the proper temporal order, however, has
      remained less clear. In this issue of Genes & Development, Uyehara and colleagues
      (pp. 862-875) provide new insights into the mechanisms by which temporal and
      spatial regulators are coordinated to control Drosophila wing development during
      metamorphosis.

PMID- 28566537
TI  - Corrigendum: Mutations in genes encoding condensins cause microcephaly through
      decatenation failure at mitosis.

PMID- 28566538
TI  - The Plasma Membrane Calcium ATPases and Their Role as Major New Players in Human
      Disease.
AB  - The Ca2+ extrusion function of the four mammalian isoforms of the plasma membrane
      calcium ATPases (PMCAs) is well established. There is also ever-increasing detail
      known of their roles in global and local Ca2+ homeostasis and intracellular Ca2+
      signaling in a wide variety of cell types and tissues. It is becoming clear that
      the spatiotemporal patterns of expression of the PMCAs and the fact that their
      abundances and relative expression levels vary from cell type to cell type both
      reflect and impact on their specific functions in these cells. Over recent years
      it has become increasingly apparent that these genes have potentially significant
      roles in human health and disease, with PMCAs1-4 being associated with
      cardiovascular diseases, deafness, autism, ataxia, adenoma, and malarial
      resistance. This review will bring together evidence of the variety of tissue
      specific functions of PMCAs and will highlight the roles these genes play in
      regulating normal physiological functions and the considerable impact the genes
      have on human disease.

PMID- 28566536
TI  - How does Zika virus cause microcephaly?
AB  - The re-emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted
      flavivirus circulating in >70 countries and territories, poses a significant
      global threat to public health due to its ability to cause severe developmental
      defects in the human brain, such as microcephaly. Since the World Health
      Organization declared the ZIKV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of
      International Concern, remarkable progress has been made to gain insight into
      cellular targets, pathogenesis, and underlying biological mechanisms of ZIKV
      infection. Here we review the current knowledge and progress in understanding the
      impact of ZIKV exposure on the mammalian brain development and discuss potential
      underlying mechanisms.

PMID- 28566540
TI  - The exon junction complex senses energetic stress and regulates contractility and
      cell architecture in cardiac myocytes.
AB  - The exon junction complex (EJC) is the main mechanism by which cells select
      specific mRNAs for translation into protein. We hypothesized that the EJC is
      involved in the regulation of gene expression during the stress response in
      cardiac myocytes, with implications for the failing heart. In cultured rat
      neonatal myocytes, we examined the cellular distribution of two EJC components
      eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A isoform 3 (eIF4A3) and mago nashi
      homologue (Mago) in response to metabolic stress. There was significant
      relocalization of eIF4A3 and Mago from the nucleus to cytoplasm following 18 h of
      hypoxia. Treating myocytes with 50 mM NaN3 for 4 h to mimic the metabolic stress
      induced by hypoxia also resulted in significant relocalization of eIF4A3 and Mago
      to the cytoplasm. To examine whether the effects of metabolic stress on the EJC
      proteins were dependent on the metabolic sensor AMP kinase (AMPK), we treated
      myocytes with 1 MUM dorsomorphin (DM) in combination with NaN3 DM augmented the
      translocation of Mago and eIF4A3 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Knockdown of
      eIF4A3 resulted in cessation of cell contractility 96 h post-treatment and a
      significant reduction in the number of intact sarcomeres. Cell area was
      significantly reduced by both hypoxia and eIF4A3 knockdown, whilst eIF4A3
      knockdown also significantly reduced nuclear size. The reduction in nuclear size
      is unlikely to be related to apoptosis as it was reversed in combination with
      hypoxia. These data suggest for the first time that eIF4A3 and potentially other
      EJC members play an important role in the myocyte stress response, cell
      contractility and morphology.

PMID- 28566541
TI  - Establishment and maintenance of aphid endosymbionts after horizontal transfer is
      dependent on host genotype.
AB  - Animal-associated microbial communities have important effects on host
      phenotypes. Individuals within and among species differ in the strains and
      species of microbes that they harbour, but how natural selection shapes the
      distribution and abundance of symbionts in natural populations is not well
      understood. Symbionts can be beneficial in certain environments but also impose
      costs on their hosts. Consequently, individuals that can or cannot associate with
      symbionts will be favoured under different ecological circumstances. As a result,
      we predict that individuals within a species vary in terms of how well they
      accept and maintain symbionts. In pea aphids, the frequency of endosymbionts
      varies among host-plant-associated populations ('biotypes'). We show that aphid
      genotypes from different biotypes vary in how well they accept and maintain
      symbionts after horizontal transfer. We find that aphids from biotypes that
      frequently harbour symbionts are better able to associate with novel symbionts
      than those from biotypes that less frequently harbour symbionts. Intraspecific
      variation in the ability of hosts to interact with symbionts is an understudied
      factor explaining patterns of host-symbiont association.

PMID- 28566542
TI  - Wolbachia-induced meiotic drive and feminization is associated with an
      independent occurrence of selective mitochondrial sweep in a butterfly.
AB  - Maternally inherited Wolbachia endosymbionts manipulate arthropod reproduction in
      various ways. In the butterfly Eurema mandarina, a cytoplasmic incompatibility
      inducing Wolbachia strain wCI and the associated mtDNA haplotypes are known to
      originate from the sister species Eurema hecabe, which offered a good case study
      for microbe-mediated hybrid introgression. Besides wCI, some females with the Z0
      karyotype harbour a distinct Wolbachia strain wFem, which causes all-female
      production by meiotic drive and feminization. We report that a considerable
      proportion of E. mandarina females (65.7%) were infected with both wCI and wFem
      (CF) on Tanegashima Island. While females singly infected with wCI (C) produced
      offspring at a 1 : 1 sex ratio, CF females produced only females. Although Z
      linked sequence polymorphism showed no signs of divergence between C and CF
      females, mtDNA split into two discrete clades; one consisted of C females and the
      other CF females, both of which formed a clade with E. hecabe but not with
      uninfected E. mandarina This suggests that CF matrilines also, but independently,
      experienced a selective sweep after hybrid introgression from E. hecabe Distinct
      evolutionary forces were suggested to have caused C and CF matrilines to diverge,
      which would be irreversible because of the particular phenotype of wFem.

PMID- 28566543
TI  - Climate and sex ratio variation in a viviparous lizard.
AB  - The extent to which key biological processes, such as sex determination, respond
      to environmental fluctuations is fundamental for assessing species'
      susceptibility to ongoing climate change. Few studies, however, address how
      climate affects offspring sex in the wild. We monitored two climatically distinct
      populations of the viviparous skink Niveoscincus ocellatus for 16 years,
      recording environmental temperatures, offspring sex and date of birth. We found
      strong population-specific effects of temperature on offspring sex, with female
      offspring more common in warm years at the lowland site but no effect at the
      highland site. In contrast, date of birth advanced similarly in response to
      temperature at both sites. These results suggest strong population-specific
      effects of temperature on offspring sex that are independent of climatic effects
      on other physiological processes. These results have significant implications for
      our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary consequences of variation in
      sex ratios under climate change.

PMID- 28566544
TI  - Polyneuropathy relates to impairment in daily activities, worse gait, and fall
      related injuries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To extensively investigate the association of chronic polyneuropathy
      with basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADL and IADL), falls,
      and gait. METHODS: A total of 1,445 participants of the population-based
      Rotterdam Study (mean age 71 years, 54% women) underwent a polyneuropathy
      screening involving a symptom questionnaire, neurologic examination, and nerve
      conduction studies. Screening yielded 4 groups: no, possible, probable, and
      definite polyneuropathy. Participants were interviewed about BADL (Stanford
      Health Assessment questionnaire), IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
      scale), and frequency of falling in the previous year. In a random subset of 977
      participants, gait was assessed with an electronic walkway. Associations of
      polyneuropathy with BADL and IADL were analyzed continuously with linear
      regression and dichotomously with logistic regression. History of falling was
      evaluated with logistic regression, and gait changes were evaluated with linear
      regression. RESULTS: Participants with definite polyneuropathy had more
      difficulty in performing BADL and IADL than participants without polyneuropathy.
      Polyneuropathy related to worse scores of all BADL components (especially
      walking) and 3 IADL components (housekeeping, traveling, and shopping).
      Participants with definite polyneuropathy were more likely to fall, and these
      falls more often resulted in injury. Participants with polyneuropathy had worse
      gait parameters on the walkway, including lower walking speed and cadence, and
      more errors in tandem walking. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic polyneuropathy strongly
      associates with impairment in the ability to perform daily activities and relates
      to worse gait and an increased history of falling.

PMID- 28566545
TI  - Long-term unmet needs and associated factors in stroke or TIA survivors: An
      observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To extensively investigate long-term unmet needs in survivors of
      stroke or TIA and to identify factors associated with these unmet needs. METHODS:
      Community-dwelling adults were invited to participate in a survey >=2 years after
      discharge for stroke/TIA. Unmet needs were assessed across 5 domains: activities
      and participation, environmental factors, body functions, post-acute care, and
      secondary prevention. Factors associated with unmet needs were determined with
      multivariable negative binomial regression. RESULTS: Of 485 participants invited
      to complete the survey, 391 (81%) responded (median age 73 years, 67% male). Most
      responders (87%) reported unmet needs in >=1 of the measured domains,
      particularly in secondary prevention (71%). Factors associated with fewer unmet
      needs included older age (incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.62, 95% confidence interval
      [CI] 0.50-0.77), greater functional ability (IRR 0.33, 95% CI 0.17-0.67), and
      reporting that the general practitioner was the most important in care (IRR 0.69,
      95% CI 0.57-0.84). Being depressed (IRR 1.61, 95% CI 1.23-2.10) and receiving
      community services after stroke (IRR 1.45, 95% CI 1.16-1.82) were associated with
      more unmet needs. CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of stroke/TIA reported considerable
      unmet needs >=2 years after discharge, particularly in secondary prevention. The
      factors associated with unmet needs could help guide policy decisions,
      particularly for tailoring care and support services provided after discharge.

PMID- 28566546
TI  - Familial aggregation of focal seizure semiology in the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome
      Project.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To improve phenotype definition in genetic studies of epilepsy, we
      assessed the familial aggregation of focal seizure types and of specific seizure
      symptoms within the focal epilepsies in families from the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome
      Project. METHODS: We studied 302 individuals with nonacquired focal epilepsy from
      149 families. Familial aggregation was assessed by logistic regression analysis
      of relatives' traits (dependent variable) by probands' traits (independent
      variable), estimating the odds ratio for each symptom in a relative given
      presence vs absence of the symptom in the proband. RESULTS: In families
      containing multiple individuals with nonacquired focal epilepsy, we found
      significant evidence for familial aggregation of ictal motor, autonomic, psychic,
      and aphasic symptoms. Within these categories, ictal whole body posturing,
      diaphoresis, dyspnea, fear/anxiety, and deja vu/jamais vu showed significant
      familial aggregation. Focal seizure type aggregated as well, including complex
      partial, simple partial, and secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
      CONCLUSION: Our results provide insight into genotype-phenotype correlation in
      the nonacquired focal epilepsies and a framework for identifying subgroups of
      patients likely to share susceptibility genes.

PMID- 28566547
TI  - Rapid transitions in the epidemiology of stroke and its risk factors in China
      from 2002 to 2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the current prevalence, temporal incidence trends, and
      contribution of risk factors for stroke in China. METHODS: The China National
      Stroke Screening Survey (CNSSS) is an ongoing nationwide population-based
      program. A representative sample of 1,292,010 adults over 40 years old with
      31,188 identified stroke cases from the 2013 and 2014 CNSSS database was analyzed
      to provide descriptive statistics of the prevalence and risk factors for stroke
      in 2014. In addition, a retrospective evaluation of 12,526 first-ever stroke
      cases in 2002-2013 and stroke mortality data from the 2002-2013 China Public
      Health Statistical Yearbook was conducted to estimate the incidence rates.
      RESULTS: In 2014, the adjusted stroke prevalence was 2.06% in adults aged 40
      years and older. After full adjustments, all risk factors assessed showed
      significant associations with stroke (p < 0.01); the largest contributor was
      hypertension (population-attributable risk 53.2%), followed by family history,
      dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, physical inactivity, smoking, and
      overweight/obesity. The incidence of first-ever stroke in adults aged 40-74 years
      increased from 189/100,000 individuals in 2002 to 379/100,000 in 2013-an overall
      annual increase of 8.3%. Stroke-specific mortality in adults aged 40-74 years has
      remained stable, at approximately 124 deaths/100,000 individuals in both 2002 and
      2013. CONCLUSIONS: In 2002-2013, the incidence of stroke in China increased
      rapidly. Combined with a high prevalence, a trend toward a younger age, and
      stable mortality, this finding suggests that additional clinical and behavioral
      interventions for metabolic and lifestyle risk factors are necessary to prevent
      stroke, particularly in certain populations.

PMID- 28566548
TI  - White matter changes and social cognitive function in MS: When all is no longer
      in the eyes.

PMID- 28566539
TI  - Role of the Immune System in Hypertension.
AB  - High blood pressure is present in more than one billion adults worldwide and is
      the most important modifiable risk factor of death resulting from cardiovascular
      disease. While many factors contribute to the pathogenesis of hypertension, a
      role of the immune system has been firmly established by a large number of
      investigations from many laboratories around the world. Immunosuppressive drugs
      and inhibition of individual cytokines prevent or ameliorate experimental
      hypertension, and studies in genetically-modified mouse strains have demonstrated
      that lymphocytes are necessary participants in the development of hypertension
      and in hypertensive organ injury. Furthermore, immune reactivity may be the
      driving force of hypertension in autoimmune diseases. Infiltration of immune
      cells, oxidative stress, and stimulation of the intrarenal angiotensin system are
      induced by activation of the innate and adaptive immunity. High blood pressure
      results from the combined effects of inflammation-induced impairment in the
      pressure natriuresis relationship, dysfunctional vascular relaxation, and
      overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. Imbalances between
      proinflammatory effector responses and anti-inflammatory responses of regulatory
      T cells to a large extent determine the severity of inflammation. Experimental
      and human studies have uncovered autoantigens (isoketal-modified proteins and
      heat shock protein 70) of potential clinical relevance. Further investigations on
      the immune reactivity in hypertension may result in the identification of new
      strategies for the treatment of the disease.

PMID- 28566549
TI  - Physical activity monitoring: A promising outcome measure in idiopathic
      inflammatory myopathies.

PMID- 28566550
TI  - Disconnection as a mechanism for social cognition impairment in multiple
      sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the contribution of microstructural normal-appearing white
      matter (NAWM) damage to social cognition impairment, specifically in the theory
      of mind (ToM), in multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: We enrolled consecutively 60
      patients with MS and 60 healthy controls (HC) matched on age, sex, and education
      level. All participants underwent ToM testing (Eyes Test, Videos Test) and 3T
      brain MRI including conventional and diffusion tensor imaging sequences. Tract
      based spatial statistics (TBSS) were applied for whole-brain voxel-wise analysis
      of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) on NAWM. RESULTS:
      Patients with MS performed worse on both tasks of ToM compared to HC (Eyes Test
      58.7 +/- 13.8 vs 81.9 +/- 10.4, p < 0.001, Hedges g -1.886; Videos Test 75.3 +/-
      9.3 vs 88.1 +/- 7.1, p < 0.001, Hedges g -1.537). Performance on ToM tests was
      correlated with higher values of FA and lower values of MD across widespread
      white matter tracts. The largest effects (>=90% of voxels with statistical
      significance) for the Eyes Test were body and genu of corpus callosum, fornix,
      tapetum, uncinate fasciculus, and left inferior cerebellar peduncle, and for the
      Videos Test genu and splenium of corpus callosum, fornix, uncinate fasciculus,
      left tapetum, and right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results indicate that a diffuse pattern of NAWM damage in MS contributes to
      social cognition impairment in the ToM domain, probably due to a mechanism of
      disconnection within the social brain network. Gray matter pathology is also
      expected to have an important role; thus further research is required to clarify
      the neural basis of social cognition impairment in MS.

PMID- 28566551
TI  - Outcome measures in the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: On the search for the
      holy grail.

PMID- 28566552
TI  - Advancing the phenome alongside the genome in epilepsy studies.

PMID- 28566553
TI  - Systematic analysis of Ca2+ homeostasis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae based on
      chemical-genetic interaction profiles.
AB  - We investigated the global landscape of Ca2+ homeostasis in budding yeast based
      on high-dimensional chemical-genetic interaction profiles. The morphological
      responses of 62 Ca2+-sensitive (cls) mutants were quantitatively analyzed with
      the image processing program CalMorph after exposure to a high concentration of
      Ca2+ After a generalized linear model was applied, an analysis of covariance
      model was used to detect significant Ca2+-cls interactions. We found that high
      dimensional, morphological Ca2+-cls interactions were mixed with positive (86%)
      and negative (14%) chemical-genetic interactions, whereas one-dimensional fitness
      Ca2+-cls interactions were all negative in principle. Clustering analysis with
      the interaction profiles revealed nine distinct gene groups, six of which were
      functionally associated. In addition, characterization of Ca2+-cls interactions
      revealed that morphology-based negative interactions are unique signatures of
      sensitized cellular processes and pathways. Principal component analysis was used
      to discriminate between suppression and enhancement of the Ca2+-sensitive
      phenotypes triggered by inactivation of calcineurin, a Ca2+-dependent
      phosphatase. Finally, similarity of the interaction profiles was used to reveal a
      connected network among the Ca2+ homeostasis units acting in different cellular
      compartments. Our analyses of high-dimensional chemical-genetic interaction
      profiles provide novel insights into the intracellular network of yeast Ca2+
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28566556
TI  - Estimation of clinical parameters of chronic kidney disease by exhaled breath
      full-scan mass spectrometry data and iterative PCA with intensity screening
      algorithm.
AB  - Breath mass spectrometry is a useful tool for identifying important compounds
      associated with health. However, there have been few studies that have explored
      human exhaled breath by full-scan mass spectrometry as a non-invasive method for
      medical diagnosis, which may be attributed to the difficulties resulting from
      multicollinearity and small sample sizes relative to a large number of product
      ions. In this study, breath samples from 54 chronic kidney disease patients were
      analyzed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry in the full-scan mode. With
      the signal intensities of product ions, we developed a novel and robust
      algorithm, iterative PCA with intensity screening (IPS), to build linear models
      for estimating important clinical parameters of chronic kidney disease. It has
      been shown that IPS provided good estimations in cross-validated samples, and
      furthermore the identified product ions could have direct medical relevance to
      the disease. The study demonstrated the potential of quantitative breath analysis
      using mass spectrometry for medical diagnosis, and the importance of applying
      appropriate statistical tools to unveil the rich information in this type of
      data.

PMID- 28566557
TI  - The prognostic significance of ING4 expression on gastric gastrointestinal
      stromal tumors by immunohistochemistry.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Inhibitor of growth 4 (ING4) is a novel tumor suppressor gene that is
      reported to be down-regulated in various tumors including gastrointestinal
      stromal tumors (GISTs) originated from different locations, recently. Herein, we
      aimed to evaluate ING4 expression and its prognostic significance on gastric
      GISTs in order to add further data to the current literature. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: ING4 was evaluated in samples of gastric GISTs from 62 patients, by
      immunohistochemistry. The association between ING4 expression and
      clinicopathological features related with prognosis and overall survival (OS)
      were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: There was statistically significant inverse
      correlation between ING4 expression and risk groups according to both NIH and
      AFIP, Ki67 index, tumor diameter, and mitotic count by univarite analysis
      (p=0.000, p=0.000, p=0.08, p=0.01, and p=0.028, respectively). The negative
      association between ING4 expression and risk groups according to both NIH
      (p=0.002, beta=-0.263, t=-3.166) and AFIP (p=0.016, beta=-0.244, t=-2.492) was
      supported by multivariate analysis. There was statistically significant direct
      correlation between low levels of ING4 expression and shorter OS by univariate
      (p=0.000) and multivariate analysis (p=0.000, beta=0.769, t=9.798), as well as
      Kaplan-Meier method (p=0.035). CONCLUSIONS: The low ING4 expression level was
      found to be related with unfavorable prognosis. Thus, we suggest that loss of
      ING4 expression might play a role in the progression of GISTs and might be used
      as a potential prognostic tool. Additionally, this is the first study that has
      evaluated the association of ING4 expression on gastric GISTs, to the best of our
      knowledge. Therefore, we claim that more comprehensive future studies including
      higher number of patients and longer follow-up might clarify the potential role
      of ING4 on pathogenesis and prognosis of GISTs. KEY WORDS: Clinicopathological
      features, Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, ING4, Immunohistochemistry.

PMID- 28566554
TI  - PI3K class II alpha regulates delta-opioid receptor export from the trans-Golgi
      network.
AB  - The interplay between signaling and trafficking by G protein-coupled receptors
      (GPCRs) has focused mainly on endocytic trafficking. Whether and how surface
      delivery of newly synthesized GPCRs is regulated by extracellular signals is less
      understood. Here we define a signaling-regulated checkpoint at the trans-Golgi
      network (TGN) that controls the surface delivery of the delta opioid receptor
      (deltaR). In PC12 cells, inhibition of phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K) activity
      blocked export of newly synthesized deltaR from the Golgi and delivery to the
      cell surface, similar to treatment with nerve growth factor (NGF). Depletion of
      class II phosphoinositide-3 kinase alpha (PI3K C2A), but not inhibition of class
      I PI3K, blocked deltaR export to comparable levels and attenuated deltaR-mediated
      cAMP inhibition. NGF treatment displaced PI3K C2A from the Golgi and optogenetic
      recruitment of the PI3K C2A kinase domain to the TGN-induced deltaR export
      downstream of NGF. Of importance, PI3K C2A expression promotes export of
      endogenous deltaR in primary trigeminal ganglion neurons. Taken together, our
      results identify PI3K C2A as being required and sufficient for deltaR export and
      surface delivery in neuronal cells and suggest that it could be a key modulator
      of a novel Golgi export checkpoint that coordinates GPCR delivery to the surface.

PMID- 28566555
TI  - Cross-linked matrix rigidity and soluble retinoids synergize in nuclear lamina
      regulation of stem cell differentiation.
AB  - Synergistic cues from extracellular matrix and soluble factors are often obscure
      in differentiation. Here the rigidity of cross-linked collagen synergizes with
      retinoids in the osteogenesis of human marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
      Collagen nanofilms serve as a model matrix that MSCs can easily deform unless the
      film is enzymatically cross-linked, which promotes the spreading of cells and the
      stiffening of nuclei as both actomyosin assembly and nucleoskeletal lamin-A
      increase. Expression of lamin-A is known to be controlled by retinoic acid
      receptor (RAR) transcription factors, but soft matrix prevents any response to
      any retinoids. Rigid matrix is needed to induce rapid nuclear accumulation of the
      RARG isoform and for RARG-specific antagonist to increase or maintain expression
      of lamin-A as well as for RARG-agonist to repress expression. A progerin allele
      of lamin-A is regulated in the same manner in iPSC-derived MSCs. Rigid matrices
      are further required for eventual expression of osteogenic markers, and RARG
      antagonist strongly drives lamin-A-dependent osteogenesis on rigid substrates,
      with pretreated xenografts calcifying in vivo to a similar extent as native bone.
      Proteomics-detected targets of mechanosensitive lamin-A and retinoids underscore
      the convergent synergy of insoluble and soluble cues in differentiation.

PMID- 28566559
TI  - MRI feature analysis of uncommon prostatic malignant tumors.

PMID- 28566558
TI  - Testosterone treatment in older men: glass half empty or half full?

PMID- 28566560
TI  - Congenital hypertrichosis lanuginosa.

PMID- 28566561
TI  - A protruding nodule on the upper lip.

PMID- 28566562
TI  - Low plasma zinc levels in androgenetic alopecia.

PMID- 28566563
TI  - Isolation of Dihydroartemisinic Acid from Artemisia annua L. By-Product by
      Combining Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction with Response Surface Methodology.
AB  - Malaria is the most devastating parasitic disease worldwide. Artemisinin is the
      only drug that can cure malaria that is resistant to quinine-derived drugs. After
      the commercial extraction of artemisinin from Artemisia annua, the recovery of
      dihydroartemisinic acid (DHAA) from artemisinin extraction by-product has the
      potential to increase artemisinin commercial yield. Here we describe the
      development and optimization of an ultrasound-assisted alkaline procedure for the
      extraction of DHAA from artemisinin production waste using response surface
      methodology. Our results using this methodology established that NaOH at 0.36%,
      extraction time of 67.96 min, liquid-solid ratio of 5.89, and ultrasonic power of
      83.9 W were the optimal conditions to extract DHAA from artemisinin production
      waste. Under these optimal conditions, we achieved a DHAA yield of 2.7%. Finally,
      we conducted a validation experiment, and the results confirmed the prediction
      generated by the regression model developed in this study. This work provides a
      novel way to increase the production of artemisinin per cultivated area and to
      reduce artemisinin production costs by recycling its commercial waste to obtain
      DHAA, an immediate precursor of artemisinin. The use of this technology may
      reduce the costs of artemisinin-based antimalarial medicines.

PMID- 28566565
TI  - GATA Transcription Factors: Basic Principles and Related Human Disorders.
AB  - The development of mature blood cell from hematopoietic stem cells is regulated
      by transcription factors that coordinate the expression of lineage-specific
      genes. GATA transcription factors are zinc finger DNA-binding proteins that play
      crucial roles in various biological processes, including hematopoiesis. Among
      GATA family proteins, GATA-1, GATA-2, and GATA-3 are essential for hematopoiesis.
      GATA-1 functions to promote development of erythrocytes, megakaryocytes,
      eosinophils, and mast cells. Mutations in GATA-1 are associated with acute
      megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL), congenital erythroid hypoplasia (Diamond
      Blackfan anemia; DBA), and X-linked anemia and/or thrombocytopenia. Conversely,
      GATA-2 functions early in hematopoiesis and is required for maintenance and
      expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and/or multipotent progenitors. GATA
      2 mutations are associated with immunodeficiency, lymphedema, myelodysplastic
      syndrome (MDS), and leukemia. Furthermore, decreased GATA-2 expression may
      contribute to the pathophysiology of aplastic anemia. GATA-3 has an important
      role in T cell development, and has been suggested to be involved in the
      pathophysiology of acute lymphoblastic leukemias. This review summarizes current
      knowledge on hematological disorders associated with GATA-1 and GATA-2 mutations.

PMID- 28566564
TI  - Effect of Thyroxin Treatment on Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT) Reduction
      in Patients with Subclinical Hypothyroidism (SCH): a Meta-Analysis of Clinical
      Trials.
AB  - AIM: Research shows that subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is related to an
      increased carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), a surrogate marker of
      subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is controversial whether or not SCH
      should be treated to reduce CVD morbidity and mortality. This meta-analysis aimed
      to determine whether SCH is associated with an increase in CIMT as compared to
      Euthyroidism (EU) and whether thyroxin (T4) treatment in SCH can reverse the
      change in CIMT. METHODS: Two independent reviewers conducted an extensive
      database research up to December 2016. A total of 12 clinical trials discussed
      the effect of Thyroxin on CIMT values at pre- and post-treatment in subjects with
      SCH. RESULTS: CIMT was significantly higher among SCH (n=280) as compared to EU
      controls (n=263) at baseline; the pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) of CIMT
      was 0.44 mm [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14, 0.74], p=0.004; I2=65%. After
      treatment with thyroxin in subjects with SCH (n=314), there was a statistically
      significant decrease in CIMT from pre- to post-treatment; the pooled WMD of CIMT
      decrease was [WMD -0.32; 95% CI (-0.47, -0.16), p=<0.0001; I2=2%], and it was no
      longer different from EU controls [WMD 0.13 mm; 95% CI (-0.04, 0.30); p=0.14;
      I2=27%]. The total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) were higher in SCH as compared to EU controls and decreased
      significantly after treatment with thyroxin. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis shows
      that thyroxin therapy in subjects with SCH significantly decreases CIMT and
      improves lipid profile, modifiable CVD risk factors. Thyroid hormone replacement
      in subjects with SCH may play a role in slowing down or preventing the
      progression of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28566566
TI  - Measurements of clothing evaporative resistance using a sweating thermal manikin:
      an overview.
AB  - Evaporative resistance has been widely used to describe the evaporative heat
      transfer property of clothing. It is also a critical variable in heat stress
      models for predicting human physiological responses in various environmental
      conditions. At present, sweating thermal manikins provide a fast and cost
      effective way to determine clothing evaporative resistance. Unfortunately, the
      measurement repeatability and reproducibility of evaporative resistance are
      rather low due to the complicated moisture transfer processes through clothing.
      This review article presents a systematical overview on major influential factors
      affecting the measurement precision of clothing evaporative resistance
      measurements. It also illustrates the state-of-the-art knowledge on the
      development of test protocol to measure clothing evaporative resistance by means
      of a sweating manikin. Some feasible and robust test procedures for measurement
      of clothing evaporative resistance using a sweating manikin are described.
      Recommendations on how to improve the measurement accuracy of clothing
      evaporative resistance are addressed and expected future trends on development of
      advanced sweating thermal manikins are finally presented.

PMID- 28566568
TI  - What Is Qualitative Research?
AB  - The article is an in-depth explanation of qualitative research, an approach
      increasingly prevalent among today's research communities. After discussing its
      present spread within the health sciences, the author addresses: 1. Its
      definition. 2. Its characteristics, as well as its theoretical and procedural
      background. 3. Its procedures. 4. Differences between qualitative and
      quantitative approaches. 5. Mixed methods incorporating quantitative research.
      And in conclusion: 6. The importance of establishing an epistemological
      perspective in qualitative research.

PMID- 28566567
TI  - Utilization of Qualitative Data on Pharmacy Education Study.

PMID- 28566569
TI  - Influence on Learning of a Collaborative Learning Method Comprising the Jigsaw
      Method and Problem-based Learning (PBL).
AB  - Recently, the practice of active learning has spread, increasingly recognized as
      an essential component of academic studies. Classes incorporating small group
      discussion (SGD) are conducted at many universities. At present, assessments of
      the effectiveness of SGD have mostly involved evaluation by questionnaires
      conducted by teachers, by peer assessment, and by self-evaluation of students.
      However, qualitative data, such as open-ended descriptions by students, have not
      been widely evaluated. As a result, we have been unable to analyze the processes
      and methods involved in how students acquire knowledge in SGD. In recent years,
      due to advances in information and communication technology (ICT), text mining
      has enabled the analysis of qualitative data. We therefore investigated whether
      the introduction of a learning system comprising the jigsaw method and problem
      based learning (PBL) would improve student attitudes toward learning; we did this
      by text mining analysis of the content of student reports. We found that by
      applying the jigsaw method before PBL, we were able to improve student attitudes
      toward learning and increase the depth of their understanding of the area of
      study as a result of working with others. The use of text mining to analyze
      qualitative data also allowed us to understand the processes and methods by which
      students acquired knowledge in SGD and also changes in students' understanding
      and performance based on improvements to the class. This finding suggests that
      the use of text mining to analyze qualitative data could enable teachers to
      evaluate the effectiveness of various methods employed to improve learning.

PMID- 28566570
TI  - Research Using the Roter Method of Interaction Process Analysis (RIAS) for
      Communication Education in the Pharmaceutical Sciences.
AB  - The ability to communicate effectively as a healthcare professional has come into
      greater focus as the role of pharmacists expands from "medicine-based" to "client
      based" (e.g., working with patients, their families, and in multidisciplinary
      interactions). The ability to communicate cannot be acquired solely in the
      classroom; a large part of acquiring such skill is based on practical experience.
      Role-playing with simulated patients has already been implemented in
      pharmaceutical education; in that sense, opportunities to receive education in
      practical communication are increasing. However, in order to assure that these
      educational opportunities are more than "experiences" in theory alone, aspects of
      communications training that are satisfactory or need improvement must be
      clarified through empirical studies. While data used in pharmaceutical studies
      have mainly been quantitative in nature, data required for medical communication
      studies is generally more qualitative. Only recently the importance of
      qualitative research has been recognized in pharmaceutical studies, a field in
      which any aspect difficult to express numerically has been considered subjective,
      and thus less acceptable. Against this backdrop, this report introduces an aspect
      of communication research that employs the Roter method of interaction process
      analysis (RIAS), a medical communication analyzing method by Professor Debra
      Roter at Johns Hopkins University. RIAS is a quantitative analysis of qualitative
      data. I want to discuss the significance of using results of research based on
      qualitative data to improve the quality of communication.

PMID- 28566571
TI  - Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Future: The Bridge Linking between Basic and
      Clinical Research.

PMID- 28566572
TI  - Importance of Reverse Translational Research (rTR).
AB  - When events lead to clinical problems, the mechanisms involved often remain
      unclear. This is true for medications and therapies, in addition to problems
      inherent in an underlying disease. However, the recent development of modeling
      and metric methods makes it possible to estimate the relationship between side
      effects and various factors to explain inter-individual differences, such as
      genetic polymorphisms, co-administered drugs, age, gender, dysfunction of the
      liver/kidney based upon the database for side effects [such as Food and Drug
      Administration-Adverse Event Reporting System (FDA-AERS)] and the database in a
      patient's medical records. Once the mechanisms for such clinical problems have
      been clarified, and after revisiting preclinical studies (animal models, in vitro
      cell systems, etc.), those outcomes may lead to drug discovery, the development
      of new therapies, and methods to prevent unique drug induced side effects.
      Reverse translational research (rTR) is such an approach, and a worthy aim of
      pharmaceutical scientists skilled at basic research. In this presentation, I
      would like to share with you our following recent studies: (1) rTR aimed at a
      therapy for progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis 2 (PFIC 2). (2) rTR
      aimed at developing methods to predict drug-induced side effects based on single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) information and a patient's medical records
      database. And (3) rTR aimed at predicting drug-drug interactions in which
      clinical outcomes have not been obtained, yet based upon previous clinically
      relevant drug interaction databases.

PMID- 28566573
TI  - From a Viewpoint of Clinical Settings: Pharmacoepidemiology as Reverse
      Translational Research (rTR).
AB  - Clinical pharmacology and pharmacoepidemiology research may converge in practise.
      Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of pharmacotherapy and risk management in
      patient groups. For many drugs, adverse reaction(s) that were not seen and/or
      clarified during research and development stages have been reported in the real
      world. Pharmacoepidemiology can detect and verify adverse drug reactions as
      reverse translational research. Recently, development and effective use of
      medical information databases (MID) have been conducted in Japan and elsewhere
      for the purpose of post-marketing safety of drugs. The Ministry of Health, Labour
      and Welfare, Japan has been promoting the development of 10-million scale
      database in 10 hospitals and hospital groups as "the infrastructure project of
      medical information database (MID-NET)". This project enables estimation of the
      frequency of adverse reactions, the distinction between drug-induced reactions
      and basal health-condition changes, and usefulness verification of administrative
      measures of drug safety. However, because the database information is different
      from detailed medical records, construction of methodologies for the detection
      and evaluation of adverse reactions is required. We have been performing database
      research using medical information system in some hospitals to establish and
      demonstrate useful methods for post-marketing safety. In this symposium, we aim
      to discuss the possibility of reverse translational research from clinical
      settings and provide an introduction to our research.

PMID- 28566574
TI  - Quantitative Targeted Absolute Proteomics (QTAP)-based Pharmacoproteomics: The
      Importance of International Collaboration.
AB  - Proteins such as membrane transporters, enzymes, receptors and channels play key
      roles in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination, and also
      influence efficacy and the likelihood of adverse reactions. Therefore, if we can
      quantify the activities of these molecules, it may be possible to predict the
      behavior of candidate drugs in humans in disease states; such methodology would
      be extremely helpful for efficient drug development. We have developed an in
      silico method to select appropriate peptides within amino acid sequences in order
      to quantify targeted proteins by LC-MS/MS in selected reaction monitoring (SRM)
      mode. We have applied this method for the quantification of functional proteins
      in order to validate various in vitro and in vivo models. We found fairly good
      correlation between protein amounts and the enzymatic activities of microsomal
      cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms and uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase
      (UGT) in human liver, as well as between protein amounts and the transport
      activities of multiple transporters in human lung cells. These results suggest
      that protein quantification can be useful in predicting activity. We have applied
      this approach to evaluate the usefulness and limitations of an immortalized human
      brain capillary endothelial cell line (D3 cells) and a P-glycoprotein humanized
      (hMDR1) mouse model by comparing the amounts of functional proteins in the models
      with those in isolated capillaries from human brain. In order to obtain
      sufficient human tissue specimens for further studies leading to clinical
      applications, we believe that international collaboration will be crucial.

PMID- 28566575
TI  - In Silico Approaches Accelerate Reverse Translational Research from Bedside to
      Bench.
AB  - Corresponding with accelerated computing power, such as that found in
      supercomputers, simulation and big data are becoming increasingly important to
      modern science, second only to experimental and theoretical sciences research.
      The field of medicine is said to have entered the era of big data, with
      significant progress in recent years in the development of increasingly
      sophisticated equipment for measurement, observation, and information and
      communication technology (ICT). In particular, greater precision in personalized
      medicine will require the analysis of a large quantity of individual genome
      sequences. Research and development of techniques to analyze big data with
      respect to individual genome sequences are an urgent need. In clinical medicine
      and epidemiology, the analysis of clinical big data or real-world data has
      attracted attention as a new approach, which can be applied to examining
      occurrences at an actual clinical site. In this review, we have discussed the
      challenges and potential of an in silico approach for reverse translational
      research.

PMID- 28566576
TI  - From the Viewpoint of Drug Metabolism Research.
AB  - Since more than 70% of clinically used drugs are excreted from the body through
      metabolic processes, drug metabolism is a key determinant of pharmacokinetics,
      drug response and drug toxicity. Much progress has been made in understanding
      drug-drug interactions via the inhibition or induction of cytochrome P450s (P450,
      CYP), as well as the effects of genetic polymorphisms of P450s on
      pharmacokinetics, and this has facilitated the progress of optimized
      pharmacotherapy in the clinic. Now, similar information is needed for non-CYP
      enzymes, especially concerning Phase I enzymes, based on advanced basic and
      clinical studies. Recently, it was revealed that post-transcriptional regulation
      by microRNAs or RNA editing plays a significant role in regulating the expression
      of drug-metabolizing enzymes, thus conferring variability in the detoxification
      and metabolic activation of drugs or chemicals. Changes in the expression profile
      of microRNAs in tissues or body fluids can be a biomarker of drug response and
      toxicity; therefore, such studies could also be useful for drug repositioning. In
      addition, microRNAs are involved in pharmacogenetics, because single nucleotide
      polymorphisms in microRNA binding sites of mRNAs, or microRNAs themselves, may
      cause changes in gene expression. Some microRNA-related polymorphisms could be
      biomarkers of the clinical outcome of pharmacotherapy. In this review article,
      recent progress and future directions for drug metabolism studies are discussed.

PMID- 28566577
TI  - Biofilms and Oxidizing Biocides; Evaluation of Disinfection and Removal Effects
      by Using Established Microbial Systems.
AB  - The formation of bacterial biofilms and their disinfection and removal have been
      important subjects in the maintenance of water quality in areas such as public
      spas, swimming pools, food processing lines, industrial water systems, and in the
      hygienic control of medical devices, hospital procedures, etc. Presented here is
      an outline of biofilm formation, as well as studies on the disinfection and
      removal of biofilms by oxidizing biocides using established biofilms. These
      studies using established biofilms may increase the understanding of the variable
      response of biofilms to planktonic bacteria, and the unique aspects of oxidizing
      biocides in the disinfection and removal of biofilms.

PMID- 28566578
TI  - Functional Modulation of Tight Junction to Enhance the Permeability of Biological
      Products (Biologics) in Biomembranes.
AB  - In recent years, biological products (biologics), including blood components,
      recombinant therapeutic proteins, antibodies, gene therapeutic materials, and so
      on, have been produced by biotechnology methods and other novel technologies.
      These products are essential therapeutic materials in progressive medicine.
      However, we often encounter the lower permeability of these biologics through
      biomembranes, due to their high molecular mass. In the last three decades, we
      have investigated drug delivery systems, including several enhancement methods
      for the permeability of biologics such as recombinant therapeutic proteins and
      viral vectors in epithelial cells. This review focuses the development of novel
      delivery systems for biologics in rectal and nasal administration, and includes
      an interesting observation of modulators of the tight junction (TJ) function.
      From cellular biology perspective, the interaction between permeability enhancing
      materials and targeted molecules in the TJ of epithelial cells was investigated.
      We elucidated that a TJ modulator will interact with a major constituent protein,
      for instance claudins, in playing an essential role in the tissue-specific
      barrier function of the TJ. Furthermore, useful enhancement of gene transfer in
      cells (for instance, in Caco-2 cells) was found in the combination of an
      adenovirus vector and capric acid sodium salt (C10), a TJ modulator.

PMID- 28566579
TI  - Usefulness of Interprofessional Education (Tsurumai-Meijo IPE) in Program
      Collaborating with Simulated Patients.
AB  - Collaboration with multiple healthcare professionals is important to provide
      safer and higher quality care. Interprofessional education (IPE) promotes the
      practice of team-based care. The establishment of Tsurumai-Meijo IPE, including
      interprofessional education and practice (IPEP) and video-teaching materials, was
      conducted in collaboration with school of medicine/nursing in Nagoya University
      and Fujita Health University, because Meijo University does not have its own
      clinical settings and faculties except for pharmacy. In the established Tsurumai
      Meijo IPE, pharmacy, medicine, and nursing students interviewed simulated
      patients (SP) together or separately and practiced team-based care through
      Tsurumai-Meijo IPEP. Students could learn in advance and on their own about each
      professional's knowledge related to patient care by using video-teaching
      materials from the Meijo IPE homepage. Using a questionnaire survey at the end of
      program, this study was examined whether Tsurumai-Meijo IPEP, and video-teaching
      materials were useful for understanding importance of team-based care. More than
      83% of students indicated that Tsurumai-Meijo IPE is useful on future clinical
      practice. This suggests that the program and materials are beneficial to the
      medical student education. In the optional survey of some clinical pharmacists,
      who had participated in Tsurumai-Meijo IPE before graduation, they utilized it in
      their work and it facilitated their work related to team-based care. Tsurumai
      Meijo IPE collaborating with SP is likely to contribute to provide high quality
      and safe team-based care by taking advantage of specialized professional ability
      of healthcare professionals.

PMID- 28566580
TI  - Determination of Density Distribution of Tablets Using Synchrotron X-ray Computed
      Tomography.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the density distribution of scored and
      round-faced tablets using synchrotron X-ray computed tomography. The tablets were
      made by direct compression of standard formulations. The density distribution of
      scored flat-faced tablets was uniform in the whole cross-sectional image.
      However, the tablet formulated using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was very
      dense at the tip of the score only. It is caused by the poor fluidity of MCC
      particles. In the case of round-faced tablets, the density in the central section
      of the tablet was relatively low, compared with those of peripheral areas. These
      observations correlated well with the results obtained by the finite element
      method simulation using appropriate material models.

PMID- 28566582
TI  - Evaluation of the Effects of Pharmacist Intervention for Adverse Drug Reaction
      Detection and Exacerbation Avoidance.
AB  - We evaluated the effects of pharmacist intervention for adverse drug reaction
      detection and exacerbation avoidance, as well as the severity and outcome of
      reactions based on analyses of pharmacist involvement in a collaborative approach
      to medicine. Of 5436 cases with pharmacist involvement, adverse drug reaction
      prevention was seen in 440, accounting for 8.1%, and exacerbation avoidance in
      213, accounting for 3.9%. We concluded that pharmacist involvement contributes to
      detect adverse drug reactions and avoid exacerbation, and improves
      pharmacotherapy safety. We also analyzed 131 cases in which the course after
      intervention was followed. When categorized by adverse drug reaction severity,
      Grade 1 and 2 were the same at 45.8%, Grade 3 at 8.4%, respectively. Those
      findings suggested that pharmacist intervention contributes to early detection of
      an adverse drug reaction. Also, the relationship between clues for detecting
      adverse drug reactions by a pharmacist and their severity showed that objective
      evaluations such as clinical laboratory test results, physical assessments and
      medication history were important for detecting reactions that became more
      serious. Patients recovered or recovering from an adverse reaction comprised
      76.4%, indicating that pharmacist intervention contributed to exacerbation
      avoidance and improvement. Our findings revealed the effects of pharmacist
      intervention for adverse drug reaction detection and exacerbation avoidance, and
      for safety improvement of pharmacotherapy. Additionally, we considered it
      necessary for the future pharmacist intervention to improve skills of assessing
      an adverse drug reaction objectively.

PMID- 28566581
TI  - Evaluation of Moisturizing Effect of Heparinoid Ointment (Hirudoid Soft Ointment)
      Diluted by White Petrolatum (Propeto).
AB  - Steroid ointments are frequently mixed with moisturizer. It was reported that
      steroid ointments mixed with moisturizer increase permeability. There are only
      few studies done on the permeability of the moisturizer. We researched
      moisturizing effect of heparinoid ointment (Hirudoid Soft ointment) diluted with
      white petrolatum (Propeto) on the dry skin models by measuring water content of
      stratum. Two to four fold dilution of Hirudoid to white petrolatum resulted in a
      significant decrease in the moisturizing effect of the active ingredient. There
      was no significant difference in moisturizing effect between four times diluted
      mixture and white petrolatum alone. This leads to the conclusion that steroid
      ointment mixture with moisturizer is frequently used, but we should take more
      caution regarding the decrease of moisturizing effect.

PMID- 28566583
TI  - Bergamottin Promotes Adipocyte Differentiation and Inhibits Tumor Necrosis Factor
      alpha-induced Inflammatory Cytokines Induction in 3T3-L1 Cells.
AB  - Nowadays, a lot of food ingredients are marketed as dietary supplements for
      health. Because the effectiveness and mechanisms of these compounds have not been
      fully characterized, they might have unknown functions. Therefore, we
      investigated the effect of several food ingredients (Bergamottin, Chrysin, L
      Citrulline and beta-Carotene) known as health foods on adipocyte differentiation
      by using 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In this study, we found that Bergamottin, a
      furanocoumarin isolated from grapefruit juice, promotes adipocyte
      differentiation. In addition, Bergamottin increases the expression of
      adiponectin, an anti-inflammatory adipokine, and peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), a nuclear receptor regulating adipocyte
      differentiation. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory activity of Bergamottin was
      demonstrated by its inhibition of the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF
      kappaB), an inflammatory transcription factor. Stimulation of mature 3T3-L1
      adipocytes by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) decreased the expression of
      the endogeneous NF-kappaB inhibitor, IkappaBalpha. Treatment with Bergamottin
      further decreased the TNF-alpha-induced change in IkappaBalpha expression,
      suggesting that Bergamottin mediated the inhibition of NF-kappaB activation. In
      addition, Bergamottin decreased the TNF-alpha-induced increase in the mRNA levels
      of pro-inflammatory adipokines, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and
      interleukin-6. Taken together, our results show that Bergamottin treatment could
      inhibit inflammatory activity through promoting adipocyte differentiation, which
      in turn suggests that Bergamottin has the potential to minimize the risk factors
      of metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28566584
TI  - Investigation into Differences in Level of Knowledge about Hypertension between
      High School Students and Elderly People.
AB  - As a major chronic non-communicable disease, hypertension is the most important
      risk factor for cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke and, if
      not treated appropriately, premature death. A population-based approach aimed at
      decreasing high blood pressure among the general population is an important
      component of any comprehensive plan to prevent hypertension. However, few studies
      have investigated generational differences in knowledge about, and consciousness
      of, hypertension. Thus, we conducted a questionnaire survey about hypertension,
      with the aim of clarifying differences of understanding about hypertension
      between high school students and elderly people. The results of this
      investigation suggested that there is indeed a generational difference: knowledge
      about hypertension, and awareness of its relationship with salt intake, was
      higher in elderly people than in high school students. Furthermore, our study
      showed that among high school students, salt intake consciousness correlated with
      a family history of hypertension. By contrast, in elderly people, salt intake
      consciousness is related to age and to an awareness of recommended daily salt
      intake. This study strongly showed that knowledge and consciousness of
      hypertension varied among generations, with the elderly being more aware and
      conscientious about salt intake. Acknowledgement of this generational diversity
      is critical to developing an effective overall preventive strategy for
      hypertension.

PMID- 28566585
TI  - Ovarian Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma Associated with Serous Carcinoma:
      Correlation of Pathology with MR Imaging.

PMID- 28566586
TI  - B1 Power Optimization for Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Imaging: A
      Phantom Study Using Egg White for Amide Proton Transfer Imaging Applications in
      the Human Brain.
AB  - The chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) effect on an egg white (EW)
      suspension was investigated for optimization of magnetization transfer (MT) power
      (B1,rms) and pH dependency with the addition of lactic acid. Applying a higher MT
      pulse, B1,rms, Z-spectrum shows higher asymmetry and the magnetisation transfer
      ratio (MTR)asym signal increases to around 1-3.5 ppm, indicating a higher CEST
      effect. Amide proton transfer (APT) at 3.5 ppm shows a signal elevation in
      MTRasym with the application of higher B1,rms power and high pH. In addition, the
      hydroxyl proton signal in MTRasym increases as pH is reduced by lactic acid. In Z
      spectrum of B1,rms at 1.0 MUT and 2.0 MUT, the dependence on CEST effect of amide
      proton and hydroxyl proton could be observed by using an EW suspension phantom.
      The CEST MT power was optimized on the EW suspension phantom with pH dependency
      and further confirmed on volunteers. In addition, APT imaging at 3.5 ppm using
      B1,rms at 1.0 MUT performed on two human brains with different pathophysiological
      conditions indicated appropriate ATP effect.

PMID- 28566587
TI  - The Superiority of Vonoprazan-based First-line Triple Therapy with
      Clarithromycin: A Prospective Multi-center Cohort Study on Helicobacter pylori
      Eradication.
AB  - Objective We evaluated the safety and efficacy of vonoprazan-based amoxicillin
      and clarithromycin 7-day triple therapy (VAC) in comparison to proton pump
      inhibitor (PPI)-based (PAC) as a first-line treatment and vonoprazan-based
      amoxicillin and metronidazole 7-day triple therapy (VAM) in comparison to PPI
      based (PAM) as a second-line treatment for the eradication of Helicobacter pylori
      in Japan. Methods We performed a non-randomized, multi-center, parallel-group
      study to compare first-line VAC to PAC and second-line VAM to PAM. A pre-planned
      subgroup analysis on CAM resistance was also performed. Safety was evaluated with
      an adverse effects questionnaire (AEQ), which was completed by patients during
      therapy. Results The first-line eradication rates (ER) in the intention-to-treat
      (ITT) and per protocol (PP) analyses were 84.9% (95% CI: 81.9-87.6%, n=623) and
      86.4% (83.5-89.1%, n=612), respectively, for VAC and 78.8% (75.3-82.0%, n=608)
      and 79.4% (76.0-82.6%, n=603), respectively, for PAC. The ER of VAC was higher
      than that of PAC in the ITT (p=0.0061) and PP analyses (p=0.0013). The ERs for
      VAC in patients with CAM-resistant and CAM-susceptible bacteria were 73.2% (59.7
      84.2%, n=56) and 88.9% (83.4-93.1%, n=180), respectively. PAC was associated with
      higher AEQ scores for diarrhea, nausea, headache, and general malaise. In the
      second-line ITT and PP analyses VAM achieved ERs of 80.5% (74.6-85.6%, n=216) and
      82.4% (76.6-87.3%, n=211), respectively, while PAM achieved ERs of 81.5% (74.2
      87.4%, n=146) and 82.1% (74.8-87.9%, n=145), respectively. No significant
      differences were observed in the ITT (p=0.89) or PP (p=1.0) analyses. Conclusion
      The ER of first-line VAC was higher than that of PAC, but still <90%. No
      difference was observed between second-line VAM and PAM. Vonoprazan-based triple
      therapy was safe and well tolerated.

PMID- 28566588
TI  - Limited Identification of Dual-time-point Positron Emission Tomography/Computed
      Tomography in Advanced Colorectal Neoplasms.
AB  - Objective We investigated whether dual-time-point 18-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG)
      positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) could improve the
      positive predictive value for detecting advanced colorectal neoplasms (cancer,
      adenoma >=10 mm or adenoma with high-grade dysplasia). Methods We retrospectively
      searched for consecutive patients with a known primary cancer, who had a colonic
      18FDG uptake incidentally found by PET/CT, followed by colonoscopy between
      January 2013 and August 2014. The clinical characteristics including the maximum
      standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were compared between advanced colorectal
      neoplasms and non-advanced lesions. Results Forty-eight patients had 51 foci with
      an incidental focal colorectal uptake of 18FDG. Among these 51 foci, 28 foci were
      judged as being advanced neoplasms, whereas 23 foci identified as non-advanced
      lesions. Four cases were missed by PET/CT: two laterally spreading tumors (LSTs)
      with intramucosal cancer and two severe adenomas (<10 mm). The positive
      predictive value for the detection of advanced neoplasms was 55%. The per-spot
      performance of PET/CT showed that SUVmax was significantly higher in advanced
      neoplasms than in non-advanced lesions for the early-phase (10.1+/-4.9 vs. 6.5+/
      3.2, p=0.029) and the delayed-phase (12.0+/-6.0 vs. 7.4+/-4.0, p=0.022). However,
      more importantly, there was a significant overlap of the SUVmax and no
      significant difference was found in the retention index (19.2+/-20.1 vs. 16.6+/
      29.4, p=0.767). Conclusion Dual-time-point PET/CT was found to have limited
      impact for identifying advanced colorectal neoplasms in spite of its high
      sensitivity and it might therefore not be able to identify either LSTs or small
      advanced neoplasms.

PMID- 28566589
TI  - Clinical Characteristics of Severe Erosive Esophagitis among Patients with
      Erosive Esophagitis: A Case-control Study.
AB  - Objective The risk factors associated with severe erosive esophagitis are not
      well defined in Japan. We aimed to evaluate the risk factors associated with the
      endoscopic severity of esophageal mucosal injury. Methods Eighty consecutive
      Japanese patients with severe erosive esophagitis [Los Angeles (LA)
      classification grade C or D] who had undergone upper endoscopies in the
      Gastroenterology Division of Omori Red Cross Hospital between June 2010 and March
      2013 were retrospectively analyzed. For each case, a control with mild erosive
      esophagitis (LA classification grade A or B) who was matched by sex and age was
      randomly selected during the same period. Among the endoscopic findings, the
      condition of the gastroesophageal flap valve (GEFV) was graded according to
      Hill's classification. We identified the risk factors for severe erosive
      esophagitis using a multivariable logistic regression model. Results A poor
      performance status (PS) (odds ratio [OR]=17.1201, 95% confidence interval
      [CI]=3.0268-140.3121, p=0.0008) and an abnormal GEFV (OR=3.0176, 95% CI=1.0589
      9.4939, p=0.0385) were risk factors for severe erosive esophagitis, while the
      presence of open-type gastric mucosal atrophy (GMA) was inversely associated with
      severe erosive esophagitis (OR=0.2772, 95% CI=0.1087-0.6675, p=0.0040).
      Conclusion Among patients with erosive esophagitis, a poor PS and an abnormal
      GEFV were associated while GMA was inversely associated with severe erosive
      esophagitis. Drug therapy alone or in combination with physical therapy may
      improve the therapeutic effect on severe erosive esophagitis in patients with a
      poor PS.

PMID- 28566590
TI  - The Effects of Pioglitazone on Bone Formation and Resorption Markers in Type 2
      Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - Objective The use of thiazolidinediones is reported to be associated with an
      increased frequency of fractures, especially in women; however, the underlying
      mechanism is not clear. In this prospective study, we compared the effects of
      pioglitazone and metformin on bone metabolism in Japanese patients with type 2
      diabetes mellitus. Methods A total of 58 patients with type 2 diabetes (24 men
      and 34 women) were randomly assigned to receive either pioglitazone (30 and 15
      mg/day for men and women, respectively) or metformin (750 mg/day). The changes in
      serum and urinary type 1 cross-linked N-telopeptide (NTX), type 1 cross-linked C
      telopeptide (CTX), bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP), homocysteine, and serum
      pentosidine were evaluated before and after three months of treatment. The
      primary endpoint was changes in bone resorption markers after three months.
      Patients The subjects of this research were male and female type 2 diabetes
      patients, less than 80 years of age. Results Pioglitazone significantly increased
      the serum and urinary NTX and serum and urinary CTX levels. The rates of changes
      in the serum and urinary NTX and CTX were significantly greater in the
      pioglitazone group than in the metformin group. Although the BAP levels decreased
      significantly in the pioglitazone group, the rates of change were similar between
      the two groups. In the pioglitazone group, the changes in fasting insulin levels
      correlated significantly with increased bone resorption, independent of age and
      gender. Conclusion The results demonstrated that pioglitazone increased bone
      resorption independent of age and gender in Japanese patients with type 2
      diabetes.

PMID- 28566592
TI  - A Prospective Study of the Efficacy, Safety and Pharmacokinetics of Enteral
      Moxifloxacin in the Treatment of Hemodialysis Patients with Pneumonia.
AB  - Objectives To investigate the efficacy of oral moxifloxacin (MFLX) as a treatment
      for pneumonia in hemodialysis (HD) patients and the pharmacokinetic (PK) profile
      of MFLX after oral administration. Methods Thirteen adult patients who required
      HD due to chronic renal failure were enrolled in the present study, which was
      performed to investigate the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in HD
      patients. A standard dose of MFLX (400 mg, once daily) was administered. The
      therapy was continued, discontinued, or switched to another antibiotic depending
      on the response of the pneumonia to MFLX. A population PK model was developed
      using the post-hoc method. Results In total, 13 HD patients with pneumonia (male,
      n=7; female, n=6) were enrolled in the present study. The evaluation on the 3rd
      day showed that treatment was successful in 11 patients (84.6%) and that 10
      patients were cured (76.9%). In the one case in which MFLX treatment failed, the
      patient was cured by switching to ceftriaxone (CTRX) (2 g, intravenously) plus
      levofloxacin (LVFX) (250 mg, orally). The causative bacterium in this male
      patient was P. aeruginosa. It did not display resistance to fluoroquinolones. One
      patient had liver dysfunction due to MFLX. The estimated PK parameters of MFLX
      were as follows: AUC0->24, 61.04+/-17.74 MUg h/mL; Cmax, 5.25+/-1.12 MUg/mL; and
      Ctrough, 1.15+/-0.45 MUg/mL. The PK parameters of MFLX among the patients in whom
      adverse events occurred or in whom a cure was not achieved did not differ from
      those of the other patients to a statistically significant extent. Conclusion
      MFLX showed good efficacy and safety in HD patients with community-acquired
      pneumonia and the results of the PK analysis were favorable. Further prospective
      studies with larger numbers of patients will be needed to draw definitive
      conclusions.

PMID- 28566591
TI  - Dual Therapy with Aspirin and Cilostazol May Improve Platelet Aggregation in
      Noncardioembolic Stroke Patients: A Pilot Study.
AB  - Objective Some previous studies have found clinical benefit of dual antiplatelet
      therapy with aspirin and cilostazol for prevention of secondary stroke, but the
      physiological mechanism involved remains unknown. We aimed to clarify the effects
      of aspirin/cilostazol therapy on the platelet and endothelial functions of
      patients with acute noncardioembolic ischemic stroke, in comparison to patients
      who were treated with aspirin alone. Methods The present randomized prospective
      pilot study enrolled 24 patients within a week after the onset of
      noncardioembolic ischemic stroke. The patients were randomly allocated to receive
      aspirin (100 mg/day) (A group; 11 patients) or cilostazol (200 mg/day) plus
      aspirin (100 mg/day) (CA group; 13 patients). We measured platelet aggregation,
      platelet activation, and the thrombomodulin (TM), highly sensitive C-reactive
      protein (hs-CRP), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell
      adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and von Willebrand (vWF) antigen levels and vWF
      activity over a 4-week period after enrollment. Results There was no significant
      difference in the platelet functions of the A and CA groups. However, the
      platelet aggregation induced by adenosine diphosphate (ADP) was decreased at 2
      and 4 weeks (p<0.05) after treatment in comparison to the pre-treatment values in
      the CA group, but not in the A group. Platelet activation, and the hs-CRP, TM,
      ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and vWF values did not significantly decrease after treatment in
      either group. Conclusion Although there were no significant differences in
      platelet aggregation, platelet activation or the endothelial biomarker levels of
      the A and CA groups, dual therapy with aspirin and cilostazol inhibited platelet
      aggregation in comparison to the pre-treatment values, similarly to patients who
      received aspirin alone. This may suggest the clinical usefulness of dual therapy
      with aspirin and cilostazol in the treatment of patients with noncardioembolic
      ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28566593
TI  - Seasonal Variation in the Daily Urinary Sodium Excretion in Outpatients from the
      Morioka Region of Northern Japan.
AB  - Objective Although the daily urinary sodium excretion (UNaV) is considered to
      provide the most reliable estimate of the daily sodium intake, it may be affected
      by salt loss due to sweating in summer. However, the seasonal variation in the
      daily UNaV associated with a normal lifestyle is unknown. Methods This study was
      performed in 348 outpatients from the Morioka region during three seasons: summer
      (summer 1), winter, and the following summer (summer 2). The daily UNaV (g
      salt/day) was estimated by the second morning urine method three times during
      each season. Seasonal variation was defined as a significant trend across the
      three seasons together with a significant difference between winter and both
      summers. Results In women, the daily UNaV was higher in winter (11.8+/-3.0 g
      salt/day) than in summer 1 (11.2+/-2.9 g salt/day) or summer 2 (11.0+/-2.9 g
      salt/day). In contrast, there was no marked seasonal variation in men. An
      analysis stratified by age (4 quartiles) identified seasonal variation in the
      older 2 quartiles of women (aged >=68 years). In these women, the mean seasonal
      difference in the daily UNaV was 0.9 g of salt/day for both winter vs. summer 1
      and winter vs. summer 2, while it was 0.1-0.8 g of salt/day in the other groups.
      Conclusion Seasonal variation in the daily UNaV only occurred in older female
      patients and was relatively small. This is evidence for restricting salt intake
      throughout the year and should reassure patients who are anxious about salt loss
      due to sweating in summer.

PMID- 28566594
TI  - The Effective Treatment with Cyclosporine of a Ulcerative Colitis Patient with
      Concurrent Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Who Subsequently Developed
      Spontaneous Pneumomediastinum.
AB  - Although extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases are not
      uncommon, few reports have described concurrent idiopathic thrombocytopenic
      purpura (ITP). Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is also a rare complication of
      ulcerative colitis (UC). This report describes the case of a 14-year-old boy who
      experienced recurrent ulcerative colitis 3 months after temporary improvement
      following treatment with prednisolone (20 mg/day) and granulocyte/monocyte
      adsorption apheresis. His platelet counts decreased, suggesting ITP. The dosage
      of prednisolone was increased to 60 mg/day; however, his thrombocytopenia did not
      improve and he suddenly developed pneumomediastinum. A continuous infusion of
      cyclosporine increased his platelet counts and improved his ulcerative colitis.
      Cyclosporine should be considered when steroid-resistant ITP accompanies UC.

PMID- 28566595
TI  - Gastroesophageal Variceal Bleeding Successfully Controlled by Partial Splenic
      Embolization.
AB  - A 53-year-old male patient with a history of hepatocellular carcinoma developed
      gastroesophageal varices refractory to endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS).
      He required EIS six times in 2 years for recurring variceal bleeding. After
      hepatic resection, he developed massive splenomegaly. Partial splenic
      embolization (PSE) was performed to reduce the portal pressure. Varices and
      variceal bleeding were not detected during 13-year follow up, until the patient
      died of hepatocellular carcinoma. This is a unique case of gastroesophageal
      varices controlled by PSE and improved portal hypertension.

PMID- 28566596
TI  - Paraneoplastic Hypocalcemia Developed in Gastric Cancer Accompanied by
      Osteoblastic Metastasis.
AB  - Paraneoplastic syndromes are generally defined as clinical disorders associated
      with malignant diseases, and hypocalcemia associated with cancer is a rare
      condition. A woman in her 60s was referred to our hospital for the further
      examination of massive ascites due to carcinoma of unknown primary origin. She
      complained of numbness around her lips, and marked hypocalcemia of 5.0 mg/dL was
      noted. After two courses of chemotherapy, computed tomography showed a decrease
      in the ascites, and her serum calcium level increased. Although hypocalcemia is a
      very rare condition in patients with gastric cancer, serum calcium values should
      be evaluated when neurological symptoms are observed.

PMID- 28566597
TI  - Intravascular Images of Coronary Stenosis with Multiple Channels in a Patient
      with Antiphospholipid Syndrome: The Optical Coherence Tomography Findings.
AB  - Intravascular images of coronary stenosis by antiphospholipid syndrome (APS)
      would be beneficial to understand the mechanism of this disease. A 59-year-old
      woman with APS/systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) underwent emergent coronary
      angiography which revealed stenosis with micro channels in the proximal left
      anterior descending artery. According to optical coherence tomography (OCT), the
      central lumen was surrounded by a thick septum with a homogenous and high
      intensity. Multiple small channels existed near the vessel wall with diffuse
      intimal hyperplasia. White thrombi were floating distal to the stenosis.
      Intravascular images obtained by optical coherence tomography (OCT) revealed the
      microstructure of complex coronary stenosis, which had ambiguous findings on
      angiography and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in an acute coronary syndrome
      (ACS) patient with APS/SLE.

PMID- 28566598
TI  - Late-onset Mitochondrial Cardiomyopathy Triggered by Anticancer Treatment.
AB  - We report the case of a 62-year-old woman with a history of bilateral hearing
      impairment, who developed mitochondrial cardiomyopathy after chemotherapy. The
      patient underwent postoperative cisplatin chemotherapy after the surgical
      treatment of cervical cancer. The systolic function of her left ventricle
      decreased significantly. A tissue examination of the left ventricle revealed
      mitochondrial cardiomyopathy. Genetic testing revealed mutations in mitochondrial
      3,243 A->G. Nine hundred fifty-five individual mutations were identified by next
      generation sequencing. Since cardiovascular complications are the second leading
      cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing cancer treatment,
      mitochondrial cardiomyopathy should be considered a potential cause of heart
      failure.

PMID- 28566599
TI  - Simultaneous Idiopathic Dissections of the Coronary and Superior Mesenteric
      Arteries.
AB  - A 49-year-old man complained of sudden upper abdominal pain but was not given a
      definitive diagnosis. The day after he was discharged, he noticed left chest
      pain. An in-depth electrocardiogram indicated acute myocardial infarction, and
      emergent coronary angiography revealed 99% stenosis of his left coronary artery.
      An intravascular ultrasound revealed spontaneous coronary artery dissection
      (SCAD), and the lesion was successfully stented. In an atherosclerosis screening,
      superior mesenteric artery dissection (SMAD) was confirmed, after which the
      lesion was successfully stented. This case suggests that SCAD and SMAD might have
      similar pathological backgrounds.

PMID- 28566600
TI  - Thrombolytic Therapy and Aspiration of Clots were Effective in the Removal of a
      Transient Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) Filter that Captured a Large Thrombus.
AB  - A 37-year-old woman presented at 37 weeks of gestation with a history of
      heaviness in her left leg. Enhanced computed tomography revealed a left extensive
      ileofemoral thrombus, and we employed a transient inferior vena cava (IVC) filter
      (t-IVCF) before delivery. Although we attempted to remove the t-IVCF on the day
      after delivery, a large thrombus was captured in the filter. We therefore
      performed thrombolytic therapy for one week, but a few small clots remained
      within the t-IVCF. We were ultimately able to remove the t-IVCF under constant
      negative pressure by aspiration from a side-hole of the sheath. We herein
      describe the effectiveness of this aspiration technique in our case.

PMID- 28566601
TI  - Challenging Differential Diagnosis of Hypergastremia and Hyperglucagonemia with
      Chronic Renal Failure: Report of a Case with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1.
AB  - A 53-year-old woman developed end-stage renal failure during a 15-year clinical
      course of primary hyperparathyroidism and was referred to our hospital for
      evaluation of suspected multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1). Genetic
      testing revealed a novel deletion mutation at codon 467 in exon 10 of the MEN1
      gene. Systemic and selective arterial calcium injection (SACI) testing revealed
      hyperglucagonemia and hypergastrinemia with positive gastrin responses. A
      pathological examination revealed glucagonoma and a lymph node gastrinoma. The
      findings in this case indicate the importance of early diagnosis of MEN1 and
      demonstrate the utility of systemic and SACI testing in renal failure cases.

PMID- 28566602
TI  - An Impaired Awareness of Hypoglycemia Improved After Vitamin B12 Treatment in a
      Type 1 Diabetic Patient.
AB  - An impaired awareness of hypoglycemia is a serious problem in diabetic patients,
      which can lead to life-threatening severe hypoglycemia. Recurrent hypoglycemia
      attenuates the function of the central, mainly hypothalamic, nervous system and
      it causes an impaired awareness of hypoglycemia. Vitamin B12 deficiency is also
      associated with the dysfunction of central nervous system. We report a 72-year
      old type 1 diabetic patient with vitamin B12 deficiency whose impaired awareness
      of hypoglycemia improved after 4 weeks of vitamin B12 administration with an
      increased counter-hormone secretion in response to hypoglycemia. We should
      recognize vitamin B12 deficiency as one of the causes of an impaired awareness of
      hypoglycemia in diabetic patients.

PMID- 28566603
TI  - Febuxostat for the Prevention of Recurrent 2,8-dihydroxyadenine Nephropathy due
      to Adenine Phosphoribosyltransferase Deficiency Following Kidney Transplantation.
AB  - Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive
      disorder that results in irreversible renal damage due to 2,8-dihydroxyadenine
      (DHA) nephropathy. A 28-year-old man underwent living-related kidney
      transplantation for chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology. Numerous
      spherical brownish crystals observed in his urinary sediment on postoperative day
      3 and were observed within the tubular lumen of renal allograft biopsy specimens
      on postoperative day 7. After a genetic diagnosis, febuxostat treatment was
      started on postoperative day 7, with the dosage gradually increased to 80 mg/day
      until complete the disappearance of 2,8-DHA crystals. Febuxostat prevented
      secondary 2,8-DHA nephropathy after kidney transplantation.

PMID- 28566604
TI  - Unusual Proliferative Glomerulonephritis in a Patient Diagnosed to Have
      Hypoparathyroidism, Sensorineural Deafness, and Renal Dysplasia (HDR) Syndrome
      with a Novel Mutation in the GATA3 Gene.
AB  - Hypoparathyroidism, sensorineural deafness, and renal dysplasia (HDR) syndrome is
      a rare autosomal dominant disease caused by GATA3 mutations. Although several
      cases with variable renal features have been reported, the presence of
      histological changes within the glomeruli in adult patients is unclear. We herein
      report an adult case of HDR syndrome with a novel p.C288W (TGC>TGG) missense
      mutation in GATA3. His renal histology showed a membranoproliferative
      glomerulonephritis-like glomerular lesion. Additional renal histological analyses
      of HDR syndrome patients will be needed to clarify the role of GATA3 in both the
      developing and adult kidney.

PMID- 28566605
TI  - Dermatomyositis with Rapidly Progressive Interstitial Lung Disease Treated with
      Rituximab: A Report of 3 Cases in Japan.
AB  - We performed a retrospective chart review of three patients with hypomyopathic
      dermatomyositis and rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease. The patients
      were Japanese women of 71, 69, and 65 years of age. Two patients were anti
      melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (anti-MDA5) antibody-positive and 1
      was anti-aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (anti-ARS) antibody-positive. Their
      respiratory statuses deteriorated despite the administration of glucocorticoid,
      calcineurin inhibitors, and intravenous cyclophosphamide therapy. We subsequently
      administered rituximab. The anti-ARS antibody-positive patient survived, while 2
      anti-MDA5 antibody-positive patients died.

PMID- 28566606
TI  - Pulmonary Endometriosis which Probably Occurred through Hematogenous Metastasis
      after Artificial Abortion.
AB  - Pulmonary endometriosis (PEM) is a rare disease characterized by the
      proliferation of ectopic endometrial tissue in the lungs, which presents as
      catamenial hemoptysis. A 20-year-old-woman was admitted for repeated hemoptysis.
      Chest CT revealed a ground-glass opacity that appeared consistently with her
      menstrual cycle. Our detailed inquiry revealed a history of artificial abortion,
      which was followed by the use of oral contraceptives and catamenial hemoptysis
      after the discontinuation of these medications. Surgical removal was performed
      and histopathological examinations confirmed PEM. This clinical course suggested
      hematogenous metastasis. An inquiry regarding the patient's history of uterine
      procedures and use of oral contraceptives was suggestive for the diagnosis of
      this disease.

PMID- 28566607
TI  - Development of Extranodal NK/T-cell Lymphoma Nasal Type in Cerebrum Following
      Epstein-Barr Virus-positive Uveitis.
AB  - A 74-year-old woman developed bilateral uveitis with high Epstein-Barr virus
      (EBV) DNA load in the vitreous fluid without lymphoma cells. Four years after the
      onset, T2-weighted contrast-enhanced MRI revealed hyperintense lesions in the
      right occipital and parietal lobe. A biopsy resulted in the diagnosis of
      extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma nasal type (ENKL). The repeat region of LMP1, an
      EBV gene, detected in the brain lesion was identical to that detected in the
      vitreous fluid. ENKL of the central nervous system is quite rare, and the
      pathogenesis has not been determined. The lymphoma in this case might have been
      closely associated with the EBV-positive uveitis.

PMID- 28566608
TI  - A Rare Case of Adult Autoimmune Neutropenia Successfully Treated with
      Prednisolone.
AB  - Autoimmune neutropenia (AIN) is a rare disorder that may cause life-threatening
      infections. In adults, most cases are secondary to other pathological conditions,
      and primary AIN is extremely rare. We herein report a case involving a 57-year
      old woman diagnosed with AIN. A granulocyte immunofluorescence test detected
      autoantibodies against human neutrophil antigens in her serum, while various
      examinations revealed no other causes of neutropenia, suggesting her AIN was
      primary. She was refractory to granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor but
      responded to prednisolone. Her neutrophil count remained normal after gradual
      discontinuation of prednisolone. Diagnostic procedures and optimal treatments for
      this disorder need to be established.

PMID- 28566609
TI  - Progressive Balint's Syndrome in a Patient Demonstrating Dementia with Lewy
      Bodies.
AB  - We herein report a 65-year-old man demonstrating dementia with Lewy bodies who
      first presented with Balint's syndrome. Two years later, a mild cognitive
      impairment was noted. From three years after onset, he developed progressive
      parkinsonism, visual hallucination, and autonomic dysfunction, in line with the
      deterioration of the cognitive function. Single photon emission computed
      tomography with a 99mTc-ethylcysteinate dimer performed two years after onset
      revealed hypoperfusion in the restricted area of the bilateral superior parietal
      lobule, which extended to the lateral occipital cortices within two years. It is
      suggested that the pathological process can extend from the parietal to occipital
      lobes.

PMID- 28566610
TI  - An Autopsy Case of Respiratory Failure Induced by Repetitive Cervical Spinal Cord
      Damage due to Abnormal Movement of the Neck in Athetoid Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - We herein report the clinical and autopsy findings of a 48-year-old right-handed
      man with athetoid cerebral palsy who suffered from cervical myelopathy due to
      abnormal neck movement, and who died of respiratory failure. Pathologically, the
      external appearance of the ventral surface of the cervical spinal cord revealed a
      linear indentation running obliquely at the level between the C4 and C5 segments.
      In the most severely compressed lesion, the gray matter was predominantly
      affected and severely atrophic. Microscopically, clusters of oligodendrocytes
      associated with thinly myelinated axons were also observed in the lateral
      funiculus. The latter findings are unique, and could be interpreted as
      regenerative and/or restorative phenomena of the central nervous system following
      chronic repetitive spinal cord compression.

PMID- 28566611
TI  - Vasculitic Neuropathy Following Exposure to a Glyphosate-based Herbicide.
AB  - We herein report a case of peripheral neuropathy following exposure to large
      amounts of glyphosate-based herbicide. A 70-year-old man suffered from pain and
      purpura in the left sole following exposure to glyphosate-based herbicide. Pain
      and purpura spread to the opposite side and increased in severity. Mild weakness
      of the lower limbs was also observed. A sural nerve biopsy revealed the
      infiltration of lymphocytes around small vessels in the epineurium with numerous
      eosinophils, deposition of hemosiderins and focal axonal degeneration, compatible
      with findings of vasculitic neuropathy. Glyphosate-based herbicides should be
      recognized as a causative agent of vasculitic neuropathy.

PMID- 28566612
TI  - The Successful Treatment of Refractory Polyarteritis Nodosa Using Infliximab.
AB  - Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), characterized by arteritis of medium-sized blood
      vessels, is usually treated with a combination of glucocorticoids and
      immunosuppressants; however, some cases are refractory to these treatments. We
      herein report the case of a man with PAN that was refractory to various
      immunosuppressive treatments, including cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and
      rituximab. After infliximab (IFX) treatment was initiated, his symptoms improved
      dramatically and remission was maintained. IFX is considered to be an effective
      alternative treatment for PAN which proves to be refractory to several
      immunosuppressive treatments.

PMID- 28566613
TI  - Acute Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Due to Pyogenic Flexor Tenosynovitis without Any
      Antecedent Injury.
AB  - We herein report a case of acute carpal tunnel syndrome due to pyogenic flexor
      tenosynovitis in the absence of any antecedent injury whose rapid progression and
      course was similar to that seen with necrotizing fasciitis. This potentially
      disastrous clinical condition must be promptly recognized, since it needs early
      surgical management to prevent morbidity.

PMID- 28566615
TI  - Diffuse Esophageal Spasm.

PMID- 28566614
TI  - Conjunctivitis Caused by a Strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae That Was Less
      Susceptible to Ceftriaxone.
AB  - A 20-year-old man presented with bilateral ocular discharge and conjunctival
      injection. An ocular culture revealed Neisseria gonorrhoeae with decreased
      susceptibility to multiple drugs, including ceftriaxone. The patient was
      successfully treated with doxycycline (100 mg), which was administered orally,
      twice a day, for 7 days.

PMID- 28566616
TI  - Macro-CK and CK-BB Contributing to Sham CK-MB Elevation.

PMID- 28566617
TI  - Biliary Pneumonia due to the Presence of a Bronchobiliary Fistula.

PMID- 28566618
TI  - Underlying Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies for Bisphosphonate-Related
      Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (BRONJ).
AB  - Bisphosphonates (BPs), with a non-hydrolysable P-C-P structure, are cytotoxic
      analogues of pyrophosphate, bind strongly to bone, are taken into osteoclasts
      during bone-resorption and exhibit long-acting anti-bone-resorptive effects.
      Among the BPs, nitrogen-containing BPs (N-BPs) have far stronger anti-bone
      resorptive effects than non-N-BPs. In addition to their pyrogenic and digestive
      organ-injuring side effects, BP-related osteonecrosis of jaws (BRONJ), mostly
      caused by N-BPs, has been a serious concern since 2003. The mechanism underlying
      BRONJ has proved difficult to unravel, and there are no solid strategies for
      treating and/or preventing BRONJ. Our mouse experiments have yielded the
      following results. (a) N-BPs, but not non-N-BPs, exhibit direct inflammatory
      and/or necrotic effects on soft tissues. (b) These effects are augmented by
      lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial-cell-wall component. (c) N-BPs are transported
      into cells via phosphate transporters. (d) The non-N-BPs etidronate (Eti) and
      clodronate (Clo) competitively inhibit this transportation (potencies, Clo>Eti)
      and reduce and/or prevent the N-BP-induced inflammation and/or necrosis. (e) Eti,
      but not Clo, can expel N-BPs that have accumulated within bones. (f) Eti and Clo
      each have an analgesic effect (potencies, Clo>Eti) via inhibition of phosphate
      transporters involved in pain transmission. From these findings, we propose that
      phosphate-transporter-mediated and inflammation/infection-promoted mechanisms
      underlie BRONJ. To treat and/or prevent BRONJ, we propose (i) Eti as a
      substitution drug for N-BPs and (ii) Clo as a combination drug with N-BPs while
      retaining their anti-bone-resorptive effects. Our clinical trials support this
      role for Eti (we cannot perform such trials using Clo because Clo is not
      clinically approved in Japan).

PMID- 28566620
TI  - Cooperative Behavior of Fluoroquinolone Combinations against Escherichia coli and
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - The effects of different combinations of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and norfloxacin
      (NOR) against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were studied using
      checkerboard, fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) and time-kill analysis
      methods. Results obtained by the checkerboard method showed that the more
      effectives combinations against Escherichia coli were 0.0009 ug/mL CIP+0.0312
      ug/mL NOR and 0.0037 ug/mL CIP+0.0075 ug/mL NOR with a FIC index of 0.62. For
      Staphylococcus aureus, the combination of 0.0625 ug/mL CIP+0.2500 ug/mL NOR
      showed a synergistic effect, with a FIC index of 0.50. The results of the time
      kill method demonstrated either indifference or additivity of the combinations
      0.0009 ug/mL CIP+0.0312 ug/mL NOR, 0.0018 ug/mL CIP+0.0312 ug/mL NOR, 0.0037
      ug/mL CIP+0.0075 ug/mL NOR and 0.0037 ug/mL CIP+0.0156 ug/mL NOR at 24 h against
      E. coli. The combination 0.0037 ug/mL CIP+0.0312 ug/mL NOR showed synergistic
      activity. All the analyzed combinations evidenced bactericidal effects at 4 h.
      The combinations 0.0625 ug/mL CIP+0.2500 ug/mL NOR and 0.0625 ug/mL CIP+0.0625
      ug/mL NOR showed indifference or additivity against S. aureus. None of them
      generated bactericidal effect at 4 h. Moreover, this last equimolecular
      combination (equivalent to 1/4 minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) CIP+1/16
      MIC NOR) generated higher reduction of nitro blue tetrazolium than drugs alone.
      By another way, combinations not equimolecular of CIP and NOR assayed, generated
      less levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than the components alone.

PMID- 28566619
TI  - Berberine Induces Cell Cycle Arrest in Cholangiocarcinoma Cell Lines via
      Inhibition of NF-kappaB and STAT3 Pathways.
AB  - Berberine is a natural compound found in several herbs. Anticancer activity of
      berberine was reported in several cancers, however, little is known regarding the
      effects of berberine against cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). In this study, the growth
      inhibitory effects of berberine on CCA cell lines and its molecular mechanisms
      were explored. Cell growth and cell cycle distribution were examined by the 3
      (4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and flow
      cytometry. The expression levels of cell cycle regulatory proteins were
      determined by Western blot analysis. Berberine significantly inhibited growth of
      CCA cell lines in a dose and time dependent fashion. The inhibition was largely
      attributed to cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase through the reduction of cyclin
      D1, and cyclin E. Moreover, berberine could reduce the expression and activation
      of signal transducers and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and probably
      nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) via suppression of extracellular signal
      regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 action. These results highlight the potential of
      berberine to be a multi-target agent for CCA treatment.

PMID- 28566621
TI  - Dual Protective Effects of Flavonoids from Petasites japonicus against UVB
      Induced Apoptosis Mediated via HSF-1 Activated Heat Shock Proteins and Nrf2
      Activated Heme Oxygenase-1 Pathways.
AB  - The leaves of Petasites japonicus are used for their anti-allergic properties in
      traditional Korean, Japanese, and Chinese medicine. This study aimed to identify
      bioactive compounds isolated from P. japonicus leaves. All compounds were
      assessed for their ability of transcriptional activation, induction of phase 2
      enzymes and heat shock proteins (HSPs), as well as protection against the UVB
      induced apoptotic cell death. Bioactive compounds were isolated from P. japonicus
      leaves. All compounds were evaluated for their protective effect using human
      dermal fibroblasts (HDF) and human epidermal keratinocyte cells (HEKC) treated
      with UVB radiation. Four flavonoids were isolated from the leaves of P. japonicus
      and identified as kaempferol-3-O-(6"-acetyl)-beta-D-glucoside (1), quercetin-3-O
      (6"-acetyl)-beta-D-glucoside (2), kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-glucoside (3), and
      quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside (4). These compounds activated nuclear factor
      (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) and heat-shock response transcription
      elements (HSE) that resulted in the induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and
      HSP70, respectively. Activation of these pathways provided protection to the skin
      cells against UVB radiation. The isolated compounds activated the Nrf2 and HSE
      pathways and could protect against UVB-induced apoptosis.

PMID- 28566622
TI  - Factorial Analysis of Hepatitis B Virus Reactivation-Induced Hepatitis B Using
      JADER.
AB  - Hepatitis B caused by chemotherapy- and immunosuppression-associated hepatitis B
      virus reactivation is likely to become fulminant, and a high mortality rate has
      been reported. In this study, using the Japanese adverse drug event report
      database (JADER), factorial analysis of patients who developed hepatitis B as an
      adverse event was performed. The number of reported cases of hepatitis B during
      the survey period was 781 and 185 of them (24%) died. Rituximab and prednisolone
      were administered to many cases (233, 216 cases, respectively), and the reporting
      odds ratios were high (65.35, 13.40, respectively), suggesting their strong
      association with the development of hepatitis B. Regarding the onset time,
      rituximab-induced hepatitis B developed within one year after administration in
      83%, being a high frequency. Prednisolone-induced hepatitis B developed even
      after one year in 36%. Since prednisolone is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis
      at a dose <=10 mg/d, the patients were divided based on the prednisolone dose
      into the groups treated at >10 and <=10 mg/d, and the onset time was investigated
      in each group. The median onset time was 113 and 330 d, respectively, showing a
      significant difference. On time-to-event analysis using the Weibull distribution,
      rituximab was classified as the early failure type, and prednisolone and
      methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis were classified as the wear out failure
      type. These findings are important information which may lead to early discovery
      of and taking actions against hepatitis B being helpful for providing appropriate
      medical care.

PMID- 28566623
TI  - Moutan Cortex Protects Hepatocytes against Oxidative Injury through AMP-Activated
      Protein Kinase Pathway.
AB  - Moutan Cortex, the root bark of Paeonia suffruticosa ANDREWS in Ranunculaceae,
      has widely demonstrated analgesic, anti-spasmodic, and anti-inflammatory effects
      in various cancer and immune cell lines. Oxidative stress is associated with
      development of several diseases, including liver disease. We prepared the water
      extract of Moutan Cortex (MCE) to investigate the cytoprotective activities and
      its mechanism. MCE protected hepatocytes from arachidonic acid (AA)+iron induced
      oxidative stress, as indicated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and
      cell viability analysis. MCE also suppressed mitochondrial dysfunction in AA+iron
      treated human hepatocyte-derived hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2 cells.
      In addition, MCE treatment induces AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and liver
      kinase B1 phosphorylation, which play a role in inhibition of oxidative stress
      induced cell death. Moreover, one of the MCE compounds, chlorogenic acid, exerted
      protective effects against oxidative stress and apoptosis. Taken together, MCE
      protected hepatocytes against AA+iron-induced oxidative stress through AMPK
      activation, and may be a candidate for the treatment of liver disease.

PMID- 28566624
TI  - Distigmine Bromide Produces Sustained Potentiation of Guinea-Pig Urinary Bladder
      Motility by Inhibiting Cholinesterase Activity.
AB  - Distigmine is a cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitor used for the treatment of detrusor
      underactivity in Japan. Distigmine's pharmacological effects are known to be long
      lasting, but the duration of its effect on urinary bladder contractile function
      has not been fully elucidated. The present study aimed to determine these effects
      in relation to the plasma concentrations of distigmine and its inhibition of ChE
      activities in blood, plasma, and bladder tissue. Intravesical pressures were
      recorded in anesthetized guinea-pigs for 12 h after the intravenous
      administration of saline or distigmine (0.01-0.1 mg/kg). Plasma distigmine
      concentrations were measured by liquid chromatograph-tandem mass spectrometry (LC
      MS/MS), while ChE activities were assayed using 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic
      acid). Distigmine (0.1 mg/kg) significantly increased the maximum intravesical
      pressure at micturition reflex for 12 h post-administration. In contrast, plasma
      distigmine was only detectable for 6 h post-administration in these animals and a
      one-compartment model calculated an elimination half-life of 0.7 h. However,
      bladder and blood acetylcholinesterase activities were significantly inhibited
      for 12 h after distigmine administration, although plasma ChE activities were not
      affected. The pharmacodynamic effects of distigmine thus persisted after its
      elimination from the circulation, indicating that it may bind to bladder
      acetylcholinesterase, producing sustained enzyme inhibition and enhancement of
      bladder contractility.

PMID- 28566625
TI  - Effective-Loading of Platinum-Chloroquine into PEGylated Neutral and Cationic
      Liposomes as a Drug Delivery System for Resistant Malaria Parasites.
AB  - The trans platinum-chloroquine diphosphate dichloride (PtCQ) is a new type of
      antimalarial drug used to fight parasites resistant to traditional drugs. PtCQ is
      synthesized by mixing platinum and chloroquine diphosphate (CQ). This study
      examines two efficient methods for forming a nanodrug, PtCQ-loaded liposomes, for
      use as a potential antimalarial drug-delivery system: the thin drug-lipid film
      method to incorporate the drug into a liposomal membrane, and a remote-loading
      method to load the drug into the interior of a cationic liposome. The membranes
      accordingly comprised PEGylated neutral or cationic liposomes. PtCQ was
      efficiently loaded into PEGylated neutral and cationic liposomes using the thin
      drug-lipid film method (encapsulation efficiency, EE: 76.1+/-6.7% for neutral
      liposomes, 1 : 14 drug-to-lipid weight ratio; 70.4+/-9.8% for cationic liposomes,
      1 : 14 drug-to-lipid weight ratio). More PtCQ was loaded into PEGylated neutral
      liposomes using the remote-loading method than by the thin drug-lipid film method
      and the EE was maximum (96.1+/-4.5% for neutral liposomes, 1 : 7 (w/w)). PtCQ was
      encapsulated in PEGylated cationic liposomes comprising various amounts of
      cationic lipids (0-20 mol%; EE: 96.9-92.3%) using the remote-loading method.
      PEGylated neutral liposomes and cationic liposomes exhibited minimum leakage of
      PtCQ after two months' storage at 4 degrees C, and further exhibited little
      release under in vitro culture conditions at 37 degrees C for 72 h. These results
      provide a useful framework for the design of future liposome-based in vivo drug
      delivery systems targeting the malaria parasite.

PMID- 28566626
TI  - Analysis of Adverse Drug Reaction Risk in Elderly Patients Using the Japanese
      Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) Database.
AB  - In general, the risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is higher in elderly
      patients than in younger patients. In this study, we performed a comprehensive
      assessment of the risks of possible drug-ADR combinations in elderly patients
      using the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database of the
      Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA, Japan) using the reporting odds
      ratio (ROR) as an index. Data recorded from April 2004 to September 2015 in the
      JADER database were downloaded from the PMDA website. The patients were
      classified into younger (<=69 years old) and elderly (>=70 years old) groups. The
      ROR and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for all combinations of
      drugs and ADRs for which there were three or more reports in the database,
      focusing particularly on the combinations where more than 100 cases had been
      reported in elderly and younger patients. The most frequently reported drug-ADR
      combination was methotrexate with interstitial lung disease (646 cases). The
      combination with the highest ROR was methotrexate with lymphoproliferative
      disorder (ROR: 484.6, 95% CI: 334.1-702.9). In total, 27 drug-ADR combinations
      were found to have high risk in elderly patients. In conclusion, the findings of
      this comprehensive assessment of drug-ADR combinations using the JADER database
      will be valuable for updating the ADR risks for elderly patients in clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28566627
TI  - Analysis of Clinical Efficacy and Adverse Effects of beta-Blocking Agents Used
      Clinically for Chronic Heart Failure.
AB  - Clinical efficacy and adverse effects of the beta-blocking agents, carvedilol,
      bisoprolol, and metoprolol were analyzed theoretically, and then compared
      quantitatively, for the purpose of determining their proper use for chronic heart
      failure. Initially, we evaluated occupancy binding to the beta1 and beta2
      receptors (Fssbeta1 and Fssbeta2) by these drugs. Thereafter, we examined the
      relationship between Fssbeta1 values and left ventricular ejection fraction
      (LVEF) increase rate to determine efficacy. The result showed that the efficacy
      with carvedilol could be attained with a lower Fssbeta1 value than the others.
      Therefore, we constructed a model under the assumption that beta-blocking agents
      exert both indirect action of LVEF increase through the beta1 receptor and direct
      action on ryanodine receptor 2. Using the model, it was suggested that these
      drugs have no differences in regard to the efficacy, while it was clarified
      theoretically that only carvedilol produces an effect that directly involves
      ryanodine receptor 2 at clinical doses. We also investigated decreases in heart
      rate and forced expiratory volume in 1 s as adverse effects of beta-blocking
      agents using a ternary complex model. It was indicated that carvedilol is less
      likely to induce a heart rate decrease. Meanwhile, it was also suggested that the
      risk of an asthmatic attack was higher for carvedilol at clinical doses. Our
      results are considered useful for selection of a proper beta-blocking agent and
      its administration at a reasonable dose for successful heart failure therapy.

PMID- 28566628
TI  - Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Sensitize Murine B16F10 Melanoma Cells to Carbon
      Ion Irradiation by Inducing G1 Phase Arrest.
AB  - Epigenetic processes, in addition to genetic abnormalities, play a critical role
      in refractory malignant diseases and cause the unresponsiveness to various
      chemotherapeutic regimens and radiotherapy. Herein we demonstrate that histone
      deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) can be used to sensitize malignant melanoma
      B16F10 cells to carbon ion irradiation. The cells were first treated with HDACis
      (romidepsin [FK228, depsipeptide], trichostatin A [TSA], valproic acid [VPA], and
      suberanilohydroxamic acid [SAHA, vorinostat]) and were then exposed to two types
      of radiation (carbon ions and gamma-rays). We found that HDACis enhanced the
      radiation-induced apoptosis and suppression of clonogenicity that was induced by
      irradiation, having a greater effect with carbon ion irradiation than with gamma
      rays. Carbon ion irradiation and the HDACi treatment induced G2/M and G0/G1 cell
      cycle arrest, respectively. Thus, it is considered that HDACi treatment enhanced
      the killing effects of carbon ion irradiation against melanoma cells by inducing
      the arrest of G1 phase cells, which are sensitive to radiation due to a lack of
      DNA homologous recombination repair. Based on these findings, we propose that
      pretreatment with HDACis as radiosensitizers to induce G1 arrest combined with
      carbon ion irradiation may have clinical efficacy against refractory cancer.

PMID- 28566629
TI  - Activation of PPARgamma at an Early Stage of Differentiation Enhances Adipocyte
      Differentiation of MEFs Derived from Type II Diabetic TSOD Mice and Alters Lipid
      Droplet Morphology.
AB  - Type 2 diabetic Tsumura, Suzuki, obese, diabetes (TSOD) mice gradually gain
      weight as compared to corresponding Tsumura, Suzuki, non-obesity (TSNO) control
      mice, and develop insulin resistance. Although development of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus is associated with dysfunction of adipocytes, little is known about the
      properties of adipocytes from TSOD mice. Therefore, we attempted to remove
      intracorporeal factors and elucidate inherent properties of adipocytes of TSOD
      mice using adipocytes differentiated from mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) in
      vitro. Here, we show that MEFs of TSOD have low potency for differentiation into
      adipocytes. The percentage of Oil red O-stained cells and levels of adipogenic
      markers in cells differentiated from MEFs of TSOD are lower than those in cells
      differentiated from MEFs of TSNO. We further show that treatment with an agonist
      of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) (rosiglitazone)
      at an early stage of differentiation increases the percentage of Oil red O
      stained cells in TSOD-MEFs differentiated into adipocytes. Moreover, the lipid
      droplet size in those adipocytes is larger than that in the adipocytes
      differentiated from MEFs of TSNO. Although persistent treatment of MEFs of TSOD
      with rosiglitazone during differentiation increases the percentage of Oil red O
      stained cells, the lipid droplet size in adipocytes treated as such does not
      reach the size of those treated in early stage only. Thus, activation of
      PPARgamma by its agonist at an early stage of differentiation compensates for the
      low potency toward adipogenic differentiation of, and accelerates formation of
      enlarged lipid droplets in adipocytes derived from, MEFs of TSOD mice.

PMID- 28566630
TI  - Insulin Represses Fasting-Induced Expression of Hepatic Fat-Specific Protein 27.
AB  - The fat-specific protein 27 (Fsp27) gene belongs to the cell death-inducing DNA
      fragmentation factor 45-like effector family. Fsp27 is highly expressed in
      adipose tissue as well as the fatty liver of ob/ob mice. Fsp27 is directly
      regulated by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) in
      livers of genetically obese leptin deficient ob/ob mice. In the present study,
      Fsp27 was markedly induced by 24 h fasting in genetically normal mouse livers and
      repressed by refeeding a high sucrose diet. In contrast with the liver, Fsp27
      expression was decreased in adipose tissue by fasting and increased by refeeding.
      Interestingly, fasting-induced Fsp27 liver expression was independent of
      PPARgamma. Moreover, Fsp27 expression was induced in the insulin-depleted livers
      of streptozotocin-treated mice. Finally, Fsp27 expression was repressed by direct
      injection of glucose or insulin in fasting mice. These results suggest that
      insulin represses Fsp27 expression in the fasting liver.

PMID- 28566631
TI  - An Empirical Study of the Prescription Pattern of Drugs for Hematological
      Malignancies in Japan from 2010-2014.
AB  - The number of elderly patients with hematologic malignancies has been steadily
      increasing with the aging of society. However, little research has been conducted
      to evaluate the prescription status of drugs for such diseases in Japan.
      Therefore, the aims of this study were to identify the patient population
      currently being prescribed drugs for hematologic malignancies in Japan and the
      direction of drug development. To examine the prescription pattern of drugs for
      the treatment of hematological malignancies in Japan from 2010-2014, we used the
      IMS Japan Pharmaceutical Market database and the Japanese Society of Hematology
      Clinical Practice Guidelines, and for drug development status, we used
      ClinicalTrials.gov and the University Hospital Medical Information Network
      Clinical Trials Registry. We found a significant upward trend in prescriptions
      for molecular-targeted agents, which are typically prescribed over the long term,
      and a significant downward trend in chemotherapeutic agents, which are usually
      prescribed for the short term. We also found that recent drug development in
      hematological malignancies has focused on molecular-targeted agents. These
      results suggest that drug development should be directed toward anti-tumor agents
      in hematological malignancies that can help maintain and improve patients' QOL.

PMID- 28566632
TI  - Anti-stress Effect of Green Tea with Lowered Caffeine on Humans: A Pilot Study.
AB  - Theanine, an amino acid in tea, has significant anti-stress effects on animals
      and humans. However, the effect of theanine was blocked by caffeine and gallate
      type catechins, which are the main components in tea. We examined the anti-stress
      effect of green tea with lowered caffeine, low-caffeine green tea, on humans. The
      study design was a single-blind group comparison and participants (n=20) were
      randomly assigned to low-caffeine or placebo tea groups. These teas (>=500 mL/d),
      which were eluted with room temperature water, were taken from 1 week prior to
      pharmacy practice and continued for 10 d in the practice period. The participants
      ingested theanine (ca. 15 mg/d) in low-caffeine green tea. To assess the anxiety
      of participants, the state-trait anxiety inventory test was used before pharmacy
      practice. The subjective stress of students was significantly lower in the low
      caffeine-group than in the placebo-group during pharmacy practice. The level of
      salivary alpha-amylase activity, a stress marker, increased significantly after
      daily pharmacy practice in the placebo-group but not in the low-caffeine-group.
      These results suggested that the ingestion of low-caffeine green tea suppressed
      the excessive stress response of students. This study was registered at the
      University Hospital Medical Information Network (ID No. UMIN14942).

PMID- 28566633
TI  - Co-administration of Magnesium Ion Prevents Indomethacin-Induced Intestinal
      Ulcerogenic Lesions in Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis Rats.
AB  - In a study to find ways to prevent the side effects of indomethacin (IMC), we
      previously reported that magnesium ion (Mg2+) can prevent the onset of IMC
      induced gastric mucosa in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rats, a model for
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this study we investigated whether the co
      administration of IMC and Mg2+ prevents the formation and aggravation of
      intestinal ulcerogenic lesions in AA rats. The single oral administration of an
      excessive dose of IMC (40 mg/kg) induces hemorrhagic lesions and nitric oxide
      (NO) production via inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the jejunal and
      ileal mucosa of AA rats, and the extent of the lesions, as well as iNOS and NO
      levels in AA rats are higher than in normal rats. On the other hand, the co
      administration of 200 mg/kg Mg2+ attenuates intestinal ulceration and the
      elevation in the iNOS and NO levels in AA rats. Further, hemorrhagic lesioning
      and enhanced iNOS and NO levels in AA rats also result from the repetitive oral
      administration of 3 mg/kg IMC (therapeutic dose) for 42 d (once a day), and these
      changes are also prevented by the co-administration of 200 mg/kg Mg2+. In
      conclusion, the co-administration of Mg2+ suppresses the ulcerogenic response to
      IMC in the jejunal and ileal mucosa of AA rats, probably by preventing the
      elevation of iNOS and NO levels in the region.

PMID- 28566635
TI  - Concentration of Sulfate and Glucuronide Conjugates of Ritodrine in Twin
      Pregnancy.
AB  - Ritodrine, a drug for the treatment of threatened premature labor, is a highly
      selective beta-2 agonist with the major metabolites of sulfate and glucuronide
      conjugates. This study investigated the continuous evaluation of the
      concentration of ritodrine conjugates in relation to the clinical course in twin
      pregnancy. The subjects were 9 twin-pregnancy mothers who delivered after
      receiving ritodrine treatment between April 2012 and December 2013. Serum
      ritodrine sulfate and glucuronide conjugates were deconjugated using their
      specific enzymes. Ritodrine concentration was measured by liquid chromatography
      tandem mass spectrometry. The continuous infusion rate of ritodrine was 2.66+/
      0.67 (0.8-3.54) ug/min/kg, and the average concentration of unchanged ritodrine
      was 118.8+/-33.2 (63.8-194.0) ng/mL. During the study period between week 32 and
      week 36 of gestation, the average ratio of unchanged ritodrine concentration and
      sulfate ritodrine conjugate concentration for weeks 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 were
      1.7, 1.9, 1.5, 1.7, and 1.7 not significant (N.S.), respectively. The average
      ratio of unchanged ritodrine concentration and glucuronide ritodrine conjugate
      concentration were 1.8, 2.2, 1.9, 1.8, and 2.1 (N.S.), respectively. No
      statistical difference was identified in the ratios of unchanged ritodrine
      concentration and sulfate or glucuronide ritodrine conjugate concentrations.
      Large individual differences were shown in the concentration of sulfate and
      glucuronide during the gestational period. No change in the ratio of the
      formation of ritodrine metabolites was identified as the gestational age
      progressed.

PMID- 28566634
TI  - Effect of Docosahexaenoic Acid on Voltage-Independent Ca2+ Entry Pathways in
      Cultured Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Stimulated with 5-Hydroxytryptamine.
AB  - We previously reported that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) inhibits an increase in
      intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle
      cells (VSMCs) through a mechanism involving mainly voltage-dependent Ca2+
      channels; however, the effect of DHA on voltage-independent pathways, such as
      store-operated and receptor-operated Ca2+ entry, and Ca2+ entry through Na+/Ca2+
      exchanger (NCX), has not been clarified. In the present study, we investigated
      the effect of DHA treatment on the expression of transient receptor potential
      canonical (TRPC) channels, capacitative Ca2+ entry, and Ca2+ entry through NCX in
      rat cultured VSMCs stimulated with 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). RT-PCR analysis
      detected TRPC1, TRPC4, and TRPC6 mRNA in cultured VSMCs. DHA treatment for 2 d
      slightly but significantly decreased TRPC1, but not TRPC4 and TRPC6, mRNA
      expression. Sarpogrelate, a selective serotonin 5-HT2A receptor inhibitor,
      completely inhibited the 5-HT-induced increase in [Ca2+]i in cultured VSMCs. Ca2+
      influx by adding extracellular Ca2+ (1.3 mM) to the Ca2+-free condition in the
      presence of 5-HT was partially but significantly inhibited by sarpogrelate. DHA
      treatment for 2 d had no effect on Ca2+ influx when extracellular Ca2+ was added
      to the Ca2+-free condition in the presence of either 5-HT alone or 5-HT with
      sarpogrelate. KB-R7943, a selective inhibitor of reverse mode NCX, significantly
      suppressed the 5-HT-induced increase of [Ca2+]i. Furthermore, DHA treatment for 2
      d significantly decreased NCX1 mRNA expression. These results suggest that DHA
      seems to have little effect on capacitative Ca2+ entry. Through decreasing NCX1
      expression, DHA may suppress the 5-HT-induced increase in [Ca2+]i.

PMID- 28566636
TI  - Inhibition of Methotrexate Uptake via Organic Anion Transporters OAT1 and OAT3 by
      Glucuronides of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs.
AB  - Combination therapy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and
      methotrexate (MTX) sometimes triggers adverse effects, such as liver injury,
      renal failure, gastrointestinal disorders, and myelosuppression, owing to the
      reduction of MTX clearance. Previous reports have suggested that NSAIDs inhibit
      renal MTX uptake via organic anion transporters (OATs) and reduced folate
      transporter (RFC)-1 and efflux via multidrug resistance-associated proteins
      (MRPs). Recently, our laboratory found inhibitory effects of NSAIDs-glucuronide
      (NSAIDs-Glu), a major metabolite of NSAIDs, on MRP-mediated MTX transport as a
      new site of interaction between MTX and NSAIDs. However, it remains unclear that
      whether NSAIDs-Glu inhibit renal uptake of MTX. Therefore, the present study
      aimed to evaluate inhibitory effects of several NSAIDs-Glu (diclofenac, R- and S
      ibuprofen, R- and S-flurbiprofen, and R- and S-naproxen) on human OAT1 and OAT3
      mediated MTX transport. In this study, [3H]MTX uptake was observed by using human
      OAT1 and OAT3-overexpressing HEK293 cells in the presence or absence of NSAIDs
      Glu. All examined NSAIDs-Glu exhibited concentration-dependent inhibitory effects
      on MTX uptake via OAT1 and OAT3. Our results indicated that NSAIDs-Glu are more
      potent (5- to 15-fold) inhibitors of OAT3 than OAT1. Moreover, stereoselective
      inhibitory effects of NSAIDs-Glu on OATs-mediated MTX uptake were not observed,
      unlike on MRPs-mediated transport. These findings suggest that inhibition of OAT1
      and OAT3-mediated renal uptake of MTX by plasma NSAIDs-Glu may be one of the
      competitive sites underlying complex drug interaction between MTX and NSAIDs.

PMID- 28566637
TI  - 2,4-Bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)phenol from Cinnamomum loureirii Improves Cognitive
      Deficit, Cholinergic Dysfunction, and Oxidative Damage in TMT-Treated Mice.
AB  - We previously reported that the extract of Cinnamomum loureirii (C. loureirii)
      significantly inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and identified 2,4-bis(1,1
      dimethylethyl)phenol (BP) from C. loureirii as a potential AChE inhibitor. The
      present study, therefore was undertaken to demonstrate the effects of BP from C.
      loureirii on learning and memory impairment in trimethyltin (TMT)-treated ICR
      mice. Y-maze and passive avoidance tests were used to test cognitive ability.
      Further, changes in biochemical parameters in the brain tissue were also assessed
      in response to TMT injection and BP intervention. BP pre-administration (20, 40
      mg/kg/d) in mice significantly protected cognitive dysfunction induced by TMT
      (p<0.05). Moreover, BP reduced AChE activity and lipid peroxidation but increased
      acetylcholine levels in the brain. In conclusion, we suggested that BP protected
      against TMT-induced cognitive dysfunction, and might be a potential agent for
      alleviating symptoms of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease,
      via modulating cholinergic functions.

PMID- 28566639
TI  - Errata for Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin.

PMID- 28566638
TI  - Prevention of UV-Induced Melanin Production by Accumulation of Redox
      Nanoparticles in the Epidermal Layer via Iontophoresis.
AB  - UV rays induce melanin production in the skin, which, from a cosmetic point of
      view, is problematic. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated in the skin upon UV
      irradiation are thought to be responsible for melanin production. Thus, effective
      antioxidants are recognized as useful tools for prevention of UV-induced melanin
      production. Redox nanoparticles (RNPs) containing nitroxide radicals as free
      radical scavengers were previously developed, and shown to be effective ROS
      scavengers in the body. RNPs are therefore expected to be useful for effective
      protection against UV-induced melanin production. However, as the sizes of RNPs
      are typically larger than the intercellular spaces of the skin, transdermal
      penetration is difficult. We recently demonstrated effective transdermal delivery
      and accumulation of nanoparticles in the epidermal layer via faint electric
      treatment, i.e., iontophoresis, suggesting that iontophoresis of RNPs may be a
      useful strategy for prevention of UV-induced melanin production in the skin.
      Herein, we performed iontophoresis of RNPs on the dorsal skin of hairless mice
      that produce melanin in response to light exposure. RNPs accumulated in the
      epidermal layer upon application of iontophoresis. Further, the combination of
      RNPs with iontophoresis decreased UV-induced melanin spots and melanin content in
      the skin. Taken together, we successfully demonstrated that iontophoresis
      mediated accumulation of RNPs in the epidermis prevented melanin production.

PMID- 28566640
TI  - Special Issue : ICRBO 2016 (The 3rd International Conference on Rice Bran Oil).

PMID- 28566641
TI  - Rice Bran Oil: A Versatile Source for Edible and Industrial Applications.
AB  - Rice bran oil (RBO) is healthy gift generously given by nature to mankind. RBO is
      obtained from rice husk, a byproduct of rice milling industry and is gaining lot
      of importance as cooking oil due to presence of important micronutrient, gamma
      oryzanol. Its high smoke point is beneficial for its use for frying and deep
      frying of food stuff. It is popular because of balanced fatty acid profile (most
      ideal ratio of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids),
      antioxidant capacity, and cholesterollowering abilities. Rice bran wax which is
      secondary by-product obtained as tank settling from RBO is used as a substitute
      for carnauba wax in cosmetics, confectionery, shoe creams etc. It can be also
      used as a source for fatty acid and fatty alcohol. The article is intended to
      highlight for the importance of RBO and its applications.

PMID- 28566642
TI  - Modulatory Effect of an Isolated Triglyceride from Fenugreek Seed Oil on of alpha
      Amylase, Lipase and ACE Activities, Liver-Kidney Functions and Metabolic
      Disorders of Diabetic Rats.
AB  - This study was designed to examine physicochemical characteristics, chemical
      compositions and biological activities of fenugreek seed oil (FSO) and its pure
      triglyceride (TG). One fenugreek TG was purified using a bioassay-guided
      fractionation and administrated to surviving diabetic rats. The free fatty acids
      percentage as well as, the peroxide, the saponification and the iodine values
      were 2%, 12 mequiv. O2/kg of oil, 189 (mg KOH/g) and 110 (g/100 g of oil),
      respectively. Linolenic acid (C18:3 26.14%), Linoleic acid (C18:2 41.13%) and
      Oleic acid (C18:1 17.07%) were the dominant fatty acids in the FSO. beta
      sitosterol was the major sterol (85.3%) in the FSO. LnLnO (17.1%), LLL (16.6%),
      OLL and OOLn (8.4%), were the abundant triglycerides. The hexane extract of
      fenugreek seed (exhibiting the powerful inhibitory activity against alpha
      amylase) was purified using a bioassay-guided fractionation affording one
      fenugreek TG: (11Z)-11- eicosenoic acid 2, 3- bis[((9Z, 12Z, 15Z)-1-oxo-9, 12, 15
      octadecatrien-1-yl)oxy] propyl ester. In diabetic rats, the administration of the
      fenugreek TG inhibited alpha-amylase activity in small intestine by 36% as
      compared to untreated diabetic rats. Moreover, fenugreek TG increased insulin
      sensibility which leads to decrease in blood glucose level by 43%. In addition,
      this study demonstrated that administration of pure fenugreek TG to diabetic rats
      ameliorated the glycogen rate in liver and muscle. In addition, the
      administration of fenugreek TG reverted back the activity of angiotensin
      converting enzyme respectively in kidney and plasma by 33 and 29%. Interestingly,
      the fenugreek TG inhibited lipase activity in small intestine by 33% which leads
      to the regulation of lipid profile. Moreover, the fenugreek TG protected liver
      kidney function evidenced by histological study. In conclusion, our finding
      demonstrates that the administration of fenugreek TG to diabetic rats can make it
      a potential candidate for industrial application as a pharmacological agent for
      the treatment of hyperglycemia.

PMID- 28566644
TI  - Creation of Novel Cyclization Methods Using sp-Hybridized Carbon Units and
      Syntheses of Bioactive Compounds.
AB  - Some recent results on the development of new and reliable procedures for the
      construction of diverse ring systems based on the chemistry of sp-hybridized
      species, especially allene functionality, are described. This review includes:
      (i) synthesis of the multi-cyclic skeletons by combination of the pi-component of
      allene with suitable other pi-components such as alkyne, alkene, or additional
      allene under Rh-catalyzed conditions; (ii) synthesis of heterocycles as well as
      carbocycles by reaction of the sp-hybridized center of allene with some
      nucleophiles in an endo-mode manner; and (iii) total syntheses of natural
      products and related compounds from the sp-hybridized starting materials.

PMID- 28566643
TI  - Prolapse Volume to Prolapse Height Ratio for Differentiating Barlow's Disease
      From Fibroelastic Deficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As mitral valve (MV) repair for Barlow's disease remains surgically
      challenging, it is important to distinguish Barlow's disease from fibroelastic
      deficiency (FED) preoperatively. We hypothesized that the prolapse volume to
      prolapse height ratio (PV-PH ratio) may be useful to differentiate Barlow's
      disease and FED.Methods and Results:In 76 patients with MV prolapse who underwent
      presurgical transesophageal echocardiography, the 3D MV morphology was
      quantified: 19 patients were diagnosed with Barlow's disease and 57 with FED. The
      patients with Barlow's disease had greater prolapse volume and height than the
      patients with FED, as well as greater PV-PH ratio (0.61+/-0.35 vs. 0.17+/-0.10,
      P<0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis revealed that with a cutoff
      value of 0.27, the PV-PH ratio differentiated Barlow's disease from FED with
      84.2% sensitivity and 84.2% specificity. Net reclassification improvement showed
      that the differentiating ability of the PV-PH ratio was significantly superior to
      prolapse volume (1.30, P<0.001). After being adjusted by each of prolapse volume
      and height, annular area and shape, and the number of prolapsed segments, the PV
      PH ratio had an independent association with Barlow's disease. CONCLUSIONS: The
      PV-PH ratio was able to differentiate Barlow's disease from FED with high
      accuracy. 3D quantification including this value should be performed before MV
      repair.

PMID- 28566645
TI  - Preparation and Characterizations of RSPP050-Loaded Polymeric Micelles Using
      Poly(ethylene glycol)-b-Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) and Poly(ethylene glycol)-b
      Poly(D,L-lactide).
AB  - RSPP050 (AG50) is one of the semi-synthetic andrographolide that is isolated from
      Andrographis paniculata NEES (Acanthaceae). The anti-proliferation effects of
      AG50 against cholangiocarcinoma (HuCCT1) were displayed high cytotoxicity.
      Unfortunately, poor water solubility of AG50 limited its clinical applications.
      This study aimed to increase the concentration of AG50 in water and drug loading
      and release study in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in the absence/presence of
      pig liver esterase enzyme. Cytotoxicity of AG50-loaded polymeric micelles was
      evaluated against HuCCT1. AG50 loaded micelles were prepared by film sonication
      and encapsulated by polymers including poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(epsilon
      caprolactone) (PEG-b-PCL) or poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(D,L-lactide) (PEG-b
      PLA). Micelle properties were characterized such as solubility, drug loading,
      drug release and in vitro cytotoxicity against HuCTT1. AG50 was successfully
      loaded into both types of polymeric micelles. The best drug-polymer (D/P) ratio
      was 1 : 9. AG50/PCL and AG50/PLA-micelles had small particle size (36.4+/-5.1,
      49.0+/-2.7 nm, respectively) and high yield (58.2+/-1.8, 58.8+/-2.9,
      respectively). AG50/PLA-micelles (IC50=2.42 ug/mL) showed higher cytotoxicity
      against HuCCT1 than AG50/PCL-micelles (IC50=4.40 ug/mL) due to the higher amount
      of AG50 released. Nanoencapsulation of AG50 could provide a promising development
      in clinical use for cholangiocarcinoma treatment.

PMID- 28566646
TI  - Morin Moderates the Biotoxicity of Pneumococcal Pneumolysin by Weakening the
      Oligomers' Formation.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is an important causative agent of acute
      invasive and non-invasive infections. Pneumolysin is one of a considerable number
      of virulence traits produced by pneumococcus that exhibits a variety of
      biological activities, thus making it a target of small molecule drug
      development. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of morin, a natural
      compound that has no antimicrobial activity against S. pneumonia, is a potent
      neutralizer of pneumolysin-mediated cytotoxicity and genotoxicity by impairing
      oligomer formation, and possesses the capability of mitigating tissue damage
      caused by pneumococcus. These findings indicate that morin could be a potent
      candidate for a novel therapeutic or auxiliary substance to treat infections for
      which there are inadequate vaccines and that are resistant to traditional
      antibiotics.

PMID- 28566648
TI  - Three New Methods for Resolving Ternary Mixture with Overlapping Spectra:
      Comparative Study.
AB  - In this study three new spectrophotometric methods have been developed and
      validated for simultaneous determination of ternary mixture of metronidazole
      (MET), diloxanide (DLX) and mebeverine HCl (MEB) without prior separation steps.
      The newly introduced methods consisted of several steps utilizing either zero
      order or ratio spectra without the need for derivatization steps. The developed
      methods are called area under the curve ("AUC"), modified absorption factor
      (MAFM) and modified amplitude center (MACM) spectrophotometric methods.
      Selectivity and validity of the methods were checked by using different synthetic
      mixtures and by analysis of their combined dosage form where low standard
      deviation values and good percentage recoveries were obtained. Additionally,
      methods linearity, accuracy and precision were determined following United States
      Pharmacopoeia (USP) recommendations. The obtained results were found to agree
      with the reported ones when they were statistically compared using One Way ANOVA
      test. These methods are easily applied during drug quality control studies and in
      laboratories lacking the facilities of chromatographic methods of analysis. Data
      manipulation steps are very simple, hence these methods can be considered as time
      and money saving methods comparing to chromatographic methods of analysis.

PMID- 28566647
TI  - Potential Use of Polyvinyl Acetate-Polyvinylpyrrolidone Mixture for the
      Development of Atenolol Sustained Release Matrix Tablets: Optimization of
      Formulation through in Vitro-in Vivo Assessment Study.
AB  - The objective of this study was to develop sustained release matrix tablets of
      atenolol (AT) using different concentrations of polyvinyl acetate
      polyvinylpyrrolidone mixture (KSR) (20, 30, or 40%) with various types of fillers
      such as spray dried lactose (SP.D.L), avicel pH 101 (AV), and emcompress (EMS).
      The physical characteristics of the prepared tablets were evaluated.
      Characterization of the optimized formulation was performed using Fourier
      transform (FT)-IR spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).
      Moreover, the in vitro release profiles of AT formulations were investigated in
      different pH dissolution media. Drug release kinetics and mechanisms were also
      determined. The results revealed that there was no potential incompatibility of
      the drug with the polymer. The release profiles of AT were affected by the
      concentration of KSR, fillers used, and pH of the dissolution media. The drug
      release kinetic from most of the formulations obeyed Higuchi diffusion model. The
      selected formulae were investigated for their stability by storage at 30 and 40
      degrees C with atmospheric humidity and 75% relative humidity (RH), respectively.
      The results demonstrated that no change in the physicochemical properties of the
      tablets stored at 30 degrees C/atmospheric RH in comparison with some changes at
      40 degrees C/75% RH. Finally, the in vivo study provided an evidence that the
      optimized AT tablet containing 40% KSR and SP.D.L exhibited prominent higher oral
      bioavailability and more efficient sustained-release effect than the drug alone
      or the commercial tablet product. It is noteworthy that KSR could be considered
      as a promising useful release retardant for the production of AT sustained
      release matrix tablets.

PMID- 28566649
TI  - Concise and Versatile Synthesis of Sulfoquinovosyl Acyl Glycerol Derivatives for
      Biological Applications.
AB  - Sulfoquinovosyl acylpropanediol (SQAP), a chemically modified analogue of
      sulfoquinovosyl acylglycerol (SQAG) that occurs in sea algae, has been reported
      to show a variety of biological activities, including accumulation in tumor cells
      and the inhibition of tumor cell growth. We report herein on a new concise and
      versatile synthesis of SQAP itself and derivatives bearing iodoaryl groups and
      boronclusters. This method should be useful for the design and synthesis of
      SQAG/SQAP derivatives for diagnosis and the treatment of cancer and related
      diseases.

PMID- 28566650
TI  - A Convenient Method for Preparation of alpha-Imino Carboxylic Acid Derivatives
      and Application to the Asymmetric Synthesis of Unnatural alpha-Amino Acid
      Derivative.
AB  - We describe herein a manganese(IV) oxide-mediated oxidation of N-p-methoxyphenyl
      (PMP)-protected glycine derivatives for the synthesis of alpha-imino carboxylic
      acid derivatives. Using this methodology, utilization of unstable glyoxic acid
      derivatives was avoided. Furthermore, using this methodology we synthesized novel
      alpha-imino carboxylic acid derivatives such as alpha-imino phenyl ester,
      perfluoroalkyl etsers, imides, and thioester. The asymmetric Mannich reaction of
      those novel imine derivatives with 1,3-dicarbonyl compound is also described, and
      the novel alpha-imino imide gave improved chemical yield and stereoselectivity
      compared with those obtained by the use of the conventional alpha-imino ester
      type substrate.

PMID- 28566651
TI  - A New Pyranonaphtoquinone Derivative, 4-Oxo-rhinacanthin A, from Roots of
      Indonesian Rhinacanthus nasutus.
AB  - A new pyranonaphthoquinone derivative, named 4-oxo-rhinacanthin A (1), was
      isolated from the roots of the Indonesian Rhinacanthus nasutus together with two
      known congeners, rhinacanthin A (2) and 3,4-dihydro-3,3-dimethyl-2H-naphtho[2,3
      b]pyran-5,10-dione (3). The structure of 1 was elucidated based on its
      spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration of 1 was assigned by comparing its
      experimental Electronic Circular Dichroism (ECD) spectrum with the calculated ECD
      spectrum. Compounds 2 and 3 inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus with
      inhibition zones of 16 and 20 mm at 25 ug/disc, respectively. Compound 3 also
      exhibited inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis (20 mm at 25
      ug/disc).

PMID- 28566652
TI  - Conformational Change and Epimerization of Diketopiperazines Containing Proline
      Residue in Water.
AB  - In water, diketopiperazines cyclo(L-Pro-L-Xxx) and cyclo(L-Pro-D-Xxx) (Xxx=Phe,
      Tyr) formed an intramolecular hydrophobic interaction between the main skeleton
      part and their benzene ring, and both cyclo(L-Pro-L-Xxx) and cyclo(L-Pro-D-Xxx)
      took a folded conformation. The conformational changes from folded to extended
      conformation by addition of several deuterated organic solvents (acetone-d6,
      metanol-d4, dimethyl sulfoxide-d6 (DMSO-d6)) and the temperature rise were
      investigated using 1H-NMR spectra. The results suggested that the intrarmolecular
      hydrophobic interaction of cyclo(L-Pro-D-Xxx) formed more strongtly than that of
      cyclo(L-Pro-L-Xxx). Under a basic condition of 1.0*10-1 mol/L potassium
      deuteroxide, enolization of O1-C1-C9-H9 moiety of cyclo(L-Pro-L-Xxx) occurred,
      while that of the O4-C4-C3-H3 moiety did not. Cyclo(L-Pro-L-Xxx) epimerized to
      cyclo(D-Pro-L-Xxx), while cyclo(L-Pro-D-Xxx) did not change.

PMID- 28566653
TI  - Errata for Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin.

PMID- 28566654
TI  - Slow-Flow Phenomenon After Stent Deployment in Lipid Rich Plaque Harboring
      Cholesterol Crystals.

PMID- 28566655
TI  - Translational Study of Hydrogen Gas Inhalation as Adjuncts to Reperfusion Therapy
      for Acute Myocardial Infarction.

PMID- 28566656
TI  - Low Heart Rate Variability and Sympathetic Dominance Modifies the Association
      Between Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome - The Toon Health Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance is strongly associated with metabolic syndrome
      (MetS), but it is not known how this association is influenced by the autonomic
      nervous system, which controls insulin secretion.Methods and Results:The subjects
      were 2,016 individuals aged 30-79 years enrolled between 2009 and 2012. MetS was
      determined using the harmonized MetS definition, which includes waist
      circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol, and fasting glucose. The homeostasis model assessment index for
      insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and Gutt's insulin sensitivity index (ISI) were
      calculated based on fasting and 2 h-post-load glucose and insulin concentrations
      in a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. The 5-min heart rate variability (HRV) was
      evaluated using time-domain indices of standard deviations of NN intervals (SDNN)
      and root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). Power spectral analysis
      yielded frequency-domain measures for HRV: high-frequency (HF) power, low
      frequency (LF) power and LF/HF. Multivariable adjusted logistic models showed
      that the highest quartiles for SDNN, RMSSD, LF, and HF vs. the lowest quartiles
      had a significant association with MetS. RMSSD, HF, and LF/HF remained
      significantly associated with MetS after adjustment for HOMA-IR (or ISI).
      Additive interactions between the levels of high LF/HF and high HOMA-IR (or low
      ISI) were significantly positive. CONCLUSIONS: Sympathovagal imbalance as
      evidenced by low HF and high LF/HF modified the association of insulin resistance
      or low insulin sensitivity with MetS.

PMID- 28566658
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28566657
TI  - Performance of Leadless Pacemaker in Japanese Patients vs. Rest of the World -
      Results From a Global Clinical Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A global study designed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of a
      transcatheter pacing system included 38 Japanese patients enrolled at 4 sites.
      Subgroup analysis to evaluate the performance of the leadless intracardiac
      transcatheter pacing system in Japanese patients was performed.Methods and
      Results:Safety and efficacy outcomes, patient and implant procedure
      characteristics, and patient and physician acceptability from the Japanese
      population were compared with those from outside Japan. Differences in patient
      characteristics, implant procedure characteristics and patient acceptability were
      observed. There were no major complications in Japanese patients and pacing
      thresholds remained low and stable throughout follow-up. There were no observable
      differences between Japanese patients and patients from outside Japan in the
      freedom from major complication rate at 12-months post-implant (100.0% vs. 95.7%,
      P=0.211) or physician acceptability. CONCLUSIONS: Although some differences in
      specific baseline characteristics, such as body size and pacing indication, and
      in implant procedure characteristics, including anticoagulation strategy and
      hospitalization period, were observed in the Japanese patients, transcatheter
      pacemaker performance was similar to that in the global trial. (Clinical Trial
      Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02004873.).

PMID- 28566659
TI  - Effects of Natural and Chemically Defined Nutrients on Candida albicans Water
      soluble Fraction (CAWS) Vasculitis in Mice.
AB  - Kawasaki disease (KD) is an inflammatory disease that was identified by Professor
      Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1961. Candida albicans-derived substances, such as C.
      albicans water-soluble fraction (CAWS) , induce coronary arteritis similar to KD
      in mice. CAWS functions as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) by
      acting as a ligand for dectin-2. A gut-associated immunological system has
      developed specifically to segregate advantageous and detrimental stimuli, and the
      microbial flora has been found to markedly affect the development and severity of
      diseases. We herein investigated whether diet affects the onset and progression
      of CAWS vasculitis in mice. A standard diet, CE-2, and chemically defined diet,
      AIN93G, which is free of beta-glucan, were used. Although all mice administered
      with CAWS died, the mean number of survival days was smaller in the AIN93G group
      because vasculitis was induced earlier than in the CE-2 group. Bacteroides, which
      are inflammatory flora, were enriched in the microbial flora of the AIN93G group.
      The results of the present study suggest that diet quality affects not only
      microbial flora changes, but also the progression of systemic disease.

PMID- 28566660
TI  - A Giant Dermatophyte Abscess Caused by Trichophyton rubrum in an
      Immunocompromised Patient.
AB  - A 73-year-old male who had been receiving immunosuppressive drugs for 15 years
      developed a nodule on the left buttock region. The nodule slowly grew into a 15
      cm fluctuant multilocular subcutaneous cyst. Serum beta-D-glucan levels were
      high, and the yellow purulent fluid obtained from the cyst was positive for
      Trichophyton rubrum. Granuloma formation in the cyst wall and large abscesses in
      the central cystic area were found, and septated hyphae were observed in both
      tissues. The cyst was surgically removed, and followed by itraconazole treatment.
      Notably, the clinical manifestations closely resembled those of a huge atheroma.

PMID- 28566661
TI  - Azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus Containing a 34-bp Tandem Repeat in cyp51A
      Promoter is Isolated from the Environment in Japan.
AB  - Azole-resistant strains of Aspergillus fumigatus containing a tandem repeat in
      the cyp51A promoter and amino acid substitution(s) have been isolated in the
      environment worldwide; however, this type of resistant strain had never been
      isolated from the environment in Japan. Our previous study indicated that an
      azole-resistant A. fumigatus strain OKH50 containing a 34-bp tandem repeat in
      cyp51A promoter with L98H substitution in Cyp51A was isolated from a patient in
      Obihiro of Hokkaido, Japan. In this study, we collected azole-resistant
      Aspergillus spp. by air sampling from the environment in Japan. One Aspergillus
      like colony was isolated from one of 10 sampling sites surveyed. The strain Env1
      was confirmed as A. fumigatus by nucleotide sequencing and possessed a 34-bp
      tandem repeat in the promoter region of cyp51A with L98H substitution in Cyp51A.
      A. fumigatus Env1 has the identical short tandem repeat pattern with the OKH50
      strain, indicating that these strains are closely related with each other.
      Additionally, the short tandem repeat pattern is closely related to Danish and
      Iranian environmental isolates, suggesting that azole-resistant strains have
      crossed transnational boundaries and are now present in Japan, and therefore,
      further analysis throughout Japan is required to determine the distribution of
      this type of azole-resistant A. fumigatus.

PMID- 28566662
TI  - Practical Management of Deep Cutaneous Fungal Infections.
AB  - Understanding deep cutaneous fungal infection requires not only reading many case
      reports and checking the typical clinical images of skin lesions, but also
      managing the patients properly to prevent misdiagnosis. Herein, I review my
      recent experiences with eight typical cases of deep cutaneous infections
      (including protothecosis and nocardiosis) in Japan. It is very important to do
      the four management processes; namely, KOH direct microscopic examination, skin
      biopsy, fungal culture, and microscopic examination of the histopathological
      specimen of PAS and Grocott staining. Also, to aid in memorizing the names of
      important diseases, I recommend the mnemonic "AC PPPS MD" (Aspergillosis,
      Cryptococcosis, Phaeohyphomycosis, Protothecosis, Pseudoallescheriosis,
      Sporotrichosis, Mycetoma, and Dermatophytosis). Isolation of the fungus by
      culturing from the skin lesion is the best way to carry out quick and correct
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28566663
TI  - Promising Therapies for Fungal Infection Based on the Study to Elucidate
      Mechanisms to Cope with Stress in Candida Species [Translated Article].
AB  - In recent years, the incidence of fungal infections has been increasing,
      particularly among patients with immune systems compromised by human
      immunodeficiency virus infection, organ transplantation, and/or chemotherapy for
      cancer. Current therapies for treating systemic fungal infection have limited
      effectiveness and have created problems of adverse reactions and drug resistance.
      These issues therefore motivate us to develop novel antifungals. Elucidation of
      stress response mechanisms and virulence factors in pathogenic fungi is required
      in developing an effective antifungal strategy. There are actually numerous
      studies concerning various stress responses in several important fungal
      pathogens. Among these responses, we focused on stress response for iron
      starvation to identify potential targets for novel antifungals because iron
      starvation occurs in blood, where pathogenic fungi often infect. Here we show
      recent progress of studies on iron homeostasis in Candida species, especially
      focusing on Candida glabrata, and propose novel antifungal targets.

PMID- 28566665
TI  - Treatment of Tinea Pedis in Elderly Patients Using External Preparations.
AB  - Infection rate of tinea pedis is high in the elderly, wherein treatment by a
      dermatologist should be considered to prevent infecting their family members.
      About 90 percent of cases with tinea pedis is treated only using external
      preparations. In treating the elderly with tinea pedis using external
      preparation, we should take into consideration that the elderly have thinner and
      weaker skin compared to younger people. There are many kinds of dosage form
      (cream, ointments, lotion, spray, and so on) for external preparations to treat
      tinea pedis. Generally, liquid forms such as lotions and sprays cause stronger
      irritation compared to ointments and creams, thus, caution should be taken for
      side effects when applying them to the elderly. Contact dermatitis is the most
      frequent side effect of external preparations. Caution should also be taken for
      the type of additives used. The composition of the preparation should be checked
      when changing dosage forms, or when switching brand-name drugs to generic drugs.
      Since the adherence rate of external preparations is low, it is preferable to use
      those with strong antibacterial activity and only have to be applied once a day.

PMID- 28566664
TI  - Remarkable Works and Cases in the History of Medical Mycology in Japan.
AB  - Several pathogenic fungi and cases related to Japanese medical mycologists were
      reviewed. Trichosporon inkin (as Sarcinomyces inkin) was reported as a pathogen
      of scrotal lesion by Oho in 1921, and Trichosporon asahii was isolated from
      generalized keratotic lesions in 1922 by Akagi in Japan. They were once included
      in Trichophyton beigelii, but then based on revision using DNA molecular
      technology, were returned to their original names.Microsporum ferrugineum was
      reported by Ota as a causative dermatophyte of tinea capitis in Japan and
      surrounding areas. It was once classified under the genus Trichophyton, but after
      the discovery of characteristic rough-walled macroconidia belonging to genus
      Microsporum, the fungus was again assigned to the original name.

PMID- 28566666
TI  - Treatment and Prevention of Oral Candidiasis in Elderly Patients.
AB  - The incidence of oral candidiasis has increased in the elderly in recent years.
      Although the increase of the elderly population plays a big role in this rise of
      oral candidiasis, the broader recognition that elderly people have higher
      infection rates for oral candidiasis is considered to be also an important
      factor. Oral candidiasis can be categorized into three types. Pseudomembranous
      oral candidiasis is characterized by the appearance of white moss, erythematous
      oral candidiasis by the eruption of erythema, and hyperplastic oral candidiasis
      by mucosal hyperplasia. Miconazole has been commonly used when treating oral
      candidiasis. Elderly patients, however, have a tendency to develop oral
      candidiasis repeatedly. It is therefore critical to take measures to prevent
      recurrence. We recommend the use an oral moisturizer containing hinokitiol, an
      antifungal substance, on a regular basis, to help prevent recurrence of oral
      candidiasis.

PMID- 28566668
TI  - Term 14.

PMID- 28566667
TI  - Dermatophyte Antigen Kit.
AB  - The dermatophyte antigen kit uses monoclonal antibodies that react with
      polysaccharides present in the dermatophyte cell wall to detect dermatophyte
      antigens in specimens based on the principle of immunochromatography. Clinical
      studies showed that the kit was very useful in the diagnosis of tinea unguium but
      not tinea pedis. The kit was therefore further developed as an in vitro
      diagnostic tool for tinea unguium and was approved by the Pharmaceuticals and
      Medical Devices Agency of Japan. The kit's extraction solution can extract
      antigens from nail specimens quickly and efficiently. When direct microscopy
      fails to detect fungal elements in a specimen of suspected tinea unguium, the kit
      can be used so that positive samples are re-examined by direct microscopy, in
      order to reduce the likelihood of false-negative detection. In addition, in
      settings where direct microscopy is unavailable, the kit can be used so that
      treatment for dermatophytes is withheld when results are negative. Such an
      approach can reduce both wasteful treatment and medical costs. It is important to
      note that the kit is used to complement conventional fungus testing methods and
      that direct microscopy must be used to confirm the final morphological diagnosis
      of the pathogenic fungal infection. Use of a combination of direct microscopy and
      this kit should improve the accuracy of diagnosis of tinea unguium.

PMID- 28566669
TI  - Effect of enamel matrix derivative on the angiogenic behaviors of human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells on different titanium surfaces.
AB  - Angiogenesis play a crucial role in the regeneration of hard and soft tissue
      around dental titanium (Ti) implant. Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) promotes
      tissue regeneration and stimulates angiogenesis but its effect on the
      angiogenesis on Ti surfaces was never investigated. The effect of EMD on the
      angiogenic activity of endothelial cells cultured on pre-treated smooth Ti (PT),
      acidetched (A), coarse-grit blasted and acid-etched (SLA) surfaces and tissue
      culture plastic (TCP) in the presence or absence of EMD was investigated. EMD
      inhibited the proliferation/viability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVECs) growing on A and SLA Ti surfaces. EMD induced an increase in the
      expression of all these genes in HUVECs grown on SLA surface but not on other
      surfaces. Summarizing, our data show that EMD influences proliferation and
      expression of angiogenesis associated gene in HUVECs grown on moderately rough
      SLA surfaces, suggesting that EMD might promote angiogenesis following
      implantation.

PMID- 28566670
TI  - Micro computed tomography evaluation of the Self-adjusting file and ProTaper
      Universal system on curved mandibular molars.
AB  - The aim of this investigation was to compare the cleaning and shaping efficiency
      of Self-adjusting file and Protaper, and to assess the correlation between root
      canal curvature and working time in mandibular molars using micro-computed
      tomography. Twenty extracted mandibular molars instrumented with Protaper and
      Self-adjusting file and the total working time was measured in mesial canals. The
      changes in canal volume, surface area and structure model index, transportation,
      uninstrumented area and the correlation between working-time and the curvature
      were analyzed. Although no statistically significant difference was observed
      between two systems in distal canals (p>0.05), a significantly higher amount of
      removed dentin volume and lower uninstrumented area were provided by Protaper in
      mesial canals (p<0.0001). A correlation between working-time and the canal
      curvature was also observed in mesial canals for both groups (SAFr2 =0.792,
      p<0.0004, PTUr2=0.9098, p<0.0001).

PMID- 28566671
TI  - Effect of polyimide addition on mechanical properties of PMMA-based denture
      material.
AB  - The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of modifying polymethyl
      methacrylate (PMMA) denture base material with polyimide (PI) on its flexural
      property and biocompatibility. Low molecular weight (1,500 g/mol) PI was
      synthesized and small amount of PI (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 wt%) was dispersed into
      the PMMA matrix. Three-point bending tests, scanning electron microscopy and
      thermal cycling were used to measure the mechanical properties, while MTT assay
      was used to evaluate the biocompatibility of the denture base material. The
      results showed that 0.6% addition of PI significantly increased flexural strength
      of PMMA denture base material by 13.5%, compared with the control group (p<0.05).
      Even after 5,000 hydrothermal cycling the reinforce effect still existed.
      However, when the PI content further increased, flexural strength of the denture
      base material decreased due to particle agglomeration. The MTT assay confirmed
      that the addition of PI did not change the biocompatibility of the PMMA denture
      base material. The present study suggested that blending polyimide in the proper
      proportion can be a potential method to strengthen the PMMA-based denture base
      material.

PMID- 28566672
TI  - Effects of various etching protocols on the flexural properties and surface
      topography of fiber-reinforced composite dental posts.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the flexural properties and surface
      topography of fiber posts surface-treated with various etching protocols. Seventy
      each of three types of fiber posts: RelyX Fiber Post, Tenax Fiber Trans, and D.T.
      Light-Post Illusion X-Ro, were randomly divided into 7 groups: no surface
      treatment, surface treated with hydrofluoric acid (HF) 4.5% for 60 s, HF 4.5% for
      120 s, HF 9.6% for 15 s, HF 9.6% for 60 s, HF 9.6% for 120 s, and treated with
      H2O2 24% for 10 min. The specimens were then subjected to a three-point bending
      test. Surface topographies of the posts were observed using a SEM. The results
      indicate that fiber post surface pretreatments had no adverse effects on the
      flexural properties. However, the fiber posts treated with high HF concentrations
      or long etching times seemed to have more surface irregularities.

PMID- 28566673
TI  - Resin adhesion strengths to zirconia ceramics after primer treatment with silane
      coupling monomer or oligomer.
AB  - Resin bonding to zirconia ceramics is difficult to achieve using the standard
      methods for conventional silica-based dental ceramics, which employ silane
      coupling monomers as primers. The hypothesis in this study was that a silane
      coupling oligomer -a condensed product of silane coupling monomers- would be a
      more suitable primer for zirconia. To prove this hypothesis, the shear bond
      strengths between a composite resin and zirconia were compared after applying
      either a silane coupling monomer or oligomer. The shear bond strength increased
      after applying a non-activated ethanol solution of the silane coupling oligomer
      compared with that achieved when applying the monomer. Thermal treatment of the
      zirconia at 110 degrees C after application of the silane coupling agents was
      essential to improve the shear bond strength between the composite resin cement
      and zirconia.

PMID- 28566674
TI  - A stability evaluation of a novel titanium dental implant/interconnected porous
      hydroxyapatite complex under functional loading conditions.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of implant/interconnected
      porous calcium hydroxyapatite complex (implant/IPCHA-complex) under functional
      loading. Implant/IP-CHA-complexes were placed into the mandibles of four Beagle
      Labrador hybrid dogs (complex-group). On the other side, an implant was placed
      directly (control-group). To subject the loading, the animals were fed a hard
      diet throughout the loading phase of 5 months. The implant stability quotients
      (ISQs) and bone implant contact (BIC), and histological evaluations were
      performed. The ISQs of implant/IP-CHA-complex was significantly lower at
      placement than that of the control-implant. On the other hand, there was no
      significant difference between in the groups during loading. The BIC
      measurements, there was no significantly difference between in both groups.
      Histologically, newly formed bone was observed in contact with most of the
      implant surface in the complex-group. An IP-CHA/implant-complex would be able to
      achieve both bone reconstruction and implant stability under functional loading
      conditions.

PMID- 28566675
TI  - Effects of calcium hydroxide reagent on the bond strength of resin cements to
      root dentin and the retention force of FRC posts.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the effects of calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)
      treatment on bond strength of resin cements to root dentin and retention force of
      fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) posts. Bovine root dentin was endodontically
      prepared and treated with Ca(OH)2 for 7 days. Root dentin for bond strength test
      was adhered to resin-composite with resin cements. For pull-out test, posts
      consisting of FRC posts and resin-composites were fabricated and cemented to
      root. Shear bond and pull-out tests were performed using a universal testing
      machine. No significant differences in bond strength and post retention force
      were found between Ca(OH)2 treated and untreated groups. Significant differences
      were found among the cements. A positive correlation was indicated between bond
      strength of cements and retention force of FRC posts. In conclusion, Ca(OH)2
      treatment on root dentin did not affect bond strength of resin cements and
      retention force of FRC posts.

PMID- 28566676
TI  - Comparing the Curative Efficacy of Different Skin Grafting Methods for Third
      Degree Burn Wounds.
AB  - BACKGROUND Our research purpose was to compare the curative efficacy of different
      skin grafting methods for treating third-degree burn wounds. MATERIAL AND METHODS
      A total of 105 patients with third-degree burns were involved in this study. The
      burn wounds of these patients were treated using three different methods: Meek
      skin grafting, Stamp skin grafting, and Microskin grafting. Patients treated with
      different methods were placed in different groups. The skin graft survival rate,
      skin graft fusion time, wound healing time, total time of surgery, and 1% total
      body surface area (TBSA) treatment costs in each group were evaluated during and
      after the grafting procedures. After the operations, patients were followed up
      for 3 to 18 months in order to evaluate the postoperative outcomes. RESULTS The
      skin graft survival rate was significantly higher in the Meek group compared to
      the rates in the Stamp and Microskin groups (both P<0.01). In addition, the skin
      graft fusion time, wound healing time, and 1% TBSA treatment costs were
      significantly lower in the Meek group compared to those in the Stamp and
      Microskin groups (both P<0.01). Furthermore, the Meek group exhibited better
      results with respect to curative efficacy, scarring status, and joint activity in
      comparison to the other two groups (both P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The Meek skin
      grafting method showed better clinical efficacy for treating large wound areas in
      third-degree burn patients compared to the Stamp and Microskin skin grafting
      methods.

PMID- 28566678
TI  - The relation between human hair follicle density and touch perception.
AB  - Unmyelinated low threshold C-tactile fibers moderate pleasant aspects of touch.
      These fibers respond optimally to stroking stimulation of the skin with slow
      velocities (1-10 cm/s). Low threshold mechanoreceptors are arranged around hair
      follicles in rodent skin. If valid also in humans, hair follicle density (HFD)
      may relate to the perceived pleasantness of stroking tactile stimulation. We
      conducted two studies that examined the relation between HFD and affective touch
      perception in humans. In total, 138 healthy volunteers were stroked on the
      forearm and rated the pleasantness and intensity. Stimulation was performed by a
      robotic tactile stimulator delivering C-tactile optimal (1, 3, 10 cm/s) and non
      optimal (0.1, 0.3, 30 cm/s) stroking velocities. Additionally, a measure of
      discriminative touch was applied in study 2. HFD of the same forearm was
      determined using the Cyanoacrylate Skin Stripping Method (CSSM), which we
      validated in a pretest. Women had higher HFD than men, which was explained by
      body size and weight. Furthermore, women rated affective touch stimuli as more
      pleasant and had higher tactile acuity. Depilation did not affect touch
      perception. A weak relationship was found between the C-tactile specific aspects
      of affective touch perception and HFD, and the hypothesis of HFD relating to
      pleasant aspects of stroking only received weak support.

PMID- 28566677
TI  - High-Grade Transformation in a Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma with a Cerebral
      Manifestation.
AB  - BACKGROUND Splenic marginal zone lymphomas (SMZLs) are generally uncommon,
      indolent lymphomas that typically affect older adults, but the development of the
      transformation to high-grade lymphoma may occur in a small proportion of patients
      and represents a rare event with blastic cell infiltration in the lymph nodes and
      bone marrow. CASE REPORT Here, we present a young adult patient who was diagnosed
      with a SMZL and developed a high-grade transformation to diffuse large B cell
      lymphoma (DLBCL) with central nervous system involvement. The patient was a 31
      year-old woman whose hematologic medical history began with severe anemia and
      thrombocytopenia associated with atypical lymphoid infiltrate in the bone marrow
      and massive splenomegaly. A splenectomy was performed and revealed the SMZL. She
      was first treated with the CHOP regimen (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin,
      vincristine, and prednisone) and subsequently with the R-FMD regimen (rituximab,
      fludarabine, mitoxantrone, and dexamethasone) because the peripheral blood
      leukocytes were remarkably increased postoperatively. Six months after the
      splenectomy, she complained of headaches. A magnetic resonance imaging scan of
      her brain revealed intracerebral tumorous lesions from which a biopsy was taken.
      On morphological and immunohistochemical examination, the tumor fulfilled the
      criteria for a DLBCL. Treatment with pulse-dose intravenous methylprednisolone
      followed by high-dose methotrexate was promptly initiated, but the patient's
      condition continued to deteriorate and she died of the disease 13 months after
      the splenectomy. CONCLUSIONS Although there is a general tendency for SMZL to
      display low aggressiveness, central nervous system involvement associated with a
      histological transformation to high-grade lymphoma, as presented here, can occur
      in advanced stage of the disease.

PMID- 28566679
TI  - Combined magnetron sputtering and pulsed laser deposition of TiO 2 and BFCO thin
      films.
AB  - We report the successful demonstration of a hybrid system that combines pulsed
      laser deposition (PLD) and magnetron sputtering (MS) to deposit high quality thin
      films. The PLD and MS simultaneously use the same target, leading to an enhanced
      deposition rate. The performance of this technique is demonstrated through the
      deposition of titanium dioxide and bismuth-based perovskite oxide Bi2FeCrO6
      (BFCO) thin films on Si(100) and LaAlO3 (LAO) (100). These specific oxides were
      chosen due to their functionalities, such as multiferroic and photovoltaic
      properties (BFCO) and photocatalysis (TiO2). We compare films deposited by
      conventional PLD, MS and PLD combined with MS, and show that under all conditions
      the latter technique offers an increased deposition rate (+50%) and produces
      films denser (+20%) than those produced by MS or PLD alone, and without the large
      clusters found in the PLD-deposited films. Under optimized conditions, the hybrid
      technique produces films that are two times smoother than either technique alone.

PMID- 28566680
TI  - Dibutyl phthalate induced testicular dysgenesis originates after seminiferous
      cord formation in rats.
AB  - Administration of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) to pregnant rats causes reproductive
      disorders in male offspring, resulting from suppression of intratesticular
      testosterone, and is used as a model for human testicular dysgenesis syndrome
      (TDS). DBP exposure in pregnancy induces focal dysgenetic areas in fetal testes
      that appear between e19.5-e21.5, manifesting as focal aggregation of Leydig cells
      and ectopic Sertoli cells (SC). Our aim was to identify the origins of the
      ectopic SC. Time-mated female rats were administered 750 mg/kg/day DBP in three
      different time windows: full window (FW; e13.5-e20.5), masculinisation
      programming window (MPW; e15.5-e18.5), late window (LW; e19.5-e20.5). We show
      that DBP-MPW treatment produces more extensive and severe dysgenetic areas, with
      more ectopic SC and germ cells (GC) than DBP-FW treatment; DBP-LW induces no
      dysgenesis. Our findings demonstrate that ectopic SC do not differentiate de
      novo, but result from rupture of normally formed seminiferous cords beyond e20.5.
      The more severe testis dysgenesis in DBP-MPW animals may result from the presence
      of basally migrating GC and a weakened basal lamina, whereas GC migration was
      minimal in DBP-FW animals. Our findings provide the first evidence for how
      testicular dysgenesis can result after normal testis differentiation/development
      and may be relevant to understanding TDS in human patients.

PMID- 28566681
TI  - Dimethyl Sulfide is a Chemical Attractant for Reef Fish Larvae.
AB  - Transport of coral reef fish larvae is driven by advection in ocean currents and
      larval swimming. However, for swimming to be advantageous, larvae must use
      external stimuli as guides. One potential stimulus is "odor" emanating from
      settlement sites (e.g., coral reefs), signaling the upstream location of
      desirable settlement habitat. However, specific chemicals used by fish larvae
      have not been identified. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is produced in large quantities
      at coral reefs and may be important in larval orientation. In this study, a
      choice-chamber (shuttle box) was used to assess preference of 28 pre-settlement
      stage larvae from reef fish species for seawater with DMS. Swimming behavior was
      examined by video-tracking of larval swimming patterns in control and DMS
      seawater. We found common responses to DMS across reef fish taxa - a preference
      for water with DMS and change in swimming behavior - reflecting a switch to
      "exploratory behavior". An open water species displayed no response to DMS.
      Affinity for and swimming response to DMS would allow a fish larva to locate its
      source and enhance its ability to find settlement habitat. Moreover, it may help
      them locate prey accumulating in fronts, eddies, and thin layers, where DMS is
      also produced.

PMID- 28566682
TI  - Solitonic conduction of electrotonic signals in neuronal branchlets with
      polarized microstructure.
AB  - A model of solitonic conduction in neuronal branchlets with microstructure is
      presented. The application of cable theory to neurons with microstructure results
      in a nonlinear cable equation that is solved using a direct method to obtain
      analytical approximations of traveling wave solutions. It is shown that a linear
      superposition of two oppositely directed traveling waves demonstrate solitonic
      interaction: colliding waves can penetrate through each other, and continue fully
      intact as the exact pulses that entered the collision. These findings indicate
      that microstructure when polarized can sustain solitary waves that propagate at a
      constant velocity without attenuation or distortion in the absence of synaptic
      transmission. Solitonic conduction in a neuronal branchlet arising from
      polarizability of its microstructure is a novel signaling mode of electrotonic
      signals in thin processes (<0.5 MUm diameter).

PMID- 28566684
TI  - Quantitative refractive index distribution of single cell by combining phase
      shifting interferometry and AFM imaging.
AB  - Cell refractive index, an intrinsic optical parameter, is closely correlated with
      the intracellular mass and concentration. By combining optical phase-shifting
      interferometry (PSI) and atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging, we constructed a
      label free, non-invasive and quantitative refractive index of single cell
      measurement system, in which the accurate phase map of single cell was retrieved
      with PSI technique and the cell morphology with nanoscale resolution was achieved
      with AFM imaging. Based on the proposed AFM/PSI system, we achieved quantitative
      refractive index distributions of single red blood cell and Jurkat cell,
      respectively. Further, the quantitative change of refractive index distribution
      during Daunorubicin (DNR)-induced Jurkat cell apoptosis was presented, and then
      the content changes of intracellular biochemical components were achieved.
      Importantly, these results were consistent with Raman spectral analysis,
      indicating that the proposed PSI/AFM based refractive index system is likely to
      become a useful tool for intracellular biochemical components analysis
      measurement, and this will facilitate its application for revealing cell
      structure and pathological state from a new perspective.

PMID- 28566683
TI  - Combinatorial Delivery of Dual and Triple TLR Agonists via Polymeric Pathogen
      like Particles Synergistically Enhances Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses.
AB  - Despite decades of research very few vaccine-adjuvants have received FDA
      approval. Two fundamental challenges plague clinical translation of vaccine
      adjuvants: reducing acute toxicities that result from systemic diffusion of many
      soluble adjuvants, and delivering multiple adjuvants at the same time to mimic
      the synergistic immune-stimulation of pathogens, while being safe. In order to
      address these barriers, we evaluated combinations of four clinically relevant
      immune-agonists, specifically Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands, using
      biodegradable, polymer microparticles. We tested them alone and in combinations
      of 2 or 3, for a total of 10 unique conditions. We evaluated primary bone-marrow
      derived Dendritic Cell phenotypes and functionality, and identified several
      synergistic combinations. We picked a dual and a triple adjuvant combination,
      TLR4/TLR9 and TLR4/TLR7/TLR9, for further evaluation and found that both
      combinations promoted antigen cross-presentation in vitro. Studies in mice using
      the model antigen Ovalbumin, showed that both combinations enhanced lymph node
      germinal center and T follicular helper cell responses. The triple adjuvant
      combination showed increased antigen-specific antibody titer with an overall
      balanced Th1/Th2 response, while the dual combination promoted Th1-polarized IgG
      responses. Our results show how polymeric particulate-carriers can be adopted to
      safely deliver combinatorial adjuvants and selectively synergize specific types
      of immune responses for vaccine applications.

PMID- 28566685
TI  - Monitoring ZEO apoptotic potential in 2D and 3D cell cultures and associated
      spectroscopic evidence on mode of interaction with DNA.
AB  - Recognizing new anticancer compounds to improve Breast cancer treatment seems
      crucial. Essential oil of Zataria Multiflora (ZEO) is a secondary metabolite with
      some biological properties, yet underlying cellular and molecular anticancer
      properties of ZEO is unclear. GC/MS analysis revealed that carvacrol is the major
      ingredient of the essential oil. ZEO increasingly suppressed viability in MDA-MB
      231, MCF-7 and T47D Breast cancer cells while nontoxic to L929 normal cells in
      monolayer cell cultures (2D), whereas MDA-MB-231 multicellular spheroids (3D)
      were more resistant to inhibition. ZEO significantly induced cell apoptosis
      confirmed by fluorescent staining, flow cytometry analysis and DNA fragmentation
      in MDA-MB-231 2D and 3D cell cultures. ZEO increased ROS generation and
      subsequent loss of DeltaPsim, caspase 3 activation and DNA damage which
      consequently caused G1 and G2/M cell cycle arrest in a dose- and time-dependent
      manner in 2D. S phase arrest occurred in cell spheroids therefore ZEO possible
      DNA interaction with gDNA was investigated and revealed ZEO binds DNA via
      intercalation. Altogether, these data corroborate anticancer properties of ZEO
      and suggest that cell culture format (2D monolayer vs. 3D spheroid) plays a
      critical role in drug response and provides new insights into the mechanisms
      underlying ZEO cytotoxicity effect on Breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28566686
TI  - The structural and magnetic properties of dual phase cobalt ferrite.
AB  - The bismuth (Bi3+)-doped cobalt ferrite nanostructures with dual phase, i.e.
      cubic spinel with space group Fd3m and perovskite with space group R3c, have been
      successfully engineered via self-ignited sol-gel combustion route. To obtain
      information about the phase analysis and structural parameters, like lattice
      constant, Rietveld refinement process is applied. The replacement of divalent
      Co2+ by trivalent Bi3+ cations have been confirmed from energy dispersive
      analysis of the ferrite samples. The micro-structural evolution of cobalt ferrite
      powders at room temperature under various Bi3+ doping levels have been identified
      from the digital photoimages recorded using scanning electron microscopy. The
      hyperfine interactions, like isomer shift, quadrupole splitting and magnetic
      hyperfine fields, and cation distribution are confirmed from the Mossbauer
      spectra. Saturation magnetization is increased with Bi3+-addition up to x = 0.15
      and then is decreased when x = 0.2. The coercivity is increased from 1457 to 2277
      G with increasing Bi3+-doping level. The saturation magnetization, coercivity and
      remanent ratio for x = 0.15 sample is found to be the highest, indicating the
      potential of Bi3+-doping in enhancing the magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite.

PMID- 28566687
TI  - Iterative Sequencing and Variant Screening (ISVS) as a novel pathogenic mutations
      search strategy - application for TMPRSS3 mutations screen.
AB  - Autosomal recessive diseases (ARD) are typically caused by a limited number of
      mutations whose identification is challenged by their low prevalence. Our purpose
      was to develop a novel approach allowing an efficient search for mutations
      causing ARD and evaluation of their pathogenicity without a control group. We
      developed Iterative Sequencing and Variant Screening (ISVS) approach based on
      iterative cycles of gene sequencing and mutation screening, and ISVS Simulator
      software ( http://zsibio.ii.pw.edu.pl/shiny/isvs/ ) for assessment of detected
      variants' significance. As shown by simulations, ISVS efficiently identifies and
      correctly classifies pathogenic mutations except for cases where the gene of
      interest has extremely high number of low frequency nonpathogenic variants. By
      applying ISVS, we found 4 known and 9 novel (p.C73Y, p.S124L, p.C194Mfs*17, c.782
      + 2 T > A, c.953-5 A > G, p.L325Q, p.D334Mfs*24, p.R436G, p.M448T) TMPRSS3
      variants among deaf patients. For 3 known and 5 novel variants the disease
      association was supported by ISVS Simulator odds >90:1. Pathogenicity of 6 novel
      mutations has been supported by in-silico predictions of variants'
      deleteriousness. By directly comparing variant prevalence in patients and
      controls, disease association was demonstrated only for two variants and it was
      relatively weak (P < 0.05). Summarizing, ISVS strategy and ISVS Simulator are
      useful for detection of genetic variants causing AR diseases.

PMID- 28566688
TI  - Sublingual house dust mite immunotherapy has no impact on decrease of circulating
      erythrocytes upon airway allergen challenge in allergic rhinitis.
AB  - House dust mite (HDM) allergy is a predominant cause for perennial allergic
      rhinitis (AR) in Europe. We recently reported that circulating erythrocyte
      numbers decrease after airway allergen challenge in a murine asthma model and in
      grass-pollen sensitized AR subjects. Consequently, we aimed to evaluate these
      findings in HDM sensitized AR subjects and the influence of preceding allergen
      immunotherapy. Seventy-seven (age 26.8 +/- 7.3 years; 54.5% female) HDM-allergic
      rhinitis subjects previously enrolled in a randomized, monocentric sublingual
      immunotherapy (SLIT) trial at the Vienna Challenge Chamber (VCC) were included.
      Subjects had either received placebo (n = 22), low-dose HDM (n = 29) or high-dose
      HDM specific sublingual immunotherapy (n = 26) daily for 24 weeks. Blood sampling
      was performed before and after 6 hours of HDM allergen exposure. Overall,
      specific airway allergen challenge resulted in a significant decrease in
      circulating erythrocytes and hematocrit (p < 0.001), and elevation of leukocytes
      (p < 0.001), particularly segmented neutrophils (p < 0.001). Gender had no
      significant effect on the observed changes in circulating blood cells.
      Erythrocytes decreased and neutrophil counts increased significantly after airway
      allergen challenge regardless of preceding immunotherapy. These findings imply a
      rapid systemic mobilization of neutrophils occurring within immediate type
      hypersensitivity response upon a specific allergen challenge, which is possibly
      inversely linked with the erythrocyte numbers.

PMID- 28566689
TI  - Bone marrow niche-mimetics modulate HSPC function via integrin signaling.
AB  - The bone marrow (BM) microenvironment provides critical physical cues for
      hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) maintenance and fate decision
      mediated by cell-matrix interactions. However, the mechanisms underlying matrix
      communication and signal transduction are less well understood. Contrary, stem
      cell culture is mainly facilitated in suspension cultures. Here, we used bone
      marrow-mimetic decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds derived from
      mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to study HSPC-ECM interaction. Seeding freshly
      isolated HSPCs adherent (AT) and non-adherent (SN) cells were found. We detected
      enhanced expansion and active migration of AT-cells mediated by ECM incorporated
      stromal derived factor one. Probing cell mechanics, AT-cells displayed naive cell
      deformation compared to SN-cells indicating physical recognition of ECM material
      properties by focal adhesion. Integrin alphaIIb (CD41), alphaV (CD51) and beta3
      (CD61) were found to be induced. Signaling focal contacts via ITGbeta3 were
      identified to facilitate cell adhesion, migration and mediate ECM-physical cues
      to modulate HSPC function.

PMID- 28566690
TI  - FastGT: an alignment-free method for calling common SNVs directly from raw
      sequencing reads.
AB  - We have developed a computational method that counts the frequencies of unique k
      mers in FASTQ-formatted genome data and uses this information to infer the
      genotypes of known variants. FastGT can detect the variants in a 30x genome in
      less than 1 hour using ordinary low-cost server hardware. The overall concordance
      with the genotypes of two Illumina "Platinum" genomes is 99.96%, and the
      concordance with the genotypes of the Illumina HumanOmniExpress is 99.82%. Our
      method provides k-mer database that can be used for the simultaneous genotyping
      of approximately 30 million single nucleotide variants (SNVs), including >23,000
      SNVs from Y chromosome. The source code of FastGT software is available at GitHub
      (https://github.com/bioinfo-ut/GenomeTester4/).

PMID- 28566691
TI  - Substrate Rigidity Controls Activation and Durotaxis in Pancreatic Stellate
      Cells.
AB  - Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive malignancy characterised
      by the presence of extensive desmoplasia, thought to be responsible for the poor
      response of patients to systemic therapies. Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are
      key mediators in the production of this fibrotic stroma, upon activation
      transitioning to a myofibroblast-like, high matrix secreting phenotype. Given
      their importance in disease progression, characterisation of PSC activation has
      been extensive, however one aspect that has been overlooked is the mechano
      sensing properties of the cell. Here, through the use of a physiomimetic system
      that recapitulates the mechanical microenvironment found within healthy and
      fibrotic pancreas, we demonstrate that matrix stiffness regulates activation and
      mechanotaxis in PSCs. We show the ability of PSCs to undergo phenotypic
      transition solely as a result of changes in extracellular matrix stiffness,
      whilst observing the ability of PSCs to durotactically respond to stiffness
      variations within their local environment. Our findings implicate the mechanical
      microenvironment as a potent contributor to PDAC progression and survival via
      induction of PSC activation and fibrosis, suggesting that direct mechanical
      reprogramming of PSCs may be a viable alternative in the treatment of this lethal
      disease.

PMID- 28566692
TI  - Pilot Study of 64Cu(I) for PET Imaging of Melanoma.
AB  - At present, 64Cu(II) labeled tracers including 64CuCl2 have been widely applied
      in the research of molecular imaging and therapy. Human copper transporter 1
      (hCTR1) is the major high affinity copper influx transporter in mammalian cells,
      and specially responsible for the transportation of Cu(I) not Cu(II). Thus, we
      investigated the feasible application of 64Cu(I) for PET imaging. 64Cu(II) was
      reduced to 64Cu(I) with the existence of sodium L-ascorbate, DL-Dithiothreitol or
      cysteine. Cell uptake and efflux assay was investigated using B16F10 and A375
      cell lines, respectively. Small animal PET and biodistribution studies were
      performed in both B16F10 and A375 tumor-bearing mice. Compared with 64Cu(II),
      64Cu(I) exhibited higher cellular uptake by melanoma, which testified CTR1
      specially influx of Cu(I). However, due to oxidation reaction in vivo, no
      significant difference between 64Cu(I) and 64Cu(II) was observed through PET
      images and biodistribution. Additionally, radiation absorbed doses for major
      tissues of human were calculated based on the mouse biodistribution.
      Radiodosimetry calculations for 64/67Cu(I) and 64/67Cu(II) were similar, which
      suggested that although melanoma were with high radiation absorbed doses, high
      radioactivity accumulation by liver and kidney should be noticed for the further
      application. Thus, 64Cu(I) should be further studied to evaluate it as a PET
      imaging radiotracer.

PMID- 28566693
TI  - Photoacoustic imaging of voltage responses beyond the optical diffusion limit.
AB  - Non-invasive optical imaging of neuronal voltage response signals in live brains
      is constrained in depth by the optical diffusion limit, which is due primarily to
      optical scattering by brain tissues. Although photoacoustic tomography breaks
      this limit by exciting the targets with diffused photons and detecting the
      resulting acoustic responses, it has not been demonstrated as a modality for
      imaging voltage responses. In this communication, we report the first
      demonstration of photoacoustic voltage response imaging in both in vitro HEK-293
      cell cultures and in vivo mouse brain surfaces. Using spectroscopic photoacoustic
      tomography at isosbestic wavelengths, we can separate voltage response signals
      and hemodynamic signals on live brain surfaces. By imaging HEK-293 cell clusters
      through 4.5 mm thick ex vivo rat brain tissue, we demonstrate photoacoustic
      tomography of cell membrane voltage responses beyond the optical diffusion limit.
      Although the current voltage dye does not immediately allow in vivo deep brain
      voltage response imaging, we believe our method opens up a feasible technical
      path for deep brain studies in the future.

PMID- 28566695
TI  - Molecular alignment in degenerated dissociation channels in strong laser fields.
AB  - In this work, we study strong-field molecular alignment in, for the first time,
      degenerated channels following the same charged states of molecules. By measuring
      the angular distribution of dissociation fragments from two degenerated N+ + N+
      channels of N2, we observe an opposite angular distribution development in these
      two channels, one expanding and one contracting, when the laser intensity
      increases. Our further study shows that the expanding channel comes from a
      nonsequential transition, while the contracting channel involves a sequential
      transition. We also study the time sequence of the sequential and nonsequential
      transitions and find that the opposite angular distribution development is due to
      the different degrees of molecular alignment in these two degenerated channels.

PMID- 28566694
TI  - Production of three phenylethanoids, tyrosol, hydroxytyrosol, and salidroside,
      using plant genes expressing in Escherichia coli.
AB  - Polyphenols, which include phenolic acids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and
      phenylethanoids, are generally known as useful antioxidants. Tyrosol,
      hydroxytyrosol, and salidroside are typical phenylethanoids. Phenylethanoids are
      found in plants such as olive, green tea, and Rhodiola and have various
      biological activities, including the prevention of cardiovascular diseases,
      cancer, and brain damage. We used Escherichia coli to synthesize three
      phenylethanoids, tyrosol, hydroxytyrosol, and salidroside. To synthesize tyrosol,
      the aromatic aldehyde synthase (AAS) was expressed in E. coli. Hydroxytyrosol was
      synthesized using E. coli harboring AAS and HpaBC, which encodes hydroxylase. In
      order to synthesize salidroside, 12 uridine diphosphate-dependent
      glycosyltransferases (UGTs) were screened and UGT85A1 was found to convert
      tyrosol to salidroside. Using E. coli harboring AAS and UGT85A1, salidroside was
      synthesized. Through the optimization of these three E. coli strains, we were
      able to synthesize 531 mg/L tyrosol, 208 mg/L hydroxytyrosol, and 288 mg/L
      salidroside, respectively.

PMID- 28566696
TI  - Ag-Mg antisite defect induced high thermoelectric performance of alpha-MgAgSb.
AB  - Engineering atomic-scale native point defects has become an attractive strategy
      to improve the performance of thermoelectric materials. Here, we theoretically
      predict that Ag-Mg antisite defects as shallow acceptors can be more stable than
      other intrinsic defects under Mg-poor-Ag/Sb-rich conditions. Under more Mg-rich
      conditions, Ag vacancy dominates the intrinsic defects. The p-type conduction
      behavior of experimentally synthesized alpha-MgAgSb mainly comes from Ag
      vacancies and Ag antisites (Ag on Mg sites), which act as shallow acceptors. Ag
      Mg antisite defects significantly increase the thermoelectric performance of
      alpha-MgAgSb by increasing the number of band valleys near the Fermi level. For
      Li-doped alpha-MgAgSb, under more Mg-rich conditions, Li will substitute on Ag
      sites rather than on Mg sites and may achieve high thermoelectric performance. A
      secondary valence band is revealed in alpha-MgAgSb with 14 conducting carrier
      pockets.

PMID- 28566697
TI  - Down-regulated GATA-1 up-regulates interferon regulatory factor 3 in lung
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3) is widely known for its prompt response
      against viral infection by activating the interferon system. We previously
      reported that E2F1, Sp1 and Sp3 regulated transcriptional activity of IRF-3.
      Recently, different expression patterns of IRF-3 were found in lung cancer,
      leading to the alternation of the immunomodulatory function in tumorigenesis.
      However, the mechanism of transcriptional regulation of IRF-3 in lung cancer has
      not been extensively studied. Here, we investigated the characterization of IRF-3
      promoter and found that GATA-1 bound to a specific domain of IRF-3 promoter in
      vitro and in vivo. We found elevated IRF-3 and decreased GATA-1 gene expression
      in lung adenocarcinoma in Oncomine database. Additionally, higher IRF-3 gene
      expression was observed in human lung adenocarcinoma, accompanied by aberrant
      GATA-1 protein expression. We further analyzed the relationship of GATA-1 and IRF
      3 expression in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines and found that inhibition of GATA
      1 by siRNA increased the promoter activity, mRNA and protein levels of IRF-3,
      while over-expression of GATA-1 down-regulated IRF-3 gene expression. Taken
      together, we conclude that reduced GATA-1 could be responsible for the
      upregulation of IRF-3 in lung adenocarcinoma cells through binding with a
      specific domain of IRF-3 promoter.

PMID- 28566698
TI  - Insight into climate change from the carbon exchange of biocrusts utilizing non
      rainfall water.
AB  - Biocrusts are model ecosystems of global change studies. However, light and non
      rainfall water (NRW) were previously few considered. Different biocrust types
      further aggravated the inconsistence. So carbon-exchange of biocrusts
      (cyanobacteria crusts-AC1/AC2; cyanolichen crust-LC1; chlorolichen crust-LC2;
      moss crust-MC) utilizing NRW at various temperatures and light-intensities were
      determined under simulated and insitu mesocosm experiments. Carbon input of all
      biocrusts were negatively correlated with experimental temperature under all
      light-intensity with saturated water and stronger light with equivalent NRW, but
      positively correlated with temperature under weak light with equivalent NRW. LCPs
      and R/Pg of AC1 were lowest, followed in turn by AC2, LC2 and MC. Thus AC1 had
      most opportunities to use NRW, and 2.5  degrees C warming did cause significant
      changes of carbon exchange. Structural equation models further revealed that air
      temperature was most important for carbon-exchange of ACs, but equally important
      as NRW for LC2 and MC; positive influence of warming on carbon-input in ACs was
      much stronger than the latter. Therefore, temperature effect on biocrust carbon
      input depends on both moisture and light. Meanwhile, the role of NRW,
      transitional states between ACs, and obvious carbon-fixation differences between
      lichen crusts should be fully considered in the future study of biocrusts
      responding to climate change.

PMID- 28566699
TI  - Host-specific assembly of sponge-associated prokaryotes at high taxonomic ranks.
AB  - Sponges (Porifera) are abundant and diverse members of benthic filter feeding
      communities in most marine ecosystems, from the deep sea to tropical reefs. A
      characteristic feature is the associated dense and diverse prokaryotic community
      present within the sponge mesohyl. Previous molecular genetic studies revealed
      the importance of host identity for the community composition of the sponge
      associated microbiota. However, little is known whether sponge host-specific
      prokaryotic community patterns observed at 97% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity
      are consistent at high taxonomic ranks (from genus to phylum level). In the
      present study, we investigated the prokaryotic community structure and variation
      of 24 sponge specimens (seven taxa) and three seawater samples from Sweden.
      Results show that the resemblance of prokaryotic communities at different
      taxonomic ranks is consistent with patterns present at 97% operational taxonomic
      unit level.

PMID- 28566700
TI  - Controlling Light Transmission Through Highly Scattering Media Using Semi
      Definite Programming as a Phase Retrieval Computation Method.
AB  - Complex Semi-Definite Programming (SDP) is introduced as a novel approach to
      phase retrieval enabled control of monochromatic light transmission through
      highly scattering media. In a simple optical setup, a spatial light modulator is
      used to generate a random sequence of phase-modulated wavefronts, and the
      resulting intensity speckle patterns in the transmitted light are acquired on a
      camera. The SDP algorithm allows computation of the complex transmission matrix
      of the system from this sequence of intensity-only measurements, without need for
      a reference beam. Once the transmission matrix is determined, optimal wavefronts
      are computed that focus the incident beam to any position or sequence of
      positions on the far side of the scattering medium, without the need for any
      subsequent measurements or wavefront shaping iterations. The number of
      measurements required and the degree of enhancement of the intensity at focus is
      determined by the number of pixels controlled by the spatial light modulator.

PMID- 28566701
TI  - Mathematical Analysis of Glioma Growth in a Murine Model.
AB  - Five immunocompetent C57BL/6-cBrd/cBrd/Cr (albino C57BL/6) mice were injected
      with GL261-luc2 cells, a cell line sharing characteristics of human glioblastoma
      multiforme (GBM). The mice were imaged using magnetic resonance (MR) at five
      separate time points to characterize growth and development of the tumor. After
      25 days, the final tumor volumes of the mice varied from 12 mm3 to 62 mm3, even
      though mice were inoculated from the same tumor cell line under carefully
      controlled conditions. We generated hypotheses to explore large variances in
      final tumor size and tested them with our simple reaction-diffusion model in both
      a 3-dimensional (3D) finite difference method and a 2-dimensional (2D) level set
      method. The parameters obtained from a best-fit procedure, designed to yield
      simulated tumors as close as possible to the observed ones, vary by an order of
      magnitude between the three mice analyzed in detail. These differences may
      reflect morphological and biological variability in tumor growth, as well as
      errors in the mathematical model, perhaps from an oversimplification of the tumor
      dynamics or nonidentifiability of parameters. Our results generate parameters
      that match other experimental in vitro and in vivo measurements. Additionally, we
      calculate wave speed, which matches with other rat and human measurements.

PMID- 28566702
TI  - Colitis promotes neuronal differentiation of Sox2+ and PLP1+ enteric cells.
AB  - Mechanisms mediating adult enteric neurogenesis are largely unknown. Using
      inflammation-associated neurogenesis models and a transgenic approach, we aimed
      to understand the cell-source for new neurons in infectious and inflammatory
      colitis. Dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) and Citrobacter rodentium colitis (CC) was
      induced in adult mice and colonic neurons were quantified. Sox2GFP and PLP1GFP
      mice confirmed the cell-type specificity of these markers. Sox2CreER:YFP and
      PLP1creER:tdT mice were used to determine the fate of these cells after colitis.
      Sox2 expression was investigated in colonic neurons of human patients with
      Clostridium difficile or ulcerative colitis. Both DSS and CC led to increased
      colonic neurons. Following colitis in adult Sox2CreER:YFP mice, YFP initially
      expressed predominantly by glia becomes expressed by neurons following colitis,
      without observable DNA replication. Similarly in PLP1CreER:tdT mice, PLP1 cells
      that co-express S100b but not RET also give rise to neurons following colitis. In
      human colitis, Sox2-expressing neurons increase from 1-2% to an average 14% in
      colitis. The new neurons predominantly express calretinin, thus appear to be
      excitatory. These results suggest that colitis promotes rapid enteric
      neurogenesis in adult mice and humans through differentiation of Sox2- and PLP1
      expressing cells, which represent enteric glia and/or neural progenitors. Further
      defining neurogenesis will improve understanding and treatment of injury
      associated intestinal motility/sensory disorders.

PMID- 28566704
TI  - Inclusions properties at 1673 K and room temperature with Ce addition in SS400
      steel.
AB  - Inclusion species formed in SS400 steel with Ce-addition was predicted by
      thermodynamic calculation. The analysis of the inclusion morphology and size
      distribution was carried out by applying Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and
      Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Nano-Fe3O4 particles were also found in
      cerium-deoxidized and -desulfurized steel and their shapes were nearly spherical.
      The complex Ce2O3 inclusions covering a layer of 218 nm composed by several MnS
      particles with similar diffraction pattern. Most importantly, the complex Ce2O3
      characterized by using TEM diffraction is amorphous in the steel, indicating that
      Ce2O3 formed in the liquid iron and then MnS segregated cling to it.

PMID- 28566703
TI  - Astronomical age constraints and extinction mechanisms of the Late Triassic
      Carnian crisis.
AB  - The geological record contains evidence for numerous pronounced perturbations in
      the global carbon cycle, some of which are associated with mass extinction. In
      the Carnian (Late Triassic), evidence from sedimentology and fossil pollen points
      to a significant change in climate, resulting in biotic turnover, during a time
      termed the 'Carnian Pluvial Episode' (CPE). Evidence from the marine realm
      suggests a causal relationship between the CPE, a global 'wet' period, and the
      injection of light carbon into the atmosphere. Here we provide the first evidence
      from a terrestrial stratigraphic succession of at least five significant negative
      C-isotope excursions (CIE)'s through the CPE recorded in both bulk organic carbon
      and compound specific plant leaf waxes. Furthermore, construction of a floating
      astronomical timescale for 1.09 Ma of the Late Triassic, based on the recognition
      of 405 ka eccentricity cycles in elemental abundance and gamma ray (GR) data,
      allows for the estimation of a duration for the isotope excursion(s). Source
      mixing calculations reveal that the observed substantial shift(s) in delta13C was
      most likely caused by a combination of volcanic emissions, subsequent warming and
      the dissociation of methane clathrates.

PMID- 28566705
TI  - Nitrogen isotopes provide clues to amino acid metabolism in human colorectal
      cancer cells.
AB  - Glutamic acid and alanine make up more than 60 per cent of the total amino acids
      in the human body. Glutamine is a significant source of energy for cells and also
      a prime donor of nitrogen in the biosynthesis of many amino acids. Several
      studies have advocated the role of glutamic acid in cancer therapy.
      Identification of metabolic signatures in cancer cells will be crucial for
      advancement of cancer therapies based on the cell's metabolic state. Stable
      nitrogen isotope ratios (15N/14N, delta15N) are of particular advantage to
      understand the metabolic state of cancer cells, since most biochemical reactions
      involve transfer of nitrogen. In our study, we used the natural abundances of
      nitrogen isotopes (delta15N values) of individual amino acids from human
      colorectal cancer cell lines to investigate isotope discrimination among amino
      acids. Significant effects were noticed in the case of glutamic acid, alanine,
      aspartic acid and proline between cancer and healthy cells. The data suggest that
      glutamic acid is a nitrogen acceptor while alanine, aspartic acid and proline are
      nitrogen donors in cancerous cells. One plausible explanation is the
      transamination of the three acids to produce glutamic acid in cancerous cells.

PMID- 28566707
TI  - Insights into the complexation of N-Allyl-4-(4-(N-phenylureido)benzylamino)-1,8
      naphthalimide with various anions.
AB  - A new urea functionalised 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide based fluorescent anion
      sensor was synthesised in 64% yield over three steps. Fluorescence and 1H NMR
      titrations showed that the sensor complexes strongly with acetate and dihydrogen
      phosphate and to a lesser extent bromide. The corresponding binding
      stoichiometries were examined using 1H NMR titrations. Results show that the
      sensor molecule initially forms 1:1 complexes through hydrogen bonding to the
      urea moiety, followed by secondary complexation to form higher order host:guest
      stoichiometries. Specifically, oxyanions complex to the sensor via hydrogen
      bonding through synergistic aryl C-H and N-H anion interactions in a 1:2
      sensor:oxyanion arrangement. Furthermore, 2:1 sensor:oxyanion complexes are
      formed through an oxyanion linkage between two urea functionalities on different
      host molecules. This contrasts the majority of previous reports for similar
      hosts, which indicate 1:1 binding stoichiometry.

PMID- 28566706
TI  - Adaptation to Progressive Additive Lenses: Potential Factors to Consider.
AB  - People develop presbyopia as part of the normal aging process. Most presbyopes
      adapt to progressive additive lens (PALs), while others do not. This
      investigation sought to determine whether the ability to modify disparity
      vergence or phoria was correlated to PALs adaptation. In experiment 1, a double
      step paradigm quantified the ability to modify convergence responses in sixteen
      presbyopes. In experiment 2, thirty-one incipient presbyopes participated in a 5
      minute sustained fixation task to evoke phoria adaptation where the magnitude and
      rate of phoria adaptation were measured. Then, the experiment was repeated after
      wearing PALs for one month. Linear regression analyses were conducted between the
      following parameters: near point of convergence, positive fusional vergence at
      near, vergence facility, net change in the magnitude of phoria adaptation, and
      the rate of phoria adaptation. The ability to change convergence average peak
      velocity was significantly greater (p < 0.03) in presbyopic PALs adapters
      compared to presbyopic PALs non-adapters. The rate of phoria adaptation and
      vergence facility were significantly greater (p < 0.03) in incipient presbyopic
      PALs adapters compared to incipient presbyopic PALs non-adapters. Vergence
      facility and the rate of phoria adaptation may have potential clinical utility in
      differentiating which patients may adapt to PALs and which ones will have more
      difficulty.

PMID- 28566708
TI  - Reverse Anti-solvent Crystallization Process for the Facile Synthesis of Zinc
      Tetra(4-pyridyl)porphyrin Single Crystalline Cubes.
AB  - Synthesis of morphologically well-defined crystals of metalloporphyrin by direct
      crystallization based on conventional anti-solvent crystallization method without
      using any additives has been rarely reported. Herein, we demonstrate an
      unconventional and additive-free synthetic method named reverse anti-solvent
      crystallization method to achieve well-defined zinc-porphyrin cube crystals by
      reversing the order of the addition of solvents. The extended first solvation
      shell effect mechanism is therefore suggested to support the synthetic process by
      providing a novel kinetic route for reaching the local supersaturation
      environment depending on the order of addition of solvents, which turned out to
      be critical to achieve clean cube morphology of the crystal. We believe that our
      work not only extends fundamental knowledge about the kinetic process in binary
      solvent systems, but also enables great opportunities for shape-directing
      crystallization of various organic and organometallic compounds.

PMID- 28566709
TI  - Targeted radionuclide therapy with astatine-211: Oxidative dehalogenation of
      astatobenzoate conjugates.
AB  - 211At is a most promising radionuclide for targeted alpha therapy. However, its
      limited availability and poorly known basic chemistry hamper its use. Based on
      the analogy with iodine, labelling is performed via astatobenzoate conjugates,
      but in vivo deastatination occurs, particularly when the conjugates are
      internalized in cells. Actually, the chemical or biological mechanism responsible
      for deastatination is unknown. In this work, we show that the C-At
      "organometalloid" bond can be cleaved by oxidative dehalogenation induced by
      oxidants such as permanganates, peroxides or hydroxyl radicals. Quantum
      mechanical calculations demonstrate that astatobenzoates are more sensitive to
      oxidation than iodobenzoates, and the oxidative deastatination rate is estimated
      to be about 6 * 106 faster at 37  degrees C than the oxidative deiodination one.
      Therefore, we attribute the "internal" deastatination mechanism to oxidative
      dehalogenation in biological compartments, in particular lysosomes.

PMID- 28566711
TI  - Comparison of pediatric and adult lymphomas involving the mediastinum
      characterized by distinctive clinicopathological and radiological features.
AB  - Lymphomas involving the mediastinum occur in a wide age range and represent
      heterogeneous histological subtypes with various clinical symptoms and complex
      radiological findings. However, studies that describe the clinical and
      radiological features of different subtypes among Chinese pediatric and adult
      patients are limited. We analyzed the clinical, radiological and pathological
      features of 31 pediatric lymphomas involving the mediastinum, and compared them
      to the features of 21 adult patients. Although several histological subtypes were
      identified in adults, pediatric patients presented with T-cell lymphoblastic
      lymphoma/T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-LBL/T-ALL) and classical Hodgkin
      lymphomas (CHL) in 24 and 7 cases, respectively. Compared to adults, pediatric
      patients were more likely to be male (P = 0.089) and showed a higher incidence of
      T-LBL/T-ALL (P = 0.001), prevalence of dyspnea (P = 0.001), frequency of stage IV
      tumors (P = 0.008), and ratio of tumor diameter to maximum transthoracic diameter
      (P = 0.015). T-LBL/T-ALL patients presented with a higher frequency with stage IV
      disease (P = 0.000 and P = 0.001), compression of the blood vessels (P = 0.005
      and P = 0.017), and pleural effusions (P = 0.001, for both) than CHL and PMBL
      patients. Compared to adults, pediatric patients with mediastinal lymphomas
      presented with exclusive histological subtypes of T-LBL/T-ALL and CHL, which
      showed distinctive characteristics of histological distribution, clinical
      presentation and radiological assessments.

PMID- 28566710
TI  - Massive expansion and differential evolution of small heat shock proteins with
      wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) polyploidization.
AB  - Wheat (Triticum aestivum), one of the world's most important crops, is facing
      unprecedented challenges due to global warming. To evaluate the gene resources
      for heat adaptation in hexaploid wheat, small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), the
      key plant heat protection genes, were comprehensively analysed in wheat and
      related species. We found that the sHSPs of hexaploid wheat were massively
      expanded in A and B subgenomes with intrachromosomal duplications during
      polyploidization. These expanded sHSPs were under similar purifying selection and
      kept the expressional patterns with the original copies. Generally, a strong
      purifying selection acted on the alpha-crystallin domain (ACD) and theoretically
      constrain conserved function. Meanwhile, weaker purifying selection and strong
      positive selection acted on the N-terminal region, which conferred sHSP
      flexibility, allowing adjustments to a wider range of substrates in response to
      genomic and environmental changes. Notably, in CI, CV, ER, MI and MII
      subfamilies, gene duplications, expression variations and functional divergence
      occurred before wheat polyploidization. Our results indicate the massive
      expansion of active sHSPs in hexaploid wheat may also provide more raw materials
      for evolving functional novelties and generating genetic diversity to face future
      global climate changes, and highlight the expansion of stress response genes with
      wheat polyploidization.

PMID- 28566712
TI  - Developmental changes in social attention and oxytocin levels in infants and
      children.
AB  - Oxytocin (OT) signalling represents one of the most critical systems involved in
      human social behaviour. Although several studies have examined the relationship
      between social functioning and peripheral OT levels, the association between OT
      and the development of social attention has not been well studied. Therefore, we
      investigated the developmental relationship between gaze fixation for social cues
      and OT levels during young childhood. We examined visual attention using an eye
      tracking system in infants and children (5-90 months of age) and measured the
      concentration of OT in saliva samples. We observed a negative association between
      age and both attention toward social cues and salivary OT levels, and a positive
      association between age and attention for non-social cues. We also observed that
      salivary OT levels were modulated by polymorphisms in oxytocin receptor (OXTR)
      rs53576. Our results suggest that there is an age-dependent association between
      visual attention for social cues and OT levels in infants and children, and that
      the development of visual attention to the eyes as social cues is associated with
      both OXTR polymorphisms and OT levels. Such findings indicate that OT and OXTR
      status may provide insight into the atypical development of social attention in
      infants and young children.

PMID- 28566713
TI  - A PPARgamma-dependent miR-424/503-CD40 axis regulates inflammation mediated
      angiogenesis.
AB  - Activation of the endothelium by pro-inflammatory stimuli plays a key role in the
      pathogenesis of a multitude of vascular diseases. Angiogenesis is a crucial
      component of the vascular response associated with inflammatory signaling. The
      CD40/CD40 ligand dyad in endothelial cells (EC) has a central role in promoting
      vascular inflammatory response; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this
      component of inflammation and angiogenesis is not fully understood. Here we
      report a novel microRNA mediated suppression of endothelial CD40 expression. We
      found that CD40 is closely regulated by miR-424 and miR-503, which directly
      target its 3' untranslated region. Pro-inflammatory stimuli led to increased
      endothelial CD40 expression, at least in part due to decreased miR-424 and miR
      503 expression. In addition, miR-424 and miR-503 reduced LPS induced EC
      sprouting, migration and tube formation. Moreover, we found that miR-424 and miR
      503 expression is directly regulated by peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptor gamma (PPARgamma), whose endothelial expression and activity are
      decreased in response to inflammatory factors. Finally, we demonstrate that mice
      with endothelial-specific deletion of miR-322 (miR-424 ortholog) and miR-503 have
      augmented angiogenic response to LPS in a Matrigel plug assay. Overall, these
      studies identify a PPARgamma-dependent miR-424/503-CD40 signaling axis that is
      critical for regulation of inflammation mediated angiogenesis.

PMID- 28566714
TI  - The role of flavin-containing enzymes in mitochondrial membrane hyperpolarization
      and ROS production in respiring Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells under heat-shock
      conditions.
AB  - Heat shock is known to accelerate mitochondrial ROS production in Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae cells. But how yeast mitochondria produce ROS under heat-shock
      condition is not completely clear. Previously, it was shown that ROS production
      in heat-stressed fermenting yeast cells was accompanied by mitochondrial membrane
      potential (MMP) increase. In the current investigation the relationship between
      ROS production and MMP was studied in respiring yeast cells in stationary phase,
      using diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI), an inhibitor of flavin-containing
      proteins, as well as the mutants deleted for NDE1, NDE2 and NDI1 genes, encoding
      flavin-containing external and internal NADH dehydrogenases. It was shown that
      heat shock induced a transient burst in mitochondrial ROS production, which was
      paralleled by MMP rise. ROS production and MMP was significantly suppressed by
      DPI addition and deletion of NDE1. The effect of DPI on ROS production and MMP
      rise was specific for respiring cells. The results obtained suggest that the
      functioning of mitochondrial flavin-binding enzymes, Nde1p for instance, is
      required for the hyperpolarization of inner mitochondrial membrane and ROS
      production in respiring S. cerevisiae cells under heat-shock conditions.

PMID- 28566715
TI  - Classical-to-quantum transition behavior between two oscillators separated in
      space under the action of optomechanical interaction.
AB  - We propose a scheme to show that the system consisting of two macroscopic
      oscillators separated in space which are coupled through Coulomb interaction
      displays the classical-to-quantum transition behavior under the action of
      optomechanical coupling interaction. Once the optomechanical coupling interaction
      disappears, the entanglement between the two separated oscillators disappears
      accordingly and the system will return to classical world even though there
      exists sufficiently strong Coulomb coupling between the oscillators. In addition,
      resorting to the squeezing of the cavity field generated by an optical parametric
      amplifier inside the cavity, we discuss the effect of squeezed light driving on
      this classical-to-quantum transition behavior instead of injecting the squeezed
      field directly. The results of numerical simulation show that the present scheme
      is feasible and practical and has stronger robustness against the environment
      temperature compared with previous schemes in current experimentally feasible
      regimes. The scheme might possibly help us to further clarify and grasp the
      classical-quantum boundary.

PMID- 28566716
TI  - Glycogen synthase kinase 3beta inhibitors prevent hepatitis C virus
      release/assembly through perturbation of lipid metabolism.
AB  - Direct acting antivirals against hepatitis C virus (HCV) have markedly improved
      cure rates in the past few years. However, they are expensive, with only few
      targeting host cell factors, and affecting virus assembly and release. Huh7.5
      cells infected with a JFH-1 clone of HCV were treated with two different glycogen
      synthase kinase (GSK3)-beta inhibitors; AR-A014418 and lithium chloride. Intra-
      and extracellular HCV virions and specific infectivity was determined using real
      time RT-PCR and TCID50, and changes in lipid production were identified by enzyme
      linked immunoassay and mass spectrometry analyses. Similarly, effect on two HCV
      replicon cells were identified by the luciferase activity. Although there was
      limited effect on virus replication in Huh7.5 cells and replicons, Huh7.5 cells
      treated with GSK3beta inhibitors produced significantly less viral particles in
      comparison to untreated cells. In addition, the treated cells synthesized
      significantly lower amounts of ApoB and trapped the ApoE lipoproteins in the
      cells. In conclusion, our study suggests that GSK3beta plays a pivotal role in
      HCV virion assembly and release mediated in part through inhibition of
      apolipoprotein synthesis.

PMID- 28566717
TI  - Metabolomic profiling in a Hedgehog Interacting Protein (Hhip) murine model of
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - Genetic variants annotated to the hedgehog interacting protein (HHIP) are
      robustly associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hhip
      haploinsufficiency in mice leads to increased susceptibility towards the
      development of emphysema following exposure to chronic cigarette smoke (CS). To
      explore the molecular pathways which contribute to increased susceptibility, we
      performed metabolomic profiling using high performance liquid chromatography
      tandem mass spectroscopy (LC/MS-MS) on plasma, urine, and lung tissue of Hhip +/-
      heterozygotes and wild type (Hhip +/+) C57/BL6 mice exposed to either room-air or
      CS for six months. Univariate comparisons between groups were made with a
      combined fold change >=2 and Student's t-test p-value < 0.05 to denote
      significance; associations with mean alveolar chord length (MACL), a quantitative
      measure of emphysema, and gene-by-environment interactions were examined using
      empiric Bayes-mediated linear models. Decreased urinary excretion of cotinine
      despite comparable plasma levels was observed in Hhip +/- heterozygotes; a strong
      gene-by-smoking association was also observed. Correlations between MACL and
      markers of oxidative stress such as urinary methionine sulfoxide were observed in
      Hhip +/- but not in Hhip +/+ mice. Metabolite set enrichment analyses suggest
      reduced antioxidant capacity and alterations in macronutrient metabolism
      contribute to increased susceptibility to chronic CS-induced oxidative stress in
      Hhip haploinsufficiency states.

PMID- 28566718
TI  - Investigation of optimal weight gain during pregnancy for Japanese Women.
AB  - This study aims to compare the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Japanese
      guidelines proposed by the Ministry and the Japan Society for the Study of
      Obesity on gestational weight gain (GWG), and to explore the optimal GWG range in
      Japanese women. We investigated 8,152 Japanese women who had full-term singleton
      babies between 2010 and 2013 at a single center in Tokyo. Logistic regression
      models showed that GWG below the recommendation of the IOM and Japanese
      guidelines was similarly associated with an increased risk of light-for-date
      (LFD), whereas GWG above these guidelines was similarly associated with an
      increased risk of heavy-for-date (HFD) in pre-pregnancy body mass index
      categories of underweight (<18.5 kg/m2, n = 1559), normal-weight (18.5-24.9
      kg/m2, n = 4998), overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m2, n = 270), and obese (30 <= kg/m2,
      n = 60). The receiver-operating characteristic curve demonstrated that the
      optimal cutoffs for LFD and HFD were 9.7 and 10.4 kg, respectively in normal
      weight mothers. The IOM and Japanese guidelines identified the risk of LFD or HFD
      equally well. The optimal GWG range in normal-weight women observed in this study
      was more close to Japanese guideline (i.e., 7-12 kg) compared to the IOM
      guideline (i.e., 11.5-16 kg).

PMID- 28566719
TI  - Chronic Alcohol Consumption Promotes Diethylnitrosamine-Induced
      Hepatocarcinogenesis via Immune Disturbances.
AB  - Chronic alcohol consumption increases the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      However, little is known about the potential immunological mechanisms by which
      ethanol affects tumor progression. Here, adult male mice were administered
      multiple doses of diethylnitrosamine (DEN). Four and a half months later, the DEN
      treated mice were placed on a liquid Lieber-DeCarli control diet or diet
      containing 5% ethanol for 2.5 months. At the end of the study, liver tissue
      samples were obtained to analyze pathology, gene expression, and hepatic
      mononuclear cells (MNCs). Results showed that ethanol feeding exacerbates the
      progression of hepatic tumors (characterized by the ratio of liver weight to body
      weight, and the tumor volume and diameter) in DEN-treated mice. Mechanistically,
      chronic alcohol consumption decreased the number of antitumor CD8+ T cells but
      increased the number of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the liver in DEN
      initiated tumorigenesis. Besides, TAMs were prone to be M2 phenotype after
      alcohol consumption. Moreover, chronic alcohol consumption aggravated
      inflammation, fibrosis, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the
      pathological process of HCC. These data demonstrate that chronic alcohol
      consumption exacerbates DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis by enhancing protumor
      immunity, impairing antitumor immunity and aggravating hepatic pathological
      injury. Targeting the immune system is a potential therapeutic regimen for
      alcohol-promoted HCC.

PMID- 28566720
TI  - Exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells protect against
      cisplatin-induced ovarian granulosa cell stress and apoptosis in vitro.
AB  - Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (huMSCs) can treat primary ovarian
      insufficiency (POI) related to ovarian granulosa cell (OGC) apoptosis caused by
      cisplatin chemotherapy. Exosomes are a class of membranous vesicles with
      diameters of 30-200 nm that are constitutively released by eukaryotic cells.
      Exosomes mediate local cell-to-cell communication by transferring microRNAs and
      proteins. In the present study, we demonstrated the effects of exosomes derived
      from huMSCs (huMSC-EXOs) on a cisplatin-induced OGC model in vitro and discussed
      the preliminary mechanisms involved in these effects. We successfully extracted
      huMSC-EXOs from huMSC culture supernatant and observed the effective uptake of
      exosomes by cells with fluorescent staining. Using flow cytometry (with annexin
      V/PI labelling), we found that huMSC-EXOs increased the number of living cells.
      Western blotting showed that the expression of Bcl-2 and caspase-3 were
      upregulated, whilst the expression of Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP
      were downregulated to protect OGCs. These results suggest that huMSC-EXOs can be
      used to prevent and treat chemotherapy-induced OGC apoptosis in vitro. Therefore,
      this work provides insight and further evidence of stem cell function and
      indicates that huMSC-EXOs protect OGCs from cisplatin-induced injury in vitro.

PMID- 28566721
TI  - A novel CXCR4-targeted near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (Peptide R-NIR750)
      specifically detects CXCR4 expressing tumors.
AB  - C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) is over-expressed in multiple human cancers
      and correlates with tumor aggressiveness, poor prognosis and increased risk for
      distant metastases. Imaging agents for CXCR4 are thus highly desirable. We
      developed a novel CXCR4-targeted near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (Peptide R
      NIR750) conjugating the new developed CXCR4 peptidic antagonist Peptide R with
      the NIR fluorescent dye VivoTag-S750. Specific CXCR4 binding was obtained in
      cells overexpressing human CXCR4 (B16-hCXCR4 and human melanoma cells PES43), but
      not in CXCR4 low expressing cells (FB-1). Ex vivo evaluation demonstrated that
      PepR-NIR750 specifically detects B16-hCXCR4-derived subcutaneous tumors and lung
      metastases. Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (FMT) in vivo imaging was performed
      on mice carrying subcutaneous CHO and CHO-CXCR4 tumors. PepR-NIR750 accumulates
      only in CXCR4-positive expressing subcutaneous tumors. Additionally, an intense
      NIR fluorescence signal was detected in PES43-derived lung metastases of nude
      mice injected with PepR-NIR750 versus mice injected with VivoTag-S750. With a
      therapeutic intent, mice bearing PES43-derived lung metastases were treated with
      Peptide R. A the dramatic reduction in PES43-derived lung metastases was detected
      through a decrease of the PepR-NIR750 signal. PepR-NIR750 is a specific probe for
      non-invasive detection of human high CXCR4-expressing tumors and metastatic
      lesion and thus a valuable tool for cancer molecular imaging.

PMID- 28566722
TI  - Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of
      experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities.
AB  - To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive
      interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional
      traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect
      of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four different alpine
      subarctic plant communities: tussock tundra, Dryas heath, dry heath and wet
      meadow. Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to passively warm the vegetation by
      1.5-3  degrees C. Changes in leaf width, leaf length and plant height of 22
      vascular plant species were measured. Long-term warming significantly affected
      all plant traits. Overall, plant species were taller, with longer and wider
      leaves, compared with control plots, indicating an increase in biomass in warmed
      plots, with 13 species having significant increases in at least one trait and
      only three species having negative responses. The response varied among species
      and plant community in which the species was sampled, indicating community
      warming interactions. Thus, plant trait responses are both species- and community
      specific. Importantly, we show that there is likely to be great variation between
      plant species in their ability to maintain positive growth responses over the
      longer term, which might cause shifts in their relative competitive ability.

PMID- 28566723
TI  - Requirement for Jagged1-Notch2 signaling in patterning the bones of the mouse and
      human middle ear.
AB  - Whereas Jagged1-Notch2 signaling is known to pattern the sensorineural components
      of the inner ear, its role in middle ear development has been less clear. We
      previously reported a role for Jagged-Notch signaling in shaping skeletal
      elements derived from the first two pharyngeal arches of zebrafish. Here we show
      a conserved requirement for Jagged1-Notch2 signaling in patterning the stapes and
      incus middle ear bones derived from the equivalent pharyngeal arches of mammals.
      Mice lacking Jagged1 or Notch2 in neural crest-derived cells (NCCs) of the
      pharyngeal arches display a malformed stapes. Heterozygous Jagged1 knockout mice,
      a model for Alagille Syndrome (AGS), also display stapes and incus defects. We
      find that Jagged1-Notch2 signaling functions early to pattern the stapes
      cartilage template, with stapes malformations correlating with hearing loss
      across all frequencies. We observe similar stapes defects and hearing loss in one
      patient with heterozygous JAGGED1 loss, and a diversity of conductive and
      sensorineural hearing loss in nearly half of AGS patients, many of which carry
      JAGGED1 mutations. Our findings reveal deep conservation of Jagged1-Notch2
      signaling in patterning the pharyngeal arches from fish to mouse to man, despite
      the very different functions of their skeletal derivatives in jaw support and
      sound transduction.

PMID- 28566725
TI  - Low-field electron mobility of InSb nanowires: Numerical efforts to larger cross
      sections.
AB  - Within the framework of Boltzmann equation, we present a k . p theory based study
      for the low-field mobilities of InSb nanowires (InSb NWs) with relatively large
      cross sectional sizes (with diameters up to 51.8 nm). For such type of large size
      nanowires, the intersubband electron-phonon scattering is of crucial importance
      to affect the scattering rate and then the mobility. In our simulation, the
      lowest 15 electron subbands and 50 transverse modes of phonons are carefully
      accounted for. We find that, up to the 51.84 nm diameter, the mobility
      monotonously increases with the diameter, not yet showing any saturated behavior.
      We also find that, while the bulk InSb mobility is considerably higher than the
      bulk Si, the small size (e.g. ~3 nm diameter) nanowires from both materials have
      similar magnitude of mobilities. This implies, importantly, that the mobility of
      the InSb NWs would decrease faster than the SiNWs as we reduce the cross
      sectional size of the nanowires.

PMID- 28566724
TI  - Aberrant Intra- and Internetwork Functional Connectivity in Depressed Parkinson's
      Disease.
AB  - Much is known concerning the underlying mechanisms of Parkinson's disease (PD)
      with depression, but our understanding of this disease at the neural-system level
      remains incomplete. This study used resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and
      independent component analysis (ICA) to investigate intrinsic functional
      connectivity (FC) within and between large-scale neural networks in 20 depressed
      PD (dPD) patients, 35 non-depressed PD (ndPD) patients, and 34 healthy controls
      (HC). To alleviate the influence caused by ICA model order selection, this work
      reported results from analyses at 2 levels (low and high model order). Within
      these two analyses, similar results were obtained: 1) dPD and ndPD patients
      relative to HC had reduced FC in basal ganglia network (BGN); 2) dPD compared
      with ndPD patients exhibited increased FC in left frontoparietal network (LFPN)
      and salience network (SN), and decreased FC in default-mode network (DMN); 3) dPD
      patients compared to HC showed increased FC between DMN and LFPN. Additionally,
      connectivity anomalies in the DMN, LFPN and SN correlated with the depression
      severity in patients with PD. Our findings confirm the involvement of BGN, DMN,
      LFPN and SN in depression in PD, facilitating the development of more detailed
      and integrative neural models of PD with depression.

PMID- 28566726
TI  - Efficacy and Tolerability of Second and Third Generation Anti-epileptic Drugs in
      Refractory Epilepsy: A Network Meta-Analysis.
AB  - This study was proposed to compare the relative efficacy and tolerability of the
      second and third generation AEDs for refractory epilepsy. The 50% responder rate
      (RR) was selected as the efficacy outcome whereas the incidence of dizziness and
      somnolence were considered to evaluate the tolerability of AEDs. Odds ratio (OR)
      and their 95% credible interval (CrI) were obtained using a consistency model and
      surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) value was calculated to rank
      AEDs. Topiramate appeared to be significantly more effective than placebo,
      eslicarbazepine acetate, perampanel, pregabalin, zonisamide, gabapentin and
      lamotrigine with respect to the 50% RR (all OR > 1). Patients who were managed by
      eslicarbazepine acetate, perampanel, oxcarbazepine, topiramate and pregabalin
      were more likely to suffer from dizziness compared to those who receive placebo
      (all OR > 1). Perampanel, topiramate and pregabalin were related to elevated
      risks of somnolence compared to placebo (all OR > 1). Moreover, topiramate ranked
      highest with respect to 50% RR (SUCRA = 0.968) whereas levetiracetam appeared to
      have balanced efficacy and tolerability (SUCRA = 0.769, 0.743, 0.604 and 0.659).
      In conclusion, topiramate was the most efficacious AED, while levetiracetam was
      able to provide patients with balanced efficacy and tolerability.

PMID- 28566728
TI  - Evaluation of riparian condition of Songhua River by integration of remote
      sensing and field measurements.
AB  - Riparian zone is crucial to the health of streams and their surrounding
      environment. Evaluation of riparian condition is essential to achieve and
      maintain good stream health, as well as to sustain ecological functions that
      riparian areas provide. This manuscript is aimed to evaluate riparian conditions
      of Songhua River, the fifth longest river in China, using physical structural
      integrality (PSI) values derived from remote sensing and validated by field
      measurements. The variation and clusters of PSI values were discriminated by the
      spatial statistics to quantify variation of riparian condition in each
      measurement section. Evaluation results derived from 13 measurement sections
      indicated that over 60% of the riparian zones have been disturbed by human
      activities. Analysis of land use patterns of riparian zone in the cold and hot
      spots found that land-use patterns had an important effect on riparian condition.
      The build-up and farmland areas had been the main human disturbances to the
      riparian condition, which were increased from 1976 to 2013. The low-low clusters
      (low PSI values with low neighbors) of PSI values can be implemented to identify
      the vulnerability of the riparian zone.

PMID- 28566727
TI  - Persistent spatial structuring of coastal ocean acidification in the California
      Current System.
AB  - The near-term progression of ocean acidification (OA) is projected to bring about
      sharp changes in the chemistry of coastal upwelling ecosystems. The distribution
      of OA exposure across these early-impact systems, however, is highly uncertain
      and limits our understanding of whether and how spatial management actions can be
      deployed to ameliorate future impacts. Through a novel coastal OA observing
      network, we have uncovered a remarkably persistent spatial mosaic in the
      penetration of acidified waters into ecologically-important nearshore habitats
      across 1,000 km of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. In the most
      severe exposure hotspots, suboptimal conditions for calcifying organisms
      encompassed up to 56% of the summer season, and were accompanied by some of the
      lowest and most variable pH environments known for the surface ocean. Persistent
      refuge areas were also found, highlighting new opportunities for local adaptation
      to address the global challenge of OA in productive coastal systems.

PMID- 28566729
TI  - Potent anti-cancer effects of less polar Curcumin analogues on gastric
      adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells.
AB  - Curcumin and its chalcone derivatives inhibit the growth of human cancer cells.
      It is reported that replacement of two OH groups in curcumin with less polar
      groups like methoxy increases its anti-proliferative activity. In this study, we
      explored benzylidine cyclohexanone derivatives with non-polar groups, to see if
      they possess increased anti-cancer activity. Novel 2,6-bis benzylidine
      cyclohexanone analogues of curcumin were synthesized, and their inhibitory
      effects on gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
      (KYSE30) cancer cells were studied using an MTT assay. Cell apoptosis was
      detected by EB/AO staining, and cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. Real
      time PCR was performed for gene expression analysis. All synthesized analogues
      were cytotoxic toward gastric and esophageal cancer cells and showed lower IC50
      values than curcumin. Treatment with 2,6-Bis-(3-methoxy-4-propoxy-benzylidene)
      cyclohexanone (BM2) was 17 times more toxic than curcumin after 48 h incubation.
      All novel compounds were more effective than curcumin in apoptosis induction and
      cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. These results suggest that less polar analogues of
      curcumin have potent cytotoxicity in vitro. However, they need to be investigated
      further, especially with animal tumor models, to confirm their chemotherapeutic
      activity in vivo.

PMID- 28566730
TI  - Building early-larval sexing systems for genetic control of the Australian sheep
      blow fly Lucilia cuprina using two constitutive promoters.
AB  - Transgenic sexing strains (TSS) that carry conditional female lethal genes are
      advantageous for genetic control programs based on the sterile insect technique
      (SIT). It is desirable if females die early in development as larval diet is a
      major cost for mass production facilities. This can be achieved by using a gene
      promoter that is only active in embryos to drive expression of the tetracycline
      transactivator (tTA), the transcription factor commonly used in two-component
      TSS. While an embryo-specific promoter is ideal it may not be essential for
      assembling an effective TSS as tTA can be repressed by addition of tetracycline
      to the diet at larval and/or adult stages. Here we have investigated this idea by
      isolating and employing the promoters from the Lucilia spitting image and actin
      5C genes to drive tTA expression in embryos and later stages. L. cuprina TSS with
      the tTA drivers and tTA-regulated tetO-Lshid effectors produced only females when
      raised on a limited tetracycline diet. The Lshid transgene contains a sex
      specific intron and as a consequence only females produce LsHID protein. TSS
      females died at early larval stages, which makes the lines advantageous for an
      SIT program.

PMID- 28566731
TI  - Experimental investigation of quantum entropic uncertainty relations for multiple
      measurements in pure diamond.
AB  - One unique feature of quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle,
      which states that the outcomes of two incompatible measurements cannot
      simultaneously achieve arbitrary precision. In an information-theoretic context
      of quantum information, the uncertainty principle can be formulated as entropic
      uncertainty relations with two measurements for a quantum bit (qubit) in two
      dimensional system. New entropic uncertainty relations are studied for a higher
      dimensional quantum state with multiple measurements, and the uncertainty bounds
      can be tighter than that expected from two measurements settings and cannot
      result from qubits system with or without a quantum memory. Here we report the
      first room-temperature experimental testing of the entropic uncertainty relations
      with three measurements in a natural three-dimensional solid-state system: the
      nitrogen-vacancy center in pure diamond. The experimental results confirm the
      entropic uncertainty relations for multiple measurements. Our result represents a
      more precise demonstrating of the fundamental uncertainty principle of quantum
      mechanics.

PMID- 28566732
TI  - Peptide Markers for Rapid Detection of KPC Carbapenemase by LC-MS/MS.
AB  - Carbapenemase producing organisms (CPOs) represent an urgent public health
      threat, and the need for new rapid methods to detect these organisms has been
      widely recognized. CPOs carrying the Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (bla KPC
      ) gene have caused outbreaks globally with substantial attributable mortality.
      Here we describe the validation of a rapid MS method for the direct detection of
      unique tryptic peptides of the KPC protein in clinical bacterial isolates with an
      isolate-to-result time of less than 90 minutes. Using a genoproteomic discovery
      approach that combines theoretical peptidome analysis and liquid chromatography
      tandem MS (LC-MS/MS), we selected three high abundance peptide markers of the KPC
      protein that can be robustly detected following rapid tryptic digestion. Protein
      BLAST analysis confirmed that the chosen peptide markers were unique to KPC. A
      blinded validation set containing 20 KPC-positive and 80 KPC-negative clinical
      isolates, performed in triplicate (300 runs) demonstrated 100% sensitivity and
      100% specificity (60/60 positive identifications, 240/240 negative
      identifications) using defined rules for positive calls. The most robust tryptic
      peptide marker in the validation was LTLGSALAAPQR. The peptide discovery and
      detection methods validated here are general and should be broadly applicable to
      allow the direct and rapid detection of other resistance determinants.

PMID- 28566734
TI  - Quantum realization of the bilinear interpolation method for NEQR.
AB  - In recent years, quantum image processing is one of the most active fields in
      quantum computation and quantum information. Image scaling as a kind of image
      geometric transformation has been widely studied and applied in the classical
      image processing, however, the quantum version of which does not exist. This
      paper is concerned with the feasibility of the classical bilinear interpolation
      based on novel enhanced quantum image representation (NEQR). Firstly, the
      feasibility of the bilinear interpolation for NEQR is proven. Then the concrete
      quantum circuits of the bilinear interpolation including scaling up and scaling
      down for NEQR are given by using the multiply Control-Not operation, special
      adding one operation, the reverse parallel adder, parallel subtractor, multiplier
      and division operations. Finally, the complexity analysis of the quantum network
      circuit based on the basic quantum gates is deduced. Simulation result shows that
      the scaled-up image using bilinear interpolation is clearer and less distorted
      than nearest interpolation.

PMID- 28566733
TI  - A Benzothiazole Derivative (5g) Induces DNA Damage And Potent G2/M Arrest In
      Cancer Cells.
AB  - Chemically synthesized small molecules play important role in anticancer therapy.
      Several chemical compounds have been reported to damage the DNA, either directly
      or indirectly slowing down the cancer cell progression by causing a cell cycle
      arrest. Direct or indirect reactive oxygen species formation causes DNA damage
      leading to cell cycle arrest and subsequent cell death. Therefore, identification
      of chemically synthesized compounds with anticancer potential is important. Here
      we investigate the effect of benzothiazole derivative (5g) for its ability to
      inhibit cell proliferation in different cancer models. Interestingly, 5g
      interfered with cell proliferation in both, cell lines and tumor cells leading to
      significant G2/M arrest. 5g treatment resulted in elevated levels of ROS and
      subsequently, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) explaining observed G2/M arrest.
      Consistently, we observed deregulation of many cell cycle associated proteins
      such as CDK1, BCL2 and their phosphorylated form, CyclinB1, CDC25c etc. Besides,
      5g treatment led to decreased levels of mitochondrial membrane potential and
      activation of apoptosis. Interestingly, 5g administration inhibited tumor growth
      in mice without significant side effects. Thus, our study identifies 5g as a
      potent biochemical inhibitor to induce G2/M phase arrest of the cell cycle, and
      demonstrates its anticancer properties both ex vivo and in vivo.

PMID- 28566735
TI  - Interaction processes of ciprofloxacin with graphene oxide and reduced graphene
      oxide in the presence of montmorillonite in simulated gastrointestinal fluids.
AB  - This study investigated the interaction processes of ciprofloxacin (CIP) with
      graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO) in presence of montmorillonite (Mont) in
      simulated gastrointestinal fluids. The order of CIP adsorption affinity was
      rGO+Mont > GO+Mont > rGO+Mont+pepsin > rGO > GO+Mont+pepsin > Mont > Mont+pepsin
      > GO > rGO+pepsin > GO+pepsin in simulated gastric fluid. Mont enhanced the
      adsorption of CIP on GO and rGO due to hydrated Si species coating on GO and rGO
      in the simulated gastric fluid. Meanwhile, pi-pi interaction between CIP and
      graphene caused the great shift of two cyclopropyl CH2 and one cyclopropyl in CIP
      molecules. And GO, rGO, and Mont interacted mainly with CIP by COOH groups. CIP
      and pepsin molecules could intercalate and increase the basal spacing of Mont as
      well. After the various interaction systems of adsorbent-adsorbate transferring
      to the simulated intestinal fluid, CIP was continuously adsorbed by GO and rGO.
      In addition, adsorbed CIP was released from Mont into the solution through
      electrostatic repulsion. The decrease ratio of CIP was the lowest in the
      GO/rGO+Mont+pepsin systems. Therefore, the mixture of Mont and GO/rGO decreased
      the CIP concentration in gastrointestinal fluid to weaken further antibiotic
      activity of CIP.

PMID- 28566736
TI  - Aberrant splicing of the tumor suppressor CYLD promotes the development of
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia via sustained NF-kappaB signaling.
AB  - The pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has been linked to
      constitutive NF-kappaB activation but the underlying mechanisms are poorly
      understood. Here we show that alternative splicing of the negative regulator of
      NF-kappaB and tumor suppressor gene CYLD regulates the pool of CD5+ B cells
      through sustained canonical NF-kappaB signaling. Reinforced canonical NF-kappaB
      activity leads to the development of B1 cell-associated tumor formation in aging
      mice by promoting survival and proliferation of CD5+ B cells, highly reminiscent
      of human B-CLL. We show that a substantial number of CLL patient samples express
      sCYLD, strongly implicating a role for it in human B-CLL. We propose that our new
      CLL-like mouse model represents an appropriate tool for studying ubiquitination
      driven canonical NF-kappaB activation in CLL. Thus, inhibition of alternative
      splicing of this negative regulator is essential for preventing NF-kappaB-driven
      clonal CD5+ B-cell expansion and ultimately CLL-like disease.

PMID- 28566737
TI  - Sex-specific cardiopulmonary exercise testing parameters as predictors in
      patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) has been used for prognosis in idiopathic
      pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). We explored whether sex differences had
      an impact on prognostic assessments of CPET in IPAH. Data were retrieved from 21
      male and 36 female incident IPAH patients who underwent both right heart
      catheterization and CPET from 2010 to 2016 at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. Cox
      proportional hazards analysis was used to assess the prognostic value of CPET.
      The mean duration of follow-up was 22+/-15 months. Nine men and 15 women had an
      event. The differences in clinical parameters in the whole population were not
      the same as the inter-subgroup differences. Event-free women had significantly
      higher cardiac output, lower pulmonary vascular resistance and percentage of
      predicted FVC compared with event men (all P<0.05). Event-free men had
      significantly higher end-tidal partial pressure of CO2 (PETCO2) at anaerobic
      threshold (AT), peak workload, PETCO2, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2)/minute
      ventilation (VE), and oxygen uptake efficiency slope and lower end-tidal partial
      pressure of O2 (PETO2) at AT, peak PETO2, and lowest VE/VCO2 compared with event
      men. Event-free women had dramatically higher peak VO2, VCO2, VE and O2 pulse
      than event women (all P<0.05). Peak PETCO2 was the independent predictor of event
      free survival in all patients and males, whereas peak O2 pulse was the
      independent predictor of event-free survival in females. Men with peak
      PETCO2?20.50 mm Hg, women with peak O2 pulse ?6.25 ml per beat and all patients
      with peak PETCO2?27.03 mm Hg had significantly better event-free survival. Sex
      specific CPET parameters are predictors of poor outcomes. Decreased peak PETCO2
      in men and peak O2 pulse in women were associated with lower event-free survival
      in IPAH.

PMID- 28566738
TI  - Structural insights into the elevator-like mechanism of the sodium/citrate
      symporter CitS.
AB  - The sodium-dependent citrate transporter of Klebsiella pneumoniae (KpCitS)
      belongs to the 2-hydroxycarboxylate transporter (2-HCT) family and allows the
      cell to use citrate as sole carbon and energy source in anaerobic conditions.
      Here we present crystal structures of KpCitS in citrate-bound outward-facing,
      citrate-bound asymmetric, and citrate-free inward-facing state. The structures
      reveal that the KpCitS dimerization domain remains stationary throughout the
      transport cycle due to a hydrogen bond network as well as extensive hydrophobic
      interactions. In contrast, its transport domain undergoes a ~35 degrees  rigid
      body rotation and a ~17 A translocation perpendicular to the membrane to expose
      the substrate-binding site alternately to either side of the membrane.
      Furthermore, homology models of two other 2-HCT proteins based on the KpCitS
      structure offer structural insights into their differences in substrate
      specificity at a molecular level. On the basis of our results and previous
      biochemical data, we propose that the activity of the 2-HCT CitS involves an
      elevator-like movement in which the transport domain itself traverses the lipid
      bilayer, carrying the substrate into the cell in a sodium-dependent manner.

PMID- 28566739
TI  - Structural Color Filters Enabled by a Dielectric Metasurface Incorporating
      Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Nanodisks.
AB  - It is advantageous to construct a dielectric metasurface in silicon due to its
      compatibility with cost-effective, mature processes for complementary metal-oxide
      semiconductor devices. However, high-quality crystalline-silicon films are
      difficult to grow on foreign substrates. In this work, we propose and realize
      highly efficient structural color filters based on a dielectric metasurface
      exploiting hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), known to be lossy in the
      visible regime. The metasurface is comprised of an array of a-Si:H nanodisks
      embedded in a polymer, providing a homogeneously planarized surface that is
      crucial for practical applications. The a-Si:H nanodisk element is deemed to
      individually support an electric dipole (ED) and magnetic dipole (MD) resonance
      via Mie scattering, thereby leading to wavelength-dependent filtering
      characteristics. The ED and MD can be precisely identified by observing the
      resonant field profiles with the assistance of finite-difference time-domain
      simulations. The completed color filters provide a high transmission of around
      90% in the off-resonance band longer than their resonant wavelengths, exhibiting
      vivid subtractive colors. A wide range of colors can be facilitated by tuning the
      resonance by adjusting the structural parameters like the period and diameter of
      the a-Si:H nanodisk. The proposed devices will be actively utilized to implement
      color displays, imaging devices, and photorealistic color printing.

PMID- 28566740
TI  - Quaternary fluvial terraces of the Tiber Valley: geochronologic and geometric
      constraints on the back-arc magmatism-related uplift in central Italy.
AB  - Through a geomorphological study relying on statistically assessed classes of
      hilltop elevations, we reconstruct a suite of paleo-surfaces along the Tiber
      River Valley north of Rome that we identify as fluvial terraces formed by
      interplay between global sea-level fluctuations and regional upift. Using
      biostratigraphic constraints provided by marine through continental deposits of
      Santernian age, we recognize the oldest terrace in this area, corresponding to an
      early coastal plain of late Santernian-Emilian age. By assuming the simple
      chronological principle of a staircase geometry we correlate the sea-level
      highstands of MIS 21 through MIS 5 with the lowest eight paleo-surfaces. By
      plotting against time the cumulated terrace elevations and the average elevation
      of the Santernian coastline in the investigated area, we detect rates of uplift
      during the last 1.8 Ma. Two major pulses of uplift are recognized 0.86 through
      0.5 Ma, and 0.25 Ma through the Present, which are interpreted as driven by the
      subduction process and uprising of metasomatized magma bodies on the Tyrrhenian
      Sea Margin of central Italy, superimposied on a smaller isostatic component of
      uplift.

PMID- 28566741
TI  - Endometriosis foci differentiation by rapid lipid profiling using tissue spray
      ionization and high resolution mass spectrometry.
AB  - Obtaining fast screening information on molecular composition of a tissue sample
      is of great importance for a disease biomarkers search and for online surgery
      control. In this study, high resolution mass spectrometry analysis of eutopic and
      ectopic endometrium tissues (90 samples) is done using direct tissue spray mass
      spectrometry in both positive and negative ion modes. The most abundant peaks in
      the both ion modes are those corresponding to lipids. Species of three lipid
      classes are observed, phosphatidylcholines (PC), sphingomyelins (SM) and
      phosphoethanolamines (PE). Direct tissue analysis gives mainly information on PC
      and SM lipids (29 species) in positive ion mode and PC, SM and PE lipids (50
      species) in negative ion mode which gives complementary data for endometriosis
      foci differentiation. The biggest differences were found for phospholipids with
      polyunsaturated acyls and alkils. Although, tissue spray shows itself as
      appropriate tool for tissue investigation, caution should be paid to the
      interpretation of mass spectra because of their higher complexity with more
      possible adducts formation and multiple interferences must be taken into account.
      The present work extends the application of direct tissue analysis for the rapid
      differentiation between endometriotic tissues of different foci.

PMID- 28566742
TI  - Dynamic control of coherent pulses via destructive interference in graphene under
      Landau quantization.
AB  - We analyze the destructive interference in monolayer graphene under Landau
      quantization in a time-dependent way by using the Bloch-Maxwell formalism. Based
      on this analysis, we investigate the dynamics control of an infrared probe and a
      terahertz (THz) switch pulses in graphene. In presence of the THz switch pulse,
      the destructive interference take places and can be optimized so that the
      monolayer graphene is completely transparent to the infrared probe pulse. In
      absence of the THz switch pulse, however, the infrared probe pulse is absorbed
      due to such a interference does not take place. Furthermore, we provide a clear
      physics insight of this destructive interference by using the classical dressed
      state theory. Conversely, the present model may be rendered either absorbing or
      transparent to the THz switch pulse. By choosing appropriate wave form of the
      probe and switch pulses, we show that both infrared probe and THz switch pulses
      exhibit the steplike transitions between absorption and transparency. Such
      steplike transitions can be used to devise a versatile quantum interference-based
      solid-state optical switching with distinct wave-lengths for optical
      communication devices.

PMID- 28566743
TI  - Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Empagliflozin in Healthy Egyptian Volunteers Using
      LC-MS/MS and Comparison with Other Ethnic Populations.
AB  - The present study considered the pharmacokinetic evaluation of empagliflozin
      after administration to Egyptian volunteers, and the results were compared with
      other ethnic populations. The FDA recognizes that standard methods of defining
      racial subgroups are necessary to compare results across pharmacokinetic studies
      and to assess potential subgroup differences. The design of the study was as an
      open labeled, randomized, one treatment, one period, single dose pharmacokinetic
      study. The main pharmacokinetic parameters estimated were Cmax, Tmax, t1/2,
      elimination rate constant, AUC0-t and AUC0-inf. The insignificant difference in
      pharmacokinetic parameters between Egyptians and white German subjects suggests
      that no dose adjustment should be considered with administration of 25 mg
      empagliflozin to Egyptian population. A new LC-MS/MS method was developed and
      validated, allowing sensitive estimation of empagliflozin (25-600 ng mL-1) in
      human plasma using dapagliflozin as an internal standard (IS). The method was
      applied successfully on the underlying pharmacokinetic study with enhanced sample
      preparation that involved liquid-liquid extraction. Multiple Reaction Monitoring
      (MRM) of the transition pairs of m/z 449.01 to 371.21 for empagliflozin and m/z
      407.00 to 328.81 for dapagliflozin (IS) was employed utilizing negative mode
      Electro Spray Ionization (ESI). The validated LC-MS/MS method is suitable for
      further toxicodynamic and bioequivalence studies.

PMID- 28566744
TI  - MRI tracking of autologous pancreatic progenitor-derived insulin-producing cells
      in monkeys.
AB  - Insulin-producing cells (IPCs) derived from a patient's own stem cells offer
      great potential for autologous transplantation in diabetic patients. However, the
      limited survival of engrafted cells remains a bottleneck in the application of
      this strategy. The present study aimed to investigate whether nanoparticle-based
      magnetic resonance (MR) tracking can be used to detect the loss of grafted stem
      cell-derived IPCs in a sensitive and timely manner in a diabetic monkey model.
      Pancreatic progenitor cells (PPCs) were isolated from diabetic monkeys and
      labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs). The SPION
      labeled cells presented as hypointense signals on MR imaging (MRI). The labeling
      procedure did not affect the viability or IPC differentiation of PPCs.
      Importantly, the total area of the hypointense signal caused by SPION-labeled
      IPCs on liver MRI decreased before the decline in C-peptide levels after
      autotransplantation. Histological analysis revealed no detectable immune response
      to the grafts and many surviving insulin- and Prussian blue-positive cell
      clusters on liver sections at one year post-transplantation. Collectively, this
      study demonstrates that SPIO nanoparticles can be used to label stem cells for
      noninvasive, sensitive, longitudinal monitoring of stem cell-derived IPCs in
      large animal models using a conventional MR imager.

PMID- 28566745
TI  - Serum miRNA signature diagnoses and discriminates murine colitis subtypes and
      predicts ulcerative colitis in humans.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is difficult to diagnose due to nonspecific and
      variable symptoms, and lack of reliable diagnostic tests. Current methods are
      invasive, non-sensitive, non-predictive, and do not easily discriminate between
      its two main forms. Consequently, there remains a great need for reliable serum
      markers for IBD. Here, using a longitudinal study of various mouse models of
      colitis, we identified a serum miRNA signature that indicated the development of
      colitis and discriminated between inflammations of various origins (colitis from
      arthritis). Unlike the existing biomarkers, the newly identified signature also
      serves to distinguish individuals at risk, predict the type of inflammation, and
      evaluate the response to therapeutics. Moreover, the miRNA signature identified
      in mice predicted ulcerative colitis with 83.3% accuracy. In future, the
      signature identified herein could play a central role in monitoring inflammatory
      disorders and therapeutic responses in patients, thereby paving the way for
      personalized medicine.

PMID- 28566746
TI  - Thermally evaporated indium-free, transparent, flexible SnO2/AgPdCu/SnO2
      electrodes for flexible and transparent thin film heaters.
AB  - We investigated the characteristics of themally evaporated SnO2/Ag-Pd-Cu
      (APC)/SnO2 multilayer films for applications as damage-free, indium-free,
      flexible, and transparent electrodes for high performance flexible and
      transparent thin film heaters (TFHs). The top and bottom SnO2 layers and APC
      interlayer were prepared by a multi-source evaporation process, and the effect of
      the thickness of each layer on the resistivity, optical transmittance, and
      mechanical flexibility of the SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrodes was investigated in
      detail. Based on a figure of merit value, we obtained a SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrode
      with a low sheet resistance of 9.42 Ohm/square and a high optical transmittance
      of 91.14%. In addition, we examined the mechanical properties of the
      SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrode using various bending tests such as inner bending, outer
      bending, dynamic fatigue, and a twisting test. By comparing the crack shape of
      the SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrode bent beyond the critical bending radius (2~3 mm), we
      suggest a possible crack formation mechanism for the SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrodes.
      Furthermore, we evaluated the feasibility of the SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrodes for
      flexible and transparent TFHs. By correlating the sheet resistance of the
      SnO2/APC/SnO2 electrode and the performance of TFHs, we show the importance of
      transparent electrodes for high performance flexible and transparent TFHs.

PMID- 28566747
TI  - Novel Locally Active Estrogens Accelerate Cutaneous Wound Healing-Part 2.
AB  - Estrogen deprivation is associated with delayed healing, while estrogen
      replacement therapy (ERT) accelerates acute wound healing and protects against
      development of chronic wounds. However, current estrogenic molecules have
      undesired systemic effects, thus the aim of our studies is to generate new
      molecules for topic administration that are devoid of systemic effects. Following
      a preliminary study, the new 17beta-estradiol derivatives 1 were synthesized. The
      estrogenic activity of these novel compounds was evaluated in vitro using the
      cell line ERE-Luc B17 stably transfected with an ERE-Luc reporter. Among the
      17beta-estradiol derivatives synthesized, compounds 1e and 1f showed the highest
      transactivation potency and were therefore selected for the study of their
      systemic estrogenic activity. The study of these compounds in the ERE-Luc mouse
      model demonstrated that both compounds lack systemic effects when administered in
      the wound area. Furthermore, wound-healing experiments showed that 1e displays a
      significant regenerative and anti-inflammatory activity. It is therefore
      confirmed that this class of compounds are suitable for topical administration
      and have a clear beneficial effect on wound healing.

PMID- 28566748
TI  - A pathway for protective quenching in antenna proteins of Photosystem II.
AB  - Photosynthesis is common in nature, converting sunlight energy into proton motive
      force and reducing power. The increased spectral range absorption of light
      exerted by pigments (i.e. chlorophylls, Chls) within Light Harvesting Complexes
      (LHCs) proves an important advantage under low light conditions. However, in the
      exposure to excess light, oxidative damages and ultimately cell death can occur.
      A down-regulatory mechanism, thus, has been evolved (non-photochemical quenching,
      NPQ). The mechanistic details of its major component (qE) are missing at the
      atomic scale. The research herein, initiates on solid evidence from the current
      NPQ state of the art, and reveals a detailed atomistic view by large scale
      Molecular Dynamics, Metadynamics and ab initio Simulations. The results
      demonstrate a complete picture of an elaborate common molecular design. All
      probed antenna proteins (major LHCII from spinach-pea, CP29 from spinach) show
      striking plasticity in helix-D, under NPQ conditions. This induces changes in Qy
      bands in excitation and absorption spectra of the near-by pigment pair (Chl613
      614) that could emerge as a new quenching site. Zeaxanthin enhances this
      plasticity (and possibly the quenching) even at milder NPQ conditions.

PMID- 28566749
TI  - Longitudinal associations between television in the bedroom and body fatness in a
      UK cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess longitudinal associations between screen-based media use
      (television (TV) and computer hours, having a TV in the bedroom) and body fatness
      among UK children. METHODS: Participants were 12 556 children from the UK
      Millennium Cohort Study who were followed from age 7 to age 11 years.
      Associations were assessed between screen-based media use and the following
      outcomes: body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), and overweight. RESULTS:
      In fully adjusted models, having a bedroom TV at age 7 years was associated with
      significantly higher BMI and FMI (excess BMI for boys=0.29, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 0.06-0.52; excess BMI for girls=0.57, 95% CI 0.31-0.84; excess FMI
      for boys=0.20, 95% CI 0.04-0.37; excess FMI for girls=0.39, 95% CI 0.21-0.57) and
      increased risk of being overweight (relative risk (RR) for boys=1.21, 95% CI 1.07
      1.36; RR for girls=1.31, 95% CI 1.15-1.48) at age 11 years, compared with having
      no bedroom TV. Hours spent watching TV or digital versatile disks were associated
      with increased risk of overweight among girls only. Computer use at age 7 years
      was not related to later body fatness for either gender. CONCLUSION: Having a TV
      in the child's bedroom was an independent risk factor for overweight and
      increased body fatness in this nationally representative sample of UK children.
      Childhood obesity prevention strategies should consider TVs in children's
      bedrooms as a risk factor for obesity.

PMID- 28566750
TI  - Mutation Spectrum in the CACNA1A Gene in 49 Patients with Episodic Ataxia.
AB  - Episodic ataxia is an autosomal dominant ion channel disorder characterized by
      episodes of imbalance and incoordination. The disease is genetically
      heterogeneous and is classified as episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2) when it is caused
      by a mutation in the CACNA1A gene, encoding the alpha1A subunit of the P/Q-type
      voltage-gated calcium channel Cav2.1. The vast majority of EA2 disease-causing
      variants are loss-of-function (LoF) point changes leading to decreased channel
      currents. CACNA1A exonic deletions have also been reported in EA2 using
      quantitative approaches. We performed a mutational screening of the CACNA1A gene,
      including the promoter and 3'UTR regions, in 49 unrelated patients diagnosed with
      episodic ataxia. When pathogenic variants were not found by sequencing, we
      performed a copy number variant (CNV) analysis to screen for duplications or
      deletions. Overall, sequencing screening allowed identification of six different
      point variants (three nonsense and three missense changes) and two coding indels,
      one of them found in two unrelated patients. Additionally, CNV analysis
      identified a deletion in a patient spanning exon 35 as a result of a
      recombination event between flanking intronic Alu sequences. This study allowed
      identification of potentially pathogenic alterations in our sample, five of them
      novel, which cover 20% of the patients (10/49). Our data suggest that most of
      these variants are disease-causing, although functional studies are required.

PMID- 28566751
TI  - Establishment of the model system between phytochemicals and gene expression
      profiles in Macrosclereid cells of Medicago truncatula.
AB  - Macrosclereid cells, which are a layer in the seed coat of Medicago truncatula,
      accumulate large amounts of phytochemicals during their development. But little
      is known about the complex and dynamic changes during macrosclereid cell
      development. To characterize the phytochemicals and the related gene expression
      during the development of M. truncatula macrosclereid cells, a high performance
      liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) assay and microarray study were
      conducted on transcriptome changes from macrosclereid cell during seed
      development. A total of 16 flavonoids by HPLC-MS and 4861 genes exhibited
      significant differences at transcript levels by microarray analysis were
      identified for macrosclerid cells at six different time points during seed
      development. 815 abiotic and biotic stress genes, 223 transcriptional factors
      (TFs), and 155 annotated transporter proteins exhibited differential expression
      during the development of macrosclereid cells. A total of 102 genes were
      identified as involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, phenypropanoid biosynthesis,
      and flavone and flavonol biosynthesis. We performed a weighted gene co-regulatory
      network (WGCNA) to analyze the gene-flavonoid association and rebuilt the gene
      regulatory network during macrosclereid cell development. Our studies revealed
      that macrosclereid cells are, beside as the first barrier of defense against
      diseases, an excellent model system to investigate the regulatory network that
      governs flavonoid biosynthesis.

PMID- 28566752
TI  - Metabolomics biomarkers to predict acamprosate treatment response in alcohol
      dependent subjects.
AB  - Precision medicine for alcohol use disorder (AUD) allows optimal treatment of the
      right patient with the right drug at the right time. Here, we generated
      multivariable models incorporating clinical information and serum metabolite
      levels to predict acamprosate treatment response. The sample of 120 patients was
      randomly split into a training set (n = 80) and test set (n = 40) five
      independent times. Treatment response was defined as complete abstinence (no
      alcohol consumption during 3 months of acamprosate treatment) while nonresponse
      was defined as any alcohol consumption during this period. In each of the five
      training sets, we built a predictive model using a least absolute shrinkage and
      section operator (LASSO) penalized selection method and then evaluated the
      predictive performance of each model in the corresponding test set. The models
      predicted acamprosate treatment response with a mean sensitivity and specificity
      in the test sets of 0.83 and 0.31, respectively, suggesting our model performed
      well at predicting responders, but not non-responders (i.e. many non-responders
      were predicted to respond). Studies with larger sample sizes and additional
      biomarkers will expand the clinical utility of predictive algorithms for
      pharmaceutical response in AUD.

PMID- 28566753
TI  - An integrated analysis revealed different microRNA-mRNA profiles during skeletal
      muscle development between Landrace and Lantang pigs.
AB  - Pigs supply vital dietary proteins for human consumption, and their economic
      value depends largely on muscle production. MicroRNAs are known to play important
      roles in skeletal muscle development. However, their relationship to distinct
      muscle production between pig breeds remains unknown. Here, we performed an
      integrated analysis of microRNA-mRNA expression profiles for Landrace (LR, lean)
      pigs and the Chinese indigenous Lantang pig (LT, lard-type) during 8 stages of
      skeletal muscle developmental, including at 35, 49, 63, 77 dpc (days post coitum)
      and 2, 28, 90, 180 dpn (days postnatal). As differentially expressed-miRNA
      expression profiles can be well classified into two clusters by PCA analysis, we
      grouped the embryonic stages as G1 and the postnatal stages as G2. A total of 203
      genes were predicted miRNA targets, and a STEM analysis showed distinct
      expression patterns between G1 and G2 in both breeds based on their
      transcriptomic data. Furthermore, a STRING analysis predicted interactions
      between 22 genes and 35 miRNAs, including some crucial myogenic factors and
      myofibrillar genes. Thus, it can be reasonably speculated that myogenic miRNAs
      may regulate myofibrillar genes in myofiber formation during embryonic stages and
      muscle hypertrophy during postnatal stages, leading to distinct differences in
      muscle production between breeds.

PMID- 28566754
TI  - Stroke triggers nigrostriatal plasticity and increases alcohol consumption in
      rats.
AB  - Excessive alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for stroke, but the effect
      of stroke on alcohol intake is unknown. The dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and
      midbrain areas of the nigrostriatal circuit are critically associated to stroke
      and alcohol addiction. Here we sought to explore the influence of stroke on
      alcohol consumption and to uncover the underlying nigrostriatal mechanism. Rats
      were trained to consume alcohol using a two-bottle choice or operant self
      administration procedure. Retrograde beads were infused into the DMS or midbrain
      to label specific neuronal types, and ischemic stroke was induced in the
      dorsolateral striatum (DLS). Slice electrophysiology was employed to measure
      excitability and synaptic transmission in DMS and midbrain neurons. We found that
      ischemic stroke-induced DLS infarction produced significant increases in alcohol
      preference, operant self-administration, and relapse. These increases were
      accompanied by enhanced excitability of DMS and midbrain neurons. In addition,
      glutamatergic inputs onto DMS D1-neurons was potentiated, whereas GABAergic
      inputs onto DMS-projecting midbrain dopaminergic neurons was suppressed.
      Importantly, systemic inhibition of dopamine D1 receptors attenuated the stroke
      induced increase in operant alcohol self-administration. Our results suggest that
      the stroke-induced DLS infarction evoked abnormal plasticity in nigrostriatal
      dopaminergic neurons and DMS D1-neurons, contributing to increased post-stroke
      alcohol-seeking and relapse.

PMID- 28566755
TI  - Merlin is required for coordinating proliferation of two stem cell lineages in
      the Drosophila testis.
AB  - Although the mechanisms that balance self-renewal and differentiation of a stem
      cell lineage have been extensively studied, it remains poorly understood how
      tissues that contain multiple stem cell lineages maintain balanced proliferation
      among distinct lineages: when stem cells of a particular lineage proliferate, how
      do the other lineages respond to maintain the correct ratio of cells among
      linages? Here, we show that Merlin (Mer), a homolog of the human tumor suppressor
      neurofibromatosis 2, is required to coordinate proliferation of germline stem
      cells (GSCs) and somatic cyst stem cells (CySCs) in the Drosophila testis. Mer
      mutant CySCs fail to coordinate their proliferation with that of GSCs in multiple
      settings, and can be triggered to undergo tumorous overproliferation. Mer
      executes its function by stabilizing adherens junctions. Given the known role of
      Mer in contact-dependent inhibition of proliferation, we propose that the
      proliferation of CySCs are regulated by crowdedness, or confluency, of cells in
      their lineage with respect to that of germline, thereby coordinating the
      proliferation of two lineages.

PMID- 28566756
TI  - Layer-dependent semiconductor-metal transition of SnO/Si(001) heterostructure and
      device application.
AB  - As the downscaling of electronic devices continues, the problems of leakage
      currents and heat dissipation become more and more serious. To address these
      issues, new materials and new structures are explored. Here, we propose an
      interesting heterostructure made of ultrathin SnO layers on Si(001) surface. Our
      first-principle calculations show that a single layer of SnO on Si(001) surface
      is a semiconductor, but a bilayer SnO on the same surface is metallic. This metal
      semiconductor dichotomy allows construction of single-2D-material-based
      electronic devices with low contact resistance and low leakage currents. In
      particular, due to the interaction between Sn and the Si substrate, the
      semiconducting monolayer-SnO/Si(001) has a highly anisotropic band structure with
      a much lighter hole effective mass along one direction than that of Si and most
      other 2D materials, indicating a high carrier mobility. Furthermore, by combining
      density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's function method, we directly
      investigate the transport characteristics of a field effect transistor based on
      the proposed heterostructures, which shows very low contact resistance,
      negligible leakage current, and easy gate control at a compact channel length.

PMID- 28566757
TI  - Association of body mass index with mortality and functional outcome after acute
      ischemic stroke.
AB  - The relation between obesity and stroke outcome has been disputed. This study was
      aimed to determine the association of body mass index (BMI) with mortality and
      functional outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Data were from a
      national, multi-centre, prospective, hospital-based register: the ChinaQUEST
      (Quality Evaluation of Stroke Care and Treatment) study. Of 4782 acute ischemic
      stroke patients, 282 were underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2), 2306 were normal-weight
      (BMI 18.5 to < 24 kg/m2), 1677 were overweight (BMI 24 to <28 kg/m2) and 517 were
      obese (BMI >= 28 kg/m2). The risks of death at 12 months and death or high
      dependency at 3 and 12 months in overweight (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.78-1.20; OR:
      0.93, 95% CI: 0.80-1.09; OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.81-1.12) and obese patients (HR:
      1.07, 95% CI: 0.78-1.48; OR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.75-1.22; OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.83
      1.35) did not differ from normal-weight patients significantly after adjusting
      for baseline characteristics. Underweight patients had significantly increased
      risks of these three outcomes. In ischemic stroke patients, being overweight or
      obese was not associated with decreased mortality or better functional recovery
      but being underweight predicted unfavourable outcomes.

PMID- 28566758
TI  - Dielectric meta-atom with tunable resonant frequency temperature coefficient.
AB  - In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept of a new approach to achieving
      tailored resonant frequency temperature coefficients in dielectric meta-atoms.
      The technique involves introducing a thermally expanding or contracting material
      joining the active high permittivity dielectric absorbers. Both simulation and
      experiment show that by careful design of the element size and appropriate choice
      of thermomechanical intermediate layer material, increased or decreased resonant
      frequency shift temperature sensitivity is possible. Once the active dielectric
      material is chosen, and a meta-atom design determined, we show the resonant
      frequency shift depends on the thermal expansion coefficient of the intermediate
      layer. This work demonstrates the feasibility of manipulating the blue or red
      shift of metamaterial devices by introducing temperature responsive intermediate
      layers into meta-atoms.

PMID- 28566759
TI  - Sex-specific responses to winter flooding, spring waterlogging and post-flooding
      recovery in Populus deltoides.
AB  - Winter flooding events are common in some rivers and streams due to dam
      constructions, and flooding and waterlogging inhibit the growth of trees in
      riparian zones. This study investigated sex-specific morphological, physiological
      and ultrastructural responses to various durations of winter flooding and spring
      waterlogging stresses, and post-flooding recovery characteristics in Populus
      deltoides. There were no significant differences in the morphological,
      ultrastructural and the majority of physiological traits in trees subjected to
      medium and severe winter flooding stresses, suggesting that males and females of
      P. deltoides were winter flooding tolerant, and insensitive to winter flooding
      duration. Males were more tolerant to winter flooding stress in terms of
      photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence than females. Females displayed
      greater oxidative damage due to flooding stress than males. Males developed more
      efficient antioxidant enzymatic systems to control reactive oxygen species. Both
      sexes had similarly strong post-flooding recovery capabilities in terms of plant
      growth, and physiological and ultrastructural parameters. However, Males had
      better recovery capabilities in terms of pigment content. These results increase
      the understanding of poplars's adaptation to winter flooding stress. They also
      elucidate sex-specific differences in response to flooding stress during the
      dormant season, and during post-flooding recovery periods.

PMID- 28566760
TI  - Determinants of Quantitative Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Metrics in
      Patients with Diabetes.
AB  - Early microvascular damage in diabetes (e.g. capillary nonperfusion and ischemia)
      can now be assessed and quantified with optical coherence tomography-angiography
      (OCT-A). The morphology of vascular tissue is indeed affected by different
      factors; however, there is a paucity of data examining whether OCT-A metrics are
      influenced by ocular, systemic and demographic variables in subjects with
      diabetes. We conducted an observational cross-sectional study and included 434
      eyes from 286 patients with diabetes. Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, FAZ
      circularity, total and parafoveal vessel density (VD), fractal dimension (FD),
      and vessel diameter index (VDI) from the superficial capillary plexus OCT
      angiogram were measured by a customized automated image analysis program. We
      found that diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity was associated with increased FAZ
      area, decreased FAZ circularity, lower VD, lower FD, and increased VDI. Enlarged
      FAZ area was correlated with shorter axial length and thinner central subfield
      macular thickness. Decreased FAZ circularity was correlated with a reduction in
      visual function. Decreased VD was correlated with thinner macular ganglion-cell
      inner plexiform layer. Increased VDI was correlated with higher fasting glucose
      level. We concluded that the effects of ocular and systemic factors in diabetics
      should be taken into consideration when assessing microvascular alterations via
      OCT-A.

PMID- 28566761
TI  - Proof-of-Concept Gene Editing for the Murine Model of Inducible Arginase-1
      Deficiency.
AB  - Arginase-1 deficiency in humans is a rare genetic disorder of metabolism
      resulting from a loss of arginase-1, leading to impaired ureagenesis,
      hyperargininemia and neurological deficits. Previously, we generated a tamoxifen
      inducible arginase-1 deficient mouse model harboring a deletion of Arg1 exons 7
      and 8 that leads to similar biochemical defects, along with a wasting phenotype
      and death within two weeks. Here, we report a strategy utilizing the Clustered,
      Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated
      protein 9 (Cas9) system in conjunction with piggyBac technology to target and
      reincorporate exons 7 and 8 at the specific Arg1 locus in attempts to restore the
      function of arginase-1 in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived hepatocyte
      like cells (iHLCs) and macrophages in vitro. While successful gene targeted
      repair was achieved, minimal urea cycle function was observed in the targeted
      iHLCs compared to adult hepatocytes likely due to inadequate maturation of the
      cells. On the other hand, iPSC-derived macrophages expressed substantial amounts
      of "repaired" arginase. Our studies provide proof-of-concept for gene-editing at
      the Arg1 locus and highlight the challenges that lie ahead to restore sufficient
      liver-based urea cycle function in patients with urea cycle disorders.

PMID- 28566763
TI  - Analysis of soil water movement inside a footslope and a depression in a karst
      catchment, Southwest China.
AB  - Soil water movement is difficult to explain with event-scale approaches,
      especially in karst regions. This paper focuses on investigating seasonal
      recharge and mean residence time (MRT) of soil water based on temporal variation
      of stable isotopes (deltaD and delta18O) and a dispersion model (DM), and
      discussing their differences along a footslope and a depression in a small karst
      catchment of southwest China. Temporal variations of the stable isotopes in
      precipitation and soil water within 0-100 cm profiles were monitored weekly for
      approximately 43 and 99 weeks. Results show that the seasonal recharge of soil
      water inside the footslope and the depression were similar, but the vertical flow
      velocity was higher implying a faster hydrological process in the footslope. The
      MRT of soil water (2-64 weeks) increased roughly, suggesting decreasing velocity
      of water displacement with increasing depth. However, the MRT at 60-100 cm depths
      in the depression (47-64 weeks) was obviously longer than at other sites,
      revealing more intensive water mixing. Furthermore, a shallower isotopic damping
      depth was found in the depression, indicating stronger delay and attenuation
      effects on base flow recharge. These results provide new insights into research
      on hydrological processes in karst areas.

PMID- 28566762
TI  - Tracking Real-Time Changes in Working Memory Updating and Gating with the Event
      Based Eye-Blink Rate.
AB  - Effective working memory (WM) functioning depends on the gating process that
      regulates the balance between maintenance and updating of WM. The present study
      used the event-based eye-blink rate (ebEBR), which presumably reflects phasic
      striatal dopamine activity, to examine how the cognitive processes of gating and
      updating separately facilitate flexible updating of WM contents and the potential
      involvement of dopamine in these processes. Real-time changes in eye blinks were
      tracked during performance on the reference-back task, in which demands on these
      two processes were independently manipulated. In all three experiments, trials
      that required WM updating and trials that required gate switching were both
      associated with increased ebEBR. These results may support the prefrontal cortex
      basal ganglia WM model (PBWM) by linking updating and gating to striatal
      dopaminergic activity. In Experiment 3, the ebEBR was used to determine what
      triggers gate switching. We found that switching to an updating mode (gate
      opening) was more stimulus driven and retroactive than switching to a maintenance
      mode, which was more context driven. Together, these findings show that the ebEBR
      - an inexpensive, non-invasive, easy-to-use measure - can be used to track
      changes in WM demands during task performance and, hence, possibly striatal
      dopamine activity.

PMID- 28566764
TI  - Difference in Cerebral Circulation Time between Subtypes of Moyamoya Disease and
      Moyamoya Syndrome.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated the differences in hemodynamics between hemorrhagic
      and non-hemorrhagic moyamoya disease (MMD) and moyamoya syndrome (MMS) by
      measuring cerebral circulation time (CCT). This case-control study included 136
      patients with MMD or MMS diagnosed between April 2015 and July 2016 at Beijing
      Tian Tan Hospital. Each hemisphere was analyzed separately. The difference in
      clinical, radiological characteristics and CCT between subtypes of MMD and MMS
      were analyzed statistically. The results showed that total CCT between
      hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic sides was not statistically different (16.55 s
      vs. 16.06 s, P = 0.562). The cerebral filling circulation time (CFCT) of
      hemorrhagic sides was significantly shorter than that of non-hemorrhagic sides
      (4.52 s vs. 5.41 s, P < 0.001), and the cerebral venous circulation time (CVCT)
      of hemorrhagic sides was significantly longer than that of non-hemorrhagic sides
      (12.02 s, vs. 10.64 s, P < 0.001). The ratio of CFCT to CVCT (F-V ratio) was
      inversely correlated with the possibility of hemorrhagic stroke. Therefore, we
      conclude that the rapid filling and poor venous drainage of cerebral circulation
      are likely risk factors of hemorrhagic stroke secondary to MMD or MMS. The F-V
      ratio can be used to identify individuals at high risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

PMID- 28566765
TI  - All-fiber spatial rotation manipulation for radially asymmetric modes.
AB  - We propose and experimentally demonstrate spatial rotation manipulation for
      radially asymmetric modes based on two kinds of polarization maintaining few-mode
      fibers (PM-FMFs). Theoretical finding shows that due to successful suppression of
      both polarization and spatial mode coupling, the spatial rotation of radially
      asymmetric modes has an excellent linear relationship with the twist angle of PM
      FMF. Both elliptical core and panda type FMFs are fabricated, in order to realize
      manageable spatial rotation of LP11 mode within +/-360 degrees  range. Finally,
      we characterize individual PM-FMF based spatial orientation rotator and present
      comprehensive performance comparison between two PM-FMFs in terms of insertion
      loss, temperature sensitivity, linear polarization maintenance, and mode
      scalability.

PMID- 28566766
TI  - Identification of a small molecule that primes the type I interferon response to
      cytosolic DNA.
AB  - The type I interferon response plays a pivotal role in host defense against
      infectious agents and tumors, and promising therapeutic approaches rely on small
      molecules designed to boost this system. To identify such compounds, we developed
      a high-throughput screening assay based on HEK-293 cells expressing luciferase
      under the control of Interferon-Stimulated Response Elements (ISRE). An original
      library of 10,000 synthetic compounds was screened, and we identified a series of
      1H-benzimidazole-4-carboxamide compounds inducing the ISRE promoter sequence,
      specific cellular Interferon-Stimulated Genes (ISGs), and the phosphorylation of
      Interferon Regulatory Factor (IRF) 3. ISRE induction by ChX710, a prototypical
      member of this chemical series, was dependent on the adaptor MAVS and IRF1, but
      was IRF3 independent. Although it was unable to trigger type I IFN secretion per
      se, ChX710 efficiently primed cellular response to transfected plasmid DNA as
      assessed by potent synergistic effects on IFN-beta secretion and ISG expression
      levels. This cellular response was dependent on STING, a key adaptor involved in
      the sensing of cytosolic DNA and immune activation by various pathogens, stress
      signals and tumorigenesis. Our results demonstrate that cellular response to
      cytosolic DNA can be boosted with a small molecule, and potential applications in
      antimicrobial and cancer therapies are discussed.

PMID- 28566767
TI  - Independent effects of ADH1B and ALDH2 common dysfunctional variants on gout
      risk.
AB  - Gout is caused by hyperuricemia, with alcohol consumption being an established
      risk factor. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) are
      crucial enzymes for alcohol metabolism. We recently performed a genome-wide
      association study of gout and a subsequent fine-mapping study which identified
      rs671 of ALDH2 as a gout locus. However, the association between gout and common
      variants of ADH1B has hitherto remained unreported, prompting us to investigate
      the association between gout and common dysfunctional variants of ADH1B
      (rs1229984) and ALDH2 (rs671). We used 1,048 clinically defined gout cases and
      1,334 controls of Japanese male. The "His carrier" (His/His or His/Arg) of
      rs1229984 (His48Arg) of ADH1B significantly increased gout risk (P = 4.3 * 10-4,
      odds ratio = 1.76), as did the "non-Lys carrier (Glu/Glu)" of rs671 (Glu504Lys)
      of ALDH2. Furthermore, common variants of ADH1B and ALDH2 are independently
      associated with gout. Our findings likewise suggest that genotyping these
      variants can be useful for the evaluation of gout risk.

PMID- 28566769
TI  - A commentary on ANKRD11 variants cause variable clinical features associated with
      KBG syndrome and Coffin-Siris-like syndrome.

PMID- 28566768
TI  - Moving towards successful exon-skipping therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X chromosome-linked lethal muscular
      disorder with progressing muscle wasting and weakness caused by mutations in the
      gene encoding a subsarcolemmal protein dystrophin. For a long time, there was no
      effective cure; however, advances in molecular biology have allowed the
      development of radical treatment approaches. Among them, exon-skipping therapy
      using antisense oligonucleotides is very promising, because it corrects the
      reading frame of the dystrophin-encoding gene and restores protein expression,
      resulting in the conversion of DMD to a clinically milder form, Becker muscular
      dystrophy (BMD). However, clinical trials in exon-skipping therapy did not
      provide satisfactory results, which may be attributed to inefficient exon
      skipping, low expression level of restored dystrophin and inadequate methods of
      muscle function evaluation. To date, exon-skipping approaches have particularly
      focused on the correction of the gene-reading frame. However, the problem is that
      the relationship between the resultant and expected phenotypes in terms of
      definite symptomatic improvement has not yet been elucidated. In other words,
      previously conducted clinical trials have not been planned based on the
      comprehensive assessment of genotype-phenotype relationship in BMD, which
      demonstrates a broad range of symptom severity depending on the functional
      activity of the truncated dystrophin. The analysis I present in this review
      strongly suggests that the development of exon-skipping therapy and its clinical
      trials should be based on large-cohort studies of BMD.

PMID- 28566770
TI  - Phylogeny of Y-chromosome haplogroup C3b-F1756, an important paternal lineage in
      Altaic-speaking populations.
AB  - In previous studies, a specific paternal lineage with a null value for the Y
      chromosome short tandem repeat (Y-STR) marker DYS448 was identified as common
      among Mongolic- and Turkic-speaking populations. This paternal lineage
      (temporarily named C3*-DYS448del) was determined to be M217+, M93-, P39-, M48-,
      M407-, and P53.1-, and its origin and phylogeny remain ambiguous. Here, we
      analyzed Y-chromosome sequences of 10 male that are related this paternal lineage
      and redefined it as C3b1a1a1a-F1756 (C3b-F1756). We generated a highly revised
      phylogenetic tree of haplogroup C3b-F1756, including 21 sub-clades and 360 non
      private Y-chromosome polymorphisms. Additionally, we performed a comprehensive
      analysis of the C3*-DYS448del lineage in eastern Eurasia, including 18 270
      samples from 297 populations. Whole Y-chromosome sequences, Y-STR haplotypes, and
      frequency data were used to generate a distribution map, a network, and age
      estimations for lineage C3*-DYS448del and its sub-lineages. Considering the
      historical records of the studied populations, we propose that two major sub
      branches of C3b-F1756 may correspond to early expansions of ancestors of modern
      Mongolic- and Turkic-speaking populations. The large number of newly defined Y
      chromosome polymorphisms and the revised phylogenetic tree for C3b-F1756 will
      assist in investigation of the early history of Altaic-speaking populations in
      the future.

PMID- 28566771
TI  - The agglomeration, coalescence and sliding of nanoparticles, leading to the rapid
      sintering of zirconia nanoceramics.
AB  - Conventional sintering is a time- and energy-consuming process used for the
      densification of consolidated particles facilitated by atomic diffusion at high
      temperatures. Nanoparticles, with their increased surface free energy, can
      promote sintering; however, size reduction also promotes agglomeration, so
      hampering particle packing and complete densification. Here we show how the
      ordered agglomeration of zirconia primary crystallites into secondary particle
      assemblies ensures their homogeneous packing, while also preserving the high
      surface energy to higher temperatures, increasing the sintering activity. When
      exposed to intense electromagnetic radiation, providing rapid heating, the
      assembled crystallites are subjected to further agglomeration, coalescence and
      sliding, leading to rapid densification in the absence of extensive diffusional
      processes, cancelling out the grain growth during the initial sintering stages
      and providing a zirconia nanoceramic in only 2 minutes at 1300  degrees C.

PMID- 28566773
TI  - [Characteristics of mother-child collaboration at 48 months in two number-related
      tasks].
AB  - Preschoolers' number related skills and maternal guidance used to introduce and
      foster the acquisition of these skills were examined in 193 48-month-olds. Mother
      child collaboration was observed during two number-related tasks: a dot-to-dot
      drawing task and a matching number representations task. Patterns of
      responsibility sharing in task resolution were coded from videos, using a cross
      classification strategy adapted from Parent et al. (2000). Using mother-child
      interactions as a means to assess early numeracy skills, we replicated past
      findings obtained when child numeracy skills were assessed autonomously (Baroody
      & Dowker, 2003; Sinclair, 1988). Results also indicate that mothers adjust their
      support and the demands of the task to meet their child's skill level. In
      addition, promoting an enjoyable affective climate and fostering child motivation
      to complete the task appeared to be a predominant aspect of maternal guidance.
      Together, these results support the relevance of evaluating children's numeracy
      skills in a social context and emphasize the importance of taking into account
      affective dimensions of mother-child interactions when evaluating the development
      of new cognitive skills.

PMID- 28566772
TI  - Serum extracellular vesicle depletion processes affect release and infectivity of
      HIV-1 in culture.
AB  - Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are involved in intercellular communication and
      affect processes including immune and antiviral responses. Blood serum, a common
      cell culture medium component, is replete with EVs and must be depleted prior to
      EV-related experiments. The extent to which depletion processes deplete non-EV
      particles is incompletely understood, but depleted serum is associated with
      reduced viability and growth in cell culture. Here, we examined whether serum
      depleted by two methods affected HIV-1 replication. In cell lines, including HIV
      1 latency models, increased HIV-1 production was observed, along with changes in
      cell behavior and viability. Add-back of ultracentrifuge pellets (enriched in EVs
      but possibly other particles) rescued baseline HIV-1 production. Primary cells
      were less sensitive to serum depletion processes. Virus produced under processed
      serum conditions was more infectious. Finally, changes in cellular metabolism,
      surface markers, and gene expression, but not miRNA profiles, were associated
      with depleted serum culture. In conclusion, depleted serum conditions have a
      substantial effect on HIV-1 production and infectivity. Dependence of cell
      cultures on "whole serum" must be examined carefully along with other
      experimental variables, keeping in mind that the effects of EVs may be
      accompanied by or confused with those of closely associated or physically similar
      particles.

PMID- 28566774
TI  - Effective medical writing: How to write a case report which Editors would
      publish.

PMID- 28566775
TI  - Orthopedic surgery in cerebral palsy: Instructional course lecture.
AB  - Orthopedic surgery (OS) plays an important role in the management of cerebral
      palsy (CP). The objectives of OS are to optimize functions and prevent deformity.
      Newer developments in OS for CP include emphasis on hip surveillance, minimally
      invasive procedures, use of external fixators instead of plates and screws,
      better understanding of lever arm dysfunctions (that can only be corrected by
      bony OS), orthopedic selective spasticity-control surgery, and single-event
      multilevel lever arm restoration and anti spasticity surgery, which have led to
      significant improvements in gross motor function and ambulation, especially in
      spastic quadriplegia, athetosis, and dystonia. The results of OS can be dramatic
      and life altering for the person with CP and their caregivers if it is performed
      meticulously by a specialized surgical team, at the appropriate age, for the
      correct indications, employing sound biomechanical principles and is followed by
      physician-led, protocol based, intensive, multidisciplinary, institutional
      rehabilitation, and long term followup. However, OS can be a double-edged sword,
      and if performed less than optimally, and without the supporting
      multidisciplinary medical and rehabilitation team, expertise and infrastructure,
      it often leads to significant functional worsening of the person with CP,
      including irretrievable loss of previous ambulatory capacity. OS must be
      integrated into the long term management of the person with CP and should be
      anticipated and planned at the optimal time and not viewed as a "last resort"
      intervention or failure of rehabilitation. This instructional course lecture
      reviews the relevant contemporary principles and techniques of OS in CP.

PMID- 28566777
TI  - Surgical treatment of secondary fractures after percutaneous vertebroplasty: A
      retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP)
      are effective procedures for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures
      (VCFs). However, recent studies have reported that secondary VCFs develop in
      patients after PVP or PKP treatment. This study aimed to investigate the clinical
      characteristics and management of secondary fractures after PVP or PKP. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: 599 cases who had vertebral compression fracture and underwent PVP
      or PKP between September 2008 and June 2014 were enrolled, including 121 males
      and 478 females. Secondary fractures were observed in 52 cases, including 3 males
      and 49 females, who were treated by re-operation with PVP or PKP. RESULTS: The
      ratio of secondary fracture after PVP or PKP was 8.68% in all cases. The age
      ranged from 59 to 92 years (74.41 +/- 6.83 average). A composition of 44.44% of
      the secondary fracture occurred near the initial fracture vertebrae. After re
      operation with PVP or PKP, visual analog scale score significantly decreased to
      2.72 +/- 0.88 or 2.52 +/- 1.12, respectively, anterior height of vertebral bodies
      increased to 24.69 +/- 4.59 or 24.54 +/- 5.97 mm, respectively, and middle height
      of vertebral bodies increased to 20.90 +/- 3.72 or 20.36 +/- 6.33 mm,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high chance of secondary fracture near the
      initially operated vertebrae after PVP or PKP. Re-operation with PVP or PKP
      achieves satisfactory outcomes in these patients such as pain relief and the
      recovery of the vertebrae height.

PMID- 28566776
TI  - Infected nonunion of tibia.
AB  - Infected nonunions of tibia pose many challenges to the treating surgeon and the
      patient. Challenges include recalcitrant infection, complex deformities,
      sclerotic bone ends, large bone gaps, shortening, and joint stiffness. They are
      easy to diagnose and difficult to treat. The ASAMI classification helps decide
      treatment. The nonunion severity score proposed by Calori measures many
      parameters to give a prognosis. The infection severity score uses simple clinical
      signs to grade severity of infection. This determines number of surgeries and
      allows choice of hardware, either external or internal for definitive treatment.
      Co-morbid factors such as smoking, diabetes, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
      use, and hypovitaminosis D influence the choice and duration of treatment.
      Thorough debridement is the mainstay of treatment. Removal of all necrotic bone
      and soft tissue is needed. Care is exercised in shaping bone ends. Internal
      fixation can help achieve union if infection was mild. Severe infections need
      external fixation use in a second stage. Compression at nonunion site achieves
      union. It can be combined with a corticotomy lengthening at a distant site for
      equalization. Soft tissue deficit has to be covered by flaps, either local or
      microvascular. Bone gaps are best filled with the reliable technique of bone
      transport. Regenerate bone may be formed proximally, distally, or at both sites.
      Acute compression can fill bone gaps and may need a fibular resection. Gradual
      reduction of bone gap happens with bone transport, without need for fibulectomy.
      When bone ends dock, union may be achieved by vertical or horizontal compression.
      Biological stimulus from iliac crest bone grafts, bone marrow aspirate
      injections, and platelet concentrates hasten union. Bone graft substitutes add
      volume to graft and help fill defects. Addition of rh-BMP-7 may help in healing
      albeit at a much higher cost. Regeneration may need stimulation and augmentation.
      Induced membrane technique is an alternative to bone transport to fill gaps. It
      needs large amounts of bone graft from iliac crest or femoral canal. This is an
      expensive method physiologically and economically. Infection can resorb the graft
      and cause failure of treatment. It can be done in select cases after thorough
      eradication of infection. Patience and perseverance are needed for successful
      resolution of infection and achieving union.

PMID- 28566778
TI  - Nonunion of greater trochanter following total hip arthroplasty: Treated by an
      articulated hook plate and bone grafting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trochanteric osteotomy still has an important role in hip
      arthroplasty in cases of (1) preexisting developmental hip dysplasia with
      superior subluxation, (2) revision arthroplasty, specifically with acetabular
      component revision in the face of well-fixed femoral component, and (3) recurrent
      dislocation without component loosening or malalignment, in treatment of
      complicated trochanteric fixation in osteoporotic bone and nonunions may be
      difficult. This study reports the clinical outcomes of trochanteric fixation
      following total hip arthroplasty (THA) utilizing a hook plate construct in a
      cohort of ten patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur
      Osteosynthesefragen (AO) articulated hook plate was used in nine cases of
      established approach related nonunion following THA and in one case of osteopenic
      bone during primary THA. All ten patients returned for interviews and clinical
      examination. The average time for clinical followup was 35 months (range 5-48
      months). The mean age of the study cohort was 65 years (range 56-74 years). Time
      to union and incidence of postoperative complications were assessed. RESULTS:
      Union occurred in all ten cases at an average of 3.3 months postoperatively. One
      patient developed symptomatic trochanteric bursitis and required plate removal.
      Another patient developed a superficial infection which was successfully treated
      with local wound debridement and antibiotics. A third patient developed a
      symptomatic neuroma at the site of the iliac crest bone harvest and was
      successfully treated with excision of the neuroma. No catastrophic implant
      failures occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The articulated design of the plate allows for
      ease in application and functional construct stability. The articulated hook
      plate is an option for fixation of osteopenic bone fragments and established
      nonunions of the greater trochanter.

PMID- 28566779
TI  - Pain management in total knee arthroplasty by intraoperative local anesthetic
      application and one-shot femoral block.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a big problem in
      orthopaedic surgery. Although opioids and continuous epidural analgesia remain
      the major options for the postoperative pain management of TKA, they have some
      undesirable side effects. Epidural analgesia is technically demanding, and the
      patient requires close monitoring. Different types of local anesthetic
      applications can successfully treat TKA pain. Local anesthetics have the
      advantage of minimizing pain at the source. This study investigates the efficacy
      of different local anesthetic application methods on early, (1st day) pain
      control after total knee arthroplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 200 patients who
      underwent unilateral TKA surgery under spinal anesthesia were randomly assigned
      into four different groups (fifty in each group) and were administered pain
      control by different peri- and postoperative regimens. Group A was the control
      group wherein no postsurgical analgesia was administered to assess spinal
      anesthesia efficacy; in Group B, only postsurgical one-shot femoral block was
      applied; in Group C, intraoperative periarticular local anesthetic was applied;
      in Group D, a combination of the one-shot femoral block and intraoperative
      periarticular local anesthetics were applied. Demographic data consisting of age,
      weight, gender and type of deformity of patients were collected. The data did not
      differ significantly between the four groups. RESULTS: Group D patients
      experienced significantly better postoperative pain relief (P < 0.05) and were
      therefore more relaxed in pain (painless time, VAS score) and knee flexion
      (degrees) than the other patient groups in the 1st postoperative day followup.
      Painless time of Group D was 10.5 hours and was better than Group C (6.8 hours),
      Group B (6.2 hours) and Group A (3.0 hours) (P < 0.05). Group A got the best pain
      Vas score degrees in the 1st postoperative day which showed the success of
      combined periarticular local anesthetic injection and femoral nerve block.
      CONCLUSION: The intraoperative periarticular application of local anesthetics in
      addition to one-shot femoral block is an efficient way of controlling
      postsurgical pain after TKA.

PMID- 28566780
TI  - Radiologic assessment of femoral and tibial tunnel placement based on anatomic
      landmarks in arthroscopic single bundle anterior cruciate ligament
      reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate tibial and femoral tunnel placement has a significant effect
      on outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Postoperative
      radiographs provide a reliable and valid way for the assessment of anatomical
      tunnel placement after ACLR. The aim of this study was to examine the
      radiographic location of tibial and femoral tunnels in patients who underwent
      arthroscopic ACLR using anatomic landmarks. Patients who underwent arthroscopic
      ACLR from January 2014 to March 2016 were included in this retrospective cohort
      study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 45 patients who underwent arthroscopic ACLR,
      postoperative radiographs were studied. Femoral and tibial tunnel positions on
      sagittal and coronal radiographic views, graft impingement, and femoral roof
      angle were measured. Radiological parameters were summarized as mean +/- standard
      deviation and proportions as applicable. Interobserver agreement was measured
      using intraclass correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The position of the tibial
      tunnel was found to be at an average of 35.1% +/- 7.4% posterior from the
      anterior edge of the tibia. The femoral tunnel was found at an average of 30% +/-
      1% anterior to the posterior femoral cortex along the Blumensaat's line.
      Radiographic impingement was found in 34% of the patients. The roof angle
      averaged 34.3 degrees  +/- 4.3 degrees . The position of the tibial tunnel was
      found at an average of 44.16% +/- 3.98% from the medial edge of the tibial
      plateau. The coronal tibial tunnel angle averaged 67.5 degrees  +/- 8.9 degrees .
      The coronal angle of the femoral tunnel averaged 41.9 degrees  +/- 8.5 degrees .
      CONCLUSIONS: The femoral and tibial tunnel placements correlated well with
      anatomic landmarks except for radiographic impingement which was present in 34%
      of the patients.

PMID- 28566781
TI  - A comparative study of intramedullary interlocking nailing and minimally invasive
      plate osteosynthesis in extra articular distal tibial fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extraarticular distal tibial fractures are among the most challenging
      fractures encountered by an orthopedician for treatment because of its
      subcutaneous location, poor blood supply and decreased muscular cover anteriorly,
      complications such as delayed union, nonunion, wound infection, and wound
      dehiscence are often seen as a great challenge to the surgeon. Minimally invasive
      plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) and intramedullary interlocking nail (IMLN) are two
      well-accepted and effective methods, but each has been historically related to
      complications. This study compares clinical and radiological outcome in
      extraarticular distal tibia fractures treated by intramedullary interlocking nail
      (IMLN) and minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      42 patients included in this study, 21 underwent IMLN and 21 were treated with
      MIPO who met the inclusion criteria and operated between June 2014 and May 2015.
      Patients were followed up for clinical and radiological evaluation. RESULTS: In
      IMLN group, average union time was 18.26 weeks compared to 21.70 weeks in plating
      group which was significant (P < 0.0001). Average time required for partial and
      full weight bearing in the nailing group was 4.95 weeks and 10.09 weeks
      respectively which was significantly less (P < 0.0001) as compared to 6.90 weeks
      and 13.38 weeks in the plating group. Lesser complications in terms of implant
      irritation, ankle stiffness, and infection, were seen in interlocking group as
      compared to plating group. Average functional outcome according to American
      Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society score was measured which came out to be 96.67.
      CONCLUSION: IMLN group was associated with lesser duration of surgery, earlier
      weight bearing and union rate, lesser incidence of infection and implant
      irritation which makes it a preferable choice for fixation of extra-articular
      distal tibial fractures. However, larger randomized controlled trials are
      required for confirming the results.

PMID- 28566782
TI  - Early results of an intraosseous device for arthrodesis of the hallux
      metatarsophalangeal joint.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arthrodesis of the hallux metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint is commonly
      done as a primary procedure either to correct severe hallux valgus deformities or
      for rheumatoid arthritis, hallux rigidus, in patients with neuromuscular
      disorders and as a salvage procedure for failed bunion surgery or infection.
      Prominent metalwork frequently can cause soft tissue impingement and thus require
      removal. In contrast, osteosynthesis with a completely intraosseous implant has
      the advantage of less damage to the periosteal circulation. We describe a
      surgical technique and the early results of arthrodesis of the hallux
      metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint using an intraosseous fixation device. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Twelve consecutive patients operated with this method were
      retrospectively reviewed. The average age was 57 years (range 44-88 years). A
      retrospective review of radiographs and electronic medical notes was conducted.
      The patients were also asked to fill a satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS:
      Overall fusion rate was 91% with a mean hallux valgus angle of 15 degrees  (range
      4-20 degrees ) and a mean dorsiflexion angle of 20 degrees  (range 7-30 degrees
      ). Complications included a case of failed fusion, a delayed union, and a case of
      persisting transfer metatarsalgia. At a mean followup of 14 months (range 5-28
      months), the mean visual analog scale improved significantly from a mean of 8.4
      (range 7-10) preoperatively, to a mean of 3.1 (range 0-7) postoperatively (P <
      0.0001). The mean American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society hallux score also
      significantly improved from 29.4 (range 10-54) to a mean of 73.3 (range 59-90) (P
      < 0.0001). The final result was satisfactory for 83% of the patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: The early results show intraosseous fixation to be a safe and
      efficient method for the fusion of the hallux MTP joint providing relief from
      pain and patient satisfaction.

PMID- 28566783
TI  - A comparative study to evaluate the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma and
      triamcinolone to treat tennis elbow.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lateral elbow pain is common with a population prevalence of 1%-3%.
      The study was a comparative trial to validate the efficacy of single injection of
      platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for tennis elbow as compared with single injections of
      triamcinolone and placebo (normal saline) over a short term period. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Comparative trial with 3- and 6-month followup evaluated with visual
      analog scale (VAS) and facial pain scale (FPS). Our study included a total of
      eighty patients with unilateral or bilateral tennis elbows. The study population
      included patients between 20 and 40 years age group belonging to either sex with
      seventy unilateral and ten bilateral affections for more than 3-month duration.
      Patients suffering from elbow pain due to other problems or those who have
      received any form of injection were excluded from the study. One milliliter of 2%
      Xylocaine injection was given before injecting the proposed formulation under
      trial. VAS and FPS were used for scoring pain. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann
      Whitney U-tests were used for statistical analyses at 12 and 24 weeks. RESULTS:
      Overall, 49 females and 31 males were included with thirty elbows in each group.
      Both the PRP and triamcinolone groups had better pain relief at 3 and 6 months as
      compared to normal saline group (P < 0.05), but at 6 months followup, the PRP
      group had statistically significant better pain relief than triamcinolone group.
      In the triamcinolone group, 13 patients had injection site hypopigmentation and 3
      patients had subdermal atrophy. CONCLUSION: Over a short term period, PRP gives
      better pain relief than triamcinolone or normal saline in tennis elbow which
      needs to be validated over long term period by further studies.

PMID- 28566784
TI  - Management of open fractures using a noncontact locking plate as an internal
      fixator.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment of open fractures leads to major problems which may be
      due to various reasons. It mainly causes soft tissue problems due to the
      absorption of a large amount of energy by the soft tissues and bone tissues.
      Although some recent treatment protocols have eliminated many problems regarding
      delayed soft tissue closure, it still remains a big challange. This study uses a
      method called the internal fixator technique with noncontact locking plate (NC
      LP) which involves the use of a combination of advantages of open and closed
      fixation techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 42 patients (32 men and 10 women)
      having a mean age of 34.11 years (range 17-56 years) with open fractures operated
      using internal fixator technique between 2007 and 2012 were included in this
      study. A retrospective chart review was conducted to record the following: age,
      gender, anatomic region of fractures, fracture etiology, classification of open
      fractures by Gustilo-Anderson and AO classification, surgeries, length of
      hospitalization, location and pattern of fracture, length of followup, and
      complications. RESULTS: The fractures were caused by traffic accidents, shotgun
      injuries, falls from heights, and industrial crush injuries. Based on the Gustilo
      Anderson classification, 31 fractures were Type III and 11 were Type II, where 23
      were localized in the tibia and 19 in the femur. Patients delay for a mean of
      13.5 h (range 6-24 h) for operation and the mean followup interval was 27.8
      months (range 16-44 months). The mean union time was 19.7 weeks (range 16-29
      weeks). One patient had delayed union and implant failure, one patient had
      osteomyelitis, five suffered from surface skin necrosis, and one patient had an
      angulation of 17 degrees  in the sagittal plane, for which no additional
      intervention was performed. CONCLUSIONS: This case series demonstrates that an
      "internal fixator technique" is an acceptable alternative to the management of
      open fractures of the femur or tibia in adult patients. The NC-LP method provided
      opportunities to achieve a stable fixation with noncontact between the implant
      and the bone tissues, and the fractures were sufficiently stabilized to allow
      union with a low complication rate.

PMID- 28566785
TI  - Combined negative pressure wound therapy with open bone graft for infected wounds
      with bone defects: An experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone and soft-tissue defects in infected wound have been an
      intractable problem to many surgical consultations. Infected wounds with bone
      defects are physical and financial burden to society. Nowadays, infected wounds
      with compound defect of bone and soft tissues are common in orthopedics
      department. Currently, no simple and efficient treatment has been found to solve
      this problem. This study investigates the effects of combining negative pressure
      wound therapy (NPWT) with open bone graft on this focus. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Twenty four rabbits with bone and soft tissue defects accompanied infected wounds
      were randomized into experimental (combined NPWT with open bone graft) and
      contrast group (only open bone graft). Treatment efficacy was assessed by the
      wound condition; wound healing time, bacterial bioburden, and bony callus were
      evaluated by X-ray. Furthermore, samples of granulation tissue from wounds on the
      3rd, 7th, and 14th days of healing were evaluated for blood vessels and
      expression of vascular endothelial growth factor. RESULTS: Wounds in the
      experimental group tended to have shorter healing time, healthier wound
      conditions, lower bacterial bioburden, better bony callus, and more blood supply
      than those in the controlled group. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, NPWT combined
      open bone graft can act as a feasible and valuable method to treat combined
      infected bone and soft-tissue defects.

PMID- 28566786
TI  - Short and mid term results of revision total knee arthroplasty with Global
      Modular Replacement System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The original knee megaprostheses with fixed or rotating hinge
      articulation were custom made and only used for reconstruction of the knee
      following distal femoral or proximal tibial tumor resections. The aim of the
      study was to analyze the short- and mid-term results of revision total knee
      arthroplasty with Global Modular Replacement System (GMRS) used in difficult
      situations not amenable to reconstruction with standard total knee replacement
      implants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine patients (9 knees) were treated with this
      comprehensive modular implant system, with a mean age of 73.7 years (range 56-83
      years) and a mean followup of 5 years (range 3-8 years). Two patients were
      treated for distal femoral nonunion, five for distal femur periprosthetic
      fracture and two for periprosthetic joint infection. RESULTS: The mean Knee
      Society Score: Knee and functional scores were 77.9 and 40 points, respectively.
      All demonstrated full extension and flexion was at least 90 degrees . Recurrence
      of infection was present in one patient. No signs of loosening, dislocation, or
      implant failure were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our small series of patients
      that represent severe cases, GMRS provides relatively good mid-term functional
      results, pain relief, and good implant survivorship with a low complication rate.
      This salvage procedure allows elderly, infirm patients to regain early ambulatory
      ability.

PMID- 28566787
TI  - Acute flaccid paraparesis (cauda equina syndrome) in a patient with Bardet-Biedl
      syndrome.
AB  - Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare, autosomal-recessive, debilitating genetic
      disorder, which can present with multitudinous systemic clinical features
      including rod-cone dystrophy, polydactyly, Frohlich-like central obesity, mental
      retardation, hypogonadism, and renal anomalies. Diverse neuromuscular
      manifestations in patients afflicted by this heterogeneous disorder include
      ataxia, cervical, and thoracic canal stenoses, presenting as spastic
      quadriparesis and other gait disturbances. We report a young patient with BBS,
      who had presented with acute flaccid paraparesis due to severe primary lumbar
      canal stenosis. She underwent immediate lumbar decompression and discectomy
      following which she recovered significantly. Acute cauda equina syndrome due to
      primary lumbar canal stenosis has not been reported as a clinical feature of BBS
      previously.

PMID- 28566788
TI  - Patellar tendon re-rupture on the opposite end of the previous site of surgical
      repair.
AB  - We describe a rare case of a patellar tendon "re-rupture" at the opposite end of
      a previous proximal tendon repair. A 32-year-old male with a history of
      surgically repaired right proximal patellar tendon rupture presented with an
      acute non-traumatic right knee pain and instability during sports. Magnetic
      resonance imaging confirmed a complete rupture of his distal patellar tendon at
      the tibial tuberosity. The patellar tendon was repaired using two 5.5 mm
      BioCorkscrews (Arthrex) inserted into the tibial tuberosity; the tendon was
      stitched with the No. 2 fiberwires using Krackow technique. As the patellar
      tendon was degenerative, the repair was augmented with a semitendinosus tendon
      harvested using an open tendon stripper, leaving the distal attachment intact. At
      2.6 years followup he had mild anterior knee pain, range of motion 0-130 degrees 
      and was able to squat. MRI scan done at followup revealed good healing of
      repaired patellar tendon.

PMID- 28566789
TI  - Prosthetic knee joint infection due to Mycobacterium abscessus.
AB  - Infected total knee arthroplasty (TKA) due to Mycobacterium abscessus is very
      rare with only three such cases described in literature. Only one case was
      managed successfully, however, with a prolonged course of anti tubercular
      therapy. In this case report, we present an elderly lady with infected TKA after
      2 years of the primary procedure. Although initially it grew different bacteriae,
      M. abscessus was isolated during the second debridement. She was successfully
      treated with total of 5 months of second line anti tubercular drugs with revision
      prosthesis performed during chemotherapy. Two years followup revealed
      satisfactory outcome with no relapse.

PMID- 28566790
TI  - One stage revision single-bundle anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with
      impacted morselized bone graft following a failed double-bundle reconstruction.
AB  - Although double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction has
      theoretical benefits such as more accurate reproduction of ACL anatomy, it is
      technically more demanding surgery. This report describes the case of a one stage
      revision single-bundle ACL reconstruction after primary double-bundle ACL
      reconstruction. A professional dancer had an ACL previously reconstructed with a
      double-bundle technique, but the femoral tunnels were malpositioned resulting in
      residual laxity and rotational instability. The previous femoral tunnel positions
      were vertical and widened. The previous vertical tunnels were filled with
      impacted bone graft and a revision single-bundle ACL reconstruction was performed
      via the new femoral tunnel with a 2 O'clock position between the previous two
      tunnels. After 10 months of postoperative rehabilitation, the patient returned to
      professional dancing with sound bony union and without any residual instability.

PMID- 28566792
TI  - Author's reply.

PMID- 28566791
TI  - Reverse distal femoral locking compression plate a salvage option in nonunion of
      proximal femoral fractures.

PMID- 28566793
TI  - Current state of orthopedic education in India.

PMID- 28566794
TI  - Author's reply.

PMID- 28566795
TI  - Legends of Indian Orthopedics: Prof. M. Natarajan.

PMID- 28566796
TI  - Joint volumetric extraction and enhancement of vasculature from low-SNR 3-D
      fluorescence microscopy images.
AB  - To simultaneously overcome the challenges imposed by the nature of optical
      imaging characterized by a range of artifacts including space-varying signal to
      noise ratio (SNR), scattered light, and non-uniform illumination, we developed a
      novel method that segments the 3-D vasculature directly from original
      fluorescence microscopy images eliminating the need for employing pre- and post
      processing steps such as noise removal and segmentation refinement as used with
      the majority of segmentation techniques. Our method comprises two initialization
      and constrained recovery and enhancement stages. The initialization approach is
      fully automated using features derived from bi-scale statistical measures and
      produces seed points robust to non-uniform illumination, low SNR, and local
      structural variations. This algorithm achieves the goal of segmentation via
      design of an iterative approach that extracts the structure through voting of
      feature vectors formed by distance, local intensity gradient, and median
      measures. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the experimental results
      obtained from synthetic and real data prove the effcacy of this method in
      comparison to the state-of-the-art enhancing-segmenting methods. The algorithmic
      simplicity, freedom from having a priori probabilistic information about the
      noise, and structural definition gives this algorithm a wide potential range of
      applications where i.e. structural complexity significantly complicates the
      segmentation problem.

PMID- 28566797
TI  - Allochthonous matter: an important factor shaping the phytoplankton community in
      the Baltic Sea.
AB  - It is well-known that nutrients shape phytoplankton communities in marine
      systems, but in coastal waters allochthonous dissolved organic matter (ADOM) may
      also be of central importance. We studied how humic substances (proxy of ADOM)
      and other variables influenced the nutritional strategies, size structure and
      pigment content of the phytoplankton community along a south-north gradient in
      the Baltic Sea. During the summer, the proportion of mixotrophs increased
      gradually from the phosphorus-rich south to the ADOM-rich north, probably due to
      ADOM-fueled microbes. The opposite trend was observed for autotrophs. The
      chlorophyll a (Chl a): carbon (C) ratio increased while the levels of
      photoprotective pigments decreased from south to north, indicating adaptation to
      the darker humic-rich water in the north. Picocyanobacteria dominated in
      phosphorus-rich areas while nanoplankton increased in ADOM-rich areas. During the
      winter-spring the phytoplankton biomass and concentrations of photoprotective
      pigments were low, and no trends with respect to autotrophs and mixotrophs were
      observed. Microplankton was the dominant size group in the entire study area. We
      conclude that changes in the size structure of the phytoplankton community, the
      Chl a:C ratio and the concentrations of photoprotective pigments are indicative
      of changes in ADOM, a factor of particular importance in a changing climate.

PMID- 28566798
TI  - Occurrence of the siphonophore Muggiaea atlantica in Scottish coastal waters:
      source or sink?
AB  - We applied the concept of source-sink dynamics to investigate a recent (1999
      2013) increase in the occurrence of the siphonophore Muggiaea atlantica in
      Scottish coastal waters. Our aim was to determine whether this change represented
      the establishment of resident populations (i.e. "sources"), or transient
      populations reliant on immigration (i.e. "sinks"). First, we show that local
      production was not always sufficient to account for recruitment (a "source"
      prerequisite), suggesting reliance on immigration (a "sink" prerequisite). Using
      variation partitioning, we then discriminated between the exclusive effects of
      immigration [indexed by the European Slope Current (ESC)] and local production
      (indexed by local sea temperature and food availability). On the west coast (Loch
      Ewe), interannual variability in the species' abundance was determined by, in
      order of increasing importance: (i) suitable local environmental conditions
      (13%); (ii) the role of the ESC in modulating these conditions (20%); and (iii)
      immigration via the ESC (29%). These results provided a strong indication that
      Loch Ewe represents a sink habitat for M. atlantica. However, on the east coast
      (Stonehaven) our results were less conclusive, probably due to the less direct
      influence of the ESC. For both locations, we suggest that low winter temperatures
      prevented overwintering, necessitating annual re-colonization via immigration.

PMID- 28566799
TI  - Focused Information Criterion and Model Averaging with Generalized Rank
      Regression.
AB  - Generalized rank regression, which is a class of weighted rank regression with
      weights based on factor space, provides a powerful tool for conducting robust
      estimation. In this article, we first establish the asymptotic properties of
      generalized rank regression under local model misspecification. We then apply the
      generalized rank regression to the focus information criterion and frequentist
      model averaging and establish their properties.

PMID- 28566800
TI  - Serum Soluble ST2 and Diastolic Dysfunction in Hypertensive Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular (LV) structural and
      functional alterations in hypertension has some limitations, potentially overcome
      by using biomarkers. ST2, a prognostic biomarker for heart failure and myocardial
      infarction patients, was less studied in hypertension. AIM: To analyze the
      relationship between serum ST2 levels and diastolic dysfunction (DD) in
      hypertension. METHOD: We enrolled 88 hypertensive outpatients (average age 65
      years, 69.3% females) in a prospective study, stratified for presence of LV
      hypertrophy (LVH). For each patient clinical examination, lab workup (routine and
      serum ST2 levels) and echocardiography were performed. RESULTS: Hypertensive
      patients with LVH had higher age, pulse pressure, mean arterial pressure, and
      serum ST2, while having lower serum albumin than those without LVH. Serum ST2
      levels correlate with parameters of LV remodeling and DD. We found that 5.3% of
      ST2 level variability was caused by a 1-unit variation of cardiovascular risk. We
      identified cut-off values for discriminating hypertension with LVH versus that
      without LVH and grade 2 DD versus normal diastolic performance. CONCLUSION: ST2
      could be used as diagnostic biomarker for cardiac remodeling and altered
      diastolic performance in hypertension, providing additional data to
      echocardiography. It could represent a milestone in early detection of cardiac
      performance alteration.

PMID- 28566801
TI  - [How a Diversity of Preschool Literary Experiences Contribute to Emergent
      Literacy Skills].
AB  - Past studies show that language and cognitive factors among young children do not
      explain individual differences in written language skill acquisition (Senechal et
      LeFevre, 2002). Working from the principles of ethology and sociology, Pellegrini
      (2001) suggests that exposure to a larger variety of social contacts and contexts
      promotes the acquisition of literary language and reading/writing skills. The
      purpose of this study is to check the contribution of a variety of social writing
      related opportunities to the acquisition of emerging literacy skills in 5 year
      olds. This contribution is examined alongside family financial resources,
      parental education, frequency of mother-child reading/writing activities, and the
      child's verbal and mnemonic skills. The results partially confirm Pellegrini's
      hypothesis and support the relevance of considering several dimensions of
      preschool social experience. The unique contribution of diverse literary
      activities for 4 year-olds (48 months) seems to be as important as receptive
      vocabulary and short term memory, evaluated at 42 months. However, a larger
      variety of contacts was not added to the model.

PMID- 28566802
TI  - Are genes encoding proteoglycans really associated with the risk of anterior
      cruciate ligament rupture?
AB  - Proteoglycans are considered integral structural components of tendon and
      ligament and have been implicated in the resistance of compressive forces,
      collagen fibrillogenesis, matrix remodelling and cell signalling. Several
      sequence variants within genes encoding proteoglycans were recently implicated in
      modulating anterior cruciate ligament ruptures (ACLR). This study aimed to test
      the previously implicated variants in proteoglycan and vascular epithelial growth
      factor encoding genes with risk of ACLR in a population from Poland. A case
      control genetic association study was conducted using DNA samples from 143
      healthy participants without a history of ACL injuries (99 male and 44 females)
      (CON group) and 229 surgically diagnosed ACLR participants (158 males and 71
      females). All samples were genotyped for the ACAN: rs1516797, BGN: rs1042103,
      rs1126499, DCN: rs516115 and VEGFA: rs699947 variants. Main findings included the
      (i) ACAN rs1516797 G/T genotype which was underrepresented in the CON group (CON:
      36%, n=52, ACLR: 49%, n=112, p=0.017, OR=1.68, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.57) when all
      participants were investigated and (ii) the BGN rs1042103 A allele was
      significantly under-represented in the male CON group compared to the male ACLR
      group (CON: 39%, n=78, ACLR: 49%, n=156, p=0.029, OR=1.5, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.15).
      Furthermore, BGN inferred haplotypes were highlighted with altered ACLR
      susceptibility. Although the study implicated the ACAN and BGN genes (combination
      of genotype, allele and haplotype) in modulating ACLR susceptibility, several
      differences were noted with previous published findings.

PMID- 28566803
TI  - Greater muscle damage in athletes with ACTN3 R577X (RS1815739) gene polymorphism
      after an ultra-endurance race: a pilot study.
AB  - In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of ACTN3 R577X gene
      polymorphism on muscle damage responses in athletes competing in an ultra
      endurance race. Twenty moderate to well-trained ultra-runners who had entered in
      an official 37.1 km adventure race (22.1 km mountain biking, 10.9 km trekking,
      4.1 km water trekking, 30 m rope course, and orienteering) volunteered for the
      study. Blood samples were collected for genotyping and analysis of muscle protein
      levels before and after the race. Percentage changes (pre- to post-race) of serum
      myoglobin [XX = 5,377% vs. RX/RR = 1,666%; P = 0.005, effect size (ES) = 1.73],
      creatine kinase (XX = 836.5% vs. RX/RR = 455%; P = 0.04, ES = 1.29), lactate
      dehydrogenase (XX = 82% vs. RX/RR = 65%; P = 0.002, ES = 1.61), and aspartate
      aminotransferase (XX = 148% vs. RX/RR = 75%; P = 0.02, ES = 1.77) were
      significantly greater for XX than RX/RR genotypes. ES analysis confirmed a large
      magnitude of muscle damage in XX genotype ultra-runners. Therefore, athletes with
      the ACTN3 577XX genotype experienced more muscle damage after an adventure race.
      This suggests that ultra-runners with alpha-actinin-3 deficiency may be more
      susceptible to rhabdomyolysis and associated health complications during ultra
      endurance competitions.

PMID- 28566804
TI  - Reticulocyte and erythrocyte hypochromia markers in detection of iron deficiency
      in adolescent female athletes.
AB  - The aim of this study was to analyse the effectiveness of new haematology
      parameters related to reticulocytes and mature red blood cells to differentiate
      pre latent and latent iron deficiency. The study included 219 female athletes
      (aged 15-20 years) representing volleyball, handball, cycling, canoeing, cross
      country skiing, swimming and judo. To assess iron status the concentration of
      ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), iron and total iron binding
      capacity (TIBC) were determined in serum. In addition to blood morphology, the
      mean cellular haemoglobin content in erythrocytes (CH) and reticulocytes (CHr),
      mean cellular haemoglobin concentration in reticulocytes (CHCMr), the percentage
      of erythrocytes (HYPOm) and reticulocytes (HYPOr) with decreased cellular
      haemoglobin concentration, the percentage of erythrocytes (LowCHm) and
      reticulocytes (LowCHr) with decreased cellular haemoglobin content, and
      percentage of erythrocytes with decreased volume (MICROm) were determined.
      Subjects with ferritin <30 ng/ml were classified as having stage I (pre-latent)
      iron deficiency (ID). The second stage (latent ID) was diagnosed when low
      ferritin was accompanied by elevated sTfR and/or elevated TIBC values. The
      frequency of ID (without anaemia symptoms) was high, amounting to 60% (stage I in
      45%, stage II in 15% of subjects). In subjects with stage I ID significant
      changes in haematological variables concerned mainly reticulocytes: CHCMr
      (p<.001), CHr (p<.05), LowCHr (p<.05), HYPOr (p<.001) in comparison to normal
      iron stores. In athletes with latent ID, there were also significant changes
      (p<.001) in many indices of mature red blood cells, i.e. haemoglobin
      concentration (Hb), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular
      haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), CH, %LowCHm, as well as %MICROm (p<.01) in
      relation to the group without iron deficiency. The main finding of this study was
      that the diminished or exhausted iron stores had already caused changes in
      reticulocytes, and intensified iron deficiency (stage II) increased changes in
      both reticulocytes' and erythrocytes' hypochromia indices, while microcythaemia
      symptoms appeared later. This suggests that the markers of hypochromia relating
      especially to reticulocytes are useful for diagnosis of early ID in athletes with
      absence of an acute phase reaction.

PMID- 28566805
TI  - Association of arch height with ankle muscle strength and physical performance in
      adult men.
AB  - Differences in arch height may have a certain impact on lower extremity muscle
      strength and physical performance. However, there is little evidence from
      investigation of the possible correlation of arch height with ankle muscle
      strength and physical performance measures. Sixty-seven participants took part in
      this study. Arch height index (AHI) was assessed and categorized using a 3
      dimension foot scanner. Ankle muscle strength was measured employing a
      dynamometer. Physical performance measures including agility, force and
      proprioception were randomly tested. Compared to the medium AHI, the high AHI had
      lower plantarflexion and inversion peak torque. The high AHI also had lower peak
      torque per body weight value for plantarflexion and inversion at 120 degrees /s
      (P = 0.026 and 0.006, respectively), and dorsiflexion at 30 degrees /s (P =
      0.042). No significant ankle muscle strength difference was observed between the
      low and medium AHI. Additionally, AHI was negatively correlated with eversion and
      inversion peak torque at 120 degrees /s, and negatively associated with
      plantarflexion, eversion and inversion peak torque per body weight at both 30
      degrees /s and 120 degrees /s (r ranged from -0.26 to -0.36, P values < 0.050).
      However, no significant relationship was found between arch height and physical
      performance measures. The results showed that high arches had lower ankle muscle
      strength while low arches exhibited greater ankle muscle strength. Arch height
      was negatively associated with ankle muscle strength but not related to physical
      performance. We suggest that the lower arch with greater ankle muscle strength
      may be an adaptation to weight support and shock absorption.

PMID- 28566806
TI  - The effect of the training with the different combinations of frequency and peak
      to-peak vibration displacement of whole-body vibration on the strength of knee
      flexors and extensors.
AB  - Whole-body vibration training has become a popular method used in sports and
      physiotherapy. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of different vibration
      frequency and peak-to-peak displacement combinations on men knee flexors and
      extensors strength in isokinetic conditions. The sample consisted of 49 male
      subjects randomly allocated to seven comparative groups, six of which exercised
      on a vibration platform with parameters set individually for the groups. The
      experimental groups were exposed to vibrations 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The
      pre- and post- isokinetic strength tests, with the angular velocities of 240
      degrees /s and 30 degrees /s, were recorded prior to and 2 days after the
      training. After 4 weeks of whole-body vibration training, a significant increase
      was noted regarding the mean values of peak torque, average peak torque and total
      work for knee flexors at high angular velocity in Groups I (60 Hz/4 mm) and V (40
      Hz/2 mm) (p<0.05). The mean percentage values of post-training changes to study
      parameters suggest that the training had the most beneficial effect in Groups I
      (60 Hz/4 mm) and IV (60 Hz/2 mm) (p<0.05). Whole-body vibrations during static
      exercise beneficially affected knee flexor strength profile in young men at high
      angular velocity. The combinations of 60 Hz/4 mm seem to have the most
      advantageous effects on muscle strength parameters.

PMID- 28566807
TI  - Specific physical trainability in elite young soccer players: efficiency over 6
      weeks' in-season training.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of 3 training protocols
      (plyometric [PLYO], agility [AG], or repeated shuttle sprints [RS]) on physical
      performance in the same population of young soccer players. Forty-two youth-level
      male players (13.6+/-0.3-years; 1.65+/-0.07 m; 54.1+/-6.5 kg; body fat: 12.8+/
      2.6%) participated in a short-term (6-week) randomized parallel fully controlled
      training study (pre-to-post measurements): PLYO group, n=10; AG group, n=10; RS
      group, n=12; and control group [CON] n=10. PLYO training = 9 lower limb exercises
      (2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions). The AG group performed planned AG drills and
      direction changes. RS training consisted of 2-4 sets of 5-6x 20 to 30 m shuttle
      sprints (20 seconds recovery in between). Progressive overload principles were
      incorporated into the programme by increasing the number of foot contacts and
      varying the complexity of the exercises. Pre/post-training tests were: bilateral
      standing horizontal jump, and unilateral horizontal jumps, sprint (30 m with 10 m
      lap time), agility (20 m zigzag), and repeated sprint ability (RSA) (i.e. 6x30 m
      shuttle sprints: 2x15 m with 180 degrees  turns). Significant main effects for
      time (i.e. training application) and group (training type) were detected.
      Improvements in horizontal jumping were higher (p<0.01: ES=large) in PLYO. The RS
      group improved significantly more (p<0.01; ES=large) than other groups: 30 m
      sprint, RSAbest and RSAmean performances. Significantly greater increases in 20 m
      zigzag performance were observed following AG and RS training (4.0 and 3.8%,
      respectively) compared with PLYO (2.0%) and CON training (0.8%). No significant
      differences were reported in the RSAdec between groups. Elite young male soccer
      players' physical performances can be significantly and specifically improved
      either using PLYO or AG or RSA training over short-term in-season training.

PMID- 28566808
TI  - In-season training periodization of professional soccer players.
AB  - The aim of this study was to quantify the seasonal perceived respiratory and
      muscular training loads (i.e., sRPEres-TL and sRPEmus-TL) completed by elite
      oriented young professional soccer players. Twenty-four players (20.3 +/- 2.0
      years) belonging to the same reserve team of a Spanish La Liga club participated
      in this study. Only the players that were available to train for a whole week
      with the team and also to play the weekly game were considered: Starters, players
      that participated in the match for at least 45 min and Non-Starters, players that
      did not participate or played less than 45 minutes in the match. The competitive
      period was analysed after the division into 5x6-8 week blocks and 35x1 week
      microcycles. Data were also analysed with respect to number of days before the
      immediate match. Weekly TL variation across the in-season blocks was trivial
      small for both groups except between Block 2 and Block 3 (ES= moderate).
      Substantial TL differences (ES= small-very likely) were found between training
      days, the TL pattern being a progressive increase up to MD-3 followed by a
      decrease until MD-1. Except for the match, sRPEres-/sRPEmus-TL was very similar
      between Starters and Non-Starters. In summary, perceived TL across the season
      displayed limited variation. Coaches periodized training contents to attain the
      highest weekly TL 72 hours before the match to progressively unload the players
      between MD-3 and the match day. The data revealed that the TL arising from the
      weekly game was solely responsible for the observed higher weekly TL of Starters
      in comparison with Non-Starters.

PMID- 28566809
TI  - The effects of game types on intensity of small-sided games among pre-adolescent
      youth football players.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the effects of variations in pitch
      dimensions on pre-adolescent youth soccer players' physiological responses during
      two different types of small-sided games (SSG). Sixteen young soccer players
      (age: 13.2 +/- 0.6 years; body mass: 52.5 +/- 7 kg; height: 163.4 +/- 6 cm)
      participated in this study. They performed 4 vs. 4 stop-ball SSG (SB-SSG) vs.
      small-goals SSG (SG-SSG) with 4*4 min and 2 min of passive recovery in between,
      using 3 different pitch sizes (small: 10*15, medium: 15*20, and large: 20*25 m).
      Heart rate (HR), lactate concentration ([La-]), and rating of perceived exertion
      (RPE) were measured during each session. The results show that SB-SSG induced
      higher HR responses than SG-SSG for the 3 pitch sizes: for HR (167.2+/-3.0 vs.
      164.5+/-3.0, 172.3+/-2.9 vs. 169.2+/-3.1, and 175.4+/-3.1 vs. 171.1+/-2.7 bpm;
      P<0.05, for small, medium, and large, respectively) and [La-] (7.1+/-1.0 vs.
      6.5+/-1.04, 7.3+/-1.0 vs. 6.8+/-1.2, and 7.8+/-0.9 vs. 7.1+/-0.8 mmol.l-1; P<0.05
      on small, medium, and large pitches, respectively), whereas RPE scores were
      significantly higher during SB-SSG compared to SG-SSG (6.2+/-1.0 vs. 5.8+/-0.9;
      P<0.05, respectively) on the small pitch. In the present study higher
      physiological responses were observed in SSG in pre-adolescent young soccer
      players when using the stop-ball conditions in comparison with the small-goal
      rule for all pitch sizes - small, medium, and large. Stop-ball conditions in
      comparison with the small-goal rule for all pitch sizes - small, medium, and
      large.

PMID- 28566810
TI  - Soccer small-sided games in young players: rule modification to induce higher
      physiological responses.
AB  - The aim of this study was to identify the physiological responses of 3 forms of
      players' numbers during two different games rules of small-sided games (SSG: stop
      ball vs. small-goals rules). Eighteen youth amateur soccer players (age 13.5+/
      0.7 years; height 168.9+/-6.1cm; body mass 63.1+/-7.7 kg) participated in this
      study and performed 3 SSGs with varying players' number (2vs.2; 3vs.3 and 4vs.4):
      stop-ball SSG (SB-SSG) vs. small-goals SSG (SG-SSG) in a randomized and counter
      balanced order on a constant pitch dimension (20*25m). The players performed 4*4
      min SSG with 2-min of passive recovery in-between. Heart rate (HR), (expressed in
      bpm and % HRmax), lactate ([La-]), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were
      collected during each session. SB-SSG induced the higher HR values in comparison
      with the SG-SSG for the 3 game formats (2vs.2; 3vs.3 and 4vs.4). Also, compared
      with SG-SSG, SB-SSG induced the higher HR values during 2vs.2 compared with 4vs.4
      games rules (178 vs. 174 and 175 vs. 171 bpm, respectively). However, the SB-SSG
      was more intense compared with SG-SSG in the 2 vs. 2 game rule compared with the
      two others (3 vs.3 and 4 vs. 4) for [La-] and RPE (7.58 vs. 7; 7.25 vs. 6.75 and
      6.5 vs. 6.16 mmol ? L-1, and 7.75 vs. 7.33; 7.41 vs. 7.08 and 7.16 vs. 6.83,
      respectively). Therefore, the use of 2 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 3 SSG with SB-SSG seems to
      represent an alternative to coaches to increase cardiovascular and metabolic
      demands in youth soccer players.

PMID- 28566811
TI  - The effect of combined supplementation of carbohydrates and creatine on anaerobic
      performance.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of creatine (Cr)
      supplementation on anaerobic performance when ingesting creatine and
      carbohydrates (CHO) together. Twenty male physical education students comprised
      the two experimental (CR and CRCHO) and one control (CON) groups of the study.
      All groups performed three 30 s anaerobic Wingate tests (AWTs) interspersed with
      6 minutes of recovery. The CR group (n = 7) ingested 5 g of Cr 5 times per day
      for 4 days. Subjects in the CRCHO group (n = 6) ingested the same quantity but
      additionally after each 5 g dose of Cr consumed 500 ml of a commercially
      available energy drink containing 100 g of simple sugars. Over all three AWTs
      average mean power improved significantly compared to baseline for the CR group
      (5.51%) but not for the CRCHO group (3.06%). Mean power for the second AWT was
      improved following the acute loading for the CR group only (4.54%) and for the
      third AWT for both CR (8.49%) and CRCHO (5.75%) groups. Over all three AWTs a
      significant change was recorded in average peak power following the acute loading
      for the CR group (8.26%) but not for the CRCHO group (4.11%). Peak power was
      significantly improved following the loading only for the CR group during the
      third AWT (19.79%). No changes in AWT performance were recorded for the CON group
      after intervention. The findings of the present study suggest that ingesting
      creatine together with carbohydrates will not further improve performance
      compared to the ingestion of creatine only.

PMID- 28566812
TI  - Determinants of the effectiveness of fast break actions in elite and sub-elite
      Italian men's basketball games.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of successful and
      unsuccessful fast-break (FB) actions in elite and sub-elite basketball games.
      Fifteen 1st-division (elite) and fifteen 3rd-division (sub-elite) Italian men's
      championship games were analysed across two seasons (2012/2013 and 2013/2014). A
      binary logistic regression analysis was performed, and the fast-break outcome
      (successful vs. unsuccessful) was adopted as the dependent variable separately in
      both elite and sub-elite games. FB execution (initiation, advance and completion
      phases), typology (primary and secondary break) and the number of players
      involved (equal number or superiority) were used as independent variables. The
      results showed that the rate of success of FB actions was 63.5% and 59.7% in
      elite and sub-elite games, respectively. Moreover, successful FBs were more
      likely to be completed in the lane in relation to unsuccessful ones in both elite
      and sub-elite games (p<0.05). Finally, descriptive statistics showed that both
      elite and sub-elite teams executed FBs similarly. This study highlighted that
      completion zone was the only predictor of a successful fast break in basketball,
      while the typology and number of players involved did not predict fast break
      effectiveness. Moreover, elite and sub-elite teams executed fast break actions
      similarly. These findings might be useful for basketball coaches to optimize the
      training of FB actions.

PMID- 28566813
TI  - Kickboxing review: anthropometric, psychophysiological and activity profiles and
      injury epidemiology.
AB  - Kickboxing is one of the modern combat sports. The psychophysiological demands of
      a kickboxing competition require athletes to achieve high thresholds of several
      aspects of physical fitness. The aim of the current review is to critically
      analyse and appraise the kickboxer's anthropometric, physiological, physical and
      psychological attributes with the activity profile and injury epidemiology in
      order to provide practical recommendations for training as well as new areas of
      scientific research. The available information shows that both amateur and elite
      level male kickboxers are characterized by a higher proportion of mesomorphy with
      a well-developed muscle mass and low body fat percentage. While there is some
      variation in the maximum oxygen uptake of kickboxers, moderate to high cardio
      respiratory levels are reported for these athletes. Regardless of kickboxers'
      level, a high peak and mean anaerobic power output were reported. High-level
      kickboxing performance also requires well-developed muscle power in both the
      upper and lower limbs. Psychological factors contribute to success that requires
      high levels of self-confidence, motivation, dispositional hope and optimism,
      mental toughness/resiliency, and adaptive perfectionism. Psychological attributes
      also distinguished successful from less successful kickboxers. The activity-to
      rest ratio was higher in elite (1:1) than both amateur and national-level (from
      1:2 to 1:5) kickboxers, with no significant differences between rounds (round
      1=1:4, and rounds 2 and 3=1:5) as well as between winners and losers in amateur
      and national-level simulated combats. These particular psychophysiological
      characteristics and performance aspects of kickboxers influence performance and
      could serve as guidance for training. Finally, kickboxing is characterized by
      chronic repetitive head trauma, which causes hypopituitarism due to traumatic
      brain injury (TBI). Future investigations into the physical, physiological and
      psychological characteristics related to age, gender and competitive levels of
      kickboxers are required to enrich the current knowledge and to help create the
      most suitable training programme.

PMID- 28566814
TI  - Endocrine responses and acute mTOR pathway phosphorylation to resistance exercise
      with leucine and whey.
AB  - Leucine ingestion reportedly activates the mTOR pathway in skeletal muscle,
      contributing to a hypertrophy response. The purpose of the study was to compare
      the post-resistance exercise effects of leucine and whey protein supplementation
      on endocrine responses and muscle mTOR pathway phosphorylation. On visit 1,
      subjects (X+/-SD; n=20; age=27.8+/-2.8yrs) provided baseline blood samples for
      analysis of cortisol, glucose and insulin; a muscle biopsy of the vastus
      lateralis muscle to assess mTOR signaling pathway phosphorylation; and were
      tested for maximum strength on the leg press and leg extension exercises. For
      visits 2 and 3, subjects were randomized in a double-blind crossover design to
      ingest either leucine and whey protein (10g+10g; supplement) or a non-caloric
      placebo. During these visits, 5 sets of 10 repetitions were performed on both
      exercises, immediately followed by ingestion of the supplement or placebo. Blood
      was sampled 30 min post-, and a muscle biopsy 45 min post-exercise. Western blots
      quantified total and phosphorylated proteins. Insulin increased (alpha<.05) with
      supplementation with no change in glucose compared to placebo. Relative
      phosphorylation of AKT and rpS6 were greater with leucine and whey
      supplementation compared to placebo. Supplementation of leucine and whey protein
      immediately after heavy resistance exercise increases anabolic signaling in human
      skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28566816
TI  - A roadmap for the aspiring interventional pediatric cardiologist.

PMID- 28566815
TI  - Training-induced changes in physical performance can be achieved without body
      mass reduction after eight week of strength and injury prevention oriented
      programme in volleyball female players.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to analyse the changes in muscle strength, power,
      and somatic parameters in elite volleyball players after a specific pre-season
      training programme aimed at improving jumping and strength performance and injury
      prevention. Twelve junior female volleyball players participated in an 8-week
      training programme. Anthropometric characteristics, isokinetic peak torque (PT)
      single-joint knee flexion (H) and extension (Q) at 60o/s and 180o/s, counter
      movement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), and reactive strength index (RSI) were
      measured before and after intervention. Significant moderate effects were found
      in flexor concentric PT at 60o/s and at 180 o/s in the dominant leg (DL) (18.3+/
      15.1%, likely; 17.8+/-11.2%, very likely) and in extensor concentric PT at 180o/s
      (7.4%+/-7.8%, very likely) in the DL. In the non-dominant leg (NL) significant
      moderate effects were found in flexor concentric PT at 60o/s and at 180o/s
      (13.7+/-11.3%, likely; 13.4+/-8.0%, very likely) and in extensor concentric PT at
      180o/s (10.7+/-11.5%, very likely). Small to moderate changes were observed for
      H/QCONV in the DL at 60o/s and 180o/s (15.9+/-14.1%; 9.6+/-10.4%, both likely)
      and in the NL at 60o/s (moderate change, 9.6+/-11.8%, likely), and small to
      moderate decreases were detected for H/QFUNC at 180o/s, in both the DL and NL (
      7.0+/-8.3%, likely; -9.5+/-10.0%, likely). Training-induced changes in jumping
      performance were trivial (for RSI) to small (for CMJ and SJ). The applied pre
      season training programme induced a number of positive changes in physical
      performance and risk of injury, despite a lack of changes in body mass and
      composition.

PMID- 28566817
TI  - Three-dimensional-printed cardiac prototypes in complex congenital cardiac
      defects: New technology with exciting possibilities.

PMID- 28566818
TI  - Three-dimensional-printed cardiac prototypes aid surgical decision-making and
      preoperative planning in selected cases of complex congenital heart diseases:
      Early experience and proof of concept in a resource-limited environment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Three-dimensional. (3D) printing is an innovative manufacturing
      process that allows computer-assisted conversion of 3D imaging data into physical
      "printouts" Healthcare applications are currently in evolution. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective of this study was to explore the feasibility and impact of using
      patient-specific 3D-printed cardiac prototypes derived from high-resolution
      medical imaging data (cardiac magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography
      [MRI/CT]) on surgical decision-making and preoperative planning in selected cases
      of complex congenital heart diseases (CHDs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five patients
      with complex CHD with previously unresolved management decisions were chosen.
      These included two patients with complex double-outlet right ventricle, two
      patients with criss-cross atrioventricular connections, and one patient with
      congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries with pulmonary atresia.
      Cardiac MRI was done for all patients, cardiac CT for one; specific surgical
      challenges were identified. Volumetric data were used to generate patient
      specific 3D models. All cases were reviewed along with their 3D models, and the
      impact on surgical decision-making and preoperative planning was assessed.
      RESULTS: Accurate life-sized 3D cardiac prototypes were successfully created for
      all patients. The models enabled radically improved 3D understanding of anatomy,
      identification of specific technical challenges, and precise surgical planning.
      Augmentation of existing clinical and imaging data by 3D prototypes allowed
      successful execution of complex surgeries for all five patients, in accordance
      with the preoperative planning. CONCLUSIONS: 3D-printed cardiac prototypes can
      radically assist decision-making, planning, and safe execution of complex
      congenital heart surgery by improving understanding of 3D anatomy and allowing
      anticipation of technical challenges.

PMID- 28566819
TI  - Neonates with critical congenital heart defects: Impact of fetal diagnosis on
      immediate and short-term outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fetal echocardiography is being increasingly used for prenatal
      diagnosis of congenital cardiac malformations, but its impact on the neonatal
      outcomes in low- and middle-income countries is still unknown. AIMS: The
      objective of this study is to determine the impact of fetal echocardiography on
      immediate postnatal and short-term outcome in a tertiary pediatric cardiac
      center. STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One
      hundred consecutive patients with critical congenital heart defects (CHD)
      requiring active medical or surgical interventions in the 1st month of life were
      included in the study. The detailed history, postnatal examination findings, and
      fetal echocardiogram report were recorded. They were divided into two groups as
      antenatally diagnosed and postnatally diagnosed. Pre- and post-procedural
      variables were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Twenty-nine neonates
      were diagnosed antenatally while 71 were diagnosed postnatally. Totally, 10
      babies (34.5%) among the antenatally diagnosed group were delivered in a tertiary
      health-care setup. The mean age at presentation was 0 day in the antenatally
      diagnosed group while 10 days (0-30 days) in the postnatally diagnosed group (P =
      0.01). A total of 17 (58.6%) patients in the antenatal group had duct dependent
      CHD, and 15 (88.2%) of these patients were transported on prostaglandin E1. In
      comparison, 19/34 (55.9%) patients in the postnatal group were transported on
      prostaglandin. The pH on admission in the antenatal group was 7.32 +/- 0.05 as
      compared to 7.28 +/- 0.05 in the postnatal group (P = 0.0004). There were 4
      (5.6%) deaths in the postnatal group during transfer. There was no significant
      difference in the postoperative variables in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Fetal
      echocardiography identifies patients with complex CHD resulting in better
      parental counseling, thus facilitating delivery at a tertiary care center and
      preoperative stabilization. This results in improved preoperative mortality and
      better stabilization.

PMID- 28566820
TI  - Patent ductus arteriosus closure using Occlutech(r) Duct Occluder, experience in
      Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous closure of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) has become
      standard therapy. Experience with the Occlutech(r) Duct Occluder is limited.
      METHODS: Data regarding ductal closure using Occlutech(r) Duct Occluder were
      reviewed and prospectively collected. Demographics, hemodynamic and angiographic
      characteristics, complications, and outcomes were documented. RESULTS: From March
      2013 to June 2016, 65 patients (43 females and 22 males) underwent percutaneous
      closure of the PDA using Occlutech(r) Duct Occluder. The median age of the
      patients was 11 months (range, 1-454 months) and the median weight was 8.5 kg
      (range 2.5-78 kg). The mean pulmonary artery median pressure was 27 mmHg (range,
      12-100 mmHg) and the QP: Qs ratio median was 1.8 (range, 1-7.5), with a pulmonary
      vascular resistance mean of 2.7 WU (standard deviation [SD] +/-2.1). Thirty-two
      patients had Krichenko Type A duct (49%); 7, Type C (11%); 4, Type D (6%); and
      22, Type E (34%). The ductal size (narrowest diameter at the pulmonic end) mean
      was 3.5 mm (SD +/- 1.9 mm). The screening time mean was 17.3 min (SD +/- 11.6).
      Out of 63 patients with successful closure of the PDA using Occlutech(r) Duct
      Occluder, there were 15 patients with small PDAs; 25 with moderate PDAs, and 23
      with large PDAs. In one patient, the device dislodged to the descending aorta,
      and in two patients, to the right pulmonary artery immediately following
      deployment, with successful percutaneous (two) and surgical (one) retrieval.
      Complete ductal occlusion was achieved in all 63 patients on day one. CONCLUSION:
      The Occlutech(r) Duct Occluder is a safe and effective device for closure of
      ducts in appropriately selected patients.

PMID- 28566821
TI  - Mid-term outcomes of surgical repair for anomalous origin of the left coronary
      artery from the pulmonary artery: In infants, children and adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anomalous origin of left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery
      (ALCAPA) is a rare congenital malformation. We sought to evaluate in-hospital and
      mid-term outcomes of patients with a diagnosis of ALCAPA who underwent surgical
      repair. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the mid-term
      outcomes of surgical repair of ALCAPA at our center and to analyze the surgical
      techniques used. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a retrospective study, we analyzed
      early and mid-term clinical and echocardiographic data to determine the outcomes
      of patients who underwent surgical repair of ALCAPA in our institution between
      2005 and 2015. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients underwent surgical repair for ALCAPA
      using aortic reimplantation (n = 10, 47.6%), ostial closure (n = 8, 38.1%), or
      ligation (n = 3, 14.3%). The median age of patients was 24 months (range 22 days
      to 51 years). There were 2 (9.5%) in-hospital mortalities in infants undergoing
      the reimplantation technique. All patients were followed up for a median of 21
      months (range 1-60 months). No patients required reoperation, and there was no
      mortality from discharge to mid-term follow-up. Severe early postoperative mitral
      regurgitation (MR) was associated with composite end-point, defined as a
      combination of mortality after surgery, moderate to severe MR, and moderate to
      severe left ventricular dysfunction at late follow-up (P = 0.019) while mitral
      valve repair was not (P = 0.469). CONCLUSION: The surgical management of ALCAPA
      can be associated with good in-hospital and mid-term outcomes regardless of the
      age, at which the patient has been operated.

PMID- 28566822
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of different devices used for the closure of small-to
      medium-sized patent ductus arteriosus in pediatric patients.
AB  - AIMS: In this study, we examined the differences in cost and effectiveness of
      various devices used for the closure of small to medium sized patent ductus
      arteriosus (PDA). SETTING AND DESIGN: We retrospectively studied 116 patients who
      underwent closure of small PDAs between January 2010 and January 2015. SUBJECTS
      AND METHODS: Three types of devices were used: the Amplatzer duct occluder (ADO)
      II, the cook detachable coil and the Nit Occlud coil (NOC). Immediate and late
      complications were recorded and patients were followed up for 3 months after the
      procedure. STATISTICAL METHODS: All statistical calculations were performed using
      Statistical Package for the Social Science software. P <0.05 were considered
      significant. RESULTS: We successfully deployed ADO II devices in 33 out of 35
      cases, cook detachable coils in 36 out of 40 cases and NOCs in 38 out of 41
      cases. In the remaining nine cases, the first device was unsuitable or embolized
      and required retrieval and replacement with another device. Eleven patients
      (9.5%) developed vascular complications and required anticoagulation therapy.
      Patients who had hemolysis or vascular complications remained longer in the
      intensive care unit, with consequently higher total cost (P = 0.016). Also, the
      need for a second device increased the cost per patient. CONCLUSIONS: The cook
      detachable coil is the most cost-effective device for closure of small-to medium
      sized PDAs. Calculations of the incremental cost-effectiveness. (ICE) revealed
      that the Cook detachable coil had less ICE than the ADO II and NOC. The NOC was
      more effective with fewer complications.

PMID- 28566823
TI  - Correlation of electrocardiogram parameters and hemodynamic outcomes in patients
      with isolated secundum atrial septal defects.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The characteristic rSR' pattern in lead V1 on electrocardiogram (ECG)
      has been described in association with atrial septal defect (ASD) and right
      ventricular dilation. We aimed to determine if temporal ECG changes can guide a
      more discriminate and cost-effective screening during follow-up of isolated
      secundum ASD. METHODS: Our study population included all pediatric patients
      followed at the Stollery Children's Hospital with a secundum ASD, not associated
      with other significant heart disease, between 2004 and 2010. We collected
      clinical as well as serial echocardiographic and ECG data. RESULTS: We identified
      141 patients with ASD, 95% were asymptomatic and 88% referred for a murmur.
      Moderate-to-large (>5 mm) ASDs were present in 52%. The prevalence of an rSR'
      pattern was 26% in the overall cohort and 54% in the large ASD group. During
      median follow-up of 28.7 months, 37 patients underwent surgical or transcatheter
      closure. Among patients with rSR' on ECG, 78% had moderate-to-large ASD size. In
      that group, the presence versus the absence of rSR' correlated with lower
      positive predictive value (PPV) for spontaneous closure (7% vs. 36%; P = 0.01)
      and higher PPV for device or surgical closure (71% vs. 38%; P = 0.02).
      CONCLUSION: We observed a lower prevalence of rSR' pattern in patients with
      isolated ASD than previously reported. However, an rSR' pattern had incremental
      value in predicting the need for surgical or device intervention for closure in
      moderate-large groups. This can be used to tailor patient echocardiographic
      screening and caregiver counseling.

PMID- 28566824
TI  - Use of strain, strain rate, tissue velocity imaging, and endothelial function for
      early detection of cardiovascular involvement in patients with beta-thalassemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Global ventricular function often remains normal in patients with
      beta-thalassemia major (beta-TM) until late. Tissue Doppler and strain imaging
      may be useful to assess regional myocardial function abnormalities in these
      patients. METHODS: Systolic (Sm), early diastolic (Em), and late diastolic (Am)
      (Em/Am) myocardial velocities at basal lateral and septal left ventricular (LV)
      segments, strain (S), and strain rate (SR) in basal and mid LV, right ventricular
      (RV) and septum were measured in 30 patients (beta-TM, 12.4 +/- 5.2 years, serum
      ferritin 2603.1 MUg/L) and twenty controls (12.5 +/- 5.2 years). Flow-mediated
      dilatation (FMD) vasodilatation as a measure of endothelial function was also
      assessed. RESULTS: Patients had significantly higher LV mass index (169.45 +/-
      61.14 vs. 104.66 +/- 24.42; P = 0.009) while global LV Sm and diastolic function
      was similar to controls. Patients had significantly lower lateral Em velocity, Em
      (10.12 +/- 1.16 vs. 17.9 +/- 2.11; P = 0.002), Em/Am ratio (0.811 +/- 0.192 vs.
      2.06 +/- 0.62; P = 0.001) at the basal lateral LV, lower strain values at the
      basal lateral LV (19.5 +/- 4.17 vs. 24.196 +/- 1.81; P = 0.002), mid lateral LV
      (19.07 +/- 3.98 vs. 25.56 +/- 2.62; P = 0.042), basal septum (17.04 +/- 3.44 vs.
      25.43 +/- 2.53; P = 0.001), and mid septum (20.49 +/- 5.34 vs. 24.45 +/- 2.20; P
      = 0.001) as compared to controls. SR at the basal and mid segment of the lateral
      LV wall and at the basal and mid septum was also significantly lower in patients.
      SR in basal and mid RV although lower was not significantly different from
      controls. Patients also had significantly lower FMD (7.57 +/- 3.16 vs. 18.08 +/-
      1.9, P = 0.018) implying endothelial dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: Tissue Doppler,
      strain and SR imaging are useful to quantify regional myocardial function in
      asymptomatic beta-TM patients with preserved global Sm and diastolic function.

PMID- 28566825
TI  - Catheter hemodynamic assessment of the univentricular circulation.
AB  - Children with very complex congenital heart disease not amenable to biventricular
      repair are increasingly being considered for a palliative univentricular care
      pathway. This involves a staged surgical approach culminating in the Fontan
      circulation with passive pulmonary blood flow and added resistances. The catheter
      based hemodynamic assessment at all three stages of this palliation is described
      in detail. Frequent pitfalls, inherent limitations and potential errors are
      discussed and clinical examples are illustrated.

PMID- 28566827
TI  - A North African perspective on pediatric cardiac services: A focused interview
      with Dr. Sulafa Ali.

PMID- 28566826
TI  - Isomerism in the setting of the so-called "heterotaxy": The usefulness of
      computed tomographic analysis.
AB  - The most complex combinations of congenital cardiac malformations are found in
      the setting of bodily isomerism. The question remains, however, as to whether
      evidence of cardiac isomerism is always to be found in the setting of bodily
      isomerism, also known as "heterotaxy." We have previously shown that, when
      assessed on the basis of the extent of the pectinate muscles relative to the
      atrioventricular junctions, there is always isomerism of the atrial appendages in
      this setting. Doubt has been remained, however, as to whether these cardiac
      features can accurately be recognized during life. We have now encountered two
      patients showing features of the left and right bodily isomerism. Examinations of
      these patients made using computed tomography show that all features of
      isomerism, no matter how complex, can now be visualized during life. The images
      currently presented show, furthermore, that the features of the so-called
      "heterotaxy" can be seen during life, not only within the heart but also in all
      the thoracic and abdominal organs, albeit that the isomeric features are confined
      to the thoracic organs. Based on the images presented, we argue that if each
      system of organs is analyzed and described in independent fashion; then it is
      possible for clinicians to exclude any suggestion of ambiguity and to provide
      accurate descriptions of the overall arrangement. We further discuss the
      appropriate terminology to describe the entity we prefer to call isomerism, along
      with the indications and usefulness of computed tomography in revealing the
      anatomic features of the congenitally malformed heart.

PMID- 28566828
TI  - Aberrant right subclavian artery presenting as tracheoesophagial fistula in a 50
      year-old lady: Case report of a rare presentation of a common arch anomaly.
AB  - A 50-year-old, woman with a 2-year history of progressive dysphagia and 2-month
      history of chronic cough was referred to our center in a state of generalized
      sepsis. Provisional diagnosis of carcinoma esophagus with tracheoesophagial
      fistula was made. Evaluation of the patient revealed an aberrant right subclavian
      artery with retroesophageal course with compression of the esophagus and trachea
      with fistulous communication in between. The patient was managed with medical
      stabilization and with feeding jejunostomy, but she succumbed to underlying
      severe sepsis. This presentation of aberrant subclavian artery at this advanced
      age rare and is therefore reported.

PMID- 28566829
TI  - Pitfalls of stenting coarctation of an angulated right circumflex aortic arch in
      Goldenhar syndrome.
AB  - We report stenting of coarctation of an angulated right circumflex aortic arch
      (RCAA) using four Cheatham Platinum stents in a child with Goldenhar syndrome.
      Difficulties in measuring the accurate length of the curved and narrowed
      transverse aortic arch marked discrepancy between the luminal diameters of the
      long narrow transverse arch and wide descending thoracic aorta, increased
      displacement force caused by the 90 degrees  bend between the two parts resulted
      in repeated stent migrations. We discuss the tips to avoid distal stent migration
      in the setting of an angulated RCAA.

PMID- 28566830
TI  - Modified transjugular approach for percutaneous atrial septal defect closure.
AB  - Femoral venous route is routinely used for percutaneous closure of atrial septal
      defects (ASDs). However, a situation may arise where transfemoral approach is not
      feasible. We describe a successful transjugular closure of a moderate-sized ASD
      in a 49-year-old symptomatic man with interrupted inferior vena cava, using a
      novel deployment technique, which helped in overcoming difficulties such as
      maintaining stable sheath position and minimizing risk of air embolism.

PMID- 28566831
TI  - Repair of anomalous mitral arcade in a child.
AB  - A 13-year-old girl presented with exertional dyspnea and congestive heart
      failure. Echocardiography revealed severe congenital mitral stenosis due to
      anomalous mitral arcade with severe pulmonary hypertension. She underwent
      successful mitral valve repair. The case is reported for its rarity.

PMID- 28566832
TI  - Recanalization of an occluded left pulmonary artery: A case report and review of
      the literature.
AB  - We report an 8-year-old male child with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), who developed
      left pulmonary artery (LPA) atresia, following surgical repair of TOF and left
      pulmonary arterioplasty at the age of 6 years. He underwent successful
      radiofrequency recanalization and stenting of the LPA. The LPA exhibited
      satisfactory growth for 3 months, following recanalization and stenting.

PMID- 28566833
TI  - Stent migration after right ventricular outflow tract stenting in the severe
      cyanotic Tetralogy of Fallot case.
AB  - We report our experience with a stent migration after right ventricle outflow
      tract stenting and converted to patent ductus arteriosus stenting in Tetralogy of
      Fallot (TOF) with severe infundibular stenosis. Finally, the patient achieved to
      TOF repair, and the migrated stent was removed without any complication.

PMID- 28566834
TI  - The utility of computed tomographic angiography in a neonate on extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation with extreme cyanosis after Blalock-Taussig shunt.
AB  - A modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (mBTS) is often employed to provide pulmonary
      blood flow in neonates that are born with cyanotic congenital heart defects.
      However, acute shunt thrombosis can occur in the postoperative period, resulting
      in profound cyanosis. In this case report, we describe the utility of computed
      tomographic angiography (CTA) in the management of a neonate with extreme
      cyanosis after placement of a mBTS while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
      Using CTA, several small clots were identified in the shunt as well as stenosis
      of the left pulmonary artery; neither of which were identified with
      echocardiography. The CTA allowed for quick identification of the disorder and
      helped direct prompt surgical intervention.

PMID- 28566835
TI  - Anomalous origin of right coronary artery causing myocardial ischemia in a young
      patient.
AB  - Anomalous right coronary artery from left coronary sinus can have dynamic
      narrowing and kinking causing symptoms of myocardial ischemia and sudden cardiac
      death. Surgical repair of the anomaly is required in the symptomatic patient
      because of risk of ischemia or ventricular arrhythmia. Asymptomatic incidentally
      diagnosed low-risk patients can be closely followed up with exercise restriction
      as per present guideline.

PMID- 28566836
TI  - Apparent normal arrangement pattern of three-vessel view in a fetus with
      transposition of great arteries and L-malposed aorta.
AB  - Transposition of great arteries (TGA) is more commonly associated with D
      malposition of great arteries where anterior aorta produces characteristic "I"
      sign in the three-vessel view (3VV) in fetal heart imaging. We describe two cases
      with TGA and L-malposition of aorta where 3VV imaging showed an apparently normal
      arrangement of vessels while outflow tract imaging proved vital in diagnosing
      transposition anatomy. Apparently, normal 3VV in the presence of disproportionate
      vessel caliber and inability to produce normal outflow images should raise the
      suspicion. Attempts should be made to produce views to show great arteries
      originating from respective ventricles to rule out ventriculoarterial discordance
      and to complete segmental analysis.

PMID- 28566837
TI  - Massive biventricular rhabdomyoma in a neonate.
AB  - Rhabdomyoma is a well characterised entity in a neonate. Herein, we report a
      massive biventricular rhabdomyoma in a neonate presenting with cyanosis and
      congestive heart failure which was confirmed on autopsy. The report is for
      documentation of an unusually large tumour.

PMID- 28566838
TI  - Birth prevalence of congenital heart disease: A cross-sectional observational
      study from North India.

PMID- 28566839
TI  - Author's Response.

PMID- 28566840
TI  - Spontaneous pneumoperitoneum: A rare entity.

PMID- 28566841
TI  - New Hope in Fight against Sickle Cell Anemia?

PMID- 28566842
TI  - Interprofessional Education: A Reform Plan for Collaborative.

PMID- 28566843
TI  - Worldwide Use of Triclosan: Can Dentistry Do Without this Antimicrobial?

PMID- 28566844
TI  - Peeling Back the Onion: An Outsider's Observations.

PMID- 28566846
TI  - Deproteinization of Fluorosed Enamel with Sodium Hypochlorite Enhances the Shear
      Bond Strength of Orthodontic Brackets: An In vitro Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Improving bonding strength to fluorosed teeh. AIMS: To determine the
      effect of deproteinization using 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) prior to acid
      etching on shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets bonded to fluorosed teeth.
      SETTINGS AND DESIGN: In vitro experimental study. METHODS AND MATERIAL: Forty
      freshly extracted human mandibular first premolars with TFI 4 were selected and
      divided into two groups of 20 each. In Group I the teeth were acid etched with
      37% phosphoric acid and bonded with composite. In Group II the teeth were
      deproteinized with 5.25% NaOCl prior to acid etching with 37% phosphoric acid and
      were bonded with composite. Samples were then subjected to shear bond test by
      Instron Universal Testing machine. The sample from each group were selected for
      the SEM study (prior to bonding) to analyze the etching patterns achieved.
      STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data was checked for normality by Shapiro Wilk Test,
      to compare the two groups unpaired t test was used. P value was predetermined at
      <= 0.05. RESULTS: The S BS of Group II (11.75 +/- 2.83 MPa) was higher than Group
      I (7.44 +/- 2.43 MPa) and the difference was statistically significant (P =
      0.000). On SEM the etching pattern was more of type 1 and 2 in Group II.
      CONCLUSIONS: Deproteinization using 5.25% NaOCl prior to acid etching
      significantly increases the shear bond strength of brackets bonded to fluorosed
      teeth and can be used as a convenient and effective option in orthodontic bonding
      to fluorosed teeth.

PMID- 28566845
TI  - Prevention and Treatment of White Spot Lesions in Orthodontic Patients.
AB  - Decalcification of enamel, appearing as white spot lesions (WSLs), around fixed
      orthodontic appliances is a major challenge during and after fixed orthodontic
      treatment by considering the fact that the goal of orthodontic treatment is to
      enhance facial and dental esthetic appearance. Banded or bonded teeth exhibit a
      significantly higher rate of WSLs compared to the controls with no braces as
      fixed appliances and the bonding materials promote retention of biofilms. These
      lesions are managed in the first step by establishing good oral hygiene habits
      and prophylaxis with topical fluorides, including high-fluoride toothpastes,
      fluoride mouthwashes, gels, varnishes, fluoride-containing bonding materials, and
      elastic ligatures. Recently, other materials and methods have been recommended,
      including the application of casein phosphopeptides-amorphous calcium phosphate,
      antiseptics, probiotics, polyols, sealants, laser, tooth bleaching agents, resin
      infiltration, and microabrasion. This article reviews the currently used methods
      to manage enamel demineralization during and after orthodontic treatment and the
      risk factors and preventive measures based on the latest evidence.

PMID- 28566848
TI  - In Vitro Comparative Evaluation of Cleaning Efficacy and Volumetric Filling in
      Primary Molars: Cone Beam Computed Tomography Evaluation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pulpectomy of primary teeth is mostly carried out with hand files
      and broaches which is tricky and time consuming procedure. The development of new
      design features like varying tapers, non-cutting safety tips and varying length
      of cutting blades have resulted in new generation of rotary instruments. AIM: To
      compare and evaluate cleaning efficacy, canal preparation and volumetric filling
      using conventional files and rotary V Taper files through cone beam computed
      tomography. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Thirty extracted primary molars were selected.
      The teeth were randomly divided into three groups each containing 10 teeth i.e.
      30 canals in each group. Group A was instrumented with K files; Group B rotary V
      Taper files and Group C was Hybrid group. Sodium hypochlorite (1%) was used for
      irrigation. Root canal filling was done with Zinc Oxide Eugenol cement in all
      groups. The volumetric analysis i.e. Percentage of Volume (POV) of the root canal
      filling in primary molars was done through CBCT Software. RESULT: In present
      study, p- value was found to be significant (<0.05). Almost 100% of canals of
      hybrid group were fully filled and 63.3% of canals of hand filing group were
      partially filled. The filling was found to be dense and no. of voids was least in
      hybrid group. CONCLUSION: Clinical time required in primary molar endodontics,
      especially with unpredictability and difficulty of canal morphology, is
      inevitable. The study confirms superior ability of rotary-file systems to shape
      severely curved canals with less time and significant decrease in procedural
      errors like partial filling, voids and inappropriate canal preparation.

PMID- 28566847
TI  - Evaluation of Micronutrient (Zinc, Magnesium, and Copper) Levels in Serum and
      Glycemic Status after Nonsurgical Periodontal Therapy in Type 2 Diabetic Patients
      with Chronic Periodontitis.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To find out the effect of nonsurgical periodontal therapy on
      serum zinc (Zn), magnesium (Mg), and copper (Cu) concentration and glycemic
      status in type 2 diabetes with chronic periodontitis (CP). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      One hundred and twenty patients were included in this study, which was further
      divided into three groups. Group 1 consisted of forty patients with CP, Group 2
      consisted of forty patients of CP with controlled diabetes, and Group 3 consisted
      of forty patients of CP with uncontrolled diabetes. Periodontal parameters such
      as plaque index, gingival index, bleeding on probing, pocket depth, and clinical
      attachment levels (CALs) were evaluated. Blood samples were collected to assess
      the levels of fasting blood sugar, glycosylated hemoglobin, Zn, Mg, and Cu. All
      parameters were evaluated at baseline and 3 months after nonsurgical periodontal
      therapy. RESULTS: The results showed statistically significant reduction in all
      the clinical parameters within the groups except for the CAL in group 1 patients
      (P = 0.05). The glycemic status also showed a statistically significant reduction
      after treatment (P < 0.001). The intragroup comparison was taken between the
      values of micronutrients, showed substantial increase in the levels of both Zn
      and Mg and decrease in the level of Cu after nonsurgical periodontal treatment (P
      < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with diabetes and periodontitis had altered
      metabolism of Zn, Mg, and Cu contributing to the progression and complication of
      diabetes mellitus and periodontitis. Nonsurgical periodontal treatment improved
      the variation and concentration of plasma micronutrients and also the periodontal
      status and glycemic level.

PMID- 28566849
TI  - Prevalence of Three Rooted Permanent Mandibular First Molars in Haryana (North
      Indian) Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mandibular first molars typically have two roots but sometimes a
      supernumerary root presents distolingually called as radix entomolaris (RE). AIM:
      The present study evaluated the prevalence of permanent mandibular first molars
      featuring a distolingual root in Haryana (North India). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Five hundred patients possessing bilateral mandibular first molars were selected
      for this study. The intraoral periapical radiographs were taken. The radiographs
      of these patients were evaluated under optimal conditions. A total of 1000
      mandibular first molars were screened, and the incidence of three-rooted
      mandibular first molars, RE and the correlation between left and right side
      occurrence and between either gender were recorded. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The
      binary logistic regression test and Pearson's Chi-square test were used for
      statistical analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of three-rooted permanent
      mandibular first molars was 13% of the patients examined and 8.3% of the teeth
      examined. There was no statistically significant difference between gender and
      side of occurrence (P >= 0.05). The bilateral incidence of a symmetric
      distribution was 27.6 (18/65) among the RE teeth examined. CONCLUSION: RE is
      considered as an Asiatic trait. The occurrence of this macrostructure in the
      Haryana (North India) population was found to be 13%. The clinician must
      thoroughly examine the radiographs before the initiation of endodontic therapy.

PMID- 28566851
TI  - An In vitro Evaluation of Microleakage Associated with Three Different Compomer
      Placement Techniques in Primary Molars.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microleakage is one of the most frequently encountered problems in
      posterior tooth-colored restorations. Efforts to decrease this problem with resin
      restorations include techniques for reducing the ratio of bonded to unbonded
      restoration surfaces and following strategic incremental placement techniques to
      reduce residual stress at tooth-restoration interface which reduces the C-factor,
      hence microleakage. AIM: The present study aimed to evaluate microleakage
      associated with three placement techniques for compomer restorations in primary
      molars. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY: This in vitro experimental study assessed the
      microleakage associated with bulk-fill, horizontal-incremental, and oblique
      incremental compomer placement techniques in primary molars. Ninety specimens
      were divided into three groups of thirty for each of the placement techniques.
      RESULTS: Nearly 86.6% of the specimens presented with microleakage involving the
      entire axial wall and pulpal floor in the bulk-fill group, whereas 56.6% and
      46.6% of the specimens in the horizontal-incremental and oblique-incremental
      groups showed microleakage up to two-third and one-third of the axial walls,
      respectively. A significant difference in scores was observed between groups (P <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: Microleakage was observed with all the three techniques but
      was comparatively lower with the incremental placement techniques. The oblique
      incremental technique offered the least microleakage.

PMID- 28566850
TI  - Antiplaque Efficacy of Tooth and Gums Tonic, Hiora-GA Gel, and Spirogyl Gum Paint
      in Comparison with Chlorhexidine M Gel: A Double-blind Randomized Control Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of three different herbal products (Tooth and
      Gums Tonic, Hiora-GA gel, and Spirogyl Gum paint) in reducing plaque, gingival
      inflammation and bacterial count in comparison with chlorhexidine M gel among
      participants with moderate to severe periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      total of eighty participants with moderate to severe periodontitis were initially
      recruited after obtaining their informed consent. All participants were offered
      scaling and polishing on the first visit to remove visible calculus. Then, these
      participants were randomly divided into four groups of twenty participants each
      using block randomization method. Participants in Group 1, 2, 3, and 4 were given
      chlorhexidine M gel, Hiora-GA gel, Spirogyl Gum paint, and Tooth and Gums Tonic,
      respectively. All participants were instructed to brush their teeth twice day
      with a soft bristled toothbrush and their regular fluoridated toothpaste. They
      were instructed to apply the respective gels twice a day according to the
      manufacturer's guidelines. The posttreatment follow-up examinations for gingival
      and plaque changes were assessed after 30, 60, and 90 days by three trained and
      calibrated investigators using gingival and plaque index. The investigators and
      statistician were blind about group allocation. The supragingival plaque samples
      were collected before and 90 days after treatment from the buccal surfaces of
      maxillary right first permanent molar of each participant for microbial analysis.
      RESULTS: The mean plaque, gingival scores significantly decreased at different
      intervals following intervention in all groups. The bacterial counts also
      significantly reduced postintervention with no significant difference in the
      efficacy of these products compared to chlorhexidine. CONCLUSION: All three
      herbal products were found to be effective when used along with oral prophylaxis.
      Hence, they can all be used as alternates to chlorhexidine in the management of
      periodontal diseases.

PMID- 28566852
TI  - Correlation of Mandibular Radiomorphometric Indices with Serum Calcium and Serum
      Estradiol in Pre- and Post-menopausal Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a disease that is seen commonly with increasing age.
      The purpose of this study was to compare the bone quality of pre- and post
      menopausal women using the quantitative indices determined by measurements on
      panoramic radiographs (mental index, inferior and superior panoramic mandibular
      indices, antegonion index [AGI], and gonion index) and to determine the effects
      of serum calcium and serum estradiol levels on alveolar bone loss. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Sixty female patients in the age group of 25-55 years were included in
      the study. The patients were divided into three equal groups, i.e., control Group
      A (twenty - premenopausal women), study Group B (twenty - postmenopausal women
      with healthy periodontium), study Group C (twenty - postmenopausal women with
      periodontitis). Quantitative indices were measured on digital panoramic
      radiographs of the patients and serum calcium and estradiol levels were
      determined. RESULTS: Correlation of serum calcium with radiomorphometric indices
      of all the groups showed statistically nonsignificant differences. On correlating
      mean estradiol levels with radiographic indices of patients of Group A and Group
      B showed statistically nonsignificant differences. On correlating mean estradiol
      levels with radiographic indices of patients of Group C patients showed
      statistically significant difference with positive correlation with cortical
      width (P = 0.04) and AGI (P = 0.02) while statistically nonsignificant
      correlation with other indices. The statistical tests used for the analysis of
      the result were one-way ANOVA, multiple comparison Tukey test, Chi-square test,
      Student's t-test. CONCLUSION: There is a little evidence of correlation of these
      indices with serum estradiol and calcium levels, and therefore, detailed further
      research about this correlation is required.

PMID- 28566853
TI  - Bacteriostatic Effect of Simvastatin on Selected Oral Streptococci in Vitro.
AB  - CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Simvastatin is a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug,
      which has been found to have a number of pleiotropic effects. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effectiveness of simvastatin against
      selected oral streptococci as determined by the minimum inhibitory concentration
      (MIC). METHODS: Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis, Streptococcus
      anginosus, and Streptococcus salivarius were the test microorganisms. The serial
      dilution method was used to determine the MIC of simvastatin against these
      organisms. The MIC was defined as the lowest concentration of simvastatin that
      completely inhibited growth of the test organisms. RESULTS: The data indicate
      that simvastatin inhibits the growth of the test organisms, with MIC's ranging
      from 7.8 to 15.6 MUg/ml. CONCLUSIONS: Simvastatin has MIC's against the selected
      bacteria that compare favorably with reported values for topical agents such as
      essential oil, chlorhexidine gluconate, and triclosan. The levels of simvastatin
      required to inhibit bacterial growth of oral bacteria exceed the reported levels
      of the drug found in plasma or crevicular fluid of patients who are treated with
      this cholesterol-lowering drug. However, clinical studies are warranted to
      investigate the potential use of simvastatin as a novel antiplaque agent that
      could be used in local drug delivery to the oral cavity of those patients who are
      prescribed this cholesterol-lowering drug.

PMID- 28566854
TI  - Assessment of the dental and skeletal effects of fan-type rapid maxillary
      expansion screw and Hyrax screw on craniofacial structures.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to assess the skeletal and
      dental effects of fan-type rapid maxillary expansion (RME) appliance and Hyrax
      RME appliance on the craniofacial structures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample
      of the study included 12 patients with constricted maxillary arches. Acrylic
      bonded type of attachment was used for both groups. Changes in sagittal,
      vertical, and transverse relationship were assessed with lateral and frontal
      cephalograms, respectively. Intercanine and intermolar widths were measured with
      stone models. Pre- and immediate post-treatment records were statistically
      analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The differences between the groups were
      evaluated using Mann-Whitney U-test. Since the data pertaining to intercanine
      width and intermolar width were normally distributed, parametric test of
      significance (unpaired t-test) was used to compare them. RESULTS: Results showed
      that Hyrax presented with significantly greater increments for both nasal cavity
      width and maxillary width when compared to fan-type RME. Both groups had
      retroclination of incisors. The increase in the intercanine width was almost
      similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: Fan-type RME caused only minimal expansion of
      the intermolar width when compared to the Hyrax. The ratio between the
      intercanine and intermolar width expansion was nearly 4:1 in the fan-type RME and
      0.75:1 in Hyrax.

PMID- 28566855
TI  - Assessment of Bracket Surface Morphology and Dimensional Change.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare the surface morphology and
      dimensional stability of the bracket slot at the onset of treatment and after 12
      months of intraoral exposure. The study also compared the amount of calcium at
      the bracket base which indicates enamel loss among the three orthodontic brackets
      following debonding after 12 months of intraoral exposure. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The sample consisted of 60 (0.022" MBT) canine brackets. They were divided into
      three groups: self-ligating, ceramic bracket with metal slot, and stainless steel
      (SS) brackets. The slot dimensions, micromorphologic characteristics of as
      received and retrieved brackets were measured with a stereomicroscope and
      scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The amount of calcium at the
      bracket base which indicates enamel damage was quantified using energy-dispersive
      X-ray spectrometry (EDX). RESULTS: The results showed statistically significant
      alterations (P < 0.05) in the right vertical dimension, internal tie wing width
      (cervical), right and left depth of the slot (Kruskal-Wallis test). Multiple
      comparison using Mann-Whitney test showed that ceramic brackets underwent (P <
      0.05) minimal alterations in the right vertical dimension, internal tie wing
      width (cervical), right and left depth of the slot (0.01 mm, -0.003 mm, 0.006 mm,
      -0.002 mm, respectively) when compared with the changes seen in SS and self
      ligating brackets. SEM analysis revealed an increase in the surface roughness of
      ceramic with metal slot brackets and self-ligating bracket showed the least
      irregularity. The presence of calcium was noted on all evaluated brackets under
      EDX, but ceramic with metal slot brackets showed a significantly greater amount
      of enamel loss (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Ceramic brackets were found to be
      dimensionally stable when compared to SS and self-ligating. Self-ligating bracket
      showed minimal surface irregularity. Ceramic with metal slot brackets showed a
      greater amount of enamel loss following debonding.

PMID- 28566856
TI  - Immunophenotypic and Molecular Analysis of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Potential
      for Neurogenic Differentiation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growing evidence shows that dental pulp (DP) tissues could be a
      potential source of adult stem cells for the treatment of devastating
      neurological diseases and several other conditions. AIMS: Exploration of the
      expression profile of several key molecular markers to evaluate the molecular
      dynamics in undifferentiated and differentiated DP-derived stem cells (DPSCs) in
      vitro. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The characteristics and multilineage differentiation
      ability of DPSCs were determined by cellular and molecular kinetics. DPSCs were
      further induced to form adherent (ADH) and non-ADH (NADH) neurospheres under
      serum-free condition which was further induced into neurogenic lineage cells and
      characterized for their molecular and cellular diversity at each stage.
      STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Statistical analysis used one-way analysis of
      variance, Student's t-test, Livak method for relative quantification, and R
      programming. RESULTS: Immunophenotypic analysis of DPSCs revealed >80% cells
      positive for mesenchymal markers CD90 and CD105, >70% positive for transferring
      receptor (CD71), and >30% for chemotactic factor (CXCR3). These cells showed
      mesodermal differentiation also and confirmed by specific staining and molecular
      analysis. Activation of neuronal lineage markers and neurogenic growth factors
      was observed during lineage differentiation of cells derived from NADH and ADH
      spheroids. Greater than 80% of cells were found to express beta-tubulin III in
      both differentiation conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The present study reported a
      cascade of immunophenotypic and molecular markers to characterize neurogenic
      differentiation of DPSCs under serum-free condition. These findings trigger the
      future analyses for clinical applicability of DP-derived cells in regenerative
      applications.

PMID- 28566857
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Gingival Depigmentation by Tetrafluroethane Cryosurgery
      and Surgical Scalpel Technique. A Randomized Clinical Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Importance of good smile cannot be underestimated in enhancement of
      beauty, self-confidence and personality of a person. Health and appearance of
      gingiva is an essential part of attractive smile. Gingival pigmentation gives
      rise to unesthetic smile line. In present world, with increasing awareness to
      esthetic, people have become highly concerned about black gums. Various treatment
      modalities like abrasion, scrapping, scalpel technique, cryosurgery,
      electrosurgery and laser are available for treatment of gingival pigmentation.
      The present study was conducted with an objective of comparing efficacy of
      gingival depigmentation by cryosurgery and scalpel technique. METHOD: A
      Randomized control split mouth study was conducted for 25 patients with gingival
      pigmentation. Gingival pigmentation Index (GPI) for pigmentation and Visual
      Analoug Scale (VAS) for pain was evaluated for both test (Cryosurgery) and
      control sites (Scalpel technique) at baseline, 1month, 3months and 6 months.
      RESULTS: GPI score was 3 and 2 for 21/25 and 4/25 control sites and was 22/25 and
      3/25 test sites respectively at baseline. Both the groups showed significant
      reduction in GPI score i.e., 0 at 1 and 3 months interval after treatment. GPI
      score increased to 1 for 5/25 sites treated with scalpel technique and 2/25 sites
      treated with cryosurgery at 6 months interval (P =0.0691). This indicates
      recurrence rate for pigmentation is higher after scalpel treatment. VAS Score was
      3 for 10/25 sites treated with scalpel and was 2 for 12/25 sites treated with
      cryosurgery (P <0.001). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that cryosurgery can be
      effectively and efficiently used for depigmentation by keeping patients
      acceptance and comfort in mind and also the long term results and ease of use
      when compared to scalpel technique.

PMID- 28566858
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of the Lipid Profile in the Serum of Patients with Type II
      Diabetes Mellitus and Healthy Individuals with Periodontitis.
AB  - CONTEXT: Periodontal disease is an immuno-inflammatory disease that is initiated
      by the interaction between microbial plaque and the periodontal tissues. The data
      available on the association of periodontal diseases with the lipid profile are
      conflicting. Therefore, a need for a study in this area was felt. AIMS: To
      evaluate the lipid profile in the serum of patients with chronic periodontitis
      and chronic periodontitis with Type II diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and to
      compare it with healthy controls, to see whether they can serve as potential
      markers for chronic periodontitis and also to assess whether periodontitis can
      have systemic effects. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study is a cross-sectional
      study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted involving
      300 participants in the age group of 30-60 years from October 2010 to May 2015.
      Five milliliters of venous blood was collected from each of the study
      participants, from the antecubital vein. Lipid profile was assessed using the
      ERBA commercially available kit. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Statistical analysis was
      carried out using SPSS software version 17. Multigroup comparison was carried out
      using ANOVA. The honest significant difference Tukey's test was used in
      conjunction with ANOVA to find means which are significantly different from each
      other. RESULTS: When the lipid profile was estimated, total cholesterol (TC)
      levels were seen to be significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the DM with
      periodontitis group. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were seen to be
      significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the control group. Mean serum low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) and very LDL (VLDL) levels were seen to be significantly higher
      (P < 0.001) in the DM with periodontitis group. The triglyceride (TGL) values
      were also significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the DM with periodontitis group.
      The HDL and LDL levels were seen to be nonsignificant between chronic
      periodontitis and chronic periodontitis with diabetic group. CONCLUSIONS: The
      findings of the study showed that the lipid profile was significantly altered in
      patients with chronic periodontitis as compared to healthy controls. There was a
      potentiated difference in the values for TC, VLDL cholesterol, and TGL in
      patients with chronic periodontitis when compared to patients with Type II DM.
      HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol did not show a significant difference.

PMID- 28566859
TI  - Interleukin 1beta (+3954; -511) Genotype Polymorphism and its Association with
      Severe Chronic Generalized Periodontitis in the Malaysian Population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in interleukin 1beta (IL
      1beta) gene have been known to be associated with increased susceptibility to
      chronic periodontitis among various ethnic populations. SNPs are more commonly
      observed at loci + 3954 and - 511. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role
      of IL-1beta gene polymorphism at loci +3954 and - 511, and its association with
      severe chronic generalized periodontitis among the ethnic Malay, Chinese, and
      Indians within the Malaysian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Saliva samples
      from 120 subjects (60 cases and 60 controls) in the age group of 25-50 years were
      collected for isolation of genetic material using Norgen technique. Clinical
      attachment loss of >=5 mm was considered as severe chronic generalized
      periodontitis. SNP's at loci +3954 and - 511 were identified and analyzed using
      Kompetitive Allele Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction Genotyping System (KASPTM).
      Differences in the allele/genotype frequencies were assessed by Chi-square test
      (P < 0.05). RESULTS: On the comparison between cases and controls of IL-1beta
      genotype polymorphism (+3954 and - 511), the difference in the genotype
      frequencies was statistically insignificant in all the three ethnicities. The
      genotype frequency in both groups in all three ethnicities of the Malaysian
      population was similar. CONCLUSION: IL-1beta genotype polymorphism at +3954 and -
      511 was found to be not associated with severe chronic generalized periodontitis
      among the three ethnicities in Malaysia. Studies with larger sample size should
      be done to confirm the findings of this study.

PMID- 28566860
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Fresh Aloe barbadensis Plant Extract and Mineral
      Trioxide Aggregate as Pulpotomy Agents in Primary Molars: A 12-month Follow-up
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical and
      radiographic outcomes of fresh Aloe vera barbadensis plant extract and mineral
      trioxide aggregate (MTA) as pulpotomy agents in primary molar teeth. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Pulpotomy procedure was performed in sixty primary molar teeth which
      were randomly allocated to two groups, i.e., Aloe vera pulpotomy (Group A) and
      MTA pulpotomy (Group B). All the pulpotomized teeth were evaluated clinically and
      radiographically at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of time interval using
      predetermined criteria. RESULTS: The success rates between Groups A and B at the
      end of the 1st month were 24.1% and 96.4%, at the end of 3rd month were 57.1% and
      100%, at the end of 6th month were 75% and 100%, at the end of 9th month were
      66.6% and 100%, and at the end of 12 months were 100% and 100% respectively. The
      overall success rates at the end of 12-month follow-up period were 6.9% and
      71.4%, respectively, after taking dropout patients into consideration, and the
      difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: MTA pulpotomy
      was found to be superior when compared to fresh A. barbadensis plant extract
      pulpotomy in primary molars.

PMID- 28566861
TI  - Needlestick and Sharp Instruments Injuries among Brazilian Dentistry Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The occurrence of occupational accidents is common among students and
      dentists. The present study is aimed to evaluate the prevalence and
      characteristics of needlestick and sharp instrument injuries among dentistry
      students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A documentary research was carried out with data
      being obtained from the analysis of 137 medical records of injuries caused by
      needlestick and sharp instruments occurring in the period from 2012 to 2016 and
      were analyzed regarding the characteristics of the victim (gender and age) and
      the accident (year, time, environment, and time interval between exposure and
      search for care). Data were organized in the Statistical Package for Social
      Sciences software version 18 and were presented through descriptive statistics.
      RESULTS: The occurrence of accidents was high (43.1%), with the predominance of
      female victims (66.1%) and aged up to 23 years (55.9%). The majority of events
      occurred in the afternoon (54.4%), in the clinical setting (70.7%), and in 75% of
      the cases, the search for care occurred within 2 h after exposure. CONCLUSION:
      Accidents with needlestick and sharp instruments have high frequency and involve
      mainly female students. They are more common in the afternoon and in the clinical
      setting and the time interval was between exposure and the search for care
      complied with recommendations of the Brazilian legislation.

PMID- 28566862
TI  - Effect of Freeze Dried Powdered Probiotics on Gingival Status and Plaque
      Inhibition: A Randomized, Double-blind, Parallel Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of freeze dried powdered
      probiotics on gingival status and plaque inhibition among 12-15-year-old
      schoolchildren. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This randomized controlled trial was
      conducted among 12-15-year-old schoolchildren in Jaipur. Commercially available
      freeze dried probiotics containing Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium
      longum, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Bifidobacterium lactis (Prowel, Alkem
      Laboratories), lactic acid bacillus only (Sporolac, Sangyo), and a placebo powder
      calcium carbonate 250 g (Calcium Sandoz, Novartis) were assigned to two
      intervention groups and a placebo group each comprising 11 schoolchildren. All
      subjects were instructed to mix the powder in 30 ml of water and swish once daily
      for 3 min, for 3 weeks. Periodontal clinical parameters were assessed by
      examining the subjects for Turesky-Gilmore-Glickman plaque index (PI)
      (Modification of Quigley-Hein PI) and gingival index at baseline, 7th day, 14th
      day, and 21st day. RESULTS: For both the probiotic groups, a statistically
      significant reduction (P < 0.05) in gingival status and plaque inhibition was
      recorded up to 2nd week of probiotic ingestion. However, no significant
      difference was observed in the placebo group. CONCLUSION: The use of probiotic
      mouth rinses improves the oral health in children by significantly reducing the
      plaque and gingival scores. Further studies are warranted to prove or refute the
      long-term effects, means of administering probiotics and the dosages needed to
      achieve different preventive or therapeutic purposes.

PMID- 28566863
TI  - In vivo Comparative Evaluation of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate and Formocresol
      Pulpotomy in Primary Molars: A 60-month Follow-up Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pulpotomy is a regular procedure in the management of inflamed
      primary teeth. Diverse materials have been reviewed for the pulpotomy, some of
      them being formocresol, glutaraldehyde, ferric sulfate, and mineral trioxide
      aggregate (MTA). AIMS: The aim was to evaluate and compare clinically and
      radiographically the effects of MTA as a pulp dressing after coronal pulp
      amputation (pulpotomy) in primary molars. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Sixty primary
      molars of thirty healthy children using split mouth design aged between 4 and 6
      years were treated by pulpotomy technique. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty primary
      mandibular molars of thirty healthy children aged between 4 and 6 years were
      treated by pulpotomy technique. The teeth on the right side were assigned to MTA
      (Group A) and the left side for the formocresol (Group B). The children were then
      examined clinically and radiographically every 6 months. Statistical analysis
      used: Chi-square test using the SPSS version 19.0 was used to compare between the
      two groups. RESULTS: Results showed that both MTA and formocresol have the same
      outcome on the primary molars, with Chi-square value being 1.1483 (P >= 0.05).
      None of the teeth in any children in the study showed any clinical pathology.
      CONCLUSION: The principle conclusions of this study are that there are no
      significant differences in MTA and formocresol. The success rate of MTA and
      formocresol pulpotomy can be considered comparable till this therapy influences
      the development and growth of the permanent teeth.

PMID- 28566865
TI  - Pycnodysostosis: Clinicoradiographic Report of a Rare Case.
AB  - Pycnodysostosis is an uncommon autosomal recessive sclerosing bone disorder which
      is characterized by short stature and generalized diffuse osteosclerosis.
      Patients usually have a large head with separated sutures, open fontanels,
      aplasia of frontal sinuses, obtuse mandibular gonial angle, and acroosteolysis of
      the distal phalanges. This case report showed a 25-year-old female with features
      pathognomonic of pycnodysostosis. The emphasis is mainly on the early diagnosis
      as it has an important role in the general health of such patients and prevention
      of complications.

PMID- 28566864
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Caries Status in Primary and Permanent Molars in 7-8
      year-old Schoolchildren of Shimla Using Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment
      Index.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A new epidemiological index is introduced for full assessment of
      dental caries which is known as caries assessment spectrum and treatment (CAST).
      "Spectrum" is considered backbone of this index as it covers from no lesion to
      advanced stage progression of caries. We aimed to evaluate and compare the status
      of caries in primary and permanent molars of 7-8-year-old schoolchildren of
      Shimla using CAST index and to find if any correlation exists between the status
      of caries in evaluated teeth. METHODS: Three hundred and one schoolchildren with
      age group of 7-8 years were selected from schools in Shimla. CAST codes were
      determined for primary molars and first permanent molars. The distribution of
      CAST codes in the examined molars is correlated with the help of Spearman's rank
      correlation coefficient. The level of statistical significance was established at
      P < 0.05. The intraexaminer reliability was determined by the unweighted kappa
      coefficient. RESULTS: Caries was assessed in 6.3%-12.3% of the permanent molars
      in contrast to primary molars, in which caries was near about 50%. The
      correlation was stronger for first and second deciduous molars for the right side
      of the mouth than the left side (r = 0.293 and 0.257 in the maxilla and 0.503 and
      0.319 in the mandible [P < 0.001], respectively, while correlation for teeth in
      opposite jaws was moderate [r = 0.20-0.47]). The intraexaminer reliability was
      examined (k = 0.90 for the primary and 0.85 for permanent molars). CONCLUSION:
      The correlation between primary and permanent molars regarding the caries status
      in primary molars is weak while strongest correlation was present on the right
      side of the mouth for first and second deciduous molars. The study also showed
      the applicability of the CAST index in epidemiological surveys.

PMID- 28566866
TI  - Management of Developing Skeletal Class III Malocclusion in a Prepubertal Girl
      with Prognathic Mandible in Late Mixed Dentition.
AB  - Treatment of skeletal Class III patients at younger age is highly unpredictable.
      The patient may respond well to the treatment or may show excessive mandibular
      growth during growth spurt which may require orthognathic surgery later on. If
      not treated at earlier stages of life, the condition may worsen with time. This
      case report will present the comprehensive orthodontic management of a 9-year-old
      prepubertal girl in late mixed dentition with prognathic mandible. Chin cup
      therapy was started and continued for 3 years. After chin cup therapy, maxillary
      and mandibular dentition were bonded with standard edgewise appliance. After
      leveling and alignment, Class III elastics were started. Fixed orthodontic
      treatment was completed in 3 years. At the end, good Class I molar and canine
      relationship with normal overjet and overbite were achieved. The total treatment
      time of orthopedic and orthodontic correction was 6 years, 2 months. The patient
      revealed the same Class I molar and canine relationship after 6 years of
      treatment. Redirection of mandibular growth pattern from hyperdivergent to
      normodivergent advocates the use of chin cup as a viable treatment regimen for
      the management of prognathic mandible in prepubertal patients.

PMID- 28566867
TI  - Effectiveness of Osteopathic Therapy in the Treatment of Oral Submucous Fibrosis.
AB  - Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a chronic progressive debilitating disease of
      oral cavity leading to the stiffness of oral mucosa, burning and trismus
      resulting in marked rigidity, and an inability to open the mouth. As the medical
      treatment of OSMF is yet not standardized, the purpose of the present case study
      was to explore the effectiveness of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in
      patients with OSMF. A 30-year-old male presented with a complaint of reduced
      mouth opening with burning sensation while eating spicy food for 4 years. The
      patient had undergone pharmacological treatment for the same in the past, got
      relief in the burning sensation, but did not get any significant improvement in
      mouth opening. Radiological features were noncontributory. The patient was
      treated with OMT techniques for twice a week for 4 weeks followed by the home
      exercise program. The patient showed a significant increase in mouth opening from
      approximately 10 mm to 22 mm of mouth opening at the end of the treatment
      sessions.

PMID- 28566868
TI  - Oral Subcutaneous Midline Leiomyomatous Hamartoma Presenting as Congenital
      Incisive Papilla Overgrowth in a Toddler.
AB  - Congenital soft-tissue tumors of oral cavity are mostly hyperplastic and benign
      in nature. This article presents an unusual case of congenital subcutaneous
      hamartoma of incisive papilla in a 2-year-old female child causing feeding and
      breathing difficulty. Total excisional biopsy was done under local anesthesia.
      Histopathology of tissue in reticulin-stained slide showed the presence of
      immature muscle fibers whereas Masson's trichrome stain revealed collagen fibers
      and smooth muscles confirming the diagnosis of oral midline subcutaneous smooth
      muscle (leiomyomatous) hamartoma of incisive papilla. It is important for dental
      professionals to be aware of this oral lesion present from birth mimicking
      overgrowth of incisive papilla, by its presentation, differential diagnosis,
      histopathology, and management.

PMID- 28566869
TI  - Bilateral Second Premolars Agenesia Together with a Unilateral Canine
      Radiculomegaly.
AB  - Congenitally missing teeth is a common feature for the third molars. However,
      missing teeth, macrodontia and radiculomegaly occurring in a single patient is
      very rare. This article describes a case of agenesis of mandibular second
      premolars, radiculomegaly with dilacerations of a canine tooth together with
      elongated roots of other canines. All these features had been discerned through
      diagnostic radiographs taken during a routine treatment planning.

PMID- 28566870
TI  - Temporomandibular Joint Dislocation in an 18-month-old Child.
AB  - Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dislocation in children is extremely rare. In our
      case, an 18-month-old child presented with a history of inability to close her
      mouth. To confirm the clinical diagnosis, a computed tomogram was taken. Clinical
      examination and X-ray of the TMJ revealed bilateral TMJ dislocation. Bilateral
      TMJ reduction was achieved manually after giving analgesia and procedural
      sedation. This is one of the few case reports of an acute dislocation in a
      toddler.

PMID- 28566871
TI  - Endo-restorative Management of a Type II Dens Invaginatus in Mandibular Premolar
      Associated with a Large Cyst.
AB  - We present the management of a case of Type II dens invaginatus in a mandibular
      premolar with a large invagination in the coronal third of the root on mesial
      aspect of the crown in proximity of cementoenamel junction significantly
      compromising the strength of the crown structure. We describe in detail the
      various measures taken to assess the internal tooth structure destruction and
      enhance the fracture resistance of the involved premolar. The case has a long
      term follow-up of 36 months showing clinical and radiographic signs of healing.
      We highlight use of a simple "foil coated fiber postblocker technique" for root
      reinforcement in the first premolar. Successful management of teeth with dens
      invaginatus can be effectively done using with careful treatment planning and
      selection of reinforcing adhesive restorative materials.

PMID- 28566872
TI  - Treatment of Class II Malocclusion and Impacted Canines with Two-phase
      Orthodontic Treatment.
AB  - Twin Block appliance has been widely used for the treatment of Class II
      malocclusions in growing subjects, due to its versatility and its highly
      compliance nature. There are certain clinical indications where functional
      appliances can be used successfully in Class II malocclusion as in a growing
      patient. In using these appliances, the main concern is compliance of patients.
      This appliance simplifies the progression of treatment with fixed orthodontic
      braces later on. In this case, a 14-year-old adolescent was treated with Twin
      Block appliance followed by fixed appliances for finishing and detailing. The
      design and treatment effects are demonstrated in this case report.

PMID- 28566873
TI  - Hollow Bulb One Piece Maxillary Definitive Obturator - A Simplified Approach.
AB  - In maxillary defects, role of a prosthodontist is to rehabilitate the intra- and
      extra-oral structures and to endow with the normal function of mastication,
      speech, deglutition, and esthetics. Malignancies are common in the oral region
      and are treated usually through surgical intervention. Surgical intervention
      creates anatomical defects creating communication between oral and nasal cavity.
      Patients pose difficulties while performing normal functions such as swallowing
      and speaking, due to this communication. To overcome the problems encountered by
      the patient, obturators are fabricated. The main problem with rehabilitation of
      large defect is the weight of prosthesis; the prosthesis becomes very bulky and
      nonretentive due to its weight. Hollow obturators are fabricated to conquer this
      tribulation by different techniques. This case report describes a simplified
      method of fabrication of a definitive hollow bulb obturator for rehabilitation of
      a maxillary defect (Aramany's class I) by insertion of balloon.

PMID- 28566874
TI  - Bilateral Complete and Incomplete Fusion of Incisors and its Management.
AB  - This case report highlights the management of a case of bilateral complete and
      incomplete fusion of maxillary incisors in a 10-year-old child. A mock-up was
      done on the diagnostic cast. Pretreatment esthetic evaluation was done using bis
      acryl composite temporaries which were transferred intraorally from the
      diagnostic cast using a putty index. An incisal overlap veneer preparation was
      done, following which, an IPS e-max veneer was cemented. A digital mock-up was
      carried out using the Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw softwares to aid in
      laboratorial fabrication of the veneer.

PMID- 28566875
TI  - Intermediate Type of Juvenile Paget's Disease: A Rare Case in Indian Population.
AB  - Juvenile Paget's disease (JPD), a rare genetic skeletal disorder characterized by
      accelerated bone turnover with elevated levels of serum alkaline phosphatase,
      presents in early childhood. We report a female patient with typical features of
      JPD with dental finding who remained undiagnosed until 18 years of age. Scarcity
      of this disease in the Indian literature and need for timely diagnosis to avert
      progression of disease thus incited us to report this case.

PMID- 28566876
TI  - Trabecular Variant: A Rare Entity of Juvenile Ossifying Fibroma of the Mandible.
AB  - One of the rarest entities of fibro-osseous lesions that arise within the
      craniofacial bones is Juvenile ossifying fibroma (JOF). It is an intraosseous
      expansile lesion of the jaw that imitate odontogenic lesions. WHO has described
      two distinct histopathological variants of JOF; trabecular and psammomatoid.
      Histologically, they are characterized by the presence of fibrous connective
      tissue stroma along with osteoblastic and osteoclastic cells. Clinical,
      characteristics show an early age of onset, typical histological patterns, high
      rate of aggressive behavior and recurrence. This article presents a rare clinical
      case of the trabecular variant of JOF, its clinical, radiological, histological,
      and treatment aspects.

PMID- 28566877
TI  - Actinomyces-associated Lesions Located in the Gingiva: Case Report of Rare
      Gingival Lesions.
AB  - Actinomyces spp. are located without displaying any pathogenic effect in the oral
      flora. However, the disruption of oral microenvironmental balance, mucosal tissue
      integrity, and defense system can cause microorganisms to settle on deep
      periodontal tissues and to induce pathologic reactions. The present case report
      describes erythematous and desquamative lesions with pseudomembrane limited to
      the gingiva. In the histopathologic examination, Actinomyces colonies were
      isolated from the gingiva. On the basis of histopathologic and laboratory
      findings, the lesions were diagnosed as Actinomyces- associated lesions of the
      gingiva. No condition that caused immuno suppression was present in the patient.
      Nevertheless, local effect of the chlorhexidine mouthwash usage for a period may
      induce irritation of the oral keratinized tissue. The localized form of
      actinomycotic lesions occurs seldom in the gingival tissues. In rare cases like
      this, the practice of differential diagnosis with a multi-disciplinary approach
      is very important for the accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning.

PMID- 28566878
TI  - Consequences of Facial Hemangioma with Regard to Dental Treatment.
AB  - Hemangioma is a benign vascular tumor that affects 3%-10% of the population and
      usually does not require specific treatment due to spontaneous regression. The
      purpose of this paper is to present a case report of a child having been born
      prematurely and diagnosed with hemangioma in the head and neck, emphasizing the
      dentofacial changes and treatment used to provide care. Severe fibrous scars were
      found in the perioral region and below the ear that limited the patient's ability
      to open her mouth. The child exhibited anterior open bite as well as dental
      caries in the lower jaw, hypomineralization, and enamel hypoplasia. Treatment
      consisted of dietary and oral hygiene orientations, dental prophylaxis, topical
      1:23% acidulated phosphate fluoride gel, removal of the carious tissue, sealing
      with glass ionomer cement, and extraction. Dentists need to have knowledge on
      hemangioma for a proper diagnosis and the optimization of dental treatment.

PMID- 28566879
TI  - Liver transplantation for intermediate hepatocellular carcinoma: An adaptive
      approach.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma is becoming an increasing indication for liver
      transplantation, but selection and allocation of patients are challenging because
      of organ shortages. Conventional Milan criteria are the reference for the
      selection of patients worldwide, but many expanded criteria, like University of
      California San Francisco criteria and up-to-7 criteria, have demonstrated that
      survival and recurrence results are lower than those for restricted indications.
      Correct staging is crucial and should include surrogate markers of biological
      aggressiveness (alpha-fetoprotein, response to loco-regional treatments).
      Successful down-staging can select between patients with tumor burden initially
      beyond transplantation criteria those with a more favorable biology, provided a 3
      mo stability in meeting the transplantation criteria. Allocation rules are
      constantly adjusted to minimize the imbalance between the priorities of
      candidates with and without hepatocellular carcinoma, and take into account local
      donor rate and waitlist dynamics. Recently, Mazzaferro et al proposed a benefit
      oriented "adaptive approach", in which the selection and allocation of patients
      are based on their response to non-transplantation treatments: low priority for
      transplantation in case of complete response, high priority in case of partial
      response or recurrence, and no listing in case of progression beyond
      transplantation criteria.

PMID- 28566880
TI  - Immune response to vaccines in children with celiac disease.
AB  - Celiac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated systemic condition evoked by ingestion
      of gluten and related prolamines in genetically susceptible subjects. The disease
      is featured by a variable combination of clinical signs, specific antibodies, HLA
      DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 haplotypes, and enteropathy. Vaccination is the most potent
      intervention for infectious disease prevention. Several factors including age,
      gender, ethnicity, quality and quantity of vaccine antigen, doses, and route of
      administration can influence immune response to vaccination, although the main
      cause of variation in the responsiveness among vaccine recipients is host genetic
      variability. The HLA system has a fundamental role in identifying the antigens
      introduced into the host with the vaccines and in the development of specific
      antibodies, and some HLA phenotypes have been associated with a less effective
      immunological response. The available literature indicates that the immunological
      response to vaccines in CD children does not differ markedly from that of general
      population and antibody titres are high enough to provide long-term protection,
      except for hepatitis B virus vaccine. In this article, we review and discuss the
      scarce literature in this field in order to provide clinical practice guidelines
      to achieve the most efficient monitoring of the response to vaccines in pediatric
      CD patients.

PMID- 28566881
TI  - Inflammatory bowel disease in liver transplanted patients.
AB  - Most common hepatobiliary manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are
      primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and autoimmune hepatitis, ranking them as
      the main cause of liver transplantation (LT) in IBD setting. Course of pre
      existing IBD after LT differs depending on many transplant related factors.
      Potential risk factors related to IBD deterioration after LT are tacrolimus-based
      immunosuppressive regimens, active IBD and cessation of 5-aminosalicylates at the
      time of LT. About 30% patients experience improvement of IBD after LT, while
      approximately the same percentage of patients worsens. Occurrence of de novo IBD
      may develop in 14%-30% of patients with PSC. Recommended IBD therapy after LT is
      equivalent to recommendations to overall IBD patients. Anti-tumor necrosis factor
      alpha appears to be efficient for refractory IBD. Due to potential side effects
      it needs to be applied with caution. In average 9% of patients require
      proctocolectomy due to medically refractory IBD or colorectal carcinoma. The most
      frequent complication in patients who undergo proctocolectomy with ileal-pouch
      anal anastomosis is pouchitis. It is still undeterminable if LT adds to risk of
      developing pouchitis in PSC patients. Annual colonoscopies are recommended as
      surveillance and precaution of colonic malignancies.

PMID- 28566882
TI  - Platelets in liver disease, cancer and regeneration.
AB  - Although viral hepatitis treatments have evolved over the years, the resultant
      liver cirrhosis still does not completely heal. Platelets contain proteins
      required for hemostasis, as well as many growth factors required for organ
      development, tissue regeneration and repair. Thrombocytopenia, which is
      frequently observed in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) and cirrhosis,
      can manifest from decreased thrombopoietin production and accelerated platelet
      destruction caused by hypersplenism; however, the relationship between
      thrombocytopenia and hepatic pathogenesis, as well as the role of platelets in
      CLD, is poorly understood. In this paper, experimental evidence of platelets
      improving liver fibrosis and accelerating liver regeneration is summarized and
      addressed based on studies conducted in our laboratory and current progress
      reports from other investigators. In addition, we describe our current
      perspective based on the results of these studies. Platelets improve liver
      fibrosis by inactivating hepatic stellate cells, which decreases collagen
      production. The regenerative effect of platelets in the liver involves a direct
      effect on hepatocytes, a cooperative effect with liver sinusoidal endothelial
      cells, and a collaborative effect with Kupffer cells. Based on these
      observations, we ascertained the direct effect of platelet transfusion on
      improving several indicators of liver function in patients with CLD and liver
      cirrhosis. However, unlike the results of our previous clinical study, the
      smaller incremental changes in liver function in patients with CLD who received
      eltrombopag for 6 mo were due to patient selection from a heterogeneous
      population. We highlight the current knowledge concerning the role of platelets
      in CLD and cancer and anticipate a novel application of platelet-based clinical
      therapies to treat liver disease.

PMID- 28566883
TI  - Thiopurine use associated with reduced B and natural killer cells in inflammatory
      bowel disease.
AB  - AIM: To identify which blood and mucosal lymphocyte populations are specifically
      depleted by thiopurine use in vivo. METHODS: The thiopurines azathioprine and 6
      mercaptopurine have been a mainstay of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) therapy
      for decades, but their mechanism of action in vivo remains obscure. Although
      thiopurines are lymphotoxic at high doses, and have been reported to cause T cell
      apoptosis in vitro, their ability to control IBD at lower doses suggests that
      they may selectively deplete particular lymphocyte populations. Blood cells from
      19 IBD patients on a thiopurine, 19 IBD patients not on a thiopurine, and 38
      matched healthy control subjects were analyzed by multiple multi-color flow
      cytometry panels to quantify the immune cell subsets contained therein, both as a
      percent of cells, and as an absolute cell count. Similar analyses were performed
      on colon biopsies from 17 IBD patients on a thiopurine, 17 IBD patients not on a
      thiopurine, and 49 healthy screening colonoscopy recipients. RESULTS: Complete
      blood counts revealed lower lymphocyte, but not monocyte or granulocyte, counts
      in IBD patients who were taking thiopurines at the time of sampling. This
      reduction was restricted to CD3-negative lymphocytes, wherein both natural killer
      (NK) and B cells were significantly reduced among thiopurine recipients. Among
      CD19+ B cells, the transitional B cells were particularly depleted, being nearly
      absent in both blood and colon biopsies of thiopurine recipients. No differences
      were associated with thiopurine use in CD8+ T cells, mucosa-associated invariant
      T (MAIT) cells, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, gamma/delta T cells,
      Th1, Th17, regulatory T cells (Tregs) or naive CD4+ T cells. However, patients
      with IBD had significantly more circulating FOXP3+, Helios+ Tregs and fewer iNKT
      and MAIT cells than healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Thiopurine use is associated
      with reduced B and NK cell, but not T cell, subpopulations in the blood of IBD
      patients.

PMID- 28566884
TI  - Hepatitis B virus X protein induces hepatic stem cell-like features in
      hepatocellular carcinoma by activating KDM5B.
AB  - AIM: To determine the role of hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx), HBx in
      regulating hepatic progenitor cell (HPC)-like features in hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) and the underlying molecular mechanisms. METHODS: We used a
      retrovirus vector to introduce wild type HBx or empty vector into HepG2 cells. We
      then used these cells to analyze cell proliferation, senescence, transformation,
      and stem-like features. Gene expression profiling was carried out on Affymetrix
      GeneChip Human U133A2.0 ver.2 arrays according to the manufacturer's protocol.
      Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis and Class Comparison analysis were
      performed by BRB-Array Tools software Version 4.2.2. A total of 238 hepatitis B
      virus (HBV)-related HCC patients' array data were used for analyzing clinical
      features. RESULTS: The histone demethylase KDM5B was significantly highly
      expressed in HBV-related HCC cases (P < 0.01). In HBV proteins, only HBx up
      regulated KDM5B by activating c-myc. Hepatic stem cell (HpSC) markers (EpCAM,
      AFP, PROM1, and NANOG) were significantly highly expressed in KDM5B-high HCC
      cases (P < 0.01). KDM5B played an important role in maintaining HpSC-like
      features and was associated with a poor prognosis. Moreover, inhibition of KDM5B
      suppressed spheroid formation and cell invasion in vitro. CONCLUSION: HBx
      activates the histone demethylase KDM5B and induces HPC-like features in HCC.
      Histone demethylases KDM5B may be an important therapeutic target against HBV
      related HCC cases.

PMID- 28566885
TI  - Artificial liver support in pigs with acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure.
AB  - AIM: To establish a reversible porcine model of acute liver failure (ALF) and
      treat it with an artificial liver system. METHODS: Sixteen pigs weighing 30-35 kg
      were chosen and administered with acetaminophen (APAP) to induce ALF. ALF pigs
      were then randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 11), in which a
      treatment procedure was performed, or a control group (n = 5). Treatment was
      started 20 h after APAP administration and continued for 8 h. Clinical
      manifestations of all animals, including liver and kidney functions, serum
      biochemical parameters and survival times were analyzed. RESULTS: Twenty hours
      after APAP administration, the levels of serum aspartate aminotransferase, total
      bilirubin, creatinine and ammonia were significantly increased, while albumin
      levels were decreased (P < 0.05). Prothrombin time was found to be extended with
      progression of ALF. After continuous treatment for 8 h (at 28 h), aspartate
      aminotransferase, total bilirubin, creatinine, and ammonia showed a decrease in
      comparison with the control group (P < 0.05). A cross-section of livers revealed
      signs of vacuolar degeneration, nuclear fragmentation and dissolution. Concerning
      survival, porcine models in the treatment group survived for longer times with
      artificial liver system treatment (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This model is
      reproducible and allows for quantitative evaluation of new liver systems, such as
      a bioartificial liver. The artificial liver system (ZHJ-3) is safe and effective
      for the APAP-induced porcine ALF model.

PMID- 28566886
TI  - Effects of sleeve gastrectomy plus trunk vagotomy compared with sleeve
      gastrectomy on glucose metabolism in diabetic rats.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the effects of sleeve gastrectomy plus trunk vagotomy (SGTV)
      compared with sleeve gastrectomy (SG) in a diabetic rat model. METHODS: SGTV, SG,
      TV and Sham operations were performed on rats with diabetes induced by high-fat
      diet and streptozotocin. Body weight, food intake, oral glucose tolerance test,
      homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), hepatic insulin
      signaling (IR, IRS1, IRS2, PI3K and AKT), oral glucose stimulated insulin
      secretion, GLP-1 and ghrelin were compared at various postoperative times.
      RESULTS: Both SG and SGTV resulted in better glucose tolerance, lower HOMA-IR, up
      regulated hepatic insulin signaling, higher levels of oral glucose-stimulated
      insulin secretion, higher postprandial GLP-1 and lower fasting ghrelin levels
      than the TV and Sham groups. No significant differences were observed between the
      SG and SGTV groups. In addition, no significant differences were found between
      the TV and Sham groups in terms of glucose tolerance, HOMA-IR, hepatic insulin
      signaling, oral glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, postprandial GLP-1 and
      fasting ghrelin levels. No differences in body weight and food intake were noted
      between the four groups. CONCLUSION: SGTV is feasible for diabetes control and is
      independent of weight loss. However, SGTV did not result in a better improvement
      in diabetes than SG alone.

PMID- 28566888
TI  - Risk of progression of Barrett's esophagus in patients with cirrhosis.
AB  - AIM: To study Barrett's esophagus (BE) in cirrhosis and assess progression to
      esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) compared to non-cirrhotic BE controls. METHODS:
      Cirrhotic patients who were found to have endoscopic evidence of BE confirmed by
      the presence of intestinal metaplasia on histology from 1/1/2000 to 12/1/2015 at
      Cleveland Clinic were included. Cirrhotic patients were matched 1:4 to BE
      controls without cirrhosis. Age, gender, race, BE length, hiatal hernia size,
      Child-Pugh (CP) class and histological findings were recorded. Cases and controls
      without high-grade dysplasia (HGD)/EAC and who had follow-up endoscopies were
      studied for incidence of dysplasia/EAC and to assess progression rates.
      Univariable conditional logistic regression was done to assess differences in
      baseline characteristics between the two groups. RESULTS: A total of 57 patients
      with cirrhosis and BE were matched with 228 controls (BE without cirrhosis). The
      prevalence of dysplasia in cirrhosis and controls were similar with 8.8% vs 12%
      with low grade dysplasia (LGD) and 12.3 % vs 19.7% with HGD or EAC (P = 0.1). In
      the incidence cohort of 44 patients with median follow-up time of 2.7 years
      [interquartile range 1.0, 4.8], there were 7 cases of LGD, 2 cases of HGD, and 2
      cases of EAC. There were no differences in incidence rates of HGD/EAC in
      nondysplastic BE between cirrhotic cases and noncirrhotic controls (1.4 vs 1.1
      per 100 person- years, P = 0.8). In LGD, cirrhotic patients were found to have
      higher rates of progression to HGD/EAC compared to control group though this did
      not reach statistical significance (13.7 vs 8.1 per 100 person- years, P = 0.51).
      A significant association was found between a higher CP class and neoplastic
      progression of BE in cirrhotic patients (HR =7.9, 95%CI: 2.0-30.9, P = 0.003).
      CONCLUSION: Cirrhotics with worsening liver function are at increased risk of
      progression of BE. More frequent endoscopic surveillance might be warranted in
      such patients.

PMID- 28566887
TI  - Wall shear stress in portal vein of cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension.
AB  - AIM: To investigate wall shear stress (WSS) magnitude and distribution in
      cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension using computational fluid dynamics.
      METHODS: Idealized portal vein (PV) system models were reconstructed with
      different angles of the PV-splenic vein (SV) and superior mesenteric vein (SMV)
      SV. Patient-specific models were created according to enhanced computed
      tomography images. WSS was simulated by using a finite-element analyzer,
      regarding the blood as a Newtonian fluid and the vessel as a rigid wall. Analysis
      was carried out to compare the WSS in the portal hypertension group with that in
      healthy controls. RESULTS: For the idealized models, WSS in the portal
      hypertension group (0-10 dyn/cm2) was significantly lower than that in the
      healthy controls (10-20 dyn/cm2), and low WSS area (0-1 dyn/cm2) only occurred in
      the left wall of the PV in the portal hypertension group. Different angles of PV
      SV and SMV-SV had different effects on the magnitude and distribution of WSS, and
      low WSS area often occurred in smaller PV-SV angle and larger SMV-SV angle. In
      the patient-specific models, WSS in the cirrhotic patients with portal
      hypertension (10.13 +/- 1.34 dyn/cm2) was also significantly lower than that in
      the healthy controls (P < 0.05). Low WSS area often occurred in the junction area
      of SV and SMV into the PV, in the area of the division of PV into left and right
      PV, and in the outer wall of the curving SV in the control group. In the
      cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension, the low WSS area extended to wider
      levels and the magnitude of WSS reached lower levels, thereby being more prone to
      disturbed flow occurrence. CONCLUSION: Cirrhotic patients with portal
      hypertension show dramatic hemodynamic changes with lower WSS and greater
      potential for disturbed flow, representing a possible causative factor of PV
      thrombosis.

PMID- 28566889
TI  - Clinical significance of hypoechoic submandibular gland lesions in type 1
      autoimmune pancreatitis.
AB  - AIM: To assess the role of ultrasonography of submandibular glands (SGs) in the
      diagnosis of type 1 autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP). METHODS: Thirty-seven patients
      who were definitively diagnosed with type 1 AIP according to the international
      consensus diagnostic criteria (ICDC) for AIP at our institution between December
      1990 and April 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Findings by physical
      examination, ultrasonography, and scintigraphy of SGs were analyzed to reach a
      diagnosis based on the ICDC for AIP. The efficacy of corticosteroid treatment in
      the resolution of hypoechoic lesions in SGs was also evaluated by assessment with
      ultrasonography before and after treatment in 18 cases. RESULTS: The sensitivity
      of multiple hypoechoic lesions in SGs by ultrasonography for the diagnosis of
      sialadenitis in type 1 AIP (84%) was higher than that of physical examination
      (46%), scintigraphy (28%), and SGs thickness (49%). Ultrasonographic evidence of
      hypoechoic lesions in SGs improved the definitive diagnosis of sialadenitis and
      type 1 AIP by the ICDC criteria in 11 (30%) and 2 (5.4%) cases, respectively.
      Multiple hypoechoic lesions in SGs were resolved or disappear by corticosteroid
      administration in 14 of 16 cases with hypoechoic lesions in SGs, whereas the
      ultrasonographic findings in the remaining 2 cases with hypoechoic lesions in SGs
      and the 2 cases with homogenous SG parenchyma remained unchanged after
      corticosteroid administration. CONCLUSION: SG ultrasonography to detect multiple
      hypoechoic lesions might be useful for type 1 AIP diagnosis by improving
      diagnostic accuracy together with the ICDC sialadenitis criteria.

PMID- 28566890
TI  - Benefit of neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced
      perihilar cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - AIM: To clarify the role of neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (NACCRT)
      followed by surgical resection for localized or locally advanced perihilar
      cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 57 patients who
      underwent surgical resection with or without NACCRT for perihilar CCA; 12
      patients received NACCRT and 45 patients did not received NACCRT. Patients with
      locally advanced perihilar CCA requiring NACCRT were defined as follows: (1) a
      mass involving unilateral branches of the portal vein or hepatic artery with
      insufficient volume of the anticipated remnant lobe; or (2) an infiltrating mass
      in the main portal vein that was too long for reconstruction, identified at
      preoperative staging. RESULTS: The median disease-free survival (DFS) durations
      of the neoadjuvant and non-neoadjuvant CCRT groups were 26.0 and 15.1 mo,
      respectively (P = 0.91). The median overall survival (OS) durations of the
      neoadjuvant and non-neoadjuvant CCRT groups were 32.9 and 27.1 mo, respectively
      (P = 0.26). The NACCRT group showed a downstaging tendency compared to the non
      NACCRT group as compared with the tumor stage confirmed by histological
      examination after surgery and the tumor stage confirmed by imaging test at the
      time of diagnosis (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: NACCRT does not prolong DFS and OS in
      localized or locally advanced perihilar CCA. However, NACCRT may allow tumor
      downstaging and improve tumor resectability.

PMID- 28566891
TI  - Ling classification describes endoscopic progressive process of achalasia and
      successful peroral endoscopy myotomy prevents endoscopic progression of
      achalasia.
AB  - AIM: To verify the hypothesis that the Ling classification describes the
      endoscopic progressive process of achalasia and determine the ability of
      successful peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) to prevent endoscopic progression of
      achalasia. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the endoscopic findings, symptom
      duration, and manometric data in patients with achalasia. A total of 359 patients
      (197 women, 162 men) with a mean age of 42.1 years (range, 12-75 years) were
      evaluated. Symptom duration ranged from 2 to 360 mo, with a median of 36 mo.
      Patients were classified with Ling type I (n = 119), IIa (n = 106), IIb (n = 60),
      IIc (n = 60), or III (n = 14), according to the Ling classification. Of the 359
      patients, 349 underwent POEM, among whom 21 had an endoscopic follow-up for more
      than 2 years. Pre-treatment and post-treatment Ling classifications of these 21
      patients were compared. RESULTS: Symptom duration increased significantly with
      increasing Ling classification (from I to III) (P < 0.05), whereas lower
      esophageal sphincter pressure decreased with increasing Ling type (from I to III)
      (P < 0.05). There was no difference in sex ratio or onset age among the Ling
      types, although the age at time of diagnosis was higher in Ling types IIc and III
      than in Ling types I, IIa, and IIb. Of the 21 patients, 19 underwent high
      resolution manometry both before and after treatment. The mean preoperative and
      postoperative lower esophageal sphincter pressure were 34.6 mmHg (range, 15.3
      59.4 mmHg) and 15.0 mmHg (range, 2.1-21.6 mmHg), respectively, indicating a
      statistically significant decrease after POEM. All of the 21 patients were
      treated successfully by POEM (postoperative Eckardt score <= 3) and still had the
      same Ling type during a mean follow-up period of 37.8 mo (range, 24-51 mo).
      CONCLUSION: The Ling classification represents the endoscopic progressive process
      of achalasia and may be able to serve as an endoscopic assessment criterion for
      achalasia. Successful POEM (Eckardt score <= 3) seems to have the ability to
      prevent endoscopic evolvement of achalasia. However, studies with larger
      populations are warranted to confirm our findings.

PMID- 28566893
TI  - Correlation of endoscopic disease severity with pediatric ulcerative colitis
      activity index score in children and young adults with ulcerative colitis.
AB  - AIM: To investigate of pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index (PUCAI) in
      ulcerative colitis correlate with mucosal inflammation and endoscopic assessment
      of disease activity (Mayo endoscopic score). METHODS: We reviewed charts from
      ulcerative colitis patients who had undergone both colonoscopy over 3 years.
      Clinical assessment of disease severity within 35 d (either before or after) the
      colonoscopy were included. Patients were excluded if they had significant
      therapeutic interventions (such as the start of corticosteroids or
      immunosuppressive agents) between the colonoscopy and the clinical assessment.
      Mayo endoscopic score of the rectum and sigmoid were done by two
      gastroenterologists. Inter-observer variability in Mayo score was assessed.
      RESULTS: We identified 99 patients (53% female, 74% pancolitis) that met
      inclusion criteria. The indications for colonoscopy included ongoing disease
      activity (62%), consideration of medication change (10%), assessment of
      medication efficacy (14%), and cancer screening (14%). Based on PUCAI scores, 33%
      of patients were in remission, 39% had mild disease, 23% had moderate disease,
      and 4% had severe disease. There was "moderate-substantial" agreement between the
      two reviewers in assessing rectal Mayo scores (kappa = 0.54, 95%CI: 0.41-0.68).
      CONCLUSION: Endoscopic disease severity (Mayo score) assessed by reviewing
      photographs of pediatric colonoscopy has moderate inter-rater reliability, and
      agreement was less robust in assessing patients with mild disease activity.
      Endoscopic disease severity generally correlates with clinical disease severity
      as measured by PUCAI score. However, children with inflamed colons can have
      significant variation in their reported clinical symptoms. Thus, assessment of
      both clinical symptoms and endoscopic disease severity may be required in future
      clinical studies.

PMID- 28566892
TI  - Disruptive behavior in the workplace: Challenges for gastroenterology fellows.
AB  - AIM: To assess first-year gastroenterology fellows' ability to address difficult
      interpersonal situations in the workplace using objective structured clinical
      examinations (OSCE). METHODS: Two OSCEs ("distracted care team" and "frazzled
      intern") were created to assess response to disruptive behavior. In case 1, a
      fellow used a colonoscopy simulator while interacting with a standardized patient
      (SP), nurse, and attending physician all played by actors. The nurse and
      attending were instructed to display specific disruptive behavior and disregard
      the fellow unless requested to stop the disruptive behavior and focus on the
      patient and procedure. In case 2, the fellow was to calm an intern managing a
      patient with massive gastrointestinal bleeding. The objective in both scenarios
      was to assess the fellows' ability to perform their duties while managing the
      disruptive behavior displayed by the actor. The SPs used checklists to rate
      fellows' performances. The fellows completed a self-assessment survey. RESULTS:
      Twelve fellows from four gastrointestinal fellowship training programs
      participated in the OSCE. In the "distracted care team" case, one-third of the
      fellows interrupted the conflict and refocused attention to the patient. Half of
      the fellows were able to display professionalism despite the heated discussion
      nearby. Fellows scored lowest in the interprofessionalism portion of post-OSCE
      surveys, measuring their ability to handle the conflict. In the "frazzled intern"
      case, 68% of fellows were able to establish a calm and professional relationship
      with the SP. Despite this success, only half of the fellows were successfully
      communicate a plan to the SP and only a third scored "well done" in a domain that
      focused on allowing the intern to think through the case with the fellow's
      guidance. CONCLUSION: Fellows must receive training on how to approach disruptive
      behavior. OSCEs are a tool that can assess fellow skills and set a culture for
      open discussion.

PMID- 28566894
TI  - Stress and sleep quality in doctors working on-call shifts are associated with
      functional gastrointestinal disorders.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the role of sleep quality and psychosocial problems as
      predictors of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) in doctors that work
      24 hour-on-call shifts. METHODS: In this cross-sectional observation study, using
      the Rome III Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), we analyzed
      170 doctors with 24 hour-on-call shifts. RESULTS: Among the participants that had
      experienced a 24 hour-on-call shift within the last 6 mo, 48 (28.2%) had FGIDs.
      Overall prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia
      (FD) were 16.5% and 17.1%, respectively, with 5.3% exhibiting both. Sleep scores
      (PSQI) (8.79 +/- 2.71 vs 7.30 +/- 3.43, P = 0.008), the presence of serious
      psychosocial alarm (83.3% vs 56.6%, P = 0.004), and the proportion of doctors who
      experienced over two months of recent on-call work (81.2% vs 68.9%, P = 0.044)
      were significantly different between individuals with or without FGIDs.
      Multivariate analysis revealed that presenting serious psychosocial alarm was an
      independent risk factor for prevalence of FD (OR = 5.47, 95%CI: 1.06-28.15, P =
      0.042) and poor sleep quality (PSQI >= 6) was a predictor of IBS (OR = 4.17,
      95%CI: 1.92-19.02, P = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Physicians should recognize the role
      of sleep impairment and psychological stress in the development of FGIDs and a
      comprehensive approach should be considered to manage patients with FGIDs.

PMID- 28566895
TI  - In vivo and ex vivo confocal endomicroscopy of pancreatic cystic lesions: A
      prospective study.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the reproducibility of the in vivo endoscopic ultrasound
      (EUS) - guided needle based confocal endomicroscopy (nCLE) image patterns in an
      ex vivo setting and compare these to surgical histopathology for characterizing
      pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs). METHODS: In a prospective study evaluating EUS
      nCLE for evaluation of PCLs, 10 subjects underwent an in vivo nCLE (AQ-Flex nCLE
      miniprobe; Cellvizio, MaunaKea, Paris, France) during EUS and ex vivo probe based
      CLE (pCLE) of the PCL (Gastroflex ultrahigh definition probe, Cellvizio) after
      surgical resection. Biopsies were obtained from ex vivo CLE-imaged areas for
      comparative histopathology. All subjects received intravenous fluorescein prior
      to EUS and pancreatic surgery for in vivo and ex vivo CLE imaging respectively.
      RESULTS: A total of 10 subjects (mean age 53 +/- 12 years; 5 female) with a mean
      PCL size of 34.8 +/- 14.3 mm were enrolled. Surgical histopathology confirmed 2
      intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), 3 mucinous cystic neoplasms
      (MCNs), 2 cystic neuroendocrine tumors (cystic-NETs), 1 serous cystadenoma (SCA),
      and 2 squamous lined PCLs. Characteristic in vivo nCLE image patterns included
      papillary projections for IPMNs, horizon-type epithelial bands for MCNs, nests
      and trabeculae of cells for cystic-NETs, and a "fern pattern" of vascularity for
      SCA. Identical image patterns were observed during ex vivo pCLE imaging of the
      surgically resected PCLs. Both in vivo and ex vivo CLE imaging findings
      correlated with surgical histopathology. CONCLUSION: In vivo nCLE patterns are
      reproducible in ex vivo pCLE for all major neoplastic PCLs. These findings add
      further support the application of EUS-nCLE as an imaging biomarker in the
      diagnosis of PCLs.

PMID- 28566896
TI  - Chronological age when healthcare transition skills are mastered in
      adolescents/young adults with inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - AIM: To describe the longitudinal course of acquisition of healthcare transition
      skills among adolescents and young adults with inflammatory bowel diseases.
      METHODS: We recruited adolescents and young adults (AYA) with inflammatory bowel
      diseases (IBD), from the pediatric IBD clinic at the University of North
      Carolina. Participants completed the TRxANSITION ScaleTM at least once during the
      study period (2006-2015). We used the electronic medical record to extract
      participants' clinical and demographic data. We used ordinary least square
      regressions with robust standard error clustered at patient level to explore the
      variations in the levels and growths of healthcare transition readiness. RESULTS:
      Our sample (n = 144) ranged in age from 14-22 years. Age was significantly and
      positively associated with both the level and growth of TRxANSITION ScaleTM
      scores (P < 0.01). Many healthcare transition (HCT) skills were acquired between
      ages 12 and 14 years, but others were not mastered until after age 18, including
      self-management skills. CONCLUSION: This is one of the first studies to describe
      the longitudinal course of HCT skill acquisition among AYA with IBD, providing
      benchmarks for evaluating transition interventions.

PMID- 28566898
TI  - Antimicrobial susceptibility testing before first-line treatment for Helicobacter
      pylori infection in patients with dual or triple antibiotic resistance.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of antimicrobial susceptibility-guided therapy
      before first-line treatment for infection in patients with dual or triple
      antibiotic resistance. METHODS: A total of 1034 patients infected by Helicobacter
      pylori (H. pylori) during 2013-2014 were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility.
      157 of 1034 (15%) patients showed resistance to two (127/1034; 12%) and to three
      (30/1034; 3%) antibiotics. Sixty-eight patients with dual H. pylori-resistance
      (clarithromycin, metronidazole or levofloxacin) were treated for 10 d with triple
      therapies: OAL (omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d., amoxicillin 1 g b.i.d., and levofloxacin
      500 mg b.i.d.) 43 cases, OAM (omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d., amoxicillin 1 g b.i.d.,
      and metronidazole 500 mg b.i.d.) 12 cases and OAC (omeprazole 20 mg b.id.,
      amoxicillin 1 g b.i.d., and clarithromycin 500 mg b.i.d.) 13 cases based on the
      antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Twelve patients showed triple H. pylori
      resistance (clarithromycin, metronidazole and levofloxacin) and received for 10 d
      triple therapy with OAR (omeprazole 20 mg b.id., amoxicillin 1 g b.i.d., and
      rifabutin 150 mg b.i.d.). Eradication was confirmed by 13C-urea breath test.
      Adverse effects and compliance were assessed by a questionnaire. RESULTS:
      Intention-to-treat eradication rates were: OAL (97.6%), OAM (91.6%), OAC (92.3%)
      and OAR (58.3%). Cure rate was significantly higher in naive patients treated
      with OAR-10 compared to patients who had two or three previous treatment failures
      (83% vs 33%). Adverse events rates for OAL, OAM, OAC and OAR were 22%, 25%, 23%
      and 17%, respectively, all of them mild-moderate. CONCLUSION: Antimicrobial
      susceptibility-guided triple therapies during 10 d for first-line treatment leads
      to an eradication rate superior to 90% in patients with dual antibiotic H. pylori
      resistance.

PMID- 28566897
TI  - Low-FODMAP diet reduces irritable bowel symptoms in patients with inflammatory
      bowel disease.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the effect of a low-FODMAP diet on irritable bowel syndrome
      (IBS)-like symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS:
      This was a randomised controlled open-label trial of patients with IBD in
      remission or with mild-to-moderate disease and coexisting IBS-like symptoms (Rome
      III) randomly assigned to a Low-FODMAP diet (LFD) or a normal diet (ND) for 6 wk
      between June 2012 and December 2013. Patients completed the IBS symptom severity
      system (IBS-SSS) and short IBD quality of life questionnaire (SIBDQ) at weeks 0
      and 6. The primary end-point was response rates (at least 50-point reduction) in
      IBS-SSS at week 6 between groups; secondary end-point was the impact on quality
      of life. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients, 67 (75%) women, median age 40, range 20
      70 years were randomised: 44 to LFD group and 45 to ND, from which 78 patients
      completed the study period and were included in the final analysis (37 LFD and 41
      ND). There was a significantly larger proportion of responders in the LFD group
      (n = 30, 81%) than in the ND group (n = 19, 46%); (OR = 5.30; 95%CI: 1.81-15.55,
      P < 0.01). At week 6, the LFD group showed a significantly lower median IBS-SSS
      (median 115; inter-quartile range [IQR] 33-169) than ND group (median 170, IQR 91
      288), P = 0.02. Furthermore, the LFD group had a significantly greater increase
      in SIBDQ (median 60, IQR 51-65) than the ND group (median 50, IQR 39-60), P <
      0.01. CONCLUSION: In a prospective study, a low-FODMAP diet reduced IBS-like
      symptoms and increased quality of life in patients with IBD in remission.

PMID- 28566899
TI  - Severe esophageal injury after radiofrequency ablation - a deadly complication.
AB  - Various degrees of esophageal injury have been described after radiofrequency
      ablation performed for treatment of atrial fibrillation. The main mechanism of
      injury is thermal and may lead to a range of esophageal mucosal changes, some
      clinically insignificant, however when deep ulceration occurs, this may be
      further complicated by perforation and mediastinitis, a rare but life threatening
      sequelae. We present a case of a severe esophageal injury leading to
      mediastinitis, with interesting endoscopic findings.

PMID- 28566900
TI  - Low-Dose Systemic Methotrexate Therapy for Recalcitrant Alopecia Areata.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune skin disease difficult to
      manage and treat. The pathogenesis of AA features a T-cell-associated autoimmune
      process, and systemic immunosuppressive therapy is prescribed widely for AA.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of systemic low-dose
      methotrexate (LD-MTX) therapy in treatment of recalcitrant AA multiplex. METHODS:
      In a retrospective, non-controlled study, we evaluated 29 patients with
      recalcitrant AA treated with LD-MTX and assessed the therapeutic response
      according to severity of disease, disease duration, cumulative dose of MTX, and
      drug safety. RESULTS: MTX was administered twice weekly, and the mean maximum
      weekly dose was 14.48 mg. The response was A5 (regrowth=100.0%) in 14 (48.3%)
      patients and A4 (regrowth of 75%~90%) in 12 (41.4%) patients. Three patients had
      poor response to LD-MTX treatment (A2: n=2 [6.9%], A1: n=1 [3.4%]). All three of
      the patients showing a poor response had disease durations exceeding 24 months.
      Relapse was observed in 31% of patients with more than 75% regrowth. Common side
      effects were elevated liver enzyme levels and gastrointestinal discomfort.
      CONCLUSION: LD-MTX appears to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment for
      recalcitrant AA multiplex.

PMID- 28566901
TI  - Periostin in Mature Stage Localized Scleroderma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Periostin is a novel matricellular protein expressed in many tissues,
      including bone, periodontal ligament, and skin. Although its expression is
      prominent in various fibrotic conditions, studies of periostin in localized
      scleroderma are rare. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of periostin and
      other molecules in localized scleroderma. METHODS: A retrospective study of 14
      patients with confirmed mature stage localized scleroderma was undertaken.
      Fourteen age-matched and biopsy site-matched subjects with normal skin were
      included as controls. Collagen fiber deposition, periostin, procollagen,
      transforming growth factor-beta, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 expression
      were assessed and compared between the two groups. Co-localization of alpha
      smooth muscle actin and periostin was evaluated using confocal microscopy.
      RESULTS: Periostin was predominantly expressed along the dermo-epidermal junction
      in the controls. Conversely, patients with localized scleroderma demonstrated
      increased collagen fiber deposition and periostin expression that was more widely
      distributed along the entire dermis. MMP-1 staining showed increased expression
      in the epidermis and dermis of patients compared to scanty expression in the
      controls. A semi-quantitative evaluation showed a higher proportion of excessive
      collagen bundle deposition (57.1% vs. 7.1%, p=0.013), diffuse periostin
      positivity (42.9% vs. 0%, p=0.016), and moderate MMP-1 positivity (71.4% vs.
      7.1%, p=0.001) in patients than in the controls. CONCLUSION: Compared to the
      controls, patients with localized scleroderma had enhanced periostin expression
      corresponding to increased collagen fiber deposition and unexpected
      overexpression of MMP-1. The results of this human in vivo study may implicate
      the pathogenesis of localized scleroderma.

PMID- 28566902
TI  - Therapeutic Efficacy of a Combination Therapy of Topical 17alpha-Estradiol and
      Topical Minoxidil on Female Pattern Hair Loss: A Noncomparative, Retrospective
      Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A variety of agents have been used to treat female pattern hair loss
      (FPHL), including topical minoxidil, topical 17alpha-estradiol, oral anti
      androgen agents, and mineral supplements. Compared with these single agent
      regimens, combination therapies could be a better therapeutic option in
      expectation of superior treatment outcome. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to
      determine the efficacy of a combination therapy consisting of topical 0.025%
      17alpha-estradiol and 3% minoxidil in Korean patients with FPHL. METHODS:
      Therapeutic efficacy was evaluated in 34 women who applied topical 0.025% 17alpha
      estradiol and 3% minoxidil once daily for more than 6 months. Phototrichogram
      analysis was performed before and after therapy. The efficacy was evaluated with
      respect to total hair count, hair caliber (as assessed by phototrichogram
      analysis), and photographic assessment. RESULTS: Total hair count and hair
      caliber both increased from baseline to 6 months in patients treated with the
      combination therapy of topical 0.025% 17alpha-estradiol and 3% minoxidil
      (p<0.001). Photographic assessment also revealed significant disease improvement,
      thus supporting the therapeutic efficacy. CONCLUSION: A combination therapy
      consisting of topical 0.025% 17alpha-estradiol and 3% minoxidil can be tried as
      an effective treatment for FPHL.

PMID- 28566903
TI  - Risk Factors for Aseptic Meningitis in Herpes Zoster Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster (HZ) is caused by reactivation of latent varicella
      zoster virus (VZV) infection. HZ-associated aseptic meningitis, a rare
      complication of HZ, can require hospitalization and a long treatment period.
      OBJECTIVE: A retrospective study was performed to identify potential factors
      associated with HZ-associated aseptic meningitis development. METHODS: We
      included all outpatients and patients admitted in the neurology and dermatology
      departments of a single tertiary center, who were diagnosed with HZ for two
      years. Among 818 patients, 578 patients were eligible for analysis. RESULTS: The
      demographics and potential risk factors were compared between the uncomplicated
      HZ group (n=554) and aseptic meningitis group (n=24). Among the potential
      factors, the dermatological distribution of skin rash and gender showed
      statistically significantly different between the two groups. Patients with
      craniocervical distribution of HZ accounted for 87.5% (n=21) of the aseptic
      meningitis group and 54.3% (n=301) of the uncomplicated HZ group (p=0.043). The
      aseptic meningitis group had more men (66.7%, n=16) than the uncomplicated HZ
      group (42.8%, n=237, p=0.033). Patients with craniocervical distribution had an
      odds ratio (OR) of 5.884 (p=0.001) for developing aseptic meningitis when
      compared with the other dermatome involvements. Additional logistic regression
      analysis resulted in a fading between gender difference (p=0.050) and
      craniocervical involvement having an OR of 5.667 for aseptic meningitis
      (p=0.006). CONCLUSION: In HZ patients, skin rash with craniocervical distribution
      and male gender were associated with a higher risk of aseptic meningitis.

PMID- 28566904
TI  - Arborizing Vessels on Dermoscopy in Various Skin Diseases Other Than Basal Cell
      Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arborizing vessels (AVs) are dermoscopically defined as
      telangiectasias with distinct treelike branching, and are a characteristic
      feature of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). However, AVs are observed in various
      conditions other than BCC. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate
      skin diseases showing AV and investigates dermoscopic differences between BCC and
      non-BCC. METHODS: Dermoscopic images showing AV were prospectively collected and
      classified into BCC/non-BCC. Non-BCC was further classified into tumors (benign
      cystic, benign non-cystic, premalignant, and malignant) and non-tumors. We
      compared AV focusing, widest diameter of stem vessels, widest diameter ratio of
      stem vessel to first branch, and number of ramifications between groups. RESULTS:
      Among 124 images, 54.0% were BCC and 46.0% were non-BCC. Non-BCC included
      epidermal cysts, hypertrophic scars/keloids, intradermal nevi, actinic keratoses,
      etc. The proportion of focused AV in BCC was significantly higher and the
      proportion of unfocused AV in BCC was lower than that of premalignant and
      malignant non-BCC. The widest diameter ratio of stem vessel to first branch was
      higher in non-BCC. Number of ramifications was significantly less in benign
      cystic non-BCC than BCC. CONCLUSION: Various skin diseases showed AV, so that
      diagnoses other than BCC should be considered. The findings in this study could
      help discriminate BCC from non-BCC.

PMID- 28566905
TI  - The Effect of Rhus verniciflua Stokes Extracts on Photo-Aged Mouse Skin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rhus verniciflua Stokes (RV) has traditionally been used in Korea as
      an indigenous food (Rhus chicken soup) and as an herbal medicinal plant. While
      the anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties of RV have been
      actively studied in the medical field, its antioxidant effects in the skin that
      resist the reactive oxygen species in keratinocytes and fibroblasts is less
      understood. OBJECTIVE: We designed to evaluate the effects of R. verniciflua
      Stokes extract (RVE) on the photo-aged skin by an in vitro experiment using human
      fibroblasts and an in vivo experiment using a photo-aged murine model. METHODS:
      For the in vitro experiments, human fibroblasts irradiated with ultraviolet (UV)
      B were treated with RVE or vehicle, and the growth levels and the expression
      level of type 1 procollagen were compared. For the in vivo experiment, photo-aged
      mice irradiated with UVB and UVA were administered drinking water with or without
      RVE, and histological changes and the expression level of type 1 procollagen and
      matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-13 were compared. RESULTS: In vitro experiments
      using fibroblasts irradiated with UVB showed that RVE promoted growth and
      significantly increased the expression of type 1 procollagen as compared to the
      control group. In the photo-aged mice, RVE increased collagen content in the
      dermis and promoted the synthesis of type 1 procollagen without any visible
      decrease in MMP-13 as compared to control group. CONCLUSION: In addition to the
      previously reported antioxidant effects of RVE, oral intake of RVE effectively
      inhibited photo-aging in hairless mice by enhancing collagen synthesis.

PMID- 28566907
TI  - The Delivery Rates of Pathology Test Results to Patients: A Single-Center
      Experience in a Secondary Referral Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delivery of pathology reports to the patient is a key step in the
      biopsy pathway, which is important for patient safety in dermatology. Automated
      systems for facilitating such medical process began in 2010 in our hospital,
      sending short message service to scheduled patients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of
      this study was to evaluate the delivery of pathology reports to patients and
      investigate factors that influence this process and annual trends. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all outpatients (n=2,452) who
      underwent skin biopsy at our department of dermatology in 2009 and 2014. In each
      year group, we analyzed the proportion of revisiting patients in terms of year,
      sex, age, season, biopsy method and diagnosis. RESULTS: In 2009, a smaller
      proportion of patients (205; 91.5%) who had undergone shave or excisional biopsy
      than of those who had undergone punch biopsy returned (781; 98.0%; p<0.001). This
      trend was not significant in 2014. Whereas there was no significant difference of
      return visit ratio between men and women in 2009, a higher proportion of women
      (754; 98.0%) than men (633; 95.6%) re-visited after skin biopsy to confirm their
      diagnosis in 2014 (p=0.008). Three patients with either a malignant tumor or
      suspected malignant lesion that required complete excision did not return to our
      clinic. CONCLUSION: Pathology report delivery rates were fairly satisfactory,
      regardless of year, age, season, and diagnosis. Sex and biopsy method influenced
      the return visit ratio. More organized follow-up protocols are required to
      strengthen patient safety and prevent critical patient drop-out.

PMID- 28566906
TI  - Multivariate Analysis of Factors Associated with the Koebner Phenomenon in
      Vitiligo: An Observational Study of 381 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Koebner phenomenon (KP) is a common entity observed in
      dermatological disorders. The reported incidence of KP in vitiligo varies widely.
      Although the KP is frequently observed in patients with viltiligo, the associated
      factors with KP has not been established yet. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to estimate
      the prevalence of KP in vitiligo patients and to investigate the associated
      factors with KP among vitiligo characteristics. METHODS: A cross-sectional
      observational study was conducted using 381 vitiligo patients. Demographic and
      clinical information was obtained via the completion of Vitiligo European Task
      Force (VETF) questionnaires. Patients with positive history of KP were extracted
      from this vitiligo database. Multivariate analysis was performed to assess
      associations with KP. RESULTS: The median age of cases was 24 years (range,
      0.6~76). In total, 237 of the patients were male (62.2%). Vitiligo vulgaris was
      the most common type observed (152/381, 39.9%). Seventy-two percent (274/381)
      patients did not exhibit KP, whereas 28.1% (107/381) of patients exhibited this
      condition. Multivariable analysis showed the following to be independent factors
      with KP in patients with vitiligo: the progressive disease (odds ratio [OR],
      1.82; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.17~2.92; p=0.041), disease duration
      longer than 5 years (OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.22~2.11; p=0.003), and body surface area
      more than 2% (OR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.26~3.24; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results
      suggest that KP may be used to evaluate disease activity and investigate
      different associations between the clinical profile and course of vitiligo.
      Further studies are needed to predict the relationship between KP and
      responsiveness to therapy.

PMID- 28566909
TI  - In Vitro Anti-Malassezia Activity of Castanea crenata Shell and Oil-Soluble
      Glycyrrhiza Extracts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A new shampoo with anti-Malassezia properties obtained from various
      plants is required to provide seborrheic dermatitis patients with a wider range
      of treatment options. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to obtain in vitro
      susceptibility profiles of Malassezia restricta and M. globosa, the most
      important pathogenic organisms in the development of seborrheic dermatitis, to
      the plant extracts used in commercial anti-dandruff shampoos. METHODS: Minimal
      inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined for eight candidate plant
      extracts and two plant-derived natural products diluted with Leeming and Notman
      medium to final concentrations of 0.016 to 1 mg/ml. RESULTS: Castanea crenata
      shell, Camellia sinensis leaf, and oil-soluble Glycyrrhiza extracts presented
      relatively low MIC values (<=0.5 mg/ml) against both strains. The C. crenata
      shell and oil-soluble Glycyrrhiza extracts demonstrated especially high anti
      Malassezia activity, suggesting their potential use in the treatment of
      seborrheic dermatitis. The extracts also showed fungistatic activity against
      other common facultative pathogenic yeasts, Cryptococcus and Candida. CONCLUSION:
      C. crenata shell and oil-soluble Glycyrrhiza extracts could potentially be used
      as active ingredients in anti-seborrheic and anti-dandruff shampoo formulations.
      They could be helpful for repeated treatments and regular prophylaxis of scalp
      seborrheic dermatitis.

PMID- 28566908
TI  - The Effects of Multi-Growth Factors-Containing Cream on Post-Thyroidectomy Scars:
      A Preliminary Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growth factors play important roles in wound healing. However, the
      evidence for the effects of growth factors on post-thyroidectomy scars is
      limited. OBJECTIVE: We performed a prospective study to assess the preventive and
      therapeutic effect of a multi-growth factor (MGF)-containing cream on post
      thyroidectomy scars. METHODS: Twenty-one patients with thyroidectomy scars
      applied MGF cream twice a day. We assessed the changes in erythema, pigmentation,
      skin elasticity, and skin hydration status using the erythema index, melanin
      index, cutometer, and corneometer, respectively. In addition, Vancouver scar
      scale (VSS) and patient satisfaction were assessed at 10 days after surgery
      (baseline), 2 weeks, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks after baseline. RESULTS: The mean
      total VSS scores were significantly lower at 6 weeks (3.24+/-1.51 vs. 1.91+/
      1.38) and 12 weeks (3.24+/-1.51 vs. 1.71+/-1.59) compared to the baseline. The
      degree of pigmentation was significantly lower at 12 weeks compared to the
      baseline, and the skin elasticity, and the skin hydration status were
      significantly higher at 12 weeks compared to the baseline. Over 85% of the
      patients were satisfied with the use of MGF cream without any adverse effect.
      CONCLUSION: MGF cream might have additive or supportive effect for scar formation
      after thyroidectomy.

PMID- 28566910
TI  - Acral Lentiginous Melanoma, Indolent Subtype Diagnosed by En Bloc Excision: A
      Case Report.
AB  - Nail unit melanoma is a type of acral lentiginous melanoma and requires
      histopathologic examination for a confirmed diagnosis. However, inadequate biopsy
      techniques make definitive diagnosis difficult. A 61-year-old man presented with
      progressive nail pigmentation for 15 years, which was clinically highly
      suspicious for malignancy. Acral lentiginous melanoma was not detected in punch
      and longitudinal biopsy specimens, but en bloc excision tissue revealed melanoma.
      Acral lentiginous melanoma is known to have a heterogeneous pathologic
      manifestation depending on the pigmented region and the time it takes to
      progress. In this regard, en bloc excision can be considered as a first-line
      biopsy technique to diagnose acral lentiginous melanoma, indolent subtype.

PMID- 28566911
TI  - Intense Pulsed Light and Q-Switched 1,064-nm Neodymium-Doped Yttrium Aluminum
      Garnet Laser Treatment for the Scarring Lesion of Discoid Lupus Erythematosus.
AB  - Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) is a chronic form of cutaneous lupus that can
      cause permanent scarring. Treatment of DLE includes protection from sunlight and
      artificial sources of ultraviolet light, as well as systemic and topical
      medications. The first-line standard therapies are antimalarials and topical
      steroids. Other systemic therapies include systemic steroid, azathioprine,
      dapsone, and immunosuppressive agents. Topical tacrolimus and pimecrolimus have
      also been evaluated. Recent studies reported that several treatments, including
      pulsed dye laser, CO2 laser, intense pulsed light (IPL), and 1,064-nm long-pulse
      neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum (Nd:YAG) have been used for the cosmetic
      treatment of DLE. Here, we report a case of a DLE scar that was successfully
      treated with a combination therapy of IPL and Q-switched 1,064-nm Nd:YAG laser.

PMID- 28566912
TI  - Eccrine Squamous Syringometaplasia Associated with Pelubiprofen Therapy.
AB  - Eccrine squamous syringometaplasia (ESS) is a histologically distinctive skin
      eruption occurring predominantly in acral or intertriginous areas presenting as
      erythematous macules, papules or patches. The etiology of ESS remains unclear,
      but it is usually reported in patients receiving chemotherapy for various
      malignant neoplasms. To date, only two cases of ESS associated with non-steroidal
      anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which has distinctive clinical features and
      pathogenesis, have been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a rare and
      interesting case of ESS associated with pelubiprofen, a recently developed NSAID,
      which appeared after pelubiprofen therapy and resolved spontaneously after
      discontinuing the medication.

PMID- 28566913
TI  - Interstitial Granulomatous Dermatitis in a Patient with Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Interstitial granulomatous dermatitis (IGD) is a rare dermatosis, histologically
      characterized by an interstitial granulomatous infiltrate. It is associated with
      inflammatory arthritis, various medications, and autoimmune conditions. It is
      also associated with malignancies such as breast, endometrial, lung, and
      esophageal cancers as well as hematologic malignancies such as lymphoma and
      myelodysplastic syndrome. Herein we describe a case of IGD associated with
      prostate cancer, which has not been reported in the literature.

PMID- 28566914
TI  - Aquagenic Urticaria Diagnosed by the Water Provocation Test and the Results of
      Histopathologic Examination.
AB  - An 18-year-old male visited our department complaining of recurrent episodes of
      an itchy rash after hand washing, showering/bathing, drinking water, and getting
      rain-soaked. He was diagnosed with aquagenic urticaria after a water provocation
      test and histopathologic examination. Five months of antihistamine treatment
      successfully prevented further wheal formation. Aquagenic urticaria is a very
      unusual form of physical urticaria caused by contact with water. It manifests as
      pruritic small wheals surrounded by erythema within 30 minutes of exposure. The
      condition can be diagnosed by a water provocation test. Systemic antihistamines
      are the first-line treatment, with anticholinergics, phototherapy, or barrier
      cream used alternatively or additionally. Four cases of aquagenic urticaria have
      been reported in Korea, but no histopathologic evaluation was reported in the
      English or Korean literature. Herein, we provide both a case report of aquagenic
      urticaria diagnosed by the water provocation test and histopathologic examination
      results for this patient.

PMID- 28566915
TI  - Methotrexate in a Real-World Psoriasis Treatment: Is It Really a Dangerous
      Medication for All?

PMID- 28566916
TI  - Multiple Interdigital Nodular Amyloidosis of the Toe: A Unique Presentation of
      Localized Cutaneous Amyloidosis.

PMID- 28566917
TI  - Some Becker's Nevus Melanocytes Remain Alive after Treatment with Q-Switched
      Alexandrite Laser.

PMID- 28566918
TI  - Onychocytic Matricoma: Report of an Asian Case.

PMID- 28566919
TI  - Xanthoma Striatum Palmare in a Patient of Primary Biliary Cirrhosis with
      Autoimmune Hepatitis.

PMID- 28566920
TI  - The Effectiveness of Tailored Education on the Usage of Moisturizers in Atopic
      Dermatitis: A Pilot Study.

PMID- 28566921
TI  - Papular Acantholytic Dyskeratosis of the Inguinal Area in a 49-Year-Old Man.

PMID- 28566922
TI  - Dermoscopy as a Supportive Instrument in the Early Recognition of Erosive
      Adenomatosis of the Nipple and Mammary Paget's Disease.

PMID- 28566923
TI  - Attenuated Nuclear Factor Kappa B Activity by E7 Protein of Human Papillomavirus
      Type 2 in Human Epidermal Keratinocytes.

PMID- 28566924
TI  - Localized Grouped Basaloid Follicular Hamartoma on the Chest of an Adult.

PMID- 28566925
TI  - p16INK4a Expression in Porokeratosis.

PMID- 28566926
TI  - Intense Pulsed Light Increases Hyaluronan and CD44 in Epidermal Keratinocytes and
      Improves Age-Related Epidermal Structure Defects in Mice.

PMID- 28566927
TI  - Hunter Syndrome with Extensive Mongolian Spots.

PMID- 28566928
TI  - A Case of Cholesterol Granuloma Presenting as a Cutaneous Nodule.

PMID- 28566929
TI  - Acitretin as a Therapeutic Option for Chronic Hand Eczema.

PMID- 28566930
TI  - Fournier's Gangrene: A Rare Complication of Sweet's Syndrome.

PMID- 28566931
TI  - Is There an Ideal Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level? Confusion regarding
      Lipid Guidelines, Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Targets, and Medical
      Management.
AB  - There are multiple guidelines for managing patients with high-risk cardiovascular
      disease, and unfortunately for the practicing clinician, these guidelines are
      quite variable. Some are fairly specific whereas others are not, resulting in a
      great deal of confusion regarding whether management of low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C) should be tailored only, targeted only, or managed by a
      combination of both. In the management of cardiovascular disease, favorable
      cardiovascular outcomes can be obtained by simply lowering the LDL-C in the
      absence of any other medications. The advent of statins, the most potent LDL-C
      lowering medication yet when developed, provided benefits augmented by the
      presence of multiple pleiotropic effects. Tailoring and/or targeting the decrease
      in LDL-C is also an issue of concern. Then, in 2016, the new proprotein
      convertase sutilisin-like/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors appeared, providing a
      solution to patients with high-risk cardiovascular disease with statin
      intolerance and those who did not attain a desired LDL-C level while on a high
      dose statin. These new PCSK9 inhibitors necessitate a determination of how low
      the LDL-C can and should go, most likely safely down to a beneficial level of 25
      mg/dL for the highest-risk patient. These issues are documented and discussed
      with an attempt to help the reader make an informed risk management decision.

PMID- 28566932
TI  - Postural Changes in Measures of Arterial Stiffness in Hypertensive Subjects on
      Antihypertensive Drug Therapy: A Prospective, Pilot Study.
AB  - Prospective study with a controlled arm to know if there are variations of
      measures of arterial stiffness with posture in subjects with hypertension on
      antihypertensive medications. We studied postural variations of measures of
      arterial stiffness in 21 subjects with diagnosed hypertension on antihypertensive
      medications and compared them with 21 normotensive subjects. All subjects
      underwent pulse-wave analysis on SphygmoCor in the morning between 8 am to 10 am
      initially in supine and then in sitting position after 3 minutes. Summary
      measures on demographics, and blood pressure characteristics at sitting and
      supine positions are obtained. Differences between characteristics at supine and
      sitting position are compared using nonparametric paired test of Wilcoxon signed
      rank test. A value of p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.
      Antihypertensive medications decreased the supine aortic augmentation pressure
      (AAP) and augmentation index (AI) but not significantly. When subgroups of
      patients with antihypertensive treatment were analyzed, it was noted that
      angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker group
      (12) decreased AAP and AI significantly in supine position compared with patients
      on other antihypertensive medications (9) (p-value 0.034 and 0.038,
      respectively). There was no significant difference in other groups of calcium
      channel blockers, beta-blockers, or diuretics. However, in normotensive control
      arm, there was an increase in AAP and AI in the supine position. In hypertensive
      subjects, on antihypertensive, there was reduction in AAP and AI in supine
      position compared with those of normotensives. The significance of the decrease
      in AAP and AI in supine position on antihypertensive needs to be studied further.

PMID- 28566933
TI  - Outcomes of Carotid Endarterectomy with Primary Closure.
AB  - Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) reduces the risk of stroke in patients with internal
      carotid artery stenosis, although the optimal surgical technique is debated. The
      literature suggests that patch angioplasty reduces complication risk, although
      primary closure shortens cross-clamp time and eliminates complications associated
      with grafts. The objective of this study was to assess the complication rate
      after CEA with primary closure. Retrospective review of 240 consecutive patients
      between 2002 and 2010. Of these patients, 70% returned for follow-up visits for
      at least 2 or more years. Primary closure was used in all patients. The average
      cross-clamp time was 18 minutes. Complications in the immediate postoperative
      period within 30 days were as follows: stroke (n = 3; 1.1%), transient ischemic
      attack (TIA; n = 4; 1.5%), myocardial infarction (MI; n = 3; 1.1%), and death (n
      = 1; 0.4%). Short-term follow-up revealed eight patients who were found to have
      significant restenosis (>80%) by carotid duplex imaging. Two to ten year
      postoperative complication rates were as follows: stroke (n = 7; 4.2%), TIA (n =
      7; 4.2%), amaurosis fugax (n = 1; 0.6%), MI (n = 8; 4.8%), and death (n = 28;
      17%). Mortality was due to stroke or heart attack (n = 2; 1.2%), cancer (n = 7;
      4.2%), and unknown causes (n = 19; 11%). This study presents our experience with
      complications after primary closure after CEA. In our experience, CEA is a safe
      and effective surgical means of preventing stroke in the short term. Well
      designed prospective studies are needed to confirm specific patient
      characteristics in which primary closure and patch angioplasty are indicated.

PMID- 28566934
TI  - A Novel Risk Score in Predicting Failure or Success for Antegrade Approach to
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention of Chronic Total Occlusion: Antegrade CTO
      Score.
AB  - Total occlusion of a coronary artery for more than 3 months is defined as chronic
      total occlusion (CTO). The goal of this study was to develop a risk score in
      predicting failure or success during attempted percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI) of CTO lesions using antegrade approach. This study was based on
      retrospective analyses of clinical and angiographic characteristics of CTO
      lesions that were assessed between February 2012 and February 2014. Success rate
      was defined as passing through occlusion with successful stent deployment using
      an antegrade approach. A total of 188 patients were studied. Mean +/- SD age was
      59 +/- 9 years. Failure rate was 33%. In a stepwise multivariate regression
      analysis, bridging collaterals (OR = 6.7, CI = 1.97-23.17, score = 2), absence of
      stump (OR = 5.8, CI = 1.95-17.9, score = 2), presence of calcification (OR =
      3.21, CI = 1.46-7.07, score = 1), presence of bending (OR = 2.8, CI = 1.28-6.10,
      score = 1), presence of near side branch (OR = 2.7, CI = 1.08-6.57, score = 1),
      and absence of retrograde filling (OR = 2.5, CI = 1.03-6.17, score = 1) were
      independent predictors of PCI failure. A score of 7 or more was associated with
      100% failure rate whereas a score of 2 or less was associated with over 80%
      success rate. Most factors associated with failure of CTO-PCI are related to
      lesion characteristics. A new risk score (range 0-8) is developed to predict CTO
      PCI success or failure rate during antegrade approach as a guide before
      attempting PCI of CTO lesions.

PMID- 28566935
TI  - Variations in Echogenicity in Carotid and Femoral Atherosclerotic Plaques with
      Pycnogenol + Centella Asiatica Supplementation.
AB  - This registry study evaluated echogenicity of carotid-femoral plaques in
      asymptomatic subjects with increased oxidative stress and risk factors (mild
      hypertension, hypercholesterolemia). Supplementation with the combination
      Pycnogenol-CA (centella asiatica) on the echogenicity of plaques was assessed at
      6 months (79 subjects). A standard management (SM) plan was used in all subjects
      (control of risk factors, lifestyle changes); 36 subjects used the supplements
      +SM; 43 SM only. The groups were comparable. High-resolution ultrasound evaluated
      echogenicity and plaque structure. Pycnogenol (150 mg/day) and CA (Centellicum,
      450 mg/day) were used. At 6 months, cholesterol was reduced (p < 0.05) in both
      groups (difference between groups not significant). At 6 months, plasma free
      radicals were decreased with the supplements (17.64%; p < 0.05; vs <2% in
      controls). The plaque stability index increased from 11.22;2.3 to 22.4;1.1 (p <
      0.05) with the supplements; no significant changes were seen in controls. Plaque
      echogenicity (% of "whiter" component in images) increased with supplementation
      from 16.7;1.7% to 34.2;2% (p < 0.05); no variations were observed in controls.
      The maximum plaque height decreased (p < 0.05) with the supplements. No
      significant variations were observed in controls. Plaque length was decreased (p
      < 0.05) in the supplement group with no changes in controls. The number of
      plaques (carotid, femoral bifurcations) decreased with supplementation; no
      significant changes were observed in controls. No adverse events, tolerability
      problems, or variations in routine blood tests were recorded. The combination
      Pycnogenol-CA appears to improve echogenicity and stability of complex plaques in
      6 months.

PMID- 28566936
TI  - Interaction of Serum Phosphate with Age as Predictors of Cardiovascular Risk
      Scores in Stable Renal Transplant Recipients.
AB  - We calculated rate of changes in the cardiovascular risk calculator for renal
      transplant recipients (CRCRTR) major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in clinically
      stable renal transplant recipients (RTRs) to identify covariables that associate
      with fast cardiovascular (CV) risk progression. CRCRTR-MACE scores were
      calculated on 139 patients in 2011 and 2014. Score changes above and below median
      changes in scores were labeled fast or slow CV risk progression. Multivariate
      analysis (MVA) was performed to identify variables significant to percentage
      changes in scores. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed
      to define sensitivity and specificity of factors significant to fast score
      progression. Follow-up was 2.61 (2.02-4.47) years. Slow and fast progressions
      were present in 50.4 and 49.6% of patients, with a median change of 25.8% (- 92.1
      to 1,444.7%). MVA showed percentage changes in age and serum phosphate were the
      only significant variables impacting fast progression in scores. ROC showed 2011
      serum phosphate of 1.15 mmol/L to predict fast progression (area under the curve
      [AUC] of 0.628, p > 0.0126). Age older than 45 years combined with 2011 serum
      phosphate above 1.15 mmol/L had a significant AUC of 0.781, p < 0.0010
      interleukin (IL)-1A and IL-28A were significant associates with serum phosphate
      above 1.1 mmol/L in the MVA. Changes in CV risk in RTR over time are highly
      variable. Serum phosphate, even within upper normal levels, predicts worsening of
      CV risk scores in stable RTR.

PMID- 28566937
TI  - Shear Stress Induces Change in Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 5 Levels
      with Sustained Activation under Disturbed and Continuous Laminar Flow.
AB  - Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) has been reported to regulate
      endothelial integrity and protect from vascular dysfunction under laminar flow.
      Previously reported research indicates that under laminar flow ERK5 is activated
      with production of atheroprotective molecules. However, the characterization of
      ERK5 activation and levels under different flow patterns has not been
      investigated. Confluent HUVECs were serum-starved then seeded on glass slides.
      HUVECs incubated in 1% FBS were exposed to continuous laminar flow (CLF), to-and
      fro flow (TFF), or pulsatile forward flow (PFF) in a parallel plate flow chamber.
      At the end of experimentation, cell lysates were immunoblotted with antibodies to
      phospho-ERK5 and total ERK5. ERK5 activation was assessed by the levels of
      phosphorylated ERK5. The densitometric mean +/- SEM is calculated and analyzed by
      ANOVA. p < 0.05 is considered significant. Levels of ERK5 decreased with all flow
      conditions with the largest decrease in TFF flow condition. TFF and CLF exhibited
      sustained ERK5 phosphorylation in HUVECs stimulated for up to 4 hours. PFF had
      transient phosphorylation of ERK5 at 2 hours, which then became undetectable at 4
      hours of exposure to flow. Also, TFF and CLF both showed decreased levels at 4
      hours, suggesting a decrease in activation for these flow conditions. Exposure of
      HUVEC to different types of shear stress results in varying patterns of
      activation of ERK5. Activation of ERK5 with TFF suggests a role in the
      pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and vascular remodeling under disturbed flow
      conditions.

PMID- 28566938
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of a Novel "Hybrid Closure" Technique in Large-Bore
      Arteriotomies.
AB  - The "preclose" technique employing two Perclose (P) devices is well established
      for large-bore artery (LBA) hemostasis. Occasionally, only one Perclose deploys
      successfully during the initial preclose because of arterial calcification
      necessitating the use of the crossover balloon technique to achieve hemostasis at
      the LBA. We sought to determine if the combined use of one Perclose and either
      one Angioseal or one Mynx vascular closure device (VCD) is a safe alternative
      closure technique large-bore arteriotomy closure. In total, 40 patients underwent
      high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (HRPCI) with Impella support, of
      whom 38 had common femoral artery (CFA) arteriotomies and 2 underwent
      percutaneous axillary arteriotomy (AA). Prior to Impella insertion, one Perclose
      device was predeployed. At the end of HRPCI, Impella was removed and a 0.035"
      wire was inserted through the Impella sheath. This sheath was then withdrawn over
      the wire, and partially deployed Perclose was fully deployed. A 6-Fr sheath was
      advanced over a 0.035" wire into the CFA or AA, achieving hemostasis and reducing
      the LBA to a 6-Fr size. The 6-Fr arteriotomy was closed with a 6-Fr Mynx or
      Angioseal VCD. Patients were followed at day 1 and day 30. Hybrid closure was
      successful in 38 of 40 cases. In one case of Mynx balloon rupture, hemostasis was
      achieved with heparin reversal and manual compression. In the case of Perclose
      failure, crossover balloon tamponade at arteriotomy site and external manual
      compression achieved hemostasis. Patients were free of complications at day 1 and
      day 30. Hybrid closure with one Perclose and either one Mynx or one Angioseal VCD
      is safe and effective for LBA closure.

PMID- 28566939
TI  - Variation of a Persistent Primitive Hypoglossal Artery (PPHA) as Incidental
      Finding in the Diagnostic Clarification of Cerebral Vasculopathy Associated with
      Intracranial Vasculitis.
AB  - We present a very rare variation of a persistent primitive hypoglossal artery
      (PPHA) arising from the internal carotid artery, detected during a diagnostic
      angiography. A 50-year-old female patient was admitted with an atypical
      intracranial hematoma in the left frontal lobe. Catheter angiography revealed
      intracranial vasculopathy with segmental stenoses, a small aneurysm of the right
      internal carotid artery bifurcation and a "string of beads" appearance of the
      left carotid artery, consistent with fibromuscular disease. On the left side, a
      vertebral artery ending in the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) was
      detected, whereas on the right side the vertebral artery was aplastic. During
      selective angiography of the right common carotid artery, a persistent
      hypoglossal artery was seen supplying the basilar artery. The literature of
      persistent embryonal carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomosis and their anatomical
      variations is discussed with respect to clinical importance for ischemia,
      interventional procedures, and surgery.

PMID- 28566940
TI  - High-Output Cardiac Failure Due to Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia: A Case
      of an Extra-Cardiac Left to Right Shunt.
AB  - High-output cardiac failure is a rare complication of hereditary hemorrhagic
      telangiectasia and can potentially be mistaken for other entities. We present a
      case of high-output cardiac failure because of large hepatic arteriovenous
      malformations, review the literature regarding the cardiac manifestations of the
      disease, and discuss the possible differential diagnoses.

PMID- 28566941
TI  - Embolic Protection using the WIRION Embolic Protection System with JetStream
      Atherectomy in a Patient with Superficial Femoral Artery Chronic total Occlusion.
AB  - Distal embolization is a common occurrence with peripheral arterial interventions
      and is more frequent with the use of atherectomy devices. We report the first
      case of JetStream atherectomy (Boston Scientific, Maple Grove, MN) with the use
      of the novel WIRION embolic protection system filter. The procedure was performed
      successfully with no distal embolizations beyond the filter and with no
      complications in the delivery or retrieval of the filter. The pros and cons of
      the off label use of this filter with JetStream atherectomy are discussed.

PMID- 28566942
TI  - Neuroinflammation: new vistas for neuropsychiatric research.
AB  - In psychiatric diseases such as mood disorders or schizophrenia, the inflammatory
      response system is activated. Microglia has gradually emerged as a key interface
      between stress-related signals and neuroimnune consequences of stress, with
      stressors leading to elevated microglial activity.

PMID- 28566943
TI  - Affective immunology: where emotions and the immune response converge.
AB  - Affect and emotion are defined as "an essential part of the process of an
      organism's interaction with stimuli." Similar to affect, the immune response is
      the "tool" the body uses to interact with the external environment. Thanks to the
      emotional and immunological response, we learn to distinguish between what we
      like and what we do not like, to counteract a broad range of challenges, and to
      adjust to the environment we are living in. Recent compelling evidence has shown
      that the emotional and immunological systems share more than a similarity of
      functions. This review article will discuss the crosstalk between these two
      systems and the need for a new scientific area of research called affective
      immunology. Research in this field will allow a better understanding and
      appreciation of the immunological basis of mental disorders and the emotional
      side of immune diseases.

PMID- 28566944
TI  - In immune defense: redefining the role of the immune system in chronic disease.
AB  - The recognition of altered immune system function in many chronic disease states
      has proven to be a pivotal advance in biomedical research over the past decade.
      For many metabolic and mood disorders, this altered immune activity has been
      characterized as inflammation, with the attendant assumption that the immune
      response is aberrant. However, accumulating evidence challenges this assumption
      and suggests that the immune system may be mounting adaptive responses to chronic
      stressors. Further, the inordinate complexity of immune function renders a
      simplistic, binary model incapable of capturing critical mechanistic insights. In
      this perspective article, we propose alternative paradigms for understanding the
      role of the immune system in chronic disease. By invoking allostasis or systems
      biology rather than inflammation, we can ascribe greater functional significance
      to immune mediators, gain newfound appreciation of the adaptive facets of altered
      immune activity, and better avoid the potentially disastrous effects of
      translating erroneous assumptions into novel therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28566945
TI  - Inflammation: opportunities for treatment stratification among individuals
      diagnosed with mood disorders.
AB  - Mood disorders continue to be a significant burden to those affected, resulting
      in significant illness-associated disability and premature mortality. In addition
      to mood disturbance, individuals also suffer from other transdiagnostic
      impairments (eg, anhedonia and cognitive impairment). Although there have been
      significant advancements in psychiatric treatment over the last few decades,
      treatment efficacy (eg, symptom remission, lack of functional recovery, and
      disease modification) continues to be an important limitation. Consequently,
      there is an urgent need to identify novel approaches capable of addressing the
      foregoing needs, providing the basis for the exploration of conceptual models and
      treatment opportunities that consider inflammation to be a key factor in mood
      disorder development. In part driven by metabolic comorbidities, a large
      proportion of individuals with mood disorders also have an imbalance in the
      inflammatory milieu. The aim of this review is to highlight evidence implicating
      inflammation in various effector systems in mood disorders, with a particular
      focus on the intercommunication with glutamatergic signaling, immune system
      signaling, as well as metabolic parameters (eg, L-methyl folate bioavailability).
      This article also briefly reviews novel and repurposed agents that are capable of
      targeting the innate immune inflammatory system and possibly correcting an
      abnormal immune/inflammatory milieu (eg, infliximab).

PMID- 28566946
TI  - A multispecies approach for understanding neuroimmune mechanisms of stress.
AB  - The relationship between stress challenges and adverse health outcomes,
      particularly for the development of affective disorders, is now well established.
      The highly conserved neuroimmune mechanisms through which responses to stressors
      are transcribed into effects on males and females have recently garnered much
      attention from researchers and clinicians alike. The use of animal models, from
      mice to guinea pigs to primates, has greatly increased our understanding of these
      mechanisms on the molecular, cellular, and behavioral levels, and research in
      humans has identified particular brain regions and connections of interest, as
      well as associations between stress-induced inflammation and psychiatric
      disorders. This review brings together findings from multiple species in order to
      better understand how the mechanisms of the neuroimmune response to stress
      contribute to stress-related psychopathologies, such as major depressive
      disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

PMID- 28566948
TI  - Clinical and autoimmune features of a patient with autism spectrum disorder
      seropositive for anti-NMDA-receptor autoantibody.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by
      dysfunctions in social interactions resulting from a complex interplay between
      immunogenetic and environmental risk factors. Autoimmunity has been proposed as a
      major etiological component of ASD. Whether specific autoantibodies directed
      against brain targets are involved in ASD remains an open question. Here, we
      identified within a cohort an ASD patient with multiple circulating
      autoantibodies, including the well-characterized one against glutamate NMDA
      receptor (NMDAR-Ab). The patient exhibited alexithymia and previously suffered
      from two major depressive episodes without psychotic symptoms. Using a single
      molecule-based imaging approach, we demonstrate that neither NMDAR-Ab type G
      immunoglobulin purified from the ASD patient serum, nor that from a seropositive
      healthy subject, disorganize membrane NMDAR complexes at synapses. These findings
      suggest that the autistic patient NMDAR-Abs do not play a direct role in the
      etiology of ASD and that other autoantibodies directed against neuronal targets
      should be investigated.

PMID- 28566950
TI  - Neuronal Autoantibodies Call for Attention in Epilepsy.

PMID- 28566947
TI  - Immunological aspects of the treatment of depression and schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia and major depression (MD) have been associated with immune system
      dysfunction. One example of this is the altered level of cytokines-important
      inflammatory mediators-in blood, and a proinflammatory immune state has been
      described in some subgroups of patients. A knock to the immune system in early
      life might trigger a life-long increased immune reactivity, and infections and
      autoimmune disorders are now known to be risk factors for development of
      schizophrenia and MD. Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines mediate indoleamine
      2,3-dioxygenase activity; this enzyme drives metabolism of tryptophan and
      kynurenin in the central nervous system and degrades serotonin. Alterations of
      serotonergic, noradrenergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission have been
      associated with low-level neuroinflammation, and anti-inflammatory compounds have
      a therapeutic benefit in MD and schizophrenia, as shown in meta-analyses.
      Moreover, antidepressants and antipsychotics have intrinsic immunomodulatory
      effects. With evidence pointing to the role inflammatory processes play in the
      pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders, this review will look at various
      immunological aspects of treatment of such disorders.

PMID- 28566949
TI  - The potential role of neuroinflammation and transcription factors in Parkinson
      disease.
AB  - Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by
      dopaminergic neurons affected by inflammatory processes. Post-mortem analyses of
      brain and cerebrospinal fluid from PD patients show the accumulation of
      proinflammatory cytokines, confirming an ongoing neuroinflammation in the
      affected brain regions. These inflammatory mediators may activate transcription
      factors-notably nuclear factor kappaB, Ying-Yang 1 (YY1), fibroblast growth
      factor 20 (FGF20), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-which then regulate
      downstream signaling pathways that in turn promote death of dopaminergic neurons
      through death domain-containing receptors. Dopaminergic neurons are vulnerable to
      oxidative stress and inflammatory attack. An increased level of inducible nitric
      oxide synthase observed in the substantia nigra and striatum of PD patients
      suggests that both cytokine-and chemokine-induced toxicity and inflammation lead
      to oxidative stress that contributes to degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and
      to disease progression. Lipopolysaccharide activation of microglia in the
      proximity of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra causes their
      degeneration, and this appears to be a selective vulnerability of dopaminergic
      neurons to inflammation. In this review, we will look at the role of various
      transcription factors and signaling pathways in the development of PD.

PMID- 28566951
TI  - Psychological and Biological Validation of a Novel Digital Social Peer Evaluation
      Experiment (digi-SPEE).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Negative social evaluation is associated with psychopathology.
      Given the frequency of evaluation through increasingly prevalent virtual social
      networks, increased understanding of the effects of this social evaluation is
      urgently required. METHODS: A new digital social peer evaluation experiment (digi
      SPEE) was developed to mimic everyday online social interactions between peers.
      Participants received mildly negative feedback on their appearance, intelligence,
      and congeniality. Two hundred and forty-one young people [58.9% female, aged 18.9
      years (15 to 34)] from an ongoing novel general population twin study
      participated in this study. Positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), implicit
      self-esteem, and cortisol were assessed before and after exposure to the social
      evaluation experiment. RESULTS: The social evaluation experiment decreased PA (B=
      5.25, p<.001) and implicit self-esteem (B=-.19; p<.001), whereas it increased NA
      (B=5.99; p<.001) and cortisol levels (B=.07; p<.001). Females (PA: B=-7.62;
      p<.001; NA: B=8.28; p<.001) and participants with higher levels of general
      psychological distress (PA: B=-.04, p=.035; NA: B=.06; p=.028) showed stronger
      affective responses. Stressor-induced cortisol increase was stronger in
      adolescents under the age of 18 than in participants 18 years and older (B=-.06,
      p=.002). CONCLUSION: The digi-SPEE represents a social evaluation stressor that
      elicits biological and implicit and explicit mental changes that are relevant to
      mechanisms of psychopathology.

PMID- 28566952
TI  - Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey and
      Demographic Characteristics of Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multiple sclerosis (MS), a demyelinating disease of the central
      nervous system, is increasing in prevalence worldwide. Other than small-scale
      studies, there is a scarcity of data on the prevalence of MS in Turkey. The
      present study aimed to elucidate the prevalence of MS in the Middle Black Sea
      Region and the demographic characteristics of patients. METHODS: Patients living
      in the Middle Black Sea Region and who were diagnosed with MS were included. The
      study was designed based hospital of Turkey. RESULTS: A total of 1,787 patients
      were interviewed, and a diagnosis of MS was confirmed in 1,584. The prevalence of
      MS was found to be 43.2/100,000 in the Middle Black Sea Region; this was
      calculated based on the total population and number of patients in the provinces
      and districts in this region. The mean age at the disease onset was 29.39+/-7.6
      years. Among the patients, 1,299 (81.9%) had relapsing-remitting MS, 74 had
      secondary progressive MS, 77 had relapsing-progressive MS, 47 had primary
      progressive MS, and 87 had clinically isolated syndrome. CONCLUSION: The Middle
      Black Sea Region was found to have a high risk for the prevalence of MS. This
      study is the most comprehensive epidemiologic study having the largest
      geographical distribution on the prevalence of MS in Turkey.

PMID- 28566953
TI  - Conversion Disorder Comorbidity and Childhood Trauma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to examine the socio-demographic and
      clinical characteristics, the presence of comorbidity, and the link with
      childhood traumatic experiences in patients with conversion disorder (CD) in a
      psychiatric outpatient clinic. METHODS: A total of 60 literate, female patients
      between 18 and 65 years of age who were referred to the general psychiatry
      outpatient clinic and who were diagnosed with conversion disorder according to
      the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria were included in the study. A questionnaire on
      sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
      (BPRS), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating
      Scale (HARS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Dissociative
      Events Scale (DES) were used to assess the cases. RESULTS: The mean age of the
      participants was 36.27+/-11.18 years. 72% of the patients were married and 63%
      were primary school graduates. The most common symptoms were asthenia (100%),
      aphasia (96.7%), and crying-convulsions (93%). The most common co-morbidities
      were depression (50%) and dissociative disorders (48.3%). Among the patients,
      53.3% reported a history of exposure to physical violence and 25% reported a
      history of sexual assault in childhood. Assessment of the Childhood Traumatic
      Questionnaire revealed a significant positive relation between emotional,
      physical, and sexual abuse scores and DES score. CONCLUSION: CD has not yet been
      fully analyzed in detail in health institutions; co-existence of another mental
      disorder and the presence of traumatic experiences in the past further complicate
      the issue. Consideration of these factors during treatment will have a positive
      impact on the course and prognosis of the disorder.

PMID- 28566954
TI  - Demonstration of Early Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease with Visual
      P300 Responses.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common
      neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive changes in PD are
      less observable than motor symptoms; thus, research on cognitive processes, which
      are known to be impaired from the early stages of PD, is minimal. The purpose of
      this study is to research the brain dynamics of cognitively normal PD patients
      and healthy elderly controls using event-related potentials (ERPs) and to
      evaluate their relationships with neuropsychological tests. METHODS: Eighteen
      cognitively normal PD patients and 18 age-, gender-, and education-matched
      healthy controls were included in the study. Detailed neuropsychological tests
      were applied to all participants. Electroencephalography (EEG) was performed
      according to the international 10-20 system, and a classical visual oddball
      paradigm was used in the experiments. ERP responses in the 0.5 to 25 Hz frequency
      range were examined. P300 amplitude and latency values were measured from the F3,
      Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1, Oz, and O2 electrode sites. In addition, the
      correlations between P300 responses and neuropsychological test scores were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the P300 amplitudes
      of cognitively normal PD patients and healthy elderly controls [F(1,31)=9.265;
      p=0.005]. P300 amplitudes were significantly lower for PD patients at the F3, FZ,
      Cz, C4, Pz, and P4 electrode sites than for healthy elderly controls. Moderate
      correlations were found between Stroop test score and P4 amplitude, digit span
      forward and C3 and Pz amplitude, and digit span backward and O1 amplitude.
      CONCLUSION: The major finding of this study was the detection of cognitive
      changes by electrophysiological methods in PD patients who were indicated to be
      cognitively normal by neuropsychological tests. These finding suggests that
      cognitive changes in PD patients, which are not yet reflected in
      neuropsychological tests, may be detected by electrophysiological methods in
      earlier stages.

PMID- 28566955
TI  - A Clinically Neglected Topic: Risk of Suicide in Transgender Individuals.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine whether adolescence of
      transgender individuals is characterized by a high risk of suicide. METHODS: In
      total, 141 participants with transgenderism were questioned using a semi
      structured interview to determine whether participants had current suicidal
      thoughts, had a lifetime history of such thoughts, or had attempted suicide.
      These findings were cross-referenced to the participants' sociodemographic
      characteristics, and information about their families' general attitudes toward
      sexuality, gender identity, and commitment to religious views. In total, 101
      participants attended group psychotherapy sessions for at least a year. In these
      sessions, family and partner relationships, occupational problems, financial
      problems, medical issues, and religious concerns were discussed. RESULTS: The
      incidence of suicide attempts, current suicidal thoughts, and lifetime suicidal
      thoughts were 29.8%, 9.2%, and 55.3%, respectively. In total, 76.7% of the
      suicide attempts occurred before the age of 21. CONCLUSION: Transsexual
      individuals present a high risk of suicide, particularly during adolescence. This
      finding may be considered a sign for taking action to prevent suicide when
      working with transgender individuals, particularly during adolescence.

PMID- 28566956
TI  - Intelligence, Functioning, and Related Factors in Children with Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common significant motor impairment
      in childhood. CP is defined as a primary disorder of posture and movement;
      however, intellectual impairment is prevalent in children with CP. The purpose of
      this study was to examine the intelligence level associated with gross motor
      function and hand function, type of CP, the presence of comorbid disorders such
      as epilepsy, and other factors. METHODS: In total, 107 children with CP were
      included. Age, gender, prenatal/natal/postnatal risk factors, type of CP, and
      presence of other neurodevelopmental disorders were recorded as demographic
      findings. Intellectual functions of the patients were determined by clinical
      assessment, adaptive function of daily life, and individualized, standardized
      intelligence testing. The gross motor function and hand function of the patients
      were classified using the "Gross Motor Function Classification System" and
      "Bimanual Fine Motor Function" measurements, respectively. RESULTS: The mean age
      of the patients was 8.10+/-3.43 years (2-16 years). The study included 63 (58.9%)
      male patients and 44 (41.1%) female patients. During clinical typing, 80.4% of
      the patients were spastic, 11.2% were mixed, 4.7% were dyskinetic, and 3.7% were
      ataxic. Intellectual functioning tests found 26.2% of the children within the
      intellectual norm and that 10% of the children had a borderline intellectual
      disability, 16% of them had a mild intellectual disability, 17% of them had a
      moderate intellectual disability, and 30.8% of them had a severe intellectual
      disability. No significant relationship was determined between the CP type and
      intellectual functioning (p>0.05). Intellectual functioning was found to be
      significantly correlated with hand functions and motor levels (p<0.001). Factors
      related with intellectual functioning were neonatal convulsion, epilepsy, and
      speech disorders. CONCLUSION: Intelligence assessment should be an essential part
      of CP evaluation and research. There is not enough reliable knowledge, unanimity
      regarding validity data, and population-specific norms in the intelligence
      assessments of children with CP. Research is required to assess properly
      intelligence for children with CP.

PMID- 28566957
TI  - Additive Effects of Former Methylenedioxymethamphetamine and Cannabis Use on
      Subclinical Psychotic Symptoms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is an amphetamine-derived
      psychostimulant, usually known as "ecstasy." The long-term neuropsychological
      effects of MDMA are examined in several studies with conflicting results. The
      most common findings reported are depression, anxiety, and memory and attention
      deficits. In addition to acute psychotic reactions observed after MDMA use,
      serotonergic and dopaminergic toxicities may increase the psychosis risk in the
      long-term. Cannabis usage among MDMA users is very high. The aim of this study
      was, therefore, to examine the additive effects of cannabis and MDMA on
      subclinical psychotic symptoms (SPS). METHODS: Here, 131 healthy controls (hC),
      54 former cannabis and MDMA users (C&M), and 46 former cannabis users (C) were
      evaluated for SPS. The definition of former user was based on the Munich
      Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The SPS scores were assessed by
      using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The relationship between
      substance-free periods and total MDMA exposure with SPS was also examined.
      RESULTS: The C&M group had higher levels of SPS than both C and hC groups. This
      is true not only for the total SPQ scores but both positive and negative
      schizotypy scores as well as cognitive-perceptual, disorganized, and
      interpersonal schizotypy scores aligned hierarchically in the 3 study groups
      (C&M>C>hC). The total MDMA exposure was positively correlated and MDMA-free
      period was negatively correlated with the SPS score. CONCLUSION: We found that
      the former use of cannabis and MDMA is associated with marked elevation in SPS.
      Moreover, the exposure amount of MDMA and MDMA-free periods are important
      determinants of SPS. The longer the cannabis and ecstasy free periods, the larger
      is the waning of SPS.

PMID- 28566958
TI  - Cognitive Outcome after Surgery in Patients with Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the neuropsychological
      outcomes of patients with medically intractable unilateral mesial temporal lobe
      epilepsy (MTLE) due to hippocampal sclerosis (HS) treated either by anterior
      temporal lobectomy (ATL) or selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH). METHODS:
      This was a retrospective study where 67 patients who had undergone surgery for
      MTLE were evaluated. Thirty-two patients underwent ATL and 35 underwent SAH. All
      patients underwent a detailed neuropsychological evaluation before and 1 year
      after surgery. RESULTS: The verbal memory outcome was unchanged after left-sided
      surgery, whereas learning capacity increased after right-sided surgery (p=0.038).
      The visual memory outcome improved after right-sided surgery. Improvement of
      executive functions, particularly in the resistance of interference pattern in
      the Stroop Test, shortened 5th card time (p=0.000), and decreased corrections
      (p=0.003), after right-sided surgery and increased attention (p=0.027) after left
      sided surgery were observed. After both surgery types, although statistically
      insignificant, there was a marked decrease in incorrect answers in the Stroop
      Test, which also showed an improvement in the resistance of interference pattern.
      Moreover, there was a significant decrease in switching errors with word pairs in
      the Verbal Fluency Test (p=0.008) after right-sided surgery. When the two sides
      were compared, we observed that the recall phase of the verbal memory worsened
      (p=0.018); however, the recognition phase improved (p=0.015) after left-sided
      surgery. Additionally, the short-term visual memory was better for both sides
      (p=0.035). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that patients with left MTLE were not
      worsened in verbal memory, but despite improved recognition, they have some
      problems in recalling information and only a minor improvement in attention.
      Patients with right MTLE improved in their verbal learning capacity, visual
      memory, and resistance of interference pattern 1 year after surgery. It was thus
      shown that while epilepsy surgery is associated with some negative cognitive
      changes, it may also improve some cognitive functions.

PMID- 28566959
TI  - Metabolic Effects of Antidepressant Treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate body measurements, glucose-insulin
      metabolism, and lipid profile in patients with anxiety and depressive symptoms
      and also the effects of antidepressant drugs on these metabolic parameters.
      METHODS: The study included 40 outpatients and 32 healthy controls. The patients
      received antidepressant treatment (sertraline, escitalopram, fluoxetine, and
      venlafaxine) for 8 weeks. Body measurements were performed, and lipid, fasting
      blood glucose, and insulin levels were measured before and after treatment in
      patients and once in healthy controls. Insulin resistance was evaluated using the
      homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) index. RESULTS: Body mass index was higher in
      patients than in healthy controls, and there was no change in patients after
      treatment. In patients, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels
      increased owing to the antidepressant treatment. Insulin level and HOMA index had
      a tendency to decrease with the treatment in patients and were similar to those
      of healthy controls before the treatment; however, they became lower than those
      of healthy controls after the treatment. There was an increase in waist
      circumference and total and HDL cholesterol levels, whereas there was a decrease
      in fasting blood glucose levels with treatment in patients using escitalopram.
      There was no change in body measurements and biochemical and hormone values in
      patients using fluoxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine. There was an increase in
      weight, body mass index, and waist circumference after treatment in patients with
      depression; however, there was no change in patients with anxiety. CONCLUSION: In
      patients with psychiatric disorders having anxiety and depressive symptoms,
      metabolic changes independent of drugs and the metabolic effects of drugs are
      present.

PMID- 28566960
TI  - Efficacy of Different Durations of Intravenous Methylprednisolone Treatment in
      Relapses of Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS) are usually treated with high
      dose intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP), given over 3-10 days. There is no
      consensus on the optimal duration of treatment. In this study, we aimed to
      investigate whether longer treatment provides additional short-term clinical
      benefits assessed by the change in plasma cytokine levels and EDSS scores in
      patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). METHODS: Forty RRMS patients during
      relapse were grouped into 3 and treated with 1 g/day of IVMP for either 5, 7, or
      10 consecutive days. RESULTS: Levels of IL-10 and IL-12 were analyzed, and EDSS
      scores were noted before treatment, after treatment (on days 6, 8, or 11) and at
      the 4th week. IVMP treatment significantly induced anti-inflammatory IL-10 levels
      but had no effect on IL-12 levels. IVMP treatment for 7 or 10 consecutive days
      was not significantly different than that for 5 days in terms of the change in IL
      12, IL-10 levels or clinical outcome. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, pulse high-dose
      IVMP treatment enhances functional recovery in patients with acute relapses of
      RRMS. In addition, IVMP treatment significantly increases the levels of IL-10 but
      has no effect on the levels of IL-12 in the short term.

PMID- 28566961
TI  - Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Measurement by Spectral-Domain Optical
      Coherence Tomography in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In recent years, an increasing number of studies have researched
      retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) changes in neurodegenerative disorders. In this
      study, our aim was to determine structural RNFL changes in patients with major
      depressive disorder. METHODS: A total of 30 patients with major depressive
      disorder and 30 age- and sex-matched controls were recruited. Using optical
      coherence tomography (OCT), the peripapillary RNFL thickness in major depressive
      disorder patients and control subjects was measured and compared at each
      location. RESULTS: Patients with major depressive disorder did not show a
      statistically significant reduction in overall peripapillary RNFL thickness.
      CONCLUSION: Our study showed that RNFL thickness is not reduced in major
      depressive disorder patients and that OCT is not a useful tool for diagnosing and
      monitoring the progression of major depressive disorder. This study suggests that
      the pathophysiology of unipolar depression is different than in neurodegenerative
      disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar
      disorder.

PMID- 28566962
TI  - Impact of Neuro-Behcet Disease Immunoglobulin G on Neuronal Apoptosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parenchymal neuro-Behcet disease (NBD) is encountered in 5%-15% of
      Behcet disease (BD) patients and is characterized by inflammation of the
      brainstem and diencephalon structures. Neuronal apoptosis has been shown to
      participate in neuronal cell loss. Anti-neuronal antibodies have been identified
      in NBD patients. However, the pathogenic properties of these antibodies have not
      been studied. METHODS: To delineate the potential pathogenic activity of serum
      antibodies on neurons, pooled sera from seven NBD patients and seven healthy
      controls were divided into purified immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgG-depleted serum
      fractions, and each fraction was administered to cultured SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma
      cells. Cell death was evaluated with a toxicity assay and terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Moreover,
      expression levels of several apoptosis markers were evaluated with real time
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Administration of NBD IgG to cultured
      SH-SY5Y cells induced significantly increased cell death and apoptosis compared
      with other treatments. NBD IgG also enhanced the mRNA expression levels of major
      apoptosis and cell survival pathway factors. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that
      IgGs isolated from the sera of NBD patients have a neurotoxic activity that is
      presumably mediated by apoptotic mechanisms.

PMID- 28566963
TI  - The Investigation of Symptoms and Diagnoses of Adult-Attention Deficit/
      Hyperactivity Disorder in Women with Iron Deficiency Anemia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to investigate symptoms and diagnoses of
      Adult-Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in women with iron
      deficiency anemia, to evaluate relationship between ADHD with clinical features
      and to compare with the women without iron deficiency anemia. METHODS: Eighty
      three newly diagnosed iron deficiency anemia patients and 70 healthy controls
      were included in this study. All participants were assessed using a
      sociodemographic form, Structured Clinical Interview I (SCID-I), Wender Utah
      Rating Scale (WURS); Moreover, participants having WURS scores 36 and above were
      also assessed using the Adult ADD/ADHD Evaluation Scale and interviewed according
      to DSM-5 criteria. RESULTS: In the study, 22.9% of patients with iron deficiency
      anemia and 12.9% of healthy controls were found to have WURS scores 36 and above.
      Fifteen patients (18.1%) in iron deficiency anemia group and two patients (2.9%)
      in control group had adult ADHD, when they were evaluated with Adult ADD/ADHD
      Evaluation Scale and interviewed according to DSM-5 criteria (p=0.007). The
      patients with iron deficiency anemia had significantly higher WURS scores
      compared to controls (p=0.002). The levels of iron and ferritin had negative
      correlation (r=-0.166, p<0.05; r=-0.255, p<0.01, respectively) and the levels of
      serum iron binding capacity had positive correlation (r=0.255, p<0.01) with the
      scores of WURS. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of adult ADHD is higher than those
      reported for general population in patients with iron deficiency anemia. Early
      diagnose and treatment of adult ADHD may positively contribute to the patients
      with iron deficiency anemia.

PMID- 28566964
TI  - Brainstem Reflexes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients Without Clinical
      Neurological Manifestations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We aimed to assess central and peripheral nervous system
      involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients without any
      neurological signs and symptoms by performing electrophysiological
      investigations. METHODS: Thirty-eight SLE patients and 35 healthy volunteers
      participated in this study. Peripheral nerve conduction and brainstem reflexes
      were evaluated by performing nerve conduction studies (NCSs) and blink reflex
      (BR) and masseter inhibitory reflex (MIR) recordings. RESULTS: Eleven patients
      (29%) had an abnormality in at least 1 NCS parameter, and 1 (2.6%) patient was
      diagnosed with polyneuropathy. The number of patients with abnormal BR and MIR
      was 23 (60.5%) and 14 (37%), respectively. The contralateral R2 latency of BR and
      the silent period 1 (SP1) latency of MIR were significantly prolonged in the
      patients compared with the controls (p=0.015 and p<0.001, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: This study showed that irrespective of peripheral nervous system
      involvement, brainstem reflexes could be affected in SLE patients even without
      clinical neurological findings. Brainstem reflex abnormalities suggested that the
      functional integrity of the inhibitory or excitatory interneurons in the lateral
      caudal pons and lateral medulla is disturbed in SLE patients.

PMID- 28566966
TI  - Factitious Disorder Presenting with Stuttering in Two Adolescents: The Importance
      of Psychoeducation.
AB  - A factitious disorder (FD) is a diagnostic entity in which patients intentionally
      act physically or mentally ill without obvious benefits and without being
      consciously aware of a clear underlying motive. Most pediatric FD cases have been
      reported as Munchausen syndrome by Proxy; however, pediatric disease symptoms can
      also be intentionally falsified by child and adolescent patients. To our
      knowledge, in the medical literature, an FD patient presenting with stuttering
      has not been previously reported. In this case report, we aimed to discuss the
      diagnosis and treatment process of FDs in children and adolescents by reporting
      the cases of two FD patients presenting with stuttering according to the
      Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition. Both
      patients improved with psychoeducation and early confrontation.

PMID- 28566967
TI  - Clinical and Electrophysiological Findings in Two Siblings with Familial
      Hyperekplexia.

PMID- 28566965
TI  - Caregiver Burden in Different Stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - With an increasing number of patients being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
      (AD) daily, it has become one of the major problems in public health. The
      increase in the number of dementia patients in low- and middle-income countries
      is expected to be much more than that in developed countries. As a result, the
      economic burden of dementia, both worldwide and in Turkey, is growing. Moreover,
      AD leads to emotional burdens and psychological distress in family member(s) and
      caregiver(s) alongside the patient. Each stage of AD imposes different
      responsibilities on caregivers, increasing their burden. The suffering and
      emotional burdens of caregivers from these responsibilities lead to a decreased
      quality of life and disturbed body physiology. Incapacity, despair, weariness,
      and loneliness are the hidden emotions of this iceberg. This review aims to
      gather the results of studies on caregiver burden in different stages of AD,
      attract attention to those results that may have been ignored in Turkey, and shed
      light on the solutions required to overcome the problems in caregiving of AD
      patients.

PMID- 28566968
TI  - Autism Spectrum Disorder and Phenylketonuria: Dyzygotic Twins with Double
      Syndrome.

PMID- 28566969
TI  - Anterior Cerebral Artery Dissection Due to Sildenafil Use.

PMID- 28566970
TI  - Parents' perceptions about child abuse and their impact on physical and emotional
      child abuse: A study from primary health care centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine perceptions of parents about child abuse, and their
      impact on physical and emotional child abuse. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred
      parents attending three primary health care centers (PHCCs) in Riyadh serving
      National Guard employes and their families, were requested to participate in this
      survey. Data was collected by self administered questionnaire. Five main risk
      factors areas/domains were explored; three were parent related (personal factors,
      history of parents' childhood abuse, and parental attitude toward punishment),
      and two were family/community effects and factors specific to the child. SPSS was
      used for data entry and analysis. Descriptive analysis included computation of
      mean, median, mode, frequencies, and percentages; Chi-square test and t-test were
      used to test for statistical significance, and regression analysis performed to
      explore relationships between child abuse and various risk factors. RESULTS:
      Thirty-four percent of the parents reported a childhood history of physical
      abuse. Almost 18% of the parents used physical punishment. The risk factors
      associated significantly with child abuse were parents' history of physical
      abuse, young parent, witness to domestic violence, and poor self-control. Child
      related factors included a child who is difficult to control or has attention
      deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parents who did not own a house were more
      likely to use physical punishment. Abusive beliefs of parent as risk factors
      were: physical punishment as an effective educational tool for a noisy child;
      parents' assent to physical punishment for children; it is difficult to
      differentiate between physical punishment and child abuse; parents have the right
      to discipline their child as they deem necessary; and there is no need for a
      system for the prevention of child abuse. CONCLUSION: The causes of child abuse
      and neglect are complex. Though detecting child abuse may be difficult in primary
      care practice, many risk factors can be identified early. Parents' attitudes can
      be measured, and prevention initiatives, such as screening and counseling for
      parents of children at risk, can be developed and incorporated into primary care
      practice.

PMID- 28566971
TI  - Prevalence and spectrum of functional disability of urban elderly subjects: A
      community-based study from Central India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: One of the major determinants of the quality of life of elderly
      subjects is their functional status, which refers to their ability to perform
      normal daily activities. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence
      of functional disability in terms of restriction in the activities of daily
      livings (ADLs) in elderly subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This community-based
      cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban area of Varanasi, India, with 616
      elderly subjects (60 years and above) selected for the study by an appropriate
      sampling procedure. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used to elicit
      the desired information after taking consent from the study subjects. Statistical
      Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 21st version) was used for analysis; Chi-square
      test and z-test were used to test for statistical significance. RESULTS:
      Prevalence of functional disability in elderly subjects was 53.6% (95% confidence
      interval: 49.67-57.5%). Restriction of any ADL with maximum severity was observed
      in 13.5% of the subjects. Independence in ADLs was maximum (100%) for bowel
      continence and lowest for climbing stairs (47.4%). On the basis of Barthel Index
      score, 25.2% and 4.4% of the subjects had moderate and severe dependency,
      respectively. In comparison to mobility restriction, the proportion of subjects
      whose ADLs were not affected was significantly (P < 0.01) more in the self-care
      domain. CONCLUSION: Nearly half of the elderly subjects were functionally
      disabled on the basis of ADL performance. The number of persons of this age group
      in the domain of restricted mobility is quite high. It is necessary and also
      possible to design and implement programs that will involve all persons concerned
      with their care to improve the functional status of the geriatric population.

PMID- 28566972
TI  - To what extent are Arab pilgrims to Makkah aware of the middle east respiratory
      syndrome coronavirus and the precautions against it?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately, 80% of the many cases of the Middle East respiratory
      syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) confirmed worldwide were diagnosed in the Kingdom
      of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The risk of the disease spreading internationally is
      especially worrying given the role of KSA as the home of the most important
      Islamic pilgrimage sites. This means the need to assess Arab pilgrims' awareness
      of MERS-CoV is of paramount importance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional
      study was carried out during Ramadan 2015 in the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudi
      Arabia. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 417 Arab
      participants at King Fahad Extension, King Abdullah Prayer Extension and, King
      Abdullah Piazza Extension after Taraweeh and Fajr prayers. RESULTS: The mean MERS
      CoV knowledge score was 52.56. Majority of the respondents (91.3%) were familiar
      with MERS-CoV. Saudis had significantly higher knowledge of MERS-CoV than non
      Saudis (56.92 +/- 18.55 vs. 44.91 +/- 25.46, p = 0.001). Females had
      significantly more knowledge about consanguineous MERS-CoV than males (55.82 +/-
      19.35 vs. 49.93 +/- 23.66, p = 0.006). The average knowledge was significantly
      higher in respondents who had received health advice on MERS-CoV (56.08 +/- 20.86
      vs. 50.65 +/- 22.51, p = 0.024). With respect to stepwise linear regression,
      knowledge of MERS-CoV tended to increase by 14.23 (B = 14.23%, p = 0.001) in
      participants who were familiar with MERS-CoV, and by 8.50 (B = 8.50, p = 0.001)
      in those who perceived MERS-CoV as a very serious disease. CONCLUSION: There is a
      great need for educational programs to increase awareness about MERS-CoV.

PMID- 28566973
TI  - Perspective of Saudi women in the Makkah region on breast cancer awareness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the perspective of Saudi women in the Makkah region on
      breast cancer awareness and early detection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A mixed
      method study was conducted among 25-65 years old healthy Saudi females from
      Makkah region during the awareness campaign in October 2014. The participants
      were recruited by personal invitations at the women's places of work and social
      gatherings. The initial invitations were issued by either the research
      coordinator or the investigator. All women were asked to complete a short
      questionnaire on basic knowledge on breast cancer. This was followed by focus
      group discussions. All interviews were carried out by female breast cancer
      consultant oncologists. All discussion transcripts were summarized and
      categorized into main themes; data presented as frequencies and percentages.
      RESULTS: Forty Saudi females, aged 25-65 years, were included in the study.
      Nearly 38% of them had never attended any awareness campaign on breast cancer.
      Only 10% of the participants correctly answered all five basic questions on the
      risk and early detection of breast cancer; 63% of the women had never been taught
      breast self-examination. Participants' perception was discussed in five focus
      groups. Four themes were identified during the discussions: knowledge about
      breast cancer and screening; resources of breast cancer awareness; social support
      for access to awareness program; and beliefs on breast cancer and early
      detection. CONCLUSION: We recommend that strategies on breast cancer awareness in
      our population should focus on early detection by improving the knowledge and
      skills of women. These strategies should include programs widely accessible
      through primary health-care centers and other health-care institutions. In
      addition, we recommend that physicians and family members should be involved in
      these programs.

PMID- 28566974
TI  - Mild respiratory symptoms in asthmatic patients might not be due to
      bronchoconstriction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although respiratory symptoms in asthmatic patients are likely to be
      caused by bronchoconstriction, this should be confirmed by spirometry. In this
      study, our aim was to determine the percentage of asthmatic patients who present
      with mild respiratory symptoms but fail to show any evidence of
      bronchoconstriction in spirometry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 428 known
      asthmatic patients (57.5% females) participated in the study. Inclusion criteria
      were age >=16 years, known asthmatics for at least 1 year, presenting with mild
      respiratory symptoms including cough, wheezes, shortness of breath, and chest
      tightness. Patients presenting with moderate or severe asthma exacerbations were
      excluded from the study. Spirometry measurements were performed according to the
      guidelines of the American Thoracic Society. SPSS was used for data analysis. The
      percentage of patients who did not show any evidence of airway obstruction was
      calculated. For spirometry variables, mean and standard deviation were
      calculated. For the categorical variables, Chi-square test was performed to
      determine statistical significance at alpha=0.05. RESULTS: Typical obstructive
      pattern was found in 38 (or 9%) of all participants. Evidence of obstruction
      within small or middle airways was found in all those who showed an obstructive
      pattern and more than 90% of those who showed restrictive or mixed patterns.
      About 11% of the participants showed a normal spirometric pattern with no
      evidence of small airway obstruction. Statistical analysis showed an
      insignificant relation between patterns of spirometry and gender or body mass
      index of the participants. CONCLUSION: About 11% of asthmatic patients with mild
      respiratory symptoms who attended the respiratory clinic have no evidence of
      bronchoconstriction. Spirometry is an essential step for evaluation of every
      asthmatic patient who presents with respiratory symptoms.

PMID- 28566975
TI  - Doctors' knowledge of patients' rights at King Fahd Hospital of the University.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the level of physicians' knowledge about the contents of
      patients' bill of rights (PBR) and its implementation. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This cross-sectional study was carried out at a university hospital in the
      Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. All physicians working in the hospital received
      a self-administered questionnaire to measure their level of knowledge of PBR.
      Scoring was done to determine the knowledge of the details. The study was
      approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University Hospital and
      permission sought from the administration. Data analysis performed with SPSS;
      descriptive analyses included frequency and percentages for categorical
      variables, and mean and standard deviations for continuous variables. Bivariate
      analyses were carried out to determine association between sociodemographic
      variables and the level of knowledge (adequate/inadequate). Logistic regression
      analysis were performed to calculate adjusted odds ratio at 0.05 significance
      level. RESULTS: Most (52.7%) of the physicians were females, were aged between 25
      and 30 years (58.5%), and Saudi (80.2%). The majority of the physicians belonged
      to the residency program (44.9%) and had work experience of 1-5 years (45.4%).
      About 44% physicians had adequate knowledge about PBR and 55.56% had inadequate
      knowledge. Regarding physician's response to each item of PBR, the majority
      (98.1%) gave correct answer to Item 2: "Patients should know the identity and
      professional status of the healthcare providers responsible for their treatment"
      (98.1%). Item 25: "Doctors are entitled to withhold any procedures related to a
      patient's condition if the patient refuses their choice of treatment" was the
      item with the least correct response (15.5%). CONCLUSION: Reinforcement and
      strict implementation of PBR are necessary. The institution should provide
      training and motivate physicians, especially younger doctors regarding PBR to
      ensure good health for all and safeguard the integrity of both the physician and
      the hospital.

PMID- 28566977
TI  - Cochlear implants in children: A cross-sectional investigation on the influence
      of geographic location in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The role of the family in detecting a child's hearing difficulty
      and the age at which an implantation is done have been identified as strong
      predictors of the outcomes of pediatric cochlear implantation. In the absence of
      screening programs for hearing loss in Saudi neonates, the family's role is of
      paramount importance. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of
      geographic location on the course of identification, examination, and cochlear
      implantation in children in Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pediatric
      patients who had received either unilateral or bilateral cochlear implantation at
      King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January 1,
      2012, and December 31, 2014, were surveyed. RESULTS: A total of 156 pediatric
      patients have had a cochlear implant between January 1, 2012, and December 31,
      2014. The one-way analysis of variance test to compare the means of the
      independent sample groups in various geographic zones showed that with a hundred
      percent access to primary health care, the geographic location of the population
      had an influence on the detection of hearing loss but not on the cochlear
      implantation. CONCLUSION: This study found that the geographic location of the
      population has an influence on the time of detection of hearing loss in children
      but not on the time of cochlear implantation. Raising parental awareness of the
      importance of early detection of hearing loss is necessary. Further research is
      also required to define the role of factors such as the income and the
      educational level of parents on the early detection of neonatal hearing loss.

PMID- 28566976
TI  - Health education to diabetic patients before the start of Ramadan: Experience
      from a teaching hospital in Dammam.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Studies have shown that pre-Ramadan structured
      educational program for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) is beneficial. In
      this study, our aim was to evaluate the degree of adherence of treating
      physicians to such programs and their influence on the patient's knowledge and
      behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out on
      adult patients with DM attending a university hospital, who were observed while
      fasting during Ramadan 1436/2015. Data was collected using a questionnaire-based
      interview. Baseline characteristics were obtained, and patients were asked
      whether they had had pre-Ramadan education or not and who the provider was.
      Patients' knowledge of the components of the recommended structured pre-Ramadan
      educational program was also tested. Comparison between patients who had the
      education and those who did not was done using Chi-square test and independent
      samples Student's t-test; p <= 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
      RESULTS: A total of 298 patients with type 1 or type 2 DM were included in the
      study; 75.5% of the patients were aged 40 years or older. Only 30% had pre
      Ramadan education delivered mainly by diabetic educators or the treating
      physicians (52% and 44%, respectively). Patients who had the education were
      younger (mean age: 45.6 +/- 17.4 vs. 50.3 +/- 14.4, respectively, p = 0.0048),
      had higher educational qualifications, were more likely to be employed, and self
      monitored their blood glucose more frequently (p = 0.0001). There was no
      difference between the two groups with regard to their knowledge of diet and
      exercise. CONCLUSION: The adherence to the pre-Ramadan educational program by the
      treating physician was low. It is necessary to increase the awareness about the
      importance of these programs among health-care professionals. The programs should
      target the less educated, the unemployed, and older patients.

PMID- 28566978
TI  - Satisfaction with a 2-day communication skills course culturally tailored for
      medical specialists in Qatar.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Health-care communication skills training may be particularly needed
      in the Arabian Gulf countries because of the variety of cultures within the
      physician and patient populations. This study describes the implementation and
      results of a communication skills training program for physicians in Qatar that
      assessed previous training, and effect of previous training on participants'
      course evaluations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a 2-day communication
      skills training course covering seven culturally adapted modules. Educational
      strategies included large and small group work with the standardized patient,
      demonstration videos, and lectures. At the end, participants completed a course
      evaluation survey. Data analysis performed with SPSS; frequencies and percentages
      were calculated, and Chi-square test applied to evaluate statistical
      significance. RESULTS: A total of 410 physicians in Qatar have participated in
      the course over a period of 2 years. Evaluation ratings of the course were high.
      Participants rated the module on Breaking Bad News as the most useful, and the
      small group role-play as the most helpful course component. One-third of
      participants had previously participated in experiential communication skills
      training. There was no association between previous experience and evaluation of
      the course. CONCLUSION: Physicians in Qatar positively evaluated a 2-day
      communication skills course, though the majority of participants did not have any
      previous exposure to experiential communication skills training.

PMID- 28566979
TI  - Eagle's syndrome with facial palsy.
AB  - Eagle's syndrome (ES) is a rare disease in which the styloid process is elongated
      and compressing adjacent structures. We describe a rare presentation of ES in
      which the patient presented with facial palsy. Facial palsy as a presentation of
      ES is very rare. A review of the English literature revealed only one previously
      reported case. Our case is a 39-year-old male who presented with left facial
      palsy. He also reported a 9-year history of the classical symptoms of ES. A
      computed tomography scan with three-dimensional reconstruction confirmed the
      diagnoses. He was started on conservative management but without significant
      improvement. Surgical intervention was offered, but the patient refused. It is
      important for otolaryngologists, dentists, and other specialists who deal with
      head and neck problems to be able to recognize ES despite its rarity. Although
      the patient responded to a treatment similar to that of Bell's palsy because of
      the clinical features and imaging, ES was most likely the cause of his facial
      palsy.

PMID- 28566980
TI  - Use of International Physical Activity Questionnaire-short form for assessment of
      physical activity of children.

PMID- 28566981
TI  - Isolated eyelid Schwannoma: A rare differential diagnosis of lid tumor.
AB  - Primary Schwannomas of the eyelid are extremely uncommon. It accounts for one
      percent of orbital tumors. We present a case of isolated eyelid Schwannoma in the
      lateral canthus of the left eye with no systemic diseases associated. Surgical
      excisional biopsy was done. In two years follow up, no recurrence or malignant
      conversion was detected.

PMID- 28566982
TI  - Successful management of choroidal neovascular membrane secondary to choroidal
      osteoma with intravitreal bevacizumab.

PMID- 28566983
TI  - The Radioprotective Effect of Resveratrol Against Genotoxicity Induced by gamma
      Irradiation in Mice Blood Lymphocytes.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated whether the protective potential of resveratrol (RSV;
      3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) against gamma-radiation caused damages in
      peripheral blood lymphocyte of mice. Resveratrol as a polyphenolic compound
      scavenges free radicals. Various doses of RSV were administered intraperitoneally
      2 hours to adult male mice before a single dose of whole-body gamma-irradiation
      (2 Gy). To assess the protective ability of RSV, the alkaline comet assay in
      blood lymphocyte of mice was performed and the total comet score was evaluated.
      The results of the alkaline comet assay showed that RSV significantly inhibited
      radiation-induced DNA damage. We observed that RSV protects blood lymphocyte
      against radiation-induced damage in mice.

PMID- 28566984
TI  - Can mHealth Revolutionize the Way We Manage Adult Obesity?
AB  - Obesity is the largest driver of chronic preventable diseases, accounting for an
      estimated $147 billion or 10 percent of total US healthcare costs in 2008. It has
      been forecasted that 42 percent of Americans will be obese by 2030. Mobile health
      (mHealth) technologies target and may modify the behavioral factors that lead to
      obesity to promote a healthy lifestyle. These technologies could potentially
      reduce the cost and the morbidity and mortality burden of obesity because of
      their inexpensive and portable nature. This study aimed to analyze the efficacy
      and cost-effectiveness of mHealth interventions for adult obesity in the United
      States. The methodology used in this study was a literature review of 54
      articles. Weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference reductions, and
      favorable lifestyle behavior changes were noted across most studies. Existing
      data and research on efficacy and linked costs indicated that mHealth
      technologies were more effective than other methods and could be inexpensively
      delivered remotely to manage adult obesity, offering significant benefits over
      conventional care. Further studies on the costs and benefits of adapting such
      mHealth interventions in clinical settings are needed.

PMID- 28566985
TI  - Development of a Novel Tablet-based Approach to Reduce HIV Stigma among
      Healthcare Staff in India.
AB  - Although stigma is considered to be one of the major barriers to reducing the
      AIDS epidemic in India, efforts to reduce stigma have not been sufficiently
      examined. In response, a partially computer-administered three-session stigma
      reduction intervention was developed and is currently being tested. This paper
      describes the technological design, development, implementation, and management
      of these in-person tablet-administered assessment and intervention sessions that
      are being used to evaluate the efficacy of this innovative stigma reduction
      intervention among nursing students and ward attendants in India.

PMID- 28566986
TI  - Differences in Sociocognitive Beliefs between Involved and Noninvolved Employees
      during the Implementation of an Electronic Health Record System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electronic health records (EHRs) can improve quality and efficiency
      in patient care. However, the intention to work with such a new system is often
      relatively low among employees because the work processes of the healthcare
      organization may change. Involving employees in an EHR implementation may
      increase their beliefs and perceived capabilities concerning the new system. The
      current study aimed to assess the role of involvement and its effects on
      sociocognitive beliefs regarding the implementation of a new EHR system. METHODS:
      The study was performed in June 2015 among all eligible employees of a hospital
      in the Netherlands. Both involved and noninvolved employees were invited to
      complete a paper-based questionnaire concerning their sociocognitive beliefs
      (i.e., attitude, social influence, self-efficacy, and intention) related to the
      EHR implementation. Independent sample t-tests were used to assess potential
      differences in sociocognitive beliefs between employees who were involved in the
      implementation process and those who were not. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were
      calculated to indicate the standardized difference between the means. RESULTS: A
      total of 359 participants completed the paper-based questionnaire and were
      included in the analyses. Involved employees (n = 94) reported significantly
      higher levels of attitude (p < .001, d = .62), perceived self-efficacy (p = .01,
      d = .31), social support (p < .001, d = .68), and a higher intention to work with
      the new EHR system (p < .001, d = .60), compared with the group of employees who
      were not involved in the implementation process (n = 265). CONCLUSION: Involving
      employees during an EHR implementation appears to enhance employees'
      sociocognitive beliefs and increases their intention to work with the new system.

PMID- 28566987
TI  - Evaluating Motivation for the Use of an Electronic Health Record Simulation Game.
AB  - Experiential learning via simulation offers a variety of benefits including
      reduced risks, repetitive exposure, and mastery of complex processes. How to
      motivate people to engage in and enjoy playing games is an important concept in
      the creation of serious games focused on learning new skills. This study sought
      to determine the motivators that increase users' pleasurable experience when
      playing an electronic health record simulation game. To examine how intrinsic and
      extrinsic motivation affected both engagement and enjoyment, we surveyed students
      of health professions at one university. Results indicate that while both forms
      of motivation are significant in increasing engagement and enjoyment, extrinsic
      motivation such as badges, points, and scoreboards were much more important than
      internal motivations for our participants. These findings have implications for
      the development of an electronic health record simulation game.

PMID- 28566989
TI  - Potential Effects of the Electronic Health Record on the Small Physician
      Practice: A Delphi Study.
AB  - The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act
      established the requirement of all medical practices to have certified electronic
      health records (EHRs). Some primary concerns that have been delaying
      implementation are issues of cost, revenue impact, and the effect on the patient
      encounter. Small physician practices (one to four physicians) account for 46
      percent of all physicians. The purpose of this qualitative study using a modified
      Delphi research design was to examine the potential effect of the adoption of the
      EHR on revenue, unintended costs or savings, and changes in the patient
      encounter. Fifteen expert panelists completed the three-round survey process. The
      expert panelists reached a consensus that EHRs would reduce the number of
      patients seen per day, thereby reducing their revenue. Although the panelists
      limited their discussion on the effect of patient outcomes, their most dominant
      concern was the loss of face-to-face time with the patient. They felt that the
      use of an EHR would reduce the focus on the patient and potentially cause
      physicians to miss medical conditions. The results of this study indicate an
      avenue for EHR vendors to develop educational avenues to teach physicians how to
      optimize the EHR as well as to share success stories that demonstrate improved
      financial impact.

PMID- 28566988
TI  - The Impact of Order Source Misattribution on Computerized Provider Order Entry
      (CPOE) Performance Metrics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One strategy to foster adoption of computerized provider order entry
      (CPOE) by physicians is the monthly distribution of a list identifying the number
      and use rate percentage of orders entered electronically versus on paper by each
      physician in the facility. Physicians care about CPOE use rate reports because
      they support the patient safety and quality improvement objectives of CPOE
      implementation. Certain physician groups are also motivated because they
      participate in contracted financial and performance arrangements that include
      incentive payments or financial penalties for meeting (or failing to meet) a
      specified CPOE use rate target. Misattribution of order sources can hinder
      accurate measurement of individual physician CPOE use and can thereby undermine
      providers' confidence in their reported performance, as well as their motivation
      to utilize CPOE. Misattribution of order sources also has significant patient
      safety, quality, and medicolegal implications. OBJECTIVE: This analysis sought to
      evaluate the magnitude and sources of misattribution among hospitalists with high
      CPOE use and, if misattribution was found, to formulate strategies to prevent and
      reduce its recurrence, thereby ensuring the integrity and credibility of
      individual and facility CPOE use rate reporting. METHODS: A detailed manual order
      source review and validation of all orders issued by one hospitalist group at a
      midsize community hospital was conducted for a one-month study period. RESULTS:
      We found that a small but not dismissible percentage of orders issued by
      hospitalists-up to 4.18 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 3.84-4.56
      percent) per month-were attributed inaccurately. Sources of misattribution by
      department or function were as follows: nursing, 42 percent; pharmacy, 38
      percent; laboratory, 15 percent; unit clerk, 3 percent; and radiology, 2 percent.
      Order management and protocol were the most common correct order sources that
      were incorrectly attributed. CONCLUSION: Order source misattribution can
      negatively affect reported provider CPOE use rates and should be investigated if
      providers perceive discrepancies between reported rates and their actual
      performance. Preventive education and communication efforts across departments
      can help prevent and reduce misattribution.

PMID- 28566990
TI  - Development of a Web-Based Registry to Support Diabetes Care in Free Medical
      Clinics.
AB  - The United States has more than 1,000 free medical clinics. Because these clinics
      do not bill Medicare or Medicaid, they are not eligible for federal reimbursement
      for electronic health record (EHR) adoption. As a result, most do not have EHRs
      or electronic disease registries. A web-based diabetes registry was created with
      all open-source components for use in an urban free clinic to manage patients
      with type 2 diabetes and comorbidities. The registry was modeled after the
      Chronic Disease Electronic Management System and recommendations of the American
      Diabetes Association. The software was enhanced to include multiple other
      features, such as progress notes, so that it can function as a simple EHR. The
      configuration permits other free clinics to join securely, and the software can
      be shared.

PMID- 28566991
TI  - Future Research in Health Information Technology: A Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Currently, information technology is considered an important tool
      to improve healthcare services. To adopt the right technologies, policy makers
      should have adequate information about present and future advances. This study
      aimed to review and compare studies with a focus on the future of health
      information technology. METHOD: This review study was completed in 2015. The
      databases used were Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, Ovid Medline, and PubMed.
      Keyword searches were used to identify papers and materials published between
      2000 and 2015. Initially, 407 papers were obtained, and they were reduced to 11
      papers at the final stage. The selected papers were described and compared in
      terms of the country of origin, objective, methodology, and time horizon.
      RESULTS: The papers were divided into two groups: those forecasting the future of
      health information technology (seven papers) and those providing health
      information technology foresight (four papers). The results showed that papers
      related to forecasting the future of health information technology were mostly a
      literature review, and the time horizon was up to 10 years in most of these
      studies. In the health information technology foresight group, most of the
      studies used a combination of techniques, such as scenario building and Delphi
      methods, and had long-term objectives. CONCLUSION: To make the most of an
      investment and to improve planning and successful implementation of health
      information technology, a strategic plan for the future needs to be set. To
      achieve this aim, methods such as forecasting the future of health information
      technology and offering health information technology foresight can be applied.
      The forecasting method is used when the objectives are not very large, and the
      foresight approach is recommended when large-scale objectives are set to be
      achieved. In the field of health information technology, the results of foresight
      studies can help to establish realistic long-term expectations of the future of
      health information technology.

PMID- 28566992
TI  - Mobile Device Security: Perspectives of Future Healthcare Workers.
AB  - Healthcare data breaches on mobile devices continue to increase, yet the
      healthcare industry has not adopted mobile device security standards. This
      increase is disturbing because individuals are often accessing patients'
      protected health information on personal mobile devices, which could lead to a
      data breach. This deficiency led the researchers to explore the perceptions of
      future healthcare workers regarding mobile device security. To determine
      healthcare students' perspectives on mobile device security, the investigators
      designed and distributed a survey based on the Technology Threat Avoidance
      Theory. Three hundred thirty-five students participated in the survey. The data
      were analyzed to determine participants' perceptions about security threats,
      effectiveness and costs of safeguards, self-efficacy, susceptibility, severity,
      and their motivation and actions to secure their mobile devices. Awareness of
      interventions to protect mobile devices was also examined. Results indicate that
      while future healthcare professionals perceive the severity of threats to their
      mobile data, they do not feel personally susceptible. Additionally, participants
      were knowledgeable about security safeguards, but their knowledge of costs and
      problems related to the adoption of these measures was mixed. These findings
      indicate that increasing security awareness of healthcare professionals should be
      a priority.

PMID- 28566993
TI  - Secure Clinical Texting: Patient Risk in High-Acuity Care.
AB  - The Joint Commission recently reversed its prior authorization of the use of
      secure clinical texting to issue patient care orders, now again prohibiting
      texting of orders. However, the potential sole or exclusive use of clinical texts
      to transmit other patient care information beyond care orders still poses a risk
      to patient safety in high acuity care because of text transmission delays
      resulting from carrier-dependent latency. Although texting in routine patient
      care may deliver high value to clinicians, the risk of latency and delayed
      receipt of clinically urgent or time-sensitive texted patient information in high
      acuity care settings can harm patients. We completed a review of 19 secure
      clinical text vendor websites, finding that 16 of 19 (84 percent) market their
      products for use specifically in high-acuity and critical patient care. The
      secure clinical texting industry needs the policy guidance of The Joint
      Commission and health information technology professionals to minimize risk to
      patients, clinicians, and hospital systems as secure clinical texting becomes
      standard accepted practice.

PMID- 28566994
TI  - The Odds of Success: Predicting Registered Health Information Administrator Exam
      Success.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to craft a predictive model to examine the
      relationship between grades in specific academic courses, overall grade point
      average (GPA), on-campus versus online course delivery, and success in passing
      the Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) exam on the first attempt.
      Because student success in passing the exam on the first attempt is assessed as
      part of the accreditation process, this study is important to health information
      management (HIM) programs. Furthermore, passing the exam greatly expands the
      graduate's job possibilities because the demand for credentialed graduates far
      exceeds the supply of credentialed graduates. Binary logistic regression was
      utilized to explore the relationships between the predictor variables and success
      in passing the RHIA exam on the first attempt. Results indicate that the
      student's cumulative GPA, specific HIM course grades, and course delivery method
      were predictive of success.

PMID- 28566995
TI  - The Use of Automated SNOMED CT Clinical Coding in Clinical Decision Support
      Systems for Preventive Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to discuss and analyze the use of
      automated SNOMED CT clinical coding in clinical decision support systems (CDSSs)
      for preventive care. The central question that this study seeks to answer is
      whether the utilization of SNOMED CT in CDSSs can improve preventive care.
      METHOD: PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library were searched for articles
      published in English between 2001 and 2012 on SNOMED CT, CDSS, and preventive
      care. OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures were the sensitivity or specificity of
      SNOMED CT coded data and the positive predictive value or negative predictive
      value of SNOMED CT coded data. Additionally, we documented the publication year,
      research question, study design, results, and conclusions of these studies.
      RESULTS: The reviewed studies suggested that SNOMED CT successfully represents
      clinical terms and negated clinical terms. CONCLUSION: The use of SNOMED CT in
      CDSS can be considered to provide an answer to the problem of medical errors as
      well as for preventive care in general. Enhancement of the modifiers and synonyms
      found in SNOMED CT will be necessary to improve the expected outcome of the
      integration of SNOMED CT with CDSS. Moreover, the application of the tree
      augmented naive (TAN) Bayesian network method can be considered the best
      technique to search SNOMED CT data and, consequently, to help improve preventive
      health services.

PMID- 28566996
TI  - Working with an Electronic Medical Record in Ambulatory Care: A Study of Patient
      Perceptions of Intrusiveness
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess patient perceptions of electronic medical record (EMR)
      intrusiveness during ambulatory visits to clinics associated with a large
      academic medical center. METHOD: We conducted a survey of patients seen at any of
      98 academic medical center clinics. The survey assessed demographics, visit
      satisfaction, computer use, and perceived intrusiveness of the computer. RESULTS:
      Of 7,058 patients, slightly more than 80 percent reported that the physician had
      used the computer while in the room, but only 24 percent were shown results in
      the EMR. Most patients were very satisfied or satisfied with their visit and did
      not find the computer intrusive (83 percent). Younger respondents, those shown
      results, and those who reported that the physician used the computer were more
      likely to perceive the computer as intrusive. Qualitative comments suggest
      different perceptions related to computer intrusiveness than to EMR use more
      generally. DISCUSSION: Patients were generally accepting of EMRs and therefore
      use of computers in the exam room. However, subgroups of patients may require
      greater study to better understand patient perceptions related to EMR use and
      intrusiveness. CONCLUSION: Results suggest the need for greater focus on how
      physicians use computers in the exam room in a manner that facilitates
      maintaining good rapport with patients.

PMID- 28566997
TI  - EEG-Based Quantification of Cortical Current Density and Dynamic Causal
      Connectivity Generalized across Subjects Performing BCI-Monitored Cognitive
      Tasks.
AB  - Quantification of dynamic causal interactions among brain regions constitutes an
      important component of conducting research and developing applications in
      experimental and translational neuroscience. Furthermore, cortical networks with
      dynamic causal connectivity in brain-computer interface (BCI) applications offer
      a more comprehensive view of brain states implicated in behavior than do
      individual brain regions. However, models of cortical network dynamics are
      difficult to generalize across subjects because current electroencephalography
      (EEG) signal analysis techniques are limited in their ability to reliably
      localize sources across subjects. We propose an algorithmic and computational
      framework for identifying cortical networks across subjects in which dynamic
      causal connectivity is modeled among user-selected cortical regions of interest
      (ROIs). We demonstrate the strength of the proposed framework using a
      "reach/saccade to spatial target" cognitive task performed by 10 right-handed
      individuals. Modeling of causal cortical interactions was accomplished through
      measurement of cortical activity using (EEG), application of independent
      component clustering to identify cortical ROIs as network nodes, estimation of
      cortical current density using cortically constrained low resolution
      electromagnetic brain tomography (cLORETA), multivariate autoregressive (MVAR)
      modeling of representative cortical activity signals from each ROI, and
      quantification of the dynamic causal interaction among the identified ROIs using
      the Short-time direct Directed Transfer function (SdDTF). The resulting cortical
      network and the computed causal dynamics among its nodes exhibited
      physiologically plausible behavior, consistent with past results reported in the
      literature. This physiological plausibility of the results strengthens the
      framework's applicability in reliably capturing complex brain functionality,
      which is required by applications, such as diagnostics and BCI.

PMID- 28566998
TI  - Relative Contribution of Prolyl Hydroxylase-Dependent and -Independent
      Degradation of HIF-1alpha by Proteasomal Pathways in Cerebral Ischemia.
AB  - Hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a key regulator in hypoxia and can
      determine the fate of brain cells during ischemia. However, the mechanism of HIF
      1 regulation is still not fully understood in ischemic brains. We tested a
      hypothesis that both the 26S and the 20S proteasomal pathways were involved in
      HIF-1alpha degradation under ischemic conditions. Using in vitro ischemic model
      (oxygen and glucose deprivation) and a mouse model of middle cerebral artery
      occlusion, we tested effects of inhibitors of proteasomes and prolyl hydroxylase
      (PHD) on HIF-1alpha stability and brain injury in cerebral ischemia. We observed
      that 30 and 60 min of oxygen-glucose deprivation significantly increased the 20S
      proteasomal activity. We demonstrated that proteasome inhibitors increased HIF
      1alpha stabilization and cell viability and were more effective than PHD
      inhibitors in primary cultured cortical neurons exposed to oxygen and glucose
      deprivation. Furthermore, the administration of the proteasome inhibitor,
      epoxomicin, to mice resulted in smaller infarct size and brain edema than a PHD
      inhibitor. Our results indicate that 20S proteasomes are involved in HIF-1alpha
      degradation in ischemic neurons and that proteasomal inhibition provides more HIF
      1alpha stabilization and neuroprotection than PHD inhibition in cerebral
      ischemia.

PMID- 28566999
TI  - Communication Impairment in Ultrasonic Vocal Repertoire during the Suckling
      Period of Cd157 Knockout Mice: Transient Improvement by Oxytocin.
AB  - Communication consists of social interaction, recognition, and information
      transmission. Communication ability is the most affected component in children
      with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recently, we reported that the CD157/BST1
      gene is associated with ASD, and that CD157 knockout (Cd157-/-) mice display
      severe impairments in social behavior that are improved by oxytocin (OXT)
      treatment. Here, we sought to determine whether Cd157-/- mice can be used as a
      suitable model for communication deficits by measuring ultrasonic vocalizations
      (USVs), especially in the early developmental stage. Call number produced in pups
      due to isolation from dams was higher at postnatal day (PND) 3 in knockout pups
      than wild-type mice, but was lower at PNDs 7 and 10. Pups of both genotypes had
      similarly limited voice repertoires at PND 3. Later on, at PNDs 7 and 10, while
      wild-type pups emitted USVs consisting of six different syllable types, knockout
      pups vocalized with only two types. This developmental impairment in USV emission
      was rescued within 30 min by intraperitoneal OXT treatment, but quickly returned
      to control levels after 120 min, showing a transient effect of OXT. USV
      impairment was partially observed in Cd157+/- heterozygous mice, but not in Cd157
      /- adult male mice examined while under courtship. These results demonstrate that
      CD157 gene deletion results in social communication insufficiencies, and suggests
      that CD157 is likely involved in acoustic communication. This unique OXT
      sensitive developmental delay in Cd157-/- pups may be a useful model of
      communicative interaction impairment in ASD.

PMID- 28567001
TI  - Time to Amyloid Positivity and Preclinical Changes in Brain Metabolism, Atrophy,
      and Cognition: Evidence for Emerging Amyloid Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Background: Abeta pathology is associated with longitudinal changes of brain
      metabolism, atrophy, and cognition, in cognitively healthy elders. However, Abeta
      information is usually measured cross-sectionally and dichotomized to classify
      subjects as Abeta-positive or Abeta-negative, making it difficult to evaluate
      when brain and cognitive changes occur with respect to emerging Abeta pathology.
      In this study, we use longitudinal Abeta information to combine the level and
      rate of change of Abeta to estimate the time to Abeta-positivity for each subject
      and test this temporal proximity to significant Abeta pathology for associations
      with brain structure, metabolism, and cognition. Methods: In 89 cognitively
      healthy elders with up to 10 years of follow-up, we estimated the points at which
      rates of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, MRI, and cognitive and functional decline
      begin to accelerate with respect to the time to Abeta-positivity. Points of
      initial acceleration in rates of decline were estimated using mixed-effects
      models with penalized regression splines. Results: Acceleration of rates of FDG
      PET were observed to occur 20+ years before the conventional threshold for Abeta
      positivity. Subtle signs of cognitive dysfunction were observed 10+ years before
      Abeta-positivity. Conclusions: Abeta may have subtle associations with other
      hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease before Abeta biomarkers reach conventional
      thresholds for Abeta-positivity. Therefore, we propose that emerging Abeta
      pathology occurs many years before cognitively healthy elders reach the current
      threshold for Abeta positivity (preclinical AD). To allow prevention in the
      earliest disease stages, AD clinical trials may be designed to also include
      subjects with Abeta biomarkers in the sub-threshold range.

PMID- 28567000
TI  - Exosomes from NSC-34 Cells Transfected with hSOD1-G93A Are Enriched in miR-124
      and Drive Alterations in Microglia Phenotype.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal adult-onset neurodegenerative
      disorder affecting motor neurons (MNs). Evidences indicate that ALS is a non-cell
      autonomous disease in which glial cells participate in both disease onset and
      progression. Exosomal transfer of mutant copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1
      (mSOD1) from cell-to-cell was suggested to contribute to disease dissemination.
      Data from our group and others showed that exosomes from activated cells contain
      inflammatory-related microRNAs (inflamma-miRNAs) that recapitulate the donor
      cell. While glia-derived exosomes and their effects in neurons have been
      addressed by several studies, only a few investigated the influence of motor
      neuron (MN)-derived exosomes in other cell function, the aim of the present
      study. We assessed a set of inflamma-miRs in NSC-34 MN-like cells transfected
      with mutant SOD1(G93A) and extended the study into their derived exosomes (mSOD1
      exosomes). Then, the effects produced by mSOD1 exosomes in the activation and
      polarization of the recipient N9 microglial cells were investigated. Exosomes in
      coculture with N9 microglia and NSC-34 cells [either transfected with either wild
      type (wt) human SOD1 or mutant SOD1(G93A)] showed to be transferred into N9
      cells. Increased miR-124 expression was found in mSOD1 NSC-34 cells and in their
      derived exosomes. Incubation of mSOD1 exosomes with N9 cells determined a
      sustained 50% reduction in the cell phagocytic ability. It also caused a
      persistent NF-kB activation and an acute generation of NO, MMP-2, and MMP-9
      activation, as well as upregulation of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, MHC-II, and iNOS gene
      expression, suggestive of induced M1 polarization. Marked elevation of IL-10,
      Arginase 1, TREM2, RAGE, and TLR4 mRNA levels, together with increased miR-124,
      miR-146a, and miR-155, at 24 h incubation, suggest the switch to mixed M1 and M2
      subpopulations in the exosome-treated N9 microglial cells. Exosomes from mSOD1
      NSC-34 MNs also enhanced the number of senescent-like positive N9 cells. Data
      suggest that miR-124 is translocated from the mSOD1 MNs to exosomes, which
      determine early and late phenotypic alterations in the recipient N9-microglial
      cells. In conclusion, modulation of the inflammatory-associated miR-124, in mSOD1
      NSC-34 MNs, with potential benefits in the cargo of their exosomes may reveal a
      promising therapeutic strategy in halting microglia activation and associated
      effects in MN degeneration.

PMID- 28567002
TI  - Iron-Restricted Diet Affects Brain Ferritin Levels, Dopamine Metabolism and
      Cellular Prion Protein in a Region-Specific Manner.
AB  - Iron is an essential micronutrient for several physiological functions, including
      the regulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission. On the other hand, both iron,
      and dopamine can affect the folding and aggregation of proteins related with
      neurodegenerative diseases, such as cellular prion protein (PrPC) and alpha
      synuclein, suggesting that deregulation of iron homeostasis and the consequential
      disturbance of dopamine metabolism can be a risk factor for conformational
      diseases. These proteins, in turn, are known to participate in the regulation of
      iron and dopamine metabolism. In this study, we evaluated the effects of dietary
      iron restriction on brain ferritin levels, dopamine metabolism, and the
      expression levels of PrPC and alpha-synuclein. To achieve this goal, C57BL/6 mice
      were fed with iron restricted diet (IR) or with normal diet (CTL) for 1 month. IR
      reduced iron and ferritin levels in liver. Ferritin reduction was also observed
      in the hippocampus. However, in the striatum of IR group, ferritin level was
      increased, suggesting that under iron-deficient condition, each brain area might
      acquire distinct capacity to store iron. Increased lipid peroxidation was
      observed only in hippocampus of IR group, where ferritin level was reduced. IR
      also generated discrete results regarding dopamine metabolism of distinct brain
      regions: in striatum, the level of dopamine metabolites (DOPAC and HVA) was
      reduced; in prefrontal cortex, only HVA was increased along with the enhanced MAO
      A activity; in hippocampus, no alterations were observed. PrPC levels were
      increased only in the striatum of IR group, where ferritin level was also
      increased. PrPC is known to play roles in iron uptake. Thus, the increase of PrPC
      in striatum of IR group might be related to the increased ferritin level. alpha
      synuclein was not altered in any regions. Abnormal accumulation of ferritin,
      increased MAO-A activity or lipid peroxidation are molecular features observed in
      several neurological disorders. Our findings show that nutritional iron
      deficiency produces these molecular alterations in a region-specific manner and
      provide new insight into the variety of molecular pathways that can lead to
      distinct neurological symptoms upon iron deficiency. Thus, adequate iron
      supplementation is essential for brain health and prevention of neurological
      diseases.

PMID- 28567003
TI  - Evidence of a Cell Surface Role for Hsp90 Complex Proteins Mediating Neuroblast
      Migration in the Subventricular Zone.
AB  - In most mammalian brains, the subventricular zone (SVZ) is a germinative layer
      that maintains neurogenic activity throughout adulthood. Neuronal precursors
      arising from this region migrate through the rostral migratory stream (RMS) and
      reach the olfactory bulbs where they differentiate and integrate into the local
      circuitry. Recently, studies have shown that heat shock proteins have an
      important role in cancer cell migration and blocking Hsp90 function was shown to
      hinder cell migration in the developing cerebellum. In this work, we hypothesize
      that chaperone complexes may have an important function regulating migration of
      neuronal precursors from the subventricular zone. Proteins from the Hsp90 complex
      are present in the postnatal SVZ as well as in the RMS. Using an in vitro SVZ
      explant model, we have demonstrated the expression of Hsp90 and Hop/STI1 by
      migrating neuroblasts. Treatment with antibodies against Hsp90 and co-chaperone
      Hop/STI1, as well as Hsp90 and Hsp70 inhibitors hinder neuroblast chain
      migration. Time-lapse videomicroscopy analysis revealed that cell motility and
      average migratory speed was decreased after exposure to both antibodies and
      inhibitors. Antibodies recognizing Hsp90, Hsp70, and Hop/STI1 were found bound to
      the membranes of cells from primary SVZ cultures and biotinylation assays
      demonstrated that Hsp70 and Hop/STI1 could be found on the external leaflet of
      neuroblast membranes. The latter could also be detected in conditioned medium
      samples obtained from cultivated SVZ cells. Our results suggest that chaperones
      Hsp90, Hsp70, and co-chaperone Hop/STI1, components of the Hsp90 complex,
      regulate SVZ neuroblast migration in a concerted manner through an extracellular
      mechanism.

PMID- 28567004
TI  - Differentiation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (hiPSC)-Derived Neurons in
      Mouse Hippocampal Slice Cultures.
AB  - Potential clinical applications of neurons derived from human induced pluripotent
      stem cells (hiPSC-neurons) for drug screening and transplantation therapies have
      received considerable attention. However, it remains unclear whether and how
      transplanted hiPSC-neurons are incorporated into pre-existing neural circuits.
      Here we developed a co-culture system of hiPSC-neurons and mouse hippocampal
      slices to examine the differentiation of hiPSC-neurons in pre-existing neural
      circuits. hiPSC-neurons transplanted in mouse hippocampal slices expressed the
      hippocampal neuron-specific markers HuB and Prox1 after 7 days of culture, while
      those markers were scarcely expressed in hiPSC-neurons cultured on glass dishes.
      Furthermore, hiPSC-neurons transplanted in the dentate gyrus (DG) of slice
      cultures grew to exhibit dentate granule cell-like morphologies, including besom
      shaped dendrites. Similarly, hiPSC-neurons transplanted in the CA1 region of
      slice cultures grew to exhibit CA1 pyramidal cell-like morphologies, including
      primary apical and multiple basal dendrites with synaptic spines. Additionally,
      these cells projected axons toward the entorhinal cortex (EC) as observed in
      vivo. These data suggest that hiPSC-neurons were anatomically integrated into pre
      existing neural circuits in a region-specific manner. Thus, the co-culture system
      will be useful for the study of efficient strategies to differentiate
      transplanted hiPSC-neurons.

PMID- 28567006
TI  - Lateral Entorhinal Cortex Lesions Impair Local Spatial Frameworks.
AB  - A prominent theory in the neurobiology of memory processing is that episodic
      memory is supported by contextually gated spatial representations in the
      hippocampus formed by combining spatial information from medial entorhinal cortex
      (MEC) with non-spatial information from lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC). However,
      there is a growing body of evidence from lesion and single-unit recording studies
      in rodents suggesting that LEC might have a role in encoding space, particularly
      the current and previous locations of objects within the local environment.
      Landmarks, both local and global, have been shown to control the spatial
      representations hypothesized to underlie cognitive maps. Consequently, it has
      recently been suggested that information processing within this network might be
      organized with reference to spatial scale with LEC and MEC providing information
      about local and global spatial frameworks respectively. In the present study, we
      trained animals to search for food using either a local or global spatial
      framework. Animals were re-tested on both tasks after receiving excitotoxic
      lesions of either the MEC or LEC. LEC lesioned animals were impaired in their
      ability to learn a local spatial framework task. LEC lesioned animals were also
      impaired on an object recognition (OR) task involving multiple local features but
      unimpaired at recognizing a single familiar object. Together, this suggests that
      LEC is involved in associating features of the local environment. However,
      neither LEC nor MEC lesions impaired performance on the global spatial framework
      task.

PMID- 28567007
TI  - Involvement of the CXCL12 System in the Stimulatory Effects of Prenatal Exposure
      to High-Fat Diet on Hypothalamic Orexigenic Peptides and Behavior in Offspring.
AB  - Exposure to a high fat diet (HFD) during gestation stimulates neurogenesis and
      expression of hypothalamic orexigenic neuropeptides that affect consummatory and
      emotional behaviors. With recent studies showing a HFD to increase inflammation,
      this report investigated the neuroinflammatory chemokine, CXCL12, and compared
      the effects of prenatal CXCL12 injection to those of prenatal HFD exposure,
      first, by testing whether the HFD affects circulating CXCL12 in the dam and the
      CXCL12 system in the offspring brain, and then by examining whether prenatal
      exposure to CXCL12 itself mimics the effects of a HFD on hypothalamic
      neuropeptides and emotional behaviors. Our results showed that prenatal exposure
      to a HFD significantly increased circulating levels of CXCL12 in the dam, and
      that daily injections of CXCL12 induced a similar increase in CXCL12 levels as
      the HFD. In addition, prenatal HFD exposure significantly increased the
      expression of CXCL12 and its receptors, CXCR4 and CXCR7, in the hypothalamic
      paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the offspring. Finally, the results revealed
      strong similarities in the effects of prenatal HFD and CXCL12 administration,
      which both stimulated neurogenesis and enkephalin (ENK) expression in the PVN,
      while having inconsistent or no effect in other regions of the hypothalamus, and
      also increased anxiety as measured by several behavioral tests. These results
      focus attention specifically on the CXCL12 chemokine system in the PVN of the
      offspring as being possibly involved in the stimulatory effects of prenatal HFD
      exposure on ENK-expressing neurons in the PVN and their associated changes in
      emotional behavior.

PMID- 28567005
TI  - The Long Journey of Pontine Nuclei Neurons: From Rhombic Lip to Cortico-Ponto
      Cerebellar Circuitry.
AB  - The pontine nuclei (PN) are the largest of the precerebellar nuclei, neuronal
      assemblies in the hindbrain providing principal input to the cerebellum. The PN
      are predominantly innervated by the cerebral cortex and project as mossy fibers
      to the cerebellar hemispheres. Here, we comprehensively review the development of
      the PN from specification to migration, nucleogenesis and circuit formation. PN
      neurons originate at the posterior rhombic lip and migrate tangentially crossing
      several rhombomere derived territories to reach their final position in ventral
      part of the pons. The developing PN provide a classical example of tangential
      neuronal migration and a study system for understanding its molecular
      underpinnings. We anticipate that understanding the mechanisms of PN migration
      and assembly will also permit a deeper understanding of the molecular and
      cellular basis of cortico-cerebellar circuit formation and function.

PMID- 28567008
TI  - Interoception and Autonomic Correlates during Social Interactions. Implications
      for Anorexia.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate the bodily-self in Restrictive Anorexia,
      focusing on two basic aspects related to the bodily self: autonomic strategies in
      social behavior, in which others' social desirability features, and social cues
      (e.g., gaze) are modulated, and interoception (i.e., the sensitivity to stimuli
      originating inside the body). Furthermore, since previous studies carried out on
      healthy individuals found that interoception seems to contribute to the autonomic
      regulation of social behavior, as measured by Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA),
      we aimed to explore this link in anorexia patients, whose ability to perceive
      their bodily signal seems to be impaired. To this purpose, we compared a group of
      anorexia patients (ANg; restrictive type) with a group of Healthy Controls (HCg)
      for RSA responses during both a resting state and a social proxemics task, for
      their explicit judgments of comfort in social distances during a behavioral
      proxemics task, and for their Interoceptive Accuracy (IA). The results showed
      that ANg displayed significantly lower social disposition and a flattened
      autonomic reactivity during the proxemics task, irrespective of the presence of
      others' socially desirable features or social cues. Moreover, unlike HCg, the
      autonomic arousal of ANg did not guide behavioral judgments of social distances.
      Finally, IA was strictly related to social disposition in both groups, but with
      opposite trends in ANg. We conclude that autonomic imbalance and its altered
      relationship with interoception might have a crucial role in anorexia
      disturbances.

PMID- 28567009
TI  - Anatomical Modularity of Verbal Working Memory? Functional Anatomical Evidence
      from a Famous Patient with Short-Term Memory Deficits.
AB  - Cognitive skills are the emergent property of distributed neural networks. The
      distributed nature of these networks does not necessarily imply a lack of
      specialization of the individual brain structures involved. However, it remains
      questionable whether discrete aspects of high-level behavior might be the result
      of localized brain activity of individual nodes within such networks. The
      phonological loop of working memory, with its simplicity, seems ideally suited
      for testing this possibility. Central to the development of the phonological loop
      model has been the description of patients with focal lesions and specific
      deficits. As much as the detailed description of their behavior has served to
      refine the phonological loop model, a classical anatomoclinical correlation
      approach with such cases falls short in telling whether the observed behavior is
      based on the functions of a neural system resembling that seen in normal subjects
      challenged with phonological loop tasks or whether different systems have taken
      over. This is a crucial issue for the cross correlation of normal cognition,
      normal physiology, and cognitive neuropsychology. Here we describe the functional
      anatomical patterns of JB, a historical patient originally described by
      Warrington et al. (1971), a patient with a left temporo-parietal lesion and
      selective short phonological store deficit. JB was studied with the H215O PET
      activation technique during a rhyming task, which primarily depends on the
      rehearsal system of the phonological loop. No residual function was observed in
      the left temporo-parietal junction, a region previously associated with the
      phonological buffer of working memory. However, Broca's area, the major
      counterpart of the rehearsal system, was the major site of activation during the
      rhyming task. Specific and autonomous activation of Broca's area in the absence
      of afferent inputs from the other major anatomical component of the phonological
      loop shows that a certain degree of functional independence or modularity exists
      in this distributed anatomical-cognitive system.

PMID- 28567010
TI  - The What, the When, and the Whether of Intentional Action in the Brain: A Meta
      Analytical Review.
AB  - In their attempt to define discrete subcomponents of intentionality, Brass and
      Haggard (2008) proposed their What, When, and Whether model (www-model) which
      postulates that the content, the timing and the possibility of generating an
      action can be partially independent both at the cognitive level and at the level
      of their neural implementation. The original proposal was based on a limited
      number of studies, which were reviewed with a discursive approach. To assess
      whether the model stands in front of the more recently published data, we
      performed a systematic review of the literature with a meta-analytic method based
      on a hierarchical clustering (HC) algorithm. We identified 15 PET/fMRI studies
      well-suited for this quest. HC revealed the existence of a rostro-caudal gradient
      within the medial prefrontal cortex, with the more anterior regions (the anterior
      cingulum) involved in more abstract decisions of whether to execute an action and
      the more posterior ones (the middle cingulum or the SMA) recruited in specifying
      the content and the timing components of actions. However, in contrast with the
      original www-model, this dissociation involves also brain regions well outside
      the median wall of the frontal lobe, in a component specific manner: the
      supramarginal gyrus for the what component, the pallidum and the thalamus for the
      when component, the putamen and the insula for the whether component. We then
      calculated co-activation maps on the three component-specific www clusters of the
      medial wall of the frontal/limbic lobe: to this end, we used the activation
      likelihood approach that we applied on the imaging studies on action contained in
      the BrainMap.org database. This analysis confirmed the main findings of the HC
      analyses. However, the BrainMap.org data analyses also showed that the
      aforementioned segregations are generated by paradigms in which subjects act in
      response to conditional stimuli rather than while driven by their own intentions.
      We conclude that the available data confirm that the neural underpinnings of
      intentionality can be fractionated in discrete components that are partially
      independent. We also suggest that intentionality manifests itself in discrete
      components through the boosting of general purpose action-related regions
      specialized for different aspects of action selection and inhibition.

PMID- 28567011
TI  - Imaging Brain Function with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in
      Unconstrained Environments.
AB  - Assessing the neural correlates of motor and cognitive processes under
      naturalistic experimentation is challenging due to the movement constraints of
      traditional brain imaging technologies. The recent advent of portable
      technologies that are less sensitive to motion artifacts such as Functional Near
      Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) have been made possible the study of brain function
      in freely-moving participants. In this paper, we describe a series of proof-of
      concept experiments examining the potential of fNIRS in assessing the neural
      correlates of cognitive and motor processes in unconstrained environments. We
      show illustrative applications for practicing a sport (i.e., table tennis),
      playing a musical instrument (i.e., piano and violin) alone or in duo and
      performing daily activities for many hours (i.e., continuous monitoring). Our
      results expand upon previous research on the feasibility and robustness of fNIRS
      to monitor brain hemodynamic changes in different real life settings. We believe
      that these preliminary results showing the flexibility and robustness of fNIRS
      measurements may contribute by inspiring future work in the field of applied
      neuroscience.

PMID- 28567012
TI  - Age-Dependent Protein Aggregation Initiates Amyloid-beta Aggregation.
AB  - Aging is the most important risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases associated
      with pathological protein aggregation such as Alzheimer's disease. Although aging
      is an important player, it remains unknown which molecular changes are relevant
      for disease initiation. Recently, it has become apparent that widespread protein
      aggregation is a common feature of aging. Indeed, several studies demonstrate
      that 100s of proteins become highly insoluble with age, in the absence of obvious
      disease processes. Yet it remains unclear how these misfolded proteins
      aggregating with age affect neurodegenerative diseases. Importantly, several of
      these aggregation-prone proteins are found as minor components in disease
      associated hallmark aggregates such as amyloid-beta plaques or neurofibrillary
      tangles. This co-localization raises the possibility that age-dependent protein
      aggregation directly contributes to pathological aggregation. Here, we show for
      the first time that highly insoluble proteins from aged Caenorhabditis elegans or
      aged mouse brains, but not from young individuals, can initiate amyloid-beta
      aggregation in vitro. We tested the seeding potential at four different ages
      across the adult lifespan of C. elegans. Significantly, protein aggregates formed
      during the early stages of aging did not act as seeds for amyloid-beta
      aggregation. Instead, we found that changes in protein aggregation occurring
      during middle-age initiated amyloid-beta aggregation. Mass spectrometry analysis
      revealed several late-aggregating proteins that were previously identified as
      minor components of amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles such as 14-3
      3, Ubiquitin-like modifier-activating enzyme 1 and Lamin A/C, highlighting these
      as strong candidates for cross-seeding. Overall, we demonstrate that widespread
      protein misfolding and aggregation with age could be critical for the initiation
      of pathogenesis, and thus should be targeted by therapeutic strategies to
      alleviate neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28567014
TI  - Metabolic Profiling Analysis of the Alleviation Effect of Treatment with Baicalin
      on Cinnabar Induced Toxicity in Rats Urine and Serum.
AB  - Objectives: Baicalin is the main bioactive flavonoid constituent isolated from
      Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. The mechanisms of protection of liver remain
      unclear. In this study, 1H NMR-based metabonomics approach has been used to
      investigate the alleviation effect of Baicalin. Method:1H NMR metabolomics
      analyses of urine and serum from rats, was performed to illuminate the
      alleviation effect of Baicalin on mineral medicine (cinnabar)-induced liver and
      kidney toxicity. Results: The metabolic profiles of groups receiving Baicalin at
      a dose of 80 mg/kg were remarkably different from cinnabar, and meanwhile, the
      level of endogenous metabolites returned to normal compared to group cinnabar.
      PLS-DA scores plots demonstrated that the variation tendency of control and
      Baicalein are apart from Cinnabar. The metabolic profiles of group Baicalein were
      similar to those of group control. Statistics results were confirmed by the
      histopathological examination and biochemical assay. Conclusion: Baicalin have
      the alleviation effect to the liver and kidney damage induced by cinnabar. The
      Baicalin could regulate endogenous metabolites associated with the energy
      metabolism, choline metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and gut flora.

PMID- 28567013
TI  - The Effect of Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOE epsilon4) on Visuospatial Working
      Memory in Healthy Elderly and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients: An
      Event-Related Potentials Study.
AB  - Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon4 is the only established risk gene
      for late-onset, sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies have provided
      inconsistent evidence for the effect of APOE epsilon4 status on the visuospatial
      working memory (VSWM). Objective: The aim was to investigate the effect of APOE
      epsilon4 on VSWM with an event-related potential (ERP) study in healthy controls
      (HC) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients. Methods: The study
      recorded 39 aMCI patients (27 APOE epsilon4 non-carriers and 12 APOE epsilon4
      carriers) and their 43 matched controls (25 APOE epsilon4 non-carriers and 18
      APOE epsilon4 carriers) with an 64-channel electroencephalogram. Participants
      performed an N-back task, a VSWM paradigm that manipulated the number of items to
      be stored in memory. Results: The present study detected reduced accuracy and
      delayed mean correct response time (RT) in aMCI patients compared to HC. P300, a
      positive component that peaks between 300 and 500 ms, was elicited by the VSWM
      task. In addition, aMCI patients showed decreased P300 amplitude at the central
      parietal (CP1, CPz, and CP2) and parietal (P1, Pz, and P2) electrodes in 0- and 1
      back task compared to HC. In both HC and aMCI patients, APOE epsilon4 carriers
      showed reduced P300 amplitude with respect to non-carriers, whereas no
      significant differences in accuracy or RT were detected between APOE epsilon4
      carriers and non-carriers. Additionally, standardized low-resolution brain
      electromagnetic tomography analysis (s-LORETA) showed enhanced brain activation
      in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) during P300 time range in APOE epsilon4
      carriers with respect to non-carriers in aMCI patients. Conclusion: It
      demonstrated that P300 amplitude could predict VSWM deficits in aMCI patients and
      contribute to early detection of VSWM deficits in APOE epsilon4 carriers.

PMID- 28567015
TI  - USP22 Induces Cisplatin Resistance in Lung Adenocarcinoma by Regulating gammaH2AX
      Mediated DNA Damage Repair and Ku70/Bax-Mediated Apoptosis.
AB  - Resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy is one of the most important reasons
      for treatment failure in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, but the underlying
      mechanism is extremely complex and unclear. The present study aimed to
      investigate the correlation of ubiquitin-specific peptidase 22 (USP22) with
      acquired resistance to cisplatin in lung adenocarcinoma. In this study, we found
      that overexpression of USP22 could lead to cisplatin resistance in A549 cells.
      USP22 and its downstream proteins gammaH2AX and Sirt1 levels are upregulated in
      the cisplatin- resistant A549/CDDP cell line. USP22 enhances DNA damage repair
      and induce cisplatin resistance by promoting the phosphorylation of histone H2AX
      via deubiquitinating histone H2A. In addition, USP22 decreases the acetylation of
      Ku70 by stabilizing Sirt1, thus inhibiting Bax-mediated apoptosis and inducing
      cisplatin resistance. The cisplatin sensitivity in cisplatin-resistant A549/CDDP
      cells was restored by USP22 inhibition in vivo and vitro. In summary, our
      findings reveal the dual mechanism of USP22 involvement in cisplatin resistance
      that USP22 can regulate gammaH2AX-mediated DNA damage repair and Ku70/Bax
      mediated apoptosis. USP22 is a potential target in cisplatin-resistant lung
      adenocarcinoma and should be considered in future therapeutic practice.

PMID- 28567017
TI  - Azoxystrobin Induces Apoptosis of Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma KYSE
      150 Cells through Triggering of the Mitochondrial Pathway.
AB  - Recent studies indicate that mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis are potential
      chemotherapeutic target for the treatment of esophageal cancer. Azoxystrobin
      (AZOX), a methoxyacrylate derived from the naturally occurring strobilurins, is a
      known fungicide acting as a ubiquinol oxidation (Qo) inhibitor of mitochondrial
      respiratory complex III. In this study, the effects of AZOX on human esophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma KYSE-150 cells were examined and the underlying
      mechanisms were investigated. AZOX exhibited inhibitory effects on the
      proliferation of KYSE-150 cells with inhibitory concentration 50% (IC50) of 2.42
      MUg/ml by 48 h treatment. Flow cytometry assessment revealed that the inhibitory
      effect of AZOX on KYSE-150 cell proliferation occurred with cell cycle arrest at
      S phase and increased cell apoptosis in time-dependent and dose-dependent
      manners. Cleaved poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), caspase-3 and caspase-9 were
      increased significantly by AZOX. It is worth noted that the Bcl-2/Bax ratios were
      decreased because of the down-regulated Bcl-2 and up-regulated Bax expression
      level. Meanwhile, the cytochrome c release was increased by AZOX in KYSE-150
      cells. AZOX-induced cytochrome c expression and caspase-3 activation was
      significantly blocked by Bax Channel Blocker. Intragastric administration of AZOX
      effectively decreased the tumor size generated by subcutaneous inoculation of
      KYSE-150 cells in nude mice. Consistently, decreased Bcl-2 expression, increased
      cytochrome c and PARP level, and activated caspase-3 and caspase-9 were observed
      in the tumor samples. These results indicate that AZOX can effectively induce
      esophageal cancer cell apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis,
      suggesting AZOX or its derivatives may be developed as potential chemotherapeutic
      agents for the treatment of esophageal cancer.

PMID- 28567016
TI  - Streptomyces sp. MUM212 as a Source of Antioxidants with Radical Scavenging and
      Metal Chelating Properties.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species and other radicals potentially cause oxidative damage to
      proteins, lipids, and DNA which may ultimately lead to various complications
      including mutations, carcinogenesis, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease,
      aging, and inflammatory disease. Recent reports demonstrate that Streptomyces
      bacteria produce metabolites with potent antioxidant activity that may be
      developed into therapeutic drugs to combat oxidative stress. This study shows
      that Streptomyces sp. MUM212 which was isolated from mangrove soil in Kuala
      Selangor, Malaysia, could be a potential source of antioxidants. Strain MUM212
      was characterized and determined as belonging to the genus Streptomyces using 16S
      rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis. The MUM212 extract demonstrated significant
      antioxidant activity through DPPH, ABTS and superoxide radical scavenging assays
      and also metal-chelating activity of 22.03 +/- 3.01%, 61.52 +/- 3.13%, 37.47 +/-
      1.79%, and 41.98 +/- 0.73% at 4 mg/mL, respectively. Moreover, MUM212 extract was
      demonstrated to inhibit lipid peroxidation up to 16.72 +/- 2.64% at 4 mg/mL and
      restore survival of Vero cells from H2O2-induced oxidative damages. The
      antioxidant activities from the MUM212 extract correlated well with its total
      phenolic contents; and this in turn was in keeping with the gas chromatography
      mass spectrometry analysis which revealed the presence of phenolic compounds that
      could be responsible for the antioxidant properties of the extract. Other
      chemical constituents detected included hydrocarbons, alcohols and cyclic
      dipeptides which may have contributed to the overall antioxidant capacity of
      MUM212 extract. As a whole, strain MUM212 seems to have potential as a promising
      source of novel molecules for future development of antioxidative therapeutic
      agents against oxidative stress-related diseases.

PMID- 28567018
TI  - Acute Normobaric Hypoxia Increases Post-exercise Lipid Oxidation in Healthy
      Males.
AB  - The primary objective of the current study was to determine the effect of
      moderate normobaric hypoxia exposure during constant load cycling on post
      exercise energy metabolism recorded in normoxia. Indirect calorimetry was used to
      examine whole body substrate oxidation before, during, 40-60 min post, and 22 h
      after performing 60 min of cycling exercise at two different fractions of
      inspired oxygen (FIO2): (i) FIO2 = 0.2091 (normoxia) and (ii) FIO2 = 0.15
      (hypoxia). Seven active healthy male participants (26 +/- 4 years of age)
      completed both experimental trials in randomized order with a 7-day washout
      period to avoid carryover effects between conditions. Resting energy expenditure
      was initially elevated following cycling exercise in normoxia and hypoxia (Delta
      0.14 +/- 0.05, kcal min-1, p = 0.037; Delta 0.19 +/- 0.03 kcal min-1, p < 0.001,
      respectively), but returned to baseline levels the next morning in both
      conditions. Although, the same absolute workload was used in both environmental
      conditions (157 +/- 10 W), a shift in resting substrate oxidation occurred after
      exercise performed in hypoxia while post-exercise measurements were similar to
      baseline after cycling exercise in normoxia. The additional metabolic stress of
      hypoxia exposure was sufficient to increase the rate of lipid oxidation (Delta 42
      +/- 11 mg min-1, p = 0.019) and tended to suppress carbohydrate oxidation (Delta 
      55 +/- 26 mg min-1, p = 0.076) 40-60 min post-exercise. This shift in substrate
      oxidation persisted the next morning, where lipid oxidation remained elevated
      (Delta 9 +/- 3 mg min-1, p = 0.0357) and carbohydrate oxidation was suppressed
      (Delta -22 +/- 6 mg min-1, p = 0.019). In conclusion, prior exercise performed
      under moderate normobaric hypoxia alters post-exercise energy metabolism. This is
      an important consideration when evaluating the metabolic consequences of hypoxia
      exposure during prolonged exercise, and future studies should evaluate its role
      in the beneficial effects of intermittent hypoxia training observed in persons
      with obesity and insulin resistance.

PMID- 28567019
TI  - Down-Regulation of Cough during Exercise Is Less Frequent in Healthy Children
      than Adults. Role of the Development and/or Atopy?
AB  - Cough is typically associated with physical activity in children with asthma, but
      the characteristics of the relationship between cough and exercise has not been
      established under physiological conditions. The aim of the study was to describe
      the effect of exercise on the reflex cough response elicited by a single breath
      of capsaicin in non-asthmatic children. A group of non-asthmatic adults was
      studied as reference. Thirty children and 29 adults were recruited. The cough
      reflex sensitivity to capsaicin was first determined to establish the dose that
      provokes 5 cough efforts (C5). The number of coughs elicited by C5 (NC5) was then
      compared at baseline and during a standardized submaximal treadmill exercise.
      Data are expressed as median (interquartile range). Children and adults showed a
      significant decrease in NC5 (respectively from 5.0 (4.0-6.0) to 2.5 (2.0-4.0), p
      < 0.0005 and from 6.0 (5.0-7.0) to 2.0 (0.0-3.0, p < 0.0005). During exercise,
      NC5 was observed to decrease in all adult subjects, but in only 24/30 children
      (80%, p = 0.02). A trend for a higher incidence of personal and familial atopy
      was observed in children that lacked cough down-regulation during exercise
      compared with other children. It is concluded that the cough reflex response to
      capsaicin is down regulated by exercise in both children and adults. The effect
      however is less consistently observed in the former. The difference may reflect
      maturation of descending inhibitory pathways of the cough reflex, but may also be
      associated to atopy. The data stress the importance of assessing the time
      relationship of cough and exercise in questionnaire studies of asthma.

PMID- 28567020
TI  - Dietary Effect on the Proteome of the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris)
      Paralarvae.
AB  - Nowadays, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) culture is hampered by massive
      mortalities occurring during early life-cycle stages (paralarvae). Despite the
      causes of the high paralarvae mortality are not yet well-defined and understood,
      the nutritional stress caused by inadequate diets is pointed out as one of the
      main factors. In this study, the effects of diet on paralarvae is analyzed
      through a proteomic approach, to search for novel biomarkers of nutritional
      stress. A total of 43 proteins showing differential expression in the different
      conditions studied have been identified. The analysis highlights proteins related
      with the carbohydrate metabolism: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dedydrogenase
      (GAPDH), triosephosphate isomerase; other ways of energetic metabolism: NADP+
      specific isocitrate dehydrogenase, arginine kinase; detoxification: glutathione-S
      transferase (GST); stress: heat shock proteins (HSP70); structural constituent of
      eye lens: S-crystallin 3; and cytoskeleton: actin, actin-beta/gamma1, beta actin.
      These results allow defining characteristic proteomes of paralarvae depending on
      the diet; as well as the use of several of these proteins as novel biomarkers to
      evaluate their welfare linked to nutritional stress. Notably, the changes of
      proteins like S-crystallin 3, arginine kinase and NAD+ specific isocitrate
      dehydrogenase, may be related to fed vs. starving paralarvae, particularly in the
      first 4 days of development.

PMID- 28567022
TI  - The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on the Self-Concept of Female Students in STEM
      Subjects with an Under-Representation of Females.
AB  - It's possible to assume that women who study STEM topics with a low proportion of
      females have successfully overcome barriers in school and the family, making them
      less prone to stereotypic views, and influences. The present study focuses on
      these kinds of factors and analyzes to which degree family factors, school
      related factors, and individual stereotypes may influence a woman's academic self
      concept. The following study presents a latent regression model which is based on
      a survey of 296 women from different German universities, all of whom are part of
      STEM programs of study that have <30% females. It was investigated to which
      degree individual stereotypes, support in school, and family support contribute
      to the self-concept in STEM. Gender stereotypes were negatively related to
      students' STEM-specific self-concept in the selected sample. This study also
      reveals negative family-related influences that lower a woman's self-concept.
      Positive predictors on the other hand included school aspects that are found in
      the students' favorite subjects at school. The results of the study provide
      important aspects for STEM education. Even though the students participating in
      the study presumably had good grades in STEM, stereotypes still corrupted their
      self-concept. One of the reasons for this might lie in stereotypes that attribute
      girls' achievements to diligence instead of talent. The results also point out
      that direct support, particularly by parents, can have a negative impact on
      female students' self-concept. Activities that are meant to support pupils
      directly may actually backfire and transport stereotypes instead. This stresses
      the need for indirect support during socialization, e.g., by providing
      opportunities for children to have positive experiences or by giving them the
      chance to meet role models that are enthusiastic about their STEM professions.
      These kinds of measures have the potential to spur students' interest in STEM
      subjects-something that in the present study proved to be especially beneficial
      for women's positive self-concept when studying STEM topics.

PMID- 28567023
TI  - Respiratory Constraints in Verbal and Non-verbal Communication.
AB  - In the present paper we address the old question of respiratory planning in
      speech production. We recast the problem in terms of speakers' communicative
      goals and propose that speakers try to minimize respiratory effort in line with
      the H&H theory. We analyze respiratory cycles coinciding with no speech (i.e.,
      silence), short verbal feedback expressions (SFE's) as well as longer
      vocalizations in terms of parameters of the respiratory cycle and find little
      evidence for respiratory planning in feedback production. We also investigate
      timing of speech and SFEs in the exhalation and contrast it with nods. We find
      that while speech is strongly tied to the exhalation onset, SFEs are distributed
      much more uniformly throughout the exhalation and are often produced on residual
      air. Given that nods, which do not have any respiratory constraints, tend to be
      more frequent toward the end of an exhalation, we propose a mechanism whereby
      respiratory patterns are determined by the trade-off between speakers'
      communicative goals and respiratory constraints.

PMID- 28567024
TI  - Dissociating Attention and Eye Movements in a Quantitative Analysis of Attention
      Allocation.
AB  - In a recent paper, we introduced a method and equation for inferring the
      allocation of attention on a continuous scale. The size of the stimuli, the
      estimated size of the fovea, and the pattern of results implied that the
      subjects' responses reflected shifts in covert attention rather than shifts in
      eye movements. This report describes an experiment that tests this implication.
      We measured eye movements. The monitor briefly displayed (e.g., 130 ms) two small
      stimuli (~1.0 degrees  * 1.2 degrees ), situated one atop another. When the
      stimuli were close together, as in the previous study, fixations that supported
      correct responses at one stimulus also supported correct responses at the other
      stimulus, as measured over the entire session. Yet, on any particular trial,
      correct responses were limited to just one stimulus. This pattern suggests that
      the constraints on responding within a trial were due to limits on cognitive
      processing, whereas the ability to respond correctly to either stimulus on
      different trials must have entailed shifts in attention (that were not
      accompanied by eye movements). In contrast, when the stimuli were far apart,
      fixations that had a high probability of supporting correct responses at one
      stimulus had a low probability of supporting correct responses at the other
      stimulus. Thus, conditions could be arranged so that correct responses depended
      on eye movements, whereas in the "standard" procedure, correct responses were
      independent of eye movements. The results dissociate covert and overt attention
      and support the claim that our procedure measures covert attention.

PMID- 28567021
TI  - Assessment of Fetal Development Using Cardiac Valve Intervals.
AB  - An automated method to assess the fetal physiological development is introduced
      which uses the component intervals between fetal cardiac valve timings and the Q
      wave of fetal electrocardiogram (fECG). These intervals were estimated
      automatically from one-dimensional Doppler Ultrasound and noninvasive fECG. We
      hypothesize that the fetal growth can be estimated by the cardiac valve
      intervals. This hypothesis was evaluated by modeling the fetal development using
      the cardiac intervals and validating against the gold standard gestational age
      identified by Crown-Rump Length (CRL). Among the intervals, electromechanical
      delay time, isovolumic contraction time, ventricular filling time and their
      interactions were selected in a stepwise regression process that used gestational
      age as the target in a cohort of 57 fetuses. Compared with the gold standard age,
      the newly proposed regression model resulted in a mean absolute error of 3.8
      weeks for all recordings and 2.7 weeks after excluding the low quality
      recordings. Since Fetal Heart Rate Variability (FHRV) has been proposed in the
      literature for assessing the fetal development, we compared the performance of
      gestational age estimation by our new valve-interval based method, vs. FHRV,
      while assuming the CRL as the gold standard. The valve interval-based method
      outperformed both the model based on FHRV. Results of evaluation for 30 abnormal
      cases showed that the new method is less affected by arrhythmias such as
      tachycardia and bradycardia compared to FHRV, however certain types of heart
      anomalies cause large errors (more than 10 weeks) with respect to the CRL-based
      gold standard age. Therefore, discrepancies between the regression based
      estimation and CRL age estimation could indicate the abnormalities. The cardiac
      valve intervals have been known to reflect the autonomic function. Therefore the
      new method potentially provides a novel approach for assessing the development of
      fetal autonomic nervous system, which may be growth curve independent.

PMID- 28567025
TI  - A Proposal for a Scientifically-Informed and Instrumentalist Account of Free Will
      and Voluntary Action.
AB  - The ability to choose freely is captured under the umbrella concept of "free
      will," which designates an ability that plays a crucial role in most
      understandings of autonomy and responsibility and, thus, bears significance for
      moral practice and moral theory. Some claim that neuroscience research challenges
      the existence of free will/voluntary action while some who adopt stronger
      eliminativist stances have gone as far as describing free will as an illusion.
      Contrary to that, those relying on realist stances have restated the foundational
      value and role of folk psychological concepts of voluntary action and free will
      in, for example, the domains of ethics and law. An emerging body of research in
      cognitive science and social psychology has generated results suggesting that the
      phenomena captured by the concepts describing free will and voluntary action are
      dynamic and responsive to priming and framing effects. We propose that this body
      of research suggests the existence of dynamic and consequential properties of
      free will better captured following pragmatist theory and instrumentalist
      epistemology. This contrasts the simpler static concept of free will and the
      related metaphysics that was at the basis of earlier debates and structured
      around the poles of realism and eliminativism. This paper contextualizes
      ontological and epistemological debates about free will, describes a
      scientifically-informed and instrumentalist account of the concept of free will
      and voluntary action consistent with recent research in cognitive science, and
      discusses its implications for research (e.g., theoretical assumptions of
      research paradigms, interdisciplinary research) and practice (e.g., impact on
      self-image and social behavior).

PMID- 28567026
TI  - FMRI Study of Neural Responses to Implicit Infant Emotion in Anorexia Nervosa.
AB  - Difficulties in social-emotional processing have been proposed to play an
      important role in the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). Few
      studies, thus far, have investigated neural processes that underlie these
      difficulties, including processing emotional facial expressions. However, the
      majority of these studies have investigated neural responses to adult emotional
      display, which may be confounded by elevated sensitivity to social rank and
      threat in AN. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the neural
      processes underlying implicit processing of positively and negatively valenced
      infant emotional display in AN. Twenty-one adult women with AN and twenty-six
      healthy comparison (HC) women were presented with images of positively valenced,
      negatively valenced, and neutral infant faces during a fMRI scan. Significant
      differences between the groups in positive > neutral and negative > neutral
      contrasts were investigated in a priori regions of interest, including the
      bilateral amygdala, insula, and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The findings
      revealed that the AN participants showed relatively increased recruitment while
      the HC participants showed relatively reduced recruitment of the bilateral
      amygdala and the right dorsolateral PFC in the positive > neutral contrast. In
      the negative > neutral contrast, the AN group showed relatively increased
      recruitment of the left posterior insula while the HC groups showed relatively
      reduced recruitment of this region. These findings suggest that people with AN
      may engage in implicit prefrontal down-regulation of elevated limbic reactivity
      to positively social-emotional stimuli.

PMID- 28567027
TI  - Transient Vestibulopathy in Wallenberg's Syndrome: Pathologic Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report an unusual lateral medullary stroke (LMS) associated with
      transient unidirectional horizontal, nystagmus, and decreased horizontal
      vestibulo-ocular reflex (h-VOR) gain that mimicked a peripheral vestibulopathy.
      MRI suggested involvement of caudal medial vestibular nucleus (MVN); however, the
      rapid resolution of the nystagmus and improved h-VOR gain favored transient
      ischemia without infarction. Decreased h-VOR gain is expected with peripheral
      vestibular lesions within the labyrinth or superior vestibular nerve; less
      frequently lateral pontine strokes involving the vestibular root entry, the
      vestibular fascicle, or neurons within the MVN may be responsible. The h-VOR is
      typically normal in LMS. METHODS: Clinicopathologic examination of a 61-year-old
      man with an acute vestibular syndrome (AVS) and left LMS who died 3 weeks after
      the stroke. Postmortem brainstem analysis was performed. RESULTS: The stroke
      involved the lateral medulla and pontomedullary junction, near the MVN, sparing
      the cerebellum and pons. To explain transient vestibular findings there are two
      possible hypotheses; the first would be that the MVN survived the ischemic
      process and would be histologically intact, and the second that vestibular
      afferents in the horizontal semicircular canal were ischemic and recovered after
      the ischemic process. Neuropathological examination showed a left LMS whose
      extent matched that seen by imaging. Non-ocular motor signs correlated well with
      structures affected by the infarction. Neurons and glia within nearby MVN were
      spared, as predicted by the rapid normalization of the ocular motor signs.
      Although unlikely, the possibility of transient intralabyrinthine arteriolar
      ischemia cannot be excluded. Additionally, truncal lateropulsion was due to
      combined lateral vestibulospinal tract and lateral reticular nucleus infarction.
      CONCLUSION: LMS may rarely be associated with an AVS that either represents or
      mimics a peripheral vestibulopathy. To our knowledge, this is the first
      neuropathologic examination of the brainstem of an LMS associated with transient
      vestibular findings occurring in the context of an anterior/posterior (AICA/PICA)
      cerebellar arterial variant stroke.

PMID- 28567028
TI  - Gelsemium elegans Poisoning: A Case with 8 Months of Follow-up and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gelsemium elegans (G. elegans) is a toxic plant indigenous to
      Southeast Asia. It is highly poisonous due to its strong respiratory depressive
      effect. However, G. elegans poisoning cases have not been summarized
      comprehensively and are rarely reported in English journals. Furthermore, none of
      the present reports present prognosis in detail. CASE PRESENTATION: A 26-year-old
      female was found comatose at home and brought to the hospital with deep coma,
      hypoxia, and acidosis. After mechanical ventilation for hours, the patient
      recovered from coma with sequelae of impaired short-term memory, disorientation,
      and childish behaviors. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed bilateral
      hippocampus and basal ganglia damage due to hypoxia. During 8 months of follow
      up, both her symptoms and brain MRI scan improved significantly. CONCLUSION: G.
      elegans is highly toxic. Although patients may die within 30 min due to its
      strong respiratory depressive effect, they can survive with timely respiratory
      support and enjoy gradual improvement without delayed postanoxic encephalopathy.

PMID- 28567029
TI  - Long-term Developmental Trends of Pediatric Mitochondrial Diseases: The Five
      Stages of Developmental Decline.
AB  - Mitochondrial diseases (MDs) are a heterogeneous group of progressive multisystem
      disorders caused by impaired mitochondrial function. This study aimed to evaluate
      the clinical course and long-term development of 53 pediatric patients with MDs.
      Developmental function was evaluated at nine time points (two pre-diagnosis, one
      at diagnosis, and six post-diagnosis), with the developmental quotient (DQ) from
      the Korean infant and child development test (KICDT) assessing a child's
      developmental age (rather than chronological age). Additionally, disease-related
      clinical variables were reviewed, and clinical progress was determined through
      observation. Subgroup analyses by epilepsy severity, syndromic diagnosis, diffuse
      brain atrophy, and clinical rating were performed. The pre- and post-diagnosis
      results were compared by the paired t-test and Bonferroni correction. The pre
      diagnostic, diagnostic, and post-diagnostic evaluations were compared using
      repeated measures ANOVA. Patients with diffuse brain atrophy at the first pre
      diagnostic and second post-diagnostic evaluations showed lower DQs. Compared with
      patients with a mildly or severely deteriorating clinical course, those with an
      improving or static clinical course presented higher DQs at the pre-diagnostic
      and diagnostic evaluations. The age at onset of the first symptom correlated
      positively with the DQ post-diagnosis. Follow-up revealed consistent patterns of
      significant developmental deterioration during the lead time to diagnosis, with
      no significant decline post-diagnosis. The DQ is a feasible predictor and a
      measure of long-term functional development in children with MD. Early initiation
      of treatment may minimize developmental regression.

PMID- 28567030
TI  - A New Rabbit-Skin Model to Evaluate Protective Efficacy of Tuberculosis Vaccines.
AB  - Background: BCG protection is suboptimal and there is significant interest to
      develop new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. However, there are significant
      limitations of the current vaccine evaluation systems in the mouse model. Here,
      we developed a BCG-challenge rabbit skin model as a new way to evaluate the
      protective efficacy of selected TB subunit vaccine candidates. Methods: Rabbits
      were immunized with subunit vaccines, including EAMM (ESAT6-Ag85B-MPT64<190-198>
      Mtb8.4), MH (Mtb10.4-HspX), and LT70 (ESAT6-Ag85B-MPT64<190-198>-Mtb8.4-Rv2626c)
      three times subcutaneously every 3-weeks and challenged with the attenuated
      Mycobacterium bovis BCG intradermally 6-weeks after last immunization. The immune
      response induced by the vaccine candidates was measured, the histopathology
      induced by the BCG challenge was studied, and the number of bacilli in the
      liquefied caseum was determined. Results: The subunit vaccines generated high
      antigen-specific IgG antibodies and fastened the liquefaction and healing
      process, and significantly reduced the viable BCG load. The subunit vaccine LT70
      and EAMM-MH reduced BCG bacterial load in comparison to proteins EAMM, MH,
      Rv2626c, and also BCG itself. The Koch phenomena induced by the LT70 and
      combination of EAMM-MH were the same as that produced by BCG itself and were more
      rapid than those induced by the other proteins and the saline controls.
      Conclusions: The subunit vaccines LT70 and the combination of EAMM-MH showed
      promising protective efficacy as expected in the rabbit skin model, which can
      serve as a visual and convenient new model for evaluating TB vaccines.

PMID- 28567031
TI  - Impact of Nutrient Restriction on the Structure of Listeria monocytogenes Biofilm
      Grown in a Microfluidic System.
AB  - Biofilm formation by the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is a major concern in
      food industries. The aim of this work was to elucidate the effect of nutrient
      limitation on both biofilm architecture and on the viability of the bacteria in
      microfluidic growth conditions. Biofilm formation by two L. monocytogenes strains
      was performed in a rich medium (BHI) and in a 10-fold diluted BHI (BHI/10) at 30
      degrees C for 24 h by using both static conditions and the microfluidic system
      Bioflux. In dynamic conditions, biofilms grown in rich and poor medium showed
      significant differences as well in structure and in the resulting biovolume. In
      BHI/10, biofilm was organized in a knitted network where cells formed long
      chains, whereas in the rich medium, the observed structure was homogeneous
      cellular multilayers. Biofilm biovolume production in BHI/10 was significantly
      higher than in BHI in these dynamic conditions. Interestingly, biovolume of dead
      cells in biofilms formed under limited nutrient conditions (BHI/10) was
      significantly higher than in biofilms formed in the BHI medium. In the other
      hand, in static conditions, biofilm is organized in a multilayer cells and
      dispersed cells in a rich medium BHI and poor medium BHI/10 respectively. There
      was significantly more biomass in the rich medium compared to BHI/10 but no
      difference was noted in the dead/damaged subpopulation showing how L.
      monocytogenes biofilm could be affected by the growth conditions. This work
      demonstrated that nutrient concentration affects biofilm structure and the
      proportion of dead cells in biofilms under microfluidic condition. Our study also
      showed that limited nutrients play an important role in the structural stability
      of L. monocytogenes biofilm by enhancing cell death and liberating extracellular
      DNA.

PMID- 28567032
TI  - Recurring Necrotic Enteritis Outbreaks in Commercial Broiler Chicken Flocks
      Strongly Influence Toxin Gene Carriage and Species Richness in the Resident
      Clostridium perfringens Population.
AB  - Extensive use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in food animals has been
      questioned due to the globally increasing problem of antibiotic resistance. For
      the poultry industry, digestive health management following AGP withdrawal in
      Europe has been a challenge, especially the control of necrotic enteritis. Much
      research work has focused on gut health in commercial broiler chicken husbandry.
      Understanding the behavior of Clostridium perfringens in its ecological niche,
      the poultry barn, is key to a sustainable and cost-effective production in the
      absence of AGPs. Using polymerase chain reaction and pulsed-field gel
      electrophoresis, we evaluated how the C. perfringens population evolved in drug
      free commercial broiler chicken farms, either healthy or affected with recurring
      clinical necrotic enteritis outbreaks, over a 14-month period. We show that a
      high genotypic richness was associated with an increased risk of clinical
      necrotic enteritis. Also, necrotic enteritis-affected farms had a significant
      reduction of C. perfringens genotypic richness over time, an increase in the
      proportion of C. perfringens strains harboring the cpb2 gene, the netB gene, or
      both. Thus, necrotic enteritis occurrence is correlated with the presence of an
      initial highly diverse C. perfringens population, increasing the opportunity for
      the selective sweep of particularly virulent genotypes. Disease outbreaks also
      appear to largely influence the evolution of this bacterial species in poultry
      farms over time.

PMID- 28567033
TI  - Detection of Androgenic-Mutagenic Compounds and Potential Autochthonous Bacterial
      Communities during In Situ Bioremediation of Post-methanated Distillery Sludge.
AB  - Sugarcane-molasses-based post-methanated distillery waste is well known for its
      toxicity, causing adverse effects on aquatic flora and fauna. Here, it has been
      demonstrated that there is an abundant mixture of androgenic and mutagenic
      compounds both in distillery sludge and leachate. Gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis showed dodecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid, n
      pentadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid, beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, beta
      sitosterol trimethyl ether, heptacosane, dotriacontane, lanosta-8, 24-dien-3-one,
      1-methylene-3-methyl butanol, 1-phenyl-1-propanol, 5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl)
      cyclohexanol, and 2-ethylthio-10-hydroxy-9-methoxy-1,4 anthraquinone as major
      organic pollutants along with heavy metals (all mg kg-1): Fe (2403), Zn (210.15),
      Mn (126.30, Cu (73.62), Cr (21.825), Pb (16.33) and Ni (13.425). In a
      simultaneous analysis of bacterial communities using the restriction fragment
      length polymorphism (RFLP) method the dominance of Bacillus sp. followed by
      Enterococcus sp. as autochthonous bacterial communities growing in this extremely
      toxic environment was shown, indicating a primary community for bioremediation. A
      toxicity evaluation showed a reduction of toxicity in degraded samples of sludge
      and leachate, confirming the role of autochthonous bacterial communities in the
      bioremediation of distillery waste in situ.

PMID- 28567035
TI  - Evaluating the Detection of Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria in 16S rRNA Gene
      Sequencing Surveys.
AB  - Hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB) play a key role in the biodegradation of oil
      hydrocarbons in marine and other environments. A small number of taxa have been
      identified as obligate HCB, notably the Gammaproteobacterial genera Alcanivorax,
      Cycloclasticus, Marinobacter, Neptumonas, Oleiphilus, Oleispira, and
      Thalassolituus, as well as the Alphaproteobacterial genus Thalassospira.
      Detection of HCB in amplicon-based sequencing surveys relies on high coverage by
      PCR primers and accurate taxonomic classification. In this study, we performed a
      phylogenetic analysis to identify 16S rRNA gene sequence regions that represent
      the breadth of sequence diversity within these taxa. Using validated sequences,
      we evaluated 449 universal 16S rRNA gene-targeted bacterial PCR primer pairs for
      their coverage of these taxa. The results of this analysis provide a practical
      framework for selection of suitable primer sets for optimal detection of HCB in
      sequencing surveys.

PMID- 28567034
TI  - Transcriptional Responses of Candida albicans to Antimicrobial Peptide MAF-1A.
AB  - Candida albicans is a major fungal pathogen in humans. Novel antifungal agents
      are urgent demanded due to the challenges of the resistance. Antimicrobial
      peptides (AMPs) are critical components of the innate immune system against
      pathogenic microorganism infection. MAF-1A is a novel cationic AMP that comes
      from Musca domestica and is effective against C. albicans, but the antifungal
      mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we performed a transcriptomics analysis
      in C. albicans using RNA-seq technique under the treatment of MAF-1A. A total of
      5654 genes were identified. Among these, 1032 were differentially expressed genes
      (DEGs), including 575 up-regulated genes and 457 down-regulated genes. In these
      DEGs, genes encoding ergosterol metabolism and fatty acid biosynthesis were
      identified to be significantly down-regulated, while genes associated with
      oxidative stress response and cell wall were identified to be significantly up
      regulated. Using pathway enrichment analysis, 12 significant metabolic pathways
      were identified, and ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation, citrate cycle were
      mainly involved. The results revealed that MAF-1A induces complex responses in C.
      albicans. This study provides evidence that MAF-1A may inhibit the growth through
      affect multi-targets in C. albicans cells.

PMID- 28567036
TI  - Nasal IgA Provides Protection against Human Influenza Challenge in Volunteers
      with Low Serum Influenza Antibody Titre.
AB  - In spite of there being a number of vaccines, influenza remains a significant
      global cause of morbidity and mortality. Understanding more about natural and
      vaccine induced immune protection against influenza infection would help to
      develop better vaccines. Virus specific IgG is a known correlate of protection,
      but other factors may help to reduce viral load or disease severity, for example
      IgA. In the current study we measured influenza specific responses in a
      controlled human infection model using influenza A/California/2009 (H1N1) as the
      challenge agent. Volunteers were pre-selected with low haemagglutination
      inhibition (HAI) titres in order to ensure a higher proportion of infection; this
      allowed us to explore the role of other immune correlates. In spite of HAI being
      uniformly low, there were variable levels of H1N1 specific IgG and IgA prior to
      infection. There was also a range of disease severity in volunteers allowing us
      to compare whether differences in systemic and local H1N1 specific IgG and IgA
      prior to infection affected disease outcome. H1N1 specific IgG level before
      challenge did not correlate with protection, probably due to the pre-screening
      for individuals with low HAI. However, the length of time infectious virus was
      recovered from the nose was reduced in patients with higher pre-existing H1N1
      influenza specific nasal IgA or serum IgA. Therefore, IgA contributes to
      protection against influenza and should be targeted in vaccines.

PMID- 28567037
TI  - Modulation of the Gut Microbiota by Krill Oil in Mice Fed a High-Sugar High-Fat
      Diet.
AB  - Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the gut microbiota plays vital roles in
      metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia. Previous studies have confirmed that
      krill oil can alleviate hyperlipidemia, but the underlying mechanism remains
      unclear. To discern whether krill oil changes the structure of the gut microbiota
      during the hyperlipidemia treatment, 72 mice were acclimatized with a standard
      chow diet for 2 weeks and then randomly allocated to receive a standard chow diet
      (control group, n = 12) or a high-sugar-high-fat (HSHF) diet supplemented with a
      low (100 MUg/g.d, HSHF+LD group, n = 12), moderate (200 MUg/g.d, HSHF+MD group, n
      = 12) or high dosage of krill oil (600 MUg/g.d, HSHF+HD group, n = 12),
      simvastatin (HSHF+S group, n = 12) or saline (HSHF group, n = 12) continuously
      for 12 weeks. The resulting weight gains were attenuated, the liver index and the
      low-density lipoprotein, total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations showed
      a stepwise reduction in the treated groups compared with those of the control
      group. A dose-dependent modulation of the gut microbiota was observed after
      treatment with krill oil. Low- and moderate- doses of krill oil increased the
      similarity between the composition of the HSHF diet-induced gut microbiota and
      that of the control, whereas the mice fed the high-dose exhibited a unique gut
      microbiota structure that was different from that of the control and HSHF groups.
      Sixty-five key operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that responded to the krill oil
      treatment were identified using redundancy analysis, of which 26 OTUs were
      increased and 39 OTUs were decreased compared with those of the HSHF group. In
      conclusion, the results obtained in this study suggest that the structural
      alterations in the gut microbiota induced by krill oil treatment were dose
      dependent and associated with the alleviation of hyperlipidemia. Additionally,
      the high-dose krill oil treatment showed combined effects on the alleviation of
      hyperlipidemia and obesity.

PMID- 28567038
TI  - Assessing the Challenges in the Application of Potential Probiotic Lactic Acid
      Bacteria in the Large-Scale Fermentation of Spanish-Style Table Olives.
AB  - This work studies the inoculation conditions for allowing the
      survival/predominance of a potential probiotic strain (Lactobacillus pentosus
      TOMC-LAB2) when used as a starter culture in large-scale fermentations of green
      Spanish-style olives. The study was performed in two successive seasons
      (2011/2012 and 2012/2013), using about 150 tons of olives. Inoculation
      immediately after brining (to prevent wild initial microbiota growth) followed by
      re-inoculation 24 h later (to improve competitiveness) was essential for inoculum
      predominance. Processing early in the season (September) showed a favorable
      effect on fermentation and strain predominance on olives (particularly when using
      acidified brines containing 25 L HCl/vessel) but caused the disappearance of the
      target strain from both brines and olives during the storage phase. On the
      contrary, processing in October slightly reduced the target strain predominance
      on olives (70-90%) but allowed longer survival. The type of inoculum used
      (laboratory vs. industry pre-adapted) never had significant effects. Thus, this
      investigation discloses key issues for the survival and predominance of starter
      cultures in large-scale industrial fermentations of green Spanish-style olives.
      Results can be of interest for producing probiotic table olives and open new
      research challenges on the causes of inoculum vanishing during the storage phase.

PMID- 28567039
TI  - Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Reprogram IL-4/GM-CSF-Induced Monocyte
      Differentiation to Anti-inflammatory Macrophages.
AB  - Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) are essential for the development of a
      Th1 protective immune response against Leishmania parasites. It is well known
      that IL-4 and GM-CSF drive differentiation of human monocytes to dendritic cells
      (DCs). Here, we investigate if neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) disrupt this
      process. NETs-enriched supernatants, generated after human neutrophil activation
      by Leishmania promastigotes, were added to monocytes and differentiation
      monitored by expression of molecules associated with macrophage and DCs
      phenotypes, cytokine production, and parasite killing. We found that NETs
      addition to IL-4/GM-CSF-treated monocytes prevented then to fully differentiate
      into DCs. No effect was observed if NETs were treated with DNase or by filtering
      the traps. Moreover, NETs closely interact with monocytes and downregulate the
      expression of the IL-4 receptor, which in turn disrupts fully differentiation of
      monocytes into DCs. Neutrophil elastase inhibition rescues the monocytes to DCs
      differentiation. Monocytes cultured with IL-4/GM-CSF and NETs differentiated into
      macrophages, as observed by the increased expression of CD68, CD32, and CD163,
      and decreased expression of CD80. Moreover, NET addition to IL-4/GM-CSF-treated
      monocytes rendered these cells less efficient to kill Leishmania parasites.
      Altogether, our results show that NETs interfere with IL-4/GM-CSF driven
      differentiation, reprogramming the generation of mo-DCs to an anti-inflammatory
      macrophage.

PMID- 28567040
TI  - A Unique Cellular and Molecular Microenvironment Is Present in Tertiary Lymphoid
      Organs of Patients with Spontaneous Prostate Cancer Regression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Multiple solid cancers contain tertiary lymphoid organs (TLO).
      However, it is unclear whether they promote tumor rejection, facilitate tumor
      evasion, or simply whether they are a byproduct of chronic inflammation. We
      hypothesize that although chronic inflammation induces TLO formation, the tumor
      milieu can modulate TLO organization and functions in prostate cancer. Therefore,
      our study seeks to elucidate the cellular and molecular signatures in unique
      prostatectomy specimens from evanescent carcinoma patients to identify markers of
      cancer regression, which could be harnessed to modulate local immunosuppression
      or potentially enhance TLO function. METHODS: We used multicolor
      immunofluorescence to stain prostate tissues, collected at different stages of
      cancer progression (prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, intermediate and
      advanced cancer) or from patients with evanescent prostate carcinoma. Tissues
      were stained with antibodies specific for pro-inflammatory molecules
      (cyclooxygenase 2, CXCL10, IL17), tumor-infiltrating immune cells (mature DC
      LAMP+ dendritic cells, CD3+ T cells, CD3+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg), T bet+
      Th1 cells, granzyme B+ cytotoxic cells), and stromal cell populations (lymphatic
      vessels, tumor neovessels, high endothelial venules (HEV), stromal cells), which
      promote prostate tumor growth or are critical components of tumor-associated TLO.
      RESULTS: Generally, inflammatory cells are located at the margins of tumors.
      Unexpectedly, we found TLO within prostate tumors from patients at different
      stages of cancer and in unique samples from patients with spontaneous cancer
      remission. In evanescent prostate carcinomas, accumulation of Treg was
      compromised, while Tbet+ T cells and CD8 T cells were abundant in tumor
      associated TLO. In addition, we found a global decrease in tumor
      neovascularization and the coverage by cells positive for cyclooxygenase 2
      (COX2). Finally, consistent with tumor regression, prostate stem cell antigen was
      considerably reduced in TLO and tumor areas from evanescent carcinoma patients.
      CONCLUSION: Collectively, our results suggest that COX2 and Treg are attractive
      therapeutic targets that can be harnessed to enhance TLO-driven tumor immunity
      against prostate cancer. Specially, the presence of HEV and lymphatics indicate
      that TLO can be used as a platform for delivery of cell-based and/or COX2
      blocking therapies to improve control of tumor growth in prostate cancer.

PMID- 28567041
TI  - Pathogen-Reactive T Helper Cell Analysis in the Pig.
AB  - There is growing interest in studying host-pathogen interactions in human
      relevant large animal models such as the pig. Despite the progress in developing
      immunological reagents for porcine T cell research, there is an urgent need to
      directly assess pathogen-specific T cells-an extremely rare population of cells,
      but of upmost importance in orchestrating the host immune response to a given
      pathogen. Here, we established that the activation marker CD154 (CD40L), known
      from human and mouse studies, identifies also porcine antigen-reactive CD4+ T
      lymphocytes. CD154 expression was upregulated early after antigen encounter and
      CD4+CD154+ antigen-reactive T cells coexpressed cytokines. Antigen-induced
      expansion and autologous restimulation enabled a time- and dose-resolved analysis
      of CD154 regulation and a significantly increased resolution in phenotypic
      profiling of antigen-responsive cells. CD154 expression identified T cells
      responding to staphylococcal Enterotoxin B superantigen stimulation as well as T
      cells responding to the fungus Candida albicans and T cells specific for a highly
      prevalent intestinal parasite, the nematode Ascaris suum during acute and trickle
      infection. Antigen-reactive T cells were further detected after immunization of
      pigs with a single recombinant bacterial antigen of Streptococcus suis only.
      Thus, our study offers new ways to study antigen-specific T lymphocytes in the
      pig and their contribution to host-pathogen interactions.

PMID- 28567042
TI  - Hepatitis C Virus and Human Cytomegalovirus-Natural Killer Cell Subsets in
      Persistent Viral Infections.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are prominent examples
      of RNA and DNA viruses, respectively, that establish a persistent infection in
      their host. HCV affects over 185 million patients worldwide, who are at high risk
      for developing liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and ultimately hepatocellular
      carcinoma. Recent breakthroughs in HCV therapy, using direct-acting antivirals
      have provided the opportunity to monitor natural killer (NK) cells after
      clearance of a chronic infection. There is now increasing evidence that the
      individual NK cell repertoire before infection is predictive for the course of
      disease. HCMV affects the majority of the global population. While being
      asymptomatic in healthy individuals, HCMV represents a severe clinical challenge
      in immunocompromised patients. Both viral infections, HCV and HCMV, lead to long
      lasting and profound alterations within the entire NK cell compartment. This
      review article, will discuss the diverse range of changes in the NK cell
      compartment as well as potential consequences for the course of disease.

PMID- 28567044
TI  - Curcumin Promotes the Clearance of Listeria monocytogenes both In Vitro and In
      Vivo by Reducing Listeriolysin O Oligomers.
AB  - The pore-forming toxin listeriolysin O (LLO), an essential virulence factor that
      is secreted by Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes), is responsible for
      bacterial breaching at the phagosomal membranes and subsequent release into the
      cytoplasm; it cannot be recognized by the host immune system. The vital role that
      LLO plays in bacterial pathogenicity and evading host immune clearance makes this
      virulence a promising target for addressing L. monocytogenes infection. In this
      study, we hypothesized that curcumin, a polyphenol derived from turmeric that
      could effectively inhibit LLO pore-forming activity, might be useful in the
      prevention or treatment of L. monocytogenes infection. Thus, the in vitro
      protective effects of curcumin against L. monocytogenes infection by targeting
      LLO were assessed via hemolytic activity assays, cytotoxicity tests,
      intracellular growth assays, and confocal microscopy. Our results revealed that
      treating infected macrophages with curcumin can lead to a decrease in LLO
      mediated bacteria phagosomal escape and limit the intracellular growth of L.
      monocytogenes. Moreover, results from animal experiments show that this natural
      compound effectively increases protection against bacterial infection and helps
      the host to clear the invading pathogen completely from an animal model,
      establishing it as a potent antagonist of L. monocytogenes. The results from our
      molecular modeling and mutational analysis demonstrated that curcumin directly
      engages with domains 2 and 4 of LLO, thereby decreasing the hemolytic activity of
      LLO by influencing its oligomerization. Taken together, these results suggest
      that, as an antitoxin agent, curcumin can be further developed into a novel
      therapy against L. monocytogenes infections by targeting LLO.

PMID- 28567045
TI  - Exploring Relationships between Canopy Architecture, Light Distribution, and
      Photosynthesis in Contrasting Rice Genotypes Using 3D Canopy Reconstruction.
AB  - The arrangement of leaf material is critical in determining the light
      environment, and subsequently the photosynthetic productivity of complex crop
      canopies. However, links between specific canopy architectural traits and
      photosynthetic productivity across a wide genetic background are poorly
      understood for field grown crops. The architecture of five genetically diverse
      rice varieties-four parental founders of a multi-parent advanced generation
      intercross (MAGIC) population plus a high yielding Philippine variety (IR64)-was
      captured at two different growth stages using a method for digital plant
      reconstruction based on stereocameras. Ray tracing was employed to explore the
      effects of canopy architecture on the resulting light environment in high
      resolution, whilst gas exchange measurements were combined with an empirical
      model of photosynthesis to calculate an estimated carbon gain and total light
      interception. To further test the impact of different dynamic light patterns on
      photosynthetic properties, an empirical model of photosynthetic acclimation was
      employed to predict the optimal light-saturated photosynthesis rate (Pmax )
      throughout canopy depth, hypothesizing that light is the sole determinant of
      productivity in these conditions. First, we show that a plant type with steeper
      leaf angles allows more efficient penetration of light into lower canopy layers
      and this, in turn, leads to a greater photosynthetic potential. Second the
      predicted optimal Pmax responds in a manner that is consistent with fractional
      interception and leaf area index across this germplasm. However, measured Pmax ,
      especially in lower layers, was consistently higher than the optimal Pmax
      indicating factors other than light determine photosynthesis profiles. Lastly,
      varieties with more upright architecture exhibit higher maximum quantum yield of
      photosynthesis indicating a canopy-level impact on photosynthetic efficiency.

PMID- 28567043
TI  - Simultaneous Subcutaneous and Intranasal Administration of a CAF01-Adjuvanted
      Chlamydia Vaccine Elicits Elevated IgA and Protective Th1/Th17 Responses in the
      Genital Tract.
AB  - The selection of any specific immunization route is critical when defining future
      vaccine strategies against a genital infection like Chlamydia trachomatis (C.t.).
      An optimal Chlamydia vaccine needs to elicit mucosal immunity comprising both
      neutralizing IgA/IgG antibodies and strong Th1/Th17 responses. A strategic tool
      to modulate this immune profile and mucosal localization of vaccine responses is
      to combine parenteral and mucosal immunizations routes. In this study, we
      investigate whether this strategy can be adapted into a two-visit strategy by
      simultaneous subcutaneous (SC) and nasal immunization. Using a subunit vaccine
      composed of C.t. antigens (Ags) adjuvanted with CAF01, a Th1/Th17 promoting
      adjuvant, we comparatively evaluated Ag-specific B and T cell responses and
      efficacy in mice following SC and simultaneous SC and nasal immunization (SIM).
      We found similar peripheral responses with regard to interferon gamma and IL-17
      producing Ag-specific splenocytes and IgG serum levels in both vaccine strategies
      but in addition, the SIM protocol also led to Ag-specific IgA responses and
      increased B and CD4+ T cells in the lung parenchyma, and in lower numbers also in
      the genital tract (GT). Following vaginal infection with C.t., we observed that
      SIM immunization gave rise to an early IgA response and IgA-secreting plasma
      cells in the GT in contrast to SC immunization, but we were not able to detect
      more rapid recruitment of mucosal T cells. Interestingly, although SIM
      vaccination in general improved mucosal immunity we observed no improved efficacy
      against genital infection compared to SC, a finding that warrants for further
      investigation. In conclusion, we demonstrate a novel vaccination strategy that
      combines systemic and mucosal immunity in a two-visit strategy.

PMID- 28567046
TI  - Transcriptome Analysis of Salicylic Acid Treatment in Rehmannia glutinosa Hairy
      Roots Using RNA-seq Technique for Identification of Genes Involved in Acteoside
      Biosynthesis.
AB  - Rehmannia glutinosa is a common bulk medicinal material that has been widely used
      in China due to its active ingredients. Acteoside, one of the ingredients, has
      antioxidant, antinephritic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective,
      immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective effects, is usually selected as a quality
      control component for R. glutinosa herb in the Chinese Pharmacopeia. The
      acteoside biosynthesis pathway in R. glutinosa has not yet been clearly
      established. Herein, we describe the establishment of a genetic transformation
      system for R. glutinosa mediated by Agrobacterium rhizogenes. We screened the
      optimal elicitors that markedly increased acteoside accumulation in R. glutinosa
      hairy roots. We found that acteoside accumulation dramatically increased with the
      addition of salicylic acid (SA); the optimal SA dose was 25 MUmol/L for hairy
      roots. RNA-seq was applied to analyze the transcriptomic changes in hairy roots
      treated with SA for 24 h in comparison with an untreated control. A total of
      3,716, 4,018, and 2,715 differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) were
      identified in 0 h-vs.-12 h, 0 h-vs.-24 h, and 12 h-vs.-24 h libraries,
      respectively. KEGG pathway-based analysis revealed that 127 DETs were enriched in
      "phenylpropanoid biosynthesis." Of 219 putative unigenes involved in acteoside
      biosynthesis, 54 were found to be up-regulated at at least one of the time points
      after SA treatment. Selected candidate genes were analyzed by quantitative real
      time PCR (qRT-PCR) in hairy roots with SA, methyl jasmonate (MeJA), AgNO3 (Ag+),
      and putrescine (Put) treatment. All genes investigated were up-regulated by SA
      treatment, and most candidate genes were weakly increased by MeJA to some degree.
      Furthermore, transcription abundance of eight candidate genes in tuberous roots
      of the high-acteoside-content (HA) cultivar QH were higher than those of the low
      acteoside-content (LA) cultivar Wen 85-5. These results will pave the way for
      understanding the molecular basis of acteoside biosynthesis in R. glutinosa, and
      can serve as a basis for future validation studies.

PMID- 28567047
TI  - Brassinosteroid Mediated Cell Wall Remodeling in Grasses under Abiotic Stress.
AB  - Unlike animals, plants, being sessile, cannot escape from exposure to severe
      abiotic stresses such as extreme temperature and water deficit. The dynamic
      structure of plant cell wall enables them to undergo compensatory changes, as
      well as maintain physical strength, with changing environments. Plant hormones
      known as brassinosteroids (BRs) play a key role in determining cell wall
      expansion during stress responses. Cell wall deposition differs between grasses
      (Poaceae) and dicots. Grass species include many important food, fiber, and
      biofuel crops. In this article, we focus on recent advances in BR-regulated cell
      wall biosynthesis and remodeling in response to stresses, comparing our
      understanding of the mechanisms in grass species with those in the more studied
      dicots. A more comprehensive understanding of BR-mediated changes in cell wall
      integrity in grass species will benefit the development of genetic tools to
      improve crop productivity, fiber quality and plant biomass recalcitrance.

PMID- 28567048
TI  - Genetic Gains in Yield and Yield Related Traits under Drought Stress and
      Favorable Environments in a Maize Population Improved Using Marker Assisted
      Recurrent Selection.
AB  - The objective of marker assisted recurrent selection (MARS) is to increase the
      frequency of favorable marker alleles in a population before inbred line
      extraction. This approach was used to improve drought tolerance and grain yield
      (GY) in a biparental cross of two elite drought tolerant lines. The testcrosses
      of randomly selected 50 S1 lines from each of the three selection cycles (C0, C1,
      C2) of the MARS population, parental testcrosses and the cross between the two
      parents (F1) were evaluated under drought stress (DS) and well watered (WW) well
      as under rainfed conditions to determine genetic gains in GY and other agronomic
      traits. Also, the S1 lines derived from each selection types were genotyped with
      single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Testcrosses derived from C2
      produced significantly higher grain field under DS than those derived from C0
      with a relative genetic gain of 7% per cycle. Also, the testcrosses of S1 lines
      from C2 showed an average genetic gain of 1% per cycle under WW condition and 3%
      per cycle under rainfed condition. Molecular analysis revealed that the frequency
      of favorable marker alleles increased from 0.510 at C0 to 0.515 at C2, while the
      effective number of alleles (Ne) per locus decreased from C0 (1.93) to C2 (1.87).
      Our results underscore the effectiveness of MARS for improvement of GY under DS
      condition.

PMID- 28567049
TI  - Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Drought Tolerance in Brachypodium
      distachyon.
AB  - The temperate wild grass Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) serves as model
      system for studying turf and forage grasses. Brachypodium collections show
      diverse responses to drought stress, but little is known about the genetic
      mechanisms of drought tolerance of this species. The objective of this study was
      to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with drought tolerance
      traits in Brachypodium. We assessed leaf fresh weight (LFW), leaf dry weight
      (LDW), leaf water content (LWC), leaf wilting (WT), and chlorophyll fluorescence
      (Fv/Fm) under well-watered and drought conditions on a recombinant inbred line
      (RIL) population from two parents (Bd3-1 and Bd1-1) known to differ in their
      drought adaptation. A linkage map of the RIL population was constructed using 467
      single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers obtained from genotyping-by
      sequencing. The Bd3-1/Bd1-1 map spanned 1,618 cM and had an average distance of
      3.5 cM between adjacent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Twenty-six QTLs
      were identified in chromosome 1, 2, and 3 in two experiments, with 14 of the QTLs
      under well-watered conditions and 12 QTLs under drought stress. In Experiment 1,
      a QTL located on chromosome 2 with a peak at 182 cM appeared to simultaneously
      control WT, LWC, and Fv/Fm under drought stress, accounting for 11-18.7% of the
      phenotypic variation. Allelic diversity of candidate genes DREB2B, MYB, and SPK,
      which reside in one multi-QTL region, may play a role in the natural variation in
      whole plant drought tolerance in Brachypodium. Co-localization of QTLs for
      multiple drought-related traits suggest that the gene(s) involved are important
      regulators of drought tolerance in Brachypodium.

PMID- 28567050
TI  - New Genetic Insights into Pearl Millet Diversity As Revealed by Characterization
      of Early- and Late-Flowering Landraces from Senegal.
AB  - Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is a staple food and a drought
      tolerant cereal well adapted to Sub-Saharan Africa agro-ecosystems. An important
      diversity of pearl millet landraces has been widely conserved by farmers and
      therefore could help copping with climate changes and contribute to future food
      security. Hence, characterizing its genetic diversity and population structure
      can contribute to better assist breeding programs for a sustainable agricultural
      productivity enhancement. Toward this goal, a comprehensive panel of 404
      accessions were used that correspond to 12 improved varieties, 306 early
      flowering and 86 late-flowering cultivated landraces from Senegal. Twelve highly
      polymorphic SSR markers were used to study diversity and population structure.
      Two genes, PgMADS11 and PgPHYC, were genotyped to assess their association to
      flowering phenotypic difference in landraces. Results indicate a large diversity
      and untapped potential of Senegalese pearl millet germplasm as well as a genetic
      differentiation between early- and late-flowering landraces. Further, a fine
      scale genetic difference of PgPHYC and PgMADS11 (SNP and indel, respectively) and
      co-variation of their alleles with flowering time were found among landraces.
      These findings highlight new genetic insights of pearl millet useful to define
      heterotic populations for breeding, genomic association panel, or crosses for
      trait-specific mapping.

PMID- 28567051
TI  - Trichoderma-Induced Acidification Is an Early Trigger for Changes in Arabidopsis
      Root Growth and Determines Fungal Phytostimulation.
AB  - Trichoderma spp. are common rhizosphere inhabitants widely used as biological
      control agents and their role as plant growth promoting fungi has been
      established. Although soil pH influences several fungal and plant functional
      traits such as growth and nutrition, little is known about its influence in
      rhizospheric or mutualistic interactions. The role of pH in the Trichoderma
      Arabidopsis interaction was studied by determining primary root growth and
      lateral root formation, root meristem status and cell viability, quiescent center
      (QC) integrity, and auxin inducible gene expression. Primary root growth
      phenotypes in wild type seedlings and STOP1 mutants allowed identification of a
      putative root pH sensing pathway likely operating in plant-fungus recognition.
      Acidification by Trichoderma induced auxin redistribution within Arabidopsis
      columella root cap cells, causing root tip bending and growth inhibition. Root
      growth stoppage correlated with decreased cell division and with the loss of QC
      integrity and cell viability, which were reversed by buffering the medium. In
      addition, stop1, an Arabidopsis mutant sensitive to low pH, was oversensitive to
      T. atroviride primary root growth repression, providing genetic evidence that a
      pH root sensing mechanism reprograms root architecture during the interaction.
      Our results indicate that root sensing of pH mediates the interaction of
      Trichoderma with plants.

PMID- 28567052
TI  - How Single Molecule Real-Time Sequencing and Haplotype Phasing Have Enabled
      Reference-Grade Diploid Genome Assembly of Wine Grapes.

PMID- 28567053
TI  - Comparative Physiological and Molecular Analyses of Two Contrasting Flue-Cured
      Tobacco Genotypes under Progressive Drought Stress.
AB  - Drought is a major environmental factor that limits crop growth and productivity.
      Flue-cured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is one of the most important commercial
      crops worldwide and its productivity is vulnerable to drought. However,
      comparative analyses of physiological, biochemical and gene expression changes in
      flue-cured tobacco varieties differing in drought tolerance under long-term
      drought stress are scarce. In this study, drought stress responses of two flue
      cured tobacco varieties, LJ851 and JX6007, were comparatively studied at the
      physiological and transcriptional levels. After exposing to progressive drought
      stress, the drought-tolerant LJ851 showed less growth inhibition and chlorophyll
      reduction than the drought-sensitive JX6007. Moreover, higher antioxidant enzyme
      activities and lower levels of H2O2, Malondialdehyde (MDA), and electrolyte
      leakage after drought stress were found in LJ851 when compared with JX6007.
      Further analysis showed that LJ851 plants had much less reductions than the
      JX6007 in the net photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance during drought
      stress; indicating that LJ851 had better photosynthetic performance than JX6007
      during drought. In addition, transcriptional expression analysis revealed that
      LJ851 exhibited significantly increased transcripts of several categories of
      drought-responsive genes in leaves and roots under drought conditions. Together,
      these results indicated that LJ851 was more drought-tolerant than JX6007 as
      evidenced by better photosynthetic performance, more powerful antioxidant system,
      and higher expression of stress defense genes during drought stress. This study
      will be valuable for the development of novel flue-cured tobacco varieties with
      improved drought tolerance by exploitation of natural genetic variations in the
      future.

PMID- 28567054
TI  - Monte Carlo Simulation for Polychromatic X-Ray Fluorescence Computed Tomography
      with Sheet-Beam Geometry.
AB  - X-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) based on sheet beam can save a huge
      amount of time to obtain a whole set of projections using synchrotron. However,
      it is clearly unpractical for most biomedical research laboratories. In this
      paper, polychromatic X-ray fluorescence computed tomography with sheet-beam
      geometry is tested by Monte Carlo simulation. First, two phantoms (A and B)
      filled with PMMA are used to simulate imaging process through GEANT 4. Phantom A
      contains several GNP-loaded regions with the same size (10 mm) in height and
      diameter but different Au weight concentration ranging from 0.3% to 1.8%. Phantom
      B contains twelve GNP-loaded regions with the same Au weight concentration (1.6%)
      but different diameter ranging from 1 mm to 9 mm. Second, discretized
      presentation of imaging model is established to reconstruct more accurate XFCT
      images. Third, XFCT images of phantoms A and B are reconstructed by filter back
      projection (FBP) and maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) with and
      without correction, respectively. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) is calculated to
      evaluate all the reconstructed images. Our results show that it is feasible for
      sheet-beam XFCT system based on polychromatic X-ray source and the discretized
      imaging model can be used to reconstruct more accurate images.

PMID- 28567055
TI  - Surface Characteristics and Biofilm Development on Selected Dental Ceramic
      Materials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intraoral adjustment and polishing of dental ceramics often affect
      their surface characteristics, promoting increased roughness and consequent
      biofilm growth. This study correlated surface roughness to biofilm development
      with four commercially available ceramic materials. METHODS: Four ceramic
      materials (Vita Enamic(r), LavaTM Ultimate, Vitablocs Mark II, and Wieland
      Reflex(r)) were prepared as per manufacturer instructions. Seventeen specimens of
      each material were adjusted and polished to simulate clinical intraoral
      procedures and another seventeen remained unaltered. Specimens were analysed by
      SEM imaging, confocal microscopy, and crystal violet assay. RESULTS: SEM images
      showed more irregular surface topography in adjusted specimens than their
      respective controls. Surface roughness (Ra ) values were greater in all materials
      following adjustments. All adjusted materials with the exception of Vitablocs
      Mark II promoted significantly greater biofilm growth relative to controls.
      CONCLUSION: Simulated intraoral polishing methods resulted in greater surface
      roughness and increased biofilm accumulation.

PMID- 28567056
TI  - Rapid Determination of Isomeric Benzoylpaeoniflorin and Benzoylalbiflorin in Rat
      Plasma by LC-MS/MS Method.
AB  - Benzoylpaeoniflorin (BP) is a potential therapeutic agent against oxidative
      stress related Alzheimer's disease. In this study, a more rapid, selective, and
      sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method was
      developed to determine BP in rat plasma distinguishing with a monoterpene isomer,
      benzoylalbiflorin (BA). The method showed a linear response from 1 to 1000 ng/mL
      (r > 0.9950). The precision of the interday and intraday ranged from 2.03 to
      12.48% and the accuracy values ranged from -8.00 to 10.33%. Each running of the
      method could be finished in 4 minutes. The LC-MS/MS method was validated for
      specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, and stability and was
      found to be acceptable for bioanalytical application. Finally, this fully
      validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats
      following oral administration.

PMID- 28567057
TI  - Molecular Study of Acinetobacter baumannii Isolates for Metallo-beta-Lactamases
      and Extended-Spectrum-beta-Lactamases Genes in Intensive Care Unit, Mansoura
      University Hospital, Egypt.
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has been known as a causative pathogen of
      hospital acquired infections. The aim of this study is to examine the presence of
      A. baumannii among clinical isolates from intensive care unit (ICU) in Mansoura
      University Hospital (MUH), its antibiotic resistance pattern, and prevalence of
      antibiotic resistance genes metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) and extended-spectrum
      beta-lactamases (ESBLs) among A. baumannii isolates. A. baumannii was identified
      by colony morphology, API 20E, and confirmed by detecting the bla OXA-51-like
      carbapenemase gene by PCR. Phenotypic expression of MBLs resistance was
      demonstrated by Combined Disk Test (CDT) in 273 isolates (97.5%) and of ESBLs was
      demonstrated by double disc synergy method (DDST) in 6 isolates (2.1%). MBLs
      genes were positive in 266 isolates (95%) and ESBLs genes were positive in 8
      isolates (2.9%). The most frequent genes of MBLs studied genes were IMP (95.7%)
      followed by SIM and GIM (47.1% and 42.9%; resp.). For ESBL genes, the most
      frequent gene was TEM (2.9%). From this study, we conclude that multidrug
      resistant (MDR) A. baumannii with MBLs activity was the most common isolate.
      Careful monitoring for the presence of MDR A. baumannii among hospitalized
      patients is recommended to avoid wide dissemination of antibiotic resistance.

PMID- 28567058
TI  - Implementation and Monitoring of a Gestational Trophoblastic Disease Management
      Program in a Tertiary Hospital in Morocco: Opportunities and Challenges.
AB  - Objective. Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD) management requires clear
      guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Unequal management skills
      among practitioners, inadequate treatment, irregular surveillance, and drop-out
      are common in resource-limited settings and can lead to life-threatening
      complications and morbidities. To address these challenges, we implemented a GTD
      Management Program at the National Center for Reproductive Health in Rabat,
      Morocco. Methods and Program Description. In-depth review of management protocols
      was carried out, and concise guidelines were developed, with targeted training
      for physicians. A physical space and a weekly fixed GTD consultation were set,
      and personalized follow-up was established for each patient. An electronic
      database documenting patients' surveillance was created, allowing immediate
      outreach in case of irregularities. Results. During the period from October 2013
      to June 2016, 50 patients were included in this program. Patients' mean age was
      33 years; 92% were illiterate and 82% had a low socioeconomic status. 68% had a
      positive evolution, while 32% developed gestational trophoblastic neoplasia,
      requiring 2 to 6 chemotherapy sessions. An average of 2.8 outreach reminders were
      necessary for each patient. 94% fully adhered to the program of care and
      completed properly their follow-up. Conclusion. Implementation and thorough
      monitoring of this program helped optimize patients' care, avoiding drop-outs and
      delays in diagnosing and treating complications.

PMID- 28567059
TI  - Intraplacental Choriocarcinoma: Rare or Underdiagnosed? Report of 2 Cases
      Diagnosed after an Incomplete Miscarriage and a Preterm Spontaneous Vaginal
      Delivery.
AB  - Intraplacental choriocarcinoma is a rare malignant tumor diagnosed after an
      abortion, an ectopic pregnancy, or a term or preterm pregnancy or following the
      diagnosis of a hydatidiform mole. During pregnancy, it may be more common than
      reported, as most patients are asymptomatic and placental choriocarcinomas are
      usually inconspicuous macroscopically and are often mistaken for an infarct.
      Based upon a case study methodology, we describe 2 cases of intraplacental
      choriocarcinoma: the first case was identified in the product of a uterine
      curettage following an incomplete miscarriage and the second in one of the
      placentas of a bichorionic twin pregnancy. Maternal investigation did not reveal
      evidence of metastatic disease and neither did the infants' one in the second
      case. The two cases underwent maternal surveillance with serum hCG and remained
      disease-free until the present. In conclusion, intraplacental choriocarcinoma is
      easily underdiagnosed but with current treatment, even in the presence of
      metastasis, the prognosis is excellent. A routine microscopic examination of all
      the placentas and products of miscarriage can increase the real incidence of this
      entity and consequently improve its management.

PMID- 28567060
TI  - Analysing the Influence of Health Insurance Status on Peoples' Health Seeking
      Behaviour in Rural Ghana.
AB  - This paper examines the influence of health insurance status on healthcare use in
      rural Ghana using 286 sampled respondents from four rural communities in the
      Bekwai Municipality. Data were obtained using structured interview and Pearson's
      Chi square and bivariate regressions were used to analyse data. The results show
      low healthcare utilization among study participants, with most respondents having
      irregular use (43.5%) or rare use (43.3%). Respondents with health insurance
      utilized healthcare more than those without health insurance, the results being
      statistically significant (df = 4; n = 283, p = 0.000). The bivariate analysis
      revealed that health insurance status has a positive and significant influence on
      utilization (beta = 1.284; p value = 0.000). The study recommends promotion and
      improvement of services of the National Health Insurance Scheme as effective
      strategy to improve healthcare consumption by the rural people. The expansion of
      health insurance services to all sections of the population is also recommended.

PMID- 28567061
TI  - Therapeutic Hypothermia in Asphyxiated Neonates: Experience from Neonatal
      Intensive Care Unit of University Hospital of Marrakech.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is now recommended for the treatment
      neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). This treatment protocol is
      applied in our department since June 2012. The aim of this study is to report the
      first experience with head cooling in asphyxiated neonates in Morocco. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Prospective study of newborns admitted for HIE from July 18, 2012,
      to May 15, 2014, in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Mohamed VI University
      Hospital. The results were studied by comparing a newborn group who received
      hypothermia to a control group. RESULTS: Seventy-two cases of neonates with
      perinatal asphyxia were admitted in the unit. According to inclusion criteria
      thirty-eight cases were eligible for the study. Only 19 cases have received the
      hypothermia protocol for different reason; the arrival beyond six hours of life
      was the main cause accounting for 41%. Complications of asphyxia were comparable
      in both groups with greater pulmonary hypertension recorded in the control group.
      The long-term follow-up of protocol group was normal in almost half of cases.
      CONCLUSION: Our first experience with the controlled TH supports its beneficial
      effect in newborns with HIE. This treatment must be available in all the centers
      involved in the neonatal care in Morocco.

PMID- 28567062
TI  - [The mediating role of family functioning in the relationship between family
      adversity and preschoolers' social adjustment].
AB  - Preschoolers' social adaptation is related to their degree of exposure to
      environnemental risks. However, the mechanisms through which the environmental
      risks operate their influence on social adaptation are still poorly documented.
      Thus, the first goal of this study is to investigate the main effect of family
      adversity on preschoolers' behavioral problems and attachment security. The
      second goal is to test the mediating effect of family functionning in the
      relationship between family adversity and behavioral problems or attachment
      security. Five hundred and seventy-two participants (n=572) were assessed on
      family adversity between the age of 5 and 42 months. Behavioral problems and
      family functionning were assesed at 42 months. Eighty of the participants were
      assessed on attachment security at the age of 48 months. The results show a main
      effect of family adversity on behavioral problems as well as a mediating effect
      of family functionning in the relationship of family adversity and behavioral
      problems. No significant effect was found for security of attachment.

PMID- 28567063
TI  - A review of case and case series reports on Henoch-Schonlein syndrome-related
      pancreatitis.
AB  - To summarize the experience of diagnosing and treating patients with Henoch
      Schonlein purpura (HSP)-related pancreatitis, a systematic review of previously
      published cases was conducted. Among 13 reported cases, there were six males and
      seven females whose age from 3 to 70 years. The clinical features of these
      patients indicated that acute pancreatitis could be the initial manifestation of
      HSP, the radiological change was atypical, and most cases were alleviated with
      steroidal treatment. Good outcomes can be achieved in patients who are diagnosed
      early with HSP-related pancreatitis, and it is vital to begin timely treatment of
      HSP-related pancreatitis with corticosteroid.

PMID- 28567064
TI  - Validity and reliability of the ankle-brachial index by oscillometric blood
      pressure and automated ankle-brachial index.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of
      ankle-brachial index (ABI) by oscillometric blood pressure (BP) measurement as
      compared with an automated ABI as a gold standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      study was conducted at Golden Jubilee Medical Center, Thailand. All the data were
      collected from 303 patients at risk of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who were
      45 years of age or above and who underwent treatment at the outpatient medical
      clinic between June and December 2015. Patients who were followed up at the
      medical clinic had both oscillometric BP measurement (Terumo, ES-P600) and an
      automated ABI (oscillometric method) at the same time. Sensitivity, specificity,
      positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the oscillometric BP
      measurements to predict an abnormal ABI (<0.90) were determined using the
      automated ABI as the gold standard. RESULTS: ABI values were similar between the
      two methods. The oscillometric BP method for determining an ABI (cutoff point
      <0.90) on the right side had a sensitivity of 88.89%, specificity of 99.32%, an
      accuracy of 99.01%, a positive predictive value of 80%, and a negative predictive
      value of 99.32% whereas ABI on the left side had a sensitivity of 69.23%, a
      specificity of 99.66%, an accuracy of 98.35%, a positive predictive value of 90%,
      and a negative predictive value of 98.63%. Reliability of the oscillometric BP
      method by Kappa statistics was 0.84 on the right side and 0.77 on the left side
      (P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: The oscillometric BP method is a reliable and useful
      alternative to conventional automated ABI determination in patients with no
      severe arterial occlusion for estimation of the prevalence and screening of PAD
      in primary health-care settings.

PMID- 28567065
TI  - The psychoneuroendocrine-immunotherapy of cancer: Historical evolution and
      clinical results.
AB  - The prognosis of the neoplastic diseases depends not only on the biogenetic
      characteristics of cancer cells but also on the immunological response of
      patients, which may influence the biological features of cancer cells themselves
      as well as the angiogenic processes. Moreover, the immune system in vivo is under
      a physiological psychoneuroendocrine (PNE) regulation, mainly mediated by the
      brain opioid system and the pineal gland. In more detail, the anticancer immunity
      is stimulated by the pineal hormone melatonin (MLT) and inhibited by the opioid
      system, namely, through a mu-opioid receptor. Several alterations involving the
      pineal endocrine function and the opioid system have been described in cancer
      patients, which could play a role in tumor progression itself. Therefore, the
      pharmacological correction of cancer progression-related anomalies could
      contribute to control cancer diffusion, namely, the pineal endocrine deficiency
      and the hyperactivity of brain opioid system. In fact, the administration of
      pharmacological doses of the only MLT has already been proven to prolong the 1
      year survival in untreatable metastatic cancer patients. Better results may be
      achieved by associating other pineal indoles to MLT, mu-opioid antagonists,
      cannabinoids, beta-carbolines. Moreover, these neuroendocrine combinations may be
      successfully associated with antitumor cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-2 and
      IL-12, as a PNE-immune cancer therapy as well as with antitumor plants as PNE
      phytotherapy of cancer in an attempt to propose possible anticancer treatments
      also to patients with disseminated cancer and untreatable according to the
      standard oncology.

PMID- 28567066
TI  - Level of inflammatory factors in chronic hemodialysis patients with and without
      cardiovascular disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Considering the existence of controversies about the predictive value
      of inflammatory markers for cardiovascular disease (CVD), we aimed to compare the
      level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interlukin-6 (IL-6)
      level in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients with and without CVD. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this historical cohort study, HD patients with and without CVD
      disease were enrolled. The presence of CVD risk factors, level of inflammatory
      factors including IL-6 and hs-CRP as well as lipid levels, fasting blood sugar,
      and other biochemical factors were compared in two studied groups. RESULTS:
      During the study, eighty HD patients with (n = 40) and without (n = 40) CVD were
      enrolled. Diabetes was more prevalent among HD patients with CVD than those
      without CVD (P < 0.05). The level of IL-6 and hs-CRP were not different in two
      studied groups (P > 0.05). Univariate analysis of variance test indicated that
      there was not any significant relationship between hs-CRP and CVD (P > 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that the level of inflammatory factors
      including hs-CRP and IL-6 are not significantly different in HD patients with and
      without CVD. However, for obtaining more definite conclusion in this field and
      evaluation their predicting role in this field, it is recommended to study other
      novel inflammatory markers as well as the additive effect of the inflammatory
      factors with traditional ones in larger sample size and longer follow-up.

PMID- 28567067
TI  - Medication adherence in patients with hypertension: Does satisfaction with doctor
      patient relationship work?
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is assumed that doctor-patient relationship plays an effective
      role in patients' satisfaction, medication adherence, and health outcomes since
      exploring different aspects of this relationship, such as addressing medication
      adherence, has rarely been investigated. Therefore, the main aim of the present
      study was to assess the impact of patients' satisfaction derived from
      communicating with doctors on medication adherence in hypertensive patients.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on three hundred
      patients with hypertension, using multistage sampling technique in health care
      centers in Isfahan, Iran. Data were collected by two questionnaires comprised (1)
      patients' satisfaction derived from the relationship with doctors and (2)
      medication adherence named "Morisky Medication Adherence Scale" with 8 items.
      Multivariate logistic regression model was applied to test the odds ratio (OR) of
      patients' satisfaction resulting from the relationship with physicians in
      numerous aspects in two groups: appropriate and inappropriate medication
      adherence. RESULTS: A lower level of satisfaction derived from building the
      relationship (confidence interval [CI] =0.95, 0.06-0.71 and OR = 0.20) and
      empathy subscales (CI = 0.95, 13-0.80 and OR = 0.33) was associated with
      nonadherence to treatment after controlling the physicians' gender and patients'
      age, gender, education, and duration of disease. CONCLUSION: Patients'
      satisfaction resulting from building the relationship and empathy with physicians
      appeared to be associated with medication adherence among hypertensive patients.

PMID- 28567068
TI  - Serum enolase-2, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and serum cholesterol in
      smear-positive drug-naive pulmonary tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a chronic granulomatous disease
      caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The present study determined the serum
      human enolase-2 (ENO-2), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and serum
      cholesterol levels as biological marker of disease activity and treatment
      response in smear-positive drug-naive PTB. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This case
      control study was done in the Department of Medicine, Liaquat University of
      Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro/Hyderabad, Sindh, from January 2015
      to April 2016. Thirty-five sputum smear-positive drug-naive PTB patients and
      thirty controls were studied. MTB culture and drug sensitivity were performed at
      the Diagnostic and Research Laboratory of LUMHS. Serum ENO-2, hs-CRP, and serum
      cholesterol were estimated at baseline, 3rd and 6th month of antituberculosis
      (TB) therapy. RESULTS: Serum ENO-2 and hs-CRP were found raised in PTB compared
      to controls and showed decrease of 13% and 21.55%, 19.6% and 31.5% at 3rd and 6th
      month, respectively (P = 0.0001). Serum ENO-2 revealed positive correlation with
      hs-CRP (r = 0.734, P = 0.0001), and serum cholesterol revealed negative
      correlation with ENO-2 and hs-CRP (r = -0.509, P = 0.0001) and (r = -0.566, P =
      0.0001), respectively. CONCLUSION: The present study reports the baseline ENO-2
      and hs-CRP were raised, and serum cholesterol was low in smear-positive PTB
      patients and the ENO-2 and hs-CRP were reduced by anti-TB drug therapy.

PMID- 28567069
TI  - Evaluation of Thompson's quadricepsplasty results in patients with knee stiffness
      resulted from femoral fracture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic and/or postsurgical knee stiffness is one of the
      orthopedic complications which is difficult to be treated and can affect
      individual's life negatively. The aim of this study is to investigate the results
      of quadricepsplasty in patients with knee stiffness resulted from femoral
      fracture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study on all patients
      with femoral fracture which has caused knee flexion limitation referred to
      Kashani and Al-Zahra Hospitals in Isfahan from January 2010 to March 2013. The
      type and site of fracture, joint extension, and fracture fixation technique were
      recorded. Moreover, the range of motion (ROM) before surgery, under general
      anesthesia, and 3- and 6-month postoperation were measured. RESULTS: Among the
      patients, 13 had a simple fracture (48%) and 14 had a segmental fracture (51.9%).
      Considering the fracture site, 11, 10, and 6 patients had femoral (40.74%),
      supracondylar (37.3%), and femoral supracondylar (22.2%) fractures, respectively.
      The fracture fixation was performed by the plate, external, and Wagner fixation
      techniques for 24 (88.9%), 2 (7.4%), and 1 (3.7%) patients, respectively. The
      mean ROM before operation, under general anesthesia, and 3- and 6-month
      postoperation were determined to be 33.15 degrees  +/- 24.73 degrees , 122.60
      degrees  +/- 10.22 degrees , 99.63 degrees  +/- 16.52 degrees , and 100.74
      degrees  +/- 15.67 degrees , respectively. The mean ROM value at various stages
      was not similar (P < 0.001). The mean changes in the ROM were 79.2 degrees  +/-
      24.6 degrees  and 62.1 degrees  +/- 19.7 degrees  in the cases with simple and
      segmental fractures, respectively. The mean changes in the knee ROM were
      significantly higher in simple fractures in comparison with the segmental femoral
      fracture (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: We found Thompson's quadricepsplasty may
      successfully increase the range of knee flexion in knee fracture and also
      regardless of quadriceps time.

PMID- 28567070
TI  - The cutting-edge training modalities and educational platforms for accredited
      surgical training: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Historically, operating room (OR) has always been considered as a
      stand-alone trusted platform for surgical education and training. However,
      concerns about financial constraints, quality control, and patient safety have
      urged the surgical educators to develop more cost-effective, surgical educational
      platforms that can be employed outside the OR. Furthermore, trained surgeons need
      to regularly update their surgical skills to keep abreast with the emerging
      surgical technologies. This research aimed to explore the value of currently
      available modern surgical tools that can be used outside the OR and also
      elaborates the existing laparoscopic surgical training programs in world-class
      centers across the globe with a view to formulate a blended and unified
      structured surgical training program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Several data sources
      were searched using MeSH terms "Laparoscopic surgery" and "Surgical training" and
      "Surgical curriculum" and "fundamentals of endoscopic surgery" and "fundamentals
      of laparoscopic surgery" and "Telementoring" and "Box trainer." The eligibility
      criteria used in data extraction searched for original and review articles and by
      excluding the editorial articles, short communications, conference proceedings,
      personal view, and commentaries. Data synthesis and data analysis were done by
      reviewing the initially retrieved 211 articles. Irrelevant and duplicate and
      redundant articles were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Finally, 12 articles
      were selected for this systematic review. Data results showed that a myriad of
      cutting-edge technical innovations have provided modern surgical training tools
      such as the simulation-based mechanical and virtual reality simulators, animal
      and cadaveric labs, telementoring, telerobotic-assisted surgery, and video games.
      Surgical simulators allow the trainees to acquire surgical skills in a tension
      free environment without supervision or time constraints. CONCLUSION: The
      existing world-renowned surgical training centers employ various clusters of
      training tools that essentially endeavor to embed the acquisition of knowledge
      and technical skills. However, a unified training curriculum that may be accepted
      worldwide is currently not available.

PMID- 28567071
TI  - Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy: A
      surgical technique for liver resections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged
      hepatectomy (ALPPS) is a novel surgical technique liver resection in
      traditionally nonresectable primary intrahepatic tumors or colorectal liver
      metastases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 2013 to March 2014, patients with
      primary tumor of liver or colorectal tumors with liver metastasis were selected
      to evaluate whether they met the initial criteria for ALPPS procedure. RESULTS:
      Nine patients enrolled in the study with primary diagnoses of colon and
      rectosigmoid cancer, carcinoid tumor, gastrointestinal stromal tumor of small
      intestine, hepatocellular carcinoma, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PNET).
      Four candidates excluded from the study prior or during the first step operation
      due to fatty liver, hepatic fibrosis, peritoneal seeding, and multiple small
      intestine metastases. Five patients underwent two stages of ALPPS with the
      interval of about 1 week. Liver hypertrophy was 100% among our candidates after
      the initial step. One postoperative death happened because of massive pulmonary
      thromboembolism Recurrence of liver metastasis was seen in one patient. Hepatic
      failure Class B and A were observed in two patients which did not progress during
      follow-up period. One patient developed an enterocutaneous fistula. DISCUSSION:
      We recommend to use 2 organ bags, one for wrapping right lobe and the other one
      for covering visceral organs and also do liver biopsy in suspicious cases of
      damaged liver parenchyma and laparoscopic exploration of abdomen for seeding and
      multiple metastases prior to laparotomy. CONCLUSION: As the procedure has not
      been well established and verified by oncologists yet, further studies are
      required to define the exact indications of ALPPS.

PMID- 28567073
TI  - Quantitative assessment of Wilms tumor 1 expression by real-time quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction in patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) gene is originally defined as a tumor
      suppressor gene and a transcription factor that overexpressed in leukemic cells.
      It is highly expressed in more than 80% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients,
      both in bone marrow (BM) and in peripheral blood (PB), and it is used as a
      powerful and independent marker of minimal residual disease (MRD); we have
      determined the expression levels of the WT1 by real-time quantitative polymerase
      chain reaction (RQ-PCR) in PB and BM in 126 newly diagnosed AML patients.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was done in molecular pathology and cancer
      research center from April 2014 to June 2015, RQ-PCR method was used to determine
      the WT1 gene expression in BM and/or PB samples from 126 patients of AML, we
      cloned both WT1 and ABL genes for creating a standard curve, and we calculate
      copy number of WT1 genes in patients. RESULTS: A total of 126 AML patients
      consist of 70 males (55.6%) and 56 females (44.4%), with a median age of 26
      years; 104 (81%) patients out of 126 show overexpression of WT1 gene. We also
      concomitant monitoring of fusion transcripts (PML RARa, AML1-ETO, MLL-MLL, CBFb
      MYH11, or DEK-CAN) in our patients, the AML1-ETO group showing remarkably low
      levels of WT1 compared with other fusion transcript and the CBFB-MYH11 showing
      high levels of WT1. CONCLUSION: We conclude that WT1 expression by RQ-PCR in AML
      patients may be employed as an independent tool to detect MRD in the majority of
      normal karyotype AML patients.

PMID- 28567072
TI  - Hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome: Genetics, immunopathogenesis, clinical findings,
      and treatment modalities.
AB  - The hyperimmunoglobulin E syndromes (HIESs) are very rare immunodeficiency
      syndromes with multisystem involvement, including immune system, skeleton,
      connective tissue, and dentition. HIES are characterized by the classic triad of
      high serum levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE), recurrent staphylococcal cold skin
      abscess, and recurrent pneumonia with pneumatocele formation. Most cases of HIES
      are sporadic although can be inherited as autosomal dominant and autosomal
      recessive traits. A fundamental immunologic defect in HIES is not clearly
      elucidated but abnormal neutrophil chemotaxis due to decreased production or
      secretion of interferon gamma has main role in the immunopathogenesis of
      syndrome, also distorted Th1/Th2 cytokine profile toward a Th2 bias contributes
      to the impaired cellular immunity and a specific pattern of infection
      susceptibility as well as atopic-allergic constitution of syndrome. The
      ophthalmic manifestations of this disorder include conjunctivitis, keratitis,
      spontaneous corneal perforation, recurrent giant chalazia, extensive xanthelasma,
      tumors of the eyelid, strabismus, and bilateral keratoconus. The diagnosis of
      HIES is inconclusive, dependent on the evolution of a constellation of complex
      multisystemic symptoms and signs which develop over the years. Until time, no
      treatment modality is curative for basic defect in HIES, in terms of
      cytokines/chemokines derangement. Of note, bone marrow transplant and a
      monoclonal anti-IgE (omalizumab) are hoped to be successful treatment in future.

PMID- 28567074
TI  - Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score in patients with isolated meniscus
      injury; Validity and reliability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is evaluation of the validity and reliability
      of the Persian version of Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) in
      patients with isolated meniscus injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred people
      with isolated meniscal injury (29 females and 71 males with a mean age +/-
      standard deviation [SD] = 32.37 +/- 9.97 years) and fifty normal people with no
      knee problems (34 females and 16 males with a mean age +/- SD = 28.42 +/- 8.84
      years) participated in this study. In patients, the duration of meniscus injury
      ranged from 1 month to 4 years. For evaluation of discriminate validity, we
      compared scores of KOOS questionnaire between patients and healthy people, and
      for concurrent validity, in addition to filling KOOS questionnaire, patients
      completed Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire, test-retest reliability with
      intraclass correlation coefficient) ICC), and internal consistency with
      Cronbach's alpha was calculated. RESULTS: Mean scores of patients (49.51 +/-
      17.13) and healthy people (86.01 +/- 13.44) were different significantly (P <
      0.001). The correlation between total score of SF-36 and KOOS was significant (r
      = 0.77, P < 0.001). ICC was 0.80 (ranged from 0.64-0.75) and Cronbach's alpha was
      0.96 (ranged from 0.72 to 0.94). CONCLUSION: The Iranian version of KOOS is a
      reliable and valid tool for patients with isolated meniscus injury, so the
      clinicians and investigators may use this questionnaire in clinical settings and
      their researches.

PMID- 28567075
TI  - Aspects of quality of life affected in morbidly obese patients who decided to
      undergo bariatric surgery: A qualitative study to design a native questionnaire.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is a known prevalent major health issue. The aim of this
      study is to assay Iranian patients' problems with obesity and their expectations
      of bariatric surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we included patients
      who have used different medical noninvasive treatments and were unsuccessful in
      losing weight from the obesity clinic in Al Zahra Hospital, Isfahan, from 2014 to
      2015. Morbidly obese patients were interviewed using some open-ended questions,
      and then, directional content analysis of data was done. RESULTS: Analysis of
      data showed five main categories including (1) physical health, (2) psychological
      health, (3) social relationships, (4) environment, and (5) "about the causes of
      obesity" with some subcategories for each category. CONCLUSION: This study is the
      first step of designing a quality of life questionnaire while we focused on
      spiritual and cultural states of Iranian people.

PMID- 28567076
TI  - Hereditary Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Recent Advances in Genetic Diagnostics.
AB  - Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the most common cause of heart failure in young
      adults and up to 50% of idiopathic DCM is thought to be caused by genetic
      mutations in candidate genes. Although a genetic diagnosis can confirm a clinical
      diagnosis of hereditary DCM, genetic testing has not been easily accessible due
      to genetic heterogeneity and complexity. Next-generation sequencing (NGS)
      technologies have recently been introduced, and genetic testing for multiple
      genes is currently available and more than 40 different genes have been
      associated with DCM. In Korea, the government has supported genetic diagnosis for
      patients with idiopathic DCM. When a targeted gene panel with NGS technology was
      used, the detection rate was about 40%. MYBPC3, LMNA, and MYH7 were the most
      frequently identified genes, and the pattern of causative genes was different
      from previous reports. In the analysis, a significant number of subjects (42.0%)
      had rare or novel unspecified variants in DCM candidate genes, which should be
      assessed as potential causative mutations. Developing a more comprehensive test
      panel with additional DCM genes and whole exome sequencing will improve the
      detection rate, and allow genetic testing to be an option for patients with
      idiopathic DCM. However, all genetic variations are not pathogenic mutations, and
      the majority of reported mutations in DCM are unique to a single family, which
      makes genetic data interpretation more difficult. Therefore, clinical features
      and familial history integration are needed to improve clinical decision making.

PMID- 28567077
TI  - Idiopathic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia: a "Benign Disease" with a Touch
      of Bad Luck?
AB  - Ventricular extrasystole originating from the right ventricular outflow tract or
      the left ventricular outflow tract are the most commonly encountered ventricular
      arrhythmias recorded in ostensibly healthy individuals with no evidence of heart
      disease. These ventricular arrhythmias have a distinctive electrocardiographic
      morphology. The morphology is so distinctive that it is common practice to accept
      the diagnosis of "idiopathic benign ventricular arrhythmias from the outflow
      tract" based on this unique morphology when the electrocardiogram during sinus
      rhythm and the echocardiogram are normal, sometimes removing the need to perform
      invasive tests in patients. Even if the outflow ventricular extrasystole
      ultimately triggers sustained ventricular arrhythmia, the resulting ventricular
      tachycardia (VT) will be a monomorphic VT originating from the outflow tract,
      which is known to be hemodynamically well tolerated. Thus, idiopathic ventricular
      arrhythmias originating from outflow tracts are universally considered benign. In
      2005, we described a rare form of malignant polymorphic VT resulting in syncope
      or cardiac arrest. Here, we review the literature on this topic since the
      emergence of initial descriptions of this intriguing phenomenon.

PMID- 28567078
TI  - Data Sharing: a New Editorial Initiative from the International Committee of
      Medical Journal Editors. Implications for the Editors' Network.
AB  - The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) provides
      recommendations to improve the editorial standards and scientific quality of
      biomedical journals. These recommendations range from uniform technical
      requirements to more complex and elusive editorial issues including ethical
      aspects of the scientific process. Recently, registration of clinical trials,
      conflicts of interest disclosure, and new criteria for authorship-emphasizing the
      importance of responsibility and accountability-, have been proposed. This year a
      new editorial initiative to foster sharing of clinical trial data has been
      launched. This review discusses this novel initiative with the aim of increasing
      awareness among readers, investigators, authors and Editors of the Editors'
      Network of the European Society of Cardiology.

PMID- 28567079
TI  - Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease.

PMID- 28567080
TI  - Toward a New Heart Failure Registry in Korea.

PMID- 28567081
TI  - PCI or CABG, That is the Question!

PMID- 28567082
TI  - The Practice Pattern of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Korea: Based on
      Year 2014 Cohort of Korean Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (K-PCI) Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Appropriate use criteria (AUC) was developed to
      improve the quality of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, these
      criteria should consider the current practice pattern in the country where they
      are being applied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The algorithm for the Korean PCI
      practice pattern (KP3) was developed by modifying the United States-derived AUC
      in expert consensus meetings. KP3 class A was defined as any strategy with
      evidence from randomized trials that was more conservative for PCI than medical
      therapy or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Class C was defined as any
      strategy with less evidence from randomized trials and more aggressive for PCI
      than medical therapy or CABG. Class B was defined as a strategy that was partly
      class A and partly class C. We applied the KP3 classification system to the
      Korean PCI registry. RESULTS: The KP3 class A was noted in 67.7% of patients,
      class B in 28.8%, and class C in 3.5%. The median proportion of class C cases per
      center was 2.0%. The distribution of KP3 classes varied significantly depending
      on clinical and angiographic characteristics. The proportion of KP3 class C cases
      per center was not significantly dependent on PCI volume, but rather on the
      percentage of ACS cases in each center. CONCLUSION: We report the current PCI
      practice pattern by applying the new KP3 classification in a nationwide PCI
      registry. The results should be interpreted carefully with due regard for the
      complex relationships between the determining variables and the healthcare system
      in Korea.

PMID- 28567083
TI  - The Current Status of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Korea: Based on Year
      2014 Cohort of Korean Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (K-PCI) Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although several multicenter registries have evaluated
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures in Korea, those databases
      have been limited by non-standardized data collection and lack of uniform
      reporting methods. We aimed to collect and report data from a standardized
      database to analyze PCI procedures throughout the country. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Both clinical and procedural data, as well as clinical outcomes data during
      hospital stay, were collected based on case report forms that used a standard set
      of 54 data elements. This report is based on 2014 Korean PCI registry cohort
      data. RESULTS: A total of 92 hospitals offered data on 44967 PCI procedures. The
      median age was 66.0 interquartile range 57.0-74.0 years, and 70.3% were men.
      Thirty-eight percent of patients presented with acute myocardial infarction and
      one-third of all PCI procedures were performed in an urgent or emergency setting.
      Non-invasive stress tests were performed in 13.9% of cases, while coronary
      computed tomography angiography was used in 13.7% of cases prior to PCI. Radial
      artery access was used in 56.1% of all PCI procedures. Devices that used PCI
      included drug-eluting stent, plain old balloon angioplasty, drug-eluting balloon,
      and bare-metal stent (around 91%, 19%, 6%, and 1% of all procedures,
      respectively). The incidences of in-hospital death, non-fatal myocardial
      infarction, and stroke were 2.3%, 1.6%, and 0.2%, respectively. CONCLUSION: These
      data may provide an overview of the current PCI practices and in-hospital
      outcomes in Korea and could be used as a foundation for developing treatment
      guidelines and nationwide clinical research.

PMID- 28567084
TI  - Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Acute Heart Failure in Korea: Results
      from the Korean Acute Heart Failure Registry (KorAHF).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The burden of heart failure has increased in Korea.
      This registry aims to evaluate demographics, clinical characteristics,
      management, and long-term outcomes in patients hospitalized for acute heart
      failure (AHF). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We prospectively enrolled a total of 5625
      consecutive subjects hospitalized for AHF in one of 10 tertiary university
      hospitals from March 2011 to February 2014. Descriptive statistics were used to
      determine the baseline characteristics of the study population and to compare
      them with those from other registries. RESULTS: The mean age was 68.5+/-14.5
      years, 53.2% were male, and 52.2% had de novo heart failure. The mean systolic
      and diastolic blood pressures were 131.2+/-30.3 mmHg and 78.6+/-18.8 mmHg at
      admission, respectively. The left ventricular ejection fraction was <=40% in
      60.5% of patients. Ischemia was the most frequent etiology (37.6%) and
      aggravating factor (26.3%). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin
      receptor blockers, beta-blockers, and aldosterone antagonists were prescribed in
      68.8%, 52.2%, and 46.6% of the patients at discharge, respectively. Compared with
      the previous registry performed in Korea a decade ago, extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation (ECMO) and heart transplantation have been performed more frequently
      (ECMO 0.8% vs. 2.8%, heart transplantation 0.3% vs. 1.2%), and in-hospital
      mortality decreased from 7.6% to 4.8%. However, the total cost of hospital care
      increased by 40%, and one-year follow-up mortality remained high. CONCLUSION:
      While the quality of acute clinical care and AHF-related outcomes have improved
      over the last decade, the long-term prognosis of heart failure is still poor in
      Korea. Therefore, additional research is needed to improve long-term outcomes and
      implement cost-effective care.

PMID- 28567085
TI  - Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting vs. Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation for
      Multivessel Disease in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is currently a limited amount of data that
      demonstrate the optimal revascularization strategy for chronic kidney disease
      (CKD) patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (CAD). We compared the
      long-term outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting
      stents (DES) versus coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) for multivessel
      CAD in patients with CKD. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We analyzed 2108 CKD patients
      (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) with multivessel CAD
      that were treated with PCI with DES (n=1165) or CABG (n=943). The primary outcome
      was a composite of all causes of mortality, myocardial infarction, or stroke. The
      mean age was 66.9+/-9.1 years. RESULTS: Median follow-up duration was 41.4
      (interquartile range 12.1-75.5) months. The primary outcome occurred in 307
      (26.4%) patients in the PCI group compared with 304 (32.2%) patients in the CABG
      group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.941; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79
      1.12; p=0.493). The two groups exhibited similar rates of all-cause mortality
      (adjusted HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.77-1.09; p=0.295), myocardial infarction (adjusted
      HR, 1.86; 95% CI, 0.85-4.07; p=0.120) and stroke (3.2% vs. 4.8%; HR, 0.93; 95%
      CI, 0.57-1.61; p=0.758). However, PCI was associated with significantly increased
      rates of repeat revascularization (adjusted HR, 4.72; 95% CI, 3.20-6.96;
      p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Among patients with CKD and multivessel CAD, PCI with DES
      when compared with CABG resulted in similar rates of composite outcome of
      mortality from any cause, MI, or stroke; however, a higher risk of repeat
      revascularization was observed.

PMID- 28567086
TI  - Predicting Intermittent Atrial Fibrillation in Outpatient Clinics.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Palpitations are the most common complaint in
      cardiology outpatient clinics. These palpitations may be derived from paroxysmal
      atrial fibrillation (AF) and can be easily overlooked. It is unclear whether
      inter-atrial conduction time (ICT) may predict the paroxysmal AF in out-patients
      that present with palpitations. We evaluated the ability of the ICT to predict
      paroxysmal AF in these patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study group consisted
      of 199 patients (110 female). All patients underwent 24-hour Holter
      electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring (total of 327 Holter ECG monitorings, mean:
      1.64 times per patient). Brief episodes of AF were documented in 35 patients (20
      female, Group 1). The remaining patients without AF were designated as Group 2
      (90 female). All patients underwent routine transthoracic echocardiographic
      examination. ICT was also measured by echocardiography. RESULTS: The mean age in
      Group 1 was greater than in Group 2 (63.02+/-14 vs. 51.27+/-16 years, p<0.001).
      The left atrium was larger in Group 1 than in Group 2 (39.7+/-3.4 vs. 37.29+/-4.3
      mm, p<0.001). The other echocardiographic variables were comparable between the
      two groups. The mean ICT was significantly higher in Group 1 than in Group 2
      (138+/-14 vs. 114+/-12 msn, p<0.001). The ICT of 127 ms was predictive for AF
      with a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 87% (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our
      findings show that ICT was prolonged in patients with palpitations who developed
      a brief episode of AF in Holter ECG monitoring. ICT prolongation may be used to
      identify patients with palpitation that are at risk of an AF episode. Holter ECG
      monitoring should be repeated to detect AF episodes in patients with prolonged
      ICT.

PMID- 28567087
TI  - Antiplatelet Therapy Combinations and Thrombogenicity in Patients with Non
      Valvular Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Combination antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of
      ischemic stroke compared with aspirin monotherapy in non-valvular atrial
      fibrillation (NVAF) patients. The underlying mechanism, however, remains unclear.
      In addition, the association between platelet inhibition and thrombogenicity in
      NVAF has not been evaluated. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We randomized 60 patients with
      NVAF that were taking 100 mg of aspirin daily (>1 month) to adding 75 mg of
      clopidogrel daily (CLPD group), 100 mg of cilostazol twice daily (CILO group), or
      1000 mg of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid twice daily (PUFA group).
      Biomarkers (von Willebrand factor antigen [vWF:Ag], fibrinogen, D-dimer, and high
      sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP]) and platelet reactivity (PR), which were
      the levels stimulated by adenosine diphosphate (ADP), thrombin-receptor agonist
      peptide, collagen, and arachidonic acid, were measured at baseline and 30-day
      follow-up. RESULTS: Combination antiplatelet therapy significantly reduced vWF:Ag
      and fibrinogen levels (7.7 IU/dL, p=0.015 and 15.7 mg/dL, p=0.005, respectively),
      but no changes were found in D-dimer and hs-CRP levels. The CLPD and CILO groups
      showed fibrinogen and vWF:Ag level reductions (24.9 mg/dL, p=0.015 and 9.3 IU/dL,
      p=0.044, respectively), whereas the PUFA group did not show any differences in
      biomarkers. Irrespective of regimen, the changes in fibrinogen and vWF:Ag levels
      were mainly associated with the change in ADP-mediated PR (r=0.339, p=0.008 and
      r=0.322, p=0.012, respectively). CONCLUSION: In patients with NVAF, combination
      antiplatelet therapy showed reductions for vWF:Ag and fibrinogen levels, which
      may be associated with the inhibitory levels of ADP-mediated PR. The clinical
      implications of these findings need to be evaluated in future trials.

PMID- 28567088
TI  - Changes in 11beta-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase and Glucocorticoid Receptor
      Expression in Kawasaki Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the significance of
      changes in the expression 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11beta-HSD) and
      glucocorticoid receptor (GR) for the development of Kawasaki disease (KD).
      SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to
      determine the mRNA expression levels of GR and 11beta-HSD in peripheral blood
      monocytes, both in the acute phase of the disease and after treatment. Western
      blotting was performed to determine the protein expression levels of GR and
      11beta-HSD. RESULTS: The expression levels of GRbeta, GRbeta, and 11beta-HSD1
      mRNA in the acute phase were significantly higher than levels at baseline
      (p<0.01) and after treatment (p<0.05). The 11beta-HSD2 mRNA levels were lower in
      the acute phase than in the normal group (p<0.01), and they were significantly
      higher after treatment than before (p<0.01). Western blot results were consistent
      with the real-time PCR results. The coronary artery lesion group exhibited
      significantly different 11beta-HSD2 expression levels from that of the group with
      normal coronary arteries (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: GR and 11beta-HSD expression
      changes in the acute phase of KD are important factors for regulating
      inflammatory responses in KD.

PMID- 28567089
TI  - Combined Use of Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio and C-Reactive Protein Level to
      Predict Clinical Outcomes in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients Undergoing
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Both neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C
      reactive protein (CRP) are biomarkers associated with poor prognosis of patients
      with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the combined usefulness of NLR
      and CRP in predicting adverse outcomes has not been investigated. SUBJECTS AND
      METHODS: We analyzed 381 consecutive AMI patients who underwent percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI) from January 2012 to January 2014. The endpoints were
      all-cause mortality, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), stent thrombosis,
      repeat revascularization, stroke, and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular
      events (MACCE) at 2-year follow-up. Included patients were divided into 4 groups
      according to the optimal cut-off values for NLR and CRP on receiver operating
      characteristic analysis predicting mortality. RESULTS: Patients with both high
      NLR (>6.30) and high CRP (>0.76) had significantly greater risk of all-cause
      death and MACCE at 24 months, with no significant increase in the risk of
      recurrent MI, stent thrombosis, or stroke compared with patients with either low
      NLR or low CRP, as well as those with low NLR and low CRP. Kaplan-Meier analysis
      revealed significantly lower survival in patients with high NLR-CRP. On Cox
      multivariate analysis, high NLR-CRP (hazard ratio 23.172, 95% confidence interval
      6.575 to 81.671, p<0.001) was an independent predictor of all-cause death.
      CONCLUSION: Elevated levels of both NLR and CRP are associated with increased
      risk of long-term mortality in AMI patients who have undergone PCI.

PMID- 28567090
TI  - Expression of Class I and Class II a/b Histone Deacetylase is Dysregulated in
      Hypertensive Animal Models.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Dysregulation of histone deacetylase expression and
      enzymatic activity is associated with a number of diseases. It has been reported
      that protein levels of histone deacetylase (HDAC)1 and HDAC5 increase during
      human pulmonary hypertension, and that the enzymatic activity of HDAC6 is induced
      in a chronic hypertensive animal model. This study investigated the protein
      expression profiles of class I and II a/b HDACs in three systemic hypertension
      models. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We used three different hypertensive animal models:
      (i) Wistar-Kyoto rats (n=8) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR; n=8), (ii)
      mice infused with saline or angiotensin II to induce hypertension, via osmotic
      mini-pump for 2 weeks, and (iii) mice that were allowed to drink L-NG-nitro-L
      arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) to induce hypertension. RESULTS: SHR showed high
      systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressures. Similar increases in systolic
      blood pressure were observed in angiotensin II or L-NAME-induced hypertensive
      mice. In SHR, class IIa HDAC (HDAC4, 5, and 7) and class IIb HDAC (HDAC6 and 10)
      protein expression were significantly increased. In addition, a HDAC3 protein
      expression was induced in SHR. However, in L-NAME mice, class IIa HDAC protein
      levels (HDAC4, 5, 7, and 9) were significantly reduced. HDAC8 protein levels were
      significantly reduced both in angiotensin II mice and in SHR. CONCLUSION: These
      results indicate that dysregulation of class I and class II HDAC protein is
      closely associated with chronic hypertension.

PMID- 28567091
TI  - Effect of Rosuvastatin on Bovine Pericardial Aortic Tissue Valve Calcification in
      a Rat Subdermal Implantation Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are pathophysiologic similarities between
      calcification and atherosclerosis because both are the product of an active
      inflammatory process. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of statin
      treatment on calcification in bovine pericardial tissue valves. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Forty Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups according
      to hypercholesterolemia induction and statin intake (Group 1, n=10: normal diet
      without statin treatment, Group 2, n=10: normal diet with statin treatment, Group
      3, n=10: high fat diet without statin treatment, Group 4, n=10: high fat diet
      with statin treatment). Serum lipid levels were measured just before the
      experiment and after 4 and 12 weeks. Bovine pericardial tissue valve cusps were
      surgically implanted in rat dorsal subcutis at 4 weeks. After the surgery, statin
      was administered daily to Groups 2 and 4. Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) level was
      measured at 5 weeks. Cusps were explanted at 12 weeks and calcium levels were
      determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. RESULTS: Mean IL-6 was
      significantly higher in Group 3 at 5 weeks (7.14, 2.03, 31.70, and 6.90 pg/dL for
      each group, respectively). Mean calcium level in Group 3 was significantly higher
      among groups but Group 4 was significantly lower compared to Group 3 and was
      similar to Group 1, 2 (1.86, 1.92, 2.55, and 1.80 mg/g for each group,
      respectively, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Hypercholesterolemia may be a significant risk
      factor for bovine pericardial valve calcification. Statin treatment significantly
      attenuated calcification of bovine pericardial valve tissue in a rat subdermal
      implantation model and might prolong the durability of bioprostheses.

PMID- 28567092
TI  - Additive Role of Coronary Magnetic Resonance Angiography for the Evaluation of
      Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - Coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) allows a noninvasive assessment of
      the coronary anatomy without exposing the patients to radiation. It is also
      superior to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for the evaluation of
      luminal narrowing in heavily calcified coronary segments. We report a case with
      triple-vessel disease, but it could not be accurately assessed by CCTA because of
      calcification and lack of a significant perfusion defect or myocardial scarring
      on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, whole-heart CMRA performed
      as part of the cardiac MRI protocol demonstrated significant triple-vessel
      disease with left main involvement, confirmed by subsequent invasive angiography
      with a fractional flow reserve measurement.

PMID- 28567093
TI  - Cardiomyopathies with Mixed and Inapparent Morphological Features in Cardiac
      Troponin I3 Mutation.
AB  - The fact that different types of cardiomyopathies can be manifested by the same
      sarcomere protein gene mutation in a single family is well known. However, mixed
      features of different types of cardiomyopathies in a single patient have not been
      well appreciated. We identified a novel mutation in cardiac troponin I3
      (Arg186Gly) in the present case, and two of the family members showed mixed
      morphologic features of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular non
      compaction. Moreover, both the features of cardiomyopathies were not apparent for
      each type of cardiomyopathy. In the patient's family, four other members had
      unexpected deaths before the age of 30.

PMID- 28567095
TI  - Embolic Myocardial Infarction in a Patient with Massive Pulmonary
      Thromboembolism.

PMID- 28567094
TI  - A Giant Isolated Cardiac Hydatid Cyst in the Interventricular Septum.

PMID- 28567096
TI  - Invasive Aspergillosis of the Abdominal Aorta with Multiple Peripheral Embolic
      Lesions.

PMID- 28567097
TI  - The Antigastric Cancer Activity of San Leng Powder Extract Induces Apoptosis in
      Balb/C Bearing-SGC-7901 Mice.
AB  - San Leng powder extract has been used as medicinal compound for the prevention
      and treatment of cancers. The antitumor activity of SLPE was determined by
      treating BALB/C mice harboring a human gastric cancer xenograft with SPLE for 17
      days. Mice were also treated with fluorouracil (5-Fu, 25 mg/kg) or a combination
      of SLPE and 5-Fu. Our results indicate that the inhibition of tumor growth by
      SLPE might be due to a block in the cell cycle and the induction of apoptosis.
      These results suggest that SLPE might be useful in the treatment of gastric
      cancer.

PMID- 28567100
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28567098
TI  - Barley Seedling Extracts Inhibit RANKL-Induced Differentiation, Fusion, and
      Maturation of Osteoclasts in the Early-to-Late Stages of Osteoclastogenesis.
AB  - The number of patients with osteoporosis is increasing worldwide, and a decrease
      in bone mass is a main risk factor for fracture. The prevention of bone loss is
      critical for improving the quality of life for patients. However, the long-term
      use of antiosteoporotic agents is limited due to their side effects. Barley has
      been traditionally ingested for thousands of years as a safe, natural food with
      pharmaceutical properties, and its seedling can enhance the biological activity
      of the medicinal components found in food. This study aimed to clarify the
      antiresorptive activity of barley seedling and its mode of action. Barley
      seedling extracts (BSE) dose-dependently inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast
      differentiation with alteration of IkappaB degradation, c-Fos, and NFATc1
      molecules in the early-to-middle stages of osteoclastogenesis. In the late phase
      of osteoclastogenesis, BSE also prevented DC-STAMP and cathepsin K, which are
      required for cell fusion and bone degradation, such as osteoclast function. In
      conclusion, barley seedling from natural foods may provide long-term safety and
      be useful for the prevention or treatment of osteoclast-mediated bone metabolic
      diseases, including osteoporosis.

PMID- 28567099
TI  - A Chinese Medicine Formula "Xian-Jia-Tang" for Treating Bladder Outlet
      Obstruction by Improving Urodynamics and Inhibiting Oxidative Stress through
      Potassium Channels.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate efficacy of a traditional Chinese
      medicine formula (named Xian-Jia-Tang, XJT) on bladder outlet obstruction (BOO)
      in rats and explore its mechanisms. Total 80 BOO model rats were established and
      randomly divided into 4 groups: physiological saline, XJT, Cesium Chloride (CC),
      and XJT and CC groups. Meanwhile, 12 rats were used as normal control. Bladder
      weight and urodynamics were measured. Oxidative stress level and mRNA expressions
      of potassium channels gene were detected in detrusor. The mRNA and protein levels
      of hypoxia inducible factor-alpha (HIF-alpha) in detrusor were detected by RT-PCR
      and Western blot. BOO model rats showed significantly higher bladder weight and
      abnormal urodynamics. XJT significantly improved the abnormal urodynamics and
      inhibited the oxidative stress and changes of mRNA levels of potassium channels
      genes in detrusor of BOO model rats. Moreover, KATP and SK2/3 mRNA were
      overexpressed in BOO model rats treated by XJT. Besides, the significantly
      increased levels of HIF-alpha mRNA and protein were also inhibited by XJT.
      However, these inhibition effects of XJT were weakened by CC. XJT could
      effectively improve the urodynamics and inhibit the oxidative stress caused by
      hypoxia through suppressing the role of potassium channels in BOO model rats.

PMID- 28567101
TI  - Ascites matters.
AB  - The excess accumulation of intra-peritoneal fluid, referred to as ascites, is an
      important clue that points to a significant underlying illness. This may be due
      to a pathological event within the peritoneal cavity or secondary to an
      underlying systemic condition. Ascites is broadly classified into transudate and
      exudate, based on protein content, with a potential wide range of differential
      diagnoses. Traditionally, computed tomography has been regarded as the imaging
      modality of choice to demonstrate ascites and diagnose the underlying cause.
      However, ultrasound can reliably detect small volumes of fluid and is a useful
      first-line imaging modality for clinical triage. For instance, in the emergency
      setting, the detection of a trace of ascites may be the earliest indicator of an
      acute abdomen needing surgery. Ultrasound can quantify the volume of ascites and
      aid in the decision process for fluid drainage. Ultrasound is superior to
      computed tomography in the qualitative assessment of fluid. Broadly, simple fluid
      is anechoic, whereas complex fluid may appear particulate, layered or contain
      septations. On computed tomography, both have a uniform hypo-dense appearance and
      are often indistinguishable. Given ultrasound, in comparison to computed
      tomography, is safe, relatively inexpensive and readily available, it is a
      valuable tool in the assessment of ascites. Once ascites is detected on
      ultrasound, it is imperative for the operator to have a systematic approach to
      attempt to provide an underlying diagnosis. Through a series of cases, this
      article aims to increase awareness and reaffirm the role of ultrasound in the
      assessment of ascites.

PMID- 28567102
TI  - Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome: Chest X-ray or lung ultrasound? A
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is a leading cause of
      morbidity in preterm new-born babies (<37 weeks gestation age). The current
      diagnostic reference standard includes clinical testing and chest radiography
      with associated exposure to ionising radiation. The aim of this review was to
      compare the diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound against the reference standard
      in symptomatic neonates of <=42 weeks gestation age. METHODS: A systematic search
      of literature published between 1990 and 2016 identified 803 potentially relevant
      studies. Six studies met the review inclusion criteria and were retrieved for
      analysis. Quality assessment was performed before data extraction and meta
      analysis. RESULTS: Four prospective cohort studies and two case control studies
      included 480 neonates. All studies were of moderate methodological quality
      although heterogeneity was evident across the studies. The pooled sensitivity and
      specificity of lung ultrasound were 97% (95% confidence interval [CI] 94-99%) and
      91% (CI: 86-95%) respectively. False positive diagnoses were made in 16 cases due
      to pneumonia (n = 8), transient tachypnoea (n = 3), pneumothorax (n = 1) and
      meconium aspiration syndrome (n = 1); the diagnoses of the remaining three false
      positive results were not specified. False negatives diagnoses occurred in nine
      cases, only two were specified as air-leak syndromes. CONCLUSIONS: Lung
      ultrasound was highly sensitive for the detection of neonatal respiratory
      distress syndrome although there is potential to miss co-morbid air-leak
      syndromes. Further research into lung ultrasound diagnostic accuracy for neonatal
      air-leak syndrome and economic modelling for service integration is required
      before lung ultrasound can replace chest radiography as the imaging component of
      the reference standard.

PMID- 28567103
TI  - Can breast ultrasound reduce patient's level of anxiety and pain?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast pain is one of the most common complaints of women attending a
      gynecology clinic and general practitioners. This pain can cause anxiety and,
      consequently, reduce the woman's quality of life. The objective of this study was
      to assess the severity of pain and anxiety in patients with breast pain and
      normal examination, before and after breast sonography. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Among the patients with breast pain and normal examination who came for breast
      sonography in three centers in Shiraz during 2011-2012, 51 patients agreed to
      cooperate in this project. These patients filled out the questionnaire for
      evaluation of pain and anxiety before and after breast sonography. RESULTS:
      Sonography findings indicated that 88% of patients have normal sonography without
      any finding. The average amounts of pain severity before and after sonography
      were 3.3 and 2.4, respectively (p < 0.005). The average amounts of anxiety
      severity in patients before and after sonography were 51.9 and 37.9, respectively
      (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: This study shows the severity of pain and anxiety after
      ultrasonography decreased significantly. It can be concluded that ultrasound
      findings, which reassure the patients that they do not have specific pathology,
      can reduce the pain and anxiety by its impact on psychological status of the
      patient.

PMID- 28567104
TI  - The diagnostic performance of leak-plugging automated segmentation versus manual
      tracing of breast lesions on ultrasound images.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the diagnostic performance of a leak-plugging segmentation
      method that we have developed for delineating breast masses on ultrasound images.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two biopsy-proven breast lesion images were analyzed
      by three observers using the leak-plugging and manual segmentation methods. From
      each segmentation method, grayscale and morphological features were extracted and
      classified as malignant or benign by logistic regression analysis. The
      performance of leak-plugging and manual segmentations was compared by: size of
      the lesion, overlap area (Oa ) between the margins, and area under the ROC curves
      (Az ). RESULTS: The lesion size from leak-plugging segmentation correlated
      closely with that from manual tracing (R2 of 0.91). Oa was higher for leak
      plugging, 0.92 +/- 0.01 and 0.86 +/- 0.06 for benign and malignant masses,
      respectively, compared to 0.80 +/- 0.04 and 0.73 +/- 0.02 for manual tracings.
      Overall Oa between leak-plugging and manual segmentations was 0.79 +/- 0.14 for
      benign and 0.73 +/- 0.14 for malignant lesions. Az for leak plugging was
      consistently higher (0.910 +/- 0.003) compared to 0.888 +/- 0.012 for manual
      tracings. The coefficient of variation of Az between three observers was 0.29%
      for leak plugging compared to 1.3% for manual tracings. CONCLUSION: The
      diagnostic performance, size measurements, and observer variability for automated
      leak-plugging segmentations were either comparable to or better than those of
      manual tracings.

PMID- 28567105
TI  - Cerebral haemodynamics in early puerperium: A prospective study.
AB  - AIM: Prospective study on 900 consecutive puerperae to assess normal values and
      range of the blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery in both
      hemispheres. MATERIAL AND METHOD: M1 and M2 segments of both middle cerebral
      arteries were assessed in all subjects within 96 hours of delivery. Mean flow
      velocity was recorded after adjusting for insonation angle. Lindegaard index (LI
      = middle cerebral artery-Internal Carotid Artery mean flow velocity ratio) was
      calculated whenever the mean flow velocity exceeded 100 cm/second. Asymmetry
      indexes were calculated inter hemispherically for M1 and M2 segments separately.
      RESULTS: Mean flow velocities were 74 +/- 17 and 72 +/- 17 in right and 73 +/- 17
      and 72 +/- 17 cm/second in the left M1 and M2, respectively. A total of 136
      subjects (12.1%) exceeded the threshold of 100 cm/second, but LI was consistently
      <3 in all of them. Mean flow velocity was inversely and independently correlated
      to haemoglobin levels and to parity. Mean asymmetry indexes were 0.25 +/- 23 in
      M1 and 0.45 +/- 25 in M2. CONCLUSION: Mean flow velocity in the middle cerebral
      artery of healthy subjects in early puerperium is higher than in age-matched non
      puerperal women and may exceed the threshold of 100 cm/second with no evidence of
      intracranial spasm, because of blood loss during delivery. Mean flow velocity is
      independently correlated with parity. Right-to-left mean flow velocity asymmetry
      may reach 50% as a consequence of a transient imbalance in vascular tone
      regulation.

PMID- 28567106
TI  - Antenatal ultrasonography findings and magnetic resonance imaging in a case of
      Pena-Shokeir phenotype.
AB  - Pena-Shokeir phenotype is a lethal anomaly characterized by neurogenic
      arthrogryposis, craniofacial anomalies, and pulmonary hypoplasia. This syndrome
      should be distinguished from trisomy 18 and arthrogryposis multiplex congenita
      for better counseling and establishing fetal prognosis. We present the case of a
      pregnant woman diagnosed with a Pena-Shokeir phenotype affected fetus at 24 weeks
      of gestation. Prenatal ultrasonography and fetal magnetic resonance imaging
      detected persistent hyperextension of the lumbar spine, micrognathia, absent
      septum pellucidum, and all characteristic features of Pena-Shokeir phenotype.
      Karyotyping was performed to exclude fetal chromosomal anomalies. Antenatal
      ultrasonography is an essential tool in the diagnosis of Pena-Shokeir phenotype
      while fetal magnetic resonance imaging is necessary to identify any associated
      anomalies of central nervous system.

PMID- 28567107
TI  - A case of adult intussusception with greyscale, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and
      computerised tomography correlation.
AB  - Intussusception is often misdiagnosed as a cause of bowel ischemia and
      obstruction among adults due to its relatively rare presentation outside of the
      paediatric population. Ultrasound is often the first-line investigation for non
      specific abdominal pain and can identify the presence of intussusception. In the
      adult population, it is essential to evaluate for causes and consequences of
      intussusception; as a result, computerised tomography is often deemed necessary.
      However, contrast-enhanced ultrasound allows for evaluation of potential causes
      and complications, including a neoplastic lead point and ischaemia of the bowel,
      whilst avoiding ionising radiation or nephrotoxic iodinated contrast. We report a
      case of adult intussusception with a polyp lead point with ultrasound, contrast
      enhanced ultrasound and computerised tomography correlation.

PMID- 28567109
TI  - Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of hyperenhancing lesion suspicious for
      pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in the tail of pancreas-potential pitfalls.

PMID- 28567110
TI  - Indian visceral leishmaniasis with extensive lymphadenopathy - An unusual
      presentation: A case report with literature review.
AB  - Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, is a life-threatening
      systemic disease caused by the obligate intracellular protozoan, Leishmania, and
      transmitted to humans by the female phlebotomine sand fly (Phlebotomus
      argentipes). The disease is fatal, if left untreated. We report a case of a
      patient clinically suspected of disseminated tuberculosis, but fine needle
      aspiration cytology of cervical and axillary lymph nodes yielded a diagnosis of
      leishmaniasis. Diagnosis of VL was challenging as the disease closely mimicked
      tuberculosis in the setting of extensive lymphadenopathy including conglomerate
      of mesenteric lymph nodes, on and off fever, and granulomatous lymphadenitis on
      aspiration. Bone marrow examination was further performed. A detailed workup
      revealed patient to be severely immunocompromised and newly diagnosed human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. Worldwide, India has the largest number of
      VL cases, accounting for 40%-50% of world's disease burden and the second largest
      HIV-infected population, accounting for approximately 10% of the global disease
      burden. HIV increases the risk of developing VL by 100-2320 times in endemic
      areas and concurrently VL promotes the clinical progression of HIV disease. Co
      infection with HIV alters the body's immune response to leishmaniasis thus
      leading to unusual presentations. This case highlights the diagnostic problem in
      the aforesaid setting. Moreover, co-infection with HIV in VL can be a potential
      source of drug resistance. An early diagnosis and intensified treatment is the
      key to patient management.

PMID- 28567111
TI  - Cytomorphologic features distinguishing Bethesda category IV thyroid lesions from
      parathyroid.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thyroid follicular cells share similar cytomorphological features
      with parathyroid. Without a clinical suspicion, the distinction between a thyroid
      neoplasm and an intrathyroidal parathyroid can be challenging. The aim of this
      study was to assess the distinguishing cytomorphological features of parathyroid
      (including intrathyroidal) and Bethesda category IV (Beth-IV) thyroid follicular
      lesions, which carry a 15%-30% risk of malignancy and are often followed up with
      surgical resection. METHODS: A search was performed to identify "parathyroid"
      diagnoses in parathyroid/thyroid-designated fine-needle aspirations (FNAs) and
      Beth-IV thyroid FNAs (follicular and Hurthle cell), all with diagnostic
      confirmation through surgical pathology, immunocytochemical stains, Afirma(r)
      analysis, and/or clinical correlation. Unique cytomorphologic features were
      scored (0-3) or noted as present versus absent. Statistical analysis was
      performed using R 3.3.1 software. RESULTS: We identified five FNA cases with
      clinical suspicion of parathyroid neoplasm, hyperthyroidism, or thyroid lesion
      that had an eventual final diagnosis of the parathyroid lesion (all female; age
      20-69 years) and 12 Beth-IV diagnoses (11 female, 1 male; age 13-64 years). The
      following cytomorphologic features are useful distinguishing features (P value):
      overall pattern (0.001), single cells (0.001), cell size compared to red blood
      cell (0.01), nuclear irregularity (0.001), presence of nucleoli (0.001), nuclear
      to-cytoplasmic ratio (0.007), and nuclear chromatin quality (0.028). CONCLUSIONS:
      There are cytomorphologic features that distinguish Beth-IV thyroid lesions and
      (intrathyroidal) parathyroid. These features can aid in rendering correct
      diagnoses and appropriate management.

PMID- 28567112
TI  - Box-Counting Method of 2D Neuronal Image: Method Modification and Quantitative
      Analysis Demonstrated on Images from the Monkey and Human Brain.
AB  - This study calls attention to the difference between traditional box-counting
      method and its modification. The appropriate scaling factor, influence on image
      size and resolution, and image rotation, as well as different image presentation,
      are showed on the sample of asymmetrical neurons from the monkey dentate nucleus.
      The standard BC method and its modification were evaluated on the sample of 2D
      neuronal images from the human neostriatum. In addition, three box dimensions
      (which estimate the space-filling property, the shape, complexity, and the
      irregularity of dendritic tree) were used to evaluate differences in the
      morphology of type III aspiny neurons between two parts of the neostriatum.

PMID- 28567113
TI  - Research Ethics Governance in Times of Ebola.
AB  - The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) ethics review board (ERB) has been solicited
      in an unprecedented way to provide advice and review research protocols in an
      'emergency' mode during the recent Ebola epidemic. Twenty-seven Ebola-related
      study protocols were reviewed between March 2014 and August 2015, ranging from
      epidemiological research, to behavioural research, infectivity studies and
      clinical trials with investigational products at (very) early development stages.
      This article examines the MSF ERB's experience addressing issues related to both
      the process of review and substantive ethical issues in this context. These
      topics include lack of policies regarding blood sample collection and use, and
      engaging communities regarding their storage and future use; exclusion of
      pregnant women from clinical and vaccine trials; and the difficulty of
      implementing timely and high-quality qualitative/anthropological research to
      consider potential upfront harms. Having noticed different standards across
      ethics committees (ECs), we propose that when multiple ethics reviews of clinical
      and vaccine trials are carried out during a public health emergency they should
      be accompanied by transparent communication between the ECs involved. The MSF ERB
      experience should trigger a broader discussion on the 'optimal' ethics review in
      an emergency outbreak and what enduring structural changes are needed to improve
      the ethics review process.

PMID- 28567114
TI  - A randomized, double-blind study to evaluate the acid-inhibitory effect of
      vonoprazan (20 mg and 40 mg) in patients with proton-pump inhibitor-resistant
      erosive esophagitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Standard treatment for patients with erosive esophagitis (EE) is
      proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), but some patients are resistant to PPIs. We aimed
      to evaluate the acid-inhibitory effects and efficacy of a novel potassium
      competitive acid blocker (vonoprazan) in patients with PPI-resistant EE. METHODS:
      This randomized, double-blind, multicenter study of vonoprazan evaluated gastric
      and esophageal pH over a 24-hour period as the primary endpoint and EE healing
      rate as the secondary endpoint. Following a 7 to 14-day run-in period
      (lansoprazole 30 mg treatment), patients with endoscopically confirmed PPI
      resistant EE received vonoprazan 20 mg or 40 mg for 8 weeks. RESULTS: Patients
      were randomized to receive vonoprazan 20 mg (n = 9) or 40 mg (n = 10). Over a 24
      hour period; both groups showed a significant increase from baseline in the
      percentage of time gastric pH >= 4, referred to as pH 4 holding time ratio (HTR):
      an increase from 73.21% to 96.46% in the 20 mg group, and from 69.97% to 100.00%
      in the 40 mg group. Increases from baseline in esophageal pH 4 HTRs were not
      significant. The 40 mg group showed greater increases in gastric and esophageal
      pH 4 HTRs compared with the 20 mg group, but differences between groups were not
      significant. After 8 weeks' treatment, the healing rate in subjects with baseline
      EE grades A-D was 60.0% (3/5 patients) in the 20 mg group and 71.4% (5/7
      patients) in the 40 mg group. Vonoprazan was generally well tolerated. One
      patient (40 mg group) experienced four treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs)
      (unrelated to study drug), leading to study discontinuation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Vonoprazan 20 mg and 40 mg effectively inhibited gastric acid secretion over a 24
      hour period with significantly increased gastric pH 4 HTR, and resulted in an EE
      healing rate > 60.0% in this study. Vonoprazan treatment may be valuable for
      patients with PPI-resistant EE.

PMID- 28567115
TI  - Factors associated with the achievement of mucosal healing in Crohn's disease:
      the benefit of endoscopic monitoring in treating to target.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mucosal healing (MH), the proposed treat to target in Crohn's disease
      (CD), is associated with improved disease outcomes. There are still scant data on
      factors associated with achieving MH in clinical practice. We evaluated the
      probability of achieving MH and identified factors predictive of subsequent MH in
      patients with CD. METHODS: This was a retrospective, observational cohort study.
      A total of 272 patients with CD with serial endoscopy assessment and subsequent
      therapeutic management were reviewed. The primary outcome was MH. The cumulative
      incidence of MH and endoscopic improvement was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier
      method. Factors independently associated with MH were identified using the Cox
      proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Of the 272 patients, 126 (46.32%) achieved
      MH after a median follow-up period of 33 months (interquartile range: 27-38
      months). Factors independently associated with MH by multivariate analysis were
      time between endoscopic procedures within 26 weeks (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.56; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-3.39), adjustment of medical therapy when MH was
      not achieved (HR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.26-2.33), prior enteric fistula (HR: 0.22; 95%
      CI: 0.06-0.91), perianal disease at CD diagnosis (HR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.35-0.95),
      and C-reactive protein normalization within 12 weeks (HR: 3.23; 95% CI: 1.82
      5.88). Similar factors have also been identified for endoscopic improvement.
      CONCLUSIONS: Performing serial endoscopic procedures at a 26-week interval and
      subsequent adjustment in medical treatment are helpful in achieving MH.
      Endoscopic monitoring plays an important role in the treating to target of CD.

PMID- 28567116
TI  - Efficacy of double-balloon enteroscopy for small-bowel polypectomy: clinical and
      economic evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated first the feasibility of endoscopic small-bowel
      polypectomy and second, the economic aspects, by comparing the cost of endoscopic
      and surgical polyp resection. METHODS: A prospective, observational, multicenter
      study included 494 patients with positive capsule endoscopy (CE) before double
      balloon enteroscopy (DBE). We selected only CE with at least one polyp. The
      retrospective economic evaluation compared patients treated by DBE or surgery for
      small-bowel polypectomy. Hospital readmission because of repeat polyp resection
      or complication-related interventions was noted. The 1-year cost was estimated
      from the viewpoint of the healthcare system and included procedures, hospital
      admissions and follow up. RESULTS: CE indicated one or more polyps in 62 (12.5%)
      patients (32 males, 49 +/- 5 years), all of whom underwent a successful DBE
      exploration. The DBE polyp diagnostic yield was 58%. There were no major
      complications. A total of 26 (42%) patients in the DBE group and 19 (39%) in the
      control group required hospital readmission. All readmissions in the DBE group
      were for repeat procedures to remove all polyps, and in the control group, for
      surgical complications. The total cost of the initial hospitalization (?4014 +/-
      2239 DBE versus ?11,620 +/- 7183 surgery, p < 0.0001) and the 1-year total cost
      (?8438 +/- 9227 DBE versus ?13,402 +/- 7919 surgery, p < 0.0001) were lower in
      the DBE group. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic polypectomy was efficient and safe. The
      total cost at 1 year was less for endoscopy than surgery. DBE should be proposed
      as the first-line treatment for small-bowel polyp resection.

PMID- 28567117
TI  - Commercially available glutenases: a potential hazard in coeliac disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The only treatment for celiac disease (CD) is a gluten-free diet
      (GFD). However, there is interest among patients in a medical therapy to replace
      or help with a GFD. Therapies include gluten-degrading enzymes (glutenases).
      There are glutenases available marketed as dietary supplements that have not been
      demonstrated to digest the toxic epitopes of gluten. METHODS: We investigated the
      contents, claims, and disclaimers of glutenase products and assessed patient
      interest using Google AdWords to obtain Google search frequencies. RESULTS: Among
      14 glutenase product, all contained proteases, eight contained X-prolyl
      exopeptidase dipeptidyl peptidase IV, two did not state the protease contents,
      and eight failed to specify the name or origin of all proteases. Eleven contained
      carbohydrases and lipases and three probiotics. One declared wheat and milk as
      allergens, two contained herbal products (type not stated) and one Carica papaya.
      Thirteen claimed to degrade immunogenic gluten fragments, four claimed to help
      alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms associated with eating gluten. Disclaimers
      included not being evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration and products
      not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. On Google AdWords,
      the search frequency for the product names and the search terms was 3173 searches
      per month. CONCLUSIONS: The names of these products make implicit claims that
      appear to be supported by the claims on the labels and websites for which there
      is no scientific basis. Google search data suggest great interest and therefore
      possible use by patients with CD. There needs to be greater oversight of these
      'drugs'.

PMID- 28567118
TI  - Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy versus percutaneous transhepatic
      drainage for malignant biliary obstruction after failed endoscopic retrograde
      cholangiopancreatography: a retrospective expertise-based study from two centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) is widely performed
      as a salvage procedure in patients with unresectable malignant obstruction of the
      common bile duct (CBD) after failed endoscopic retrograde
      cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) or in case of surgically altered anatomy.
      Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy (EU-HGS) is a more recently
      introduced alternative to relieve malignant obstructive jaundice. The aim of this
      prospective observational study was to compare the outcome, efficacy and adverse
      events of EU-HGS and PTBD. METHODS: From April 2012 to August 2015, consecutive
      patients with malignant CBD obstruction who underwent EU-HGS or PTBD in two
      tertiary-care referral centers were included. The primary endpoint was the
      clinical success rate. Secondary endpoints were technical success, overall
      survival, procedure-related adverse events, incidence of adverse events, and
      reintervention rate. RESULTS: A total of 51 patients (EU-HGS, n = 31; PTBD, n =
      20) were included. Median survival was 71 days (range 25-75th percentile; 30-95)
      for the EU-HGS group and 78 days (range 25-75th percentile; 42-108) for the PTBD
      group (p = 0.99). Technical success was achieved in all patients in both groups.
      Clinical success was achieved in 25 (86%) of 31 patients in the EU-HGS group and
      in 15 (83%) of 20 patients in the PTBD group (p = 0.88). There was no difference
      in adverse events rates between the two groups (EU-HGS: 16%; PTBD: 10%) (p =
      0.69). Four deaths within 1 month (two hemorrhagic and two septic) were
      considered procedure related (two in the EU-HGS group and two in the PTBD group).
      Overall reintervention rate was significantly lower after EU-HGS (n = 2) than
      after PTBD (n = 21) (p = 0.0001). Length of hospital stay was shorter after EU
      HGS (8 days versus 15 days; p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: EU-HGS can be an effective
      and safe mini invasive-procedure alternative to PTBD, with similar success and
      adverse-event rates, but with lower rates of reintervention and length of
      hospitalization.

PMID- 28567119
TI  - Direct oral anticoagulants and digestive bleeding: therapeutic management and
      preventive measures.
AB  - The use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) was an important step forward in
      the management of atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism (VTE). The
      DOACs, anti-IIa for dabigatran and anti-Xa for rivaroxaban, apixaban and
      edoxaban, all have a rapid onset of action and a short half life. There is no
      need for routine hemostasis testing for treatment monitoring of a DOAC. Compared
      with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs), DOACs may increase the risk of
      gastrointestinal bleeding (relative risk 1.25). Withholding the DOAC treatment,
      evaluating the time of the last intake and estimating the patient's renal
      function are the first steps in the management of gastrointestinal bleeding. For
      patients without impaired renal function, achieving low coagulation takes around
      24 h after the last intake of a DOAC. The use of DOAC antagonists will be helpful
      in controlling bleeding in the most severe and urgent situations. Idarucizumab is
      available for clinical use for dabigatran and andexanet is currently being
      reviewed by drug agencies for rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban. It is important
      to assess the bleeding risk associated with the planned procedure, and the
      patient's renal function before withholding DOAC therapy for a scheduled
      intervention. It is mandatory to strengthen the local hemostasis strategies in
      DOAC-treated patients undergoing a therapeutic endoscopic procedure. Resuming or
      not resuming anticoagulation with a DOAC after bleeding or a risky procedure
      depends on the thrombotic and bleeding risk as well as the procedure involved.
      This discussion should always involve the cardiologist and decisions should be
      taken by a pluridisciplinary team.

PMID- 28567121
TI  - An alternative treatment for biliary injuries characterized by complete
      transection of the common bile duct: intraperitoneal rendezvous.

PMID- 28567122
TI  - A Functional Role for the Monomethylated Gln-51 and Lys-53 Residues of the
      49GGQTK53 Motif of eL42 from Human 80S Ribosomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that the eukaryote-specific ribosomal
      protein eL42 of the human 80S ribosome contains seven monomethylated residues,
      among which are the Gln-51 and Lys-53 residues contained in the 47GFGGQTK53
      sequence conserved in all eukaryotic 80S ribosomes. This sequence contains the
      methylated and universally conserved GGQ motif common for all class-1 translation
      termination factors responsible for stop codon recognition and for triggering the
      hydrolysis of the P site-bound peptidyl-tRNA. We have also recently reported a
      model of ribosomal ternary eL42-tRNA-eRF1 complex where specific regions of all
      three macromolecules (the comparably flexible GGQ domains of eRF1 and eL42 and
      the CCA-arm of tRNA) are involved in interactions. METHOD: Here, we have studied
      the interactions between recombinant eL42 and eRF1 proteins and the tRNA
      substrate by means of the Biacore assay, using the wild-type eL42 protein, the
      eL42-Delta(GGQTK) mutant (the eL42 protein whose GGQTK motif has been deleted),
      the single Q51E and K53Q mutants (eL42-Q51E and eL42-K53Q, respectively), as well
      as the double Q51A/K53A mutant (eL42-Q51A/K53A). RESULTS: Our results show that
      the monomethylated Gln-51 and Lys-53 residues contained in the 47GFGGQTK53
      sequence of eL42 and the monomethylated GGQ motif of eRF1 represents the sites of
      interaction between these two proteins through hydrophobic contacts between
      methyl groups. We also demonstrate that the interactions between eL42 and tRNA or
      28S rRNA are characterized by strong binding affinities (KD values in the
      nanomolar or picomolar range, respectively) which argue for specific
      interactions. Strong interactions between eL42 and tRNA are likely to be
      responsible for the decrease in the poly(U)-dependent poly(Phe) synthesis
      activity of human 80S or E. coli 70S ribosomes in the presence of added human
      recombinant eL42. It is proposed that the decrease of the activity of the
      ribosome is caused by the sequestration of the substrate Phe-tRNAPhe by the added
      eL42 protein. CONCLUSION: Interactions between the monomethylated Gln-51 and Lys
      53 residues of the 49GGQTK53 motif of the human eL42 protein and the methylated
      GGQ motif of eRF1 are likely to play a functional role on translating human 80S
      ribosomes.

PMID- 28567120
TI  - The potential role of comprehensive genomic profiling to guide targeted therapy
      for patients with biliary cancer.
AB  - Remarkable advancements in techniques of genomic profiling and bioinformatics
      have led to the accumulation of vast amounts of knowledge on the genomic profiles
      of biliary tract cancer (BTC). Recent largescale molecular profiling studies have
      not only highlighted genomic differences characterizing tumors of the
      intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts and gallbladder, but have also revealed
      differences in genomic profiles pertaining to associated risk factors. Novel
      genomic alterations such as FGFR2 fusions and IDH1/2 mutations in intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and ERBB2 alterations in gallbladder cancer (GBCA) are
      emerging as targeted therapy options capable of advancing precision medicine for
      the care of these patients. Moreover, variable genomic alterations also appear to
      impact prognosis and overall disease outcome independent from their therapy
      selection value. High mutational burden and increased expression of immune
      checkpoint-related proteins observed in a subset of BTC also show a potential for
      guidance of immunotherapy. Thus, comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is rapidly
      achieving status as an integral component of precision medicine and is starting
      to become invaluable in guiding the management of patients with BTC, a rare
      disease with dismal outcome.

PMID- 28567123
TI  - Identification of Protease Specificity Using Biotin-Labeled Substrates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Proteolysis constitutes a major post-translational modification. For
      example, proteases regulate the activation or inactivation of various proteins,
      such as enzymes, growth factors, and peptide hormones. Proteases have substrate
      specificity, and protease expression regulates the specific and regional
      activation or inactivation of several functional proteins. METHODS: We
      demonstrate a novel method for determining protease specificity through the use
      of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with biotin-labeled substrates. RESULTS: This
      method was able to determine the specificity of TPCK-trypsin, V8 protease,
      elastase and cyanogen bromide cleavage, and the results were similar to previous
      reports. In addition, the method can be used to measure crude samples, such as
      tumor extracts. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that this method could identify
      protease specificity after simple processing, even for crude samples.

PMID- 28567124
TI  - Monitoring the Level of 14C-Labelled Selegiline Following Oral Administration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Selegiline [(-)-deprenyl] is widely used for the treatment of
      Parkinson's disease in humans. OBJECTIVE: Time-dependence of tissue distribution
      of selegiline following per os administration to rats. METHOD: Oral
      administration of radiolabeled selegiline to rats resulted in a pattern of tissue
      distribution similar to that following intraperitoneal injection. Analyses were
      done using both reversed-phase HPLC and also by counting radioactivity in various
      body compartments of rats. RESULTS: As a consequence of oral administration of 30
      mg/kg of selegiline, its level in the stomach was extremely high (179.57 ug/g
      tissue through 54.67 ug/g at 15 min to 120 min), that is one magnitude higher
      than that in the serum level. High selegiline concentrations were also detected
      in the lacrimal glands (7.45 ug/g), kidneys (6.87 ug/g), livers (6.01 ug/g) and
      lungs (3.47 ug/g) after 30 minutes of application, which were higher than after
      intraperitoneal injections. CONCLUSION: The relatively high tissue levels
      remained for 120 min monitoring. Selegiline levels in the brain (1.69 ug/g) and
      in the testes (1.88 ug/g) were also considerably higher than following
      intraperitoneal administration during the entire period of observation (15 to 120
      min).

PMID- 28567125
TI  - Synthesis and Functional Evaluation of Novel Aldose Reductase Inhibitors Bearing
      a Spirobenzopyran Scaffold.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aldose reductase, the first enzyme of the polyol pathway, is the key
      determinant for the pathogenesis of long term diabetic complications.
      Accordingly, its inhibition represents the major therapeutic strategy to treat
      this kind of pathologies. OBJECTIVES: In this work we describe the synthesis and
      the functional evaluation of a number of spiro-oxazolidinone and spiro
      morpholinone acetic acid derivatives, and their benzyloxy analogs, developed as
      aldose reductase inhibitors. RESULTS: Most of them proved to inhibit the target
      enzyme, showing IC50 values in the micromolar/low micromolar range. SARs observed
      among the three different series allowed to highlight their key pharmacophoric
      elements, thus creating sound basis for the design of novel and more effective
      inhibitors. CONCLUSION: Although further substitution patterns are needed, the
      novel compounds here proposed represent a good starting point for the development
      of novel and effective ARIs.

PMID- 28567127
TI  - Path Loss Measurement and Channel Modeling with Muscular Tissue Characteristics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The galvanic coupling intra-body communication has low radiation and
      strong anti-interference ability, so it has many advantages in the wireless
      communication. METHOD: In order to analyze the effect of muscle tissue's
      characteristics upon the communication channel, we selected the muscle of pig
      buttock as the experimental sample, and used it to study the attenuation property
      with the galvanic coupling intra-body communication channel along the parallel
      direction and the transverse direction relative to the muscular fibre line as
      well as on the surface of destroyed muscular fibre; the study frequency ranges
      from 1kHz to 10MHz.In the isotropic experiment, in order to destroy muscle's
      fibre characteristics, we grinded the muscle four times, at least five minutes
      for each time. 0dbm sine-wave signal was input to measure the channel attenuation
      parameter S21 when the transmitter and the receiver were placed at different
      positions and different distances d1 and d2 (20mm, 40mm, 60mm), so as to analyze
      channel loss. CONCLUSION: Within the same frequency range and at the same
      communication distance, the maximum error of channel attenuation was 10dB; within
      the same frequency, as the communication distance was increased, the channel
      attenuation rose gradually, with 4dB increased every 20mm. The conclusion
      provides the basis for building the theoretical model in the future.

PMID- 28567126
TI  - Tacrine, Trolox and Tryptoline as Lead Compounds for the Design and Synthesis of
      Multi-target Agents for Alzheimer's Disease Therapy.
AB  - The versatile biological activities of tacrine, trolox and beta-carboline
      derivatives make them promising lead structures for the development of
      multifunctional Alzheimer's disease (AD) agents. Based on the topology of the
      active site of cholinesterases and other target proteins involved in the
      pathogenesis of AD, we have designed and synthesized tacrine-trolox and tacrine
      tryptoline hybrids with various linker chain lengths. The hybrids containing the
      trolox moiety (8a-8d) showed moderate to high TcAChE inhibition (IC50: 17.37 -
      2200 nM), eqBuChE inhibition (IC50: 3.16 - 128.82 nM) and free radical scavenging
      activities (IC50: 11.48 - 49.23 uM). The hybrids with longer linker chain lengths
      in general showed better ChE inhibitory activity. As expected, free radical
      scavenging activities were not significantly affected by varying linker chain
      lengths. The hybrid compound containing the tryptoline moiety linked with a 7
      carbon spacer to tacrine (14) displayed the best AChE and BuChE inhibitory
      activity (IC50 = 17.37 and 3.16 nM). Docking experiments exhibited that compounds
      8d and 14 were able to bind to both the CAS and PAS of TcAChE and eqBuChE,
      suggesting that they will be able to inhibit ChE induced Abeta aggregation. Novel
      multi-target agents that exhibit good ChE inhibition (8d and 14) and anti-oxidant
      (8d) activity were identified as suitable candidates for further investigation.

PMID- 28567128
TI  - Noninvasive Fetal Electrocardiography Part I: Pan-Tompkins' Algorithm Adaptation
      to Fetal R-peak Identification.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indirect fetal electrocardiography is preferable to direct fetal
      electrocardiography because of being noninvasive and is applicable also during
      the end of pregnancy, besides labor. Still, the former is strongly affected by
      noise so that even R-peak detection (which is essential for fetal heart-rate
      evaluations and subsequent processing procedures) is challenging. Some fetal
      studies have applied the Pan-Tompkins' algorithm that, however, was originally
      designed for adult applications. Thus, this work evaluated the Pan-Tompkins'
      algorithm suitability for fetal applications, and proposed fetal adjustments and
      optimizations to improve it. METHOD: Both Pan-Tompkins' algorithm and its
      improved version were applied to the "Abdominal and Direct Fetal
      Electrocardiogram Database" and to the "Noninvasive Fetal Electrocardiography
      Database" of Physionet. R-peak detection accuracy was quantified by computation
      of positive-predictive value, sensitivity and F1 score. RESULTS: When applied to
      "Abdominal and Direct Fetal Electrocardiogram Database", the accuracy of the
      improved fetal Pan-Tompkins' algorithm was significantly higher than the standard
      (positive-predictive value: 0.94 vs. 0.79; sensitivity: 0.95 vs. 0.80; F1 score:
      0.94 vs. 0.79; P<0.05 in all cases) on indirect fetal electrocardiograms, whereas
      both methods performed similarly on direct fetal electrocardiograms (positive
      predictive value, sensitivity and F1 score all close to 1). Improved fetal Pan
      Tompkins' algorithm was found to be superior to the standard also when applied to
      "Noninvasive Fetal Electrocardiography Database" (positive-predictive value: 0.68
      vs. 0.55, P<0.05; sensitivity: 0.56 vs. 0.46, P=0.23; F1 score: 0.60 vs. 0.47,
      P=0.11). CONCLUSION: In indirect fetal electrocardiographic applications,
      improved fetal Pan-Tompkins' algorithm is to be preferred over the standard,
      since it provides higher R-peak detection accuracy for heart-rate evaluations and
      subsequent processing.

PMID- 28567129
TI  - Noninvasive Fetal Electrocardiography Part II: Segmented-Beat Modulation Method
      for Signal Denoising.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fetal well-being evaluation may be accomplished by monitoring cardiac
      activity through fetal electrocardiography. Direct fetal electrocardiography
      (acquired through scalp electrodes) is the gold standard but its invasiveness
      limits its clinical applicability. Instead, clinical use of indirect fetal
      electrocardiography (acquired through abdominal electrodes) is limited by its
      poor signal quality. OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability
      of the Segmented-Beat Modulation Method to denoise indirect fetal
      electrocardiograms in order to achieve a signal-quality at least comparable to
      the direct ones. METHOD: Direct and indirect recordings, simultaneously acquired
      from 5 pregnant women during labor, were filtered with the Segmented-Beat
      Modulation Method and correlated in order to assess their morphological
      correspondence. Signal-to-noise ratio was used to quantify their quality.
      RESULTS: Amplitude was higher in direct than indirect fetal electrocardiograms
      (median:104 uV vs. 22 uV; P=7.66.10-4), whereas noise was comparable (median:70
      uV vs. 49 uV, P=0.45). Moreover, fetal electrocardiogram amplitude was
      significantly higher than affecting noise in direct recording (P=3.17.10-2) and
      significantly in indirect recording (P=1.90.10-3). Consequently, signal-to-noise
      ratio was initially higher for direct than indirect recordings (median:3.3 dB vs.
      -2.3 dB; P=3.90.10-3), but became lower after denoising of indirect ones
      (median:9.6 dB; P=9.84.10-4). Eventually, direct and indirect recordings were
      highly correlated (median: rho=0.78; P<10-208), indicating that the two
      electrocardiograms were morphologically equivalent. CONCLUSION: Segmented-Beat
      Modulation Method is particularly useful for denoising of indirect fetal
      electrocardiogram and may contribute to the spread of this noninvasive technique
      in the clinical practice.

PMID- 28567130
TI  - Villous Tree Model with Active Contractions for Estimating Blood Flow Conditions
      in the Human Placenta.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the human placenta, maternal and fetal bloods exchange substances
      through the surface of the villous trees: the fetal blood circulates in the
      villous trees, around which the maternal blood circulates. The blood flows
      directly influence fetal growth. Stem villi, the main supports of the villous
      tree, have contractile cells along the axes, whose contractions are expected to
      influence the blood circulations in the placenta. The displacement is neither
      measurable nor predictable while non-invasive measurements such as umbilical
      Doppler waveforms are helpful to predict the histological changes of the villous
      trees and vascularization in the placenta. OBJECTIVE: The displacement caused by
      the contraction of the villous tree is necessary to predict the blood flows in
      the placenta. Hence, a computational villous tree model, which actively
      contracts, was developed in this study. METHOD: The villous tree model was based
      on the previous reports: shear moduli of the human placenta; branching patterns
      in the stem villi. The displacement pattern in the placenta was estimated by the
      computational model when the shear elastic moduli were changed. RESULTS: The
      results show that the displacement caused by the contraction was influenced by
      the shear elastic moduli, but kept useful for the blood flows in the placenta.
      The characteristics agreed with the robustness of the blood flows in the
      placenta. CONCLUSION: The villous tree model, which actively contracts, was
      developed in this study. The combination of this computational model and non
      invasive measurements will be useful to evaluate the condition of the placenta.

PMID- 28567131
TI  - The Predictive Value of the Syntax Score in Patients With Chronic Coronary Artery
      Disease Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention or Coronary Artery Bypass
      Grafting: A Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usefulness of the SYNTAX score (SS) in predicting 1
      year clinical outcomes in a population of patients with chronic coronary artery
      disease (CAD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary
      artery bypass grafting (CABG). BACKGROUND: Despite the proven prognostic value of
      the SS in patients with multivessel and/or left main (LM) CAD, its usefulness in
      other patient subsets remains uncertain. METHODS: This was a prospective single
      centre cohort study conducted from September 2012 to November 2014 at the Nicosia
      General Hospital, Cyprus. Patients (n=140; 94% men and 6% women) with chronic CAD
      undergoing revascularization with either PCI or CABG were evaluated. RESULTS: At
      1-year, angina occurred in 20 patients (14.3%), myocardial infarction (MI) in 3
      patients (2.1%), repeat revascularization procedures in 9 patients (6.4%) and
      death in 12 patients (8.6%). The SS independently predicted angina (p=0.024) but
      was not predictive of MI (p=0.964), death (p=0.292) or repeat revascularization
      (p=0.069). CONCLUSION: In this patient population, the SS predicted angina in the
      year following revascularization but was not predictive of MI, death or repeat
      revascularization.

PMID- 28567133
TI  - Case Series Using Montelukast in Patients with Memory Loss and Dementia.
AB  - Cognitive decline and dementia are a growing problem as the population ages.
      Effective therapies to prevent and treat these problems are limited. Neuro
      inflammation has been suggested as a cause of dementia [1]. Montelukast is a
      leukotriene receptor antagonist used to treat seasonal allergies and asthma. It
      acts as a cysteinyl leukotriene (CysLT1) receptor antagonist blocking the action
      of leukotrienes and decreasing inflammation [2]. Animal studies have shown that
      administering Montelukast improves memory function [3]. This case series of
      patients in a private Internal Medicine practice between 2013-2014 used
      Montelukast in patients with various levels of memory impairment and dementia.
      Patients were given Montelukast 80 mg daily in 4 divided doses every 2-3 hours.
      Memory impaired patients had subjective improvement in the memory and recall.
      Patients with dementia were noted by family members to be less agitated, but had
      no memory improvement at the doses used. Montelukast may be useful to treat
      memory impairment and dementia. Long term use might act as a prophylactic to
      prevent dementia.

PMID- 28567134
TI  - "Doctor, I Hear Music": A Brief Review About Musical Hallucinations.
AB  - Auditory hallucinations are defined as the abnormal perception of sound in the
      absence of an external auditory stimulus. Musical hallucinations constitute a
      complex type of auditory hallucination characterized by perception of melodies,
      music, or songs. Musical hallucinations are infrequent and have been described in
      0.16% of a general hospital population. The auditory hallucinations are popularly
      associated with psychiatric disorders or degenerative neurological diseases but
      there may be other causes in which the patient evolves favorably with treatment.
      With this clinical case we want to stress the importance of knowing the causes of
      musical hallucinations due to the unpredictable social consequences that they can
      have.

PMID- 28567132
TI  - Nitric Oxide and Related Aspects Underlying Angina.
AB  - Increased number of patients affected by metabolic syndrome (MS) has prompted the
      necessity of better understanding what is involved in such syndrome.
      Nevertheless, the establishment of promising therapies depends on the knowledge
      about the interaction of molecules within MS. In such context, Nitric Oxide (NO)
      emerges from a bulk of works relating its roles on aspects of MS, including
      cardiovascular diseases, their symptoms and comorbidities, which are thought to
      be triggered by similar sources. NO, nitric oxide synthase and enzymatic chains
      are keys for those disease and symptoms processes. NO has been separately
      described as part of hypertensive, ischemic and pain signaling. Although there
      are similar pathways likely shared for generating cardiovascular symptoms such
      angina, they are barely associated to NO in literature. The present review aims
      to clarify the patterns of NO alteration in metabolic syndrome directly concerned
      to cardiovascular symptoms, especially angina.

PMID- 28567135
TI  - Specific Effects of Anti-Hypertensive Treatment in an Older Patient with
      Dementia.
AB  - Dementia is one of the most common health problems in the world. Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. The presence of vascular risk
      factors such as hypertension (HT) may increase the risk of AD [1,2]. The relation
      between blood pressure (BP) and dementia has been the subject of numerous
      epidemiological studies, midlife HT is a risk factor for dementia and AD [3-7]
      but the association between HT and risk of dementia is lower in the older
      population [8]. A fair modulation of an antihypertensive treatment, based on the
      cognitive status of the elderly, can avoid multiple complications. A case of an
      older for whom cognitive improvement and reduced risk of falls were noticed after
      mild blood pressure elevation is reported.

PMID- 28567136
TI  - Pulp Revascularization: A Literature Review.
AB  - Reestablishing blood flow and allowing the continuation of root development are
      some of the objectives of pulp revascularization. This procedure is currently
      indicated for teeth with incomplete root formation as an alternative to the
      traditional treatment of apecification, which consists of inserting calcium
      hydroxide paste into the root canal for a determined time period in order to
      induce the formation of a calcified barrier. Although it is considered as the
      most classically employed therapy, the permanence of the paste for long time
      periods may lead to the weakening of the root due to hygroscopic properties, as
      well as proteolytic activities of calcium hydroxide. Therefore, there has been a
      permanent search for alternatives which allow the full development of immature
      teeth. Revascularization has emerged as such an alternative, and a range of
      treatment protocols can be found in the scientific literature. The aim of this
      paper is to accomplish a literature review concerning this issue.

PMID- 28567137
TI  - Social and Psychological Aspects of Dental Trauma, Behavior Management of Young
      Patients Who have Suffered Dental Trauma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Injuries concerning the skull, the mouth and thus potentially
      involving the mouth and teeth are characterized as major public health problems
      due to their high prevalence and very serious functional and aesthetic
      consequences. Pain, aesthetic and functional problems arising from dental trauma
      significantly disrupt normal function, and impact, often dramatically, on young
      patients' quality of life. PROCEDURE: With regards to the behavior management
      approach to a child who has suffered a dental trauma, dentist's first step is to
      be to reassure child and parents. They should feel that the emergency is being
      properly treated on the part of the dentist and feel safe. The dentist should
      offer psychological support to child and parents and focus on alleviating any
      possible pain the child may feel. But, before that, a good level of communication
      with the child should be established. CONCLUSION: This can be achieved through
      the tell-show-do technique, a presentation of the special session's structure,
      the positive reinforcement method, the attention distraction method and
      exploiting the child's imagination. The detailed description of the treatment to
      be followed is crucial for reducing the child's level of stress, as well as that
      of the parents. Immediately after the completion of treatment, dentist should
      give listening time to the parents for any queries and include the child who
      probably wants to share their experience.

PMID- 28567138
TI  - A 5-week Non-Surgical Approach towards Denture Induced Hyperplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the standard approach towards denture-induced hyperplasia
      being surgery, as elderly population increases the systemic problems are carried
      along. Thus, surgery might be risky for patients with medical conditions.
      OBJECTIVE: In this report, a patient with severe inflammatory papillary
      hyperplasia, medical problems and dental fear was treated with a 5-week
      nonsurgical protocol. METHOD: Once in a week, the upper denture was relined with
      a zinc enolic paste, for four weeks. In the fifth week, the denture was relined
      with fast set polymethyl methacrylate resin instead of zinc enolic paste so that
      the material would last longer than only a week until the new pair of dentures
      was manufactured. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The generated pressure combined with
      antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the paste led to the elimination
      of the inflammatory papillary hyperplasia completely, satisfying the patient and
      allowing the manufacturing of a new set of complete dentures.

PMID- 28567139
TI  - Xerostomia and Salivary Gland Hypofunction in Patients with Oral Lichen Planus
      Before and After Treatment with Topical Corticosteroids.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral lichen planus and mouth dryness are common pathoses, yet not
      entirely understood. These two conditions may be associated, with a few studies
      investigating the relationship between mouth dryness and oral lichen planus
      providing conflicting results. None of the studies have explored the specific
      impact of disease treatment on mouth dryness. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this
      observational before and after comparison study was to examine the effect of
      treatment of oral lichen planus with topical corticosteroids on mouth dryness.
      METHODS: Nineteen subjects with oral lichen planus were evaluated for the
      severity of xerostomia using a xerostomia inventory and a visual analogue scale.
      Stimulated and unstimulated whole salivary flow rates, unstimulated salivary pH
      and buffering capacity were also measured. All subjects were evaluated before and
      after treatment with topical corticosteroids. RESULTS: All subjects reported
      xerostomia before treatment with topical corticosteroids, with 79% reporting a
      significant improvement (P = 0.03) after treatment. Topical corticosteroid
      treatment was not associated with statistically significant differences in
      stimulated or unstimulated salivary flow rates, unstimulated salivary pH or
      buffering capacity. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that treatment
      of oral lichen planus with topical corticosteroids may decrease the severity of
      dry mouth symptoms.

PMID- 28567140
TI  - Bioactive-glass in Endodontic Therapy and Associated Microsurgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bioactive-glass (B-G) has become a valuable adjunct to promote hard
      tissue healing in many clinical situations and is of particular interest for
      endodontic care because of its biocompatibility, regenerative and antimicrobial
      properties as well as chemical composition that closely resembles the mineral
      make-up of human bone and dentine. THERAPY: Initial studies suggested that
      bacteria-tight sealing within the entire root canal system can be achieved and
      successfully maintained after orthograde treatment. Promising results have also
      been obtained in conjunction with microsurgical techniques, with the aim of
      enhancing wound healing and positively influencing bone regeneration. CONCLUSION:
      Here, relevant literature was explored to present a comprehensive review of the
      rationale, development, and current applications of B-G in Endodontology
      illustrating them with case reports.

PMID- 28567141
TI  - Reproducibility of a Digital Method to Evaluate Soft Tissue Modifications: A
      study of Inter and Intra-Operative Measurement Concordance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The soft tissue healing and quality around dental implant is a
      current debated topic in the recent literature. The free gingival margin and the
      quantity and quality of the mucosa around teeth and surrounding dental implants
      still determine the hard and soft tissue healing status. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      this study is to assess inter and intra-operative measurement concordance of a
      method aimed at evaluating the apico-coronal migration of free gingival margin,
      using intra-oral photography. METHODS: The method was tested on peri-implant
      tissues that were treated with a connective tissue graft on the second stage
      surgery. Thirty-eight measurements on 13 implants in 8 patients were recorded. An
      intra-oral photograph was taken for the graft and the provisional crown, which
      enclosed a circular landmark with a previously determined diameter. The landmark
      was prepared with a red-resin by the same technician. Before crown cementation,
      the landmark was calibrated with a digital calibrator by the main investigator,
      to determine the precise diameter up to two decimal numbers. RESULTS: On the
      intra-oral photograph, the distance was measured from the most apical point of
      the determined landmark to the zenith of the gingiva, using an image-processing
      program designed for scientific multidimensional images (Image J). Three
      independent examiners took these measurements. CONCLUSION: The main advantage of
      the present non-invasive technique is that the spatial plane of the prosthetic
      landmarks is the same of the tooth unlike the utilization of periodontal probe,
      which is generally positioned on different plans in the space (generally more
      vestibular).

PMID- 28567142
TI  - Clinical Analysis of Analgesics and Steroids Use for Extraction of Teeth in
      Patients with Intellectual Disability Under General Anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The extraction of lower wisdom teeth is often performed under general
      anesthesia in patients with intellectual disabilities. However, the choice of
      analgesics has not yet been investigated. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the use of
      analgesics during general anesthesia for extraction including lower wisdom teeth
      in patients with intellectual disabilities. METHODS: This research is a
      retrospective observational study. The study population was composed of all
      patients presenting for extraction of lower wisdom teeth under ambulatory general
      anesthesia in the clinic of Special Needs Dentistry in Okayama University
      Hospital from April 2011 to March 2016. The distribution of the combination of
      analgesics and the relationship between the use of analgesics and the type of
      extraction were investigated. RESULTS: One hundred and twelve cases were enrolled
      in this study. Intravenous injections of flurbiprofen, acetaminophen and
      betamethasone were used in 96 (85.7%), 12 (10.7%) and 26 cases (23.2%),
      respectively. Flurbiprofen is a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
      Acetaminophen is an old analgesic, but an injection of acetaminophen is new,
      which was released in 2013 in Japan. And betamethasone is not an analgesic, but a
      steroid. Betamethasone was used in combination with other analgesics, and was
      used at a higher dose in a case in which four wisdom teeth were extracted.
      CONCLUSION: Flurbiprofen was the main analgesic used for extraction of wisdom
      teeth under general anesthesia in patients with intellectual disabilities.
      Betamethasone was used to support flurbiprofen or acetaminophen for extractions
      of multiple wisdom teeth, with the aim of controlling swelling rather than
      relieving pain.

PMID- 28567143
TI  - A New Transalveolar Sinus Lift Procedure for Single Implant Placement: The
      Ebanist Technique. A Technical Description and Case Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nowadays, there are many techniques to compensate bone atrophies of
      the posterior maxilla in order to obtain an implant-supported rehabilitation.
      OBJECTIVE: This case series describes the Ebanist technique: a sinus lift
      procedure to be used in case of extremely resorbed bone crests (<=3 mm) allowing
      simultaneous implant placement. METHODS: With a dedicated cylindrical trephine
      bur, it is possible to harvest a cylinder of bone from a fresh mineralized frozen
      homologous bone block graft and to simultaneously create a trapdoor on the
      recipient site. The trapdoor cortical bone is detached from the sinus membrane
      and removed. Dental implant is placed into the graft before the grafting
      procedure since the cylindrical block, once inserted in the recipient area, is
      not able to oppose sufficient resistance to the torque needed for implant
      placement. RESULTS: Second-stage surgery and following prosthetic rehabilitation
      were performed after 5 months. In all cases, implant stability was manually
      checked and no pathological symptoms or signs were recovered at any follow-up
      visit. CONCLUSION: This technique can be considered a valid procedure for implant
      therapy on atrophic posterior upper maxillae, when the residual bone crest is
      extremely resorbed.

PMID- 28567144
TI  - Pretreatment Effect of Folic Acid on 13-Cis-RA-Induced Cellular Damage of
      Developing Midfacial Processes in Cultured Rat Embryos.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Excess treatment of 13-cis-RA (Accutane(r)) on pregnant women induces
      craniofacial malformation found in infants. However, the effect of folic acid on
      13-cis-RA-induced cellular damages of developing midfacial processes is still
      unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pretreatment effect of
      folic acid (FA) on 13-cis-RA-induced cellular damage in developing midfacial
      processes in rat embryos. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The rat embryos at developing
      midfacial processes were performed by whole embryo culture in vitro, in the
      presence of 13-cis-RA (20 uM) with or without pre-treatment of FA (100 uM). The
      midfacial morphogenesis score, PCNA and TUNEL assay staining were evaluated for
      morphogenesis, cell proliferation and apoptosis of the midfacial processes,
      respectively. RESULTS: The 13-cis-RA-treated embryos at 24h showed atrophy of
      midfacial processes with significantly decreased morphogenesis score and cell
      proliferation, and increased apoptotic cell death. In contrast, the embryos pre
      treated with FA for 18h, followed by 13-cis-RA treatment for 24h (FA-RA) showed
      significantly greater morphogenesis score, increased cell proliferation and lower
      apoptotic cell death compared to those of the 13-cis-RA-treated embryos.
      CONCLUSION: The results suggest that FA reduced the teratogenic effects of 13-cis
      RA on midfacial process tissue. Future investigations regarding the anti
      teratogenic mechanism of FA on the prevention of damages in midface processes
      induced by 13-cis-RA on pregnant woman are warranted.

PMID- 28567145
TI  - Applicability of the Moyers' Probability Tables in Adolescents with Different
      Facial Biotypes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Moyers' probability tables are used in mixed dentition analysis
      to estimate the extent of space required for the alignment of canines and
      premolars, by correlating the mesiodistal size of lower incisors with the size of
      permanent canines and premolars. OBJECTIVE: This study intended to evaluate the
      applicability of the Moyer's probability tables for predicting the mesiodistal
      space needed for the correct location of premolars and permanent canines non
      erupted, in adolescents of the city of Cordoba, Argentina, who show different
      facial biotypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Models and tele-radiographies of 478
      adolescents of both genders from 10 to 15 years of age were analyzed. The tele
      radiographies were measured manually in order to determine the facial biotype.
      The models were scanned with a gauged scanner (HP 3670) and measured by using
      Image Pro Plus 4.5 software. RESULTS: According to this study, the comparison
      between the Moyer's probability table, and the table created at the National
      University of Cordoba (UNC) (at 95%, 75%, and 50%) shows that, in both tables, a
      higher value of mesiodistal width of lower incisors corresponds to a bigger
      difference in the space needed for permanent canines and premolars; being the
      need for space for permanents canines and premolars bigger in the UNC's table. On
      the other hand, when contrasting the values of mesiodistal space for permanent
      canines and premolars associated with each facial biotype, the discrepancies
      between groups were not statistically significant (P >0.05). However, we found
      differences in the size of the space required according to the mesiodistal width
      range of the lower incisors for each biotype: a) The comparison of lower-range
      values, with a mesialdistal width of lower incisors less than 22 mm, the space
      required for permanent canines and premolars resulted smaller in patients with
      dolichofacial biotype than in patients with mesofacial and braquifacial biotypes.
      The latter biotypes have meager differences between them. b) The comparison of
      mid-range values, with a mesialdistal width of lower incisors from 22 to 25
      millimeters, shows that the values of required alignment space are similar in the
      three facial biotypes. c) Finally, the comparison of upper range values, with a
      mesialdistal width of lower incisors greater than 25 millimeters, indicates that
      the space required for dolichofacial biotypes tends to be higher than in
      mesofacial and brachyfacial biotypes. CONCLUSION: The Moyer's probability tables
      should be created to meet the needs of the population under study, with no
      consideration of patients' facial biotypes.

PMID- 28567146
TI  - Virulence Factors Associated with Enterococcus Faecalis Infective Endocarditis: A
      Mini Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The enterococci are accountable for up to 20% of all cases of
      infective endocarditis, with Enterococcus faecalis being the primary causative
      isolate. Infective endocarditis is a life-threatening infection of the
      endocardium that results in the formation of vegetations. Based on a literature
      review, this paper provides an overview of the virulence factors associated with
      E. faecalis infective endocarditis. Furthermore, it reports the effects of active
      or passive immunization against some of these involved factors. INDIVIDUAL
      VIRULENCE FACTORS: Nine virulence factors have in particular been associated with
      E. faecalis infective endocarditis. Absence of these factors entailed attenuation
      of strains in both mixed- and mono-bacterial infection endocarditis models as
      well as in in vitro and ex vivo assays when compared to their virulence factor
      expressing parental strains. PATHOGENESIS: The virulence factors promote a broad
      spectrum of events that together allow for disease development and progression.
      The infection is initiated through bacterial binding to ligands present at the
      site of infection after which the colonization can be accelerated through inter
      bacterial attachment and modulation of the host immune response. The formation
      and growth of the vegetation provide protection and promote growth. Controlled
      degeneration of the vegetation appears to increase the likelihood of embolization
      and dissemination, without exposing protected bacteria. PROPHYLACTIC
      IMMUNIZATION: In most cases, active and passive immunization against associated
      virulence factors provided partial protection. FUTURE PROSPECTS: There is a need
      for further evaluation of the known virulence factors. Immunization against two
      or more virulence factors might be an effective prophylactic tool.

PMID- 28567147
TI  - Ozone Sensitivity and Catalase Activity in Pigmented and Non-Pigmented Strains of
      Serratia Marcescens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ozone exposure rapidly leads to bacterial death, making ozone an
      effective disinfectant in food industry and health care arena. However, microbial
      defenses may moderate this effect and play a role in the effective use of
      oxidizing agents for disinfection. Serratia marcescens is an opportunistic
      pathogen, expressing genes differentially during infection of a human host. A
      better understanding of regulatory systems that control expression of Serratia's
      virulence genes and defenses is therefore valuable. OBJECTIVE: Here, we
      investigated the role of pigmentation and catalase in Serratia marcescens on
      survival to ozone exposure. METHOD: Pigmented and non-pigmented strains of
      Serratia marcescens were cultured to exponential or stationary phase and exposed
      to 5 ppm of gaseous ozone for 2.5 - 10 minutes. Survival was calculated via plate
      counts. Catalase activity was measured photometrically and tolerance to hydrogen
      peroxide was assayed by disk-diffusion. RESULTS: Exposure of S. marcescens to 5
      ppm gaseous ozone kills > 90% of cells within 10 minutes in a time and
      concentration-dependent manner. Although pigmented Serratia (grown at 28 degrees
      C) survived ozonation better than unpigmented Serratia (grown at 35 degrees C),
      non-pigmented mutant strains of Serratia had similar ozone survival rates,
      catalase activity and H2O2 tolerance as wild type strains. Rather, ozone survival
      and catalase activity were elevated in 6 hour cultures compared to 48 hour
      cultures. CONCLUSION: Our studies did not bear out a role for prodigiosin in
      ozone survival. Rather, induction of oxidative stress responses during
      exponential growth increased both catalase activity and ozone survival in both
      pigmented and unpigmented S. marcescens.

PMID- 28567148
TI  - Hip Abductor Strengthening Improves Physical Function Following Total Knee
      Replacement: One-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total knee replacement (TKR) is the commonest surgical procedure for
      patients with severe pain and impaired physical function following end stage knee
      osteoarthritis. The hip abductors are well renowned in stabilization of the trunk
      and hip during walking, maintaining the lower limb position, and transferring the
      forces from the lower limbs to the pelvis. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of
      hip abductor strengthening exercise on functional outcome using performance based
      outcome measures following total knee replacement. METHODS: An observer blinded
      randomized pilot trial design was conducted at Manipal hospital, Bangalore,
      India. Participants designated for elective TKR were randomized to experimental
      group hip abductor strengthening along with standard rehabilitation (n=10) or
      control group standard rehabilitation alone (n=10). Participants followed for one
      year to assess physical function using performance based outcomes, such as timed
      up and go test, single leg stance test, six minute walk test, knee extensor
      strength and hip abductor strength. RESULT: Eighteen participants with a mean age
      of 63.1 +/- 5.5 years (8 Males and 10 Females) completed the study. Improvement
      in hip abduction strength, single leg stand test was superior in hip abductor
      strengthening group at 3 months and 1 year when compared to standard
      rehabilitation alone. CONCLUSION: Hip abductor strengthening showed superior
      improvements in single leg stance test and six minute walk test. Hip abductor
      strengthening exercises has the potential to improve physical function following
      total knee replacement.

PMID- 28567150
TI  - Cortical Fenestration for Megaprosthesis Stem Revision.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most common modes of failure for megaprostheses are aseptic
      loosening followed by periprosthetic infection and stem fracture. Surgical
      technique for bone and implant exposure is controversial and may influence the
      success of revision and the need for additional future revisions. The purpose of
      this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cortical fenestration for
      megaprosthesis revision, particularly for stem fracture. METHODS: From 1985-2014,
      196 adult and pediatric patients underwent limb salvage with a distal femoral or
      proximal tibial megaprosthesis (109 cemented, 87 pressfit). A retrospective chart
      review was performed to assess the rate of revision based on cemented or pressfit
      fixation and the use of a cortical window to extract the failed stem. Results:
      27% (29 of 109) of cemented and 18% (16 of 87) of pressfit implants were revised
      for stem failure. The reasons for revision in the cemented group were loosening
      (62%), infection (24%), and stem fracture (13%). In the pressfit group, the
      reasons were loosening (43%), infection (31%), stem fracture (6%), limb-length
      discrepancy (6%), malrotation (6%), and local recurrence (6%). A cortical window
      was used in 10 of 45 initial revisions (7 cemented, 3 pressfit) including all of
      the stem fractures, and in 2 of 15 subsequent re-revisions. CONCLUSION: Cortical
      fenestration is an effective, bone-preserving method of implant extraction,
      particularly for broken or cemented stems. It is associated with low rates of
      loosening and no increase in periprosthetic fractures.

PMID- 28567149
TI  - Comparison of Meniscal Cell-Mediated and Chondrocyte-Mediated Calcification.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chondrocytes have been traditionally thought to be responsible for
      calcium crystal deposits within osteoarthritic knees. Increasing recent
      experimental evidence suggests that menisci may also play a role. However, the
      calcifying potential of chondrocytes and meniscal cells derived from same OA
      patients, and the genes associated with meniscal calcification have never been
      fully examined. OBJECTIVE: Examine and compare the calcifying potential of
      articular chondrocytes and meniscal cells derived from same OA patients and
      identify the calcium crystal type(s) and selected gene expression in OA menisci.
      METHODS: Chondrocytes and meniscal cells were isolated from articular cartilage
      and menisci of OA patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Chondrocyte- and
      meniscal cell-mediated calcification was examined using both monolayer and
      micromass culture-based assays. Crustal types were examined with histological
      staining. Levels of Type X Collagen, MMP-13, and ANKH in OA menisci were examined
      using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Primary human OA meniscal cells produced
      calcified deposits at a similar rate compared to OA chondrocytes in-vitro.
      Histological examinations indicate that both BCP crystals and CPPD crystals are
      present in the meniscal tissue. Type X collagen, MMP-13, and ANKH were found in
      human OA menisci and their levels increased with OA severity. In addition, type X
      collagen was co-localized with calcium crystals. CONCLUSION: These findings
      suggest that OA meniscal cells have a similar calcifying potential as OA
      chondrocytes, supporting a pathogenic role of OA menisci in OA.

PMID- 28567151
TI  - Trends in Management of Radial Head and Olecranon Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advancement in surgical techniques and implants has improved the
      ability to manage radial head and olecranon fractures. However, trends in
      management of these fractures are largely unstudied. OBJECTIVE: This purpose of
      this study is to evaluate management trends for these common fractures. METHODS:
      A retrospective review of a comprehensive Humana database was performed using
      Pearl Diver supercomputer (Warsaw, IN, USA) for radial head and neck (RHNF) and
      olecranon fractures (OF) between 2007 and 2014. Treatment methods including open
      reduction internal fixation (ORIF), radial head arthroplasty (RHA), and non
      operative treatment were reviewed. Total reported incidence of office visits and
      utilization of each treatment modality were investigated. Sub-analysis with
      stratification by age 15-74 and greater than 75-years was performed for OF.
      RESULTS: A total of 10,609 OF and 20,400 RHNF were identified between 2007 and
      2014. A significant trend increase in the annual incidence of RHNF (266
      cases/year, p<0.001) and OF (133.9 cases/year, p=0.001) was observed. A
      significant trend increase in annual percent utilization of RHA (0.22% per year,
      p=0.011) and a significant trend decrease in the annual percent utilization of
      ORIF (-1.0% per year, p=0.004) and non-operative management (-0.53% per year,
      p=0.046) was observed for RHNF. A significant trend increase was observed in
      percent utilization (0.40% per year, p=0.022) for OF non-operative management,
      especially in patients over 75 years (66% per year, p=0.034). CONCLUSION: The
      percentage of patients being treated with RHA is increasing. Non-operative
      management of OF has increased, specifically in the patients who are over 75
      years.

PMID- 28567152
TI  - A Complicated Course of a Coronal Shear Fracture Type IV of the Distal Part of
      Humerus Resulting in Resurfacing Radiocapitellar Joint Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronal shear fracture type IV of the distal part of humerus is a
      very rare injury with articular complexity potentially leading to posttraumatic
      osteoarthritis. One option for surgical treatment of advanced unicompartmental
      radiocapitellar osteoarthritis is resurfacing radiocapitellar joint replacement.
      METHOD: A 62-year- old female sustained a coronal shear fracture type IV of the
      distal part of left humerus that was primarily treated with open reduction and
      internal fixation using headless compression screws. Three years postoperatively,
      there was a migration of one screw into radiocapitellar joint that led to
      circular deep cartilage defect of radial head. Four years after ORIF, a
      distinctive radiocapitellar osteoarthritis has evolved leading to a resurfacing
      radiocapitellar joint replacement using the Lateral Resurfacing ElbowTM (LRE)
      system. RESULT: At the 2-year follow-up after that procedure, there was an
      excellent subjective and functional outcome. Radiographically, no loosening or
      subsidence of implant without any signs of overstuffing could be found. The
      patient reported that she would have the same procedure again. CONCLUSION: The
      goal of unicompartmental radiocapitellar replacement is to obtain stability in
      elbow joint by avoiding cubitus valgus with subsequent instability of the distal
      radioulnar joint, and it does not alter the unaffected ulnohumeral joint.
      Additionally, the feature of the LRETM system is that the radial head is not
      excised, and so will receive the anatomical length of the overall radius
      articulating with the capitellum by preserving the annular ligament. In the
      literature only three publications could be found in which short-term results
      with the use of the LRETM system have been described. Hence, further studies are
      needed to validate this concept.

PMID- 28567153
TI  - Comparison of Post-Operative Muscular Strength Between Gamma Nailing and
      Hemiarthroplasty System in Femoral Intertrochanteric Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current study focuses on the comparison of postoperative muscular
      strength around the hip joint of patients with femoral intertrochanteric
      fractures treated either by cephalo-medullary (CM) nailing or a new bipolar hip
      prosthesis (BHP), an especially attached device to secure displaced greater
      trochanteric fragment. METHODS: Twenty patients treated with CM nailing were age-
      and sex- matched with a control group of 20 patients treated with BHP. Maximum
      isometric forces at the bilateral hip joint were measured during the follow up
      period. Means of 3 measurements were represented. RESULTS: The mean and standard
      deviation values (kg) of muscle strength at the non-operative/ operative side in
      the CM nailing group were as follows: flexion strength 9.5+/-4.7/8.5+/-4.9
      (P=0.06), extension strength 6.2+/-3.5/5.5+/-3.7 (P=0.08), abduction strength at
      0 degrees 7.7+/-3.5/6.2+/-2.8 (p=0.002), abduction strength at 10 degrees 5.5+/
      2.0/4.2+/-2.0 (p=0.001). In the BHP group, mean and standard deviation values of
      muscle strength at the non-operative/ operative side were as follows: flexion
      strength 6.5+/-2.8/6.0+/-3.4 (P=0.08), extension strength 4.4+/-0.9/4.4+/-0.6
      (P=0.83), abduction strength at 0 degrees 5.1+/-1.9/5.0+/-1.6 (p=0.12), and that
      at 10 degrees 4.7+/-1.4/4.6+/-1.3 (p=0.10). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate
      that CM nailing may cause a 25-30% decrease in postoperative muscle strength
      around the hip joint, particularly during hip abduction. With the new BHP,
      greater trochanter reduction is achieved allowing early weight bearing and
      maintaining strength in abduction. Surgeons should consider postoperative
      muscular strength as one of the necessary factors for selection of the
      appropriate surgical procedure. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level III.

PMID- 28567154
TI  - Angulating-Distraction Ulnar Osteotomy and Interpositional Phosphocalcic Ceramic
      Wedge Graft for a Chronic Monteggia Lesion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various types of osteotomies have been used to facilitate reduction
      of the radial head and to prevent recurrent subluxation. The Bouyala technique -
      open reduction of radial head associated with open wedge ulnar osteotomy with or
      without annular ligament reconstruction, is presently the most widely used
      treatment for long- standing traumatic dislocation of the radial head,
      independently of age, in the absence of osteoarthritis remodeling, and should
      preferably be performed within 1 year of trauma. METHOD: In this article, we
      present a similar case operated by same technique, but we used synthetic
      phosphocalcic ceramic wedge graft instead of auto bone graft as described in many
      other studies. We believe that, this will limit the donor site morbidity and also
      aid in achieving better stability at osteotomy site, which in turn help in
      proceeding with early active mobilization protocol. RESULT: We achieved union of
      the osteotomy by three months. Clinically, there was no deformity and she
      achieved full pain-free range of motion of elbow joint. CONCLUSION: We believe
      that, use of synthetic phosphocalcic ceramic wedge graft allow rigid fixation of
      osteotomy, provides additional stability, decrease the risk of secondary
      displacement and allow early mobilization, which may minimize contracture and we
      could achieve fairly good clinical outcome.

PMID- 28567155
TI  - Ballistic Trauma of Limbs.
AB  - : The objective of our study was to report the management and follow-up of a
      particular case of ballistic trauma and to do the literature review. OBSERVATION:
      A 35-year-old patient, a trader who was the victim of a firearm accident under
      not very clear circumstances. He was admitted to the emergency department after 3
      hours. Clinically, the patient had significant bleeding in the arm and was in a
      state of clouding of consciousness. We could notice on the right arm, a posterior
      large transfixing wound of 1 cm and a 6 cm one on the antero-internal side. The
      limb was cold with a small and thready pulse. Sensitivity was decreased in the
      radial nerve area. The radiograph showed bone comminution from the middle 1/3 to
      the superior 1/3 of the humeral diaphysis. The treatment was orthopedic (after
      debridement) by scapula-brachio-ante-brachiopalmar plaster splint with thoracic
      strap. The wound healed in 46 days and the patient resumed his activities after
      11 months and 2 weeks. CONCLUSION: The authors presented the value of using the
      scapulo-brachio-palmar plaster splints with thoracic strap in some severe upper
      limb trauma in the absence of the external fixator.

PMID- 28567156
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Angular Pott's Kyphosis with Posterior Approach, Pedicular
      Wedge Osteotomy and Canal Widening.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been observed that the correction of severe posttuberculous
      angular kyphosis is still a challenge, mainly because of the neurologic risk.
      METHODS: Nine patients were reviewed after surgery (mean follow-up 18 months).
      There were 2 thoracic, 4 thoraco-lumbar and 3 lumbar kyphosis. The mean age at
      surgery was 23. Clinical results were evaluated by the Oswestry Disability Index
      (ODI) and by the neurologic evaluation. Preoperative, postoperative and final
      follow-up X-rays were assessed. The surgery included a posterior approach with
      cord release and correction by transpedicular wedge osteotomy and widening of the
      spinal canal. RESULTS: Average kyphotic angulation was 72 degrees  before
      surgery, 10 degrees  after surgery and 12 degrees  at follow-up. Three out of
      four patients with neural deficit showed improvement. Neurologic complications
      included a transitory quadriceps paralysis, likely by foraminal compression of
      the root. CONCLUSION: A posterior transpedicular wedge osteotomy allows a
      substantial correction of the kyphosis, more by deflexion than by elongation,
      with limited neurologic risks. However it is mandatory to widely enlarge the
      spinal canal on the levels adjacent to the osteotomy, in order to allow the dura
      to expand backwards.

PMID- 28567157
TI  - Modified Open Suprapectoral EndoButton Tension Slide Tenodesis Technique of Long
      Head of Biceps with Restored Tendon Tension-Length.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vast majority of biceps tendon ruptures occurs at the proximal
      insertion and almost always involves the long head. There are several options for
      long head of biceps (LHB) tenodesis with advantage and disadvantages of each
      technique. We believe that the suprapectoral LHB tenodesis described in this
      article enables the restoration of the anatomic length-tension relation in a
      technically reproducible manner, when following the guidelines set forth in this
      article, and restores biceps contour and function adequately with a low risk of
      complications. METHOD: We present a case of a young man who had a sudden jerk of
      his flexed right elbow, while involved in water skiing sports and sustained
      complete rupture of proximal end of long head of biceps tendon. In this article,
      we describe a modified surgical technique of open supra-pectoral long head of
      biceps tenodesis using an EndoButton tension slide technique, reproducing an
      anatomic length-tension relationship. RESULTS: By the end of one year, patient
      regained symmetrical muscle bulk, shape and contour of biceps compared to other
      side. There were no signs of dislodgement or loosening of the EndoButton on
      follow-up radiographs. He regained full muscle power in the biceps without any
      possible complications, such as humeral fracture, infection, or nerve injury,
      associated with this technique. CONCLUSION: This technique is a safe, easy to
      reproduce, cost-effective, less time consuming and an effective method that uses
      a small drill hole, conserving bone, minimizing trauma to the tendon, and
      decreasing postoperative complications. It does not need any special
      instrumentation and is suitable especially for use in centers where arthroscopy
      facility or training is not available.

PMID- 28567158
TI  - Plaster of Paris-Short History of Casting and Injured Limb Immobilzation.
AB  - Various materials have been used since ancient times to help immobilise
      fractures. In this review, we discuss the history and developments of these
      materials as well as plaster of Paris. There has been a recent trend away from
      non-operative management of fractures, and skills in the use of plaster of Paris
      are declining. For the successful treatment of patients, it is important to
      appreciate how plaster works, how it should be used, and what can go wrong. In
      this review, we also discuss principles of applications and complications of
      plaster of Paris.

PMID- 28567161
TI  - Serial Femoral Fractures in An Amputation Stump: A Case Report.
AB  - We report a case of an above-knee amputee who underwent dynamic hip screw
      fixation for a proximal femoral fracture and then open reduction and internal
      fixation a few years later for a further femoral fracture in the same stump. The
      patient had a good outcome. We aim to discuss the challenges in decision making,
      surgical technique and potential complications for the patient.

PMID- 28567159
TI  - Humeral Tip-apex-distance as a Prognostic Marker for Proximal Humeral Fractures
      in 203 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Humeral head fractures and their postoperative outcome remain a
      challenging problem in surgical daily routine. Predictive factors for loss of
      fixation are rare. OBJECTIVE: Determination of predictive factors for the failure
      of osteosynthesis with the loss of fixation or migration of screws in humeral
      head fractures. METHOD: From 1995 to 2011, 408 patients with proximal humeral
      fractures [mean age 66.6 years, 50.9-82.3 years] and osteosynthesis were
      analyzed. Two hundred and three received open reduction internal fixation (ORIF)
      with the PHILOS(r) plate. The non-locking plate was used in 80, the locking plate
      in 16 and humeral head prosthesis in 26 patients, in addition to 23 patients
      undergoing other procedures. Intraoperative reduction that achieved an anatomical
      alignment of the medial aspect of the humerus (humeral calcar) was assessed in 94
      patients by postoperative X-ray analysis. The loss of fixation was evaluated by a
      follow-up of three to five X-rays and measurement of the humeral tip-apex
      distance (HTAD). RESULTS: For stable fixed fractures with an intact calcar,
      percentual HTAD was significantly higher than for unstable fixed fractures
      (p=0.04). Morbidity, such as hypertension, orthopedic operations or diabetes,
      strongly influenced the HTAD, while postoperative passive motion treatment
      modestly affected the HTAD over time. CONCLUSION: The anatomic reconstruction of
      the calcar, leading to stable fixation of humeral head fractures, can
      significantly prevent an overproportioned decrease in the HTAD in postoperative X
      rays and seems to be vital in multimorbid patients. Measurement of the HTAD over
      time delivers a tool for early detection of secondary loss of fixation.

PMID- 28567160
TI  - The Introduction of a Multidisciplinary Hip Fracture Pathway to Optimise Patient
      Care and Reduce Mortality: A Prospective Audit of 161 Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hip fractures are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the
      elderly. A new patient pathway was introduced in our institution to facilitate
      rapid preoperative assessment, acute physician involvement and early surgery for
      patients with hip fractures. We sought to assess its impact on patient care and
      outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective audit of 161 patients admitted with
      a proximal femoral fracture in the six months before (92 patients) and after (69
      patients) implementation of the pathway. Data included: time to orthogeriatric
      assessment (TtG); time to surgery (TtS); length of hospital stay (LOS); return to
      original accommodation; inpatient mortality rate. RESULTS: In the six months
      after introduction of the pathway, there was an increase in patients who received
      pre-operative medical assessment (85% after vs. 19% before, p=0.0001). Average
      TtG decreased (19 vs. 91 hours, p=0.0001), as did LOS (19.5 vs. 24.8 days,
      p=0.029) and mortality (4 vs. 14%, p=0.0336). There was an increase in patients
      returning to their original place of accommodation (80% vs. 57%, p=0.0069). There
      was a reduction in mean TtS (31 vs. 37 hours, p=0.0663), although this was not
      statistically significant. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Rapid medical optimisation
      and prompt surgery significantly improve outcomes in patients with hip fractures.
      By involving an acute medical team in patient care from the point of admission,
      we have significantly improved our inpatient mortality and increased the
      proportion of patients returning to their preoperative place of accommodation,
      thereby maintaining patient independence and reducing the financial and
      logistical burden on social care.

PMID- 28567162
TI  - Cytomegalovirus, Macrophages and Breast Cancer.
AB  - The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a betaherpesvirus that is highly host
      specific, infects among others epithelial cells and macrophages, and has been
      recently mentioned as having oncomodulatory properties. HCMV is detected in the
      breast tumor tissue where macrophages, especially tumor associated macrophages,
      are associated with a poor prognosis. In this review, we will discuss the
      potential implication of HCMV in breast cancer with emphasis on the role played
      by macrophages.

PMID- 28567164
TI  - Pars Plana Vitrectomy with Internal Limiting Membrane Peeling for Nontractional
      Diabetic Macular Edema.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus remains the leading cause of blindness among
      working age Americans with diabetic macular edema being the most common cause for
      moderate and severe vision loss. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the anatomical and
      visual benefits of pars plana vitrectomy with inner limiting membrane peeling in
      patients with nontractional diabetic macular edema as well as correlation of
      integrity of outer retinal layers on spectral domain optical coherence tomography
      to visual outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 42
      diabetic patients that underwent vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane
      peeling for nontractional diabetic macula edema. The integrity of outer retinal
      layers was evaluated and preoperative central macular thickness and visual acuity
      were compared with data at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively. The
      student t-test was used to compare the groups. RESULTS: 31 eyes were included.
      While no differences were seen at 1 and 3 months, there was significant
      improvement of both central macular thickness and visual acuity at the 6 months
      follow up visit compared to preoperatively (357, 427 microns; p=0.03. 20/49,
      20/82; p=0.03) . Patients with intact external limiting membrane and ellipsoid
      zone had better preoperative vision than patients with outer retinal layer
      irregularities (20/54, 20/100; p=0.03) and greater visual gains postoperatively
      (20/33, p<0.001 versus 20/81; p=non-significant). CONCLUSION: Pars plana
      vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling can improve retinal anatomy
      and visual acuity in patients with nontractional diabetic macular edema. Spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography may help identify patients with potential for
      visual improvement.

PMID- 28567165
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Corneoscleral Melt 50 Years after Excision of Pterygium.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of corneoscleral melt that occurred 50 years after
      resection of pterygium with postoperative administration of mitomycin C (MMC).
      RESULTS: A 93-year-old woman developed acute corneal perforation and scleral melt
      in her left eye at 50 years after pterygium surgery with postoperative topical
      MMC. She underwent limbal transplantation. The anterior chamber reformed
      postoperatively and her intraocular pressure was normal. At 12 months after
      transplantation, best-corrected visual acuity was 20/500 and the graft-host
      junction was well apposed. CONCLUSION: This case shows that corneoscleral melt
      can occur even 50 years after resection of pterygium combined with postoperative
      topical MMC.

PMID- 28567163
TI  - Targeting Melanoma with Cancer-Killing Viruses.
AB  - Melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer with ever-increasing incidence. Despite the
      development in diagnostics and therapies, metastatic melanoma is still associated
      with significant morbidity and mortality. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) represent a
      class of novel therapeutic agents for cancer by possessing two closely related
      properties for tumor reduction: virus-induced lysis of tumor cells and induction
      of host anti-tumor immune responses. A variety of viruses, either in "natural" or
      in genetically modified forms, have exhibited a remarkable therapeutic efficacy
      in regressing melanoma in experimental and/or clinical studies. This review
      provides a comprehensive summary of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of
      action of these viruses, which involve manipulating and targeting the
      abnormalities of melanoma, and can be categorized as enhancing viral tropism,
      targeting the tumor microenvironment and increasing the innate and adaptive
      antitumor responses. Additionally, this review describes the "biomarkers" and
      deregulated pathways of melanoma that are responsible for melanoma initiation,
      progression and metastasis. Advances in understanding these abnormalities of
      melanoma have resulted in effective targeted and immuno-therapies, and could
      potentially be applied for engineering OVs with enhanced oncolytic activity in
      future.

PMID- 28567166
TI  - The Effect of Vitamin E on Oxidative Stress Indicated by Serum Malondialdehyde in
      Insulin-dependent Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Retinopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have focused on oxidative stress on diabetes mellitus
      (DM). Our purpose was to investigate the impact of oxidative stress on
      progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in insulin-dependent type 2 DM patients,
      measuring serum malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as to examine the effect of
      vitamin E on DR progression in the above-mentioned patients. METHODS:
      Participants in the study were 282 insulin-dependent type 2 DM patients with DR.
      All participants underwent a thorough ophthalmological examination, so as to
      grade DR, along with serum MDA measurement. All participants received 300mg
      vitamin E daily for 3 months and were examined again. Serum MDA pre- and post
      intake of Vitamin E was the main outcome. RESULTS: Serum MDA was positively
      associated with DR stage, while there was a statistically significant difference
      pre- and post-intake of vitamin E in all DR stages. In a subgroup analysis of
      patients with proliferative DR, there was a significant difference at baseline
      between patients who have received prior laser photocoagulation and the treatment
      naive patients, while after intake of vitamin E, no statistically significant
      difference was noticed. CONCLUSION: Oxidative stress has been found to play
      significant role in the pathogenesis and progression of DR, while vitamin E seems
      to reduce MDA levels and subsequent oxidative stress, suggesting that it might
      have protective role in DR progression.

PMID- 28567167
TI  - Nurse Competence on Physiologic Monitors Use: Toward Eliminating Alarm Fatigue in
      Intensive Care Units.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies on nurse competence on alarm management are a few and tend to
      be focused on limited skills. In response to Phase II of implementing the
      National Patient Safety Goal on clinical alarm systems safety, this study
      assessed nurses' perceived competence on physiologic monitors use in intensive
      care units (ICUs) and developed and validated a tool for this purpose. METHODS:
      This descriptive study took place in a Magnet hospital in a Southwestern state of
      the U.S. A Nurse Competence on Philips Physiologic Monitors Use Survey was
      created and went through validation by 13 expert ICU nurses. The survey included
      5 subscales with 59 rated items and two open-ended questions. Items on the first
      4 subscales reflect most common tasks nurses perform using physiologic monitors.
      Items on the fifth subscale (advanced functions) reflect rarely used skills and
      were included to understand the scope of utilizing advanced physiologic monitors'
      features. Thirty nurses from 4 adult ICUs were invited to respond to the survey.
      RESULTS: Thirty nurses (100%) responded to the survey. The majority of nurses
      were from Neuro (47%) and Surgical Trauma (37%) ICUs. The data supported the high
      reliability and construct validity of the survey. At least one (3%) to 8 nurses
      (27%) reported lack of confidence on each item on the survey. On the first four
      subscales, 3% - 40% of the nurses reported they had never heard of or used 27
      features/functions on the monitors. No relationships were found between
      subscales' scores and demographic characteristics (p > .05). Nurses asked for
      training on navigating the central-station monitor and troubleshooting alarms,
      and the use of unit-specific super users to tailor training to users' needs.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first study to create and test a list of competencies for
      physiologic monitors use. Rigorous, periodic and individualized training is
      essential for safe and appropriate use of physiologic monitors and to decrease
      alarm fatigue. Training should be comprehensive to include all necessary skills
      and should not assume proficiency on basic skills. Special attention should be
      focused on managing technical alarms. Increasing the number of super users is a
      recommended strategy for individualized and unit-specific training. There is a
      need for a usability testing of complex IT-equipped medical devices, such as
      physiologic monitors, for effective, efficient and safe navigation of the
      monitors.

PMID- 28567168
TI  - Nurses' Knowledge toward Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in Guilan, Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health care workers (HCWs) represent high risk population for viral
      hepatitis infection. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to assess the knowledge of
      HCWs regarding hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) infection. METHODS: In a
      multi-center cross sectional study, all HCWs from eight teaching hospitals were
      invited to participate in the study and to fill in a self-administered
      questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 1008 eligible HCWs have responded to the
      study. A high proportion of the study participants (55.4% and 52.9%) had
      unsatisfactory knowledge about HBV and HCV. Mean knowledge score toward HBV was
      significantly higher among more educated staff, p <0.001 and vaccinated
      personnel, P=0.02. Majority of responders answered correctly to transmission
      questions toward HBV and HCV (90% and 80%, respectively). There was statistically
      significant difference in only transmission domain score between various
      hospitals (p<0.05). The highest scores were related to surgical hospital.
      CONCLUSION: Although more than ninety percent of our participants were educated
      about HBV and HCV, knowledge about nature of disease, prevention, treatment and
      vaccine availability was unsatisfactory. Continuous training program toward viral
      infection is a matter of necessity.

PMID- 28567169
TI  - Patients' Variations of Reflection About and Understanding of Long-Term Illness-
      Impact of Illness Perception on Trust in Oneself or Others.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients' understanding of their illness is of great importance for
      recovery. Lacking understanding of the illness is linked with the patients' level
      of reflection about and interest in understanding their illness. OBJECTIVE: To
      describe patients' variations of reflection about and understanding of their
      illness and how this understanding affects their trust in themselves or others.
      METHOD: The study is based on the "Illness perception" model. Latent content
      analysis was used for the data analysis. Individual, semi-structured, open-ended
      and face-to-face interviews were conducted with patients (n=11) suffering from a
      long-term illness diagnosed at least six months prior to the interview. Data
      collection took place in the three primary healthcare centres treating the
      participants. RESULTS: The results show variations in the degree of reflection
      about illness. Patients search for deeper understanding of the illness for causal
      explanations, compare different perspectives for preventing complication of their
      illness, trust healthcare providers, and develop own strategies to manage life.
      CONCLUSION: Whereas some patients search for deeper understanding of their
      illness, other patients are less reflective and feel they can manage the illness
      without further understanding. Patients' understanding of their illness is
      related to their degree of trust in themselves or others. Patients whose illness
      poses an existential threat are more likely to reflect more about their illness
      and what treatment methods are available.

PMID- 28567170
TI  - Acceptability Among Community Healthcare Nurses of Intelligent Wireless Sensor
      system Technology for the Rapid Detection of Health Issues in Home-dwelling Older
      Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effective care and support of community healthcare nurses (CHNs)
      contribute greatly to the healthy aging of older adults living at home.
      Integrating innovative technologies into CHNs' daily practice offers new
      opportunities and perspectives for early detection of health issues and
      interventions among home-dwelling older adults. AIM: To explore the perception of
      acceptability among CHNs of an intelligent wireless sensor system (IWSS) for use
      in daily practice for the detection of health issues in home-dwelling older
      adults receiving home healthcare. METHOD: Descriptive and qualitative data were
      sourced from a pilot randomized controlled trial involving 17 CHNs using an IWSS
      in their daily practice to rapidly detect falls and other health issues in
      patients' homes. IWSS alerts indicating behavior changes were sent to CHNs. Their
      perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) were assessed. The
      acceptability of IWSS technology was explored using a questionnaire and focus
      group discussions. RESULTS: The PU and PEOU of the IWSS technology were low to
      moderate. A majority of the CHNs were dissatisfied with its performance and
      intrusiveness; they reported multiple obstacles in the usefulness and ease of use
      of the IWSS technology in daily practice. CONCLUSION: To improve the IWSS
      technology's low to moderate acceptability among CHNs, we recommend a more user
      centered implementation strategy and an embedded model of nursing care.

PMID- 28567171
TI  - A Functional MRI-Based Model for Individual Memory Assessment in Patients
      Eligible for Anterior Temporal Lobe Resection.
AB  - TITLE: A functional (f) MRI-based model for individual memory assessment in
      patients eligible for temporal lobe resection. AIM: To investigate if pre
      operative fMRI memory paradigms, add predictive information with regard to post
      surgical memory deficits. METHODS: Fourteen pharmacoresistant Temporal Lobe
      Epilepsy (TLE) patients accepted for Anterior Temporal Lobe Resection (ATLR) were
      included. A clinical risk assessment score (RAS 0-3) was constructed from
      structural MRI, neuropsychological testing and hemisphere dominance. fMRI
      lateralization indices (LIs) over frontal language and medial temporal regions
      were calculated. Predictive value from clinical risk scoring and added value from
      fMRI LIs were correlated to post-surgical memory change scores (significant
      decline -1 SD). Verbal memory outcome was classified either as expected (RAS 2-3
      and post-operative decline; RAS 0-1 and intact post-operative verbal memory) or
      as unexpected (RAS 2-3 and intact post-operative verbal memory post-surgery; RAS
      0-1 and post-operative decline). RESULTS: RAS for verbal memory decline exhibited
      a specificity of 67% and a sensitivity of 75%. Significant correlations were
      found between frontal language LIs and post-operative verbal memory (r = -0.802;
      p = 0.017) for left (L) TLE and between medial temporal lobe LIs and visuospatial
      memory (r = 0.829; p = 0.021), as well as verbal memory (r = 0.714; p = 0.055)
      for right (R) TLE. Ten patients had expected outcome and four patients had an
      unexpected outcome. In two MRI-negative RTLE patients that suffered significant
      verbal memory decline post-operatively, fMRI identified bilateral language and
      right lateralized medial temporal verbal encoding. In two LTLE patients with MRI
      pathology and verbal memory dysfunction, neither RAS nor fMRI identified the risk
      for aggravated verbal memory decline following ATLR. CONCLUSION: fMRI
      visualization of temporal-frontal network activation may add value to the pre
      surgical work-up in epilepsy patients eligible for ATLR. Frontal language
      patterns are important for prediction in both L and RTLE. Strong left lateralized
      language in LTLE, as well as bilateral language combined with right lateralized
      encoding in RTLE, seems to indicate an increased risk for post-operative verbal
      memory decline.

PMID- 28567172
TI  - Forms of Stigma and Discrimination in the Daily Lives of HIV-Positive Individuals
      in Mauritania.
AB  - SUMMARY: People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are often discriminated against in
      their daily lives. The objective of this descriptive and transversal study was to
      describe the experiences of PLWHA followed at a specialized outpatient center in
      Nouakchott to assess the forms of stigma from the perspective of those who suffer
      from discrimination. METHODS: All HIV-positive patients over the age of 18 years
      who were aware of their HIV status and provided consent to participate in the
      study were included from June 1 to 29, 2015. Data collection was conducted using
      a pre-tested questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 210 PLWHA were interviewed. Men
      accounted for 54% of the sample population with a sex ratio of 1.2. About half of
      respondents were married (51%) and resided in Nouakchott (55%). Subjects who had
      never attended school represented 42% of the cases. Among our respondents, 64%
      knew their HIV status for over a year and admitted that they refused to reveal
      this information to any person. The distribution of forms of stigma experienced
      by PLWHA by demographic category was, in descending order, stigma in
      interpersonal relationships (78%), self-stigma (20%), and stigma in health
      services (2%). There was a significant association between the form of stigma and
      marital status (p = 0.007) and between the form of stigma and knowledge of HIV
      status for a period greater than one year (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The forms of
      stigma can be sources of discrimination and are a major obstacle to reintegration
      and support of PLWHA. This creates a vicious circle that, on the one hand, leads
      to the suffering, marginalization, and isolation of PLWHA, and on the other hand,
      has deleterious effects on their family and social relationships, self-esteem and
      self-confidence.

PMID- 28567173
TI  - Tensorial elastic properties and stability of interface states associated with
      Sigma5(210) grain boundaries in Ni3(Al,Si).
AB  - Grain boundaries (GBs) represent one of the most important types of defects in
      solids and their instability leads to catastrophic failures in materials. Grain
      boundaries are challenging for theoretical studies because of their distorted
      atomic structure. Fortunately, quantum-mechanical methods can reliably compute
      their properties. We calculate and analyze (tensorial) anisotropic elastic
      properties of periodic approximants of interface states associated with GBs in
      one of the most important intermetallic compounds for industrial applications,
      Ni3Al, appearing in Ni-based superalloys. Focusing on the Sigma5(210) GBs as a
      case study, we assess the mechanical stability of the corresponding interface
      states by checking rigorous elasticity-based Born stability criteria. The
      critical elastic constant is found three-/five-fold softer contributing thus to
      the reduction of the mechanical stability of Ni3Al polycrystals (experiments show
      their GB-related failure). The tensorial elasto-chemical complexity of interface
      states associated with the studied GBs exemplifies itself in high sensitivity of
      elastic constants to the GB composition. As another example we study the impact
      caused by Si atoms segregating into the atomic layers close to the GB and
      substituting Al atoms. If wisely exploited, our study paves the way towards
      solute-controlled design of GB-related interface states with controlled stability
      and/or tensorial properties.

PMID- 28567174
TI  - A new material platform of Si photonics for implementing architecture of dense
      wavelength division multiplexing on Si bulk wafer.
AB  - A new materials group to implement dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)
      in Si photonics is proposed. A large thermo-optic (TO) coefficient of Si
      malfunctions multiplexer/demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX) on a chip under thermal
      fluctuation, and thus DWDM implementation, has been one of the most challenging
      targets in Si photonics. The present study specifies an optical materials group
      for DWDM by a systematic survey of their TO coefficients and refractive indices.
      The group is classified as mid-index contrast optics (MiDex) materials, and non
      stoichiometric silicon nitride (SiNx) is chosen to demonstrate its significant
      thermal stability. The TO coefficient of non-stoichiometric SiNx is precisely
      measured in the temperature range 24-76  degrees C using the SiNx rings prepared
      by two methods: chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition
      (PVD). The CVD-SiNx ring reveals nearly the same TO coefficient reported for
      stoichiometric CVD-Si3N4, while the value for the PVD-SiNx ring is slightly
      higher. Both SiNx rings lock their resonance frequencies within 100 GHz in this
      temperature range. Since CVD-SiNx needs a high temperature annealing to reduce N
      H bond absorption, it is concluded that PVD-SiNx is suited as a MiDex material
      introduced in the CMOS back-end-of-line. Further stabilization is required,
      considering the crosstalk between two channels; a 'silicone' polymer is employed
      to compensate for the temperature fluctuation using its negative TO coefficient,
      called athermalization. This demonstrates that the resonance of these SiNx rings
      is locked within 50 GHz at the same temperature range in the wavelength range
      1460-1620 nm (the so-called S, C, and L bands in optical fiber communication
      networks). A further survey on the MiDex materials strongly suggests that Al2O3,
      Ga2O3 Ta2O5, HfO2 and their alloys should provide even more stable platforms for
      DWDM implementation in MiDex photonics. It is discussed that the MiDex photonics
      will find various applications such as medical and environmental sensing and in
      vehicle data-communication.

PMID- 28567175
TI  - Carrier properties of B atomic-layer-doped Si films grown by ECR Ar plasma
      enhanced CVD without substrate heating.
AB  - The atomic-layer (AL) doping technique in epitaxy has attracted attention as a
      low-resistive ultrathin semiconductor film as well as a two-dimensional (2-D)
      carrier transport system. In this paper, we report carrier properties for B AL
      doped Si films with suppressed thermal diffusion. B AL-doped Si films were formed
      on Si(100) by B AL formation followed by Si cap layer deposition in low-energy Ar
      plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition without substrate heating. After
      fabrication of Hall-effect devices with the B AL-doped Si films on unstrained and
      0.8%-tensile-strained Si(100)-on-insulator substrates (maximum process
      temperature 350 degrees C), carrier properties were electrically measured at room
      temperature. Typically for the initial B amount of 2 * 1014 cm-2 and 7 * 1014 cm
      2, B concentration depth profiles showed a clear decay slope as steep as 1.3
      nm/decade. Dominant carrier was a hole and the maximum sheet carrier densities as
      high as 4 * 1013 cm-2 and 2 * 1013 cm-2 (electrical activity ratio of about 7%
      and 3.5%) were measured respectively for the unstrained and 0.8%-tensile-strained
      Si with Hall mobility around 10-13 cm2 V-1 s-1. Moreover, mobility degradation
      was not observed even when sheet carrier density was increased by heat treatment
      at 500-700  degrees C. There is a possibility that the local carrier (ionized B
      atom) concentration around the B AL in Si reaches around 1021 cm-3 and 2-D
      impurity-band formation with strong Coulomb interaction is expected. The behavior
      of carrier properties for heat treatment at 500-700  degrees C implies that
      thermal diffusion causes broadening of the B AL in Si and decrease of local B
      concentration.

PMID- 28567176
TI  - Combinatorial screening of halide perovskite thin films and solar cells by mask
      defined IR laser molecular beam epitaxy.
AB  - As an extension of combinatorial molecular layer epitaxy via ablation of
      perovskite oxides by a pulsed excimer laser, we have developed a laser molecular
      beam epitaxy (MBE) system for parallel integration of nano-scaled thin films of
      organic-inorganic hybrid materials. A pulsed infrared (IR) semiconductor laser
      was adopted for thermal evaporation of organic halide (A-site: CH3NH3I) and
      inorganic halide (B-site: PbI2) powder targets to deposit repeated A/B bilayer
      films where the thickness of each layer was controlled on molecular layer scale
      by programming the evaporation IR laser pulse number, length, or power. The layer
      thickness was monitored with an in situ quartz crystal microbalance and
      calibrated against ex situ stylus profilometer measurements. A computer
      controlled movable mask system enabled the deposition of combinatorial thin film
      libraries, where each library contains a vertically homogeneous film with
      spatially programmable A- and B-layer thicknesses. On the composition gradient
      film, a hole transport Spiro-OMeTAD layer was spin-coated and dried followed by
      the vacuum evaporation of Ag electrodes to form the solar cell. The preliminary
      cell performance was evaluated by measuring I-V characteristics at seven
      different positions on the 12.5 mm * 12.5 mm combinatorial library sample with
      seven 2 mm * 4 mm slits under a solar simulator irradiation. The combinatorial
      solar cell library clearly demonstrated that the energy conversion efficiency
      sharply changes from nearly zero to 10.2% as a function of the illumination area
      in the library. The exploration of deposition parameters for obtaining optimum
      performance could thus be greatly accelerated. Since the thickness ratio of PbI2
      and CH3NH3I can be freely chosen along the shadow mask movement, these
      experiments show the potential of this system for high-throughput screening of
      optimum chemical composition in the binary film library and application to halide
      perovskite solar cell.

PMID- 28567177
TI  - Suppressing the coffee-ring effect of colloidal droplets by dispersed cellulose
      nanofibers.
AB  - We report that the addition of a small amount of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) into
      an aqueous dispersion of colloidal particles suppresses the coffee-ring effect
      when the dispersion dries on a solid substrate, as revealed by the computational
      analysis of experimental time-series images and by particle image velocimetry.
      The addition of CNFs is much more effective than the increase of colloidal
      particle concentration at the same weight percentage; it is also more environment
      friendly than the use of typical molecular surfactants. This finding is promising
      for the fabrication of metamaterials from colloidal dispersions and for ink
      printing in electronics, where CNFs can also serve as a substrate for flexible
      devices.

PMID- 28567178
TI  - Novel magnetic properties of CoTe nanorods and diversified CoTe2 nanostructures
      obtained at different NaOH concentrations.
AB  - CoTe and CoTe2 nanorods with average diameter of 100 nm were synthesized by a
      simple hydrothermal process, and different CoTe2 nanostructures were obtained by
      changing the NaOH concentration. CoTe nanorods exhibit weak ferromagnetism while
      CoTe2 nanorods present paramagnetic behavior. Different magnetic behaviors occur
      in the other CoTe2 nanostructures due to Na+ entrance into CoTe2 crystals. A
      first-principles study on Na-doped CoTe2 confirms the magnetic characteristics.

PMID- 28567180
TI  - Bilateral persistent primitive hypoglossal arteries associated with unilateral
      symptomatic carotid thromboembolism.
AB  - We report the fifth case of bilateral persistent primitive hypoglossal arteries
      in the literature. This is also the first such case to be demonstrated on
      computerized tomography angiogram (CTA) and the first case to be associated with
      a symptomatic carotid thrombus. The sub-occlusive thrombus was distal to the take
      off of the dominant persistent hypoglossal artery (PHA) from the internal carotid
      artery, thus sparing involvement of posterior circulation. Timely identification
      of the internal carotid artery thromboembolism in the setting of a PHA is
      important to allow for thrombectomy. Any intervention was not done in this case
      as the patient was out of the window and at an additional risk of inducing
      intracranial thromboembolism. Symptomatic carotid stenosis at the PHA take-off is
      typically treated with endovascular angioplasty and stenting due to the typically
      high level of the bifurcation in the neck.

PMID- 28567181
TI  - Incidental finding - the discovery of a bronchopulmonary foregut malformation
      through investigations for Crohn's disease.
AB  - Pulmonary sequestration (PMS) is a rare bronchopulmonary malformation. It has an
      incidence of between 0.15% to 1.7%. Likewise, cystic adenomatoid malformation
      (CCAM) is another relatively rare category of a bronchopulmonary malformation
      with a reported incidence of between 1 in 25,000 to 1 in 35,000. Moreover, a
      bronchopulmonary malformation with features allied to both of these forms is
      considered an even rarer entity. In general, bronchopulmonary malformations
      present with a range of non-specific symptoms. Radiological features can be non
      specific yet distinctive when related to clinical features. Ultimately,
      definitive diagnosis depends upon histological assessment of lung tissue. We
      present an adult female with radiological features of both pulmonary
      sequestration and cystic adenomatoid malformation. This was an incidental finding
      unrelated to the patients presenting complaint. This case highlights the
      importance of using a structured and systematic approach when interpreting
      medical imagery.

PMID- 28567182
TI  - Adenocarcinoma of the Appendix Presenting as a Palpable Right Thigh Mass.
AB  - Intra-abdominal and intra-pelvic pathologies initially presenting in extra
      abdominal/pelvic locations is unusual. This spread predominantly occurs with
      infectious processes to sites including the buttock, thigh, and calf. The routes
      of extension into adjacent anatomically weak compartments include the pelvic
      outlet, greater sciatic foramen, obturator foramen, inguinal or femoral canal,
      weak bones, or along nerves and blood vessels. Malignant neoplasms of the
      appendix, while extremely rare and accounting for only 0.4% of all
      gastrointestinal cancers, is one of the intra-abdominal pathologies that can
      spread via these routes. Adenocarcinoma of the appendix accounts for 10-20% of
      primary appendiceal tumors. They usually present as acute appendicitis or as a
      right lower quadrant abdominal mass when associated with a mucocele. We report
      the unique case of mucinous appendiceal adenocarcinoma in a 57-year-old male who
      initially presented with a right thigh mass secondary to extension of the
      neoplasm from the right lower quadrant through the femoral canal. A similar
      presentation of a mucinous appendiceal cystadenoma has been previously reported,
      however, to our knowledge, this is the first case of a malignant appendiceal
      tumor extending into the thigh. We review the literature and discuss imaging
      findings and treatment of this tumor.

PMID- 28567179
TI  - Understanding chemically processed solar cells based on quantum dots.
AB  - Photovoltaic energy conversion is one of the best alternatives to fossil fuel
      combustion. Petroleum resources are now close to depletion and their combustion
      is known to be responsible for the release of a considerable amount of greenhouse
      gases and carcinogenic airborne particles. Novel third-generation solar cells
      include a vast range of device designs and materials aiming to overcome the
      factors limiting the current technologies. Among them, quantum dot-based devices
      showed promising potential both as sensitizers and as colloidal nanoparticle
      films. A good example is the p-type PbS colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) forming a
      heterojunction with a n-type wide-band-gap semiconductor such as TiO2 or ZnO. The
      confinement in these nanostructures is also expected to result in marginal
      mechanisms, such as the collection of hot carriers and generation of multiple
      excitons, which would increase the theoretical conversion efficiency limit.
      Ultimately, this technology could also lead to the assembly of a tandem-type cell
      with CQD films absorbing in different regions of the solar spectrum.

PMID- 28567183
TI  - Radiologic Findings in Gabapentin-Induced Myositis.
AB  - Throughout recent years, Gabapentin has become increasingly used for the
      treatment of neuropathic pain. We report on a case of a 31 year old female who
      presented to the emergency department with unilateral leg pain, weakness, and
      swelling after increasingly titrating her Gabapentin dosage over three weeks.
      Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the presence of myositis confined to the
      left thigh and the patient's symptoms and laboratory abnormalities resolved
      following Gabapentin cessation. While Gabapentin-induced myositis and
      rhabdomyolysis is a rare entity, it should be a diagnostic consideration for
      radiologists, particularly in the absence of infection or trauma.

PMID- 28567185
TI  - Extramural vascular invasion and response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in
      rectal cancer: Influence of the CpG island methylator phenotype.
AB  - AIM: To identify whether CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is predictive of
      response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACRT) and outcomes in rectal cancer.
      METHODS: Patients undergoing NACRT and surgical resection for rectal cancer in a
      tertiary referral centre between 2002-2011 were identified. Pre-treatment tumour
      biopsies were analysed for CIMP status (high, intermediate or low) using
      methylation specific PCR. KRAS and BRAF status were also determined using
      pyrosequencing analysis. Clinical information was extracted from case records and
      cancer services databases. Response to radiotherapy was measured by tumour
      regression scores determined upon histological examination of the resected
      specimen. The relationship between these molecular features, response to NACRT
      and oncological outcomes were analysed. RESULTS: There were 160 patients analysed
      with a median follow-up time of 46.4 mo. Twenty-one (13%) patients demonstrated
      high levels of CIMP methylation (CIMP-H) and this was significantly associated
      with increased risk of extramural vascular invasion (EMVI) compared with CIMP-L
      [8/21 (38%) vs 15/99 (15%), P = 0.028]. CIMP status was not related to tumour
      regression after radiotherapy or survival, however EMVI was significantly
      associated with adverse survival (P < 0.001). Intermediate CIMP status was
      significantly associated with KRAS mutation (P = 0.01). There were 14 (9%)
      patients with a pathological complete response (pCR) compared to 116 (73%)
      patients having no or minimal regression after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.
      Those patients with pCR had median survival of 106 mo compared to 65.8 mo with
      minimal regression, although this was not statistically significant (P = 0.26).
      Binary logistic regression analysis of the relationship between EMVI and other
      prognostic features revealed, EMVI positivity was associated with poor overall
      survival, advanced "T" stage and CIMP-H but not nodal status, age, sex, KRAS
      mutation status and presence of local or systemic recurrence. CONCLUSION: We
      report a novel association of pre-treatment characterisation of CIMP-H with EMVI
      status which has prognostic implications and is not readily detectable on pre
      treatment histological examination.

PMID- 28567184
TI  - Molecular classifications of gastric cancers: Novel insights and possible future
      applications.
AB  - Despite some notable advances in the systemic management of gastric cancer (GC),
      the prognosis of patients with advanced disease remains overall poor and their
      chance of cure is anecdotic. In a molecularly selected population, a median
      overall survival of 13.8 mo has been reached with the use of human epidermal
      growth factor 2 (HER2) inhibitors in combination with chemotherapy, which has
      soon after become the standard of care for patients with HER2-overexpressing GC.
      Moreover, oncologists have recognized the clinical utility of conceiving cancers
      as a collection of different molecularly-driven entities rather than a single
      disease. Several molecular drivers have been identified as having crucial roles
      in other tumors and new molecular classifications have been recently proposed for
      gastric cancer as well. Not only these classifications allow the identification
      of different tumor subtypes with unique features, but also they serve as
      springboard for the development of different therapeutic strategies. Hopefully,
      the application of standard systemic chemotherapy, specific targeted agents,
      immunotherapy or even surgery in specific cancer subgroups will help maximizing
      treatment outcomes and will avoid treating patients with minimal chance to
      respond, therefore diluting the average benefit. In this review, we aim at
      elucidating the aspects of GC molecular subtypes, and the possible future
      applications of such molecular analyses.

PMID- 28567187
TI  - Introduction of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer in a Western tertiary
      referral centre: A prospective cost analysis during the learning curve.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the costs of the introduction of a laparoscopic surgery program
      for gastric cancer in a Western community training hospital and tertiary referral
      centre for gastric cancer surgery. METHODS: All patients who underwent surgery
      for gastric cancer with curative intent in 2013 and 2014 were prospectively
      included. Primary outcomes were costs regarding surgery and hospital stay.
      RESULTS: Laparoscopic gastrectomy was used in 52 patients [mean age 68 years (+/-
      9, range 50 to 87)] and open gastrectomy was used in 25 patients [mean age 70
      years (+/- 10, range 46 to 85)]. Mean costs (in euro's) of surgical
      instrumentation were significantly higher for laparoscopic surgery: 2270 +/- 670
      vs 1181 +/- 680 in the open approach (P < 0.001). Costs of theatre use were
      higher in the laparoscopic group: mean 3819 +/- 865 vs 2545 +/- 1268 in the open
      surgery (P < 0.001). Total costs of hospitalization (i.e., costs of surgery and
      admission) were not different between laparoscopic and open surgery, 8187 +/-
      4864 and 7673 +/- 8064 respectively (P = 0.729). Mean length of hospital stay was
      9 +/- 12 d in the laparoscopic group vs 14 +/- 14 d in the open group (P =
      0.044). CONCLUSION: The introduction of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric
      cancer coincided with higher costs for theatre use and surgical instrumentation
      compared to the open technique. Total costs were not significantly different due
      to shorter length of stay and less intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and
      shorter ICU stay in the laparoscopic group.

PMID- 28567186
TI  - Critical evaluation of contemporary management in a new Pelvic Exenteration Unit:
      The first 25 consecutive cases.
AB  - AIM: To critically appraise short-term outcomes in patients treated in a new
      Pelvic Exenteration (PE) Unit. METHODS: This retrospective observational study
      was conducted by analysing prospectively collected data for the first 25 patients
      (16 males, 9 females) who underwent PE for advanced pelvic tumours in our PE Unit
      between January 2012 and October 2016. Data evaluated included age, co
      morbidities, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, Eastern
      Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status, preoperative adjuvant treatment, intra
      operative blood loss, procedural duration, perioperative adverse event, lengths
      of intensive care unit (ICU) stay and hospital stay, and oncological outcome.
      Quantitative data were summarized as percentage or median and range, and
      statistically assessed by the chi2 test or Fisher's exact test, as applicable.
      RESULTS: All 25 patients received comprehensive preoperative assessment via our
      dedicated multidisciplinary team approach. Long-course neoadjuvant
      chemoradiotherapy was provided, if indicated. The median age of the patients was
      61.9-year-old. The median ASA and ECOG scores were 2 and 0, respectively. The
      indications for PE were locally invasive rectal adenocarcinoma (n = 13), advanced
      colonic adenocarcinoma (n = 5), recurrent cervical carcinoma (n = 3) and
      malignant sacral chordoma (n = 3). The procedures comprised 10 total PEs, 4
      anterior PEs, 7 posterior PEs and 4 isolated lateral PEs. The median follow-up
      period was 17.6 mo. The median operative time was 11.5 h. The median volume of
      blood loss was 3306 mL, and the median volume of red cell transfusion was 1475
      mL. The median lengths of ICU stay and of hospital stay were 1 d and 21 d,
      respectively. There was no case of mortality related to surgery. There were a
      total of 20 surgical morbidities, which occurred in 12 patients. The majority of
      the complications were grade 2 Clavien-Dindo. Only 2 patients experienced grade 3
      Clavien-Dindo complications, and both required procedural interventions. One
      patient experienced grade 4a Clavien-Dindo complication, requiring temporary
      renal dialysis without long-term disability. The R0 resection rate was 64%. There
      were 7 post-exenteration recurrences during the follow-up period. No
      statistically significant relationship was found among histological origin of
      tumour, microscopic resection margin status and postoperative recurrence (P =
      0.67). Four patients died from sequelae of recurrent disease during follow-up.
      CONCLUSION: By utilizing modern assessment and surgical techniques, our PE Unit
      can manage complex pelvic cancers with acceptable morbidities, zero-rate
      mortality and equivalent oncologic outcomes.

PMID- 28567188
TI  - Challenges facing young African scientists in their research careers: A
      qualitative exploratory study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Africa accounts for 14% of world's population, and the economies of
      most African countries are considered to be growing, but this is not reflected in
      the amount of research published by Africans. This study aimed at identifying the
      challenges that young African scientists face in their career development.
      METHODS: This was a qualitative exploratory study involving young researchers who
      attended the Teaching and Research in Natural Sciences for Development (TReND) in
      Africa scientific writing and communication workshop, which was held in Malawi in
      September 2015. A semi-structured questionnaire was sent to all workshop
      participants who consented to taking part in the survey. In total, 28
      questionnaires were sent via email and 15 were returned, representing a response
      rate of 53.6%. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Young
      Africans develop their research interests various ways. The most common career
      promoting factors identified by the study participants included formal classroom
      learning, aspirations to attain academic qualifications, work satisfaction, and
      the desire to fulfill parents' dreams. Challenges cited by survey respondents
      included a lack of mentorship, funds, and research and writing skills. Lack of
      interest in research by policymakers, lack of motivation by peers, and heavy
      workload (leaving little time for research) were also reported as challenges.
      Respondents suggested that grants specifically targeting young scientists would
      be beneficial. Participants also urged for the establishment of mentorship
      programmes, increasing motivation for research, and more frequent training
      opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: There is need for improved funding for institutional
      and research network strengthening in Africa, with particular attention given to
      expanding opportunities for young researchers.

PMID- 28567190
TI  - Experiences of caregivers of infants who have been on bubble continuous positive
      airway pressure at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Malawi: A descriptive
      qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An innovative, low-cost bubble continuous positive airway pressure
      (bCPAP) device has recently been introduced in Malawi for the treatment of
      respiratory distress in infants. While this novel bCPAP system has been shown to
      be safe and effective in reducing infant mortality, caregivers' experiences have
      not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to explore experiences of
      parents and guardians of infants who had been on bCPAP at Queen Elizabeth Central
      Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Malawi. METHODS: This was a descriptive
      phenomenological study that was carried out at the Chatinkha nursery unit and the
      paediatric nursery ward at QECH, from January to February 2015. Purposive
      sampling was used to select participants for in-depth interviews. Data saturation
      was reached with 12 caregivers. Data were analysed using Colaizzi's framework.
      RESULTS: Caregivers received inadequate, inconsistent, and sporadic information
      about bCPAP. Student nurses and doctors were best able to answer caregivers'
      questions and concerns. When their infants were on bCPAP, caregivers felt anxious
      and fearful. However, upon implementation of bCPAP treatment for their children,
      the caregivers were satisfied with it. The main sources of psychological stress
      were limited parent-child interaction and the constraints of prescribed visiting
      hours. Family, friends, and caregiver involvement in the care of infants provided
      some psychological comfort. CONCLUSIONS: The results show gaps in the information
      and psychological support that mothers of infants on bCPAP receive in hospital.
      We recommend that psychological support be given to the mothers of infants on
      bCPAP at QECH.

PMID- 28567189
TI  - Polymerase chain reaction identification of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense in
      wild tsetse flies from Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense is the causative agent of acute human
      African trypanosomiasis. Identification of T. b. rhodesiense in tsetse
      populations is essential for understanding transmission dynamics, assessng human
      disease risk, and monitoring spatiotemporal trends and impact of control
      interventions. Accurate detection and characterisation of trypanosomes in vectors
      relies on molecular techniques. For the first time in Malawi, a molecular
      technique has been used to detect trypanosomes in tsetse flies in Nkhotakota
      Wildlife Reserve. METHODS: A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used
      to identify the serum resistance associated (SRA) gene of T. b. rhodesiense in
      tsetse flies. Of 257 tsetse flies that were randomly caught, 42 flies were
      dissected for microscopic examination. The midguts of 206 flies were positive and
      were individually put in eppendorf tubes containing phosphate-buffered saline
      (PBS buffer) for DNA extraction. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-PCR was first
      used to isolate all trypanosome species from the flies. TBR PCR was then used to
      isolate the Trypanozoon group. T. brucei-positive samples were further evaluated
      by SRA PCR for the presence of the SRA gene. RESULTS: Of 257 flies caught, 185
      (72%) were Glossina morsitans morsitans and 72 (28%) were Glossina pallidipes.
      Three were tenerals and 242 were mature live flies. Of the 242 flies dissected,
      206 were positive, representing an 85.1% infection rate. From 206 infected flies,
      106 (51.5%) were positive using ITS-PCR, 68 (33.0%) being mixed infections, 18
      (8.7%) T. brucei, 9 (4.4%) Trypanosoma vivax, 4 (1.9%) Trypanosoma godfrey, 3
      (1.5%) Trypanosoma congolense savanna, 3 (1.5%) Trypanosoma simae, and 1 (0.4%)
      Trypanosoma simaetsavo. When subjected to TBR PCR, 107(51.9%) were positive for
      T. brucei. Of the 107 T. brucei-positive samples, 5 (4.7%) were found to have the
      SRA gene. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that wild tsetse flies in Malawi are
      infected with human-infective trypanosomes that put communities around wildlife
      reserves at risk of human African trypanosomiasis outbreaks. Further studies need
      to be done to identify sources of blood meals for the flies and for surveillance
      of communities around wildlife reserves.

PMID- 28567191
TI  - Prevalence and distribution of Schistosoma haematobium infection among school
      children living in southwestern shores of Lake Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium infection has been shown to
      be about 23.7% among children living in the lakeshore areas of Malawi, with
      reinfection rates of about 30% to 40%. This study aimed to determine the current
      prevalence and distribution of S. haematobium infection in school children along
      the southwestern shores of Lake Malawi and examine the control interventions
      present in the area. METHODS: This prospective cross-sectional study was
      conducted in primary schools. School children were enrolled, demographic data
      were collected, and urine samples were submitted for analysis on macrohaematuria,
      microhaematuria, and S. haematobium eggs. A questionnaire was administered to 3
      health facilities on diagnosis and treatment of schistosomiasis, as well as the
      control interventions against it. RESULTS: Four hundred children (174 males and
      226 females) were enrolled from 7 primary schools. Mean participant age was 9.57
      years (range 7 to 12 years). Fifty children (12.5%) had S. haematobium eggs
      detected in their urine, with the mean egg count being 15/10 mL. The highest
      infection intensity category (>= 50 eggs/10mL) was seen in 10 children (2.5%).
      Prevalence varied significantly between the schools, with rates ranging from 0%
      to 20%. Schools with higher prevalence rates were located farther away from the
      nearest public hospital that provides treatment free of charge. Prevalence
      correlated with previous history of mass chemotherapy in schools. Mass
      chemotherapy, health education, and improved water supply and sanitation were
      some of the interventions that contributed to lower prevalence rates in some
      areas. CONCLUSIONS: Schistosomiasis prevalence around southwestern Lake Malawi
      was lower than previously reported, owing to control interventions focusing on
      health education, improved water supply, sanitation, and mass chemotherapy.
      Consistent and uniform interventions can reduce prevalence further and sustain
      control. As prevalence falls, diagnostics can identify high transmission areas,
      monitor disease trends, and guide evidence-based control strategies.

PMID- 28567192
TI  - Rotavirus antigen, cytokine, and neutralising antibody profiles in sera of
      children with and without HIV infection in Blantyre, Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rotavirus and HIV infection are major causes of death among children
      in sub-Saharan Africa. A previous study reported no association between
      concomitant HIV infection and rotavirus disease severity among hospitalised
      children in Malawi. This study examined rotavirus antigenaemia and broader immune
      responses among HIV-infected and uninfected children. METHODS: Stored (-80
      degrees C), paired sera from acute and convalescent phases of Malawian children
      less than 5 years old, hospitalised for acute gastroenteritis in the primary
      study, collected from July 1997 to June 1999, were utilised. Among children older
      than 15 months, HIV infection was defined as the presence of HIV antibody in the
      blood, when confirmed by at least 2 established methods. For those younger than
      15 months, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of proviral DNA
      was used for verification. All were followed for up to 4 weeks after hospital
      discharge. Rotavirus antigen levels in sera were measured with PremierTM
      Rotaclone(r) rotavirus enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit. Acute-phase sera were
      examined for 17 cytokines, using Luminex fluorescent bead human cytokine
      immunoassay kit. Rotavirus-specific IgA and neutralising activity were determined
      by EIA and microneutralisation (MN) assay, respectively. Human strains and bovine
      human reassortants were propagated in MA104 cells with serum-free Iscove's
      Modified Dulbecco's Medium (IMDM). Differences in results, from specimens with
      and without HIV infection, were analysed for statistical significance using the
      chi-square test. RESULTS: We detected rotavirus antigen in 30% of the HIV
      infected and 21% HIV-uninfected, in the acute-phase sera. HIV-infected children
      developed slightly prolonged rotavirus antigenaemia compared to HIV-uninfected
      children. CONCLUSIONS: Rotavirus-specific IgA seroconversion rates and
      neutralising titres were similar in HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected children,
      thus, HIV infection had no major effect on immune responses to rotavirus
      infection.

PMID- 28567193
TI  - Hepatitis B virus seroprevalence among Malawian medical students: A cross
      sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) predominantly spreads through contact with
      infected blood or other body fluids and causes liver disease. HBV vaccination for
      students at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi, is done without
      screening for the virus. It is important to assess the prevalence of HBV antigens
      among foundation-year students in order to consolidate evidence in support of HBV
      screening before vaccination. The aim of this study was to determine the
      seroprevalence of HBV antigens among 2013-2014 foundation-year students at the
      University of Malawi College of Medicine. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional
      descriptive study was conducted among 2013-2014 foundation year students at the
      Malawi College of Medicine. Out of the 234 foundation-year students, written
      consent was obtained from 89 students. Venous blood samples were collected and
      tested for HBV surface antigen using SD Bioline immunochromatographic rapid
      assays. RESULTS: Out of the 62 (69.7%) male students, none tested HBV-positive,
      and out of 27 (30.3%) female students, none were seropositive. This suggested the
      absence of HBsAg among students or presence of HBsAg levels below detectable
      limits. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed levels of HBsAg below detectable limits
      among healthy young adults in Malawi. HBV screening for medical students should
      further be assessed to ensure adequate protection before they are assigned
      clinical duties. These findings provide enough grounds to agitate for further
      surveys to support the establishment of a universal HBV immunisation programme in
      Malawi.

PMID- 28567195
TI  - Abdominal myomectomy: A retrospective review of determinants and outcomes of
      complications at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe the pattern, outcomes, and
      determinants of perioperative complications of abdominal myomectomy at the
      University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective review of cases of abdominal myomectomy between January 2010 and
      December 2013. Data were obtained from ward and operating theatre case records
      and analysed using SPSS version 20. The continuous variables were analysed with
      Student's t-test. The categorical variables were analysed with the chi-square
      test. P-values of 0.05 or less was taken to be significant. RESULTS: Total
      sampling yielded 204 cases, of which 170 records (80%) were adequate for
      analysis. Using criteria developed by Garry et al., major and minor complications
      occurred in 43.6% and 32.9% of procedures, respectively, while 23.5% of the
      patients had no complications. The commonest complication was intraoperative
      haemorrhage requiring blood transfusion. Mean estimated blood loss was 630.88 +/-
      392.42 mL. There were no cases converted to hysterectomy, and no deaths were
      recorded. Uterine size equivalent to 16 weeks' gestation or more was
      significantly associated with heavier blood loss, blood transfusion, and fever (P
      = 0.034). Other significant determinants of major intraoperative haemorrhage with
      or without blood transfusion were menstrual flow of 6 days or more, preoperative
      anaemia, previous surgery, posterior incision, and surgery duration longer than 4
      hours (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Outcome of abdominal myomectomy is generally
      favourable even if uterine size is greater than 16 weeks by palpation.
      Nevertheless, patients should be counselled preoperatively on the risk of blood
      loss and the possibility of blood transfusion.

PMID- 28567194
TI  - Prevalence of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen among hepatitis B surface
      antigen-negative blood donors in Ilorin, Nigeria: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-transfusion hepatitis occurs even with stringent donor selection
      criteria and screening for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The objective of
      this study was to determine the prevalence of antibody to hepatitis B core
      antigen (anti-HBc) in HBsAg-negative blood donors. METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional study in which 200 HBsAg-negative blood donors were recruited.
      Screening for viral markers was done using both a rapid test kit and enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for anti-HBc IgM. Quantitative and qualitative
      analysis of anti-HBc IgM was done by "capture" enzyme immunoassay using DIA.PRO
      HBc IgM test kits. The other viral markers were investigated using one step
      cassette style HBV tests. SPSS version 16 was used for data analysis. A P-value
      of 0.05 or less was considered significant. RESULTS: There were 190 male (95%)
      and 10 female (5%) blood donors, with a mean age of 31.7 +/- 7.9 years. The
      prevalence of anti-HBc IgM was 4%. The other viral markers (HBeAg, anti-HBeAg,
      anti-HBs and total anti-HBc) had a prevalence of 1.5%, 23%, 2.5%, and 32.5%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of anti-HBc IgM in this study was high,
      and this supports the fact that screening blood donors for HBsAg alone is not
      sufficient to prevent transmission of HBV.

PMID- 28567197
TI  - Assessing the feasibility of mobile phones for follow-up of acutely unwell
      children presenting to village clinics in rural northern Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient follow-up is a routine component of clinical practice and
      valuable for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, but because of the
      broad dispersion of health facilities and lack of standardised medical reporting
      in Malawi, collecting patient outcome data can be challenging. Increasing
      accessibility and affordability of mobile technology in resource-poor settings
      may facilitate patient follow-up in the community. The objective of this study
      was to evaluate the potential utility of mobile phones for collecting follow-up
      clinical data from parents or caregivers of acutely unwell under-5 children, for
      intervention evaluation purposes. METHODS: Parents' or caregivers' mobile phone
      numbers were obtained by health surveillance assistants (HSAs) during study
      enrollment. Guardians who provided a telephone number were contacted by the study
      team to establish re-consultations or hospitalisations of their child(ren) within
      14 days of recruitment. Health records at village clinics and higher-level health
      facilities were hand-searched to identify or confirm presentations and abstract
      clinical data. RESULTS: 87 out of 149 (58.4%) guardians provided a mobile
      telephone number, of whom the study team could contact 44 (29.5%). Seven
      guardians stated they took their child for further treatment: three of these
      returned to village clinics and four presented to secondary care facilities;
      attendance could only be confirmed from health records for one child.
      CONCLUSIONS: With continued expansion of cellular network coverage and mobile
      ownership in Malawi, mobile phones may facilitate collection of patient outcomes
      for intervention evaluation purposes. Future consideration should also be given
      to integrating mobile technologies into HSA clinical practice.

PMID- 28567196
TI  - Cytopenias among ART-naive patients with advanced HIV disease on enrolment to
      care and treatment services at a tertiary hospital in Tanzania: A cross-sectional
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS causes high morbidity and mortality through both
      immunosuppression and complications not directly related to immunosuppression.
      Haematological abnormalities, including various cytopenias, occur commonly in HIV
      through immune and non-immune pathways. Though these complications could
      potentially cause serious clinical implications, published literature on the
      magnitude of this problem and its associated factors in Tanzania is scarce. This
      study aimed at determining the prevalence and risk factors of HIV-associated
      cytopenias among ART-naive patients enrolling for care and treatment services at
      Bugando Care and Treatment Centre (CTC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. METHODS: This was a
      cross-sectional clinic-based study done between March 2015 and February 2016,
      involving all antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive adult HIV-positive patients
      enrolling for care and treatment services at Bugando CTC. Patients younger than
      18 years and those with missing data were excluded. Data were analysed using
      Stata version 11 to determine the prevalence and risk factors of cytopenias.
      RESULTS: A total of 1205 ART-naive patients were included. Median age was 41
      years (interquartile range [IQR] 32 to 48). Most participants were female (n =
      789; 65.6%), with a female-to-male ratio of 2:1. The median baseline CD4 count
      was 200 cells/uL (IQR 113 to 439). About half (49%) of the study participants had
      baseline CD4 counts less than 200 cells/uL. Anaemia, leucopenia, and
      thrombocytopenia were found in 704 (58.4%), 285 (23.6%), and 174 (14.4%)
      participants, respectively, and these were strongly associated with advanced HIV
      infection. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of cytopenias is high among ART-naive HIV
      positive adults, and cytopenias are more marked with advanced HIV infection.
      Early diagnosis of HIV and timely initiation of ART could potentially reduce the
      number of people living with advanced HIV disease and its associated
      complications, including the cytopenias investigated in this study. Patients with
      cytopenias should undergo thorough screening for tuberculosis, which is an
      important and treatable correlate of cytopenia, in addition to close follow-up
      for any potential negative outcomes.

PMID- 28567198
TI  - Biochemical derangements prior to emergency laparotomy at Queen Elizabeth Central
      Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi: A cross-sectional pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine biochemical investigations not
      routinely performed prior to emergency laparotomy in patients at Queen Elizabeth
      Central Hospital, a low-resource public hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. METHODS: A
      prospective cross-sectional study of adults (N = 15) needing emergency laparotomy
      over a 4-week period were studied at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
      Biochemical investigations, not routinely performed for economic reasons, were
      performed preoperatively; these included sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon
      dioxide, urea, and calcium levels. RESULTS: Gastrointestinal pathology was
      predominant among the emergency laparotomies performed. Large bowel obstruction
      and bowel perforation secondary to typhoid were most frequent. Clinically
      significant biochemical derangements among the study patients were as follows:
      cases of moderate-to-severe hypokalaemia (n = 2), severe hyponatraemia (n = 1),
      moderate hypernatraemia (n = 1), and severe hypocalcaemia (n = 1). The most
      frequent abnormalities seen were uraemia and hypochloraemia (n = 11).
      CONCLUSIONS: Accurate electrolyte estimation in critically ill preoperative
      patients is desireable for optimal perioperative management but frequently absent
      in resource-challenged environments.

PMID- 28567199
TI  - Frequent malaria illness episodes in two Malawian patients on antiretroviral
      therapy soon after stopping cotrimoxazole preventive therapy.
AB  - We describe two Malawian adults on successful antiretroviral therapy who
      experienced frequent malaria episodes after stopping cotrimoxazole prophylaxis.
      We argue that, in addition to stopping cotrimoxazole, diminished malaria immunity
      and drug interactions between efavirenz and artemether-lumefantrine may have
      played a causative role in the recurrent malaria our patients experienced.

PMID- 28567200
TI  - Thoracic epidural for modified radical mastectomy in a high-risk patient.

PMID- 28567201
TI  - Discrepancy between statistical analysis method and study design in medical
      research: Examples, implications, and potential solutions.

PMID- 28567202
TI  - Adherence to iron supplementation in pregnancy.

PMID- 28567203
TI  - Background on the Termination of Pregnancy Bill Debate in Malawi.

PMID- 28567204
TI  - Proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill in Malawi: Doctors use the best of what
      they have.

PMID- 28567205
TI  - The proposed legislation on termination of pregnancy does not protect women or
      children in Malawi and is not fit for the intended purpose: Christian Medical and
      Dental Fellowship position.

PMID- 28567206
TI  - An ethicist's thoughts on the Termination of Pregnancy Bill debate in Malawi.

PMID- 28567207
TI  - Fanuel Bickton talks to Desiree Witte on her clinical research experience with
      vaccines in Malawi.

PMID- 28567208
TI  - They are people too (an Ob-Gyn intern's perspective).

PMID- 28567209
TI  - Modelling human Puumala hantavirus infection in relation to bank vole abundance
      and masting intensity in the Netherlands.
AB  - This paper deals with modelling the relationship between human Puumala hantavirus
      (PUUV) infection, the abundance and prevalence of infection of the host (the bank
      vole), mast, and temperature. These data were used to build and parametrise
      generalised regression models, and parametrise them using datasets on these
      factors pertaining to the Netherlands. The performance of the models was assessed
      by considering their predictive power. Models including mast and monthly
      temperature performed well, and showed that mast intensity influences vole
      abundance and hence human exposure for the following year. Thus, the model can
      aid in forecasting of human illness cases, since (1) mast intensity influences
      the vole abundance and hence human exposure for the following year and (2)
      monitoring of mast is much more feasible than determining bank vole abundance.

PMID- 28567211
TI  - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus not detected in Swedish nucleus and
      multiplying pig herds.
AB  - Introduction: Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      (LA-MRSA) has emerged among pigs in many countries. MRSA in the pig population
      constitute a reservoir with risk for transmission to humans in close contact with
      pigs. Absence of MRSA in the top of the breeding pyramid would prevent spread to
      the rest of the pig population. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      occurrence of MRSA in nucleus and multiplying pig herds in Sweden. Materials and
      methods: All nucleus and multiplying pig herds in Sweden present in 2011 (n = 53)
      and 2014 (n = 39) were sampled for MRSA. Results and discussion: MRSA was not
      detected either in 2011 or in 2014. That MRSA was not detected in the top of the
      breeding pyramid indicates a favourable MRSA situation in the Swedish pig
      population. Abbreviations: MRSA: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; LA
      MRSA: livestock-associated MRSA; CC: clonal complex.

PMID- 28567212
TI  - Is binding decline the main source of the ageing effect on prospective memory? A
      ride in a virtual town.
AB  - Objective: This study was designed to improve our understanding of prospective
      memory (PM) changes in ageing, and to identify the cognitive correlates of PM
      decline, using a virtual environment, to provide a more realistic assessment than
      traditional laboratory tasks. Design: Thirty-five young and 29 older individuals
      exposed to a virtual town were asked to recall three event-based intentions with
      a strong link between prospective and retrospective components, three event-based
      intentions with a weak link, and three time-based intentions. They also underwent
      retrospective episodic memory, executive functions, binding in working memory,
      processing speed, and time estimation assessments. Results: Older individuals
      recalled fewer intentions than young adults. While age-related PM decline
      affected the recall of both prospective and retrospective components, the recall
      of the latter seemed more challenging for older individuals when the link was
      weak. This PM decline was linked to an age-related decline in the binding process
      in working memory, as well as in processing speed, executive functioning, and
      episodic memory, depending on the nature of intentions. Conclusion: PM appears to
      be sensitive to ageing, even when the device is thought to be ecological. This
      decline is particularly pronounced when controlled processes are needed.

PMID- 28567210
TI  - Potential disease transmission from wild geese and swans to livestock, poultry
      and humans: a review of the scientific literature from a One Health perspective.
AB  - There are more herbivorous waterfowl (swans and geese) close to humans, livestock
      and poultry than ever before. This creates widespread conflict with agriculture
      and other human interests, but also debate about the role of swans and geese as
      potential vectors of disease of relevance for human and animal health. Using a
      One Health perspective, we provide the first comprehensive review of the
      scientific literature about the most relevant viral, bacterial, and unicellular
      pathogens occurring in wild geese and swans. Research thus far suggests that
      these birds may play a role in transmission of avian influenza virus, Salmonella,
      Campylobacter, and antibiotic resistance. On the other hand, at present there is
      no evidence that geese and swans play a role in transmission of Newcastle
      disease, duck plague, West Nile virus, Vibrio, Yersinia, Clostridium,
      Chlamydophila, and Borrelia. Finally, based on present knowledge it is not
      possible to say if geese and swans play a role in transmission of Escherichia
      coli, Pasteurella, Helicobacter, Brachyspira, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and
      Microsporidia. This is largely due to changes in classification and taxonomy,
      rapid development of identification methods and lack of knowledge about host
      specificity. Previous research tends to overrate the role of geese and swans as
      disease vectors; we do not find any evidence that they are significant
      transmitters to humans or livestock of any of the pathogens considered in this
      review. Nevertheless, it is wise to keep poultry and livestock separated from
      small volume waters used by many wild waterfowl, but there is no need to
      discourage livestock grazing in nature reserves or pastures where geese and swans
      are present. Under some circumstances it is warranted to discourage swans and
      geese from using wastewater ponds, drinking water reservoirs, and public beaches.
      Intensified screening of swans and geese for AIV, West Nile virus and anatid
      herpesvirus is warranted.

PMID- 28567213
TI  - Rotational Acetabular Osteotomy.
AB  - Hip dysplasia is the most common cause of secondary osteoarthritis (OA). To
      prevent the early onset of secondary OA, Nishio's transposition osteotomy,
      Steel's triple osteotomy, Eppright's dial osteotomy, Wagner's spherical
      acetabular osteotomy, Tagawa's rotational acetabular osteotomy (RAO), and Ganz'
      periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) have been proposed. PAO and RAO are now commonly
      used in surgical treatment of symptomatic acetabular dysplasia in Europe, North
      America, and Asia. The aim of this paper is to present the followings: the
      patient selection criteria for RAO; the surgical technique of RAO; the long-term
      outcome of RAO; and the future perspectives.

PMID- 28567214
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Piriformis Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Piriformis syndrome (PS) is an uncommon disease characterized by
      symptoms resulting from compression/irritation of the sciatic nerve by the
      piriformis muscle. Uncertainty and controversy remain regarding the proper
      diagnosis and most effective form of treatment for PS. This study analyzes the
      diagnostic methods and efficacy of conservative and surgical treatments for PS.
      METHODS: From March 2006 to February 2013, we retrospectively reviewed 239
      patients who were diagnosed with PS and screened them for eligibility according
      to our inclusion/exclusion criteria. All patients underwent various conservative
      treatments initially including activity modification, medications, physical
      therapy, local steroid injections into the piriformis muscle, and extracorporeal
      shock wave therapy for at least 3 months. We resected the piriformis muscle
      with/without neurolysis of the sciatic nerve in 12 patients who had intractable
      sciatica despite conservative treatment at least for 3 months. The average age of
      the patients (4 males and 8 females) was 61 years (range, 45 to 71 years). The
      average duration of symptoms before surgery was 22.1 months (range, 4 to 72
      months), and the mean follow-up period was 22.7 months (range, 12 to 43 months).
      We evaluated the degree of pain and recorded the responses using a visual analog
      scale (VAS) preoperatively and 3 days and 12 months postoperatively. RESULTS:
      Buttock pain was more improved than sciatica with various conservative
      treatments. Compared with preoperatively, the VAS score was significantly
      decreased after the operation. Overall, satisfactory results were obtained in 10
      patients (83%) after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: PS is thought to be an exclusively
      clinical diagnosis, and if the diagnosis is performed correctly, surgery can be a
      good treatment option in patients with refractory sciatica despite appropriate
      conservative treatments.

PMID- 28567215
TI  - Comparison of Postoperative Infection-Related Complications between Cemented and
      Cementless Hemiarthroplasty in Elderly Patients: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this review was to assess the risk of infection
      related complications following cemented and cementless hemiarthroplasty in
      elderly patients. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library
      databases for published randomized clinical trials comparing cemented
      hemiarthroplasty with cementless hemiarthroplasty in patients with a femoral neck
      fracture and more than 65 years of age. Eight randomized controlled trials were
      available for analysis. A meta-analysis (with a fixed-effects model) and a meta
      regression analysis (with continuous variables) were performed. RESULTS: The 8
      trials included 1,204 hips (608 cemented and 596 cementless). There was no
      significant difference between the cemented and cementless groups regarding the
      incidence of deep infection, superficial infection, pneumonia, and urinary tract
      infection. The overall incidence of postoperative deep infection was 2.3%
      (14/608) in the cemented group and 1.2% (7/596) in the cementless group (relative
      risk, 1.74; 95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 4.14; I2 = 0%; p = 0.206). No
      publication bias was found in the funnel plot. CONCLUSIONS: Results of our meta
      analysis suggest that when selecting a fixation method for hemiarthroplasty,
      infection-related postoperative complications are not the determinant factor to
      consider.

PMID- 28567216
TI  - The Need for an Implant Identification Card at Airport Security Check.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Joint replacement surgery is having an increasing demand as national
      healthcare systems confront an ever ageing population. Surgical complications
      associated with lower limb arthroplasty are well known but less investigation has
      been performed examining its effect on air travel, more specifically, unwanted
      and significant inconvenience caused to travelers going through airport security.
      METHODS: In lower limb arthroplasty clinics, 50 patients who met our selection
      criteria were given questionnaires. Ten airport security officers from 4
      international airports (London Stansted, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, and
      Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport) were also given a separate
      questionnaire. The opinion of the Civil Aviation Authority was also sought.
      RESULTS: All 50 patients (mean age, 70.4 years; range, 55 to 84 years) who were
      presenting in lower limb arthroplasty clinics and who met our selection criteria
      volunteered to enter the study. Twenty-eight of these patients were female (mean
      age, 69.1 years; range, 55 to 84 years) and 22 were male (mean age, 71.2 years;
      range, 58 to 81 years). Of the patients, 14% stated that their joint replacements
      did not set off the airport security alarm. Responses were received from 10
      airport security officers as well. Six airport security officers were male and 4
      were female. All of the airport officers were aware of some form of implant
      identification card with 90% stating that these were useful to them at airport
      security. Eight-four percent of the patients stated that an implant
      identification card outlining what joint replacement they possessed and when this
      had been done would be very useful. Sixteen percent of the patients did not think
      a card would be beneficial since all of them had set off the airport alarm system
      only once or less in their lifetime. CONCLUSIONS: It is the opinion of airport
      security officers and patients that joint replacement implant identification
      cards streamline airport security checks and decrease the need for more invasive
      searches at airport security.

PMID- 28567217
TI  - Comparison of Surgical Parameters and Results between Curved Varus Osteotomy and
      Rotational Osteotomy for Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various osteotomies have been introduced to treat osteonecrosis of
      the femoral head. The purpose of this study was to compare surgical parameters,
      postoperative limb length discrepancy, and minimum 5-year clinical and
      radiological results between transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy (TCVO) and
      transtrochanteric rotational osteotomy (TRO) for osteonecrosis of the femoral
      head. METHODS: From 2004 to 2009, 103 consecutive TROs (97 patients) followed by
      72 consecutive TCVOs (64 patients) were performed for the treatment of
      osteonecrosis of the femoral head. Of these, 85 patients (91 hips) in the TRO
      group and 58 patients (65 hips) in the TCVO group completed minimum 5-year
      clinical and radiological follow-up. The Kaplan-Meier product-limit method was
      used to estimate survival. RESULTS: The TCVO group had shorter operation time (p
      < 0.05) and less estimated blood loss (p = 0.026). Postoperative collapse
      developed in 26 hips (28.6%) in the TRO group and 7 hips (10.8%) in the TCVO
      group (p = 0.007). Osteophyte formation was observed in 34 hips (37.4%) in the
      TRO group and 13 hips (20%) in the TCVO group (p = 0.020). Fifteen hips (16.5%)
      in the TRO group and 7 hips (10.8%) in the TCVO group underwent conversion total
      hip arthroplasty (THA). The survival rate at 9 years with radiographic collapse
      as the endpoint was 68.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 58.1% to 79.3%) in the
      TRO group, and 84.7% (95% CI, 71.5% to 97.9%) in the TCVO group. With conversion
      to THA as the endpoint, the survival rate was 82.2% (95% CI, 73.1% to 91.3%) in
      the TRO group and 89.2% (95% CI, 81.7% to 96.7%) in the TCVO group. CONCLUSIONS:
      The comparison indicates that TCVO was better than TRO in terms of surgical
      parameters including operation time and estimated blood loss while the 9-year
      survival rates were similar.

PMID- 28567218
TI  - Robotic Total Knee Arthroplasty with a Cruciate-Retaining Implant: A 10-Year
      Follow-up Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compared clinical and radiological results between robotic
      total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and conventional TKA with a cruciate-retaining
      implant at 10-year follow-up. The hypothesis was that robotic TKA would allow for
      more accurate leg alignment and component placement, and thus enhance clinical
      and radiological results and long-term survival rates. METHODS: A total of 113
      primary TKAs performed using a cruciate-retaining implant in 102 patients from
      2004 to 2007 were reviewed retrospectively. Of the 113 TKAs, 71 were robotic TKAs
      and 42 were conventional TKAs. Clinical outcomes (visual analogue scale pain
      score, Hospital for Special Surgery score, Western Ontario and McMaster
      University score, range of motion, and complications), radiological outcomes, and
      long-term survival rates were evaluated at a mean follow-up of 10 years. RESULTS:
      Clinical outcomes and long-term survival rates were similar between the two
      groups. Regarding the radiological outcomes, the robotic TKA group had
      significantly fewer postoperative leg alignment outliers (femoral coronal
      inclination, tibial coronal inclination, femoral sagittal inclination, tibial
      sagittal inclination, and mechanical axis) and fewer radiolucent lines than the
      conventional TKA group. CONCLUSIONS: Both robotic and conventional TKAs resulted
      in good clinical outcomes and postoperative leg alignments. Robotic TKA appeared
      to reduce the incidence of leg alignment outliers and radiolucent lines compared
      to conventional TKA.

PMID- 28567219
TI  - The Effect of Anxiety, Depression, and Optimism on Postoperative Satisfaction and
      Clinical Outcomes in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis and Degenerative Spondylolisthesis
      Patients: Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of depression,
      anxiety, and optimism on postoperative satisfaction and clinical outcomes in
      patients who underwent less than two-level posterior instrumented fusions for
      lumbar spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis. METHODS: Preoperative
      psychological status of subjects, such as depression, anxiety, and optimism, was
      evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Revised
      Life Orientation Test (LOT-R). Clinical evaluation was determined by measuring
      changes in a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)
      before and after surgery. Postoperative satisfaction of subjects assessed using
      the North American Spine Society lumbar spine questionnaire was comparatively
      analyzed against the preoperative psychological status. The correlation between
      patient's preoperative psychological status (depression, anxiety, and optimism)
      and clinical outcomes (VAS and ODI) was evaluated. RESULTS: VAS and ODI scores
      significantly decreased after surgery (p < 0.001), suggesting clinically
      favorable outcomes. Preoperative psychological status of patients (anxiety,
      depression, and optimism) was not related to the degree of improvement in
      clinical outcomes (VAS and ODI) after surgery. However, postoperative
      satisfaction was moderately correlated with optimism. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and
      optimism were more correlated with patient satisfaction than clinical outcomes.
      Accordingly, the surgeon can predict postoperative satisfaction of patients based
      on careful evaluation of psychological status before surgery.

PMID- 28567220
TI  - Should We Check the Routine Postoperative MRI for Hematoma in Spinal
      Decompression Surgery?
AB  - BACKGROUND: A postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is performed as a
      routine to assess decompression of the spinal cord as well as to evaluate
      postoperative complications. The purpose of this study is to analyze the efficacy
      of postoperative MRI for hematoma in spinal decompression surgery. METHODS:
      Between January 1, 2008 and January 31, 2015, 185 patients who underwent
      postoperative MRI after spinal decompression surgery were included in this study.
      We checked the history of the use of an anticoagulant or antiplatelet agent,
      withdrawal period, blood platelet count, and prothrombin time (international
      normalized ratio [INR]). We measured the total amount of suction drainage and
      duration until removal. We retrospectively reviewed the presence of hematoma and
      thecal sac compression. Postoperative prognosis was evaluated by a visual analog
      scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). RESULTS: Hematomas were
      found on postoperative MRI scans in 97 out of 185 patients (52.4%). Thirty
      patients had a thecal sac compressing hematoma: 7 in the cervical spine, 1 in the
      thoracic spine, and 22 in the lumbar spine. The occurrence of hematoma did not
      show significant difference according to the use of an anticoagulant (p = 0.157).
      The blood platelet count, prothrombin time (INR), and suction drainage duration
      did not have a statistically significant correlation with the occurrence of
      hematoma (p = 0.562, p = 0.506, and p = 0.429, respectively). The total amount of
      suction drainage was significantly different according to the presence of
      hematoma (p = 0.022). The total 185 patients had a significant decrease in the
      postoperative VAS score (p < 0.001), and the diminution of VAS score was not
      significantly different according to the occurrence of hematoma (p = 0.243). Even
      in the cases of thecal sac compressing hematoma, the reduction of VAS score was
      not significantly different (p = 0.689). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative MRI for
      hematoma in spinal decompression surgery has little effect on prognosis or
      management. Therefore, indiscriminate postoperative MRI should be avoided and MRI
      should be performed depending on the patient's status.

PMID- 28567221
TI  - The Use of Contrast in Caudal Epidural Injections under Image Intensifier
      Guidance: Is It Necessary?
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the value of using contrast as an additional aid to
      confirm the accuracy of needle placement for caudal epidural injections under
      intraoperative image intensifier guidance. METHODS: A total of 252 consecutive
      patients were included in this study. Their mean age was 46.7 years (range, 32 to
      76 years). There were 133 males (53%) and 119 females (47%) over a 12-month
      period. RESULTS: Of the 252 consecutive procedures, the contrast enhanced image
      intensifier confirmed accurate needle placement on first attempt in 252 cases
      (100%). Needle resiting following the infiltration of contrast was required in 0
      case. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study demonstrate that a surgeon beyond
      the learning curve can accurately place caudal epidural injections using image
      intensification only, without the use of contrast.

PMID- 28567222
TI  - Comparison of the Extent of Degeneration among the Normal Disc, Immobilized Disc,
      and Immobilized Disc with an Endplate Fracture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study attempts to prove a cause and effect relationship between
      spine immobilization following posterior fixation for unstable burst fractures
      and degeneration observed following hardware removal. METHODS: We enrolled 57
      patients (259 intervertebral discs [IVDs]) who underwent only posterior
      instrumentation without fusion for thoracolumbar and lumbar unstable burst
      fractures. We arbitrarily named the IVD that has an endplate fracture after
      immobilization using pedicle screws as the fractured endplate and immobilized
      disc (FEID), the IVD that has no endplate fracture after immobilization using
      pedicle screws as the nonfractured endplate and immobilized disc (NFEID), and the
      IVD that has no endplate fracture and no immobilization instrumentation as the
      normal disc (ND). At 2 years after implant removal, magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) was performed again for comparison. The extent of disc degeneration was
      classified using the Pfirrmann classification system. RESULTS: FEIDs were present
      in 67 levels, NFEIDs in 78 levels, and NDs in 114 levels. According to the
      Pfirrmann classification, 7.9% of the NDs, 32.1% of the NFEIDs, and 43.3% of the
      FEIDs were more degenerated at 2 years after implant removal. The FEIDs and
      NFEIDs were more degenerated than the NDs and the FEIDs were more degenerated
      than the NFEIDs at statistically significant levels (p < 0.001 for both).
      CONCLUSIONS: Spine immobilization with transpedicular screws has a significant
      influence on disc degeneration, and an endplate fracture accelerates the
      degeneration process.

PMID- 28567223
TI  - Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty: Salvage Procedure for Failed Prior
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the clinical outcome of revision of primary shoulder
      replacement by using reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA). METHODS: Seven
      patients underwent revision RTSA with a mean follow-up of 22.1 months (range, 12
      to 54 months). Their mean age at the time of operation was 75.5 years (range, 70
      to 80 years). Assessments were performed on the preoperative and postoperative
      visual analogue scale (VAS) score, muscle strength, range of motion, University
      of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) score, Constant score, subjective
      satisfaction and the anteroposterior and axillary views of the glenohumeral
      joint. The primary operation was hemiarthroplasty in 5 patients, total shoulder
      replacement in 1 patient, and reverse shoulder arthroplasty in 1 patient. The
      cause of revision surgery was infection in 2 patients, humeral stem loosening in
      2 patients, glenoid arthropathy in 2 patients, and glenoid loosening in 1
      patient. The mean duration from primary operation to revision surgery was 52
      months (range, 27 to 120 months). RESULTS: The VAS score for pain during motion
      was improved from 7.3 preoperatively to 2.1 postoperatively (p = 0.03). There
      were increases in the mean active forward flexion (from 62.1 degrees  to 92.8
      degrees ), abduction (from 70 degrees  to 87.1 degrees ), external rotation (from
      44.2 degrees  to 47.4 degrees ), and internal rotation (from L5 to L4; p > 0.05)
      postoperatively. Performance in activities of daily living improved (p > 0.05),
      except for lifting 10 lb above the shoulder (from 1.2 to 1.1; p = 0.434).
      Overall, 5 of 7 patients were satisfied with the results of revision surgery. The
      mean Constant score improved from 44.8 preoperatively to 57.1 postoperatively (p
      = 0.018). The mean UCLA score improved from 12.8 preoperatively to 22.8
      postoperatively (p = 0.027). In the postoperative radiological evaluation, no
      radiolucency was observed around the base plate or humeral stem. CONCLUSIONS:
      Pain could be reduced after revision RTSA, but improvements in range of motion
      and function were difficult to achieve. We think that the patients' satisfaction
      was relatively high despite the low function score due to the preoperative severe
      pain and marked limitation of range of motion.

PMID- 28567224
TI  - The Dimensions of the Scapula Glenoid in Japanese Rotator Cuff Tear Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty has become a widely accepted
      surgical procedure in Japan since the time when the implants were approved for
      use in 2014. There is a doubt, however, as to whether the implants designed for
      Western people are suitable for Japanese people, particularly for females of
      relatively small stature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the
      glenoid dimension, with special focus on the length after glenoid reaming, in
      Japanese rotator cuff tear patients. METHODS: Fifty-six shoulders of 55 patients
      (35 males and 20 females; mean age, 63.8 years) were studied. Using the three
      dimensional computed tomography images of the entire scapula before shoulder
      surgery, we measured the glenoid height and width, and calculated the correlation
      between these measurements and the patient's height. Further, we measured the
      anteroposterior length of the scapular neck at the subchondral bone and the
      length at 15 mm medial to the subchondral bone, to simulate both the glenoid
      width after reaming (width of the 'virtual reamed surface') and the space
      available for the end of the center post of a standard glenoid baseplate.
      RESULTS: The average glenoid height and width were 35.8 mm and 28.1 mm in males
      and 30.8 mm and 23.4 mm in females, respectively. There was a significant
      correlation between patient height and glenoid size (glenoid height, r = 0.69;
      width, r = 0.75; p < 0.01). The mean value of the width of the virtual reamed
      surface was 27.0 mm in males and 22.5 mm in females. The mean anteroposterior
      length at 15 mm medial to the subchondral bone was 12.4 mm in males and 9.5 mm in
      females; the length was shorter than 8 mm in 6 female shoulders. CONCLUSIONS:
      There was a significant correlation between patient height and glenoid size.
      Considering that the common diameter of the commercially available baseplates and
      their center posts is greater than 25 mm and 8 mm, respectively, these prosthetic
      parts would be too large, especially for the Japanese female glenoid. Given that
      the current results of Japanese shoulder dimensions are similar to those of Asian
      people, 'Asian size implants' should be developed.

PMID- 28567225
TI  - Clinical Outcomes and Complications during the Learning Curve for Reverse Total
      Shoulder Arthroplasty: An Analysis of the First 40 Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the results and
      complications during the learning curve of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty
      (RTSA) for rotator cuff deficiency. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the
      first 40 cases of RTSA performed by a single surgeon. The mean age of patients
      was 72.7 years (range, 63 to 81 years) and mean follow-up period was 26.7 months
      (range, 9 to 57 months). Clinical outcomes were evaluated using a visual analog
      scale (VAS) for pain, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) shoulder
      score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon (ASES) score, subjective shoulder
      value (SSV), and active range of motion (ROM). Intraoperative and postoperative
      complications were also evaluated. RESULTS: The average VAS pain score, UCLA
      score, ASES score, and SSV improved from 6.9%, 12.8%, 29.0%, and 29.0% before
      surgery to 1.6%, 27.0%, 73.3%, and 71.5% after surgery, respectively (p < 0.001).
      The mean forward flexion, abduction, and external rotation improved from 68.0
      degrees , 56.9 degrees , and 28.0 degrees  before surgery to 131.0 degrees ,
      112.3 degrees , and 38.8 degrees  after surgery, respectively (p < 0.001, p <
      0.001, and p = 0.021). However, the mean internal rotation did not improve after
      surgery (p = 0.889). Scapular notching was observed in 33 patients (51.5%). Eight
      shoulders (20%) had complications, including 2 major (1 deep infection and 1
      glenoid fixation failure) and 6 minor complications (3 brachial plexus injuries,
      2 acromial fractures, and 1 intraoperative periprosthetic fracture). CONCLUSIONS:
      The first 40 cases of RTSA performed by a single surgeon during the learning
      curve period showed satisfactory short-term follow-up results with an acceptable
      complication rate.

PMID- 28567227
TI  - Measurement Methods for Humeral Retroversion Using Two-Dimensional Computed
      Tomography Scans: Which Is Most Concordant with the Standard Method?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Humeral retroversion is variable among individuals, and there are
      several measurement methods. This study was conducted to compare the concordance
      and reliability between the standard method and 5 other measurement methods on
      two-dimensional (2D) computed tomography (CT) scans. METHODS: CT scans from 21
      patients who underwent shoulder arthroplasty (19 women and 2 men; mean age, 70.1
      years [range, 42 to 81 years]) were analyzed. The elbow transepicondylar axis was
      used as a distal reference. Proximal reference points included the central
      humeral head axis (standard method), the axis of the humeral center to 9 mm
      posterior to the posterior margin of the bicipital groove (method 1), the central
      axis of the bicipital groove -30 degrees  (method 2), the base axis of the
      triangular shaped metaphysis +2.5 degrees  (method 3), the distal humeral head
      central axis +2.4 degrees  (method 4), and contralateral humeral head
      retroversion (method 5). Measurements were conducted independently by two
      orthopedic surgeons. RESULTS: The mean humeral retroversion was 31.42 degrees  +/
      12.10 degrees  using the standard method, and 29.70 degrees  +/- 11.66 degrees 
      (method 1), 30.64 degrees  +/- 11.24 degrees  (method 2), 30.41 degrees  +/-
      11.17 degrees  (method 3), 32.14 degrees  +/- 11.70 degrees  (method 4), and
      34.15 degrees  +/- 11.47 degrees  (method 5) for the other methods. Interobserver
      reliability and intraobserver reliability exceeded 0.75 for all methods. On the
      test to evaluate the equality of the standard method to the other methods, the
      intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of method 2 and method 4 were
      different from the ICC of the standard method in surgeon A (p < 0.05), and the
      ICCs of method 2 and method 3 were different form the ICC of the standard method
      in surgeon B (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Humeral version measurement using the
      posterior margin of the bicipital groove (method 1) would be most concordant with
      the standard method even though all 5 methods showed excellent agreements.

PMID- 28567226
TI  - Acromion Index in Korean Population and Its Relationship with Rotator Cuff Tears.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among the many causes of rotator cuff tears, scapular morphology is
      associated with the accelerating degenerative process of the rotator cuff.
      Acromion index (AI) was previously introduced and compared in two populations.
      METHODS: We enrolled 100 Korean patients diagnosed with full-thickness rotator
      cuff tears by magnetic resonance imaging and intraoperative arthroscopic findings
      between January and December 2013. Another 100 Korean patients with an intact
      rotator cuff tendon identified on magnetic resonance imaging and other shoulder
      diseases, such as frozen shoulder and instability, were enrolled as controls. We
      retrospectively compared these 100 rotator cuff tear patients (mean age, 63
      years) and 100 controls (mean age, 51 years) in this study. Two independent
      orthopedic surgeons assessed the AI on radiographs. We performed an interobserver
      reliability test of the AI assessment, and then compared the AI between two
      groups. RESULTS: The measurement of the AI showed excellent reliability
      (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.82). The mean AI in the rotator cuff tear
      group was 0.68 and it was significantly different between groups (p<0.001, 95%
      confidence interval). The AI was not related to tear size. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      showed that the AI was an effective predictive factor for rotator cuff tears in a
      Korean population.

PMID- 28567228
TI  - Revision Surgery for Recurrent Pain after Excision of the Accessory Navicular and
      Relocation of the Tibialis Posterior Tendon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The results of operative treatments for symptomatic accessory
      navicular are debatable. In some cases, recurrent pain may develop after the
      Kidner procedure. The purpose of this study is to review the reasons for
      recurrent pain after the Kidner procedure and to suggest possible options for
      revision surgery. METHODS: We reviewed the clinical and radiological outcomes in
      9 patients who underwent revision surgery for recurrent pain after the Kidner
      procedure. During the revision surgery, the tibialis posterior tendon was
      reattached to the navicular either by advancing the tendon in 4 patients or by
      lengthening the tendon in another 4 patients. In the other 1 patient, the flexor
      digitorum longus tendon was transferred. Surgeries for the accompanying
      deformities were performed simultaneously in all patients. The results were
      evaluated using the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society ankle-hindfoot
      score and a visual analog scale. The mean follow-up was 2.3 years (range, 1 to 5
      years). RESULTS: The mean American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society ankle
      hindfoot score improved from 71.25 to 81.50 in the advancement group, and 71.75
      to 90.00 in the lengthening group. The mean visual analog scale improved from
      7.75 to 4.25 in the advancement group and from 7.50 to 1.75 in the lengthening
      group. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent pain after the Kidner procedure was associated with
      pes planovalgus or hindfoot valgus deformity. In revision surgery, correction of
      the associated deformities and reattachment of the tibialis posterior tendon
      after lengthening may need to be considered.

PMID- 28567229
TI  - Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor-Positive Pericytic Cells of White Adipose
      Tissue from Critical Limb Ischemia Patients Display Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Like
      Properties.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pericytes in the blood vessel wall have recently been identified
      to be important in regulating vascular formation, stabilization, remodeling, and
      function. We isolated and identified pericyte-like platelet-derived growth factor
      receptor beta-positive (PDGFRbeta+) cells from the stromal vascular fraction
      (SVF) of adipose tissue from critical limb ischemia (CLI) patients and
      investigated their potential as a reliable source of stem cells for cell-based
      therapy. METHODS: De-identified subcutaneous fat tissues were harvested after
      amputation in CLI patients. Freshly isolated SVF cells and culture-expanded
      adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) were quantified using flow cytometry. A
      matrigel tube formation assay and multi-lineage differentiation were performed to
      assess pericytic and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-like characteristics of
      PDGFRbeta+ ADSCs. RESULTS: PDGFRbeta+ cells were located in the pericytic area of
      various sizes of blood vessels and coexpressed mesenchymal stem cell markers.
      PDGFRbeta+ cells in freshly isolated SVF cells expressed a higher level of stem
      cell markers (CD34 and CXCR4) and mesenchymal markers (CD13, CD44, CD54, and
      CD90) than PDGFRbeta- cells. In vitro expansion of PDGFRbeta+ cells resulted in
      enrichment of the perivascular mesenchymal stem-like (PDGFRbeta+/CD90+/CD45-/CD31
      ) cell fractions. The Matrigel tube formation assay revealed that PDGFRbeta+
      cells were located in the peritubular area. CONCLUSIONS: PDGFRbeta+ ADSCs cells
      demonstrated a good multilineage differentiation potential. Pericyte-like
      PDGFRbeta+ cells from the SVF of adipose tissue from CLI patients had MSC-like
      characteristics and could be amplified by in vitro culture with preservation of
      their cell characteristics. We believe PDGFRbeta+ cells in the SVF of adipose
      tissue can be used as a reliable source of stem cells even in CLI patients.

PMID- 28567230
TI  - Secondary Chondrosarcoma from an Osteochondroma of the Proximal Tibia Involving
      the Fibula.
AB  - There are few reports on the surgical treatment of secondary malignancy arising
      from an osteochondroma on the lateral side of the proximal tibia. From March 2008
      to December 2011, 3 patients were treated for a secondary chondrosarcoma from an
      osteochondroma of the proximal tibia involving the fibula. The operative
      procedure can be summed up as follows: (1) resection of the tumor including the
      fibula; (2) preservation of the peroneal nerve and the fibular head; and (3)
      arthrodesis of the proximal tibiofibular joint. Serial radiological studies
      showed successful fusion in the proximal tibiofibular joint in all patients. The
      Musculoskeletal Tumor Society functional scores were excellent in all 3 patients.
      No patients showed instability of the ipsilateral knee joint in any direction.
      All 3 patients could return to sports activities. Until the last follow-up, there
      was no evidence of disease recurrence. We suggest that the operative procedure
      described in this article would provide satisfactory oncological and functional
      outcomes.

PMID- 28567232
TI  - Using Virtual Social Networks for Case Finding in Clinical Studies: An Experiment
      from Adolescence, Brain, Cognition, and Diabetes Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the main usages of social networks in clinical studies is
      facilitating the process of sampling and case finding for scientists. The main
      focus of this study is on comparing two different methods of sampling through
      phone calls and using social network, for study purposes. METHODS: One of the
      researchers started calling 214 families of children with diabetes during 90
      days. After this period, phone calls stopped, and the team started communicating
      with families through telegram, a virtual social network for 30 days. The number
      of children who participated in the study was evaluated. RESULTS: Although the
      telegram method was 60 days shorter than the phone call method, researchers found
      that the number of participants from telegram (17.6%) did not have any
      significant differences compared with the ones being phone called (12.9%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Using social networks can be suggested as a beneficial method for
      local researchers who look for easier sampling methods, winning their samples'
      trust, following up with the procedure, and an easy-access database.

PMID- 28567231
TI  - Effect of Lavender Oil Aroma in the Early Hours of Postpartum Period on Maternal
      Pains, Fatigue, and Mood: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Busy care providers focus on the serious complications of postpartum
      period. This issue causes the seemingly trivial complications, such as mother's
      pains, fatigue, and psychological status, to be less taken into account. The
      study aimed to determine the effect of lavender oil aroma in the early hours of
      postpartum period on maternal pains, fatigue, and mood in primiparous mothers.
      METHODS: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 56 participants; 29 in
      intervention group and 27 in control group. The intervention group received
      lavender oil in three doses during the first 24 h after delivery. Sesame oil was
      used in the control group. Intensity of pain, fatigue, and distress level was
      measured by visual analog scale before and after the interventions. Besides, mood
      status was assessed through the positive and negative affect schedule. RESULTS:
      The mean age of all the participants was 23.88 +/- 3.88 years. After the first
      intervention and also in the tomorrow morning assessment, significant differences
      were found between the two groups regarding perineal pain (P = 0.004, P < 0.001),
      physical pain (P < 0.001), fatigue (P = 0.02, P < 0.001), and distress scores (P
      < 0.001). In addition, significant differences were found concerning the mean
      scores of positive (P < 0.001) and negative (P = 0.007, P < 0.001) moods between
      the two groups after the interventions. Repeated measures analyses showed that
      the two groups were significantly different over time in all the evaluated
      variables. CONCLUSIONS: Lavender oil aromatherapy starting in the first hours of
      postpartum period resulted in better physical and mood status compared to
      nonaromatic group.

PMID- 28567233
TI  - Factors Associated with Screen Time in Iranian Children and Adolescents: The
      CASPIAN-IV Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prolonged screen time is frequent in children and adolescents.
      Implementing interventions to reduce physical inactivity needs to assess related
      determinants. This study aims to assess factors associated with screen time in a
      national sample of children and adolescents. METHODS: This nationwide study was
      conducted among 14,880 students aged 6-18 years. Data collection was performed
      using questionnaires and physical examination. The World Health Organization
      Global School Health Survey questionnaire was used. Logistic regression analysis
      was used to examine the relationship between demographic variables, socioeconomic
      status (SES), family structure, physical activity, unhealthy eating habits, body
      mass index, and mental distress with screen time. RESULTS: The participation rate
      was 90.6% (n = 13,486), 50.8% were male, and 75.6% lived in urban areas. Mean
      (standard deviation) age of participants was 12.47 (3.36) years. The SES, eating
      junk foods, urban residence, and age had significant association with screen
      time, watching television (TV), and computer use (P < 0.05). With increasing
      number of children, the odds ratio of watching TV reduced (P < 0.001).
      Statistically, significant association existed between obesity and increased time
      spent watching TV (P < 0.001). Girls spent less likely to use computer and to
      have prolonged screen time (P < 0.001). Participants in the sense of
      worthlessness were less likely to watch TV (P = 0.005). Screen time, watching TV,
      and using computer were higher in students with aggressive behaviors (P < 0.001);
      screen time was higher in those with insomnia. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, higher
      SES, unhealthy food habits, and living in urban areas, as well as aggressive
      behaviors and insomnia increased the risk of physical inactivity.

PMID- 28567235
TI  - Investigating Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy; Initial Cross Speciality
      Experience with Use of the Extended Myositis Antibody Panel.
AB  - The discovery of unique autoantibodies has informed and altered our approach to
      the diagnosis and management of the inflammatory myopathies. This study reports
      the initial clinical experience of use of the Extended Myositis Antibody (EMA)
      panel in the largest university teaching hospital in Ireland. We conducted a
      retrospective review of all patients who had serum samples tested for myositis
      specific antibodies and myositis associated antibodies from April 2014 to March
      2015. A positive EMA panel was of significant clinical utility in facilitating
      decisions on appropriate investigations, and need for onward referral to other
      physicians. Furthermore, this paper highlights the diversity of possible
      presentations of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy with subsequent need for multi
      speciality involvement, and serves to heighten awareness among clinicians of the
      diagnostic use of extended myositis antibody testing in these cases.

PMID- 28567236
TI  - Emphysematous Cystitis: Mortality, Risk Factors, and Pathogens of a Rare Disease.
AB  - Although high mortality rates have been reported for emphysematous pyelonephritis
      (EP), information on emphysematous cystitis (EC), which is less common, is
      sparse. Here, we report one new case of severe EC and 136 cases of EC that
      occurred between 2007 and 2016, and review information about the characteristics,
      diagnosis, treatment and mortality of these patients, and the pathogens found in
      these patients. The mean age of the 136 patients was 67.9+/-14.2 years.
      Concurrent emphysematous infections of other organs were found in 21 patients
      (15.4%), with emphysematous pyelonephritis being the most common of these
      infections. The primary pathogen identified was Escherichia coli (54.4%).
      Patients were mainly treated by conservative management that included antibiotics
      (n=105; 77.2%). Ten of the 136 patients with EC died, yielding a mortality rate
      of 7.4%. Despite the relatively low mortality rate of EC compared with that of
      EP, a high degree of suspicion must be maintained to facilitate successful and
      conservative management.

PMID- 28567237
TI  - Level of Headaches After Surgical Aneurysm Clipping Decreases Significantly
      Faster Compared to Endovascular Coiled Patients.
AB  - In incidental aneurysms, endovascular treatment can lead to post-procedural
      headaches. We studied the difference of surgical clipping vs. endovascular
      coiling in concern to post-procedural headaches in patients with ruptured
      aneurysms. Sixty-seven patients with aneurysmal subarachnoidal haemorrhage were
      treated in our department from September 1st 2015 - September 1st 2016. 43
      Patients were included in the study and the rest was excluded because of late
      recovery or high-grade subarachnoid bleedings. Twenty-two were surgical treated
      and twenty-one were interventionally treated. We compared the post-procedural
      headaches at the time points of 24 h, 21 days, and 3 months after treatment using
      the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. After surgical clipping the headache
      score decreased for 8.8 points in the VAS, whereas the endovascular treated
      population showed a decrease of headaches of 3.3 points. This difference was
      highly statistical significant and remained significant even after 3 weeks where
      the pain score for the surgically treated patients was 0.68 and for the
      endovascular treated 1.8. After 3 months the pain was less than 1 for both groups
      with surgically treated patients scoring 0.1 and endovascular treated patients
      0.9 (not significant). Clipping is relieving the headaches of patients with
      aneurysm rupture faster and more effective than endovascular coiling. This effect
      stays significant for at least 3 weeks and plays a crucial role in stress relieve
      during the acute and subacute ICU care of such patients.

PMID- 28567234
TI  - Penile Inflammatory Skin Disorders and the Preventive Role of Circumcision.
AB  - Penile inflammatory skin conditions such as balanitis and posthitis are common,
      especially in uncircumcised males, and feature prominently in medical
      consultations. We conducted a systematic review of the medical literature on
      PubMed, EMBASE, and Cohrane databases using keywords "balanitis," "posthitis,"
      "balanoposthitis," "lichen sclerosus," "penile inflammation," and "inflammation
      penis," along with "circumcision," "circumcised," and "uncircumcised." Balanitis
      is the most common inflammatory disease of the penis. The accumulation of yeasts
      and other microorganisms under the foreskin contributes to inflammation of the
      surrounding penile tissue. The clinical presentation of inflammatory penile
      conditions includes itching, tenderness, and pain. Penile inflammation is
      responsible for significant morbidity, including acquired phimosis,
      balanoposthitis, and lichen sclerosus. Medical treatment can be challenging and a
      cost burden to the health system. Reducing prevalence is therefore important.
      While topical antifungal creams can be used, usually accompanied by advice on
      hygiene, the definitive treatment is circumcision. Data from meta-analyses showed
      that circumcised males have a 68% lower prevalence of balanitis than
      uncircumcised males and that balanitis is accompanied by a 3.8-fold increase in
      risk of penile cancer. Because of the high prevalence and morbidity of penile
      inflammation, especially in immunocompromised and diabetic patients, circumcision
      should be more widely adopted globally and is best performed early in infancy.

PMID- 28567238
TI  - Vosaroxin in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia: efficacy and safety in
      the context of the current treatment landscape.
AB  - Treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) generally consists of a combination of
      cytarabine and an anthracycline. Although induction therapy leads to complete
      remission (CR) for most patients, refractoriness to chemotherapy or relapse after
      initial response is associated with poor outcomes. The 1-year survival rates
      after first relapse have been reported at 29%, declining to 11% at 5 years.
      Prognosis is particularly poor among older patients whose higher prevalence of
      unfavorable cytogenetics and high frequency of comorbidities diminish their
      ability to tolerate intensive chemotherapy. There is no standard of care for
      relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML, and no new therapies have shown consistently
      superior outcomes in this setting in over two decades. Vosaroxin is an anticancer
      quinolone derivative (AQD) that was evaluated in combination with cytarabine for
      the treatment of R/R AML in the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled,
      phase III VALOR study (n = 711). Compared with placebo/cytarabine, the
      vosaroxin/cytarabine regimen demonstrated favorable CR rates and survival in
      patients ?60 years of age, with toxicities similar to other AML regimens. Here we
      review outcomes of recent studies of commonly used chemotherapy regimens for the
      treatment of R/R AML and evaluate the results of the VALOR trial in the context
      of the current treatment landscape.

PMID- 28567239
TI  - Bendamustine and its role in the treatment of unfit patients with chronic
      lymphocytic leukaemia: a perspective review.
AB  - With a median age of 72 years at first diagnosis, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
      (CLL) is a disease of the elderly. At this age, many patients cannot bear an
      intensive chemoimmunotherapy like fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab
      (FCR), and therapeutic decisions are commonly complicated by a high burden of
      accompanying comorbidities. Clinical trials, on the other hand, are mostly
      designed to include a far healthier and younger trial population, with a median
      age in most studies well below 70 years, leading to an insufficient reflection of
      clinical reality. With the introduction of new targeted therapies, treatment of
      CLL is currently undergoing a profound change. New compounds like ibrutinib or
      idelalisib have enlarged the therapeutic options in treating CLL. However, so
      far, these oral medications imply continuous intake by the patient, which will at
      some point lead to the issue of adherence in most patients. In addition, long
      term experiences are largely missing. In this setting, one of the oldest
      chemoactive substances remains a viable option for many CLL patients and their
      treating physicians: bendamustine, a nitrogen-mustard derivative, has proven to
      be a safe and efficient agent for treatment of CLL in the first- and second-line
      setting. In particular, there is some evidence that the substance is relatively
      well tolerated in elderly and unfit patients. In this review, we summarize the
      current data on bendamustine in the treatment of elderly and unfit patients with
      CLL and aim to provide a concise analysis and outlook on the current and future
      role of this substance in the era of new targeted agents.

PMID- 28567240
TI  - Phylogeography, genetic diversity and population structure in a Patagonian
      endemic plant.
AB  - Phylogeographical patterns provide valuable insight into the historical processes
      underlying diversification, and may provide a better understanding of
      biodiversity, dispersal modes, diversification times, extinctions, refuge areas
      and other species-/population-level processes. Here, we examine the genetic
      structure of Oxalis laciniata, a representative of Oxalis, which is an important
      emerging model in evolutionary biology and phylogenetic studies. We analyse
      genetic correlation, haplotype diversity and genetic structure. In this study,
      cpDNA reveals the presence of 16 haplotypes, connected in tree networks. Genetic
      diversity is high and polymorphism is low among populations based on ISSR
      markers. Both clustering and analysis of the structure of the population indicate
      two different groups. Distribution modelling predicts two potential distribution
      areas. Our main conclusions are: (i) The phylogeographical pattern demonstrates
      non-random organization of genetic variability since two distinct groups can be
      distinguished; (ii) two refugia are proposed: one is situated in the SE, holding
      the most ancestral haplotypes; and the second one is situated in the SW; (iii) we
      propose an in situ diversification hypothesis for the populations located in the
      steppe; (iv) the centre of diversification coincides with the centre of the
      distribution; (v) distribution modelling shows a strong correspondence with the
      distribution of the species but it also suggests the possibility of occurrence in
      the Central Andes.

PMID- 28567242
TI  - Design principles of spectroscopic probes for biological applications.
AB  - Spectroscopic (chromogenic, fluorescent, or chemiluminescent) probes have been
      widely used in many fields due to their high sensitivity and unrivaled
      spatiotemporal resolution. This area is an old one but always full of activity,
      because the rapid development of science and technology requires not only new
      probes for specific purposes (e.g., subcellular imaging) but also the update of
      current probes with more satisfactory properties. Based on our experiences and
      including existing knowledge, in this mini-review we briefly discuss the design
      strategies, response modes, and bioapplications of small molecular spectroscopic
      probes, in particular their advantages and disadvantages as well as possible
      research trends, which may be helpful to those who are interested in this
      continually growing research area.

PMID- 28567241
TI  - Click-chemistry approaches to pi-conjugated polymers for organic electronics
      applications.
AB  - Given the wide utility of click-chemistry reactions for the preparation of simple
      moieties within large architecturally complex materials, this minireview article
      aims at surveying papers exploring their scope in the area of pi-conjugated
      polymers for application in organic electronics to enable advanced functional
      properties.

PMID- 28567243
TI  - Organised chaos: entropy in hybrid inorganic-organic systems and other materials.
AB  - Entropy is one of the fundamental quantities which links emerging research areas
      like flexibility and defect engineering in inorganic-organic hybrid materials.
      Additionally, a delicate balance between entropy and enthalpy can lead to
      intriguing temperature-driven transitions in such materials. Here, we briefly
      overview traditional material design principles, highlight the role of entropy in
      the past and discuss how computational methods can help us to understand and
      quantify entropic effects in inorganic-organic hybrid materials in the future.

PMID- 28567244
TI  - Foldable glycoprobes capable of fluorogenic crosslinking of biomacromolecules.
AB  - Small-molecular probes capable of monitoring and interfering with the activity of
      biomacromolecules - such as polysaccharides, nucleotides and proteins - are of
      paramount importance to the advancement of life science. However, such probes
      that can detect and simultaneously modulate the construction of biomacromolecules
      are elusive. Here we report a fluorogenic, foldable glycoprobe that can recognize
      and assemble a protein receptor in a synchronous fashion. The glycoprobe
      synthesized by introducing a glycoligand (for protein recognition) to a bola-type
      bis-fluorophore conjugate shows a "self-shielded" fluorescence in the folded
      state. Association with a receptor protein rapidly unfolds the probe, releasing a
      fluorophore capable of crosslinking the proteins - as determined using small
      angle X-ray scattering - thereby producing a unique fluorescent supramolecular
      construct. We have demonstrated the use of the foldable glycoprobe in order to
      track the endocytic cycle of a transmembrane receptor.

PMID- 28567245
TI  - Confined-space synthesis of nanostructured anatase, directed by genetically
      engineered living organisms for lithium-ion batteries.
AB  - Biomineral formation processes in nature are temporally and spatially regulated
      under the functions of biomolecules in a confined space. It is potentially very
      productive to rationally design a mineralized system by taking into account
      confined space as well as biomolecules. The laboratory technique of "bacterial
      cell surface display" is an ideal platform to host catalytically active proteins
      in a three-dimensionally confined space. In the present study, aiming to regulate
      the synthesis of nanostructured TiO2 anatase, repeating segments of silaffin were
      displayed on Escherichia coli surfaces through genetic manipulation. The
      displayed protein electrostatically interacted with a titanium source and
      catalyzed the hydrolysis of titanium dioxide precursors through hydrogen bonding
      interactions on the cell surface. In the subsequent calcination process, the
      genetically modified cells not only served as a framework for producing rod
      shaped TiO2 assembled by nanoparticles, but also provided a carbon source in
      situ. The size of nanoparticles was controlled by changing the number of tandem
      repeats of the protein segment. The as prepared TiO2 anatase exhibited unique
      characteristics including nanosized anatase crystals, mesoporous structure and
      carbon coating. When tested as the anode electrode of a lithium-ion battery, it
      showed excellent lithium storage performance. The carbon coated anatase anode
      shows a higher specific capacity of 207 mA h g-1 after 200 cycles at a current
      rate of 1C and an ultra-long cycling lifetime of 5000 cycles with an outstanding
      retention capacity of 149 mA h g-1 at a higher rate of 10C. This bioprocess
      inspired approach may help broaden the scope and impact of nanosized biominerals.

PMID- 28567246
TI  - Identification of dipole disorder in low temperature solution processed oxides:
      its utility and suppression for transparent high performance solution-processed
      hybrid electronics.
AB  - The ability to deposit high-quality inorganic semiconductors and dielectrics from
      solution at low process temperatures (~200  degrees C) has become a very
      important research focus. During the course of our investigation, we identify the
      presence of an induced dipole present in solid state solution processed inorganic
      oxide insulator layers processed at reduced temperature (200-350  degrees C) from
      either molecular precursors, or well-dispersed metal oxide nanoparticles.
      Chemical composition analysis coupled with electrical measurements shows that the
      dielectric instability occurs due to proton migration via the Grotthuss mechanism
      inducing a long lived dipole disorder. Thus we established conditions for
      suppressing this effect to afford "ideal" high-k dielectric layer. Using this
      methodology, solution processed all inorganic thin film transistors (TFTs) with
      charge carrier mobilities exceeding 6 cm2 V-1 s-1 operating at low voltage (5 V)
      have been achieved. In addition, we show the broad utility of the perovskite high
      k dielectric when processed with state of the art polymer and single crystal
      organic semiconductors yielding mobilities of approx. 7 cm2 V-1 s-1 at only 4 V.
      These transparent devices demonstrate excellent electrical device stability and a
      threshold voltage shift of only 0.41 V over 14 h, which is comparable, or better
      than sputtered oxide films.

PMID- 28567247
TI  - Polysulfide-1-oxides react with peroxyl radicals as quickly as hindered phenolic
      antioxidants and do so by a surprising concerted homolytic substitution.
AB  - Polysulfides are important additives to a wide variety of industrial and consumer
      products and figure prominently in the chemistry and biology of garlic and
      related medicinal plants. Although their antioxidant activity in biological
      contexts has received only recent attention, they have long been ascribed
      'secondary antioxidant' activity in the chemical industry, where they are
      believed to react with the hydroperoxide products of autoxidation to slow the
      auto-initiation of new autoxidative chain reactions. Herein we demonstrate that
      the initial products of trisulfide oxidation, trisulfide-1-oxides, are
      surprisingly reactive 'primary antioxidants', which slow autoxidation by trapping
      chain-carrying peroxyl radicals. In fact, they do so with rate constants (k = 1-2
      * 104 M-1 s-1 at 37  degrees C) that are indistinguishable from those of the most
      common primary antioxidants, i.e. hindered phenols, such as BHT. Experimental and
      computational studies demonstrate that the reaction occurs by a concerted
      bimolecular homolytic substitution (SH2), liberating a perthiyl radical - which
      is ca. 16 kcal mol-1 more stable than a peroxyl radical. Interestingly, the
      (electrophilic) peroxyl radical nominally reacts as a nucleophile - attacking the
      of the trisulfide-1-oxide - a role hitherto suspected only for its reactions at
      metal atoms. The analogous reactions of trisulfides are readily reversible and
      not kinetically competent to inhibit hydrocarbon autoxidation, consistent with
      the longstanding view that organosulfur compounds must be oxidized to afford
      significant antioxidant activity. The reactivity of trisulfides and their oxides
      are contrasted with what is known of their shorter cousins and predictions are
      made and tested with regards to the reactivity of higher polysulfides and their 1
      oxides - the insights from which may be exploited in the design of future
      antioxidants.

PMID- 28567248
TI  - Sequence-defined oligo(ortho-arylene) foldamers derived from the benzannulation
      of ortho(arylene ethynylene)s.
AB  - A Cu-catalyzed benzannulation reaction transforms ortho(arylene ethynylene)
      oligomers into ortho-arylenes. This approach circumvents iterative Suzuki cross
      coupling reactions previously used to assemble hindered ortho-arylene backbones.
      These derivatives form helical folded structures in the solid-state and in
      solution, as demonstrated by X-ray crystallography and solution-state NMR
      analysis. DFT calculations of misfolded conformations are correlated with
      variable-temperature 1H and EXSY NMR to reveal that folding is cooperative and
      more favorable in halide-substituted naphthalenes. Helical ortho-arylene
      foldamers with specific aromatic sequences organize functional pi-electron
      systems into arrangements ideal for ambipolar charge transport and show
      preliminary promise for the surface-mediated synthesis of structurally defined
      graphene nanoribbons.

PMID- 28567249
TI  - Observing single nanoparticle events at the orifice of a nanopipet.
AB  - Single nanoparticle (NP) events are successfully observed at the orifice of a
      nanopipet by blocking the ionic current with a single NP. In addition to the
      traditional translocation events, we observe both staircase and blip current
      transients by controlling the radius ratio of NPs to nanopipet or bias potential.
      Confocal fluorescence microscopy and finite element simulation are used to
      simultaneously monitor and quantitatively understand these events, respectively.
      The frequency of the staircase and blip events is proportional to the NP
      concentration, and could be used for the quantification of NPs. This study offers
      a new method for NP determination and single NP behavior study.

PMID- 28567250
TI  - Mononuclear ruthenium polypyridine complexes that catalyze water oxidation.
AB  - Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the development of
      molecular water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) in the context of developing a system
      that would accomplish artificial photosynthesis. Mononuclear ruthenium complexes
      with polypyridine ligands have drawn considerable attention in this regard, due
      to their high catalytic activity and relatively simple structure. In this
      perspective review, we will discuss mononuclear Ru polypyridine WOCs by
      organizing them into four groups according to their ligand environments. Each
      group will be discussed with regard to three fundamental questions: first, how
      does the catalyst initiate O-O bond formation? Second, which step in the
      catalytic cycle is rate-determining? Third, how efficient is the catalyst
      according to the specific descriptors such as turnover frequency? All discussion
      is based on the high-valent ruthenium intermediates that are proposed in the
      catalytic cycle according to experimental observation and theoretical simulation.
      Two fundamental mechanisms are set forth. An acid-base mechanism that involves
      the attack of a water molecule on the oxo of a high valent Ru
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      to form the O-O bond. Subsequent steps lead to dissociation of O2 and rehydration
      of the metal center. A second mechanism involves the formation of a Ru-O radical
      species, two of which then couple to form a Ru-O-O-Ru species that can release O2
      afterwards. The acid-base mechanism appears to be more common and mechanistic
      differences could result from variation directly related to polypyridine ligand
      structures. Understanding how electronic, steric, and conformational properties
      can effect catalyst performance will lead to the rational design of more
      effective WOCs with not only ruthenium but also other transition metals.

PMID- 28567252
TI  - Solvation and surface effects on polymorph stabilities at the nanoscale.
AB  - We explore the effects of particle size and solvent environment on the
      thermodynamic stability of two pairs of polymorphs subjected to ball-mill neat
      grinding (NG) and liquid assisted grinding (LAG). Two systems were studied: (i)
      forms I and II of a 1 : 1 theophylline : benzamide cocrystal and (ii) forms A and
      B of an aromatic disulfide compound. For both systems, the most stable-bulk
      polymorph converted to the metastable-bulk polymorph upon NG. LAG experiments
      yielded different outcomes depending on the amount of solvent used. This was
      further investigated by performing carefully controlled LAG experiments with
      increasing MUL amounts of solvents of different nature. With these experiments,
      we were able to monitor form A to B and form I to II conversions as a function of
      solvent concentration and derive polymorph equilibrium curves. The concentration
      required for a switch in polymorphic outcome was found to be dependent on solvent
      nature. We propose that these experiments demonstrate a switch in thermodynamic
      stability of the polymorphs in the milling jar. Form B, the stable-bulk
      polymorph, has less stable surfaces than form A, thus becoming metastable at the
      nanoscale when surface effects become important. Ex situ diffraction and electron
      microscopy data confirm crystal sizes in the order of tens of nanometers after
      the ball mill grinding experiments reach equilibrium. DFT-d computations of the
      polymorph particles stabilities support these findings and were used to calculate
      cross-over sizes of forms A and B as a function of solvent. Attachment energies
      and surface stabilities of the various crystalline faces exposed were found to be
      very sensitive to the solvent environment. Our findings suggest that surface
      effects are significant in polymorphism at the nanoscale and that the outcomes of
      equilibrium ball-mill NG and LAG experiments are in general controlled by
      thermodynamics.

PMID- 28567251
TI  - Atmospheric chemistry of bioaerosols: heterogeneous and multiphase reactions with
      atmospheric oxidants and other trace gases.
AB  - Advances in analytical techniques and instrumentation have now established
      methods for detecting, quantifying, and identifying the chemical and microbial
      constituents of particulate matter in the atmosphere. For example, recent cryo
      TEM studies of sea spray have identified whole bacteria and viruses ejected from
      ocean seawater into air. A focal point of this perspective is directed towards
      the reactivity of aerosol particles of biological origin with oxidants (OH, NO3,
      and O3) present in the atmosphere. Complementary information on the reactivity of
      aerosol particles is obtained from field investigations and laboratory studies.
      Laboratory studies of different types of biologically-derived particles offer
      important information related to their impacts on the local and global
      environment. These studies can also unravel a range of different chemistries and
      reactivity afforded by the complexity and diversity of the chemical make-up of
      these particles. Laboratory experiments as the ones reviewed herein can elucidate
      the chemistry of biological aerosols.

PMID- 28567253
TI  - Photomodulation of bacterial growth and biofilm formation using carbohydrate
      based surfactants.
AB  - Naturally occurring and synthetic carbohydrate amphiphiles have emerged as a
      promising class of antimicrobial and antiadhesive agents that act through a
      number of dynamic and often poorly understood mechanisms. In this paper, we
      provide the first report on the application of azobenzene trans-cis
      photoisomerization for effecting spatial and temporal control over bacterial
      growth and biofilm formation using carbohydrate-based surfactants.
      Photocontrollable surface tension studies and small angle neutron scattering
      (SANS) revealed the diverse geometries and dimensions of self-assemblies
      (micelles) made possible through variation of the head group and UV-visible light
      irradiation. Using these light-addressable amphiphiles, we demonstrate optical
      control over the antibacterial activity and formation of biofilms against multi
      drug resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus (MRSA) and Gram-negative Escherichia coli. To probe the mechanism of
      bioactivity further, we evaluated the impact of trans-cis photoisomerization in
      these surfactants on bacterial motility and revealed photomodulated enhancement
      in swarming motility in P. aeruginosa. These light-responsive amphiphiles should
      attract significant interest as a new class of antibacterial agents and as
      investigational tools for probing the complex mechanisms underpinning bacterial
      adhesion and biofilm formation.

PMID- 28567255
TI  - Enhancement of charge transport properties of small molecule semiconductors by
      controlling fluorine substitution and effects on photovoltaic properties of
      organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells.
AB  - We prepared a series of small molecules based on 7,7'-(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H
      silolo[3,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl)bis(4-(5'-hexyl-[2,2'-bithiophene]-5
      yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole) with different fluorine substitution patterns (0F
      4F). Depending on symmetricity and numbers of fluorine atoms incorporated in the
      benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole unit, they show very different optical and
      morphological properties in a film. 2F and 4F, which featured symmetric and even
      numbered fluorine substitution patterns, display improved molecular packing
      structures and higher crystalline properties in a film compared with 1F and 3F
      and thus, 2F achieved the highest OTFT mobility, which is followed by 4F. In the
      bulk heterojunction solar cell fabricated with PC71BM, 2F achieves the highest
      photovoltaic performance with an 8.14% efficiency and 0F shows the lowest
      efficiency of 1.28%. Moreover, the planar-type perovskite solar cell (PSC)
      prepared with 2F as a dopant-free hole transport material shows a high power
      conversion efficiency of 14.5% due to its high charge transporting properties,
      which were significantly improved compared with the corresponding PSC device
      obtained from 0F (8.5%). From the studies, it is demonstrated that low variation
      in the local dipole moment and the narrow distribution of 2F conformers make
      intermolecular interactions favorable, which may effectively drive crystal
      formations in the solid state and thus, higher charge transport properties
      compared with 1F and 3F.

PMID- 28567256
TI  - The reactivity and conformational control of cyclic tetrapeptides derived from
      aziridine-containing amino acids.
AB  - Among the smallest of the macrocyclic peptides, 12- and 13-membered cyclic
      tetrapeptides are particularly noteworthy because they exhibit a broad spectrum
      of biological activities due to their innate capacity to mimic beta-turns in
      proteins. In this report, we demonstrate that aziridine-containing cyclic
      tetrapeptides offer a platform to interrogate the conformational properties of
      tetrapeptides. We show that aziridine ring-opening of 12-membered cyclic
      tetrapeptides yields exclusively 13-membered alpha3beta macrocycles, regardless
      of peptide sequence, nucleophile, aziridine beta-carbon substitution, or
      stereochemistry. NMR and computational studies on two related aziridine
      containing cyclic tetrapeptides revealed that the amide conformations of their N
      acyl aziridines are similar, and are likely the determinant of the observed ring
      opening regioselectivity. Interestingly, some of the resulting 13-membered
      alpha3beta macrocycles were found to be conformationally heterogeneous. This
      study on the reactivity and conformational control of aziridine-containing cyclic
      tetrapeptides provides useful insight on the design and development of
      macrocyclic therapeutics.

PMID- 28567254
TI  - Circulatory zinc transport is controlled by distinct interdomain sites on
      mammalian albumins.
AB  - Zinc is an essential nutrient in the body; it is required for the catalytic
      activity of many hundreds of human enzymes and virtually all biological
      processes, therefore its homeostasis and trafficking is of crucial interest.
      Serum albumin is the major carrier of Zn2+ in the blood and is required for its
      systemic distribution. Here we present the first crystal structures of human
      serum albumin (HSA) and equine serum albumin (ESA) in complex with Zn2+. The
      structures allow unambiguous identification of the major zinc binding site on
      these two albumins, as well as several further, weaker zinc binding sites. The
      major site in both HSA and ESA has tetrahedral geometry and comprises three
      protein ligands from the sidechains of His67, His247 and Asp249 and a water
      molecule. Isothermal titration calorimetric studies of a HSA H67A mutant confirm
      this to be the highest affinity Zn2+ site. Furthermore, analysis of Zn2+ binding
      to HSA and ESA proved the presence of secondary sites with 20-50-fold weaker
      affinities, which may become of importance under particular physiological
      conditions. Both calorimetry and crystallography suggest that ESA possesses an
      additional site compared to HSA, involving Glu153, His157 and His288. The His157
      residue is replaced by Phe in HSA, incapable of metal coordination. Collectively,
      these findings are critical to our understanding of the role serum albumin plays
      in circulatory Zn2+ handling and cellular delivery.

PMID- 28567257
TI  - Ferrocenyl chiral bisphosphorus ligands for highly enantioselective asymmetric
      hydrogenation via noncovalent ion pair interaction.
AB  - A new class of ferrocenyl chiral bisphosphorus ligand, Wudaphos, was developed,
      and exhibits excellent ee and activity (ee up to 99%, TON up to 20 000) for the
      asymmetric hydrogenation of both 2-aryl and 2-alkyl acrylic acids through ion
      pair noncovalent interaction under base free and mild reaction conditions. Well
      known anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen and ibuprofen together with the
      intermediate for the preparation of Roche ester and some bioactive compounds were
      also efficiently obtained with excellent ee. Control experiments were conducted
      and revealed that the ion pair noncovalent interaction and chain length played
      important roles.

PMID- 28567258
TI  - Templated dewetting: designing entirely self-organized platforms for
      photocatalysis.
AB  - Formation and dispersion of metal nanoparticles on oxide surfaces in site
      specific or even arrayed configuration are key in various technological processes
      such as catalysis, photonics, electrochemistry and for fabricating electrodes,
      sensors, memory devices, and magnetic, optical, and plasmonic platforms. A
      crucial aspect towards an efficient performance of many of these metal/metal
      oxide arrangements is a reliable fabrication approach. Since the early works on
      graphoepitaxy in the 70s, solid state dewetting of metal films on patterned
      surfaces has been much explored and regarded as a most effective tool to form
      defined arrays of ordered metal particles on a desired substrate. While templated
      dewetting has been studied in detail, particularly from a mechanistic perspective
      on lithographically patterned Si surfaces, the resulting outstanding potential of
      its applications on metal oxide semiconductors, such as titania, has received
      only limited attention. In this perspective we illustrate how dewetting and
      particularly templated dewetting can be used to fabricate highly efficient
      metal/TiO2 photocatalyst assemblies e.g. for green hydrogen evolution. A
      remarkable advantage is that the synthesis of such photocatalysts is completely
      based on self-ordering principles: anodic self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays
      that self-align to a highest degree of hexagonal ordering are an ideal
      topographical substrate for a second self-ordering process, that is, templated
      dewetting of sputter-deposited metal thin films. The controllable
      metal/semiconductor coupling delivers intriguing features and functionalities. We
      review concepts inherent to dewetting and particularly templated dewetting, and
      outline a series of effective tools that can be synergistically interlaced to
      reach fine control with nanoscopic precision over the resulting metal/TiO2
      structures (in terms of e.g. high ordering, size distribution, site specific
      placement, alloy formation) to maximize their photocatalytic efficiency. These
      processes are easy to scale up and have a high throughput and great potential to
      be applied to fabricate not only (photo)catalytic materials but also a large
      palette of other functional nanostructured elements and devices.

PMID- 28567259
TI  - Photothermal-enhanced catalysis in core-shell plasmonic hierarchical Cu7S4
      microsphere@zeolitic imidazole framework-8.
AB  - Conventional semiconductor photocatalysis based on band-edge absorption remains
      inefficient due to the limited harvesting of solar irradiation and the
      complicated surface/interface chemistry. Herein, novel photothermal-enhanced
      catalysis was achieved in a core-shell hierarchical Cu7S4 nano-heater@ZIF-8
      heterostructures via near-infrared localized surface plasmon resonance. Our
      results demonstrated that both the high surface temperature of the photothermal
      Cu7S4 core and the close-adjacency of catalytic ZIF-8 shell contributed to the
      extremely enhanced catalytic activity. Under laser irradiation (1450 nm, 500 mW),
      the cyclocondensation reaction rate increased 4.5-5.4 fold compared to that of
      the process at room temperature, in which the 1.6-1.8 fold enhancement was due to
      the localized heating effect. The simulated sunlight experiments showed a
      photothermal activation efficiency (PTAE) of 0.07%, further indicating the
      validity of photothermal catalysis based on the plasmonic semiconductor
      nanomaterials. More generally, this approach provides a platform to improve
      reaction activity with efficient utilization of solar energy, which can be
      readily extended to other green-chemistry processes.

PMID- 28567260
TI  - Cross-linked cationic diblock copolymer worms are superflocculants for micrometer
      sized silica particles.
AB  - A series of linear cationic diblock copolymer nanoparticles are prepared by
      polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) via reversible addition-fragmentation
      chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion polymerization of 2-hydroxypropyl
      methacrylate (HPMA) using a binary mixture of non-ionic and cationic
      macromolecular RAFT agents, namely poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO113, Mn = 4400 g mol
      1; Mw/Mn = 1.08) and poly([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride)
      (PQDMA125, Mn = 31 800 g mol-1, Mw/Mn = 1.19). A detailed phase diagram was
      constructed to determine the maximum amount of PQDMA125 stabilizer block that
      could be incorporated while still allowing access to a pure worm copolymer
      morphology. Aqueous electrophoresis studies indicated that zeta potentials of +35
      mV could be achieved for such cationic worms over a wide pH range. Core cross
      linked worms were prepared via statistical copolymerization of glycidyl
      methacrylate (GlyMA) with HPMA using a slightly modified PISA formulation,
      followed by reacting the epoxy groups of the GlyMA residues located within the
      worm cores with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES), and concomitant
      hydrolysis/condensation of the pendent silanol groups with the secondary alcohol
      on the HPMA residues. TEM and DLS studies confirmed that such core cross-linked
      cationic worms remained colloidally stable when challenged with either excess
      methanol or a cationic surfactant. These cross-linked cationic worms are shown to
      be much more effective bridging flocculants for 1.0 MUm silica particles at pH 9
      than the corresponding linear cationic worms (and also various commercial high
      molecular weight water-soluble polymers.). Laser diffraction studies indicated
      silica aggregates of around 25-28 MUm diameter when using the former worms but
      only 3-5 MUm diameter when employing the latter worms. Moreover, SEM studies
      confirmed that the cross-linked worms remained intact after their adsorption onto
      the silica particles, whereas the much more delicate linear worms underwent
      fragmentation under the same conditions. Similar results were obtained with 4 MUm
      silica particles.

PMID- 28567261
TI  - Amplifying undetectable NMR signals to study host-guest interactions and
      exchange.
AB  - The characteristics of host-guest systems, such as molecular recognition,
      complexation, encapsulation, guest composition, and dynamic exchange, are
      manifested by changes in the chemical shifts (Deltaomega) in the NMR spectrum.
      However, in cases where NMR signals cannot be detected, due to low
      concentrations, poor solubility, or relatively fast exchange, an alternative is
      needed. Here, we show that by using the magnetization transfer (MT) method, the
      undetectable NMR signals of host-guest assemblies can be amplified by two orders
      of magnitude. It is shown that the binding kinetics characteristics of a
      fluorinated guest and cucurbit[n]uril (CB[n]) hosts in aqueous solutions
      determine the NMR signal amplification of host-guest assemblies. In addition, by
      using the MT technique within the 19F-NMR framework, one can detect MUM
      concentrations of the complex and study the effect of different solutes on the
      resulting host-guest system. The results expand the "NMR toolbox" available to
      explore a wider range of dynamic host-guest systems in which NMR signals cannot
      be detected.

PMID- 28567263
TI  - Non-bonding 1,5-S...O interactions govern chemo- and enantioselectivity in
      isothiourea-catalyzed annulations of benzazoles.
AB  - Isothiourea-catalyzed annulations between 2-acyl benzazoles and alpha,beta
      unsaturated acyl ammonium intermediates are selectively tuned to form either
      lactam or lactone heterocycles in good yields (up to 95%) and high ee (up to 99%)
      using benzothiazole or benzoxazole derivatives, respectively. Computation gives
      insight into the significant role of two 1,5-S...O interactions in controlling
      the structural preorganization and chemoselectivity observed within the lactam
      synthesis with benzothiazoles as nucleophiles. When using benzazoles the absence
      of a second stabilizing non-bonding 1,5-S...O interaction leads to a dominant C
      H...O interaction in determining structural preorganization and lactone
      formation.

PMID- 28567262
TI  - A magnetic look into the protecting layer of Au25 clusters.
AB  - The field of molecular metal clusters protected by organothiolates is
      experiencing a very rapid growth. So far, however, a clear understanding of the
      fine interactions between the cluster core and the capping monolayer has remained
      elusive, despite the importance of the latter in interfacing the former to the
      surrounding medium. Here, we describe a very sensitive methodology that enables
      comprehensive assessment of these interactions. Pulse electron nuclear double
      resonance (ENDOR) was employed to study the interaction of the unpaired electron
      with the protons of the alkanethiolate ligands in four structurally related
      paramagnetic Au25(SR)018 clusters (R = ethyl, propyl, butyl, 2-methylpropyl).
      Whereas some of these structures were known, we present the first structural
      description of the highly symmetric Au25(SPr)018 cluster. Through knowledge of
      the structural data, the ENDOR signals could be successfully related to the types
      of ligand and the distance of the relevant protons from the central gold core. We
      found that orbital distribution affects atoms that can be as far as 6 A from the
      icosahedral core. Simulations of the spectra provided the values of the hyperfine
      coupling constants. The resulting information was compared with that provided by
      1H NMR spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics calculations provided useful hints to
      understanding differences between the ENDOR and NMR results. It is shown that the
      unpaired electron can be used as a very precise probe of the main structural
      features of the interface between the metal core and the capping ligands.

PMID- 28567264
TI  - Multi-electron reactivity of a cofacial di-tin(ii) cryptand: partial reduction of
      sulfur and selenium and reversible generation of S3.
AB  - Cofacial bimetallic tin(ii) ([Sn2(mBDCA-5t)]2-, 1) and lead(ii) ([Pb2(mBDCA-5t)]2
      , 2) complexes have been prepared by hexadeprotonation of hexacarboxamide
      cryptand mBDCA-5t-H6 together with double Sn(ii) or Pb(ii) insertion. Reaction of
      1 with elemental sulfur or selenium generates di-tin polychalcogenide complexes
      containing MU-E and bridging MU-E5 ligands where E = S or Se, and the Sn(ii)
      centers have both been oxidized to Sn(iv). Solution and solid-state UV-Vis
      spectra of [(MU-S5)Sn2(MU-S)(mBDCA-5t)]2- (4) indicate that the complex acts
      reversibly as a source of S3- in DMF solution with a Keq = 0.012 +/- 0.002.
      Reductive removal of all six chalcogen atoms is achieved through treatment of
      [(MU-E5)Sn2(MU-E)(mBDCA-5t)]2- with PR3 (R = t Bu, Ph, OiPr) to produce six
      equiv. of the corresponding EPR3 compound with regeneration of di-tin(ii)
      cryptand complex 1.

PMID- 28567265
TI  - Competitive coordination strategy for the synthesis of hierarchical-pore metal
      organic framework nanostructures.
AB  - Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) usually have micropores smaller than 2 nm, which
      may restrict their applications in some cases. Hierarchical-pore MOFs (H-MOFs)
      are a new family of MOF materials, possessing both micro- and mesopores to
      address this problem. Here we demonstrate a competitive coordination strategy for
      the synthesis of H-MOF nanostructures, such as two-dimensional (2D) H-MOF
      nanosheets and H-MOF nanocubes, evolving through an etching process tuned by a
      competitive ligand. The as-synthesized 2D H-MOF nanosheets can serve as a
      substrate to in situ immobilize Pd nanoparticles to achieve a surfactant-free Pd
      catalyst, by means of a simple soaking method of Pd2+ precursors. Combined with
      the unique structure and gas adsorption capacity of H-MOF-5, the Pd-H-MOF-5
      catalyst exhibits superior catalytic performance.

PMID- 28567266
TI  - A Lewis acid beta-diiminato-zinc-complex as all-rounder for co- and
      terpolymerisation of various epoxides with carbon dioxide.
AB  - A beta-diiminato-zinc-N(SiMe3)2 complex (1) was synthesised and fully
      characterised, including an X-ray diffraction study. The activity of catalyst 1
      towards the coupling reaction of CO2 and various epoxides, including propylene
      oxide (PO), cyclohexene oxide (CHO), styrene oxide (SO), limonene oxide (LO),
      octene oxide (OO) and epichlorohydrin (ECH), was investigated. Terpolymerisation
      of CO2, PO and LO, as well as CO2, CHO and PO, was successfully realised,
      resulting in polymers with adjustable glass transition temperatures and
      transparencies. Reaction conditions such as temperature, pressure and catalyst
      concentration were varied to find the optimal reaction values, especially
      regarding LO/CO2. In situ IR experiments hinted that at 60  degrees C and a
      critical LO concentration, polymerisation and depolymerisation are in an
      equilibrium (ceiling effect). Pressurising catalyst 1 with carbon dioxide
      resulted in a dimeric catalyst (2) with a OSiMe3 group as a new initiator.
      Homopolymerisation of different epoxides was carried out in order to explain the
      reactivity concerning copolymerisation reaction of CO2 and epoxides.

PMID- 28567268
TI  - Measuring Early Cortical Visual Processing in the Clinic.
AB  - We describe a mobile app that measures early cortical visual processing suitable
      for use in clinics. The app is called Component Extraction and Motion Integration
      Test (CEMIT). Observers are asked to respond to the direction of translating
      plaids that move in one of two very different directions. The plaids have been
      selected so that the plaid components move in one of the directions and the plaid
      pattern moves in the other direction. In addition to correctly responding to the
      pattern motion, observers demonstrate their ability to correctly extract the
      movement (and therefore the orientation) of the underlying components at specific
      spatial frequencies. We wanted to test CEMIT by seeing if we could replicate the
      broader tuning observed at low spatial frequencies for this type of plaid.
      Results from CEMIT were robust and successfully replicated this result for 50
      typical observers. We envisage that it will be of use to researchers and
      clinicians by allowing them to investigate specific deficits at this fundamental
      level of cortical visual processing. CEMIT may also be used for screening
      purposes where visual information plays an important role, for example, air
      traffic controllers.

PMID- 28567267
TI  - PdII2L4-type coordination cages up to three nanometers in size.
AB  - The utilization of large ligands in coordination-based self-assembly represents
      an attractive strategy for the construction of supramolecular assemblies more
      than two nanometers in size. However, the implementation of this strategy is
      hampered by the fact that the preparation of such ligands often requires
      substantial synthetic effort. Herein, we describe a simple one-step protocol,
      which allows large bipyridyl ligands with a bent shape to be synthesized from
      easily accessible and/or commercially available starting materials. The ligands
      were used to construct PdII2L4-type coordination cages of unprecedented size.
      Furthermore, we provide evidence that these cages may be stabilized by close
      intramolecular packing of lipophilic ligand side chains. Packing effects of this
      kind are frequently encountered in protein assemblies, but they are seldom used
      as a design element in metallasupramolecular chemistry.

PMID- 28567270
TI  - Perceiving Animacy From Deformation and Translation.
AB  - In a cartoon, we often receive an animacy impression from a dynamic nonanimate
      object, such as a sponge or a flour sack, which does not have an animal-like
      shape. We hypothesize that the animacy impression of a nonanimal object could
      stem from dynamic patterns that are possibly fundamental for biological motion
      perception. Here we show that observers recognize the animacy of human jump
      actions from the combination of deformation and translation. We extracted
      vertical motion vectors from the uppermost and lowermost points in point-light
      jumper stimuli and assigned the vectors to a uniform rectangle. The participants'
      task was to rate the animacy and jump impressions for the rectangle. Results
      showed that both animacy and jump impressions for the rectangle movements were
      comparable to those for the original point-light movements. The impressions
      decreased for stimuli having a deformation or translation component alone, which
      was extracted from the original motion vectors. By mathematically simulating
      deformation and translation in a human jump, we also found that the temporal
      relation between deformation and translation plays a critical role in the
      determination of jump impressions but only has a moderate effect for animacy
      impressions. On the basis of the results, we discuss how cartoon techniques take
      advantage of the properties of biological motion perception.

PMID- 28567271
TI  - The Accuracy and Precision of Position and Orientation Tracking in the HTC Vive
      Virtual Reality System for Scientific Research.
AB  - The advent of inexpensive consumer virtual reality equipment enables many more
      researchers to study perception with naturally moving observers. One such system,
      the HTC Vive, offers a large field-of-view, high-resolution head mounted display
      together with a room-scale tracking system for less than a thousand U.S. dollars.
      If the position and orientation tracking of this system is of sufficient accuracy
      and precision, it could be suitable for much research that is currently done with
      far more expensive systems. Here we present a quantitative test of the HTC Vive's
      position and orientation tracking as well as its end-to-end system latency. We
      report that while the precision of the Vive's tracking measurements is high and
      its system latency (22 ms) is low, its position and orientation measurements are
      provided in a coordinate system that is tilted with respect to the physical
      ground plane. Because large changes in offset were found whenever tracking was
      briefly lost, it cannot be corrected for with a one-time calibration procedure.
      We conclude that the varying offset between the virtual and the physical tracking
      space makes the HTC Vive at present unsuitable for scientific experiments that
      require accurate visual stimulation of self-motion through a virtual world. It
      may however be suited for other experiments that do not have this requirement.

PMID- 28567269
TI  - Spatial Frequency Shifts From Counterphase Flicker and From Simultaneous
      Contrast.
AB  - In simultaneous contrast of spatial frequency (SF), a test grating surrounded by
      a coarser inducing grating looks apparently finer. We combined this effect with
      another visual illusion; the fact that flickering the inducing grating raises its
      apparent SF. We found that the inducer's apparent, not physical spatial
      frequency, drove the simultaneous contrast that it induced into a test grating.
      Thus, when the inducer was made to flicker, its SF appeared to be higher and
      consequently, the test's SF appeared lower than before. This suggests that
      simultaneous contrast of spatial frequency exists further downstream than the
      flicker-induced increase in perceived SF.

PMID- 28567272
TI  - Accuracy and Tuning of Flow Parsing for Visual Perception of Object Motion During
      Self-Motion.
AB  - How do we perceive object motion during self-motion using visual information
      alone? Previous studies have reported that the visual system can use optic flow
      to identify and globally subtract the retinal motion component resulting from
      self-motion to recover scene-relative object motion, a process called flow
      parsing. In this article, we developed a retinal motion nulling method to
      directly measure and quantify the magnitude of flow parsing (i.e., flow parsing
      gain) in various scenarios to examine the accuracy and tuning of flow parsing for
      the visual perception of object motion during self-motion. We found that flow
      parsing gains were below unity for all displays in all experiments; and that
      increasing self-motion and object motion speed did not alter flow parsing gain.
      We conclude that visual information alone is not sufficient for the accurate
      perception of scene-relative motion during self-motion. Although flow parsing
      performs global subtraction, its accuracy also depends on local motion
      information in the retinal vicinity of the moving object. Furthermore, the flow
      parsing gain was constant across common self-motion or object motion speeds.
      These results can be used to inform and validate computational models of flow
      parsing.

PMID- 28567274
TI  - A new paradigm on health care accountability to improve the quality of the
      system: four parameters to achieve individual and collective accountability.

PMID- 28567275
TI  - Does SDG 3 have an adequate theory of change for improving health systems
      performance?

PMID- 28567276
TI  - Stopping female feticide in India: the failure and unintended consequence of
      ultrasound restriction.

PMID- 28567273
TI  - Bone and cartilage differentiation of a single stem cell population driven by
      material interface.
AB  - Adult stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells, are a multipotent cell source
      able to differentiate towards multiple cell types. While used widely in tissue
      engineering and biomaterials research, they present inherent donor variability
      and functionalities. In addition, their potential to form multiple tissues is
      rarely exploited. Here, we combine an osteogenic nanotopography and a
      chondrogenic hyaluronan hydrogel with the hypothesis that we can make a complex
      tissue from a single multipotent cell source with the exemplar of creating a
      three-dimensional bone-cartilage boundary environment. Marrow stromal cells were
      seeded onto the topographical surface and the temperature gelling hydrogel laid
      on top. Cells that remained on the nanotopography spread and formed osteoblast
      like cells, while those that were seeded into or migrated into the gel remained
      rounded and expressed chondrogenic markers. This novel, simple interfacial
      environment provides a platform for anisotropic differentiation of cells from a
      single source, which could ultimately be exploited to sort osteogenic and
      chondrogenic progenitor cells from a marrow stromal cell population and to
      develop a tissue engineered interface.

PMID- 28567277
TI  - Reducing maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: the role of ethical
      consumerism.

PMID- 28567278
TI  - Psychosocial stimulation interventions for children with severe acute
      malnutrition: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The WHO Guidelines for the inpatient treatment of severely
      malnourished children include a recommendation to provide sensory stimulation or
      play therapy for children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). This systematic
      review was performed to synthesize evidence around this recommendation.
      Specifically, the objective was to answer the question: "In children with severe
      acute malnutrition, does psychosocial stimulation improve child developmental,
      nutritional, or other outcomes?" METHODS: A review protocol was registered on the
      International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO 2016:
      CRD42016036403). MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched with terms
      related to SAM and psychosocial stimulation. Studies were selected if they
      applied a stimulation intervention in children with SAM and child developmental
      and nutritional outcomes were assessed. Findings were presented within a
      narrative synthesis and a summary of findings table. Quality of the evidence was
      evaluated using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations
      Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. FINDINGS: Only two
      studies, both non-randomized controlled trials, met the selection criteria for
      this review. One was conducted in Jamaica (1975) with a follow-up period of 14
      years; the other was done in Bangladesh (2002) with a six-month follow-up. At the
      individual study level, each of the included studies demonstrated significant
      differences in child development outcomes between intervention and control
      groups. Only the study conducted in Bangladesh demonstrated a clinically
      significant increase in weight-for-age z-scores in the intervention group
      compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence supporting the
      recommendation of psychosocial stimulation for children with SAM is not only
      sparse, but also of very low quality across important outcomes. High-quality
      trials are needed to determine the effects of psychosocial stimulation
      interventions on outcomes in children with SAM.

PMID- 28567279
TI  - Evolving treatment implementation among HIV-infected pregnant women and their
      partners: results from a national surveillance study in Italy, 2001-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current global and national indications for antiretroviral
      treatment (ART, usually triple combination therapy) in adolescent and adults,
      including pregnant women, recommend early ART before immunologic decline, pre
      exposure chemoprophylaxis (PrEP), and treatment of HIV-negative partners in
      serodiscordant couples. There is limited information on the implementation of
      these recommendations among pregnant women with HIV and their partners. METHODS:
      The present analysis was performed in 2016, using data from clinical records of
      pregnant women with HIV, followed between 2001 and 2015 at hospital or university
      clinics within a large, nationally representative Italian cohort study. The study
      period was divided in three intervals of five years each (2001-2005, 2006-2010,
      2011-2015), and the analysis evaluated temporal trends in rates of HIV diagnosis
      in pregnancy, maternal antiretroviral treatment at conception, prevalence of HIV
      infection among partners of pregnant women with HIV, and proportion of
      seronegative and seropositive male partners receiving antiretroviral treatment.
      RESULTS: The analysis included 2755 pregnancies in women with HIV. During the
      three time intervals considered the rate of HIV diagnosis in pregnancy (overall
      23.3%), and the distribution of HIV status among male partners (overall 48.7% HIV
      negative, 28.6% HIV-positive and 22.8% unknown) remained substantially unchanged.
      Significant increases were observed in the proportion of women with HIV diagnosed
      before pregnancy who were on antiretroviral treatment at conception (from 62.0%
      in 2001-2005 to 81.3% in 2011-2015, P < 0.001), and in the proportion of HIV
      positive partners on antiretroviral treatment (from 73.3% in 2001-2005 to 95.8%
      in 2011-2015, P = 0.002). Antiretroviral treatment was administered in 99.1% of
      the pregnancies that did not end early because of miscarriage, termination, or
      intrauterine death, and in 75.3% of those not ending in a live birth. No
      implementation of antiretroviral treatment was introduced among male HIV-negative
      partners. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest good implementation of antiretroviral
      treatment among HIV-positive women and their HIV-positive partners, but no
      implementation, even in recent years, of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among
      uninfected male partners. Further studies should assess the determinants of this
      occurrence and clarify the attitudes and the potential barriers to PrEP use.

PMID- 28567280
TI  - Solar powered oxygen systems in remote health centers in Papua New Guinea: a
      large scale implementation effectiveness trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is the largest cause of child deaths in Papua New Guinea
      (PNG), and hypoxaemia is the major complication causing death in childhood
      pneumonia, and hypoxaemia is a major factor in deaths from many other common
      conditions, including bronchiolitis, asthma, sepsis, malaria, trauma, perinatal
      problems, and obstetric emergencies. A reliable source of oxygen therapy can
      reduce mortality from pneumonia by up to 35%. However, in low and middle income
      countries throughout the world, improved oxygen systems have not been implemented
      at large scale in remote, difficult to access health care settings, and oxygen is
      often unavailable at smaller rural hospitals or district health centers which
      serve as the first point of referral for childhood illnesses. These hospitals are
      hampered by lack of reliable power, staff training and other basic services.
      METHODS: We report the methodology of a large implementation effectiveness trial
      involving sustainable and renewable oxygen and power systems in 36 health
      facilities in remote rural areas of PNG. The methodology is a before-and after
      evaluation involving continuous quality improvement, and a health systems
      approach. We describe this model of implementation as the considerations and
      steps involved have wider implications in health systems in other countries.
      RESULTS: The implementation steps include: defining the criteria for where such
      an intervention is appropriate, assessment of power supplies and power
      requirements, the optimal design of a solar power system, specifications for
      oxygen concentrators and other oxygen equipment that will function in remote
      environments, installation logistics in remote settings, the role of oxygen
      analyzers in monitoring oxygen concentrator performance, the engineering capacity
      required to sustain a program at scale, clinical guidelines and training on
      oxygen equipment and the treatment of children with severe respiratory infection
      and other critical illnesses, program costs, and measurement of processes and
      outcomes to support continuous quality improvement. CONCLUSIONS: This study will
      evaluate the feasibility and sustainability issues in improving oxygen systems
      and providing reliable power on a large scale in remote rural settings in PNG,
      and the impact of this on child mortality from pneumonia over 3 years post
      intervention. Taking a continuous quality improvement approach can be
      transformational for remote health services.

PMID- 28567281
TI  - Toward elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in South Africa: how
      best to monitor early infant infections within the Prevention of Mother-to-Child
      Transmission Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Africa has utilized three independent data sources to measure
      the impact of its program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission
      (PMTCT) of HIV. These include the South African National Health Laboratory
      Service (NHLS), the District Health Information System (DHIS), and South African
      PMTCT Evaluation (SAPMTCTE) surveys. We compare the results of each, outlining
      advantages and limitations, and make recommendations for monitoring transmission
      rates as South Africa works toward achieving elimination of mother-to-child
      transmission (eMTCT). METHODS: HIV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test data,
      collected between 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014, from the NHLS, DHIS and
      SAPMTCTE surveys were used to compare early mother-to-child transmission (MTCT)
      rates in South Africa. Data from the NHLS and DHIS were also used to compare
      early infant diagnosis (EID) coverage. RESULTS: The age-adjusted NHLS early MTCT
      rates of 4.1% in 2010, 2.6% in 2011 and 2.3% in 2012 consistently fall within the
      95% confidence interval as measured by three SAPMTCTE surveys in corresponding
      time periods. Although DHIS data over-estimated MTCT rates in 2010, the MTCT rate
      declines thereafter to converge with age-adjusted NHLS MTCT rates by 2012.
      National EID coverage from NHLS data increases from around 52% in 2010 to 87% in
      2014. DHIS data over-estimates EID coverage, but this can be corrected by
      employing an alternative estimate of the HIV-exposed infant population.
      CONCLUSION: NHLS and DHIS, two routine data sources, provide very similar early
      MTCT rate estimates that fall within the SAPMTCTE survey confidence intervals for
      2012. This analysis validates the usefulness of routine data sources to track
      eMTCT in South Africa.

PMID- 28567282
TI  - Quantitative assessment of left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony using cine
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging: Inter-study reproducibility.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the inter-study reproducibility of left ventricular (LV)
      mechanical dyssynchrony measures based on standard cardiovascular magnetic
      resonance (CMR) cine images. DESIGN: Steady-state free precession (SSFP) LV short
      axis stacks and three long-axes were acquired on the same day at three time
      points. Circumferential strain systolic dyssynchrony indexes (SDI), area-SDI as
      well as circumferential and radial uniformity ratio estimates (CURE and RURE,
      respectively) were derived from CMR myocardial feature-tracking (CMR-FT) based on
      the tracking of three SSFP short-axis planes. Furthermore, 4D-LV-analysis based
      on SSFP short-axis stacks and longitudinal planes was performed to quantify 4D
      volume-SDI. SETTING: A single-centre London teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: 16
      healthy volunteers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Inter-study reproducibility between
      the repeated exams. RESULTS: CURE and RURE as well as 4D-volume-SDI showed good
      inter-study reproducibility (coefficient of variation [CoV] 6.4%-12.9%).
      Circumferential strain and area-SDI showed higher variability between the
      repeated measurements (CoV 24.9%-37.5%). Uniformity ratio estimates showed the
      lowest inter-study variability (CoV 6.4%-8.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Derivation of LV
      mechanical dyssynchrony measures from standard cine images is feasible using CMR
      FT and 4D-LV-analysis tools. Uniformity ratio estimates and 4D-volume-SDI showed
      good inter-study reproducibility. Their clinical value should next be explored in
      patients who potentially benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy.

PMID- 28567283
TI  - Dyslipidemia management in overweight or obese adolescents: A mixed-methods
      clinical trial of motivational interviewing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lifestyle management for dyslipidemic adolescents often occurs in the
      context of family-centered care, which necessitates adaptation of counseling
      strategies. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of motivational
      interviewing for lifestyle behavior change for dyslipidemic adolescents in a dyad
      with a parent versus alone. METHODS: A total number of 32 adolescents were
      randomized 1:1 to receive a series of motivational interviewing sessions either
      together with a parent or alone for a 6-month intervention, with both
      quantitative and qualitative assessment of outcomes. RESULTS: Both groups were
      similar at baseline. Following the intervention, there were no significant
      differences between groups in physical, laboratory, lifestyle or psychosocial
      measures, except for a reduction in dietary fats/sugars (p = 0.02) and in screen
      time (p = 0.02) in the alone group. When both groups were combined, significant
      reductions at 6 months were noted for body mass index (p < 0.001), waist
      circumference (p < 0.001), total cholesterol (p < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (p < 0.001), triglycerides (p = 0.01), non-high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (p < 0.001), fasting insulin (p = 0.01), and homeostatic model (p =
      0.02). Reduced screen time and increased fruit and vegetable intake were also
      noted for both groups combined. These changes were also reflected in self
      efficacy (p = 0.004), self-esteem (p = 0.03), and improvement in quality of life
      measures. Interview data provided insights into the utility and acceptability of
      the motivational interviewing intervention. CONCLUSION: Motivational interviewing
      was an efficient strategy for inspiring healthy lifestyle and physiological
      changes among adolescents in both groups. Family centered pediatric approaches
      should consider the autonomy and individual preferences of the adolescent prior
      to counseling.

PMID- 28567284
TI  - Ethnically Tibetan women in Nepal with low hemoglobin concentration have better
      reproductive outcomes.
AB  - Background and objectives: Tibetans have distinctively low hemoglobin
      concentrations at high altitudes compared with visitors and Andean highlanders.
      This study hypothesized that natural selection favors an unelevated hemoglobin
      concentration among Tibetans. It considered nonheritable sociocultural factors
      affecting reproductive success and tested the hypotheses that a higher percent of
      oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (indicating less stress) or lower hemoglobin
      concentration (indicating dampened response) associated with higher lifetime
      reproductive success. Methodology: We sampled 1006 post-reproductive ethnically
      Tibetan women residing at 3000-4100 m in Nepal. We collected reproductive
      histories by interviews in native dialects and noninvasive physiological
      measurements. Regression analyses selected influential covariates of measures of
      reproductive success: the numbers of pregnancies, live births and children
      surviving to age 15. Results: Taking factors such as marriage status, age of
      first birth and access to health care into account, we found a higher percent of
      oxygen saturation associated weakly and an unelevated hemoglobin concentration
      associated strongly with better reproductive success. Women who lost all their
      pregnancies or all their live births had hemoglobin concentrations significantly
      higher than the sample mean. Elevated hemoglobin concentration associated with a
      lower probability a pregnancy progressed to a live birth. Conclusions and
      implications: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that unelevated
      hemoglobin concentration is an adaptation shaped by natural selection resulting
      in the relatively low hemoglobin concentration of Tibetans compared with visitors
      and Andean highlanders.

PMID- 28567285
TI  - Substrate roughening improves swimming performance in two small-bodied riverine
      fishes: implications for culvert remediation and design.
AB  - Worldwide declines in riverine fish abundance and diversity have been linked to
      the fragmentation of aquatic habitats through the installation of instream
      structures (e.g. culverts, dams, weirs and barrages). Restoring riverine
      connectivity can be achieved by remediating structures impeding fish movements
      by, for example, replacing smooth substrates of pipe culverts with naturalistic
      substrates (i.e. river stones; culvert roughening). However, empirical
      evaluations of the efficacy of such remediation efforts are often lacking despite
      the high economic cost. We assessed the effectiveness of substrate roughening in
      improving fish swimming performance and linked this to estimates of upstream
      passage success. Critical swimming speeds (Ucrit) of two small-bodied fish,
      purple-spotted gudgeon (Mogurnda adspersa; 7.7-11.6 cm total length, BL) and
      crimson-spotted rainbowfish (Melanotaenia duboulayi; 4.2-8.7 cm BL) were
      examined. Swimming trials were conducted in a hydraulic flume fitted with either
      a smooth acrylic substrate (control) or a rough substrate with fixed river
      stones. Swimming performance was improved on the rough compared to the smooth
      substrate, with Mo. adspersa (Ucrit-smooth = 0.28 +/- 0.0 m s-1, 2.89 +/- 0.1 BL
      s-1, Ucrit-rough = 0.36 +/- 0.02 m s-1, 3.66 +/- 0.22 BL s-1, mean +/- s.e) and
      Me. duboulayi (Ucrit-smooth = 0.46 +/- 0.01 m s-1, 7.79 +/- 0.33 BL s-1; Ucrit
      rough = = 0.55 +/- 0.03 m s-1, 9.83 +/- 0.67 BL s-1, mean +/- s.e.) both
      experiencing a 26% increase in relative Ucrit. Traversable water velocity models
      predicted maximum water speeds allowing successful upstream passage of both
      species to substantially increase following roughening remediation. Together
      these findings suggest culvert roughening may be a solution which allows
      hydraulic efficiency goals to be met, without compromising fish passage.

PMID- 28567288
TI  - GAD antibody-associated limbic encephalitis in a young woman with APECED.
AB  - : The autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED)
      syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the autoimmune regulator
      (AIRE) gene. Immune deficiency, hypoparathyroidism and Addison's disease due to
      autoimmune dysfunction are the major clinical signs of APECED. We report on a 21
      year-old female APECED patient with two inactivating mutations in the AIRE gene.
      She presented with sudden onset of periodic nausea. Adrenal insufficiency was
      diagnosed by means of the ACTH stimulation test. Despite initiation of hormone
      replacement therapy with hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone, nausea persisted and
      the patient developed cognitive deficits and a loss of interest which led to the
      diagnosis of depression. She was admitted to the psychiatric department for
      further diagnostic assessment. An EEG showed a focal epileptic pattern. Glutamic
      acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies, which had been negative eight years earlier,
      were now elevated in serum and in the cerebrospinal fluid. Oligoclonal bands were
      positive indicating an inflammatory process with intrathecal antibody production
      in the central nervous system (CNS). The periodic nausea was identified as
      dialeptic seizures, which clinically presented as gastrointestinal aura followed
      by episodes of reduced consciousness that occurred about 3-4 times per day. GAD
      antibody-associated limbic encephalitis (LE) was diagnosed. Besides antiepileptic
      therapy, an immunosuppressive treatment with corticosteroids was initiated
      followed by azathioprine. The presence of nausea and vomiting in endocrine
      patients with autoimmune disorders is indicative of adrenal insufficiency.
      However, our case report shows that episodic nausea may be a symptom of epileptic
      seizures due to GAD antibodies-associated LE in patients with APECED. LEARNING
      POINTS: Episodic nausea cannot only be a sign of Addison's disease, but can also
      be caused by epileptic seizures with gastrointestinal aura due to limbic
      encephalitis.GAD antibodies are not only found in diabetes mellitus type 1, but
      they are also associated with autoimmune limbic encephalitis and can appear over
      time.Limbic encephalitis can be another manifestation of autoimmune disease in
      patients with APECED/APS-1 that presents over the time course of the disease.

PMID- 28567286
TI  - Re-appraisal and consideration of minimally invasive surgery in colorectal
      cancer.
AB  - Throughout history, surgeons have been on a quest to refine the surgical
      treatment options for their patients and to minimize operative trauma. During the
      last three decades, there have been tremendous advances in the field of minimally
      invasive colorectal surgery, with an explosion of different technologies and
      approaches offered to treat well-known diseases. Laparoscopic surgery has been
      shown to be equal or superior to open surgery. The boundaries of laparoscopy have
      been pushed further, in the form of single-incision laparoscopy, natural-orifice
      transluminal endoscopic surgery and robotics. This paper critically reviews the
      pathway of development of minimally invasive surgery, and appraises the different
      minimally invasive colorectal surgical approaches available to date.

PMID- 28567290
TI  - ACTH-secreting medullary thyroid cancer: a case series.
AB  - : Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumour that originates
      from the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland. The most common presentation
      of MTC is with a single nodule; however, by the time of diagnosis, most have
      spread to the surrounding cervical lymph nodes. Cushing's syndrome is a rare
      complication of MTC and is due to ectopic adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)
      secretion by tumour cells. Cushing's syndrome presents a challenging diagnostic
      and management issue in patients with MTC. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI)
      previously used for the management of metastatic MTC have become an important
      therapeutic option for the management of ectopic ACTH in metastatic MTC. The
      article describes three cases of ectopic ACTH secretion in MTC and addresses the
      significant diagnostic and management challenges related to Cushing's syndrome in
      metastatic MTC. LEARNING POINTS: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare
      neuroendocrine tumour.Cushing's syndrome is a rare complication of MTC that has a
      significant impact on patients' morbidity and mortality.Tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors (TKI) provide an important therapeutic option for the management of
      ectopic ACTH in metastatic MTC.

PMID- 28567289
TI  - Primary cutaneous B-cell lymphoma and chronic leg ulcers in a patient with type 2
      diabetes.
AB  - : The incidences of type 2 diabetes mellitus and many cancers are rapidly
      increasing worldwide. Diabetes is a strong risk factor for some cancers
      (including lymphomas) and is also associated with adverse cancer outcomes. After
      gastrointestinal tract, the skin is the second most frequent extranodal site
      involved by non-Hodgkin lymphomas and the cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCLs)
      range from 25% to 30% of all primary cutaneous lymphomas. The primary cutaneous
      diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PCDLBCL) is an aggressive lymphoma with a poor
      prognosis, representing roughly 20% of all primary CBCLs. Classically, the
      cutaneous manifestation of this lymphoma is a red or violaceous tumors arising on
      a leg. To date, despite the large body of evidence suggesting that diabetes is
      strongly associated with an increased risk of some cancers, very little
      information is available regarding a possible association between type 2 diabetes
      and primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In this report, we will
      present the case of a white adult patient with type 2 diabetes with chronic leg
      ulcers complicated by a primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. LEARNING
      POINTS: Diabetes mellitus is increasing worldwide as well as the incidence of
      many cancers.Diabetes mellitus is a powerful risk factor for some cancers
      (including lymphomas) and is strongly associated with adverse cancer
      outcomes.Seen that diabetes is strongly associated with an increased risk of
      cancers (including cutaneous lymphomas), clinicians should always keep in mind
      this complication in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes, even in a chronic leg
      ulcer with hypertrophy of the wound edge, which is hard to heal and does not have
      the typical characteristics of a diabetic or vascular ulcer. In these cases, a
      biopsy should be performed to rule out a neoplasm.Early diagnosis and correct
      management of cancer in a patient with type 2 diabetes are crucial to improve
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28567291
TI  - Pachydermoperiostosis: a rare mimicker of acromegaly.
AB  - : Pachydermoperiostosis is a very rare osteoarthrodermopathic disorder whose
      clinical and radiographic presentations may mimic those of acromegaly. In the
      evaluation of patients with acromegaloid appearances, pachydermoperiostosis
      should be considered as a differential diagnosis. In this article, we report a 17
      year-old boy who presented with 2-year history of acral enlargement and facial
      appearance changes associated with joint pain and excessive sweating. He had been
      investigated extensively for acromegaly, and the final diagnosis was
      pachydermoperiostosis. LEARNING POINTS: There is a broad range of differential
      diagnosis for acromegaloid features such as acromegaly, pseudoacromegaly with
      severe insulin resistance, Marfan's syndrome, McCune-Albright and a rare
      condition called pachydermoperiostosis.Once a patient is suspected to have
      acromegaly, the first step is biochemical testing to confirm the clinical
      diagnosis, followed by radiologic testing to determine the cause of the excess
      growth hormone (GH) secretion. The cause is a somatotroph adenoma of the
      pituitary in over 95 percent of cases.The first step is measurement of a serum
      insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). A normal serum IGF1 concentration is strong
      evidence that the patient does not have acromegaly.If the serum IGF1
      concentration is high (or equivocal), serum GH should be measured after oral
      glucose administration. Inadequate suppression of GH after a glucose load
      confirms the diagnosis of acromegaly.Once the presence of excess GH secretion is
      confirmed, the next step is pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Atypical
      presentation warrants revision of the diagnosis. This patient presented with
      clubbing with no gigantism, which is expected in adolescent acromegalics as the
      growth spurt and epiphyseal plate closure have not taken place yet.

PMID- 28567292
TI  - Euthyroid athyroxinemia - a novel endocrine syndrome.
AB  - : A 55-year-old female was referred with abnormal thyroid function tests (TFTs);
      the free thyroxine level (FT4) was undetectable <3.3 pmol/L (normal: 7.9-14.4),
      while her FT3, TSH and urinary iodine levels were normal. She was clinically
      euthyroid with a large soft lobulated goitre that had been present for more than
      thirty years. She received an injection of recombinant human TSH (rhTSH)
      following which there was a progressive rise of the FT3 and TSH levels to 23
      pmol/L and >100 mIU/L respectively at 24 h, The FT4 however remained undetectable
      throughout. Being on thyroxine 100 ug/day for one month, her FT4 level increased
      to 15 pmol/L and TSH fell to 0.08 mIU/L. Four years earlier at another hospital,
      her FT4 level had been low (6.8 pmol/L) with a normal TSH and a raised Tc-99
      uptake of 20% (normal<4%). We checked the TFTs and Tc-99 scans in 3 of her
      children; one was completely normal and 2 had euthyroid with soft lobulated
      goitres. Their Tc-99 scan uptakes were raised at 17% and 15%, with normal TFTs
      apart from a low FT4 7.2 pmol/L in the son with the largest thyroid nodule. This
      is a previously unreported form of dyshormonogenesis in which, with time,
      patients gradually lose their ability to synthesize thyroxine (T4) but not
      triiodothyroxine (T3). LEARNING POINTS: This is a previously unreported form of
      dyshormonogenetic goitre.This goitre progressively loses its ability to
      synthesize T4 but not T3.The inability to synthesize T4 was demonstrated by
      giving rhTSH.

PMID- 28567293
TI  - Pro-IGF2-induced hypoglycaemia associated with hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - : We present a patient (87 years, female) who was admitted to the emergency
      department because of loss of consciousness. Previous medical history included
      advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma and associated weight loss. She was found
      on the ground in an unresponsive state by her daughter and was determined to be
      hypoglycaemic. Upon bolus administration of 100 mL intravenous glucose (10%),
      glucose levels increased to 2.9 mmol/L and the patient regained full
      consciousness. She was admitted to the hospital for further examination, and
      treatment and continuous intravenous glucose infusion was initiated. As the
      patient was known to suffer from advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma, tumour
      associated hypoglycaemia was suspected. Insulin, c-peptide and IGF1
      concentrations were indeed low, cortisol concentration was high and IGF2 and Pro
      IGF2 were borderline low and borderline high normal respectively. IGF2:IGF1 ratio
      was 23, confirming the diagnosis of non-islet cell tumour hypoglycaemia. During
      the initial phase of treatment, euglycaemia was maintained by continuous variable
      glucose infusion (5%, varying between 1 and 2 L/24 h), and the patient was
      advised to eat small snacks throughout the day. After euglycaemia was established
      and the diagnosis was confirmed, prednisolone was started (30 mg, 1 dd) and
      glucose infusions were halted. Under prednisolone treatment, glucose levels were
      slightly increased and no further hypoglycaemic episodes occurred. At her
      request, no surgery was performed. After 19 days, the patient was discharged to a
      hospice and died 3 weeks later. LEARNING POINTS: Hepatocellular carcinoma may be
      associated with non-islet cell tumour hypoglycaemia (NICTH).NICTH-induced
      hypoglycaemia is associated with low insulin and IGF1.Measurement of IGF2 only
      (without measurement of Pro-IGF2 and IGF1) may be insufficient to prove NICTH.

PMID- 28567294
TI  - Pheochromocytomatosis associated with a novel TMEM127 mutation.
AB  - : Pheochromocytomatosis, a very rare form of pheochromocytoma recurrence, refers
      to new, multiple, and often small pheochromocytomas growing in and around the
      surgical resection bed of a previous adrenalectomy for a solitary
      pheochromocytoma. We here report a case of pheochromocytomatosis in a 70-year-old
      female. At age 64 years, she was diagnosed with a 6-cm right pheochromocytoma.
      She underwent laparoscopic right adrenalectomy, during which the tumor capsule
      was ruptured. At age 67 years, CT of abdomen did not detect recurrence. At age 69
      years, she began experiencing episodes of headache and diaphoresis. At age 70
      years, biochemical markers of pheochromocytoma became elevated with normal
      calcitonin level. CT revealed multiple nodules of various sizes in the right
      adrenal fossa, some of which were positive on metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG)
      scan. She underwent open resection of pheochromocytomatosis. Histological
      examination confirmed numerous pheochromocytomas ranging 0.1-1.2 cm in size. Next
      generation sequencing of a panel of genes found a novel heterozygous germline
      c.570delC mutation in TMEM127, one of the genes that, if mutated, confers
      susceptibility to syndromic pheochromocytoma. Molecular analysis showed that the
      c.570delC mutation is likely pathogenic. Our case highlights the typical
      presentation of pheochromocytomatosis, a rare complication of adrenalectomy for
      pheochromocytoma. Previous cases and ours collectively demonstrate that tumor
      capsule rupture during adrenalectomy is a risk factor for pheochromocytomatosis.
      We also report a novel TMEM127 mutation in this case. LEARNING POINTS:
      Pheochromocytomatosis is a very rare form of pheochromocytoma
      recurrence.Pheochromocytomatosis refers to new, multiple and often small
      pheochromocytomas growing in and around the surgical resection bed of a previous
      adrenalectomy for a solitary pheochromocytoma.Tumor capsule rupture during
      adrenalectomy predisposes a patient to develop pheochromocytomatosis.Surgical
      resection of the multiple tumors of pheochromocytomatosis is
      recommended.Pheochromocytoma recurrence should prompt genetic testing for
      syndromic pheochromocytoma.

PMID- 28567295
TI  - Stubborn hiccups as a sign of massive apoplexy in a naive acromegaly patient with
      pituitary macroadenoma.
AB  - : Pituitary apoplexy (PA) may very rarely present with hiccups. A 32-year-old man
      with classical acromegaloid features was admitted with headache, nausea, vomiting
      and stubborn hiccups. Pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated
      apoplexy of a macroadenoma with suprasellar extension abutting the optic chiasm.
      Plasma growth hormone (GH) levels exhibited suppression (below <1 ng/mL) at all
      time points during GH suppression test with 75 g oral glucose. After treatment
      with corticosteroid agents, he underwent transsphenoidal pituitary surgery and
      hiccups disappeared postoperatively. The GH secretion potential of the tumor was
      clearly demonstrated immunohistochemically. We conclude that stubborn hiccups in
      a patient with a pituitary macroadenoma may be a sign of massive apoplexy that
      may result in hormonal remission. LEARNING POINTS: Patients with pituitary
      apoplexy may rarely present with hiccups.Stubborn hiccupping may be a sign of
      generalized infarction of a large tumor irritating the midbrain.Infarction can be
      so massive that it may cause cessation of hormonal overproduction and result in
      remission.

PMID- 28567296
TI  - Thyrotoxicosis leading to adrenal crises reveals primary bilateral adrenal
      lymphoma.
AB  - : Primary adrenal lymphoma is a rare malignancy. It frequently presents
      bilaterally and with symptoms of adrenal insufficiency. Amiodarone may induce
      secondary organ dysfunction, and thyrotoxicosis develops in 15% of cases. The
      symptomatology of both conditions is nonspecific, especially in the elderly, and
      a high suspicion index is necessary for appropriate diagnosis. A 78-year-old
      female presented to the emergency department with confusion, nausea and vomiting.
      She had recently been to the emergency department with urinary tract infection,
      vomiting and acute hypochloremic hyponatremia. Upon re-evaluation, the
      leukocyturia persisted and because of TSH 0.01 uU/mL and free-T4 68 (10-18)
      pmol/L, she was admitted to the Endocrinology ward. Further evaluation supported
      amiodarone-induced thyroiditis type 2. Sepsis ensued, in the setting of
      nosocomial pneumonia. Hemodynamic instability, hyponatremia, hypoglycemia and
      vomiting raised the suspicion of adrenocortical insufficiency. Fluid
      resuscitation and hydrocortisone led to clinical improvement, and adrenal
      insufficiency was admitted. The thoracoabdominal tomography suggested an
      endobronchic primary lesion with hepatic and adrenal secondary deposits (6.6 and
      7 cm), but this was confirmed neither on pleural effusion nor on
      bronchofibroscopic fluid analyses. The adrenals were not accessible for biopsy.
      Despite high-dose hydrocortisone maintenance, the patient died before definite
      diagnosis. The autopsy confirmed primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma. LEARNING POINTS:
      Primary adrenal lymphoma is a rare cause of adrenal insufficiency, but
      progression can be fast and fatal.Hyperpigmentation is frequently absent.The
      presenting symptoms are nonspecific and might mimic infection. Disproportion of
      the general state with signs of specific organ symptomatology is a diagnostic
      clue.Infection may precipitate adrenal crisis and worsen thyroid function with
      further adrenal insufficiency exacerbation.In the context of thyrotoxicosis,
      there may be little clinical response to a therapeutic trial with standard dose
      glucocorticoids.High-dose glucocorticoid substitution may be required to achieve
      clinical stability in thyrotoxic patients.

PMID- 28567297
TI  - Pasireotide in an insulin-requiring diabetic acromegalic patient without
      worsening of hyperglycemia.
AB  - : Long-acting pasireotide is an effective treatment option for acromegaly, but it
      is associated with hyperglycemia, which could impact its use in patients with
      diabetes. We present a case of a 53-year-old man with acromegaly and type 2
      diabetes mellitus (glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c): 7.5%), who refused surgery to
      remove a pituitary macroadenoma and enrolled in a Phase 3 clinical trial
      comparing long-acting pasireotide and long-acting octreotide in acromegalic
      patients. The patient initially received octreotide, but insulin-like growth
      factor 1 (IGF-1) levels remained elevated after 12 months (383.9 ng/mL; 193.0
      ng/mL; reference range: 86.5-223.8 ng/mL), indicating uncontrolled acromegaly. He
      switched to pasireotide 40 mg and subsequently increased to 60 mg. Within 6
      months, IGF-1 levels normalized (193.0 ng/mL), and they were mostly normal for
      the next 62 months of treatment with pasireotide (median IGF-1: 190.7 ng/mL).
      Additionally, HbA1c levels remained similar to or lower than baseline levels
      (range, 6.7% to 7.8%) during treatment with pasireotide despite major changes to
      the patient's antidiabetic regimen, which included insulin and metformin.
      Uncontrolled acromegaly can result in hyperglycemia due to an increase in insulin
      resistance. Despite having insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes, the patient
      presented here did not experience a long-term increase in HbA1c levels upon
      initiating pasireotide, likely because long-term control of acromegaly resulted
      in increased insulin sensitivity. This case highlights the utility of long-acting
      pasireotide to treat acromegaly in patients whose levels were uncontrolled after
      long-acting octreotide and who manage diabetes with insulin. LEARNING POINTS:
      Long-acting pasireotide provided adequate, long-term biochemical control of
      acromegaly in a patient with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes mellitus who was
      unresponsive to long-acting octreotide.Glycemic levels initially increased after
      starting treatment with pasireotide but quickly stabilized as acromegaly became
      controlled.Long-acting pasireotide, along with an appropriate antidiabetic
      regimen, may be a suitable therapy for patients with acromegaly who also have
      insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28567298
TI  - Recurrent insulinoma in a 10-year-old boy with Down's syndrome.
AB  - : An insulinoma is a rare tumour with an incidence of four cases per million per
      year in adults. The incidence in children is not established. There is limited
      literature available in children with insulinoma, and only one case is reported
      in association with Down's syndrome in adults. Insulinoma diagnosis is frequently
      missed in adults as well as in children. The Whipple triad is the most striking
      feature although it has limited application in young children. Hypoglycaemia with
      elevated insulin, C-peptide and absent ketones is highly suggestive of
      hyperinsulinism. We present a case of 10-year-old boy with Down's syndrome with
      recurrent insulinoma. He was initially misdiagnosed as having an adrenal
      insufficiency and developed cushingoid features and obesity secondary to
      hydrocortisone treatment and excessive sugar intake. The tumour was successfully
      localised in the head of the pancreas with an MRI and octreotide scan on first
      presentation. Medical treatment with diazoxide and octreotide could not achieve
      normal blood glucose levels. The insulinoma was laparoscopically enucleated and
      pathological examination confirmed a neuroendocrine tumour. Subsequently, he had
      complete resolution of symptoms. He had a recurrence after 2 years with frequent
      episodes of hypoglycaemia. The biochemical workup was suggestive of
      hyperinsulinism. MRI and PET scan confirmed the recurrence at the same site (head
      of the pancreas). He had an open laparotomy for insulinoma resection. The
      pathology was consistent with benign insulinoma, and subsequently, he had
      complete resolution of symptoms. LEARNING POINTS: Insulinoma is a very rare
      tumour in children; it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of
      hypoglycaemia with absent ketones.Refractory neurological symptoms like seizure,
      migraine, mood changes and regression of learning abilities should suggest
      evaluation for hypoglycaemia.MRI with contrast and PET scan would localise the
      majority of pancreatic beta islet cell lesions.Medical treatment with diazoxide,
      octreotide and the addition of corn starch in feeds is not curative but can be
      supportive to maintain normoglycemia until the surgical resection.Surgical
      resection is the only curative treatment. The surgical procedure of choice
      (laparoscopic/open laparotomy) depends on local expertise, preoperative
      localisation, tumour size and number.Surgical treatment results in complete
      resolution of symptoms, but all cases should be closely followed up to monitor
      for recurrence. The recurrence rate is four times higher in MEN1 cases.

PMID- 28567299
TI  - Evaluation of an online injecting drug use stigma intervention targeted at health
      providers in New South Wales, Australia.
AB  - People who inject drugs are highly stigmatised. Discriminatory experiences are
      commonly reported, particularly in health care settings. This article evaluates
      an online stigma reduction training module targeting health providers working
      with people who inject drugs. A total of 139 participants completed a pre- and
      post-survey including attitude items and items depicting hypothetical scenarios
      and concerns around client behaviours. Participants' attitudes towards people who
      inject drugs were more positive and they showed less concerns about client
      behaviours after completing the online training module. Findings highlight the
      benefits of online training in reducing discriminatory attitudes towards people
      who inject drugs and improving confidence in working with this client group.

PMID- 28567300
TI  - Quality of primary health care and autonomous motivation for effective diabetes
      self-management among patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - This study showed, in line with self-determination theory, that of the six
      central quality dimensions of primary health care (access to care, continuity of
      care, diabetes counseling, autonomy support from one's physician, trust, patient
      centered care), autonomy support from one's physician was most strongly
      associated with autonomous motivation (self-regulation) for effective diabetes
      self-management among patients with type 2 diabetes (n = 2866). However, overall
      support for diabetes care received from friends, family members, other patients
      with diabetes, and health care professionals may even play a greater role.

PMID- 28567301
TI  - Designing behavioral self-regulation application for preventive personal mental
      healthcare.
AB  - Most of computerized cognitive behavioral therapy targeted restoration and few
      have targeted primary prevention. The purpose of this study is to obtain the
      knowledge for further development on preventive mental healthcare application. We
      developed a personal mental healthcare application which aimed to give users the
      chance to manage their mental health by self-monitoring and regulating their
      behavior. Through the 30-day field trial, the results showed improvement of mood
      score through conducting of suggested action, and the depressive mood of the
      participants was significantly decreased after the trial. The possibility of
      application and further problem was confirmed.

PMID- 28567302
TI  - Prevalence of substance abuse and socio-economic differences in substance abuse
      in an Australian community-dwelling elderly sample.
AB  - A sample of 324 55-90-year-old Australian adults participated in a survey on
      elderly substance abuse using the Clinical Assessment Scales for the Elderly.
      Overall, males had a higher prevalence rate of substance abuse than females.
      Significant differences in substance abuse mean scores were found for gender,
      age, income, community involvement, and retirement. The findings also reveal that
      being a female, involved in community groups, being a retiree, and being a non
      baby boomer are protective factors of substance abuse. Being an upper medium
      income earner appears to be a risk factor of substance abuse.

PMID- 28567304
TI  - Rising prevalence of non-B HIV-1 subtypes in North Carolina and evidence for
      local onward transmission.
AB  - HIV-1 diversity is increasing in North American and European cohorts which may
      have public health implications. However, little is known about non-B subtype
      diversity in the southern United States, despite the region being the epicenter
      of the nation's epidemic. We characterized HIV-1 diversity and transmission
      clusters to identify the extent to which non-B strains are transmitted locally.
      We conducted cross-sectional analyses of HIV-1 partial pol sequences collected
      from 1997 to 2014 from adults accessing routine clinical care in North Carolina
      (NC). Subtypes were evaluated using COMET and phylogenetic analysis. Putative
      transmission clusters were identified using maximum-likelihood trees. Clusters
      involving non-B strains were confirmed and their dates of origin were estimated
      using Bayesian phylogenetics. Data were combined with demographic information
      collected at the time of sample collection and country of origin for a subset of
      patients. Among 24,972 sequences from 15,246 persons, the non-B subtype
      prevalence increased from 0% to 3.46% over the study period. Of 325 persons with
      non-B subtypes, diversity was high with over 15 pure subtypes and recombinants;
      subtype C (28.9%) and CRF02_AG (24.0%) were most common. While identification of
      transmission clusters was lower for persons with non-B versus B subtypes, several
      local transmission clusters (>=3 persons) involving non-B subtypes were
      identified and all were presumably due to heterosexual transmission. Prevalence
      of non-B subtype diversity remains low in NC but a statistically significant rise
      was identified over time which likely reflects multiple importation. However, the
      combined phylogenetic clustering analysis reveals evidence for local onward
      transmission. Detection of these non-B clusters suggests heterosexual
      transmission and may guide diagnostic and prevention interventions.

PMID- 28567305
TI  - Characterization of Ex Vivo Expanded Oral Mucosal Epithelium Cells on Acellular
      Porcine Corneal Stroma for Ocular Surface Reconstruction.
AB  - PURPOSE: To ex vivo expand oral mucosal epithelium cells (OMECs) on acellular
      porcine corneal stroma (APCS) without using feeder cells and serum and to compare
      the morphologic and phenotypic characteristics of cultured oral cells on APCS to
      those of cells on deluded human amniotic membrane (HAM). METHODS: SD rat oral
      mucosal biopsies were cultured on APCS and HAM. Reverse-transcription polymerase
      chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the
      characterization of stem cells and epithelial differentiation of the outgrowth
      products. RESULTS: Stratified and optimal transplantable OMECs were obtained
      after being cultured three to four weeks. Both RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry
      showed that cultured OMECs expressed markers of epithelial differentiation
      cytokeratin K3 and epithelial stem cell markers of p63 and ABCG2. CONCLUSIONS:
      OMECs can be successfully cultured on APCS without using xenobiotic feeder cells
      and serum. Characterization showed that these sheets retain the morphologic and
      phenotypic characteristics of OMECs within differentiated cells and stem cells.
      The optimal transplantable sheets can prove to be particularly beneficial to both
      bilateral limbal stem cell deficiency and deep corneal lesions.

PMID- 28567303
TI  - Whole Genome Sequencing Expands Diagnostic Utility and Improves Clinical
      Management in Pediatric Medicine.
AB  - The standard of care for first-tier clinical investigation of the etiology of
      congenital malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders is chromosome
      microarray analysis (CMA) for copy number variations (CNVs), often followed by
      gene(s)-specific sequencing searching for smaller insertion-deletions (indels)
      and single nucleotide variant (SNV) mutations. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has
      the potential to capture all classes of genetic variation in one experiment;
      however, the diagnostic yield for mutation detection of WGS compared to CMA, and
      other tests, needs to be established. In a prospective study we utilized WGS and
      comprehensive medical annotation to assess 100 patients referred to a paediatric
      genetics service and compared the diagnostic yield versus standard genetic
      testing. WGS identified genetic variants meeting clinical diagnostic criteria in
      34% of cases, representing a 4-fold increase in diagnostic rate over CMA (8%) (p
      value = 1.42e-05) alone and >2-fold increase in CMA plus targeted gene sequencing
      (13%) (p-value = 0.0009). WGS identified all rare clinically significant CNVs
      that were detected by CMA. In 26 patients, WGS revealed indel and missense
      mutations presenting in a dominant (63%) or a recessive (37%) manner. We found
      four subjects with mutations in at least two genes associated with distinct
      genetic disorders, including two cases harboring a pathogenic CNV and SNV. When
      considering medically actionable secondary findings in addition to primary WGS
      findings, 38% of patients would benefit from genetic counseling. Clinical
      implementation of WGS as a primary test will provide a higher diagnostic yield
      than conventional genetic testing and potentially reduce the time required to
      reach a genetic diagnosis.

PMID- 28567307
TI  - Corrigendum to "Unmet Supportive Care Needs among Breast Cancer Survivors of
      Community-Based Support Group in Kuching, Sarawak".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2016/7297813.].

PMID- 28567306
TI  - MR Micro-Neurography and a Segmentation Protocol Applied to Diabetic Neuropathy.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess with MRI morphometric ultrastructural changes
      in nerves affected by diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). We used an MR micro
      neurography imaging protocol and a semiautomated technique of tissue segmentation
      to visualize and measure the volume of internal nerve components, such as the
      epineurium and nerve fascicles. The tibial nerves of 16 patients affected by DPN
      and of 15 healthy volunteers were imaged. Nerves volume (NV), fascicles volume
      (FV), fascicles to nerve ratio (FNR), and nerves cross-sectional areas (CSA) were
      obtained. In patients with DPN the NV was increased and the FNR was decreased, as
      a result of an increase of the epineurium (FNR in diabetic neuropathy 0,665; in
      controls 0,699, p = 0,040). CSA was increased in subjects with DPN (12,84 mm2
      versus 10,22 mm2, p = 0,003). The FV was increased in patients with moderate to
      severe DPN. We have demonstrated structural changes occurring in nerves affected
      by DPN, which otherwise are assessable only with an invasive biopsy. MR micro
      neurography appears to be suitable for the study of microscopic changes in tibial
      nerves of diabetic patients.

PMID- 28567308
TI  - Cut-Off Value of Medial Meniscal Extrusion for Knee Pain.
AB  - Purpose. Medial meniscal extrusion (MME) has attracted attention as an index of
      knee pain in conjunction with clinical symptoms that could be more useful than
      the diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis on X-ray. However, the size of MME that
      would cause knee pain has not been clarified. The aim of the present study was to
      investigate the cut-off value of MME for knee pain. Methods. A total of 318 knees
      were evaluated. The presence of current or past knee pain was confirmed by
      interview. Next, MME was measured using vertical sonographic images of the medial
      joint spaces during weightbearing. Results. Overall, 71 knees were painful (P
      group), and 247 knees were not (N-group). MME was 5.9 +/- 1.8 mm in the P-group
      and 2.9 +/- 1.5 mm in the N-group (P < 0.0001). Analysis of the receiver
      operating characteristic curve showed that the cut-off value of MME for knee pain
      was 4.3 mm, with sensitivity of 0.8451 and specificity of 0.8502. In addition,
      64% of knees without pain cases at the time of examination whose MME exceeded
      this cut-off value had past knee pain. Conclusions. The sensitivity and
      specificity of MME for knee pain were very high with a cut-off value of 4.3 mm.

PMID- 28567309
TI  - Left Atrial Myxoma in Pregnancy: Management Strategy Using Minimally Invasive
      Surgical Approach.
AB  - This case report concerns a young woman who, during her pregnancy, suffered
      severe mitral regurgitation. It was discovered at the same time that she had a
      left atrial myxoma. During the early postpartum period she successfully underwent
      an anterior minithoracotomy to remove the left atrial myxoma in conjunction with
      repair of the mitral valve. The thoracotomy approach in this specific patient was
      chosen as it would give a better chance of successful mother-child bonding
      because the patient would be able to avoid the precautions which would have been
      necessary following a sternotomy, especially the limitation of her ability to
      hold her child during the first 4-6 weeks postoperatively.

PMID- 28567310
TI  - Absence of Left Circumflex Artery: A Rare Congenital Disorder of Coronary
      Arteries.
AB  - Congenital absence of left circumflex artery is a rare occurrence and very few
      cases have been reported in literature. It is a benign incidental finding;
      however some patients present with sudden onset chest pain mimicking acute
      coronary syndrome often resulting in detection of this rare anatomy on coronary
      angiography. Coronary computed tomography angiography is a relatively new
      noninvasive imaging modality which can be used to confirm this suspicion and
      diagnose this unique morphology reliably.

PMID- 28567311
TI  - Retrieval of Embolized Amplatzer Patent Foramen Ovale Occlusion Device: Issues
      Related to Late Recognition.
AB  - Embolization of a percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure device is a
      rare but serious complication. While early, periprocedural device embolization
      can normally be managed with snare and percutaneous retrieval, late embolization
      requires a different management strategy due to inability of the device to deform
      to allow passage into a large caliber sheath. We present a case of asymptomatic
      device embolization recognized six months following implantation and discuss the
      challenges encountered in successfully retrieving the device.

PMID- 28567312
TI  - Intracorneal Hematoma Showing Clinical and Dermoscopic Features of Acral
      Lentiginous Melanoma.
AB  - Intra- and subcorneal hematoma, a skin alteration seen palmar and plantar after
      trauma or physical exercise, can be challenging to distinguish from in situ or
      invasive acral lentiginous melanoma. Thus, careful examination including
      dermoscopic and histologic assessment may be necessary to make the correct
      diagnosis. We here present a case of a 67-year-old healthy female patient who
      presented with a pigmented plantar skin alteration. Differential diagnoses
      included benign skin lesions, for example, hematoma or melanocytic nevus, and
      also acral lentiginous melanoma or melanoma in situ. Since clinical and
      dermoscopic examinations did not rule out a malignant skin lesion, surgical
      excision was performed and confirmed an intracorneal hematoma. In summary,
      without adequate physical trigger, it may be clinically and dermoscopically
      challenging to make the correct diagnosis in pigmented palmar and plantar skin
      alterations. Thus, biopsy or surgical excision of the skin alteration may be
      necessary to rule out melanoma.

PMID- 28567313
TI  - PUVA Induced Bullous Pemphigoid in a Patient with Mycosis Fungoides.
AB  - Background. Bullous pemphigoid is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering skin
      disease in which autoantibodies are directed against components of the basement
      membrane. The disease primarily affects the elderly people and in most of the
      patients inducing factors cannot be identified. Herein, we report a case of BP
      that occurred in a patient who was receiving PUVA therapy for the treatment of
      mycosis fungoides. Main Observation. A 26-year-old woman with mycosis fungoides
      developed blisters while receiving PUVA therapy. On physical examination tense
      bullae on the normal skin, remnants of blisters, and erosions were observed on
      her breasts, the chest wall, and the upper abdomen. Histopathological
      investigations revealed subepidermal blisters with eosinophilic infiltration and
      in direct immunofluorescence examination linear deposition of IgG along the
      basement membrane zone was observed. The diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid was also
      confirmed by ELISA and BIOCHIP mosaic-based indirect immunofluorescence test.
      Conclusions. PUVA therapy is an extremely rare physical factor capable of
      inducing bullous pemphigoid. So the development of blistering lesions during PUVA
      therapy may be suggestive sign of a bullous disease such as bullous pemphigoid
      and it should be excluded with proper clinical and laboratory approaches
      immediately after withdrawal of PUVA therapy.

PMID- 28567314
TI  - Subacute Hypophysitis with Panhypopituitarism as First Presentation of HIV and
      Syphilis Coinfection.
AB  - Infection by Treponema pallidum still represents a clinical challenge due to its
      various forms of presentation. HIV coinfection added diversity and changed the
      natural history of syphilis as a systemic infection. We present a rare case of
      subacute hypophysitis and panhypopituitarism due to an early active neurosyphilis
      in a previously unknown HIV coinfected patient.

PMID- 28567315
TI  - Respiratory Syncytial Virus Associated Myocarditis Requiring Venoarterial
      Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Severe fulminant myocarditis causing cardiogenic shock can be a rapidly
      progressing, life threatening condition. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a
      very rare infectious culprit infrequently described in medical literature as a
      cause of myocarditis, particularly in adults. We present a case of acute
      fulminant myocarditis in a patient with PCR positive RSV infection requiring
      venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO).

PMID- 28567316
TI  - Spontaneous Nosocomial Pseudomonas aeruginosa Meningitis Presenting as Trismus.
AB  - We describe the case of a 78-year-old female receiving adjuvant postsurgical
      chemotherapy for colon adenocarcinoma who spontaneously developed nosocomial
      Pseudomonas meningitis causing severe trismus. The patient was initially admitted
      for ileus, developing neck stiffness and trismus on the thirteenth day of
      admission. Cerebrospinal fluid grew pansensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Magnetic
      resonance imaging of the brain was consistent with bilateral subacute infarcts
      secondary to meningitis. The patient responded well to 21 days of broad spectrum
      antimicrobial therapy modified to ceftazidime alone following speciation and
      sensitivity. Outpatient follow-up at 46 days revealed normal maximal mouth
      opening with the ability to chew and tolerate a full diet. Trismus is a motor
      disturbance of the trigeminal nerve with difficulty in opening the mouth.
      Infectious etiologies commonly described include tetanus, odontogenic infections,
      or deep neck space infections. This is the first reported case of simultaneous
      nosocomial Pseudomonas meningitis and trismus in a patient with no history of
      neurosurgery or lumbar spinal manipulation.

PMID- 28567317
TI  - Open-Label Fosmetpantotenate, a Phosphopantothenate Replacement Therapy in a
      Single Patient with Atypical PKAN.
AB  - Objective. Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is an
      autosomal recessive disorder with variable onset, rate of progression, and
      phenotypic expression. Later-onset, more slowly progressive PKAN often presents
      with neuropsychiatric as well as motor manifestations that include speech
      difficulties, progressive dystonia, rigidity, and parkinsonism. PKAN is caused by
      biallelic PANK2 mutations, a gene that encodes pantothenate kinase 2, a
      regulatory enzyme in coenzyme A biosynthesis. Current therapeutic strategies rely
      on symptomatic relief. We describe the treatment of the first, later-onset PKAN
      patient with oral fosmetpantotenate (previously known as RE-024), a novel
      replacement therapy developed to bypass the enzymatic defect. Methods. This was
      an open-label, uncontrolled, 12-month treatment with fosmetpantotenate of a
      single patient with a later-onset, moderately severe, and slowly progressive form
      of PKAN. Results. The patient showed improvement in all clinical parameters
      including the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Barry-Albright
      Dystonia Scale, the EuroQol five-dimensional three-level (EQ-5D-3L) scale, timed
      25-foot walk test, and electroglottographic speech analysis. Fosmetpantotenate
      was well-tolerated with only transient liver enzyme elevation which normalized
      after dose reduction and did not recur after subsequent dose increases.
      Conclusions. Fosmetpantotenate showed promising results in a single PKAN patient
      and should be further studied in controlled trials.

PMID- 28567319
TI  - Anterior Interosseous Nerve Neuropraxia Secondary to Shoulder Arthroscopy and
      Open Subpectoral Long Head Biceps Tenodesis.
AB  - Arthroscopic rotator cuff tendon repair is a common elective procedure performed
      by trained orthopaedic surgeons with a relatively low complication rate.
      Specifically, isolated neuropraxia of the anterior interosseous nerve (AIN) is a
      very rare complication of shoulder arthroscopy. An analysis of peer-reviewed
      published literature revealed only three articles reporting a total of seven
      cases that describe this specific complication following standard shoulder
      arthroscopic procedures. This article reports on three patients diagnosed with
      AIN neuropraxia following routine shoulder arthroscopy done by a single surgeon
      within a three-year period. All three patients also underwent open biceps
      tenodesis immediately following completion of the arthroscopic procedures. The
      exact causal mechanism of AIN neuropraxia following shoulder arthroscopy with
      biceps tenodesis is not known. This case report reviews possible mechanisms with
      emphasis on specific factors that make a traction injury the most likely etiology
      in these cases. We critically analyze our operating room setup and patient
      positioning practices in light of the existing biomechanical and cadaveric
      research to propose changes to our standard practices that may help to reduce the
      incidence of this specific postoperative complication in patients undergoing
      elective shoulder arthroscopy with biceps tenodesis.

PMID- 28567318
TI  - Hemolysis, Elevated Liver Enzymes, and Low Platelets, Severe Fetal Growth
      Restriction, Postpartum Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, and Craniotomy: A Rare Case
      Report and Systematic Review.
AB  - Introduction. Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets (HELLP)
      syndrome is a relatively uncommon but traumatic condition occurring in the later
      stage of pregnancy as a complication of severe preeclampsia or eclampsia. Prompt
      brain computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a
      multidisciplinary management approach are required to improve perinatal outcome.
      Case. A 37-year-old, Gravida 6, Para 1-0-4-1, Hispanic female with a history of
      chronic hypertension presented at 26 weeks and 6 days of gestational age. She was
      noted to have hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets (HELLP)
      syndrome accompanied by fetal growth restriction (FGR), during ultrasound
      evaluation, warranting premature delivery. The infant was delivered in stable
      condition suffering no permanent neurological deficit. Conclusion. HELLP syndrome
      is an uncommon and traumatic obstetric event which can lead to neurological
      deficits if not managed in a responsive and rapid manner. The central aggravating
      factor seems to be hypertension induced preeclamptic or eclamptic episode and
      complications thereof. The syndrome itself is manifested by hemolytic anemia,
      increased liver enzymes, and decreasing platelet counts with a majority of
      neurological defects resulting from hemorrhagic stroke or subarachnoid hemorrhage
      (SAH). To minimize adverse perinatal outcomes, obstetric management of this
      medical complication must include rapid clinical assessment, diagnostic
      examination, and neurosurgery consultation.

PMID- 28567320
TI  - Pneumoperitoneum without Intestinal Perforation in a Neonate: Case Report and
      Literature Review.
AB  - Pneumoperitoneum in a preterm neonate usually indicates perforation of the
      intestine and is considered a surgical emergency. However, there are cases of
      pneumoperitoneum with no evidence of rupture of the intestine reported in the
      literature. We report a case of pneumoperitoneum with no intestinal perforation
      in a preterm neonate with respiratory distress syndrome who was on high frequency
      oscillatory ventilation (HFOV). He developed bilateral pulmonary interstitial
      emphysema with localized cystic lesion, likely localized pulmonary interstitial
      emphysema, and recurrent pneumothoraces. He was treated with dexamethasone to
      wean from the ventilator. Pneumoperitoneum developed in association with left
      sided pneumothorax following mechanical ventilation and cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation. Pneumoperitoneum resolved after the pneumothorax was resolved with
      chest tube drainage. He died from acute cardiorespiratory failure. At autopsy,
      there was no evidence of intestinal perforation. This case highlights the fact
      that pneumoperitoneum can develop secondary to pneumothorax and does not always
      indicate intestinal perforation or require exploratory laparotomy.

PMID- 28567321
TI  - Neuropsychiatric Manifestations in a Patient with Panhypopituitarism.
AB  - We present a case of an incidental diagnosis of panhypopituitarism in a 68-year
      old African American man admitted to our psychiatric inpatient unit with symptoms
      suggestive of schizophrenia. The case was unusual as a first-episode psychosis
      given the patient's age. In the course of his admission, the patient's clinical
      condition deteriorated culminating in a sudden altered mental status which
      prompted a transfer to the medical floors and further investigations. A head CT
      scan and a pituitary MRI revealed a near total resection of the pituitary while
      laboratory investigations revealed hyponatremia and a grossly low hormone
      profile. The progression of these events casts doubts on our admitting diagnosis
      as the primary cause of the patient's symptoms. The patient's clinical condition
      improved only when his endocrinopathy was treated with hormone replacement,
      fluids, and electrolyte correction in addition to antipsychotics. An inability to
      verify the patient's psychiatric history and a remote history of pituitary
      resection several decades earlier, unknown to the treating team, added to the
      diagnostic conundrum. We revised the diagnosis to neuropsychiatric manifestations
      secondary to an organic brain syndrome due to a partial pituitary resection. The
      patient was discharged with no symptoms of psychosis, good insight, judgment, and
      good reality testing.

PMID- 28567322
TI  - Contralateral Ovarian Metastasis of Clear-Cell Renal Carcinoma: A Rare Case
      Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) constitutes 2-3% of all types of cancers. RCCs
      metastasize into lungs (50-60%), lymph nodes (36%), bones (30-40%), liver (30
      40%), and brain (5%) in respective percentages. RCC rarely metastasizes into
      ovary. Only 25 cases of ovarian tumor, which metastasized into kidneys, have been
      presented. In the literature, a kidney-ovary axis has been defined, and its
      interrelationship begins with embryological life. With this case report, we aimed
      both to present a very rarely seen metastasis of RCC into contralateral ovary and
      also to review the literature.

PMID- 28567323
TI  - Comparative Neuroprotective Effects of Dietary Curcumin and Solid Lipid Curcumin
      Particles in Cultured Mouse Neuroblastoma Cells after Exposure to Abeta42.
AB  - Aggregation of amyloid beta protein (Abeta) and phosphorylated tau (p-Tau) plays
      critical roles in pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As an antiamyloid
      natural polyphenol, curcumin (Cur) has a potential role in prevention of
      neurodegeneration in AD. However, due to limited absorption of the dietary Cur,
      the solid lipid Cur particles (SLCP) have been suggested as being more effective
      for AD therapy. In the present study, we compared the role of dietary Cur and
      SLCP on oxidative stress, neuronal death, p-Tau level, and certain cell survival
      markers in vitro, after exposure to Abeta42. Mouse neuroblastoma cells were
      exposed to Abeta42 for 24 h and incubated with or without dietary Cur and/or
      SLCP. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), apoptotic cell death, p-Tau, and tau kinase
      (including GSK-3beta and cell survival markers, such as total Akt, phosphorylated
      Akt, and PSD95 levels) were investigated. SLCP showed greater permeability than
      dietary Cur in vitro, decreased ROS production, and prevented apoptotic death. In
      addition, SLCP also inhibited p-Tau formation and significantly decreased GSK
      3beta levels. Further, the cell survival markers, such as total Akt, p-Akt, and
      PSD95 levels, were more effectively maintained by SLCP than dietary Cur in
      Abeta42 exposed cells. Therefore, SLCP may provide greater neuroprotection than
      dietary Cur in Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28567324
TI  - Adenocarcinoma in a Koff Urinary Ileal Diversion.
AB  - The use of an ileal conduit as a means of treatment for bladder cancer or
      dysfunction is widely used and understood. However, long term surveillance of
      that conduit has not been strongly established and set forth as a means of
      screening. We present a 76yo female with a history of neurogenic bladder
      secondary to paraplegia who underwent the formation of a "Koff" pouch as a
      conduit. Nineteen years later she presents with hematuria and was found to have
      adenocarcinoma originating in her conduit.

PMID- 28567325
TI  - Metastatic Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate Presenting as Supraclavicular and Bulky
      Generalized Lymphadenopathy with a Benign Digital Rectal Exam.
AB  - A 63-year-old male presented with complaints of an enlarging left supraclavicular
      mass and weight loss. Computed tomography demonstrated a large retroperitoneal
      mass causing displacement of the adjacent organs, and moderate left
      hydroureteronephrosis. Multiple pulmonary nodules, lytic spinal lesions, and
      generalized lymphadenopathy including the left supraclavicular region were seen.
      Serum prostate-specific antigen level was 2064.0 ng/mL. Digital rectal exam
      revealed an enlarged prostate without nodularity. Biopsy of the supraclavicular
      node demonstrated prostatic adenocarcinoma. The diagnosis of lymphoma may be
      initially suggested, however, prostatic origin should be considered even when the
      prostate exam is not grossly abnormal.

PMID- 28567326
TI  - Renal Myxoma, an Incidental Finding.
AB  - Myxomas are mesenchymal tumors commonly found in the heart and skin. Renal
      myxomas are rare, having only been documented 14 times. Our case is a 55-year-old
      woman who presented to our clinic after a right renal mass was incidentally found
      on CT. Evaluation with MRI showed a mass that appeared to arise from the supero
      medial cortex of the right kidney. As the imaging was concerning for renal cell
      carcinoma, the patient underwent a partial nephrectomy. Microscopic examination
      showed a well-circumscribed mass with polygonal to spindle-shaped cells in a
      granular eosinophilic cytoplasm. Immunohistochemical staining for CD-10, Desmin,
      HMB-45, and Pankeratin were negative.

PMID- 28567327
TI  - Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Management of Caliceal Diverticular Calculi.
AB  - Standard treatment modalities of caliceal diverticular calculi range from
      extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) over retrograde intrarenal surgery
      (RIRS), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) and laparoscopic stone removal. A 55
      year-old woman presented with a history of pyelonephritis based on a caliceal
      diverticular calculus. Due to the narrow infundibulum and anterior location, a
      robot-assisted laparoscopic calicotomy with extraction of the calculi and
      fulguration of the diverticulum was performed, with no specific perioperative
      problems and good stone-free results. This article shows technical feasibility
      with minimal morbidity of robot-assisted laparoscopic stone removal and
      obliteration of a caliceal diverticulum.

PMID- 28567328
TI  - Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Renal Pelvis: Atypical Presentation of a Rare
      Malignancy.
AB  - Primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the renal pelvis is exceedingly rare and
      is associated with advanced stage at diagnosis and a poor prognosis. Diagnosis is
      often difficult due to vague presenting symptoms and nonspecific radiologic
      findings. The mainstay of treatment is nephrectomy, with cisplatin based
      chemotherapy and palliative radiation reserved for metastatic disease. We report
      a SCC of the renal pelvis in a 72 year-old female who presented with abdominal
      pain. To date, this is the largest SCC originating from the renal pelvis reported
      in the literature, made even more exceptional by the lack of antecedent risk
      factors.

PMID- 28567329
TI  - Carcinosarcoma of the Tunica Vaginalis Following Radiation Therapy for Localized
      Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Spermatic cord tumors (SCTs) are rare neoplasms with 80% exhibiting benign
      pathology. Of the malignant SCTs, 90% are sarcomas. To date there has only been
      one documented case of primary CS of the spermatic cord which occurred in a 40
      year old with no reported medical history. A 76-year-old male with a history of
      biopsy proven Gleason score 7 (3 + 4) prostatic adenocarcinoma underwent external
      beam radiation therapy (7920 cGy) in 44 fractions in 2004. He presented with a 3
      year history of an asymptomatic right hydrocele. Several scrotal ultrasounds had
      been performed confirming a hydrocele, with the most recent revealing a hydrocele
      measuring 10 * 14 cm and several epididymal cysts. During the hydrocelectomy a
      firm suspicious mass was noted inside the tunica vaginalis and involving the
      spermatic cord. Given the intraoperative findings, decision was made to proceed
      with radical orchiectomy. Final pathologic examination revealed the tumor to have
      a biphasic pattern composed of spindled cells and also cells with an epithelioid
      morphology. Five months following orchiectomy he patient presented with a
      painful, enlarging right upper scrotal mass. A CT scan revealed new soft tissue
      lesions suspicious for necrotic lymph nodes within the right inguinal canal.
      Additional metastatic evaluation revealed multiple new pleural and parenchymal
      lung nodules. CT guided needle biopsy of a left lung nodule demonstrated spindle
      cells with high cellularity and areas of necrosis which were histomorphologically
      similar to the previous scrotal CS. Gemcitabine therapy was subsequently started.
      Four months following the diagnosis of metastatic CS, the patient expired.
      Dedifferentiation of prostatic adenocarcinoma to prostatic CS should be
      considered as a treatment outcome after localized radiation therapy to the
      prostate due to the highly aggressive nature of metastatic CS.

PMID- 28567330
TI  - Cystic Dysplasia of the Testis in an Intraabdominal Undescended Testicle.
AB  - Cystic dysplasia of the testis is a rare, benign pathologic finding. We present
      two recent cases of cystic dysplasia of the testis to our practice. The first
      case involves an 11 month old male presenting with a non-palpable, intra
      abdominal left testis. The second case involves a 7 year old male with left
      scrotal swelling and a history of left renal agenesis. After review of the
      literature, the first case represents the first report of cystic dysplasia of the
      testis in an undescended, intra-abdominal testicle.

PMID- 28567331
TI  - Laparoscopic Management of Pelvic Organ Prolapse in a Kidney Transplant
      Recipient.
AB  - This is a report of a laparoscopic double mesh sacrocolpopexy performed in the
      setting of a 73-year-old woman carrying a grafted kidney. The patient had a
      vaginal prolapse of the anterior and posterior floor without urinary
      incontinence. Despite immunosuppression due to anti-rejection treatments and the
      presence of kidney transplant in left iliac fossa, laparoscopic intervention with
      the introduction of prosthetic material was conducted. The intervention showed no
      major difficulty in its implementation and the postoperative course was
      uneventful. The long-term follow-up will confirm the tolerance of a prosthetic
      material.

PMID- 28567332
TI  - Successful Radiotherapy for Advanced Small Cell Carcinoma of the Prostate with
      Syndrome of Inappropriate Secretion of Antidiuretic Hormone.
AB  - Small cell carcinoma of the prostate (SCCP) is rare in clinical practice. It is
      often accompanied with the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone
      secretion (SIADH). We present a case of SCCP with SIADH that was successfully
      treated with radiotherapy in the metastatic lymphnodes and prostate. The patient
      was an 81-year-old male with a castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) with
      invaded rectum and multiple metastases of pelvic lymphnodes. Hyponatremia was
      present. After radiotherapy, serum sodium increased and neuron-specific enolase
      (NSE) decreased. To our knowledge, this is the first case of SCCP with SIADH
      treated with radiotherapy to improve hyponatremia.

PMID- 28567333
TI  - Post Incisional Hernia Meshplasty Vesicocutaneous Fistula - A Rare Complication.
AB  - Laparoscopic meshplasty is gold standard in hernia surgery. Mesh migration into
      bowel/bladder has been documented after laparoscopic repair, though migration
      into bowel is more common than bladder. Only 12 cases of migration into bladder
      have been described post inguinal meshplasty. We report the 1st case of mesh
      migration into bladder post Incisional hernia meshplasty, presenting as
      vesicocutaneous fistula. The objectives of this report are highlighting important
      points enabling earlier diagnosis, treatment. We would also like to suggest
      important preventive measures during meshplasty which we believe will go a long
      way in avoiding this important complication, thus immensely benefiting patients.

PMID- 28567334
TI  - Case Presentation: Lung Consolidation as Sequelae of BCG Sepsis After Combined
      Intravesical and Intraurethral BCG.
AB  - BCG sepsis is rarely seen with modern intravesical therapy and therefore its
      presentation may not be apparent to recently trained urologists. We describe BCG
      sepsis occurring in a patient treated with combined intravesical and
      intraurethral BCG which resulted in lung consolidation with acid-fast bacilli
      requiring cessation of BCG and initiation of systemic antibiotic therapy.

PMID- 28567335
TI  - Rare Presentation of Metastatic Cystic Trophoblastic Tumor in a Patient Without
      Prior Chemotherapy.
AB  - Cystic trophoblastic tumor (CTT) is a rare testicular germ cell tumor (GCT)
      predominantly seen in post-chemotherapy patients. It is prognostically similar to
      teratoma and requires no additional chemotherapy in the absence of a
      nonteratomatous GCT component. We report a case of metastatic CTT in a patient
      with primary testicular teratoma without prior chemotherapy. Retroperitoneal
      lymph node metastases contained teratoma, embryonal carcinoma, and CTT. The CTT
      was beta-hCG positive and SALL4 negative by immunohistochemistry (IHC). CTT can
      arise in metastatic testicular GCT in treatment naive patients. An important
      differential diagnosis is choriocarcinoma due to treatment implications, and
      SALL4 IHC may help.

PMID- 28567336
TI  - Management of Hepatic Granulomatous Tuberculosis After BCG Therapy for Bladder
      Cancer.
AB  - BCG therapy is used as a treatment in bladder cancer. Intravesical administration
      of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin is used as a treatment method in superficial bladder
      cancer. While it is commonly effective, some serious side effects may occur. We
      hereby report a 65-year-old man who developed granulomatous hepatitis as a
      complication following BCG therapy. He was treated successfully with
      antitubercular therapy and prednisolone.

PMID- 28567337
TI  - Body mass index is associated with region-dependent metabolic reprogramming of
      adipose tissue.
AB  - Adipose tissue (AT) is involved in dysmetabolism pathogenesis. Regional fat
      distribution and functioning may contribute to obesity-related metabolic
      disorders and adverse health outcomes. Specific fat depots are suggested to
      possess unique biological properties, but specific metabolic profiles of
      subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) remain unknown. We aimed to
      characterize VAT and SAT glucose metabolism, and their correlation with body mass
      index (BMI). AT samples from patients (n = 12; F:M, 9:3) with a mean age of 46
      years (26-83 years) and an average BMI of 29.6 kg/m2 (18-37 kg/m2) were used. VAT
      and SAT explants were obtained during elective laparoscopy, either
      cholecystectomy for uncomplicated cholelithiasis or gastric bypass for severe
      obesity. Explants were placed in insulin-free cell culture media and their
      metabolic profile was established by proton nuclear magnetic resonance. AT
      explants display a glucose and pyruvate consumption and acetate production that
      is region-dependent according to the patients BMI. In VAT, glucose consumption
      was positively correlated with BMI, while alanine and lactate production were
      negatively correlated with BMI, whereas in SAT the patients BMI did not affect AT
      secretome suggesting that increased BMI promotes a metabolic reprogramming of VAT
      towards de novo lipogenesis. This region-dependent metabolic reprogramming of AT
      associated with BMI was autonomous of insulin. This data, although preliminary,
      suggests that there is a BMI-related remodeling of glucose metabolism in VAT.
      Targeting this BMI-induced metabolic shift may represent a potential target to
      counteract unwanted consequences derived from visceral adiposity.

PMID- 28567338
TI  - Rapid diagnosis and intraoperative margin assessment of human lung cancer with
      fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.
AB  - A method of rapidly differentiating lung tumor from healthy tissue is
      extraordinarily needed for both the diagnosis and the intraoperative margin
      assessment. We assessed the ability of fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy
      (FLIM) for differentiating human lung cancer and normal tissues with the
      autofluorescence, and also elucidated the mechanism in tissue studies and cell
      studies. A 15-patient testing group was used to compare FLIM results with
      traditional histopathology diagnosis. Based on the endogenous fluorescence
      lifetimes of the testing group, a criterion line was proposed to distinguish
      normal and cancerous tissues. Then by blinded examined 41 sections from the
      validation group of other 16 patients, the sensitivity and specificity of FLIM
      were determined. The cellular metabolism was studied with specific perturbations
      of oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis in cell studies. The fluorescence
      lifetime of cancerous lung tissues is consistently lower than normal tissues, and
      this is due to the both decrease of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
      (NADH) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) lifetimes. A criterion line of
      lifetime at 1920 ps can be given for differentiating human lung cancer and normal
      tissues.The sensitivity and specificity of FLIM for lung cancer diagnosis were
      determined as 92.9% and 92.3%. These findings suggest that NADH and FAD can be
      used to rapidly diagnose lung cancer. FLIM is a rapid, accurate and highly
      sensitive technique in the judgment during lung cancer surgery and it can be
      potential in earlier cancer detection.

PMID- 28567339
TI  - Hallux rigidus: How do I approach it?
AB  - Hallux rigidus is a degenerative disease of the first metatarsalphalangeal (MTP)
      joint and affects 2.5% of people over age 50. Dorsal osteophytes and narrowed
      joint space leads to debilitating pain and limited range of motion. Altered gait
      mechanics often ensued as 119% of the body force transmit through the 1st MTP
      joint during gait cycle. Precise etiology remains under debate with trauma being
      often cited in the literature. Hallux valgus interphalangeus, female gender,
      inflammatory and metabolic conditions have all been identified as associative
      factors. Clinical symptoms, physical exam and radiographic evidence are important
      in assessing and grading the disease. Non-operative managements including
      nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, intra-articular injections, shoe
      modification, activity modification and physical therapy, should always be
      attempted for all hallux rigidus patients. The goal of surgery is to relieve
      pain, maintain stability of the first MTP joint, and improve function and quality
      of life. Operative treatments can be divided into joint-sparing vs joint
      sacrificing. Cheilectomy and moberg osteotomy are examples of joint-sparing
      techniques that have demonstrated great success in early stages of hallux
      rigidus. Arthrodesis is a joint-sacrificing procedure that has been the gold
      standard for advanced hallux rigidus. Other newer procedures such as implant
      arthroplasty, interpositional arthroplasty and arthroscopy, have demonstrated
      promising early patient outcomes. However, future studies are still needed to
      validate its long-term efficacy and safety. The choice of procedure should be
      based on the condition of the joint, patient's goal and expectations, and
      surgeon's experience with the technique.

PMID- 28567340
TI  - Light and electron microscopic study of the medial collateral ligament
      epiligament tissue in human knees.
AB  - AIM: To examine the normal morphology of the epiligament tissue of the knee
      medial collateral ligament (MCL) in humans. METHODS: Several samples of the mid
      substance of the MCL of the knee joint from 7 fresh human cadavers (3 females and
      4 males) were taken. Examination of the epiligament tissue was conducted by light
      microscopy and photomicrography on semi-thin sections of formalin fixed paraffin
      embedded blocks that were routinely stained with haematoxylin and eosin, Mallory
      stain and Van Gieson's stain. Electron microscopy of the epiligament tissue was
      performed on ultra-thin sections incubated in 1% osmium tetroxide and contrasted
      with 2.5% uranyl acetate, lead nitrate, and sodium citrate. RESULTS: The current
      light microscopic study demonstrated that the epiligament of the MCL consisted of
      fibroblasts, fibrocytes, adipocytes, neuro-vascular bundles and numerous
      multidirectional collagen fibers. In contrast, the ligament body was poorly
      vascularised, composed of hypo-cellular fascicles which were formed of
      longitudinal groups of collagen fibers. Moreover, most of the vessels of the
      epiligament-ligament complex were situated in the epiligament tissue. The
      electron microscopic study revealed fibroblasts with various shapes in the
      epiligament substance. All of them had the ultrastructural characteristics of
      active cells with large nuclei, well developed rough endoplasmic reticulum,
      multiple ribosomes, poorly developed Golgi apparatus, elliptical mitochondria and
      oval lysosomes. The electron microscopy also confirmed the presence of
      adipocytes, mast cells, myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibers and chaotically
      oriented collagen fibers. CONCLUSION: Significant differences exist between the
      normal structure of the ligament and the epiligament whose morphology and
      function is to be studied further.

PMID- 28567341
TI  - Technical note: Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in the presence of an
      intramedullary femoral nail using anteromedial drilling.
AB  - AIM: To describe an approach to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction
      using autologous hamstring by drilling via the anteromedial portal in the
      presence of an intramedullary (IM) femoral nail. METHODS: Once preoperative
      imagining has characterized the proposed location of the femoral tunnel
      preparations are made to remove all of the hardware (locking bolts and IM nail).
      A diagnostic arthroscopy is performed in the usual fashion addressing all intra
      articular pathology. The ACL remnant and lateral wall soft tissues are removed
      from the intercondylar, to provide adequate visualization of the ACL footprint.
      Femoral tunnel placement is performed using a transportal ACL guide with desired
      offset and the knee flexed to 2.09 rad. The Beath pin is placed through the guide
      starting at the ACL's anatomic footprint using arthroscopic visualization and/or
      fluoroscopic guidance. If resistance is met while placing the Beath pin, the
      arthroscopy should be discontinued and the obstructing hardware should be removed
      under fluoroscopic guidance. When the Beath pin is successfully placed through
      the lateral femur, it is overdrilled with a 4.5 mm Endobutton drill. If the
      Endobutton drill is obstructed, the obstructing hardware should be removed under
      fluoroscopic guidance. In this case, the obstruction is more likely during
      Endobutton drilling due to its larger diameter and increased rigidity compared to
      the Beath pin. The femoral tunnel is then drilled using a best approximation of
      the graft's outer diameter. We recommend at least 7 mm diameter to minimize the
      risk of graft failure. Autologous hamstring grafts are generally between 6.8 and
      8.6 mm in diameter. After reaming, the knee is flexed to 1.57 rad, the
      arthroscope placed through the anteromedial portal to confirm the femoral tunnel
      position, referencing the posterior wall and lateral cortex. For a quadrupled
      hamstring graft, the gracilis and semitendinosus tendons are then harvested in
      the standard fashion. The tendons are whip stitched, quadrupled and shaped to
      match the diameter of the prepared femoral tunnel. If the diameter of the
      patient's autologous hamstring graft is insufficient to fill the prepared femoral
      tunnel, the autograft may be supplemented with an allograft. The remainder of the
      reconstruction is performed according to surgeon preference. RESULTS: The
      presence of retained hardware presents a challenge for surgeons treating patients
      with knee instability. In cruciate ligament reconstruction, distal femoral and
      proximal tibial implants hardware may confound tunnel placement, making removal
      of hardware necessary, unless techniques are adopted to allow for anatomic
      placement of the graft. CONCLUSION: This report demonstrates how the femoral
      tunnel can be created using the anteromedial portal instead of a transtibial
      approach for reconstruction of the ACL.

PMID- 28567342
TI  - Functional outcome of tibial fracture with acute compartment syndrome and
      correlation to deep posterior compartment pressure.
AB  - AIM: To measure single baseline deep posterior compartment pressure in tibial
      fracture complicated by acute compartment syndrome (ACS) and to correlate it with
      functional outcome. METHODS: Thirty-two tibial fractures with ACS were evaluated
      clinically and the deep posterior compartment pressure was measured. Urgent
      fasciotomy was needed in 30 patients. Definite surgical fixation was performed
      either primarily or once fasciotomy wound was healthy. The patients were followed
      up at 3 mo, 6 mo and one year. At one year, the functional outcome [lower
      extremity functional scale (LEFS)] and complications were assessed. RESULTS:
      Three limbs were amputated. In remaining 29 patients, the average times for
      clinical and radiological union were 25.2 +/- 10.9 wk (10 to 54 wk) and 23.8 +/-
      9.2 wk (12 to 52 wk) respectively. Nine patients had delayed union and 2 had
      nonunion who needed bone grafting to augment healing. Most common complaint at
      follow up was ankle stiffness (76%) that caused difficulty in walking, running
      and squatting. Of 21 patients who had paralysis at diagnosis, 13 (62%) did not
      recover and additional five patients developed paralysis at follow-up. On LEFS
      evaluation, there were 14 patients (48.3%) with severe disability, 10 patients
      (34.5%) with moderate disability and 5 patients (17.2%) with minimal disability.
      The mean pressures in patients with minimal disability, moderate disability and
      severe disability were 37.8, 48.4 and 58.79 mmHg respectively (P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: ACS in tibial fractures causes severe functional disability in
      majority of patients. These patients are prone for delayed union and nonunion;
      however, long term disability is mainly because of severe soft tissue
      contracture. Intra-compartmental pressure (ICP) correlates with functional
      disability; patients with relatively high ICP are prone for poor functional
      outcome.

PMID- 28567343
TI  - Frozen shoulder - A prospective randomized clinical trial.
AB  - AIM: To compare the results of arthroscopic capsular release with intra-articular
      steroid injections in patients of frozen shoulder. METHODS: Fifty-six patients
      with frozen shoulder were randomised to one of two treatment groups: Group 1,
      complete 360 degree arthroscopic capsular release and group 2, intra-articular
      corticosteroid injection (40 mg methyl prednisolone acetate). Both groups were
      put on active and passive range of motion exercises following the intervention.
      The outcome parameters were visual analogue scale (VAS) score for pain, range of
      motion and Constant score which were measured at baseline, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 wk
      after intervention. RESULTS: All the parameters improved in both the groups. The
      mean VAS score improved significantly more in the group 1 as compared to group 2
      at 8 wk. This greater improvement was maintained at 20 wk with P value of 0.007
      at 8 wk, 0.006 at 12 wk, 0.006 at 16 wk and 0.019 at 20 wk. The Constant score
      showed a more significant improvement in group 1 compared to group 2 at 4 wk,
      which was again maintained at 20 wk with P value of 0.01 at 4, 8, 12 and 16 wk.
      The gain in abduction movement was statistically significantly more in
      arthroscopy group with P value of 0.001 at 4, 8, 12, 16 wk and 0.005 at 20 wk.
      The gain in external rotation was statistically significantly more in arthroscopy
      group with P value of 0.007 at 4 wk, 0.001 at 8, 12, and 16 wk and 0.003 at 20
      wk. There was no statistically significant difference in extension and internal
      rotation between the two groups at any time. CONCLUSION: Arthroscopic capsular
      release provides subjective and objective improvement earlier than intra
      articular steroid injection.

PMID- 28567344
TI  - Predicting lower limb periprosthetic joint infections: A review of risk factors
      and their classification.
AB  - AIM: To undertook a systematic review to determine factors that increase a
      patient's risk of developing lower limb periprosthetic joint infections (PJI).
      METHODS: This systematic review included full-text studies that reviewed risk
      factors of developing either a hip or knee PJI following a primary arthroplasty
      published from January 1998 to November 2016. A variety of keywords were used to
      identify studies through international databases referencing hip arthroplasty,
      knee arthroplasty, infection, and risk factors. Studies were only included if
      they included greater than 20 patients in their study cohort, and there was clear
      documentation of the statistical parameter used; specifically P-value, hazard
      ratio, relative risk, or/and odds ratio (OR). Furthermore a quality assessment
      criteria for the individual studies was undertaken to evaluate the presence of
      record and reporting bias. RESULTS: Twenty-seven original studies reviewing risk
      factors relating to primary total hip and knee arthroplasty infections were
      included. Four studies (14.8%) reviewed PJI of the hip, 3 (11.21%) of the knee,
      and 20 (74.1%) reviewed both joints. Nineteen studies (70.4%) were retrospective
      and 8 (29.6%) prospective. Record bias was identified in the majority of studies
      (66.7%). The definition of PJI varied amongst the studies but there was a general
      consensus to define infection by previously validated methods. The most
      significant risks were the use of preoperative high dose steroids (OR = 21.0,
      95%CI: 3.5-127.2, P < 0.001), a BMI above 50 (OR = 18.3, P < 0.001), tobacco use
      (OR = 12.76, 95%CI: 2.47-66.16, P = 0.017), body mass index below 20 (OR = 6.00,
      95%CI: 1.2-30.9, P = 0.033), diabetes (OR = 5.47, 95%CI: 1.77-16.97, P = 0.003),
      and coronary artery disease (OR = 5.10, 95%CI: 1.3-19.8, P = 0.017). CONCLUSION:
      We have highlighted the need for the provider to optimise modifiable risk
      factors, and develop strategies to limit the impact of non-modifiable factors.

PMID- 28567347
TI  - Effect of lengthening along the anatomical axis of the femur and its clinical
      impact.
AB  - AIM: To review and study the effect of lengthening along the anatomical axis of
      long bones and its relation to the mechanical axis deviation. METHODS: We try in
      this review to calculate and discuss the exact clinical impact of lengthening
      along the anatomical axis of the femur on affecting the limb alignment. Also we
      used a trigonometric formula to predict the change of the femoral distal
      anatomical mechanical angle (AMA) after lengthening along the anatomical axis.
      RESULTS: Lengthening along the anatomical axis of the femur by 10% of its
      original length results in reduction in the distal femoral AMA by 0.57 degrees.
      There is no objective experimental scientific data to prove that the Mechanical
      axis is passing via the center of the hip to the center of the knee. There is
      wide variation in normal anatomical axis for different populations. In deformity
      correction, surgeons try to reproduce the normal usual bone shape to regain
      normal function, which is mainly anatomical axis. CONCLUSION: Lengthening of the
      femur along its anatomical axis results in mild reduction of the distal femoral
      AMA. This may partially compensate for the expected mechanical axis
      lateralisation and hence justify its minimal clinical impact.

PMID- 28567345
TI  - Dementia and osteoporosis in a geriatric population: Is there a common link?
AB  - AIM: To determine the existence of a common pathological link between dementia
      and osteoporosis through reviewing the current evidence base. METHODS: This paper
      reviews the current literature on osteoporosis and dementia in order to ascertain
      evidence of a common predisposing aetiology. A literature search of Ovid MED-LINE
      (1950 to June 2016) was conducted. The keywords "osteoporosis", "osteoporotic
      fracture", "dementia" and "Alzheimer's disease" (AD) were used to determine the
      theoretical links with the most significant evidence base behind them. The key
      links were found to be vitamins D and K, calcium, thyroid disease, statins,
      alcohol and sex steroids. These subjects were then searched in combination with
      the previous terms and the resulting papers manually examined. Theoretical, in
      vitro and in vivo research were all used to inform this review which focuses on
      the most well developed theoretical common causes for dementia (predominantly
      Alzheimer's type) and osteoporosis. RESULTS: Dementia and osteoporosis are
      multifaceted disease processes with similar epidemiology and a marked increase in
      prevalence in elderly populations. The existence of a common link between the two
      has been suggested despite a lack of clear pathological overlap in our current
      understanding. Research to date has tended to be fragmented and relatively weak
      in nature with multiple confounding factors reflecting the difficulties of in
      vivo experimentation in the population of interest. Despite exploration of
      various possible mechanisms in search for a link between the two pathologies,
      this paper found that it is possible that these associations are coincidental due
      to the nature of the evidence available. One finding in this review is that prior
      investigation into common aetiologies has found raised amyloid beta peptide
      levels in osteoporotic bone tissue, with a hypothesis that amyloid beta disorders
      are systemic disorders resulting in differing tissue manifestations. However, our
      findings were that the most compelling evidence of a common yet independent
      aetiology lies in the APOE4 allele, which is a well-established risk for AD but
      also carries an independent association with fracture risk. The mechanism behind
      this is thought to be the reduced plasma vitamin K levels in individuals
      exhibiting the APOE4 allele which may be amplified by the nutritional
      deficiencies associated with dementia, which are known to include vitamins K and
      D. The vitamin theory postulates that malnutrition and reduced exposure to
      sunlight in patients with AD leads to vitamin deficiencies. CONCLUSION: Robust
      evidence remains to be produced regarding potential links and regarding the exact
      aetiology of these diseases and remains relevant given the burden of dementia and
      osteoporosis in our ageing population. Future research into amyloid beta, APOE4
      and vitamins K and D as the most promising aetiological links should be welcomed.

PMID- 28567346
TI  - Surgery for calcifying tendinitis of the shoulder: A systematic review.
AB  - AIM: To systematically search literature and determine a preferable surgical
      procedure in patients with failed conservative treatment of calcifying tendinitis
      of the shoulder. METHODS: The electronic online databases MEDLINE (through
      PubMed), EMBASE (through OVID), CINAHL (through EB- SCO), Web of Science and
      Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched in
      May 2016. Eligible for inclusion were all available studies with level II and
      level III evidence (LoE). Data was assessed and extracted by two independent
      review authors using a specifically for this study designed data extraction form.
      RESULTS: Six studies (294 surgically treated shoulders) were included in this
      review. No significant differences between the three available treatment options
      (acromioplasty with the removal of the calcific deposits, acromioplasty or solely
      the removal of the calcific deposits) were detected regarding the functional and
      clinical outcome. The follow-up ranged from 12 mo to 5 years. Complication rates
      were low. No reoperations were necessary and the only reported complication was
      adhesive capsulitis, which in all cases could be treated conservatively with full
      recovery. CONCLUSION: We found that all three available treatment options show
      good functional and clinical outcomes in the short and midterm. However, a
      favorable procedure is difficult to determine due to the lack of high-quality
      comparing studies.

PMID- 28567349
TI  - Screening echocardiograms in a senior focused value based primary care improves
      systolic heart failure detection and clinical management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Screening echocardiograms are not indicated. Our aim is to evaluate
      the impact of screening echocardiograms on improving clinical management among
      older adults. METHODS: We performed screening echocardiograms for all consecutive
      patients and defined incident systolic heart failure (HF) as an ejection fraction
      of less than 50% among patients without a previous HF diagnosis. We reviewed
      medical record data to determine if the new cases where Stage B or C. We obtained
      prescribed medications and vital signs from the electronic health record to
      determine absolute changes before and after the echocardiogram. RESULTS: We
      performed an echocardiogram in 6,417 patients with a mean age of 71.4+/-6. The
      echocardiogram identified 292 seniors with new cases of systolic HF (5.34%; 95%
      CI: 4.7-5.9) and 239 were stage B HF. The increase in the use of ace-inhibitor,
      beta blocker when comparing the pre and post echocardiogram periods was highest
      in those with Stage C and those with ejection fraction lower than 40%. Systolic
      blood pressure (SBP) decreased from 140+/-19 to 136+/-15 (P<0.01) and low density
      lipoprotein (LDL) from 105+/-36 to 97+/-33 (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Performing
      echocardiograms in senior-focused value-based primary care improves evidence
      based cardiovascular treatment and short-term clinical outcomes, including
      lowering SBP and LDL.

PMID- 28567348
TI  - Chest pain caused by multiple exostoses of the ribs: A case report and a review
      of literature.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to report an exceptional case of multiple internal
      exostoses of the ribs in a young patient affected by multiple hereditary
      exostoses (MHE) coming to our observation for chest pain as the only symptom of
      an intra-thoracic localization. A 16 years old patient with familiar history of
      MHE came to our observation complaining a left-sided chest pain. This pain had
      increased in the last months with no correlation to a traumatic event. The
      computed tomography (CT) scan revealed the presence of three exostoses located on
      the left third, fourth and sixth ribs, all protruding into the thoracic cavity,
      directly in contact with visceral pleura. Moreover, the apex of the one located
      on the sixth rib revealed to be only 12 mm away from pericardium. Patient
      underwent video-assisted thoracoscopy with an additional 4-cm mini toracotomy
      approach. At the last 1-year follow-up, patient was very satisfied and no signs
      of recurrence or major complication had occured. In conclusion, chest pain could
      be the only symptom of an intra-thoracic exostoses localization, possibly leading
      to serious complications. Thoracic localization in MHE must be suspected when
      patients complain chest pain. A chest CT scan is indicated to confirm exostoses
      and to clarify relationship with surrounding structures. Video-assisted
      thoracoscopic surgery can be considered a valuable option for exostoses removal,
      alone or in addiction to a mini-thoracotomy approach, in order to reduce
      thoracotomy morbidity.

PMID- 28567350
TI  - A comparison of Cornell and Sokolow-Lyon electrocardiographic criteria for left
      ventricular hypertrophy in a military male population in Taiwan: the
      Cardiorespiratory fitness and HospItalization Events in armed Forces study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Cornell and Sokolow-Lyon electrocardiography (ECG) criteria have
      been widely used for diagnosing left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in patients
      with hypertension. However, the correlations of these ECG criteria with LVH were
      rarely compared in military members who received rigorous training, particularly
      of the Asian male population. METHODS: We compared the Cornell voltage and
      product criteria with the Sokolow-Lyon criteria for the echocardiographic LVH in
      539 military male members, ages 18-50 years and free of hypertension in the
      Cardiorespiratory fitness and HospItalization Events in armed Forces (CHIEF)
      study in Taiwan. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to determine the
      association of each ECG criterion with the index of left ventricular mass (LVM,
      g)/height (m)2.7. The sensitivities and specificities were estimated using a
      receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve in relation to the
      echocardiographic LVH which was defined as LVM index >=49 g/m2.7. RESULTS: The
      correlations of the Cornell voltage and product criteria (r=0.24 and 0.26
      respectively, both P<0.0001) were stronger than that of the Sokolow-Lyon criteria
      (r=0.049 and 0.095, and P=0.26 and 0.03 respectively) with the LVM index.
      Similarly the performances of the Cornell voltage and product criteria for the
      echocardiographic LVH [area under curve (AUC): 0.66 and 0.68, both P<0.0001] were
      superior to that of the Sokolow-Lyon criteria (AUC: 0.54 and 0.53, both P>0.1) in
      the area under the ROC curve analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The Cornell ECG criteria for
      the echocardiographic LVH had better performance than the Sokolow-Lyon criteria
      in a young military male cohort in Taiwan.

PMID- 28567351
TI  - Regression of coronary atherosclerosis with infusions of the high-density
      lipoprotein mimetic CER-001 in patients with more extensive plaque burden.
AB  - BACKGROUND: CER-001 is an engineered pre-beta high-density lipoprotein (HDL)
      mimetic, which rapidly mobilizes cholesterol. Infusion of CER-001 3 mg/kg
      exhibited a potentially favorable effect on plaque burden in the CHI-SQUARE (Can
      HDL Infusions Significantly Quicken Atherosclerosis Regression) study. Since
      baseline atheroma burden has been shown as a determinant for the efficacy of HDL
      infusions, the degree of baseline atheroma burden might influence the effect of
      CER-001. METHODS: CHI-SQUARE compared the effect of 6 weekly infusions of CER-001
      (3, 6 and 12 mg/kg) vs. placebo on coronary atherosclerosis in 369 patients with
      acute coronary syndrome (ACS) using serial intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).
      Baseline percent atheroma volume (B-PAV) cutoff associated with atheroma
      regression following CER-001 infusions was determined by receiver-operating
      characteristics curve analysis. 369 subjects were stratified according to the
      cutoff. The effect of CER-001 at different doses was compared to placebo in each
      group. RESULTS: A B-PAV >=30% was the optimal cutoff associated with PAV
      regression following CER-001 infusions. CER-001 induced PAV regression in
      patients with B-PAV >=30% but not in those with B-PAV <30% (-0.45%+/-2.65% vs.
      +0.34%+/-1.69%, P=0.01). Compared to placebo, the greatest PAV regression was
      observed with CER-001 3mg/kg in patients with B-PAV >=30% (-0.96%+/-0.34% vs. 
      0.25%+/-0.31%, P=0.01), whereas there were no differences between placebo
      (+0.09%+/-0.36%) versus CER-001 in patients with B-PAV <30% (3 mg/kg; +0.41%+/
      0.32%, P=0.39; 6 mg/kg; +0.27%+/-0.36%, P=0.76; 12 mg/kg; +0.32%+/-0.37%,
      P=0.97). CONCLUSIONS: Infusions of CER-001 3 mg/kg induced the greatest atheroma
      regression in ACS patients with higher B-PAV. These findings identify ACS
      patients with more extensive disease as most likely to benefit from HDL mimetic
      therapy.

PMID- 28567352
TI  - Endovascular versus surgical treatment for acute limb ischemia: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A number of small studies have suggested that outcomes following
      endovascular (ENDO) therapy are comparable to those following surgical (SURG)
      revascularization for patients presenting with acute limb ischemia (ALI). We
      sought to compare mortality, limb amputation and recurrent ischemia across both
      revascularization strategies. METHODS: A comprehensive database search of
      MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
      electronic databases from January 1990 through January 2016 was performed to
      identify studies of ENDO versus SURG for ALI. Two independent reviewers selected
      studies and extracted the data. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool
      results across studies. Heterogeneity of treatment effect among trials was
      assessed using the I2 statistics. The primary endpoints were mortality and limb
      amputation at 1 month, 6 and 12 months. Secondary endpoint was recurrent ischemia
      at one year. RESULTS: A total of 1,773 patients were included from six studies
      (five randomized prospective and one observational retrospective) comparing ENDO
      and SURG in the setting of ALI. The mean age was 67 years and 65% of patients
      were male. There were no differences in mortality between the two groups at 1
      month [risk ratio (RR) for ENDO vs. SURG is 0.70; 95% confidence interval (CI),
      0.33 to 1.50], 6 months (RR 1.12; CI, 0.78 to 1.61) or 12 months (RR 0.74; CI,
      0.29 to 1.85). Similarly, there was no significant difference in amputation rates
      between ENDO and SURG at 1 month (RR 0.75; CI, 0.40 to 1.42), 6 months (RR 0.87;
      CI, 0.52 to 1.48) or 12 months (RR 0.81; CI, 0.55 to 1.18). When looking into
      secondary outcomes, recurrent ischemia was not different between the two groups
      (RR 1.12; CI, 0.75 to 1.67). CONCLUSIONS: In patients presenting with ALI (<2
      weeks of duration), ENDO and SURG approaches have similar rates of short-term and
      12 month mortality, limb amputation and recurrent ischemia.

PMID- 28567353
TI  - Differential efficacy profile of aldosterone receptor antagonists, depending on
      the type of chronic heart failure, whether with reduced or preserved left
      ventricular ejection fraction-results of a meta-analysis of randomized controlled
      trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) activation,
      the patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) manifest increased ventricular
      stress, with impaired left ventricular function, and a slowing down in systemic
      venous drainage. More importantly, a reduction of the patient's life expectancy
      has been proven in the case of RAAS overstimulation. For these reasons, huge
      efforts have been made to obtain molecules able to efficaciously antagonize the
      RAAS overstimulation, such as aldosterone receptor antagonists (ARAs). These
      drugs have been shown to improve clinical outcomes in patients with heart failure
      with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFREF), but not in those with
      preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF). In order to study this
      topic more deeply, we carried out a meta-analysis of selective and nonselective
      ARAs in HFREF and HFpEF. METHODS: Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were
      incorporated in our meta-analysis. Studies were included if they satisfied the
      following criteria: experimental groups included patients with CHF treated with
      ARAs in addition to the conventional therapy; control groups included patients
      with CHF receiving conventional therapy without ARAs. Outcomes of interest were
      all-cause mortality, cardiovascular hospitalizations, hyperkalemia, or
      gynecomastia. RESULTS: Overall, 15 RCTs including a total of 15,671 patients were
      eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. ARA use in patients with heart
      failure was associated with a significant reduction in adverse outcomes. Indeed,
      a significant reduced odds of all-cause death among CHF patients treated with
      ARAs compared to controls was found [odds ratio (OR) =0.79; 95% CI: 0.73-0.87].
      Subgroup analysis based on the heart failure (HF) type revealed a statistically
      significant benefit as regards all- cause death for patients with HFREF (OR
      =0.77; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69-0.84), but not for those with HFpEF (OR
      =0.91; 95% CI: 0.76-1.1). Furthermore reduced odds of CV hospitalizations was
      detected in the entire group of CHF patients under treatment with ARAs (OR =0.73;
      95% CI: 0.61-0.89) as well as among HFREF patients treated with ARAs, compared to
      controls (OR =0.66; 95% CI: 0.51-0.85). Hyperkalemia was significantly more
      frequent with ARA use. Besides, ARA use was shown to be associated with the
      occurrence of gynecomastia. In particular, selective ARAs didn't induce
      significant amounts of gynecomastia compared to controls (OR =0.74; 95% CI: 0.43
      1.27), while nonselective ARAs did (OR =8.22; 95% CI: 4.9-13.81). CONCLUSIONS:
      Based on this meta-analysis, ARAs should be systematically used in patients with
      HFREF, in whom these drugs proved to reduce all-cause mortality and
      hospitalizations from cardiac cause. Conversely, ARA usage in HFpEF patients is
      questionable since in this CHF setting no significant improvement in clinical
      endpoints has been demonstrated so far. New selective ARAs are devoid of the risk
      of gynecomastia, while are similar to nonselective ARAs with regard to the
      efficacy profile as well as to the risk of eliciting hyperkalemia.

PMID- 28567354
TI  - Aortic flow conditions predict ejection efficiency in the NHLBI-Sponsored Women's
      Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Windkessel model of the cardiovascular system, both in its
      original wind-chamber and flow-pipe form, and in its electrical circuit analog
      has been used for over a century to modeled left ventricular ejection conditions.
      Using parameters obtained from aortic flow we formed a Flow Index that is
      proportional to the impedance of such a "circuit". We show that the impedance
      varies with ejection fraction (EF) in a manner characteristic of a resonant
      circuit with multiple resonance points, with each resonance point centrally
      located in a small range of EF values, i.e., corresponding to multiple contiguous
      EF bands. METHODS: Two target populations were used: (I) a development group
      comprising male and female subjects (n=112) undergoing cardiovascular magnetic
      resonance (CMR) imaging for a variety of cardiac conditions. The Flow Index was
      developed using aortic flow data and its relationship to left ventricular EF was
      shown. (II) An illustration group comprised of female subjects from the Women's
      Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) (n=201) followed for 5 years for occurrence
      of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Flow data was not available in
      this group but since the Flow Index was related to the EF we noted the MACE rate
      with respect to EF. RESULTS: The EFs of the development population covered a wide
      range (9%-76%) traversing six Flow Index resonance bands. Within each Flow Index
      resonance band the impedance varied from highly capacitive at the lower range of
      EF through minimal impedance at resonance, to highly inductive at the higher
      range of EF, which is characteristic of a resonant circuit. When transitioning
      from one EF band to a higher band, the Flow Index made a sudden transition from
      highly inductive to capacitive impedance modes. MACE occurred in 26 (13%) of the
      WISE (illustration) population. Distance in EF units (Deltacenter) from the
      central location between peaks of MACE activity was derived from EF data and was
      predictive of MACE rate with an area under the receiver operator curve of 0.73.
      Of special interest, Deltacenter was highly predictive of MACE in the sub-set of
      women with EF >60% (AUC 0.79) while EF was no more predictive than random chance
      (AUC 0.48). CONCLUSIONS: A Flow Index that describes impedance conditions of left
      ventricular ejection can be calculated using data obtained completely from the
      ascending aorta. The Flow Index exhibits a periodic variation with EF, and in a
      separate illustration population the occurrence of MACE was observed to exhibit a
      similar periodic variation with EF, even in cases of normal EF.

PMID- 28567355
TI  - Impact of heart rate on diagnostic accuracy of second generation 320-detector
      computed tomography coronary angiography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of elevated heart rate (HR) on the diagnostic
      accuracy and image quality of second-generation 320-detector computed tomography
      coronary angiography (320-CTCA). METHODS: Consecutive patients with suspected
      coronary disease referred for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) were
      prospectively recruited and underwent 320-CTCA. Pre-scan beta-blockers were
      administered if native HR>80 bpm and post-scan cohorts stratified by traditional
      (HR <=60 bpm) and elevated HR (61-80 bpm). A wider phase window was used for the
      elevated HR group (30-80%). 320-CTCA and ICA were analyzed by independent readers
      blinded to other data. Significant disease was defined as >=50% visual stenosis
      on ICA. Uninterpretable segments by 320-CTCA were considered to be significant on
      an intention-to-diagnose principle. Image quality was assessed by 5-point Likert
      score. RESULTS: Of 107 patients studied (1,662 segments), there was no
      significant difference in sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative
      predictive value between patients with HR <=60 bpm (n=55) vs. HR 61-80 bpm
      (n=52): 97%, 88%, 95%, 94% vs. 100%, 88%, 95%, 100%; Receiver operator
      characteristic-area under the curve 0.93 vs. 0.94, P=0.82). Overall per-patient
      diagnostic accuracy was 96% in both groups with no significant difference in
      interpretable segments (Likert >=2) or median radiation dose (2.4 mSv vs. 2.7
      mSv, P=0.35). Only 4/1,662 (0.2%) segments were uninterpretable by motion
      artefact in the whole cohort. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with HR >60 and up to
      80bpm, second generation 320-CTCA provides comparably adequate diagnostic
      accuracy to HR <=60 without significantly impacting upon overall segmental
      evaluability.

PMID- 28567357
TI  - Assessing observer variability: a user's guide.
AB  - Some form of the assessment of observer variability may be the most frequent
      statistical task in medical literature. Still, very little attempt is made to
      make the reported methods uniform and clear to the reader. This paper provides
      overview of various measures of observer variability, and a rationale of why
      using standard error of measurement (SEM) is preferable to other measures of
      observer variability. The supplemental file contains examples on how to design a
      proper repeatability and reproducibility assessment, determine appropriate sample
      size, and test for significance of its findings.

PMID- 28567358
TI  - Beyond landscape: development of a major healing garden.
AB  - Healthcare in China is expanding faster than anywhere else on the planet and the
      impact of multiple, mega-medical centers on their communities, their culture and
      their general way of life is substantial. Through the lens of a 5.5 million
      square foot hospital located in the Hunan Province of China, this article
      addresses the factors design teams must consider when integrating nature in to
      hospital design. The Fifth Xiangya Hospital, designed by Boston-based
      architecture firm Payette, features a major public park, which is fully
      integrated in to the hospital design. The public park serves as connective tissue
      for the medical complex, extending its role beyond that of a traditional healing
      garden and embraces a much deeper purpose for the overall hospital campus.

PMID- 28567356
TI  - Radial artery occlusion after transradial coronary catheterization.
AB  - The transradial approach (TRA) for coronary angiography and interventions is
      increasingly utilized around the world. Radial artery occlusion (RAO) is the most
      common significant complication after transradial catheterization, with incidence
      varying between 1% and 10%. Although RAO is rarely accompanied by hand ischemia,
      it is an important complication because it prohibits future transradial access
      and radial artery utilization as a conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting or
      arteriovenous fistula formation. In this review, we discuss factors predicting
      the occurrence of RAO, aspects of accurate and prompt recognition, methods that
      contribute to its prevention and possible treatment options.

PMID- 28567359
TI  - Non-surgical extraction of right atrial mass by AngioVac aspiration device under
      fluoroscopic and transesophageal echocardiographic guidance.
AB  - Right-sided cardiac masses are commonly encountered. We present a challenging
      case of a right atrial thrombus in a patient who had a high surgical risk for
      open removal. AngioVac aspiration device, under transesophageal echocardiography
      (TEE) and fluoroscopy guidance, was successfully used to remove the thrombus. The
      patient tolerated the procedure well and was discharged home. Our case confirms
      the safety and efficacy of this procedure for treatment of unwanted intracardiac
      and intravascular masses in patients who are not candidates for conventional
      therapies of surgery or thrombolytics.

PMID- 28567360
TI  - Successful percutaneous closure of an extremely large secundum atrial septal
      defect during pregnancy.
AB  - Atrial septal defects (ASDs) are one of the most of the most common acyanotic
      congenital heart lesions. Awareness of potential clinical presentations and
      complications during pregnancy is essential for those managing these patients. We
      report successful percutaneous closure of an extremely large secundum ASD, using
      the largest available percutaneous ASD closure device in a 27-year-old pregnant
      female. Large ASDs may have their initial clinical presentation and diagnosis
      during pregnancy. If indicated, percutaneous closure can be performed safely.
      Only a very small number of cases have previously reported this being performed
      safely during pregnancy.

PMID- 28567362
TI  - Prof. Mattia Glauber: 13 years minimally invasive heart surgery.

PMID- 28567361
TI  - Unexpected evolution of a non-stenotic lesion in the left main coronary artery of
      a patient with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.
AB  - A 72-year-old man was referred to our catheterization laboratory 48 hours after a
      non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. His medical history included
      coronary artery disease (CAD) (percutaneous coronary intervention of the right
      coronary artery and chronic total occlusion of the circumflex artery), atrial
      fibrillation (AF), and chronic kidney disease. An electrocardiogram showed a pre
      existent left bundle-branch block and the patient's maximum cardiac troponin
      concentration was 8.64 ug/L (upper limit of normal: 0.003 ug/L). The coronary
      angiogram revealed an ulcerated plaque of the left main coronary artery (LMCA)
      and moderate stenosis of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. A
      non-interventional approach to treatment was chosen. One month later, a control
      angiography showed a giant distal aneurysm complicating the lesion; the
      fractional flow reserve (FFR) value in the LAD was 0.74. The heart team discussed
      the case and concluded that the aneurysm was inaccessible via surgery. To protect
      the LAD from possible covered stent thrombosis or restenosis, coronary artery
      bypass grafting of the LAD was performed prior to percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI). Five days later, we proceeded with percutaneous exclusion of
      the aneurysm. We combined coil embolization of three InterlockTM two-dimensional
      detachable coils with stenting of the LMCA, using a PK PapyrusTM covered stent.
      Effective angiographic exclusion was achieved. The patient was discharged on
      warfarin, aspirin, and clopidogrel for 1 month, followed by long-term aspirin and
      oral anticoagulation. A 6-month follow-up angiography demonstrated a completely
      sealed aneurysm and optical coherence tomography (OCT) confirmed the successful
      endothelialization of the covered stent.

PMID- 28567363
TI  - Ancient landscapes.

PMID- 28567364
TI  - Coronary revascularization strategies in patients with multivessel disease: is it
      all about diabetes?

PMID- 28567365
TI  - Mesenchymal stromal cells and ischemic heart disease: hitting the target?

PMID- 28567366
TI  - Bioresorbable scaffolds: should we stay simple or go complex?

PMID- 28567367
TI  - Rare isolated primary peritoneal hydatid cysts: A case report from Syria.
AB  - Hydatid disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus is endemic in many regions of
      the world. The major primary site for the disease in adults is the liver and the
      secondary site are the lungs. Secondary peritoneal cysts are relatively common
      and expected to occur after rupture of the primary hepatic hydatid cyst. Primary
      peritoneal hydatid cyst disease without any other organ involvement has been
      previously reported, and yet it is still considered rare even in endemic areas. A
      case of a large primary peritoneal hydatid multicystic lesion without other organ
      involvement in a 25-year-old girl seen at the gastrointestinal outpatient clinic
      in the University of Kalamoon Medical City is presented and discussed. The
      disease was very extensive but surgical intervention was refused due to the
      patient being a young unmarried female. The patient was treated and observed over
      a period of ten months. She responded very well to medical treatment with
      albendazole. The case emphasizes the importance of hydatid disease being included
      in the differential diagnosis of any cyst in the abdominal cavity for patients
      living or coming from an area of endemic hydatid disease even without liver or
      lung involvement. This also goes to show that it can respond to medical
      treatment, which becomes even more valuable in conditions where surgical
      intervention might not be an option.

PMID- 28567368
TI  - Mycobacterium canettii Infection of Adipose Tissues.
AB  - Adipose tissues were shown to host Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is persisting
      inside mature adipocytes. It remains unknown whether this holds true for
      Mycobacterium canettii, a rare representative of the M. tuberculosis complex
      responsible for lymphatic and pulmonary tuberculosis. Here, we infected primary
      murine white and brown pre-adipocytes and murine 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes and mature
      adipocytes with M. canettii and M. tuberculosis as a positive control. Both
      mycobacteria were able to infect 18-22% of challenged primary murine pre
      adipocytes; and to replicate within these cells during a 7-day experiment with
      the intracellular inoculums being significantly higher in brown than in white pre
      adipocytes for M. canettii (p = 0.02) and M. tuberculosis (p = 0.03). Further in
      vitro infection of 3T3-L1 mature adipocytes yielded 9% of infected cells by M.
      canettii and 17% of infected cells by M. tuberculosis (p = 0.001). Interestingly,
      M. canettii replicated and accumulated intra-cytosolic lipid inclusions within
      mature adipocytes over a 12-day experiment; while M. tuberculosis stopped
      replicating at day 3 post-infection. These results indicate that brown pre
      adipocytes could be one of the potential targets for M. tuberculosis complex
      mycobacteria; and illustrate differential outcome of M. tuberculosis complex
      mycobacteria into adipose tissues. While white adipose tissue is an unlikely
      sanctuary for M. canettii, it is still an open question whether M. canettii and
      M. tuberculosis could persist in brown adipose tissues.

PMID- 28567369
TI  - Dynamic Changes of the Frequency of Classic and Inflammatory Monocytes Subsets
      and Natural Killer Cells in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients Treated by Direct-Acting
      Antiviral Agents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Up to now, little was known about the immunological changes of chronic
      hepatitis C (CHC) patients treated with direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs); we
      try to explore the effect of DAAs on the frequency of monocytes, NK cells, and
      cytokines that promote their activation. METHODS: 15 treatment-naive CHC patients
      and 10 healthy controls were recruited. Patients were examined before DAAs
      therapy (0 w) and at week 4 (4 w) and week 12 (12 w) of therapy. Percentage of
      monocytes and NK cells of the peripheral blood was analyzed by flow cytometry.
      Serum cytokines IL-12, IL-18, CXCL10, CXCL11, sCD14, and sCD163 were measured by
      enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: The frequency of CD3-CD16+CD56+ NK
      cells and classic CD14++CD16- monocytes decreased, while CD14+CD16+ monocytes and
      cytokines IL-12, IL-18, CXCL10, CXCL11, sCD14, and sCD163 increased at 0 w
      compared to healthy controls. During DAAs treatment, the decreased NK cells and
      classic monocytes gradually increased to normal levels; the increased
      inflammatory monocytes and cytokines IL-12 and CXCL11 decreased to normal levels,
      but the increased cytokines IL-18, CXCL10, sCD14, and sCD163 still remained at
      high levels at 12 w though they decreased rapidly from 0 w. CONCLUSION: Our
      results showed that DAAs treatment attenuated the activation of monocytes and NK
      cells in CHC patients. Trial registration number is NCT03063723.

PMID- 28567370
TI  - Maintenance of Remission with Partial Enteral Nutrition Therapy in Pediatric
      Crohn's Disease: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Partial enteral nutrition (PEN) may be helpful for the maintenance of
      remission in pediatric Crohn's disease patients. AIMS: To evaluate the efficacy
      of PEN treatment for preventing clinical relapse. METHODS: We retrospectively
      assessed 42 pediatric Crohn's disease patients who entered clinical remission on
      4-12 weeks of exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) and were maintained on PEN as a
      supplementary diet. We evaluated the efficacy of the treatment at different time
      points using the weighted Pediatric Crohn Disease Activity Index (wPCDAI),
      Physician Global Assessment, laboratory parameters, and growth of each patient.
      Additionally, we assessed the use of concomitant medications. RESULTS: The median
      length of remission with PEN was 6 (0-36) months. Patients' remission was
      maintained on PEN without concomitant medications for a median time of zero
      months (0-16). The mean body mass index in the PEN group increased from 18.1 to
      18.8 after six months of PEN. The median wPCDAI decreased from 30 at diagnosis to
      5.0 after EEN and increased to 7.5 after three months of PEN. Overall, the median
      wPCDAI decreased by 26.2. CONCLUSIONS: PEN treatment was partially effective in
      maintaining remission and was able to increase BMI and lower wPCDAI. Most
      patients required concomitant medication after PEN initiation.

PMID- 28567371
TI  - The Use of Finite Element Analyses to Design and Fabricate Three-Dimensional
      Scaffolds for Skeletal Tissue Engineering.
AB  - Computational modeling has been increasingly applied to the field of tissue
      engineering and regenerative medicine. Where in early days computational models
      were used to better understand the biomechanical requirements of targeted tissues
      to be regenerated, recently, more and more models are formulated to combine such
      biomechanical requirements with cell fate predictions to aid in the design of
      functional three-dimensional scaffolds. In this review, we highlight how
      computational modeling has been used to understand the mechanisms behind tissue
      formation and can be used for more rational and biomimetic scaffold-based tissue
      regeneration strategies. With a particular focus on musculoskeletal tissues, we
      discuss recent models attempting to predict cell activity in relation to specific
      mechanical and physical stimuli that can be applied to them through porous three
      dimensional scaffolds. In doing so, we review the most common scaffold
      fabrication methods, with a critical view on those technologies that offer better
      properties to be more easily combined with computational modeling. Finally, we
      discuss how modeling, and in particular finite element analysis, can be used to
      optimize the design of scaffolds for skeletal tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28567374
TI  - The history of time for capsule endoscopy.
AB  - Capsule endoscopy was conceived by inventive minds of good people. In the
      beginning there was a will to do something for medicine. The idea fomented after
      a discourse between the talented engineer with his physician friend. It took
      years to develop the concept. Then excellent engineers created de novo the
      necessary components to turn the capsule into a viable reality. The story is a
      tribute to human ingenuity.

PMID- 28567373
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Two Acetic Acid-Producing Acetobacter pasteurianus
      Strains (Subsp. ascendens LMG 1590T and Subsp. paradoxus LMG 1591T).

PMID- 28567372
TI  - Soluble Factors on Stage to Direct Mesenchymal Stem Cells Fate.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stromal cells that are identified
      by in vitro plastic adherence, colony-forming capacity, expression of a panel of
      surface molecules, and ability to differentiate at least toward osteogenic,
      adipogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. They also produce trophic factors with
      immunomodulatory, proangiogenic, and antiapoptotic functions influencing the
      behavior of neighboring cells. On the other hand, a reciprocal regulation takes
      place; in fact, MSCs can be isolated from several tissues, and depending on the
      original microenvironment and the range of stimuli received from there, they can
      display differences in their essential characteristics. Here, we focus mainly on
      the bone tissue and how soluble factors, such as growth factors, cytokines, and
      hormones, present in this microenvironment can orchestrate bone marrow-derived
      MSCs fate. We also briefly describe the alteration of MSCs behavior in
      pathological settings such as hematological cancer, bone metastasis, and bone
      marrow failure syndromes. Overall, the possibility to modulate MSCs plasticity
      makes them an attractive tool for diverse applications of tissue regeneration in
      cell therapy. Therefore, the comprehensive understanding of the microenvironment
      characteristics and components better suited to obtain a specific MSCs response
      can be extremely useful for clinical use.

PMID- 28567375
TI  - Video capsule colonoscopy in routine clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) offers direct mucosal visualisation
      without sedation or gas insufflation required in conventional colonoscopy (CC).
      However, evidence for the role of CCE as an adjunct or alternative to CC remains
      equivocal. In this observational cohort study, we report our experience of using
      CCE to investigate patients with suspected colon pathology at a tertiary referral
      centre. METHODS: From 2007-2015, consecutive patients requiring colonoscopy were
      recruited from a tertiary care centre in Malmo, Sweden. Data collected: patient
      demographics, indication for CCE, findings, bowel cleansing, colon transit time
      (CTT) and completeness of colon examination. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients (57
      F/20 F, median age 56 years) were included. The reason for CCE was previously
      incomplete or refused CC in 39 and 26 cases, and follow up of previous findings
      in 12 cases, respectively. The main clinical indications were gastrointestinal
      (GI) bleeding (n=28; 36%) and suspected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or
      follow-up of known IBD (n=23; 30%). CCE was complete in 58/77 (75%) patients. In
      3 patients the colon was not reached; in the other 16, the capsule reached the
      rectum (n=4), sigmoid (n=6), descending colon (n=5) and transverse colon (n=1).
      Findings were: normal CCE (n=15; 19%) colonic diverticula (n=29; 38%), polyps
      (n=17; 22%), active IBD (n=12; 16%), haemorrhoids (n=8; 10%), colonic
      angioectasia (n=4; 5%) and cancer (n=1; 1%). Small-bowel findings were recorded
      in 8 (10%) patients. All patients tolerated bowel preparation and CCE well. Two
      patients with an ulcerated small-bowel stricture and cancer respectively
      experienced temporary capsule retention with spontaneous resolution. CONCLUSIONS:
      CCE is a well-tolerated alternative to CC, but requires technological improvement
      and optimisation of clinical practice to meet current reference standards.
      Although further technical development is required, CCE may complement or even
      replace CC for certain clinical indications.

PMID- 28567376
TI  - Long-term effects of video capsule endoscopy in the management of obscure
      gastrointestinal bleeding.
AB  - Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) accounts for approximately 5% of all
      gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhages. It usually arises from a small bowel lesion
      beyond the reach of conventional endoscopy including esophagogastroduodenoscopy
      and colonoscopy. Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) revolutionized the evaluation of
      OGIB patients since it allows reliable and noninvasive visualization of the small
      bowel mucosal surface. Since 2001, VCE has evolved into an efficient technology
      integrated in clinical practice. It is the cornerstone in the algorithm of OGIB
      investigation given its high diagnostic yield, which compares favorably to that
      of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE). In terms of outcomes, a positive index VCE
      examination usually correlates to a high re-bleeding rate, while a negative one
      provides adequate evidence of low re-bleeding risk, suggesting a wait and watch
      approach in this subset of patients. Additionally, a variety of factors has been
      acknowledged as significant predictors of re-bleeding episodes. While research
      data regarding immediate endoscopic findings have matured, data concerning the
      clinical utility of VCE in patients with OGIB on the long-term remain sparse.
      This manuscript reviews the current literature, aiming to highlight the role of
      VCE in the long-term management of OGIB.

PMID- 28567377
TI  - Coeliac disease and the videocapsule: what have we learned till now.
AB  - Celiac disease is diagnosed in part by finding areas of pathology in the small
      bowel (SB) mucosa. This can often be difficult because the pathologic
      alterations, including atrophy of the small intestinal villi, can often be sparse
      and subtle. Some of the quantitative methods for detecting and measuring the
      presence of villous atrophy from videocapsule endoscopy (VCE) images are
      presented and discussed. These methods consist of static features of measurement
      including texture, gray level, and presence and abundance of fissures contained
      within each acquired image. The methods also consist of dynamic measurements
      including spectral analysis, and determining motion from a sequence of endoscopic
      images as obtained from a VCE clip. Thus far, several methods have been found
      useful to characterize the SB mucosa of untreated celiac disease patients versus
      control patients lacking villous atrophy, which have revealed significant
      differences in texture, frequency, and motion on analysis of VCE. In untreated
      celiac patients undergoing endoscopy, there tends to be greater magnitude of
      changes and spatial differences in textural descriptors, longer periodic
      components, indicating slower periodic activity, and differences in feature
      location, suggesting alterations in motility at areas of pathology as compared to
      patients without villous atrophy. Improvements in the quantitative analysis of
      VCE imaging in celiac patients is important to detect pathology in suspected
      patients, so that biopsies can be obtained from pertinent regions of the small
      intestinal mucosa. Improvements are also necessary so that patients with celiac
      disease can be monitored to evaluate the progress of mucosal healing after onset
      of treatment.

PMID- 28567378
TI  - Capsule retention: prevention, diagnosis and management.
AB  - Capsule retention (CR) has been defined as capsule remaining in the digestive
      tract for a minimum of two weeks. CR occurs approximately in 2% of all patients
      undergoing small bowel capsule endoscopy (CE). Prompt diagnosis of CR is
      important, as it has relevant clinical implications. CR should be suspected in
      (I) all asymptomatic patients who do not report capsule excretion within 15 days
      from capsule ingestion; and (II) patients with obstructive or perforation-related
      symptoms in which the capsule has not been excreted, regardless of the time
      between the onset of symptoms and capsule ingestion. Abdominal plain X-ray is the
      preferred test to confirm CR. An abdominal CT scan should be performed, on
      individual basis, if knowledge of the precise location of the retained capsule is
      necessary or whenever clinically indicated. Since CR is usually asymptomatic, an
      initial watchful monitoring is suggested. In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
      patients, a short course of medical therapy may allow capsule excretion.
      Nevertheless, in long-term CR, some cases of capsule fragmentation, acute
      obstruction and perforation have been described. Therefore, retrieval of the
      retained capsule is recommended if asymptomatic CR lasts for long time. A safe
      capsule retrieval is usually performed by endoscopy, whereas surgery remains a
      viable alternative if the first is unsuccessful or when clinically indicated.
      Either Patency Capsule(r) (PC) or dedicated small bowel cross-sectional imaging
      techniques have been proposed to prevent CR. Both have pros and cons, but head-to
      head comparative studies are lacking.

PMID- 28567379
TI  - Colonic obstruction caused by video capsule entrapment in a metal stent.
AB  - Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) has become the method of choice for visualizing the
      small bowel mucosa and is generally considered to be a safe method. Although
      uncommon, the most feared complication of VCE is capsule retention that can
      potentially lead to life-threatening bowel obstruction. Herein, we present for
      the first time a case of capsule retention in a colonic stent. The patient had
      known Crohn's disease with colonic involvement and underwent an uneventful but
      incomplete small bowel VCE for assessment of disease activity and extension for
      optimizing medical treatment. Five months later, the patient presented with
      intestinal obstruction due to a Crohn's-stricture in the sigmoid colon, which was
      successfully decompressed with a self-expandable metal stent. Nonetheless, two
      days later the patient showed signs of bowel obstruction again and abdominal X
      ray showed that the capsule was trapped in the metal stent in the sigmoid colon.
      Subsequently, emergency surgery was performed and the patient fully recovered.
      Intestinal capsule retention necessitating interventional removal is rare. This
      report describes a unique case of capsule retention in a colonic metal stent and
      highlights the potential risk of performing capsule endoscopy examinations in
      patients with gastrointestinal stents.

PMID- 28567380
TI  - Capsule endoscopy in Portugal.

PMID- 28567381
TI  - Ultrasound capsule endoscopy: sounding out the future.
AB  - Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) has been of immense benefit in the diagnosis and
      management of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders since its introduction in 2001.
      However, it suffers from a number of well recognized deficiencies. Amongst these
      is the limited capability of white light imaging, which is restricted to analysis
      of the mucosal surface. Current capsule endoscopes are dependent on visual
      manifestation of disease and limited in regards to transmural imaging and
      detection of deeper pathology. Ultrasound capsule endoscopy (USCE) has the
      potential to overcome surface only imaging and provide transmural scans of the GI
      tract. The integration of high frequency microultrasound (uUS) into capsule
      endoscopy would allow high resolution transmural images and provide a means of
      both qualitative and quantitative assessment of the bowel wall. Quantitative
      ultrasound (QUS) can provide data in an objective and measurable manner,
      potentially reducing lengthy interpretation times by incorporation into an
      automated diagnostic process. The research described here is focused on the
      development of USCE and other complementary diagnostic and therapeutic
      modalities. Presently investigations have entered a preclinical phase with
      laboratory investigations running concurrently.

PMID- 28567382
TI  - Where do I see minimally invasive endoscopy in 2020: clock is ticking.
AB  - Since it was introduced 17 years ago, capsule endoscopy has become an important
      diagnostic tool for the small bowel. Three generations of the original small
      bowel capsule have been developed since (PillCam SB3, Medtronic, USA), and four
      competitors were introduced for the small bowel. A non-video patency capsule
      (Agile patency capsule, Medtronic, USA) was also developed, in order to confirm
      patency and thus avoid retention in the GI tract. Moreover, capsules viewing
      other organs of the body (esophagus, colon) as well as three different magnetic
      guided capsules that visualize the stomach as good as optical endoscopy (OE) have
      been developed. Over 2,000 articles looking at the efficacy of the small bowel
      capsule in different clinical situations were published since then. Studies are
      comparing capsule endoscopy versus other modalities in various indications,
      looking at preparations aiming to improve the diagnostic yield and at technical
      aspects. The present paper, describes the available capsules in the market and my
      biased future expectations.

PMID- 28567383
TI  - Deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression: optimizing
      interventions while preserving valid trial design.

PMID- 28567384
TI  - Radiosensitization of cancer stem cells in glioblastoma by the simultaneous
      inhibition of parallel DNA damage response pathways.

PMID- 28567385
TI  - Pokemon GO: snake oil or miracle cure for physical inactivity?

PMID- 28567386
TI  - High prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke among
      adolescents in low- and middle-income countries.

PMID- 28567387
TI  - Treatment of hypertensive emergencies.

PMID- 28567388
TI  - Yet another key learning point in the quest universal cartilage repair and
      restoration.

PMID- 28567389
TI  - Liberal or restrictive dilemma-that's a CLASSIC!

PMID- 28567390
TI  - Extracellular vesicle-mediated communication in host-parasite interactions:
      insight from Fasciola hepatica.

PMID- 28567391
TI  - Lobectomy: no port at all?

PMID- 28567393
TI  - The promise of an augmented reality game-Pokemon GO.

PMID- 28567392
TI  - Kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty: alternative standardized
      technique?

PMID- 28567394
TI  - How to establish a successful ex vivo lung perfusion program.

PMID- 28567395
TI  - Exercise for cardiac health and regeneration: killing two birds with one stone.

PMID- 28567396
TI  - AURA 3: the last word on chemotherapy as a control arm in EGFR mutant NSCLC?

PMID- 28567397
TI  - Poor outcome reporting in medical research; building practice on spoilt grounds.

PMID- 28567398
TI  - Extracellular vesicles: important players in immune homeostasis.

PMID- 28567399
TI  - Bicruciate-retaining total knee arthroplasty, a promising technology, that's not
      quite there.

PMID- 28567400
TI  - Secondary endpoints: surrogate interest or supplementary table?

PMID- 28567401
TI  - Editorial on "Epidemiology of fracture nonunion in 18 human bones".

PMID- 28567402
TI  - Research focused on microRNAs: a link between myocardial remodeling and growth
      during pathological processes and physical exercises.

PMID- 28567403
TI  - Timing of lymphocyte trafficking is regulated by the circadian clock.

PMID- 28567404
TI  - Self-renewal capacity of semi-differentiated CD8+ T cells sustains long-term
      protective responses in chronic persistent infection.

PMID- 28567406
TI  - mHealth is now indexed in PubMed/PMC: a tremendous step forward.

PMID- 28567405
TI  - Applying a mobile survey tool for assessing lymphatic filariasis morbidity in
      Mtwara Municipal Council of Tanzania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A number of methods have been used to estimate lymphatic filariasis
      (LF) morbidity, including: routine programmatic data, cluster random surveys and
      the "town crier" method. Currently, few accurate data exist on the global LF
      morbidity burden in Tanzania. We aimed to estimate prevalence of lymphedema and
      hydrocele in Mtwara Municipal Council using mobile phone based survey. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults of Mtwara Municipal council
      with access to mobile phones. A sample size of at least 384 completed surveys was
      required to estimate prevalence of lymphedema (both males and females) and
      hydrocele (males only) morbidity of 50% within a 5% error margin given a 5% level
      of significance and 95% confidence level. Eligible mobile phone users received a
      short message text (SMS) requesting consent to participate in the survey. A total
      of 10 questions were administered via interactive SMS through the GeoPoll, a
      survey platform developed by Mobile Accord (www.geopoll.com). RESULTS: The survey
      was completed over a period of 4 days. A total of 8,759 surveys were sent to
      mobile phone subscribers of whom 1,330 (15.2%) opted-in to complete the survey. A
      total of 492 (37.0% of those opted-in, 384 male and 108 female) people completed
      the survey. Lymphedema and hydrocele signs were reported by 20.9% (95% CI, 17.4
      24.8) and 20.6% (95% CI, 16.6-25.0) of respondents, respectively. Majority of
      hydrocele patients (59.5%) and 46.6% of lymphedema patients reported having
      sought treatment. The proportion of patients reporting similar symptoms among
      friends and relatives was 66.0% and 70.9% for lymphedema and hydrocele,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that mobile phone based surveys
      are a practical approach of undertaking morbidity surveys. While further surveys
      are needed to verify the findings, this approach can be expected to encourage
      identification of lymphedema and hydrocele morbidity at community level and
      provide evidence where further morbidity surveys are warranted.

PMID- 28567407
TI  - Roshan's telemedicine: expanding the frontier of quality healthcare through
      mobile technology.
AB  - The article highlights the power of mobile technology in expanding access to
      quality healthcare by telling the story of the first successful operation by
      Afghan doctors to separate conjoined twins at The French Medical Institute for
      Mothers and Children (FMIC) in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. Roshan,
      Afghanistan's leading telecommunications provider, set up the telemedicine link
      in 2007, connecting three hospitals in Kandahar, Bamiyan and Badakhshan Provinces
      to FMIC in Kabul, and all three to one of the best and most modern hospitals in
      the region: The Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

PMID- 28567408
TI  - Evidence-based adaptation and scale-up of a mobile phone health information
      service.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The research base recommending the use of mobile phone interventions
      for health improvement is growing at a rapid pace. The use of mobile phones to
      deliver health behavior change and maintenance interventions in particular is
      gaining a robust evidence base across geographies, populations, and health
      topics. However, research on best practices for successfully scaling mHealth
      interventions is not keeping pace, despite the availability of frameworks for
      adapting and scaling health programs. METHODS: m4RH-Mobile for Reproductive
      Health-is an SMS, or text message-based, health information service that began in
      two countries and over a period of 7 years has been adapted and scaled to new
      population groups and new countries. Success can be attributed to following key
      principles for scaling up health programs, including continuous stakeholder
      engagement; ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and research including extensive
      content and usability testing with the target audience; strategic dissemination
      of results; and use of marketing and sustainability principles for social
      initiatives. This article investigates how these factors contributed to vertical,
      horizontal, and global scale-up of the m4RH program. RESULTS: Vertical scale of
      m4RH is demonstrated in Tanzania, where the early engagement of stakeholders
      including the Ministry of Health catalyzed expansion of m4RH content and national
      level program reach. Ongoing data collection has provided real-time data for
      decision-making, information about the user base, and peer-reviewed publications,
      yielding government endorsement and partner hand-off for sustainability of the
      m4RH platform. Horizontal scale-up and adaptation of m4RH has occurred through
      expansion to new populations in Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania, where best
      practices for design and implementation of mHealth programs were followed to
      ensure the platform meets the needs of target populations. m4RH also has been
      modified and packaged for global scale-up through licensing and toolkit
      development, research into new business/distribution models, and serving as the
      foundation for derivative NGO and quasi-governmental mHealth platforms.
      CONCLUSIONS: The m4RH platform provides an excellent case study of how to apply
      best practices to successfully scale up mobile phone interventions for health
      improvement. Applying principles of scale can inform the successful scale-up,
      sustainability, and potential impact of mHealth programs across health topics and
      settings.

PMID- 28567409
TI  - Predicting appointment misses in hospitals using data analytics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is growing attention over the last few years about non
      attendance in hospitals and its clinical and economic consequences. There have
      been several studies documenting the various aspects of non-attendance in
      hospitals. Project Predicting Appoint Misses (PAM) was started with the intention
      of being able to predict the type of patients that would not come for
      appointments after making bookings. METHODS: Historic hospital appointment data
      merged with "distance from hospital" variable was used to run Logistic
      Regression, Support Vector Machine and Recursive Partitioning to decide the
      contributing variables to missed appointments. RESULTS: Variables that are
      "class", "time", "demographics" related have an effect on the target variable,
      however, prediction models may not perform effectively due to very subtle
      influence on the target variable. Previously assumed major contributors like
      "age", "distance" did not have a major effect on the target variable.
      CONCLUSIONS: With the given data it will be very difficult to make any
      moderate/strong prediction of the Appointment misses. That being said with the
      help of the cut off we are able to capture all of the "appointment misses" in
      addition to also capturing the actualized appointments.

PMID- 28567410
TI  - Erratum to "Mobile phone use among female entertainment workers in Cambodia: an
      observation study".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.21037/mhealth.2017.01.01.].

PMID- 28567411
TI  - Mobile-based blended learning for capacity building of health providers in rural
      Afghanistan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mobile-based blended learning initiative was launched in November
      2014 in Badakshan province of Afghanistan by Tech4Life Enterprises, Aga Khan
      Health Service, Afghanistan (AKHS, A), and the University of Calgary, Canada. The
      goal of this initiative was to improve knowledge of health providers related to
      four major mental health problems, namely depression, psychosis, post-traumatic
      stress disorder (PTSD) and drug abuse. METHODS: This paper presents the results
      of quasi-experimental study conducted in 4 intervention districts in Badakshan
      for improvement in the knowledge among health providers about depression. The
      results were compared with three control districts for the change in knowledge
      scores. RESULTS: Sixty-two health providers completed pre and post module
      questionnaires from case district, while 31 health providers did so from the
      control sites. Significant change was noticed in the case districts, where
      overall knowledge scores changed from 45% in pre-intervention test to 63% in post
      intervention test. Overall background knowledge of pre to post module test scores
      changed from 30% to 40%, knowledge of symptoms showed correct responses raised
      from 25% to 44%, knowledge related to causes of depression from overall districts
      showed change from 22% to 51%, and treatment knowledge of depression improved
      from 29% to 35%. Average gain in scores among cases was 16.06, compared to 6.8 in
      controls. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirms that a blended Learning approach with
      multiple learning techniques for health providers in Badakshan, Afghanistan,
      enhanced their knowledge and offers an effective solution to overcome challenges
      in continuing education. Further research is needed to confirm that the gains in
      knowledge reported here translate into better practice and improved mental
      health.

PMID- 28567412
TI  - mHealth for diabetes support: a systematic review of apps available on the
      Italian market.
AB  - mHealth is an expanding field of research and experimentation, concerned with the
      potentialities of mobile applications as tools to enhance patients' abilities in
      the management of chronic conditions. We present a systematic review of mHealth
      applications available on the Italian market and for the Italian speakers in
      order to assess their reported usability and functions. The review shows that
      there are rather few products on offer and the ones that are available display
      weak educational components, do not seem to be based on solid theoretical models
      of behavior change or decision making, and do not seem to be intended as devices
      to be integrated in the ecology of the doctor-patient relationship.

PMID- 28567413
TI  - HealtheBrain: an innovative smartphone application to improve cognitive function
      in older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise-based interventions have shown promise in slowing cognitive
      decline, however there is limited evidence for scalability. Our previous research
      has linked a novel visuospatial memory exercise intervention, incorporating
      patterned walking or square-stepping exercise (SSE) with significant improvements
      in executive function and memory among older adults with normal cognition as well
      as those with subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) and mild cognitive impairment
      (MCI). The aim of the current study was to determine the feasibility and utility
      of the HealtheBrain smartphone app to deliver SSE outside the laboratory among
      older adults with and without cognitive impairment. METHODS: Previous healthy
      research subjects with and without SCC or MCI, who had previous exposure to SSE,
      and who owned or had access to an iPhone of iPad, were recruited to download the
      HealtheBrain app and use it up to 3 weeks. There were no restrictions on the
      number of times subjects could use the app. A 15-question survey was developed to
      assess feasibility and utility of the HealtheBrain app and completed online
      following the brief exposure period. RESULTS: Of 135 people who were identified,
      95 were contacted between September 2014 to August 2015, 27 downloaded the
      HealtheBrain app on their iPhone or iPad from the App Store and 19 completed the
      questionnaire. Subjects (n=19) were an average age of 68.3+/-5.4; 74% female and
      had 15.5+/-2.8 years of education (84% post-secondary education), a mean Mini
      Mental State examination score of 29.1 (SD 1.2) out of 30 and Montreal Cognitive
      Assessment score of 26.3 (SD 1.9) out of 30. Subjects used the HealtheBrain app 1
      7 days per week, mostly at home. Of possible stages of progression, subjects
      mainly used the stage 1 and 2 beginner patterns. Subjects reported perceived and
      technical challenges registering horizontal step patterns associated with stage 2
      and greater progression. Sixty percent found the app was easy to use or similar
      to what they experienced with SSE in the laboratory setting. Most said they would
      continue to use the HealtheBrain app and would recommend it to friends and
      family. CONCLUSIONS: The HealtheBrain app was feasible in providing SSE to older
      adults with the appropriate smartphone device outside the laboratory setting.
      Challenges were identified with perceived capture of higher levels of SSE stages
      that used horizontal step patterns. This as well as technical issues with
      horizontal step patterns will be addressed by newer GPS technology in current
      smartphone devices. Most subjects stated they would continue to use the
      HealtheBrain app and refer to their friends and family. We believe that our
      findings in a representative cohort support the HealtheBrain app as a scalable
      intervention to promote cognitive health in older adults.

PMID- 28567414
TI  - Barriers in adopting blended learning in a private university of Pakistan and
      East Africa: faculty members' perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Education methods have undergone transformation over the centuries.
      Use of technology is the cornerstone for innovation in teaching methods. Hence,
      blended learning which includes face to face and online modalities is being
      increasingly explored as effective method for learning. This pilot study
      determines the perceptions of faculty members in a private international
      university on barriers influencing adoption of technology for teaching and
      learning. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted through a self-reported
      questionnaire using 'survey monkey'. The data was entered and analyzed using
      Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20). Frequencies and
      proportions are reported. RESULTS: Findings indicated that 51.6% faculty members
      perceived the importance of integration of technology in their teaching. Around
      54% of the participants recognized that they do possess the ability and
      accessibility to integrate information communication technology (ICT) in teaching
      and learning, but there is a need to hone the basic information technology (IT)
      skills to initiate technology driven teaching. Findings revealed that 55% faculty
      members acknowledged the constraint of not getting protective time to develop and
      deliver technology driven courses. Further, results showed that 45% faculty
      members perceived that their innovation efforts in terms of teaching as blended
      learning do not count towards their professional promotion or recognition, as
      usually priority is given to research over teaching innovation. The findings also
      indicated that 54.5% participants asserted that university lack mentorship in the
      field of blended learning. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, study suggests that
      universities should provide adequate mentorship programmes for the faculty
      members in enhancing their skills of integrating technology in their teaching.

PMID- 28567417
TI  - Corrigendum to "Dual Inhibiting Senescence and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal
      Transition by Erythropoietin Preserve Tubular Epithelial Cell Regeneration and
      Ameliorate Renal Fibrosis in Unilateral Ureteral Obstruction".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2013/308130.].

PMID- 28567416
TI  - Negative Correlation between miR-200c and Decorin Plays an Important Role in the
      Pathogenesis of Colorectal Carcinoma.
AB  - Aim. To demonstrate the regulatory role of miRNA in colorectal carcinoma (CRC)
      and reveal the transcript markers that may be associated with CRC clinical
      outcomes. Method. Herein, we analyzed both mRNA and miRNA gene expression
      profiles of 255 CRC tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas project to reveal
      the regulatory association between miRNA and mRNA. Also, the potential role of
      gene coexpression network in CRC has been explored. Results. The negative
      correlation between miR-200c and DCN (Decorin) was calculated in CRC, indicating
      that DCN could be a potential target of miR-200c. Clinical features indicated
      that colon polyp history and overall survival were significantly related to the
      expression level of miR-200c. Three coexpression networks have been constructed,
      and genes involved in the networks are related to cell cycle, NOTCH, and mTOR
      signaling pathways. Conclusion. Our result provides a new insight into cancer
      related mRNA coexpression network in CRC research.

PMID- 28567418
TI  - A Cancer Gene Selection Algorithm Based on the K-S Test and CFS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To address the challenging problem of selecting distinguished genes
      from cancer gene expression datasets, this paper presents a gene subset selection
      algorithm based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test and correlation-based
      feature selection (CFS) principles. The algorithm selects distinguished genes
      first using the K-S test, and then, it uses CFS to select genes from those
      selected by the K-S test. RESULTS: We adopted support vector machines (SVM) as
      the classification tool and used the criteria of accuracy to evaluate the
      performance of the classifiers on the selected gene subsets. This approach
      compared the proposed gene subset selection algorithm with the K-S test, CFS,
      minimum-redundancy maximum-relevancy (mRMR), and ReliefF algorithms. The average
      experimental results of the aforementioned gene selection algorithms for 5 gene
      expression datasets demonstrate that, based on accuracy, the performance of the
      new K-S and CFS-based algorithm is better than those of the K-S test, CFS, mRMR,
      and ReliefF algorithms. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results show that the K-S
      test-CFS gene selection algorithm is a very effective and promising approach
      compared to the K-S test, CFS, mRMR, and ReliefF algorithms.

PMID- 28567419
TI  - Shin'iseihaito (Xinyiqingfeitang) Suppresses the Biofilm Formation of
      Streptococcus pneumoniae In Vitro.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) is the important pathogen that causes
      otolaryngeal diseases such as sinusitis. S. pneumoniae frequently forms the
      biofilm to prevent severe circumstances such as antimicrobial agents.
      Shin'iseihaito (xinyiqingfeitang) is a formula of Japanese traditional Kampo
      medicine that has 9 crude drugs and provides the medicinal usage for sinusitis.
      The objective of the present study is to reveal the mechanism of antibiofilm
      activity by Shin'iseihaito extract (SSHT). SSHT significantly inhibited the
      formation of biofilm from S. pneumoniae ATCC 49619 in dose- and time-dependent
      manners. SSHT also significantly suppressed the biofilm formation by other five
      different cps types of S. pneumoniae clinical isolates. We found that the
      extracts of 8 out of 9 components in Shin'iseihaito had the inhibitory effects of
      biofilm formation, and the extract of the root of Scutellaria baicalensis had the
      strongest effect among the ingredients of Shin'iseihaito. We found that the
      capsule of SSHT-treated S. pneumoniae was significantly thinner than that of the
      untreated group and that SSHT reduced the hydrophobicity of bacterial cell
      surface. Our results suggest that Shin'iseihaito may be a useful agent for the
      treatment of S. pneumoniae-induced sinusitis because of the inhibition of biofilm
      formation of S. pneumoniae.

PMID- 28567415
TI  - Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Environmental Toxicants: Epigenetics as an
      Underlying Mechanism.
AB  - The increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism
      spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
      calls for more research into the identification of etiologic and risk factors.
      The Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesizes that the
      environment during fetal and childhood development affects the risk for many
      chronic diseases in later stages of life, including neurodevelopmental disorders.
      Epigenetics, a term describing mechanisms that cause changes in the chromosome
      state without affecting DNA sequences, is suggested to be the underlying
      mechanism, according to the DOHaD hypothesis. Moreover, many neurodevelopmental
      disorders are also related to epigenetic abnormalities. Experimental and
      epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to prenatal environmental toxicants
      is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, there is also
      evidence that environmental toxicants can result in epigenetic alterations,
      notably DNA methylation. In this review, we first focus on the relationship
      between neurodevelopmental disorders and environmental toxicants, in particular
      maternal smoking, plastic-derived chemicals (bisphenol A and phthalates),
      persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals. We then review studies showing
      the epigenetic effects of those environmental factors in humans that may affect
      normal neurodevelopment.

PMID- 28567420
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Blood Transfusion in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
      Patients without Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate whether blood transfusions affect overall
      survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in newly diagnosed multiple
      myeloma (MM) patients without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. A total of
      181 patients were enrolled and divided into two groups: 68 patients in the
      transfused group and 113 patients in the nontransfused group. Statistical
      analyses showed that there were significant differences in ECOG scoring, Ig
      isotype, platelet (Plt) counts, hemoglobin (Hb) level, serum creatinine (Scr)
      level, and beta2-microglobulin (beta2-MG) level between the two groups.
      Univariate analyses showed that higher International Staging System staging, Plt
      counts < 100 * 109/L, Scr level >= 177 MUmol/L, serum beta2-MG >= 5.5 MUmol/L,
      serum calcium (Ca) >= 2.75 mmol/L, and thalidomide use were associated with both
      OS and PFS in MM patients. Age >= 60 was associated with OS and Ig isotype was
      associated with PFS in MM patients. Moreover, blood transfusion was associated
      with PFS but not OS in MM patients. Multivariate analyses showed that blood
      transfusion was not an independent factor for PFS in MM patients. Our preliminary
      results suggested that newly diagnosed MM patients may benefit from a liberal
      blood transfusion strategy, since blood transfusion is not an independent impact
      factor for survival.

PMID- 28567422
TI  - Risk Factors for the Mortality of Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Non-HIV
      Patients Who Required Mechanical Ventilation: A Retrospective Case Series Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk factors for the mortality rate of Pneumocystis jirovecii
      pneumonia (PCP) who required mechanical ventilation (MV) remained unknown.
      METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed of all PCP patients admitted
      to our intensive care unit and treated for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure to
      assess the risk factors for the high mortality. RESULTS: Twenty patients without
      human immunodeficiency virus infection required mechanical ventilation; 19
      received noninvasive ventilation; and 11 were intubated. PEEP was incrementally
      increased and titrated to maintain FIO2 as low as possible. No mandatory
      ventilation was used. Sixteen patients (80%) survived. Pneumothorax developed in
      one patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Median PEEP level in the first 5 days
      was 10.0 cmH2O and not associated with death. Multivariate analysis showed the
      association of incidence of interstitial lung disease and increase in serum KL-6
      with 90-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS: We found MV strategies to prevent
      pneumothorax including liberal use of noninvasive ventilation, and PEEP titration
      and disuse of mandatory ventilation may improve mortality in this setting.
      Underlying disease of interstitial lung disease was a risk factor and KL-6 may be
      a useful predictor associated with mortality in patients with RA. These findings
      will need to be validated in larger studies.

PMID- 28567421
TI  - Effects of Diode Laser, Gaseous Ozone, and Medical Dressings on Enterococcus
      faecalis Biofilms in the Root Canal Ex Vivo.
AB  - The objective was to compare the antibacterial effects of adjunctive disinfection
      using diode laser and gaseous ozone compared to the medical dressings calcium
      hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) and chlorhexidine gel (CHX-Gel) on Enterococcus faecalis
      biofilms in human root canals ex vivo. Root canals of 180 human extracted teeth
      were infected by E. faecalis and divided into 3 main groups (G): G1, control; G2,
      instrumentation and irrigation using 0.9% NaCl; G3, instrumentation and
      irrigation using 1% NaOCl. In each main group, the following treatments were
      applied: gaseous ozone, diode laser, and medical dressings of Ca(OH)2 or CHX-Gel
      for 7 days (n = 15). Reduction of colony forming units (CFUs) inside the root
      canal of planktons and frequencies of adherent bacteria after treatment were
      calculated. Bacterial reduction was significantly affected by the irrigation
      protocol (p < 0.0005) and the disinfection method (p < 0.0005), and a significant
      interaction between both factors could be observed (p < 0.0005; ANOVA). In G3
      (instrumentation using 1% NaOCl), no significant effect of disinfection methods
      could be demonstrated on planktonic bacteria (p = 0.062; ANOVA) and frequencies
      of adherent bacteria (p > 0.05; chi-square test). Instrumentation and irrigation
      using NaOCl combined with ozone or laser application resulted in comparable
      bacterial reduction on E. faecalis to the application of medical dressings.

PMID- 28567423
TI  - Protective Effects of Lemon Juice on Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury in Mice.
AB  - Chronic excessive alcohol consumption (more than 40-80 g/day for males and more
      than 20-40 g/day for females) could induce serious liver injury. In this study,
      effects of lemon juice on chronic alcohol-induced liver injury in mice were
      evaluated. The serum biochemical profiles and hepatic lipid peroxidation levels,
      triacylglycerol (TG) contents, antioxidant enzyme activities, and
      histopathological changes were examined for evaluating the hepatoprotective
      effects of lemon juice in mice. In addition, the in vitro antioxidant capacities
      of lemon juice were determined. The results showed that lemon juice significantly
      inhibited alcohol-induced increase of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate
      transaminase (AST), hepatic TG, and lipid peroxidation levels in a dose-dependent
      manner. Histopathological changes induced by alcohol were also remarkably
      improved by lemon juice treatment. These findings suggest that lemon juice has
      protective effects on alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. The protective
      effects might be related to the antioxidant capacity of lemon juice because lemon
      juice showed in vitro antioxidant capacity.

PMID- 28567424
TI  - Effect of Naringenin, Quercetin, and Sesamin on Xenobiotica-Metabolizing CYP1A
      and CYP3A in Mice Offspring after Maternal Exposure to Persistent Organic
      Pollutants.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to evaluate in vitro effects of dietary
      phytochemicals naringenin, quercetin, and sesamin on the activities of ethoxy-
      (EROD; CYP1A) and benzyloxy- (BROD; CYP3A) resorufin O-dealkylases after the
      exposure to the cocktail of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). CD-1 mice were
      exposed from weaning, through gestation and lactation to a defined mixture of
      POPs. Hepatic microsomes were prepared from their female offspring at postnatal
      day 42. Hepatic EROD and BROD activity were evaluated in the presence of
      quercetin, naringenin, and sesamin at nine concentrations from 5 to 100000 nM.
      EROD activity was strongly inhibited by quercetin with Ki values from 1.7 to 2.6
      MUM. BROD activity was inhibited by quercetin with Ki values from 64.9 to 75.3
      MUM and naringenin with Ki values from 39.3 to 45.8 MUM. The IC50 and Ki values
      did not differ between the groups of mice with different levels of POPs exposure
      in any of the experimental sets. Sesamin did not inhibit either EROD or BROD. We
      concluded that the interactions of quercetin and naringenin with CYP1A and CYP3A
      in mice liver were not affected by the levels of POPs exposure.

PMID- 28567425
TI  - The Effectiveness of Lifestyle Adaptation for the Prevention of Prediabetes in
      Adults: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Diabetes prevalence is increasing exceptionally worldwide and with this come
      associated healthcare costs. The primary outcome of this systematic review was to
      assess glycaemic control and incidence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)
      diagnosis after exercise and dietary intervention (measured with any validated
      scale). The secondary outcome assessed body mass index change, weight change, and
      physical exercise capacity after diet and exercise intervention (measured with
      any validated scale). 1,780 studies were identified from searching electronic
      databases. Relevant studies went through a selection process. The inclusion
      criteria for all studies were people with prediabetes diagnosed by either
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or impaired fasting glucose (IFG). Lifestyle
      adaptation reduced the incidence of diabetes development more than standard
      treatment. Furthermore, better glycaemic control, improved physical exercise
      capacity, and increased weight reduction were observed with lifestyle
      intervention over standard treatment. Finally, improvements over the long term
      deteriorated, highlighting problems with long-term adherence to lifestyle
      changes. Overall, cumulative incidence of diabetes is drastically reduced in the
      intervention groups compared to control groups (standard care). Furthermore,
      glycaemic control was improved in the short term, with many participants
      reverting to normoglycaemia.

PMID- 28567426
TI  - Treatment of Subacromial Impingement Syndrome: Platelet-Rich Plasma or Exercise
      Therapy? A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Subacromial impingement syndrome (SAIS) is the most common disorder
      of the shoulder. The evidence for the effectiveness of treatment options is
      inconclusive and limited. Therefore, there is a need for more evidence in this
      regard, particularly for long-term outcomes. HYPOTHESIS: Platelet-rich plasma
      (PRP) would be an effective method in treating subacromial impingement. STUDY
      DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1. METHODS: This was a
      single-blinded randomized clinical trial with 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up.
      Sixty-two patients were randomly placed into 2 groups, receiving either PRP or
      exercise therapy. The outcome parameters were pain, shoulder range of motion
      (ROM), muscle force, functionality, and magnetic resonance imaging findings.
      RESULTS: Both treatment options significantly reduced pain and increased shoulder
      ROM compared with baseline measurements. Both treatments also significantly
      improved functionality. However, the treatment choices were not significantly
      effective in improving muscle force. Trend analysis revealed that in the first
      and third months, exercise therapy was superior to PRP in pain, shoulder flexion
      and abduction, and functionality. However, in the sixth month, only shoulder
      abduction and total Western Ontario Rotator Cuff score were significantly
      different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Both PRP injection and exercise
      therapy were effective in reducing pain and disability in patients with SAIS,
      with exercise therapy proving more effective.

PMID- 28567427
TI  - Medial Collateral Ligament Reconstruction in Patients With Medial Knee
      Instability: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is the most frequently injured
      ligament of the knee, but it infrequently requires surgical treatment. Current
      literature on MCL reconstructions is sparse and offers mixed outcome measures.
      PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of
      isolated MCL reconstruction and multiligamentous MCL reconstruction. Our
      hypothesis was that in selective patients, MCL reconstruction would significantly
      improve objective and subjective patient knee performance measures, those being
      baseline valgus laxity, range of motion, objective and subjective International
      Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores, Tegner score, and Lysholm knee
      activity scores. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. METHODS:
      A systematic review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting
      Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines and utilizing
      3 computer-based databases. Studies reporting clinical outcomes of patients
      undergoing MCL reconstruction due to chronic instability or injury with mean
      follow-up of at least 2 years and levels of evidence 1 to 4 were eligible for
      inclusion. All relevant subject demographics and study data were statistically
      analyzed using 2-sample and 2-proportion z tests. RESULTS: Ten studies involving
      275 patients met our inclusion criteria. Of these patients, 46 underwent isolated
      MCL reconstruction while another 229 underwent reconstruction of the MCL in
      addition to a variety of concomitant reconstructions. Overall outcomes for all
      patients were significant for (1) reducing the medial opening of the knee (8.1 +/
      1.3 vs 1.4 +/- 1.0 mm; P < .001), (2) improving the patient's objective IKDC
      score (1.2% vs 88.4%; P < .001), (3) improving the patient's subjective IKDC
      score (49.8 +/- 6.9 vs 82.4 +/- 9.6; P < .001), and (4) improving the Lysholm
      knee activity score (69.3 +/- 5.9 vs 90.5 +/- 6.6; P < .001). No differences
      existed between concomitant reconstruction groupings except that postoperative
      Lysholm scores were better for MCL/anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction than
      MCL/posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (94.3 +/- 4.5 vs 84.0 +/- 11.7; P
      < .001). Normal or nearly normal range of motion was obtained by 88% of all
      patients. CONCLUSION: The systematic review of 10 studies and 275 knees found
      that the reported patient outcomes after MCL reconstruction were significantly
      improved across all measures studied, with no significant difference in outcomes
      between concomitant reconstructions.

PMID- 28567428
TI  - ACL Roof Impingement Revisited: Does the Independent Femoral Drilling Technique
      Avoid Roof Impingement With Anteriorly Placed Tibial Tunnels?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anatomic femoral tunnel placement for single-bundle anterior cruciate
      ligament (ACL) reconstruction is now well accepted. The ideal location for the
      tibial tunnel has not been studied extensively, although some biomechanical and
      clinical studies suggest that placement of the tibial tunnel in the anterior part
      of the ACL tibial attachment site may be desirable. However, the concern for
      intercondylar roof impingement has tempered enthusiasm for anterior tibial tunnel
      placement. PURPOSE: To compare the potential for intercondylar roof impingement
      of ACL grafts with anteriorly positioned tibial tunnels after either transtibial
      (TT) or independent femoral (IF) tunnel drilling. STUDY DESIGN: Controlled
      laboratory study. METHODS: Twelve fresh-frozen cadaver knees were randomized to
      either a TT or IF drilling technique. Tibial guide pins were drilled in the
      anterior third of the native ACL tibial attachment site after debridement. All
      efforts were made to drill the femoral tunnel anatomically in the center of the
      attachment site, and the surrogate ACL graft was visualized using 3-dimensional
      computed tomography. Reformatting was used to evaluate for roof impingement.
      Tunnel dimensions, knee flexion angles, and intra-articular sagittal graft angles
      were also measured. The Impingement Review Index (IRI) was used to evaluate for
      graft impingement. RESULTS: Two grafts (2/6, 33.3%) in the TT group impinged upon
      the intercondylar roof and demonstrated angular deformity (IRI type 1). No grafts
      in the IF group impinged, although 2 of 6 (66.7%) IF grafts touched the roof
      without deformation (IRI type 2). The presence or absence of impingement was not
      statistically significant. The mean sagittal tibial tunnel guide pin position
      prior to drilling was 27.6% of the sagittal diameter of the tibia (range, 22%
      33.9%). However, computed tomography performed postdrilling detected substantial
      posterior enlargement in 2 TT specimens. A significant difference in the sagittal
      graft angle was noted between the 2 groups. TT grafts were more vertical, leading
      to angular convergence with the roof, whereas IF grafts were more horizontal and
      universally diverged from the roof. CONCLUSION: The IF technique had no specimens
      with roof impingement despite an anterior tibial tunnel position, likely due to a
      more horizontal graft trajectory and anatomic placement of the ACL femoral
      tunnel. Roof impingement remains a concern after TT ACL reconstruction in the
      setting of anterior tibial tunnel placement, although statistical significance
      was not found. Future clinical studies are planned to develop better
      recommendations for ACL tibial tunnel placement. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Graft
      impingement due to excessively anterior tibial tunnel placement using a TT
      drilling technique has been previously demonstrated; however, this may not be a
      concern when using an IF tunnel drilling technique. There may also be
      biomechanical advantages to a more anterior tibial tunnel in IF tunnel ACL
      reconstruction.

PMID- 28567429
TI  - Are the Current Little League Pitching Guidelines Adequate? A Single-Season
      Prospective MRI Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little League throwing guidelines have recently been implemented in
      an attempt to lessen the growing number of elbow injuries occurring in youth
      baseball players. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine
      pre- and postseason changes seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in youth
      baseball players' elbows in an attempt to identify risk factors for pain and MRI
      abnormalities, with a particular focus on the current Little League guidelines.
      We hypothesized that MRI abnormalities would be common in pitchers with high
      pitch counts and poor guideline compliance. STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of
      evidence, 2. METHODS: A prospective study of Little League players aged 10 to 13
      years was performed. Players were recruited prior to the start of the season and
      underwent bilateral elbow MRI as well as a physical examination and completed a
      questionnaire addressing their playing history and arm pain. At the end of the
      season, a repeat MRI and physical examination were performed. MRIs were read by
      blinded radiologists. During the season, player statistics including innings
      played, pitch counts, and guideline compliance were recorded. Physical
      examination findings and player statistics were compared between subjects with
      and without MRI changes utilizing chi-square and analysis of variance techniques.
      RESULTS: Twenty-six players were enrolled. Despite 100% compliance with pitching
      guidelines, 12 players (48%) had abnormal MRI findings, and 28% experienced pain
      during the season. There was a significant difference in distal humeral physeal
      width measured pre- to postseason (1.54 vs 2.31 mm, P < .001). There was a
      significant loss of shoulder internal rotation during the season, averaging 11
      degrees . While pitch counts, player position, and throwing curveballs/sliders
      were not significantly associated with changes seen on MRI, year-round play was
      associated with abnormalities (P < .05). Much lower compliance (<50%) was
      observed with nonenforced guidelines, including avoidance of single-sport
      specialization, year-round play, and throwing curveballs/sliders. CONCLUSION: Arm
      pain and MRI abnormalities of the medial elbow are common in Little League
      baseball players who comply with the Little League throwing guidelines,
      especially those playing year-round.

PMID- 28567430
TI  - Can Hepatitis C Virus Antigen Testing Replace Ribonucleic Acid Polymearse Chain
      Reaction Analysis for Detecting Hepatitis C Virus? A Systematic Review.
AB  - The complexity and cost of current diagnostics for hepatitis C virus (HCV) may
      act as a prevention to the scale-up of treatment in the developing world.
      Currently, ribonucleic acid (RNA)-polymerase chain reaction tests are the gold
      standard. However, there is potential for the use of simpler and cheaper antigen
      tests to confirm HCV infection in different clinical settings. We evaluated the
      sensitivity and specificity of antigen assays. This was compared with the
      reference-standard RNA assays. A subanalysis also assessed Architect core antigen
      test, which is the only commercially available antigen test on the market. In 24
      datasets, evaluating HCV-antigen assays in 8136 samples, the percentage of HCV
      antigen positive, HCV-RNA negative was 0.57%. The percentage HCV-antigen
      negative, HCV-RNA positive was 3.52%. There is strong evidence that antigen
      detection performs as well as RNA-based assays for HCV management. The use of
      antigen tests could improve access to HCV care in underresourced healthcare
      settings.

PMID- 28567431
TI  - Rotavirus Vaccine Schedules and Vaccine Response Among Infants in Low- and Middle
      Income Countries: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rotavirus vaccine schedules may impact vaccine response among
      children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our objective was to review
      the literature evaluating the effects of monovalent (RV1) or pentavalent
      rotavirus vaccines schedules on vaccine response. METHODS: We searched PubMed,
      Web of Science, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov for eligible trials conducted in
      LMICs comparing >=2 vaccine schedules and reporting immunologic response or
      efficacy. We calculated seroconversion proportion differences and geometric mean
      concentration (GMC) ratios with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: We abstracted
      data from 8 eligible trials of RV1. The point estimates for seroconversion
      proportions difference ranged from -0.25 to -0.09 for the 6/10-week schedule
      compared with 10/14. The range for the 6/10/14- compared with 10/14-week schedule
      was -0.02 to 0.10. Patterns were similar for GMC ratios and efficacy estimates.
      CONCLUSIONS: The commonly used 6/10-week RV1 schedule in LMICs may not be
      optimal. Further research on the effect of rotavirus schedules using clinical
      endpoints is essential.

PMID- 28567432
TI  - Effect of a Fusion Peptide by Covalent Conjugation of a Mitochondrial Cell
      Penetrating Peptide and a Glutathione Analog Peptide.
AB  - Previously, we designed and synthesized a library of mitochondrial antioxidative
      cell-penetrating peptides (mtCPPs) superior to the parent peptide, SS31, to
      protect mitochondria from oxidative damage. A library of antioxidative
      glutathione analogs called glutathione peptides (UPFs), exceptional in hydroxyl
      radical elimination compared with glutathione, were also designed and
      synthesized. Here, a follow-up study is described, investigating the effects of
      the most promising members from both libraries on reactive oxidative species
      scavenging ability. None of the peptides influenced cell viability at the
      concentrations used. Fluorescence microscopy studies showed that the fluorescein
      mtCPP1-UPF25 (mtgCPP) internalized into cells, and spectrofluorometric analysis
      determined the presence and extent of peptide into different cell compartments.
      mtgCPP has superior antioxidative activity compared with mtCPP1 and UPF25 against
      H2O2 insult, preventing ROS formation by 2- and 3-fold, respectively. Moreover,
      we neither observed effects on mitochondrial membrane potential nor production of
      ATP. These data indicate that mtgCPP is targeting mitochondria, protecting them
      from oxidative damage, while also being present in the cytosol. Our hypothesis is
      based on a synergistic effect resulting from the fused peptide. The mitochondrial
      peptide segment is targeting mitochondria, whereas the glutathione analog peptide
      segment is active in the cytosol, resulting in increased scavenging ability.

PMID- 28567433
TI  - Maggot debridement therapy for a patient with critical limb ischaemia and severe
      cardiac dysfunction: possibility of limb salvage.
AB  - Ischaemic skin ulcer occurred on the foot of a 73-year-old man who had a history
      of fulminant myocarditis with severe cardiac dysfunction. We attempted wound bed
      preparation by maggot debridement therapy and salvaged his limb. It can be one of
      the adjuvant treatment strategies for critical limb ischaemia.

PMID- 28567434
TI  - Trigger finger at wrist caused by degenerative changes of the flexor tendon
      sheath and carpal tunnel syndrome: a case report.
AB  - Trigger finger at wrist is a rare condition. Symptoms include finger triggering,
      snapping or catching at the wrist level. Carpal tunnel syndrome and median nerve
      compression neuropathy are almost always associated. We reported one case which
      was caused by degenerative changes of the flexor tendon sheath and carpal tunnel
      syndrome.

PMID- 28567435
TI  - Abnormal brain metabolism on FDG-PET/CT is a common early finding in autoimmune
      encephalitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the rate of abnormal brain metabolism by FDG-PET/CT to
      other paraclinical findings and to describe brain metabolism patterns in
      autoimmune encephalitis (AE). METHODS: A retrospective review of clinical data
      and initial dedicated brain FDG-PET/CT studies for neurology inpatients with AE,
      per consensus criteria, treated at a single tertiary center over 123 months. Z
      score maps of FDG-PET/CT were made using 3-dimensional stereotactic surface
      projections with comparison to age group-matched controls. Brain region mean Z
      scores with magnitudes >=2.00 were interpreted as significant. Comparisons were
      made to rates of abnormal initial brain MRI, abnormal initial EEG, and presence
      of intrathecal inflammation. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients with AE (32
      seropositive) underwent brain FDG-PET/CT at median 4 weeks of symptoms
      (interquartile range [IQR] 9 weeks) and median 4 days from MRI (IQR 8.5 days).
      FDG-PET/CT was abnormal in 52 (85%) patients, with 42 (69%) demonstrating only
      hypometabolism. Isolated hypermetabolism was demonstrated in 2 (3%) patients.
      Both hypermetabolic and hypometabolic brain regions were noted in 8 (13%)
      patients. Nine (15%) patients had normal FDG-PET/CT studies. CSF inflammation was
      evident in 34/55 (62%) patients, whereas initial EEG (17/56, 30%) and MRI (23/57,
      40%) were abnormal in fewer. Detection of 2 or more of these paraclinical
      findings was in weak agreement with abnormal brain FDG-PET/CT (kappa = 0.16, p =
      0.02). CONCLUSIONS: FDG-PET/CT was more often abnormal than initial EEG, MRI, and
      CSF studies in neurology inpatients with AE, with brain region hypometabolism the
      most frequently observed.

PMID- 28567436
TI  - "No Alcohol Is Recommended, But . . .": Health Care Students' Attitudes About
      Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy.
AB  - Canadian findings suggest that health care providers require further training and
      education to support their work preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
      (FASD). However, the knowledge and training of health care students in relation
      to FASD remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to understand
      the attitudes and beliefs of health care students about alcohol use during
      pregnancy. Twenty-one health care students participated in a scenario-based
      vignette about alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Although almost all students
      recognized that no alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the safest
      recommendation, many students recounted that this advice is not always conveyed
      during encounters with their pregnant patients. Three primary themes related to
      students' attitudes concerning alcohol use during pregnancy were identified.
      Health care professionals in training need further education about the risks of
      alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the potential health outcomes associated
      with prenatal alcohol exposure.

PMID- 28567439
TI  - "Here I am" and the Women's Dermatology Society.

PMID- 28567437
TI  - Incontinence and Nocturia in Older Adults After Hip Fracture: Analysis of a
      Secondary Outcome for a Parallel Group, Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Objective: To test the effect of a follow-up clinic on urinary incontinence (UI)
      and nocturia among older adults with hip fracture. Method: Fifty-three older
      adults (>=65 years) 3 to 12 months following hip fracture were enrolled and
      randomized to receive usual care plus the intervention (B4), or usual care (UC)
      only. The B4 group received management by health professionals, with need-based
      referrals. UI, nocturia, and quality of life were measured with questionnaires at
      baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Results: There were 48 participants included
      in this analysis, and at baseline, 44% of study participants self-reported UI. At
      final assessment, six out of 24 B4 participants and 12 out of 24 UC participants
      reported UI. Four out of five study participants reported nocturia at baseline;
      this did not decrease during the study. Discussion: Following hip fracture, many
      older adults report UI and most report nocturia. Health professionals should be
      aware of the high occurrence of urinary symptoms among older adults post hip
      fracture.

PMID- 28567438
TI  - In-depth immunophenotyping data of IL-6R on the human peripheral regulatory T
      cell (Treg) compartment.
AB  - We provide in this paper a detailed characterization of the human peripheral CD4+
      CD127lowCD25+ regulatory T cell (Treg) compartment, with a particular emphasis in
      defining the population expressing higher levels of the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). We
      provide a description of the phenotype of this population by assessing both the
      surface expression by flow cytometry as well as their transcriptional profile and
      functional features. In addition, we also present functional data describing the
      responsiveness of these subsets to IL-6 signalling in vitro and to IL-2 in vivo.
      The data presented in this paper support the research article "Human IL-6RhiTIGIT
      CD4+CD127lowCD25+ T cells display potent in vitro suppressive capacity and a
      distinct Th17 profile" (Ferreira RC et al., 2017; doi:
      10.1016/j.clim.2017.03.002) [1].

PMID- 28567440
TI  - Brazilian Morus nigra Attenuated Hyperglycemia, Dyslipidemia, and Prooxidant
      Status in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats.
AB  - Morus nigra has been used popularly for several proposes, including diabetic. In
      an attempt to support medicinal value, the acute hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and
      antioxidant effects of the ethanolic extract of Morus nigra (EEMn 200 or 400
      mg/kg b.w.) were evaluated in normal and alloxan-induced diabetic treated for 14
      days. Serum biochemical and antioxidant analysis were performed at the end of
      experiment. Oral glucose tolerance test was performed at 10th and 15th days.
      Chromatographic analysis by HPLC-DAD of EEMn was performed. Insulin was used as
      positive control to glycemic metabolism as well as fenofibrate to lipid
      metabolism. EEMn (400 mg/kg/day) reduced fasting and postprandial glycaemia,
      improved oral glucose tolerance, and reduced lipolysis and proteolysis in
      diabetic rats. EEMn decreased the blood levels of total cholesterol and increased
      HDL level when compared to the diabetic control rats. At higher levels, EEMn
      reduced triglycerides and VLDL levels in diabetic rats. Also, EEMn reduced
      malondialdehyde and increased the reduced glutathione levels in liver of diabetic
      rats. Chromatographic analysis identified the presence of the flavonoids rutin,
      isoquercetin, and kaempferitrin. Acute EEMn treatment reduced hyperglycemia,
      improved oral glucose tolerance, and minimized dyslipidemia and oxidative stress
      leading to a reduction in atherogenic index in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.

PMID- 28567441
TI  - Versatility of Chitosan-Based Biomaterials and Their Use as Scaffolds for Tissue
      Regeneration.
AB  - Chitosan is a naturally occurring polysaccharide obtained from chitin, present in
      abundance in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects. It has aroused great
      interest as a biomaterial for tissue engineering on account of its
      biocompatibility and biodegradation and its affinity for biomolecules. A
      significant number of research groups have investigated the application of
      chitosan as scaffolds for tissue regeneration. However, there is a wide
      variability in terms of physicochemical characteristics of chitosan used in some
      studies and its combinations with other biomaterials, making it difficult to
      compare results and standardize its properties. The current systematic review of
      literature on the use of chitosan for tissue regeneration consisted of a study of
      478 articles in the PubMed database, which resulted, after applying inclusion
      criteria, in the selection of 61 catalogued, critically analysed works. The
      results demonstrated the effectiveness of chitosan-based biomaterials in 93.4% of
      the studies reviewed, whether or not combined with cells and growth factors, in
      the regeneration of various types of tissues in animals. However, the absence of
      clinical studies in humans, the inadequate experimental designs, and the lack of
      information concerning chitosan's characteristics limit the reproducibility and
      relevance of studies and the clinical applicability of chitosan.

PMID- 28567443
TI  - Correction for Miyoshi-Akiyama et al., "Comparative Genome Analysis of Extended
      Spectrum-beta-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli Sequence Type 131 Strains from
      Nepal and Japan".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00289-16.].

PMID- 28567442
TI  - Genomewide Mutational Diversity in Escherichia coli Population Evolving in
      Prolonged Stationary Phase.
AB  - Prolonged stationary phase is an approximation of natural environments presenting
      a range of stresses. Survival in prolonged stationary phase requires alternative
      metabolic pathways for survival. This study describes the repertoire of mutations
      accumulating in starving Escherichia coli populations in lysogeny broth. A wide
      range of mutations accumulates over the course of 1 month in stationary phase.
      Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) constitute 64% of all mutations. A
      majority of these mutations are nonsynonymous and are located at conserved loci.
      There is an increase in genetic diversity in the evolving populations over time.
      Computer simulations of evolution in stationary phase suggest that the maximum
      frequency of mutations observed in our experimental populations cannot be
      explained by neutral drift. Moreover, there is frequent genetic parallelism
      across populations, suggesting that these mutations are under positive selection.
      Finally, functional analysis of mutations suggests that regulatory mutations are
      frequent targets of selection. IMPORTANCE Prolonged stationary phase in bacteria,
      contrary to its name, is highly dynamic, with extreme nutrient limitation as a
      predominant stress. Stationary-phase cultures adapt by rapidly selecting a
      mutation(s) that confers a growth advantage in stationary phase (GASP). The
      phenotypic diversity of starving E. coli populations has been studied in detail;
      however, only a few mutations that accumulate in prolonged stationary phase have
      been described. This study documented the spectrum of mutations appearing in
      Escherichia coli during 28 days of prolonged starvation. The genetic diversity of
      the population increases over time in stationary phase to an extent that cannot
      be explained by random, neutral drift. This suggests that prolonged stationary
      phase offers a great model system to study adaptive evolution by natural
      selection.

PMID- 28567444
TI  - Toxoplasma gondii MAF1b Binds the Host Cell MIB Complex To Mediate Mitochondrial
      Association.
AB  - Many diverse intracellular pathogens, such as Legionella pneumophila, Chlamydia
      psittaci, Encephalitozoon sp., and Toxoplasma gondii, manipulate and relocate
      host cell organelles, including mitochondria. Toxoplasma tachyzoites use a
      secreted protein, mitochondrial association factor 1b (MAF1b), to drive the
      association between the host mitochondria and the membrane of the parasitophorous
      vacuole, in which the parasites grow. The identity of the host partner in this
      interaction, however, has not previously been identified. By exogenously
      expressing tagged MAF1b in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we were able to isolate
      host cell proteins that specifically interact with MAF1b. We then verified these
      interactions in the MAF1b-expressing fibroblasts, as well as in the context of
      parasite infection in human fibroblasts and HeLa cells. The results show that a
      host cell mitochondrial complex, the mitochondrial intermembrane space bridging
      (MIB) complex, specifically interacts with MAF1b. We further demonstrate that a
      version of MAF1b that is deficient in host-mitochondrial association does not
      efficiently coprecipitate the MIB complex. Validation of the importance of the
      MAF1b-MIB interaction came from showing that knockdown of two MIB complex
      components, MIC60 and SAM50, substantially reduces mitochondrial association with
      the parasitophorous vacuole membrane. This interaction between a secreted
      membrane-integral parasite protein and a membrane-bound complex of a host
      organelle represents the first instance of organelle relocalization in which both
      the host and pathogen molecules are known and provides the foundation for more
      detailed biochemical studies. IMPORTANCE Parasites interact intimately with their
      hosts, and the interactions shape both parties. The common human parasite
      Toxoplasma gondii replicates exclusively in a vacuole in a host cell and alters
      its host cell's environment through secreted proteins. One of these secreted
      proteins, MAF1b, acts to concentrate mitochondria around the parasite's vacuole,
      and this relocalization alters the host immune response. Many other intracellular
      pathogens also recruit host mitochondria, but the identities of the partners that
      mediate this interaction have not previously been described in any infection.
      Here, we show that Toxoplasma MAF1b binds to the multifunctional MIB protein
      complex on the host mitochondria. Reducing the levels of the proteins in this
      mitochondrial complex reduces the close association of host cell mitochondria and
      the parasite's vacuole. This work provides new insight into a key host-pathogen
      interaction and identifies possible targets for future therapeutic intervention
      as well as a more molecular understanding of important biology.

PMID- 28567445
TI  - Unique Features of Aeromonas Plasmid pAC3 and Expression of the Plasmid-Mediated
      Quinolone Resistance Genes.
AB  - A highly fluoroquinolone-resistant isolate of Aeromonas species was isolated from
      a wastewater treatment plant and found to possess multiple resistance mechanisms,
      including mutations in gyrA and parC, efflux pumps, and plasmid-mediated
      quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes. Complete sequencing of the IncU-type plasmid,
      pAC3, present in the strain revealed a circular plasmid DNA 15,872 bp long
      containing two PMQR genes [qnrS2 and aac(6')-Ib-cr]. A mobile insertion cassette
      element containing the qnrS2 gene and a typical miniature inverted-repeat
      transposable element (MITE) structure was identified in the plasmid. The present
      study revealed that this MITE sequence appears in other Aeromonas species
      plasmids and chromosomes. Plasmid pAC3 was introduced into Escherichia coli, and
      its PMQR genes were expressed, resulting in the acquisition of resistance.
      Proteome analysis of the recipient E. coli strain harboring the plasmid revealed
      that aac(6')-Ib-cr expression was constitutive and that qnrS2 expression was
      dependent upon fluoroquinolone stress through regulation by regulator of sigma D
      (Rsd). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to characterize a
      novel MITE sequence upstream of the PMQR gene within a mobile insertion cassette,
      as well as the regulation of qnrS2 expression. Our results suggest that this
      mobile element may play an important role in qnrS2 dissemination. IMPORTANCE In
      the present study, plasmid pAC3 isolated from a highly fluoroquinolone-resistant
      isolate of Aeromonas species was sequenced and found to contain two
      fluoroquinolone resistance genes, aac(6')-Ib-cr and qnrS2. Comparative analyses
      of plasmid pAC3 and other Aeromonas sp. IncU-type plasmids revealed a mobile
      insertion cassette element with a unique structure containing a qnrS2 gene and a
      typical miniature inverted-repeat transposable element (MITE) structure. This
      study also revealed that this MITE sequence appears in other Aeromonas species
      plasmids and chromosomes. Our results also demonstrate that the fluoroquinolone
      dependent expression of qnrS2 is associated with rsd in E. coli DH5alpha
      harboring plasmid pAC3. Our findings suggest that the mobile element may play an
      important role in qnrS2 dissemination and that Aeromonas species constitute an
      important reservoir of fluoroquinolone resistance determinants in the
      environment.

PMID- 28567446
TI  - Meta-analysis To Define a Core Microbiota in the Swine Gut.
AB  - The swine gut microbiota encompasses a large and diverse population of bacteria
      that play a significant role in pig health. As such, a number of recent studies
      have utilized high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize the
      composition and structure of the swine gut microbiota, often in response to
      dietary feed additives. It is important to determine which factors shape the
      composition of the gut microbiota among multiple studies and if certain bacteria
      are always present in the gut microbiota of swine, independently of study
      variables such as country of origin and experimental design. Therefore, we
      performed a meta-analysis using 20 publically available data sets from high
      throughput 16S rRNA gene sequence studies of the swine gut microbiota. Next to
      the "study" itself, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract section that was sampled had
      the greatest effect on the composition and structure of the swine gut microbiota
      (P = 0.0001). Technical variation among studies, particularly the 16S rRNA gene
      hypervariable region sequenced, also significantly affected the composition of
      the swine gut microbiota (P = 0.0001). Despite this, numerous commonalities were
      discovered. Among fecal samples, the genera Prevotella, Clostridium,
      Alloprevotella, and Ruminococcus and the RC9 gut group were found in 99% of all
      fecal samples. Additionally, Clostridium, Blautia, Lactobacillus, Prevotella,
      Ruminococcus, Roseburia, the RC9 gut group, and Subdoligranulum were shared by
      >90% of all GI samples, suggesting a so-called "core" microbiota for commercial
      swine worldwide. IMPORTANCE The results of this meta-analysis demonstrate that
      "study" and GI sample location are the most significant factors in shaping the
      swine gut microbiota. However, in comparisons of results from different studies,
      some biological factors may be obscured by technical variation among studies.
      Nonetheless, there are some bacterial taxa that appear to form a core microbiota
      within the swine GI tract regardless of country of origin, diet, age, or breed.
      Thus, these results provide the framework for future studies to manipulate the
      swine gut microbiota for potential health benefits.

PMID- 28567447
TI  - Comparative Genomic Analysis Reveals Habitat-Specific Genes and Regulatory Hubs
      within the Genus Novosphingobium.
AB  - Species belonging to the genus Novosphingobium are found in many different
      habitats and have been identified as metabolically versatile. Through comparative
      genomic analysis, we identified habitat-specific genes and regulatory hubs that
      could determine habitat selection for Novosphingobium spp. Genomes from 27
      Novosphingobium strains isolated from diverse habitats such as rhizosphere soil,
      plant surfaces, heavily contaminated soils, and marine and freshwater
      environments were analyzed. Genome size and coding potential were widely
      variable, differing significantly between habitats. Phylogenetic relationships
      between strains were less likely to describe functional genotype similarity than
      the habitat from which they were isolated. In this study, strains (19 out of 27)
      with a recorded habitat of isolation, and at least 3 representative strains per
      habitat, comprised four ecological groups-rhizosphere, contaminated soil, marine,
      and freshwater. Sulfur acquisition and metabolism were the only core genomic
      traits to differ significantly in proportion between these ecological groups; for
      example, alkane sulfonate (ssuABCD) assimilation was found exclusively in all of
      the rhizospheric isolates. When we examined osmolytic regulation in
      Novosphingobium spp. through ectoine biosynthesis, which was assumed to be marine
      habitat specific, we found that it was also present in isolates from contaminated
      soil, suggesting its relevance beyond the marine system. Novosphingobium strains
      were also found to harbor a wide variety of mono- and dioxygenases, responsible
      for the metabolism of several aromatic compounds, suggesting their potential to
      act as degraders of a variety of xenobiotic compounds. Protein-protein
      interaction analysis revealed beta-barrel outer membrane proteins as habitat
      specific hubs in each of the four habitats-freshwater (Saro_1868), marine water
      (PP1Y_AT17644), rhizosphere (PMI02_00367), and soil (V474_17210). These outer
      membrane proteins could play a key role in habitat demarcation and extend our
      understanding of the metabolic versatility of the Novosphingobium species.
      IMPORTANCE This study highlights the significant role of a microorganism's
      genetic repertoire in structuring the similarity between Novosphingobium strains.
      The results suggest that the phylogenetic relationships were mostly influenced by
      metabolic trait enrichment, which is possibly governed by the microenvironment of
      each microbe's respective niche. Using core genome analysis, the enrichment of a
      certain set of genes specific to a particular habitat was determined, which
      provided insights on the influence of habitat on the distribution of metabolic
      traits in Novosphingobium strains. We also identified habitat-specific protein
      hubs, which suggested delineation of Novosphingobium strains based on their
      habitat. Examining the available genomes of ecologically diverse bacterial
      species and analyzing the habitat-specific genes are useful for understanding the
      distribution and evolution of functional and phylogenetic diversity in the genus
      Novosphingobium.

PMID- 28567449
TI  - Mirizzi syndrome: a new insight provided by a novel classification.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Mirizzi syndrome (MS) is an uncommon complication of
      cholelithiasis. The aim of this study is to evaluate our 15-year experience in
      this challenging entity and to propose a new classification for this disease.
      METHODS: A retrospective study including patients diagnosed with Mirizzi syndrome
      and undergoing surgical procedures for Mirizzi syndrome between January 2000 and
      October 2015 was conducted. Data collected included clinical, surgical procedure,
      postoperative morbidity. Patients were evaluated according to the Csendes
      classification and the proposed system, in which patients were divided into three
      types and three subtypes. RESULTS: 28 patients were included for analysis. They
      accounted as the 0.5% of a total of 4853 cholecystectomies performed in the study
      period. There were 21 women and 7 men. Initial laparotomic approach was performed
      in 12 patients and in 16 patients laparoscopic procedures were attempted. The
      procedure was completed in only 6 patients, 5 presenting type I and 1 type II
      Mirizzi syndrome. Mean postoperative stay was 15+/-9 days. Postoperative
      morbidity rate was 28%. Postoperative mortality was none. CONCLUSIONS:
      Laparoscopic surgery for Mirizzi syndrome has been shown succesful only in early
      stages. A novel classification is proposed, based on the types of common bile
      duct injuries and in the presence cholecystoenteric fistula.

PMID- 28567448
TI  - Type I Interferon Responses Drive Intrahepatic T cells to Promote Metabolic
      Syndrome.
AB  - Obesity-related insulin resistance is driven by low-grade chronic inflammation of
      metabolic tissues. In the liver, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is
      associated with hepatic insulin resistance and systemic glucose dysregulation.
      However, the immunological factors supporting these processes are poorly
      understood. We found that the liver accumulates pathogenic CD8+ T cell subsets
      which control hepatic insulin sensitivity and gluconeogenesis during diet-induced
      obesity in mice. In a cohort of human patients, CD8+ T cells represent a dominant
      intrahepatic immune cell population which links to glucose dysregulation.
      Accumulation and activation of these cells are largely supported by type I
      interferon (IFN-I) responses in the liver. Livers from obese mice upregulate
      critical interferon regulatory factors (IRFs), interferon stimulatory genes
      (ISGs), and IFNalpha protein, while IFNalphaR1-/- mice, or CD8-specific
      IFNalphaR1-/- chimeric mice are protected from disease. IFNalphaR1 inhibitors
      improve metabolic parameters in mice, while CD8+ T cells and IFN-I responses
      correlate with NAFLD activity in human patients. Thus, IFN-I responses represent
      a central immunological axis that governs intrahepatic T cell pathogenicity
      during metabolic disease.

PMID- 28567451
TI  - Robotic-assisted right hepatectomy via anterior approach for intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - Major hepatic resection, especially right hepatectomy, has been successfully
      performed by specialized hepatobiliary centers using the robotic platform with
      low morbidity, conversion rates and outcomes comparable to laparoscopic and open
      surgery. The authors report a case of robotic-assisted right hepatectomy done for
      intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma using anterior approach, after right portal vein
      embolisation for future liver remnant volume enhancement.

PMID- 28567450
TI  - Central pancreatectomy: an oncologically safe option to treat metastases of other
      neoplasms of the mid-portion of the pancreas?
AB  - BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Standard pancreatic resections are the current approach for
      patients with resectable, isolated pancreatic metastases of other neoplasms.
      However, the role of parenchyma-sparing pancreatectomies for such pathology is
      poorly investigated. The aim of the present study is to assess the oncological
      safety of central pancreatectomies for pancreatic metastases of other neoplasms.
      METHODS: A literature search was performed in order to identify patients with
      central pancreatectomies for pancreatic metastases of other neoplasms. The
      available data of the patients were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: A total
      number of 16 patients were identified. Renal carcinoma was the primary origin for
      the largest number of these patients (11 patients - 69%). The mean overall
      survival time was 109 months, with 1-, 5- and 10-year survival rates of 100%,
      84%, and 60%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although not often performed, a central
      pancreatectomy appears to be an oncologically safe surgical procedure in select
      patients with pancreatic metastases of other neoplasms of the pancreatic body and
      isthmus. However, no definitive conclusions should be drawn, based on the data
      provided in the present study, due to the limited number and heterogeneity of the
      patients.

PMID- 28567452
TI  - Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a case of situs inversus totalis: a review of
      technical challenges and adaptations.
AB  - Situs inversus totalis is a rare congenital condition, characterized by the
      transposition of the thoracic and abdominal viscera, resulting in a mirror image
      of normal anatomy. Even though situs inversus does not predispose to gall stones,
      a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, in a case of situs inversus, can prove to be a
      technically challenging procedure, especially for the right-handed surgeon. In
      this case report, we present an unusual case of cholelithiasis in a patient with
      situs inversus totalis. A laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which is considered the
      gold standard procedure for symptomatic gallstones, was performed. The technical
      challenges that were anticipated due to anatomical anomalies were managed by
      various preoperative and intraoperative modifications. Through this present case
      report, we concluded that a laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a feasible and safe
      procedure in patients with situs inversus totalis and can be precisely performed
      by a right-handed surgeon, with necessary adaptations.

PMID- 28567453
TI  - Hemobilia due to arteriobiliary fistula complicating ERCP for residual bile duct
      stone in a case of Mirizzi syndrome.
AB  - Hemobilia is a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding. Most cases
      are iatrogenic following medical interventions, most commonly liver biopsy and
      transhepatic cholangiography. We present a case of arteriobiliary fistula between
      the right hepatic artery and the common hepatic duct, in a case of Mirrizi
      syndrome, following endoscopic biliary stenting and presenting with hemobilia.
      The patient was treated by surgical disconnection of the fistula, ligation of the
      right hepatic artery, and bilioenteric anastomosis.

PMID- 28567454
TI  - Distal pancreatectomy with splenorenal shunt to preserve spleen in a cirrhotic
      patient.
AB  - At pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is an aggressive malignancy with a high
      recurrence rate. Due to its high potentials of local invasion and distant
      metastasis, surgical resection is the only means for possible long-term survival.
      Surgical treatment comprises a distal pancreatectomy with or without splenectomy.
      Surgery has been conventionally contraindicated for patients with cirrhosis and
      portal vein hepato-biliary hypertension. Splenorenal shunt was first described by
      Warren and colleagues, to prevent death from bleeding esophageal varices in a
      patient with a patent portal vein hypertension. A 55-year-old Caucasian woman
      presented with an incidental pancreatic tumor. In our case, the shunt was
      necessary to complete the corrective oncological surgery for pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma. The main difficulty was the presence of portal hypertension due
      to liver cirrhosis Child A; moreover, preservation of the spleen was mandatory in
      this patient. We successfully performed a distal pancreatectomy without
      splenectomy through the help of splenorenal shunt to preserve venous circulation.

PMID- 28567455
TI  - Laparoscopic total pancreatectomy for multiple metastasis of renal cell carcinoma
      of the pancreas: a case report and literature review.
AB  - Advances in surgical techniques and laparoscopic instruments have resulted in the
      development of laparoscopic pancreatic surgery. Total pancreaticoduodenectomy is
      performed for treating benign and borderline pancreatic disease involving the
      whole pancreas. Here, we report a case of metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the
      pancreas, treated by laparoscopic pylorus-preserving total
      pancreaticoduodenectomy. A 59-year-old woman was diagnosed with metastatic renal
      cell carcinoma. Multiple metastatic lesions were found on routine follow-up. She
      had a history of radical video-assisted right-nephrectomy for renal cell
      carcinoma (conventional type, pT1) in November 2003, without any recurrence.
      However, in 2014, a routine health checkup revealed multiple enhancing lesions
      throughout the pancreas. Positron emission tomography showed a suspicious 4-cm
      lesion in her left thyroid. Laparoscopic pylorus-preserving total
      pancreaticoduodenectomy with splenectomy was performed, along with simultaneous
      left total thyroidectomy with central compartment node dissection for metastatic
      renal cell carcinomas. The total operation time was 441 min, with an estimated
      blood loss of 150 ml; no transfusion was administered. Her hospital stay was 12
      days. The histopath report confirmed metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the
      pancreas and left thyroid. Based on literature reviews, we further tried to
      estimate the oncologic outcome of total pancreatectomy in multiple pancreatic
      metastasis of renal cell carcinoma. Laparoscopic pylorus-preserving total
      pancreaticoduodenectomy is feasible and safe, even in cases of metastatic renal
      cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28567456
TI  - Surgery for intractable pain in a patient with chronic pancreatitis complicated
      with biliary obstruction, portal vein stenosis and mesenteric venous collaterals.
AB  - Pancreatic head resection for chronic pancreatitis is a challenging procedure, in
      the presence of venous collaterals, cavernous transformation, extensive fibrosis
      or porto-mesenteric stenosis or thrombosis. We present a surgically treated
      patient for the intractable pain of chronic pancreatitis. Complications with
      biliary obstruction and portal vein stenosis/thrombosis resulted in cavernous
      transformation. A pancreaticoduodenectomy combined with portal vein resection was
      intended in a 51 year-old male, but the procedure was terminated due to the high
      risk associated with intraoperative bleeding. The surgical procedure was switched
      to a Frey procedure, wherein partial pancreatic head resection, drainage of the
      pancreatic canal and sufficient pain palliation, without an increased risk of
      intraoperative hemorrhage, was ensured. The procedure was successfully combined
      with bilio-enteric anastomosis.

PMID- 28567457
TI  - SIRT3-SOD2-ROS pathway is involved in linalool-induced glioma cell apoptotic
      death.
AB  - Glioma is the most prevalent type of adult primary brain tumor and chemotherapy
      of glioma was limited by drug-resistance. Linalool is an acyclic monoterpene
      alcohol possessing various pharmacological activities. The present study was
      conducted to evaluate the effect of linalool on glioma cell growth. The effect of
      linalool on cell viability in U87-MG cells was investigated and the results
      showed that linalool significantly reduced cell viability in a concentration- and
      time-dependent manner. In addition, exposure of the cells to linalool resulted in
      a concentration-dependent increase of TUNEL-stained cells, indicating the
      occurrence of apoptotic cell death. Linalool decreased mitochondrial oxygen
      consumption rate, increased the expression of Bax and Bak, reduced the expression
      of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl, and increased the activities of caspase 3 and caspase 9,
      leading to increase of apoptosis. Linalool resulted in a concentration-dependent
      decrease of SOD activity but had no significant effect on mRNA and protein
      expression of SOD2. Moreover, linalool resulted in a significant increase of the
      expression of acetylated SOD2. The mRNA and protein expression of SIRT3 was
      significantly inhibited by linalool. Immunoblot analysis showed that there was an
      evident protein/protein interaction between SOD2 and SIRT3 under normal
      condition. Linalool treatment significantly decreased the interaction between
      SOD2 and SIRT3. Overexpression of SIRT3 significantly inhibited linalool-induced
      increase of mitochondrial ROS production and apoptotic cell death, and decrease
      of cell viability. In summary, the data demonstrated that linalool exhibited
      inhibitory effect on glioma cells through regulation of SIRT3-SOD2-ROS signaling.

PMID- 28567458
TI  - Encapsulation and solid state sequestration of gases by calix[6]arene-based
      molecular containers.
AB  - Two calix[6]arene-based molecular containers were synthesized in high yields.
      These containers can encapsulate small guests through a unique "rotating door"
      complexation process. The sequestration of greenhouse gases is clearly
      demonstrated. They can be stored in the solid state for long periods and released
      via dissolution of the inclusion complex.

PMID- 28567460
TI  - Ni and Cu-catalyzed one pot synthesis of unsymmetrical 1,3-di(hetero)aryl-1H
      indazoles from hydrazine, o-chloro (hetero)benzophenones, and (hetero)aryl
      bromides.
AB  - The nickel-catalyzed cyclization of in situ generated ortho-chlorobenzophenone
      hydrazone derivatives, to afford 3-(hetero)aryl-1H-indazoles, is documented for
      the first time. The product 1H-indazoles can be transformed subsequently in a one
      pot procedure into 1,3-di(hetero)aryl-1H-indazoles via copper-catalyzed N
      arylation with (hetero)aryl bromides.

PMID- 28567459
TI  - Identification of new DNA i-motif binding ligands through a fluorescent
      intercalator displacement assay.
AB  - i-Motifs are quadruplex DNA structures formed from sequences rich in cytosine and
      held together by intercalated, hemi-protonated cytosine-cytosine base pairs.
      These sequences are prevalent in gene promoter regions and may play a role in
      gene transcription. Targeting these structures with ligands could provide a novel
      way to target genetic disease but there are very few ligands which have been
      shown to interact with i-motif DNA. Fluorescent intercalator displacement (FID)
      assays are a simple way to screen ligands against DNA secondary structures. Here
      we characterise how thiazole orange interacts with i-motif DNA and assess its
      ability for use in a FID assay. Additionally, we report FID-based ligand
      screening using thiazole orange against the i-motif forming sequence from the
      human telomere to reveal new i-motif binding compounds which have the potential
      for further development.

PMID- 28567461
TI  - A greener and efficient access to substituted four- and six-membered sulfur
      bearing heterocycles.
AB  - The regioselective functionalization of four- and six-membered cyclic sulfones
      was investigated using a lithiation/electrophile trapping strategy. The protocol
      features an interesting eco-compatibility profile because of the use of 2-MeTHF
      as a solvent (more eco-friendly than other organic solvents) and n-hexyllithium
      as a lithiating agent safer than other alkyllithium compounds. Several
      derivatives were prepared with different stereochemistry and substitution
      patterns. A number of selected derivatives, spanning a range of 5 log P units,
      were characterized for their lipophilicity through RP-HPLC. A good linear
      correlation, with a slope close to 1.0, was observed between the experimentally
      determined RP-HPLC lipophilicity parameters (log k'w) and calculated log P (clog
      P) values, whereas a systematic difference in absolute values between the
      chromatographic parameters and in silico lipophilicity descriptors can be
      attributed mainly to silanophilic interactions between the H-bond acceptor SO2
      group and free silanol groups on silica-based C18 columns, which results in
      increased retention times.

PMID- 28567462
TI  - Surface-induced assembly of sophorolipids.
AB  - The surface self-assembly properties of acidic sophorolipids, a bolaform
      microbial glycolipids with pH-responsive properties in solution, were studied
      based on the chemical nature of the support and pH of the solution. Sophorolipids
      generally form micelles in water but formation of morphologies like platelets and
      twisted fibers depending on pH have also been reported. The surface self-assembly
      was achieved using dip-coating on three different substrates namely gold,
      silicon(111) and TiO2 anatase. Deposition conditions (dip-coating withdrawal
      speed, relative humidity, temperature) were tested, and it was found that optimum
      self-assembly occurs at a withdrawal speed of 1 mm s-1, T of 25  degrees C and
      relative humidity of 25%. The local structure of the sophorolipid films was
      characterized by atomic force microscopy, while scanning electron microscopy was
      used to characterize the spatial homogeneity. We also attempted to correlate
      dispersive, electron donor and electron attractor surface energy components,
      using Good-van Oss's approach, and the behavior of sophorolipids. We found that
      when the surface energy is dominated by dispersive components, sophorolipids
      spontaneously assemble into entangled needles at all pH values (4, 6 and 11).
      However, when the surface energy is dominated by electronic components, pH has a
      strong influence on the surface self-assembly. We could discriminate three major
      organizations: homogeneous layer, isolated aggregates and a two-dimensional
      fibrillar network.

PMID- 28567463
TI  - Relaxation-encoded NMR experiments for mixture analysis: REST and beer.
AB  - A new family of NMR experiments for mixture analysis (Relaxation-Encoded
      Selective TOCSY, REST) allows the extraction of component subspectra from
      mixtures. It uses isotropic mixing to label whole spin systems with the
      relaxation times (e.g. T1, T2) of individual spins.

PMID- 28567464
TI  - A facile synthesis of sulfonylureas via water assisted preparation of carbamates.
AB  - A novel and simple approach to the synthesis of sulfonylureas has been reported.
      It involved the reaction of various amines with diphenyl carbonate to yield the
      corresponding carbamates, which subsequently reacted with different sulphonamides
      to produce different sulfonylureas in excellent yields. The first reaction of
      diphenyl carbonate with amines was carried out in aqueous : organic (H2O : THF,
      90 : 10) medium at room temperature to produce carbamates that paved a
      straightforward route to sulfonylureas after reaction with sulfonamides. The
      above process avoided traditional multistep protocols and the use of hazardous,
      irritant, toxic and moisture sensitive reagents such as phosgene, isocyanates
      and/or chloroformates.

PMID- 28567465
TI  - Metal-free regioselective formation of C-N and C-O bonds with the utilization of
      diaryliodonium salts in water: facile synthesis of N-arylquinolones and
      aryloxyquinolines.
AB  - Regioselective construction of crucial C-N and C-O bonds leading to N
      arylquinolones and aryloxyquinolines has been accomplished by employing easily
      accessible diaryliodonium salts and quinolones in water under metal- and ligand
      free conditions. This operationally simple strategy is significant due to mild
      reaction conditions, high product yields, recyclability of released iodoarenes
      and scalability to the gram level. The practical utility of the developed
      protocol was proved by the arylation of medicinally important heterocycles like
      acridin-9(10H)-one, 3-methylquinoxalin-2(1H)-one and 1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2(3H)
      one.

PMID- 28567466
TI  - Application of primary halogenated hydrocarbons for the synthesis of 3-aryl and 3
      alkyl indolizines.
AB  - Indolizine is an important heterocyclic compound with several interesting
      properties that make it suitable for numerous applications in many fields, such
      as biology, medicine and materials. However, the synthesis of 3-alkyl indolizines
      from bulky primary halogenated alkanes has not yet been reported. Herein, a
      transition-metal-free synthetic route to 3-aryl and 3-alkyl indolizines from
      electron-deficient alkenes, pyridines and primary halogenated hydrocarbons has
      been reported for the first time using a tandem reaction. The key step of this
      method is the oxidative dehydrogenative aromatization of a tetrahydroindolizine
      intermediate with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO) as the oxidant.
      The advantages of this protocol are its use of easily available and low-cost
      starting materials, the transition-metal-free conditions and its ready
      scalability.

PMID- 28567467
TI  - Endomorphin-1 analogs containing alpha-methyl-beta-amino acids exhibit potent
      analgesic activity after peripheral administration.
AB  - This study describes the design and synthesis of endomorphin-1 analogs containing
      C-terminal aromatic alpha-methyl-beta-amino acids and an N-terminal native
      tyrosine or 2,6-dimethyl-tyrosine. We show that, in comparison with the parent
      peptide, these analogs exhibit improved bioactivity and blood-brain barrier
      penetration after intravenous administration, and have a lower tendency to induce
      constipation and sedation than morphine.

PMID- 28567473
TI  - Body Contouring After Massive Weight Loss: A Personal Integrated Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After massive weight loss, patients typically presented with skin
      redundancy, which causes enormous esthetic, physical, medical and psychological
      problems. The growing number of patients with these sequelae triggered an
      increase in the search for body contouring procedures, which in turn produced an
      important development in the post-bariatric reconstructive surgery. METHODS: The
      author describes the principles of a personal approach in post-bariatric
      reconstructive surgery. The concept is based on an integrative approach,
      attending to multiple anatomic segments in the same procedure, associated with
      multiple refinements of the surgical technique. A retrospective study was carried
      out, including all body contouring procedures in massive weight loss patients
      performed by the author between January 2009 and December 2013. RESULTS: The
      sample is comprised of 74 patients, in a total of 120 surgeries, of which 70%
      were performed on the pelvic girdle and 30% on the scapular girdle. The most
      common complication noted by the author was small wound dehiscence. In 2011, the
      author began performing Pollock's technique in abdominoplasty, with fixation
      stitches to the deep planes, and double-layer sutures, instead of single intra
      dermal suture. At the same time, he stopped using drains. Interestingly, the rate
      of complications, including hematoma, proved to be lower in this group of
      patients. DISCUSSION: The application of this integrated post-bariatric surgery
      concept enables multiple anatomic segment contouring in less surgical procedures,
      which in turn permits a more immediate final result, associated with lower
      hospitalization times and lower complication rates. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV: This
      journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a
      full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the
      Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

PMID- 28567474
TI  - Impending Facial Skin Necrosis and Ocular Involvement After Dermal Filler
      Injection: A Case Report.
AB  - Demand for non-surgical rejuvenating procedure is constantly increasing due to
      the aging population, increasing expense of aesthetics and beauty procedures,
      introduction of new applications and rising demand for noninvasive aesthetic
      procedures over surgical procedures. Skin necrosis is a rare but severe potential
      complication. It is caused by impediment of the blood supply to the skin area by
      compression and/or obstruction of the vessel with filler material, and/or direct
      injury to the vessel. We report the case of a young patient who presented an
      acute and severe complication after a dermal filler injection by an unlicensed
      therapist. High-dose corticosteroids i.v. therapy among others helped in the
      process of healing. Skin necrosis left the patient with a full thickness scar on
      the forehead region. Dermal fillers are to be considered safe only when handled
      by trained doctors. Level of Evidence V This journal requires that authors assign
      a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence
      Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online
      Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

PMID- 28567475
TI  - Interface Between Cosmetic and Migraine Surgery.
AB  - This article describes connections between migraine surgery and cosmetic surgery
      including technical overlap, benefits for patients, and why every plastic surgeon
      may consider screening cosmetic surgery patients for migraine headache (MH).
      Contemporary migraine surgery began by an observation made following forehead
      rejuvenation, and the connection has continued. The prevalence of MH among
      females in the USA is 26%, and females account for 91% of cosmetic surgery
      procedures and 81-91% of migraine surgery procedures, which suggests substantial
      overlap between both patient populations. At the same time, recent reports show
      an overall increase in cosmetic facial procedures. Surgical techniques between
      some of the most commonly performed facial surgeries and migraine surgery
      overlap, creating opportunity for consolidation. In particular, forehead lift,
      blepharoplasty, septo-rhinoplasty, and rhytidectomy can easily be part of the
      migraine surgery, depending on the migraine trigger sites. Patients could benefit
      from simultaneous improvement in MH symptoms and rejuvenation of the face. Simple
      tools such as the Migraine Headache Index could be used to screen cosmetic
      surgery patients for MH. Similarity between patient populations, demand for both
      facial and MH procedures, and technical overlap suggest great incentive for
      plastic surgeons to combine both. Level of Evidence V This journal requires that
      authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of
      these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or
      the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

PMID- 28567476
TI  - Malignization of a vestibular schwannoma 13 years after radiation therapy.
AB  - This article presents a case of malignant transformation of vestibular schwannoma
      13 years after stereotactic radiation therapy, which lead to an acute life
      threatening condition. Although the observation is currently only based on case
      reports, an increasing number of these support the hypothesis that there is a
      relevant risk of malignant transformation in the long-term course of previously
      irradiated vestibular schwannomas. Therefore, long-term MRI follow-up should be
      considered.

PMID- 28567477
TI  - Thread lifting: a minimally invasive surgical technique for long-standing facial
      paralysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic facial paralysis induces degenerative facial muscle changes
      on the involved side, thus, making the individual seem as older than their actual
      age. Furthermore, contralateral facial hypertrophy aggravates facial asymmetry. A
      thread-lifting procedure has been used widely for correction of a drooping or
      wrinkled face due to the aging process. In addition, botulinum toxin injection
      can be used to reduce facial hypertrophy. The aim of study was to evaluate the
      effectiveness of thread lifting with botulinum toxin injection for chronic facial
      paralysis. METHODS: A total 34 of patients with chronic facial paralysis were
      enrolled from March to October 2014. Thread lifting for elevating loose facial
      muscles on the ipsilateral side and botulinum toxin A for controlling the facial
      muscle hypertrophy on the contralateral side were conducted. Facial function was
      evaluated using the Sunnybrook grading system and dynamic facial asymmetry ratios
      1 year after treatment. RESULTS: All 34 patients displayed improved facial
      symmetry and showed improvement in Sunnybrook scores (37.4 vs. 83.3) and dynamic
      facial asymmetry ratios (0.58 vs 0.92). Of the 34 patients, 28 (82.4%) reported
      being satisfied with treatment. CONCLUSION: The application of subdermal
      suspension with a reabsorbable thread in conjunction with botulinum toxin A to
      optimize facial rejuvenation of the contralateral side constitutes an effective
      and safe procedure for face lifting and rejuvenation of a drooping face as a
      result of long-lasting facial paralysis.

PMID- 28567478
TI  - betaIII-tubulin enhances efficacy of cabazitaxel as compared with docetaxel.
AB  - Cabazitaxel is a novel taxane approved for treatment of metastatic hormone
      refractory prostate cancer in patients pretreated with docetaxel. Cabazitaxel,
      docetaxel, and paclitaxel bind specifically to tubulin in microtubules,
      disrupting functions essential to tumor growth. High levels of betaIII-tubulin
      isotype expression are associated with tumor aggressivity and drug resistance. To
      understand cabazitaxel's increased efficacy, we examined binding of radio-labeled
      cabazitaxel and docetaxel to microtubules and the drugs' suppression of
      microtubule dynamic instability in vitro in microtubules assembled from purified
      bovine brain tubulin containing or devoid of betaIII-tubulin. We found that
      cabazitaxel suppresses microtubule dynamic instability significantly more
      potently in the presence of betaIII-tubulin than in its absence. In contrast,
      docetaxel showed no betaIII-tubulin-enhanced microtubule stabilization. We also
      asked if the selective potency of cabazitaxel on betaIII-tubulin-containing
      purified microtubules in vitro extends to cabazitaxel's effects in human tumor
      cells. Using MCF7 human breast adenocarcinoma cells, we found that cabazitaxel
      also suppressed microtubule shortening rates, shortening lengths, and dynamicity
      significantly more strongly in cells with normal levels of betaIII-tubulin than
      after 50% reduction of betaIII-tubulin expression by siRNA knockdown. Cabazitaxel
      also more strongly induced mitotic arrest in MCF7 cells with normal betaIII
      tubulin levels than after betaIII-tubulin reduction. In contrast, docetaxel had
      little or no betaIII-tubulin-dependent selective effect on microtubule dynamics
      or mitotic arrest. The selective potency of cabazitaxel on purified betaIII
      tubulin-containing microtubules and in cells expressing betaIII-tubulin suggests
      that cabazitaxel may be unusual among microtubule-targeted drugs in its superior
      anti-tumor efficacy in tumors overexpressing betaIII-tubulin.

PMID- 28567481
TI  - Analysis of sucrose-induced small RNAs in Streptococcus mutans in the presence of
      different sucrose concentrations.
AB  - Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is the major pathogen contributing to dental
      caries. Sucrose is an important carbohydrate source for S. mutans and is crucial
      for dental caries. Small RNAs (sRNAs) are key post-transcriptional regulators of
      stress adaptation and virulence in bacteria. Here, for the first time, we created
      three replicate RNA libraries exposed to either 1 or 5% sucrose. The expression
      levels of sRNAs and target genes (gtfB, gtfC, and spaP) related to virulence were
      assessed. In addition, some phenotypic traits were evaluated. We obtained 2125
      sRNA candidates with at least 100 average reads in 1% sucrose or 5% sucrose. Of
      these candidates, 2 were upregulated and 20 were downregulated in 1% sucrose. Six
      of these 22 differentially expressed sRNAs were validated by qRT-PCR. The
      expression level of target gene gtfB was higher in 1% sucrose. The adherence
      ratio of S. mutans was higher in 1% sucrose than in 5% sucrose. The synthesis of
      water-insoluble glucans (WIGs) was significantly higher in 5% sucrose than in 1%
      sucrose. These data suggest that a series of sRNAs can be induced in response to
      sucrose, and that some sRNAs might be involved in the regulation of phenotypes,
      providing new insight into the prevention of caries.

PMID- 28567480
TI  - Soil bacterial community responses to revegetation of moving sand dune in semi
      arid grassland.
AB  - Grasslands in semi-arid Northern China are widely desertified, thus inducing the
      formation of a large area of moving sand lands. Revegetation of the sandy land is
      commonly adopted to restore degraded grasslands. The structure of the soil
      microbial community might dramatically change during degradation and recovery
      because microorganisms are one of the major drivers of ecological process through
      their interactions with plants and soil. Assuming that soil properties are the
      key determinants of the structure of soil bacterial community within the same
      soil type, whether the vegetation type causes the significant difference in the
      structure of soil bacterial community during revegetation and restoration of the
      degraded grasslands remains poorly understood. Our study aimed to (1) investigate
      the response of soil bacterial communities to the changes during vegetation
      degradation and recovery and (2) evaluate whether the soil bacterial communities
      under plantations return to their native state. We detected the shifts in
      diversities and compositions of the soil bacterial communities and the relative
      abundance of dominant bacterial taxa by using the high-throughput Illumina MiSeq
      sequencing technique in an area covered by 32-year-old Caragana microphylla,
      Artemisia halodendron, Hedysarum fruticosum, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica,
      Populus simonii, and Salix gordejevii sand-fixing plantations and in the native
      community (NC) dominated by elm, and moving sandy dune (MS). We found that the
      obtained operational taxonomic units by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and diversity
      index in MS were all significantly lower than those in NC, and the number and
      composition of dominant genera were significantly different between NC and MS.
      Interestingly, the compositions of bacterial communities and the dominant genera
      in different sand-fixation plantations (C. microphylla, A. halodendron, H.
      fruticosum, P. sylvestris var. mongolica, P. simonii, and S. gordejevii) were all
      similar to those of the native soil of NC, suggesting that the plantation type
      and soil properties exhibit a minimal effect on the compositions of soil
      microbial communities within a continuous landscape. These results revealed that
      the structure of the soil bacterial community of degraded sandy grassland (even
      degenerated into a mobile sand dunes) in semi-arid region can be reversibly
      restored by planting indigenous shrub or semi-shrub plantation on human time
      scales.

PMID- 28567482
TI  - MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for rapid differentiation of Tenacibaculum species
      pathogenic for fish.
AB  - Tenacibaculosis is a fish disease that limits the culture of a variety of marine
      fish species of commercial value in the world. The genus Tenacibaculum includes
      several species, and their discrimination is of clinical interest in order to
      improve the management of an outbreak of the disease. In this study, a novel
      proteomic approach based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of
      flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) analysis was evaluated for the
      identification and differentiation of Tenacibaculum species. The peak mass lists
      derived from MALDI-TOF-MS analysis were examined for the detection of potential
      biomarkers, similarity and cluster analysis and principal component analysis
      (PCA). Culture media used for bacterial growth did not affect the mass
      fingerprints. Eight genus-specific peaks were found in all the Tenacibaculum
      species analysed. Moreover, at least one species-specific peak was found in the
      species Tenacibaculum maritimum, Tenacibaculum soleae, Tenacibaculum
      dicentrarchi, Tenacibaculum litoreum and Tenacibaculum ovolyticum. These peaks
      could serve as biomarkers for the rapid identification of these bacterial fish
      pathogens. The cluster and PCA clearly separated the species T. maritimum, T.
      soleae, T. dicentrarchi and T. ovolyticum in different clusters. However, species
      of Tenacibaculum discolor and Tenacibaculum gallaicum were difficult to
      distinguish based on their protein fingerprints. To our knowledge, this is the
      first study that deals with the characterization and determination of biomarkers
      of Tenacibaculum species by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. This approach proved to
      be an effective and reliable technique for the discrimination of the
      Tenacibaculum species; therefore, it could be integrated as a routine diagnostic
      tool in microbiological laboratories.

PMID- 28567483
TI  - [Gender Norms and Expertise : Constructions of Gender in Psychiatrists' Legal
      Opinions in Imperial Germany, 1871-1914].
AB  - This article focuses on notions of gender in psychiatrists' expert opinions
      written for lawsuits during the German Empire, 1871-1914. Four different
      narratives concerning gender can be identified in these testimonies. On the one
      hand, the reports describe women and men who did not conform to the gender
      stereotypes of the time. The psychiatrists found the non-conformist defendants to
      be of unsound mind. On the other hand, women and men who did conform to the
      gender stereotypes were also described. In those cases, however, "feminine" women
      were certified insane, whereas "masculine" men were accused of simulating a
      mental disease in order to avoid punishment. These findings strengthen basic
      assumptions of Feminist Epistemology by showing that first, psychiatric ideas of
      accountability were closely linked to the norm of "masculine" men and second, a
      double standard was used in assessing the soundness of minds of women and men
      respectively.

PMID- 28567479
TI  - Sub1/PC4, a multifaceted factor: from transcription to genome stability.
AB  - Yeast Sub1 and human PC4, two DNA-binding proteins, were originally identified as
      transcriptional coactivators with a role during transcription
      preinitiation/initiation. Indeed, Sub1 is a PIC component, and both PC4 and Sub1
      also influence the initiation-elongation transition. Moreover, in the specific
      case of Sub1, it has been clearly reported that it influences processes
      downstream during mRNA biogenesis, such as transcription elongation, splicing and
      termination, and even RNAPII phosphorylation/dephosphorylation. Although Sub1
      mechanism of action has been mostly unknown up to date, thanks to the recent
      finding that Sub1 directly interacts with the RNAPII stalk domain, we can
      envision how it can modulate so many processes. In addition, Sub1 and PC4
      participate in RNAPIII transcription as well, and much additional evidence
      indicates an evolutionarily conserved role for Sub1 and PC4 in the maintenance of
      genome stability. In this regard, the most novel function of Sub1 and PC4 has
      been related to the ability of these proteins to bind G-quadruplex DNA structures
      that may arise as a consequence of the transcription process.

PMID- 28567484
TI  - Measurement of liver and spleen interstitial volume in patients with systemic
      amyloid light-chain amyloidosis using equilibrium contrast CT.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate equilibrium contrast-enhanced CT (EQ-CT) measurement
      of extracellular volume fraction (ECV) in patients with systemic amyloid light
      chain (AL) amyloidosis, testing the hypothesis that ECV becomes elevated in the
      liver and spleen and ECV correlates with other estimates of organ amyloid burden.
      METHODS: 26 patients with AL amyloidosis underwent EQ-CT, and ECV was measured in
      the liver and spleen. Patients also underwent serum amyloid P (SAP) component
      scintigraphy with grading of liver and spleen involvement. Mann-Whitney U test
      was used to test for a difference between patients with amyloid deposition (SAP
      grade 1-3) and those without (SAP grade 0). Variation in ECV across SAP grades
      was assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and association between ECV and SAP
      grades with Spearman correlation. RESULTS: Mean ECV in the spleen and liver was
      significantly greater (p < 0.0005) in amyloidotic organs (SAP grade 1-3) [spleen,
      liver: 0.430, 0.375] compared with healthy tissues [spleen, liver: 0.304, 0.269].
      ECV increased with increasing amyloid burden, showing positive correlation with
      SAP grade in both the liver (r = 0.758) and spleen (r = 0.867). CONCLUSION: In
      patients with systemic AL amyloidosis, EQ-CT can demonstrate increased spleen and
      liver ECV, which is associated with amyloid disease burden.

PMID- 28567485
TI  - Mucinous nonneoplastic cyst of the pancreas: CT and MRI appearances.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate imaging features
      of mucinous nonneoplastic cyst (MNNC) of the pancreas. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Three (0.9%) patients with MNNC of the pancreas were found in 335 surgically
      resected pancreatic cystic lesions. Three MDCT and two MRI/MRCP studies were
      retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Three cases of MNNC were found in the
      pancreatic neck, body, and tail, respectively. All the three cases were
      multilocular without communication with the main pancreatic duct (MPD), although
      upstream MPD dilatation was seen in two of the three cases. The signal intensity
      of the cyst fluid was low on T1-weighted, high on T2-weighted, and low on
      diffusion-weighted images. Cyst wall was thin in two cases, and the remaining
      case with obstructive pancreatitis showed visible cyst wall enhancement.
      CONCLUSION: Imaging findings of MNNC of the pancreas were nonspecific without
      communication with the MPD. Cyst wall is typically thin without visible
      enhancement.

PMID- 28567486
TI  - Xenobiology: State-of-the-Art, Ethics, and Philosophy of New-to-Nature Organisms.
AB  - The basic chemical constitution of all living organisms in the context of carbon
      based chemistry consists of a limited number of small molecules and polymers.
      Until the twenty-first century, biology was mainly an analytical science and has
      now reached a point where it merges with engineering science, paving the way for
      synthetic biology. One of the objectives of synthetic biology is to try to change
      the chemical compositions of living cells, that is, to create an artificial
      biological diversity, which in turn fosters a new sub-field of synthetic biology,
      xenobiology. In particular, the genetic code in living systems is based on highly
      standardized chemistry composed of the same "letters" or nucleotides as
      informational polymers (DNA, RNA) and the 20 amino acids which serve as basic
      building blocks for proteins. The universality of the genetic code enables not
      only vertical gene transfer within the same species but also horizontal gene
      transfer across biological taxa, which require a high degree of standardization
      and interconnectivity. Although some minor alterations of the standard genetic
      code are found in nature (e.g., proteins containing non-conical amino acids exist
      in nature, and some organisms use alternated coding systems), all structurally
      deep chemistry changes within living systems are generally lethal, making the
      creation of artificial biological system an extremely difficult challenge.In this
      context, one of the great challenges for bioscience is the development of a
      strategy for expanding the standard basic chemical repertoire of living cells.
      Attempts to alter the meaning of the genetic information stored in DNA as an
      informational polymer by changing the chemistry of the polymer (i.e., xeno
      nucleic acids) or by changes in the genetic code have already yielded successful
      results. In the future this should enable the partial or full redirection of the
      biological information flow to generate "new" version(s) of the genetic code
      derived from the "old" biological world.In addition to the scientific challenges,
      the attempt to increase biochemical diversity also raises important ethical and
      philosophical issues. Although promotors of this branch of synthetic biology
      highlight the many potential applications to come (e.g., novel tools for
      diagnostics and fighting infection diseases), such developments could also bring
      risks affecting social, political, and other structures of nearly all societies.

PMID- 28567487
TI  - Synthetic Biology of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).
AB  - Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a family of biodegradable and
      biocompatible polyesters which have been extensively studied using synthetic
      biology and metabolic engineering methods for improving production and for
      widening its diversity. Synthetic biology has allowed PHA to become composition
      controllable random copolymers, homopolymers, and block copolymers. Recent
      developments showed that it is possible to establish a microbial platform for
      producing not only random copolymers with controllable monomers and their ratios
      but also structurally defined homopolymers and block copolymers. This was
      achieved by engineering the genome of Pseudomonas putida or Pseudomonas
      entomophiles to weaken the beta-oxidation and in situ fatty acid synthesis
      pathways, so that a fatty acid fed to the bacteria maintains its original chain
      length and structures when incorporated into the PHA chains. The engineered
      bacterium allows functional groups in a fatty acid to be introduced into PHA,
      forming functional PHA, which, upon grafting, generates endless PHA variety.
      Recombinant Escherichia coli also succeeded in producing efficiently poly(3
      hydroxypropionate) or P3HP, the strongest member of PHA. Synthesis pathways of
      P3HP and its copolymer P3HB3HP of 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxypropionate were
      assembled respectively to allow their synthesis from glucose. CRISPRi was also
      successfully used to manipulate simultaneously multiple genes and control
      metabolic flux in E. coli to obtain a series of copolymer P3HB4HB of 3
      hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and 4-hydroxybutyrate (4HB). The bacterial shapes were
      successfully engineered for enhanced PHA accumulation.

PMID- 28567488
TI  - Early rebleeding of intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas after an
      intracranial hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and angiographic
      characteristics of dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVF) presenting with
      intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), with a focus on early rebleeding according to the
      initial hemorrhage type. METHOD: The clinical and radiologic features of 21 dAVFs
      that presented with intracranial hemorrhage were retrospectively reviewed. The
      hemorrhage type was classified as pure intraparenchymal hemorrhage (pIPH) and
      subarachnoid or subdural hemorrhage with IPH (non-pIPH). RESULTS: There were 13
      patients with pIPH and 8 with non-pIPH. The median follow-up period was 30 months
      (range, 1-116 months), and the median interval from hemorrhage to treatment was 4
      days (range, 0-72 days). Rebleeding occurred in 8 (38.1%) of 21 patients. Four
      (50%) of eight patients with non-pIPH suffered from early rebleeding within 3
      days, while there was no early rebleeding in patients with pIPH. There was a
      significantly higher rate of early rebleeding in the non-pIPH group (p = 0.012).
      Angiographically, venous ectasia (p = 0.005) and direct cortical venous drainage
      (dCVD) (p = 0.008) showed a significantly higher proportion in the non-pIPH group
      than in the pIPH group. CONCLUSIONS: DAVFs with ICH is likely to rebleed after
      the first hemorrhage. Thus, early treatment can be needed in all DAVFs with ICH.
      In addition, DAVFs that presenting with non-pIPH and containing venous ectasia or
      dCVD on initial angiography may have a higher risk of early rebleeding.
      Therefore, cautious attention and urgent treatment are necessary for these
      patients.

PMID- 28567489
TI  - Discovery of two small circular ssDNA viruses associated with the whitefly
      Bemisia tabaci.
AB  - The complete genome sequences of two novel small circular DNA viruses isolated
      from sweet-potato whiteflies collected in central-West (AdDF) and Southeast (AdO)
      regions of Brazil were determined by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), and
      confirmed by cloning and Sanger sequencing. The genomes are 2,199 and 2,211 nt
      long, respectively, encoding a putative coat protein (CP) and a replication
      associated protein (Rep) and showing a genomic organization typical of viruses
      from the family Genomoviridae. Phylogenetic analysis with deduced amino acid
      sequences of Rep indicates that the virus from AdO is closely related to other
      members of the genus Gemycircularvirus, while the virus from AdDF is distantly
      related to other genomovirus. It was thus classified in a putative new genus, for
      which the name "Gemybolavirus" is proposed. These new genomoviruses are
      tentatively named "Bemisia associated gemybolavirus AdDF", and "Bemisia
      associated gemycircularvirus AdO".

PMID- 28567490
TI  - Ventricular rate stabilization for treatment of recurrent VT.
AB  - A patient with ischaemic cardiomyopathy received a secondary prevention VVI
      implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) after an episode of sustained
      ventricular tachycardia (VT). Because of recurrent VTs transmitted via CareLink,
      medical therapy was optimized and VT ablation was performed. Subsequently, a fast
      VT with a typical short-long-short initiation developed. In addition, there was
      an increasing need for ventricular pacing due to sinus bradycardia. This new type
      of VT could be successfully dealt with by upgrading to DDD ICD and activating the
      Ventricular Rate Stabilization algorithm.

PMID- 28567491
TI  - Pathophysiology of ventricular tachyarrhythmias : From automaticity to reentry.
AB  - Ventricular arrhythmias are a heterogeneous group of arrhythmias and may arise in
      patients with cardiomyopathy or structurally normal hearts. The
      electrophysiologic mechanisms responsible for the initiation and maintenance of
      ventricular tachycardia include enhanced automaticity, triggered activity, and
      reentry. Differentiating between these three mechanisms can be challenging and
      usually requires an invasive electrophysiology study. Establishing the underlying
      mechanism in a particular patient is helpful to define the optimal therapeutic
      approach, including the selection of pharmacologic agents or delineation of an
      ablation strategy.

PMID- 28567492
TI  - In vitro modeling of unsaturated free fatty acid-mediated tissue impairments seen
      in acne lesions.
AB  - Acne vulgaris is a disease of pilosebaceous units with multifactorial
      pathogenesis, including hyperkeratinization, increased sebum secretion, and
      inflammation. Recently, it was suggested that acne subjects may have also
      impaired skin barrier. We hypothesized that excess unsaturated free fatty acids
      (UFFA) present in the sebum may cause barrier impairment associated with
      increased follicular stratum corneum (SC) thickening and inflammation seen in
      acne. Therefore, epidermal and sebaceous lipid profiles from acne and healthy
      subjects were analyzed and an in vitro epidermal tissue model was developed to
      validate this hypothesis. Significantly increased levels of free fatty acids (p <
      0.05) were observed in skin lipids of human acne vs. healthy subjects. Exposure
      of human epidermal equivalents (HEEs) to the UFFA oleic acid (OA), also present
      in sebum, led to barrier impairment associated with increased SC lipid disorder,
      increased secretion of interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha), and excessive SC
      thickening. Furthermore, the expression of genes encoding for inflammatory
      cytokines and epidermal differentiation proteins was also increased both in acne
      lesions and in OA-treated HEEs. Taken together, these data are in agreement with
      the hypothesis that excess UFFAs in sebum of acne subjects may contribute to
      impaired skin barrier associated with the increased follicular SC thickness and
      inflammation seen in acne. Moreover, OA induces similar molecular and phenotypic
      changes in HEEs as those seen in acne lesions and suggests that an UFFA-treated
      epidermal tissue model can be used to study the UFFA-mediated pathways involved
      in the pathogenesis of inflammatory acne and for the development of appropriate
      therapies.

PMID- 28567493
TI  - Epidemiologic features of 348 children with hepatitis C virus infection over a 30
      year period: a nationwide survey in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among
      children may be rapidly changing, few reports have characterized large nationwide
      cohorts of children with HCV infection. We, therefore, sought to clarify the
      epidemiology and natural history of HCV infection in Japanese children born over
      the last three decades. METHODS: Sixty-five pediatric centers retrospectively and
      prospectively recruited consecutive, otherwise-healthy HCV-infected children born
      during 1986 to 2015. RESULTS: Entry criteria were met by 348 children. Age at
      initial diagnosis of infection has decreased significantly in recent years.
      Cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were not identified. Prevalence of
      spontaneous clearance and of interferon treatment with/without ribavirin were 9
      and 54%, respectively. Maternal transmission has increased significantly,
      representing over 99% of cases in the last decade. No transfusion-related cases
      have been seen after 1994. HCV genotype 2 has increased to become the most
      prevalent in Japanese children. Histopathology examination of liver specimens
      showed no or mild fibrosis in most children with chronic hepatitis C; none showed
      cirrhosis. CONCLUSIONS: This largest nationwide cohort study of Asian children
      with HCV infection spanned the last three decades. None of these Japanese
      children developed cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Maternal transmission
      increased to account for 99% of cases during the last decade. Genotype 2 now is
      most prevalent in these children. Histopathologically, most children with chronic
      hepatitis C showed mild fibrosis or none.

PMID- 28567495
TI  - Integrated 18F-FDG PET/MRI compared to MRI alone for identification of local
      recurrences of soft tissue sarcomas: a comparison trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess and compare the diagnostic accuracy of PET/MRI and MRI alone
      for the detection of local recurrences of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) after
      initial surgical resection of the primary tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total
      of 41 patients with clinically suspected tumor relapse of STS underwent an 18F
      FDG-PET/MRI examination for assessment of local recurrence. Two experienced
      physicians interpreted the MRI data and subsequently the PET/MRI datasets in two
      separate reading sessions and were instructed to identify potential local tumor
      recurrences. Additionally, the diagnostic confidence in each reading for the
      identification of malignant lesions was determined. A McNemar test was applied to
      test for differences of both ratings and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to
      identify differences of the confidence levels. Histopathological verification and
      follow-up imaging were applied for standard of reference. RESULTS: Tumor relapse
      was present in 27/41 patients. Calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive
      predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy for the
      detection of local tumor recurrence was 82%, 86%, 92%, 71% and 83% for MRI, and
      96%, 79%, 90%, 92% and 90% for PET/MRI (p > 0.05). Furthermore, PET/MRI showed
      significantly higher confidence levels (p < 0.05) for the determination of
      malignant lesions. CONCLUSION: Our results endorse 18F-FDG PET/MRI to be an
      excellent imaging method in the evaluation of recurrent STS after surgical
      excision, yielding superior tumor detection when compared to MRI alone.

PMID- 28567496
TI  - Manifestation of meibomian gland dysfunction in patients with Sjogren's syndrome,
      non-Sjogren's dry eye, and non-dry eye controls.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the manifestation of meibomian gland dysfunction in patients
      with Sjogren's syndrome (SS), non-Sjogren's syndrome dry eye (non-SS) patients,
      and non-dry eye controls. METHODS: We recruited 31 participants with SS dry eye,
      30 participants with non-SS dry eye, and 35 healthy controls without dry eye
      symptoms. Noninvasive tear breakup time (NITBUT) and meibomian gland dropout
      score (meiboscore) were measured using the Oculus Keratograph 5 M. Meibomian
      gland expressibility and secretion quality were evaluated via slit lamp
      biomicroscopy. The correlation between measurements was analyzed. RESULTS: NITBUT
      was lower, and the meiboscore, meibomian gland expressibility, and secretion
      quality scores were significantly higher in the SS and non-SS groups than in the
      control group (p < 0.001). NITBUT was lower, and the meiboscore and meibomian
      gland expressibility were higher in the SS group than in the non-SS group. NITBUT
      correlated negatively with the meiboscore in both SS and non-SS groups and with
      meibomian gland expressibility in the SS group. A positive correlation was
      obtained between meiboscore and meibomian gland expressibility in both the SS and
      the non-SS groups. CONCLUSION: Patients in both SS and non-SS groups exhibited
      greater impairment in meibomian gland function than the non-dry eye controls. SS
      patients had more severe meibomian gland dysfunction with poorer mean meiboscore
      and meibomian gland expressibility than non-SS patients.

PMID- 28567494
TI  - Therapy assessment of bone metastatic disease in the era of 223radium.
AB  - PURPOSE: Defining an optimal imaging modality for assessment of therapy and the
      best time of evaluation are pivotal for ideal patient's management. METHODS:
      223Ra (Xofigo(r), formerly Alpharadin) has been approved by the FDA and European
      Medicines Agency for treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
      with painful osseous involvement. RESULTS: PET/CT imaging using various
      radiotracers such as 18F-FDG, 18F-FCH, 68Ga-PSMA and 18F-NaF have been
      investigated to mitigate the limitations of conventional imaging modalities.
      Diagnostic radiotracers that have properties similar to a therapeutic radiotracer
      will precisely assess of the possibility and efficacy of a treatment; this is the
      theranostic concept. An example of a diagnostic test employed for selecting
      targeted therapy is the combined use of 18F-fluoride PET/CT for evaluation of
      possible therapy with 223Ra. CONCLUSION: This review examines the most recent
      publications related to this topic.

PMID- 28567498
TI  - Metabolic, behavioral, and locomotive effects of feeding in five cyprinids with
      different habitat preferences.
AB  - Fish generally perform routine swimming behaviors during food digestion; thus,
      changes in swimming performance and adjustments to spontaneous behavior resulting
      from digestion can have important ecological significance for wild fishes. The
      effects of feeding on metabolism, spontaneous activity, fast-start escape
      movement, and critical swimming speed (U crit) were investigated in five
      cyprinids with different habitat preferences, specifically the Chinese crucian
      carp (Carassius auratus), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), black carp
      (Mylopharyngodon piceus), Chinese bream (Parabramis pekinensis), and qingbo
      (Spinibarbus sinensis). Generally, species in still water exhibited increased
      feeding metabolism, whereas species in flowing water showed higher spontaneous
      activity and locomotion performance. Digestion had no significant effects on
      either spontaneous activity or fast-start escape movement in the five cyprinids.
      These results could be due to the small meal sizes (approximately 2% body mass)
      and active foraging modes of cyprinids. The changes in aerobic swimming
      performance due to feeding were more complex. No effect of digestion on U crit
      was observed in crucian carp (still water, high feeding metabolism, and low U
      crit), common carp (widely distributed, high feeding metabolism, and high U
      crit), and qingbo (flowing water, low feeding metabolism, and high U crit), but
      digestion resulted in a significant decrease in the U crit of Chinese bream
      (moderate feeding metabolism but high U crit) and black carp (moderate feeding
      metabolism and low U crit), suggesting no connection between postprandial U crit
      changes and feeding metabolism (or between U crit and preferred habitat). The
      maximum metabolic rate (MMR) of common carp and crucian carp increased after
      feeding, whereas the corresponding values for the other three cyprinids remained
      the same. The oxygen uptake capacity appears to meet the oxygen demand of both
      aerobic swimming and digestion in common carp and crucian carp, whereas qingbo
      sacrifices digestion for locomotion, and black carp and Chinese bream sacrifice
      locomotion for digestion under postprandial swimming conditions. The locomotion
      priority mode of qingbo is adaptive to its active foraging mode in the demanding
      swimming habitat of rapidly flowing water, whereas the high respiratory
      capacities of postprandial crucian carp and common carp and hence the maintenance
      of their aerobic swimming performances might be a by-product of natural selection
      for hypoxia tolerance rather than for swimming speed.

PMID- 28567497
TI  - Experimental Sepsis Severity Score Associated to Mortality and Bacterial
      Spreading is Related to Bacterial Load and Inflammatory Profile of Different
      Tissues.
AB  - Pneumonia-induced sepsis is responsible for about 50% of cases in the world.
      Patients who develop severe sepsis and septic shock present organ dysfunction and
      elevated plasma cytokine levels, which may lead to death. Clinical scores are
      important to evaluate the framework of septic patients and are used to predict
      the syndrome progress, prognostics, and mortality. The objective of the present
      study was to verify the applicability of a murine clinical score system to
      experimental sepsis (pneumonia-induced sepsis in male mice) and to correlate it
      with mortality and bacterial dissemination in different organs. Results
      demonstrated that animals which present higher clinical scores (>3) are more
      likely to die. Animals presenting high clinical scores exhibited transient
      bacteremia and displayed bacterial spreading to different organs such as heart,
      kidney, liver, and brain. There is a correlation between clinical score and
      bacterial dissemination and consequently greater risk of death. In addition,
      animals which showed bacterial dissemination in more than three organs and high
      clinical scores presented high levels of cytokines (TNF-alpha, MCP-1, IL-6, and
      IL-10) in plasma, lung, heart, liver, kidney, and brain. Therefore, our study
      suggests that (1) severity scores have predictive power in experimental models of
      sepsis and (2) high concentrations of tissue cytokines may contribute to
      localized inflammation and be one of the factors responsible for the systemic
      inflammatory syndrome of sepsis.

PMID- 28567499
TI  - Synergistic effects of temperature and humidity on the symptoms of COPD patients.
AB  - This panel study investigates how temperature, humidity, and their interaction
      affect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients' self-reported
      symptoms. One hundred and six COPD patients from Shanghai, China, were enrolled,
      and age, smoking status, St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) score, and
      lung function index were recorded at baseline. The participants were asked to
      record their indoor temperature, humidity, and symptoms on diary cards between
      January 2011 and June 2012. Altogether, 82 patients finished the study. There was
      a significant interactive effect between temperature and humidity (p < 0.0001) on
      COPD patients. When the indoor humidity was low, moderate, and high, the indoor
      temperature ORs were 0.969 (95% CI 0.922 to 1.017), 0.977 (0.962 to 0.999), and
      0.920 (95% CI 0.908 to 0.933), respectively. Low temperature was a risk factor
      for COPD patients, and high humidity enhanced its risk on COPD. The indoor
      temperature should be kept at least on average at 18.2  degrees C, while the
      humidity should be less than 70%. This study demonstrates that temperature and
      humidity were associated with COPD patients' symptoms, and high humidity would
      enhance the risk of COPD due to low temperature.

PMID- 28567501
TI  - Erratum to: Extrapyramidal symptoms after exposure to calcium channel blocker
      flunarizine or cinnarizine.

PMID- 28567500
TI  - Treatment of Sleep Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Impaired sleep and alertness affect the majority of
      Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, negatively impacting safety and quality of
      life. The etiology of impaired sleep-wake cycle in PD is multifactorial and
      encompasses medication side effects, nocturnal PD motor symptoms, and presence of
      co-existent sleep and neuropsychiatric disorders. The primary neurodegenerative
      process of PD involves brain regions that regulate the sleep-wake cycle, such as
      brainstem and hypothalamic nuclei. Sleep disorders in PD include insomnia, REM
      sleep behavior disorder (RBD), sleep disordered breathing (SDB), restless legs
      syndrome (RLS), and circadian disruption. Despite its high prevalence in the PD
      population, there is a paucity of clinical studies that have investigated
      treatment of sleep dysfunction associated with PD. Therefore, we aim to review
      available evidence and outline treatment strategies for improvement of disorders
      of sleep and wakefulness in PD patients. Evidence supporting the efficacy of
      pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment strategies in PD is limited.
      There is thus a great need but also opportunity for development of well-designed
      clinical trials for impaired sleep and alertness in PD. Providing education about
      sleep hygiene and strategies for its implementation represents the initial step
      in management. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of co-existent primary sleep and
      psychiatric disorders are critical, as this may significantly improve sleep and
      alertness. While the optimal treatment for insomnia in PD has not been
      established, available strategies include cognitive-behavioral therapy,
      medications with soporific properties, and light therapy. Safety measures,
      clonazepam, and melatonin are the mainstay of treatment for RBD. Continuous
      positive airway pressure is an effective treatment for SDB in PD. The treatment
      algorithm for RLS associated with PD mirrors that used for idiopathic RLS.
      Circadian disruption has emerged as an important etiology of impaired sleep-wake
      cycles in PD, and circadian-based interventions hold promise for novel treatment
      approaches.

PMID- 28567502
TI  - Application challenges of the new EU Clinical Trials Regulation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges of the upcoming
      policy change in the field of clinical drug trials due to the shift from the
      Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC to the new Clinical Trials Regulation
      536/2014, adopted in 2014. Although it is expected that the new EU Clinical
      Trials Regulation will increase Europe's competitiveness in clinical research,
      the paper argues that some measures to assure protection of research subjects
      should be taken before the Regulation comes into application in 2018. METHODS:
      The methods used in this paper are comparative analysis of legal documents and
      related academic papers. RESULTS: The new Regulation serves as an efficient means
      to harmonize the clinical drug trial evaluation procedures across the EU.
      However, its application also raises potential challenges regarding interests and
      safety of research subjects: first, due to the possibility of skipping the
      assessment and balancing of benefits and risks from the scope of ethical review
      and limiting such a review to only Part II issues of the assessment report;
      second, due to direct applicability of the Regulation's rather vague and too
      general requirements for investigator's qualifications which does not allow the
      assessors (ethics committees and (or) competent authorities) to introduce higher
      qualification requirements for the investigators conducting high-risk clinical
      drug trials in the national legislation. CONCLUSIONS: There is an urgent need to
      raise awareness and facilitate debate on potential application challenges of the
      new Regulation.

PMID- 28567504
TI  - A clinical example of extreme dose exposure for an implanted cardioverter
      defibrillator : Beyond the DEGRO guidelines.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Considering that the number of malignant diseases in patients over
      65 years of age is increasing, it often occurs that patients who carry a cardiac
      implanted electronic device must undergo radiotherapy. Ionizing radiation can
      disturb the function of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). As a
      result of this, an update of the DEGRO/DKG guidelines for radiotherapy of this
      patient group has been published. METHODS: We report the case of a patient with
      an ICD and T-lymphoblastic lymphoma with cardiac involvement, who received i.a. a
      total body irradiation with 8 Gy followed by a consolidating radiotherapy of the
      pericardium with 14 Gy as well as additional radiotherapy courses after
      consecutive recurrences. For the purposes of the treatment, the
      antitachyarrhythmia (ATA) therapy was deactivated and temporarily replaced
      through a life vest. RESULTS: According to the current DEGRO guidelines for
      irradiation of patients with cardiac implanted electronic devices, a
      categorization of the patient in the "high-risk" group was made. Furthermore,
      regular telemetric checks of the ICD device were performed before and after
      treatment. Despite unavailable declaration of the manufacturer regarding the
      cumulative tolerable dose and DEGRO recommendation for a cumulative dose <2 Gy,
      the aftercare was unproblematic and normal values were assessed for all relevant
      ICD parameters, despite a cumulative dose >10 Gy in the device. CONCLUSION: This
      case shows that if the cardiac implanted electronic devices are not directly
      irradiated und the energy used is reduced to 6 MV, irradiation-induced damage is
      less likely and can possibly be prevented.

PMID- 28567505
TI  - Perspectives on Medical Education Special Edition : Lessons learned from health
      professions education scholarship failures surprises.

PMID- 28567503
TI  - Planning benchmark study for SBRT of early stage NSCLC : Results of the DEGRO
      Working Group Stereotactic Radiotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim was to evaluate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT)
      treatment planning variability for early stage nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      with respect to the published guidelines of the Stereotactic Radiotherapy Working
      Group of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Planning computed tomography (CT) scan and the structure sets (planning
      target volume, PTV; organs at risk, OARs) of 3 patients with early stage NSCLC
      were sent to 22 radiotherapy departments with SBRT experience: each department
      was asked to prepare a treatment plan according to the DEGRO guidelines. The
      prescription dose was 3 fractions of 15 Gy to the 65% isodose. RESULTS: In all,
      87 plans were generated: 36 used intensity-modulated arc therapy (IMAT), 21 used
      three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT), 6 used static field
      intensity-modulated radiation therapy (SF-IMRT), 9 used helical radiotherapy and
      15 used robotic radiosurgery. PTV dose coverage and simultaneously kept OARs
      doses were within the clinical limits published in the DEGRO guidelines. However,
      mean PTV dose (mean 58.0 Gy, range 52.8-66.4 Gy) and dose conformity indices
      (mean 0.75, range 0.60-1.00) varied between institutions and techniques (p <=
      0.02). OARs doses varied substantially between institutions, but appeared to be
      technique independent (p = 0.21). CONCLUSION: All studied treatment techniques
      are well suited for SBRT of early stage NSCLC according to the DEGRO guidelines.
      Homogenization of SBRT practice in Germany is possible through the guidelines;
      however, detailed treatment plan characteristics varied between techniques and
      institutions and further homogenization is warranted in future studies and
      recommendations. Optimized treatment planning should always follow the ALARA (as
      low as reasonably achievable) principle.

PMID- 28567506
TI  - Seasonal dynamics of nitrate and ammonium ion concentrations in soil solutions
      collected using MacroRhizon suction cups.
AB  - The aims of the study were to analyse the concentration of nitrate and ammonium
      ions in soil solutions obtained using MacroRhizon miniaturized composite suction
      cups under field conditions and to determine potential nitrogen leaching from
      soil fertilized with three types of fertilizers (standard urea, slow-release
      urea, and ammonium nitrate) at the doses of 90 and 180 kg ha-1, applied once or
      divided into two rates. During a 3-year growing experiment with sugar sorghum,
      the concentration of nitrate and ammonium ions in soil solutions was the highest
      with standard urea fertilization and the lowest in variants fertilized with slow
      release urea for most of the months of the growing season. Higher concentrations
      of both nitrogen forms were noted at the fertilizer dose of 180 kg ha-1. One-time
      fertilization, at both doses, resulted in higher nitrate concentrations in June
      and July, while dividing the dose into two rates resulted in higher nitrate
      concentrations between August and November. The highest potential for nitrate
      leaching during the growing season was in July. The tests confirmed that the
      miniaturized suction cups MacroRhizon are highly useful for routine monitoring
      the concentration of nitrate and ammonium ions in soil solutions under field
      conditions.

PMID- 28567507
TI  - [A standard data set for the evaluation of venous leg ulcers in selective
      contracts : National consensus].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Selective agreements are becoming increasingly important in health
      care management. To date, no standard recommendations for the evaluation of
      selective contracts are available. OBJECTIVES: Against this background, a
      recommendation on the evaluation of selective contracts in patients with leg
      ulcers (LU) was developed and approved by the nationwide consensus conference.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on a systematic literature review and followed by a
      manual search through other possible evaluation indicators in the care of
      patients with LU, a Delphi-based consensus process was performed by various
      scientific societies, professional associations, insurances and supply networks.
      RESULTS: For the evaluation of efficiency and quality of care, a recommendation
      on the evaluation of selective agreements with patients with LU was consented in
      six meetings and in five multistage online surveys. In total, 44 evaluation
      indicators were identified in the quality subareas structure, process, and
      outcome. The outcome indicators are divided into clinical, patient-related, and
      cost-related indicators. CONCLUSIONS: The developed evaluation indicators
      represent the quality of care in patients with LU. The indicators can be applied
      individually, depending on the agreed contract-specific supply target. After
      implementation of this national standard, the comparability of selective
      agreements in the management of patients with LU can be ensured and consolidated.

PMID- 28567508
TI  - [Psoriasis capitis and seborrhoic eczema of scalp diseases].
AB  - The scalp may be affected by various diseases with equally varying
      manifestations. Erythema and scaling is often accompanied by agonizing itch.
      Scalp psoriasis and seborrheic eczema represent the most frequent diseases, which
      can be differentiated into classical cases; however, overlap and similarities are
      seen. Sharply demarcated erythematosquamous plaques across the natural hairline
      in psoriasis are opposed to blurred dark-red erythema and yellowish, greasy
      scales in seborrheic eczema. Whereas with the latter diffuse alopecia may
      frequently be found, hair loss is rarely seen in psoriasis and may also be
      related to therapeutic agents. Treatment is based on acuity as well as extent of
      disease and individual life quality aspects of the patients. It is mainly based
      on topical corticosteroids, combined with vitamin D derivatives in psoriasis and
      antimycotic agents in seborrheic eczema. In severe cases and widespread psoriatic
      disease, systemic treatment may be necessary, including the classic agents
      methotrexate, fumarates and ciclosporin as well as biologicals. Systemic
      treatment of seborrheic eczema is rarely necessary and resides on
      corticosteroids, antimycotic agents and vitamin A derivatives. In addition,
      intensive counseling of patients on the necessity of consequent and long-term
      treatment as well as use of mild skin care products is mandatory.

PMID- 28567509
TI  - [Clinical and histological spectrum of palisaded granulomatous dermatitides :
      Granuloma annulare, necrobiosis lipoidica, rheumatoid nodules, and necrobiotic
      xanthogranuloma].
AB  - The palisading granulomatous dermatitides comprise a group of different skin
      diseases with similar histomorphologic forms of granuloma in the skin.
      Histopathologically characteristic are areas in the reticular dermis and
      subcutaneous fat with degenerated bundles of collagen surrounded by histiocytes
      and multinucleate giant cells aligned in a palisade (necrobiotic granuloma).
      Within the center of palisaded granulomas, mucin or fibrin can be found. The skin
      diseases presenting histologically with palisading granuloma are granuloma
      annulare and necrobiosis lipoidica. Palisading granuloma may also be an
      expression of systemic disease in rheumatoid nodules and necrobiotic
      xanthogranuloma. Little is known about the pathogenesis. The clinical
      presentation of the diseases is variable. Therapy is challenging and may not be
      satisfying.

PMID- 28567510
TI  - [Atypical course of an apocrine sweat gland carcinoma of the axilla : A very rare
      malignant tumor and its interdisciplinary treatment].
AB  - We report on an atypical clinical course of a patient with the very rare
      diagnosis of an apocrine sweat gland carcinoma with lymphatic metastasis, a
      single metachronous distant metastasis and a now reached survival time of more
      than 4 years and give a review about the current literature. Only a very small
      number of cases have been described. The recommendations for diagnostics and
      treatment of this tumor, therefore, are not based on prospective randomized
      studies but upon case reports and on new immunohistochemical and genetic markers.

PMID- 28567511
TI  - Trochleoplasty techniques provide good clinical results in patients with
      trochlear dysplasia.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this systematic review is to compare the clinical outcomes of
      patients treated with different trochleoplasty procedures, the rate of
      complications and recurrence of patellar dislocation. METHODS: A systematic
      review of the literature was performed, in accord with the PRISMA guidelines.
      PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases were
      comprehensively searched using the keyword combinations, "Dejour trochleoplasty",
      "Bereiter Trochleoplasty", "Albee Trochleoplasty", "Recession Trochleoplasty",
      "Trochlear Dysplasia", "Instability", "Adult", "Clinical Outcome" and "Surgery".
      RESULTS: Three-hundred and ninety-two knees in 371 patients were included.
      Bereiter U-shaped deepening trochleoplasty was the most commonly used technique
      for the treatment of trochlear dysplasia in the included studies with the lowest
      rate of recurrence and post-operative ROM deficiency. On the other hand, Dejour V
      shaped deepening trochleoplasty showed the highest mean post-operative value of
      Kujala score with 79.3 (SD 8.4) points. Statistical differences were found in
      terms of redislocation rate between Goutallier procedure and Bereiter
      trochleoplasty (p < 0.05) and in terms of post-operative osteoarthritis between
      Bereiter and Dejour procedures (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Bereiter trochleoplasty
      seems to be the most efficiency procedure in terms of post-operative patellar
      redislocation, post-operative osteoarthritis and ROM, but the highest mean post
      operative Kujala score is obtained by Dejour procedure. Therefore, none of the
      surgical techniques analysed highlighted a real superiority. Randomised clinical
      trials are needed to establish whether of available surgical technique is the
      best to treat patient with trochlear dysplasia. The clinical relevance of this
      paper is that the three most popular trochleoplasty techniques are associated
      with significantly improved stability and function, showing a relatively low rate
      of osteoarthritis and pain, and a moderate rate of complications. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Systematic review, Level IV.

PMID- 28567512
TI  - Total flavonoids of Desmodium styracifolium attenuates the formation of hydroxy-L
      proline-induced calcium oxalate urolithiasis in rats.
AB  - Desmosium styracifolium (D. styracifolium), which is considered as a Chinese
      herbal medicine, has been reported to treat the kidney stone diseases. However,
      the potential phytochemically active components and the underlying mechanisms
      associated with its efficacy in targeting urolithiasis remain to be elucidated.
      This study aims to investigate the anti-urolithiatic effect of total flavonoids
      of D. styracifolium (TFDS) on calcium oxalate (CaOx) renal stones in Sprague
      Dawley rats. Animal models of CaOx urolithiasis were established in male Sprague
      Dawley rats by adding 5% w/w hydroxy-L-proline (HLP) in regular rat chow. The
      TFDS orally at 100, 400 mg/kg, respectively, were administered along with HLP for
      28 days. At the end of 28 days of treatment, urine and serum samples were
      collected for crystalluria determination and various biochemical analysis. Kidney
      tissues were isolated and processed for antioxidant parameters measurement and
      histopathological examinations. HLP-induced hyperoxaluria alone reliably caused
      CaOx nephrolithiasis in rats. We showed that TFDS significantly reduced
      crystalluria and CaOx crystal deposits in the kidney sections as compared to
      untreated HLP group. Also, TFDS was observed to decrease urinary oxalate
      excretion, alleviate the pro-acidosis condition, improve the impaired renal
      functions and renal epithelial cell injury. Moreover, TFDS protected against the
      oxidative stress changes via reducing MDA content, increasing CAT and GSH-Px
      activities in renal homogenate, as well as attenuating the expression of MCP-1,
      OPN and TGF-beta proteins. These results indicated that TFDS had beneficial
      effect on inhibition of CaOx formation in the rat kidney probably through a
      combination of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, urine alkalinizing activities, and
      lowering the concentration of urinary stone-forming constituents. Thus, TFDS
      might have clinical implications in preventing oxidative renal cell injury and,
      ultimately, kidney stone formation. The data provide a rationale for the
      medicinal use of TFDS in nephrolithiasis and identify this agent as a potential
      source of new antiurolithic drugs.

PMID- 28567514
TI  - [Orbit : Part 2: Diseases of the globe and retrobulbar space].
AB  - After the first part of the article focused on the anatomy of the orbit and the
      anatomical relations of the orbital cavity, the second part provides an overview
      of common diseases of the globe and the retrobulbar space. The main focus is to
      describe and analyze current imaging procedures and their respective advantages.
      In addition to inflammatory lesions, traumatic, neoplastic, and congenital
      entities are also described.

PMID- 28567513
TI  - Age-dependent insulin resistance in male mice with null deletion of the
      carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 2 gene.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Cc2 -/- mice lacking the gene encoding the carcinoembryonic
      antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 2 (Cc2 [also known as Ceacam2]) exhibit
      hyperphagia that leads to obesity and insulin resistance. This starts at 2 months
      of age in female mice. Male mutants maintain normal body weight and insulin
      sensitivity until the last age previously examined (7-8 months), owing to
      increased sympathetic tone to white adipose tissue and energy expenditure. The
      current study investigates whether insulin resistance develops in mutant male
      mice at a later age and whether this is accompanied by changes in insulin
      homeostasis. METHODS: Insulin response was assessed by insulin and glucose
      tolerance tests. Energy balance was analysed by indirect calorimetry. RESULTS:
      Male Cc2 -/- mice developed overt metabolic abnormalities at about 9 months of
      age. These include elevated global fat mass, hyperinsulinaemia and insulin
      resistance (as determined by glucose and insulin intolerance, fed hyperglycaemia
      and decreased insulin signalling pathways). Pair-feeding experiments showed that
      insulin resistance resulted from hyperphagia. Indirect calorimetry demonstrated
      that older mutant male mice had compromised energy expenditure. Despite increased
      insulin secretion caused by Cc2 deletion, chronic hyperinsulinaemia did not
      develop in mutant male mice until about 9 months of age, at which point insulin
      clearance began to decline substantially. This was probably mediated by a marked
      decrease in hepatic CEACAM1 expression. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The data
      demonstrate that at about 9 months of age, Cc2 -/- male mice develop a reduction
      in energy expenditure and energy imbalance which, combined with a progressive
      decrease in CEACAM1-dependent hepatic insulin clearance, causes chronic
      hyperinsulinaemia and sustained age-dependent insulin resistance. This represents
      a novel mechanistic underpinning of age-related impairment of hepatic insulin
      clearance.

PMID- 28567521
TI  - Comprehensive evaluation of disease- and trait-specific enrichment for eight
      functional elements among GWAS-identified variants.
AB  - Genome-wide association study (GWAS)-identified variants are enriched for
      functional elements. However, we have limited knowledge of how functional
      enrichment may differ by disease/trait and tissue type. We tested a broad set of
      eight functional elements for enrichment among GWAS-identified SNPs (p < 5*10-8)
      from the NHGRI-EBI Catalog across seven disease/trait categories: cancer,
      cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, psychiatric disease,
      neurological disease, and anthropometric traits. SNPs were annotated using
      HaploReg for the eight functional elements across any tissue: DNase sites,
      expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), sequence conservation, enhancers,
      promoters, missense variants, sequence motifs, and protein binding sites. In
      addition, tissue-specific annotations were considered for brain vs. blood.
      Disease/trait SNPs were compared to a control set of 4809 SNPs matched to the
      GWAS SNPs (N = 1639) on allele frequency, gene density, distance to nearest gene,
      and linkage disequilibrium at ~3:1 ratio. Enrichment analyses were conducted
      using logistic regression, with Bonferroni correction. Overall, a significant
      enrichment was observed for all functional elements, except sequence motifs.
      Missense SNPs showed the strongest magnitude of enrichment. eQTLs were the only
      functional element significantly enriched across all diseases/traits. Magnitudes
      of enrichment were generally similar across diseases/traits, where enrichment was
      statistically significant. Blood vs. brain tissue effects on enrichment were
      dependent on disease/trait and functional element (e.g., cardiovascular disease:
      eQTLs P TissueDifference = 1.28 * 10-6 vs. enhancers P TissueDifference = 0.94).
      Identifying disease/trait-relevant functional elements and tissue types could
      provide new insight into the underlying biology, by guiding a priori GWAS
      analyses (e.g., brain enhancer elements for psychiatric disease) or facilitating
      post hoc interpretation.

PMID- 28567522
TI  - NG2 plays a role in neuroinflammation but is not expressed by immune cells.

PMID- 28567524
TI  - Patterns of Care and Survival for Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia-Challenges and
      Opportunities.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease of the elderly, with
      a median age of diagnosis in the sixth decade of life. Mortality has declined
      over the last few years, but this impact is apparent only in the young, fit AML
      population. Outcomes for the elderly remain poor, with less than 20% 5-year
      overall survival rates. Hence, there is an unmet need to identify treatment
      strategies to maximize benefit in this age group. RECENT FINDINGS: Elderly AML is
      a difficult entity to treat due to both disease and patient-related factors.
      Treatment of this group has a lot of inter-physician and inter-institutional
      variability. Several objective criteria to assess biological age, impact of co
      morbidities, and fitness have been published, which could be utilized to make
      management decisions. For old and unfit AML patients, a variety of novel
      therapeutic agents are currently being investigated. Objective analysis of
      biological age should include assessment of fitness, frailty, and co-morbidities
      in elderly AML. Future areas of research include development of an objective risk
      based approach and its validation in clinical trials, development of novel
      therapeutic agents, and improvement in supportive care measures.

PMID- 28567523
TI  - Bystander mechanism for complement-initiated early oligodendrocyte injury in
      neuromyelitis optica.
AB  - Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (herein called NMO) is an autoimmune
      inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which immunoglobulin G
      antibodies against astrocyte water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4-IgG) cause
      demyelination and neurological deficit. Injury to oligodendrocytes, which do not
      express AQP4, links the initiating pathogenic event of AQP4-IgG binding to
      astrocyte AQP4 to demyelination. Here, we report evidence for a complement
      'bystander mechanism' to account for early oligodendrocyte injury in NMO in which
      activated, soluble complement proteins following AQP4-IgG binding to astrocyte
      AQP4 result in deposition of the complement membrane attack complex (MAC) on
      nearby oligodendrocytes. Primary cocultures of rat astrocytes and mature
      oligodendrocytes exposed to AQP4-IgG and complement showed early death of
      oligodendrocytes in close contact with astrocytes, which was not seen in pure
      oligodendrocyte cultures, in cocultures exposed to AQP4-IgG and C6-depleted
      serum, or when astrocytes were damaged by a complement-independent mechanism.
      Astrocyte-oligodendrocyte cocultures exposed to AQP4-IgG and complement showed
      prominent MAC deposition on oligodendrocytes in contact with astrocytes, whereas
      C1q, the initiating protein in the classical complement pathway, and C3d, a
      component of the alternative complement pathway, were deposited only on
      astrocytes. Early oligodendrocyte injury with MAC deposition was also found in
      rat brain following intracerebral injection of AQP4-IgG, complement and a fixable
      dead-cell stain. These results support a novel complement bystander mechanism for
      early oligodendrocyte injury and demyelination in NMO.

PMID- 28567526
TI  - Mathematical modelling and kinetic study for CD production catalysed by
      Toruzyme(r) and CGTase from Bacillus firmus strain 37.
AB  - A new mathematical model was developed for the kinetics of alpha-, beta- and
      gamma-cyclodextrin production, expanding an existing model that only included the
      production of beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins, because a detailed kinetic modelling
      of the reactions involved allows the manipulation of the process yields. The
      kinetic behaviour of the commercial enzyme Toruzyme(r) was studied with
      maltodextrin as substrate at different concentrations and for CGTase from
      Bacillus firmus strain 37 at a concentration of 100 g L-1. The mathematical model
      showed a proper fit to the experimental data, within the 24-h period studied,
      confirming that the considered hypotheses represent the kinetic behaviour of the
      enzymes in the reaction medium. The kinetic parameters generated by the model
      allowed reproducing previous observed qualitative tendencies as it can be seen
      that changing experimental conditions in the reaction process such as enzyme and
      substrate concentrations results in large changes in the enzyme kinetics and
      using high substrate concentrations does not guarantee the highest conversion
      rates due to enzyme inhibition and reverse reactions. In addition, this new
      mathematical model complements previous qualitative observations enabling the
      manipulation of the direct and reverse reactions catalysed by the enzyme by
      adjusting the reaction conditions, to target quantitative results of increased
      productivity and better efficiency in the production of a desired cyclodextrin.

PMID- 28567525
TI  - Forensic entomotoxicology revisited-towards professional standardisation of study
      designs.
AB  - Forensic entomotoxicology is the use of insects as evidence of whether a toxicant
      is present in an environment such as a corpse, river or landscape. The earliest
      overtly forensic study was published in 1977, and since then, at least 63 papers
      have been published, most of them focused on the detection of toxicants in
      insects or on effects of toxicants on diverse insect indicator taxa. A
      comprehensive review of the published literature revealed various inconsistencies
      between studies that could be addressed by introducing standard protocols for
      such studies. These protocols could include selecting widespread and common model
      organisms (such as Lucilia sericata, Calliphora vicina, Chrysomya megacephala and
      Dermestes maculatus) and model toxicants (e.g. morphine and amitriptyline) to
      build up comparative databases; developing a standard matrix for use as a feeding
      substrate; setting guidelines for statistically adequate sample sizes; and
      deploying more sophisticated analytical methods from the general field of
      toxicology. Future studies should then be aimed at refining standardised
      protocols to improve experimental results, and make these results more comparable
      between studies.

PMID- 28567527
TI  - 13C-assisted metabolomics analysis reveals the positive correlation between
      specific erythromycin production rate and intracellular propionyl-CoA pool size
      in Saccharopolyspora erythraea.
AB  - Metabolomics analysis is extremely essential to explore the metabolism
      characteristics of Saccharopolyspora erythraea. The lack of suitable methods for
      the determination of intracellular metabolites, however, hinders the application
      of metabolomics analysis for S. erythraea. Acyl-CoAs are important precursors of
      erythromycin; phosphorylated sugars are intermediate metabolites in EMP pathway
      or PPP pathway; organic acids are intermediate metabolites in TCA cycle. Reliable
      determination methods for intracellular acyl-CoAs, phosphorylated sugars, and
      organic acids of S. erythraea were designed and validated in this study. Using
      the optimized determination methods, the pool sizes of intracellular metabolites
      during an erythromycin fermentation process were precisely quantified by isotope
      dilution mass spectroscopy method. The quantification results showed that the
      specific erythromycin production rate was positively correlated with the pool
      sizes of propionyl-CoA as well as many other intracellular metabolites. The
      experiment under the condition without propanol, which is a precursor of
      propionyl-CoA and an important substrate in industrial erythromycin production
      process, also corroborated the correlation between specific erythromycin
      production rate and intracellular propionyl-CoA pool size. As far as we know,
      this is the first paper to conduct the metabolomics analysis of S. erythraea,
      which makes the metabolomics analysis of S. erythraea in the industrial
      erythromycin production process possible.

PMID- 28567528
TI  - Portal vein embolization in extended liver resection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver resection of benign, primary, and metastatic tumors is
      challenging and places patients at risk of postoperative liver insufficiency.
      This risk is largely dependent on the volume and function of the future liver
      remnant (FLR). It is, therefore, critical that hepatobiliary surgeons are well
      versed in the measurement of liver volume and function, as well as various
      techniques for preoperative liver volume augmentation. PURPOSE: This
      comprehensive review of portal vein embolization (PVE) begins with an overview of
      FLR measurement and progresses to patient factors to consider when choosing PVE
      and assessment of hypertrophy. PVE techniques and complications are subsequently
      discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The absolute volume of FLR required to avoid
      postoperative liver insufficiency is dependent on the patient, disease, and
      anatomic factors. Rapid expansion of the FLR can be achieved with PVE of
      contralateral liver segments. Although multiple metrics have been used to
      correlate hypertrophy with postoperative outcomes after PVE, the kinetic growth
      rate (KGR) is the most reliable predictor of freedom from postoperative liver
      insufficiency. PVE is now considered a safe and effective procedure when
      performed at high-volume hepatobiliary centers. It is an effective tool that, by
      lowering the risk of liver failure, increases the number of patients who can
      undergo potential curative hepatectomy.

PMID- 28567529
TI  - Influence of a face-bow on oral health-related quality of life after changing the
      vertical dimension in the articulator: a randomized controlled trial. Part II.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial, the impact of
      face-bow registration for remounting complete dentures (CDs) on oral health
      related quality of life (OHRQoL) was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: New CDs of
      32 subjects were clinically remounted using intraoral pin registration. CDs were
      transferred into a semi-adjustable articulator corresponding to group #1: mean
      settings with Bonwill triangle and Balkwill angle, and group #2: arbitrary hinge
      axis with a face-bow registration. After occlusal adjustment, subjects were
      followed up after 3 (T1) and 84 (T2) days. The primary outcome was the change of
      OHRQoL by OHIP-G49, while as secondary outcome, mucosal alterations were
      evaluated over time. Mean values of OHIP-G49 total sum scores and OHIP-dimensions
      were calculated for baseline (T0) and days 3 (T1) and 84 (T2) after intervention.
      Based on bootstrapping methods (changes of total OHIP sum score) and the Wilcoxon
      test (changes of sum scores of OHIP dimensions), analyses of between-group
      differences were performed. RESULTS: Mean values (MV) of OHIP-G49 sum scores
      decreased in both groups from T0 (#1 48.56; #2 45.46) to T1 (#1 31.43 (p =
      0.012); #2 43.20) and to T2 (#1 29.06; #2 29.40), which represents an improvement
      in OHRQoL. MV of OHIP-dimension sum scores decreased from T0 to T1 in both groups
      (#1 seven dimensions; #2 four dimensions); the decrease of sum scores was tested
      as not statistically significant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: From the patient's
      perspective, mean-value-based remounting methods are of value. The use of a face
      bow was not perceived as superior. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: From the patient's
      perspective, remounting of CDs will be positively perceived, irrespective of the
      use of a face-bow.

PMID- 28567530
TI  - Immediate definitive individualized abutments reduce peri-implant bone loss: a
      randomized controlled split-mouth study on 16 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to observe peri-implant time-related vertical bone
      level and soft tissue changes with immediate, non-detached glass-ceramic (lithium
      disilicate) individualized abutments and dis-/reconnections. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Sixteen split-mouth patients received provisionalized immediate
      definitive individualized abutments (test T) versus dis-/reconnected
      individualized abutments (control C). In group T, digital impressions were made
      by using titanium bases (Conelog, Camlog), and individualized abutments
      (E.maxCAD) and temporary crowns (TelioCAD) were designed and milled (CerecMCXL).
      Lithium-disilicate abutments were crystallized and luted (Multilink Hybrid
      Abutment) to titanium bases. Non-occluding temporary crowns were connected to
      abutments. After 16 weeks, definitive digital restorations were delivered. In
      group C, 8 weeks were allowed after healing cap mounting for conventional
      impressions. Lithium-disilicate individualized abutments were produced, try-ins
      were performed by dis-/reconnections. Crowns were luted. Cone beam computed
      tomography (CBCT) images were obtained at restoration delivery, 12 months and 24
      months. Pink esthetic scoring was made, plaque-gingival index measurements were
      done and statistical analyses (Shapiro-Wilk, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon's,
      Spearman's rank, alpha = 0.05) were completed. RESULTS: No implant failures
      occurred. At 12 months, T (-0.1 +/- 0.14 mm) exhibited significantly reduced
      vertical bone loss only on the labial side than C (-0.24 +/- 0.13 mm) (p < 0.05).
      In T, all sides except distal presented reduced vertical bone loss at 24 months
      (p < 0.05). Vertical bone loss for all measurement sides in both C (-0.12 +/-
      0.09 mm; -0.18 +/- 0.11 mm) and T (-0.17 +/- 0.11; -0.26 +/- 0.10 mm) was higher
      for 24 months than 12 months, respectively (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Reduced
      vertical bone loss was observed around implants with immediate definitive
      individualized abutments than abutments with repeated dis-/reconnections.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Non-detached immediate definitive lithium-disilicate
      individualized abutments and provisionalization through digital technology
      resulted in successful clinical outcomes and can be routinely applied.

PMID- 28567531
TI  - Predicting fractures using trabecular patterns on panoramic radiographs.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The observer score of the trabecular pattern on panoramic radiographs
      is known to be a strong predictor of bone fractures. The aim of this study was to
      enhance the predictive power of panoramic radiographs by means of texture
      analysis methods. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study followed 304 postmenopausal
      women during 26 years. At the beginning of the study, panoramic radiographs were
      obtained. One observer assessed the trabecular pattern in the premolar region as
      dense, sparse, or alternating dense and sparse. In addition, on each radiograph,
      a region of interest was selected in the molar/premolar region and analyzed with
      texture analysis procedures. During 26 years of follow-up, 115 women suffered a
      fracture of the hip, spine, leg, or arm. Logistic regression was applied to test
      the predictive power of various variables with respect to fractures. RESULTS: Of
      all variables, the observer score of the trabecular pattern correlated strongest
      with the occurrence of fractures. By itself, the score yielded an ROC curve with
      an area of 0.80 under the curve. Combining the observer score with the texture
      analysis features increased the area under the ROC curve to 0.85. CONCLUSIONS:
      The trabecular pattern on panoramic radiographs provides a strong predictor of
      fractures, at least for postmenopausal women. The assessment by an observer
      combined with texture analysis procedures yields a predictive power that
      parallels best known predictions in literature. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study
      illustrates that panoramic radiographs are state of the art predictors of
      postcranial fractures.

PMID- 28567532
TI  - [Pilon fractures : Review of diagnostics and classification].
AB  - Intraarticular fractures of the distal tibia (pilon fractures) are rare injuries
      and today they occur mostly in traffic accidents and falls from a great height.
      There are simple fractures in the context of low-energy traumas, as well as
      complex comminuted fractures in high-energy traumas. Besides the clinical
      examination, plain radiographs and computed tomographic scans are diagnostic
      prerequisites. The aim of the diagnostic process is to clearly identify and
      classify the fracture before appropriate treatment is initiated. The systems used
      to classify the displaced distal pilon fractures are supposed to ensure the three
      dimensional assessment of the fracture and provide high inter- and intra-observer
      agreement. In addition to the classification of Ruedi and Allgower, the
      classification of pilon fractures has been carried out using the AO
      classification.

PMID- 28567533
TI  - A meta-analysis of montelukast for recurrent wheeze in preschool children.
AB  - : There is conflicting evidence of the effectiveness of montelukast in preschool
      wheeze. A recent Cochrane review focused on its use in viral-induced wheeze;
      however, such subgroups are unlikely to exist in real life and change with time,
      recently highlighted in an international consensus report. We have therefore
      sought to investigate the effectiveness of montelukast in all children with
      preschool wheeze (viral-induced and multiple-trigger wheeze). The PubMed,
      Cochrane Library, Ovid Medline and Ovid EMBASE were screened for randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs), examining the efficacy of montelukast compared with
      placebo in children with the recurrent preschool wheeze. The primary endpoint
      examined was frequency of wheezing episodes. Five trials containing 3960 patients
      with a preschool wheezing disorder were analysed. Meta-analyses of studies of
      intermittent montelukast showed no benefit in preventing episodes of wheeze (mean
      difference (MD) 0.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.14 to 0.29; mean for
      montelukast 2.68 vs placebo 2.54 (p = 0.5)), reducing unscheduled medical
      attendances (MD -0.13, 95% CI -0.33 to 0.07; mean for montelukast 1.62 vs placebo
      1.78 (p = 0.21)) and reducing oral corticosteroids (MD -0.06, 95% CI -0.16 to
      0.02; mean for montelukast 0.35 vs placebo 0.36 (p = 0.25)). The pooled results
      of the continuous regimen showed no significant difference in the number of
      wheezing episodes between the montelukast and placebo groups (MD -0.40, 95% CI 
      1.00 to 0.19; mean for montelukast 2.05 vs placebo 2.37 (p = 0.18)). CONCLUSIONS:
      This review highlights that the currently available evidence does not support the
      use of montelukast in preschool children with recurrent wheeze. We recommend
      further studies to investigate if a 'montelukast responder' phenotype exists, and
      how these can be easily identified in the clinical setting. What is Known: *
      Current guidelines recommend montelukast use in preschool children with recurrent
      wheeze. * A recent Cochrane review has found montelukast to be ineffective at
      reducing courses of oral corticosteroids for viral-induced wheeze. What is New: *
      This meta-analysis has examined all children with preschool wheeze and found that
      montelukast was not effective at preventing wheezing episodes or reducing
      unscheduled medical attendances. * A specific montelukast responder phenotype may
      exist, but such patients should be sought in larger multicentre RCTs.

PMID- 28567534
TI  - Serum YKL-40 levels may help distinguish exacerbation of post-infectious
      bronchiolitis obliterans from acute bronchiolitis in young children.
AB  - : Children with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans (PIBO) are frequently
      hospitalized with acute exacerbation, but clinical differentiation of PIBO
      exacerbation from acute bronchiolitis is often challenging, which may result in
      treatment delay and chronic lung function impairment. We aimed to examine whether
      serum YKL-40 and growth factors could be markers for PIBO exacerbation. Thirty
      seven children admitted with acute exacerbation of PIBO were enrolled and studied
      retrospectively. Diagnosis of PIBO was based on clinical history of acute
      respiratory infection followed by persistent airway obstruction and
      characteristic findings in high-resolution computed tomography. Serum levels of
      YKL-40, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor
      (TGF)-beta1, and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB were measured on
      admission. The biomarkers were also examined in children admitted with acute
      bronchiolitis serving as positive controls (N = 30) and in age-matched controls
      (N = 20). Only YKL-40 levels were found to be significantly higher in PIBO
      patients with exacerbation compared with that in bronchiolitis patients and
      showed a positive correlation with the severity of disease before diagnosis of
      PIBO. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that measuring serum YKL-40 levels might
      help distinguish exacerbation of PIBO from acute bronchiolitis in young children.
      What is Known: * The children with post-infectious BO (PIBO) usually have
      recurrent wheezing and need frequent hospitalization due to acute exacerbation
      during the first disease years. * Clinical differentiation of PIBO exacerbation
      from acute bronchiolitis in young children is often challenging, which may result
      in treatment delay and chronic lung function impairment. What is New: * Measuring
      serum YKL-40 levels might help distinguish exacerbation of PIBO from acute
      bronchiolitis in young children.

PMID- 28567535
TI  - Immune-mediated syndromes following intravenous bisphosphonate therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Intravenous (IV) infusion of aminobisphosphonates (ABP) induces
      cytokine release by peripheral blood Vgamma9delta2 T cells, resulting in an
      immediate short-term inflammatory response in up to 50% of patients. We evaluated
      possible long-term pro-inflammatory effects of IV ABP. METHODS: Retrospective
      case-series study from one rheumatology specialist's clinic. 2261 electronic
      charts were reviewed for administration of 'zoledronate' or different brand names
      of zoledronic acid, and relevant clinical data was retrieved for patients who had
      received the infusion. RESULTS: Thirteen patients had recieved zoledronate. In
      six, new-onset or exacerbation of a previous inflammatory/autoimmune disorder was
      diagnosed within 3 months following infusion. Of these, one patient developed new
      onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA), two polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), two suffered a
      flare of Crohn's disease-related and aromatase inhibitor-induced arthralgias, and
      one patient acquired autoimmune hemophilia. Pre-existing malignancy and immediate
      inflammatory response following zoledronate were more frequent in patients
      experiencing new or worsening immunologic manifestations (3/6 vs. 0/7, and 5/6
      vs. 2/7, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous ABP may trigger induction of
      persistent autoimmune syndromes, especially when accompanied by an immediate
      adverse reaction or pre-existing malignancy.

PMID- 28567536
TI  - Higher milk intake increases fracture risk: confounding or true association?

PMID- 28567537
TI  - HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorder: epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis,
      and treatment.
AB  - The modern antiretroviral treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)
      infection has considerably lowered the incidence of opportunistic infections.
      With the exception of the most severe dementia manifestations, the incidence and
      prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) have not decreased,
      and HAND continues to be relevant in daily clinical practice. Now, HAND occurs in
      earlier stages of HIV infection, and the clinical course differs from that before
      the widespread use of combination antiretroviral treatment (cART). The
      predominant clinical feature is a subcortical dementia with deficits in the
      domains concentration, attention, and memory. Motor signs such as gait
      disturbance and impaired manual dexterity have become less prominent. Prior to
      the advent of cART, the cerebral dysfunction could at least partially be
      explained by the viral load and by virus-associated histopathological findings.
      In subjects where cART has led to undetectable or at least very low viral load,
      the pathogenic virus-brain interaction is less direct, and an array of poorly
      understood immunological and probably toxic phenomena are discussed. This paper
      gives an overview of the current concepts in the field of HAND and provides
      suggestions for the diagnostic and therapeutic management.

PMID- 28567538
TI  - Comparative effectiveness of eight antiepileptic drugs in adults with focal
      refractory epilepsy: the influence of age, gender, and the sequence in which
      drugs were introduced onto the market.
AB  - The first objective was to determine the long-term retention rate of eight
      antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) commonly used as adjunctive therapy in adults with
      focal refractory epilepsy. Second, we assessed the effects of age and gender on
      retention rates. Third, we examined if the retention rate could be influenced by
      the sequence in which the AEDs had entered the market. Patients with focal
      refractory epilepsy treated with any of the eight AEDs in Tampere University
      Hospital were identified retrospectively (N = 507). Retention rates were
      evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Follow-up started at the first date of
      treatment and each individual was followed a maximum of 36 months. We calculated
      the following 3-year retention rates: lacosamide 77.1% (N = 137), lamotrigine
      68.3% (N = 177), levetiracetam 66.7% (N = 319), clobazam 65.6% (N = 130),
      topiramate 61.6% (N = 178), zonisamide 60.4% (N = 103), pregabalin 54.6% (N =
      127), and gabapentin 40.2% (N = 66). Lacosamide, levetiracetam, and clobazam were
      the most effective AEDs in the elderly. The retention rate for pregabalin was
      higher in males (65%) than females (51%) whereas females had higher retention
      rates for both topiramate (72 vs. 58%) and zonisamide (67 vs. 57%). The retention
      rate was influenced by the sequence in which these AEDs entered the market. We
      provide important information about practical aspects of these eight AEDs,
      revealing that there are differences in their effectiveness as adjunctive
      treatment for focal refractory epilepsy. Most importantly, the retention rate
      appears to be influenced by the sequence in which these AEDs were introduced onto
      the market.

PMID- 28567539
TI  - Retinal ganglion cell analysis in multiple sclerosis and optic neuritis: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to summarise existing findings regarding optical
      coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of ganglion cell layer (GCL) alterations
      in optic neuritis (ON) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Peer-reviewed studies
      published prior to April 2016 were searched using PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science
      and Scopus. Studies were included if they measured GCL thickness using OCT in
      patients with either ON, MS or clinically isolated syndrome. For the meta
      analysis, we compared GCL thickness in MS patients with and without prior ON, to
      healthy controls. 42/252 studies were reviewed. In acute ON, studies showed
      significant thinning of the GCL within the first 5 weeks (n = 5), earlier than
      retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thinning. GCL thinning at 1-2 months after acute
      ON predicted visual function at 6 months (n = 3). The meta-analysis showed that
      the thickness of the GCL was significantly reduced in MS patients both with and
      without previous ON compared to healthy controls. GCL thinning was associated
      with visual function in most studies (n = 10) and expanded disability status
      scale (EDSS) scores (n = 6). In acute ON, thinning of the GCL is measurable prior
      to RNFL thinning, and GCL thickness after 1-2 months may predict visual function
      after 6 months. Furthermore, GCL thinning occurs in MS both with and without
      prior ON, and may be associated with visual function and EDSS score. This
      suggests that the GCL is a promising biomarker, which may be used to examine in
      vivo neurodegeneration in ON and MS.

PMID- 28567540
TI  - Hearing loss in children with Fabry disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hearing loss (HL) is a well-known feature of Fabry disease (FD). Its
      presence and characteristics have mainly been studied in adult patients, while
      only limited data are available on the presence and degree of HL in children with
      FD. This prompted us to study hearing sensitivity in pediatric FD patients.
      METHODS: All available audiograms of the Dutch and Norwegian children with FD
      were retrospectively collected. First, hearing sensitivity was determined by
      studying hearing thresholds at low, high, and ultra-high frequencies in children
      with FD and comparing them to zero dB HL, i.e., healthy children. In addition,
      the presence and type of slight/mild HL (defined as hearing thresholds at low
      frequencies of 25-40 dB HL) and moderate to severe HL (hearing thresholds >40 dB
      HL) at first visit were analyzed. If available, follow-up data were used to
      estimate the natural course of hearing sensitivity and HL in children with FD.
      RESULTS: One-hundred-thirteen audiograms of 47 children with FD (20 boys, median
      age at first audiogram 12.0 (range 5.1-18.0) years) were analyzed. At baseline,
      slight/mild or moderate to severe HL was present in three children (6.4%, 2
      boys). Follow-up measurements showed that three additional children developed HL
      before the age of 18. Of these six children, five had sensorineural HL, most
      likely caused by FD. Compared to healthy children (zero dB HL), FD children
      showed increased hearing thresholds at all frequencies (p < 0.01), which was most
      prominent at ultra-high frequencies (>8 kHz). Hearing sensitivity at these ultra
      high frequencies deteriorated in a period of 5 years of follow-up. CONCLUSION: A
      minority of children with FD show slight/mild or moderate to severe HL, but their
      hearing thresholds are poorer than the reference values for normal-hearing
      children. Clinical trials in FD children should demonstrate whether HL can be
      prevented or reversed by early treatment and should specifically study ultra-high
      frequencies.

PMID- 28567543
TI  - Risk factors for recurrent carbapenem resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bloodstream
      infection: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - To assess risk factors for recurrent carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae
      bloodstream-infection (CR-KP BSI), we performed a prospective observational
      cohort study of all consecutive adult patients cured of a CR-KP BSI at our
      hospital over a six-year period (June 2010 to June 2016). Maximum follow-up per
      patient was 180 days from the index blood cultures (BCs). Recurrent CR-KP BSI was
      defined as new evidence of positive BCs in patients with documented clinical
      response after completing a course of anti-CR-KP therapy. Univariate and
      multivariate cause-specific Cox proportional hazards analysis were performed.
      During the study period 249 patients were diagnosed with a CR-KP BSI, 193 were
      deemed as cured within 14 days after index BCs and were analysed. Recurrence
      occurred in 32/193 patients (16.6%) within a median of 35 (IQR 25-45) days after
      index BCs. All but one of the recurrences occurred within 60 days after the index
      BCs. Comparison of recurrent and non-recurrent cases showed significant
      differences for colistin use (84.4% vs. 62.2%, p = 0.01), meropenem-colistin
      tigecycline regimen (43.8% vs. 24.8%, p = 0.03) and length of therapy for the
      index BSI episode (median 18 vs. 14 days, p = 0.004). All-cause 180-day mortality
      (34.4% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.02) was higher in recurrent cases. In the multivariate
      analysis, the only independent variable was source control as a protective factor
      for recurrence. Recurrence is frequent among patients cured of a CR-KP BSI and is
      associated with higher long-term mortality. When feasible, source control is
      mandatory to avoid recurrence. The role of antibiotic treatment should be further
      investigated in large multicentre studies.

PMID- 28567544
TI  - Enhanced liver fibrosis test using ELISA assay accurately discriminates advanced
      stage of liver fibrosis as determined by transient elastography fibroscan in
      treatment naive chronic HCV patients.
AB  - Evaluation of liver fibrosis stage is crucial in the assessment of chronic HCV
      patients, regarding decision to start treatment and during follow-up. Our aim was
      to assess the validity of the enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) score in
      discrimination of advanced stage of liver fibrosis in naive chronic HCV patients.
      We prospectively evaluated liver fibrosis stage in one hundred eighty-one naive
      chronic HCV Egyptian patients by transient elastography (TE)-FibroScan. Patients
      were categorized into mild to moderate fibrosis (<=F2) group and advanced
      fibrosis (>=F3) group. The ELF score components, hyaluronic acid (HA), amino
      terminal propeptide of type-III-procollagen (PIIINP) and tissue inhibitor of
      metalloproteinase type-1 (TIMP-1), were done using ELISA test. The mean values of
      ELF and its individual components significantly correlated with the hepatic
      fibrosis stage as measured by TE-FibroScan (P value 0.001). ELF cutoff value of
      9.8 generated a sensitivity of 77.8%, specificity of 67.1%, area under the
      receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.76 with 95% confidence
      interval [CI] (0.68-0.83) for detecting advanced fibrosis (F >= 3). ELF panel is
      a good, reliable noninvasive test and showed comparable results to TE-FibroScan
      in detecting liver fibrosis stage in treatment naive chronic HCV patients.

PMID- 28567541
TI  - Gene therapy for monogenic liver diseases: clinical successes, current challenges
      and future prospects.
AB  - Over the last decade, pioneering liver-directed gene therapy trials for
      haemophilia B have achieved sustained clinical improvement after a single
      systemic injection of adeno-associated virus (AAV) derived vectors encoding the
      human factor IX cDNA. These trials demonstrate the potential of AAV technology to
      provide long-lasting clinical benefit in the treatment of monogenic liver
      disorders. Indeed, with more than ten ongoing or planned clinical trials for
      haemophilia A and B and dozens of trials planned for other inherited
      genetic/metabolic liver diseases, clinical translation is expanding rapidly. Gene
      therapy is likely to become an option for routine care of a subset of severe
      inherited genetic/metabolic liver diseases in the relatively near term. In this
      review, we aim to summarise the milestones in the development of gene therapy,
      present the different vector tools and their clinical applications for liver
      directed gene therapy. AAV-derived vectors are emerging as the leading candidates
      for clinical translation of gene delivery to the liver. Therefore, we focus on
      clinical applications of AAV vectors in providing the most recent update on
      clinical outcomes of completed and ongoing gene therapy trials and comment on the
      current challenges that the field is facing for large-scale clinical translation.
      There is clearly an urgent need for more efficient therapies in many severe
      monogenic liver disorders, which will require careful risk-benefit analysis for
      each indication, especially in paediatrics.

PMID- 28567546
TI  - Examining the Efficacy of Peer Network Interventions on the Social Interactions
      of High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Developing positive peer relationships is important. Unfortunately, due to
      challenges in social communication and increased complexity of peer groups during
      adolescence, many secondary students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage
      in limited positive social interactions with peers. This study examined the
      effects of a peer network intervention implemented with three high school
      students with ASD. A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to
      evaluate the intervention on initiations and responses to and from students with
      ASD. The impact on frequency of victimization of students with ASD was also
      explored. Results indicate peer networks are effective at increasing social
      interactions of secondary students with ASD and provide preliminary support for
      the use of peer networks to reduce rates of bullying victimization.

PMID- 28567545
TI  - Host genetic modifiers of nonproductive angiogenesis inhibit breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Multiple aspects of the tumor microenvironment (TME) impact breast
      cancer, yet the genetic modifiers of the TME are largely unknown, including those
      that modify tumor vascular formation and function. METHODS: To discover host TME
      modifiers, we developed a system called the Consomic/Congenic Xenograft Model
      (CXM). In CXM, human breast cancer cells are orthotopically implanted into
      genetically engineered consomic xenograft host strains that are derived from two
      parental strains with different susceptibilities to breast cancer. Because the
      genetic backgrounds of the xenograft host strains differ, whereas the inoculated
      tumor cells are the same, any phenotypic variation is due to TME-specific
      modifier(s) on the substituted chromosome (consomic) or subchromosomal region
      (congenic). Here, we assessed TME modifiers of growth, angiogenesis, and vascular
      function of tumors implanted in the SSIL2Rgamma and SS.BN3IL2Rgamma CXM strains.
      RESULTS: Breast cancer xenografts implanted in SS.BN3IL2Rgamma (consomic) had
      significant tumor growth inhibition compared with SSIL2Rgamma (parental control),
      despite a paradoxical increase in the density of blood vessels in the
      SS.BN3IL2Rgamma tumors. We hypothesized that decreased growth of SS.BN3IL2Rgamma
      tumors might be due to nonproductive angiogenesis. To test this possibility,
      SSIL2Rgamma and SS.BN3IL2Rgamma tumor vascular function was examined by dynamic
      contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), micro-computed tomography
      (micro-CT), and ex vivo analysis of primary blood endothelial cells, all of which
      revealed altered vascular function in SS.BN3IL2Rgamma tumors compared with
      SSIL2Rgamma. Gene expression analysis also showed a dysregulated vascular
      signaling network in SS.BN3IL2Rgamma tumors, among which DLL4 was differentially
      expressed and co-localized to a host TME modifier locus (Chr3: 95-131 Mb) that
      was identified by congenic mapping. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these data suggest
      that host genetic modifier(s) on RNO3 induce nonproductive angiogenesis that
      inhibits tumor growth through the DLL4 pathway.

PMID- 28567547
TI  - Breast MR imaging for the assessment of residual disease following initial
      surgery for breast cancer with positive margins.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the accuracy of post-operative MR in predicting residual
      disease in women with positive margins, emphasizing the size thresholds at which
      residual disease can be confidently identified. METHODS: This IRB-approved HIPAA
      compliant retrospective study included 175 patients with MR after positive
      margins following initial surgery for breast cancer. Two expert readers
      independently re-evaluated MR images for evidence of residual disease at the
      surgical cavity and multifocal/multicentric disease. All patients underwent
      definitive surgery and MR findings were correlated to histopathology. RESULTS:
      139/175 (79.4%) patients had residual disease at surgery. Average overall
      sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for residual disease at the surgical cavity
      were 73%, 72%, 91% and 45%, respectively. The readers identified 42/45 (93%,
      reader 1) and 43/45 (95%, reader 2) patients with residual invasive disease at
      the cavity of >=5 mm and 22/22 (100%, both readers) patients with disease >=10
      mm. Average sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for unknown
      multifocal/multicentric disease were 90%, 96%, 93% and 86%, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Post-operative breast MR can accurately depict >=5-mm residual
      disease at the surgical cavity and unsuspected multifocal/multicentric disease.
      These findings have the potential to lead to more appropriate selection of second
      surgical procedures in women with positive margins. KEY POINTS: * Post-operative
      breast MRI accurately defines residual disease of >=5 mm. * Surgical cavity
      sensitivities were high for both invasive carcinoma and DCIS. * Post-surgical
      changes and very small residual disease (<5 mm) may overlap. * Post-operative
      breast MRI may help planning an accurate re-resection.

PMID- 28567549
TI  - Minimally invasive surgery for advanced gastric cancer: are we sure?

PMID- 28567550
TI  - HIV Prevalence, Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Among Polydrug Users in
      Brazil: A Biological Survey Using Respondent Driven Sampling.
AB  - Brazil has a concentrated HIV epidemic among key populations. In 2009, the
      Ministry of Health conducted a survey in 10 Brazilian cities aiming to estimate
      HIV prevalence, knowledge, and associated risk behaviors of polysubstance users
      (PSU). Using Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), 3449 PSU were recruited, answered
      an Audio-Computer Self Assisted Interview (ACASI) and were tested for HIV and
      syphilis. Analyses were weighted by individual's social network size generated on
      RDSAT. Pooled HIV prevalence was 5.8% but varied across cities. Most PSU were
      male, non-white, without income, unemployed, with low levels of education.
      Overall, 12.0% used injectable drugs, 48.7% had sex with occasional partners and
      46.4% engaged in commercial sex. A majority received free condoms (71.4%) but
      76.7% exhibited inconsistent condom use. Findings can support policies aiming to
      improve health care and preventive interventions tailored to this population that
      remains at high risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV/STI in multiple scenarios.

PMID- 28567542
TI  - Current Perspective in the Discovery of Anti-aging Agents from Natural Products.
AB  - Aging is a process characterized by accumulating degenerative damages, resulting
      in the death of an organism ultimately. The main goal of aging research is to
      develop therapies that delay age-related diseases in human. Since signaling
      pathways in aging of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), fruit flies and mice
      are evolutionarily conserved, compounds extending lifespan of them by intervening
      pathways of aging may be useful in treating age-related diseases in human.
      Natural products have special resource advantage and with few side effect.
      Recently, many compounds or extracts from natural products slowing aging and
      extending lifespan have been reported. Here we summarized these compounds or
      extracts and their mechanisms in increasing longevity of C. elegans or other
      species, and the prospect in developing anti-aging medicine from natural
      products.

PMID- 28567548
TI  - The impact of image reconstruction settings on 18F-FDG PET radiomic features:
      multi-scanner phantom and patient studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the robustness of
      different PET/CT image radiomic features over a wide range of different
      reconstruction settings. METHODS: Phantom and patient studies were conducted,
      including two PET/CT scanners. Different reconstruction algorithms and parameters
      including number of sub-iterations, number of subsets, full width at half maximum
      (FWHM) of Gaussian filter, scan time per bed position and matrix size were
      studied. Lesions were delineated and one hundred radiomic features were
      extracted. All radiomics features were categorized based on coefficient of
      variation (COV). RESULTS: Forty seven percent features showed COV <= 5% and 10%
      of which showed COV > 20%. All geometry based, 44% and 41% of intensity based and
      texture based features were found as robust respectively. In regard to matrix
      size, 56% and 6% of all features were found non-robust (COV > 20%) and robust
      (COV <= 5%) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Variability and robustness of PET/CT image
      radiomics in advanced reconstruction settings is feature-dependent, and different
      settings have different effects on different features. Radiomic features with low
      COV can be considered as good candidates for reproducible tumour quantification
      in multi-center studies. KEY POINTS: * PET/CT image radiomics is a quantitative
      approach assessing different aspects of tumour uptake. * Radiomic features
      robustness is an important issue over different image reconstruction settings. *
      Variability and robustness of PET/CT image radiomics in advanced reconstruction
      settings is feature-dependent. * Robust radiomic features can be considered as
      good candidates for tumour quantification.

PMID- 28567551
TI  - Mutation analysis of TGFBI and KRT12 in a case of concomitant keratoconus and
      granular corneal dystrophy.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study is to summarize the concurrent keratoconus (KC) and granular
      corneal dystrophy (GCD) phenotype and identify the underlying genetic cause in a
      23-year-old male patient. METHODS: A detailed family history and clinical data
      from the patient and his parents were collected by ophthalmologic examination.
      The candidate genes were captured and sequenced by targeted next-generation
      sequencing, and the results were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: The
      proband was clinically diagnosed as a case of concurrent KC and GCD, which is a
      very rare presentation. His father and grandmother were diagnosed as GCD in both
      eyes. There was no character of KC in his father's and grandmother's eyes. A
      heterozygous TGFBI mutation in exon 4 (c.370G > A) was identified in the proband,
      which was predicted to generate a missense mutation (p.R124H). The mutation also
      existed in his father and grandmother. A heterozygous KRT12 mutation in exon 8
      (c.1456-1457ins GTA) was identified in the proband, which was predicted to
      generate an insert mutation and created a premature termination codon. The
      mutation did not exist in his father and grandmother. The two mutations did not
      exist in his mother and 200 unrelated normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: KC can co
      exist with GCD. The missense mutation (c.370G > A) in the TGFBI gene and insert
      mutation (c.1456-1457ins GAT) in the KRT12 gene were identified in a 23-year-old
      male patient with concurrent KC and GCD.

PMID- 28567552
TI  - Periodontitis deteriorates peripheral arterial disease in Japanese population via
      enhanced systemic inflammation.
AB  - Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of arterial stenosis
      of the extremity that reduces arterial flow. While patients with periodontitis
      are at a high risk of PAD, little causal information has been provided to date.
      To clarify the relationship, we conducted this cross-sectional study. The oral
      condition of patients with or without PAD, who attended Tokyo Medical and Dental
      University Hospital, was evaluated. Blood examinations and dental clinical
      measurements, including number of teeth, probing pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on
      probing (BOP) and clinical attachment level (CAL) were performed. Chi-square test
      was performed to compare gender, smoker rate, prevalence of DM, hypertension and
      dyslipidemia and edentulous rate. Wilcoxon test was used to compare bacterial
      counts and anti-bacterial antibodies and Student's t test was used to compare the
      other numerical values. The subjects were patients with (n = 34) or without (n =
      956) PAD. We revealed that the PAD patients had more missing teeth (17.5 +/-
      11.0), a higher rate of edentulism (18%), and higher serum inflammatory factor
      levels than non-PAD patients (10.9 +/- 8.7, 5%, respectively). On the other hand,
      there was no significant difference between hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking
      status, HbA1c, bacterial antibody titers, and bacterial counts between the
      groups. In conclusion, we clarified that PAD patients had decreased tooth number
      and worsened oral and periodontal condition with enhanced systemic inflammation.

PMID- 28567554
TI  - Erratum to: Expression of CCR6 on B cells in systemic lupus erythematosus
      patients.

PMID- 28567553
TI  - Plasma levels of sRANKL and OPG are associated with atherogenic cytokines in
      patients with intermediate cardiovascular risk.
AB  - Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand
      (RANKL) are regulators of bone remodeling, but are also considered to play
      important roles in coronary artery disease (CAD). This study evaluated potential
      associations of soluble (s) RANKL and OPG with atherosclerosis-relevant
      cytokines. Blood was collected from 414 individuals who presented to our hospital
      with intermediate likelihood for CAD for further examination. Plasma
      concentrations of total sRANKL, OPG, and 20 cytokines were measured using
      sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISAs; OPG and sRANKL) and Luminex
      laser-based fluorescence analysis and correlated with each other. The plasma
      levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and the T-helper cell 2 cytokines
      interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 showed a positive correlation with sRANKL. The
      association with sRANKL levels was negative for IFN-gamma-induced protein-10 (IP
      10) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1). The strongest independent
      association with sRANKL in multivariable analyses was found for IFN-gamma
      (positive) and IP-10 (negative), while IL-13 showed a positive and independent
      association with OPG plasma levels. OPG and sRANKL plasma levels correlate
      strongly and independently with specific circulating atherosclerosis-related
      cytokines in patients with intermediate cardiovascular risk.

PMID- 28567555
TI  - Toward electronic health recording: evaluation of electronic patient reported
      outcome measures (e-PROMs) system for remote monitoring of early systemic lupus
      patients.
AB  - The study aimed to assess the value of evaluation of electronic patient reported
      outcome measures (e-PROMs) in the assessment and management of SLE disease
      activity flares, its association with adherence to therapy as well as organ
      damage. A randomized, controlled crossover study was carried out over a 24-month
      duration. One hundred forty-seven SLE patients meeting the revised American
      College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria were enrolled. Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) was used to assess disease
      activity, whereas organ damage was scored using the Systemic Lupus International
      Collaborating Clinics (SLICC)/ACR Damage Index. In the first 12 months, the
      patients were assessed every 3 months. At 12 months, the patients were randomized
      into a cohort of 73 patients who continued their care in the same style and 74
      patients who completed an online e-PROMs questionnaire on monthly basis for
      another 12-month period. The data captured were then retrospectively analyzed at
      the end of the 24-month study period. At the end of the first year of the study,
      the mean SLEDAI and SDI scores were 8.72 (6.1) and 1.9 (2.2). At the end of the
      second year, the mean SLEDAI and SDI scores in the e-PROMs cohort were 3.1 (2.6)
      and 1.2 (1.3), whereas in the control group, the scores were 7.63 (6.7) and 1.8
      (2.3), respectively (p < 0.01). Adjusting for possible confounding variables, the
      number of flares, regardless of their severity, was associated with damage
      accrual (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.83, p < 0.001). Adherence to therapy was
      significantly (p < 0.1) higher in the e-PROMs group. e-PROMs was equivalent to
      PROMs paper format and has a potential disease-modifying effect as it facilitated
      close monitoring of disease activity with an option of management escalation
      whenever indicated.

PMID- 28567556
TI  - Minimal disease activity in patients with psoriatic arthritis treated with
      ustekinumab: results from a 24-week real-world study.
AB  - Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease affecting
      around 40% of psoriasis patients. Minimal disease activity (MDA) criteria have
      been proposed to identify a state of low disease activity, one of the principal
      goals of treatment for psoriatic disease. This study investigated treatment with
      ustekinumab (UST) in the context of a real-world setting. Thirty-four PsA
      patients who had failure or inadequate response to conventional synthetic disease
      modifying antirheumatic drugs or to anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha were
      enrolled. Demographic and clinical features, MDA criteria, and the impact of
      psoriatic skin manifestations on patients' quality of life (QoL) using the
      dermatology life quality index (DLQI) questionnaire were evaluated at baseline
      and after 24-week treatment. Adverse events were recorded. At week 24, 70.5% of
      patients (n = 24) achieved MDA. A sub-analysis of dermatological indices of the
      MDA criteria showed that the psoriasis area severity index score was
      significantly improved and body surface area was significantly decreased at 24
      weeks compared with that at baseline (both p < 0.001). For the rheumatologic
      indexes, tender joint count, swollen joint count, and tender entheseal points
      were all significantly improved at 24 weeks of therapy (all p < 0.01 vs.
      baseline). Mean DLQI value decreased approximately fourfold, and there were no
      safety concerns. The achievement of MDA as well as the significant improvement in
      DLQI and lack of adverse events in the context of a real-life setting shown here
      confirms the efficacy and safety of UST in PsA.

PMID- 28567557
TI  - C-reactive protein +1444CT (rs1130864) genetic polymorphism is associated with
      the susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus and C-reactive protein levels.
AB  - The T rare allele of +1444CT (rs1130864) polymorphism of C-reactive protein (CRP)
      has been associated with increased CRP levels in some inflammatory conditions,
      but its role on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility and on CRP
      levels in SLE patients remains uncertain. The objective of the study was to
      evaluate the association between the rs1130864 CRP polymorphism with SLE
      susceptibility, disease activity, and CRP levels in SLE Brazilian patients. The
      study enrolled 176 SLE patients and 137 controls. SLE disease activity was
      assessed using the SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI). The rs1130864 CRP
      polymorphism was determined using polymerase chain reaction and restriction
      fragment length polymorphism. SLE patients presented higher body mass index (p =
      0.046) and CRP levels (p = 0.017) than controls. The genotype and allele
      frequencies of patients differed from controls [CC vs. CT = odds ratio (OR)
      1.730, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.068-2.803, p = 0.035; CC vs. TT = OR 3.667,
      95% CI 1.410-9.533, p = 0.009; C vs. T = OR 1.883, 95% CI 1.299-2.728, p =
      0.001)]. Patients carrying the T allele presented higher CRP levels (p = 0.009),
      were more frequent Caucasians (p = 0.018), and with no use of immunosuppressive
      treatment (p = 0.004) than those carrying the C allele. However, the SLEDAI and
      anti-double-stranded DNA positivity did not differ from those carrying T vs. C
      allele (p = 0.595 and p = 0.243, respectively). The rs1130864 CRP polymorphism
      was associated with SLE susceptibility and CRP levels, but not with disease
      activity, suggesting that this polymorphism may play a role in the
      pathophysiology of SLE through increasing the CRP that, probably, plays an
      inflammatory role in SLE pathophysiology.

PMID- 28567558
TI  - Exercise-mediated reactive oxygen species generation in athletes and in patients
      with chronic disease.

PMID- 28567559
TI  - Diagnosis of canine Echinococcus multilocularis infections by copro-DNA tests:
      comparison of DNA extraction techniques and evaluation of diagnostic deworming.
AB  - The use of copro-DNA detection methods for the diagnosis of canine Echinococcus
      multilocularis infection was evaluated with a focus on DNA extraction techniques:
      two commercial kits and a modified alkaline-sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
      technique. Dog feces (0.2 g) mixed with a protoscolex or with 1 or 10 eggs of E.
      multilocularis were subjected to DNA detection following extraction by these
      methods. DNA was extracted from all protoscolex samples by all methods, but
      success for samples with eggs depended on extraction technique with the modified
      technique showing success on all samples. Following experimental infection of
      dogs, copro-DNA was successfully extracted from fecal samples (0.2 g) of dogs in
      the patent period by all methods. In the prepatent period, PCR testing of feces
      subsamples (0.2 g) extracted by each technique was positive at a rate of 79.6
      94.4%. Extraction by the modified technique with fecal samples of over 1 g showed
      detection of copro-DNA in all samples in both the patent and prepatent periods,
      and it produced reproducible detection in the addition recovery test using feces
      from 72 different domestic dogs. As copro-DNA was detected for at least 1 day
      following deworming with administration of anthelmintic drugs in experimentally
      infected dogs, diagnostic deworming might be useful for clinical examination.
      Using the present detection method can provide quick and accurate diagnosis of
      canine E. multilocularis infection, which with prompt management and treatment of
      infected dogs can prevent pet owners from becoming infected and prevent
      echinococcosis from spreading into non-endemic areas.

PMID- 28567561
TI  - Measuring healthcare expenditure: different methods, different results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate information on healthcare expenditure is essential; however,
      a number of issues arise when healthcare expenditure is being measured.
      Traditionally healthcare expenditure data in Ireland have been limited,
      especially data that facilitate comparable analysis through time and across
      particular programmes or services. Recently however, a major development in Irish
      healthcare expenditure estimates was the publication of Irish healthcare current
      expenditure estimates for 2013 according to the international standard of the
      OECD System of Health Accounts (SHA). AIMS: The aim of the analysis presented in
      this paper is to examine how alternative methodologies for measuring healthcare
      can influence the estimate(s) of healthcare expenditure. METHODS: The methods and
      results (in terms of healthcare expenditure) of the Central Statistics Office
      (CSO) application of SHA methodology will be compared and contrasted with an
      alternative methodology for measuring healthcare expenditure developed by Wren et
      al. [1]. RESULTS: The two approaches to measuring healthcare expenditure in
      Ireland reached a very similar figure for total current healthcare expenditure in
      2013. However, there were considerable disparities in the components of
      expenditure. CONCLUSIONS: There is no one absolute definition or estimate of
      healthcare expenditure, and different methodological approaches to estimating
      expenditure will likely yield different results. Therefore, care is required when
      assessing healthcare expenditure to ensure that there is a clear understanding
      about what is and is not included in the estimate.

PMID- 28567560
TI  - A study of the Immune Epitope Database for some fungi species using network
      topological indices.
AB  - In the last years, the encryption of system structure information with different
      network topological indices has been a very active field of research. In the
      present study, we assembled for the first time a complex network using data
      obtained from the Immune Epitope Database for fungi species, and we then
      considered the general topology, the node degree distribution, and the local
      structure of this network. We also calculated eight node centrality measures for
      the observed network and compared it with three theoretical models. In view of
      the results obtained, we may expect that the present approach can become a
      valuable tool to explore the complexity of this database, as well as for the
      storage, manipulation, comparison, and retrieval of information contained
      therein.

PMID- 28567562
TI  - Identification and comparative analysis of hepatitis B virus genotype D/E
      recombinants in Africa.
AB  - Globally, there are approximately 240 million people chronically infected with
      hepatitis B virus (HBV)-a major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma. Ten different
      HBV genotypes (A-J) have been identified with distinct geographic distributions.
      Novel variants generated by recombination between different HBV genotypes have
      been documented worldwide and represent an important element of genetic
      variability with possible clinical implications. Here, the complete genome
      sequence of an HBV genotype D/E recombinant from Ghana is reported. The full
      length sequence was obtained using rolling circle amplification followed by PCR
      and sequenced using next-generation sequencing (NGS). A consensus sequence was
      extracted from the NGS data and underwent phylogenetic analysis to determine
      genotype, as well as the recombination pattern. Subsequently, the sequence was
      compared to recombinants described previously in Africa. Based on MCMC
      phylogenetic analysis, SimPlot recombination analyses, and intragroup genetic
      distance, the isolate 007N full-length genome is unique compared to other
      reported D/E recombinants in Africa.

PMID- 28567563
TI  - ROS-IGTL-Bridge: an open network interface for image-guided therapy using the ROS
      environment.
AB  - PURPOSE: With the growing interest in advanced image-guidance for surgical robot
      systems, rapid integration and testing of robotic devices and medical image
      computing software are becoming essential in the research and development.
      Maximizing the use of existing engineering resources built on widely accepted
      platforms in different fields, such as robot operating system (ROS) in robotics
      and 3D Slicer in medical image computing could simplify these tasks. We propose a
      new open network bridge interface integrated in ROS to ensure seamless cross
      platform data sharing. METHODS: A ROS node named ROS-IGTL-Bridge was implemented.
      It establishes a TCP/IP network connection between the ROS environment and
      external medical image computing software using the OpenIGTLink protocol. The
      node exports ROS messages to the external software over the network and vice
      versa simultaneously, allowing seamless and transparent data sharing between the
      ROS-based devices and the medical image computing platforms. RESULTS: Performance
      tests demonstrated that the bridge could stream transforms, strings, points, and
      images at 30 fps in both directions successfully. The data transfer latency was
      <1.2 ms for transforms, strings and points, and 25.2 ms for color VGA images. A
      separate test also demonstrated that the bridge could achieve 900 fps for
      transforms. Additionally, the bridge was demonstrated in two representative
      systems: a mock image-guided surgical robot setup consisting of 3D slicer, and
      Lego Mindstorms with ROS as a prototyping and educational platform for IGT
      research; and the smart tissue autonomous robot surgical setup with 3D Slicer.
      CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the bridge enabled cross-platform data
      sharing between ROS and medical image computing software. This will allow rapid
      and seamless integration of advanced image-based planning/navigation offered by
      the medical image computing software such as 3D Slicer into ROS-based surgical
      robot systems.

PMID- 28567565
TI  - Promoting Limb Salvage through Multi-Disciplinary Care of the Diabetic Patient.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Despite an explosion in the number of options available for
      helping diabetic patients heal wounds, major amputation remains a critical issue
      for these persons. Since diabetes prematurely ages tissues and no organ system is
      immune to its presence, it makes inherent sense that multi-disciplinary team
      approaches to these patients is necessary to make significant strides forward.
      Here, we present literature from the fields of podiatric surgery/medicine,
      vascular and plastic surgery and introduce the successes that a multi
      disciplinary limb salvage center can have on the lives and limbs of patients with
      diabetes.

PMID- 28567566
TI  - Letter from the New Editor in Chief.

PMID- 28567567
TI  - Translation, Adaptation, and Preliminary Validation of the Female Sexual Function
      Index into Spanish (Colombia).
AB  - The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) subjectively explores the dimensions of
      female sexual functioning. This research undertook to adapt and validate the FSFI
      to Spanish language in a Colombian sample. To this effect, this study was
      conducted in two steps, namely: (1) cultural adaptation of the scale with the
      collaboration of seven experts; and (2) preliminary validation of the scale in a
      sample of 925 participants. Reliability indices were appropriate in this sample,
      and external validity in relation to other measures showed significant
      relationships. Findings suggest that the FSFI is reliable and valid in Spanish
      for a Colombian population. Further research is needed to establish the test
      retest reliability and discriminant validity of this Spanish version.

PMID- 28567564
TI  - Changes in cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase expression and activity in female rats fed a
      high-fat diet.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate whether the presence of endogenous
      estradiol alters the effects of a high-fat (HF) diet on activity/expression of
      the cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase, via PI3K/IRS and RhoA/ROCK signalling cascades in
      female rats. For this study, female Wistar rats (8 weeks old, 150-200 g) were fed
      a standard diet or a HF diet (balanced diet for laboratory rats enriched with 42%
      fat) for 10 weeks. The results show that rats fed a HF diet exhibited a decrease
      in phosphorylation of the alpha1 subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase by 30% (p < 0.05),
      expression of total alpha1 subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase by 31% (p < 0.05), and
      association of IRS1 with p85 subunit of PI3K by 42% (p < 0.05), while the levels
      of cardiac RhoA and ROCK2 were significantly increased by 84% (p < 0.01) and 62%
      (p < 0.05), respectively. Our results suggest that a HF diet alters cardiac
      Na+/K+-ATPase expression via molecular mechanisms involving RhoA/ROCK and IRS
      1/PI3K signalling in female rats.

PMID- 28567568
TI  - Toward a taxonomic model of attention in effortful listening.
AB  - In recent years, there has been increasing interest in studying listening effort.
      Research on listening effort intersects with the development of active theories
      of speech perception and contributes to the broader endeavor of understanding
      speech perception within the context of neuroscientific theories of perception,
      attention, and effort. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the problem,
      researchers vary widely in their precise conceptualization of the catch-all term
      listening effort. Very recent consensus work stresses the relationship between
      listening effort and the allocation of cognitive resources, providing a
      conceptual link to current cognitive neuropsychological theories associating
      effort with the allocation of selective attention. By linking listening effort to
      attentional effort, we enable the application of a taxonomy of external and
      internal attention to the characterization of effortful listening. More
      specifically, we use a vectorial model to decompose the demand causing listening
      effort into its mutually orthogonal external and internal components and map the
      relationship between demanded and exerted effort by means of a resource-limiting
      term that can represent the influence of motivation as well as vigilance and
      arousal. Due to its quantitative nature and easy graphical interpretation, this
      model can be applied to a broad range of problems dealing with listening effort.
      As such, we conclude that the model provides a good starting point for further
      research on effortful listening within a more differentiated neuropsychological
      framework.

PMID- 28567569
TI  - On the role, ecology, phylogeny, and structure of dual-family immunophilins.
AB  - The novel class of dual-family immunophilins (henceforth abbreviated as DFI)
      represents naturally occurring chimera of classical FK506-binding protein (FKBP)
      and cyclophilin (CYN), connected by a flexible linker that may include a three
      unit tetratricopeptide (TPR) repeat. Here, I report a comprehensive analysis of
      all current DFI sequences and their host organisms. DFIs are of two kinds: CFBP
      (cyclosporin- and FK506-binding protein) and FCBP (FK506- and cyclosporin-binding
      protein), found in eukaryotes. The CFBP type occurs in select bacteria that are
      mostly extremophiles, such as psychrophilic, thermophilic, halophilic, and sulfur
      reducing. Essentially all DFI organisms are unicellular. I suggest that DFIs are
      specialized bifunctional chaperones that use their flexible interdomain linker to
      associate with large polypeptides or multisubunit megacomplexes to promote
      simultaneous folding or renaturation of two clients in proximity, essential in
      stressful and denaturing environments. Analysis of sequence homology and
      predicted 3D structures of the FKBP and CYN domains as well as the TPR linkers
      upheld the modular nature of the DFIs and revealed the uniqueness of their TPR
      domain. The CFBP and FCBP genes appear to have evolved in parallel pathways with
      no obvious single common ancestor. The occurrence of both types of DFI in
      multiple unrelated phylogenetic clades supported their selection in metabolic and
      environmental niche roles rather than a traditional taxonomic relationship.
      Nonetheless, organisms with these rare immunophilins may define an operational
      taxonomic unit (OTU) bound by the commonality of chaperone function.

PMID- 28567572
TI  - Minute ventilation to carbon dioxide production ratio is a simple and non
      invasive index of ventilatory inefficiency in mechanically ventilated patients:
      proof of concept.

PMID- 28567571
TI  - Atypical acute motor axonal neuropathy following alemtuzumab treatment in
      multiple sclerosis patient.

PMID- 28567573
TI  - Intercultural Understanding through Intergroup Dialogue between Japanese and
      Chinese University Students.
AB  - This study had two purposes: (1) to develop university classes in which students
      can participate in intercultural dialogue by exchanging letters focusing on a
      topic about everyday norms implicit in each culture, and (2) to examine how
      students develop their intercultural understanding through participating in these
      classes. Twenty-two Japanese and six Chinese university students (each group in
      their own country) participated in three class sessions. At the beginning of the
      first class, students were given a dialogue theme that focused on cultural
      differences. The selected theme was mobile phone use while riding on public
      transportation, as this practice is prohibited in Tokyo but not in Beijing.
      Students discussed their opinions in small groups, wrote questions to their
      counterparts in the other country, and then reflected on and discussed the
      answers received. Analysis of the Japanese students' written reflections showed
      that their understanding of different cultural values and beliefs changed from
      one based only on a Japanese cultural perspective to one that respected the
      relativity of cultural norms. The results suggested that the arousal of negative
      emotions when students are exposed to the perspectives of other cultures is
      closely related to their understanding of cultural relativity.

PMID- 28567570
TI  - beta-Adrenergic signaling, monoamine oxidase A and antioxidant defence in the
      myocardium of SHR and SHR-mtBN conplastic rat strains: the effect of chronic
      hypoxia.
AB  - The beta-adrenergic signaling pathways and antioxidant defence mechanisms play
      important roles in maintaining proper heart function. Here, we examined the
      effect of chronic normobaric hypoxia (CNH, 10% O2, 3 weeks) on myocardial beta
      adrenergic signaling and selected components of the antioxidant system in
      spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and in a conplastic SHR-mtBN strain
      characterized by the selective replacement of the mitochondrial genome of SHR
      with that of the more ischemia-resistant Brown Norway strain. Our investigations
      revealed some intriguing differences between the two strains at the level of beta
      adrenergic receptors (beta-ARs), activity of adenylyl cyclase (AC) and monoamine
      oxidase A (MAO-A), as well as distinct changes after CNH exposure. The beta2
      AR/beta1-AR ratio was significantly higher in SHR-mtBN than in SHR, apparently
      due to increased expression of beta2-ARs. Adaptation to hypoxia elevated beta2
      ARs in SHR and decreased the total number of beta-ARs in SHR-mtBN. In parallel,
      the ability of isoprenaline to stimulate AC activity was found to be higher in
      SHR-mtBN than that in SHR. Interestingly, the activity of MAO-A was notably lower
      in SHR-mtBN than in SHR, and it was markedly elevated in both strains after
      exposure to hypoxia. In addition to that, CNH markedly enhanced the expression of
      catalase and aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 in both strains, and decreased the
      expression of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase in SHR. Adaptation to CNH intensified
      oxidative stress to a similar extent in both strains and elevated the IL-10/TNF
      alpha ratio in SHR-mtBN only. These data indicate that alterations in the
      mitochondrial genome can result in peculiar changes in myocardial beta-adrenergic
      signaling, MAO-A activity and antioxidant defence and may, thus, affect the
      adaptive responses to hypoxia.

PMID- 28567574
TI  - Differences in Effectiveness and Use of Robotic Surgery in Patients Undergoing
      Minimally Invasive Colectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We compared patient outcomes of robot-assisted surgery (RAS) and
      laparoscopic colectomy without robotic assistance for colon cancer or
      nonmalignant polyps, comparing all patients, obese versus nonobese patients, and
      male versus female patients. METHODS: We used the 2013-2015 American College of
      Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data to examine a
      composite outcome score comprised of mortality, readmission, reoperation, wound
      infection, bleeding transfusion, and prolonged postoperative ileus. We used
      propensity scores to assess potential heterogeneous treatment effects of RAS by
      patient obesity and sex. RESULTS: In all, 17.1% of the 10,844 of patients
      received RAS. Males were slightly more likely to receive RAS. Obese patients were
      equally likely to receive RAS as nonobese patients. In comparison to nonRAS, RAS
      was associated with a 3.1% higher adverse composite outcome score. Mortality,
      reoperations, wound infections, sepsis, pulmonary embolisms, deep vein
      thrombosis, myocardial infarction, blood transfusions, and average length of
      hospitalization were similar in both groups. Conversion to open surgery was 10.1%
      lower in RAS versus nonRAS patients, but RAS patients were in the operating room
      an average of 52.4 min longer. We found no statistically significant differences
      (p > 0.05) by obesity status and gender. CONCLUSIONS: Worse patient outcomes and
      no differential improvement by sex or obesity suggest more cautious adoption of
      RAS.

PMID- 28567575
TI  - Analysis of the Cost Effectiveness of Laparoscopic Pancreatoduodenectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine if laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy (LPD) is
      a cost-effective alternative to open pancreatoduodenectomy (OPD). METHODS:
      Hospital cost data, discharge disposition, readmission rates, and readmission
      costs from periampullary cancer patient cohorts of LPD and OPD were compared. The
      surgical cohorts over a 40-month period were clinically similar, consisting of 52
      and 50 patients in the LPD and OPD groups, respectively. RESULTS: The total
      operating room costs were higher in the LPD group as compared to the OPD group
      (median US$12,290 vs US$11,299; P = 0.05) due to increased costs for laparoscopic
      equipment and regional nerve blocks (P <= 0.0001). Although hospital length of
      stay was shorter in the LPD group (median 7 vs 8 days; P = 0.025), the average
      hospital cost was not significantly decreased compared to the OPD group (median
      $28,496 vs $28,623). Surgery-related readmission rates and associated costs did
      not differ between groups. Compared to OPD patients, significantly more LPD
      patients were discharged directly home rather than to other healthcare facilities
      (88% vs 72%; P = 0.047). CONCLUSION: For the index hospitalization, the cost of
      LPD is equivalent to OPD. Total episode-of-care costs may favor LPD via reduced
      post-hospital needs for skilled nursing and rehabilitation.

PMID- 28567576
TI  - Effect of a trans fatty acid-enriched diet on mitochondrial, inflammatory, and
      oxidative stress parameters in the cortex and hippocampus of Wistar rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previously showed that dietary trans fatty acids (TFAs) may cause
      systemic inflammation and affect the central nervous system (CNS) in Wistar rats
      by increased levels of cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum
      (Longhi et al. Eur J Nutr 56(3):1003-1016, 1). Here, we aimed to clarifying the
      impact of diets with different TFA concentrations on cerebral tissue, focusing on
      hippocampus and cortex and behavioral performance. METHODS: Wistar rats were fed
      either a normolipidic or a hyperlipidic diet for 90 days; diets had the same
      ingredients except for fat compositions, concentrations, and calories. We used
      lard in the cis fatty acid (CFA) group and PHSO in the TFA group. The
      intervention groups were as follows: (1) low lard (LL), (2) high lard (HL), (3)
      low partially hydrogenated soybean oil (LPHSO), and (4) high partially
      hydrogenated soybean oil (HPHSO). Mitochondrial parameters, tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNF-alpha), 2'7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCFH) levels in brain tissue, and
      open field task were analyzed. RESULTS: A worse brain tissue response was
      associated with oxidative stress in cortex and hippocampus as well as impaired
      inflammatory and mitochondrial parameters at both PHSO concentrations and there
      were alterations in the behavioral performance. In many analyses, there were no
      significant differences between the LPHSO and HPHSO diets. CONCLUSIONS: Partially
      hydrogenated soybean oil impaired cortical mitochondrial parameters and altered
      inflammatory and oxidative stress responses, and the hyperlipidic treatment
      caused locomotor and exploratory effects, but no differences on weight gain in
      all treatments. These findings suggest that quality is more important than the
      quantity of fat consumed in terms of CFA and TFA diets.

PMID- 28567577
TI  - Does the surgical approach influence the implant alignment in total hip
      arthroplasty? Comparative study between the direct anterior and the anterolateral
      approaches in the supine position.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to clarify the difference in implant
      alignment between the direct anterior approach (DAA) and the anterolateral
      approach in the supine position (ALS). METHODS: A retrospective comparative study
      consisted of 215 consecutive primary total hip arthroplasties using tapered
      polished and straight cemented-stems via two different minimally invasive
      approaches (DAA group in 106 hips and ALS group in 109 hips). RESULTS: The cup
      radiographic anteversion angle was significantly lower in the ALS group than in
      the DAA group (12.9 degrees  versus 16.9 degrees , p = 0.001). The frequency of
      the safe zone tended to be more favourable in the ALS group than in the DAA group
      (95% versus 87%, p = 0.052). Stem alignment in the sagittal plane was
      significantly better in the ALS group than in the DAA group (84% versus 71%, p =
      0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Both cup and stem alignments were better in the ALS group
      than the DAA group.

PMID- 28567578
TI  - The efficacy and safety of multiple-dose intravenous tranexamic acid on blood
      loss following total knee arthroplasty: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy and safety of multiple-dose intravenous
      tranexamic acid (IV-TXA) on blood loss following total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
      METHODS: One hundred fifty nine patients received one bolus of IV-TXA before skin
      incision and two boluses three and six hours later (group A), or another bolus
      nine hours later (group B), or another two boluses nine and 12 hours later (group
      C). The primary outcomes were total blood loss (TBL), hidden blood loss (HBL),
      and maximum haemoglobin (Hb) drop. Other outcome measurements such as
      fibrinolysis parameters [fibrin(-ogen) degradation products (FDP), D-dimer],
      inflammatory factors [interleukin-6 (IL-6)], transfusion rate, range of motion
      (ROM), length of hospital stay (LOH), and complications were also recorded and
      compared. RESULTS: The mean TBL, HBL and maximum Hb drop in group C (p < 0.001, p
      < 0.001, p = 0.025) and group B (p = 0.025, p = 0.025, p = 0.044) were lower than
      those in group A. FDP and D-Dimer in group C was lower than in group A and B on
      post-operative day one. IL-6 in group A, B and C showed a downward tendency on
      post-operative days one and three (POD1 and POD3). Moreover, the ROM and LOH were
      better in group C. No episodes of transfusion or deep venous thrombosis (DVT)
      were detected in all groups. CONCLUSIONS: The 5-dose TXA regimen can further
      reduce the blood loss, diminish the maximum Hb drop, minimize inflammation,
      enhance mobility, and shorten LOS following TKA, without increasing the risk of
      complications. An additional dose could be requisite when fibrinolysis maintains
      after 5-dose regimen has already been performed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I.

PMID- 28567579
TI  - Left atrial appendage volume as a new predictor of atrial fibrillation recurrence
      after catheter ablation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after catheter ablation is
      common, being clinically relevant to identify predictors of recurrence. The left
      atrial appendage (LAA) role as an AF trigger is scarcely explored. Our aim was to
      identify if LAA volume is an independent predictor of AF recurrence after
      catheter ablation. METHODS: We analysed 52 patients (aged 54 +/- 10 years, 58%
      male) with paroxysmal and persistent AF who underwent a first AF catheter
      ablation and had performed contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography (CT)
      prior to the procedure. RESULTS: The mean left atrial and LAA volumes measured by
      cardiac CT were 98.9 +/- 31.8 and 9.3 +/- 3.5 mL, respectively. All patients
      received successful pulmonary vein isolation and were followed up for 24 months.
      AF recurrence occurred in 17 patients (33%). LAA volume was significantly greater
      in patients with AF recurrence than in those without recurrence (11.3 +/- 2.9 vs.
      8.2 +/- 3.4 mL; p = 0.002). Multivariable analysis using Cox regression revealed
      that LAA volume (hazard ratio 1.32; 95% confidence interval 1.12-1.55; p = 0.001)
      and persistent AF (hazard ratio 4.22; 95% confidence interval 1.48-12.07; p =
      0.007) were independent predictors for AF recurrence. An LAA volume greater than
      8.825 mL predicted AF recurrence with 94% sensitivity and 66% specificity. The
      Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a lower rate free from AF recurrence in the group
      with an LAA volume >8.825 mL (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Larger LAA volume was
      associated with AF recurrence after catheter ablation in patients with paroxysmal
      and persistent AF.

PMID- 28567580
TI  - Review of Experimental Modelling in Vascular Access for Hemodialysis.
AB  - This paper reviews applications of experimental modelling in vascular access for
      hemodialysis. Different techniques that are used in in-vitro experiments are bulk
      pressure and flow rate measurements, Laser Doppler Velocimetry and Vector Doppler
      Ultrasound point velocity measurements, and whole-field measurements such as
      Particle Image Velocimetry, Ultrasound Imaging Velocimetry, Colour Doppler
      Ultrasound, and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence. Of these methods, the
      ultrasound techniques can also be used in-vivo, to provide realistic boundary
      conditions to in-vitro experiments or numerical simulations. In the reviewed
      work, experimental modelling is mainly used to support computational models, but
      also in some cases as a tool on its own. It is concluded that, to further advance
      the utility of computational modelling in vascular access research, a rigorous
      verification and validation procedure should be adopted. Experimental modelling
      can play an important role in both in-vitro validation, and the quantification of
      the accuracy, uncertainty, and reproducibility of in-vivo measurement methods.

PMID- 28567581
TI  - Temporary biventricular support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a
      feasible therapeutic approach for cardiogenic shock with multiple organ failure.
AB  - Various strategies using a ventricular assist device (VAD) are applied to rescue
      Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support profile 1
      (Profile-1) patients. However, the optimal use of VAD in Profile-1 patients has
      not been completely elucidated. We retrospectively reviewed 23 Profile-1 patients
      [mean age 36.9 +/- 16.6 years, 14 males; 11 with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy
      (NICM), 9 with fulminant myocarditis (FM), 2 with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM),
      and 1 with peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM); 18 with pre-operative percutaneous
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (p-ECMO) support] who underwent VAD
      implantation from 2011 to 2015 at our institution. Nine initially received left
      VAD (LVAD) alone (NICM in 9, ICM in 2 with ICM, and FM in 1), one with NICM
      received biventricular VAD (BiVAD; n = 1), and 10 received LVAD combined with
      right ventricular support using an ECMO circuit (BiVAD-ECMO) (FM in 8, NICM in 1,
      and PPCM in 1). Paracorporeal VAD was used in all patients. ECMO was used for the
      patients with severe pulmonary edema, inflammation, anemia, and thrombopenia. The
      BiVAD patient died 1.4 months after VAD implantation. The overall survival was
      comparable between patients with BiVAD-ECMO and LVAD (2-year survival, 80.0 and
      75.0%, respectively). Three VAD strategies were initially applied in Profile-1
      patients. Among them, the BiVAD-ECMO strategy is a promising therapeutic option
      to rescue Profile-1 patients with multiple organ failure.

PMID- 28567582
TI  - Serum and Hair Zinc Levels in Patients with Endemic Osteochondropathy in China: A
      Meta-analysis.
AB  - A large number of studies have shown growing interest in the zinc (Zn) levels of
      serum and hair samples collected from patients with Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), an
      endemic chronic osteochondral disease. However, inconsistent conclusions
      regarding the serum and hair Zn levels have been made. The aim of this study is
      to assess and to explore the change in serum and hair Zn levels among KBD
      patients. Multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National
      Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database and Technology of Chongqing
      (VIP), were carefully searched for available studies up to January 13, 2017 in
      this integrated analysis. Standard mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence
      interval (95% CI) was calculated using STATA 11.0. A total of 18 studies,
      involving 978 KBD cases and 1116 healthy controls, were collected in this
      analysis. Pooled analysis found the KBD patients had a higher hair Zn level and a
      lower serum Zn level than the healthy controls (hair Zn (MUg/g), SMD = 0.030, 95%
      CI = -0.315, 0.376; serum Zn (mg/L), SMD = -0.069, 95%CI = -0.924, 0.785). Meta
      regression method and sensitivity analysis were utilized to analyze the
      heterogeneity of data. Positive correlations were separately identified between
      hair Zn level in KBD patients (r = 0.4639, P = 0.032) and controls (r = 0.4743, P
      = 0.012) and the survey year. No evidence of publication bias was observed. The
      available results suggest that increased hair Zn level and decreased serum Zn
      level are commonly found in KBD patients; however, the role of Zn in the etiology
      and pathogenesis of KBD could not yet be confirmed.

PMID- 28567583
TI  - Protective Effects of Fragaria ananassa Extract Against Cadmium Chloride-Induced
      Acute Renal Toxicity in Rats.
AB  - For experiments of cadmium toxicity in animal models, cadmium (II) chloride is
      often used due to its solubility in water and its ability to produce high
      concentrations of cadmium at the target site. The present study was designed to
      investigate the potential inhibitory effect of the Fragaria ananassa fruit
      extract on cadmium (II) chloride-induced renal toxicity in rats. Tested animals
      were pretreated with the extract of F. ananassa and injected with cadmium (II)
      chloride (6.5-mg/kg body weight) for 5 days. Cadmium (II) chloride significantly
      increased kidney cadmium concentration, kidney weight, lipid peroxidation, and
      nitric oxide production. Plasma uric acid, urea, and creatinine levels also
      increased significantly, indicative of kidney dysfunction. These effects were
      accompanied by significantly decreased levels of nonenzymatic and enzymatic
      antioxidant molecules (i.e., glutathione content and the activities of superoxide
      dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase).
      Moreover, messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of the antiapoptotic protein, Bcl-2,
      and the antioxidant proteins, superoxide dismutase 2 and glutathione reductase,
      were downregulated markedly, whereas mRNA expression of tumor necrosis factor
      alpha was upregulated significantly in kidney tissues of cadmium-treated rats.
      Histology of kidney tissue demonstrated severe, adverse changes that reflected
      cadmium-induced tissue damage. Pretreatment of rats with the extract of F.
      ananassa ameliorated all aforementioned cadmium (II) chloride-induced changes. In
      conclusion, the present study showed acute renal toxicity in rats treated with
      cadmium (II) chloride. The study also revealed that pretreatment with the extract
      of F. ananassa could protect the kidney against cadmium (II) chloride-induced
      acute renal toxicity.

PMID- 28567585
TI  - Core curriculum illustration: ventriculitis as a complication of
      ventriculoperitoneal shunt-induced rectal perforation.
AB  - This is the 35th installment of a series that will highlight one case per
      publication issue from the bank of cases available online as part of the American
      Society of Emergency Radiology (ASER) educational resources. Our goal is to
      generate more interest in and use of our online materials. To view more cases
      online, please visit the ASER Core Curriculum and Recommendations for Study
      online at: http://www.aseronline.org/curriculum/toc.htm .

PMID- 28567584
TI  - rs3851179 Polymorphism at 5' to the PICALM Gene is Associated with Alzheimer and
      Parkinson Diseases in Brazilian Population.
AB  - Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's diseases (PD) share clinical and pathological
      features, suggesting that they could have common pathogenic mechanisms, as well
      as overlapping genetic modifiers. Here, we performed a case-control study in a
      Brazilian population to clarify whether the risk of AD and PD might be influenced
      by shared polymorphisms at PICALM (rs3851179), CR1 (rs6656401) and CLU
      (rs11136000) genes, which were previously identified as AD risk factors by genome
      wide association studies. For this purpose, 174 late-onset AD patients, 166 PD
      patients and 176 matched controls were genotyped using TaqMan(r) assays. The
      results revealed that there were significant differences in genotype and allele
      frequencies for the SNP PICALM rs3851179 between AD/PD cases and controls, but
      none for CR1 rs6656401 and CLU rs11136000 intronic polymorphisms. After
      stratification by APOE epsilon4 status, the protective effect of the PICALM
      rs3851179 A allele in AD cases remains evident only in APOE epsilon4 (-)
      carriers, suggesting that the APOE epsilon4 risky allele weakens its protective
      effect in the APOE epsilon4 (+) subgroup. More genetic studies using large-sized
      and well-defined matched samples of AD and PD patients from mixed populations as
      well as functional correlation analysis are urgently needed to clarify the role
      of rs3851179 in the AD/PD risk. An understanding of the contribution of rs3851179
      to the development of AD and PD could provide new targets for the development of
      novel therapies.

PMID- 28567587
TI  - Estimating the annual frequency of synchronous brain metastasis in the United
      States 2010-2013: a population-based study.
AB  - Brain metastases (BM) are one of the most common types of brain tumors and are a
      relatively common event in the disease process for several high-incidence cancer
      types, including breast and lung cancers. Historically, information on metastases
      including BM have not been collected as part of national cancer registration in
      the US, but BM at time of primary cancer diagnosis (SBM), is now collected by the
      National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results
      (SEER) system. Using data from 18 SEER registries from 2010 to 2013, we assessed
      the frequency of SBM at time of primary diagnosis in the US by site, histology
      group, sex, race, age, and insurance status. There were 1,634,954 total primary
      cancer cases in SEER from 2010 to 2013, 1.7% of which presented with SBM. The
      cancer type with the highest proportion of SBM was lung cancer (10.8% of cases
      with SBM), followed by esophageal (1.5%), kidney (1.4%), and melanoma (1.2%). SBM
      varied by age, sex, race, and insurance status for most histologies. Our results
      reflect the high proportion of patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer at
      late stages and present with SBM, in contrast to other common cancers in the US
      where SBM is less common. Demographic variation in molecular subtype and risk
      behavior may influence variation in SBM. BM is a relatively common event in late
      stage cancer and cause significant morbidity and mortality, and assessment of
      accurate population-based data is critical to estimate total disease burden.

PMID- 28567586
TI  - Tumor-related neurocognitive dysfunction in patients with diffuse glioma: a
      systematic review of neurocognitive functioning prior to anti-tumor treatment.
AB  - Deficits in neurocognitive functioning (NCF) frequently occur in glioma patients.
      Both treatment and the tumor itself contribute to these deficits. Data about the
      role of the tumor are scarce, because NCF has mostly been studied
      postoperatively. We aimed to summarize data on pre-treatment NCF in glioma
      patients and to determine the overall and domain-specific prevalence of
      neurocognitive dysfunction. We searched PubMed and Embase according to PRISMA-P
      protocol for studies that evaluated pre-treatment NCF in glioma patients (1995
      November 2016) and extracted information about NCF. We performed analysis of data
      for two main outcome measures; mean cognitive functioning of the study sample (at
      group level) and the percentage of impaired patients (at individual level). We
      included 23 studies. Most studies were small observational prospective cohort
      studies. In 11 (47.5%) studies, patient selection was based on tumor location.
      NCF was analyzed at the group level in 14 studies, of which 13 (92.9%) found
      decreased NCF at group level, compared to normative data or matched controls. The
      proportion of individuals with decreased NCF was reported in 15 studies. NCF was
      impaired (in any domain) in 62.6% of the individuals (median; interquartile range
      31.0-79.0). Cognitive impairments were more common in patients with high-grade
      glioma than with low-grade glioma (OR 2.50; 95% CI 1.71-3.66). Cognitive
      impairment occurs in the majority of treatment-naive glioma patients, suggesting
      that neurocognitive dysfunction is related to the tumor. However, the literature
      about pre-treatment NCF in glioma patients is characterized by small-scale
      studies and strong heterogeneity in patient selection, resulting in high risk of
      bias.

PMID- 28567588
TI  - Immunotherapy and radiation in glioblastoma.
AB  - Radiation therapy plays a central role in the management of glioblastoma.
      Although primarily thought of as modality to provide local tumor control through
      DNA damage, the capacity of ionizing radiation to modulate tumor immune response
      has long been recognized. The recent emergence of clinically active
      immunotherapies offers exciting potential for harnessing the immune modulatory
      effects or radiation through combinatorial strategies designed to enhance
      clinical outcomes. In this Review, we provide background describing the unique
      immune environment within the central nervous system, how ionizing radiation may
      modulate the tumor immune response, preclinical and clinical data testing the
      combination of radiation and immune modulating agents, and highlight some of the
      current challenges in extending these findings clinically.

PMID- 28567589
TI  - Early tumor growth between initial resection and radiotherapy of glioblastoma:
      incidence and impact on clinical outcomes.
AB  - Early tumor growth, or increased contrast-enhancing tumor not related to evolving
      post-surgical injury, in the interval between surgical resection and initiation
      of radiotherapy has implications for treatment planning and clinical outcomes. In
      this study we evaluated the incidence of early tumor growth, correlated tumor
      growth with survival outcome measures, and assessed predictors of early tumor
      growth in glioblastoma. We reviewed the records of patients with newly-diagnosed
      glioblastoma who underwent surgical resection and chemoradiotherapy at our
      institution. Patients with preoperative, immediate postoperative, and
      preradiotherapy MRI were included. Conventional MRI and DWI features were
      assessed. The correlation between early tumor growth and extent of resection with
      survival was assessed with Kaplan-Meier analysis. Logistic regression was carried
      out to evaluate predictors of early tumor growth. Of 140 included patients, sixty
      seven cases (48%) had new or increased contrast enhancement attributed to early
      tumor growth. Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)
      were shorter in patients with early tumor growth compared to those without early
      tumor growth (p < 0.001 for both). Additionally, PFS and OS were longer in
      patients who underwent gross total resection of enhancing tumor (p = 0.016 and
      <0.001, respectively). Of the evaluated predictors of early growth, subtotal
      resection was most likely to result in early growth (p < 0.001). Imaging evidence
      of early tumor growth is often observed at preradiotherapy MRI and is associated
      with shorter survival. Gross total resection of contrast enhancing tumor
      decreases likelihood of early tumor growth.

PMID- 28567590
TI  - Evaluation of outcomes after stereotactic radiosurgery for pilocytic astrocytoma.
AB  - Pilocytic astrocytomas are rare intracranial gliomas that are typically treated
      with surgical extirpation. Our aim was to report the radiologic and clinical
      outcomes of patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for pilocytic
      astrocytoma in the primary and salvage setting. Patients with pilocytic
      astrocytoma treated at a single institution with SRS from 1990 to 2015 were
      reviewed. Patient, disease, and treatment characteristics were collected and
      overall survival, local control, and toxicity were evaluated. Twenty-eight
      consecutive patients (12 females and 16 males) with a median age of 17.4 years at
      SRS were identified. Overall, 46% of patients were treated with SRS as part of
      the initial treatment course after biopsy or subtotal resection, and the
      remainder as a salvage therapy. The most common location was the cerebellum (28%)
      followed by brainstem and basal ganglia (21 and 18%, respectively). Four patients
      received prior external beam radiation therapy (14%). Median tumor volume was
      1.84 cc (0.19-15.94 cc), and 39% had a cystic component at SRS. Prescription dose
      ranged from 4 to 20 Gy (median 16 Gy) to a median isodose line of 50% (range 30
      100%). With a median follow-up of 5.2 years (0.3-17.1 years), all patients
      remained alive at last follow-up. Two patients demonstrated evidence of local
      radiographic progression at last follow-up (7%). No toxicity could be directly
      attributed to SRS. In this SRS series, durable tumor control was achieved in 93%
      of patients with pilocytic astrocytoma, although continued follow up will be
      important giving the natural history of this disease. As demonstrated, SRS is an
      appropriate technique in the primary and recurrent treatment of pilocytic
      astrocytoma that offers favorable disease control and infrequent clinical
      toxicity.

PMID- 28567592
TI  - Transcriptional profiling distinguishes inner and outer annulus fibrosus from
      nucleus pulposus in the bovine intervertebral disc.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cells in the intervertebral disc have unique phenotypes and marker
      genes that separate the nucleus pulposus (NP), annulus fibrosus (AF) and
      articular cartilage (AC) have been identified. Recently, it was shown that
      phenotypic marker genes exhibit variable expression in humans. In this study, the
      bovine tail was used to determine the ability of marker genes to distinguish the
      outer and inner AF from NP tissue and isolated cells. METHODS: Bovine tail
      intervertebral discs from 13 donors were dissected and correct isolation of
      tissue was confirmed. mRNA was isolated directly from tissue or passage 0
      monolayer cells and used for gene expression measurements (qPCR). Conventional
      marker genes (bAcan, bCol1a1, bCol2a1) and novel marker genes (bAdamts17,
      bBrachyury/T, bCD24, bCol5a1, bCol12a1, bFoxf1, bKrt19, bPax1, bSfrp2) were
      evaluated. RESULTS: As expected bAcan, bCol2a1 and bCol1a1 distinguished outer AF
      from NP tissue, while inner AF and NP could not be discriminated. The NP markers
      bT, bCd24 and bKrt19 were significantly higher expressed in NP than inner and
      outer AF tissue. bFoxF1 and bPax1 only distinguished IVD tissues from AC. The AF
      markers bAdamts17, bCol5a1, bCol12a1 and bSfrp2 were higher expressed in the
      outer AF compared with inner AF and NP tissue. Monolayer culturing strongly
      decreased bAcan, bCol2a1, bCD24 and bCol5a1 expression, while bCol1a1, bT, bKrt19
      and bSfrp2 were not affected. CONCLUSION: The IVD phenotypic marker genes bT,
      bKrt19, bSfrp2 and bCol12a1 convincingly distinguished NP from outer AF in situ
      and in vitro.

PMID- 28567591
TI  - Ribosomal PCR assay of excised intervertebral discs from patients undergoing
      single-level primary lumbar microdiscectomy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the presence of infectious microorganisms in the herniated
      discs of immunocompetent patients, using methodology that we hoped would be of
      higher sensitivity and specificity than has been reported in the past. Recent
      studies have demonstrated a significant rate of positive cultures for low
      virulent organisms in excised HNP samples (range 19-53%). These studies have
      served as the theoretical basis for a pilot trial, and then, a well done
      prospective randomized trial that demonstrated that systemic treatment with
      antibiotics may yield lasting improvements in a subset of patients with axial
      back pain. Whether the reported positive cultures in discectomy specimens
      represent true positives is as yet not proven, and critically important if
      underlying the basis of therapeutic approaches for chronic low back pain.
      METHODS: This consecutive case series from a single academic center included 44
      patients with radiculopathy and MRI findings of lumbar HNP. Patients elected for
      lumbar microdiscectomy after failure of conservative management. All patients
      received primary surgery at a single spinal level in the absence of immune
      compromise. Excised disc material was analyzed with a real-time PCR assay
      targeting the 16S ribosomal RNA gene followed by amplicon sequencing. No
      concurrent cultures were performed. Inclusion criteria were as follows: sensory
      or motor symptoms in a single lumbar nerve distribution; positive physical
      examination findings including positive straight leg raise test, distributional
      weakness, and/or a diminished deep tendon reflexes; and magnetic resonance
      imaging of the lumbar spine positive for HNP in a distribution correlating with
      the radicular complaint. RESULTS: The PCR assay for the 16S rRNA sequence was
      negative in all 44 patients (100%). 95% CI 0-8%. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the data
      presented here, there does not appear to be a significant underlying rate of
      bacterial disc infection in immunocompetent patients presenting with
      radiculopathy from disc herniation.

PMID- 28567594
TI  - The Interaction of Contextual and Syntactic Information in the Processing of
      Turkish Anaphors.
AB  - In contrast with languages where anaphors can be classified into pronouns and
      reflexives, Turkish has a tripartite system that consists of the anaphors o,
      kendi, and kendisi. The syntactic literature on these anaphors has proposed that
      whereas o behaves like a pronoun and kendi behaves like a reflexive, kendisi has
      a more flexible behavior and it can function as both a pronoun and a reflexive.
      Using acceptability judgments and a self-paced reading task, we examined how
      Turkish anaphors are processed in isolated sentences and within larger discourse
      contexts. We manipulated contextual information by creating passages where the
      context favored a local, long-distance or extra-sentential referent prior to the
      appearance of the anaphor. We measured the effect of the context on participants'
      reading times and their end-of-trial coreference assignments. Our results suggest
      that contextual information affects the interpretive possibilities associated
      with an anaphor, but that the influence of context depends on the degree to which
      the anaphor is syntactically constrained.

PMID- 28567593
TI  - The Social Aptitudes Scale: looking at both "ends" of the social functioning
      dimension.
AB  - PURPOSE: Dimensional approaches are likely to advance understanding of human
      behaviors and emotions. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether instruments in
      psychiatry capture variability at the full spectrum of these dimensions. We aimed
      to investigate this issue for two scales assessing distinct aspects of social
      functioning: the Social Aptitudes Scale (SAS), a "bidirectional" scale
      constructed to investigate both "ends" of social functioning; and the social
      Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-social), a "unidirectional" scale constructed to
      assess social problems. METHODS: We investigated 2512 children and adolescents
      aged 6-14. Item response theory was used to investigate on which range of the
      trait each scale captures information. We performed quantile regressions to
      investigate if correlations between SAS and CBCL-social vary within different
      levels of social aptitudes dimension and multiple logistic regressions to
      investigate associations with negative and positive clinical outcomes. RESULTS:
      SAS was able to provide information on the full range of social aptitudes,
      whereas CBCL-social provided information on subjects with high levels of social
      problems. Quantile regressions showed SAS and CBCL-social have higher
      correlations for subjects with low social aptitudes and non-significant
      correlations for subjects with high social aptitudes. Multiple logistic
      regressions showed that SAS was able to provide independent clinical predictions
      even after adjusting for CBCL-social scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide
      further validity to SAS and exemplify the potential of "bidirectional" scales to
      dimensional assessment, allowing a better understanding of variations that occur
      in the population and providing information for children with typical and
      atypical development.

PMID- 28567596
TI  - Long Pulmonary Residence Time and Plasma Half-Life of Tiotropium: Implications
      for Pharmacokinetic Bioequivalence Studies.

PMID- 28567595
TI  - Do Alpha Thalassemia, Fetal Hemoglobin, and the UGT1A1 Polymorphism have an
      Influence on Serum Bilirubin Levels and Cholelithiasis in Patients with Sickle
      Cell Disease?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased destruction of erythrocytes in patients with sickle cell
      disease results in chronic hyperbilirubinemia and leads to the formation of
      gallstones. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the combined
      influence of alpha thalassemia, fetal hemoglobin, and the UGT1A1 polymorphism on
      serum bilirubin levels and cholelithiasis in patients with sickle cell disease.
      METHODS: We analyzed 72 patients treated in the outpatient hematology unit of the
      Clinical Hospital of Porto Alegre. The alpha thalassemia trait was determined by
      multiplex polymerase chain reaction and the polymorphisms of UGT1A1 by capillary
      electrophoresis with tagged primers. RESULTS: Total and indirect bilirubin levels
      differed significantly between genotypes TA7/TA7 and TA6/TA6 (p < 0.05).
      Bilirubin levels were influenced by the UGT1A1 polymorphism but not by alpha
      thalassemia and fetal hemoglobin. There was no association between cholelithiasis
      and any of the variables studied. CONCLUSION: These preliminary findings suggest
      that the UGT1A1 gene can influence serum bilirubin levels in sickle cell anemia
      and serve as a tool to differentiate an acute hemolytic condition from a pre
      existing condition of hyperbilirubinemia.

PMID- 28567597
TI  - Presence of pesticide residues on produce cultivated in Suriname.
AB  - Agricultural pesticides are widely used in Suriname, an upper middle-income
      Caribbean country located in South America. Suriname imported 1.8 million kg of
      agricultural pesticides in 2015. So far, however, national monitoring of
      pesticides in crops is absent. Reports from the Netherlands on imported
      Surinamese produce from 2010 to 2015 consistently showed that samples exceeded
      plant-specific pesticide maximum residue limits (MRLs) of the European Union
      (EU). Consumption of produce containing unsafe levels of pesticide residues can
      cause neurological disorders, and particularly, pregnant women and children may
      be vulnerable. This pilot study assessed the presence of pesticide residues in
      commonly consumed produce items cultivated in Suriname. Thirty-two insecticides
      (organophosphates, organochlorines, carbamates, and pyrethroids) and 12
      fungicides were evaluated for their levels in nine types of produce. Pesticide
      residue levels exceeding MRLs in this study regarded cypermethrin (0.32 MUg/g) in
      tomatoes (USA MRL 0.20 MUg/g), lambda-cyhalothrin (1.08 MUg/g) in Chinese cabbage
      (USA MRL 0.40 MUg/g), endosulfan (0.07 MUg/g) in tannia (EU MRL 0.05 MUg/g), and
      lindane (0.02 and 0.03 MUg/g, respectively) in tannia (EU MRL 0.01 MUg/g). While
      only a few pesticide residues were detected in this small pilot study, these
      residues included two widely banned pesticides (endosulfan and lindane). There is
      a need to address environmental policy gaps. A more comprehensive sampling and
      analysis of produce from Suriname is warranted to better understand the scope of
      the problem. Preliminary assessments, using intake rate, hazard quotient, and
      level of concern showed that it is unlikely that daily consumption of tannia
      leads to adverse health effects.

PMID- 28567598
TI  - The interplay between phenotypic and ontogenetic plasticities can be assessed
      using reaction-diffusion models : The case of Pseudoplatystoma fishes.
AB  - Every morphological, behavioral, or even developmental character expression of
      living beings is coded in its genotype and is expressed in its phenotype.
      Nevertheless, the interplay between phenotypic and ontogenetic plasticities, that
      is, the capability to manifest trait variations, is a current field of research
      that needs morphometric, numerical, or even mathematical modeling investigations.
      In the present work, we are searching for a phenotypic index able to identify the
      underlying correlation among phenotypic, ontogenetic, and geographic distribution
      of the evolutionary development of species of the same genus. By studying the
      case of Pseudoplatystoma fishes, we use their skin patterns as an auxiliary trait
      that can be reproduced by means of a reaction diffusion (RD) model. From this
      model, we infer the phenotypic index in terms of one of the parameters appearing
      in the mathematical equations. To achieve this objective, we perform extensive
      numerical simulations and analysis of the model equations and link the parameter
      variations with different environmental and physicochemical conditions in which
      the individuals develop, and which may be regulated by the ontogenetic plasticity
      of the species. Our numerical study indicates that the patterns predicted by a
      set of reaction diffusion equations are not uniquely determined by the value of
      the parameters of the equation, but also depend on how the process is initiated
      and on the spatial distribution of values of these parameters. These factors are
      therefore significant, since they show that an individual's growth dynamics and
      apparent secondary transport processes, like advection, can be determinant for
      the alignment of motifs in a skin pattern. Our results allow us to discern the
      correlation between phenotypic, ontogenetic, and geographic distribution of the
      different species of Pseudoplatystoma fishes, thus indicating that RD models
      represent a useful taxonomic tool able to quantify evolutionary indexes.

PMID- 28567599
TI  - Ocular and oto-syphilis: not a thing of the past.

PMID- 28567600
TI  - Dabrafenib Therapy in 30 Patients with Melanoma Metastatic to the Brain: a Single
      centre Controlled Retrospective Study in Hungary.
AB  - Dabrafenib is a potent BRAF inhibitor, which showed intracranial tumor activity.
      The purpose of our retrospective analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of
      dabrafenib for patients with melanoma brain metastasis (BM). We studied 30 BRAF
      mutant melanoma patients with BM, who received dabrafenib after local control of
      the brain between 2014 and 2017. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance
      Status (ECOG) was 0-2. The control arm consisted of 204 melanoma patients from
      our institutional melanoma database with BM and ECOG 0-2 treated with local
      therapies and/or chemotherapy, between 2003 and 2015. We found the intracranial
      disease control rate (DCR) was 83% including four (13%) complete remissions (CR),
      nine (30%) partial remissions (PR) and twelve (40%) stable diseases (SD) in
      contrast to five (17%) progressive diseases (PD). With a median follow-up of 14
      months, median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 5.5
      months, and 8.8 months, respectively. If calculated from BM onset, the OS turned
      to be 11.8 months on the dabrafenib arm, while it was only 6.0 months in the
      control arm (HR = 0.45, p = 0.0014). Higher risk of progression was observed with
      increasing ECOG (HR =4.06, p = 0.00027) and if more than 2 extracranial organs
      were involved (HR = 3.4, p = 0.0077). Elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was
      non-significantly associated with worse clinical outcome. Remarkable intracranial
      activity of dabrafenib in real practice was confirmed by our analysis.

PMID- 28567601
TI  - Use of large-scale HRQoL datasets to generate individualised predictions and
      inform patients about the likely benefit of surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The English NHS has mandated the routine collection of health-related
      quality of life (HRQoL) data before and after surgery, giving prospective patient
      information about the likely benefit of surgery. Yet, the information is
      difficult to access and interpret because it is not presented in a lay-friendly
      format and does not reflect patients' individual circumstances. We set out a
      methodology to generate personalised information to help patients make informed
      decisions. METHODS: We used anonymised, pre- and postoperative EuroQol-5D-3L (EQ
      5D) data for over 490,000 English NHS patients who underwent primary hip or knee
      replacement surgery or groin hernia repair between April 2009 and March 2016. We
      estimated linear regression models to relate changes in EQ-5D utility scores to
      patients' own assessment of the success of surgery, and calculated from that
      minimally important differences for health improvements/deteriorations.
      Classification tree analysis was used to develop algorithms that sort patients
      into homogeneous groups that best predict postoperative EQ-5D utility scores.
      RESULTS: Patients were classified into between 55 (hip replacement) to 60 (hernia
      repair) homogeneous groups. The classifications explained between 14 and 27% of
      variation in postoperative EQ-5D utility score. CONCLUSIONS: Patients are
      heterogeneous in their expected benefit from surgery, and decision aids should
      reflect this. Large administrative datasets on HRQoL can be used to generate the
      required individualised predictions to inform patients.

PMID- 28567602
TI  - The impact of older person's frailty on the care-related quality of life of their
      informal caregiver over time: results from the TOPICS-MDS project.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the impact of changes in an older person's frailty on the
      care-related quality of life of their informal caregiver. METHODS: Five research
      projects in the TOPICS-MDS database with data of both older person and informal
      caregiver at baseline and after 12 months follow-up were selected. Frailty was
      measured in five health domains (functional limitations, psychological well
      being, social functioning, health-related quality of life, self-rated health).
      Care-related quality of life was measured with the Care-Related Quality of Life
      instrument (CarerQoL-7D), containing two positive (fulfilment, perceived support)
      and five negative dimensions (relational problems, mental health problems,
      physical health problems, financial problems, problems combining informal care
      with daily activities). RESULTS: 660 older person/caregiver couples were
      included. Older persons were on average 79 (SD 6.9) years of age, and 61% was
      female. Caregivers were on average 65 (SD 12.6) years of age, and 68% was female.
      Results of the multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses showed that
      an increase in older person's frailty over time was related to a lower total care
      related quality of life of the caregiver, and to more mental and physical health
      problems, and problems with combining informal care with daily activities at
      follow-up. A change in the older person's psychological well-being was most
      important for the caregiver's care-related quality of life, compared to the other
      health domains. CONCLUSIONS: Health professionals observing decreasing
      psychological well-being of an older person and increasing hours of informal care
      provision should be aware of the considerable problems this may bring to their
      informal caregiver, and should tailor interventions to support informal
      caregivers according to their specific needs and problems.

PMID- 28567603
TI  - Nearly complete mitogenome of hairy sawfly, Corynis lateralis (Brulle, 1832)
      (Hymenoptera: Cimbicidae): rearrangements in the IQM and ARNS1EF gene clusters.
AB  - The Cimbicidae is a small family of the primitive and relatively less diverse
      suborder Symphyta (Hymenoptera). Here, nearly complete mitochondrial genome
      (mitogenome) of hairy sawfly, Corynis lateralis (Hymenoptera: Cimbicidae) was
      sequenced using next generation sequencing and comparatively analysed with the
      mitogenome of Trichiosoma anthracinum. The sequenced length of C. lateralis
      mitogenome was 14,899 bp with an A+T content of 80.60%. All protein coding genes
      (PCGs) are initiated by ATN codons and all are terminated with TAR or T- stop
      codon. All tRNA genes preferred usual anticodons. Compared with the inferred
      insect ancestral mitogenome, two tRNA rearrangements were observed in the IQM and
      ARNS1EF gene clusters, representing a new event not previously reported in
      Symphyta. An illicit priming of replication and/or intra/inter-mitochondrial
      recombination and TDRL seem to be responsible mechanisms for the rearrangement
      events in these gene clusters. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the position of
      Corynis within Cimbicidae and recovered a relationship of Tenthredinoidea +
      (Cephoidea + Orussoidea) in Symphyta.

PMID- 28567604
TI  - Preparation of timing structure involves two independent sub-processes.
AB  - The current study examined the processes involved in the preparation of
      sequencing and timing initiation for multi-component responses. In two
      experiments, participants performed a reaction time (RT) task involving a three
      key-press sequence with either a simple (isochronous) or complex (non
      isochronous) timing structure. Conditions involved a precue that provided
      information about all features of the movement (simple RT), no features of the
      movement (choice RT), sequencing only, or timing structure only. When sequencing
      was precued, RT decreased significantly as compared to choice RT, indicative of
      advance preparation of sequencing. When timing was precued, RT decreased
      significantly compared to choice RT when the timing structure was simple,
      suggesting that some aspect of timing preparation can occur prior to the go
      stimulus. However, even when the timing structure was known in advance, RT was
      still affected by timing complexity, confirming that some aspect of timing
      preparation cannot occur until after the onset of the stimulus and thus occurs
      during the RT interval. To explain these findings, we propose a two-component
      model of preparation for the timing initiation structure in which timing
      selection occurs in advance but timing implementation must occur following the go
      signal. These results support and extend previous findings regarding the
      independence of the processes associated with response sequencing and timing
      initiation.

PMID- 28567605
TI  - Erratum to: One-stage immobilization of the microalga Porphyridium purpureum
      using a biocompatible silica precursor and study of the fluorescence of its
      pigments.

PMID- 28567606
TI  - Autonomy, Equality, and Teaching among Aka Foragers and Ngandu Farmers of the
      Congo Basin.
AB  - The significance of teaching to the evolution of human culture is under debate.
      We contribute to the discussion by using a quantitative, cross-cultural
      comparative approach to investigate the role of teaching in the lives of children
      in two small-scale societies: Aka foragers and Ngandu farmers of the Central
      African Republic. Focal follows with behavior coding were used to record social
      learning experiences of children aged 4 to 16 during daily life. "Teaching" was
      coded based on a functional definition from evolutionary biology. Frequencies,
      contexts, and subtypes of teaching as well as the identity of teachers were
      analyzed. Teaching was rare compared to observational learning, although both
      forms of social learning were negatively correlated with age. Children received
      teaching from a variety of individuals, and they also engaged in teaching.
      Several teaching types were observed, including instruction, negative feedback,
      and commands. Statistical differences in the distribution of teaching types and
      the identity of teachers corresponded with contrasting forager vs. farmer
      foundational cultural schema. For example, Aka children received less
      instruction, which empirically limits autonomous learning, and were as likely to
      receive instruction and negative feedback from other children as they were from
      adults. Commands, however, exhibited a different pattern suggesting a more
      complex role for this teaching type. Although consistent with claims that
      teaching is relatively rare in small-scale societies, this evidence supports the
      conclusion that teaching is a universal, early emerging cognitive ability in
      humans. However, culture (e.g., values for autonomy and egalitarianism)
      structures the nature of teaching.

PMID- 28567608
TI  - Individual difference in pectoralis major muscle thickness and its effect on
      single-stage breast reconstruction using a tissue expander.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In breast reconstruction using a tissue expander (TE), sufficient
      coverage of the TE with the pectoralis major (PM) muscle, particularly with a
      musculofascial flap, is highly important for avoiding postoperative
      complications. In patients in whom the PM is thin, intraoperative trauma often
      occurs, leading to troublesome repair. The present study aimed to investigate the
      usefulness of preoperative measurement of PM thickness in planning of breast
      reconstruction using a TE. METHODS: In this case-control study, we identified 68
      patients (70 breasts) with mammary carcinoma treated with simple mastectomy and
      TE insertion from April 2014 to December 2016. We measured average PM thickness
      at two specific points, sternocostal PM distance on the long axis and
      sternocostal PM area preoperatively using magnetic resonance imaging. Then, we
      analyzed the difference in PM thickness among individuals and its relationship to
      intraoperative trauma to the PM or surgical difficulty creating a muscular pocket
      (delicate PM). RESULTS: Average PM thickness was significantly larger in younger
      patients (p = 0.046) and those with larger breasts (p < 0.01). In addition,
      average PM thickness on the affected side was significantly smaller in patients
      with delicate PM (12 breasts) (p < 0.01). PM thickness had a significant
      influence on delicate or firm PM (odds ratio 27.40; 95% confidence interval 2.01
      372.00; p = 0.013). CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the usefulness of
      preoperative measurement of PM thickness in planning of breast reconstruction
      using a TE. Dissection should be performed more carefully in patients with
      average PM thickness less than 2.9 mm.

PMID- 28567609
TI  - Positive Margins After Resection of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer in the Liver:
      Back to the Drawing Board?

PMID- 28567607
TI  - Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in MEN1 disease: a mono-centric longitudinal and
      prognostic study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an inherited endocrine
      neoplastic syndrome associated with a greater risk of endocrine tumor development
      like pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (p-NET), with different clinical
      characteristics from sporadic ones. This paper aims to compare clinical,
      hystological and morphological aspects of p-NET in patients affected from MEN1
      (MEN1+) and not-affected ones (MEN1-). METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      observational study. Data was collected between December 2010 and December 2015,
      including patients with a histological diagnosis of p-NET and radiological
      imaging. We compared clinical, histological, radiological, and prognostic aspects
      of MEN+ p-NET with MEN-1 p-NET. RESULTS: Of the 45 patients enrolled, 13 MEN1+
      and 21 MEN1- cases were analyzed. Frequency of not secreting p-NETs and insulin
      secreting p-NETs, histopathological grades and Ki67 expression were
      superimposable between MEN1+ and MEN1- patients. MEN1+ pNETs are more often
      multicentric compared to MEN1- pNETs. Frequency of liver and nodes metastatic
      spread was higher in MEN1- p-NET compared to MEN1+ p-NET. Analyzing p-NET
      according to the disease outcome, we found that recovered and stable p-NETs in
      MEN1+ patients, compared to MEN1- cases, are diagnosed at lower age (p = 0.04/p =
      0.002) and that are more frequently multifocal lesions (p = 0.009/p = 0.002).
      CONCLUSIONS: In our study pNETs in MEN1+ and pNETs in MEN1- don't significantly
      differ for prognosis but only for clinical features. p-NET stage disease and
      prognosis can be positively influenced by early diagnosis and screening in index
      patients' first-degree relatives.

PMID- 28567610
TI  - Impact of interrupted cyclosporine treatment on the development of chronic
      nephrotoxicity in children with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome.

PMID- 28567611
TI  - Dysfunctional voiding: the importance of non-invasive urodynamics in diagnosis
      and treatment.
AB  - In Dysfunctional voiding, failure of the external sphincter-pelvic floor complex
      to relax during micturition results in bladder outflow obstruction with a
      spectrum of presentation from more benign lower urinary tract dysfunction
      including recurrent urinary tract infections, to significant upper tract
      pathology and end-stage renal failure. There is no underlying neurological or
      anatomical cause and the condition is postulated to be a largely learnt behavior.
      Diagnosis relies on non-invasive urodynamics and in particular uroflowmetry, plus
      or minus EMG, which is also used in biofeedback, the mainstay of treatment. The
      etiology, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment with particular emphasis on non
      invasive urodynamics are covered.

PMID- 28567612
TI  - Uncontrolled delivery of liquid volatile anaesthetic when using the anaesthetic
      conserving device.
AB  - During patient sedation with liquid volatile anaesthetic, some problems may occur
      through a process called auto-pumping, defined as an expansion of bubbles inside
      the syringe, which can lead to uncontrolled anaesthetic delivery. The study
      examined how the temperature of liquid volatile anaesthetics (sevoflurane and
      isoflurane) and the presence of gas bubbles in the syringe affect the occurrence
      of auto-pumping when using the anaesthetic conserving device (ACD, AnaConDaTM,
      Sedana Medical, Uppsala, Sweden). Four different circumstances for each volatile
      anaesthetic were tested with a bench study: volatile anaesthetic at room
      temperature or precooled with and without the presence of gas bubbles in the
      syringe. Liquid volatile anaesthetic was infused into the ACD via a syringe pump
      at a fixed rate and heated gradually until the temperature of the syringe surface
      reached 50  degrees C. A main-stream gas monitor was used to measure the expired
      fraction of volatile anaesthetic (FE vol%). The occurrence of auto-pumping was
      observed only in the subgroups containing gas bubbles, with both anaesthetics. In
      these subgroups, the values of the expired anaesthetic gas fraction increased
      dramatically with the expansion of gas bubbles in the syringe (DeltaFE ranged
      from +1.6 to 2.4 vol% for sevoflurane and +2.3 to 3.4 vol% for isoflurane).
      Furthermore, when the heat source was removed, a substantial decline in
      anaesthetic agent values below the baseline was observed with both anaesthetics.
      The presence of gas bubbles in the syringe, especially when exposed to a heat
      source, may provoke auto-pumping with uncontrolled excessive anaesthetic
      delivery. If auto-pumping is suspected, the syringe pump must be stopped and the
      ACD removed from the breathing circuit at once.

PMID- 28567614
TI  - A Synonymous Mutation at Bovine Alpha Vitronectin Domain of Integrin Host
      Receptor (ITGAV) Gene Effect the Susceptibility of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in
      Crossbred Cattle.
AB  - Integrins are one of the major biologically active proteins responsible for Foot
      and-mouth disease virus (FMDV)- host interaction. Out of various heterodimeric
      integrins discovered, alphaVbeta6 heterodimer serves as the chief receptor for
      FMDV host tropism. Earlier studies reported that, SNPs at beta 6 subunit (ITGB6)
      were associated with the occurrence of the diseases in cattle. In this study we
      report the association between a synonymous SNP (rs719257875) at bovine alpha
      vitronectin domain of integrin receptor (ITGAV) gene and FMD susceptibility in
      cattle. A strong significant association (P < 0.0001) of the genotypes with FMD
      susceptibility were obtained, where the CC genotypes play a major role in
      occurrence of FMD in crossbred cattle.

PMID- 28567613
TI  - Characterisation of a pucBA deletion mutant from Rhodopseudomonas palustris
      lacking all but the pucBAd genes.
AB  - Rhodopseudomonas palustris is a species of purple photosynthetic bacteria that
      has a multigene family of puc genes that encode the alpha and beta apoproteins,
      which form the LH2 complexes. A genetic dissection strategy has been adopted in
      order to try and understand which spectroscopic form of LH2 these different genes
      produce. This paper presents a characterisation of one of the deletion mutants
      generated in this program, the pucBAd only mutant. This mutant produces an
      unusual spectroscopic form of LH2 that only has a single large NIR absorption
      band at 800 nm. Spectroscopic and pigment analyses on this complex suggest that
      it has basically a similar overall structure as that of the wild-type HL LH2
      complex. The mutant has the unique phenotype where the mutant LH2 complex is only
      produced when cells are grown at LL. At HL the mutant only produces the LH1-RC
      core complex.

PMID- 28567615
TI  - Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) often accompanies obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A
      causative connection of the two disease entities is uncertain. However,
      eliminating OSA improves the prognosis of CKD patients. In the present study we
      examined a possible relationship between OSA and CKD, and whether there would be
      a mutual enhancing interaction in the severity of the two diseases. The study was
      of a retrospective nature and encompassed 382 patients over the period of 1
      January 2014-30 June 2015. The OSA diagnosis was supported by a polysomnographic
      examination in 363 (95.0%) patients. Blood samples were taken for the
      determination of kidney function indices. The influence on OSA and CKD of
      comorbidities also was examined. We found a high probability of a simultaneous
      occurrence of OSA and CKD; with the odds ratio of 3.94 (95% CI 1.5-10.3%; p =
      0.005). The 363 patients with OSA were stratified into 73 (20.1%) mild, 98
      (27.0%) moderate, and 192 (52.9%) severe OSA cases according to the apnea
      hypopnea index. CKD was found in 43 (58.9%) patients with mild OSA, 73 (74.5%)
      with moderate OSA, and 137 (71.4%) with severe OSA. Most OSA patients also
      suffered from hypertension and obesity. For comparison, CKD was detected in 7
      (36.8%) out of the 19 patients without OSA (p < 0.003). We conclude that CKD
      develops significantly more often in patients with OSA than in those without it,
      and CKD frequency increases with the severity of OSA.

PMID- 28567616
TI  - Chagas Disease Knowledge and Risk Behaviors of the Homeless Population in
      Houston, TX.
AB  - Chagas disease is a parasitic infection, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, endemic in
      Latin America. Sylvatic T. cruzi-infected triatomine vectors are present in rural
      and urban areas in the southern USA and may transmit T. cruzi infection to at
      risk populations, such as homeless individuals. Our study aimed to evaluate
      Chagas disease knowledge and behaviors potentially associated with transmission
      risk of Chagas disease among Houston, Texas' homeless population by performing
      interviews with 212 homeless individuals. The majority of the 212 surveyed
      homeless individuals were male (79%), African-American (43%), American-born
      individuals (96%). About 30% of the individuals reported having seen triatomines
      in Houston, and 25% had evidence of blood-borne transmission risk (IV drug use
      and/or unregulated tattoos). The median total time homeless was significantly
      associated with recognition of the triatomine vector. Our survey responses
      indicate that the homeless populations may exhibit potential risks for Chagas
      disease, due to increased vector exposure, and participation in blood-borne
      pathogen risk behaviors. Our findings warrant additional research to quantify the
      prevalence of Chagas disease among homeless populations.

PMID- 28567617
TI  - Analysis of Fluorescence Quenching for Newly Synthesized Biologically Active
      3(2H)-pyridazinone Derivative by Aniline.
AB  - Herein, we have studied the analysis of fluorescence quenching for newly
      synthesized biologically active 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivative 5-(5-bromo-2
      hydroxy-phenyl)-2-phenyl-2H-pyridazin-3-one [BHP] by various concentrations of
      aniline using UV-Visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and time
      correlated single photon counting technique in five different solvents namely,
      methanol, ethanol, propan-2-ol, dimethylsulfoxide and ethyl acetate at room
      temperature. The fluorescence intensity of BHP molecule decrease with increasing
      in the aniline concentration and it is studied using the Stern-Volmer relation.
      The obtained Stern-Volmer plots were found to be linear in all the five solvents.
      The various parameters responsible for the fluorescence quenching such as
      quenching rate parameters (k q ), diffusion rate parameter (k d ) and the
      probability of quenching per encounter (p) were experimentally calculated in all
      five solvents. An activation energy of quenching (E a ) was calculated using the
      values of activation energy of diffusion (E d ) and p. It was found that the
      values of E a are greater than E d in all five solvents studied. Further, it is
      inferred that the fluorescence quenching reactions in BHP molecule are more
      significantly affected by activation energy processes.

PMID- 28567619
TI  - Malignant Duodenal GIST in a Patient with Situs Inversus Totalis-a Rare
      Association and Brief Review of Literature.

PMID- 28567618
TI  - Ganglion cell loss in early glaucoma, as assessed by photopic negative response,
      pattern electroretinogram, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate discrimination ability of pattern electroretinography (PERG)
      and photopic negative response (PhNR) between early glaucoma and healthy
      controls, and their relationship with structural measurements using spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). METHODS: Cross-sectional study with
      34 patients with ocular hypertension (n = 7), suspect glaucoma (n = 17), and
      early glaucoma (n = 10), plus 24 age-matched controls. The following parameters
      were analyzed: P50 and N95 amplitude of the PERG, PhNR amplitude and PhNR/b-wave
      ratio, peripapillary retinal and macular nerve fiber layer (NFL) thicknesses, and
      ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness. Data from only one eye per individual were
      included in the statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, receiver
      operating characteristics (ROC) curves, and correlation tests were used for
      analysis of the variables. RESULTS: PERG N95 and PhNR amplitudes were
      significantly reduced in suspect and early glaucoma eyes versus controls.
      Significant differences across ocular hypertensive, suspect, and early glaucoma
      eyes were found for macular NFL and GCC thickness, but not for any of the ERG
      parameters. The mean PhNR amplitude did not differ across these groups and was
      already reduced on average by 46% in ocular hypertensive and early glaucoma eyes
      and by 52% in suspect glaucoma eyes. The P50 and N95 amplitudes showed similar
      reduction in suspect and early glaucoma eyes on average by 15 and 26%,
      respectively. Of the ERG parameters, PhNR amplitude distinguished best between
      glaucoma and control groups, with an area under ROC curve of 0.90 for suspect
      glaucoma, and 0.86 for early glaucoma. PhNR/b-wave ratio showed strongest
      association in suspect glaucoma eyes with peripapillary retinal (r, 0.61) and
      macular NFL (r, 0.76) thicknesses. In eyes with early glaucoma, peripapillary
      retinal NFL thickness correlated best with PhNR amplitude (r, 0.71) and PERG P50
      amplitude (r, 0.67). CONCLUSIONS: In eyes with suspect glaucoma, important
      decrease in PhNR amplitude is associated with small changes in peripapillary
      retinal and macular NFL thicknesses. These findings suggest that PhNR may be a
      useful and sensitive test in eyes with diagnostic dilemma, although further
      follow-up of such eyes is required for definitive confirmation.

PMID- 28567620
TI  - Endophytic fungal assemblage in Achyranthes aspera Linn. revealed by internal
      transcribed spacer region of nuclear ribosomal RNA genes.
AB  - Only scanty reports are available on endophytic fungal associations in
      Achyranthes aspera Linn. Hence in this study a total of 504 isolates belonging to
      ten different species of fungi were isolated from asymptomatic, surface
      sterilised segments of leaf, stem and root of A. aspera collected from different
      locations of Kerala, India. Among the isolates ascomycetes were most prevalent.
      Colonisation rate of fungal endophytes was high in leaf tissue (95%) followed by
      stem (77.75%) and root segments (33.33%). The most frequent and dominant
      coloniser of the host plant were Colletotrichum sp., which was isolated from all
      locations. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of hyphae in
      the intra and intercellular spaces of the plant tissue. Morphological and
      phylogenetic analyses using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of
      nuclear rRNA genes showed that the fungi recovered belonged to the lineages of
      Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes and Tremellomycetes. A maximum
      likelihood tree revealed the relationship between the obtained sequence data and
      the closest sequences retrieved from the GenBank.

PMID- 28567621
TI  - Cost-effective screening and isolation of xylano-cellulolytic positive microbes
      from termite gut and termitarium.
AB  - In this study, screening and isolation of xylano-cellulolytic enzymes producing
      positive microbes from termitarium and termite gut microbiome were done using
      cost-effective agricultural wastes. The enrichment of xylano-cellulolytic
      microbes was done in three steps using wheat bran and waste paper. The
      qualitative screening of xylanase and cellulase producing micro-organisms was
      done on nutrient agar plates containing wheat bran and waste paper, respectively.
      Xylanase and cellulase positive colonies were analysed by observing the zone of
      substrate (wheat bran and waste paper) hydrolysis around the colonies. A total of
      30 bacterial isolates were obtained from termite gut and termitarium,
      respectively. Xylan and cellulose degrading potential of the positive isolates
      was also quantitatively estimated using agro-wastes-based medium. All the
      bacterial isolates displayed cellulase and xylanase activities in the range of
      0.45-6.80 and 51-380 IU/ml, respectively. This is the first report mentioning the
      isolation of xylano-cellulolytic microbes from termite gut and termitarium using
      very simple cost-effective methodology.

PMID- 28567622
TI  - Fungal pretreatment of sweet sorghum bagasse with supplements: improvement in
      lignin degradation, selectivity and enzymatic saccharification.
AB  - Sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) from food processing and agricultural industry has
      attracted the attention for uses in production of biofuel, enzymes and other
      products. The alteration in lignocellulolytic enzymes by use of supplements in
      fungal pretreatment of SSB to achieve higher lignin degradation, selectivity
      value and enzymatic hydrolysis to fermentable sugar was studied. Fungal strain
      Coriolus versicolor was selected for pretreatment due to high ligninolytic and
      low cellulolytic enzyme production resulting in high lignin degradation and
      selectivity value. SSB was pretreated with supplements of veratryl alcohol,
      syringic acid, catechol, gallic acid, vanillin, guaiacol, CuSO4 and MnSO4. The
      best results were obtained with CuSO4, gallic acid and syringic acid supplements.
      CuSO4 increased the activities of laccase (4.9-fold) and polyphenol oxidase (1.9
      fold); gallic acid increased laccase (3.5-fold) and manganese peroxidase (2.5
      fold); and syringic acid increased laccase (5.6-fold), lignin peroxidase (13
      fold) and arylalcohol oxidase (2.8-fold) resulting in enhanced lignin
      degradations and selectivity values than the control. Reduced cellulolytic enzyme
      activities resulted in high cellulose recovery. Enzymatic hydrolysis of
      pretreated SSB yielded higher sugar due to degradation of lignin and reduced the
      crystallinity of cellulose. The study showed that supplements could be used to
      improve the pretreatment process. The results were confirmed by scanning electron
      microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and
      thermogravimetric/differential thermogravimetric analysis of SSB.

PMID- 28567623
TI  - Molecular and functional characterization of myxobacteria isolated from soil in
      India.
AB  - This study reports the isolation of myxobacteria from soil collected from plains
      in north India. Based on the morphology and 16S rDNA sequence, the isolated
      myxobacteria were identified as Corallococcus sp., Pyxidicoccus sp., Myxococcus
      sp., Cystobacter sp. and Archangium sp. The myxobacteria were functionally
      characterized to assess their ability to produce antibacterial and anticancer
      metabolites. The isolates were found to be functionally versatile as they
      produced extracellular bioactive molecules that exhibited high frequency of
      activities against Bacillus cereus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Enterobacter cloacae
      and Pseudomonas syringae. The strains also showed cytotoxic activity against the
      human cancer cell lines of liver, pancreas, prostrate, bone and cervix. These
      results indicate the importance of isolating diverse strains of myxobacteria from
      unexplored habitats to find novel bioactive compounds. Moreover, the bioactive
      molecules explored in this study are predominantly hydrophilic compounds,
      obviating the limitations of solubility-related aspect of drug discovery.

PMID- 28567625
TI  - Biodegradation of alpha-endosulfan via hydrolysis pathway by Stenotrophomonas
      maltophilia OG2.
AB  - Stenotrophomonas maltophilia OG2 was isolated from the intestine of cockroaches
      that was collected from a cow barn contaminated some pesticides belong to
      pyrethroid and organochlorine groups. OG2 was able to degrade alpha-endosulfan in
      non sulfur medium (NSM) as a sole sulfur source for growth within 10 days of
      incubation. The effects of some growth parameters on endosulfan biodegradation by
      OG2 was studied and found that the biodegradation was significantly affected by
      the endosulfan concentrations, pH and temperature. Experimental results obtained
      in different conditions show that the optimum concentration of alpha-endosulfan,
      pH and temperature were 100 mg/L, 8.0 and 30  degrees C, respectively. Under
      these conditions, the bacterium degraded 81.53% of the alpha-endosulfan after 10
      days. The concentration of alpha-endosulfan and its metabolites was determined by
      HPLC. Endosulfan ether, endosulfan lactone and endosulfan diol were the main
      metabolites in culture, but did not produce toxic metabolite, endosulfan sulfate.
      These results suggested that S. maltophilia OG2 degrades alpha-endosulfan via a
      hydrolysis pathway. The present study indicates that strain OG2 may have
      potential use in the biodegradation of pesticides contaminated environments.

PMID- 28567624
TI  - Properties, environmental fate and biodegradation of carbazole.
AB  - The last two decades had witnessed extensive investigation on bacterial
      degradation of carbazole, an N-heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Specifically,
      previous studies have reported the primary importance of angular dioxygenation, a
      novel type of oxygenation reaction, which facilitates mineralization of carbazole
      to intermediates of the TCA cycle. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria are the
      predominant bacterial phyla implicated in this novel mode of dioxygenation, while
      anthranilic acid and catechol are the signature metabolites. Several studies have
      elucidated the degradative genes involved, the diversity of the car gene clusters
      and the unique organization of the car gene clusters in marine carbazole
      degraders. However, there is paucity of information regarding the environmental
      fate as well as industrial and medical importance of carbazole and its
      derivatives. In this review, attempt is made to harness this information to
      present a comprehensive outlook that not only focuses on carbazole biodegradation
      pathways, but also on its environmental fate as well as medical and industrial
      importance of carbazole and its derivatives.

PMID- 28567626
TI  - Isolation, characterization and genetic diversity of NBS-LRR class disease
      resistant gene analogs in multiple virus resistant line of chilli (Capsicum
      annuum L.).
AB  - Viruses are serious threat to chilli crop production worldwide. Resistance
      screening against several viruses resulted in identifying a multiple virus
      resistant genotype 'IHR 2451'. Degenerate primers based on the conserved regions
      between P-Loop and GLPL of Resistance genes (R-genes) were used to amplify
      nucleotide binding sites (NBS)-encoding regions from genotype 'IHR 2451'.
      Alignment of deduced amino acid sequences and phylogenetic analyses of isolated
      sequences distinguished into two groups representing toll interleukin-1 receptor
      (TIR) and non-TIR, and different families within the group confirming the
      hypotheses that dicots have both the types of NBS-LRR genes. The alignment of
      deduced amino acid sequences revealed conservation of subdomains P-loop, RNBS-A,
      kinase2, RNBS-B, and GLPL. The distinctive five RGAs showing specific conserved
      motifs were subjected to BLASTp and indicated high homology at deduced amino acid
      level with R genes identified such as Pvr9 gene for potyvirus resistance,
      putative late blight resistance protein homolog R1B-23 and other disease
      resistance genes suggesting high correlation with resistance to different
      pathogens. These pepper RGAs could be regarded as candidate sequences of
      resistant genes for marker development.

PMID- 28567627
TI  - Endophytic Nocardiopsis sp. from Zingiber officinale with both
      antiphytopathogenic mechanisms and antibiofilm activity against clinical
      isolates.
AB  - Novel and potential antimicrobial compounds are essential to tackle the
      frequently emerging multidrug-resistant pathogens and also to develop environment
      friendly agricultural practices. In the current study, endophytic actinomycetes
      from rhizome of Zingiber officinale were explored in terms of its diversity and
      bioactive properties. Fourteen different organisms were isolated, identified and
      screened for activity against Pythium myriotylum and human clinical pathogens.
      Among these, Nocardiopsis sp. ZoA1 was found to have highest inhibition with
      excellent antibacterial effects compared to standard antibiotics. Remarkable
      antibiofilm property was also shown by the extract of ZoA1. Its antifungal
      activity against Pythium and other common phytopathogens was also found to be
      promising as confirmed by scanning electron microscopic analysis. By PCR-based
      sequence analysis of phz E gene, the organism was confirmed for the genetic basis
      of phenazine biosynthesis. Further GC-MS analysis of Nocardiopsis sp. revealed
      the presence of various compounds including Phenol, 2,4-bis (1,1-dimethylethyl)
      and trans cinnamic acid which can have significant role in the observed result.
      The current study is the first report on endophytic Nocardiopsis sp. from ginger
      with promising applications. In vivo treatment of Nocardiopsis sp. on ginger
      rhizome has revealed its inhibition towards the colonization of P. myriotylum
      which makes the study to have promises to manage the severe diseases in ginger
      like rhizome rot.

PMID- 28567629
TI  - Optimization of rhamnolipid production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa OG1 using waste
      frying oil and chicken feather peptone.
AB  - In the present study, production of rhamnolipid biosurfactant by Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa OG1 was statistically optimized by response surface methodology. Box
      Behnken design was applied to determine the optimal concentrations of 52, 9.2,
      and 4.5 g/L for carbon source (waste frying oil), nitrogen source (chicken
      feather peptone), and KH2PO4, respectively, in production medium. Under the
      optimized cultivation conditions, rhamnolipid production reached up to 13.31 g/L
      (with an emulsification activity of 80%), which is approximately twofold higher
      than the yield obtained from preliminary cultivations. Hence, rhamnolipid
      production, noteworthy in the literature, was achieved with the use of
      statistical optimization on inexpensive waste materials for the first time in the
      present study.

PMID- 28567628
TI  - Enzyme-mediated biodegradation of long-chain n-alkanes (C32 and C40) by
      thermophilic bacteria.
AB  - Removal of long-chain hydrocarbons and n-alkanes from oil-contaminated
      environments are mere important to reduce the ecological damages, while bio
      augmentation is a very promising technology that requires highly efficient
      microbes. In present study, the efficiency of pure isolates, i.e., Geobacillus
      thermoparaffinivorans IR2, Geobacillus stearothermophillus IR4 and Bacillus
      licheniformis MN6 and mixed consortium on degradation of long-chain n-alkanes C32
      and C40 was investigated by batch cultivation test. Biodegradation efficiencies
      were found high for C32 by mixed consortium (90%) than pure strains, while the
      pure strains were better in degradation of C40 than mixed consortium (87%). In
      contrast, the maximum alkane hydroxylase activities (161 umol mg-1 protein) were
      recorded in mixed consortium system that had supplied with C40 as sole carbon
      source. Also, the alcohol dehydrogenase (71 umol mg-1 protein) and lipase
      activity (57 umol mg-1 protein) were found high. Along with the enzyme
      activities, the hydrophobicity natures of the bacterial strains were found to
      determine the degradation efficiency of the hydrocarbons. Thus, the study
      suggested that the hydrophobicity of the bacteria is a critical parameter to
      understand the biodegradation of n-alkanes.

PMID- 28567630
TI  - Hot springs of Indian Himalayas: potential sources of microbial diversity and
      thermostable hydrolytic enzymes.
AB  - Microbial communities in hot springs at high elevations have been extensively
      studied worldwide. In this sense, the Indian Himalaya regions is valuable
      ecosystems for providing both the extreme 'cold' and 'hot' sites for exploring
      microbial diversity. In the present study, a total of 140 thermophilic bacteria
      were isolated from 12 samples collected from Manikaran and Yumthang hot springs
      of Indian Himalayas. The bacterial isolates were studied for phylogenetic
      profiling, growth properties at varying conditions and potential sources of
      extracellular thermostable hydrolytic enzymes such as protease, amylase, xylanase
      and cellulase. Based on production of extracellular hydrolases, 51 isolates from
      Manikaran (28) and Yumthang thermal springs (23) were selected and identified
      using 16S rRNA gene sequencing which included 37 distinct species of 14 different
      genera namely Anoxybacillus, Bacillus, Brevibacillus, Brevundimonas,
      Burkholderia, Geobacillus, Paenibacillus, Planococcus, Pseudomonas,
      Rhodanobacter, Thermoactinomyces, Thermobacillus, Thermonema and Thiobacillus.
      Out of 51 hydrolase producing bacteria, 24 isolates showed stability at wide
      range of temperature and pH treatments. In present investigation, three
      thermotolerant bacteria namely, Thermobacillus sp NBM6, Paenibacillus ehimensis
      NBM24 and Paenibacillus popilliae NBM68 were found to produced cellulase-free
      xylanase. These potential extracellular thermostable hydrolytic enzymes producing
      thermophilic bacteria have a great commercial prospect in various industrial,
      medical and agriculture applications.

PMID- 28567631
TI  - Iron acquisition in maize (Zea mays L.) using Pseudomonas siderophore.
AB  - Siderophore facilitates iron availability in soil, but its assistance in iron
      transportation to different plant parts is not reported till date. Therefore, it
      is worthwhile to study the effect of siderophore produced by Pseudomonas for iron
      acquisition in the presence and absence of iron. To study these effects, two
      siderophore-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains RSP5 and RSP8 were selected.
      RSP5 and RSP8 produced the highest and lowest amounts of siderophore,
      respectively. Iron (Fe) concentration of stem, leaf, seed, and shoot length, root
      length, cob length, and number of grains parameters were analysed. It was
      observed that the plants treated with RSP5 were sturdier and taller than RSP5 +
      Fe > RSP8 > RSP8 + Fe > Fe > Control plants. Iron content of RSP8 vs. RSP8 + Fe,
      RSP8 + Fe vs. Control, and RSP8 + Fe vs. RSP5 + Fe was significantly different (P
      < 0.01). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) proves that RSP5 was able to transport
      higher amount of iron to maize plant than other treatments. Increase in shoot
      length, root length, cob length, grain number and iron content of stem, and leaf
      and seed of maize plant inoculated with RSP5 suggests that the strain can be used
      as an inoculant for increasing iron transportation in maize plant. (Indian Patent
      Filed: 40163/DEL/2016).

PMID- 28567632
TI  - Analysis of toxic, antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of Bambusa balcooa
      Roxb. leaf extracts in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - Bambusa balcooa (Poaceae) is native to India and has been used traditionally by
      the tribes of Northeast India to treat diabetes. The present investigation was
      aimed to evaluate the toxicity, anti-diabetic activity along with in vitro
      antioxidant activity of the leaf of B. balcooa in alloxan-induced diabetic rats
      and also identify active compounds by using HPLC. The acute toxicity test of
      aqueous extract of B. balcooa leaf revealed that the median lethal dose (LD50) of
      B. balcooa aqueous extract (BAQE) was 5.18 g/kg body weight in mice.
      Administration of BAQE at 100 and 200 mg/kg in alloxan-induced diabetic rats
      showed significant reduction in fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin
      while plasma insulin level was elevated compared to diabetic control. Both the
      doses were effective when compared to diabetic glibenclamide rats. The BAQE
      treated diabetic rats showed significant increase in the endogenous antioxidant
      enzymes superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and decrease in
      malondialdehyde levels. HPLC analysis of BAQE showed the presence of rutin,
      gallic acid and beta sitosterol. Thus, it can be inferred from this study that
      BAQE possess antidiabetic and in vivo antioxidant activity. The overall activity
      might be possibly due to the presence of potential antioxidants.

PMID- 28567633
TI  - Technical insight on the requirements for CO2-saturated growth of microalgae in
      photobioreactors.
AB  - Microalgal cultures are usually sparged with CO2-enriched air to preclude CO2
      limitation during photoautotrophic growth. However, the CO2 vol% specifically
      required at operating conditions to meet the carbon requirement of algal cells in
      photobioreactor is never determined and 1-10% v/v CO2-enriched air is arbitrarily
      used. A scheme is proposed and experimentally validated for Chlorella vulgaris
      that allows computing CO2-saturated growth feasible at given CO2 vol% and
      volumetric O2 mass-transfer coefficient (k L a)O. CO2 sufficiency in an
      experiment can be theoretically established to adjust conditions for CO2
      saturated growth. The methodology completely eliminates the requirement of CO2
      electrode for online estimation of dissolved CO2 to determine critical CO2
      concentration (Ccrit), specific CO2 uptake rate (SCUR), and volumetric CO2 mass
      transfer coefficient (k L a)C required for the governing CO2 mass-transfer
      equation. Ccrit was estimated from specific O2 production rate (SOPR)
      measurements at different dissolved CO2 concentrations. SCUR was calculated from
      SOPR and photosynthetic quotient (PQ) determined from the balanced stoichiometric
      equation of growth. Effect of light attenuation and nutrient depletion on biomass
      estimate is also discussed. Furthermore, a simple design of photosynthetic
      activity measurement system was used, which minimizes light attenuation by
      hanging a low depth (ca. 10 mm) culture over the light source.

PMID- 28567635
TI  - In vitro regeneration of Drosera burmannii Vahl.: a carnivorous plant of north
      east India.
AB  - An efficient in vitro regeneration protocol has been developed from shoot tips of
      Drosera burmannii Vahl., a carnivorous plant of north-east India. Various plant
      growth regulators were used to study their efficacy in the induction of multiple
      shoots and roots. Of the various treatments, the maximum number of shoots (28.8
      +/- 1.5) and roots (9.7 +/- 0.6) was observed in one-fourth strength standard
      medium (MS with 50 mg/l citric acid and 10 mg/l ascorbic acid) supplemented with
      4 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 4 mg/l alpha-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA)
      followed by 26.8 +/- 1.4 shoots in one-fourth strength SM fortified with 4 mg/l
      kinetin (KN) and 4 mg/l NAA. The well-developed plantlets with shoots and roots
      were potted in small plastic glasses filled with a mixture of sand and farmyard
      manure (3:1); these plantlets when transferred to a glasshouse for hardening and
      acclimatization showed 90% survival.

PMID- 28567634
TI  - Production, purification and biochemical characterization of an exo
      polygalacturonase from Aspergillus niger MTCC 478 suitable for clarification of
      orange juice.
AB  - Polygalacturonases (PG) represent an important member of pectinases group of
      enzymes with immense industrial applications. A fungal strain Aspergillus niger
      MTCC478 was used for the production of polygalacturonase both under submerged and
      solid-state fermentation condition. Further its production was optimized under
      solid-state fermentation condition with media comprising of wheat bran and tea
      extract. Purification of an exo-PG was achieved by acetone precipitation (60-90%)
      and CM-cellulose column chromatography revealing 15.28-fold purification with a
      specific activity of 33.47 U/mg protein and 1.2% yield. A relative molecular mass
      of purified PG was approximately 124.0 kDa. The pH and temperature optimum was
      found to be 4 and 50  degrees C, respectively. The k cat and K m value for
      degradation of PGA by the purified enzyme was found to be 194 s-1 and 2.3 mg/mL,
      respectively. Cu2+ was found to enhance the PG activity while Ag+ completely
      inhibited the enzyme activity. The application of the purified PG in orange juice
      clarification was elucidated.

PMID- 28567636
TI  - Biosorption characteristic of Alcaligenes sp. BAPb.1 for removal of lead(II) from
      aqueous solution.
AB  - In this study, strain BAPb.1 was isolated from lead mining area and used as an
      adsorbent to remove lead(II) ions from aqueous solution. The physicochemical
      characteristics, heavy metal resistance and antibiotic sensitivity of strain
      BAPb.1 were investigated. Biosorption capacity was evaluated by batch biosorption
      experiments, and isothermal characteristics were discussed. Atomic force
      microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray
      spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) were
      conducted to explore the mechanism for lead(II) adsorption. Based on
      morphological and physiological characteristics as well as the phylogenetic
      analysis of 16S rDNA sequences, strain BAPb.1 was identified as a member of the
      genus Alcaligenes. It exhibited high resistances to multiple heavy metals such as
      lead(II), copper(II), zinc(II), nickel(II) and chromium(VI), and to antibiotics
      such as kanamycin, ampicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline.
      The optimum conditions for maximum biosorption rate of 85.2% and maximum capacity
      of 56.8 mg g-1 were found at pH of 5, adsorbent dosage of 1.5 g L-1 (dry weight),
      initial lead(II) concentration of 100 mg L-1, and contact time of 30 min at 30 
      degrees C. Biosorption isotherms were well fitted with Langmuir isotherm model.
      Mechanism analysis reveals that the lead(II) ions may exchange with sodium and
      potassium ions, and the hydroxyl, carbonyl and phosphate groups on the cell
      surface can chelate the lead(II) ions, therefore, surface adsorption play
      significant role in the biosorption process.

PMID- 28567638
TI  - Expression of Plant Receptor Kinases in E. coli.
AB  - Plant receptor kinases play diverse signaling roles in disease resistance and
      plant development. They represent a large plant gene family with over 600 members
      in Arabidopsis thaliana. While the functions of several members of the receptor
      kinase family have now been elucidated, a great proportion still remains
      uncharacterized. The structural and functional characterization of such plant
      receptor kinases may entail biochemical approaches that require access to
      purified protein, which can be made possible through heterologous protein
      expression. This chapter describes a strategy for expressing plant receptor
      kinases in E. coli, a bacterial host that has successfully been used to express
      and purify certain plant receptor kinase domains, some of which were subsequently
      used for biochemical assays. As full-length receptor-like kinases may be
      difficult to express, it is suggested to clone and express domains separately,
      after having identified domain borders using bioinformatics tools. A detailed
      cloning protocol is provided, as well as advice for testing expression efficiency
      and handling of expressed protein ending up in inclusion bodies.

PMID- 28567637
TI  - Comparison of HER2 amplification status among breast cancer subgroups offers new
      insights in pathways of breast cancer progression.
AB  - Although the prognostic and predictive significance of human epidermal growth
      factor receptor 2 (HER2) in invasive breast cancer is well established, its role
      in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) remains unclear. Reports on combined
      evaluation of both HER2 protein expression and HER2 amplification status in pure
      DCIS and DCIS adjacent to invasive ductal carcinoma (i.e., admixed DCIS) are
      scarce. In this study, immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH) were used to assess HER2 status in 72 cases of pure DCIS, 73
      cases of DCIS admixed with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and 60 cases of pure
      IDC. HER2 copy number-based amplification was present in 49% of pure DCIS, 16% of
      admixed DCIS, 18% of admixed IDC, and 8% of pure IDC. Amplified pure DCIS with
      clusters of HER2 signals showed a significantly lower HER2 copy number than
      amplified admixed DCIS with clusters. Whereas pure DCIS and admixed DCIS
      presented significant differences, the in situ and invasive component of admixed
      tumors showed striking similarities regarding mean HER2 and chromosome 17
      centromere (CEP17) copy number, grade, and estrogen and progesterone receptor
      expression. The discrepant prevalence of HER2 amplification among breast cancer
      subgroups indirectly suggests that HER2 may not play a crucial role in the
      transition of in situ to invasive breast cancer. The similarities in HER2
      amplification status between the in situ and invasive component of admixed tumors
      hint at a common biological pathway for both components. Our data support the
      theory that pure DCIS, pure IDC, and admixed lesions have a common progenitor,
      but can progress as separate lineages.

PMID- 28567639
TI  - Expression of Plant Receptor Kinases in Yeast.
AB  - The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a useful system to express
      recombinant proteins and analyze protein-protein interaction. Membrane-spanning
      proteins like plant receptor kinases find their way to the plasma membrane when
      expressed in yeast and seem to retain their structure and function. Here, we
      describe a general yeast DNA transformation procedure based on lithium acetate,
      salmon sperm DNA, and polyethylene glycol used to express recombinant proteins.
      Yeast cells expressing plant receptor kinases can be used for in vivo and in
      vitro studies of receptor function.

PMID- 28567640
TI  - Expression of Plant Receptor Kinases in Tobacco BY-2 Cells.
AB  - Although more than 600 single-transmembrane receptor kinase genes have been found
      in the Arabidopsis genome, only a few of them have known physiological functions,
      and even fewer plant receptor kinases have known specific ligands. Ligand-binding
      analysis must be operated using the functionally expressed receptor form.
      However, the relative abundance of native receptor kinase molecules in the plasma
      membrane is often quite low. Here, we present a method for stable and functional
      expression of plant receptor kinases in tobacco BY-2 cells that allows
      preparation of microsomal fractions containing the receptor. This procedure
      provides a sufficient amount of receptor proteins while maintaining its ligand
      binding activities.

PMID- 28567641
TI  - Cell-Free Synthesis of Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - The wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis system has been used as a eukaryotic
      protein production system since it was first reported in 1964. Although initially
      the productivity of this system was not very high, it has now become one of the
      most versatile protein production systems, thanks to the enhancements made by
      several groups. In this chapter, we report a protein production method for plant
      receptor kinases using the wheat cell-free system. We describe a method for the
      preparation of a cell-free extract from wheat germ, the split-primer PCR method
      for preparation of transcription templates, and the bilayer cell-free protein
      synthesis method.

PMID- 28567642
TI  - Purification of Plant Receptor Kinases from Plant Plasma Membranes.
AB  - Receptor kinases play a central role in various biological processes, but due to
      their low abundance and highly hydrophobic and dynamic nature, only a few of them
      have been functionally characterized, and their partners and ligands remain
      unidentified. Receptor protein extraction and purification from plant tissues is
      one of the most challenging steps for the success of various biochemical analyses
      to characterize their function. Immunoprecipitation is a widely used and
      selective method for enriching or purifying a specific protein. Here we describe
      two different optimized protein purification protocols, batch and on-chip
      immunoprecipitation, which efficiently isolate plant membrane receptor kinases
      for functional analysis.

PMID- 28567643
TI  - Photoaffinity Labeling of Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - Defining the ligand-binding activity of receptors is important because the
      binding of ligands is the initial reaction in secreted ligand-dependent cell-to
      cell communication. Photoaffinity labeling is one of the most efficient
      biochemical techniques for detecting direct ligand-receptor interactions. Here,
      we describe photoaffinity labeling to visualize the direct interaction between
      peptide ligands and their receptors by using photoactivatable and radioactive
      peptide ligand derivatives.

PMID- 28567644
TI  - Quantitative Detection of Oxidative Burst upon Activation of Plant Receptor
      Kinases.
AB  - The oxidative burst or the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a
      typical cellular response of both plants and animals to diverse abiotic and
      biotic stresses. Mainly, the (re-)active oxygen species include the superoxide
      anion (O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and the hydroxyl radical (OH*). Here, we
      outline the detection of extracellularly produced ROS in plant leaf pieces using
      a chemiluminescence-based bioassay with the luminol L-012 as a substrate being
      oxidized in the presence of ROS. Since this type of assay is in use in many
      laboratories, e.g., as a readout for activation of plant receptor kinases, we
      include a discussion on the interpretation of results and points addressing
      problems with the buffers at suboptimal pH values that negatively influence the
      chemiluminescence production.

PMID- 28567645
TI  - Extraction and Curation of Gene Models for Plant Receptor Kinases for
      Phylogenetic Analysis.
AB  - Analysis of gene families and identification of homologous genes are important
      for phylogenetic analysis and for translating results from model to crop species.
      While numerous plant genomes have been sequenced and made available, the
      identification of gene models can be difficult, in particular for large gene
      families arranged in tandem repeats or encoding proteins with a variable number
      of internal repeats. Thus, correct annotation of plant receptor kinases (PRK) is
      a challenge. Here, we describe a workflow for the semi-manual extraction,
      annotation, and verification of genes from annotated gene models as well as from
      non-annotated DNA regions. This protocol allows the efficient identification of
      gene family member of PRK from most available plant genomes.

PMID- 28567646
TI  - In Silico Prediction of Ligand-Binding Sites of Plant Receptor Kinases Using
      Conservation Mapping.
AB  - Plasma membrane-bound plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) can be categorized based
      on their ligand-binding extracellular domain. The largest group encompasses RLKs
      having ectodomains with leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). The LRR-RLKs can further be
      assigned to classes mainly based on the number of LRRs. Many of the receptors of
      the classes X and XI with more than 20 LRRs are activated by small secreted
      peptide ligands. To understand how peptide signaling works, it is of interest to
      identify the amino acids of the receptor that are directly involved in ligand
      interaction. Such residues have most likely been conserved over evolutionary time
      and can therefore be predicted to be conserved in receptor orthologues of
      different plant species. Here we present an in silico method to identify such
      residues. This involves a simplified method for identification of orthologues and
      a web-based program for identifying the most conserved amino acids aside from the
      leucines that structure the ectodomain. The method has been validated for the LRR
      RLKs HAESA (HAE) and PHYTOSULFOKINE RECEPTOR1 (PSKR1) for which conservation
      mapping results closely matched recent structure-based identification of ligand
      and co-receptor-interacting residues.

PMID- 28567647
TI  - Co-immunoprecipitation of Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - In order to comprehend the function of a particular protein, identification of
      the interacting protein partners is a useful approach. Co-immunoprecipitation (Co
      IP) is employed to test physical interactions between proteins. Specific
      antibodies or antibodies against tagged versions can be used to immunoprecipitate
      the proteins. In this chapter, we describe a method to carry out Co-IP using
      recombinant membrane proteins expressed in yeast microsomal fractions.

PMID- 28567648
TI  - Autophosphorylation Assays Using Plant Receptor Kinases Synthesized in Cell-Free
      Systems.
AB  - The wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis system has a significant advantage for
      high-throughput production of eukaryotic multidomain proteins in a folded state.
      In this chapter, we describe two kinds of methods for performing
      autophosphorylation assay of plant receptor kinases (PRKs) by using the wheat
      cell-free system. One is an in vitro kinase assay performed using biotin
      streptavidin affinity purification technology, and the other is a luminescence
      based high-throughput assay for autophosphorylation analysis. We anticipate that
      our cell-free-based methods might facilitate the characterization of plant PRKs.

PMID- 28567649
TI  - Investigation of Autophosphorylation Sites of Plant Receptor Kinases and
      Phosphorylation of Interacting Partners.
AB  - The optimal kinase activity of plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) is often
      regulated by autophosphorylation of specific sites. Many of these phosphorylated
      residues then serve as recruiting sites for downstream interacting proteins.
      Therefore, identification of the phosphosites can be an important first step in
      delineating the signaling network. This chapter describes a protocol for
      identification of phosphorylated residues by mass spectrometry as well as a
      protocol to determine if an interacting partner can be phosphorylated in vitro.

PMID- 28567650
TI  - In Vitro Assessment of Guanylyl Cyclase Activity of Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - Cyclic nucleotides such as 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and 3',5'
      cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) are increasingly recognized as key
      signaling molecules in plants, and a growing number of plant mononucleotide
      cyclases, both adenylate cyclases (ACs) and guanylate cyclases (GCs), have been
      reported. Catalytically active cytosolic GC domains have been shown to be part of
      many plant receptor kinases and hence directly linked to plant signaling and
      downstream cellular responses. Here we detail, firstly, methods to identify and
      express essential functional GC domains of receptor kinases, and secondly, we
      describe mass spectrometric methods to quantify cGMP generated by recombinant GCs
      from receptor kinases in vitro.

PMID- 28567651
TI  - BiFC Assay to Detect Calmodulin Binding to Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - Plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are regulated at various levels including
      posttranscriptional modification and interaction with regulatory proteins.
      Calmodulin (CaM) is a calcium-sensing protein that was shown to bind to some RLKs
      such as the PHYTOSULFOKINE RECEPTOR1 (PSKR1). The CaM-binding site is embedded in
      subdomain VIa of the kinase domain. It is possible that many more of RLKs
      interact with CaM than previously described. To unequivocally confirm CaM
      binding, several methods exist. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC)
      and pull-down assays have been successfully used to study CaM binding to PSKR1
      and are described in this chapter (BiFC) and in Chapter 15 (pull down). The two
      methods are complementary. BiFC is useful to show localization and interaction of
      soluble as well as of membrane-bound proteins in planta.

PMID- 28567653
TI  - The Use of FRET/FLIM to Study Proteins Interacting with Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - The investigation of protein interactions in living plant tissue has become of
      increasing importance in recent years. A high spatial and temporal resolution for
      the observation of in vivo protein interaction is needed, e.g., in order to
      follow changes of plant receptor kinase interactions and complex formation over
      time. In vivo fluorescence or Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET)
      measurements allow for detailed analyses of interacting proteins in their natural
      environment at a subcellular level. Especially FRET-FLIM (fluorescence lifetime
      imaging microscopy) measurements provide an extremely powerful and reliable tool
      meeting the demands for investigating in vivo protein interaction quantitatively
      and with high precision. Here, we will describe in detail how to practically
      perform in vivo FRET measurements of receptor kinases in plants and discuss
      potential pitfalls and points of consideration.

PMID- 28567652
TI  - Pull-down Assay to Characterize Ca2+/Calmodulin Binding to Plant Receptor
      Kinases.
AB  - Plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are regulated by posttranscriptional
      modification and by interaction with regulatory proteins. A common modification
      of RLKs is (auto)phosphorylation, and a common regulatory protein is the calcium
      sensor calmodulin (CaM). We have developed protocols to detect the interaction of
      an RLK with CaM. The interaction with CaM was shown by bimolecular fluorescence
      complementation (BiFC) (see Chapter 14) and pull-down assay (this chapter). Both
      methods offer unique advantages. BiFC is useful in showing interaction of soluble
      as well as of membrane-bound proteins in planta. Pull-down assays are restricted
      to soluble proteins and provide in vitro data. The pull-down assay provides the
      advantage that proteins can be modified prior to binding and that experimental
      conditions such as the concentration of Ca2+ or other divalent cations can be
      controlled. This chapter provides a pull-down protocol to study RLK-CaM
      interaction with optional steps to investigate the impact of RLK phosphorylation
      or of Ca2+.

PMID- 28567654
TI  - Detection and Analyses of Endocytosis of Plant Receptor Kinases.
AB  - Genetic dissection has led to a sophisticated understanding of receptor kinases
      in plant development and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Fluorescence
      confocal microscopy is essential to identify the (sub)cellular locations of
      resting and signaling receptor kinases that trigger molecular events in plant
      cells upon ligand perception. In this regard, the internalization of plasma
      membrane-localized FLAGELLIN SENSING 2 (FLS2) into endosomes induced by its
      ligand flg22, a peptide derived from bacterial flagellin, is a model system for
      studying activation status-dependent and endosomal receptor kinase trafficking
      routes and can be used in screens to identify pathogen effectors that target
      these trafficking routes for virulence promotion. In this chapter we describe
      approaches of visualizing fluorescently tagged FLS2, including protocols for
      flg22-induced endocytosis, instrument parameters, and image analysis. These
      approaches can be easily adapted for other receptor kinases, using the fast
      transient expression system in Nicotiana benthamiana for microscopic inspection.

PMID- 28567655
TI  - The Evaluation and Office Management of Hemorrhoids for the Gastroenterologist.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Hemorrhoid disease is extremely common, and seldom requires
      surgical intervention. The vast majority of patients can be cared for in the
      office setting and by the gastroenterologist. This piece aims to summarize the
      epidemiology and pathophysiology of hemorrhoid disease, along with the proper
      evaluation and office-based treatment of these patients. RECENT FINDINGS: Most GI
      fellowship training programs spend little time on these topics, and the
      recommendation has been made to include anorectal care in the GI's "core
      curriculum." The use of the anoscope and a proper anorectal examination are keys
      to evaluating these patients, and the techniques available to treat these
      patients are described. Often overlooked in these patients are other anorectal
      issues that occur alongside hemorrhoidal issues very commonly-the most common
      being anal fissure. Comprehensive management of all of these issues will allow
      all but the most severely affected patients to avoid the expense and morbidity of
      surgical intervention. The anatomy, etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and non
      surgical treatment of hemorrhoid disease are presented with the
      gastroenterologist in mind.

PMID- 28567656
TI  - Nasoduodenal tube placement: Are two views necessary to confirm position?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nasoduodenal tube (NDT) placement is typically performed at the
      bedside and two-view abdominal radiographs are usually used to confirm tube
      position. Anecdotally, in most instances the lateral view is unnecessary and
      utilizes more than twice the radiation than an anteroposterior (AP) view alone.
      OBJECTIVE: We hypothesize that NDT location can be determined using only the AP
      view, with the NDT position determined on two views utilized as the gold
      standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search was performed for all two- or three
      view abdominal radiographs from September 2012 to September 2013 with the phrase
      "ND tube" in the reason field of the requisition. These studies were
      independently reviewed by two radiologists and scored for anatomical tube
      position in three different scenarios: AP view alone, the lateral view alone, and
      both views together, with the latter serving as the gold standard. The anatomical
      scores were subsequently grouped to reflect clinically significant scenarios.
      Comparative analysis was performed with the original and clinically grouped
      scores. RESULTS: A total of 102 patients and 306 separate two-view exams were
      evaluated. Of the 102 patients, 55 had at least two separate exams. Across
      raters, concordances of AP and lateral scores relative to the gold standard
      assessment were 88% and 73% for anatomical scores, and 91.5% and 86.4% for
      clinically grouped data. Trend differences for fewer errors were found with the
      AP compared to the lateral view. There were statistically significant group
      differences with a greater number of false-negative errors in the lateral data
      set. No clear differences were found when comparing AP and lateral ratings for
      false-positive errors. Upon review of the common errors, we determined a few
      imaging findings on AP radiographs that can help assess the need for an
      additional lateral view. CONCLUSION: A single AP view is sufficient to determine
      the NDT position in most cases. Two views should be reserved for cases where the
      NDT position cannot be definitively assessed. Transitioning toward the single AP
      view to evaluate the NDT position could have immediate consequences for dose
      reduction.

PMID- 28567657
TI  - Special Issue Devoted to a New Field of Regenerative Medicine: Reproductive
      Tissue Engineering.

PMID- 28567659
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28567658
TI  - Left Ventricular Assist Devices: Challenges Toward Sustaining Long-Term Patient
      Care.
AB  - Over the last few decades, the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) technology
      has been tremendously improved transitioning from large and noisy paracorporeal
      volume displacement pumps to small implantable turbodynamic devices with only a
      single transcutaneous element, the driveline. Nevertheless, there remains a great
      demand for further improvements to meet the challenge of having a robust and safe
      device for long-term therapy. Here, we review the state of the art and highlight
      four key areas of needed improvement targeting long-term, sustainable LVAD
      function: (1) LVADs available today still have a high risk of thromboembolic and
      bleeding events that could be addressed by the rational fabrication of novel
      surface structures and endothelialization approaches aiming at improving the
      device hemocompatibility. (2) Novel, fluid dynamically optimized pump designs
      will further reduce blood damage. (3) Infection due to the paracorporeal
      driveline can be avoided with a transcutaneous energy transmission system that
      additionally allows for increased freedom of movement. (4) Finally, the lack of
      pump flow adaptation needs to be encountered with physiological control systems,
      working collaboratively with biocompatible sensor devices, targeting the
      adaptation of the LVAD flow to the perfusion requirements of the patient. The
      interdisciplinary Zurich Heart project investigates these technology gaps paving
      the way toward LVADs for long-term, sustainable therapy.

PMID- 28567660
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28567661
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28567662
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28567663
TI  - Perspective.

PMID- 28567664
TI  - QTL mapping and comparative genome analysis of agronomic traits including grain
      yield in winter rye.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Genetic diversity in elite rye germplasm as well as F 2:3 testcross
      design enables fast QTL mapping to approach genes controlling grain yield, grain
      weight, tiller number and heading date in rye hybrids. Winter rye (Secale cereale
      L.) is a multipurpose cereal crop closely related to wheat, which offers the
      opportunity for a sustainable production of food and feed and which continues to
      emerge as a renewable energy source for the production of bioethanol and
      biomethane. Rye contributes to increase agricultural crop species diversity
      particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to other small grain
      cereals, knowledge on the genetic architecture of complex inherited, agronomic
      important traits is yet limited for the outbreeding rye. We have performed a QTL
      analysis based on a F2:3 design and testcross performance of 258 experimental
      hybrids in multi-environmental field trials. A genetic linkage map covering 964.9
      cM based on SSR, conserved-orthologous set (COS), and mixed-phase dominant DArT
      markers allowed to describe 22 QTL with significant effects for grain yield,
      heading date, tiller number, and thousand grain weight across seven environments.
      Using rye COS markers, orthologous segments for these traits have been identified
      in the rice genome, which carry cloned and functionally characterized rice genes.
      The initial genome scan described here together with the existing knowledge on
      candidate genes provides the basis for subsequent analyses of the genetic and
      molecular mechanisms underlying agronomic important traits in rye.

PMID- 28567665
TI  - Severe hyperkalemia is rescued by low-potassium diet in renal betaENaC-deficient
      mice.
AB  - In adulthood, an induced nephron-specific deficiency of alphaENaC (Scnn1a)
      resulted in pseudohypoaldosteronism type 1 (PHA-1) with sodium loss,
      hyperkalemia, and metabolic acidosis that is rescued through high-sodium/low
      potassium (HNa+/LK+) diet. In the present study, we addressed whether renal
      betaENaC expression is required for sodium and potassium balance or can be
      compensated by remaining (alpha and gamma) ENaC subunits using adult nephron
      specific knockout (Scnn1bPax8/LC1) mice. Upon induction, these mice present a
      severe PHA-1 phenotype with weight loss, hyperkalemia, and dehydration, but
      unlike the Scnn1aPax8/LC1 mice without persistent salt wasting. This is followed
      by a marked downregulation of STE20/SPS1-related proline-alanine-rich protein
      kinase (SPAK) and Na+/Cl- co-transporter (NCC) protein expression and activity.
      Most of the experimental Scnn1bPax8/LC1 mice survived with a HNa+/LK+ diet that
      partly normalized NCC phosphorylation, but not total NCC expression. Since salt
      loss was minor, we applied a standard-sodium/LK+ diet that efficiently rescued
      these mice resulting in normokalemia and normalization of NCC phosphorylation,
      but not total NCC expression. A further switch to LNa+/standard-K+ diet induced
      again a severe PHA-1-like phenotype, but with only transient salt wasting
      indicating that low-K+ intake is critical to decrease hyperkalemia in a NCC
      dependent manner. In conclusion, while the betaENaC subunit plays only a minor
      role in sodium balance, severe hyperkalemia results in downregulation of NCC
      expression and activity. Our data demonstrate the importance to primarily correct
      the hyperkalemia with a low-potassium diet that normalizes NCC activity.

PMID- 28567667
TI  - Adherence in the Cancer Care Setting: a Systematic Review of Patient Navigation
      to Traverse Barriers.
AB  - Patient navigation is an evidence-based intervention involving trained healthcare
      workers who assist patients in assessing and mitigating personal and
      environmental factors to promote healthy behaviors. The purpose of this research
      is to systematically assess the efficacy of patient navigation and similar
      programs to improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting medically
      underserved populations. A systematic review was performed by searching PubMed,
      MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and CINAHL to identify potential studies. Eligible studies
      were those containing original peer-reviewed research reports in English on
      patient navigation, community health workers, vulnerable and underserved
      populations, and healthcare disparity. Specific outcomes regarding patient
      navigator including the effect of the intervention on definitive diagnosis and
      effect on initiation of treatment were extracted from each study. The search
      produced 1428 articles, and 16 were included for review. All studies involved
      patient navigation in the field of oncology in underserved populations. Timing of
      initial contact with a patient navigator after diagnostic or screening testing is
      correlated to the effectiveness of the navigator intervention. The majority of
      the studies reported significantly shorter time intervals to diagnosis and to
      treatment with patient navigation. Patient navigation expedites oncologic
      diagnosis and treatment of patients in underserved populations. This intervention
      is more efficacious when utilized shortly after screening or diagnostic testing.

PMID- 28567666
TI  - Serum Protein-Based Profiles as Novel Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Alzheimer's
      Disease.
AB  - As a multi-stage disorder, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is quickly becoming one of
      the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. Thus, a non-invasive,
      serum-based diagnostic platform is eagerly awaited. The goal of this study was to
      identify a serum-based biomarker panel using a predictive protein-based algorithm
      that is able to confidently distinguish AD patients from control subjects. One
      hundred and fifty-six patients with AD and the same number of gender- and age
      matched control participants with standardized clinical assessments and
      neuroimaging measures were evaluated. Serum proteins of interest were quantified
      using a magnetic bead-based immunofluorescent assay, and a total of 33 analytes
      were examined. All of the subjects were then randomized into a training set
      containing 70% of the total samples and a validation set containing 30%, with
      each containing an equal number of AD and normal samples. Logistic regression and
      random forest analyses were then applied to develop a desirable algorithm for AD
      detection. The random forest method was found to generate a more robust
      predictive model than the logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, an eight
      protein-based algorithm was found to be the most robust with a sensitivity of
      97.7%, specificity of 88.6%, and AUC of 99%. Our study developed a novel eight
      protein biomarker panel that can be used to distinguish AD and control multi
      source candidates regardless of age. It is hoped that these results provide
      further insight into the applicability of serum-based screening methods and
      contribute to the development of lower-cost, less invasive methods for diagnosing
      AD and monitoring progression.

PMID- 28567669
TI  - Cerebral oxygenation during cortical activation: the differential influence of
      three exercise training modalities. A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine if a cerebral oxygenation response during cortical
      activation is influenced by exercise training mode. METHODS: Sixty-seven
      individuals (55-75 years old) volunteered for this 16-week intervention study.
      Participants were randomized into a resistance training (RT) group (n = 22), high
      intensity interval training (HIIT) group (n = 13), moderate continuous training
      (MCT) group (n = 13) and a control (CON) group (n = 19). Near-infrared
      spectroscopy was used to measure cerebral oxygenation during the Stroop task. A
      submaximal Bruce treadmill test was used to measure changes in walking endurance.
      RESULTS: The GROUP * TIME interaction for reaction time on the naming and
      executive Stroop conditions were not significant (P > 0.05). At post-test, the
      CON group showed increased brain activation, with significantly higher relative
      oxy-haemoglobin (O2Hb) values during the naming Stroop condition compared to pre
      test (P = 0.03), while their increased relative O2Hb on the complex condition
      showed a distinct trend toward significance (P = 0.09). MCT and HIIT participants
      exhibited decreased brain activation during the Stroop task, with MCT showing a
      significant increase in relative deoxy-haemoglobin (HHb) compared to pre-test
      during the naming and executive Stroop conditions (P < 0.05). The HIIT group
      improved significantly in walking endurance (P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Sixteen weeks
      of exercise training resulted in more efficient cerebral oxygenation during
      cortical activation compared to a no-exercise control group. Furthermore, HIIT
      and MCT were superior to RT for task-efficient cerebral oxygenation and improved
      oxygen utilization during cortical activation in older individuals.

PMID- 28567668
TI  - The impact of acute high-intensity interval exercise on biomarkers of
      cardiovascular health in type 2 diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) interventions improve
      cardiovascular health, yet the acute effects on circulating and functional
      biomarkers of cardiovascular function are unclear in individuals with type 2
      diabetes (T2D). To explore this, we conducted two investigations to examine the
      acute response to HIIT in individuals with T2D. METHODS: Study 1 measured blood
      pressure, endothelial-dependent dilation, circulating measures of endothelial
      activation, and troponin T, 30 min and 2 h after HIIT (7 * 1-min intervals) in
      T2D (n = 8) and age-matched normoglycemic controls (CTL; n = 8). Study 2 assessed
      circulating measures of endothelial activation and troponin T, 30 min, and 24 h
      after HIIT (10 * 1-min intervals) in ten previously trained T2D men. RESULTS: In
      study 1, markers of endothelial function and activation within the first 2 h
      after HIIT did not differ from baseline between T2D and CTL participants, except
      at 30 min after HIIT for glucose, which was reduced more in T2D than CTL (by -0.8
      +/- 1.2 mmol/L, p = 0.04), and VCAM-1, which was reduced more 30 min after HIIT
      in CTL compared to T2D (by -187 +/- 221 ng/mL, p = 0.05). Study 2 saw no
      significant difference in any circulating markers of endothelial activation and
      troponin T, 30 min, and 24 h after HIIT in trained T2D males. CONCLUSION:
      Exploratory findings from these two studies suggest that acute HIIT does not
      substantially alter circulating and functional markers of cardio(vascular) health
      in individuals with T2D who are unaccustomed (study 1) and accustomed to HIIT
      (study 2).

PMID- 28567670
TI  - Severity of Hypertension Correlates with Risk of Thromboembolic Stroke.
AB  - Hypertension plays a significant role in the development of atrial fibrillation
      (AF) and its complications. The coexistence of the two diseases increases the
      risk of thromboembolism events. Although CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores have been
      used in the evaluation of the thromboembolism events in AF patients, the
      different levels of the blood pressure are not appropriately recognized. In this
      study, the 970 AF patients were divided into three groups according to the
      severity of hypertension. The CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in the patients of
      grade 3 hypertension were significantly higher than those of the patients with
      grade 1 and 2 hypertension, respectively (P < 0.05). Both the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2
      VASc scores were positively related to the severity of hypertension (P < 0.001).
      Our data demonstrated that three grades for hypertensive subjects with AF
      significantly improved antithrombotic risk stratification in addition to current
      clinical risk stratification models, such as CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores.

PMID- 28567671
TI  - Downregulation of the Complement Cascade In Vitro, in Mice and in Patients with
      Cardiovascular Disease by the BET Protein Inhibitor Apabetalone (RVX-208).
AB  - Apabetalone (RVX-208) is an epigenetic regulator developed to treat
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) that targets BET proteins. Through transcriptional
      regulation RVX-208 modulates pathways that underlie CVD including reverse
      cholesterol transport, vascular inflammation, coagulation, and complement. Using
      transcriptomics and proteomics we show that complement is one of the top pathways
      downregulated by RVX-208 in primary human hepatocytes (PHH) and in plasma from
      CVD patients. RVX-208 reduces basal and cytokine-driven expression of complement
      factors in PHH and in chimeric mice with humanized livers. Plasma proteomics of
      CVD patients shows that RVX-208 decreases complement proteins and regulators,
      including complement activators SAP and CRP. Circulating activated fragments C5a,
      C3b, and C5b-C6 are reduced by 51, 32, and 10%, respectively, indicating
      decreased activity of complement in patients. As complement components are linked
      to CVD and metabolic syndrome, including major acute cardiac events, modulating
      their levels and activity by RVX-208 may alleviate risks associated with these
      diseases.

PMID- 28567672
TI  - Bioprocess engineering to produce 9-(nonanoyloxy) nonanoic acid by a recombinant
      Corynebacterium glutamicum-based biocatalyst.
AB  - Here, Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC13032 expressing Baeyer-Villiger
      monooxygenase from Pseudomonas putida KT2440 was designed to produce 9
      (nonanoyloxy) nonanoic acid from 10-ketostearic acid. Diverse parameters
      including cultivation and reaction temperatures, type of detergent, and pH were
      found to improve biotransformation efficiency. The optimal temperature of
      cultivation for the production of 9-(nonanoyloxy) nonanoic acid from 10
      ketostearic acid using whole cells of recombinant C. glutamicum was 15  degrees
      C, but the reaction temperature was optimal at 30  degrees C. Enhanced conversion
      efficiency was obtained by supplying 0.05 g/L of Tween 80 at pH 7.5. Under these
      optimal conditions, recombinant C. glutamicum produced 0.28 mM of 9-(nonanoyloxy)
      nonanoic acid with a 75.6% (mol/mol) conversion yield in 2 h. This is the first
      report on the biotransformation of 10-ketostearic acid to 9-(nonanoyloxy)
      nonanoic acid with a recombinant whole-cell C. glutamicum-based biocatalyst and
      the results demonstrate the feasibility of using C. glutamicum as a whole-cell
      biocatalyst.

PMID- 28567673
TI  - Diesel reformulation using bio-derived propanol to control toxic emissions from a
      light-duty agricultural diesel engine.
AB  - In the Indian agricultural sector, millions of diesel-driven pump-sets were used
      for irrigation purposes. These engines produce carcinogenic diesel particulates,
      toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions which threaten
      the livelihood of large population of farmers in India. The present study
      investigates the use of n-propanol, a less-explored high carbon bio-alcohol that
      can be produced by sustainable pathways from industrial and crop wastes that has
      an attractive opportunity for powering stationary diesel engines meant for
      irrigation and rural electrification. This study evaluates the use of n-propanol
      addition in fossil diesel by up to 30% by vol. and concurrently reports the
      effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on emissions of an agricultural DI
      diesel engine. Three blends PR10, PR20, and PR30 were prepared by mixing 10, 20,
      and 30% by vol. of n-propanol with fossil diesel. Results when compared to
      baseline diesel case indicated that smoke density reduced with increasing n
      propanol fraction in the blends. PR10, PR20, and PR30 reduced smoke density by
      13.33, 33.33, and 60%, respectively. NOx emissions increased with increasing n
      propanol fraction in the blends. Later, three EGR rates (10, 20, and 30%) were
      employed. At any particular EGR rate, smoke density remained lower with
      increasing n-propanol content in the blends under increasing EGR rates. NOx
      reduced gradually with EGR. At 30% EGR, the blends PR10, PR20, and PR30 reduced
      NOx emissions by 43.04, 37.98, and 34.86%, respectively when compared to baseline
      diesel. CO emissions remained low but hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were high for n
      propanol/diesel blends under EGR. Study confirmed that n-propanol could be used
      by up to 30% by vol. with diesel and the blends delivered lower soot density,
      NOx, and CO emissions under EGR.

PMID- 28567674
TI  - Electro-Fenton oxidation of para-aminosalicylic acid: degradation kinetics and
      mineralization pathway using Pt/carbon-felt and BDD/carbon-felt cells.
AB  - Degradation of a widely used antibiotic, the para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS), and
      mineralization of its aqueous solution was investigated by electro-Fenton process
      using Pt/carbon-felt and boron-doped diamond (BDD)/carbon-felt cells with applied
      currents in the range of 50-1000 mA. This process produces the highly oxidizing
      species, the hydroxyl radical (*OH), which is mainly responsible for the
      oxidative degradation of PAS. An absolute rate constant of 4.17 * 109 M-1 s-1 for
      the oxidation of PAS by ?OH was determined from the competition kinetics method.
      Degradation rate of PAS increased with current reaching an optimal value of 500
      mA with complete disappearance of 0.1 mM PAS at 7 min using Pt/carbon-felt cell.
      The optimum degradation rate was reached at 300 mA for BDD/carbon-felt. The
      latter cell was found more efficient in total organic carbon (TOC) removal where
      a complete mineralization was achieved within 240 min. A multi-step
      mineralization process was observed with the formation of a number of aromatic
      intermediates, short-chain carboxylic acids, and inorganic ions. Eight aromatic
      intermediate products were identified using both LC-Q-ToF-MS and GC-MS
      techniques. These products were the result of hydroxylation of PAS followed by
      multiple additions of hydroxyl radicals to form polyhydroxylated derivatives.
      HPLC and GC/MS analyses demonstrated that extended oxidation of these
      intermediate products conducted to the formation of various short-chain
      carboxylic acids. Prolonged electrolysis resulted in a complete mineralization of
      PAS with the evolution of inorganic ions such as NO3- and NH4+. Based on the
      identified intermediates, carboxylic acids and inorganic ions, a plausible
      mineralization pathway is also deduced. The remarkably high degree of
      mineralization (100%) achieved by the present EF process highlights the potential
      application of this technique to the complete removal of salicylic acid-based
      pharmaceuticals from contaminated water.

PMID- 28567675
TI  - Impact of metal stress on the production of secondary metabolites in Pteris
      vittata L. and associated rhizosphere bacterial communities.
AB  - Plants adapt to metal stress by modifying their metabolism including the
      production of secondary metabolites in plant tissues. Such changes may impact the
      diversity and functions of plant associated microbial communities. Our study
      aimed to evaluate the influence of metals on the secondary metabolism of plants
      and the indirect impact on rhizosphere bacterial communities. We then compared
      the secondary metabolites of the hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata L. collected
      from a contaminated mining site to a non-contaminated site in Vietnam and
      identified the discriminant metabolites. Our data showed a significant increase
      in chlorogenic acid derivatives and A-type procyanidin in plant roots at the
      contaminated site. We hypothesized that the intensive production of these
      compounds could be part of the antioxidant defense mechanism in response to
      metals. In parallel, the structure and diversity of bulk soil and rhizosphere
      communities was studied using high-throughput sequencing. The results showed
      strong differences in bacterial composition, characterized by the dominance of
      Proteobacteria and Nitrospira in the contaminated bulk soil, and the enrichment
      of some potential human pathogens, i.e., Acinetobacter, Mycobacterium, and
      Cupriavidus in P. vittata's rhizosphere at the mining site. Overall, metal
      pollution modified the production of P. vittata secondary metabolites and altered
      the diversity and structure of bacterial communities. Further investigations are
      needed to understand whether the plant recruits specific bacteria to adapt to
      metal stress.

PMID- 28567677
TI  - Illumina sequencing-based analysis of a microbial community enriched under
      anaerobic methane oxidation condition coupled to denitrification revealed
      coexistence of aerobic and anaerobic methanotrophs.
AB  - Methane is produced in anaerobic environments, such as reactors used to treat
      wastewaters, and can be consumed by methanotrophs. The composition and structure
      of a microbial community enriched from anaerobic sewage sludge under methane
      oxidation condition coupled to denitrification were investigated. Denaturing
      gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis retrieved sequences of Methylocaldum
      and Chloroflexi. Deep sequencing analysis revealed a complex community that
      changed over time and was affected by methane concentration. Methylocaldum
      (8.2%), Methylosinus (2.3%), Methylomonas (0.02%), Methylacidiphilales (0.45%),
      Nitrospirales (0.18%), and Methanosarcinales (0.3%) were detected. Despite
      denitrifying conditions provided, Nitrospirales and Methanosarcinales, known to
      perform anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to denitrification (DAMO) process,
      were in very low abundance. Results demonstrated that aerobic and anaerobic
      methanotrophs coexisted in the reactor together with heterotrophic
      microorganisms, suggesting that a diverse microbial community was important to
      sustain methanotrophic activity. The methanogenic sludge was a good inoculum to
      enrich methanotrophs, and cultivation conditions play a selective role in
      determining community composition.

PMID- 28567678
TI  - Removal of hexavalent chromium upon interaction with biochar under acidic
      conditions: mechanistic insights and application.
AB  - Chromium pollution of soil and water is a serious environmental concern due to
      potential carcinogenicity of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] when ingested.
      Eucalyptus bark biochar (EBB), a carbonaceous black porous material obtained by
      pyrolysis of biomass at 500  degrees C under oxygen-free atmosphere, was used to
      investigate the removal of aqueous Cr(VI) upon interaction with the EBB, the
      dominant Cr(VI) removal mechanism(s), and the applicability to treat Cr(VI)
      contaminated wastewater. Batch experiments showed complete removal of aqueous
      Cr(VI) at pH 1-2; sorption was negligible at pH 1, but ~55% of total Cr was
      sorbed onto the EBB surface at pH 2. Detailed investigations on unreacted and
      reacted EBB through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray
      photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) indicate that the carboxylic groups in biochar
      played a dominant role in Cr(VI) sorption, whereas the phenolic groups were
      responsible for Cr(VI) reduction. The predominance of sorption-reduction
      mechanism was confirmed by XPS studies that indicated ~82% as Cr(III) and ~18% as
      Cr(VI) sorbed on the EBB surface. Significantly, Cr(VI) reduction was also
      facilitated by dissolved organic matter (DOM) extracted from biochar. This
      reduction was enhanced by the presence of biochar. Overall, the removal of Cr(VI)
      in the presence of biochar was affected by sorption due to electrostatic
      attraction, sorption-reduction mediated by surface organic complexes, and aqueous
      reduction by DOM. Relative dominance of the aqueous reduction mechanism depended
      on a critical biochar dosage for a given electrolyte pH and initial Cr(VI)
      concentration. The low-cost EBB developed here successfully removed all Cr(VI) in
      chrome tanning acidic wastewater and Cr(VI)-contaminated groundwater after pH
      adjustment, highlighting its potential applicability in effective Cr(VI)
      remediation.

PMID- 28567676
TI  - Occurrence of phthalates in aquatic environment and their removal during
      wastewater treatment processes: a review.
AB  - Phthalates are plasticizers and are concerned environmental endocrine-disrupting
      compounds. Due to their extensive usage in plastic manufacturing and personal
      care products as well as the potential to leach out from these products,
      phthalates have been detected in various aquatic environments including drinking
      water, groundwater, surface water, and wastewater. The primary source of their
      environmental occurrence is the discharge of phthalate-laden wastewater and
      sludge. This review focuses on recent knowledge on the occurrence of phthalate in
      different aquatic environments and their fate in conventional and advanced
      wastewater treatment processes. This review also summarizes recent advances in
      biological removal and degradation mechanisms of phthalates, identifies knowledge
      gaps, and suggests future research directions.

PMID- 28567679
TI  - Androgens, oestrogens, and progesterone concentrations in wastewater purification
      processes measured with capillary electrophoresis.
AB  - A novel analytical-scale concept to improve reliability of detection and analysis
      of natural and processed wastewater samples from a purification plant was
      developed. A sequential sample clean-up system of polymer-based octadecyl and
      silane-based quaternary amine sorbents were used for concentrating human based
      steroid hormones and their metabolites and detecting them by UV absorption with
      capillary electrophoresis (CE). The water samples were collected from influent
      and effluent processes of the water purification plant in Helsinki, Finland.The
      CE methods were partial-filling micellar electrokinetic chromatography and
      capillary zone electrophoresis. The analysis times and method concentration
      levels were optimized with eight steroids at the range of 0.5-10 mg/L. Since in
      CE the detectable quantities were higher than the existing amounts in the process
      waters, the real samples needed matrix removal combined with steroid enrichment.
      After 20,000-fold concentration testosterone-glucoside, androstenedione,
      progesterone, and estradiol-glucoside could be determined in the process water
      samples. The amounts of individual steroids in influent and effluent waters were
      0-429 and 0-207 ng/L, respectively. Correspondently, their total amounts were 735
      and 212 ng/L with excellent in day and inter-day repeatability. The RSD values
      were less than 1, 9.7, and 19% in repeated analyses, calculated from 60 analyses
      during 24 h, and from 130 analyses during 15 months, respectively. The steroid
      removal in purification process was 65% on average. The solid particles separated
      in three steps during the water clean-up concept contained 9.8-45 ng/g steroids
      in combined dry precipitates.

PMID- 28567680
TI  - Determination of a new index of sexual maturity (ISM) in zebra mussel using flow
      cytometry: interest in ecotoxicology.
AB  - The global dynamic spread of chemical contamination through the aquatic
      environment calls for the development of biomarkers of interest. Reproduction is
      a key element to be considered because it is related to the sustainability of
      species. Spermatogenesis is a complex process that leads to the formation of
      mature germ cells, whose steps and impairments need to be finely described in
      ecotoxicological analyses. The physiological process has been commonly described
      by histological analyses of gonads in different taxa. In the present paper, we
      describe the development of a novel technique to characterize spermatogenesis
      based on the analysis of the DNA content of germ cells by flow cytometry, using a
      DNA-intercalating agent. This new biomarker, referred to as an index of sexual
      maturity, proved relevant to describe the seasonal reproductive cycle of the
      zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771), used as a sentinel species in
      the biomonitoring of continental waters and sensitive to highlight the
      reprotoxicity of carbamazepine (an anti-epileptic pharmaceutical) tested under
      ecosystemic conditions (mesocosms).

PMID- 28567681
TI  - Study on the removal of hormones from domestic wastewaters with lab-scale
      constructed wetlands with different substrates and flow directions.
AB  - Eight wastewater samples from a university campus were analysed between May and
      July of 2014 to determine the concentration of 14 natural and synthetic steroid
      hormones. An on-line solid-phase extraction combined with ultra-high performance
      liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (on-line SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS)
      was used as extraction, pre-concentration and detection method. In the samples
      studied, three oestrogens (17beta-estradiol, estrone and estriol), two androgens
      (boldenone and testosterone), three progestogens (norgestrel, progesterone and
      norethisterone) and one glucocorticoid (prednisone) were detected. The removal of
      hormones was studied in primary and secondary constructed wetland mesocosms. The
      porous media of the primary constructed wetlands were palm tree mulch. These
      reactors were used to study the effect of water flow, i.e. horizontal (HF1) vs
      vertical (VF1). The latter was more efficient in the removal of 17beta-estradiol
      (HF1: 30%, VF1: 50%), estrone (HF1: 63%, VF1: 85%), estriol (100% both),
      testosterone (HF1: 45%, VF1: 73%), boldenone (HF1:-77%, VF1: 100%) and
      progesterone (HF1: 84%, VF1: 99%). The effluent of HF1 was used as influent of
      three secondary constructed wetland mesocosms: two double-stage vertical flow
      constructed wetlands, one with gravel (VF2gravel) and one with palm mulch
      (VF2mulch), and a mineral-based, horizontal flow constructed wetland (HFmineral).
      VF2mulch was the most efficient of the secondary reactors, since it achieved the
      complete removal of the hormones studied with the exception of 17beta-estradiol.
      The significantly better removal of BOD and ammonia attained by VF2mulch suggests
      that the better aeration of mulch favoured the more efficient removal of
      hormones.

PMID- 28567682
TI  - Nitrate removal from drinking water with a focus on biological methods: a review.
AB  - This article summarizes several developed and industrial technologies for nitrate
      removal from drinking water, including physicochemical and biological techniques,
      with a focus on autotrophic nitrate removal. Approaches are primarily classified
      into separation-based and elimination-based methods according to the fate of the
      nitrate in water treatment. Biological denitrification as a cost-effective and
      promising method of biological nitrate elimination is reviewed in terms of its
      removal process, applicability, efficiency, and associated disadvantages. The
      various pathways during biological nitrate removal, including assimilatory and
      dissimilatory nitrate reduction, are also explained. A comparative study was
      carried out to provide a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages
      of autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification. Sulfur-based and hydrogen-based
      denitrifications, which are the most common autotrophic processes of nitrate
      removal, are reviewed with the aim of presenting the salient features of
      hydrogenotrophic denitrification along with some drawbacks of the technology and
      research areas in which it could be used but currently is not. The application of
      algae-based water treatment is also introduced as a nature-inspired approach that
      may broaden future horizons of nitrate removal technology.

PMID- 28567683
TI  - The biological response chain to pollution: a case study from the "Italian
      Triangle of Death" assessed with the liverwort Lunularia cruciata.
AB  - The liverwort Lunularia cruciata, known for being a species tolerant to pollution
      able to colonize urban areas, was collected in the town of Acerra (South Italy)
      to investigate the biological effects of air pollution in one of the three
      vertices of the so-called Italian Triangle of Death. The ultrastructural damages
      observed by transmission electron microscopy in specimens collected in Acerra
      were compared with samples collected in the city center of Naples and in a small
      rural site far from sources of air pollution (Riccia, Molise, Southern Italy).
      The biological response chain to air pollution was investigated considering
      vitality, photosynthetic efficiency, heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) induction and
      gene expression levels, and chlorophyll degradation and related ultrastructural
      alterations. Particularly, a significant increment in Hsp70 expression and
      occurrence, and modifications in the chloroplasts' ultrastructure can be strictly
      related to the environmental pollution conditions in the three sites. The results
      could be interpreted in relation to the use of these parameters as biomarkers for
      environmental pollution.

PMID- 28567684
TI  - Possible maternal offloading of metals in the plasma, uterine and capsule fluid
      of pregnant ragged-tooth sharks (Carcharias taurus) on the east coast of South
      Africa.
AB  - We studied the possible metal offloading onto the progeny of three pregnant
      female ragged-tooth sharks (Carcharias taurus) (C. taurus). The presences of five
      metals, i.e. aluminium (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and selenium
      (Se) were validated by mass spectrometry in the maternal plasma as well as the
      intracapsular and uterine fluids (UF) in which embryos develop. Metals were
      ranked in a decreasing concentration as follows: Plasma: As > Al > Se > Pb > Cd;
      ICF: As > Se > Al > Cd > Pb and UF: As > Se > Al > Cd > Pb. As was present in the
      highest concentration in all three sharks. Al, Pb and Cd were found to be the
      highest within the plasma, while concentrations of Se were similar in all three
      fluids. These results indicate that C. taurus embryos are exposed to metals
      during early development, but the impact of this exposure remains unknown. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation to confirm the presence of
      metals in the fluids that surround the developing C. taurus embryos, a species
      that is already listed as vulnerable.

PMID- 28567685
TI  - Genotoxicity in adult residents in mineral coal region-a cross-sectional study.
AB  - The present study assessed the DNA damage in environmentally exposed volunteers
      living in seven municipalities in an industrial coal region, through the use of
      the comet assay with blood cells and the micronucleus test with buccal cells.
      Blood and buccal smears were collected from 320 male volunteers living in seven
      cities inserted in a coal region. They were ages of 18 and 50 years and also
      completed a questionnaire intended to identify factors associated with DNA damage
      through a Poisson regression analysis. The comet assay detected significant
      differences in DNA damage in volunteers from different municipalities, and
      neighboring cities (Pedras Altas, Acegua, and Hulha Negra) had a higher level of
      DNA damage in relation to control city. Some of the risk factors associated with
      identified DNA lesions included residence time and life habits. On the other
      hand, the micronucleus test did not identify differences between the cities
      studied, but the regression analysis identified risk factors such as age and life
      habits (consumption of mate tea and low carbohydrates diet). We conclude that
      there are differences in the DNA damage of volunteers from different cities of
      the carboniferous region, but the presence of micronuclei in the oral mucosa does
      not differ between the same cities. Furthermore, we alert that some related
      factors may increase the risk of genotoxicity, such as residence location and
      time, and living and food habits. Finally, we suggest the need for continuous
      biomonitoring of the population, as well as for investing in health promotion in
      these vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28567686
TI  - Tobacco Rattle Virus-Based Silencing of Enoyl-CoA Reductase Gene and Its Role in
      Resistance Against Cotton Wilt Disease.
AB  - A Tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-based virus-induced gene silencing assay was
      employed as a reverse genetic approach to study gene function in cotton
      (Gossypium hirsutum). This approach was used to investigate the function of the
      Enoyl-CoA reductase (GhECR) gene in pathogen defense. Amino acid sequence
      alignment of Arabidopsis ECR with homologous sequence from G. hirsutum, G.
      arboreum, G. herbaceum and G. barbadense showed that ECRs are highly conserved
      among these species. TRV-based silencing of GhECR gene in G. hirsutum induced a
      cell death/necrotic lesion-like phenotype. Reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR showed reduced GhECR mRNA levels
      in TRV inoculated plants. Three isolates of Verticillium dahliae (V. dahliae) and
      Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (FOV) were used to infect GhECR-silenced
      plants. Out of 6 races of 2 pathogens, down regulation of GhECR gene resulted in
      reduced resistance. This is the first report showing that cotton GhECR gene is
      involved in resistance to different strains of V. dahliae and FOV.

PMID- 28567687
TI  - Integrated Method for Purification and Single-Particle Characterization of
      Lentiviral Vector Systems by Size Exclusion Chromatography and Tunable Resistive
      Pulse Sensing.
AB  - Elements derived from lentiviral particles such as viral vectors or virus-like
      particles are commonly used for biotechnological and biomedical applications, for
      example in mammalian protein expression, gene delivery or therapy, and vaccine
      development. Preparations of high purity are necessary in most cases, especially
      for clinical applications. For purification, a wide range of methods are
      available, from density gradient centrifugation to affinity chromatography. In
      this study we have employed size exclusion columns specifically designed for the
      easy purification of extracellular vesicles including exosomes. In addition to
      viral marker protein and total protein analysis, a well-established single
      particle characterization technology, termed tunable resistive pulse sensing, was
      employed to analyze fractions of highest particle load and purity and
      characterize the preparations by size and surface charge/electrophoretic
      mobility. With this study, we propose an integrated platform combining size
      exclusion chromatography and tunable resistive pulse sensing for monitoring
      production and purification of viral particles.

PMID- 28567688
TI  - Effects of upper-airway stimulation on sleep architecture in patients with
      obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - PURPOSE: Selective upper-airway stimulation (UAS) is a novel therapy for patients
      with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The aim of this study was to compare changes
      in sleep architecture during the diagnostic polysomnography and the post
      implantation polysomnography in UAS in patients with OSA. METHODS: Twenty-six
      patients who received a UAS device (Inspire Medical Systems) were included.
      Treatment outcome was evaluated 2 and 3 months after surgery. Data collection
      included demographics, body mass index (BMI), apnea hypopnea index (AHI), oxygen
      saturation and desaturation index (ODI), Epworth sleepiness score (ESS), arousal
      parameter, and sleep patterns. RESULTS: The mean age was 60.2 years, 25 patients
      were male, 1 patient was female. Mean BMI was 29.0 kg/m2. The mean pre
      implantation AHI of 33.9/h could be reduced to 9.1/h at 2 months post
      implantation (p < 0.001). The amount of time spent in N1-sleep could be reduced
      from 23.2% at baseline to 16.0% at month 3 post-implantation. The amount of time
      spent in N2- and N3-sleep did not change during the observation period. A
      significant increase of the amount of REM sleep at month 2 (15.7%) compared to
      baseline (9.5%; p = 0.010) could be observed. A reduction of the number of
      arousals and the arousal index could be observed. CONCLUSION: In conclusion,
      significant changes in sleep architecture of patients with OSA and sufficient
      treatment with UAS could be observed. A reduction of the amount of time spent in
      N1-sleep could be caused by treatment with UAS and the rebound of REM sleep,
      observed for the first time in a study on UAS, is also a potential marker of the
      efficacy of UAS on sleep architecture. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02293746.

PMID- 28567689
TI  - Response to "is sedation administration strategy and analysis during drug-induced
      sedation endoscopy objective and systematic?"

PMID- 28567690
TI  - Intervention for CPAP adherence in OSAS: a choice to patient or technique?

PMID- 28567691
TI  - Autologous adipose tissue-derived stem cells for the treatment of complex
      perianal fistulas not associated with Crohn's disease: a phase II clinical trial
      for safety and efficacy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Injection of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) is a novel method
      for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas. We aimed to evaluate the safety
      and efficacy of ASCs in the treatment of complex anal fistulas not associated
      with Crohn's disease. METHODS: A phase II clinical trial was performed comparing
      two different doses of ASCs (group 1: 1 * 107 cells/mL and group 2: 2 * 107
      cells/mL). Eligible patients were administered an amount of ASCs proportional to
      the length of the fistula by injection into the submucosal layer surrounding the
      internal opening and inside of the fistula tract. ASCs at twice the initial
      concentration were administered if complete closure was not achieved within 8
      weeks. The efficacy endpoint was the complete closure of fistulas 8 weeks after
      injection. Patients demonstrating complete closure at week 8 were subjected to
      follow-up for 6 months. RESULTS: Fifteen patients were injected with ASCs;
      thirteen completed the study. Complete closure was observed in 69.2% (9/13) of
      patients at 8 weeks. Three of five patients in group 1, and six of eight in group
      2 displayed complete closure; no significant differences were observed between
      the groups. Six of nine patients who showed complete closure participated in
      additional follow-up; five (83.3%) showed persistent response at 6 months. No
      grade 3 or 4 adverse events (AEs) were observed; observed AEs were not related to
      ASC treatment. CONCLUSION: ASCs might be a good option for the treatment of
      complex perianal fistulas are not healed by conventional operative procedures.

PMID- 28567692
TI  - Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis in patients with irritable bowel syndrome
      on a low FODMAP diet: a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a low
      fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP) diet on the
      nutritional status and body composition, abdominal symptoms, quality of life,
      anxiety/depression and sleep quality of patients with irritable bowel syndrome
      (IBS). METHODS: Consecutive patients were given a low FODMAP diet for 8 weeks. At
      baseline and after 8 weeks, blood tests were taken to evaluate nutritional status
      and a bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed to assess body composition.
      Anthropometric data, IBS Symptom Severity Score, results of a bowel habits
      questionnaire, Bristol Stool Chart classification, SF36, Hamilton Depression
      Anxiety Scale outcome and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were also recorded.
      During the 8-week diet period, the patients were phoned periodically by the
      nutritionist to verify their compliance. RESULTS: Twenty-six IBS patients with a
      mean age of 46.2 +/- 13.8 years were studied. After 8 weeks, there were no
      abnormalities in anthropometric data, bioelectrical impedance parameters and
      blood tests. The patients' IBS Symptom Severity Score improved (305.2 +/- 84.1 vs
      156.3 +/- 106.4; p < 0.0001), as did bowel habits, Bristol Stool Chart
      classification, quality of life and HADS anxiety score, whereas sleeping quality
      and depression were unchanged. The degree of relief from symptoms and
      satisfaction with the diet was high. CONCLUSIONS: A low FODMAP diet improved IBS
      symptoms without effects on nutritional status and body composition.

PMID- 28567693
TI  - Per oral endoscopic pyloromyotomy for refractory gastroparesis: initial results
      from a single institution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gastroparesis is a debilitating disease characterized by delayed
      gastric emptying in the absence of mechanical obstruction. A new intramural
      technique, per oral endoscopic pyloromyotomy (POP), has been proposed as an
      alternative to surgical pyloroplasty for the management of medical refractory
      gastroparesis. Herein, we detail the short-term results of POP at our
      institution. METHODS: POP was first performed at our institution in January 2016.
      All patients undergoing POP for management of gastroparesis from January 2016
      through January 2017 were prospectively followed. All patients underwent a 4-h,
      non-extrapolated gastric emptying scintigraphy study and were asked to rate their
      symptoms using the Gastroparesis Cardinal Symptom Index (GCSI) at their pre
      procedure visit and at 3 months post-procedure. RESULTS: A total of 47 patients
      underwent POP during the defined study period. Twenty-seven (57.4%) patients had
      idiopathic gastroparesis, 12 (25.6%) had diabetic gastroparesis, and eight
      (17.0%) had post-surgical gastroparesis. Forty-one (87.2%) patients had at least
      one previous intervention (i.e., enteral feeding tube, gastric pacer, botox
      injection) for their gastroparesis symptoms. All patients had evidence of
      gastroparesis on pre-procedure gastric emptying studies. The average length of
      hospital stay was 1 day. One patient died within 30-days of their index procedure
      which was unrelated to the procedure itself. The average pre-procedure percentage
      of retained food at 4 h was 37% compared to an average post-procedure percentage
      of 20% (p < 0.03). The average pre-procedure GCSI score was 4.6 compared to an
      average post-procedure GCSI of 3.3 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: POP is a safe and
      feasible endoscopic intervention for medical refractory gastroparesis. Additional
      follow-up is required to determine the long-term success of this approach in
      alleviating gastroparesis symptoms.

PMID- 28567694
TI  - A novel surgery technique: non-visual dissection for establishing the operating
      space during total endoscopic thyroidectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients and surgeons are typically satisfied with the cosmetic
      results of total endoscopic thyroidectomy using the complete areola approach.
      However, the disadvantages of this approach include an excessive free flap and a
      longer operative time. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted in 72
      patients (64 women and 8 men) with a benign thyroid nodule who underwent non
      unvisual dissection to establish the operating space for endoscopic surgery.
      RESULTS: The time needed to create the operating space in the chest was 6.43 +/-
      0.94 min. The time for the overall operating space was 15.35 +/- 1.52 min. The
      overall surgical time was 96.54 +/- 19.32 min. The flap area in the chest was
      30.25 +/- 3.42 cm2. CONCLUSIONS: Application of non-visual dissection shorten the
      time to create operating space and the overall surgical time, and markedly
      reduced the flap area. Our non-unvisual dissection technique for establishing the
      operating space is different from any previous techniques.

PMID- 28567695
TI  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection for laterally spreading tumors involving the
      appendiceal orifice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the endoscopic resection of laterally spreading tumors (LSTs)
      involving the appendiceal orifice remains technically difficult, such lesions are
      usually treated by surgical resection. However, with recent advances in
      endoscopic devices, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has become feasible
      and may be safely performed even for lesions involving the appendiceal orifice.
      Therefore, in order to assess the validity of endoscopic treatment for such
      lesions, we retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of ESD. METHODS: A
      total of 30 patients with LSTs extending to within 10 mm of the appendiceal
      orifice (Group AO) and 122 patients with cecal LSTs located away from the
      appendiceal orifice (Group C) who were treated between December 2011 and
      September 2015 were retrospectively enrolled in the present study. The
      indications for ESD were determined by the preoperative endoscopic diagnosis made
      on the basis of Kudo's pit pattern classification. Based on these preoperative
      endoscopic diagnoses, 8 of the 30 enrolled patients underwent surgical resection
      as the initial treatment, because the tumor showed deep invasion beyond the
      orifice and/or a VN pit pattern was visible. The treatment outcomes (en bloc R0
      resection rates, tumor size, procedure time, and complication rates) were
      compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity for the
      cancer diagnosis were 81.8 and 94.7%, respectively. There was no significant
      difference in the en bloc R0 resection rate between Group AO and Group C (90.9
      vs. 95.9%, P = 0.23). Furthermore, there were also no differences in the mean
      tumor size (30.0 +/- 20.8 vs. 34.9 +/- 14.5 mm, P = 0.17) or mean OR time (55.0
      +/- 39.2 vs. 58.9 +/- 48.2 min P = 0.72) between the two groups. One case from
      Group AO (4.5%) was complicated by a perforation, which was successfully managed
      endoscopically. CONCLUSIONS: Although proficiency in endoscopic techniques is
      required, our results indicate that LSTs involving the appendiceal orifice can be
      successfully treated by ESD.

PMID- 28567696
TI  - Blunted stress reactivity in chronic cannabis users.
AB  - RATIONALE: One of the most commonly cited reasons for chronic cannabis use is to
      cope with stress. Consistent with this, cannabis users have shown reduced
      emotional arousal and dampened stress reactivity in response to negative imagery.
      OBJECTIVES: To our knowledge, the present study represents the first to examine
      the effects of an acute stress manipulation on subjective stress and salivary
      cortisol in chronic cannabis users compared to non-users. METHODS: Forty cannabis
      users and 42 non-users were randomly assigned to complete either the stress or no
      stress conditions of the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST). The stress
      condition of the MAST manipulates both physiological (placing hand in ice bath)
      and psychosocial stress (performing math under conditions of social evaluation).
      Participants gave baseline subjective stress ratings before, during, and after
      the stress manipulation. Cortisol was measured from saliva samples obtained
      before and after the stress manipulation. Further, cannabis cravings and symptoms
      of withdrawal were measured. RESULTS: Subjective stress ratings and cortisol
      levels were significantly higher in non-users in the stress condition relative to
      non-users in the no stress condition. In contrast, cannabis users demonstrated
      blunted stress reactivity; specifically, they showed no increase in cortisol and
      a significantly smaller increase in subjective stress ratings. The stress
      manipulation had no impact on cannabis users' self-reported cravings or
      withdrawal symptoms. CONCLUSION: Chronic cannabis use is associated with blunted
      stress reactivity. Future research is needed to determine whether this helps to
      confer resiliency or vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology as well as
      the mechanisms underlying this effect.

PMID- 28567700
TI  - Different impact of aortic regurgitation assessed by aortic root angiography
      after transcatheter aortic valve implantation according to baseline left
      ventricular ejection fraction and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an alternative therapeutic
      option for severe aortic stenosis. Aortic regurgitation (AR) is commonly observed
      after TAVI and increases the mortality rate. We hypothesized that the influence
      of significant AR, defined as that more severe than mild AR, on survival rate
      after TAVI might differ according to the baseline left ventricular ejection
      fraction (LVEF) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP) level.
      We categorized 856 patients who underwent transfemoral TAVI into 2 groups
      according to their baseline LVEF (<40 and >=40%) and NT-pro BNP levels (<=5000
      and >5000 pg/mL). Significant AR was observed in 92 patients (11%). Among
      patients with significant AR, the proportion of patients with CoreValve/EvolutR
      implantation was higher than that of patients with SAPIEN XT/3 implantation.
      Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test showed that significant AR was not
      associated with 1-year mortality in patients with LVEF >=40% and those with NT
      pro BNP level <=5000 pg/mL. On the other hand, it was significantly associated
      with a higher 1-year mortality in patients with LVEF <40% (p = 0.003) and those
      with NT-pro BNP level >5000 pg/mL (p = 0.011). Similarly, multivariate Cox
      regression analysis showed that the presence of AR was significantly associated
      with a higher 1-year mortality in patients with LVEF <40% [p = 0.005, hazard
      ratio (HR) = 3.626] and NT-pro BNP level >5000 pg/mL (p = 0.004, HR = 3.221).
      However, AR was not significantly associated with a higher 1-year mortality in
      patients with LVEF >=40% and NT-pro BNP level <=5000 pg/mL. Thus, the impact of
      significant AR on mortality after TAVI seems to be considerable in patients with
      reduced LVEF or high NT-pro BNP levels, but not those with preserved LVEF or low
      NT-pro BNP levels, suggesting that the influence of AR differs depending on the
      baseline LVEF and NT-pro BNP level.

PMID- 28567697
TI  - Dopaminergic mechanisms in memory consolidation and antidepressant reversal of a
      chronic mild stress-induced cognitive impairment'.
AB  - Cognitive deficits in depression can be modelled using the novel object
      recognition (NOR) test, performance in which is impaired by chronic mild stress
      (CMS). We aimed to examine the involvement of mesocorticolimbic DA terminal
      regions, and to establish the substrate for CMS-induced impairment of NOR and its
      reversal by chronic antidepressant treatment. In experiments 1 and 2, we examined
      the effect of infusions into medial PFC, dorsal hippocampus (HPC), and nucleus
      accumbens (NAc) shell of D1 and D2 antagonists and D3 agonist, which were
      predicted to impair NOR with a short (1 h) delay, and of D1 and D2 agonists and
      D3 antagonist, which were predicted to facilitate NOR with a long (24 h) delay.
      Using optimal doses identified in experiment 2, in experiments 3 and 4, we
      examined effects on drug-stimulated NOR of CMS and chronic treatment with
      venlafaxine (VFX) or risperidone (RSP). We found a wide involvement of DA systems
      in memory for NOR: D1 receptors in PFC, HPC, and NAc; D3 receptors in PFC and
      HPC; and D2 receptors in PFC. CMS impaired D2- and D3-mediated effects in PFC and
      HPC; antidepressants rescued those effects in PFC but not HPC. The involvement of
      DA in NOR is multifaceted, but the effects of CMS and antidepressants are more
      discrete, involving D2 and D3 receptors in PFC specifically. While raising many
      difficult questions, these results suggest that the D2 and D3 receptors in the
      medial PFC may be an important substrate for cognitive deficits in depression and
      their remediation.

PMID- 28567698
TI  - Incidence and risk factors of acute akathisia in 493 individuals with first
      episode non-affective psychosis: a 6-week randomised study of antipsychotic
      treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute akathisia is a neuropsychiatric syndrome with a negative
      effect on illness outcome. Its incidence in patients treated with antipsychotics
      has shown to be highly variable across studies. OBJECTIVES: Our goals were to
      investigate prevalence, risk factors for the development of acute akathisia, and
      differences in incidence between antipsychotics in a sample of 493 first episode
      non-affective psychosis patients. METHODS: This is a pooled analysis of three
      prospective, randomized, flexible-dose, and open-label clinical trials. Patients
      were randomized assigned to different arms of treatment (haloperidol, quetiapine,
      olanzapine, ziprasidone, risperidone, or aripiprazole). Akathisia was determined
      using the Barnes Akathisia Scale at 6 weeks after antipsychotic initialization.
      Univariate analyses were performed to identify demographic, biochemical,
      substance use, clinical, and treatment-related predictors of acute akathisia.
      Considering these results, a predictive model based of a subsample of 132
      patients was constructed with akathisia as the dependent variable. RESULTS: The
      overall incidence of akathisia was 19.5%. No differences in demographic,
      biochemical, substance use, and clinical variables were found. Significant
      incidence differences between antipsychotics were observed (Chi 2 = 68.21, p =
      0.000): haloperidol (57%), risperidone (20%), aripiprazole (18.2%), ziprasidone
      (17.2%), olanzapine (3.6%), and quetiapine (3.5%). The predictive model showed
      that the type of antipsychotic (OR = 21.3, p = 0.000), need for hospitalization
      (OR = 2.6, p = 0.05), and BPRS total score at baseline (OR = 1.05, p = 0.03) may
      help to predict akathisia emergence. CONCLUSIONS: Among second generation
      antipsychotics, only olanzapine and quetiapine should be considered as akathisia
      sparing drugs. The type of antipsychotic, having been hospitalized, and a more
      severe symptomatology at intake seem to predict the development of acute
      akathisia.

PMID- 28567699
TI  - Effects of nalfurafine on the reinforcing, thermal antinociceptive, and
      respiratory-depressant effects of oxycodone: modeling an abuse-deterrent opioid
      analgesic in rats.
AB  - RATIONALE: Strategies to reduce the misuse of mu opioid agonists are critically
      needed. Previous work has shown that kappa opioid agonists can diminish the abuse
      related effects and augment the antinociceptive effects of mu agonists. However,
      use of traditional kappa agonists is limited by their dysphoric side effects.
      OBJECTIVES: The current study examined the effects of nalfurafine, a clinically
      available atypical kappa agonist, on the reinforcing, thermal antinociceptive,
      and respiratory-depressant effects of oxycodone in male rats. METHODS: To
      determine oxycodone/nalfurafine mixture proportions to be examined intravenously
      across procedures, a progressive ratio (PR) self-administration procedure
      compared the reinforcing effects of oxycodone (56 MUg/kg/inj) available alone or
      as a mixture with co-administered nalfurafine (0.32, 1, or 3.2 MUg/kg/inj),
      corresponding to oxycodone/nalfurafine proportions of 175:1, 56:1, and 18:1,
      respectively. Next, PR and thermal antinociception dose-effect functions were
      each determined for oxycodone, nalfurafine, and the same oxycodone/nalfurafine
      mixture proportions. Finally, the respiratory-depressant effects of equi
      antinociceptive doses of oxycodone, nalfurafine, and the mixtures were compared.
      RESULTS: Nalfurafine decreased the reinforcing effects of oxycodone, and the 18:1
      mixture did not function as a reinforcer. Oxycodone and nalfurafine each produced
      dose-dependent antinociception, and the mixtures produced additive
      antinociception. In addition, antinociceptive doses of the 56:1 and 18:1 mixtures
      did not produce respiratory depression. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that
      nalfurafine may augment the thermal antinociceptive effects while reducing the
      reinforcing and respiratory-depressant effects of oxycodone.

PMID- 28567701
TI  - Towards Microcapsules with Improved Barrier Properties.
AB  - Microencapsulation is the generic term for numerous technologies, which are often
      used when the release rate of an active substance in a medium has to be
      controlled and/or contact between the active substance and the medium has to be
      prevented. This is achieved by wrapping the tiny particles or droplets of the
      active substance (capsule core) with a thin layer, or membrane, of another
      material (capsule shell). The permeability of the membrane determines whether,
      how fast and under which conditions the active material will be released and/or
      the components of the medium will enter the inner part of the capsule. Insofar as
      application is concerned, premature release of an active substance from
      microcapsules during storage is a very common problem. Prevention of diffusion of
      an active component or components of the outer medium through the capsule
      membrane is a complex challenge, which so far cannot be considered as solved.
      This review briefly covers the theoretical aspects of release kinetics from
      microcapsules and discusses how such parameters as capsule average size, capsule
      shell thickness as well as the chemical composition of active material and medium
      can influence the release profiles. All theoretical considerations are based on
      the dissolution-diffusion mechanism classically used for the explanation of
      diffusion trough flat membranes/films. In the second part of the manuscript it is
      discussed, which strategies have been used for the improvement of the barrier
      properties of microcapsules up to date and to which extent those strategies were
      successful.

PMID- 28567702
TI  - Cardiovascular morbidity and long term mortality associated with in hospital
      small increases of serum creatinine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular risk associated with an increase in serum
      creatinine below the acute kidney injury (AKI) threshold, during hospitalization,
      has not been studied in depth. We assessed patients' features and outcomes
      associated with these changes. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of 12,493
      consecutive patients admitted to hospital throughout 12 months. We investigated
      the patients who had a small creatinine increase (SISCr) between 1.2 and <1.5
      times the admission value, and tested the association of creatinine changes with
      the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In a follow-up study, we assessed
      the all-cause mortality and its relationship with SISCr. RESULTS: Among patients
      with two or more creatinine measurements, 14.9% showed a SISCr. Older age, female
      gender and higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at admission were
      characteristics of these patients. The prevalence of CVD was 14.6% in patients
      with SISCr vs. 10.7% in those with stable creatinine (p < 0.001). SISCr was
      detected in 36, 26.6 and 18.9% of chronic heart failure (CHF), chronic ischemic
      heart disease (CIHD) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients,
      respectively. The follow-up was 26.7 +/- 10.6 months with 770 all-cause deaths.
      Serum creatinine increase above 20% was associated with a significant higher
      mortality compared to changes below 20%, adjusted hazard (HR) ratio 1.577 (p <
      0.001). A higher risk was found associated with creatinine increases >1.5 times
      the baseline: HR 1.704 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In hospitalized patients,
      increases in serum creatinine below the AKI threshold are associated with CHF,
      CIHD and long-term mortality.

PMID- 28567703
TI  - Alcohol Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer by Histologic Subtype and Estrogen
      Receptor Status Among Women Aged 55 to 74 Years.
AB  - Previous studies suggest that alcohol consumption and risk of breast cancer may
      differ by histologic subtype and hormone receptor status, though results are not
      entirely consistent. In this population-based case-control study, we evaluated
      the association between alcohol consumption and risk of invasive ductal carcinoma
      (IDC), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), and invasive ductal-lobular carcinoma
      (IDLC) overall and by estrogen receptor (ER) status, among women aged 55-74 years
      of age. Using polytomous regression, associations between current alcohol
      consumption, overall and by type of alcohol, and breast cancer risk were
      evaluated in 891 controls and 905 IDC, 567 ILC, and 489 IDLC cases. Current
      alcohol use was moderately associated with risk of ILC (odds ratio = 1.25, 95%
      confidence interval 0.99, 1.58) with a positive dose-response relationship based
      on average number of drinks per week consumed (P trend = 0.0005). When further
      stratified by ER status, alcohol use was positively associated with risk of ER+
      ILC (P trend = 0.002) and ER+ IDC (P trend = 0.02), but inversely associated with
      risk of ER-IDC (P trend = 0.01). No association between alcohol and risk of IDLC
      tumors was observed. While the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer
      risk is well established, our results suggest that the increased risk associated
      with alcohol is largely limited to ER+ ILC and ER+ IDC. Thus, avoiding or
      moderating alcohol consumption may be one way that women can lower their risks of
      these forms of breast cancer.

PMID- 28567704
TI  - Fission yeast Ctf1, a cleavage and polyadenylation factor subunit is required for
      the maintenance of genomic integrity.
AB  - Accurate segregation of chromosome during mitosis requires the coordinated action
      of several cell cycle checkpoints that monitor replication of the genome and the
      attachment of sister chromatids to the mitotic spindle apparatus. Here we have
      characterized the fission yeast Ctf1, an ortholog of S. cerevisiae Rna15 in the
      maintenance of genomic integrity. The ctf1 is nonessential for the cell survival
      and its deletion strain exhibit cold sensitivity. The ctf1 deleted cells exhibit
      genetic interaction with spindle checkpoint protein Mad2 and Bub1. The deletion
      of ctf1 gene affects the chromosomal attachment to the mitotic spindle leading to
      the accumulation of Bub1-GFP foci. Ctf1 localizes to the nucleus and physically
      interacts with Rna14, a cleavage and polyadenylation factor.

PMID- 28567705
TI  - Diagnostic value of Doppler echocardiography for identifying hemodynamic
      significant pulmonary valve regurgitation in tetralogy of Fallot: comparison with
      cardiac MRI.
AB  - Quantification of pulmonary regurgitation (PR) is essential in the management of
      patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). We sought to evaluate the
      accuracy of first-line Doppler echocardiography in comparison with cardiac
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify hemodynamic significant PR. Paired
      cardiac MRI and echocardiographic studies (n = 97) in patients with repaired TOF
      were retrospectively analyzed. Pressure half time (PHT) and pulmonary
      regurgitation index (PRi) were measured using continuous wave Doppler. The ratio
      of the color flow Doppler regurgitation jet width to pulmonary valve (PV) annulus
      (jet/annulus ratio) and diastolic to systolic time velocity integral (DSTVI;
      pulsed wave Doppler) were assessed. Accuracy of echocardiographic measurements
      was tested to identify significant PR as determined by phase-contrast MRI (PR
      fraction [PRF] >= 20%). Mean PRF was 29.4 +/- 15.7%. PHT < 100 ms had a
      sensitivity of 93%, specificity 75%, positive predictive value (PPV) 92% and
      negative predictive value (NPV) 78% for identifying significant PR (C-statistic
      0.82). PRi < 0.77 had sensitivity and specificity of 66% and 54%, respectively (C
      statistic 0.63). Jet/annulus ratio >=1/3 had sensitivity 96%, specificity 75%,
      PPV 92% and NPV 82% (C-statistic 0.87). DSTVI had sensitivity 84%, specificity
      33%, PPV 84% and NPV 40%, (C-statistic 0.56). Combined jet/annulus ratio >=1/3
      and PHT < 100 ms was highly accurate in identifying PRF >= 20%, with sensitivity
      97% and specificity 100%. PHT and jet/annulus ratio on Doppler echocardiography,
      especially when combined, are highly accurate in identifying significant PR and
      therefore seem useful in the follow-up of patients with repaired TOF.

PMID- 28567706
TI  - The effect of strut thickness on shear stress distribution in a preclinical
      model.

PMID- 28567707
TI  - Anaerobic digestion of amine-oxide-based surfactants: biodegradation kinetics and
      inhibitory effects.
AB  - Recently, anaerobic degradation has become a prevalent alternative for the
      treatment of wastewater and activated sludge. Consequently, the anaerobic
      biodegradability of recalcitrant compounds such as some surfactants require a
      thorough study to avoid their presence in the environment. In this work, the
      anaerobic biodegradation of amine-oxide-based surfactants, which are toxic to
      several organisms, was studied by measuring of the biogas production in digested
      sludge. Three amine-oxide-based surfactants with structural differences in their
      hydrophobic alkyl chain were tested: Lauramine oxide (AO-R12), Myristamine oxide
      (AO-R14) and Cocamidopropylamine oxide (AO-cocoamido). Results show that AO-R12
      and AO-R14 inhibit biogas production, inhibition percentages were around 90%. AO
      cocoamido did not cause inhibition and it was biodegraded until reaching a
      percentage of 60.8%. Otherwise, we fitted the production of biogas to two kinetic
      models, to a pseudo first-order model and to a logistic model. Production of
      biogas during the anaerobic biodegradation of AO-cocoamido was pretty good
      adjusted to the logistics model. Kinetic parameters were also determined. This
      modelling is useful to predict their behaviour in wastewater treatment plants and
      under anaerobic conditions in the environment.

PMID- 28567708
TI  - Clinical value of fluorine-18alpha-methyltyrosine PET in patients with gliomas:
      comparison with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the relationship between metabolic activity and
      histological features of gliomas using fluorine-18alpha-methyltyrosine (18F-FAMT)
      positron emission tomography (PET) compared with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose
      (18F-FDG) PET in 38 consecutive glioma patients. The tumor to normal brain ratios
      (T/N ratios) were calculated, and the relationships between T/N ratio and World
      Health Organization tumor grade or MIB-1 labeling index were evaluated. The
      diagnostic values of T/N ratios were assessed using receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to differentiate between high-grade gliomas
      (HGGs) and low-grade gliomas (LGGs). RESULTS: Median T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET
      was 2.85, 4.65, and 4.09 for grade II, III, and IV gliomas, respectively, with
      significant differences between HGGs and LGGs (p = 0.006). Both T/N ratio (p =
      0.016) and maximum standardized uptake value (p = 0.033) of 18F-FDG PET showed
      significant differences between HGGs and LGGs. ROC analysis yielded an optimal
      cut-off of 3.37 for the T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET to differentiate between HGGs
      and LGGs (sensitivity 81%, specificity 67%, accuracy 76%, area under the ROC
      curve 0.776). Positive predictive value was 84%, and negative predictive value
      was 62%. T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET was not correlated with MIB-1 labeling index
      in all gliomas, whereas T/N ratio of 18F-FDG PET was positively correlated (r s 
      = 0.400, p = 0.013). Significant positive correlation was observed between T/N
      ratios of 18F-FDG and 18F-FAMT (r s  = 0.454, p = 0.004), but median T/N ratio of
      18F-FAMT PET was significantly higher than that of 18F-FDG PET in all grades of
      glioma. CONCLUSIONS: The T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT uptake has high positive
      predictive value for detection of HGGs. 18F-FAMT PET had higher T/N ratio, with
      better tumor-normal brain contrast, compared to 18F-FDG PET in both LGGs and
      HGGs. Therefore, 18F-FAMT is a useful radiotracer for the preoperative
      visualization of gliomas.

PMID- 28567709
TI  - Renal cell cancers: unveiling the hereditary ones and saving lives-a tailored
      diagnostic approach.
AB  - The prevalence of RCC in Europe is 2-3% and increasing every year. Hereditary
      predisposition is found in 5-8% of all RCC cases. Hereditary syndromes associated
      with RCC include: Von Hippel-Lindau, hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma,
      Birt-Hogg-Dube', hereditary leiomyomatosis, succinate dehydrogenase's deficiency,
      tuberous sclerosis complex and Cowden's syndrome. These syndromes are related to
      specific genetic mutations. So far the European Association of Urology and
      American Urological Association have not established guidelines for referral of
      patients with RCC for germline mutation screening. The scope of this article is
      to review which clinical manifestations should direct clinicians' thinking
      towards hereditary kidney carcinomas and therefore suggest which patients could
      benefit from genetic testing.

PMID- 28567710
TI  - The preoperative cardiology consultation: indications and risk modification.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cardiologist is regularly consulted preoperatively by
      anaesthesiologists. However, insights into the efficiency and usefulness of these
      consultations are unclear. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 24,174
      preoperatively screened patients >=18 years scheduled for elective non-cardiac
      surgery, which resulted in 273 (1%) referrals to the cardiologist for further
      preoperative evaluation. Medical charts were reviewed for patient
      characteristics, main reason for referring, requested diagnostic tests,
      interventions, adjustment in medical therapy, 30-day mortality and major adverse
      cardiac events. RESULTS: The most common reason for consultation was the
      evaluation of a cardiac murmur (95 patients, 35%). In 167 (61%) patients, no
      change in therapy was initiated by the cardiologist. Six consultations (2%) led
      to invasive interventions (electrical cardioversion, percutaneous coronary
      intervention or coronary artery bypass surgery). On average, consultation delayed
      clearance for surgery by two weeks. CONCLUSION: In most patients referred to the
      cardiologist after being screened at an outpatient anaesthesiology clinic,
      echocardiography is performed for ruling out specific conditions and to be sure
      that no further improvement can be made in the patient's health. In the majority,
      no change in therapy was initiated by the cardiologist. A more careful
      consideration about the potential benefits of consulting must be made for every
      patient.

PMID- 28567712
TI  - Cellular fluid shear stress on implant surfaces-establishment of a novel
      experimental set up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanostimuli of different cells can affect a wide array of cellular
      and inter-cellular biological processes responsible for dental implant healing.
      The purpose of this in vitro study was to establish a new test model to create a
      reproducible flow-induced fluid shear stress (FSS) of osteoblast cells on implant
      surfaces. METHODS: As FSS effects on osteoblasts are detectable at 10 dyn/cm2, a
      custom-made flow chamber was created. Computer-aided verification of circulation
      processes was performed. In order to verify FSS effects, cells were analysed via
      light and fluorescence microscopy. RESULTS: Utilising computer-aided simulations,
      the underside of the upper plate was considered to have optimal conditions for
      cell culturing. At this site, a flow-induced orientation of osteoblast cell
      clusters and an altered cell morphology with cellular elongation and alteration
      of actin fibres in the fluid flow direction was detected. CONCLUSIONS: FSS
      simulation using this novel flow chamber might mimic the peri-implant situation
      in the phase of loaded implant healing. With this FSS flow chamber, osteoblast
      cells' sensitivity to FSS was verified in the form of morphological changes and
      cell re-clustering towards the direction of the flow. Different shear forces can
      be created simultaneously in a single experiment.

PMID- 28567711
TI  - The Case for Diabetes Population Health Improvement: Evidence-Based Programming
      for Population Outcomes in Diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The goal of this review is to describe diabetes within a
      population health improvement framework and to review the evidence for a diabetes
      population health continuum of intervention approaches, including diabetes
      prevention and chronic and acute diabetes management, to improve clinical and
      economic outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies have shown that compared to
      usual care, lifestyle interventions in prediabetes lower diabetes risk at the
      population-level and that group-based programs have low incremental medial cost
      effectiveness ratio for health systems. Effective outpatient interventions that
      improve diabetes control and process outcomes are multi-level, targeting the
      patient, provider, and healthcare system simultaneously and integrate community
      health workers as a liaison between the patient and community-based healthcare
      resources. A multi-faceted approach to diabetes management is also effective in
      the inpatient setting. Interventions shown to promote safe and effective glycemic
      control and use of evidence-based glucose management practices include provider
      reminder and clinical decision support systems, automated computer order entry,
      provider education, and organizational change. Future studies should examine the
      cost-effectiveness of multi-faceted outpatient and inpatient diabetes management
      programs to determine the best financial models for incorporating them into
      diabetes population health strategies.

PMID- 28567713
TI  - Serial reconstruction of order and serial recall in verbal short-term memory.
AB  - We carried out a series of experiments on verbal short-term memory for lists of
      words. In the first experiment, participants were tested via immediate serial
      recall, and word frequency and list set size were manipulated. With closed lists,
      the same set of items was repeatedly sampled, and with open lists, no item was
      presented more than once. In serial recall, effects of word frequency and set
      size were found. When a serial reconstruction-of-order task was used, in a second
      experiment, robust effects of word frequency emerged, but set size failed to show
      an effect. The effects of word frequency in order reconstruction were further
      examined in two final experiments. The data from these experiments revealed that
      the effects of word frequency are robust and apparently are not exclusively
      indicative of output processes. In light of these findings, we propose a multiple
      mechanisms account in which word frequency can influence both retrieval and
      preretrieval processes.

PMID- 28567715
TI  - MDMX is a prognostic factor for non-small cell lung cancer and regulates its
      sensitivity to cisplatin.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chemoradiotherapy is the standard treatment modality for advanced non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, drug and radiation resistance remain
      major factors influencing its clinical outcome. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate whether MDMX can affect the chemosensitivity and clinical outcome of
      NSCLC. METHODS: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to assess MDMX
      mRNA expression levels in 105 primary NSCLC tissues, its corresponding non
      cancerous tissues and two NSCLC-derived cell lines (A549 and SK-MES-1). In
      addition, immunohistochemistry was carried out to detect MDMX protein expression
      in the primary NSCLC tissues. The MDMX expression levels were correlated with
      clinicopathological and survival features. The effects of MDMX expression
      knockdown on NSCLC cell proliferation and chemosensitivity were evaluated using
      MTT, flow cytometry and soft agar colony assays. RESULTS: We found that the mRNA
      expression level of MDMX in NSCLC tissues was significantly higher than that in
      its corresponding non-tumorous tissues. High MDMX expression was found to be
      related to poor tumor cell differentiation, advanced TNM stages and the
      occurrence of lymph node metastases. Patients with a high MDMX expression level
      exhibited a lower overall survival rate than those with a low expression level.
      Multivariate analysis showed that a high MDMX protein expression level may serve
      as an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients. In addition, we found
      that MDMX expression knockdown combined with cisplatin treatment in vitro
      significantly increased apoptosis and decreased soft agar colony formation in
      NSCLC-derived cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that MDMX expression may
      serve as an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for NSCLC patient outcome,
      which in turn may at least partly be due to the ability of the MDMX protein to
      regulate the proliferative capacity and chemosensitivity of NSCLC cells.

PMID- 28567716
TI  - Bariatric surgery influences beta-cell turnover in non obese rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between the
      different bariatric surgeries and pancreatic beta-cell turnover. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We used healthy adult male Wistar rats to undergo the different
      techniques. Three surgical techniques were developed (malabsorptive, Sleeve
      gastrectomy and Roux-Y Gastric Bypass-), together with two control groups (Sham
      and fasting control). Pancreatic beta-cell mass was measured, as well as
      apoptosis, proliferation and neogenesis related to cellular turnover. Otherwise,
      we measured the functional issues to elucidate the physiological role that these
      surgical techniques trigger in the carbohydrate metabolism (e.g. food intake,
      weight gain, intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test, and basal glycaemia).
      Results included the differences in phenotypes of the rat after the surgery. The
      rats did not show important differences in glycaemic parameters between the
      surgical groups. The beta-cell mass presented modifications related with
      proliferation processes. A significant increase of beta-cell mass in the
      malabsorptive technique was reported. On the other hand, the peripheral
      resistance to insulin tended to be reduced in rats which underwent malabsorptive
      and mixed techniques. CONCLUSION: This work showed an increase in beta-cell mass
      after the resection of an important portion of small bowel. The Roux-Y Gastric
      Bypass produced a non-significant increase in beta-cell mass. We considered that
      these implications of surgery over the endocrine pancreas must be one of the
      mechanisms related to the improvement of type 2 Diabetes mellitus following
      bariatric surgery.

PMID- 28567714
TI  - Epidemiology of hip fracture and the development of FRAX in Ukraine.
AB  - : A country-specific FRAX model has been developed for the Ukraine to replace the
      Austrian model hitherto used. Comparison of the Austrian and Ukrainian models
      indicated that the former markedly overestimated fracture probability whilst
      correctly stratifying risk. INTRODUCTION: FRAX has been used to estimate
      osteoporotic fracture risk since 2009. Rather than using a surrogate model, the
      Austrian version of FRAX was adopted for clinical practice. Since then, data have
      become available on hip fracture incidence in the Ukraine. METHODS: The incidence
      of hip fracture was computed from three regional estimates and used to construct
      a country-specific FRAX model for the Ukraine. The model characteristics were
      compared with those of the Austrian FRAX model, previously used in Ukraine by
      using all combinations of six risk factors and eight values of BMD (total number
      of combinations =512). RESULTS: The relationship between the probabilities of a
      major fracture derived from the two versions of FRAX indicated a close
      correlation between the two estimates (r > 0.95). The Ukrainian version, however,
      gave markedly lower probabilities than the Austrian model at all ages. For a
      major osteoporotic fracture, the median probability was lower by 25% at age 50
      years and the difference increased with age. At the age of 60, 70 and 80 years,
      the median value was lower by 30, 53 and 65%, respectively. Similar findings were
      observed for men and for hip fracture. CONCLUSION: The Ukrainian FRAX model
      should enhance accuracy of determining fracture probability among the Ukrainian
      population and help to guide decisions about treatment. The study also indicates
      that the use of surrogate FRAX models or models from other countries, whilst
      correctly stratifying risk, may markedly over or underestimate the absolute
      fracture probability.

PMID- 28567718
TI  - SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STAMINATE AND PISTILLATE PLANTS OF DIOECIOUS
      TROPICAL FOREST TREES.

PMID- 28567719
TI  - MALE RARITY OR NOVELTY, FEMALE CHOICE BEHAVIOR, AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE
      GUPPY, POECILIA RETICULATA PETERS (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28567717
TI  - ZP1609/danegaptide and mitochondrial connexin hemichannels: a harbinger for
      peptide drug design.
AB  - LINKED ARTICLES: This article is a Commentary on Boengler K, Bulic M,
      Schreckenberg R, Schluter K-D, Schulz R (2017). The gap junction modifier ZP1609
      decreases cardiomyocyte hypercontracture following ischaemia/reperfusion
      independent from mitochondrial connexin 43. Br J Pharmacol 174: 2060-2073.
      https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13804.

PMID- 28567720
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL DIVERGENCE AND SPECIATION IN TWO FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICAN FISHES.

PMID- 28567721
TI  - ELECTROPHORETIC ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS IN TETRAHYMENA.

PMID- 28567722
TI  - OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING OF BABOONS AND AVOIDANCE OF MIMICS: EXPLORATORY TESTS.

PMID- 28567723
TI  - POLLEN-OVULE RATIOS: A CONSERVATIVE INDICATOR OF BREEDING SYSTEMS IN FLOWERING
      PLANTS.

PMID- 28567725
TI  - ANELOSIMUS STUDIOSUS (ARANEAE: THERIDIIDAE) AND THE EVOLUTION OF QUASISOCIALITY
      IN THERIDIID SPIDERS.

PMID- 28567724
TI  - THE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF CUPANIA GUATEMALENSIS RADLK. (SAPINDACEAE).

PMID- 28567726
TI  - A GENERAL MODEL TO ACCOUNT FOR ENZYME VARIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS. III.
      MULTIPLE ALLELES.

PMID- 28567727
TI  - POPULATION SIZE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE EVOLUTION OF EXPERIMENTAL CULTURES OF
      DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA.

PMID- 28567728
TI  - GENETIC HOMOGENEITY AND SPECIATION IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC LIZARDS CNEMIDOPHORUS
      VELOX AND C. NEOMEXICANUS: EVIDENCE FROM INTRASPECIFIC HISTOCOMPATIBILITY.

PMID- 28567729
TI  - ALLOZYME, SI GENE, CYTOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOLOGICAL POLYMORPHISMS IN A POPULATION
      OF OENOTHERA BIENNIS.

PMID- 28567730
TI  - CRYPTIC SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY IN AMSINCKIA GRANDIFLORA.

PMID- 28567731
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF GROUP SELECTION.

PMID- 28567732
TI  - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LACTATION IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALS.

PMID- 28567733
TI  - LIFE HISTORY STRATEGY AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF TRIBOLIUM FLOUR BEETLES.

PMID- 28567734
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN CLOSELY RELATED SIBLING SPECIES DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA,
      DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS AND DROSOPHILA MIRANDA.

PMID- 28567735
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN PARTULA.

PMID- 28567736
TI  - VARIATION IN AGONISTIC BEHAVIOR BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF THE STOMATOPOD,
      HAPTOSQUILLA GLYPTOCERCUS.

PMID- 28567737
TI  - HOST-PARASITE RESEMBLANCE IN AUSTRALIAN MISTLETOES: THE CASE FOR CRYPTIC MIMICRY.

PMID- 28567738
TI  - FIGHTING BEHAVIOR OF MUNTJAC AND THE EVOLUTION OF ANTLERS.

PMID- 28567739
TI  - LEK BEHAVIOR IN DROSOPHILA (HIRTODROSOPHILA) POLYPORI MALLOCH-AN AUSTRALIAN
      RAINFOREST SPECIES.

PMID- 28567740
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIZE, NUMBERS, AND AN ALLELE
      FREQUENCY IN A POPULATION OF MYTILUS EDULIS.

PMID- 28567741
TI  - REPLY TO "SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SKATES (RAJIDAE)".

PMID- 28567742
TI  - Transient ischemic attack and ischemic stroke patients with or without prior
      stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A history of stroke is common in patients with transient ischemic
      attack (TIA) and ischemic stroke (IS), but there are few reports characterizing
      this group of patients. We aimed to compare characteristics, risk factors, and
      secondary preventive treatment in patients with TIA or IS with vs without a
      history of stroke. METHODS: Hospital-based data on TIA and IS events, registered
      from July 2011 to June 2013, were obtained from the Swedish Stroke Register
      (Riksstroke). Previous stroke was not specified as hemorrhagic or ischemic.
      RESULTS: A history of stroke was present in 19.3% (2892/15012) of TIA and 24.6%
      (10853/44169) of IS patients. Patients with prior stroke were older, more often
      male, and more likely to have atrial fibrillation (AF) (TIA: 27.4% vs 16.4%; IS:
      36.1% vs 28.0%), hypertension (TIA: 77.5% vs 56.4%; IS: 74.2% vs 59.0%), and
      diabetes mellitus (TIA: 22.2% vs 14.2%; IS: 26.3% vs 19.5%) compared with those
      without (all differences P<.0001). At discharge, patients with prior stroke were
      more often treated with antihypertensive drugs than those without, whereas
      proportions treated with statins were similar in both groups. Patients with AF
      and prior stroke were less often treated with oral anticoagulant (OAC) medication
      than those without prior stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Both in TIA and IS, vascular risk
      factors were more common in patients with a history of stroke compared with those
      without. In contrast to other secondary preventive medications, OAC treatment in
      the presence of AF was underutilized in patients with a history of stroke.

PMID- 28567744
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SPERM SHORTAGE IN A SELFING HERMAPHRODITE.

PMID- 28567743
TI  - The use of selective progestin receptor modulators (SPRMs) and more specifically
      ulipristal acetate in the practice of gynaecology.
AB  - This review discusses the development of selective progestin receptor modulators
      (SPRMs) for use in women's health and specifically the use of ulipristal acetate
      (UPA) as emergency contraception (EC) and as a treatment for symptomatic fibroids
      in women who want to preserve their fertility or avoid a hysterectomy. As an EC,
      UPA 30 mg should be recommended for women, within 102 h of unprotected
      intercourse. As a treatment of fibroids, UPA (5 mg daily dose) should be
      administered for periods of three months as a pre-surgical strategy, reducing
      bleeding and fibroid size and facilitating surgery. A proportion of these
      patients may even avoid surgery. Future developments will demonstrate whether UPA
      can be used for other indications such as endometriosis and breast cancer
      prevention or treatment.

PMID- 28567745
TI  - ARE TRIOECY AND SEXUAL LABILITY IN ATRIPLEX CANESCENS GENETICALLY BASED?:
      EVIDENCE FROM CLONAL STUDIES.
AB  - Prior studies have alternatively considered floral phenotypes in Atriplex
      canescens as trioecious (having three sexual genders) and/or dioecious and having
      a "leaky genetical switch." Clones transplanted from three populations and grown
      in common gardens reveal the existence of two distinctly different genetic
      controls regulating gender expression. In some clones gender is fixed as male
      (staminate) or female (pistillate), while in other clones gender varies, ranging
      from a mixture of male and female ramets to simultaneous hermaphrodites with
      various proportions of male and female flowers. For clones which vary their sex
      expression, variation occurs within irrigation treatments, between treatments and
      over time, as a consequence of the combined effects of genotype plus environment.
      The magnitude of sex change is also a product of the interaction of genetics and
      environment. Some clones have been repeatedly examined for 20 years.

PMID- 28567746
TI  - THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF INBREEDING AND MATERNAL SEX IN DETERMINING PROGENY
      FITNESS IN SIDALCEA OREGANA SSP. SPICATA, A GYNODIOECIOUS PLANT.
AB  - Gynodioecious plant populations contain both hermaphrodite and female
      individuals. For females to be maintained they must compensate for their loss of
      reproductive fitness through pollen. Females may achieve compensation by
      producing more and/or higher quality seeds than hermaphrodites. In this study, I
      investigated the independent and interactive effects of maternal sexual identity
      and inbreeding level on fitness of the progeny of hermaphrodites and females of
      Sidalcea oregana ssp.spicata. Seeds produced by selling hermaphrodites and by
      outcrossing or sib-crossing hermaphrodites and females, were planted in the field
      and greenhouse. Maternal-sex effects were substantial at the juvenile stages of
      the life cycle; seeds of females germinated in higher proportions and produced
      seedlings that grew significantly faster. Inbreeding effects were manifested
      primarily at the adult stage of the life cycle. Outcrossed plants were
      significantly larger and produced more flowers per plant than sib-crossed and
      selfed plants growing in the greenhouse. Progeny of hermaphrodites and females
      appeared to respond similarly to sib-matings. The maternal-sex effects observed
      in Sidalcea may have been related to cytoplasmically inherited factors and could
      be a driving force in the maintenance of females. Inbreeding depression could
      play a role in determining the fitness of both sex morphs, if females experience
      biparental inbreeding in the field. Frequent inbreeding of hermaphrodites may not
      be necessary to explain the maintenance of gynodioecy in this species.

PMID- 28567747
TI  - COMPARISON OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC PARAMETERS: REPLY TO COWLEY AND ATCHLEY.

PMID- 28567748
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN CHRYSOPERLA: GENETIC VARIATION IN THE SENSORY MECHANISM
      AND IN CORRELATED REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS.
AB  - A genetically variable sensory mechanism provides phenotypic plasticity in the
      seasonal cycle of the Chrysoperla carnea species-complex of green lacewings. The
      mechanism functions as a switch during the pupal and early imaginal stages to
      determine aestival reproduction versus aestival dormancy, and it has two major
      components: (1) response to photoperiod and (2) response to a stimulus(i)
      associated with the prey of the larvae. Ultimately, the switch is based on the
      response to photoperiod-an all-or-nothing trait whose variation (long-day
      reproduction versus a short-day/long-day requirement for reproduction) is
      determined by alleles at two unlinked autosomal loci. In eastern North America,
      variation in this component of the switch differentiates two reproductively
      isolated "species" that are sympatric throughout the region: Chrysoperla carnea,
      in which both loci are homozygous for the dominant alleles that determine long
      day, spring and summer reproduction and thus multivoltinism, and C. downesi,
      which has a very high incidence of the recessive alleles for the short-day/long
      day requirement, and thus univoltine spring breeding. In contrast, geographical
      populations in western North America harbor variable amounts of within-and among
      family genetic variation for the photoperiodic responses and also for the
      switch's second component-adult responsiveness to the prey of the larvae. The
      geographic pattern of genetic variation in the two components of the switch
      indicates that it is a highly integrated adaptation to environmental
      heterogeneity. Expression of among-family variation in the prey component of the
      switch is highly dependent on photoperiodic conditions and genotype (it requires
      a constant long daylength and the recessive short-day/long-day genotype). Thus,
      we infer that responsiveness to prey evolved as a modifier of the photoperiodic
      trait. The switch has a significant negative effect on a major determinant of
      fitness; it lengthens the preoviposition period in nondiapausing reproductives.
      This negative effect may result in temporal variation in the direction of
      selection, which helps maintain genetic variability in the switch mechanisms of
      western populations. Also, the photoperiodic and prey components of the switch
      are positively correlated with fecundity in nondiapausing reproductives; however,
      the strong influence of environmental factors-presence or absence of prey-leaves
      open the question whether the correlated effects on fecundity are expressed in
      nature.

PMID- 28567749
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN MUROID RODENTS II. CRANIOMETRIC FACTOR DIVERGENCE IN
      SEVEN NEOTROPICAL GENERA, WITH EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FROM ZYGODONTOMYS.
AB  - First principal components extracted from covariance matrices of log-transformed
      craniodental measurements closely approximate general size factors within field
      collected samples representing 14 species in seven Neotropical muroid genera;
      because these samples are mixed-cross-sectional, scores are age-correlated and
      coefficients reflect postweaning growth allometries. Compared between congeners,
      sample first principal component coefficients are very similar, an observation
      that implies a nearly parallel orientation of ontogenetic trajectories in log
      measurement space. On the assumption that a common general size factor (estimated
      as the first principal component of the pooled-within covariance matrix) accounts
      for most of the observed measurement covariance within samples, size-adjusted
      differences between congeneric species were estimated variable-by-variable in
      separate analyses of covariance; these differences reflect developmental
      adjustments of craniodental morphology that precede the measured interval of
      postweaning ontogeny. Vectors of size-adjusted difference coefficients are not
      similar from genus to genus, and a diversity of causal mechanisms is probably
      responsible. Analyses of captive-bred samples from two "species" of Zygodontomys
      provide prima facie evidence that size-adjusted differences estimated from field
      collected samples have a genetic basis. Postweaning growth allometries in the
      muroid head skeleton may be conserved due to the biomechanical constraints of
      masticatory function; the apparent evolutionary plasticity of earlier ontogenetic
      adjustments may reflect the absence of such constraints in the fetus or suckling
      pup. The relevance of these results for current theories concerning the
      developmental genetics of mammalian morphometric evolution is discussed.

PMID- 28567750
TI  - PREMATING ISOLATION IS DETERMINED BY LARVAL SUBSTRATES IN CACTOPHILIC DROSOPHILA
      MOJAVENSIS.

PMID- 28567751
TI  - EDITORIAL ON PUBLISHING PAPERS IN EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28567752
TI  - TEMPERATURE DETERMINATION OF MALE OUTCROSSING ABILITY IN A SIMULTANEOUS
      HERMAPHRODITE.
AB  - Phally, a genital dimorphism found in some species of self-compatible
      simultaneous hermaphrodites, presents an opportunity to examine factors
      maintaining outcrossing within an animal species in the presence of
      recombination. Both aphallics and euphallics can self-fertilize but only
      euphallics develop a functional penis and prostate allowing them to donate sperm.
      Previous studies of phally in the gastropod Bulinus truncatus (Mollusca:
      Pulmonata) suggest that phally may be under direct genetic control in some
      populations and strongly influenced by environmental factors in others.
      Experiments reported here identify temperature as a cue affecting phally
      determination in two populations of B. truncatus. In both populations, a higher
      proportion of euphallics was produced at low temperature (22 +/- 1 degrees C)
      than at high temperature (30 +/- 1 degrees C). Temperatures experienced by
      parents did not affect the proportion of euphallics they produced. Instead,
      phally was sensitive to temperature during the egg stage postoviposition and
      during the hatchling stage; the relative influence of temperature before and
      after hatching varied between populations. The total number of hatchlings
      reaching maturity at high and low temperature did not differ, but at low
      temperature, snails took longer to hatch and mature, and had lower survivorship.
      Just as studies of environmental sex determination have shed light on selective
      pressures influencing sex ratio evolution, we suggest that temperature-sensitive
      phally determination may shed light on the selective pressures maintaining
      outcrossing in B. truncatus.

PMID- 28567753
TI  - OPTIMUM BROOD SIZE: TESTS OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES.
AB  - The most productive litter size (five) was not as common as expected in a free
      living population of white-footed mice. I evaluated four competing hypotheses
      that can explain this pattern. Reproductive costs and annual variation in
      recruitment appear to be insufficient explanations for the empirical distribution
      of litter size. Optimal investment of reproductive resources that vary among
      parents is supported by some tests, but not by all. The abundance of litters less
      than the apparent optimum is at least partially explained by asymmetric survival
      in large litters (the cliff-edge hypothesis). Hypotheses that explain the
      empirical distribution of brood size are not mutually exclusive. Several
      mechanisms can act alone, or interact, to create an average brood size less than
      that which appears to produce the greatest number of descendants.

PMID- 28567754
TI  - COMPARISON OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC PARAMETERS.

PMID- 28567755
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND FITNESS VARIATION IN A POPULATION OF SMALLMOUTH BASS,
      MICROPTERUS DOLOMIEUI (PISCES: CENTRARCHIDAE).
AB  - Monogamy is often presumed to constrain mating variance and restrict the action
      of sexual selection. We examined the reproductive patterns of a monogamous
      population of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui), and attempted to identify
      sources of within-season fitness variation among females and known-age males.
      Many males did not acquire a nest site, and many territorial males were
      unsuccessful in acquiring a mate. The likelihood that territorial males mated
      depended on several aspects of nest sites. Mated males of age three were larger
      than the average size of age-three males in the population. The mean sizes of age
      four and age-five mated males were not different from the average of same-age
      males in the population. Thus, selection resulting from the acquisition of a mate
      favored large size among only age-three males. Timing of nest construction and
      breeding among territorial males was negatively related to male size and did not
      depend on male age after taking male size into account. Indirect evidence
      (numbers of eggs deposited in nests) suggests that the timing of spawning among
      females was also negatively related to female size. Fertility selection favored
      early reproduction within the season by males of all ages, but large male size
      was favored among only age-four males. The combined early breeding of fecund
      females and female mate choice of large males may explain the positive
      correlation between the size of age-four males and the number of eggs acquired.
      Despite large differences of female fecundity, however, the variance of relative
      mate number contributed about two times more than the variance of relative
      fertility among females to the total variance of relative fitness within each
      sex.

PMID- 28567756
TI  - THE DETECTION OF GAMETIC DISEQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN ALLOZYME LOCI IN NATURAL
      POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The capacity of the usual tests (chi-square and related tests) to detect gametic
      disequilibrium between allozyme loci in natural populations of Drosophila has
      been investigated. We analyzed a large collection of previously reported gametic
      samples from natural populations involving a variety of loosely linked allozyme
      loci located along the O chromosome of Drosophila subobscura and the second
      chromosome of D. melanogaster. It is found that the statistical power of the
      individual tests to detect the sample disequilibria between allozyme loci is
      remarkably low, being the average (over pairs of loci) of power estimates close
      to 0.20 in both species. Moreover, the average minimum disequilibrium (D'min )
      that would be required to reject (90% probability) the hypothesis of gametic
      equilibrium is higher than 0.50 given the observed degree of polymorphism and
      sample sizes used. This means that statistically significant associations between
      allozyme loci would rarely be detected by single-sample tests even when much
      disequilibrium is present in natural populations of Drosophila. However, an
      alternative approach based on the analysis of disquilibrium for large sets of
      gametic samples, combining probabilities from single independent tests and
      assessing significance by a bootstrap procedure, reveals that most of the locus
      pairs within segment I and II of the O chromosome of D. subobscura and left arm
      of the second chromosome of D. melanogaster present significant nonrandom
      associations. Within these chromosomal sections, the observed average absolute
      value of disquilibrium (D') between loci is around 0.25 (under the more
      conservative estimation). Also, a positive relationship between the magnitude of
      disequilibrium and linkage was detected. These findings suggest that weak or
      moderate values of disequilibrium between loosely linked allozyme loci are more
      frequent in natural populations of Drosophila than is currently believed.

PMID- 28567757
TI  - BALANCING SELECTION IN A DESERT STREAM-DWELLING FISH, POECILIOPSIS MONACHA.
AB  - The desert stream-dwelling fish Poeciliopsis monacha is exposed to extreme
      seasonal and spatial variation in physical stresses. We examined four diallelic
      gene loci (Ldh-1, Idh-2, Pgd, and Ck-A) in P. monacha and tested whether
      genotypes were associated with differential survival of individuals exposed to
      acute stress. For each locus, the common allele was associated with higher
      survival during heat and hypoxic stress, whereas the alternate allele was
      associated with higher survival during cold stress. In most cases, survival of
      heterozygotes was intermediate and they exhibited less variance in survival than
      corresponding homozygotes. Identification of substantial linkage disequilibrium
      in these fish confounds our ability to discern whether the allozymes are the
      direct targets of selection, or if they just mark chromosomal regions that
      contain the true modifiers of survival. Nevertheless, the present results clearly
      identified balancing processes that can serve to stabilize genetic polymorphism
      in this species.

PMID- 28567758
TI  - VARIABLE SELECTION ON EUROSTA'S GALL SIZE, I: THE EXTENT AND NATURE OF VARIATION
      IN PHENOTYPIC SELECTION.
AB  - Natural fluctuations in environmental conditions are likely to induce variation
      in the intensity or direction of natural selection. A long-term study of the
      insect, Eurosta solidaginins Fitch (Diptera; Tephritidae), which induces stem
      galls on the perennial herb Solidago altissima (Asteraceae) was performed to
      explore the patterns of variation in phenotypic selection. The intensity of
      selection imposed by parasitoids and predators on gallmaking larvae, for gall
      size, was measured across 16 populations over the course of 4 generations, for a
      total of 64 population-generations. Directional selection was quantified by i,
      the selection intensity, and variance selection by j', a measure of the intensity
      of selection on phenotypic variance. Size-dependent attack by parasitoids caused
      upward directional selection (mean ip = 0.42; SE = 0.023), while size-dependent
      bird attack favored larvae that induced smaller galls (mean ib = -0.07; SE =
      0.013. The mean net directional selection intensity was 0.35 (SE = 0.030), which
      indicates that insects inducing larger galls are generally favored by selection.
      The opposing patterns of size-dependent attack resulted in stabilizing selection
      in half the population generations, with an overall average. j' of -0.11 (SE =
      0.078). The magnitude of directional selection was strongly influenced by the
      population mean gall size and weakly by the optimal gall size. The intensity of
      variance selection was strongly influenced by the shape of the fitness function,
      with sigmoidal and Gaussian-like shapes causing greater depletion of phenotypic
      variance.

PMID- 28567759
TI  - COMPARATIVE ONTOGENY OF A WILD CUCURBIT AND ITS DERIVED CULTIVAR.
AB  - Most previous studies of evolutionary modification of form in plants have focused
      primarily on individual organs or flowers. Few have investigated the role of
      evolutionary changes in timing or position at the level of whole plant ontogeny.
      This study compares ontogenies of the primary shoots of two subspecies of
      Cucurbita argyrosperma, one a cultivar and the other its wild progenitor.
      Differences in flowering times between these subspecies suggested that the
      cultivar may have evolved from the wild subspecies via heterochronic processes
      leading to paedomorphosis. Analyses showed that both subspecies are similar in
      vegetative architecture and rates of leaf production. Earlier flowering in the
      cultivar, both in terms of position and absolute time, appears to have arisen
      through progenesis. Initial observations of leaf blade morphology led to the
      hypothesis that paedomorphosis and gigantism also may have been involved in the
      evolution of leaf blade shape in the cultivar: all leaves of the cultivar are
      larger and visually similar in shape to early leaves of the wild subspecies.
      However, quantitative analysis revealed that leaves of the cultivar are neither
      geometrically, nor solely allometrically larger versions of early leaves of the
      progenitor. Leaf shape in the cultivar exhibits novel features as well as effects
      of allometry shared with the progenitor, hence a simple hypothesis of
      paedomorphic evolution of leaf shape is not supported.

PMID- 28567760
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY AND ENZYME HETEROZYGOSITY: INDIVIDUAL AND POPULATION
      LEVEL CORRELATIONS.

PMID- 28567761
TI  - EFFECTS OF PARENTAGE AND SIZE OF THE POLLEN LOAD ON PROGENY PERFORMANCE IN
      CAMPANULA AMERICANA.
AB  - To examine the effects of maternal and paternal parentage and the size of the
      pollen load on seed size and weight and on progeny performance we conducted a
      controlled crossing experiment using a natural population of Campanula americana.
      We found that seed size was positively correlated with early seedling performance
      for all but one of traits we measured (days to emergence), but was not
      significantly correlated with any of the later vegetative measures or
      reproductive output. We detected significant effects due to the maternal parent
      for the vegetative traits days to emergence, days to first leaf, and final plant
      height, as well as total seed weight, and mean seed weight per fruit. Significant
      paternal effects were found for all of the seedling traits except number of
      leaves after vernalization. The progeny from fruits receiving high pollen loads
      significantly outperformed the progeny from fruits receiving low pollen loads for
      the traits days to first and second leaf, numbers of leaves after vernalization,
      and days to first flower. These results not only demonstrate the importance of
      parentage and seed weight on progeny performance, but also indicate that
      variations in the size of the pollen load may be important in seedling
      establishment in natural populations.

PMID- 28567762
TI  - HETEROMORPHISM FOR A HIGHLY REPEATED SEQUENCE IN THE NEW ZEALAND FROG LEIOPELMA
      HOCHSTETTERI.
AB  - A satellite DNA sequence, Lhl, was cloned from the New Zealand endemic frog
      Leiopelma hochstetteri. Large tandem arrays of Lh1 were localized by in situ
      hybridization to the long arm of a small telocentric autosome in some
      individuals, but these arrays were absent from other individuals. Lh1 is also
      present in varying amounts on some supernumerary chromosomes in some individuals.
      Heteromorphism for the presence of Lh1 exists in two populations that have been
      separated by a sea channel since the end of the Pleistocene, indicating that the
      heteromorphism either has arisen repeatedly or has persisted for at least 10,000
      years. Individuals lacking Lh1 thus appear to be at no significant selective
      disadvantage. The variation in Lh1 copy number probably results from its
      interstitial chromosomal location, which exposes it to more frequent unequal
      crossovers than the pericentromeric or telocentric locations of most satellite
      DNA. Lh1 may be parasitic or simply inert junk, but in either case it may be
      deleted or dispersed throughout the rest of the genome through unequal crossing
      over.

PMID- 28567763
TI  - THE THIRD PHASE OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING-BALANCE: A SIMPLE ANALYSIS OF THE EXTREME
      CASE.

PMID- 28567764
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM, MATING SYSTEM AND BODY SIZE IN NEW WORLD BLACKBIRDS
      (ICTERINAE).
AB  - Although sexual selection is widely accepted as a primary functional cause of
      sexual size dimorphism in birds and mammals, results from some comparative
      studies have cast doubt on this conclusion. Chief among these contradictory
      results is the widespread association between body size and size dimorphism-large
      species tend to be more dimorphic than small species. This correlation is not
      directly predicted by the normal sexual selection scenario, and many hypotheses
      have been advanced to explain it. This paper reviews these hypotheses and
      evaluates them using data for the New World blackbirds (Icterinae). In this avian
      subfamily, (1) body size correlates with the intensity of sexual selection (as
      measured by mean harem size), and (2) size does not correlate with dimorphism if
      the effects of mating system are removed. Similar results are obtained when
      controlling for the confounding influence of phylogeny. Further, body size and
      mating system are associated with nesting dispersion. These results strongly
      argue that sexual dimorphism is a product of sexual selection in this subfamily,
      and suggest that either: (1) large body size itself, or the ecology of large
      species, promotes the development of coloniality and a polygynous mating system;
      or (2) polygyny and/or coloniality lead to the evolution of large size in both
      males and females. None of the other hypotheses examined predict an association
      between size and mating system, and all predict that size will correlate with
      dimorphism after the effects of mating system are removed. Thus, none of the
      other hypotheses seem applicable in this case. These results are compared to
      those obtained for other avian and mammalian taxa. Difficulties of analysis
      present in previous studies are discussed. I argue that it is inappropriate to
      assume that associations between a trait and body size or phylogeny are evidence
      of nonadaptive evolutionary "constraints."

PMID- 28567765
TI  - GENETIC AND MORPHOMETRIC DIVERGENCE IN ANCESTRAL EUROPEAN AND DESCENDENT NEW
      ZEALAND POPULATIONS OF CHAFFINCHES (FRINGILLA COELEBS).
AB  - Descendent populations of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) introduced to New
      Zealand about 120 years ago were compared with "ancestral" populations in
      northern Europe and with those in a broader region of Europe (including Iberia)
      using protein electrophoresis at 42 loci and 12 skeletal measurements. The New
      Zealand populations exhibit very small scale differentiation in genetics (Fst =
      0.040) and morphometrics, and the haphazard pattern of among-population variation
      does not align with environmental variation nor is it predicted by the geographic
      proximity of populations. Thus random drift is implicated in the differentiation
      among the descendent populations. The New Zealand chaffinches have diverged only
      slightly in morphometrics from an extant population in southern England, and
      constant heritability rate tests suggest that random drift alone could account
      for this small shift. In sharp contrast, the European populations are subdivided
      genetically (Fst = 0.222) and morphometrically, and this subdivision coincides
      with the Pyrenees mountains between Iberia and northern Europe which act as a
      barrier to gene flow between these regions. Iberian populations have smaller
      skulls and longer wings on average than northern European populations and are
      characterized by high frequencies of alternative common alleles at Ada and Np.
      Within both the Iberian and northern European regions, however, populations are
      effectively panmictic in protein-encoding genes, indicating that homogenizing
      gene flow is apparently extensive enough to prevent among-population
      differentiation in allozymes by drift. Variation in body size as represented by
      PC I is related to environmental productivity across Europe, unlike in New
      Zealand. These observations jointly suggest that longer term adaptive
      differentiation via selection for optimal body size has evolved in Europe.
      Because multilocus evolution is expected to proceed slowly in populations subject
      to the opposing forces of selection and homogenizing gene flow, I argue that
      local adaptation within "ancestral" populations in northern Europe may still be
      evolving.

PMID- 28567766
TI  - SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATION IN SELECTION ON CORRELATED LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS AND
      PLANT SIZE IN CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA.
AB  - Intraspecific studies of selection on multiple traits of a plant's life history
      provide insight as to how the composite life history of an organism evolves.
      Current understanding of selection on plant life-history traits is deficient in
      three important areas: 1) the effects of selection through correlated traits, 2)
      the effects of selection on a trait throughout the plant's lifetime, and 3)
      spatial and temporal variation in selection on plant life-history traits among
      populations and years. This study documents spatial and temporal variation in
      selection on three life-history and two morphological traits for two natural
      populations of Chamaecrista fasciculata, a native summer annual. Life-history and
      morphological traits (date of seedling emergence, size at establishment, size
      prior to reproduction, date of initial flowering, and date of initial fruit
      maturation) varied significantly between sites and/or years. Selection on traits
      varied either spatially, between sites and among transects within one site, or
      temporally, between years. In addition, life-history traits were phenotypically
      correlated among themselves and with morphological traits; correlations were
      generally constant over time and space. Indirect selection caused changes in
      means and variances in traits not under direct selection, but which were
      correlated with traits under selection. Selection on date of emergence varied in
      direction and magnitude among different life-cycle stages, while selection on
      other traits varied only in magnitude among life stages of the plant. This study
      documents the complexity of the selective process and the importance of
      considering multiple life stages and traits when studying the evolution of life
      history traits.

PMID- 28567767
TI  - PATTERNS IN TREE BALANCE AMONG CLADISTIC, PHENETIC, AND RANDOMLY GENERATED
      PHYLOGENETIC TREES.
AB  - I examine patterns in tree balance for a sample of 208 cladograms and phenograms
      from the recent literature. I provide an expression for expected imbalance under
      a simple, uniform-rate random speciation model, and I estimate variances by
      simulation for the same model. Imbalance decreases with tree size (number of
      included taxa) in both theoretical and literature trees. In contrast to previous
      suggestions, I find cladistic trees to be no more imbalanced than phenetic trees
      when confounding variables are appropriately controlled. The degree of imbalance
      found in literature trees is inconsistent with the uniform-rate speciation model;
      this is most likely a result of variability in speciation and extinction rates
      among real lineages. The existence of such variation is a necessary (but not
      sufficient) condition for the operation of the macroevolutionary processes of
      species sorting and species selection.

PMID- 28567768
TI  - SEX CHROMOSOMES, HETEROCHROMATIN, AND RETROTRANSPOSON ACCUMULATION IN DEER MICE.

PMID- 28567769
TI  - SEX RATIO SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SEX DETERMINATION IN
      LABORATORY POPULATIONS OF MENIDIA MENIDIA.
AB  - What happens when a population with environmental sex determination (ESD)
      experiences a change to an extreme environment that causes a highly unbalanced
      sex ratio? Theory predicts that frequency-dependent selection would increase the
      proportion of the minority sex and decrease the level of ESD in subsequent
      generations. We empirically modeled this process by maintaining five laboratory
      populations of a fish with temperature-dependent sex determination (the Atlantic
      silverside, Menidia menidia) in extreme constant temperature environments that
      caused highly skewed sex ratios to occur initially. Increases in the minority sex
      consistently occurred from one generation to the next across all five
      populations, first establishing and then maintaining a balanced sex ratio until
      termination of the experiment at 8 to 10 generations. The extent to which the
      level of ESD changed as balanced sex ratios evolved, however, was not consistent.
      Two populations that experienced high temperatures each generation displayed a
      loss of ESD, and in one of these ESD was virtually eliminated. This suggests that
      temperature-insensitive, sex-determining genes were being selected. In
      populations maintained in low temperature environments, however, the level of ESD
      did not decline. Instead, the response of sex ratio to temperature was adjusted
      upward or downward, perhaps by selection of sex-determining genes sensitive to
      higher (or lower) temperatures. The two different outcomes at low versus high
      temperatures occurred independent of the geographic origin of the founding
      population. Our results demonstrate that ESD is capable of evolving in response
      to selection.

PMID- 28567770
TI  - EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE AND GENETIC DRIFT IN TRISTYLOUS EICHHORNIA PANICULATA
      (PONTEDERIACEAE).
AB  - Populations of the tristylous, annual Eichhornia paniculata are markedly
      differentiated with respect to frequency of mating types. This variation is
      associated with evolutionary changes in mating system, from predominant
      outcrossing to high self-fertilization. To assess the potential influence of
      genetic drift acting on this variation, we estimated effective population size in
      10 populations from northeastern Brazil using genetic and demographic methods.
      Effective size (Ne ) was inferred from temporal changes in allele frequency at
      two to eight isozyme loci and also calculated using five demographic variables:
      1) the number of flowering individuals (N); 2) temporal fluctuations in N; 3)
      variance in flower number; 4) frequency of mating types; and 5) selfing rate.
      Average Ne based on isozyme data was 15.8, range 3.4-70.6, and represented a
      fraction (mean Ne /N = 0.106) of the census number of individuals (mean N =
      762.8; range: 30.5-5,040). Temporal variation in N and variance in flower number
      each reduced Ne to about a half of N whereas mating type frequencies and selfing
      rate caused only small reductions in Ne relative to N. All estimates of Ne based
      on demographic variables were considerably larger than those obtained from
      genetic data. The two kinds of estimates were in general agreement, however, when
      all demographic variables were combined into a single measure. Monte Carlo
      simulations indicated that effective size must be fewer than about 40 for drift
      to overcome the frequency-dependent selection that maintains the polymorphism for
      mating type. Applying the average Ne /N value to 167 populations censused in
      northeastern Brazil indicated that 72% had effective sizes below this number.
      This suggests that genetic drift is likely to play a dominant role in natural
      populations of E. paniculata.

PMID- 28567771
TI  - A NOTE ON THE INBREEDING EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE.

PMID- 28567772
TI  - SELFISH LARVAE: DEVELOPMENT AND THE EVOLUTION OF PARASITIC BEHAVIOR IN THE
      HYMENOPTERA.
AB  - Queens of hymenopteran social parasites manipulate the workers of other social
      species into raising their offspring. However, nonconspecific brood care may also
      allow the parasite larvae to control their own development to a greater extent
      than possible in nonparasitic species. An evolutionary consequence of this may be
      the loss of the parasite's worker caste if the larvae can increase their fitness
      by developing into sexuals rather than workers. We argue that this loss is
      particularly likely in species in which there is little inclusive fitness benefit
      in working. Retention of a worker caste correlates with characteristics that
      increase the fitness of working relative to becoming a sexual, such as worker
      production of males, high intracolony relatedness, and seasonal environments
      where the hosts of potential parasite queens are not always available. Further
      evidence strongly suggests that when the worker caste is evolutionarily lost in
      perennial species like ants, it disappears rapidly and through a reduction in
      caste threshold and queen size, so that parasite larvae become queens with less
      food than required to produce host workers. This evolutionary process, however,
      appears to lower overall population fitness, resulting in workerless parasite
      species having small populations and being geographically restricted. Conversely,
      in annual species like bees and wasps, workerless social parasitism evolves with
      no size reduction in queens, which is consistent with an expected lower level of
      queen/offspring conflict.

PMID- 28567773
TI  - SPECIES ISOLATION, GENITAL MECHANICS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES-SPECIFIC
      GENITALIA IN THREE SPECIES OF MACRODACTYLUS BEETLES (COLEOPTERA, SCARABEIDAE,
      MELOLONTHINAE).
AB  - The question asked was why male genitalic structures have diverged in three
      syntopic species of Macrodactylus beetles. Four hypotheses were evaluated: 1. The
      ways in which male genitalia mesh with internal female structures indicate that
      selection for species isolation via mechanical exclusion ("lock and key") is
      unlikely to explain the genitalic differences. 2. The specific mate recognition
      hypothesis also clearly fails to explain genitalic differences due to the
      implausibility of postulated environmental effects on genitalia, and lack of
      postulated coevolution of male and female morphologies. 3. Selection for species
      isolation via differences in genitalic stimulation (sensory lock and key) is
      unlikely due to relatively infrequent cross-specific pair formation and
      intromission in the field, and "excessive" numbers of species-specific genitalic
      structures and male courtship behavior patterns which nevertheless occasionally
      fail. It also fails to explain the frequent failure of intraspecific copulations
      to result in sperm transfer. This hypothesis cannot, however, be rejected as
      confidently as the previous hypotheses. 4. Conditions under which sexual
      selection by cryptic female choice could take place are common. Females
      frequently exercise their ability to prevent sperm transfer by conspecific males
      even after intromission has occurred, and females generally mate repeatedly,
      probably with different males. Males behave as if cryptic female choice is
      occurring, courting assiduously while their genitalia are within the female.
      Sexual selection by female choice could thus contribute to the divergence in
      genitalic structures.

PMID- 28567774
TI  - GYNOGENETIC REPRODUCTION IN HYBRID MOLE SALAMANDERS (GENUS AMBYSTOMA).
AB  - Ambystoma platineum, a unisexual clonal triploid taxon of mole salamander,
      originated by hybridization between the Mendelian species A. jeffersonianum and
      A. laterale. Studies of lampbrush chromosomes indicated that A. platineum
      reproduces gynogenetically, that is, sperm from a sexual host species is required
      to activate egg development but makes no genetic contribution to the developing
      embryo. Nevertheless, electrophoretic diversity in populations of some hybrid
      Ambystoma suggested continual in situ recreation of unisexual hybrids and
      bidirectional gene exchange between the parental species and the hybrids. A.
      platineum usually lives with, and is sexually dependent on, one of its parental
      species, A. jeffersonianum. In central Indiana, however, A. platineum populations
      have shifted their host dependency to A. texanum. Such A. texanum-dependent
      populations of A. platineum provide an almost ideal system for studying
      reproductive mode in A. platineum, because both replacement of a jeffersonianum
      or laterale genome of A. platineum by a texanum genome, and movement of genes
      from A. platineum to the host species, A. texanum, would be readily detected by
      electrophoretic markers. Our samples of A. texanum provided no evidence for the
      transfer of jeffersonianum or laterale genes into A. texanum. Similarly, among 32
      A. platineum sampled from six localities in east-central Illinois and central
      Indiana, we find no texanum alleles, and thus no evidence for genome replacement.
      The one diploid hybrid individual contained only a jeffersonianum and a laterale
      genome; because of the absence of either parental species from these populations,
      this hybrid could only have come from a diploid ovum produced by A. platineum.
      Both morphometric and electrophoretic results for the two tetraploid individuals
      indicate that they resulted from fertilization of triploid oocytes of A.
      platineum by sperm of A. texanum. Because genome replacement in A. texanum
      dependent populations of A. platineum is irreversible, the persistence of A.
      platineum in A. texanum-dependent populations demonstrates conclusively that the
      major mode of reproduction in A. platineum populations is clonal: A. platineum
      produces mainly triploid eggs that develop gynogenetically.

PMID- 28567775
TI  - ALGAE CONTAINING CHLOROPHYLLS a + c ARE PARAPHYLETIC: MOLECULAR EVOLUTIONARY
      ANALYSIS OF THE CHROMOPHYTA.
AB  - Sequence comparisons of small subunit ribosomal RNA coding regions from 12
      chlorophylls a + c-containing algae were used to infer phylogenetic relationships
      within the Chromophyta. Three chromophyte lines of descent, delineated by the
      Bacillariophyceae, the Phaeophyceae/Xanthophyceae, and the
      Chrysophyceae/Eustigmatophyceae/Synurophyceae are members of a complex
      evolutionary assemblage, which also includes representatives of the Oomycota
      ("lower" fungi). Maximum parsimony and distance matrix methods demonstrate a
      common evolutionary history for these lineages but their relative branching order
      could not be determined. Other algal species with chlorophylls a + c, including
      dinoflagellates and prymnesiophytes, are not members of this complex assemblage.
      Dinoflagellates are specifically related to apicomplexans and ciliates, and the
      prymnesiophyte, Emiliania huxleyi, represents an independent photosynthetic
      lineage that separated from other eukaryotes during the nearly simultaneous
      divergence of plants, animals, fungi, and a number of other protist lineages. The
      small subunit rRNA phylogenies of chromophytes/oomycetes were compared to those
      derived from comparisons of ultrastructural characters. Only tubular, tripartite
      mastigonemes (flagellar hairs) characterized all studied taxa of
      chromophytes/oomycetes as a monophyletic assemblage.

PMID- 28567776
TI  - Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in chronic urticaria.
AB  - Chronic urticaria is an itching skin disease which persists for more than 6
      weeks. Chronic urticaria has great impact on the daily life of the patient, and
      the fluctuating nature of the symptoms complicates the monitoring and treatment
      of the disease. Currently, there are no reliable biomarkers to identify and
      measure disease activity in chronic spontaneous urticaria. Consequently, use of
      patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is crucial when evaluating and monitoring
      different aspects of chronic urticaria such as disease activity/severity, disease
      control, and quality of life. We present an overview of seven different PROs used
      in chronic urticaria and highlight their strengths, limitations, and use in
      clinical practice and research.

PMID- 28567777
TI  - POPULATION CAGE EXPERIMENTS WITH A VERTEBRATE: THE TEMPORAL DEMOGRAPHY AND
      CYTONUCLEAR GENETICS OF HYBRIDIZATION IN GAMBUSIA FISHES.
AB  - The dynamics of mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear genotypic frequencies were
      monitored for 2 yr in experimental populations established with equal numbers of
      two poeciliid fishes (Gambusia affinis and Gambusia holbrooki) that hybridize
      naturally in the southeastern United States. In replicated "small-pool"
      populations (experiment I), 1018 sampled individuals at six time periods revealed
      an initial flush of hybridization, followed by a rapid decline in frequencies of
      G. affinis nuclear and mitochondrial alleles over 64 wk. Decay of gametic and
      cytonuclear disequilibria differed from expectations under random mating as well
      as under a model of assortative mating involving empirically estimated mating
      propensities. In two replicate "large-pond" populations (experiment II), 841
      sampled individuals across four reproductive cohorts revealed lower initial
      frequencies of F1 hybrids than in experiment I, but again G. holbrooki alleles
      achieved high frequencies over four generations (72 wk). Thus, evolution within
      experimental Gambusia hybrid populations can be extremely rapid, resulting in
      consistent loss of G. affinis nuclear and cytoplasmic alleles. Concordance in
      results between experiments and across genetic markers suggests strong
      directional selection favoring G. holbrooki genotypes. Results are interpreted in
      light of previous reports of genotype-specific differences in life-history
      traits, reproductive ecology, patterns of recruitment, and size-specific
      mortality, and in the context of patterns of introgression previously studied
      indirectly from spatial observations on cytonuclear genotypes in natural Gambusia
      populations.

PMID- 28567778
TI  - ERNST MAYR AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

PMID- 28567779
TI  - FITNESS COSTS OF RESISTANCE TO BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS IN THE DIAMONDBACK MOTH
      (PLUTELLA XYLOSTELLA).

PMID- 28567780
TI  - INDIRECT SELECTION OF STIGMA POSITION IN IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA VIA A GENETICALLY
      CORRELATED TRAIT.
AB  - Experimental manipulation of a trait can be used to distinguish direct selection
      from selection of correlated traits and to identify mechanisms of selection. Here
      we use experiments to investigate phenotypic selection of stigma position in
      angiosperm flowers. In natural populations of the subalpine herb Ipomopsis
      aggregata, plants with more strongly exserted stigmas receive more pollen per
      flower, indicating selection favoring stigma exsertion during the pollination
      stage of the life cycle. We pose four hypotheses for this association, two
      involving direct selection on stigma position and two involving indirect
      selection of a correlated floral trait. The first three hypotheses were tested
      using hand pollinations that mimicked natural hummingbird visitation, and by
      presenting captive hummingbirds with a series of flowers that differed in stigma
      and anther positions, sex ratio, and presence of anthers. In these experiments,
      pollen deposition either was independent of stigma exsertion or was highest on
      inserted stigmas, suggesting direct selection against exserted stigmas. In
      natural populations, however, stigma exsertion is highly correlated with time
      spent by the protandrous flowers in the pistillate phase. When we manipulated the
      latter trait in the field, pollen deposition increased with duration of exposure
      to hummingbirds, indicating indirect selection for stigma exsertion. Stigma
      exsertion and time spent in the pistillate phase are genetically and
      phenotypically correlated, as shown by a quantitative genetic experiment
      conducted in the field with paternal half sibships. Our results suggest that the
      evolution of stigma position can be driven by selection of a genetically
      correlated trait.

PMID- 28567781
TI  - DISCIPLINING EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: ERNST MAYR AND THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY FOR
      THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION (1939-1950).

PMID- 28567782
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION FOR FEMALE MATE DISCRIMINATION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Comparisons between the Canton-S and Tai-Y strains of Drosophila melanogaster
      (both wild type) revealed variation in female mate discrimination based on
      chemical courtship signals present as hydrocarbons on the male cuticle. Mating
      tests indicated that 7-tricosene, which is the primary hydrocarbon on the Canton
      S male cuticle but is nearly absent from Tai-Y, was a significant component of
      the signal. The discrimination was asymmetrical in that Canton-S females clearly
      distinguished between the two types of males in no-choice tests, but Tai-Y
      females did not. F1 females expressed an intermediate ability to discriminate,
      and female progeny of backcrosses expressed a mating phenotype very similar to
      that of the parental strain to which the backcross was made. Analysis of
      independent effects from the X and both major autosomes indicated that the
      discrimination is controlled by gene(s) on chromosome 3.

PMID- 28567783
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL REPATTERNING AND LINKAGE GROUP CONSERVATION IN MOSQUITO KARYOTYPIC
      EVOLUTION.
AB  - Chromosome number and morphology in mosquitoes is remarkably uniform: virtually
      all mosquitoes have a diploid chromosome number of six (2N = 6), and their
      chromosomes are invariably metacentric or submetacentric. Numerical changes
      obviously have not been important in mosquito chromosomal evolution, and because
      of the morphological similarity of their chromosomes, it appears that structural
      changes have played little or no role in mosquito karyotypic evolution. The goal
      of the present study was to identify the types and relative numbers of
      chromosomal changes in mosquito evolution and to extend the comparison where
      possible to the higher diptera. To do this, we compared the enzyme linkage maps
      of six species of Aedes to each other and to enzyme maps of seven other mosquito
      species and to Drosophila melanogaster. Our results indicate that Aedes
      chromosomes have been modified by inversions, most which were paracentric, and by
      translocations, most which were Robertsonian. Intrageneric comparison of Aedes
      enzyme maps also revealed groups of linked enzyme loci whose integrity has been
      maintained throughout Aedes evolution (conserved linkages/syntenies).
      Intergeneric comparisons of Aedes enzyme maps with those of species in the genera
      Culex, Anopheles, and Toxorhynchites disclosed conserved associations of enzyme
      loci between mosquito genera. These findings lead us to postulate that the
      ancestral mosquito karyotype consisted of six chromosomal elements which, other
      than being combined in different ways in various mosquito groups, have remained
      essentially intact during mosquito evolution. Furthermore, the identification of
      groups of linked enzyme loci common to mosquitoes and to D. melanogaster
      indicates that linkage group conservation may characterize the karyotypic
      evolution of all dipteran insects.

PMID- 28567784
TI  - RATE LIMITS FOR MISPAIRING AND COMPENSATORY CHANGE: THE MITOCHONDRIAL RIBOSOMAL
      DNA OF ANTELOPES.

PMID- 28567785
TI  - THE SCALING OF PLANT AND ANIMAL BODY MASS, LENGTH, AND DIAMETER.
AB  - The interspecific scaling exponents of body mass M and diameter D with respect to
      length L were determined to evaluate the predictions of three scaling hypotheses
      (geometric, stress, and elastic similitude). The relation between M and L was
      determined for data from a total of 133 aquatic and terrestrial species (66 plant
      and 67 animal species); the relation between D and L was determined independently
      for a total of 753 aquatic and terrestrial species (667 plant and 86 animal
      species). Organisms were crudely classified as to their geometry (spheres,
      spheroids, cylinders) and shape (defined as the body slenderness factor, L/D) to
      examine whether geometry and shape evinced size-dependent variations. Regression
      indicated M = 1.29L2.95 (r2 = 0.91, N = 133; alphaRMA = 3.09 +/- 0.088). The
      stress and elastic similitude (which respectively predict alphaRMA = 5 and
      alphaRMA = 4) were rejected; geometric similitude was not (alphaRMA = 3). For
      animals and plants, alphaRMA = 2.81 +/- 0.061 (r2 = 0.98), and alphaRMA = 2.95 +/
      0.093 (r2 = 0.94), respectively. For aquatics and terrestrial organisms,
      alphaRMA = 2.82 +/-0.134 (r2 = 0.97, N = 36), and alphaRMA = 3.08 +/-0.111 (r2 =
      0.89, N = 97), respectively. These results were interpreted to support the
      hypothesis of geometric similitude. For the pooled plant and animals data, D =
      0.05L1.00 (r2 = 0.95; alphaRMA = 1.03 +/- 0.009), which was compatible with the
      hypothesis of geometric similitude. For plants, D = 0.05L1.06 (r2 = 0.95;
      alphaRMA = 1.09). For animals, D = 0.29L0.98 (r2 = 0.95; alphaRMA = 1.01 +/-
      0.025). Also, for aquatics, alphaRMA = 0.951 +/- 0.151, whereas for terrestrial
      plants and animals, alphaRMA = 1.03 +/- 0.089. Although the scaling exponent for
      D differed among individual groupings of animals and plants, the results of
      regression analyses were interpreted to indicate that, on the average, body
      diameter scaled isometrically with respect to length as predicted by geometric
      similitude. For the pooled data set, organic shape varied over 3 orders of
      magnitude; L varied over 9 orders of magnitude reflecting 22 orders of magnitude
      of M. In terms of body geometry and the absolute numbers of species in the total
      data set: spherical shaped species (L = D) < unassigned species < prolate
      spheroidal species < cylindrical (squat < slender) species. The largest organisms
      in the data set were slender (L/D > 20) cylindrical plants; the smallest
      organisms were spherical plants and animals. Although not subject to statistical
      inference, these data were interpreted to indicate that organic shape and
      geometry evince size-dependent variations. These variations as well as size
      dependent changes in bulk density are hypothesized to account for the scaling
      exponents of M and D determined for individual plant and animal clades and
      grades.

PMID- 28567786
TI  - THE GEOGRAPHY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION, POPULATION STRUCTURE,
      HYBRIDIZATION, AND SPECIES LIMITS IN THE FOX SPARROW (PASSERELLA ILIACA).
AB  - Geographic variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was studied
      in the fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca). Seventy-eight haplotypes were found.
      Haplotypes fall into four phylogeographic groups that correspond to groups
      defined by plumage characters. The geographic distribution of these four groups
      does not appear congruent with mtDNA patterns in other vertebrates. Within each
      group, there is little geographic variation in mtDNA restriction sites, although
      there is geographic variation in plumage coloration and body size. The evolution
      of mtDNA diversity in fox sparrows seems best explained by vicariant events
      rather than isolation by distance. The mtDNA evidence suggests that Passerella
      megarhyncha and Passerella schistacea, two nonsister taxa that occur in western
      North America, have independently undergone bottlenecks. Hybridization is limited
      between all pairs of taxa except P. megarhyncha and P. schistacea, where mtDNA
      evidence suggests a narrow contact zone along the interface of the Great Basin
      and Sierra Nevada/Cascades. Morphometric characters intergrade over a broader
      area, suggesting that different processes are responsible for the two gradients.
      The occurrence of limited backcrossing among taxa suggests that cytoplasmic
      nuclear incompatibility is lacking. The number of biological species would range
      from one to four, depending on the degree of hybridization tolerated. The mtDNA
      and plumage characters suggest four phylogenetic species: P. iliaca, P.
      megarhyncha, P. unalaschcensis, and P. schistacea.

PMID- 28567787
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN SQUAMATE REPTILES: COSTS, TRADE-OFFS, AND
      ASSUMPTIONS RECONSIDERED.
AB  - We evaluated Shine and Schwarzkopf's (SS) model of the evolution of reproductive
      effort (RE) in squamate reptiles. They suggested that fecundity trade-offs were
      unimportant in the evolution of RE in most squamate reptiles and that only
      survival trade-offs needed to be considered. However, we show that by assuming no
      variation in offspring size exists, and that adult mortality is episodic, the
      results of the SS model are not general. By extension, we argue that conclusions
      drawn about factors important in the evolution of RE in squamate reptiles are
      premature. Using a modified version of the SS model, we demonstrate that
      variation in the form of trade-offs relating offspring size and survival
      substantially affect relationships among clutch size, relative clutch mass, and
      lifetime reproductive success. We also demonstrate that the way in which adult
      mortality is simulated drastically affects conclusions about the potential
      fecundity trade-offs experienced by populations of squamate reptiles. Finally, we
      suggest that a complete understanding of the evolution of RE will come from
      theory that incorporates trade-offs between offspring size and quality, as well
      as other system-specific constraints on the allocation of energy to growth,
      maintenance, storage, and reproduction.

PMID- 28567788
TI  - GENETIC ANALYSIS OF A RARE AND A WIDESPREAD SPECIES OF ECHINACEA (ASTERACEAE).

PMID- 28567789
TI  - ERNST MAYR AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY.

PMID- 28567791
TI  - AMELIORATION OF THE DELETERIOUS PLEIOTROPIC EFFECTS OF AN ADAPTIVE MUTATION IN
      BACILLUS SUBTILIS.
AB  - The deleterious pleiotropic effects of an adaptive mutation may be ameliorated by
      one of two modes of evolution: (1) by replacement, in which an adaptive mutation
      with harmful pleiotropic effects is replaced by one that confers an equal benefit
      but at less cost; or (2) by compensatory evolution, in which natural selection
      favors modifiers at other loci that compensate for the deleterious effects of the
      mutant allele. In this study, we have measured the potential of these two modes
      of evolution to ameliorate the deleterious pleiotropic effects of resistance to
      the antibiotic rifampicin in the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. One approach
      was to measure the fitness cost of a series of spontaneous rifampicin-resistance
      mutations from each of several strains. The potential for amelioration by the
      replacement mode was estimated by the variation in fitness cost among the mutants
      of a single strain. Another approach was to introduce a series of different
      rifampicin-resistance alleles into a diversity of strains, and to measure the
      fitness cost of rifampicin resistance for each allele-by-strain combination. The
      potential for amelioration by the replacement mode was estimated by the variation
      in fitness costs among rifampicin-resistance alleles; the potential for
      compensatory evolution was estimated by variation in the fitness cost of
      rifampicin resistance among strains. This study has shown that the cost of
      rifampicin resistance may be ameliorated by both the compensatory and replacement
      modes.

PMID- 28567792
TI  - ERNST MAYR, THE ORNITHOLOGIST.

PMID- 28567793
TI  - USING PHYLOGENIES TO TEST HYPOTHESES OF ADAPTATION: A CRITIQUE OF SOME CURRENT
      PROPOSALS.

PMID- 28567794
TI  - ERNST MAYR AND THE CENTRALITY OF SPECIES.

PMID- 28567795
TI  - A SIMULATION OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING-BALANCE PROCESS: MIGRATION AND THE THREE
      PHASES.
AB  - Wright partitioned the shifting-balance process into three phases. Phase one is
      the shift of a deme within a population to the domain of a higher adaptive peak
      from that of the historical peak. Phase two is mass selection within a deme
      towards that higher peak. Phase three is the conversion of additional demes to
      the higher peak. The migration rate between demes is critical for the existence
      of phases one and three. Phase one requires small effective population sizes,
      hence low migration rates. Phase three is optimal under high migration rates that
      spread the most-fit genotype from deme to deme. Thus, a population-wide peak
      shift requires intermediate levels of migration. By altering the rates of phases
      one and three, migration affects the predominant direction of mass selection
      within a population. This study examines the degree to which migration, through
      its effects on phases one and three, determines the probability of a simulated
      population arriving at its genotypic optimum after 12,000 generations. These
      simulations reveal that there is a range of migration rates for which an entire
      population might be expected to shift to a higher peak. Below m = 0.001 peak
      shifts occur frequently (phases I and II) but are not successfully exported out
      of subpopulations (phase III), and above 0.01 peak shifts within demes (phase I
      and II), required to initiate phase III, become increasingly uncommon. Because it
      is unlikely that real populations will have uniform migration rates from
      generation to generation, the probable effects of varying migration rates on
      broadening the range of conditions producing peak shifts are discussed.

PMID- 28567796
TI  - SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ERNST MAYR.

PMID- 28567797
TI  - HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY AND CONTEMPORARY PATTERNS OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION
      IN WHITE-TAILED DEER FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was used to characterize patterns of geographic
      variation among white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations in the
      southeastern United States. Fifteen restriction enzymes were employed to survey
      and map 99 restriction sites in 142 deer from 18 localities in five southeastern
      states. Phylogenetic analysis revealed three primary groups of haplotypes: (1)
      southern Florida and the Florida Keys, (2) the remainder of peninsular Florida
      northward to South Carolina, and (3) the Florida panhandle westward to
      Mississippi. Geographical heterogeneity in haplotype frequencies suggests that
      stochastic lineage sorting or isolation by distance are not important
      determinates of mtDNA differentiation among deer populations. The pattern of
      mtDNA variation in white-tailed deer is concordant spatially with those observed
      in unrelated taxa suggesting the common influence of historical biogeographic
      events. The data (1) support previous hypotheses that relate contemporary
      patterns of intraspecific phylogeography in northern Florida to the
      physiogeographic history of the region; and (2) suggest that genetic
      differentiation in southern Florida may be attributable to episodes of
      Pleistocene dispersal. Despite potentially high vagility and human intervention,
      ecological and demographic characteristics of deer have effectively preserved the
      historical pattern of intraspecific mtDNA differentiation.

PMID- 28567798
TI  - Management for intussusception in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intussusception is a common abdominal emergency in children with
      significant morbidity. Prompt diagnosis and management reduces associated risks
      and the need for surgical intervention. Despite widespread agreement on the use
      of contrast enema as opposed to surgery for initial management in most cases,
      debate persists on the appropriate contrast medium, imaging modality,
      pharmacological adjuvant, and protocol for delayed repeat enema, and on the best
      approach for surgical management for intussusception in children. OBJECTIVES: To
      assess the safety and effectiveness of non-surgical and surgical approaches in
      the management of intussusception in children. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the
      following electronic databases: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
      (CENTRAL; 2016, Issue 8) in the Cochrane Library; Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to September
      2016); Ovid Embase (1974 to September 2016); Science Citation Index Expanded (via
      Web of Science) (1900 to September 2016); and BIOSIS Previews (1969 to September
      2016).We examined the reference lists of all eligible trials to identify
      additional studies. To locate unpublished studies, we contacted content experts,
      searched the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry
      Platform (ICTRP) and ClinicalTrials.gov (September 2016), and explored
      proceedings from meetings of the British Association of Paedatric Surgeons
      (BAPS), the American Soceity of Pediatric Surgery, and the World Congress of
      Pediatric Surgery. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included all randomised controlled
      trials comparing contrast media, imaging modalities, pharmacological adjuvants,
      protocols for delayed repeat enema, and/or surgical approaches for the management
      of intussusception in children. We applied no language, publication date, or
      publication status restrictions. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors
      independently conducted study selection and data extraction and assessed risk of
      bias using a standardised form. We resolved disagreements by consensus with a
      third review author when necessary. We reported dichotomous outcomes as risk
      ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We analysed data on an
      intention-to-treat basis and evaluated the overall quality of evidence supporting
      the outcomes by using GRADE criteria. MAIN RESULTS: We included six randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) with a total of 822 participants. Two trials compared
      liquid enema reduction plus glucagon versus liquid enema alone. One trial
      compared liquid enema plus dexamethasone versus liquid enema alone. Another trial
      compared air enema plus dexamethasone versus air enema alone, and two trials
      compared use of liquid enema versus air enema. We identified three ongoing
      trials.We judged all included trials to be at risk of bias owing to omissions in
      reported methods. We judged five of six trials as having high risk of bias in at
      least one domain. Therefore, the quality of the evidence (GRADE) for outcomes was
      low. Interventions and data presentation varied greatly across trials; therefore
      meta-analysis was not possible for most review outcomes. Enema plus glucagon
      versus enema alone It is uncertain whether use of glucagon improves the rate of
      successful reduction of intussusception when compared with enema alone (reported
      in two trials, 218 participants; RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.26;low quality of
      evidence). No trials in this comparison reported on the number of children with
      bowel perforation(s) nor on the number of children with recurrent
      intussusception. Enema plus dexamethasone versus enema alone Use of the adjunct,
      dexamethasone, may be beneficial in reducing intussusception recurrence with
      liquid or air enema (two trials, 299 participants; RR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.60;
      low quality of evidence). This equates to a number needed to treat for an
      additional beneficial outcome of 13 (95% CI 8 to 37). It is uncertain whether use
      of the adjunct, dexamethasone, improves the rate of successful reduction of
      intussusception when compared with enema alone (reported in two trials, 356
      participants; RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.10;low quality of evidence). Air enema
      versus liquid enema Air enema may be more successful than liquid enema for
      reducing intussusception (two trials, 199 participants; RR 1.28, 95% CI 1.10 to
      1.49; low quality of evidence). This equates to a number needed to treat for an
      additional beneficial outcome of 6 (95% CI 4 to 19). No trials in this comparison
      reported on the number of children with bowel perforation(s) or on the number of
      children with recurrent intussusception nor any intraoperative complications,
      such as bowel perforation, or other adverse effects. Only one trial reported
      postoperative complications, but owing to the method of reporting used, a
      quantitative analysis was not possible. We identified no studies that exclusively
      evaluated surgical interventions for management of intussusception. AUTHORS'
      CONCLUSIONS: This review identified a small number of trials that assessed a
      variety of interventions. All included trials provided evidence of low quality
      and were subject to serious concerns about imprecision, high risk of bias, or
      both. Air enema may be superior to liquid enema for successfully reducing
      intussusception in children; however, this finding is based on a few studies
      including small numbers of participants. Dexamethasone as an adjuvant may be more
      effective in reducing intussusception recurrence rates following air enema or
      liquid enema, but these results are also based on a few studies of small numbers
      of participants. This review highlights several points that need to be addressed
      in future studies, including reducing the risk of bias and including relevant
      outcomes. Specifically, surgical trials are lacking, and future research is
      needed to address this evidence gap.

PMID- 28567800
TI  - WHY SHOULD LEK-BREEDERS BE MONOMORPHIC?
AB  - Approximately one-quarter of all lek-breeding bird species are sexually
      monomorphic. Understanding the significance, if any, of this exception to the
      usual correlation between sexual selection and dimorphism requires detailed data
      on the mating systems of both monomorphic and dimorphic species. The capuchinbird
      (Perissocephalus tricolor) is a sexually monomorphic, lek-breeding member of the
      cotinga family. I studied the social and sexual behavior of this species, and
      compared it with the Guianan cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola), a dimorphic,
      lekking member of the same family. Male-male competition in capuchinbirds
      involved direct contests for dominance, rather than territorial displays as in
      classic lek species. In each year, one dominant individual was able to control
      the most desired display site on the 8-male lek, and was the only male that
      copulated. In contrast to dimorphic lek birds, female as well as male
      capuchinbirds engaged in frequent and intense aggression at the lek, and both
      males and females engaged in sexual mimicry. I suggest that plumage monomorphism
      in lek birds has evolved as a result of social competition affecting both sexes.
      This hypothesis accounts for the exaggerated plumage characters shared by males
      and females in capuchinbirds and a number of other monomorphic lek birds. The
      evolution of plumage can best be analyzed as an arms race, in which the balance
      of selective forces acting on each sex can produce a variety of equilibrium
      states, ranging from sexual indistinguishability to extreme dimorphism.

PMID- 28567801
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE BODY SIZE IN RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS: THE EFFECTS OF TIMING
      OF BREEDING, SOCIAL COMPETITION, AND REPRODUCTIVE ENERGETICS.
AB  - We examined opposing selective forces on female body size in the sexually
      dimorphic red-winged blackbird: social competition favoring larger females, and
      energetic advantages favoring smaller females. Downhower proposed that selection
      might drive female birds to be smaller than the optimum for survival, if smaller
      females were able to exceed their energetic requirements for self-maintenance
      earlier in the season and therefore breed earlier. Since in most birds the
      earliest breeders fledge the most young, this could favor the evolution of
      smaller female size, and therefore contribute to the magnitude of sexual size
      dimorphism in these birds. We tested this hypothesis in 1987 and 1988 by
      comparing the size and breeding date of female red-winged blackbirds. Consistent
      with our preditions, early-nesting females had much higher nesting success, but
      contrary to prediction, larger females bred earlier. We then examined the effects
      of female size on competition. If large females have an advantage in social
      competition, and if competition influences breeding date and reproductive
      success, then larger females might breed earlier. Primary females, the first
      females to arrive and nest on a territory, were more aggressive than lower ranked
      females; more aggressive females settled on better territories and laid earlier
      than less aggressive females; and larger females were more aggressive. Social
      competition between females may therefore favor large females. Finally, we tested
      the prediction that selection favoring large females might be limited by
      energetic constraints on large females. We found that large females had less fat
      than small females during breeding, and that the levels of fat that females of a
      given size carried affected breeding date and egg size. Therefore, social
      competition may favor large females, but reproductive energetics favoring smaller
      females may constrain selection for large female body size.

PMID- 28567799
TI  - COX-2-selective inhibitors celecoxib and deracoxib modulate transient receptor
      potential vanilloid 3 channels.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The transient receptor potential vanilloid 3 (TRPV3)
      channel is a heat-sensitive ion channel, which is predominantly expressed in
      keratinocytes. TRPV3 channels are involved in numerous physiological and
      pathophysiological processes within the skin, including cutaneous nociception,
      temperature sensation and development of itch. The role of TRPV3 channels in such
      processes is poorly understood; therefore, the establishment of selective
      modulators of TRPV3 channels is highly desirable. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Novel
      TRPV3-modulating compounds were identified using fluorometric intracellular Ca2+
      assays and further evaluated with electrophysiological techniques. KEY RESULTS:
      TRPV3 activity, elicited by 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB), was
      efficaciously enhanced by deracoxib and celecoxib, two COX-2-selective
      inhibitors. They exerted their potentiating effect via a direct interaction with
      TRPV3 as evident from excised inside-out recordings. Structurally-related COX-2
      inhibitors affected TRPV3 channel gating to a much lesser degree. Similar results
      were obtained in HEK293 cells stably expressing cyan fluorescent protein-tagged
      mouse TRPV3 channels and in a mouse keratinocyte cell line, endogenously
      expressing TRPV3. The effects of celecoxib and deracoxib on TRPV3 were dependent
      on the stimulus used to activate TRPV3. While 2-APB and heat-activated TRPV3
      channels were potentiated by celecoxib, carvacrol-activated channels were
      inhibited by celecoxib. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: We identified a new class
      of drugs that modulate TRPV3 channels. The most potent compound celecoxib is an
      approved analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug, which is currently being
      investigated for its topical application in the treatment of skin cancer. As
      TRPV3 is highly expressed in skin, celecoxib might affect TRPV3 activity in vivo
      when used at high local concentrations.

PMID- 28567802
TI  - INTERSEXES IN A SHRIMP: A POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SEX
      DETERMINATION.

PMID- 28567803
TI  - COLONIZATION OF AMERICA BY DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA: LETHAL GENES AND THE PROBLEM OF
      THE O5 INVERSION.
AB  - In this work, the process of colonization of North and South America by the
      species Drosophila subobscura has been studied by analyzing the variability of
      lethal genes. The genetic structures of a Palearctic natural central population
      (Bordils, Spain) and a colonizer population from America (Gilroy, California)
      have been compared. The frequencies of lethal chromosomes and their allelism are
      29.007% and 0.0069 in the first population and 14.414% and 0.0526 in the American
      population. A founder effect is detected after the computation of some population
      parameters (Ne , h, he and the lethal load). Furthermore, the allelism of lethal
      chromosomes has revealed a strong association between a lethal gene and the O5
      inversion both in Gilroy and in the population of Puerto Montt (Chile). The
      interpopulation allelism shows that the O5 arrangement from the USA and Chile is
      the same, confirming that the colonizing processes of North and South America are
      correlated. The O5 arrangement can also be useful as a genetic marker to trace
      the origin of the colonization. The frequency of the O5 arrangement in the
      original population of the colonization could be used to estimate the number of
      colonizers. This population is still unknown, but taking the extreme values of
      the frequency of the O5 inversion in natural Palearctic populations (1-15%), the
      number of colonizers could vary between 9 and 149 individuals.

PMID- 28567804
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SIZE, SHAPE, LIFE-HISTORY, AND FRUIT CHARACTERISTICS OF
      THE SEED HETEROMORPHIC COMPOSITE HETEROSPERMA PINNATUM. II. CORRELATION
      STRUCTURE.
AB  - We have investigated phenotypic, environmental, within-population broad-sense
      genetic correlations and among-population genetic correlations for 17 traits in
      six populations of Heterosperma pinnatum Cav. (Compositae) grown in the
      greenhouse. The within-population genetic, environmental, and phenotypic
      correlations were somewhat similar while the among-population genetic
      correlations showed little correspondence to these. The different correlation
      matrices were compared to a hypothesis matrix, which predicted higher
      correlations for groups of functionally and developmentally related traits. The
      groups were seed and head traits, size and shape traits, and life history traits,
      with subgroups predicted to have still higher correlations. The phenotypic and
      environmental matrices corresponded well to the hypothesis matrix, the within
      population broad-sense genetic matrix showed weaker, though still significant,
      correspondence, and the among-population genetic correlations showed no
      correspondence. Genetic correlations did not differ significantly among
      populations, though the power of these comparisons was low. Some particular
      genetic correlations are discussed as possible examples of adaptive correlations
      (e.g., a negative correlation between dispersal and dormancy) and as examples of
      developmental or physiological constraints including life-history tradeoffs.

PMID- 28567805
TI  - THE PLEIOTROPY THEORY FOR POLYMORPHISM OF DISEASE RESISTANCE GENES IN PLANTS.

PMID- 28567806
TI  - HYBRID BREAKDOWN IN DEVELOPMENTAL TIME IN THE COPEPOD TIGRIOPUS CALIFORNICUS.
AB  - Laboratory crosses were carried out among three genetically differentiated Los
      Angeles populations (all located within approximately 15 km) and one San Diego
      population (approximately 150 km away) of the intertidal copepod Tigriopus
      californicus. Despite high levels of allozyme differentiation, all crosses
      produced viable F1 progeny. Most F1 progeny had shorter developmental times and
      reduced variance in developmental times compared to the parental populations.
      Only one pair of populations failed to produce viable F2 progeny; when the
      central Los Angeles population (AB) was crossed to the San Diego (SD) population,
      most larvae died during the late naupliar stages. Developmental times in the F2
      generation of the other Los Angeles * San Diego crosses were typically 40% longer
      than developmental times of the parental populations. Among the Los Angeles
      populations, only one cross (and not its reciprocal) showed a similarly large
      increase in developmental time. Variance in F2 developmental times was greater
      than the parental variance in 5 of 10 crosses. These results are discussed with
      regard to the evolution of coadapted gene complexes and population
      differentiation in T. californicus.

PMID- 28567807
TI  - VARIATION IN DEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRAINTS IN SIGMODON.
AB  - Developmental constraints can be interpreted as factors of developmental origin
      responsible for covariation among measured variables. Several hypotheses have
      been proposed to link the possession of such constraints to subsequent evolution.
      Using confirmatory factor analysis, we compare developmental factors across
      selected taxa of cotton rats, genus Sigmodon. Three factors explain well the
      covariation among orofacial measurements: (1) responses to body size variation,
      (1) coordinated growth of traits of the occluding-tooth complex, and (3)
      responses to musculoskeletal interactions. Sigmodon taxa share these factors, but
      differ in the variance-covariance matrix of factors, and the unique variances of
      individual traits. Patterns of covariation among measurements of the neurocranial
      complex reflect responses to body size variation, and perhaps also responses to
      fetal brain growth. While there are no significant differences across taxa in
      factorpattern, variance-covariance matrix of factors, or unique variance of
      measured neurocranial variables, the neurocranium is only weakly constrained. We
      doubt that even the relatively stronger developmental constraints on the
      orofacial complex would prevent evolutionary divergence because differences in
      the variances and covariances of factors, and in levels of unique variance of
      individual traits can provide different opportunities for selection to act in
      different Sigmodon taxa.

PMID- 28567808
TI  - THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SELECTION IN INTRASPECIFIC DIVERGENCE OF MATE
      RECOGNITION SIGNALS IN THE CRICKET FROG, ACRIS CREPITANS.

PMID- 28567809
TI  - GENETIC CORRELATIONS AMONG TRAITS DETERMINING MIGRATORY TENDENCY IN THE SAND
      CRICKET, GRYLLUS FIRMUS.
AB  - Migration by flight is an important component of the life cycles of most insects.
      The probability that a given insect will migrate by flight is influenced by many
      factors, most notably the presence or absence of fully-developed wings and
      functional flight musculature. Considerable variation has also been reported in
      the flight propensity of fully-winged individuals with functional flight
      musculature. We test the hypothesis that these components of migratory tendency
      are genetically correlated in a wing-dimorhic cricket, Gryllus firmus. Flight
      propensity and condition of the dorsal longitudinal flight muscles (DLM) are
      examined in fully-winged (LW) crickets from lines selected for increasing and for
      decreasing %LW, as well as from unselected control lines. Increased %LW is found
      to be associated with increased flight propensity among individuals with intact
      DLM, and with retention of functional DLM. The opposite is true for lines
      selected for decreased %LW. These results indicate both phenotypic and genetic
      correlations among behavioral, physiological, and morphological traits
      determining migratory tendency. We propose that these correlations may result
      from the multifunctional role of juvenile hormone, which has been reported to
      influence wing development, flight muscle development and degeneration, and
      flight propensity. Finally, we discuss the potential influence of genetic
      correlations for migratory traits on the evolution and maintenance of migratory
      polymorphisms in insects.

PMID- 28567810
TI  - HYBRID BREAKDOWN IN PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE: A MECHANISTIC APPROACH.
AB  - Data comparing the physiological response to hyperosmotic stress in individual
      copepods (Tigriopus californicus) from natural populations and laboratory hybrids
      are presented. While individuals from two genetically differentiated natural
      populations and F1 interpopulation hybrids showed only minor differences in
      patterns of free amino acid (FAA) accumulation during hyperosmotic stress,
      patterns of FAA synthesis were highly variable among the F2 hybrids. Isofemale
      lines initiated from later hybrid generations (F7 -F10 ) exhibited substantial
      inter-line variance in FAA accumulation. This increased variance in physiological
      response appears unrelated to allozyme polymorphisms at two loci encoding FAA
      metabolizing enzymes and appears to result from other, unidentified polymorphisms
      in the proline synthetic pathway.

PMID- 28567811
TI  - MUTATION LOAD AND THE SURVIVAL OF SMALL POPULATIONS.
AB  - Previous attempts to model the joint action of selection and mutation in finite
      populations have treated population size as being independent of the mutation
      load. However, the accumulation of deleterious mutations is expected to cause a
      gradual reduction in population size. Consequently, in small populations random
      genetic drift will progressively overpower selection making it easier to fix
      future mutations. This synergistic interaction, which we refer to as a mutational
      melt-down, ultimately leads to population extinction. For many conditions, the
      coefficient of variation of extinction time is less than 0.1, and for species
      that reproduce by binary fission, the expected extinction time is quite
      insensitive to population carrying capacity. These results are consistent with
      observations that many cultures of ciliated protozoans and vertebrate fibroblasts
      have characteristic extinction times. The model also predicts that clonal
      lineages are unlikely to survive more than 104 to 105 generations, which is
      consistent with existing data on parthenogenetic animals. Contrary to the usual
      view that Muller's ratchet does more damage when selection is weak, we show that
      the mean extinction time declines as mutations become more deleterious. Although
      very small sexual populations, such as self-fertilized lines, are subject to
      mutational meltdowns, recombination effectively eliminates the process when the
      effective population size exceeds a dozen or so. The concept of the effective
      mutation load is developed, and several procedures for estimating it are
      described. It is shown that this load can be reduced substantially when
      mutational effects are highly variable.

PMID- 28567812
TI  - RESOURCE INFLUENCED SEX ROLES OF ZAPROCHILINE TETTIGONIIDS (ORTHOPTERA:
      TETTIGONIIDAE).
AB  - Male tettigoniids donate nutrients to females at mating in the form of a
      spermatophylax. Male-donated nutrients function as paternal investment leading to
      a reversal in the sex roles of males and females. Reversal in the behavioral sex
      roles of a zaphrochiline tettigoniid was found to be directly related to the
      current availability of food resources in the environment. When resource
      availability was low, females were less fecund and males had lower and more
      variable accessory gland weights (the spermatophylax producing gland) than when
      resource availability was high. When resources were scarce, larger individuals
      had a reproductive advantage having more eggs or heavier accessory glands. All
      individuals were equally fecund or had equal accessory gland weights when
      resources were plentiful. During low resource availability males that had a
      spermatophylax to offer were choosy of their mates, and females were competitive.
      When resources were plentiful, males were less discriminative and females showed
      signs of discrimination. There was evidence that female sexual motivation
      decreased when environmental resources were plentiful (as indicated by mating
      frequency) and that only females of low nutritional status continued to mate.
      When resources were scarce, females achieved fecundities equivalent to those
      achieved during high resource availability through spermatophylax consumption.
      These data support the hypothesis that females continue to mate to compensate for
      low resource availability and that male parental investment may be important only
      in poor quality habitats. When resources are plentiful females do not need to
      remate. Thus resource availability may directly influence the number of sexually
      active males and females (operational sex ratio) and the form of sexual
      selection.

PMID- 28567813
TI  - PARENTAL QUALITY AND SELECTION ON EGG SIZE IN THE MAGELLANIC PENGUIN.
AB  - We examined the relative contributions of egg size and parental quality to
      hatching success, fledging success, and chick growth in the Magellanic penguin
      (Spheniscus magellanicus) be exchanging clutches between nests to reduce the
      covariation between egg and parental factors. Among control nests, fledging
      success increased slightly with egg size. However, the effect of egg size
      independently of parental quality was limited to an influence on chick mass and
      size for the first 10 days post-hatching. In contrast, attributes of the parents
      influenced nesting success and chick size at fledging, independently of the egg
      size actually raised. We suggest that the common occurrence of a positive
      phenotypic correlation between egg size and fledging success is due to two
      factors: (1) adults laying large eggs tend to be of higher quality; and (2) to
      the extent that egg size does influence early survival independently of parental
      quality, the effect on survival is due to a maternal effect on egg composition
      rather than an inherent effect of egg size.

PMID- 28567814
TI  - FLUCTUATING SELECTION AND RESPONSE IN A POPULATION OF FRESHWATER COPEPODS.
AB  - The timing of springtime production of diapausing eggs by a population of the
      freshwater copepod, Diaptomus sanguineus, has been shown previously to be
      consistent with avoidance of seasonally intense fish predation. Natural selection
      acting on the timing of diapause fluctuates between years depending upon the
      population density of fish. Here we show that, in the field, the mean timing of
      diapause shifts between years in response to fluctuations in selection. Diapause
      is earlier in years following high predator density, and is later in years
      following low predator density. Although selection intensity in individual years
      may be large, the mean intensity over the decade of fluctuating selection
      investigated here is close to zero. Photoperiod sensitivity of the diapausetiming
      trait is heritable in the laboratory. The combination of fluctuating selection
      and multi-generation storage of genotypes as diapausing eggs in lake sediments
      may contribute to the maintenance of the genetic variation that permits the rapid
      selection response seen in the field.

PMID- 28567815
TI  - SOME POPULATION GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF COLONY FORMATION AND EXTINCTION: GENETIC
      CORRELATIONS WITHIN FOUNDING GROUPS.
AB  - Extinction and recolonization in an island model affects genetic differentiation
      among subpopulations through a combination of sampling and mixing. We investigate
      the balance of these forces in a general model of population founding that
      predicts first the genetic variance among new groups and then the effect of these
      new groups on the total genetic variance among all populations. We allow for a
      broad range of types of mixing at the time of colonization and demonstrate the
      significant effects on differentiation from the probability of common origin of
      gametes (phi). We further demonstrate that kin-structured founding and inbreeding
      within populations can have a significant effect on the genetic variance among
      groups and use these results to make predictions about lineal fission and fusion
      of populations. These results show that population structure is critically
      affected by non-equilibrium dynamics and that the properties of new populations,
      especially founding number, probability of common origin, and kin structure, are
      vital in our understanding of genetic variation.

PMID- 28567817
TI  - ALLOZYME FREQUENCIES IN A LINEAR SERIES OF SONG DIALECT POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28567816
TI  - Technologies in pediatric vascular access: have we improved success rate in
      peripheral vein cannulation?

PMID- 28567818
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28567820
TI  - ON HETEROZYGOSITY AND THE EFFECTIVE SIZE OF POPULATIONS SUBJECT TO SIZE CHANGES.

PMID- 28567819
TI  - BODY SHAPE METRICS AND ORGANISMAL EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28567821
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF EVOLUTION IN HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS: PHENOLOGICAL
      ADAPTATION BY A BRUCHID BEETLE.

PMID- 28567822
TI  - INTRASEXUAL SELECTION AND THE SEGREGATION OF POLLEN AND STIGMAS IN HERMAPHRODITE
      PLANTS, EXEMPLIFIED BY WAHLENBERGIA ALBOMARGINATA (CAMPANULACEAE).

PMID- 28567823
TI  - HEAT EXCHANGE AND ENDOTHERMY IN PROTODONATA.

PMID- 28567824
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF ALTITUDINAL VARIATION IN THE WOOD FROG RANA SYLVATICA. I. AN
      EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF LIFE HISTORY TRAITS.

PMID- 28567825
TI  - PARENTAL INVESTMENT PER OFFSPRING BY A SPECIALIST BEE: DOES IT CHANGE SEASONALLY?

PMID- 28567826
TI  - HETERODICHOGAMY IN WALNUTS: INHERITANCE AND STABLE RATIOS.

PMID- 28567827
TI  - ORIGIN OF THERMAL ADAPTATIONS IN NORTHERN VERSUS SOUTHERN POPULATIONS OF A
      UNISEXUAL HYBRID FISH.

PMID- 28567829
TI  - WHY ASYMMETRIC MATING PREFERENCES MAY NOT SHOW THE DIRECTION OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28567828
TI  - GROUP SELECTION: MIGRATION AND THE DIFFERENTIATION OF SMALL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28567830
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF BIRDS. VI. A REEXAMINATION OF PROTEIN DIVERGENCE USING
      VARIED ELECTROPHORETIC CONDITIONS.

PMID- 28567831
TI  - DISCONTINUOUS DNA VARIATION IN THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT SPECIES: THE GENUS
      LATHYRUS.

PMID- 28567832
TI  - PARENTAL BEHAVIOR IN LAPWINGS (CHARADRIIDAE) AND ITS RELATIONSHIPS WITH CLUTCH
      SIZES AND MATING SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28567833
TI  - A STUDY OF REACTION NORMS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28567834
TI  - BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERS FOR THE HIGHER CLASSIFICATION OF ORB-WEAVING SPIDERS.

PMID- 28567835
TI  - SURVIVAL OF DISTASTEFUL INSECTS AFTER BEING ATTACKED BY NAIVE BIRDS: A
      REAPPRAISAL OF THE THEORY OF APOSEMATIC COLORATION EVOLVING THROUGH INDIVIDUAL
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28567837
TI  - ONTOGENY OF A MACROEVOLUTIONARY PHENOTYPE: THE EXTERNAL CHEEK POUCHES OF GEOMYOID
      RODENTS.

PMID- 28567836
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG ANCESTRAL AND INTRODUCED POPULATIONS OF THE
      EURASIAN TREE SPARROW (PASSER MONTANUS).
AB  - We compared genetic variation in three introduced North American populations of
      Passer montanus with an ancestral German population, a native Swedish population,
      and an introduced Australian population. The North American P. montanus were less
      variable genetically than the ancestral German birds, presumably a result of the
      founding event. The genetic structure of all six populations of P. montanus can
      be explained in terms of interaction among mutation, genetic drift, effective
      population size, and unknown selective factors. Cluster analyses and an
      ordination of distance measures derived from electrophoretic data generally
      showed relationships in phenetic space among populations consistent with the
      magnitude of their geographic separation. An exception occurred with the Swedish
      population, which was closer in the ordination to a North American population
      than to the geographically neighboring German population. This seemingly
      anomolous juxtaposition was attributed to the relative abundance of alleles
      present in the Swedish birds. Populations of P. montanus seem to have diverged in
      a manner similar to that seen in conspecific disjunct populations, i.e., at
      present showing no trenchant indication of genetic speciation.

PMID- 28567838
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON REMATING IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - The effects of density and food on remating were investigated using Drosophila
      melanogaster. The frequency of remating was unaffected by density for some
      combinations of fly strains but was reduced at low relative densities for other
      combinations. Until females had used most of their stored sperm, remating was
      less likely when food was absent or contact with food was prevented. Food
      availability had little effect on the incidence of remating once stored sperm
      were depleted and had no effect on initial virgin mating frequency. This study
      indicates that environmental factors can have a substantial direct influence on
      the frequency of remating in populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

PMID- 28567839
TI  - THE COST OF HEAVY-METAL TOLERANCE: AN EXAMPLE.

PMID- 28567840
TI  - DISEQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN DISEASE-RESISTANCE VARIANTS AND ALLOZYME LOCI IN AN ANNUAL
      LEGUME.
AB  - Polymorphism existed at 58% of the enzyme loci examined (11/19) in one population
      of the highly self-pollinated annual legume Amphicarpaea bracteata. Due to
      extreme gametic disequilibrium among loci, genetic variation in this population
      was structured into a small number of multilocus genotypes. Over 97% of the
      plants sampled could be grouped into two classes (biotypes "A" and "B"), each
      consisting of a few highly similar genotypes. The two classes had mutually
      exclusive sets of alleles at nine loci. These classes differed sharply in their
      disease resistance toward one isolate of the specialist fungal pathogen
      Synchytrium decipiens from their native habitat. All biotype A plants were
      strongly susceptible, and all biotype B plants were resistant. When plants of
      both biotypes were exposed to this pathogen in a greenhouse, the resistant
      biotype (B) exhibited a significantly higher growth rate. The strong association
      between plant disease-resistance phenotypes and allozyme variants implies that
      pathogen attack could be a major selective agent influencing the evolution of
      neutral or near-neutral alleles at enzyme loci in this plant.

PMID- 28567841
TI  - LONG-TERM CORRELATED RESPONSE, INTERPOPULATION COVARIATION, AND INTERSPECIFIC
      ALLOMETRY.
AB  - A model of long-term correlated evolution of multiple quantitative characters is
      analyzed, which partitions selection into two components: one stabilizing and the
      other directional. The model assumes that the stabilizing component is less
      variable than the directional component among populations. The major result is
      that, within a population, the responses of characters to selection in the short
      term differ qualitatively from those in the long term. In the short term, the
      responses depend on genetic correlations between characters, but in the long term
      they are only determined by the fitness functions of stabilizing and directional
      selection, independent of genetic and phenotypic correlations. Treating the
      stabilizing component as a constant and assuming the directional component to
      vary among populations, I present formulas for the interpopulation covariation
      and interspecific allometry, which are functions of the intensity matrix of
      stabilizing selection. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between
      intra- and interpopulation correlations.

PMID- 28567842
TI  - GENETIC ORGANIZATION AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY IN TWO NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF
      CIRSIUM.
AB  - Relationships involving progenitor and derivative species pairs have been
      documented for a number of plant taxa. In this study, we used starch-gel
      electrophoresis to examine the probable relationship between Cirsium pitcheri, an
      endemic thistle restricted to the shorelines of the Great Lakes, and Cirsium
      canescens, a closely related species of the central Great Plains (U.S.A.). The
      species shared the same enzyme loci but differed greatly in levels of genetic
      diversity. C. pitcheri was genetically much less variable than its congener, with
      fewer polymorphic loci and significantly lower heterozygosity. The genetic
      variation in C. pitcheri represents a depauperate subset of the alleles present
      in C. canescens, consistent with the hypothesis that the two species represent a
      progenitor-derivative species pair. We suggest that C. pitcheri migrated into
      newly created dune habitats in the Great Lakes region near the end of the
      Wisconsin glaciation and that its low genetic variability results from repeated
      and probably prolonged population bottlenecks which accompanied its movement.

PMID- 28567843
TI  - FEMALE STRATEGY DURING MATE CHOICE: THRESHOLD ASSESSMENT.

PMID- 28567844
TI  - ANTAGONISTIC PLEIOTROPY: AN INTERSPECIFIC DROSOPHILA COMPARISON.
AB  - Wild-type flies of 12 Drosophila species and semispecies were examined to
      determine whether correlation patterns between early- and late-life fitness
      characters predicted for individuals within a population by the antagonistic
      pleiotropy hypothesis are reflected in comparisons of related species and
      semispecies that are known to differ in lifespan. Our goal was to determine
      whether the hypothesis is relevant to the evolution of life-history differences
      beyond the population level. Two fitness traits, egg production and percentage
      mating success, were observed at three ages: onset of reproductive age, one week
      later, and one month later. Age-dependent patterns of these traits do not
      consistently conform to predictions of the hypothesis. Species or semispecies
      that show reproductive vitality early in life need not be short-lived, and long
      lifespan need not be accompanied by a cost in early reproductive vitality, as
      measured by mating success and egg production. The two fitness traits can show
      different age-dependent patterns in the same species or semispecies. Potential
      explanations for the frequent inconsistency of the data with predictions of the
      hypothesis are discussed. Results support the idea that the hypothesis is only
      relevant to the evolution of life-history differences among individuals in the
      same breeding population confronted by the same environmental constraints.

PMID- 28567845
TI  - SEXUAL ALLOCATION STRATEGY IN WIND-POLLINATED PLANTS.

PMID- 28567846
TI  - A MOLECULAR REEXAMINATION OF INTROGRESSION BETWEEN HELIANTHUS ANNUUS AND H.
      BOLANDERI (COMPOSITAE).
AB  - Heiser (1949) hypothesized that a weedy race of Helianthus bolanderi had
      originated by the introgression of genes from H. annum into a serpentine race of
      H. bolanderi. Although Heiser's investigation of these species is frequently
      cited as one of the best examples of introgression in plants, definitive evidence
      of gene exchange is lacking (Heiser, 1973). To determine whether the weedy race
      of H. bolanderi actually originated via introgression, we analyzed allozyme,
      chloroplast-DNA (cpDNA), and nuclear-ribosomal-DNA (rDNA) variation. Evidence
      from enzyme electrophoresis did not support the proposed introgressive origin of
      weedy H. bolanderi. We detected a total of 37 low-frequency alleles
      distinguishing the serpentine race of H. bolanderi from H. annuus. Weedy H.
      bolanderi possessed only four of the 37 marker alleles. Further analysis
      demonstrated that serpentine H. bolanderi combined seven of the 35 alleles
      distinguishing H. annuus from weedy H. bolanderi, indicating that serpentine H.
      bolanderi shares three more marker alleles with H. annuus than does weedy H.
      bolanderi. These results are similar to expectations for race divergence from a
      single common ancestor and suggest that, if introgression occurred, the majority
      of marker alleles were rapidly lost following the initial hybridization event.
      Even more compelling evidence opposing Heiser's (1949) hypothesis, however, was
      from restriction-fragment analysis of cpDNA and nuclear rDNA. We detected a total
      of 17 cpDNA and five rDNA restriction-site mutations among the 19 populations
      examined. No parallel or back mutations were observed in phylogenetic trees
      constructed using either cpDNA or rDNA mutations, and both phylogenies were
      completely congruent regarding the alignment of all three taxa. In addition, the
      weedy race of H. bolanderi possessed a unique cpDNA, which was outside the range
      of variation observed among populations of either of the presumed parental
      species. Mean sequence divergences between the cpDNAs of weedy H. bolanderi and
      those of serpentine H. bolanderi and H. annuus were 0.30% and 0.35%,
      respectively. These estimates are comparable to sequence-divergence values
      observed between closely related species in other plant groups. Given the lack of
      parallel or convergent mutations in the cpDNA and rDNA phylogenetic trees, the
      complete congruence of these trees with flavonoid- and allozyme-variation
      patterns, and the presence of a unique and divergent chloroplast genome in the
      weedy race of H. bolanderi, we suggest that the weedy race of H. bolanderi was
      not derived recently through introgression, as hypothesized, but is relatively
      ancient in origin.

PMID- 28567847
TI  - THE CONSEQUENCES OF BROOD SIZE FOR BREEDING BLUE TITS. III. MEASURING THE COST OF
      REPRODUCTION: SURVIVAL, FUTURE FECUNDITY, AND DIFFERENTIAL DISPERSAL.
AB  - To determine how the cost of reproduction varies with brood size, a population of
      blue tits (Parus caeruleus) breeding in Wytham Wood, England, was manipulated
      over a three year period. Two hundred sixteen pairs were randomly assigned 3, 6,
      9, 12, or 15 nestlings; nestlings were exchanged soon after hatching. Survival of
      adult females (as measured by the proportion recaptured in the following winter
      and/or spring) declined significantly with increasing brood size in two out of
      three years; there was significant year-to-year variation in the relationship of
      recapture rate to brood size. Mean female recapture rates (averaged over the
      three years) declined in a linear fashion (P < 0.01). There was no significant
      linear or curvilinear relationship between male-recapture rate and brood size in
      any of the three years nor was there a significant linear or curvilinear
      relationship for the data averaged over the three years. Nevertheless, recapture
      proportions for males differed significantly with respect to brood size (chi2
      test, P < 0.05). The possibility that experimental brood size influences
      subsequent dispersal (and therefore biases measures of survival based on
      recapture rates to differing degrees) was examined by comparing distances moved
      by breeding adults from one year to the next. There was no relationship between
      brood size and dispersal distance within the study area for either sex, except
      that females given broods of three were significantly more likely to move more
      than 300 m than were those given broods of 6-15 young. Both males and females
      showed evidence of a cost with respect to future fecundity: as brood size
      increased, the number of surviving offspring produced in the following year
      decreased from 1.5-1.6 (for adults that had reared 3-6 young) to 0.4 (for those
      that had reared 15 young). The relationship of future reproductive success to
      experimental brood size did not differ among years or between the sexes. The
      number of eggs laid and number of young hatched in year n + 1 did not differ
      significantly with respect to brood size in year n; rather, differences in future
      fecundity reflected differences in the survival prospects of young reared in year
      n + 1.

PMID- 28567848
TI  - FURTHER SIMULATION STUDIES ON EVOLUTION BY GENE DUPLICATION.
AB  - In order to understand the origin of multigene families, Monte Carlo simulations
      were performed to see how a genetic system evolves under unequal crossing-over,
      mutation, random genetic drift and natural selection, starting from a single gene
      copy. Both haploid and diploid models were examined. Beneficial, neutral, and
      detrimental mutations were incorporated, and "positive" selection favors those
      chromosomes (haploid) or individuals (diploid) with more beneficial mutations
      than others. The same model for haploids was previously investigated with special
      reference to the evolution of gene organization, and the ratio of the numbers of
      beneficial genes to pseudogenes was found to be a rough indicator of the relative
      strengths of positive and negative (against deleterious alleles) natural
      selection (Ohta, 1987b). In the present paper, the evolution of gene organization
      and of sequence divergence among genes in the multigene family is examined. It is
      shown that positive selection accelerates the accumulation of arrays containing
      different beneficial mutations, but that total divergence including both neutral
      and beneficial mutations is not very sensitive to positive selection, under this
      model. The proportion of beneficial mutations in the total mutations accumulated
      is a better indicator of positive selection than is the total divergence. It is
      pointed out that various observed examples in which amino-acid substitutions are
      accelerated, as compared with synonymous substitutions in duplicated genes (Li,
      1985), may reflect the effect of selection similar to the present scheme. The
      diploid model is shown to be more efficient for accumulating beneficial mutations
      in duplicated genes than the haploid one, and the relevance of this finding to
      the advantage of sexual reproduction is discussed.

PMID- 28567849
TI  - EVOLUTION OF GREGARIOUSNESS IN APOSEMATIC BUTTERFLY LARVAE: A PHYLOGENETIC
      ANALYSIS.
AB  - Gregariousness ought to be disadvantageous for palatable organisms that live
      exposed and are relatively immobile and small in comparison to potential
      predators. Therefore, the idea that unpalatability generally evolves before egg
      clustering/larval gregariousness in butterflies was tested. Aposematic coloration
      in the larva was used as the criterion of unpalatability (it is argued that
      Batesian mimicry is rare in butterfly larvae), and the relative order of
      evolution of aposematism and gregariousness was inferred through phylogenetic
      analysis. Here, existing phylogenies were used, and the analysis was based on an
      assumption of a minimum number of evolutionary changes (parsimony). A total of 23
      cases of independent evolution of gregariousness and 12 cases of independent
      evolution of aposematic coloration were found. In five cases, gregariousness
      evolved in cryptic species, the palatability of which is unknown. For lineages in
      which both unpalatability, as evidenced by aposematic coloration, and
      gregariousness were found and the two evolutionary events could be separated,
      unpalatability always preceded gregariousness: five cases of independent
      evolution of warning coloration were followed by a total of 15 cases of
      independent evolution of gregariousness. In no lineage did gregariousness evolve
      before warning coloration. It is thus concluded that unpalatability is an
      important predisposing factor for the evolution of egg clustering and larval
      gregariousness in butterflies. Insofar as kin selection is related to larval
      gregariousness, this study indicates that kin selection is of minor importance
      for the evolution of both unpalatability and warning coloration.

PMID- 28567850
TI  - POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION AND THE TRANSMISSION OF DENSITY EFFECTS BETWEEN
      GENERATIONS.

PMID- 28567851
TI  - STURM UND DRANG AND THE EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS.

PMID- 28567852
TI  - GENETIC BASIS OF ACTIVITY METABOLISM. I. INHERITANCE OF SPEED, STAMINA, AND
      ANTIPREDATOR DISPLAYS IN THE GARTER SNAKE THAMNOPHIS SIRTALIS.
AB  - Recent conceptual advances in physiological ecology emphasize the potential
      selective importance of whole-animal performance. Empirical studies of locomotor
      performance in reptiles have revealed surprising amounts of individual variation
      in speed and stamina. The present study is the first in a series examining the
      genetic basis of variation in locomotor performance, activity metabolism, and
      associated behaviors in garter snakes. Maximal sprint crawling speed, treadmill
      endurance, and antipredator displays (Arnold and Bennett, 1984; exhibited as
      snakes reached exhaustion on the treadmill) were measured for approximately six
      offspring (presumed to be full siblings) from each of 46 wild-caught gravid
      garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis). Each character was measured on two days; all
      were individually repeatable. Correlations of these characters with body mass,
      snout-vent length, age at testing, litter size, dam mass, and dam snout-vent
      length were removed by computing residuals from multiple-regression equations.
      These residuals were used in subsequent genetic analyses. Approximate
      coefficients of variation of residuals were 17% for speed, 48% for endurance, and
      31% for antipredator displays. Broad-sense heritabilities were significant for
      all characters: speed h2 = 0.58; stamina h2 = 0.70; antipredator display h2 =
      0.42. All three residual characters showed positive and statistically significant
      phenotypic correlations (r = 0.19-0.36). Genetic correlations (estimated and
      tested by restricted maximum likelihood) among residuals were positive and highly
      significant between speed and endurance (0.58), but nonsignificant between speed
      and antipredator display (0.43), and between endurance and antipredator display
      (0.26). All environmental correlations were nonsignificant. These data suggest
      that, contrary to expectations based on previous physiological studies, there may
      be no necessary evolutionary trade-off between speed and stamina in these
      animals. This tentative conclusion will have important implications for future
      theoretical studies of the evolution of locomotor performance and associated
      antipredator behaviors.

PMID- 28567853
TI  - ISOZYME VARIABILITY IN TRYPANOSOMA CRUZI, THE AGENT OF CHAGAS' DISEASE:
      GENETICAL, TAXONOMICAL, AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE.
AB  - A genetic interpretation of the zymograms of 524 Trypanosoma cruzi stocks from
      various hosts and representing a broad geographical range (United States to
      Southern Brazil) reveals high genetic variability (only one monomorphic locus out
      of 15) and suggests that this parasite has a diploid structure. The data do not
      give any indication of Mendelian sexuality, although many opportunities are
      present for genetic exchange between extremely different genotypes. The
      population structure of T. cruzi appears to be multiclonal and complex. The
      natural clones evidenced by isozyme analysis are numerous (43 different ones are
      recorded among 121 stocks assayed at 15 gene loci) and exhibit a large range of
      genotypes, in a nonhierarchical structure; it is not possible to cluster them
      into a few strictly delimited groups which could represent natural taxa. The
      available data suggest that the genetic variability of T. cruzi reflects the long
      separate evolution of multiple clones. It is suggested that long clonal evolution
      may explain the present biological and medical variability of the causative agent
      of Chagas' disease.

PMID- 28567854
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL BUFFERING AS A MECHANISM FOR STASIS: EVIDENCE FROM THE PULMONATE
      THEBA PISANA.

PMID- 28567855
TI  - ASYMMETRICAL DEVELOPMENTAL PLASTICITY IN AN INTERTIDAL SNAIL.
AB  - Field and laboratory experiments were used to investigate the variation and
      phenotypic plasticity in the adhesive abilities of the intertidal snail Nucella
      lapillus between high- and low-wave-energy environments. Whelks from an exposed
      coast produced a larger pedal surface area and were more resistant to
      dislodgement than were similar-sized individuals from a protected shore. Tenacity
      (g/cm2 ) was similar between individuals from exposed and protected shores,
      indicating that variation in resisting dislodgement was solely a function of
      pedal surface area. Whelks from exposed and protected shores did not differ in
      pedal surface area as they emerged from egg capsules or when reared in the
      laboratory under uniform conditions, suggesting that variation between
      populations does not represent genetic differentiation. Individuals from high-and
      low-wave-energy environments reared intertidally produced a larger pedal surface
      area than did those reared in the laboratory. The extent to which pedal surface
      area increased corresponded to the intensity of wave action. These findings
      suggest that pedal surface area is a highly plastic character modulated or
      induced by the water turbulence accompanying breaking waves. A reciprocal
      transplant experiment confirmed this notion but revealed an asymmetry in the
      plasticity. Snails from the protected site transplanted to an exposed shore
      formed a much larger pedal surface area than did controls reared on the protected
      shore. In contrast, whelks from a wave-swept shore transplanted to a protected
      shore differed little from their controls reared on the exposed shore. The
      asymmetric response parallels a possible asymmetry in the risks of acclimating to
      a temporally unpredictable environmental cue, such as wave action.

PMID- 28567857
TI  - DEMONSTRATION OF CRYPTIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN DISTYLOUS AMSINCKIA DOUGLASIANA.
AB  - Hand pollinations experiments with distylous Amsinckia douglasiana A. DC.
      (Boraginaceae) revealed that legitimate (intermorph) crosses produce more seed
      than self-pollinations and that self-pollinations yield more seed than
      illegitimate (intramorph) crosses. We tested the occurrence of cryptic
      incompatibility in both style-length morphs by pollinating them with a mixture of
      legitimate and illegitimate pollen, each homozygous for a different
      electrophoretically distinguishable allele of phosphoglucose isomerase. The
      success of intramorph pollen was greatly reduced in mixture; only about 4% of the
      offspring of both pins and thrums were sired by illegitimate pollen. One pin and
      one thrum had sufficiently high seed set that the results cannot be attributed to
      selective abortion of embryos. In those individuals, discrimination against
      illegitimate pollen must have occurred on the stigma or in the style. Based on
      our findings, it appears that illegitimate matings are rare in natural
      populations. The progeny of legitimate crosses was biased toward pins, which
      suggests some regulation of morph ratios independent of the style-length locus.
      Prezygotic discrimination against the thrum genotype or selective abortion of
      embryos with the thrum genotype are both possible, but selective mortality of
      seedlings with the thrum genotype cannot be ruled out for some families.

PMID- 28567858
TI  - Optimization of Interphase Intervals to Enhance the Evoked Muscular Responses of
      Transcutaneous Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation.
AB  - Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is a widely used technique for
      clinical diagnostic, treatment, and research. Normally, it applies charge
      balanced biphasic pulses, which several publications have reported to be less
      efficient than monophasic pulses. A good alternative is the use of interphase
      intervals (IPI) on biphasic pulses that allows to achieve similar responses than
      those evoked by monophasic stimulation. This study analyzes the enhancing
      mechanism of the IPI and provides guidelines on how to optimize the IPI in order
      to reduce secondary effects such as the electrode corrosion. The tibial nerve was
      excited by NMES biphasic pulses with different IPI durations and polarities.
      Then, the elicited responses were recorded on the soleus muscle via
      electromyography. When cathodic-first pulses were applied, the responses
      increased proportionally to the IPI until the duration of 250 us, where the
      increase saturated at 30% of the original amplitude. The responses evoked during
      anodic-first were 6% to 30% smaller than those evoked during cathodic-first
      pulses and continuously increased until the IPI duration of 2500 us, where the
      responses reached an increase of around 30%. The results suggest that when a
      cathodic-first pulse is used, the IPI could be optimized (based on the setup
      geometry) to allow the action potentials to travel out of the hyperpolarization
      zone induced by the anodic phase. When anodic-first stimuli are applied, the IPI
      duration allows the fiber to recover from an apparent insensitive state induced
      by the anodic phase. The use of IPI is a viable option to improve the efficiency
      of actual stimulation systems, since only small modifications are required to
      significantly reduce the electrical charge required and boost the stimulation
      efficiency.

PMID- 28567860
TI  - Earliest evidence of bitumen from Homo sp. teeth is from El Sidron.

PMID- 28567859
TI  - Therapeutic targeting of chemoresistant and recurrent glioblastoma stem cells
      with a proapoptotic variant of oncolytic herpes simplex virus.
AB  - Temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy, in combination with maximal safe resection and
      radiotherapy, is the current standard of care for patients with glioblastoma
      (GBM). Despite this multimodal approach, GBM inevitably relapses primarily due to
      resistance to chemo-radiotherapy, and effective treatment is not available for
      recurrent disease. In this study we identified TMZ resistant patient-derived
      primary and previously treated recurrent GBM stem cells (GSC), and investigated
      the therapeutic activity of a pro-apoptotic variant of oHSV (oHSV-TRAIL) in vitro
      and in vivo. We show that oHSV-TRAIL modulates cell survival and MAP Kinase
      proliferation signaling pathways as well as DNA damage response pathways in both
      primary and recurrent TMZ-resistant GSC. Utilizing real time in vivo imaging and
      correlative immunohistochemistry, we show that oHSV-TRAIL potently inhibits tumor
      growth and extends survival of mice bearing TMZ-insensitive recurrent
      intracerebral GSC tumors via robust and selective induction of apoptosis-mediated
      death in tumor cells, resulting in cures in 40% of the treated mice. In
      comparison, the anti-tumor effects in a primary chemoresistant GSC GBM model
      exhibiting a highly invasive phenotype were significant but less prominent. This
      work thus demonstrates the ability of oHSV-TRAIL to overcome the therapeutic
      resistance and recurrence of GBM, and provides a basis for its testing in a GBM
      clinical trial.

PMID- 28567862
TI  - GENETICS OF BRASSICA CAMPESTRIS. 1. GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON EVOLUTION OF LIFE
      HISTORY CHARACTERS.
AB  - Energy allocation arguments suggest a possible tradeoff between timing and
      magnitude of reproduction: plants that postpone reproduction may accumulate
      greater resources and consequently produce more offspring. However, early
      reproduction may be favored when adult mortality is high. Tradeoffs among life
      history characters may be a consequence of constraints imposed by genetic and
      environmental covariation among traits. In this paper we examine the genetic
      basis of the relationship between timing and magnitude of reproduction in an
      annual plant, Brassica campestris, by selecting to change flowering date and
      plant size in each of four directions (early and large, late and large, early and
      small, or late and small). There is a strong positive relationship between
      flowering date and flowering height. The response to selection was greatest along
      the axis of positive genetic covariation. Populations may evolve to become early
      flowering and small or late flowering and tall, but there is little response for
      the alternative combinations of characters. In this instance, the constraints
      imposed by quantitative genetics are in striking accord with predictions that
      might be made on physiological, energetic, or ecological grounds.

PMID- 28567861
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF THE HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN THE FIRE-BELLIED TOADS BOMBINA
      BOMBINA AND B. VARIEGATA: COMPARISONS BETWEEN TRANSECTS AND BETWEEN LOCI.
AB  - We compare the pattern of morphological and electrophoretic variation in the
      hybrid zone between Bombina bombina and B. variegata across two transects: one
      near Cracow and one 200 km away, near Przemysl in southeastern Poland.
      Morphological variation across the Przemysl transect had been surveyed more than
      50 years ago; though we found a significant shift at one site, there is no
      evidence for gross movement over this period. Morphological and electrophoretic
      changes coincide, and the average shape of the clines is the same across both
      transects. At the center, most of the change in frequency of six diagnostic
      allozymes occurs within w = 6.05 km (2-unit support limits 5.56-6.54 km). These
      steep gradients are generated not by selection on the allozymes themselves, but
      by associations with other loci: though these markers are unlinked, they are in
      strong linkage disequilibrium with each other [R = D/?pquv = 0.22 (0.15-0.29) at
      the center]. Disequilibria are broken up as alleles diffuse away from the zone
      and flow into the new genetic background. The net barrier to the flow of genes
      from bombina into variegata, which is generated by these disequilibria, is B = 51
      (22-81) km. The fitness of hybrids must be substantially reduced to produce such
      a barrier [WH /WP = 0.58 (0.54-0.68)], and this selection must be spread over
      many loci [N = 55 (26-88)]. Alleles introgress significantly less far than would
      be expected from the age of the zone and the estimated dispersal rate [sigma =
      0.99 (0.82-1.14) km gen.1/2 ]: this implies selection of se = 0.37 (0.15-0.58)%
      on the enzymes themselves. There is weak but significant linkage disequilibrium
      well away from the center of the zone; this, together with the presence of
      parental and F1 genotypes, suggests some long-range migration. However, such
      migration is not likely to cause significant introgression.

PMID- 28567863
TI  - LIFETIME DATA AND THE MEASUREMENT OF SELECTION.

PMID- 28567864
TI  - MATING PROPENSITY AND COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR IN SERIALLY BOTTLENECKED LINES OF THE
      HOUSEFLY.
AB  - The efficacy of bottlenecks to stimulate divergence in courtship behavior and
      consequent premating isolation was tested by serial founder-flush episodes of
      three sizes (one, four, or 16 pairs) on a population of houseflies established in
      the laboratory from a single field population. After the fifth founder-flush
      episode, intraline and interline crosses were performed to detect divergence in
      mating propensities and patterns of assortative mating. Videotapings of intraline
      courtships for the bottleneck lines and the control were evaluated for changes in
      courtship repertoire. All bottleneck lines showed significant divergence from the
      control in male and/or female mating propensity and in courtship behavior.
      Divergence from the control was bidirectional for both male and female mating
      propensities as well as for courtship element utilization. Out of 15 tests for
      assortative mating between bottleneck lines and between bottleneck lines and the
      control, only two cases of positive assortative mating and one case of negative
      assortative mating were detected. Because some bottleneck lines showed increased
      courtship element utilization and because decreased courtship utilization in some
      bottleneck lines was related to higher male mating success, the mechanisms behind
      the Kaneshiro model (which is based upon ancestral females discriminating against
      bottleneck males that had "lost" courtship elements) were not supported in
      general. A partitioning effect of the bottlenecks upon the intrinsic variation in
      the ancestral population for courtship pattern appeared to explain a large
      component of the directions of divergence from the control. Still, the pattern of
      divergence of some bottleneck lines apparently was not constrained by the
      intercorrelation structure of courtship behaviors detected in the control.
      Because previous studies showed that the bottleneck lines had rebounded from
      inbreeding depression to fitness levels of the control, this study documents
      nondebilitating differentiation in the courtship repertoire that can account for
      divergent mating propensities and premating isolation.

PMID- 28567865
TI  - ESTIMATION OF SINGLE GENERATION MIGRATION DISTANCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN
      ANIMAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.
AB  - A new approach is introduced for the analysis of dispersal from the geographic
      distributions of mtDNA lineages. The method is based on the expected spatial
      distributions of lineages arising under a multigeneration random walk process.
      Unlike previous methods based on the predicted equilibria between genetic drift
      and gene flow, this approach is appropriate for non-equilibrium conditions, and
      yields an estimate of dispersal distance rather than dispersal rate. The
      theoretical basis for this method is examined, and an analysis of mtDNA
      restriction site data for Peromyscus maniculatus is presented as an example of
      how this approach can be applied to empirical data.

PMID- 28567866
TI  - COMPARISONS OF OBSERVED PHYLOGENETIC TOPOLOGIES WITH NULL EXPECTATIONS AMONG
      THREE MONOPHYLETIC LINEAGES.
AB  - Three null models have been proposed to predict the relative frequencies of
      topologies of phylogenetic trees. One null model assumes each distinguishable n
      member tree is equally likely (proportional-to-distinguishable-arrangements
      model). A second model assumes that each topological type is equally likely
      (equiprobable model). A third model assumes that the probability of each
      topological type is determined by random speciation (Markov model). We sampled
      published phylogenetic trees from three major groups of organisms: division
      Angiospermae, class Insecta, and superclass Tetrapoda. Our sampling was more
      restricted than previous studies and was designed to test whether observed
      topological frequencies were distinguishable from those predicted by the three
      null models. The pattern of evolution reflected in five-member phylogenetic trees
      is different from predictions of the equiprobable and Markov model but is
      indistinguishable from the proportional-to-distinguishable-arrangements model.
      This indicates that 1) speciation (and/or extinction) is not equally likely among
      all taxa, even for small phylogenies; or 2) systematists' attempts at
      reconstructing small phylogenies are, on average, indistinguishable from those
      expected if they had merely selected a tree at random from the pool of all
      possible trees. The topology frequencies were not different among the three
      groups of organisms, suggesting that factors shaping patterns of speciation and
      extinction are consistent among major taxonomic groups.

PMID- 28567867
TI  - SEXUAL CANNIBALISM, SIZE DIMORPHISM, AND COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR IN ORB-WEAVING
      SPIDERS (ARANEIDAE).

PMID- 28567868
TI  - ASSOCIATION BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE TRAITS AND ALLOZYME HETEROZYGOSITY IN A
      TETRASOMIC SPECIES: DACTYLIS GLOMERATA.
AB  - Tetraploid individuals of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L. subsp. hispanica
      Roth.) sampled from a natural population were used to evaluate the correlation
      between both single and multilocus heterozygosity at 7 enzyme loci, and several
      quantitative traits (plant size at time of collection, leaf weight, and panicle
      number in experimental trials). Four hundred and forty-eight plants were studied
      at the 7 loci and 288 of these individuals were scored for an additional eighth
      locus. Five genotype classes (monogenic, simplex, and duplex digenic, trigenic,
      and tetragenic) were distinguished according to their heterozygosity level.
      Multilocus heterozygosity showed a significant positive correlation with both
      leaf and panicle yield in experimental conditions, but not with original plant
      size, which was found to be markedly influenced by environmental
      microheterogeneity. Multilocus heterozygosity, estimated from both the number of
      heterozygous loci and the number of distinct alleles per locus, had a significant
      influence on plant performance. Individual locus effects were positive and
      significant at two loci (GOT1 and PX1). Panicle number increased regularly with
      heterozygosity level (from monogenics to tetragenics) at the GOT1 locus, as did
      leaf weight and panicle number at the PX1 locus. Such variation would be
      predicted by overdominance at these loci or at linked loci. Significant
      relationships between leaf yield and heterozygosity level at the GOT1 locus
      distinguished the homozygotes from the heterozygotes (of any class) and was thus
      more consistent with inbreeding effects. No significant differences were observed
      among the five genotype classes for any quantitative trait at the six remaining
      loci. At both the GOT1 and PX1 loci, heterozygosity had a significant independent
      effect on leaf weight and panicle number even when the correlation between these
      traits was removed by analysis of covariance.

PMID- 28567869
TI  - APOSEMATISM AND SYNERGISTIC SELECTION IN MARINE GASTROPODS.

PMID- 28567871
TI  - GENE FLOW IN CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA (LEGUMINOSAE) II. GENE ESTABLISHMENT.
AB  - The role of gene establishment in gene flow was investigated in a population of
      the annual legume Chamaecrista fasciculata by determining the effect of
      interparent distance on progeny fitness throughout the entire life history. A
      decelerating gain in progeny fitness with increasing interparent distance was
      observed. Selfed progeny suffered a 2-fold fitness disadvantage compared to
      progeny derived from mating events between individuals in the same neighborhood.
      Progeny derived from within neighborhood crosses had lower fitness than progeny
      from crosses between neighborhoods. Coupling the effect of interparent distance
      on gene establishment with information on gene dispersal resulted in a
      considerable increase in estimated gene flow. However, gene flow was still
      limited, as the average neighborhood area corresponded to a circle with radius of
      approximately 3.0 m. Yearly fluctuations in population size and variation in
      reproductive output lowered the estimate of Ne below the census estimate to
      approximately 100 individuals. The role of a seed bank in increasing the estimate
      of Ne was found to be insignificant. It is likely that genetic drift plays a
      major role in determining the distribution of genetic variation in this
      population.

PMID- 28567870
TI  - FACULTATIVE SEX ALLOCATION BIASING BY WORKERS IN SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA.
AB  - A single-locus two-allele model is analyzed to determine the invasion conditions
      for facultative biasing of colony sex allocation by hymenopteran workers in
      response to queen mating frequency, for a situation in which colonies have a
      single queen mated to one or two males. Facultative biasing of sex allocation
      towards increased male production in double mated colonies and increased female
      production in single mated colonies can both invade when the population sex
      allocation ratio is at the worker optimum. However, when the population sex
      allocation ratio is more male biased than the worker optimum, plausibly due to
      mixed queen and worker control, it is likely that only increased female
      allocation in colonies perceived by the workers to have single mated queens can
      invade. In this case, the frequency of mistakes made by workers in assessing
      queen mating frequency is an important constraint on the invasion of facultative
      male biasing in colonies perceived to have a double mated queen. When the
      population sex allocation ratio is not between the optima for workers in single
      and double mated colonies, plausibly due to strong queen control, then
      facultative biasing cannot invade. In this situation, workers in all colonies
      should attempt to bias allocation towards increased females. Worker male
      production in queenright colonies (provided not all males are worker-derived),
      unequal sperm use by double mated queens, and the amount of facultative biasing,
      do not alter these results.

PMID- 28567872
TI  - THE GEOGRAPHY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN TWO SYMPATRIC SPARROWS.
AB  - Geographic variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was studied
      in samples of two sympatric passerine birds, fox (Passerella iliaca) and song
      (Melospiza melodia) sparrows, collected at the same sites in the western United
      States. Different levels of variation and differentiation were observed in each
      species. In 46 fox sparrows taken at nine sites, five clones were observed,
      partitioned into two distinct east-west groups that meet at the Great Basin
      Sierra Nevada interface; percent nucleotide divergence was 0.86 between groups
      and 0.08 within groups. An additional 43 individuals were examined using at least
      one of seven diagnostic endonucleases, and all supported the east-west groupings.
      Considering common mtDNA haplotypes as alleles, an FST of 0.50 was computed,
      which is an order of magnitude greater than that computed from allozyme
      comparisons (0.019); mtDNA analyses suggest little intergroup gene exchange.
      Compared to allozymic variation, analysis of mtDNA revealed a greater degree of
      population structuring and greater consistency with broad patterns of
      morphological variation. Fifteen clones were observed in 27 song sparrows taken
      at seven of the same sites at which fox sparrows were sampled; the percent
      nucleotide divergence averaged 0.27. There was no detectable geographic pattern
      to the variation, and no evidence of an east-west division as in the fox sparrow.
      However, the mosaic nature of mtDNA variation in song sparrows suggests limited
      gene exchange. Considering the 15 clones as alleles yielded an Fst of 0.24, which
      is reduced to 0.039 when corrected for sampling error. In spite of occupying the
      same geographic area, mtDNA analyses showed that the two species (or at least
      their mtDNA gene genealogies) have had different evolutionary histories.

PMID- 28567873
TI  - CAN ONE PREDICT THE EVOLUTION OF QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS WITHOUT GENETICS?

PMID- 28567874
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF APOSEMATISM IN MARINE GASTROPODS.

PMID- 28567875
TI  - CONSEQUENCES OF FLORAL VARIATION FOR MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTION IN EXPERIMENTAL
      POPULATIONS OF WILD RADISH, RAPHANUS SATIVUS L.
AB  - We documented effects of floral variation on seed paternity and maternal
      fecundity in a series of small experimental populations of wild radish, R.
      sativus. Each population was composed of two competing pollen donor groups with
      contrasting floral morphologies and several designated maternal plants. Progeny
      testing with electrophoretic markers allowed us to measure paternal success.
      Realized fecundity by each maternal plant and the fraction of those seeds
      attributable to each pollen donor group were used as outcome variables in path
      analysis to explore relationships between floral characters (petal size, pollen
      grain number per flower, and modal pollen grain size), pollinator visitation
      patterns, and reproductive success. A wide range of pollinator taxa visited the
      experimental populations, and patterns of discrimination appeared to vary among
      them. The impact of visitation on male and female reproduction also varied among
      taxa; visits of small native bees significantly increased paternal success, while
      those of honey bees reduced male fitness. Only visits by large native bees had
      discernible effects on recipient fecundity, and, overall, fecundity was not
      limited by visitation. Maternal plants bearing large-petalled flowers produced
      fewer flowers during the experiment, reducing their total seed production. In
      these small populations, postpollination processes (at least in part,
      compatibility) significantly influenced male and female reproductive success.
      Variation in pollinator pools occurring on both spatial and temporal scales may
      act to preserve genetic variation for floral traits in this species.

PMID- 28567876
TI  - GENE FLOW IN CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA (LEGUMINOSAE) I. GENE DISPERSAL.
AB  - Both pollen and seed dispersal components of gene flow were examined in the
      annual plant Chamaecrista fasciculata (Leguminosae) and quantified in terms of
      Wright's neighborhood area. Pollen dispersal was estimated by measuring
      pollinator flight movement throughout the flowering season and the contribution
      of pollen carryover to pollen dispersal was determined by comparing pollinator
      flight movement with dispersal of electrophoretic markers in an experimental
      transect. Phenological effects on the probability of fruit set were measured to
      determine whether pollinations should be weighted differentially across the
      flowering season. The outcrossing rate, a major determinant of the role of pollen
      dispersal in gene flow, was estimated from electrophoretic analysis of progeny
      arrays and by measuring the proportion of nongeitonogamous pollinator flight
      movements. Seed dispersal was measured in a prairie habitat and in experimental
      plots without surrounding vegetation. Seed dispersal was small in comparison to
      pollen dispersal in both environments. Fruit set was low at the beginning and end
      of the flowering season, periods when flower density is low and pollinator flight
      distances are large. Although the outcrossing rate was high (t = 80%) and pollen
      carryover substantial, pollen dispersal was limited. Averaged over 4 years,
      neighborhood area, based on both seed and pollen dispersal, was 17.6 m2 , and
      corresponds to a circle of radius 2.4 m. The observed limited gene dispersal
      suggests the population of C. fasciculata is genetically subdivided into small
      breeding units of related individuals.

PMID- 28567877
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY IN THE HAPLODIPLOID THYSANOPTERA.

PMID- 28567878
TI  - SPERM COMPETITION AND THE EVOLUTION OF NONFERTILIZING SPERM IN MAMMALS.
AB  - Nonfertilizing sperm with special morphologies have long been known to exist in
      invertebrates. Until recently, abnormal sperm in mammals were considered errors
      in production. Now, however, Baker and Bellis (1988, 1989) have proposed that
      mammalian sperm, like some invertebrate sperm, are polymorphic and adapted to a
      variety of nonfertilizing roles in sperm competition, including prevention of
      passage of sperm inseminated by another male. More specifically, their "kamikaze"
      sperm hypothesis proposes that deformed mammalian sperm are adapted to facilitate
      the formation and functioning of copulatory plugs (Baker and Bellis, 1988). Here
      I argue that most, maybe all, mammals are unlikely to produce nonfertilizing
      sperm. First, mammals might not be able to afford to evolve nonfertilizing sperm,
      given that a) fertilization is often unlikely despite the huge numbers of sperm
      produced; b) production of larger numbers of sperm is constrained, presumably
      because of metabolic costs, evidence for which includes the fact that in species
      in which sperm morphology and anatomy of the female reproductive tract increase
      the probability of fertilization, the numbers of sperm produced is lower than in
      others; and c) selection appears to act against the production of deformed sperm.
      Second, some of the evidence advanced for the existence of nonfertilizing sperm
      does not in fact support the idea. Third, accessory gland secretions are
      sufficient on their own to coagulate semen and produce fully functioning plugs;
      thus the male that used accessory gland secretions would be at a clear advantage
      over the male that diluted his fertilizing sperm with "kamikaze" sperm; and
      indeed, current evidence indicates selection on accessory glands, not sperm
      morphology, to enhance coagulation of semen. Fourth, predictions made on the
      basis of the "kamikaze" sperm hypothesis are not supported by quantitative
      comparisons of data from polyandrous and monandrous primates (i.e., those in
      which several males mate with a fertile female, and therefore in which sperm
      competition should be operating, and those in which only one male mates).
      Although sperm competition is almost certainly more intense in polyandrous genera
      than in monandrous genera (as indicated by, e.g., more frequent copulations and
      the production of more sperm per ejaculate from larger spermatogenic organs),
      polyandrous genera do not produce a greater proportion of deformed (i.e.,
      nonfertilizing) sperm than do monandrous genera, or even necessarily a greater
      number of deformed sperm; nor a greater variety of sperm sizes-indeed they might
      produce fewer; nor fewer motile sperm (as might be expected if sperm are selected
      to stay behind and compete with sperm from subsequent males); and nor larger
      sperm (as might be expected if sperm are produced for functions other than to
      reach the egg). In sum, currently available evidence suggests that the function
      of all mammalian sperm is to fertilize, and that sperm competition in mammals
      occurs through scramble competition, not contest competition.

PMID- 28567879
TI  - A PRELIMINARY TEST OF THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SEX
      DETERMINATION IN REPTILES.

PMID- 28567880
TI  - DIVERGENCE OF MEIOTIC DRIVE-SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS AS AN EXPLANATION FOR SEX-BIASED
      HYBRID STERILITY AND INVIABILITY.
AB  - Two empirical generalizations about speciation remain unexplained: the tendency
      of the heterogametic sex to be sterile or inviable in F1 hybrids (Haldane's
      rule), and the tendency of the X chromosome to harbor the genetic elements that
      cause this sex bias in hybrid fitness. I suggest that divergence of meiotic drive
      systems on the sex chromosomes can explain these observations. The theory follows
      from two simple facts. First, sex chromosomes are particularly susceptible to the
      forces of meiotic drive. Second, divergence of meiotic drive systems can cause
      hybrid sterility and in viability. The main objection to the theory is that
      meiotic drive is apparently rare, whereas the observed pattern of hybrid fitness
      is widespread. I answer this objection by showing that divergence of meiotic
      drive systems can explain the two generalizations even if large departures from
      Mendelian segregation are rarely observed.

PMID- 28567881
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS IN A POLYCHAETE EXHIBITING
      PLANKTOTROPHY AND LECITHOTROPHY.
AB  - The polychaete Streblospio benedicti is unusual in that several field populations
      consist of individuals that exhibit either planktotrophic or lecithotrophic
      larval development. Planktotrophy in this species involves production of many
      small ova that develop into feeding larvae with a two- to three-week planktonic
      period. Lecithotrophy involves production of fewer, larger ova that develop into
      nonfeeding larvae that are brooded longer and have a brief planktonic stage.
      Reciprocal matings were performed to investigate genetic variance components and
      the correlation structure of life-history traits associated with planktotrophy
      and lecithotrophy. Our objective was to better understand persistence of this
      developmental dichotomy in Streblospio benedicti, and among marine invertebrates
      in general. Substantial additive genetic variation (75-98% of total) was detected
      for the following characters at first reproduction: female length; position of
      the first gametogenic setiger and first brood pouch; ovum diameter; three traits
      related to fecundity (numbers of ova per ovary, larvae per brood pouch, and
      larvae per brood); median larval planktonic period and the presence of larval
      swimming setae; but not for total number of brood pouches; larval length; larval
      feeding; and larval survivorship. Based on the unusual geographic distribution of
      development modes in this species, we hypothesize that the developmental traits
      have evolved in allopatry and have only recently come into contact in North
      Carolina. The high additive contribution to variance observed for many traits may
      be inflated due to (a) nonrandom breeding in nature, and (b) examination of only
      one component of an age-structured population at one time. Nuclear interaction
      variance and maternal variance accounted for 84% of the total variation in larval
      survivorship. This observation supports other empirical studies and theoretical
      predictions that nonadditive components of variance will increase in importance
      in individual traits that are most closely tied to fitness. A network of life
      history trait correlations was observed that defines distinct planktotrophic and
      lecithotrophic trait complexes. Negative genetic correlations were present
      between fecundity and egg size, between fecundity and position of the first
      gametes, and between larval survivorship and median planktonic period. Positive
      genetic correlations were detected between fecundity and female size at first
      reproduction and between planktonic period and the presence of swimming setae.
      Intergenerational product-moment correlations were negative for larval length and
      fecundity, planktonic period and egg size, female size and larval survivorship,
      and fecundity and larval survivorship. If the genetic correlation structure
      observed in the laboratory persists in the field, it may constrain responses of
      individual characters to directional selection, and indirectly perpetuate the
      dichotomies associated with planktotrophy and lecithotrophy.

PMID- 28567882
TI  - ASYMMETRICAL MATING PATTERNS BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA MERCATORUM:
      A TEST OF THE KANESHIRO HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28567883
TI  - EXTINCTION DUE TO EVOLUTION OF A COMPETITOR.
AB  - When Drosophila simulans and Drosophila funebris were cultured together in
      population cages over many generations, there was a prolonged period of
      apparently stable coexistence followed by a rapid exclusion of D. funebris. As
      both species maintained large population sizes in monocultures it follows that
      the extinctions of D. funebris in the mixed-species cultures must have been
      caused by D. simulans. The time to extinction of D. funebris ranged from 26 weeks
      in one cage, to between 40 and 48 weeks in the other five. To test the idea that
      an evolutionary increase in competitive ability of D. simulans had occurred
      during the course of its interaction with D. funebris, a single-generation
      experiment was set up. In this experiment the interspecific competitive ability
      of a population of D. simulans that had been in competition with D. funebris for
      44 weeks was compared to that of a stock population that had had no previous
      contact with D. funebris. In this experiment both stock and precompeted
      populations of D. simulans increased the egg-to-adult development time of D.
      funebris. However, precompeted D. simulans caused a significantly greater
      increase in the development time of D. funebris than did stock D. simulans. Thus
      D. simulans had evolved an increase in competitive ability as a result of its
      interaction with D. funebris. Development time is important because in the
      population cages the resource bottles-in which the larvae reside-were replaced
      every three weeks. An increase in development time of D. funebris in the
      multigeneration experiment similar to that observed in the single-generation
      experiment would lead to a rapid decrease in adult population size, resulting in
      the extinction of this species, as was observed to happen.

PMID- 28567884
TI  - SEXUAL PREFERENCE FOR FEMALES REARED ON CACTUS MEDIA BY DROSOPHILA PEGASA MALES.

PMID- 28567885
TI  - IN SEARCH OF HOMOPLASTIC TENDENCIES: STATISTICAL INFERENCE OF TOPOLOGICAL
      PATTERNS IN HOMOPLASY.
AB  - The "tendency" for homoplasy to appear in closely related taxa has been widely
      discussed but rarely quantified. This paper proposes statistical tests that
      examine the topological distribution of homoplasy within characters in
      phylogenies. They test whether character changes are localized (confined to some
      subtree), or clustered (occur in proximity to each other), relative to two null
      models of character evolution. Null Model I assumes that the observed number of
      character changes are dispersed randomly among the internodes of the tree,
      whereas Model II weights the probability that an internode contains a change by
      the length of that internode-estimated by the total number of character changes
      along that internode. Localization is measured by the largest furthest-neighbor
      distance between changes, clustering by the mean nearest neighbor distance.
      Distances are measured either by the number of intervening branches or the number
      of intervening character changes. Analyses of four cladistic data sets from the
      literature reveal very few characters that exhibit significant levels of
      clustering or localization-no more than would be expected by chance. In every
      data set a majority of characters exhibited at least weak tendencies, but in only
      one data set was there a significant excess of such characters. The present
      findings do not provide compelling evidence for the existence of "tendencies" in
      homoplasy, at least among characters used to reconstruct phylogenies. They should
      be sought elsewhere, in cladistic analyses of larger scope, probably among a
      class of characters defined a priori on a structural or functional basis.

PMID- 28567886
TI  - CLINAL VARIATION IN EASTERN POPULATIONS OF THE WATERSTRIDER AQUARIUS REMIGIS:
      GRADUAL INTERGRADATION OR DISCONTINUITY?

PMID- 28567887
TI  - CRITERIA OF FEMALE MATE CHOICE IN DROSOPHILA LITTORALIS, D. MONTANA, AND D.
      EZOANA.
AB  - We examined sexual selection by Drosophila littoralis, D. montana, and D. ezoana
      females on male courtship sounds to determine whether the females use absolute or
      relative criteria when choosing their mates. Behavior of the females was
      observed, when they were courted by a single male producing normal sounds, or by
      a single wing-manipulated male producing abnormal sounds; and when they were
      courted by one or both of these males in a choice situation. The females usually
      accepted short-winged (but not wingless) males producing abnormal sounds, if they
      had no alternatives. However, if they heard the sound produced by a normal male,
      they rejected the deficient male. Drosophila littoralis and D. ezoana females
      selected between two wing-manipulated males with different wing areas. Our
      results suggest that the females choose their mates on the basis of relative
      criteria if the signals emitted by the courting males are within the range of
      acceptable cues.

PMID- 28567888
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PELVIC REDUCTION IN THREESPINE STICKLEBACK FISH: A TEST OF COMPETING
      HYPOTHESES.
AB  - Reimchen hypothesized that pelvic reduction in threespine stickleback is favored
      by an absence of piscivorous fishes and the resulting increase in predation by
      insects, but Giles hypothesized that the predation regime is unimportant and that
      a low dissolved calcium concentration favors evolution of pelvic reduction.
      Substantial pelvic reduction in threespine stickleback sampled from 179 lakes
      around Cook Inlet, Alaska is strongly associated both with an absence of
      predatory fishes and a low calcium concentration. However, the association of
      pelvic reduction with low calcium concentration appears to be contingent on the
      absence of predatory fishes. These results emphasize the importance of
      interactions between seemingly unrelated environmental variables for selection of
      a single trait. However, these results also conflict with some observations
      elsewhere and do not rule out the possibility that other environmental factors
      are important for selection for pelvic reduction in threespine stickleback.

PMID- 28567889
TI  - ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE GENETIC AND ESS MODELS.

PMID- 28567890
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR MULTIPLE ORIGINS AND SYMPATRIC DIVERGENCE OF TROPHIC ECOTYPES OF
      SMELT (OSMERUS) IN NORTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
AB  - The rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax (Mitchill), is an osmerid fish that exhibits
      extensive life-history diversity throughout watersheds of northeastern North
      America. There are both ***sea-run (anadromous) and lake-resident (lacustrine)
      populations and the latter have diversified further into "dwarf-" and "normal
      sized" life-history types. Anadromous and lacustrine smelt may inhabit the same
      watershed and there are several instances where dwarf and normal populations
      reside within the same lake. We assayed variation among smelt for morphological
      traits linked to feeding performance in fishes to see if trophic ecology might
      promote life-history diversity in Osmerus. We also examined mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) restriction site variation among forms to assess their evolutionary
      interrelationships. Dwarf smelt had significantly more gill rakers, larger eyes,
      but shorter upper jaws than normal lake and anadromous smelt. The populations
      clustered into two trophic "morphotypes"; an anadromous/normal lake group of
      populations and a group consisting only of dwarf smelt. The mtDNAs of 444 smelt
      from 16 populations were digested with 12 restriction enzymes revealing 93
      composite mtDNA genotypes that clustered (UPGMA) into two major phylogenetic
      groups differing by 0.78% in sequence. Both genetic groups were present in dwarf
      and normal smelt as well as in anadromous fish. Further, geographic proximity,
      rather than trophic morphotype, appeared to be the major determinant of genetic
      affinities among populations. In two lakes, however, dwarf and normal smelt
      populations had significantly different mtDNA genotype frequency distributions
      indicating that the forms are reproductively isolated within both lakes. A
      clustering analysis of population affinities suggested that the divergence of
      sympatric dwarf and normal populations had occurred independently in the two
      lakes. We concluded (1) that trophic ecology is an important factor promoting
      differentiation in smelt life histories; (2) that smelt ecotypes are polyphyletic
      and there have been multiple, independent divergences of Osmerus life-history
      types throughout northeastern North America; and (3) that the biological and
      mtDNA differences between coexisting dwarf and normal lake smelt argue strongly
      that their genetic isolation may have developed sympatrically.

PMID- 28567891
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR INTERSPECIFIC FEMALE MIMICRY IN SYMPATRIC FICEDULA
      FLYCATCHERS.

PMID- 28567892
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN THE MORPHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY OF THE MAMMALIAN VERTEBRAL
      COLUMN.
AB  - The notion that morphological complexity increases in evolution is widely
      accepted in biology and paleontology. Several possible explanations have been
      offered for this trend, among them the suggestion that it has an active forcing
      mechanism, such as natural selection or the second law of thermodynamics. No such
      mechanism has yet been empirically demonstrated, but testing is possible: if a
      forcing mechanism has operated, the expectation is that complexity would have
      increased in evolutionary lineages more frequently than it decreased. However, a
      quantitative analysis of changes in the complexity of the vertebral column in a
      random sample of mammalian lineages reveals a nearly equal number of increases
      and decreases. This finding raises the possibility that no forcing mechanism
      exists, or at least that it may not be as powerful or pervasive as has been
      assumed. The finding also highlights the need for more empirical tests.

PMID- 28567893
TI  - GENETICS OF HOST-CACTUS RESPONSE AND LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION AMONG ANCESTRAL AND
      DERIVED POPULATIONS OF CACTOPHILIC DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS.
AB  - The extent of host-specific genetic variation for two life-history traits, egg to
      adult developmental time and viability, and one morphological trait closely tied
      to fitness, adult thorax size, was exposed by employing a nested half-sib/full
      sib breeding design with Baja and mainland populations of Drosophila mojavensis
      recently extracted from nature. This study was motivated by the presence of
      substantial variation in life histories among populations of D. mojavensis that
      use the fermenting tissues of particular species of columnar cacti for feeding
      and breeding in the Sonoran Desert. Full-sib progeny from all sire-dam crosses
      were split into cultures of agria cactus, Stenocereus gummosus, and organ pipe
      cactus, S. thurberi, to examine patterns of genotype-by-environment interaction
      for these fitness components. Baja flies expressed shorter egg-to-adult
      developmental times, higher viabilities, and smaller body sizes than mainland
      flies consistent with previous studies. Significant sire and dam components of
      variance were exposed for developmental time and thorax size. Genotype-by
      environment interactions were significant at the level of dams for developmental
      time and nearly significant for viability (P = 0.09). Narrow- and broad-sense
      heritabilities were influenced by host cactus, sex, and population. No strong
      pattern of genetic correlation emerged among fitness components suggesting that
      host-range expansion has not been accompanied by formation of coadapted life
      histories, yet the ability to estimate genetic correlations and their standard
      errors was compromised by the unbalanced nature of the data set. Genetic
      correlations in performance across cacti were slightly positive, evidence for
      ecological generalism among populations explaining the observed pattern of
      multiple host cactus use within the species range of D. mojavensis.

PMID- 28567894
TI  - GENETIC CONSTRAINTS AND THE PHYLOGENY OF INSECT-PLANT ASSOCIATIONS: RESPONSES OF
      OPHRAELLA COMMUNA (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE) TO HOST PLANTS OF ITS CONGENERS.
AB  - We ask whether patterns of genetic variation in a phytophagous insect's responses
      to potential host plants shed light on the phylogenetic history of host
      association. Ophraella communa feeds chiefly, and in eastern North America
      exclusively, on Ambrosia (Asteraceae: Ambrosiinae). Using mostly half-sib
      breeding designs, we screened for genetic variation in feeding responses to and
      larval survival on its own host and on seven other plants that are hosts (or, on
      one case, closely related to the host) of other species of Ophraella. We found
      evidence for genetic variation in feeding responses to five of the seven test
      plants, other than the natural host. We found no evidence of genetic variation in
      feeding responses to two plant species, nor in capacity for larval survival on
      six. These results imply constraints on the availability of genetic variation;
      however, little evidence for constraints in the form of negative genetic
      correlations was found. These results are interpreted in the context of a
      provisional phylogeny of, and a history of host shifts within, the genus.
      Ophraella communa does not present evidence of genetic variation in its ability
      to feed and/or survive on Solidago, even though it is probably descended from a
      lineage that fed on Solidago or related plants, possibly as recently as 1.9
      million years ago. Genetic variation in performance on this plant may have been
      lost. Based on evidence for genetic variation and on mean performance, by far the
      greatest potentiality for adaptation to a congener's host was evinced in
      responses to Iva frutescens, which not only is related and chemically similar to
      Ambrosia, but also is the host of a closely related species of Ophraella that may
      have been derived from an Ambrosia-associated ancestor. Genetic variation in O.
      communa's capacity to feed and/or survive on its congeners' hosts is less evident
      for plants that do not represent historically realized host shifts (with one
      exception) than for those that may (but see Note Added in Proof). The results
      offer some support for the hypothesis that the evolution of host shifts has been
      guided in part by constrained genetic variation.

PMID- 28567895
TI  - GENETIC HETEROGENEITY INCREASES VIABILITY IN COMPETING GROUPS OF DROSOPHILA
      HYDEI.

PMID- 28567896
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF RESPONSE TO COMPETITORS IN NEMOPHILA MENZIESII: A
      GREENHOUSE STUDY.
AB  - To determine the potential for adaptation to a local biotic environment, we
      examined the magnitude and nature of genetic variation in response to neighboring
      plants within a natural population of the native California annual, Nemophila
      menziesii. A total of 22 plants from a natural population were crossed in three
      reciprocal factorials. The progeny were grown in a greenhouse in nine treatments
      that varied in conspecific density and in the density of a naturally co-occurring
      grass species, Bromus diandrus. Increasing the density of each species
      significantly reduced individual survival, fruit number, and dry weight. Among
      survivors, we found small to moderate heritability of dry weight within
      treatments. Additive genetic correlations (rA ) of dry weight between competitive
      regimes were generally large and positive. In no case were they significantly
      different from 1, as expected under the null hypothesis that the relative
      performance of the genotypes under consideration is the same in all environments.
      On the basis of these results, we cannot conclude that the structure of genetic
      covariation within this population would promote genetic differentiation in
      response to locally varying conditions of density of these two species. Aspects
      of the experiment that may have compromised our ability to detect rA differing
      from 1 are discussed.

PMID- 28567897
TI  - POWERED FLIGHT IN ARCHAEOPTERYX: RESPONSE TO SPEAKMAN.

PMID- 28567898
TI  - GENE FLOW, REFUGIA, AND EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN THE SONG SPARROW
      (MELOSPIZA MELODIA).
AB  - We surveyed mtDNA restriction-site variation in song sparrows taken from across
      their continental range. Despite marked geographic variation in size and plumage
      color, mtDNA variation was not geographically structured. Subspecies were not
      identifiable by mtDNA analysis. We suggest that postglaciation dispersal
      scattered mtDNA haplotypes across the continent, explaining the lack of mtDNA
      geographic patterns. Evolution of size and plumage coloration has probably
      proceeded faster than mtDNA evolution, leading to the well-structured continental
      pattern of morphological variation. We suggest that the nonordered geographic
      distribution of haplotypes reflects the recency of population establishment
      following completion of range expansion. Dispersal distance was estimated from
      the mtDNA data at 6.1 km per generation, an order of magnitude greater than that
      (0.3 km) estimated from demographic data. Island samples were not especially
      different from continental ones. Rooting the haplotype cladogram with a putative
      primitive haplotype identified Newfoundland and the Queen Charlotte Islands as
      potential sites of recent refugia. We question whether study of geographic
      variation in song sparrows leads to insights concerning speciation.

PMID- 28567899
TI  - ESTIMATION OF GENE FLOW FROM F-STATISTICS.
AB  - We present theory clarifying the general behavior of FST -based and GST -based
      estimators of gene flow, and confirm these predictions with simulations. In
      particular, we use the correlation of genes within groups within populations to
      define an estimator. The theoretical value of the correlation doe not depend on
      the number of groups in a population, and properties of the estimated correlation
      do not depend on the number of groups sampled or the number of individuals
      sampled per group. This invariance is in contrast to properties of GST . For a
      complete census of a population, bias and variance considerations would suggest
      the use of the GST -based estimator of gene flow, but lack of knowledge of
      population size or group number in practice suggests preference be given to the
      correlation-based estimator. We acknowledge that these estimators require that
      several conditions of a population-genetic model be met, since they do not make
      use of direct observations on the flow of genes. Our results differ from some of
      those based on simulation in a series of recent papers by M. Slatkin.

PMID- 28567900
TI  - THE INCREASED POTENTIAL FOR SELECTION OF THE LAC OPERON OF ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - The fitness effects of six lac operons from natural isolates of Escherichia coli
      were determined in chemostats, in a test of the idea that selective differences
      among natural alleles are greater in novel conditions than in the prevailing
      environment, resulting in a greater genetic variance in fitness in novel
      conditions. Fitnesses were determined in the common milk sugar lactose, the
      natural substrate of the lac operon, and in three rare beta-galactosides,
      lactulose, galactosyl-arabinose, and methyl-galactopyranoside, that are novel for
      E. coli. Significantly greater fitness differences were observed among the lac
      alleles in each of the novel beta-galactosides than in lactose. An alternative
      explanation of the experimental findings is discussed. General evolutionary
      causes and consequences of selection potentials are discussed, and an outline of
      the work necessary to further elucidate the physiological basis of the observed
      potential for selection of the lac operon of E. coli is presented.

PMID- 28567901
TI  - DOES INCREASED MORTALITY FAVOR THE EVOLUTION OF MORE RAPID SENESCENCE?
AB  - It is widely believed (following the 1957 hypothesis of G. C. Williams) that
      greater rates of "extrinsic" (age- and condition-independent) mortality favor
      more rapid senescence. However, a recent analysis of mammalian life tables failed
      to find a significant correlation between minimum adult mortality rate and the
      rate of senescence. This article presents a simple theoretical analysis of how
      extrinsic mortality should affect the rate of senescence (i.e., the rate at which
      probability of mortality increases with age) under different evolutionary and
      population dynamical assumptions. If population dynamics are density independent,
      extrinsic mortality should not alter the senescence rate favored by natural
      selection. If population growth is density dependent and populations are stable,
      the effect of extrinsic mortality depends on the age specificity of the density
      dependence and on whether survival or reproduction (or both) are functions of
      density. It is possible that higher extrinsic mortality will increase the rate of
      senescence at all ages, decrease the rate at all ages, or increase it at some
      ages while decreasing it at others. Williams's hypothesis is most likely to be
      supported when density dependence acts primarily on fertility and does not
      differentially decrease the fertilities of older individuals. Patterns contrary
      to Williams's prediction are possible when density dependence acts primarily on
      the survival or fertility of later ages or when most variation in mortality rates
      is due to variation in nonextrinsic mortality.

PMID- 28567902
TI  - PATTERNS OF SELECTION ON PHYTOPHAGE RESISTANCE IN IPOMOEA PURPUREA.

PMID- 28567903
TI  - SURVIVAL OF HYBRIDS IN A MOSAIC HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - The ground crickets Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius meet in a mosaic hybrid
      zone that stretches from New Jersey at least as far west as Illinois. Within
      mixed populations from the contact zone, "pure" species individuals predominate.
      To determine whether hybrids are less viable than pure-species individuals, and
      to assess whether the high proportion of pure-species individuals in mixed
      populations results from hybrid inviability, we performed a cohort analysis. In
      this study, five mixed populations from the hybrid zone were each sampled three
      to five times from the fall of 1986 to the spring of 1988. Individuals were
      assigned to one of three categories based on their genotypes: A. socius
      (individuals harboring only alleles unique to A. socius), hybrid (individuals
      with alleles unique to both species), and A. fasciatus (individuals harboring
      only alleles unique to A. fasciatus). This sampling and measurement scheme
      permitted monitoring of the proportion of hybrid individuals in a population over
      time. The results were fairly consistent. The relative survival of A. socius was
      greater than the relative survival of members of the other two groups in four of
      the five populations. The relative viability of A. fasciatus was greater than
      that of hybrids in one population, approximately equal to that of hybrids in two
      populations, and less than that of hybrids in two populations. These results not
      only shed light on an important component of fitness, viability from hatching to
      adulthood, but they demonstrate that loss of hybrid individuals during the course
      of the field season will not explain deviations from random mating expectations
      present in mixed populations in late summer. The deviations must be due to
      assortative mating or to a reproductive barrier operating prior to egg hatch.

PMID- 28567904
TI  - CONTRIBUTION OF CRYPTIC INCOMPATIBILITY TO THE MATING SYSTEM OF EICHHORNIA
      PANICULA TA (PONTEDERIACEAE).
AB  - Tristylous populations of the annual aquatic Eichhornia paniculata have high
      levels of outcrossing and intermorph mating despite being fully self- and
      intramorph compatible. Experimental studies of pollen germination, ***pollen-tube
      growth, and pollinations with mixtures of genetically marked pollen were used to
      determine whether postpollination processes contribute to the observed mating
      patterns. Differences in pollen germination were small and did not contribute to
      differences in pollen siring ability. The fraction of pollen tubes first entering
      the ovary, however, was greater for legitimate outcross pollen than for either of
      the other two pollen types (self or outcross illegitimate pollen) in all
      recipient morphs. Moreover, legitimate pollen had higher siring success when in
      competition with illegitimate pollen types (self or outcross) in each recipient
      style morph. The ranking of pollen performance for different pollen-style
      combinations was the same for both the pollen-tube growth and marker-gene
      experiments indicating that differences in pollen-tube growth rate are the
      principal cause of differences in pollen siring ability. Cryptic incompatibility
      in E. paniculata may represent a weak heteromorphic incompatibility system
      because the observed patterns of pollen-tube growth parallel pollen-tube growth
      and seed-set patterns that occur in related species with strong trimorphic
      incompatibility. The ability to produce mostly outcrossed progeny when
      pollinators are abundant, but to reliably produce seed under a variety of
      environmental and demographic conditions may be favored in E. paniculata because
      of its colonizing life history and occurrence in ephemeral habitats. Cryptic
      incompatibility may be more likely to occur in species subject to wide
      fluctuations in population size and levels of pollinator service.

PMID- 28567905
TI  - HOMOGENEITY OF THE GENETIC VARIANCE-COVARIANCE MATRIX FOR ANTIPREDATOR TRAITS IN
      TWO NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE GARTER SNAKE THAMNOPHIS ORDINOIDES.
AB  - Quantitative genetic models of evolution rely on the genetic variance-covariance
      matrix to predict the phenotypic response to selection. Both prospective and
      retrospective studies of phenotypic evolution across generations rely on
      assumptions about the constancy of patterns of genetic covariance through time.
      In the absence of robust theoretical predictions about the stability of genetic
      covariances, this assumption must be tested with empirical comparisons of genetic
      parameters among populations and species. Genetic variance-covariance matrices
      were estimated for a suite of antipredator traits in two populations of the
      northwestern garter snake, Thamnophis ordinoides. The characters studied include
      color pattern and antipredator behaviors that interact to facilitate escape from
      predators. Significant heritabilities for all traits were detected in both
      populations. Genetic correlations and covariances were found among behaviors in
      both populations and between color pattern and behavior in one of the
      populations. Phenotypic means differed among populations, but pairwise
      comparisons revealed no heterogeneity of genetic parameters between the
      populations. The structure of the genetic variance-covariance matrix has
      apparently not changed significantly during the divergence of these two
      populations.

PMID- 28567906
TI  - INCREASED HERITABLE VARIATION FOLLOWING POPULATION BOTTLENECKS: THE ROLE OF
      DOMINANCE.

PMID- 28567907
TI  - EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF INBREEDING ON FITNESS COMPONENTS IN MIMULUS
      GUTTATUS.
AB  - Recent theoretical work has shown that there can be selection favoring the
      maintenance of sexual reproduction and the evolution of increased recombination
      when deleterious mutations at different loci interact synergistically, such that
      the logarithm of fitness declines at a greater than linear rate with the number
      of harmful mutations per genome. The purpose of this experimental study was to
      determine whether synergism exists for genes affecting fitness components in two
      partially selfing populations of the monkey flower Mimulus guttatus. For each
      wild population, a large randomly mated base population was constructed and many
      independent lines, inbred to differing degrees, were extracted from this base
      population. Lines with expected inbreeding coefficients of 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75
      were raised simultaneously in the greenhouse and were scored for germination,
      flowering, flower production, and pollen viability. All fitness traits except
      germination success declined with increased inbreeding, but in spite of the
      substantial inbreeding depression found in this study, relatively little evidence
      of synergistic epistasis was found. The only trait that showed evidence of
      synergism was pollen viability. These results indicate that synergism is not
      strong for the fitness components measured in this study. The evidence for
      synergism from other published studies is also reviewed.

PMID- 28567908
TI  - A TEST OF THE "GENERAL-PURPOSE" GENOTYPE HYPOTHESIS: DIFFERENTIAL TOLERANCE TO
      THERMAL AND SALINITY STRESS AMONG DAPHNIA CLONES.

PMID- 28567909
TI  - THE GENETICS OF AN ISOLATING MECHANISM BETWEEN TWO SIBLING SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Matings between Drosophila simulans females and males of the sibling species D.
      mauritiana are of abnormally short duration. These rapid matings interrupt the
      transfer of sperm, leading to substantial reproductive isolation in interspecific
      as compared to intraspecific copulations. Genetic analysis of this behavior shows
      that it is influenced much more by the male than the female genotype, with genes
      from D. simulans being dominant. In males, shortened copulation is caused by
      interspecific divergence at a minimum of three loci, with one gene on each of the
      major chromosomes. This is an underestimate of the true number of loci affecting
      the trait, which could be much larger. The two autosomes have the largest effect,
      whereas that of the X chromosome is much smaller. The genetic architecture of
      copulation duration and the larger effect of male than female genotype suggest
      that females can detect and discriminate against differences in male genitalia.

PMID- 28567910
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL SUCCESS OF POLLEN DONORS IN A SELF-COMPATIBLE LILY.
AB  - If pollen donors are equally effective at siring seeds, the presence of equal
      proportions of pollen from two pollen donors on a stigma will lead to equal
      proportions of seeds sired by each pollen donor. Variation in germination rates,
      pollen-tube growth, and embryo viability may cause one donor to sire more seed
      than another. We looked for differential donor success in the field by
      simultaneously applying equal amounts of pollen from two pollen donors. We
      simultaneously applied equal amounts of self and outcross pollen to receptive
      stigmas and simultaneously applied pollen from two donors at different physical
      distances from the recipient. Following simultaneous application of self and
      outcross pollen, significantly more of the seeds were sired by outcross pollen
      donors. Seed set following simultaneous application of two outcross donors was
      also nonrandom. Pollen donors from 100 m were more likely to sire seeds when
      competing with pollen from plants nearby (1 m). To determine whether pollen-tube
      growth rates were responsible for these patterns of paternity, we varied the
      timing of deposition of outcross pollen allowing self pollen tubes a head start
      on the stigma. Outcross pollen was applied 3 or 24 h after self pollen. In spite
      of this time delay, the majority of the seeds were again sired by outcross
      pollen. There was no significant difference in the amount of seeds sired by self
      pollen between the two delay treatments. This result suggests that mechanisms
      operating after ovule fertilization may contribute to the discordance between the
      proportions of the pollen present and the proportions of seeds sired.

PMID- 28567911
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28567913
TI  - COSTLY POLLEN IN MAIZE.

PMID- 28567912
TI  - A LIFE-HISTORY BASED STUDY OF POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE: SEED BANK TO ADULTS
      IN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA.
AB  - We explored the extent to which the soil seed bank differed genetically and
      spatially in comparison to two actively growing stages in a natural population of
      Plantago lanceolata. All seed-bank seeds, seedlings, and adults of P. lanceolata
      within eight subunits in a larger population were mapped, subjected to starch gel
      electrophoresis, and allozyme analysis in 1988. Gel electrophoresis was also used
      to estimate the mating system in two years, 1986 and 1988. The spatial
      distributions of seeds, seedlings, and adults were highly coincident. Allele
      frequencies of the dormant seeds differed significantly from those of the adults
      for four of the five polymorphic loci. In addition, a comparison of the genotype
      frequencies of the three life-history stages indicated that the seed bank had an
      excess of homozygotes. Homozygosity, relative to Hardy-Weinberg expectations,
      decreased during the life cycle (for seed bank, seedlings, and adults
      respectively: Fit = 0.19, 0.09, 0.01; Fis = 0.14, 0.04, -0.12). Spatial genetic
      differentiation increased sixfold during the life cycle: (for seed bank, seedling
      and adults: Fs1 *** = 0.02, 0.05, 0.12). The apparent selfing rate was 0.01 in
      1986 and 0.09 in 1988. These selfing rates are not large enough to account for
      the elevated homozygosity of the seed bank. Inbreeding depression, overdominance
      for fitness, and a "temporal Wahlund's effect" are discussed as possible
      mechanisms that could generate high homozygosity in the seed bank, relative to
      later life-history stages. In Plantago lanceolata, the influence of the mating
      system and the "genetic memory" of the seed bank are obscured by the time plants
      reach the reproductive stage.

PMID- 28567914
TI  - Bedside identification of patients at risk for PVC-induced cardiomyopathy: Is ECG
      useful?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) are an underrecognized cause
      of cardiomyopathy. Standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) has potential to
      direct attention toward at-risk patients. METHODS: We performed a single-center,
      retrospective chart review of 1,240 patients who completed ECG and Holter
      monitoring at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital between January 1,
      2011 and December 31, 2013 to investigate the relationship of PVC frequency on
      ECG with burden on Holter. Primary outcome measures included PVC quantity on ECG,
      mean PVC quantity on Holter, and percentage of total beats on Holter recorded as
      PVCs. High PVC burden was defined as >=10% of total beats. RESULTS: Weighted mean
      percentages of total beats on Holter monitor recorded as PVCs were calculated for
      0, 1, 2, and >=3 PVCs on ECG and found to be 1.4% (n = 1,128), 3.5% (n = 32),
      4.3% (n = 25), and 16.6% (n = 55), respectively, which represent statistically
      significant differences (P < 0.001). The positive predictive value of at least
      three PVCs on ECG for >=10% PVC Holter burden was 58%. Negative predictive value
      for 0 PVCs on ECG was 98%. The sensitivity and specificity of ECG to identify
      high PVC burden on Holter was 72% and 93.6%, respectively, when utilizing a
      positive ECG result as one PVC or more, and 44% and 98.9%, respectively, with >=3
      PVCs on ECG. The positive likelihood ratio corresponding to >=3 PVCs on ECG was
      40. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that the number of PVCs on ECG can be
      utilized for quick bedside estimation of high PVC burden.

PMID- 28567915
TI  - COMPARATIVE MORPHOMETRIC ADAPTATION OF THE HOUSEFLY AND THE FACE FLY IN THE
      UNITED STATES.

PMID- 28567916
TI  - THE TAILSPOT POLYMORPHISM OF XIPHOPHORUS (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28567917
TI  - EDITOR'S NOTE: CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS FOR LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE ISOZYMES
      IN TELEOSTS (TOLEDO AND RIBEIRO, VOL. 32:212-216).

PMID- 28567918
TI  - DOMINANCE, SURVIVAL, AND ENZYME POLYMORPHISM IN DARK-EYED JUNCOS, JUNCO HYEMALIS.

PMID- 28567920
TI  - LABORATORY SYNTHESIS OF A PSEUDOGAMOUS TRIPLOID "SPECIES" OF THE GENUS
      MUELLERIANELLA (HOMOPTERA, DELPHACIDAE).

PMID- 28567919
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN TWO MEMBERS OF THE DROSOPHILA ATHABASCA COMPLEX.

PMID- 28567922
TI  - RELATIVE BRAIN SIZE AND FEEDING STRATEGIES IN THE CHIROPTERA.

PMID- 28567923
TI  - EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE AND INTERDEMIC MIGRATION RATES IN A METAPOPULATION OF
      THE RED-SPOTTED NEWT, NOTOPHTHALMUS VIRIDESCENS (RAFINESQUE).

PMID- 28567924
TI  - THE HANDICAP PRINCIPLE IN SEXUAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28567925
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF GENETIC STRUCTURE IN THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY, DANAUS PLEXIPPUS L.

PMID- 28567926
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

PMID- 28567927
TI  - NOTICE CHANGES IN JOURNAL POLICIES.

PMID- 28567928
TI  - TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF ALLOZYMIC VARIATION IN FLUCTUATING POPULATIONS OF MICROTUS
      OCHROGASTER.

PMID- 28567929
TI  - BIOLOGY OF ECOLOGICALLY MARGINAL POPULATIONS OF ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM. I.
      PHENETICS AND DYNAMICS.

PMID- 28567930
TI  - THERMOREGULATORY ADAPTATIONS ALLOWING ECOLOGICAL RANGE EXPANSION BY THE PIERID
      BUTTERFLY, NATHALIS IOLE BOISDUVAL.

PMID- 28567931
TI  - PROGRESSIVE VACATING OF ADAPTIVE TYPES DURING THE PHANEROZOIC.

PMID- 28567933
TI  - SEX RATIOS IN TROPICAL FOREST TREES.

PMID- 28567934
TI  - MODIFIERS AND "SEX RATIO" IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28567935
TI  - FEMALE CHOICE AND THE MATING STRUCTURE OF A NATURAL POPULATION OF THE SOLDIER
      BEETLE, CHAULIOGNATHUS PENNSYLVANICUS.

PMID- 28567936
TI  - THE EVOLUTION AND LOSS OF FEEDING LARVAL STAGES OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28567939
TI  - SELECTION FOR AMYLASE ALLOZYMES IN D. MELANOGASTER: A WORD OF CAUTION.

PMID- 28567938
TI  - SONG DIALECTS AS BARRIERS TO DISPERSAL IN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, ZONOTRICHIA
      LEUCOPHRYS NUTTALLI.

PMID- 28567940
TI  - PRIMATE SKELETAL ALLOMETRY AND HOMINOID EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28567941
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF MATING STRATEGIES IN BULLFROGS, RANA CATESBEIANA.

PMID- 28567942
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN SPECIES HYBRID AND BACKCROSS PROGENIES OF DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28567943
TI  - REPLY TO SHIELDS ON AVIAN WINTER PLUMAGE VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28567944
TI  - ANALYSIS OF A NARROW HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO SPECIES OF PSEUDOPHRYNE (ANURA:
      LEPTODACTYLIDAE) IN SOUTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA.

PMID- 28567945
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AMONG TYPHA POPULATIONS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES.

PMID- 28567946
TI  - ETHOLOGICAL ISOLATION AND PHYLOGENY IN THE GRIMSHAWI SPECIES COMPLEX OF HAWAIIAN
      DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28567947
TI  - COURTSHIP AND MATING SOUNDS IN SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA AFFINIS SUBGROUP.

PMID- 28567948
TI  - THE FOUNDER-FLUSH SPECIATION THEORY: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH.

PMID- 28567949
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF PARENTAL CARE IN BIRDS.

PMID- 28567950
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THE KENTUCKY CAVE BEETLE NEAPHAENOPS TELLKAMPFII
      (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE).

PMID- 28567951
TI  - EVOLUTION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILIDAE. III. THE MICROCHROMOSOME AND HETEROCHROMATIN
      OF DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28567952
TI  - INTRA-POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN ANNUAL PLANTS. II. ELECTROPHORETIC VARIATION
      IN VERONICA PEREGRINA.

PMID- 28567953
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION, ALBUMIN EVOLUTION, AND THEIR BIOGEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS
      IN PLETHODONTID SALAMANDERS OF CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHERN EUROPE.

PMID- 28567954
TI  - THE GENETICS OF SPECIATION IN THE RODENT GENUS PEROMYSCUS.

PMID- 28567955
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN THE NYMPHALID BUTTERFLIES PHYCIODES THAROS AND
      P. CAMPESTRIS MONTANA.

PMID- 28567956
TI  - RESOURCE PREDICTABILITY AND NICHE BREADTH IN THE DROSOPHILA QUINARIA SPECIES
      GROUP.

PMID- 28567957
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION WITHOUT ISOLATION IN THE AMERICAN EEL, ANGUILLA ROSTRATA.
      II. TEMPORAL STABILITY OF GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS.

PMID- 28567958
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE COMPENSATION IN TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.

PMID- 28567959
TI  - ALLOMETRY AND JUMPING IN FROGS: HELPING THE TWAIN TO MEET.

PMID- 28567960
TI  - SPERM COMPETITION, MALE FITNESS, AND REPEATED MATING BY FEMALE DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28567961
TI  - WHY ARE PISTILLATE INFLORESCENCES OF SIMAROUBA GLAUCA EATEN LESS THAN STAMINATE
      INFLORESCENCES?

PMID- 28567962
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG DIPLOID AND TRIPLOID UNISEXUAL
      FISHES ASSOCIATED WITH THE BISEXUAL SPECIES, POECILIOPSIS LUCIDA
      (CYPRINODONTIFORMES: POECILIIDAE).

PMID- 28567963
TI  - RESOURCE PARTITIONING IN PASSION VINE BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28567964
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVOLUTION AND THE MODE OF SPECIATION IN THREE SPECIES OF PEROMYSCUS.

PMID- 28567965
TI  - NOTICE CHANGES IN JOURNAL POLICIES.

PMID- 28567966
TI  - Autoimmune neutropenia of childhood secondary to other autoimmune disorders: Data
      from the Italian neutropenia registry.

PMID- 28567968
TI  - Sudden Death by Spontaneous Epiglottic Hematoma Secondary to High Blood Levels of
      Warfarin.
AB  - A 67-year-old man was found dead, at his home. On external examination, we found
      a voluminous purplish black ecchymosis of the anterior neck area. On internal
      examination, we found a voluminous epiglottis hematoma completely obstructing the
      upper airway. It was associated with other sites of intra-abdominal hemorrhage.
      Toxicological studies revealed the presence of warfarin at a concentration of 8.4
      mg/L in peripheral blood, which supposes an INR well above 4.5. To conclude, we
      supposed death was due to asphyxia secondary to a spontaneous epiglottic hematoma
      caused by a high blood concentration of warfarin. Hemorrhage in the epiglottis is
      very rare. To our knowledge, our patient is the only case of "sudden death"
      reported with spontaneous epiglottic hematoma due to high blood concentration of
      warfarin. In forensic practice, an anterior neck ecchymosis, without trauma, may
      suggest hemorrhage into soft airway tissues. Pathology findings make it possible
      to exclude exogenous trauma.

PMID- 28567970
TI  - ORIGIN AND SUBSTITUTION OF B CHROMOSOMES IN THE GRASSHOPPER EYPREPOCNEMIS
      PLORANS.

PMID- 28567969
TI  - HOST EFFECTS ON FERTILITY AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS OF DENDROCTONUS PONDEROSAE
      HOPKINS (COLEOPTERA: SCOLYTIDAE).
AB  - Mountain pine beetles from lodgepole and limber pine in western Canada were
      crossbred. We compared data about reproductive success and fecundity of parents
      as well as development, mortality, and fertility of their progeny to determine
      whether there was reproductive isolation among beetle populations in these hosts.
      Three factors, directly or indirectly related to the host, influenced
      reproductive performance of parents (reproductive success, egg gallery length,
      fecundity, and number of eggs laid per centimeter of gallery) as well as the
      mortality, dry weight, and fat content of the progeny: (1) the host species in
      which progeny were reared, (2) the host species in which the female parent was
      reared, and (3) whether both parents originated from the same or different host
      species. Limber pine appears to be a better host for Dendroctonus ponderosae
      reproduction and survival than lodgepole pine. Nonetheless, beetles reared from
      lodgepole and limber pine can reproduce in either host and will mate with each
      other. Progeny of all crosses were fertile. Thus, there is no apparent barrier to
      prevent beetles from the two host species from interbreeding in the field.

PMID- 28567967
TI  - Evaluation of genetic variants in association with colorectal cancer risk and
      survival in Asians.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 40 genetic loci
      associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. The association of single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at these loci with CRC risk and survival has not
      been adequately evaluated in East Asians. GWAS-identified CRC risk variants were
      used to construct weighted genetic risk scores (GRSs). We evaluated these GRSs in
      association with CRC risk in 3,303 CRC cases and 3,553 controls using logistic
      regression models. Associations with overall and CRC-specific survival were
      assessed in 731 CRC patients using Cox regression models. The association between
      the GRSs (overall and Asian-specific) and CRC risk was approximately twofold
      (highest vs. lowest quintile), and the shape of the dose-response was linear
      (ptrend  = 1.24 * 10-13 and 3.02 * 10-14 for overall GRS and Asian-specific GRS,
      respectively). The association of the GRS with CRC risk was stronger among those
      with a family history of CRC (pinteraction  = 0.007). Asian-specific GRS using
      previously reported survival SNPs increased risk for mortality and the shape of
      the dose-response was linear for CRC-specific and all-cause mortality (ptrend  =
      0.01 and 0.006, respectively). Furthermore, the minor alleles of rs6983267 and
      rs1957636 were associated with worse CRC-specific and overall survival. We show
      that GRSs constructed using GWAS-identified common variants are strongly
      associated with CRC risk in Asians. We confirm previous findings for the possible
      association between some SNPs with survival, and provide evidence for two
      additional CRC risk variants that may be related to CRC survival.

PMID- 28567971
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION THROUGH FEMALE CHOICE IN LAWES' PAROTIA, A LEK-MATING BIRD OF
      PARADISE.
AB  - We studied sexual selection in Lawes' Parotia, a lek-mating bird of paradise,
      during 1981-1983 in Papua New Guinea. There was a high variance in mating success
      among males, with fewer than half of the individuals mating in any one year. This
      variance was independent of male-male interactions and disruptions. A role of
      female choice in sexual selection was suggested by the patterns of female
      visitation to courts and statistical correlations across males between phenotypic
      traits and mating success. Females repeatedly visited most males in their home
      ranges and began visiting males up to six weeks before mating. In one or more
      years, six aspects of male behavior and one morphological variable were
      positively correlated with mating success, but the probability values were not
      significant using a simultaneous inference test. Calculation of combined
      probability values across all three years revealed that one aspect of male
      display behavior, the probability of display, positively and significantly
      influenced mating status. The probability of display was also significantly
      correlated with relative mating success among males. Females showed strong
      fidelity to mates, both within and between seasons. Display sites of male Lawes'
      Parotia are variably dispersed, but mating success did not differ for grouped and
      solitary males. These data confirm an important role of female choice in sexual
      selection in birds of paradise but also suggest that female choice may be
      unrelated to the process of lek-initiation in this species.

PMID- 28567972
TI  - TETRODOTOXIN RESISTANCE IN GARTER SNAKES: AN EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE OF PREDATORS
      TO DANGEROUS PREY.
AB  - The use of the "arms race" analogy as a conceptualization of evolutionary
      predator-prey interactions has been criticized because of the lack of evidence
      that predators can and do adapt to increased antipredator ability of prey. We
      present evidence that the garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis has evolved resistance
      to tetrodotoxin (TTX) in response to the toxicity of the newt Taricha granulosa
      on which the snake feeds. A bioassay (locomotor performance before and after
      injection of TTX) was used to obtain repeated measures of resistance for
      individual snakes. We studied interpopulation and interspecific variation by
      comparing resistance in Thamnophis sirtalis from populations occurring
      sympatrically and allopatrically with Taricha granulosa, and in Thamnophis
      ordinoides (which does not feed on the newt) occurring sympatrically with Taricha
      granulosa. We also examined intrapopulation variation in TTX resistance using
      snakes from a population known to feed on Taricha granulosa. Resistance differed
      significantly among individuals and litters; repeatability and heritability
      estimates of the assay were significantly different from zero, demonstrating the
      potential for response to selection. The population of Thamnophis sirtalis that
      occurs with Taricha granulosa exhibited levels of resistance much greater than
      either of the other groups. These results suggest that the predator-prey arms
      race analogy may be applicable to this system.

PMID- 28567973
TI  - A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN CARIBBEAN ANOLIS LIZARDS.
AB  - Twenty-seven islands in the Lesser Antilles contain either one or two species of
      Anolis lizards. On nine of the ten two-species islands, the species differ
      substantially in size; 16 of the 17 one-species islands harbor an intermediate
      sized species. Two processes could produce such a pattern: size adjustment (or
      character displacement), in which similar-sized species evolve in different
      directions in sympatry; and size assortment, in which only different-sized
      species can successfully colonize the same island together. Previous analyses
      implicitly have assumed that size is evolutionarily plastic and determined solely
      by recent ecological conditions, and consequently have tested the hypothesis that
      character displacement has occurred on each of the ten two-species islands. Other
      studies have focused only on size assortment. By analyzing such patterns in a
      phylogenetic context, I explicitly consider historical effects and can
      distinguish between size adjustment and size assortment. Using a minimum
      evolution algorithm, I assess evidence for size adjustment by partitioning
      changes in size along branches of the phylogenetic tree. Size evolution appears
      rare (a minimum of 4-7 instances of substantial size evolution). In the northern
      (but not the southern) Lesser Antilles, size change was significantly greater
      when a descendant taxon occurred on a two-species island and its hypothetical
      ancestor occurred on a one-species island, thus supporting the size adjustment
      hypothesis, though size adjustment might have occurred only once. The relative
      rarity of size evolution suggests that size assortment might be responsible for
      nonrandom patterns. In both the northern and southern Lesser Antilles, a null
      model of no size assortment is convincingly rejected. Closely related taxa,
      however, are usually similar in size, and hybridization between species has been
      reported. Consequently, similar-sized species might not coexist because they
      interbreed and coalesce into one gene pool. A null model that only allows species
      from different "clades" to co-occur is rejected for the northern Lesser Antilles,
      but is ambiguous with regard to the southern Lesser Antilles. Thus, competitive
      exclusion is probably responsible for the pattern of size assortment in the
      northern Lesser Antilles; both competitive exclusion and interbreeding of closely
      related species of similar size might be responsible for the patterns evident in
      the southern Lesser Antilles.

PMID- 28567974
TI  - ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY STABILITY OF SPERM-DEPENDENT PARTHENOGENESIS: EFFECTS
      OF PARTIAL NICHE OVERLAP BETWEEN SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL FEMALES.
AB  - Pseudogamous females reproduce parthenogenetically but require sperm. We analyze
      a density- and frequency-dependent model for the ecological and evolutionary
      stability of bisexual populations exposed to invasion by pseudogamous clones. In
      particular, we examine the effects of partial niche overlap and asymmetric
      competition between sexual and asexual forms. The model predicts that for a
      variety of relative fitness values for asexual females, pseudogamous forms can
      successfully invade bisexual populations. The probability of successful invasion
      increases as niche overlap decreases. Furthermore, invaded populations are often
      likely to be stable; for the parameter values analyzed, only combinations of
      nearly complete niche overlap and high asexual fitness will lead to extinction.
      Even such combinations will be stable under pronounced asymmetric competition.
      Asymmetric competition does not, however, affect the invadability of bisexual
      populations. The model predicts that stable populations cannot have more than
      three or four females per male; populations with more biased sex ratios are
      expected to be unstable. We analyze available sex ratio data for pseudogamous
      insects, fish, and salamanders, and find significant changes in roughly one-half
      of the asexual-dominated populations, but in only one sexual-dominated
      population. This analysis includes previously unpublished data on population sex
      ratios in a pseudogamous bark beetle, Ips acuminatus. Some asexual-dominated
      populations have far more than four females per male, contrary to predictions of
      the model.

PMID- 28567975
TI  - REGIONAL, LOCAL AND MICROGEOGRAPHIC ALLELE FREQUENCY VARIATION BETWEEN APPLE AND
      HAWTHORN POPULATIONS OF RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA IN WESTERN MICHIGAN.
AB  - In the preceding study (Feder et al., 1990), we report that paired apple and
      hawthorn infesting populations of Rhagoletis pomonella are genetically
      differentiated for six allozymes. Here, we show that patterns of intra- and inter
      host allele frequency variation seen for these six loci across the eastern United
      States are consistent on a more fine grained spatial scale in western Michigan.
      Malic enzyme, Aconitase-2, Mannose phosphate isomerase, and Hydroxyacid
      dehydrogenase all displayed significant linear relationships with latitude among
      five "regional" hawthorn populations sampled along a north-south transect between
      the cities of Cadillac and Portage, Michigan. Clines were not as evident among
      "regional" apple populations in western Michigan, although allele frequencies for
      Malic enzyme100 , Mannose phosphate isomerase100 and Aconitase-295 varied with
      latitude among six "local" apple populations within a 60 km2 area near the town
      of Grant. Significant allele frequency differences were observed between hawthorn
      and apple populations at all "regional" and "local" collecting sites analyzed in
      the study (a total of 20 different apple and hawthorn populations). As was the
      case in the geographic survey of the eastern United States, the magnitude and
      pattern of inter-host frequency differences at "regional" and "local" sites were
      a function of latitude. Host related genetic differentiation was consistent on a
      "microgeographic" scale as well. Allele frequencies for Malic enzyme100 and
      Aconitase-295 were significantly higher over a four-year period (1984 to 1987)
      for flies sampled from individual hawthorn trees (N = 6) than apple trees (N = 7)
      within an old field (0.09-km2 area) located near Grant. The fine level of genetic
      subdivision between hawthorn and apple populations of R. pomonella in western
      Michigan substantiates the existence of host associated polymorphism in the fly
      and supports a sympatric mode of divergence for the "apple race".

PMID- 28567976
TI  - HABITAT SELECTION AS AN EVOLUTIONARY GAME.
AB  - Under habitat selection, mobile foragers may not only possess behavioral
      flexibility that allows them to utilize habitats selectively or
      opportunistically, but they may also possess heritable traits that influence
      their performance within each habitat. A game theoretic model is developed that
      investigates this evolutionary dimension of habitat selection. The model follows
      that of Rosenzweig (1987b) and considers a patchy environment containing two
      distinct habitat types. Behaviorally, foragers may be selective or opportunistic;
      morphologically, foragers possess traits that represent a trade-off between
      performance in the two habitat types. Depending on the environment's structure,
      one of three types of communities emerges as the ESS: (1) a single generalist
      species that behaves opportunistically, (2) two species that are extreme
      specialists on habitat 1 and 2, respectively; behaviorally, these species are
      selective on their respective habitat types, and (3) one generalist species that
      behaves opportunistically and one specialist species that behaves selectively on
      its preferred habitat. Community (1) emerges when habitat selection is costly,
      community (2) emerges when habitat selection is cost-free, and community (3)
      emerges when the relative abundances or productivities of the two habitat types
      are lopsided.

PMID- 28567977
TI  - MECHANISMS OF FEMALE CHOICE IN RED JUNGLE FOWL.
AB  - We examined mate preference behavior in red jungle fowl, Gallus gallus, to
      determine if the mechanism of mate preference used by females was relative or
      absolute. Under a relative model, females compare males and prefer the one with
      the most exaggerated form of secondary sex character, regardless of where the
      proffered males lie along the population distribution of the trait. Under an
      absolute or threshold model, females have a threshold for the character, above
      which they will exert a preference and below which they will not. Female red
      jungle fowl preferred roosters with longer combs and redder irises, but this
      preference was exerted only when hens mated quickly; females mating slowly mated
      at random. The threshold model was supported in two ways: i) chosen males from
      the fast-mating group had larger combs than chosen males in the slow-mating
      group; ii) when the same female was presented with two pairs of males in two
      different trials, one large-combed pair and one small-combed pair, hens mated
      significantly more slowly, and often refused to mate, when only short-combed
      roosters were available. Hens thus alter their behavior depending on the males
      they see, and they may not exert a preference at all if both males fall below the
      threshold. Further corroborating evidence comes from a set of mate choice trials
      using underdeveloped roosters, in which males had small combs and females mated
      slowly or did not mate. The method of choice used by females could affect the
      speed with which correlations develop between the genes for male traits and genes
      for female preferences. Sexual selection for good genes may be more consistent
      with an absolute than a relative method of female choice.

PMID- 28567978
TI  - GENETIC COMPONENTS OF VARIATION IN ENERGY STORAGE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - One approach to examining the underlying genetic structure of the variation in a
      continuous phenotype is to measure a set of possibly mechanistically related
      traits and determine the quantitative genetic aspects of their transmission. In
      this study the quantities of stored triacylglycerol and glycogen were measured
      along with the activities of 10 enzymes in related metabolic pathways in a set of
      1,157 half-sib families of Drosophila melanogaster. The families were structured
      with each male being mated to 10 females and two offspring were scored from each
      female. Parents and offspring were scored for the phenotypes, and the components
      of variance (additive, dominance, and environmental) were estimated in three
      ways, including analysis of variance on offspring alone, parent-offspring
      regression, and maximum likelihood methods. While there were differences among
      the estimates made by the three methods, a consistent result was that substantial
      additive genetic variation was detected for all the traits. Consistent with
      models for the quantitative genetics of enzyme kinetics, the genetic variances of
      global properties were largely additive. Previous studies with extracted
      chromosome lines had indicated several significant genetic correlations among
      these characters, and much of the correlation was attributable to additive
      effects. The results imply that there is substantial opportunity for natural or
      artificial selection to act on quantities of stored lipid and carbohydrate, and
      that the response to selection is likely to be in part mediated by changes in the
      kinetics of the enzymes targeted in this study.

PMID- 28567979
TI  - A METHOD FOR TESTING THE CORRELATED EVOLUTION OF TWO BINARY CHARACTERS: ARE GAINS
      OR LOSSES CONCENTRATED ON CERTAIN BRANCHES OF A PHYLOGENETIC TREE?
AB  - A method is presented for assessing whether changes in a binary character are
      more concentrated than expected by chance on certain branches of a phylogenetic
      tree. It can be used to test for correlated evolution of two characters by asking
      whether changes in the first character are significantly concentrated on those
      branches on which the second character has a specified state. Thus, one could
      test whether this specified state is associated with, and thus might enable or
      select, gains or losses in the first character. The probability of achieving a
      concentration as or more extreme than that observed under the null hypotheses
      that changes are distributed randomly on the cladogram is obtained by calculating
      (a) the number of ways that n gains and m losses can be distributed on the
      cladogram and (b) the number of ways that p gains q losses can be distributed on
      the branches of interest given n gains and m losses in the cladogram overall.
      Summing (b) for appropriate p and q then dividing by (a) yields the desired
      probability. Simulations suggest that biases resulting from errors in parsimony
      reconstructions of ancestral states are not extreme.

PMID- 28567980
TI  - STATISTICAL TESTS OF PHENOGRAMS BASED ON GENETIC DISTANCES.
AB  - Methods used for estimating the confidence levels of UPGMA-type phenograms based
      on molecular-genetic data are examined. The methods based on internodal variances
      or on bootstrapping over characters are compared by simulating a three-species
      phylogeny with a trifurcation. The bootstrap method seems slightly better in this
      comparison. Weighting of OTU's when constructing the phenogram is also examined.
      A method that weights each OTU according to the estimated independent
      evolutionary information, a modified WPGMA, appears slightly better than UPGMA in
      estimating the branching points and branch lengths. The methods are applied to
      the data on restriction sites in eight Hawaiian Drosophila species. The
      significance of the clusters among them differ from those reported earlier.

PMID- 28567981
TI  - QUANTITATIVE VARIATION IN FINITE PARTHENOGENETIC POPULATIONS: WHAT STOPS MULLER'S
      RATCHET IN THE ABSENCE OF RECOMBINATION?
AB  - Finite parthenogenetic populations with high genomic mutation rates accumulate
      deleterious mutations if back mutations are rare. This mechanism, known as
      Muller's ratchet, can explain the rarity of parthenogenetic species among so
      called higher organisms. However, estimates of genomic mutation rates for
      deleterious alleles and their average effect in the diploid condition in
      Drosophila suggest that Muller's ratchet should eliminate parthenogenetic insect
      populations within several hundred generations, provided all mutations are
      unconditionally deleterious. This fact is inconsistent with the existence of
      obligatory parthenogenetic insect species. In this paper an analysis of the
      extent to which compensatory mutations can counter Muller's ratchet is presented.
      Compensatory mutations are defined as all mutations that compensate for the
      phenotypic effects of a deleterious mutation. In the case of quantitative traits
      under stabilizing selection, the rate of compensatory mutations is easily
      predicted. It is shown that there is a strong analogy between the Muller's
      ratchet model of Felsenstein (1974) and the quantitative genetic model considered
      here, except for the frequency of compensatory mutations. If the intensity of
      stabilizing selection is too small or the mutation rate too high, the optimal
      genotype becomes extinct and the population mean drifts from the optimum but
      still reaches a stationary distribution. This distance is essentially the same as
      predicted for sexually reproducing populations under the same circumstances.
      Hence, at least in the short run, compensatory mutations for quantitative
      characters are as effective as recombination in halting the decline of mean
      fitness otherwise caused by Muller's ratchet. However, it is questionable whether
      compensatory mutations can prevent Muller's ratchet in the long run because there
      might be a limit to the capacity of the genome to provide compensatory mutations
      without eliminating deleterious mutations at least during occasional episodes of
      sex.

PMID- 28567982
TI  - INSECT PHENOLOGY MEDIATED BY HOST-PLANT WATER RELATIONS.
AB  - Water relations of host plants modify Enchenopa binotata life histories by
      mediating the termination of egg dormancy, thereby promoting synchronization of
      egg hatch. Dormant eggs must undergo dehydration and subsequent hydration to
      begin development. Dehydration of eggs is brought about in the field by declining
      water levels in branches during the fall and by prolonged cold. Hydration of eggs
      occurs when sap begins to rise in early spring. Since the ascent of sap occurs at
      different times in the six species of Enchenopa host plants, the phenology of egg
      hatch and adult maturation are allochronic. Shifts to novel host plants differing
      in phenology promote asynchrony of Enchenopa life histories among host-plant
      species. Thus, the host plant acts as an extrinsic disruptive factor that may
      promote genetic divergence and temporal reproductive isolation in Enchenopa.

PMID- 28567983
TI  - OPTIMIZATION MODELS, QUANTITATIVE GENETICS, AND MUTATION.
AB  - The process of selection on a multivariate set of characters subject to
      functional constraints is considered from the points of view of both evolutionary
      optimization theory and quantitative genetics. Special attention is given to life
      history characteristics. It is shown that, under suitable conditions (including
      weak selection), useful approximate formulas for the relations between the
      functional constraints and the additive genetic variance-covariance matrix can be
      derived. These can be used to show that the conditions for equilibrium under
      selection according to the two different approaches are approximately equivalent.
      Although large negative genetic correlations are to be expected between some
      pairs of life-history traits in populations at equilibrium under selection, in
      general some small negative genetic correlations and some positive genetic
      correlations will also be present. Thus, the observation of a positive genetic
      correlation between a pair of life-history traits does not necessarily refute the
      possibility of trade-offs among a multivariate set of traits that contains the
      pair in question. The relation between the pattern of functional constraints and
      the genetic correlations is often complex, and little insight into the former can
      be derived from the latter. The effects of mutations that lower the overall
      efficiency of resource utilization, thereby creating a positive component to the
      genetic covariances among life-history traits, are also considered for a specific
      model. Although such mutations can have a substantial effect on the form of the
      life history, extreme conditions seem to be needed for them to produce a large
      effect on the pattern of genetic correlations in a random-mating population. They
      can, however, cause the appearance of positive correlations following inbreeding,
      due to the exposure of deleterious recessive or partially recessive mutations.
      The analysis also suggests that the population means of individual components of
      a constrained multivariate system may often equilibrate at values that are far
      from the optima that would be attained if they were selected in isolation from
      the other members of the system.

PMID- 28567984
TI  - CORRELATED RESPONSE IN THE DEVELOPMENTAL CHOREOGRAPHIES OF THE MOUSE MANDIBLE TO
      SELECTION FOR BODY COMPOSITION.
AB  - The correlated response to 13 generations of selection for percent fatness and
      leanness is investigated in 11 mandible traits in mice. Five selection lines are
      examined including high fat (HF), low fat (LF), high lean (HL), low lean (LL) and
      a randomly selected control strain (RC. The ontogenetic patterns of growth in the
      RC strain serve as a model to evaluate the developmental consequences of
      directional selection. Selection has systematically altered the patterns of
      mandible growth in selection lines relative to the control strain. Further,
      selection has significantly altered the age-specific phenotypic covariance among
      these traits. In the HF strain, growth in the mandible is completed by 12 weeks
      of age for most traits. In other selected strains, notably LF and LL, there is a
      significant growth spurt that occurs between 12 and 15 weeks of age. Changes in
      the patterns of mandibular growth produce significant differences among strains
      in the final form of the mandible. Because of the changes in the patterns of
      growth, the differences among strains are themselves shown to vary at different
      postnatal ages. The phenotypically similar strains, i.e., HF and LL or LF and HL,
      show different but correlated patterns of divergence. Multivariate statistical
      analyses suggest that the temporal strain differences in these traits are
      multidimensional.

PMID- 28567985
TI  - HOST-PLANT-INDUCED ASSORTATIVE MATING IN ENCHENOPA TREEHOPPERS.
AB  - The hypothesis tested here is whether extrinsic host-plant-induced life-history
      timing and mating biology promote assortative mating along host-plant lines. In
      the arboreal, univoltine Enchenopa treehopper system, host plants mediate the
      timing and synchronization of egg hatch. The result is a uniform age structure
      with a restricted mating window during which females mate once. Enchenopa on host
      plants that differ in phenology have asynchronous life histories and mating
      windows, suggesting that temporal differences may promote assortative mating. To
      test this hypothesis, egg hatch of Enchenopa from the same host-plant species was
      manipulated to produce continuous adult age-classes. Under experimental
      conditions with no spatial barriers, mating occurred between individuals similar
      in age. The mechanism promoting this assortative mating is differential mortality
      in males and females, such that few males are still alive when females in
      successive age-classes mate. Such host-plant-induced assortative mating is viewed
      as an effective mechanism to protect the integrity of gene pools from migrants,
      permitting selection for host-plant-adapted genotypes and speciation.

PMID- 28567986
TI  - THE MATING SYSTEM GENETICALLY AFFECTS OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE IN WOODHOUSE'S TOAD
      (BUFO WOODHOUSEI).
AB  - To determine if the nonrandom, non-resource-based mating system of Bufo
      woodhousei affects tadpole performance, I performed a series of controlled
      matings and reared the tadpoles to metamorphosis in the laboratory and field. I
      asked whether differences in paternal identity, mating status, or body size were
      related to differences in tadpole mass, larval period duration, metamorphic mass,
      or survival of offspring. Although both laboratory and field rearings indicated
      that male and female parentage affected most offspring traits, no correspondence
      existed between either laboratory and field metamorphic mass or laboratory and
      field survival of offspring sired by the same male. The lack of correspondence
      between sire breeding values in the laboratory and field for two of three traits
      raises doubts as to the validity of drawing conclusions concerning how evolution
      might be expected to work from laboratory studies. Paternal effects were more
      pronounced in the field than in the laboratory, despite what is usually presumed
      to be a greater amount of environmental variation in the field. In the laboratory
      neither sire body size nor mating status affected any trait, but in the field
      larger males produced offspring that were 10% heavier at transformation than
      offspring sired by small males. This predictable relationship between sire
      phenotype (body size) and offspring performance means that nonrandom mating based
      on male body size could have a directional effect on offspring performance.
      Because larger males mate disproportionately often in this population (Woodward,
      1982a; Mitchell, unpubl.), the mating system may exert a directional effect on
      metamorphic body size.

PMID- 28567987
TI  - MULTIVARIATE PHENOTYPIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG BOTTLENECK LINES OF THE HOUSEFLY.
AB  - Multivariate phenotypic differentiation in eight morphometric traits was examined
      in bottleneck lines of the housefly initiated with one, four, or 16 pairs of
      flies from a natural outbred population. Differentiation was assessed using a
      Mahalanobis' distance metric in units of additive genetic variance and covariance
      estimated from the ancestral population (i.e., generalized genetic distance).
      This distance metric was partitioned into contributions of size and shape to
      total distance. Bottleneck lines of all sizes diverged significantly from the
      ancestral line, but the direction of these shifts differed among the lines of
      different initial founding size. Those populations founded with single pairs
      diverged from the ancestral line mostly in shape; the 16-pair lines
      differentiated almost entirely in size, and the four-pair lines were intermediate
      in the relative contribution of shape to differentiation from the control.
      Bottlenecks serve to alter the genetic relationships among traits within the
      derived populations and in doing so could promote speciation by permitting
      differentiation of the populations along evolutionary trajectories less
      accessible to the base population.

PMID- 28567988
TI  - THE GEOGRAPHIC PATTERN OF GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN HOST ASSOCIATED
      POPULATIONS OF RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE) IN THE EASTERN UNITED
      STATES AND CANADA.
AB  - True fruit flies in the Rhagoletis pomonella sibling species group are at the
      center of a long-standing debate concerning modes of speciation. The allopatric
      separation of populations is widely thought to be a prerequisite for speciation
      in sexually reproducing animals. However, speciation in the R. pomonella group
      appears to have occurred sympatrically as a consequence of these flies shifting
      and adapting to new host plants. The sympatric shift of R. pomonella from its
      native host hawthorn to introduced domestic apple, which occurred approximately
      150 years ago, provides a test of whether host specialization is sufficient to
      allow populations to differentiate in the absence of geographic barriers to gene
      flow. We report the results of a geographic study of allozyme variation for
      hawthorn and apple infesting populations of R. pomonella across the eastern
      United States and Canada. Six loci consistently show significant allele frequency
      differences at paired apple and hawthorn sites. These six loci map to three
      different regions of the genome, and linkage disequilibrium exists between non
      allelic genes within each of these regions. Allele frequencies for five of the
      six loci displaying host associated differences also co-vary significantly with
      latitude. Inter-host divergence is, therefore, superimposed on north-south clinal
      patterns of intra-host variation such that the magnitude of genetic divergence
      between hawthorn and apple flies is a function of latitude. The findings suggest
      that partially reproductively isolated "host races" can evolve in sympatry as a
      consequence of R. pomonella infesting new host plants. Host recognition and host
      associated developmental traits are discussed as important factors
      differentiating apple and hawthorn flies.

PMID- 28567990
TI  - GENE INTERACTION AFFECTS THE ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE IN SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS
      WITH MIGRATION AND EXTINCTION.
AB  - We investigated the effect of nonadditive genetic variance on the amount of
      additive genetic variance within local populations in an infinite-allele,
      infinite-island model with migration, extinction, and recolonization, using two
      locus descent measures. For an island model with extinction, one- and two-locus
      descent measures are expressed in a matrix form that allows equilibrium solutions
      to be calculated similar to previous work on Wright's F-statistics. In a
      subdivided population, the additive genetic variation within a local deme depends
      on the dominance and epistatic genetic variation in the species. Moreover, to a
      good approximation, the amount of additive variance within a deme is a simple
      function of Fst , which is twice the demic fraction of genic variance. At
      equilibrium, it is equal to (1 - Fst ) VA plus 4 Fst (1 - Fst ) VA*A , where VA
      and VA*A are the additive and additive * additive epistatic variances at the
      level of the species, respectively, plus a contribution from the dominance
      variance and other terms including dominance. Paradoxically, with nonadditive
      genetic effects, drift on average increases the amount of additive genetic
      variance within populations, whereas migration decreases the equilibrium amount.
      In the presence of nonadditive genetic effects, measurements of additive genetic
      variance in natural populations must be taken at the proper spatial scale with
      respect to natural selection, or they will provide an inaccurate description of
      evolutionary potential both within local populations and within the species as a
      whole.

PMID- 28567989
TI  - The novel synthetic microneurotrophin BNN27 protects mature oligodendrocytes
      against cuprizone-induced death, through the NGF receptor TrkA.
AB  - BNN27, a member of a chemical library of C17-spiroepoxy derivatives of the
      neurosteroid DHEA, has been shown to regulate neuronal survival through its
      selective interaction with NGF receptors (TrkA and p75NTR ), but its role on
      glial populations has not been studied. Here, we present evidence that BNN27
      provides trophic action (rescue from apoptosis), in a TrkA-dependent manner, to
      mature oligodendrocytes when they are challenged with the cuprizone toxin in
      culture. BNN27 treatment also increases oligodendrocyte maturation and diminishes
      microglia activation in vitro. The effect of BNN27 in the cuprizone mouse model
      of demyelination in vivo has also been investigated. In this model, that does not
      directly involve the adaptive immune system, BNN27 can protect from demyelination
      without affecting the remyelinating process. BNN27 preserves mature
      oligodendrocyte during demyelination, while reducing microgliosis and
      astrogliosis. Our findings suggest that BNN27 may serve as a lead molecule to
      develop neurotrophin-like blood-brain barrier (BBB)-permeable protective agents
      of oligodendrocyte populations and myelin, with potential applications in the
      treatment of demyelinating disorders.

PMID- 28567991
TI  - HALDANE'S RULE IS SIGNIFICANT.

PMID- 28567992
TI  - BEHAVIORAL EVIDENCE FOR HOST-RACE FORMATION IN EUROSTA SOLIDAGINIS.
AB  - We report behavioral evidence that Eurosta solidaginis, a stem-galling tephritid
      fly, has formed host races on its two goldenrod hosts, Solidago altissima and S.
      gigantea. Previous work has shown that flies from each host plant differ
      electrophoretically at the level of host races. The two host-associated
      populations were truly sympatric and were frequently found on host plants of the
      two species growing interdigitated with each other. Each host-associated
      population demonstrated a strong preference for ovipuncturing its own host. The
      S. gigantea-associated population emerged 10 to 14 d earlier than the S.
      altissima-associated population, contributing to the reproductive isolation
      between populations. Partial reproductive isolation is also maintained by a
      preference for mating on the host from which the fly emerged. The populations
      meet the criteria established for host races, suggesting that they may be in an
      intermediate stage of sympatric speciation.

PMID- 28567994
TI  - MULLER'S RATCHET AND MUTATIONAL MELTDOWNS.
AB  - We extend our earlier work on the role of deleterious mutations in the extinction
      of obligately asexual populations. First, we develop analytical models for
      mutation accumulation that obviate the need for time-consuming computer
      simulations in certain ranges of the parameter space. When the number of
      mutations entering the population each generation is fairly high, the number of
      mutations per individual and the mean time to extinction can be predicted using
      classical approaches in quantitative genetics. However, when the mutation rate is
      very low, a fixation-probability approach is quite effective. Second, we show
      that an intermediate selection coefficient (s) minimizes the time to extinction.
      The critical value of s can be quite low, and we discuss the evolutionary
      implications of this, showing that increased sensitivity to mutation and loss of
      capacity for DNA repair can be selectively advantageous in asexual organisms.
      Finally, we consider the consequences of the mutational meltdown for the
      extinction of mitochondrial lineages in sexual species.

PMID- 28567993
TI  - HETEROCHRONY AND ALLOMETRY: LESSONS FROM THE WATER STRIDER GENUS LIMNOPORUS.
AB  - Heterochrony and allometry both deal with evolutionary modifications of
      ontogenies. Although data about both morphology and age are required to identify
      heterochronic processes, age data are not needed to study allometry. Using a
      simple graphical model, we show that allometric patterns cannot be used to infer
      the underlying heterochronic processes. We present a case study of the water
      strider genus Limnoporus Stal (Heteroptera: Gerridae) to illuminate the distinct
      roles that allometry and heterochrony play in integrated studies of the evolution
      of form. Multivariate analyses reveal several evolutionary modifications of
      growth trajectories (changes in direction, lateral transposition, and ontogenetic
      scaling), which are fairly consistent with the hypothesized phylogeny of the
      genus. Because there is no positive correlation between instar durations and size
      increments, size cannot be used as a proxy for age data in studies of
      heterochrony. In fact, a measure of overall size itself shows a remarkable
      variety of heterochronic changes among the six species. Mixtures of several
      heterochronic processes predominate over the more unitary reflections of "pure"
      processes. Heterochronic changes in different branches of the phylogeny,
      apparently independent of size scaling, suggest considerable potential for
      adaptive evolution. "Local" differentiation of ontogenetic traits within small
      clades may be at least as important as "global" evolutionary trends in large
      clades and will often be missed in "global" analyses.

PMID- 28567995
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF GAMETIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN NEOTROPICAL ECHINOMETRA: A REPLY TO
      MCCLARY.

PMID- 28567996
TI  - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENETIC EROSION IN THE PROCESS OF EXTINCTION. IV. INBREEDING
      DEPRESSION AND HETEROSIS EFFECTS CAUSED BY SELFING AND OUTCROSSING IN SCABIOSA
      COLUMBARIA.
AB  - The effects of self-fertilization, within-population crosses (WPC) and between
      population crosses (BPC) on progeny fitness were investigated in the greenhouse
      for Scabiosa columbaria populations of varying size. Plants grown from field
      collected seeds were hand pollinated to produce selfed, WPC, and BPC progeny. The
      performance of these progenies was examined throughout the entire life cycle. The
      different pollination treatments did not significantly affect germination,
      seedling-to-adult survival, flowering percentage and the number of flower heads.
      But severe inbreeding depression was demonstrated for biomass production, root
      development, adult survival, and seed set. Additionally, multiplicative fitness
      functions were calculated to compare relative fitnesses for progeny. On average,
      WPC progeny showed a more than 4-fold, and BPC progeny an almost 10-fold,
      advantage over selfed progeny, indicating that S. columbaria is highly
      susceptible to inbreeding. No clear relationship was found between population
      size and level of inbreeding depression, suggesting that the genetic load has not
      yet been reduced substantially in the small populations. A significant positive
      correlation was found between plant dry weight and total fitness. In two out of
      six populations, the differences between the effects of the pollination
      treatments on dry weight increased significantly when seedlings were grown under
      competitive conditions. This result is interpreted as an enhancement of
      inbreeding depression under these conditions. It is argued that improvement of
      the genetic exchange between populations may lower the probability of population
      extinction.

PMID- 28567997
TI  - ABSENCE OF POLLEN DISCOUNTING IN A GENOTYPE OF IPOMOEA PURPUREA EXHIBITING
      INCREASED SELFING.
AB  - Throughout southeastern North America, the annual morning glory Ipomoea purpurea
      exhibits a polymorphism at a locus that influences the intensity of floral
      pigmentation. Previous studies have shown that when rare, the homozygous white
      genotype has a greater selfing rate than the homozygous dark genotype. In the
      absence of pollen discounting (a reduction in transmission of pollen to other
      plants by genotypes that exhibit increased selfing) and inbreeding depression,
      this increased selfing rate should favor the white allele. Experiments reported
      here confirm that the white genotype has elevated selfing rates when rare but
      indicate pollen discounting is not associated with elevated selfing. Rather,
      white genotypes contribute more pollen to the outcross pollen pool. The disparity
      between genotypes in both selfing rates and success at pollen contribution to
      other plants disappears at intermediate to high frequencies of the white allele.
      Pollinator movements are consistent with the pattern of selfing. These results
      suggest that elevated selfing and enhanced success at pollen donation contribute
      to maintenance of the white allele in natural populations of morning glories.

PMID- 28567998
TI  - COLOR-PATTERN VARIATION IN LAKE ERIE WATER SNAKES: PREDICTION AND MEASUREMENT OF
      NATURAL SELECTION.
AB  - A classic example of natural selection, that of color-pattern variation in Lake
      Erie island populations of water snakes, was reexamined to overcome shortcomings
      resulting from classification of snakes into discrete color-pattern categories
      and use of cross-sectional data. Four continuously varying color-pattern
      components (DB, the number of dorsal blotches; LB, the number of lateral
      blotches; ROWS, the height of lateral blotches measured in scale rows; and VEXT,
      the extent of ventral pigmentation) were analyzed. Patterns of natural selection
      were predicted from the relationship between color-pattern scores and independent
      measures of relative crypsis. Tests for natural selection were carried out using
      longitudinal data on neonate to juvenile-aged snakes and cross-sectional data on
      juvenile to adult-aged snakes. As predicted, the form of selection differed
      between younger and older age classes of snakes: selection resulted in a
      reduction in DB and LB among neonate and juvenile snakes but had little influence
      on color-pattern components in older snakes. The correspondence between observed
      patterns of natural selection and predictions based on the relationship between
      color-pattern scores and relative crypsis supports the hypothesis that
      differential predation by visual predators on younger age classes of snakes is
      the mechanism of selection. Gene flow from mainland populations or the initial
      lack of an allele necessary for reduced pattern may explain why selection has not
      resulted in greater differentiation between island and mainland populations.

PMID- 28567999
TI  - PEAK SHIFTS AND POLYMORPHISM DURING PHASE THREE OF WRIGHT'S SHIFTING-BALANCE
      PROCESS.
AB  - The third phase of Wright's shifting-balance theory involves the export of
      adaptive gene combinations from one subpopulation to another. Previous results
      have demonstrated that this can occur at very low migration rates, but it has
      been argued that this simply reflects the ability of migration to overcome
      selection and fix any (even deleterious) alleles. Here, previous analyses are
      extended by concentrating on the critical balance between forward and reverse
      migration rates that still allows phase III to proceed. It is shown that
      selective advantage, dominance, recombination rate, and the number of loci all
      affect the ability of a genotype to invade and become fixed in a new
      subpopulation, but it is unlikely that phase III will occur in the absence of
      differential migration unless the invading genotype consists of a few dominant
      loci with a large selection advantage, spreading into a few populations of lower
      fitness. Therefore, as was envisioned by Wright, differential migration from more
      to less fit populations will be necessary for phase III to occur under most
      circumstances.

PMID- 28568000
TI  - SEX-RATIO MANIPULATION BY THE PARASITOID WASP MUSCIDIFURAX RAPTOR IN RESPONSE TO
      HOST SIZE.

PMID- 28568001
TI  - REACTION NORMS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS TO LIGHT AVAILABILITY IN
      IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - For plants, light availability is an important environmental factor that varies
      both within and between populations. Although the existence of sun and shade
      "ecotypes" is controversial, it is often assumed that trade-offs may exist
      between performance in sun and in shade. This study therefore investigated
      variation in reaction norms to light availability within and between two
      neighboring natural populations of the annual Impatiens capensis, one in full sun
      and the other in a forest understory. Seedlings were collected randomly from both
      populations and grown to maturity in a greenhouse under two light conditions:
      full light and 18% of full light. Selfed full-sib seed families were collected
      from plants from both populations grown in both parental light environments. To
      characterize family reaction norms, seedlings from each family were divided into
      the same two light treatments and individuals were scored for a variety of
      morphological and life-history traits. The maternal light environment had little
      impact on progeny reaction norms. However, the two study populations differed
      both qualitatively and quantitatively in plastic response to light availability
      (indicated by significant population x environment interactions in mixed-model
      ANCOVA). Much of this difference was attributable to population differences in
      light sensitivity of axillary meristem allocation patterns, which produced
      concurrent differences in reaction norms for a suite of developmentally linked
      traits. Within each population, different sets of traits displayed significant
      variation in plasticity (indicated by significant family x environment
      interactions). Thus, the genetic potential for evolutionary response to selection
      in heterogeneous light environments may differ dramatically between neighboring
      plant populations. Between-environment genetic correlations were largely positive
      in the woods population and positive or nonsignificant in the sun population;
      there was no evidence for performance trade-offs across environments or sun or
      shade "specialist" genotypes within either population. There was little evidence
      that population differences represented adaptive differentiation for sun or
      shade; rather, the results suggested the hypothesis of differential selection on
      patterns of meristem allocation caused by population differences in timing of
      mortality and intensity of competition.

PMID- 28568002
TI  - GENETIC CORRELATION BETWEEN A FEMALE MATING PREFERENCE AND THE PREFERRED MALE
      CHARACTER IN SEAWEED FLIES (COELOPA FRIGIDA).
AB  - The mating preferences of female seaweed flies Coelopa frigida were determined by
      observing their acceptance or rejection of males of known size. The inversion
      karyotype of both males and females was also determined. Females exhibited a
      preference to mate with large males, and evidence is presented that a genetic
      correlation exists between the female preference and the preferred trait. Females
      carrying the inversion karyotype associated with large male size showed a strong
      preference for large males; females carrying the inversion associated with small
      male size also exhibited a preference for large males, but it was significantly
      less strong. This finding suggests that a Fisherian process may be operating.

PMID- 28568003
TI  - POLLINATORS DISCRIMINATE AMONG FLORAL HEIGHTS OF A SEXUALLY DECEPTIVE ORCHID:
      IMPLICATIONS FOR SELECTION.
AB  - Pollinators have influenced the evolution of many morphological floral traits,
      although few studies have shown that pollinators have influenced plant height.
      Chiloglottis trilabra is one of many Australian orchids that deceive and attract
      male pollinators by mimicking the sex pheromones and morphology of females
      insects. Orchids in this genus have unusually short flowers whose peduncle
      elongates dramatically after pollination to approximately twice the original
      height. In a series of choice experiments in the field, we show that pollinators
      of C. trilabra strongly discriminate among floral heights, preferring flowers
      presented at 15 cm-20 cm over flowers presented at lower and higher positions
      (ranging from 2 cm-100 cm). Our results suggested pollinators have the potential
      to mediate stabilizing selection for floral height when pollination is limiting.
      However, the natural height range of the orchid (mean = 10 cm, range 5 cm-15 cm)
      was lower than the experimentally determined optimum for visitation frequency.
      This difference may indicate that pollinator-mediated selection does not occur in
      this species, perhaps because seed set is not sufficiently limited.
      Alternatively, other life-history factors may counteract pollinator-mediated
      selection, yielding an evolutionary compromise in height.

PMID- 28568004
TI  - ADAPTIVE GENETIC VARIATION IN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF TADPOLES OF THE
      HYBRIDOGENETIC RANA ESCULENTA COMPLEX.
AB  - The distribution and proportion of the sexual species Rana lessonae to the
      hemiclonal hybrid R. esculenta among natural habitats suggests that these anurans
      may differ in adaptive abilities. I used a half-sib design to partition
      phenotypic and quantitative genetic variation in tadpole responses at two food
      levels into causal variance components. Rana lessonae displays strong phenotypic
      variation across food levels. Growth rate is strictly determined by environmental
      factors and includes weak maternal effects. Larval period and body size at
      metamorphosis both contain moderate levels of additive genetic variance. The sire
      x food interactions and the lack of environmental correlations indicate that
      adaptive phenotypic plasticity is present in both of these traits. In contrast,
      R. esculenta displays less phenotypic variation across food levels, especially
      for larval period. Variation in body size at metamorphosis is underlain by
      genetic variation as shown by high levels of additive genetic variance, yet
      growth rate and larval period are not. Significant environmental correlations
      between larval period at high food level and growth, larval period, and body size
      at low food, indicate phenotypic plasticity is absent. A positive phenotypic
      correlation between body size at metamorphosis and larval period for R. lessonae
      at both food levels suggests a trade-off between growing large and metamorphosing
      quickly to escape predation or pond drying. The lack of a similar correlation for
      R. esculenta at the high food level suggests it may be less constrained.
      Different levels of adaptive genetic variation among larval traits suggest that
      the sexual species and the hybridogenetic hemiclone differ in their abilities to
      cope with temporally and spatially heterogeneous environments.

PMID- 28568005
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HOST-PARASITE DIVERSITY.
AB  - Hosts and parasites often have extensive genetic diversity for resistance and
      virulence (host range). Qualitative diversity occurs when the success of attack
      is an all-or-nothing response that varies according to the genotypes of the host
      and parasite. Quantitative diversity occurs when the success of attack is a
      graded response that depends on additive genetic variation in the host and
      parasite. Community diversity occurs when parasites vary in the success with
      which they can attack different host species, leading to a mixture of specialists
      and generalists. I developed a series of models that classify components of host
      parasite interactions according to whether they cause stabilizing or disruptive
      selection for resistance and virulence. Stabilizing selection reduces diversity
      by favoring a single optimal phenotype. Disruptive selection creates diversity by
      favoring a mixture of widely separated phenotypes. The evolution of maximal
      resistance and virulence are opposed by one of three forces: metabolic costs,
      frequency dependence, or negative genetic correlations among beneficial traits.
      The models predict that qualitatively inherited resistance and virulence traits
      typically cause greater diversity than quantitatively inherited traits. However,
      each natural system is composed of many stabilizing factors that reduce diversity
      and disruptive factors that promote diversity. I advocate a style of modeling in
      which families of related assumptions are compared by their equilibrium
      properties, and general conclusions from equilibrium properties are tested by
      complete dynamical analysis. The comparison among models highlights the need for
      empirical studies that compare levels of diversity among related host-parasite
      systems.

PMID- 28568006
TI  - BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: COUNTING GENES IN MODELS OF BIPARENTAL INBREEDING.

PMID- 28568007
TI  - LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON SPECIATION: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED IN 40 YEARS?
AB  - We integrate experimental studies attempting to duplicate all or part of the
      speciation process under controlled laboratory conditions and ask what general
      conclusions can be made concerning the major models of speciation. Strong support
      is found for the evolution of reproductive isolation via pleiotropy and/or
      genetic hitchhiking with or without allopatry. Little or no support is found for
      the bottleneck and reinforcement models of speciation. We conclude that the role
      of geographical separation in generating allopatry (i.e., zero gene flow induced
      by spatial isolation) has been overemphasized in the past, whereas its role in
      generating diminished gene flow in combination with strong, discontinuous, and
      multifarious divergent selection, has been largely unappreciated.

PMID- 28568008
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND GENETIC COHESIVENESS OVER A MICROENVIRONMENTAL
      GRADIENT IN THE MARINE SNAIL LITTORINA SAXATILIS.
AB  - The marine gastropod Littorina saxatilis has different ecotypes in shores only a
      few meters apart. This has both taxonomic and evolutionary implications. Here we
      report on an extreme type of within-shore dimorphism in shell characters. In the
      wave-exposed rocky shores in northwestern Spain, we found one form of L.
      saxatilis in the upper-level barnacle zone. It had a white, ridged shell, with
      black bands in the grooves. Another form confined to the lower-shore mussel belt
      had a smooth shell that was either white and tessellated or darkly colored. These
      two forms cooccured in a narrow midshore zone together with individuals that had
      combined characters, but were present in low frequencies (11%-29%). We used
      principal-component analysis of metric shell characters to study variation in
      shell size and shape. We found that the upper-shore form was larger than the
      lower-shore form. We also found small but significant differences in shell shape.
      Experiments in a common laboratory environment suggested the differences in shell
      ornamentation and color are inherited, but the individuals did not develop the
      morph-specific characters until a shell height of about 3 mm. The occurrence of
      mainly two distinct forms may suggest the presence of two species that hybridize.
      An analysis of five polymorphic enzyme loci in populations of snails from three
      geographically separated sites indicated, however, that there was no positive
      correlation between morphological distances and genetic distances among
      populations on a geographic scale (tens of kilometers). Thus, we rejected the
      hypothesis of two species. However, on a microgeographic scale (meters), genetic
      differentiation between groups with the same form was less than differentiation
      between forms. This indicated a partial barrier to gene flow between the two
      forms, and preliminary mate choice data suggested this was caused by nonrandom
      mating in the midshore zone of overlap.

PMID- 28568009
TI  - HALDANE'S COINCIDENCE: A REPLY TO BROOKFIELD.

PMID- 28568010
TI  - MODE OF SWARMING IN RELATION TO REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN MAYFLIES.
AB  - Mayfly males swarm, that is they fly in a fixed pattern by a specific object, the
      swarm marker. Females orientate to the same markers. Leptophlebia marginata
      mayflies were observed to orientate to two kinds of objects in a single locality
      in central Finland: to trees and to horizontal pale objects on the ground; when
      dispersed or moved to the other type of marker, they returned to their former
      orientation. Tree swarming is by far the most common mode of swarming, but some
      horizontally orientating populations were found. Sympatric populations are
      genetically and morphologically distinct, whereas other populations appear to
      have some gene flow between the swarming types. The tree-swarming mode appears to
      be primitive and the horizontal mode derived; wind rather than predation is the
      factor favoring swarming close to the ground. Swarming constitutes an effective
      mechanism of premating isolation in mayflies.

PMID- 28568011
TI  - ALLOCATION TO ATTRACTIVE STRUCTURES IN ANIMAL-POLLINATED FLOWERS.
AB  - An optimal allocation model was developed for the evolutionarily stable size of
      attractive structures of flowers (ESA) in animal-pollinated plants. It was
      assumed that a plant can change the sizes of attractive and sexual structures of
      a flower and the size and the number of flowers. In the absence of constraints on
      flower size, the ESA should not depend on the frequency of self-fertilization or
      the sexuality of plants. However, with constraints on flower size, the ESA
      decreases with increasing self-fertilization, except in special cases, and it is
      possible that males have a larger or a smaller ESA than females. Thus,
      differences in self-fertilization and sexuality alone cannot explain the
      differences in allocation among nondomesticated plants. In addition, attractive
      structures can contribute more to male or female function depending on the cost
      of gamete production, pollination efficiency for pollen and ovules, and
      pollinator availability.

PMID- 28568012
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF THE SCAPULA IN TREE SQUIRRELS, CHIPMUNKS, AND GROUND
      SQUIRRELS (SCIURIDAE): AN ANALYSIS USING THIN-PLATE SPLINES.
AB  - The mammalian scapula, like many bones, is a single structural element that
      serves as an attachment site for several muscles. The goal of this study was to
      determine whether the scapula evolves as an integrated unit, or as a collection
      of distinct parts. Shape differences among the scapulae of tree squirrels,
      chipmunks, and ground squirrels were described using thin-plate spline analysis.
      This technique produces a geometric description of shape differences that can be
      decomposed into a series of components ranging in scale from features that span
      the entire form to features that are highly localized. Shape differences among
      tree squirrel scapulae were found only in large-scale features, indicating
      spatially integrated shape change. Chipmunks and ground squirrels differ from
      tree squirrels in several features, but shared differences reflecting divergence
      of their common ancestor were found only in the small-scale features. Divergence
      of ground squirrels from the common ancestor involved some large-scale changes
      but was dominated by small-scale changes. Divergence of chipmunks was dominated
      by large-scale changes. Thus, the scapula evolved as an integrated unit during
      some transitions but as a collection of distinct parts during others. These
      results suggest that evolutionary patterns of the postcranial skeleton may be as
      complex as the patterns that have been described for skulls and feeding
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28568013
TI  - A multicenter review of ablation in the aortic cusps in young people.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ablation within the aortic cusp is safe and effective in adults.
      There are little data on aortic cusp ablation in the pediatric literature. We
      investigated the safety and efficacy of aortic cusp ablation in young patients.
      METHODS: A retrospective, descriptive study of aortic cusp ablation in five
      pediatric electrophysiology centers from 2008 to 2014 was performed. All patients
      <21 years of age who underwent ablation in the aortic cusps were included.
      Factors analyzed included patient demographics, procedural details, outcomes, and
      complications. RESULTS: Thirteen patients met inclusion criteria (median age 16
      years [range 10-20.5] and median body surface area 1.58 m2 [range 1.12-2.33]).
      Substrates for ablation included: nine premature ventricular contractions or
      sustained ventricular tachycardia (69%), two concealed anteroseptal accessory
      pathways (APs) (15%), one Wolff-Parkinson-White with an anteroseptal AP (8%), and
      one ectopic atrial tachycardia (8%). Three-dimensional electroanatomic mapping in
      combination with fluoroscopy was used in 12/13 (92%) patients. Standard 4-mm-tip
      radiofrequency (RF) current was used in 11/13 (85%) and low-power irrigated-tip
      RF in 2/13 (15%). Angiography was used in 13/13 and intracardiac echocardiography
      was additionally utilized in 3/13 (23%). Ablation locations included: eight
      noncoronary (62%), three left (23%), and two right (15%) cusps. Ablation was
      acutely successful in all patients. At median follow-up of 20 months, there was
      one recurrence of PVCs (8%). There were no ablation-related complications and no
      valvular injuries observed. CONCLUSION: Arrhythmias originating from the coronary
      cusps in this series were successfully and safely ablated in young people without
      injury to the coronary arteries or the aortic valve.

PMID- 28568015
TI  - INCREASED NUMBER OF ALLELES FOUND IN HYBRID POPULATIONS DUE TO INTRAGENIC
      RECOMBINATION.

PMID- 28568014
TI  - Interdependence of ICD rates in paired quantum dots on geometry.
AB  - Using state-of-the-art antisymmetrized multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree
      (MCTDH) electron dynamics calculations we study the interdependence of the
      intermolecular Coulombic decay (ICD) process on the geometric parameters of a
      doubly-charged paired quantum dot (PQD) model system in the framework of the
      effective mass approximation (EMA). We find that ICD displays a maximum rate for
      a certain geometry of the electron-emitting quantum dot, which is simultaneously
      dependent on both the distance between the quantum dots as well as the photon
      absorbing quantum dot's geometry. The rate maximum is shown to be caused by the
      competing effects of polarization of electron density and Coulomb repulsion. The
      ICD rate-maximized PQD geometry in GaAs QDs yields a decay time of 102.39 ps. It
      is given by two vertically-aligned cylindrical QDs with radii of 14.42 nm
      separated by 86.62 nm. The photon absorbing QD then has a height of 46.59 nm and
      the electron emitting QD a height of 16.33 nm. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28568016
TI  - COMPETITION BETWEEN HIGH AND LOW MUTATING STRAINS OF ESCHERICHIA COLI.

PMID- 28568017
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28568019
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28568018
TI  - COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF MODES OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AMONG FOUR SPECIES OF
      LEOPARD FROGS (RANA PIPIENS COMPLEX).

PMID- 28568020
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN MOTTLED SCULPINS.

PMID- 28568021
TI  - SEX RATIO EVOLUTION UNDER LOCAL MATE COMPETITION IN A PARASITIC WASP.

PMID- 28568022
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28568023
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION IN THE IGUANID LIZARD SCELOPORUS GRAMMICUS. II. ALLOZYME
      VARIATION.

PMID- 28568024
TI  - COUMARINS AND CATERPILLARS: A CASE FOR COEVOLUTION.

PMID- 28568025
TI  - MACROGEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN LITTER SIZE IN ANTECHINUS (MARSUPIALIA: DASYURIDAE).

PMID- 28568026
TI  - TESTING THE CONSTANT-RATE NEUTRAL ALLELE MODEL WITH PROTEIN SEQUENCE DATA.

PMID- 28568027
TI  - CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION IN THE IGUANID LIZARD SCELOPORUS GRAMMICUS. I. CHROMOSOME
      POLYMORPHISMS.

PMID- 28568028
TI  - HOST RANGE EVOLUTION: THE SHIFT FROM NATIVE LEGUME HOSTS TO ALFALFA BY THE
      BUTTERFLY, COLIAS PHILODICE ERIPHYLE.

PMID- 28568029
TI  - EXTENSIVE GENETIC VARIATION IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA'S AMONG GEOGRAPHIC POPULATIONS
      OF THE DEER MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS.

PMID- 28568030
TI  - KINETIC AND ELECTROPHORETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF LACTATE DEHYDROGENASES OF TELEOST
      SPECIES-PAIRS FROM THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC COASTS OF PANAMA.

PMID- 28568031
TI  - RESOURCE PARTITIONING AMONG GENOTYPES OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568032
TI  - GENE DIVERSITY AND GENETIC STRUCTURE IN A NARROW ENDEMIC, TORREY PINE (PINUS
      TORREYANA PARRY EX CARR.).

PMID- 28568033
TI  - THE KLUGE-KERFOOT PHENOMENON-A STATISTICAL ARTIFACT.

PMID- 28568034
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION IN WING VENATION AMONG BROODS OF 13- AND 17-YEAR
      PERIODICAL CICADAS.

PMID- 28568035
TI  - MACROEVOLUTION AND THE FOSSIL RECORD.

PMID- 28568036
TI  - POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN EUPHYDRYAS EDITHA BUTTERFLIES: LARVAL ADAPTATION TO
      DIFFERENT HOSTS.

PMID- 28568037
TI  - MATING SYSTEM VARIATION IN FESTUCA MICROSTACHYS.

PMID- 28568038
TI  - SYMPATRIC GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN THE LEAF-MINING INSECT LIRIOMYZA BRASSICAE
      (DIPTERA: AGROMYZIDAE).

PMID- 28568039
TI  - ON THE FALLACY OF CONSTANT EXTINCTION RATES.

PMID- 28568040
TI  - EVOLUTION AND BIFURCATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMS.

PMID- 28568042
TI  - CHARACTER CHANGE, SPECIATION, AND THE HIGHER TAXA.

PMID- 28568041
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE PERIWINKLE (LITTORINA
      LITTOREA) IN NORTH AMERICA.

PMID- 28568043
TI  - LABORATORY HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN SEMI-INCOMPATIBLE RACES OF THE ARRHENOTOKOUS
      SPIDER MITE TETRANYCHUS URTICAE KOCH (ACARI: TETRANYCHIDAE).

PMID- 28568044
TI  - GENETIC DISTANCE IN THE SIBLING SPECIES DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER, DROSOPHILA
      SIMULANS AND DROSOPHILA MAURITIANA.

PMID- 28568046
TI  - MACROEVOLUTION: PATTERN AND PROCESS INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND.

PMID- 28568045
TI  - XO FEMALES IN THE VARYING LEMMING, DICROSTONYX TORQUATUS: REPRODUCTIVE
      PERFORMANCE AND ITS EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE.

PMID- 28568047
TI  - A NARROW HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN CLOSELY RELATED CRICKET SPECIES.

PMID- 28568048
TI  - PROMOTION OF GENE FLOW BY TRANSIENT INDIVIDUALS IN AN OTHERWISE SEDENTARY
      POPULATION OF BOX TURTLES (TERRAPENE CAROLINA TRIUNGUIS).

PMID- 28568049
TI  - A NEO-DARWINIAN COMMENTARY ON MACROEVOLUTION.

PMID- 28568050
TI  - PHENOTYPIC, GENETIC, AND ENVIRONMENTAL MORPHOLOGICAL INTEGRATION IN THE CRANIUM.

PMID- 28568051
TI  - DIPLOID-TETRAPLOID-DIHAPLOID CYCLES AND THE EVOLUTION OF PANICUM MAXIMUM JACQ.

PMID- 28568052
TI  - SEX RATIOS IN THE EASTERN BLUEBIRD.

PMID- 28568054
TI  - CYTOGENETICS OF THE PARTHENOGENETIC GRASSHOPPER WARRAMABA (FORMERLY MORABA) VIRGO
      AND ITS BISEXUAL RELATIVES. V. INTERACTION OF W. VIRGO AND A BISEXUAL SPECIES IN
      GEOGRAPHIC CONTACT.

PMID- 28568055
TI  - COMPETITIVE HIERARCHIES IN LABORATORY DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28568053
TI  - Low vitamin B12 increases risk of gastric cancer: A prospective study of one
      carbon metabolism nutrients and risk of upper gastrointestinal tract cancer.
AB  - Previous studies have found associations between one-carbon metabolism nutrients
      and risk of several cancers, but little is known regarding upper gastrointestinal
      tract (UGI) cancer. We analyzed prediagnostic serum concentrations of several one
      carbon metabolism nutrients (vitamin B12, folate, vitamin B6, riboflavin and
      homocysteine) in a nested case-control study within the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta
      Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study of male smokers, which was undertaken in
      Finland between 1985 and 1988. We conducted a nested case-control study including
      127 noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGA), 41 esophagogastric junctional
      adenocarcinoma and 60 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma incident cases
      identified within ATBC. Controls were matched to cases on age, date of serum
      collection and follow-up time. One-carbon nutrient concentrations were measured
      in fasting serum samples collected at baseline (up to 17 years prior to cancer
      diagnosis). Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using
      conditional logistic regression. Lower prediagnostic vitamin B12 concentrations
      at baseline were associated with a 5.8-fold increased risk of NCGA (95% CI = 2.7
      12.6 for lowest compared to highest quartile, p-trend <0.001). This association
      remained in participants who developed cancer more than 10 years after blood
      collection, and after restricting the analysis to participants with clinically
      normal serum vitamin B12 (>300 pmol/L). In contrast, pepsinogen I, a known
      serologic marker of gastric atrophy, was not associated with NCGA in this
      population. As vitamin B12 absorption requires intact gastric mucosa to produce
      acid and intrinsic factor, our findings suggest vitamin B12 as a possible
      serologic marker for the atrophic gastritis that precedes NCGA, one more strongly
      associated with subsequent NCGA than pepsinogen.

PMID- 28568057
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE STING APPARATUS IN THE MYRMICINE ANTS.

PMID- 28568056
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL AND CYTOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION AMONG CICHLID FISHES OF THE SEA OF
      GALILEE.

PMID- 28568058
TI  - SELF-FERTILIZATION: ADVANTAGEOUS OR DELETERIOUS?

PMID- 28568059
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA. V. CHROMOSOMAL AND ALLOZYMIC DIVERSITY
      IN DROSOPHILA SILVESTRIS AND ITS HOMOSEQUENTIAL SPECIES.

PMID- 28568060
TI  - A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE
      GRASSHOPPER ARPHIA CONSPERSA.

PMID- 28568061
TI  - THE RELATION OF GENETIC STRUCTURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE: GAMMARUS MINUS IN A
      KARST AREA.

PMID- 28568062
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN CALOPTERYX (ODONATA: CALOPTERYGIDAE).

PMID- 28568063
TI  - EFFECTIVE DEME SIZES DURING LONG-TERM EVOLUTION ESTIMATED FROM RATES OF
      CHROMOSOMAL REARRANGEMENT.

PMID- 28568064
TI  - FLORAL DISPLAY IN PHLOX AND GERANIUM: ADAPTIVE ASPECTS.

PMID- 28568065
TI  - BEHAVIORAL AND BIOCHEMICAL EVIDENCE FOR SPECIES DISTINCTIVENESS IN THE FIDDLER
      CRABS, UCA SPECIOSA AND U. SPINIZARPA.

PMID- 28568067
TI  - MOMENTARILY EXCESSIVE CONSTRUCTION AS THE BASIS FOR PROTOADAPTATION.

PMID- 28568068
TI  - CLONAL DIVERSITY IN THE UNISEXUAL FISH POECILIOPSIS MONACHA-LUCIDA : A TISSUE
      GRAFT ANALYSIS.

PMID- 28568066
TI  - STUDIES ON FOOD SIZE AS A SELECTION PRESSURE ON BODY SIZE. I. EFFECTS OF FOOD
      SIZE ON FITNESS OF TWO SIZE STRAINS OF ACHETA DOMESTICUS L.

PMID- 28568069
TI  - MATING PATTERNS AND SPECIATION IN THE FAIRY SHRIMP GENUS STREPTOCEPHALUS.

PMID- 28568070
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution.

PMID- 28568071
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF CHROMOSOMAL HOMOLOGY IN FOUR GENERA OF STENODERMINE
      BATS (PHYLLOSTOMATIDAE: CHIROPTERA).

PMID- 28568072
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE OF FRESHWATER FISHES I. GENETIC VARIATION OF BLUEGILL
      (LEPOMIS MACROCHIRUS) POPULATIONS IN MAN-MADE RESERVOIRS.

PMID- 28568073
TI  - RESISTANCE OF THE SIBLING SPECIES DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND DROSOPHILA SIMULANS
      TO HIGH TEMPERATURES IN RELATION TO HUMIDITY: EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS.

PMID- 28568074
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF PARENTAL CARE IN THE COMMON GRACKLE, QUISCALUS QUISCULA
      L.

PMID- 28568075
TI  - THE DROSOPHILA OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. I. COLONIZATION AFTER A FIRE.

PMID- 28568076
TI  - A Statistical Method for Reassociating Human Tali and Calcanei from a Commingled
      Context.
AB  - In a commingled context, assessing that a talus and a calcaneus correspond to the
      same individual could become a primary step for accurately sorting human remains.
      For this purpose, the lengths and widths of the trochlea, posterior calcaneal
      articular surface, and posterior talar articular surface were measured in 197
      individuals (105 males, 92 females) from the Athens Collection. A total of 12
      highly accurate equations for reassociating tali and calcanei were developed,
      using simple and multiple linear regression analysis and they were found to be
      suitable for sorting commingled human remains. Bilateral asymmetry and sex did
      not have an effect on the accuracy of the method.

PMID- 28568077
TI  - Letter to the editor: Reply to Hardy & Buckley: Earliest evidence of bitumen from
      Homo sp. teeth is from El Sidro'n.

PMID- 28568078
TI  - PRE-ADAPTATION OF YORKSHIRE FOG, HOLCUS LANATUS L. (POACEAE) TO ARSENATE
      TOLERANCE.

PMID- 28568079
TI  - ATTERNS AND LEVELS OF POLLEN-MEDIATED GENE FLOW IN LATHYRUS LATIFOLIUS.
AB  - While gene flow can be an important force in evolution, few direct measures are
      available in the plant literature. Descriptions of gene movement within
      populations are more common, but have primarily involved crop species and
      artificially constructed populations. In this study, fractional paternity
      procedures were used to examine patterns of pollen movement over two years within
      two sites of Lathyrus latifolius, a bumblebee-pollinated, self-compatible
      perennial legume. Study sites consisted of 15 to 23 semi-discrete flowering
      patches that contained 1 to 29 distinct genotypes. Distributions of gene movement
      distances within the study sites differed significantly from that expected under
      random mating. Mean gene movement was 14 m. On average, 17.6% (range = 0-52%) of
      matings occurred within a flowering patch. Outcrossing rates, estimated from
      paternity analysis, ranged from 0.87 to 0.90 across sites and years. Significant
      heterogeneity occurred among maternal individuals with respect to outcrossing and
      immigration rates, indicating that mating patterns were idiosyncratic to each
      plant. Apparent rates of pollen flow into the sites ranged from 5 to 15%, while
      estimates of total pollen flow into sites ranged from 16 to 46%. Significant
      increases in immigration rates between years were associated with decreases in
      the density of flowering plants.

PMID- 28568080
TI  - REVERSIBILITY IN EVOLUTION: A MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD APPROACH TO CHARACTER GAIN/LOSS
      BIAS IN PHYLOGENIES.
AB  - Statistical methods are used to test the hypothesis that rate of gain is equal to
      rate of loss for a single character on a cladogram. Ancestral character states
      are used as input for maximum likelihood (ML) rate estimation. Two markovian
      models of character evolution are considered: one has equality of rate across
      branches; the other permits variation in rate according to predetermined weights
      for branches. ML estimates are derived for both models, and their properties in
      large and small trees are investigated. Bias and error are significant in small
      trees. Error is greatest for characters in which rate of gain is low, and is
      greater for the loss estimate than for the gain estimate. Likelihood ratio (LR)
      tests of the null hypothesis of equality of gain/loss rate are derived, and their
      properties investigated. The distribution of -2 log LR is close to chi2 with 1 df
      with as few as 32 taxa. However, the power of the test is low unless the
      character is evolving rapidly. Methods for increasing power are examined,
      including selection of rapidly evolving subsets of characters, and pooling across
      characters. A goodness of fit test is presented to determine if pooling is
      justified. An example using published restriction site data on the Asteraceae
      demonstrates significant deviation from the null model in the direction predicted
      on the basis of the molecular biology of restriction enzyme site recognition, but
      only for one large subset of the data in which pooling is warranted.

PMID- 28568081
TI  - THE "GENERAL VIGOR" PROBLEM: CAN ANTAGONISTIC PLEIOTROPY BE DETECTED WHEN GENETIC
      COVARIANCES ARE POSITIVE?

PMID- 28568082
TI  - THE DEVELOPMENTAL ROLE OF THE EXTRACELLULAR MATRIX SUGGESTS A MONOPHYLETIC ORIGIN
      OF THE KINGDOM ANIMALIA.
AB  - The fundamental events of early development are similar in all animals, including
      sponges. Recent developments in the molecular biology of the extracellular matrix
      strongly suggest that the molecular mechanisms behind these events are also
      similar among all animals. I propose that the complex (collagen, proteoglycan,
      adhesive glycoprotein, and integrin) system that mediates cell motility and
      transitions between epithelial and motile cell types is central to
      multicellularity in animals. I further propose that the extracellular matrix is a
      deep rooted homology that unites the kingdom Animalia into a monophyletic group
      of multicellular organisms.

PMID- 28568083
TI  - HERITABILITY OF HOST PLANT RESISTANCE TO HERBIVORY CHANGES WITH GALLMIDGE DENSITY
      DURING AN OUTBREAK ON WILLOW.

PMID- 28568084
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE II. THERMAL NICHES OF EXPERIMENTAL LINES
      OF ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - Groups of replicated lines of the bacterium Escherichia coli were propagated for
      2,000 generations at constant 32, 37, or 42 degrees C, or in an environment that
      alternated between 32 and 42 degrees C. Here, we examine the performance of each
      group across a temperature range of 12-44 degrees C measuring the temperatures
      over which each line can maintain itself in serial dilution culture (the thermal
      niche). Thermal niche was not affected by selection history: average lower and
      upper limits remained about 19 and 42 degrees C for all groups. In addition, no
      significant differences among groups were observed in rate of extinction at more
      extreme temperatures. Within the thermal niche, we measured the mean fitness of
      the evolved groups relative to their common ancestor. Increases in mean fitness
      were temperature specific, with the largest increase for each group occurring
      near its selected temperature. Thus, the temperature at which mean fitness
      relative to the ancestor was greatest (the thermal optimum) diverged by about 10
      degrees C for the groups selected at constant 32 degrees C versus constant 42
      degrees C. Tradeoffs in relative fitness (decrements relative to the ancestor
      elsewhere within the thermal niche) did not necessarily accompany fitness
      improvements, although tradeoffs were observed for a few of the lines. We
      conclude that adaptation in this system was quite temperature specific, but
      substantial divergence among groups in thermal optima had little effect on the
      limits of their thermal niches and did not necessarily involve tradeoffs in
      fitness at other temperatures.

PMID- 28568085
TI  - THE USEFULNESS OF BEHAVIOR FOR PHYLOGENY ESTIMATION: LEVELS OF HOMOPLASY IN
      BEHAVIORAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
AB  - It is widely believed that behavior is more evolutionarily labile and/or more
      difficult to characterize than morphology, and thus that behavioral characters
      are not as useful as morphological characters for estimating phylogenetic
      relationships. To examine the relative utility of behavior and morphology for
      estimating phylogeny, we compared levels of homoplasy for morphological and
      behavioral characters that have been used in systematic studies. In an analysis
      of 22 data sets that contained both morphological and behavioral characters we
      found no significant difference between mean consistency indices (CIs, which
      measure homoplasy) within data sets for the two types of characters. In a second
      analysis we compared overall CIs for 8 data sets comprised entirely of behavioral
      characters with overall CIs for 32 morphological data sets and found no
      significant difference between the two types of data sets. For both analyses, 95%
      confidence limits on the difference between the two types of characters indicate
      that, even if given the benefit of the doubt, morphological characters could not
      have substantially higher mean CIs than behavioral characters. These results do
      not support the idea that behavioral characters are less useful than
      morphological characters for the estimation of phylogeny.

PMID- 28568086
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SIZE AND PHENOLOGY OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN
      CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA.
AB  - Despite numerous adaptive scenarios concerning the evolution of plant life
      history phenologies few studies have examined the heritable basis for and genetic
      correlations among these phenologies. Documentation of genetic variation for and
      covariation among reproductive phenologies is important because it is this
      variation/covariation that will determine the potential for response to
      evolutionary forces. To address this problem, I conducted a breeding experiment
      to determine narrow-sense heritabilities for and genetic correlations among the
      phenologies of life-history events and plant size in Chamaecristafasciculata, a
      temperate summer annual plant species. Paternal families showed no evidence of
      heritable variation for two estimates of plant size, six measures of reproductive
      phenology or two fitness components. Similarly, paternal estimates of genetic
      correlations among these traits were low or zero. In contrast, maternal estimates
      of heritability suggested the influence of maternal parent on one estimate of
      plant size and four phenological traits. Likewise, maternal effects influenced
      maternal estimates of genetic correlations. These maternal effects can arise from
      three sources: endosperm nuclear, cytoplasmic genetic and/or maternal phenotypic.
      The degree to which the phenology of one life-history trait acts as a constraint
      on the evolution of other phenological traits depends on the source of the
      maternal influence in this species.

PMID- 28568087
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL AVOIDANCE OF CORAL SNAKE BANDED PATTERNS BY FREE-RANGING AVIAN
      PREDATORS IN COSTA RICA.
AB  - Empirical studies of mimicry have rarely been conducted under natural conditions.
      Field investigations of some lepidopteran systems have provided a bridge between
      experiments examining artificial situations and the mimicry process in nature,
      but these systems do not include all types of mimicry. The presence of dangerous
      or deadly models is thought to alter the usual rules for mimicry complexes. In
      particular, a deadly model is expected to protect a wide variety of mimics.
      Avoidance of different types of mimics should vary according to how closely they
      resemble the model. Coral snake mimicry complexes in the neotropics may provide
      natural systems in which these ideas can be examined, but there is no direct
      evidence that the patterns of venomous coral snakes or potential mimics are
      avoided in the wild. Plasticine replicas of snakes were used to assess the
      frequency of avian predation attempts as a function of color pattern. Avian
      predators left identifiable marks on the replicas, the position of which
      indicated that replicas were perceived as potentially dangerous prey items by
      birds. The number of attacks on unmarked brown replicas was greater than that on
      tricolor coral snake banded replicas. This result was true whether replicas were
      placed on natural or plain white backgrounds, suggesting that coral snake banded
      patterns function aposematically. In a separate experiment, replicas representing
      all six patterns of proposed coral mimics at the study site were attacked less
      often than unmarked brown replicas. Within these six banded patterns, some were
      attacked significantly more often than others. This study provides direct field
      evidence that coral snake banded patterns are avoided by free-ranging avian
      predators and supports theoretical predictions about mimicry systems involving
      deadly models.

PMID- 28568088
TI  - A MODEL OF INDUCIBLE DEFENSE.

PMID- 28568089
TI  - ORIGINS OF GENOTYPIC VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN DANDELIONS INFERRED FROM
      RIBOSOMAL DNA AND CHLOROPLAST DNA RESTRICTION ENZYME ANALYSIS.
AB  - Restriction enzyme analysis of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA)
      is used to assess the relative contribution of hybridization and mutation as
      sources of genotypic variation in weedy asexual dandelions, with focus on the
      dandelion flora of North America. Of 318 North American dandelions surveyed, 145
      rDNA-cpDNA clones are detected. The combined rDNA-cpDNA genotypes show that most
      of the polymorphic rDNA and cpDNA restriction sites or lengths in these plants
      are also present in weedy asexual dandelions collected from natural populations
      in Europe and in asexual and diploid taxa (microspecies) chosen to represent
      diverse Eurasian members of the genus. However, of 222 combined rDNA-cpDNA
      genotypes found in 427 asexual plants surveyed, only 9 genotypes are found in
      both North American and Eurasian dandelions. Two rDNA and three cpDNA characters
      are unique to individual plants in North America and are consistent with
      mutational origins of genotypic variation in asexual lineages. But the array of
      genotypic diversity, characterized by different combinations of the rDNA and
      cpDNA characters, show that multiple hybridization events are a more important
      source of genotypic variation than mutation in the asexual polyploids. The rDNA
      and cpDNA data also indicate polyphyletic origin of several asexual Taraxacum
      taxa.

PMID- 28568090
TI  - PEAK SHIFTS PRODUCED BY CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION.
AB  - Traits may evolve both as a consequence of direct selection and also as a
      correlated response to selection on other traits. While correlated response may
      be important for both the production of evolutionary novelty and in the build-up
      of complex characters, its potential role in peak shifts has been neglected
      empirically and theoretically. We use a quantitative genetic model to investigate
      the conditions under which a character, Y, which has two alternative optima, can
      be dragged from one optimum to the other as a correlated response to selection on
      a second character, X. High genetic correlations between the two characters make
      the transition, or peak shift, easier, as does weak selection tending to restore
      Y to the optimum from which it is being dragged. When selection on Y is very
      weak, the conditions for a peak shift depend only on the location of the new
      optimum for X and are independent of the strength of selection moving it there.
      Thus, if the "adaptive valley" for Y is very shallow, little reduction in mean
      fitness is needed to produce a shift. If the selection acts strongly to keep Y at
      its current optimum, very intense directional selection on X, associated with a
      dramatic drop in mean fitness, is required for a peak shift. When strong
      selection is required, the conditions for peak shifts driven by correlated
      response might occur rarely, but still with sufficient frequency on a geological
      timescale to be evolutionarily important.

PMID- 28568091
TI  - EXAMINATION OF POPULATION STRUCTURE IN RED-COCKADED WOODPECKERS USING DNA
      PROFILES.
AB  - The degree to which DNA similarity is related to kinship and population structure
      in natural populations was investigated for a small population of cooperatively
      breeding Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) in the western Piedmont
      region of South Carolina. An independent pedigree was established from records of
      color-banded individuals. Results of DNA profiles were then examined relative to
      this pedigree. DNA similarity among unrelated woodpeckers averaged 0.55 +/- 0.01
      (SE). The mean number of DNA bands scored and similarity did not significantly
      differ between founders and the current population. Examination of parentage in
      10 families indicated that multiple paternity did not occur when band by band
      comparisons or similarity values were compared among parents, helpers, and
      offspring. Thus, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were monogamous in this population. DNA
      similarity among all individuals ranged from 0.32-0.78. Distribution of these
      similarity values by kinship resulted in some overlap with other kin values.
      Therefore, specific similarity values could not be assigned a kinship value
      without knowledge of the pedigree. However, least-squares linear regression
      indicated that similarity was significantly related to kinship (P < 0.05). These
      results indicate that use of DNA profiles may be important in quantifying
      population structure, however, they must be used in conjunction with a known
      pedigree before any assessment of kinship among individuals is made. Band by band
      comparisons remain a viable technique for examination of parentage when all
      putative parents have been sampled.

PMID- 28568092
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF HOST-PLANT GENOTYPE, HYBRIDIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENT ON GALL-APHID
      ATTACK AND SURVIVAL IN COTTONWOOD: THE IMPORTANCE OF GENETIC STUDIES AND THE
      UTILITY OF RFLPS.
AB  - Using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) we show how host-plant
      genotype and hybridization in cotton wood, Populus sp., affects the attack and
      survival of the gall-forming aphid, Pemphigus betae. Fremont cottonwoods, hybrid
      ***F1's and backcross ***1's were found to be highly resistant, while backcross
      2's, 3's, 4's and pure narrowleafs ranged from highly resistant to highly
      susceptible with only a few trees being highly resistant. Results from our
      genetic analysis also suggest that resistance is likely polygenic, not the result
      of single gene resistance. In addition, genetic analysis showed that studies
      based upon leaf morphology alone give an inaccurate assessment of host-plant
      genotype ***and the extent of hybridization, altering previous views of the
      relationship between plant hybridization and pest attack. Previous studies
      assumed that narrowleafs were more resistant than backcross genotypes based upon
      comparisons of overall levels of resistance between the hybrid zone and the
      "pure" narrowleaf zone. Results from RFLP analyses, however, show that there are
      no significant differences in the levels of resistance between backcross
      genotypes (BC2's-4's) and pure narrowleafs. Furthermore, results show that the
      "pure" narrowleaf zone is in fact a mixture of pure and backcross genotypes,
      extending the zone of introgression previously reported. Experiments in
      combination with RFLP analyses suggest that resistance traits are differentially
      expressed along an environmental gradient partially explaining the previously
      reported differences in resistance between these two regions. In light of our
      results it is clear that genetic studies will be necessary to discern the true
      relationship between hybridization and pest resistance. Until such studies are
      widely conducted generalizations regarding the effects of hybridization on the
      structure and dynamics of pest populations will be premature at best.

PMID- 28568093
TI  - DIRECT AND INDIRECT ESTIMATES OF NEIGHBORHOOD AND EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE IN A
      TROPICAL PALM, ASTROCARYUM MEXICANUM.
AB  - To estimate the relative importance of genetic drift, the effective population
      size ***(Ne ) can be used. Here we present estimates of the effective population
      size and related measures in Astrocaryum mexicanum, a tropical palm from Los
      Tuxtlas rain forest, Veracruz, Mexico. Seed and pollen dispersal were measured.
      Seeds are primarily dispersed by gravity and secondarily dispersed by small
      mammals. Mean primary and secondary dispersal distances for seeds were found to
      be small (0.78 m and 2.35 m, respectively). A. mexicanum is beetle pollinated and
      pollen movements were measured by different methods: a) using fluorescent dyes,
      b) as the minimum distance between active female and male inflorescences, and c)
      using rare allozyme alleles as genetic markers. All three estimates of pollen
      dispersal were similar, with a mean of approximately 20 m. Using the seed and
      pollen dispersal data, the genetic neighborhood area (A) was estimated to be
      2,551 m2 . To obtain the effective population size, three different overlapping
      generation methods were used to estimate an effective density with demographic
      data from six permanent plots. The effective density ranged from 0.040 to 0.351
      individuals per m2 . The product of effective density and neighborhood area
      yields a direct estimate of the neighborhood effective population size (Nb ). Nb
      ranged from 102 to 895 individuals. Indirect estimates of population size and
      migration rate (Nm) were obtained using Fst for five different allozymic loci for
      both adults and seeds. We obtained a range of Nm from 1.2 to 19.7 in adults and a
      range of Nm from 4.0 to 82.6 for seeds. We discuss possible causes of the smaller
      indirect estimates of Nm relative to the direct and compare our estimates with
      values from other plant populations. Gene dispersal distances, neighborhood size,
      and effective population size in A. mexicanum are relatively high, suggesting
      that natural selection, rather than genetic drift, may play a dominant role in
      patterning the genetic variation in this tropical palm.

PMID- 28568094
TI  - RESPONSES AND CORRELATED RESPONSES TO ARTIFICIAL SELECTION ON THORAX LENGTH IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Two sets of four replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster were selected for
      large and small thorax with controls. F, progeny of crosses between the selected
      lines within each size category showed (a) a reduction in preadult viability in
      large lines relative to control and small lines when they were cultured at medium
      or high density in competition with a standard mutant marked competitor stock,
      and (b) an increase in larval development time in large lines relative to control
      and small lines. Natural selection for increased body size in adults may
      therefore be opposed by adverse effects on larval viability. The results are
      discussed in terms of the developmental mechanisms probably responsible for the
      change in body size. The preadult survival of the large and control lines was
      measured at three different temperatures, and there was no evidence for a
      significant interaction between size and temperature. The observed evolutionary
      increase in body size in response to reduced temperature in Drosophila must
      therefore involve either different genes from those subject to selection for size
      at a single temperature, or a fitness component other than preadult survival.
      There was no significant asymmetry in response to selection, and thorax length
      showed heterosis in crosses between the selected lines.

PMID- 28568095
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN BODY SIZES AND SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN EUROPEAN GRASS
      SNAKES.

PMID- 28568096
TI  - OUTCROSSING RATE AND INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN TWO ANNUAL MONOECIOUS HERBS,
      BEGONIA HIRSUTA AND B. SEMIOVATA.
AB  - Most models of mating-system evolution predict inbreeding depression to be low in
      inbred populations due to the purging of deleterious recessive alleles. This
      paper presents estimates of outcrossing rates and inbreeding depression for two
      highly selfing, monoecious annuals Begonia hirsuta and B. semiovata. Outcrossing
      rates were estimated using isozyme polymorphisms, and the magnitude of inbreeding
      depression was quantified by growing progeny in the greenhouse produced through
      controlled selfing and outcrossing. The estimated single-locus outcrossing rate
      was 0.03 +/- 0.01 (SE) for B. hirsuta and 0.05 +/- 0.02 for B. semiovata. In both
      species, the seed production of selfed flowers was on average 12% lower than that
      of outcrossed flowers (B. hirsuta P = 0.07, B. semiovata P < 0.05, mixed model
      ANOVAs). There was no significant effect of crosstype on germination rate or
      survival, but selfed offspring had a lower dry mass than outcrossed offspring 18
      weeks after planting in both species (on average 18% lower in B. hirsuta and 31%
      lower in B. semiovata). Plants that were the products of selfing began flowering
      later than plants produced through outcrossing in B. semiovata, but not in B.
      hirsuta. The effects of crosstype on seed production (B. semiovata), days to
      first flower and offspring dry mass (both species) varied among maternal parents,
      as indicated by significant crosstype x maternal parent interactions for these
      characters. Both species showed significant inbreeding depression for total
      fitness (estimated as the product of seed production, germination rate, survival
      and dry mass at 18 weeks). In B. hirsuta, the average total inbreeding depression
      was 22% (range -57%-98%; N = 23 maternal parents), and in B. semiovata, it was
      42% (-11%-84%; N = 21). This study demonstrates that highly selfing populations
      can harbor substantial inbreeding depression. Our findings are consistent with
      the hypothesis that a high mutation rate to mildly deleterious alleles
      contributes to the maintenance of inbreeding depression in selfing populations.

PMID- 28568097
TI  - ISOLATION BY DISTANCE IN EQUILIBRIUM AND NON-EQUILIBRIUM POPULATIONS.
AB  - It is shown that for allele frequency data a useful measure of the extent of gene
      flow between a pair of populations is M?=(1/FST-1)/4, which is the estimated
      level of gene flow in an island model at equilibrium. For DNA sequence data, the
      same formula can be used if FST is replaced by NST . In a population with
      restricted dispersal, analytic theory shows that there is a simple relationship
      between M and geographic distance in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium
      populations and that this relationship is approximately independent of mutation
      rate when the mutation rate is small. Simulation results show that with
      reasonable sample sizes, isolation by distance can indeed be detected and that,
      at least in some cases, non-equilibrium patterns can be distinguished. This
      approach to analyzing isolation by distance is used for two allozyme data sets,
      one from gulls and one from pocket gophers.

PMID- 28568098
TI  - FLIGHT CAPABILITIES IN ARCHAEOPTERYX.

PMID- 28568099
TI  - DIRECTIONAL AND STABILIZING DENSITY-DEPENDENT NATURAL SELECTION FOR PUPATION
      HEIGHT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Six populations of Drosophila melanogaster have been kept at extreme population
      densities, three high and three low, for 175 generations. Larvae from the high
      density populations pupate 50%-100% higher than larvae from the low density
      populations. At high larval test densities there is both a directional and a
      stabilizing component to selection, with viabilities ranging from 0.14 to 0.992,
      depending on the choice of pupation site. The directional component is stronger
      on the populations which have evolved at low densities, while the stabilizing
      component is stronger on the populations which have evolved at high densities.
      There is no indication that the evolution of this trait, in response to density,
      has altered its phenotypic plasticity.

PMID- 28568100
TI  - PHYLOGENY AND THE REVERSIBILITY OF PARASITISM.

PMID- 28568101
TI  - ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA NECTAR PRODUCTION: OBSERVATION AND
      EXPERIMENT IN THE FIELD.
AB  - Production of floral nectar is generally thought to be an adaptation that
      increases plant fitness by altering pollinator behavior, and therefore
      pollination success. To test this hypothesis, I investigated the effects of
      floral nectar production rate on pollination success of the hermaphroditic plant
      Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae). Success through male function (estimated by
      the export of fluorescent dyes) was significantly greater for plants with
      naturally high nectar production rates than for nearby plants with low nectar
      production rates, whereas success through female function (receipt of fluorescent
      dye) was unrelated to nectar production rate. Experimental addition of artificial
      nectar also produced a significant increase in male function success and no
      increase in several estimates of female function success. Observations confirmed
      that hummingbirds probed a larger proportion of flowers on plants that received
      supplemental nectar, as they do in response to natural variation in nectar
      production. The concordance of results across these observational and
      experimental studies indicates that nectar production acts primarily to increase
      pollination success through male function for this species.

PMID- 28568103
TI  - LARVAL DISPERSAL AND LOCAL ADAPTATION IN ACORN BARNACLES.

PMID- 28568102
TI  - SPECIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN CHICKADEES: I. PATTERNS OF mtDNA GENETIC DIVERGENCE.
AB  - We surveyed mitochondrial DNA haplotype divergence within and between populations
      of six species of North American chickadees (Parus, Subgenus Poecile) with the
      following results. (1) Genotype diversities (range 0.3 to 0.7) and low nucleotide
      diversities (range 3 to 27 * 10-4 ) within populations were typical of known
      vertebrates. (2) The two widespread, northern species (atricapillus and
      hudsonicus) exhibit little mtDNA genetic differentiation throughout their
      previously glaciated continental distributions, most likely because of recent,
      postglacial range expansions. (3) Newfoundland populations of atricapillus and
      maritime province (Newfoundland plus Nova Scotia) populations of hudsonicus have
      distinct mtDNA haplotypes which differ from continental haplotypes by single
      restriction site changes. (4) Haplotypes of the southeastern U.S. species P.
      carolinensis divide into eastern and western sets which have diverged by three
      percent. This heretofore unrecognized, divided population structure may
      correspond to the Tombigbee River/ Mobile Bay disjunction known in some other
      vertebrate taxa. (5) Allopatric populations of the southwestern species sclateri
      and gambeli exhibit divergences of one and three percent respectively. (6)
      Prevailing interspecific divergence distances of three to seven percent suggest
      speciation early in the Pleistocene rather than during late (e.g., Wisconsin)
      glaciations. (7) Phylogenetic analyses suggest that North American taxa include
      two clades, hudsonicus-rufescens-sclateri versus carolinensis-atricapillus
      gambeli and that carolinensis and atricapillus are not sister species.

PMID- 28568104
TI  - PATTERNS OF RUST INFECTION AS A FUNCTION OF HOST GENETIC DIVERSITY AND HOST
      DENSITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE APOMICTIC CRUCIFER, ARABIS HOLBOELLII.
AB  - It is often assumed that genetic diversity contributes to reduced disease
      incidence in natural plant populations. However, little is known about the
      genetic structure of natural populations affected by disease. Here I present data
      from three apomictic (asexual) populations of Arabis holboellii infected by the
      rusts Puccinia monoica and P. thlaspeos. An average of 300 host individuals per
      population were genotyped (using seven variable allozyme loci) and scored for
      disease presence. Arabis holboellii populations are genetically diverse; the
      number of clones detected per population ranged from 6 to 27. There was
      substantial variation in frequency of host clones within and among sites, and
      significant variation among clones in susceptibility to the different rusts.
      Contrary to predictions based on frequency-dependent selection theory there was
      not a consistent positive relationship between clone frequency and disease
      incidence within any of the populations (Spearman's r = -0.096, P > 0.5). In
      addition, clonally diverse populations did not necessarily have decreased disease
      incidence. The population with the lowest overall (both pathogens combined)
      disease incidence (7.5 +/- 1.9%) had the smallest number of clones (6), the
      lowest spatial variability, and the highest Arabis density. By comparison,
      another population had 22 clones, high spatial variability, low Arabis density
      and significantly more disease overall (16.8 +/- 2.7%). Although this study does
      not eliminate the possibility of frequency-dependent pathogen attack in these
      populations, the results suggest that it is likely to be weak or intermittent.

PMID- 28568105
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION AND THE TOPOLOGY OF LARGE PHYLOGENIES.
AB  - The idea that some organisms possess adaptive features that make them more likely
      to speciate and/or less likely to go extinct than closely related groups,
      suggests that large phylogenetic trees should be unbalanced (more species should
      occur in the group possessing the adaptive features than in the sister group
      lacking such features). Several methods have been used to document this type of
      adaptive radiation. One problem with these attempts is that evolutionary
      biologists may overlook balanced phylogenies while focusing on a few impressively
      unbalanced ones. To overcome this potential bias, we sampled published large
      phylogenies without regard to tree shape. These were used to test whether or not
      such trees are consistently unbalanced. We used recently developed null models to
      demonstrate that the shapes of large phylogenetic trees: 1) are similar among
      angiosperms, insects, and tetrapods; 2) differ from those expected due to random
      selection of a phylogeny from the pool of all trees of similar size; and 3) are
      significantly more unbalanced than expected if species diverge at random,
      therefore, conforming to one prediction of adaptive radiation. This represents an
      important first step in documenting whether adaptive radiation has been a general
      feature of evolution.

PMID- 28568106
TI  - A PRODUCT OF DISCRIMINATIVE LEARNING MAY LEAD TO FEMALE PREFERENCES FOR ELABORATE
      MALES.

PMID- 28568107
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE AND LARVAL PERFORMANCE
      ON TWO HOSTS IN THE BRUCHID BEETLE, CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS.
AB  - The presence of positive genetic correlations between oviposition or feeding
      preference for hosts, and performance on those hosts, is of fundamental
      importance to models of host race formation, sympatric speciation, and the
      maintenance of genetic variation within phytophagous insect populations. In this
      paper, I estimate the amount of genetic variation in oviposition preference and
      larval performance present in two California populations of a cosmopolitan pest
      of stored legumes, Callosobruchus maculatus (Bruchidae: Coleoptera), and examine
      whether positive genetic correlations exist between preference and performance.
      High levels of genetic variation in both preference and performance were detected
      in one population (Bay Area population, h2 = 0.73 for oviposition preference),
      but not in another population (Davis population). A second estimate of the amount
      of genetic variation for oviposition preference in the Bay Area population, after
      three generations of laboratory rearing, supports the hypothesis that the absence
      of significantly nonzero heritabilities in the Davis population is probably due
      to the three generations of laboratory rearing prior to the start of the
      experiment. No positive genetic correlations were detected between preference and
      any performance character measured. Data are also presented on the genetic
      correlations between performance on azuki (Vigna angularis) and cowpea (Vigna
      unguiculata). Genetic correlations were found to be positive for all characters
      in both populations of C. maculatus (range 0.132 to 0.542).

PMID- 28568108
TI  - HOST PREFERENCE AND ALLOZYME DIFFERENTIATION IN SHOOT GALLING SAWFLY, EUURA ATRA.

PMID- 28568109
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL SELECTION IN RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE MATERNAL
      PARENT IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Copper tolerance is expressed in the diploid sporophyte as well as the
      microgametophyte of Mimulus guttatus. Previous studies, based on reproductive
      output, suggested that selection for copper tolerance could occur within the
      pistil. The objective of this study was to determine if selection within the
      pistil can increase sporophytic tolerance to copper and to determine whether this
      selection occurs pre- or postzygotically. Mixtures of pollen from copper tolerant
      or sensitive sources or from plants heterozygous for tolerance to copper were
      applied at two intensities to plants cloned and grown in control or copper
      supplemented solutions. The proportion of copper tolerant progeny showed a small,
      7%, but significant increase when pollen recipients were grown with added copper.
      Comparisons of the numbers of tolerant progeny, as well as various components of
      reproduction, following light and heavy pollinations suggested that
      microgametophytic selection was unlikely to account for this increase. However,
      the 8 to 10% decrease in the seed/zygote ratio, compared to control values, was
      sufficient to account for the difference in proportion of copper tolerant progeny
      from control and copper treated plants. Thus, it appeared likely that selection
      for copper tolerance could occur within the pistil, and that much of this
      selection occurred postzygotically through the early failure of developing seeds.

PMID- 28568110
TI  - PLASTIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN REPRODUCTIVE AND VEGETATIVE MASS IN SOLIDAGO
      ALTISSIMA.
AB  - To test several predictions of a model of linear, size-dependent reproductive
      output in plants, we analyzed the relationship between shoot vegetative (v) and
      reproductive (r) mass in five experiments on Solidago altissima from an invading
      population in Switzerland. There was large environmentally-induced and genetic
      variation in r and v. A large amount of variation in r could be explained by
      variation in v, using the simple linear model. There was a minimum size for
      sexual reproduction, and above this size, shoots devoted a relatively constant
      proportion (about one third) of their biomass to reproductive structures. We
      detected significant genetic variation for both the minimum size and the slope of
      the r-v relationship, but there was no evidence for an hypothesized trade-off
      between minimum size and slope. There was significant genotype-environment
      interaction for the slope of the r-v relationship. There were also developmental
      effects on the r-v relationship: plants grown from seeds behaved differently than
      those of the same genotype grown from rhizomes.

PMID- 28568111
TI  - A follow-up on desiderosmia (olfactory craving), a novel symptom associated with
      iron deficiency anemia.

PMID- 28568112
TI  - Factors associated with early extubation after superior cavopulmonary connection:
      analysis from single ventricle reconstruction trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the landscape of early extubation, and identify factors
      associated with early extubation (<= 24 h) after superior cavopulmonary
      connection (stage 2 operation) among children with single ventricle anatomy.
      METHODS: Patients undergoing stage 2 operation after Norwood operation from the
      Pediatric Heart Network Single Ventricle Reconstruction (SVR) trial public-use
      dataset were included. Elastic net regularized logistic regression models were
      fitted to evaluate the factors associated with early extubation after stage 2
      operation. RESULTS: In total, 390 patients from 15 North American centers
      qualified for inclusion. Of these, 42 patients (10.8%) were extubated in
      operating room, 151 patients (38.7%) were extubated outside the operating room
      within the first 24 h after stage 2 operation, and the remaining 197 patients
      (50.5%) required mechanical ventilation for > 24 h. In adjusted models, factors
      associated with early extubation after stage 2 operation were elective timing of
      stage 2 operation, lower incidence of post-Norwood complications, shorter CPB
      duration for stage 2 operation, and no cardiac catheterization after Stage 2
      operation. We also performed multiple other alternative analyses to identify
      factors associated with early extubation that demonstrated same associations as
      the primary model. The mean hospital length of stay after Stage 2 operation was
      20% shorter among patients with early extubation. CONCLUSIONS: Data from this
      large multicenter study demonstrate that approximately one-half of the patients
      undergoing operation for superior cavopulmonary connection are extubated within
      24 h after heart operation. Furthermore, early extubation is associated with
      shorter hospital length of stay.

PMID- 28568114
TI  - CONVERGENCE OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES BETWEEN INDEPENDENTLY EVOLVED COMPETITIVE
      DOMINANTS: A TUNICATE-MUSSEL COMPARISON.

PMID- 28568115
TI  - AN ESTIMATE OF THE RELATIVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION IN A
      POPULATION OF MILKWEED BEETLES.

PMID- 28568113
TI  - Can mobile phone technology support a rapid sharing of information on novel
      psychoactive substances among health and other professionals internationally?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The diffusion of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs), combined with
      the ability of the Internet to act as an online marketplace, has led to
      unprecedented challenges for governments, health agencies, and substance misuse
      services. Despite increasing research, there is a paucity of reliable information
      available to professionals working in the field. The paper will present the pilot
      results of the first mobile application (SMAIL) for rapid information sharing on
      NPSs among health professionals. METHODS: The development of SMAIL was divided
      into 2 parts: (a) the creation of the application for registered users, enabling
      them to send an SMS or email with the name or "street name" of an NPS and receive
      within seconds emails or SMS with the information, when available and (b) the
      development of a database to support the incoming requests. RESULTS: One hundred
      twenty-two professionals based in 22 countries used the service over the pilot
      period of 16 months (from May 2012 to September 2013). Five hundred fifty-seven
      enquires were made. Users received rapid information on NPSs, and 61% of them
      rated the service as excellent. CONCLUSIONS: This is the right time to use mobile
      phone technologies for rapid information sharing and prevention activities on
      NPSs.

PMID- 28568116
TI  - ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AVERAGE COPULATION DURATION AND INSEMINATION REACTION
      IN THE GENUS DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28568117
TI  - SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY IN CENTRAL AMERICAN HELICONIA.

PMID- 28568118
TI  - CHEMICAL EVOLUTION AND CHEMOSYSTEMATICS OF THE DUFOUR'S GLAND SECRETIONS OF THE
      LACTONE-PRODUCING BEES (HYMENOPTERA: COLLETIDAE, HALICTIDAE, AND OXAEIDAE).

PMID- 28568119
TI  - EVOLUTION OF AN ALL-FEMALE FISH, MENIDIA CLARKHUBBSI (ATHERINIDAE).

PMID- 28568120
TI  - A COADAPTED TROPHIC NICHE IN TWO SPECIES OF CRUSTACEA (ISOPODA): ASELLUS
      AQUATICUS (L.) AND PROASELLUS COXALIS DOLFF.

PMID- 28568121
TI  - GENIC VARIATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF REMNANT NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE DESERT
      PUPFISH, CYPRINODON MACULARIUS.

PMID- 28568122
TI  - POLYMORPHISM OF ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE (ADH) IN A WINERY CELLAR POPULATION OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: GENE FREQUENCY ASSOCIATION WITH TEMPERATURE AND
      GENOTYPIC DIFFERENCES IN PROGENY PRODUCTION.

PMID- 28568123
TI  - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF CLUTCH SIZE VARIANCE IN A WILD POPULATION
      OF LESSER SNOW GEESE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS).

PMID- 28568124
TI  - CONTRASTING GENE FLOW PATTERNS AND GENETIC SUBDIVISION IN ADJACENT POPULATIONS OF
      CUCUMIS SATIVUS (CUCURBITACEAE).

PMID- 28568125
TI  - CLONAL DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS IN A DIPLOID-TRIPLOID BREEDING COMPLEX
      OF UNISEXUAL FISHES (POECILIA).

PMID- 28568126
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28568127
TI  - MULTIPLE MATING AND FEMALE FITNESS IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568128
TI  - MALE FERTILITY AND ANISOPLETHIC POPULATION STRUCTURE IN TRISTYLOUS PONTEDERIA
      CORDATA (PONTEDERIACEAE).

PMID- 28568129
TI  - REDUCTION OF GENE FLOW DUE TO THE PARTIAL STERILITY OF HETEROZYGOTES FOR A
      CHROMOSOME MUTATION. I. STUDIES ON A "NEUTRAL" GENE NOT LINKED TO THE CHROMOSOME
      MUTATION IN A TWO POPULATION MODEL.

PMID- 28568130
TI  - PATTERN AND CHANCE IN THE STRUCTURE OF MODEL AND NATURAL COMMUNITIES.

PMID- 28568131
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC VARIATION IN THE SIZE OF THE NUTRIENT INVESTMENT MADE BY MALE
      BUTTERFLIES DURING COPULATION.

PMID- 28568132
TI  - UNORTHODOXIES IN THE FIRST FORMULATION OF NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28568133
TI  - GENETIC DISTANCE AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE DROSOPHILA OBSCURA GROUP.

PMID- 28568134
TI  - Lysyl oxidase-mediated VEGF-induced differentiation and angiogenesis in human
      dental pulp cells.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the effects of recombinant human vascular endothelial growth
      factor (rhVEGF) on odontoblastic differentiation, in vitro angiogenesis, and
      expression and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX) in human dental pulp cells
      (HDPCs), compared with rhFGF-2. To identify the underlying molecular mechanisms,
      the study focused on whether LOX was responsible for the actions of rhVEGF.
      METHODOLOGY: Recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (rhVEGF) was
      constructed using the pBAD-HisA plasmid in Escherichia coli. HDPCs were treated
      with 1-50 MUg mL-1 rhVEGF for 14 days. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was
      measured, and the formation of calcified nodules was assessed using alizarin red
      staining after the induction of odontogenic differentiation of HDPCs. The
      expression level of the odontogenic differentiation markers was detected by
      reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Signal pathways were assessed by
      Western blot and immunocytochemistry. The data were analysed by anova with
      Bonferroni's test (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: Recombinant human vascular endothelial
      growth factor significantly increased cell growth (P < 0.05), ALP activity (P <
      0.05) and mineralization nodule formation and upregulated the mRNA expression
      levels of the osteogenic/odontogenic markers that were lower with rhFGF-2. rhVEGF
      significantly increased amine oxidase activity (P < 0.05) and upregulated LOX and
      LOXL mRNA expression in HDPCs. Additionally, rhVEGF dose-dependently upregulated
      angiogenic gene mRNAs and capillary tube formation to a greater degree than rhFGF
      2. Inhibition of LOX using beta-aminopropionitrile (BAPN) and LOX or LOXL gene
      silencing by RNA interference attenuated rhVEGF-induced growth, ALP activity,
      mineralization, the expression of marker mRNAs and in vitro angiogenesis.
      Furthermore, treatment with rhVEGF resulted in phosphorylation of Akt, ERK, JNK
      and p38, and activation of NF-kappaB, which was inhibited by LOX or LOXL
      silencing and BAPN. CONCLUSION: Recombinant human vascular endothelial growth
      factor promoted cell growth, odontogenic potential and in vitro angiogenesis via
      modulation of LOX expression. These results support the concept that rhVEGF may
      offer therapeutic benefits in regenerative endodontics.

PMID- 28568136
TI  - MHC VARIATION IN THE ENDANGERED GILA TOPMINNOW.
AB  - Sequence variation at a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene, assumed to
      be involved in parasite and pathogen resistance, was examined in the endangered
      Gila topminnow (Poeciliopis o. occidentalis), from the four watersheds where they
      remain in the United States. This is the first estimate of variation in MHC genes
      in natural populations of an endangered species. The population that has
      experienced the most bottlenecks historically was monomorphic for MHC variation.
      Another population, which earlier had been found to be the only population
      polymorphic for allozymes, had five MHC alleles, four different from those found
      in the other populations. Overall, nine different alleles were found. The four
      populations were highly divergent at MHC with four of the six population pairs
      not sharing any alleles. However, the magnitude of differentiation between
      populations on the amino-acid level varied fivefold for the populations that
      shared no alleles. Using single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP),
      these alleles segregated consistently with Mendelian expectations in families.
      Because of the high genetic differentiation between these populations for a
      potentially adaptive gene, we recommend that the four watersheds be examined
      further for separate conservation and management.

PMID- 28568135
TI  - EVIDENCE OF A BIOGEOGRAPHIC BREAK BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF A HIGH DISPERSAL
      STARFISH: CONGRUENT REGIONS WITHIN THE INDO-WEST PACIFIC DEFINED BY COLOR MORPHS,
      mtDNA, AND ALLOZYME DATA.
AB  - Both mtDNA variation and allozyme data demonstrate that geographic groupings of
      different color morphs of the starfish Linckia laevigata are congruent with a
      genetic discontinuity between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Populations of L.
      laevigata sampled from Thailand and South Africa, where an orange color morph
      predominates, were surveyed using seven polymorphic enzyme loci and restriction
      fragment analysis of a portion of the mtDNA including the control region. Both
      allozyme and DNA data demonstrated that these populations were significantly
      genetically differentiated from each other and to a greater degree from 23
      populations throughout the West Pacific Ocean, where a blue color morph is
      predominant. The genetic structure observed in L. laevigata is consistent with
      traditional ideas of a biogeographic boundary between the Indian and Pacific
      Oceans except that populations several hundreds kilometers off the coast of north
      Western Australia (Indian Ocean) were genetically similar to and had the same
      color morphs as Pacific populations. It is suggested that gene flow may have
      continued (possibly at a reduced rate) between these offshore reefs in Western
      Australia and the West Pacific during Pleistocene falls in sea level, but at the
      same time gene flow was restricted between these Western Australian populations
      and those in both Thailand and South Africa, possibly by upwellings. The
      molecular data in this study suggest that vicariant events have played an
      important role in shaping the broadscale genetic structure of L. laevigata.
      Additionally, greater genetic structure was observed among Indian Ocean
      populations than among Pacific Ocean populations, probably because there are
      fewer reefs and island archipelagos in the Indian Ocean than in the Pacific, and
      because present-day surface ocean currents do not facilitate long-distance
      dispersal.

PMID- 28568137
TI  - POLYMORPHISM REGENERATION FOR A NEUTRALIZED SELFISH B CHROMOSOME.
AB  - Long-run evolution of B chromosomes is mainly made up by an evolutionary arms
      race between these selfish genetic elements and the standard genome. The
      suppression of B drive is one of the clearest expressions of genome defense
      against B chromosomes. After drive neutralization, the B is condemned to
      extinction unless a new variant showing drive can emerge and replace it. This
      paper reports the first empirical evidence for the substitution of a neutralized
      B variant by a new selfish B variant. Such a polymorphism regeneration has
      recently taken place in a natural population of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis
      plorans.

PMID- 28568138
TI  - MATE AVAILABILITY AND FECUNDITY SELECTION IN MULTI-ALLELIC SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY
      SYSTEMS IN PLANTS.
AB  - We investigate mate availability in different models of multiallelic self
      incompatibility systems in mutation-selection-drift balance in finite
      populations. Substantial differences among self-incompatibility systems occur in
      average mate availability, and in variances of mate availability among individual
      plants. These differences are most pronounced in small populations in which low
      mate availability may reduce seed set in some types of sporophytic self
      incompatibility. In cases where the pollination system causes a restriction in
      the number of pollen genotypes available to an individual plant, the fecundity of
      that plant depends on the availability of compatible pollen, which is determined
      by its genotype at the incompatibility locus. This leads to an additional
      component of selection acting on self-incompatibility systems, which we term
      "fecundity selection." Fecundity selection increases the number of alleles
      maintained in finite populations and increases mate availability in small
      populations. The strength of fecundity selection is dependent on the type of self
      incompatibility. In some cases, fecundity selection markedly alters the
      equilibrium dynamics of self-incompatibility alleles. We discuss the population
      genetic consequences of mate availability and fecundity selection in the contexts
      of conservation management of self-incompatible plant species and experimental
      investigations on self-incompatibility in natural populations.

PMID- 28568139
TI  - DISENTANGLING THE EFFECTS OF MATING PROPENSITY AND MATING CHOICE IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Incipient sexual isolation between genotypes, lines, or populations of the same
      species is commonly measured in Drosophila by choice tests. Results of these
      tests are known to be influenced, in an undetermined manner, by the mating
      propensity of competitors and by discriminatory factors during courtship. We have
      approached the problem by measuring male and female propensities in separate,
      independent tests, and by examining whether these estimates could explain the
      results of the choice tests. First, male and female choice tests were used to
      measure sexual isolation between populations of Drosophila melanogaster and
      between populations of D. simulans. Significant deviations from random mating
      occurred in 31 out of 48 tests, in agreement with the propensity values of the
      tested genotypes. We conclude that mating propensity instead of discrimination is
      directly involved in the estimation of sexual isolation in our populations, and
      advise against the application of male and female choice tests to assess
      intraspecific isolation without a proper knowledge of the mating propensities of
      competing individuals. Second, multiple choice tests were used to assess
      isolation between D. melanogaster populations. In examining the dynamics of
      matings throughout the test, we show that if competing individuals differ in
      mating propensities and tests are long enough to allow most matings to happen, a
      spurious sexual isolation can appear. We recommend that multiple choice tests be
      terminated once 50 percent of matings had been observed.

PMID- 28568140
TI  - HABITAT PREFERENCE IN THE BOMBINA HYBRID ZONE IN CROATIA.
AB  - This paper demonstrates the effect of habitat heterogeneity and a habitat
      preference on the genetic structure of a hybrid zone between the toads Bombina
      bombina and B. variegata (Anura: Discoglossidae); 1613 toads from 85 sites across
      a transect near Pescenica, Croatia, were scored for five unlinked diagnostic
      allozyme markers. These were found to be largely concordant. Aside from minor
      systematic deviations, there was little variance in allele frequency among loci
      within sites. Yet the allele frequencies did not follow a smooth cline, but
      formed a mosaic in the center, such that neighboring sites could differ markedly
      in their enzyme score. A detailed ecological survey revealed a correlation
      between this pattern and habitat. In keeping with the typical breeding sites of
      the parental taxa, B. bombina-like hybrids were found more often in ponds,
      whereas B. variegata-like hybrids were more common in puddles. In addition, there
      was significant heterozygote deficit (FIS ) and strong linkage disequilibrium
      (R), both of which were stronger on the B. bombina side of the transect, and
      stronger in puddles than ponds. Mark-recapture data showed: (1) that the animals
      disperse beyond the scale of the habitat pattern; (2) frequent turn-over of
      individuals within sites; and (3) nonrandom movement between two sites of
      different habitat type. We conclude that an active habitat preference must
      contribute to the observed association between marker alleles and habitat. As a
      consequence, there is incomplete mixing of the two gene pools, which could
      explain the high level of FIS and R. The asymmetry in these parameters may
      reflect asymmetry in the preference or in the distribution of habitats across the
      zone. We discuss the implications of habitat preference for the dynamics of
      hybrid zones.

PMID- 28568141
TI  - DIRECT AND INDIRECT ESTIMATES OF SEED VERSUS POLLEN MOVEMENT WITHIN A POPULATION
      OF PONDEROSA PINE.
AB  - We examined the spatial distribution of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA
      and paternally inherited chloroplast DNA polymorphisms in a permanently marked
      stand of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws). Movement of maternally inherited
      mtDNA occurs only via seed dispersal, and mtDNA haplotypes showed significant
      patch structure. Moreover, individuals within patches identified by mtDNA
      haplotypes were related approximately as half-sibs based upon analysis of
      allozyme genotypes. Thus, seed dispersal is limited within the population, and
      creates matrilineal clusters in space. By contrast, paternally inherited cpDNA is
      dispersed by movement of both seed and pollen. Chloroplast DNA polymorphisms
      showed no evidence of patch structure, but rather a weak (and nonsignificant)
      trend toward hyperdispersion, suggesting nearly unlimited movement of pollen
      among trees within this stand. Two of the trees had unique allozyme alleles,
      which were used to directly measure pollen movement away from those trees. Marked
      pollen was as likely to disperse across the population as it was to fertilize
      near neighbors.

PMID- 28568142
TI  - CALLING SONGS OF FIELD CRICKETS (TELEOGRYLLUS OCEANICUS) WITH AND WITHOUT
      PHONOTACTIC PARASITOID INFECTION.
AB  - The field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus has been introduced to Hawaii, where it
      is parasitized by an acoustically orienting parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea.
      Previous work showed that call parameters from parasitized populations differ
      from those in unparasitized populations in a direction expected if selection by
      flies is occurring. Here we examined songs of males collected in the field and
      compare calling song characters of crickets later found to harbor parasitoid
      larvae with those of males free of parasitoids. The two groups differ
      significantly in several song characteristics, particularly the trill-like long
      chirp given at the beginning of each song. Males with longer long chirps
      containing shorter interpulse intervals are more likely to be parasitized,
      suggesting that the flies find such males more attractive. Depending on the
      traits females prefer, sexual selection may oppose natural selection in altering
      T. oceanicus song in parasitized populations.

PMID- 28568143
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND POLYMORPHISM IN THE INDUCIBLE SPINES OF A MARINE BRYOZOAN.
AB  - Of particular value in understanding the evolution of genotypes with broad
      phenotypic ranges (phenotypic plasticity) are the few examples of organisms with
      adaptive plasticity, such as those that develop a defensive morphology in
      response to cues from predators. We know little about the heritability of
      inducible defensive characters or the range of phenotypes available for selection
      to act on in the field. Membranipora membranacea is a colonial marine bryozoan
      that produces spines within two days of exposure to waterborne predator extracts.
      Surveys done in 1993 and 1995 showed that the population at Friday Harbor Labs,
      Washington, was polymorphic for inducible spine type and was composed of a
      constitutively spined type that produced spines in the absence of a predator
      stimulus, an unspined phenotype that did not produce spines irrespective of a
      stimulus, and an inducibly spined phenotype that would produce spines if exposed
      to the appropriate cue. In 1995, the frequencies of these types were determined
      through a laboratory common-garden experiment; 178 colonies were cultured from
      metamorphosis through approximately 30 days and then exposed to the cue. The
      inducible type was the dominant, comprising 80.3% of the population. The
      constitutive type made up 6.2% of the population, and the remaining 13.4 % was
      the unspined type. The frequency of the three types was similar to a preliminary
      trial of the experiment run in 1993. Experiments also showed that the lengths of
      the spines of the inducible type varied continuously among genotypes. To assess
      causes of variation in the inducible spine response and its clonal heritability,
      16 clones were subdivided and grown in a common environment and exposed to a
      single dosage of spine inducing substance (SIS). Spine length showed high clonal
      heritability. The range of colony responses from a single environment varied from
      relatively unresponsive to highly responsive colonies with a very low threshold
      of response. Norms of reaction were quantified for spine lengths of inducible
      genotypes originating from two field environments by testing them in a
      concentration series of SIS. Both spine length and spine type varied with
      concentration of inducer. Within a clone, colonies were more likely to produce
      membranous spines than corner spines at higher concentrations. At low
      concentrations, only straight spines were produced. This study showed that
      populations of M. membranacea at Friday Harbor are a mix of inducible, nonspined
      and constitutively spined individuals. Even the inducible individuals showed high
      heritable variation in the length of spine activated, suggesting that there is
      considerable scope for the evolution of this character. A norm-of-reaction
      experiment further showed that the type of spine produced, membranous or corner,
      varied with the concentration of the cue. Factors maintaining the polymorphism
      and the broad range of genotypes could include high costs of defending the spined
      types coupled with a shifting biotic regime.

PMID- 28568144
TI  - SPECIES-WIDE POPULATION STRUCTURE IN A SOUTHEASTERN U.S. FRESHWATER FISH,
      HETERANDRIA FORMOSA: GENE FLOW AND BIOGEOGRAPHY.
AB  - The phylogeography of the freshwater fish fauna of the southeastern United States
      has almost achieved paradigm status in evolutionary biology (Avise 1992), and the
      major geographic features responsible for shaping species distributions are well
      characterized. Nevertheless, variation among species in distributions of allele
      or haplotype frequencies suggests that species-specific processes (e.g.,
      migration) may also play a role in establishing those distributions. There has
      also been relatively little investigation into how population structure may
      differ among subregions in the Southeast, for example, on the Florida peninsula
      versus the U.S. mainland to the northwest and/or northeast. The geology of the
      peninsula is such that both physical and biotic fluctuations may have been (and
      still be) particularly important in establishing the population structure of
      freshwater taxa. This possibility leads to two interesting questions in
      population genetics. (1) Does gene flow in freshwater species of the region
      better approximate a one- or two-dimensional pattern? (2) Are populations on the
      peninsula farther from migration-genetic drift equilibrium than their
      counterparts on the mainland? These questions were addressed by examining the
      population strucuture of a livebearing fish, Heterandria formosa; several
      features of the biology of the species make it particularly likely that recent
      gene flow has been important in its evolution. I surveyed electrophoretic
      variation in 34 populations distributed throughout the species range. The
      phylogeographic patterns observed are in general concordance with those found in
      other species, although with some differences. A two-dimensional hypothesis of
      gene flow on the Florida peninsula better explains the data than does a one
      dimensional one. There is no evidence that populations on the peninsula are
      farther from migration-drift equilibrium than those to the northwest. Populations
      in the northeast have lower genetic diversity than those to the south and west
      and show no isolation by distance; those results are consistent with a recent
      range expansion into the northeast, although smaller historical effective
      population sizes could also explain the pattern.

PMID- 28568145
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC LABORATORY COMPETITION OF THE RECENTLY SYMPATRIC SPECIES DROSOPHILA
      SUBOBSCURA AND DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.
AB  - -Drosophila subobscura and D. pseudoobscura are closely related species
      coexisting on the West Coast of North America, which was recently colonized by D.
      subobscura. In competition experiments with overlapping generations, D.
      subobscura is eliminated by D. pseudoobscura in a few generations at all four
      temperatures and two initial frequencies tested. Yet in one-species cultures, D.
      subobscura thrives at all experimental conditions. Single-generation competition
      experiments reveal lower survivorship and productivity of D. subobscura at all
      temperatures and frequencies. Productivity per female is dependent on the initial
      frequencies: greater for D. subobscura as its initial frequency becomes higher,
      but lower for D. pseudoobscura as its frequency becomes higher. Strains of D.
      subobscura from three disparate geographic origins yield similar results.

PMID- 28568146
TI  - INTERACTION-INDEPENDENT SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE MECHANISMS OF SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - Darwin identified explicitly two types of sexual selection, male contests (combat
      and displays) and female choice, and he devoted the overwhelming majority of his
      examples to traits that influence the outcome of these interactions. Subsequent
      treatments of sexual selection have emphasized the importance of intra- and
      intersexual interactions as sources of sexual selection. However, many traits
      that are important determinants of mating success influence mating success
      without necessarily affecting the outcome of intra- and intersexual interactions.
      Here, I argue that traits can be subject to sexual selection even if they do not
      affect the outcome of intra- and intersexual interactions. I distinguish two
      types of sexual selection, interaction-independent and interaction-dependent
      selection, based on whether variance in mating success is the result of trait
      dependent outcomes of interactions between conspecifics. I then use this
      distinction to construct a framework for classifying types of sexual selection
      that unifies and expands previously proposed frameworks. Finally, I outline
      several implications that the concept of interaction-independent sexual selection
      has for the general theory of sexual selection.

PMID- 28568147
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE LAND SNAIL ALBINARIA IN CRETE: LONG-TERM
      GEOLOGICAL AND SHORT-TERM VICARIANCE EFFECTS.
AB  - The land snail genus Albinaria exhibits an extreme degree of morphological
      differentiation in Greece, especially in the island of Crete. Twenty-six
      representatives of 17 nominal species and a suspected hybrid were examined by
      sequence analysis of a PCR-amplified mitochondrial DNA fragment of the large rRNA
      subunit gene. Maximum parsimony and neighbor-joining phylogenetic analyses
      demonstrate a complex pattern of speciation and differentiation and suggest that
      Albinaria species from Crete belong to at least three distinct monophyletic
      groups, which, however, are not monophyletic with reference to the genus as a
      whole. There is considerable variation of genetic distance within and among
      "species" and groups. The revealed phylogenetic relations do not correlate well
      with current taxonomy, but exhibit biogeographical coherence. Certain small- and
      large-scale vicariance events can be traced, although dispersal and parapatric
      speciation may also be present. Our analysis suggests that there was an early and
      rapid differentiation of Albinaria groups across the whole of the range followed
      by local speciation events within confined geographical areas.

PMID- 28568148
TI  - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MAXIMAL LOCOMOTOR
      PERFORMANCE IN CARIBBEAN ANOLIS LIZARDS.
AB  - We examined the sprinting and jumping capabilities of eight West Indian Anolis
      species during three natural activities (escape from a predator, feeding, and
      undisturbed activity). We then compared these field data with maximal performance
      under optimal laboratory conditions to answer three questions: (1) Has maximal
      (i.e., laboratory) sprinting and jumping performance coevolved with field
      performance among species? (2) What proportion of their maximum capabilities do
      anoles sprint and jump in different ecological contexts? (3) Does a relationship
      exist between maximal sprinting and jumping ability and the proportion of maximal
      performance used in these contexts? Among species, maximal speed is tightly
      positively correlated with sprinting performance during both feeding and escape
      in the field. Sprinting speed during escape closely matches maximal sprinting
      ability (i.e., about 90% of maximum performance). By contrast, sprinting
      performance during undisturbed activity is markedly lower (about 32% of maximum)
      than maximal sprinting performance. Sprinting ability during feeding is
      intermediate (about 71% of maximum) between field escape and field undisturbed
      activity. In contrast to sprinting ability, jumping ability is always
      substantially less than maximum (about 40% of maximum during feeding and
      undisturbed activity). A negative relationship exists among species between
      maximal speed and the proportion to which species sprint to their maximal
      abilities during field escape.

PMID- 28568149
TI  - FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNAL AND NONMATERNAL COMPONENTS OF INBREEDING IN THE
      GYNODIOECIOUS PHACELIA DUBIA.
AB  - I assessed the relationship between the level of inbreeding, F, and fitness, and
      the effects of nonmaternal and maternal components of inbreeding on fitness in
      Phacelia dubia. I conducted two generations of controlled crosses and tested the
      performance of the F2 progeny in field and artificial conditions covering the
      whole life cycle. Inbreeding significantly decreased the individual contribution
      of seeds to the next generation in the field, but this decrease apparently is not
      enough to explain the maintenance of gynodioecy. The inbred progeny contributes
      significantly to the population genetic structure of P. dubia. Fitness estimates
      and fitness components tended to decrease, usually monotonically, with F.
      However, nonmonotonic relationships were found in male fitness components and, in
      some families, in fitness estimates, seed production per fruit, and
      establishment. Most of the inbreeding depression takes place at the level of seed
      establishment in the field, but, in artificial conditions the effects of
      inbreeding were similar at fecundity and establishment. I studied maternal and
      nonmaternal components of inbreeding by testing the effects of the relatedness of
      maternal grandparents and parents on the performance of the progeny. Both
      components affected fitness. Inbreeding depression was conditioned by the level
      of inbreeding of the maternal plant, but this interaction varied at different
      fitness components. Also, the magnitude and even the direction of the
      relationship between fitness and F changed as a result of the combined effects of
      maternal and nonmaternal components of inbreeding. Such interactions can render
      convex or concave fitness functions, giving in the latter case the appearance of
      a false purging. Maternal effects of inbreeding can result from several
      processes: maternal investment perhaps with serial adjustments during seed
      development, purging of recessive deleterious genes, and nucleocytoplasmic
      interactions. These results illustrate the importance of maternal effects of
      inbreeding, and the complex effects of inbreeding on fitness. A full
      understanding of the fitness consequences of inbreeding and, therefore, their
      potential implications in the evolution of breeding systems, should take into
      account male and female components as well as transgenerational effects in the
      context of the particular environment in which fitness is evaluated.

PMID- 28568150
TI  - PHYLOGENY OF THE TRIBE CERATAPHIDINI (HOMOPTERA) AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORNED
      SOLDIER APHIDS.
AB  - The horned soldier aphids of the Cerataphidini, unlike most social insects that
      reside in nests, live on the open surface of plants. The lack of a nest and other
      obvious ecological correlates makes it unclear why secondary-host soldiers might
      have evolved. Here I present a molecular phylogenetic analysis of 32 species of
      the Cerataphidini, including 10 species from the genera Ceratovacuna and
      Pseudoregma that produce horned soldiers. The phylogeny suggests that horned
      soldiers evolved once and were lost once or twice. Most horned soldiers are a
      morphologically specialized caste and two species that have unspecialized
      soldiers are independently derived from species with specialized castes. The
      genus Ceratovacuna appears to have undergone a relatively rapid radiation.
      Mapping secondary-host plants and geographic ranges onto the phylogeny suggests
      that bamboos were the ancestral secondary-host plants and that the Asian tropics
      and subtropics were the ancestral geographic regions for the genera Astegopteryx,
      Ceratoglyphina, Ceratovacuna Chaitoregma, and Pseudoregma and possibly for the
      entire tribe. There is evidence for vicariant events that separate the tropical
      and subtropical lineages in all of the major lineages of the tribe and for
      dispersal of some lineages. Based on these results, I present hypotheses for the
      causes and consequences of horned-soldier evolution.

PMID- 28568151
TI  - THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A GYNODIOECIOUS PLANT: NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC GENES.
AB  - Sex expression in gynodioecious plants is often determined by an interaction
      between biparentally and maternally inherited genes. Their relative rates of gene
      flow should be considered when modeling the evolution of the sex ratio in
      structured populations. In order to understand patterns of gene flow in Silene
      vulgaris, a gynodioecious plant, genetic structure was estimated from
      biparentally inherited genetic markers (allozymes) and a maternally inherited
      marker (chloroplast DNA) using Wright's Fst . Based on data from 16 local
      populations, chloroplast DNA showed considerably more genetic structure than did
      allozymes (Fst values of 0.62 and 0.22, respectively). This suggests that the
      rate of gene flow is about three times greater for nuclear genes.

PMID- 28568152
TI  - INHERITANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION IN BODY SIZE: SUPERPARASITISM OF SEEDS
      AFFECTS PROGENY AND GRANDPROGENY BODY SIZE VIA A NONGENETIC MATERNAL EFFECT.
AB  - Maternal effects provide the most common mechanism by which environmental
      variation in one generation affects the phenotype of individuals in subsequent
      generations. In egg-laying animals, however, we typically observe that maternal
      effects can have large influences on early growth (egg size and early
      development), but these effects gradually disappear and become undetectable by
      the time progeny mature due to developmental plasticity in progeny. We describe a
      system in which an environmentally induced reduction in body size is inherited by
      progeny via a nongenetic maternal effect. The seed beetle, Callosobruchus
      maculatus, completes development inside a discrete resource package (a seed)
      selected by its mother. Due to superparasitism in response to low host
      availability, progeny frequently develop at high densities, resulting in intense
      larval competition and pupation at a smaller body size. Females reared at higher
      density (and thus emerging smaller) lay smaller eggs than females reared at lower
      density. Progeny from these smaller eggs mature at a smaller size than progeny
      reared from the larger eggs laid by females reared at lower density. Crosses
      between high and low density lines demonstrated that treatment differences in
      body size are maternally inherited, confirming that the inheritance of body size
      variation in part involves an environmentally based maternal effect.

PMID- 28568153
TI  - SPERM PRODUCTION AND STERILITY IN HYBRIDS BETWEEN TWO SUBSPECIES OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.
AB  - Subspecies of Drosophila pseudoobscura, one occurring in the United States and
      the other in Bogota, Columbia, exhibit Haldane's Rule in one direction of the
      cross. Additionally, D. pseudoobscura produces two sperm types: short, sterile
      sperm and long, fertile, sperm. Here I examine the relationship between the
      production of short and long sperm and hybrid sterility. Fertile and sterile
      hybrid males produce a greater proportion of short sperm compared to parental
      males with sterile hybrids producing mainly short, immotile sperm. Sperm transfer
      and storage patterns were similar between fertile hybrid and parental strains;
      and unexpectedly, short, immotile sperm from sterile hybrids were stored. These
      findings raise the question of whether different genetic mechanisms disrupt both
      sperm heteromorphic production and sperm motility and whether this indicates that
      females exert some control over sperm storage.

PMID- 28568154
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: CHASE-AWAY SEXUAL SELECTION: ANTAGONISTIC SEDUCTION VERSUS
      RESISTANCE.
AB  - A model of sexual selection that leads to the evolution of exaggerated male
      display characters that is based on antagonistic coevolution between the sexes is
      described. The model is motivated by three lines of research: intersexual
      conflict with respect to mating, sensory exploitation, and the evolution of
      female resistance, as opposed to preference, for male display traits. The model
      generates unique predictions that permit its operation to be distinguished from
      other established models of sexual selection. One striking prediction is that
      females will frequently win the coevolutionary arms race with males, leaving them
      encumbered with costly ornaments that have little value except that their absence
      understimulates females. Examples from the literature suggest that the model may
      have broad application in nature. The chase-away model is a special case of the
      more general phenomenon of Interlocus Contest Evolution (ICE).

PMID- 28568155
TI  - REDUCED MALE ALLOCATION IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC HERMAPHRODITE DUGESIA POLYCHROA.
AB  - Parthenogenetic lineages that arise in a hermaphroditic, sexual population will
      inherit the male function from their sexual progenitors. Natural selection then
      acts to reduce male allocation of the parthenogens, freeing resources presumably
      for the female function. Depending on age and the available genetic variation,
      one therefore expects to find reduced male allocation in naturally occurring
      parthenogenetic lineages. We investigated the allocation to sperm production in
      the hermaphroditic flatworm Dugesia polychroa in three lakes containing a sexual
      (S), a (pseudogamous) parthenogenetic (P), and a mixed sexual-parthenogenetic
      population (M). Parthenogenetic lineages from M were assumed to be relatively
      young due to recurrent origins from the coexisting sexuals, whereas those from P
      were assumed to be older on biogeographical grounds. As predicted, we found
      drastically reduced sperm production in parthenogens compared to sexuals, even in
      the parthenogenetic lineages from M, which may be younger. M parthenogens did not
      have more testes, but produced more sperm than individuals from the purely
      parthenogenetic population (P). However, the latter result could not be
      reproduced with laboratory-raised animals and therefore may be a consequence of
      different ecological conditions in the different lakes, for example, differences
      in mating rates. To study the behavioral component of male allocation, copulation
      frequencies were recorded for sexuals from M and for parthenogens from P.
      Compared to the drastic reduction in sperm production, copulation frequency was
      less reduced in parthenogens. This may be a consequence of allosperm limitation
      in pseudogamous parthenogenetic populations.

PMID- 28568156
TI  - BODY SIZE, NATURAL SELECTION, AND SPECIATION IN STICKLEBACKS.
AB  - There is little evidence from nature that divergent natural selection is crucial
      to speciation. However, divergent selection is implicated if traits conferring
      adaptation to alternative environments also form the basis of reproductive
      isolation. We tested the importance of body size differences to premating
      isolation between two sympatric sticklebacks. The species differ greatly in size,
      and several lines of evidence indicate that this difference is an adaptation to
      alternative foraging habitats. Strong assortative mating was evident in
      laboratory trials, but a few hybridization events occurred. Probability of
      interspecific mating was strongly correlated with body size: interspecific
      spawning occurred only between the largest individuals of the smaller species and
      the smallest individuals of the larger species. Probability of spawning between
      similar-sized individuals from different species was comparable to spawning rates
      within species. Disruption of mating between individuals from different species
      can be traced to increased levels of male aggression and decreased levels of male
      courtship as size differences increased between paired individuals. Interspecific
      mate preferences in sympatric sticklebacks appears to be dominated by body size,
      implicating natural selection in the origin of species.

PMID- 28568157
TI  - HYBRID FITNESS IN THE LOUISIANA IRISES: ANALYSIS OF PARENTAL AND F1 PERFORMANCE.
AB  - The assumption of hybrid inferiority is central to the two models most widely
      applied to the prediction of hybrid zone evolution. Both the tension zone and
      mosaic models assume that natural selection acts against hybrids regardless of
      the environment in which they occur. To test this assumption, we investigated
      components of fitness in Iris fulva, I. hexagona and their reciprocal F1 hybrids
      under greenhouse conditions. The four cross types were compared on the basis of
      seed germination, vegetative and clonal growth, and sexual reproduction. In all
      cases, the hybrids performed as well as, or significantly better than, both of
      their parents. These results suggest that F1 hybrids between I. fulva and I.
      hexagona are at least as fit as their parents. The results of this study are
      therefore inconsistent with the assumptions of both the tension zone and mosaic
      models of hybrid zone evolution.

PMID- 28568158
TI  - ANTAGONISTIC PLEIOTROPIC EFFECT OF SECOND-CHROMOSOME INVERSIONS ON BODY SIZE AND
      EARLY LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA BUZZATII.
AB  - A simple way to think of evolutionary trade-offs is to suppose genetic effects of
      opposed direction that give rise to antagonistic pleiotropy. Maintenance of
      additive genetic variability for fitness related characters, in association with
      negative correlations between these characters, may result. In the cactophilic
      species Drosophila buzzatii, there is evidence that second-chromosome polymorphic
      inversions affect size-related traits. Because a trade-off between body size and
      larval developmental time has been reported in Drosophila, we study here whether
      or not these inversions also affect larva-adult viability and developmental time.
      In particular, we expect that polymorphic inversions make a statistically
      significant contribution to the genetic correlation between body size (as
      measured by thorax length) and larval developmental time. This contribution is
      expected to be in the direction predicted by the trade-off, namely, those flies
      whose karyotypes cause them to be genetically larger should also have a longer
      developmental time than flies with other karyotypes. Using two different
      experimental approaches, a statistically significant contribution of the second
      chromosome inversions to the phenotypic variances of body size and developmental
      time in D. buzzatii was found. Further, these inversions make a positive
      contribution to the total genetic correlation between the traits, as expected by
      the suggested trade-off. The data do not provide evidence as to whether the
      genetic correlation is due to antagonistic pleiotropic gene action or to gametic
      disequilibrium of linked genes that affect one or both traits. The results do
      suggest, however, a possible explanation for the maintenance of inversion
      polymorphism in this species.

PMID- 28568159
TI  - DESIGNING EXPERIMENTS TO MAXIMIZE THE POWER OF DETECTING CORRELATIONS.
AB  - Studies investigating correlations among traits are increasingly common in
      evolutionary biology. By providing power calculations, minimum sample sizes, and
      standard errors of correlation coefficients in a variety of contexts, this note
      provides guidelines to insure that nonzero correlations will not be erroneously
      dismissed as nonsignificant in properly designed experiements. Forty individuals
      is often sufficient for reasonable estimation of correlation coefficients,
      although 100 or more individuals may be nexessary if a large number of traits are
      involved or comparisons are to be made among the coefficients.

PMID- 28568160
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28568161
TI  - MOLECULAR AND REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF SIBLING SPECIES IN THE EUROPEAN
      EARWIG (FORFICULA AURICULARIA).
AB  - The European earwig (Forficula auricularia) was formerly thought to present a
      mosaic of populations differing in their reproductive biology. We show that it is
      comprised of two as yet unrecognized sibling species. The molecular divergence
      between the two species, for a 627-bp amplified fragment overlapping the COI and
      COII mitochondrial loci, is six times larger than intraspecific variation. A
      species with two clutches a year lives predominantly in lowland and oceanic
      European habitats. A species with one clutch a year-except in the Mediterranean
      area where it has two clutches-lives predominantly in highland and continental
      European habitats. They both invaded North America during the 20th century,
      respectively, from the west and the east coasts, with no apparent mixing of their
      populations. The two species can occur in sympatry in Europe and are
      reproductively isolated by nearly complete failure to produce F1 hybrids.

PMID- 28568162
TI  - ASYMMETRIC INTROGRESSION OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA AMONG EUROPEAN POPULATIONS OF BLUE
      MUSSELS (MYTILUS SPP.).
AB  - -Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis are two blue mussel species that coexist
      in western Europe. Previously, we reported that M. galloprovincialis populations
      contain female and male haplotypes that are fixed in M. edulis populations as
      well as unique haplotypes. This study assesses whether paraphyly for these
      species is due to introgression or incomplete lineage extinction. The lineage
      extinction hypothesis predicts that the shared mtDNA haplotypes in M.
      galloprovincialis will be significantly diverged from those in M. edulis and form
      distinct sequence clades. In contrast, the introgression hypothesis proposes that
      M. edulis haplotypes have only recently been introduced into M. galloprovincialis
      through hybridization with relatively little divergence accumulating between the
      shared RFLP haplotypes. We examined 80 mtl6S gene sequences for both the maternal
      and paternal mtDNA lineages from mussels sampled from various European
      populations and found strong support for the introgression hypothesis. In
      addition, we found that M. edulis mtDNA haplotypes appear to be introgressing
      into mussel populations in the Baltic Sea, which have predominantly M. trossulus
      nuclear genotypes, indicating that introgressive hybridization is prevalent among
      European mussel populations.

PMID- 28568163
TI  - REINFORCEMENT OF STICKLEBACK MATE PREFERENCES: SYMPATRY BREEDS CONTEMPT.
AB  - Detailed studies of reproductive isolation and how it varies among populations
      can provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of speciation. Here we
      investigate how the strength of premating isolation varies between sympatric and
      allopatric populations of threespine sticklebacks to test a prediction of the
      hypothesis of reinforcement: that interspecific mate discrimination should be
      stronger in sympatry than in allopatry. In conducting such tests, it is important
      to control for ecological character displacement between sympatric species
      because ecological character divergence may strengthen prezygotic isolation as a
      by-product. We control for ecological character displacement by comparing mate
      preferences of females from a sympatric population (benthics) with mate
      preferences of females from two allopatric populations that most closely resemble
      the sympatric benthic females in ecology and morphology. No-choice mating trials
      indicate that sympatric benthic females mate less readily with heterospecific
      (limnetic) than conspecific (benthic) males, whereas two different populations of
      allopatric females resembling benthics show no such discrimination. These
      differences demonstrate reproductive character displacement of benthic female
      mate choice. Previous studies have established that hybridization between
      sympatric species occurred in the past in the wild and that hybrid offspring have
      lower fitness than either parental species, thus providing conditions under which
      natural selection would favor individuals that do not hybridize. Results are
      therefore consistent with the hypothesis that female mate preferences have
      evolved as a response to reduced hybrid fitness (reinforcement), although direct
      effects of sympatry or a biased extinction process could also produce the
      pattern. Males of the other sympatric species (limnetics) showed a preference for
      smaller females, in contrast to the inferred ancestral preference for larger
      females, suggesting reproductive character displacement of limnetic male mate
      preferences as well.

PMID- 28568164
TI  - AGE AND MOVEMENT OF A HYBRID ZONE: IMPLICATIONS FOR DISPERSAL DISTANCE IN POCKET
      GOPHERS AND THEIR CHEWING LICE.
AB  - Historical flood records for the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico suggest that a
      pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) hybrid zone previously thought to be 10,000 years
      old may actually be closer to 50 years old. Measured zone width (defined
      genetically) is consistent with the hypothesis of recent contact, if we assume a
      reasonable dispersal distance of approximately 400 m/year for pocket gophers. A
      five-year study of movement of the contact zone between the two species of
      chewing lice that parasitize these pocket gophers also is consistent with the
      hypothesis of recent origin of the zone.

PMID- 28568165
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT FITNESS IN SILENE VULGARIS, A GYNODIOECIOUS PLANT.
AB  - In gynodioecious plants the selective processes that determine the relative
      number of female and hermaphroditic individuals are often frequency dependent.
      Frequency-dependent fitness can occur in the two sexes through a variety of
      mechanisms, especially given pollen limitation and inbreeding depression when
      hermaphrodites are rare. Frequency dependence in several components of the
      fitness of female and hermaphroditic Silene vulgaris was tested in experiments in
      which the relative numbers of the two sexes was varied among 12 artificial
      populations. In females, the proportion of flowers that set fruit covaried
      positively among populations with the frequency of hermaphrodites in two separate
      experiments, whereas the number of flowers/plant covaried negatively in one case.
      In hermaphrodites, the number of seeds/fruit covaried positively with the
      frequency of hermaphrodites, whereas the fitness of hermaphrodites estimated
      through pollen transfer covaried negatively. The results are discussed as they
      relate to the selective maintenance of gynodioecy in S. vulgaris and in light of
      a recent model of the effect of population structure on selection in
      gynodioecious systems.

PMID- 28568166
TI  - HERITABLE VARIATION FOR FECUNDITY IN FIELD-COLLECTED DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND
      THEIR OFFSPRING REARED UNDER DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURES.
AB  - Heritable variation for fitness components is normally measured under favorable
      laboratory conditions, but organisms in the field experience variable conditions
      that are often stressful and may affect the expression of heritable variation. We
      examined heritable variation for early fecundity in three samples of Drosophila
      melanogaster from the field. Flies were obtained from a rotting fruit pile in
      summer, autumn, and spring, and progeny were reared under laboratory conditions.
      Field parents were tested for fecundity at 14 degrees C or 28 degrees C depending
      on ambient temperatures. Wing/thorax length ratios measured on flies from the
      spring collection suggested that flies had developed at around 20 degrees C.
      Progeny were reared and tested at 14 degrees C, 25 degrees C, and 28 degrees C.
      In the summer collection, parent-offspring regression coefficients were high and
      significant, compared to nonsignificant values obtained in two of three autumn
      comparisons. In the spring collection, parent-offspring regressions were negative
      regardless of testing temperature, suggesting that field females with a high
      fecundity produced offspring with low scores. Comparisons of F1 and F2 laboratory
      generations indicated intermediate heritabilities for fecundity in the
      laboratory. The lower bound heritability estimate for fecundity in field
      individuals was 37% in summer and 59% in autumn. Estimates of field heritability
      and evolvability for wing length measured in the spring collection were lower
      than in the laboratory. The results indicate that heritabilities and additive
      genetic variances for fecundity can be high in field-reared flies, but that
      results may vary between field collections.

PMID- 28568167
TI  - INBREEDING AND ITS FITNESS EFFECTS IN AN INSULAR POPULATION OF SONG SPARROWS
      (MELOSPIZA MELODIA).
AB  - Inbreeding depression is thought to be a major factor affecting the evolution of
      mating systems and dispersal. While there is ample evidence for inbreeding
      depression in captivity, it has rarely been documented in natural populations. In
      this study, I examine data from a long-term demographic study of an insular
      population of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and present evidence for
      inbreeding depression. Forty-four percent of all matings on Mandarte Island,
      British Columbia, were among known relatives. Offspring of a full-sib mating (f =
      0.25) experienced a reduction in annual survival rate of 17.5% on average. Over
      their lifetime, females with f = 0.25 produced 48% fewer young that reached
      independence from parental care. In contrast, male lifetime reproductive success
      was not affected by inbreeding. Reduced female lifetime reproductive success was
      mostly due to reduced hatching rates of the eggs of inbred females. Relatedness
      among the parents did not affect their reproductive success. Using data on
      survival from egg stage to breeding age, I estimated the average song sparrow egg
      on Mandarte Island to carry a minimum of 5.38 lethal equivalents (the number of
      deleterious genes whose cumulative effect is equivalent to one lethal); 2.88 of
      these lethal equivalents were expressed from egg stage to independence of
      parental care. This estimate is higher than most estimates reported for
      laboratory populations and lower than those reported for zoo populations. Hence,
      the costs of inbreeding in this population were substantial and slightly above
      those expected from laboratory studies. Variability in estimates of lethal
      equivalents among years showed that costs of inbreeding were not constant across
      years.

PMID- 28568168
TI  - EVIDENCE FROM THE FOSSIL RECORD OF AN ANTIPREDATORY EXAPTATION: CONCHIOLIN LAYERS
      IN CORBULID BIVALVES.
AB  - Conchiolin layers, organic-rich laminae, are characteristic of the shells of
      corbulid bivalves. The retention of these layers, despite their high metabolic
      cost, throughout the evolutionary history of Corbulidae has prompted the proposal
      of several adaptive scenarios to explain the origin and maintenance of these
      layers. The most widely held hypothesis contends that conchiolin layers are an
      adaptation for inhibiting drilling by predatory naticid gastropods. However,
      others suggest that the layers are adaptations to retard shell dissolution in
      waters undersaturated with calcium carbonate or to increase shell strength in the
      face of durophagous (shell crushing) predators. In this paper, experiments using
      recent Corbula (Varicorbula) gibba (Olivi) and observations of corbulids' present
      natural habitat demonstrate the current utility of conchiolin layers for all
      three functions: retardation of shell dissolution in waters undersaturated in
      calcium carbonate, increase of mechanical shell strength, and inhibition of
      drilling by predatory naticid gastropods. Earlier analyses of the extensive
      history of naticid predator-corbulid prey interactions suggested that conchiolin
      layers were an adaptation, a feature that promotes fitness and was built by
      selection for its current role, for deterring naticid predators. Not only are
      naticid drillholes widespread in fossil and recent corbulid shells, but an
      unusually large number of incomplete drillholes terminate unsuccessfully at
      conchiolin layers. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis of the origin of
      conchiolin layers and its function to deter naticid predators is consistent with
      a hypothesis of adaptation for this function. However, this hypothesis is
      rejected by an examination of fossil Jurassic Corbulomima. These oldest corbulids
      contained conchiolin layers before the evolution of naticid drilling during the
      Early Cretaceous. Therefore, conchiolin layers appear to be an exaptation,
      characters evolved for other usages and later "coopted" for their current role,
      for defense against drilling predators. The layers may in fact be an adaptation
      to resist durophagous predation.

PMID- 28568170
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy, work-up, and outcomes of pregnancies with clubfoot detected
      by prenatal sonography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess diagnostic accuracy, related findings, and outcomes of
      fetuses with clubfoot. METHODS: Sonographic characteristics, pregnancy work-up,
      and postnatal outcomes were evaluated in 109 fetuses with clubfoot. RESULTS:
      Among 40 320 prenatal ultrasound anomaly scans, clubfoot was diagnosed in 150
      (0.37%). Analysis included 108 pregnancies (72%) with 109 fetuses. Bilateral
      clubfoot was diagnosed in 51/109 (46.7%) fetuses and unilateral in 58/109
      (53.2%). Clubfoot was diagnosed as an isolated anomaly in 76/109 (69.7%) and
      complex in 33/109 (30.2%). Amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling in 48/109
      (44%) yielded 6 (12.5%) with abnormalities (5.5% of the entire cohort). Diagnosis
      was confirmed in 65/91 (71.4%) liveborn infants. In singletons, 7/63 (11.1%)
      cases considered isolated on ultrasound had additional anomalies postpartum and
      8/14 (57.1%) complex cases were verified after birth. Sonographic diagnosis of
      clubfoot was verified postpartum in more singletons than twins (p = 0.05).
      Bilateral clubfoot was verified postpartum more often than unilateral [29/33
      (87.9%) vs. 29/44 (65.9%), respectively; p = 0.03]. Bilateral clubfoot resulted
      in additional prenatal testing without increased likelihood of finding additional
      anomalies and was associated with more surgical interventions postnatally.
      CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of clubfoot is more accurate in
      singletons with bilateral findings. Bilateral findings do not increase the
      likelihood of additional anomalies. Karyotyping should be considered even with
      isolated clubfoot. (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568169
TI  - Effect of Dexamethasone and Fluticasone on Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Horses
      With Inflammatory Airway Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Airway hyperresponsiveness (AWHR), expressed as hypersensitivity
      (PC75 RL ) or hyperreactivity (slope of the histamine dose-response curve), is a
      feature of inflammatory airway disease (IAD) or mild equine asthma in horses.
      Glucocorticoids are used empirically to treat IAD. OBJECTIVES: To determine
      whether dexamethasone (DEX) (0.05 mg/kg IM q24h) and inhaled fluticasone (FLUT)
      (3,000 MUg q12h) administered by inhalation are effective in decreasing AWHR,
      lung inflammation, and clinical signs in horses with IAD. METHODS: A randomized
      crossover study design was used. Eight horses with IAD were assigned to a
      treatment group with either DEX or FLUT. Measured outcomes included lung
      mechanics during bronchoprovocative challenges, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      (BALF) cytology, and scoring of clinical signs during exercise. RESULTS:
      Dexamethasone and FLUT abolished the increase in RL by 75% at any histamine
      bronchoprovocative dose in all horses after the first week of treatment. However,
      after 2 weeks of FLUT treatment, 1 horse redeveloped hypersensitivity. There was
      a significant decrease in the number of lymphocytes after treatment with both DEX
      and FLUT (P = .039 for both) but no significant differences in other BALF cell
      types or total cell counts (P > .05). There was no difference in the scoring of
      the clinical signs during each treatment and washout period (P > .05).
      CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Both DEX and FLUT treatments significantly
      inhibit airway hypersensitivity and hyperreactivity in horses with IAD. There are
      no significant effects on the clinical signs or the number of inflammatory cells
      (except lymphocytes) in BALF. The treatments have no residual effect 3 weeks
      after discontinuation.

PMID- 28568171
TI  - THE EVOLUTION AND BREAKDOWN OF TRISTYLY.

PMID- 28568172
TI  - A COMMENT ON VEGETATIVE AND SEED REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS.

PMID- 28568173
TI  - GENETIC DISTINCTNESS OF SYMPATRIC FORMS OF AEDES AEGYPTI IN EAST AFRICA.

PMID- 28568174
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY: ANOTHER LOOK.

PMID- 28568175
TI  - RELATEDNESS IN THE POLYGYNOUS ANT MYRMECIA PILOSULA.

PMID- 28568176
TI  - NEW STATISTICAL METHODS FOR ALLOMETRY WITH APPLICATION TO FLORIDA RED-WINGED
      BLACKBIRDS.

PMID- 28568177
TI  - GENETICS OF SPECIATION IN LAKE WHITEFISHES IN THE ALLEGASH BASIN.

PMID- 28568178
TI  - ONCE AGAIN, WHY 300 SPECIES OF HAWAIIAN DROSOPHILA?

PMID- 28568179
TI  - BATESIAN MIMICRY: FIELD DEMONSTRATION OF THE SURVIVAL VALUE OF PIPEVINE
      SWALLOWTAIL AND MONARCH COLOR PATTERNS.

PMID- 28568180
TI  - PARENTAL MANIPULATION, KIN SELECTION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISM.

PMID- 28568181
TI  - 'PROTOVIPERS" AND THE EVOLUTION OF SNAKE FANGS.

PMID- 28568182
TI  - AVERAGE FITNESS OF POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AS ESTIMATED USING
      COMPOUND-AUTOSOME STRAINS.

PMID- 28568183
TI  - CONVERGENT EVOLUTION BETWEEN PHYLA: A TEST CASE OF MIMICRY BETWEEN CADDISFLY
      LARVAE (HELICOPSYCHE BOREALIS) AND AQUATIC SNAILS (PHYSA INTEGRA).

PMID- 28568184
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE RICHNESS-AREA CORRELATION FOR CYNIPID GALL WASPS ON OAK TREES: A
      COMPARISON OF TWO GEOGRAPHIC AREAS.

PMID- 28568185
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF MEXICAN DROSOPHILA VI. CYTOGENETIC ASPECTS OF THE
      INVERSION POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568186
TI  - CYTOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION OF SIMULIUM ORNATIPES SKUSE (DIPTERA: SIMULIIDAE).
      III. GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION OF CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISMS AND SPECIES DIVERGENCE.

PMID- 28568187
TI  - THE ADAPTIVE DEMOGRAPHY OF FOUR FRESHWATER PULMONATE SNAILS.

PMID- 28568188
TI  - GENETIC CAPACITY FOR ADAPTATION TO COLD RESISTANCE AT DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL
      STAGES OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28568189
TI  - SPECIES-AREA RELATIONS OF BIRDS ON SMALL ISLANDS IN A MINNESOTA LAKE.

PMID- 28568190
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY BREAKDOWN OF TRISTYLY IN EICHHORNIA CRASSIPES (MART.) SOLMS
      (WATER HYACINTH).

PMID- 28568191
TI  - ESTIMATION OF AVERAGE FITNESS OF POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND THE
      EVOLUTION OF FITNESS IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28568192
TI  - REPLY TO W. G. ABRAHAMSON.

PMID- 28568193
TI  - CYTOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION OF SIMULIUM ORNATIPES SKUSE (DIPTERA: SIMULIIDAE). II.
      TEMPORAL VARIATION IN CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISMS AND HOMOSEQUENTIAL SIBLING
      SPECIES.

PMID- 28568194
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF MULTIVARIATE EVOLUTION, APPLIED TO BRAIN:BODY
      SIZE ALLOMETRY.

PMID- 28568195
TI  - ALDEHYDE OXIDASE ALLOZYMES, INVERSIONS AND DDT RESISTANCE IN SOME LABORATORY
      POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28568196
TI  - HERITABILITY OF SOME MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN A SONG SPARROW POPULATION.

PMID- 28568197
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN THE SAILFIN MOLLY, POECILIA LATIPINNA (PISCES:
      POECILIIDAE). I. FIELD EXPERIMENTS.
AB  - Sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) display marked interdemic variation in body
      size. We employed "common-garden" experiments in field enclosures to explore the
      potential role of environmental factors in determining the interdemic phenotypic
      variation in growth rate, age at maturity, and size at maturity. The largest
      single, consistent source of variation for all traits was family identity within
      populations. Environmental effects acted predominantly through family x
      environment interactions. There was little evidence for any intrinsic variation
      among populations once family heterogeneity had been accounted for. In general,
      when statistically significant differences existed, fish raised in a saltwater
      pond grew faster than their broodmates raised in a freshwater pond. Both males
      and females tended to mature at a smaller size and later in the freshwater pond
      than in the saltwater pond. The effects of the environmental conditions differed
      among the three years in which we performed these studies. In only one year was
      there a substantial difference between fish raised under the two environmental
      conditions. These results indicate that direct environmental effects are not
      strong enough to account for the differences in body size among natural
      populations and that intrinsic differences among natural populations are due to
      different frequency distributions of genotypes that are present in all
      populations.

PMID- 28568198
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF NORWAY SPRUCE (PICEA ABIES): CONCORDANCE OF MORPHOLOGICAL
      AND ALLOZYMIC VARIATION.
AB  - This study describes the population structure of Norway spruce (Picea abies) as
      revealed by protein polymorphisms and morphological variation.
      Electrophoretically detectable genetic variability was examined at 22 protein
      loci in 70 populations from the natural range of the species in Europe. Like
      other conifers, Norway spruce exhibits a relatively large amount of genetic
      variability and little differentiation among populations. Sixteen polymorphic
      loci (73%) segregate for a total of 51 alleles, and average heterozygosity per
      population is 0.115. Approximately 5% of the total genetic diversity is explained
      by differences between populations (GST = 0.052), and Nei's standard genetic
      distance is less than 0.04 in all cases. We suggest that the population structure
      largely reflects relatively recent historical events related to the last
      glaciation and that Norway spruce is still in a process of adaptation and
      differentiation. There is a clear geographic pattern in the variation of allele
      frequencies. A major part of the allelefrequency variation can be accounted for
      by a few synthetic variables (principal components), and 80% of the variation of
      the first principal component is "explained" by latitude and longitude. The
      central European populations are consistently depauperate of genetic variability,
      most likely as an effect of severe restrictions of population size during the
      last glaciation. The pattern of differentiation at protein loci is very similar
      to that observed for seven morphological traits examined. This similarity
      suggests that the same evolutionary forces have acted upon both sets of
      characters.

PMID- 28568199
TI  - DYNAMICS OF P-M HYBRID DYSGENESIS IN P-TRANSFORMED LINES OF DROSOPHILA SIMULANS.
AB  - An autonomous P element from Drosophila melanogaster was introduced by
      microinjection into the germ line of its sibling species, Drosophila simulans.
      The invasion kinetics of P elements was studied in seven independent lines over
      60 generations, using gel blotting, in situ hybridization, and dysgenic crosses.
      Some of the main phenotypic and molecular characteristics of P-M hybrid
      dysgenesis were observed, i.e., gonadal dysgenesis (GD sterility), chromosome
      rearrangements, and the occurrence of degenerate P elements. At least four lines
      reached a steady state with complete or nearly complete P-element regulation but
      with a moderate number of P elements (10-24 per haploid genome) and P activity
      (10-35% GD sterility). This failure to obtain strong P strains in D. simulans
      could be due to experimental conditions, a host-dependent component of P
      transposition, or more severe selection against the deleterious effects of this
      transposon.

PMID- 28568200
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY NOVELTY AND ATAVISM IN THE SEMIONOTUS COMPLEX: RELAXED SELECTION
      DURING COLONIZATION OF AN EXPANDING LAKE.
AB  - Fishes of the genus Semionotus diversified in the rift lakes of eastern North
      America during the Mesozoic (Newark Supergroup). Like the well-known cichlid
      fishes of the African great lakes, diverse complexes of semionotids were
      apparently endemic to a number of different lakes. Semionotid fishes show
      considerable morphological diversity in body shape and in a modified row of
      scales termed "dorsal ridge scales." A number of distinct dorsal-ridge-scale
      patterns characterize groups of species from the Newark Supergroup.
      Interestingly, about 5.5% of individuals examined have anomalous scales mixed in
      with otherwise stereotypic dorsal-ridge-scale patterns. In this study, I take
      advantage of nearly annual stratigraphic resolution to determine whether dorsal
      ridge-scale anomalies are concentrated stratigraphically in the early phase of
      lake formation and colonization by semionotids. More than 1,700 specimens of
      semionotid fish were collected from a single lake deposit (cycle P4),
      representing approximately 21,000 years, in the Early-Jurassic Towaco Formation
      of the Newark Basin. Dorsal-ridge-scale anomalies are significantly more frequent
      in older than in younger lake sediments, which I interpret as being the result of
      relaxed selection during the early colonization of the lake. Anomalous variation
      parallels variation in dorsal ridge scales between species-groups. Some anomalies
      are atavisms, while others are unique or foreshadow future evolutionary events.
      One type of anomaly is incorporated into the dorsal-ridge-scale series of two new
      species that gave rise to a radiation in a subsequent lake filling the same
      topographic basin. Because both novelties and atavisms occur in the dorsal-ridge
      scale series of single individuals, I argue that the disruptions of the same
      "developmental program" produced both atavistic and novel traits.

PMID- 28568201
TI  - LACK OF SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ALLOZYME HETEROZYGOSITY AND PHENOTYPIC
      TRAITS IN THE LAND SNAIL CERION.

PMID- 28568202
TI  - SEX-RATIO VARIATION IN THE GYNODIOECIOUS SHRUB HEBE STRICTISSIMA
      (SCROPHULARIACEAE).
AB  - The frequency of females was determined for eight populations of the
      gynodioecious shrub, Hebe strictissima (Scrophulariaceae) and related to plant
      vigor among populations, as indicated by the average number of leaves per shoot.
      The purpose was to test the idea that females should be more prevalent in
      relatively poor sites where plant vigor is low. This hypothesis was based on sex
      ratio theory, coupled with the idea that fruit-set in the polleniferous morph
      (i.e., in "males") is more dependent on vigor than it is in females. I found
      that, within populations, females produced significantly more fruit than males
      and that plant vigor did not differ significantly between the sexes. Fruit-set on
      males was positively and significantly correlated with the number of leaves per
      shoot within plants, among plants within populations, and among populations. No
      such correlations were found for females. The greater plasticity of the males
      altered the relative seed fitnesses of the two morphs among the eight
      populations, resulting in a negative correlation between female frequency and
      average plant vigor. I suggest, in general, that such plasticity may be an
      important factor in sex-ratio variation among populations and that it should be
      incorporated into models of sex-ratio evolution.

PMID- 28568203
TI  - ALTERNATIVE FORMULATIONS OF THE MIXED-MODEL ANOVA APPLIED TO QUANTITATIVE
      GENETICS.

PMID- 28568204
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA RESTRICTION-SITE POLYMORPHISMS IN THE TELEOST FUNDULUS
      HETEROCLITUS SUPPORT SECONDARY INTERGRADATION.
AB  - Fundulus heteroclitus is a highly polymorphic fish distributed along the Atlantic
      coast of North America. Several loci show directional changes in gene frequency
      with latitude (i.e., clines). Such directional changes have classically been
      described by two general models: primary and secondary intergradation.
      Previously, it has not been possible to distinguish between these models for
      Fundulus heteroclitus on the basis of allelic isozymes or morphological data.
      However, recent analysis of mitochondrial-DNA (mtDNA) restriction electromorphs
      helps resolve this issue. Mitochondrial-DNA samples from 48 individuals
      representing four populations were digested with 17 restriction endonucleases.
      After electrophoresis, the sizes of the mtDNA fragments were used to analyze the
      phylogenetic relatedness of fish collected over most of the species range. The
      analysis clearly identified two major races within the species: a northern and a
      southern form. The distribution of the mtDNA electromorphs, combined with
      zoogeographical changes in allelic isozymes and in eggs and adult morphologies
      (published elsewhere), makes the secondary-intergradation hypothesis most
      compelling.

PMID- 28568205
TI  - THE DARWIN-FISHER THEORY OF SEXUAL SELECTION IN MONOGAMOUS BIRDS.
AB  - Males of monogamous birds often show secondary sexual traits that are conspicuous
      but considerably less extreme than those of polygynous species. We develop a
      quantitative-genetic model for the joint evolution of a male secondary sexual
      trait, a female mating preference, and female breeding date, following a theory
      proposed by Darwin and Fisher. Good nutritional condition is postulated to cause
      females to breed early and to have high fecundity. The most-preferred males are
      mated by early-breeding females and receive a sexual-selection advantage from
      those females' greater reproductive success. Results show that conspicuous male
      traits that decrease survival can evolve but suggest that the extent of
      maladaptive evolution is greatly limited relative to what is possible in a
      polygynous mating system for two reasons. First, in the absence of direct fitness
      effects of mate choice on the female, the equilibria for the male trait and
      female preference form a curve whose shape shows that the maximum possible
      strength of sexual selection on males (and hence the potential for maladaptive
      evolution) is constrained. Under certain conditions, a segment of the equilibrium
      curve may become unstable, leading to two alternative stable states for the male
      trait. Second, male parental care will often favor the evolution of mating
      preferences for less conspicuous males. We also find that sexual selection can
      appear in the absence of the nutritional effects emphasized by Darwin and Fisher.
      A review of the literature suggests that the assumptions of the Darwin-Fisher
      mechanism may often be met in monogamous birds and that other mechanisms may
      often reinforce it by producing additional components of sexual selection.

PMID- 28568206
TI  - ENZYME HETEROZYGOSITY, GROWTH RATE, AND VIABILITY IN MYTILUS EDULIS: ANOTHER
      LOOK.

PMID- 28568207
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR POLLINATION ECOTYPES IN THE YELLOW-FRINGED ORCHID, PLATANTHERA
      CILIARIS.
AB  - Platanthera ciliaris is a butterfly-pollinated, terrestrial orchid with a loose
      terminal raceme of 10-50 orange flowers, characterized by a long nectariferous
      spur. In the southeastern United States, P. ciliaris occurs in the Appalachian
      mountains and coastal-plain physiographic provinces, but it is found rarely in
      the intervening Piedmont. In 1983 and 1984, detailed observations of two
      populations within these disjunct areas revealed that the butterfly species that
      serve as the primary pollinators differ sharply. In the mountains, Papilio
      troilus (spicebush swallowtail) was the most frequent and effective visitor,
      whereas in the coastal plain, P. palamedes (palamedes swallowtail) was the
      predominant pollinator. Proboscis lengths of P. troilus (mean = 23.3 mm) were
      significantly shorter than those of P. palamedes (mean = 28.7 mm). Floral
      characters, most notably spur length, also differed significantly between
      mountain (mean = 23.8 mm) and coastal-plain (mean = 25.6 mm) plants. In both 1983
      and 1984, levels of pollinator service, as assessed by rates of removal and
      insertion of pollinia, were higher in the mountains (0.81 and 0.86) than in the
      coastal plain (0.63 and 0.67). In addition, fruit-set was significantly greater
      in mountain (83.9% in 1983, 86.5% in 1984) than in coastal-plain (63.8% in 1983,
      65.5% in 1984) populations. We hypothesize that selection pressure exerted
      through pollinator proboscis lengths has resulted in pollination ecotypes of P.
      ciliaris. The short-spurred mountain plants appear to be in equilibrium with
      their short-tongued butterfly pollinators, receiving high levels of effective
      pollination and achieving high levels of fruit-set. Coastal-plain plants produce
      flowers with longer spurs which, nevertheless, are shorter than optimal for
      insuring that very long-tongued butterflies make contact with their pollinia.
      Thus, effective pollinator service and fruit-set are reduced. Correlation
      analyses in 1984 showed a positive relationship between spur length and fruit-set
      only in the coastal plain. The presence of long-tongued nectar thieves in the
      coastal plain may also contribute to lower effective pollinator service and fruit
      set. Results of reciprocal-transplant studies attempting to determine the genetic
      basis of floral characters, including spur length, were inconclusive but suggest
      that differences between mountain and coastal-plain plants are not due solely to
      phenotypic plasticity.

PMID- 28568208
TI  - CLINES OF CHROMOSOMAL ARRANGEMENTS OF DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA IN SOUTH AMERICA
      EVOLVE CLOSER TO OLD WORLD PATTERNS.

PMID- 28568209
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL GENETICS OF FUNDULUS HETEROCLITUS (L.). VI. GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN
      THE GENE FREQUENCIES OF 15 LOCI.
AB  - Geographic variation in the gene frequencies corresponding to 15 polymorphic
      enzymes were studied in the common killifish Fundulus heteroclitus. Aat-A, Est-B,
      Fum-A, H6pdh-A, Mpi-A and Pgm-B showed clinal variation in allelic frequencies
      along the Atlantic coast of North America, while Aat-B, Ap-A, and the EST-C
      phenotypes did not. The clinal allelic variation of six previously examined loci
      (Ldh-B, Mdh-A, Gpi-B, Idh-A, Pgm-A, and 6-Pgdh-A) was extended to locations
      farther north. Gene diversity was lowest in the cold waters of northern latitudes
      and highest in the warmer waters of southern latitudes. The variety of clinal
      shapes and widths suggests that selection has affected the allelic distributions
      for at least some of these loci. This hypothesis is discussed with regard to the
      range contractions and extensions caused by the glacial advances and retreats
      during the Pleistocene.

PMID- 28568210
TI  - THE EFFECT OF SOFT SELECTION ON THE VARIABILITY OF A QUANTITATIVE TRAIT.
AB  - The equilibrium phenotypic variance (sigma^2) of a normally distributed
      quantitative character P under soft selection is studied. This character is
      assumed to undergo Gaussian stabilizing selection W(p, x) = exp[-(p - x)2 /2w2 ].
      The environmentally determined optimum (x) is a normal variable with variance s2
      . A stable equilibrium with sigma^2=S2-w2 is found, so that sigma^2 increases
      both with increasing environmental heterogeneity and with increasing local
      intensity of stabilizing selection. It is shown that both genetic and
      environmental components of the variance are selected until this equilibrium is
      reached. Habitat selection, supposed to be normal (with variance H2 ) around the
      optimum, also increases the sigma^2 value. Nevertheless, relatively intense local
      stabilizing selection (w < s) and accurate habitat choice (H < s) are required
      for the initial spread and the evolutionary stability of this habitat selection.

PMID- 28568211
TI  - GENOTYPIC VARIATION IN LEAF DAMAGE IN PIPER ARIEIANUM (PIPERACEAE) BY A
      MULTISPECIES ASSEMBLAGE OF HERBIVORES.
AB  - The shrub Piper arieianum (Piperaceae) has a diverse herbivore fauna (95 species
      total) in Costa Rican rain forest. The effect of plant genotype on leaf damage by
      individual herbivore species and total leaf area removed was studied in P.
      arieianum through a cloning experiment. Damage patterns were measured over 3.5
      years for two plots, four genotypes per plot, in the understory of lowland rain
      forest. In both plots, there were significant differences among genotypes in
      total leaf area missing throughout the study period. Rankings of genotypes based
      on overall damage remained constant over time in plot 1 but changed in plot 2.
      Certain individual herbivore species caused significantly higher damage in some
      genotypes than in others; the change in genotype rankings in plot 2 was
      associated with increased damage to particular genotypes by specific herbivore
      groups. The genotype most heavily damaged by a given insect species varied
      depending on the herbivore species; thus, resistance to one herbivore species did
      not necessarily confer resistance against all species. Those herbivore species
      causing the greatest proportion of damage for a given plant changed over time.
      Because total damage resulted from the summation of losses to individual
      herbivore species, whether an individual plant lost more leaf area than its
      neighbors depended on the relative abundance of the herbivore species at any one
      time. Finally, for a portion of the study period in each plot, more heavily
      damaged clones grew less than lesser damaged clones. Together with previous
      reports that naturally growing plants differ significantly in damage and that
      these differences are sufficient to cause fitness differences, the results
      presented here suggest that the herbivores of P. arieianum represent a selective
      force for changes in resistance but that this selective force changes both in
      intensity and quality over time.

PMID- 28568212
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH IN MARINE BIVALVES: RESPONSE TO KOEHN'S REMARKS.

PMID- 28568213
TI  - HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY IN NORTH AMERICAN ARID REGIONS: AN APPROACH USING
      MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA PHYLOGENY IN GRASSHOPPER MICE (GENUS ONYCHOMYS).
AB  - Restriction-endonuclease-site variation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was used to
      investigate patterns of geographic and phylogenetic divergence within the rodent
      genus Onychomys. Onychomys has occupied arid habitats in the western North
      American deserts, shrub-steppes, and grasslands since the late Tertiary. A
      phylogenetic analysis of the total mtDNA restriction-site variation throughout
      the range of Onychomys suggests that the distribution of this genus has been
      affected by the same Quaternary pluvial-interpluvial climatic fluctuations that
      have resulted in the periodic fragmentation of arid habitats in western North
      America. Onychomys mtDNA haplotypes define at least five discrete geographical
      subsets, suggesting that there are five areas of endemism for biota restricted to
      arid and semiarid habitats in North America. The mtDNA-haplotype phylogeny can be
      used to infer an hypothesis of historical relationships among the five areas of
      endemism as follows: ([{(Wyoming Basin + Interior Plains + Colorado Plateaus) +
      (Columbia Basin + Great Basin)} + Gulf Coastal Plain] + Chihuahuan) + Western
      Deserts. The results of this study point to the potential use of mtDNA-haplotype
      phylogenies to reconstruct historical biogeographic events in Quaternary time.
      The utility of mtDNA variation depends in part on the ecology and distribution of
      the species being examined. Therefore, our hypothesized area cladogram can be
      tested by investigating regional relationships in other western North American
      taxa with distributions similar to Onychomys.

PMID- 28568214
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN THE SAILFIN MOLLY, POECILIA LATIPINNA (PISCES:
      POECILIIDAE). II. LABORATORY EXPERIMENT.
AB  - Field studies indicate that the influence of environmental factors on growth rate
      and size and age at maturity in sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) is
      inconsistent over time and suggest that the marked interdemic variation in male
      body size in this species is the result of genetic variation. However, the role
      of specific environmental factors in generating phenotypic variation must be
      studied under controlled conditions unattainable in nature. We raised newborn
      sailfin mollies from four populations in laboratory aquaria under all possible
      combinations of two temperatures, three salinities, and two food levels to
      examine explicitly the influence of these environmental factors. Males were much
      less susceptible than females to temperature variation and were generally less
      plastic than females in terms of all three traits. Members of both sexes matured
      at larger sizes and at later ages in less saline and in cooler environments. Food
      levels were not sufficiently different to affect the traits we studied. The
      effects of temperature and salinity were not synergistic. Males from different
      populations exhibited different average ages and sizes at maturity, but females
      did not. The magnitudes of the effects we found were not substantial enough to
      account for the consistent interdemic differences in male and female body size
      that have been observed previously. Our results also indicate that no single
      environmental factor is solely responsible for the environmental effects observed
      in field experiments on growth and development. These studies, together with
      other work, indicate that the strongest sources of interdemic variation are
      genetic differences in males and differences in postmaturation growth and
      survivorship in females.

PMID- 28568215
TI  - BIOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING GENETIC DIVERSITY IN THE
      SCUTELLARIA ANGUSTIFOLIA COMPLEX (LABIATAE).
AB  - Studies of genetic diversity at isozyme loci were used to examine the
      phylogenetic distribution of several frequently reported population-genetic
      parameters in a putatively monophyletic group of plant species, the Scutellaria
      angustifolia complex. The influence of taxon-specific differences in habitat
      preference, breeding system, degree of endemism, and phylogenetic relatedness was
      examined. Many characters of reproductive morphology traditionally used in
      phylogenetic inference vary with breeding system. To the extent that reproductive
      systems are conservative markers of phylogenetic relationships, one would expect
      the distribution of genetic variation to be similar in closely related taxa.
      Results showed that closely related taxa may exhibit very different genetic
      diversity statistics and that distantly related taxa may exhibit very similar
      genetic-diversity statistics. This suggests that complex patterns of evolution of
      breeding systems and morphological characters have occurred in the ten taxa
      included in the Scutellaria angustifolia complex. Similarity in habitat is not
      associated with similarity in genetic diversity in this group of species.

PMID- 28568216
TI  - PATTERNS OF QUANTITATIVE VARIATION IN LEPIDOPTERAN WING MORPHOLOGY: THE
      CONVERGENT GROUPS HELICONIINAE AND ITHOMIINAE (PAPILIONOIDEA: NYMPHALIDAE).
AB  - Wing morphology has historically been a major focus in taxonomic and evolutionary
      studies of lepidopterans. However, general patterns of quantitative variation and
      diversification in wing sizes and shapes and the factors underlying them have
      been unexplored. A morphometric study of wing variation in the convergent
      heliconine and ithomine butterflies reveals remarkable similarities, both in
      their morphologies at a given size and in their patterns of allometry and
      variability. The groups differ primarily in the relative lengths of inner and
      outer forewing margins, with larger species being more similar across groups than
      smaller ones. Allometric size-scaling variation accounts for more than 90% of the
      total morphological variation in the two groups and thus seems to be the major
      determinant of wing shape. Forewings and hind wings are isometric in size (area)
      with respect to one another; however, wing shape within and among groups is
      significantly allometric, resulting in considerable shape differences between
      small and large species. A strong trend of increasing variability from anterior
      to posterior along the wings is consistent with hypotheses of aerodynamic
      constraint. Wings and bodies represent classical morphological "character suites"
      in that size and shape variation are more tightly correlated within suites than
      among them. Such complexes argue against the overriding importance of aerodynamic
      factors, such as wing load and muscle development, in constraining gross
      morphology.

PMID- 28568217
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH IN MARINE BIVALVES: COMMENTS ON THE PAPER BY ZOUROS,
      ROMERO-DOREY, AND MALLET (1988).

PMID- 28568218
TI  - Integrating renal nutrition guidelines into daily family life: a qualitative
      exploration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renal dietary compliance is challenging for individuals with chronic
      renal disease. Advice may change depending on renal function and medical
      treatment. Although patients seek support from family members with these changes,
      no literature exists with respect to how family members experience the offering
      of this support. The present study aimed to describe and interpret this lived
      experience of family members. METHODOLOGY: Phenomenological qualitative semi
      structured interviews were conducted with 12 adult family members via telephone
      (transcribed verbatim). Framework analysis and the qualitative software nvivo,
      version 10 (QSR International Pty Ltd, Melbourne, VIC, Australia) were used.
      Participants commented on the themes for accuracy of experience representation.
      RESULTS: Four major themes emerged: (i) intrusion of the renal diet; (ii) dealing
      with the recommendations of a renal diet; (iii) seeking a new identity; and (iv)
      transition of family dynamics. Perceived conflicting advice intruded into family
      life. Children in the family resulted in more complex nutritional decisions.
      Continuing a diet to avoid perceived family and wider social judgement was not an
      option. Balance between nurturing the family as a whole and the necessity of
      attending to the specific needs of one individual with renal disease was
      challenging. Transition to a new identity included family members being drawn to
      scientifically guided understandings of nutrition and a medicalisation of daily
      food requirements, which included low prioritisation of children's nutritional
      needs. CONCLUSION: Family members who cooked found the integration of renal
      nutrition guidelines challenging, with children presenting further challenges.
      The present study highlights the need to offer practical and psychological
      support to families who are coping with end-stage renal failure and renal
      nutritional guidelines.

PMID- 28568219
TI  - Neurodevelopmental outcome of isolated ventriculomegaly: a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Data regarding the neurodevelopmental outcome of children diagnosed in
      utero with isolated ventriculomegaly (IVM) are limited and principally founded on
      ultrasound-based studies. Here, we endeavored to assess the outcome of such cases
      in a large-scale, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based study. METHODS: We
      conducted a study on 133 cases of IVM with a documented fetal brain MRI scan.
      Children were assessed at ages 18 to 36 months by using the Vineland Adaptive
      Behavior Scales (VABS). RESULTS: Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales scores were
      within normal range. There was no significant difference between VABS score in
      symmetric versus asymmetric IVM (101.7 vs. 101.6, respectively; p = 0.94), and
      the VABS score of mild IVM was comparable with that of moderate IVM (101.8 vs.
      101; p = 0.8). Only five cases (3.8%) were found to have an abnormal score (<85).
      There was no significant difference in the rate of abnormal scores between mild
      and moderate IVM (2.8% vs. 8.3%, respectively; p = 0.22). CONCLUSION: In cases of
      isolated ventriculomegaly, a normal neurodevelopmental outcome is to be expected;
      moreover, the outcome does not appear to be affected by the severity or asymmetry
      of the ventriculomegaly. Thus, following a meticulous workup, patients can be
      given reassuring counseling regarding the child's prognosis. (c) 2017 John Wiley
      & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568220
TI  - THE ROLES OF POLYEMBRYONY AND EMBRYO VIABILITY IN THE GENETIC SYSTEM OF CONIFERS.

PMID- 28568221
TI  - A CONDITION FOR GROUP SELECTION TO PREVAIL OVER COUNTERACTING INDIVIDUAL
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28568223
TI  - GENETIC INTERACTIONS AT A CONTACT ZONE OF URODERMA BILOBATUM (CHIROPTERA:
      PHYLLOSTOMIDAE).

PMID- 28568222
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL ECOLOGICAL GENETICS IN PLANTAGO. VII. REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN
      POPULATIONS OF P. LANCEOLATA L.

PMID- 28568224
TI  - THE CICHLID FISH OF CUATRO CIENEGAS, MEXICO: DIRECT EVIDENCE OF CONSPECIFICITY
      AMONG DISTINCT TROPHIC MORPHS.

PMID- 28568225
TI  - FIRST MALE SPERM PRIORITY IN THE BOWL AND DOILY SPIDER, FRONTINELLA PYRAMITELA
      (WALCKENAER).

PMID- 28568226
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE SEED PLANTS AND INCLUSIVE FITNESS OF PLANT TISSUES.

PMID- 28568227
TI  - A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF SEX CHROMOSOME ANEUPLOIDY ON X AND Y
      CHROMOSOME MEIOTIC DRIVE.

PMID- 28568228
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF DROSOPHILA BUZZATII. II. HOW MUCH HAS CHROMOSOMAL
      POLYMORPHISM CHANGED IN COLONIZATION?

PMID- 28568229
TI  - NICHE SHIFTS AND COMPETITION IN DARWIN'S FINCHES: GEOSPIZA CONIROSTRIS AND
      CONGENERS.

PMID- 28568230
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY UNDER SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL BREEDING
      SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28568231
TI  - NEOTENIC EVOLUTION OF DELPHINIUM NUDICAULE (RANUNCULACEAE): A HUMMINGBIRD
      POLLINATED LARKSPUR.

PMID- 28568232
TI  - POPULATION SYNCHRONY IN MAYFLIES: A PREDATOR SATIATION HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28568233
TI  - WHEN DOES OUTCROSSING OCCUR IN A MASS-FLOWERING PLANT?

PMID- 28568234
TI  - A MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF DIRECT AND CORRELATED RESPONSE TO
      SELECTION IN THE RAT.

PMID- 28568235
TI  - ADAPTATION OF GRAY SQUIRREL BEHAVIOR TO AUTUMN GERMINATION BY WHITE OAK ACORNS.

PMID- 28568236
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF CLEISTOGAMY IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF
      THE GRASS DANTHONIA SPICATA.

PMID- 28568237
TI  - PATTERNS OF SEED DISPERSAL AND POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS.

PMID- 28568238
TI  - THE STRUCTURE OF THE HYBRID ZONE IN URODERMA BILOBATUM (CHIROPTERA:
      PHYLLOSTOMATIDAE).

PMID- 28568239
TI  - SEA URCHIN DNA SEQUENCE VARIATION AND REDUCED INTERSPECIES DIFFERENCES OF THE
      LESS VARIABLE DNA SEQUENCES.

PMID- 28568240
TI  - SYNCHRONY IN THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS). II. THE
      ADAPTIVE VALUE OF REPRODUCTIVE SYNCHRONY.

PMID- 28568241
TI  - Team structure, skill mix and clinical outcomes.
AB  - The majority of presentations to Australian EDs are for semi-urgent and non
      urgent complaints in the older adult. For these patient's treatment and care is
      typically delivered by loosely organised teams of professionals. While
      substantial research has examined the clearly defined, hierarchical team
      structures used during resuscitation events, little is known about the
      composition and functioning of teams involved in non-urgent patient care in ED.
      Investigation of these team dynamics can identify personal and professional
      factors involved in the delivery of this care and enable the design of teams that
      enhance patient outcomes.

PMID- 28568242
TI  - History cleans up messes: The impact of time in driving divergence and
      introgression in a tropical suture zone.
AB  - Contact zones provide an excellent arena in which to address questions about how
      genomic divergence evolves during lineage divergence. They allow us to both infer
      patterns of genomic divergence in allopatric populations isolated from
      introgression and to characterize patterns of introgression after lineages meet.
      Thusly motivated, we analyze genome-wide introgression data from four contact
      zones in three genera of lizards endemic to the Australian Wet Tropics. These
      contact zones all formed between morphologically cryptic lineage-pairs within
      morphologically defined species, and the lineage-pairs meeting in the contact
      zones diverged anywhere from 3.1 to 5.8 million years ago. By characterizing
      patterns of molecular divergence across an average of 11K genes and fitting
      geographic clines to an average of 7.5K variants, we characterize how patterns of
      genomic differentiation and introgression change through time. Across this range
      of divergences, we find that genome-wide differentiation increases but becomes no
      less heterogeneous. In contrast, we find that introgression heterogeneity
      decreases dramatically, suggesting that time helps isolated genomes "congeal."
      Thus, this work emphasizes the pivotal role that history plays in driving lineage
      divergence.

PMID- 28568243
TI  - Rethinking the starch digestion hypothesis for AMY1 copy number variation in
      humans.
AB  - Alpha-amylase exists across taxonomic kingdoms with a deep evolutionary history
      of gene duplications that resulted in several alpha-amylase paralogs. Copy number
      variation (CNV) in the salivary alpha-amylase gene (AMY1) exists in many taxa,
      but among primates, humans appear to have higher average AMY1 copies than
      nonhuman primates. Additionally, AMY1 CNV in humans has been associated with
      starch content of diets, and one known function of alpha-amylase is its
      involvement in starch digestion. Thus high AMY1 CNV is considered to result from
      selection favoring more efficient starch digestion in the Homo lineage. Here, we
      present several lines of evidence that challenge the hypothesis that increased
      AMY1 CNV is an adaptation to starch consumption. We observe that alpha- amylase
      plays a very limited role in starch digestion, with additional steps required for
      starch digestion and glucose metabolism. Specifically, we note that alpha-amylase
      hydrolysis only produces a minute amount of free glucose with further enzymatic
      digestion and glucose absorption being rate-limiting steps for glucose
      availability. Indeed alpha-amylase is nonessential for starch digestion since
      sucrase-isomaltase and maltase-glucoamylase can hydrolyze whole starch granules
      while releasing glucose. While higher AMY1 CN and CNV among human populations may
      result from natural selection, existing evidence does not support starch
      digestion as the major selective force. We report that in humans alpha-amylase is
      expressed in several other tissues where it may have potential roles of
      evolutionary significance.

PMID- 28568245
TI  - Quality Metrics and Systems Transformation: Are We Advancing Alcohol and Drug
      Screening in Primary Care?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of Oregon's coordinated care organizations
      (CCOs) and pay-for-performance incentive model on completion of screening and
      brief intervention (SBI) and utilization of substance use disorder (SUD)
      treatment services. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Secondary analysis of Medicaid
      encounter data from 2012 to 2015 and semiannual qualitative interviews with
      stakeholders in CCOs. STUDY DESIGN: Longitudinal mixed-methods design with
      simultaneous data collection with equal importance. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION
      METHODS: Qualitative interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded in
      ATLAS.ti. Quantitative data included Medicaid encounters 30 months prior to CCO
      implementation, a 6-month transition period, and 30 months following CCO
      implementation. Data were aggregated by half-year with analyses restricted to
      Medicaid recipients 18-64 years of age enrolled in a CCO, not eligible for
      Medicare coverage or Medicaid expansion. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quantitative
      analysis documented a significant increase in SBI rates coinciding with CCO
      implementation (0.1 to 4.6 percent). Completed SBI was not associated with
      increased initiation in treatment for SUD diagnoses. Qualitative analysis
      highlighted importance of aligning incentives, workflow redesign, and leadership
      to facilitate statewide SBI. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide modest support for use
      of a performance metric to expand SBI in primary care. Future research should
      examine health reform efforts that increase initiation and engagement in SUD
      treatment.

PMID- 28568244
TI  - The prognostic significance of polyclonal bone marrow plasma cells in patients
      with relapsing multiple myeloma.
AB  - Prior studies have revealed that the presence of increasing number of polyclonal
      plasma cells (pPCs) in the bone marrow (BM) are associated with better outcomes
      in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients. This effect has not been
      studied in patients with MM at the time of disease relapse. We determined the
      prognostic value of depletion of pPCs in the BM by 7-color multiparameter flow
      cytometry in a series of 174 relapsing MM patients. The time to next therapy
      (TTNT) in those with <5% pPCs was 9.4 months versus 13.9 months in those with
      >=5% pPCs (P = .0091). The median overall survival (OS) in those with <5% pPCs
      was 21.4 months, while the median OS was not reached in those patients with >=5%
      pPCs (P = .019). Of the 109 patients with standard risk cytogenetics, the median
      OS of those with <5% pPCs was 28.4 months, while the median OS was not reached in
      those with >=5% pPCs (P = .033). As such, <5% pPCs in the BM appears to have
      prognostic utility in identifying a subset of relapsing MM patients, even with
      standard-risk cytogenetics, who have a particularly adverse outcome.

PMID- 28568247
TI  - BREEDING COMPETITION IN A PACIFIC SALMON (COHO: ONCORHYNCHUS KISUTCH): MEASURES
      OF NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - In the breeding system of Pacific salmon, females compete for oviposition
      territories, and males compete to fertilize eggs. The natural selection in
      females and sexual selection in males likely has been responsible for their
      elaborate breeding morphologies and the dimorphism between the sexes. We
      quantified direct-selection intensities during breeding on mature coho salmon
      (Oncorhynchus kisutch), measured for seven phenotypic characters, including three
      secondary sexual characters. Wild and sea-ranched hatchery coho were used to
      enhance the range of phenotypes over which selection could be examined. The fish
      were allowed to breed in experimental arenas where we could quantify components
      of breeding success as well as estimate overall breeding success. We found that
      without competition, natural selection acts only on female body size for
      increased egg production; there is no detectable selection on males for the
      phenotypic distribution we used. Under competition, the opportunity for selection
      increased sixfold among females. Natural selection favored female body size and
      caudal-peduncle (tail) depth. Increased body size meant increased egg production
      and access to nesting territories. The caudal peduncle, used in burst swimming
      and nest digging, influenced both successful egg deposition and nest survival.
      Increasing density increased competition among females, though it did not
      significantly intensify natural selection on their characters. In males,
      competition increased the opportunity for selection 52-fold, which was nine times
      greater than for females. Sexual selection favored male body size and hooked
      snout length, both characters directly influencing male access to spawning
      opportunities. Selection on male body size was also affected significantly by
      breeding density. The ability of large males to control access to spawning
      females decreased at higher densities reflecting an increase in the operational
      sex ratio. Further, the relative success of small males, which could sneak access
      to spawning females, appeared to increase as that of intermediate-sized males
      decreased. Such disruptive selection may be responsible for the evolution of
      alternative reproductive tactics in salmon.

PMID- 28568248
TI  - A MULTILEVEL APPROACH TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION IN ALCOHOL
      DEHYDROGENASE OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Prior studies showed that differences in alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity
      across genotypes of Drosophila are decisive for the outcome of selection by
      ethanol. In the present paper, the effect on ADH activity and egg-to-adult
      survival of combinations of ethanol, propan-2-ol, and acetone in naturally
      occurring concentrations is examined. Propan-2-ol is converted into acetone by
      ADH in vitro. Acetone is considered a competitive inhibitor of ethanol for the
      ADH enzymes. The melanogaster-ADH-S allozyme is two times more sensitive towards
      inhibition by acetone than either simulans-ADH or melanogaster-ADH-F. The
      physiological implications of these in vitro differences for larvae were studied
      in short-term in vivo and long-term exposure experiments. No major differences in
      acetone accumulation or fitness parameters were found between the strains in
      response to ecologically relevant concentrations of acetone or propan-2-ol.
      Ethanol, however, strongly decreased egg-to-pupal survival in both Drosophila
      simulans strains and increased developmental time in four out of the five strains
      tested. Therefore, under physiological conditions only ethanol was shown to act
      as a selective agent on the ADH polymorphism during egg-to-pupa development in
      Drosophila.

PMID- 28568246
TI  - Total sleep time as a predictor of suicidal behaviour.
AB  - Insomnia symptoms are a known predictor of suicide; however, less is known about
      the relationship between hypersomnia and suicide, and how total sleep time may
      better account for suicidal ideation compared with subjective reports of insomnia
      symptoms. In the present secondary data analysis, a squared term confirmed the
      importance of both short and long total sleep time on suicidal behaviour. Total
      sleep time had a significant positive direct effect on suicidal behaviour (b =
      0.20, SE = 0.08, P < 0.05), significant negative direct effects on insomnia
      symptoms (b = -1.67, SE = 0.13, P < 0.0001) and on depressive symptoms (b = 
      1.76, SE = 0.29, P < 0.0001). Depression had a significant positive effect on
      suicidal behaviour (b = 0.17, SE = 0.01, P < 0.0001), and significantly mediated
      the relationship between total sleep time and suicidal behaviour, but insomnia
      symptoms did not. Total sleep time squared had a significant positive
      relationship with suicidal behaviour (b = 0.02, SE = 0.01, P < 0.05), significant
      negative direct effects on insomnia symptoms (b = -0.12, SE = 0.01, P < 0.0001)
      and on depressive symptoms (b = -0.12, SE = 0.02, P < 0.0001). Depression had a
      significant positive effect on suicidal behaviour (b = 0.17, SE = 0.01, P <
      0.0001), and significantly mediated the relationship between total sleep time and
      suicidal behaviour. These results suggest the importance of assessing for total
      sleep time in clinical settings with regard to suicide risk.

PMID- 28568249
TI  - HETEROZYGOTE DEFICIENCIES UNDER LEVENE'S POPULATION SUBDIVISION STRUCTURE.

PMID- 28568250
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF THE MARINE ISOPOD EXCIROLANA: HOW STABLE ARE
      GENE FREQUENCIES AND MORPHOLOGY?
AB  - Excirolana braziliensis is a dioecious marine isopod that lives in the high
      intertidal zone on both sides of tropical America. It lacks a dispersal phase and
      displays a remarkable degree of genetic divergence even between localities less
      than 1 km apart. Nine populations of this nominal species from both sides of the
      Isthmus of Panama and one population of the closely allied species, Excirolana
      chamensis, from the eastern Pacific were studied for 2 yr for allozymic temporal
      variation in 13 loci and for 3 to 4 yr for morphological variation in nine
      characters. The genetic and morphological constitution of 9 out of 10 populations
      remained stable. Allele frequencies at two loci and overall morphology in a tenth
      beach occupied by E. braziliensis changed drastically and significantly between
      1986 and 1988. The change in gene frequency is too great to explain by genetic
      drift occurring during a maximum of 14 generations regardless of assumed
      effective population size; drift is also unlikely to have caused observed changes
      in morphology. Selective survival of a previously rare genotype is more plausible
      but still not probable. The most credible explanation is that the resident
      population at this locality became extinct and that the beach was recolonized by
      immigrants from another locality. Such infrequent episodes of extinction and
      recolonization from a single source may account for the large amount of genetic
      divergence between local populations of E. braziliensis. However, the low
      probability of large temporal genetic change even in a species such as this, in
      which gene flow between local demes is limited and generation time is short,
      suggests that a single sample through time is usually adequate for reconstructing
      the genetic history of populations.

PMID- 28568251
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY, QUEEN NUMBER, AND POLYANDRY IN SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA.
AB  - Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the adaptive significance of
      interspecific variation in mating frequencies by eusocial hymenopteran queens.
      Four of these hypotheses assert that polyandry is advantageous to queens because
      of the resultant increase in genetic variability within colonies (referred to as
      the "GV" hypotheses). Here we compare the frequency of polyandry between
      monogynous (single-queen) and polygynous (multiple-queen) ant species to test the
      hypotheses that (1) multiple mating functions primarily to increase intracolonial
      genetic variability, and (2) mating has costs (such as increased energetic losses
      or risk of predation or venereal disease). If one of the GV hypotheses is true
      and mating is costly, the frequency of polyandry should be lower in polygynous
      species (in which the presence of multiple queens results in low relatedness
      among workers) than in monogynous species. As predicted by the GV hypotheses,
      polyandry is less common among polygynous than among monogynous species.
      Furthermore, it seems that the causal relationship underlying this association is
      that the number of matings by queens depends on the number of queens present in
      the colony (rather than the number of queens being influenced by the number of
      matings), which also supports the GV hypotheses together with the assumption that
      mating has costs.

PMID- 28568252
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SEQUENTIAL LIFE-HISTORY AND JUVENILE TRAITS IN THE
      PARTIALLY SELFING PERENNIAL, AQUILEGIA CAERULEA.
AB  - We determined the genetic basis of several traits related to overall fitness of
      Aquilegia caerulea, a perennial herb of the Rocky Mountains in western North
      America. To obtain measures of heritability relevant to the evolutionary
      potential of wild populations, we performed full and partial diallel crosses and
      studied progeny performance in the field. Based on a joint analysis of two
      designs with a total of 18 parents and 102 crosses, we detected significant
      maternal variance for seed mass and emergence time, but this component was
      negligible for later-expressed traits. Low heritability and evidence that
      maternal effects on seed mass are largely environmental suggest that in this
      population there is little evolutionary potential for change in seed mass under
      conditions experienced during the study. Seed mass varied depending on particular
      combinations of parents and cross direction. Such an interaction can have several
      different biological interpretations, including that particular maternal parents
      selectively provision embryos sired by particular pollen genotypes. Width of the
      first true leaf after 4 wk of growth and leaf size of juvenile plants at years
      one and two were significantly heritable and positively genetically correlated.
      Juvenile survival exhibited significant dominance variance, as expected from
      evidence of inbreeding depression in this trait. In contrast, for other traits
      that exhibit inbreeding depression in this population (seed mass and third-year
      leaf size), dominance variance was negligible.

PMID- 28568253
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28568254
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIANTS AND THE HISTORICAL
      BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER, AMBYSTOMA MACULATUM.
AB  - I analyzed geographic partitioning of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction-site
      variants in the spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum. Two highly divergent and
      geographically separate genetic lineages were identified that differed by a
      minimum of 19 restriction sites (6% sequence divergence). One of the lineages has
      a disjunct distribution with very closely related haplotypes occurring in
      Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia. The other lineage is found in
      Michigan, Illinois, and Alabama. The geographic separation of highly divergent
      mtDNA haplotypes, a pattern that was predicted based on the sedentary nature of
      these salamanders, is evidence for long-term barriers to gene flow. In contrast,
      the large-scale disjunction of very similar haplotypes suggests recent, long
      distance gene flow and does not match the phylogeographic expectation for a small
      terrestrial vertebrate. I explain this potential contradiction in the level of
      importance assigned to gene flow by a scenario in which historical barriers to
      gene flow account for the two divergent mtDNA assemblages, but stochastic sorting
      of ancestral polymorphism is responsible for the large-scale geographic
      disjunction. Ten of 16 populations collected in the Ozark Highlands were fixed
      for the same haplotype. I attribute this lack of detectable variation to recent
      colonization of this area, a hypothesis that is supported by paleoecological data
      and demonstrates the potential benefits of combining data from paleobotany,
      geology, and other disciplines to reconstruct the historical biogeography of a
      species.

PMID- 28568255
TI  - ALCOHOL TOLERANCE, ADH ACTIVITY, AND ECOLOGICAL NICHE OF DROSOPHILA SPECIES.
AB  - In vitro alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity was measured in adults of species
      belonging to Drosophila and to the related genus Zaprionus. Data were analyzed
      according to the known breeding sites and the level of ethanol tolerance of these
      species. Alcohol dehydrogenase activity was assayed with both ethanol (E) and
      isopropanol (I). Our results show a very broad range of activities among the 71
      species investigated, the ratio of the highest value observed (D. melanogaster)
      to the lowest (D. pruinosa) being 65:1. A general positive correlation was found
      between the level of ADH activity and the capacity to detoxify ethanol.
      Nevertheless, many species show exceptions to this rule. Contrary to a logical
      expectation, adaptation to high alcoholic resources, which has been a recurrent
      evolutionary event, was not mediated by a more efficient use of ethanol, that is,
      an increase of the E/I ratio. This ratio seems to be quite variable according to
      the phylogeny and is especially low in the subgenus Sophophora as well as in
      Zaprionus. Alcohol tolerance clearly is related to the larval habitat of the
      species and shows that adaptation to alcoholic resources has been a major
      evolutionary challenge in drosophilids. This adaptation is not related to
      phylogeny, having occurred independently several times during the evolution of
      the group. Finally, it should be borne in mind that, besides metabolization and
      detoxification, other physiological processes such as nervous-system tolerance or
      ethanol excretion may be involved in ethanol tolerance, and such functions also
      should be investigated. Environmental ethanol, which is certainly a major
      ecological parameter for many drosophilids, has selected a diversity of
      physiological adaptations, all related to the Adh locus, but presumably much more
      complicated than was previously believed.

PMID- 28568256
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF PROTEIN VARIATION IN THE BLOTCHED FORMS
      OF SALAMANDERS OF THE ENSATINA COMPLEX (AMPHIBIA: PLETHODONTIDAE).
AB  - Geographic variation in 23 to 29 protein-encoding genetic loci was examined in 48
      populations of the Ensatina complex, a "ring species" distributed around the
      Central Valley of California. The samples span two critical links in the chain of
      morphologically distinct units: the transition from the unblotched to blotched
      color pattern types in the vicinity of Lassen Peak, northeastern California, and
      a geographic gap in the range of the complex in the San Gabriel Mountains,
      southern California. A general pattern of isolation by distance with a regular
      buildup of genetic distance correlated with increases in geographic distance
      characterizes the populations studied, with the exception of a little
      differentiated group of populations in the northern Sierra Nevada; this region is
      postulated to be a zone of genetic reticulation characterized by relatively high
      gene flow. An adaptively significant color pattern is thought to have spread into
      the northern Sierra Nevada from the south, but protein variants have been
      introduced both from the north and the south. Genetic distances across the San
      Gabriel Mountain gap match expectations from the pattern of buildup of genetic
      distance as a function of geographic distance elsewhere in the complex. A
      phylogenetic analysis of the protein data supports the reticulation hypothesis;
      whereas the southernmost populations currently do constitute a monophyletic
      assemblage, an "extinction experiment" demonstrates that the distinction could be
      the result of the recent extinction of populations in a present gap in our
      sampling. The Ensatina complex appears to be a dynamic entity representing
      several stages in the evolution of species. It is a ring species, and whereas
      various taxonomic arrangements are possible, no taxonomic changes are proposed.

PMID- 28568257
TI  - MATING PATTERN AND FITNESS-COMPONENT ANALYSIS ASSOCIATED WITH INVERSION
      POLYMORPHISM IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA BUZZATII.
AB  - Direct studies of mating success or mating pattern associated with Mendelian
      factors rarely have been carried out in nature. From the samples taken for the
      standard analyses of selection components, it is not usually possible to obtain
      the mating table, and only directional selection for male mating success can be
      detected. Both processes, mating pattern and differential mating probability,
      together with other fitness components, have been investigated for the inversion
      polymorphism of a natural population of the cactophilic species Drosophila
      buzzatii. Two independent samples of adult flies were collected: nonmating or
      single individuals (base population) and mating pairs (mating population). All
      individuals were karyotyped for the second and fourth chromosomes. A sequence of
      models with increasing simplicity was fitted to the data to test null hypotheses
      of no selection and random union of gametes and karyotypes. The main results were
      (1) no deviations from random mating were found; (2) differential mating
      probability was nonsignificant in both sexes; (3) inversion and karyotypic
      frequencies did not differ between sexes; and (4) karyotypic frequencies did not
      depart from Hardy-Weinberg expectations. These results are discussed in light of
      complementary evidence showing the need for interpreting with caution no-effect
      hypotheses such as the ones tested here. The use of complementary selective tests
      in these studies is suggested.

PMID- 28568258
TI  - SOME EVOLUTIONARY POSSIBILITIES FOR A MICROBE THAT CAUSES INCOMPATIBILITY IN ITS
      HOST.

PMID- 28568259
TI  - GENETIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE AMONG MORPHOTYPES OF THE ISOPOD EXCIROLANA
      ON THE TWO SIDES OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.
AB  - Excirolana braziliensis is a dioecious marine isopod that lives in the high
      intertidal zone of sandy beaches on both sides of Central and South America. It
      possesses no larval stage and has only limited means of adult dispersal. Indirect
      estimates of gene flow have indicated that populations from each beach exchange
      less than one propagule per generation. Multivariate morphometrics have
      discovered three morphs of this species in Panama, two of them closely related
      and found on opposite sides of Central America ("C morph" in the Caribbean and
      "C' morph" in the eastern Pacific), the third found predominantly in the eastern
      Pacific ("P morph"). Though the P and C' morphs are seldom found on the same
      beach, they have overlapping latitudinal ranges in the eastern Pacific. A related
      species, Excirolana chamensis, has been described from the Pacific coast of
      Panama. Each beach contains populations that remain morphologically and
      genetically stable, but a single drastic change in both isozymes and morphology
      has been documented. We studied isozymes and multivariate morphology of 10
      populations of E. braziliensis and of one population of E. chamensis. Our
      objective was to assess the degree of genetic and morphological variation, the
      correlation of divergence on these two levels of integration, the phylogenetic
      relationships between morphs, and the possible contributions of low vagility, low
      gene flow, and occasional extinction and recolonization to the genetic
      structuring of populations. Genetic distance between the P morph, on one hand,
      and the other two morphotypes of E. braziliensis, on the other, was as high as
      the distance between E. braziliensis and E. chamensis. Several lines of evidence
      agree that E. chamensis and the P morph had diverged from other morphs of E.
      braziliensis before the rise of the Panama Isthmus separated the C and C' forms,
      and that the P morph constitutes a different species. A high degree of genetic
      differentiation also exists between populations of the same morph. On the isozyme
      level, every population can be differentiated from every other on the basis of at
      least one diagnostically different locus, regardless of geographical distance or
      morphological affiliation. Morphological and genetic distances between
      populations are highly correlated. However, despite the high degree of local
      variation, evolution of E. braziliensis as a whole has not been particularly
      rapid; divergence between the C and C' morphs isolated for 3 million yr by the
      Isthmus of Panama is not high by the standard of within-morph differentiation or
      by comparison with other organisms similarly separated. Alleles that are common
      in one population may be absent from another of the same morph, yet they appear
      in a different morph in a separate ocean. The high degree of local
      differentiation, the exclusive occupation of a beach by one genotype with rare
      arrival of foreign individuals that cannot interbreed freely with the residents,
      the genetic stability of populations with infrequent complete replacement by
      another genetic population, and the sharing by morphs of polymorphisms that are
      not shared by local populations, all suggest a mode of evolution concentrated in
      rare episodes of extinction and recolonization, possibly coupled with exceptional
      events of gene flow that help preserve ancestral variability in both oceans.

PMID- 28568260
TI  - POLYPHYLY OF THE BLACKBIRD GENUS AGELAIUS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSUMPTIONS OF
      MONOPHYLY IN COMPARATIVE STUDIES.
AB  - A phylogeny for Agelaius blackbirds was constructed using sequence data from an
      890 base-pair (bp) region of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene in nine species
      of Agelaius and a single species from all but 1 of the 28 described blackbird
      genera and subgenera. The genus was found to be polyphyletic with the South
      American members of Agelaius more closely related to other South American
      blackbird genera. Application of bootstrap and jackknife manipulations supports
      this conclusion. That this relatively well-known genus is polyphyletic represents
      a warning to those attempting to construct phylogenies without first
      demonstrating monophyly of the ingroup. The conclusion that Agelaius is
      polyphyletic necessitates (1) the reinterpretation of previous studies that
      assumed monophyly and (2) the initiation of a variety of new comparative
      behavioral and ecological studies suggested by this finding.

PMID- 28568261
TI  - EFFECTS OF SERIAL INBREEDING ON FITNESS COMPONENTS IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS.
AB  - Studies of inbreeding depression in wild plants customarily compare the fitness
      of outcrossed progeny to progeny derived from one generation of self-pollination.
      We compare levels of inbreeding depression in a greenhouse in two populations of
      jewelweed using progeny derived from random outcrosses, one generation of self
      pollination, and three generations of selling. The progeny have expected
      inbreeding coefficients of, respectively, 0, 0.5, and 0.875. Seedling
      survivorship declined linearly with the level of inbreeding in both populations.
      Inbreeding also increased the variability of emergence date. Maternal family
      membership affected early seedling performance and often interacted significantly
      with the level of inbreeding. In contrast, path analyses reveal that inbreeding
      had both negative linear and positive quadratic direct effects on seed and final
      plant weight, causing the highly inbred progeny to outperform progeny derived
      from one generation of selfing. These results suggest either the rapid purging of
      deleterious alleles or diminishing epistasis among the loci affecting these
      characters. It is not clear why the loci affecting survival responded
      differently.

PMID- 28568262
TI  - MORPHOLOGICAL VERSUS GENETIC MARKERS IN CLASSIFYING HYBRID PLANTS.

PMID- 28568263
TI  - THE DUAL ROLE OF SELECTION AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY AS REFLECTED IN GENETIC
      CORRELATIONS.
AB  - The patterns of genetic correlations between a series of eye and antenna
      characters were compared among two sets of spring-dwelling and cave-dwelling
      populations of Gammarus minus. The two sets of populations originate from
      different drainages and represent two separate invasions of cave habitats from
      surface-dwelling populations. Matrix correlations, using permutation tests,
      indicated significant correlations both between populations in the same basin and
      from the same habitat. The technique of biplot, which allows for the simultaneous
      consideration of relationships between different genetic correlations and
      different populations, was used to further analyze the correlation structure. A
      rank-3 biplot indicated that spring and cave populations were largely
      differentiated by eye-antennal correlations, whereas basins were differentiated
      by both eye-antennal and antennal-antennal correlations. Eye-antennal
      correlations, which are likely to be subject to selection, were most similar
      within habitats, which are likely to have similar selective regimes.

PMID- 28568264
TI  - VARIABLE SELECTION ON EUROSTA'S GALL SIZE. II. A PATH ANALYSIS OF THE ECOLOGICAL
      FACTORS BEHIND SELECTION.
AB  - We examined phenotypic selection exerted by natural enemies on the gall-making
      fly Eurosta solidaginis in an extensive field study of 16 populations, spanning
      four generations. Gall-makers that induce small galls are vulnerable to the
      attack of Eurytoma gigantea. This imposes upward directional selection on gall
      size. Insectivorous birds, predominantly the downy woodpecker, are more likely to
      attack larvae that induce large galls than small ones, and this imposes downward
      directional selection. We used path analysis to explore the relative
      contributions of these natural enemies to the net directional selection on gall
      size. The path models further examined several ecological factors that influence
      selection intensity through their effects on parasitoid and bird attack rates.
      Net directional selection varied more strongly with E. gigantea attack than bird
      attack. Competitive interactions among birds and the three parasitoid species,
      including E. gigantea, were evidenced by low winter bird attack rates in fields
      where a high proportion of galls contained the overwintering parasitoids.
      Eurytoma gigantea attack was heavier in fields where mean gall size was small and
      bird attack heavier in fields where mean gall size was large. Neither birds nor
      E. gigantea showed simple density-dependent attack. Data suggested a form of
      frequency-dependent attack by birds but not by E. gigantea.

PMID- 28568265
TI  - ASSORTATIVE MATING AND THE ADAPTIVE LANDSCAPE.
AB  - The ability of a population to shift from one adaptive peak to another was
      examined for a two-locus model with different degrees of assortative mating,
      selection, and linkage. As expected, if the proportion of the population that
      mates assortatively increases, so does its ability to shift to a new peak.
      Assortative mating affects this process by allowing the mean fitness of a
      population to increase monotonically as it passes through intermediate gene
      frequencies on the way to a new, higher, homozygotic peak. Similarly, if the
      height of the new peak increases or selection against intermediates becomes less
      severe, the population becomes more likely to shift to a new peak. Close linkage
      also helps the shift to a new adaptive peak and acts similarly to assortative
      mating, but it is not necessary for such a shift as was previously thought. When
      a population shifts to a new peak, the number of generations required is
      significantly less than that needed to return to the original peak when that
      happens. The short period of time required may be an explanation for rapid
      changes in the geological record. Under extremely high degrees of assortative
      mating, the shift takes longer, presumably because of the difficulty of breaking
      up less favored allelic combinations.

PMID- 28568266
TI  - SPECIATION BY POLYPLOIDY IN TREEFROGS: MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF THE TETRAPLOID, HYLA
      VERSICOLOR.
AB  - Speciation by polyploidy is rare in animals, yet, in vertebrates, there is a
      disproportionate concentration of polyploid species in anuran amphibians.
      Sequences from the cytochrome b gene of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were used
      to determine phylogenetic relationships among 37 populations of the diploid
      tetraploid species pair of gray treefrogs, Hyla chrysoscelis and Hyla versicolor.
      The diploid species, H. chrysoscelis, consists of an eastern and a western
      lineage that have 2.3% sequence divergence between them. The tetraploid species,
      H. versicolor, had at least three separate, independent origins. Two of the
      tetraploid lineages are more closely related to one or the other of the diploid
      lineages (0.18%-1.4% sequence divergence) than they are to each other (1.9%-3.4%
      sequence divergence). The maternal ancestor of the third tetraploid lineage is
      unknown. The phylogenetic relationships between the two species and among
      lineages within each species support the hypothesis of multiple origins of the
      tetraploid lineages.

PMID- 28568267
TI  - PHYLOGENIES WITHOUT FOSSILS.
AB  - Phylogenies that are reconstructed without fossil material often contain
      approximate dates for lineage splitting. For example, particular nodes on
      molecular phylogenies may be dated by known geographic events that caused
      lineages to split, thereby calibrating a molecular clock that is used to date
      other nodes. On the one hand, such phylogenies contain no information about
      lineages that have become extinct. On the other hand, they do provide a
      potentially useful testing ground for ideas about evolutionary processes. Here we
      first ask what such reconstructed phylogenies should be expected to look like
      under a birth-death process in which the birth and death parameters of lineages
      remain constant through time. We show that it is possible to estimate both the
      birth and death rates of lineages from the reconstructed phylogenies, even though
      they contain no explicit information about extinct lineages. We also show how
      such phylogenies can reveal mass extinctions and how their characteristic
      footprint can be distinguished from similar ones produced by density-dependent
      cladogenesis.

PMID- 28568268
TI  - SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM AND EGG-SIZE ALLOMETRY IN BIRDS.
AB  - We tested the hypothesis that egg size should evolve in sexually dimorphic birds
      to reduce costs associated with more rapid growth by nestlings of the larger sex.
      Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that in species in which males were
      larger, females laid proportionately larger eggs as sexual size dimorphism
      increased. However, this result was also consistent with the hypothesis that egg
      size varied allometrically with both male and female body size. Furthermore we
      found that in species in which females were larger, relative egg size decreased
      as size dimorphism increased, which is consistent with the "allometry hypothesis"
      but not the "cost-reduction hypothesis. That male body size contributes to the
      allometric relationship between egg size and body size suggests that the basis
      for the allometric relationship is not wholly a mechanical one stemming from the
      physical requirements of developing, transporting, and laying an egg of a
      particular size. Rather, the relationship seems likely to be tied more directly
      to body size itself the tact that male body size influences a female trait
      suggests that egg size-body size relationships otter some scope for investigating
      the basis for allometric relationships in general.

PMID- 28568269
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND PRIOR INBREEDING AMONG
      POPULATIONS OF FOUR MIMULUS TAXA.
AB  - When recessive mutations are the primary cause of inbreeding depression, a
      negative relationship between the levels of prior inbreeding and inbreeding
      depression is expected. We tested this prediction using 15 populations chosen a
      priori to represent a wide range of prior inbreeding among four closely related
      taxa of the Mimulus guttatus species complex. Artificially selfed and outcrossed
      progeny were grown under controlled growth-chamber conditions, and inbreeding
      depression was estimated for each population as one minus the ratio of the
      fitness of selfed to outcrossed progeny. Estimates of inbreeding depression
      varied from 0% to 68% among populations. Inbreeding coefficients, estimated from
      electrophoretic assay of field-collected progenies, ranged from 0.02 to 0.76. All
      five fitness traits displayed a negative association between inbreeding
      depression and the inbreeding coefficient, but only height showed a statistically
      significant correlation. Inbreeding depression was also not correlated with the
      level of genetic variability. In addition, populations with similar levels of
      prior inbreeding showed significant differences of inbreeding depression, whereas
      populations with different levels of prior inbreeding showed similar inbreeding
      depression. Within populations, inbreeding depression did not differ between
      progeny selfed one versus two generations. Our results are weakly consistent with
      the recessive mutation model of inbreeding depression, but suggest that
      additional factors, including genotype-by-environment interaction and complex
      modes of inheritance, may influence the expression of inbreeding depression.

PMID- 28568270
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF UNPALATABILITY AND WARNING COLORATION IN SOFT-BODIED MARINE
      INVERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28568271
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND LEVELS OF GENE FLOW IN THE MEDITERRANEAN LAND SNAIL
      ALBINARIA CORRUGATA (PULMONATA: CLAUSILIIDAE).
AB  - The amount of gene flow among local populations partly determines the relative
      importance of genetic drift and natural selection in the differentiation of such
      populations. Land snails, because of their limited powers for dispersal, may be
      particularly likely to show such differentiation. In this study, we directly
      estimate gene flow in Albinaria corrugata, a sedentary, rock-dwelling gastropod
      from Crete, by mark-recapture studies. In the same area, 23 samples were taken
      and studied electrophoretically for six polymorphic enzyme loci. The field
      studies indicate that the population structure corresponds closely to the
      stepping-stone model: demes are present on limestone boulders that are a few
      meters apart, and dispersal takes place mainly between adjacent demes. Average
      deme size (N) is estimated at 29 breeding individuals and the proportion of
      migrants per generation at 0.195 (Nm = 5.7). We find no reason to assume long
      distance dispersal, apart from dispersal along occasional stretches of suitable
      habitat. Genetic subdivision of the population, as derived from FST values,
      corresponds to the direct estimate only at the lowest spatial level (distance
      between sample sites < 10 m), where values for Nm of 5.4 and 17.6 were obtained.
      In contrast, at the larger spatial scales, FST values give gene-flow estimates
      that are incompatible with the expected amount of gene flow at these scales. We
      explain these discrepancies by arguing that gene flow is in fact extremely
      limited, making correct estimates of Nm from FST impossible at the larger spatial
      scales. In view of these low levels of gene flow, it is concluded that both
      genetic drift and natural selection may play important roles in the genetic
      differentiation of this species, even at the lowest spatial scales.

PMID- 28568272
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR WIDESPREAD COURTSHIP DURING COPULATION IN 131 SPECIES OF INSECTS AND
      SPIDERS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CRYPTIC FEMALE CHOICE.
AB  - Male courtship behavior is generally thought to function prior to copulation, as
      an inducement to the female to allow the male to copulate with her; this study
      indicates however, that male courtship during and following copulation
      ("copulatory courtship") is common in insects and spiders (81% of 131 species in
      102 genera and 49 families, mostly Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, and
      Araneioidea). Copulatory courtship is apparently evolutionarily labile, as
      expected if it is under sexual selection; intrageneric variation occurred in all
      17 genera in which more than one species was observed. In 81% of 94 species with
      copulatory courtship, the male abandoned the female soon after copulation ended;
      thus, copulatory courtship appears not to function generally to induce acceptance
      of further copulatory attempts. The most likely explanation for copulatory
      courtship is that it represents attempts by males to influence cryptic female
      choice. This suggests that an aspect of sexual selection by female choice not
      considered by Darwin may be more important than previously appreciated and that
      the common practice in evolutionary studies of measuring male reproductive
      success by counting numbers of copulations may sometimes be misleading because of
      cryptic female choice during and after copulation.

PMID- 28568273
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF MATE PREFERENCES FOR MULTIPLE SEXUAL ORNAMENTS.
AB  - Males of many species use multiple sexual ornaments in their courtship display.
      We investigate the evolution of female sexual preferences for more than a single
      male trait by the handicap process. The handicap process assumes that ornaments
      are indicators of male quality, and a female benefits from mate choice by her
      offspring inheriting "good genes" that increase survival chances. A new handicap
      model is developed that allows equilibria to be given in terms of selection
      pressures, independent of genetic parameters. Multiple sexual preferences evolve
      if the overall cost of choice is not greatly increased by a female using
      additional male traits in her assessment of potential mates. However, only a
      single preference is evolutionarily stable if assessment of additional male
      traits greatly increases the overall cost of choice (more than expected by
      combining the cost of each preference independently). Any single preference can
      evolve, the outcome being determined by initial conditions. The evolution of one
      preference effectively blocks the evolution of others, even for traits that are
      better indicators of male quality. Comparison is made with sexual selection
      caused by Fisher's runaway process in which male traits are purely attractive
      characters. This shows that sexual preferences for multiple Fisher traits are
      likely to evolve alongside preference for a single handicap trait that indicates
      male quality. This is a general difference in the evolutionary outcome of these
      two causes of sexual selection.

PMID- 28568275
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE BARN SWALLOW (HIRUNDO RUSTICA). IV. PATTERNS OF
      FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY AND SELECTION AGAINST ASYMMETRY.
AB  - The patterns of variation in fluctuating asymmetry were studied in four
      morphological characters of the barn swallow Hirundo rustica. The level of
      absolute and relative asymmetry was larger in the secondary sexual character
      "outer tail length" than in three nonsexual morphological traits (wing, central
      tail, and tarsus length). The extent of individual asymmetry in outer tail length
      was negatively correlated with tail-ornament size, whereas the relationship
      between asymmetry of all other morphological characters and their size was flat
      or U-shaped. Asymmetry in outer tail length was unrelated to asymmetry in other
      morphological characters, whereas asymmetries in the length of wing, central
      tail, and tarsus were positively correlated. Male bam swallows exhibited larger
      asymmetry in outer tail length than females. Asymmetry of most morphological
      traits exhibited intermediate repeatabilities between years, with the exception
      of male and female outer tail length, which were highly repeatable. Tail
      asymmetry of offspring weakly, though significantly, resembled that of their
      parents. Asymmetry in wing and outer tail length was also significantly related
      to several fitness components. Male barn swallows that acquired a mate were less
      asymmetric in wing and outer tail length than unmated males. Females with more
      asymmetrical tails laid eggs significantly later. Annual reproductive success was
      unrelated to fluctuating asymmetry. Male barn swallows that survived were less
      asymmetric in wing and outer tail length than nonsurvivors, whereas female
      survivors were less asymmetric in outer tail length than nonsurvivors. These
      results suggest that levels of fluctuating asymmetry in barn swallows are
      associated with differences in fitness.

PMID- 28568274
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL VERSUS MITOCHONDRIAL DNA EVOLUTION: TRACKING THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
      OF THE SOUTHWESTERN EUROPEAN POPULATIONS OF THE SOREX ARANEUS GROUP (MAMMALIA,
      INSECTIVORA).
AB  - The shrews of the Sorex araneus group have undergone a spectacular chromosome
      evolution. The karyotype of Sorex granarius is generally considered ancestral to
      those of Sorex coronatus and S. araneus. However, a sequence of 777 base pairs of
      the cytochrome b gene of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) produces a quite different
      picture: S. granarius is closely related to the populations of S. araneus from
      the Pyrenees and from the northwestern Alps, whereas S. coronatus and S. araneus
      from Italy and the southern Alps represent two well-separated lineages. It is
      suggested that mtDNA and chromosomal evolution are in this case largely
      independant processes. Whereas mtDNA haplotypes are closely linked to the
      geographical history of the populations, chromosomal mutations were probably
      transmitted from one population to another. Available data suggest that the
      impressive chromosome polymorphism of this group is quite a recent phenomenon.

PMID- 28568277
TI  - IS DECREASED FREQUENCY OF MATING AMONG CONSPECIFICS A COST OF SYMPATRY IN
      SALAMANDERS?

PMID- 28568276
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF SEED DISPERSAL IN THREE SYMPATRIC FOREST HERBS. I.
      HIERARCHICAL POPULATION-GENETIC STRUCTURE.
AB  - To examine the effects of seed dispersal on spatial genetic structure, we compare
      three sympatric species of forest herbs in the family Apiaceae whose fruits
      differ widely in morphological adaptations for animal-attached dispersal.
      Cryptotaenia canadensis has smooth fruits that are gravity dispersed, whereas
      Osmorhiza claytonii and Sanicula odorata fruits have appendages that facilitate
      their attachment to animals. The relative seed-dispersal ability among species,
      measured as their ability to remain attached to mammal fur, is ranked Sanicula >
      Osmorhiza > Cryptotaenia. We use a nested hierarchical sampling design to analyze
      genetic structure at spatial scales ranging from a few meters to hundreds of
      kilometers. Genetic differentiation among population subdivisions, estimated by
      average genetic distance and hierarchical F-statistics, has an inverse
      relationship with dispersal ability such that Cryptotaenia > Osmorhiza >
      Sanicula. In each species, genetic differentiation increases with distance among
      population subdivisions. Stochastic variation in gene flow, arising from seed
      dispersal by attachment to animals, may partly explain the weak relationship
      between pairwise spatial and genetic distance among populations and heterogeneity
      in estimates of single locus F-statistics. A hierarchical island model of gene
      flow is invoked to describe the effects of seed dispersal on population genetic
      structure. Seed dispersal is the predominant factor affecting variation in gene
      flow among these ecologically similar, taxonomically related species.

PMID- 28568278
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION OF SYMPATRIC PATIRIELLA SPECIES (ECHINODERMATA: ASTEROIDEA) IN NEW
      SOUTH WALES.
AB  - Three species of the asteroid genus Patiriella occur sympatrically in New South
      Wales and the possibility for hybridization among them was examined through a
      series of cross-fertilization experiments. Patiriella calcar and P. gunnii are
      morphologically distinct as adults but indistinguishable as larvae. Patiriella
      exigua is morphologically distinct in both its adult and larval morphologies. The
      gametes of P. calcar and P. gunnii were reciprocally compatible: laboratory
      crosses between these species produced viable hybrid juveniles. In crosses
      between female P. calcar and male P. gunnii, most of the juveniles metamorphosed
      with an arm number intermediate between that of the parents, whereas crosses
      between female P. gunnii and male P. calcar produced juveniles with an arm number
      more similar to the maternal phenotype. Heterospecific crosses with P. exigua
      resulted in low fertilization rates, and viable hybrids were not produced. This
      species appears capable of self-fertilization. Because hybrids between P. calcar
      and P. gunnii were viable, neither gametic incompatibility nor hybrid inviability
      appears to ensure reproductive isolation between these species. Ecological or
      habitat segregation and temporal separation in breeding may isolate these species
      in the field. The results demonstrate that if gamete surface recognition
      molecules are involved in fertilization of P. calcar and P. gunnii, then they are
      not strongly species specific, at least at the sperm concentrations used in this
      study. Reproductive isolation between these species has evolved despite their
      gametic compatibility. In contrast, P. exigua is isolated from its congeners
      because of gametic incompatibility and several features characteristic of its
      reproduction and development. The implications of these findings for reproductive
      isolation and speciation of Patiriella and for the evolution of reproductive
      isolation in free-spawning marine organisms are discussed.

PMID- 28568279
TI  - A POSTINSEMINATION BARRIER TO FERTILIZATION ISOLATES TWO CLOSELY RELATED GROUND
      CRICKETS.
AB  - Postinsemination barriers to fertilization generally have been ignored by
      biologists interested in the origin and nature of reproductive isolation among
      closely related terrestrial animals. Yet evidence presented in this paper
      indicates that such a barrier bears primary responsibility for the reproductive
      isolation between the ground crickets Allonemobius fasciatus and Allonemobius
      socius. Postinsemination barriers to fertilization may isolate many other
      terrestrial animals as well, but the design of most laboratory hybridization
      experiments precludes the detection of these barriers.

PMID- 28568280
TI  - CROSSING-DISTANCE EFFECTS IN DELPHINIUM NELSONII: OUTBREEDING AND INBREEDING
      DEPRESSION IN PROGENY FITNESS.
AB  - Depending on its genetic causes, outbreeding depression in quantitative
      characters may occur first in the free-living F1 generation produced by a wide
      cross. In 1981-1985, we generated F1 progenies by hand-pollinating larkspurs
      (Delphinium nelsonii) with pollen from 1-m, 3-m, 10-m, or 30-m distances. From
      the spatial genetic structure indicated by previous electrophoretic and
      reciprocal transplantation studies, we estimate that these crosses range from
      being inbred (f ~ 0.06) to outbred. We planted 594 seeds from 66 maternal
      sibships under natural conditions. As of 1992, there was strong evidence for both
      inbreeding depression and outbreeding depression. Progeny from intermediate
      crossing distances grew approximately twice as large as more inbred or outbred
      progeny in the first 5 yr after planting (P = 0.013, repeated measures ANOVA),
      and survived almost 1 yr longer on average (contrast of 3-m and 10-m treatments
      versus 1 m and 30 m; P = 0.028, ANOVA). Twenty maternal sibships produced
      flowering individuals; only four and two of these represented 1-m and 30-m
      crossing distances, respectively (P = 0.021, G-test). The cumulative fitness of
      intermediate distance sibships averaged about twice that of 1-m sibships, and
      five to eight times that of 30-m sibships (P = 0.017, ANOVA). Thus, even though
      progeny of 1-m crosses were inbred to a degree only about one-eighth that of
      selling, inbreeding depression approximated 50%, and outbreeding depression
      equaled or exceeded 50% for all fitness components.

PMID- 28568281
TI  - GLOBAL SURVEY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES IN THE THREESPINE STICKLEBACK:
      EVIDENCE FOR RECENT MIGRATIONS.
AB  - Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were used to assess
      the matriarchal genetic structure of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus
      aculeatus. A 747 base-pair (bp) fragment of the cytochrome b was sequenced from
      36 individuals collected from 25 localities in Europe, North America, and Japan.
      Two major divergent clades were revealed: one widespread in Japan but with
      representatives in some Alaskan and British Columbian lakes and the other common
      in Europe and North America. A simple diagnostic test using the polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) and a restriction enzyme was used to assay additional individuals,
      confirming the absence of the Japanese clade in the Atlantic basin. Geographic
      distribution of mtDNA variation suggests (1) a recent origin of the Atlantic
      populations, and (2) support for previous hypotheses about the existence of
      Pleistocene refugia for freshwater fishes in Alaska and British Columbia. Silent
      substitution rates were used to date the colonization of the Atlantic at 90,000
      to 260,000 yr before present, which conflicts with earlier dates implied by the
      fossil record. The recent replacement of Atlantic mitochondrial lineages
      suggested by our data may be explained by severe reduction or extinction of
      northern Atlantic populations during the Pleistocene, followed by a recent
      reinvasion from the Pacific. With a global perspective of the distribution of
      genetic variation as a framework, meaningful comparisons at a smaller
      geographical scale will now be possible.

PMID- 28568282
TI  - SPERM DISPLACEMENT WITHOUT SPERM TRANSFER IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - In this paper we show that when Drosophila melanogaster females are mated twice,
      the semen of the second male causes a reduction of the effective number of
      resident sperm from the previous mating. This is demonstrated by two different
      kinds of experiments. In one set of experiments, mated females were remated to
      two different kinds of sterile males, one with normal semen and the other with
      deficient semen. The effect on the resident sperm was determined from the number
      of remaining progeny after mating to the sterile male, with the result that the
      normal semen reduced the amount of resident sperm in comparison with matings to
      the males with deficient semen. The second set of experiments employed
      interrupted matings. These experiments were based on the observation that semen
      is delivered before sperm during the first 5 min of copulation. The second
      matings were interrupted instantly, 2 min, and 4 min after the initiation of
      copulation. Compared to the instant interruptions, the two later interruptions
      had the effect of reducing the amount of resident sperm. The results of these two
      experiments clearly indicate that a sperm-incapacitation process plays a role in
      the well-documented phenomenon of sperm displacement (last-male advantage) in
      this species. Such a process could play a role in sperm displacement in the many
      cases where the mechanism is unknown.

PMID- 28568283
TI  - The lungs of Polypterus senegalus and Erpetoichthys calabaricus: Insights into
      the structure and functional distribution of the pulmonary epithelial cells.
AB  - The present article is a comparative, structural study of the lung of Polypterus
      senegalus and Erpetoichthys calabaricus, two species representative of the two
      genera that constitute the Polypteriformes. The lung of the two species is an
      asymmetric, bi-lobed organ that arises from a slit-like opening in the ventral
      side of the pharynx. The wall is organized into layers, being thicker in P.
      senegalus. The inner epithelium contains ciliated and non-ciliated bands. The
      latter constitute the respiratory surface and are wider in E. calabaricus. The
      air-blood barrier is thin and uniform in P. senegalus and thicker and irregular
      in E. calabaricus. In the two species, the ciliated areas contain ciliated cells,
      mucous cells and cells with lamellar bodies. Additionally, P. senegalus contains
      polymorphous granular cells (PGCs) and neuroendocrine cells (NECs) while E.
      calabaricus lacks PGCs but shows granular leukocytes and a different type of NEC.
      Interestingly, ciliated cells and secretory cells show a dual morphology in E.
      calabaricus indicating the presence of cellular subtypes and suggesting more
      complex secretory activity. Also in E. calabaricus, cilia show a novel doublet
      membrane interaction that may control the displacement of the microtubule
      doublets. The subepithelium is a connective layer that appears thicker in P.
      senegalus and contains, in the two species, fibroblasts and granulocytes. The
      outer layer contains bundles of richly innervated striated muscle. This layer is
      likely involved in the control of lung motion. In the two species, smooth muscle
      cells constitute a limiting layer between the subepithelium and the striated
      muscle compartment. The role of this layer is unclear.

PMID- 28568284
TI  - When It Comes to Older Adults, Language Matters: Journal of the American
      Geriatrics Society Adopts Modified American Medical Association Style.

PMID- 28568285
TI  - Claviform aspergillus-related vegetation in the left ventricle of a patient with
      systemic lupus erythematosus.
AB  - A 38-year-old woman was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus and received
      immunosuppressive therapy. After 6 months of treatment, workup for low-grade
      fever yielded elevated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay titers for Aspergillus
      antigen in serum and ascites, leading to the diagnosis of disseminated
      aspergillosis. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a claviform vegetation
      attached to the left ventricular anterior septum. Two days after the start of
      antifungal Amphotericin-B therapy, the patient suffered from several neurologic
      disorders. A second transthoracic echocardiography revealed that the vegetation
      decreased in size. Two weeks later, the vegetation increased again. Combination
      therapy of Amphotericin-B and Voriconazole was initiated, and the vegetation
      eventually disappeared completely. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin
      Ultrasound 46:231-232, 2018.

PMID- 28568287
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR A MOSAIC HYBRID ZONE IN THE GRASS SHRIMP PALAEMONETES KADIAKENSIS
      (PALAEMONIDAE) AS REVEALED BY MULTIPLE GENETIC MARKERS.
AB  - Molecular techniques provide powerful tools for studying the geographic structure
      of hybrid zones and the dynamics of gene exchange between incipient species. We
      examined allozyme variation at five loci (PGM, GPI, MDH-1, MDH-2, and LDH) for 27
      populations of Palaemonetes kadiakensis from the central, coastal, and eastern
      regions of Texas. Central Texas populations of P. kadiakensis exhibited highly
      significant linkage disequilibrium and departures from Hardy-Weinberg genotype
      proportions. In populations with linkage disequilibrium, allelic differences at
      GPI defined two types of P. kadiakensis, designated A and B. Both types existed
      in central Texas with little or no evidence of interbreeding, whereas the
      populations from all other localities showed complete introgression of type B
      alleles into the type A gene pool. We also examined ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in a subset of populations, chosen to cover a
      range of geographic locations and levels of linkage disequilibrium. Two groups of
      mtDNA haplotypes and two restriction fragment patterns for the rDNA corresponded
      to allozyme type A and B individuals in populations exhibiting linkage
      disequilibrium. In populations with ongoing hybridization, all hybrid animals (N=
      15) exhibited type A mtDNA. Exhibition of type A mtDNA indicated that type A
      females had mated successfully with type B males, but type B females had not
      mated successfully with type A males. Genotype distributions suggest reduced
      reproduction by hybrid offspring in central Texas populations. These patterns are
      consistent with a mosaic model of hybrid zone dynamics.

PMID- 28568286
TI  - RNASET2, GPR174, and PTPN22 gene polymorphisms are related to the risk of liver
      damage associated with the hyperthyroidism in patients with Graves' disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to unveil the association of GPR174
      rs3827440, PTPN22 rs3789604, and RNASET2 rs9355610 with the onset of liver damage
      (LD) among the Graves' disease (GD) patients. METHODS: A total of 120 GD patients
      were divided into the none-LD and LD groups. Several indicators were detected for
      assessing liver functions, and genotypes of single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) were identified. Logistic regression was introduced for investigating the
      relationship between risk SNPs and LD-associated hyperthyroidism in GD patients.
      RESULTS: Significant differences were identified between LD and none-LD groups
      regarding genotype distributions of rs3827440, rs3789604, and rs9355610. Results
      from logistic regression indicted that among the GD patients, C carriers of
      PTPN22 rs3789604 were associated with a higher risk of LD-associated
      hyperthyroidism, while C carriers of rs3827440 (GPR174) and G carriers of
      rs9355610 (RNASET2) were associated with a reduced risk of LD-associated
      hyperthyroidism. CONCLUSIONS: The C allele of rs3789604 (PTPN22) was a
      significant risk factor for LD-associated hyperthyroidism in GD patients, whereas
      C allele of GPR174 rs3827440 and G allele of RNASET2 rs9355610 appeared to be a
      protective factor for this disease.

PMID- 28568288
TI  - SENESCENCE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF MAMMALS: A REANALYSIS.

PMID- 28568289
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION WITHIN AND BETWEEN SPECIES OF THE PAPILIO MACHAON
      GROUP OF SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Species limits and phylogenetic relationships in the Papilio machaon species
      group are potentially confounded by a complex pattern of Pleistocene range
      fragmentation, hybridization, and ecological race formation. Mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) restriction-site analysis has been used to define genetic affinities and
      genetic population structure within this species group. The distribution of mtDNA
      haplotypes generally confirms prior phylogenetic hypotheses and species
      delineations, but there is poor correspondence between ecological races and mtDNA
      haplotypes. The amount and distribution of mtDNA sequence variation within
      species vary among species, reflecting differences in current patterns of gene
      flow and/or historical population structure. In spite of wing pattern characters
      that ally them with P. polyxenes, both P. joanae and P. brevicauda have mtDNA
      that is closely related to that of P. machaon. We suggest that P. joanae and P.
      brevicauda are of hybrid origin.

PMID- 28568290
TI  - PHENOTYPIC AND GENETIC EFFECTS OF HYBRIDIZATION IN DARWIN'S FINCHES.
AB  - Morphological consequences of hybridization were studied in a group of three
      interbreeding species of Darwin's finches on the small Galapagos island of Daphne
      Major in the inclusive years 1976 to 1992. Geospiza fortis bred with G. scandens
      and G. fuliginosa. Although interbreeding was always rare (< 5%), sufficient
      samples of measurements of hybrids and backcrosses were accumulated for analysis.
      Five beak and body dimensions and mass were measured, and from these two
      synthetic (principal-component) traits were constructed. All traits were
      heritable in two of the interbreeding species (G. fuliginosa were too rare to be
      analyzed) and in the combined samples of F, hybrids and backcrosses to G. fortis.
      In agreement with expectations from a model of polygenic inheritance, hybrid and
      backcross classes were generally phenotypically intermediate between the breeding
      groups that had produced them. Hybridization increased additive genetic and
      environmental variances, increased heritabilities to a moderate extent, and
      generally strengthened phenotypic and genetic correlations. New additive genetic
      variance introduced by hybridization is estimated to be two to three orders of
      magnitude greater than that introduced by mutation. Enhanced variation
      facilitates directional evolutionary change, subject to constraints arising from
      genetic correlations between characters. The Darwin's finch data suggest that
      these constraints become stronger when species with similar proportions
      hybridize, but some become weaker when the interbreeding species have different
      allometries. This latter effect of hybridization, together with an enhancement of
      genetic variation, facilitates evolutionary change in a new direction.

PMID- 28568291
TI  - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUTCROSSING IN AN INTIMATE PLANT-HERBIVORE RELATIONSHIP. II.
      DOES OUTCROSSING POSE A PROBLEM FOR THRIPS ADAPTED TO THE HOST-PLANT CLONE?
AB  - The thrips herbivore Apterothrips apteris reproduces both sexually and
      parthenogenetically and exhibits fine-scale local adaptation to individual
      phenotypes of its host plant, Erigeron glaucus. We ask whether we can disrupt the
      ability of thrips to use progeny of their "home"-plant clone by outcrossing
      females with males from other plant clones. We compare the performance of
      sexually produced thrips to that of parthenogenetically produced thrips on plant
      progeny of the home clone. Because we use thrips from plant clones experiencing
      both high and low infestations by thrips, we also ask whether the relative
      performance of "sexuals" versus "parthenogens" differs with the infestation level
      of the home clone. Plant progeny of 10 E. glaucus clones were either the product
      of selfing or of outcrossing with the other 9 clones. We have shown in previous
      work that selfing preserved the parental phenotype with respect to attack by
      thrips. Because of this result, we predicted that parthenogens should fare better
      than sexuals on the selfed progeny of the home-plant clone. Our results, however,
      showed the contrary: sexuals outperformed parthenogens on these selfed plants. We
      also found that plant characters appear to influence thrips performance more than
      the mating system of thrips. We found no evidence for outbreeding depression in
      this system.

PMID- 28568293
TI  - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LARVAL AND ADULT DROSOPHILA IN METABOLIC DEGRADATION OF
      ETHANOL.

PMID- 28568292
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF BRYOZOAN PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION. II. ANALYSIS OF SELECTION
      AND RANDOM CHANGE IN FOSSIL SPECIES USING RECONSTRUCTED GENETIC PARAMETERS.
AB  - The roles of natural selection and random genetic change in the punctuated
      phenotypic evolution of eight Miocene-Pliocene tropical American species of the
      cheilostome bryozoan Metrarabdotos are analyzed by quantitative genetic methods.
      Trait heritabilities and genetic covariances reconstructed by partitioning within
      and among-colony phenotypic variance are similar to those previously obtained
      for living species of the cheilostome Stylopoma using breeding data. The
      hypothesis that differences in skeletal morphology between species of
      Metrarabdotos are entirely due to mutation and genetic drift cannot be rejected
      for reasonable rates of mutation maintained for periods brief enough to account
      for the geologically abrupt appearances of these species in the fossil record.
      Except for one pair of species, separated by the largest morphologic distance,
      directional selection acting alone would require unrealistically high rates of
      selective mortality to be maintained for these periods. Thus, directional
      selection is not strongly implicated in the divergence of Metrarabdotos species.
      Within species, rates of net phenotypic change are slow enough to require
      stabilizing selection, but mask large, relatively rapid fluctuations, all of
      which, however, can be attributed to chance departures from the mean phenotype by
      mutation and genetic drift, rather than to tracking environmental fluctuation by
      directional selection. The results are consistent with genetic models involving
      shifts between multiple adaptive peaks on which phenotypes remain more or less
      static through long-term stabilizing selection. Regardless of the degree to which
      directional selection may be involved in peak shifts, phenotypic differentiation
      is thus related to processes different than the pervasive stabilizing selection
      acting within species.

PMID- 28568294
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY SHIFTS IN THE SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF SPIDER SILKS.
AB  - We measured the reflectance properties of unpigmented silks spun by a systematic
      array of primitive (Deinopoidea) and derived (Araneoidea) aerial, web-spinning
      spiders, as well as silks spun by Araneomorphae and Mygalomorphae spiders that do
      not spin aerial webs. Our data show that all of the primitive aerial web spinners
      produce catching silks with a spectral peak in the ultraviolet (UV), and
      cladistic analysis suggests that high UV reflection is the primitive character
      state for silk spectral properties. In contrast, all of the derived aerial web
      spinners produce silks that are spectrally flat or characterized by reduced
      reflectance in the UV. Correlated with the evolution of these catching silks is a
      37-fold increase in species number and apparent habitat expansion. This suggests
      that the unique silk proteins spun by the araneoids have been important to their
      ecological and evolutionary diversity.

PMID- 28568295
TI  - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUTCROSSING IN AN INTIMATE PLANT-HERBIVORE RELATIONSHIP. I.
      DOES OUTCROSSING PROVIDE AN ESCAPE FROM HERBIVORES ADAPTED TO THE PARENT PLANT?
AB  - Sexual reproduction may be advantageous for hosts that are preyed on or
      parasitized by enemies that are highly adapted to them. Sexual reproduction can
      create rare genotypes that may escape predation by virtue of rarity and can
      create variable progeny that may escape predation if enemies are specialized to
      only one genotype of host. Populations of the herbivorous thrips, Apterothrips
      apteris, have been shown to be adapted to individual Erigeron glaucus clones.
      Here, we show that thrips adapted to the parental clone could better use plant
      progeny of the "home" clone produced through selfing than progeny derived from
      selfing of other clones. Thus, despite recombination, progeny produced by selfing
      presented a resource that was similar to the parental phenotype with respect to
      use by adapted thrips. We also show that E. glaucus susceptibility to thrips has
      a genetic basis and then ask whether outcrossing provides a means for E. glaucus
      clones to escape attack by adapted thrips. When we compared the success of thrips
      on progeny produced by selfing or outcrossing of the home clone, we found that
      the merits or disadvantages associated with outcrossing were dependent on the
      susceptibility to infestation of the parental clones. Selfing by clones
      characterized by low infestations of thrips appeared to preserve resistant
      genotypes; all outcrossed progeny had, on average, higher infestation levels than
      selfed progeny. In contrast, outcrossed progeny of clones characterized by high
      infestations of thrips had either the same thrips density as progeny from
      selfing, when the pollen donor was a highly infested clone, or lower density,
      when the pollen donor was a low infestation clone. The advantages of outcrossing
      were caused by the alleles contributed to progeny rather than to progeny
      variability or rarity.

PMID- 28568296
TI  - A POPULATION MEMETICS APPROACH TO CULTURAL EVOLUTION IN CHAFFINCH SONG:
      DIFFERENTIATION AMONG POPULATIONS.
AB  - We investigated cultural evolution in populations of common chaffinches
      (Fringilla coelebs) in the Atlantic islands (Azores, Madeira, and Canaries) and
      neighboring continental regions (Morocco and Iberia) by employing a population
      memetic approach. To quantify differentiation, we used the concept of a song
      meme, defined as a single syllable or a series of linked syllables capable of
      being transmitted. The levels of cultural differentiation are higher among the
      Canaries populations than among the Azorean ones, even though the islands are on
      average closer to each other geographically. This is likely the result of reduced
      levels of migration, lower population sizes, and bottlenecks (possibly during the
      colonization of these populations) in the Canaries; all these factors produce a
      smaller effective population size and therefore accentuate the effects of
      differentiation by random drift. Significant levels of among-population
      differentiation in the Azores, in spite of substantial levels of migration,
      attest to the differentiating effects of high mutation rates of memes, which
      allow the accumulation of new mutants in different populations before migration
      can disperse them throughout the entire region.

PMID- 28568297
TI  - A PROBLEM WITH THE ESTIMATE OF SELF-FERTILIZATION DEPRESSION IN THE HERMAPHRODITE
      FRESHWATER SNAIL BULINUS TRUNCATUS: THE EFFECT OF GROUPING.

PMID- 28568298
TI  - DNA EVOLUTION AND COLONIZATION SEQUENCE OF ISLAND LIZARDS IN RELATION TO
      GEOLOGICAL HISTORY: MTDNA RFLP, CYTOCHROME B, CYTOCHROME OXIDASE, 12S RRNA
      SEQUENCE, AND NUCLEAR RAPD ANALYSIS.
AB  - A novel source of nuclear DNA information from random amplified polymorphisms
      (RAPD) and a wide-range mitochondrial DNA information (cytochrome b, cytochrome
      oxidase, and 12s rRNA sequence, RFLP from 4-base and 6-base recognition
      endonucleases) are used to reconstruct the population phylogeny of the western
      Canary Island lizard, Gallotia galloti, which, for geological reasons, has been
      subject to dispersal but not vicariance. Interpretation of DNA phylogenies in
      terms of colonization sequence indicates that G. galloti arose in Tenerife and
      dispersed westward in two independent pathways: north from north Tenerife to La
      Palma, and south from south Tenerife to Gomera to Hierro. The direction and
      timing of colonization by DNA divergence is entirely compatible with geological
      time and sequence of island origin.

PMID- 28568299
TI  - GENETICS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN THE MARINE MUSSEL GENUS MYTILUS.
AB  - Two divergent taxa in the marine mussel genus Mytilus are largely isolated
      geographically and are routinely exposed to distinctly different thermal
      environments. We tested the hypothesis that the two taxa are physiologically
      differentiated with respect to temperature and examined the evolved adaptations
      allowing one of the taxa to exploit habitats where warm-temperate conditions
      prevail for prolonged periods. We first analyzed the physiological response to
      high temperature of mussels collected from a hybrid population containing members
      of both pure taxa, F, hybrids, and a variety of introgressed genotypes. The
      experimental temperature of 23 degrees C was chosen to be permissive to the taxon
      that occurs in warm-temperate regions (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and restrictive
      to the cold-water taxon (Mytilus edulis). The results show that the two taxa are
      physiologically differentiated. Under the experimental conditions, M.
      galloprovincialis exhibited a threefold higher feeding rate and a slightly
      elevated metabolic rate compared with M. edulis. These differences did not result
      in a significant difference in net energy balance between the two taxa, probably
      because of an interaction between physiological response and food availability.
      However, M. galloprovincialis grew significantly faster in the field, indicating
      that the physiological differences observed in the laboratory also occur in
      nature. Numerous introgressed genotypes provided the opportunity to test for
      cosegregation between the physiological differences and four highly
      differentiated genetic markers. Two of the markers (esterase and octopine
      dehydrogenase) cosegregate with variation in feeding rate and shell growth and
      explained most of the physiological differences observed between taxa. A strong
      concordance existed between these two loci, suggesting that they may be linked
      and may mark segregation of the same linkage group. The results suggest that the
      physiological differentiation between these taxa may be controlled by a few genes
      (perhaps only one) each with large effect.

PMID- 28568300
TI  - POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF CECROPIA OBTUSIFOLIA, A TROPICAL PIONEER TREE
      SPECIES.
AB  - Theoretical analyses of the genetic organization of pioneer species have
      postulated two very different scenarios. Some models have predicted that such
      species would show strong population substructuring, whereas other models have
      suggested that extinction and recolonization can augment gene flow and reduce
      interpopulation differentiation. We tested these alternative scenarios by
      analyzing the genetic structure of eight loci from populations of the pioneer
      dioecious tree, Cecropia obtusifolia, in the tropical rain forest region of Los
      Tuxtlas, Mexico. The populations studied exhibit low overall FST values, no clear
      pattern of isolation by distance, and high estimates of gene flow. These results
      suggest either that the species is not at a genetic equilibrium under present
      levels of gene flow with populations derived from each other in the recent past,
      or that pollen and seed dispersal in this species occur over long distances (up
      to more than 100 km). Mating among relatives appears higher than expected by
      chance based on significantly positive fixation indices (F) and FIS values at
      some loci. However, no direct evidence for biparental inbreeding was found. The
      multilocus and single-locus outcrossing rates for C. obtusifolia were estimated
      at tm = 0.974 (SE = 0.024) and ts = 0.980 (SE = 0.035), respectively. These are
      not significantly different from 1, and the difference, tm - ts = - 0.006 (SE =
      0.018), is not significantly different from 0. These estimates, however, could be
      biased because in all enzymes, except PGM-1, we found statistically significant
      departures from the mixed-mating model used to estimate them. Two rare alleles
      were found only in seeds collected from the soil, and the greatest number of
      different alleles were found also in soil seeds. It is hypothesized that the seed
      bank may play an important role in the genetic buffering of C. obtusifolia.
      Significantly positive or negative fixation indices in adults at some loci and
      significantly different heterozygosities among different life stages (from seeds
      to adults) suggest the action of selection at some loci.

PMID- 28568301
TI  - HISTORICAL EXAMINATION OF DELAYED PLUMAGE MATURATION IN THE SHOREBIRDS (AVES:
      CHARADRIIFORMES).
AB  - Delayed plumage maturation refers to the presence of nonadultlike immature
      plumages (juvenal plumage excluded). It is usually considered the result of
      selection for distinctive first-winter or first-summer appearance. In the present
      study, evolution of delayed plumage maturation is examined in the shorebirds: the
      sandpipers, plovers, gulls, and their allies. Nine plumage-maturation characters
      were identified, and their states were superimposed onto topologies generated
      during two recent investigations of shorebird relationships (Sibley and Ahlquist;
      revised Strauch). The characters were then optimized so as to assign character
      states to interior nodes of the trees in the most parsimonious way.
      Reconstructions of character evolution on six of the shortest revised Strauch
      trees were ambiguous with respect to delayed plumage maturation in the
      hypothetical ancestral shorebird. If plumage maturation was not delayed in the
      shorebird ancestor, optimization indicated that delay appeared when nonadultlike
      juvenal feathers were acquired. In contrast, on the single Sibley and Ahlquist
      tree, absence of delayed plumage maturation in the shorebird ancestor was
      indicated unambiguously, with three evolutionary novelties (nonadultlike juvenal
      feathers, seasonal plumage change, and a reduced first-spring molt) implicated in
      its acquisition. Optimization indicated that delayed plumage maturation in
      shorebirds can be explained plausibly without invoking selection for distinctive
      first-winter or first-summer appearance. Two of the novel conditions generating
      delayed plumage maturation (modified juvenal feathers and seasonal plumage
      change) did so only because they were acquired in a taxon possessing restricted
      first-year molts, which are primitive. Given these observations, it seems
      simplest to explain the delay in plumage maturation as an incidental consequence
      of the phylogenetic inertia of shorebird molts. The third novelty that generates
      delayed plumage maturation, a reduced first-spring molt, may have been acquired
      to reduce molt-associated energetic demands in young birds.

PMID- 28568302
TI  - MODES OF SPECIATION IN BIRDS: A TEST OF LYNCH'S METHOD.

PMID- 28568303
TI  - TURBINATES IN THERAPSIDS: EVIDENCE FOR LATE PERMIAN ORIGINS OF MAMMALIAN
      ENDOTHERMY.
AB  - The structure and function of the nasal conchae of extant reptiles, birds, and
      mammals are reviewed, and the relationships to endothermy of the mammalian
      elements are examined. Reptilian conchae are relatively simple, recurved
      structures, which bear primarily sensory (olfactory) epithelium. Conversely, the
      conchae, or turbinates, of birds and mammals are considerably more extensive and
      complex, and bear, in addition, nonsensory (respiratory) epithelium. Of the
      mammalian turbinates, only the exclusively respiratory maxilloturbinal has a
      clear functional relationship with endothermy, as it reduces desiccation
      associated with rapid and continuous pulmonary ventilation. The other mammalian
      turbinates principally retain the primitive, olfactory function of the nasal
      conchae. The maxilloturbinates are the first reliable morphological indicator of
      endothermy that can be used in the fossil record. In fossil mammals and
      mammallike reptiles, the presence and function of turbinates are most readily
      revealed by the ridges by which they attach to the walls of the nasal cavity.
      Ridges for olfactory turbinals are located posterodorsally, away from the main
      flow of respiratory air, whereas those of the respiratory maxilloturbinals are
      situated in the anterolateral portion of the nasal passage, directly in the path
      of respired air. The maxilloturbinal is also characterized by its proximity to
      the opening of the nasolacrimal canal. Posterodorsal ridges, for olfactory
      turbinals, have long been recognized in many mammallike reptiles, including early
      forms such as pelycosaurs. However, ridges for respiratory turbinals have not
      been identified previously in this group. In this paper, the presence of
      anterolateral ridges, which most likely supported respiratory turbinals, is
      reported in the primitive therocephalian Glanosuchus and in several cynodonts.
      The presence of respiratory turbinals in these advanced mammallike reptiles
      suggests that the evolution of "mammalian" oxygen consumption rates may have
      begun as early as the Late Permian and developed in parallel in therocephalians
      and cynodonts. Full mammalian endothermy may have taken as much as 40 to 50
      million yr to develop.

PMID- 28568304
TI  - CLINES FOR HYBRID DYSFUNCTION IN A GRASSHOPPER HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Two subspecies of the grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus meet in the Pyrenees
      forming a hybrid zone several kilometers wide. Crosses between the two pure taxa
      result in sterile male offspring and normal females (i.e., Haldane's rule
      applies). However, no such dysfunction has been detected in hybrid males
      collected through the center of the hybrid zone. By assessing the level of
      dysfunction in the offspring of reciprocal crosses, it was possible to map clines
      for the genes responsible for dysfunction through the zone. This analysis shows
      that there is no abrupt transition between incompatible genomes in the field.
      Crosses were also made between females collected from a transect spanning the
      hybrid zone and pure males of both subspecies. This reveals noncoincident clines
      for dysfunction near the center of the hybrid zone such that the dysfunction
      expressed in the offspring of these crosses is less than expected from simple
      models. More complex models involving interaction among genes must be invoked.
      Also, the possibility exists that since the postglacial contact of these two
      grasshopper taxa, hybrid dysfunction has become ameliorated by the evolution of
      modifiers. This hybrid zone is thought to be a tension zone, maintained by a
      balance between selection against hybrid genotypes and dispersal into the zone
      center. The lessening of hybrid disadvantage over time through the breakdown of
      epistatic interactions by recombination or through modification could account for
      the general lack of dysfunction in field collected hybrids today.

PMID- 28568305
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PARASITISM AMONG CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES: PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS
      AND THE ORIGIN OF INQUILINISM IN GALL WASPS (HYMENOPTERA, CYNIPIDAE).
AB  - A new term, agastoparasitism, is proposed for parasitism among closely related
      species. Cynipid inquilines are typical agastoparasites. They cannot induce
      galls; instead their larvae live inside the galls formed by other cynipids. As in
      many other groups of agastoparasites, there are two competing hypotheses for the
      evolutionary origin of cynipid inquilines: either they arose from one of their
      cynipid hosts, and later radiated to exploit other gall-inducing cynipids
      (monophyletic origin), or they arose repeatedly, each inquiline from its host
      (polyphyletic origin). These hypotheses for the origin of cynipid inquilines were
      tested by a phylogenetic analysis of representative species of cynipid gall
      inducers and inquilines based on adult morphological characters. The analysis
      supported the monophyly of the inquilines and indicated an origin from gall
      inducers related to the genus Diastrophus, one of the current host groups. To
      examine whether the result of the analysis was influenced by convergent
      similarities among inquilines because of their similar mode of life, all putative
      apomorphies shared by some or all of the inquilines but not occurring in any of
      the gall inducers were removed. Despite this, the phylogenetic conclusions
      essentially remained the same, that is, the support for inquiline monophyly was
      not caused by convergent evolution. Based on these results, adaptive aspects of
      the evolutionary origin and maintenance of cynipid inquilinism are discussed, as
      well as general patterns in the evolution of agastoparasitism.

PMID- 28568306
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF DATURA STRAMONIUM L. IN CENTRAL MEXICO: NATURAL SELECTION
      FOR RESISTANCE TO HERBIVOROUS INSECTS.
AB  - It has been assumed that herbivores constitute a selective agent for the
      evolution of plant resistance. However, few studies have tested this hypothesis.
      In this study, we look at the annual weed Datura stramonium for evidence of
      current natural selection for resistance to herbivorous insects. Paternal half
      sib families obtained through controlled crosses were exposed to herbivores under
      natural conditions. The plants were damaged by two folivorous insects: the
      tobacco flea beetle Epitrix parvula and the grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens.
      Selection was estimated using a multiple-regression analysis of plant size and of
      damage by the two herbivores on plant fitness measured as fruit production for
      both individual phenotypes and family breeding values (genetic analysis).
      Directional phenotypic selection was detected for both larger plant size and
      lower resistance to the flea beetles, whereas stabilizing phenotypic selection
      was revealed for resistance to S. purpurascens. However, performing the same
      analyses on the breeding values of the characters revealed directional and
      stabilizing selection only for plant size. Thus, no agreement existed between the
      results of the two types of analyses, nor was there any detectable potential for
      genetic change in the studied population because of selection on herbivore
      resistance. The narrow-sense heritability of every trait studied was small (all
      <0.1) and not different from zero. The potential for evolutionary response to
      natural selection for higher resistance to herbivores in the studied population
      of D. stramonium is probably limited by lack of genetic variation. Natural
      selection acts on phenotypes, and the detection of phenotypic selection on
      resistance to herbivores confirms their ecological importance in determining
      plant fitness. However, evolutionary inferences based solely on phenotypic
      selection analyses must be interpreted with caution.

PMID- 28568307
TI  - GENETIC SIMILARITY BETWEEN PARENTS PREDICTS HATCHING FAILURE: NONINCESTUOUS
      INBREEDING IN THE GREAT REED WARBLER?
AB  - The DNA-fingerprinting technique was used to find the true pedigrees and to
      detect the overall genetic similarity between mates of great reed warblers
      (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) at an isolated breeding site in Sweden. The study
      covered 4 yr preceded by 3 yr when almost all adults and nestlings in the study
      area had been banded. DNA fingerprinting revealed that the putative father had
      sired 97% of the young (N = 455). The mate's genetic similarity, revealed as the
      proportion of bands shared in restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)
      patterns, was high compared with other species of wild birds. Also, band sharing
      was higher between mates native to the area than between pairs in which the
      female was experimentally introduced from a distant breeding site. Hatching
      success of eggs was negatively correlated with the degree of genetic similarity
      between the mates, whereas pedigree data, up to the level of great-grandparents,
      clearly demonstrated an absence of close inbreeding. These are the first data
      showing a significant fitness cost associated with the choice of a mate that has
      high genetic similarity, even if it is not a close kin. This cost might be caused
      by generalized negative consequences of genomewide inbreeding in the present
      study, possibly accentuated by recent population bottlenecks.

PMID- 28568308
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTIONARY CONSEQUENCES OF SEXUAL IMPRINTING.
AB  - The idea that sexual imprinting may generate sexual selection and possibly lead
      to speciation has been much discussed in the ethological literature. Here the
      feasibility of three such hypotheses is investigated using mathematical models of
      sexual selection in which mating preferences are acquired through imprinting and
      hence dependent upon the parental phenotypes. The principal findings are the
      following. (1) Sexual imprinting reduces the likelihood of novel adaptive traits
      spreading through a population, except in some circumstances in which there is
      heterozygote advantage. (2) Asymmetrical mating preferences, acquired through
      imprinting, can generate sexual selection for traits that impair survival. (3)
      The conditions under which sexual imprinting will maintain a genetic polymorphism
      in a population are fairly restricted. (4) Sexual imprinting can act as a barrier
      to gene flow minimizing the impact of migration and preserving and accentuating
      genetic differences between populations. The findings suggest that sexual
      imprinting may be of considerable evolutionary significance.

PMID- 28568309
TI  - Effect of soybean husk supplementation on the fecal fermentation metabolites and
      microbiota of dogs.
AB  - In vitro fermentation and in vivo feeding experiments were conducted to
      characterize the effects of soybean (Glycine max) husk on the fecal fermentation
      metabolites and microbiota of dogs. An in vitro fermentation study using feces
      from three Toy Poodle dogs (6.5 +/- 3.5 months in age and 2.9 +/- 0.4 kg in body
      weight) revealed that the fecal inoculum was able to ferment soybean husk
      (supplemented at 0.01 g/mL culture) and increased levels of short chain fatty
      acids (SCFA) and Bifidobacterium, irrespective of pre-digestion of the husk by
      pepsin and pancreatin. In a feeding experiment, four Shiba dogs (7-48 months in
      age and 7.5 +/- 1.7 kg in body weight) fed a commercial diet supplemented with
      5.6% soybean husk showed an increase in SCFA, such as acetate and butyrate, and
      lactate, and a decrease in indole and skatole in the feces compared to those fed
      a 5.6% cellulose diet. Real-time PCR assay showed that soybean husk
      supplementation stimulated the growth of lactobacilli, Clostridium cluster IV
      including Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Clostridium cluster XIVa, Bacteroides
      Prevotella-Porphyromonas group but inhibited the growth of Clostridium cluster
      XI. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that soybean husk
      supplementation improves gastrointestinal health through optimization of
      beneficial organic acid production and increase of beneficial bacteria.
      Therefore, soybean husk is suggested to be applicable as a functional fiber in
      the formulation of canine diets.

PMID- 28568310
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of intravenous clindamycin phosphate in captive Bennett's
      wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus).
AB  - This study was designed to investigate the pharmacokinetics of clindamycin, a
      lincosamide antibiotic, in Bennett's wallabies. The pharmacokinetic properties of
      a single intravenous (IV) dose of clindamycin were determined in six wallabies. A
      single 20-min IV infusion of 20 mg/kg of clindamycin was administered, followed
      by blood collection prior to, and up to 12 hr after clindamycin administration.
      Plasma clindamycin concentrations were determined by high-pressure liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) detection. Pharmacokinetic variables
      were calculated using a two-compartment model with first order elimination which
      best fit the data. The mean volume of distribution at steady-state, distribution
      half-life, and elimination half-life were 898.25 ml/kg, 0.16 hr, 1.79 hr,
      respectively. No adverse effects were noted after IV administration.

PMID- 28568311
TI  - Defining the clinical relevance of red blood cell autoantibodies by Monocyte
      Monolayer Assay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Monocyte Monolayer Assay (MMA) is an in vitro simulation of red
      blood cell (RBC) alloantibody behavior. It has been classically applied to
      predict the risks of post-transfusion hemolytic reactions when transfusing
      incompatible RBC units. Quantifying erythrophagocytosis by MMA may be an
      interesting option for situations where there is doubt whether a RBC autoantibody
      is mediating significant hemolysis. Here, we present three situations involving
      RBC autoantibodies in which the MMA was decisive for clarifying the diagnosis and
      choosing the best clinical treatment. CASE REPORT: Case 1. Pregnant patient with
      severely anemic fetus exhibited warm autoantibody without signs of hemolysis. MMA
      revealed 30% of monocyte index (MI) highlighting that fetal hemolysis was caused
      by maternal autoantibody. Prednisone was prescribed with fetal clinical
      improvement. Cases 2 and 3. Two patients with the diagnosis of mixed auto-immune
      hemolytic anemia and poor response to corticosteroids were evaluated using MMA.
      The resulting MI was less than 10% in both cases, suggesting that the cold
      agglutinin rather than the warm auto-IgG was responsible for overt hemolysis.
      Treatment with rituximab was begun, with good clinical response. CONCLUSION: MMA
      can be used to evaluate the ability of RBC autoantibodies to mediate overt
      hemolysis. It can be especially useful to determine the role played by cold and
      warm auto-antibodies in mixed auto-immune hemolytic disease, helping to define
      the best treatment option.

PMID- 28568313
TI  - ANOVA and the variance homogeneity assumption: Exploring a better gatekeeper.
AB  - Valid use of the traditional independent samples ANOVA procedure requires that
      the population variances are equal. Previous research has investigated whether
      variance homogeneity tests, such as Levene's test, are satisfactory as
      gatekeepers for identifying when to use or not to use the ANOVA procedure. This
      research focuses on a novel homogeneity of variance test that incorporates an
      equivalence testing approach. Instead of testing the null hypothesis that the
      variances are equal against an alternative hypothesis that the variances are not
      equal, the equivalence-based test evaluates the null hypothesis that the
      difference in the variances falls outside or on the border of a predetermined
      interval against an alternative hypothesis that the difference in the variances
      falls within the predetermined interval. Thus, with the equivalence-based
      procedure, the alternative hypothesis is aligned with the research hypothesis
      (variance equality). A simulation study demonstrated that the equivalence-based
      test of population variance homogeneity is a better gatekeeper for the ANOVA than
      traditional homogeneity of variance tests.

PMID- 28568312
TI  - Autoimmune comorbidity in achalasia patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Idiopathic achalasia is a rare esophageal motor disorder. The
      disease state manifests local and systemic inflammation, and it appears that an
      autoimmune component and specific autoantibodies participate in the pathogenesis.
      The study aims to determine the prevalence of autoimmune and chronic inflammatory
      diseases in patients with achalasia and compare the results with those from
      patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). METHODS: It was a cross
      sectional and included 114 patients with idiopathic achalasia and 114 age-matched
      and sex-matched control patients with GERD. Data on the presence of autoimmune
      and inflammatory diseases, the time of presentation, and any family history of
      autoimmune disease were obtained from the hospital's medical records. RESULTS:
      Seventy three (64%) were female patients (mean age: 42.3 +/- 15.5; median disease
      duration: 12 months). We identified the presence of autoimmune disease in 19
      patients with achalasia (16.7%), hypothyroidism was the main diagnosis, and it
      was present in 52.6% of patients compared with 4.2% in controls. Thirteen of the
      19 achalasia patients (68.4%) with autoimmune disease had history of familial
      autoimmunity. We identified 11 achalasia (9.6%) and 5 GERD patients (4.16%) with
      an inflammatory condition. Compared with the GERD, the achalasia group was 3.8
      times more likely to have an autoimmune disease (95% CI: 1.47-9.83), 3.0 times
      more likely to have thyroidopathies (95% CI: 1.00-9.03), and 3.02 times more
      likely to suffer from any chronic inflammatory disease (95% CI: 1.65-6.20).
      CONCLUSIONS: The non-negligible number of patients with autoimmune diseases
      identified among the patients with idiopathic achalasia supports the hypothesis
      that achalasia has an autoimmune component.

PMID- 28568314
TI  - Greater circadian disadvantage during evening games for the National Basketball
      Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and National Football League
      (NFL) teams travelling westward.
AB  - We investigated the effects of a circadian disadvantage (i.e. playing in a
      different time zone) on the winning percentages in three major sport leagues in
      North America: the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League
      and the National Football League. We reviewed 5 years of regular season games in
      the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and National Football
      League, and noted the winning percentage of the visiting team depending on the
      direction of travel (west, east, and same time zone) and game time (day and
      evening games). T-tests and analysis of variance were performed to evaluate the
      effects of the circadian disadvantage, its direction, the number of time zones
      travelled, and the game time on winning percentages in each major league. The
      results showed an association between the winning percentages and the number of
      time zones traveled for the away evening games, with a clear disadvantage for the
      teams travelling westward. There was a significant difference in the teams'
      winning percentages depending on the travelling direction in the National
      Basketball Association (F2,5908  = 16.12, P < 0.0001) and the National Hockey
      League (F2,5639  = 4.48, P = 0.011), and a trend was found in the National
      Football League (F2,1279  = 2.86, P = 0.058). The effect of the circadian
      disadvantage transcends the type of sport and needs to be addressed for greater
      equity among the western and eastern teams in professional sports. These results
      also highlight the importance of circadian rhythms in sport performance and
      athletic competitions.

PMID- 28568315
TI  - Relationships between the genes expressed in the mesenteric adipose tissue of
      beef cattle and feed intake and gain.
AB  - Mesenteric fat, a depot within the visceral fat, accumulates in cattle during
      maturation and finishing and may be a potential source of production
      inefficiency. The aim of this study was to determine whether the genes expressed
      in the mesenteric fat of steers were associated with body weight gain and feed
      intake. Sixteen steers chosen by their rank of distance from the bivariate mean
      for gain and feed intake were used for this study. Mesenteric fat was obtained
      and evaluated for differences in gene expression. A total of 1831 genes were
      identified as differentially expressed among steers with variation in feed intake
      and gain. Many of these genes were involved with metabolic processes such as
      proteolysis, transcription and translation. In addition, the Gene Ontology
      annotations including transport and localization were both over-represented among
      the differentially expressed genes. Pathway analysis was also performed on the
      differentially expressed genes. The superoxide radical degradation pathway was
      identified as over-represented based on the differential expression of the genes
      GPX7, SOD2 and TYRP1, suggesting a potential role for oxidative stress or
      inflammatory pathways among low gain-high intake animals. GPX7 and SOD2 were in
      lower transcript abundance, and TYRP1 was higher in transcript abundance among
      the low gain-high feed intake animals. The retinoate biosynthesis pathway was
      also enriched due to the differential expression of the genes AKR1C3, ALDH8A1,
      RDH8, RDH13 and SDR9C7. These genes were all more highly expressed in the low
      gain-high intake animals. The glycerol degradation and granzyme A signaling
      pathways were both associated with gain. Three glycerol kinase genes and the GZMA
      gene were differentially expressed among high vs. low gain animals. Mesenteric
      fat is a metabolically active tissue, and in this study, genes involved in
      proteolysis, transcription, translation, transport immune function, glycerol
      degradation and oxidative stress were differentially expressed among beef steers
      with variation in body weight gain and feed intake.

PMID- 28568317
TI  - Two FMR1 premutation cases without nuclear inclusions.

PMID- 28568318
TI  - A New Electron-Rich Unit for Polymer Electron Acceptors: 4,4-Difluoro-4H
      cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b']dithiophene.
AB  - We report 4,4-difluoro-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b']dithiophene (fCDT) as a new
      electron-rich unit to design polymer electron acceptors. Owing to the fluoro
      substitutes, fCDT unit exhibits downshifted LUMO energy level, diminished steric
      hindrance effect and strong intermolecular interaction. The resulting polymer
      electron acceptor exhibits low-lying LUMO energy level and high electron
      mobility, as well as good all-polymer solar cell device performance.

PMID- 28568316
TI  - Influence of diabetes on plasma pharmacokinetics and brain bioavailability of
      grape polyphenols and their phase II metabolites in the Zucker diabetic fatty
      rat.
AB  - SCOPE: The effect of diabetes on the pharmacokinetics, bioavailability and brain
      distribution of grape polyphenols and select metabolites was studied in the
      Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rat model. METHODS AND RESULTS: (ZDF) rats and their
      lean controls (LN) were dosed with a Standardized Grape Polyphenol (SGP) Mixture
      consisting of grape seed extract, Concord grape juice and resveratrol (RES) by
      oral gavage for 10 days. An 8-h pharmacokinetic study was performed. After 24 h,
      a second dose of SGP was administered and 1 h later animals were sacrificed and
      brain tissue was harvested. Plasma, urine, and brain tissue were analyzed for
      grape polyphenols. ZDF rats exhibited significantly diminished Cmax for all
      catechin, epicatechin, quercetin and resveratrol conjugated metabolites.
      Bioavailability was significantly lower in ZDF rats for methylated flavan-3-ol,
      RES, and quercetin metabolites. Significantly lower levels of metabolites of RES,
      quercetin, and flavan-3-ols were found in brains of ZDF rats. There was no
      significant difference between ZDF and LN in anthocyanins in plasma and no
      anthocyanins were detectable in brain extracts. ZDF rats showed significantly
      higher urinary excretion for all polyphenols. CONCLUSION: Diabetes may alter the
      overall bioavailability of some polyphenols in plasma and brain in part due to
      higher urinary clearance.

PMID- 28568319
TI  - Narcolepsy with cataplexy and pregnancy: a case-control study.
AB  - This was a retrospective case-control study in 25 patients with narcolepsy with
      cataplexy and 75 women in the control group. Patients completed the questionnaire
      by Maurovich-Horvat et al. (J. Sleep Res., 2013, 22: 496-512). We personally
      interviewed 25 patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy using the administered
      questionnaire regarding conception, pregnancy, delivery, perinatal and
      breastfeeding periods. Patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy reported 59
      pregnancies versus 164 in the control group. In 16 cases (27.1%), a disease
      before pregnancy was present compared with eight cases (4.9%) in the control
      group (P < 0.001); among them, extrinsic asthma was reported 11 times in the
      narcolepsy with cataplexy group (P < 0.005). Patients with narcolepsy with
      cataplexy more often had a single pregnancy compared with controls (P < 0.05).
      Gestational diabetes was more frequent in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy
      (P < 0.05). Induced deliveries were higher in controls (P < 0.009). No
      differences were found between the groups in terms of duration of pregnancies and
      complications during and after delivery, as during the puerperium. Neonates from
      patients had heavier birth weight (P < 0.015). The breastfeeding period was
      longer in patients (P < 0.01). Modafinil and methylphenidate were the drugs
      administered in six pregnancies. No significant differences in depression during
      pregnancy and during puerperium were found between patients and controls. This is
      the first case-control study in women with narcolepsy with cataplexy related to
      pregnancy, delivery, childbirth and puerperium. Data suggest that patients have
      pregnancy outcomes similar to controls. The prevalence of gestational diabetes
      was higher in women with narcolepsy with cataplexy. Caesarean sections,
      complications during delivery and normal perinatal period for infants were
      similar in both groups. Breastfeeding was longer in patients.

PMID- 28568320
TI  - CONSPECIFIC SPERM PRECEDENCE IS AN EFFECTIVE BARRIER TO HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN
      CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES.
AB  - Conspecific sperm precedence is widespread in animals, appears to evolve rapidly,
      and is thought to have the potential to prevent hybridization between closely
      related species. However, to date no study has tested the isolating potential of
      such a barrier in mixed populations of two taxa under conditions in which other
      potential barriers to gene flow are controlled for or are prevented from
      operating. We tested the isolating potential of conspecific sperm precedence in
      the ground crickets Allonemobius fasciatus and A. socius in population cage
      experiments in which the frequency of the two species was varied. Despite the
      observation of abundant interspecific matings, the proportions of hybrid progeny
      were low and differed statistically from the proportions expected in the absence
      of conspecific sperm precedence. The results demonstrate that conspecific sperm
      precedence can severely limit gene flow between closely related species, even
      when one species is less abundant than the other.

PMID- 28568322
TI  - THE COADAPTATION OF PARENTAL AND OFFSPRING CHARACTERS.
AB  - Parents often have important influences on their offspring's traits and/or
      fitness (i.e., maternal or paternal effects). When offspring fitness is
      determined by the joint influences of offspring and parental traits, selection
      may favor particular combinations that generate high offspring fitness. We show
      that this epistasis for fitness between the parental and offspring genotypes can
      result in the evolution of their joint distribution, generating genetic
      correlations between the parental and offspring characters. This phenomenon can
      be viewed as a coadaptive process in which offspring genotypes evolve to function
      with the parentally provided environment and, in turn, the genes for this
      environment become associated with specific offspring genes adapted to it. To
      illustrate this point, we present two scenarios in which selection on offspring
      alone alters the correlation between a maternal and an offspring character. We
      use a quantitative genetic maternal effect model combined with a simple quadratic
      model of fitness to examine changes in the linkage disequilibrium between the
      maternal and offspring genotypes. In the first scenario, stabilizing selection on
      a maternally affected offspring character results in a genetic correlation that
      is opposite in sign to the maternal effect. In the second scenario, directional
      selection on an offspring trait that shows a nonadditive maternal effect can
      result in selection for positive covariances between the traits. This form of
      selection also results in increased genetic variation in maternal and offspring
      characters, and may, in the extreme case, promote host-race formation or
      speciation. This model provides a possible evolutionary explanation for the
      ubiquity of large genetic correlations between maternal and offspring traits, and
      suggests that this pattern of coinheritance may reflect functional relationships
      between these characters (i.e., functional integration).

PMID- 28568321
TI  - SELECTION FOR KNOCKDOWN RESISTANCE TO HEAT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AT HIGH AND
      LOW LARVAL DENSITIES.
AB  - Responses to short-term selection for knockdown resistance to heat (37 degrees C)
      in Drosophila melanogaster reared under stressful (high larval density) and
      nonstressful (low larval density) conditions were compared. No difference in
      selection response between density treatments was found. A test of heat
      resistance (39 degrees C) after pretreatment (37 degrees C) did not reveal an
      increase in survival for selected lines as compared to controls. Flies reared at
      high density had higher knockdown resistance throughout the experiment.
      Resistance to heat was not associated with body size.

PMID- 28568323
TI  - INDIRECT METHODS TO ESTIMATE GENE FLOW IN CAVE AND SURFACE POPULATIONS OF
      ANDRONISCUS DENTIGER (ISOPODA: ONISCIDEA).
AB  - We estimateci gene flow among several populations of the troglophilic woodlouse
      Androniscus dentiger from central Italy using allozyme data. Estimates of gene
      flow were obtained from GST , theta, and the private alleles method, after being
      tested whether the assumption of the population genetic model and the assumption
      of neutrality of alleles had been met. Hierarchical analysis of gene flow has
      been used to investigate the geographic scale at which gene exchange can actually
      occur. Results showed that, independent of the methods, no ongoing gene flow can
      be detected among populations, even among geographically proximate ones. Genetic
      drift is likely the main agent shaping the pattern of genetic divergence among
      these populations. Patterns of past and ongoing gene flow were considered, as
      surface populations have become genetically isolated more recently than cave
      populations. In general, all three methods to estimate gene flow provided Nm
      estimates of the same magnitude.

PMID- 28568324
TI  - GENE FLOW AND INEFFECTIVE ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR IN A STREAM-BREEDING SALAMANDER.
AB  - Predators often feed on prey that show ineffective antipredator behavior. Gene
      flow among populations may constrain evolution of effective antipredator ability
      in larvae of the streamside salamander, Ambystoma barbouri, a species that
      occupies distinctly different habitats with conflicting selection pressures. Some
      streams are ephemeral, where larvae should be active to feed and reach
      metamorphosis before stream drying. In contrast, other streams are more permanent
      and contain pools with predatory fish, where larvae should remain inactive to
      avoid fish predation. Feeding rates and predator escape behavior were assayed for
      laboratory-reared larvae from 15 populations. Larval survival was also compared
      among populations in artificial streams with natural predators. Five populations
      represented streams subjected to fish predation along a gradient of genetic and
      geographic isolation from populations without fish; the remaining 10 populations
      were ephemeral and without fish. Individuals from populations with fish had
      significantly stronger behavioral responses to fish (i.e., decreased feeding rate
      associated with the presence of fish and increased escape response) than
      individuals from fishless populations. Larvae from populations containing fish
      that were more isolated from fishless populations showed stronger antipredator
      responses than less isolated populations. Further, larvae from more isolated
      populations survived longer in the predation experiment, indicating that the
      behaviors measured were related with survival. These results suggest that gene
      flow between populations with conflicting selection pressures limits local
      adaptation in some salamander populations with fish. While previous studies have
      typically focused on the role of gene flow in pairs of populations, the results
      of this study suggest that gene flow is acting to swamp local adaptation across
      several populations.

PMID- 28568326
TI  - STABILIZING SELECTION AND VARIANCE IN FIG WASP SEX RATIOS.
AB  - Theory predicts that the phenotypic variance observed in a trait subject to
      stabilizing selection should be negatively correlated with the trait's impact on
      fitness. However, this relationship has rarely been tested directly. The
      offspring sex ratios produced by pollinating fig wasp foundresses upon entrance
      to a fruit and oviposition alone (single foundress sex ratios) are subject to
      stabilizing selection because too many males reduce the total number of
      dispersing females and too few males will result in unmated females or complete
      loss of the brood. Furthermore, we argue that the impact on fitness of, and
      therefore the intensity of stabilizing intensity on, single foundress sex ratios
      are correlated to how frequently a species produces single foundress broods in
      nature. Specifically, the intensity of stabilizing selection will be greater in
      species that encounter single foundress broods more frequently, both because the
      trait is expressed more often and because fitness shows a greater sensitivity to
      variation (narrower fitness profile) when that trait is expressed. Across 16
      species of Panamanian pollinating fig wasps, the phenotypic variance in single
      foundress sex ratios was negatively correlated with the frequency with which that
      species encounters single foundress broods in nature. In addition, a formal
      comparative analysis based upon a molecular phylogeny of the wasps gave results
      that were the same as when species were used as independent data points.

PMID- 28568325
TI  - SEED MORPHOMETRICS AND ADAPTIVE GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENTIATION.
AB  - Adaptive geographic differentiation is documented for seed morphology of 36
      populations of Heterosperma pinnatum Cav. (Asteraceae), a seed heteromorphic
      annual plant in the central highlands of Mexico. Achenes (single-seeded fruits)
      vary continuously within heads but are classified by shape and position as
      central, intermediate, or peripheral morphs and as having adhesive awns or not.
      Here we quantify shape as a principal component score contrasting log length and
      width of achenes. Heads and their variation among populations are described in
      terms of maximum, minimum, and range of shape scores; the number of achenes per
      head; quantitative indices of the abruptness of shape shift; where in the head
      the most abrupt change in shape occurs; and what achene shapes have awns. First
      and second principal components of these descriptors summarize 86% of among
      population variation in achene and head morphology and correlate strongly with
      percent central achenes per head (%C) and percent of achenes with awns (%A),
      respectively. Awns are associated with greater dispersibility and achene shape is
      correlated with speed of dormancy loss. We hypothesized that dispersal morphology
      would be associated with vegetation attributes indicative of population
      ephemerality and that dormancy morphology would be associated with precipitation
      patterns during the early germination season. Morphological distance matrices
      were calculated using Euclidean distances among populations in %A and %C.
      Geographic distances among populations were calculated, as were genetic distances
      based on isozyme frequencies from 29 bands of six enzymes. Vegetation was
      classified as open or closed and early spring (germination season) and summer
      precipitation means were determined for each site. Closed vegetation was assumed
      to provide only ephemeral habitats for H. pinnatum. Partial matrix correlations
      between morphology and environment controlled for geographic but not genetic
      distance among sites, since the latter was not significantly correlated with
      either morphology or geography. A significant relationship was found between %A
      and closed vegetation, lower spring, and higher summer precipitation. %C was only
      correlated with lower spring precipitation. Independence of isozyme and
      morphological traits is interpreted in terms of selection on the latter but not
      the former.

PMID- 28568327
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF SEX BY PARASITISM AND MUTATION ACCUMULATION UNDER EPISTATIC
      FITNESS FUNCTIONS.
AB  - The mutation accumulation hypothesis predicts that sex functions to reduce the
      population mutational load, while the Red Queen hypothesis holds that sex is
      adaptive as a defense against coevolving pathogens. We used computer simulations
      to examine the combined and separate effects of selection against deleterious
      mutations and host-parasite coevolution on the spread of a clone into an
      outcrossing sexual population. The results suggest that the two processes
      operating simultaneously may select for sex independent of the exact shape of the
      function that maps mutation number onto host fitness.

PMID- 28568328
TI  - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CROSS SUCCESS AND SPATIAL PROXIMITY OF EUCALYPTUS
      GLOBULUS SSP. GLOBULUS PARENTS.
AB  - The genetic structure of Eucalyptus globulus forest was examined using progeny
      vigor as an indirect measure of parental relatedness. Seven trees were crossed
      with pollen from trees: 0 m (seifing); 21 m (nearest flowering neighbors), 250 m,
      500 m, 1 km, 10 km, and 100 km away from the female. Only selfing depressed seed
      set. Growth of the 21 m progenies was intermediate to selfing and the longer
      distance pollinations, suggesting tight family clusters occur due to limited seed
      dispersal. Under this structure biparental inbreeding may be common, however, the
      cumulative impact of inbreeding seems negligible as relatedness did not appear to
      decline with distance between mates beyond 50 m.

PMID- 28568329
TI  - ONE SIZE FITS ALL? RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE SIZE AND DEGREE OF VARIATION IN
      GENITALIA AND OTHER BODY PARTS IN TWENTY SPECIES OF INSECTS AND SPIDERS.
AB  - Hypotheses regarding the function of elaborate male genitalia were tested in a
      sample of insects and spiders by comparing their allometric values (slopes in log
      log regressions on indicators of body size) with those of other body parts. Male
      genitalia consistently had lower slopes than other body parts. Perhaps as a
      consequence of this pattern, genitalic size also tended, though less
      consistently, to have lower coefficients of variation than did the size of other
      body parts. The morphological details of coupling between males and females in
      several species clearly indicated that selection favoring mechanical fit is not
      responsible for these trends. Sexual selection on male courtship structures that
      are brought into contact with females in precise ways may favor relatively low
      allometric values, in contrast to the high values seen in the other sexually
      selected characters (usually visual display devices) that have been studied
      previously, because a female's own size will influence her perception of the
      contact courtship devices of a male.

PMID- 28568330
TI  - TESTING MODELS OF MIGRATION AND ISOLATION AMONG POPULATIONS OF CHINOOK SALMON
      (ONCORHYNCHUS TSCHAWYTSCHA).
AB  - The chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) is a behaviorally,
      morphologically, and ecologically variable species distributed over a large
      geographic range. Although previous genetic surveys have revealed considerable
      genetic differences among populations with different life history types and from
      different major river drainages, it is not clear to what degree these genetically
      distinct populations are connected by low levels of gene flow. The work described
      in this paper addresses this question by surveying DNA restriction site variation
      at six nuclear genes from nine populations encompassing most of the species's
      North American range, and then attempting to fit the patterns of variation
      observed at these genes to five different evolutionary models using computer
      simulations of the coalescent process. Two commonly used constant population size
      models, one hypothesizing no migration among populations and one hypothesizing
      equal rates of migration among populations, were found to be statistically
      inconsistent with the observed patterns of variation. The other three models,
      which involved either recent divergence among populations coupled with large
      changes in populations size, unequal migration rates among populations, or
      selection, were all found to be consistent with the observed patterns of
      variation. Assuming selective neutrality, these results suggest that either the
      populations have all descended from a common ancestral population within the last
      ~50,000 years and have all suffered large declines in effective population size
      since that time, or that they have a more ancient divergence time but are
      connected by low levels of gene flow. These conclusions rest on the assumption of
      selective neutrality. With the methods employed, it was not possible to
      simultaneously test hypotheses of both selective neutrality and population
      structure.

PMID- 28568331
TI  - SPATIAL SCALE OF GENETIC STRUCTURE AND AN INDIRECT ESTIMATE OF GENE FLOW IN
      EELGRASS, ZOSTERA MARINA.
AB  - In this study, the first investigation of population structure in an aquatic
      angiosperm, I show that populations of a marine angiosperm (eelgrass, Zostera
      marina) are genetically differentiated at a number of spatial scales. I find also
      that there is no correspondence between geographic and genetic distances
      separating subpopulations, an increasingly common result in spatially stratified
      studies of genetic structure in marine invertebrates. F-statistics, calculated
      for two years from electrophoretic variation at five polymorphic allozyme loci,
      indicate significant genetic differentiation among sampling quadrats within each
      of two bays (theta = 0.064-0.208), between tide zones within a bay (theta = 0.025
      0.157) and between bays (theta = 0.079). Spatial autocorrelation analysis was
      used to explore genetic differentiation at smaller spatial scales; estimated
      patch sizes (within which genetic individuals are randomly associated) indicated
      no appeciable genetic structure at scales less than 20 m * 20 m. Calculated
      values of F-statistics were a function of the spatial scale from which samples
      were drawn: increasing the size of the "subpopulation" included in calculation of
      fixation indices for the same "total" sample resulted in an increase in the
      magnitude of f (e.g., from 0.092 to 0.181) and a decrease in theta (e.g., from
      0.186 to 0.025). On the basis of the best estimate of the spatial scale of
      subpopulations, the effective number of migrants per generation (Ne m) ranges
      from 1.1 to 2.8. Genetic consequences of the disturbance regime in the eelgrass
      habitat sampled were extreme variation between years in the allele richness and
      proportion of heterozygotes in a sample and a positive relationship between the
      extinction probability of patches and the genetic variance among them. The
      changes in F-statistics as a function of sampling scale and the observation that
      theta among sampled quadrats was positively associated with the probability of
      extinction among quadrats indicated that indirect estimates of gene flow (Ne m)
      calculated from theta should be cautiously interpreted in populations that may
      not yet be in drift-migration equilibrium.

PMID- 28568332
TI  - EVOLUTION OF DIFFERENT GALL TYPES IN WILLOW-FEEDING SAWFLIES (HYMENOPTERA:
      TENTHREDINIDAE).
AB  - The sawflies that feed on the plant family Salicaceae can be divided into eight
      informal groups based on larval feeding habit or gall type: (1) species with free
      living larvae; (2) leaf folders; (3) leaf blade gallers; (4) apical leaf gallers;
      (5) basal leaf gallers; (6) midrib and petiole gallers; (7) stem gallers; and (8)
      bud gallers. It has been proposed that the galling habit evolved from free-living
      larvae via leaf folders, and that the different gall types evolved gradually in
      the sequence mentioned above. Thus, the galling site would have "wandered" from
      the leaf margin toward the stem as a result of gradual changes in oviposition
      site preference. Allozyme data from eight informative loci were used to
      reconstruct the phylogeny of 18 representative sawfly species. The results
      suggest that indeed leaf folders seem to be a basal group; leaf blade gallers
      evolved independently of the other true gallers; apical and basal leaf gallers
      are not the ancestors of petiole and bud gallers, but they may share a common
      galling ancestor; bud gallers evolved from midrib/petiole gallers; and stem
      gallers are polyphyletic. The cause for the observed wandering of the galling
      site could be intraspecific competition due to a possible "nutrient shading
      effect" of galls situated closer to the host plant's main vascular system.

PMID- 28568333
TI  - CENTROMERIC INCOMPATIBILITIES IN THE HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN HOUSE MOUSE SUBSPECIES
      FROM DENMARK: EVIDENCE FROM PATTERNS OF NOR ACTIVITY.
AB  - The introgression pattern of centromeric nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) was
      studied in house mice from the hybrid zone between Mus musculus musculus and Mus
      musculus domesticus in Denmark. In this region, the two subspecies are
      chromosomally differentiated: M. m domesticus carries three pairs of Robertsonian
      (Rb) fusion chromosomes (2n = 34), while M. m. musculus exhibits the ancestral
      karyotype of 2n = 40 acrocentric chromosomes. A previous chromosomal analysis
      showed that the Rb clines were staggered and nonconcordant, and that the Rb
      fusions did not introgress into the M. m. musculus genome due to
      incompatibilities involving only the centromeric regions. In the present study,
      the distribution of a centromeric NOR cluster located on an acrocentric
      chromosome not involved in the Rb fusions (chromosome 11; NOR11 ) was
      investigated to determine if the observed centromeric incompatibilities were
      limited to the chromosomal rearrangements or were related to centromeric
      differentiation between the subspecies. The cytogenetic study by silver staining
      documented the activity pattern of the five major NOR-bearing chromosome pairs
      (12, 15, 16, 18, and 19) common to both subspecies and confirmed presence of
      NOR11 in M. m. musculus and absence in M. m. domesticus. The NOR11 activity
      pattern showed a very narrow and off-centered clinal transition. An in situ
      hybridization analysis with rDNA probes indicated that the decrease in frequency
      of activity of NOR11 through the hybrid zone was related to absence of ribosomal
      genes in this cluster and not to transcription repression due to competitive or
      dominance interactions. The center of the NOR11 cline was significantly different
      from that of the consensus allozymic markers, but coincided with that of the
      steepest Rb cline. Several arguments support the view that the selective
      processes involved in maintaining the NOR11 cline are related to the centromeric
      region of these chromosomes. These include: (1) the similarity in shape and
      position of the Rb and NOR11 clines; (2) the absence of activity dysfunction
      involving NOR11 ; and (3) the tight linkage between NORs and centromeres in house
      mice. This study indicates that the centromeric segments of acrocentric
      chromosomes not involved in chromosomal rearrangements show incompatibilities
      similar to those evidenced by the Rb fusions. These centromeric incompatibilities
      are thus more likely related to centromeric origin and subspecific
      differentiation (domesticus vs. musculus) than to centromeric rearrangement (Rb
      vs. non-Rb). In this case, it may be predicted that the selective processes
      maintaining the chromosomal clines are distributed over many, if not all, the
      centromeres and may combine . to limit the gene flow between M. m. domesticus and
      M. m. musculus.

PMID- 28568335
TI  - TESTING ADAPTIVE RADIATION AND KEY INNOVATION HYPOTHESES IN SPIDERS.
AB  - We combine statistical and phylogenetic approaches to test the hypothesis that
      adaptive radiation and key innovation have contributed to the diversity of the
      order Araneae. The number of unbalanced araneid clades (those whose species
      numbers differ by 90% or more) exceeds the number predicted by a null Markovian
      model. The current phylogeny of spider families contains 74 bifurcating nodes, of
      which 31 are unbalanced. As this is significantly more than the 14.8 expected
      unbalanced nodes, some of the diversity within the Araneae can be attributed to
      some deterministic cause (e.g., adaptive radiation). One of the more highly
      unbalanced (97%) bifurcations divides the orb-weaving spiders into the
      Deinopoidea and the larger Araneoidea. A simple statistical model shows that the
      inequality in diversity between the Deinopoidea and the Araneoidea is
      significant, and that it is associated with the replacement of primitive
      cribellar capture thread by viscous adhesive thread and a change from a
      horizontal to a vertical orb-web orientation. These changes improve an orb-web's
      ability to intercept and retain prey and expand the adaptive zone that orb
      weaving spiders can occupy and are, therefore, considered to be "key
      innovations."

PMID- 28568334
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE OF A CLONAL GORGONIAN CORAL: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN CLONAL
      REPRODUCTION AND DISTURBANCE.
AB  - Clonality is a common feature of plants and benthic marine organisms. In some
      cases clonal propagation results in a modest increase in population density,
      while in other cases dense populations may be generated by the propagation of
      only a few clones. We analyzed the population structure of the clonal gorgonian
      Plexaura kuna across several reef habitats with a range of disturbance regimes in
      the San Blas Islands, Panama, and the Florida Keys, U.S.A. Using multilocus DNA
      fingerprinting to distinguish clones, we estimated that clones ranged in size
      from single individuals to 500 colonies. The number of genotypes identified on
      nine reefs ranged from three to 25. Population density and clonal structure
      varied markedly among reefs with GO :GE ranging from 0.03 to 1.00. On some reefs
      vegetative reproduction transformed P. kuna from a rare species to the
      numerically most abundant gorgonian. The effect of clonal propagation on P. kuna
      population structure was dependent on interactions between fragmentation and the
      reef environment (disturbance regime, substratum). We present a generalized model
      relating population structure of clonal species to disturbance and the mode of
      vegetative propagation. Disturbance promotes colony propagation and skews the
      size-frequency distribution of clones among P. kuna and many species that
      propagate via fragmentation. Propagation of these species is promoted by
      disturbance (disturbance sensitive), and they tend to have clones that are
      dispersed across local sites. Species that fragment and have dispersed clones,
      have high genotypic diversity in habitats with low levels of disturbance.
      Genotypic diversity then decreases at intermediate disturbance and increases
      again at the highest disturbance levels. Clonal species that do not rely on
      disturbance for vegetative propagation (disturbance insensitive) generally do not
      disperse and form aggregated clones. Among these taxa disturbance has a greater
      affect on individual survival than on propagation. Genotypic diversity is
      directly related to the level of disturbance until very high levels of
      disturbance, at which time genotypic diversity declines.

PMID- 28568336
TI  - COVARIATION OF DEFENSIVE TRAITS IN TIGER BEETLES (GENUS CICINDELA): A
      PHYLOGENETIC APPROACH USING mtDNA.
AB  - Inferences about the evolution of defensive strategies in tiger beetles (genus
      Cicindela) have been contentious, largely due to the lack of a phylogenetic
      hypothesis for the group. We used a dataset that includes measures of chemical
      defense, habitat association, and body coloration for a representative sample of
      North American Cicindela (Pearson et al. 1988) to reassess, within a phylogenetic
      context, the problem of covariation in defensive strategies. We reconstructed a
      phylogenetic hypothesis from mtDNA for a total of 44 Cicindela and seven outgroup
      taxa using 1896 base pairs from three segments of the mitochondrial genome.
      Characters involved in predator deterrence and escape were optimized onto this
      phylogeny. Although most taxa producing large amounts of benzaldehyde fall into
      two monophyletic clades, numerous changes in the level of benzaldehyde secretion
      across the genus suggest that this parameter is poorly conserved
      phylogenetically. In contrast to previous studies, we also found little support
      for correlated character changes in benzaldehyde secretion and habitat type, a
      presumed indicator of the selective regime. Aposematic coloration of the abdomen
      was restricted to a single monophyletic group of taxa producing large amounts of
      benzaldehyde. Bright iridescent coloration, implicated in predator evasion during
      flight, was only loosely correlated with the phylogenetic affinities of taxa and
      appears to be part of a defensive strategy not usually acting in combination with
      chemical defenses. Our study of character covariation clarifies earlier analyses
      of the adaptive significance of benzaldehyde defense, which were inconclusive
      without a phylogenetic hypothesis.

PMID- 28568338
TI  - MORTALITY PLATEAUS AND THE EVOLUTION OF SENESCENCE: WHY ARE OLD-AGE MORTALITY
      RATES SO LOW?
AB  - Age-specific mortality rates level off far below 100% at advanced ages in
      experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster and other organisms. This
      observation is inconsistent with the equilibrium predictions of both the
      antagonistic pleiotropy and mutation accumulation models of senescence, which,
      under a wide variety of assumptions, predict a "wall" of mortality rates near
      100% at postreproductive ages. Previous models of age-specific mortality patterns
      are discussed in light of recent demographic data concerning late-age mortality
      deceleration and age-specific properties of new mutations. The most recent theory
      (Mueller and Rose 1996) argues that existing evolutionary models can easily and
      robustly explain the demographic data. Here we discuss the sensitivity of that
      analysis to different types of mutational effects, and demonstrate that its
      conclusion is very sensitive to assumptions about mutations. A legitimate
      resolution of evolutionary theory and demographic data will require experimental
      observations on the age-specificity of mutational effects for new mutations and
      the degree to which mortality rates in adjacent ages are constrained to be
      similar (positive pleiotropy), as well as consideration of redundancy and
      heterogeneity models from demographic theory.

PMID- 28568337
TI  - TRADEOFF BETWEEN HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL MODES OF TRANSMISSION IN BACTERIAL
      PLASMIDS.
AB  - It has been hypothesized that there is a fundamental conflict between horizontal
      (infectious) and vertical (intergenerational) modes of parasite transmission.
      Activities of a parasite that increase its rate of infectious transmission are
      presumed to reduce its host's fitness. This reduction in host fitness impedes
      vertical transmission of the parasite and causes a tradeoff between horizontal
      and vertical transmission. Given this tradeoff, and assuming no multiple
      infections (no within-host competition among parasites), a simple model predicts
      that the density of uninfected hosts in the environment should determine the
      optimum balance between modes of parasite transmission. When susceptible hosts
      are abundant, selection should favor increased rates of horizontal transfer, even
      at the expense of reduced vertical transmission. Conversely, when hosts are rare,
      selection should favor increased vertical transmission even at the expense of
      lower horizontal transfer. We tested the tradeoff hypothesis and these
      evolutionary predictions using conjugative plasmids and the bacteria that they
      infect. Plasmids were allowed to evolve for 500 generations in environments with
      different densities of susceptible hosts. The plasmid's rate of horizontal
      transfer by conjugation increased at the expense of host fitness, indicating a
      tradeoff between horizontal and vertical transmission. Also, reductions in
      conjugation rate repeatedly coincided with the loss of a particular plasmid
      encoded antibiotic resistance gene. However, susceptible host density had no
      significant effect on the evolution of horizontal versus vertical modes of
      plasmid transmission. We consider several possible explanations for the failure
      to observe such an effect.

PMID- 28568339
TI  - VIRULENCE OF MIXED-CLONE AND SINGLE-CLONE INFECTIONS OF THE RODENT MALARIA
      PLASMODIUM CHABAUDI.
AB  - Most evolutionary models treat virulence as an unavoidable consequence of
      microparasite replication and have predicted that in mixed-genotype infections,
      natural selection should favor higher levels of virulence than is optimal in
      genetically uniform infections. Increased virulence may evolve as a genetically
      fixed strategy, appropriate for the frequency of mixed infections in the
      population, or may occur as a conditional response to mixed infection, that is, a
      facultative strategy. Here we test whether facultative alterations in replication
      rates in the presence of competing genotypes occur and generate greater
      virulence. An important alternative, not currently incorporated in models of the
      evolution of virulence, is that host responses mounted against genetically
      diverse parasites may be more costly or less effective than those against
      genetically uniform parasites. If so, mixed clone infections will be more
      virulent for a given parasite replication rate. Two groups of mice were infected
      with one of two clones of Plasmodium chabaudi parasites, and three groups of mice
      were infected with 1:9, 5:5, or 9:1 mixtures of the same two clones. Virulence
      was assessed by monitoring mouse body weight and red blood cell density.
      Transmission stage densities were significantly higher in mixed- than in single
      clone infections. Within treatment groups, transmission stage production
      increased with the virulence of the infection, a phenotypic correlation
      consistent with the genetic correlation assumed by much of the theoretical work
      on the evolution of virulence. Consistent with theoretical predictions of
      facultative alterations in virulence, we found that mice infected with both
      parasite clones lost more weight and had on average lower blood counts than those
      infected with single-clone infections. However, there was no consistent evidence
      of the mechanism invoked by evolutionary models that predict this effect.
      Replication rates and parasite densities were not always higher in ***mixed-clone
      infections, and for a given replication rate or parasite density, mixed-clone
      infections were still more virulent. Instead, prolonged anemia and increased
      transmission may have occured because genetically diverse infections are less
      rapidly cleared by hosts. Differences in maximum weight loss occured even when
      there were comparable parasite densities in mixed- and single-clone infections.
      We suggest that mounting an immune response against more that one parasite
      genotype is more costly for hosts, which therefore suffer higher virulence.

PMID- 28568340
TI  - THE GENETICS OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY. VIII. THE COST OF PLASTICITY IN DAPHNIA
      PULEX.
AB  - In a heterogeneous world, the optimal strategy for an individual is to
      continually change its phenotype to match the optimal type. However, in the real
      world, organisms do not behave in this fashion. One potential reason why is that
      phenotypic plasticity is costly. We measured production and maintenance costs of
      plasticity in the freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex (Cladocera: Crustacea) in
      response to the presence of chemical signals from a predator, the insect
      Chaoborus americanus. We looked at three changes in juvenile body size and shape:
      body length, body depth, and tailspine length. Fitness costs were measured as
      changes in adult growth and fecundity, and summarized as the intrinsic rate of
      increase (r) for individuals reared in the presence or absence of Chaoborus
      extract. The cost of plasticity was measured as a multiple regression of mean
      clone fitness against trait and trait plasticity. We found scant evidence for
      either production or maintenance costs of plasticity. We also failed to find
      direct costs of these juvenile structures, which is surprising, as others have
      found such costs. We attribute the lack of measurable direct or plasticity costs
      to a decrease in metabolic rates in the presence of the Chaoborus extract. This
      decrease in metabolic rate may have compensated for any cost increases. We call
      for more extensive measures of the costs of plasticity, especially under natural
      conditions, and the incorporation of costs into evolutionary models.

PMID- 28568341
TI  - ESTIMATING THE MATING BEHAVIOR OF A PAIR OF HYBRIDIZING HELICONIUS SPECIES IN THE
      WILD.
AB  - Premating isolation between incipient species is rarely studied in nature, even
      though mating tests in captivity may give an inaccurate picture of natural
      hybridization. We studied premating barriers between the warningly colored
      butterflies Heliconius erato and H. himera (Lepidoptera) in a narrow contact zone
      in Ecuador, where hybrids are found at low frequency. Eggs obtained from wild
      mated females, supplemented with eggs and young larvae collected from the wild,
      were reared to adulthood. Adult color patterns of these progeny were then used to
      infer how their parents must have mated. Likelihood was used to estimate both the
      frequencies of potential parental genotypes from adult phenotypes collected in
      the wild, and the degree of assortative mating from the inferred parents. The
      frequencies of parental genotypes varied across the hybrid zone, but our
      statistical method allowed estimates of hybrid deficit and assortative mating to
      be integrated across all sites sampled. The best estimate of the frequency of F1
      and backcross hybrid adults in the center of the hybrid zone was 10%, with
      support limits (7.1%, 13.0%; support limits are asymptotically equivalent to 95%
      confidence limits). Mating was highly assortative: in the center of the hybrid
      zone the cross-mating probability between H. erato and H. himera was only 5%
      (0.3%, 21.4%). Wild hybrids themselves mated with both pure forms, and the
      probabilities that they mated in any direction were not significantly lower than
      those among conspecifics. These results are consistent with earlier laboratory
      studies on mate choice, and suggest that selection against hybrids must be strong
      to prevent formation of a hybrid swarm. Unfortunately, the wide support limits on
      mating behavior precluded a measure of the strength of selection from these data
      alone. Our statistical approach provides a useful general method for estimating
      mate choice in the wild.

PMID- 28568342
TI  - GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF PROTANDRIC SEX IN THE PACIFIC OYSTER, CRASSOSTREA GIGAS
      THUNBERG.
AB  - A unique feature of sex in Crassostrea oysters is the coexistence of protandric
      sex change, dioecy, and hermaphroditism. To determine whether such a system is
      genetically controlled, we analyzed sex ratios in 86 pair-mated families of the
      Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas Thunberg. The overall female ratios of one-,
      two-, and three-year-old oysters were 37%, 55%, and 75%, respectively, suggesting
      that a significant proportion of oysters matured first as males and changed to
      females in later years. Detailed analysis of sex ratios in factorial and nested
      crosses revealed significant paternal effects, which corresponded to two types of
      sires. No major maternal effects on sex were observed. Major genetic control of
      sex was further indicated by the distribution of family sex ratios in two to four
      apparently discreet groups. These and other data from the literature are
      compatible with a single-locus model of primary sex determination with a dominant
      male allele (M) and a protandric female allele (F), so that MF are true males and
      FF are protandric females that are capable of sex change. The rate of sex change
      of FF individuals may be influenced by secondary genes and/or environmental
      factors. Strong maternal and weak paternal effects on sexual maturation or time
      of spawning were also suggested.

PMID- 28568343
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF HOST-PLANT USE AND SEQUESTRATION IN THE LEAF BEETLE GENUS
      PHRATORA (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE).
AB  - Leaf beetles in the genus Phratora differ in host plant use and in the chemical
      composition of their larval defensive secretion. Most species specialize on
      either poplars or willows (family Salicaceae), but two species feed on birch
      (family Betulaceae). Phratora vitellinae utilizes salicylates from the host plant
      to produce its larval secretion, which contains salicylaldehyde, while other
      Phratora species produce an autogenous secretion. To reconstruct the evolutionary
      history of host plant use and the larval secretion chemistry in this genus, we
      sequenced 1383 base pairs of the mt cytochrome oxidase I gene for six European
      and one North American Phratora species and three outgroup taxa. Bootstrap values
      of the complete nucleotide sequence were 99-100% for six of eight nodes in the
      maximum parsimony tree. They were 71% and 77% for the two other nodes. The
      maximum parsimony tree and the maximum likelihood tree based on nucleotide
      sequence showed the same relationships as a maximum parsimony tree based on the
      amino acid sequence. Beetle phylogeny overlapped broadly with host plant taxonomy
      and chemistry, and it revealed historical constraints influencing host plant use.
      However, there was one host shift from the willow family (Salicaceae) to the
      birch family (Betulaceae). The use of host plant phenol glycosides for the larval
      defensive secretion evolved along the lineage that led to P. vitellinae. Phratora
      vitellinae feeds on the taxonomically widest range of host plants, which are
      characterized by moderate to high levels of salicylates. The results support the
      hypothesis that the use of salicylates for the larval secretion evolved twice
      independently in chrysomeline leaf beetles.

PMID- 28568344
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ESTIMATES OF MORPHOMETRIC VARIATION IN WILD-CAUGHT AND
      LABORATORY-REARED HOUSEFLIES.
AB  - Quantitative genetic estimates of morphometric traits in the housefly, Musca
      domestica L, were made on parents captured in the wild or reared in the
      laboratory. Phenotypic variation of morphometric traits declined within the
      laboratory, but as the additive genetic component of variation also declined,
      there was no net change in ***narrow-sense heritabilities of these traits across
      environments. Additive genetic variances were inflated only when wild-caught
      females were used as parents, suggesting that a maternal effect was present.

PMID- 28568345
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF FITNESS RECOVERY FROM THE DEBILITATING EFFECTS OF
      MULLER'S RATCHET.
AB  - The great adaptability shown by RNA viruses is a consequence of their high
      mutation rates. The evolution of fitness in a severely debilitated, clonal
      population of the nonsegmented ribovirus vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has
      been compared under five different demographic regimes, ranging from severe
      serial bottleneck passages (one virion) to large population passages (105 virions
      or more) under similar environmental conditions (cell culture type and
      temperature). No matter how small the bottleneck, the fitness of the evolved
      populations was always higher than the fitness of the starting population; this
      result is clearly different from that previously reported for viruses with higher
      fitness. The reattainment of fitness under a regime of serial population passages
      showed two main characteristics: (1) the rate of adaptation was higher during
      early passages; and (2) a maximum fitness value was reached after a large number
      of passages. The maximum fitness reached by this initially debilitated clone was
      similar to the fitness of wild-type virus. The practical implications of these
      findings in the design of vaccines using attenuated viruses are also discussed.

PMID- 28568346
TI  - EVOLUTION OF RESISTANCE IN CULEX PIPIENS: ALLELE REPLACEMENT AND CHANGING
      ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - Fixation of adaptive mutations in populations is often constrained by pleiotropic
      fitness costs. The evolutionary pathways that compensate such fitness
      disadvantages are either the occurrence of modifier genes or replacement of the
      adaptive allele by less costly ones. In this context, 23 years of evolution of
      insecticide resistance genes in the mosquito Culex pipiens from southern France
      are analyzed. The aim of this study is to answer the following points. Is there a
      fitness cost associated with these resistance genes in natural populations? Does
      evolution proceed through allele replacement or through selection of modifiers?
      And finally, how do environmental changes affect the evolution of resistance
      genes? Samples from the same transect, crossing the boundary between an
      insecticide-treated and a nontreated area, are analyzed. Clinal analyses indicate
      a variable fitness cost among the resistance genes and show that allele
      replacement has been the primary mechanism of resistance evolution in this area.
      It is also shown that replacement was probably due to environmental changes
      corresponding to modification in pesticide-treatment intensity.

PMID- 28568347
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATIONS OF BROOD PARASITIC FINCHES (VIDUA) AND THEIR HOST
      SPECIES: ANALYSES OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA RESTRICTION SITES.
AB  - The species-specific associations of the African brood parasitic finches Vidua
      with their estrildid finch host species may have originated by cospeciation with
      the host species or by later colonizations of new hosts. Predictions of these
      alternative models were tested in two species groups of brood parasites
      (indigobirds, paradise whydahs) and their hosts. Phylogenetic analyses suggested
      that the brood parasites and their hosts did not speciate in parallel. The
      parasitic indigobirds share mitochondrial haplotypes with each other, and species
      limits in both indigobirds and paradise whydahs do not correspond with their gene
      trees. Different parasite species within a region are more closely related to
      each other than any is to parasites that are associated with its same host
      species in other regions of Africa. There is little genetic difference between
      parasite species Di,j < 0.001 in the indigobirds, Di,j = 0.01 in the whydahs).
      Genetic distances Di,j between the parasite species are less than the genetic
      distances between their corresponding host species in all parasite-host
      comparisons, and average only 7.2% as large in the indigobirds as in their hosts
      and 42% as large in the paradise whydahs as in their hosts. A phylogenetic model
      that allows ancestral haplotype polymorphisms to be retained in descendant
      species was compared to a constraint model of species monophyly requiring all but
      the one ancestral haplotype to be independently derived within each species. The
      constraint model increases the length of the indigobird tree by 50% over that of
      the model of retained ancestral polymorphisms; the difference is statistically
      significant. Both phylogenetic and distance analyses indicate that the brood
      parasites have become associated with their host species through host switches
      and independent colonizations of the hosts, rather than through parallel
      cospeciation with them. The molecular genetic results are supported by recent
      discoveries of additional host species that are associated with the indigobirds
      in the field and by variation in the species-specific song behaviors of the brood
      parasites.

PMID- 28568348
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28568349
TI  - THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL EVENTS AND GENE FLOW ON THE POPULATION
      STRUCTURE OF A MEDITERRANEAN RAGWORT, SENECIO GALLICUS (ASTERACEAE).
AB  - Comparisons of cytoplasmic and nuclear diversity within and among natural plant
      populations have the potential to distinguish the relative influences of seed and
      pollen dispersal on contemporary gene flow, or alternatively, may permit
      inferences of the colonization history of a species via seed. We examined
      patterns of cpDNA and allozyme variation in Senecio gallicus, a diploid, annual
      plant that occurs in both coastal and ruderal inland areas of the Iberian
      Peninsula and southern France. The species appears to have a strong propensity
      for long-distance seed dispersal. Five cpDNA haplotypes were found by RFLP
      analysis among a sample of 111 individuals derived from 11 populations.
      Differences in haplotype frequencies across populations were most evident with
      respect to a dramatic increase in the frequency of a derived haplotype from
      coastal to inland localities. The level of cpDNA differentiation among
      populations within the inland group (theta0 = 0.07) was significantly less than
      that seen within the coastal group (theta0 = 0.41). In contrast, for allozymes,
      no significant difference in population structure was evident between collections
      from coastal and inland habitats. At the rangewide geographic scale, there was
      only a very weak association between inferred levels of gene flow and geographic
      distance for cpDNA, and no such association was found for allozymes. It appears
      that while seed movement in the species might be sufficiently great to disturb
      the pattern of isolation by distance for cpDNA, it cannot fully account for the
      nearly randomized spatial structure at polymorphic allozyme loci. It is suggested
      that isolation of populations in Atlantic-Mediterranean coastal refugia during
      previous glacial maxima, and the effects of subsequent colonization events in
      inland areas, have had an important effect on molding the present genetic
      structure of the species.

PMID- 28568350
TI  - BUTTERFLIES AND PLANTS: A PHYLOGENETIC STUDY.
AB  - A database on host plant records from 437 ingroup taxa has been used to test a
      number of hypotheses on the interaction between butterflies and their host plants
      using phylogenetic methods (simple character optimization, concentrated changes
      test, and independent contrasts test). The butterfly phylogeny was assembled from
      various sources and host plant clades were identified according to Chase et al.'s
      rbcL-based phylogeny. The ancestral host plant appears to be associated within a
      highly derived rosid clade, including the family Fabaceae. As fossil data suggest
      that this clade is older than the butterflies, they must have colonized already
      diversified plants. Previous studies also suggest that the patterns of
      association in most insect-plant interactions are more shaped by host shifts,
      through colonization and specialization, than by cospeciation. Consequently, we
      have focused explicitly on the mechanisms behind host shifts. Our results
      confirm, in the light of new phylogenetic evidence, the pattern reported by
      Ehrlich and Raven that related butterflies feed on related plants. We show that
      host shifts have generally been more common between closely related plants than
      between more distantly related plants. This finding, together with the
      possibility of a higher tendency of recolonizing ancestral hosts, helps to
      explain the apparent large-scale conservation in the patterns of association
      between insects and their host plants, patterns which at the same time are more
      flexible on a more detailed level. Plant growth form was an even more
      conservative aspect of the interaction between butterflies and their host plants
      than plant phylogeny. However, this is largely explained by a higher probability
      of colonizations and host shifts while feeding on trees than on other growth
      forms.

PMID- 28568351
TI  - ADAPTATION TO COMPETITION BY NEW MUTATION IN CLONES OF ALEXANDRIUM MINUTUM.
AB  - We describe two competition experiments between clones of the dinoflagellate
      Alexandrium minutum. In the first experiment, two clones originating from a
      single haploid cell competed until one of the clones was almost driven to
      extinction. In the second experiment, these two clones were allowed to compete
      with the original populations, which were previously kept as cysts. The results
      indicate that an improvement of the competitive ability in both clones has
      occurred during the history of competition. This adaptation to competition must
      be attributed to selection acting on the new genetic variation that has arisen by
      mutation.

PMID- 28568352
TI  - Plica neuropathica (matting hair) in an autistic patient.

PMID- 28568354
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATING?

PMID- 28568353
TI  - Prevention of complications in glycogen storage disease type Ia with optimization
      of metabolic control.
AB  - Prior to 1971, type Ia glycogen storage disease was marked by life-threatening
      hypoglycemia, lactic acidosis, severe failure to thrive, and developmental delay.
      With the introduction of continuous feeds in the 1970s and cornstarch in the
      1980s, the prognosis improved, but complications almost universally developed.
      Changes in the management of type Ia glycogen storage disease have resulted in
      improved metabolic control, and this manuscript reviews the increasing evidence
      that complications can be delayed or prevented with optimal metabolic control as
      previously was seen in diabetes.

PMID- 28568355
TI  - GENETIC CHANGES AT THE TRANSFERRIN LOCUS IN THE RED-BACKED VOLE (CLETHRIONOMYS
      GAPPERI).

PMID- 28568356
TI  - THE MATING SYSTEM OF THE TERRESTRIAL SLUG DEROCERAS LAEVE.

PMID- 28568357
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND COMMUNICATION IN A NEOTROPICAL FROG, PHYSALAEMUS PUSTULOSUS.

PMID- 28568359
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28568358
TI  - DETERMINANTS OF MULTIPLE HOST USE BY A PHYTOPHAGOUS INSECT POPULATION.

PMID- 28568360
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY WITHIN AND AMONG POPULATIONS OF THE BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG.

PMID- 28568361
TI  - TESTING THE FEMALE MIMICRY HYPOTHESIS OF DELAYED PLUMAGE MATURATION: A COMMENT ON
      PROCTER-GRAY AND HOLMES.

PMID- 28568362
TI  - HYBRID INVIABILITY AND PREDOMINANT SURVIVAL OF MATING TYPE MINUS PROGENY IN
      LABORATORY CROSSES BETWEEN TWO CLOSELY RELATED MATING GROUPS OF CLOSTERIUM
      EHRENBERGII.

PMID- 28568363
TI  - GRASSHOPPER MANDIBLES AND THE NICHE VARIATION HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28568364
TI  - RELATIVE FITNESSES OF SELFED AND OUTCROSSED PROGENY IN GILIA ACHILLEIFOLIA
      (POLEMONIACEAE).

PMID- 28568365
TI  - A STEEP CLINE IN PINUS MURICATA.

PMID- 28568366
TI  - PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF GENETIC SIMILARITY TO SHOW RELATEDNESS.

PMID- 28568367
TI  - BARRIERS TO GENE EXCHANGE BETWEEN CLOSELY RELATED CRICKET SPECIES. I. LABORATORY
      HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES.

PMID- 28568368
TI  - ECOLOGICAL GENETICS OF DAPHNIA PULEX.

PMID- 28568369
TI  - INFLUENCES OF GENETIC VARIABILITY AND MATERNAL FACTORS ON FETAL GROWTH IN WHITE
      TAILED DEER.

PMID- 28568370
TI  - Society Meetings.

PMID- 28568371
TI  - PATTERNS AND LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIATION IN GREAT BASIN BRISTLECONE PINE, PINUS
      LONGAEVA.

PMID- 28568372
TI  - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GENERATIONS IN THE SEX RATIO OF ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA.

PMID- 28568373
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC INFERENCE FROM RESTRICTION ENDONUCLEASE CLEAVAGE SITE MAPS WITH
      PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND THE APES.

PMID- 28568374
TI  - HIGH LEVELS OF PHENOTYPIC VARIABILITY OF METAL AND TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE IN
      PARAMECIUM.

PMID- 28568375
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE OF OUTBREEDING IN THE BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG (CYNOMYS
      LUDOVICIANUS).

PMID- 28568376
TI  - ENAMEL-LIKE ANTIGENS IN HAGFISH: POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE.

PMID- 28568377
TI  - One in two cancer patients is significantly distressed: Prevalence and indicators
      of distress.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Psychological distress is common in cancer patients, and awareness of
      its indicators is essential. We aimed to assess the prevalence of psychological
      distress and to identify problems indicative of high distress. METHODS: We used
      the distress thermometer (DT) and its 34-item problem list to measure
      psychological distress in 3724 cancer patients (mean age 58 years; 57% women)
      across major tumor entities, enrolled in an epidemiological multicenter study. To
      identify distress-related problems, we conducted monothetic analyses. RESULTS: We
      found high levels of psychological distress (DT >= 5) in 52% of patients. The
      most prevalent problems were fatigue (56%), sleep problems (51%), and problems
      getting around (47%). Sadness, fatigue, and sleep problems were most strongly
      associated with the presence of other problems. High distress was present in
      81.4% of patients reporting all 3 of these problems (DT M = 6.4). When analyzing
      only the subset of physical problems, fatigue, problems getting around, and
      indigestion showed the strongest association with the remaining problems and
      76.3% of patients with all 3 problems were highly distressed (DT M = 6.1).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a high prevalence of psychological distress in
      cancer patients, as well as a set of problems that indicate the likely presence
      of other problems and high distress and can help clinicians identify distressed
      patients even if no routine distress screening is available.

PMID- 28568378
TI  - Cytotoxic Properties of the Stem Bark of Citrus reticulata Blanco (Rutaceae).
AB  - The bioassay-guided fractionation of the n-hexane extract of Citrus reticulata
      Blanco (Rutaceae) stem bark yielded scoparone (1), xanthyletin (2), lupeol (3),
      beta-amyrin (4), stigmasterol (5), beta-sitosterol (6) and palmitic acid. The
      structures of these compounds were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic
      analyses, i.e., 1D and 2D NMR and EI-MS, and by comparison with the reported
      data. Extracts, fractions and isolated compounds 1-6 were assessed for
      cytotoxicity by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-dphenyltetrazolium bromide
      (MTT) assay against three human cancer cell lines, i.e., human lung
      adenocarcinoma cell line A549, human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF7 and
      human Caucasian prostate adenocarcinoma cell line PC3. Significant activity of
      the n-hexane and the dichloromethane extracts was observed against the breast
      cancer cell line MCF7 with IC50 s of 45.6 and 54.7 MUg/mL, respectively.
      Moreover, the 70% ethyl acetate in n-hexane chromatographic fraction showed
      significant activity displaying IC50 values of 53.0, 52.4 and 49.1 MUg/mL against
      the cancer cell lines A549, MCF7 and PC3, respectively. Encouragingly, an IC50 of
      510.0 MUg/mL against the human normal prostate cell line PNT2 indicated very low
      toxicity and hence favourable selectivity indices for the 70% ethyl acetate in n
      hexane fraction in the range of 9.6-10.4 towards cell lines A549, MCF7 and PC3.
      Because compounds isolated from the above fraction only delivered IC50 values in
      the range of 18.2-96.3, 9.2-34.1 and 7.5-97.2 MUg/mL against A549, MCF7 and PC3
      cell lines, respectively, synergistic action between compounds is suggested.
      Bioassay results valorize the anticancer effectivity of the stem bark of this
      plant in Cameroonian pharmacopoeia. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568380
TI  - CHLOROPLAST-DNA VARIATION AND MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF AUTOPOLYPLOIDY IN HEUCHERA
      MICRANTHA (SAXIFRAGACEAE).

PMID- 28568379
TI  - Ketoacidosis at onset of type 1 diabetes is a predictor of long-term glycemic
      control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated the impact of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)
      at diabetes onset on long-term glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes
      (T1D). OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine any differences in long-term glycemic
      control between children/adolescents with T1D presenting with DKA at diabetes
      onset and those without. METHODS: This retrospective study comprised 335 patients
      diagnosed with T1D from September 2007 to December 2012, among which 132 (39.4%)
      presented with DKA. Variables compared between patients with DKA at onset and
      those without: yearly hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, daily insulin dose, yearly
      rates of severe hypoglycemia and DKA, percent of patients achieving target HbA1c
      levels. RESULTS: After the first year of diabetes, the mean daily insulin dose
      and HbA1c level were significantly higher in the group with DKA at onset (0.74 +/
      0.26 vs 0.69 +/- 0.27 units/kg/d, P = .049, and 7.85 +/- 1.13% vs 7.49 +/-
      0.94%, P = .01, respectively), despite similarity of therapy (multiple daily
      injections or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion), with a similar but not
      statistically significant trend subsequently. Mean HbA1c since onset was
      significantly higher in the DKA group (8.08 +/- 0.95% vs 7.86 +/- 0.95%, P =
      .025). A significantly higher percentage of patients in the group without DKA at
      onset achieved a mean level of HbA1c since onset within glycemic targets (32% vs
      20.5%, P = .02). In the DKA group, the frequency of subsequent DKA episodes per
      diabetes years was significantly higher (P = .042). CONCLUSIONS: DKA at diagnosis
      was associated with less favorable long-term glycemic control as assessed by
      HbA1c and the rate of DKA episodes. T1D patients presenting with DKA may
      therefore need stricter treatment and tight follow-up.

PMID- 28568381
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF RESISTANCE TO HERBIVORY IN IPOMOEA PURPUREA. II. NATURAL
      SELECTION BY INSECTS AND COSTS OF RESISTANCE.
AB  - An important component of the process of coevolution between plants and their
      insect herbivores is the imposition of selection on plants by insects. Although
      such selection has been inferred from indirect evidence, little direct evidence
      for it exists. One goal of this study was to seek direct evidence by determining,
      for a single plant-herbivore system, whether insect herbivores impose selection
      on their host plants. A second goal was to determine whether costs are associated
      with genotypes that confer resistance to herbivores, as has been commonly
      postulated. The annual morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea, exhibits genetic
      variation in resistance to four different types of insects. For three of these
      types, most of the genetic variation is additive. Removal of insect herbivores
      increased the number of seeds produced by I. purpurea by 20% and eliminated
      additive genetic variation for seed number (fitness). This result implies that
      herbivores impose selection on some trait(s) of their host plants. Coupled with
      selection for decreased damage by corn earworms, as revealed by a negative
      additive genetic covariance between damage and fitness, this result suggests that
      insect herbivores impose selection on resistance to corn earworms in I. purpurea.
      Two types of cost of resistance to herbivores were sought in I. purpurea: 1)
      internal trade-offs in allocation of resources and 2) ecological trade-offs
      between resistances to different insects. No costs of either type were detected.
      This result suggests that cost-benefit arguments that attempt to predict the
      evolution of levels of resistance to herbivores are not applicable to I.
      purpurea.

PMID- 28568382
TI  - CONFIDENCE LIMITS ON THE MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATE OF THE HOMINOID TREE FROM
      MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA SEQUENCES.

PMID- 28568383
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AND INTROGRESSION BETWEEN NOTROPIS CORNUTUS AND NOTROPIS
      CHRYSOCEPHALUS (FAMILY CYPRINIDAE): COMPARISON OF MORPHOLOGY, ALLOZYMES, AND
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.
AB  - Hybrid zones in fluvial fishes may be heterogeneous from drainage to drainage.
      The comparison of data from morphology, allozymes, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      indicates variability in the causes and degree of restriction of gene flow
      between Notropis cornutus and Notropis chrysocephalus. Allozyme marker loci show
      frequency-dependent introgression; i.e., the rarer species, whichever it is at a
      particular locality, tends to exhibit a higher proportion of introgressed
      alleles. Unlike allozymes, introgression of mtDNA haplotypes varies
      geographically. In westward-flowing Michigan drainages, N. cornutus mtDNA
      haplotypes are more common in F1 hybrids and backcrosses, independent of parental
      frequencies. In eastward-flowing Michigan drainages, N. chrysocephalus mtDNA is
      more common in F1 hybrids and backcrosses; this pattern may be due to local
      ecological effects or frequency-dependent introgression. Morphological data alone
      are not sufficient to distinguish all classes of hybrids. The lack of concordance
      of morphological, allozymic, and mtDNA introgression patterns implies operation
      of one or two factors: 1) geographically variable patterns of selection against
      different hybrid and backcross combinations or 2) genetic differences between
      Michigan populations inhabiting eastward- and westward-flowing drainage systems
      accumulated during historical isolation.

PMID- 28568384
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF RESISTANCE TO HERBIVORY IN IPOMOEA PURPUREA. I. ATTEMPTS TO
      DETECT SELECTION.
AB  - In this study, we looked for evidence of directional or stabilizing/disruptive
      selection on plant size and on the level of damage (resistance) caused by four
      types of herbivores in the annual morning glory Ipomoea purpurea. Selection was
      estimated by standard phenotypic regression analysis and by regression on
      breeding values. The phenotypic regression analysis revealed directional
      selection for all five characters (i.e., plant size and resistance to four types
      of herbivores) and indicated that plant size and resistance to corn-earworm
      damage were subject to stabilizing selection. By contrast, the analysis using
      breeding values revealed directional selection only for plant size and resistance
      to corn earworms, while none of the characters examined indicated stabilizing or
      disruptive selection. These results suggest that intermediate levels of damage in
      I. purpurea are, in general, not maintained by stabilizing selection. Rather,
      they may reflect either 1) a transient state that exists while directional
      selection pushes the population toward complete resistance (or, in one case,
      total absence of resistance) or 2) the evolution of susceptibility to damage by
      genetic drift.

PMID- 28568385
TI  - COMBINATORICS AND VARIETY OF MATING-TYPE SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28568386
TI  - MASS-MORTALITY LAYERS OF FOSSIL STICKLEBACK FISH: CATASTROPHIC KILLS OF
      POLYMORPHIC SCHOOLS.
AB  - Stickleback fish (Gasterosteus doryssus) from late middle-Miocene lacustrine
      deposits of the Truckee Formation in west-central Nevada are abundant and well
      preserved. They occasionally occur in unusually high densities on single annual
      laminations (varves) in "mass-mortality layers." We demonstrate that stickleback
      mass-mortality layers consist of members of schools and may be used as population
      samples. Comparison of stickleback mass-mortality samples to time-averaged
      samples, which accumulated over hundreds or thousands of years in the same
      deposit, indicates that, for some purposes, the time-averaged samples are
      acceptable surrogates for instantaneous population samples from the G. doryssus
      lineage. Mass-mortality and time-averaged samples are similar for variation of
      pelvic structure and dorsal-spine number, but associations between states of
      different characters may be weaker in mass-mortality samples than in time
      averaged samples. Thus, character variances in time-averaged samples of G.
      doryssus are comparable to those of living populations, but character
      correlations are suspect. Character variances and correlations in time-averaged
      fossil samples must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and interpreted with
      caution.

PMID- 28568387
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR SELECTION ON SENSORY STRUCTURES IN A CAVE POPULATION OF GAMMARUS
      MINUS (AMPHIPODA).

PMID- 28568388
TI  - A DEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRAINT IN CERION, WITH COMMENTS ON THE DEFINITION AND
      INTERPRETATION OF CONSTRAINT IN EVOLUTION.
AB  - Since orthodox evolutionary theory is functionalist, constraints attain their
      most important positive meaning as channels of change imposed by historical and
      formal determinants, rather than by immediate natural selection. Since ontogeny
      is the usual locus of expression for these determinants, developmental constraint
      is an appropriate, general term. A particular developmental constraint in Cerion,
      most variable of West Indian land snails, stands out for two reasons: 1) it is
      simply and inexorably defined as a consequence both of formal principles (coiling
      of tube about axis) and of historical contingencies in Cerion's invariant
      allometry of growth; 2) it is pervasive in its influence, underlying major
      patterns of variation in every Cerion study I have ever undertaken. I refer to
      this pattern as the "jigsaw constraint." When whorls are large and final size is
      limited, adult shells must grow fewer whorls. In Cerion, this obvious fact is
      promoted from trivial to important because complex allometries impose a
      substantial set of further consequences for form upon this basic trade-off of
      whorl size and whorl number. I show that this complex of consequences dominates
      patterns of natural variation in Cerion at all levels (among shells within
      samples, between samples in the geographic variation of single species, and
      between species in multitaxon faunas). It also sets patterns of hybridization
      between taxa. This paper is primarily a compendium of such examples. It is
      designed to illustrate the importance of this constraint by the fundamental
      criterion of relative frequency.

PMID- 28568389
TI  - VARIABLE SELECTION ALONG A SUCCESSIONAL GRADIENT.
AB  - Patterns of selection were measured in populations of the perennial grass
      Danthonia spicata from a successional gradient in northern lower Michigan for a
      five-year period. Phenotypic variation was found both within and among
      populations for morphological, reproductive, and life-history traits. Two fitness
      components were measured: fecundity (total number of spikelets produced) and
      mortality (number of years an individual lived). Multiple-regression analysis of
      relative reproductive effort (percentage of culms that flowered), culm length,
      and leaf length against fitness showed substantial variation in the magnitude and
      direction of selection among the populations and among the fitness components.
      When three other reproductive traits were added to the analysis, there were no
      qualitative changes in estimates of directional selection coefficients, but there
      were pronounced changes in estimates of stabilizing/disruptive selection
      components. Patterns of selection were concordant with previously measured
      genetic changes in reproductive effort along the successional gradient but not
      concordant with genetic changes in culm length and leaf length. These same
      patterns were found in comparisons of Michigan and North Carolina populations.

PMID- 28568390
TI  - AN EXAMPLE OF NONEQUILIBRIUM PROCESSES: GYNODIOECY OF THYMUS VULGARIS L. IN
      BURNED HABITATS.

PMID- 28568391
TI  - MIGRATION PATTERNS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTILOCUS ASSOCIATIONS IN A SELFING
      ANNUAL, TRITICUM DICOCCOIDES.
AB  - Migration patterns in wild emmer wheat, Triticum dicoccoides, were inferred from
      single-locus and multilocus genetic distributions based primarily on expectations
      derived from single-locus and multilocus cline theory. Populations from five
      collections displayed a large amount of multilocus structuring, as indicated by
      high values of gametic-phase disequilibrium between pairs of loci and by high
      values of multilocus associations. Analyses of the distributions of individual
      alleles, however, indicated that alleles had apparent independent centers of
      origin and that at least some independent dispersal within regions occupied by
      ecotypes or races of wild emmer had occurred. The distribution of the degrees of
      multilocus association suggests that there has been a net migration of the
      northern or Qazrin race south and west into the pocket occupied by the Yehudiyya
      race. The results suggest that ecotypic differentiation may be independent and
      may antedate electrophoretically determined differentiation in these populations.
      There is no convincing evidence that the multilocus associations represent
      coadapted complexes; rather they appear to involve associations of mutant alleles
      that have been accentuated and preserved by low recombination rates and gene-flow
      barriers within previously differentiated ecotypes.

PMID- 28568392
TI  - DENTAL DEVELOPMENT AS A MEASURE OF LIFE HISTORY IN PRIMATES.

PMID- 28568393
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SELECTIVE AGGRESSION CONDITIONED ON ALLORECOGNITION SPECIFICITY.
AB  - Many sessile cnidarians deploy specialized structures while competing
      aggressively for living space. The initiation of aggression is often contingent
      on the relatedness of the interacting contestants; clonemates and close kin
      generally behave passively toward one another, whereas more distant relatives
      generally behave aggressively. Behavioral specificity of this sort requires that
      there be 1) an allorecognition system that can discriminate among subtle
      differences in cell-surface determinants and 2) a highly polymorphic genetic
      system that provides specific labels of relatedness (haplotypes or allotypes).
      The evoutionary models analyzed in this paper show that a population of
      individuals that behave aggressively only against haplotypically distinct
      individuals (discriminating phenotypes) will not be evolutionarily stable in the
      face of either unconditionally aggressive or unconditionally nonaggressive
      phenotypes. Furthermore, even if the discriminating trait were somehow fixed, the
      rare recognition alleles necessary to confer allotypic specificity could not
      become established through natural selection. Thus, allotypic specificity is
      unlikely to be maintained by individual selection acting directly through
      aggressive behavior. Other selective mechanisms might account for the evolution
      of allorecognition specificity. Allotypic polymorphism could be maintained by
      pleiotropic mechanisms in which rare alleles are favored by natural selection
      acting either on gametic incompatibility, pathogen resistance, or somatic fusion,
      rather than aggressive behavior per se. However, these mechanisms do not explain
      the maintenance of selective aggression based on allotypic differences.
      Alternatively, if aggressive members of a clone indirectly enhance the
      reproductive output or survival of the entire clone (or close relatives), then
      kin selection acting directly through aggressive behavior could favor
      allorecognition specificity. Choosing among these alternatives will require the
      development of more sophisticated theory and empirical analyses of the costs and
      benefits of aggression.

PMID- 28568394
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA AND ALLOZYME DIVERGENCE PATTERNS ARE CORRELATED AMONG ISLAND
      DEER MICE.

PMID- 28568395
TI  - DISEASE IMPACT AND LOCAL GENETIC DIVERSITY IN THE CLONAL PLANT PODOPHYLLUM
      PELTATUM.
AB  - Genotypic diversity is restricted within local colonies of mayapple (Podophyllum
      peltatum), due to extensive asexual reproduction. Transplant experiments were
      used to examine whether disease impact from a specialist fungal pathogen
      (Puccinia podophylli) was affected by the local frequency of host genotypes
      within colonies. In each of six large mayapple colonies, I measured infection
      intensity on 1) ramets replanted in their native colony (which were thus
      surrounded mostly by identical genotypes) and 2) transplants from two foreign
      colonies (surrounded by different genotypes). Disease incidence during the
      pathogen's first generation did not vary significantly between native (11%
      infected) and foreign host genotypes (6% infected). In the pathogen's second
      generation, significant variation in infection intensity occurred among ramets
      from different source populations. However, at five of the six transplant sites,
      mean infection intensity was higher on some nonnative plants (locally rare host
      genotypes) than on natives (locally common host genotypes). In this system,
      pathogen attack does not act in a frequency-dependent manner to promote local
      genetic diversity among hosts.

PMID- 28568396
TI  - DISPERSAL OF ERYTHRONIUM GRANDIFLORUM POLLEN BY BUMBLEBEES: IMPLICATIONS FOR GENE
      FLOW AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS.

PMID- 28568397
TI  - KIN RECOGNITION IN ANIMALS.

PMID- 28568398
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF AUTOPOLYPLOIDY IN TOLMIEA (SAXIFRAGACEAE).
AB  - Although there is an extensive literature on the genetic attributes of
      allopolyploids, very little information is available regarding the genetic
      consequences of autopolyploidy in natural populations. We therefore addressed the
      major predicted genetic consequences of autopolyploidy using diploid and
      tetraploid populations of Tolmiea menziesii. Individual autotetraploid plants
      frequently maintain three or four alleles at single loci: 39% of the 678
      tetraploid plants exhibited three or four alleles for at least one locus.
      Heterozygosity was also significantly higher in autotetraploid populations than
      in diploid populations: H degrees  = 0.070 and 0.237 in diploid and tetraploid
      Tolmiea, respectively. Most of the genetic diversity in T. menziesii is
      maintained within populations (ratio of gene diversity within populations to mean
      total genetic diversity = 0.636). The total genetic diversity due to
      differentiation between the two cytotypes is only 0.055. Such a low degree of
      differentiation between cytotypes would be expected between a diploid and its
      autotetraploid derivative. Most diploid and all tetraploid populations examined
      are in genetic equilibrium. Diploid and tetraploid Tolmiea share three or four
      alleles at six of eight polymorphic loci. This suggests that either
      autotetraploid Tolmiea was formed via crossing of genetically different diploids
      (perhaps via a triploid intermediate) or autopolyploidy occurred more than once
      in separate individual plants, followed by later crossing of autotetraploids.

PMID- 28568399
TI  - SMALL SAMPLE SIZE DOES DECREASE THE STABILITY OF DENDROGRAMS CALCULATED FROM
      ALLOZYME-FREQUENCY DATA.

PMID- 28568400
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF MATERNAL CHARACTERS.
AB  - We develop quantitative-genetic models for the evolution of multiple traits under
      maternal inheritance, in which traits are transmitted through non-Mendelian as
      well as Mendelian mechanisms, and maternal selection, in which the fitness of
      offspring depends on their mother's phenotype as well as their own. Maternal
      inheritance results in time lags in the evolutionary response to selection. These
      cause a population to evolve for an indefinite number of generations after
      selection ceases and make the rate and direction of evolution change even when
      the strength of selection and parameters of inheritance remain constant. The rate
      and direction of evolution depend on the inheritance of traits that are not under
      selection, unlike under classical Mendelian inheritance. The models confirm
      earlier findings that the response to selection can be larger or smaller than
      what is possible with simple Mendelian inheritance, and even in a direction
      opposite to what selection favors. Maternal selection, in which a mother's
      phenotype influences her offspring's fitness, is frequency-dependent and can
      cause a population to evolve maladaptively away from a fitness peak, regardless
      of whether traits are transmitted by Mendelian or maternal inheritance. Maternal
      selection differs from other forms of selection in that its force depends not
      only on the fitness function but also on the phenotypic resemblance of parents
      and offspring.

PMID- 28568401
TI  - GENOTYPIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF VARIATION IN GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION OF
      FISH HEMICLONES (POECILIOPSIS: POECILIIDAE).
AB  - The frozen-niche-variation model was proposed to account for the coexistence of
      genetically related clones in naturally occurring unisexual populations. This
      model is based on two assumptions: 1) ecologically different clones have multiple
      independent origins from sexual ancestors; and 2) the population of sexual
      ancestors contains genetic variability for ecologically relevant traits. To test
      these assumptions, we produced 14 new "hemiclones" (nonrecombining haploid
      genotypes) of fish (Poeciliopsis: Poeciliidae). Our ability to synthesize many
      new hemiclones demonstrates the feasibility of multiple independent origins of
      nonrecombining genotypes. A substantial proportion (10-50%) of the phenotypic
      variation among hemiclones in size at birth, juvenile growth rate, and fecundity
      had a genetic basis. Thus, we conclude that multiple origins can give rise to an
      assemblage of genetically distinct hemiclones, each with a unique combination of
      life-history traits. Additionally, a comparative analysis of two natural
      hemiclones revealed that the synthetic strains represent a broad field of
      variation from which natural hemiclones can be selected.

PMID- 28568402
TI  - SPECIES RICHNESS WITHIN FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS.
AB  - Variation in species and genus richness among families of flowering plants was
      examined with respect to four classification variables: geographical
      distribution, growth form, pollination mode, and dispersal mode. Previous studies
      have estimated rates of species proliferation from age and contemporary
      diversity. Here we found that the earliest appearances in the fossil record are
      correlated with contemporary familial species richness, abundance in the fossil
      record, and the independent variables considered in this analysis. Thus, we
      believe that the fossil record does not provide reasonable estimates of the ages
      of families and that the rate of species proliferation cannot be calculated from
      such data without bias. Accordingly, our subsequent analyses were based on
      contemporary species richness of families. Although the classification variables
      were interrelated, each made largely independent contributions to familial
      species richness. Cosmopolitan families were 5.6 times more species-rich than
      strictly tropical families and 35 times more species-rich than strictly temperate
      families. Families including both herbaceous and woody growth forms were 5.7 and
      14 times more species-rich than families with either growth form alone. Although
      animal pollination was significantly associated with elevated familial species
      richness, the effect was statistically weak. The most prominent effect was that
      families with both abiotic and biotic dispersal had more than 10 times as many
      species as families with either dispersal mode alone. Our analyses also revealed
      that families having both dispersal modes were more likely to have several growth
      forms, suggesting that evolutionary flexibility of morphology may be generalized
      over diverse aspects of life history. These results do not support the idea that
      pollination and dispersal by animals were primarily responsible for the
      tremendous proliferation of angiosperm species, either by producing population
      structures conducive to speciation or by applying selection for diversification.
      Instead, the importance of varied dispersal mode, growth form, and climate zone
      in predicting high familial species richness suggests that a capacity to
      diversify morphologically and physiologically may have been primarily responsible
      for high rates of species proliferation in the flowering plants.

PMID- 28568403
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL COSTS OF A SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTER: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE
      HANDICAP PRINCIPLE.
AB  - The evolution of reliable signaling can be explained by the handicap principle,
      which assumes that (1) the cost of a signal guarantees its reliability, and (2)
      cheating is prevented because the cost of a unit of display is greater for low
      quality than for high-quality individuals. A test of these two assumptions was
      performed using manipulations of the length of the outermost tail feathers of
      male barn swallows Hirundo rustica, a trait currently subject to a directional
      female mate preference. We found that survival decreased with tail elongation and
      increased with tail shortening of males, supporting the assumption that the
      secondary sexual character is costly. Naturally long-tailed males were better
      able to survive with an elongated tail, whereas naturally short-tailed males
      improved their survival following tail shortening. This observation supports the
      second assumption of a differential cost of a signal. One mechanism imposing
      differential costs on sexually signaling barn swallows is foraging. Males with
      elongated tails captured smaller, less profitable Diptera, whereas males with
      shortened tails captured large, profitable prey items. The conditions for
      reliable sexual signaling by the tail ornament of male barn swallows are thus
      fulfilled.

PMID- 28568404
TI  - EVOLUTION OF INCOMPATIBILITY-INDUCING MICROBES AND THEIR HOSTS.
AB  - In many insect species, males infected with microbes related to Wolbachia
      pipientis are "incompatible" with uninfected females. Crosses between infected
      males and uninfected females produce significantly fewer adult progeny than the
      other three possible crosses. The incompatibility-inducing microbes are usually
      maternally transmitted. Thus, incompatibility tends to confer a reproductive
      advantage on infected females in polymorphic populations, allowing these
      infections to spread. This paper analyzes selection on parasite and host genes
      that affect such incompatibility systems. Selection among parasite variants does
      not act directly on the level of incompatibility with uninfected females. In
      fact, selection favors rare parasite variants that increase the production of
      infected progeny by infected mothers, even if these variants reduce
      incompatibility with uninfected females. However, productivity-reducing parasites
      that cause partial incompatibility with hosts harboring alternative variants can
      be favored once they become sufficiently abundant locally. Thus, they may spread
      spatially by a process analogous to the spread of underdominant chromosome
      rearrangements. The dynamics of modifier alleles in the host are more difficult
      to predict, because such alleles will occur in both infected and uninfected
      individuals. Nevertheless, the relative fecundity of infected females compared to
      uninfected females, the efficiency of maternal transmission and the mutual
      compatibility of infected individuals all tend to increase under within
      population selection on both host and parasite genes. In addition, selection on
      host genes favors increased compatibility between infected males and uninfected
      females. Although vertical transmission tends to harmonize host and parasite
      evolution, competition among parasite variants will tend to maintain
      incompatibility.

PMID- 28568405
TI  - A COMPARISON OF TWO STICKLEBACKS.
AB  - We present results of an experiment designed to address fundamental issues in the
      ecology and evolution of plastic trophic morphology: (1) Is observed plasticity
      adaptive? (2) How much interspecific morphological variation is the result of
      plasticity? (3) Have different selective regimes resulted in the evolution of
      different degrees of plasticity? (4) Is genetic variation for phenotypic
      plasticity present in contemporary populations? We raised fish from two recently
      diverged species of freshwater threespine sticklebacks on two different diets
      representative of the natural prey of the two species. Both species exhibited
      morphological plasticity in an adaptive direction: each species more closely
      resembled the other when raised on the latter's diet. Dietreversal reduced the
      natural morphological gap between these two species, -1% to 58%, depending on the
      trait. One species is known to have a more variable diet in the wild than the
      other species, and we found that it also exhibited the greater amount of
      morphological plasticity. Given that the two species have recently diverged, this
      result is compelling evidence that diet variability is important in the evolution
      of plastic trophic morphology. Finally, by using a full-sib experimental design,
      we demonstrated that genetic variation for morphological plasticity exists in
      contemporary populations, thus confirming that plasticity has evolutionary
      potential.

PMID- 28568406
TI  - VIRULENCE.
AB  - Why do parasites harm their hosts? Intuition suggests that parasites should
      evolve to be benign whenever the host is needed for transmission. Yet a growing
      theoretical literature offers several models to explain why natural selection may
      favor virulent parasites over avirulent ones. This perspective first organizes
      these models into a simple framework and then evaluates the empirical evidence
      for and against the models. There is relatively scant evidence to support any of
      the models rigorously, and indeed, there are only a few unequivocal observations
      of virulence actually evolving in parasite populations. These shortcomings are
      surmountable, however, and empirical models of host-parasite interactions have
      been developed for many kinds of pathogens so that the relevant data could be
      acquired in the near future.

PMID- 28568407
TI  - THE DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN OF GENES FOR RACE-SPECIFIC RESISTANCE TO MELAMPSORA
      LINI IN LINUM MARGINALE.
AB  - The genetic basis of resistance in wild flax (Linum marginale) to its host
      specific pathogen Melampsora lini was investigated in seven lines collected from
      a single population growing at Kiandra, New South Wales and in an additional ten
      lines collected more widely across southeastern Australia. All lines showed
      different phenotypic patterns of resistance and susceptibility. Genetic analyses
      indicated the presence of single dominant genes for race-specific resistance in
      all but one of these lines. That particular line appeared to carry two linked
      dominant genes for resistance. Intercrosses between lines in each of these groups
      of L. marginale detected substantially more linkage between the resistance genes
      in the Kiandra population sample than between those in the broader geographic
      collection. This result is interpreted to indicate a possible mechanism whereby
      resistance genes are generated in natural populations.

PMID- 28568408
TI  - POLYMORPHISM OF BACTERIAL RESTRICTION-MODIFICATION SYSTEMS: THE ADVANTAGE OF
      DIVERSITY.
AB  - Bacterial restriction-modification systems provide defense against foreign DNA by
      using a self versus nonself recognition mechanism. A great diversity of
      recognition motifs is maintained in natural populations. Circumstantial evidence
      suggests that defense against bacteriophage viruses favors this diversity. (1)
      Bacterial restriction enzymes can destroy invading phage DNA. (2) Phage DNA can
      mimic the host's self-recognition mechanism. The ability of the virus to pose as
      a mimic favors diversification of the host's recognition motif. Other
      observations suggest that restriction modification (RM) does not provide any
      significant defensive advantages in mature communities.

PMID- 28568409
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF ALTERNATIVE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN THE
      MANAKINS (AVES: PIPRIDAE).
AB  - Phylogenetic analyses of lekking, lek spatial organization, and cooperative and
      coordinated lek display in the manakins (Aves: Pipridae) demonstrate that
      variation in social behavior in the group has a strong, phylogenetic component.
      Two of the three classes of social behavior examined also show significant
      phylogenetic constraints. Current adaptive plasticity models are insufficient to
      explain the phylogenetic variation in these behaviors in the manakins. These
      findings support the conclusion that vertebrate reproductive social behavior has
      an evolutionary history, and that it is not determined solely by adaptive
      individual plasticity to current conditions. The evolution of social behavior,
      particularly through sexual selection, can have historical consequences that can
      limit subsequent behavioral adaptation.

PMID- 28568410
TI  - MODELING BRAIN EVOLUTION FROM BEHAVIOR: A PERMUTATIONAL REGRESSION APPROACH.
AB  - This paper has two complementary purposes: first, to present a method to perform
      multiple regression on distance matrices, with permutation testing appropriate
      for path-length matrices representing evolutionary trees, and then, to apply this
      method to study the joint evolution of brain, behavior and other characteristics
      in marsupials. To understand the computation method, consider that the dependent
      matrix is unfolded as a vector y; similarly, consider X to be a table containing
      the independent matrices, also unfolded as vectors. A multiple regression is
      computed to express y as a function of X. The parameters of this regression (R2
      and partial regression coefficients) are tested by permutations, as follows. When
      the dependent matrix variable y represents a simple distance or similarity
      matrix, permutations are performed in the same manner as the Mantel permutational
      test. When it is an ultrametric matrix representing a dendrogram, we use the
      double-permutation method (Lapointe and Legendre 1990, 1991). When it is a path
      length matrix representing an additive tree (cladogram), we use the triple
      permutation method (Lapointe and Legendre 1992). The independent matrix variables
      in X are kept fixed with respect to one another during the permutations.
      Selection of predictors can be accomplished by forward selection, backward
      elimination, or a stepwise procedure. A phylogenetic tree, derived from marsupial
      brain morphology data (28 species), is compared to trees depicting the evolution
      of diet, sociability, locomotion, and habitat in these animals, as well as their
      taxonomy and geographical relationships. A model is derived in which brain
      evolution can be predicted from taxonomy, diet, sociability and locomotion (R2 =
      0.75). A new tree, derived from the "predicted" data, shows a lot of similarity
      to the brain evolution tree. The meaning of the taxonomy, diet, sociability, and
      locomotion predictors are discussed and conclusions are drawn about the evolution
      of brain and behavior in marsupials.

PMID- 28568411
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL NOISE, PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY, AND ALLOZYME HETEROZYGOSITY IN
      DAPHNIA.
AB  - Previous theories and studies have postulated negative correlations between
      allozyme heterozygosity and developmental noise and between heterozygosity and
      phenotypic plasticity. We examined these relationships for morphological and life
      history traits of Daphnia magna in four independent experiments using two
      different Moscow populations and one German population. Clones were raised under
      a range of food levels or individual densities. Heterozygosity was scored at five
      allozyme loci in two experiments and at three loci in two others. Relative
      differences in developmental noise among clones with different heterozygosity
      levels were estimated as the pooled residual variation from an analysis of
      variation that removed the effects of macroenvironment, clones, and their
      interaction. Plasticity was measured as the amount of macroenvironmental
      variation plus genotype-by-environment interaction variation. We found a positive
      correlation between developmental noise and heterozygosity, although this
      correlation varied among traits and experiments. This result contradicts most
      previous claims about these relationships. In contrast, we found that phenotypic
      plasticity and heterozygosity were negatively correlated for some traits.
      Developmental noise and phenotypic plasticity were correlated for only two traits
      in two different experiments. This trait-specific relationship is in concordance
      with previous studies. Our results could not be explained by effects of
      developmental time, a previously hypothesized mechanism. We propose several
      explanations for our results and the disparate results of others that do not
      require that heterozygosity be the actual cause of variation in developmental
      noise.

PMID- 28568412
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CARBON ALLOCATION TO PLANT SECONDARY METABOLITES: A GENETIC
      ANALYSIS OF COST IN DIPLACUS AURANTIACUS.
AB  - Diplacus aurantiacus contains large amounts of a leaf phenolic resin, an
      important deterrent to a leaf-eating caterpillar, Euphydryas chalcedona. The
      resin can also retard water loss during drought. Furthermore, the leaf resin
      content differs among plants and populations. This study investigates the
      existence of heritable variation (h2 ) in resin production and tests for a
      genetic correlation (rG ) between carbon allocation to secondary metabolites and
      growth rate, as well as with three other vegetative traits. Nine dam and 10 sire
      plants were chosen randomly at a field site and used to generate 78 full-sib
      families (19 half-sib families) by crossing all males to all females in a
      factorial design. Heritability was estimated in two ways, and genetic
      correlations were estimated by three methods. We found: (1) the heritability of
      resin production estimated by the regression of offspring on sires was
      significantly greater than zero (hs2=0.32, P<0.01); (2) the maternal variance in
      resin content was significantly greater than zero (21.3% of total phenotypic
      variance); (3) significant negative genetic correlation between resin content and
      growth rate was observed from two of three methods and was consistent with the
      phenotypic correlation; and (4) the cost of resin could be assessed
      quantitatively. The genetic cost of 1 mg in resin is equivalent to 25 mg of dry
      shoot-biomass growth, but the phenotypic cost is only 2.1 mg. This study
      indicates that carbon allocation to these secondary metabolites may respond to
      natural selection, and the phenotypic cost of resin production has a genetic
      basis in D. aurantiacus. This trade-off suggests that once selection occurs,
      increased phenolic resin production may result in decreased growth, or vice
      versa.

PMID- 28568413
TI  - RISK OF POPULATION EXTINCTION FROM FIXATION OF NEW DELETERIOUS MUTATIONS.
AB  - The fixation of new deleterious mutations is analyzed for a randomly mating
      population of constant size with no environmental or demographic stochasticity.
      Mildly deleterious mutations are far more important in causing loss of fitness
      and eventual extinction than are lethal and semilethal mutations in populations
      with effective sizes, Ne , larger than a few individuals. If all mildly
      deleterious mutations have the same selection coefficient, s against
      heterozygotes and 2s against homozygotes, the mean time to extinction, t-, is
      asymptotically proportional to e4Nes/Ne for 4Ne s > 1. Nearly neutral mutations
      pose the greatest risk of extinction for stable populations, because the
      magnitude of selection coefficient that minimizes t- is about s = 0.4/Ne . The
      influence of variance in selection coefficients among mutations is analyzed
      assuming a gamma distribution of s, with mean s- and variance sigmas2. The mean
      time to extinction increases with variance in selection coefficients if s- is
      near s, but can decrease greatly if s- is much larger than s. For a given
      coefficient of variation of s, c=sigmas/s-, the mean time to extinction is
      asymptotically proportional to Ne1+1/c2 for 4Nes->1. When s is exponentially
      distributed, (c = 1) t- is asymptotically proportional to Ne2. These results in
      conjunction with data on the rate and magnitude of mildly deleterious mutations
      in Drosophila melanogaster indicate that even moderately large populations, with
      effective sizes on the order of Ne = 103 , may incur a substantial risk of
      extinction from the fixation of new mutations.

PMID- 28568414
TI  - GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS FOR FITNESS OF ERIGERON ANNUUS SHOW FINE
      SCALE SELECTIVE HETEROGENEITY.
AB  - The results of natural selection depend critically on whether variation in
      fitness is finegrained or coarse-grained with respect to dispersal, but little is
      known of the spatial scale of fitness variation in natural populations. For most
      evolutionary questions, environmental heterogeneity must be defined by reversals
      in the relative fitness of genotypes; absolute fitness may vary, but if genotypes
      respond in parallel then selection is uniform. Thus, measurements of genotype-by
      environment (G * E) interactions for fitness are necessary to understand patterns
      of variation in natural selection.

PMID- 28568415
TI  - EVIDENCE THAT THE MAGNITUDE OF THE TRADE-OFF IN A DICHOTOMOUS TRAIT IS FREQUENCY
      DEPENDENT.
AB  - Many traits, such as wing dimorphism, paedomorphosis, and cyclomorphosis vary
      dichotomously. Such dimorphisms are maintained in part because of a trade-off
      between components of fitness: for example, in insects, the flightless morph
      cannot migrate but has a greater fecundity than the flight-capable morph. Several
      recent theoretical studies have analyzed the evolution of dichotomous traits,
      assuming that each morph can be characterized by a discrete syndrome of
      characters. Consideration of the genetic basis of dimorphism suggests that this
      assumption is incorrect. In this paper, I report a test of this assumption using
      the wing-dimorphic sand cricket, Gryllus firmus. It is predicted that, rather
      than remaining constant, the fecundity of macropterous (long-winged, flight
      capable) females will decrease as the proportion of macropterous females in the
      population or family increases. This prediction is supported by fecundity data
      from lines selected for high and low proportions of macroptery and by sib
      analysis. Thus, models that seek to predict the evolution of dichotomous traits
      should take into account the likelihood that values of components of fitness,
      such as fecundity, may be related to their frequencies in the population.

PMID- 28568416
TI  - A QUANTITATIVE-GENETIC MODEL FOR SELECTION ON DEVELOPMENTAL NOISE.
AB  - We propose a simple model for analyzing the effects of microenvironmental
      variation in quantitative genetics. Our model assumes that the sensitivity of the
      phenotype to fluctuations in microenvironment has a genetic basis and allows for
      genetic correlation between trait value and microenvironmental sensitivity. We
      analyze the effects of short-term stabilizing and directional selection on the
      genotypic and microenvironmental components of phenotypic variance. Our model
      predicts that stabilizing selection on a quantitative trait increases
      developmental canalization. We show that stabilizing selection can result in an
      increase in the heritability. Our findings may provide an explanation for the
      results of selection experiments in which artificial stabilizing selection did
      not change the heritability coefficient or increased it.

PMID- 28568417
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE AND DIVERSITY WITHIN LOCAL POPULATIONS OF BACILLUS MYCOIDES.
AB  - Sixty strains of Bacillus mycoides were isolated from each of two sites and
      characterized by their responses to standard metabolic tests used in bacterial
      taxonomy, by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), and by restriction
      fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of Southern blots probed with both a
      conserved DNA fragment derived from a Salmonella typhimurium ribosomal cistron
      and with two cosmid probes derived from B. mycoides ATCC strain 6463. Both MLEE
      and RFLP analyses indicated that the collection contained two genetically
      distinct sets of strains (I and II); one of these sets was further differentiated
      genetically by the same analyses (IIA and IIB). Standard taxonomic analysis did
      not distinguish these sets of strains; biochemical test profiles were similar for
      all isolates. The genetic distance between groups I and II is as great as that
      observed for recognized species of bacteria. It is proposed that these groups are
      sibling species having a common evolutionary descent and that their metabolic
      phenotype has been conserved, whereas their DNA and protein sequences have
      diverged. No strong evidence of geographic differentiation between strains from
      the two sites appeared in either genetic or phenetic characters.

PMID- 28568418
TI  - EFFECTS OF MATERNAL AND PATERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND GENOTYPE ON OFFSPRING PHENOTYPE
      IN SOLIDAGO ALTISSIMA L.
AB  - To predict the possible evolutionary response of a plant species to a new
      environment, it is necessary to separate genetic from environmental sources of
      phenotypic variation. In a case study of the invader Solidago altissima, the
      influences of several kinds of parental effects and of direct inheritance and
      environment on offspring phenotype were separated. Fifteen genotypes were crossed
      in three 5 * 5 diallels excluding selfs. Clonal replicates of the parental
      genotypes were grown in two environments such that each diallel could be made
      with maternal/paternal plants from sand/sand, sand/soil, soil/sand, and
      soil/soil. In a first experiment (1989) offspring were raised in the experimental
      garden and in a second experiment (1990) in the glasshouse. Parent plants growing
      in sand invested less biomass in inflorescences but produced larger seeds than
      parent plants growing in soil. In the garden experiment, phenotypic variation
      among offspring was greatly influenced by environmental heterogeneity. Direct
      genetic variation (within diallels) was found only for leaf characters and total
      leaf mass. Germination probability and early seedling mass were significantly
      affected by phenotypic differences among maternal plants because of genotype
      (genetic maternal effects) and soil environment (general environmental maternal
      effects). Seeds from maternal plants in sand germinated better and produced
      bigger seedlings than seeds from maternal plants in soil. They also grew taller
      with time, probably because competition accentuated the initial differences.
      Height growth and stem mass at harvest (an integrated account of individual
      growth history) of offspring varied significantly among crosses within parental
      combinations (specific environmental maternal effects). In the glasshouse
      experiment, the influence of environmental heterogeneity and competition could be
      kept low. Except for early characters, the influence of direct genetic variation
      was large but again leaf characters (= basic module morphology) seemed to be
      under stricter genetic control than did size characters. Genetic maternal
      effects, general environmental maternal effects, and specific environmental
      maternal effects dominated in early characters. The maternal effects were exerted
      both via seed mass and directly on characters of young offspring. Persistent
      effects of the general paternal environment (general environmental paternal
      effects) were found for leaf length and stem and leaf mass at harvest. They were
      opposite in direction to the general environmental maternal effects, that is the
      same genotypes produced "better mothers" in sand but "better fathers" in soil.
      The general environmental paternal effects must have been due to differences in
      pollen quality, resulting from pollen selection within the male parent or leading
      to pre- or postzygotic selection within the female parent. The ranking of crosses
      according to mean offspring phenotypes was different in the two experiments,
      suggesting strong interaction of the observed effects with the environment. The
      correlation structure among characters changed less between experiments than did
      the pattern of variation of single characters, but under the competitive
      conditions in the garden plant height seemed to be more directly related to
      fitness than in the glasshouse. Reduced competition could also explain why
      maternal effects were less persistent in the glasshouse than in the garden
      experiment. Evolution via selection of maternal effects would be possible in the
      study population because these effects are in part due to genetic differences
      among parents.

PMID- 28568419
TI  - SPECIATION BY REINFORCEMENT OF PREMATING ISOLATION.
AB  - The generation of premating isolation given partial or complete postzygotic
      isolation between populations is termed reinforcement or, in the case of complete
      isolation, reproductive character displacement. In this study we use computer
      simulations and a multilocus genetic model to reevaluate the theory of
      reinforcement. We consider the evolution of female preferences for a male
      secondary sexual trait. If the populations differ in mean female preference,
      there is direct selection on the preference for further divergence, which may be
      augmented by a correlated response to sexual selection on males. Two factors
      prevent divergence. First, if postzygotic isolation is not complete, gene flow
      can prevent divergence and lead to a hybrid swarm. This is the usual outcome
      whenever the average number of breeding adult offspring produced by a hybrid
      mating is sufficient to replace the parents. Second, one or the other population
      may become extinct because of the large number of hybrid matings it is involved
      in. The likelihood of extinction is lowered if population growth rates are high,
      if hybrids are inviable rather than infertile, or under some conditions when
      allopatric populations provide immigrants into the contact zone. Provided hybrid
      fitness is sufficiently low, there is a wide range of genetic and ecological
      conditions under which reinforcement rather easily occurs, and also a range under
      which it may occur because of stochastic effects on both the inheritance
      parameters and the population sizes.

PMID- 28568420
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF DISTYLY: POLLEN TRANSFER IN ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.
AB  - A recent model by Lloyd and Webb derives conditions necessary for the evolution
      of distyly based on pollen-transfer probabilities between ancestral morphs and
      invading mutants. We used bumblebees visiting artificial flowers to measure the
      parameters of the model. Our findings supported the first evolutionary step
      proposed by the model, establishment of a stigma-height polymorphism. Conditions
      for the subsequent establishment of an anther-height polymorphism were not
      satisfied by pollen-transfer patterns alone. Because conditions for the first
      step are considered more onerous, however, and because the second stage depends
      on inbreeding depression as well as pollen-transfer patterns, we interpret our
      results as supporting the plausibility of the Lloyd-Webb model. Video images of
      bees visiting glass-sided artificial flowers demonstrate a mechanism for
      disassortative pollination between the ancestral and mutant morph. In general,
      pollen-transfer probabilities were negatively correlated with the height
      difference between anthers of the donor and stigma of the recipient. Style length
      affects bee feeding posture in such a way that disassortative pollination could
      feasibly occur in the absence of an anther-height polymorphism.

PMID- 28568421
TI  - THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY ON THE HERITABILITIES OF TRAITS OF A
      FIELD CRICKET.
AB  - The presence of heritable variation in traits is a prerequisite for evolution.
      The great majority of heritability (h2 ) estimates are performed under laboratory
      conditions that are characterized by low levels of environmental variability.
      Very little is known about the effect of environmental variability on the
      estimation of components of quantitative variation, although theoretical
      extrapolations from lab studies have been attempted. Here we investigate the
      effects of environmental heterogeneity on variance component estimation using
      full-sib families of Gryllus pennsylvanicus split between a homogeneous
      laboratory environment and a more variable field environment. Although large
      standard errors prevent demonstration of statistically significant differences
      among h2 of traits measured in the two environments for all but one trait, the
      values of h2 are, on average, lower in the variable field environment, with a
      mean reduction of 19%. Developmental time is an exception, exhibiting high levels
      of additive variance in the field, leading to a higher value of h2 in the
      variable environment. Underlying the lower field h2 estimates are greater
      components of environmental variance as expected, as well as lower components of
      genetic variance. In this study, there is no evidence that the increase in the
      environmental component of variance in the field is any more important in the
      reduction of h2 than is the decrease in the additive genetic component. The
      implications of the relative changes in the two components of variance are
      discussed.

PMID- 28568422
TI  - FEMALE-BIASED SEX RATIOS IN A FACULTATIVELY SOCIAL BEE AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR
      SOCIAL EVOLUTION.
AB  - Montane populations of the Australian allodapine bee, Exoneura bicolor, are
      characterized by high levels of cooperative nesting and strongly female-biased
      sex ratios. A conspecific population from heathland shows much lower levels of
      cooperative nesting and lower levels of female bias. In both habitats, sex-ratio
      bias is greatest in the smallest brood sizes and becomes successively less biased
      in larger broods. Parity is approached in the largest heathland colonies, but not
      for any brood-size category in montane areas. Adult intracolony relatedness is
      moderately high for colonies in both reused and newly founded nests in the
      montane habitat, but probably low or zero for newly founded nests in heathland.
      Colony efficiency, measured as the number of brood per adult, increases with
      colony size in both habitats, suggesting that cooperation between females
      increases mean female fitness. It is argued that patterns of sex allocation are
      consistent with nonlinear fitness-return models, in which the mean reproductive
      value of daughters increases with the number of daughters produced in a brood.
      Such increases probably arise from a number of social interactions, including
      cooperative brood defense, increased task efficiency, and lower per capita costs
      in nest construction. The term "local fitness enhancement" is introduced here to
      describe these effects collectively. The female-biased ratios should lower
      selective thresholds for sib-directed altruism, at least in the earlier stages of
      colony development. It is argued that local fitness enhancement facilitates
      eusociality in allodapine bees and could also play a role in other haplodiploid
      taxa, provided cooperative nesting largely involves sisters, colony efficiency
      increases with colony size, and optimal colony sizes are only achieved after two
      or more generations after founding.

PMID- 28568423
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF HOST GENOTYPE AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION ON TREMATODE PARASITISM IN
      A BIVALVE POPULATION.
AB  - A basic assumption underlying models of host-parasite coevolution is the
      existence of additive genetic variation among hosts for resistance to parasites.
      However, estimates of additive genetic variation are lacking for natural
      populations of invertebrates. Testing this assumption is especially important in
      view of current models that suggest parasites may be responsible for the
      evolution of sex, such as the Red Queen hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that
      the twofold reproductive disadvantage of sex relative to parthenogenesis can be
      overcome by the more rapid production of rare genotypes resistant to parasites.
      Here I present evidence of significant levels of additive genetic variance in
      parasite resistance for an invertebrate host-parasite system in nature. Using
      families of the bivalve mollusc, Transennella tantilla, cultured in the
      laboratory, then exposed to parasites in the field, I quantified heritable
      variation in parasite resistance under natural conditions. The spatial
      distribution of outplanted hosts was also varied to determine environmental
      contributions to levels of parasite infection and to estimate potential
      interactions of host genotype with environment. The results show moderate but
      significant levels of heritability for resistance to parasites (h2 = 0.36). The
      spatial distribution of hosts also significantly influenced parasite prevalence
      such that increased host aggregation resulted in decreased levels of parasite
      infection. Family mean correlations across environments were positive, indicating
      no genotype-environment interaction. Therefore, these results provide support for
      important assumptions underlying coevolutionary models of host-parasite systems.

PMID- 28568424
TI  - ON THE MEASUREMENT OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION.

PMID- 28568425
TI  - FITNESS SENSITIVITY AND THE CANALIZATION OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS.
AB  - Canalization is an abstract term that describes unknown developmental mechanisms
      that reduce phenotypic variation. A trait can be canalized against environmental
      perturbations (e.g., changes in temperature or nutrient quality), or genetic
      perturbations (e.g., mutations or recombination); this paper is about genetic
      canalization. Stabilizing selection should improve the canalization of traits,
      and the degree of canalization should be positively correlated with the traits'
      impact on fitness. Experiments testing this idea should measure the canalization
      of a series of traits whose impact on fitness is known or can be inferred,
      exclude differences among traits in the number of loci and alleles segregating as
      an explanation for the pattern of variability found, and distinguish between
      canalization against genetic and environmental variation. These conditions were
      met by three experiments within which the variation of fitness components among
      Drosophila melanogaster lines was measured and among which the genetic
      contribution to the variation among lines was clearly different. The canalization
      of the traits increased with their impact on fitness and did not depend on the
      degree of genetic differences among lines. That the flies used had been
      transformed by a P-element insert suggests that canalization was also effective
      against novel genetic variation. The results reported here cannot be explained by
      the classical hypothesis of reduction in the number of loci segregating for
      traits with greater impact on fitness and confirm that traits with greater impact
      on fitness are more strongly canalized. This pattern of canalization reveals an
      underappreciated role for development in microevolution. There is differential
      genetic canalization of fitness components in D. melanogaster.

PMID- 28568426
TI  - POLLEN DISCOUNTING AND THE SPREAD OF A SELFING VARIANT IN TRISTYLOUS EICHHORNIA
      PANICULATA: EVIDENCE FROM EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS.
AB  - Floral traits that increase self-fertilization are expected to spread unless
      countered by the effects of inbreeding depression, pollen discounting (reduced
      outcross pollen success by individuals with increased rates of self
      fertilization), or both. Few studies have attempted to measure pollen discounting
      because to do so requires estimating the male outcrossing success of plants that
      differ in selfing rate. In natural populations of tristylous Eichhornia
      paniculata, selfing variants of the mid-styled morph are usually absent from
      populations containing all three style morphs but often predominate in
      nontrimorphic populations. We used experimental garden populations of genetically
      marked plants to investigate whether the effects of population morph structure on
      relative gamete transmission by unmodified (M) and selfing variants (M') of the
      mid-styled morph could explain their observed distribution. Transmission through
      ovules and self and outcross pollen by plants of the M and M' morphs were
      compared under trimorphic, dimorphic (S morph absent), and monomorphic (L and S
      morphs absent) population structures. Neither population structure nor floral
      morphology affected female reproductive success, but both had strong effects on
      the relative transmission of male gametes. The frequency of self-fertilization in
      the M' morph was consistently higher than that of the M morph under all morph
      structures, and the frequency of self-fertilization by both morphs increased as
      morph diversity of experimental populations declined. In trimorphic populations,
      total transmission by the M and M' morphs did not differ. The small,
      nonsignificant increase in selfing by the M' relative to the M morph was balanced
      by decreased outcross siring success, particularly on the S morph. In populations
      lacking the S morph, male gamete transmission by the M' morph was approximately
      1.5 times greater than that by the M morph because of both increased selfing and
      increased success through outcross pollen donation. Therefore, gamete
      transmission strongly favored the M' morph only in the absence of the S morph, a
      result consistent with the distribution of the M' morph in nature. This study
      indicates that floral traits that alter the selfing rate can have large and
      context-dependent influences on outcross pollen donation.

PMID- 28568428
TI  - EVOLUTION OF TEMPERATE FRUIT/BIRD INTERACTIONS: PHENOLOGICAL STRATEGIES.

PMID- 28568427
TI  - Left ventricular ejection fraction of < 20%: Too bad for MitraClip(c) ?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate whether the percutaneous mitral
      regurgitation (MR) reduction with the MitraClip(r) system in end-stage heart
      failure patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of <20% also
      effects beneficial outcome or whether the underlying myogenic problem is leading
      and therefore of prognostic relevance. BACKROUND: The interventional treatment of
      functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) with the MitraClip(r) system could improve
      the clinical and hemodynamic outcome in patients with severely impaired left
      ventricular function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 2011 and 2016, a total of
      147 patients with FMR were treated with MitraClip(r) at our institution. The
      cohort was divided into two groups: LVEF >= 20% (N = 126) and <20% (N = 21).
      Follow-up assessments included exercise capacity, 6-min walk test, probrain
      natriuretic peptide-measurement (ProBNP), echocardiography and right heart
      catheterization. Only three patients with an LVEF >= 20% and one patient with an
      LVEF < 20% were lost for follow-up. RESULTS: In the vast majority of patients, a
      reduction from severe to mild MR was demonstrated with no difference between both
      groups (P = 0.422). At follow-up, both subgroups experienced similar improvements
      in exercise capacity and hemodynamics. Patients with an LVEF < 20% were on
      average 5.8 years younger, while mortality rates were comparable in both groups
      (P = 0.760). CONCLUSION: By careful selection, even patients in the end stage of
      advanced LV dysfunction as the result of the underlying myogenic problem and the
      additional harmful effects of the high volume loading due to the FMR can exhibit
      significant clinical and hemodynamic improvement after MitraClip(c) therapy.

PMID- 28568429
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND HOST PLANT RELATIONS IN A PARTHENOGENETIC MOTH.

PMID- 28568430
TI  - ELEVATIONAL GRADIENTS IN ADULT SEX RATIOS AND SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION IN
      VEGETATIVE GROWTH RATES OF POPULUS TREMULOIDES MICHX.

PMID- 28568431
TI  - GENETIC DIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS OF WILD BARLEY, HORDEUM
      SPONTANEUM, IN ISRAEL.

PMID- 28568432
TI  - EVOLUTION OF COLOR PATTERN AND PUBESCENCE CHARACTERISTICS IN MALE BUMBLEBEES:
      AUTOMIMICRY VS. THERMOREGULATION.

PMID- 28568433
TI  - SELECTION FOR SEROTINY IN LODGEPOLE PINE: MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MODEL OF
      PERRY AND LOTAN.

PMID- 28568434
TI  - TESTS OF COMMUNITY-WIDE CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT AGAINST NULL HYPOTHESES.

PMID- 28568435
TI  - CHARACTER VARIABILITY AND EVOLUTIONARY RATE IN MENIDIA.

PMID- 28568436
TI  - MONOTERPENE VARIATION IN PONDEROSA PINE XYLEM RESIN RELATED TO WESTERN PINE
      BEETLE PREDATION.

PMID- 28568437
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION RESISTING INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN CAPTIVE WILD HOUSEMICE (MUS
      MUSCULUS).

PMID- 28568438
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR ECOLOGICAL CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN WESTERN AMERICAN CATOSTOMID
      FISHES.

PMID- 28568439
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PAEDOMORPHOSIS IN SALAMANDERS OF THE GENUS GYRINOPHILUS.

PMID- 28568440
TI  - RAPID HOST RANGE EVOLUTION IN A POPULATION OF THE PHYTOPHAGOUS MITE TETRANYCHUS
      URTICAE KOCH.

PMID- 28568441
TI  - HETEROSIS AND INTERCLONAL VARIATION IN THERMAL TOLERANCE IN UNISEXUAL FISHES.

PMID- 28568442
TI  - HYBRID ZONES IN THOMOMYS BOTTAE POCKET GOPHERS: GENETIC, PHENETIC, AND ECOLOGIC
      CONCORDANCE PATTERNS.

PMID- 28568443
TI  - ECTOTHERMY AND THE SUCCESS OF DINOSAURS.

PMID- 28568444
TI  - CHANGE IN EDITORIAL POLICY.

PMID- 28568446
TI  - EVOLUTION IN PERIPHERAL ISOLATED POPULATIONS: CARPODACUS FINCHES ON THE
      CALIFORNIA ISLANDS.

PMID- 28568445
TI  - SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN BRACHIONUS PLICATILIS (ROTIFERA): EVOLUTIONARY AND ADAPTIVE
      SIGNIFICANCE.

PMID- 28568447
TI  - A MODEL OF FIRE SELECTION FOR SEROTINY IN LODGEPOLE PINE.

PMID- 28568448
TI  - GENETIC VARIANCE, FITNESS, AND HOMEOSTASIS IN VARYING ENVIRONMENTS: AN
      EXPERIMENTAL CHECK OF THE THEORY.

PMID- 28568449
TI  - DOES ASYMMETRICAL MATING PREFERENCE SHOW THE DIRECTION OF EVOLUTION?

PMID- 28568451
TI  - ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY PRIZE.

PMID- 28568450
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC LITTER SIZE VARIATION IN MICROTUS CALIFORNICUS II. VARIATION
      BETWEEN POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28568452
TI  - DETERMINATION OF THE TIME OF DAY AT WHICH DIURNAL MOTHS PAINTED TO RESEMBLE
      BUTTERFLIES ARE ATTACKED BY BIRDS.

PMID- 28568453
TI  - CLOSELY LINKED ALPHA-CHAIN HEMOGLOBIN LOCI IN PEROMYSCUS AND OTHER ANIMALS:
      SPECULATIONS ON THE EVOLUTION OF DUPLICATE LOCI.

PMID- 28568454
TI  - CONSIDERATION OF MULLER'S RATCHET MECHANISM THROUGH STUDIES OF GENETIC LINKAGE
      AND GENOMIC COMPATIBILITIES IN CLONALLY REPRODUCING POECILIOPSIS.

PMID- 28568455
TI  - BELTSVILLE SYMPOSIUM IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH VI.

PMID- 28568456
TI  - EVOLUTION OF MATING PREFERENCES.

PMID- 28568457
TI  - ROLE OF POLLINATORS IN THE EVOLUTION OF DIOECY FROM DISTYLY.

PMID- 28568458
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN THE RHYTIDOPONERA IMPRESSA
      GROUP, A SPECIES COMPLEX OF PONERINE ANTS (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE).

PMID- 28568459
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY MONOGRAPHS.

PMID- 28568460
TI  - CORRELATIONS OF ALLOZYMIC VARIATION WITH HABITAT PARAMETERS USING THE GRASS
      SHRIMP, PALAEMONETES PUGIO.

PMID- 28568461
TI  - GENETIC COMPONENTS OF SIZE AND SHAPE. I. DYNAMICS OF COMPONENTS OF PHENOTYPIC
      VARIABILITY AND COVARIABILITY DURING ONTOGENY IN THE LABORATORY RAT.

PMID- 28568462
TI  - POPULATION BIOLOGY OF CHAMAELIRIUM LUTEUM, A DIOECIOUS LILY. I. SPATIAL
      DISTRIBUTIONS OF MALES AND FEMALES.

PMID- 28568463
TI  - THE ROLE OF VENOM DELIVERY STRATEGIES IN SNAKE EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28568464
TI  - POLYMORPHISM FOR BREEDING COLORS IN GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS II. REPRODUCTIVE
      SUCCESS AS A RESULT OF CONVERGENCE FOR THREAT DISPLAY.

PMID- 28568465
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION OF HERITABLE MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN A NATURAL
      POPULATION OF SONG SPARROWS.

PMID- 28568467
TI  - GEOLOGIC FACTORS AND THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS.

PMID- 28568466
TI  - NON-LINEAR MACROMOLECULAR EVOLUTION AND THE MOLECULAR CLOCK.

PMID- 28568468
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists.

PMID- 28568469
TI  - r- AND K-SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568470
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND DIFFERENTIATION IN SCANDINAVIAN MOOSE (ALCES ALCES): ARE
      LARGE MAMMALS MONOMORPHIC?

PMID- 28568471
TI  - SEED PRODUCTION AND POLLEN VECTORS IN SEVERAL NECTARLESS PLANTS.

PMID- 28568472
TI  - BATESIAN AND MULLERIAN MIMICRY: SEMANTIC AND SUBSTANTIVE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION.

PMID- 28568473
TI  - Facial skin photo-aging and development of hyperpigmented spots from children to
      middle-aged Japanese woman.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Facial skin hyperpigmention caused by chronic sun exposure is
      a major skin complaint, however, its characteristics and influential factors are
      still limitedly known. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey in healthy Japanese
      women aged from 6 to 62 years (n=169) was conducted using a facial image analyzer
      VISIATM for knowing onset age of hyperpigmented spot formation, its chronological
      changes, and influence of environmental factors. RESULTS: UV Pigmented Spot (PS)
      Score was positively correlated with age (R=.487, P=.000). Hyperpigmented spots
      appeared first around 18 years old in most subjects, and PS score remarkably
      increased at 20s then gradually increased by ages. The subjects with Skin Type I,
      one of the three grades of Japanese Skin Type (JST), whose melanin formation is
      genetically lower, showed higher PS score. A woman aged 31 years was subjected a
      weekly VISIA measurement for 2 years, and found no changes in the number, place,
      size and intensity of the pigment spots in this duration. CONCLUSION:
      Hyperpigmented spots developed in women over 20 years of age due to chronic sun
      exposure without sun protection during childhood and adolescent and it was stable
      afterwards, whose intensity was influenced by age and skin type.

PMID- 28568474
TI  - The biomechanical effect of tunnel placement on ACL graft forces in double-bundle
      ACL reconstruction - A 3D computational simulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The posterolateral (PL) graft experiences a high failure rate in
      anterior cruciate ligament double-bundle (DB) reconstruction. It is hypothesized
      that tunnel positions could dramatically affect the graft forces. METHODS: A
      validated computational model was used to simulate DB reconstruction with various
      femoral PL tunnel locations (8-11 mm center-center tunnel spacing). Graft
      fixation was simulated at both 0 degrees  and 30 degrees . Knee biomechanics were
      examined with the knee under a 134 N anterior load and 400 N quadriceps load at 0
      degrees , 30 degrees , 60 degrees , and 90 degrees  of flexion. Graft forces,
      tibial translation, and tibial rotation were calculated. RESULTS: PL graft forces
      at full extension increased with increasing tunnel spacing under both fixation
      settings, but the knee kinematics was not dramatically affected. CONCLUSION:
      Small changes in the femoral PL tunnel position could result in large changes in
      graft forces, implying that precise PL tunnel position is an important factor in
      a successful DB reconstruction.

PMID- 28568475
TI  - Factors Associated With Functional Capacity in Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - Hemodialysis patients have a marked decrease in functional capacity when compared
      to healthy individuals. We evaluated the factors associated with functional
      capacity in hemodialysis patients. A total of 102 hemodialysis patients were
      evaluated. The patients were submitted to a 6-min walk test, peripheral muscle
      strength tests, and an evaluation of quality of life, anxiety, and depression.
      The laboratory data were measured. The 6-min walk test distance correlated
      significantly with age, educational level, hemoglobin, creatinine, number of
      comorbidities, peripheral muscle strength, and some domains of SF-36 quality of
      life questionnaire and depression (P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression showed
      that educational level, hemoglobin, peripheral muscle strength, and depression
      significantly affected the 6-min walk test distance (P < 0.05). The multiple
      correlation coefficient was 0.74, and the squared multiple correlation
      coefficient adjusted was 0.52. In conclusion, functional capacity was
      significantly associated with educational level, hemoglobin, peripheral muscle
      strength, and depression in hemodialysis patients.

PMID- 28568476
TI  - Reversal of response to artificial selection on body size in a wild passerine.
AB  - A general assumption in quantitative genetics is the existence of an intermediate
      phenotype with higher mean individual fitness in the average environment than
      more extreme phenotypes. Here, we investigate the evolvability and presence of
      such a phenotype in wild bird populations from an eleven-year experiment with
      four years of artificial selection for long and short tarsus length, a proxy for
      body size. The experiment resulted in strong selection in the imposed directions.
      However, artificial selection was counteracted by reduced production of recruits
      in offspring of artificially selected parents. This resulted in weak natural
      selection against extreme trait values. Significant responses to artificial
      selection were observed at both the phenotypic and genetic level, followed by a
      significant return toward preexperimental means. During artificial selection, the
      annual observed phenotypic response closely followed the predicted response from
      quantitative genetic theory (ryears = 0.96, rcohorts = 0.56). The rapid return to
      preexperimental means was induced by three interacting mechanisms: selection for
      an intermediate phenotype, immigration, and recombination between selected and
      unselected individuals. The results of this study demonstrates the evolvability
      of phenotypes and that selection may favor an intermediate phenotype in wild
      populations.

PMID- 28568477
TI  - Two-Stage Residual Inclusion Estimation in Health Services Research and Health
      Economics.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Empirical analyses in health services research and health economics
      often require implementation of nonlinear models whose regressors include one or
      more endogenous variables-regressors that are correlated with the unobserved
      random component of the model. In such cases, implementation of conventional
      regression methods that ignore endogeneity will likely produce results that are
      biased and not causally interpretable. Terza et al. (2008) discuss a relatively
      simple estimation method that avoids endogeneity bias and is applicable in a wide
      variety of nonlinear regression contexts. They call this method two-stage
      residual inclusion (2SRI). In the present paper, I offer a 2SRI how-to guide for
      practitioners and a step-by-step protocol that can be implemented with any of the
      popular statistical or econometric software packages. STUDY DESIGN: We introduce
      the protocol and its Stata implementation in the context of a real data example.
      Implementation of 2SRI for a very broad class of nonlinear models is then
      discussed. Additional examples are given. EMPIRICAL APPLICATION: We analyze
      cigarette smoking as a determinant of infant birthweight using data from Mullahy
      (1997). CONCLUSION: It is hoped that the discussion will serve as a practical
      guide to implementation of the 2SRI protocol for applied researchers.

PMID- 28568478
TI  - Behavioural changes in patients with intellectual disability treated with
      perampanel.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this cross-sectional retrospective study was to assess the
      tolerability and efficacy of perampanel in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy
      who also suffered from intellectual disability (ID). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      used an industry-independent, non-interventional retrospective evaluation based
      on standardized, daily seizure records. Twenty-seven patients with ID and drug
      resistant epilepsy were started on perampanel between September 2012 and November
      2015 after a 3-month observation period without perampanel treatment. Perampanel
      was given at a maximum dosage of 4-12 mg daily. Evaluation was carried out after
      6, 12 and 24 months, including calculation of the retention rate. Mean seizure
      frequency was compared between the 3-month baseline period and subsequent 3-month
      treatment periods. The Clinical Global Impression scale was applied to assess
      qualitative changes in seizure severity, and the Aggressive Behaviour Scale (ABS)
      gave further insights into challenging behaviour. RESULTS: Perampanel was
      efficacious and well tolerated in five of 25 patients. In 18 patients, perampanel
      treatment was stopped, mainly because of adverse events (n=6), lack of efficacy
      (n=3) or both (n=9). Behavioural changes were documented in 15 of 27 patients,
      with aggressive behaviour being the commonest effect; we observed ataxia (n=6)
      and sedation (n=8) in further patients. The ABS showed worsening of aggressive
      behaviour in six patients. CONCLUSIONS: Perampanel was well tolerated and
      efficacious in one-fifth of our patients. We observed challenging behaviour,
      ataxia and sedation in a relevant number of patients with ID under perampanel
      treatment. Further studies are warranted to explore the tolerability of
      perampanel in patients with ID.

PMID- 28568479
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28568480
TI  - Identifying influential individuals on intensive care units: using cluster
      analysis to explore culture.
AB  - AIM: The objective of this paper is to identify attribute patterns of influential
      individuals in intensive care units using unsupervised cluster analysis.
      BACKGROUND: Despite the acknowledgement that culture of an organisation is
      critical to improving patient safety, specific methods to shift culture have not
      been explicitly identified. METHODS: A social network analysis survey was
      conducted and an unsupervised cluster analysis was used. RESULTS: A total of 100
      surveys were gathered. Unsupervised cluster analysis was used to group
      individuals with similar dimensions highlighting three general genres of
      influencers: well-rounded, knowledge and relational. CONCLUSIONS: Culture is
      created locally by individual influencers. Cluster analysis is an effective way
      to identify common characteristics among members of an intensive care unit team
      that are noted as highly influential by their peers. To change culture,
      identifying and then integrating the influencers in intervention development and
      dissemination may create more sustainable and effective culture change.
      Additional studies are ongoing to test the effectiveness of utilising these
      influencers to disseminate patient safety interventions. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
      MANAGEMENT: This study offers an approach that can be helpful in both identifying
      and understanding influential team members and may be an important aspect of
      developing methods to change organisational culture.

PMID- 28568481
TI  - Participant evaluation of an inpatient occupational therapy groups programme in
      brain injury rehabilitation.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Therapy groups are commonly used in brain injury rehabilitation
      yet patient perceptions of participation in groups are largely uninvestigated.
      This paper describes the occupational therapy groups programme at an inpatient
      brain injury rehabilitation unit and presents an evaluation from the patient's
      perspective. METHODS: Participants were in patients with traumatic brain injury
      who participated in the groups programme and completed a customised self-report
      questionnaire measuring perceptions about and satisfaction with four occupational
      therapy groups. Data were analysed descriptively and comparisons made between
      groups with a functional focus (meal preparation and community access) and an
      impairment focus (cognitive and upper limb) using Z scores. RESULTS: Thirty-five
      participants (30 males, five females) completed a total of 83 questionnaires.
      Over 90% of responses agreed or strongly agreed that working with others was
      enjoyable, that the groups provided feedback and individualised treatment, and
      were useful for them. There were no significant differences in perceptions about
      the functional and impairment-focussed groups. An illustrative case example of
      participation in the groups programme is presented. CONCLUSIONS: Overall,
      consumer feedback on different aspects of the occupational therapy groups
      programme in brain injury rehabilitation was positive. Further in-depth
      investigation of patient perceptions of groups including processes that
      facilitate or challenge participation is warranted.

PMID- 28568482
TI  - Diffusion-limited PBPK model for predicting pulmonary pharmacokinetics of
      florfenicol in pig.
AB  - For most bacterial lung infections, the concentration of unbound antimicrobial
      agent in lung interstitial fluid has been thought to be responsible for
      antimicrobial efficacy. In this study, a diffusion-limited physiologically based
      pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was developed to predict the pulmonary
      pharmacokinetics of florfenicol (FF) in pigs. The model included separate
      compartments corresponding to blood, diffusion-limited lung, flow-limited muscle,
      liver, and kidney and an extra compartment representing the remaining carcass.
      The absorption rate constant and renal and hepatic clearance of FF were
      determined in vivo. Other parameters were taken from the literature or optimized
      based on existing pharmacokinetic data. All mathematical operations during the
      development of the model were performed using acslXtreme version 3.0.2.1 (Aegis
      Technologies Group, Inc., Huntsville, AL, USA). The model accurately predicted
      the concentration-time courses of FF in lung interstitial fluid, serum, and
      plasma following different dosing schedules, except at the dose of 15 mg/kg. When
      compared with the tissue residue data, the model generally underestimated the FF
      concentration at the injection site, whereas it gave good predictions of FF
      concentrations in lung, liver, and kidney at early time points. The model
      predictions provide a scientific basis for the dosage regimen design of FF.

PMID- 28568484
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION RESULTING FROM FEMALE BREEDING COMPETITION IN A PACIFIC SALMON
      (COHO: ONCORHYNCHUS KISUTCH).
AB  - We studied breeding competition among wild female coho salmon (Oncorhynchus
      kisutch) and quantified natural selection acting on two important female
      characters: body size and kype size (a secondary sexual character used for
      fighting). We found that body size contributed to adult female fitness in three
      ways, through 1) an increased initial biomass of egg production, 2) the ability
      to acquire a high-quality territory for egg development, and 3) success in nest
      defense. These factors together resulted in as much as a 23-fold fitness
      advantage to the largest females in the population. The initial investment into
      egg production accounted for 50-60% of the measured intensity of natural
      selection on female body size. The effective investment into egg production
      (after female competition for territories) accounted for 40-50% of natural
      selection on female body size. Therefore, success in breeding competition is
      about as important as egg production in the current evolution of female body
      size. This is contrary to the expectation based on most fisheries literature. The
      size of a female's kype was also important to female reproductive success,
      although its contribution could not be separated from that of body size in our
      study. The strong natural selection that we have found for female competitive
      ability is presumably the basis for the evolution of female parental care in
      salmonids.

PMID- 28568485
TI  - ACACIA MANGIUM: A TROPICAL FOREST TREE OF THE COASTAL LOWLANDS WITH LOW GENETIC
      DIVERSITY.

PMID- 28568483
TI  - Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in morphologic leukemia-free
      aplastic state.

PMID- 28568486
TI  - FLIGHTLESSNESS IN GREBES (AVES, PODICIPEDIDAE): ITS INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION IN
      THREE GENERA.
AB  - The morphological bases of flightlessness in three genera of grebes were studied
      using 790 study skins, 322 skeletons, myological data from 40 anatomical
      specimens studied by Sanders (1967), and ancillary data on wing-loadings. Three
      species, Rollandia microptera, Podilymbus gigas, and Podiceps taczanowskii, are
      considered to be flightless; each is endemic to a high-altitude, neotropical lake
      or lake system. Compared to their flighted (capable of flight) sister-species,
      the three flightless species shared several broadly convergent characters: larger
      body mass and skeletal dimensions (exclusive of the sternal carina), reductions
      in relative lengths of wing, tail, and primary remiges, and reduction in the
      relative size of breast muscles. Rollandia microptera exhibited the greatest
      morphological differences from its flighted sister-species; these differences
      were comparable to intergeneric morphometric differences in magnitude and
      involved a tripling of body mass, a modal loss of one primary remex in each wing,
      absolute reduction of the sternal carina, flattening of proximal wing elements, a
      large morphometric shift in skeletal dimensions, an increase in the
      scapulocoracoid angle, and six qualitative differences in the pectoral
      musculature. Morphological differences between Podilymbus gigas and its flighted
      congener were comparatively minor; flightlessness in this species, if genuine,
      evidently results from an allometric increase in size combined with a large
      decrease in relative bulk of breast musculature and shift of alar muscle mass.
      Podiceps taczanowskii was intermediate in degree of anatomical difference from
      its flighted relatives, but was unique in its slight reduction in absolute length
      of the wings and decrease in absolute widths of the skeletal wing elements.
      Multivariate differences in external characters associated with flightlessness
      were strongly convergent in the three genera, but multivariate differences in
      skeletal proportions differed substantially among genera in detail. An estimate
      of wing-loading indicated that Podilymbus gigas and, especially, Podiceps
      taczanowskii may be only "flight-impaired" rather than flightless. Relative wing
      lengths and conformation of sterna in Rollandia microptera and Podiceps
      taczanowskii indicate that morphological changes associated with flightlessness
      are paedomorphic; intraspecific allometry in Rollandia indicates that the
      underlying ontogenetic change may involve a delay in the start of pectoral-alar
      development (postdisplacement). Flightlessness in grebes, a family typified by
      moderately heavy wing-loadings and relatively small pectoral muscles, is related
      in all three instances to the year-round residency afforded by large lakes at low
      latitudes. The primary selective advantages of morphological changes leading to
      flightlessness probably are related to the thermodynamic advantages of increased
      body sizes, feeding specialization associated with enlargement of the bill, and
      reduction of intraspecific niche overlap through increased sexual dimorphism; the
      changes are also possibly related to economy of pectoral-alar development.

PMID- 28568487
TI  - GENETICS OF STERILITY IN HYBRIDS BETWEEN TWO SUBSPECIES OF DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Hybrids between D. pseudoobscura bogotana and D. pseudoobscura pseudoobscura are
      fertile except for males produced in one of the two reciprocal crosses. As there
      is no premating isolation between these subspecies, nonreciprocal male sterility
      represents the first step in speciation. Genetic analysis reveals two causes of
      hybrid F1 sterility: a maternal effect and incompatibilities between chromosomes
      within males. The maternal effect appears to play the greatest role in hybrid
      sterility. The X chromosome has the largest effect on fertility of any
      chromosome, a ubiquitous result in analyses of hybrid sterility and inviability
      in Drosophila. This effect is entirely attributable to a region comprising less
      than 30% of the X chromosome. These results are compared to those from a similar
      study of D. pseudoobscura-D. persimilis hybrids, an older and more reproductively
      isolated species pair in the same lineage. Such comparisons may allow one to
      identify the genetic changes characterizing the early versus late stages of
      speciation.

PMID- 28568488
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA VARIATION IN THE CRESTED NEWT SUPERSPECIES: LIMITED CYTOPLASMIC
      GENE FLOW AMONG SPECIES.
AB  - The crested newt has a widespread European distribution and encompasses four taxa
      recently elevated to full species: Triturus cristatus, T. carnifex, T.
      dobrogicus, and T. karelini. These are distinct on morphological, chromosomal,
      and isozymic grounds and have fairly sharp transition zones. A widespread survey
      (12 countries, 49 geographic sites, 210 individuals) of mtDNA variation (20-27
      restriction enzyme sites mapped per individual) was made in order to 1) correlate
      mtDNA variation with morphological features defining the species, 2) determine
      the degree of differentiation within and among species, and 3) detect any
      introgression among species. The mtDNAs of these species were clearly
      differentiated (d = 3.9-7.1%). Additionally, geographic structuring was observed
      within T. carnifex and T. karelini, each displaying two divergent mitochondrial
      genome types (d = 3.5% and 4.7%, respectively). The other two (more northerly
      distributed) species were genetically homogeneous over most (T. cristatus) or all
      (T. dobrogicus) of their ranges. In the case of T. cristatus, one may infer
      bottlenecking as a result of Pleistocene glaciation events. This may also apply
      in part to T. dobrogicus, but high population connectedness and gene flow in this
      lowland river species may alone be sufficient for homogenization of mtDNA.
      Patterns of mtDNA variation were largely concordant with morphology; some
      interspecific mitochondrial gene flow was observed, but only close to or in the
      transition zones. Analyses of mapped restriction-site data by UPGMA and parsimony
      methods (using the closely related T. marmoratus as an outgroup) produce very
      similar dendrograms. The levels of divergence found concur with the systematics
      of the group, but the differentiation within T. carnifex and T. karelini is
      notable.

PMID- 28568489
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SIZE, SHAPE, LIFE-HISTORY, AND FRUIT CHARACTERISTICS OF
      THE SEED-HETEROMORPHIC COMPOSITE HETEROSPERMA PINNATUM. I. VARIATION WITHIN AND
      AMONG POPULATIONS.
AB  - We document phenotypic and genetic variation within and among populations of the
      seed heteromorphic species Heterosperma pinnatum Cav. (Compositae) in the
      production of seed morphs and in a variety of life-history and morphological
      characteristics that might be correlated with seed and head traits. Each trait is
      found to have significant genetic variance in most or, usually, all populations.
      Significant among-population genetic variation exists for all traits except
      number of achenes per head and seedling shape, although some traits have much
      less genetic variation among than within populations. Number and percentage of
      intermediate achenes per head, total number of achenes per head, and lengths of
      central and peripheral achenes had little among-population genetic variation
      compared to within-population variation. Most traits had slightly less genetic
      variation among than within populations; however, some traits (percentage of
      central achenes, length of awns, date that the first flowering head opened, date
      that the first fruiting head opened, and death date) had more among-population
      genetic variation. The proportions of achene morphs produced had high broad-sense
      heritabilities and high among-population genetic variance, except in the case of
      intermediate achenes. All phenological variables had high among-population
      genetic variation. Within-population heritabilities were high for dates of first
      flowering head and fruiting head but low for death date and reproductive
      interval. Family and population means measured in the greenhouse for traits
      having high broad-sense heritability or among-population genetic variance were
      closely correlated with field means for the corresponding families or
      populations. The amounts of phenotypic variation were similar for traits that
      were measured in both the field and the greenhouse. These lines of evidence
      suggest that greenhouse results provide reasonable estimates of genetic variation
      in the field for this species. Numerous studies have reported variation in the
      proportion of seed morphs for different heteromorphic-seeded species and have
      discussed adaptive scenarios for the evolution of seed proportions; however, our
      investigation is one of only a few that have documented the amount of phenotypic
      and genetic variation within and among populations.

PMID- 28568490
TI  - SIMILAR GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AT THE LAP LOCUS IN THE MUSSELS MYTILUS TROSSULUS
      AND M. EDULIS.

PMID- 28568491
TI  - A PATH-ANALYTIC MODEL FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF SELECTION ON MORPHOLOGY.
AB  - This paper describes a path model for the analysis of phenotypic selection upon
      continuous morphological characters. The path-analysis model assumes that
      selection occurs on unmeasured general size and shape allometry factors that
      summarize linear relations among sets of ontogenetically, phylogenetically, or
      functionally related traits. An unmeasured factor for general size is considered
      the only aspect of morphometric covariance matrices for which there is an a
      priori biological explanation. Consequently, selection coefficients are derived
      for each measured character by holding constant only a general size factor,
      rather than by using multiple regression to adjust for the full covariance
      matrix. Fitness is treated as an unmeasured factor with loadings, representing
      directional selection coefficients, computed as the covariances of the size
      adjusted characters with the measured fitness indicator. The magnitudes and signs
      of the selection coefficients, combined with biological insight, may suggest
      hypotheses of selection on one or more shape allometry factors. Hypotheses of
      selection on general size and shape allometry factors are evaluated through
      cycles of measurement, analysis, and experimentation, designed to refine the path
      diagram depicting the covariances among the measured characters, the measured
      indicator of fitness, and unmeasured factors for morphology and fitness. The path
      analysis and multiple-regression models were applied to data from remeasurement
      of Lande and Arnold's (1983) pentatomid bugs and to Bumpus's (1899) data on house
      sparrows. The path analysis suggested the hypothesis that variation in bug
      survivorship was an expression of directional selection on wing loading. Bumpus's
      data are consistent with a hypothesis of stabilizing selection on general size in
      females and directional selection for small wing size relative to body size in
      males.

PMID- 28568492
TI  - THE GENETICS AND EVOLUTION OF CANNIBALISM IN FLOUR BEETLES (GENUS TRIBOLIUM).
AB  - Cannibalism plays a major role in population regulation in Tribolium confusum,
      accounting for up to tenfold differences in population size between different
      genetic strains. I characterized the within- and between-strain genetic variation
      for cannibalism using standard quantitative-genetic methods. The four laboratory
      strains studied have similar birth and death rates but differ in their strain
      specific cannibalistic tendencies. The cannibalism rates of the strains were
      stable for more than 60 generations of laboratory husbandry. I found considerable
      genetic variation for cannibalism within each strain. A genetic analysis of the
      between-strain differences in each of three types of cannibalism (larvae eating
      eggs, adults eating eggs, and adults eating pupae) showed that all three
      cannibalism pathways are autosomally inherited and exhibit minor degrees of
      dominance. Adult cannibalism of eggs and larval cannibalism of eggs appear to be
      genetically correlated. The differences between the "high" and "low" cannibalism
      strains appear to be polygenic for two kinds of cannibalism, larvae eating eggs
      and adults eating pupae. However, strain differences in adult cannibalism of eggs
      may be due to only two loci. The stability of the between-strain differences for
      more than 60 generations, the additive nature of inheritance, and the
      demonstration of considerable within-strain genetic variation suggest that
      cannibalism may be selectively neutral or under stabilizing selection with many
      adaptive peaks.

PMID- 28568493
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF THE DESERT TORTOISE (XEROBATES
      AGASSIZI), AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE NORTH AMERICAN GOPHER
      TORTOISES.
AB  - Restriction-fragment polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were used to
      evaluate population-genetic structure in the desert tortoise Xerobates agassizi
      and to clarify evolutionary affinities among species of the gopher tortoise
      complex. Fourteen informative endonucleases were employed to assay mtDNAs from 56
      X. agassizi representing 22 locations throughout the species' range. The mtDNA
      genotypes observed were readily partitioned into three major phylogenetic
      assemblages, each with striking geographic orientation. Overall, the X. agassizi
      mtDNA genotypes typify a common phylogeographic pattern, in which broad genetic
      uniformity of populations is interrupted by geographic features that presumably
      have functioned as dispersal barriers. The geologic history of the Colorado River
      area, which includes extensive marine incursions, may account for the marked
      mtDNA divergence between eastern and western X. agassizi assemblages. In mtDNA
      comparisons among the four species of the gopher tortoise complex, both UPGMA and
      Wagner parsimony analysis strongly support the recognition of two distinct
      species groups previously suggested by traditional systematic approaches.
      Furthermore, the mtDNA data identify the eastern X. agassizi assemblage as the
      probable inceptive lineage of X. berlandieri. Results from both intra- and
      interspecific comparisons illustrate how clues to historical events may be
      present in the geographic structure of mtDNA phylogenies.

PMID- 28568494
TI  - GERMINATION SCHEDULES OF POLLEN GRAINS: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLLEN SELECTION.

PMID- 28568495
TI  - ARTIFICIAL SELECTION FOR PAEDOMORPHOSIS IN THE SALAMANDER AMBYSTOMA TALPOIDEUM.
AB  - Heterochronic ontogenetic mechanisms such as paedomorphosis are potentially
      important mechanisms of both microevolutionary and macroevolutionary change. The
      salamander Ambystoma talpoideum is facultatively paedomorphic. Expression of
      paedomorphosis in this species varies among local natural populations. Two
      breeding lines, one from a population associated with a temporary pond where
      metamorphosis to a terrestrial adult always occurs, another from a population
      associated with a nearly permanent pond where paedomorphosis is common, were
      selected artificially for paedomorphosis over four generations. The F5 generation
      of each breeding line was reared in a "common garden" field experiment under two
      drying regimes to simulate the larval environment in a temporary and in a
      permanent pond. There was a significantly different response to the drying
      regimes and to the artificial selection in the two lines. A significant
      population * selection interaction indicated that the two populations responded
      differently to artificial selection for paedomorphosis. The presence of heritable
      genetic variation suggests that evolution and divergence among populations of
      salamanders is possible with intense natural selection over short periods of
      ecological time.

PMID- 28568496
TI  - A REEVALUATION OF CHROMOSOMAL VARIATION IN POPULATIONS OF PEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS
      ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL GRADIENT.

PMID- 28568497
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC HYPOTHESES UNDER THE ASSUMPTION OF NEUTRAL QUANTITATIVE-GENETIC
      VARIATION.
AB  - There are many situations in which the only available characters for
      reconstructing phylogenies are morphological. Those traits that are subject only
      to the forces of mutation and random genetic drift can be used to obtain unbiased
      estimates of phylogenetic relationships. However, the accurate recovery of a
      phylogeny from information on neutral characters requires the procurement of data
      for a large number of independent traits, individuals, and populations.
      Phylogenetic trees fit to data from more than five species will almost always
      contain topological errors, even with very large data sets. The population
      genetic consequences of the neutral model are reviewed, and some statistical
      methods for testing whether the diversification of a phylogeny is compatible with
      such a model are outlined. The theory is then applied to a very large data set on
      cranial morphology in modern man. The results are consistent with the hypothesis
      that interracial differences in human skull dimensions are a simple consequence
      of random drift and mutation.

PMID- 28568498
TI  - FILIAL CANNIBALISM IN THE CORTEZ DAMSELFISH STEGASTES RECTIFRAENUM.
AB  - Male cortez damselfish, Stegastes rectifraenum, in a central Gulf of California
      population, ate a large percentage (28.3%) of the clutches they received. This
      high rate of filial cannibalism permitted the testing of several predictions
      concerning the types of clutches that should be preferentially eaten and the
      mating tactics females should employ to reduce cannibalism rates. Males ate
      clutches that were smaller than average and that were at early stages of
      development. Experimentally reduced clutches were consumed at higher rates than
      controls. When multiple clutches were present, males preferentially ate the
      younger, smaller clutches. Females were more likely to deposit eggs with males
      who were caring for other early-stage eggs and to avoid males with late-stage
      eggs. This pattern was accentuated in females that deposited smaller clutches.
      These results provide evidence that filial cannibalism represents an adaptive
      response to clutches that do not provide adequate benefits to warrant the costs
      of parental care.

PMID- 28568499
TI  - RIBOSOMAL-DNA, MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA, CHROMOSOMAL, AND ALLOZYMIC STUDIES ON A CONTACT
      ZONE IN THE POCKET GOPHER, GEOMYS.
AB  - We studied 75 individuals of the Plains pocket gopher, Geomys bursarius, from
      eastern New Mexico, where the subspecies major and knoxjonesi hybridize. Each
      individual was examined for chromosome number, ribosomal DNA, mitochondrial DNA,
      and three protein systems for which reference parental populations were fixed for
      alternative alleles. Twenty individuals were indistinguishable from parental
      major, 14 individuals were indistinguishable from parental knoxjonesi, and 41
      individuals had genotypes composed of combinations of character states that
      distinguish the two parental types. The parental types appear to represent
      discrete genetic entities that have restricted introgression across a narrow
      hybrid zone (width approximately 3 km, using the 20/80 criterion). Parental types
      overlap in geographic distribution near the center of the zone, and changes in
      mitochondrial DNA and the five nuclear markers are concordant across the zone. It
      is probable that there is premating isolation between knoxjonesi males and major
      females. The frequencies of individuals with certain genotypic combinations
      within our sample imply differential reproductive success of certain genotypes.
      We propose that F1 's and highly heterozygous males are sterile and that hybrid
      females are less fertile than parental females. These postmating factors, along
      with premating isolation for one of the reciprocal crosses, probably account for
      the restriction of gene flow across the contact zone. The structure of the zone
      can be explained by the "dynamic equilibrium" model.

PMID- 28568500
TI  - FUNCTIONAL DIOECY AND ANDROMONOECY IN SOLANUM.
AB  - Field and laboratory studies of 19 diclinous species endemic to Australia help to
      clarify the nature and evolution of andromonoecy, androdioecy, and dioecy in the
      genus Solanum. Ten species are andromonoecious; typically these species bear
      inflorescences with a single, large basal hermaphroditic flower and 12-60 distal,
      smaller staminate flowers. We suggest that the andromonoecious condition was
      derived from hermaphroditic-flowered ancestors in part by hemisterilization of
      flowers but largely by addition of staminate flowers. The resultant larger
      inflorescences are hypothesized to serve both to attract and to entrain
      pollinators, yielding more or higher-quality seed set in hermaphroditic flowers
      and/or greater dispersion of pollen from staminate flowers. We suggest that
      andromonoecy may also serve to reduce selling. Nine other species are
      morphologically androdioecious but functionally dioecious. In these species,
      staminate flowers, like those of the andromonoecious species, bear anthers with
      copious tricolporate pollen and a highly reduced gynoecium. The morphologically
      hermaphroditic flowers are functionally pistillate and borne singly in
      inflorescences, and they bear anthers with inaperturate pollen. The inaperturate
      pollen, although viable, never germinates and is hypothesized to be retained in
      pistillate flowers as a reward to pollinators in the nectarless Solanum flowers.
      All other species of Solanum studied with pollen dimorphism in which one pollen
      morph is inaperturate are also best treated as functionally dioecious. We
      conclude that there is no evidence for androdioecy in Solanum. A review of other
      families suggests that there is little support for this unusual breeding system
      in any other angiosperm group either. Preliminary analyses suggest that
      andromonoecy and dioecy are polyphyletic in Solanum. Furthermore, dioecy is as
      likely to have arisen from hermaphroditic as from andromonoecious ancestors.

PMID- 28568501
TI  - ANALYZING TABLES OF STATISTICAL TESTS.

PMID- 28568502
TI  - EVOLUTION OF ADULT FEMALE LIFE HISTORY AND MORPHOLOGY IN A PACIFIC SALMON (COHO:
      ONCORHYNCHUS KISUTCH).
AB  - Female competition on the spawning grounds can generate strong natural selection
      on female coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). We examined the morphology and
      investment into egg production of 13 wild and five hatchery populations. For each
      population, the degrees of breeding competition and migration arduousness were
      quantified. The results support the importance of breeding competition in the
      evolution of female morphology and life history. Female secondary sexual
      characters, including body coloration and length of kype (an extension of the
      upper jaw used for fighting), increase significantly with degree of breeding
      competition among populations. In contrast, egg size and female investment into
      egg production tend to decrease as competition increases, probably as a result of
      life-history trade-offs. The difficulty of migration to the spawning grounds also
      molds female morphology and life history. Salmon become more streamlined with
      increasing migration arduousness, and the biomass of eggs produced appears to
      decline. In hatcheries, where breeding competition is relaxed, characters
      associated with breeding competition and spawning performance are reduced. In
      contrast, egg size is increased. These results indicate that the morphology and
      life history of adult female salmon respond evolutionarily to local selection
      pressures, including both the biotic demands of breeding competition and the
      abiotic demands of migration.

PMID- 28568503
TI  - THE DECLINE OF AN ADAPTATION IN THE ABSENCE OF A PRESUMED SELECTION PRESSURE.
AB  - The colonial nesting Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) lays eggs that vary in
      ground color and pattern, but individual females lay similar eggs each time.
      Tests on captive African stocks have shown that females reject eggs of other
      cohorts if such eggs are sufficiently different. The Village Weaver may have
      evolved rejection behavior and variable eggs in response to cuckoo parasitism in
      Africa. The Village Weaver was introduced into Hispaniola from Africa as early as
      the 18th century. Before the arrival of the Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
      in the early 1970's, there were no brood parasites on Hispaniola. Furthermore, in
      an experimental parasitism study, Hispaniolan Village Weavers accepted both dummy
      eggs and dissimilar Village Weaver eggs. The Village Weaver may have decreased
      the egg-rejection behavior in the absence of the selective pressure of brood
      parasitism. Now Hispaniolan populations of the Village Weaver are parasitized by
      the Shiny Cowbird, which lays eggs dissimilar to those of the weaver. Brood
      parasitism by the Shiny Cowbird exerts a detrimental impact on the Village Weaver
      by reducing nest success and productivity.

PMID- 28568504
TI  - NATURAL HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN THE SYMPATRIC HAWAIIAN SPECIES DROSOPHILA
      SILVESTRIS AND DROSOPHILA HETERONEURA.
AB  - Two newly formed, morphologically distinct species of Drosophila from the island
      of Hawaii have been found to form fertile hybrids in two areas of sympatry. Both
      F1 and backcross hybrids have been recognized in nature; in one case, the
      hybridization events extended over three years. Original hybridizations involved
      one or more D. silvestris females mating with D. heteroneura males. Female F1
      hybrids from this cross have participated in backcrosses to D. silvestris. In any
      one locality, less than 2% hybrids have been found in nature. A hybrid swarm was
      not formed; selection appears to favor a strict maintenence of morphologies
      characteristic of the separate species. This result is attributed to pervasive
      sexual selection, which serves to preserve the syndromes of sexual
      characteristics that arose during past allopatric divergence. Populations of D.
      silvestris both within and outside the present range of D. heteroneura often
      display heritable variation in color patterns involving the abdomen, pleurae,
      legs, and wings. Genes effecting variation in these characters may be derived
      from genes involved in a past introgression from D. heteroneura. Independent
      evidence for past hybridization between these species comes from study of
      mitochondrial DNA. Although the inferred direction of the cross is the opposite
      of that observed in the recent case described here, both reciprocal crosses have
      been obtained experimentally in the laboratory. Accordingly, we suggest that
      these species may have been open to hybridization since their first sympatic
      encounters following their inception in allopatry. That they remain as strictly
      recognizable morphological entities is due both to their current partial
      allopatry and to the action of sexual selection in maintaining two separate major
      modes of efficient reproduction. There is no reason to invoke specific
      reinforcing selection that has imposed reproductive isolation.

PMID- 28568505
TI  - BOLA-DRB3 gene polymorphisms influence bovine leukaemia virus infection levels in
      Holstein and Holstein * Jersey crossbreed dairy cattle.
AB  - Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infections, causing persistent lymphocytosis and
      lethal lymphosarcoma in cattle, have reached high endemicity on dairy farms. We
      observed extensive inter-individual variation in the level of infection (LI) by
      assessing differences in proviral load in peripheral blood. This phenotypic
      variation appears to be determined by host genetics variants, especially those
      located in the BoLA-DRB3 MHCII molecule. We performed an association study using
      sequencing-based typed BOLA-DRB3 alleles from over 800 Holstein and Holstein *
      Jersey cows considering LI in vivo and accounting for filial relationships. The
      DBR3*0902 allele was associated with a low level of infection (LLI) (<1% of
      circulating infected B-cells), whereas the DRB3*1001 and DRB3*1201 alleles were
      related to a high level of infection (HLI). We found evidence that 13 polymorphic
      positions located in the pockets of the peptide-binding cleft of the BOLA-DRB3
      alleles were associated with LI. DRB3*0902 had unique haplotypes for each of the
      pockets: Ser13 -Glu70 -Arg71 -Glu74 (pocket 4), Ser11 -Ser30 (pocket 6), Glu28 
      Trp61 -Arg71 (pocket 7) and Asn37 -Asp57 (pocket 9), and all of them were
      significantly associated with LLI. Conversely, Lys13 -Arg70 -Ala71 -Ala74 and
      Ser13 -Arg70 -Ala71 -Ala74 , corresponding to the DRB3*1001 and *1201 alleles
      respectively, were associated with HLI. We showed that the specific amino acid
      pattern in the DRB3*0902 peptide-binding cleft may be related to the set point of
      a very low proviral load level in adult cows. Moreover, we identified two BOLA
      DRB3 alleles associated with a HLI, which is compatible with a highly contagious
      profile.

PMID- 28568506
TI  - PBB3 imaging in Parkinsonian disorders: Evidence for binding to tau and other
      proteins.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To study selective regional binding for tau pathology
      in vivo, using PET with [11 C]PBB3 in PSP patients, and other conditions not
      typically associated with tauopathy. METHODS: Dynamic PET scans were obtained for
      70 minutes after the bolus injection of [11 C]PBB3 in 5 PSP subjects, 1 subject
      with DCTN1 mutation and PSP phenotype, 3 asymptomatic SNCA duplication carriers,
      1 MSA subject, and 6 healthy controls of similar age. Tissue reference Logan
      analysis was applied to each region of interest using a cerebellar white matter
      reference region. RESULTS: In comparison to the control group, PSP subjects
      showed specific uptake of [11 C]PBB3 in putamen, midbrain, GP, and SN. Longer
      disease duration and more advanced clinical severity were generally associated
      with higher tracer retention. A DCTN1/PSP phenotype case showed increased binding
      in putamen, parietal lobe, and GP. In SNCA duplication carriers, there was a
      significant increase of [11 C] PBB3 binding in GP, putamen, thalamus, ventral
      striatum, SN, and pedunculopontine nucleus. The MSA case showed increased binding
      in frontal lobe, GP, midbrain, parietal lobe, putamen, temporal lobe, SN,
      thalamus, and ventral striatum. CONCLUSIONS: All PSP patients showed increased
      retention of the tracer in the basal ganglia, as expected. Binding was also
      present in asymptomatic SNCA duplication carriers and in an MSA case, which are
      not typically associated with pathological tau deposition. This suggests the
      possibility that [11 C]PBB3 binds to alpha-synuclein. (c) 2017 International
      Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28568508
TI  - Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of nanosilver in stable GADD45alpha promoter-driven
      luciferase reporter HepG2 and A549 cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The intense commercial application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)
      has been raising concerns about their potential adverse health effects to human.
      This study aimed to explore the potency of AgNPs to induce GADD45alpha gene, an
      important stress sensor, and its relationships with the cytotoxicity and
      genotoxicity elicited by AgNPs. METHODS: Two established HepG2 and A549 cell
      lines containing the GADD45alpha promoter-driven luciferase reporter were treated
      with increasing concentrations of AgNPs for 48 hours. After the treatment,
      transcriptional activation of GADD45alpha indicated by luciferase activity, cell
      viability, cell cycle arrest, and levels of genotoxicity were determined. The
      uptake and intracellular localization of AgNPs, cellular Ag doses as well as Ag+
      release were also detected. RESULTS: AgNPs could activate GADD45alpha gene at the
      transcriptional level as demonstrated by the dose-dependent increases in
      luciferase activity in both the reporter cells. The relative luciferase activity
      was greater than 12* the control level in HepG2-luciferase cells at the highest
      concentration tested where the cell viability decreased to 17.0% of the control.
      These results was generally in accordance with the positive responses in
      cytotoxicity, cell cycle arrest of Sub G1 and G2/M phase, Olive tail moment,
      micronuclei frequency, and the cellular Ag content. CONCLUSIONS: The cytotoxicity
      and genotoxicity of AgNPs seems to occur mainly via particles uptake and the
      subsequent liberation of ions inside the cells. And furthermore, the GADD45alpha
      promoter-driven luciferase reporter cells, especially the HepG2-luciferase cells,
      could provide a new and valuable tool for predicting nanomaterials genotoxicity
      in humans.

PMID- 28568510
TI  - PROBLEMS WITH NULL MODELS IN THE STUDY OF PHYLOGENETIC RADIATION.

PMID- 28568507
TI  - Biomarkers of oxidatively induced DNA damage in dreissenid mussels: A
      genotoxicity assessment tool for the Laurentian Great Lakes.
AB  - Activities of fast growing human population are altering freshwater ecosystems,
      endangering their inhabitants and public health. Organic and trace compounds have
      a high potential for adverse impacts on aquatic organisms in some Great Lakes
      tributaries. Toxic compounds in tissues of organisms living in contaminated
      environments change their metabolism and alter cellular components. We measured
      oxidatively induced DNA damage in the soft tissues of dreissenid mussels to check
      on the possible contaminant-induced impact on their DNA. The animals were
      obtained from archived samples of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
      Administration (NOAA) Mussel Watch Program. Mussels were collected from the
      harbor of Ashtabula River in Ohio, and a reference area located at the Lake Erie
      shore. Using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with isotope dilution,
      we identified and quantified numerous oxidatively modified DNA bases and 8,5'
      cyclopurine-2'-deoxynucleosides. We found significant differences in the
      concentrations of these potentially mutagenic and/or lethal lesions in the DNA of
      mussels from the harbor as compared to the animals collected at the reference
      site. These results align NOAA's data showing that elevated concentrations of
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and
      heavy metals were found in mussels within the harbor as compared to mussels
      collected in the reference site. The measured DNA lesions can be used as
      biomarkers for identifying DNA damage in mussels from polluted and reference
      sites. Such biomarkers are needed to identify the bioeffects of contaminants in
      affected organisms, as well as whether remedial actions have proven successful in
      reducing observed toxic effects.

PMID- 28568509
TI  - Investigation and treatment for iron deficiency in heart failure: the unmet need
      in Lower and Middle Income Countries.
AB  - Frank iron deficiency has been associated with a wide range of cardiac and
      pulmonary abnormalities including non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy. Iron deficiency
      anaemia and isolated iron deficiency are well-defined adverse prognostic factors
      in non-ischaemic cardiac failure. Furthermore, iron-deficient patients in chronic
      heart failure with a serum ferritin of <100 MUg/l or <300 MUg/l with reduced
      transferrin saturation of <20%, who were given intravenous iron showed improved
      clinical outcomes. Iron deficiency with or without anaemia affects over a quarter
      of the world's population, but the impact of iron deficiency in heart failure and
      the effective management of iron deficiency in heart failure in Lower and Middle
      Income Countries (LMICs) is not well described. Heart failure in African cohorts
      occurs at a younger age than in North America and Europe and is more likely to be
      due to hypertension. Recent studies suggest that iron deficiency anaemia, which
      is very common in heart failure patients in Africa, and iron deficiency are
      independently associated with a poor prognosis in heart failure. Preliminary data
      suggest that iron deficiency in patients with heart failure can be treated with
      oral iron, with significant beneficial effects on haematological and
      physiological variables. Cost may prohibit the use of intravenous iron on a large
      scale in LMICs and optimal regimes to treat iron deficiency in heart failure
      patients with oral iron therapy remain to be defined.

PMID- 28568511
TI  - A SIMULATION STUDY OF MULTILOCUS CLINES.
AB  - Fisher's method of junctions is used to investigate the degree of association
      between selected alleles in a cline, in the limit where there is divergence
      between very many genes. A computer model is used to simulate one of a pair of
      infinite demes that exchange individuals each generation. Selection is on
      haploids; it is additive and is equivalent to heterozygote disadvantage.
      Recombination is uniform over a single chromosome. A "critical value" of
      selection exists at equilibrium, below which loci act independently and above
      which they act in association (Barton 1983). Starting with secondary contact,
      simulation results contrast markedly with the equilibrium solution. The "critical
      value" is not apparent in the simulated clines, even after many generations.
      Rather, loci remain associated to some extent under all degrees of selection. The
      simulation is consistent with the equilibrium analysis in all other respects, and
      therefore indicates that under weak selection the approach to equilibrium is very
      slow. This is borne out by further numerical calculations. The slow approach to
      equilibrium enables us to estimate the time since contact between two demes under
      idealized conditions. Extending this work toward natural hybrid zones is
      discussed.

PMID- 28568512
TI  - EVOLUTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSECT FLIGHT KINEMATICS.
AB  - Classification of the main types of insect in-flight kinematics is proposed here,
      based on comparative data of wing movement during flapping flight. By comparing
      the described kinematic patterns with the results of studies of the vortex-wake
      structures of flying insects, these patterns can be explained as adaptations for
      overcoming the negative effects of mutual deceleration of fore- and hind wing
      starting vortex bubbles, which take place in insects with the most primitive type
      of wing kinematics. The aerodynamic efficiency of the flying system can be
      decreased if natural selection favors behavioral patterns that involve suboptimal
      wing kinematics.

PMID- 28568513
TI  - PARASITES, SEX, AND EARLY REPRODUCTION IN A MIXED POPULATION OF FRESHWATER
      SNAILS.

PMID- 28568514
TI  - RECOMBINATION AND MIGRATION RATES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS AND
      BACILLUS MOJAVENSIS.
AB  - We have investigated the rates of recombination and migration in native
      populations of two closely related, naturally competent Bacillus species. Native
      soil isolates of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus mojavensis were obtained from
      three continents and, within North America, from populations at a range of
      geographical distances from one another. The rate of recombination within
      populations of each species was estimated from restriction-site data for three
      genes. Recombination was shown to occur within each species at about the same
      rate as neutral mutation, whatever the geographical scale or phylogenetic scale
      over which strains were sampled. The rate of migration between populations was
      estimated by a cladistic analysis and was shown to be high (i.e., Nm > 1), even
      among populations on different continents. The level of migration within each
      species is sufficient to prevent neutral geographical divergence within species.

PMID- 28568515
TI  - VARIATION IN SPECIES DIVERSITY AND SHELL SHAPE IN HAWAIIAN LAND SNAILS: IN SITU
      SPECIATION AND ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS.
AB  - The native land-snail fauna of the Hawaiian islands was investigated from a
      combined perspective of ecological and historical, vicariant, and dispersalist
      biogeography. There were more than 750 described, valid species; almost all were
      endemic to the archipelago, many to single islands. Path analysis showed that
      island area, per se, had the strongest influence on numbers of species. Island
      altitude and number of plant communities, both strongly related to area and both
      dimensions of habitat diversity, also had major influences. The influence of
      island age was complex. A direct effect, older islands having more species, was
      more than counterbalanced by the strong indirect effects of age on area and
      altitude: older islands are smaller and lower, and smaller, lower islands had
      fewer species. Distance of an island from a source of colonization was of minor
      importance. Species richness thus appears to be related almost exclusively to
      evolutionary radiation in situ and not to an equilibrium between immigration and
      extinction. Islands need not be extremely isolated for evolutionary radiation to
      be more important than immigration/extinction dynamics in determining species
      richness, but isolation is a relative term dependent on the dispersal abilities
      of the organisms in question. Numbers of recorded species were also strongly
      correlated with collecting effort on each island, a result that stands as a
      warning to others involved in such studies. Numbers of species in different
      families were not evenly distributed across islands. Notably, Kauai had more
      amastrids and helicinids and fewer achatinellids than predicted; Oahu had more
      amastrids but fewer pupillids and succineids than predicted; Hawaii exhibited the
      opposite pattern from Oahu. These patterns may partly reflect the vagaries of
      collecting/describing effort, but some may be due to the combined effects of
      historical factors and competitive exclusion. The distribution of shell
      height/diameter was bimodal with a distinct absence of more or less
      equidimensional species, a general pattern seen in other faunas. Among the
      pulmonates, tall species predominated, suggesting a relative lack of opportunity
      for globular/flat species. Notably, amastrids occurred in both modes, evidence
      that, at least in part, ecological not taxonomic factors underlie the bimodality.
      The proportions of tall and globular/flat species did not vary among islands.
      Prosobranchs were mostly low-spired but generally less flat than the pulmonates
      in the low-spired mode. The islands were probably colonized originally by small
      taxa. Large, tall shells are found only on Kauai and Niihau, the oldest of the
      main islands, suggesting that opportunities for such species are probably
      available on other islands.

PMID- 28568516
TI  - VARIATION IN GENOTYPE FREQUENCIES DURING THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE BIVALVE,
      DREISSENA POLYMORPHA.

PMID- 28568517
TI  - EVOLUTION OF BRASSICA RAPA L. (CRUCIFERAE) POPULATIONS IN INTRA- AND
      INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION.
AB  - Populations of Brassica rapa were grown for three generations in each of two
      environments: intraspecific competition, with four surrounding Brassica rapa
      neighbors per pot, and interspecific competition, with two Raphanus sativus
      neighbors per pot. In each environment, the largest (by flower number) 10% of the
      plants were outcrossed and provided seeds for the next generation. As a control,
      a randomly chosen 10% of the plants in each environment were outcrossed to
      produce seed for the next generation. Each of these four treatments, the selected
      lines in intra- and interspecific competition and the corresponding control
      lines, was maintained for three generations. After a single generation of growth
      in a common, no-competition environment, replicate plants from each treatment
      were grown with no competition and with intra- and interspecific competition for
      determination of growth responses. After two generations of selection, flower
      number in the intraspecific-selection line had increased by more than 50% over
      that in the control line and by more than 19% over that under interspecific
      selection. After a common-environment generation, plants from the intraspecific
      selection line were shown to have significantly faster growth in height and
      flower number as seedlings. Plants in the interspecific-selection line showed
      similar but nonsignificant trends. No differences in seed mass, emergence time,
      or photosynthetic rate were found between control and selected lines in either
      intra- or interspecific competition. Some differences between control and
      selected lines were noted in biomass allocation related to differences in
      phenology. The results demonstrate that performance in competitive environments
      can evolve through changes in plant development but that rates of evolution will
      differ in intra- and interspecific competition.

PMID- 28568519
TI  - MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PAIRING SUCCESS, EXTRA-PAIR COPULATIONS AND MATE QUALITY
      ON THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - Sexual selection can act through variation in the number of social mates
      obtained, variation in mate quality, or variation in success at obtaining extra
      pair fertilizations. Because within-pair fertilizations (WPF) and extra-pair
      fertilizations (EPF) are alternate routes of reproduction, they are additive,
      rather than multiplicative, components of fitness. We present a method for
      partitioning total variance in reproductive success (a measure of the opportunity
      for selection) when fitness components are both additive and multiplicative and
      use it to partition the variance into components that correspond to each
      mechanism of sexual selection. Computer simulations show that extra-pair
      fertilizations can either increase or decrease total variance, depending on the
      covariance between within-pair and extra-pair success. Simulations also suggest
      that for socially monogamous species, extra-pair fertilizations have a greater
      effect than variation in mate quality or pairing status on the opportunity for
      selection. Application of our model to data gathered for a population of red
      winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) indicates that most of the variance in
      male reproductive success was attributable to within-pair sources of variance.
      Nevertheless, extra-pair copulations increased the opportunity for selection
      because males varied both in the proportion of their social young that they sired
      and in the number of extra-pair mates that they obtained. Furthermore, large and
      positive covariances existed between the number of extra-pair mates a male
      obtained and both social pairing success and within-pair paternity, indicating
      that, in this population, males preferred as social mates also were preferred as
      extra-pair mates.

PMID- 28568518
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: DARWIN, PROGRESS, AND ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.
AB  - Darwin's concept of progress was an economic one, with the accumulation of
      adaptations having a strong analogy to technological innovations. This
      interpretation makes it easier to understand his differences with Lamarck and
      others whose views he considered metaphysically objectionable. It also clarifies
      his relationship to Malthus and such features of his theory as the episodic
      nature of evolutionary change. His position is consistent with modern theories of
      biotic invasions and long-term evolutionary trends. It also accords well with
      current efforts to produce a synthesis between biology and economics.

PMID- 28568520
TI  - CHANGES IN GENETIC VARIANCES AND COVARIANCES: G WHIZ!

PMID- 28568521
TI  - MUTATIONAL MELTDOWNS IN SEXUAL POPULATIONS.
AB  - Although it is widely acknowledged that the gradual accumulation of mildly
      deleterious mutations is an important source of extinction for asexual
      populations, it is generally assumed that this process is of little relevance to
      sexual species. Here we present results, based on computer simulations and
      supported by analytical approximations, that indicate that mutation accumulation
      in small, random-mating monoecious populations can lead to mean extinction times
      less than a few hundred to a few thousand generations. Unlike the situation in
      obligate asexuals in which the mean time to extinction (te ) increases more
      slowly than linearly with the population carrying capacity (K), te increases
      approximately exponentially with K in outcrossing sexual populations. The mean
      time to extinction for obligately selfing populations is shown to be equivalent
      to that for asexual populations of the same size, but with half the mutation rate
      and twice the mutational effect; this suggests that obligate selfing, like
      obligate asexuality, is inviable as a long-term reproductive strategy. Under all
      mating systems, the mean time to extinction increases relatively slowly with the
      logarithm of fecundity, and mutations with intermediate effects (similar to those
      observed empirically) cause the greatest risk of extinction. Because our analyses
      ignore sources of demographic and environmental stochasticity, which have
      synergistic effects that exacerbate the accumulation of deleterious mutations,
      our results should yield liberal upper bounds to the mean time to extinction
      caused by mutational degradation. Thus, deleterious mutation accumulation cannot
      be ruled out generally as a significant source of extinction vulnerability in
      small sexual populations or as a selective force influencing mating-system
      evolution.

PMID- 28568522
TI  - INCIPIENT REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO SYMPATRIC MORPHS OF THE INTERTIDAL
      SNAIL LITTORINA SAXATILIS.
AB  - The study of speciation in recent populations is essentially a study of the
      evolution of reproductive isolation mechanisms between sub-groups of a species.
      Prezygotic isolation can be of central importance to models of speciation, either
      being a consequence of reinforcement of assortative mating in hybrid zones, or a
      pleiotropic effect of morphological or behavioral adaptation to different
      environments. To suggest speciation by reinforcement between incipient species
      one must at least know that gene flow occurs, or have recently occurred, and that
      assortative mating has been established in the hybrid zone. In Galician
      populations of the marine snail Littorina saxatilis, two main morphs appear on
      the same shores, one on the upper-shore barnacle belt and the other in the lower
      shore mussel belt. The two morphs overlap in distribution in the midshore where
      hybrids are found together with pure forms. Allozyme variation indicates that the
      two parental morphs share a common gene pool, although within shores, gene flow
      between morphs is less than gene flow within morphs. In this study, we observed
      mating behavior in the field, and we found that mating was not random in midshore
      sites, with a deficiency of heterotypic pairs. Habitat selection, assortative
      mating, and possibly sexual selection among females contributed to the partial
      reproductive isolation between the pure morphs. Sizes of mates were often
      positively correlated, in particular, in the upper shore, indicating size
      assortative mating too. However, this seemed to be a consequence of nonrandom
      microdistributions of snails of different sizes. Because we also argue that the
      hybrid zone is of primary rather than secondary origin, this seems to be an
      example of sympatric reproductive isolation, either established by means of
      reinforcement or as a by-product to divergent selection acting on other
      characters.

PMID- 28568523
TI  - AN EXACT TEST FOR POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION.

PMID- 28568524
TI  - SEX-RATIO BIAS WITH ASYMMETRIC EXCHANGE OF POLLEN BETWEEN DEMES.
AB  - In a patch of hermaphroditic plants, with a low level of pollen migration between
      patches, a prevailing wind creates a gradient, within the patch, in the strength
      of local competition among pollen for reproductive success. This leads to a sex
      ratio gradient, with a male (pollen) bias in downwind individuals, which can be
      quite strong even for large patches. The effect can be understood as follows:
      downwind individuals have relatively low reproductive value and respond by
      putting more resources into the gamete (pollen) with the best long-range (extra
      patch) reproductive success.

PMID- 28568525
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE TRAITS IN THE BOMBINA HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Observations on the means, variances, and covariances of quantitative traits
      across hybrid zones can give information similar to that from Mendelian markers.
      In addition, they can identify particular traits through which the cline is
      maintained. We describe a survey of six traits across the hybrid zone between
      Bombina bombina and Bombina variegata (Amphibia: Discoglossidae) near Pescenica
      in Croatia. We obtained laboratory measuments of the belly pattern, skin
      thickness, mating call, skeletal form, egg size, and the developmental time of
      tadpoles. Although offspring from hybrid populations showed no evidence of
      reduced viability, a third of the F1 families failed completely, irrespective of
      the direction of the cross. All traits differed significantly between the taxa.
      Clines in belly pattern, skin thickness, mating call, and skeletal form were
      closely concordant with clines in four diagnostic enzyme loci. However, the cline
      in developmental time was displaced towards bombina, and the cline in egg size
      was displaced towards variegata. This discordance could be because the traits are
      not inherited additively or because they are subject to different selection
      pressures. We favor the latter explanation in the case of developmental time. We
      show that moderate selection acting directly on a trait suffices to shift its
      position; rather stronger selection is needed to change its width appreciably.
      Within hybrid populations, there are significant associations among quantitative
      traits, and between traits and enzymes. Phenotypic variances also increase in
      hybrid populations. These observations can be explained by linkage disequilibria
      among the underlying loci. However, the average magnitude of the covariance
      between traits is about half that expected from the linkage disequilibria between
      enzyme loci. The discrepancy is not readily explained by nonadditive gene action.
      This puzzle is now unresolved and calls for further investigation.

PMID- 28568526
TI  - COMPARATIVE METHODS AT THE SPECIES LEVEL: GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MORPHOLOGY AND
      GROUP SIZE IN GREY-CROWNED BABBLERS (POMATOSTOMUS TEMPORALIS).
AB  - We show that a new comparative method that sheds light on evolutionary trends
      among species may also illuminate trends within species. This finding comes from
      a phylogenetic autocorrelation analysis of morphological traits among individuals
      sampled from ten populations of a cooperatively breeding songbird, the Grey
      crowned Babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis). Highly variable mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) sequences from both the eastern (Pomatostomus temporalis temporalis) and
      western (Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus) lineages were used to define genetic
      distances among 120 individuals and to estimate correlations among individuals in
      wing length, tarsus length, and body weight via an intraspecific weighting
      matrix. The autoregressive model effectively removed intraspecific correlations
      for all three morphological variables, and the proportion of the total phenotypic
      variance due to genealogical relationships varied from 0.68 (weight) to 0.23
      (tarsus). The analysis revealed correlations among the specific components of
      traits, in which none were previously detected (type-I error) and diminished
      correlations that appeared strong when phylogeny was ignored. Group size was the
      only trait for which the autoregressive model failed to remove intraspecific
      correlations, a result likely due to the plasticity, convergence, and clinal
      variation in this trait in both the eastern and western lineages. The
      autocorrelation analysis weakened significant negative correlations between group
      size and total values for wing length and body weight, but the interpretation of
      this result depends on the adaptive significance ascribed to the "phylogenetic
      component" of trait values removed by the analysis. Comparative methods employing
      distance matrices are one useful way of summarizing the pattern of
      nonhierarchical relationships among conspecific individuals ("tokogenetic"
      relationships, sensu Hennig).

PMID- 28568527
TI  - NUCLEOTYPIC EFFECT IN HOMEOTHERMS: BODY-MASS-CORRECTED BASAL METABOLIC RATE OF
      MAMMALS IS RELATED TO GENOME SIZE.
AB  - The body-mass-corrected rate of basal metabolism in mammals is found to be
      negatively correlated with genome size, which is possibly linked to average cell
      size. The correlation, already significant at the species level (rsp = -0.61, P <
      0.0002), gradually strengthens as mean values for higher taxonomic levels
      (genera, families, and orders) are substituted in place of the species points
      (rgen = -0.65, P < 0.0002; rfam = -0.71, P < 0.0004; rord = -0.81, P < 0.008).
      This finding suggests that a sizeable part of the mammalian (above 25% of human)
      genome can be used for evolutionary adjustment of metabolic rate resulting from
      nucleotypic effect independently of body size. The total variance of mammalian
      genome-size values is found to be divided into two parts: within genera (43%) and
      taxonomic levels higher than order (57%), with no tangible variance being added
      between these taxonomic levels; whereas the body-mass-corrected rate of basal
      metabolism varies mainly at family (42%) and order (53%) levels. The only order
      for which there seems to be a necessary minimum of data for intraorder analysis
      (rodents) shows a not statistically significant correlation at the species level
      (rsp = -0.47; P < 0.09), significant at the genus level (rgen = -0.74; P < 0.04),
      and very high at the family level (rfam = -0.98; P < 0.03). The concept of
      ultimate (distant) characters consolidation is proposed. In birds, with average
      genome sizes 40% of those of mammals, and similarly narrower ranges both of
      genome sizes and of body-mass-corrected metabolic rates, the correlation was not
      significant.

PMID- 28568528
TI  - OPTIMALITY THEORY, GOMPERTZ' LAW, AND THE DISPOSABLE SOMA THEORY OF SENESCENCE.
AB  - The "disposable soma" theory for the evolution of senescence suggests that
      senescence arises from an optimal balancing of resources between reproduction and
      somatic repair. Dynamic programming models are constructed and analyzed to
      determine the optimal relationship between reproduction, diversion of resources
      from repair, and added senescent mortality. Of particular interest is the
      relationship between the repair-reproduction trade-off and the form of the
      mortality-rate-versus-age curve predicted. The models analyzed in the greatest
      detail assume that the relationship between reproduction and added senescent
      mortality does not change with age. These suggest that mortality should increase
      at an increasing rate with age, but may approach a linear rate as mortality
      becomes very high. General results are derived for the shape of the mortality
      curves early and late in the senescing part of the life span, and mortality
      curves for specific trade-off functions are illustrated. An exponential increase
      in death rate with age (Gompertz' Law) corresponds to only one of many possible
      relationships between reproduction and aging. The "Law" is unlikely to hold
      generally if the disposable soma theory accounts for a large fraction of the
      observed senescent increase in mortality with age. However, support for the
      generality of Gompertz' Law is weak, and other theories have not produced an
      evolutionary explanation for the law. The disposable soma theory is consistent
      with some of the exceptions to Gompertz' Law that have been observed.

PMID- 28568529
TI  - EVOLUTION AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES IN BRAZIL: EVIDENCE
      FROM SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF MORPHOMETRIC DATA.
AB  - In recent years, studies based on isoenzymatic patterns of geographic variation
      have revealed that what is usually called the Africanized honey bee does not
      constitute a single population. Instead, several local populations exist with
      various degrees of admixture with European honey bees. In this paper, we
      evaluated new data on morphometric patterns of Africanized honey bees collected
      at 42 localities in Brazil, using univariate and multivariate (canonical) trend
      surface and spatial autocorrelation analyses. The clinal patterns of variation
      found for genetically independent characters (wing size characters and some wing
      venation angles) are concordant with previous studies of malate dehydrogenase
      (MDH) allelic frequencies and support the hypothesis that larger honey bees in
      southern and southeastern Brazil originated by racial admixture in the initial
      phases of African honey bee colonization. Geographic variation patterns of
      Africanized honey bee populations reflect a demic diffusion process in which
      European genes were gradually lost because of the higher fitness of the African
      gene pool in Neotropical environmental conditions.

PMID- 28568530
TI  - CYTOPLASMIC INCOMPATIBILITY: WHY IS IT SEXUALLY ASYMMETRIC?

PMID- 28568531
TI  - GENETICAL POPULATION STRUCTURE IN PLANTS: GENE FLOW BETWEEN DIPLOID SEXUAL AND
      TRIPLOID ASEXUAL DANDELIONS (TARAXACUM SECTION RUDERALIA).
AB  - Levels and distribution of genetic variation were studied in central and western
      European populations of Taraxacum section Ruderalia containing differing mixtures
      of sexual diploid and asexual triploid plants. All sexual populations were
      panmictic with their variation partitioned mainly among populations. Genotypic
      diversity in triploid samples was very high with few clones widespread and many
      clones restricted to one or a few populations. Extensive amounts of gene (pollen)
      flow between the diploid and triploid components of a population were inferred
      from the following data: (1) the two ploidy levels share all major allozyme
      polymorphisms; (2) the intrapopulational homogeneity in genic variation between
      diploids and triploids contrasts strongly with the geographic differentiation at
      each ploidy level separately; (3) population-unique alleles simultaneously occur
      at the two ploidy levels; (4) not only sexuals but also asexuals generally
      simulate Hardy-Weinberg expectations. Most likely, intrapopulational gene
      exchange occurs bidirectionally by mechanisms such as reductional pollen meiosis
      in apomictic plants, facultative apomixis, and formation of unreduced gametes in
      sexuals. Thus, diploid and triploid Taraxacum section Ruderalia are less
      genetically isolated than has previously been supposed and probably form a
      cohesive evolutionary unit with the level at which gene pools are shared
      differing by population.

PMID- 28568532
TI  - ORIGIN AND RECENT ENDEMIC DIVERGENCE OF A CASPIAN MYSIS SPECIES FLOCK WITH
      AFFINITIES TO THE "GLACIAL RELICT" CRUSTACEANS IN BOREAL LAKES.
AB  - Aspects of the evolution of intralacustrine species flocks and of the origin of
      the Arctic or "glacial-relict" zoogeographical element in Eurasian inland waters
      were elucidated in an allozyme study of the crustacean genus Mysis. This element,
      of supposedly northern marine ancestry, is represented by vicarious taxa in the
      deeper parts of the Caspian Sea (an enclosed ancient basin) and in young boreal
      lakes. The three endemic Caspian Mysis species studied are very close genetically
      (Nei's D = 0.06), which suggests a recent intrabasin radiation and rapid
      morphological divergence. This is in contrast to the pattern in postglacial
      Holarctic boreal lakes, where the Mysis relicta group is represented by a set of
      morphologically uniform but probably much older sibling species (D = 0.3-0.6).
      The results provide a parallel to those on the recent diversification of some
      fish species flocks in ancient freshwater lakes. The situation is, however,
      unusual in that the Caspian sympatric Mysis flock is pelagic, and conditions
      promoting speciation through allopatric isolation or spatial segregation by
      trophic substrate specialization seem implausible. The monophyletic Caspian Mysis
      clade shows a relatively strong divergence from both the northern lacustrine and
      the Arctic marine congeners (D = 0.6-1.0); the phylogenetic branching order of
      these three zoogeographical groups is not conclusively resolved. The results
      contradict the prevailing hypothesis of a recent Pleistocene origin of the
      Caspian Arctic element by invasion from Eastern European continental proglacial
      lakes that drained south to the Caspian basin during the glacial maxima and
      served as refugia for the boreal lacustrine taxa.

PMID- 28568533
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL ALLOCATION AND SEXUAL ORNAMENTATION.

PMID- 28568534
TI  - EVOLUTION OF BASAL METABOLIC RATE AND ORGAN MASSES IN LABORATORY MICE.
AB  - Animal species of similar body mass vary widely in basal metabolic rate (BMR). A
      central problem of evolutionary physiology concerns the anatomical/physiological
      origin and functional significance of that variation. It has been hypothesized
      that such interspecific differences in wild animals evolved adaptively from
      differences in relative sizes of metabolically active organs. In order to
      minimize confounding phenotypic effects and maximize relevant genetic variation,
      we tested for intraspecific correlations between body-mass-corrected BMR and
      masses of four organs (heart, kidney, liver, and small intestine) among six
      inbred strains of mice. We found significant differences between strains in BMR
      and in masses of all four organs. Strains with exceptionally high (or low) BMR
      tended to have disproportionately large (or small) organs. The mass of each organ
      was correlated with the masses of each of the other three organs. Variation in
      organ masses accounted for 52% of the observed variation in BMR, of which 42%
      represented between-strain variation, and 10% represented within-strain
      variation. This conclusion is supported by published measurements of metabolic
      rates of tissue slices from the four organs. The correlation between BMR and
      intestine or heart mass arose exclusively from differences between strains, while
      the correlation between BMR and liver or kidney mass also appeared in comparing
      individual mice within the same strain. Thus, even though the masses of the four
      examined organs account for no more than 17% of total body mass, their high
      metabolic activities or correlated factors account for much of the variation in
      BMR among mice. We suggest that large masses of metabolically active organs are
      subject to natural selection through evolutionary trade-offs. On the one hand,
      they make possible high-energy budgets (advantageous under some conditions), but
      on the other hand they are energetically expensive to maintain.

PMID- 28568535
TI  - REPLY TO CUNNINGHAM.

PMID- 28568536
TI  - EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE IN A CONTINUOUSLY DISTRIBUTED POPULATION.
AB  - An individual-based simulation model was created to examine genetic variability,
      time until fixation and spatial genetic structure in a continuously distributed
      population. Previous mathematical models for continuously distributed populations
      have the difficulty that the assumption of independent reproduction and
      independent dispersal of offspring cause clumped spatial distribution and thus
      violate an assumption of random spatial distribution. In this study, this problem
      is avoided by considering the dispersal behavior of offspring. The simulation
      results showed that the inbreeding effective population size estimated by the
      rate of decrease of heterozygosity during the first 15 generations corresponds to
      the neighborhood size calculated by the standard deviation of the dispersal
      distance (sigmaT ). This inbreeding effective population size does not greatly
      change with the area of simulation when the densities and sigmaT are the same.
      However, the inbreeding effective population size estimated by heterozygosity
      using the first 500 generations is larger than the neighborhood size calculated
      by the dispersal distance and increases with the area of simulation with the same
      densities. The variance effective population size, estimated by time until
      fixation of alleles, increases with dispersal distance (sigmaT ) and with the
      area of simulation given the same densities. The inbreeding effective population
      size and variance effective population size were smaller than the actual
      population size unless sigmaT is sufficiently large (2 sigmaT > approximate L/2,
      where L is a side of the simulation square).

PMID- 28568537
TI  - MAINTENANCE OF ECOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT GENETIC VARIATION IN THE TIGER
      SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY THROUGH DIFFERENTIAL SELECTION AND GENE FLOW.
AB  - Differential selection in a heterogeneous environment is thought to promote the
      maintenance of ecologically significant genetic variation. Variation is
      maintained when selection is counterbalanced by the homogenizing effects of gene
      flow and random mating. In this study, we examine the relative importance of
      differential selection and gene flow in maintaining genetic variation in Papilio
      glaucus. Differential selection on traits contributing to successful use of host
      plants (oviposition preference and larval performance) was assessed by comparing
      the responses of southern Ohio, north central Georgia, and southern Florida
      populations of P. glaucus to three hosts: Liriodendron tulipifera, Magnolia
      virginiana, and Prunus serotina. Gene flow among populations was estimated using
      allozyme frequencies from nine polymorphic loci. Significant genetic
      differentiation was observed among populations for both oviposition preference
      and larval performance. This differentiation was interpreted to be the result of
      selection acting on Florida P. glaucus for enhanced use of Magnolia, the
      prevalent host in Florida. In contrast, no evidence of population differentiation
      was revealed by allozyme frequencies. FST -values were very small and Nm, an
      estimate of the relative strengths of gene flow and genetic drift, was large,
      indicating that genetic exchange among P. glaucus populations is relatively
      unrestricted. The contrasting patterns of spatial differentiation for host-use
      traits and lack of differentiation for electrophoretically detectable variation
      implies that differential selection among populations will be counterbalanced by
      gene flow, thereby maintaining genetic variation for host-use traits.

PMID- 28568538
TI  - EFFECT OF REARING ENVIRONMENT ON CALLING-SONG PLASTICITY IN THE STRIPED GROUND
      CRICKET.

PMID- 28568539
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28568540
TI  - RESPONSE TO NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HETEROGENEITY: MATERNAL EFFECTS AND SELECTION
      ON LIFE-HISTORY CHARACTERS AND PLASTICITIES IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS.
AB  - Recent studies in plant populations have found that environmental heterogeneity
      and phenotypic selection vary at local spatial scales. In this study, I ask if
      there is evolutionary change in response to environmental heterogeneity and, if
      so, whether the response occurs for characters or character plasticities. I used
      vegetative clones of Mimulus guttatus to create replicate populations of 75
      genotypes. These populations were planted into the natural habitat where they
      differed in mean growth, flowering phenology, and life span. This phenotypic
      variation was used to define selective environments. There was variation in
      fitness (flower production) among genotypes across all planting sites and in
      genotype response to the selective environment. Offspring from each site were
      grown in the greenhouse in two water treatments. Because each population
      initially had the same genetic composition, variation in the progeny between
      selective environments reveals either evolutionary change in response to
      environmental heterogeneity or environmental maternal effects. Plants from
      experimental sites that flowered earlier, had shorter life spans and were less
      productive, produced offspring that had more flowers, on average, and were less
      plastic in vegetative allocation than offspring of longer-lived plants from high
      productivity areas. However, environmental maternal effects masked phenotypic
      differences in flower production. Therefore, although there was evidence of
      genetic differentiation in both life-history characters and their plasticities in
      response to small-scale environmental heterogeneity, environmental maternal
      effects may slow evolutionary change. Response to local-scale selective regimes
      suggests that environmental heterogeneity and local variation in phenotypic
      selection may act to maintain genetic variation.

PMID- 28568541
TI  - RETRODISPLACEMENT OF THE ORAL AND ANAL OPENINGS IN DENDRASTERID SAND DOLLARS.
AB  - In regular echinoids, the mouth opening (or peristome) and the anal opening (or
      periproct) are located centrally. In irregular echinoids, the peristome tends to
      shift toward the anterior end of the test, whereas the periproct typically shifts
      toward the posterior end. This produces an anatomically polarized morphology,
      which is consistent with functional expectations. In the dendrasterid sand
      dollars, however, the peristome and periproct have been displaced in the "wrong"
      directions; the peristome has shifted posteriorly, whereas the periproct has
      shifted anteriorly. These movements, which run counter to functional
      expectations, may be termed "retrodisplacements." This study presents a new model
      for the development of the oral surface in dendrasterids. The model assumes that
      the "Dendraster pattern" of development (which occurs in dendrasterids) was
      derived from the older "Echinarachnius pattern" (which occurs in other northern
      Pacific sand dollars). The Echinarachnius pattern includes two successive phases
      of asymmetric growth: the first phase favors anterior growth, whereas the second
      phase favors posterior growth. These two phases are normally balanced, and at
      maturity, the test appears to be symmetrical. But if the second phase of unequal
      growth were suppressed through a heterochronic change in development, the effects
      on test development would be profound. On the aboral surface, the predicted
      effects include posterior displacement of the apical system. On the oral surface,
      the predicted effects include retrodisplacement of the peristome and periproct,
      as well as conspicuous changes in ambulacral and interambulacral development. In
      fact, all of the predicted effects are characteristic features of dendrasterids.
      The model assumes that the oral and aboral surfaces could be simultaneously
      affected by the same developmental processes. This assumption is supported by
      empirical evidence: in dendrasterids, there is a strong correlation between the
      displacement of the apical system (on the aboral surface) and the displacement of
      the peristome (on the oral surface). The displacement of the apical system (known
      as "apical eccentricity") is regarded as a valuable adaptation, because it
      facilitates suspension feeding. But if oral and aboral development are linked,
      then selective pressure for apical eccentricity would simultaneously produce new
      oral characters as well. Thus, the retrodisplacement of the peristome and
      periproct in dendrasterids may be related to developmental constraints. These
      unusual characters may have little or no functional significance.

PMID- 28568542
TI  - THE DIFFERENTIAL-ALLOCATION HYPOTHESIS: DOES THE EVIDENCE SUPPORT IT?

PMID- 28568543
TI  - MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF THE ALLELES OF ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE ALONG A CLINE IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. I. MAINE, NORTH CAROLINA, AND FLORIDA.
AB  - Clinal variation in natural populations is often assumed to be due to the
      operation of natural selection. However, for many clines there exist plausible
      neutralist explanations which suggest that aspects of population structure
      maintain differences among subpopulations for particular traits. We used a
      restriction-mapping technique to investigate the contributions of population
      subdivision and selection to the maintenance of the allozyme polymorphism at the
      alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) locus of Drosophila melanogaster. Digestions of
      genomic DNAs from 270 lines of flies by seven enzymes reveal 15-20% of all
      possible nucleotide substitutions and virtually all of the insertion/deletion
      variation in a 2.7-kilobase region containing the Adh structural locus. Analysis
      of large samples from each of three populations along the east coast of the
      United States provides evidence of founder effects in the most northerly
      population. Although there are signs of population differentiation among the
      samples, similarities between two of the populations indicate that migration
      among populations is extensive and strengthen the argument that natural selection
      plays a role in maintaining the cline.

PMID- 28568544
TI  - EVOLUTION OFFICE STAFF, 1988.

PMID- 28568545
TI  - MOLECULAR GENETIC-DISTANCE ESTIMATES AMONG THE URSIDAE AS INDICATED BY ONE- AND
      TWO-DIMENSIONAL PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS.
AB  - Evolutionary relationships among eight species of Ursidae (including the giant
      panda) relative to two Procyonidae species (raccoon and red panda) were estimated
      based on the extent of electrophoretic variation of 289 radiolabelled fibroblast
      proteins resolved by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and among 44 isozyme
      loci resolved by one-dimensional electrophoresis. Allelic differences among these
      species were converted to genetic distances, and phenetic trees were constructed.
      In addition, the electrophoretic data were coded as unit characters, and minimum
      length trees were derived based on the Wagner method using maximum parsimony.
      Regardless of the tree-building method employed, the data sets agreed on the
      following branching sequence: between 22.4 and 32.3 million years (MY) ago, the
      ancestors of the procyonids and the ursids split into two lineages. Within 10 MY,
      the red panda split from the line that led to the raccoon. An ancestor of the
      giant panda split from the ursid line 18-22 MY ago, and the South American
      spectacled bear split from the line leading to ursine bears 10.5-15.0 MY B.P. A
      group of six closely related ursine bears (brown bear, polar bear, Asiatic black
      bear, Malayan sun bear, American black bear, and sloth bear) diverged from a
      common ancestor during the past 4-8 MY. Much of this ursine radiation was not
      resolved by our results, with the exception of a recent (2-3 MY B.P.) divergence
      of brown bear and polar bear. The topological concordance of the data sets from
      one- and two-dimensional electrophoresis supports the usefulness of these
      procedures for evolutionary inference and provides additional precision to the
      reconstruction of divergence nodes of this carnivore group.

PMID- 28568546
TI  - LOSS OF NUPTIAL COLOR IN THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS (GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS).
AB  - Loss of conspicuous nuptial color in Gasterosteus aculeatus (threespine
      stickleback) has been reported from several localities in western North America
      and is ascribed to increased rates of predation or to convergent threat displays.
      I have examined 66 populations of G. aculeatus from the Queen Charlotte
      Archipelago and found extensive variation in the expression of red nuptial color.
      Males in 31 of the populations lack red throats, while males in five populations
      have major expression of red nuptial color. I test two hypotheses for nuptial
      color loss: that the loss results from increased predation rates and that it
      involves differences in water spectra (relative transmission at 400 nm). Results,
      which are consistent with the second hypothesis, show that the greatest
      expression of red pigment occurs in habitats with the highest water clarity,
      while loss of red nuptial color is generally found in heavily stained waters.
      There is no correlation between nuptial-color loss and presence or absence of
      vertebrate predators. Two new hypotheses for these associations are proposed:
      signal-masking in spectrally restricted habitats and carotenoid deficiencies in
      the diet. Previous studies of red nuptial color and its loss in Gasterosteus
      merit additional attention, given the associations with underwater spectra.

PMID- 28568547
TI  - MEASUREMENTS OF SELECTION IN A HERMAPHRODITIC PLANT: VARIATION IN MALE AND FEMALE
      POLLINATION SUCCESS.
AB  - I measured phenotypic selection of floral traits through both male and female
      functions of the hermaphroditic flowers of Ipomopsis aggregata (Pursh) V. Grant
      subsp. aggregata (Polemoniaceae). Fluorescent powdered dyes were used to track
      movement of pollen by hummingbirds and to measure pollen delivery to individual
      plants as well as pollen receipt. A phenotypic selection analysis revealed that
      selection due to male-male competition during pollination was capable of delaying
      flowering date and widening corolla tubes by 0.22 and 0.24 standard-deviation
      units, respectively, in a single generation. Several floral traits were highly
      correlated with each other. Multivariate selection analysis suggested that
      selection through male function directly favored late flowering as well as a
      sexual expression characterized by a short pistillate phase and long corollas.
      Selection intensities through male and female functions were of similar overall
      magnitude during the pollination stage of the life cycle, but different traits
      were favored, and selection sometimes acted in opposing directions. In 1985,
      selection through female function favored increased time spent in the pistillate
      phase and exserted stigmas (unlike selection through male function). As a result,
      individual plants varied greatly in functional gender. Plants that had exserted
      stigmas and narrow corollas and that spent a disproportionately long time in the
      pistillate phase achieved greater pollination success as females, while plants
      with the opposite traits achieved greater success as males. Moreover, female
      pollination success tended to increase, and male pollination success to decrease,
      with time spent in the pistillate phase, supporting a critical assumption of sex
      allocation theory. Selection in the populations studied fluctuated from year to
      year and was highly sex-specific.

PMID- 28568548
TI  - REVERSE SEX-RATIO ADJUSTMENT IN AN APPARENTLY OUTBREEDING WASP, BRACON HEBETOR.

PMID- 28568549
TI  - DENSITY-DEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Populations of Drosophila melanogaster were maintained for 36 generations in r-
      and K-selected environments in order to test the life-history predictions of
      theories on density-dependent selection. In the r-selection environment,
      populations were reduced to low densities by density-independent adult mortality,
      whereas populations in the K-selection environment were maintained at their
      carrying capacity. Some of the experimental results support the predictions or r-
      and K-selection theory; relative to the r-selected populations, the K-selected
      populations evolved an increased larval-to-adult viability, larger body size, and
      longer development time at high larval densities. Mueller and Ayala (1981) found
      that K-selected populations also have a higher rate of population growth at high
      densities. Other predictions of the thoery are contradicted by the lack of
      differences between the r and K populations in adult longevity and fecundity and
      a slower rate of development for r-selected individuals at low densities. The
      differences between selected populations in larval survivorship, larval-to-adult
      development time, and adult body size are strongly dependent on larval density,
      and there is a significant interaction between populations and larval density for
      each trait. This manifests an inadequacy of the theory on r- and K-selection,
      which does not take into account such interactions between genotypes and
      environments. We describe mechanisms that may explain the evolution of preadult
      life-history traits in our experiment and discuss the need for changes in
      theories of density-dependent selection.

PMID- 28568551
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY INFERENCES FROM A COMPARISON OF COCKROACH NUCLEAR DNA AND DNA FROM
      THEIR FAT-BODY AND EGG ENDOSYMBIONTS.
AB  - DNA was isolated from muscle tissue and from concentrations of the egg and fat
      body endosymbionts of the cockroaches Periplaneta americana, Blatta orientalis,
      Blaberus giganteus, Gromphadorhina portentosa, Leucophaea maderae, Cryptocercus
      punctulatus, and Nyctibora lutzi. Denatured DNA from each was immobilized on
      nitrocellulose membranes and reassociated with labeled probe DNAs from egg
      endosymbionts and muscle nuclei of B. orientalis. The DNAs were compared by
      extent of binding and by the thermal melting profiles of the DNA duplexes. The
      DNAs from the endosymbionts in the eggs and fat body in both P. americana and B.
      orientalis were shown to be virtually identical, confirming that transovarial
      transmission of the bacteria does take place. The thermal stabilities of the
      heteroduplexes formed with the probe DNA from egg endosymbionts of B. orientalis
      differed from the homologous duplexes by only 1 degrees -11 degrees C, indicating
      a close relationship among the endosymbiont strains. The heteroduplexes of the
      nuclear DNAs differ from the homologous duplexes by 2 degrees -7 degrees C.
      Compared with known systems in bacterial and Drosophila species, these results
      indicate similar base-pair mismatches for host and endosymbiont DNAs. From these
      correlations, we deduce that the endosymbionts have probably been associated with
      their host cockroaches since before the latter speciated.

PMID- 28568552
TI  - ECOLOGICAL GENETICS OF A MOSAIC HYBRID ZONE: MITOCHONDRIAL, NUCLEAR, AND
      REPRODUCTIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF CRICKETS BY SOIL TYPE.
AB  - We investigated the effects that habitat variation has on the structure and
      dynamics of a hybrid zone between two closely related crickets in Connecticut. A
      collecting protocol was developed in which crickets were sampled from
      characteristic habitats on either side of the hybrid zone and from two distinct
      habitat types within the zone. Presumptive pure Gryllus pennsylvanicus were
      sampled from fields in northwestern Connecticut and represent "inland"
      populations. "Pure" Gryllus firmus were sampled from beaches along the coast and
      represent the "coastal" populations. Crickets from within the hybrid zone were
      sampled from two different soil types: the "loam" populations from loamy soils
      and the "sand" populations from sandy soils. Moreover, an attempt was made to
      identify closely adjacent sand and loam localities to determine the scale of
      habitat variation and its possible effects on hybrid-zone structure. In general,
      there was little variation in morphological traits or in allozyme and mtDNA
      genotype frequencies among localities from within each of the four habitat types.
      Between each of the closely situated sand and loam localities within the hybrid
      zone, however, there were very significant differences in each of these sets of
      markers. In addition, crickets from hybrid-zone populations were tested for
      reproductive isolation. The asymmetric outcome of hybrid crosses that exists
      across the zone (Harrison, 1983) also exists on a finer ecological scale within
      the zone. Thus, this hybrid zone is a mosaic of strikingly differentiated
      populations. The dynamics of hybrid zones with mosaic structures are discussed in
      contrast to the traditional clinal models. The data are also discussed in light
      of the semipermeable nature of species boundaries. The extent to which a species
      boundary is permeable varies not only from one genetic marker to the next, but
      also with the ecological and geographic context of species interaction.

PMID- 28568553
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION IN SELECTION ON A FLORAL CHARACTER.

PMID- 28568554
TI  - PATTERNS OF SPECIATION IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - To investigate the time course of speciation, we gathered literature data on 119
      pairs of closely related Drosophila species with known genetic distances, mating
      discrimination, strength of hybrid sterility and inviability, and geographic
      ranges. Because genetic distance is correlated with divergence time, these data
      provide a cross-section of taxa at different stages of speciation. Mating
      discrimination and the sterility or inviability of hybrids increase gradually
      with time. Hybrid sterility and inviability evolve at similar rates. Among
      allopatric species, mating discrimination and postzygotic isolation evolve at
      comparable rates, but among sympatric species strong mating discrimination
      appears well before severe sterility or inviability. This suggests that
      prezygotic reproductive isolation may be reinforced when allopatric taxa become
      sympatric. Analysis of the evolution of postzygotic isolation shows that recently
      diverged taxa usually produce sterile or inviable male but not female hybrids.
      Moreover, there is a large temporal gap between the evolution of male-limited and
      female hybrid sterility or inviability. This gap, which is predicted by recent
      theories about the genetics of speciation, explains the overwhelming
      preponderance of hybridizations yielding male-limited hybrid sterility or
      inviability (Haldane's rule).

PMID- 28568555
TI  - ESTIMATING RELATEDNESS USING GENETIC MARKERS.
AB  - A new method is described for estimating genetic relatedness from genetic markers
      such as protein polymorphisms. It is based on Grafen's (1985) relatedness
      coefficient and is most easily interpreted in terms of identity by descent rather
      than as a genetic regression. It has several advantages over methods currently in
      use: it eliminates a downward bias for small sample sizes; it improves estimation
      of relatedness for subsets of population samples; and it allows estimation of
      relatedness for a single group or for a single pair of individuals. Individual
      estimates of relatedness tend to be highly variable but, in aggregate, can still
      be very useful as data for nonparametric tests. Such tests allow testing for
      differences in relatedness between two samples or for correlating individual
      relatedness values with another variable.

PMID- 28568556
TI  - STRONG NATURAL SELECTION IN A WARNING-COLOR HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Frequency-dependent selection on warning color can maintain narrow hybrid zones
      between unpalatable prey taxa. To measure such selection, we transferred marked
      Heliconius erato (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in both directions across a 10-km
      wide hybrid zone between Peruvian races differing in color pattern. These
      experimental H. erato were released at four sites, along with control H. erato of
      the phenotype native to each site. Survival of experimental butterflies was
      significantly lower than that of controls at two sites and overall. Most
      selection, measured as differences in survival, occurred soon after release.
      Selection against foreign morphs was 52% (confidence limits: 25-71 %) and was
      probably due to bird attacks on unusual warning-color morphs (more than 10% of
      the recaptures had beak marks). Since only three major loci determine the color
      pattern differences, this suggests an average selection coefficient of 0.17 per
      locus, sufficient to maintain the narrow clines in H. erato.

PMID- 28568557
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS OF DROSOPHILA HETERONEURA AND D. SILVESTRIS I. COURTSHIP
      SUCCESS.
AB  - Drosophila heteroneura and D. silvestris are well-defined, sympatric species of
      the planitibia subgroup of Hawaiian Drosophila. D. silvestris can be subdivided
      into two allopatric morphotypes that differ in the number of bristle rows on the
      front tibia (two rows versus three rows). We measured courtship success of
      intraspecific and interspecific hybrids as the proportion of females inseminated
      during a two-week period with a single sib male. Proportions were arcsin
      transformed so that the values were asymptotically normal in distribution, and
      tests of homogeneity and of mean differences were performed. Of key importance is
      the discovery of genetic variation for the proportion of inseminated females
      within both D. heteroneura and D. silvestris. The interspecific crosses and the
      D. silvestris intraspecific crosses also provide evidence for a coadapted gene
      complex with some dominance or heterosis. This coadapted gene complex correlates
      with the morphotypes of these flies, rather than with the D. heteroneura/D.
      silvestris contrasts per se. This observation stresses the importance of
      recognizing both behavioral and morphological components of the mate-recognition
      system. The incompatible coadaptation that separates the two-row from the three
      row forms also supports recent molecular studies which indicate that the three
      row form split from the two-row form prior to the split between D. heteroneura
      and two-row D. silvestris. The observations of intraspecific variability and
      coadaptation support the predictions of a genetic-transilience model which
      explains the origin of a new mate-recognition system in terms of sexual selection
      in the context of a founder-flush event.

PMID- 28568558
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC VARIANCE WITH ITEROPARITY.

PMID- 28568559
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF SEX BY GROUP SELECTION.
AB  - The traditional group-selection model for the maintenance of sex is based upon
      the assumption that the long-term evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction
      result in asexual lineages having a higher extinction rate than sexual species.
      This model is reexamined, as is a related model that incorporates the possibility
      that sexual and asexual lines differ in their speciation rates. In these models,
      the long-term advantage of sex is opposed by a strong short-term disadvantage
      arising from the twofold reproductive cost of producing males. It is shown that
      once some sexual lines become established, then group selection can act to
      maintain sex despite its short-term disadvantage. The short-term disadvantage is
      included in the model by assuming that, if asexual individuals arise by mutation
      within a previously completely sexual species, then the asexuals quickly displace
      their sexual conspecifics and the species is transformed to asexuality. The
      probability of this event is given by the transition rate, us . If the value of
      us varies between lineages, then one of the effects of group selection is to
      favor groups (i.e., species) with the lowest values of us . This occurs because
      lines that do convert to asexuality (because of a high us ) are doomed to a high
      rate of extinction, and in the long term only those that do not convert to
      asexuality (because of a low us ) survive. The net result of group selection is
      that sex is maintained because of its lower extinction rate (or higher speciation
      rate) and because asexual mutants only rarely arise.

PMID- 28568560
TI  - INTERSEXUAL COMPARISON OF MIMETIC PROTECTION IN THE BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY,
      PAPILIO POLYXENES: EXPERIMENTS WITH CAPTIVE BLUE JAY PREDATORS.
AB  - The black swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes asterius Stoll), is commonly
      assumed to exhibit female-limited Batesian mimicry of the aposematic pipevine
      swallowtail (Battus philenor [L.]), since the dorsal wing surfaces of P.
      polyxenes females, but not males, resemble those of the model. However, the
      ventral wing surface is monomorphic and closely resembles that of the model in
      both sexes. Thus both sexes of P. polyxenes should benefit from mimicry during
      periods of ventral surface exposure, such as during overnight roosting and other
      times of high predatory risk. Eight blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata L.) were
      offered ventrally and dorsally exposed butterfly prey items in an outdoor aviary.
      Model-conditioned birds refused male and female P. polyxenes equally when the
      butterflies were presented ventrally. However, significantly more males than
      females were attacked when the dimorphic dorsum was visible. Both sexes are thus
      similarly protected when the ventral wing surface is displayed during roosting.
      The high degree of bird-to-bird variability in response to P. polyxenes mimics
      suggests that there is a spectrum in ability or willingness of predators to
      discriminate among mimics of varying similarity to the model. Sexual dimorphism
      of the dorsal surface of P. polyxenes wings may reflect sexual selection favoring
      males that are recognizable as satisfactory mates or intrasexual competitors.

PMID- 28568561
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AND MOLECULAR VARIABILITY WITHIN AND AMONG SIX
      CHROMOSOME RACES OF SCELOPORUS GRAMMICUS (SAURIA, IGUANIDAE), BASED ON NUCLEAR
      AND MITOCHONDRIAL MARKERS.
AB  - Selected populations of Sceloporus grammicus from central Mexico were karyotyped
      and screened for variability at the protein, ribosomal-DNA, and mitochondrial-DNA
      levels. Molecular markers were used to construct phylogenies of the chromosome
      races, which were then qualitatively evaluated for congruence with each other and
      with the original chromosomal phytogeny proposed by Hall (1973). Between-cytotype
      protein divergence generally was low, and few allozyme markers were fixed between
      cytotypes. Hence, these data were combined with the rDNA restriction-site data
      for phylogeny reconstruction. This combined nuclear data set provided a
      phylogenetic hypothesis that, with one exception, is reasonably congruent with
      that based on standard karyotypes. Similar results were obtained from mtDNA
      restriction-site data, although there are some discrepancies, and trees based on
      both DNA data sets are complicated by evidence for historical and/or ongoing
      hybridization. An unexpectedly rapid rate of rDNA divergence is demonstrated
      relative to the degree of allozyme divergence, suggesting that restriction-site
      variation in rDNA has systematic utility at lower taxonomic levels.

PMID- 28568562
TI  - THE IMPACT OF A FLOWER-COLOR POLYMORPHISM ON MATING PATTERNS IN EXPERIMENTAL
      POPULATIONS OF WILD RADISH (RAPHANUS RAPHANISTRUM L.).
AB  - We conducted field experiments to determine how a naturally occurring petal-color
      polymorphism influences mating patterns in wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum).
      The polymorphism is controlled at a single genetic locus, with white petal color
      being completely dominant to yellow. In experimental populations with equal
      numbers of yellow- and white-flowered homozygous individuals, insect visitors
      strongly discriminated against white flowers. Pieris rapae, the most frequent
      pollinator, was almost 50% more likely to visit yellow than white flowers.
      Maternal fecundity did not differ between the morphs and was not significantly
      influenced by a plant's compatibility with potential donors, suggesting that seed
      production was not limited by receipt of compatible pollen. In contrast, the
      yellow-flowered morph sired approximately 75% of all seeds produced during the
      study. This paternity proportion was consistently greater than that expected on
      the basis of postpollination compatibility measures and was indistinguishable
      from that expected on the basis of pollinator-visitation frequency. We conclude
      that the male-fitness advantage of the yellow morph resulted from enhanced pollen
      export due to the greater attractiveness of its flowers to insect pollinators.
      With color morphs evenly distributed in experimental arrays, insects did not move
      assortatively on the basis of petal color, and we found no evidence for
      assortative pollen flow due to the floral polymorphism. Once postpollination
      compatibility relationships within populations were taken into account, paternal
      success of yellow donors did not differ between yellow- and white-flowered
      maternal plants.

PMID- 28568563
TI  - LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF EPICUTICULAR HYDROCARBON COMPOSITION AND CUTICULAR
      PERMEABILITY IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA: EFFECTS ON SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND
      THERMAL-ACCLIMATION ABILITY.

PMID- 28568564
TI  - Long-term clinical results of bioresorbable absorb scaffolds using the PSP
      technique in patients with and without diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We evaluated clinical results up to 36 months after implantation of
      Absorb BVS using PSP-technique and compared the outcome of patients with and
      without diabetes mellitus. BACKGROUND: Absorb II demonstrated that interventional
      treatment of coronary artery disease with bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS)
      without proper PSP-technique (pre-dilation, proper sizing, and post-dilation) is
      associated with an increased thrombotic risk, even in simple lesions. METHODS: In
      this prospective study 319 patients with 420 lesions were enrolled and treated
      with the Absorb BVS. Pre-dilation was mandatory and post-dilation with a high
      pressure balloon was performed in patients with a scaffold length >12 mm.
      Patients were clinically followed up to 3 years. Primary outcome measure was the
      device-oriented endpoint (DoCE) defined as cardiac death, myocardial infarction
      not clearly related to a non-target vessel and target lesion revascularization.
      RESULTS: DoCE was 5.0%, 7.1%, and 10.0% after 12, 24, and 36 months for the total
      population. Rate of scaffold thrombosis was 0.5%, 0.8%, and 1.4% after 12, 24,
      and 36 months. Rate of DoCE was higher in the diabetic subgroup with 9.1%, 12.6%,
      and 12.9% after 12, 24, and 36 months compared with 4.0% (P = 0.13), 5.6% (P =
      0.05), and 9.9% (P = 0.20) in patients without diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients treated with the Absorb BVS using the PSP-technique show good results up
      to 3 years with a low rate of scaffold thrombosis. Patients suffering from
      diabetes mellitus have an increased rate of DoCE compared with non-diabetic
      patients. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov_NCT02162056.

PMID- 28568565
TI  - Inhibition of Th1 and Th17 Cells by Medicinal Plants and Their Derivatives: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - Searching for new natural drugs that are capable of targeting Th1 and Th17 may
      lead to development of more effective treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune
      diseases. Most of the natural drugs can be derived from plants that are used in
      traditional medicine and folk medicine. The aim of this systematic review is to
      identify and introduce plants or plant derivatives that are effective on
      inflammatory diseases by inhibiting Th1 and Th17 responses. To achieve this
      purpose, the search terms herb, herbal medicine, herbal drug, medicinal plant,
      phytochemical, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, natural
      compound, inflammation, inflammatory diseases, Th1, Th17, T helper 1 or T helper
      17 were used separately in Title/Keywords/Abstract in Web of Science and PubMed
      databases. In articles investigating the effect of the medicinal plants and their
      derivatives in inhibiting Th1 and Th17 cells, the effects of eight extracts of
      the medicinal plants, 21 plant-based compounds and some of their derivatives, and
      eight drugs derived from the medicinal plants' compounds in inhibiting Th1 and
      Th17 cells were reviewed. The results showed that medicinal plants and their
      derivates are able to suppress Th17 and Th1 T cell functions as well as cytokine
      secretion and differentiation. The results can be used to produce herbal drugs
      that suppress Th, especially Th17, responses. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley &
      Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568566
TI  - Quantitative Modeling and Simulation in PMDA: A Japanese Regulatory Perspective.
AB  - In Japan in October 2016, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA)
      began to receive electronic data in new drug applications (NDAs). These
      electronic data are useful to conduct regulatory assessment of sponsors'
      submissions and contribute to the PMDA's research. In this article, we summarize
      the number of submissions of quantitative modeling and simulation (M&S) documents
      in NDAs in Japan, and we describe our current thinking and activities about
      quantitative M&S in PMDA.

PMID- 28568567
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN HIGHLAND FISHES: A TEST OF THE
      PLEISTOCENE VICARIANCE HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - The highland fish fauna of eastern North America consists of Appalachian and
      Ozark centers of endemism separated by the intervening Glacial Till Plains.
      Clades within these areas are more closely related phylogenetically to each other
      than to clades occurring in the intervening formerly glaciated region, suggesting
      that the Pleistocene glaciations fragmented a widespread highland region and its
      associated fauna. Alternatively, it is possible that these faunal assemblages
      predate the glaciations or that recent dispersals may have been more important
      than vicariance in determining faunal compositions. We examined the relationships
      among mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes within five clades of highland fishes,
      each with a distribution suggestive of a Pleistocene vicariance event. Darters of
      the subgenera Litocara and Odontopholis have distributions and mtDNA
      relationships that are consistent with the Pleistocene integration and burial of
      the Teays-Mahomet valley, a major drainage of the early Pleistocene. The
      distribution and mtDNA relationships among subspecies of Erimystax dissimilis are
      not consistent with Pleistocene vicariance, but relationships among Appalachian
      haplotypes are consistent with the late Pleistocene integration of the modern
      Ohio River system. Both Cottus carolinae and the Fundulus catenatus species group
      have representatives in the Mobile basin consistent with pre-Pleistocene
      divergences. Three haplotype clusters were found in C. carolinae, corresponding
      to the Appalachian, Ozark, and upper Kanawha River populations. However,
      Appalachian and Ozark F. catenatus populations are paraphyletic with respect to
      each other. This, coupled with a relatively low degree of sequence divergence,
      suggests that no long-term barriers to gene flow exist for C. carolinae and F.
      catenatus. These three distinct phylogeographic patterns indicate that
      Pleistocene vicariance is not the only explanation for the Appalachian-Ozark
      distribution of highland fish communities.

PMID- 28568568
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR LONG TERM PERSISTENCE OF MARINE INVERTEBRATE POPULATIONS IN
      AN EPHEMERAL ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28568569
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC VARIANCE MAINTAINED BY FLUCTUATING SELECTION WITH
      OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS: VARIANCE COMPONENTS AND COVARIANCES.
AB  - The quantitative genetic variance-covariance that can be maintained in a random
      environment is studied, assuming overlapping generations and Gaussian stabilizing
      selection with a fluctuating optimum. The phenotype of an individual is assumed
      to be determined by additive contributions from each locus on paternal and
      maternal gametes (i.e., no epistasis and no dominance). Recurrent mutation is
      ignored, but linkage between loci is arbitrary. The genotype distribution in the
      evolutionarily stable population is generically discrete: only a finite number of
      polymorphic alleles with distinctly different effects are maintained, even though
      we allow a continuum of alleles with arbitrary phenotypic contributions to
      invade. Fluctuating selection maintains nonzero genetic variance in the
      evolutionarily stable population if the environmental heterogeneity is larger
      than a certain threshold. Explicit asymptotic expressions for the standing
      variance-covariance components are derived for the population near the threshold,
      or for large generational overlap, as a function of environmental variability and
      genetic parameters (i.e., number of loci, recombination rate, etc.), using the
      fact that the genotype distribution is discrete. Above the threshold, the
      population maintains considerable genetic variance in the form of positive
      linkage disequilibrium and positive gamete covariance (Hardy-Weinberg
      disequilibrium) as well as allelic variance. The relative proportion of these
      disequilibrium variances in the total genetic variance increases with the
      environmental variability.

PMID- 28568570
TI  - GENETICS OF SEXUAL ISOLATION AND COURTSHIP DYSFUNCTION IN MALE HYBRIDS OF
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA AND DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS.
AB  - Despite the importance of sexual isolation to speciation, few studies have
      analyzed the genetic basis of interspecific mating discrimination, particularly
      using hybrid males. In this study, I investigated the genetic basis of sexual
      isolation using male hybrids of Drosophila pseudoobscura and D. persimilis.
      Hybrid male mating success was caused by interactions between the X-chromosome
      and autosomes (or Y-chromosome), and different arms of the X-chromosome
      contributed to mating success with females of each species. Further, although
      there was an X-chromosome component to mating success, its magnitude was not
      disproportionately large when compared with the proportion of the genome
      contained on this chromosome. Some hybrid males courted with an anomalously low
      intensity, so I simultaneously mapped the genetic basis of this "courtship
      dysfunction." The courtship dysfunction was caused by an interaction between the
      left arm of the X-chromosome in D. persimilis with the autosomes or Y-chromosome
      from D. pseudoobscura. Anomalous courtship behavior in interspecific hybrids can
      obscure the conclusions of studies of the genetics of sexual isolation, so
      courtship intensity should be evaluated in all such investigations.

PMID- 28568571
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF SPERM SIZE IN BIRDS.
AB  - Sperm size varies enormously among species, but the reasons for this variation
      remain obscure. Since it has been suggested that swimming velocity increases with
      sperm length, earlier studies proposed longer (and therefore faster) sperm are
      advantageous under conditions of intense sperm competition. Nonetheless, previous
      work has been equivocal, perhaps because the intensity of sperm competition was
      measured indirectly. DNA profiling now provides a more direct measure of the
      number of offspring sired by extrapair males, and thus a more direct method of
      assessing the potential for sperm competition. Using a sample of 21 species of
      passerine birds for which DNA profiling data were available, we found a positive
      relation between sperm length and the degree of extrapair paternity. A path
      analysis, however, revealed that this relationship arises only indirectly through
      the positive relationship between the rate of extrapair paternity and length of
      sperm storage tubules (SSTs) in the female. As sperm length is correlated
      positively with SST length, an increase in the intensity of sperm competition
      leads to an increase in sperm length only through its effect on SST length. Why
      females vary SST length with the intensity of sperm competition is not clear, but
      one possibility is that it increases female control over how sperm are used in
      fertilization. Males, in turn, may respond on an evolutionary time scale to
      changes in SST size by increasing sperm length to prevent displacement from rival
      sperm. Previous theoretical analyses predicting that sperm size should decrease
      as sperm competition becomes more intense were not supported by our findings. We
      suggest that future models of sperm-size evolution consider not only the role of
      sperm competition, but also how female control and manipulation of ejaculates
      after insemination selects for different sperm morphologies.

PMID- 28568572
TI  - EVOLUTION OF GYNODIOECY AND MAINTENANCE OF FEMALES: THE ROLE OF INBREEDING
      DEPRESSION, OUTCROSSING RATES, AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN SCHIEDEA ADAMANTIS
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).
AB  - Levels of inbreeding depression, outcrossing rates, and phenotypic patterns of
      resource allocation were studied to examine their relative importance in the
      maintenance of high numbers of females in gynodioecious Schiedea adamantis
      (Caryophyllaceae), an endemic Hawaiian shrub found in a single population on
      Diamond Head Crater, Oahu. In studies of inbreeding depression in two greenhouse
      environments, families of hermaphrodites exhibited significant inbreeding
      depression (delta = 0.60), based on a multiplicative fitness function using seeds
      per capsule, germination, survival, and the inflorescence biomass of progeny.
      Differences between inbred and outcrossed progeny were smallest at the early
      stage of seeds per capsule and more pronounced at the later stages of survival
      and inflorescence production. These results are consistent with inbreeding
      depression caused by many mutations of small effect. Using allozyme analyses, the
      inbreeding coefficient of adult plants in the field was not significantly
      different from zero, implying that delta in nature may be equal to one. The
      single locus estimate of the outcrossing rate for hermaphrodites was 0.50 based
      on progeny that survived to flowering; corrected for the disproportionate loss
      before flowering of progeny from selfing, the adjusted outcrossing rate at the
      zygote stage was 0.32, suggesting that considerable selfing occurs in
      hermaphrodites. Females were totally outcrossed. When females and hermaphrodites
      were compared for reproductive output in the field, females produced over twice
      as many seeds per plant as hermaphrodites, primarily because females had far more
      capsules per inflorescence than hermaphrodites. Females had greater mass per seed
      than hermaphrodites in the field, either because of greater provisioning or
      reduced inbreeding depression. There was no significant differential mortality
      with respect to sex over a seven year period. The higher number of seeds per
      plant of females, combined with substantial inbreeding depression and relatively
      high selfing rates for hermaphrodites, are probably responsible for the
      maintenance of females in this population. The predicted frequency of females
      based on data for seed production, the adjusted selfing rate, and inbreeding
      depression is 42%, remarkably close to the observed frequency of 39%. High levels
      of inbreeding depression suggest that considerable quantitative genetic variation
      is present for traits affecting fitness in this population, despite low allozyme
      variability and a presumed founder effect.

PMID- 28568573
TI  - SPONTANEOUS MUTATIONAL GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION FOR FITNESS-RELATED
      TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Spontaneous mutations were allowed to accumulate for 104-161 generations in 113
      176 inbred lines, independently maintained by a single brother-sister mating per
      generation, all of them derived from a completely homozygous population of
      Drosophila melanogaster. In each of two to three consecutive generations, all
      lines were scored for fecundity, egg-to-pupa and pupa-to-adult viabilities, both
      in the standard laboratory culture medium (ST) and in three harsh media differing
      from the former by a single factor: higher temperature (HT), higher NaCl
      concentration (HSC), or a much reduced concentration of nutrients (D). Relative
      to the standard medium, productivity (fecundity * viability) decreased by 25%
      (HT), 66% (HSC), and 80% (D). In each medium, mutational variances of those
      traits and mutational covariances between all possible pairs were calculated from
      the between-line divergence (codivergence). Mutational correlations between
      character states in different media were also obtained. Because we used inbred
      lines, those estimates were mainly due to the accumulation of mildly detrimental
      mutations, deleterious mutations of large effect being underrepresented. For all
      traits, mutational heritabilities ranged from 1.41 * 10-4 to 11.24 * 10-4 , and
      did not increase with intensified environmental harshness. Mutational
      correlations between character states in different media were usually not large
      (average absolute value 0.31), reflecting a high degree of environmental
      specificity of the mutations involved. In our results, mutations quasi-neutral in
      ST conditions and mildly detrimental in more stressful media were not, as a
      class, important. Mutational correlations between fecundity and egg-to-pupa
      viability were small and positive in all media. Those involving pupa-to-adult
      viability were positive in HT, nonsignificant in HSC, and negative in ST and D,
      showing how the genetic covariance structure of quantitative traits in
      populations may change in variable environments.

PMID- 28568574
TI  - SINGLE LOCUS CLINES.

PMID- 28568575
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28568576
TI  - A TIME COMMITMENT HYPOTHESIS FOR SIZE-DEPENDENT GENDER ALLOCATION.

PMID- 28568577
TI  - GENE DISPERSAL AND SPATIAL GENETIC STRUCTURE.
AB  - Spatial autocorrelation statistics have been studied in theoretical population
      genetic models and widely used in experimental studies of spatial structure in
      many plant and animal populations. However, the statistical properties of spatial
      autocorrelation statistics have remained uncharacterized. Little is known about
      how values of spatial autocorrelation statistics in population samples depend on
      the level of dispersal and scheme of sampling. In this paper, we characterize the
      statistical properties of join-count spatial autocorrelation statistics for
      population genetic surveys under various conditions of dispersal and sampling.
      The results indicate generally high statistical power. These results can provide
      a method to estimate gene dispersal based on standing spatial patterns of genetic
      variation observed within populations.

PMID- 28568578
TI  - IS THE PRODUCTION OF MULTIPLE SPERM TYPES ADAPTIVE?
AB  - Males of many species concurrently produce more than one sperm type, now called
      sperm heteromorphism. In the Drosophila obscura group, all species examined to
      date produce multiple sperm types that differ in sperm length. Short sperm types
      in at least three obscura group species do not participate in fertilization,
      leading to questions regarding the adaptive value of sperm heteromorphism. The
      common and pervasive inheritance of this trait in the obscura group, however, may
      indicate that sperm heteromorphism is phylogenetically constrained and therefore
      does not reflect an adaptive response to selection pressures. I measured
      interspecific variation in sperm length and determined the number of sperm types
      produced in 10 obscura group species. I subsequently tested if interspecific
      variation in sperm length is significantly associated with phylogeny by using an
      autoregressive comparative method. All obscura group species examined produce two
      visually distinct sperm lengths, short and long. Phylogenetic autoregression
      analyses indicated that 22% of the interspecific variation in long sperm is
      related to phylogeny, whereas short sperm are not significantly correlated with
      phylogeny. These results suggest different selection pressures on the two sperm
      length types; long sperm have evolved in response to fertilization demands and
      short sperm have been decoupled from these requirements.

PMID- 28568579
TI  - BODY SIZE AND SEXUAL SIZE DIMORPHISM IN MARINE IGUANAS FLUCTUATE AS A RESULT OF
      OPPOSING NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION: AN ISLAND COMPARISON.
AB  - Body size is often assumed to represent the outcome of conflicting selection
      pressures of natural and sexual selection. Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus
      cristatus) populations in the Galapagos exhibit 10-fold differences in body mass
      between island populations. There is also strong sexual size dimorphism, with
      males being about twice as heavy as females. To understand the evolutionary
      processes shaping body size in marine iguanas, we analyzed the selection
      differentials on body size in two island populations (max. male mass 900 g in
      Genovesa, 3500 g in Santa Fe). Factors that usually confound any evolutionary
      analysis of body sizes-predation, interspecific food competition, reproductive
      role division-are ruled out for marine iguanas. We show that, above hatchlings,
      mortality rates increased with body size in both sexes to the same extent. This
      effect was independent of individual age. The largest animals (males) of each
      island were the first to die once environmental conditions deteriorated (e.g.,
      during El Ninos). This sex-biased mortality was the result of sexual size
      dimorphism, but at the same time caused sexual size dimorphism to fluctuate.
      Mortality differed between seasons (selection differentials as low as -1.4) and
      acted on different absolute body sizes between islands. Both males and females
      did not cease growth when an optimal body size for survival was reached, as
      demonstrated by the fact that individual adult body size phenotypically increased
      in each population under favorable environmental conditions beyond naturally
      selected limits. But why did marine iguanas grow "too large" for survival? Due to
      lek mating, sexual selection constantly favored large body size in males
      (selection differentials up to +0.77). Females only need to reach a body size
      sufficient to produce surviving offspring. Thereafter, large body size of females
      was less favored by fertility selection than large size in males. Resulting from
      these different selection pressures on male and female size, sexual size
      dimorphism was mechanistically caused by the fact that females matured at an
      earlier age and size than males, whereafter they constantly allocated resources
      into eggs, which slowed growth. The observed allometric increase in sexual size
      dimorphism is explained by the fact that the difference between these selective
      processes becomes larger as energy abundance in the environment increases.
      Because body size is generally highly heritable, these selective processes are
      expected to lead to genetic differences in body size between islands. We propose
      a common-garden experiment to determine the influence of genetic factors and
      phenotypic reaction norms of final body size.

PMID- 28568580
TI  - PREDATION BY FREE-RANGING BIRDS ON PARTIAL CORAL SNAKE MIMICS: THE IMPORTANCE OF
      RING WIDTH AND COLOR.

PMID- 28568581
TI  - NEGATIVE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION BY POLLINATORS ON ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS
      WITHOUT REWARDS.
AB  - Many species of nonmodel deceptively pollinated orchids are polymorphic for
      corolla color. These species are pollinated by naive insects searching for
      nectar, and are not mimics. It has been suggested that the foraging behavior of
      insect pollinators during the avoidance learning process results in these stable
      corolla color polymorphisms; for this to occur pollinators must induce negative
      frequency-dependent selection on corolla color. Therefore the hypothesis that
      pollinator behavior results in a preference for rare color morphs of deceptive
      species was tested experimentally. Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) foraged in the
      laboratory on arrays of artificial flowers with different corolla color morphs.
      Morphs were varied in frequency, and bumblebee preferences were recorded on
      arrays where morphs did and did not contain sucrose solution rewards. Bumblebees
      preferred the most common color morph when flowers contained sucrose solution
      rewards, but overvisited rare morphs when sampling flowers that contained no
      rewards. Bumblebees also tended to move between unlike color morphs when these
      were unrewarding, suggesting that a probabilistic sampling strategy was adopted.
      Thus experiments demonstrated that pollinator behavior could result in a
      selective advantage for rare color morphs of plant species that are pollinated by
      deception without mimicry, which would induce negative frequency-dependent
      selection on corolla color. The observed pollinator behavior could allow stable
      corolla color polymorphisms to be maintained by selection in nonmodel deceptively
      pollinated species.

PMID- 28568582
TI  - ADAPTATION AND SPECIALIZATION IN A TWO-RESOURCE ENVIRONMENT IN DROSOPHILA
      SPECIES.
AB  - We assayed two components of performance (development time and survivorship), on
      food medium with and without ethanol, in laboratory populations of Drosophila
      simulans and D. melanogaster for which ethanol-medium was a novel food resource.
      These assays were done before and after 12 generations of rearing in either one
      (regular medium only) or two-resource (regular medium and ethanol medium)
      environments. Initially, D. simulans was highly susceptible to ethanol, whereas
      D. melanogaster was relatively unaffected. After 12 generations in the two
      resource environment, D. simulans showed significantly improved mean performance
      on ethanol medium; mean performance of D. melanogaster did not significantly
      change. Variation among families for both traits was higher on ethanol medium in
      D. simulans. Variation in D. melanogaster was not significantly affected by
      ethanol level, suggesting that resource quality was more important than novelty
      per se. In both species, the least variation was seen in populations after 12
      generations in the two-resource environment. For development time in D. simulans,
      the decrease in variation was largely due to reduced variation within families,
      suggesting the evolution of canalization. Development time on the two media was
      not negatively correlated. In D. simulans, correlations measured before and after
      the experiment were not heterogeneous, suggesting that trade-offs in performance
      did not block diet expansion. In D. melanogaster, correlations became
      significantly less positive after 12 generations in the two-resource environment,
      supporting the view that correlations between performance on different resources
      may become less positive over time through selection.

PMID- 28568583
TI  - DO BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOGS MINIMIZE INBREEDING?
AB  - Considerable controversy surrounds the importance of inbreeding in natural
      populations. The rate of natural inbreeding and the influences of behavioral
      mechanisms that serve to promote or minimize inbreeding (e.g., philopatry vs.
      dispersal) are poorly understood. We studied inbreeding and social structuring of
      a population of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) to assess the
      influence of dispersal and mating behavior on patterns of genetic variation. We
      examined 15 years of data on prairie dogs, including survival and reproduction,
      social behavior, pedigrees, and allozyme alleles. Pedigrees revealed mean
      inbreeding coefficients (F) of 1-2%. A breeding-group model that incorporated
      details of prairie dog behavior and demography was used to estimate values of
      fixation indices (F-statistics). Model predictions were consistent with the
      minimization of inbreeding within breeding groups ("coteries," asymptotic FIL = 
      0.18) and random mating within the subpopulation ("colony," asymptotic FIS =
      0.00). Estimates from pedigrees (mean FIL = -0.23, mean FIS = 0.00) and allozyme
      data (mean FIL = -0.21, mean FIS = -0.01) were consistent with predictions of the
      model. The breeding-group model, pedigrees, and allozyme data showed remarkably
      congruent results, and indicated strong genetic structuring within the colony
      (FLS = 0.16, 0.19, and 0.17, respectively). We concluded that although inbreeding
      occurred in the colony, the rate of inbreeding was strongly minimized at the
      level of breeding groups, but not at the subpopulation level. The behavioral
      mechanisms most important to the minimization of inbreeding appeared to be
      patterns of male-biased dispersal of both subadults and adults, associated with
      strong philopatry of females. Incest avoidance also occurred, associated with
      recognition of close kin via direct social learning within the breeding groups.

PMID- 28568584
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28568585
TI  - MODELS OF RETICULATE EVOLUTION IN THE CORAL GENUS ACROPORA BASED ON CHROMOSOME
      NUMBERS: PARALLELS WITH PLANTS.
AB  - Somatic chromosome number was determined for 22 species of the scleractinian
      coral genus Acropora, three species of Montipora, and one species of Fungia,
      using colchicine-treated cells of externally developing embryos. Most had 28
      chromosomes, except for six species of Acropora, which had somatic numbers of 24,
      30, 30, 42, 48, and 54. Two models that invoke a combination of polyploidy and
      aneuploidy are presented to account for the observed intrageneric variation in
      somatic chromosome number. The ability to propagate clones through vegetative
      fragmentation plus the opportunities for hybridization during multispecies
      spawning events may have contributed to the development of polyploidy and rapid,
      sympatric speciation in the uniquely speciose coral genus Acropora.

PMID- 28568586
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: A CRITIQUE OF SEWALL WRIGHT'S SHIFTING BALANCE THEORY OF EVOLUTION.
AB  - We evaluate Sewall Wright's three-phase "shifting balance" theory of evolution,
      examining both the theoretical issues and the relevant data from nature and the
      laboratory. We conclude that while phases I and II of Wright's theory (the
      movement of populations from one "adaptive peak" to another via drift and
      selection) can occur under some conditions, genetic drift is often unnecessary
      for movement between peaks. Phase III of the shifting balance, in which
      adaptations spread from particular populations to the entire species, faces two
      major theoretical obstacles: (1) unlike adaptations favored by simple directional
      selection, adaptations whose fixation requires some genetic drift are often
      prevented from spreading by barriers to gene flow; and (2) it is difficult to
      assemble complex adaptations whose constituent parts arise via peak shifts in
      different demes. Our review of the data from nature shows that although there is
      some evidence for individual phases of the shifting balance process, there are
      few empirical observations explained better by Wright's three-phase mechanism
      than by simple mass selection. Similarly, artificial selection experiments fail
      to show that selection in subdivided populations produces greater response than
      does mass selection in large populations. The complexity of the shifting balance
      process and the difficulty of establishing that adaptive valleys have been
      crossed by genetic drift make it impossible to test Wright's claim that
      adaptations commonly originate by this process. In view of these problems, it
      seems unreasonable to consider the shifting balance process as an important
      explanation for the evolution of adaptations.

PMID- 28568587
TI  - CONTRASTING PATTERNS OF HERITABLE GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN SHELL MORPHOLOGY AND
      GROWTH POTENTIAL IN THE MARINE GASTROPOD BEMBICIUM VITTATUM: EVIDENCE FROM FIELD
      EXPERIMENTS.
AB  - Similar phenotypes do not always imply similar genotypes. In species distributed
      over a broad latitudinal range, geographical variation in morphological and life
      history traits may reflect very different relations between genotypic and
      environmental effects on these traits. Patterns of selection among latitudinally
      separated sites may minimize phenotypic differences in life-history traits but
      promote phenotypic differences in form. Thus, for example, latitudinal variation
      in temperature often leads to genetically based metabolic differences that
      minimize differences in growth rate among populations at different latitudes
      (countergradient variation). However, variation in habitat experienced by the
      same populations may promote genetically based differences in shell form
      (cogradient variation). Few attempts have been made to assess simultaneously such
      mosaic effects of natural selection on the genetic basis of variation in both
      morphological and life-history traits among geographically separated populations.
      I quantified the extent to which widely separated populations of the rocky shore
      marine gastropod Bembicium vittatum exhibited genetic differences in shell shape,
      shell pattern, and growth rate. Bembicium vittatum occurs naturally at only three
      widely separated locations on the Western Australian coast. Individuals were
      transplanted from all three locations to a latitudinally intermediate site, where
      they were released in different pairwise combinations and allowed to reproduce.
      F1 offspring from crosses between same- or different-source parents were
      identified using allozyme markers. When grown in a common environment, offspring
      from same-source parents exhibited similar differences in shell shape and
      pattern, but dramatic differences in growth rates, compared to native
      populations. Genetic variation therefore exists for all three traits. Growth
      rates in the common environment were positively correlated with latitude of the
      source population, confirming the existence of countergradient variation for
      growth associated with metabolic compensation. In addition, for both shell shape
      and growth rate, hybrids exhibited phenotypes roughly midway between the same
      source parents, suggesting that genetic differences have a large additive
      component. In contrast, when one parent had pigmented spots, the offspring also
      had spots, suggesting a strong dominance component to the genetic basis of shell
      pattern. Genetic differences therefore yield different morphological phenotypes
      but similar life-history phenotypes, among latitudinally distant populations, and
      confirm a pattern of mosaic evolution in B. vittatum.

PMID- 28568588
TI  - DISPERSAL AND EVOLUTION OF THE PACIFIC BASIN GEKKONID LIZARDS GEHYRA OCEANICA AND
      GEHYRA MUTILATA.
AB  - The Pacific island geckos Gehyra mutilata and Gehyra oceanica were studied on
      several Pacific Basin archipelagos to determine the degree that their
      distributions have been modified by humans (as commensals), through the analysis
      of protein variation using starch gel electrophoresis. Gehyra mutilata is an
      anthropophilic species that is widespread in the Pacific Basin and Southeast
      Asia. No protein variation was found in the Pacific Basin and southern Asia,
      although there were fixed allelic differences between populations of southern
      Asia and those further north. These results suggest possible recent human-aided
      transport across the Pacific from a population that experienced a genetic
      bottleneck in southern Asia. Gehyra oceanica, based on protein variation,
      consists of two natural groups in the Pacific, a northern (Micronesian) form and
      a southern (Melanesian and Polynesian) form. The northern form has very similar
      gene frequencies across its range in Micronesia. The southern form has its
      greatest allelic diversity in the south-central Pacific. F-statistics for G.
      oceanica in the south fall within the range of values in the literature for
      mainland Australian species of Gehyra that are not human commensals and for other
      island lizards that have been considered as natural dispersers. These values are
      consistent with the hypothesis that G. oceanica was naturally dispersed across
      the Pacific, prior to the arrival of humans and that the equatorial currents are
      a barrier to natural, north-south gene flow/dispersal in Pacific Basin lizards.
      However, human-aided dispersal within the northern and southern regions cannot be
      ruled out. By comparing the ecology of these two species, G. oceanica has the
      adaptations necessary for natural oversea dispersal, whereas G. mutilata has an
      ecology consistent with human-mediated dispersal, in support of the conclusions
      from the genetic data.

PMID- 28568589
TI  - THE ECOLOGY OF BODY SIZE IN A SEED BEETLE, STATOR LIMBATUS: PERSISTENCE OF
      ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION ACROSS GENERATIONS?

PMID- 28568590
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SEED PRODUCTION AND HYBRIDIZATION RATES: IMPLICATIONS FOR
      GENE FLOW BETWEEN LOCALLY ADAPTED PLANT POPULATIONS.
AB  - Gene flow between genetically distinct plant populations can have significant
      evolutionary consequences. It can increase genetic diversity, create novel gene
      combinations, and transfer adaptations from one population to another. This study
      addresses the roles of frequency-dependent selection and mating system in gene
      exchange between two subspecies of Gilia capitata (Polemoniaceae). Long-distance
      migrants are likely to be rare in new habitats, and the importance of immigrant
      frequency to fitness, gene exchange, and ultimately introgression, has not been
      explored. To test for the importance of frequency in migration, a field
      experiment was conducted in which artificial populations (arrays) composed of
      different mixtures of the two subspecies were placed in the home habitats of
      both. Female function (seed production) and a portion of male function
      (hybridization rate) were compared for the two subspecies to assess the potential
      for gene exchange and introgression between them. Individual fitness (through
      both hybridization and seed production) for the inland subspecies varied with its
      frequency as an immigrant at the coastal site. Rare immigrants produced fewer
      seeds and fathered fewer hybrid offspring. In contrast, both forms of
      reproductive function were frequency independent for the coastal subspecies when
      it was an immigrant at the inland site. Seed production was high and insensitive
      to frequency, and immigrants from the coast never successfully fertilized the
      inland subspecies' seeds. To control for the effects of frequency-dependent
      pollinator behavior in the field, hand crosses were performed in the greenhouse
      using a range of pollen mixtures. The greenhouse experiment demonstrated that
      cross-fertilization is possible in only one direction, that cross-pollination in
      the other direction is only partially successful, and that pollen from the
      coastal subspecies has a strong negative effect on seed production by the inland
      subspecies. Experimental pollen supplementation in the field verified both the
      unilateral incompatibility and the negative effect of coastal pollen on inland
      plant seed production observed in the greenhouse. Contrasts between field array
      and greenhouse results suggest that pollinator behavior and other ecological
      factors act to exaggerate reproductive barriers between the two subspecies. In
      this system, immigrant frequency interacts with reproductive biology and
      pollinator ecology to enhance gene flow between the populations in one direction,
      while restricting gene establishment and introgression in the other direction.

PMID- 28568591
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC EXAMINATION OF FEMALE INCORPORATION OF EJACULATE IN DROSOPHILA.
AB  - Males of some invertebrate species transfer large ejaculates, and many of the
      substances contained therein are incorporated by females into their somatic and
      ovarian tissues. These incorporated substances are expected to be energetically
      costly for males to produce, but benefit males by enhancing their fertilization
      success and/or the viability of their offspring. A better understanding of the
      evolution and maintenance of this important reproductive strategy should come
      from phylogenetic examination. We therefore quantified the extent of ejaculate
      incorporation by females of 34 species of Drosophila. Substantive amounts of male
      derived proteins were more frequently detected in female somatic tissue than in
      ovarian tissue. Substantive ejaculate incorporation by females was found to have
      arisen numerous times across the phylogeny and tended to be lineage specific in
      expression. The extent to which evolution of a nutritive function of the
      ejaculate may have been influenced by phylogenetic history in the genus
      Drosophila is discussed. Macroevolutionary relationships between the amount of
      ejaculate incorporated by females and other features of species' reproductive and
      life-history biology, including body size, sperm length, the formation of an
      insemination reaction in females, and sex-specific ages of reproductive maturity,
      also were examined after controlling for phylogenetic effects.

PMID- 28568592
TI  - A SEARCH FOR QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI AFFECTING ASYMMETRY OF MANDIBULAR CHARACTERS
      IN MICE.
AB  - An interval mapping procedure was used to search for and describe the effects of
      any quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for directional asymmetry (DA) and fluctuating
      asymmetry (FA) of 10 bilateral mandible characters in house mice. It was
      hypothesized that more QTLs would be found for DA than for FA, but that any
      discovered for FA should tend to exhibit dominance. All mandible characters were
      triply measured and 76 microsatellite markers were scored in an average of 471
      mice from the F2 intercross of the Large (LG/J) and Small (SM/J) inbred strains.
      A total of 16 QTLs significantly affected DA in nine of the 10 mandible
      characters, and this was more than the 9.5 expected by chance alone. These QTLs
      were found on seven of the 19 chromosomes, often at or near locations of QTLs
      affecting the mean of the two sides for various dimensions on the mandible. It
      was concluded that there is genetical variability for DA in these characters,
      although its level was low (4.4% of the total variation in this particular F2
      population). Eleven QTLs were detected for FA, suggesting that there is very
      little genetic variability for FA, at least as seen in the mandible characters in
      this particular F2 population. As hypothesized, however, these QTLs did tend to
      exhibit dominance.

PMID- 28568594
TI  - A RECENT HOST RANGE EXPANSION IN JUNONIA COENIA HUBNER (NYMPHALIDAE): OVIPOSITION
      PREFERENCE, SURVIVAL, GROWTH, AND CHEMICAL DEFENSE.
AB  - This paper reports on an investigation of two populations of Junonia coenia, the
      buckeye butterfly, one that feeds on the species' typical host plant (Plantago
      lanceolata) and one that utilizes a novel host plant (Kickxia elatine). I
      examined these populations for local adaptive responses in terms of oviposition
      behavior, growth, and chemical defense, on both P. lanceolata and K. elatine. In
      addition, I examined the genetic architecture underlying these traits using a
      full-sib quantitative genetic analysis. I found that a significant majority of
      females prefer the host plant species found at their collection sites in
      oviposition tests, but that there is no evidence that they are locally adapted in
      growth performance, as measured by fifth-instar and pupal weights and development
      times. Neither are there correlations between oviposition preferences of females
      and the growth performance or levels of chemical defense of their offspring. The
      two populations studied do, however, show specialization in terms of the levels
      of chemical defense they sequester from their host plants. I argue that these
      results indicate that natural enemies are the normal barriers to host range
      expansion in this oligophagous herbivore because a breakdown in those barriers
      results in genetic changes that enhance resistance to predation. This is despite
      the fact that adaptive responses in physiology are unlikely to be limited by a
      lack of genetic variability; the genetic architecture among traits would be
      conducive to specialization in growth performance; and there are costs to
      chemical defense in this species. All these conditions would tend to argue that
      J. coenia harbors considerable potential for coevolutionary interactions with its
      chemically defended hosts, but this potential is not realized, probably because
      natural selection on diet breadth by natural enemies is much stronger than
      selection from host plants in this system.

PMID- 28568593
TI  - HOW DISCRETE ARE OAK SPECIES? INSIGHTS FROM A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN QUERCUS GRISEA
      AND QUERCUS GAMBELII.
AB  - The white oaks Quercus gambelii and Q. grisea overlap in distribution in New
      Mexico and Arizona. Within the region of overlap, there are numerous instances of
      contact between the two taxa. In some areas of contact morphologically,
      intermediate trees are common, whereas in others, morphologically intermediate
      trees are rare or absent. We describe a set of RAPD markers that distinguish
      between the two species and use these markers to examine patterns of gene
      exchange in an area of contact in the San Mateo Mountains of New Mexico. The
      markers are highly coincident with morphology and confirm that hybridization
      between the two species takes place. Despite the occurrence of hybrids, both
      species remain distinct, even in areas of sympatry, and marker exchange appears
      to be limited.

PMID- 28568595
TI  - GENETIC STRUCTURE OF GIANT CLAM (TRIDACNA MAXIMA) POPULATIONS IN THE WEST PACIFIC
      IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH DISPERSAL BY PRESENT-DAY OCEAN CURRENTS.
AB  - The Pacific marine biota, particularly species with long planktonic larval
      stages, are thought to disperse widely throughout the Pacific via ocean currents.
      The little genetic data available to date has supported this view in that little
      or no significant regional differentiation of populations has been found over
      large geographical distances. However, recent data from giant clams has
      demonstrated not only significant regional differentiation of populations, but
      routes of gene flow that run perpendicular to the main present-day ocean
      currents. Extensive surveys of genetic variation at eight polymorphic loci in 19
      populations of the giant clam Tridacna maxima, sampled throughout the West and
      Central Pacific, confirmed that the patterns of variation seen so far in T. gigas
      were not unique to that species, and may reflect a fundamental genetic
      structuring of shallow-water marine taxa. Populations of T. maxima within highly
      connected reef systems like the Great Barrier Reef were panmictic (average FST <
      0.003), but highly significant genetic differences between reef groups on
      different archipelagos (average FST = 0.084) and between West and Central Pacific
      regions (average FST = 0.156) were found. Inferred gene flow was high (Ne m
      usually > 5) between the Philippines and the Great Barrier Reef, between the
      Philippines and Melanesia (the Solomon Islands and Fiji), and between the
      Philippines and the Central Pacific island groups (Marshall Islands, Kiribati,
      Tuvalu and Cook Islands). Gene flow was low between these three sets of island
      chains (Ne m < 2). These routes of gene flow are perpendicular to present-day
      ocean currents. It is suggested that the spatial patterns of gene frequencies
      reflect past episodes of dispersal at times of lower sea levels which have not
      been erased by subsequent dispersal by present-day circulation. The patterns are
      consistent with extensive dispersal of marine species in the Pacific, and with
      traditional views of dispersal from the Indo-Malay region. However, they
      demonstrate that dispersal along present-day ocean surface currents cannot be
      assumed, that other mechanisms may operate today or that major dispersal events
      are intermittent (perhaps separated by several thousands of years), and that the
      nature and timing of dispersal of Pacific marine species is more complex than has
      been thought.

PMID- 28568596
TI  - ECOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: A STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE TROPHIC
      PHENOTYPES IN LARVAL SALAMANDERS.
AB  - The role of ecological factors in promoting morphological diversity within and
      among species is an area of debate among evolutionary biologists. Using
      morphological differences between sympatric species as evidence that competition
      promotes divergence (e.g., character displacement), has, in particular, drawn
      harsh criticism because morphological differences may have evolved during
      allopatry. In contrast to species, alternative phenotypes within a species have a
      common phylogenetic history, so differences between phenotypes are likely to
      result from ecological conditions experienced in sympatry. Using cannibal and
      typical larval phenotypes of the Arizona tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum
      nebulosum, we tested two predictions of the hypothesis that resource competition
      promotes morphological divergence: (1) larval phenotypes should reduce
      competition by using different resources; and (2) the advantage to developing the
      alternative, cannibal phenotype should be highest when competition among typical
      larvae is most intense. We used field surveys and a field experiment to test
      these predictions. The two larval phenotypes used different resources, especially
      when competition was intense. The advantage to individual larvae of becoming
      cannibals was highest when competition for resources among typical larvae was
      high. These results support the hypothesis that resource competition can promote
      morphological divergence.

PMID- 28568597
TI  - ONTOGENY OF SUBTLE SKELETAL ASYMMETRIES IN INDIVIDUAL LARVAE OF THE SAND DOLLAR
      DENDRASTER EXCENTRICUS.

PMID- 28568598
TI  - REINFORCEMENT: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON AN OLD CONTROVERSY.
AB  - A critical component of the reinforcement model, incomplete postzygotic
      reproductive isolation, has been overlooked in the many selection experiments
      designed to test this model. Many field observations are consistent with the
      reinforcement model, but theoretical work predicts that reinforcement should only
      work when nearly complete postzygotic reproductive isolation has developed. The
      experiments described here used four levels of postzygotic reproductive
      isolation: complete, strong, moderate, and none. A significant decrease in
      heterotypic matings occurred over 25 generations in the complete postzygotic
      reproductive isolation treatment. No evidence for reinforcement was found in any
      of the other treatments using incomplete postzygotic reproductive isolation.

PMID- 28568599
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETIC ANALYSIS OF DIVERGENCE IN MALE SECONDARY SEXUAL TRAITS
      BETWEEN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS AND DROSOPHILA MAURITIANA.
AB  - The sibling species Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana differ significantly in
      a number of male secondary sexual traits, providing an ideal system for genetic
      analysis of interspecific morphological divergence. In the experiment reported
      here, F1 hybrids from a cross of two inbred lines were backcrossed in both
      directions and about 200 flies from each backcross were scored for several traits
      (bristle numbers and cuticle areas), as well as 18 markers distributed throughout
      the genome. Each trait was analyzed by composite interval mapping to identify
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) and estimate their effects. For each trait, from
      one to eight loci were detected, with more divergent traits showing evidence for
      greater numbers of QTL. Estimates of additive effects varied widely, with a range
      of 0.4 to 4.1 environmental standard deviation units and an average of 2.2 units.
      There was substantial evidence for nonadditive effects, since the magnitude of
      estimates often differed significantly between the two backcrosses. The sign of
      the estimated effect differed among QTL for bristle traits, but not for cuticle
      area traits, suggesting that these two types of trait may have undergone
      different types of selection. Finally, several similarities were found between
      different traits in the estimated positions of QTL, suggesting that pleiotropy
      and/or linkage of QTL may have been important in the evolution of these traits.

PMID- 28568600
TI  - HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY AND PRESENT DAY POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE GREENFINCH,
      CARDUEUS CHLORIS-AN ANALYSIS OF mtDNA CONTROL-REGION SEQUENCES.
AB  - Genetic variability within and among 10 geographically distinct populations of
      Greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) was assayed by directly sequencing a 637 BP part
      of the mtDNA control region from 194 individuals. Thirteen variable positions
      defined 18 haplotypes with a maximum sequence divergence of 0.8%. Haplotype (h =
      0.28-0.77) and nucleotide (pi = 0.058-0.17%) diversities within populations were
      low, and decreased with increasing latitude (h:rs = -0.81; pi: rs = -0.89). The
      distribution of pairwise nucleotide differences fit better with expectations of a
      "sudden expansion" than of an "equilibrium" model, and the estimates of long term
      effective population sizes were considerably lower than current census estimates,
      especially in northern European samples. Selection is an unlikely cause of
      observed patterns because the distribution of variability conformed to
      expectations of neutral infinite alleles model and haplotype diversity across
      populations was positively correlated with heterozygosity (HE ) in nuclear genes
      (rs = 0.74, P < 0.05). Hence, a recent bottleneck, followed by serial
      bottlenecking during the process of post-Pleistocene recolonization of northern
      Europe, together with recent population expansion provide a plausible explanation
      for the low genetic diversity in the north. Genetic distances among populations
      showed a clear pattern of isolation-by-distance, and 14% of the haplotypic
      variation was among populations, the rest being distributed among individuals
      within populations. In accordance with allozyme and morphological data, a
      hierarchical analysis of nucleotide diversity recognized southern European
      populations as distinct from northern European ones. However, the magnitude of
      divergence in mtDNA, allozymes and morphology were highly dissimilar (morphology
      > mtDNA > allozymes).

PMID- 28568601
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INBREEDING IN DIPLOID AND TETRAPLOID POPULATIONS OF EPILOBIUM
      ANGUSTIFOLIUM (ONAGRACEAE): IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GENETIC BASIS OF INBREEDING
      DEPRESSION.
AB  - The partial dominance model for the evolution of inbreeding depression predicts
      that tetraploids should exhibit less inbreeding depression than their diploid
      progenitors. We tested this prediction by comparing the magnitude of inbreeding
      depression in tetraploid and diploid populations of the herbaceous perennial
      Epilobium angustifolium (Onagraceae). Inbreeding depression was estimated in the
      greenhouse for three tetraploid and two diploid populations at four life stages.
      The mating system of a tetraploid population was estimated and compared to a
      previous estimate for diploids. Tetraploids showed less inbreeding depression
      than diploids at all life history stages, and these differences were significant
      for seed-set and cumulative fitness, but not for germination, survival, or plant
      dry mass at nine weeks. This result suggests that the genetic basis of inbreeding
      depression may differ among life stages. The primary selfing rate of the
      tetraploid population was r = 0.43, which is nearly identical to that of a
      diploid population (r = 0.45), indicating that differences in inbreeding
      depression between diploids and tetraploids are probably not due to differences
      in the mating system. Cumulative inbreeding depression, calculated from the four
      life history stages, was significantly higher for diploids (x-=0.95) than for
      tetraploids (x-=0.67), supporting the partial dominance model of inbreeding
      depression.

PMID- 28568602
TI  - ALLOZYMIC DIFFERENTIATION IN RESPONSE TO LABORATORY DEMOGRAPHIC SELECTION OF
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Drosophila melanogaster populations that exhibit constrasting life histories as a
      result of laboratory selection were compared at several potentially relevant
      enzyme loci. Selection regimes included postponed reproduction, accelerated
      development, and intermediate generation time. Each selection regime was
      represented by fivefold replicated populations maintained for between 50 and 500
      generations. For each population, allele frequencies were calculated from
      frequencies of electrophoretically distinguishable allozymes of alcohol
      dehydrogenase, alpha-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucomutase, and
      CuZn-superoxide dismutase. Based on allozyme frequency changes consistent across
      replicate populations, two of the studied loci responded to both selection for
      postponed reproduction and selection for accelerated development. The responses
      to contrasting selection regimes were in opposing directions, suggesting
      antagonistic pleiotropy.

PMID- 28568603
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION IN A MAMMALIAN RNA VIRUS.

PMID- 28568604
TI  - Estimation of tissue and crevicular fluid oxidative stress marker in
      premenopausal, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women with chronic
      periodontitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to estimate tissue and gingival crevicular
      fluid (GCF) levels of the oxidative stress marker 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8
      OHdG) in premenopausal, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women with chronic
      periodontitis. BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress has been implicated in the
      etiopathogenesis of periodontitis and menopause induces oxidative stress.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: According to Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (STRAW)
      criteria, women diagnosed with periodontitis were subdivided into three groups of
      31 participants each 1. Premenopausal 2. Perimenopausal and 3. Postmenopausal.
      GCF and gingival tissue samples were collected from sites with maximum probing
      depth. Tissue DNA was extracted from the gingival sample and 8-OHdG in the
      extracted DNA, and GCF samples were measured using ELISA. RESULTS: There was a
      highly significant difference in the overall GCF 8-OHdG levels among the three
      groups with the pairwise difference being highly significant between the
      premenopausal-postmenopausal groups and perimenopausal-postmenopausal groups.
      However, no overall significant differences in tissue 8-OHdG levels were found
      among the three groups. Pairwise, highly significant differences were found
      between the premenopausal-postmenopausal groups and perimenopausal-postmenopausal
      groups for tissue 8-OHdG levels. No significant correlations were found between
      various measure of periodontal disease and GCF/tissue 8-OHdG levels among all the
      groups. CONCLUSION: Premenopausal-postmenopausal and perimenopausal
      postmenopausal transition resulted in significant increase in tissue and GCF 8
      OHdG levels. However, no association was found between stages of reproductive
      ageing and tissue levels of 8-OHdG.

PMID- 28568605
TI  - Vascular beds maintain pancreatic tumour explants for ex vivo drug screening.
AB  - Our understanding of cancer progression or response to therapies would benefit
      from benchtop, tissue-level assays that preserve the biology and anatomy of human
      tumours ex vivo. We present a methodology for maintaining patient tumour samples
      ex vivo for the purpose of drug testing in a clinical setting. The harvested
      tumour biopsy, excised from mice or patients, is integrated into a support tissue
      that includes stroma and vasculature. This support tissue preserves tumour
      histoarchitecture and relevant expression profiles, and tumour tissues cultured
      using this system display different sensitivities to chemotherapeutics compared
      with tumour explants with no supporting tissue. The methodology is more rapid
      than patient-derived xenograft models, easy to implement, and amenable to high
      throughput assays, making it an attractive tool for in vitro drug screening or
      for the guidance of patient-specific chemotherapies.

PMID- 28568607
TI  - Differential item functioning in the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Test if differential item functioning due to gender, age,
      race/ethnicity, or education impacts Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale scores.
      BACKGROUND: Testing rating scales for differential item functioning is a core
      validation step. If differential item functioning exists, interpretation of item
      scores must consider secondary influences on dyskinesia ratings. METHODS: Using
      Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale translation databases (N = 3,132), we tested
      uniform and nonuniform differential item functioning. We required confirmation by
      two independent methods and considered differential item functioning pertinent if
      McFadden pseudo R2 magnitude statistics exceeded negligible ratings. RESULTS: No
      age, race/ethnicity, or education nonuniform differential item functioning was
      identified. Gender nonuniform differential item functioning occurred for 2 items,
      both with negligible magnitude. Gender, race, and education uniform differential
      item functioning was observed for multiple items, all with negligible magnitude.
      CONCLUSIONS: The Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale items effectively capture
      dyskinesia severity without pertinent gender, age, race/ ethnicity, or education
      influence. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28568606
TI  - Coupling of excitation to Ca2+ release is modulated by dysferlin.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Dysferlin, the protein missing in limb girdle muscular dystrophy 2B
      and Miyoshi myopathy, concentrates in transverse tubules of skeletal muscle,
      where it stabilizes voltage-induced Ca2+ transients against loss after osmotic
      shock injury (OSI). Local expression of dysferlin in dysferlin-null myofibres
      increases transient amplitude to control levels and protects them from loss after
      OSI. Inhibitors of ryanodine receptors (RyR1) and L-type Ca2+ channels protect
      voltage-induced Ca2+ transients from loss; thus both proteins play a role in
      injury in dysferlin's absence. Effects of Ca2+ -free medium and S107, which
      inhibits SR Ca2+ leak, suggest the SR as the primary source of Ca2+ responsible
      for the loss of the Ca2+ transient upon injury. Ca2+ waves were induced by OSI
      and suppressed by exogenous dysferlin. We conclude that dysferlin prevents injury
      induced SR Ca2+ leak. ABSTRACT: Dysferlin concentrates in the transverse tubules
      of skeletal muscle and stabilizes Ca2+ transients when muscle fibres are
      subjected to osmotic shock injury (OSI). We show here that voltage-induced Ca2+
      transients elicited in dysferlin-null A/J myofibres were smaller than control
      A/WySnJ fibres. Regional expression of Venus-dysferlin chimeras in A/J fibres
      restored the full amplitude of the Ca2+ transients and protected against OSI. We
      also show that drugs that target ryanodine receptors (RyR1: dantrolene,
      tetracaine, S107) and L-type Ca2+ channels (LTCCs: nifedipine, verapamil,
      diltiazem) prevented the decrease in Ca2+ transients in A/J fibres following OSI.
      Diltiazem specifically increased transients by ~20% in uninjured A/J fibres,
      restoring them to control values. The fact that both RyR1s and LTCCs were
      involved in OSI-induced damage suggests that damage is mediated by increased Ca2+
      leak from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) through the RyR1. Congruent with this,
      injured A/J fibres produced Ca2+ sparks and Ca2+ waves. S107 (a stabilizer of
      RyR1-FK506 binding protein coupling that reduces Ca2+ leak) or local expression
      of Venus-dysferlin prevented OSI-induced Ca2+ waves. Our data suggest that
      dysferlin modulates SR Ca2+ release in skeletal muscle, and that in its absence
      OSI causes increased RyR1-mediated Ca2+ leak from the SR into the cytoplasm.

PMID- 28568609
TI  - Two minuses can make a plus: waterlogging and elevated CO2 interactions in sweet
      cherry (Prunus avium) cultivars.
AB  - The increase in the ambient concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is
      producing climate events that can compromise crop survival. However, high CO2
      concentrations are sometimes able to mitigate certain stresses such as salinity
      or drought. In this experiment, the effects of waterlogging and CO2 are studied
      in combination to elucidate the eventual response in sweet cherry trees. For this
      purpose, four sweet cherry cultivars ('Burlat', 'Cashmere', 'Lapins and 'New
      Star') were grafted on a typically hypoxia-tolerant rootstock (Mariana 2624) and
      submitted to waterlogging for 7 days at either ambient CO2 concentration (400
      umol mol-1 ) or at elevated CO2 (800 umol mol-1 ). Waterlogging affected plants
      drastically, by decreasing photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration,
      chlorophyll fluorescence and growth. It also brought about the accumulation of
      proline, chloride and sulfate. Nonetheless, raising the CO2 supply not only
      mitigated all these effects but also induced the accumulation of soluble sugars
      and starch in the leaf. Therefore, sweet cherry plants submitted to waterlogging
      were able to overcome this stress when grown in a CO2 -enriched environment.

PMID- 28568608
TI  - Next-day residual effects of flibanserin on simulated driving performance in
      premenopausal women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the next-day residual
      effects of acute and steady-state nighttime dosing of flibanserin on simulated
      driving performance and cognitive function in healthy premenopausal women.
      METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-way crossover
      study, 72 subjects were treated with either acute oral doses of placebo,
      zopiclone 7.5 mg (positive control) or flibanserin 100 mg at bedtime (indicated
      therapeutic dose), or after chronic nightly oral doses of flibanserin 100 mg for
      1 week followed by a single bedtime dose of flibanserin 200 mg (supratherapeutic
      dose). Simulated driving assessments were conducted 9 hr after dosing and
      cognitive function tests were administered immediately before or during the
      driving assessment. RESULTS: Zopiclone increased standard deviation of lateral
      position (>=3.1 cm; p < .0001) relative to placebo and impaired other parameters
      previously shown to be sensitive to sedation. No impairment was detected for
      flibanserin at either dose relative to placebo. Flibanserin 200 mg was similar to
      the 100-mg dose on cognitive testing and driving performance even though commonly
      reported adverse events for flibanserin were predictably increased at the higher
      dose. CONCLUSIONS: At both therapeutic and supratherapeutic doses, flibanserin
      did not impair next-day driving performance and cognitive function compared to
      placebo.

PMID- 28568610
TI  - GENERALISTS, SPECIALISTS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN SYMPATRIC
      POPULATIONS OF DISTINCT SPECIES.
AB  - The evolution of phenotypic plasticity is studied in a model with two
      reproductively isolated "species" in a coarse-grained environment, consisting of
      two types of habitats. A quantitative genetic model for selection was
      constructed, in which habitats differ in the optimal value for a focal trait, and
      with random dispersal among habitats. The main interest was to study the effects
      of different selection regimes. Three cases were investigated: (1) without any
      limits to plasticity; (2) without genetic variation for plasticity; and (3) with
      a fitness cost for phenotypically plastic reactions. In almost all cases a
      generalist strategy to exploit both habitats emerged. Without any limits to
      plasticity, optimal adaptive reactions evolved. Without any genetic variation for
      plasticity, a compromise strategy with an intermediate, fixed phenotype evolved,
      whereas in the presence of costs a plastic compromise between the demands of the
      habitats and the costs associated with plasticity was found. Specialization and
      phenotypic differentiation was only found when selection within habitats was
      severe and optimal phenotypes for different habitats were widely different. Under
      soft selection (local regulation of population numbers in each habitat) the
      specialists coexisted; under hard selection (global regulation of population
      numbers) one specialist outcompeted the other. The prevalent evolutionary outcome
      of compromises rather than specialization implies that costs or constraints are
      not necessarily detectable as local adaptation in transplantation or
      translocation experiments.

PMID- 28568611
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INFLORESCENCE SIZE ON MALE FITNESS: EXPERIMENTAL TESTS IN THE
      ANDROMONOECIOUS LILY, ZIGADENUS PANICULATUS.
AB  - We studied the relationship between inflorescence size and male fitness in the
      andromonoecious lily Zigadenus paniculatus, using experimentally manipulated
      inflorescences to eliminate possible correlations between flower number, resource
      availability, and other floral traits. Allozyme markers were used to determine
      the siring success of large versus small plants in 14 arrays of plants, each
      array containing five large and five small plants. The inflorescence size of
      small plants was held constant both within and among arrays; the size of large
      plants was held constant within an array but was varied among arrays. Large
      plants sired more than half the seeds in 12 of the 14 arrays, and significantly
      more than half in six of these 12. However, in eight of the arrays, large plants
      sired significantly fewer seeds than expected on the basis of their size
      advantage. Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between relative
      size and relative siring success in comparisons among arrays. A maximum
      likelihood model estimated that 28% of seeds were sired by imported pollen, with
      95% confidence limits of 13% and 50%. Within these limits, high import rates
      tended to mask the relative success of large plants in several arrays. These
      results suggest that the evolution of inflorescence size in Z. paniculatus is at
      least partly driven by selection for increased male success, assuming genetic
      variation for flower number. However, the data also support a growing body of
      evidence that estimates of male fitness in plants can be highly variable. We
      discuss the sources of this variability and the possible effects of inflorescence
      design on the relationship between inflorescence size and fitness.

PMID- 28568612
TI  - DIFFERENTIAL SURVIVAL OF SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL POECILIOPSIS DURING ENVIRONMENTAL
      STRESS.
AB  - According to the Frozen Niche-Variation model, coexisting clones of an asexual
      species can freeze and faithfully replicate ecologically relevant genetic
      variability that segregates in the sexual ancestors. The present experiments with
      fish of the genus Poeciliopsis provide further evidence in support of this model.
      Sexual and clonal forms of Poeciliopsis live in the desert streams of Sonora,
      Mexico, and are exposed to environmental extremes ranging from flash floods to
      hot, desiccating, residual pools. We examined coexisting members of the monacha
      complex to see whether the fish types differed with respect to survival during
      stress and swimming endurance in an artificial flume. The two coexisting clones
      of the triploid gynogenetic fish P. 2 monacha-lucida differed dramatically: clone
      MML/II had the best survival during heat and cold stress and the worst survival
      during hypoxic stress, whereas clone MML/I had the best survival during hypoxic
      stress and the worst during heat stress. Poeciliopsis monacha, the sexual species
      with which these clones coexist, had intermediate survival during heat and
      hypoxic stress and very poor swimming endurance in the flume. The physiological
      differences seen in this study are consistent with the Frozen Niche-Variation
      model and provide some insights into environmental factors that affect the
      distribution and abundance of these fish.

PMID- 28568613
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION UNDER JOINT SELFING, OUTCROSSING, AND ASEXUALITY.
AB  - Partial asexual reproduction was introduced into a model of inbreeding depression
      due to nearly recessive lethal mutations in a partially selfing population. The
      frequencies of asexuality, selfing, and outcrossing were either constant or
      occurred in cycles of a single sexual generation followed by one or more asexual
      generations. We found that increasing the degree of asexuality generally
      increases the inbreeding depression maintained in an equilibrium population with
      a given selfing rate. This is due to the increase in the number of mutations
      relative to sexual generations during which selfing-induced purging of mutations
      may take place. For very high genomic mutation rates, sufficient to produce a
      threshold rate of self-fertilization for purging recessive lethal mutations,
      asexuality can have the opposite effect, decreasing equilibrium inbreeding
      depression, because of an increase in the efficiency of selection against
      mutations in heterozygotes with asexuality.

PMID- 28568614
TI  - THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-FERTILIZATION AND POPULATION DYNAMICS ON THE GENETIC
      STRUCTURE OF SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS: A CASE STUDY USING MICROSATELLITE MARKERS IN
      THE FRESHWATER SNAIL BULINUS TRUNCATUS.
AB  - The distribution of neutral genetic variability within and among sets of
      populations results from the combined actions of genetic drift, migration,
      extinction and recolonization processes, mutation, and the mating system. We here
      analyzed these factors in 38 populations of the hermaphroditic snail Bulinus
      truncatus. The sampling area covered a large part of the species range. The
      variability was analyzed using four polymorphic microsatellite loci. A very large
      number of alleles (up to 55) was found at the level of the whole study. Observed
      heterozygote deficiencies within populations are consistent with very high
      selfing rates, generally above 0.80, in all populations. These should depress the
      variability within populations, because of low effective size, genetic
      hitchhiking, and background selection, whatever the model of mutation assumed.
      However, that some populations exhibit much more variability than others suggests
      that historical demographic processes (e.g., population size variation,
      bottlenecks, or founding events) may play a significant role. A hierarchical
      analysis of the distribution of the variability across populations indicates a
      strong pattern of isolation by distance, whatever the geographical scale
      considered. Our analysis also illustrates how the mutation rate may affect
      population differentiation, as different mutation rates result in different
      levels of homoplasy at microsatellite loci. The effects of both genetic drift and
      gene flow vary with the temporal and spatial scales considered in B. truncatus
      populations.

PMID- 28568615
TI  - EXAMINING TWO STANDARD ASSUMPTIONS OF ANCESTRAL RECONSTRUCTIONS: REPEATED LOSS OF
      DICHROMATISM IN DABBLING DUCKS (ANATINI).
AB  - Although phylogenetic reconstruction of ancestral character states is becoming an
      increasingly common technique for studying evolution, few researchers have
      assessed the reliability of these reconstructions. Here I test for congruence
      between a phylogenetic reconstruction and a widely accepted scenario based on
      independent lines of evidence. I used Livezey's (1991) phylogeny to reconstruct
      ancestral states of plumage dichromatism in dabbling ducks (Anatini). Character
      state mapping reconstructs monochromatic ancestors for the genus Anas as well as
      most of its main clades. This reconstruction differs strongly from the widely
      accepted scenario of speciation and plumage evolution in the group (e.g.,
      Delacour and Mayr 1945; Sibley 1957). This incongruence may occur because two
      standard assumptions of character state reconstruction are probably not met in
      this case. Violating either of these two assumptions would be a source of error
      sufficient to create misleading reconstructions. The first assumption that
      probably does not apply to ducks is that terminal taxa, in this case species, are
      monophyletic. Many of the widespread dichromatic species of ducks may be
      paraphyletic and ancestral to isolated monochromatic species. Three lines of
      evidence support this scenario: population-level phylogenies, biogeography, and
      vestigial plumage patterns. The second assumption that probably does not apply to
      duck plumage color is that gains and losses of character states are equally
      likely. Four lines of evidence suggest that dichromatic plumage might be lost
      more easily than gained: weak female preferences for bright male plumage, biases
      toward the loss of sexually dichromatic characters, biases toward the loss of
      complex characters, and repeated loss of dichromatism in other groups of birds.
      These seven lines of evidence support the accepted scenario that widespread
      dichromatic species repeatedly budded off isolated monochromatic species. Drift
      and genetic biases probably caused the easy loss of dichromatism in ducks and
      other birds during peripatric speciation. In order to recover the accepted
      scenario using Livezey's tree, losses of dichromatism must be five times more
      likely than gains. The results of this study caution against the uncritical use
      of unordered parsimony as the sole criterion for inferring ancestral states.
      Detailed population-level sampling is needed and altered transformation weighting
      may be warranted in ducks and in many other groups and character types with
      similar attributes.

PMID- 28568616
TI  - STABILIZING SELECTION AND THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADAPTATION.
AB  - Comparative studies tend to differ from optimality and functionality studies in
      how they treat adaptation. While the comparative approach focuses on the origin
      and change of traits, optimality studies assume that adaptations are maintained
      at an optimum by stabilizing selection. This paper presents a model of adaptive
      evolution on a macroevolutionary time scale that includes the maintenance of
      traits at adaptive optima by stabilizing selection as the dominant evolutionary
      force. Interspecific variation is treated as variation in the position of
      adaptive optima. The model illustrates how phylogenetic constraints not only lead
      to correlations between phylogenetically related species, but also to imperfect
      adaptations. From this model, a statistical comparative method is derived that
      can be used to estimate the effect of a selective factor on adaptive optima in a
      way that would be consistent with an optimality study of adaptation to this
      factor. The method is illustrated with an analysis of dental evolution in fossil
      horses. The use of comparative methods to study evolutionary trends is also
      discussed.

PMID- 28568617
TI  - VARIATION IN SEED CHARACTERS IN NEMOPHILA MENZIESII: EVIDENCE OF A GENETIC BASIS
      FOR MATERNAL EFFECT.
AB  - A growing body of evidence indicates that phenotypic selection on juvenile traits
      of both plants and animals may be considerable. Because juvenile traits are
      typically subject to maternal effects and often have low heritabilities, adaptive
      responses to natural selection on these traits may seem unlikely. To determine
      the potential for evolutionary response to selection on juvenile traits of
      Nemophila menziesii (Hydrophyllaceae), we conducted two quantitative genetic
      studies. A reciprocal factorial cross, involving 16 parents and 1960 progeny,
      demonstrated a significant maternal component of variance in seed mass and
      additive genetic component of variance in germination time. This experiment also
      suggested that interaction between parents, though small, provides highly
      significant contributions to the variance of both traits. Such a parental
      interaction could arise by diverse mechanisms, including dependence of nuclear
      gene expression on cytoplasmic genotype, but the design of this experiment could
      not distinguish this from other possible causes, such as effects on progeny
      phenotype of interaction between the environmental conditions of both parents.
      The second experiment, spanning three generations with over 11,000 observations,
      was designed for investigation of the additive genetic variance in maternal
      effect, assessment of paternal effects, as well as further partitioning of the
      parental interaction identified in the reciprocal factorial experiment. It
      yielded no consistent evidence of paternal effects on seed mass, nor of parental
      interactions. Our inference of such interaction effects from the first experiment
      was evidently an artifact of failing to account for the substantial variance
      among fruits within crosses. The maternal effect was found to have a large
      additive genetic component, accounting for at least 20% of the variation in
      individual seed mass. This result suggests that there is appreciable potential
      for response to selection on seed mass through evolution of the maternal effect.
      We discuss aspects that may nevertheless limit response to individual selection
      on seed mass, including trade-offs between the size of individual seeds and
      germination time and between the number of seeds a maternal plant can mature and
      their mean size.

PMID- 28568618
TI  - THE PONTIA DAPLIDICE-ED USA HYBRID ZONE IN NORTHWESTERN ITALY.
AB  - The pierid butterflies Pontia daplidice and P. edusa, parapatrically distributed
      in southern Europe, have very similar morphologies and life histories, but show
      fixed differences at four allozyme markers. We sampled these allozymes in a 28
      population transect north of Genoa in Italy, through the hybrid zone where these
      taxa meet. We used the numerical techniques developed for hybrid zone analysis to
      study the patterns of genetic differentiation and their underlying evolutionary
      causes. The hybrid zone is characterized by a very short and steep central
      region, flanked by broad tails of introgression extended up to 100 km in either
      direction. From mean two-locus disequilibium of D = 0.148 (maximum-likelihood two
      unit support limits 0.139-0.153), and after accounting for minor differences in
      the center locations of the single-locus clines, which act to bias the dispersal
      estimate, we estimated a dispersal rate of sigma = 4.4 (3.7-5.5) km/gen1/2 . The
      effective selection needed to maintain the steep central portion is strong, 0.47
      < s* < 0.64, when combined over potential intrinsic (genetic background) and
      extrinsic (ecological) sources of selection. The clines in allozyme loci showed
      variation that was significantly different between the most divergent shapes, and
      the differences are attributable to different degrees of introgression on the
      edusa side of the zone. The average selection acting on individual allozyme loci
      was high at s***e ? 1.5%, but because of the narrowness of the central region of
      the cline, we suspect that this estimate is somewhat biased by selection on loci
      closely linked to the allozyme markers. A common question for taxa that show
      fixed allozyme differences in parapatry is whether or not they are genetically
      isolated. A fairly general measure of genetic isolation across hybrid zones is
      the time, T, that it takes a neutral allele to cross the hybrid zone and
      recombine into the opposite genetic background, given by T = (beta/sigma)2 ,
      where beta is the barrier strength of the hybrid zone. Genetic isolation in the
      Pontia zone is weak, with T ? 25 generations for most allozyme markers. By this
      measure, populations of daplidice and edusa on opposite sides of the hybrid zone
      share more identical-by-descent alleles than do populations of phenotypically
      pure daplidice in, say, France and Morocco. Accordingly, we think it best for
      systematists to consider edusa as a well-marked subspecies of P. daplidice.

PMID- 28568619
TI  - SELECTION FOR NATIVE CHARACTERS IN HYBRIDS BETWEEN TWO LOCALLY ADAPTED PLANT
      SUBSPECIES.
AB  - Gene exchange between locally adapted plant populations can have significant
      evolutionary consequences, including changes in genetic diversity, introduction
      of adaptive or maladaptive traits, disruptive of coadaptive gene complexes, and
      the creation of new ecotypes or even species. The potential for introgression
      between divergent populations will depend on the strength of selection against
      nonnative characters. Morphologically variable F2 hybrids of two Gilia capitata
      subspecies were used to evaluate the strength of phenotypic selection and the
      response to selection in the home habitats of each subspecies. At both sites,
      traits diagnostic of the subspecies were subject to significant phenotypic
      selection, probably mediated by direct selection on unmeasured correlated
      characters. Phenotypic selection favored native morphologies in all but a single
      case; leaf shape of one subspecies was favored in both habitats. The strength of
      selection varied between sites, with one site selecting more strongly against
      nonnative characters. Offspring of the F2 hybrids showed a significant
      evolutionary response to selection when grown in a common environment. Evolution
      was in the direction of similarity with the subspecies native to the site where
      selection was imposed. This result reveals that native character states are
      adaptive and suggests that selection will maintain native morphologies even after
      a substantial influx of genes from an ecologically and morphologically distinct,
      and locally adapted subspecies.

PMID- 28568620
TI  - MATERNAL ANCESTRY OF THE RUTILUS ALBURNOIDES COMPLEX (TELEOSTEI, CYPRINIDAE) AS
      DETERMINED BY ANALYSIS OF CYTOCHROME b SEQUENCES.
AB  - Cytochrome b (cyt b) sequences from specimens of the Rutilus alburnoides
      unisexual complex and five bisexual species were compared to examine hypotheses
      regarding the origin and maternal ancestry of this complex. Phylogenetic analysis
      revealed a monophyletic relationship among unisexuals and Leuciscus pyrenaicus,
      clearly identifying this species as the maternal ancestor. Considerable mtDNA
      diversity exists among R. alburnoides populations, with many localities
      exhibiting unique haplotypes. The topology recovered from analysis of cyt b
      variation among populations suggested that R. alburnoides is polyphyletically
      derived from their sympatric L. pyrenaicus populations, indicating that unisexual
      lineages have been generated through multiple hybridization events. Although much
      less abundant, R. alburnoides is present outside the range of L. pyrenaicus,
      suggesting that it may have dispersed from the Tejo drainage into the northern
      basins. In this region, Leuciscus carolitertii is most likely the sexual host for
      the unisexual complex.

PMID- 28568621
TI  - SIZE-DEPENDENT ASYMMETRY: FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY VERSUS ANTISYMMETRY AND ITS
      RELEVANCE TO CONDITION-DEPENDENT SIGNALING.
AB  - Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has received much recent attention in studies of the
      evolution of sexual signaling systems. Tests apparently showing that symmetry
      decreases as individual condition decreases have bolstered the view that FA plays
      a significant role in the evolution of sexual signals. However, a closer
      inspection of several examples of bilateral variation as a function of trait size
      (a correlate of condition) suggests a different pattern of variation. Rather than
      FA, these traits suggest a pattern of size-dependent antisymmetry (a bimodal
      frequency distribution of R - L). We introduce some quantitative methods to test
      for condition- or size-dependent FA. Our analyses reject pure FA for four of the
      five published datasets involving signals (the fifth is equivocal), but confirm
      the presence of size-dependent FA in one nonsignaling trait. In the studies not
      conforming to FA, the data appear to fit more closely a pattern of antisymmetry
      in individuals with smaller signaling traits. Our results thus suggest that
      current discussions and conclusions about the role of FA in the evolution of
      signaling systems should be reconsidered. More specifically, we note that
      condition-dependent antisymmetry offers a more reliable indicator than condition
      dependent FA. We caution, however, that additional work will be needed to
      determine whether the pattern is general and not an artifact. Our method of
      analysis could usefully be applied to studies of other continuous factors
      expected to be correlated with asymmetries, including heterozygosity, inbreeding,
      and environmental stress. Finally, we suggest that antisymmetry may have commonly
      been mistaken for FA in a variety of cases dealing with a variety of problems.

PMID- 28568622
TI  - SPECIATION AND POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE IN TROPICAL PACIFIC SEA URCHINS.
AB  - Unlike populations of many terrestrial species, marine populations often are not
      separated by obvious, permanent barriers to gene flow. When species have high
      dispersal potential and few barriers to gene flow, allopatric divergence is slow.
      Nevertheless, many marine species are of recent origin, even in taxa with high
      dispersal potential. To understand the relationship between genetic structure and
      recent species formation in high dispersal taxa, we examined population genetic
      structure among four species of sea urchins in the tropical Indo-West Pacific
      that have speciated within the past one to three million years. Despite high
      potential for gene flow, mtDNA sequence variation among 200 individuals of four
      species in the urchin genus Echinometra shows a signal of strong geographic
      effects. These effects include (1) substantial population heterogeneity; (2)
      lower genetic variation in peripheral populations; and (3) isolation by distance.
      These geographic patterns are especially strong across scales of 5000-10,000 km,
      and are weaker over scales of 2500-5000 km. As a result, strong geographic
      patterns would not have been readily visible except over the wide expanse of the
      tropical Pacific. Surface currents in the Pacific do not explain patterns of gene
      flow any better than do patterns of simple spatial proximity. Finally,
      populations of each species tend to group into large mtDNA regions with similar
      mtDNA haplotypes, but these regional boundaries are not concordant in different
      species. These results show that all four species have accumulated mtDNA
      differences over similar spatial and temporal scales but that the precise
      geographic pattern of genetic differentiation varies for each species. These
      geographic patterns appear much less deterministic than in other well-known
      coastal marine systems and may be driven by chance and historical accident.

PMID- 28568623
TI  - TESTING FOR UNEQUAL AMOUNTS OF EVOLUTION IN A CONTINUOUS CHARACTER ON DIFFERENT
      BRANCHES OF A PHYLOGENETIC TREE USING LINEAR AND SQUARED-CHANGE PARSIMONY: AN
      EXAMPLE USING LESSER ANTILLEAN ANOLIS LIZARDS.
AB  - Although a large body of work investigating tests of correlated evolution of two
      continuous characters exists, hypotheses such as character displacement are
      really tests of whether substantial evolutionary change has occurred on a
      particular branch or branches of the phylogenetic tree. In this study, we present
      a methodology for testing such a hypothesis using ancestral character state
      reconstruction and simulation. Furthermore, we suggest how to investigate the
      robustness of the hypothesis test by varying the reconstruction methods or
      simulation parameters. As a case study, we tested a hypothesis of character
      displacement in body size of Caribbean Anolis lizards. We compared squared
      change, weighted squared-change, and linear parsimony reconstruction methods,
      gradual Brownian motion and speciational models of evolution, and several
      resolution methods for linear parsimony. We used ancestor reconstruction methods
      to infer the amount of body size evolution, and tested whether evolutionary
      change in body size was greater on branches of the phylogenetic tree in which a
      transition from occupying a single-species island to a two-species island
      occurred. Simulations were used to generate null distributions of reconstructed
      body size change. The hypothesis of character displacement was tested using
      Wilcoxon Rank-Sums. When tested against simulated null distributions, all of the
      reconstruction methods resulted in more significant P-values than when standard
      statistical tables were used. These results confirm that P-values for tests using
      ancestor reconstruction methods should be assessed via simulation rather than
      from standard statistical tables. Linear parsimony can produce an infinite number
      of most parsimonious reconstructions in continuous characters. We present an
      example of assessing the robustness of our statistical test by exploring the
      sample space of possible resolutions. We compare ACCTRAN and DELTRAN resolutions
      of ambiguous character reconstructions in linear parsimony to the most and least
      conservative resolutions for our particular hypothesis.

PMID- 28568624
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION OF PUTATIVE SELECTIVE AGENTS PROVIDES EVIDENCE FOR THE
      ROLE OF NATURAL ENEMIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT DEFENSE.
AB  - Although biologists have long assumed that plant resistance characters evolved
      under selection exerted by such natural enemies as herbivores and pathogens,
      experimental evidence for this assumption is sparse. We present evidence that
      natural enemies exert selection on particular plant resistance characters.
      Specifically, we demonstrate that elimination of natural enemies from an
      experimental field population of Arabidopsis thaliana alters the pattern of
      selection on genetic variation in two characters that have been shown to reduce
      herbivore damage in the field: total glucosinolate concentration and trichome
      density. The change in pattern of selection reveals that natural enemies imposed
      selection favoring increased glucosinolate concentration and increased trichome
      density, and thus, supports one of the major assumptions of the coevolution
      hypothesis. We also demonstrate that a pattern of stabilizing selection on
      glucosinolate concentration results from a balance between the costs and benefits
      associated with increasing levels of this resistance character. This result
      provides direct confirmation of the appropriateness of cost-benefit models for
      characterizing the evolution of plant defenses.

PMID- 28568626
TI  - COMPARATIVE PATTERNS OF CRANIOFACIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EUTHERIAN AND METATHERIAN
      MAMMALS.
AB  - The sequence of differentiation of major elements of the skeletal, muscular and
      nervous systems of the head is examined in developmental series of five eutherian
      (placental) and four metatherian (marsupial) mammals. The analysis identifies the
      elements that are conserved across the Theria, those that are unique to the
      Metatheria and to the Eutheria, and those that are variable. It is shown that
      although there are slight shifts in the sequence of development within the
      somatic tissues of the head, the primary difference between marsupial and
      placental mammals involves the timing and rate of differentiation of structures
      of the central nervous system (CNS) relative to a specific subset of structures
      of the cranial skeleton and musculature. In eutherians, CNS morphogenesis is well
      underway before the somatic tissues of the head begin differentiation. In
      metatherians, CNS development is delayed considerably and certain elements of the
      skeletal and muscular systems are advanced. It is concluded that the
      developmental differences between marsupial and placental mammals are best
      explained by the interaction of several processes including neurogenesis as a
      potential rate-limiting step, the developmental requirements of somatic elements,
      and the extremely short period of organogenesis of marsupial mammals. Several
      other issues, including the way that these data may be applied to determine the
      primitive therian developmental condition, and the use of comparative
      developmental data to address basic questions on morphogenetic processes, are
      discussed.

PMID- 28568625
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES ON THE HOST RACES OF EUROSTA SOLIDAGINIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR
      SYMPATRIC SPECIATION.
AB  - We studied the inheritance of survival ability in host-associated populations of
      the tephritid fly, Eurosta solidaginis, to test predictions of sympatric
      speciation models. Eurosta solidaginis induces galls on two species of goldenrod,
      Solidago altissima and S. gigantea. The host-associated populations have been
      hypothesized to be host races that originated in sympatry (Craig et al. 1993). We
      found evidence for disruptive selection for host use, which is a critical
      assumption of sympatric speciation models. Each host race had higher survival
      rates on their host plant than on the alternative host. F1 and backcross hybrids
      also had lower survival rates than the pure host-race flies on their host plant.
      Since assortative mating occurs due to host-plant preference (Craig et al. 1993)
      this would select for divergence in host preference. Low hybrid survival could
      have been due to strong genetic incompatibilities of the populations or due to
      host adaptation by each population. Strong genetic incompatibilities would result
      in poor survival on all host plants, while host adaptation could result in low
      overall survival with high hybrid survival on some host plants with particularly
      "benign" environments. High survival of F1 , F2 , and backcross hybrids on some
      plant genotypes in some years supported the host adaptation hypothesis. F1 flies
      mated and oviposited normally and produced viable F2 and backcross hybrids
      indicating gene flow is possible between the host races. A few flies developed
      and emerged on the alternative host plant. This demonstrates that genes necessary
      to utilize the alternative host exist in both host races. This could have
      facilitated the origin of one of the populations via a host shift from the
      ancestral host. The inheritance of survival ability appears to be an autosomal
      trait. We did not find evidence that survival ability was maternally influenced
      or sex linked.

PMID- 28568627
TI  - SIGNIFICANT ROLE FOR HISTORICAL EFFECTS IN THE EVOLUTION OF REPRODUCTIVE
      ISOLATION: EVIDENCE FROM PATTERNS OF INTROGRESSION BETWEEN THE CYPRINID FISHES,
      LUXILUS CORNUTUS AND LUXILUS CHRYSOCEPHALUS.
AB  - Samples of Luxilus cornutus, Luxilus chrysocephalus, and their hybrids were
      collected along hypothesized routes of dispersal from Pleistocene refugia to
      examine the significance of geographic variation in patterns of introgression
      between these species. Patterns of allozyme and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      variation were generally consistent with those from previous studies. Tests of
      Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium revealed significant deficiencies of heterozygotes in
      all samples, indicating some form of reproductive isolation. Mitochondrial DNAs
      of each species were not equally represented in F1 hybrids; however, this bias
      was eliminated when the two largest samples were excluded from the analysis.
      Backcross hybrids exhibited biased mtDNA introgression, as samples from Lake Erie
      (eastern) and Lake Michigan (western) drainages showed significant excesses of
      mtDNAs from L. chrysocephalus and L. cornutus, respectively, relative to
      frequencies of diagnostic allozyme markers. The extent and direction of allozyme
      and mtDNA introgression was quantified by calculating isolation index values from
      morphologically "pure" individuals of each species from each locality. Analysis
      of variance of these measures identified limited introgression of allozyme
      variants with no geographic pattern, but significant differences in direction of
      mtDNA introgression between drainages (i.e., postglacial dispersal route).
      Association between patterns of mtDNA introgression and dispersal route across
      the latitudinal width of the contact zone is best explained by genetic divergence
      during past isolation of ancestral populations from these drainages. These
      results identify a significant role for historical effects in the evolution of
      reproductive isolation and the process of speciation.

PMID- 28568629
TI  - UNPREDICTABILITY OF CORRELATED RESPONSE TO SELECTION: LINKAGE AND INITIAL
      FREQUENCY ALSO MATTER.
AB  - In a recent paper, Gromko (1995) showed using computer simulations that
      pleiotropy and sampling interact to generate variation in correlated response to
      selection. His simulations demonstrated that different combinations of
      pleiotropic effects could lead to the same genetic correlation value, yet, as
      long as the population size and correlation value were large enough, result in
      significantly different variance of correlated responses after 10 generations of
      selection. We extended those results using Alan Roberston's "reparameterization"
      of selection processes in finite populations. As for direct selection response, a
      satisfactory description of the correlated response and its variability can be
      expressed in terms of Nih, t/N, and NL, where N is the effective population size,
      i is the selection intensity in standard units, h2 is the heritability of the
      selected and correlated traits, t is the number of generations, and L is the
      length of the chromosome in map units. For a given number of loci, there exits an
      Nih threshold under which differences between pleiotropic systems will not be
      detected. For values of Nih above this threshold, the higher Nih is the smaller
      t/N needs to be for significant differences in correlated responses between
      pleiotropic systems to be observed. A large number of loci or tight linkage
      increases the unpredictability of the correlated response, but if Nih is large
      enough, it does not absolutely prevent significant differences between
      pleiotropic systems to occur. On the other hand, a small initial allele frequency
      of the favorable allele would tend to cancel the differences between pleiotropic
      systems, even for large values of Nih and t/N. Finally, epistasis decreases the
      overall variability of the correlated response, but generally preserves the
      difference between pleiotropic systems. Thus, Gromko's conclusions on the
      unpredictability of correlated response due to variable pleiotropy seem fairly
      robust, at least in the long term.

PMID- 28568628
TI  - ADVANTAGES OF MULTIPLE MATINGS TO FEMALES: A TEST OF THE INFERTILITY HYPOTHESIS
      USING LIZARDS.

PMID- 28568630
TI  - TEST OF INTERACTION BETWEEN GENETIC MARKERS THAT AFFECT FITNESS IN ASPERGILLUS
      NIGER.
AB  - In this paper we study whether and how a number of arbitrarily chosen marker
      mutations interact in their effect on fitness, which is relevant for our
      understanding of the evolution of sex. If epistasis is synergistic, the main
      function of sex may be to facilitate selection against deleterious mutations. We
      use strains of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger with variable
      combinations of marker mutations that have been obtained by isolating segregants
      from a diploid between a wild-type strain and a related strain carrying a marker
      mutation on each of its eight chromosomes. The marker mutations include five
      auxotrophic and two resistance mutations. As a measure of fitness the mycelium
      growth rate on supplemented medium has been used. The results suggest that the
      marker mutations have independent effects on fitness, and hence they do not
      support the deterministic mutation hypothesis of the evolution of sex. The
      apparent linear relationship between mutation number and log fitness is the
      result of interactions of opposite type (i.e., synergistic and antagonistic) that
      cancel each other's effect. However, due to an isolation bias caused by the fact
      that not all possible strains with many mutations could be isolated, the results
      may be relatively biased towards an antagonistic relationship between mutation
      number and log fitness.

PMID- 28568631
TI  - POLYGYNANDRY IN THE DUSKY PIPEFISH SYNGNATHUS FLORIDAE REVEALED BY MICROSATELLITE
      DNA MARKERS.
AB  - In the dusky pipefish Syngnathus floridae, like other species in the family
      Syngnathidae, 'pregnant' males provide all post-zygotic care. Male pregnancy has
      interesting implications for sexual selection theory and the evolution of mating
      systems. Here, we employ microsatellite markers to describe the genetic mating
      system of S. floridae, compare the outcome with a previous report of genetic
      polyandry for the Gulf pipefish S. scovelli, and consider possible associations
      between the mating system and degree of sexual dimorphism in these species.
      Twenty-two pregnant male dusky pipefish from one locale in the northern Gulf of
      Mexico were analyzed genetically, together with subsamples of 42 embryos from
      each male's brood pouch. Adult females also were assayed. The genotypes observed
      in these samples document that cuckoldry by males did not occur; males often
      receive eggs from multiple females during the course of a pregnancy (six males
      had one mate each, 13 had two mates, and three had three mates); embryos from
      different females are segregated spatially within a male's brood pouch; and a
      female's clutch of eggs often is divided among more than one male. Thus, the
      genetic mating system of the dusky pipefish is best described as polygynandrous.
      The genetic results for S. floridae and S. scovelli are consistent with a simple
      model of sexual selection which predicts that for sex role-reversed organisms,
      species with greater degrees of sexual dimorphism are more highly polyandrous.

PMID- 28568632
TI  - GENETIC EFFECTS OF GERMINATION TIMING AND ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPERIMENTAL
      INVESTIGATION.
AB  - Seeds of many species do not germinate immediately after dispersal, but instead
      may remain indefinitely in a dormant but viable state. Although it is well
      established that seeds often exhibit diversified patterns of dormancy and
      germination, the causes and consequences of this variation remain poorly
      understood. In this study, we investigate the extent to which seed genotypes of
      the desert mustard Lesquerella fendleri differentially germinate and establish
      under experimental conditions in a greenhouse. We used a two-way factorial design
      to compare genotypes of Lesquerella plants derived from seeds that germinated and
      established at different times and under different soil water regimes. Overall
      allozyme allele frequencies of Lesquerella plants varied significantly with both
      germination time and initial soil water availability. Single-locus heterozygosity
      analyses revealed that seeds sown into initially low water conditions produced
      plants that were significantly more heterozygous than plants derived from seeds
      experiencing constantly high water conditions, but heterozygosity did not differ
      significantly among plants originating from early- and late-germinating seeds.
      This is the first study to experimentally demonstrate that germination timing and
      environment can significantly affect the genetic structure of emerging plant
      populations. The study suggests that germination and survival behavior may (1)
      play an important role in generating and maintaining the genetic structure of
      natural plant populations and (2) set the stage for subsequent evolution.

PMID- 28568633
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION OF ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT IN DROSOPHILA. 1. DEVELOPMENTAL
      SPEED AND LARVAL SURVIVAL.
AB  - Developmental time is a trait of great relevance to fitness in all organisms. In
      holometabolous species that occupy ephemeral habitat, like Drosophila
      melanogaster, the impact of developmental time upon fitness is further
      exaggerated. We explored the trade-offs surrounding developmental time by
      selecting 10 independent populations from two distantly related selection
      treatments (CB1-5 and CO1-5 ) for faster development. After 125 generations, the
      resulting accelerated populations (ACB1-5 and ACO1-5 ) displayed net selection
      responses for development time of -33.4 hours (or 15%) for ACB and -38.6 hours
      (or 17%) for ACO. Since most of the change in egg-to-adult developmental time was
      accounted for by changes in larval duration, the "accelerated" larvae were
      estimated to develop 25-30% faster than their control/ancestor populations. The
      responses of ACB and ACO lines were remarkably parallel, despite being founded
      from populations evolved independently for more than 300 generations. On average,
      these "A" populations developed from egg to adult in less than eight days and
      produced fertile eggs less than 24 hours after emerging. Accelerated populations
      showed no change in larval feeding rate, but a reduction in pupation height, the
      latter being a trait relating to larval energetic expenditure in wandering prior
      to pupation. This experiment demonstrates the existence of a negative
      evolutionary correlation between preadult developmental time and viability, as
      accelerated populations experienced a severe cost in preadult survivorship. In
      the final assay generation, viability of accelerated treatments had declined by
      more than 10%, on average. A diallel cross demonstrated that the loss of
      viability in the ACO lines was not due to inbreeding depression. These results
      suggest the existence of a rapid development syndrome, in which the fitness
      benefits of fast development are balanced by fitness costs resulting from reduced
      preadult survivorship, marginal larval storage of metabolites, and reduced adult
      size.

PMID- 28568634
TI  - GENE EFFECTS ON A QUANTITATIVE TRAIT: TWO-LOCUS EPISTATIC EFFECTS MEASURED AT
      MICROSATELLITE MARKERS AND AT ESTIMATED QTL.
AB  - Most evolutionarily and agriculturally important traits are affected by many
      genes (quantitative trait loci, or QTL) of relatively small effect. Usually the
      genetics of these traits are examined by indirect statistical analysis of the
      covariance among relatives, rather than by direct analyses. We use new analytical
      and molecular techniques to examine nonadditive interactions of microsatellite
      markers and estimated QTL that influence adult body weight in mice. Offspring of
      a cross between a large inbred mouse strain (LG/J) and a small inbred strain
      (SM/J) were intercrossed to form a segregating F2 generation. Using 76
      microsatellite markers and 19 estimated QTL, we estimate gene-level epistasis and
      population-level epistasis for body weight at 10 weeks for 534 F2 mice.
      Significant epistasis was found for large numbers of the two locus comparisons
      using both markers and previously detected QTL. There are many genes segregating
      for adult body weight in this cross and many of these genes appear to interact
      epistatically. The discovery of potentially extensive epistasis has important
      implications for evolutionary models.

PMID- 28568635
TI  - MUTATION AND EXTINCTION: THE ROLE OF VARIABLE MUTATIONAL EFFECTS, SYNERGISTIC
      EPISTASIS, BENEFICIAL MUTATIONS, AND DEGREE OF OUTCROSSING.
AB  - Recent theoretical studies have illustrated the potential role of spontaneous
      deleterious mutation as a cause of extinction in small populations. However,
      these studies have not addressed several genetic issues, which can in principle
      have a substantial influence on the risk of extinction. These include the
      presence of synergistic epistasis, which can reduce the rate of mutation
      accumulation by progressively magnifying the selective effects of mutations, and
      the occurrence of beneficial mutations, which can offset the effects of previous
      deleterious mutations. In stochastic simulations of small populations (effective
      sizes on the order of 100 or less), we show that both synergistic epistasis and
      the rate of beneficial mutation must be unrealistically high to substantially
      reduce the risk of extinction due to random fixation of deleterious mutations.
      However, in analytical calculations based on diffusion theory, we show that in
      large, outcrossing populations (effective sizes greater than a few hundred), very
      low levels of beneficial mutation are sufficient to prevent mutational decay.
      Further simulation results indicate that in populations small enough to be highly
      vulnerable to mutational decay, variance in deleterious mutational effects
      reduces the risk of extinction, assuming that the mean deleterious mutational
      effect is on the order of a few percent or less. We also examine the magnitude of
      outcrossing that is necessary to liberate a predominantly selfing population from
      the threat of long-term mutational deterioration. The critical amount of
      outcrossing appears to be greater than is common in near-obligately selfing plant
      species, supporting the contention that such species are generally doomed to
      extinction via random drift of new mutations. Our results support the hypothesis
      that a long-term effective population size in the neighborhood of a few hundred
      individuals defines an approximate threshold, below which outcrossing populations
      are vulnerable to extinction via fixation of deleterious mutations, and above
      which immunity is acquired.

PMID- 28568636
TI  - EFFECTS OF POLLEN QUANTITY ON PROGENY VIGOR: EVIDENCE FROM THE DESERT MUSTARD
      LESQUERELLA FENDLERI.

PMID- 28568637
TI  - CORRELATED RATES OF MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION.
AB  - Since Zuckerkandl and Pauling (1962, 1965) proposed the molecular clock, many
      studies seem to have supported their prediction that rates of molecular and
      morphological evolution generally will be decoupled. Most of these studies were
      aimed at taxa in which rates of morphological evolution were thought to vary
      greatly a priori. For the current survey eight diverse taxa were systematically
      chosen from published studies without regard to prior expectations about rates.
      Two approaches showed that rates of molecular and morphological evolution may
      usually be coupled. First, correlations in the total number of changes
      accumulated in terminal taxa suggest that some mechanism alters the rates of both
      morphological and molecular evolution in concert. Second, node-density effects
      were removed statistically, and average corrected base-to-tip totals were
      compared among sister clades. Across all taxa 50 of 72 of these corrected
      contrasts support the hypothesis that rates of molecular and morphological
      evolution are correlated; this finding is highly significant by a binomial test.
      Furthermore, there were positive correlations between inferred molecular and
      morphological branch lengths in seven of eight cases, which is also significant.
      These branch length correlations are consistent with the rate correlations, and
      suggest that amounts of molecular and morphological evolution often are
      correlated also. This study supports the assumptions of several phylogenetic
      methods, and highlights a need for new inquiries into many aspects of both
      molecular and morphological evolution.

PMID- 28568638
TI  - GENETICS OF RESISTANCE OF SALIX SERICEA TO A DIVERSE COMMUNITY OF HERBIVORES.
AB  - We measured resistance of Salix sericea, the silky willow, to a diverse
      assemblage of 12 herbivores. We investigated the potential for multispecies
      coevolution among these herbivores by measuring genetic correlations between
      pairs of herbivores interacting within the component community. After measuring
      herbivore attack on half-sib families of potted S. sericea during three years, we
      found significant narrow-sense heritabilities of resistance to Phyllonorycter
      salicifoliella and Phyllocnistis sp. in 1991. Thus, there is the potential for
      selection on resistance to these two herbivores. Despite the many significant
      phenotypic correlations between herbivore abundances within a year, most genetic
      correlations between herbivore abundances within a year were not significant. The
      genetic and phenotypic correlation structure varied from year to year in this
      three-year study. Thus, it appears that there is the potential for evolution of
      resistance to the two herbivores for which we found significant heritabilities,
      but multispecies coevolution seems unlikely.

PMID- 28568639
TI  - PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SARDINES (SARDINOPS SPP.): ASSESSING BIOGEOGRAPHIC MODELS
      AND POPULATION HISTORIES IN TEMPERATE UPWELLING ZONES.
AB  - Sardines (Sardinops spp.) occupy temperate upwelling zones in the coastal regions
      of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including locations in Japan, California,
      Chile, Australia, and South Africa. East and West Pacific populations are
      separated by vast expanses of open ocean, and northern and southern hemisphere
      populations are separated by tropical waters which are lethal to sardines. The
      relative importance of these barriers has been the focus of a longstanding debate
      between vicariance and dispersal schools in biogeography. Comparisons of a 500 bp
      fragment of the mitochondrial (mt) DNA control region reveal strong geographic
      structuring of mtDNA lineages but shallow divergence both within and between
      regional populations. Regional populations are related to one another in a
      stepping-stone pattern, the apparent result of a series of Pleistocene dispersal
      events around the continental margins of the Indian-Pacific Basin. These mtDNA
      data, combined with an electrophoretic survey of variability at 34 nuclear loci
      (Grant and Leslie 1996), indicate that the five regional forms of Sardinops
      (considered separate taxa by most authorities) probably diverged within 500,000
      years BP, a much shorter timeframe than predicted by vicariance models based on
      plate tectonics. High mtDNA haplotype diversity, coupled with an excess of rare
      alleles in the protein electrophoretic dataset, may indicate exponential growth
      from a small ancestral population. The mtDNA and allozyme data are concordant
      with climate records and fossil evidence in portraying regional populations as
      recent, unstable, and ephemeral. Regional populations of sardines have probably
      been extinguished and recolonized over short evolutionary timescales in response
      to changes in climate and the oceanography of coastal upwelling zones.

PMID- 28568640
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28568641
TI  - ANTHER-SMUT DISEASE IN SILENE DIOICA: VARIATION IN SUSCEPTIBILITY AMONG GENOTYPES
      AND POPULATIONS, AND PATTERNS OF DISEASE WITHIN POPULATIONS.
AB  - In an archipelago in northern Sweden, populations of the perennial, dioecious,
      and insect-pollinated herb Silene dioica are commonly infected by the sterilising
      anther-smut fungus Microbotryum violaceum. The results from transplantation and
      inoculation experiments in this study show that variation between populations in
      the incidence of disease may partly be due to variation in resistance among
      populations. In the transplantation experiment in which plants were naturally
      exposed to the fungus, disease levels varied greatly among transplants from three
      healthy populations when transplanted to three diseased populations in the
      archipelago. Clear genotypic differences in susceptibility among 25 replicated
      genotypes of the host plants were found when inoculated manually with two
      different isolates. Susceptibility varied between 0-90%, but the two isolates
      used did not differ in inoculation success. The results also suggest a
      geographical structuring in resistance of the host and virulence of the fungus.
      First, disease levels among experimental plants from two of the disease-free
      populations of S. dioica (originating from inner and outer archipelago,
      respectively), were high when transplanted to a diseased population nearby, but
      low when transplanted far away. Second, regardless of origin, plants from all
      healthy populations became diseased in the diseased experimental populations
      located in the middle part of the archipelago. Due to isostatic land upheaval in
      the studied archipelago, there is a vertical age-axis within islands such that
      the highest point on an island is the oldest. Since this may affect the
      demography of the host, disease spread, and the dynamics of disease, spatial
      patterns in adult and seedling densities, and disease and spore deposition along
      the age-axis were studied within three diseased populations. A low incidence of
      disease was found in the young, low and old, high parts of the populations and a
      high incidence in the vertical, middle parts of the populations. The higher
      disease incidence in the middle part compared with the lower part of the
      population may reflect less disturbance and an increased probability of disease
      with age.

PMID- 28568642
TI  - THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON BODY SIZE AND FECUNDITY IN FEMALE DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER: EVIDENCE FOR ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY.
AB  - The reaction norm linking rearing temperature and size in Drosophila melanogaster
      results in progressively larger flies as the temperature is lowered from 30
      degrees C to 18 degrees C, but it has remained unclear whether this phenotypic
      plasticity is part of an adaptive response to temperature. We found that female
      D. melanogaster reared to adulthood at 18 degrees C versus 25 degrees C showed a
      12% increase in dry weight. Measurements of the fecundity of these two types of
      fly showed that the size change had no effect on lifetime fecundity, regardless
      of the adult test temperature. Thus the phenotypic plasticity breaks the usual
      positive correlation between body size and fecundity. However, at a given
      temperature, early fecundity (defined as productivity for days 5 through 12 after
      eclosion at 25 degrees C and days 7 through 17 at 18 degrees C) was highest when
      the rearing and test temperatures were the same. The early fecundity advantage
      due to rearing at the test temperature was 25% at 18 degrees C and 16% at 25
      degrees C, a result consistent with the overall phenotypic response to
      temperature being adaptive. This conclusion is further supported by the finding
      that the temperature treatments resulted in a trade-off between early fecundity
      and longevity, a trade-off that parallels the known genetic correlation. Another
      parallel is that both the temperature-induced and genetic effects are independent
      of total fecundity. By contrast, within the temperature treatments, the
      phenotypic correlation between early fecundity and longevity was positive,
      illustrating the danger of assuming that phenotypic and genetic correlations are
      similar, or even of the same sign.

PMID- 28568643
TI  - NORTH AMERICAN BLACK BEAR mtDNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY: IMPLICATIONS FOR MORPHOLOGY AND
      THE HAIDA GWAII GLACIAL REFUGIUM CONTROVERSY.
AB  - The controversial role of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) as a biological
      refugium on the northwestern coast of North America has been widely discussed for
      more than fifty years. The presence of morphologically divergent subspecies on
      Haida Gwaii is one of the major lines of evidence suggesting this archipelago's
      role as a refugium during the Wisconsin. However, since morphological distinction
      can be derived postglacially as well as in extended isolation, such evidence is
      ambiguous. To examine this question, we did a phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome
      b sequences (719 bp) of black bear (Ursus americanus), one of the distinctive
      endemics of Haida Gwaii, and compared these with conspecifics from across North
      America, focusing primarily on the northwestern coast. We found that the Haida
      Gwaii bear are indistinguishable from coastal bear of British Columbia and
      Vancouver Island, but are highly distinct from continental bear. Coastal and
      continental bears differ by 24 synapomorphies and an average sequence divergence
      of 3.6%. The coastal mitochondrial lineage occurs in each of the three recognized
      coastal subspecies suggesting that the morphological characteristics
      differentiating these taxa may be postglacially derived. The data are consistent
      with recent suggestions that a glacial refugium existed on the now submerged
      continental shelf connecting Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Island, and the coastal
      fringe of mainland British Columbia. This refugium would have been an additional
      source for postglacial recolonization of northwestern North America.

PMID- 28568644
TI  - INTERACTING PHENOTYPES AND THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS: I. DIRECT AND INDIRECT
      GENETIC EFFECTS OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS.
AB  - Interacting phenotypes are traits whose expression is affected by interactions
      with conspecifics. Commonly-studied interacting phenotypes include aggression,
      courtship, and communication. More extreme examples of interacting phenotypes
      traits that exist exclusively as a product of interactions-include social
      dominance, intraspecific competitive ability, and mating systems. We adopt a
      quantitative genetic approach to assess genetic influences on interacting
      phenotypes. We partition genetic and environmental effects so that traits in
      conspecifics that influence the expression of interacting phenotypes are a
      component of the environment. When the trait having the effect is heritable, the
      environmental influence arising from the interaction has a genetic basis and can
      be incorporated as an indirect genetic effect. However, because it has a genetic
      basis, this environmental component can evolve. Therefore, to consider the
      evolution of interacting phenotypes we simultaneously consider changes in the
      direct genetic contributions to a trait (as a standard quantitative genetic
      approach would evaluate) as well as changes in the environmental (indirect
      genetic) contribution to the phenotype. We then explore the ramifications of this
      model of inheritance on the evolution of interacting phenotypes. The relative
      rate of evolution in interacting phenotypes can be quite different from that
      predicted by a standard quantitative genetic analysis. Phenotypic evolution is
      greatly enhanced or inhibited depending on the nature of the direct and indirect
      genetic effects. Further, unlike most models of phenotypic evolution, a lack of
      variation in direct genetic effects does not preclude evolution if there is
      genetic variance in the indirect genetic contributions. The available empirical
      evidence regarding the evolution of behavior expressed in interactions, although
      limited, supports the predictions of our model.

PMID- 28568645
TI  - GENETIC FINGERPRINT-INFERRED POPULATION SUBDIVISION AND SPATIAL GENETIC TESTS FOR
      ISOLATION BY DISTANCE AND ADAPTATION IN THE COASTAL PLANT LIMONIUM CAROLINIANUM.
AB  - This paper examines two wild populations of Limonium carolinianum for population
      genetic subdivision and spatial patterns of genetic variation in an attempt to
      simultaneously test for both the action of local adaptation to tidal gradients
      and isolation by distance (IBD). A VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats)
      genetic "fingerprinting" marker was used to infer relatedness among mapped plants
      in two populations. Band sharing within and between populations estimated F'ST ,
      an approximate measure of FST . Regression models were used to analyze the
      relationship between band sharing and spatial separation in tidal elevation and
      horizontal distance, as well as the relationship of fecundity differences with
      band sharing and spatial distance. Populations differed in band size frequency
      distributions and mean number of bands per profile and, therefore, likely
      differed in effective population size. F'ST was estimated at 0.0678 and was
      significantly greater than F'ST among randomly constructed subpopulations. Band
      sharing decreased 0.13% per meter in one population but showed no significant
      relation to distance in the other. In the population with significant IBD band
      sharing increased with increasingly different tidal elevation, contrary to an
      adaptive hypothesis, possibly due to directional gene flow or drift. Deme sizes
      were approximately 25 meters and greater than 100 meters, spanning larger areas
      than the entire environmental gradient. Fecundity differences were not associated
      with spatial parameters or band sharing. Unequal potential maternal fecundity
      measured as variance in number of seeds per maternal family was a significant
      source of genetic sampling variance. The VNTR marker employed is capable of
      detecting adaptation as identity by descent in ecological time and is an
      appropriate method for estimating the net evolutionary fate of polygenic traits.
      The results show that the net balance between selection along an environmental
      gradient and the effects of IBD and unequal maternal fecundity favor genetic
      differentiation by random processes in populations of Limonium.

PMID- 28568646
TI  - Genetic diversity of Syrian Arabian horses.
AB  - Although Arabian horses have been bred in strains for centuries and pedigrees
      have been recorded in studbooks, to date, little is known about the genetic
      diversity within and between these strains. In this study, we tested if the three
      main strains of Syrian Arabian horses descend from three founders as suggested by
      the studbook. We examined 48 horses representing Saglawi (n = 18), Kahlawi (n =
      16) and Hamdani (n = 14) strains using the Equine SNP70K BeadChip. For
      comparison, an additional 24 Arabian horses from the USA and three Przewalski's
      horses as an out group were added. Observed heterozygosis (Ho ) ranged between
      0.30 and 0.32, expected heterozygosity (He ) between 0.30 and 0.31 and inbreeding
      coefficients (Fis ) between -0.02 and -0.05, indicating high genetic diversity
      within Syrian strains. Likewise, the genetic differentiation between the three
      Syrian strains was very low (Fst  < 0.05). Hierarchical clustering showed a clear
      distinction between Arabian and Przewalski's horses. Among Arabian horses, we
      found three clusters containing either horses from the USA or horses from Syria
      or horses from Syria and the USA together. Individuals from the same Syrian
      Arabian horse strain were spread across different sub-clusters. When analyzing
      Syrian Arabian horses alone, the best population differentiation was found with
      three distinct clusters. In contrast to expectations from the studbook, these
      clusters did not coincide with strain affiliation. Although this finding supports
      the hypothesis of three founders, the genetic information is not consistent with
      the currently used strain designation system. The information can be used to
      reconsider the current breeding practice. Beyond that, Syrian Arabian horses are
      an important reservoir for genetic diversity.

PMID- 28568647
TI  - Standardized Passiflora incarnata L. Extract Reverts the Analgesia Induced by
      Alcohol Withdrawal in Rats.
AB  - Passiflora incarnata L. (Passifloraceae) has been traditionally used for
      treatment of anxiety, insomnia, drug addiction, mild infections, and pain. The
      aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a commercial extract of P.
      incarnata in the analgesia induced by alcohol withdrawal syndrome in rats. In
      addition, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and interleukin-10 levels were
      evaluated in prefrontal cortex, brainstem, and hippocampus. Male adult rats
      received by oral gavage: (1: water group) water for 19 days, 1 day interval and
      water (8 days); (2: P. incarnata group) water for 19 days, 1 day interval and P.
      incarnata 200 mg/kg (8 days); (3: alcohol withdrawal group) alcohol for 19 days,
      1 day interval and water (8 days); and (4: P. incarnata in alcohol withdrawal)
      alcohol for 19 days, 1 day interval and P. incarnata 200 mg/kg (8 days). The tail
      flick and hot plate tests were used as nociceptive response measures. Confirming
      previous study of our group, it was showed that alcohol-treated groups presented
      an increase in the nociceptive thresholds after alcohol withdrawal, which was
      reverted by P. incarnata, measured by the hot plate test. Besides, alcohol
      treatment increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor and interleukin-10 levels
      in prefrontal cortex, which was not reverted by P. incarnata. Considering these
      results, the P. incarnata treatment might be a potential therapy in the alcohol
      withdrawal syndrome. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568649
TI  - Psychosis and identity: Alteration or loss?
AB  - The onset of psychotic disorders often brings major changes to an individual,
      which, for some, are never fully reversed and remain a dominant force. Despite
      such changes, the individual still experiences themselves as a continuous person
      and must find some way to assimilate these shifts into their self-concept. From a
      philosophical perspective, the various models of continuing identity all depend
      upon some notion of fundamental stability, which seems a poor fit for the
      trajectory associated with psychotic disorders. This article will explore, in
      more depth, how the transitions that accompany psychotic disorders present a
      challenge to conventional and philosophical notions of selfhood. If we are not
      simply to judge psychotic disorders as bringing about a loss of selfhood, we will
      need an alternative model of identity to use in this context.

PMID- 28568648
TI  - Influence of sex on the number of circulating endothelial microparticles and
      microRNA expression in middle-aged adults.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? Are there sex-related
      differences in the number of circulating endothelial microparticles (EMPs) and
      microparticle microRNA expression in middle-aged adult humans? What is the main
      finding and its importance? Although the numbers of circulating endothelial
      microparticles do not differ between middle-aged men and women, there are sex
      related differences in the expression of miR-125a in activation-derived EMPs and
      miR-34a in apoptosis-derived EMPs. Differences in circulating endothelial
      microparticle microRNA content may provide new insight into the sex-related
      disparity in the risk and prevalence of vascular disease in middle-aged adults.
      The aims of this study were to determine: (i) whether circulating concentrations
      of endothelial microparticles (EMPs) differ in middle-aged men compared with
      women; and (ii) whether there are sex-related differences in microRNA expression
      in EMPs. Peripheral blood was collected from 30 sedentary adults: 15 men (56 +/-
      6 years old) and 15 women (56 +/- 5 years old). Endothelial microparticles were
      defined by markers of activation (CD62e+ ) or apoptosis (CD31+ /CD42b- ) by flow
      cytometry. Expression of microRNA (miR-34a, 92a, 125a and 126) in activation- and
      apoptosis-derived EMPs was measured by RT-PCR. Circulating activation- (33 +/- 31
      versus 39 +/- 35 microparticles MUl-1 ) and apoptosis-derived EMPs (49 +/- 54
      versus 42 +/- 43 microparticles MUl-1 ) were not significantly different between
      men and women. Expression of miR-125a (2.23 +/- 2.01 versus 6.95 +/- 3.99 a.u.)
      was lower (~215%; P < 0.05) in activation-derived EMPs, whereas expression of miR
      34a (1.17 +/- 1.43 versus 0.38 +/- 0.35 a.u.) was higher (~210%; P < 0.05) in
      apoptosis-derived EMPs from men compared with women. Expression of microRNA in
      circulating EMPs may provide new insight into sex-related differences in
      cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28568650
TI  - Robotic proctectomy for rectal cancer: analysis of 71 patients from a single
      institution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite increasing use of robotic surgery for rectal cancer, few
      series have been published from the practice of generalizable US surgeons.
      METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed for 71 consecutive patients
      who underwent robotic low anterior resection (LAR) or abdominoperineal resection
      (APR) for rectal adenocarcinoma between 2010 and 2014. RESULTS: 46 LARs (65%) and
      25 APRs (35%) were identified. Median procedure time was 219 minutes (IQR 184
      275) and mean blood loss 164.9 cc (SD 155.9 cc). Radial margin was negative in
      70/71 (99%) patients. Total mesorectal excision integrity was complete/near
      complete in 38/39 (97%) of graded specimens. A mean of 16.8 (SD+/- 8.9) lymph
      nodes were retrieved. At median follow-up of 21.9 months, there were no local
      recurrences. CONCLUSIONS: Robotic proctectomy for rectal cancer was introduced
      into typical colorectal surgery practice by a single surgeon, with a low
      conversion rate, low complication rate, and satisfactory oncologic outcomes.

PMID- 28568652
TI  - RELATIVE CLUTCH MASS AND BODY SHAPE IN LIZARDS AND SNAKES: IS REPRODUCTIVE
      INVESTMENT CONSTRAINED OR OPTIMIZED?

PMID- 28568651
TI  - Red blood cells for transfusion in patients with sepsis: respective roles of unit
      age and exposure to recipient plasma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Red blood cell (RBC) storage in blood banks is not exempt from
      cellular injury. Alterations not observed on RBCs freshly isolated from units can
      rapidly appear in circulation. The transfusion of old blood units, even if this
      is a controversial issue, could therefore have adverse effects on the recipient.
      We wanted to determine the respective effects of storage duration and recipient
      plasma on RBCs for transfusion into patients with severe sepsis. STUDY DESIGN AND
      METHODS: Eleven stored RBC units were sampled at various time points,
      approximately Days 3 to 8 (referred to as fresh RBCs) and Days 38 to 42 (old
      RBCs) and tested in coincubation experiments with plasma obtained from 13
      patients with severe sepsis and 17 healthy donors as controls. RBCs were tested
      after 24 or 48 hours at 37 degrees C for the detection of senescence markers
      (phosphatidylserine exposure, calcium influx, and reactive oxygen species
      detection and decrease in size) with or without exposure to plasma. RESULTS: We
      confirmed that a 42-day refrigerated storage of RBCs alone (without any
      incubation in plasma) had no significant effect on RBCs and no senescence marker
      detected. By contrast, ex vivo exposure to plasma samples altered both fresh and
      old RBCs, with a much larger effect for old RBCs, regardless of the plasma used
      (sepsis vs. control). CONCLUSION: We show that the main factor affecting the
      senescence of RBCs for transfusion into patients with severe sepsis is the age of
      the stored units rather than the clinical status of the recipient.

PMID- 28568653
TI  - OUTBREEDING DEPRESSION IN A SELFING ANNUAL.

PMID- 28568654
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ESTIMATION OF PLASMID EXCHANGE IN BACTERIA.
AB  - The existence of differential horizontal gene transfer may be assessed by
      comparing the phylogenetic trees derived from two different genes. We use this
      concept to estimate quantitatively the amount of plasmid exchange that has
      occurred in a bacterial population. By means of computer simulations we studied
      the effect of gene transfer on the topological distortion between two
      phylogenetic trees: one obtained from an euchromosomal gene and another from a
      plasmid-borne sequence, which may be subjected to horizontal transfer. The basic
      assumptions of our simulations were (a) that plasmid exchange had occurred
      recently (after the last population split); and (b) that either the amount of
      chromosomal horizontal exchange was negligible or that it was only a fraction of
      the amount of plasmid exchange in which case we will be estimating relative
      amounts of plasmid transfer. We found that the topological difference between two
      such trees is a function of the number of plasmid exchange events that have
      occurred. It can be explained by a logistic model that relates the average
      distortion index between two trees (dT ) to the number of transfer events (x).
      The behavior remains the same under different conditions that were tested
      (symmetry of the topology, number of taxa in the tree, effect of reconstruction
      errors, mutation after plasmid transfer). We have also tried our method on
      empirical data from the literature and estimated the amount of gene transfer that
      may have occurred among Sym plasmids in agricultural field populations of
      Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar phaseoli. We found that between 15.77 to 29.98% of
      all genetic types in these populations have been either the source or the target
      of a plasmid transfer event. When the comparisons were made among trees derived
      exclusively from plasmid probes this value dropped to 2.00%. Phylogenetic trees
      derived from symbiotic and nonsymbiotic sequences were also used to infer the
      number of gene transfer events among 11 isolates from R. galegae. The estimated
      number of transfer events of symbiotic sequences was 10.515 (although we do not
      know out of how many genetic types). We concluded that intraspecific transfer of
      symbiotic sequences is widespread in these two species of the genus Rhizobium.

PMID- 28568655
TI  - ON GENETIC SEGREGATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF SEX.
AB  - It has recently been argued that because the genetic load borne by an asexual
      species resulting from segregation, relative to a comparable sexual population,
      is greater than two, sex can overcome its twofold disadvantage and succeed. We
      evaluate some of the assumptions underlying this argument and discuss alternative
      assumptions. Further, we simulate the dynamics of competition between sexual and
      asexual types. We find that for populations of size 100 and 500 the advantages of
      segregation do not outweigh the cost of producing males. We conclude that, at
      least for small populations, drift and the cost of sex govern the evolution of
      sexuality, not selection or segregation. We believe, however, that if sexual and
      asexual populations were isolated for a sufficiently long period, segregation
      might impart a fitness advantage upon sexuals that could compensate for the cost
      of sex and allow sexuals to outcompete asexuals upon their reunion.

PMID- 28568657
TI  - PLUMAGE COLOR IS A CONDITION-DEPENDENT SEXUAL TRAIT IN MALE PIED FLYCATCHERS.

PMID- 28568656
TI  - EFFECTS OF CROSS AND SELF-FERTILIZATION ON PROGENY FITNESS IN LOBELIA CARDINALIS
      AND L. SIPHILITICA.
AB  - Inbreeding depression, or the decreased fitness of progeny derived from self
      fertilization as compared to outcrossing, is thought to be the most general
      factor affecting the evolution of self-fertilization in plants. Nevertheless,
      data on inbreeding depression in fitness characters are almost nonexistent for
      perennials observed in their natural environments. In this study I measured
      inbreeding depression in both survival and fertility in two sympatric, short
      lived, perennial herbs: hummingbird-pollinated Lobelia cardinalis (two
      populations) and bumblebee-pollinated L. siphilitica (one population). Crosses
      were performed by hand in the field, and seedlings germinated in the greenhouse.
      Levels of inbreeding depression were determined for one year in the greenhouse
      and for two to three years for seedlings transplanted back to the natural
      environment. Fertility was measured as flower number, which is highly correlated
      with seed production under natural conditions in these populations. Inbreeding
      depression was assessed in three ways: 1) survival and fertility within the
      different age intervals; 2) cumulative survival from the seed stage through each
      age interval; and 3) net fertility, or the expected fertility of a seed at
      different ages. Net fertility is a comprehensive measure of fitness combining
      survival and flower number. In all three populations, selfing had nonsignificant
      effects on the number and size of seeds. Lobelia siphilitica and one population
      of L. cardinalis exhibited significant levels of inbreeding depression between
      seed maturation and germination, excluding the consideration of possible
      differences in dormancy or longterm viability in the soil. There was no
      inbreeding depression in subsequent survival in the greenhouse in any population.
      In the field, significant survival differences between selfed and outcrossed
      progeny occurred only in two years and in only one population of L. cardinalis.
      For both survival and fertility there was little evidence for the expected
      differences among families in inbreeding depression. Compared to survival,
      inbreeding depression in fertility (flower number) tended to be much higher. By
      first-year flower production, the combined effects on survival and flower number
      caused inbreeding depression in net fertility to reach 54%, 34% and 71% for L.
      siphilitica and the two populations of L. cardinalis. By the end of the second
      year of flowering in the field, inbreeding depression in net fertility was 53%
      for L. siphilitica and 54% for one population of L. cardinalis. For the other
      population of L. cardinalis, these values were 76% through the second year of
      flowering and 83% through the third year. Such high levels of inbreeding
      depression should strongly influence selection on those characters affecting self
      fertilization rates in these two species.

PMID- 28568658
TI  - TEMPORAL FLUCTUATIONS IN DEMOGRAPHIC PARAMETERS AND THE GENETIC VARIANCE AMONG
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - Contrary to assumptions commonly made in the study of population genetics, the
      demographic properties of many populations are not always constant. Important
      characteristics of populations such as migration rate and population size may
      vary in time and space. Moreover, local populations often come and go; the rate
      of extinction and the properties of colonization may also vary. In this paper,
      the approach to equilibrium following a disturbance in the genetic variance among
      populations is described. The rate of migration is shown to be critical in
      determining the extent to which extinction and recolonization affects genetic
      differentiation. Perturbations and variations through time and space in
      demographic parameters such as population size and migration rate are shown to be
      important in determining the partitioning of genetic variance. Equations are
      given to predict the average through time of genetic differentiation among
      populations in the event of a single disturbance or in constant fluctuations in
      the pertinent demographic parameters. In general, these fluctuations increase the
      FST of a species. Spatial demographic variation affects FST much more than
      temporal variation. These demographic properties make some species unsuitable for
      the empirical analysis of migration with indirect genetic measures. Demographic
      instability may play a large role in the evolution of genetic variation.

PMID- 28568659
TI  - USING PHYLOGENETIC TREES TO STUDY SPECIATION AND EXTINCTION.
AB  - One tool in the study of the forces that determine species diversity is the null,
      or simple, model. The fit of predictions to observations, good or bad, leads to a
      useful paradigm or to knowledge of forces not accounted for, respectively. It is
      shown how simple models of speciation and extinction lead directly to predictions
      of the structure of phylogenetic trees. These predictions include both essential
      attributes of phylogenetic trees: lengths, in the form of internode distances;
      and topology, in the form of internode links. These models also lead directly to
      statistical tests which can be used to compare predictions with phylogenetic
      trees that are estimated from data. Two different models and eight data sets are
      considered. A model without species extinction consistently yielded predictions
      closer to observations than did a model that included extinction. It is proposed
      that it may be useful to think of the diversification of recently formed
      monophyletic groups as a random speciation process without extinction.

PMID- 28568660
TI  - SMALL POPULATION GENETIC VARIABILITY AT LOCI UNDER STABILIZING SELECTION.
AB  - Genetic variability at a locus under stabilizing selection in a finite population
      is investigated using analytic methods and computer simulations. Three measures
      are examined: the number of alleles k, heterozygosity H, and additive genetic
      variance Vg. A nearly-neutral theory results. The composite parameter S = NVM /Vs
      (where N is the population size, VM the variance of new mutant allelic effects
      and Vs the weakness of stabilizing selection) figures prominently in the results.
      The equilibrium heterozygosity is similar to that of strictly neutral theory, H =
      4NMUc / (1 + 4NMUc ), except that MUc = MUe=MU/1+cS where c is about 0.5.
      Simulations corroborate Vg=4MUVs1+1/S except for very low N. Genetic variability
      attains similar equilibrium values at both a "lone" locus and at an "embedded"
      locus. This agrees with my earlier work concerning molecular clock rates. These
      results modify the neutralist interpretation of data concerning genetic
      variability and genetic distances between populations. Low H values are
      proportional not to N but to N. This may explain the narrow observed range of H
      among species. Heterozygosities need not be highly correlated to genetic
      variances. Genetic variances are not highly dependent on population size except
      in very small populations which are difficult to sample without bias because the
      smallest populations go extinct the fastest. Nearly neutral evolution will not be
      easily distinguished from strictly neutral theory under the Hudson-Kreitman
      Aguade inter-/intraspecific variation ratio test, since a similar effective
      mutation rate holds for genetic distances and D = 2MUc t, where MUe=MU/1+S. As
      with strictly neutral theory, comparisons across loci should show D and H to be
      positively correlated because of the shared MUc . But unlike neutral theory, for
      a given locus, comparisons across species should show D and H to be negatively
      correlated. There is no obvious threshold of population size below which genetic
      variability inevitably declines. Extinction depends on both genetic variation and
      natural selection. Neither theory nor observation presently indicates the measure
      of genetic variability (k, H, VG or other) that best indicates vulnerability of a
      small population to extinction.

PMID- 28568661
TI  - POLLEN COMPETITION AND PATERNAL SUCCESS IN DOUGLAS-FIR.

PMID- 28568662
TI  - CAENOGENESIS, DEVELOPMENTAL VARIABILITY, AND EVOLUTION IN THE CARPUS AND TARSUS
      OF THE MARBLED NEWT TRITURUS MARMORATUS.
AB  - In this paper, after a comparative analysis of the development of Triturus
      marmoratus, we explore the existence of caenogenetic events and their ontogenetic
      and phylogenetic consequences. The adult morphology of the Triturus marmoratus
      limb, in terms of number and spatial arrangement of skeletal elements, agrees
      with the general pattern of urodeles. The congruence in the typical pattern of
      adult morphology does not hint at the striking differences in embryonic
      development. These differences can be summarized as follows: 1) Presence of a
      "central axis" that develops in a distal-to-proximal direction. It originates in
      the basale commune giving rise to the centrale and the intermedium. Thus, there
      is no postaxial branching as found in Ambystoma mexicanum. 2) Again, unlike in
      Ambystoma mexicanum, we find a postaxial structure composed of the ulnare
      (fibulare)-distal carpal (tarsal) 4-metacarpal (metatarsal) 4 which is
      independent of the "digital arch." 3) The (forelimb) digits, in particular,
      digits 1, 2, and 3, undergo disproportionate elongation. For example, the second
      digit, composed of a thin continuous, cartilaginous rod, becomes longer than the
      rest of the limb. Our study of the patterns of embryonic connectivity suggests
      the coexistence of three directions of growth and morphogenesis in the
      development of the Triturus marmoratus limb. 1) A proximo-distal one that gives
      rise to the preaxial axis, "primary axis," and individual digits. 2) An anterio
      posterior axis of development that gives rise to the "digital arch" and
      determines the number of digits. 3) A disto-proximal central axis that originates
      in the basale commune and sequentially generates the centrale and the
      intermedium. We speculate that heterochronic interspecific variation in the time
      of onset of limb bud formation is related to the degree of precocious digital
      elongation. Selection for long extremities in early larval stages, associated
      with functional demands for locomotion and balancing, may be the cause for the
      above listed changes in developmental pattern. Thus, the reported system is an
      example of how selection during ontogeny can result in the evolution of the
      developmental process.

PMID- 28568663
TI  - THE PENNSYLVANIAN-PERMIAN VEGETATIONAL TRANSITION: A TERRESTRIAL ANALOGUE TO THE
      ONSHORE-OFFSHORE HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - An analysis of 68 floras from the Pennsylvanian and Early Permian of Euramerica
      reveals distinct patterns of environmental distribution. Wetland assemblages are
      the most commonly encountered floras from the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian.
      Floras from drier habitats characterize the Permian. Both wetland and dry-site
      floras occur in the Late Pennsylvanian, but floristic overlap is minimal, which
      implies strong environmental controls on the distributions of the component
      species. Drier habitats appear to be the sites of first appearance of orders that
      become prominent during the Late Permian and Mesozoic. Higher taxa originated in
      physically heterogeneous, drier habitats, which were geographically marginal
      throughout most of the Pennsylvanian. They then moved into the lowlands during
      periods of climatic drying in the Permian, replacing older wetland vegetation.
      This pattern is analogous to the marine onshore-offshore pattern of origination
      and migration. The derivation of Mesozoic wetland clades from the Permian dry
      lowland vegetation completes the parallel. The similarities of the marine and
      terrestrial patterns suggest that the combination of evolutionary opportunity,
      created by physical heterogeneity of the environment, and migrational
      opportunity, created by changing extrinsic conditions, may be underlying factors
      that transcend the specifics of organism and environment.

PMID- 28568664
TI  - VARIATION IN MATING CALL ACROSS THE HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN THE FIRE-BELLIED TOADS
      BOMBINA BOMBINA AND B. VARIEGATA.
AB  - Three components of mating call (pulse duration, cycle length, and fundamental
      frequency) were measured and six diagnostic enzyme loci scored across the hybrid
      zone between the toads Bombina bombina and B. variegata. All three call
      components differ significantly, but only cycle length is diagnostic. The clines
      in call coincide with those for enzymes, and have similar widths. This suggests
      that there is no strong selection on any of these characters. There are
      significant correlations between electrophoretic markers and call components, but
      these are no stronger than would be expected if the electrophoretic loci and the
      genes causing mating call were neutral. The selection differential on the call is
      no greater than 6% of the difference in mean cycle length between the two taxa.
      There is a substantial increase in the variance of cycle length in the center of
      the zone, suggesting that a small number of loci are involved (~ three).
      Recombination between these loci will hinder the evolution of reinforcement and
      may partly be responsible for the lack of premating isolation between B. bombina
      and B. variegata.

PMID- 28568665
TI  - GENETIC CORRELATIONS AMONG MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS AND RATES OF GROWTH AND
      DIFFERENTIATION IN THE GREEN TREE FROG, HYLA CINEREA.
AB  - It is often proposed that the morphometric shape of animals often evolves as a
      correlated response to selection on life-history traits such as whole-body growth
      and differentiation rates. However, there exists little empirical information on
      whether selection on rates of growth or differentiation in animals could generate
      correlated response in morphometric shape beyond that owing to the correlation
      between these rates and body size. In this study genetic correlations were
      estimated among growth rate, differentiation rate, and body-size-adjusted head
      width in the green tree frog, Hyla cinerea. Head width was adjusted for size by
      using the residuals from log-log regressions of head width on snout-vent length.
      Size-adjusted head width at metamorphosis was positively genetically correlated
      with larval period length. Thus, size-independent shape might evolve as a
      correlated response to selection on a larval life-history trait. Larval growth
      rate was not significantly genetically correlated with size-adjusted head width.
      An additional morphometric trait, size-adjusted tibiofibula length, had a
      nonnormal distribution of breeding values, and so was not included in the
      analysis of genetic correlations (offspring from one sire had unusually short
      legs). This result is interesting because, although using genetic covariance
      matrices to predict long-term multivariate response to selection depends on the
      assumption that all loci follow a multivariate Gaussian distribution of allelic
      effects, few data are available on the distribution of breeding values for traits
      in wild populations. Size at metamorphosis was positively genetically correlated
      with larval period and larval growth rate. Quickly growing larvae that delay
      metamorphosis therefore emerge at a large size. The genetic correlation between
      larval growth rate and juvenile (postmetamorphic) growth rate was near zero.
      Growth rate may therefore be an example of a fitness-related trait that is free
      to evolve in one stage of a complex life cycle without pleiotropic constraints on
      the same trait expressed in the other stage.

PMID- 28568666
TI  - THE MEASUREMENT OF SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE TRAITS: BIASES DUE TO ENVIRONMENTAL
      COVARIANCES BETWEEN TRAITS AND FITNESS.
AB  - The use of regression techniques for estimating the direction and magnitude of
      selection from measurements on phenotypes has become widespread in field studies.
      A potential problem with these techniques is that environmental correlations
      between fitness and the traits examined may produce biased estimates of selection
      gradients. This report demonstrates that the phenotypic covariance between
      fitness and a trait, used as an estimate of the selection differential in
      estimating selection gradients, has two components: a component induced by
      selection itself and a component due to the effect of environmental factors on
      fitness. The second component is shown to be responsible for biases in estimates
      of selection gradients. The use of regressions involving genotypic and breeding
      values instead of phenotypic values can yield estimates of selection gradients
      that are not biased by environmental covariances. Statistical methods for
      estimating the coefficients of such regressions, and for testing for biases in
      regressions involving phenotypic values, are described.

PMID- 28568667
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN APIS MELLIFERA: HETEROZYGOSITY
      VERSUS GENIC BALANCE.
AB  - The genetic basis for developmental stability in the haplo-diploid honeybee Apis
      mellifera was determined by comparing the level of asymmetry between diploid
      females and haploid males both among and within inbreeding levels. There was no
      significant relationship between the level of inbreeding and the level of
      fluctuating asymmetry for both females and males. It is therefore argued that the
      general level of genomic heterozygosity is not an important factor for the
      determination and maintenance of developmental stability in this system, but
      rather that the balance of genes within chromosomes plays the major role. The
      observation that males were generally more asymmetric than females suggests that
      developmental stability in females may also be influenced by additional factors
      such as gene dosage, sex-limited genes or cytoplasmic elements.

PMID- 28568668
TI  - A COMMENT ON PLEISTOCENE POPULATION BOTTLENECKS IN PERIODICAL CICADAS (HOMOPTERA:
      CICADIDAE: MAGICICADA SPP.).

PMID- 28568669
TI  - PERFORMANCE OF TADPOLES FROM THE HYBRIDOGENETIC RANA ESCULENTA COMPLEX:
      INTERACTIONS WITH POND DRYING AND INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION.
AB  - The performance of three genotypes (LL, LR, RR) of tadpoles resulting from the
      hybrid mating system of Rana lessonae (phenotype L, genotype LL) and Rana
      esculenta (phenotype E, genotype LR) was determined in artificial ponds. The
      effects of interspecific competition and pond drying on growth, development, and
      survival of tadpoles were used to measure the performance of genotypes and the
      relative fitness of offspring. Among the three genotypes, tadpoles from the
      homogametic mating RR had the lowest survival, growth, and development under all
      environmental conditions. Body size of the LL and LR genotype tadpoles at
      metamorphosis was reduced by competition and pond drying. Days to metamorphosis
      were also higher for the LL and LR genotype tadpoles in competition ponds. The
      proportion of individuals metamorphosing of each genotype was differentially
      lowered by competition and pond drying. The LL genotype produced more metamorphs
      than the LR genotype in the constant water level ponds, but the LR genotype
      produced more in drying ponds. In competition ponds, the LR genotype produced
      more metamorphs than the LL genotype, but the LL genotype produced more
      metamorphs in ponds without competition. The RR genotype produced no metamorphs
      in any of the experimental environments. Increased performance of LR offspring
      from the heterogametic mating, in harsh conditions, and reduced performance of RR
      offspring from the homogametic mating, even under favorable conditions, relative
      to the parental genotype (LL) suggests that the population dynamics of this
      hybridogenetic system is strongly dependent on mate choice in mixed populations
      and the subsequent pond environment females select for oviposition and larval
      development.

PMID- 28568670
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN ISOFEMALE LINES AND CAGE POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Drosophila melanogaster populations in nature usually carry inversion
      polymorphisms. When they were transferred to and maintained in the laboratory as
      large cage populations, frequencies of polymorphic inversions were drastically
      decreased and finally eliminated. This "cage effect" was observed irrespective of
      the geographical origin of the population or the initial frequency of each
      inversion. The decrease and elimination of inversions in the cage was not
      overcome by changing conditions such as medium, temperature, or the number of
      isofemale lines (40-600) introduced. On the other hand, in the sets of isofemale
      lines derived from the same geographical origins as the cage populations, each of
      which was maintained as a small vial population, the inversion frequencies,
      though decreased from the initial frequencies, were kept at significantly high
      levels. The cage populations initiated with one or two isofemale lines also
      maintained the inversion polymorphisms that were as high as vial populations.

PMID- 28568671
TI  - THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS.

PMID- 28568672
TI  - REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN RHABDITIDAE (NEMATODA: SECERNENTEA); MECHANISMS THAT
      ISOLATE SIX SPECIES OF THREE GENERA.
AB  - We have attempted interspecific hybridizations among six species of rhabditid
      nematodes: Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis briggsae, Caenorhabditis
      remanei, Caenorhabditis sp. v, Rhabditis sp., and Pelodera teres. Copulation was
      observed in all crosses between Caenorhabditis species; however, none resulted in
      the generation of stable hybrid populations. No copulation was observed in
      crosses between Caenorhabditis males and Rhabditis or Pelodera females, even when
      congeneric females were present, suggesting that Caenorhabditis males are able to
      selectively recognize congeneric females by a short-range stimulus. All pairwise
      combinations of Caenorhabditis species were isolated to some degree by gametic
      mechanisms; 7 of 12 combinations were cross infertile and 5 of 12 were cross
      fertile but had low brood sizes. In cross-fertile combinations, most hybrid
      embryos were inviable and arrested prior to gastrulation. Only in crosses of C.
      briggsae males to C. sp. v females did any hybrids survive embryogenesis. Most of
      these C. briggsae/C. sp. v hybrids arrested during larval development, and the
      few that reached adulthood invariably were female. These results are consistent
      with the presence of at least two lethal factors in the C. briggsae-C. sp. v
      combination: a maternal lethal factor in the cytoplasm of C. briggsae and a
      recessive lethal factor on the X chromosome of C. sp. v.

PMID- 28568673
TI  - VARIATION IN ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE ACTIVITY AND FLOOD TOLERANCE IN WHITE CLOVER,
      TRIFOLIUM REPENS.
AB  - Flooding results in induction of anaerobic metabolism in many higher plants. As
      an important component of anaerobic energy production, alcohol dehydrogenase
      (ADH) activity increases markedly in response to flooding in white clover,
      Trifolium repens. Significant inter-individual variation in flood-induced ADH
      activity exists in natural populations of T. repens. The genetic basis of this
      variation was analyzed by offspring-midparent regression of data from 75
      greenhouse reared families; the estimated heritability of flood-induced ADH
      activity was 0.55 (+/-0.13). Genetic variation in flood-induced ADH activity has
      pronounced effects on physiological response and flood tolerance in this species.
      ADH activity is positively correlated with the rate of ethanol production,
      indicating that observed in vitro activity differences are manifested in in vivo
      physiological function. T. repens plants with higher ADH activities during
      flooding have greater flood tolerance (measured as growth rate when
      flooded/unflooded growth rate). Variation in ADH activity during flooding
      accounts for more than 79% of the variance in flood tolerance. On the basis of a
      limited field survey of populations occupying three sites differing in exposure
      to flooding conditions, individuals from site C, the most frequently flooded
      site, expressed significantly higher average ADH activity when flooded than
      individuals from site A, a site with no history of flooding. Since ADH activity
      levels are not correlated with electrophoretic mobility variation in T. repens,
      this work supports previous suggestions that regulatory variation in enzyme
      activity may play a central role in biochemical adaptations to environmental
      stress.

PMID- 28568674
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION IN THE SEXUAL REPRODUCTION RATE WITHIN A POPULATION OF A CYCLIC
      PARTHENOGEN, DAPHNIA MAGNA.

PMID- 28568675
TI  - CORRELATED RESPONSES IN LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS TO ARTIFICIAL SELECTION FOR BODY
      WEIGHT IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Drosophila melanogaster that had been successfully selected on rich and poor
      larval medium for increased and decreased fresh weight at eclosion were tested on
      an intermediate medium for correlated responses in longevity, fertility, and
      hatchability. Larger flies laid more eggs early in life and lived shorter lives
      than smaller flies, which not only lived longer but also laid more eggs later in
      life. This supports the notion of a mortality cost of reproduction in Drosophila.
      The total number of eggs laid per lifetime did not differ between the two groups.
      The percentage of offspring hatched started at normal levels (about 50% of eggs
      laid), then declined rapidly in large flies. In small flies, hatchability started
      at a lower level early in life (40-65%), but declined less rapidly, and later in
      life was higher than the hatchability of eggs laid by larger flies.

PMID- 28568676
TI  - SKEWED PRIMARY SEX RATIO IN THE SOLITARY SPIDER PITYOHYPHANTES PHRYGIANUS.

PMID- 28568677
TI  - TIME OF ORIGIN AND BIOGEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SPECIALIZED RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
      NORTHERN MARINE PLANTS AND HERBIVOROUS MOLLUSCS.
AB  - A survey of cool-temperate North Pacific and North Atlantic marine plants and
      herbivorous molluscs and their descendants was undertaken to determine the time
      of origin and the biogeographical history of specialized host-guest relationships
      between plants and herbivores. Of 12 such associations, 6 (50%) were established
      no earlier than the Pliocene. These six associations resulted from the invasion
      of either the plant (three cases) or the herbivore (three cases) from
      geographical regions other than the one in which the association was forged.
      These results are contrary to the widely held view that specialized ("coevolved")
      relationships tend to be ancient, and highlight the importance of biotic
      interchange as a biogeographical process influencing the opportunity for trophic
      specialization.

PMID- 28568678
TI  - HYBRIDOGENESIS AND ANDROGENESIS IN THE STICK-INSECT BACILLUS ROSSIUS-GRANDII
      BENAZZII (INSECTA, PHASMATODEA).
AB  - In northwestern Sicily interspecific hybrid females between Bacillus rossius and
      B. grandii benazzii (Insecta, Phasmatodea) are sympatric with facultatively
      parthenogenetic demes of the former and bisexual populations of the latter.
      Preliminary observations suggested that hybrid females are maintained by
      hybridogenetic reproduction, not by current F1 hybrid production nor through
      parthenogenesis. Being hybridogens, a complex of hemiclonal lineages, we
      informally refer to them as B. rossius-grandii benazzii, according to Schultz's
      proposal. In this study B. rossius-g. benazzii females were crossed with males of
      B. g. benazzii, B. g. grandii, B. g. maretimi, and B. rossius. Allozyme analysis
      of the progeny showed that the great majority of them were actually produced by
      hybridogenesis with a hemiclonal inheritance of the maternal B. rossius genotype
      (Brm ) and actual syngamy with a sperm from the fathering male, so that Brm -gbp
      , Brm -ggp , Brm -gmp , and Brm -rp offspring were obtained in the respective
      crosses. All-paternal progeny (androgenetics) were also produced (Bgbp gbp , Bgmp
      gmp , Brp rp ) and two gynogenetic descendants were observed. Cytological
      investigations on virgin eggs that failed to hatch revealed in most of them a
      haploid-diploid blocked blastoderm; this rudimentary parthenogenesis appears to
      be an important prerequisite for further evolution of this hybridogen.
      Reproductive modes of descendants were also analyzed; although Brm -gp hybrids
      are still able to reproduce by hybridogenesis, a progressive disruption of the
      hybridogenetic-androgenetic system takes place in synthetic B. rossius (Brm -rp ,
      Brp rp ) and abundant thelytokous parthenogenetic offspring are obtained from
      females of androgenetic origin. The evolutionary role of these hybridogens
      appears to be linked to their shift towards parthenogenesis; this has apparently
      occurred in the southeastern Sicilian hybrid B. whitei (=B. rossius/g. grandii),
      which exhibits both hybridogenesis and parthenogenesis.

PMID- 28568679
TI  - THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION IN THE GAMETOPHYTE STAGE ON MUTATIONAL LOAD.
AB  - We have studied a multilocus selection model of a plant population in which
      mutations to deleterious alleles occur that may affect not only the diploid
      sporophyte stage, but also the haploid pollen stage before zygote formation. We
      investigated the reduction in inbreeding depression (as measured in the
      sporophyte) caused by the lowering of mutant allele frequencies due to selection
      in the pollen. This is important for a full understanding of the role of
      inbreeding depression in the maintenance of outcrossing in seed plants. We also
      studied the theoretically expected relationship between the pollen fitnesses of
      different pollen donor genotypes and the fitnesses of the diploid progeny that
      they sire. This relationship can be compared with the results of experiments in
      which pollen was subjected to selection, and improved progeny quality was
      observed. We found that on the mutational load model there is, as expected
      intuitively, a positive covariance between the pollen and zygote fitnesses, but
      that it is likely to be small. Subjecting pollen to an episode of strong
      selection is usually expected to increase sporophyte fitness only slightly.

PMID- 28568680
TI  - Mucositis Secondary to Chlamydia pneumoniae Infection: Expanding the Mycoplasma
      pneumoniae-Induced Rash and Mucositis Concept.
AB  - The term Mycoplasma pneumoniae-induced rash and mucositis (MIRM) was recently
      proposed to identify the mucocutaneous condition secondary to M. pneumoniae
      infection that had historically been regarded among the more confusing
      pathologies of erythema multiforme and Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Based on a
      number of previous reports, these syndromes require differentiation since they
      have different prognoses and specific treatment requirements. We report a case of
      oral and genital erosions that strongly resembled MIRM without rash but were
      found to be secondary to a Chlamydia pneumoniae infection. After a thorough
      review of the literature on this subject, we propose that C. pneumoniae should
      also be considered a potential causative agent of MIRM and that this term should
      be amended to include C. pneumoniae infection.

PMID- 28568682
TI  - EVOLUTION UNDER INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION: FIELD EXPERIMENTS ON TERRESTRIAL
      SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28568683
TI  - SELECTION FOR COMPETITIVE ABILITY: NEGATIVE RESULTS IN DROSOPHILA.

PMID- 28568681
TI  - Asthma, bones and corticosteroids: Are inhaled corticosteroids associated with
      fractures in children with asthma?
AB  - AIM: The prevalence of asthma worldwide among older children varies between 10
      and 20%. One of the most effective therapies to treat asthma and prevent
      exacerbations is inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs). Systemic corticosteroids are
      known to decrease bone mineral density and increase the risk of fractures among
      children, but little is known about the effect of ICSs on fracture risk in
      children with asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the fracture rates
      in children with asthma using ICSs. METHODS: A survey on fracture history and
      risk, bone health and asthma was administered by a researcher to children aged 6
      18 years attending a tertiary care children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia
      over a 6-month period. Fracture risks were compared in children on low or high
      dose ICS with those not on any ICS and non-asthmatics. RESULTS: A total of 216
      healthy control participants were compared with 211 children with asthma - 22% (n
      = 46) on low dose ICS therapy, 44% (n = 94) on high dose ICS and 34% (n = 71) not
      on any ICS. There was no difference in the incidence of fractures between
      children with asthma (24.6% n = 53) and healthy controls (24% n = 51) (chi2  =
      0.132; P = 0.717). There were no differences in fracture incidence in the sub
      groups of children with asthma (P = 0.695). CONCLUSION: ICS use was not
      associated with fracture risk in children with asthma.

PMID- 28568684
TI  - EVOLUTION OF CLONAL DIVERSITY IN THE PARTHENOGENETIC FLY LONCHOPTERA DUBIA.

PMID- 28568685
TI  - MECHANISMS OF FIXATION AND ACCUMULATION OF CENTRIC FUSIONS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS
      OF MUS MUSCULUS L. I. KARYOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO
      POPULATIONS IN THE CENTRAL APENNINES.

PMID- 28568686
TI  - UNPALATABILITY AS A DEFENSE STRATEGY OF EUPHYDRYAS PHAETON (LEPIDOPTERA:
      NYMPHALIDAE).

PMID- 28568687
TI  - EFFECTS OF COLD CLIMATE ON THE EVOLUTION OF PINNIPED BREEDING SYSTEMS.

PMID- 28568688
TI  - SEXUAL ISOLATION AMONG POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS: RESPONSE TO PRESSURE
      FROM A RELATED SPECIES.

PMID- 28568690
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28568689
TI  - MATE CHOICE IN HYLOBITTACUS APICALIS (INSECTA: MECOPTERA) AND ITS RELATION TO
      SOME MODELS OF FEMALE CHOICE.

PMID- 28568691
TI  - ALTERED COMPETITION BETWEEN TWO REPRODUCTIVELY ISOLATED STRAINS OF DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28568692
TI  - ON CASTE RATIOS IN ANT COLONIES: POPULATION RESPONSES TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS.

PMID- 28568693
TI  - EVOLUTION OF FLORAL DISPLAY IN THE ORCHID BRASSAVOLA NODOSA.

PMID- 28568694
TI  - WHEN IS IT COEVOLUTION?

PMID- 28568695
TI  - LOCAL POPULATION SIZE AS A DETERMINANT OF MATING SYSTEM AND SEXUAL COMPOSITION IN
      TWO TROPICAL MARINE FISHES (THALASSOMA SPP.).

PMID- 28568696
TI  - THE QUESTION OF SYNCHRONY OR "TEMPORAL SYMPATRY" IN MIMICRY.

PMID- 28568697
TI  - SEXUAL ISOLATION, SPECIATION AND THE DIRECTION OF EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28568698
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN THE MILKFISH CHANOS CHANOS. I. BIOCHEMICAL EVIDENCE.

PMID- 28568699
TI  - MASS-FLOWERING OF A TROPICAL SHRUB (HYBANTHUS PRUNIFOLIUS): INFLUENCE ON
      POLLINATOR ATTRACTION AND MOVEMENT.

PMID- 28568700
TI  - SELECTION FOR AMYLASE ALLOZYMES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: A REPLY.

PMID- 28568701
TI  - Joint Meeting of The Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of
      Naturalists Tucson, Arizona June 29-July 2, 1980.

PMID- 28568702
TI  - THE NATURE OF VARIATION IN LIFE HISTORY CHARACTERS OF DYSDERCUS BIMACULATUS
      (HETEROPTERA: PYRRHOCORIDAE), A COLONIZING SPECIES.

PMID- 28568703
TI  - MIMICRY OF MALE BY FEMALE FLOWERS AND INTRASEXUAL COMPETITION FOR POLLINATORS IN
      JACARATIA DOLICHAULA (D. SMITH) WOODSON (CARICACEAE).

PMID- 28568704
TI  - HETEROZYGOTE ADVANTAGE AT THE FRUIT WING LOCUS IN PLECTRITIS CONGESTA
      (VALERIANACEAE).

PMID- 28568705
TI  - Hair analysis for the detection of drug use-is there potential for evasion?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hair analysis for illicit substances is widely used to detect chronic
      drug consumption or abstention from drugs. Testees are increasingly seeking ways
      to avoid detection by using a variety of untested adulterant products (e.g.,
      shampoos, cleansers) widely sold online. This study aims to investigate
      adulteration of hair samples and to assess effectiveness of such methods.
      METHODS: The literature on hair test evasion was searched for on PubMed or
      MEDLINE, Psycinfo, and Google Scholar. Given the sparse nature of peer-reviewed
      data on this subject, results were integrated with a qualitative assessment of
      online sources, including user-orientated information or commercial websites,
      drug fora and "chat rooms". Over four million web sources were identified in a
      Google search by using "beat hair drug test" and the first 86 were monitored on
      regular basis and considered for further analysis. RESULTS: Attempts to influence
      hair test results are widespread. Various "shampoos," and "cleansers" among other
      products, were found for sale, which claim to remove analytes. Often advertised
      with aggressive marketing strategies, which include discounts, testimonials, and
      unsupported claims of efficacy. However, these products may pose serious health
      hazards and are also potentially toxic. In addition, many anecdotal reports
      suggest that Novel Psychoactive Substances are also consumed as an evasion
      technique, as these are not easily detectable via standard drug test. Recent
      changes on Novel Psychoactive Substances legislations such as New Psychoactive
      Bill in the UK might further challenge the testing process. CONCLUSION: Further
      research is needed by way of chemical analysis and trial of the adulterant
      products sold online and their effects as well as the development of more
      sophisticated hair testing techniques.

PMID- 28568706
TI  - Examining Maternal Psychopathology, Family Functioning and Coping Skills in
      Childhood Obesity: A Case-Control Study.
AB  - The shared family environment is an important risk factor in the development of
      childhood obesity. This study aims to examine differences in maternal
      psychopathology, family functioning, expressed emotion and coping skills between
      families of a child with obesity and those with a normal-weight child. This case
      control study consisted of 50 mothers with a child (age 8-12 years) with obesity
      (p >= 97) and a control group of 50 mothers of a child with normal weight (p <
      85), matched for age, sex and socio-economic status. Compared with families with
      normal-weight children, those with children with obesity showed significant
      differences in levels of trait anxiety, criticism and over-protectiveness, and
      maladaptive coping skills. Structural equation modelling revealed that the
      mothers' psychopathology predicted children's body mass index (BMI) z-scores
      through expressed emotion and maladaptive coping scores. There were significant
      direct and indirect relations among maternal BMI, psychopathology, expressed
      emotion and coping, which all together explained 26.5% of variance of children's
      BMI z-scores. Considering this relation between maternal variables and child
      weight status, childhood obesity intervention programs may benefit from targeting
      maternal BMI, psychopathology, expressed emotion and coping skills. Copyright (c)
      2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

PMID- 28568707
TI  - Hemispheric language organization after congenital left brain lesions: A
      comparison between functional transcranial Doppler and functional MRI.
AB  - This study investigated whether functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD)
      is a suitable tool for studying hemispheric lateralization of language in
      patients with pre-perinatal left hemisphere (LH) lesions and right hemiparesis.
      Eighteen left-hemisphere-damaged children and young adults and 18 healthy
      controls were assessed by fTCD and fMRI to evaluate hemispheric activation during
      two language tasks: a fTCD animation description task and a fMRI covert rhyme
      generation task. Lateralization indices (LIs), measured by the two methods,
      differed significantly between the two groups, for a clear LH dominance in
      healthy participants and a prevalent activation of right hemisphere in more than
      80% of brain-damaged patients. Distribution of participants in terms of left,
      right, and bilateral lateralization was highly concordant between fTCD and fMRI
      values. Moreover, right hemisphere language dominance in patients with left
      hemispheric lesions was significantly associated with severity of cortical and
      subcortical damage in LH. This study suggests that fTCD is an easily applicable
      tool that might be a valid alternative to fMRI for large-scale studies of
      patients with congenital brain lesions.

PMID- 28568709
TI  - ASYMMETRIC COMPETITION IN MIXED POPULATIONS OF TADPOLES OF THE HYBRIDOGENETIC:
      RANA ESCULENTA COMPLEX.
AB  - Hybridogenetic Rana esculenta tadpoles display tolerance to extreme environmental
      conditions and fit criteria of the "general-purpose" genotype. A trade-off
      between generality and competitive ability is assumed to occur in asexual
      species, but the evidence remains unclear. The purpose of my experiment was to
      test the competitive ability of hemiclonal hybrid Rana esculenta tadpoles
      relative to the parental species Rana lessonae. Mixed and single genotype
      populations of R. esculenta and R. lessonae tadpoles were reared at three
      densities in artificial ponds. Survival of R. esculenta was higher than for R.
      lessonae tadpoles, but did not differ among densities. Body size at metamorphosis
      was the same between genotypes, but decreased with increasing density. Larval
      period was not affected by density, but R. esculenta tended to metamorphose
      earlier than R. lessonae. Percentage of individuals metamorphosing was higher for
      R. esculenta at both medium and high densities, but the same as R. lessonae at
      the low density. The difference in survival, body size, and larval period between
      tadpoles reared in single and mixed genotype populations was unaffected by
      genotype or density. The difference in the percentage of metamorphs, however, was
      strongly affected. The percentage of hybrids metamorphosing was 9% above the
      responses of single genotype populations at the highest density. Conversely, the
      percentage of R. lessonae metamorphosing was 12% below the responses of single
      genotype populations at the same density. Hybrid success in this experiment
      further supports the criterion of a "general-purpose" genotype without
      assumptions of reduced competitive ability.

PMID- 28568710
TI  - UNIDIRECTIONAL CYTOPLASMIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN THE MOSQUITO, AEDES ALBOPICTUS.

PMID- 28568711
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION IN THE BARN SWALLOW HIRUNDO RUSTICA. III. FEMALE TAIL ORNAMENTS.
AB  - Male secondary sexual characters are often expressed in females, and the
      maintenance of the character in females can be due to either direct selection on
      females favoring the maintenance of the trait, or a correlated response to
      selection in males. Here I report on determinants of and phenotypic selection on
      tail length of female barn swallows Hirundo rustica. The homologous trait in
      males is under strong directional sexual selection. Female tail length was
      positively associated with several reproductive parameters including total
      seasonal reproductive success, even when controlling for year and age effects. A
      change in female tail length from one year to another was often associated with a
      change in the reproductive parameters correlated with absolute tail length. There
      was little evidence for an association between female tail length and the
      duration of the incubation period (only females incubate) and absolute and
      relative female provisioning rates of offspring, and subsequent size of
      offspring. Tail length of female barn swallows was positively correlated with
      that of their mates. Female tail length was a heritable trait as determined from
      regression of the tail trait of offspring on that of their mother and their
      father, and there was a positive genetic correlation between the tail trait in
      males and females. In conclusion, female tail length reliably reflects female
      reproductive potential, and the trait appears to be under directional selection,
      which may result in an evolutionary response to selection because of the
      heritability of the tail trait.

PMID- 28568708
TI  - Prognostic value of Notch receptors in postsurgical patients with hepatitis B
      virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies and a
      major cause of cancer involved death worldwide. Prognosis remains poor because of
      high recurrence rates and lack of effective relapse prevention strategies. Notch
      pathway plays an important role in tumor progression and metastasis, and it is
      associated with the prognosis of cancer. A total of 465 hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      related HCC patients who underwent surgery were enrolled. Single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNP) of Notch pathway receptors were genotyped using Sanger DNA
      sequencing. Kaplan-Meier curves and the Cox proportional hazards regression model
      were adopted to analyze the association of polymorphisms and mRNA expression with
      clinical and pathological features, respectively. Four SNPs (rs1043996 in Notch3
      and rs422951, rs520692, rs3830041 in Notch4) were significantly associated with
      overall survival (OS) (P = 0.023, P = 0.042, P = 0.028, and P = 0.001
      respectively). Patients carrying the AA genotype in rs1043996 and TT/TC genotypes
      in rs422951 and rs520692 significantly decreased risks of death, compared to
      those carrying the AG/GG genotype in rs1043996 and CC genotype in rs422951 and
      rs520692, respectively. Patients carrying the TT genotype in rs3830041 showed
      poorer OS, compared with those carrying the TC/CC genotype. A haplotype block
      (rs422951 was in strong LD with rs520692, r2  = 0.843) was identified in Notch4.
      Notch3 mRNA expression significantly increased in tumor tissue, compared with
      nontumor normal tissue (P < 0.0001). Moreover, higher expression of Notch3 was
      associated with poorer OS (HR = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.32-3.37, P = 0.002) and shorter
      recurrence time of HBV-related HCC (HR = 1.96, 95% CI = 1.31-2.93, P = 0.001).
      Our findings collectively indicate that Notch receptors variants (rs1043996 in
      Notch3 and rs422951, rs520692, rs3830041 in Notch4) are independent predictive
      targets for OS in HBV-related HCC patients. Notch3 expression is a potential
      prognostic biomarker of OS and recurrence-free survival (RFS) prediction in HBV
      related HCC patients following surgical treatment.

PMID- 28568712
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF SHELL FORM OF AN INTERTIDAL SNAIL: CONSTRAINTS ON SHORT
      TERM RESPONSE TO SELECTION.
AB  - We investigated the genetic and environmental determinants of shell form in an
      intertidal snail (Prosobranchia: Littorina sp.) to identify constraints on the
      short-term response to selection. Our quantitative genetic parameters were
      estimated from a half-sib experimental design using 288 broods of snails. Each
      brood was divided into two treatments differing in snail population density, and
      therefore in grazing area per snail. Differences in population density induced
      marked differences in shell form. Snails in the low density treatment grew faster
      and had lighter shells with narrower whorls and narrower apertures than their
      siblings at high density. Despite this environmental plasticity in shell shape we
      found significant additive genetic variance for components of shell shape. We
      discuss two mechanisms that may maintain additive genetic variance for shell
      shape in intertidal snail populations: migration between environments with
      different selective pressures and migration between environments with different
      mean growth rates. We also estimated a genetic variance-covariance matrix for
      shell form traits and used the matrix to identify constraints on the short-term
      response to selection. We predict the rate of response to selection for predator
      resistant morphology such as would occur upon invasion of predatory crabs. The
      large negative genetic correlation between relative spire height and shell weight
      would facilitate simultaneous selection for a lower spire and a heavier shell,
      both of which would increase resistance to predatory crabs.

PMID- 28568713
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION FOR INCREASED MALE COURTSHIP AND ACOUSTIC SIGNALS AND AGAINST
      LARGE MALE SIZE AT SHARP-TAILED GROUSE LEKS.

PMID- 28568714
TI  - THE ACCURACY OF PHYLOGENETIC ESTIMATION USING THE NEIGHBOR-JOINING METHOD.
AB  - We studied the factors affecting the accuracy of the neighbor-joining (NJ) method
      for estimating phylogenies by simulating character change under different
      evolutionary models applied to twenty different 8-OTU tree topologies that varied
      widely with respect to tree imbalance and stemminess. The models incorporated
      three evolutionary rates-constant, varying among lineages, varying among
      characters-and three evolutionary contexts concerning patterns of character
      change relative to speciation events-phyletic, speciational, and punctuational.
      All combinations of the rate and context models were studied. In addition, three
      different absolute rates of change were investigated. To measure the accuracy,
      the strict consensus index was computed between the estimated tree and the tree
      topology along which the data had been generated. The results were analyzed by
      analysis of variance and compared to a previous study that evaluated UPGMA
      clustering and maximum parsimony (MP) as phylogenetic estimation techniques. We
      found evolutionary context and tree imbalance to be the most important factors
      affecting the accuracy of the NJ method. NJ was more accurate than UPGMA or MP in
      terms of the average strict consensus index over all treatments. However, no one
      method was more accurate than the other two for all combinations of treatments.
      Higher absolute rate of change generally resulted in higher accuracy for all
      three methods.

PMID- 28568715
TI  - SPECIES RECOGNITION AND SEXUAL SELECTION AS A UNITARY PROBLEM IN ANIMAL
      COMMUNICATION.
AB  - We investigated patterns of mating call preference and mating call recognition by
      examining phonotaxis of female tungara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, in response
      to conspecific and heterospecific calls. There are four results: females always
      prefer conspecific calls; most heterospecific calls do not elicit phonotaxis;
      some heterospecific calls do elicit phonotaxis and thus are effective mate
      recognition signals; and females prefer conspecific calls to which a component of
      a heterospecific call has been added to a normal conspecific call. We use these
      data to illustrate how concepts of species recognition and sexual selection can
      be understood in a unitary framework by comparing the distribution of signal
      traits to female preference functions.

PMID- 28568716
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN TWO MIMULUS TAXA MEASURED BY MULTIGENERATIONAL CHANGES
      IN THE INBREEDING COEFFICIENT.
AB  - In mixed-mating plant populations, one can estimate the relative fitness of
      selfed progeny w by measuring the inbreeding coefficient F and selfing rate s of
      adults of one generation, together with F of adults in the following generation
      (after selection). In the first application of this multigenerational method, we
      estimated F and s for adults over three consecutive generations in adjacent
      populations of two annual Mimulus taxa: the outbreeding M. guttatus and the
      inbreeding M. platycalyx. This gave estimates of w for the last two generations.
      Although average multilocus selfing rates were high in both taxa (0.63 in M.
      guttatus; 0.84 in M. platycalyx), the relative fitness of selfed progeny averaged
      only 0.19 in M. guttatus and 0.32 in M. platycalyx. An alternative estimator for
      w that incorporates biparental inbreeding gave even lower estimates of w. These
      values are significantly below the 0.5 threshold thought to favor selfing, and
      show that partially selfing populations can harbor substantial genetic load. In
      accordance with the purging hypothesis, the more highly selfing M. platycalyx
      showed marginally lower inbreeding depression than M. guttatus in both years (P =
      0.08). Inbreeding depression and selfing rates also varied among years in concert
      among taxa. Several sources of bias are discussed, but computer simulations
      indicate it is unlikely that w is biased downwards by linkage of marker loci to
      load loci.

PMID- 28568717
TI  - SYNERGISTIC SELECTION OF UNPALATABILITY IN PLANTS.

PMID- 28568718
TI  - ARE WARNING COLORS HANDICAPS?
AB  - The handicap theory, in which the cost of waste guarantees honest advertising, is
      being used increasingly in solutions to the problems of biological signal
      evolution. However, it is usually applied to systems which are insufficiently
      understood to allow testing against alternative theories. In particular, the
      ability of the handicap theory to explain the design of signals has never been
      properly tested. We test its ability to explain signal design features in an
      unusually well studied area of biological signalling: warning coloration and
      mimicry. Since a full handicap model proves immediately unrealistic, we modify
      the model to incorporate realistic assumptions about predator learning. Using
      this model we explicitly compare the handicap theory with a purely "conventional"
      signalling model and with a null model. Predictions relating to three key design
      features (conspicuousness, pattern similarity, and Batesian mimicry) are
      compared, and tested against available data. Although many predictions remain to
      be tested adequately, we conclude that: (i) conspicuousness is most plausibly
      explained by the conventional signalling theory that ascribes the function of
      conspicuous coloration to signal efficacy rather than waste; (ii) pattern
      similarity, within and between species, is unlikely to be the result of the need
      to produce similar degrees of conspicuousness, as predicted by the handicap
      theory, but is plausibly explained as the result of pattern generalization
      amongst discriminating predators, as predicted by the conventional signalling
      theory; and (iii) Batesian mimicry is predicted by the conventional signalling
      theory, but not the handicap theory. Therefore the handicap theory fails to
      provide an adequate explanation of the main design features of at least one major
      signalling system.

PMID- 28568719
TI  - PHAGE-MEDIATED SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION AND MAINTENANCE OF RESTRICTION
      MODIFICATION.
AB  - Restriction-modification (R-M) was discovered because it provides bacteria with
      immunity to phage infection. But, is phage-mediated selection the sole mechanism
      responsible for the evolution and maintenance of these ubiquitous and multiply
      evolved systems? In an effort to answer this question, we have performed
      experiments with laboratory populations of E. coli and phage and computer
      simulations. We consider two ecological situations whereby phage-mediated
      selection could favor R-M immunity; i) when bacteria with a novel R-M system
      invade communities of phage-sensitive bacteria in which there are one or more
      species of phage, and ii) when bacteria colonize bacterial-free habitats in which
      phage are present. The results of our experiments indicate that in established
      communities of bacteria and phage, the advantage R-M provides an invading
      population of bacteria is ephemeral. Within short order, mutants resistant
      (refractory) to the phage evolve in the dominant population and subsequently in
      the invading population. The outcome of competition then depends on the relative
      fitness of the resistant states of these bacterial clones, rather than R-M. As a
      consequence of sequential selection for independent mutants, this rapid evolution
      of resistance occurs even when two and three species of phage are present. While
      in our experiments resistance also evolved when bacteria colonized new habitats
      in which phage were present, a novel R-M system greatly augmented the likelihood
      of their becoming established. We interpret the results of this study as support
      for the hypothesis that the latter, colonization selection, may play an important
      role in the evolution and maintenance of restriction-modification. However, we
      also see these results and other observations we discuss as questioning whether
      protection against phage is the unique biological role of restriction
      modification.

PMID- 28568720
TI  - THE MOLECULAR CLOCK AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPULATION SIZE AND GENERATION
      TIME.

PMID- 28568721
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN A RESOURCE-RICH, STRUCTURED ENVIRONMENT:
      SELECTION EXPERIMENTS WITH MEDAKA (ORYZIAS LATIPES).
AB  - Schooling and aggression in fish are known to be partially inherited traits.
      Their genetic relationship to growth rate and to each other is, however, not
      fully understood. In this study we present evidence that schooling, social
      tolerance, and agonistic behavior in medaka (Oryzias latipes) are altered as an
      indirect result of selection on growth in two environments that differed in the
      intensity of social interactions required to obtain access to food. In the high
      interaction environment food was provided to excess inside a floating cork ring,
      which limited access to the food and allowed fish to attempt to monopolize it. In
      the low interaction environment the same amount of food was spread over the
      container's surface. After two generations of selection on growth the correlation
      of agonistic behavior and mean growth of broods was negative in the line selected
      for fast growth, when selection took place in a high interaction environment, but
      not when it took place in a low interaction environment. School cohesion was
      higher in the lines selected for fast growth than in those selected for slow
      growth when selection and rearing environments were both the same, either high or
      low interaction, but not when they were different. The correlation of social
      tolerance with growth was significantly more positive in the line selected for
      fast growth than in that selected for slow growth, but only when selection took
      place under high social interaction. It appears from these experiments that when
      resources are aggregated, but unlimited in quantity, competition favors
      individuals that avoid wasting time and energy on unnecessary and ultimately
      futile attempts to monopolize food and that also exhibit higher tolerance of
      nearby conspecifics. The results are interpreted in terms of a hypothesized
      stimulus-response threshold level for agonistic responses to conspecifics. We
      suggest that this threshold, which is altered by selection on growth, could
      provide a common causal (genetic) link between growth and the observed aspects of
      social behavior. By combining the probabilities from the separate behavioral
      experiments to obtain an overall significance of our hypothesis we conclude that
      the probability of no change in threshold is in fact low (P < 0.01).

PMID- 28568722
TI  - HYBRID ZONE DYNAMICS ARE INFLUENCED BY GENOTYPE-SPECIFIC VARIATION IN LIFE
      HISTORY TRAITS: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM HYBRIDIZING GAMBUSIA SPECIES.
AB  - Results from two experiments are presented that contrast differences in life
      history traits and population dynamics between two species of live bearing fishes
      (Gambusia affinis and G. holbrooki) that hybridize across portions of the
      southeastern United States. Progeny from parental holbrooki and holbrooki-affinis
      F1 crosses exhibited larger lengths at birth, at 15 days, and matured earlier,
      and at larger size than did progeny from parental affinis and affinis-holbrooki
      F1 crosses. Comparisons of experimental populations of affinis, holbrooki, and
      mixed (affinis + holbrooki) species composition followed over two years revealed
      that affinis populations consistently exhibited smaller population size, lower
      carrying capacity, lower recruitment, and larger over-winter mortality than did
      holbrooki or mixed populations. Evidence for density-dependent reductions in
      fecundity and concomitant increases in juvenile mortality rates were observed in
      all populations, but were most pronounced for affinis populations. Genotype
      specific differences in life-history traits appear to confer differential
      advantage to offspring of parental holbrooki origin and F, progeny of holbrooki
      maternal parentage given the resource availability and the age structure and
      densities experienced during these experiments. Results have direct implications
      regarding the rate and direction of evolution within hybrid zones formed by these
      two species.

PMID- 28568723
TI  - PATTERNS OF PHENOTYPIC AND GENETIC CORRELATIONS AMONG MORPHOLOGICAL AND LIFE
      HISTORY TRAITS IN WILD RADISH, RAPHANUS RAPHANISTRUM.

PMID- 28568724
TI  - THE SKELETON SPACE: A FINITE SET OF ORGANIC DESIGNS.
AB  - The structures of animal skeletons converge repeatedly on a limited number of
      architectural designs that can be constructed by growing organisms and that are
      functionally viable, although often not optimal. Properties of materials,
      construction rules that determine patterns of development, and physical
      constraints exerted by the requirements of function suggest that organic
      structure must necessarily approach these recurrent elements of design. A set of
      potential designs for the elements of animal skeletons is derived in terms of
      geometric and construction rules and the properties of materials. Skeletons of
      actual living and extinct organisms are matched with the possibilities defined
      within this theoretical morphospace. This provides a metric of skeletal
      complexity and of the extent to which various groups of animals have been able to
      exploit the range of possibilities of organic structure. These analyses show that
      the most evolutionarily advanced animals within a given phylum do not have the
      most complex skeletons; that arthropods are less morphologically diverse than
      vertebrates and molluscs; that the physical constraints of life on land and in
      the air substantially limit the variety of skeletal structures suitable for life
      in these environments; and that overall the range of possible skeletal designs
      has been very fully exploited by living and extinct organisms. These results
      strongly support the hypothesis that the essential elements of organic design are
      inherent in the material properties of the universe. The organizational
      properties of animal skeletons suggest that their design elements are fixed point
      attractors, structures that we characterize as topological attractors that
      evolution cannot avoid.

PMID- 28568725
TI  - LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF LONGEVITY AND REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS COMPONENTS IN MALE
      FRUIT FLIES: MATING ABILITY.
AB  - Populations of Drosophila melanogaster that had been selected for divergent rates
      of senescence were compared with respect to age-specific male mating ability. The
      competitive mating ability of males from populations with delayed senescence was
      inferior to that of males from populations with higher rates of senescence when
      males were young. This relationship was reversed when males were older. For
      noncompetitive mating ability and for recovery of fertility after an exhaustive
      mating bout, there was no difference between populations with different rates of
      senescence when males were young. However when males were older, flies from
      populations selected for delayed senescence again had superior mating ability.
      Thus, rates of male reproductive senescence can be altered in predictable ways by
      natural selection. The results for the competitive mating tests are consistent
      with the hypothesis that antagonistic gene action between early- and late-life
      fitness components influences the evolution of senescence in these populations.

PMID- 28568726
TI  - ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC MATERNAL EFFECTS ON SEED CHARACTERS IN NEMOPHILA
      MENZIESII.
AB  - Nuclear genetic, maternal genetic and maternal environmental effects on seed
      characters were estimated in the California native annual plant Nemophila
      menziesii using two greenhouse crosses. In one cross, according to a nested
      mating design, the narrow sense heritability of seed weight was small (3.9%). A
      subset of full-sib progenies produced in this cross was grown singly and in
      competition with the introduced grass Bromus diandrus. In a second cross, these
      plants were used as mothers (dams) and were each mated to the same three sires.
      Seeds produced by mothers competing with B. diandrus showed a significant
      reduction in weight, increase in time to germination, and increase in the
      incidence of dormancy, when compared to seeds from mothers grown singly.
      Significant sire components were found for time to germination and incidence of
      dormancy. Maternal genetic variation for seed weight was largely expressed as
      maternal genotype by maternal environment interaction, and showed no significant
      maternal genetic main effect. Time to germination and dormant fraction showed a
      relatively large maternal genetic effect. Evolution of seed characters in N.
      menziesii is more likely to occur via indirect response to selection among
      maternal plants than among the seeds themselves. Maternal genotype by maternal
      environment interaction could potentially contribute to the maintenance of
      maternal genetic variation in seed weight, but this does not appear likely for
      dormancy.

PMID- 28568727
TI  - FURTHER EVIDENCE AGAINST MEIOTIC-DRIVE MODELS OF HYBRID STERILITY.

PMID- 28568728
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY EFFECTS OF SELECTION ON AGE AT REPRODUCTION IN LARVAL AND ADULT:
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.
AB  - Two sets of three replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster were artificially
      selected by reproduction at either a 'young' or an 'old' age. The pure lines, the
      hybrids between the lines within a selection regimen and the base stock from
      which the lines were derived were compared for longevity, early and late
      fertility, development time, larval viability and adult thorax length. Comparison
      of hybrid with pure lines showed some evidence for inbreeding depression in the
      lines from both selection regimes. Comparison of hybrid lines with the base stock
      did not provide evidence for any trade-off in either males or females between
      early fertility on the one hand and late life fertility and longevity on the
      other. Nor was there any clear evidence of a trade-off between pre-adult and
      adult fitness components. There was evidence of inadvertent selection for rapid
      development in both selection regimens, especially in the females of the 'young'
      lines, and this complicated the interpretation of the responses and correlated
      responses to selection. An improvement in adult performance in the 'old' line
      males relative to the base stock appeared to be attributable to reversal of
      mutation accumulation. Comparison of the hybrid 'young' and 'old' lines with the
      base stock did not support the idea that the superior longevity and late life
      fertility of the 'old' lines relative to the 'young' lines could be accounted for
      by the effects of mutation accumulation in the 'young' lines. The results point
      to the need to compare selected lines with their base stock when deducing
      responses and correlated responses to selection and to avoid unintentional
      selection. In this type of experiment, larval density should be standardized
      during selection, and adults should not be under pressure for rapid maturation.

PMID- 28568729
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND COVARIATION FOR CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH CADMIUM
      TOLERANCE IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE SPRINGTAIL ORCHESELLA CINCTA (L.).
AB  - Heavy metals can be strong and stable directional selective agents for metal
      exposed populations. Genetic variation for the metal-tolerance characteristic
      "cadmium excretion efficiency" was studied in populations of the collembolan
      Orchesella cincta from a reference- and a metal-contaminated forest soil.
      Previously it has been shown that "excretion efficiency" influences tolerance
      through midgut-mediated immobilization and excretion of toxic metal ions, and
      that an increased mean excretion efficiency is present in animals inhabiting
      metal-contaminated litter. In the present research, offspring-parent regressions
      showed that additive genetic variation for cadmium excretion efficiency was
      present in the population from the reference site. The heritability estimate was
      0.33. In the natural population exposed to heavy metals from an industrial
      source, additive genetic variation was not significantly different from zero.
      Differences in the heritability between the reference and the exposed population
      were not significant. Genetic variation for cadmium excretion efficiency allows
      for a response to selection in the reference population. Such a response has
      probably occurred in the metal-exposed population. Half-sib analysis with animals
      from the reference population was used to estimate genetic variation and maternal
      effects for excretion efficiency, relative growth rate and molting frequency, and
      to determine genetic correlations between these characteristics. Additive genetic
      variation was demonstrated for all three characteristics, heritability estimates
      were 0.48, 0.75 and 0.46, respectively. Maternal effects were low for excretion
      efficiency and molting frequency, but may be present for relative growth rate.
      Phenotypic and genetic correlations among these characteristics were positive.
      The environmental correlation between relative growth rate and molting frequency
      was positive, others were negative. Direct selection for any of the
      characteristics, or genetic correlations between tolerance characteristics and
      growth characteristics, or both may have caused the responses previously observed
      in field populations.

PMID- 28568730
TI  - NEPOTISM IN A SOLITARY WASP AS REVEALED BY DNA FINGERPRINTING.

PMID- 28568731
TI  - MACROEVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSIFICATION AMONG PARASITIC
      FLATWORMS (PLATYHELMINTHES: CERCOMERIA).
AB  - Patterns of parasite morphological diversification were investigated using a
      morphological data base for the parasitic platyhelminths comprising 1,459
      characters analyzed using phylogenetic systematic methods. Only 10.8% of the
      1,882 character transformations are losses, casting doubt on views that parasites
      are secondarily simplified and exhibit degenerate evolution. Chi-squared analysis
      indicates that character loss in the Digenea and Monogenea occurs in proportion
      to total change and is disproportionately lower within the Eucestoda. In the
      Digenea fewer female characters and more male characters have been lost than
      expected by the total number of characters in that group, and more male and more
      nonreproductive characters have been lost in proportion to their distribution
      across groups. In the Monogenea fewer nonreproductive and more larval characters
      have been lost than expected within the group, and female character loss is high
      relative to other groups. In the Eucestoda fewer female and more larval
      characters have been lost than expected within the group, whereas loss of male
      and nonreproductive character is low, and loss of larval characters is high,
      compared to the other groups. Patterns of character loss result partially from
      characters that show repeated (homoplasious) loss in different groups. High
      consistency index and low homoplasy slope ratio values indicate that the
      parasitic platyhelminths show unusually low levels of homoplasy, casting doubt on
      views that parasite morphology is unusually adaptively plastic. Homoplasy within
      the monogeneans occurs in proportion to overall character change, is slightly
      higher than expected in the digeneans, and is much lower than expected within the
      eucestodes. Homoplasy occurs less often than expected in larval characters, and
      more often than expected in nonreproductive characters in the Digenea.
      Monogeneans show more homoplasy than expected for larval characters both within
      and among groups. Eucestodes show fewer homoplasious male and nonreproductive,
      and more homoplasious larval, characters than expected within the group, and
      higher homoplasy in larval characters and lower homoplasy in female and
      nonreproductive characters among groups.

PMID- 28568732
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN HYDROPHYLLUM APPENDICULATUM: ROLE OF MATERNAL EFFECTS,
      CROWDING, AND PARENTAL MATING HISTORY.
AB  - This paper examines several aspects of the expression of inbreeding depression in
      an outcrossing, obligately biennial plant, Hydrophyllum appendiculatum
      (Hydrophyllaceae). The amount of inbreeding depression detected was small during
      the first year of life but increased with age and had significant effects on
      adult size and reproductive traits. The lack of significant inbreeding depression
      during early growth is likely due to the overriding influence of maternal
      environmental effects on seed size and seedling growth. However, as maternal
      effects decreased with age, the seedling's own genotype became a more important
      determinant of its fate. To examine whether the expression of inbreeding
      depression was sensitive to ecological conditions, selfed and outcrossed
      seedlings were grown alone or with other H. appendiculatum seedlings. No
      inbreeding depression was detected in the plants grown alone. In contrast, under
      competitive conditions, outcrossed seedlings were significantly larger than
      selfed seedlings by the end of the first growing season. To address whether
      parental mating history influences the amount of inbreeding depression expressed,
      I examined the consequences of two successive generations of selfing on seed set
      and seed weight. The amount of inbreeding depression increased following the
      second generation of selfing. In the first generation, seed set and seed weight
      differed by less than 5% between selfed and outcrossed progeny. However, both
      traits were 15% greater for outcrossed plants after two generations. These
      results indicate that the alleles responsible for the reductions in these traits
      were not purged and suggest the action of multiple loci with deleterious effects.

PMID- 28568733
TI  - THE EFFECT OF BIRTH DATE ON FITNESS OF FEMALE DWARF PERCH, MICROMETRUS MINIMUS
      (PERCIFORMES: EMBIOTOCIDAE).
AB  - Lifetime reproductive success may vary considerably with birth date. I measured
      phenotypic selection on female birth date in a viviparous teleost fish
      (Embiotocidae: Micrometrus minimus) by sampling birth-date cohorts over time in
      Tomales Bay, California. Four episodes of selection were measured: survival from
      birth to first reproduction, reproductive success in the first breeding season,
      survival to second reproduction, and reproductive success in the second season.
      Birth date had a significant impact on fitness in the first two episodes. Early
      born females were more successful in their first breeding season than late born
      females (directional selection on birth date), but early born females were less
      likely to survive the period between birth and first reproduction, relative to
      females born in the middle of the season (stabilizing selection on birth date).
      The final two episodes of selection had no detectable effect on birth date.
      Because of the relationship between birth date and survival in the first year,
      overall selection on female birth date was stabilizing.

PMID- 28568734
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA IN GASTEROSTEUS AND PLEISTOCENE GLACIAL REFUGIUM ON THE QUEEN
      CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, BRITISH COLUMBIA.

PMID- 28568735
TI  - FOUNDER-FLUSH SPECIATION IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA: A LARGE-SCALE EXPERIMENT.
AB  - A founder-flush-crash model of speciation has been proposed that may particularly
      apply to island and other colonizations. Previous laboratory experiments testing
      the model have given inconsistent results. We have conducted a large experiment
      with Drosophila pseudoobscura designed to meet the essential postulates of the
      model and to separately test some of the postulates. Forty-five experimental and
      12 control populations have been studied during seven successive founder-flush
      crash cycles, or about 50 generations. Sexual isolation tests yield significantly
      positive assortative mating in a few tests between pairs of experimental
      populations. Populations with fewer founders (N = 1 or 3) yield more significant
      instances of assortative mating than those with more founders (n = 5, 7, or 9),
      and this difference becomes statistically significant for pooled data. Only one
      of 15 population pairs tested three times (generations 25, 32, and 46) shows
      positive assortative mating in all three tests. No significant assortative mating
      occurs between control populations, including highly inbred ones. We conclude
      that although founder events may occasionally lead to the evolution of
      assortative mating and hence to speciation, our results do not support the claim
      that the founder-flush-crash model identifies conditions very likely to result in
      speciation events.

PMID- 28568736
TI  - PHENOTYPIC CORRELATION STRUCTURE AMONG ELEMENTS OF THE COLOR PATTERN IN PRECIS
      COENIA (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE).
AB  - The component parts of butterfly wing patterns are arranged in sets of serially
      homologous pattern elements, repeated from wing cell to wing cell. Measurements
      were made on the sizes and positions of these elements on two successive,
      independent, sets of specimens in order to elucidate the phenotypic correlation
      structure among pattern elements. That portion of the correlation between
      measures due to overall size variation was accounted for through two alternate
      methods: multiple regression on two vein length measures, which represent wing
      size, and a Wright-style factor analysis. The sizes of pattern elements belonging
      to a homologous series were found to be significantly correlated whereas those of
      non-homologous elements varied independently. The degree of correlation among
      homologs varied, and, in the case of eyespot sizes, appeared to be inversely
      related to the degree of their morphological divergence. Although not correlated
      in size, the positions of non-homologous elements that lie within the same wing
      cell are moderately correlated. The results support current developmental models
      for the ontogeny of butterfly color pattern.

PMID- 28568737
TI  - AN APPLICATION OF THE NEUTRAL MODEL TO THE EVOLUTION OF TAIL LENGTH IN THE GENUS
      EUPLECTES (AVES, PLOCEIDAE).

PMID- 28568738
TI  - VARIATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENOTYPIC SEX-DETERMINING MECHANISMS ACROSS A
      LATITUDINAL GRADIENT IN THE FISH, MENIDIA MENIDIA.
AB  - Models of environmental sex determination (ESD) usually assume that genetic
      influences on sex are polygenic, but the validity of this (or any other) form of
      genotype-environment interaction is virtually unknown. In the Atlantic
      silverside, Menidia menidia, sex is determined by an interaction between
      temperature and genotype and the response of sex ratio to temperature differs
      among populations from different latitudes. We examined the genetic basis of this
      pattern by measuring among family variation in the proportion of females, F/(F +
      M), within and among high (21 degrees C) and low (15 degrees C) temperatures for
      two populations: one from Nova Scotia (NS) where the level of ESD is low, and
      another from South Carolina (SC) where the level of ESD is high. In NS fish,
      temperature had a significant influence on sex ratio in only 1 of 23 families.
      The distribution of the fraction of females within temperatures for families from
      NS was highly heterogeneous and tended to fall into distinct classes (0.0, 0.25,
      0.5, 1.0) like that expected from Mendelian segregation of a major sex factor(s).
      In contrast, temperature had a highly significant influence on sex ratio in all
      SC families examined (N = 24). Family sex ratios within temperatures were highly
      heterogeneous and, at least at 15 degrees C, did not conform to simple Mendelian
      ratios. At 21 degrees C, the proportion of females in most SC families was near
      zero and so the underlying sex tendencies of different families could not be
      discerned. Based on a previous study, mid-latitude fish appear to have an
      intermediate form of sex determination: simple Mendelian sex-ratio patterns exist
      and there is a moderate thermal influence on sex ratio in most but not all
      families. We suggest that sex determination in M. menidia is controlled by an
      interaction between major genetic factors, polygenic factors, and temperature and
      that the relative importance of each component differs with latitude. High
      latitude populations appear to have evolved a major sex-determining factor(s)
      that overrides the effect of temperature, and this factor(s) is lacking in low
      latitude populations.

PMID- 28568739
TI  - MATERNAL INHERITANCE OF CONDITION AND CLUTCH SIZE IN THE COLLARED FLYCATCHER.
AB  - Maternal effects may strongly influence evolutionary response to natural
      selection but they have been little studied in the wild. We use a novel
      combination of experimental and statistical methods to estimate maternal effects
      on condition and clutch size in the collared flycatcher, where we define
      "condition" to be the nongenetic component of clutch size. We found evidence of
      two maternal effects. The first (m) was the negative effect of mother's clutch
      size on daughter's condition, when mother's condition was held constant. The
      second (M) was the positive effect of mother's condition on daughter's condition,
      when mother clutch size was held constant. These two effects oppose one another
      because mothers in good condition also lay many eggs. The maternal effects were
      large: Experimentally adding an egg to a mother's nest reduced clutch sizes of
      her daughters by 1/4 egg (i.e., m = -0.25). Measured degree of resemblance
      between mother and daughter clutch sizes yielded M = 0.43. The results weakly
      support the presence of heritable genetic variation in clutch size: additive
      genetic variance/total phenotypic variance = 0.33. This estimate was highly
      variable probably because, as we show, mother-daughter resemblance may depend
      hardly at all on the amount of genetic variance when maternal effects are
      present. Daughter-mother regression (a standard method for estimating
      heritability) is consequently a poor guide to the amount of genetic variance in
      clutch size. Our results emphasize the value of combining field experiments with
      observations for studying inheritance.

PMID- 28568740
TI  - Dynamics of binary mixtures of an ionic liquid and ethanol by NMR.
AB  - A study of molecular dynamics of the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
      bis(trifluoro-methylsulphonyl)imide ([Emim][Tf2N]) in solution with deuterated
      ethanol at different molar concentration and temperatures is presented. The study
      was performed using 1 H and 2 H nuclear magnetic relaxation and 2 H 1D
      spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation time T1
      of the cations allows the evaluation of the activation energies of the rotational
      degree of freedom of these molecules. The viscosity in the binary system
      increases with the concentration of ionic liquid. However, the activation energy
      in the cation molecules decreases when the concentration of the ionic liquid
      increases, indicating that the rotational dynamics is facilitated. This behavior
      is explained from the fact that the presence of the ionic liquid in the system
      disrupts the degree of intermediate range order expected in the alcohol system.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568741
TI  - Birth Defects: Etiology, screening, and detection.

PMID- 28568742
TI  - Chromosome copy number variants in fetuses with syndromic malformations.
AB  - Chromosome copy number variants (CNVs; gains and losses of DNA sequences >1 kb)
      are wide-spread throughout the genome of healthy individuals. Laboratory studies
      show that a subset of CNVs are pathogenic, and not only can be responsible for
      the pathogenesis of major birth defects and cancer, but are also associated with
      neurodevelopmental disorders at birth. The characteristics of the pathogenic
      microdeletions and microduplications are important for both clinical implications
      and genetic counselling regarding test selection for prenatal screening and
      diagnosis. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the phenotypic effects of most CNV is
      still minimal, leading to the classification of many CNVs as "genomic imbalances
      of unknown clinical significance". Microdeletions and microduplications can occur
      in all pregnancies and the spectrum of pathogenic CNVs in fetuses with syndromic
      malformations is not well studied. This review summarizes our current
      understanding of CNVs, the common detection methods, and the characteristics of
      pathogenic CNVs identified in fetuses with syndromic malformations. Birth Defects
      Research 109:725-733, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28568743
TI  - Interventions for treatment and/or prevention of alcohol hangover: Systematic
      review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate new research conducted over the past few years (2009-2016)
      assessing the effectiveness of potentially curative and/or preventive methods of
      alcohol hangover. METHODS: Data were retrieved by a 4-stage systematic search
      process. A search of the online Pubmed and Scopus databases were performed, using
      a combination of keywords: "Alcohol," "Ethanol," and "C2 H5 OH," in combination
      with the terms "Hangover," "Treatment," and "Prevention." The search comprised
      studies listed between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2016. Findings were
      synthesized using a systematic approach. Quantitative analysis was not done
      because of the heterogeneity of the included studies. RESULTS: Six controlled
      human studies were identified (placebo controlled-3, controlled studies with a
      comparator intervention-3). Of the interventions, the use of polysaccharide rich
      extract of Acanthopanax senticosus, red ginseng antihangover drink, Korean pear
      juice, KSS formula, and the After-Effect(c) were associated with a significant
      improvement of hangover symptoms (p < .05). The highest improvement was observed
      for the following symptoms: tiredness, nausea/vomiting, and stomachache. None of
      the methods were effective for all the symptoms. CONCLUSION: The available
      evidence suggests that several products are capable of significantly improving
      some, but not all, of the symptoms related to alcohol hangover. Therefore,
      further research is necessary to develop clinically effective hangover
      treatments.

PMID- 28568744
TI  - Structured risk assessment for reduction of multiple risk outcomes in a secure
      mental health setting: Use of the START.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Structured risk assessment is commonly used in secure settings to aid
      prediction and prevention of risky behaviours; the expected benefits have rarely
      been investigated. AIMS: The aim of the study is to determine whether adverse
      outcomes (physical and verbal aggression, self-harm, victimisation, self-neglect,
      unauthorised leave and substance abuse) reduced after patients were assessed with
      the Short-term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START). METHODS: In a
      naturalistic study, anonymised demographic and clinical information was collected
      from 50 male patients. Data included START assessment and frequency of target
      behaviour for 3 months before and after first assessment. Chi-square and linear
      mixed models analyses were used to determine whether there was any change in the
      behaviours of interest. RESULTS: There were no significant changes in physical or
      verbal aggression over time, although a tendency towards fewer incidents was
      apparent. Other adverse behaviours were very infrequent at baseline, precluding
      adequate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In this small sample, START did not achieve its
      primary purpose of significant reduction in adverse behaviours. Although our
      sample size was informed by a power calculation, we may have over-estimated the
      size of anticipated change. Further, the 3-month comparison periods before and
      after the assessment follow-up period were rather short. Accordingly, we
      recommend more research on the value of this tool in practice rather than
      discontinuing its use. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568745
TI  - Effect of resin infiltration on the color and microhardness of bleached white
      spot lesions in bovine enamel (an in vitro study).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate both the effect of resin
      infiltration on the color and microhardness of white spot lesions (WSLs) that
      treated with bleaching and to analyze the penetration of the infiltrant.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In each of 135 bovine enamel specimens, WSLs were
      produced. The samples were then randomly divided into three groups (n = 45):
      group I, bleached; group II, resin-infiltrated; group III, bleached and resin
      infiltrated. The specimens were subjected to a pH-cycling regime for four weeks.
      The color and microhardness were measured at the baseline, after production of
      WSLs, after the treatments. The color alteration (DeltaE*) and the percentage of
      surface microhardness recovery (SMHR) were calculated. The penetration of the
      infiltrant was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy. Results were analyzed
      with analysis of variance, Shapiro-Wilk, Tukey's, Kruskal-Wallis and Conover-Dunn
      tests (P = .05). RESULTS: The SMHR% in resin infiltration groups was
      significantly higher than that of the bleached group only (P < .05). Bleaching
      treatment prior to resin infiltration produced no significant change in the
      microhardness (P > .05). Using a bleaching treatment prior to resin infiltration
      produced significant color alteration (P < .05). The penetration of the resin
      infiltrant was deepest in-group II. CONCLUSIONS: The resin infiltration enhanced
      the microhardness of the WSLs regardless of whether or not a bleaching treatment
      was used. Using a bleaching treatment before resin infiltration resulted in color
      alteration, and it was also found to negatively influence the penetration of the
      infiltrant.

PMID- 28568746
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL QUANTITATIVE GENETICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF ONTOGENIES.
AB  - A model is presented which permits integration of developmental information into
      genetic discussions about evolutionary change in morphology. Development of a
      trait is described in terms of an ontogenetic trajectory whose properties are
      defined by a small number of parameters. Some evolutionary aspects of development
      are examined from the perspective of this quantitative genetic model. Particular
      attention is given to the developmental origin of pleiotropic effects,
      developmental constraints, heterochrony, and the growth and morphogenesis of
      complex morphologies. The role of genetic maternal effects in mammalian
      development is briefly examined, particularly as it relates to selection on
      developmental traits.

PMID- 28568747
TI  - THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF HYPERCARBIA IN THE TRANSITION FROM WATER-BREATHING TO AIR
      BREATHING IN VERTEBRATES.

PMID- 28568749
TI  - REPEATABILITY AND HERITABILITY OF CLUTCH SIZE IN LESSER SNOW GEESE.

PMID- 28568748
TI  - LIMITED DISPERSAL AND PROXIMITY-DEPENDENT MATING SUCCESS IN THE COLONIAL ASCIDIAN
      BOTRYLLUS SCHLOSSERI.
AB  - Although the propagules of many sessile organisms have the capacity to disperse
      over large distances, dispersal is often spatially restricted. In this paper, I
      document, using a combination of mark/recapture techniques and histocompatibility
      assays, dispersal distance of the planktonic larvae of the sessile, colonial sea
      squirt Botryllus schlosseri. Both of these methods indicate that most larvae
      remain within a meter of their birthplace. Such limited dispersal should lead to
      increased matings among relatives, and the potential for inbreeding depression.
      However, the success of: 1) fertilization, 2) embryogenesis, and 3) larval
      metamorphosis all decrease as distance between mated colonies increases. The
      spatial scale over which this decrease in mating success occurs is concordant
      with the estimates of dispersal distance based on the larval mark/recapture data
      and histocompatibility assays. Taken together, these results imply that
      inbreeding depression is not a necessary consequence of limited dispersal and
      consanguineous matings in B. schlosseri.

PMID- 28568750
TI  - HOLDING ON BY THEIR HOOKS: ANCHORS FOR WORMS.
AB  - We examined the hooked setae of a dominant group of tube-dwellers, the polychaete
      annelids, and found a pattern of setation that is predictable by tube type,
      exclusive of worm taxon or orientation; we also demonstrated the mechanical
      significance of these hooked setae. When tube-dwelling worms belonging to
      different lineages are pressurized, they resist differentially as a function of
      the direction in which hooks face. The results are consistent with the hypothesis
      that hooks are used primarily to resist removal of worms from their tubes, are
      polyphyletic in origin, and are active agents of resistance.

PMID- 28568751
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND COVARIATION IN RESPONSES TO HOST PLANTS BY ALSOPHILA
      POMETARIA (LEPIDOPTERA: GEOMETRIDAE).
AB  - Progeny of uncommon parthenogenetic genotypes of the polyphagous geometric
      Alsophila pometaria were reared on four host plant species representing the same
      genus, different confamilial genera, and different families. On the supposition
      that uncommon asexual genotypes have arisen recently from the sympatric sexual
      population, they may be viewed as a representation of variation in the sexual
      population that has been captured by parthenogenesis. In both the laboratory and
      the field, significant effects of genotype, host, and their interaction were
      found for survival. Live weight displayed significant effects of genotype, host,
      and genotype x host interaction in the laboratory, and significant main effects
      in the field. The broad heritability of live weight within hosts was
      significantly greater than zero in all cases, ranging from 0.18 to 0.33.
      Heritability values in the field were similar to those in the laboratory. Genetic
      correlations between weight attained on pairs of host plants, calculated from
      uncorrected family means, were all positive and many were statistically
      significant. When the data were corrected for differences in generalized vigor by
      taking the deviations from genotype means on a standard host plant, one of nine
      genetic correlations was significant and positive, and one was significant and
      negative. Within their limits of precision, these data suggest that genetic
      factors enhancing performance on one host do not generally have strong
      antagonistic pleiotropic effects on performance on the other hosts in this
      population. The relevance of these observations to the evolution of resource
      specialization in general and host specialization by phytophagous insects in
      particular is discussed. The common assumption that trade-offs in efficiency of
      utilization cause the evolution of specialized resource use requires more
      empirical evidence than seems to exist.

PMID- 28568752
TI  - REPEATED GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION AT THREE ENZYME LOCI IN THE AMPHIPOD PLATORCHESTIA
      PLATENSIS.

PMID- 28568753
TI  - PARENTAL EFFECTS ON SEED DEVELOPMENT AND SEED YIELD IN RAPHANUS RAPHANISTRUM:
      IMPLICATIONS FOR NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - The possibility that sexual selection operates in angiosperms to effect
      evolutionary change in polygenic traits affecting male reproductive success
      requires that there is additive genetic variance for these traits. I applied a
      half-sib breeding design to individuals of the annual, hermaphroditic angiosperm,
      wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum: Brassicaceae), to estimate paternal genetic
      effects on, or, when possible, the narrow-sense heritability of several
      quantitative traits influencing male reproductive success. In spite of
      significant differences among pollen donors with respect to in vitro pollen tube
      growth rates, I detected no significant additive genetic variance in male
      performance with respect to the proportion of ovules fertilized, early ovule
      growth, the number of seeds per fruit, or mean individual seed weight per fruit.
      In all cases, differences among maternal plants in these traits far exceeded
      differences among pollen donors. Abortion rates of pollinated flowers and
      fertilized ovules also differed more among individuals as maternal plants than as
      pollen donors, suggesting strong maternal control over these processes.
      Significant maternal phenotypic effects in the absence of paternal genetic or
      phenotypic effects on reproductive traits may be due to maternal environmental
      effects, to non-nuclear or non-additive maternal genetic effects, or to additive
      genetic variance in maternal control over offspring development, independent of
      offspring genotype. While I could not distinguish among these alternatives, it is
      clear that, in wild radish, the opportunity for natural or sexual selection to
      effect change in seed weight or seed number per fruit appears to be greater
      through differences in female performance than through differences in male
      performance.

PMID- 28568754
TI  - A MODEL OF KIN-STRUCTURED MIGRATION.
AB  - When individuals disperse from one local group to another, they often do so in
      the company of relatives. This is known as "kin-structured migration," and its
      effect on genetic population structure is investigated here. It is shown that
      when migration is kin-structured, the ratio of between- to within-group variance
      is increased by a quantity that can be estimated either from behavioral or
      genetic data. Theoretical results indicate that kin-structured migration should
      be most important in populations with high mobility, and analysis of data for
      humans and lions suggests the kin-structured migration may have a substantial
      effect on genetic population structure in both species. Its effect seems to be
      small in a population of pine voles.

PMID- 28568755
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION WITHIN AN ISLAND: UNIVARIATE AND MULTIVARIATE CONTOURING OF
      SCALATION, SIZE, AND SHAPE OF THE LIZARD GALLOTIA GALLOTI.
AB  - Microgeographic variation of the vegetarian lizard Gallotia galloti within the
      island of Tenerife is described using univariate analysis, correlation, multiple
      group principal component analysis, canonical analysis, transects, and contours.
      The size varies locally in a mosaic pattern while head shape shows a WNW-ESE
      cline in the south. The scalation (scale and femoral pore counts) has two facets
      to its geographic variation, both of which are incongruent with the primary
      variation in the size and shape. The scalation shows categorical variation
      (stepped cline) between northern and southern populations and also a strong
      clinal relationship with altitude. The possible causes of this variation are
      considered and adaptation to current ecological conditions appears to be
      implicated for at least the altitudinal variation, although the pertinent factors
      are not obvious. It is apparent that vertebrate populations distributed across
      small islands do not necessarily offer the advantage of a discrete homogeneous
      unit for evolutionary studies but can offer the opportunity for studying
      microgeographic variation.

PMID- 28568756
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC VARIANCE.
AB  - A cornerstone of evolutionary theory is that the phenotypic variance of a
      population may be partitioned into genetic and environmental (nonheritable)
      components. The traditional motivation for this distinction is that the rate of
      evolution under natural selection depends on the (relative) magnitudes of certain
      genetic components of variance. The components of variation are also interesting
      from another perspective, as illustrated here. Phenotypic variation may be
      selectively maintained in a population according to its components: selection may
      favor the maintenance of only the environmental components, only the genetic
      components, or be indifferent to the composition of the variance. Even when
      selection is shown to favor phenotypic variation regardless of its components,
      the possibility exists that environmental variance will evolve to displace the
      genetic components or vice versa. Environmental and genetic factors may thus
      compete to produce a given selected level of phenotypic variance. A test of some
      of these models is provided from the example of seed dormancy: the prediction
      that variation in seed germination time should be purely environmental is
      supported by the demonstration of low heritability of germination time in the two
      available studies.

PMID- 28568758
TI  - MACRO- AND MICROGEOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF A SPATIALLY SUBDIVIDED BEETLE SPECIES IN
      NATURE.
AB  - Spatial subdivision of species can affect their population structure by allowing
      processes such as limited dispersal, spatial heterogeneity in selective
      pressures, small population sizes, and random events to operate. By studying
      species restricted to islands or "island" habitats, one can attempt to determine
      which of these factors have affected the current structure of the population.
      Collops georgianus (Coleoptera: Melyridae), a beetle species endemic to the
      "island" habitat of granitic rock outcrops, was chosen to see how its spatially
      subdivided distribution has affected its genetic structure. Its genetic structure
      was examined on both a macrogeographic and a microgeographic level using protein
      electrophoresis. Macrogeographically, 12 populations throughout its range were
      sampled. The discontinuous distribution of outcrops, and thus populations,
      throughout its range, has determined the connectivity of the populations.
      Significant variation in allele frequencies and substructuring (FST = 0.192) was
      found throughout the range, but there was no spatial autocorrelation.
      Microgeographically, in the central part of the range, where outcrops are denser
      and more continuously distributed in space, there was evidence of isolation by
      distance. Very little variation in allele frequencies was found, but a low but
      significant level of substructuring occurred among the populations. Comparison of
      disjunct and continuous populations microgeographically revealed no effect of
      disjunct distributions, although a significant effect of distance was detected.
      Effective population size variation among populations and between years,
      compounded with the effects of local extinctions, suggest that random processes
      such as drift and founder effects are important determinants of the population's
      genetic structure.

PMID- 28568757
TI  - VARIATION AND EVOLUTION OF BREEDING SYSTEMS IN THE TURNERA ULMIFOLIA L. COMPLEX
      (TURNERACEAE).
AB  - The evolutionary and functional relationships among breeding systems and floral
      morphology were investigated in the Turnera ulmifolia complex. Predictions of a
      model of breeding system evolution among distylous and homostylous varieties were
      tested. Chromosome counts of 73 accessions revealed an association between
      breeding system and chromosome number. Diploid and tetraploid populations of five
      taxonomic varieties are distylous and self-incompatible, whereas hexaploid
      populations of three varieties are homostylous and self-compatible. The latter
      occur at different margins of the geographical range of the complex. Crossing
      studies and analyses of pollen and ovule fertility in F1 's revealed that the
      three homostylous varieties are intersterile. To test the prediction that,
      homostylous varieties are long homostyles that have originated by crossing over
      within the distyly supergene, a crossing program was undertaken among distylous
      and homostylous plants. Residual incompatibility was observed in styles and
      pollen of each homostylous variety with patterns consistent with predictions of
      the cross-over model. The intersterility of hexaploid varieties suggests that
      long homostyly has arisen on at least three occasions in the complex by
      recombination within the supergene controlling distyly. Deviation from expected
      compatibility behavior occurs in populations of var. angustifolia that have the
      longest styles. These phenotypes displayed the greatest separation between
      anthers and stigmas (herkogamy) and set little seed in crosses with long- or
      short-styled plants. This suggests that they are derived from long homostyles
      with shorter length styles. It is proposed that selection for increased
      outcrossing has favored the evolution of herkogamy in long homostyles. Estimates
      of outcrossing rate in a distylous population using allozyme markers confirmed
      that dimorphic incompatibility enforces complete outcrossing. Significant genetic
      variation for floral traits likely to influence the mating system, such as stigma
      anther separation, occurs within and among homostylous populations of var.
      angustifolia on Jamaica. Estimates of the mating system of families from a
      population with varying degrees of stigma-anther separation, using five isozyme
      loci, were heterogeneous and ranged from t = 0.04-0.79. Families exhibiting the
      largest mean stigma-anther separation have higher outcrossing rates than those
      with little separation.

PMID- 28568759
TI  - COLOR PATTERN POLYMORPHISM IN THE LAKE ERIE WATER SNAKE, NERODIA SIPEDON
      INSULARUM.
AB  - Populations of the water snake, Nerodia sipedon, on islands in western Lake Erie
      are polymorphic for color pattern. These populations include banded,
      intermediate, and unbanded morphs while surrounding mainland populations consist
      solely of the banded morph. The hypothesis that this polymorphism is maintained
      by strong selection and migration pressures is widely accepted. Unbanded morphs
      are apparently more cryptic along island shorelines while banded morphs are more
      cryptic on the mainland. Migration of banded morphs from the mainland explains
      their persistence in island populations. Data collected in a capture-mark
      recapture program on six islands provide no evidence of differential selection
      among morphs; morph frequencies do not differ among age classes, between once
      captured and multiply-captured snakes, or between scarred and unscarred snakes.
      Furthermore, herring gulls, the most common snake predators in the island area,
      appear to detect banded and unbanded model snakes with equal ease. High site
      fidelity of water snakes and the distribution of morphs among islands suggest
      that migration from the mainland is not common. However, islands close to each
      other are similar in morph frequency, and water snakes have colonized islands
      elsewhere in the Great Lakes, indicating that some migration does occur.
      Recently, the frequency of banded morphs has increased in island populations
      while adult population sizes have declined. This increase in banded morphs is
      interpreted as reflecting an increased impact of migration from the mainland into
      these reduced populations. One scenario for the evolution and maintenance of this
      polymorphism is that selection was important in establishing unbanded morphs in
      island populations as they became isolated from the mainland. As populations
      declined to their present size, the impact of migration from the mainland
      increased and is now swamping the effect of selection. Further declines in island
      population size may result in fixation of the banded morph.

PMID- 28568760
TI  - VARIATIONS IN CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS AMONG THE EIGHT SPECIES OF THE DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER SUBGROUP.
AB  - In addition to protecting against desiccation, some of the hydrocarbons of the
      waxy cuticle have previously been shown to be mating pheromones in Drosophila
      melanogaster and D. simulans. Therefore, cuticular hydrocarbons were compared
      among the eight species in the D. melanogaster subgroup. For the two cosmopolitan
      species and several geographic strains that were studied, all males are quite
      similar with very abundant monoenes. The major compound in most cases is 7
      tricosene. Only three exceptions were found: D. sechellia, and the Afrotropical
      strains of D. melanogaster and D. simulans. A significant sexual dimorphism
      exists in three species: D. melanogaster, D. erecta, and D. sechellia. Greater
      variation was observed in females than in males. D. erecta is singular in the
      production of long-chain molecules (31-33 carbons). Only three species (D.
      melanogaster, D. erecta, and D. sechellia) produce diene in significant amounts.
      Such products, especially 7,11-heptacosadiene, are known to act as aphrodisiacs
      for D. melanogaster males. In the five other species, females show only
      quantitative differences from males, generally with 7-tricosene as the most
      abundant compound. This compound is an aphrodisiac for D. simulans males. Some
      species such as D. yakuba, D. teissieri, D. orena, D. mauritiana, and the
      Seychelles strain of D. simulans are almost identical in the chemical composition
      of cuticular hydrocarbons. In contrast, important variations are observed between
      geographic populations of D. melanogaster and D. simulans.

PMID- 28568761
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY UNDER INBREEDING AND CROSSBREEDING IN
      PINUS ATTENUATA.
AB  - The relationship between stability of annual trunk growth and heterozygosity at
      24 polymorphic isozyme loci was studied in 10-year-old trees of knobcone pine
      (Pinus attenuata Lemm.) that were the products of contrasting systems of mating,
      self-, and interpopulation cross-pollination. Heterozygosity and variability of
      trunk growth were strongly related only when inbreds and crossbreds were
      compared; the crossbreds showed greater residual variability on an absolute
      scale, and greater responsiveness to climate on both absolute and relative
      scales. Within the inbreds there was no evidence of a relationship between
      heterozygosity and variability. Within the crossbreds, only one trait, a measure
      of relative trunk growth rate, showed a relationship with heterozygosity, and
      indicated greater variability of the more heterozygous trees. These results, and
      others in the literature, suggest that the relationship of heterozygosity to
      homeostasis for fitness components is neither simple nor monotonic; it varies
      between scales of measurement, genetic backgrounds, and environments.

PMID- 28568762
TI  - SIMILARITIES IN SECTIONAL DELIMITATION IN TRIPSACUM AND ZEA (GRAMINEAE).

PMID- 28568763
TI  - A MULTISPECIES APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF GENE FLOW IN MARINE SHORE FISHES.
AB  - Ten species of marine shore fishes with a wide range of life-history strategies
      were collected from four areas in southern California, U.S.A., and Baja
      California, Mexico, and examined for patterns of genetic differentiation.
      Multilocus D and FST values (based on 32-42 presumptive gene loci in each
      species) were both negatively correlated with estimated dispersal capability.
      These results were robust to variations in the number and type of loci used in
      the analysis and are compatible with the hypothesis that levels of genetic
      differentiation in these shore fishes are determined primarily by gene flow and
      genetic drift. There is no a priori reason to expect the observed correlation to
      result from natural selection or historical factors. The findings thus suggest
      that populations of these shore fishes are in at least a quasi-equilibrium with
      respect to migration, mutation, and genetic drift. Present data were also used to
      compare estimates of mNe obtained by three different methods. Estimates based on
      FST values calculated by the methods of Nei and Chesser (FST(N) ) and Weir and
      Cockerham (FST(W) ) were highly correlated, but FST(N) <= FST(W) for every
      species, leading to generally higher mNe estimates for Nei and Chesser's method.
      Estimates of mNe based on the frequency of private alleles (Slatkin, 1985a) were
      not as strongly correlated with dispersal capability as were FST and D values. A
      low incidence of private alleles in many species may be responsible for this
      relatively weak correlation and may limit the general usefulness of Slatkin's
      method. In spite of their sensitivity to natural selection, FST and D may be
      better indicators of relative gene flow levels for high gene flow species.

PMID- 28568764
TI  - RIBOSOMAL DNA IN RANA.

PMID- 28568765
TI  - POPULATION SUBDIVISION FOR RIBOSOMAL DNA REPEAT VARIANTS IN CLEMATIS FREMONTII.

PMID- 28568766
TI  - BIOCHEMICAL PHENOTYPIC AND GENETIC STUDIES OF TWO INTRODUCED FIRE ANTS AND THEIR
      HYBRID (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE).
AB  - Two introduced fire ants, Solenopsis invicta and S. richteri, and their hybrid
      were studied using phenotypic markers from gas chromatographic analysis of
      hydrocarbons and venom alkaloids, as well as genetic markers from enzyme
      electrophoresis. Both methods show that extensive gene introgression is occurring
      over a distance of at least 120 km at the contact zone between the two forms in
      eastern Mississippi. Genetic analyses suggest that the hybrid population does not
      depart dramatically from panmixia. Also, recombinant genotypes predominate in the
      hybrid zone, indicating that F1 hybrids are viable. Allele frequency clines
      through the hybrid zone are apparent for four polymorphic loci. Data sets
      generated by the chromatographic and electrophoretic methods are highly
      concordant in that they differentiate completely between the two forms and agree
      in designating colonies from the contact zone as hybrid or parental in a high
      proportion (90%) of cases. The two methods can serve as complementary tools for
      studying closely related but genetically distinct populations in this, and
      perhaps other, groups of insects.

PMID- 28568767
TI  - Self-reported Mental Health Issues Among Arrestees in the Paris, France Area.
AB  - We studied (May-September 2014) all arrestees who reported mental health issues
      during the medical examination performed by a forensic physician for the
      assessment of fitness for detention. Among 4814 arrestees, 420 (9%) reported a
      current mental health issue. The suspected crimes among arrestees reporting a
      current mental health issue were more often related to violent behaviors
      (physical assault, 23% vs. 16%, p < 0.001, sexual assault, 3% vs. 1%, p = 0.01)
      and less often drug offenses (18% vs. 29%, p < 0.001). Among arrestees reporting
      mental health issues, 80% reported psychiatric or psychological care, of whom 33%
      reported previous mental health care. Decisions of unfitness for detention were
      more frequent among arrestees reporting mental health issues than in other
      detainees (3% vs. 1%, p < 0.001). The high proportion of patients with
      interrupted mental health care among those reporting mental disorders suggests
      that the medical examination during custody could be a significant opportunity to
      restore psychiatric care.

PMID- 28568768
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28568769
TI  - Indomethacin on extra-cranial cerebral arterial vasomotion: beyond cyclooxygenase
      prostaglandin inhibition.

PMID- 28568770
TI  - Reply from Vienna E. Brunt, Matthew J. Howard, Michael A. Francisco, Brett R. Ely
      and Christopher T. Minson.

PMID- 28568771
TI  - Short-term heat therapy: sufficient stimulus for structural vascular adaptations?

PMID- 28568772
TI  - Reply from Ryan L. Hoiland and Philip N. Ainslie.

PMID- 28568773
TI  - Cost-effective and rapid lysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells for quantitative
      western blot analysis of proteins, including phosphorylated eIF2alpha.
AB  - The common method for liberating proteins from Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells
      involves mechanical cell disruption using glass beads and buffer containing
      inhibitors (protease, phosphatase and/or kinase inhibitors), followed by
      centrifugation to remove cell debris. This procedure requires the use of costly
      inhibitors and is laborious, in particular when many samples need to be
      processed. Also, enzymatic reactions can still occur during harvesting and cell
      breakage. As a result low-abundance and labile proteins may be degraded, and
      enzymes such as kinases and phosphatases may still modify proteins during and
      after cell lysis. We believe that our rapid sample preparation method helps
      overcome the above issues and offers the following advantages: (a) it is cost
      effective, as no inhibitors and breaking buffer are needed; (b) cell breakage is
      fast (about 15 min) since it only involves a few steps; (c) the use of
      formaldehyde inactivates endogenous proteases prior to cell lysis, dramatically
      reducing the risk of protein degradation; (d) centrifugation steps only occur
      prior to cell lysis, circumventing the problem of losing protein complexes, in
      particular if cells were treated with formaldehyde intended to stabilize and
      capture large protein complexes; and (e) since formaldehyde has the potential to
      instantly terminate protein activity, this method also allows the study of
      enzymes in live cells, i.e. in their true physiological environment, such as the
      short-term effect of a drug on enzyme activity. Taken together, the rapid sample
      preparation procedure provides a more accurate snapshot of the cell's protein
      content at the time of harvesting. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568776
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION FREQUENCY IS NEGATIVELY CORRELATED WITH DIVERGENCE TIME OF
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOTYPES IN A SEA STAR (LEPTASTERIAS SPP.) SPECIES COMPLEX.

PMID- 28568774
TI  - Atrial premature beat on wide QRS tachycardia with LBBB morphology. What is the
      mechanism?

PMID- 28568775
TI  - Ion Pairing and Co-facial Stacking Drive High-Fidelity Bisulfate Assembly with
      Cyanostar Macrocyclic Hosts.
AB  - Hydroxyanions pair up inside CH H-bonding cyanostar macrocycles against Coulombic
      repulsions and solvation forces acting to separate them. The driving forces
      responsible for assembly of bisulfate (HSO4- ) dimers are unclear. We
      investigated them using solvent quality to tune the contributing forces and we
      take advantage of characteristic NMR signatures to follow the species
      distributions. We show that apolar solvents enhance ion pairing to stabilize
      formation of a 2:2:2 complex composed of pi-stacked cyanostars encapsulating the
      [HSO4 ???HSO4 ]2- dimer and endcapped by tetrabutylammonium cations. Without
      cations engaged, a third macrocycle can be recruited with the aid of solvophobic
      forces in more polar solvents. The third macrocycle generates a more potent
      electropositive pocket in which to stabilize the anti-electrostatic anion dimer
      as a 3:2 assembly. We also see unprecedented evidence for a water molecule bound
      to the complex in the acetonitrile solution. In methanol, OH H-bonding leads to
      formation of 2:1 complexes by bisulfate solvation inside the macrocycles
      inhibiting anion dimers. Knowledge of the driving forces for stabilization
      (strong OH???O H-bonding, CH H-bonding, ion pairs, pi-stacking) competing with
      destabilization (Coulomb repulsion, solvation) allows high-fidelity selection of
      the assemblies. Thermodynamic stabilization of hydroxyanion dimers also
      demonstrates the ability to use macrocycles to control ion speciation and
      stoichiometry of the overall assemblies.

PMID- 28568777
TI  - NUCLEOTYPIC EFFECT IN HOMEOTHERMS: BODY-MASS INDEPENDENT RESTING METABOLIC RATE
      OF PASSERINE BIRDS IS RELATED TO GENOME SIZE.
AB  - The resting metabolic rate of passerines is shown to be negatively correlated
      with genome size when body mass is held constant (r = -0.75, P < 0.01). This
      finding extends previous conclusion for mammals to this bird order. The result
      holds when higher taxonomic levels are used instead of the species (for genera, r
      = -0.76, P < 0.03; for families, r = -0.991, P < 0.01) as well as when the
      independent contrasts derived from the resolved phylogeny are used instead of the
      taxa (r = -0.73, P < 0.02), with the evolutionarily older contrasts being more
      strongly correlated (for the contrasts older than 30 million yr, r = -0.998, P <
      0.002). The concept of evolutionary characters consolidation (ECC), previously
      formulated for mammals, is tested with special reference to the error fraction in
      the total character variance. In this test, the ECC for the nucleotypic effect
      cannot be proven for mammals as a whole class, but it holds for the two separate
      orders tested, rodents and passerine birds. An upper taxonomic limit for the ECC
      is suggested.

PMID- 28568778
TI  - THE EFFECT OF INBREEDING ON PHENOTYPIC VARIANCE IN THE RED FLOUR BEETLE TRIBOLIUM
      CASTANEUM.

PMID- 28568779
TI  - NARROW HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO SUBSPECIES OF BIG SAGEBRUSH (ARTEMISIA TRIDENTATA:
      ASTERACEAE). IV. RECIPROCAL TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENTS.
AB  - Does endogenous or exogenous selection stabilize the big sagebrush (Artemisia
      tridentata) hybrid zone? After two years of study, our reciprocal transplant
      experiments showed significant genotype by environment interactions for a number
      of fitness components, including germination, growth, and reproduction. Hybrids
      were the most fit within the hybrid garden. In the parental gardens, the native
      parental taxon was more fit than either the alien parental or hybrids. These
      results are consistent with the bounded hybrid superiority model, which assumes
      exogenous selection, but are clearly at odds with the dynamic equilibrium model,
      which assumes endogenous selection and universal hybrid unfitness.

PMID- 28568781
TI  - RECENT BOOKS IN PRINT.

PMID- 28568780
TI  - A COMPARISON OF TWO MODELS FOR ESTIMATING PHYLOGENETIC EFFECT ON TRAIT VARIATION.

PMID- 28568782
TI  - GENETIC MODELS OF ADAPTATION AND GENE FLOW IN PERIPHERAL POPULATIONS.
AB  - We investigate the interplay between gene flow and adaptation in peripheral
      populations of a widespread species. Models are developed for the evolution of a
      quantitative trait under clinally varying selection in a species whose density
      decreases from the center of the range to its periphery. Two major results
      emerge. First, gene flow from populations at the range center can be a strong
      force that inhibits peripheral populations from evolving to their local
      ecological optima. As a result, peripheral populations experience persistent
      directional selection. Second, response to local selection pressures can cause
      rapid and substantial evolution when a peripheral population is isolated from
      gene flow. The amount of evolutionary change depends on gene flow, selection, the
      ecological gradient, and the trait's heritability. Rapid divergence can also
      occur between the two halves of a formerly continuous population that is divided
      by a vicariant event. A general conclusion is that disruption of gene flow can
      cause evolutionary divergence, perhaps leading to speciation, in the absence of
      contributions from random genetic drift.

PMID- 28568783
TI  - EFFECTS OF EGG SIZE ON POSTLARVAL PERFORMANCE: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM A SEA
      URCHIN.
AB  - Many life-history and developmental studies of marine invertebrates assume that
      eggs of species with nonfeeding larvae are large because they provide materials
      for rapid development. Using the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma which has
      400 MUm eggs and nonfeeding larvae, we removed an acellular, lipid-rich component
      from the blastula equivalent to ca. 40% of the egg volume and ca. 50% of the
      organic mass. Experimentally manipulated, reduced-lipid larvae survived well,
      developed in the usual time (3.5 d), and high percentages of the original numbers
      metamorphosed into anatomically normal juveniles. Control juveniles were larger
      at metamorphosis, grew more, and survived longer than siblings that lacked this
      lipid-rich material. Moderate increases in egg size in species with nonfeeding
      larvae may enhance postlarval performance significantly and therefore may reflect
      selection on early juvenile traits. The contrasts of our results and comparable
      experiments with feeding larvae suggests that egg size may play fundamentally
      different roles in species with feeding and nonfeeding larvae. The accommodation
      of materials reserved for the juvenile stage should be considered among
      hypotheses on evolutionary modification of developmental patterns.

PMID- 28568784
TI  - FIVE GENERATIONS OF ENFORCED SELFING AND OUTCROSSING IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS:
      INBREEDING DEPRESSION VARIATION AT THE POPULATION AND FAMILY LEVEL.
AB  - The focus of this study was to examine the consequences of five sequential
      generations of enforced selfing and outcrossing in two annual populations of the
      mixed-mating Mimulus guttatus. Our primary goal was to determine whether purging
      of deleterious recessive alleles occurs uniformly between populations and among
      families, and thus gain insights into the mode of gene action (dominance,
      overdominance, and/or epistasis) governing the expression of inbreeding
      depression at both the population and family levels across the life cycle.

PMID- 28568785
TI  - WOLBACHIA INFECTION IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS: DOES THE FEMALE HOST BEAR A
      PHYSIOLOGICAL COST?
AB  - Fitness traits of three Drosophila simulans strains infected by endocellular
      bacteria belonging to the genus Wolbachia have been compared with those of
      replicate stocks previously cured from the infection by an antibiotic treatment.
      The traits measured were development time, egg-to-adult viability, egg hatch,
      productivity, fecundity, and the number of functional ovarioles. Individuals of
      the first strain were bi-infected by two Wolbachia variants, wHa and wNo. The
      second strain was infected by wHa, the third one by wNo. The Wolbachia studied
      here cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), a high embryonic mortality (70% to >
      90%) when an infected male is crossed with an uninfected female. Three
      generations after antibiotic treatment, we observed in all strains a significant
      drop in productivity in the cured stocks. This drop was not due to antibiotic
      toxicity and was associated with the loss of the Wolbachia. However the effect
      had disappeared in two of the three strains five generations after treatment, and
      could not be found in the third strain in a third measurement carried out 14
      generations after treatment. The temporary nature of the productivity difference
      indicates that Wolbachia do not enhance productivity in infected strains. On the
      other hand, in all traits measured, our results show the absence of any negative
      effects of the Wolbachia on their host. This could be explained when considering
      Wolbachia evolution, as maternally transmitted parasites bear a strong selective
      pressure not to harm their female host. However, CI would allow the bacteria to
      be maintained even when harming the female. The apparent absence of deleterious
      effects caused by these Wolbachia might result from a trade-off, where a
      relatively low bacteria density would advantage the Wolbachia by suppressing any
      deleterious effects on the female host, at the cost of a weaker maternal
      transmission rate of the infection.

PMID- 28568786
TI  - A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF BODY SIZE EVOLUTION AND BIOGEOGRAPHY IN CHUCKWALLAS
      (SAUROMALUS) AND OTHER IGUANINES.
AB  - The evolution of body size was reconstructed in chuckwallas (genus Sauromalus),
      large herbivorous lizards of southwest North America, using a phylogeny derived
      from sequence variation in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. The body mass of
      two endemic island species (S. hispidus and S. varius) is typically fivefold
      larger than mainland species. We tested the hypothesis that large body size has
      evolved on these islands in response to local ecological conditions against the
      alternative hypothesis that large size is simply retained from large iguanine
      ancestors. The most parsimonious tree topology depicts the insular gigantic
      Sauromalus as monophyletic, having diverged from a common ancestor on the Baja
      California peninsula after the radiation of smaller bodied clades. In a
      robustness analysis of this topology, we found general support for this tree over
      alternative topologies representing minimum evolution hypotheses that imply large
      body size is retained from large iguanine ancestors. The most parsimonious
      reconstruction of body size evolution implies a change from large to small size
      after the Sauromalus ancestor diverged from Iguana, and one reversal back to
      large size within Sauromalus. The large size increase in the gigantic clade
      contrasts with evolutionary stasis of small body size (for an iguanine) in
      mainland populations. The gigantic species show 3-4% total sequence divergence
      from S. obesus populations on the nearby Baja California peninsula, and mainland
      populations of S. obesus obesus show similar levels of divergence from each
      other. An analysis of character transitions and comparative behavior implicates
      predation, and its relaxation on isolated islands, as a strong selective force in
      Sauromalus. Patterns of genetic differentiation in Sauromalus and biogeographic
      implications are discussed.

PMID- 28568787
TI  - MATING BEHAVIOR IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER SELECTED FOR ALTERED LONGEVITY.

PMID- 28568788
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE ALONG A STEEP ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENT: CONSEQUENCES OF
      FLOWERING TIME AND HABITAT VARIATION IN THE SNOW BUTTERCUP, RANUNCULUS ADONEUS.
AB  - Few studies have determined how gene flow and selection interact to generate
      population genetic structure in heterogeneous environments. One way to identify
      the potential role played by natural selection is to compare patterns of spatial
      genetic structure between different life cycle stages and among
      microenvironments. We examined patterns of spatial structure in a population of
      the snow buttercup (Ranunculus adoneus), using both adult plants and newly
      emerged seedlings. The study population spans a steep environmental gradient
      caused by gradual melting of snow within a permanent snowbed. Early-melting sites
      are characterized by denser vegetation, more fertile soils, and a longer growing
      season than late-melting sites tens of meters away. The flowering time of R.
      adoneus is controlled entirely by time of snowmelt, so the contiguous population
      is phenologically substructured into a series of successively flowering cohorts,
      reducing the opportunity for direct pollen transfer between early- and late
      melting sites. For four highly polymorphic enzyme loci in this tetraploid
      species, there was subtle, but statistically significant, genetic differentiation
      between early, middle, and late-melting cohorts; adults usually showed greater
      differentiation among snowmelt zones than did seedlings. At two loci in adults
      and one locus in seedlings, homozygotes were more common than predicted at Hardy
      Weinberg equilibrium, even when assuming maximum levels of double reduction
      during meiosis. This pattern suggests the occurrence of self-fertilization and/or
      population substructure. To determine how spatial isolation and phenological
      separation each contribute to genetic substructure, we used bivariate regression
      models to predict the numbers of allele differences between randomly paired
      individuals as a function of meters separation in space and days separation in
      flowering time. For newly emerged seedlings, we found that spatial separation was
      positively associated with genetic difference, but that the additional
      contribution of phenological separation to genetic difference was not
      significant. This implies that seeds and/or pollen move effectively across the
      snowmelt gradient, despite differences in flowering time. As was true for
      seedlings, spatial separation between paired adults contributed to greater
      genetic difference, but for a given spatial separation, the genetic difference
      between adult plants was reduced by phenological separation. This result implies
      that postemergence selection is favoring at least some seeds that migrate across
      the snowmelt gradient. Directional gene flow across the snowmelt gradient
      probably results from a genetic source-sink interaction, that is, the
      colonization of ecologically marginal late-melting sites by high quality seeds
      produced by the larger subpopulation in early-melting sites. Effective gene flow
      from high to low quality microenvironments is likely to impede adaptation to late
      melting locations.

PMID- 28568789
TI  - HETEROCHRONY WITHIN SPECIES: CRANIOFACIAL GROWTH IN GIANT, STANDARD, AND DWARF
      RABBITS.
AB  - Change in developmental timing is one source of heritable variation upon which
      selection can act. However, the amount of variation possible in ontogenetic
      trajectories is often unknown. We used three different-sized conspecific breeds
      of domestic rabbits to investigate the extent of variation in growth trajectories
      of craniofacial morphology. The growth and adult morphology of several structures
      (one soft tissue and 15 skeletal) were quantified and analyzed. We took two views
      of radiographs at close time intervals throughout ontogeny, from one week of age
      through adult size. Measurements from the radiographs were analyzed using a
      Gompertz growth model. Between-breed differences in model parameters were tested
      using one-way ANOVA. Few significant differences existed between the white and
      giant rabbits, but several differences were found between the white and dwarf
      breeds. Similarly, comparisons of adult morphology showed that white and giant
      rabbits are the same shape, while dwarf rabbits have shorter and broader snouts
      than white rabbits. The variation in size among breeds appeared to be due to
      differences in the length of time spent growing at rates near the maximum growth
      rate. While no one parameter of this model quantifies this pattern, differences
      in duration of maximum growth rate can be seen in the first derivative of the
      growth trajectory. Small changes in the model's parameters that measure rate and
      timing of growth have large morphological consequences, indicating that
      heterochronic changes are important sources of variation.

PMID- 28568790
TI  - THE MAINTENANCE OF GYNODIOECY AND ANDRODIOECY IN A METAPOPULATION.
AB  - Males and females are at a selective disadvantage relative to hermaphrodites
      (cosexuals) in species with a colonizing habit, as only cosexuals are able to
      establish new colonies on their own. The implications of this disadvantage are
      assessed by means of a computer model of metapopulation dynamics, in which
      individual colonies are established through different rates of immigration and
      suffer different rates of local extinction. Results are given for simulations of
      an island model, a stepping-stone model, and for a partial analysis of the island
      model with simplifying assumptions. It is shown that: (1) unisexual frequencies
      in a metapopulation can be reasonably approximated by a linear function of the
      logarithm of the ratio of the immigration rate to the colony extinction rate; (2)
      metapopulation dynamics favor the maintenance of females (gynodioecy) over males
      (androdioecy) with cosexuals when they would otherwise be equally likely in a
      panmictic situation; (3) the way in which extinction and immigration rates affect
      unisexual frequencies at metapopulation equilibrium interacts with whether
      sterility is determined by a dominant or a recessive allele; and (4) unisexual
      frequencies are affected in a qualitatively similar way by the dynamics of a
      metapopulation when cosexuals are self-incompatible to when they are self
      compatible, although only in the former case are high frequencies of unisexuals
      maintained when extinction and colonization rates approach the threshold at which
      the metapopulation goes extinct. These results are discussed with reference to
      existing data from species with nuclear male or female sterility.

PMID- 28568791
TI  - SEX ALLOCATION AND MALE FITNESS GAIN IN A COLONIAL, HERMAPHRODITIC MARINE
      INVERTEBRATE.
AB  - While simultaneous hermaphroditism occurs in most animal phyla, theories for its
      adaptive significance remain untested. Sex allocation theory predicts that
      combined sexes are favored in sedentary and sessile organisms because localized
      gamete dispersal and local mate competition (LMC) among gametes promote
      decelerating fitness "gain curves" that relate male investment to reproductive
      success. Under this LMC model, males fertilize all locally available eggs at low
      sperm output, additional output leads to proportionally fewer fertilizations, and
      combined sexes with female-biased sex allocation are favored. Decelerating male
      gain curves have been found in hermaphroditic flowering plants, but the present
      paper reports the first analysis in an animal. The colonial hermaphroditic
      bryozoan Celleporella hyalina forms unisexual male and female zooids that can be
      counted to estimate absolute and relative gender allocations. I placed "sperm
      donor" colonies-each with different numbers of male zooids, and each homozygous
      for diagnostic allozyme alleles-among target maternal colonies on field mating
      arrays, and estimated donor fertilization success by scoring allozyme markers in
      target-colony progeny. Fertilization success increased with numbers of donor male
      zooids, but linear and not decelerating curves fit the data best. Mean sex
      allocation was not female biased, consistent with nondecelerating male gain.
      Sperm donors, moreover, did not monopolize matings as expected under high LMC,
      but rather shared paternity with rival colonies. Hence localized water-borne
      gamete dispersal alone may not yield decelerating male gain and favor the
      maintenance of hermaphroditism; relaxed sperm competition in low density
      populations might also be required. In free-spawning marine organisms, males
      cannot control access to fertilizations, intense sperm competition may be
      commonplace, and high male sex allocation may be selected to enhance siring
      success under competition.

PMID- 28568792
TI  - LONG-TONGUED FLY POLLINATION AND EVOLUTION OF FLORAL SPUR LENGTH IN THE DISA
      DRACONIS COMPLEX (ORCHIDACEAE).
AB  - Field studies in South Africa showed that floral spur length in the Disa draconis
      complex (Orchidaceae) varies enormously between populations in the southern
      mountains (means = 32-38 mm), lowland sandplain (mean = 48 mm), and northern
      mountains (means = 57-72 mm). We tested the hypothesis that divergence in spur
      length has resulted from selection exerted through pollinator proboscis length.
      Short-spurred plants in several southern mountain populations, as well as long
      spurred plants in one northern mountain population, were pollinated by a
      horsefly, Philoliche rostrata (Tabanidae), with a proboscis length that varied
      from 22 to 35 mm among sites. Long-spurred plants on the sandplain were
      pollinated by the tanglewing fly, Moegistorynchus longirostris (Nemestrinidae),
      which has a very long proboscis (mean = 57 mm). Selection apparently favors long
      spurs in sandplain plants, as artificial shortening of spurs resulted in a
      significant decline in pollen receipt and fruit set, although pollinaria removal
      was not significantly affected. Fruit set in the study populations was limited by
      pollen availability, which further suggests that selection on spur length occurs
      mainly through the female component of reproductive success.

PMID- 28568793
TI  - NATURAL VARIATION IN THE EXPRESSION OF THE HEAT-SHOCK PROTEIN HSP70 IN A
      POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND ITS CORRELATION WITH TOLERANCE OF
      ECOLOGICALLY RELEVANT THERMAL STRESS.
AB  - Although Hsp70, the principal inducible heat-shock protein of Drosophila
      melanogaster, has received intense scrutiny in laboratory strains, its variation
      within natural populations and the consequences of such variation for
      thermotolerance are unknown. We have characterized variation in first-instar
      larvae of 20 isofemale lines isolated from a single natural population of D.
      melanogaster, in which larvae are prone to thermal stress in nature. Hsp70
      expression varied more than twofold among lines after induction by exposure to 36
      degrees C for one hour, with an estimated proportion of the variation due to
      genetic differences of 0.24 +/- 0.08. Thermotolerance with and without a Hsp70
      inducing pretreatment, survival at 25 degrees C, and developmental time also
      varied significantly. As expected, expression of Hsp70 correlated positively with
      larval thermotolerance. By contrast, lines in which larval survival was high in
      the absence of heat stress showed lower than average Hsp70 expression and lower
      than average inducible thermotolerance. This conditional performance suggests an
      evolutionary trade-off between thermotolerance and the ability to produce higher
      concentrations of Hsp70, and survival in a benign environment.

PMID- 28568794
TI  - MULTIPLE MODES OF SPECIATION INVOLVED IN THE PARALLEL EVOLUTION OF SYMPATRIC
      MORPHOTYPES OF LAKE WHITEFISH (COREGONUS CLUPEAFORMIS, SALMONIDAE).
AB  - We performed a phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA variation among seven sympatric
      pairs of dwarf and normal morphotypes of whitefish from northern Quebec and the
      St. John River drainage to address three questions relevant to understanding
      their radiation. Are all sympatric pairs reproductively isolated? Do phylogenetic
      analyses confirm that sympatric whitefish morphotypes found in eastern North
      America represent the outcome of polyphyletic evolutionary events? If so, did all
      sympatric pairs from the St. John River drainage originate from the same scenario
      of allopatric divergence and secondary contact? The hypothesis of genetic
      differentiation was supported for all sympatric pairs from the St. John River
      drainage, whereas lack of mtDNA diversity precluded any test of reproductive
      isolation for northern Quebec populations. Patterns of mtDNA variation confirmed
      that dwarf and normal morphotypes evolved in parallel among independent, yet
      closely related, lineages, thus providing indirect evidence for the role of
      natural selection in promoting phenotypic radiation in whitefish. Patterns of
      mtDNA diversity among sympatric pairs of the St. John River indicated a complex
      picture of whitefish evolution that implied sympatric divergence and multiple
      allopatric divergence/secondary contact events on a small geographic scale. These
      results suggests that ecological opportunities, namely trophic niche
      availability, may promote population divergence in whitefish.

PMID- 28568795
TI  - "PATTERNS OF SPECIATION IN DROSOPHILA" REVISITED.

PMID- 28568796
TI  - A CONTACT ZONE WITH NONCOINCIDENT CLINES FOR SEX-SPECIFIC MARKERS IN THE FIELD
      VOLE (MICROTUS AGRESTIS).
AB  - A field vole (Microtus agrestis) population characterized by unique mitochondrial
      DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome markers occurs in southwest Sweden. A contact zone
      between this Lund (Lu) population and a standard (St) population was examined
      with two sex-specific genetic markers. The field vole mtDNA and Y chromosome
      clines display a remarkable lack of coincidence, rarely observed in contact
      zones. The cline width for both markers is about 50 km, but the two clines are
      displaced from each other: the mtDNA cline is found in the central part of the
      study area, whereas the cline for the Y chromosome is located in the eastern
      part. Thus, the absolute width of the Lu-St zone spans about 95-110 km. As a
      result of the cline shift, all male hybrids carry the Lu-Y chromosome and St-type
      mtDNA. The other possible male hybrid class is lacking. The distinct
      noncoincidence of the mtDNA and Y chromosome clines is most likely explained by
      selection against male hybrids with the St-Y chromosome and Lu-mtDNA. It is
      possible that incompatibilities between the maternal genome of Lu-type animals
      and the paternal genome of St-type individuals exist. However, alternative
      explanations based on neutrality or selective advantage cannot be totally
      dismissed.

PMID- 28568797
TI  - TRANSMISSION RATES AND HIV VIRULENCE: COMMENTS TO MASSAD.

PMID- 28568798
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION, SPACE, AND SPECIATION.
AB  - A Fisherian model of sexual selection is combined with a diffusion model of mate
      dispersal to investigate the evolution of assortative mating in a sympatric
      population. Females mate with one of two types of polygynous males according to a
      male's display of one of two sex-limited, autosomal traits; these male traits may
      be associated with differential phenotypic mortalities. Through a Fisherian
      runaway process, female preferences and male traits can become associated in
      linkage disequilibrium, leading to patterns of assortative mating. Dispersing
      males, whose rate of movement is dependent on mating success, carry female
      preference genes with them, and displaced males thereby produce daughters with
      preference genes for their respective traits in locally higher than average
      frequencies. The reduced diffusion of the more preferred males permits the
      success of other male types in adjacent areas. Thus, mating-success dependent
      diffusion, when coupled with the rapid divergence in phenotypes possible under
      the Fisher process, can lead to the coexistence of two female preferences and two
      male traits in sympatry. We argue that many existing approaches to sympatric
      speciation fail to explain observed male polymorphisms because they exclude
      explicit spatial structure from their speciation models.

PMID- 28568799
TI  - CONTRIBUTIONS OF SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION TO POPULATION STRUCTURE IN THE
      CLONAL SOFT CORAL, ALCYONIUM RUDYI.
AB  - Numerous studies of population structure in sessile clonal marine invertebrates
      have demonstrated low genotypic diversity and nonequilibrium genotype frequencies
      within local populations that are monopolized by relatively few, highly
      replicated genets. All of the species studied to date produce planktonic sexual
      propagules capable of dispersing long distances; despite local genotypic
      disequilibria, populations are often panmictic over large geographic areas. The
      population structure paradigm these species represent may not be typical of the
      majority of clonal invertebrate groups, however, which are believed to produce
      highly philopatric sexual propagules. I used allozyme variation to examine the
      population structure of the temperate soft coral, Alcyonium rudyi, a typical
      clonal species whose sexually produced larvae and asexually produced ramets both
      have very low dispersal capabilities. Like other clonal plants and invertebrates,
      the local population dynamics of A. rudyi are dominated by asexual reproduction,
      and recruitment of new sexually produced genets occurs infrequently. As expected
      from its philopatric larval stage, estimates of genetic differentiation among
      populations of A. rudyi were highly significant at all spatial scales examined
      (mean theta = 0.300 among 20 populations spanning a 1100-km range), suggesting
      that genetic exchange seldom occurs among populations separated by as little as a
      few hundred meters. Mapping of multilocus allozyme genotypes within a dense
      aggregation of A. rudyi ramets confirmed that dispersal of asexual propagules is
      also very limited: members of the same genet usually remain within < 50 cm of one
      another on the same rock surface. Unlike most previously studied clonal
      invertebrates, populations of A. rudyi do not appear to be dominated by a few
      widespread genets: estimates of genotypic diversity (Go ) within 20
      geographically distinct populations did not differ from expectations for
      outcrossing, sexual populations. Despite theoretical suggestions that philopatric
      dispersal combined with typically small effective population sizes should promote
      inbreeding in clonal species, inbreeding does not appear to contribute
      significantly to the population structure of A. rudyi. Genet genotype frequencies
      conformed to Hardy-Weinberg expectations in all populations, and inbreeding
      coefficients (f) were close to zero. In general, the population structure of A.
      rudyi did not differ significantly from that observed among outcrossing sexual
      species with philopatric larval dispersal. Age estimates suggest, however, that
      genets of A. rudyi live for many decades. Genet longevity may promote high
      genotypic diversity within A. rudyi populations and may be the most important
      evolutionary consequence of clonal reproduction in this species and the many
      others that share its dispersal characteristics.

PMID- 28568800
TI  - LIMITED SEED DISPERSAL AND GENETIC STRUCTURE IN LIFE STAGES OF CECROPIA
      OBTUSIFOLIA.

PMID- 28568801
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. VI. PHENOTYPIC ACCLIMATION AND ITS
      EVOLUTION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - Acclimation refers to reversible, nongenetic changes in phenotype that are
      induced by specific environmental conditions. Acclimation is generally assumed to
      improve function in the environment that induces it (the beneficial acclimation
      hypothesis). In this study, we experimentally tested this assumption by measuring
      relative fitness of the bacterium Escherichia coli acclimated to different
      thermal environments. The beneficial acclimation hypothesis predicts that
      bacteria acclimated to the temperature of competition should have greater fitness
      than do bacteria acclimated to any other temperature. The benefit predicted by
      the hypothesis was found in only seven of 12 comparisons; in the other
      comparisons, either no statistically demonstrable benefit was observed or a
      detrimental effect of acclimation was demonstrated. For example, in a lineage
      evolutionarily adapted to 37 degrees C, bacteria acclimated to 37 degrees C have
      a higher fitness at 32 degrees C than do bacteria acclimated to 32 degrees C, a
      result exactly contrary to prediction; acclimation to 27 degrees C or 40 degrees
      C prior to competition at those temperatures confers no benefit over 37 degrees C
      acclimated forms. Consequently, the beneficial acclimation hypothesis must be
      rejected as a general prediction of the inevitable result of phenotypic
      adjustments associated with new environments. However, the hypothesis is
      supported in many instances when the acclimation and competition temperatures
      coincide with the historical temperature at which the bacterial populations have
      evolved. For example, when the evolutionary temperature of the population was 37
      degrees C, bacteria acclimated to 37 degrees C had superior fitness at 37 degrees
      C to those acclimated to 32 degrees C; similarly, bacteria evolutionarily adapted
      to 32 degrees C had a higher fitness during competition at 32 degrees C than they
      did when acclimated to 37 degrees C. The more surprising results are that when
      the bacteria are acclimated to their historical evolutionary temperature, they
      are frequently competitively superior even at other temperatures. For example,
      bacteria that have evolved at either 20 degrees C or 32 degrees C and are
      acclimated to their respective evolutionary temperatures have a greater fitness
      at 37 degrees C than when they are acclimated to 37 degrees C. Thus, acclimation
      to evolutionary temperature may, as a correlated consequence, enhance performance
      not only in the evolutionary environment, but also in a variety of other thermal
      environments.

PMID- 28568802
TI  - THE SYMMETRY OF CORRELATED SELECTION RESPONSES IN ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION: AN
      EXPERIMENTAL STUDY USING DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The relationship between the processes of density-dependent and age-specific
      selection has been investigated by examining a common phenotype, urea resistance,
      which has apparently evolved in response to each of these selection mechanisms.
      Twenty populations that have experienced differing levels of age-specific
      selection show differences in egg-to-adult viability in environments with high
      levels of urea. Among this group of populations, it appears that resistance to
      urea is correlated with longevity, but not development time. Ten populations kept
      at extreme larval densities for many generations also show responses to urea:
      those kept at high larval densities appear to be most resistant to urea. However,
      these populations show no differences in adult longevity. An additional five
      populations were selected directly for urea resistance by adding this compound to
      the larval food environment. Again, there was a strong response to this
      artificial selection, with urea resistance increasing dramatically, but these
      populations showed no response in adult longevity or resistance to crowding when
      compared to five control populations. There is clearly no simple relationship
      between longevity and larval urea resistance. It may be that age-specific and
      density-dependent selection induce similar changes in this phenotype, but do so
      through different genetic and physiological pathways. We suggest that these data
      are not consistent with the view of constant and symmetric genetic variance
      covariance matrices. These data support a more prominent role for observations of
      evolutionary trajectories rather than static measurements of genetic components
      of variance.

PMID- 28568803
TI  - EXTINCTION-RECOLONIZATION DYNAMICS IN THE MYCOPHAGOUS BEETLE PHALACRUS
      SUBSTRIATUS.
AB  - The population structure of the mycophagous beetle Phalacrus substriatus is
      characterized by many small, local populations interconnected by migration over a
      small spatial scale (10 * 75 m2 ). Each local P. substriatus population has a
      relatively short expected persistence time, but persistence of the species occurs
      due to a balance between frequent local extinctions and recolonizations. This
      nonequilibrium population structure can have profound effects on how the genetic
      variation is structured between and within populations. Theoretical models have
      stated that the genetic differentiation among local populations will be enhanced
      relative to an island model at equilibrium if the number of colonizers is less
      than approximately twice the number of migrants among local populations. To study
      these effects, a set of 50 local P. substriatus populations were surveyed over a
      four-year period to record any naturally occurring extinctions and
      recolonizations. The per population colonization and extinction rate were 0.237
      and 0.275, respectively. Mark-recapture techniques were used to estimate a number
      of demographic parameters: local population size (N = 11.1), migration rate
      (m?=0.366), number of colonizers (k = 4.0), and the probability of common origin
      of colonizers (phi = 0.5). The theoretically predicted level of differentiation
      among local populations (measured as Wright's FST ) was 0.070. Genetic data
      obtained from an electrophoretic survey of seven polymorphic loci gave an
      estimated degree of differentiation of 0.077. There was thus a good agreement
      between the empirical results and the theoretical predictions. Young populations
      (theta?young=0.090) had significantly higher levels of differentiation than old,
      more established populations (theta?old=0.059). The extinction-recolonization
      dynamics resulted in an overall increase in the genetic differentiation among
      local populations by c. 40%. The global effective population size was also
      reduced by c. 55%. The results give clear evidence to how nonequilibrium
      processes shape the genetic structure of populations.

PMID- 28568804
TI  - SELF-FERTILIZATION WITHOUT GENOMIC OR POPULATION STRUCTURING IN A PARASITIC
      TAPEWORM.

PMID- 28568805
TI  - EVOLUTION OF AVIAN COOPERATIVE BREEDING: COMPARATIVE TESTS OF THE NEST PREDATION
      HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - Comparative analyses carried out on two different phylogenies of cooperatively
      and noncooperatively breeding Australian passerine birds (parvorder Corvida) were
      unable to detect a significant difference in nest predation rates after
      controlling for body mass and risk of predation due to location of the nest (nest
      safety). Nest predation rates, however, decrease as nest safety and body mass
      increase. We suggest that cooperative breeding does not bring about a current net
      change in rates of nest predation among Australian passerines. Species breeding
      cooperatively may have developed antipredator strategies that produce results
      similar to those adopted by noncooperatively breeding species. The function of
      cooperative breeding may lie outside of antipredator strategies.

PMID- 28568806
TI  - A CLADISTIC ANALYSIS OF PHEROMONE EVOLUTION IN IPS BARK BEETLES (COLEOPTERA:
      SCOLYTIDAE).

PMID- 28568807
TI  - POSTDISPERSAL SELECTION FOLLOWING MIXED MATING IN EUCALYPTUS REGNANS.
AB  - Eucalyptus regnans is a mass flowering, tall forest tree of southeastern
      Australia with a mixed mating system. A field trial containing randomized single
      tree plots of self, outcross, and naturally open-pollinated (OP) progenies of 13
      parents from two natural populations was surveyed over 15 yr. Inbreeding
      depression in survival at 15 years was 67% for selfs, one of the highest levels
      reported for a tree species, and differed little between populations. OP
      progenies were intermediate and the difference in fitness among the three cross
      types indicated that at planting, 59% were derived from outcrossing. However,
      with selection against the inbred progenies, this increased to 83% by 15 yr of
      age. Most selection against selfs occurred after four years, coincident with
      canopy closure and the apparent onset of intense competition.

PMID- 28568808
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON GENETICALLY CORRELATED PHENOLOGICAL CHARACTERS IN LYTHRUM
      SALICARIA L. (LYTHRACEAE).

PMID- 28568809
TI  - THE EFFECT OF DELAYED POPULATION GROWTH ON THE GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF LOCAL
      POPULATIONS SUBJECT TO FREQUENT EXTINCTIONS AND RECOLONIZATIONS.
AB  - I investigated the effects of delayed population growth on the genetic
      differentiation among populations subjected to local extinction and
      recolonization, for two different migration functions; (1) a constant migration
      rate, and (2) a constant number of migrants. A delayed period of population
      growth reduces the size of the newly founded populations for one or several
      generations. Whether this increases differentiation among local populations
      depends on the actual pattern of migration. With a constant migration rate, fewer
      migrants move into small populations than into large, thus providing ample
      opportunity for drift to act within a population. A prolonged period of
      population growth thus makes the conditions for enhanced differentiation between
      local populations less restrictive and also inflates the actual levels of
      differentiation. The effect depends on the relative magnitudes of ke , the
      effective number of colonizers and k, the actual number of colonizers. When there
      is a constant number of migrants into a population per generation, migration into
      small populations is increased. This increase of migration in small populations
      counteracts the effects of genetic drift due to small population size. It
      increases the rate by which populations approach equilibrium, as small
      populations are swamped by migrants from larger populations closer to genetic
      equilibrium, and overall levels of differentiation are thus reduced. I also
      discuss situations for which the results of this paper are relevant.

PMID- 28568810
TI  - ECOLOGICAL HISTORY AND EVOLUTION IN A NOVEL ENVIRONMENT: HABITAT HETEROGENEITY
      AND INSECT ADAPTATION TO A NEW HOST PLANT.
AB  - Environmental heterogeneity has often been implicated in the maintenance of
      genetic variation. However, previous research has not considered how
      environmental heterogeneity might affect the rate of adaptation to a novel
      environment. In this study, I used an insect-plant system to test the hypothesis
      that heterogeneous environments maintain more genetic variation in fitness
      components in a novel environment than do uniform environments. To manipulate
      recent ecological history, replicate populations of the dipteran leafminer
      Liriomyza trifolii were maintained for 20 generations in one of three treatments:
      a heterogeneous environment that contained five species of host plant, and two
      uniform environments that contained either a susceptible chrysanthemum or tomato.
      The hypothesis that greater genetic variance for survivorship and developmental
      time on a new host plant (a leafminer-resistant chrysanthemum) would be
      maintained in the heterogeneous treatment relative to the uniform environments
      was then tested with a sib-analysis and a natural selection experiment.
      Populations from the heterogeneous host plant treatment had no greater genetic
      variance in either larval survivorship or developmental time on the new host than
      did populations from either of the other treatments. Moreover, the rate of
      adaptation to the new host did not differ between the ecological history
      treatments, although the populations from the uniform chrysanthemum treatment had
      higher mean survivorship throughout the selection experiment. The estimates of
      the heritability of larval survivorship from the sib-analysis and selection
      experiment were quite similar. These results imply that ecologically realistic
      levels of environmental heterogeneity will not necessarily maintain more genetic
      variance than uniform environments when traits expressed in a particular novel
      environment are considered.

PMID- 28568811
TI  - SELECTION ON A FLORAL COLOR POLYMORPHISM IN THE TALL MORNING GLORY (IPOMOEA
      PURPUREA): TRANSMISSION SUCCESS OF THE ALLELES THROUGH POLLEN.
AB  - The W locus, a codominant locus influencing floral pigment intensity in the tall
      morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea, is polymorphic throughout the southeastern
      United States. Previous studies suggest that this polymorphism is actively
      maintained by balancing selection, and that increased selfing accompanied by lack
      of pollen discounting ("Fisher effect") may act to protect the white allele when
      it is rare. Processes that act to protect the dark allele and thus stabilize the
      polymorphism in conjunction with the Fisher effect have not been previously
      detected. The goal of this study was to determine whether any of three such
      processes might operate in I. purpurea. Estimates of breeding system parameters
      in a large experimental population in which the white allele was in higher than
      normal frequency (0.5) provided little evidence that either dark- or light
      flowered plants were more successful as pollen parents than white-flowered
      plants. In addition, no evidence was found for a transmission bias favoring the
      dark allele in the ovules produced by light heterozygotes. In contrast, a strong
      transmission bias favoring the dark allele in pollen of heterozygotes was
      observed. A simple model using parameter estimates derived from this and previous
      studies indicates that a balance between the Fisher effect and biased
      transmission in heterozygote pollen could account for many properties of the
      polymorphism.

PMID- 28568812
TI  - Second-order cooperation: Cooperative offspring as a living public good arising
      from second-order selection on non-cooperative individuals.
AB  - Switching rate between cooperating and non-cooperating genotypes is a crucial
      social evolution factor, often neglected by game theory-inspired theoretical and
      experimental frameworks. We show that the evolution of alleles increasing the
      mutation or phenotypic switching rates toward cooperation is in itself a social
      dilemma. Although cooperative offspring are often unlikely to reproduce, due to
      high cost of cooperation, they can be seen both as a living public good and a
      part of the extended parental phenotype. The competition between individuals that
      generate cooperators and ones that do not is often more relevant than the
      competition between cooperators and non-cooperators. The dilemma of second-order
      cooperation we describe relates directly to eusociality, but can be also
      interpreted as a division of labor or a soma-germline distinction. The results of
      our simulations shine a new light on what Darwin had already termed a "special
      difficulty" of evolutionary theory and describe a novel type of cooperation
      dynamics.

PMID- 28568814
TI  - THE ORIGIN OF AN ORGAN: PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION IN THE
      DIGESTIVE TRACT OF FLIES (INSECTA: DIPTERA).
AB  - The cardia, a prominent digestive tract organ consisting of several specialized
      cell types, occurs throughout the "higher" or muscoid flies, division Schizophora
      of order Diptera. Phylogenetic analysis of cellular organization in 65 insect
      species from 36 families indicates that this organ originated within the order
      Diptera from ancestrally undifferentiated tissues. "Lower" flies, suborder
      "Nematocera," display little or no epithelial cell specialization at the
      corresponding site. Scorpionflies of the outgroup order Mecoptera are similarly
      unspecialized. Intermediate levels of cellular specialization occur in
      Tabanomorpha, Asilomorpha and Aschiza, dipteran taxa that diverge between
      "Nematocera" and Schizophora. The distribution of epithelial characteristics
      suggests that the cardia evolved through a sequence of simple tissue
      transformations, combining changes in epithelial configuration with local
      differentiation of cell structure and function. The evolution of locally
      specialized cell types implies the emergence of structural genes and regulatory
      mechanisms through the modification of an ancestral genome that had not supported
      such extensive differentiation. Comparison of localized gene expression in
      Drosophila melanogaster with that in other fly species having greater or lesser
      degrees of cell specialization may provide a practical model system for studying
      specific patterns of mutation associated with such evolutionary innovation.

PMID- 28568813
TI  - A Population Dose-Response Model for Inhaled Technosphere Insulin Administered to
      Healthy Subjects.
AB  - Technosphere insulin (TI), an inhaled insulin with a fast onset of action,
      provides a novel option for the control of prandial glucose. A euglycemic glucose
      clamp study was performed to compare the effects of TI and regular human insulin
      (RHI) on the induced glucose infusion rate (GIR) in healthy volunteers.
      Generation of a dose-response relationship between insulin dose and effect
      (expressed as AUC of GIR) was not possible from the clinical data directly. The
      GIR recording time was too short to capture the full effect and higher doses were
      not tested. Thus, a pharmacokinetic-GIR model was developed to simulate GIR for a
      sufficient time window of 20 h and for higher doses. A dose-response model was
      then generated from the simulated GIR profiles. The resulting model provides an
      ED50 for TI that is 5-fold higher than for RHI, a ratio that can be used as
      conversion factor for equivalent doses of RHI and TI.

PMID- 28568815
TI  - GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF PASSIVE DISPERSAL IN POND-DWELLING COPEPODS.
AB  - Pond-dwelling copepods have colonized habitats throughout North America after
      glaciers have receded. Most species are passively transported via resting eggs
      into new habitats. Colonists originating in a glacial refugium could lose some of
      the ancestral genetic diversity when they establish new populations and the
      attenuation may be substantial in populations far removed from the refugium due
      to multiple founder events. Genetic variation was measured in Heterocope
      septentrionalis from 27 populations at arctic sites near potential refugia and
      those more recently deglaciated to determine the effects of postglacial dispersal
      on patterns of genetic relatedness and diversity. Some populations were more
      distant, genetically, from others within the same site than those from other more
      distant sites. Eleven polymorphic enzyme loci were significantly more variable (F
      [1,294 df] = 5.94, P < 0.025) among individuals from populations near the Alaskan
      refuge than those at the eastern limit of their distribution. Because populations
      are typically extremely large and stable this loss of genetic diversity is
      attributed primarily to repeated founder events during colonization. This result
      suggests profound genetic changes may occur on a continental scale in passively
      dispersed copepods due to founder events alone. Their potential for divergence
      and speciation is greater than currently recognized.

PMID- 28568816
TI  - GENETIC COVARIANCE OF FITNESS CORRELATES: WHAT GENETIC CORRELATIONS ARE MADE OF
      AND WHY IT MATTERS.
AB  - The genetic variance-covariance matrix, G, is determined in part by functional
      architecture, the pathways by which variation in genotype influences phenotype. I
      develop a simple architectural model for G for two traits under directional
      selection constrained by their dependence on a common limiting resource. I assume
      that genetic variance is maintained by mutation-selection balance. The relative
      numbers of loci that play a role in acquiring versus allocating a limiting
      resource play a crucial role in determining genetic covariance. If many loci are
      involved in acquiring a resource, genetic covariance may be either negative or
      positive at equilibrium, depending on the fitness function and the input of
      mutational variance. The form of G does not necessarily reveal the constraint on
      resource acquisition inherent in the system, and therefore studies estimating G
      do not test for the existence of life-history tradeoffs. Characters may evolve in
      patterns that are unpredictable from G. Experiments are suggested that would
      indicate if this model could explain observations of positive genetic covariance.

PMID- 28568817
TI  - IS SINGLE-GENE SPECIATION POSSIBLE?

PMID- 28568818
TI  - POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENTAL VARIATION IN THE FEATHER TIP.
AB  - Variation among adults reflects variation in basic developmental processes, such
      as cell division rate. Partitioning the variation into its developmental
      components would be a major step in understanding evolutionary constraints, but
      is far from being achieved for any character. In this paper, we examine
      population variation in the feather tip, a useful structure to study because the
      history of development is recorded in the adult form. Our goal is to document the
      variability, and provide a developmentally based explanation for the level of
      variation observed. Using feathers collected from chicks of a small warbler, we
      partition population variation into variation attributed to accidents of
      development (through a consideration of fluctuating asymmetry), and among- and
      within-family components. Population variation in the earliest formed part of the
      feather is high (the coefficient of variation is c. 30%); population variation in
      later formed parts of the feather is lower. The among-individual and
      developmental noise components are both reduced in later formed parts, but there
      are differences in the way the two components are associated among the feather
      parts. The early and later formed parts are highly integrated at the among
      individual level (correlations ~ 1.0) but not at the developmental noise level
      (correlations ~ 0.5). This suggests that at least two basic developmental
      processes are involved in determining the length of the various feather parts. We
      review feather development and pattern formation models to demonstrate that at
      least two developmental processes are indeed involved in feather growth. We show
      how these processes could interact to achieve the relative invariance in the
      later formed parts of the feather.

PMID- 28568819
TI  - SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF A PRIMITIVELY SOCIAL BEE: DOES GENETIC POPULATION
      STRUCTURE FACILITATE ALTRUISM?
AB  - Exoneura bicolor is a univoltine, facultatively social bee exhibiting a
      solitary/quasisocial/semisocial colony polymorphism (Schwarz, 1986, 1987).
      Intracolony relatedness in semisocial colonies has been previously estimated at
      0.49 +/- 0.06 (Schwarz, 1987), although the crucial relatedness between altruists
      and the brood that they rear will be about half this value. This value is
      unlikely to be increased by the preferential rearing of only close relatives
      (Schwarz, 1988a) and no known morphological specializations preclude workers from
      reproducing in this species. Hamilton (1972, 1975) suggested that relatedness may
      be increased through population subdivision, if this leads to significant
      inbreeding and increased between-colony genetic variance. The same process may
      also operate at higher levels of population structure (e.g., Wade, 1978).
      Population structure and intracolony relatedness in E. bicolor were investigated
      in seven localities in southern Victoria, Australia, to determine if inbreeding
      at any level of population structure was contributing to relatedness between
      altruists and beneficiaries within these colonies. Population structure was
      described using hierarchical F-statistics and an identity by descent measure,
      developed by Queller and Goodnight (1989), was used to estimate intracolony
      relatedness. It was found that inbreeding was not contributing to between-group
      genetic variance, at any level, in a consistent manner across localities.
      Therefore relatedness, considered in isolation, does not seem sufficient to
      account for the presence of worker behavior. It is suggested that large benefits
      for group living may be responsible for maintaining altruistic behavior, in part,
      in this species. Significant heterogeneity among localities for all F-statistics
      estimated in our analysis was found and this may be attributable to stochastic
      elements such as cofounding behavior and the low percentage of males in the
      brood. The possible consequences of such heterogeneity in population structure
      for the maintenance of altruism in E. bicolor are discussed.

PMID- 28568820
TI  - CYTOPLASMIC EFFECTS ON COMPONENTS OF FITNESS IN TOBACCO CYBRIDS.

PMID- 28568821
TI  - LIMITS TO REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN A PARTIALLY SELF-INCOMPATIBLE HERB: FECUNDITY
      DEPRESSION AT SERIAL LIFE-CYCLE STAGES.
AB  - Like many angiosperms, Crinum erubescens is partially self-compatible, producing
      fewer seeds upon selfing than after outcrossing. In this paper we test the
      relative magnitude of the prefertilization and postfertilization effects of self
      incompatibility, inbreeding depression, or both in a natural population of this
      hermaphroditic tropical herb. We characterize prefertilization effects by
      examining pollen tube growth, while postfertilization effects are characterized
      by examination of embryo abortion and seed maturation. Statistical methods are
      developed to test the magnitude of these effects from one life-cycle stage to the
      next. We find that although pollen performance in selfed flowers is lower than
      that in outcrossed flowers, pollen performance is low overall. Postfertilization
      effects attributable to inbreeding depression account for a larger proportion of
      the reduction in fecundity in selfed compared to outcrossed flowers. Among
      naturally pollinated plants, despite ample pollen deposition, the numbers of
      fruits and seeds set are intermediate to selfed and outcrossed treatments.

PMID- 28568822
TI  - THE GENETIC INTERPRETATION OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND OUTBREEDING DEPRESSION.
AB  - Inbreeding with close relatives and outbreeding with members of distant
      populations can both result in deleterious shifts in the means of fitness-related
      characters, most likely for very different reasons. Such processes often occur
      simultaneously and have important implications for the evolution of mating
      systems, dispersal strategies, and speciation. They are also relevant to the
      design of breeding strategies for captive populations of endangered species. A
      general expression is presented for the expected phenotype of an individual under
      the joint influence of inbreeding and crossbreeding. This expression is a simple
      function of the inbreeding coefficient, of source and hybridity indices of
      crossbreeding, and of specific forms of gene action. Application of the model may
      be of use in identifying the mechanistic bases for a number of evolutionary
      phenomena such as the shift from outbreeding enhancement to outbreeding
      depression that occurs with population divergence.

PMID- 28568823
TI  - A MOLECULAR REEXAMINATION OF DIPLOID HYBRID SPECIATION OF SOLANUM RAPHANIFOLIUM.

PMID- 28568824
TI  - THE PROBABILITY OF FIXATION OF A NEW KARYOTYPE IN A CONTINUOUS POPULATION.
AB  - We investigate the probability of fixation of a chromosome rearrangement in a
      subdivided population, concentrating on the limit where migration is so large
      relative to selection (m ? s) that the population can be thought of as being
      continuously distributed. We study two demes, and one- and two-dimensional
      populations. For two demes, the probability of fixation in the limit of high
      migration approximates that of a population with twice the size of a single deme:
      migration therefore greatly reduces the fixation probability. However, this
      behavior does not extend to a large array of demes. Then, the fixation
      probability depends primarily on neighborhood size (Nb), and may be appreciable
      even with strong selection and free gene flow (~exp(-B ~ Nb?s) in one dimension,
      ~exp(-B ~ Nb) in two dimensions). Our results are close to those for the more
      tractable case of a polygenic character under disruptive selection.

PMID- 28568825
TI  - THE ECOLOGY AND GENETICS OF FITNESS IN CHLAMYDOMONAS III. GENOTYPE-BY-ENVIRONMENT
      INTERACTION WITHIN STRAINS.
AB  - The fitness of genotypes created by crossing strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
      was measured in axenic pure culture in a set of chemically defined environments.
      There was substantial and highly significant genotype-by-environment interaction,
      with genetic correlations between environments averaging only about +0.1 for both
      r and K. Higher-order interactions with combinations of environmental factors
      appeared to be no less important than simple interactions with single factors.
      The importance of genotype-by-environment interaction increased with the number
      of environmental factors manipulated. The linear reaction norms of genotypic
      score on environmental mean score varied substantially among genotypes and often
      intersected. There was also some evidence that nonallelic genetic interactions
      were present, and varied among environments. The genetic correlation of r with K
      also varied among environments, being significantly negative in some but not in
      others. These results are similar in all important respects to those previously
      obtained with different species, and suggest that genotype-by-environment
      interaction is important at all genetic scales. It is argued that they provide
      empirical support for a general theory of diversity, the "Tangled Bank," based on
      the different response of genotypes to the range of conditions found in
      heterogeneous natural environments.

PMID- 28568826
TI  - A TEST OF THE LOW MARGINAL VARIANCE (LMV) THEORY, IN LEPTOSPERMUM SCOPARIUM
      (MYRTACEAE).

PMID- 28568828
TI  - EVOLUTION, PHYLOGENY, SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND MATING SYSTEM IN THE GRACKLES
      (QUISCALUS SPP.: ICTERINAE).
AB  - According to theory, two consequences of sexual selection are sexual dimorphism
      in size and secondary sexual characteristics, due to either intra- or intersexual
      selection. In this paper I suggest three criteria for the test of an evolutionary
      hypothesis involving quantitative morphological characters. First, the postulated
      change must be shown to have occurred in evolutionary time. Second, this change
      must be positively correlated with a change in the proposed selective agent.
      Third, given two taxa with different degrees of sexual size dimorphism and
      different mating system, the possible influence of drift must be rejected. If the
      hypothesis is not rejected by these three criteria, then we still have no proof
      of causality, but we can at least be more confident about its plausibility. This
      is applied to the particular hypothesis that sexual dimorphism in the Boat-tailed
      and Great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus spp; Icterinae; Aves) is caused by the
      highly polygynous mating system in these species. In relation to an outgroup,
      both species have increased disproportionately in male tarsus and tail size,
      creating an increased sexual dimorphism. This has cooccurred with the evolution
      of their particular mating system. However, the variance among species in male
      tarsus size can be accounted for by drift, and need not be a result of selection
      for increased size. In contrast, the variance among species in male tail size was
      much larger than expected under a null model of drift, indicating directional
      selection for long tails. The variance in female tail size was not larger than
      expected by drift, whereas the variance in female tarsus size was in fact lower
      than expected by drift, indicating stabilizing selection. The data are consistent
      with the hypothesis with regard to tail size, but not with regard to body size.

PMID- 28568827
TI  - EVOLVED ENVIRONMENT-DEPENDENT EXPRESSION OF DETOXICATION ENZYME ACTIVITY IN
      DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28568829
TI  - THERMAL SENSITIVITY OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER RESPONDS RAPIDLY TO LABORATORY
      NATURAL SELECTION.

PMID- 28568830
TI  - THE IMPACT OF ELECTROPHORETIC GENOTYPE ON LIFE HISTORY TRAITS IN PINUS TAEDA.
AB  - Reports of positive associations between allozymic heterozygosity and measures of
      fitness are routine, but it has not been possible to distinguish between the two
      preeminent explanations of the phenomenon, dominance and overdominance. We tested
      several of the assumptions of these hypotheses in our study of the relationship
      between electrophoretic genotype and three life history traits in loblolly pines
      (Pinus taeda L.). Traits examined included the survival and growth of selfed and
      outcrossed progeny of 45 maternal trees, and maternal fecundity, measured as the
      number of surviving progeny per mother tree. Inbreeding depression was severe;
      the relative fitness of the selfed progeny was only 8% that of the outcrossed
      progeny. We found a heterozygote fecundity advantage, which should have resulted
      in an excess of rare alleles in the progeny. Instead, there was evidence of
      severe survival selection against rare alleles in both heterozygous and
      homozygous forms. The deficit of rare alleles averaged 69 and 50% in the selfed
      and outcrossed progeny, respectively. The one allele in the sample that we should
      have suspected of being maintained by overdominance (a PGI2 mid-frequency allele)
      appeared to be overdominant for outcrossed height growth and probably for
      fecundity as well. Multiple-locus genotype explained very little of the variation
      in growth, however, and rather than seeing evidence for overdominance as a force
      in maintaining most of the observed polymorphism, we were left to explain, in the
      face of the severe survival selection, why the rare alleles were present at all.
      Projection of the stand into the future through computer simulation showed how
      balancing selection acting on differential growth, fecundity, and mortality among
      genotypes could, over the life of the stand, account for the maintenance of the
      rare alleles in the population.

PMID- 28568831
TI  - COEVOLUTION IN BACTERIAL-PLASMID POPULATIONS.
AB  - Evolutionary changes are described in plasmid-containing strains isolated after
      approximately 800 generations of growth in glucose-limited chemostat culture. The
      reproductive fitness increased dramatically over this period. Genetic changes
      associated with the increases in fitness were localized to both the bacterial and
      the plasmid chromosomes. In addition, some of the genetic changes on the
      bacterial and the plasmid chromosomes interact to minimize the deleterious effect
      of the plasmid. Thus, the changes observed may be considered coevolutionary.
      Reductions in the deleterious effects of the plasmid were shown to be associated
      with a decrease in plasmid copy number and an increase in the rate of
      segregational loss of the plasmid.

PMID- 28568832
TI  - TRANSFER OF EJACULATE AND INCORPORATION OF MALE-DERIVED SUBSTANCES BY FEMALES IN
      THE NANNOPTERA SPECIES GROUP (DIPTERA: DROSOPHILIDAE).

PMID- 28568833
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF COPULATION IN WATER MITES: A COMPARATIVE TEST FOR NONREVERSING
      CHARACTERS.
AB  - Although copulation is a widespread behavior with multiple origins, hypotheses
      about selective forces behind its evolution have not been tested by the
      comparative method. Because copulation has arisen many times in the water mites
      (Acari: Parasitengona), they are good subjects for a comparative study of
      copulation. I determined that copulation evolved 91 times in the 343 extant
      genera. There was no evidence of reversals to noncopulation; therefore, Ridley's
      (1983) contingency-table comparative test was not appropriate. I designed a
      comparative test for instances in which there is no loss of the derived trait of
      interest. This test determines whether independent evolutions of a trait cooccur
      with a predictor more often than expected by chance. Two hypotheses were tested:
      1) that copulation would be selected for in running-water habitats because of
      disruption of pheromonal communication; 2) that copulation would be selected for
      in swimming mites because females are less likely to contact spermatophores
      deposited on a substrate. Independent evolutions of copulation among running
      water mites were not more frequent than expected by chance (P > 0.4), but there
      were more evolutions of copulation than expected among swimming mites (P <
      0.005). Endoparasitism, secondary loss of swimming hairs, production of
      spermatophore fields, courtship, and benthivorous habits may explain why some
      mites copulate but do not swim while others swim but do not copulate.

PMID- 28568834
TI  - MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF CRABS AND GASTROPODS FROM LAKE TANGANYIKA, AFRICA:
      IMPLICATIONS FOR LACUSTRINE PREDATOR-PREY COEVOLUTION.
AB  - The shells of most lacustrine gastropods are typically small, weakly calcified,
      and modestly ornamented to unornamented. Similarly, most lacustrine crabs are
      usually small detritivores with weak chelae. A number of invertebrate taxa in
      Lake Tanganyika, however, deviate from these generalities. This study explores a
      predator-prey coevolution model as an explanation for the large, heavily
      calcified, and ornate gastropods and the robust, durophagous crabs of Lake
      Tanganyika. The endemic thiarid and viviparid gastropods from Lake Tanganyika
      have significantly thicker shells and higher frequencies of terminal apertural
      lip thickening than closely related cosmopolitan taxa from outside the lake.
      Tanganyikan gastropods also display considerably higher incidence of shell
      repair, following nonlethal shell damage, than cosmopolitan taxa of the same
      families. There is a strong positive correlation between gastropod apertural lip
      thickness and shell repair frequency among all the gastropod species analyzed.
      The endemic Tanganyikan potamonautid crab Platytelphusa armata (a molluscivore)
      possesses larger, more robust crushing chelae than other African potamonautid or
      potamonid crabs. In contrast with the cosmopolitan African crabs, the Tanganyikan
      crabs display molariform, rather than serrate dentition on their crushing
      chelipeds. In shell-crushing experiments, the Tanganyikan gastropod shells were
      an order of magnitude stronger than typical lacustrine gastropod shells, many
      well within the range of tropical marine gastropod shell strengths. Predation
      experiments with the endemic gastropods Spekia, Neothauma, Lavigeria spp.,
      Paramelania spp. and the crab Platytelphusa armata showed that increased size,
      apertural lip thickness or shell sculpture reduced the successful predation rate
      of P. armata. Crabs with large chelae have a greater ratio of successful:
      unsuccessful attacks than crabs with small chelae. Among cases of successful
      predation, crabs with large chelae employed predation methods that required less
      time and energy (such as crushing the shell in the cheliped) than the methods
      employed by crabs with small chelae (such as peeling the shell from the aperture
      or the spire). The morphological, shell-crushing, and aquarium experiment data,
      considered in concert, provide strong support for the idea that the endemic
      gastropods and crabs of Lake Tanganyika have coevolved over the past 7 million
      years.

PMID- 28568835
TI  - FLEXURAL STIFFNESS ALLOMETRIES OF ANGIOSPERM AND FERN PETIOLES AND RACHISES:
      EVIDENCE FOR BIOMECHANICAL CONVERGENCE.
AB  - Evidence for convergence in biomechanical and anatomical features of leaves
      (elastic modulus E, second moment of area I, taper of petioles, the longitudinal
      distribution of petiolar and laminar weight, and volumes of tissues) is presented
      based on a survey of 22 species (distributed among dicots, monocots, and ferns).
      In general, regardless of taxonomic affinity, petioles were found to be
      mechanically constructed in one of two ways: Type I petioles-as cantilevered, end
      loaded beams with relatively uniform flexural stiffness (EI) (simple and palmate
      leaves); and Type II petioles-as tapered cantilevered beams whose static loadings
      (biomass) and EI increase basipetally (pinnate leaves). In general, collenchyma
      and sclerenchyma were found to be peripherally located in transections through
      Type I and II petioles, respectively. Statistical analyses within each species
      and among species with either type of petiole indicated that EI ~ k1 Lp2.98 and
      EI ~ k2 Lp2.05 for Type I and II petioles, respectively, where k1 and k2 are
      dimensional constants and Lp is petiolar length. The data are interpreted to
      indicate that Type I and II petioles mechanically operate to deal with static
      loadings in two distinct ways, such that Type II petioles function in an
      analogous manner to branches supporting separate leaves (leaflets). The
      convergence in mechanical "designs" among taxonomically distinct lineages
      (angiosperms and ferns) is interpreted as evidence for selection on mechanical
      attributes of load supporting structures (petioles).

PMID- 28568836
TI  - MUTATIONS DO NOT ACCUMULATE IN ASEXUAL ISOLATES CAPABLE OF GROWTH AND EXTINCTION
      MULLER'S RATCHET RE-EXAMINED.
AB  - The rarity of exclusively asexual species is often attributed to Muller's
      Ratchet. This supposes that because asexual populations cannot recreate
      individuals with fewer mutations than the currently least-loaded line, mutations
      will accumulate in such isolates. However, because the computer models that
      corroborate this theory have assumed isolate immortality, it is possible that
      mutations will accumulate only if there is "soft" selection acting on relative,
      rather than absolute, fitness. Here we, therefore, describe several models in
      which 200 asexual organisms randomly selected from an infinite population in
      genetic equilibrium under "hard" selection (acting through absolute fitness),
      were followed for 100 generations. When there were no limits to the fluctuations
      in population size, the deterministic distribution of mutations per individual
      was maintained for 100 (as well as for 200) generations. If population growth was
      limited by a proportional decrease in fertility of the whole isolate, then the
      isolates tended to become extinct. The rate of extinction was inversely related
      to maximum isolate size. When resource limitation at maximum population size had
      an extra deleterious effect on mutants, then isolates shed the mutant classes.
      Mutations accumulated (ad inifinitum) in immortal isolates whose population
      numbers were kept constant by proportionately increasing or decreasing each
      class's size whenever isolate size ? 200. Muller's Ratchet, therefore, operates
      only when mutations affect the outcome of intraspecific contests, but not the
      organisms' intrinsic ability to survive in the ecosystem.

PMID- 28568837
TI  - EGG COMPETITION IN A SEX-ROLE REVERSED PIPEFISH: SUBDOMINANT FEMALES TRADE
      REPRODUCTION FOR GROWTH.

PMID- 28568838
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSES OF THE CORRELATED EVOLUTION OF CONTINUOUS CHARACTERS: A
      SIMULATION STUDY.
AB  - We use computer simulation to compare the statistical properties of several
      methods that have been proposed for estimating the evolutionary correlation
      between two continuous traits, and define alternative evolutionary correlations
      that may be of interest. We focus on Felsenstein's (1985) method and some
      variations of it and on several "minimum evolution" methods (of which the
      procedure of Huey and Bennett [1987] is a special case), as compared with a
      nonphylogenetic correlation. The last, a simple correlation of trait values
      across the tips of a phylogeny, virtually always yields inflated Type I error
      rates, relatively low power, and relatively poor estimates of evolutionary
      correlations. We therefore cannot recommend its use. In contrast, Felsenstein's
      (1985) method yields acceptable significance tests, high power, and good
      estimates of what we term the input correlation and the standardized realized
      evolutionary correlation, given complete phylogenetic information and knowledge
      of the rate and mode of character change (e.g., gradual and proportional to time
      ["Brownian motion"] or punctuational, with change only at speciation events).
      Inaccurate branch length information may affect any method adversely, but only
      rarely does it cause Felsenstein's (1985) method to perform worse than do the
      others tested. Other proposed methods generally yield inflated Type I error rates
      and have lower power. However, certain minimum evolution methods (although not
      the specific procedure used by Huey and Bennett [1987]) often provide more
      accurate estimates of what we term the unstandardized realized evolutionary
      correlation, and their use is recommended when estimation of this correlation is
      desired. We also demonstrate how correct Type I error rates can be obtained for
      any method by reference to an empirical null distribution derived from computer
      simulations, and provide practical suggestions on choosing an analytical method,
      based both on the evolutionary correlation of interest and on the availability of
      branch lengths and knowledge of the model of evolutionary change appropriate for
      the characters being analyzed. Computer programs that implement the various
      methods and that will simulate (correlated) character evolution along a known
      phylogeny are available from the authors on request. These programs can be used
      to test the effectiveness of any new methods that might be proposed, and to check
      the generality of our conclusions with regard to other phylogenies.

PMID- 28568839
TI  - MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR HOMOPLOID RETICULATE EVOLUTION AMONG AUSTRALIAN SPECIES OF
      GOSSYPIUM.
AB  - Interspecific hybridization and introgression are important evolutionary
      processes in plants, but their full significance with respect to speciation at
      the diploid level remains unresolved. In this study, molecular markers from the
      plastid and nuclear genomes were used to document an unusual evolutionary history
      of Gossypium bickii Prokh. (Malvaceae). This species is one of three
      morphologically similar Australian cottons (along with G. austrate F. Muell. and
      G. nelsonii Fryx.) in section Hibiscoidea. In contrast to expectations based on
      previous morphological data, cladistic analysis of maternally inherited cpDNA
      restriction site mutations unites G. bickii with G. sturtianum J. H. Willis, a
      morphologically distant species in a different taxonomic section (Sturtia). Few
      restriction site mutations distinguish the plastomes of G. bickii and G.
      sturtianum, but these two cpDNAs are differentiated from those of G. australe and
      G. nelsonii by a minimum of 33 mutations (out of 640 sites scored). These two
      highly distinct clades are not supported by phylogenetic analyses of allozyme
      markers (from 58 populations) and restriction site mutations in nuclear ribosomal
      DNAs. Rather, phylogenies based on 83 nuclear markers indicate that G. bickii
      shares a more recent common ancestor with G. australe and G. nelsonii than it
      does with G. sturtianum. We suggest that the striking discrepancy between
      independent molecular phylogenies from two different genomes indicates a
      biphyletic ancestry of G. bickii. Our preferred hypothesis involves an ancient
      hybridization, in which G. sturtianum, or a similar species, served as the
      maternal parent with a paternal donor from the lineage leading to G. australe and
      G. nelsonii. Because we detected no G. sturtianum nuclear genes in G. bickii, we
      suggest that the nuclear genomic contribution of the maternal parent was
      subsequently eliminated from the hybrid or its descendent maternal lineage.
      Several possible mechanisms of cytoplasm transfer are suggested, including
      repeated backcrossing of the hybrid, as female, into the paternal donor lineage,
      selection against recombinant nuclear genomes and a form of apomixis known as
      semigamy. This example, and several others in Gossypium as well as other genera,
      attest to the evolutionary possibility of interspecific cytoplasmic transfer, and
      perhaps the origin of diploid species via reticulate speciation. In addition,
      this study offers an example of natural cytoplasmic introgression without long
      term survival of nuclear genes from the maternal progenitor.

PMID- 28568841
TI  - Thin, High-Flux, Self-Standing, Graphene Oxide Membranes for Efficient Hydrogen
      Separation from Gas Mixtures.
AB  - The preparation and gas-separation performance of self-standing, high-flux,
      graphene oxide (GO) membranes is reported. Defect-free, 15-20 MUm thick,
      mechanically stable, unsupported GO membranes exhibited outstanding gas
      separation performance towards H2 /CO2 that far exceeded the corresponding 2008
      Robeson upper bound. Remarkable separation efficiency of GO membranes for H2 and
      bulky C3 or C4 hydrocarbons was achieved with high flux and good selectivity at
      the same time. On the contrary, N2 and CH4 molecules, with larger kinetic
      diameter and simultaneously lower molecular weight, relative to that of CO2 ,
      remained far from the corresponding H2 /N2 or H2 /CH4 upper bounds. Pore size
      distribution analysis revealed that the most abundant pores in GO material were
      those with an effective pore diameter of 4 nm; therefore, gas transport is not
      exclusively governed by size sieving and/or Knudsen diffusion, but in the case of
      CO2 was supplemented by specific interactions through 1) hydrogen bonding with
      carboxyl or hydroxyl functional groups and 2) the quadrupole moment. The self
      standing GO membranes presented herein demonstrate a promising route towards the
      large-scale fabrication of high-flux, hydrogen-selective gas membranes intended
      for the separation of H2 /CO2 or H2 /alkanes.

PMID- 28568840
TI  - Characterization of a deletion in the Hsp70 cluster in the bovine reference
      genome.
AB  - The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins (Hsp70) are highly conserved molecular
      chaperones which have a crucial role in the stress response of the cell. In
      mammals, the Hsp70 proteins are encoded by a cluster of three genes: HSPA1A,
      HSPA1B and HSPA1L. In bovines, this cluster is located on chromosome 23
      downstream of the major histocompatibility complex (BoLA). We detected
      inconsistencies in the location of markers on the Hsp70 genes reported in the
      literature that pointed to a potential deletion in the bovine reference genome
      UMD 3.1.1. An in silico analysis of the bovine genomic region of the Hsp70
      cluster, using available information from public databases, confirmed the
      existence of a deletion of 11.1-kb spanning the HSPA1B gene and the intergenic
      region between HSPA1B and HSPA1A. Although we originally considered this an
      assembly error, it is most likely a particular condition of L1 Dominette 01449,
      the cow sequenced in the Bovine Genome Project. Moreover, we suggest a new
      classification of bovine Hsp70 sequences reported in NCBI and a reassignment of
      the location of SNPs from dbSNP that map to the deletion on BTA23. We also
      compared the location of selected transcription factor binding sites on the
      promoters of HSPA1A and HSPA1B. The results generated in the present work could
      be helpful to refine the reference genome of an important livestock species and
      also to understand the role and the regulation of the bovine Hsp70 genes.

PMID- 28568842
TI  - Cardiac tamponade in myelofibrosis: A Mayo clinic series of nine consecutive
      cases.

PMID- 28568843
TI  - Is there additional value attached to health gains at the end of life? A revisit.
AB  - Researchers have in recent years sought to establish whether the general public
      value treatment at the end of life (EOL) more highly than other treatments.
      Results are mixed, with social preferences most often exhibiting lack of
      preferences for EOL treatments. This null result may be driven by the often
      applied study design, where respondents are to choose between treatments
      targeting patients with varying fixed life expectancies. When remaining life is
      certain and salient, a rule-of-rescue sentiment may drive preferences across all
      scenarios. This study presents a different design, where the comparator is a
      preventive intervention. We study preferences from both an individual and social
      perspective and find no preference for an EOL premium.

PMID- 28568844
TI  - Effect of sampling on BACE-1 ligands binding free energy predictions via MM-PBSA
      calculations.
AB  - The BACE-1 enzyme is a prime target to find a cure to Alzheimer's disease. In
      this article, we used the MM-PBSA approach to compute the binding free energies
      of 46 reported ligands to this enzyme. After showing that the most probable
      protonation state of the catalytic dyad is mono-protonated (on ASP32), we
      performed a thorough analysis of the parameters influencing the sampling of the
      conformational space (in total, more than 35 MUs of simulations were performed).
      We show that ten simulations of 2 ns gives better results than one of 50 ns. We
      also investigated the influence of the protein force field, the water model, the
      periodic boundary conditions artifacts (box size), as well as the ionic strength.
      Amber03 with TIP3P, a minimal distance of 1.0 nm between the protein and the box
      edges and a ionic strength of I = 0.2 M provides the optimal correlation with
      experiments. Overall, when using these parameters, a Pearson correlation
      coefficient of R = 0.84 (R2  = 0.71) is obtained for the 46 ligands, spanning
      eight orders of magnitude of Kd (from 0.017 nm to 2000 MUM, i.e., from -14.7 to 
      3.7 kcal/mol), with a ligand size from 22 to 136 atoms (from 138 to 937 g/mol).
      After a two-parameter fit of the binding affinities for 12 of the ligands, an
      error of RMSD = 1.7 kcal/mol was obtained for the remaining ligands. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28568846
TI  - ADDENDUM.

PMID- 28568845
TI  - THE POLYTYPIC SPECIES REVISITED: GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AND MOLECULAR
      PHYLOGENETICS OF THE TIGER SALAMANDER AMBYSTOMA TIGRINUM (AMPHIBIA: CAUDATA)
      COMPLEX.
AB  - We present a phylogenetic analysis of the Ambystoma tigrinum complex, based on
      approximately 840 base pairs of mitochondrial-DNA sequence from the rapidly
      evolving D-loop and an adjacent intron. Our samples include populations of the
      continentally distributed species, A. tigrinum, plus all described species of
      Mexican ambystomatids. Sequence divergence is low, ranging from 0-8.5%, and most
      phylogenetic groupings are weakly supported statistically. We identified eight
      reasonably well-defined clades from the United States and Mexico, with the
      geographically isolated A. californiense from California as the probable sister
      group to the remaining taxa. Our sequence data are not capable of resolving the
      relationships among these clades, although the pattern of transitional-site
      evolution suggests that these eight lineages diverged during a period of rapid
      cladogenesis. We roughly calibrate a molecular clock and identify a few lineages
      that significantly deviate from the slow, baseline rate of 0.5-0.75% per million
      years. Our data also suggest that species boundaries for several U.S. and Mexican
      species need to be altered and that the concept of a continentally distributed,
      polytypic tiger salamander is not valid.

PMID- 28568847
TI  - GENETIC CONSTRAINTS ON LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION: QUANTITATIVE-TRAIT LOCI
      INFLUENCING GROWTH AND FLOWERING IN ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA.
AB  - We have mapped genes causing life-history trade-offs, and they behave as
      predicted by ecological theory. Energetic and quantitative-genetic models suggest
      a trade-off between age and size at first reproduction. Natural selection favored
      plants that flower early and attain large size at first reproduction. Response to
      selection was opposed by a genetic trade-off between these two components of
      fitness. Two quantitative-trait loci (QTLs) influencing flowering time were
      mapped in a recombinant inbred population of Arabidopsis. These QTLs also
      influenced size at first reproduction, but did not affect growth rate (resource
      acquisition). Substitutions of small chromosomal segments, which may represent
      allelic differences at flowering time loci, caused genetic trade-offs between
      life-history components. One QTL explained 22% of the genetic variation in
      flowering time. It is within a few centiMorgans (cM) of the gigantea (GI) locus,
      and may be allelic with GI. Sixteen percent of the genetic variation was
      explained by another QTL, FDR1, near 18 cM on chromosome II, which does not
      correspond to any previously identified flowering-time locus. These life-history
      genes regulate patterns of resource allocation and life-history trade-offs in
      this population.

PMID- 28568848
TI  - NESTMATE RELATEDNESS IN A COMMUNAL BEE, PERDITA TEXANA (HYMENOPTERA: ANDRENIDAE),
      BASED ON DNA FINGERPRINTING.
AB  - Perdita texana is a facultatively communal bee species with up to 28 females per
      nest. We used multilocus DNA fingerprinting to test the hypothesis that nestmates
      are more closely related to each other than are nonnestmates. The mean band
      sharing proportion among pairwise nestmate comparisons did not differ
      significantly from the mean among nonnestmate comparisons [P = 0.787 (df = 484)].
      Although mean band sharing proportions did not differ among nestmates and
      nonnestmates, some nestmates show very high band sharing proportions (in excess
      of the upper 95% confidence limit for the nonnestmate mean). These individuals
      almost certainly are related, probably as half-sib sisters, however, they
      comprise a very small percentage of the nestmate populations. Our results
      indicate that kin selection is unlikely to play an important role in the
      evolution and maintenance of communal nesting. Communal societies most likely
      arise because of the mutualistic benefits of cooperative nesting, including
      accelerated nest founding and improved nest defense.

PMID- 28568849
TI  - PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN AN INTERTIDAL SNAIL: THE ROLE OF A COMMON CRAB PREDATOR.

PMID- 28568850
TI  - FERTILITY SELECTION ON A DISCRETE FLORAL POLYMORPHISM IN CLARKIA (ONAGRACEAE).
AB  - This study investigated fertility selection on a flower petal pigmentation
      polymorphism in Clarkia gracilis ssp. sonomensis. Natural populations are
      typically composed of nearly 100% spotted-petal plants, although rare populations
      contain a majority of unspotted plants. I compared fitness values for the two
      morphs using a simple fertility model to estimate selection for experimental
      arrays of plants placed into existing populations of different phenotypic
      frequencies. Both male and female reproductive success were estimated as well as
      the pattern of mating among phenotypes. Although the separate fitness components
      varied from no differences to a strong advantage for spotted plants, for every
      situation the selection calculations predicted an increase in the frequency of
      the spotted allele. Pollinator behavior and postpollination mechanisms may be
      responsible for the fitness differences. The apparent inability of the unspotted
      allele to spread though most natural populations is consistent with its selective
      disadvantage in this study.

PMID- 28568851
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY LOSS OF LARVAL FEEDING: DEVELOPMENT, FORM AND FUNCTION IN A
      FACULTATIVELY FEEDING LARVA, BRISASTER LATIFRONS.
AB  - Species with large eggs and nonfeeding larvae have evolved many times from
      ancestors with smaller eggs and feeding larvae in numerous groups of aquatic
      invertebrates and amphibians. This change in reproductive allocation and larval
      form is often accompanied by dramatic changes in development. Little is known of
      this transformation because the intermediate form (a facultatively feeding larva)
      is rare. Knowledge of facultatively feeding larvae may help explain the
      conditions under which nonfeeding larvae evolve. Two hypotheses concerning the
      evolutionary loss of larval feeding are as follows: (1) large eggs evolve before
      modifications in larval development, and (2) the intermediate form (facultatively
      feeding larva) is evolutionarily short-lived. I show that larvae of a heart
      urchin, Brisaster latifrons, are capable of feeding but do not require food to
      complete larval development. Food for larvae appears to have little effect on
      larval growth and development. The development, form, and suspension feeding
      mechanism of these larvae are similar to those of obligate-feeding larvae of
      other echinoids. Feeding rates of Brisaster larvae are similar to cooccurring,
      obligate-feeding echinoid larvae but are low relative to the large size of
      Brisaster larvae. The comparison shows that in Brisaster large egg size,
      independence from larval food, and relatively low feeding rate have evolved
      before the heterochronies and modified developmental mechanisms common in
      nonfeeding echinoid larvae. If it is general, the result suggests that hypotheses
      concerning the origin of nonfeeding larval development should be based on
      ecological factors that affect natural selection for large eggs, rather than on
      the evolution of heterochronies and developmental novelties in particular clades.
      I also discuss alternative hypotheses concerning the evolutionary persistence of
      facultative larval feeding as a reproductive strategy. These hypotheses could be
      tested against a phylogenetic hypothesis.

PMID- 28568852
TI  - GLOBAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF HOLARCTIC BREEDING DUNLINS (CALIDRIS
      ALPINA).
AB  - Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control-region sequences of 155 dunlins
      from 15 breeding populations confirmed the existence of five major
      phylogeographic groups in the circumpolar breeding range of this migratory
      shorebird species. Time estimates of the origin of groups, based on sequence
      divergences and a molecular clock for birds, suggest a scenario of repeated
      fragmentation of populations in isolated tundra refugia during the late
      Pleistocene. The distribution of about three-quarters of all detected molecular
      variance between phylogeographic groups attests to the strongly subdivided
      genetic population structure in dunlins that is being maintained by natal
      philopatry. Each mtDNA phylogeographic group can be related to a morphometrically
      defined subspecies, but several other recognized subspecies are not supported by
      monophyletic mtDNA lineages within their purported ranges. More detailed analysis
      of several European populations reveals low amounts of gene flow and the
      partitioning of a substantial fraction of molecular variance between them. This
      ongoing evolution of population-genetic structuring within the European
      phylogeographic group most likely started with the last retreat of the ice sheets
      some 10,000 years ago. Dunlins thus provide one of the clearest examples of the
      linkage between historical and contemporary components of mtDNA phylogeographic
      structuring in birds.

PMID- 28568853
TI  - GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN THE INBREEDING DEPRESSION OF SCOTS PINE.
AB  - The magnitude of inbreeding depression caused by recessive mutations in a
      population is dependent on the mutation rate and on the intensity of selection
      against the mutations. We studied geographical differences in the level of early
      inbreeding depression of Scots pine in a common garden experiment. The mean
      abortion rate of experimentally self-pollinated seeds was significantly lower
      (75.4%) among trees that originated from northern populations (66-69 degrees N)
      than among trees from more southern (60-62 degrees N) populations (86.5%). Thus,
      the number of embryonic lethal equivalents was lower in the northern populations
      (4.5) than in the southern ones (6.9). The outcrossing rate at the mature seed
      stage was slightly lower in the northern populations (average 0.93) than in the
      southern one (0.99). The estimated selfing rate at the zygote stage varied from 0
      0.28 in the populations. The reduction in the magnitude of inbreeding depression
      in the north may have been caused by increased levels of self-fertilization in
      the northern populations. The proportion of self-fertilized seedlings and adults
      was very small in all populations (F ~ 0), indicating high inbreeding depression
      also in later life stages. The high level of inbreeding depression in the
      partially selfing Scots pine can be explained by mutation-selection balance only
      if the mutation rate is high.

PMID- 28568854
TI  - SEQUENTIAL RADIATIONS AND PATTERNS OF SPECIATION IN THE HAWAIIAN CRICKET GENUS
      LAUPALA INFERRED FROM DNA SEQUENCES.
AB  - The tremendous diversity of endemic Hawaiian crickets is thought to have
      originated primarily through intraisland radiations, in contrast to an
      interisland mode of diversification in the native Hawaiian Drosophila. The
      Hawaiian cricket genus Laupala (family Gryllidae) is one of several native genera
      of flightless crickets found in rain-forest habitat across the Hawaiian
      archipelago. I examined the phylogenetic relationships among mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) sequences sampled from 17 species of Laupala, including the 12S ribosomal
      RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (RNA)val and 16S rRNA regions. The distribution of mtDNA
      variants suggests that species within Laupala are endemic to single islands. The
      phylogenetic estimate produced from both maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony
      supports the hypothesis that speciation in Laupala occurred mainly within
      islands. The inferred biogeographical history suggests that diversification in
      Laupala began on Kauai, the oldest rain-forested Hawaiian island. Subsequently,
      colonization to younger islands in the archipelago resulted in a radiation of
      considerable phylogenetic diversity. Phylogenetic patterns in mtDNA are not
      congruent with prior systematic or taxonomic hypotheses. Hypotheses that may
      explain the conflict between the phylogenetic patterns of mtDNA variation and the
      species taxonomy are discussed.

PMID- 28568855
TI  - RESOURCE-ASSOCIATED POPULATION SUBDIVISION IN A SYMBIOTIC CORAL-REEF SHRIMP.
AB  - The importance of sympatric speciation remains controversial. An empirical
      observation frequently offered in its support is the occurrence of sister taxa
      living in sympatry but using different resources. To examine the possibility of
      sympatric differentiation in producing such cases, I measured genetic,
      behavioral, and demographic differentiation between populations of the tropical
      sponge-dwelling shrimp Synalpheus brooksi occupying two alternate host species on
      three reefs in Caribbean Panama. This species belongs to an apparently
      monophyletic group of >= 30 species of mostly obligate, host-specific sponge
      dwellers, many of which occur in sympatry. Demographic data demonstrated the
      potential for disruptive selection imposed by the two host species: shrimp demes
      from the sponge Agelas clathrodes were consistently denser, poorer in mature
      females, more heavily parasitized by branchial bopyrid isopods, and less
      parasitized by thoracic isopods, than conspecific shrimp from the sponge
      Spheciospongia vesparium. Laboratory assays demonstrated divergence in host
      preference: shrimp on all three reefs tended to choose their native sponge
      species more often than did conspecific shrimp from the other host. Because S.
      brooksi mates within the host, this habitat selection should foster assortative
      mating by host species. A hierarchical survey of protein-electrophoretic
      variation also supported host-mediated divergence, revealing the following: (1)
      shrimp from the two hosts are conspecific, as evidenced by absence of fixed
      allelic differences at any of nine allozyme loci scored; (2) strong genetic
      subdivision among populations of this philopatric shrimp on reefs separated by 1
      3 km; and (3) significant host-associated genetic differentiation within two of
      the three reefs. Finally, intersexual aggression (a proxy for mating
      incompatibility) between shrimp from different host species was significantly
      elevated on the one reef where host-associated genetic differences were
      strongest, demonstrating concordance between genetic and behavioral estimates of
      divergence. Adjacent reefs appear to be semi-independent sites of host-associated
      differentiation, as evidenced by differences in the degree of host-associated
      behavioral and genetic differentiation, and in the specific loci involved, on
      different reefs. In philopatric organisms with highly subdivided populations,
      such as S. brooksi, resource-associated differentiation can occur independently
      in different populations, thus providing multiple "experiments" in
      differentiation and resulting in a mosaic pattern of polymorphism as reflected by
      neutral genetic markers. Several freshwater fishes, an amphipod, and a snail
      similarly show independent but remarkably convergent patterns of resource
      associated divergence in different conspecific populations, often in the absence
      of obvious spatial barriers. In each case, substantial differentiation has
      occurred in the face of continuing gene flow.

PMID- 28568856
TI  - MOLECULAR GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR PARALLEL LIFE-HISTORY EVOLUTION WITHIN A PACIFIC
      SALMON (SOCKEYE SALMON AND KOKANEE, ONCORHYNCHUS NERKA).
AB  - The Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus nerka typically occurs as a sea-run form (sockeye
      salmon) or may reside permanently in lakes (kokanee) thoughout its native North
      Pacific. We tested whether such geographically extensive ecotypic variation
      resulted from parallel evolutionary divergence thoughout the North Pacific or
      whether the two forms are monophyletic groups by examining allelic variation
      between sockeye salmon and kokanee at two minisatellite DNA repeat loci and in
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Bgl II restriction sites. Our examination of over 750
      fish from 24 populations, ranging from Kamchatka to the Columbia River,
      identified two major genetic groups of North Pacific O. nerka: a "northwestern"
      group consisting of fish from Kamchatka, western Alaska, and northwestern British
      Columbia, and a "southern" group consisting of sockeye salmon and kokanee
      populations from the Fraser and Columbia River systems. Maximum-likelihood
      analysis accompanied by bootstrapping provided strong support for these two
      genetic groups of O. nerka; the populations did not cluster by migratory form,
      but genetic affinities were organized more strongly by geographic proximity. The
      two major genetic groups resolved in our study probably stem from historical
      isolation and dispersal of O. nerka from two major Wisconsinan glacial refugia in
      the North Pacific. There were significant minisatellite DNA allele frequency
      differences between sockeye salmon and kokanee populations from different parts
      of the same watershed, between populations spawning in different tributaries of
      the same lake, and also between sympatric populations spawning in the same stream
      at the same time. MtDNA Bgl II restriction site variation was significant between
      sockeye salmon and kokanee spawning in different parts of the same major
      watershed but not between forms spawning in closer degrees of reproductive
      sympatry. Patterns of genetic affinity and allele sharing suggested that kokanee
      have arisen from sea-run sockeye salmon several times independently in the North
      Pacific. We conclude that sockeye salmon and kokanee are para- and polyphyletic,
      respectively, and that the present geographic distribution of the ecotypes
      results from parallel evolutionary origins of kokanee from sockeye (divergences
      between them) thoughout the North Pacific.

PMID- 28568857
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28568858
TI  - THE EFFECT OF A VARIABLE ENVIRONMENT ON THE GENETIC CORRELATION STRUCTURE IN A
      FIELD CRICKET.
AB  - The evolutionary trajectory of a trait depends not only on the presence of
      genetic variation, but also on the pattern of genetic correlations (rg ) among
      traits. Genetic correlations are most easily measured under homogeneous,
      controlled laboratory conditions, whereas natural populations typically
      experience a higher degree of environmental variability. The effect of
      environmental variability on genetic correlations in the cricket, Gryllus
      pennsylvanicus, was studied by measuring genetic correlations within and between
      two environments differing in levels of environmental heterogeneity. Within
      environment rg among morphological traits measured in the homogeneous laboratory
      environment were found to be reliable predictors of rg measured in the
      experimental field environment. Laboratory measures of rg involving life-history
      traits, though, were not found to reflect the same correlations measured in the
      heterogeneous environment. A significant negative genetic correlation between
      fecundity and developmental time was found in the field environment, yet was not
      detectable when measured in the laboratory. Phenotypic correlations may be
      obtained much more easily than genetic correlations, but their usefulness in
      evolutionary inference depends on the pattern of similarity between the two
      correlations. A comparison of genetic and phenotypic correlations revealed a
      close match between the two measures for morphological traits, but revealed only
      broad similarities when considering life-history traits. Male-female genetic
      correlations between morphological traits were high (all rg > 0.73) and were
      consistently higher in the field environment than in the laboratory. The genetic
      correlations between the sexes in developmental time followed the same trend, but
      the male-female genetic correlation of gonad weights was low in both
      environments. Across-environment correlations were found to be strong for
      morphological traits and for gonad weight, whereas the genetic expression of
      developmental time was found to be dependent on the environment in which the
      crickets were raised.

PMID- 28568859
TI  - HERITABILITY OF WING LENGTH IN NATURE FOR THE MILKWEED BUG, ONCOPELTUS FASCIATUS.

PMID- 28568860
TI  - EVOLUTION OF THE MAGNITUDE AND TIMING OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN PLANTS.
AB  - Estimates of inbreeding depression obtained from the literature were used to
      evaluate the association between inbreeding depression and the degree of self
      fertilization in natural plant populations. Theoretical models predict that the
      magnitude of inbreeding depression will decrease with inbreeding as deleterious
      recessive alleles are expressed and purged through selection. If selection acts
      differentially among life history stages and deleterious effects are uncorrelated
      among stages, then the timing of inbreeding depression may also evolve with
      inbreeding. Estimates of cumulative inbreeding depression and stage-specific
      inbreeding depression (four stages: seed production of parent, germination,
      juvenile survival, and growth/reproduction) were compiled for 79 populations
      (using means of replicates, N = 62) comprising 54 species from 23 families of
      vascular plants. Where available, data on the mating system also were collected
      and used as a measure of inbreeding history. A significant negative correlation
      was found between cumulative inbreeding depression and the primary selfing rate
      for the combined sample of angiosperms (N = 35) and gymnosperms (N = 9); the
      correlation was significant for angiosperms but not gymnosperms examined
      separately. The average inbreeding depression in predominantly selfing species
      (delta = 0.23) was significantly less (43%) than that in predominantly
      outcrossing species (delta = 0.53). These results support the theoretical
      prediction that selfing reduces the magnitude of inbreeding depression. Most self
      fertilizing species expressed the majority of their inbreeding depression late in
      the life cycle, at the stage of growth/reproduction (14 of 18 species), whereas
      outcrossing species expressed much of their inbreeding depression either early,
      at seed production (17 of 40 species), or late (19 species). For species with
      four life stages examined, selfing and outcrossing species differed in the
      magnitude of inbreeding depression at the stage of seed production (selfing delta
      = 0.05, N = 11; outcrossing delta = 0.32, N = 31), germination (selfing delta =
      0.02, outcrossing delta = 0.12), and survival to reproduction (selfing delta =
      0.04, outcrossing delta = 0.15), but not at growth and reproduction (selfing
      delta = 0.21, outcrossing delta = 0.27); inbreeding depression in selfers
      relative to outcrossers increased from early to late life stages. These results
      support the hypothesis that most early acting inbreeding depression is due to
      recessive lethals and can be purged through inbreeding, whereas much of the late
      acting inbreeding depression is due to weakly deleterious mutations and is very
      difficult to purge, even under extreme inbreeding.

PMID- 28568861
TI  - SHORT-TERM EVOLUTION IN THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF PEA APHIDS.
AB  - Phenotypic evolution in contemporary populations can generally be witnessed only
      when novel selective forces produce rapid evolution. Examples of conditions that
      have led to rapid evolution include drastic environmental change, invasion of a
      new predator, or a host-range expansion. In cyclical parthenogens, however,
      yearly cycles of phenotypic evolution may occur due to the loss of adaptation
      during recombination in the sexual phase (genetic slippage), permitting an
      opportunity to observe adaptive evolutionary change in contemporary populations
      that are not necessarily subject to new patterns of natural selection. In insect
      herbivores, comparative studies suggest that morphological features that aid
      individuals in remaining on the plant or exploiting it as a food source are
      likely targets for selection. Here, we estimated the genetic variability of
      morphological traits in a cyclical parthenogen, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon
      pisum), to determine the potential for their evolution and we tested the
      hypothesis that size and/or shape evolves by clonal selection during one season
      of parthenogenetic reproduction. Genetic variation in a set of morphological
      traits was estimated using laboratory-reared descendents of clones collected from
      a single alfalfa field in May 1988 and April 1989 (henceforth, the "early"
      collections). In both years, there was significant clonal heritability early in
      the season both for overall morphology and for several individual aspects of size
      and shape. Because the course of short-term evolutionary change in the
      multivariate phenotype is a function of patterns of genetic covariance among
      characters, genetic correlations between size and 12 shape variables were also
      estimated for these early collections. A comparison between the mean phenotype of
      each early collection and that of a corresponding "late" collection made from the
      same field seven to eight clonal generations later in the same years revealed
      qualitatively similar changes in the average multivariate morphological
      phenotypes between the time periods in both years, although the difference was
      only significant for the 1989 samples. The pattern of genetic correlations that
      we estimated early in the 1989 season between overall size and various shape
      variables suggests that the observed short-term evolutionary changes in shape
      could have been due to natural selection acting only to increase overall size. We
      tested this hypothesis by estimating selection on size using a separate data set
      in which both demographic and morphological variables were measured on
      individuals reared under field conditions. Highly significant regressions of
      individual relative fitness on size were found for two major fitness components.
      Thus, it is likely that the evolutionary change in morphology that we observed is
      attributable to natural selection, possibly acting primarily through body size. A
      shift back to smaller size between the late 1988 and early 1989 collections from
      the same field suggests that either a cost of recombination or opposing selective
      forces during overwintering may produce persistent yearly cycles of morphological
      evolution in this cyclically parthenogenetic species.

PMID- 28568862
TI  - COMPARATIVE PHYLOGEOGRAPHY IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.
AB  - Modern molecular methods yield descriptions of the phylogenetic deployment of
      genetic variation within species, or phylogeography. A developing field is the
      comparison of geographic patterns of genetic variation in codistributed species,
      or comparative phylogeography. One determines whether species that currently
      share the same broad area exhibit congruent phylogeographic patterns, which would
      indicate that they were historically codistributed and differentiated in response
      to same geological or environmental events. I reviewed studies of mitochondrial
      DNA (mtDNA) variation in five codistributed, widespread species of North American
      birds. In addition to phylogeographic patterns, data were available on levels of
      genetic variation, gene flow, and evolutionary distance from common ancestors (an
      index of a species' relative age) for each species, all important factors
      involved in geographic differentiation. Two species, Canada goose (Branta
      canadensis) and fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca), exhibited incongruent
      phylogeographic patterns of mtDNA variation, whereas three other codistributed
      species, the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), chipping sparrow (Spizella
      passerina), and red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), lacked geographically
      structured mtDNA patterns. Thus, the first two species have had demonstrably
      different histories, whereas the histories of the latter three are speculative.
      However, the three species without geographic variation in mtDNA exhibit shallow
      mtDNA haplotype trees, which are consistent with recent population expansion.
      Thus, lack of geographic variation in mtDNA is likely due to these three species
      arriving relatively recently at their current distributions, and after historical
      isolating events produced genetic divisions in the fox sparrow and Canada goose.
      Within the geographically uniform species, or parts thereof, dispersal seems a
      likely homogenizing factor; no consistent explanations emerged from consideration
      of levels of genetic variation. Lack of congruent phylogeographic patterns
      suggests that currently codistributed species have not had a long history of co
      association. These results and comparison of other North American species for
      which less extensive mtDNA surveys are available, reveal that the North American
      avifauna is probably a composite of species with different histories.

PMID- 28568863
TI  - THE RESPONSE TO DIFFERING SELECTION ON PLANT PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS: EVIDENCE FOR
      LOCAL ADAPTATION.
AB  - Understanding adaptive evolution to differing environments requires studies of
      genetic variances, of natural selection, and of the genetic differentiation
      between populations. Plant physiological traits such as leaf size and water-use
      efficiency (the ratio of carbon gained per water lost) have been suggested by
      physiological plant ecologists to be important in local adaptation to
      environments differing in water availability. In this study, I raised families of
      Cakile edentula var lacustris derived from a wet-site population and a dry-site
      population in a common greenhouse environment to determine the degree of genetic
      differentiation between the two populations and the genetic architecture of the
      traits. The dry-site population had significantly smaller leaf size and
      significantly greater water-use efficiency than the wet-site population. I used a
      retrospective selection analysis to compare long-term selection inferred from
      these results to measures of phenotypic selection from a field experiment. Both
      direct measures in the field and the retrospective selection gradients were
      consistent with the hypothesis that greater water-use efficiency and smaller
      leaves were adaptive in drier environments. Though the correlation between
      population means for water-use efficiency and leaf size was negative, the genetic
      correlation within populations between water-use efficiency and leaf size was
      positive and thus would be expected to constrain the evolutionary response to
      selection.

PMID- 28568864
TI  - GENETICS OF MIMICRY IN THE TIGER SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES, PAPILIO GLAUCUS AND P.
      CANADENSIS (LEPIDOPTERA: PAPILIONIDAE).
AB  - The tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, exhibits a female-limited
      polymorphism for Batesian mimicry; the Canadian tiger swallowtail, Papilio
      canadensis, lacks the mimetic (dark) form entirely. The species hybridize to a
      limited extent where their ranges overlap. Field collections and censuses
      indicate that mimetic females occur throughout the range of P. glaucus but at
      lowest frequencies in populations at the latitudinal edges of its geographic
      range such as the southernmost part of Florida and along the entire northern edge
      of its distribution from Massachusetts to Minnesota. Frequencies of mimetic
      females have remained relatively stable over time. Inheritance of the mimetic
      form is controlled primarily by two interacting sex-linked loci. The typical
      matrilineal pattern of inheritance in P. glaucus can be explained by polymorphism
      at a Y-linked locus, b. Analysis of P. glaucus * P. canadensis crosses has also
      revealed an X-linked locus, s, which controls the expression of the mimetic
      phenotype. The P. canadensis allele, scan , suppresses the mimetic phenotype in
      hybrid and backcross females. Results from more than 12 yr of rearing tiger
      swallowtails, including interspecies hybrids, indicate that the absence of
      mimetic P. canadensis females is due to both a high frequency of the
      "suppressing" allele scan and low frequency of the black-pigment-determining b +
      allele. The frequency of scan (or other suppressing alleles of s) in P. glaucus
      populations outside the hybrid zone is low. Some males heterozygous at the s
      locus and some suppressed mimetic females occur within the hybrid zone. A simple
      genetic model predicts the frequency of daughters that differ in phenotype from
      their mothers.

PMID- 28568865
TI  - MORPHOMETRICS AND CLADISTICS: MEASURING PHYLOGENY IN THE SEA URCHIN
      ECHINOCARDIUM.
AB  - A phylogenetic approach to the study of evolutionary patterns is based on taxic
      homologies (synapomorphies). In contrast, the recognition of evolutionary
      processes (namely heterochronies) involves analysis of the entire morphology.
      Recent developments in geometric morphometry permit analysis of morphological
      similarities grounded in operational homologies. Such morphometric techniques are
      explored (1) at the level of evolutionary processes, and (2) as a complement in
      exploration of phylogenetic relationships. To examplify this, we perform a two
      part study of the ontogeny and phylogeny of the spatangoid sea urchin
      Echinocardium. First, a phylogenetic analysis of ten Recent species in the genus
      is performed on 18 informative characters of the test. Second, morphological
      divergences among the species are analyzed using procrustean (superimposition)
      methods based on 49 homologous points. An additive distance tree is built from a
      matrix of morphometric distances among adult specimens. This tree is fully
      congruent with the phyletic results. Ontogenetic processes are explored by
      inserting ontogenetic series into the analysis. A distance tree including the
      juvenile stages shows that the general evolutionary trend of the genus is
      peramorphic, but species-to-species comparisons attest that no general clinal
      trend exists. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of morphometric approaches
      in evolutionary studies (1) for the understanding of heterochronies; (2) to trace
      the morphological implications of phylogenetic patterns; and (3) to estimate the
      impact of homoplasies.

PMID- 28568866
TI  - ALLOZYME DIVERSITY AND GENETIC IDENTITY IN SCHIEDEA AND ALSINIDENDRON
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE: ALSINOIDEAE) IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
AB  - Genetic diversity of allozymes, genetic identity based on allozyme variability,
      and phylogenetic relationships were studied with respect to breeding system
      diversity, population size, and island age in 20 of the 29 species of Schiedea
      and Alsinidendron (Caryophyllaceae: Alsinoideae), a monophyletic lineage endemic
      to the Hawaiian Islands. Average levels of genetic variability in Schiedea and
      Alsinidendron were comparable to or higher than those found in other Hawaiian
      lineages for which equivalent data are available [Bidens, Tetramolopium, and the
      silversword alliance (Asteraceae: Madiinae)] and similar to average values for
      species of dicots. Allozyme variability was strongly dependent on breeding
      system, which varies widely in the Hawaiian Alsinoideae. Species with autogamous
      breeding systems showed very low variability, measured as the number of alleles
      per locus, percent polymorphic loci, and mean heterozygosity per locus.
      Outcrossing hermaphroditic and dimorphic species (those with gynodioecious,
      subdioecious, and dioecious breeding systems) showed significantly higher genetic
      variability. Small population size was associated with lower values for all
      measures of genetic variability. Nearly half of the species occurring in small
      populations are also autogamous; thus, both factors may have influenced levels of
      genetic variability in these species. Founder effect was apparent in one species
      (Schiedea adamantis), which occurs in a single large population, has a
      gynodioecious breeding system but a very low genetic variability. Island age
      appeared to have little effect on genetic variability. Slightly lower values of
      genetic variability for species occurring on Kaua'i and O'ahu result primarily
      from the occurrence of autogamous Alsinidendron species on those islands. Values
      for Nei's genetic identity for different species pairs were 0.201-0.942, a far
      greater range than in Bidens, the silversword alliance, and Tetramolopium. Using
      UPGMA clustering, there was only moderate support for relationships detected
      through cladistic analysis. Nei's unbiased genetic identity (I) was greatest
      among species with outcrossing breeding systems, which for the most part
      clustered together. Nei's genetic identities for self-fertilizing species were
      low, indicating that these species are less similar to one another and to
      outcrossing species, regardless of their affinities based on cladistic analysis.
      Parsimony analysis of allele frequency data supported two clades also found in
      phylogenetic analyses using morphological and molecular data. Clades recognized
      in parsimony analysis of allele frequencies were those lineages containing
      selfing species, indicating that conditions favoring fixation of alleles occurred
      in ancestral species. In contrast, maintenance of high genetic diversity in
      outcrossing species interferes with recognition of phylogenetic relationships
      using allozyme variability.

PMID- 28568867
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF OVIPARITY WITH EGG GUARDING AND VIVIPARITY IN LIZARDS AND
      SNAKES: A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS.
AB  - This paper investigates the evolution of viviparity and of egg guarding in
      lizards and snakes in which three modes of reproduction can be described:
      oviparity without egg guarding, oviparity with egg guarding, and viviparity. All
      possible transitions of reproductive modes were detected in each taxon using
      Maddison's method. We then tested two specific hypotheses. First, egg guarding
      can be regarded as an alternative to viviparity. A relatively frequent
      association of egg guarding and viviparous species in the same taxon may be due
      to similar environmental conditions or species characteristics leading to two
      different solutions. Second, egg guarding may facilitate the evolution of
      viviparity. This hypothesis is supported by the high frequency of viviparous
      species in taxa containing egg guarding species and by a tendency for prolonged
      uterine retention of eggs in brooding squamates. Our analyses demonstrate that
      the first hypothesis is the best supported. Egg guarding and viviparity most
      often evolved independently. If a major benefit of egg guarding is the repulsion
      of potential predators, size is one of the most obvious morphological characters
      that should be correlated with the evolution of reproductive modes. The two
      reproductive traits were correlated to a reduction in body size for viviparous
      species and an increase in body size for egg guarding species. This could partly
      explain why the evolution of these reproductive modes seems almost antagonist.

PMID- 28568868
TI  - ON THE ASSIGNMENT OF FITNESS VALUES IN STATISTICAL ANALYSES OF SELECTION.

PMID- 28568870
TI  - A TRADE-OFF FOR HOST PLANT UTILIZATION IN THE BLACK BEAN APHID, APHIS FABAE.
AB  - Many studies on insect herbivores have sought to find trade-offs between
      utilization of alternate host plants, both to understand the prevalence of
      specialization and to appreciate the likelihood of sympatric speciation due to
      disruptive selection. To date, few studies have found trade-offs. Seventy-seven
      clones of the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae, were collected from field sites in
      East Anglia, U.K., over an area of about 10,000 km2 . These clones exhibit a
      trade-off in fitness between two alternative hosts, broad bean and nasturtium.
      This pattern is maintained in the F2 generation. The predominance of broad bean
      in the area, the fact that clones were only sampled from one of these two hosts,
      and the absence of "master-of-all-trades" genotypes after recombination all point
      to the importance of antagonistic pleiotropy rather than linkage disequilibrium
      in maintaining this trade-off. It is concluded that this population presents
      strong evidence for a fundamental trade-off for host utilization.

PMID- 28568869
TI  - PARENTAL EFFECTS ON PROGENY PHENOTYPE IN PLANTS: DISTINGUISHING GENETIC AND
      ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES.
AB  - The experimental measurement of additive genetic variation in plant populations
      is complicated by the potential for non-Mendelian inheritance. Maternal
      influences on progeny phenotype resulting from the cytoplasmic inheritance of
      plastids or RNA transcripts and effects of the maternal environment have
      consequently been the focus of much research. To exclude or to control for these
      sources of variation, breeding designs (e.g., cross-factored, nested, or diallel)
      in which genetically unrelated pollen donors are mated to maternal genotypes have
      been adopted. Using these designs, some empirical studies have detected
      statistically significant differences among pollen donors in the mean performance
      of their pollen (the mature male gametophytes) or in the mean phenotype of their
      progeny. These statistical effects of pollen-donor identity on pollen performance
      or progeny phenotype have frequently been interpreted as evidence for additive
      genetic variance among pollen donors, although patrilineal cytoplasmic
      inheritance or effects of the paternal environment on pollen performance or gene
      expression are recognized as alternative explanations. We note that environment
      specific selection among developing gametophytes-in which the environment
      experienced by developing pollen grains (or ovules) provides a selective force
      causing the differential survival of gametophyte genotypes (analagous to meiotic
      drive)-is an additional process that may cause genetically based paternal (or
      maternal) effects on gametophyte performance. If genes selected during this
      process are expressed in the sporophyte (postfertilization), this process could
      also influence the phenotype of the diploid progeny. Here, we review the
      potential causes of statistically significant differences in mean phenotype among
      the gametophytes or progeny of maternal (seed-bearing) or paternal (pollen
      donating) parental plants. We suggest an experimental approach that permits the
      detection or elimination of selection among developing gametophytes as one such
      cause. Specifically, the replication of homozygous parental genotypes within and
      across environments allows the detection and measurement of paternal and maternal
      environmentally induced effects on gametophyte or offspring phenotype, while
      eliminating meiotic drive as a source of the phenotypic variation.

PMID- 28568871
TI  - COMPLEX COLONY STRUCTURE IN SOCIAL INSECTS: II. REPRODUCTION, QUEEN-WORKER
      CONFLICT, AND LEVELS OF SELECTION.
AB  - Differences in colony structure between two populations of the forest ant,
      Myrmica punctiventris, have had dramatic consequences on allocation to growth and
      reproduction. A population in Vermont, in which colonies have a single, once
      mated queen, shows no evidence of inbreeding or population subdivision and has
      allocated 25% of sexual reproduction to males in two consecutive years. In
      contrast, for a population in New York that is facultatively polygynous, we have
      evidence of microgeographic genetic structure and inbreeding, and the
      populationwide allocation ratio was extremely male-biased. Additionally, the
      Vermont population allocated much more energy to sexual reproduction than did the
      New York population. Detailed analysis of data from the Vermont population,
      within which colonies undergo a seasonal cycle of expansion to multiple nesting
      sites (polydomy), gave strong evidence of queen-worker conflict over male
      allocation and indicated that workers are winning that conflict. Finally, we used
      contextual analysis to find that fertility selection operates almost exclusively
      at the level of the individual nest rather than at the higher level of the
      multinest colony.

PMID- 28568872
TI  - PRESUMPTIVE RAPID SPECIATION AFTER A FOUNDER EVENT IN A LABORATORY POPULATION OF
      NEREIS: ALLOZYME ELECTROPHORETIC EVIDENCE DOES NOT SUPPORT THE HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28568873
TI  - DIFFERING SELECTION ON PLANT PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS IN RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL
      WATER AVAILABILITY: A TEST OF ADAPTIVE HYPOTHESES.
AB  - I used phenotypic selection analysis to test the prediction from functional and
      comparative studies of plants that smaller leaves and more efficient water use
      are adaptive in drier environments. I measured selection gradients on leaf size
      and instantaneous water-use efficiency (a measure of carbon gain per unit water
      loss) in experimental populations of Cakile edentula var. lacustris placed into
      wet and dry environments in the field. Linear and nonlinear selection differed
      significantly between the two environments as predicted. Water-use efficiency was
      selected to be higher, and leaf area was selected toward a small intermediate
      optimum, in the dry environment. There was also significant positive
      correlational selection on water-use efficiency and leaf size, suggesting that
      the optimum leaf size in the dry environment is greater for plants with higher
      water-use efficiency. In contrast, neither leaf size nor water-use efficiency
      were selected in the wet environment, though larger leaves resulted in greater
      vegetative biomass. Path analysis of the linear selection gradients found that
      water-use efficiency affected plant fitness primarily because it increased
      vegetative biomass, as suggested by the hypotheses about the function of
      physiological traits. These results were not only consistent with the functional
      hypotheses but also with the observed genetic differentiation in water-use
      efficiency and leaf size between wet and dry site populations.

PMID- 28568874
TI  - PARALLEL RACE FORMATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF MIMICRY IN HELICONIUS BUTTERFLIES: A
      PHYLOGENETIC HYPOTHESIS FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES.
AB  - Mimicry has been a fundamental focus of research since the birth of evolutionary
      biology yet rarely has been studied from a phylogenetic perspective beyond the
      simple recognition that mimics are not similar due to common descent. The
      difficulty of finding characters to discern relationships among closely related
      and convergent taxa has challenged systematists for more than a century. The
      phenotypic diversity of wing pattens among mimetic Heliconius adds an additional
      twist to the problem, because single species contain more than a dozen radically
      different-looking geographical races even though the mimetic advantage is
      theoretically highest when all individuals within and between species appear the
      same. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) offers an independent way to address these
      issues. In this study, Cytochrome Oxidase I and II sequences from multiple,
      parallel races of Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene are examined, to
      estimate intraspecific phylogeny and gauge sequence divergence and ages of clades
      among races within each species. Although phenotypes of sympatric races exhibit
      remarkable concordance between the two species, the mitochondrial cladograms show
      that the species have not shared a common evolutionary history. H. erato exhibits
      a basal split between trans- and cis-Andean groups of races, whereas H. melpomene
      originates in the Guiana Shield. Diverse races in either species appear to have
      evolved within the last 200,000 yr, and convergent phenotypes have evolved
      independently within as well as between species. These results contradict prior
      theories of the evolution of mimicry based on analysis of wing-pattern genetics.

PMID- 28568875
TI  - COMPUTER-SIMULATED SHELL SIZE AND SHAPE VARIATION IN THE CARIBBEAN LAND SNAIL
      GENUS CERION: A TEST OF GEOMETRICAL CONSTRAINTS.
AB  - A computer graphical model of gastropod shell form is used to test a hypothesis
      of geometric constraint proposed to explain the disjunct distribution of shell
      forms observed in Cerion, a species-rich and geometrically varied genus of
      terrestrial gastropods. The mapping of computer-simulated forms into a
      morphospace of Cerion shells produces a continuum of sizes and shapes. Therefore,
      the absence of particular shell forms is not explained by geometric constraints.
      Two proposed modes of shell morphogenesis at extreme ranges in size ("dwarfs" and
      "giants") previously were thought to be exclusive routes to the construction of
      high-spired ("smokestack") forms. The present study shows that there are, in
      fact, multiple routes of transformation. In addition, these routes are
      geometrically reversible and interconnect the members of the shell-form
      continuum. Thus, the possible pathways followed during the course of evolution
      within this genus cannot be determined until an adequate phylogenetic hypothesis
      has been proposed.

PMID- 28568876
TI  - CONDUCTING PHYLOGENETIC COMPARATIVE STUDIES WHEN THE PHYLOGENY IS NOT KNOWN.
AB  - A method is proposed to conduct phylogenetic analyses of comparative or
      interspecific data when the true phylogeny is not known. Standard models of
      speciation and/or extinction or other methods are used to generate a sample from
      the set of all possible phylogenies for the measured species. The comparative
      data are then analyzed on each of the possible trees to obtain a distribution of
      possible evolutionary statistics for these data. The mean of this distribution is
      proposed as a reasonable estimate of the true evolutionary statistic of interest.
      Ways of obtaining confidence intervals and of developing hypothesis tests for
      this mean statistic are also proposed. The method can be used with any
      comparative method or phylogenetic analysis technique when phylogenetic
      relationships among species are not known or when branch lengths for a phylogeny
      in units of expected character change (as required by most methods) are not
      available. Computer programs to conduct the analyses are available on request.

PMID- 28568877
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE AND MORPH-SPECIFIC FITNESS DIFFERENCES IN TRISTYLOUS LYTHRUM
      SALICARIA.
AB  - In tristylous plant populations, style-morph frequencies are governed by an
      interaction between frequency-dependent selection due to disassortative mating
      and stochastic processes. Provided that there are no inherent fitness differences
      among morphs, frequency-dependent selection should result in equal morph
      frequencies at equilibrium. Stochastic models indicate that the short-styled
      morph has the highest and the long-styled morph the lowest probability of being
      lost from local populations as a result of random processes. We surveyed the
      morph composition of 82 populations of the tristylous, self-incompatible herb
      Lythrum salicaria in two archipelagos, one in central and one in northern Sweden,
      located close to the range-margin of the species. To examine whether deviations
      from even morph frequencies can be explained by among-morph differences in
      reproductive success, we quantified flower and seed production in six and three
      populations in the northern and southern archipelago, respectively, and we
      recorded segregation ratios in offspring produced in six trimorphic populations
      in the northern area. Seed germination and offspring growth were studied in the
      greenhouse. Ninety percent of the populations in the southern archipelago (N =
      31) and 69% of the populations in the northern archipelago (N = 35) were
      trimorphic; the remaining populations were dimorphic (only populations consisting
      of at least three flowering plants considered). Dimorphic populations were
      smaller than trimorphic populations, as predicted by stochastic models. There was
      a striking difference in the morph composition of L. salicaria populations
      between the two archipelagos. In the southern archipelago, there was a slight
      excess of the long-styled morph and a corresponding deficiency of the short
      styled morph. In contrast, the northern populations were characterized by a
      marked deficiency of the mid-styled morph: the average frequency of the mid
      styled morph in trimorphic populations was 0.21, and nine of eleven dimorphic
      populations lacked the mid-styled morph. In both archipelagos, the long-styled
      morph (the most common morph) produced about 20% fewer seeds per fruit than the
      other morphs. The long-styled morph also tended to produce fewer seeds per plant.
      A hand-pollination experiment performed in two of the northern populations
      indicated that seed production per flower was pollen-limited in the long-styled
      morph but not in the other two morphs. Seed germination and offspring size after
      24 weeks of growth did not differ among morphs. The mid-styled morph tended to
      have a higher representation in the offspring than in the parental generation in
      all six trimorphic populations studied further indicating that the deficiency of
      the mid-styled morph in the northern archipelago does not represent an
      equilibrium. Taken together, the results do not support the hypothesis that morph
      specific differences in reproductive success can account for deviations from even
      morph frequencies in L. salicaria. It is suggested that among-morph differences
      in other components of fitness and historical factors may contribute to the
      current morph structure.

PMID- 28568878
TI  - POSTGLACIAL RANGE FLUCTUATION, GENETIC SUBDIVISION AND SPECIATION IN THE WESTERN
      NORTH AMERICAN SPOTTED FROG COMPLEX, RANA PRETIOSA.
AB  - The western North American complex of spotted frogs (Rana pretiosa) exhibits
      isolation-by-distance, genetic subdivision, and speciation in association with
      its extensive northward range shift in postglacial times. The southern relict
      populations of R. pretiosa species B existing at high altitudes or in desert
      springs have been subjected to restricted gene flow, high inbreeding, and
      bottlenecks to produce significant between-population genetic diversity. The more
      recently established northern populations, however, show genetic uniformity and
      isolation-by-distance, as estimated using Slatkin's (1993) statistic M. Middle
      latitude populations have higher heterozygosities than populations at either
      extreme. Fixed differences in allozyme variation separate 21 populations of
      species B from five populations of R. pretiosa species A found in southwest
      Washington State and the Cascades Mountains of Oregon. Morphological variation of
      20 metric characters among 38 samples, examined using multiple discriminant
      function analysis, could partially resolve partitioning among populations but
      specimens from the vicinity of the type series of R. p. pretiosa could not be
      assigned to either species A or species B. Speciation in these frogs may not be
      correlated with morphological evolution since comparatively neutral allozyme
      changes may be established more rapidly than changes in morphology.

PMID- 28568879
TI  - THE ROLE OF GENETIC VARIATION IN ADAPTATION AND POPULATION PERSISTENCE IN A
      CHANGING ENVIRONMENT.

PMID- 28568880
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. IV. ADAPTATION OF ESCHERICHIA COLI AT A
      NICHE BOUNDARY.
AB  - Following an environmental change, the course of a population's adaptive
      evolution may be influenced by environmental factors, such as the degree of
      marginality of the new environment relative to the organism's potential range,
      and by genetic factors, including constraints that may have arisen during its
      past history. Experimental populations of bacteria were used to address these
      issues in the context of evolutionary adaptation to the thermal environment. Six
      replicate lines of Escherichia coli (20 degrees C group), founded from a common
      ancestor, were propagated for 2000 generations at 20 degrees C, a novel
      temperature that is very near the lower thermal limit at which it can maintain a
      stable population size in a daily serial transfer (100-fold dilution) regime.
      Four additional groups (32/20, 37/20, 42/20, and 32-42/20 degrees C groups) of
      six lines, each with 2000 generation selection histories at different
      temperatures (32, 37, 42, and daily alternation of 32 and 42 degrees C), were
      moved to the same 20 degrees C environment and propagated in parallel to
      ascertain whether selection histories influence the adaptive response in this
      novel environment. Adaptation was measured by improvement in fitness relative to
      the common ancestor in direct competition experiments conducted at 20 degrees C.
      All five groups showed improvement in relative fitness in this environment; the
      mean fitness of the 20 degrees C group after 2000 generations increased by about
      8%. Selection history had no discernible effect on the rate or final magnitude of
      the fitness responses of the four groups with different histories after 2000
      generations. The correlated fitness responses of the 20 degrees C group were
      measured across the entire thermal niche. There were significant tradeoffs in
      fitness at higher temperatures; for example, at 40 degrees C the average fitness
      of the 20 degrees C group was reduced by almost 20% relative to the common
      ancestor. We also observed a downward shift of 1-2 degrees C in both the upper
      and lower thermal niche limits for the 20 degrees C selected group. These
      observations are contrasted with previous observations of a markedly greater rate
      of adaptation to growth near the upper thermal limit (42 degrees C) and a lack of
      trade-off in fitness at lower temperatures for lines adapted to that high
      temperature. The evolutionary implications of this asymmetry are discussed.

PMID- 28568881
TI  - NONRANDOM GENOTYPIC ASSOCIATIONS IN A LEGUME-BRADYRHIZOBIUM MUTUALISM.
AB  - Genetically divergent lineages often coexist within populations of the annual
      legume Amphicarpaea bracteata. At one site dominated by two such lineages (termed
      biotypes "C" and "S"), isolates of root-nodule bacteria (Bradyrhizobium sp.) were
      sampled from both hosts and analyzed by enzyme electrophoresis. Symbiont
      populations on the two plant biotypes were highly distinct. Out of 15 bacterial
      multilocus genotypes detected (among 51 isolates analyzed), only one was shared
      in common by the two plant biotypes. Cluster analysis revealed three bacterial
      lineages (designated I, II, and III), with lineage I found exclusively on biotype
      C plants, and the two other lineages almost completely restricted to biotype S
      hosts. Laboratory inoculation tests indicated that lineage I bacteria were
      strictly specialized on biotype C hosts, forming few or no nodules on plants of
      the other host biotype. Bacterial lineages II and III were capable of forming
      nodules on both kinds of plants, but nodule numbers were often significantly
      higher on biotype S hosts. The nonrandom association between plant and bacterial
      lineages at this site implies that genetic diversity of hosts is an important
      factor in the maintenance of polymorphism within the symbiont population.

PMID- 28568882
TI  - COMPLEX COLONY STRUCTURE IN SOCIAL INSECTS: I. ECOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS AND
      GENETIC CONSEQUENCES.
AB  - For social insect species, intraspecific variation in colony social structure
      provides an opportunity to relate the evolution of social behavior to ecological
      factors. The species Myrmica punctiventris is a cavity-dwelling forest ant that
      exhibits very different colony structures in two populations in the northeastern
      United States. Combined data from seasonal censuses, allozyme electrophoresis,
      and worker hostility tests showed that a population of M. punctiventris in
      Vermont was strictly monogynous and seasonally polydomous. The same procedures
      showed that a population of M. punctiventris in New York was facultatively
      polygynous and predominantly monodomous. Genetic relatedness among colony-mates
      was not different from Hamilton's expected values in the Vermont population and
      was consistent with little exchange of ants between colonies and single-mating of
      queens. In contrast, relatedness was lower in New York, and examination of nest
      mate genotypes revealed exchange of ants between colonies, high rates of colony
      loss and replacement of queens, or multiple-mating of queens. The genetic
      structure of the Vermont population was consistent with no inbreeding, but in New
      York, the population genetic structure reflected microgeographic subdivision and
      inbreeding. Previous study of the ant communities at these sites implicates nest
      site limitation in New York as a primary constraint on social structure.

PMID- 28568884
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN LEAVES OF CLARKIA TEMBLORIENSIS (ONAGRACEAE) AS
      RELATED TO POPULATION OUTCROSSING RATES AND HETEROZYGOSITY.
AB  - Four natural populations of Clarkia tembloriensis, whose levels of heterozygosity
      and rates of outcrossing were previously found to be correlated, are examined for
      developmental instability in their leaves. From the northern end of the species
      range, we compare a predominantly selfing population (t = 0.26) with a more
      outcrossed population (t = 0.84), which is genetically similar. From the southern
      end of the range, we compare a highly selfing population (t = 0.03) with a more
      outcrossed population (t = 0.58). We measured developmental stability in the
      populations using two measures of within-plant variation in leaf length as well
      as calculations of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) for several leaf traits. Growth
      chamber experiments show that selfing populations are significantly more variable
      in leaf length than more outcrossed populations. Developmental instability can
      contribute to this difference in population-level variance. Plants from more
      homozygous populations tend to have greater within-plant variance over
      developmentally comparable nodes than plants from more heterozygous populations,
      but the difference is not significant. At the upper nodes of the plant, mature
      leaf length declines steadily with plant age, allowing for a regression of leaf
      length on node. On average, the plants from more homozygous populations showed
      higher variance about the regression (MSE) and lower R2 values, suggesting that
      the decline in leaf length with plant age is less stable in plants from selfing
      populations than in plants from outcrossing populations. Fluctuating asymmetry
      (FA) was calculated for four traits within single leaves at up to five nodes per
      plant. At the early nodes of the plant where leaf arrangement is opposite, FA was
      also calculated for the same traits between opposite leaves at a node.
      Fluctuating asymmetry is significantly greater in the southern selfing population
      than in the neighboring outcrossed population. Northern populations do not differ
      in FA. Fluctuating asymmetry can vary significantly between nodes. The FA values
      of different leaf traits were not correlated. We show that developmental
      stability can be measured in plants using FA and within-plant variance. Our data
      suggest that large differences in breeding system are associated with differences
      in stability, with more inbred populations being the least stable.

PMID- 28568883
TI  - TEMPORAL VARIATION IN MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HAPLOTYPE FREQUENCIES IN A BROWN TROUT
      (SALMO TRUTTA L.) POPULATION THAT SHOWS STABILITY IN NUCLEAR ALLELE FREQUENCIES.

PMID- 28568885
TI  - EVOLUTION OF BROAD AND SPECIFIC COMPETITIVE ABILITY IN NOVEL VERSUS FAMILIAR
      ENVIRONMENTS IN DROSOPHILA SPECIES.
AB  - We used nine pairs of competing Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans
      populations to test three hypotheses. (1) Weaker competitors undergo greater
      evolutionary increases in competitive ability, compared with stronger ones. (2)
      Increased competitive ability against a specific competitor population causes a
      correlated increase in competitive ability against other competitor populations.
      (3) In a novel environment, adaptation to the abiotic environment contributes
      more to competitive ability than adaptation to the competitor population. After
      11 generations of competition, initially weaker competitor populations showed
      relatively greater increases in competitive ability. Broad and specific
      competitive abilities, the latter being specific to a particular competitor
      population, were positively correlated in both familiar and novel environments.
      Adaptation to the abiotic environment seemed to be a more important component of
      competitive ability in the novel environments. We conclude that in geographically
      structured species, biotic and abiotic factors affecting the evolution of
      competitive ability may interact to help create a mosaic of outcomes that can
      affect the evolutionary dynamics of the interaction over the range of the
      competing species.

PMID- 28568886
TI  - LOCOMOTOR MODULES AND THE EVOLUTION OF AVIAN FLIGHT.
AB  - The evolution of avian flight can be interpreted by analyzing the sequence of
      modifications of the primitive tetrapod locomotor system through time. Herein, we
      introduce the term "locomotor module" to identify anatomical subregions of the
      musculoskeletal system that are highly integrated and act as functional units
      during locomotion. The first tetrapods, which employed lateral undulations of the
      entire body and appendages, had one large locomotor module. Basal dinosaurs and
      theropods were bipedal and possessed a smaller locomotor module consisting of the
      hind limb and tail. Bird flight evolved as the superimposition of a second
      (aerial) locomotor capability onto the ancestral (terrestrial) theropod body
      plan. Although the origin of the wing module was the primary innovation,
      alterations in the terrestrial system were also significant. We propose that the
      primitive theropod locomotor module was functionally and anatomically subdivided
      into separate pelvic and caudal locomotor modules. This decoupling freed the tail
      to attain a new and intimate affiliation with the forelimb during flight, a
      configuration unique to birds. Thus, the evolution of flight can be viewed as the
      origin and novel association of locomotor modules. Differential elaboration of
      these modules in various lineages has produced the diverse locomotor abilities of
      modern birds.

PMID- 28568887
TI  - PERSPECTIVE: EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS IN THE FOSSIL RECORD.
AB  - The study of large-scale evolutionary patterns in the fossil record has benefited
      from a diversity of approaches, including analysis of taxonomic data, ecology,
      geography, and morphology. Although genealogy is an important component of
      macroevolution, recent visions of phylogenetic analysis as replacing rather than
      supplementing other approaches are short-sighted. The ability of traditional
      Linnaean taxa to document evolutionary patterns is mainly an empirical rather
      than a theoretical issue, yet the use of these taxa has been dismissed without
      thorough evaluation of their empirical properties. Phylogenetic analysis can help
      compensate for some of the fossil record's imperfections. However, the
      shortcomings of the phylogenetic approach have not been adequately acknowledged,
      and we still lack a rigorous comparison between the phylogenetic approach and
      probabilistic approaches based on sampling theory. Important inferences about the
      history of life based on nongenealogical data have later been corroborated with
      genealogical and other analyses, suggesting that we risk an enormous loss of
      knowledge and understanding if we categorically dismiss nonphylogenetic data.

PMID- 28568888
TI  - RATES OF FLORAL EVOLUTION: ADAPTATION TO BUMBLEBEE POLLINATION IN AN ALPINE
      WILDFLOWER, POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM.
AB  - Animal pollinators are thought to shape floral evolution, yet the tempo of this
      process has seldom been measured. I used the prediction equation of quantitative
      genetics, R = h2 S, to predict the rate at which a change in pollinator abundance
      may have caused divergence in floral morphology of the alpine skypilot,
      Polemonium viscosum. A selection experiment determined the rate at which such
      divergence can actually proceed. Corolla flare in this species increases by 12%
      from populations pollinated by a wide assemblage of insect visitors to those
      pollinated only by bumblebees. To simulate the evolutionary process giving rise
      to this change, I used a pollinator selection experiment. Plants with broad
      flowers set significantly more seeds than plants with narrow flowers under
      bumblebee pollination but had equivalent fecundity when visited by other insects
      or hand-pollinated. Bumblebee-mediated selection for broad corolla flare
      intensified from 0.07 at seed set to 0.17 at progeny establishment. Maternal
      parent-offspring regression yielded a confidence interval of 0.22-1.00 for trait
      heritability. Given these parameter estimates, the prediction equation shows that
      broadly flared flowers of bumblebee-pollinated P. viscosum could have evolved
      from narrower ones in a single generation. This prediction is matched by an
      observed 9% increase in offspring corolla flare after a single bout of bumblebee
      mediated selection, relative to offspring of unselected controls. Findings show
      that plant populations can adapt rapidly to abrupt changes in pollinator
      assemblages.

PMID- 28568889
TI  - POLYGENIC INHERITANCE OF A BEHAVIORAL PHENOTYPE: INTERSPECIFIC GENETICS OF SONG
      IN THE HAWAIIAN CRICKET GENUS LAUPALA.
AB  - The Hawaiian cricket genus Laupala (family Gryllidae) is one of several native
      genera of flightless crickets found in rain-forest habitat across the Hawaiian
      archipelago. Species in this genus are morphologically quite similar, but the
      songs produced by adult males are acoustically distinct. I examined the nature of
      song variation found within Laupala paranigra and between Laupala kohalensis and
      L. paranigra, both endemic to the island of Hawaii. Variation within and among
      species was most notable in the temporal structure of the song, as quantified by
      the pulse rate. The variation in pulse rate present in natural populations of L.
      paranigra bred true through the F1 laboratory generation, suggesting that the
      intraspecific variation in this species has a genetic basis. Interspecific
      hybridizations between L. kohalensis and L. paranigra successfully produced F1 ,
      F2 , and backcross generations. Hybrid F1 males from reciprocal crosses sang with
      significantly different pulse rates, implicating an X chromosomal contribution to
      the phenotypic difference between these species. Interspecific patterns of
      inheritance are most consistent with a type-I genetic architecture. Polygenic
      inheritance of the interspecific pulse-rate variation was observed, and
      approximately eight genetic factors were estimated to underlie the difference in
      pulse rate between L. kohalensis and L. paranigra.

PMID- 28568890
TI  - Myocardial Mass Contributes to the Discrepancy Between Anatomic Stenosis Severity
      Assessed by Intravascular Ultrasound and Fractional Flow Reserve in Intermediate
      Lesions of the Coronary Artery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the major contributors to the
      discrepancy between the minimal lumen area (MLA) and fractional flow reserve
      (FFR). BACKGROUND: There was considerable discrepancy between MLA or diameter
      stenosis (DS) and FFR. METHODS: We enrolled 744 patients with intermediate
      stenoses of the left anterior descending artery (LAD). Summed epicardial coronary
      artery length distal to the target stenosis was obtained from each longest view
      of the vessels on the coronary angiograms. Mismatching was defined as a lesion
      with FFR of >0.80 and MLA smaller than the best cut-off value (BCV) for
      predicting FFR of <=0.80. Reverse mismatching was defined as a lesion with FFR of
      <=0.80 and MLA larger than the BCV. RESULTS: Summed epicardial coronary artery
      length was longer at the lesions of proximal LAD than that of middle LAD (380 mm
      +/- 82 mm vs. 341 mm +/- 80 mm, P < 0.001). Reverse mismatching was found more
      frequently in the proximal than middle LAD (28.3% vs. 5.5%, P < 0.001).
      Independent predictors of FFR <= 0.80 were age, male, multi-vessel disease,
      proximal LAD lesion, MLA, DS, plaque burden at distal reference, lesion length
      and summed epicardial coronary artery length. Proximal LAD lesion was an
      independent predictor of reverse mismatching (hazard ratio 3.162, 1.858-5.382, P
      < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Myocardial mass subtended by a lesion is an important
      factor predicting FFR <=0.80 and discrepancy between FFR and MLA. Myocardial mass
      subtended by a lesion should be considered when determining the revascularization
      therapy by intravascular ultrasound parameters. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28568891
TI  - Oncolytic Maraba Virus MG1 as a Treatment for Sarcoma.
AB  - The poor prognosis of patients with advanced bone and soft-tissue sarcoma has not
      changed in the past several decades, highlighting the necessity for new
      therapeutic approaches. Immunotherapies, including oncolytic viral (OV) therapy,
      have shown great promise in a number of clinical trials for a variety of tumor
      types. However, the effective application of OV in treating sarcoma still remains
      to be demonstrated. Although few pre-clinical studies using distinct OVs have
      been performed and demonstrated therapeutic benefit in sarcoma models, a side-by
      side comparison of clinically relevant OV platforms has not been performed. Four
      clinically relevant OV platforms (Reovirus, Vaccinia virus, Herpes-simplex virus
      and Rhabdovirus) were screened for their ability to infect and kill human and
      canine sarcoma cell lines in vitro, and human sarcoma specimens ex vivo. In vivo
      treatment efficacy was tested in a murine model. The rhabdovirus MG1 demonstrated
      the highest potency in vitro. Ex vivo, MG1 productively infected more than 80% of
      human sarcoma tissues tested, and treatment in vivo led to a significant increase
      in long-lasting cures in sarcoma-bearing mice. Importantly, MG1 treatment induced
      the generation of memory immune response that provided protection against a
      subsequent tumor challenge. This study opens the door for the use of MG1-based
      oncolytic immunotherapy strategies as treatment for sarcoma or as a component of
      a combined therapy.

PMID- 28568892
TI  - Patch testing in patients with suspected cosmetic dermatitis: A retrospective
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growing use of cosmetics has led to an increase in the incidence of
      allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to cosmetics. Patch testing helps to confirm
      allergy to cosmetics and pinpoint the exact offending allergens. AIMS AND
      OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to find the frequency of positive patch test
      reactions in cases with suspected ACD to cosmetics, and the common allergens
      responsible for it. METHODS: This is a retrospective record-based study of 58
      patients, with suspected ACD to cosmetics, who had undergone patch testing with
      Indian standard series and Indian cosmetic and fragrance series from January 2013
      to December 2015. RESULTS: The majority of patients (60.34%) belonged to the age
      group of 20-40 years. The most common site of involvement was face (94.8%)
      followed by neck (22.4%). The most commonly implicated cosmetics in history were
      soaps (53.4%), and face creams (24.1%). The most common allergens detected on
      patch testing were cetrimide (20.7%) and thimerosal (15.5%) followed by
      paraphenylenediamine (6.9%), and fragrance mix (5.2). Positive allergic reactions
      were obtained in 2.12% of the patches. CONCLUSION: Most common cosmetic products
      implicated for causing ACD were face creams, soaps, and hair dyes. The principal
      culprit allergens were cetrimide and thimerosal.

PMID- 28568893
TI  - TGF-beta signaling directly regulates transcription and functional expression of
      the electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter 1, NBCe1 (SLC4A4), via Smad4 in
      mouse astrocytes.
AB  - The electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter NBCe1 (SLC4A4) expressed in
      astrocytes regulates intracellular and extracellular pH. Here, we introduce
      transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) as a novel regulator of NBCe1
      transcription and functional expression. Using hippocampal slices and primary
      hippocampal and cortical astrocyte cultures, we investigated regulation of NBCe1
      and elucidated the underlying signaling pathways by RT-PCR, immunoblotting,
      immunofluorescence, intracellular H(+ ) recording using the H(+ ) -sensitive dye
      2',7'-bis-(carboxyethyl)-5-(and-6)-carboxyfluorescein, mink lung epithelial cell
      (MLEC) assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Activation of TGF-beta signaling
      significantly upregulated transcript, protein, and surface expression of NBCe1.
      These effects were TGF-beta receptor-mediated and suppressed following inhibition
      of JNK and Smad signaling. Moreover, 4-aminopyridine (4AP)-dependent NBCe1
      regulation requires TGF-beta. TGF-beta increased the rate and amplitude of
      intracellular H+ changes upon challenging NBCe1 in wild-type astrocytes but not
      in cortical astrocytes from Slc4a4-deficient mice. A Smad4 binding sequence was
      identified in the NBCe1 promoter and Smad4 binding increased after activation of
      TGF-beta signaling. The data show for the first time that NBCe1 is a direct
      target of TGF-beta/Smad4 signaling. Through activation of the canonical pathway
      TGF-beta acts directly on NBCe1 by binding of Smad4 to the NBCe1 promoter and
      regulating its transcription, followed by increased protein expression and
      transport activity.

PMID- 28568894
TI  - Intravital investigation of rat mesenteric small artery tone and blood flow.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Substantial information on rat mesenteric small artery physiology and
      pharmacology based on in vitro experiments is available. Little is known about
      the relevance of this for artery function in vivo. We here present an intravital
      model where rat mesenteric small artery diameters are studied under isolated and
      controlled conditions in situ with simultaneous measurement of blood flow. The
      responses of the isolated arteries vary with the anaesthetic used, and they are
      quantitatively but not qualitatively different from the responses seen in vitro.
      ABSTRACT: Functional characteristics of rat mesenteric small arteries (internal
      diameter ~150-200 MUm) have been extensively studied in vitro using isometric and
      isobaric myographs. In vivo, precapillary arterioles (internal diameter < 50 MUm)
      have been studied, but only a few studies have investigated the function of
      mesenteric small arteries. We here present a novel approach for intravital
      studies of rat mesenteric small artery segments (~5 mm long) isolated in a
      chamber. The agonist-induced changes in arterial diameter and blood flow were
      studied using video imaging and laser speckle analysis in rats anaesthetized by
      isoflurane, pentobarbital, ketamine-xylazine, or by a combination of fentanyl,
      fluanison and midazolam (rodent mixture). The arteries had spontaneous tone.
      Noradrenaline added to the chamber constricted the artery in the chamber but not
      the downstream arteries in the intestinal wall. The constriction was smaller when
      rats were anaesthetized by rodent mixture in comparison with other anaesthetics,
      where responses were qualitatively similar to those reported in vitro. The
      contraction was associated with reduction of blood flow, but no flow reduction
      was seen in the downstream arteries in the intestinal wall. The magnitude of
      different endothelium-dependent relaxation pathways was dependent on the
      anaesthesia. Vasomotion was present under all forms of anaesthesia with
      characteristics similar to in vitro. We have established an intravital method for
      studying the tone and flow in rat mesenteric arteries. The reactivity of the
      arteries was qualitatively similar to the responses previously obtained under in
      vitro conditions, but the choice of anaesthetic affects the magnitude of
      responses.

PMID- 28568895
TI  - Developmentally-faithful and effective human erythropoiesis in immunodeficient
      and Kit mutant mice.
AB  - Immunodeficient mouse models have been valuable for studies of human
      hematopoiesis, but high-fidelity recapitulation of erythropoiesis in most
      xenograft recipients remains elusive. Recently developed immunodeficient and Kit
      mutant mice, however, have provided a suitable background to achieve higher-level
      human erythropoiesis after long-term hematopoietic engraftment. While there has
      been some characterization of human erythropoiesis in these models, a
      comprehensive analysis from various human developmental stages has not yet been
      reported. Here, we have utilized cell surface phenotypes, morphologic analyses,
      and molecular studies to fully characterize human erythropoiesis from multiple
      developmental stages in immunodeficient and Kit mutant mouse models following
      long-term hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell engraftment. We show that human
      erythropoiesis in such models demonstrates complete maturation and enucleation,
      as well as developmentally appropriate globin gene expression. These results
      provide a framework for future studies to utilize this model system for
      interrogating disorders affecting human erythropoiesis and for developing
      improved therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28568896
TI  - An autopsied case of MV2K + C-type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease presenting
      with widespread cerebral cortical involvement and Kuru plaques.
AB  - MV2-type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), which was previously called
      "Kuru-plaque variant", was gradually revealed to have a wide spectrum and has
      been classified into three pathological subtypes: MV2K, MV2C and MV2K + C. We
      herein describe the detailed clinical findings and neuropathologic observations
      from an autopsied MV2K + C-type Japanese sCJD case with widespread cerebral
      cortical pathology and Kuru plaques. In the early stages of the disease, the
      patient exhibited gait disturbance with ataxia and dysarthria as well as gradual
      appearance of cognitive dysfunction. Diffusion-weighted images (DWI) on MRI
      revealed extensive cerebral cortical hyperintensity. Pathologic investigation
      revealed extensive spongiform change in the cerebral cortex, particularly in the
      deeper layers. Vacuole size varied, and some were confluent. Prion protein (PrP)
      immunostaining revealed extensive PrP deposition in the cerebral cortex, basal
      ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, brainstem and spinal cord. In the cerebral cortex,
      synaptic-type, Kuru plaque-like, and coarse plaque-type PrP depositions were
      mainly observed, along with some perivacuolar-type PrP depositions. Kuru plaques
      and coarse plaque-type PrP depositions also were observed in the cerebellar
      cortex. PrP gene analysis revealed no mutations, and polymorphic codon 129
      exhibited Met/Val heterozygosity. Western blot analysis revealed a mixture of
      intermediate-type PrPSc and type 2 PrPSc . Based on previous reports regarding
      MV2-type sCJD and the clinicopathologic findings of the present case, we
      speculated that it may be possible to clinically distinguish each MV2 subtype.
      Clinical presentation of the MV2K + C subtype includes predominant cerebral
      cortical involvement signs with ataxia and DWI hyperintensity of the cerebral
      cortex on MRI.

PMID- 28568897
TI  - Balloon cells in metastatic melanoma.

PMID- 28568898
TI  - Conventional and Novel Spinal Stimulation Algorithms: Hypothetical Mechanisms of
      Action and Comments on Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) emerged as a direct clinical spin-off
      from the Gate Control Theory from 1965. Over the last decade, several new modes
      of SCS have appeared. This review discusses these novel techniques and their
      hypothetical mechanisms of action. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A recent literature
      search on SCS coupled with the most recent data from poster presentations and
      congress lectures have been used to illustrate new hypothetical ways of
      modulating pain. RESULTS: Several physiological and neurochemical mechanisms for
      conventional paresthetic SCS have been described in detail. However, much less is
      known about the novel SCS modes of action. One new algorithm utilizes very high
      frequencies (up to 10 kHz) intended for direct stimulation of dorsal horns at the
      T9-T10 level to treat both low back pain and leg pain. Another technique uses
      bursts of impulses with a high internal frequency delivered to the dorsal spinal
      cord with a frequency of 40 Hz. Both of these therapies intend to be
      subparesthetic and effective both for neuropathic and nociceptive pain
      components. During the last few years, more moderate changes in SCS parameters
      have been tried in order to increase the amount of electric charge passed from
      the lead to the neural tissue. This strategy, called "high density SCS," utilizes
      frequencies up to 1200 Hz or long pulse widths. CONCLUSIONS: The present SCS
      therapies have developed beyond the Gate Control Concept. New hypotheses about
      mechanisms of action are presented and some improved results are discussed.

PMID- 28568900
TI  - An overview of the security of cardiac implantable electronic devices.

PMID- 28568899
TI  - Winding back Wnt signalling: potential therapeutic targets for treating gastric
      cancers.
AB  - : Gastric cancer persists as a frequent and deadly disease that claims over 700
      000 lives annually. Gastric cancer is a multifactorial disease that is
      genetically, cytologically and architecturally more heterogeneous than other
      gastrointestinal cancers, making it therapeutically challenging. As such, and
      largely attributed to late-stage diagnosis, gastric cancer patients show only
      partial response to standard chemo and targeted molecular therapies, highlighting
      an urgent need to develop new targeted therapies for this disease. Wnt signalling
      has a well-documented history in the genesis of many cancers and is, therefore,
      an attractive therapeutic target. As such, drug discovery has focused on
      developing inhibitors that target multiple nodes of the Wnt signalling cascade,
      some of which have progressed to clinical trials. The collective efforts of
      patient genomic profiling has uncovered genetic lesions to multiple components of
      the Wnt pathway in gastric cancer patients, which strongly suggest that Wnt
      targeted therapies could offer therapeutic benefits for gastric cancer patients.
      These data have been supported by studies in mouse models of gastric cancer,
      which identify Wnt signalling as a driver of gastric tumourigenesis. Here, we
      review the current literature regarding Wnt signalling in gastric cancer and
      highlight the suitability of each class of Wnt inhibitor as a potential treatment
      for gastric cancer patients, in relation to the type of Wnt deregulation
      observed. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on WNT
      Signalling: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities. To view the other articles
      in this section visit
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v174.24/issuetoc.

PMID- 28568901
TI  - The replicative lifespan-extending deletion of SGF73 results in altered ribosomal
      gene expression in yeast.
AB  - Sgf73, a core component of SAGA, is the yeast orthologue of ataxin-7, which
      undergoes CAG-polyglutamine repeat expansion leading to the human
      neurodegenerative disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7). Deletion of SGF73
      dramatically extends replicative lifespan (RLS) in yeast. To further define the
      basis for Sgf73-mediated RLS extension, we performed ChIP-Seq, identified 388
      unique genomic regions occupied by Sgf73, and noted enrichment in promoters of
      ribosomal protein (RP)-encoding genes. Of 388 Sgf73 binding sites, 33 correspond
      to 5' regions of genes implicated in RLS extension, including 20 genes encoding
      RPs. Furthermore, half of Sgf73-occupied, RLS-linked RP genes displayed
      significantly reduced expression in sgf73Delta mutants, and double null strains
      lacking SGF73 and a Sgf73-regulated, RLS-linked RP gene exhibited no further
      increase in replicative lifespan. We also found that sgf73Delta mutants display
      altered acetylation of Ifh1, an important regulator of RP gene transcription.
      These findings implicate altered ribosomal protein expression in sgf73Delta yeast
      RLS and highlight altered acetylation as a pathway of relevance for SCA7
      neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28568902
TI  - Managing consequences of climate-driven species redistribution requires
      integration of ecology, conservation and social science.
AB  - Climate change is driving a pervasive global redistribution of the planet's
      species. Species redistribution poses new questions for the study of ecosystems,
      conservation science and human societies that require a coordinated and
      integrated approach. Here we review recent progress, key gaps and strategic
      directions in this nascent research area, emphasising emerging themes in species
      redistribution biology, the importance of understanding underlying drivers and
      the need to anticipate novel outcomes of changes in species ranges. We highlight
      that species redistribution has manifest implications across multiple temporal
      and spatial scales and from genes to ecosystems. Understanding range shifts from
      ecological, physiological, genetic and biogeographical perspectives is essential
      for informing changing paradigms in conservation science and for designing
      conservation strategies that incorporate changing population connectivity and
      advance adaptation to climate change. Species redistributions present challenges
      for human well-being, environmental management and sustainable development. By
      synthesising recent approaches, theories and tools, our review establishes an
      interdisciplinary foundation for the development of future research on species
      redistribution. Specifically, we demonstrate how ecological, conservation and
      social research on species redistribution can best be achieved by working across
      disciplinary boundaries to develop and implement solutions to climate change
      challenges. Future studies should therefore integrate existing and complementary
      scientific frameworks while incorporating social science and human-centred
      approaches. Finally, we emphasise that the best science will not be useful unless
      more scientists engage with managers, policy makers and the public to develop
      responsible and socially acceptable options for the global challenges arising
      from species redistributions.

PMID- 28568904
TI  - Mitochondrial DNA analysis of ancient sheep from Altai.
AB  - A comparative analysis of the genetic diversity of ancient and modern sheep can
      shed light on the origin of these animals and their distribution as well as help
      to evaluate the role of humans at each formation stage of different sheep breeds.
      Here we isolated ancient DNA and performed sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA D
      loop from 17 sheep bone remains (~4000-1000 years old) found in the
      archaeological complexes in the south of Altai (Western Siberia). The length of
      the sequences obtained ranged between 318 and 586 bp. The haplotype diversity and
      nucleotide diversity were 0.801 +/- 0.081 and 0.0096 +/- 0.0014 respectively. The
      average number of nucleotide differences was ~3.1. Nucleotide sequence analysis
      revealed that 15 specimens were nested within previously described A,B,C,D and E
      lineages and that two specimens had a basal position relative to the rest of the
      analyzed samples. A relatively high diversity of sheep haplotypes, including the
      presence of two basal haplotypes, indicates that the Altai region may have been a
      transport route of human migration. Further ancient DNA analysis of other
      specimens and deeper genome sequencing of samples with novel haplotypes is needed
      to better understand the demographic history of sheep in Southern Siberia.

PMID- 28568903
TI  - Multidisciplinary assessment of PFO with substantial right-to-left shunting and
      medium-term follow-up after PFO device closure: A single-center experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the multidisciplinary assessment of patent foramen ovale
      (PFO) with substantial right-to-left shunting (RLS) and medium-term follow-up
      after PFO closure for stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). BACKGROUND: PFO
      closure is a therapeutic option to prevent recurrent ischemic event in patients
      with cryptogenic stroke and TIA. The apparent lack of benefit seen in previous
      studies was in part due to the inclusion of patients with alternate mechanisms of
      stroke/TIA. However, the long-term follow-up results of RESPECT trial confirmed
      that PFO closure could reduce the recurrence rate of stroke compared to medical
      therapy. The obvious difference between RESPECT and the other studies is that
      RESPECT recruited more relevant patients with substantial RLS. METHODS: From May
      2013 to October 2015, all subjects diagnosed as cryptogenic stroke or TIA with
      substantial RLS who underwent PFO closure at our institution were included. All
      patients underwent multidisciplinary assessment to exclude stroke/TIA with
      definite etiology. Baseline characteristics, clinical manifestations, procedural,
      and follow-up data were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 219 consecutive patients
      with substantial RLS undergoing PFO closure were identified. There were no
      procedure-related deaths, strokes, or TIA. Mean follow-up was 2.0 +/- 0.7 years.
      Early residual shunting was visible in 9 patients (4.1%); however, during follow
      up, only 3 patients (1.4%) had residual RLS detected by contrast transthoracic
      echocardiography (cTTE). The annual risk of recurrent ischemic stroke or TIA was
      0.457%. CONCLUSIONS: PFO closure can be performed safely and effectively in
      patients with cryptogenic stroke or TIA. In selected patients with substantial
      RLS, following appropriate multidisciplinary assessment, excellent results with
      low incidence of recurrent events may be achieved.

PMID- 28568905
TI  - TMEM230: How does it fit in the etiology and pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease?
AB  - Mutations in the transmembrane protein 230 (TMEM230) gene were recently
      identified in a large Canadian pedigree and 7 smaller Chinese families,
      nominating TMEM230 as the third gene causing a Mendelian form of late onset
      Parkinson's disease (PD) with typical Lewy-body pathology (after synuclein alpha
      (SNCA) and leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2)). The protein encoded by TMEM230
      remains largely uncharacterized, but initial evidence points to roles in the
      trafficking of recycling vesicles, retromers, and endosomes, suggesting
      intriguing links to the pathways targeted by other PD-causing genes. The focus on
      family-based studies is gaining new momentum in the next-generation sequencing
      era, for the discovery of further, high-penetrance (medically relevant) genetic
      variants in PD. However, at this junction, important aspects of the TMEM230 story
      remain unclear, such as the prevalence of these mutations in the Chinese and
      other populations of the world, the penetrance of the mutations, and even their
      mode of inheritance. The first replication studies among Chinese and White PD
      patients have been largely negative. Furthermore, much more work remains ahead to
      elucidate the mechanisms by which these mutations might lead to neuronal cell
      death, alpha-synuclein pathology, and parkinsonism. (c) 2017 International
      Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28568906
TI  - Effect of iron supplementation in children with breath holding spells.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of iron supplementation in
      children with breath holding spells, irrespective of their iron status and study
      the factors associated with the response. METHODS: This was a prospective
      interventional study. Study population comprised of patients aged 6-36 months,
      attending a paediatric outpatient department with recurrent episodes (more than
      three in last 4 weeks) of breath holding spells. Children with loss of
      consciousness or convulsive movements associated with breath holding spells were
      considered as severe. After baseline investigations, all enrolled patients were
      given elemental iron at the dose of 3 mg/kg/day as a single daily dose. Four
      weekly follow-ups were done until 3 months after initiation of the intervention.
      At 12 weeks, investigations were repeated and outcome assessed for remission or
      decrease in severity of breath holding episodes. RESULTS: A total of 100 children
      with breath holding spells received iron supplementation. Almost 73% of children
      showed complete response, with another 23% showing greater than 50% reduction in
      frequency. Frequency of spells at diagnosis and intolerance to oral iron were
      significantly associated with poor response to iron supplementation. Other
      factors such as age at onset, age at presentation, severity of spells, anaemia
      and serum iron parameters had no significant association with the response. Of
      the 27 children without iron deficiency (serum ferritin >= 30 ug/L), 77.7%
      responded completely to iron supplementation, similar to the iron-deficient
      group. CONCLUSIONS: Iron supplementation is effective in the management of breath
      holding spells. Non-anaemic and iron-replete children with breath holding spells
      also respond well to iron supplementation.

PMID- 28568907
TI  - Anticipated next-day demand affects the magnitude of the cortisol awakening
      response, but not subjective or objective sleep.
AB  - Whilst the association between sleep and stress is well established, few studies
      have examined the effects of an anticipated stressor upon sleep and relevant
      physiological markers. The aim of the present study was to examine whether an
      anticipated stressor in the form of next-day demand affects subjective and
      objective sleep, and multiple indices of the cortisol awakening response.
      Subjective and objective sleep and the cortisol awakening response were measured
      over three consecutive nights in 40 healthy adults in a sleep laboratory. During
      their second night, participants were informed that they would either be required
      to complete a series of demanding cognitive tasks, in a competition format,
      during the next day (anticipation condition; n = 22), or were given no
      instruction (sedentary condition; n = 18). Sleep was measured subjectively using
      sleep diaries, objectively using polysomnography, and saliva was measured at
      awakening, +15, +30, +45 and +60 min each morning, from which cortisol awakening
      response measurement indices were derived: awakening cortisol levels, the mean
      increase in cortisol levels and total cortisol secretion. There were no between
      group differences in subjective or objective sleep in the night preceding the
      anticipated demand; however, compared with the sedentary condition, those in the
      anticipation group displayed a larger mean increase in cortisol levels,
      representing the cortisol awakening response magnitude, on the morning of the
      anticipated demand. Overall, the results suggest that whilst anticipated stress
      affected the subsequent cortisol awakening response, subjective and objective
      sleep remained undisturbed. It is possible that the timing of an anticipated
      stressor, rather than its expected duration, may influence subsequent sleep
      disruption.

PMID- 28568909
TI  - A Guide for the Design of Functional Polyaromatic Organophosphorus Materials.
AB  - The impact of integrating six-membered phosphorus heterocycles into a
      poly(hetero)aromatic materials is investigated. Mechanistic studies reveal the
      key synthetic requirements to embed the latter phosphorus heterocycles in
      polyaromatic molecules. DFT calculations indicate that introducing six-membered
      phosphorus rings into pi-extended molecules induces a particular electron
      distribution over the pi-extended system. Electrochemical investigations confirm
      that inserting six-membered phosphacycles into polyaromatics triggers ambipolar
      redox behavior. Steady-state spectroscopy reveals that fusing pyrroles with
      phosphorus-containing polyaromatic molecules induces fluorescence quantum yields
      as high as 0.8, whereas transient absorption spectroscopy demonstrates that
      fusing thiophenes promote the formation of non-emissive triplet-excited states.
      As a whole, the optoelectronic properties of fused phosphorus-containing
      materials give rise to promising performances in photoelectrochemical cells.
      Moreover, X-ray analyses confirm that the 3D arrangement in the solid state of
      polyaromatic systems containing six-membered phosphorus rings can be tailored
      through post-functionalization of the phosphorus center. Altogether, this
      investigation sets the bedrock for the design of a new generation of highly
      functional polyaromatic organophosphorus materials, keeping control over their
      electrochemical properties, fluorescence features, photo-induced excited states,
      and 3D molecular arrangement.

PMID- 28568908
TI  - A magnetic resonance imaging study of gastric motor function in patients with
      dyspepsia associated with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility Type: A
      feasibility study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for
      investigating gastric motor function in dyspepsia is limited, largely due to
      protocol complexity, cost and limited availability. In this study, we explore the
      feasibility of a sub 60-minute protocol using a water challenge to assess gastric
      emptying, motility and accommodation in a cohort of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
      Hypermobility type (EDS-HT) patients presenting with dyspepsia. METHODS: Nine EDS
      HT patients (mean age 33, range: 26-50 all female) with a history of dyspepsia
      were recruited together with nine-matched controls. Subjects fasted for 6 hours
      prior to MRI. A baseline anatomical and motility scan was performed after which
      the subjects ingested 300 mL water. The anatomical and motility scans were then
      repeated every 10 minutes to a total of 60 minutes. Gastric emptying time,
      motility, and accommodation were calculated based on the observations of two
      observers for each EDS-HT subject and compared to their matched control using
      paired statistics. KEY RESULTS: Median motility increase following the water
      challenge was lower in EDS-HT subjects (11%, range: 0%-22%) compared to controls
      (22%, range: 13%-56%), P=.03. Median gastric emptying time was non-significantly
      decreased in EDS-HT subjects (12.5 minutes, range: 6-27) compared to controls (20
      minutes, range: 7-30), P=.15. Accommodation was non-significantly reduced in EDS
      HT subjects (56% increase, range: 32%-78%) compared to healthy controls (67%
      increase, range: 52%-78%), P=.19. CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: This study
      demonstrates the feasibility of a water challenge MRI protocol to evaluate
      gastric physiology in the clinical setting. Motility differences between EDS-HT
      and controls are worthy of further investigation.

PMID- 28568911
TI  - Dream emotions: a comparison of home dream reports with laboratory early and late
      REM dream reports.
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare the emotional content of dream reports
      collected at home upon morning awakenings with those collected in the laboratory
      upon early and late rapid eye movement (REM) sleep awakenings. Eighteen adults
      (11 women, seven men; mean age = 25.89 +/- 4.85) wrote down their home dreams
      every morning immediately upon awakening during a 7-day period. Participants also
      spent two non-consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory where they were awoken 5
      min into each continuous REM sleep stage, upon which they gave a verbal dream
      report. The content of a total of 151 home and 120 laboratory dream reports was
      analysed by two blind judges using the modified Differential Emotions Scale. It
      was found that: (1) home dream reports were more emotional than laboratory early
      REM dream reports, but not more emotional than laboratory late REM dream reports;
      (2) home dream reports contained a higher density of emotions than laboratory
      (early or late REM) dream reports; and (3) home dream reports were more negative
      than laboratory dream reports, but differences between home and early REM reports
      were larger than those between home and late REM reports. The results suggest
      that differences between home and laboratory dream reports in overall
      emotionality may be due to the time of night effect. Whether differences in the
      density of emotions and negative emotionality are due to sleep environment or due
      to different reporting procedures and time spent in a sleep stage, respectively,
      remains to be determined in future studies.

PMID- 28568912
TI  - TRANSMISSION RATES AND THE EVOLUTION OF HIV VIRULENCE.

PMID- 28568910
TI  - Sex differences in parent-reported executive functioning and adaptive behavior in
      children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - This study is the largest to date examining executive function and adaptive
      skills in females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Its primary aim was to
      utilize parent ratings of real-world executive functioning and adaptive behavior
      to better understand whether females with ASD differ from males with ASD in these
      areas of everyday functioning. We compared 79 females with ASD to 158 males with
      ASD (ages 7-18) who were statistically matched on age, IQ, and level of ADHD or
      ASD traits. All participants were assessed using the Behavior Rating Inventory of
      Executive Function (BRIEF) and a subset (56 females and 130 males) also received
      the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Females were rated by parents as
      having greater problems with executive function on the BRIEF. Parents also rated
      females as exhibiting more difficulties than males on the Daily Living Skills
      domain of the VABS. There was a correlation between increased global EF
      difficulty and decreased adaptive ability in both males and females. Our results
      indicate relative weaknesses for females compared to males diagnosed with ASD on
      executive function and daily living skills. These differences occur in the
      absence of sex differences in our sample in age, IQ, clinician ratings of core
      ASD symptomatology, parent ratings of ADHD symptoms, and parent-reported social
      and communication adaptive skills on the VABS. These findings indicate specific
      liabilities in real world EF and daily living skills for females with ASD and
      have important implications for targeting their treatments. Autism Res 2017, 10:
      1653-1662. (c) 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28568913
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC DIFFERENTIATION IN SERIALLY BOTTLENECKED POPULATIONS OF THE
      HOUSEFLY.

PMID- 28568914
TI  - COSTS AND BENEFITS OF A PREDATOR-INDUCED POLYPHENISM IN THE GRAY TREEFROG HYLA
      CHRYSOSCELIS.
AB  - The phenotypes of gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) tadpoles vary depending on
      whether predators are present in the pond. Tadpoles reared in ponds with
      predatory dragonfly larvae are relatively inactive compared with tadpoles in
      predator-free ponds, and have relatively large, brightly colored tailfins with
      dark spots along the margins. Models for the evolution of plasticity predict that
      induced phenotypes such as this should confer high fitness relative to the
      typical phenotype when in the presence of predators, but should be costly when
      the predator is absent. Our study tested for the predicted fitness trade-off in
      H. chrysoscelis by first rearing tadpoles in mesocosms under conditions that
      induce the alternate phenotypes, and then comparing the performance of both
      phenotypes in both environments. We generated the two phenotypes by rearing
      tadpoles in 600-liter outdoor artificial ponds that contained either two caged
      dragonflies (Anax junius) or an empty cage. Tadpoles from the two environments
      showed significantly different behavior, tail shape, and tail color within two
      weeks of exposure. We compared the growth and survival of both phenotypes over
      four weeks in ponds where there was no actual risk of predation. Under these
      conditions, both phenotypes grew at the same rate, but the predator-induced
      phenotype had significantly lower survival than the typical phenotype, indicating
      that induced tadpoles suffered greater mortality from causes other than odonate
      predation. We tested the susceptibility of both phenotypes to predation by
      exposing them to dragonflies in 24-h predation trials. The predator-induced
      phenotype showed a significant survival advantage in these trials. These results
      confirm that the predator-induced phenotype in H. chrysoscelis larvae is
      associated with fitness costs and benefits that explain why the defensive
      phenotype is induced rather than constitutive.

PMID- 28568915
TI  - INTRASEXUAL SELECTION CONSTRAINS THE EVOLUTION OF THE DORSAL COLOR PATTERN OF
      MALE BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES, PAPILIO POLYXENES.
AB  - Males of the eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius Stoll) with
      typical coloration were more successful in intrasexual competition for mating
      territories than were males altered to have female-like mimetic coloration.
      Sibling males were matched for wingspan and emergence date and released as pairs,
      one with its pattern altered and one a control that was marked but with unaltered
      appearance. Significantly fewer altered males were resighted one or more days
      after release compared with control males (33% vs. 76%, 1990; 46% vs. 83%, 1993).
      Altered males were less able to establish and maintain themselves in preferred
      territories. The inability of released, altered males to establish a territory
      appears related to significantly longer male-male encounters. Encounters
      involving at least one participant with altered appearance averaged 66 s compared
      with 24 s if neither male was altered. However, altering the coloration of P.
      polyxenes males that already had established themselves in a territory had little
      effect. After courtships of similar duration (~ 40 s), released virgin females
      were equally likely to mate with either altered or control males. This suggests
      that male-male intrasexual selection is of greater importance than female mate
      choice in maintaining a non-mimetic dorsal coloration in male P. polyxenes.

PMID- 28568916
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF DIFFERENCES IN GROWTH AND BEHAVIOR OF SPECIALIST AND
      GENERALIST HERBIVORE SPECIES: SELECTION ON HYBRIDS OF HELIOTHIS VIRESCENS AND
      HELIOTHIS SUBFLEXA (LEPIDOPTERA).
AB  - Two species of moths and their hybrids were studied to determine the genetic
      basis of host range. One species, Heliothis virescens (HV), has a broad host
      range and is an agricultural pest on cotton (Malvaceae), soybean (Fabaceae), and
      tobacco (Solanaceae). The other species, Heliothis subflexa (HS), has a narrow
      host range, feeding on plants in the genus Physalis (Solanaceae). Experiments
      were done to determine whether the abilities to feed on cotton, soybean, and
      tobacco were each under separate genetic control in HV (genetically uncorrelated)
      or whether feeding on all three hosts was genetically correlated. By repeatedly
      backcrossing hybrids to HS while selecting for high larval survival and weight on
      soybean, loci conferring the ability to feed on soybean were moved from HV into
      the genetic background of the specialist, HS. After six generations of selection
      on soybean we tested the selected line on soybean, cotton, Physalis, and tobacco
      to determine if ability to feed on soybean was correlated with feeding ability on
      these other hosts. We found no evidence to support the hypothesis that feeding on
      all three hosts was correlated and controlled by a single locus. Compared to HS,
      the survival and weight of the selected line were significantly higher on
      soybean, similar on tobacco and Physalis, and slightly, but not significantly,
      higher on cotton. We also conducted a behavioral choice test to determine if
      larval preference for soybean was correlated with preference for other hosts. The
      selected line larvae had higher preference for soybean and cotton than HS.
      Preference for tobacco was equal in the selected line and in HS. These results
      support the trends seen in survival and growth tests where performances on
      soybean and cotton appeared partially correlated and performances on soybean and
      tobacco were uncorrelated. In conclusion, the generalist, HV, did not have a
      single set of loci that governed feeding on soybean, cotton and tobacco. It is
      likely that some of the loci governing performance and preference for soybean
      also contributed to performance and preference for cotton and that the soybean
      loci examined did not interact negatively to lower performance and preference for
      Physalis, the specialist's host. This approach can be applied more widely to
      address evolutionary questions about host range and other ecological traits.

PMID- 28568917
TI  - THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ANCESTRAL CHARACTER STATES.
AB  - The problem of error in the phylogenetic reconstruction of ancestral character
      states is explored by developing the model of Frumhoff and Reeve (1994).
      Information about the evolutionary rate of change within a character is inferred
      from the distribution of its character states on a known phylogeny, and this
      information is used to impose confidence limits on the error associated with
      ancestral state inference. Ancestral state inference is found to be remarkably
      robust under the model assumptions for a wide range of parameter values; however,
      the probability of error increases when the number of species within a clade is
      small and/or state-transition probabilities are strongly skewed in favor of the
      non-ancestral state. The rationale for expecting such a skew, a hypothesis of
      parallelism, is shown to rely on assumptions of low rates of change in at least
      two phylogenetically inherited characters: the tendency to occupy a particular
      ecological niche and the tendency to respond in a particular way to selection. A
      means for judging the relative likelihoods of parallelism vs. straightforward
      homology as explanations for a given character-state distribution is suggested.
      General problems with the model are discussed, as are methods for making it more
      realistic.

PMID- 28568918
TI  - PLEIOTROPIC EFFECTS OF FLOWER-COLOR INTENSITY ON HERBIVORE PERFORMANCE ON IPOMOEA
      PURPUREA.

PMID- 28568919
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN SEX ALLOCATION IN A SIMULTANEOUS HERMAPHRODITE: THE
      EFFECT OF INDIVIDUAL SIZE.
AB  - Within a population of simultaneous hermaphrodites, individuals may vary in both
      their current reproductive investment (biomass invested in gonads) and in how
      they allocate that investment between male and female function. In the chalk
      bass, Serranus tortugarum, estimates of both reproductive allocation and
      reproductive success as a male and a female can be made for individuals of
      different sizes. As individuals increase in size, their investment in gamete
      production increases, and there is a shift in allocation to a stronger female
      bias. Spawning frequency as a female in pair spawnings and as a male in both pair
      spawning and streaking (an alternative mating tactic) does not vary with
      individual size. As a result, larger individuals should release more sperm or
      eggs per spawn. Size-assortative pair spawning in this species leads to larger
      individuals having higher potential returns in total male reproductive success
      than smaller individuals, which should lead to increases in absolute levels of
      sperm production in larger individuals when individuals compete for
      fertilizations through sperm competition. However, smaller individuals contribute
      a smaller proportion of the sperm released in spawns with multiple spawners and
      thus are under more intense sperm competition than larger individuals, which
      should select for increases in male allocation in smaller individuals, all else
      equal. A local-mate-competition (LMC) model predicts that these factors select
      for increasing absolute male and female investment with individual size but a
      relative shift to more female-biased allocation as individual size increases.
      These predictions are supported by gonadal data. The predictions of average male
      allocation from the quantitative LMC model were 21.6% and 25.7%, whereas the
      collections averaged 21.3%. This close agreement of both the mean male allocation
      and its relative shift with individual size between model and data support the
      hypothesis that size-specific shifts in sex allocation in this species represent
      an adaptive response to patterns of mating success and sperm competition.

PMID- 28568920
TI  - COMPLEX TRADE-OFFS AND THE EVOLUTION OF STARVATION RESISTANCE IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER.
AB  - The measurement of trade-offs may be complicated when selection exploits multiple
      avenues of adaptation or multiple life-cycle stages. We surveyed 10 populations
      of Drosophila melanogaster selected for increased resistance to starvation for 60
      generations, their paired controls, and their mutual ancestors (a total of 30
      outbred populations) for evidence of physiological and life-history trade-offs
      that span life-cycle stages. The directly selected lines showed an impressive
      response to starvation selection, with mature adult females resisting starvation
      death 4-6 times longer than unselected controls or ancestors-up to a maximum of
      almost 20 days. Starvation-selected flies are already 80% more resistant to
      starvation death than their controls immediately upon eclosion, suggesting that a
      significant portion of their selection response was owing to preadult growth and
      acquisition of metabolites relevant to the stress. These same lines exhibited
      significantly longer development and lower viability in the larval and pupal
      stages. Weight and lipid measurements on one of the starvation-selected
      treatments (SB1-5 ), its control populations (CB1-5 ), and their ancestor
      populations (B1-5 ) revealed three important findings. First, starvation
      resistance and lipid content were linearly correlated; second, larval lipid
      acquisition played a major role in the evolution of adult starvation resistance;
      finally, increased larval growth rate and lipid acquisition had a fitness cost
      exacted in reduced viability and slower development. This study implicates
      multiple life-cycle stages in the response to selection for the stress resistance
      of only one stage. Our starvation-selected populations illustrate a case that may
      be common in nature. Patterns of genetic correlation may prove misleading unless
      multiple pleiotropic interconnections are resolved.

PMID- 28568921
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN FOUR POPULATIONS OF COLLINSIA HETEROPHYLLA NUTT
      (SCROPHULARIACEAE).
AB  - The effects of one and two generations of inbreeding were studied in plants from
      four natural populations of the annual plant, Collinsia heterophylla, using
      inbred and outcrossed plants generated by hand pollinations to create expected
      inbreeding coefficients ranging from 0-0.75. The selfing rates of the populations
      were estimated using allozyme markers to range from 0.37-0.69. Inbreeding
      depression was mild, ranging from 5-40%, but significant effects were detected
      for characters measured at all stages of the life cycle. Fitness components
      declined significantly with the inbreeding coefficient, and regression of fitness
      characters on inbreeding coefficients gave no evidence of any strongly
      synergistic effects attributable to the different genetic factors that contribute
      to decline in fitness under inbreeding. The magnitude of inbreeding depression
      did not clearly decrease with the populations' levels of inbreeding. This is not
      surprising because the selfing rates are similar enough that it is unlikely that
      the populations have been characterized for long periods of time by these
      different inbreeding levels.

PMID- 28568922
TI  - ON THE EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN A SPATIALLY HETEROGENEOUS
      ENVIRONMENT.
AB  - A genetic model for the dynamics of a quantitative trait is analyzed in terms of
      gene frequencies, linkage disequilibria, and environmental effects on the trait.
      In a randomly mating population, at each generation progeny move to niches where
      they are subject to weak Gaussian selection on the trait, with different fitness
      levels in the different niches. Initially, the variability of the trait is due to
      additive loci with heterozygous homeostasis. The evolution of plasticity is then
      described in terms of the invasion of the population by genetic modifiers that
      may epistatically affect the trait, its optimum in each niche, the strengths of
      selection, and other parameters characteristic of the niches. We show that the
      evolution of trait means within niches depends on the overall evolution in the
      whole system, and in general, optimum phenotypic values are not attained. The
      reaction norm and genotype-environment interaction may evolve even if the only
      effects of the modifier are on individual rates of dispersal, or on fitness
      effects resulting from the different environments in the different niches; this
      evolution does not require that the modifier affect parameters that influence the
      values of the trait. It is conjectured that in the least frequently reached
      niches with low fitness levels, the deviations from the trait optima should be
      larger than those in more commonly experienced and less stringent niches. Our
      analysis makes explicit the different contribution of between- and within-niche
      effects on the evolutionary dynamics of phenotypic plasticity in heterogeneous
      environments.

PMID- 28568923
TI  - INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF TERRESTRIALITY IN ATLANTIC TRUNCATELLID GASTROPODS.
AB  - Phylogenetic analysis of truncatellid gastropods using comparative anatomy and
      ribosomal RNA sequences shows that terrestrial truncatellids likely evolved three
      times independently in the Caribbean. The terrestrial subfamily Geomelaniinae,
      characterized in part by pallial fertilization and uniquely derived features of
      radula and protoconch, occurs in the Greater Antilles and Cayman Islands.
      Truncatellinae, with renopericardial fertilization, has several widespread
      amphibious species and two terrestrial species restricted to Trinidad and
      Barbados. The species in Barbados may be the most recent animal species to evolve
      full terrestriality; Barbados emerged above sea level only about one million
      years ago. By the mid-Cenozoic, truncatellids had traits enabling them to
      colonize land in appropriate tectonic settings. Parallel trends in character
      evolution occurred in the terrestrial lineages. In older terrestrial radiations,
      transitional character states would likely be lost, potentially allowing
      parallelism to confound phylogenetic analysis of morphological characters.

PMID- 28568924
TI  - EFFECTS ON FITNESS COMPONENTS OF P-ELEMENT INSERTS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER:
      ANALYSIS OF TRADE-OFFS.
AB  - We analyzed the trade-offs between fitness components detected in four
      experiments in which traits were manipulated by inserting small (control) and
      large (treatment) P-elements into the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Treatment
      effects and the interactions of treatment with temperature, experiment, and line
      were caused by the greater length and different positions of the treatment
      insert. In inbred flies, the treatment decreased early and total fecundity.
      Whether it increased the lifespan of mated females depended upon adult density.
      Analysis of line-by-treatment-by-temperature interactions revealed hidden trade
      offs that would have been missed by other methods. They included a significant
      trade-off between lifespan and early fecundity. At 25 degrees C high early
      fecundity was associated with decreased reproductive rates and increased
      mortality rates 10-15 days later and persisting throughout life, but not at 29.5
      degrees C. Correlations with Gompertz coefficients suggested that flies that were
      heavier at eclosion also aged more slowly and that flies that aged more slowly
      had higher fecundity late in life at 25 degrees C. The results support the view
      that lifespan trades off with fecundity and that late fecundity trades off with
      rate of aging in fruitflies. Genetic engineering is an independent method for the
      analysis of trade-offs that complements selection experiments.

PMID- 28568925
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28568926
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS, DIPLOID MALES, AND LIMITS TO SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF EUGLOSSINE
      BEES.

PMID- 28568927
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY ADAPTATION AND REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN A GRASSHOPPER HYBRID ZONE.
AB  - Patterns of life-history adaptation and reproductive isolation were investigated
      in the acridid grasshoppers Melanoplus sanguinipes and M. devastator, which
      hybridize along an altitudinal gradient in the Sierra Nevada of California.
      Melanoplus sanguinipes females crossed with M. devastator males produced eggs
      that were approximately half as viable as eggs from other crosses. Diminished
      viability was not attributable either to infection by Wolbachia pipientis or to
      failure of sperm transfer. When offered an opportunity to choose a mate, females
      from all populations discriminated against males of the other species, whereas in
      no-choice tests measuring copulation duration only females from the tails of the
      clines showed preferences. Melanoplus sanguinipes, found at high elevations where
      the growing season is short, exhibited faster egg hatch, faster larval
      development, smaller adult body sizes, and smaller clutch sizes than M.
      devastator. Melanoplus devastator, from California's Central Valley, endured a
      hot and dry summer in a reproductive diapause that was absent in M. sanguinipes.
      Clines in reproductive diapause and clutch size coincided with the region of
      reproductive incompatibility. Development time, body size, and hatch time also
      changed across the hybrid zone, but the regions of largest transitions in these
      traits were either difficult to locate using the limited populations studied here
      or were not coincident with the zone's center. A method is described for
      combining ecological and phylogenetic analyses to address the unknown issue of
      whether life-history divergence has conributed to reproductive isolation in this
      system.

PMID- 28568928
TI  - WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SPECIES OF BROODING ANTARCTIC ECHINOIDS?
AB  - Marine invertebrates display a great variety of life-history traits and
      reproductive strategies. In echinoids, four patterns of larval development are
      generally recognized: planktotrophy, pelagic lecithotrophy, bottom dwelling, and
      brood protecting. Each broad type of free and protected development is found in
      all the oceans, but comparisons of the principal reproductive modes between
      different geographic regions have shown that they are not equally distributed.
      Frequency of pelagic development (planktotrophic and lecithotrophic) decreases
      from equator to Antarctic, where brood protecting becomes dominant. Numerous
      theories have been proposed to explain the richness of nonpelagic development in
      most marine invertebrates within the Southern Ocean. These theories can be
      grouped into three categories: (1) larval survival, where selection acts on
      larval; (2) energy allocation; and (3) dispersal. All of them consider the
      adaptative significance of brood protecting as the key to the success of this
      strategy in the Antarctic. However, the adaptative significance of brooding and
      the evolutionary success of this strategy in the Antarctic must be considered as
      two separate questions. To consider the problem at an evolutionary level, we have
      examined the consequences of different reproductive strategies on the genetic
      structure of species and on the long-term evolution of the clade. We examine this
      problem in the case of echinoids, a clade particularly well suited to addressing
      this question. In echinoids, the reduction of larval-stage duration is associated
      with a decrease in gene flow and consequently in the geographical scale of
      genetic differentiation. This allows us to reconsider the high-speciation-rate
      model, which leads to an increase in the number of low-dispersal species
      (isolation by distance). This model, previously tested by means of fossils is not
      satisfactory in living echinoids. Thus, the model is rebuilt with the addition of
      differential extinction rate between planktotrophic and brooding species in
      relation with the climatic history of the Antarctic.

PMID- 28568929
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. V. ADAPTIVE MECHANISMS AND CORRELATED
      RESPONSES IN EXPERIMENTAL LINES OF ESCHERICHIA COLI.
AB  - We previously demonstrated temperature-specific genetic adaptation in
      experimental lines of Escherichia coli. Six initially identical populations were
      propagated for 2000 generations under each of five regimes: constant 20 degrees
      C, 32 degrees C, 37 degrees C, and 42 degrees C, and a daily switch between 32
      degrees C and 42 degrees C. Glucose was the sole carbon source in all cases.
      Here, we examine the physiological bases of adaptation to determine whether the
      same mechanisms evolved among the replicate lines within each thermal regime and
      across different regimes. Specifically, we investigate whether changes in glucose
      transport may account for the temperature-specific adaptation. We compared each
      line's direct response of fitness to glucose with its correlated response to
      maltose; glucose and maltose enter the cell by different pathways, but their
      catabolism is identical. Except for lines maintained at the ancestral temperature
      (37 degrees C), almost all derived lines had significantly different fitnesses
      (relative to their common ancestor) in glucose and maltose, supporting the
      hypothesis that adaptation involved changes in glucose transport. An alternative
      explanation, that maltose transport decayed by genetic drift, appears unlikely
      for reasons that are discussed. Although most lines showed evidence of
      temperature-specific adaptation in glucose transport, several different
      mechanisms may underlie these improvements, as indicated by heterogeneity in
      correlated responses (across temperatures and substrates) among replicate lines
      adapted to the same regime. This heterogeneity provides a latent pool of genetic
      variation for responding to environmental change.

PMID- 28568930
TI  - PATERNAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA DIFFERENTIATION FAR EXCEEDS MATERNAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA
      AND ALLOZYME DIFFERENTIATION IN THE FRESHWATER MUSSEL, ANODONTA GRANDIS GRANDIS.

PMID- 28568931
TI  - GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION AND MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF SYMPATRIC
      TROPHIC ECOTYPES OF WHITEFISH (COREGONUS).
AB  - We assessed variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by restriction fragment length
      polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and in nuclear genes by allozyme analysis among
      sympatric pairs of limnetic and benthic ecotypes of whitefish (Coregonus)
      coexisting in three lakes of southern Yukon to address three evolutionary
      questions regarding their origins. Are sympatric low and high gill-raker count
      ecotypes genetically differentiated? Are they issued from monophyletic or
      polyphyletic evolutionary events? If they are polyphyletic in origins, did they
      originate from multiple allopatric speciation events or intralacustrine
      radiation? Our results corroborated previous genetic and ecological studies of
      these ecotypes, indicating that they represent genetically distinct reproductive
      units, and therefore refuting the hypothesis of phenotypic polymorphism within a
      single population. However, the amount of gene flow between ecotypes varied among
      lakes, correlating with the extent of morphological differentiation and the
      potential for premating reproductive isolation. The results indicated a
      polyphyletic origin of ecotypes whereby each of them have been expressed
      independently more than once. In the two lakes of Squanga Creek drainage, the
      existence of sympatric pairs was best explained by the secondary contact of two
      monophyletic whitefish groups that evolved in allopatry during the last
      glaciation events. In Dezadeash L. of Alsek R. drainage, our results could not
      verify either sympatric or allopatric (or microallopatric) origin of ecotypes.
      Regardless of the mode of speciation involved in their origins, these sympatric
      whitefish populations provided further evidence that Pleistocene glaciation
      events created conditions favoring rapid divergence and phenotypic
      differentiation among northern freshwater fishes.

PMID- 28568932
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION, VIABILITY SELECTION, AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY IN THE
      DOMESTIC FLY MUSCA DOMESTICA.
AB  - Associations between developmental stability, sexual selection, and viability
      selection were studied in the domestic fly Musca domestica (Diptera, Muscidae).
      Developmental stability of the wings and tibia of flies of both sexes, measured
      in terms of their level of fluctuating asymmetry, was positively associated with
      mating success in free ranging populations and in sexual selection experiments.
      Mated individuals may have obtained indirect fitness benefits from sexual
      selection of two different kinds. First, the entomopathogenic fungus
      Enthomophthora muscae (Zygomycetes, Entomophthorales) infects and kills adult
      domestic flies, and flies dead from fungus infections had more asymmetric wings
      than flies dead for other reasons. Experimental deposition of fungus spores on
      uninfected flies demonstrated that flies with asymmetric wings were more
      susceptible to fungus infections than flies with symmetric wings. Second,
      domestic flies were frequently eaten by insectivorous barn swallows Hirundo
      rustica, and flies depredated by birds had more asymmetric wings and tibia than
      surviving flies.

PMID- 28568933
TI  - PARENTAL EFFECTS IN PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA L. I.: A GROWTH CHAMBER EXPERIMENT TO
      EXAMINE PRE- AND POSTZYGOTIC TEMPERATURE EFFECTS.
AB  - In spite of the potential evolutionary importance of parental effects, many
      aspects of these effects remain inadequately explained. This paper explores both
      their causes and potential consequences for the evolution of life-history traits
      in plants. In a growth chamber experiment, I manipulated the pre- and postzygotic
      temperatures of both parents of controlled crosses of Plantago lanceolata. All
      offspring traits were affected by parental temperature. On average, low parental
      temperature increased seed weight, reduced germination and offspring growth rate,
      and accelerated onset of reproduction by 7%, 50%, 5%, and 47%, respectively, when
      compared to the effects of high parental temperature. Both pre- and postzygotic
      parental temperatures (i.e., prior to fertilization vs. during fertilization and
      seed set, respectively) influenced offspring traits but not always in the same
      direction. In all cases, however, the postzygotic effect was stronger. The
      prezygotic effects were more often transmitted paternally than maternally. Growth
      and onset of reproduction were influenced both directly by parental temperature
      as well as indirectly via the effects of parental temperature on seed weight and
      germination. Significant interactions between parental genotypes and prezygotic
      temperature treatment (G * E interactions) show that genotypes differ in their
      intergenerational responses to temperature with respect to germination and
      growth. The data suggest that temperature is involved in both genetically based
      and environmentally induced parental effects and that parental temperature may
      accelerate the rate of evolutionary change in flowering time in natural
      populations of P. lanceolata. The environmentally induced temperature effects, as
      mediated through G * (prezygotic) E interactions are not likely to affect the
      rate or direction of evolutionary change in the traits examined because
      postzygotic temperature effects greatly exceed prezygotic effects.

PMID- 28568934
TI  - QUANTITATIVE GENETICS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS.
AB  - This study examines the dynamics of a competition and a host-parasite model in
      which the interactions are determined by quantitative characters. Both models are
      extensions of one-dimensional difference equations that can exhibit complicated
      dynamics. Compared to these basic models, the phenotypic variability given by the
      quantitative characters reduces the size of the density fluctuations in asexual
      populations. With sexual reproduction, which is described by modeling the
      genetics of the quantitative character explicitly with many haploid loci that
      determine the character additively, this reduction in fitness variance is
      magnified. Moreover, quantitative genetics can induce simple dynamics. For
      example, the sexual population can have a two-cycle when the asexual system is
      chaotic. This paper discusses the consequences for the evolution of sex. The
      higher mean growth rate implied by the lower fitness variance in sexual
      populations is an advantage that can overcome a twofold intrinsic growth rate of
      asexuals. The advantage is bigger when the asexual population contains only a
      subset of the phenotypes present in the sexual population, which conforms with
      the tangled bank theory for the evolution of sex and shows that tangled bank
      effects also occur in host-parasite systems. The results suggest that explicitly
      describing the genetics of a quantitative character leads to more flexible models
      than the usual assumption of normal character distributions, and therefore to a
      better understanding of the character's impact on population dynamics.

PMID- 28568935
TI  - SHELL MICROSTRUCTURE OF GASTROPODS FROM LAKE TANGANYIKA, AFRICA: ADAPTATION,
      CONVERGENT EVOLUTION, AND ESCALATION.
AB  - Gastropod shells from Lake Tanganyika, with their heavy calcification, coarse
      noded ribbing, spines, apertural lip thickening and repair scars, resemble marine
      shells more closely than they resemble other lacustrine shells. This convergence
      between Tanganyikan and marine gastropod shells, however, is not just
      superficial. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies reveal that the
      Tanganyikan shells are primarily layers of crossed-lamellar crystal architecture
      (that is, needle-like aragonite crystals arranged into laths that are packed into
      sheets such that the aragonite needles of adjacent laths are never parallel). The
      number of crossed-lamellar layers can vary from one to four between different
      Tanganyikan gastropod species. In species with two or more crossed-lamellar
      layers, the orientation of the lamellae is offset by approximately 90 degrees 
      between the different layers. The number of crossed-lamellar layers in the shell
      wall is positively correlated with shell strength and with predation resistance.
      Three and four crossed-lamellar layers in the shell wall evolved several times
      independently within the endemic thiarid gastropod radiation in Lake Tanganyika.
      Repeated origins of three and four crossed-lamellar layers suggest that they may
      be specific adaptations by Tanganyikan gastropods to strengthen their shells as a
      defense against shell-crushing predators.

PMID- 28568936
TI  - SELECTION AND THE "SEX-RATIO" POLYMORPHISM IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.
AB  - "Sex-ratio" (SR) is a naturally occurring X-linked meiotic drive system, where
      the SR-X chromosome is transmitted to nearly all progeny of SR males. It occurs
      at frequencies of up to 25% in some populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura.
      Because of the twofold drive advantage, SR should rapidly fix in populations,
      causing the extinction of the species, unless opposed by strong selection. I
      examine several of the adult components of fitness, including the frequencies of
      all genotypic mating combinations, fertilities, and fecundities of flies from two
      populations in southeastern Arizona. Significant reduction of fecundity of SR/SR
      females was observed in the Tucson population. No evidence was found for either
      lower fertility or reduced mating success of SR males, relative to standard
      males. Most selection opposing SR appears to be operating at the larval stages in
      nature.

PMID- 28568937
TI  - EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR THE GENETIC-TRANSILIENCE MODEL OF SPECIATION.

PMID- 28568938
TI  - MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR KIN GROUPS IN THE ABSENCE OF LARGE-SCALE GENETIC
      DIFFERENTIATION IN A MIGRATORY BIRD.

PMID- 28568939
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF ALTERED BEHAVIOR AND SUSCEPTIBILITY IN PARASITIZED
      HOSTS.
AB  - Adaptation is the usual context for interpreting parasite-host interactions. For
      example, altered host behavior is often interpreted as a parasite adaptation,
      because in some cases it enhances parasite transmission. Resistance to parasites
      also has obvious adaptive value for hosts. However, it is difficult to evaluate
      the adaptive significance of host-parasite interactions without considering the
      historical context in which these traits have evolved and if they can be
      predicted by host (or parasite) phylogeny. We examined the influence of host
      phylogeny on patterns of altered behavior and resistance to parasitism in a
      cockroach-acanthocephalan system. A consensus cladogram for cockroach subfamilies
      was produced from the morphological data of McKittrick. We used this cladogram to
      predict patterns of altered host behavior in seven cockroach host species. Each
      species was experimentally infected with a single species of acanthocephalan,
      Moniliformis moniliformis, a parasite that is transmitted when cockroaches are
      eaten by rodent final hosts. Activity patterns, substrate choices, and responses
      to light were measured for control and infected animals. These data were recoded
      into a behavioral matrix of discrete characters. We determined the most
      parsimonious distribution of the behavioral characters on the tree obtained from
      McKittrick's data. We then measured the concordance between the behavioral data
      and the cockroach cladogram with the consistency index (CI). We compared the
      observed CI to the expected value based on a randomization of observed character
      states. For three different models of evolutionary character change, there was no
      evidence of strong concordance (significantly large CI) between altered host
      behavior and host relationships. Parsimony analysis of the interior nodes of the
      phylogenetic reconstruction suggested that unaltered behavior was the ancestral
      state for most host behaviors. We also compared host phylogeny to a data set on
      the susceptibility of 29 cockroach species to infection with M. moniliformis. At
      the species level, there was a significant concordance between susceptibility and
      host phylogeny. This pattern was consistent with the finding that susceptibility
      of species varied significantly among different subfamilies. However, at the
      subfamily level, susceptibility was not strongly concordant with phylogeny. We
      predict that, given enough time, resistance should be lost in subfamilies that
      are currently resistant to parasitism. In spite of the potential importance of
      phylogeny in the evolution of behavior and susceptibility, we found little
      evidence for phylogenetic effects in this system. We conclude that changes in the
      behavioral responses of hosts to parasites and, to a lesser extent, changes in
      susceptibility are more frequent than cockroach speciation events in different
      cockroach lineages. This finding strengthens the assertion that at least some of
      the altered behaviors are adaptive for host and/or parasite.

PMID- 28568940
TI  - PERSPECTIVE METAZOAN COMPLEXITY AND EVOLUTION: IS THERE A TREND?
AB  - The notion that complexity increases in evolution is widely accepted, but the
      best-known evidence is highly impressionistic. Here I propose a scheme for
      understanding complexity that provides a conceptual basis for objective
      measurement. The scheme also shows complexity to be a broad term covering four
      independent types. For each type, I describe some of the measures that have been
      devised and review the evidence for trends in the maximum and mean. In metazoans
      as a whole, there is good evidence only for an early-Phanerozoic trend, and only
      in one type of complexity. For each of the other types, some trends have been
      documented, but only in a small number of metazoan subgroups.

PMID- 28568941
TI  - MULTIVARIATE PATTERNS OF GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION SUPPORT COMPLEX COLONIZATION
      SCHEMES IN BUFO MARINUS POPULATIONS.

PMID- 28568942
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION OF DAY-GECKOS (PHELSUMA) IN THE SEYCHELLES ARCHIPELAGO: A
      PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS.
AB  - A phylogenetic analysis using characters derived from mitochondrial DNA was used
      to show that the species of Phelsuma in the Seychelles Islands represent a
      single, monophyletic lineage that has diversified as a result of both historical
      and ecological factors. In the distant past, the Seychelles archipelago was
      physically invaded by a single species of Phesluma. Separate eustatic sea level
      changes likely led first to allopatric speciation and then to the secondary
      contact of these sister species. Differences in the relative timing of the
      secondary contact between island groups resulted in P. sundbergi evolving an
      intermediate body size in the group of islands associated with Mahe and a large
      body size, while sympatric with P. astriata, in the group of islands associated
      with Praslin. Ecological information was used to support the conclusion that the
      actual evolutionary mechanism for the body size shift was a response to frequency
      dependent natural selection of P. sundbergi in single-species and two-species
      competitive regimes.

PMID- 28568943
TI  - PHYLOGENY AND EVOLUTION OF PARTHENOGENETIC WEEVILS OF THE ARAMIGUS TESSELLATUS
      SPECIES COMPLEX (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE: NAUPACTINI): EVIDENCE FROM
      MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES.
AB  - Molecular-phylogenetic studies of parthenogenetic animals have been a valuable
      recent addition to the literature on the evolutionary biology of sex. By
      illuminating the origins and ages of parthenogenetic lineages, such studies can
      help to define the temporal scale at which selection acts against parthenogenetic
      lineages, as well as provide an essential framework for further study. Although
      parthenogenetic weevils have played an important role in cytogenetic and protein
      electrophoretic studies of parthenogenesis, they have not previously been
      subjects of DNA-based molecular-phylogenetic study. A mitochondrial DNA study of
      Aramigus tessellatus, a species complex of weevils native to South America,
      indentified 12 distinct (1-9% divergent) maternal lineages, of which 2 represent
      sexual populations, while at least 9 represent parthenogenetic lineages. These
      lineages partially correspond to lineages previously recognized by morphological
      differences. Phylogenetic analysis found 14 most parsimonious trees, according to
      which parthenogenesis appears to have arisen 3-7 times. There is a monophyletic
      group of lineages (the "brown clade"), having up to 4.5% sequence divergence
      within it, which may be primitively parthenogenetic and over 2 million years old.

PMID- 28568944
TI  - ESTIMATION OF GENETIC NEIGHBORHOOD PARAMETERS FROM POLLEN AND SEED DISPERSAL IN
      THE MARINE ANGIOSPERM ZOSTERA MARINA L.
AB  - The relative importance of random genetic drift and local adaptation in causing
      population substructuring in plant species remains an important empirical
      question. Here I estimate the effective size of the genetic neighborhood, Nb , as
      a means of evaluating the likely role of genetic drift in creating genetic
      differentiation within a population of a marine plant, Zostera marina L.
      (eelgrass). Calculations of effective neighborhood size are based on field
      estimates of pollen and seed-dispersal distributions, an electrophoretic estimate
      of the mating system using open-pollinated progeny arrays, and determination of
      the effective density of reproductive individuals in the population. Neighborhood
      area calculated from the parent-offspring dispersal variances was equal to Na =
      524 m2 ; variance in the seed-dispersal distribution contributes more than twice
      as much as variance in pollen dispersal to Na . Including an outcrossing rate
      slightly different from random, estimated neighborhood size for Z. marina is Nb =
      6255. This estimate is one of the largest reported for plants or animals and
      indicates that genetic drift in small neighborhoods is highly unlikely to cause
      genetic substructuring in the study population. High gene-flow levels provided by
      the marine environment appear to prevent genetic isolation by distance among
      eelgrass patches, but the importance of drift through founder events in this
      population characterized by high patch turnover cannot be discounted and is the
      subject of ongoing study.

PMID- 28568945
TI  - THE USE OF DNA DIVERGENCE TO HELP DETERMINE THE CORRELATES OF EVOLUTION OF
      MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
AB  - Even though, from Darwin onwards, interisland evolution has been a cornerstone of
      evolutionary theory it has not been possible to determine to what extent this
      geographic variation reflects the phylogeny (e.g., pattern of island
      colonization) or ecogenetic adaptation to different ecological conditions on each
      island. Using the morphology of western Canary Island lacertids (Gallotia
      galloti) as an example, a procedure is explored that gives a preliminary answer
      to this problem when there are a limited number of islands. The phylogenetic
      component (represented by patristic distances derived from 1005 mitochondrial DNA
      [mtDNA] base pairs) can be separated from two potential ecogenetic factors
      (environmental richness and climate) by partial Mantel tests. This reveals that,
      although these components interact, some characters are correlated primarily to
      biodiversity/paucity (e.g., size), others are correlated to wet and lush
      environments (e.g., dorsal pattern), and others are correlated primarily to the
      phylogeny (e.g., sexual leg markings). The former two correlations may be due to
      ecogenetic adaptation to current ecological conditions, wheras the latter
      reflects historical processes.

PMID- 28568947
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF HOST RACES OF THE GOLDENROD BALL GALLMAKER,
      EUROSTA SOLIDAGINIS (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE).
AB  - We determined the phylogenetic relationships and geographic distribution of
      mitochondrial haplotypes of two host races of the tephritid fly Eurosta
      solidaginis, a gallmaker that attacks species of goldenrod (Solidago). We
      performed a preliminary survey by sequencing 492 bp from the 3' ends of the
      mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and II subunits from a single individual from
      eight S. gigantea- and 10 S. altissima-associated populations across their range
      in eastern North America and from two outgroup species, Eurosta comma (two
      populations) and E. cribrata. Eurosta solidaginis haplotypes fell into two groups
      ("E" and "W" clades), which differed by four substitutions, one of which occurred
      within the recognition site of the DdeI restriction enzyme. We used the presence
      or absence of the restriction site to survey a total of 11 S. gigantea (20
      individuals) and 20 S. altissima (43 individuals) host-race populations. All
      gigantea-fly haplotypes regardless of geographic origin carried the E-clade
      haplotype, whereas altissima-fly haplotypes were geographically partitioned.
      Altissima flies east of Michigan were of haplotype E, whereas those west of
      Michigan were of haplotype W, with mixed populations found in lower Michigan.
      These patterns confirm an earlier allozyme survey that suggested that S.
      altissima is the ancestral host for the gallmaker, but also suggest that the
      gigantea fly populations were derived from eastern U.S. altissima fly
      populations. The data support the conclusions of behavioral and ecological
      studies indicating that the shift to the derived host was facilitated by escape
      from natural enemies.

PMID- 28568946
TI  - CHARACTER DISCRIMINATORY POWER, CHARACTER-SET CONGRUENCE, AND THE CLASSIFICATION
      OF INDIVIDUALS FROM HYBRID ZONES: AN EXAMPLE USING STONE CRABS (MENIPPE).
AB  - Many investigators categorize individuals from hybrid zones to facilitate
      comparisons among genotypic classes (e.g., parental, F1 , backcross) for
      comparative studies in which components of fitness or geographic variation are
      being analyzed. Frequently, multiple character sets representing genetically
      independent traits are used to classify these individuals and various
      methodologies are employed to combine the classifications obtained from the
      different character sets. We adapted the principles of total evidence and
      taxonomic congruence (two formalized approaches used by systematists in
      formulating phylogenetic hypotheses) to address the problem of discriminating
      hybridizing species and classifying individuals from hybrid zones. As our model,
      we used two morphological (coloration and morphometric) and two molecular
      (allozyme and mitochondrial DNA restriction-fragment-length polymorphism)
      character sets that differentiate two stone crab species (Menippe adina and M.
      mercenaria). Using principal-components analysis, we determined that combining
      character sets and eliminating characters or character sets that did not have
      large eigenvector coefficients for the principal component that best separated
      the two species yielded the highest level of discrimination between species and
      allowed us to classify a broad range of morpho-genotypes as hybrids. For the
      stone crabs, three diagnostic allozyme loci and five diagnostic coloration
      characters best separated the species. The two character sets were not completely
      congruent, but they agreed in their classification of 50% of the individuals from
      the hybrid zone and rarely strongly disagreed in their classifications.
      Classification discrepancies between the two character sets probably represent
      variation between traits in interspecific gene flow rather than intraspecific,
      ecologically mediated variation. Our results support the assertions of previous
      investigators who espoused the benefits associated with using multiple character
      sets to classify individuals from hybrid zones and demonstrate that, if character
      sets are reasonably congruent and numerically balanced, combining diagnostic
      characters from multiple character sets (a total-evidence approach) can enhance
      discriminatory power between species and facilitate the assignment of hybrid-zone
      individuals to genotypic classes. On the contrary, classifying hybrid-zone
      individuals using character sets separately (a taxonomic-congruence approach)
      provides the opportunity to compare levels of introgression between species and
      to assess reasons for discordance among the data sets.

PMID- 28568948
TI  - MATING SYSTEM AND ASYMMETRIC HYBRIDIZATION IN A MIXED STAND OF EUROPEAN OAKS.
AB  - The sessile (Quercus petraea [Matt.] Liebl.) and pedunculate (Quercus robur L.)
      oaks are two closely related species having a wide sympatric distribution over
      Europe. Under natural conditions, they frequently form mixed forests, where
      hybridization is suspected to occur. In this paper, two different approaches have
      been applied to the study of the mating system and the interspecific gene flow in
      a mixed stand formed by the two species. The mating systems of both species have
      been studied separately by means of the mixed-mating model. The relative
      contribution of the parental species to the progenies have been estimated with
      two different methods. The first uses the admixture model. The second is an
      extension of the mixed-mating model and subdivides the outcrossing rate into
      intra- and interspecific components. The two species were almost completely
      outcrossing. This high level of outcrossing and interspecific gene flow could
      play an important role in the maintenance of the genetic diversity in these long
      lived forest tree species. The contribution of the sessile oak to the pedunculate
      oak progenies varied from 17% to 48%. In contrast, ovules of sessile oak trees
      appear to be preferentially fertilized by other extreme sessile genotypes. We
      suggest that interspecific and directional gene flow was responsible for such
      patterns. Pedunculate oak is considered as a pioneer species and is progressively
      replaced by sessile oak. Our present findings add a further genetic component to
      this succession scheme, suggesting that unidirectional gene flow reinforces
      succession between the two species.

PMID- 28568949
TI  - DIFFERENT PATHWAYS IN ARTHROPOD POSTEMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT.
AB  - To investigate the consequences of canalization and plasticity in arthropod
      developmental pathways, we developed a model that predicts eight possible
      combinations among three larval developmental parameters. From the descriptions
      of insect and spider postembryonic development, it is apparent that not all
      aspects of juvenile development are plastic and that species differ in which
      traits are plastic. Most strikingly, only four of the possible eight combinations
      of canalized and plastic parameters have been found in nature. Using this model,
      we show that the identity of the canalized developmental parameters and the
      degree of genetic variation in the value at which a given parameter is fixed have
      important implications for the ecology and evolution of complex life cycles.

PMID- 28568950
TI  - OPTIMAL SAMPLING DESIGN FOR STUDIES OF GENE FLOW FROM A POINT SOURCE USING MARKER
      GENES OR MARKED INDIVIDUALS.

PMID- 28568951
TI  - POSTMATING ISOLATION ANALYSIS IN FOUNDER-FLUSH EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF
      DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568952
TI  - THE PARADOX OF THE PHYLOGENY: CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT OF ANALYSES OF BODY SIZE IN
      ISLAND ANOLIS.
AB  - The evolution of body size in Anolis lizards of the Lesser Antilles Islands has
      been the subject of intensive, if divisive, study. Early research by Schoener
      revealed a regularity in the number of Anolis species that coexisted on islands
      and the difference in body size between coexisting congeners in the Northern
      Lesser Antilles. This consistent pattern of body size was suggested to be the
      result of competitive character displacement. Two recent studies critically
      evaluated this hypothesis by incorporating information about the phylogenetic
      relationships of insular Anolis. Roughgarden and Pacala suggested that the
      patterns of body-size differences in the Northern Lesser Antilles could be
      explained as a cyclical phenomenon that they labeled a taxon cycle. However,
      Losos supported the character-displacement hypothesis ("size adjustment"). The
      conflict between these two studies is important because both investigations were
      based on the same phylogenetic hypothesis. We investigated body-size evolution in
      Lesser Antilles Anolis to resolve the differences in the conclusions of these
      studies. Our new analysis supported the taxon-cycle hypothesis but nevertheless
      failed to reject the character-displacement hypothesis. We argue that this
      curious scenario is largely a function of the method by which phylogenetic
      information is incorporated in comparative analyses. Different comparative
      analyses may lead to dramatic differences in results and ambiguity in the
      conclusions to be drawn. We suggest that ecologists and evolutionary biologists
      specifically consider the underlying assumptions and models of character
      evolution inherent to each of the phylogenetically based analytical methods now
      available.

PMID- 28568953
TI  - INBREEDING: ITS EFFECT ON RESPONSE TO SELECTION FOR PUPAL WEIGHT AND THE
      HERITABLE VARIANCE IN FITNESS IN THE FLOUR BEETLE, TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.
AB  - We report our studies of the effect of inbreeding on the response to selection
      for increased pupal weight in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. We also
      report the effects of inbreeding and selection for pupal weight on the heritable
      variation in fitness and fitness components. We created replicate and independent
      inbred lines with F-values of 0.00, 0.375, and 0.672, by 0, 2, and 5 generations,
      respectively, of brother-sister mating of adult beetles from an outbred stock
      population. Subsequently, we imposed artificial within-family selection for
      increased pupal weight in each of 15 inbred lines for eight generations; each
      line had its own paired, unselected control. We compared the response to
      selection across the three levels of inbreeding with theoretical expectation, and
      investigated the effects of inbreeding and selection on fitness variation among
      families within all 30 selected and control lines. Among-line variation in pupal
      weight increased with increased inbreeding prior to selection but diminished with
      directional selection. Inbreeding reduced the realized heritability of pupal
      weight concordant with quantitative predictions of additive theory. Mean fitness,
      measured in several ways, declined with inbreeding and declined further with
      selection. In contrast, the genetic variation for fitness in the inbred and
      selected lines lines equalled or exceeded that of the outbred controls. Our
      results suggest that inbreeding and selection may affect traits in different ways
      depending on the relative amounts of additive and nonadditive genetic variation.

PMID- 28568954
TI  - EVOLUTION OF UNISEXUALITY IN THE HAWAIIAN FLORA: A TEST OF MICROEVOLUTIONARY
      THEORY.
AB  - The evolution of separate sexes as a means of avoiding self-fertilization
      requires the controversial coexistence of large inbreeding depression and high
      selfing rate in the ancestral hermaphrodite population. Fitness components of
      adult females and hermaphrodites in nature, of their open-pollinated progeny, and
      of experimental selfs and outcrosses onto hermaphrodites were compared in endemic
      Hawaiian Bidens sandvicensis, all of whose known populations are gynodioecious,
      consisting of a mixture of females and hermaphrodites. Multilocus selfing rates
      of hermaphrodites were also estimated, and sex morph ratio monitored over four
      seasons in three populations of B. sandvicensis and one population of
      gynodioecious B. cervicata. Total mean inbreeding depression in seed set (in the
      glasshouse), germination rate (in an open-air nursery on Kauai), and first year
      survivorship and fecundity in the field were estimated as 0.94 (SE 0.04), and
      occurred primarily in drought months. Lower survivorship and fecundity of selfs
      were partially explained by their consistently smaller size. Open-pollinated seed
      of females had significantly lower germination rate, proportion flowering, and
      fecundity than outcrossed progeny of hermaphrodites, suggesting moderate
      biparental inbreeding in females and a lack of any non-outcrossing advantage to
      progeny of females. In all fitness components, open-pollinated progeny of
      hermaphrodites were inferior to those of females and to outcrosses, and in most
      components were superior to selfs. Total performance of open-pollinated progeny
      of females relative to those of hermaphrodites was calculated as 2.3 (SE = 0.4),
      but since inflorescences of females also set 20% to 50% more seed than those of
      hermaphrodites, their total relative ovule success was estimated as 3.2 (SE =
      0.5). If inheritance of male sterility is nuclear, this superiority is sufficient
      to maintain females in frequencies over 20% in populations, whose actual
      frequencies ranged from 14% to 33%. In four populations, selfing rates of
      hermaphrodites, assayed in seedlings, were 0.50, 0.45, 0.25, and 0.30, but since
      substantial inbreeding depression occurred prior to germination, the mean selfing
      rate of hermaphrodite ovules exceeded 0.57. Female frequencies were significantly
      higher in the two populations with higher hermaphrodite selfing rate. These
      results suggest that inbreeding depression can exert a profound influence on the
      mating system of self-compatible plants on Hawaii and perhaps other oceanic
      islands, and can be sufficiently strong to electively favor the elimination of
      the male function.

PMID- 28568955
TI  - SOCIAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL SIGNALS.
AB  - Social selection is presented here as a parallel theory to sexual selection and
      is defined as a selective force that occurs when individuals change their own
      social behaviors, responding to signals sent by conspecifics in a way to
      influence the other individuals' fitness. I analyze the joint evolution of a
      social signal and behavioral responsiveness to the signal by a quantitative
      genetic model. The equilibria of average phenotypes maintained by a balance of
      social selection and natural selection and their stability are examined for two
      alternative assumptions on behavioral responsiveness, neutral and adaptive. When
      behavioral responsiveness is neutral on fitness, a rapid evolution by runaway
      selection occurs only with enough genetic covariance between the signal and
      responsiveness. The condition for rapid evolution also depends on natural
      selection and the number of interacting individuals. When signals convey some
      information on signalers (e.g., fighting ability), behavioral responsiveness is
      adaptive such that a receiver's fitness is also influenced by the signal. Here
      there is a single point of equilibrium. The equilibrium point and its stability
      do not depend on the genetic correlation. The condition needed for evolution is
      that the signal is beneficial for receivers, which results from reliability of
      the signal. Frequency-dependent selection on responsiveness has almost no
      influence on the equilibrium and the rate of evolution.

PMID- 28568956
TI  - MODE OF SEXUAL SELECTION DETERMINED BY RESOURCE ABUNDANCE IN TWO SAND GOBY
      POPULATIONS.
AB  - We used field observations and experiments to show that sexual selection in two
      populations of sand gobies, Pomatoschistus minutus (Pisces, Gobiidae), was
      affected by differences in resource availability. Male sand gobies rely on empty
      mussel shells for nest building and spawning. The two populations differed
      considerably in nest-site abundance and sexual-selection regimes. In one
      population nest sites were scarce, leading to stronger male-male competition over
      nests, a higher nest site colonization rate and reduced potential for female
      choice compared with the other population that had a surplus of nests. In the
      high-competition population, males were larger than females, perhaps as a
      response to selection, whereas the other population was not sexually size
      dimorphic. The results from the field were confirmed in a pool experiment that
      demonstrated the effect of nest abundance on nest occupancy and male reproductive
      success. Larger males were more successful in obtaining nest sites in both high
      and low nest availability treatments. Larger males were also favored by females
      as mating partners, but only in the treatment with surplus nest sites. Nest
      shortage was associated with an increased potential for intrasexual selection
      (measured as the coefficient of variation), whereas the potential for intersexual
      selection was increased when nests were common. In conclusion, nest-site
      abundance can influence the relative contribution of intrasexual competition and
      mate choice in a population. Hence, resource availability can contribute to
      within-species variation in mating patterns.

PMID- 28568957
TI  - ADAPTATION TO FERMENTING RESOURCES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: ETHANOL AND ACETIC
      ACID TOLERANCES SHARE A COMMON GENETIC BASIS.
AB  - Ethanol and acetic acid tolerances were compared in a French, highly tolerant
      population, and in a Congolese, very sensitive population. For both tolerances,
      chromosome substitutions demonstrated a major effect on chromosome 3, a lesser
      effect on chromosome 2, and no effect on chromosome 1, except in interactions.
      Directional selection experiments led to significant increases of tolerance to
      both toxics. Of greater interest, a strong correlated response was observed in
      each line: increased ethanol tolerance was accompanied by higher acetic acid
      tolerance and vice versa. A high genetic correlation (average value r = 0.77) was
      found between the two traits. These data suggest that alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)
      activity does not play a major role in explaining the physiological differences
      known between Afrotropical and European populations. The metabolic flux
      permitting the detoxification of ethanol and acetic acid seems to be mainly
      controlled by acetyl-coA synthetase (ACS) at least in adult flies. Acetic acid
      adaptation could be as important as ethanol adaptation in the ecology of
      Drosophila melanogaster and other Drosophila species.

PMID- 28568958
TI  - RESPONSE TO SELECTION ON AUTOGAMY IN PHLOX.
AB  - Two cycles of artificial selection were performed to increase autogamous fruiting
      in two wild populations of the self-incompatible Phlox drummondii, to decrease
      autogamous fruiting in two wild populations of the self-compatible Phlox
      cuspidata, and to both increase and decrease autogamous fruiting in a cultivar of
      P. drummondii which is pseudo-self-compatible. The breeding systems were
      determined to be genetically quite flexible, independent of inbreeding depression
      and other genetic phenomena which could hinder a breeding system shift. This is
      especially true for increasing autogamy. Self-pollen-pistil compatibility seems
      to be the single character affected by selection. Based on the continuous
      variation in both autogamy and self-compatibility, we suggest that the change has
      been due to genes which modify the self-incompatibility reaction rather than to
      the simple segregation of alleles at the S-locus.

PMID- 28568959
TI  - FECAL METHANOGENS AND VERTEBRATE EVOLUTION.
AB  - It has been assumed that the feeding habits of vertebrates predispose the variety
      of intestinal differentiations and the composition of the microbial biota living
      in their intestinal tracts. Consequently, the presence of methanogenic bacteria
      in the various differentiations of the large intestine and the foregut of
      herbivorous vertebrates had been attributed primarily to the existence of
      anaerobic habitats and the availability of carbon dioxide and hydrogen
      originating from the fermentative microbial digestion of plant-based diets.
      However, Australian ratites, many murids, and several New World primates lack
      methanogens, despite their intestinal differentiations and their vegetarian
      feeding habits. Crocodiles, giant snakes, aardvarks, and ant-eaters on the other
      hand release significant amounts of methane. A determination of methane emissions
      by 253 vertebrate species confirmed that competence for intestinal methanogenic
      bacteria is shared by related species and higher taxa, irrespective of different
      feeding habits. In "methanogenic" branches of the evolutionary tree, a variety of
      differentiations of the large intestine evolved and, in some cases,
      differentiations of the foregut. In contrast, the lack of competence for
      methanogens in chiropterans/insectivores and carnivores apparently has precluded
      the evolution of specialized fermenting differentiations of the digestive tract.
      Our observations reveal that the presence of intestinal methanogenic bacteria is
      under phylogenetic rather than dietary control: competence for intestinal
      methanogenic bacteria is a plesiomorphic (primitive-shared) character among
      reptiles, birds, and mammals. This competence for methanogenic bacteria has been
      crucial for the evolution of the amniotes.

PMID- 28568960
TI  - FEMALE CONTROL OF SPERM TRANSFER AND INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN SPERM PRECEDENCE:
      ANTECEDENTS TO THE EVOLUTION OF A COURTSHIP FOOD GIFT.
AB  - Manipulation of ejaculates is believed to be an important avenue of female choice
      throughout the animal kingdom, but evidence of its importance to sexual selection
      remains scarce. In crickets, such manipulation is manifest in the premature
      removal of the externally attached spermatophore, which may afford females an
      important means of postcopulatory mate choice. We tested the hypothesis that
      premature spermatophore removal contributes significantly to intraspecific
      variation in sperm precedence by (1) experimentally manipulating spermatophore
      attachment durations of competing male Gryllodes sigillatus and (2) employing
      protein electrophoresis to determine the paternity of doubly mated females. The
      relative spermatophore attachment durations of competing males had a significant
      influence on male paternity, but the pattern of sperm precedence deviated
      significantly from the predictions of an ideal lottery. Instead, paternity data
      and morphological evidence accorded best with a model of partial sperm
      displacement derived here. Our model is similar to a displacement model of Parker
      et al. in that sperm of the second male mixes instantaneously with that of the
      first throughout the displacement process, but the novel feature of our model is
      that the number of sperm displaced is only a fraction of the number of sperm
      transferred by the second male. Regardless of the underlying mechanism, female G.
      sigillatus can clearly alter the paternity of their offspring through their
      spermatophore-removal behavior, and employ such cryptic choice in favoring larger
      males and those providing larger courtship food gifts. We discuss how female
      control of sperm transfer and intraspecific variation in sperm precedence may be
      important precursors to the evolution of gift giving in insects.

PMID- 28568962
TI  - Rhetoric versus reality: The role of research in deconstructing concepts of
      caring.
AB  - Our aim was to employ a critical analytic lens to explicate the role of nursing
      research in supporting the notion of caring realities. To do this, we used case
      exemplars to illustrate the infusion of such discourses. The first exemplar
      examines the fundamental concept of caring: using Florence Nightingale's Notes on
      Nursing, the case study surfaces caring as originally grounded in ritualized
      practice and subsequently describes its transmutation, via competing discourses,
      to a more holistic concept. It is argued that in the many and varied attempts to
      define the dynamic concept of care, caring has now become paradoxically, a more
      fragmented concept despite attempts to render it more holistic and inclusive. In
      the second exemplar, one of the authors draws on her personal experience of the
      gap between theory and practice, so pronounced that it pushed the author to
      revisit the concept of evidence-based practice and nursing education. In our
      third and final exemplar, we refer to the absence of knowledge and practice
      generated through natural enquiry and curiosity, an absence which has led to
      production of corporate led rhetoric. Drawing together the central arguments of
      the three exemplars, we reflect on the influential role of nursing research in
      enabling the deconstruction of taken for granted assumptions such as caring,
      evidence-based practice and empowerment; assumptions which have been generated by
      discourses riddled with confusion and alienation from the reality of practice and
      the natural spirit of professional enquiry.

PMID- 28568963
TI  - Retraction: 'Mathematical relationships and their consequences between rat pulse
      waveform parameters and blood pressure during decreasing NO bioavailability'.

PMID- 28568961
TI  - Improved respiratory self-navigation for 3D radial acquisitions through the use
      of a pencil-beam 2D-T2 -prep for free-breathing, whole-heart coronary MRA.
AB  - PURPOSE: In respiratory self-navigation (SN), signal from static structures, such
      as the chest wall, may complicate motion detection or introduce post-correction
      artefacts. Suppressing signal from superfluous tissues may therefore improve
      image quality. We thus test the hypothesis that SN whole-heart coronary magnetic
      resonance angiography (MRA) will benefit from an outer-volume suppressing 2D-T2 
      Prep and present both phantom and in vivo results. METHODS: A 2D-T2 -Prep and a
      conventional T2 -Prep were used prior to a free-breathing 3D-radial SN sequence.
      Both techniques were compared by imaging a home-built moving cardiac phantom and
      by performing coronary MRA in nine healthy volunteers. Reconstructions were
      performed using both a reference-based and a reference-independent approach to
      motion tracking, along with several coil combinations. Signal-to-noise ratio
      (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were compared, along with vessel
      sharpness (VS). RESULTS: In phantoms, using the 2D-T2 -Prep increased SNR by 16%
      to 53% and mean VS by 8%; improved motion tracking precision was also achieved.
      In volunteers, SNR increased by an average of 29% to 33% in the blood pool and by
      15% to 25% in the myocardium, depending on the choice of reconstruction coils and
      algorithm, and VS increased by 34%. CONCLUSION: A 2D-T2 -Prep significantly
      improves image quality in both phantoms and volunteers when performing SN
      coronary MRA. Magn Reson Med 79:1293-1303, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society
      for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28568965
TI  - Switchable Access to Different Spirocyclopentane Oxindoles by N-Heterocyclic
      Carbene Catalyzed Reactions of Isatin-Derived Enals and N-Sulfonyl Ketimines.
AB  - A novel NHC-catalyzed annulation protocol for the asymmetric synthesis of
      biologically important beta-lactam fused spirocyclopentane oxindoles with four
      contiguous stereocenters, including two quaternary carbon centers, was developed.
      Alternatively, spirocyclopentane oxindoles containing an enaminone moiety can be
      achieved using the same starting materials, isatin-derived enals, and N-sulfonyl
      ketimines, in the presence of a slightly different NHC catalytic system. This
      switchable annulation strategy enables the selective assembly of both
      heterocyclic scaffolds with good yields and excellent enantioselectivities for a
      broad range of substrates.

PMID- 28568964
TI  - Angiotensin II and skeletal muscle abnormalities.

PMID- 28568966
TI  - Neuroinflammation as modifier of genetically caused neurological disorders of the
      central nervous system: Understanding pathogenesis and chances for treatment.
AB  - Genetically caused neurological disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) are
      usually orphan diseases with poor or even fatal clinical outcome and few or no
      treatments that will improve longevity or at least quality of life.
      Neuroinflammation is common to many of these disorders, despite the fact that a
      plethora of distinct mutations and molecular changes underlie the disorders. In
      this article, data from corresponding animal models are analyzed to define the
      roles of innate and adaptive inflammation as modifiers and amplifiers of disease.
      We describe both common and distinct patterns of neuroinflammation in genetically
      mediated CNS disorders and discuss the contrasting mechanisms that lead to
      adverse versus neuroprotective effects. Moreover, we identify the juxtaparanode
      as a neuroanatomical compartment commonly associated with inflammatory cells and
      ongoing axonopathic changes, in models of diverse diseases. The identification of
      key immunological effector pathways that amplify neuropathic features should lead
      to realistic possibilities for translatable therapeutic interventions using
      existing immunomodulators. Moreover, evidence emerges that neuroinflammation is
      not only able to modify primary neural damage-related symptoms but also may lead
      to unexpected clinical outcomes such as neuropsychiatric syndromes.

PMID- 28568967
TI  - Globalisation and national trends in nutrition and health: A grouped fixed
      effects approach to intercountry heterogeneity.
AB  - Using a panel dataset of 70 countries spanning 42 years (1970-2011), we
      investigate the distinct effects of social globalisation and trade openness on
      national trends in markers of diet quality (supplies of animal proteins, free
      fats and sugar, average body mass index, and diabetes prevalence). Our key
      methodological contribution is the application of a grouped fixed-effects
      estimator, which extends linear fixed-effects models. The grouped fixed-effects
      estimator partitions our sample into distinct groups of countries in order to
      control for time-varying unobserved heterogeneity that follows a group-specific
      pattern. We find that increasing social globalisation has a significant impact on
      the supplies of animal protein and sugar available for human consumption, as well
      as on mean body mass index. Specific components of social globalisation such as
      information flows (via television and the Internet) drive these results. Trade
      openness has no effect on dietary outcomes or health. These findings suggest that
      the social and cultural aspects of globalisation should receive greater attention
      in research on the nutrition transition.

PMID- 28568969
TI  - Clinical significance of anti-HLA antibodies associated with ventricular assist
      device use in pediatric patients: A United Network for Organ Sharing database
      analysis.
AB  - While VAD use in pediatric patients has previously been associated with anti-HLA
      antibody production, the clinical significance of these antibodies is unclear. We
      investigated the clinical impact of anti-HLA antibodies associated with VAD use
      in a large cohort of pediatric HTx recipients. From 2004 to 2011, pediatric
      cardiomyopathy patients post-HTx (N=1288) with pre-HTx PRA levels were identified
      from the United Network for Organ Sharing database. PRA levels were compared
      between VAD patients and those with no history of MCS. Incidence of rejection and
      overall survival were compared between VAD and non-MCS groups after
      stratification by PRA and age. VAD recipients were more likely to produce anti
      HLA antibodies than non-MCS patients (25.5% vs 10.5% had PRA>10%, P<.0001).
      Sensitized VAD patients (PRA>10%) had a higher incidence of rejection within 15
      months of HTx compared to sensitized non-MCS patients (57.1% vs 35.9%, P=.02).
      There was no intergroup difference in 15-month mortality. Among pediatric
      cardiomyopathy patients supported with a VAD, the presence of anti-HLA antibodies
      prior to HTx is associated with an increased risk of rejection. The mechanism of
      the association between VAD-associated antibodies and early rejection is unclear
      and warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28568968
TI  - Effect of known history of heart disease on survival outcomes after out-of
      hospital cardiac arrests.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the effect of known heart disease on post-out
      of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival outcomes, and its association with
      factors influencing survival. METHODS: This was an observational, retrospective
      study involving an OHCA database from seven Asian countries in 2009-2012. Heart
      disease was defined as a documented diagnosis of coronary artery disease or
      congenital heart disease. Patients with non-traumatic arrests for whom
      resuscitation was attempted and with known medical histories were included.
      Differences in demographics, arrest characteristics and survival between patients
      with and without known heart disease were analysed. Multivariate logistic
      regression was performed to identify factors influencing survival to discharge.
      RESULTS: Of 19 044 eligible patients, 5687 had known heart disease. They were
      older (77 vs 72 years) and had more comorbidities like diabetes (40.9 vs 21.8%),
      hypertension (60.6 vs 36.0%) and previous stroke (15.2 vs 10.1%). However, they
      were not more likely to receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (P =
      0.205) or automated external defibrillation (P = 0.980). On univariate analysis,
      known heart disease was associated with increased survival (unadjusted odds ratio
      1.16, 95% confidence interval 1.03-1.30). However, on multivariate analysis,
      heart disease predicted poorer survival (adjusted odds ratio 0.76, 95% confidence
      interval 0.58-1.00). Other factors influencing survival corresponded with
      previous reports. CONCLUSIONS: Known heart disease independently predicted poorer
      post-OHCA survival. This study may provide information to guide future
      prospective studies specifically looking at family education for patients with
      heart disease and the effect on OHCA outcomes.

PMID- 28568970
TI  - The changing trends and profile of pneumocystosis mortality in the United States,
      1999-2014.
AB  - Pneumocystosis (PCP) mortality in the U.S. has received less attention in recent
      years. This study describes recent trends in mortality and the estimated burden
      of PCP in the U.S., using the national multiple cause of death data during 1999
      2014. PCP mortality rates were calculated for age, sex, race and year.
      Demographic differences were presented for decedents with and without a human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-diagnosis. Matched odds ratios (MOR) were
      generated to describe associations between non-HIV conditions and PCP mortality.
      In total, 11 512 PCP deaths occurred during 1999-2014. Annual age-adjusted PCP
      mortality decreased over this time period, from 0.479 to 0.154 per 100 000
      population (1999 vs 2014 respectively). Over two-thirds of decedents were male
      and Blacks had the highest mortality as compared to Whites. HIV co-diagnosis
      accounted for 48% of all PCP deaths in 2014 vs 71% in 1999. Comorbid conditions
      such as connective tissue disorders (MOR=12.29; 95% confidence interval=[10.26,
      14.71]) were associated with a PCP diagnosis. Productivity losses amounted to
      >$12 billion during the study period. Although widespread use of antiretroviral
      therapy and PCP prophylaxis for HIV infection likely contributed to the overall
      decline in PCP deaths during 1999-2014, a continual need exists to prevent and
      treat this fungal disease in immune-compromised populations that are not infected
      with HIV.

PMID- 28568971
TI  - Longitudinal Bi-directional Effects of Disordered Eating, Depression and Anxiety.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to explore the potentially longitudinal bi
      directional effects of disordered eating (DE) symptoms with depression and
      anxiety. METHOD: Participants were 189 (49.5% male) adolescents from Melbourne,
      Australia. DE, depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed at approximately 15,
      16.5 and 18.5 years of age. RESULTS: Analysis of longitudinal bi-directional
      effects assessed via cross-lagged models indicated that DE symptoms of eating and
      shape/weight concerns were risk factors for anxiety. Results also showed that
      depression was a risk factor for eating concerns. CONCLUSION: Our findings
      provide preliminary evidence that preventative measures designed to target
      concerns about eating and shape/weight might be most efficacious in reducing the
      transmission of effects between symptoms of DE, depression and anxiety. Copyright
      (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

PMID- 28568972
TI  - Fetal cerebral magnetic resonance imaging, neurosonography and the brave new
      world of fetal medicine.

PMID- 28568973
TI  - Substance P/dexamethasone-encapsulated PLGA scaffold fabricated using
      supercritical fluid process for calvarial bone regeneration.
AB  - Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds encapsulated with substance P (SP)
      and dexamethasone (Dex) by the supercritical CO2 foaming method were fabricated
      to treat calvarial bone. We compared the release profiles of SP and Dex according
      to the incorporation methods using encapsulation or dipping. Ninety percent of
      the SP or Dex molecules in the scaffolds prepared by the encapsulating method
      were released by day 14 or day 6, respectively. In vivo real-time assays for
      human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) tracking were performed to confirm the MSC
      recruitment abilities of the scaffolds. The results showed that the optical
      intensity of the SP-encapsulated group was 2.59 times higher than that of the
      phosphate-buffered saline group and 1.3 times higher than that of the SP-dipping
      group. Furthermore, we compared the angiogenesis activity of the scaffolds. In
      the SP-encapsulated group, 72.9  +/-  2.6% of the vessels showed matured features
      by 1 week, and it increased to 82.0  +/-  4.6% after 4 weeks. We implanted the
      scaffolds into rat calvarial defects. After 24 weeks, SP- and Dex-encapsulated
      scaffolds showed 67.1% and 26.2% higher bone formation than those of the Dex
      encapsulated group and SP-encapsulated group, respectively, and they formed 36.1%
      more bone volume compared with the SP- and Dex-dipped scaffolds. Consequently,
      the results of this study suggest that SP- and Dex-encapsulated scaffolds made by
      the supercritical CO2 foaming method could be a good treatment modality to treat
      critical bone defects without cell transplantation by recruiting autologous stem
      cells and forming new bone tissues. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28568974
TI  - Randomised non-inferiority trial: 1600 mg versus 400 mg tablets of mesalazine for
      the treatment of mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High concentration mesalazine formulations are more convenient than
      conventional low concentration formulations for the treatment of ulcerative
      colitis (UC). AIM: To compare the efficacy and safety of 1600 mg and 400 mg
      tablet mesalazine formulations. METHODS: Patients with mild-to-moderate active UC
      (Mayo Clinic Score >5; N=817) were randomised to 3.2 g of oral mesalazine,
      administered as two 1600 mg tablets once, or four 400 mg tablets twice daily. We
      hypothesised that treatment with the 1600 mg tablet was non-inferior (within a
      10% margin) to the 400 mg tablet for induction of clinical and endoscopic
      remission at week 8. Open-label treatment with the 1600 mg tablet continued for
      26-30 weeks based on induction response. Predictors of treatment response were
      also explored. RESULTS: At week 8, remission occurred in 22.4% and 24.6% of
      patients receiving the 1600 mg and 400 mg tablets, respectively (absolute
      difference -2.2%, 95% CI: -8.1% to 3.8%, non-inferiority P=.005). Endoscopic and
      histopathologic disease activity, leucocyte concentration and age were
      significantly associated with clinical remission (P=.022, .042, .014 and .023,
      respectively). At week 38, 43.9% (296/675) of patients who continued treatment
      with the 1600 mg formulation were in remission, including 70.3% (142/202) of
      patients who received a reduced dose of mesalazine (1.6 g/d). The overall
      incidence of serious adverse events was low. CONCLUSIONS: Induction therapy with
      3.2 mg mesalazine using two 1600 mg tablets once-daily was statistically and
      clinically non-inferior to a twice-daily regimen using four 400 mg tablets
      (NCT01903252).

PMID- 28568975
TI  - Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as markers of dietary variation among
      sociocultural subgroups of Inuit in Greenland.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We assessed the use of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as
      biomarkers for traditional versus store-bought food among the Inuit. Furthermore,
      we compared the isotope patterns among sociocultural population groups. METHODS:
      As a part of a country-wide health survey in Greenland during 2005-2010, we
      analyzed the isotope composition of toenails from 1025 adult Inuit and meat of
      common species hunted for food. Information on diet and sociocultural variables
      was collected by interviews. RESULTS: Weighted by sex and place of residence to
      the total population of Inuit in Greenland, the average delta13 C value in
      toenails was -20.20/00 and the delta15 N value was 12.00/00 which are higher than
      in a general Danish omnivorous population. Both isotopes were significantly
      associated with other biomarkers of marine food and with results of a Food
      Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The percentage of marine food in the diet was
      estimated at 21% from the mean delta13 C value, 25% from the mean delta15 N
      value, and 23% from the FFQ. CONCLUSION: Nail samples for analysis of stable
      isotopes of carbon and nitrogen were convenient to collect during a large
      population health survey among the Inuit. Isotope enrichment levels showed
      statistically significant associations with other biomarkers for consumption of
      marine food and with results of an FFQ and were used to estimate the percentage
      of marine food in the diet. Isotope levels were significantly associated with a
      novel score of sociocultural transition.

PMID- 28568976
TI  - Percutaneous obliteration of left ventricular cavity to eliminate aortic
      regurgitation and presumed coronary steal in an infant with hypoplastic left
      heart syndrome.
AB  - The phenomenon of coronary steal is well known in the setting of HLHS
      (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome) early after the Classical Norwood Operation. We
      report a rare case of an infant with HLHS [Severe Aortic Stenosis (AS), Mitral
      Stenosis (MS) and small Left Ventricle (LV)], who developed aortic regurgitation
      and presumed coronary steal late after the Sano Modification of the Norwood
      Procedure. Coronary steal developed secondary to progressive aortic and mitral
      regurgitation and resulted in poor right ventricular function and severe
      tricuspid regurgitation. We describe a novel interventional approach for
      obliteration of the LV cavity by using hydrogel coils. LV obliteration eliminated
      the presumed steal and resulted in improvement in ventricular function, tricuspid
      regurgitation and clinical course.

PMID- 28568978
TI  - SEX RATIO VARIATION IN A PARASITIC WASP I. REACTION NORMS.
AB  - To understand genetic and phenotypic constraints on the sex ratio in a parasitic
      wasp that attacks fly pupae, I carried out a laboratory study of sex ratio
      variability in five strains of Muscidifurax raptor (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). I
      manipulated the environment through combinations of temperature and day length,
      and the numbers of females that attack a group of hosts. The change of phenotype
      in each strain over the range of environmental conditions describes the norm of
      each reaction for that strain, and measures how a strain responds to
      environmental variation to create phenotypic variability. Sex ratio in parasitic
      wasps is a complex trait that has several components-the numbers of eggs laid by
      an ovipositing wasp and the fraction of eggs that are fertilized (female).
      Further, sex ratio may be influenced by a female's reaction to other females
      exploiting the same hosts (superparasitism). I found no strain-environment
      interactions in either sex ratio or fecundity when I varied environmental
      conditions. Although strains differed in sex ratio and fecundity, all strains
      produced a more female-biased sex ratio and had higher fecundity when temperature
      and day length increased. Sex ratio and fecundity were phenotypically correlated,
      and strains with greater fecundity also produced a more female-biased sex ratio.
      All strains facultatively shifted sex ratio toward a higher fraction of males
      with increasing female density, despite apparent differences in superparasitism
      among strains. Males and females survived equally during development, so that
      mortality differences among strains and across environments could not account for
      sex ratio variability. This study indicates that sex ratio variability among
      strains is constrained by the correlation between sex ratio and fecundity, and
      that strains display similar facultative shifts in sex ratio as female density
      increases because sex ratio shifts are insensitive to differing levels of
      superparasitism.

PMID- 28568977
TI  - Reproductive performance and expression of imprinted genes in somatic cell cloned
      boars.
AB  - To assess the performance of boars derived by somatic cell cloning, we analyzed
      various aspects of their reproductive characteristics and the expression of two
      imprinted genes. Cloned boars (cloned Duroc * Jinhua) were analyzed for birth
      weight, growth rate, age at first ejaculation, semen characteristics and
      fertility, in comparison with naturally bred control boars of the same strain.
      The expression of imprinted genes was analyzed using the microsatellite marker
      SWC9 for the paternally expressed gene insulin-like growth factor -2 (IGF2) and
      with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for the gene maternally expressed 3
      (MEG3). The cloned boars had high production of semen and were nearly equal in
      level of fertility to conventional pigs; they showed similar characteristics as
      naturally bred boars of the same strains. The expression of IGF2 was partially
      disturbed, but this disturbed expression was not linked to a change in
      developmental fate or reproductive performance. These results indicate that use
      of cloned boars could be highly effective for proliferation of pigs with
      desirable characteristics, preservation of genetic resources and risk reduction
      against epidemic diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, through storage of
      somatic cells as a precautionary measure for use in regenerating pig populations
      after a future pandemic.

PMID- 28568979
TI  - THE EVOLUTION OF CLUTCH SIZE: A REPLY TO WOOTTON, YOUNG, AND WINKLER.

PMID- 28568980
TI  - POPULATION GENETICS OF A PARASITIC CHROMOSOME: EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF PSR IN
      SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS.
AB  - Nasonia vitripennis is a parasitoid wasp that harbors several non-Mendelian sex
      ratio distorters. These include MSR (Maternal Sex Ratio), a cytoplasmic element
      that causes nearly all-female families, and PSR (Paternal Sex Ratio), a
      supernumerary chromosome that causes all-male families. As in other hymenoptera,
      N. vitripennis has haplodiploid sex determination. Normally, unfertilized
      (haploid) eggs develop into males and fertilized (diploid) eggs develop into
      females. The PSR chromosome violates this normal pattern; it is inherited through
      sperm, but then causes destruction of the paternal chromosomes (except itself),
      thus converting diploid fertilized eggs (normally females) into haploid eggs that
      develop into PSR-bearing males. PSR is an extreme example of "parasitic" or
      "selfish" DNA. Because N. vitripennis has a highly subdivided population
      structure in nature, population-level selection may be important in determining
      the dynamics of PSR in natural populations. A theoretical analysis shows that
      subdivided population structure reduces PSR frequency, whereas high fertilization
      proportion (such as produced by the MSR element) increases PSR frequency.
      Population experiments using two deme sizes (3- and 12-foundress groups) and
      strains producing two fertilization proportions [wild-type (LabII)-57-67% female,
      and MSR (MI)-90-93% female] confirm these predictions. PSR achieved frequencies
      over 0.90 in 12-foundress group MSR populations in contrast to 0.20-0.40 in wild
      type 12-foundress populations. PSR was selected against in wild-type populations
      composed of three-foundress groups. In MSR populations with three-foundress
      groups, presence of PSR selected against the MSR cytoplasmic element, eventually
      leading to low frequencies of both PSR and MSR. Complicated dynamics may occur
      when these two sex-ratio distorters are both present in highly subdivided
      populations. The existence of PSR in natural populations may depend on the
      presence of MSR. Results indicate that population subdivision could be important
      in determining the frequency of sex ratio distorters in N. vitripennis.

PMID- 28568981
TI  - POLYPHENISM IN SPADEFOOT TOAD TADPOLES AS A LOCALLY ADJUSTED EVOLUTIONARILY
      STABLE STRATEGY.
AB  - I examined the evolutionary factors maintaining two environmentally induced
      morphs in ponds of variable duration. Larvae of New Mexico spadefoot toads
      (Scaphiopus multiplicatus) often occur in the same pond as a large, rapidly
      developing carnivorous morph and as a smaller, more slowly developing omnivorous
      morph. Previous studies revealed that carnivores can be induced by feeding
      tadpoles live fairy shrimp and that morph determination is reversible. Field and
      laboratory experiments indicated that the ability of an individual to become a
      carnivore or an omnivore is maintained evolutionarily as a response to
      variability in pond longevity and food abundance. Carnivores survived better in
      highly ephemeral artificial ponds, because they developed faster. Omnivores
      survived better in longer-duration artificial ponds, because their larger fat
      reserves enhanced postmetamorphic survival. The two morphs also occupy different
      trophic niches. Experimental manipulations of morph frequency in ponds of
      intermediate duration revealed that increased competition for food among
      individuals of the more common morph made the rarer form more successful. Morph
      frequency within each pond was stabilized at an equilibrium by frequency
      dependent morph reversal, which reflected frequency-dependent natural selection
      on size at metamorphosis: larger metamorphs had higher survival, and individuals
      reared at a frequency above the pond's equilibrium frequency were smaller at
      metamorphosis than were individuals of that morph reared at a frequency below the
      pond's equilibrium. Because neighboring ponds often differed in pond longevity
      and food abundance, each pond possessed a unique equilibrium morph frequency.
      This implies that morph determination in Scaphiopus is a locally adjusted
      evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS).

PMID- 28568982
TI  - SEXUAL COMPETITION AMONG BROTHERS MAY INFLUENCE OFFSPRING SEX RATIO IN SNAKES.

PMID- 28568983
TI  - RESOURCE COMPENSATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF GYNODIOECY IN PHACELIA LINEARIS
      (HYDROPHYLLACEAE).
AB  - Gynodioecy is a dimorphic breeding system in which hermaphrodite and female
      individuals coexist in populations. Theoretical models have shown that if nuclear
      genes control sex expression, then gynodioecy can evolve only when females have
      large advantages in one or more fitness components. These female advantages must
      be large enough that females' expected lifetime production of viable seeds is
      more than twice that of hermaphrodites. Previous studies have found that
      cytoplasmic inheritance and/or a large offspring-vigor advantage of females
      (caused by hermaphrodite self-pollination and inbreeding depression of selfed
      seeds) account for this breeding system's evolution. This paper reports studies
      of gynodioecy in Phacelia linearis, an insect-pollinated annual plant in which
      gender inheritance appears to be nuclear. Twenty-six P. linearis populations
      surveyed in northern Utah, USA, contain a majority of perfect-flowered
      hermaphrodites, but most (22) also contain male-sterile individuals (females), at
      frequencies of up to 0.16. The hermaphrodite selfing rate is low (0.00-0.20 in
      four populations). Maternal gender does not consistently affect components of
      offspring vigor, such as seed size, germination rate, seedling survivorship, and
      vegetative size. Plants of the two genders do not differ in number of seeds per
      fruit or mean seed mass. Females produce significantly more fruits and seeds than
      hermaphrodites in natural populations. The ratio of the mean lifetime seed
      production of females to the mean lifetime seed production of hermaphrodites
      ranged from 1.31 to 2.52 in six natural populations. Females have greater shoot
      biomass than hermaphrodites and produce more seeds at any given shoot biomass
      than hermaphrodites, suggesting that their seed-production advantage arises from
      gender-specific patterns of resource allocation to growth and reproduction. The
      gender difference in plant size varies across environments and across genetic
      backgrounds. In this species nuclear gynodioecy appears to be evolutionarily
      stable mainly because of resource compensation by females, without a large
      outcrossing advantage of females.

PMID- 28568984
TI  - APPARENT SELECTIVE NEUTRALITY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SIZE VARIATION: A TEST IN THE
      DEEP-SEA SCALLOP PLACOPECTEN MAGELLANICUS.
AB  - Animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is believed to have evolved under intense
      selection for economy of the size of the molecule. Among scallop species mtDNA
      size may vary by a factor of two and among conspecific individuals by as much as
      25%. We have examined the possibility that large mtDNA size differences may be
      associated with fitness in the deep sea scallop Placopecten magellanicus by
      comparing shell lengths of individuals with different copy numbers of a large
      mtDNA repeated sequence. Among juvenile cohorts of same age, shell length is
      known to be a good index of overall fitness in marine bivalves and it is shown
      here to be affected by differences in nuclear genotype, expressed as the degree
      of enzyme heterozygosity. We have observed no correlation between shell length
      and mtDNA length and interpreted this to mean that variation in the size of
      animal mtDNA is effectively neutral to the forces of natural selection acting on
      the individual. This type of mtDNA variation must, therefore, be explained in
      terms of biases in the molecular mechanisms causing expansion or contraction of
      the molecule, differential replication rates of mtDNA molecules of different
      size, and the stochastic assortment of mtDNA size classes among individuals.

PMID- 28568985
TI  - GLUCOSEPHOSPHATE ISOMERASE AND FITNESS: EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON GENOTYPE
      DEPENDENT MORTALITY AND ENZYME ACTIVITY IN TWO SPECIES OF THE GENUS GAMMARUS
      (CRUSTACEA: AMPHIPODA).

PMID- 28568986
TI  - GAMETE COMPATIBILITY OR INCOMPATIBILITY? A COMMENT ON LESSIOS AND CUNNINGHAM
      (1990).

PMID- 28568987
TI  - DIVERGENT AMBULATORY AND GROOMING BEHAVIOR IN SERIALLY BOTTLENECKED LINES OF THE
      HOUSEFLY.
AB  - The extent of genome-wide restructuring predicted in bottleneck models of
      speciation is addressed in assays of non-reproductive behavior in lines of the
      housefly. After five serial founder-flush cycles of one of three sizes (1, 4, or
      16 pairs), each bottleneck line showed significant differentiation from the
      outbred control in ambulatory levels and grooming sequences in videotaped records
      of precopulatory activity. Only one line (4-pair) showed overall lethargy which
      was associated to inbreeding depression in egg-to-adult viability, thus
      exemplifying a case of probable extinction due to bottlenecks. The two most
      hyperactive lines (1- and 16-pair) showed very similar directions of
      differentiation from the control in locomotor activity and grooming behavior, as
      well as in mating behavior evaluated from a separate study. This high congruence
      suggested that directional selection toward the phenotypic optima of the ancestor
      operated on the bottleneck populations and that a 10-fold difference in
      theoretical inbreeding coefficients did not affect the magnitude of response. The
      remaining two bottleneck lines showed some independence from these general
      trajectories, their divergence along minor axes of ancestral intercorrelation
      structure possibly being more important to the formation of new species.
      Significant perturbations of the thresholds for execution of grooming and
      locomotor movements suggested increased evolutionary potential for ritualization
      (i.e., sexual selection for adoption of non-reproductive behavior into courtship
      repertoire) due to bottlenecks.

PMID- 28568988
TI  - THE EFFECT OF SERPENTINE ON THE POPULATION STRUCTURE OF SILENE DIOICA
      (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).
AB  - Serpentine soils are rich in heavy metals and have a distinctive flora. Silene
      dioica is a member of the Scandinavian serpentine plant community but is also
      widespread outside serpentine soils. To study the population genetic consequences
      of serpentine stress and the origin and evolution of serpentine populations we
      analyzed the isozyme genetic structure of S. dioica. Seventeen populations
      located in the mountains of Vasterbotten and Jamtland, central Sweden, were
      investigated by starch gel enzyme electrophoresis. About one half of the
      populations grow in serpentine soils and the rest on adjacent non-serpentine
      sites. Analyses of allele frequencies show that both serpentine and non
      serpentine populations in the northern part of the studied area (Vasterbotten)
      are genetically similar. Evidently serpentine does not exert strong selection
      acting upon isozyme loci. In the south (Jamtland), however, the serpentine
      populations exhibit genetic differentiation. This allozyme divergence is probably
      not due to direct selection but rather represents the effects of isolation and
      genetic drift. The results suggest that S. dioica has colonized serpentine
      repeatedly and that the tolerant populations have a multiple origin.

PMID- 28568989
TI  - POPULATION GENETIC CONSEQUENCES OF DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION IN SEA URCHINS (GENUS
      HELIOCIDARIS).
AB  - Within the sea urchin genus Heliocidaris, changes in early embryonic and larval
      development have resulted in dramatic differences in the length of time larvae
      spend in the plankton before settling. The larvae of one species, H. tuberculata,
      spend several weeks feeding in the plankton before settling and metamorphosing
      into juveniles. The other species, H. erythrogramma, has modified this extended
      planktonic larval stage and develops into a juvenile within 3-4 days after
      fertilization. We used restriction site polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA to
      examine the population genetic consequences of these developmental changes. Ten
      restriction enzymes were used to assay the mitochondrial genome of 29 individuals
      from 2 localities for H. tuberculata and 62 individuals from 5 localities for H.
      erythrogramma. Within H. tuberculata, 11 mitochondrial genotypes were identified.
      A GST analysis showed high levels of genetic exchange between populations
      separated by 1,000 kilometers of open ocean. In contrast, in H. erythrogramma, 13
      mitochondrial genotypes differing by up to 2.33% were geographically partitioned
      over spatial scales ranging from 800 to 3,400 kilometers. Between distant
      localities, there was complete mitochondrial lineage sorting and large sequence
      divergence between resulting clades. Over much smaller spatial scales (< 1,000
      km), genetic differentiation was due to the differential sorting of very similar
      genotypes. This pattern of mitochondrial variation suggests that these population
      differences have arisen recently and may reflect the historical interplay between
      the restricted dispersal capabilities of H. erythrogramma and the climatic and
      geological changes associated with Pleistocene Ice Ages.

PMID- 28568990
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCE VARIATION AMONG NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE TRINIDAD
      GUPPY, POECILIA RETICULATA.
AB  - Guppies were sampled from eight populations representing four river drainage
      basins in northern Trinidad, and from one population on the nearby island of
      Tobago. For each individual, a 465 base pair (bp) segment of the control region
      of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced. The resulting DNA sequences were
      subjected to sequence divergence calculations and the populations were linked by
      maximum parsimony analysis to determine their phylogenetic relationships.
      Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation was found both within and between
      river drainages, correlated with the geographic features of northern Trinidad.
      The variation observed exists primarily between drainages, particularly between
      the Oropuche drainage and all other Trinidad drainages examined. Estimates of
      time of divergence between guppy populations of different drainages, based on
      mtDNA sequence variation, ranged from 100,000 to 200,000 for the most recently
      separated populations and from 600,000 to 1.2 million years between the Oropuche
      populations and all others examined. Examination of fish from northeastern South
      America will be required to determine whether these populations differentiated in
      their present locations or were the result of separate invasions of Trinidad from
      different Venezuelan sources. However, genetic isolation of these populations
      appears to predate the current physical separation of the island of Trinidad from
      the Venezuelan mainland.

PMID- 28568991
TI  - COLONIZATION OF AMERICA BY DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA: ANALYSIS OF THE O5 INVERSIONS
      FROM EUROPE AND AMERICA AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COLONIZING PROCESS.

PMID- 28568992
TI  - APHID DISTRIBUTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF GOLDENROD RESISTANCE.
AB  - Although there is considerable evidence indicating that herbivory is detrimental
      to plant fitness, some recent studies of the evolution of plant resistance have
      concluded that insects do not impose selection on their host plants. A previously
      untested assumption that underlies most studies of the evolution of plant
      resistance is that insect distribution patterns are controlled directly by the
      effects of plant genotype on insect preference and performance. The experiments
      described here explicitly tested this assumption using the specialist herbivore
      Uroleucon tissoti (Homoptera: Aphididae) and its host plant Solidago altissima
      (Asteraceae). Measures of aphid preference and performance were used to predict
      aphid distribution patterns, and then the predicted distribution patterns were
      compared with the natural distribution pattern. Although goldenrod genotype had a
      strong effect on aphid distribution, aphid distribution was not controlled
      directly by the effect of goldenrod genotype on aphid preference and performance.
      Instead, a second experiment demonstrated that aphid and spittlebug (Philaenus
      spumarius and Lepyronia quadrangularis Homoptera: Cercopidae) distribution is
      controlled largely by genetic variation for resistance to a suite of "branch
      causing" herbivores. These herbivores induce branching and aphids and spittlebugs
      are more abundant on branched plants than unbranched plants. These results
      indicate that any natural selection imposed by aphids and spittlebugs on
      goldenrod will depend on the presence or absence of branch-causing herbivores.
      Thus, selection for plant resistance may depend as much on the assemblage of
      insect species present as on the identity of each individual species.

PMID- 28568993
TI  - THE GENETIC BASIS OF SEXUAL ISOLATION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND D.
      SIMULANS.
AB  - The genetic analysis of sexual isolation between the closely-related species
      Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans involved two experiments with no
      choice tests. The efficiency of sexual isolation was measured by the frequency of
      courtship initiation and interspecific mating. We first surveyed the variation in
      sexual isolation between D. melanogaster strains and D. simulans strains of
      different geographic origin. Then, to investigate variation in sexual isolation
      within strains, we made F1 diallel sets of reciprocal crosses within strains of
      D. melanogaster and D. simulans. The F1 diallel progeny of one sex were paired
      with the opposite sex of the other species. The first experiment showed
      significant differences in the frequency of interspecific mating between
      geographic strains. There were more matings between D. simulans females and D.
      melanogaster males than between D. melanogaster females and D. simulans males.
      The second experiment uncovered that the male genotypes in the D. melanogaster
      diallel significantly differed in interspecific mating frequency, but not in
      courtship initiation frequency. The female genotypes in the D. simulans diallel
      were not significantly different in courtship initiation and interspecific mating
      frequency. Genetic analysis reveals that in D. melanogaster males sexual
      isolation was not affected by either maternal cytoplasmic effects, sex-linked
      effects, or epistatic interaction. The main genetic components were directional
      dominance and overdominance. The F1 males achieved more matings with D. simulans
      females than the inbred males. The genetic architecture of sexual isolation in D.
      melanogaster males argues for a history of weak or no selection for lower
      interspecific mating propensity. The behavioral causes of variation in sexual
      isolation between the two species are discussed.

PMID- 28568994
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND BUTTERFLY DESIGN-A COMPARATIVE STUDY.
AB  - Temperate butterflies of 44 species were examined to determine if their mating
      system (perching and patrolling) affected flight design. To control for spurious
      effects due to ancestry, 25 of these species were assigned to eight contrasts
      within which a change in mating system had occurred. In perching species sexual
      selection was predicted to favor traits associated with high acceleration ability
      and speed, while in patrolling species traits associated with flight endurance
      were predicted. In conformance with these expectations males of perching species
      had larger thorax/body mass ratios, higher wing loadings, and higher aspect
      ratios than patrolling species. The male mating system affected females in the
      same direction in the same variables as males. This could be explained by a
      genetic correlation with males. When removing the covariance between the sexes,
      only male design was explained by the mating system. The mating system was also
      associated with different degrees of sexual dimorphism in wing size. This
      supported the hypothesis that male design was affected by the mating system.

PMID- 28568995
TI  - CORRELATIONAL SELECTION FOR COLOR PATTERN AND ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR IN THE GARTER
      SNAKE THAMNOPHIS ORDINOIDES.
AB  - Correlational selection favors combinations of traits and is a key element of
      many models of phenotypic and genetic evolution. Multiple regression techniques
      for measuring selection allow for the direct estimation of correlational
      selection gradients, yet few studies in natural populations have investigated
      this process. Color patterns and antipredator behaviors of snakes are thought to
      function interactively in predator escape and therefore may be subject to
      correlational selection. To investigate this hypothesis, I studied the
      survivorship of juvenile garter snakes, Thamnophis ordinoides, as a function of a
      suite of escape behaviors and color pattern. The only natural selection detected
      favored opposite combinations of stripedness of the color pattern and the
      tendency to perform during escape evasive behaviors called reversals. This
      selection presumably results from optical illusions created by moving patterns
      and their effects on visually foraging predators. Analysis of the bivariate
      selection surface shows that pure correlational selection can be thought of as a
      series of linear selection functions on one trait whose slopes depend on the
      value of the second trait. Alternatively, viewing the selection surface along its
      major axes reveals stabilizing and disruptive components of correlational
      selection. It is further shown that correlational selection alone can promote
      genetic variance and covariance within a generation. This phenomenon may be
      partially responsible for the extreme variation in color pattern and the genetic
      covariance between color pattern and behavior observed in natural populations of
      T. ordinoides.

PMID- 28568996
TI  - VOCAL DIALECTS AND THE STRUCTURE OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MORPHOLOGICAL AND
      ALLOZYMIC CHARACTERS IN THE RUFOUS-COLLARED SPARROW, ZONOTRICHIA CAPENSIS.
AB  - The geographical patterns of variation shown at 20 allozyme and non-enzymatic
      protein-coding loci, in 8 external, and in 12 skeletal morphological characters
      in the rufous-collared sparrow, Zonotrichia capensis, were analyzed in order to
      test the local (genetic) adaptation hypothesis regarding the origin and
      maintenance of vocal dialects in birds. Approximately 20 males were collected
      from each of four sites within each of six different dialect zones. There was
      significant variability in both external and skeletal morphology among all 24
      sites and among dialect groups. Average Wright's corrected fixation coefficient
      (FST ) was 0.118, indicating significant genetic differentiation among all sites,
      regardless of dialect. Hierarchical F statistics indicated that only 50% of among
      site variability was due to a dialect effect. Puna dialect sites were highly
      differentiated from all other sites with respect to both morphology (external and
      skeletal measures) and allozyme frequencies. Heterogeneity at the PGM-1 locus
      among puna scrub sites was the major cause of the high average FST across all
      sites, and within the puna scrub dialect. Average genetic differentiation among
      non-puna sites (FST = 0.018) was similar to differentiation among sites within
      each of the five non-puna dialect groups (mean FST = 0.0132 +/- 0.0069).
      Hierarchical F statistics indicated that none of the among-site differentiation
      in this subset of samples was due to a dialect effect. These observations are not
      consistent with the local adaptation hypothesis. All significant genetic
      heterogeneity occurred among sites in mountainous habitats, and we suggest that
      topography and patchiness of habitat may have been major factors involved in
      population differentiation, rather than vocal dialects.

PMID- 28568997
TI  - TEMPORAL STABILITY OF THIRD-CHROMOSOME INVERSION FREQUENCIES IN DROSOPHILA
      PERSIMILIS AND D. PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28568998
TI  - BIOGEOGRAPHY OF NEW WORLD TAIGA-DWELLING MICROTUS (MAMMALIA: ARVICOLIDAE): A
      HYPOTHESIS TEST THAT ACCOUNTS FOR PHYLOGENETIC UNCERTAINTY.
AB  - If we adopt a statistical approach to systematics and recognize that phylogenies
      are estimated with error, then we can begin to explore statistically justified
      methods for testing a variety of comparative hypotheses, including those
      concerning the evolution of life-history characters and biogeography. In this
      paper I examine two biogeographic hypotheses concerning the rodent genus
      Microtus. Like many comparative hypotheses, these can be phrased so that each
      predicts the existence of a particular monophyletic group. Neither of the
      predicted groups appear on the single best phylogeny as determined by both Dollo
      parsimony and maximum likelihood analysis of restriction site maps of
      mitochondrial DNA. Simulation studies, however, suggest that often the best
      phylogeny from a single data set has only a low probability of being exactly
      correct. We must also examine those trees that, while not the single best
      supported tree, are not rejected by the data. If we find the best phylogeny for
      which a hypothesis is satisfied, then likelihood methods can be used to test
      whether that phylogeny is significantly worse then the best tree overall. If that
      tree can be rejected, then so can the hypothesis. Computational constraints limit
      the use of likelihood methods for searching among topologies, so parsimony is
      used as a data exploratory tool. One of the predicted groups cannot be rejected,
      even though the most parsimonious tree which includes that group requires 11 more
      steps than does the most parsimonious tree.

PMID- 28568999
TI  - RESTRICTED MIGRATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISM.
AB  - A suggestion that limited migration, i.e., population viscosity, should favor the
      evolution of altruism has been challenged by recent kin selection models
      explicitly incorporating restricted migration. It is demonstrated that these
      models compound two distinct elements of population structure, spatial-genotypic
      variation and density regulation. These two characteristics are often determined
      by distinct biological processes. While they may be linked under certain
      circumstances, this is not invariably true. A simple modification of the
      migration system employed in these studies decouples migration and population
      regulation thus favoring inter-group selection. At least in some cases,
      restricted migration will facilitate the evolution of altruism.

PMID- 28569000
TI  - GENETICS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESISTANCE TO HOST FURANOCOUMARINS IN
      THE PARSNIP WEBWORM.
AB  - Depressaria pastinacella, the parsnip webworm, feeds almost exclusively on the
      flowers and fruits of Pastinaca sativa, the wild parsnip. Resistance to webworms
      in wild parsnip populations is largely attributable to genetically based
      variation in furanocoumarin chemistry; by differentially reducing fruit set among
      chemical phenotypes, parsnip webworms may act as selective agents on wild parsnip
      populations. To determine whether wild parsnip chemistry can act as a selective
      agent on webworm populations, it is necessary to establish that resistance
      mechanisms in the webworm to furanocoumarins are genetically based. In this
      study, we estimated the amount of genetic variation in behavioral and
      physiological responses of webworms to parsnip furanocoumarins. Virtually no
      variation was found among webworm families for feeding preferences for diets
      varying as much as fourfold in furanocoumarin content. Nor was significant
      variation found for mean furanocoumarin intake over the assay period, except in
      one case, in which maternal effects may account for differences among families.
      In contrast, substantial familial variation existed for cytochrome P450-mediated
      metabolism of bergapten and xanthotoxin, two host furanocoumarins. The presence
      of additive genetic variation in metabolism, and the absence of such variation in
      discriminative feeding behavior, suggests that adaptation to changes in
      furanocoumarin chemistry, resulting either from changes in the distribution of
      chemical phenotypes in parsnip populations or from shifts to new chemically
      different host plants, is likely to be facilitated by physiological rather than
      behavioral means.

PMID- 28569001
TI  - SEX RATIO VARIATION IN A PARASITIC WASP II. DIALLEL CROSS.
AB  - Sex ratio has been studied from many theoretical and empirical perspectives, but
      a general assumption in sex ratio research is that changes in sex ratio occur
      because of selection on sex ratio itself. I carried out a quantitative genetic
      experiment-a diallel cross among three strains-on a parasitic wasp, Muscidifurax
      raptor (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), to measure genetic variation for sex ratio. I
      also tested whether sex ratio may change as a consequence of selection on other
      life-history traits by estimating genetic covariances between sex ratio,
      fecundity, longevity, and development time. Most of the variation among strains
      could be accounted for by a maternal effect, likely caused by a microsporidian
      parasite that was transmitted through the West Germany (WG) strain. Genetic
      variation was small by comparison, but almost all traits were affected by
      dominance. The only significant additive genetic effect was for fecundity early
      in life. Upon crossing, all traits displayed heterosis: more female-biased sex
      ratio, greater fecundity, longer life, and faster development time. All life
      history traits were correlated phenotypically, but the correlations were mainly
      the result of decreased performance in crosses with the WG strain that carried
      the microsporidian parasite. Dominance genetic correlations were also found
      between sex ratio, fecundity, and longevity. How the correlation between sex
      ratio and other life-history traits would affect sex ratio evolution depends upon
      the frequencies of sex-ratio genotypes within a population as well as the signs
      of the correlations, because sex ratio is under frequency-dependent selection
      whereas other traits are generally under directional selection. Although the
      results from crosses among laboratory populations should be approached with
      caution, the inbreeding depression (the difference between inbred and outcrossed
      progeny) found in M. raptor implies that the evolution of a female-biased sex
      ratio could be affected by selection for inbreeding avoidance.

PMID- 28569002
TI  - A NOTE ON HALDANE'S RULE: HYBRID INVIABILITY VERSUS HYBRID STERILITY.

PMID- 28569003
TI  - ORGANIZATION OF PREDATOR-PREY COMMUNITIES AS AN EVOLUTIONARY GAME.
AB  - We consider a simple predator-prey model of coevolution. By allowing coevolution
      both within and between trophic levels the model breaks the traditional dichotomy
      between coevolution among competitors and coevolution between a prey and its
      predator. By allowing the diversity of prey and predator species to emerge as a
      property of the evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS), the model breaks another
      constraint of most approaches to coevolution that consider as fixed the number of
      coevolving species. The number of species comprising the ESS is influenced by a
      parameter that determines the predator's niche breadth. Depending upon the
      parameter's value the ESS may contain: 1) one prey and one predator species, 2)
      two prey and one predator, 3) two prey and two predators, 4) three prey and two
      predators, 5) three prey and three predators, etc. Evolutionarily, these
      different ESSs all emerge from the same model. Ecologically, however, these ESSs
      result in very different patterns of community organization. In some communities
      the predator species are ecologically keystone in that their removal results in
      extinctions among the prey species. In others, the removal of a predator species
      has no significant impact on the prey community. These varied ecological roles
      for the predator species contrasts sharply with the essential evolutionary role
      of the predators in promoting prey species diversity. The ghost of predation past
      in which a predator's insignificant ecological role obscures its essential
      evolutionary role may be a frequent property of communities of predator and prey.

PMID- 28569004
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND MALE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BLUEHEAD WRASSE, THALASSOMA
      BIFASCIATUM: MATING SITE ACQUISITION, MATING SITE DEFENSE, AND FEMALE CHOICE.
AB  - Through a series of replacement experiments with the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma
      bifasciatum, we have identified male morphological characteristics that appear to
      be under phenotypic sexual selection. We were particularly interested in whether
      the various sources of sexual selection (male-male competition for unoccupied
      mating sites, defense of mating sites against small males, and female choice of
      males) were (1) independently associated with different phenotypic
      characteristics; (2) jointly affected the same characteristic in the same way; or
      (3) jointly affected the same characteristic in an antagonistic fashion. We
      replaced the resident large, brightly colored Terminal Phase (TP) males on a reef
      with the same number of TP males from other reefs. When transplanted, these males
      contest with each other to take over mating sites. The transplanted group of
      males were then scored for three components of fitness: (1) the quality of the
      site obtained through competition with other large males; (2) the male's ability
      to defend arriving females from small intruding males; and (3) changes in female
      visits to the site once the new male takes over. The first and second components
      are part of intrasexual selection; the third represents intersexual selection. We
      measured the opportunity for selection by partitioning variance in mating
      success, and measured the direct effects of sexual selection by estimating the
      covariance between morphology and fitness components. Opportunities for
      selection: Because females generally remain faithful to particular mating sites,
      most (54%) of the explainable variation in male mating success is due to the
      acquisition of a particular mating territory, which is the outcome of competition
      among TP males. There was less variation in mating success due to shifts in site
      use by females and defense of females against the intrusions of smaller males,
      but all components were significant. Effects of selection: Success in male-male
      competition among TP males, estimated by the quality of the territory acquired,
      was positively associated with body length and the relative length of the
      pectoral fin. Success in territorial defense against small males was primarily
      related to body length, with lesser contributions from body depth and the area of
      a white band on the flank. Contribution to fitness through female choice of males
      was positively associated with white band area. In the two instances where a
      character was associated with two fitness components, the direction of selection
      was the same. While body length was positively associated with winning
      intrasexual contests, it was not correlated to any behavioral measures of
      aggression. Similarly, the white band associated with attractiveness was not
      correlated with any aspect of courtship or aggression. Parasite load was
      uncorrelated with other morphological characters, and did not appear to affect
      any aspect of sexual selection. There was no evidence for stabilizing selection
      or significant additional contributions from second-order effects to the fitness
      surfaces. Fitness functions calculated using cubic splines were generally linear
      except for body length, which appeared sigmoid in its effect on site acquisition
      ability; this same feature tended to plateau in its effect on site defense.
      Analyses of the interactions of selection gradients with reef or experiment
      indicated that the effect of particular male characters on estimates of fitness
      was generally homogeneous in both time and space.

PMID- 28569005
TI  - ADAPTIVE SEASONAL VARIATION IN GRASSHOPPER OFFSPRING SIZE.

PMID- 28569006
TI  - HYBRIDS AND PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS II. THE IMPACT OF HYBRIDS ON CLADISTIC
      ANALYSIS.
AB  - I examined three aspects of the cladistic treatment of a set of 17 F1 hybrids of
      known parental origin: (1) impact of hybrids on consistency index (CI) and number
      of most parsimonious trees (Trees), (2) placement of hybrids in cladograms, and
      (3) impact of hybrids on hypotheses of relationship among species. The hybrids
      were added singly and in randomly selected sets of two to five to a data set
      composed of Central American species of Aphelandra (including the parents of all
      hybrids). Compared to analyses with the same number of OTUs all of which were
      species, the analyses with hybrids yielded results with significantly higher CI.
      There was no difference in Trees between analyses with hybrids versus species.
      There was thus no evidence that hybrids would appear to be more problematic for
      cladistic methods than species. Accordingly, hybrids will not be readily
      identifiable as taxa that cause marked change in these indices. About % of the
      hybrids were placed as the cladistically basal members of the lineage that
      included the most apomorphic parent. Relatively apomorphic hybrids were placed
      proximate to the most derived parent (ca. 13% of hybrids). Other placements
      occurred more rarely. The most frequent placements of hybrids thus did not
      distinguish them from normal intermediate or apomorphic taxa. When analyses with
      hybrids yielded multiple most parsimonious trees, these were no more different
      from each other than were the equally parsimonious trees that resulted from
      analyses with species. Most analyses with one or two hybrids resulted in minor or
      no change in topology. When hybrids caused topological change, they frequently
      caused rearrangements of weakly supported portions of the cladogram that did not
      include their parents. When they disrupted the cladistic placement of their
      parents, they often caused their parents to change positions, with at least one
      topology bringing the parental lineages into closer proximity with the hybrid
      placed between them. Hybrids between parents from the two main lineages of the
      group caused total cladistic restructuring. In fact, the degree of relationship
      between a hybrid's parents (measured by both cladistic and patristic distance)
      was strongly correlated with CI (negatively) and with the degree of disturbance
      to cladistic relationships (positively). Thus, hybrids between distantly related
      parents resulted in cladograms with low CI and major topological changes. This
      study suggests that hybrids are unlikely to cause breakdown of cladistic
      structure unless they are between distantly related parents. However, these
      results also indicate that cladistics may not be specially useful in
      distinguishing hybrids from normal taxa. The applicability of these results to
      other kinds of hybrids is examined and the likely cladistic treatment of hybrids
      using other sources of data is discussed.

PMID- 28569007
TI  - HOW SEDENTARY ARE GREYWING FRANCOLINS (FRANCOLINUS AFRICANUS)?
AB  - Phasianids are considered to be sedentary birds with limited dispersal so that
      populations may be expected to show genetic isolation by distance. To test this,
      we examined genetic variability in 618 greywing francolins (Francolinus
      africanus) at 24 localities over a 1,500 km2 area. We subdivided the samples to
      measure genetic population structure among localities separated by 6-60 km, and
      among coveys separated by 0.1-6 km. Thirteen of 30 (43%) allozyme loci were
      polymorphic, and heterozygosity ranged from 5.3 to 8.5% over 24 localities and
      averaged 7.0%, a value much larger than that found for other phasianids.
      Significant allele-frequency heterogeneity was detected among localities and
      among coveys at several localities for several loci. Mantel's test, however,
      showed that there was no correlation between geographical distance and the allele
      frequency difference between localities for all but one allele. Although spatial
      autocorrelation was detected with Moran's I and Geary's c for two alleles, the
      geographical patterns of I in correlograms of 18 independent alleles showed a
      "crazy-quilt" pattern of allele-frequency patches. This shows that the isolation
      by-distance model of subpopulation structure is inappropriate for these birds.
      Individuals, therefore, appear to disperse far beyond neighboring populations.
      "Private-allele" and FST estimates of migration under the island model were 8-9
      individuals between localities of each generation. Allele-frequency
      heterogeneity, large amounts of gene flow, and the general lack of spatial
      autocorrelation imply that the small, socially-structured populations of greywing
      are subject to high rates of turnover, founder effects, and random drift.

PMID- 28569008
TI  - ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEAN AND OPTIMUM OF QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS UNDER
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28569009
TI  - Myeloid sarcoma identified on liquid-based cervical cytology samples: A report of
      two cases.
AB  - The purpose of the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear is to detect primary squamous lesions
      of the uterine cervix. Although most successful at detection of squamous lesions,
      the Pap may also detect metastatic carcinomas, sarcomas, and melanomas. We report
      two rare cases of myeloid sarcoma (MS) of the uterine cervix identified on
      screening Pap smears with concurrent confirmatory cervical biopsies. The purpose
      of our study is to identify and report cytologic features of MS on Pap smears
      utilizing a liquid-based ThinPrep method, which has not been previously
      documented in literature. Two Pap smears were identified from the pathology
      laboratory information system, both with positive cervical biopsy findings of MS.
      Both women, age 40 and 39, presented with ureteral obstruction, hydronephrosis,
      and past medical histories significant for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). On
      imaging, cervical masses were identified, and subsequent work-up with Pap smears
      and biopsies were performed. Cytologic examination of the ThinPrep Pap smears
      were negative for squamous intraepithelial lesion. Atypical hematologic cells
      were seen in the background with irregular nuclear contours, increased nuclear to
      cytoplasmic ratios, variably prominent nucleoli, and variable amounts of
      agranular cytoplasm. The biopsy confirmed these findings to represent MS. MS is
      defined as a tumor mass of myeloblasts or immature myeloid cells occurring in an
      extramedullary site. This rarely involves the female genital tract, about 50
      reported cases. Although very rare, MSs in the setting of a history of AML are
      able to be identified on liquid-based ThinPrep smears.

PMID- 28569010
TI  - Interpersonal discrimination and markers of adiposity in longitudinal studies: a
      systematic review.
AB  - While the impact of interpersonal discrimination on mental health is well
      established, its effects on physical health outcomes have not been fully
      elucidated. This study systematically reviewed the literature on the prospective
      association between interpersonal discrimination and markers of adiposity.
      Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, SciELO, LILACS, Google Scholar,
      Capes/Brazil and ProQuest databases were used to retrieve relevant information in
      November 2016. The results from the 10 studies that met the inclusion criteria
      support an association between interpersonal self-reported discrimination and the
      outcomes. In general, the most consistent findings were for weight and body mass
      index (BMI) among women, i.e. high levels of self-reported discrimination were
      related to increased weight and BMI. Waist circumference (WC) showed a similar
      pattern of association with discrimination, in a positive direction, but an
      inverted U-shaped association was also found. Despite a few inverse associations
      between discrimination and markers of adiposity, none of the associations were
      statistically significant. Overall, markers of adiposity were consistently
      associated with discrimination, mainly through direct and nonlinear associations.
      This review provides evidence that self-reported discrimination can play an
      important role in weight, BMI and WC changes.

PMID- 28569011
TI  - InSourcerer: a high-throughput method to search for unknown metabolite
      modifications by mass spectrometry.
AB  - RATIONALE: Using mass spectrometry, the analysis of known metabolite structures
      has become feasible in a systematic high-throughput fashion. Nevertheless, the
      identification of previously unknown structures remains challenging, partially
      because many unidentified variants originate from known molecules that underwent
      unexpected modifications. Here, we present a method for the discovery of unknown
      metabolite modifications and conjugate metabolite isoforms in a high-throughput
      fashion. METHODS: The method is based on user-controlled in-source fragmentation
      which is used to induce loss of weakly bound modifications. This is followed by
      the comparison of product ions from in-source fragmentation and collision-induced
      dissociation (CID). Diagonal MS2 -MS3 matching allows the detection of unknown
      metabolite modifications, as well as substructure similarities. As the method
      relies heavily on the advantages of in-source fragmentation and its ability to
      'magically' elucidate unknown modification, we have named it inSourcerer as a
      portmanteau of in-source and sorcerer. RESULTS: The method was evaluated using a
      set of 15 different cytokinin standards. Product ions from in-source
      fragmentation and CID were compared. Hierarchical clustering revealed that good
      matches are due to the presence of common substructures. Plant leaf extract,
      spiked with a mix of all 15 standards, was used to demonstrate the method's
      ability to detect these standards in a complex mixture, as well as confidently
      identify compounds already present in the plant material. CONCLUSIONS: Here we
      present a method that incorporates a classic liquid chromatography/mass
      spectrometry (LC/MS) workflow with fragmentation models and computational
      algorithms. The assumptions upon which the concept of the method was built were
      shown to be valid and the method showed that in-source fragmentation can be used
      to pinpoint structural similarities and indicate the occurrence of a
      modification.

PMID- 28569012
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION WITH HETEROZYGOTE ADVANTAGE AND ITS EFFECT ON SELECTION FOR
      MODIFIERS CHANGING THE OUTCROSSING RATE.
AB  - The equilibrium level of inbreeding depression in populations with different
      selfing rates is studied for models with symmetrical or asymmetrical heterozygous
      advantage at several loci with partial linkage. As for the case of a single
      locus, the inbreeding depression caused by loci with heterozygous advantage can
      be higher for partially selfing populations than for complete outcrossing. The
      spread of modifier alleles at another locus that affects the selfing rate is
      studied. The stability of outcrossing populations to invasion by alleles that
      give increased selfing is found to depend on levels of inbreeding depression
      being greater than one-half, in accordance with earlier models that assumed a
      fixed level of inbreeding depression. However, in partially selfing populations
      the spread of such alleles can be checked by smaller levels of inbreeding
      depression than one-half, so that they do not always spread to fixation. This is
      interpreted as being due to associations between the genotypes at the modifier
      locus and the selected loci, together with increasing inbreeding depression as
      selfing increases, and does not occur if the inbreeding depression is due to
      mutation-selection balance.

PMID- 28569013
TI  - INDIVIDUAL SEX RATIO ADJUSTMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE OPERATIONAL SEX RATIO IN THE
      SOUTHERN GREEN STINKBUG.
AB  - Females of the southern green stinkbug, Nezara viridula (Hemiptera:
      Pentatomidae), initiating copulation in a female-biased environment produced
      relatively more sons than females initiating copulation in a male-biased
      environment. Although families suffering greater mortality yielded more sons, the
      difference in offspring sex ratio between treatments was not due to differential
      mortality by sex since the distribution of family size did not vary between
      treatments. Female condition, indexed by female size and size of the first egg
      mass laid, did not vary between treatments and, therefore, apparently did not
      contribute to the results. Thus, it appears that the stinkbug is capable of
      facultative sex ratio adjustment in response to the operational sex ratio,
      increasing the production of sons when males are rare. In nature, overlapping
      generations and female-biased operational sex ratios may occur; conditions under
      which selection for sex ratio adjustment is most intense.

PMID- 28569014
TI  - EFFECTS OF A HAEMATOPHAGOUS MITE ON THE BARN SWALLOW (HIRUNDO RUSTICA): A TEST OF
      THE HAMILTON AND ZUK HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - I tested three assumptions of the Hamilton and Zuk hypothesis (1982), which
      suggests that the extravagant male plumage of many bird species allows females to
      choose mates that are resistant to the parasites exploiting the host population
      at a given time. By choosing such males as mates, females will rear offspring
      carrying the genes for resistance. I tested three necessary conditions for the
      Hamilton and Zuk model: (1) whether parasites affect the fitness of their hosts;
      (2) whether there is heritable variation in parasite resistance, and (3) whether
      the expression of the sexual ornament varies with parasite burden. The
      haematophagous mite Ornithonyssus bursa (Macronyssidae, Gamasida) sucks blood
      from their Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) hosts. Experimental manipulation of
      mite loads and partial cross-fostering experiments on Barn Swallows, where half
      of the nestlings in the brood were exchanged with nestlings from another nest,
      shows that parasite burdens and origin, but not rearing conditions, of Bam
      Swallow nestlings, affected their adult tarsus length and maximum body weight
      shortly before fledging. Mite loads of adult Barn Swallows at spring arrival were
      more similar to mite loads of their own offspring, whether reared in their own or
      in foster nests inoculated with mites, than to loads of foster offspring. Parent
      Barn Swallows with long tail ornaments had offspring with smaller mite loads in
      the partial cross-fostering experiments. The amount of increase in male tail
      ornaments from one year to another was negatively related to experimentally
      manipulated mite loads of Barn Swallow nests during the preceding breeding
      season. In conclusion, the three assumptions of the hypothesis were supported by
      the experimental tests.

PMID- 28569015
TI  - GAMETIC INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN SPECIES OF THE SEA URCHIN ECHINOMETRA ON THE TWO
      SIDES OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.
AB  - The Pliocene rise of the Central American Isthmus has resulted in numerous
      "geminate pairs," i.e., closely related species, one on each coast. Such species
      pairs can provide information on the evolution of isolating mechanisms in
      allopatry and on the relationship between genetic divergence and reproductive
      isolation in populations separated at a known time. The sea urchin genus
      Echinometra has one species, E. vanbrunti, in the eastern Pacific, and two, E.
      lucunter and E. viridis, in the Caribbean. E. viridis is morphologically distinct
      from the other two species, leading to the conclusion that E. lucunter and E.
      vanbrunti constitute a geminate pair. Allozyme data, on the other hand, place the
      speciation event of the two currently sympatric species after the rise of the
      Isthmus. We report fertilization experiments between the gametes of the three
      species performed to determine degree of reproductive isolation. Crosses between
      E. viridis and E. vanbrunti produce rates of fertilization almost equal to those
      manifested in homogamic crosses. Sperm of E. lucunter can fertilize eggs of the
      other two species, but few of its eggs permit fertilization by heterospecific
      sperm. Contrary to the predictions of the "speciation by reinforcement"
      hypothesis, degree of incompatibility between the allopatric E. lucunter and E.
      vanbrunti is higher than between the sympatric E. lucunter and E. viridis.
      Despite the incomplete and unidirectional nature of their gametic isolation, E.
      lucunter and E. viridis maintain their genetic integrities. Consideration of the
      likely phylogenetic relationships between the three species suggests that
      incompatibility of E. lucunter eggs with heterospecific sperm has evolved in the
      last 3.5 million years, after the rise of the Isthmus. There is no correlation
      between genetic divergence and strength of reproductive isolation, either within
      Echinometra, or among the geminate species pairs of echinoids that have been
      studied to date. Because recognition between echinoid gametes depends on the
      chemical compositions of a sperm protein and an egg glycoprotein, the appearance
      of gametic isolation would require only the fixation of a few mutations in each
      population on either side of a geographic barrier and could be independent of any
      other kind of genetic divergence. Thus, in animals with external fertilization,
      speciation need not be accompanied by major genomic reorganization.

PMID- 28569016
TI  - DIFFERING LEVELS OF AMONG-POPULATION DIVERGENCE IN THE MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF
      PERIODICAL CICADAS RELATED TO HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY.
AB  - Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes were determined for 118 individuals of 13
      and 17-year periodical cicadas (genus Magicicada) collected from 16 localities
      throughout the Midwest and eastern United States. Two distinct mtDNA lineages,
      identified as A and B, differ by 2.5% based on analysis of fragment patterns and
      restriction maps. Observed levels of mtDNA diversity within each lineage are low
      compared to estimates for other taxa. The two lineages are regionally segregated,
      with the boundary line occurring at a latitude of approximately 33 degrees 
      North. The levels of mtDNA diversity and population genetic structure differ
      within the two lineages. There is a remarkably low level of mean mtDNA divergence
      and no genetic structure in lineage A, whereas lineage B exhibits an order of
      magnitude higher level of mtDNA diversity and significant genetic structure among
      sampled populations. The low level of mtDNA diversity in cicadas may be
      attributed to (1) a population bottleneck that most likely occurred during the
      Pleistocene, (2) recent colonization following the retreat of the glaciers and
      the expansion of deciduous forests, and/or (3) high among-family reproductive
      variance (as a consequence of large population size, high fecundity, aggregative
      behavior of adults, and clumping of eggs). The difference in mtDNA diversity and
      population genetic structure between the lineages suggests that they experienced
      different biogeographic histories; we relate this to Pleistocene changes.

PMID- 28569017
TI  - NATURAL SELECTION ON BILL CHARACTERS IN THE TWO BILL MORPHS OF THE AFRICAN FINCH
      PYRENESTES OSTRINUS.
AB  - Evidence for natural selection on seven bill and body characters is examined in
      the two bill morphs of the African estrildid finch Pyrenestes ostrinus. Two
      regression methods are used in examining natural selection in association with
      survivorship: a parametric (Lande and Arnold, 1983) and a non-parametric
      (Schluter, 1988) method. Selection was estimated in adult males, females and
      juveniles over a four-year period in a population in south-central Cameroon.
      Selection was common among groups but patterns differed and depended on the
      method used in detecting selection. The non-parametric method revealed evidence
      for disruptive selection occurring on bill width and is explained within the
      context of known feeding efficiencies and the hardness of important seeds in
      finch diets. Directional selection was common on bill characters in all groups,
      but infrequent on other characters. There was no evidence of selection on
      generalized size or shape characters. Selection on bill characters was common
      across groups despite low annual variation in rainfall. This contrasts with
      studies of Galapagos finches in which selection is frequently associated with
      dramatic changes in food supply caused by high variance in annual rainfall.
      Patterns of selection on bill traits in P. ostrinus also differ from those in
      song sparrows and Galapagos finches by exhibiting evidence for natural selection
      on all bill dimensions.

PMID- 28569018
TI  - GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN PERIPHERALLY ISOLATED POPULATIONS OF CHAFFINCHES IN THE
      ATLANTIC ISLANDS.
AB  - Peripherally isolated populations of common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) in
      the Canaries, Madeira, and Azores were compared genetically with their putative
      ancestral stock in Iberia and Morocco, and with a population of blue chaffinches
      (F. teydea) from Tenerife, using protein electrophoresis of 42 loci. The
      continental populations are only weakly differentiated genetically (FST = 0.092),
      despite distinctive subspecific differences in plumage and morphometrics between
      Iberia and Morocco populations. Estimated levels of gene flow among continental
      populations are high enough to account for their relative genetic homogeneity,
      and it is unlikely that homogenizing selection is operating to mimic the effects
      of gene flow. In contrast, the Atlantic island populations are well
      differentiated genetically (FST = 0.321), and have diverged considerably from
      their continental conspecifics. The development of significant genetic
      differentiation within the Canaries but not the Azores likely results from
      smaller population sizes, very restricted gene flow, and enhanced random drift in
      the former populations. There is no convincing evidence in support of stronger
      directional selection acting on genotypes or phenotypes to reduce within
      population variability in Canaries populations as proposed by Grant (1979),
      although other tenets of his model of island evolution are supported by our
      analysis. Although genetic variability is reduced in four of the Canaries
      populations, only the Hierro population appears to have encountered a severe
      bottleneck. Yet it has not differentiated markedly from the La Palma population
      to which it is subspecifically allied. We conclude that gradual divergence in
      isolated populations of small to moderate size is the most plausible explanation
      for the evolution of intraspecific and interspecific diversity in Atlantic island
      chaffinches.

PMID- 28569019
TI  - FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA: ESTIMATION OF NET FITNESS IN
      PSEUDOHAPLOID POPULATIONS.
AB  - There is much evidence that the viability of Drosophila larvae depends on the
      genotypes of other larvae with which they develop. There is, however, little
      evidence concerning frequency dependence of net fitness. This report documents
      variation in net fitness among male D. melanogaster from 17 lines studied in 49
      discrete-generation populations. The experimental design, which uses attached-X
      females, eliminates effects of dominance, heterosis, recombination, genetic
      background, and selection in females. Selection operates only on patroclinously
      inherited X-chromosomes in males, causing frequency dynamics to mimic those of
      haploid populations. Analysis of one-generation transitions shows a general
      pattern of frequency dependence of net fitnesses. Analysis of multigeneration
      trajectories suggests frequency dependence in 12 populations, but trajectories
      tend to be heterogeneous among replicates. For a deterministic model in which
      fitness w(p) is a function of allelic frequency (p), oscillatory dynamics can
      occur where |dw(p)/dp| > w(p) (Curtsinger, 1984a). The derivative measures the
      strength of frequency-dependent selection, and divides models into two
      categories: dynamically "well-behaved" and "complex." For the pooled data, this
      criterion is violated in about half of the frequency space, though several
      factors probably cause strength to be overestimated. The strength criterion is a
      useful predictor of evolutionary dynamics: observed oscillations tend to occur
      most often where frequency dependence is strong, and less often where it is weak.

PMID- 28569020
TI  - FISHER'S SEX RATIO THEORY MAY EXPLAIN HATCHING PATTERNS IN BIRDS.
AB  - I present the hypothesis that asynchronous hatching is a means of ensuring an
      equal degree of parental investment in the progeny of each sex in altricial
      species of birds that are sexually dimorphic in size. In a comparative analysis
      of bird species of Africa and the Western Palearctic, I find a positive
      relationship between hatching asynchrony and sexual size dimorphism, in support
      of the hypothesis. The relation is significant for species in which males are
      larger than females, and in species in which females are larger than males. In
      addition, it holds even if allometric effects of body size are controlled for. No
      such relationship is found in species with self-feeding young. Alternative
      hypotheses to explain asynchronous hatching in altricial birds are discussed. The
      results of the comparative study are also consistent with some of these
      hypotheses. For instance, asynchronous hatching may be a mechanism used by
      parents of dimorphic species to deal with unpredictable primary sex ratios; it
      may be a way of avoiding simultaneous peak food demands by the young; or it may
      be a way of advancing the time of hatching so that the division of labor between
      the parents is optimized.

PMID- 28569021
TI  - PLOIDY AND EVOLUTION BY SEXUAL SELECTION: A COMPARISON OF HAPLOID AND DIPLOID
      FEMALE CHOICE MODELS NEAR FIXATION EQUILIBRIA.
AB  - We compare the stability properties of haploid and diploid models of Fisherian
      sexual selection (with male contribution limited to sperm) by examining both
      models at equilibria for which a male trait is fixed or absent. Haploid and
      diploid two locus diallelic models share the property that the stability of such
      fixation equilibria is determined by the relationship between the harmonic mean
      of relative preference values for the common male trait, weighted by the
      frequency of the preferences, and the relative viability associated with the
      common male trait. When diploid females with heterozygotic-based preferences
      express preference strengths intermediate between homozygote-based preferences,
      then boundary equilibria of haploid and diploid models share many stability
      properties. However, even with intermediate heterozygote preferences, haploid and
      diploid models do differ: (1) for a particular frequency of the preference
      allele, both fixation boundaries can be stable for the diploid model, and (2)
      with over- or underdominance at the preference locus (a possibility precluded in
      the haploid model), a fixation boundary in the diploid model may show two
      switches in its stability state for increasing frequencies of one of the
      preference alleles. These differences are due not just to the impossibility of
      dominance in haploid models, but also to the larger number of diploid genotypes.

PMID- 28569022
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF PARTHENOGENETIC CNEMIDOPHORUS LEMNISCATUS (SAURIA:
      TEIIDAE). II. MATERNAL ORIGIN AND AGE INFERRED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA ANALYSES.
AB  - Restriction endonuclease analyses were performed on mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs)
      representing unisexual parthenogenetic (cytotypes A, B, and C) and bisexual
      (cytotypes D and E) populations of Amazonian lizards presently regarded as
      Cnemidophorus lemniscatus. The results of mtDNA cleavage map comparisons among
      these C. lemniscatus indicated that (1) there was no cleavage site variation
      among the unisexuals, (2) mtDNAs from the bisexual cytotypes D and E differed in
      sequence from one another by about 13%, and (3) mtDNAs from cytotypes A-C
      differed from those of cytotype D by about 5% and from those of cytotype E by
      about 13%. Higher resolution restriction fragment size comparisons confirmed the
      high degree of similarity among the unisexual mtDNAs, but identified 12 cleavage
      site variants among the 13 cytotype D mtDNAs examined. Both cladistic and
      phenetic (UPGMA) analyses of the data indicate that the unisexual and cytotype D
      mtDNAs form a single clade, suggesting that a female of cytotype D was the
      maternal progenitor of the unisexuals. The similarity among the unisexual mtDNAs
      and the variability among those of cytotype D suggest that the three unisexual
      cytotypes arose recently from a common maternal lineage. The mtDNA variability
      observed among cytotype D individuals has a strong geographic component,
      suggesting that the unisexuals arose from one or a few geographically proximal
      populations. The mtDNA comparisons also support the conclusion, based on allozyme
      comparisons (Sites et al., 1990, this issue), that cytotypes D and E, although
      presently allocated to C. lemniscatus, are separate species.

PMID- 28569023
TI  - CLONAL INHERITANCE OF A DIPLOID NUCLEAR GENOME BY A HYBRID FRESHWATER MINNOW
      (PHOXINUS EOS-NEOGAEUS, PISCES: CYPRINIDAE).
AB  - Hybrids between the minnows Phoxinus eos and Phoxinus neogaeus coexist with a
      population of P. eos in East Inlet Pond, Coos Co., New Hampshire. Chromosome
      counts and flow cytometric analysis of erythrocyte DNA indicate that these
      hybrids include diploids, triploids, and diploid-triploid mosaics. The mosaics
      have both diploid and triploid cells in their bodies, even within the same
      tissues. All three hybrid types are heterozygous at seven putative loci for which
      P. eos and P. neogaeus are fixed for different allozymes, indicating that the
      hybrids carry one eos and one neogaeus haploid genome. The diploid hybrids are
      therefore P. eos-neogaeus, whereas the triploids and mosaics are derived from P.
      eos-neogaeus but have an extra eos or neogaeus genome in all or some of their
      cells. Diploid, triploid, and mosaic hybrids accept tissue grafts from diploid
      hybrids, indicating that all individuals carry the identical eos-neogaeus diploid
      genome. Thus, one P. eos-neogaeus clone exists at East Inlet Pond. Grafts among
      the triploids and mosaics or from these individuals to diploid hybrids are
      rejected, indicating that the third genome is different in each triploid and
      mosaic individual. In this study, diploid and mosaic hybrids, carrying the clonal
      eos-neogaeus genome, were bred in the laboratory with males of P. eos or P.
      neogaeus. Both diploid and mosaic hybrids produced diploid, triploid, and mosaic
      offspring, revealing the source of the three hybrid types present at East Inlet
      Pond. These offspring accepted grafts from P. eos-neogaeus individuals,
      indicating that they all had inherited the identical eos-neogaeus genome. Most
      grafts among triploid and mosaic progeny, or from these individuals to their
      diploid broodmates, were rejected, indicating that the third genome was different
      in each triploid and mosaic (as was observed in the wild hybrids) and was
      contributed by sperm from males of P. eos or P. neogaeus. Diploid progeny are
      produced if sperm serves only to stimulate embryogenesis; triploid or mosaic
      progeny are produced if the sperm genome is incorporated. Although based on a
      mode of reproduction that by definition results in a genetically identical
      community of individuals, i.e., gynogenesis, reproduction in hybrid Phoxinus
      results in a variety of genetically distinct individuals by the incorporation of
      sperm into approximately 50% of the diploid ova produced.

PMID- 28569024
TI  - MEASURING SELECTION ON REACTION NORMS: AN EXPLORATION OF THE EUROSTA-SOLIDAGO
      SYSTEM.
AB  - The sensitivity of genotypic expression to the environment can be depicted as the
      reaction norm, which is defined as the array of phenotypes produced by a single
      genotype over a range of environments. We studied selection on reaction norms of
      the gall-inducing insect Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera; Tephritidae), which
      attacks tall goldenrod Solidago altissima (Compositae). Gall size was treated as
      a component of insect phenotype and attributes of the host plant as environmental
      influences on gall development. Genetic differences in the response of gall size
      to plant lag time (the number of days before a plant responds to the gall maker)
      were examined. Reaction norms for full-sib families of flies were quantified as
      linear functions; the elevation of the function denoted gall size produced by the
      family averaged across all plants, and the function's slope denoted family
      sensitivity to lag time. Expected fitness of each family was regressed over
      reaction norm elevation and slope to yield selection gradients on these reaction
      norm parameters. Directional selection on gall size averaged across environments
      is four times stronger than selection on sensitivity. Yet, genetic variation for
      sensitivity contributes more than twice as much to gall phenotypic variance as
      family mean gall size. Our results suggest that selection on environmental
      sensitivity will be weak for populations restricted to a narrow segment of an
      environmental gradient, but strong for broadly distributed species.

PMID- 28569025
TI  - SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP AND GENE FLOW PATHS BETWEEN POPULATIONS OF THE ALPINE SNAIL
      ARIANTA ARBUSTORUM (PULMONATA: HELICIDAE).
AB  - The alpine snail Arianta arbustorum (Pulmonata, Helicidae) was sampled along an 8
      km contour line in the Swiss Alps orthogonal to well-known altitudinal clines in
      life history and shell traits. The allele frequencies and the morphs of 16
      populations were compared with habitats. Two hypotheses about the recolonization
      of the mountain slopes after the last glaciation were tested against the present
      population structure. The allele frequencies are best explained by the spatial
      structure whereas the morphs are better explained by the habitats. The genotypic
      distances point to a historical explanation by recolonization processes, the
      phenotypical dissimilarities to a selectionistic interpretation of the present
      distribution of the populations. The following conclusions are from the study of
      the spatial relationship and the gene flow paths for A. arbustorum at Mount
      Martegnas: (1) Streams are the main gene flow paths; gene flow is low, allowing
      differentiation of local populations. (2) Morphs and habitats are correlated, but
      the interpretation has to be made carefully. The spatial dependence of habitats
      has to be included into the analysis of selection. (3) The random assumption for
      gene flow of A. arbustorum is not a spatial isolation-by-distance model, but a
      functional isolation-by-distance model, assuming gene flow over the drainage
      system.

PMID- 28569026
TI  - MITOCHONDRIAL GENE TREES AND THE EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIP OF MALLARD AND BLACK
      DUCKS.
AB  - We assayed restriction site differences in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) within and
      among allopatric populations of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and the American
      Black Duck (A. rubripes). The observed mtDNA clones grouped into two
      phylogenetically distinct arrays that we estimate differ by about 0.8% in
      nucleotide sequence. Genotypes in one clonal array were present in both species,
      while genotypes in the other array were seen only in Mallards. In terms of the
      mtDNA "gene tree," the assayed Mallards exhibit a paraphyletic relationship with
      respect to Black Ducks, meaning that genealogical separations among some extant
      haplotypes in the Mallard predate the species separation. Evidence is advanced
      that this pattern probably resulted from demographically based processes of
      lineage sorting, rather than recent, secondary introgressive hybridization.
      However, haplotype frequencies were most similar among conspecific populations,
      so the Mallard and Black Ducks cluster separately in terms of a population
      phenogram. The results provide a clear example of the distinction between a gene
      tree and a population tree, and of the distinction between data analyses that
      view individuals versus populations as operational taxonomic units (OTUs).
      Overall, the mtDNA data indicate an extremely close evolutionary relationship
      between Mallards and Black Ducks, and in conjunction with the geographic
      distributions suggest that the Black Duck is a recent evolutionary derivative of
      a more broadly distributed Mallard-Black ancestor.

PMID- 28569027
TI  - THE INCIDENCE AND EFFECTS OF HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN CULTIVATED RICE AND ITS
      RELATED WEED RED RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.).
AB  - The objectives of this study were (1) to determine if hybridization occurs
      naturally between cultivated rice and a closely related weed, red rice (both
      Oryza sativa L.) and (2) to determine the incidence of hybridization and possible
      convergence of red rice with cultivated rice. Both morphological and
      electrophoretic characters were used to confirm the existence of hybrids. A total
      of 12,000 seeds were collected from red rice plants from fields of six different
      rice cultivars and sown in a common garden. Hybrids were generally taller and had
      longer, wider flag leaves than either red rice or cultivated rice. In addition,
      hybrids produced more tillers than red rice. Overall, hybrids were vegetatively
      robust plants, demonstrating heterosis and expressing morphological
      characteristics of both parents. That these plants were hybrids was confirmed by
      the existence of electrophoretic banding patterns common to both synthetic and
      natural hybrids. The incidence of hybridization was estimated as the percentage
      of hybrids found in red rice populations while morphological characteristics were
      used to test for convergence. Percentage hybridization ranged from 1% in the
      Lemont cultivar to 52% in the Nortai variety. The greater number of hybrids found
      in the Nortai variety was attributed to a later flowering time of this variety
      and the overlap of its flowering time with that of the F1 hybrids. F1 hybrids
      were observed to flower later than either red rice or the early season varieties
      of cultivated rice. Thus, early season varieties have a temporal separation in
      flowering time from the F1 hybrids that prevents back crossing. Unlike the other
      hybrids that were vegetatively robust, Nortai hybrids were less robust and more
      similar to the cultivar. These results suggest that later season cultivars may
      have a higher incidence of hybridization and introgression with red rice and that
      this may lead to morphological convergence of the weed toward the crop.
      Convergents were observed in the Nortai variety. Hybridization between cultivated
      and red rice has the potential to increase the adaptability of red rice
      populations by promoting genetic diversity.

PMID- 28569028
TI  - WHY PARSIMONY?

PMID- 28569029
TI  - THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF PARTHENOGENETIC CNEMIDOPHORUS LEMNISCATUS (SAURIA,
      TEIIDAE). I. EVIDENCE FOR A HYBRID ORIGIN.
AB  - Chromosomes and allozymes were studied from chromosomally distinct unisexual
      (races B and C) and bisexual (races D and E) populations of the teiid lizard
      Cnemidophorus lemniscatus, and from selected outgroup taxa (C. murinus, C.
      nigricolor, Ameiva ameiva, and A. auberi). Karyotyping confirmed the racial
      identity of individuals and showed that the chromosomal composition of
      populations at specific localities has remained the same for 20 years. All
      individuals of both unisexual populations were heterozygous for a pericentric
      inversion that distinguishes D and E bisexuals. Also, the unisexuals were all
      heterozygous for 8 of 11 protein loci for which D and E were fixed or nearly
      fixed for different alleles. Most of these alleles represent derived states
      relative to the other Cnemidophorus and Ameiva analyzed, and the fixed
      heterozygote condition at these nine markers provides unequivocal support for the
      hypothesis that the unisexual C. lemniscatus arose by hybridization between
      ancestors genetically similar to extant D and E populations. At the remaining
      three loci for which D and E show fixed differences, the unisexuals were
      homozygous rather than heterozygous. This suggests that either (1) allozymes have
      been lost by mutations to null, silent, or convergent mobility states, (2)
      ancestral genotypes were similar to but not identical with the extant D and E
      races, and/or (3) limited recombination may occur between unisexual genomes.
      Allozyme-based genetic distances between D and E were large, suggesting that
      bisexual races D and E are genetically isolated; each race should be accorded
      full species status. This conclusion is supported by the absence of any clear
      biochemical evidence for their monophyly with respect to the other Cnemidophorus
      examined. Cladistic analyses of 17 phylogenetically informative loci revealed two
      equally parsimonious shortest trees, one supporting monophyly and the other
      paraphyly of the C. lemniscatus complex. Further testing of the monophyly of C.
      lemniscatus requires additional data. With the present study, the evidence that
      all parthenogenetic Cnemidophorus are of hybrid origin is complete.

PMID- 28569030
TI  - GENOTYPE DIVERSITY AND SELECTION IN ASEXUAL BRINE SHRIMP (ARTEMIA).
AB  - An obligately asexual population of Artemia parthenogenetica at Salin de Giraud,
      France consists of numerous clones that are genetically and ecologically
      divergent. The clones are distributed in a nonrandom fashion among eight ponds of
      highly variable environments. A total of 63 allozymically unique genotypes were
      identified, with significant differences in numerous fitness traits found among a
      sample subset of clones. The frequencies of four alleles, as well as the
      percentage of loci polymorphic, were significantly correlated with salinity.
      Genotypes face rapid selection along salinity gradients in the field and this
      selection is reproducible in the lab. mtDNA analysis suggests that obligate
      asexuality in this population is of monophyletic origin.

PMID- 28569031
TI  - THE COST OF MERISTEM LIMITATION IN POLYGONUM ARENASTRUM: NEGATIVE GENETIC
      CORRELATIONS BETWEEN FECUNDITY AND GROWTH.
AB  - Growth and reproduction in higher plants depend on meristems, which have three
      developmental fates. A meristem can become reproductive, but doing so terminates
      its activity, it can differentiate vegetatively, or it can remain quiescent for
      extended periods. The first two fates are mutually exclusive, and only the second
      leads to the production of additional meristems for subsequent growth and
      reproduction. In Polygonum arenastrum (frequently referred to as P. aviculare in
      North American Floras), an annual species lacking quiescent meristems, a
      quantitative genetic analysis of inbred full-sibling families revealed genetic
      variation in the developmental pattern of axillary meristem commitment to
      vegetative growth versus reproduction. Developmental variation resulted in family
      differences in the age of first reproduction, in age-specific fecundity and
      growth, and in final plant size and reproductive output. Furthermore, there were
      strong negative genetic correlations between age-specific growth and fecundity.
      Early commitment of meristems to reproduction favors high early fecundity, but
      reduces the number of meristems available for vegetative differentiation, and
      leads to lowered growth rates and fecundity later in life, when meristems are
      limiting. Conversely, meristem commitment to vegetative growth early in life
      results in low early fecundity but high late fecundity and growth. Meristem
      limitation, like resource limitation, is a proximate mechanism that generates
      trade-offs between life history traits. Differences between meristem limitation
      and resource limitation are discussed. Meristem limitation leads automatically to
      a senescent life history because of the determinate fate of reproductive
      meristems. Developmental characters were also found to be genetically correlated
      with metamer characters (leaf size, internode length) and seed size in this
      selfing species. The pattern of correlation is suggestive of selection for
      particular suites of life history and morphological characters.

PMID- 28569032
TI  - DIFFERENT SPATIAL SCALES OF ADAPTATION IN THE CLIMBING BEHAVIOR OF PEROMYSCUS
      MANICULATUS: GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION, NATURAL SELECTION, AND GENE FLOW.
AB  - Patterns of geographic variation in tree-climbing ability of Peromyscus
      maniculatus were used to examine the influence of spatial variation in natural
      selection and gene flow on the genetic divergence of climbing behavior among
      populations. Offspring of adults of two subspecies sampled from 10 localities in
      montane conifer forest, conifer woodland, and desert scrub/grassland habitats
      were raised in the laboratory and tested to determine their tree-climbing ability
      (the maximum diameter artificial rod that a mouse could climb). Comparisons of
      mean rod-climbing scores revealed that individuals of P. m. rufinus sampled from
      montane conifer forest and conifer woodland in Arizona were better climbers than
      P. m. sonoriensis sampled from conifer woodland and desert habitats in Nevada.
      This result was consistent with the hypothesis that natural selection has
      produced large-scale adaptation in climbing behavior. However, the climbing
      ability of P. m. sonoriensis sampled from conifer woodland habitats on isolated
      mountaintops in Nevada has not evolved in response to natural selection to the
      degree expected. In addition, populations sampled from desert grassland habitat,
      adjacent to woodland P. m. rufinus in Arizona, have climbing abilities that are
      not significantly different from conifer woodland populations. These observations
      indicate that local adaptation was constrained. An estimate of the heritability
      of climbing ability (h2 = 0.352 +/- 0.077) indicates that lack of a response to
      selection was not due to the absence of additive genetic variation. In addition,
      regressions of interpopulation differences on the degree of geographic isolation
      between pairs of populations do not support the hypothesis that gene flow between
      habitats has constrained evolution. Instead, a combination of historical events
      and insufficient time to respond to selection appears to have influenced
      geographic variation and the spatial scale of adaptation in climbing ability.

PMID- 28569033
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS OF THE LARGE SUBUNIT OF CARBOXYLASE (rbcL) NUCLEOTIDE
      SEQUENCE AMONG THE GRASSES (GRAMINEAE).
AB  - The full nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast encoded large subunit of
      ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcL) are available for nine grass species
      and partial sequence data for one species. Relative rate tests of the "molecular
      clock" hypothesis suggest that rbcL evolved more rapidly in the lineage leading
      to Zea than in those leading to the other species. The estimated overall
      substitution rate for rbcL among these grasses is about 5 times 10-10
      substitutions per site per year, or about one-half the synonymous rate. The nine
      full sequences were analyzed by the UPGMA, Wagner parsimony, maximum likelihood,
      and Fitch-Margoliash methods. The latter three methods produced trees with the
      same topology. This topology largely agrees with current taxonomic evidence
      regarding the relationships among these grasses. UPGMA produced a topology that
      conflicts more substantially with available taxonomic evidence. Statistical
      comparison of the three alternative topologies for the subfamilies Panicoideae,
      Pooideae and Bambusoideae failed to support one of these topologies over the
      others, reflecting the taxonomic ambiguities surrounding the relationships among
      these taxa. Phylogenetic analyses based on the partial sequences of all 10
      species gave conflicting results with regard to the relationship between Hordeum
      and Triticum, both members of the tribe Triticeae. This indicates that rbcL
      sequences contain too little information to resolve relationships among genera
      within this tribe. Overall, the results suggest that rbcL sequence data can
      provide some new information concerning grass phylogeny, but that the amount of
      available data from this gene is too small to differentiate statistically among
      alternative topologies for the grasses. Conflicting results from parsimony,
      maximum likelihood, and Fitch-Margoliash methods proved useful in exploring the
      validity of assumptions underlying these methods.

PMID- 28569034
TI  - DO CONSTANT ENVIRONMENTS PROMOTE COMPLEXITY OF FORM?: THE DISTRIBUTION OF
      BRYOZOAN POLYMORPHISM AS A TEST OF HYPOTHESES.
AB  - The distribution of cheilostome bryozoans on the Caribbean reefs of Panama was
      surveyed to test the hypothesis that physically constant environments favor
      increased morphologic complexity, expressed as the number of zooid types within a
      colony. The proportion of species within defined grades of complexity did not
      vary significantly with locality, depth, or substratum. Some differences were
      found in grade-specific ecological success, measured by colony abundance and
      spatial cover, but these were not consistently related to habitat type. There was
      no inverse correlation between morphologic complexity and range of distribution:
      morphologically specialized cheilostomes were not more stenotopic than
      generalized forms. Patterns of distribution and total space occupation indicate a
      sensitivity to local habitat conditions, but relative success of species was not
      correlated with level of polymorphism. In a bryozoan fauna from Florida, the
      frequency of polymorphic species was weakly associated with constancy of habitat.
      In estuaries, polymorphic cheilostomes are almost absent at salinities below
      180/00, but this pattern is strongly confounded taxonomically. All species
      tolerant of low salinities are encrusting anascans; within this group,
      polymorphism does not decrease significantly with declining salinity. Bryozoan
      faunas from different biogeographic zones may vary in frequency of avicularian
      polymorphism, but not along a simple latitudinal cline. These large-scale
      comparisons may be strongly biased historically and taxonomically. The
      distribution of cheilostome polymorphism on a local and geographic scale provides
      no evidence for a causal relationship between habitat constancy and morphologic
      specialization at the zooidal level. This is in striking contrast to the strong
      habitat dependence of colony form, which suggests that selective processes may
      operate differently at the zooidal and colonial levels.

PMID- 28569035
TI  - INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN ANT SEX RATIOS AND THE TRIVERS-HARE HYPOTHESIS.
AB  - We consider worker-controlled sex investments in eusocial Hymenoptera (ants in
      particular) and assume that relatedness asymmetry is variable among colonies and
      that workers are able to assess the relatedness asymmetry in their own colony. We
      predict that such "assessing" workers should maximize their inclusive fitness by
      specializing in the production of the sex to which they are relatively most
      related, i.e., colonies whose workers have a relatedness asymmetry below the
      population average should specialize in males, whereas colonies whose workers
      have a higher than average relatedness asymmetry should specialize in making
      females. Our argument yields the expectation that colony sex ratios will be
      bimodally distributed in ant populations where relatedness asymmetry is variable
      owing to multiple mating, worker reproduction, and/or polygyny. No such
      bimodality is expected, however, in ant species where relatedness asymmetry is
      known to be constant, or in cases where relatedness asymmetry is supposed to be
      irrelevant due to allospecific brood rearing under queen control, as in the slave
      making ants. Comparative data on colony sex ratios in ants are reviewed to test
      the predictions. The data partly support our contentions, but are as yet
      insufficient to be considered as decisive evidence.

PMID- 28569036
TI  - "KIN RECOGNITION" AMONG SPADEFOOT TOAD TADPOLES: A SIDE-EFFECT OF HABITAT
      SELECTION?
AB  - Many animals modify their behavior toward unfamiliar conspecifics as a function
      of their genetic relatedness. A fundamental problem of any kin recognition study
      is determining what is being recognized and why. For anuran tadpoles, the
      predominant view is that associating with relatives is kin-selected because these
      relatives may thereby accrue benefits through increased growth or predation
      avoidance. An alternative view is that kin associations are simply a side-effect
      of habitat selection and thus do not represent attempts to identify kin per se.
      In the laboratory, spadefoot toad tadpoles (Scaphiopus multiplicatus)
      preferentially associated with unfamiliar siblings over unfamiliar nonsiblings,
      as do other anurans. However, same age tadpoles also were more likely to orient
      toward unfamiliar nonsiblings reared on the same food (familiar food) than toward
      unfamiliar siblings that were reared on unfamiliar food. These results, together
      with the results of previous tadpole kin recognition studies, suggest that
      tadpoles orient toward cues learned early in ontogeny, regardless of the cues'
      source. Tadpoles that preferentially associated with cues learned from their
      environment at birth would tend to be philopatric. Censuses of 14 natural ponds
      revealed that tadpole density remained greatest near oviposition sites until four
      days before metamorphosis. Tadpole philopatry may be advantageous: tadpoles
      restricted to their natal site had greater growth and survivorship than did their
      siblings restricted to randomly selected sites elsewhere within the same pond.
      Thus kin affiliative tendency observed in the laboratory in this and perhaps
      other species of anurans may be a byproduct of habitat selection. Since kin
      discrimination in animals is most commonly assayed as orientation toward kin, it
      follows that many examples of "kin recognition" may not represent true attempts
      to identify kin as such, but rather may reflect some other recognition system
      that is under entirely different selective pressures.

PMID- 28569037
TI  - GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AMONG CHEWING LOUSE POPULATIONS (MALLOPHAGA:
      TRICHODECTIDAE) IN A POCKET GOPHER CONTACT ZONE (RODENTIA: GEOMYIDAE).
AB  - Genetic variation among populations of chewing lice (Geomydoecus actuosi) was
      examined in relation to chromosomal and electrophoretic variation among
      populations of their hosts (Thomomys bottae) at a contact zone. Louse demes were
      characterized by low levels of genetic heterozygosity (H = 0.039) that may result
      from founder effects during primary infestation of hosts, compounded by seasonal
      reductions in louse population size. Louse populations sampled from different
      hosts showed high levels of genetic structuring both within and among host
      localities. Microgeographic differentiation of louse populations is high (mean
      FST = 0.092) suggesting that properties of this host-parasite system promote
      differentiation of louse populations living on different individual hosts. Among
      population differentiation in lice (FST = 0.240) was similar to that measured
      among host populations (FST = 0.236), suggesting a close association between gene
      flow in pocket gophers and gene flow in their lice.

PMID- 28569038
TI  - RESTRICTION FRAGMENT ANALYSIS OF PINE PHYLOGENY.
AB  - We used restriction fragment analysis of chloroplast, nuclear, and mitochondrial
      DNA to study phylogeny in the genus Pinus. Total genomic DNA of 18 to 19 pine
      species that spanned 14 of the 15 subsections in the genus was cut with 8
      restriction enzymes, blotted, and then probed with up to 17 cloned DNA fragments
      which were mostly from the chloroplast genome of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
      menziesii [Mirb.] Franco). A total of 116 shared characters, the majority
      representing single point mutations, were subjected to Wagner and Dollo parsimony
      analyses, coupled with bootstrapping and construction of consensus trees. The
      hard (subgenus Pinus) and soft pines (subgenus Strobus) were distinct. The soft
      pines in section Parrya, represented by P. longaeva, edulis, monophylla, and
      gerardiana, were the group closest to the hypothesized root of the genus. They
      were also more diverse and more closely related to the hard pines than were their
      descendents in section Strobus, represented by P. koraiensis, albicaulis,
      griffithii, and lambertiana, all of which were remarkably similar. Except for a
      strong clade involving P. canariensis and pinea (section Ternatae), the hard
      pines were weakly differentiated. The high similarity within the most speciose
      groups of pines (sections Strobus and Pinus) suggests that the bulk of the genus
      radiated relatively recently. In contrast to a recent classification, P.
      leiophylla was not associated with section Ternatae; instead, it appears to
      belong in section Pinus, and showed a high similarity to P. taeda of subsection
      Australes. Subsection Oocarpae, represented by P. oocarpa and radiata, appears to
      be a natural group, and is related to subsection Contortae, represented by P.
      contorta. More extensive restriction fragment studies will yield many new
      insights into evolution in the genus. Other methods, however, such as DNA
      sequencing or fine structure analysis of restriction site mutations, are likely
      to be necessary for rooting pine phylogenies with respect to other coniferous
      genera, and for estimating divergence times.

PMID- 28569039
TI  - VARIATION IN POLLEN SIZE, FERTILIZATION ABILITY, AND POSTFERTILIZATION SIRING
      ABILITY IN ERYTHRONIUM GRANDIFLORUM.
AB  - The mean volume of pollen grains and total pollen production varied both within
      and among plants of Erythronium grandiflorum. The second flowers of two-flowered
      plants tended to produce smaller and fewer grains than first flowers, but there
      was no overall relationship between mean pollen grain size and production per
      flower. I evaluated the effects of pollen size differences within and among
      plants on two components of male reproductive success: pollen tube growth and
      postfertilization siring ability. Pollen tubes grown in media were longer for
      second flowers, but were not correlated with the mean size of pollen grains,
      suggesting that (1) internal resource content of pollen (i.e., carbohydrates plus
      lipids) was not associated with the hydrated size of pollen, and that (2) pollen
      from second flowers contained more resources. I analyzed the growth rate and the
      fertilization ability of pollen growing in styles. Growth rate differed among
      donors and recipients, but no effects of pollen or donor characters (i.e., pollen
      production, grain size, and flower position) were detected. In single donor
      pollinations, pollen size was negatively correlated with fertilization ability
      across donors, and positively correlated with postfertilization siring ability of
      donors. A second experiment used pairs of donors; within-plant differences in
      pollen size and flower position had effects similar to the single donor
      experiment on fertilization ability, but among-plant differences were not
      significant. The results corroborate earlier experiments that suggest that the
      growth of pollen tubes in the style is probably controlled by the recipient,
      since donor characters had minimal effects on pollen fertilization ability.
      Postfertilization siring ability was not affected by within-plant differences in
      mean grain size and production. For among-donor differences, the number of seeds
      set for each donor was positively correlated with the mean grain volume, and when
      a donor producing large pollen fertilized ovules in an ovary, there was increased
      seed abortion for seeds in the same ovary sired by a second donor. In addition,
      the total number of seeds produced by a fruit was decreased when both donors had
      large pollen, apparently due to increased postfertilization abortion.
      Postfertilization processes appear to be influenced by paternal differences that
      are expressed through competition among developing seeds for maternal resources.

PMID- 28569040
TI  - Protective effects of Ziziphora tenuior extract against chlorpyrifos induced
      liver and lung toxicity in rat: Mechanistic approaches in subchronic study.
AB  - Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is one of the most widely used organophosphorus, which has
      spurred renewed interest. This study was conducted to investigate the protective
      effect of ziziphora tenuior extract against CPF-induced liver and lung toxicity.
      This study conducted 8-week rat sub-chronic toxicity study and then the effect of
      ziziphora tenuior extract in 3 different doses (40, 80, 160 mg/kg) was
      determined. We administrated maximum tolerated dose of CPF (6.75 mg/kg) by gavage
      for 8 weeks (5 times in week) to male rats. Rats were sacrificed 24 h after last
      dose and the biochemical analysis, which confirms involvement of oxidative stress
      in the pathogenesis of CPF toxicity in liver including increased in lipid
      peroxidation, protein carbonyl content, and ROS formation, glutathione depletion,
      decreased of antioxidant effect via frap oxidation and cytochrome c expulsion. In
      addition, pathological lesions confirm the dysfunction of the organs (liver and
      lung). In addition, using of ziziphora extract as an antioxidant is resulted in
      amelioration of oxidative stress marker in liver and lung damage. In conclusion,
      the current study revealed that CPF toxicity is related to oxidative stress and
      induction of cell death signaling and cotreatment with ziziphora extract is
      recommended in the routine therapy for the protection against CPF induced liver
      and lung tissue damage.

PMID- 28569043
TI  - Lanthanum-Based Compounds: Electronic Band-Gap-Dependent Electrocatalytic
      Materials for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.
AB  - The electronic energy level of lanthanum compounds plays an important role in the
      oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalytic process. In this work, three
      lanthanum compounds, LaOHCO3 , La2 O2 CO3 , and La2 O3 , have been synthesized
      through an in situ urea hydrolysis method, followed by annealing at different
      temperatures. Among these lanthanum compounds, the layer-structured La2 O2 CO3
      has the smallest band gap and moderate values of the conduction band (CB) and
      valence band (VB). Electrochemical measurements in 0.1 m KOH solution have shown
      that, compared with the other catalysts, La2 O2 CO3 exhibits the best
      electrocatalytic activity with the lowest H2 O2 production and highest durability
      for ORR, which proves the close correlation between electronic energy level and
      electrocatalytic ORR activity. During the ORR process over La2 O2 CO3 , some
      covalent electrons from the VB are first excited to the CB and then transfer to
      the unoccupied pi*2p orbitals of an active oxygen molecule, leading to
      strengthened oxygen adsorption and promotion of the reduction of oxygen.
      Moreover, La2 O2 CO3 has an ability to chemically disproportionate hydrogen
      peroxide (to give HO2- ), and the produced HO2- at the energy level of O2 /HO2-
      can undergo prompt chemical disproportionation into O2 and OH- . The O2 generated
      at this stage is adsorbed on the catalyst surface, which can be utilized for
      further oxygen reduction.

PMID- 28569041
TI  - Predictive value of TLR7 polymorphism for cetuximab-based chemotherapy in
      patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
AB  - The TLR7 and TLR9 signalings are implicated in the regulation of the immune
      system through type-I interferon induction. Preclinical studies have demonstrated
      the immunomodulatory and antitumor effects of TLR7 and TLR9 agonists in
      combination with cetuximab. We tested the hypothesis that genetic variations in
      TLR7 and TLR9 and their downstream molecules IRF5 and IRF7 were associated with
      outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients receiving cetuximab
      based chemotherapy. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLR7, TLR9,
      IRF5 and IRF7 were tested for the association with RR, PFS, and OS in KRAS-wild
      type mCRC patients. Patients treated with FOLFIRI + cetuximab or FOLFIRI +
      bevacizumab in the FIRE-3 trial served as a discovery set (FIRE3-Cet, n = 244) or
      a control set (FIRE3-Bev, n = 246), respectively. Patients treated with FOLFOX or
      SOX + cetuximab in the JACCRO-CC05/06 trial served as a validation set (JACCRO, n
      = 76). Genomic DNA isolated from tumor tissue samples was analyzed by PCR-based
      direct sequencing. In the discovery cohort, patients with the TLR7 rs3853839 G/G
      variant showed a trend toward longer PFS than those with any C variants (median
      10.0 vs. 11.8 months, HR 1.39, p = 0.092). This preliminary association was
      confirmed in the validation cohort, and those with the G/G genotype showed a PFS
      benefit compared with others (univariate: 9.1 vs. 11.6 months, HR 2.04, p =
      0.005, multivariate: HR 2.02, 95% CI: 1.14-3.55, p = 0.015). This association was
      not observed in the control cohort. Our findings suggest that TLR7 rs3853839
      predicts the outcome of cetuximab-based chemotherapy in mCRC patients.

PMID- 28569042
TI  - Exposure-Response Analysis of Necitumumab Efficacy in Squamous Non-Small Cell
      Lung Cancer Patients.
AB  - We sought to describe the exposure-response relationship of necitumumab efficacy
      in squamous non-small cell lung cancer patients and evaluate intrinsic and
      extrinsic patient descriptors that may guide dosing. SQUIRE was a phase III study
      comparing necitumumab in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin vs.
      gemcitabine and cisplatin alone in 1,014 patients. An integrated model for tumor
      size dynamics and overall survival was developed, where reduction in tumor size
      results in a decrease in survival hazard. The change in tumor size was
      characterized using linear growth and first-order shrinkage. Overall survival was
      described using a combination of a Weibull function and Gompertz function for the
      hazard, with dynamic tumor size being a predictor for the hazard. Although body
      weight resulted in higher clearance and lower exposure, simulations showed that
      an 800 mg flat dose provided optimal response regardless of body weight.

PMID- 28569044
TI  - Anxiety disorders, gender nonconformity, bullying and self-esteem in sexual
      minority adolescents: prospective birth cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexual minority adolescents (i.e. youth not exclusively heterosexual)
      report more anxiety than heterosexual youth on symptom questionnaires but no
      research has used standardised diagnostic tools to investigate anxiety disorder
      risk. This study uses a UK birth cohort to investigate the risk of anxiety
      disorders in sexual minority and heterosexual youth using a computerised
      structured clinical interview and explores the influence of gender nonconformity,
      bullying and self-esteem. METHODS: Participants were 4,564 adolescents (2,567
      girls and 1,996 boys) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
      (ALSPAC). Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the
      association between sexual orientation at 15.5 years and the presence of an
      anxiety disorder at 17.5 years. Covariates including maternal occupation,
      ethnicity, mother-reported childhood gender nonconformity at 30, 42 and 57
      months, child-reported gender nonconformity at 8 years, child-reported bullying
      between 12 and 16 years and self-esteem at 17.5 years were added sequentially to
      regression models. RESULTS: Sexual minority adolescents (i.e. those not
      exclusively heterosexual) had higher early childhood gender nonconformity (CGN),
      lower self-esteem and reported more bullying than adolescents identifying as 100%
      heterosexual. Minority sexual orientation at 15.5 years was associated with
      increased risk of an anxiety disorder at 17.5 years for girls (OR 2.55, CI 1.85
      3.52) and boys (OR 2.48, CI 1.40-4.39). Adjusting for ethnicity, maternal
      occupation, mother-reported and child-reported CGN had minimal impact on this
      association. Adjusting for bullying between 12 and 16 years and self-esteem at
      17.5 years reduced the strength of the associations, although the overall
      association remained significant for both sexes (girls OR 2.14 and boys OR 1.93).
      CONCLUSIONS: Sexual minority youth are at increased risk of anxiety disorders
      relative to heterosexual youth at 17.5 years. Bullying between 12-16 years and
      lower self-esteem may contribute to this risk.

PMID- 28569046
TI  - Training Improves Vibrotactile Spatial Acuity and Intensity Discrimination on the
      Lower Back Using Coin Motors.
AB  - Tactile vision substitution devices are assistive technologies for the blind that
      redirect visual information to the tactile sense. They typically include a
      tactile display that conveys visual information to the skin. Two important
      parameters that determine the maximum information bandwidth of tactile displays
      are the spatial acuity of the skin, and the ability of the user to discriminate
      between stimulus intensities. These two parameters were investigated by
      determining the two-point discrimination (TPD) threshold and the just-noticeable
      intensity difference (JND) using coin motors on the lower back. Coin motors are
      eccentric rotating-mass motors that are affordable, energy-efficient, and easy to
      implement. The lower back was chosen because it is a discreet place to wear
      assistive technology. It is generally available for use, as it is usually not
      critically involved in activities of daily living. Rehabilitation with sensory
      substitution devices often requires training by professional occupational
      therapists, because the user needs to extract visual information from sparse
      information presented through an alternative channel such as the skin. In this
      study they determined whether short, automated training sessions of 5 min each
      could improve the TPD threshold and JND. It was found that 10 min of computer
      assisted training improved the vibrotactile TPD threshold on the lower back by
      36%, and that 18 min of training improved the just-noticeable intensity
      difference (JND) by 44%. It was concluded that short, automated training sessions
      could provide a fast and inexpensive means to improve people's basic spatial
      acuity and intensity discrimination skills with coin motors.

PMID- 28569045
TI  - A novel EWS-CREB3L3 gene fusion in a mesenteric sclerosing epithelioid
      fibrosarcoma.
AB  - Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a rare, malignant fibroblastic
      neoplasm, morphologically composed of cords, nests or sheets of monotonous
      epithelioid cells within a collagenous matrix. It has been recently characterized
      by recurrent pathogenic EWS-CREB3L1/2 or FUS-CREB3L2 fusions and common MUC4
      protein expression by immunohistochemistry. Typically SEF occur in middle-aged
      adults and rarely have been reported within the abdominal cavity. Here we report
      an 18-year-old man with intraabdominal tumor and multiple disseminated liver
      metastases, presenting pure SEF histologic and immunophenotypic features.
      Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed unbalanced rearrangement of
      Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) gene. Genomic profiling by array CGH,
      followed by RT-PCR and sequencing analysis, revealed a previously not reported
      EWSR1 translocation partner, cAMP-responsive element-binding protein 3-like 3
      (CREB3L3). The novel EWSR1-CREB3L3 fusion further extends the range of fusion
      types involving EWSR1 that are characteristic for SEF.

PMID- 28569048
TI  - Astrocyte-mediated synapse remodeling in the pathological brain.
AB  - Astrocytes, a major type of glia, reciprocally influence synaptic transmission
      and connectivity, forming the "tripartite synapses". Astrocytic metabotropic
      glutamate receptor (mGluR)-mediated Ca2+ waves and release of gliotransmitters or
      synaptogenic molecules mediate this neuron-glia interaction in the developing
      brain, but this signaling has been challenged for adult brain. However,
      cumulative evidence has suggested that mature astrocytes exhibit re-awakening of
      such immature phenotype in the pathological adult brain. This phenotypic change
      in astrocytes in response to injury may induce neural circuit and synapse
      plasticity. In this review article, we summarize astrocyte-mediated synapse
      remodeling during physiological development, discuss re-emergence of immature
      astrocytic signaling in adult pathological brain, and finally highlight its
      contribution to significant modification of synaptic connections correlating with
      functional progress of brain pathology.

PMID- 28569047
TI  - Transformation in pretreatment manifestations of Gaucher disease type 1 during
      two decades of alglucerase/imiglucerase enzyme replacement therapy in the
      International Collaborative Gaucher Group (ICGG) Gaucher Registry.
AB  - This study tests the hypothesis that the prevalence of severe clinical
      manifestations in Gaucher disease type 1 (GD1) patients at the time of treatment
      initiation has changed since alglucerase/imiglucerase enzyme replacement therapy
      (ERT) was approved in the United States (US) in 1991. US alglucerase/imiglucerase
      treated GD1 patients from the International Collaborative Gaucher Group Gaucher
      Registry clinicaltrials.gov NCT00358943 were stratified by age at ERT initiation
      (<18, 18 to <50, >=50 years), era of ERT initiation (1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001
      2005, 2006-2009), and splenectomy status pre-ERT. Prevalence of splenectomy
      decreased dramatically across the eras among all age groups. Bone manifestations
      were more prevalent in splenectomized patients than non-splenectomized patients
      in all age groups. Prevalence of bone manifestations differed across eras in
      certain age groups: non-splenectomized patients had a lower prevalence of
      ischemic bone events (pediatric patients) and bone crisis (pediatric patients and
      adults 18 to <50 years) in later eras; splenectomized adult (18 to <50 years)
      patients had a lower prevalence of ischemic bone events and bone crisis in later
      eras. Over two decades after the introduction of ERT, the prevalence of
      splenectomy and associated skeletal complications has declined dramatically.
      Concomitantly, the interval between diagnosis and initiation of ERT has
      decreased, most strikingly in pediatric patients who have the most severe
      disease. Together, these findings suggest that since the introduction of
      alglucerase/imiglucerase ERT, optimal standard of care has become established in
      the US to prevent destructive complications of GD1.

PMID- 28569050
TI  - Serum miR-146a, miR-155, and miR-210 as potential markers of Graves' disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that dysfunctional regulatory T
      cells (Tregs) may be associated with Graves' disease (GD). In this study, we
      evaluated four serum Treg-associated miRNAs (miR-210, miR-182, miR-155, and miR
      146a) expressions and assessed the potential of serum miRNAs as biomarkers of GD.
      METHODS: Foxp3 and serum miRNAs expressions both in GD patients and healthy
      controls were measured by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Serum miR-210 in GD patients was
      significantly higher than that of healthy controls (2.64-fold, P<.001); in
      contrast, miR-155 and miR-146a were lower (P<.001 and P=.008). No significant
      difference was found in miR-182. ROC curve analysis indicated that miR-210, miR
      155, and miR-146a with the area under ROC (AUC) of 0.803 (70.0% sensitivity and
      83.1% specificity), 0.796 (76.3% sensitivity and 76.9% specificity), and 0.736
      (68.8% sensitivity and 73.8% specificity), respectively, could differentiate GD
      patients from healthy controls. Combination of three miRNAs yielded an AUC of
      0.976 (91.3% sensitivity and 93.8% specificity) with 92.41% diagnostic
      efficiency. In addition, serum miR-210 and miR-155 in GD were associated with the
      extent of goiter. Three miRNAs levels were different by gender. Besides, serum
      miR-210 was positively correlated with free thyroxine (FT4) and thyrotrophin
      receptor antibody (TRAb) level. CONCLUSION: The serum levels of miR-210, miR-155,
      and miR-146a may be potential new markers for the diagnosis of GD and play
      important roles in GD pathogenesis.

PMID- 28569051
TI  - The chances that an emergency physician will demonstrate three abdominal aortic
      aneurysms by ultrasound in the emergency department for credentialing: A
      statistician's view.
AB  - The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine requires 15 proctored
      examinations of the aorta for credentialing in ultrasonography for abdominal
      aortic aneurysm (AAA). Furthermore, at least three examinations need to be
      positive for an aneurysm. In the ED where AAA presentations are sporadic, what
      are the chances that an emergency physician (EP) will have the opportunity to
      demonstrate three AAAs in the next 12 months? The probability of an event
      occurring within a given time-frame can be modelled by the Poisson distribution.
      Central to the Poisson distribution is the infrequency of the event such as
      encountering an AAA in the ED. An EP working 30 clinical hours/week in our
      tertiary-referral hospital ED can be expected to encounter 15.6 (3.6 symptomatic
      + 12 asymptomatic) AAA in the next 12 months. The probability of seeing three or
      more cases during this time is 99.9%. Assuming a proctor can be found for half
      the cases, the probability of an EP performing proctored ultrasound examinations
      in at least three AAAs is 98%. This probability drops to 89% if a proctor can be
      found for only one-third of cases. For an EP to be almost 100% certain of meeting
      the credentialing requirements, he/she would need almost 10 proctored ultrasound
      cases of AAA to be available within his/her shifts during the year. The Poisson
      distribution has enabled us to model the probability of encountering a given
      number of AAA in the ED. Analysis such as this may help rationalise the numbers
      needed for credentialing.

PMID- 28569053
TI  - Pathology of balloon-expandable transcatheter aortic valves.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Placement of AoRtic TraNscathetER Valves trials (PARTNER) showed
      favorable safety and efficacy versus medical or surgical therapy in inoperable,
      high, and intermediate surgical risk patients with severe aortic stenosis.
      However, the biological responses to transcatheter aortic valves have not been
      well characterized. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to perform pathologic
      assessment of Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter aortic valves removed either at
      autopsy or surgically during the PARTNER I and II clinical trials. METHODS:
      Explanted valves and frame were evaluated for pathologic responses including
      extent of thrombus, inflammation, neointima, and leaflet
      degeneration/calcification according to semiquantitative grading by implant
      duration (<=30 days; 31-90 days; >90 days). RESULTS: A total of 22 cases (median
      age 82.0 years, 45% men) were included, with a duration of implantation that
      ranged from 0 to 1739 days (median duration 16.5 days [interquartile range, 2.8
      68.3]). Valve thrombosis resulting in severe aortic stenosis was observed in one
      case. Moderate leaflet thrombus was seen in 14% of cases (n = 3) and all were
      asymptomatic. Calcification was seen in two valves: one with severe leaflet
      calcification had severe aortic stenosis requiring surgical replacement, while
      the other showed early calcification. Mild structural leaflet changes were
      exclusively seen in valve implants >90 days. Valve inflammation and thrombus
      formation was mild in majority of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our study
      demonstrates moderate thrombus formation in 14% and calcification in only 2
      valves, >=4 years duration. In this short-duration study, acceptable durability
      and biocompatibility of the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter valve system was
      demonstrated; however, further studies are required to confirm the significance
      and application of our findings.

PMID- 28569054
TI  - Flexible, Low-Power Thin-Film Transistors Made of Vapor-Phase Synthesized High-k,
      Ultrathin Polymer Gate Dielectrics.
AB  - A series of high-k, ultrathin copolymer gate dielectrics were synthesized from 2
      cyanoethyl acrylate (CEA) and di(ethylene glycol) divinyl ether (DEGDVE) monomers
      by a free radical polymerization via a one-step, vapor-phase, initiated chemical
      vapor deposition (iCVD) method. The chemical composition of the copolymers was
      systematically optimized by tuning the input ratio of the vaporized CEA and
      DEGDVE monomers to achieve a high dielectric constant (k) as well as excellent
      dielectric strength. Interestingly, DEGDVE was nonhomopolymerizable but it was
      able to form a copolymer with other kinds of monomers. Utilizing this interesting
      property of the DEGDVE cross-linker, the dielectric constant of the copolymer
      film could be maximized with minimum incorporation of the cross-linker moiety. To
      our knowledge, this is the first report on the synthesis of a cyanide-containing
      polymer in the vapor phase, where a high-purity polymer film with a maximized
      dielectric constant was achieved. The dielectric film with the optimized
      composition showed a dielectric constant greater than 6 and extremely low leakage
      current densities (<3 * 10-8 A/cm2 in the range of +/-2 MV/cm), with a thickness
      of only 20 nm, which is an outstanding thickness for down-scalable cyanide
      polymer dielectrics. With this high-k dielectric layer, organic thin-film
      transistors (OTFTs) and oxide TFTs were fabricated, which showed hysteresis-free
      transfer characteristics with an operating voltage of less than 3 V. Furthermore,
      the flexible OTFTs retained their low gate leakage current and ideal TFT
      characteristics even under 2% applied tensile strain, which makes them some of
      the most flexible OTFTs reported to date. We believe that these ultrathin, high-k
      organic dielectric films with excellent mechanical flexibility will play a
      crucial role in future soft electronics.

PMID- 28569052
TI  - Serum YKL-40 is a reliable biomarker for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare disease
      characterized by alveolar filling. YKL-40, a chitinase-like protein produced by
      macrophages and epithelial cells, is increased in patients with interstitial lung
      diseases. We aimed to evaluate the role of YKL-40 as a biomarker for PAP.
      METHODS: A total of 34 patients with autoimmune PAP and 50 healthy controls were
      studied. YKL-40 was measured by ELISA in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      (BALF). Chitinase coding gene polymorphisms (CHI3L1-329 and -131) were detected
      by PCR and pyrosequencing. Correlations between serum YKL-40 levels and disease
      outcome were analysed. RESULTS: Baseline serum and BALF levels of YKL-40 were
      higher in PAP patients than in controls (286 +/- 27 ng/mL vs 42 +/- 4 ng/mL, P <
      0.0001; 323 +/- 36 ng/mL vs 3 +/- 1 ng/mL, P < 0.0001, respectively). Serum YKL
      40 levels correlated with diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide
      (DLCO ) at baseline (P = 0.002) and over time (P < 0.0001). Patients with disease
      progression had higher baseline serum YKL-40 levels than those who remained
      stable or improved (P < 0.0001). A baseline cut-off level of 300 ng/mL was
      predictive of disease progression (HR (hazard ratio): 7.875, P = 0.001). The
      presence of the G allele was associated with higher serum and BALF levels of YKL
      40. CONCLUSION: YKL-40 is elevated in serum and BALF of PAP patients, and may be
      of clinical utility to predict outcome in PAP.

PMID- 28569055
TI  - Solution NMR Provides New Insight into Lipid-Protein Interaction.

PMID- 28569056
TI  - Correction to Metabolite Profiling of a Zinc-Accumulating Rice Mutant.

PMID- 28569057
TI  - Synthesis of Cu-Nanoparticle Hydrogel with Self-Healing and Photothermal
      Properties.
AB  - Copper (Cu) nanoparticles possess unusual electrical, thermal, and optical
      properties. However, applications of these materials are often limited by their
      tendency to oxidize. We prepared Cu nanoparticles by a simple polyol method, with
      a good control over the particle size. The reaction required no inert atmosphere
      or surfactant agents. The as-prepared Cu nanoparticles showed good resistance to
      oxidation in solution. These Cu nanoparticles were then incorporated into a
      biocompatible polysaccharide hydrogel, which further stabilized the
      nanoparticles. The hybrid hydrogel exhibited a rapid self-healing ability.
      Because of the excellent photothermal conversion properties of the embedded Cu
      nanoparticles, the hybrid hydrogel showed rapid temperature elevation under laser
      irradiation. The hybrid hydrogel showed limited cytotoxicity; however, under
      laser irradiation the hydrogel displayed antibacterial properties owing to the
      heating effects. This study demonstrates that our hybrid hydrogel may have
      applications in biomedical fields and photothermal therapy.

PMID- 28569058
TI  - Recovery of the Pristine Surface of Black Phosphorus by Water Rinsing and Its
      Device Application.
AB  - Black phosphorus (BP) has attracted significant attention due to its excellent
      optical and electrical properties. However, the rapid degradation of BP under
      ambient air limits further research on its properties and implementation in
      various fields. This degrading behavior lowers the performance of BP-based
      devices and can even result in a complete failure when exposed to air for an
      extended period of time. In our research, the degraded surface with "bubbles" was
      recovered to its pristine state by rinsing with deionized water and following
      with post-treatments. The formation of bubbles and their optical, morphological,
      and electrical effects were systematically investigated by fabricating BP field
      effect transistors (FETs) in conjunction with micro-Raman spectroscopy and atomic
      force microscopy. Water rinsing of the degraded BP flakes also allowed us to thin
      BP flakes down because phosphorus atoms are consumed while forming bubbles.
      Therefore, recovery of the pristine surface not only results in a smoother and
      thinner morphology but also improves device performances. After the rinsing
      process, field-effect mobility of the BP FET was maintained, whereas a
      significant enhancement in the switching behaviors was achieved in conclusion.
      The capability of reversing the inevitable degradation that occurs once exposed
      to ambient conditions can open up new opportunities for further applications of
      BP that was limited due to its instability.

PMID- 28569059
TI  - Decarbonylative Cyanation of Amides by Palladium Catalysis.
AB  - Transition-metal-catalyzed cyanation of aryl halides is a process of significant
      importance in the preparation pharmaceuticals, organic materials and
      agrochemicals. Here, we demonstrate a palladium-catalyzed decarbonylative
      cyanation of amides by highly selective carbon-nitrogen bond cleavage for the
      synthesis of a wide range of aryl nitriles. The utility of this technology is
      demonstrated by the synthesis of isotopically labeled aryl nitriles and
      orthogonal cross-coupling reactions of bench-stable amides to establish cross
      coupling synthons with opposite polarity.

PMID- 28569060
TI  - Methylenecyclopropane Ring Formation/Opening Cascade for the Synthesis of
      Indolizines.
AB  - A unique strategy toward the synthesis of polysubstituted indolizines has been
      developed. When 2-pyridinyl-2-(2'-bromoallyl)-1-carboxylates were treated with
      Cs2CO3, the starting material went through a methylenecyclopropane ring
      formation/opening cascade, and the corresponding indolizines were obtained in
      moderate to good yield as a single regioisomer.

PMID- 28569061
TI  - Structure-Based Design of Scaffolds Targeting PDE10A by INPHARMA-NMR.
AB  - Phosphodiesterases (PDE) hydrolyze both cyclic AMP and GMP (cAMP/cGMP) and are
      responsible for the regulation of their levels in a multitude of cellular
      functions. PDE10A is expressed in the brain and is a validated target for both
      schizophrenia and Huntington disease. Here, we address the identification of
      novel chemical scaffolds that may bind PDE10A via structure-based drug design.
      For this task, we use INPHARMA, an NMR-based method that measures protein
      mediated interligand NOEs between pairs of weakly, competitively binding ligands.
      INPHARMA is applied to a combination of four chemically diverse PDE10A binding
      fragments, with the aim of merging their pharmacophoric features into a larger,
      tighter binding molecule. All four ligands bind the PDE10A cAMP binding domain
      with affinity in the micromolar range. The application of INPHARMA to identify
      the correct docking poses of these ligands is challenging due to the nature of
      the binding pocket and the high content of water-mediated intermolecular
      contacts. Nevertheless, ensemble docking in the presence of conserved water
      molecules generates docking poses that are in agreement with all sets of INPHARMA
      data. These poses are used to build a pharmacophore model with which we search
      the ZINC database.

PMID- 28569062
TI  - Scalable Device for Automated Microbial Electroporation in a Digital Microfluidic
      Platform.
AB  - Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWD) digital microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip
      platforms demonstrate excellent performance in automating labor-intensive
      protocols. When coupled with an on-chip electroporation capability, these systems
      hold promise for streamlining cumbersome processes such as multiplex automated
      genome engineering (MAGE). We integrated a single Ti:Au electroporation electrode
      into an otherwise standard parallel-plate EWD geometry to enable high-efficiency
      transformation of Escherichia coli with reporter plasmid DNA in a 200 nL droplet.
      Test devices exhibited robust operation with more than 10 transformation
      experiments performed per device without cross-contamination or failure. Despite
      intrinsic electric-field nonuniformity present in the EP/EWD device, the peak on
      chip transformation efficiency was measured to be 8.6 +/- 1.0 * 108 cfu.MUg-1 for
      an average applied electric field strength of 2.25 +/- 0.50 kV.mm-1. Cell
      survival and transformation fractions at this electroporation pulse strength were
      found to be 1.5 +/- 0.3 and 2.3 +/- 0.1%, respectively. Our work expands the EWD
      toolkit to include on-chip microbial electroporation and opens the possibility of
      scaling advanced genome engineering methods, like MAGE, into the submicroliter
      regime.

PMID- 28569063
TI  - Facile Phase Control of Multivalent Vanadium Oxide Thin Films (V2O5 and VO2) by
      Atomic Layer Deposition and Postdeposition Annealing.
AB  - Atomic layer deposition was adopted to deposit VOx thin films using vanadyl tri
      isopropoxide {VO[O(C3H7)]3, VTIP} and water (H2O) at 135  degrees C. The self
      limiting and purge-time-dependent growth behaviors were studied by ex situ
      ellipsometry to determine the saturated growth conditions for atomic-layer
      deposited VOx. The as-deposited films were found to be amorphous. The structural,
      chemical, and optical properties of the crystalline thin films with controlled
      phase formation were investigated after postdeposition annealing at various
      atmospheres and temperatures. Reducing and oxidizing atmospheres enabled the
      formation of pure VO2 and V2O5 phases, respectively. The possible band structures
      of the crystalline VO2 and V2O5 thin films were established. Furthermore, an
      electrochemical response and a voltage-induced insulator-to-metal transition in
      the vertical metal-vanadium oxide-metal device structure were observed for V2O5
      and VO2 films, respectively.

PMID- 28569064
TI  - Full-Spectral Fine-Tuning Visible Emissions from Cation Hybrid Cs1-mFAmPbX3 (X =
      Cl, Br, and I, 0 <= m <= 1) Quantum Dots.
AB  - Full-color visible emissions are particularly crucial for applications in
      displays and lightings. In this work, we developed a facile room-temperature
      ligand-assisted supersaturated recrystallization synthesis of monodisperse, cubic
      structure Cs1-mFAmPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I or their mixtures Cl/Br and Br/I, 0 <=
      m <= 1) hybrid perovskite quantum dots (QDs). Impressively, cation substitution
      of Cs+ by FA+ was beneficial in finely tuning the band gap and in exciton
      recombination kinetics, improving the structural stability, and raising the
      absolute quantum yields up to 85%. With further assistance of anion replacement,
      full-spectral visible emissions in the wavelength range of 450-750 nm; narrow
      full width at half-maxima, and a wide color gamut, encompassing 130% of National
      Television System Committee television color standard, were achieved. Finally,
      Cs1-mFAmPbX3-polymer films retaining multicolor luminescence are prepared and a
      prototype white light-emitting diode device was constructed using green
      Cs0.1FA0.9PbBr3 and red Cs0.1FA0.9Br1.5I1.5 QDs as color converters, certainly
      suggesting their potential applications in the optoelectronics field.

PMID- 28569065
TI  - Co7Fe3 and Co7Fe3@SiO2 Nanospheres with Tunable Diameters for High-Performance
      Electromagnetic Wave Absorption.
AB  - Ferromagnetic metal/alloy nanoparticles have attracted extensive interest for
      electromagnetic wave-absorbing applications. However, ferromagnetic nanoparticles
      are prone to oxidization and producing eddy currents, leading to the
      deterioration of electromagnetic properties. In this work, a simple and scalable
      liquid-phase reduction method was employed to synthesize uniform Co7Fe3
      nanospheres with diameters ranging from 350 to 650 nm for high-performance
      microwave absorption application. Co7Fe3@SiO2 core-shell nanospheres with SiO2
      shell thicknesses of 30 nm were then fabricated via a modified Stober method.
      When tested as microwave absorbers, bare Co7Fe3 nanospheres with a diameter of
      350 nm have a maximum reflection loss (RL) of 78.4 dB and an effective absorption
      with RL > 10 dB from 10 to 16.7 GHz at a small thickness of 1.59 mm. Co7Fe3@SiO2
      nanospheres showed a significantly enhanced microwave absorption capability for
      an effective absorption bandwidth and a shift toward a lower frequency, which is
      ascribed to the protection of the SiO2 shell from direct contact among Co7Fe3
      nanospheres, as well as improved crystallinity and decreased defects upon
      annealing. This work illustrates a simple and effective method to fabricate
      Co7Fe3 and Co7Fe3@SiO2 nanospheres as promising microwave absorbers, and the
      design concept can also be extended to other ferromagnetic alloy particles.

PMID- 28569066
TI  - Iron-Catalyzed Oxidative C-H Functionalization of Internal Olefins for the
      Synthesis of Tetrasubstituted Furans.
AB  - Tetrasubstituted furans were efficiently synthesized from Fe(OAc)2-catalyzed C
      H/C-H cross-dehydrogenative-coupling (CDC) reactions of activated carbonyl
      methylenes with S,S-functionalized internal olefins, that is, alpha-oxo ketene
      dithioacetals and analogues, under oxidative conditions. beta-Ketoesters, 1,3
      dicarbonyls, beta-keto nitrile, and amide derivatives were used as the coupling
      partners. The resultant alkylthio- and carbonyl-functionalized furans could be
      further transformed to diverse arylated furan derivatives and furan-fused N
      heterocycles, respectively. The control experiments have revealed a radical
      reaction pathway.

PMID- 28569067
TI  - Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Posterior Silk Glands of Wild and Domesticated
      Silkworms Reveals Functional Evolution during Domestication.
AB  - The wild silkworm Bombyx mandarina was domesticated to produce silk in China
      approximately 5000 years ago. Silk production is greatly improved in the
      domesticated silkworm B. mori, but the molecular basis of the functional
      evolution of silk gland remains elusive. We performed shotgun proteomics with
      label-free quantification analysis and identified 1012 and 822 proteins from the
      posterior silk glands (PSGs) of wild silkworms on the third and fifth days of the
      fifth instar, respectively, with 128 of these differentially expressed.
      Bioinformatics analysis revealed that, with the development of the PSG, the up
      regulated proteins were mainly involved in the ribosome pathway, similar to what
      we previously reported for B. mori. Additionally, we screened 50 proteins with
      differential expression between wild and domesticated silkworms that might be
      involved in domestication at the two stages. Interestingly, the up-regulated
      proteins in domesticated compared to wild silkworms were enriched in the ribosome
      pathway, which is closely related to cell size and translation capacity.
      Together, these results suggest that functional evolution of the PSG during
      domestication was driven by reinforcing the advantageous pathways to increase the
      synthesis efficiency of silk proteins in each cell and thereby improve silk
      yield.

PMID- 28569068
TI  - Genetic Characterization of Periphyton Communities Associated with Selenium
      Bioconcentration and Trophic Transfer in a Simple Food Chain.
AB  - A major source of uncertainty in predicting selenium (Se) distribution in aquatic
      food webs lies in the enrichment factor (EF), the ratio of Se bioconcentration in
      primary producers and microorganisms relative to the concentration of Se in the
      surrounding water. It has been well demonstrated that EFs can vary dramatically
      among individual algal taxa, but data are lacking regarding the influence of
      periphyton community composition on EFs for a given geochemical form of Se.
      Therefore, the goals of this study were first to assess whether different
      periphyton communities could be established in aquaria with the same starting
      inoculum using different light and nutrient regimes, and second, to determine if
      the periphyton assemblage composition influences the uptake of waterborne Se (as
      selenite) and subsequent Se transfer to a model macroinvertebrate primary
      consumer. Periphyton biofilms were grown in aquaria containing filtered pond
      water (from Saskatoon, SK) spiked with approximately 20 MUg Se/L (mean measured
      concentration 21.0 +/- 1.2 MUg Se/L), added as selenite. Five different light and
      nutrient regimes were applied to the aquaria (three replicates per treatment) to
      influence biofilm community development. After 6 weeks of biofilm maturation, 40
      to 80 immature cultured snails (Stagnicola elodes) were added to each aquarium.
      The bacterial and algal members of the periphyton community were characterized by
      targeted metagenomic analyses before and after addition of snails to ensure the
      snails themselves did not significantly alter the biofilm community. Samples were
      collected for Se analysis of water, periphyton, and whole-body snail. The
      nutrient and light treatments resulted in substantially different compositions of
      the periphytic biofilms, with each being relatively consistent across replicates
      and throughout the study. Although the aqueous concentration of dissolved Se
      administered to treatments was constant, uptake by the different periphytic
      biofilms differed significantly. Both the low-light (61.8 +/- 12.1 MUg Se/g d.w.)
      and high-light (30.5 +/- 4.7 MUg Se/g d.w.) biofilms, which were found to have
      high proportions of cyanobacteria, contained statistically higher concentrations
      of Se relative to the other treatments. Furthermore, the concentration of Se in
      bulk periphyton was predictive of Se bioaccumulation in grazing snails but as an
      inverse relationship, opposite to expectations. The trophic transfer factor was
      inversely correlated with periphyton enrichment factor (r = -0.841). A number of
      different bacterial and algal taxa were correlated (either positively or
      negatively) with Se accumulation in periphyton biofilm and snails. Recent
      advancements in genetic methods make it possible to conduct detailed
      characterization of periphyton assemblages and begin to understand the influence
      that periphyton composition has on Se biodynamics in aquatic systems.

PMID- 28569069
TI  - Surgical Management of Percutaneous Transfemoral Access to Minimize Vascular
      Complications Related to Transcatheter Aortic Valve' Implantation.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is associated with substantial
      rates of vascular complications. The aim of our study is to describe the surgical
      management of percutaneous transfemoral access by a vascular surgeon and to
      report the 30-day postoperative vascular complications and mortality.
      Perioperative procedures to manage the femoral access site were recorded
      retrospectively from 220 consecutive patients who underwent TAVI. Postoperative
      vascular complications related to the main access were categorized according to
      the Valve Academic Research Consortium 2 classification. Perioperative procedures
      related to vascular access were performed for 56 (25.4%) patients: 6 patients
      required open surgical repair, 48 patients underwent endovascular stenting, and 2
      patients had both procedures. The all-cause mortality was 3.6%, but no death
      related to a vascular complication was reported during the 30-day postoperative
      follow-up period. Ten (4.5%) patients developed postoperative hematomas; 2 (0.9%)
      of them were retroperitoneal and led to major bleeding requiring an unplanned
      surgical intervention. Our study underlines the utility of a multidisciplinary
      approach to manage the percutaneous access in TAVI for managing postoperative
      vascular complications.

PMID- 28569071
TI  - A Good Idea May Not Be Good Enough: Stakeholder Buy In to QuitConnect, a National
      Smokers' Registry.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine interest and concerns among those who fund and operate state
      run smoking cessation helplines (quitlines) about the concept of creating a
      centralized smokers' registry that could be used to reengage smokers after they
      receive initial quitline support services. DESIGN: We conducted 3, hour-long
      focus groups with stakeholders, covering the perceived benefits and barriers to
      creating a smokers' registry. SETTING: The focus groups were conducted via
      telephone. PARTICIPANTS: Three groups participated: quitline service providers (n
      = 14), quitline funders (n = 9), and national quitline partners (n = 8). METHOD:
      Data collection: Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded for major
      relevant themes. Analysis Strategies: We used a grounded theory approach.
      RESULTS: Stakeholders were generally positive about the concept of a centralized
      smokers' registry (ie, QuitConnect), especially with its potential to link
      relapsed smokers to ongoing research studies designed to help smokers achieve
      abstinence from tobacco. However, stakeholders expressed concern about
      QuitConnect duplicating services already offered by state quitlines. CONCLUSION:
      Despite a common goal, many state quitline stakeholders had strong reservations
      about the creation of a centralized smokers' registry unless they could see clear
      evidence that the registry added value and was not duplicative of their existing
      services.

PMID- 28569072
TI  - The role of oral methotrexate as a steroid sparing agent in refractory
      eosinophilic asthma.
AB  - The use of oral methotrexate for refractory eosinophilic asthma in a tertiary
      asthma referral centre, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, was evaluated between
      January 2006 and December 2014. The patients ( n = 61) were carefully phenotyped
      at baseline with markers of airway inflammation. In addition, a structured oral
      methotrexate proforma was utilized to evaluate response to therapy and adverse
      events. Oral steroid withdrawal was attempted 3 months after commencing
      treatment. Several outcomes were evaluated at 12 months, including both efficacy
      and adverse effects; 15% ( n = 9/61) responded by achieving a decrease in daily
      oral corticosteroid dose (mean 8.43 (+/-8.76) mg), although we were unable to
      identify factors that predicted a treatment response. There were no other
      significant changes in any other clinical outcome measures. There was a high rate
      of adverse events (19/61 (31%)), primarily gastrointestinal/hepatitis. Our
      findings support the use of biological agents in preference to using oral
      methotrexate as a steroid sparing agent at the first instance. In the event of
      failure of these agents, oral methotrexate remains a therapeutic option, which
      can be considered in highly specialist severe asthma centres.

PMID- 28569073
TI  - Can self-efficacy ameliorate interrole conflict among employed family caregivers?
      A moderated mediation approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study examined the moderation effect of different dimensions of
      self-efficacy on the way in which various types of interrole conflict mediate
      between caregiving demands and the mental health of employed family caregivers.
      METHOD: Using a moderated mediation approach, we examined the moderation effect
      of self-efficacy on interrole conflict's mediation between caregiving demands and
      mental health (psychological strain and quality of life) in a sample of Japanese
      employed family caregivers who regularly provide care at home (263 males aged
      53.14 +/- 8.28 years and 116 females aged 47.92 +/- 9.77 years). RESULTS:
      Increased self-efficacy in managing dementia and in self-care were correlated
      with lower caregiving demands and better mental health among family caregivers.
      Self-efficacy in managing dementia was also positively correlated with increased
      interrole conflict. Increased caregiving demands were related to higher
      psychological strain in those with higher (+1SD), but not lower (-SD) self
      efficacy in managing dementia. CONCLUSION: Self-efficacy does not play a
      protective role in managing the effect of caregiving demands on interrole
      conflict. It also does not appear to protect against any indirect effects of
      caregiving demands on the mental health of employed family caregivers.

PMID- 28569074
TI  - The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of patient outcomes in ovarian
      cancer: a meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a predictive clinical
      biomarker for different cancers. However, the results of several studies
      investigating the association between the PLR and the prognosis of ovarian cancer
      have been inconclusive. Therefore, there is a need to conduct a meta-analysis to
      estimate the prognostic value of the PLR in ovarian cancer. METHODS: We searched
      the EMBASE, Medline, PubMed, and Web of Science databases to identify clinical
      studies that had evaluated the association between the PLR and ovarian cancer
      prognosis. Outcomes evaluated included overall survival (OS) and progression-free
      survival (PFS). We also analyzed PLR differences between malignant ovarian masses
      and the controls. RESULTS: Twelve relevant studies that comprised 2340 patients
      were selected for the meta-analysis. The results revealed that elevated PLR was
      significantly associated with poor OS (hazard ratio (HR) 1.63, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 1.05-2.56, p < 0.01) and PFS (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.03-2.51, p < 0.01).
      The PLRs in malignant cases were higher than in controls (mean difference =
      63.57, 95% CI 39.47-87.66, p < 0.00001). CONCLUSION: An elevated PLR is
      associated with poor prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer. The PLR could be
      employed as a prognostic marker in patients with ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28569075
TI  - On the Link Between Emotionally Driven Impulsivity and Aggression: Evidence From
      a Validation Study on the Dutch UPPS-P.
AB  - The UPPS-P seems to be a promising instrument for measuring different domains of
      impulsivity in forensic psychiatric patients. Validation studies of the
      instrument however, have been conducted only in student groups. In this
      validation study, three groups completed the Dutch UPPS-P: healthy student ( N =
      94) and community ( N = 134) samples and a forensic psychiatric sample ( N = 73).
      The five-factor structure reported previously could only be substantiated in a
      confirmatory factor analysis over the combined groups but not in the subsamples.
      Subgroup sample sizes might be too small to allow such complex analyses. Internal
      consistency, as assessed by Cronbach's alpha, was high on most subscale and
      sample combinations. In explaining aggression, especially the initial subscale
      negative urgency (NU) was related to elevated scores on self-reported aggression
      in the healthy samples (student and community). The current study is the second
      study that found a relationship between self-reported NU and aggression
      highlighting the importance of addressing this behavioural domain in aggression
      management therapy.

PMID- 28569076
TI  - Clinical Impact of Blood Glucose Monitoring Accuracy: An In-Silico Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with diabetes rely on blood glucose (BG) monitoring devices
      to manage their condition. As some self-monitoring devices are becoming more and
      more accurate, it becomes critical to understand the relationship between system
      accuracy and clinical outcomes, and the potential benefits of analytical
      accuracy. METHODS: We conducted a 30-day in-silico study in type 1 diabetes
      mellitus (T1DM) patients using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII)
      therapy and a variety of BG meters, using the FDA-approved University of Virginia
      (UVA)/Padova Type 1 Simulator. We used simulated meter models derived from the
      published characteristics of 43 commercial meters. By controlling random events
      in each parallel run, we isolated the differences in clinical performance that
      are directly associated with the meter characteristics. RESULTS: A meter's
      systematic bias has a significant and inverse effect on HbA1c ( P < .01), while
      also affecting the number of severe hypoglycemia events. On the other hand,
      error, defined as the fraction of measurements beyond 5% of the true value, is a
      predictor of severe hypoglycemia events ( P < .01), but in the absence of bias
      has a nonsignificant effect on average glycemia (HbA1c). Both bias and error have
      significant effects on total daily insulin (TDI) and the number of necessary
      glucose measurements per day ( P < .01). Furthermore, these relationships can be
      accurately modeled using linear regression on meter bias and error. CONCLUSIONS:
      Two components of meter accuracy, bias and error, clearly affect clinical
      outcomes. While error has little effect on HbA1c, it tends to increase episodes
      of severe hypoglycemia. Meter bias has significant effects on all considered
      metrics: a positive systemic bias will reduce HbA1c, but increase the number of
      severe hypoglycemia attacks, TDI use, and number of fingersticks per day.

PMID- 28569077
TI  - Diabetes and Prediabetes Classification Using Glycemic Variability Indices From
      Continuous Glucose Monitoring Data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tens of glycemic variability (GV) indices are available in the
      literature to characterize the dynamic properties of glucose concentration
      profiles from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors. However, how to
      exploit the plethora of GV indices for classifying subjects is still
      controversial. For instance, the basic problem of using GV indices to
      automatically determine if the subject is healthy rather than affected by
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or type 2 diabetes (T2D), is still unaddressed.
      Here, we analyzed the feasibility of using CGM-based GV indices to distinguish
      healthy from IGT&T2D and IGT from T2D subjects by means of a machine-learning
      approach. METHODS: The data set consists of 102 subjects belonging to three
      different classes: 34 healthy, 39 IGT, and 29 T2D subjects. Each subject was
      monitored for a few days by a CGM sensor that produced a glucose profile from
      which we extracted 25 GV indices. We used a two-step binary logistic regression
      model to classify subjects. The first step distinguishes healthy subjects from
      IGT&T2D, the second step classifies subjects into either IGT or T2D. RESULTS:
      Healthy subjects are distinguished from subjects with diabetes (IGT&T2D) with
      91.4% accuracy. Subjects are further subdivided into IGT or T2D classes with
      79.5% accuracy. Globally, the classification into the three classes shows 86.6%
      accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Even with a basic classification strategy, CGM-based GV
      indices show good accuracy in classifying healthy and subjects with diabetes. The
      classification into IGT or T2D seems, not surprisingly, more critical, but
      results encourage further investigation of the present research.

PMID- 28569079
TI  - Effect of a high phosphorus diet on indicators of renal health in cats.
AB  - Objectives High phosphorus intake may further impair renal health in cats with
      chronic kidney disease (CKD). The hypothesis that a high phosphorus (HP) diet
      might be nephrotoxic for healthy animals was tested in cats, a species with a
      high incidence of naturally occurring CKD. Methods Thirteen healthy adult cats
      were fed a phosphorus excess diet (about five times maintenance requirements),
      and this HP group was compared with cats on a balanced control diet (CON). The
      trial lasted for 29 days (10 days of faeces and urine collection). Endogenous
      creatinine clearance was determined towards the end of the trial. Fresh urine was
      tested for glucose and proteins. Results Glucosuria and microalbuminuria were
      observed exclusively in the HP group in 9/13 cats. Creatinine clearance was
      significantly decreased after feeding HP. In the HP group phosphorus was highly
      available (apparent digestibility around 60%). Renal phosphorus excretion was
      significantly increased in the HP group (115 mg/kg body weight/d vs 16 mg/kg body
      weight/d in the CON group). Conclusions and relevance The intake of a diet with
      an excessive content of highly available phosphorus may have adverse effects on
      parameters of kidney function in healthy cats.

PMID- 28569078
TI  - Palonosetron compared with ondansetron in pediatric cancer patients: multicycle
      analysis of a randomized Phase III study.
AB  - AIM: To investigate across multiple cycles the efficacy and safety of
      palonosetron in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in
      pediatric cancer patients receiving highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy
      (HEC/MEC). PATIENTS & METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to 10, 20 MUg/kg
      palonosetron or 3 * 150 MUg/kg ondansetron for up to four cycles of HEC/MEC.
      RESULTS: In all on-study chemotherapy cycles, complete response rates were higher
      in patients in the 20 MUg/kg palonosetron group than the ondansetron group.
      Treatment-emergent adverse events were comparable between the palonosetron 20
      MUg/kg and ondansetron groups. CONCLUSION: Over four cycles of HEC/MEC, 20 MUg/kg
      palonosetron was an efficacious and safe treatment for the prevention of
      chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in pediatric cancer patients.

PMID- 28569080
TI  - Comparison of carbohydrate content between grain-containing and grain-free dry
      cat diets and between reported and calculated carbohydrate values.
AB  - Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the carbohydrate content of grain
      containing and grain-free dry cat diets and compare major protein and
      carbohydrate sources of these diets. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of
      77 randomly selected dry cat diets (42 grain-containing, 35 grain-free). Reported
      carbohydrate values were compared between grain-containing and grain-free cat
      diets. A subset of 25% of diets from each category (grain-containing and grain
      free) was analyzed and nitrogen-free extract was calculated as an estimate of
      carbohydrate content. These calculated values were compared with reported values
      from the manufacturer. Animal- and plant-sourced ingredients were also compared
      between grain-containing and grain-free diets. Results Mean reported carbohydrate
      content of the grain-free diets (n = 35) was lower than the grain-containing
      diets (n = 41; 64 +/- 16 vs 86 +/- 22 g/1000 kcal; P <0.001). Reported
      carbohydrate values were higher than analyzed nitrogen-free extract (n = 20; 79
      +/- 30 vs 73 +/- 27 g/1000 kcal; P = 0.024). Poultry ( P = 0.009) and soy (P =
      0.007) were less common in grain-free diets than in diets containing grain. The
      alternative carbohydrate sources of chickpeas, lentils, peas, potato, sweet
      potato and cassava/tapioca were more common ( P <0.05) in grain-free diets than
      in diets containing grain. Conclusions and relevance This sample of grain-free
      diets had lower mean reported carbohydrate content than grain-containing diets,
      but there was considerable overlap between groups and individual diets'
      carbohydrate/nitrogen-free extract content varied widely.

PMID- 28569081
TI  - Owner perceptions of their cat's quality of life when treated with a modified
      University of Wisconsin-Madison protocol for lymphoma.
AB  - Objectives The objectives of this study were to assess owner perceptions of their
      cat's quality of life during treatment for lymphoma with a doxorubicin-containing
      multi-agent chemotherapy protocol, whether various health-related parameters
      correlated with quality of life scores, and to assess owner satisfaction with the
      protocol. Methods A postal questionnaire was sent to the owners of 33 treated
      cats. Owners retrospectively assessed their cat's quality of life using a Likert
      scale (1-10) before lymphoma was diagnosed, at diagnosis and during chemotherapy.
      Owners assigned scores to various health-related parameters previously reported
      to affect quality of life at the three time points, and correlations with quality
      of life scores were sought. Owners were asked to rate the importance of these
      health-related parameters. Satisfaction with the protocol was investigated.
      Results Twenty questionnaires were completed (61% response rate). The median
      quality of life score before diagnosis (10, range 5-10) was higher than at
      diagnosis (3, range 1-9) ( P <0.05). The median quality of life score during
      chemotherapy (7, range 3-9) was lower than before diagnosis ( P <0.05) and higher
      than at diagnosis, but this was not statistically significant. Quality of life
      scores did not correlate with individual health-related parameter scores
      consistently; however, quality of life scores did correlate with appetite scores
      during chemotherapy. Appetite, vomiting and diarrhoea were parameters perceived
      as important in affecting quality of life. Most owners (75%) were happy they had
      treated their cat. Conclusions and relevance The quality of life scores observed
      were comparable to a previous study using cyclophosphamide, vincristine and
      prednisolone, employing the same scoring system. Although quality of life scores
      during chemotherapy were not significantly improved at diagnosis, owner
      satisfaction with the protocol was high. The factors perceived by owners to
      determine quality of life in their pets may be different to those previously
      conjectured, but appetite during chemotherapy remains important.

PMID- 28569082
TI  - Child Maltreatment Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Cortisol Levels in
      Women: A Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies of the relationship between cortisol and posttraumatic stress
      disorder (PTSD) have had inconsistent results. Gender, trauma type, and age at
      trauma exposure may explain the inconsistencies. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the
      review was to examine cortisol levels in relation to PTSD in women with a history
      of child maltreatment trauma. DESIGN: A review of literature found 13 articles
      eligible for inclusion. RESULTS: Despite limiting focus to the relatively
      homogeneous population, the patterns of associations between PTSD and cortisol
      levels were still inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS: The reasons for the inconsistencies
      likely include highly varied methods across studies, small convenience samples,
      and unmeasured neuroendocrine hormones that may be stronger predictors of PTSD.
      The review does not point to a clear bio-behavioral target for psychiatric
      nursing intervention. It is important to continue to address the developmental
      and clinical stress response aspects of child maltreatment trauma-related PTSD
      without assuming that these stress responses are hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
      axis driven.

PMID- 28569084
TI  - The Correlates of Quality of Life Among Jordanian Patients With Schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Addressing the quality of life (QOL) of patients with schizophrenia
      is of special importance in the Arab world, where little knowledge is available
      about their well-being, and most of them experience stigma and living in poverty.
      AIMS: The purpose of this study was to examine the association of
      sociodemographic characteristics, severity of depressive symptoms, and various
      aspects of public stigma against mental illness, with QOL among Jordanian
      patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: In this descriptive correlational study, 160
      Jordanian outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia completed measures of
      demographic characteristics, perceived public stigma against mental illness,
      severity of depression, and QOL. RESULTS: Participants had poor QOL. Age, marital
      status, relapse, education level, stigma against mental illness, and severity of
      depression were significantly associated with QOL among Jordanian patients with
      schizophrenia. Data analysis revealed that the severity of depression accounted
      for an additional 27% of the variance above and beyond the 36.7% accounted for by
      age of the participants and perceived public stigma against mental illness.
      CONCLUSIONS: Health care professionals should develop culturally competent
      nursing practice considering the specific factors associated with QOL among Arab
      patients with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28569083
TI  - Magnetic fields exposure from high-voltage power lines and risk of amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis in two Italian populations.
AB  - The aetiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare and extremely severe
      neurodegenerative disease, has been associated with magnetic fields exposure.
      However, evidence for such a relation in the general population is weak, although
      the previous null results might also be due to exposure misclassification, or a
      relationship might exist only for selected subgroups. To test such a hypothesis
      we carried out a population-based case-control study in two Northern and Southern
      Italy regions, including 703 ALS cases newly diagnosed from 1998 to 2011 and 2737
      controls randomly selected from the residents in the study provinces. Overall, we
      found that a residence near high-voltage power lines, within the corridors
      yielding a magnetic fields of >=0.1 MUT, was not associated with an excess
      disease risk, nor did we identify a dose-response relationship after splitting
      the exposed corridor according to the 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 MUT cut-points of
      exposure. These results were confirmed taking into account age at onset, period
      of diagnosis, sex, geographical area, and length of exposure. Overall, despite
      the residual possibility of unmeasured confounding or small susceptible subgroups
      not identified in our study, these results appear to confirm that the exposure to
      magnetic fields from power lines occurring in the general population is not
      associated with increased ALS risk.

PMID- 28569085
TI  - Acrylamide-derived cytotoxic, anti-proliferative, and apoptotic effects on A549
      cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acrylamide is a very common compound even reaching up to our daily
      foods. It has been studied in a wealth of cell lines on which it proved to have
      various toxic effects. Among these cell lines, human lung adenocarcinoma cell
      line (A549) is one of that on which acrylamide's toxicity has not been studied
      well yet. AIM: We intended to determine the half maximal inhibitory concentration
      (IC50) dose of acrylamide and to investigate its cytotoxic, anti-proliferative
      and apoptotic effects on A549 cells. METHODS: We determined the IC50 dose by 3
      (4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Then,
      the mode of cell death was evaluated by flow cytometry using Annexin-V
      fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)/propidium iodide (PI) staining. Next, we
      performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and confocal microscopy analyses
      for morphological alterations and apoptotic indices. RESULTS: According to the
      MTT assay results, A549 cell viability decreases proportionally with increasing
      acrylamide concentrations and IC50 for A549 was 4.6 mM for 24 h. Annexin-V
      FITC/PI assay results indicated that acrylamide induces apoptosis in 64% of the
      A549 cells. TEM and confocal microscopy analyses showed nuclear condensations,
      fragmentations, cytoskeleton laceration, and membrane blebbing, which are
      morphological characteristics of apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Our research suggests
      that acrylamide causes cytotoxic, anti-proliferative, and apoptotic effects on
      A549 cells at 4.6 mM IC50 dose in 24 h.

PMID- 28569086
TI  - Estimation of the physiological mechanical conditioning in vascular tissue
      engineering by a predictive fluid-structure interaction approach.
AB  - The in vitro replication of physiological mechanical conditioning through
      bioreactors plays a crucial role in the development of functional Small-Caliber
      Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessels. An in silico scaffold-specific model under
      pulsatile perfusion provided by a bioreactor was implemented using a fluid
      structure interaction (FSI) approach for viscoelastic tubular scaffolds (e.g.
      decellularized swine arteries, DSA). Results of working pressures,
      circumferential deformations, and wall shear stress on DSA fell within the
      desired physiological range and indicated the ability of this model to correctly
      predict the mechanical conditioning acting on the cells-scaffold system.
      Consequently, the FSI model allowed us to a priori define the stimulation
      pattern, driving in vitro physiological maturation of scaffolds, especially with
      viscoelastic properties.

PMID- 28569087
TI  - Mexicanolide-type limonoids from the seeds of Swietenia macrophylla.
AB  - Three new mexicanolide-type limonoids, 3-O-propionylproceranolide (1), 6-O
      acetylswietenin B (2), and 6-deoxyswietemahonin A (3), together with 15 known
      limonoids, were isolated from the seeds of Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae). The
      structures of those new compounds were established by extensive analysis of MS,
      1D, and 2D NMR spectral data.

PMID- 28569088
TI  - Thoughts and Considerations of Women With Bipolar Disorder About Family Planning
      and Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women with bipolar disorder have an increased risk of relapse during
      pregnancy and the postpartum period, and they often express broad concerns about
      family planning. OBJECTIVE: To explore the thoughts and considerations of women
      of childbearing age with bipolar disorder, about family planning and pregnancy.
      DESIGN: A qualitative study was conducted: 15 women with bipolar I disorder were
      individually interviewed. Content analysis was applied. RESULTS: Women worried
      about heritability of bipolar disorder, medication issues, and risk of relapse
      during pregnancy. They mentioned their fear to be incompetent as a mother during
      future mood episodes. Support of partner, family/friends, and professionals was
      mentioned as essential. CONCLUSIONS: Family planning is an essential topic in the
      treatment of every woman with bipolar disorder of childbearing age. These women
      expect early consultation with professionals for support, and specific
      information about heritability of the illness and use of medication during and
      after pregnancy.

PMID- 28569089
TI  - Professionals' Awareness of Sexual Abuse in Late Life: An Exploratory Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The sexual abuse phenomenon is considered taboo. It has been
      discussed, to date, mainly in relation to children and young women, with
      insufficient attention to sexual abuse in a late-life context. OBJECTIVES: The
      aim of this survey was to explore professionals' awareness of elder sexual abuse
      (ESA). DESIGN: The survey was conducted among 161 Jewish and Arab professionals
      from health care and social services, who worked with older adults in Israel.
      RESULTS: Of the entire sample, 70 professionals (only 43%) reported encountering
      at least one to three cases of ESA. A total of 98% of the victims were women, and
      the primary offender was the spouse (75%). In most cases (70%), the victim
      reported the abuse, which was mainly sexual assault (64%). All participants
      (100%) noted taking action. CONCLUSION: This exploratory survey indicates that
      professionals are partially aware of the existence of and the need to address the
      ESA phenomenon.

PMID- 28569091
TI  - Teachers' Perceptions of Preschool Children's Psychomotor Development in Spain.
AB  - This study analyzed the psychomotor profiles of preschool stage students and to
      determine how these data agreed with the students' teachers' subjective
      assessment. We also correlated these data with other variables such as age,
      gender, and family influence. A total of 211 children aged 3 to 6 years, in the
      second cycle of preschool from 30 classes of 10 schools in Spain participated.
      Additionally, 30 preschool teachers from these classes participated. Study
      results revealed serious teacher misperceptions regarding their students'
      psychomotor development, with low agreement rates between students and teachers
      in the motor dimension and slight agreement rates in communicative, cognitive,
      and social areas. The reasons for and implications of these misperceptions are
      discussed.

PMID- 28569090
TI  - Insulin differentially affects the distribution kinetics of amyloid beta 40 and
      42 in plasma and brain.
AB  - Impaired brain clearance of amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta) 40 and 42 across the
      blood-brain barrier (BBB) is believed to be one of the pathways responsible for
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Hyperinsulinemia prevalent in type II
      diabetes was shown to damage cerebral vasculature and increase Abeta accumulation
      in AD brain. However, there is no clarity on how aberrations in peripheral
      insulin levels affect Abeta accumulation in the brain. This study describes, for
      the first time, an intricate relation between plasma insulin and Abeta transport
      at the BBB. Upon peripheral insulin administration in wild-type mice: the plasma
      clearance of Abeta40 increased, but Abeta42 clearance reduced; the plasma-to
      brain influx of Abeta40 increased, and that of Abeta42 reduced; and the clearance
      of intracerebrally injected Abeta40 decreased, whereas Abeta42 clearance
      increased. In hCMEC/D3 monolayers (in vitro BBB model) exposed to insulin, the
      luminal uptake and luminal-to-abluminal permeability of Abeta40 increased and
      that of Abeta42 reduced; the abluminal-to-luminal permeability of Abeta40
      decreased, whereas Abeta42 permeability increased. Moreover, Abeta cellular
      trafficking machinery was altered. In summary, Abeta40 and Abeta42 demonstrated
      distinct distribution kinetics in plasma and brain compartments, and insulin
      differentially modulated their distribution. Cerebrovascular disease and
      metabolic disorders may disrupt this intricate homeostasis and aggravate AD
      pathology.

PMID- 28569092
TI  - Willingness to express emotion depends upon perceiving partner care.
AB  - Two studies document that people are more willing to express emotions that reveal
      vulnerabilities to partners when they perceive those partners to be more
      communally responsive to them. In Study 1, participants rated the communal
      strength they thought various partners felt toward them and their own willingness
      to express happiness, sadness and anxiety to each partner. Individuals who
      generally perceive high communal strength from their partners were also generally
      most willing to express emotion to partners. Independently, participants were
      more willing to express emotion to particular partners whom they perceived felt
      more communal strength toward them. In Study 2, members of romantic couples
      independently reported their own felt communal strength toward one another,
      perceptions of their partners' felt communal strength toward them, and
      willingness to express emotions (happiness, sadness, anxiety, disgust, anger,
      hurt and guilt) to each other. The communal strength partners reported feeling
      toward the participants predicted the participants' willingness to express
      emotion to those partners. This link was mediated by participants' perceptions of
      the partner's communal strength toward them which, itself, was a joint function
      of accurate perceptions of the communal strength partners had reported feeling
      toward them and projections of their own felt communal strength for their
      partners onto those partners.

PMID- 28569093
TI  - Mindfulness in Anorexia Nervosa: An Integrated Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness with limited
      evidenced-based treatment options. Mindfulness appears useful in many conditions,
      but few studies focus on its use in individuals with anorexia nervosa. OBJECTIVE:
      To examine and summarize studies of mindfulness in individuals with anorexia
      nervosa and identify areas for future research. DESIGN: An integrated review was
      conducted by searching health care computerized databases. RESULTS: Results were
      mixed among the eight studies that met inclusion criteria. Multimodal mindfulness
      based therapies appear effective, while brief interventions may be equally useful
      or result in greater anxiety compared to distraction. Qualitative data support
      that some participants feel mindfulness is challenging but beneficial.
      CONCLUSION: Mindfulness as a concurrent part of therapy and/or when routinely
      practiced may be more clinically useful than single-episode mindful eating
      interventions. Due to the complexity of the concept of mindfulness and limited
      existing data, additional research is needed.

PMID- 28569094
TI  - C18-Diterpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium anthriscifolium var. majus.
AB  - Five new C18-diterpenoid alkaloids, anthriscifoltines C-G (1-5), along with four
      known diterpenoid alkaloids anthriscifolcines C-F (6-9), were isolated from the
      extract of Delphinium anthriscifolium var. majus. Their structures were
      elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses (including 1D-, 2D-NMR, and HR-ESI
      MS). Compounds 1-5 were also evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against MCF
      7, HepG2, and H460 human cancer cell lines.

PMID- 28569095
TI  - Review of Use of Standardized Patients in Psychiatric Nursing Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Simulations using standardized patients (SPs) are increasingly used
      to teach and assess competencies in psychiatric/mental health (PMH) nursing
      education. To advance the field, it is important to identify current knowledge,
      practice, and evidence. OBJECTIVE: To determine the current knowledge, evidence,
      and practice of using SPs in PMH nursing education by conducting an integrative
      review of the empirical research on the use of SPs in PMH nursing education, and
      by providing a supplementary descriptive review of non-research articles on PMH
      simulations using SPs. DESIGN: A comprehensive search using electronic databases
      was conducted to identify both research and simulation description papers meeting
      inclusion criteria. The research literature was reviewed using an integrative
      review approach and a simple descriptive review of the non-research simulation
      literature was also conducted. RESULTS: Six research studies and 18 simulation
      description articles were included in the review. Although there are several PMH
      SP simulation descriptions in the literature, and anecdotal indications that they
      are a valuable educational tool, there is insufficient research evidence
      regarding their effectiveness as a method in psychiatric nursing education due to
      few published studies and methodological limitations of existing studies.
      CONCLUSIONS: Well-designed research studies are needed to develop an evidence
      base for this promising and increasingly employed teaching method.

PMID- 28569096
TI  - Hispanics' Retirement Transitions and Differences by Nativity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examines differences in retirement decisions between older
      Hispanics and non-Hispanics, with a special focus on the role of nativity.
      METHODS: We use 1998-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. We estimate
      survival models of retirement and compare retirement transitions for U.S.-born
      Hispanics, foreign-born Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and non-Hispanic Blacks.
      RESULTS: Foreign-born Hispanics retire significantly later than other racial and
      ethnic groups. Controlling for personal characteristics, their risk of retirement
      is 39% lower compared with non-Hispanic Whites. Retirement transitions do not
      differ significantly between U.S.-born Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites.
      DISCUSSION: Difference in retirement timing between U.S.- and foreign-born
      Hispanics may partly be due to lower incomes and wealth accumulation of foreign
      born Hispanics. Workforce development initiatives, policy initiatives promoting
      retirement savings, and Social Security reforms could improve future retirement
      security for older Hispanics, and make retirement a viable option for more
      foreign-born Hispanics.

PMID- 28569098
TI  - A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Enhancing Academic
      Practice.

PMID- 28569097
TI  - Testing the convergent and discriminant validity of the Systemic Therapy
      Inventory of Change Initial scales.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC(r)) is the first multi
      systemic and multi-dimensional measurement and feedback system designed for
      assessment in family, couple, and individual functioning. Patients fill out the
      STIC Initial before the first session to identify treatment targets and provide
      starting values for subsequent assessments of trajectories of change. This study
      tested the construct validity of five of the six STIC Initial scales. METHODS: We
      administered both the STIC Initial and a set of validity measures to a relatively
      large sample of patients. Convergent and discriminant validity were tested using
      both an examination of observed correlations and confirmatory factor analysis
      (CFA). RESULTS: The correlations among the observed measures showed that the
      convergent validity coefficients were generally large, whereas the discriminant
      validity coefficients were moderate to small. Similarly, CFAs suggested that the
      STIC total scales and subscales are good indicators of the factors they were
      intended to measure and that the STIC total scales and subscales are weakly
      related to the factors they were intended to not measure. CONCLUSION: The results
      supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the five scales of the STIC
      Initial. Clinical or methodological significance of this article: The clinical
      significance of this article is that it demonstrates that the STIC Initial should
      be useful for identifying treatment targets including both which systems, in
      addition to the facets within each system, that require targeting. The
      methodological significance is twofold. First, the use of CFA for testing
      convergent and discriminant validity is still relatively rare. Second, we
      demonstrated how to use CFA for a more stringent test of discriminant validity
      compared with the original approach described by Cole ( 1987 ).

PMID- 28569099
TI  - Craniofacial Dysfunction and Pain: Manual Therapy, Assessment and Management.

PMID- 28569100
TI  - Problem Based Learning: Case Studies, Experience and Practice.

PMID- 28569101
TI  - Core Clinical Skills for OSCEs in Medicine.

PMID- 28569102
TI  - "An ex-vivo assessment of resin modified glass ionomer cement in relation to
      bonding technique: C. J. Larmour and D. R. Stirrups".

PMID- 28569104
TI  - Systematized orthodontic treatment mechanics.

PMID- 28569103
TI  - Structured abstracts of clinical trials.

PMID- 28569105
TI  - Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.

PMID- 28569106
TI  - A Practical Guide for Medical Teachers.

PMID- 28569107
TI  - Universities and Students. A Guide to Rights, Responsibilities and Practical
      Remedies.

PMID- 28569108
TI  - Reviews & Abstracts.

PMID- 28569110
TI  - Commentaries on scientific papers published in this edition.

PMID- 28569112
TI  - Let's Talk About Depression in the Asia Pacific Region.

PMID- 28569111
TI  - The Association of Workplace Exposures on Quality of Life in Small and Medium
      Enterprises Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Four ASEAN Countries.
AB  - Quality of life is associated with several factors, including personal living
      styles and working conditions. This article aims to investigate the factors
      associated with quality of life among small and medium enterprises (SME) workers
      in 4 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely
      Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. A total of 2014 workers from food and
      textile industries were asked to answer a questionnaire about their
      sociodemographic characteristics, working environment and conditions, and quality
      of life. Results from showed that lifestyle (ie, alcohol intake and exercising),
      working characteristics (ie, shift work, working hours, and working days) and
      workplace conditions were associated with SME workers' quality of life (ie,
      physical, psychological, social, and environmental domain). Among the 16 types of
      workplace conditions, "sitting on the chair" and "slippery floor" most affect
      their quality of life . It is important for these variables to be taken into
      account in promoting workers' well-being and quality of life.

PMID- 28569113
TI  - Antimicrobial Resistance Control Strategies: A Coordinated Research Initiative
      Experience in the Asia Pacific Region.
AB  - The objective was to gather information on the status of antimicrobial
      surveillance in the Asia Pacific region and suggest control strategies. Twenty
      one economies of the Asia Pacific region participated in this initiative. A
      survey was conducted on antimicrobial use and surveillance throughout the region.
      A workshop was carried out to create awareness about the issue and discuss the
      implementation of control strategies. Based on the survey results and workshop
      conclusions, it can be established that there is better understanding of the
      implications of antimicrobial resistance in the human medicine area. Only few
      economies take actions to control antimicrobial resistance on a
      veterinary/agricultural level. To confront antimicrobial resistance, it is
      critical to raise awareness; cooperation between all countries is needed to apply
      international standards, to be able to have harmonized public policies. Countries
      must align and improve their systems for surveillance and monitoring of
      antimicrobial resistance in human, animals, and the environment.

PMID- 28569114
TI  - Dynamic Changes in the Bivariable Distribution of Urinary Iodine Concentration
      and Thyroid Volume in Children Aged 8 to 10 Years in China.
AB  - National iodine-deficiency disorder surveillance surveys were conducted in 1999,
      2005, and 2011 in China. Probability-proportional-to-size sampling technique was
      used to select sampling units. The mean of thyroid volume (Tvol) in the 100 to
      199 ug/L UIC (urinary iodine concentration) group was significantly lower than
      that in the 200 to 299 ug/L UIC group in 2011 ( P < .05). The status in the 100
      to 199 ug/L versus >=300 ug/L and 200 to 299 ug/L versus >=300 ug/L groups in
      1999, and 100 to 199 ug/L versus >=300 ug/L group in 2011 were the same ( P <
      .05). The mean Tvol in the <100 ug/L UIC group was significantly higher than that
      in the 100 to 199 ug/L UIC group in 1999 ( P < .05). Both insufficient and excess
      iodine may be associated with an increase in Tvol, and adequate iodine intake
      should be defined as median UIC 100 to 299 ug/L.

PMID- 28569115
TI  - Associations Between Bicycling for Transportation and Cardiometabolic Risk
      Factors Among Minneapolis-Saint Paul Area Commuters: A Cross-Sectional Study in
      Working-Age Adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study describes the association between frequency of bicycling for
      active transportation and modifiable cardiometabolic risk factors in the
      Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) metropolitan area. DESIGN: We conducted an online
      survey from a convenience sample of likely bicycle commuters. SETTING:
      Participants were e-mailed invitations including a link to the online survey.
      PARTICIPANTS: Participants (n = 1450, 15.6% response rate) were residents of the
      7-county MSP metropolitan area aged 20 to 64 years. MEASURES: Participants
      reported frequency of commute and destination cycling from April to September and
      October to March, prevalent cardiometabolic risk factors, and demographic
      covariates. ANALYSIS: We performed logistic regressions for associations between
      average weekly transportation bicycling and self-reported prevalent obesity, high
      blood pressure, high cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and
      high triglycerides. We used Poisson regression for the count of cardiometabolic
      risk factors. All models were adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking, alcohol
      consumption, and other physical activity, with random intercepts by zip code.
      RESULTS: Self-reported bicycling frequency is associated with significantly lower
      odds of prevalent obesity, hypertension, and high triglycerides. Three bicycling
      trips per week is associated with 20% fewer (95% confidence interval: 12%-28%)
      cardiometabolic risk factors. CONCLUSION: Bicycling frequency is inversely
      associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. These results provide empirical
      support for the promotion of active transportation as public health policy.

PMID- 28569116
TI  - Patient and health care professional perspectives on using telehealth to deliver
      pulmonary rehabilitation.
AB  - The objective of this study was to identify the necessary features of pulmonary
      telerehabilitation (P-TR) from the perspectives of individuals living with
      chronic lung disease and health care professionals (HCPs) who deliver pulmonary
      rehabilitation (PR). Focus groups were carried out with patients ( n = 26) and
      HCPs ( n = 26) to elicit and explore their opinions about the critical elements
      of in-person PR and ideas for how these elements could be supported using
      technology. A questionnaire was used to assess technology use, PR experience, and
      general health status. Four key elements of PR were identified as critical to P
      TR: the social aspect of PR; communicating with HCPs for education and support;
      using biosensors for monitoring and promoting self-knowledge; and the evolution
      of support with progress over time. A range of technology-enabled devices and
      programs were suggested as means to recreate aspects of these integral elements.
      Consultations with patients and HCPs suggest that users are interested in
      technology and want to ensure it recreates the important aspects of PR. Patients
      and HCPs identified similar key elements for P-TR. The opinions and suggestions
      of patients and HCPs should be the driving force of innovation if P-TR is to
      succeed in improving health outcomes.

PMID- 28569117
TI  - Testicular ultrasensitive Doppler preliminary experience: a feasibility study.
AB  - Background Ultrasensitive Doppler is a novel non-invasive ultrasound (US) Doppler
      technique that improves sensitivity and resolution for the detection of slow
      flow. Purpose To investigate the feasibility of ultrasensitive Doppler (USD) for
      testicular disease diagnosis, using both qualitative and quantitative results.
      Material and Methods This prospective study was conducted in 160 successive men
      referred for scrotal US including B-mode and conventional Color-Doppler. A new
      USD sequence and algorithm dedicated to academic research were implemented into
      the US system. The quality criterion for a successful examination was the
      detection of well delineated intratesticular vessels. Qualitative USD results
      were described in terms of tumor vascular architecture and flow intensity for
      different pathologies for 41 patients. The testicular vascularization (TV),
      defined as a vessel's surface ratio, was quantified using customized MATLAB(r)
      software and compared in azoospermic and normal patients. Results USD was
      acquired successfully in 153/160 patients (95.6%). The tumor vascular
      architecture differed depending on the nature of the tumors. Leydig cell tumors
      exhibited mostly circumferential vascularization, while germ cell tumors
      exhibited straight vessels through the tumors, or anarchic vascular maps. USD
      improved the diagnostic performance of testicular Doppler US in a case of
      incomplete spermatic cord torsion and acute epididymitis. The reproducibility of
      TV measurements established an interclass correlation of 0.801. Non-Klinefelter
      syndrome non-obstructive azoospermia patients exhibited a lower TV compared to
      normal patients, to Klinefelter syndrome, and to obstructive azoospermia patients
      ( P < 0.002, P < 0.005, and P < 0.05, respectively). Conclusion Testicular USD
      can become a promising technique for improving US diagnosis of tumors, acute
      scrotum, and for determining infertility status.

PMID- 28569118
TI  - Analysis of Nonstationary Time Series for Biological Rhythms Research.
AB  - This article is part of a Journal of Biological Rhythms series exploring analysis
      and statistics topics relevant to researchers in biological rhythms and sleep
      research. The goal is to provide an overview of the most common issues that arise
      in the analysis and interpretation of data in these fields. In this article on
      time series analysis for biological rhythms, we describe some methods for
      assessing the rhythmic properties of time series, including tests of whether a
      time series is indeed rhythmic. Because biological rhythms can exhibit
      significant fluctuations in their period, phase, and amplitude, their analysis
      may require methods appropriate for nonstationary time series, such as wavelet
      transforms, which can measure how these rhythmic parameters change over time. We
      illustrate these methods using simulated and real time series.

PMID- 28569119
TI  - Skin Temperature Rhythms in Humans Respond to Changes in the Timing of Sleep and
      Light.
AB  - Body temperature is known to vary with circadian phase and to be influenced by
      factors that can mask its circadian expression. We wanted to test whether skin
      temperature rhythms were sensitive to an abrupt shift of the sleep schedule and
      to the resetting effects of light. Nineteen healthy subjects spent 6 days in time
      isolation and underwent a simulated night-shift procedure. They were assigned to
      either a control group ( n = 10) or bright light group ( n = 9) and measurements
      were taken under a baseline day-oriented schedule and during the 4th cycle of a
      night-oriented schedule. In the bright light group, participants were exposed to
      a 3-cycle 8-h exposure of ~6,500 lux at night, while the control group remained
      in dim light conditions (~3 lux). Skin temperature was recorded in 10 and 4
      participants from the control and bright light groups, respectively. We found
      significant circadian rhythms of plasma melatonin, core body temperature (CBT),
      and skin temperature at baseline for both groups ( p < 0.001 for all). Rhythms of
      melatonin, CBT, and skin temperature following night shifts were significantly
      phase delayed by about 7 to 9 h ( p < 0.05) in response to bright light at night,
      whereas there was no shift in the control group. In addition, we found that at
      bedtime melatonin does not consistently increase before the increase in distal
      skin temperature and subsequent decrease in CBT, in contrast to what has been
      previously reported. The present study shows that, in constant posture
      conditions, skin temperature rhythms have an evoked component sensitive to abrupt
      changes in the timing of sleep. They also comprise an endogenous component that
      is sensitive to the resetting effects of bright light exposure. These results
      have applications for the determination of circadian phase, as skin temperature
      is less intrusive than rectal temperature recordings.

PMID- 28569120
TI  - Burning mouth syndrome.
AB  - Objective To review the clinical entity of primary burning mouth syndrome (BMS),
      its pathophysiological mechanisms, accurate new diagnostic methods and evidence
      based treatment options, and to describe novel lines for future research
      regarding aetiology, pathophysiology, and new therapeutic strategies. Description
      Primary BMS is a chronic neuropathic intraoral pain condition that despite
      typical symptoms lacks clear clinical signs of neuropathic involvement. With
      advanced diagnostic methods, such as quantitative sensory testing of small
      somatosensory and taste afferents, neurophysiological recordings of the
      trigeminal system, and peripheral nerve blocks, most BMS patients can be
      classified into the peripheral or central type of neuropathic pain. These two
      types differ regarding pathophysiological mechanisms, efficacy of available
      treatments, and psychiatric comorbidity. The two types may overlap in individual
      patients. BMS is most frequent in postmenopausal women, with general population
      prevalence of around 1%. Treatment of BMS is difficult; best evidence exists for
      efficacy of topical and systemic clonazepam. Hormonal substitution, dopaminergic
      medications, and therapeutic non-invasive neuromodulation may provide efficient
      mechanism-based treatments for BMS in the future. Conclusion We present a novel
      comprehensive hypothesis of primary BMS, gathering the hormonal, neuropathic, and
      genetic factors presumably required in the genesis of the condition. This will
      aid in future research on pathophysiology and risk factors of BMS, and boost
      treatment trials taking into account individual mechanism profiles and subgroup
      clusters.

PMID- 28569121
TI  - Military Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Awareness Training for
      Health Care Providers Within the Military Health System [Formula: see text].
AB  - BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
      individuals serving within the U.S. military and their beneficiaries have unique
      health care requirements. Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 "Don't Ask,
      Don't Tell" created a barrier for service members to speak candidly with their
      health care providers, which left specific health care needs unaddressed. There
      are no standardized cultural education programs to assist Military Health System
      (MHS) health care providers in delivering care to LGBT patients and their
      beneficiaries. PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to develop, implement,
      and evaluate the effectiveness of an LGBT educational program for health care
      providers within the MHS to increase cultural awareness in caring for this
      special population. METHOD: This multisite educational program was conducted at
      Travis Air Force Base and Joint Base Lewis-McChord from November 15, 2014, to
      January 30, 2015. A 15-question multiple-choice questionnaire was developed based
      on the education program and was administered before and after the education
      program. A total of 51 individuals completed the program. RESULTS: Overall
      posttest scores improved compared to pretest scores. CONCLUSION: This program was
      designed to begin the process of educating health care providers about the unique
      health care issues of military LGBT Service Members and their beneficiaries. This
      program was the first to address the disparities in LGBT health care needs within
      the Department of Defense. It also provided a platform for facilitating open
      communication among providers regarding LGBT population health needs in the
      military.

PMID- 28569122
TI  - Rationale and design of combination of an immune modulator Fingolimod with
      Alteplase bridging with Mechanical Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke
      (FAMTAIS) trial.
AB  - Rationale In acute ischemic stroke patients with large vessel occlusion, although
      reperfusion within 6 h after stroke onset using combined intravenous alteplase
      and mechanical thrombectomy (bridging therapy) can improve functional outcome,
      still approximately 50% patients suffer disability which may result from
      reperfusion injury. Proof-of-concept clinical trials have indicated that the
      sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator fingolimod may be efficacious in
      attenuating brain inflammation and improving clinical outcomes in acute ischemic
      stroke patients as a single therapy beyond 4.5 h of disease onset, or in
      combination with alteplase within 4.5 h of disease onset. Aim To assess whether
      the treatment of fingolimod combined with bridging therapy in large vessel
      occlusion acute ischemic stroke patients is effective and safe. Design and sample
      size estimates Fingolimod with Alteplase bridging with Mechanical Thrombectomy in
      Acute Ischemic Stroke (FAMTAIS) study is a randomized, open-label, multiple
      central trial. This study includes 98 patients with anterior circulation large
      vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke who are eligible for bridging therapy,
      providing 80% power to reject the null hypothesis that, combined with fingolimod,
      the bridging therapy has an at least 15% higher penumbra tissue salvage index
      than receiving bridging therapy alone. Study outcomes The primary outcome is the
      penumbra tissue salvage index. Key secondary outcomes focus on: infarct growth
      and extent of clinical improvement from day 1 to day 7, frequency of parenchymal
      hemorrhage at day 1. Discussion If the hypothesis of FAMTAIS is confirmed,
      combination of fingolimod with bridging therapy is effective in attenuating
      reperfusion injury in patients with large vessel occlusion treated with 6 h of
      stroke onset.

PMID- 28569123
TI  - Diffusion-weighted imaging or computerized tomography perfusion assessment with
      clinical mismatch in the triage of wake up and late presenting strokes undergoing
      neurointervention with Trevo (DAWN) trial methods.
AB  - Rationale Efficacy of mechanical thrombectomy for acute stroke due to large
      vessel occlusion initiated beyond 6 h of time last seen well has not been
      demonstrated in randomized trials. Aim To establish whether subjects considered
      to have substantial areas of salvageable brain based on age-adjusted clinical
      core mismatch who can undergo endovascular treatment within 6-24 h from time last
      seen well (TLSW) have better outcomes at three months compared to subjects
      treated with standard medical therapy alone. Age-adjusted clinical core mismatch
      is defined by age (<=80 or >80 years), baseline National Institutes of Health
      Stroke Scale (NIHSS) (10-20 or >=21), and core size (0-20 cm3 in subjects older
      than 80 and, in subjects younger than 80, 0-30 cm3 with NIHSS 10-20 and 31-50 cm3
      with NIHSS >=21). Design Prospective, randomized, multicenter, Bayesian adaptive
      enrichment, open label trial with blinded endpoint assessment. For the purpose of
      enrolment, ischemic core size will be evaluated by CT perfusion or magnetic
      resonance imaging-diffusion-weighted imaging measured by automated software
      (RAPID). Procedures Subjects with acute ischemic stroke due to computed
      tomography angiography- or magnetic resonance angiogram-proven arterial occlusion
      of the intracranial internal carotid and/or proximal middle cerebral artery (M1)
      with age-adjusted clinical core mismatch in whom treatment can be initiated
      between 6 and 24 h from TSLW are randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive mechanical
      embolectomy with the Trevo device or medical management alone. Sequential interim
      analyses allowing adaptation of enrolment criteria or stopping new enrolment for
      futility or predicted success will occur in every 50 randomized patients starting
      at 150 to a maximum of 500 patients. Study outcomes The primary endpoint is the
      modified Rankin Scale score at 90 days. The primary safety outcome is stroke
      related mortality at 90 days. Analysis The primary endpoint, expressed as a
      utility-weighted modified Rankin Scale score is analyzed using a Bayesian
      posterior probability with adjustment for ischemic core size. For regulatory
      reasons, a nested co-primary endpoint analysis was added consisting of the
      proportion of subjects with modified Rankin Scale 0-2 between the active and
      control groups also analyzed using a Bayesian model.

PMID- 28569124
TI  - Low bone mineral density is associated with breast cancer in postmenopausal
      women: a case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate risk factors for low bone mineral density (BMD) in
      postmenopausal breast cancer survivors compared with postmenopausal women without
      breast cancer (controls). METHOD: In this study, 112 breast cancer survivors were
      compared to 224 women (controls). Inclusion criteria were amenorrhea >=12 months,
      age 45-75 years, treated for breast cancer, and metastasis-free for at least 5
      years. The control group consisted of women without breast cancer, matched by age
      and menopause status (in a proportion of 1: 2 as sample calculation). The risk
      factors for low BMD (osteopenia/osteoporosis) were assessed by interview. BMD was
      measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in the lumbar spine (L1-L4) and
      femoral neck. Logistic regression models (odds ratio, OR) were used to identify
      factors associated with low BMD. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation) age of
      breast cancer survivors was 61.3 (9.7) years, with a mean follow-up of 10.2 (3.9)
      years. These women had a higher incidence of osteopenia (45.1%) and osteoporosis
      (22.3%) in the femoral neck than controls (39.3% and 9.0%, respectively) (p =
      0.0005). Lumbar spine BMD did not differ between groups (p = 0.332). Univariate
      analysis adjusted for age and time since menopause revealed that chemotherapy (OR
      6.90; 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.57-9.77) was associated with a higher risk
      of low BMD. Contrarily, regular physical exercise (OR 0.24; 95% CI 0.06-0.98) and
      a body mass index >=30 kg/m2 (OR 0.09; 95% CI 0.02-0.37) reduced the risk among
      breast cancer survivors. CONCLUSION: Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors had a
      higher incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in the femoral neck than women
      without breast cancer. A history of chemotherapy was a risk factor for low BMD,
      whereas regular physical activity and high body mass index reduced the risk among
      breast cancer survivors.

PMID- 28569125
TI  - Genetic Variability of Phyllosticta ampelicida, the Agent of Black Rot Disease of
      Grapevine.
AB  - Phyllosticta ampelicida causes black rot disease of Vitis spp. Genetic
      homogeneity of pathogen populations was investigated by analyzing the number of
      haplotypes present in infected samples from Europe and America. The fungus was
      identified from an analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1-ITS2
      region, and partial sequences of beta-tubulin and calmodulin genes. The analysis
      of nuclear microsatellites applied to strains from Vitis spp. confirmed the
      existence of a high degree of genetic variability in the fungal populations,
      revealed four subpopulations, and showed that strains from America are distinct
      from the European ones. Furthermore, the results obtained by landscape genetics
      showed that there were different introductions of the pathogen in the main vine
      areas of Europe, confirming what was observed in the first reports of the
      disease. The genetic variability of the fungus revealed by this study confirms
      the ability to generate new haplotypes by sexual reproduction. The difference
      found between the European populations and the American one confirms that the
      pathogen originated from America.

PMID- 28569126
TI  - Isothermal Amplification and Lateral-Flow Assay for Detecting Crown-Gall-Causing
      Agrobacterium spp.
AB  - Agrobacterium is a genus of soilborne gram-negative bacteria. Members carrying
      oncogenic plasmids can cause crown gall disease, which has significant economic
      costs, especially for the orchard and nursery industries. Early and rapid
      detection of pathogenic Agrobacterium spp. is key to the management of crown gall
      disease. To this end, we designed oligonucleotide primers and probes to target
      virD2 for use in a molecular diagnostic tool that relies on isothermal
      amplification and lateral-flow-based detection. The oligonucleotide tools were
      tested in the assay and evaluated for detection limit and specificity in
      detecting alleles of virD2. One set of primers that successfully amplified virD2
      when used with an isothermal recombinase was selected. Both tested probes had
      detection limits in picogram amounts of DNA. Probe 1 could detect all tested
      pathogenic isolates that represented most of the diversity of virD2. Finally, the
      coupling of lateral-flow detection to the use of these oligonucleotide primers in
      isothermal amplification helped to reduce the onerousness of the process, and
      alleviated reliance on specialized tools necessary for molecular diagnostics. The
      assay is an advancement for the rapid molecular detection of pathogenic
      Agrobacterium spp.

PMID- 28569127
TI  - A Retrospective Study of Patient Factors That Indicate Provider Nonadherence to
      an Institutional Clostridium difficile Treatment Guideline.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is treated most often with
      metronidazole or vancomycin. Both have been effective in treatment of mild to
      moderate infection. In more severe cases, vancomycin may be more effective.
      OBJECTIVES: The primary objectives were to quantify the severity of CDI and to
      describe overall adherence to the institutional CDI guideline. Secondary
      objectives were to assess factors associated with adherence to the guidelines.
      METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the electronic medical record was used to
      evaluate adherence to institutional guidelines. Data collected included
      demographics and other factors potentially contributing to adherence: Charlson
      comorbidity index, severity of infection, recurrence, intensive care unit (ICU)
      admission, infectious diseases (ID) consult, total duration and number of
      antibiotics, alternative therapies, and acid suppression. Descriptive statistics
      and bivariate analyses were used to describe and compare factors associated with
      guideline adherence; multivariate logistic regression assessed independent
      predictors of adherence. RESULTS: A total of 387 patients met the inclusion
      criteria. CDI severity was 55.8% mild/moderate cases, 42.4% severe, 0.5%
      fulminant, and 1.3% prophylaxis. Overall, institutional guideline adherence was
      51.9%. In bivariate analyses, 5 factors were associated with nonadherence to
      guidelines: older age, ICU admission, duration of antibiotics, mild/moderate and
      severe infection (all P < .05). In the logistic regression model, severe
      infection ( P < .001) and longer duration of antibiotics ( P < .05) were
      independently associated with guideline nonadherence. CONCLUSION: In this study,
      42.4% of the patients met criteria for severe infection. Providers for patients
      with severe infection and longer duration of antibiotic therapy were less likely
      to adhere to the institutional guideline.

PMID- 28569128
TI  - Development of a Student-Led Ambulatory Medication Reconciliation Program at an
      Academic Institution.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To integrate fourth-year student pharmacists on advanced pharmacy
      practice experience (APPE) rotations within several different ambulatory clinics
      to perform medication reconciliations and enhance interdisciplinary practice.
      METHODS: The study design was a descriptive, prospective multisite study among a
      variety of ambulatory care outpatient clinics. Student pharmacists were partnered
      with physicians to conduct medication reconciliations during clinic visits for 4
      hours per week, with data collection from January 2016 to September 2016. This
      program originated from physician requests for additional pharmacy involvement
      and led to the development of a successful implementation strategy to involve
      student pharmacists in the medication reconciliation process. RESULTS: Student
      pharmacists identified 537 medication discrepancies among 491 patients, including
      commission of medications (36%), documentation of previously omitted medications
      (27%), and incomplete patient allergy information (11%). Students spent an
      average of 10 minutes on each encounter. CONCLUSION: Documentation from this
      innovative program suggests improvement in medication reconciliation and enhanced
      patient care with limited time required of student pharmacists. A similar program
      could be developed and utilized at other clinical sites.

PMID- 28569129
TI  - Early Versus Late Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Critically Ill
      Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Early initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) effect on survival
      and renal recovery of critically ill patients is still uncertain. We aimed to
      systematically review current evidence comparing outcomes of early versus late
      initiation of RRT in critically ill patients. METHODS: We searched the Medline
      (via Pubmed), LILACS, Science Direct, and CENTRAL databases from inception until
      November 2016 for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) or observational studies
      comparing early versus late initiation of RRT in critically ill patients. The
      primary outcome was mortality. Duration of mechanical ventilation, intensive care
      unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), hospital LOS, and renal function recovery were
      secondary outcomes. Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA) were used
      for the primary outcome. RESULTS: Sixty-two studies were retrieved and analyzed,
      including 11 RCTs. There was no difference in mortality between early and late
      initiation of RRT among RCTs (odds ratio [OR] = 0.78; 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 0.52-1.19; I2 = 63.1%). Trial sequential analysis of mortality across all
      RCTs achieved futility boundaries at both 1% and 5% type I error rates, although
      a subgroup analysis of studies including only acute kidney injury patients was
      not conclusive. There was also no difference in time on mechanical ventilation,
      ICU and hospital LOS, or renal recovery among studies. Early initiation of RRT
      was associated with reduced mortality among prospective (OR = 0.69; 95% CI: 0.49
      0.96; I2 = 85.9%) and retrospective (OR = 0.61; 95% CI: 0.41-0.92; I2 = 90.9%)
      observational studies, both with substantial heterogeneity. However, subgroup
      analysis excluding low-quality observational studies did not achieve statistical
      significance. CONCLUSION: Pooled analysis of randomized trials indicates early
      initiation of RRT is not associated with lower mortality rates. The potential
      benefit of reduced mortality associated with early initiation of RRT was limited
      to low-quality observational studies.

PMID- 28569130
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Electroacupuncture in Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acupuncture treatment has been employed in China for over 2500 years
      and it is used worldwide as analgesia in acute and chronic pain. Acupuncture is
      also used in general anesthesia (GA). The aim of this systematic review and meta
      analysis was to assess the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in addition to GA
      in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS: We searched 3 databases (Pubmed,
      Cochrane Library, and Web of Science-from 1965 until January 31, 2017) for
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including patients undergoing cardiac surgery
      and receiving GA alone or GA + EA. As primary outcomes, we investigated the
      association between GA + EA approach and the dosage of intraoperative anesthetic
      drugs administered, the duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), the
      postoperative dose of vasoactive drugs, the length of intensive care unit (ICU)
      and hospital stay, and the levels of troponin I and cytokines. RESULTS: The
      initial search yielded 477 citations, but only 7 prospective RCTs enrolling a
      total of 321 patients were included. The use of GA + EA reduced the dosage of
      intraoperative anesthetic drugs ( P < .05), leading to shorter MV time ( P < .01)
      and ICU stay ( P < .05) as well as reduced postoperative dose of vasoactive drugs
      ( P < .001). In addition, significantly lower levels of troponin I ( P < .01) and
      tumor necrosis factor alpha ( P < .01) were observed. CONCLUSION: The
      complementary use of EA for open-heart surgery reduces the duration of MV and ICU
      stay, blunts the inflammatory response, and might have protective effects on the
      heart. Our findings stimulate future RCT to provide definitive recommendations.

PMID- 28569131
TI  - Safety of Phenylephrine Infusion Through Peripheral Intravenous Catheter in the
      Neurological Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The traditional approach for infusing vasopressors is to insert
      central venous catheters, which is associated with several complications.
      Phenylephrine is a commonly used vasopressor in the neurologic intensive care
      unit (neuro ICU), and due to its modest potency, the risk of local tissue injury
      from extravasation may be overestimated. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate the safety of phenylephrine infusion through peripheral intravenous
      catheter (PIV) in the neuro ICU. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of
      all consecutive adults admitted to the neuro ICU receiving phenylephrine infusion
      via PIV at a tertiary academic medical center from September 2012 to November
      2015. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-seven patients with a mean age of 65 years
      (standard deviation [SD]: +/-15) were included in the final analysis. The most
      common indications for phenylephrine use were hemodynamic augmentation (40%) and
      postoperative hypotension (32%). The most common location of PIV-infusing
      phenylephrine was proximal upper extremity (50%). The most common PIV gauge was
      20 (41%). The mean maximum dose of phenylephrine was 79 MUg/min (SD: +/-53,
      range: 5-200) or 1.04 MUg/kg/min (SD: +/-0.74, range: 0.07-3.49) and was
      continued for a mean duration of 19 hours (SD: +/-18, range: 1-129). Nine (3%)
      total episodes of PIV infiltration were noted, none requiring intervention for
      significant tissue injury or limb ischemia. CONCLUSION: Infusion of phenylephrine
      through PIV is safe when used in moderate doses for a short time and can be
      considered in lieu of placing a central line solely for this purpose.

PMID- 28569132
TI  - A Pilot Study of the Use of Dexmedetomidine for the Control of Delirium by
      Reducing the Serum Concentrations of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Neuron
      Specific Enolase, and S100B in Polytrauma Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delirium is very common among patients with polytrauma, although no
      suitable means exist to feasibly reduce the incidence and duration of delirium in
      these patients. Recent reports have suggested that continuous intravenous (IV)
      infusions of dexmedetomidine, rather than benzodiazepine, be administered for
      sedation to reduce the duration of delirium in this population. However, serum
      neuron-specific enolase (NSE), S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), and brain
      derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels have not yet been investigated in
      polytrauma patients who received sedation with dexmedetomidine rather than other
      conventional sedatives. The aim of this study was to assess the association of
      blood BDNF, NSE, and S100B with the occurrence of delirium among polytrauma
      patients who had been sedated with dexmedetomidine. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Consecutive patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment study groups,
      namely the "dexmedetomidine group" or the "common group." This case-control study
      included 18 patients with delirium and 34 matched controls in a 63-bed general
      intensive care unit (ICU). Blood samples were collected from all patients upon
      ICU admission, on the day when delirium was diagnosed, and on days 3 and 5
      following diagnosis. The serum levels of S100B, BDNF, and NSE were determined by
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The sedation levels and delirium were assessed
      using the Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale and the Confusion Assessment
      Method for the ICU. RESULTS: The median BDNF, NSE, and S100B concentrations were
      significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine group than in the common group on the
      day when delirium was diagnosed and on the third day after delirium was
      diagnosed. The rate of delirium was significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine
      group than in the common group. There were clear differences in the BDNF, NSE,
      and S100B levels between the 2 groups on the fifth day after delirium was
      diagnosed. CONCLUSIONS: Our randomized controlled study suggests that the
      sedation of polytrauma patients with dexmedetomidine could help reduce the serum
      BDNF, S100B, and NSE levels, which appear to be associated with the occurrence of
      delirium in the dexmedetomidine group.

PMID- 28569133
TI  - Defining the ABC of gene essentiality in streptococci.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Utilising next generation sequencing to interrogate saturated
      bacterial mutant libraries provides unprecedented information for the assignment
      of genome-wide gene essentiality. Exposure of saturated mutant libraries to
      specific conditions and subsequent sequencing can be exploited to uncover gene
      essentiality relevant to the condition. Here we present a barcoded transposon
      directed insertion-site sequencing (TraDIS) system to define an essential gene
      list for Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, the causative agent of strangles in
      horses, for the first time. The gene essentiality data for this group C
      Streptococcus was compared to that of group A and B streptococci. RESULTS: Six
      barcoded variants of pGh9:ISS1 were designed and used to generate mutant
      libraries containing between 33,000-66,000 unique mutants. TraDIS was performed
      on DNA extracted from each library and data were analysed separately and as a
      combined master pool. Gene essentiality determined that 19.5% of the S. equi
      genome was essential. Gene essentialities were compared to those of group A and
      group B streptococci, identifying concordances of 90.2% and 89.4%, respectively
      and an overall concordance of 83.7% between the three species. CONCLUSIONS: The
      use of barcoded pGh9:ISS1 to generate mutant libraries provides a highly useful
      tool for the assignment of gene function in S. equi and other streptococci. The
      shared essential gene set of group A, B and C streptococci provides further
      evidence of the close genetic relationships between these important pathogenic
      bacteria. Therefore, the ABC of gene essentiality reported here provides a solid
      foundation towards reporting the functional genome of streptococci.

PMID- 28569134
TI  - Incidence and outcome of severe ante-partum hemorrhage at the Teaching Hospital
      Yalgado Ouedraogo in Burkina Faso.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemorrhage is the main cause of maternal death during pregnancy. This
      study aims to evaluate incidence and outcomes of Severe Ante Partum Hemorrhage
      (SAPH) during the third trimester of pregnancy prior to delivery. METHODS:
      Analytical cross-sectional study with prospective data collection during 12
      months in Yalgado Ouedraogo Hospital, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In this context
      SAPH is specifically referring to Ante Partum Hemorrhage (APH) and Intra Partum
      Hemorrhage (IPH) in the 3rd trimester. Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH) was not
      included. RESULTS: During our study 7,469 women were admitted in obstetrics and
      122 cases of SAPH were recorded. SAPH represented 1.6% (n = 122) of
      hospitalizations causes and 14.5% (n = 1083) of hemorrhages during pregnancy.
      Mean age was 27.8 +/- 6.9 years, mean parity 2.8 +/- 1.3 and mean duration of
      pregnancy was 37 Weeks Amenorrhea (WA). Evacuation from other facilities was the
      main mode of admission (91.8%, n = 112) and blood transfusion was the essence of
      resuscitation. Complications were observed in 80.3% (n = 98). During the study,
      118 maternal deaths were reported of which 15.6% (n = 19) related to SAPH. Among
      SAPH cases who died (n = 19) majority (n = 16) had severe anemia (n = 16; 82.6%,
      p = 0.004). Ten women (8.19%) were admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Fifteen
      premature births (12.3%) and 22 perinatal deaths (18.1%) were recorded.
      Evacuation (p = 0.04), critical clinical condition during admission (p = 0.004),
      and Uterine Rupture (UR) (p = 0.002) were associated with poor outcome. The
      Retroplacental Hemorrhage (RPH) (40.9%) was the most common cause of fetal death
      (p = 0.005) and was associated with High Blood Pressure (HBP) and pre-eclampsia.
      CONCLUSION: APH is a complication associated with significant maternal and fetal
      morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28569135
TI  - Intervene: a tool for intersection and visualization of multiple gene or genomic
      region sets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A common task for scientists relies on comparing lists of genes or
      genomic regions derived from high-throughput sequencing experiments. While
      several tools exist to intersect and visualize sets of genes, similar tools
      dedicated to the visualization of genomic region sets are currently limited.
      RESULTS: To address this gap, we have developed the Intervene tool, which
      provides an easy and automated interface for the effective intersection and
      visualization of genomic region or list sets, thus facilitating their analysis
      and interpretation. Intervene contains three modules: venn to generate Venn
      diagrams of up to six sets, upset to generate UpSet plots of multiple sets, and
      pairwise to compute and visualize intersections of multiple sets as clustered
      heat maps. Intervene, and its interactive web ShinyApp companion, generate
      publication-quality figures for the interpretation of genomic region and list
      sets. CONCLUSIONS: Intervene and its web application companion provide an easy
      command line and an interactive web interface to compute intersections of
      multiple genomic and list sets. They have the capacity to plot intersections
      using easy-to-interpret visual approaches. Intervene is developed and designed to
      meet the needs of both computer scientists and biologists. The source code is
      freely available at https://bitbucket.org/CBGR/intervene , with the web
      application available at https://asntech.shinyapps.io/intervene .

PMID- 28569136
TI  - Molecular differences in susceptibility of the kidney to sepsis-induced kidney
      injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Septic acute kidney injury affects 40-50% of all septic patients.
      Molecular differences between septic patients with and without acute kidney
      injury (AKI) are only poorly understood. Here, we investigated gene expression
      changes that differentiated the subjects who developed septic AKI from those who
      did not and coupled this approach with traditional parameters of renal
      physiology. METHODS: In 15 anesthetized, mechanically ventilated and instrumented
      pigs, progressive sepsis was induced either by peritonitis or by continuous
      intravenous infusion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Animals received standard
      intensive care including goal-directed hemodynamic management. Analyses were
      performed on kidneys from sham operated animals, septic pigs without AKI, and
      pigs with septic AKI. Before, and at 12, 18 and 22 h of progressive sepsis,
      systemic and renal hemodynamics, cortex microcirculation and plasma IL-6 and TNF
      alpha were measured. At 22 h whole kidney expression of pre-selected genes was
      analyzed by quantitative Real Time PCR. RESULTS: Animals with septic AKI had
      systemic hemodynamic phenotype (normo- or hyperdynamic) comparable with non-AKI
      subjects, but demonstrated higher plasma levels of cytokines, an increase in
      renal vascular resistance and early fall in cortical microcirculatory blood flow.
      The genes whose expression discriminated septic AKI from non-AKI included Toll
      like receptor 4 (up-regulated 2.7-fold, P = 0.04); Cyclooxygenase-2 (up-regulated
      14.6-fold, P = 0.01), Angiotensin II Receptor (up-regulated 8.1-fold, P = 0.01),
      Caspase 3 (up-regulated 5.1-fold, P = 0.02), Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated
      Receptor Gamma, Coactivator 1 Alpha (down-regulated 2-fold, P = 0.02).
      CONCLUSIONS: In this preliminary experimental study, kidney gene expression was
      profoundly different in animals that developed septic AKI as opposed to septic
      animals that did not. The biological functions of the genes differentially
      expressed support a role of inflammatory overstimulation coupled with metabolic
      and apoptotic molecular responses in early septic AKI. Cyclooxygenase-2 and
      angiotensin type 2 receptor-dependent downstream mechanisms appear fruitful
      targets for future mechanistic research.

PMID- 28569137
TI  - Optimal timing of cholecystectomy after percutaneous gallbladder drainage for
      severe cholecystitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Tokyo guideline for acute cholecystitis recommended percutaneous
      transhepatic gallbladder drainage followed by cholecystectomy for severe acute
      cholecystitis, but the optimal timing for the subsequent cholecystectomy remains
      controversial. METHODS: Sixty-seven patients who underwent either laparoscopic or
      open cholecystectomy after percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage for
      severe acute cholecystitis were enrolled and divided into difficult
      cholecystectomy (group A) and non-difficult cholecystectomy (group B). Patients
      who had one of these conditions were placed in group A: 1) conversion from
      laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy; 2) subtotal cholecystectomy and/or
      mucoclasis; 3) necrotizing cholecystitis or pericholecystic abscess formation; 4)
      tight adhesions around the gallbladder neck; and 5) unsuccessfully treated using
      PTGBD. Preoperative characteristics and postoperative outcomes were analyzed.
      RESULTS: The interval between percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage and
      cholecystectomy in Group B was longer than that in Group A (631 h vs. 325 h; p =
      0.031). Postoperative complications occurred more frequently when the interval
      was less than 216 h compared to when it was more than 216 h (35.7 vs. 7.6%; p =
      0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Cholecystectomy for severe acute cholecystitis was
      technically difficult when performed within 216 h after percutaneous transhepatic
      gallbladder drainage.

PMID- 28569139
TI  - Genomic prediction in early selection stages using multi-year data in a hybrid
      rye breeding program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of multiple genetic backgrounds across years is appealing for
      genomic prediction (GP) because past years' data provide valuable information on
      marker effects. Nonetheless, single-year GP models are less complex and
      computationally less demanding than multi-year GP models. In devising a suitable
      analysis strategy for multi-year data, we may exploit the fact that even if there
      is no replication of genotypes across years, there is plenty of replication at
      the level of marker loci. Our principal aim was to evaluate different GP
      approaches to simultaneously model genotype-by-year (GY) effects and breeding
      values using multi-year data in terms of predictive ability. The models were
      evaluated under different scenarios reflecting common practice in plant breeding
      programs, such as different degrees of relatedness between training and
      validation sets, and using a selected fraction of genotypes in the training set.
      We used empirical grain yield data of a rye hybrid breeding program. A detailed
      description of the prediction approaches highlighting the use of kinship for
      modeling GY is presented. RESULTS: Using the kinship to model GY was advantageous
      in particular for datasets disconnected across years. On average, predictive
      abilities were 5% higher for models using kinship to model GY over models without
      kinship. We confirmed that using data from multiple selection stages provides
      valuable GY information and helps increasing predictive ability. This increase is
      on average 30% higher when the predicted genotypes are closely related with the
      genotypes in the training set. A selection of top-yielding genotypes together
      with the use of kinship to model GY improves the predictive ability in datasets
      composed of single years of several selection cycles. CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      clearly demonstrate that the use of multi-year data and appropriate modeling is
      beneficial for GP because it allows dissecting GY effects from genomic estimated
      breeding values. The model choice, as well as ensuring that the predicted
      candidates are sufficiently related to the genotypes in the training set, are
      crucial.

PMID- 28569138
TI  - Identification of candidate genes for fiber length quantitative trait loci
      through RNA-Seq and linkage and physical mapping in cotton.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cotton (Gossypium spp.) fibers are single-celled elongated trichomes,
      the molecular aspects of genetic variation in fiber length (FL) among genotypes
      are currently unknown. In this study, two backcross inbred lines (BILs), i.e.,
      NMGA-062 ("Long") and NMGA-105 ("Short") with 32.1 vs. 27.2 mm in FL,
      respectively, were chosen to perform RNA-Seq on developing fibers at 10 days post
      anthesis (DPA). The two BILs differed in 4 quantitative trait loci (QTL) for FL
      and were developed from backcrosses between G. hirsutum as the recurrent parent
      and G. barbadense. RESULTS: In total, 51.7 and 54.3 million reads were obtained
      and assembled to 49,508 and 49,448 transcripts in the two genotypes,
      respectively. Of 1 551 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two
      BILs, 678 were up-regulated and 873 down-regulated in "Long"; and 703 SNPs were
      identified in 339 DEGs. Further physical mapping showed that 8 DEGs were co
      localized with the 4 FL QTL identified in the BIL population containing the two
      BILs. Four SNP markers in 3 DEGs that showed significant correlations with FL
      were developed. Among the three candidate genes encoding for proline-rich
      protein, D-cysteine desulfhydrase, and thaumatin-like protein, a SNP of thaumatin
      like protein gene showed consistent correlations with FL across all testing
      environments. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents one of the first investigations
      of positional candidate gene approach of QTL in cotton in integrating
      transcriptome and SNP identification based on RNA-Seq with linkage and physical
      mapping of QTL and genes, which will facilitate eventual cloning and
      identification of genes responsible for FL QTL. The candidate genes may serve as
      the foundation for further in-depth studies of the molecular mechanism of natural
      variation in fiber elongation.

PMID- 28569140
TI  - An evaluation of copy number variation detection tools for cancer using whole
      exome sequencing data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently copy number variation (CNV) has gained considerable interest
      as a type of genomic/genetic variation that plays an important role in disease
      susceptibility. Advances in sequencing technology have created an opportunity for
      detecting CNVs more accurately. Recently whole exome sequencing (WES) has become
      primary strategy for sequencing patient samples and study their genomics
      aberrations. However, compared to whole genome sequencing, WES introduces more
      biases and noise that make CNV detection very challenging. Additionally, tumors'
      complexity makes the detection of cancer specific CNVs even more difficult.
      Although many CNV detection tools have been developed since introducing NGS data,
      there are few tools for somatic CNV detection for WES data in cancer. RESULTS: In
      this study, we evaluated the performance of the most recent and commonly used CNV
      detection tools for WES data in cancer to address their limitations and provide
      guidelines for developing new ones. We focused on the tools that have been
      designed or have the ability to detect cancer somatic aberrations. We compared
      the performance of the tools in terms of sensitivity and false discovery rate
      (FDR) using real data and simulated data. Comparative analysis of the results of
      the tools showed that there is a low consensus among the tools in calling CNVs.
      Using real data, tools show moderate sensitivity (~50% - ~80%), fair specificity
      (~70% - ~94%) and poor FDRs (~27% - ~60%). Also, using simulated data we observed
      that increasing the coverage more than 10* in exonic regions does not improve the
      detection power of the tools significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The limited performance
      of the current CNV detection tools for WES data in cancer indicates the need for
      developing more efficient and precise CNV detection methods. Due to the
      complexity of tumors and high level of noise and biases in WES data, employing
      advanced novel segmentation, normalization and de-noising techniques that are
      designed specifically for cancer data is necessary. Also, CNV detection
      development suffers from the lack of a gold standard for performance evaluation.
      Finally, developing tools with user-friendly user interfaces and visualization
      features can enhance CNV studies for a broader range of users.

PMID- 28569141
TI  - Disease burden and antimicrobial resistance of invasive group B streptococcus
      among infants in China: a protocol for a national prospective observational
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a cause of neonatal sepsis, pneumonia,
      and meningitis that can lead to neurological sequelae in infants less than 3
      months of age. The GBS disease burden is not known in China, therefore it cannot
      receive major attention. The main objectives of this study are the evaluation of
      the incidence of neonatal GBS infection, GBS case-fatality ratio, its serotypes
      and genotypes, bacterial resistance, clinical treatment and outcomes in China.
      METHODS: We are conducting a nation-wide, population-based, multi-center,
      prospective, observational cohort study in China from May 2016 to December 2017.
      Eighteen large urban tertiary care hospitals from 16 provinces were selected that
      cover the eastern, southern, western, northern and central regions of China.
      Meanwhile, we retrospectively collected data and GBS strains from January 2015 to
      April 2016 from selected hospitals. The incidence rate per 1000 live births will
      be defined as the total number of confirmed GBS cases born in the selected
      hospitals divided by the number of live births in the hospitals during the study
      period. All GBS cases detected in selected hospitals will be used to calculate
      the case-fatality ratio and for the typing analysis. GBS isolates will be
      serotyped using the Strep-B-Latex(r) rapid latex agglutination test for
      serotyping of Group B streptococci. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) will be
      performed by sequencing the internal fragments of seven house-keeping genes.
      Antimicrobial susceptibility will be tested per interpretive standards
      established by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The presence of
      the common resistance genes ermA, ermB, mefA, tetI, tetO and tetM will be tested
      by PCR. DISCUSSION: We are conducting the first national study to estimate the
      invasive GBS disease burden and antimicrobial resistance of GBS among infants in
      China. Study findings will provide important evidence for improving clinical
      practice to ensure timely diagnosis of GBS disease and decisions for preventive
      measures. Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance will promote the rational use
      of antimicrobials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was retrospectively registered
      at http://clinicaltrials.gov on June 13, 2016. It was granted a registration
      number of "NCT02812576".

PMID- 28569142
TI  - Bacterial vaginosis, human papilloma virus and herpes viridae do not predict
      vaginal HIV RNA shedding in women living with HIV in Denmark.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) has been found to be associated with HIV
      acquisition and transmission. This is suggested to be due to higher HIV RNA
      levels in cervicovaginal fluids in women living with HIV (WLWH) with BV, as
      bacteria associated with BV may induce viral replication and shedding in the
      genital tract despite undetectable HIV RNA plasma viral load. We examined the
      prevalence and diagnostic predictors of BV and HIV-1 RNA vaginal shedding in
      women living with HIV (WLWH) in Denmark, taking into account the presence of
      human papillomavirus (HPV) and herpes viridae. METHODS: WLWH between 18-51 years
      were recruited from six Departments of Infectious Diseases in Denmark during
      enrolment in the SHADE cohort; a prospective cohort study of WLWH attending
      regular outpatient care. BV was diagnosed by microscopy of vaginal swabs and PCR
      was used for detection of BV-associated bacteria, HPV, herpes viridae, and
      vaginal HIV viral load. RESULTS: Median age of the 150 included women was 41
      years; ethnicity was predominantly White (35%) or Black (47%). The majority (96%)
      was on ART and had undetectable (85%) plasma HIV RNA (<40 copies/mL). BV was
      diagnosed in 32%. Overall, 11% had detectable vaginal HIV RNA. Both before and
      after adjustment for BV, age, ethnicity, plasma HIV RNA, CD4 cell count, herpes
      viridae and HPV, we found no significant predictors of HIV RNA vaginal shedding.
      CONCLUSION: In well-treated WLWH, BV, herpes viridae or HPV do not predict
      vaginal HIV RNA shedding. This implies that HIV shedding does not seem to be
      increased by BV.

PMID- 28569143
TI  - Spondylodiscitis in a healthy 12-year-old girl with Extraintestinal pathogenic
      Escherichia coli (ExPEC) bacteraemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Escherichia coli (E. coli) is rarely implicated in bone or joint
      infections in children. CASE PRESENTATION: We discuss the case of a healthy 12
      year-old girl with an E. coli bacteraemia and a T11-T12 spondylodiscitis revealed
      by magnetic resonance imaging. The strain harboured serogroup O1:K1 and virulence
      factors common to highly virulent extra intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC).
      Immunological work-up was normal. CONCLUSION: The identification of E. coli in a
      spondylodiscitis should lead to the search for immunosuppression of the host and
      virulence factors of the strain, particularly those of ExPEC.

PMID- 28569144
TI  - The incidence, risk factors and in-hospital mortality of acute kidney injury in
      patients after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a severe complication associated with
      abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. In this study, we evaluated the
      incidence, risk factors and in-hospital mortality of AKI in patients after the
      AAA repair surgery. METHODS: A total of 314 Chinese AAA patients who underwent
      endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) or open aneurysm repair (OPEN) were enrolled
      in this study. AKI was diagnosed according to the 2012 KDIGO criteria. Logistic
      regression modeling was used to explore risk factors of AKI, while risk factors
      associated with in-hospital mortality in AKI patients were investigated using Cox
      proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier analysis, respectively.
      Multicollinearity analysis was performed to identify the collinearity between the
      variables before logistic regression analysis and Cox proportional hazards
      analysis. RESULTS: Among 314 patients, 94 (29.9%) developed AKI after AAA repair
      surgery. Severity of AKI and ruptured AAA were independently associated with an
      increase in in-hospital mortality in AKI patients after AAA repair. Kaplan-Meier
      analysis identified severity of AKI as being negatively associated with hospital
      survival in AKI patients. Risk factors associated with AKI included
      cardiovascular disease (OR 3.169, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.538 to 6.527, P
      = 0.002), decreased eGFR (OR 0.965, 95%CI 0.954 to 0.977, P < 0.001), ruptured
      AAA (OR 2.717, 95%CI 1.320 to 5.592, P = 0.007), renal artery involvement (OR
      2.903, 95%CI 1.219 to 6.912, P = 0.016) and OPEN (OR 2.094, 95%CI 1.048 to 4.183,
      P = 0.036). Further subgroup analysis identified OPEN as an important risk factor
      of AKI in ruptured AAA patients but not in ruptured AAA patients. The incidence
      of AKI was significantly lower in EVAR than in OPEN (27.1% vs. 42.8%) and,
      similarly lower in nonruptured AAA than in ruptured AAA (26.2% vs. 48.1%).
      CONCLUSION: One-third of AAA patients developed AKI after repair surgery.
      Severity of AKI was associated with reduced survival rate in AAA patients who
      developed postoperative AKI. Decreased preoperative creatinine clearance,
      cardiovascular disease, ruptured AAA and OPEN were independent risk factors for
      postoperative AKI in all 314 AAA patients. Although a lower rate of incident AKI
      was observed in EVAR compared with OPEN, subgroup analysis of ruptured AAA versus
      nonruptured AAA showed that EVAR was an independent protective factor for AKI
      only in ruptured AAA patients but not in nonruptured AAA patients.

PMID- 28569145
TI  - Spatial-temporal distribution of genotyped tuberculosis cases in a county with
      active transmission.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Harris County, Texas is the third most populous county in the United
      States and consistently has tuberculosis rates above the national average.
      Understanding jurisdictional epidemiologic characteristics for the most common
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotyped clusters is needed for tuberculosis
      prevention programs. Our objective is to describe the demographic, laboratory,
      clinical, temporal and geospatial characteristics for the most common
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis GENType clusters in Harris County from 2009 to 2015.
      METHODS: We analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
      (CDC) Tuberculosis Genotyping Information Management System (TB GIMS). Chi-square
      analyses were used to determine associations between selected clusters and
      specific characteristics of interest. Geographical Information System (GIS) point
      density and hot spot maps were generated and analyzed with ArcGIS 10.4. RESULTS:
      In Harris County from 2009 to 2015, 1655 of 1705 (97.1%) culture positive
      tuberculosis cases were genotyped and assigned a GENType, and 1058 different
      GENTypes were identified. The analyzed genotype clusters represent 14.1%
      (233/1655) of all genotyped cases: G00010 (n = 118), G00014 (n = 38), G00769 (n =
      33), G01521 (n = 26), and G08964 (n = 18). Male gender (p = 0.002), ethnicity (p
      < 0.001), homelessness (p < 0.001), excessive alcohol use (p = 0.002), and U.S.
      birth (p = 0.004) were associated with the 5 GENTypes. Hot and cold spots were
      identified as geographic areas having high and low TB incidence. CONCLUSIONS: Of
      more than 1000 distinct GENTypes identified in Harris County, there were 5 common
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis GENType clusters seen from 2009 to 2015. The common
      genotypes were observed primarily in U.S.-born populations despite the large
      foreign-born population residing in Harris County. GENType was significant
      distributed spatially and temporally in Harris County in the analyzed time period
      indicating that there may be outbreaks caused by transmission.

PMID- 28569146
TI  - Clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes of neuroendocrine tumors of
      ampulla of Vater.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study aims to investigate the clinicopathological features and
      surgical outcomes of neuroendocrine tumors of ampulla of Vater (NETAoVs) patients
      who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy. METHODS: From January 2007 to December
      2014, 45 patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for malignant disease of the
      ampulla of Vater in our institution. Of those, 5 patients were diagnosed as
      neuroendocrine tumors. The data included age, sex, presenting symptoms,
      preoperative imaging, preoperative type of biopsy results, type of operation,
      pathologic findings and survival status. RESULTS: The patient's mean age was 55.2
      +/- 9.7 years. Endoscopic ultrasound guided biopsy was performed in 4 patients
      and gastroduodenoscopic biopsy was performed in one patient. All showed
      neuroendocrine tumor without mitosis. Mean tumor size was 1.9 +/- 0.56 cm (range,
      1.2-2.0 cm). Lymph node metastases were detected in two patients. All patients
      were synaptophysin-positive. Median periods of follow-up were 45 months (range,
      43-78 months). Recurrence after operation occurred in two patients. 4 patients
      were alive at the last follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Radical resection for NETAoVs can
      provide the information of status of lymph node metastasis after surgery.
      However, correlation between lymph node metastasis and overall survival is
      uncertain to date.

PMID- 28569147
TI  - Serendipitous discovery of light-induced (In Situ) formation of an Azo-bridged
      dimeric sulfonated naphthol as a potent PTP1B inhibitor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) like dual specificity
      phosphatase 5 (DUSP5) and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) are drug
      targets for diseases that include cancer, diabetes, and vascular disorders such
      as hemangiomas. The PTPs are also known to be notoriously difficult targets for
      designing inihibitors that become viable drug leads. Therefore, the pipeline for
      approved drugs in this class is minimal. Furthermore, drug screening for targets
      like PTPs often produce false positive and false negative results. RESULTS:
      Studies presented herein provide important insights into: (a) how to detect such
      artifacts, (b) the importance of compound re-synthesis and verification, and (c)
      how in situ chemical reactivity of compounds, when diagnosed and characterized,
      can actually lead to serendipitous discovery of valuable new lead molecules.
      Initial docking of compounds from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), followed
      by experimental testing in enzyme inhibition assays, identified an inhibitor of
      DUSP5. Subsequent control experiments revealed that this compound demonstrated
      time-dependent inhibition, and also a time-dependent change in color of the
      inhibitor that correlated with potency of inhibition. In addition, the compound
      activity varied depending on vendor source. We hypothesized, and then confirmed
      by synthesis of the compound, that the actual inhibitor of DUSP5 was a dimeric
      form of the original inhibitor compound, formed upon exposure to light and
      oxygen. This compound has an IC50 of 36 MUM for DUSP5, and is a competitive
      inhibitor. Testing against PTP1B, for selectivity, demonstrated the dimeric
      compound was actually a more potent inhibitor of PTP1B, with an IC50 of 2.1 MUM.
      The compound, an azo-bridged dimer of sulfonated naphthol rings, resembles
      previously reported PTP inhibitors, but with 18-fold selectivity for PTP1B versus
      DUSP5. CONCLUSION: We report the identification of a potent PTP1B inhibitor that
      was initially identified in a screen for DUSP5, implying common mechanism of
      inhibitory action for these scaffolds.

PMID- 28569148
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy and usefulness of the Genotype MTBDRplus assay in diagnosing
      multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Cameroon? a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug-resistant tuberculosis, especially multidrug-resistant
      tuberculosis (MDR-TB), is a major public health problem. Effective management of
      MDR-TB relies on accurate and rapid diagnosis. In this study, we assessed the
      diagnostic accuracy of the Genotype MTBDRplus assay in diagnosing MDR-TB in
      Cameroon, and then discuss on its utility within the diagnostic algorithm for MDR
      TB. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 225 isolates of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis cultured from sputum samples collected from new and previously
      treated pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Cameroon were used to determine the
      accuracy of the Genotype MTBDRplus assay. We compared the results of the Genotype
      MTBDRplus assay with those from the automated liquid culture BACTEC MGIT 960 SIRE
      system for sensitivity, specificity, and degree of agreement. The pattern of
      mutations associated with resistance to RIF and INH were also analyzed. RESULTS:
      The Genotype MTBDRplus assay correctly identified Rifampicin (RIF) resistance in
      48/49 isolates (sensitivity, 98% [CI, 89%-100%]), Isoniazid (INH) resistance in
      55/60 isolates (sensitivity 92% [CI, 82%-96%]), and MDR-TB in 46/49 (sensitivity,
      94% [CI, 83%-98%]). The specificity for the detection of RIF-resistant and MDR-TB
      cases was 100% (CI, 98%-100%), while that of INH resistance was 99% (CI, 97%
      100%). The agreement between the two tests for the detection of MDR-TB was very
      good (Kappa = 0.96 [CI, 0.92-1.00]). Among the 3 missed MDR-TB cases, the
      Genotype MTBDRplus assay classified two samples as RIF-monoresistant and one as
      INH monoresistant. The most frequent mutations detected by the Genotype MTBDRplus
      assay was the rpoB S531 L MUT3 41/49 (84%) in RIF-resistant isolates, and the
      KatG S315 T1 (MUT1) 35/55 (64%) and inhA C15T (MUT1) 20/55 (36%) mutations in INH
      resistant isolates. CONCLUSION: The Genotype MTBDRplus assay had good accuracy
      and could be used for the diagnosis of MDR-TB in Cameroon. For routine MDR-TB
      diagnosis, this assay could be used for Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures
      containing contaminants, to complement culture-based drug susceptibility testing
      or to determine drug resistant mutations.

PMID- 28569150
TI  - Heterologous expression of pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster using
      Streptomyces artificial chromosome system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters of natural
      microbial products has become an essential strategy for titer improvement and
      pathway engineering of various potentially-valuable natural products. A
      Streptomyces artificial chromosomal conjugation vector, pSBAC, was previously
      successfully applied for precise cloning and tandem integration of a large
      polyketide tautomycetin (TMC) biosynthetic gene cluster (Nah et al. in Microb
      Cell Fact 14(1):1, 2015), implying that this strategy could be employed to
      develop a custom overexpression scheme of natural product pathway clusters
      present in actinomycetes. RESULTS: To validate the pSBAC system as a generally
      applicable heterologous overexpression system for a large-sized polyketide
      biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces, another model polyketide compound, the
      pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster, was preciously cloned and heterologously
      expressed using the pSBAC system. A unique HindIII restriction site was precisely
      inserted at one of the border regions of the pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster
      within the chromosome of Streptomyces venezuelae, followed by site-specific
      recombination of pSBAC into the flanking region of the pikromycin gene cluster.
      Unlike the previous cloning process, one HindIII site integration step was
      skipped through pSBAC modification. pPik001, a pSBAC containing the pikromycin
      biosynthetic gene cluster, was directly introduced into two heterologous hosts,
      Streptomyces lividans and Streptomyces coelicolor, resulting in the production of
      10-deoxymethynolide, a major pikromycin derivative. When two entire pikromycin
      biosynthetic gene clusters were tandemly introduced into the S. lividans
      chromosome, overproduction of 10-deoxymethynolide and the presence of pikromycin,
      which was previously not detected, were both confirmed. Moreover, comparative qRT
      PCR results confirmed that the transcription of pikromycin biosynthetic genes was
      significantly upregulated in S. lividans containing tandem clusters of pikromycin
      biosynthetic gene clusters. CONCLUSIONS: The 60 kb pikromycin biosynthetic gene
      cluster was isolated in a single integration pSBAC vector. Introduction of the
      pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster into the pikromycin non-producing strains
      resulted in higher pikromycin production. The utility of the pSBAC system as a
      precise cloning tool for large-sized biosynthetic gene clusters was verified
      through heterologous expression of the pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster.
      Moreover, this pSBAC-driven heterologous expression strategy was confirmed to be
      an ideal approach for production of low and inconsistent natural products such as
      pikromycin in S. venezuelae, implying that this strategy could be employed for
      development of a custom overexpression scheme of natural product biosynthetic
      gene clusters in actinomycetes.

PMID- 28569149
TI  - Psychometric properties of the mammography self-efficacy and fear of breast
      cancer scales in Iranian women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research investigating mammography screening has often reported low
      mammography self-efficacy and breast cancer fear contribute to underutilization
      of mammography. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of
      Champion's Mammography Self-efficacy Scale (CMSS) and Champion's Breast Cancer
      Fear Scale (CBCFS) in a sample of Iranian women. METHODS: The adapted instruments
      were administered to a community sample of 482 women aged 40 years or older. They
      inhibited in Sanandaj, Iran. Cronbach's alpha coefficients, item-total, and test
      retest correlations were used to assess the reliability of the scales.
      Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to assess construct validity. RESULTS:
      The alpha coefficients for the Farsi 14-item CMSS and 8-item BCFS were .87
      and.95, respectively. In terms of the CMSS confirmatory factor analysis, the
      proportion of x 2/df was 2.4, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.93, Tucker Lewis
      Index (TLI) = 0.96 providing a strong fit to the data induced by two-factor
      model. With regard to CBCFS, x 2/df was 86.33, CFI =0.99, and TLI =0.99
      supporting one-factor model. CONCLUSION: The CMSS and CBCFS exhibited strong
      initial psychometric properties; therefore, they are recommended to understand
      women's breast cancer screening behaviors better.

PMID- 28569151
TI  - Reliability, feasibility, and validity of the quality of interactions schedule
      (QuIS) in acute hospital care: an observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research into relational care in hospitals will be facilitated by a
      focus on staff-patient interactions. The Quality of Interactions Schedule (QuIS)
      uses independent observers to measure the number of staff-patient interactions
      within a healthcare context, and to rate these interactions as 'positive social';
      'positive care'; 'neutral'; 'negative protective'; or 'negative restrictive'.
      QuIS was developed as a research instrument in long term care settings and has
      since been used for quality improvement in acute care. Prior to this study, its
      use had not been standardised, and reliability and validity in acute care had not
      been established. METHODS: In 2014 and 2015 a three - phase study was undertaken
      to develop and test protocols for the use of QuIS across three acute wards within
      one NHS trust in England. The phases were: (1) A pilot of 16 h observation which
      developed implementation strategies for QuIS in this context; (2) training two
      observers and undertaking 16 h of paired observation to inform the development of
      training protocols; (3) training four nurses and two lay volunteers according to
      a finalised protocol followed by 36 h of paired observations to test inter-rater
      agreement. Additionally, patients were asked to rate interactions and to complete
      a shortened version of the Patient Evaluation of Emotional Care during
      Hospitalisation (PEECH) questionnaire. RESULTS: Protocols were developed for the
      use of QuIS in acute care. Patients experienced an average of 6.7
      interactions/patient/h (n = 447 interactions). There was close agreement between
      observers in relation to the number of interactions observed (Intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.97) and moderate to substantial agreement on
      the quality of interactions (absolute agreement 73%, kappa 0.53 to 0.62 depending
      on weighting scheme). There was 79% agreement (weighted kappa 0.40: P < 0.001;
      indicating fair agreement) between patients and observers over whether
      interactions were positive, negative or neutral. CONCLUSIONS: Observers using
      clear QuIS protocols can achieve levels of agreement that are acceptable for the
      use of QuIS as a research instrument. There is fair agreement between observers
      and patients' rating of interactions. Further research is needed to explore the
      relationship between QuIS measures and reported patient experience.

PMID- 28569152
TI  - Reliability and screening ability of the StarT Back screening tool in patients
      with low back pain in physiotherapy practice, a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is the most common reported musculoskeletal
      disorder, with large prevalence numbers and high costs. Focus on early
      identification of patients at risk of developing chronic LBP has increased. The
      Keele Start Back Tool (SBT) is a questionnaire aiming at screening prognostic
      indicators in LBP patients, categorizing patients into risk-groups and guide
      treatment. The aim of this study was to explore the Norwegian version of the SBT
      with regard to reliability of the SBT-scoring and the screening ability in LBP
      patients in primary care physiotherapy. METHODS: LBP patients answered a package
      of questionnaires twice, with 1-3 days in between, containing SBT, Hannover
      functional ability questionnaire, pain intensity questions and demographics. The
      relative and absolute reliability of SBT was calculated using intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC) and the smallest detectable change respectively.
      Independent sample t-tests were used for group comparisons. RESULTS: Fifty-two
      patients with LBP. Mean age (SD) was 45 (12) years and 62% were female. The ICC
      (95% CI) for SBT total score and psychosocial subscore was 0.89 (0.82, 0.94) and
      0.82 (0.70, 0.90) respectively. None of the participants were allocated to the
      high risk group. The medium risk group reported significantly more pain last week
      and more activity limitations than the low risk group at both test and retest
      (0.001 <= p <= 0.003), whereas no significant difference between the groups was
      found on pain now (0.05 <= p <= 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: The Norwegian version of the
      SBT was reliable and the screening ability was good as the subgrouping of
      patients into risk-groups reflected the severity of their back problems. The SBT
      may be an applicable and useful tool in physiotherapy practice.

PMID- 28569153
TI  - Aberrant monocyte responses predict and characterize dengue virus infection in
      individuals with severe disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, several assays can diagnose acute dengue infection.
      However, none of these assays can predict the severity of the disease. Biomarkers
      that predicts the likelihood that a dengue patient will develop a severe form of
      the disease could permit more efficient patient triage and allows better
      supportive care for the individual in need, especially during dengue outbreaks.
      METHODS: We measured 20 plasma markers i.e. IFN-gamma, IL-10, granzyme-B, CX3CL1,
      IP-10, RANTES, CXCL8, CXCL6, VCAM, ICAM, VEGF, HGF, sCD25, IL-18, LBP, sCD14,
      sCD163, MIF, MCP-1 and MIP-1beta in 141 dengue patients in over 230 specimens and
      correlate the levels of these plasma markers with the development of dengue
      without warning signs (DWS-), dengue with warning signs (DWS+) and severe dengue
      (SD). RESULTS: Our results show that the elevation of plasma levels of IL-18 at
      both febrile and defervescence phase was significantly associated with DWS+ and
      SD; whilst increase of sCD14 and LBP at febrile phase were associated with
      severity of dengue disease. By using receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      analysis, the IL-18, LBP and sCD14 were significantly predicted the development
      of more severe form of dengue disease (DWS+/SD) (AUC = 0.768, P < 0.0001; AUC =
      0.819, P < 0.0001 and AUC = 0.647, P = 0.014 respectively). Furthermore, we also
      found that the levels of VEGF were directly correlated and sCD14 was inversely
      correlated with platelet count, suggesting that the endothelial activation and
      microbial translocation may played a role in pathogenesis of dengue disease.
      CONCLUSIONS: Given that the elevation IL-18, LBP and sCD14 among patients with
      severe form of dengue disease, our findings suggest a pathogenic role for an
      aberrant inflammasome and monocyte activation in the development of severe form
      of dengue disease.

PMID- 28569154
TI  - Evaluation of the knowledge and attitude of pharmacists about the national
      malaria control policy in southern Benin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The national strategy against malaria in an endemic country should
      involve all the health stakeholders. In Benin, the private sector is rarely
      present in the activities of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), and
      its surveillance system does not cover private sector outlets that are a non
      negligible part of the healthcare system. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      describe the drug delivery practices within private pharmacies of Cotonou and
      Porto-Novo and the awareness of medicine providers concerning the national policy
      of malaria treatment. METHODS: A survey was performed among pharmacy staff
      members responsible for dispensing medicines and providing advice to patients
      within pharmacies of Cotonou and Porto-Novo. Dispensing/pharmacy assistants
      ('dispensators') from 82 pharmacies in Cotonou and 19 in Porto-Novo were
      surveyed. Data entry was performed using Epidata 3.1 software and data analysis
      was carried out using SPSS software version 21.1. Chi square test was used to
      compare proportions. A significance threshold of 0.05 was defined for the p
      value. RESULTS: 46% of providers did not know the artemisinin-based combination
      therapy recommended by the NMCP for treating uncomplicated malaria. 58.7% were
      not able to recognize the gravity signs of malaria. 89.8% of dispensators were
      used to deliver an anti-malarial upon patient request, without prior biological
      confirmation as requested by the NMCP policy. CONCLUSIONS: Dispensing practices
      within the studied pharmacies from Cotonou and Porto-Novo were not in adequacy
      with the NMCP guidelines for uncomplicated malaria, which is a striking weakness
      in the training of drug providers on key elements of the guidelines for managing
      malaria. The NMCP needs to help dispensator from private pharmacies sector to
      standardize drug delivery practices according to its guidelines.

PMID- 28569155
TI  - The effects of different velogenic NDV infections on the chicken bursa of
      Fabricius.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was reported to cause rapid
      depletion of chicken bursa of Fabricius. Severe pathological condition of the
      organ is commonly associated with high levels of virus replication, intense
      inflammatory response and also the degree of apoptosis. In this study, the
      responses of chicken bursa of Fabricius infected with two different strains of
      velogenic NDV, namely AF2240 and IBS002, were investigated by observing cell
      population changes, oxidative stress, viral replication and cytokine expression
      in the organ. Subsequently, apoptosis of enriched bursal IgM+ cells was
      determined to help us elucidate possible host pathogen relationships between the
      chicken bursa of Fabricius and NDV infection. RESULTS: The depletion of IgM+
      cells and infiltration of macrophages were observed to be higher in bursa
      infected with AF2240 as compared to IBS002. In line with the increment of the
      macrophage population, higher nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA)
      contents which indicated higher oxidative stress were also detected in bursa
      infected with NDV AF2240. In addition, higher pro-inflammatory cytokines and
      chemokine gene expression such as chicken CXCLi2, IL-18 and IFN-gamma were
      observed in AF2240 infected bursa. Depletion of IgM+ cells was further confirmed
      with increased cell death and apoptosis of the cells in AF2240 infected bursa as
      compared to IBS002. However, it was found that the viral load for NDV strain
      IBS002 was comparatively higher than AF2240 although the magnitude of the pro-
      inflammatory cytokines expression and cell apoptosis was lower than AF2240.
      CONCLUSION: The results of our study demonstrated that infection of NDV strains
      AF2240 and IBS002 caused apoptosis in bursa IgM+ cells and its severity was
      associated with increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokine,
      macrophage infiltration and oxidative stress as the infection duration was
      prolonged. However, of the two viruses, we observed that NDV AF2240 induced a
      greater magnitude of apoptosis in chicken bursa IgM+ cells in comparison to
      IBS002. This might be due to the high level of oxidative stress and inflammatory
      cytokines/chemokine as well as lower IL10 expression which subsequently led to a
      high rate of apoptosis in the chicken bursa of Fabricius although the detected
      viral load of AF2240 was lower than IBS002.

PMID- 28569156
TI  - How Chinese clinicians face ethical and social challenges in fecal microbiota
      transplantation: a questionnaire study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is reportedly the most
      effective therapy for relapsing Clostridium Difficile infection (CDI) and a
      potential therapeutic option for many diseases. It also poses important ethical
      concerns. This study is an attempt to assess clinicians' perception and attitudes
      towards ethical and social challenges raised by fecal microbiota transplantation.
      METHODS: A questionnaire was developed which consisted of 20 items: four items
      covered general aspects, nine were about ethical aspects such as informed consent
      and privacy issues, four concerned social and regulatory issues, and three were
      about an FMT bank. This was distributed to participants at the Second China
      gastroenterology and FMT conference in May 2015. Basic descriptive statistical
      analyses and simple comparative statistical tests were performed. RESULTS: Nearly
      three quarters of the 100 respondents were gastro-enterologist physicians. 89% of
      all respondents believed FMT is a promising treatment modality for some diseases
      and 88% of whom chose clinical efficacy as the primary reason for recommending
      FMT. High expectation from patients and pressure on clinicians (33%) was reported
      as the most frequent reasons for not recommending FMT. The clinicians who had
      less familiarity with FMT reported significantly more worry related to the
      dignity and psychological impact of FMT compared to those who have high
      familiarity with FMT (51.6% vs 27.8%, p = 0.021).More than half of the
      respondents (56.1%) were concerned about the commercialization of FMT, although
      almost one in five respondents did not see this as a problem. CONCLUSIONS: We
      found most respondents have positive attitudes towards FMT but low awareness of
      published evidence. Informed consent for vulnerable patients, privacy and
      protection of donors were perceived as the most challenging ethical aspects of
      FMT. This study identified areas of limited knowledge and ways of addressing
      ethical issues and indicates the need to devise the education and training for
      clinicians on FMT.

PMID- 28569157
TI  - Effects of sesamin on chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan synthesis induced by
      interleukin-1beta in human chondrocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have reported on the health benefits of sesamin, a
      major lignin found in sesame (S. indicum) seeds. Recently, sesamin was shown to
      have the ability to promote chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan synthesis in normal
      human chondrocytes. This study assesses the anti-inflammatory effect of sesamin
      on proteoglycans production in 3D chondrocyte cultures. METHODS: To evaluate the
      effects of sesamin on IL-1beta-treated human articular chondrocytes (HAC)
      pellets, the pellets were pre-treated with IL-1beta then cultured in the presence
      of various concentrations of sesamin for 21 days. During that period, the
      expression of IL-1beta, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) content and Chondroitin sulfate
      proteoglycans (CSPGs) synthesis genes (ACAN, XT-1, XT-2, CHSY1 and ChPF) was
      measured. The GAGs accumulation in the extracellular matrix was determined on day
      21 by histological analysis. RESULTS: There was clear evidence that sesamin
      upregulated expression of all the CSPGs synthesis genes, in contrast to the down
      regulation of IL-1beta expression both in genes and in protein levels. The level
      of release and matrix accumulation of GAGs in IL-1beta pre-treated HAC pellets in
      the presence of sesamin was recovered. These results correlate with the
      histological examination which showed that sesamin enhanced matrix CSPGs
      accumulation. CONCLUSIONS: Sesamin enhances CSPGs synthesis, suppresses IL-1beta
      expression and ameliorates IL-1beta induced inflammation in human chondrocytes.
      Sesamin could have therapeutic benefits for treating inflammation in
      osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28569158
TI  - Leptin differentially regulates chondrogenesis in mouse vertebral and tibial
      growth plates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leptin plays an important role in mediating chondrogenesis of limb
      growth plate. Previous studies suggest that bone structures and development of
      spine and limb are different. The expression of Ob-Rb, the gene that encodes
      leptin receptors, is vertebral and appendicular region-specific, suggesting the
      regulation of leptin on VGP and TGP chondrogenesis may be very different. The aim
      of the present study was to investigate the differential regulation of leptin on
      the chondrogenesis of vertebral growth plate (VGP) and tibial growth plate (TGP).
      METHODS: We compared the VGP and TGP from wild type (C57BL/6) and leptin
      deficient (ob/ob) mice. We then generated primary cultures of TGP and VGP
      chondrocytes. By treating the primary cells with different concentrations of
      leptin in vitro, we analyzed proliferation and apoptosis of the primary
      chondrocytes from TGP and VGP. We further measured expression of chondrogenic
      related genes in these cells that had been incubated with different doses of
      leptin. RESULTS: Leptin-deficient mice of 8-week-old had shorter tibial and
      longer vertebral lengths than the wide type mice. Disturbed columnar structure
      was observed for TGP but not for VGP. In primary chondrocyte cultures, leptin
      inhibited VGP chondrocyte proliferation but promoted their apoptosis. Collagen
      IIA and aggrecan mRNA, and the protein levels of proliferation- and
      chondrogenesis-related markers, including PCNA, Sox9, and Smad4, were
      downregulated by leptin in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, leptin
      stimulated the proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of TGP chondrocytes
      at physiological levels (i.e., 10 and 50 ng/mL) but not at high levels (i.e., 100
      and 1000 ng/mL). CONCLUSION: Leptin exerts a stimulatory effect on the
      proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of the long bone growth plate but
      an inhibitory effect on the spine growth plate. The ongoing study will shed light
      on the regulatory mechanisms of leptin in bone development and metabolism.

PMID- 28569160
TI  - Erratum to: Disability, support and long-term social care of an elderly Spanish
      population, 2008-2009: an epidemiologic analysis.

PMID- 28569159
TI  - Fast and robust single PCR for Plasmodium sporozoite detection in mosquitoes
      using the cytochrome oxidase I gene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Molecular tools for detecting malaria-infected mosquitoes with
      improved practicality, sensitivity and specificity, and high-throughput are
      required. A common PCR technique used to detect mosquitoes infected with
      Plasmodium spp. is a nested PCR assay based on the 18s-rRNA gene. However, this
      technique has several technical limitations, is laborious and time consuming.
      METHODS: In this study, a PCR-based on the Plasmodium cytochrome oxidase I (COX
      I) gene was compared with the 18s-rRNA nested PCR using serial dilutions (330
      0.0012 pg) of DNA from Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium
      knowlesi and with DNA from 48 positive and negative Kenyan mosquitoes (previously
      detected by using both ELISA and PCR). This assay for Plasmodium spp. DNA
      detection using the fast COX-I PCR assay was then performed individually on 2122
      field collected mosquitoes (from the Solomon Islands) in which DNA was extracted
      from head and thorax. RESULTS: The fast COX-I PCR assay took 1 h to run and
      consistently detected as low as to 0.043 pg of parasite DNA (equivalent to two
      parasites) in a single PCR, while analyses with the 18s-rRNA nested PCR required
      4 h to complete with a consistent detection threshold of 1.5 pg of DNA. Both
      assays produced concordant results when applied to the 48 Kenyan control samples
      with known Plasmodium spp. infection status. The fast COX-I PCR identified
      23/2122 Plasmodium-infected mosquitoes from the Solomon Islands. CONCLUSIONS:
      This new COX-I PCR adapted for a single PCR reaction is a faster, simpler,
      cheaper, more sensitive technique amenable to high-throughput analyses for
      Plasmodium DNA detection in mosquitoes and is comparable to the 18s-rRNA nested
      PCR. The improved sensitivity seen with the fast COX-I PCR will improve the
      accuracy of mosquito infection rate determination.

PMID- 28569161
TI  - Basal cell carcinoma: 10-year experience with electrochemotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electrochemotherapy (ECT), by combining manageable cytotoxic agents
      with short electric pulses, represents an effective palliative skin-directed
      therapy. The accumulated evidence indicates that ECT stands out as a safe and
      well-tolerated alternative treatment for patients with multiple or large basal
      cell carcinoma (BCC), who are not suitable for conventional treatments. However,
      long-term data and shared indications are lacking. METHODS: In this observational
      study, we retrospectively analyzed 84 prospectively collected patients with
      multiple, recurrent or locally advanced BCC who were not candidate for standard
      therapies and received bleomycin-based ECT according to the European Standard
      Operative Procedures of ECT, from 2006 to 2016. RESULTS: Disease extent was
      local, locally advanced and metastatic in 40 (48%), 41 (49%) and 3 (3%),
      respectively. Forty-four (52%) individuals had multiple BCCs. Grade 3 skin
      toxicity after ECT was observed in 6% of cases. Clearance rate was 50% (95% CI 39
      61%). Primary presentation (p = 0.004), tumor size <3 cm (p < 0.001), well
      defined borders (p = 0.021), absence of tumor ulceration (p = 0.001), non
      aggressive BCC histology (p = 0.046) and age <=69 years were associated with
      higher complete response rate. In patients with local BCC, the clearance rate was
      72.5 and 85% after one or two ECT cycles, respectively. In the laBCC group, 32
      patients (78%) achieved an objective response. Five-year recurrence rate for
      local and laBCC was 20 and 38%, respectively (p <= 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: One or
      two ECT cycles with bleomycin may be a valuable palliative treatment in well
      selected patients with multiple BCCs and favorable tumor features. Validation of
      predictive factors will be imperative to match patients with optimal ECT
      treatment modalities. Management of laBCC with ECT warrants further
      investigation. Trial registration ISRCTN14633165 Registered 24 March 2017
      (retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28569162
TI  - Psychometric properties of the original and short versions of the Falls Efficacy
      Scale-International (FES-I) in people with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fear of falling is common in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and
      is associated with an increased risk for future falls, activity limitations and a
      reduced quality of life. The Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) assesses
      fear of falling conceptualized as concerns about falling. The original FES-I has
      good psychometric properties in people with PD, but whether this applies also for
      the short version of FES-I remains to be shown. The aim of the present study was
      to evaluate the psychometric properties of the short FES-I and to compare these
      with the original FES-I in the same sample of people with PD. The investigated
      psychometric properties included known groups validity, data completeness,
      scaling assumptions, targeting and reliability. METHODS: A postal survey, which
      included the original, full-length FES-I, was distributed to 174 people with PD.
      Responders received a second survey after two weeks. From these data, short FES-I
      total scores were calculated by extracting the items that are included in the
      short version of the scale. RESULTS: Median age and PD duration of the 101
      responders (43% women) were 73 and 5 years, respectively. The original as well as
      the short FES-I scores were able to discriminate (p < 0.001) between groups with
      and without fear of falling, activity avoidance, falls, near falls, and with
      various self-rated PD severity, respectively. Both versions of FES-I had a high
      level of data completeness (0.7 to 0.9% missing item responses). Scaling
      assumptions were acceptable for the original as well as the short FES-I. While
      the short FES-I had 19% floor effect, the original version was better targeted.
      Both versions were reliable and obtained high values for internal consistency
      (Cronbach's alpha >0.8) and test-retest reliability (Intraclass Correlation
      Coefficient > 0.9). CONCLUSIONS: Both the original and short FES-I revealed
      generally good psychometric properties in people with PD, although the original
      scale was better targeted. Due to the higher floor effect in the short FES-I, the
      present findings favors using the original, full-length FES-I in longitudinal
      follow-ups, intervention studies and clinical practice when addressing concerns
      about falling.

PMID- 28569163
TI  - Validity of the Nurses' health study physical activity questionnaire in
      estimating physical activity in adults with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) demonstrate reduced aerobic
      capacity, excess cardiovascular risk, mobility limitations and are less
      physically active than their healthy peers. Physical activity may decrease RA
      disease activity through its anti-inflammatory effects and psychological and
      health benefits. To successfully manage RA symptoms and reduce cardiovascular
      risks associated with RA through increased physical activity (PA), accurate
      physical activity assessments are critical. Accelerometry is an objective
      physical activity measure, but not widely used. Validity of the Nurses' Health
      Study physical activity questionnaire II (NHSPAQ) has not been determined for
      estimation of physical activity in RA. This study examined NHSPAQ validity in
      adults with RA compared to accelerometry-based metabolic equivalents determined
      (METs) and results of performance tests. We hypothesized NHSPAQ scores would
      correlate moderately (0.4-0.5) with accelerometer physical activity estimates.
      METHODS: Thirty-five adults with RA (mean age [SD] 62 (Williams et. al, Health
      Qual Life Outcomes 10:28, 2012) years, 28 females (80%) recruited from a hospital
      based clinic registry participated in a one-week accelerometry trial. Medical
      data was compiled. Participants completed the NHSPAQ, a self-paced 20-m walk
      test, and modified timed step test. Participants wore an accelerometer for 7
      consecutive days, then completed a physical activity log and another NHSPAQ.
      Metabolic equivalents (METs) were derived from NHSPAQ and accelerometers using
      standardized formulas. NHSPAQ METs were correlated with accelerometer METs and
      data from performance measures. RESULTS: Average disease duration was 21 years
      (SD = 11), 63% patients took biologics. The average weekly METs reported were 29
      (SD = 33) and accelerometer METs were 33 (SD = 22). NHSPAQ METs correlated
      moderately with accelerometer-derived METs (r = 0.48 95% CI (0.15-0.70). Self
      reported PA correlated moderately with Step Test performance (r = 0.50 95% CI
      (0.18-0.72). CONCLUSION: Patients with RA exhibit low physical activity levels.
      General fitness measures were moderately correlated with physical activity
      levels. A moderate significant correlation existed between NHSPAQ and
      accelerometry METs. These preliminary data suggest the NHSPAQ may be useful to
      describe physical activity levels in this population.

PMID- 28569164
TI  - Omega-3 fatty acids, phenolic compounds and antioxidant characteristics of chia
      oil supplemented margarine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) is known as power house of omega fatty
      acids which has great health benefits. It contains up to 78% linolenic acid
      (omega-3) and 18% linoleic acid (omega-6), which could be a great source of omega
      3 fatty acids for functional foods. Therefore, in this study, margarines were
      prepared with supplementation of different concentrations of chia oil to enhance
      omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidant characteristics and oxidative stability of the
      product. METHODS: Margarines were formulated from non-hydrogenated palm oil, palm
      kernel and butter. Margarines were supplemented with 5, 10, 15 and 20% chia oil
      (T1, T2, T3 and T4), respectively. Margarine without any addition of chia oil was
      kept as control. Margarine samples were stored at 5  degrees C for a period of 90
      days. Physico-chemical (fat, moisture, refractive index, melting point, solid fat
      index, fatty acids profile, total phenolic contents, DPPH free radical scavenging
      activity, free fatty acids and peroxide value) and sensory characteristics were
      studied at the interval of 45 days. RESULTS: The melting point of T1, T2, T3 and
      T4 developed in current investigation were 34.2, 33.8, 33.1 and 32.5  degrees C,
      respectively. The solid fat index of control, T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 47.21,
      22.71, 20.33, 18.12 and 16.58%, respectively. The alpha-linolenic acid contents
      in T1, T2, T3 and T4 were found 2.92, 5.85, 9.22, 12.29%, respectively. The
      concentration of eicosanoic acid in T2, T3 and T4 was 1.82, 3.52, 6.43 and 9.81%,
      respectively. The content of docosahexanoic acid in T2, T3 and T4 was present
      1.26, 2.64, 3.49 and 5.19%, respectively. The omega-3 fatty acids were not
      detected in the control sample. Total phenolic contents of control, T1, T2, T3
      and T4 samples were 0.27, 2.22, 4.15, 7.23 and 11.42 mg GAE/mL, respectively.
      DPPH free radical scavenging activity for control, T1, T2, T3 and T4 was noted
      65.8, 5.37, 17.82, 24.95, 45.42 and 62.8%, respectively. Chlorogenic acid,
      caffeic acid, quercetin, phenolic glycoside k and phenolic glycoside Q in T3 were
      present 0.78, 0.73, 1.82, 4.12 and 4.49 mg/mL, respectively. After 90 days of
      storage period, free fatty acids and peroxide value of all the treatments were
      less than 0.2 (% and MeqO2/kg). Sensory characteristics of treatments were not
      different from the control. CONCLUSION: Margarines supplemented with chia oil
      showed enhanced level of omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidant characteristics.
      These results suggest that chia oil can be used for formulation of margarine with
      increased level of omega-3 fatty acids and acceptable sensory characteristics.

PMID- 28569165
TI  - Getting off on the wrong foot? How community groups in Zimbabwe position
      themselves for partnerships with external agencies in the HIV response.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Partnerships are core to global public health responses. The HIV
      field embraces partnership working, with growing attention given to the benefits
      of involving community groups in the HIV response. However, little has been done
      to unpack the social psychological foundation of partnership working between well
      resourced organisations and community groups, and how community representations
      of partnerships and power asymmetries shape the formation of partnerships for
      global health. We draw on a psychosocial theory of partnerships to examine
      community group members' understanding of self and other as they position
      themselves for partnerships with non-governmental organisations. METHODS: This
      mixed qualitative methods study was conducted in the Matobo district of
      Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe. The study draws on the perspectives of
      90 community group members (29 men and 61 women) who participated in a total of
      19 individual in-depth interviews and 9 focus group discussions (n = 71). The
      participants represented an array of different community groups and different
      levels of experience of working with NGOs. Verbatim transcripts were imported
      into Atlas.Ti for thematic indexing and analysis. RESULTS: Group members felt
      they played a central role in the HIV response. Accepting there is a limit to
      what they can do in isolation, they actively sought to position themselves as
      potential partners for NGOs. Partnerships with NGOs were said to enable community
      groups to respond more effectively as well as boost their motivation and morale.
      However, group members were also acutely aware of how they should act and perform
      if they were to qualify for a partnership. They spoke about how they had to adopt
      various strategies to become attractive partners and 'supportable' - including
      being active and obedient. CONCLUSIONS: Many community groups in Zimbabwe
      recognise their role in the HIV response and actively navigate representational
      systems of self and other to showcase themselves as capable actors. While this
      commitment is admirable, the dynamics that govern this process reflect knowledge
      encounters and power asymmetries that are conditioned by the aid architecture,
      undermining aspiring efforts for more equitable partnerships from the get-go.

PMID- 28569166
TI  - Influence of change of tunnel axis angle on tunnel length during double-bundle
      ACL reconstruction via the transportal technique.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Commercially available flexible reamer and curved guide systems allow
      a certain degree of control over intra-articular tunnel orientation, therefore
      allows a wide range of intra-osseous femoral tunnel orientations, contrary to the
      femoral tunneling technique using a straight guide pin, which are determined by
      knee flexion angle. We sought to find the clinical relevance of intra-osseous
      femoral tunnel orientations in the respect of tunnel length. To evaluate the
      relationship between the tunnel axis angle in three orthogonal planes and tunnel
      length in the anteromedial (AM) and posterolateral (PL) femoral tunnels in
      patients who underwent anatomic double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament
      reconstruction (DB-ACLR) using the transportal (TP) technique with a 42o curved
      guide. METHODS: A total of 40 patients who underwent primary DB-ACLR with the TP
      technique using a curved guide were evaluated retrospectively. The tunnel axis
      angle in three orthogonal planes were evaluated on a three-dimensional surface
      model constructed using an axial computed tomography scan obtained after
      reconstruction. Then, correlations with tunnel length were analyzed. RESULTS: In
      the AM tunnel, tunnel axis angles in the coronal (beta = 0.0252, p = 0.022) and
      sagittal (beta = 0.0168, p = 0.029) plane showed significant correlations with
      tunnel length, while the axial plane did not (p = 0.493) (adjusted R2 = 0.801).
      In the PL tunnel, only tunnel axis angles in the axial plane (beta = 0.0262, p =
      0.008) showed a significant relationship with tunnel length (adjusted R2 =
      0.700). CONCLUSION: Drilling at a higher angle in the coronal and sagittal planes
      in AM tunnels and at a higher angle in the axial plane in PL tunnels decreases
      the incidence of short femoral tunnels.

PMID- 28569167
TI  - Increased serum concentrations of IL-1 beta, IL-21 and Th17 cells in overweight
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS: Obesity is associated with worse disease activity and drug responses
      in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the immunological mechanisms
      responsible for the relationship between RA and obesity have not yet been
      clarified in detail. This study aimed to elucidate the immunological mechanisms
      contributing to the pathogenesis of RA in overweight patients. METHODS: The
      frequencies of CD4+ T cell, B cell and monocyte subsets were analyzed in RA (n =
      81) and healthy donors (n = 99) by flow cytometry, and were compared between
      three groups (body mass index (BMI) <20,  >=20 to 25, >25). Serum cytokines were
      measured using multiplex ELISA. Gene expression was analyzed by quantitative PCR.
      Clinical information was extracted from medical records. RESULTS: The frequencies
      of T helper (Th)17 (CD4+CD45RA-CXCR5-CXCR3-CCR6+) cells and plasmablasts (PB)
      were significantly increased in patients with RA with BMI >25. Significant
      correlation was observed between BMI and Th17 cells in patients with RA. No
      significant differences in cell frequencies between the three BMI groups were
      observed in the healthy donors. Serum interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-21
      significantly correlated with BMI in RA patients. Gene expression patterns in
      Th17 cells from overweight patients with RA showed the characteristics of
      pathogenic Th17 cells. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative and qualitative changes in Th17
      cells were characteristic in overweight patients with RA.

PMID- 28569168
TI  - Construct design, production, and characterization of Plasmodium falciparum 48/45
      R0.6C subunit protein produced in Lactococcus lactis as candidate vaccine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The sexual stages of Plasmodium falciparum are responsible for the
      spread of the parasite in malaria endemic areas. The cysteine-rich Pfs48/45
      protein, exposed on the surface of sexual stages, is one of the most advanced
      antigens for inclusion into a vaccine that will block transmission. However,
      clinical Pfs48/45 sub-unit vaccine development has been hampered by the inability
      to produce high yields of recombinant protein as the native structure is required
      for the induction of functional transmission-blocking (TB) antibodies. We have
      investigated a downstream purification process of a sub-unit (R0.6C) fragment
      representing the C-terminal 6-Cys domain of Pfs48/45 (6C) genetically fused to
      the R0 region (R0) of asexual stage Glutamate Rich Protein expressed in
      Lactococcus lactis. RESULTS: A series of R0.6C fusion proteins containing
      features, which aim to increase expression levels or to facilitate protein
      purification, were evaluated at small scale. None of these modifications affected
      the overall yield of recombinant protein. Consequently, R0.6C with a C-terminal
      his tag was used for upstream and downstream process development. A simple work
      flow was developed consisting of batch fermentation followed by two purification
      steps. As such, the recombinant protein was purified to homogeneity. The
      composition of the final product was verified by HPLC, mass spectrometry, SDS
      PAGE and Western blotting with conformation dependent antibodies against
      Pfs48/45. The recombinant protein induced high levels of functional TB antibodies
      in rats. CONCLUSIONS: The established production and purification process of the
      R0.6C fusion protein provide a strong basis for further clinical development of
      this candidate transmission blocking malaria vaccine.

PMID- 28569169
TI  - High-biologically effective dose palliative radiotherapy for a tumor thrombus
      might improve the long-term prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a
      retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to highlight the type of tumor thrombus and identify
      the prognostic factors influencing the long-term survival outcomes in patients
      with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) having a tumor thrombus. A tumor thrombus in
      HCC is associated with poor prognosis. METHODS: Eighty patients diagnosed with
      HCC having a tumor thrombus between May 2006 and April 2014 were enrolled in this
      study. Age, gender, clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, Child-Pugh
      classification, performance status (ECOG), types of tumor thrombi, radiotherapy
      method, biologically effective dose (BED), and primary treatment method were
      analyzed to identify the prognostic factors associated with the overall survival
      (OS) rates. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 19.0. RESULTS:
      The median follow-up duration was 24 months (range 6-90). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year
      OS rates of the patients were 77.6%, 37.6%, and 18.8%, respectively. On
      univariate analysis, gender, radiotherapy method, BED, types of tumor thrombi,
      Child-Pugh classification, ECOG, and total bilirubin were associated with OS (P <
      0.001, P = 0.001, P = 0.016, P = 0.003, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.039,
      respectively). The prognostic factors for OS in multi-variate analyses were
      gender (P < 0.001), BED (P = 0.044), Child Pugh classification (P = 0.020),
      performance status (ECOG) (P = 0.004), and types of tumor thrombi (P = 0.001).
      The median OS for the high-BED group was better than that for the low-BED groups
      (42 months vs. 19 months, P = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Gender, BED, performance
      status (ECOG), Child-Pugh classification, and types of tumor thrombi seemed to
      affect OS, and a stepwise decrease in survival was observed with the types of
      tumor thrombi ranging from I to IV. High-BED palliative radiotherapy might
      improve the long-term outcomes for patients with HCC having a tumor thrombus.

PMID- 28569170
TI  - The developmental regulator PKL is required to maintain correct DNA methylation
      patterns at RNA-directed DNA methylation loci.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The chromodomain helicase DNA-binding family of ATP-dependent
      chromatin remodeling factors play essential roles during eukaryote growth and
      development. They are recruited by specific transcription factors and regulate
      the expression of developmentally important genes. Here, we describe an
      unexpected role in non-coding RNA-directed DNA methylation in Arabidopsis
      thaliana. RESULTS: Through forward genetic screens we identified PKL, a gene
      required for developmental regulation in plants, as a factor promoting
      transcriptional silencing at the transgenic RD29A promoter. Mutation of PKL
      results in DNA methylation changes at more than half of the loci that are
      targeted by RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). A small number of transposable
      elements and genes had reduced DNA methylation correlated with derepression in
      the pkl mutant, though for the majority, decreases in DNA methylation are not
      sufficient to cause release of silencing. The changes in DNA methylation in the
      pkl mutant are positively correlated with changes in 24-nt siRNA levels. In
      addition, PKL is required for the accumulation of Pol V-dependent transcripts and
      for the positioning of Pol V-stabilized nucleosomes at several tested loci,
      indicating that RNA polymerase V-related functions are impaired in the pkl
      mutant. CONCLUSIONS: PKL is required for transcriptional silencing and has
      significant effects on RdDM in plants. The changes in DNA methylation in the pkl
      mutant are correlated with changes in the non-coding RNAs produced by Pol IV and
      Pol V. We propose that at RdDM target regions, PKL may be required to create a
      chromatin environment that influences non-coding RNA production, DNA methylation,
      and transcriptional silencing.

PMID- 28569172
TI  - Results of the Schirmer tear test performed with open and closed eyes in
      clinically normal horses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Schirmer tear test (STT) is widely used in both human and
      veterinary ophthalmology. Two types of STTs have been developed: STT I and SST
      II. The STT I measures the basal and reflex tear production and is the most
      widely used STT. However, several factors influence the STT results such as the
      person performing the test and the location of the strip placement within the
      conjunctival sac. The aim of this study was to measure the basal and reflex tear
      production (STT I) in clinically normal horses with open versus closed eyes.
      RESULTS: Forty clinically healthy horses without any ocular diseases were
      included. On day 1, the STT I was first performed on all the horses with the eyes
      open followed by an STT I with closed eyes performed 30 min later. On day 2, all
      horses had their eyes closed during the first STT and the eyes open during the
      second test performed 30 min later. The mean value of the STTs performed on open
      eye was significantly less than the STT performed on closed eye on both days of
      examination. CONCLUSION: This study showed a small but statistically significant
      difference between STT values obtained with open versus closed eyes in clinically
      normal horses.

PMID- 28569171
TI  - Oral mucosal lesions in teenagers: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a period of transition to adulthood. Little is known
      about oral mucosal lesions (OMLs) in teenagers, in which the emergence of new
      habits, unfamiliar to children, could affect the type of lesions. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the distribution of oral mucosal lesions (OMLs) in a wide
      sample of adolescents. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried
      out examining all medical records of adolescents (aged 13-18 years) treated at
      the Dental Clinic of the University of Brescia (Italy) in the period from 2008 to
      2014. Cases with OMLs were selected. Data regarding age, gender, type of OML, bad
      habits, systemic chronic diseases were collected. RESULTS: A total of 6.374
      medical records (mean age 15.2 + -1.7 years) were examined. We found 1544 cases
      (31.7%) of oral mucosal lesions; 36 different types of mucosal alterations were
      detected and the most frequent were: aphthous ulcers (18%), traumatic ulcerations
      (14.3%), herpes simplex virus (11%), geographic tongue (9.6%), candidiasis
      (5.5%), and morsicatio buccarum (4.7%). Papilloma virus lesions (1.7%), piercing
      related lesions (4%), multiform erythema (0.13%), oral lichen planus (0.13%) and
      granular cell tumour (0.06%) were also diagnosed. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      OMLs in adolescents are different from those in children and, in some conditions,
      it could increase with age.

PMID- 28569173
TI  - ApoE isoforms differentially regulates cleavage and secretion of BDNF.
AB  - Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is a major genetic risk factor for sporadic or late
      onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is
      decreased by 3 to 4-fold in the brains of AD patients at autopsy. ApoE4 mice also
      have reduced BDNF levels. However, there have been no reports relating the
      different ApoE isoforms or AD to differential regulation of BDNF. Here we report
      that in the hippocampal regions of AD patients both prepro-BDNF and pro-BDNF
      expression showed a 40 and 60% decrease respectively compared to that expression
      in the hippocampi of age-matched control patients. We further report that ApoE
      isoforms differentially regulate maturation and secretion of BDNF from primary
      human astrocytes. After 24 h, ApoE3 treated astrocytes secreted 1.75- fold higher
      pro-BDNF than ApoE2-treated astrocytes, and ApoE2-treated astrocytes secreted 3
      fold more mature-BDNF (m-BDNF) than ApoE3-treated astrocytes. In contrast, ApoE4
      treated cells secreted negligible amounts of m-BDNF or pro-BDNF. ApoE2 increased
      the level of intracellular pre-pro BDNF by 19.04 +/- 6.68%, while ApoE4 reduced
      the pre-pro BDNF by 21.61 +/- 5.9% compared to untreated cells. Similar results
      were also seen in ApoE2, ApoE3 or ApoE4 treated cells at 4 h. Together, these
      results indicate that an ApoE2 or ApoE3 mediated positive regulation of BDNF may
      be protective while ApoE4 related defects in BDNF processing could lead to AD
      pathophysiology. These interactions of the ApoE isoforms with BDNF may help
      explain the increased risk of AD associated with the ApoE4 isoform.

PMID- 28569174
TI  - Assessing the anthelmintic activity of pyrazole-5-carboxamide derivatives against
      Haemonchus contortus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we tested five series of pyrazole-5-carboxamide
      compounds (n = 55) for activity against parasitic stages of the nematode
      Haemonchus contortus (barber's pole worm), one of the most pathogenic parasites
      of ruminants. METHODS: In an optimised, whole-organism screening assay, using
      exsheathed third-stage (xL3) and fourth-stage (L4) larvae, we measured the
      inhibition of larval motility and development of H. contortus. RESULTS: Amongst
      the 55 compounds, we identified two compounds (designated a-15 and a-17) that
      reproducibly inhibit xL3 motility as well as L4 motility and development, with
      IC50 values ranging between ~3.4 and 55.6 MUM. We studied the effect of these two
      'hit' compounds on mitochondrial function by measuring oxygen consumption. This
      assessment showed that xL3s exposed to each of these compounds consumed
      significantly less oxygen and had less mitochondrial activity than untreated
      xL3s, which was consistent with specific inhibition of complex I of the
      respiratory electron transport chain in arthropods. CONCLUSIONS: The present
      findings provide a sound basis for future work, aimed at identifying the targets
      of compounds a-15 and a-17 and establishing the modes of action of these
      chemicals in H. contortus.

PMID- 28569175
TI  - Effects of sublethal exposure to metofluthrin on the fitness of Aedes aegypti in
      a domestic setting in Cairns, Queensland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metofluthrin is highly effective at reducing biting activity in Aedes
      aegypti. Its efficacy lies in the rapid onset of confusion, knockdown, and
      subsequent kill of a mosquito. In the field, there are a variety of scenarios
      that might result in sublethal exposure to metofluthrin, including mosquitoes
      that are active at the margins of the chemical's lethal range, brief exposure as
      mosquitoes fly in and out of treated spaces or decreasing efficacy of the
      emanators with time. Sublethal effects are key elements of insecticide exposure
      and selection. METHODS: The metofluthrin dose for each treatment group of male
      and female Ae. aegypti was controlled using exposure time intervals to a 10%
      active ingredient (AI) metofluthrin emanator. Room size and distance from the
      emanator for all groups was maintained at 3 m. In bioassay cages, male Ae.
      aegypti were exposed at 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40-min intervals. Females were
      exposed in bioassay cages at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 60-min intervals. Mortality
      rates and fecundity were observed between the exposure time groups for both
      sexes. RESULTS: Female Ae. aegypti exposed for 60 min had a significantly higher
      mortality rate (50%), after a 24-h recovery period, than other exposure times,
      10, 20, 30 and 40 min (P < 0.001). An overall difference in fecundity was not
      observed in females between treatments. A significant effect on male mortality
      was only observed at 40 min exposure times, three meters from the 10% AI emanator
      [Formula: see text]. Males that survived metofluthrin exposure were as likely to
      produce viable eggs with an unexposed female as males that had not been exposed
      (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Regardless of sex, if a mosquito survived exposure, it
      would be as biologically successful as its unexposed counterpart. Portability of
      the metofluthrin emanator and delayed knockdown effects create opportunities for
      sublethal exposure and potential pyrethroid resistance development in Ae.
      aegypti, and should be taken into consideration in recommendations for field
      application of this product, including minimum exposure periods and a prescribed
      number of emanators per room based on volume.

PMID- 28569177
TI  - Serological and molecular detection of spotted fever group Rickettsia in a group
      of pet dogs from Luanda, Angola.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infections with tick-borne rickettsiae can cause diseases well known
      in humans but still not so well characterized in dogs. Susceptibility to
      infection depends on the virulence of Rickettsia spp. and only a few of them have
      been described to cause disease in dogs. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the exposure to Rickettsia spp. among a group of pet dogs from Luanda, Angola.
      RESULTS: Out of 103 dogs included in the study, 62 (60.2%) were infested with
      ticks. Plasma specimens tested for serology by an immunofluorescence assay (IFA)
      revealed that six (5.8%) dogs had detectable immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to
      spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFGR), with endpoint titers of 64 for two dogs,
      128 for three dogs and 1024 for one dog. From the seropositive group of dogs,
      five (83%) of them were males, with their age ranging from 1 to 8 years old.
      Among the seropositive dogs, four (66.7%) were parasitized with ticks and no
      breed (or cross) was found to be associated with specific antibodies. Rickettsia
      spp. DNA was detected by nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in two (1.9%)
      dogs that were found to be seronegative. CONCLUSIONS: Seroprevalence and
      molecular detection of Rickettsia spp. infection in this group of pet dogs from
      Luanda is low compared with other studies performed in the same type of hosts in
      other areas. Although many dogs were parasitized with ticks, a low prevalence of
      Rickettsia spp. could be related with the hypothesis of a low rickettsial
      prevalence in the infesting ticks. This study provides evidence that dogs in
      Luanda are exposed to Rickettsia spp., but further studies are needed to better
      characterize the bacterial infections in dogs and in their ectoparasites.

PMID- 28569178
TI  - Prediction of response to remission induction therapy by gene expression
      profiling of peripheral blood in Japanese patients with microscopic polyangiitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), which is classified as an anti
      neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated small vessel vasculitis, is one
      of the most frequent primary vasculitides in Japan. We earlier nominated 16 genes
      (IRF7, IFIT1, IFIT5, OASL, CLC, GBP-1, PSMB9, HERC5, CCR1, CD36, MS4A4A, BIRC4BP,
      PLSCR1, DEFA1/DEFA3, DEFA4, and COL9A2) as predictors of response to remission
      induction therapy against MPA. The aim of this study is to determine the accuracy
      of prediction using these 16 predictors. METHODS: Thirty-nine MPA patients were
      selected randomly and retrospectively from the Japanese nationwide RemIT-JAV-RPGN
      cohort and enrolled in this study. Remission induction therapy was conducted
      according to the Guidelines of Treatment for ANCA-Associated Vasculitis published
      by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan. Response to remission
      induction therapy was predicted by profiling the altered expressions of the 16
      predictors between the period before and 1 week after the beginning of treatment.
      Remission is defined as the absence of clinical manifestations of active
      vasculitis (Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score 2003: 0 or 1 point). Persistent
      remission for 18 months is regarded as a "good response," whereas no remission or
      relapse after remission is regarded as a "poor response." RESULTS: "Poor" and
      "good" responses were predicted in 7 and 32 patients, respectively. Five out of 7
      patients with "poor" prediction and 1 out of 32 patients with "good" prediction
      experienced relapse after remission. One out of 7 patients with "poor" prediction
      was not conducted to remission. Accordingly, the sensitivity and specificity to
      predict poor response was 85.7% (6/7) and 96.9% (31/32), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Response to remission induction therapy can be predicted by
      monitoring the altered expressions of the 16 predictors in the peripheral blood
      at an early point of treatment in MPA patients.

PMID- 28569176
TI  - Fibroblast-like synoviocyte metabolism in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid
      arthritis.
AB  - An increasing number of studies show how changes in intracellular metabolic
      pathways alter tumor and immune cell function. However, little information about
      metabolic changes in other cell types, including synovial fibroblasts, is
      available. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) are
      the most common cell type at the pannus-cartilage junction and contribute to
      joint destruction through their production of cytokines, chemokines, and matrix
      degrading molecules and by migrating and invading joint cartilage. In this
      review, we show that these cells differ from healthy synovial fibroblasts, not
      only in their marker expression, proto-oncogene expression, or their epigenetic
      changes, but also in their intracellular metabolism. These metabolic changes must
      occur due to the stressful microenvironment of inflamed tissues, where
      concentrations of crucial nutrients such as glucose, glutamine, and oxygen are
      spatially and temporally heterogeneous. In addition, these metabolic changes will
      increase metabolite exchange between fibroblast and other synovial cells, which
      can potentially be activated. Glucose and phospholipid metabolism as well as
      bioactive lipids, including sphingosine-1-phosphate and lysophosphatidic acid,
      among others, are involved in FLS activation. These metabolic changes likely
      contribute to FLS involvement in aspects of immune response initiation or
      abnormal immune responses and strongly contribute to joint destruction.

PMID- 28569179
TI  - Immunolocation and enzyme activity analysis of Cryptosporidium parvum enolase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enolase is an essential multifunctional glycolytic enzyme that is
      involved in many biological processes of apicomplexan protozoa, such as adhesion
      and invasion. However, the characteristics of enolase in Cryptosporidium parvum,
      including the location on the oocyst and the enzyme activity, remain unclear.
      METHODS: The C. parvum enolase gene (cpeno) was amplified by RT-PCR and
      sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence was analysed by bioinformatics
      software. The gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and purified
      recombinant protein was used for enzyme activity analysis, binding experiments
      and antibody preparation. The localisation of enolase on oocysts was examined via
      immunofluorescence techniques. RESULTS: A 1,350 bp DNA sequence was amplified
      from cDNA taken from C. parvum oocysts. The deduced amino acids sequence of C.
      parvum enolase (CpEno) had 82.1% homology with Cryptosporidium muris enolase, and
      54.7-68.0% homology with others selected species. Western blot analysis indicated
      that recombinant C. parvum enolase (rCpEno) could be recognised by C. parvum
      infected cattle sera. Immunolocalization testing showed that CpEno was found to
      locate mainly on the surface of oocysts. The enzyme activity was 33.5 U/mg, and
      the Michaelis constant (K m ) was 0.571 mM/l. Kinetic measurements revealed that
      the most suitable pH value was 7.0-7.5, and there were only minor effects on the
      activity of rCpEno with a change in the reaction temperature. The enzyme activity
      decreased when the Ca2+, K+, Mg2+ and Na+ concentrations of the reaction solution
      increased. The binding assays demonstrated that rCpEno could bind to human
      plasminogen. CONCLUSION: This study is the first report of immunolocation,
      binding activity and enzyme characteristics of CpEno. The results of this study
      suggest that the surface-associated CpEno not only functions as a glycolytic
      enzyme but may also participate in attachment and invasion process of the
      parasite.

PMID- 28569180
TI  - Rotational restriction of nascent peptides as an essential element of co
      translational protein folding: possible molecular players and structural
      consequences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A basic tenet of protein science is that all information about the
      spatial structure of proteins is present in their sequences. Nonetheless, many
      proteins fail to attain native structure upon experimental denaturation and
      refolding in vitro, raising the question of the specific role of cellular
      machinery in protein folding in vivo. Recently, we hypothesized that energy
      dependent twisting of the protein backbone is an unappreciated essential factor
      guiding the protein folding process in vivo. Torque force may be applied by the
      ribosome co-translationally, and when accompanied by simultaneous restriction of
      the rotational mobility of the distal part of the growing chain, the resulting
      tension in the protein backbone would facilitate the formation of local secondary
      structure and direct the folding process. RESULTS: Our model of the early stages
      of protein folding in vivo postulates that the free motion of both terminal
      regions of the protein during its synthesis and maturation is restricted. The
      long-known but unexplained phenomenon of statistical overrepresentation of
      protein termini on the surfaces of the protein structures may be an indication of
      the backbone twist-based folding mechanism; sustained maintenance of a twist
      requires that both ends of the protein chain are anchored in space, and if the
      ends are released only after the majority of folding is complete, they are much
      more likely to remain on the surface of the molecule. We identified the molecular
      components that are likely to play a role in the twisting of the nascent protein
      chain and in the anchoring of its N-terminus. The twist may be induced at the C
      terminus of the nascent polypeptide by the peptidyltransferase center of the
      ribosome. Several ribosome-associated proteins, including the trigger factor in
      bacteria and the nascent polypeptide-associated complex in archaea and
      eukaryotes, may restrict the rotational mobility of the N-proximal regions of the
      peptides. CONCLUSIONS: Many experimental observations are consistent with the
      hypothesis of co-translational twisting of the protein backbone. Several
      molecular players in this hypothetical mechanism of protein folding can be
      suggested. In addition, the new view of protein folding in vivo opens the
      possibility of novel potential drug targets to combat human protein folding
      diseases. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Lakshminarayan Iyer and Istvan
      Simon.

PMID- 28569181
TI  - The cost of severe haemophilia in Europe: the CHESS study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe haemophilia is associated with major psychological and
      economic burden for patients, caregivers, and the wider health care system. This
      burden has been quantified and documented for a number of European countries in
      recent years. However, few studies have taken a standardised methodology across
      multiple countries simultaneously, and sought to amalgamate all three levels of
      burden for severe disease. The overall aim of the 'Cost of Haemophilia in Europe:
      a Socioeconomic Survey' (CHESS) study was to capture the annualised economic and
      psychosocial burden of severe haemophilia in five European countries. A cross
      section of haemophilia specialists (surveyed between January and April 2015)
      provided demographic and clinical information and 12-month ambulatory and
      secondary care activity for patients via an online survey. In turn, patients
      provided corresponding direct and indirect non-medical cost information,
      including work loss and out-of-pocket expenses, as well as information on quality
      of life and adherence. The direct and indirect costs for the patient sample were
      calculated and extrapolated to population level. RESULTS: Clinical reports for a
      total of 1,285 patients were received. Five hundred and fifty-two patients (43%
      of the sample) provided information on indirect costs and health-related quality
      of life via the PSC. The total annual cost of severe haemophilia across the five
      countries for 2014 was estimated at EUR 1.4 billion, or just under EUR 200,000
      per patient. The highest per-patient costs were in Germany (mean EUR 319,024) and
      the lowest were in the United Kingdom (mean EUR 129,365), with a study average of
      EUR 199,541. As expected, consumption of clotting factor replacement therapy
      represented the vast majority of costs (up to 99%). Indirect costs are driven by
      patient and caregiver work loss. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the CHESS study
      reflect previous research findings suggesting that costs of factor replacement
      therapy account for the vast majority of the cost burden in severe haemophilia.
      However, the importance of the indirect impact of haemophilia on the patient and
      family should not be overlooked. The CHESS study highlights the benefits of
      observational study methodologies in capturing a 'snapshot' of information for
      patients with rare diseases.

PMID- 28569182
TI  - A pharmacogenetic signature of high response to Copaxone in late-phase clinical
      trial cohorts of multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Copaxone is an efficacious and safe therapy that has demonstrated
      clinical benefit for over two decades in patients with relapsing forms of
      multiple sclerosis (MS). On an individual level, patients show variability in
      their response to Copaxone, with some achieving significantly higher response
      levels. The involvement of genes (e.g., HLA-DRB1*1501) with high inter-individual
      variability in Copaxone's mechanism of action (MoA) suggests the potential
      contribution of genetics to treatment response. This study aimed to identify
      genetic variants associated with Copaxone response in patient cohorts from late
      phase clinical trials. METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated
      with high and low levels of response to Copaxone were identified using genome
      wide SNP data in a discovery cohort of 580 patients from two phase III clinical
      trials of Copaxone. Multivariable Bayesian modeling on the resulting SNPs in an
      expanded discovery cohort with 1171 patients identified a multi-SNP signature of
      Copaxone response. This signature was examined in 941 Copaxone-treated MS
      patients from seven independent late-phase trials of Copaxone and assessed for
      specificity to Copaxone in 310 Avonex-treated and 311 placebo-treated patients,
      also from late-phase trials. RESULTS: A four-SNP signature consisting of
      rs80191572 (in UVRAG), rs28724893 (in HLA-DQB2), rs1789084 (in MBP), and
      rs139890339 (in ZAK(CDCA7)) was identified as significantly associated with
      Copaxone response. Copaxone-treated signature-positive patients had a greater
      reduction in annualized relapse rate (ARR) compared to signature-negative
      patients in both discovery and independent cohorts, an effect not observed in
      Avonex-treated patients. Additionally, signature-positive placebo-treated cohorts
      did not show a reduction in ARR, demonstrating the predictive as opposed to
      prognostic nature of the signature. A 10% subset of patients, delineated by the
      signature, showed marked improvements across multiple clinical parameters,
      including ARR, MRI measures, and higher proportion with no evidence of disease
      activity (NEDA). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the largest pharmacogenetic study in
      MS reported to date. Gene regions underlying the four-SNP signature have been
      linked with pathways associated with either Copaxone's MoA or the pathophysiology
      of MS. The pronounced association of the four-SNP signature with clinical
      improvements in a ~10% subset of the MS patient population demonstrates the
      complex interplay of immune mechanisms and the individualized nature of response
      to Copaxone.

PMID- 28569183
TI  - The work experience of a patient affected by Williams Syndrome: a pilot project
      at the Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital.
AB  - A new approach has been designed at the Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome
      aimed at increasing empowerment in Williams Syndrome individuals through tutor
      assisted work activities. Williams Syndrome is characterized by a combination of
      distinguishing physical traits, congenital anomalies, intellectual disabilities,
      and a specific developmental profile.This manuscript describes the case of a
      Williams Syndrome patient.There are only few papers in the scientific literature
      describing interventions targeting improvement in the quality of life of adult
      Williams Syndrome individuals. Therefore, this experience may prove useful to
      several patients, their families, and the experts helping them.We described an
      example of intervention aimed at guiding and facilitating a Williams Syndrome
      patient within a work environment, taking into consideration the peaks and
      valleys of these individuals' specific abilities.Based on our results, we also
      stressed the need to promote a set of projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing
      as much as possible self-sufficiency and psycho-affective balance in Williams
      Syndrome individuals, in order to protect their dignity and self-esteem.

PMID- 28569184
TI  - Large schwannoma of the femur - a common tumor at an unusual site: a case report
      and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schwannomas are benign nerve sheath tumors and are most frequently
      encountered as soft tissue tumors of peripheral nerves of the head and neck or
      the extensor extremities. Osseous involvement is very uncommon with fewer than
      200 cases described in the world literature, the majority of which arise in the
      skull (including mandible), vertebrae, and sacrum. Long bone involvement is
      highly unusual and of the approximately 20 cases described thus far, only five
      have been documented to arise in the femur. We describe an unusually large
      schwannoma of the femur which was discovered incidentally and was diagnosed only
      after biopsy, given the rarity of this tumor at that particular site. Following
      prophylactic internal fixation and bone grafting, our patient remains well and
      disease-free, 2.5 years later. CASE PRESENTATION: A 56-year-old Sri Lankan woman
      was discovered to have a large lytic lesion in her lower femur on routine X-ray
      following a fall. A history and physical examination, along with selective
      imaging and tissue sampling, were necessary to arrive at the diagnosis of
      schwannoma of the femur. The clinical presentation, radiology, pathology, and
      surgical management are discussed and contrasted with the other five cases
      documented in the literature. The tumor was successfully treated with evacuation
      through a lateral surgical approach and internal fixation. She remains well and
      disease-free 2.5 years later. CONCLUSIONS: We present the case of an unusually
      large lytic lesion found incidentally in the femur of a 56-year-old woman, which
      was subsequently diagnosed to be a schwannoma on biopsy. Its exceptional rarity
      in long bones makes it less likely to be considered in an initial differential
      diagnosis, and we stress the importance of tissue biopsy for diagnosis.

PMID- 28569185
TI  - The impact of poverty on dog ownership and access to canine rabies vaccination:
      results from a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey, Uganda 2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rabies is a neglected disease despite being responsible for more
      human deaths than any other zoonosis. A lack of adequate human and dog
      surveillance, resulting in low prioritization, is often blamed for this paradox.
      Estimation methods are often employed to describe the rabies burden when
      surveillance data are not available, however these figures are rarely based on
      country-specific data. METHODS: In 2013 a knowledge, attitudes, and practices
      survey was conducted in Uganda to understand dog population, rabies vaccination,
      and human rabies risk factors and improve in-country and regional rabies burden
      estimates. Poisson and multi-level logistic regression techniques were conducted
      to estimate the total dog population and vaccination coverage. RESULTS: Twenty
      four villages were selected, of which 798 households completed the survey,
      representing 4 375 people. Dog owning households represented 12.9% of the
      population, for which 175 dogs were owned (25 people per dog). A history of
      vaccination was reported in 55.6% of owned dogs. Poverty and human population
      density highly correlated with dog ownership, and when accounted for in multi
      level regression models, the human to dog ratio fell to 47:1 and the estimated
      national canine-rabies vaccination coverage fell to 36.1%. This study estimates
      there are 729 486 owned dogs in Uganda (95% CI: 719 919 - 739 053). Ten percent
      of survey respondents provided care to dogs they did not own, however unowned dog
      populations were not enumerated in this estimate. 89.8% of Uganda's human
      population was estimated to reside in a community that can support enzootic
      canine rabies transmission. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to
      comprehensively evaluate the effect of poverty on dog ownership in Africa. These
      results indicate that describing a dog population may not be as simple as
      applying a human: dog ratio, and factors such as poverty are likely to heavily
      influence dog ownership and vaccination coverage. These modelled estimates should
      be confirmed through further field studies, however, if validated, canine rabies
      elimination through mass vaccination may not be as difficult as previously
      considered in Uganda. Data derived from this study should be considered to
      improve models for estimating the in-country and regional rabies burden.

PMID- 28569186
TI  - Patterns of regional recurrence in papillary thyroid cancer patients with lateral
      neck metastases undergoing neck dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Practice variability exists for the extent of neck dissection
      undertaken for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) metastatic to the lateral neck
      nodes, with disagreement over routine level V dissection. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective medical record review of PTC patients with lateral neck nodal
      metastases treated at University Health Network from 2000 to 2012. Predictive
      factors for regional neck recurrence, including extent of initial neck
      dissection, were analyzed using Cox regression. RESULTS: Out of 204 neck
      dissections in 178 patients, 110 (54%) underwent selective and 94 (46%) had
      comprehensive dissection including level Vb. Mean follow-up was 6.3 years (SD).
      Significant predictors of regional failure were the total number of suspicious
      nodes on preoperative imaging (p = 0.029), largest positive node on initial neck
      dissection (p < 0.01), and whether patients received adjuvant radiotherapy (p =
      0.028). The 5-year ipsilateral regional recurrence rate was 8 and 9% with
      selective and comprehensive dissection, respectively (p = 0.89). CONCLUSION: The
      extent of neck dissection did not predict the probability of regional recurrence
      in PTC patients presenting with lateral neck metastases.

PMID- 28569188
TI  - Clustering and correlates of screen-time and eating behaviours among young
      adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Screen-time and eating behaviours are associated in adolescents, but
      few studies have examined the clustering of these health behaviours in this age
      group. The identification of clustered health behaviours, and influences on
      adolescents' clustered health behaviours, at the time when they are most likely
      to become habitual, is important for intervention design. The purpose of this
      study was to assess the prevalence and clustering of health behaviours in
      adolescents, and examine the sociodemographic, individual, behavioural, and home
      social and physical environmental correlates of clustered health behaviours.
      METHODS: Adolescents aged 11-12 years (n = 527, 48% boys) completed a
      questionnaire during class-time which assessed screen-time (ST), fruit and
      vegetable (FV), and energy-dense (ED) snack consumption using a Food Frequency
      Questionnaire. Health behaviours were categorised into high and low frequencies
      based on recommendations for FV and ST and median splits for ED snacks.
      Adolescents reported on their habits, self-efficacy, eating at the television
      (TV), eating and watching TV together with parents, restrictive parenting
      practices, and the availability and accessibility of foods within the home.
      Behavioural clustering was assessed using an observed over expected ratio (O/E).
      Correlates of clustered behaviours were examined using multivariate multinomial
      logistic regression. RESULTS: Approximately 70% reported having two or three
      health risk behaviours. Overall, O/E ratios were close to 1, which indicates
      clustering. The three risk behaviour combination of low FV, high ED, and high ST
      occurred more frequently than expected (O/E ratio = 1.06 95% CI 1.01, 1.15.
      Individual, behavioural, and social and physical home environmental correlates
      were differentially associated with behavioural clusters. Correlates consistently
      associated with clusters included eating ED snacks while watching TV, eating at
      the TV with parents, and the availability and accessibility of ED snack foods
      within the home. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high prevalence of screen time and
      unhealthy eating, and screen time is coupled with unhealthy dietary behaviours.
      Strategies and policies are required that simultaneously address reductions in
      screen time and changes to habitual dietary patterns, such as TV snacking and
      snack availability and accessibility. These may require a combination of
      individual, social and environmental changes alongside conscious and more
      automatic (nudging) strategies.

PMID- 28569187
TI  - The effects of acute renal denervation on kidney perfusion and metabolism in
      experimental septic shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perfusion deficits likely play an important role in the development
      of renal dysfunction in sepsis. Renal denervation may improve kidney perfusion
      and metabolism. METHODS: We randomized 14 female sheep to undergo bilateral
      surgical renal denervation (n = 7) or sham procedure (n = 7) prior to induction
      of sepsis. Renal blood flow (RBF) was measured with a pre-calibrated flowprobe.
      Laser Doppler probes were implanted to measure cortical and medullary perfusion.
      Cortical glucose, lactate and pyruvate levels were measured using the
      microdialysis technique. Creatinine clearance was determined. Sepsis was induced
      by peritonitis and fluid resuscitation was provided to avoid hypovolemia.
      RESULTS: RBF and cortical perfusion were higher in the denervated group during
      the first 6 h after induction of sepsis (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, respectively),
      while medullary perfusion decreased similarly in both groups. After hypotension
      developed, RBF decreased to similar levels in both groups. Cortical pyruvate and
      lactate levels were lower in the denervated animals (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001,
      respectively). There were no differences between groups in creatinine clearance,
      urine output or time to oliguria. CONCLUSION: Denervation thus caused an early
      increase in RBF that was distributed towards the kidney cortex. Although
      associated with an attenuation of early cortical metabolic alterations,
      denervation failed to prevent the deterioration in renal function.

PMID- 28569189
TI  - Experimental infections of mosquitoes with severe fever with thrombocytopenia
      syndrome virus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a newly
      identified emerging infectious disease, which is caused by a novel bunyavirus
      (termed SFTSV) in Asia. Although mosquitoes have not been identified as the
      primary vectors, as revealed by epidemiological surveys, their role in
      transmitting this SFTSV as a suspicious vector has not been validated. FINDINGS:
      In this study, we conducted experimental infections of mosquitoes with SFTSV to
      examine the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of the virus. We did not
      detect viral replication in Culex pipiens pallens, Aedes aegyptis and Anopheles
      sinensis as revealed by qRT-PCR assay. In addition, we failed to isolate SFTSV
      from the Vero cells cultured with suspensions of SFTSV-infected mosquitoes.
      CONCLUSION: The results of the present study demonstrate little possibility that
      mosquitoes act as vectors for the emerging pathogen SFTSV.

PMID- 28569190
TI  - Single-cell mRNA profiling reveals transcriptional heterogeneity among pancreatic
      circulating tumour cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Single-cell mRNA profiling of circulating tumour cells may contribute
      to a better understanding of the biology of these cells and their role in the
      metastatic process. In addition, such analyses may reveal new knowledge about the
      mechanisms underlying chemotherapy resistance and tumour progression in patients
      with cancer. METHODS: Single circulating tumour cells were isolated from patients
      with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer with immuno-magnetic
      depletion and immuno-fluorescence microscopy. mRNA expression was analysed with
      single-cell multiplex RT-qPCR. Hierarchical clustering and principal component
      analysis were performed to identify expression patterns. RESULTS: Circulating
      tumour cells were detected in 33 of 56 (59%) examined blood samples. Single-cell
      mRNA profiling of intact isolated circulating tumour cells revealed both
      epithelial-like and mesenchymal-like subpopulations, which were distinct from
      leucocytes. The profiled circulating tumour cells also expressed elevated levels
      of stem cell markers, and the extracellular matrix protein, SPARC. The expression
      of SPARC might correspond to an epithelial-mesenchymal transition in pancreatic
      circulating tumour cells. CONCLUSION: The analysis of single pancreatic
      circulating tumour cells identified distinct subpopulations and revealed elevated
      expression of transcripts relevant to the dissemination of circulating tumour
      cells to distant organ sites.

PMID- 28569191
TI  - The strategic framework of tuberculosis control and prevention in the elderly: a
      scoping review towards End TB targets.
AB  - With the rapid pace of population ageing, tuberculosis (TB) in the elderly
      increasingly becomes a public health challenge. Despite the increasing burden and
      high risks for TB in the elderly, targeted strategy has not been well understood
      and evaluated. We undertook a scoping review to identify current TB strategies,
      research and policy gaps in the elderly and summarized the results within a
      strategic framework towards End TB targets. Databases of Embase, MEDLINE, Global
      health and EBM reviews were searched for original studies, review articles, and
      policy papers published in English between January 1990 and December 2015.
      Articles examining TB strategy, program, guideline or intervention in the elderly
      from public health perspective were included.Nineteen articles met the inclusion
      criteria. Most of them were qualitative studies, issued in high- and middle
      income countries and after 2000. To break the chain of TB transmission and
      reactivation in the elderly, infection control, interventions of avoiding delay
      in diagnosis and containment are essential for preventing transmission,
      especially in elderly institutions and aged immigrants; screening of latent TB
      infection and preventive therapy had effective impacts on reducing the risk of
      reactivation and should be used less reluctantly in older people; optimizing
      early case-finding with a high index of suspicion, systematic screening for
      prioritized high-risk groups, initial empirical and adequate follow-up treatment
      with close monitoring and evaluation, as well as enhanced programmatic management
      are fundamental pillars for active TB elimination. Evaluation of TB epidemiology,
      risk factors, impacts and cost-effectiveness of interventions, adopting accurate
      and rapid diagnostic tools, shorter and less toxic preventive therapy, are
      critical issues for developing strategy in the elderly towards End TB targets.TB
      control strategies in the elderly were comprehensively mapped in a causal link
      pathway. The framework and principals identified in this study will help to
      evaluate and improve current program, develop targeted strategy, as well as raise
      more discussions on the research priority settings and policy transitions. Given
      the scarceness of policy and evaluated interventions, as well as the unawareness
      of shifting TB epidemiology and strategy especially in developing countries, the
      increasing need of a ready TB program for the elderly warrants further research.

PMID- 28569192
TI  - The Binding Sites of miR-619-5p in the mRNAs of Human and Orthologous Genes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Normally, one miRNA interacts with the mRNA of one gene. However,
      there are miRNAs that can bind to many mRNAs, and one mRNA can be the target of
      many miRNAs. This significantly complicates the study of the properties of miRNAs
      and their diagnostic and medical applications. RESULTS: The search of 2,750 human
      microRNAs (miRNAs) binding sites in 12,175 mRNAs of human genes using the
      MirTarget program has been completed. For the binding sites of the miR-619-5p the
      hybridization free energy of the bonds was equal to 100% of the maximum potential
      free energy. The mRNAs of 201 human genes have complete complementary binding
      sites of miR-619-5p in the 3'UTR (214 sites), CDS (3 sites), and 5'UTR (4 sites).
      The mRNAs of CATAD1, ICA1L, GK5, POLH, and PRR11 genes have six miR-619-5p
      binding sites, and the mRNAs of OPA3 and CYP20A1 genes have eight and ten binding
      sites, respectively. All of these miR-619-5p binding sites are located in the
      3'UTRs. The miR-619-5p binding site in the 5'UTR of mRNA of human USP29 gene is
      found in the mRNAs of orthologous genes of primates. Binding sites of miR-619-5p
      in the coding regions of mRNAs of C8H8orf44, C8orf44, and ISY1 genes encode the
      WLMPVIP oligopeptide, which is present in the orthologous proteins. Binding sites
      of miR-619-5p in the mRNAs of transcription factor genes ZNF429 and ZNF429 encode
      the AHACNP oligopeptide in another reading frame. Binding sites of miR-619-5p in
      the 3'UTRs of all human target genes are also present in the 3'UTRs of
      orthologous genes of mammals. The completely complementary binding sites for miR
      619-5p are conservative in the orthologous mammalian genes. CONCLUSIONS: The
      majority of miR-619-5p binding sites are located in the 3'UTRs but some genes
      have miRNA binding sites in the 5'UTRs of mRNAs. Several genes have binding sites
      for miRNAs in the CDSs that are read in different open reading frames. Identical
      nucleotide sequences of binding sites encode different amino acids in different
      proteins. The binding sites of miR-619-5p in 3'UTRs, 5'UTRs and CDSs are
      conservative in the orthologous mammalian genes.

PMID- 28569193
TI  - Health care utilization in patients with gout: a prospective multicenter cohort
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: All published studies of health care utilization in gout have been
      cross-sectional to date, and most used a patient-reported diagnosis of gout. Our
      objective was to assess health care utilization and its predictors in patients
      with physician-confirmed gout in a prospective cohort study. METHODS: In a multi
      center prospective cohort study of U.S. veterans with rheumatologist-confirmed
      gout (N = 186; two centers), we assessed patient self-reported overall and gout
      specific health care utilization with the Gout Assessment Questionnaire (GAQ)
      every 3-months for a 9-month period. Comparisons were made using the student's t
      test or the chi-square, Wilcoxon rank sum test or Fisher exact test, as
      appropriate. Mixed effects Poisson regression was used to assess potential
      correlates of gout-related health care utilization. RESULTS: Mean age was 64.6
      years, 98% were men, 13% Hispanic or Latino, 32% were African-American, 6% did
      not graduate high school, mean serum urate was 8.3 and mean Deyo-Charlson score
      was 3.1. During the past year, mean gout-related visits were as follows:
      rheumatologist, 1.5; primary care physician, 2 visits; >=1 inpatient visits, 7%;
      >=1 ER visits, 26%; and urgent care/walk-in visit, 33%. In longitudinal analyses,
      African-American race and gout flares in the last 3 months were associated with
      significantly higher rate ratio of gout-related outpatient visits. African
      American race and lack of college education were associated with significantly
      higher rate ratio for gout-related urgent visits and overnight stays.
      CONCLUSIONS: African-American race and recent gout flares were associated with
      higher outpatient utilization and African-American race and no college education
      with higher urgent or inpatient utilization. Future studies should examine
      whether modifiable predictors of utilization can be targeted to reduce healthcare
      utilization in patients with gout.

PMID- 28569195
TI  - How parents perceive screen viewing in their 5-6 year old child within the
      context of their own screen viewing time: a mixed-methods study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined parental perceptions of their child's
      screen-viewing (SV) within the context of parental SV time. This study
      qualitatively examined parents' perceptions of their 5-6-year-old child's SV
      within the context of their own quantitatively measured SV. METHODS: A mixed
      methods design employed semi-structured telephone interviews, demographic and SV
      questionnaires, objectively-measured physical activity and sedentary time.
      Deductive content analysis was used to explore parents' perceptions of, and
      concerns about, their child's SV, and management of their child's SV. Comparisons
      were made between parent-child dyads reporting low (<2-h per day) versus high SV
      time. RESULTS: Fifty-three parents were interviewed (94.3% mothers), with 52
      interviews analysed. Fifteen parent-child dyads (28.8%) exceeded the 2-h SV
      threshold on both weekdays and weekend days; 5 parent-child dyads (9.6%) did not
      exceed this threshold. The remaining 32 dyads reported a combination of parent or
      child exceeding/not exceeding the SV threshold on either weekdays or weekend
      days. Three main themes distinguished the 15 parent-child dyads exceeding the SV
      threshold from the 5 dyads that did not: 1) parents' personal SV-related views
      and behaviours; 2) the family SV environment; and 3) setting SV rules and limits.
      Parents in the dyads not exceeding the SV threshold prioritized and engaged with
      their children in non-SV behaviours for relaxation, set limits around their own
      and their child's SV-related behaviours, and described an environment supportive
      of physical activity. Parents in the dyads exceeding the SV threshold were more
      likely to prioritise SV as a shared family activity, and described a less
      structured SV environment with minimal rule setting, influenced their child's
      need for relaxation time. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of parents in this study who
      exceeded the SV threshold expressed minimal concern and a relaxed approach to
      managing SV for themselves and their child(ren), suggesting a need to raise
      awareness amongst these parents about the time they spend engaging in SV. Parents
      may understand their SV-related parenting practices more clearly if they are
      encouraged to examine their own SV behaviours. Designing interventions aimed to
      create environments that are less supportive of SV, with more structured
      approaches to SV parenting strategies are warranted.

PMID- 28569194
TI  - Severe child form of primary hyperoxaluria type 2 - a case report revealing
      consequence of GRHPR deficiency on metabolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary hyperoxaluria type 2 is a rare monogenic disorder inherited
      in an autosomal recessive pattern. It results from the absence of the enzyme
      glyoxylate reductase/hydroxypyruvate reductase (GRHPR). As a consequence of
      deficient enzyme activity, excessive amounts of oxalate and L-glycerate are
      excreted in the urine, and are a source for the formation of calcium oxalate
      stones that result in recurrent nephrolithiasis and less frequently
      nephrocalcinosis. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a 10-month-old patient
      diagnosed with urolithiasis. Screening of inborn errors of metabolism, including
      the performance of GC/MS urine organic acid profiling and HPLC amino acid
      profiling, showed abnormalities, which suggested deficiency of GRHPR enzyme.
      Additional metabolic disturbances observed in the patient led us to seek other
      genetic determinants and the elucidation of these findings. Besides the elevated
      excretion of 3-OH-butyrate, adipic acid, which are typical marks of ketosis,
      other metabolites such as 3-aminoisobutyric acid, 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid, 3
      hydroxypropionic acid and 2-ethyl-3-hydroxypropionic acids were observed in
      increased amounts in the urine. Direct sequencing of the GRHPR gene revealed
      novel mutation, described for the first time in this article c.454dup
      (p.Thr152Asnfs*39) in homozygous form. The frequent nucleotide variants were
      found in AGXT2 gene. CONCLUSIONS: The study presents metabolomic and molecular
      genetic findings in a patient with PH2. Mutation analysis broadens the allelic
      spectrum of the GRHPR gene to include a novel c.454dup mutation that causes the
      truncation of the GRHPR protein and loss of its two functional domains. We also
      evaluated whether nucleotide variants in the AGXT2 gene could influence the
      biochemical profile in PH2 and the overproduction of metabolites, especially in
      ketosis. We suppose that some metabolomic changes might be explained by the
      inhibition of the MMSADH enzyme by metabolites that increase as a consequence of
      GRHPR and AGXT2 enzyme deficiency. Several facts support an assumption that
      catabolic conditions in our patient could worsen the degree of hyperoxaluria and
      glyceric aciduria as a consequence of the elevated production of free amino acids
      and their intermediary products.

PMID- 28569196
TI  - Mathematical models for devising the optimal Ebola virus disease eradication.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 2014-2015 epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa
      defines an unprecedented health threat for human. METHODS: We construct a
      mathematical model to devise the optimal Ebola virus disease eradication plan. We
      used mathematical model to investigate the numerical spread of Ebola and
      eradication pathways, further fit our model against the real total cases data and
      calculated infection rate as 1.754. RESULTS: With incorporating hospital
      isolation and application of medication in our model and analyzing their effect
      on resisting the spread, we demonstrate the second peak of 10,029 total cases in
      23 days, and expect to eradicate EVD in 285 days. Using the regional spread of
      EVD with our transmission model analysis, we analyzed the numbers of new
      infections through four important transmission paths including household,
      community, hospital and unsafe funeral. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the result of the
      model, we find out the key paths in different situations and propose our
      suggestion to control regional transmission. We fully considers Ebola
      characteristics, economic and time optimization, dynamic factors and local
      condition constraints, and to make our plan realistic, sensible and feasible.

PMID- 28569198
TI  - Determination of reference values and frequency of occurrence of patella alta in
      German shepherd dogs: a retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patella alta and patella baja are important conditions underlying a
      predisposition to many joint diseases, including patellar luxation and patellar
      chondromalacia of the articular cartilage. The frequencies of patella alta and
      patella baja have not yet been determined. The objectives of this study were to
      determine the frequency of patella alta and to determine reference values to the
      position of the vertical patella according to two modified techniques of the
      Insall-Salvati method in a group of 65 German shepherd dogs (115 stifle joints).
      RESULTS: The upper limits of reference values for the normal vertical position of
      the patella were 1.79 and 2.13, depending on the method of measurement. A high
      prevalence of patella alta was observed in the group of German shepherd dogs. A
      correlation was demonstrated between the classification of dogs' joints in the
      patella alta group and the multiplied risk of canine hip dysplasia (CHD) through
      the estimation of odds ratios. CONCLUSIONS: Dogs with patella alta were healthy
      dogs that did not exhibit orthopaedic problems in the stifle joints. The results
      revealed that the risk of CHD is twice as high in dogs with higher patellar
      ligament length to patella length ratio.

PMID- 28569197
TI  - An objective nodal staging system for breast cancer patients undergoing
      neoadjuvant systemic treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to develop an objective staging system to
      determine the degree of nodal metastasis in breast cancer patients undergoing
      neoadjuvant systemic treatment (NST). METHODS: We reviewed the pretreatment
      computed tomography (CT) images of 392 breast cancer patients who received NST.
      The association between the patterns of the enlarged regional lymph nodes and
      treatment outcome was analyzed. RESULTS: In the development cohort of 260
      patients, 88 (33.8%) patients experienced tumor recurrence and had a
      significantly higher number of enlarged lymph nodes on the pretreatment CT
      compared to patients with no recurrence. When patients were classified according
      to the numbers and locations of enlarged lymph nodes on pretreatment CT, the
      number of lymph nodes larger than 1 cm was most significantly associated with
      tumor recurrence. The accuracy of the CT-based nodal staging system was validated
      in an independent cohort of 132 patients. The presence of the enlarged
      supraclavicular nodes was associated with worse outcome, but the effect seemed to
      originate from the accompanied extensive axillary nodal burden. The prognostic
      effect of the objectively measured axillary nodal metastasis was more pronounced
      in hormone receptor-negative tumors. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed and validated
      an objective method of nodal staging in breast cancer patients who undergo NST
      based on the number of enlarged axillary lymph nodes. Our system can improve the
      current subjective approach, which uses physical examination alone.

PMID- 28569200
TI  - Faecal transplantation for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infection in a
      marmoset.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The common marmoset has been used as an experimental animal for
      various purposes. Because its average weight ranges from 250 to 500 g, weight
      loss quickly becomes critical for sick animals. Therefore, effective and non
      stressful treatment for chronic diseases, including diarrhoea, is essential. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We report a case in which faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT)
      led to immediate recovery from chronic and recurrent diarrhoea caused by
      Clostridium difficile infection. A male common marmoset experienced chronic
      diarrhoea after antibiotic treatments. The animal experienced severe weight loss,
      and a faecal sample was confirmed to be C. difficile-positive but was negative
      for protozoa. Metronidazole was partially effective at the first administration
      but not after the recurrence of the clinical signs. Then, oral FMT was
      administered to the subject by feeding fresh faeces from healthy individuals
      mixed with the marmoset's usual food. We monitored the faeces by categorization
      into four groups: normal, loose, diarrhoea, and watery. After the first day of
      FMT treatment, the marmoset underwent a remarkable recovery from diarrhoea, and
      after the fourth day of treatment, a test for C. difficile was negative. The
      clinical signs did not recur. The marmoset recovered from sinusitis and bilateral
      dacryocystitis, which also did not recur, as a by-product of the improvement in
      its general health caused by the cessation of diarrhoea after the FMT.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first reported case of successful treatment of a marmoset
      using oral FMT. As seen in human patients, FMT was effective for the treatment of
      recurrent C. difficile infection in a captive marmoset.

PMID- 28569199
TI  - Shikonin-induced necroptosis is enhanced by the inhibition of autophagy in non
      small cell lung cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shikonin, a natural naphthoquinone pigment purified from Lithospermum
      erythrorhizon, induces necroptosis in various cancer types, but the mechanisms
      underlying the anticancer activity of shikonin in lung cancer are not fully
      understood. This study was designed to clarify whether shikonin causes
      necroptosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and to investigate the
      mechanism of action. METHODS: Multiplex and caspase 8 assays were used to analyze
      effect of shikonin on A549 cells. Cytometry with annexin V/PI staining and MTT
      assays were used to analyze the mode of cell death. Western blotting was used to
      determine the effect of shikonin-induced necroptosis and autophagy. Xenograft and
      orthotopic models with A549 cells were used to evaluate the anti-tumor effect of
      shikonin in vivo. RESULTS: Most of the cell death induced by shikonin could be
      rescued by the specific necroptosis inhibitor necrostatin-1, but not by the
      general caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK. Tumor growth was significantly lower in
      animals treated with shikonin than in the control group. Shikonin also increased
      RIP1 protein expression in tumor tissues. Autophagy inhibitors, including
      methyladenine (3-MA), ATG5 siRNA, and bafilomycin A, enhanced shikonin-induced
      necroptosis, whereas RIP1 siRNA had no effect on the apoptotic potential of
      shikonin. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicated that shikonin treatment induced
      necroptosis and autophagy in NSCLC cells. In addition, the inhibition of shikonin
      induced autophagy enhanced necroptosis, suggesting that shikonin could be a novel
      therapeutic strategy against NSCLC.

PMID- 28569201
TI  - A propensity matched analysis of outcomes and long term survival in stented
      versus stentless valves.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To compare the perioperative and long term survival after aortic
      valve replacement using stentless versus stented valves in a large cohort of
      patients grouped using propensity score matching. METHODS: From 1991 to 2012,
      4,563 patients underwent aortic valve replacement with stentless and stented
      valves at our institution. Propensity score matching identified 444 pairs using
      13 independent variables: incidence of operation, smoking status, renal failure,
      hypertension, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease,
      chronic lung disease, ejection fraction, gender, age, valve status, and use of
      coronary artery bypass graft. Data were collected from our Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons database and the Social Security Death Index. Groups were compared using
      univariate and Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS: The two groups demonstrated no
      significant differences for the 13 matching variables and the majority of 30-day
      outcomes (p > 0.05). The stented valve group showed a higher incidence of
      postoperative bleeding (3.6% vs 1.1%, p = 0.015), but a lower incidence of stroke
      (0.9% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.028). One, five, and 10-year survival was 95.0, 80.7, and
      52.8% for stented and 93.2, 80.5, and 51.3% for stentless valves. Overall
      survival did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.641).
      CONCLUSIONS: Stentless and stented valves had identical 30-day outcomes except
      for a higher postoperative incidence of bleeding and a lower incidence of stroke
      in the stented group. There was no significant difference in long term survival
      between valve types. Both valves may be used for aortic valve replacement with
      low morbidity and excellent long term survival.

PMID- 28569202
TI  - A health partnership to reduce neonatal mortality in four hospitals in Rwanda.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A health partnership to improve hospital based neonatal care in
      Rwanda to reduce neonatal mortality was requested by the Rwandan Ministry of
      Health. Although many health system improvements have been made, there is a
      severe shortage of health professionals with neonatal training. METHODS:
      Following a needs assessment, a health partnership grant for 2 years was
      obtained. A team of volunteer neonatologists and paediatricians, neonatal nurses,
      lactation consultants and technicians with experience in Rwanda or low-income
      countries was assembled. A neonatal training program was provided in four
      hospitals (the 2 University hospitals and 2 district hospitals), which focused on
      nutrition, provision of basic respiratory support with nasal CPAP (Continuous
      Positive Airway Pressure), enhanced record keeping, thermoregulation, vital signs
      monitoring and infection control. To identify if care delivery improved, audits
      of nutritional support, CPAP use and its complications, and documentation in
      newly developed neonatal medical records were conducted. Mortality data of
      neonatal admissions was obtained. RESULTS: Intensive neonatal training was
      provided on 27 short-term visits by 10 specialist health professionals. In
      addition, a paediatric doctor spent 3 months and two spent 6 months each
      providing training. A total of 472 training days was conducted in the neonatal
      units. For nutritional support, significant improvements were demonstrated in
      reduction in time to initiation of enteral feeds and to achieve full milk feeds,
      in reduction in maximum postnatal weight loss, but not in days for regaining
      birth weight. Respiratory support with bubble CPAP was applied to 365 infants in
      the first 18 months. There were no significant technical problems, but tissue
      damage, usually transient, to the nose and face was recorded in 13%. New medical
      records improved documentation by doctors, but nursing staff were reluctant to
      use them. Mortality for University teaching hospital admissions was reduced from
      23.6% in the 18 months before the project to 21.7%. For the two district
      hospitals, mortality reduced from 10% to 8.1%. A major barrier to training and
      improved care was low number of nurses working on neonatal units and staff
      turnover. CONCLUSION: This health partnership delivered an intensive program of
      capacity building by volunteer specialists. Improved care and documentation were
      demonstrated. CPAP was successfully introduced. Mortality was reduced. This
      format can be adapted for further training and improvement programs to improve
      the quality of facility-based care.

PMID- 28569203
TI  - Neurobehavioral changes in mice offspring exposed to green tea during fetal and
      early postnatal development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Green tea extract (GTE) has various health promoting effects on
      animals and humans. However, the effects of perinatal exposure to GTE on the
      behavioral aspects of offspring have not been elucidated thus far. GTE was
      provided for pregnant female mice at concentrations of either 20 or 50 g/L,
      beginning the day of conception until the third week after delivery, postnatal
      day 22 (PD 22). Mice pups were subjected to behavioral testing to assess sensory
      motor reflexes, locomotion, anxiety, and learning on various postnatal days.
      RESULTS: Perinatal exposure to GTE resulted in a significant reduction in body
      weight, as well as earlier body hair appearance and opening of the eyes. Sensory
      motor reflexes exhibited faster responses and significant stimulatory effects in
      pups exposed to GTE. During the adolescent period, male and female offspring
      exhibited increased locomotor activity (on PD 22), reduced anxiety and fear (on
      PD 25), and enhanced memory and learning abilities (on PD 30), all in both GTE
      treated groups. All blood counts (RBCs, WBCs, Hb, and platelets), and glucose,
      cholesterol, triglyceride, and low density lipoprotein concentrations were
      significantly lower in the GTE-treated pups; however, there was no effect on high
      density lipoprotein levels. CONCLUSION: Our data provide evidence that the high
      dose of GTE (50 g/L) had higher anxiolytic properties and positive effects on
      locomotor activities and sensory motor reflexes, as well as learning and memory
      of the offspring than the low dose of GTE (20 g/L).

PMID- 28569205
TI  - Association between blood pressure and Alzheimer disease measured up to 27 years
      prior to diagnosis: the HUNT Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A lot of attention has been paid to the relationship of blood
      pressure and dementia because epidemiological research has reported conflicting
      evidence. Observational data has shown that midlife hypertension is a risk factor
      for cognitive decline and dementia later in life, whereas there is evidence that
      low blood pressure is predictive in later life. The aim of the present study was
      to examine the association between dementia and blood pressure measured up to 27
      years (mean 17.6 years) prior to ascertainment. METHODS: In Nord-Trondelag
      County, Norway, incident dementia data were collected during 1995-2011, and the
      diagnoses were validated by a panel of experts in the field. By using the
      subjects' personal identification numbers, the dementia data were linked to data
      from the Nord-Trondelag Health Study (the HUNT Study), a large, population-based
      health study performed in 1984-1986 (HUNT 1) and 1995-1997 (HUNT 2). A total of
      24,638 participants of the HUNT Study were included in the present study, 579 of
      whom were diagnosed with Alzheimer disease, mixed Alzheimer/vascular dementia, or
      vascular dementia. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to
      analyze the association between dementia and blood pressure data from HUNT 1 and
      HUNT 2. RESULTS: Over the age of 60 years, consistent inverse associations were
      observed between systolic blood pressure and all-cause dementia, mixed
      Alzheimer/vascular dementia, and Alzheimer disease, but not with vascular
      dementia, when adjusting for age, sex, education, and other relevant covariates.
      This was observed for systolic blood pressure in both HUNT 1 and HUNT 2,
      regardless of antihypertensive medication use. There was an adverse association
      between systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and Alzheimer disease in
      individuals treated with antihypertensive medication under the age of 60 years.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data are in line with those in previous studies demonstrating an
      inverse association between dementia and systolic blood pressure in individuals
      over the age of 60 years. We cannot exclude a survival effect, however. Among
      middle-aged subjects (<60 years), elevated systolic blood pressure and pulse
      pressure were associated with eventual Alzheimer disease in individuals who
      reported using antihypertensive medication.

PMID- 28569204
TI  - TGFbeta1-induced SMAD2/3 and SMAD1/5 phosphorylation are both ALK5-kinase
      dependent in primary chondrocytes and mediated by TAK1 kinase activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dysregulated transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) signaling is
      implicated in osteoarthritis development, making normalizing TGFbeta signaling a
      possible therapy. Theoretically, this can be achieved with small molecule
      inhibitors specifically targeting the various TGFbeta receptors and downstream
      mediators. In this study we explore in primary chondrocytes the use of small
      molecule inhibitors to target TGFbeta-induced pSmad1/5/9-, pSmad2/3- and TGFbeta
      activated kinase 1 (TAK1)-dependent signaling. METHOD: Primary bovine
      chondrocytes and explants were isolated from metacarpophalangeal joints. To
      modulate TGFbeta signaling the activin receptor-like kinase (ALK)1/2/3/6
      inhibitor LDN-193189, the ALK4/5/7 inhibitor SB-505124 and the TAK1 inhibitor
      (5Z)-7-Oxozeaenol were used. pSmad1/5 and pSmad2 were measured using western blot
      analysis and TGFbeta1-induced gene expression was measured using quantitative
      real time PCR (qPCR). RESULTS: In chondrocytes, TGFbeta1 strongly induced both
      pSmad1/5 and pSmad2. Remarkably, LDN-193189 did not inhibit TGFbeta-induced
      pSmad1/5. In contrast, SB-505124 did inhibit both TGFbeta-induced Smad2 and
      Smad1/5 phosphorylation. Furthermore, (5Z)-7-Oxozeaenol also profoundly inhibited
      TGFbeta-induced pSmad2 and pSmad1/5. Importantly, both SB-505124 and (5Z)-7
      Oxozeaenol did not significantly inhibit constitutively active ALK1, making an
      off-target effect unlikely. Additionally, LDN-193189 was able to potently inhibit
      BMP2/7/9-induced pSmad1/5, showing its functionality. On gene expression, LDN
      193189 did not affect TGFbeta1-induced regulation, whereas both SB-505124 and
      (5Z)-7-Oxozeaenol did. Similar results were obtained in cartilage explants,
      although pSmad1/5 was not strongly induced by addition of TGFbeta1. CONCLUSION:
      Our data suggest that ALK5 kinase activity plays a central role in both TGFbeta
      induced Smad1/5 and Smad2/3 phosphorylation, making it difficult to separate both
      pathways with the use of currently available small molecule inhibitors.
      Furthermore, our data regarding (5Z)-7-Oxozeaenol suggest that TAK1 facilitates
      Smad-dependent signaling.

PMID- 28569206
TI  - Virology analysis in HCV genotype 1-infected patients treated with the
      combination of simeprevir and TMC647055/ritonavir, with and without ribavirin,
      and JNJ-56914845.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In study TMC647055HPC2001, a 3-direct-acting-antiviral (DAA) regimen
      combining NS3/4A protease inhibitor simeprevir (SMV), non-nucleoside NS5B
      inhibitor TMC647055/ritonavir (RTV) and NS5A inhibitor JNJ-56914845 resulted in
      high sustained virologic response 12 weeks after actual end of treatment (SVR12)
      in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1-infected patients. SVR12 rates were
      generally lower in the 2-DAA regimen SMV + TMC647055/RTV with or without
      ribavirin. The objective of this study was to identify and characterise pre
      existing and emerging resistance-associated variants (RAVs) in patients enrolled
      in study TMC647055HPC2001. METHODS: HCV population sequencing analyses were
      performed on baseline isolates from all patients (n = 90) and post-baseline
      isolates from patients with virologic failure (n = 22). In addition, deep
      sequencing and phenotypic analyses were performed on selected baseline and post
      baseline isolates. RESULTS: The majority of patients with virologic failure had
      emerging RAVs to all study drugs at the time of failure: in all 22 patients SMV
      RAVs emerged at NS3 positions 80, 155, 156 and/or 168, consistent with the known
      SMV resistance profile. Emerging TMC647055 RAVs at NS5B position 495 were
      detected in the majority of patients (16/22), and all 5 patients who failed the 3
      DAA regimen had emerging JNJ-56914845 RAVs at NS5A positions 30 and/or 31. While
      at the end of study emerging SMV and TMC647055 RAVs were no longer observed by
      population sequencing in 40% (8/20) and 62.5% (10/16) of patients with follow-up
      data available, respectively, emerging JNJ-56914845 RAVs were still detected in
      all (5/5) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Virologic failure in the 2- and 3-DAA
      combinations was, in the majority of patients, associated with the emergence of
      RAVs to all study drugs. While emerging SMV and TMC647055 RAVs became
      undetectable during follow-up, JNJ-56914845 RAVs in NS5A were still observed at
      end of study. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01724086 (date of registration:
      September 26, 2012).

PMID- 28569207
TI  - Seed-effect modeling improves the consistency of genome-wide loss-of-function
      screens and identifies synthetic lethal vulnerabilities in cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genome-wide loss-of-function profiling is widely used for systematic
      identification of genetic dependencies in cancer cells; however, the poor
      reproducibility of RNA interference (RNAi) screens has been a major concern due
      to frequent off-target effects. Currently, a detailed understanding of the key
      factors contributing to the sub-optimal consistency is still a lacking,
      especially on how to improve the reliability of future RNAi screens by
      controlling for factors that determine their off-target propensity. METHODS: We
      performed a systematic, quantitative analysis of the consistency between two
      genome-wide shRNA screens conducted on a compendium of cancer cell lines, and
      also compared several gene summarization methods for inferring gene essentiality
      from shRNA level data. We then devised novel concepts of seed essentiality and
      shRNA family, based on seed region sequences of shRNAs, to study in-depth the
      contribution of seed-mediated off-target effects to the consistency of the two
      screens. We further investigated two seed-sequence properties, seed pairing
      stability, and target abundance in terms of their capability to minimize the off
      target effects in post-screening data analysis. Finally, we applied this novel
      methodology to identify genetic interactions and synthetic lethal partners of
      cancer drivers, and confirmed differential essentiality phenotypes by detailed
      CRISPR/Cas9 experiments. RESULTS: Using the novel concepts of seed essentiality
      and shRNA family, we demonstrate how genome-wide loss-of-function profiling of a
      common set of cancer cell lines can be actually made fairly reproducible when
      considering seed-mediated off-target effects. Importantly, by excluding shRNAs
      having higher propensity for off-target effects, based on their seed-sequence
      properties, one can remove noise from the genome-wide shRNA datasets. As a
      translational application case, we demonstrate enhanced reproducibility of
      genetic interaction partners of common cancer drivers, as well as identify novel
      synthetic lethal partners of a major oncogenic driver, PIK3CA, supported by a
      complementary CRISPR/Cas9 experiment. CONCLUSIONS: We provide practical
      guidelines for improved design and analysis of genome-wide loss-of-function
      profiling and demonstrate how this novel strategy can be applied towards improved
      mapping of genetic dependencies of cancer cells to aid development of targeted
      anticancer treatments.

PMID- 28569208
TI  - Development of a health education intervention strategy using an implementation
      research method to control taeniasis and cysticercosis in Burkina Faso.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Taeniasis and cysticercosis are two diseases caused by Taenia solium,
      a parasite transmitted between humans and pigs, leading to considerable economic
      loss and disabilities. Transmission of the parasite is linked to environmental
      and behavioural factors such as inadequate sanitation and hygiene, poor pig
      management, and consumption of infected pork. This study used implementation
      research method to design a health education intervention strategy for reducing
      T. solium infections in Burkina Faso, a country endemic for the parasite.
      METHODS: Eighteen group discussions were conducted with 8-18 participants each in
      three villages. In addition, structured interviews were conducted among 4 777
      participants and 2 244 pig owners, who were selected through cluster random
      sampling in 60 villages of three provinces of Burkina Faso. Both approaches
      assessed knowledge and practices related to T. solium. The information obtained
      was used to develop a community-adapted health education intervention strategy to
      control taeniasis and cysticercosis in Burkina Faso. RESULTS: The group
      discussions revealed that participants had a poor quality of life due to the
      diseases as well as inadequate access to latrines, safe water, and healthcare
      services. In addition, it was found that pig production was an important economic
      activity, especially for women. Furthermore, financial and knowledge constraints
      were important limitations to improved pig management and latrine construction.
      The survey data also showed that open defecation and drinking unboiled water were
      common behaviours, enhanced by a lack of knowledge regarding the transmission of
      the parasite, perceived financial barriers to the implementation of control
      measures, lack of public sensitization, as well as a lack of self-efficacy
      towards control of the parasite. Nevertheless, the perceived financial benefits
      of controlling porcine cysticercosis could be emphasized by an education program
      that discourages open defecation and encourages drinking safe water. The final
      intervention strategy included a Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation
      Transformation (PHAST) approach, as well as a 52-min film and an accompanying
      comic booklet. CONCLUSIONS: The main problem in the study communities regarding
      the transmission of T. solium cysticercosis is the random disposal of human
      faeces, which can be contaminated with parasite eggs. Prevention of open
      defecation requires the building of latrines, which can be quite problematic in
      economically challenged settings. Providing the community with the skills to
      construct durable latrines using low-cost locally available materials would
      likely help to resolve this problem. Further studies are required to implement
      and evaluate the T. solium control strategy developed in this study.

PMID- 28569209
TI  - In-vivo monitoring of anti-folate therapy in arthritic rats using [18F]fluoro-PEG
      folate and positron emission tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Folate receptor beta (FRbeta) is involved in facilitating cellular
      uptake of folates and anti-folates (such as methotrexate (MTX)). In rheumatoid
      arthritis, FRbeta is expressed on synovial macrophages and recently has been
      explored as a biomarker for imaging in arthritic rats using the folate-based
      positron emission tomography (PET) tracer [18F]fluoro-PEG-folate. The purpose of
      this study was to examine whether this folate tracer can also be used to monitor
      therapeutic efficacy of MTX in arthritic rats. METHODS: Arthritic rats received
      either no treatment or MTX therapy (1 mg/kg, either 2* or 4*). Healthy rats did
      not receive any arthritic induction or therapy. [18F]fluoro-PEG-folate PET-CT
      scans (60 min) were performed before and after MTX therapy. Following PET, the ex
      vivo tissue distribution of radioactivity was determined in excised knees and
      multiple tissues. Synovial macrophage infiltration in knee sections was
      quantified by immunohistochemistry using ED1 and ED2 antibodies. RESULTS: PET
      scans clearly visualized increased uptake of [18F]fluoro-PEG-folate in arthritic
      knees compared with contralateral knees. Significantly lower standard uptake
      values (1.5-fold, p < 0.01) were observed in arthritic knees of both MTX-treated
      groups after therapy, approximating the levels seen in healthy rats.
      Consistently, ex-vivo tissue distribution demonstrated a 2-4-fold lower tracer
      uptake in the arthritic knee of 2* and 4* MTX-treated rats, respectively,
      compared with control rats. These results were corroborated with significantly
      reduced (2-4-fold, p < 0.01) ED1-positive and ED2-positive synovial macrophages
      in arthritic knees of the MTX-treated rats compared with those of the control
      rats. CONCLUSION: This study in arthritic rats underscores the potential and
      usefulness of [18F]fluoro-PEG-folate PET as a therapeutic monitoring tool of MTX
      therapy and potentially other anti-folate treatment of arthritis.

PMID- 28569210
TI  - Bacteriophage-prokaryote dynamics and interaction within anaerobic digestion
      processes across time and space.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacteriophage-prokaryote dynamics and interaction are believed to be
      important in governing microbiome composition and ecosystem functions, yet our
      limited knowledge of the spatial and temporal variation in phage and prokaryotic
      community compositions precludes accurate assessment of their roles and impacts.
      Anaerobic digesters are ideal model systems to examine phage-host interaction,
      owing to easy access, stable operation, nutrient-rich environment, and
      consequently enormous numbers of phages and prokaryotic cells. RESULTS: Equipped
      with high-throughput, cutting-edge environmental genomics techniques, we examined
      phage and prokaryotic community composition of four anaerobic digesters in full
      scale wastewater treatment plants across China. Despite the relatively stable
      process performance in biogas production, phage and prokaryotic groups fluctuated
      monthly over a year of study period, showing significant correlations between
      those two groups at the alpha- and beta-diversity levels. Strikingly, phages
      explained 40.6% of total variations of the prokaryotic community composition,
      much higher than the explanatory power by abiotic factors (14.5%). Consequently,
      phages were significantly (P < 0.010) linked to parameters related to process
      performance including biogas production and volatile solid concentrations.
      Association network analyses showed phage-prokaryote pairs were shallowly
      conserved since they were detected only within small viral clades. CONCLUSIONS:
      Those results collectively demonstrate phages as a major biotic factor in
      controlling prokaryotic composition and process performance. Therefore, phages
      may play a larger role in shaping prokaryotic community dynamics and process
      performance of anaerobic digesters than currently appreciated.

PMID- 28569211
TI  - Exosomal amyloid A and lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronic acid receptor-1
      proteins are associated with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exosomes are thought to play an important role in exchanging
      information between cells. The proteins and lipids in exosomes play roles in
      mediating inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to
      identify exosomal candidate proteins that are related to other inflammatory
      parameters in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: The study population consisted
      of 60 patients with RA: 30 in the clinical remission (CR) group with a Disease
      Activity Score in 28 joints based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR)
      <=2.6 and 30 in the non-clinical remission (non-CR) group with a DAS28-ESR >2.6.
      Preparation of exosomes from patient serum samples was performed with the
      ExoQuick kit, and protein identification/quantification was performed using
      tandem mass tag labeling/mass spectrometry and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay. Comparisons between groups were made using Student's t test or the Mann
      Whitney U test, as appropriate. Spearman's correlation coefficients (rho) were
      calculated. RESULTS: We identified six candidate proteins. Exosomal levels of
      amyloid A (AA) and lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronic acid receptor-1 (LYVE
      1) differed between the CR and non-CR groups. Both serum and exosomal AA levels
      were higher in the non-CR group than in the CR group (p = 0.001). Significant
      positive correlations were found between exosomal AA and C-reactive protein (CRP)
      as well as between serum AA and CRP (rho = 0.614, p = 0.001, and rho = 0.624, p =
      0.001, respectively). Although serum levels of LYVE-1 did not differ between the
      non-CR and CR groups, exosomal levels of LYVE-1 were lower in the non-CR group
      than in the CR group (p = 0.01). We identified positive correlations between
      serum/exosomal LYVE-1 and CRP only in the non-CR group (serum rho = 0.376, p =
      0.04; exosome rho = 0.545, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Exosomal LYVE-1 shows
      potential for use as an additional marker of disease activity in patients with
      RA, and exosomes may carry other useful markers for RA.

PMID- 28569212
TI  - The prevalence of ACPA is lower in rheumatoid arthritis patients with an older
      age of onset but the composition of the ACPA response appears identical.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) consists of two syndromes, one autoantibody
      positive and one autoantibody-negative. Existing data on the relation between age
      of onset and prevalence of autoantibodies were conflicting. Therefore this
      multicohort study assessed the age of onset in relation to the presence of
      autoantibodies. The association with characteristics of the anti-citrullinated
      protein antibodies (ACPA) response was also explored. METHODS: The 1987 criteria
      positive RA patients included in the Leiden EAC, BARFOT, ESPOIR, Umea and Lund
      cohorts (n = 3321) were studied at presentation for age of onset and the presence
      of ACPA, rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP)
      antibodies. Logistic regression analyses were performed; effect sizes were
      summarized in inverse-weighted meta-analyses. Within ACPA-positive RA, ACPA level
      was studied in all cohorts; ACPA isotypes, ACPA fine specificity and ACPA avidity
      index and clinical characteristics were studied in the Leiden EAC. RESULTS: From
      the age of 50 onward, the proportion of ACPA-negative RA patients increased with
      age in the five cohorts. Similar observations were made for RF and anti-CarP. The
      composition of the ACPA response did not change with increasing age of onset with
      respect to titer, isotype distribution, fine specificity and avidity index. With
      increasing age of onset, RA patients smoked less often, had higher acute phase
      reactants and more often had a sub(acute) symptom onset. CONCLUSIONS: Data of
      five cohorts revealed that with older age of onset ACPA-negative RA is more
      frequent than ACPA-positive RA, while characteristics of ACPA-positive RA as
      judged by the composition of the ACPA response appeared not age dependent.
      Further biologic studies are needed to characterize the pathogenesis of ACPA
      negative polyarthritis at older age and to promote personalized treatment
      decisions in ACPA-negative patients in daily practice.

PMID- 28569213
TI  - Is early intervention using Mansoura-VV uterine compression sutures an effective
      procedure in the management of primary atonic postpartum hemorrhage? : a
      prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death, uterine
      atony accounts for 75-90% of primary postpartum hemorrhage. The efficacy of the
      Uterine compression suture in the treatment of atonic postpartum hemorrhage is
      time-tested and can be said to be almost established.The aim of this study was to
      assess the role of the Mansoura-VV uterine compression suture as an early
      intervention in the management of primary atonic postpartum hemorrhage. METHODS:
      This prospective observational study included 108 women with primary atonic PPH
      over a period of 44 months. Uterine atony was diagnosed when the uterus was soft
      and failed to respond to ordinary ecbolics. Early intervention by Mansoura-VV
      uterine compression sutures was carried out within 15 min of the second dose of
      ecobolics and before progressing to any further surgical procedure. RESULTS:
      Following the Mansoura-VV uterine compression sutures, uterine bleeding was
      controlled in all except one patient (107/108 cases; 99.07%) who required
      additional bilateral uterine vessels ligation. Another case (0.93%) was subjected
      to re-laparotomy due to intraperitoneal hemorrhage. Packed RBC transfusion was
      needed in 10 cases (9.25%). Admission to ICU was needed in 9 cases (8.33%)
      because of associated medical conditions. One week following the procedure, 1
      case (0.93%) was diagnosed with haematometra. CONCLUSION: Early intervention in
      cases of primary atonic PPH using the Mansoura-VV uterine compression sutures is
      an easy, rapid and effective method in controlling PPH in low resource settings.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at clinicaltrial.gov , Identifiers:
      NCT03117647 "retrospectively registererd" registered at April 7, 2017.

PMID- 28569214
TI  - Decreased cardiac mortality with nicorandil in patients with ischemic heart
      failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effective treatments in heart failure (HF) patients with ischemic
      etiology have not been fully established. Nicorandil, combination of nitrate
      component and sarcolemmal adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel
      opener, is a potent vasodilator of coronary and peripheral vessels and has been
      used as an antianginal agent. Therefore, we examined impacts of nicorandil on
      cardiac mortality in ischemic HF patients. METHODS: Consecutive 334 HF patients
      with ischemic etiology were retrospectively registered and divided into 2 groups
      based on oral administration of nicorandil: nicorandil group (n = 116) and non
      nicorandil group (n = 218). We retrospectively examined cardiac mortality.
      RESULTS: In the Kaplan-Meier analysis (mean follow-up period 963 days), cardiac
      mortality was significantly lower in the nicorandil group than in the non
      nicorandil group (11.2% vs. 19.7%, P = 0.032). In the Cox proportional hazard
      analysis, usage of nicorandil was a suppressor of cardiac mortality (hazard ratio
      0.512, 95% confidence interval 0.275-0.953, P = 0.035), and this result was
      consistent in several subgroup analyses, such as left ventricular ejection
      fraction, percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass graft,
      diabetes, beta-blockers, and statins. CONCLUSION: Nicorandil is potentially
      effective for reducing mortality in patients with ischemic heart failure. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: This was a retrospective study.

PMID- 28569215
TI  - Diagnosis of Swine Toxoplasmosis by PCR and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii from
      pigs in Henan, Central China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Toxoplasma gondii, a widely prevalent protozoan parasite, causes
      serious toxoplasmosis infections in humans and other animals. Among livestock,
      pigs are susceptible to T. gondii infection. Despite Henan being one of the
      biggest pig-raising provinces in China, little information exists on the
      epidemiology of toxoplasmosis in this location. Therefore, we molecularly
      characterized DNA samples from pigs in Henan. A total of 1647 samples, including
      952 from dead piglets, 478 from seriously sick fattening pigs and 217 from
      abortion sows, were collected from different animal hospitals or pig farms from
      10 different cities in Henan (2006-2008). Each pig corresponded to a separate pig
      farm. DNA was extracted from 3 to 5 g of the most severely affected pig tissue
      (liver, spleen, lung, hilar lymph nodes and amniotic fluid) after postmortem
      examination. The presence of the T. gondii B1 gene was detected using nested
      polymerase chain reactions (PCR). Genotyping was performed directly on DNA from
      the PCR-positive tissue samples using 11 PCR restriction fragment length
      polymorphism markers (SAG1, 5'- and 3'-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6,
      L358, PK1, c22-8, c29-2, and Apico). RESULTS: Of all samples, thirty-four were
      positive for the T. gondii B1 gene (2.06%, 95% CI: 1.86%-2.26%) from four cities,
      including 31 from NanYang city, one (PgXY 1) from Xinyang City, one (PgZZ 1) from
      Zhengzhou City and one (PgZK1) from Zhoukou City. The prevalence was found to be
      highest in piglets than in fattening pigs and sows. And the difference was
      statistically significant (P<0.01). The following 32 samples were genotyped with
      complete data: 13 hilar lymph node tissue samples, seven liver tissue samples,
      seven lung tissue samples, four spleen tissue samples, and one amniotic fluid
      sample. Only one genotype, belonging to ToxoDB Genotype #9, was identified.
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first large-scale survey molecularly characterizing T.
      gondii from pigs in Henan. The results of the present study revealed that T.
      gondii infection is present in swine in Henan and is a potential source of
      foodborne toxoplasmosis in the investigated areas. Implementation of effective
      control measures for T. gondii to reduce the chance of zoonotic toxoplasmosis
      spreading from pig farms may be warranted. The results show that the ToxoDB #9
      genotype may be the dominant T. gondii lineage in mainland China. These findings
      strengthen the limited Chinese T. gondii epidemiology database.

PMID- 28569216
TI  - Potent and reversible lentiviral vector restriction in murine induced pluripotent
      stem cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retroviral vectors are derived from wild-type retroviruses, can be
      used to study retrovirus-host interactions and are effective tools in gene and
      cell therapy. However, numerous cell types are resistant or less permissive to
      retrovirus infection due to the presence of active defense mechanisms, or the
      absence of important cellular host co-factors. In contrast to multipotent stem
      cells, pluripotent stem cells (PSC) have potential to differentiate into all
      three germ layers. Much remains to be elucidated in the field of anti-viral
      immunity in stem cells, especially in PSC. RESULTS: In this study, we report that
      transduction with HIV-1-based, lentiviral vectors (LV) is impaired in murine PSC.
      Analyses of early retroviral events in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)
      revealed that the restriction is independent of envelope choice and does not
      affect reverse transcription, but perturbs nuclear entry and proviral
      integration. Proteasomal inhibition by MG132 could not circumvent the
      restriction. However, prevention of cyclophilin A (CypA) binding to the HIV-1
      capsid via use of either a CypA inhibitor (cyclosporine A) or CypA-independent
      capsid mutants improved transduction. In addition, application of higher vector
      doses also increased transduction. Our data revealed a CypA mediated restriction
      in iPSC, which was acquired during reprogramming, associated with pluripotency
      and relieved upon subsequent differentiation. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that murine
      PSC and iPSC are less susceptible to LV. The block observed in iPSC was CypA
      dependent and resulted in reduced nuclear entry of viral DNA and proviral
      integration. Our study helps to improve transduction of murine pluripotent cells
      with HIV-1-based vectors and contributes to our understanding of retrovirus-host
      interactions in PSC.

PMID- 28569218
TI  - A knowledge-based framework for the discovery of cancer-predisposing variants
      using large-scale sequencing breast cancer data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The landscape of cancer-predisposing genes has been extensively
      investigated in the last 30 years with various methodologies ranging from
      candidate gene to genome-wide association studies. However, sequencing data are
      still poorly exploited in cancer predisposition studies due to the lack of
      statistical power when comparing millions of variants at once. METHOD: To
      overcome these power limitations, we propose a knowledge-based framework founded
      on the characteristics of known cancer-predisposing variants and genes. Under our
      framework, we took advantage of a combination of previously generated datasets of
      sequencing experiments to identify novel breast cancer-predisposing variants,
      comparing the normal genomes of 673 breast cancer patients of European origin
      against 27,173 controls matched by ethnicity. RESULTS: We detected several
      expected variants on known breast cancer-predisposing genes, like BRCA1 and
      BRCA2, and 11 variants on genes associated with other cancer types, like RET and
      AKT1. Furthermore, we detected 183 variants that overlap with somatic mutations
      in cancer and 41 variants associated with 38 possible loss-of-function genes,
      including PIK3CB and KMT2C. Finally, we found a set of 19 variants that are
      potentially pathogenic, negatively correlate with age at onset, and have never
      been associated with breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we demonstrate
      the usefulness of a genomic-driven approach nested in a classic case-control
      study to prioritize cancer-predisposing variants. In addition, we provide a
      resource containing variants that may affect susceptibility to breast cancer.

PMID- 28569217
TI  - Platelets, diabetes and myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.
AB  - Mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of ischemia/reperfusion injury are
      particularly complex, multifactorial and highly interconnected. A complex and
      entangled interaction is also emerging between platelet function, antiplatelet
      drugs, coronary diseases and ischemia/reperfusion injury, especially in diabetic
      conditions. Here we briefly summarize features of antiplatelet therapy in type 2
      diabetes (T2DM). We also treat the influence of T2DM on ischemia/reperfusion
      injury and how anti-platelet therapies affect post-ischemic myocardial damage
      through pleiotropic properties not related to their anti-aggregating effects.
      miRNA-based signature associated with T2DM and its cardiovascular disease
      complications are also briefly considered. Influence of anti-platelet therapies
      and different effects of healthy and diabetic platelets on ischemia/reperfusion
      injury need to be further clarified in order to enhance patient benefits from
      antiplatelet therapy and revascularization. Here we provide insight on the
      difficulty to reduce the cardiovascular risk in diabetic patients and report
      novel information on the cardioprotective role of widely used anti-aggregant
      drugs.

PMID- 28569219
TI  - HDL cholesterol efflux capacity in rheumatoid arthritis patients: contributing
      factors and relationship with subclinical atherosclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lipid profiles appear to be altered in rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
      patients because of disease activity and inflammation. Cholesterol efflux
      capacity (CEC), which is the ability of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to
      accept cholesterol from macrophages, has been linked not only to cardiovascular
      events in the general population but also to being impaired in patients with RA.
      The aim of this study was to establish whether CEC is related to subclinical
      carotid atherosclerosis in patients with RA. METHODS: We conducted a cross
      sectional study that encompassed 401 individuals, including 178 patients with RA
      and 223 sex-matched control subjects. CEC, using an in vitro assay, lipoprotein
      serum concentrations, and standard lipid profile, was assessed in patients and
      control subjects. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and carotid plaques were
      assessed in patients with RA. A multivariable analysis was performed to evaluate
      the relationship of CEC with RA-related data, lipid profile, and subclinical
      carotid atherosclerosis. RESULTS: Mean (SD) CEC was not significantly different
      between patients with RA (18.9 +/- 9.0%) and control subjects (16.9 +/- 10.4%) (p
      = 0.11). Patients with RA with low (beta coefficient -5.2 [-10.0 to 0.3]%, p =
      0.039) and moderate disease activity (beta coefficient -4.6 [-8.5 to 0.7]%, p =
      0.020) were associated with lower levels of CEC than patients in remission.
      Although no association with CIMT was found, higher CEC was independently
      associated with a lower risk for the presence of carotid plaque in patients with
      RA (odds ratio 0.94 [95% CI 0.89-0.98], p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: CEC is
      independently associated with carotid plaque in patients with RA.

PMID- 28569220
TI  - BRCA promoter methylation in sporadic versus BRCA germline mutation-related
      breast cancers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In breast cancer, BRCA promoter hypermethylation and BRCA germline
      mutations are said to occur together rarely, but this property has not yet been
      translated into a clinical test. Our aim in this study was to investigate the
      diagnostic value of BRCA1/2 methylation in distinguishing breast carcinomas of
      BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutation carriers from sporadic breast carcinomas using
      a recently developed BRCA methylation assay based on methylation-specific
      multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MS-MLPA). METHODS: MS-MLPAs
      were performed to assess BRCA1 and BRCA2 methylation in breast carcinoma tissues
      from 39 BRCA1 and 33 BRCA2 germline mutation carriers, 80 patients with sporadic
      breast cancer, and normal breast tissues from 5 BRCA1 and 4 BRCA2 mutation
      carriers and 5 nonmutation carriers. RESULTS: Methylation frequencies varied
      considerably between CpG sites across the BRCA1 and BRCA2 promoters. Some CpG
      sites were methylated more frequently in BRCA1/2-related than in sporadic
      carcinomas, whereas other CpG sites were methylated more frequently in sporadic
      carcinomas, with large variances in sensitivity and specificity as a consequence.
      CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic value of BRCA promoter methylation analysis in
      distinguishing BRCA1/2-related from sporadic breast carcinomas seems to be
      considerably dependent on the targeted CpG sites. These findings are important
      for adequate use of BRCA methylation analysis as a prescreening tool for BRCA
      germline genetic testing or to identify BRCAness patients who may benefit from
      targeted therapies such as poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28569221
TI  - A four-part working bibliography of neuroethics: Part 4 - Ethical issues in
      clinical and social applications of neuroscience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As a discipline, neuroethics addresses a range of questions and
      issues generated by basic neuroscientific research (inclusive of studies of
      putative neurobiological processes involved in moral and ethical cognition and
      behavior), and its use and meanings in the clinical and social spheres. Here, we
      present Part 4 of a four-part bibliography of the neuroethics literature focusing
      on clinical and social applications of neuroscience, to include: the treatment
      enhancement discourse; issues arising in neurology, psychiatry, and pain care;
      neuroethics education and training; neuroethics and the law; neuroethics and
      policy and political issues; international neuroethics; and discourses addressing
      "trans-" and "post-" humanity. METHODS: To complete a systematic survey of the
      literature, 19 databases and 4 individual open-access journals were employed.
      Searches were conducted using the indexing language of the U.S. National Library
      of Medicine (NLM). A Python code was used to eliminate duplications in the final
      bibliography. RESULTS: When taken with Parts 1-3, this bibliography aims to
      provide a listing of international peerreviewed papers, books, and book chapters
      published from 2002 through 2016. While seeking to be as comprehensive as
      possible, it may be that some works were inadvertently and unintentionally not
      included. We therefore invite commentary from the field to afford completeness
      and contribute to this bibliography as a participatory work-in-progress.

PMID- 28569223
TI  - Influenza vaccination in patients with suspected egg allergy.
AB  - Egg allergy is not necessarily a contraindication to influenza vaccination. For
      patients with suspected egg allergy, if the clinician determines benefits to
      outweigh risks, cautionary measures are available that can enhance safe vaccine
      administration. Batch to batch variability of egg content in extant influenza
      vaccines necessitates an informed and cautious approach to vaccination of an egg
      allergic individual. Although patients with egg allergy are likely to develop egg
      tolerance by late childhood, tolerance to ingestion of "baked egg" products may
      not predict tolerance to "native egg" proteins present in the influenza vaccine.
      Even in cases where the skin test to the vaccine is positive, vaccination may
      still be cautiously administered, if necessary, in a graded dose protocol.

PMID- 28569222
TI  - Is the current ASAS expert definition of a positive family history useful in
      identifying axial spondyloarthritis? Results from the SPACE and DESIR cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS)
      definition of a positive family history (PFH) of spondyloarthritis (SpA) includes
      the following diseases in first- or second-degree relatives: ankylosing
      spondylitis (AS), acute anterior uveitis (AAU), reactive arthritis (ReA),
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and psoriasis. However, it is not known if a
      PFH for each of these diseases contributes to making a diagnosis of axSpA,
      sacroiliitis on imaging, or fulfilling the ASAS criteria in patients presenting
      with chronic back pain (CBP). Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess
      which SpA diseases in family members are associated with human leukocyte antigen
      B27 (HLA-B27) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in CBP patients. METHODS: CBP
      patients suspected of axSpA from the SPACE (n = 438) and the DESIR (n = 647)
      cohort were asked about the presence of SpA diseases in first- or second-degree
      relatives (AS, AAU, ReA, IBD, and psoriasis). The associations between a PFH and
      HLA-B27, sacroiliitis on imaging (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or
      radiographs), axSpA diagnosis, and ASAS classification in CBP patients were
      assessed. RESULTS: In the SPACE and the DESIR cohort, a PFH of AS (odds ratio
      (OR) 5.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.5-9.9), and OR 3.3 (95% CI 2.1-5.2)) and
      a PFH of AAU (OR 9.8 (95% CI 3.3-28.9) and OR 21.6 (95% CI 2.9-160.1)) were
      significantly associated with presence of HLA-B27. Furthermore, in both cohorts a
      PFH of AS and a PFH of AAU were positively associated with fulfilment of the ASAS
      criteria, but not with sacroiliitis on imaging. In SPACE but not in DESIR a PFH
      of AAU was positively associated with axSpA diagnosis. In both cohorts a PFH of
      ReA, IBD, or psoriasis was not positively associated with HLA-B27 positivity,
      sacroiliitis on imaging, axSpA diagnosis, or meeting the ASAS criteria for axSpA.
      CONCLUSIONS: In our cohorts, a PFH of AS or AAU is useful for case-finding of
      axSpA as this is correlated with HLA-B27 carriership. However, as a PFH of ReA,
      IBD, or psoriasis does not contribute to identifying axSpA in CBP patients, these
      data suggest that the widely used ASAS definition of a PFH of SpA should be
      updated. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number, NCT01648907 . Registered
      on 20 July 2012.

PMID- 28569224
TI  - A call for papers.

PMID- 28569225
TI  - Mometasone furoate improves nasal and ocular symptoms of seasonal allergic
      rhinitis in adolescents.

PMID- 28569226
TI  - The status of asthma control in the U.S. adult population.

PMID- 28569227
TI  - Efficacy and safety of azelastine 0.15% nasal spray and azelastine 0.10% nasal
      spray in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis.

PMID- 28569228
TI  - Contemporary assessment of the disease burden of sinusitis.

PMID- 28569229
TI  - Nasal polyp cell populations and fungal-specific peripheral blood lymphocyte
      proliferation in allergic fungal sinusitis.

PMID- 28569230
TI  - Characterization of bacterial and fungal biofilms in chronic rhinosinusitis.

PMID- 28569231
TI  - Adsorption Kinetics of 137Cs+/90Sr2+ on Ca-Bentonite.
AB  - 137Cs+/90Sr2+ adsorption kinetics on natural Ca-bentonite under the impact of
      different adsorption conditions was examined in detail. The results indicate that
      natural Ca-bentonite shows a strong adsorption capacity for Cs+/Sr2+. The
      adsorption reached at equilibrium after 2 hours for Cs+. Cs+/Sr2+removal
      efficiency reaches the highest when the pH value is 5 to 8 and increases with the
      increase of Ca-bentonite adding amount. Cs+ removal efficiency increases with the
      increase of Cs+ initial concentration, while Sr2+ removal efficiency slightly
      varies around 70%. The adsorption of Cs+/Sr2+ by Ca-bentonite follows the pseudo
      second-order model and is controlled by chemical adsorption. Meanwhile, the
      results of intraparticle diffusion modelling indicate that intraparticle
      diffusion is a kinetics controlling step, besides surface adsorption and liquid
      film diffusion.

PMID- 28569232
TI  - Dynamics of Phosphorus Content in the Water-Sediment Interface of Wetlands in a
      Mid-Temperature Steppe.
AB  - In order to reveal dynamics changes in phosphorus release from the sediments of
      wetlands in a mid-temperature steppe without external phosphorus input, the
      relationship between phosphorus content in the overlying water, sediment, and
      interstitial water was studied using the variables control method. The results
      showed that, during the incubation period, the content of total phosphorus in the
      overlying water and the content of total phosphorus in interstitial water both
      presented in the order of August > September > July. Furthermore, the correlation
      relationships between phosphorus content in the overlying water, total phosphorus
      in the interstitial water, and the ratios of sediment Olsen-P to total phosphorus
      in the interstitial water, indicated that Olsen-P might be a kind of release form
      of phosphorus - from the sediment to the overlying water of the wetlands in
      Hulunbeier steppe, without external phosphorus input.

PMID- 28569233
TI  - Balloon catheter sinuplasty in young children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Balloon catheter sinuplasty (BCS) for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS)
      was found to be successful in adults. The safety and feasibility of BCS in
      children has been recently established. The purpose of this study was to study
      the outcome of this technology in CRS in children. METHODS: A prospective,
      multicenter, nonrandomized evaluation was performed on patients with CRS. Thirty
      two children between the ages of 2 and 11 years were enrolled. Safety was
      assessed by rate of adverse events. Effectiveness was assessed using the Sino
      Nasal (SN)-5 quality-of-life questionnaire for children with CRS at 52 weeks
      follow-up. RESULTS: Thirty-two children were enrolled of which 24 completed their
      52 weeks follow-up. No adverse events were reported because of the procedure. SN
      5 score improved from a mean of 4.9 at baseline to a mean of 2.95 at 52 weeks (p
      < 0.0001). Twelve (50%) children had a significant improvement of their SN-5 (>
      1.5), 7 (29%) had moderate improvement (>-1.0 and <-1.5), 2 (8%) had mild
      improvement (>-0.5 and <-1.0), 1 (4%) remained the same, and 2 (8%) had worsening
      scores. CONCLUSION: Balloon catheter dilation of the sinus ostia in children was
      safe and a significant number showed improvement of their SN-5 at 1 year follow
      up. Additional studies comparing balloon sinuplasty to other modalities of
      treatment in children are needed to determine its efficacy in the treatment of
      CRS in children.

PMID- 28569234
TI  - House-dust mite nasal provocation: A diagnostic tool in perennial rhinitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR), the skin-prick test (SPT) is a
      good diagnostic tool to identify the specific allergens. A nasal provocation test
      (NPT) is used to identify allergens and to confirm the diagnosis. The aim of this
      study was to determine the optimal cutoff values of symptom and peak nasal
      inspiratory flow (PNIF) changes after dust-mite NPT for predicting PAR. We also
      studied the relationship of the changes of symptoms in NPT and the wheal size of
      SPT. METHODS: One hundred five patients with perennial rhinitis underwent the NPT
      to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and the SPT. The NPT was assessed by changes in
      symptoms and PNIF. The optimal cutoff values of the symptoms score and PNIF
      changes after the NPT for predicting the SPT were determined using a receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The relationship of the wheal sizes of SPT
      and the changes from the NPT were analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-eight patients had a
      positive SPT to D. pteronyssinus, of whom 33 patients had a positive NPT by
      increases of the symptom score. Twenty patients had a positive NPT by decreases
      of PNIF. The area under the ROC curve was 0.85 for symptom score changes and it
      was 0.612 for PNIF changes. There was a significant correlation between the wheal
      size of the SPT and symptom changes in the NPT. CONCLUSION: Nasal provocation is
      a valuable test to confirm the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy, especially
      when the wheal from the SPT is small. The symptom change after the house-dust
      mite NPT is better than the PNIF change for predicting the PAR.

PMID- 28569235
TI  - A comparison of intranasal corticosteroid, leukotriene receptor antagonist, and
      topical antihistamine in reducing symptoms of perennial allergic rhinitis as
      assessed through the Rhinitis Severity Score.
AB  - Rhinitis symptom complex consists of rhinorrhea, congestion, itchy mucosa, itchy
      eyes, and sneezing. Available medications vary in their benefit for each of these
      symptoms. It was the purpose of this article to compare symptom reduction with
      three different classes of medications. Montelukast, azelastine, and budesonide
      were compared to determine the effect on individual, as well as total, symptom
      scores using the Rhinitis Severity Score (RSS). All three medications were
      compared with placebo and showed efficacy in prior studies using Balaam's
      crossover design. The inclusion and exclusion criteria and all procedures were
      identical for all three studies. In analyzing the data from the RSS
      questionnaire, we used the procedure PROC MIXED in SAS specific for Balaam's
      crossover design (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC). Although all three medications
      were effective compared with placebo, montelukast had the greatest effect of the
      three medications on reduction of ocular itching and throat and palate itching.
      Azelastine's effect was greater than budesonide and montelukast for reduction of
      rhinorrhea. Systemic medication, montelukast, as expected, provided better relief
      for symptoms distant from the nasal cavity, and the antihistamine, azelastine,
      reduced rhinorrhea, more than either montelukast or budesonide.

PMID- 28569236
TI  - Evaluation of olopatadine hydrochloride nasal spray, 0.6%, used in combination
      with an intranasal corticosteroid in seasonal allergic rhinitis.
AB  - The combination of intranasal antihistamines and intranasal corticosteroids
      results in superior relief of seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) symptoms compared
      with monotherapy. This study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of
      olopatadine hydrochloride nasal spray, 0.6% (OLO), administered in combination
      with fluticasone nasal spray, 50 micrograms (FNS), relative to azelastine nasal
      spray, 0.1% (AZE), administered in combination with FNS in the treatment of SAR.
      This was a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group comparison of
      OLO + FNS versus AZE + FNS administered for 14 days to patients >=12 years of age
      with histories of SAR. Efficacy assessments recorded by patients in a daily diary
      included nasal symptom scores. Safety was evaluated based on adverse events
      (AEs). Pretreatment values for reflective total nasal symptoms scores (rTNSS)
      were similar for both treatment groups. The mean (SD) 2-week average rTNSS was
      4.28 (2.63) for OLO + FNS and 4.15 (2.63) for AZE + FNS; these scores were not
      statistically different between treatment groups. No significant differences (p >
      0.05) between OLO + FNS and AZE + FNS were observed for the average 2-week
      percent changes from baseline in rTNSS or in the individual nasal symptoms (nasal
      congestion, rhinorrhea, itchy nose, and sneezing). Compared with baseline, both
      groups had statistically significant improvement in rTNSS (p < 0.05). No serious
      AEs were reported in either group during the study period. Overall, 19 AEs were
      reported in the OLO + FNS group and 29 AEs were reported in the AZE + FNS group.
      OLO, when administered adjunctively with FNS, is effective, safe, and well
      tolerated in patients with SAR.

PMID- 28569237
TI  - Pharmaceutical and Endocrine Disruptor Compounds in Surface and Wastewater in San
      Marcos, Texas.
AB  - Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) and hospitals are major point
      sources of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in aquatic
      environments. This study investigated the removal efficiencies of 23 known or
      suspected EDCs through the San Marcos WRRF to determine which treatment process
      was the most effective at removal. Results from samples collected at the hospital
      indicate that the hospital discharge is contributing to the concentration of
      these compounds in the San Marcos wastewater collection system (0.05-140 MUg/L
      concentrations). The most frequently detected compounds in the WRRF influent
      included acetaminophen, nonylphenol, caffeine, benzophenone, N,N-diethyl-m
      toluamide (DEET), bisphenol A (BPA), and triclosan. Comparison of influent and
      effluent concentrations showed that the San Marcos WRRF is effectively removing
      (>92%) of these compounds, with the exception of carbamazepine and tris(2
      chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP). These preliminary results will be used to guide
      future improvements within the WRRF.

PMID- 28569238
TI  - Analyzing breath samples of hypoglycemic events in type 1 diabetes patients:
      towards developing an alternative to diabetes alert dogs.
AB  - Diabetes is a disease that involves dysregulation of metabolic processes.
      Patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) require insulin injections and measured food
      intake to maintain clinical stability, manually tracking their results by
      measuring blood glucose levels. Low blood glucose levels, hypoglycemia, can be
      extremely dangerous and can result in seizures, coma, or even death. Canines
      trained as diabetes alert dogs (DADs) have demonstrated the ability to detect
      hypoglycemia from breath, which led us to hypothesize that hypoglycemia, a
      metabolic dysregulation leading to low blood glucose levels, could be identified
      through analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained within breath. We
      hoped to replicate the canines' detection ability and success by analytically
      using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of VOCs in 128 breath samples
      collected from 52 youths with T1D at two different diabetes camps. We used
      different tests for significance including Ranksum, Student's T-test, and
      difference between means, and found a subset of 56 traces of potential
      metabolites. Principle component and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) confirmed
      a hypoglycemic signature likely resides within this group. Supervised machine
      learning combined with LDA narrowed the list of likely components to seven. The
      technique of leave one out cross validation demonstrated the model thus developed
      has a sensitivity of 91% (95% confidence interval (CI) [57.1, 94.7]) and a
      specificity of 84% (95% CI [73.0, 92.7]) at identifying hypoglycemia. Confidence
      intervals were obtained by bootstrapping. These results demonstrate that it is
      possible to differentiate breath samples obtained during hypoglycemic events from
      all other breath samples by analytical means and could lead to developing a
      simple analytical monitoring device as an alternative to using DADs.

PMID- 28569239
TI  - Environmental noise spectroscopy with qubits subjected to dynamical decoupling.
AB  - A qubit subjected to pure dephasing due to classical Gaussian noise can be turned
      into a spectrometer of this noise by utilizing its readout under properly chosen
      dynamical decoupling (DD) sequences to reconstruct the power spectral density of
      the noise. We review the theory behind this DD-based noise spectroscopy
      technique, paying special attention to issues that arise when the environmental
      noise is non-Gaussian and/or it has truly quantum properties. While we focus on
      the theoretical basis of the method, we connect the discussed concepts with
      specific experiments, and provide an overview of environmental noise models
      relevant for solid-state based qubits, including quantum-dot based spin qubits,
      superconducting qubits, and NV centers in diamond.

PMID- 28569240
TI  - Substrate independent approach for synthesis of graphene platelet networks.
AB  - Graphene platelet networks (GPNs) comprised of randomly oriented graphene flakes
      two to three atomic layers thick are synthesized using a novel plasma-based
      approach. The approach uses a substrate capable of withstanding synthesis
      temperatures around 800  degrees C, but is fully independent of the substrate
      material. The synthesis occurs directly on the substrate surface without the
      necessity of any additional steps. GPNs were synthesized on various substrate
      materials including silicon (Si), thermally oxidized Si (SiO2), molybdenum (Mo),
      nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu), nickel-chromium (NiCr) alloy and alumina ceramics
      (Al2O3). The mismatch between the atomic structures of sp2 honeycomb carbon
      networks and the substrate material is fully eliminated shortly after the
      synthesis initiation, namely when about 100 nm thick deposits are formed on the
      substrate. GPN structures synthesized on a substrate at a temperature of about
      800  degrees C are significantly more porous in comparison to the much denser
      packed amorphous carbon deposits synthesized at lower temperatures. The method
      proposed here can potentially revolutionize the area of electrochemical energy
      storage by offering a single-step direct approach for the manufacture of graphene
      based electrodes for non-Faradaic supercapacitors. Mass production can be
      achieved using this method if a roll-to-roll system is utilized.

PMID- 28569241
TI  - Atrial fibrillation detection on compressed sensed ECG.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Compressive sensing (CS) approaches to electrocardiogram (ECG)
      analysis provide efficient methods for real time encoding of cardiac activity. In
      doing so, it is important to assess the downstream effect of the compression on
      any signal processing and classification algorithms. CS is particularly suitable
      for low power wearable devices, thanks to its low-complex digital or hardware
      implementation that directly acquires a compressed version of the signal through
      random projections. In this work, we evaluate the impact of CS compression on
      atrial fibrillation (AF) detection accuracy. APPROACH: We compare schemes with
      data reconstruction based on wavelet and Gaussian models, followed by a P&T-based
      identification of beat-to-beat (RR) intervals on the MIT-BIH atrial fibrillation
      database. A state-of-the-art AF detector is applied to the RR time series and the
      accuracy of the AF detector is then evaluated under different levels of
      compression. We also consider a new beat detection procedure which operates
      directly in the compressed domain, avoiding costly signal reconstruction
      procedures. MAIN RESULTS: We demonstrate that for compression ratios up to
      30[Formula: see text] the AF detector applied to RR intervals derived from the
      compressed signal exhibits results comparable to those achieved when employing a
      standard QRS detector on the raw uncompressed signals, and exhibits only a 2%
      accuracy drop at a compression ratio of 60%. We also show that the Gaussian-based
      reconstruction approach is superior in terms of AF detection accuracy, with a
      negligible drop in performance at a compression ratio  ?75%, compared to a
      wavelet approach, which exhibited a significant drop in accuracy at a compression
      ratio  ?65%. SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that CS should be considered as a
      plausible methodology for both efficient real time ECG compression (at moderate
      compression rates) and for offline analysis (at high compression rates).

PMID- 28569242
TI  - 13C isotopic abundances in natural nutrients: a newly formulated test meal for
      non-invasive diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
AB  - A new method to replace commercially prepared 13C-labelled glucose with naturally
      available 13C-enriched substrates could result in promotion of the clinical
      applicability of the isotopic breath test for detection of type 2 diabetes (T2D).
      Variation of the carbon-13 isotope in human breath depends on the 13C enrichment
      in the diet taken by subjects. Here, we formulated a new test meal comprising
      naturally available 13C-enriched foods and subsequently administered it to non
      diabetic control (NDC) subjects and those with T2D. We found that the new test
      meal-derived 13C enrichment of breath CO2 was significantly lower in T2D compared
      with NDC. Furthermore, from our observations T2D exhibited higher isotopic
      enrichment of oxygen-18 (18O) in breath CO2 compared with NDC following ingestion
      of the new meal. We determined the optimal diagnostic cut-off values of 13C (i.e.
      delta 13C0/00 = 7.50/00) and 18O (i.e. delta 18O0/00 = 3.50/00) isotopes in
      breath CO2 for precise classification of T2D and NDC. Our new method involving
      the administration of naturally 13C-abundant nutrients showed a typical
      diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of about 95%, suggesting a valid and
      potentially robust global method devoid of any synthetically manufactured
      commercial 13C-enriched glucose which thus may serve as an alternative diagnostic
      tool for routine clinical applications.

PMID- 28569244
TI  - Capacitance-voltage characteristics of sub-nanometric Al2O3 / TiO2 laminates:
      dielectric and interface charge densities.
AB  - Advanced amorphous sub-nanometric laminates based on TiO2 and Al2O3 were
      deposited by atomic layer deposition at low temperature. Low densities of 'slow'
      and 'fast' interface states are achieved with values of 3.96 . 1010 cm-2 and 4.85
      . 10-9 eV-1 cm-2, respectively, by using a 40 nm laminate constituted of 0.7 nm
      TiO2 and 0.8 nm Al2O3. The sub-nanometric laminate shows a low hysteresis width
      of 20 mV due to the low oxide charge density of about 3.72 . 1011 cm-2.
      Interestingly, such properties are required for stable and reliable performance
      of MOS capacitors and transistor operation. Thus, decreasing the individual layer
      thickness to the sub-nanometric range and combining two dielectric materials with
      oppositely charged defects may play a major role in the electrical response,
      highly promising for the application in future micro and nano-electronics
      applications.

PMID- 28569243
TI  - Cell sheet based bioink for 3D bioprinting applications.
AB  - In this research, a novel development of bioink from cell sheets is presented for
      scaffold free bioprinting applications. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)
      coated surfaces were first prepared by using initiated chemical vapor deposition
      method. Cell-sheets were then grown on these thermoresponsive pNIPAAm coated
      surfaces and easily detached without disturbing delicate cell-extracellular
      matrix (ECM) and cell-cell interactions. The detached cells sheets were used to
      prepare cell sheet based bioink and bioprinted to form various shapes. The
      results showed that the prepared cell-sheet based bioink shows an increase in the
      structural integrity compare to cell-aggregates suggesting that the cell sheet
      aggregates preserved interconnected ECM proteins. The viability of cell sheet
      based aggregates was also compared to single cell aggregates at three different
      time points in a seven-day period after printing. The developed cell-sheet based
      bioink has several advantages in terms of shape fidelity, reproducibility and
      automated deposition for bioprinting applications. The results also demonstrated
      that the bioprinted constructs secreted collagen type I which is a strong
      indication of starting ECM deposition. Moreover, the immunostaining results
      showed that the fibronectin in cell sheets was preserved during and after the
      preparation process of bioink.

PMID- 28569246
TI  - Inactivation of RAD52 and HDF1 DNA repair genes leads to premature chronological
      aging and cellular instability.
AB  - The present study aims to investigate the role of radiation sensitive 52 (RAD52)
      and high-affinity DNA binding factor 1 (HDF1) DNA repair genes on the life span
      of budding yeasts during chronological aging. Wild type (wt) and rad52, hdf1, and
      rad52 hdf1 mutant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were used. Chronological aging
      and survival assays were studied by clonogenic assay and drop test. DNA damage
      was analyzed by electrophoresis after phenol extraction. Mutant analysis, colony
      forming units and the index of respiratory competence were studied by growing on
      dextrose and glycerol plates as a carbon source. Rad52 and rad52 hdf1 mutants
      showed a gradual decrease in surviving fraction in relation to wt and hdf1 mutant
      during aging. Genomic DNA was spontaneously more degraded during aging, mainly in
      rad52 mutants. This strain showed an increased percentage of revertant colonies.
      Moreover, all mutants showed a decrease in the index of respiratory competence
      during aging. The inactivation of RAD52 leads to premature chronological aging
      with an increase in DNA degradation and mutation frequency. In addition, RAD52
      and HDF1 contribute to maintain the metabolic state, in a different way, during
      chronological aging. The results obtained could have important implications in
      the chronobiology of aging.

PMID- 28569245
TI  - Genetic diagnosis of a Chinese multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A family
      through whole genome sequencing.
AB  - Approximately 98% of patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN 2A)
      have an identifiable RET mutation. Prophylactic or early total thyroidectomy or
      pheochromocytoma/parathyroid removal in patients can be preventative or curative
      and has become standard management. The general strategy for RET screening on
      family members at risk is to sequence the most commonly affected exons and, if
      negative, to extend sequencing to additional exons. However, different families
      with MEN 2A due to the same RET mutation often have significant variability in
      the clinical exhibition of disease and aggressiveness of the MTC, which implies
      additional genetic loci exsit beyond RET coding region. Whole genome sequencing
      (WGS) greatly expands the breadth of screening from genes associated with a
      particular disease to the whole genome and, potentially, all the information that
      the genome contains about diseases or traits. This is presumably due to additive
      effect of disease modifying factors. In this study, we performed WGS on a typical
      Chinese MEN 2A proband and identified the pathogenic RET p.C634R mutation. We
      also identified several neutral variants within RET and pheochromocytoma-related
      genes. Moreover, we found several interesting structural variants including
      genetic deletions (RSPO1, OVCH2 and AP3S1, etc.) and fusion transcripts (FSIP1
      BAZ2A, etc.).

PMID- 28569247
TI  - Cytoplasmic tail of coronavirus spike protein has intracellular targeting
      signals.
AB  - Intracellular trafficking and localization studies of spike protein from SARS and
      OC43 showed that SARS spike protein is localized in the ER or ERGIC compartment
      and OC43 spike protein is predominantly localized in the lysosome. Differential
      localization can be explained by signal sequence. The sequence alignment using
      Clustal W shows that the signal sequence present at the cytoplasmic tail plays an
      important role in spike protein localization. A unique GYQEL motif is identified
      at the cytoplasmic terminal of OC43 spike protein which helps in localization in
      the lysosome, and a novel KLHYT motif is identified in the cytoplasmic tail of
      SARS spike protein which helps in ER or ERGIC localization. This study sheds some
      light on the role of cytoplasmic tail of spike protein in cell-to-cell fusion,
      coronavirus host cell fusion and subsequent pathogenicity.

PMID- 28569248
TI  - Effect of foliar application of salicylic acid, hydrogen peroxide and a
      xyloglucan oligosaccharide on capsiate content and gene expression associatedwith
      capsinoids synthesis in Capsicum annuum L.
AB  - Capsinoids are non-pungent analogues of capsaicinoids in pepper (Capsicum spp).
      The absence of pungency, in addition to their biological activities similar to
      that of capsaicinoids such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant
      properties, makes capsinoids an excellent option for increasing use in human and
      animal nutrition, as well as health and pharmaceutical industries. There are only
      few sources of pepper producing capsinoids, and one of them (accession 509-45-1),
      Capsicum annuum L., is a potential source for increasing capsinoids content using
      strategies as controlled elicitation during plant production in the greenhouse.
      In this research we evaluated the effect of weekly and one-day-before-harvest
      foliar applications of hydrogen peroxide, salicylic acid and a xyloglucan
      oligosaccharide on the concentration of capsiate in fruits of this pepper
      accession, as well as the gene expression of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (pal),
      putative aminotransferase (pamt), capsaicin synthase (at3) and beta-keto acyl
      synthase (kas). Results showed that the two tested concentrations of H2O2
      significantly increased capsiate content and gene expression associated with
      capsaicinoids (pamt, at3 and kas) and the phenylpropanoids (pal) pathways. Plant
      yield was not affected using this induction strategy. Our results indicated that
      the pre-harvest and weekly application of hydrogen peroxide and xyloglucan
      oligosaccharide improved production of capsiate in C. annuum L.

PMID- 28569249
TI  - Estrogen is essential but not sufficient to induce endometriosis.
AB  - Endometriosis is a common gynaecological disorder of unknown aetiology. Among the
      several factors, estrogen has been implicated as a causative factor in
      endometriosis. In the present study using mouse model, we assessed the role of
      estrogen in the initial implantation and growth of endometrium in ectopic
      locations. Uterine tissues from green fluorescent protein (GFP) mice were
      transplanted in to the peritoneum of wild type mice in presence and absence of
      estrogen. As compared to untreated controls, the implantation of uterine tissue
      at ectopic locations was higher when estrogen was administered to both host and
      donor animals. However, this effect was not sustained as lesions regressed within
      14 days of treatment. Irrespective of the treatment, peritoneal adipose was the
      most preferred site of lesion establishment. The lesions did not have typical
      features of the endometriosis (presence of glands and stroma) even after estrogen
      treatment and the ectopic tissue underwent regression by apoptosis irrespective
      of treatment. Since estrogen promotes implantation of endometrial tissue to
      ectopic locations but failure of these ectopic lesions to grow and sustain even
      in high estrogenic environment we propose that estrogen is necessary but not
      sufficient to sustain endometriosis.

PMID- 28569250
TI  - Interleukin 8 in progression of hormone-dependent early breast cancer.

PMID- 28569251
TI  - Long-term dietary restriction up-regulates activity and expression of renal
      arginase II in aging mice.
AB  - Arginase II is a mitochondrial enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of L-arginine
      into urea and ornithine. It is present in other extra-hepatic tissues that lack
      urea cycle. Therefore, it is plausible that arginase II has a physiological role
      other than urea cycle which includes polyamine, proline, glutamate synthesis and
      regulation of nitric oxide production. The high expression of arginase II in
      kidney, among extrahepatic tissues, might have an important role associated with
      kidney functions. The present study is aimed to determine the age-associated
      alteration in the activity and expression of arginase II in the kidney of mice of
      different ages. The effect of dietary restriction to modulate the agedependent
      changes of arginase II was also studied. Results showed that renal arginase II
      activity declines significantly with the progression of age (p less than 0.01 and
      p less than 0.001 in 6- and 18-month-old mice, respectively as compared to 2
      month old mice) and is due to the reduction in its protein as well as the mRNA
      level (p less than 0.001 in both 6- and 18-month-old mice as compared to 2-month
      old mice). Long-term dietary restriction for three months has significantly up
      regulated arginase II activity and expression level in both 2- and 18-month-old
      mice (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.001, respectively as compared to AL
      group). These findings clearly indicate that the reducing level of arginase II
      during aging might have an impact on the declining renal functions. This age
      dependent down-regulation of arginase II in the kidney can be attenuated by
      dietary restriction which may help in the maintenance of such functions.

PMID- 28569252
TI  - Somatic PI3K activity regulates transition to the spermatocyte stages in
      Drosophila testis.
AB  - Spermatogenesis, involving multiple transit amplification divisions and meiosis,
      occurs within an enclosure formed by two somatic cells. As the cohort of germline
      cells divide and grow, the surface areas of the somatic cells expand maintaining
      a tight encapsulation throughout the developmental period. Correlation between
      the somatic cell growth and germline development is unclear. Here, we report
      standardization of a quantitative assay developed for estimating the somatic
      roles of target molecules on germline division and differentiation in Drosophila
      testis. Using the assay, we studied the somatic roles of phosphatidylinositol-3
      kinase (PI3K). It revealed that the expression of PI3KDN is likely to facilitate
      the early germline development at all stages, and an increase in the somatic PI3K
      activity during the early stages delays the transition to spermatocyte stage.
      Together, these results suggest that somatic cell growth plays an important role
      in regulating the rate of germline development.

PMID- 28569253
TI  - Enhanced delivery of biodegradable mPEG-PLGA-PLL nanoparticles loading Cy3
      labelled PDGF-BB siRNA by UTMD to rat retina.
AB  - We investigated the efficacy and safety of ultrasound (US)-targeted microbubble
      (MB) destruction (UTMD)-enhanced delivery of monomethoxypoly(ethylene glycol)
      poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-poly-L-lysine (mPEG-PLGA-PLL) nanoparticles (NPs)
      loading Cy3-labelled platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) siRNA to rat
      retina in vivo. Eighty Wistar rats were divided into five groups (G). The right
      eyes, respectively, received an intravitreal injection as follows: normal saline
      (NS) (G1), NPs and NS (G2), NPs and MBs (G3), NPs and NS (G4) and NPs and MBs
      (G5). In G4 and G5, the eyes were exposed to US for 5 mins. Twenty-four hours
      after transfection, the uptake and distribution of Cy3-labelled siRNA in rat
      retina were observed by fluorescent microscope. The percentage of Cy3- labelled
      siRNA-positive cells was evaluated by flow cytometer. The levels of PDGF-BB mRNA
      in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and secreted PDGF-BB proteins were also
      measured. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and frozen sections were used to observe
      tissue damage. Our results showed that the number of Cy3-labelled siRNApositive
      cells in G5 was significantly higher than those of the other groups (P less than
      0.05 for all comparisons). The maximum efficiency of siRNA uptake in neural
      retina was 18.22 +/_ 1.67%. In G4 and G5, a small number of Cy3- labelled siRNA
      positive cells were also detected in the pigmented cell layer of the retina. NPs
      loading siRNA delivered with UTMD could more effectively down-regulate the mRNA
      and protein expression of PDGF-BB than NPs plus US (P=0.014 and P=0.007,
      respectively). Histology showed no evident tissue damage after UTMDmediated NPs
      loading siRNA transfection. UTMD could be used safely to enhance the delivery of
      mPEG-PLGAPLL NPs loading siRNA into rat retina.

PMID- 28569255
TI  - An evaluation of the status of living collections for plant, environmental, and
      microbial research.
AB  - While living collections are critical for biological research, support for these
      foundational infrastructure elements is inconsistent, which makes quality
      control, regulatory compliance, and reproducibility difficult. In recent years,
      the Ecological Society of America has hosted several National Science Foundation
      sponsored workshops to explore and enhance the sustainability of biological
      research infrastructure. At the same time, the United States Culture Collection
      Network has brought together managers of living collections to foster
      collaboration and information exchange within a specific living collections
      community. To assess the sustainability of collections, a survey was distributed
      to collection scientists whose responses provide a benchmark for evaluating the
      resiliency of these collections. Among the key observations were that plant
      collections have larger staffing requirements and that living microbe collections
      were the most vulnerable to retirements or other disruptions. Many higher plant
      and vertebrate collections have institutional support and several have
      endowments. Other collections depend on competitive grant support in an era of
      intense competition for these resources. Opportunities for synergy among living
      collections depend upon complementing the natural strong engagement with the
      research communities that depend on these collections with enhanced information
      sharing, communication, and collective action to keep them sustainable for the
      future. External efforts by funding agencies and publishers could reinforce the
      advantages of having professional management of research resources across every
      discipline.

PMID- 28569254
TI  - Maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation affects hepatic lipid
      metabolism in early life of offspring rat.
AB  - We investigated whether maternal over-nutrition during pregnancy and lactation
      affects the offspring's lipid metabolism at weaning by assessing liver lipid
      metabolic gene expressions and analysing its mechanisms on the development of
      metabolic abnormalities. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with standard chow
      diet (CON) or high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks, and then continued feeding during
      gestation and lactation. The offspring whose dams were fed with HFD had a lower
      birth weight but an increased body weight with impaired glucose tolerance, higher
      serum cholesterol, and hepatic steatosis at weaning. Microarray analyses showed
      that there were 120 genes differently expressed between the two groups. We
      further verified the results by qRT-PCR. Significant increase of the lipogenesis
      (Me1, Scd1) gene expression was found in HFD (P less than 0.05), and up-regulated
      expression of genes (PPAR-alpha, Cpt1 alpha, Ehhadh) involved in beta-oxidation
      was also observed (P less than 0.05), but the Acsl3 gene was down-regulated (P
      less than 0.05). Maternal over-nutrition could not only primarily induce
      lipogenesis, but also promote lipolysis through an oxidation pathway as
      compensation, eventually leading to an increased body weight, impaired glucose
      tolerance, elevated serum cholesterol and hepatic steatosis at weaning. This
      finding may provide some evidence for a healthy maternal diet in order to reduce
      the risk of metabolic diseases in the early life of the offspring.

PMID- 28569258
TI  - Corrigendum: Intravenous administration of lidocaine directly acts on spinal
      dorsal horn and produces analgesic effect: An in vivo patch-clamp analysis.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep26253.

PMID- 28569257
TI  - Current status and future prospect of FSHD region gene 1.
AB  - FSHD region gene 1 (FRG1), as the name suggests, is the primary candidate gene
      for fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy disease. It seemingly affects muscle
      physiology in normal individuals but in FSHD, where it is found to be highly
      upregulated, might be involved in disruption of face, scapula and humeral
      skeletal muscle. Literature on FRG1, reviewed from 1996 to 2016, reveals that it
      is primarily associated with muscle development and maintenance. Approximately
      75% of FSHD patients also show vascular abnormalities indicating that FRG1 might
      have some part to play in these abnormalities. Research involving vasculature in
      X. laevis larvae shows that FRG1 positively affects normal vasculature. Few of
      the well-established angiogenic regulators seem to get affected by abnormal
      expression level of FRG1. Its primary localization in sub nuclear structures like
      Cajal bodies and nuclear speckles indicates regulation of the above-mentioned
      factors by transcriptional and post-transcriptional machineries, but in-depth
      studies need to be done to conclude a clear statement. In this review, we have
      attempted to present all the work done on FRG1, all the lacunas which need to be
      unraveled, and hypothesized a model for our readers to get an insight into its
      molecular mechanism.

PMID- 28569256
TI  - Regulation of dynamin family proteins by post-translational modifications.
AB  - Dynamin superfamily proteins comprising classical dynamins and related proteins
      are membrane remodelling agents involved in several biological processes such as
      endocytosis, maintenance of organelle morphology and viral resistance. These
      large GTPases couple GTP hydrolysis with membrane alterations such as fission,
      fusion or tubulation by undergoing repeated cycles of self-assembly/disassembly.
      The functions of these proteins are regulated by various post-translational
      modifications that affect their GTPase activity, multimerization or membrane
      association. Recently, several reports have demonstrated variety of such
      modifications providing a better understanding of the mechanisms by which dynamin
      proteins influence cellular responses to physiological and environmental cues. In
      this review, we discuss major post-translational modifications along with their
      roles in the mechanism of dynamin functions and implications in various cellular
      processes.

PMID- 28569259
TI  - Revealing complete complex KIR haplotypes phased by long-read sequencing
      technology.
AB  - The killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) region of human chromosome 19
      contains up to 16 genes for natural killer (NK) cell receptors that recognize
      human leukocyte antigen (HLA)/peptide complexes and other ligands. The KIR
      proteins fulfill functional roles in infections, pregnancy, autoimmune diseases
      and transplantation. However, their characterization remains a constant
      challenge. Not only are the genes highly homologous due to their recent evolution
      by tandem duplications, but the region is structurally dynamic due to frequent
      transposon-mediated recombination. A sequencing approach that precisely captures
      the complexity of KIR haplotypes for functional annotation is desirable. We
      present a unique approach to haplotype the KIR loci using single-molecule, real
      time (SMRT) sequencing. Using this method, we have-for the first time
      comprehensively sequenced and phased sixteen KIR haplotypes from eight
      individuals without imputation. The information revealed four novel haplotype
      structures, a novel gene-fusion allele, novel and confirmed insertion/deletion
      events, a homozygous individual, and overall diversity for the structural
      haplotypes and their alleles. These KIR haplotypes augment our existing knowledge
      by providing high-quality references, evolutionary informers, and source material
      for imputation. The haplotype sequences and gene annotations provide alternative
      loci for the KIR region in the human genome reference GrCh38.p8.

PMID- 28569262
TI  - Osteoarthritis: Nerve ablation - a new treatment for OA pain?

PMID- 28569260
TI  - Association of left ventricular structural and functional abnormalities with
      aortic and brachial blood pressure variability in hypertensive patients: the
      SAFAR study.
AB  - Both brachial blood pressure (BP) level and its variability (BPV) significantly
      associate with left ventricular (LV) structure and function. Recent studies
      indicate that aortic BP is superior to brachial BP in the association with LV
      abnormalities. However, it remains unknown whether aortic BPV better associate
      with LV structural and functional abnormalities. We therefore aimed to
      investigate and compare aortic versus brachial BPV, in terms of the
      identification of LV abnormalities. Two hundred and three participants who
      underwent echocardiography were included in this study. Twenty-four-hour aortic
      and brachial ambulatory BP was measured simultaneously by a validated BP monitor
      (Mobil-O-Graph, Stolberg, Germany) and BPV was calculated with validated
      formulae. LV mass and LV diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) were evaluated by
      echocardiography. The prevalence of LV hypertrophy (LVH) and LVDD increased
      significantly with BPV indices (P?0.04) in trend tests. After adjustment to
      potential confounders, only aortic average real variability (ARV), but not
      brachial ARV or weighted s.d. (wSD, neither aortic nor brachial) significantly
      associated with LV mass index (P=0.02). Similar results were observed in logistic
      regression. After adjustment, only aortic ARV significantly associated with LVH
      (odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.28 (1.08, 4.82)). As for
      LVDD, neither the brachial nor the aortic 24-hour wSD, but the aortic and
      brachial ARV, associated with LVDD significantly, with OR=2.28 (95% CI: (1.03,
      5.02)) and OR=2.36 (95% CI: (1.10, 5.05)), respectively. In summary, aortic BPV,
      especially aortic ARV, seems to be superior to brachial BPV in the association of
      LV structural and functional abnormalities.

PMID- 28569264
TI  - Experimental arthritis: FLIPping the switch on macrophages.

PMID- 28569261
TI  - Optogenetic neuronal stimulation of the lateral cerebellar nucleus promotes
      persistent functional recovery after stroke.
AB  - Stroke induces network-wide changes in the brain, affecting the excitability in
      both nearby and remotely connected regions. Brain stimulation is a promising
      neurorestorative technique that has been shown to improve stroke recovery by
      altering neuronal activity of the target area. However, it is unclear whether the
      beneficial effect of stimulation is a result of neuronal or non-neuronal
      activation, as existing stimulation techniques nonspecifically activate/inhibit
      all cell types (neurons, glia, endothelial cells, oligodendrocytes) in the
      stimulated area. Furthermore, which brain circuit is efficacious for brain
      stimulation is unknown. Here we use the optogenetics approach to selectively
      stimulate neurons in the lateral cerebellar nucleus (LCN), a deep cerebellar
      nucleus that sends major excitatory output to multiple motor and sensory areas in
      the forebrain. Repeated LCN stimulations resulted in a robust and persistent
      recovery on the rotating beam test, even after cessation of stimulations for 2
      weeks. Furthermore, western blot analysis demonstrated that LCN stimulations
      significantly increased the axonal growth protein GAP43 in the ipsilesional
      somatosensory cortex. Our results demonstrate that pan-neuronal stimulations of
      the LCN is sufficient to promote robust and persistent recovery after stroke, and
      thus is a promising target for brain stimulation.

PMID- 28569265
TI  - Spondyloarthropathies: Gut-bone crosstalk in HLA-B27 rats.

PMID- 28569266
TI  - Pharmacotherapy: Biosimilar switching - "To set a form upon desired change".

PMID- 28569263
TI  - The genetics revolution in rheumatology: large scale genomic arrays and genetic
      mapping.
AB  - Susceptibility to rheumatic diseases, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid
      arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, juvenile
      idiopathic arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, includes a large genetic component.
      Understanding how an individual's genetic background influences disease onset and
      outcome can lead to a better understanding of disease biology, improved diagnosis
      and treatment, and, ultimately, to disease prevention or cure. The past decade
      has seen great progress in the identification of genetic variants that influence
      the risk of rheumatic diseases. The challenging task of unravelling the function
      of these variants is ongoing. In this Review, the major insights from genetic
      studies, gained from advances in technology, bioinformatics and study design, are
      discussed in the context of rheumatic disease. In addition, pivotal genetic
      studies in the main rheumatic diseases are highlighted, with insights into how
      these studies have changed the way we view these conditions in terms of disease
      overlap, pathways of disease and potential new therapeutic targets. Finally, the
      limitations of genetic studies, gaps in our knowledge and ways in which current
      genetic knowledge can be fully translated into clinical benefit are examined.

PMID- 28569268
TI  - Dyslipidaemia: Is CETP inhibition a viable therapeutic strategy?

PMID- 28569267
TI  - Biologics registers in RA: methodological aspects, current role and future
      applications.
AB  - The beginning of the 21st century saw a biopharmaceutical revolution in the
      treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis.
      The fast-evolving use of biologic therapies highlighted the need to develop
      registers at national and international levels with the aim of collecting long
      term data on patient outcomes. Over the past 15 years, many biologics registers
      have contributed a wealth of data and provided robust and reliable evidence on
      the use, effectiveness and safety of these therapies. The unavoidable challenges
      posed by the continuous introduction of new therapies, particularly with regard
      to understanding their long-term safety, highlights the importance of learning
      from experience with established biologic therapies. In this Perspectives
      article, the role of biologics registers in bridging the evidence gap between
      efficacy in clinical trials and real-world effectiveness is discussed, with a
      focus on methodological aspects of registers, their unique features and
      challenges and their role going forward.

PMID- 28569270
TI  - Heart failure: HF-induced diaphragmatic atrophy and weakness.

PMID- 28569271
TI  - Heart failure: BRD4 inhibition slows HF progression.

PMID- 28569272
TI  - Gastric adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Gastric cancers, with gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) as the most common
      histological type, impose a considerable global health burden. Although the
      screening strategies for early detection have been shown to be successful in
      Japan and South Korea, they are either not implemented or not feasible in most of
      the world, leading to late diagnosis in most patients. Helicobacter pylori
      infection contributes to the development of many endemic GACs, and pre-emptive
      eradication or early treatment of this bacterial infection might provide
      effective primary prevention. GACs are phenotypically and genotypically
      heterogeneous. Localized (clinical stage I) GAC is best treated either
      endoscopically or with limited surgical resection, but clinical stage II or stage
      III tumours require multidisciplinary adjunctive approaches in addition to
      surgery. Although GAC is highly treatable in its early stages, advanced (clinical
      stage IV) GAC has a median survival of just ~9-10 months. However, detailed
      molecular and immune profiling of GAC is yielding promise; early studies with
      immune checkpoint inhibitors suggest that GAC is amenable to immune modulation.
      Molecular studies have yielded a vast quantity of new information for potential
      exploitation. Nevertheless, advances against GACs have lagged compared with other
      tumours of similar incidence, and more research is necessary to overcome the
      obstacles to prolong survival.

PMID- 28569269
TI  - Mendelian randomization in cardiometabolic disease: challenges in evaluating
      causality.
AB  - Mendelian randomization (MR) is a burgeoning field that involves the use of
      genetic variants to assess causal relationships between exposures and outcomes.
      MR studies can be straightforward; for example, genetic variants within or near
      the encoding locus that is associated with protein concentrations can help to
      assess their causal role in disease. However, a more complex relationship between
      the genetic variants and an exposure can make findings from MR more difficult to
      interpret. In this Review, we describe some of these challenges in interpreting
      MR analyses, including those from studies using genetic variants to assess
      causality of multiple traits (such as branched-chain amino acids and risk of
      diabetes mellitus); studies describing pleiotropic variants (for example, C
      reactive protein and its contribution to coronary heart disease); and those
      investigating variants that disrupt normal function of an exposure (for example,
      HDL cholesterol or IL-6 and coronary heart disease). Furthermore, MR studies on
      variants that encode enzymes responsible for the metabolism of an exposure (such
      as alcohol) are discussed, in addition to those assessing the effects of variants
      on time-dependent exposures (extracellular superoxide dismutase), cumulative
      exposures (LDL cholesterol), and overlapping exposures (triglycerides and non-HDL
      cholesterol). We elaborate on the molecular features of each relationship, and
      provide explanations for the likely causal associations. In doing so, we hope to
      contribute towards more reliable evaluations of MR findings.

PMID- 28569273
TI  - Turning predator into prey - the problem of predatory journals.

PMID- 28569274
TI  - The state of medical training: refocusing our narrative.

PMID- 28569275
TI  - A critique of the National Clinical Strategy for Scotland.

PMID- 28569276
TI  - The case for using an evolutionary professional protocol for improving care: act
      local, think global.

PMID- 28569277
TI  - Clinical Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Oral anticoagulation therapy has reduced the risk of ischaemic stroke and
      improved the outcomes for patients with atrial fibrillation considerably. The
      emergence of the non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants as alternatives to vitamin K
      antagonists has significantly changed the practice of stroke prevention in atrial
      fibrillation. As the main complication with antithrombotic therapy is bleeding,
      physicians should always balance the risk of ischaemic stroke against
      intracranial haemorrhage and intervene where appropriate to reduce both risks.
      Individual approach is often mandatory due to heterogeneity of the risks and
      patient preferences. The purpose of this review is to summarise the current
      knowledge of the oral anticoagulation therapy in atrial fibrillation patients and
      guide physicians with the management of anticoagulants based on data from
      clinical trials and systematic reviews.

PMID- 28569278
TI  - Governance and oversight of researcher access to electronic health data: the role
      of the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee for MHRA database research, 2006
      2015.
AB  - In order to promote understanding of UK governance and assurance relating to
      electronic health records research, we present and discuss the role of the
      Independent Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) for MHRA database research in
      evaluating protocols proposing the use of the Clinical Practice Research
      Datalink. We describe the development of the Committee's activities between 2006
      and 2015, alongside growth in data linkage and wider national electronic health
      records programmes, including the application and assessment processes, and our
      approach to undertaking this work. Our model can provide independence, challenge
      and support to data providers such as the Clinical Practice Research Datalink
      database which has been used for well over 1,000 medical research projects.
      ISAC's role in scientific oversight ensures feasible and scientifically
      acceptable plans are in place, while having both lay and professional membership
      addresses governance issues in order to protect the integrity of the database and
      ensure that public confidence is maintained.

PMID- 28569279
TI  - Safety and efficacy of self-expandable metal stents for obstructive proximal and
      distal large bowel cancer.
AB  - Self-expandable metal stents are often used to treat obstructive large bowel
      cancers. This study assessed the safety and efficacy of colonic stent insertion
      carried out in a district general hospital. Methods A retrospective review was
      carried out between 1 January 2007 and 28 February 2014 to identify patients who
      underwent stent insertion for malignant colorectal obstruction. Results Seventy
      five patients (median age 75.2 years, 70.6% male) with primary colorectal cancer
      underwent stent insertion - 53 underwent semi-elective self-expanded metal stent
      insertion (for subacute bowel obstruction) and 22 had emergency stent inserted
      (for acute bowel obstruction). The majority (88%) had self-expanded metal stents
      inserted for palliation. Technical and clinical success rates were 98.7% and
      91.2%, respectively. One patient had stent-related perforation; there was no
      procedure-related mortality. Conclusion This study shows that self-expanded metal
      stent insertion in malignant colorectal obstruction is safe and effective and can
      be successfully delivered in a district general hospital with high technical and
      clinical success rates.

PMID- 28569280
TI  - Respiratory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Respiratory dysfunction has been associated with Parkinson's disease since it was
      first described in 1817. The respiratory symptoms observed in Parkinson's disease
      patients vary greatly. Most patients remain asymptomatic, whereas others present
      with acute shortness of breath and even stridor. In August 2016, an electronic
      literature search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar. Results were
      screened and studies reporting on respiratory dysfunction associated with
      Parkinson's disease were included. Respiratory dysfunction is due to a
      combination of factors including restrictive changes, upper airway obstruction,
      abnormal ventilatory drive and response to medications. Much debate surrounds the
      mechanism underlying respiratory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease, its
      prevalence and the effect of levodopa on respiration. It is clear from this
      review that larger studies, comparing patients of similar disease duration and
      severity using the same pulmonary function parameters, are required to provide a
      better understanding of the pathophysiology underlying respiratory dysfunction in
      Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28569281
TI  - A qualitative study of determinants of patient behaviour leading to an infection
      related hospital admission.
AB  - Objectives To describe and understand the determinants of patients' behaviours
      surrounding admission to hospital for an acute infective episode Method Patients
      admitted to the infection or acute medicine admission units of a major Scottish
      teaching hospital and commenced on antibiotic therapy after admission were
      included. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted using a pre
      piloted interview schedule guide that focused on gathering information about
      patient behaviours and experiences prior to admission to hospital with an acute
      infection. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed
      using the Framework Approach. Emerging themes were matched to the Theoretical
      Domains Framework of behavioural determinants. Results Twenty-one patients
      consented to participate and 18 transcripts were suitable for analysis. The most
      common infections were those of the skin, soft tissue and respiratory tract. From
      the patients' perspectives, behavioural determinants that appeared to impact
      their admission to hospital were principally their knowledge, beliefs of
      consequences, the environmental context and resources (mainly out-of-hours
      services), social influences and their own emotions. Determinants such as
      knowledge of the signs and symptoms, beliefs of consequences and environmental
      context were facilitators of health seeking behaviours. The main barriers were a
      lack of awareness of consequences of infection potentially leading to delayed
      admission impacting infection severity, stay in secondary care and resource
      utilisation. Conclusions This study has shown that any initial patient-centred
      intervention that is proposed to change patient behaviour needs to be based on
      behavioural determinants emerging in this research. The intervention may include
      aspects such as patient education on resources available out-of-hours and ways to
      access the healthcare system, education on recognising signs of infection leading
      to prompter treatment and positive reinforcement for patients who present with
      recurrences of infection.

PMID- 28569282
TI  - Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions: joint guidance.
AB  - Since its introduction in the 1960s as a treatment to restart the heart after
      sudden cardiac arrest from a heart attack, attempts at cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation have become more common in other clinical situations.
      Cardiopulmonary resuscitation can be a lifesaving treatment, with the likelihood
      of recovery varying greatly depending on individual circumstances; however,
      overall, the proportion of people who survive following cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation is relatively low. Anticipatory decisions were recognised as being
      the best way of ensuring that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not attempted
      against individuals' wishes. Since 2001, the British Medical Association,
      Resuscitation Council (UK) and Royal College of Nursing have published
      professional guidance on decisions relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The
      latest version of this guidance was published in June 2016. This paper summarises
      the key legal and ethical principles that should inform all cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation decisions, with particular emphasis on the recent changes in law
      and policy.

PMID- 28569283
TI  - Isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy - performance of EBUS-TBNA in clinical
      practice.
AB  - Background Isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy is an increasingly common finding
      as a result of the increasing use of cross-sectional thoracic imaging. We
      investigated the performance of endobronchial ultrasoundguided transbronchial
      needle-aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in establishing a pathological diagnosis in
      patients with isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Methods We retrospectively
      analysed all consecutive EBUS-TBNA examinations performed over a 4-year period at
      a single tertiary referral centre. Final diagnoses were made using pathology
      reports, correlated with clinical features and the results of any other
      investigations. Results In total, 126 EBUS-TBNA examinations were performed to
      investigate isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy. A positive pathological
      diagnosis was made following EBUSTBNA in 54 cases (43%). When the results of
      further investigations and variable radiological follow up were included, the
      final sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA for making a diagnosis in isolated mediastinal
      lymphadenopathy was 80% (95% CI 69%-89%). Conclusions This study confirms that
      EBUS-TBNA has acceptable sensitivity for detecting both benign and malignant
      pathologies underlying isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy.

PMID- 28569284
TI  - Acute pulmonary oedema: not always cardiogenic.
AB  - A patient presented with fulminant pulmonary oedema and required acute intubation
      and ventilation. There was no history of a prior cardiac disorder. As he was
      weaned from sedation, following stabilisation of his pulmonary status,
      neurological signs suggestive of brainstem dysfunction became apparent.
      Investigations showed infarcts in the posterior cerebral circulation secondary to
      a vertebral artery dissection. Neurogenic pulmonary oedema needs to be considered
      in any patient with fulminant pulmonary oedema without overt evidence or history
      of cardiac disease.

PMID- 28569285
TI  - A promising new scoring system to detect and predict delirium in the acute
      clinical setting.

PMID- 28569286
TI  - Autologous haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation for aggressive multiple
      sclerosis.

PMID- 28569287
TI  - Effect of a national focused course on academic medicine for UK candidates
      applying for a Clinical Academic Programme.
AB  - Background Academic medicine is crucial for healthcare advancement. However,
      recruitment of junior doctors into academia remains an area of concern globally.
      In the UK, a national integrated clinical academic pathway was developed to
      address these issues, with the Academic Foundation Programme as the 'first
      opportunity for research'. We aimed to evaluate whether a focused course on
      academic medicine could enhance knowledge, confidence and preparedness of
      candidates wishing to apply for an academic programme. Methods UK medical
      students attended a national course conducted by current UK Academic Foundation
      Programme doctors that comprised lectures on academic medicine and various
      aspects of the Academic Foundation Programme. An online questionnaire-based cross
      sectional study was conducted with participants rating measures including
      knowledge, preparedness and confidence related to Academic Foundation Programme
      applications. Outcomes were measured using Likert scales (1=low; 5=high). Results
      In total, 103 out of 155 attendees from 11 different UK medical schools responded
      to the survey (66% response rate). Pre and post-course data showed increase in
      participants' knowledge (median score 2 vs 4, p < 0.0001), understanding of the
      application process (median score 2 vs 4, p < 0.0001), confidence (median score 2
      vs 4, p < 0.0001) and preparedness (median score 2 vs 4, p < 0.0001) in applying
      for the Academic Foundation Programme. Conclusion To our knowledge this is the
      first study in the available literature that demonstrates a focused course on
      academic medicine may enhance UK medical students' knowledge, confidence and
      preparedness in applying for a clinical academic programme. Further research will
      ascertain whether such courses can augment trainee numbers undertaking and
      remaining within academic medicine.

PMID- 28569288
TI  - Being the 'med reg': an exploration of junior doctors' perceptions of the medical
      registrar role.
AB  - The role of the medical registrar is challenging and acknowledged as being a
      disincentive to a career in medicine for some junior doctors. We set out to build
      a broader understanding of the role through exploration of Foundation Doctors'
      and Core Medical Trainees' perceptions of the role. Data, gathered from focus
      groups, were analysed using a framework approach. Six key themes were identified,
      which were grouped under the headings 'perceptions of the medical registrar role'
      and 'transition into the role'. Our work builds on existing literature to inform
      a deeper understanding of how junior doctors perceive the medical registrar role.
      In light of our findings we offer suggestions on possible training initiatives to
      tackle the issues identified. We also highlight positive perceptions of the role
      and emphasise the key ambassadorial role that current medical registrars have in
      relation to attracting tomorrow's medical registrars to the specialty.

PMID- 28569289
TI  - What happens to the heart in chronic kidney disease?
AB  - Cardiovascular disease is common in patients with chronic kidney disease. The
      increased risk of cardiovascular disease seen in this population is attributable
      to both traditional and novel vascular risk factors. Risk of sudden cardiac or
      arrhythmogenic death is greatly exaggerated in chronic kidney disease,
      particularly in patients with end stage renal disease where the risk is roughly
      20 times that of the general population. The reasons for this increased risk are
      not entirely understood and while atherosclerosis is accelerated in the presence
      of chronic kidney disease, premature myocardial infarction does not solely
      account for the excess risk. Recent work demonstrates that the structure and
      function of the heart starts to alter early in chronic kidney disease,
      independent of other risk factors. The implications of cardiac remodelling and
      hypertrophy may predispose chronic kidney disease patients to heart failure,
      arrhythmia and myocardial ischaemia. Further research is needed to minimise
      cardiovascular risk associated with structural and functional heart disease
      associated with chronic kidney disease.

PMID- 28569290
TI  - Novel combined management approaches to patients with diabetes, chronic kidney
      disease and cardiovascular disease.
AB  - Most patients we care for today suffer from more than one chronic disease, and
      multimorbidity is a rapidly growing challenge. Concomitant cardiovascular
      disease, renal dysfunction and diabetes represent a large proportion of all
      patients in cardiology, nephrology and diabetology. These entities commonly
      overlap due to their negative effects on vascular function and an accelerated
      atherosclerosis progression. At the same time, a progressive subspecialisation
      has caused the cardiologist to treat 'only' the heart, nephrologists 'only' the
      kidneys and endocrinologists' 'only' diabetes. Studies and guidelines follow the
      same pattern. This often requires patients to visit specialists for each field,
      with a risk of both under-diagnosis and under-treatment. From the patient's
      perspective, there is a great need for coordination and facilitation of the care,
      not only to reduce disease progression but also to improve quality of life.
      Person-centred integrated clinics for patients with cardiovascular disease, renal
      dysfunction and diabetes are a promising approach for complex chronic disease
      management.

PMID- 28569291
TI  - Misadventure in Muirhouse. HIV infection: a modern plague and persisting public
      health problem.
AB  - This story is of particular interest and importance to Edinburgh and Scottish
      medicine. It describes the events in one general medical practice in Edinburgh,
      the Muirhouse Medical Group, and their impact and relationship to the AIDS
      pandemic. For many, the origin of HIV in the UK is now history. Since the
      introduction of HIV/AIDS into the intravenous illegal drug using community, much
      has changed but problems remain that should concern policy makers and clinicians.
      Reflections on the recent history of the HIV epidemic among drug users in the UK
      provide important insights into risks for current policy making and the
      potentially problematic direction that policy has taken. Rather than starting
      from a pragmatic baseline of harm minimisation, with its low cost, high impact,
      prevention approach, the emphasis, and consequently the resources, has been on a
      model of recovery which fails to acknowledge the fragile control maintained by
      early intervention and supporting treatments. In 2015, the re-emergence of HIV in
      a vulnerable inner city population of people who inject drugs highlighted a
      policy failure. An ongoing epidemic could and should have been prevented, as
      should several other recent epidemics of other viral or bacterial infections in
      urban populations in Scotland. The story of HIV is full of controversy, denial,
      prejudice and stigma. At all levels across the world from national presidents,
      governments and public opinion, progress has been impeded by these problems.
      People using drugs have an additional set of problems: criminality, poverty and
      marginalisation from education and the supports of main stream society. These
      continue to hamper efforts to improve lives and prevent disease.

PMID- 28569292
TI  - From The House with the Green Shutters to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour: the
      portrayal of alcohol in the modern Scottish novel.
AB  - In modern Scottish literature alcohol is a recurrent subject; this paper examines
      the different ways it is portrayed with particular emphasis on the novel. It has
      been seen as the resort of the weak-minded and the cause of personal degradation.
      It has been portrayed as a response to and a symptom of social disintegration. It
      has been depicted as leading to delirium and psychosis. On a positive note it has
      been hailed as a source of inspiration and as a means of celebration. It has
      helped some troubled characters find the road to redemption. Along the way we
      encounter various literary stereotypes of the drinker, while the pub forms the
      backdrop to much of the action.

PMID- 28569293
TI  - Rhubarb (Rheum species): the role of Edinburgh in its cultivation and
      development.
AB  - Rhubarb was grown and used throughout China for thousands of years. It then found
      its way to St Petersburg where the Romanovs developed a flourishing trade in the
      plant to the rest of Europe. James Mounsey, a physician to the Tsar, brought back
      seeds from Russia to Scotland at considerable risk to himself. He passed some of
      the seeds to Alexander Dick and John Hope. Both these physicians then grew
      rhubarb at Prestonfield and the Botanic Garden (both in Edinburgh), respectively.
      Eventually rhubarb, in the form of Gregory's powder, became a common and popular
      medicine throughout the UK.

PMID- 28569294
TI  - The medical consultation in historical perspective. Reflections on talking and
      touching

PMID- 28569295
TI  - Solution plasma synthesis of a boron-carbon-nitrogen catalyst with a controllable
      bond structure.
AB  - Synthesis of boron-carbon-nitrogen (BCN) nanocarbon with a controllable bond
      structure for enhanced oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and durability
      was performed using a new method of discharge in organic solution mixtures named
      the 'Solution Plasma Process'. Using selected precursors a new strategy for the
      simultaneous synthesis of nanocarbon co-doped with heteroatoms was found. The
      synergistic effect of N and B in an uncoupling bond state improved the formation
      of new active sites for the ORR performance by changing the electronic structure
      of the base carbon. Meanwhile, when B and N are bonded together, the BCN catalyst
      contributes to a reduced ORR activity by forming a balanced electronic structure
      in carbon. The BCN nanocarbon with an uncoupling bond state exhibits an enhanced
      ORR activity under alkaline conditions, with an onset potential of -0.25 V versus
      -0.31 V for B/N coupling and 3.43 transferred electrons during the ORR. Although
      the ORR activity of the B/N uncoupling nanocarbon was not as good as the typical
      Pt/C, the durability of this synthesized material (15.1% current decrease after
      20 000 s of operation) was significantly better than that of the Pt/C catalyst
      (61.5% current drop under the same conditions). After the durability test, the
      increase of the chemical states containing oxygen was higher for Pt/C than B/N
      uncoupling.

PMID- 28569296
TI  - Gold-catalyzed diastereoselective domino dearomatization/ipso-cyclization/aza
      Michael sequence: a facile access to diverse fused azaspiro tetracyclic
      scaffolds.
AB  - A facile and diversity-oriented access to complex tetracyclic benzo[e]pyrrolo[2,3
      c]indole-2,4,7(5H)-triones through a post-Ugi gold(i)-catalyzed domino
      dearomatization/ipso-cyclization/aza-Michael sequence is elaborated. This process
      furnishes tetracyclic scaffolds in good yields from readily available precursors
      with unique diastereoselectivity.

PMID- 28569297
TI  - Direct N-acylation of sulfoximines with carboxylic acids catalyzed by the B3NO2
      heterocycle.
AB  - In contrast to recent significant progress in the development of catalytic
      methodologies for nitrogen acylations, syntheses of N-acyl sulfoximines have been
      slow to evolve, and still largely rely on the use of stoichiometric amounts of
      activating reagents. Here we describe the direct acylation of the nitrogen atom
      in sulfoximines with carboxylic acids promoted by a heterocyclic catalyst
      featuring the B3NO2 ring system. The protocol used was found to be operationally
      simple and to tolerate a wide range of functional groups, furnishing the N
      acylated sulfoximines in good yield. The multiboron catalyst tamed previously
      intractable nitrogen nucleophiles, allowing for the short synthesis of a factor
      Xa inhibitor by catalyzing two consecutive nitrogen acylations in the same pot.

PMID- 28569298
TI  - Nickel-catalyzed hydrocarboxylation of ynamides with CO2 and H2O: observation of
      unexpected regioselectivity.
AB  - We describe the nickel-catalyzed hydrocarboxylation of ynamides with CO2 and H2O
      to afford a variety of alpha-amino-alpha,beta-unsaturated esters with high
      regioselectivities. The selective alpha-carboxylation of ynamides with this
      catalytic protocol is unexpected in view of the electronic bias of ynamides and
      is in sharp contrast to our previous study in which a stoichiometric amount of
      Ni(0) was used to form a beta-carboxylated product exclusively. We revealed that
      this unexpected C-C bond formation was induced by the combination of Zn and
      MgBr2.

PMID- 28569299
TI  - Tiny changes in local order identify the cluster formation threshold in model
      fluids with competing interactions.
AB  - We use Monte Carlo simulations to carry out a thorough analysis of structural
      correlations arising in a relatively dense fluid of rigid spherical particles
      with prototype competing interactions (short-range attractive and long-range
      repulsive two-Yukawa model). As the attraction strength increases, we show that
      the local density of the fluid displays a tiny reversal of trend within specific
      ranges of interparticle distances, whereupon it decreases first and increases
      afterwards, passing through a local minimum. Particles involved in this trend
      display, accordingly, distinct behaviours: for a sufficiently weak attraction,
      they seem to contribute to the long-wave oscillations typically heralding the
      formation of patterns in such fluids; for a stronger attraction, after the
      reversal of the local density has occurred, they form an outer shell of
      neighbours stabilizing the existing aggregation seeds. Following the increment of
      attraction, precisely in correspondence of the local density reversal, the local
      peak developed in the structure factor at small wavevectors markedly rises,
      signalling-in agreement with recent structural criteria-the onset of a clustered
      state. A detailed cluster analysis of microscopic configurations fully validates
      this picture.

PMID- 28569301
TI  - Interacting nanoscale magnetic superatom cluster arrays in molybdenum oxide
      bronzes.
AB  - In this study, we examine several reduced ternary molybdates in the family of
      yellow rare earth molybdenum bronzes produced by electrochemical synthesis with
      composition LnMo16O44. These compounds contain an array of electrically isolated
      but magnetically interacting multi-atom clusters with composition Mo8O36. These
      arrayed superatom clusters support a single hole shared among the eight
      molybdenum atoms in the unit, corresponding to a net spin moment of 1MUB, and
      exhibit magnetic exchange between the units via the MoO4 tetrahedra (containing
      Mo6+ ions) and the LnO8 cubes (containing Ln3+ ions). The findings presented here
      expand on the physics of the unusual collective properties of multi-atom clusters
      and extend the discussion of such assemblages to the rich structural chemistry of
      molybdenum bronzes.

PMID- 28569300
TI  - Opportunities for natural products in 21st century antibiotic discovery.
AB  - Natural products and their derivatives are mainstays of our antibiotic drugs, but
      they are increasingly in peril. The combination of widespread multidrug
      resistance in once susceptible bacterial pathogens, disenchantment with natural
      products as sources of new drugs, lack of success using synthetic compounds and
      target-based discovery methods, along with shifting economic and regulatory
      issues, conspire to move investment in research and development away from the
      antibiotics arena. The result is a growing crisis in antibiotic drug discovery
      that threatens modern medicine. 21st century natural product research is
      perfectly positioned to fill the antibiotic discovery gap and bring new drug
      candidates to the clinic. Innovations in genomics and techniques to explore new
      sources of antimicrobial chemical matter are revealing new chemistry. Increasing
      appreciation of the value of narrow-spectrum drugs and re-examination of once
      discarded chemical scaffolds coupled with synthetic biology methods to generate
      new compounds and improve yields offer new strategies to revitalize once moribund
      natural product programs. The increasing awareness that the combination of
      antibiotics with adjuvants, non-antibiotic compounds that overcome resistance and
      enhance drug activity, can rescue older chemical scaffolds, and concepts such as
      blocking pathogen virulence present orthogonal strategies to traditional
      antibiotics. In all these areas, natural products offer chemical matter, shaped
      by natural selection, that is privileged in this therapeutic area. Natural
      product research is poised to regain prominence in delivering new drugs to solve
      the antibiotic crisis.

PMID- 28569302
TI  - Fano resonances in the photoinduced H-atom elimination dynamics in the pisigma*
      states of pyrrole.
AB  - Fano resonances are predicted to be prominent features of the pisigma*
      photochemistry of pyrrole. The Fano interference leads to distorted absorption
      bands and internally hot photofragments. The interference, studied using high
      level ab initio theory and quantum mechanics, is supported by two distinct
      dynamical scenarios controlled by two exit channel conical intersections between
      the pisigma* states and the ground electronic state X[combining tilde]. For the
      lowest state 1A2(pisigma*), the coupling at the conical intersection is weak, and
      the interfering dissociation pathways are diabatic; for the higher lying
      1B1(pisigma*) state, the coupling at the conical intersection is strong, and the
      interfering dissociation pathways are adiabatic. Both scenarios persist with
      increasing number of degrees of freedom included in the dynamic modelling. They
      are expected to be operative in the pisigma* photochemistry of a broad class of
      model UV biochromophores.

PMID- 28569304
TI  - Interfacial charge transfer in functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube@TiO2
      nanofibres.
AB  - A new insight into photoinduced charge transfer processes across carbon
      nanotube@TiO2 interfaces has been gained based on experimental details from
      transient absorption spectroscopy. We show that photoinduced, interfacial hole
      transfer to carboxylic acid-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes
      (oxMWCNTs) from TiO2 results in hole-doped oxMWCNTs and reduced TiO2. The latter
      is inferred from femto- and nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy
      performed with oxMWCNT@TiO2 dispersions and complemented with investigations
      using methyl viologen and N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine as an electron
      scavenger and a hole scavenger, respectively. The results of ultraviolet
      photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) of the compounds corroborate the findings,
      highlighting the strong coupling between oxMWCNTs and TiO2 in these hybrids.

PMID- 28569306
TI  - Effects of temperature, concentration, and isomer on the hydration structure in
      monosaccharide solutions.
AB  - Water-monosaccharide coupled interactions are essential for the function,
      stability, and dynamics of all glycans. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we
      investigated the effects of temperature, concentration, and monosaccharide isomer
      on the hydration structure and water dynamics in the hydration shell of
      monosaccharides in solution. We found that perturbations of the hydrogen-bond (H
      bond) network in the first hydration shell around each monosaccharide molecule
      can be separated into two regions: one rich in water molecules with donor H-bonds
      (in the 2.4-2.8 A region) and the other rich in water molecules with abundant
      acceptor H-bonds (in the 2.8-3.3 A region). Moreover, we investigated the
      dependencies of clustering and conversion of the conformers of the
      monosaccharides on temperature and concentration. Increasing the concentration
      enhances monosaccharide clustering in all the monosaccharide solutions, while
      cluster formation does not depend on temperature. In the clusters, some water
      molecules in the hydration shell are replaced with monosaccharide oxygen atoms,
      which contributes to the shrinkage of the hydration shell with increasing
      monosaccharide concentration. The monosaccharides basically adopt one of two
      conformers, the stable chair or the unstable boat conformer. We revealed that the
      hydration structures of the boat and chair conformers were dramatically
      different. As the temperature increases, the content of the chair conformer
      decreases. Thus, the conversion of conformers strongly affects the hydration
      structure around the monosaccharide. These results are critical to understand the
      important roles of the hydration structure in glycan solutions.

PMID- 28569307
TI  - Photodynamics of Zr-based MOFs: effect of explosive nitroaromatics.
AB  - The present work describes the spectroscopic and photodynamics of two different
      Zr mixed-linkers MOFs (Zr-NDC/Tz and Zr-NDC/CN) and their interaction with
      nitroaromatics. Both MOFs exhibit comparable spectroscopic behaviours, with a
      broad emission band mainly due to the naphthalene excimers within their three
      dimensional structure. Flash photolysis experiments show a slow radiative
      electron-hole (e--h+) recombination, reflected as a large negative absorption
      band. The interaction with the selected nitroaromatic compounds produces a static
      fluorescence quenching of Zr-NDC/Tz. Interestingly, the addition of
      trinitrophenol (TNP) induces the formation of a charge-transfer complex, helped
      by intermolecular H-bonds formation, as shown by the steady-state and ps-time
      resolved emission experiments. Remarkably, the (e--h+) recombination is strongly
      affected due to the inhibition of the ligand-to-cluster charge transfer process
      within the MOF. The quenching constants for the nitroaromatics lacking -OH groups
      are in the order of 102 M-1, while it is two orders of magnitude higher for the
      TNP (1.8 * 104 M-1). Both MOFs are highly selective toward TNP. We also
      demonstrate the possibility to recycle these MOFs without significant loses in
      their ability to detect TNP. Our findings give the clues to understand the
      fluorescence quenching mechanism of new Zr-based MOFs in presence of explosive
      like molecules, opening the way to improve these nanomaterials as highly
      selective sensor of nitroaromatics.

PMID- 28569310
TI  - Aryne triggered [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of allyl and propargyl
      thioethers.
AB  - An efficient protocol for [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of allyl and propargyl
      thioethers is reported. The key sulfonium ylide intermediate is in situ formed
      via S-arylation of arynes. This transition metal-free method allows for ready
      access to a wide array of functionalized thioether derivatives in good to
      excellent yields.

PMID- 28569312
TI  - Insights into the mechanism of electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction
      by a porphyrinic metal organic framework.
AB  - Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have been recently proposed as promising
      electrocatalysts, yet the exact nature of the mechanisms in play has not been
      addressed in depth. By comparing the electrocatalytic activity of a MOF for the
      oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the corresponding molecular building units
      through electrochemical techniques, here, we investigate the nature of the
      catalytic sites, their redox states and the electron transfer pathways.

PMID- 28569313
TI  - Coordination coupling enhanced two-photon absorption of a ZnS-based microhybrid
      for two-photon microscopy imaging in HepG2.
AB  - Coordination coupling induced self-assembly of ZnS microparticles was performed
      with the help of a pi-conjugated sulphur-terminal Zn(ii) complex ZnS2L (L = N
      hexyl-3-{2-[4-2,2':6',2''-terpyridin-4'-yl-phenyl]ethenyl}-carbazole). The
      interactions between ZnS and ZnS2L components at the interface, which were
      analyzed by far-IR and XPS, resulted in a tunable single-photon excited
      fluorescence and an enhanced nonlinear optical response, including a two-photon
      absorption cross section and a two-photon excited fluorescence. Such an
      enhancement in nonlinear optical properties was triggered by the coordination
      coupling effect between terminal S atoms of ZnS2L and naked Zn2+ ions at the
      surface of ZnS particles. Thus, the novel hybrid system displayed a unique two
      photon excited fluorescence to facilitate promising two-photon microscopy imaging
      of HepG2 cells upon NIR light illumination at 840 nm. The hybrid shows a stronger
      ability to enter the cells than free ZnS2L.

PMID- 28569315
TI  - Enhancing the sensing specificity of a MoS2 nanosheet-based FRET aptasensor using
      a surface blocking strategy.
AB  - Aptamer-based biosensing, which uses short, single-stranded nucleic acid segments
      to bind to a target, can be advantageous over antibody-based diagnostics due to
      the ease of synthesis and high stability of aptamers. However, the development of
      most aptamer-based sensors (aptasensors) is still in its initial stages and many
      factors affecting their performance have not been studied in great detail. Here,
      we enhance the sensing specificity of a fluorescence resonance energy transfer
      (FRET)-based MoS2 nanosheet aptasensor in detecting the malarial biomarker
      Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH). In this sensing scheme, the presence of
      target is signaled by an increase in fluorescence when fluorescently-labeled
      aptamers bind to pLDH and release from a quenching material. Interestingly,
      unlike most of the reported literature on aptasensors, we observe that non-target
      proteins also cause a considerable increase in the detected fluorescence. This
      may be due to the nonspecific adsorption of proteins onto the fluorescence
      quencher, leading to the displacement of aptamers from the quencher surface. To
      reduce this nonspecific association and to enhance the sensor specificity, we
      propose the application of a surface blocking agent to the quenching material.
      Importantly, we demonstrate that the sensing specificity of the MoS2 nanosheet
      based aptasensor towards target pLDH biomolecules can be significantly enhanced
      through surface passivation, thus contributing to the development of highly
      selective and robust point-of-care malaria diagnostics.

PMID- 28569317
TI  - Origin of cooperativity in hydrogen bonding.
AB  - The origin of non-additivity in hydrogen bonds (H-bonds), usually termed as H
      bond cooperativity, is investigated in H-bonded linear chains. It is shown that H
      bond cooperativity originates solely from classical electrostatics. The latter is
      corroborated by comparing the H-bond cooperativity in infinitely-long H-bonded
      hydrogen cyanide, 4-pyridone and formamide chains, assessed using density
      functional theory (DFT), against the strengthening of the dipole-dipole
      interaction upon the formation of an infinite chain of effective point-dipoles.
      It is found that the magnitude of these effective point-dipoles is a consequence
      of mutual polarization and additional effects beyond a polarizable point-dipole
      model. Nevertheless, the effective point-dipoles are fully determined once a
      single H-bond is formed, indicating that quantum effects involved in H-bonding
      are circumscribed to nearest-neighbor interactions only; i.e. in a linear chain
      of H-bonds, quantum effects do not contribute to the H-bond non-additivity. This
      finding is verified by estimating cooperativity along the dissociation path of H
      bonds in the infinite chains, using two empirical parameters that account for
      polarizability, together with DFT association energies and molecular dipoles of
      solely monomers and dimers.

PMID- 28569318
TI  - Thermosensitive polymer controlled morphogenesis and phase discrimination of
      calcium carbonate.
AB  - Homogeneous aragonite flowers with controlled surface structures can be
      synthesized by using a thermosensitive polymer, i.e. poly (ethylene glycol)
      poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)-poly(acrylamido methyl propane sulfonate) (PEG
      PNIPAM-PAMPS), as a crystal growth modifier in the mineralization of calcium
      carbonate.

PMID- 28569319
TI  - Employing shells to eliminate concentration quenching in photonic upconversion
      nanostructure.
AB  - It is generally accepted that a lanthanide ions based upconversion material
      follows an activator low doping strategy (normally <3 mol%), because of the
      restriction of the harmful concentration quenching effect. Here, we demonstrate
      that this limitation can be broken in nanostructures. Simply by using an inert
      shell coating strategy, the concentration quenching effect for the activator
      (Er3+) could be eliminated and highly efficient upconversion luminescence
      realized in the activator fully doped nanostructure, e.g. NaErF4@NaYF4. More
      importantly, this novel nanostructure achieves some long-cherished desires, such
      as multiple-band co-excitation (~800 nm, ~980 nm and ~1530 nm) and monochromic
      red emission. Proof-of-concept experiments are presented of the potential benefit
      of this structure in solar cells and anti-counterfeiting. This nanostructure
      offers new possibilities in realizing high upconversion emission and novel
      functionalities of lanthanide based nanomaterials.

PMID- 28569320
TI  - A chimeric design of heterospin 2p-3d, 2p-4f, and 2p-3d-4f complexes using a
      novel family of paramagnetic dissymmetric compartmental ligands.
AB  - End-off bicompartmental ligands bearing a nitronyl-nitroxide arm have been
      designed for synthesizing various heterospin molecular systems. These ligands can
      selectively interact with 3d and 4f metal ions, leading to 2p-4f, 2p-3d, and 2p
      3d-4f complexes. The magnetic properties of the 2p-4f and 2p-3d-4f complexes have
      been investigated and rationalized by theoretical calculations.

PMID- 28569321
TI  - Achieving biosensing at attomolar concentrations of cardiac troponin T in human
      biofluids by developing a label-free nanoplasmonic analytical assay.
AB  - Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) is the fifth leading cause of death in
      the United States (Dariush et al., Circulation, 2015, 131, e29-e322). This
      highlights the need for early, rapid, and sensitive detection of its occurrence
      and severity through assaying cardiac biomarkers in human fluids. Herein we
      report chip-based fabrication of the first label-free, nanoplasmonic biosensor to
      assay cardiac troponin T (cTnT) in human biofluids (plasma, serum, and urine)
      with high specificity. The sensing mechanism is based on the adsorption model
      that measures the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength shift of
      anti-cTnT functionalized gold triangular nanoprisms (Au TNPs) induced by a change
      of their local dielectric environment upon binding of cTnT. We demonstrate that
      controlled manipulation of the sensing volume and decay length of Au TNPs
      together with an appropriate surface functionalization and immobilization of anti
      cTnT onto TNPs allows us to achieve a limit of detection (LOD) of our cTnT assay
      at attomolar concentration (~15 aM) in human plasma. This LOD is at least 50-fold
      more sensitive than that of other label-free techniques. Furthermore, we
      demonstrate excellent sensitivity of our sensors in human serum and urine.
      Importantly, our chip-based fabrication strategy is extremely reproducible. We
      believe our powerful analytical tool for detection of cTnT directly in human
      biofluids using this highly reproducible, label-free LSPR sensor will have great
      potential for early diagnosis of heart attack and thus increase patients'
      survival rate.

PMID- 28569323
TI  - Investigation of a new "N2S2O2" chelating agent with high Po(iv) affinity.
AB  - A water-soluble "N2S2O2" complexing agent was designed for polonium(iv)
      decorporation. The bifunctional ligand showed outstanding Po(iv) complexing
      abilities, with a conditional stability constant three orders of magnitude higher
      than the reference ligand BAL.

PMID- 28569322
TI  - Total synthesis of agalloside, isolated from Aquilaria agallocha, by the 5-O
      glycosylation of flavan.
AB  - Agalloside (1) is a neural stem cell differentiation activator isolated from
      Aquilaria agallocha by our group using Hes1 immobilized beads. We conducted the
      first total synthesis of agalloside (1) via the 5-O-glycosylation of flavan 25
      using glycosyl fluoride 20 in the presence of BF3.Et2O. Subsequent oxidation with
      DDQ to flavanone 2 and deprotection successively provided agalloside (1). This
      synthetic strategy holds promise for use in the synthesis of 5-O-glycosylated
      flavonoids. The synthesized agalloside (1) accelerated neural stem cell
      differentiation, which is a result comparable to that for the naturally occurring
      compound 1.

PMID- 28569325
TI  - Correction: Introducing dip pen nanolithography as a tool for controlling stem
      cell behaviour: unlocking the potential of the next generation of smart materials
      in regenerative medicine.
AB  - Correction for 'Introducing dip pen nanolithography as a tool for controlling
      stem cell behaviour: unlocking the potential of the next generation of smart
      materials in regenerative medicine' by Judith M. Curran et al., Lab Chip, 2010,
      10, 1662-1670.

PMID- 28569326
TI  - Kinetics of the electrochemically-assisted deposition of sol-gel films.
AB  - Electrochemically-assisted deposition is now becoming a widespread method for
      preparing sol-gel films. It is based on the electrochemical generation of OH-
      ions, which can then catalyze the sol-gel condensation reactions. It has a key
      advantage of selectively facilitating the film deposition on electrochemically
      active surfaces while not affecting the stability of the bulk precursor solution.
      Experimental studies have clearly shown that the thickness of the
      electrochemically-assisted deposited films is influenced by the deposition
      parameters such as the potential and time. However, there is still a lack of
      quantitative description of the kinetics of film growth due to the complexity of
      the process. In this preliminary study, we derived quantitative analytical
      expressions for describing the kinetics associated with the growth of sol-gel
      films generated by electrochemically assisted deposition. Both heterogeneous and
      homogeneous condensation reactions were considered. The key strategy was to
      simplify the process by separating the electrochemical step of generating OH-
      ions with the condensation steps of film formation under approximation.
      Furthermore, numerical simulation was carried out to examine the validity and any
      errors in the analytical expressions in the cases when the required
      approximations were not fulfilled. The analytical expressions could well explain
      the trends observed in the experimental studies and could also be used for
      fitting the experimental results from the literature. This study provides a
      deeper understanding of the mechanism and quantitative guidance for manipulating
      electrochemically-assisted deposition processes at a large scale in industry. It
      may also be referred to in regard to other indirect electrodeposition systems in
      which the deposition is not an electrochemical step but is instead driven by
      electrochemically-generated catalysts.

PMID- 28569328
TI  - An EGFRvIII targeted dual-modal gold nanoprobe for imaging-guided brain tumor
      surgery.
AB  - Surgery is a mainstay to treat malignant brain tumors. However, due to the
      infiltrative nature of these tumors, it is a great challenge for surgeons to
      accurately identify and excise all the tumor foci. EGFRvIII, a variant of
      epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is found in 20% of glioblastoma cases,
      which is the brain tumor with the highest malignancy. In this study, we developed
      an EGFRvIII-targeted nanoprobe to guide glioblastoma surgery by pre-operatively
      defining the tumor boundary via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intra
      operatively guiding resection by surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering
      (SERRS) imaging. In vivo MRI studies show that this nanoprobe delineates an
      orthotopic EGFRvIII+ U87MG glioblastoma xenograft with a higher target to
      background ratio than the control nanoprobe without targeting specificity. With
      the assistance of a handheld Raman scanner, this nanoprobe successfully guided
      EGFRvIII+ glioblastoma resection by tracking its characteristic SERRS signal
      peaks. Ex vivo Raman microscopy and histological images verified that this
      nanoprobe precisely demarcated the glioblastoma boundary and no residual
      neoplastic foci were observed in the tumor bed. This dual-modal nanoprobe not
      only precisely guided glioblastoma resection, but also overcame the brain shift
      induced false-positive signal by real-timely co-registering pre-operative and
      intra-operative images. This nanoprobe is promising for the improvement in
      diagnostic accuracy and surgical outcome of EGFRvIII+ glioblastoma.

PMID- 28569330
TI  - Porous organic cage membranes for water desalination: a simulation exploration.
AB  - Porous organic cages (POCs) have emerged as a new class of porous materials and
      received considerable interest for their potential applications. Herein we report
      the first proof-of-concept simulation study on POC membranes for water
      desalination. Five [4+6] POCs (CC1, CC2, CC3, CC16, and CC17) are considered with
      similar crystal structures, but different periphery groups and pore morphologies.
      CC1 is found to be impermeable to water due to disconnected pores. With an
      interconnected tetrahedral pore network, CC3 and CC16 have an intermediate water
      permeability of 1-5 * 10-7 kg m (m2 h bar)-1. CC2 and CC17 contain straight pores
      and a widely open pore network, respectively, thus exhibit a high water
      permeability of 2-3 * 10-6 kg m (m2 h bar)-1; nevertheless, salt rejection in
      CC17 is only 89%. Among the five POC membranes, CC2 is the best for water
      desalination with performance superior to other membranes reported in the
      literature. The membrane flexibility is revealed to have a weak effect on water
      permeation. To provide further microscopic understanding, the permeation
      duration, diffusion and hydrogen bonding of water in the POC membranes are
      quantitatively analyzed. From this simulation study, the key factors governing
      water permeation in the POC membranes are unraveled and CC2 is identified to be
      an interesting candidate for water desalination.

PMID- 28569331
TI  - Isolated alkali cation complexes of the antibiotic ionophore nonactin:
      correlation with crystalline structures.
AB  - The antibiotic activity of nonactin is sustained by its ability to transport K+
      across lipophilic phases, e.g., the cell membranes. Such a feature can be traced
      back to a specific ionophoric behavior and to a balanced hydrophobicity modulated
      by the formation of a cation complex. In this study, the dominant conformations
      and coordination arrangements in the alkali cation complexes (Na+, K+, Cs+) of
      nonactin are characterized by means of action vibrational spectroscopy and
      quantum chemical computations. The low energy conformers of the complexes
      comprise compact inclusion structures, in which the cation interacts with a
      varying number of oxygen atoms of the carbonyl and oxolane ring groups of the
      nonactin macrocycle. The spectroscopy experiments indicate that the three alkali
      complexes explored are formed in a S4 conformation. This is in contrast with
      previous crystallography studies, which concluded that the symmetry of the most
      stable conformer of the complex changes qualitatively with the cation size, from
      C2 for Na+ to S4 for K+ and Cs+. Computations with different hybrid density
      functionals lead to contradictory predictions that appear to be quite sensitive
      to the modelling of the long range interactions in the coordination arrangements.
      The stabilization of the nonactin-Na+ complex in the C2 or S4 forms emerges as a
      subtle feature that may be tuned with an appropriate control of the environmental
      conditions, and constitutes a challenging benchmark to confront novel
      computational methods for supramolecular systems.

PMID- 28569332
TI  - Mixed Cu(i)/Au(i) coordination polymers as reversible turn-on vapoluminescent
      sensors for volatile thioethers.
AB  - Vapour-phase thioethers play an important role in a wide number of fields,
      including plant biology, chemical weapon disposal, and brewing but few sensor
      materials are known. The emissive coordination polymer Cu1/2Au1/2CN does not
      react with vapour phase dimethyl sulphide (DMS) or diethyl sulphide (DES) despite
      the independent synthesis of emissive [Cu1/2Au1/2CN]2(DMS) and
      [Cu1/2Au1/2CN]2(DES) from their constituent components in solution. However, the
      doped Cu2/3Au1/3CN rapidly reacts in the solid state with both of these vapour
      phase thioethers reversibly, with a change in emission from 380/560 nm to 460 nm
      (DMS) or 420 nm (DES), illustrating that doping the inactive parent Cu1/2Au1/2CN
      with Cu(i) generates an active sensor material. This response can be thermally
      cycled with little to no loss in functionality. [Cu1/2Au1/2CN]2(DMS),
      [Cu2/3Au1/3CN]2(DMS), and [Cu2/3Au1/3CN]2(DES) were structurally characterized as
      3-D network structures supported by aurophilic interactions.

PMID- 28569333
TI  - Photo-controlled cell-specific metabolic labeling of RNA.
AB  - Elucidating gene expression programs within a cell-specific manner is a grand
      challenge for biologists. Harder still is the ability to have kinetic control
      over such experiments. Metabolic labeling with bioorthogonally-functionalized
      metabolic intermediates provides a means to profile RNA expression in a cell
      specific manner, but there is still a lack of kinetic resolution. Herein we
      present the synthesis and evaluation of photocaged metabolic uracil
      intermediates. We compare the photo-decaging properties and demonstrate their
      utility in metabolic labeling experiments in a cell-specific manner. We
      anticipate that our approach will have far-reaching impact as it provides control
      over tagging of nascent RNA.

PMID- 28569334
TI  - Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Agricultural Workers towards Tetanus
      Vaccine: a Field Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Agricultural Workers are both more exposed to tetanus and at higher
      risk to be inadequately immunized than other usual recipients of the same
      vaccine. STUDY DESIGN: Our cross-sectional questionnaire-based study aimed to
      evaluate tetanus vaccination status, knowledge, attitudes and practices in
      Agricultural Workers in North-Eastern Italy. METHODS: Bivariate and multivariate
      logistic regression analyses were used to identify, from individual and work
      related characteristics, factors significantly associated with appropriate
      vaccination status. RESULTS: Among 707 participants, 58.4% had an up-to-date
      immunization status. In 33.1%, last booster was performed by an Emergency
      Department. The main reason for inadequate immunization was having forgotten the
      recommended periodic booster (146/707; 20.7%). Attitude towards tetanus
      vaccination was somehow favourable in 79.5% of participants, and 72.7% correctly
      identified tetanus vaccination as mandatory for Agricultural Workers. A lower
      degree of false beliefs and better knowledge of official recommendations were
      significant predictors of vaccine propensity. The main predictor for an
      appropriate vaccination status was interaction with a healthcare provider, in
      general (adjusted Odds Ratio, adjOR 2.516 95%CI 1.707-3.710), and specifically
      regarding vaccine counseling, (adjOR 6.275 3.184-12.367 and adjOR 9.739 95%CI
      3.933-24.111 for general practitioners and occupational physicians,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our study enlightens the key role of healthcare
      providers in recalling and promoting vaccination policies, as well in increasing
      the general awareness of Agricultural Workers regarding vaccines and official
      recommendations.

PMID- 28569335
TI  - Assessment of coverage and analysis of the determinants of adherence to influenza
      vaccination in the general practitioners of Taranto.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Italy, the general practitioner (GP) is the operations manager of
      the campaigns regarding influenza immunization. He/she identifies people eligible
      for vaccination among the clients, invites them actively and administers the
      vaccine. The GPs are directly in contact with the target population that should
      be vaccinated and their opinion about the flu vaccine may ultimately influence
      the decision of the patient to accept or not the vaccination. This study aims to
      assess levels of immunization for influenza vaccination among GPs and factors
      influencing their adherence to the vaccinations recommended for GPs in the
      province of Taranto (Apulia region, Southern Italy). METHODS: We conducted a
      cross-sectional study among 471 general practitioners working in the province of
      Taranto during the February-March period of 2016. We emailed all GPs a self
      administered web-based standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire analyzed the
      self-reported flu vaccination coverage, knowledge, perception and positions of
      the GPs with regard to the forecasted vaccinations of the in-risk categories
      among their patients. RESULTS: A total of 229 (48.6%) GPs participated in the
      survey. In the 2015/2016 influenza season, the vaccination coverage among the
      interviewed GPs was 76.4% (n = 175). A patient number >= 900 increased the
      likelihood to have been vaccinated in the 2015/2016 season (OR = 3.3; P < 0.01).
      Overall only 79.9% prefers to use the adjuvated vaccines on patients > 64 and the
      58% of GPs who chose not to get vaccinated considers influenza as a non-risk
      pathology for a healthy subject. CONCLUSIONS: The coverage achieved among the
      Taranto's ASL GPs during the 2015/16 season reaches the minimum threshold set by
      the Minister, but they could implement their knowledge and their participation in
      relation to the anti-influenza vaccine in order to discard all the wrong or
      clearly unfounded common beliefs. The best strategy in order to optimize the
      governance system seems to be the empowerment of primary care physicians, to be
      fulfilled through actions shared with the Public Healthcare Services based on
      training, communication and projects supporting vaccine coverage.

PMID- 28569336
TI  - Molecular epidemiology and characteristics of 16 cases with Stenotrophomonas
      maltophilia bacteraemia in pediatric Intensive Care Units.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has increasingly been reported
      as an important nosocomial opportunistic pathogen. Limited therapeutic options of
      S. maltophilia infections demand early identification and knowledge about the
      probable risk factors for controlling its spread. STUDY DESIGN: The present study
      aimed to investigate the risk factors and trend of antibiotic susceptibility,
      along with genetic analysis in bacteraemia cases at pediatric intensive care
      units (PICUs). METHODS: A total of 16 S. maltophilia isolates were obtained,
      during 4 months from August to November 2015, from blood cultures of patients
      admitted to PICUs at Nemazee teaching hospital, Shiraz, Iran. S. maltophilia
      isolates were identified by conventional tests and confirmed by specific PCR
      primers. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by the MIC
      strip test as described by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute's
      (CLSI) recommendation. The genetic relatedness among the isolates was assessed by
      ERIC-PCR. RESULTS: All isolates of S. maltophilia were susceptible to
      ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole and colistin, and only 1 (6.2%) isolate was
      resistant against ceftazidime. The MIC50/MIC90 of ciprofloxacin,
      trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, colistin and ceftazidime was 0.25/0.38 mg/mL,
      0.125/0.19 mg/mL, 0.25/0.38 mg/mL, and 2/4 mg/mL, respectively. Genotypic
      analysis of ERIC-PCR results revealed two distinct types of pattern.
      Interestingly, the only ceftazidime resistant isolate showed different patterns
      with other isolates. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated the importance of
      routine surveillance in infection control, since early detection of pathogens
      prevented the spread of nosocomial infections and granted effectiveness to care
      practices. Moreover, the results suggest that the routine drug of choice for S.
      maltophilia was mostly active against clinical isolates in our region.

PMID- 28569337
TI  - The assessment of the complexity of care through the clinical nursing information
      system in clinical practice: a study protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The costs of nursing staff amounts to approximately 50% of the total
      budget of the health workforce and accounts for 20% to 30% of the total costs
      incurred by the health care companies. The goal of the study, by analyzing the
      complexity of care, is to provide a quantification of the assistance delivered,
      through the assessment of the technical aspects of the welfare activities
      according to the variable of time. Data from these activities flow into the
      clinical nursing information system Professional Assessment Instrument - PAI -
      which is used at the health facility involved in this study. This instrument
      allows nurses to document the nursing process in electronic format by using a
      standardized nursing language (nursing diagnoses, nursing interventions and
      nursing outcomes). METHODS: The design of the study is observational. The
      participants will be patients that are hospitalized in the cardiology
      departments, the intensive care units for cardiac and thoracic surgery, pulmonary
      medicine and medical oncology of the "A.Gemelli" hospital in Rome, Italy. The
      observers who will carry out the surveys will be students of the nursing degree
      course and the coordinators of the respective wards. The times recorded for each
      health care activity will be correlated with variables that are defined in the
      literature as the indicators of the complexity of care. The research protocol was
      approved by the Ethics Committee of the "A. Gemelli" Hospital in June 2015.
      RESULTS: In terms of results, this study aims to verify the reliability of the
      Professional Assessment Instrument tool as a system for the classification and
      measurement of nursing care which includes the entire care process, taking into
      account all of the variables deemed crucial to the nursing care effort.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide a tool for the assessment of the complexity
      of care, with the goal of improving the quality of care for the patients and of
      interacting with the health administration system for the management of
      resources.

PMID- 28569338
TI  - Clinical characteristics of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in an area of central
      Italy: a population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic
      rheumatic disease in children and an important cause of short and long-term
      disability. In a recent systematic review of population based studies, the
      epidemiology of JIA is variable worldwide with incidence rates ranging between
      1.6 and 23.0/100,000, and prevalence rates between 3.8 and 400.0/100,000. We
      investigate the incidence and describe the characteristics of juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis in the pediatric population of the central Italy, in the period 2000
      2009. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in the Marche region to
      identify patients with a diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis according to
      ILAR criteria, between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009. JIA was classified
      according to the ILAR criteria, that is, arthritis of unknown etiology that
      persisted for > 6 weeks with onset before the age of 16 years. The pooled global
      ascertainment of cases was estimated by capture-recapture methods and two
      independent information sources of ascertainment of new cases of JIA were
      considered. RESULTS: We studied 151 patients (56 males, 37.1% and 95 females,
      62.9%) meeting the ILAR criteria of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Mean age at
      presentation was 6.8 +/- 3.7 years for males and 6.0 +/- 4.0 years for females
      (p=0.22). The overall incidence rate was 6.34 per 100,000/year (C.I. 6.26-7.35)
      and the total incidence rate increase from 2000-2009 was 8.16%. Oligoarthritis
      was the most common onset type (n=98, 65.0%) with 62.5% of ANA-positive patients
      in at least two determinations. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that juvenile
      idiopathic arthritis incidence rates in Italy are comparable to previous data
      from southern Europe, with a higher frequency of oligoarthritis. To the best of
      our knowledge, this is the first population-based epidemiological study carried
      out in Italy focusing on the incidence of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

PMID- 28569339
TI  - High Resolution Melting as a rapid, reliable, accurate and cost-effective
      emerging tool for genotyping pathogenic bacteria and enhancing molecular
      epidemiological surveillance: a comprehensive review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapid, reliable and accurate molecular typing methods are essential
      for outbreaks detection and infectious diseases control, for monitoring the
      evolution and dynamics of microbial populations, and for effective
      epidemiological surveillance. The introduction of a novel method based on the
      analysis of melting temperature of amplified products, known as High Resolution
      Melting (HRM) since 2002, has found applications in epidemiological studies,
      either for identification of bacterial species or molecular typing, as well as an
      extensive and increasing use in many research fields. HRM method is based on the
      use of saturating third generation dyes, advanced real-time PCR platforms, and
      bioinformatics tools. OBJECTIVE: To describe, by a comphrehensive review of the
      literature, the use, application and usefulness of HRM for the genotyping of
      bacterial pathogens in the context of epidemiological surveillance and public
      health. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A literature search was carried out during July
      August 2016, by consulting the biomedical databases PubMed/Medline, Scopus,
      EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science without limits. The search strategy was performed
      according to the following keywords: high resolution melting analysis and
      bacteria and genotyping or molecular typing. All the articles evaluating the
      application of HRM for bacterial pathogen genotyping were selected and reviewed,
      taking into account the objective of each study, the rationale explaining the use
      of this technology, and the main results obtained in comparison with gold
      standards and/or alternative methods, when available. RESULTS: HRM method was
      extensively used for molecular typing of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative
      bacterial pathogens, representing a versatile genetic tool: a) to evaluate
      genetic diversity and subtype at species/subspecies level, based also on allele
      discrimination/identification and mutation screening; b) to recognize
      phylogenetic groupings (lineage, sublineage, subgroups); c) to identify
      antimicrobial resistance; d) to detect and screen for mutations related to drug
      resistance; e) to discriminate gene isoforms. HRM method showed, in almost all
      instances, excellent typeability and discriminatory power, with high concordance
      of typing results obtained with gold standards or comparable methods. Conversely,
      for the evaluation of genetic determinants associated to antibiotic-resistance or
      for screening of associated mutations in key gene fragments, the sensitivity and
      specificity was not optimal, because the targeted amplicons did not encompass all
      the crucial mutations. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the recent introduction of sequencing
      based methods, the HRM method deserves consideration in research fields of
      infectious diseases, being characterized by low cost, rapidity, flexibility and
      versatility. However, there are some limitations to HRM assays development, which
      should be carefully considered. The most common application of HRM for bacterial
      typing is related to Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-based genotyping with
      the analysis of gene fragments within the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) loci,
      following an approach termed mini-MLST or Minim typing. Although the resolving
      power is not totally correspondent to MLST, the Simpson's Index of Diversity
      provided by HRM method typically >0.95. Furthermore, the cost of this approach is
      less than MLST, enabling low cost surveillance and rapid response for outbreak
      control. Hence, the potential of HRM technology can strongly facilitate routine
      research and diagnostics in the epidemiological studies, as well as advance and
      streamline the genetic characterization of bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28569340
TI  - Adoption of TSH Reflex algorithm in an Italian clinical laboratory.
AB  - BACKGROUND: TSH Reflex is an automated diagnostic algorithm which follows the
      rule "If ... then", in which the initial determination of TSH is followed by the
      determination of fT4, and possibly of fT3, if TSH is not within the reference
      limits. The aim of our study was to evaluate the results of the introduction and
      implementation of the test "TSH Reflex", which started in late 2013 in the
      hospital of Grosseto, comparing the requests of thyroid hormones for external
      patients, in 2012, 2014 and 2015. METHODS: In our study we analyzed the number of
      thyroid tests prescribed in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and we calculated the increase in
      prescription of "TSH Reflex" from 2014 to 2015; the prescriptive appropriateness,
      after the introduction of the "TSH Reflex", through the ratios TSH/FT4, TSH/FT3
      and the ratio "TSH Reflex"/TSH. Finally we calculated the total spending for the
      reagents in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and the consequent savings in euros (the costs of
      the reagents did not change during that time). RESULTS: Requests for TSH
      decreased by 4.6% in 2014, compared to 2012 and by 5.4% in 2015 compared to 2014,
      with a 9.8% reduction in 2015 compared to 2012. The requests for FT4 decreased by
      11.5%, comparing 2014 with 2012, by 5.3% comparing 2015 with 2014, with a 16.2%
      reduction in 2015 compared to 2012. The requests for FT3 decreased by 13.3% in
      2014 compared to 2012 and by 8.4% in 2015 compared to 2014, with a 20.6%
      reduction in 2015 compared to 2012. The appropriateness, evaluated the indicator
      TSH/FT4, increased by 7.6%, comparing 2014 with 2012, and remained unchanged in
      2015. In 2012 71,134 euros were spent, 63,998 euros in 2014, 60,055 euros in
      2015, resulting in a saving of ? 11,079 in 2015 compared to 2012. The spending
      for "TSH Reflex" should be subtracted (1,964 Euros in 2015) from the previous
      savings. CONCLUSIONS: The improvement of the efficiency and the prescriptive
      appropriateness was better in 2014, the first year of implementation of the "TSH
      Reflex". The overall assessment suggests that the 2014 results are attributable
      to the letters that general practitioners received in December 2013, with a
      temporary increase of the use of the test. We need further analyses with the same
      indicators in order to assess the possibility of additional improvements in the
      future.

PMID- 28569341
TI  - Health inequalities and inadequate housing: the case of exceptions to hygienic
      requirements for dwellings in Italy.
AB  - In the past decades, Italian hygienic requirements for dwellings have been
      modified by multiple derogations. Aim of the present work is to analyse the
      derogations introduced at a national, regional, and local level. The most
      important derogations were related to the habitable use of semi-basements and
      garrets, and building restoration. The paper also describes the regulations
      regarding indemnity for infringement of building abuses. The authors underline
      the need for more uniformity and clarity in the determination of health standards
      of dwellings, as well as for a simplification of the existing legislation.

PMID- 28569342
TI  - May the gross domestic product growth be a valid indicator of decent work?

PMID- 28569343
TI  - Tertiary prevention in athletes' diseases: new challenges for the clinical
      medicine and the public health.

PMID- 28569345
TI  - Vascular targeted photodynamic therapy with TOOKAD(r) Soluble (WST11) in
      localized prostate cancer: efficiency of automatic pre-treatment planning.
AB  - Vascular targeted photodynamic therapy (VTP) with WST11 is a novel non-thermal
      focal treatment for localized prostate cancer that has shown favorable and early
      efficacy results in previously published studies. In this work, we investigate
      the efficiency of automatic dosimetric treatment planning. An action model
      established in a previous study was used in an image-guided optimization scheme
      to define the personalized optimal light dose for each patient. The calculated
      light dose is expressed as the number of optical cylindrical fibers to be used,
      their positions according to an external insertion grid, and the lengths of their
      diffuser parts. Evaluation of the method was carried out on data collected from
      17 patients enrolled in two multi-centric clinical trials. The protocol consisted
      of comparing the method-simulated necrosis to the result observed on day 7 MR
      enhanced images. The method performances showed that the final result can be
      estimated with an accuracy of 10%, corresponding to a margin of 3 mm. In
      addition, this process was compatible with clinical conditions in terms of
      calculation times. The overall process took less than 10 min. Different aspects
      of the VTP procedure were already defined and optimized. Personalized treatment
      planning definition remained as an issue needing further investigation. The
      method proposed herein completes the standardization of VTP and opens new
      pathways for the clinical development of the technique.

PMID- 28569344
TI  - Radiofrequency treatment induces fibroblast growth factor 2 expression and
      subsequently promotes neocollagenesis and neoangiogenesis in the skin tissue.
AB  - Radiofrequency (RF) treatment appears to be involved in production of new
      collagen fibrils and the improvement of existing collagen structures; however,
      the molecular bases of the effect of non-invasive RF on the skin tissue have not
      been fully elucidated. This study reports the effects of RF associated or not
      with hydrolyzed collagen (HC) in the skin tissue. Wistar rats were randomly
      divided into four groups, according to the treatment received: control group (G1,
      n = 5), no treatment; subjects in group G2 (n = 5) were treated with HC; and
      capacitive RF was applied to the back of each subject in G3 (n = 5) and RF
      associated with HC in G4 (n = 5). Biopsies were taken 30 days after treatment and
      then were histologically processed and studied for inflammatory cell counting,
      collagen content, and morphometry. In addition, FGF2, CD105, and COX-2 expression
      was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. The most relevant changes were the
      increase in cellularity and accumulation of intercellular substance in RF-treated
      animals (G3 and G4). The greatest dermis thickness rate was observed in G4,
      followed by G3 and G2 (p < 0.05). RF-treated skins (G3 and G4) exhibited a
      significant overexpression of FGF2 (p < 0.0001) and increased microvessel density
      (p < 0.0001) in comparison with G1 and G2. Moreover, the amount of COX-2 was
      significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in dermis of RF-treated areas compared to G1
      and G2, and demonstrated differences in G3 (RF) compared to G4 (RF + HC) (p <
      0.0001). Our results suggests that RF treatment associated or not with HC induces
      FGF2 overexpression, promotes neoangiogenesis and modulates the COX-2 expression,
      subsequently promotes neocollagenesis, and increased thickness rate of dermis.

PMID- 28569346
TI  - Relations and dependencies between morphological characters.
AB  - In biological classification, a character is a property of a taxon that can
      distinguish it from other taxa. Characters are not independent, and the relations
      between characters can arise from structural constraints, developmental pathways
      or functional constraints. That has lead to famous controversies in the history
      of biology. In addition, a character as a tool of data analysis has some
      subjective aspects. In this contribution, I develop algebraic and geometric
      schemes to address these issues in a mathematical framework.

PMID- 28569347
TI  - Clinical parameters associated with anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors
      induced tumor response in melanoma patients.
AB  - Background The identification of the melanoma patients sensitive to anti-PD-1
      inhibitors, nivolumab or pembrolizumab, is a major therapeutic challenge and an
      urgent need. We hypothesized that the natural history of the disease might partly
      reflect the immune state of the patients. Methods We analyzed our cohort of
      melanoma patients treated with anti-PD-1 from August 2014 to January 2016 in our
      institution. Objective response was defined as a complete or partial response
      according to v1.1 RECIST criteria. Results Among 63 metastatic melanoma patients,
      the overall response rate was 43%. Median time from diagnosis to anti-PD-1
      initiation was longer among responders than non-responders (64 months vs. 35
      months, p = 0.02). The response rate was 10% in patients starting anti-PD-1
      within 1 year, 35% after 1 to 5 years and 63% after 5 years. Performance status
      (PS) 0 was also associated with enhanced tumor response: 70% of responders were
      PS 0 vs. 36% of non-responders (p = 0.04). PS 0, normal LDH levels and wild-type
      BRAF status were significant predictors of progression free survival. Conclusion
      A long time lapse from diagnosis to anti-PD-1 initiation and PS 0 are associated
      with higher sensitivity to anti-PD-1 in melanoma patients. These two clinical
      features might reflect a potentially intact immune system of the host.

PMID- 28569349
TI  - Real-time PCR quantification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: does the use of
      nuclear or mitochondrial markers make a difference?
AB  - Root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can be quantified by
      different approaches. We compared two approaches that enable discrimination of
      specific AMF taxa and are therefore emerging as alternative to most commonly
      performed microscopic quantification of AMF in roots: quantitative real-time PCR
      (qPCR) using markers in nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) and mitochondrial ribosomal
      DNA (mtDNA). In a greenhouse experiment, Medicago truncatula was inoculated with
      four isolates belonging to different AMF species (Rhizophagus irregularis,
      Claroideoglomus claroideum, Gigaspora margarita and Funneliformis mosseae). The
      AMF were quantified in the root samples by qPCR targeted to both markers,
      microscopy and contents of AMF-specific phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA). Copy
      numbers of nrDNA and mtDNA were closely related within all isolates; however, the
      slopes and intercepts of the linear relationships significantly differed among
      the isolates. Across all isolates, a large proportion of variance in nrDNA copy
      numbers was explained by root colonization intensity or contents of AMF-specific
      PLFA, while variance in mtDNA copy numbers was mainly explained by differences
      among AMF isolates. We propose that the encountered inter-isolate differences in
      the ratios of mtDNA and nrDNA copy numbers reflect different physiological states
      of the isolates. Our results suggest that nrDNA is a more suitable marker region
      than mtDNA for the quantification of multiple AMF taxa as its copy numbers are
      better related to fungal biomass across taxa than are copy numbers of mtDNA.

PMID- 28569348
TI  - Black Tar Heroin Skin Popping as a Cause of Wound Botulism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Botulism is a rare potentially fatal and treatable disorder caused by
      a bacteria-produced toxin that affects the presynaptic synaptic membrane
      resulting in a characteristic neuromuscular dysfunction. It is caused by either
      the ingestion of the toxin or the bacteria, inhalation, or wound infection. We
      present our observations with a descriptive case series of wound botulism
      secondary to black tar heroin (BTH) injection. METHODS: We report a retrospective
      single-center case series of 15 consecutive cases of wound botulism presenting to
      University Medical Center of El Paso. Medical records where reviewed to obtain
      demographic information, clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome. RESULTS:
      We identified fifteen patients with mean age of 47 years: twelve men, and three
      women. All had administered BTH through skin popping and had abscesses in the
      administration areas. By history, the most common symptoms were dysphagia (66%),
      proximal muscle weakness of upper and lower extremity (60%), neck flexor muscle
      weakness (33%), ophthalmoplegia (53%), bilateral ptosis (46%), dysarthria (53%),
      double vision (40%), blurred vision (33%), and dry mouth (20%). During the
      examination, the most common features noted were: proximal muscle weakness of
      upper and lower extremities (73%), ophthalmoplegia (53%), ptosis (46%). In
      patients with documented wound botulism, the pupils were reactive in 46%. All
      patients required mechanical ventilation and were treated with the trivalent
      antitoxin. Eleven patients (73.3%) were discharged home, two were transferred to
      a skill nursing facility, and two were transferred to long-term acute care
      facility. CONCLUSION: In our patients, BTH injection, involving the action of
      injecting under the skin acetylated morphine derivatives (mostly 6
      monoacetylmorphine and 3-monoacetylmorphine), was associated with the development
      of botulism. The availability of BTH at the US-Mexican border is not surprising
      since it is frequently produced in Latin America. Its association with the
      development of botulism should be recognized early to allow a prompt diagnosis
      and treatment with the antitoxin. A clinical feature worth noting is the presence
      of normal pupillary light reflex in nearly half of patients. Therefore, the
      presence of a normal pupillary response does not exclude the presence of wound
      botulism.

PMID- 28569350
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of posaconazole tablets versus fluconazole as prophylaxis for
      invasive fungal diseases in patients with graft-versus-host disease after
      allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cost-effectiveness of posaconazole oral suspension versus
      fluconazole capsules for the prophylaxis of invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) in
      immunosuppressed allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)
      recipients has already been proven. Now, a new solid oral tablet formulation for
      posaconazole has been developed with improved bioavailability, allowing a reduced
      daily dosage that can be taken independently of food intake. However, the
      efficacy of this new formulation should be evaluated since it is associated with
      a higher cost than the posaconazole oral suspension. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the
      cost-effectiveness of solid oral tablets of posaconazole versus fluconazole
      capsules for the prophylaxis of IFDs in allogeneic HSCT recipients with graft
      versus-host disease (GVHD) in Spain. METHODOLOGY: A mathematical model comparing
      the efficacy and costs of posaconazole versus fluconazole was adapted to the
      Spanish National Healthcare System. Clinical data were obtained from the pivotal
      clinical trial of posaconazole oral suspension for allogeneic HSCT recipients,
      while pharmacological costs and use of resources were obtained from national
      sources. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA), as well as
      two alternative scenarios, were run to evaluate the robustness of the results
      under varying input values. RESULTS: Posaconazole tablets reduced the number of
      IFD events and enhanced overall survival, while maintaining a controlled budget.
      When compared to fluconazole, it was found to be a cost-effective alternative,
      with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of ?13,193/life years gained. The
      PSA showed that posaconazole remained cost-effective in 74.6% of the cases, while
      alternatives scenarios yielded similar results as the base case. CONCLUSIONS:
      Posaconazole tablets are a cost-effective alternative to fluconazole and may show
      better results than the oral suspension formulation.

PMID- 28569351
TI  - Valuing EQ-5D-5L health states 'in context' using a discrete choice experiment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In health state valuation studies, health states are typically
      presented as a series of sentences, each describing a health dimension and
      severity 'level'. Differences in the severity levels can be subtle, and confusion
      about which is 'worse' can lead to logically inconsistent valuation data. A
      solution could be to mimic the way patients self-report health, where the ordinal
      structure of levels is clear. We develop and test the feasibility of presenting
      EQ-5D-5L health states in the 'context' of the entire EQ-5D-5L descriptive
      system. METHODS: An online two-arm discrete choice experiment was conducted in
      the UK (n = 993). Respondents were randomly allocated to a control (standard
      presentation) or 'context' arm. Each respondent completed 16 paired comparison
      tasks and feedback questions about the tasks. Differences across arms were
      assessed using regression analyses. RESULTS: Presenting health states 'in
      context' can significantly reduce the selection of logically dominated health
      states, particularly for labels 'severe' and 'extreme' (chi2 = 46.02, p < 0.001).
      Preferences differ significantly between arms (likelihood ratio statistic =
      42.00, p < 0.05). Comparing conditional logit modeling results, coefficients are
      ordered as expected for both arms, but the magnitude of decrements between levels
      is larger for the context arm. CONCLUSIONS: Health state presentation is a key
      consideration in the design of valuation studies. Presenting health states 'in
      context' affects valuation data and reduces logical inconsistencies. Our results
      could have implications for other valuation tasks such as time trade-off, and for
      the valuation of other preference-based measures.

PMID- 28569355
TI  - Comparative physiology of vocal musculature in two odontocetes, the bottlenose
      dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena).
AB  - The mechanism by which odontocetes produce sound is unique among mammals. To gain
      insight into the physiological properties that support sound production in
      toothed whales, we examined myoglobin content ([Mb]), non-bicarbonate buffering
      capacity (beta), fiber-type profiles, and myosin heavy chain expression of vocal
      musculature in two odontocetes: the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus; n =
      4) and the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena; n = 5). Both species use the same
      anatomical structures to produce sound, but differ markedly in their vocal
      repertoires. Tursiops produce both broadband clicks and tonal whistles, while
      Phocoena only produce higher frequency clicks. Specific muscles examined in this
      study included: (1) the nasal musculature around the phonic lips on the right
      (RNM) and left (LNM) sides of the head, (2) the palatopharyngeal sphincter (PPS),
      which surrounds the larynx and aids in pressurizing cranial air spaces, and (3)
      the genioglossus complex (GGC), a group of muscles positioned ventrally within
      the head. Overall, vocal muscles had significantly lower [Mb] and beta than
      locomotor muscles from the same species. The PPS was predominately composed of
      small diameter slow-twitch fibers. Fiber-type and myosin heavy chain analyses
      revealed that the GGC was comprised largely of fast-twitch fibers (Tursiops:
      88.6%, Phocoena: 79.7%) and had the highest beta of all vocal muscles. Notably,
      there was a significant difference in [Mb] between the RNM and LNM in Tursiops,
      but not Phocoena. Our results reveal shared physiological characteristics of
      individual vocal muscles across species that enhance our understanding of key
      functional roles, as well as species-specific differences which appear to reflect
      differences in vocal capacities.

PMID- 28569356
TI  - Effects of Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy on Parathyroid Hormone, Vitamin D,
      Calcium, Phosphorus, and Albumin Levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) reduces obesity-related co
      morbidities, such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Endocrinological
      abnormalities may occur as undesired side effects. Most centers routinely
      prescribe folic acid, cyanocobalamin (vitB12), and protein replacement in the
      postoperative period, but 25-OH-vitamin-D3 (vitD) and intact parathyroid hormone
      (iPTH) levels are not routinely followed up. The aim of this study was to
      identify the effects of LSG on iPTH, vitD, calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP), and albumin levels. METHODS: Data of morbidly obese patients
      who underwent LSG between January and December 2014 were studied in this
      prospectively designed study. Serum levels of iPTH, vitD, Ca, P, folic acid,
      vitB12, ALP, and albumin were measured preoperatively and postoperatively at the
      3rd, 6th, and 12th months. RESULTS: In total, 119 patients were analyzed. All
      patients had normal iPTH, vitD, Ca, P, folic acid, vitB12, ALP, and albumin
      values preoperatively, and 31.6% had received vitD supplementation during their
      nutritionist observation time before surgery. At the 3rd, 6th, and 12th
      postoperative months, 21 (17.6%), 17 (17.3%), and 1 (0.8%) patients,
      respectively, had increased iPTH and ALP and decreased vitD levels. A total of 39
      (32.7%) patients needed high-dose vitD treatment during a 1 year follow-up.
      Approximately 37.5% of the patients who received vitD supplementation
      preoperatively needed vitD supplementation postoperatively. Hospital records of
      101 of 119 patients who underwent LSG could be screened to determine their vitD
      supplementation requirements previously ordered by their nutritionist for a 1
      year period before LSG. Thirty-two (31.6%) of the 101 patients had received vitD
      supplementation during the 1-year period preoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      serum levels of iPTH, vitD, Ca, P, vitB12, ALP, and albumin may be normal
      preoperatively, severe vitD insufficiency requiring high-dose vitD replacement
      may develop in morbidly obese patients postoperatively. Instead of iPTH and vitD,
      which are expensive to measure, ALP serum level, which is correlated with iPTH
      levels, can be a good indicator to monitor calcium metabolism.

PMID- 28569357
TI  - Complications Following the Mini/One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (MGB/OAGB): a
      Multi-institutional Survey on 2678 Patients with a Mid-term (5 Years) Follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, several articles have reported considerable results
      with the Mini/One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (MGB/OAGB) in terms of both weight
      loss and resolution of comorbidities. Despite those positive reports, some
      controversies still limit the widespread acceptance of this procedure. Therefore,
      a multicenter retrospective study, with the aim to investigate complications
      following this procedure, has been designed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: To report the
      complications rate following the MGB/OAGB and their management, and to assess the
      role of this approach in determining eventual complications related especially to
      the loop reconstruction, in the early and late postoperative periods, the
      clinical records of 2678 patients who underwent MGB/OAGB between 2006 and 2015
      have been studied. RESULTS: Intraoperative and early complications rates were 0.5
      and 3.1%, respectively. Follow-up at 5 years was 62.6%. Late complications rate
      was 10.1%. A statistical correlation was found for perioperative bleeding both
      with operative time (p < 0.001) or a learning curve of less than 50 cases (p <
      0.001). A statistical correlation was found for postoperative duodenal-gastro
      esophageal reflux (DGER) with a preexisting gastro-esophageal-reflux disease
      (GERD) or with a gastric pouch shorter than 9 cm, (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001),
      respectively. An excessive weight loss correlated with a biliopancreatic limb
      longer than 250 cm (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm MGB/OAGB to be a
      reliable bariatric procedure. According to other large and long-term published
      series, MGB/OAGB seems to compare very favorably, in terms of complication rate,
      with two mainstream procedures as standard Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) and
      laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG).

PMID- 28569358
TI  - Revision Procedures After Failed Adjustable Gastric Banding: Comparison of
      Efficacy and Safety.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) was one of the
      commonly performed bariatric operations; however, it carries a high revision
      rate. The aim of the present study was to report the long-term outcomes of LAGB
      and compare the outcomes between the different revision procedures. METHODS: All
      patients who underwent LAGB in a large bariatric center in Asia between May 2002
      and April 2011 were included. Interval between primary LAGB to the revision
      operation, the reason and type of revision surgery were identified and analyzed.
      RESULTS: A total of 275 consecutive patients were included. All of the procedures
      were completed laparoscopically with no major complications. The percentage of
      excess weight loss (%EWL) at 10-year follow-up was 45%. In this study, 53
      patients (19.3%) had revision surgery, including with 26 single anastomosis (mini
      ) gastric bypass (R-LSAGB) (49%), 17 sleeve gastrectomy (R-LSG) (32.1%), 9 Roux
      en-Y gastric bypass (R-LRYGB) (17%), and 1 other procedure (1.9%). A major
      complication occurred in 6 patients (11.3%). All of the follow-up patients with
      revision surgeries had %EWL > 50% at the 2-year follow-up. R-LSAGB patients
      achieved better weight loss than those who underwent R-LSG and R-LRYGB (p =
      0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The long-term result for weight loss after LAGB is
      unsatisfactory. The revision of failed LAGB to other bariatric surgeries is safe
      and can be performed in one stage with a low complication rate. Patients who
      underwent R-LSAGB had better weight loss results than the R-LSG or R-LRYGB
      patients.

PMID- 28569360
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor: Successful Management of Laparoscopic Sleeve
      Gastrectomy Leak with Negative Pressure Therapy.

PMID- 28569359
TI  - Early Effects of Sleeve Gastrectomy on Obesity-Related Cytokines and Bile Acid
      Metabolism in Morbidly Obese Japanese Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has wide-ranging positive
      effects on adipocytokine metabolism, bile acid profile, and chronic low-grade
      inflammation related to obesity. However, the early temporal changes in these
      markers following LSG have not been well investigated. This study aimed to
      evaluate the early effects of LSG on adipocytokines, bile acid profile, and
      inflammatory markers. METHODS: This was a nonrandomized prospective study
      examining morbidly obese Japanese patients undergoing LSG. Serial measurements of
      leptin, adiponectin, bile acids, fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-19, and
      inflammatory markers were performed preoperatively and 1 and 6 months after LSG.
      RESULTS: The study included ten patients (five females) with a mean age of 48.8
      years and BMI 40.9 kg/m2. At baseline, 90% of the patients had T2DM, 70% had
      dyslipidemia, and 90% had hypertension. Patients lost 5.1 kg/m2 BMI at 1 month
      and 10.1 kg/m2 BMI at 6 months. The leptin levels sharply decreased, and FGF-19
      increased significantly as early as 1 month postoperatively. Adiponectin levels
      showed an increasing trend at 1 month and a significant increase at 6 months. A
      significant decrease in high-sensitivity CRP and plasminogen activator inhibitor
      1 was observed at 6 months. No significant changes were observed in interleukin
      (IL)-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, serum amyloid A protein, or monocyte
      chemotactic protein-1 throughout the study. CONCLUSIONS: LSG improved the
      secretion of adipocytokines, increased FGF-19 secretion soon after surgery, and
      slowly ameliorated inflammation related to obesity through significant weight
      loss.

PMID- 28569362
TI  - Can ARFI elastography be used to differentiate parathyroid from thyroid lesions?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess if elasticity score (ES) and shear wave velocity (SWV)
      measurement obtained using ARFI elastography can differentiate between
      parathyroid lesions and thyroid nodules. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ARFI elastography
      was performed on patients with primary hyperparathyroidism or solid thyroid
      nodules who were being considered for surgery using virtual touch quantification
      and virtual touch imaging (VTI) software. Only patients with surgical
      histopathology (47 parathyroid lesions, 38 benign thyroid nodules and 55
      malignant thyroid nodules) were included for final analysis. SWV and ES of the
      parathyroid and thyroid nodules were compared and their ability to differentiate
      between parathyroid and thyroid was analyzed using receiver operating
      characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: There were 39 solitary adenomas, 2 double
      adenomas and 4 parathyroid hyperplasias with mean size of 19.6 +/- 9.7 mm in 44
      patients (21 male, 23 females) with primary hyperparathyroidism. The mean SWV of
      the parathyroid lesion (1.6 +/- 0.78 m/s) was significantly different from benign
      (2.11 +/- 0.8 m/s) and malignant (4.3 +/- 2.71 m/s) thyroid nodules, p < 0.05; so
      was the ES, Chi square = 51.6, p < 0.001. The majority of parathyroid lesions (n
      = 37, 78.7%) had ES of 2 with speckled (n = 42, 89.3%) appearance, and none
      showed ES of 4. The diagnostic performance of speckled appearance on VTI,
      elasticity score and SWV measurements was 0.901, 0.724 and 0.797, respectively,
      to differentiate between parathyroid and thyroid lesions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Parathyroid lesions are softer than thyroid nodules. A shear wave velocity of
      1.72 m/s can differentiate between parathyroid lesions and thyroid nodules.

PMID- 28569361
TI  - Hypertrophic Scars: Are Vitamins and Inflammatory Biomarkers Related with the
      Pathophysiology of Wound Healing?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertrophic scars are a consequence of wound healing. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective of the present study is to evaluate vitamin D and inflammatory
      biomarker plasma levels during wound healing. METHODS: A prospective study was
      performed in patients (n = 63) submitted to body contouring surgery. Blood
      samples were collected before (t 0) and 5 days after surgery (t 5). Blood cell
      count, protein inflammatory biomarkers, and circulating plasma levels of 25(OH)D,
      vitamin A and vitamin E were quantified. Six months after surgery, scars were
      evaluated and classified as normal or hypertrophic. RESULTS: At the end of the
      study, 73% of the patients developed a normal scar (control group, n = 46) and
      27% of the patients presented hypertrophic scars (HT group, n = 17). The patients
      in the HT group presented higher eosinophil (0.145 * 109 /L vs. 0.104 * 109 /L, p
      = 0.028) and basophil count (0.031 * 109 /L vs. 0.22 * 109 /L, p = 0.049) and C
      reactive protein levels (6.12 mg/L vs. 2.30 mg/L, p = 0.015) in t 0 than the
      patients in the control group. At t 5, the patients in the HT group showed a
      decrease in neutrophil (3.144 * 109/L vs. 4.03 * 109/L, p = 0.031) and an
      increase in basophil (0.024 * 109/L vs. 0.015 * 109/L, p = 0.005) and lymphocyte
      count (1.836 * 109 /L vs. 1.557 * 109/L; p = 0.028). Before surgery, vitamin D
      plasma levels were found to be decreased by almost 50% (23.52 ng/mL vs. 15.46
      ng/mL, p = 0.031) in the patients who developed hypertrophic scars. Thirty-one
      percent of the patients submitted to bariatric surgery had more hypertrophic
      scars, versus 24% of the patients with no previous bariatric surgery. CONCLUSION:
      There is a different systemic inflammatory profile response in the patients
      during the formation of hypertrophic scars. Vitamin D plasma levels are marked
      reduced in these patients. Considering the powerful anti-inflammatory effect of
      vitamin D, these findings could be related.

PMID- 28569363
TI  - Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and atrial fibrillation: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pharmacological stimulation of GLP-1 receptors is associated with
      an increase in heart rate. A pooled analysis of patient-level data from phase III
      trials with albiglutide revealed a significant increase in the risk of atrial
      fibrillation. Aim of the present meta-analysis is to summarize all available
      evidence on the effects of individual GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA), and of the
      whole class, on the incidence of atrial fibrillation. METHODS: A Medline search
      for GLP-1 RA (exenatide, liraglutide, lixisenatide, albiglutide, dulaglutide, or
      semaglutide) was performed, collecting all randomized clinical trials with a
      duration >=12 weeks, enrolling patients with type 2 diabetes and comparing a GLP
      1 RA with placebo or any other non-GLP-1 RA drug. RESULTS: Of the 113 trials
      fulfilling the inclusion criteria, 19 did not report information on atrial
      fibrillation, whereas 63 reported zero events in all treatment groups. In the
      remaining trials (enrolling 17,966 and 15,305 patients in GLP-1 RA and comparator
      arms, respectively, 55.3% women, with a mean age of 57.0 +/- 3.8 years),
      treatment with GLP-1 RA was not associated with a significant increase in the
      incidence of atrial fibrillation [Mantel-Haenszel OR (95% CI) 0.87 (0.71-1.05), p
      = 0.15]. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, available data suggest that GLP-1 RA is not
      associated with atrial fibrillation, with the only possible exception of
      albiglutide. Newly onset atrial fibrillation deserves to be investigated as an
      event of special interest in future trials with GLP-1 RA.

PMID- 28569364
TI  - Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies and risk of finding iodine avid metastases on post
      radioactive iodine ablation scan in low-risk thyroid cancer patients.

PMID- 28569365
TI  - Risk-adjusted procedure tailoring leads to uniformly low complication rates in
      ventral and incisional hernia repair: a propensity score analysis and internal
      validation of classification criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The usual approach in hernia surgery is to select the ideal repair
      method independent of the patient's characteristics. In the present study, we
      change the approach to ask which technique is best for the individual patient's
      risk profile. For this, two criteria are important: does the patient need
      reconstruction of the abdominal wall? or does he or she need treatment of
      symptoms without being exposed to unnecessarily high perioperative risks?
      METHODS: In a heuristic selection procedure, 486 consecutive patients were
      classified according to their characteristics as low-risk or high-risk for
      postoperative complications. Low-risk patients preferentially underwent open
      abdominal wall reconstruction with mesh (MFR + mesh), high-risk patients mainly a
      bridging-mesh procedure, either by laparoscopic (Lap.-IPOM) or open approach
      (Open-IPOM). Primary outcome was the incidence of postoperative complications.
      Secondary outcome was the recurrence-free interval. The propensity score was used
      for covariate adjustment analyzing recurrence rate as well as postoperative
      complications using Cox regression and logistic regression, respectively.
      RESULTS: Comparison of all surgical procedures showed risk factors had no
      independent influence on occurrence of complications (p = 0.110). Hernial gap
      width was an independent factor for occurrence of complications (p = 0.002).
      Propensity score adjustment revealed Lap.-IPOM to have a significantly higher
      recurrence rate than MFR + mesh (HR 2.367, 95% CI 1.123-4.957, p = 0.024). Three
      or more risk factors were protective against recurrence (HR 0.454, 95% CI 0.221
      0.924, p = 0.030). In the univariate Cox regression analysis for recurrence, age
      >50 years was a protective prognostic factor (HR 0.412, 95% CI 0.245-0.702, p =
      0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The classification criteria applied were internally
      validated. The heuristic algorithm ensured that patients at high-risk of
      complications did not have a higher perioperative complication rate than patients
      at low-risk.

PMID- 28569366
TI  - The water avoidance stress induces bladder pain due to a prolonged alpha1A
      adrenoceptor stimulation.
AB  - Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis (BPS/IC) remains an elusive disease
      with the cause for the pain unclear. BPS/IC patients present increased
      sympathetic activity and high levels of urinary noradrenaline. At the
      experimental level, it has been shown that chronic adrenergic stimulation
      produces pain and bladder changes through an alpha 1A adrenoceptor mediated
      mechanism. Water avoidance stress (WAS) in rodents reproduces signs of
      nociception and bladder changes seen in BPS/IC patients. In this study, we
      explore the possible role of alpha 1A adrenoceptor in bladder pain and
      morphological changes. WAS was induced in a group of female Wistar rats. A
      separate WAS group received 0.2 mg/kg day silodosin (WAS + S). Lower abdominal
      pain was determined by performing sensitivity to Von Frey filaments. Bladder
      reflex activity was determined by cystometry in anaesthetised animals. Urine was
      collected for noradrenaline quantification by HPLC. Bladders were harvested and
      stained with Haematoxylin-eosin (to analyse urothelial morphology and to
      determine the disruption of surface umbrella cells) or with Toluidine Blue 0.1%
      to analyse mast cell infiltration. WAS increased urinary noradrenaline level and
      bladder frequency and decreased mechanical pain threshold, which was reversed by
      silodosin. WAS induced lymphocytic and mast cells infiltration in the mucosa and
      mild urothelial disruption, which was absent in WAS + S group. Alpha 1A
      adrenoceptor stimulation has an important role in the appearance of bladder pain
      in rats. Since BPS/IC patients present high levels of noradrenaline, alpha 1A
      stimulation may be an additional trigger for bladder dysfunction presented by
      these patients. Further studies will determine the clinical relevance of this
      finding in the treatment of BPS/IC patients.

PMID- 28569367
TI  - Resonance modulation, annihilation and generation of anti-resonance and anti
      phasonance in 3D neuronal systems: interplay of resonant and amplifying currents
      with slow dynamics.
AB  - Subthreshold (membrane potential) resonance and phasonance (preferred amplitude
      and zero-phase responses to oscillatory inputs) in single neurons arise from the
      interaction between positive and negative feedback effects provided by relatively
      fast amplifying currents and slower resonant currents. In 2D neuronal systems,
      amplifying currents are required to be slave to voltage (instantaneously fast)
      for these phenomena to occur. In higher dimensional systems, additional currents
      operating at various effective time scales may modulate and annihilate existing
      resonances and generate antiresonance (minimum amplitude response) and
      antiphasonance (zero-phase response with phase monotonic properties opposite to
      phasonance). We use mathematical modeling, numerical simulations and dynamical
      systems tools to investigate the mechanisms underlying these phenomena in 3D
      linear models, which are obtained as the linearization of biophysical
      (conductance-based) models. We characterize the parameter regimes for which the
      system exhibits the various types of behavior mentioned above in the rather
      general case in which the underlying 2D system exhibits resonance. We consider
      two cases: (i) the interplay of two resonant gating variables, and (ii) the
      interplay of one resonant and one amplifying gating variables. Increasing levels
      of an amplifying current cause (i) a response amplification if the amplifying
      current is faster than the resonant current, (ii) resonance and phasonance
      attenuation and annihilation if the amplifying and resonant currents have
      identical dynamics, and (iii) antiresonance and antiphasonance if the amplifying
      current is slower than the resonant current. We investigate the underlying
      mechanisms by extending the envelope-plane diagram approach developed in previous
      work (for 2D systems) to three dimensions to include the additional gating
      variable, and constructing the corresponding envelope curves in these envelope
      space diagrams. We find that antiresonance and antiphasonance emerge as the
      result of an asymptotic boundary layer problem in the frequency domain created by
      the different balances between the intrinsic time constants of the cell and the
      input frequency f as it changes. For large enough values of f the envelope curves
      are quasi-2D and the impedance profile decreases with the input frequency. In
      contrast, for f ? 1 the dynamics are quasi-1D and the impedance profile increases
      above the limiting value in the other regime. Antiresonance is created because
      the continuity of the solution requires the impedance profile to connect the
      portions belonging to the two regimes. If in doing so the phase profile crosses
      the zero value, then antiphasonance is also generated.

PMID- 28569368
TI  - Comparison of body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-height ratio in
      predicting functional outcome following ischemic stroke.
AB  - Although a positive association between body mass index (BMI) and stroke
      incidence has been reported, having a higher BMI is known to be advantageous in
      surviving and recovering from stroke. The association between adiposity and
      stroke incidence is more evident for measures of abdominal obesity than for
      general obesity. The aim of our study was to compare BMI, waist circumference,
      and waist-height ratio (WHR) as predictors of 3-month functional outcome in
      stroke patients. The BMI, waist circumference, and WHR of acute stroke patients
      were divided into sex-specific quartiles. A total of 605 female and 727 male
      patients were included. For BMI, male patients in the second quartile were more
      likely to have a favorable functional outcome compared with those in the lowest
      quartile (adjusted OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.02-2.62). For waist circumference (adjusted
      OR for top quartile vs. lowest quartile 1.79, 95% CI 1.14-2.82) and WHR (adjusted
      OR for second quartile vs. lowest quartile 1.99, 95% CI 1.22-3.25), male patients
      in the two top quartiles were more likely to have a favorable functional outcome
      compared with those in the respective lowest quartile. BMI and WHR showed similar
      relationships to a favorable functional outcome, with a favorable functional
      outcome occurring most often among male patients in the second quartiles. In
      women, however, obesity was not related to functional outcome. In conclusion,
      general obesity measured by BMI and abdominal obesity measured by WHR showed
      similar effects on the functional outcome after stroke in men.

PMID- 28569369
TI  - CORR Insights(r): What Injury Mechanism and Patterns of Ligament Status Are
      Associated With Isolated Coronoid, Isolated Radial Head, and Combined Fractures?

PMID- 28569370
TI  - Letter to Editor: Editorial: Appropriate Use? Guidelines on Arthroscopic Surgery
      for Degenerative Meniscus Tears Need Updating.

PMID- 28569371
TI  - Editorial: Giving at the Office.

PMID- 28569373
TI  - CORR Insights(r): What Demographic and Clinical Characteristics Correlate With
      Expectations With Trapeziometacarpal Arthritis?

PMID- 28569372
TI  - Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis After TKA: Aspirin, Warfarin, Enoxaparin, or
      Factor Xa Inhibitors?
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is considerable debate regarding the ideal agent for venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after TKA. Numerous studies and meta-analyses
      have yet to provide a clear answer and often omit one or more of the commonly
      used agents such as aspirin, warfarin, enoxaparin, and factor Xa inhibitors.
      QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: Using a large database analysis, we asked: (1) What are the
      differences in VTE incidence in primary TKA after administration of aspirin,
      warfarin, enoxaparin, or factor Xa inhibitors? (2) What are the differences in
      bleeding risk among these four agents? (3) How has use of these agents changed
      with time? METHODS: We queried a combined Humana and Medicare database between
      2007 and Quarter 1 of 2016, and identified all primary TKAs performed using ICD-9
      and Current Procedural Terminology codes. All patients who had any form of
      antiplatelet or anticoagulation prescribed within 1 year before TKA were excluded
      from our study cohort. We then identified patients who had either aspirin,
      warfarin, enoxaparin, or factor Xa inhibitors prescribed within 2 weeks of
      primary TKA. Each cohort was matched by age and sex. Elixhauser comorbidities and
      Charlson Comorbidity Index for each group were calculated. We identified 1016
      patients with aspirin, and age- and sex-matched 6096 patients with enoxaparin,
      6096 patients with warfarin, and 5080 patients with factor Xa inhibitors. Using
      ICD-9 codes, with the understanding that patients at greater risk may have had
      more-attentive surveillance, the incidence of postoperative deep venous
      thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), bleeding-related complications
      (bleeding requiring surgical intervention, hemorrhage, hematoma, hemarthrosis),
      postoperative anemia, and transfusion were identified at 2 weeks, 30 days, 6
      weeks, and 90 days postoperatively. A four-way chi-squared test was used to
      determine statistical significance. Utilization was calculated using compound
      annual growth rate. RESULTS: There was a difference in the incidence of DVT at 90
      days (p < 0.01). Factor Xa inhibitors (2.9%) had the lowest incidence of DVT
      followed by aspirin (3.0%) and enoxaparin (3.5%), and warfarin (4.8%). There was
      a difference in the incidence of PE at 90 days (p < 0.01). Factor Xa inhibitors
      (0.9%) had the lowest incidence of PE followed by enoxaparin (1.1%), aspirin
      (1.2%), and warfarin (1.6%). There was a difference in the incidence of
      postoperative anemia at 90 days (p < 0.01). Aspirin (19%) had the lowest
      incidence of postoperative anemia followed by warfarin (22%), enoxaparin (23%),
      and factor Xa inhibitors (23%). There was a difference in the incidence of a
      blood transfusion at 90 days (p < 0.01). Aspirin (7%) had the lowest incidence of
      a blood transfusion followed by factor Xa inhibitors (9%), warfarin (12%), and
      enoxaparin (13%). There were no differences in bleeding-related complications (p
      = 0.81) between the groups. Aspirin use increased at a compound annual growth
      rate of 30%, enoxaparin at 3%, and factor Xa inhibitors at 43%, while warfarin
      use decreased at a compound annual growth rate of -3%. CONCLUSIONS: Factor Xa
      inhibitors had the highest growth in utilization during our study period,
      followed by aspirin, when compared with enoxaparin and warfarin. When selected
      for the right patient, factor Xa inhibitors provided improved VTE prophylaxis
      compared with enoxaparin and warfarin, with a lower rate of blood transfusion.
      Aspirin provided comparable VTE prophylaxis compared with factor Xa inhibitors
      with improved VTE prophylaxis compared with enoxaparin and warfarin with the
      lowest risk of bleeding. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, therapeutic study.

PMID- 28569374
TI  - Quantitative pulsed CEST-MRI at a clinical 3T MRI system.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to quantify CEST related parameters such
      as chemical exchange rate and fractional concentration of exchanging protons at a
      clinical 3T scanner. For this purpose, two CEST quantification approaches-the
      AREX metric (for 'apparent exchange dependent relaxation'), and the AREX-based
      Omega-plot method were used. In addition, two different pulsed RF irradiation
      schemes, using Gaussian-shaped and spin-lock pulses, were compared. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Numerical simulations as well as MRI measurements in phantoms were
      performed. For simulations, the Bloch-McConnell equations were solved using a two
      pool exchange model. MR experiments were performed on a clinical 3T MRI scanner
      using a cylindrical phantom filled with creatine solution at different pH values
      and different concentrations. RESULTS: The validity of the Omega-plot method and
      the AREX approach using spin-lock preparation for determination of the
      quantitative CEST parameters was demonstrated. Especially promising results were
      achieved for the Omega-plot method when the spin-lock preparation was employed.
      CONCLUSION: Pulsed CEST at 3T could be used to quantify parameters such as
      exchange rate constants and concentrations of protons exchanging with free water.
      In the future this technique might be used to estimate the exchange rates and
      concentrations of biochemical substances in human tissues in vivo.

PMID- 28569375
TI  - Motion-compensated data decomposition algorithm to accelerate dynamic cardiac
      MRI.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In dynamic cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the
      spatiotemporal resolution is often limited by low imaging speed. Compressed
      sensing (CS) theory can be applied to improve imaging speed and spatiotemporal
      resolution. The combination of compressed sensing and low-rank matrix completion
      represents an attractive means to further increase imaging speed. By extending
      prior work, a Motion-Compensated Data Decomposition (MCDD) algorithm is proposed
      to improve the performance of CS for accelerated dynamic cardiac MRI. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: The process of MCDD can be described as follows: first, we decompose
      the dynamic images into a low-rank (L) and a sparse component (S). The L
      component includes periodic motion in the background, since it is highly
      correlated among frames, and the S component corresponds to respiratory motion. A
      motion-estimation/motion-compensation (ME-MC) algorithm is then applied to the
      low-rank component to reconstruct a cardiac motion compensated dynamic cardiac
      MRI. RESULTS: With validations on the numerical phantom and in vivo cardiac MRI
      data, we demonstrate the utility of the proposed scheme in significantly
      improving compressed sensing reconstructions by minimizing motion artifacts. The
      proposed method achieves higher PSNR and lower MSE and HFEN for medium to high
      acceleration factors. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is observed to yield
      reconstructions with minimal spatiotemporal blurring and motion artifacts in
      comparison to the existing state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28569376
TI  - Sex, body mass index, and blood pressure are related to aortic characteristics in
      healthy, young adults using magnetic resonance vessel wall imaging: the AMBITYON
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: More detailed evaluation of atherosclerosis and its key determinants
      in young individuals is warranted to improve knowledge on the pathophysiology of
      its development and progression. This study evaluated associations of magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI)-derived aortic wall area, wall thickness, and pulse wave
      velocity (PWV) with cardiovascular risk factors in asymptomatic, young adults.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 124 adults (age: 25-35 years) from the general
      population-based Atherosclerosis Monitoring and Biomarker Measurements in the
      Young study, demography, anthropometry, and blood samples were collected. The
      studied MRI-parameters were measured using a 3.0T MRI system. Relations between
      cardiovascular risk factors and aortic characteristics were assessed using
      multivariable linear regression analyses. RESULTS: Mean age was 31.8 years, 47.6%
      was male. Aortic wall area was positively associated with age [beta = 0.01, (95%
      confidence interval (CI) 2.00 * 10-3, 0.02), p = 0.01] and BMI [beta = 0.01,
      (0.01, 0.02), p = 0.003] and negatively associated with sex (reference: men)
      [beta = -0.06, (-0.11, -0.01), p = 0.02]. Natural logarithm transformed (ln)
      aortic wall thickness was positively associated with BMI [beta = 0.01, (1.00 * 10
      3, 0.02), p = 0.02]. Ln aortic PWV was positively associated with 10 mmHg
      increment of SBP [beta = 0.06, (0.03, 0.09), p < 0.001] and DBP [beta = 0.06,
      (0.02, 0.09), p = 0.006]. No relations were observed for smoking and lipids.
      CONCLUSIONS: Already in early adulthood, aortic wall geometry and stiffness vary
      by age, sex, BMI, and blood pressure.

PMID- 28569377
TI  - Testing for Noonan syndrome after increased nuchal translucency.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of Noonan syndrome
      (NS) in a cohort of fetuses that presented with increased nuchal translucency
      (NT) thickness in the first trimester of pregnancy. METHODS: This is a
      retrospective chart review. INCLUSION CRITERIA: (1) first trimester NT
      measurement >=3 mm, (2) normal karyotype by either a CVS or an amniocentesis
      procedure, and (3) prenatal molecular genetic testing for NS completed. Results
      with known pathogenic variants were considered positive, while those with
      variants of unknown clinical significance, or with no variants, were considered
      negative. RESULTS: A total of 804 fetuses had an NT measurement of >=3 mm, with a
      median NT thickness of 3.6 mm. Of these, 302 had karyotyping by CVS or
      amniocentesis, 200 (66.23%) with normal results. Of fetuses with a normal
      karyotype, 39 with a median NT thickness of 4.0 mm had a NS gene sequencing panel
      done, and 161 fetuses with a mean NT thickness of 4.3 mm were not tested for NS
      (p = 0.05). Of the 39 fetuses who were tested for NS, four (10.3%) had variants
      consistent with this diagnosis. CONCLUSION: In euploid fetuses, increased NT is
      associated with a 10% risk of NS. (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28569379
TI  - Use and Education of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Pediatric Emergency Medicine in
      Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Point-of-care ultrasound (US) is an emerging tool used by pediatric
      emergency physicians in the last decade. Currently in the Middle East, point-of
      care US use and education are at an early stage, with no designed curriculum or
      guidelines for its implementation in pediatric emergency medicine (EM). The
      objective of this article is to describe the clinical and educational uses of
      point-of-care US among certified pediatric EM physicians. METHODS: A 19-question
      survey was sent to all certified pediatric emergency physicians and fellows in
      pediatric emergency fellowships in Saudi Arabia in February 2016. Reminders were
      sent weekly for 4 weeks. RESULTS: The response rate was 84 of 88 (95%). Fifty-one
      of 84 (61%) reported using point-of-care US. Focused assessment with sonography
      for trauma was the most frequent use of point-of-care US (37%), followed by
      procedures (19%). The most common barrier for not using point-of-care US was
      limited training (86%). The most preferred tool for point-of-care US teaching was
      courses by EM physicians. Currently, there is no specific curriculum designed for
      pediatric EM in the Middle East. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the multiple applications
      of point-of-care US in pediatric EM, its use is still limited. Formal point-of
      care US training with bedside sessions and courses was the mort preferred method
      of education. A designed curriculum needs to be implemented in pediatric
      emergency fellowships in Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28569380
TI  - The Role of Speaker Knowledge in Children's Pragmatic Inferences.
AB  - During communication, conversational partners should offer as much information as
      is required and relevant. For instance, the statement "Some Xs Y" is infelicitous
      if one knows that all Xs Y. Do children understand the link between speaker
      knowledge and utterance strength? In Experiment 1, 5-year-olds (N = 32) but not 4
      year-olds (N = 32) reliably connected statements of different logical strength
      (e.g., "The girl colored all/some of the star") to observers who were fully or
      partially informed. Four-year-olds' performance improved when observer knowledge
      could be assessed more easily (Experiment 2a, N = 25) but remained the same in a
      nonlinguistic version of Experiment 1 that preserved the epistemic requirements
      of the original study (Experiment 2b, N = 26). These findings have implications
      for the development of early communicative abilities.

PMID- 28569378
TI  - Cyclosporine exacerbates ketamine toxicity in zebrafish: Mechanistic studies on
      drug-drug interaction.
AB  - Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an immunosuppressive drug commonly used in organ
      transplant patients to prevent allograft rejections. Ketamine is a pediatric
      anesthetic that noncompetitively inhibits the calcium-permeable N-methyl-d
      aspartic acid receptors. Adverse drug-drug interaction effects between ketamine
      and CsA have been reported in mammals and humans. However, the mechanism of such
      drug-drug interaction is unclear. We have previously reported adverse effects of
      combination drugs, such as verapamil/ketamine and shown the mechanism through
      intervention by other drugs in zebrafish embryos. Here, we show that ketamine and
      CsA in combination produce developmental toxicity even leading to lethality in
      zebrafish larvae when exposure began at 24 h post-fertilization (hpf), whereas
      CsA did not cause any toxicity on its own. We also demonstrate that acetyl l
      carnitine (ALCAR) completely reversed the adverse effects. Both ketamine and CsA
      are CYP3A4 substrates. Although ketamine and CsA independently altered the
      expression of the hepatic marker CYP3A65, a zebrafish ortholog of human CYP3A4,
      both drugs together induced further increase in CYP3A65 expression. In the
      presence of ALCAR, however, CYP3A65 expression was normalized. ALCAR has been
      shown to prevent ketamine toxicity in mammal and zebrafish. In conclusion, CsA
      exacerbated ketamine toxicity and ALCAR reversed the effects. These results,
      providing evidence for the first time on the reversal of the adverse effects of
      CsA/ketamine interaction by ALCAR, would prove useful in addressing potential
      occurrences of such toxicities in humans. Published 2017. This article is a U.S.
      Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

PMID- 28569381
TI  - LncRNA-TP53TG1 Participated in the Stress Response Under Glucose Deprivation in
      Glioma.
AB  - Gliomas are the most common brain tumors of the center nervous system. And long
      non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-protein coding transcripts, which have been
      considered as one type of gene expression regulator for cancer development. In
      this study, we investigated the role of lncRNA-TP53TG1 in response to glucose
      deprivation in human gliomas. The expression levels of TP53TG1 in glioma tissues
      and cells were analyzed by qRT-PCR. In addition, the influence of TP53TG1 on
      glucose metabolism related genes at the mRNA level during both high and low
      glucose treatment was detected by qRT-PCR. MTT, clonogenicity assays, and flow
      cytometry were performed to detect the cell proliferation and cell apoptosis.
      Furthermore, the migration of glioma cells was examined by Transwell assays. The
      expression of TP53TG1 was significantly higher in human glioma tissues or cell
      lines compared with normal brain tissue or NHA. Moreover, TP53TG1 and some tumor
      glucose metabolism related genes, such as GRP78, LDHA, and IDH1 were up-regulated
      significantly in U87 and LN18 cells under glucose deprivation. In addition,
      knockdown of TP53TG1 decreased cell proliferation and migration and down
      regulated GRP78 and IDH1 expression levels and up-regulated PKM2 levels in U87
      cells under glucose deprivation. However, over-expression of TP53TG1 showed the
      opposite tendency. Moreover, the effects of TP53TG1 were more remarkable in low
      glucose than that in high glucose. Our data showed that TP53TG1 under glucose
      deprivation may promote cell proliferation and migration by influencing the
      expression of glucose metabolism related genes in glioma. J. Cell. Biochem. 118:
      4897-4904, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569382
TI  - Reconstruction of a clinician training system in China-A successful "5 + 3" model
      from Shanghai.
AB  - To promote medical educational reforms and improve the quality of health care
      services in China, Shanghai has embarked on a pilot reform programme to combine 3
      year graduate education with standardized residency training, which is called the
      5 + 3 model and consists of 5 years of undergraduate studies plus 3 years of
      graduate studies integrated with standardized residency training. In the current
      review, we present the reconstruction and practice of the model in China.

PMID- 28569384
TI  - Parent and Peer Predictors of Change in Attachment Security From Adolescence to
      Adulthood.
AB  - Interview, self-report, peer report, and observational data were used to examine
      parent and peer relationship qualities as predictors of relative changes in
      attachment security in a community sample of adolescents followed from ages 14 to
      24. Early maternal supportive behavior predicted relative increases in attachment
      security from adolescence to adulthood, whereas psychological control and
      interparental hostile conflict predicted relative decreases. Peer predictors of
      relative increases in security included collaborative and autonomous behaviors
      and lack of hostile interactions, with peer predictions growing stronger for
      relationships assessed at later ages. Overall, models accounted for sufficient
      variance as to suggest that attachment security across this period is well
      explained by a combination of stability plus theoretically predicted change
      linked to social relationship qualities.

PMID- 28569385
TI  - Engaging Indigenous families in a community-based Indigenous early childhood
      programme in British Columbia, Canada: A cultural safety perspective.
AB  - This article is part of a larger study that explored how an Indigenous early
      intervention programme in British Columbia (BC), Canada, known as the 'Aboriginal
      Infant Development Program' (AIDP), influenced family and children's health and
      well-being and was responsive to child health inequities. Postcolonial feminist
      and Indigenous feminist perspectives provided a critical analytical lens to this
      qualitative inquiry. The study was undertaken with AIDPs based in diverse
      community organisations located in off-reserve urban municipalities throughout
      the province of BC. From September 2013 to March 2014, in-depth, semi-structured
      interviews were undertaken with: Indigenous primary caregivers (n = 10),
      Indigenous Elders (n = 4), AIDP workers (n = 18) and administrative leaders (n =
      3). The purpose of this article is to examine and analyse the findings that focus
      on how AIDP workers supported family and children's health and well-being by
      transforming their routine policies and practices in ways that fostered
      caregivers' active engagement in their programmes. Findings centre on three main
      themes: (i) overcoming mistrust; (ii) 'being willing to move a step forward' and
      (iii) resisting what's taken-for-granted. These inter-related themes are examined
      and discussed in relation to the concept of cultural safety. The findings have
      international relevancy for social and healthcare community-based programmes that
      are questioning how to engage with parents who may be hard to reach as a result
      of multi-faceted social and structural factors.

PMID- 28569383
TI  - Atrial fibrillation, cognition and dementia: A review.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common types of cardiac arrhythmia,
      particularly among older adults. AF confers a 5-fold risk for thromboembolic
      stroke as well as a 2-fold higher risk for congestive heart failure, morbidity,
      and mortality. Although stroke remains an important and impactful complication of
      AF, recent studies have shown that AF is independently associated with other
      neurological disorders, including cognitive impairment and dementia, even after
      adjusting for prior ischemic stroke. We performed a review of the published
      literature on the association between AF and cognitive status. Further, we
      reviewed studies investigating the underlying mechanisms for this association
      and/or reporting the impact of AF treatment on cognitive function. While most
      published studies demonstrate associations between AF and impaired cognition, no
      AF treatment has yet been associated with a reduced incidence of cognitive
      decline or dementia.

PMID- 28569386
TI  - Risk score to assess mortality risk in patients undergoing transvenous lead
      extraction.
AB  - AIMS: The main aim of this study was to assess 1-year mortality and its
      predictors in a cohort of patients who underwent transvenous lead extraction
      (TLE) procedure. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics and
      1-year follow-up of patients referred for a TLE procedure in a single, high
      volume center between June 2006 and October 2014 was performed. RESULTS: The
      studied population included 130 patients (82 males; mean age 64 +/- 15 years)
      implanted with pacemakers (74%), implantable cardioverter defibrillators (15%),
      or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (11%). Indications for the
      extraction included infective endocarditis (40.5%), pocket infection (18.5%), and
      lead fault or failure (41%). Total radiological success rate was 90% while
      clinical success rate was 93.5%. The cumulative 1-year mortality was 28%.
      Mortality was higher in a group of older patients (94.4% vs 68%, P = 0.001) and
      those with chronic kidney disease (33.3% vs 4.3 %, P = 0.0002) as well as in
      patients after removal of high voltage lead (88.9% vs 26.3%, P = 0.01). Higher
      mortality was also related to infection as an indication for TLE (37.2% vs 13.5%,
      P = 0.002). Following these findings a new risk score model named IKAR (I =
      infective indications; K = kidney dysfunction; A = age >= 56; R = removal of high
      voltage lead) was constructed. Patients with IKAR score >=3 points were
      characterized by 79% mortality as compared to 16% in those with a score 1-2
      points. CONCLUSIONS: One-year mortality of patients undergoing TLE procedure can
      be predicted by using IKAR risk score.

PMID- 28569388
TI  - Longitudinal Associations Among Reading-Related Skills and Reading Comprehension:
      A Twin Study.
AB  - This study investigated the etiology of longitudinal relations among kindergarten
      prereading skills, first-grade word level reading skills, and seventh-grade
      reading comprehension in 265 monozygotic and 459 dizygotic twin pairs (Mage  =
      6.29 years in kindergarten) from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. Using a
      quadvariate Cholesky decomposition, results showed genetic, shared, and nonshared
      environmental overlap among prereading skills, word level reading skills, and
      reading comprehension. In addition, genetic and shared environmental overlap was
      indicated among word level reading skills and reading comprehension, outside the
      influence of prereading skills. After accounting for overlapping, there remained
      moderate genetic and nonshared environmental influence specific to reading
      comprehension. Implications for reading education are discussed.

PMID- 28569387
TI  - Synthesis and in vitro antioxidant activity study of some new piperazinyl flavone
      compounds.
AB  - Flavones exhibit a variety of beneficial effects and are well known for their
      medicinal importance in several diseases, including cardiovascular,
      neurodegenerative and cancer. The inclusion of the piperazine ring to the flavone
      backbone is an important strategy in drug discovery but only a few studies have
      synthesized piperazinyl flavone compounds to test their biological activity.
      While there is a major focus on the antioxidant properties of drugs in therapy of
      several diseases of inflammatory origin, we synthesized a series of the novel
      piperazinyl flavone analogues bearing the phenyl ring with different
      substituents. The analogues were evaluated for in vitro antioxidant activity
      against superoxide anion radical, hydroxyl radical, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl
      radical, and hydrogen peroxide scavenging properties. The total antioxidant
      status based on the absorbance of the 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6
      sulphonic acid) radical cation (ABTS+* ) and total antioxidant capacity using the
      Fe(III)-ferrozine complex were also monitored. The results of the above studies
      showed that the compounds synthesized were found possessed moderate radical
      scavenging potential, and that their interaction with reactive oxygen species is
      complex and depends on their structural conformation and the type of substituent
      R in the piperazine ring being attached. Best antiradical activity were found for
      the compounds with methoxy groups on the phenyl ring of substituent R, whereas
      the presence of methoxy or trifluoromethyl groups in substituent R resulted in
      higher ABTS+* and ion Fe(III) reduction. These compounds are promising molecules
      to be used for their antioxidant properties and may be regarded, after
      improvement of the antioxidant potential, to control diseases of free radical
      etiology.

PMID- 28569389
TI  - About the contrast of delta' precipitates in bulk Al-Cu-Li alloys in reflection
      mode with a field-emission scanning electron microscope at low accelerating
      voltage.
AB  - Characterising the impact of lithium additions in the precipitation sequence in
      Al-Li-Cu alloys is important to control the strengthening of the final material.
      Since now, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at high beam voltage has been
      the technique of choice to monitor the size and spatial distribution of delta'
      precipitates (Al3 Li). Here we report on the imaging of the delta' phase in such
      alloys using backscattered electrons (BSE) and low accelerating voltage in a high
      resolution field-emission scanning electron microscope. By applying low-energy
      Ar+ ion milling to the surface after mechanical polishing (MP), the MP-induced
      corroded layers were efficiently removed and permitted the delta's to be visible
      with a limited impact on the observed microstructure. The resulting BSE contrast
      between the delta's and the Al matrix was compared with that obtained using Monte
      Carlo modelling. The artefacts possibly resulting from the sample preparation
      procedure were reviewed and discussed and permitted to confirm that these
      precipitates were effectively the metastable delta's. The method described in
      this report necessitates less intensive sample preparation than that required for
      TEM and provides a much larger field of view and an easily interpretable contrast
      compared to the transmission techniques.

PMID- 28569390
TI  - Do Children and Adolescents Have Different Types of Trauma Narratives and Does It
      Matter? Reliability and Face Validation for a Narrative Taxonomy.
AB  - The construction of trauma narratives is a major component of several
      psychotherapy approaches for trauma-related problems, but questions remain as to
      whether fully expressive narratives are necessary and whether it is detrimental
      to ask avoidant youths to tell their narratives repeatedly. Characteristics of
      trauma narratives during psychotherapy have not been examined in youths and this
      represents a salient gap in knowledge. This study aimed to begin filling this gap
      by identifying categories of trauma narratives and empirically validating them.
      Youths (N = 47) aged 7 to 18 years, who were involved in a randomized controlled
      trial, received cognitive behavioral therapy. Transcripts of all narrative
      exposure therapy sessions for each youth were rated. Four categories were
      identified and were named expressive, avoidant, fabricated, and undemonstrative.
      Interrater reliability for identifying these categories was good, and face
      validation of the categories was supported by statistically significant
      differences between categories on the number of data elements of the trauma
      events, negative emotion words, and positive emotion words. These promising
      findings indicate that different types of narrative styles can be reliably
      identified. There was strong evidence for reduction of posttraumatic stress
      symptoms in each of the categories (Cohen's d = 0.9 to 2.5). Favorable treatment
      outcomes for all categories suggest that more remembering is not always better
      and clients appeared to effectively deal with memories in different ways.

PMID- 28569391
TI  - Permanent His bundle pacing: Electrophysiological and echocardiographic
      observations from long-term follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Permanent His bundle pacing (HBP) is a physiological alternative to
      right ventricular pacing. It is not known whether HBP can cause His-Purkinje
      conduction (HPC) disease. The aim of our study is to assess His bundle capture
      and its effect on left ventricular (LV) function in long-term follow-up and to
      determine HPC at the time of pulse generator change (GC) in patients with chronic
      HBP. METHODS: HB electrograms were recorded from the pacing lead at implant and
      GC. HBP QRS duration (QRSd), His-ventricular (HV) intervals, and HB pacing
      thresholds at GC were compared with implant measurements. HPC was assessed by
      pacing at cycle lengths of 700 ms, 600 ms, and 500 ms at GC. LV internal
      diameters, ejection fraction (EF), and valve dysfunction at baseline were
      compared with echocardiography during follow-up. RESULTS: GC was performed in 20
      patients (men 13; age 74 +/- 14 years) with HBP at 70 +/- 24 months postimplant.
      HV intervals remained unchanged from initial implant (44 +/- 4 ms vs 45 +/- 4
      ms). During HBP at 700 ms, 600 ms, and 500 ms (n = 17), consistent 1:1 HPC was
      present. HBP QRSd remained unchanged during follow-up (117 +/- 20 ms vs 118 +/-
      23 ms). HBP threshold at implant and GC was 1.9 +/- 1.1 V and 2.5 +/- 1.2 V @ 0.5
      ms. Despite high pacing burden (77 +/- 13%), there was no significant change in
      LVEF (50 +/- 14% at implant) during follow-up (55 +/- 6%, P = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS:
      HBP does not appear to cause new HPC abnormalities and is associated with stable
      HBP QRSd during long-term follow-up. Despite high pacing burden, HBP did not
      result in deterioration of left ventricular systolic function or cause new valve
      dysfunction.

PMID- 28569392
TI  - MiR-133a-3p Inhibits Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) Proliferation and
      Invasion by Suppressing COL1A1.
AB  - The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of miR-133a-3p on human oral
      squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells by regulating gene COL1A1. OSCC tissues,
      adjacent tongue epithelial tissues, the immortalized oral epithelial cell line
      HIOEC, and OSCC cell lines (CAL-27, TCA-8113, SCC-4, SCC-9, and SCC-15) were used
      in this research. Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) was employed to determine
      the expression of miR-133a-3p and COL1A1. Dual luciferase reporter gene assay and
      Western blot were applied to verify the binding relationship between miR-133a-3p
      and COL1A1. Functional assays were also conducted in this study, including CCK-8
      assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry analysis as well as Transwell
      assay. MiR-133a-3p was found low-expressed both in OSCC tissues and cells lines
      compared with normal tissues and cell line, respectively, whereas COL1A1 was just
      the opposite. The over-expression of miR-133a-3p or the down-regulation of COL1A1
      suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and mitosis of OSCC cells, whereas
      simultaneous down-regulation of miR-133a-3p and up-regulation of COL1A1 led to no
      significant alteration of cell activities. MiR-133a-3p could inhibit the
      proliferation and migration of OSCC cells through directly targeting COL1A1 and
      reducing its expression. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 338-346, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569393
TI  - Multidimensional latent trait linear mixed model: an application in clinical
      studies with multivariate longitudinal outcomes.
AB  - Multilevel item response theory (MLIRT) models have been widely used to analyze
      the multivariate longitudinal data of mixed types (e.g., categorical and
      continuous) in clinical studies. The MLIRT models often have unidimensional
      assumption, that is, the multiple outcomes are clinical manifestations of a
      univariate latent variable. However, the unidimensional assumption may be
      unrealistic because some diseases may be heterogeneous and characterized by
      multiple impaired domains with variable clinical symptoms and disease
      progressions. We relax this assumption and propose a multidimensional latent
      trait linear mixed model (MLTLMM) to allow multiple latent variables and within
      item multidimensionality (one outcome can be a manifestation of more than one
      latent variable). We conduct extensive simulation studies to assess the
      unidimensional MLIRT model and the proposed MLTLMM model. The simulation studies
      suggest that the MLTLMM model outperforms unidimensional model when the
      multivariate longitudinal outcomes are manifested by multiple latent variables.
      The proposed model is applied to two motivating studies of amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis: a clinical trial of ceftriaxone and the Pooled Resource Open-Access
      ALS Clinical Trials database. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28569394
TI  - Autopsy case of systemic EBV-positive T-cell lymphoma of childhood with marked
      hepatomegaly in a middle-aged man.

PMID- 28569395
TI  - Co-located welfare advice in general practice: A realist qualitative study.
AB  - General practitioners (GPs) engage with patients about a variety of social issues
      distinct from direct clinical work ("non-health" issues), such as health-related
      benefits and debt. Co-located welfare advice services could provide support to
      practices but have usually been considered in terms of patient rather than
      practice outcomes. We aimed to develop an initial programme theory for how the
      provision of co-located advice supports specific practice outcomes, and to
      identify salient barriers and enabling factors. Twenty-four semi-structured
      interviews with general practice staff, advice staff and service funders in two
      UK urban localities were conducted between January and July 2016. Data were
      thematically analysed and a modified Realist Evaluation approach informed the
      topic guide, thematic analysis and interpretation. Two outcomes are described
      linked to participant accounts of the impact of such non-health work on
      practices: reduction of GP consultations linked to non-health issues and reduced
      practice time spent on non-health issues. We found that individual responses and
      actions influencing service awareness were key facilitators to each of the
      practice outcomes, including proactive engagement, communication, regular
      reminders and feedback between advice staff, practice managers and funders.
      Facilitating implementation factors were: not limiting access to GP referral, and
      offering booked appointments and advice on a broader range of issues responsive
      to local need. Key barriers included pre-existing sociocultural and
      organisational rules and norms largely outside of the control of service
      implementers, which maintained perceptions of the GP as the "go-to-location". We
      conclude that co-location of welfare advice services alone is unlikely to enable
      positive outcomes for practices and suggest several factors amenable to
      intervention that could enhance the potential for co-location to meet desired
      objectives.

PMID- 28569396
TI  - miR-100 promotes the proliferation of spermatogonial stem cells via regulating
      Stat3.
AB  - Micro RNAs play important roles during mammalian spermatogenesis, but the
      function(s) of specific miRNAs remain largely unknown. Here, we report that miR
      100 is predominantly expressed in undifferentiated murine spermatogonia,
      including spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). We utilized a miRNA mimic and
      inhibitor to knock down and overexpress miR-100 in cultured SSCs, respectively,
      finding that the miR-100 promotes the proliferation of SSCs in vitro.
      Furthermore, signals promoting SSC maintenance induced, whereas retinoic acid
      repressed, expression of miR-100. Stat3 expression was modulated by miR-100, with
      increased transcript and protein abundance in the presence of the miR-100
      inhibitor versus reduced protein levels following miR-100 overexpression. Stat3
      silencing also mimicked the reduced SSC proliferation phenotype associated with
      elevated miR-100 levels. Importantly, Stat3 silencing rescued the anti
      proliferation capacity of miR-100 inhibitor on cultured SSCs. Given that the
      Stat3 3' untranslated region was not repressed by pre-miR-100 in a standard
      luciferase reporter assay, we suggest that miR-100 promotes SSC proliferation by
      indirect regulation of Stat3.

PMID- 28569397
TI  - Promoting continuity of care for homeless adults with unmet health needs: The
      role of brief interventions.
AB  - Promoting timely and continuous care for people experiencing homelessness has
      been a challenge in many jurisdictions, plagued by access barriers and service
      fragmentation. As part of a larger programme evaluation, this study used
      qualitative methods to examine the role of a brief interdisciplinary intervention
      in supporting continuity of care for this population in a large Canadian urban
      centre. The intervention provides time-limited case management, primary and
      psychiatric care, and peer accompaniment to homeless adults with unmet health
      needs discharged from hospital. Data were collected from 52 study participants
      between July 2013 and December 2014. Three focus groups were conducted with
      service providers and people with lived experience of homelessness, and 29
      individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with service users and
      other key informants. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Analysis
      was informed by existing frameworks for continuity of care, while remaining open
      to additional or unexpected findings. Findings suggest that brief
      interdisciplinary interventions can promote continuity of care by offering low
      barrier access, timely and responsive service provision, including timely
      connection to long-term services and supports, appropriate individualised
      services and effective co-ordination of services. Although brief
      interdisciplinary interventions were perceived to promote access, timeliness and
      co-ordination of care for this population with complex health and social needs,
      gaps in the local service delivery context can present persisting barriers to
      care comprehensiveness and continuity.

PMID- 28569398
TI  - Sodium MRI of T1 High Signal Intensity in the Dentate Nucleus due to Gadolinium
      Deposition in Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Recently, several studies reported increased signal
      intensity (SI) of the dentate nucleus (DN) on unenhanced T1-weighted magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) as a possible consequence of multiple applications of
      gadolinium-based contrast agents. The aim of this study was to investigate with
      sodium (23 Na) MRI possible tissue abnormalities of the DN in multiple sclerosis
      (MS) patients. METHODS: Sodium and conventional MRI were performed on a clinical
      3T scanner. Total sodium concentrations (TSCs) of the DN, as well as DN-to-pons
      and DN-to-cerebellum SI ratios on unenhanced T1-weighted MRI were calculated.
      RESULTS: A total of 18 subjects (6/18 normal controls, 12/18 MS patients [6/12
      with T1 hyperintense DN]) were investigated. There was no significant difference
      of TSC values of the DN in MS patients with a T1-hyperintense DN (33.70 +/- 2.14
      mM) compared to MS patients without those signal abnormalities (33.29 +/- 1.67
      mM; P = .67) or to healthy controls (33.14 +/- 1.12; P = .32). CONCLUSIONS:
      Normal sodium signal in the T1-hyperintense DN in MS patients may point to
      relative tissue integrity despite gadolinium deposition in this area.

PMID- 28569399
TI  - School absence and its effect on school performance for children born with
      orofacial clefts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: School absence is associated with lower performance on standardized
      tests. Children born with orofacial clefts (OFC) are likely to have more absence
      than children without OFC; however, school absence for children with OFC has not
      been quantified. We aimed to describe school absence and its relationship with
      school performance for children with and without OFC. METHODS: Population-based
      record-linked cohort study of children (402 with OFC, 1789 without OFC) enrolled
      in schools in Western Australia, 2008 to 2012. We compared median school absence
      rates using Wilcoxon rank tests, and investigated the impact of school absence on
      standardized scores from reading, numeracy, and writing tests, using
      multivariable models fitted by generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: In
      Semester 1, at each primary school year level, children without OFC and children
      with cleft lip only or cleft palate only had similar median absence rates
      (approximately 1 week). Children with cleft lip and palate had significantly
      higher absence rates in Years 4 to 6 (between 1 and 2 weeks). During secondary
      school, median absence rates were higher (2 weeks) for all children, but not
      statistically different between children with and without OFC. Higher absence was
      significantly associated with lower standardized reading, numeracy, and writing
      scores. However, having a cleft of any type had little influence on the
      association between absence and test scores. CONCLUSION: School absence affected
      school performance for all children. Absence did not differentially disadvantage
      children born with OFC, suggesting current practices to identify and support
      children with OFC are minimizing effects of their absence on school performance.
      Birth Defects Research 109:1048-1056, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569400
TI  - Conducting research in clinical psychology practice: Barriers, facilitators, and
      recommendations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The combination of clinical psychologists' therapeutic expertise and
      research training means that they are in an ideal position to be conducting high
      quality research projects. However, despite these skills and the documented
      benefits of research to services and service users, research activity in practice
      remains low. This article aims to give an overview of the advantages of, and
      difficulties in conducting research in clinical practice. METHOD: We reviewed the
      relevant literature on barriers to research and reflected on our clinical and
      research experiences in a range of contexts to offer practical recommendations.
      RESULTS: We considered factors involved in the planning, sourcing support,
      implementation, and dissemination phases of research, and outline suggestions to
      improve the feasibility of research projects in post-qualification roles.
      CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that research leadership is particularly important within
      clinical psychology to ensure the profession's continued visibility and influence
      within health settings. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Clinical implications Emerging
      evidence suggests that clinical settings that foster research are associated with
      better patient outcomes. Suggestions to increase the feasibility of research
      projects in clinical settings are detailed. Limitations The present
      recommendations are drawn from the authors' practical experience and may need
      adaptation to individual practitioners' settings. This study does not attempt to
      assess the efficacy of the strategies suggested.

PMID- 28569401
TI  - Macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1/growth differentiation factor-15 as a predictor
      of colonic neoplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1/GDF15) concentration
      has been associated with colonic adenomas and carcinoma. AIMS: To determine
      whether circulating MIC-1/GDF15 serum concentrations are higher in the presence
      of adenomas and whether the level decreases after excision. METHODS: Patients
      were recruited prospectively from a single centre and stratified into five
      groups: no polyps (NP); hyperplastic polyps (HP); sessile serrated ademona (SSA);
      adenomas (AP); and colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Blood samples were collected
      immediately before and 4 weeks after colonoscopy. MIC-1/GDF15 serum levels were
      quantified using ELISA. RESULTS: Participants (n=301) were stratified as: NP;
      n=116 (52%), HP; n=37 (12%), SSA; n=19 (7%), AP; n=68 (23%); and CRC; n=3 (1%).
      Patients were excluded from the study due to nondiagnostic pathology (n=9, 3%)
      and exclusion criteria (n=20, 6%). In the 272 remaining subjects (M=149; F=123),
      age (P=.005), history of colonic polyps (P=.003) and family history of colonic
      polyps (P=.002) were associated with presence of adenomas. Baseline median MIC
      1/GDF15 serum levels increased significantly from NP 609 (460-797) pg/mL, HP 582
      (466-852) pg/mL, SSA 561 (446-837) pg/mL to AP 723 (602-1122) pg/mL and CRC 1107
      (897-1107) pg/mL; (P<.001). In the pre- and postpolypectomy paired adenoma
      samples median MIC-1/GDF15 reduced significantly from 722 (603-1164) pg/mL to 685
      (561-944) pg/mL (P=.002). A ROC analysis for serum MIC-1/GDF15 to identify
      adenomatous polyps indicated an area under the curve of 0.71. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      data suggest that serum MIC-1/GDF15 has the diagnostic characteristics to
      increase the detection of colonic neoplasia and improve screening.

PMID- 28569402
TI  - LRWD1 Regulates Microtubule Nucleation and Proper Cell Cycle Progression in the
      Human Testicular Embryonic Carcinoma Cells.
AB  - Leucine-rich repeats and WD repeat domain containing protein 1 (LRWD1) is a
      testis-specific protein that mainly expressed in the sperm neck where centrosome
      is located. By using microarray analysis, LRWD1 is identified as a putative gene
      that involved in spermatogenesis. However, its role in human male germ cell
      development has not been extensively studied. When checking in the semen of
      patients with asthenozoospermia, teratozoospermia, and asthenoteratozoospermia,
      the level of LRWD1 in the sperm neck was significantly reduced with a defective
      neck or tail. When checking the sub-cellular localization of LRWD1 in the cells,
      we found that LRWD1 resided in the centrosome and its centrosomal residency was
      independent of microtubule transportation in NT2/D1, the human testicular
      embryonic carcinoma, cell line. Depletion of LRWD1 did not induce centrosome re
      duplication but inhibited microtubule nucleation. In addition, the G1 arrest were
      observed in LRWD1 deficient NT2/D1 cells. Upon LRWD1 depletion, the levels of
      cyclin E, A, and phosphorylated CDK2, were reduced. Overexpression of LRWD1
      promoted cell proliferation in NT2/D1, HeLa, and 239T cell lines. In addition, we
      also observed that autophagy was activated in LRWD1 deficient cells and
      inhibition of autophagy by chloroquine or bafilomycin A1 promoted cell death when
      LRWD1 was depleted. Thus, we found a novel function of LRWD1 in controlling
      microtubule nucleation and cell cycle progression in the human testicular
      embryonic carcinoma cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 314-326, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569404
TI  - Spectrofluorimetric determination of atenolol from human urine using high
      affinity molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction sorbent.
AB  - This study presents a novel, sensitive and selective molecularly imprinted solid
      phase extraction (MISPE)-spectrofluorimetric method for the removal and
      determination of atenolol from human urine. Molecularly imprinted and non
      imprinted polymers were synthesized thermally using a radical chain
      polymerization technique and used as solid-phase extraction sorbents. Acrylic
      acid ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, dibenzoyl peroxide and dichloroethane were
      used as a functional monomer, cross-linker, initiator and porogen, respectively.
      The calibration curve was in the range of 0.10-2.0 MUg/ml for the developed
      method. Limit of detection and limit of quantification values were 0.032 and
      0.099 MUg/ml, respectively. Owing to the selectivity of the MISPE technique and
      the sensitivity of spectrofluorimetry, trace levels of atenolol have been
      successfully determined from both organic and aqueous media. Relatively high
      imprinting factor (4.18) and recovery results (74.5-75.3%) were obtained. In
      addition, intra- and interday precision values were 0.38-1.03% and 0.47-2.05%,
      respectively, proving the precision of the proposed method. Thus, a selective,
      sensitive and simple MISPE-spectrofluorimetric method has been developed and
      applied to the direct determination of atenolol from human urine.

PMID- 28569403
TI  - Ultra-sensitive fluorescent sensor for intracellular miRNA based on enzyme-free
      signal amplification with carbon nitride nanosheet as a carrier.
AB  - A novel ultra-sensitive fluorescent sensor for monitoring microRNA (miRNA) in
      living cells was constructed by utilizing a hybridization chain reaction (HCR) as
      the signal amplification with a carbon nitride nanosheet (CNNS) as a carrier. The
      Cy5-labeled hairpin DNA could be adsorbed onto the surface of CNNS, resulting in
      fluorescence quenching of Cy5. When treated with complementary miRNA, the
      fluorescence was recovered because miRNA could efficiently trigger an HCR, which
      led to the release of the HCR products from the CNNS. This intracellular HCR
      strategy can be used for ultra-sensitive monitoring of intracellular miRNA. The
      main advantages of the proposed method are its simplicity, high sensitivity, high
      specificity and low toxicity for monitoring low-level biomarkers.

PMID- 28569405
TI  - Sex-Dependent, Osteoblast Stage-Specific Effects of Progesterone Receptor on Bone
      Acquisition.
AB  - The role of the progesterone receptor (PR) in the regulation of sexual dimorphism
      in bone has yet to be determined. Here we utilized genetic fate mapping and
      Western blotting to demonstrate age-dependent PR expression in the mouse femoral
      metaphysis and diaphysis. To define sex-dependent and osteoblast stage-specific
      effects of PR on bone acquisition, we selectively deleted PR at different stages
      of osteoblast differentiation. We found that when Prx1-Cre mice were crossed with
      PR floxed mice to generate a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) conditional KO model
      (Prx1; PRcKO), the mutant mice developed greater trabecular bone volume with
      higher mineral apposition rate and bone formation. This may be explained by
      increased number of MSCs and greater osteogenic potential, particularly in males.
      Age-related trabecular bone loss was similar between the Prx1; PRcKO mice and
      their WT littermates in both sexes. Hormone deficiency during the period of rapid
      bone growth induced rapid trabecular bone loss in both the WT and the Prx1; PRcKO
      mice in both sexes. No differences in trabecular bone mass was observed when PR
      was deleted in mature osteoblasts using osteocalcin-Cre (Bglap-Cre). Also, there
      were no differences in cortical bone mass in all three PRcKO mice. In conclusion,
      PR inactivation in early osteoprogenitor cells but not in mature osteoblasts
      influenced trabecular bone accrual in a sex-dependent manner. PR deletion in
      osteoblast lineage cells did not affect cortical bone mass. (c) 2017 American
      Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28569407
TI  - Agreement Between an Automated Volume Breast Scanner and Handheld Ultrasound for
      Diagnostic Breast Examinations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the agreement and interobserver variability of diagnostic
      handheld ultrasound (US) and a single volume on an automated breast volume
      scanner (ABVS) and to determine whether there was a significant difference if the
      ABVS was used by a sonographer or mammographic technologist. METHODS: Ninety
      patients scheduled for diagnostic US examinations were randomized to either
      handheld US or the ABVS first. The AVBS was randomized between a sonographer and
      a mammographic technologist performing the study. The studies were blinded,
      randomized, and read by 2 radiologists. The lesion with the highest Breast
      Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) score was used in the analysis. Final
      diagnoses were made by core biopsy or follow-up for 2 years. Lesions included 9
      malignant and 81 benign. RESULTS: The 90 patients had a mean age +/- SD of 53.1
      +/- 16.3 years. The kappa value for agreement between the ABVS and handheld US
      was 0.831 (95% confidence interval, 0.744-0.925), whereas the global agreement
      for a 7-point BI-RADS score was 0.488 (0.372-0.560). The agreement between the
      ABVS and handheld US was nearly the same when the ABVS was used by a mammographic
      technologist (kappa = 0.858 [0.723-0.963]) or sonographer (kappa = 0.803 [0.596
      1.000]; P = .47). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves
      for characterization by the ABVS were 0.91 (0.84-0.96) for reader 1 and 0.91
      (0.83-0.96) for reader 2; those for handheld US were 0.91 (0.84-0.96) for reader
      1 and 0.83 (0.74-0.90) for reader 2, with no statistical difference. The
      agreement based on pathologic images was kappa = 0.831 (0.718-0.944); for
      handheld US, kappa = 0.795 (0.623-0.967); and for the AVBS, kappa = 0.869 (0.725
      1.000). CONCLUSIONS: Performing a single-view diagnostic ABVS examination has
      good agreement with a handheld diagnostic US workup. There is no difference if
      the ABVS is used by a sonographer or mammographic technologist.

PMID- 28569406
TI  - Meta-analysis of single-port versus conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy
      comparing body image and cosmesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate improvements in cosmetic
      results and postoperative morbidity for single-incision laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy (SILC) in comparison with multiport laparoscopic cholecystectomy
      (MLC). METHODS: A literature search was undertaken for RCTs comparing SILC with
      MLC in adult patients with benign gallbladder disease. Primary outcomes were body
      image and cosmesis scores at different time points. Secondary outcomes included
      intraoperative and postoperative complications, postoperative pain and frequency
      of port-site hernia. RESULTS: Thirty-seven RCTs were included, with a total of
      3051 patients. The body image score favoured SILC at all time points (short term:
      mean difference (MD) -2.09, P < 0.001; mid term: MD -1.33, P < 0.001), as did the
      cosmesis score (short term: MD 3.20, P < 0.001; mid term: MD 4.03, P < 0.001;
      long-term: MD 4.87, P = 0.05) and the wound satisfaction score (short term: MD
      1.19, P = 0.03; mid term: MD 1.38, P < 0.001; long-term: MD 1.19, P = 0.02).
      Duration of operation was longer for SILC (MD 13.56 min; P < 0.001) and SILC
      required more additional ports (odds ratio (OR) 6.78; P < 0.001). Postoperative
      pain assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) was lower for SILC at 12 h after
      operation (MD in VAS score -0.80; P = 0.007). The incisional hernia rate was
      higher after SILC (OR 2.50, P = 0.03). All other outcomes were similar for both
      groups. CONCLUSION: SILC is associated with better outcomes in terms of cosmesis,
      body image and postoperative pain. The risk of incisional hernia is four times
      higher after SILC than after MLC.

PMID- 28569408
TI  - Aerobic exercise reduces hippocampal ERK and p38 activation and improves memory
      of middle-aged rats.
AB  - Aging is often accompanied by cognitive decline, memory impairment, and an
      increased susceptibility to neurodegenerative disorders. Although the
      physiological processes of aging are not fully understood, these age-related
      changes have been interpreted by means of various cellular and molecular
      theories. Among these theories, alterations in the intracellular signaling
      pathways associated with cell growth, proliferation, and survival have been
      highlighted. Based on these observations and on recent evidence showing the
      beneficial effects of exercise on cognitive function in the elderly, we
      investigated the cell signaling pathways in the hippocampal formation of middle
      aged rats (18 months old) submitted to treadmill exercise over 10 days. To do
      this, we evaluated the hippocampal activation of intracellular signaling proteins
      linked to cell growth, proliferation, and survival, such as Akt, mTOR, p70S6K,
      ERK, CREB, and p38. We also explored the cognitive performance (inhibitory
      avoidance) of middle-aged rats. It was found that physical exercise reduces ERK
      and p38 activation in the hippocampal formation of aged rats, when compared to
      the control group. The hippocampal activation and expression of Akt, mTOR,
      p70S6K, and CREB were not statistically different between the groups. It was also
      observed that aged rats from the exercise group exhibited better cognitive
      performance in the inhibitory avoidance task (aversive memory) than aged rats
      from the control group. Our results indicate that physical exercise reduces
      intracellular signaling pathways linked to inflammation and cell death (i.e., ERK
      and p38) and improves memory in middle-aged rats.

PMID- 28569409
TI  - There is an app for that! The current state of mobile applications (apps) for DSM
      5 obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety and mood
      disorders.
AB  - Mental health apps are viewed as a promising modality to extend the reach of
      mental health care beyond the clinic. They do so by providing a means of
      assessment, tracking, and treatment through a smartphone. Given that nearly 2/3
      of the American population owns a smartphone, mental health apps offer the
      possibility of overcoming treatment barriers such as geographic location or
      financial barriers. Unfortunately, the excitement surrounding mental health apps
      may be premature as the current supporting literature regarding their efficacy is
      limited. The app marketplace is littered with apps claiming to treat or assess
      symptoms, but even those created by reputable organizations or those
      incorporating components of evidence-based treatments have not yet been validated
      in terms of their efficacy. This review aims to provide a comprehensive review of
      the current state of the mental health app literature by examining published
      reports of apps designed for DSM-5 anxiety and mood disorders, OCD, and PTSD. The
      breadth of apps reviewed includes those oriented around assessment, symptom
      tracking, and treatment as well as "multipurpose" apps, which incorporate several
      of these components. This review will also present some of the most popular
      mental health apps which may have clinical utility and could be prescribed to
      clients. While we discuss many potential benefits of mental health apps, we focus
      on a number of issues that the current state of the app literature presents.
      Overall there is a significant disconnect between app developers, the scientific
      community and health care, leaving the utility of existing apps questionable.

PMID- 28569410
TI  - PD-1 and PD-L1 in neoplastic cells and the tumor microenvironment of Merkel cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive neoplasm, which is often
      associated with Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and
      its ligand PD-L1 are key players of the tumor microenvironment (TME). METHODS:
      Fourteen paraffin-embedded tissue samples of MCC were stratified by their MCPyV
      detection. Apart from PD-L1 and PD-1, the TME was further characterized for the
      expression of CD33, FOXP3 and MxA. RESULTS: We observed PD-1 in 2 of 12 tumors.
      PD-L1 expression by tumor cells was found in 7 of 8 MCPyV(+) samples and was
      detected particularly in the periphery. The tumor cells were surrounded by a
      shield of PD-L1/CD33 immune cells. Expression of PD-L1 by the tumor cells was
      higher in areas with a denser immune infiltrate. CD33(+) cells without direct
      tumor contact were PD-L1 negative. Only a low number of FOXP3(+) regulatory T
      cells was admixed. Tumor cells of MCPyV(-) samples were mostly PD-L1 negative.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that PD-L1 expression occurs in tumor and
      immune cells, in areas in which they are close in contact. Interferon seems to
      play a role in this interaction. We postulate that PD-L1(+)/CD33(+) cells shield
      the tumor against attacking PD-1(+) immune cells. Therefore, next to anti-PD-1/PD
      L1 antibodies, blockade of CD33 seems to be a promising therapeutic approach.

PMID- 28569411
TI  - Regional and district peer effects in obesity: A UK panel data analysis.
AB  - Most research concerning the causes of obesity has focused on macroeconomic
      trends or individual-level determinants relating to socioeconomic status. There
      is now growing interest in the psychosocial determinants of obesity. Little
      research has been conducted into wide-scale peer effects and so the aim of this
      study was to determine whether regional and district peer effects determine
      individual-level obesity in the UK. Data from the British Household Panel Survey
      (for the years 2004 and 2006) were used to model individual-level BMI and
      probability of obesity as a function of regional and district BMI, controlling
      for a variety of other variables. Instrumental variable techniques were used to
      investigate simultaneity bias. We found no statistically significant regional
      peer effect in the UK. For men, we found that a 1 point increase in average
      district BMI increased individual BMI by 0.640 and probability of being obese by
      1.9% points; for women, BMI increased by 0.230 and probability of being obese by
      1.6% points. Men appear to be more susceptible to these effects than women. Peer
      effects at the district level may have played a significant role in the rise of
      obesity in the UK. Further research must aim to disentangle the two routes by
      which these processes are theorised to function.

PMID- 28569412
TI  - Programmed Site-Selective Palladium-Catalyzed Arylation of Thieno[3,2
      b]thiophene.
AB  - Mono-, di-, tri-, and tetraarylated thieno[3,2-b]thiophenes were synthesized by
      direct site-selective Pd-catalyzed C-H activation reactions with various aryl
      bromides in the presence of a phosphine-free Pd(OAc)2 /KOAc catalyst system in
      N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc). The arylation of 2-arylthieno[3,2-b]thiophene took
      place at the C3 position if the 2-aryl substituents possessed electron
      withdrawing groups and at the C5 position if they were bulky and possessed
      electron-donating groups.

PMID- 28569413
TI  - Transcatheter aortic valve replacement: The year in review 2016.

PMID- 28569414
TI  - BSA-AuNPs@Tb-AMP metal-organic frameworks for ratiometric fluorescence detection
      of DPA and Hg2.
AB  - An easy and effective strategy for synthesizing a ratiometric fluorescent
      nanosensor has been demonstrated in this work. Novel fluorescent BSA-AuNPs@Tb-AMP
      (BSA, bovine serum albumin; AMP, adenosine 5'-monophosphate; AuNPs, Au
      nanoparticles) metal-organic framework (MOF) nanostructures were synthesized by
      encapsulating BSA-AuNPs into Tb-AMP MOFs for the detection of 2,6
      pyridinedicarboxylic acid (DPA) and Hg2+ . DPA could strongly co-ordinate with
      Tb3+ to replace water molecules from the Tb3+ center and accordingly enhanced the
      fluorescence of Tb-AMP MOFs. The fluorescence of BSA-AuNPs at 405 nm remained
      constant. While the fluorescence of BSA-AuNPs at 635 nm was quenched after Hg2+
      was added, the fluorescence of Tb-AMP MOFs remained constant. Accordingly, a
      ratiometric fluorescence nanosensor was constructed for detection of DPA and Hg2+
      . The ratiometric nanosensor exhibited good selectivity to DPA over other
      substances. The F545 /F405 linearly increased with increase of DPA concentration
      in the range of 50 nM to 10 MUM with a detection limit as low as 17.4 nM. F635
      /F405 increased linearly with increase of Hg2+ concentration ranging from 50 nM
      to 1 MUM with a detection limit as low as 20.9 nM. Additionally, the nanosensor
      could be successfully applied for the determination of DPA and Hg2+ in running
      water.

PMID- 28569415
TI  - Group of Quantum Bits Acting as a Bit Using a Single-Domain Ferromagnet of
      Uniaxial Magnetic Ions.
AB  - Read/write operations with individual quantum bits (i.e., qbits) are a
      challenging problem to solve in quantum computing. To alleviate this difficulty,
      we considered the possibility of using a group of qbits that act collectively as
      a bit (hereafter, a group bit or a gbit, in short). A promising candidate for a
      gbit is a single-domain ferromagnet (SDF) independent of its size, which can be
      prepared as a magnet of well-separated uniaxial magnetic ions (UMIs) at sites of
      no electric dipole moment with their uniaxial axes aligned along one common
      direction. When magnetized, the UMIs of such a magnet have a ferromagnetic (FM)
      arrangement and the resulting SDF becomes a gbit with its two opposite moment
      orientations representing the |0? and |1? states of a bit. We probed the
      requirements for such magnets and identified several 2H-perovskites as materials
      satisfying these requirements.

PMID- 28569416
TI  - Applying cultural safety beyond Indigenous contexts: Insights from health
      research with Amish and Low German Mennonites.
AB  - People who identify as members of religious communities, such as the Amish and
      Low German Mennonites, face challenges obtaining quality health care and
      engagement in research due in part to stereotypes that are conveyed through media
      and popular discourses. There is also a growing concern that even when these
      groups are engaged in research, the guiding frameworks of the research fail to
      consider the sociocultural or historical relations of power, further skewing
      power imbalances inherent in the research relationship. This paper aims at
      discussing the uses of cultural safety in the context of health research and
      knowledge translation with groups of people that are associated with a specific
      religion. Research with the Amish and Low German Mennonites is provided as
      examples to illustrate the use of cultural safety in this context. From these
      examples, we discuss how the use of cultural safety, grounded in critical
      theoretical perspectives, offers new insight into health research with
      populations that are traditionally labeled as minority, vulnerable, or
      marginalized, especially when a dominant characteristic is a unique religious
      perspective.

PMID- 28569417
TI  - Down-Regulation of AQP4 Expression via p38 MAPK Signaling in Temozolomide-Induced
      Glioma Cells Growth Inhibition and Invasion Impairment.
AB  - Glioma is the most common and lethal central nervous system tumors. Temozolomide
      (TMZ) is an effective drug for malignant glioma, however, the intracellular and
      molecular mechanisms behind this anti-cancer effect have yet to be fully
      understood. The aim of the present study was to determine whether TMZ inhibits
      proliferation, invasion of glioma cells in vitro and whether these effects can be
      mediated through modulation of aquaporin 4 (AQP4) and phosphorylation of the MAPK
      pathway. The viability of U87 and U251 human glioma cells was evaluated using MTT
      assay. The cell cycle distribution was detected with flow cytometry. Migration
      ability and invasion ability were tested by scratch assays and transwell assays,
      respectively. The levels of AQP4 and MAPK were measured using immunoblot
      analyses. Our results showed that TMZ inhibited proliferation, migration and
      invasion, and induced G2/M arrest in U87 and U251 glioma cell lines. These
      changes were associated with a decrease in the levels of AQP4 expression as well
      as activation phosphorylated level of p38. Treatment with a p38 chemical
      activator (anisomycin) resulted in similar effects as TMZ treatment on glioma
      cells. And p38 chemical inhibitor (SB203580) could block these effects in glioma
      treated with TMZ, suggesting a direct up-regulation of the p38 signaling pathway.
      Therefore, we identified that TMZ might have therapeutic potential for
      controlling proliferation, invasion of malignant glioma by inhibiting AQP4
      expression through activation of p38 signal transduction pathway. J. Cell.
      Biochem. 118: 4905-4913, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569418
TI  - LncRNA LINC01512 Promotes the Progression and Enhances Oncogenic Ability of Lung
      Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Previously, a significantly upregulated lncRNA, LINC01512, in lung adenocarcinoma
      (LAD) was obtained, while its biological function and molecular mechanisms were
      unclear. The expression level of LINC01512 was estimated by qPCR from 100 pairs
      of LAD and NT samples. The correlation of LINC01512 to clinical data of LAD
      patients was analyzed. LINC01512 was knocked down and overexpressed in SPCA-1 and
      A549 cell lines by lentivirus-mediated technology, and the oncological behavioral
      changes of SPCA-1 and A549 cells were observed, as well as, tumorigenicity in
      experimental nude mice. Compared to the adjacent tissues, LINC01512 was obviously
      upregulated in LAD. The expression level of LINC01512 was closely related to
      lymph node metastasis and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage. Survival analysis
      showed that the survival time of high expression LINC01512 group was
      significantly shorter than the low-expression group in LAD. Knockdown or
      overexpression test unanimously confirmed that LINC01512 can increase the ability
      of cell migration, invasion, proliferation, colony formation, adhesion, and S
      phase and G2/M phase cells, whereas decrease the apoptosis and G0/G1 phase cells.
      Nude mice experiments confirmed that LINC01512 significantly enhanced the speed
      and weight of tumorigenicity. LINC01512 is an oncogenic lncRNA gene that promotes
      the progression and distinctly enhances the oncogenic ability in lung
      adenocarcinoma. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 3102-3110, 2017. (c) 2017 The Authors.
      Journal of Cellular Biochemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc.

PMID- 28569419
TI  - Regulating drivers with epilepsy in Maryland: Results of the application of a
      United States consensus guideline.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Driving regulations for people with seizures vary widely throughout
      the United States and the world. Maryland updated their guidelines in 2003 to
      reflect those of a U.S. consensus guideline requiring a minimum 3-month seizure
      free period as well as an individual risk assessment by a Medical Advisory Board
      (MAB). This retrospective study provides the first analysis of outcomes after the
      implementation of the consensus guidelines and an assessment of their predictive
      validity through longitudinal outcome data. METHODS: MAB reviews and licensing
      records for Maryland driver applicants with seizures between 2004 and 2005 were
      reviewed, during which 254 first-time applicants were processed. The initial
      licensing decisions were assessed and the subsequent seizure recurrence and crash
      rates over the following 7 years were evaluated. RESULTS: The MAB approved
      driving for 74.8% of initial applicants; most had been seizure-free for over 6
      months. Approved drivers had a longer median seizure-free period (563 days)
      compared to those who were denied (104.5 days, p < 0.01), and 22.7% of approved
      drivers had seizures recur during monitoring over the next year, although none
      resulted in crashes or deaths. Of applicants initially denied (n = 50), 89.3%
      were eventually licensed. Treating physicians recommended driving for 84.4% of
      applicants rejected by the MAB. SIGNIFICANCE: Maryland's individualized system
      for assessing driving applicants with seizures resulted in a dynamic process of
      approvals and denials based on favorable and unfavorable risk factors and lengths
      of seizure freedom. Seizure recurrences were comparable to internationally
      accepted rates. Over the course of monitoring, most applicants were eventually
      licensed. Treating physicians recommended that nearly all their patient
      applicants be permitted to drive, which raises safety concerns for the 10 states
      that rely solely on physician recommendations. Further assessment is needed of
      the risk factors deemed favorable and unfavorable by the U.S. consensus
      guidelines.

PMID- 28569420
TI  - Rhodopsin T17M Mutant Inhibits Complement C3 Secretion in Retinal Pigment
      Epithelium via ROS Induced Downregulation of TWIST1.
AB  - Rhodopsin mutations cause autosomal dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
      T17M rhodopsin predisposes cells to endoplasmic reticulum stress induced
      apoptosis. However, the pathogenic role of T17M rhodopsin in RP is not completely
      understood. Complement C3 has a protective role in RP pathogenesis. This study
      aimed to investigate whether T17M rhodopsin regulates C3 secretion in retinal
      pigment epithelium. The human retinal pigment epithelial cell line (ARPE-19) was
      engineered to overexpress wide-type (WT) and T17M rhodopsin. Gene expression was
      detected by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. C3 secretion was detected by ELISA.
      The overexpression of T17M rhodopsin significantly induced ROS and reduced C3
      secretion and transcription in ARPE-19 cells, but ROS scavengers could partially
      rescue reduced C3 secretion and transcription. Mechanistically, we found that ROS
      suppressed transcription factor TWIST1 which is responsible for activated
      transcription of C3. In conclusion, our data provide the first evidence that T17M
      rhodopsin mutant disrupts C3 secretion via the induction of ROS and the
      suppression of TWIST1. These findings reveal novel insight into the pathogenic
      role of mutant rhodopsin in RP. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 4914-4920, 2017. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569421
TI  - Autonomic nervous system modulation and clinical outcome after pulmonary vein
      isolation using the second-generation cryoballoon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a
      significant role in atrial fibrillation (AF) mechanisms. This study evaluated the
      incidence and impact of intraprocedural vagal reactions and ANS modulation by
      pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using second-generation cryoballoons on outcomes.
      METHODS: One hundred three paroxysmal AF patients underwent PVI with one 28-mm
      second-generation balloon. The median follow-up was 15.0 (12.0-18.0) months. ANS
      modulation was defined as a >20% cycle length decrease on 3-minute resting
      electrocardiograms at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postindex procedure relative to
      baseline if sinus rhythm was maintained. RESULTS: Marked sinus
      arrests/bradycardia and atrioventricular block (intraprocedural vagal reaction)
      occurred in 14 and 2 patients, and all sinus arrest/bradycardia occurred in 44
      patients with left superior pulmonary veins (PVs) targeted before right PVs. ANS
      modulation was identified in 66 of 95 (69.5%) patients, and it persisted 12-month
      postprocedure in 36 (37.9%) patients. Additional beta-blocker administration was
      required in 9 patients for sinus tachycardia. ANS modulation was similarly
      observed in patients with and without intraprocedural vagal reactions (P =
      0.443). Forty-eight (46.6%) patients experienced early recurrences, and the
      single procedure success at 12 months was 72.7%. Neither intraprocedural vagal
      reactions nor ANS modulation predicted AF freedom within or after the blanking
      period. Thirty-three patients underwent second procedures, and reconnections were
      detected in 39 of 130 (30.0%) PVs among 23 (69.7%) patients. The incidence of
      reconnections was similar in patients with and without ANS modulation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Increased heart rate persisted in 37.9% of patients even at 12-month
      post-second-generation cryoballoon PVI. Neither intraprocedural vagal reactions
      nor increased heart rate predicted a single procedure clinical outcome.

PMID- 28569422
TI  - Role of contact force-guided radiofrequency catheter ablation for treatment of
      atrial fibrillation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: CF-sensing catheter emerged as a novel ablation technology and was
      increasingly used in clinical practice. Nonetheless, available evidence of
      efficacy and safety comparison between CF-guided RF catheter ablation and non-CF
      guided ablation for treatment of AF was still lacking. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Twenty-two eligible studies were included after systematic review through the
      MEDLINE, Google Scholar, the Cochrane Library and PubMed databases. AF/atrial
      tachycardia-free survival was markedly improved in CF-guided catheter ablation
      compared with non-CF-guided ablation at a median 12-month follow-up (RR: 1.12,
      95% CI: 1.06-1.19, P = 0.000, fixed). Notably, CF-guided catheter ablation
      presented a robust survival benefit for treatment of paroxysmal AF (RR: 1.10, 95%
      CI: 1.03-1.18, P = 0.005, fixed), but not persistent AF (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.89
      1.28, P = 0.466, fixed). Moreover, procedure time (WMD: -23.87, 95% CI: -33.83 to
      -13.91, P = 0.000, random), fluoroscopy time (WMD: -7.78, 95% CI: -13.93 to 
      1.63, P = 0.013, random) and RF time (WMD: -3.98, 95% CI: -7.78 to -0.17, P =
      0.040, random) were significantly reduced in CF-guided catheter ablation. The
      incidence of procedure-related complications did not differ between these two
      technologies (RR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.59 to 1.16, P = 0.271, fixed). CONCLUSION: CF
      guided RF catheter ablation was associated with a significant AF/atrial
      tachycardia-free survival benefit compared with non-CF-guided ablation in
      patients with paroxysmal AF rather than persistent AF. In addition, CF-guided
      ablation strategy also reduced the procedure time, fluoroscopy time, as well as
      RF time despite no distinct effect on the alleviation of procedure-related
      complications.

PMID- 28569424
TI  - Single-incision percutaneous pericardial ICD lead placement in a piglet model.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our group has demonstrated the feasibility of percutaneous
      pericardial ICD lead placement in a piglet model utilizing direct visualization
      from a lateral thoracoscopic approach. Development of a novel delivery tool that
      incorporates visualization allows for the procedure to be performed with a 1 cm
      subxiphoid incision. METHODS AND RESULTS: A 1 cm incision is made in the
      subxiphoid area and a novel self-anchoring delivery tool is inserted. A rigid
      thoracoscope and needle are inserted into two crossed working channels of the
      tool. After needle visualization, pericardial needle access, followed by sheath
      access is obtained. A modified side-biting ICD lead is inserted and fixated to
      the ventricular epicardial surface. The lead is connected to an ICD generator and
      lead testing followed by defibrillation threshold testing (DFT) is performed.
      Single-incision ICD lead placement was performed in 6 piglets without acute
      complications. Median time from subxiphoid incision to DFT testing was 64
      minutes; median time from thoracoscope insertion to lead fixation was 16.5
      minutes (range 9-30). All had adequate ventricular sensing and pacing at implant
      and underwent successful defibrillation (range 3-5 J). Survival period ranged
      from 1 to 16 weeks. Two piglets had survival periods of 12 and 16 weeks with mean
      weight gain of 7 kg; both had successful repeat DFT at 10 J. All survival animals
      had stable lead impedances and R-wave amplitudes throughout the survival period.
      CONCLUSION: Percutaneous pericardial placement of an ICD lead using our novel
      access tool can be safely performed through a 1 cm incision without
      complications.

PMID- 28569423
TI  - Probing Human Telomeric DNA and RNA Topology and Ligand Binding in a Cellular
      Model by Using Responsive Fluorescent Nucleoside Probes.
AB  - The development of biophysical systems that enable an understanding of the
      structure and ligand-binding properties of G-quadruplex (GQ)-forming nucleic acid
      sequences in cells or models that mimic the cellular environment would be highly
      beneficial in advancing GQ-directed therapeutic strategies. Herein, the
      establishment of a biophysical platform to investigate the structure and
      recognition properties of human telomeric (H-Telo) DNA and RNA repeats in a cell
      like confined environment by using conformation-sensitive fluorescent nucleoside
      probes and a widely used cellular model, bis(2-ethylhexyl) sodium sulfosuccinate
      reverse micelles (RMs), is described. The 2'-deoxy and ribonucleoside probes,
      composed of a 5-benzofuran uracil base analogue, faithfully report the aqueous
      micellar core through changes in their fluorescence properties. The nucleoside
      probes incorporated into different loops of H-Telo DNA and RNA oligonucleotide
      repeats are minimally perturbing and photophysically signal the formation of
      respective GQ structures in both aqueous buffer and RMs. Furthermore, these
      sensors enable a direct comparison of the binding affinity of a ligand to H-Telo
      DNA and RNA GQ structures in the bulk and confined environment of RMs. These
      results demonstrate that this combination of a GQ nucleoside probe and easy-to
      handle RMs could provide new opportunities to study and devise screening
      compatible assays in a cell-like environment to discover GQ binders of clinical
      potential.

PMID- 28569425
TI  - Pituitary gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor stimulation by carnitine may be a new
      strategy for antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia.

PMID- 28569427
TI  - Corrigendum: Preparation of Vinyl Arenes by Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling
      of Aryl Halides with Vinyl Bromides.

PMID- 28569426
TI  - Structure and expression of sulfatase and sulfatase modifying factor genes in the
      diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella.
AB  - The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), uses sulfatases (SULF) to
      counteract the glucosinolate-myrosinase defensive system that cruciferous plants
      have evolved to deter insect feeding. Sulfatase activity is regulated by post
      translational modification of a cysteine residue by sulfatase modifying factor 1
      (SUMF1). We identified 12 SULF genes (PxylSulfs) and two SUMF1 genes (PxylSumf1s)
      in the P. xylostella genome. Phylogenetic analysis of SULFs and SUMFs from P.
      xylostella, Bombyx mori, Manduca sexta, Heliconius melpomene, Danaus plexippus,
      Drosophila melanogaster, Tetranychus urticae and Homo sapiens showed that the
      SULFs were clustered into five groups, and the SUMFs could be divided into two
      groups. Profiling of the expression of PxylSulfs and PxylSumfs by RNA-seq and by
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that two glucosinolate
      sulfatase genes (GSS), PxylSulf2 and PxylSulf3, were primarily expressed in the
      midgut of 3rd- and 4th-instar larvae. Moreover, expression of sulfatases
      PxylSulf2, PxylSulf3 and PxylSulf4 were correlated with expression of the
      sulfatases modifying factor PxylSumf1a. The findings from this study provide new
      insights into the structure and expression of SUMF1 and PxylSulf genes that are
      considered to be key factors for the evolutionary success of P. xylostella as a
      specialist herbivore of cruciferous plants.

PMID- 28569428
TI  - Spotlights on our sister journals: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 24/2017.

PMID- 28569429
TI  - CarbORev-5901: The First Carborane-Based Inhibitor of the 5-Lipoxygenase Pathway.
AB  - The progression of cancer is accelerated by increased proliferation,
      angiogenesis, and inflammation. These processes are mediated by leukotrienes.
      Several cancer cell lines overexpress 5-lipoxygenase, an enzyme that converts
      arachidonic acid into leukotrienes. An early inhibitor of the 5-lipoxygenase
      pathway is Rev-5901, which, however, lacks in in vivo efficacy, as it is rapidly
      metabolized. We investigated the introduction of carboranes as highly hydrophobic
      and metabolically stable pharmacophores into lipoxygenase inhibitors. Carboranes
      are icosahedral boron clusters that are remarkably stable and used to increase
      the metabolic stability of unstable pharmaceutics without changing their
      biological activity. By introduction of meta-carborane into Rev-5901, the first
      carborane-based inhibitor of the 5-lipoxygenase pathway was obtained. We report
      the synthesis and inhibitory and cytotoxic behavior of these compounds toward
      several melanoma and colon cancer cell lines and their related anticancer
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28569430
TI  - MiR-377 Regulates Inflammation and Angiogenesis in Rats After Cerebral Ischemic
      Injury.
AB  - Ischemic stroke is the leading cause of disabilities worldwide. MicroRNA-377 (miR
      377) plays important roles in ischemic injury. The present study focused on the
      mechanisms of miR-377 in protecting ischemic brain injury in rats. Cerebral
      ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats. Primary
      rat microglial cells and brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) were
      exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). The concentrations of cytokines (TNF
      alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, IFN-gamma, TGF-beta, MMP2, COX2, and iNOS) in the culture
      medium were measured by specific ELISA. Tube formation assay was for the in vitro
      study of angiogenesis. Luciferase reporter assay was performed to confirm whether
      VEGF and EGR2 were direct targets of miR-377. The MCAO rats were
      intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of miR-377 inhibitor to assess its
      protective effects in vivo. MiR-377 levels were decreased in the rat brain
      tissues at 1, 3, and 7 d after MCAO. Both microglia cells and BMECs under OGD
      showed markedly lower expression levels of miR-377 while higher expression levels
      of EGR2 and VEGF compared to those under normoxia conditions. Knockdown of miR
      377 inhibited microglial activation and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines
      after OGD. Suppression of miR-377 promoted the capillary-like tube formation and
      cell proliferation and migration of BMECs. The anti-inflammation effect of EGR2
      and the angiogenesis effect of VEGF were regulated by miR-377 after OGD.
      Inhibition of miR-377 decreased cerebral infarct volume and suppressed cerebral
      inflammation but promoted angiogenesis in MCAO rats. Knockdown of miR-377
      lessened the ischemic brain injury through promoting angiogenesis and suppressing
      cerebral inflammation. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 327-337, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569431
TI  - Providing support to surrogate decision-makers for people living with dementia:
      Healthcare professional, organisational and community responsibilities.
AB  - The prevalence of dementia will continue to increase with the ageing of the
      population. Many people living with dementia will reach a stage where surrogate
      decision-makers-mostly family carers-will need to make a range of decisions on
      their behalf. The aim of this study was to learn from surrogate decision-makers
      how they can be most effectively supported in this role. The study employed a
      qualitative design using semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews
      with a purposive sample of 34 surrogate decision-makers of people living with
      dementia. Transcripts of participant interviews were reviewed using a thematic
      approach to analysis. Four main themes were identified from this analysis:
      needing greater community awareness of dementia and its impact; intervening early
      in cognitive decline; relying on health professionals for ongoing support; and
      seeking and using support from wherever is relevant for each person. Based on
      this analysis and a review of the literature, we propose a wholistic set of
      recommendations for the support of surrogate decision-makers. Healthcare
      professionals need to help family carers understand the likely trajectory of
      dementia, including the significance of surrogate decision-making. They can
      support the person living with dementia and their surrogates to undertake advance
      care planning and they can act as empathic guides during this process. Health and
      community care organisations need to provide a "key worker" model wherever
      possible so that the person living with dementia and their surrogate decision
      maker do not have to seek support from multiple staff members or organisations.
      Carer support programmes can routinely include information and resources about
      surrogate decision-making. Community and government organisations can help people
      prepare for the possibility of becoming surrogate decision-makers by promoting a
      greater public awareness and understanding of both dementia and advance care
      planning.

PMID- 28569432
TI  - Plasma folate levels and associated factors in women planning to become pregnant
      in a population with high prevalence of neural tube defects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Optimal blood folate levels of women before pregnancy are critical to
      the prevention of neural tube defects (NTDs). However, few studies have focused
      on blood folate levels of women planning to become pregnant. The aims of this
      study were to assess plasma folate levels in women who planned to become pregnant
      in a population with high prevalence of NTDs, to identify factors associated with
      plasma folate levels, and to evaluate the risk of NTDs at the population level.
      METHODS: A total of 2065 women were enrolled at the time of premarital health
      check-up in two rural counties in northern China from November 2009 to December
      2012. Fasting venous blood samples were collected and plasma folate
      concentrations were measured by microbiological method. RESULTS: The overall
      median of plasma folate was 10.5 nmol/L. 50% of the women had a plasma folate
      level below 10.5 nmol/L, a cutoff for megaloblastic anemia, and 88% below 18
      nmol/L, a proposed optimal plasma folate level for the prevention of NTDs. Folic
      acid supplementation was the only factor to be associated with plasma folate
      concentrations, but only 1.9% of the women reported having taken folic acid
      supplements. A population risk of 29.3 NTD cases per 10,000 births was predicted.
      CONCLUSION: Women who planned to become pregnant had very low plasma folate in
      the population. Folic acid supplementation was the only factor to be associated
      with a high plasma folate concentration. High NTD risk would remain if women
      would get pregnant without having taken folic acid supplements. Birth Defects
      Research 109:1039-1047, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569433
TI  - Ascochlorin Suppresses MMP-2-Mediated Migration and Invasion by Targeting FAK and
      JAK-STAT Signaling Cascades.
AB  - Human glioblastomas express higher levels of matrix metalloprotease-2 (MMP-2)
      than low-grade brain tumors and normal brain tissues. Ascochlorin (ASC) has anti
      metastatic, anti-angiogenic, and synergistic effect in various types of cancer
      cells. However, it remains unknown whether ASC can affect cell migration and
      invasion in malignant human glioma cells. In this study, we found that ASC indeed
      inhibits cell migration and invasion in U373MG and A172. ASC significantly
      suppresses the MMP-2 gelatinolytic activity and expression in U373MG and A172. To
      determine the molecular mechanism by which ASC suppressed cell migration and
      invasion, we investigated whether ASC could modulate metastasis via focal
      adhesion kinase (FAK) and janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of
      transcription (STAT) signaling, a potential drug target. ASC strongly inhibits
      the phosphorylation of FAK, and treatment with a FAK inhibitor significantly
      suppresses cancer cell migration in the presence of ASC. In addition, ASC
      significantly decreased phosphorylation of JAK2/STAT3, cancer cell migration and
      nuclear translocation of STAT3. Taken together, these results suggest that ASC
      inhibits cell migration and invasion by blocking FAK and JAK/STAT signaling,
      resulting in reduced MMP-2 activity. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 300-313, 2018. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569434
TI  - A colorimetric and fluorogenic probe for bisulfite using benzopyrylium as the
      recognition unit.
AB  - A coumarin-benzopyrylium (CB) platform has been developed for the colorimetric
      and fluorogenic detection of bisulfite. The proposed probe utilizes coumarin as
      the fluorophore and positively charged benzopyrylium as the reaction site. The
      method employs the nucleophilic addition of bisulfite to the benzopyrylium moiety
      of CB to inactivate the electron-deficient oxonium ion. The driving force for
      photo-induced electron transfer is considerably diminished, thereby promoting the
      emission intensity of the coumarin fluorophore. The fluorescence intensity at 510
      nm is linear with bisulfite concentration over a range of 0.2-7.5 MUM with a
      detection limit of 42 nM (3delta). CB shows a rapid response (within 30 s) and
      high selectivity and sensitivity for bisulfite. Preliminary studies show that CB
      has great potential for bisulfite detection in real samples and in living cells.

PMID- 28569435
TI  - The new kids on the block of arrhythmogenic disorders: Short QT syndrome and
      early repolarization.
AB  - Short QT syndrome (SQTS) is one of the rarest inheritable cardiac
      channelopathies, characterized by an accelerated cardiac repolarization, which is
      also the substrate for the development of life-threatening ventricular
      arrhythmias. Up to this date, fewer than 200 SQTS cases have been reported in the
      literature worldwide. Patients with SQTS may experience a cardiac arrest as early
      as in the neonatal period or as late as 80 years old. The cumulative probability
      of experiencing a cardiac arrest by the fifth decade of life approaches 40%,
      highlighting the importance of early recognition and management. SQTS is an
      autosomal dominant disease with five identified causative genes, including three
      that encode for potassium channels (KCNH2, KCNQ1, and KCNJ2) and two that encode
      for subunits of the L-type calcium channels (CACNA1C and CACNB2). The term "early
      repolarization" (ER) has long been used to refer to a heterogeneous group of
      specific QRS-T junction patterns that are commonly found on the
      electrocardiograms of young healthy subjects. In the last decade, it has been
      suggested that in some individuals, the presence of ER may be associated with an
      increased risk of sudden cardiac death, and thus the term "early repolarization
      syndrome" (ERS) has progressively entered into use. Up to this point, however,
      whether ER constitutes a true primary arrhythmic disorder or whether it is simply
      a predisposing substrate that facilitates arrhythmias in the presence of other
      triggers remains an unresolved issue. In this review paper, we aim to integrate
      the current literature on SQTS and ERS. For each, we will describe the key steps
      that first led to the identification of the syndrome before moving into a
      discussion of our current understanding of each entity, including the
      epidemiology, genetics, diagnosis, clinical manifestations, and management.

PMID- 28569436
TI  - Sociodemographic, physical, mental and social factors in the cessation of
      breastfeeding before 6 months: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding as
      the main source of nutrition for infants during their first 6 months of life.
      However, despite this well-known recommendation, not all mothers breastfeed,
      whether partly or fully, during this time. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic
      literature review was to compile evidence regarding sociodemographic, physical,
      mental and social factors that influence breastfeeding mothers to stop
      breastfeeding before the infant reaches 6 months. SEARCH METHOD: A systematic
      search was conducted in four databases. SELECTION CRITERIA: Studies with
      quantitative research were included. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Totally, 186
      abstracts were read, 83 seemed relevant but 18 were found to be duplicates.
      Finally, 27 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included. The quality
      assessment was carried out with a quality assessment template from the Swedish
      Council on Technology and Assessment, and the grading of the result was carried
      out according to GRADE. RESULTS: The association of breastfeeding cessation
      between the mother's young age, low level of education, return to work within 12
      week postpartum, caesarean birth and inadequate milk supply was found to have a
      low level of evidence. The link found between depressions among the mothers with
      the cessation of breastfeeding was found to have a very low level of evidence.
      CONCLUSIONS: Sociodemographic factors appeared to have caused cessation of
      breastfeeding in some of the included articles. The preventive work should focus
      on how to improve the knowledge of healthcare professionals and targeted
      interventions must address mothers who are at risk of ceasing breastfeeding
      before the recommended time.

PMID- 28569437
TI  - Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha: Role in Development of Insulin Resistance and
      Pathogenesis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and development of insulin
      resistance are characterized by multi-stimuli factors notably glucolipotoxicity,
      generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), epigenetic factors, activation of
      various transcriptional mediated pathways along with the augmented levels of
      various pro-inflammatory cytokines. Among the various pro-inflammatory cytokines,
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is one the most important pro
      inflammatory mediator that is critically involved in the development of insulin
      resistance and pathogenesis of T2DM. TNF-alpha is mainly produced in adipocytes
      and/or peripheral tissues, and induces tissue-specific inflammation through the
      involvement of generation of ROS and activation of various transcriptional
      mediated pathways. The raised level of TNF-alpha induces insulin resistance in
      adipocytes and peripheral tissues by impairing the insulin signaling through
      serine phosphorylation that leads to the development of T2DM. Anti-TNF-alpha
      treatment strategies have been developed to reduce the incidence of insulin
      resistance and development of T2DM. In this article, we have briefly described
      how TNF-alpha plays crucial role to induce insulin resistance and pathogenesis of
      T2DM. To block the inflammatory responses by blocking TNF-alpha and TNF-alpha
      signaling may be an effective strategy for the treatment of insulin resistance
      and T2DM. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 105-110, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28569438
TI  - Enzymatic, urease-mediated mineralization of gellan gum hydrogel with calcium
      carbonate, magnesium-enriched calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate for bone
      regeneration applications.
AB  - Mineralization of hydrogel biomaterials is considered desirable to improve their
      suitability as materials for bone regeneration. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ) has
      been successfully applied as a bone regeneration material, but hydrogel-CaCO3
      composites have received less attention. Magnesium (Mg) has been used as a
      component of calcium phosphate biomaterials to stimulate bone-forming cell
      adhesion and proliferation and bone regeneration in vivo, but its effect as a
      component of carbonate-based biomaterials remains uninvestigated. In the present
      study, gellan gum (GG) hydrogels were mineralized enzymatically with CaCO3 , Mg
      enriched CaCO3 and magnesium carbonate to generate composite biomaterials for
      bone regeneration. Hydrogels loaded with the enzyme urease were mineralized by
      incubation in mineralization media containing urea and different ratios of
      calcium and magnesium ions. Increasing the magnesium concentration decreased
      mineral crystallinity. At low magnesium concentrations calcite was formed, while
      at higher concentrations magnesian calcite was formed. Hydromagnesite (Mg5 (CO3
      )4 (OH)2 .4H2 O) formed at high magnesium concentration in the absence of
      calcium. The amount of mineral formed and compressive strength decreased with
      increasing magnesium concentration in the mineralization medium. The
      calcium:magnesium elemental ratio in the mineral formed was higher than in the
      respective mineralization media. Mineralization of hydrogels with calcite or
      magnesian calcite promoted adhesion and growth of osteoblast-like cells.
      Hydrogels mineralized with hydromagnesite displayed higher cytotoxicity. In
      conclusion, enzymatic mineralization of GG hydrogels with CaCO3 in the form of
      calcite successfully reinforced hydrogels and promoted osteoblast-like cell
      adhesion and growth, but magnesium enrichment had no definitive positive effect.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28569439
TI  - Vanadium Chloroperoxidases: The Missing Link in the Formation of Chlorinated
      Compounds and Chloroform in the Terrestrial Environment?
AB  - It is well established that the majority of chlorinated organic substances found
      in the terrestrial environment are produced naturally. The presence of these
      compounds in soils is not limited to a single ecosystem. Natural chlorination is
      also a widespread phenomenon in grasslands and agricultural soils typical for
      unforested areas. These chlorinated compounds are formed from chlorination of
      natural organic matter consisting of very complex chemical structures, such as
      lignin. Chlorination of several lignin model compounds results in the
      intermediate formation of trichloroacetyl-containing compounds, which are also
      found in soils. These decay, in general, through a haloform-type reaction
      mechanism to CHCl3 . Upon release into the atmosphere, CHCl3 will produce
      chlorine radicals through photolysis, which will, in turn, lead to natural
      depletion of ozone. There is evidence that fungal chloroperoxidases able to
      produce HOCl are involved in the chlorination of natural organic matter. The
      objective of this review is to clarify the role and source of the various
      chloroperoxidases involved in the natural formation of CHCl3 .

PMID- 28569440
TI  - Small reentry in a mega coronary sinus: Anatomical and high-density activation
      mapping.

PMID- 28569441
TI  - Ultrafast Light-Driven Substrate Expulsion from the Active Site of a
      Photoswitchable Catalyst.
AB  - The photoswitchable piperidine general base catalyst is a prototype structure for
      light control of catalysis. Its azobenzene moiety moves sterically shielding
      groups to either protect or expose the active site, thereby changing the basicity
      and hydrogen-bonding affinity of the compound. The reversible switching dynamics
      of the catalyst is probed in the infrared spectral range by monitoring hydrogen
      bond (HB) formation between its active site and methanol (MeOH) as HB donor.
      Steady-state infrared (IR) and ultrafast IR and UV/Vis spectroscopies are used to
      uncover ultrafast expulsion of MeOH from the active site within a few
      picoseconds. Thus, the force generated by the azobenzene moiety even in the final
      phase of its isomerization is sufficient to break a strong HB within 3 ps and to
      shut down access to the active site.

PMID- 28569442
TI  - First derivative emission spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of
      LCZ696, a newly approved FDA supramolecular complex of valsartan and sacubitril
      in tablets.
AB  - LCZ696 (sacubitril/valsartan, EntrestoTM) is a therapy lately approved by United
      States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) as a heart failure therapy. It is
      claimed to decrease the mortality rate and hospitalization for patients with
      chronic heart failure. This study is considered as the first report to
      investigate the fluorimetric behavior of sacubitril in addition to pursuing all
      the different conditions that may affect its fluorescence. Various conditions
      were studied, for example studying the effects of organized media, solvents and
      pH, which may affect the fluorescence behavior of sacubitril. For the
      simultaneous determination of the newly approved supramolecular complex of
      valsartan (VAL) and sacubitril (SAC) in their tablets, a sensitive and simple
      first derivative spectrofluorimetric method was developed. The method involved
      the measurement of native fluorescence at 416 nm and 314 nm (lambdaex 249 nm) for
      VAL and SAC, respectively. The first (D1) derivative technique was applied to the
      emission data to resolve a partial overlap that appeared in their emission
      spectra. The proposed method was successfully applied for the assay of the two
      drugs in their supramolecular complex LCZ696 with no interference from common
      pharmaceutical additives. International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical
      Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guidelines
      were followed in order to validate the proposed method.

PMID- 28569443
TI  - Europium Oxybromide Catalysts for Efficient Bromine Looping in Natural Gas
      Valorization.
AB  - The industrialization of bromine-mediated natural gas upgrading is contingent on
      the ability to fully recycle hydrogen bromide (HBr), which is the end form of the
      halogen after the activation and coupling of the alkanes. Europium oxybromide
      (EuOBr) is introduced as a unique catalytic material to close the bromine loop
      via HBr oxidation, permitting low-temperature operation and long lifetimes with a
      stoichiometric feed (O2 :HBr=0.25)-conditions at which any catalyst reported to
      date severely deactivates because of excessive bromination. Besides, EuOBr
      exhibits unparalleled selectivity to methyl bromide in methane oxybromination,
      which is an alternative route for bromine looping. This novel active phase is
      finely dispersed on appropriate carriers and scaled up to technical extrudates,
      enhancing the utilization of the europium phase while preserving the performance.
      This catalytic system paves the way for sustainable valorization of stranded
      natural gas via bromine chemistry.

PMID- 28569445
TI  - Can Cleansing Regimens Effectively Eliminate Saliva Contamination from Lithium
      Disilicate Ceramic Surface?
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of cleaning protocols on the bond strength of
      resin cement to glass-ceramic. Ceramic specimens (N=120, n=12 per group) were
      etched with hydrofluoric acid and rinsed with water. After saliva contamination,
      specimens were cleaned as follows: water, 37% H3PO4, cleaning-paste (Ivoclean),
      or isopropanol. Non-contaminated specimens acted as the control. Resin cement was
      bonded to the specimens, and tested either after 24 h or x5000 thermocycling.
      Both the cleaning method (p=0.001) and the storage conditions (p=0.005)
      significantly affected the bond strength results. In dry conditions, the groups
      PA and IV showed no significant difference, being also similar to the non-saliva
      contaminated control group (p?0.05). In dry conditions, no significant difference
      was observed between the mean DW and IS being significantly lower than those of
      other groups (p?0.05). Except for the group IV, thermocycling decreased the
      results significantly in all groups (p?0.05). Predominantly mixed failure type
      was observed in both dry and aged conditions. SEM micrographs of ceramic surfaces
      after cleaning agents showed no major differences but on the specimens from the
      IV group, small, rounded-zirconia particles were observed. In case of saliva
      contamination of acid-etched glass-ceramics, mechanical cleaning can restore
      adhesion to the baseline situation.

PMID- 28569444
TI  - Multiple Adhesive Layering Influence on Dentin Bonding and Permeability.
AB  - The aim was to evaluate the effect of the number of layers on the microtensile
      bond strength (MUTBS), permeability and nanoleakage of an etch-and-rinse adhesive
      (Adper Single Bond 2). Different numbers of layers (1, 2 and 4) were applied on
      dentin susbstrate. Specimens were obtained and tested for MUTBS. Stick-shaped
      samples were analysed by scanning electron microscope, to observe silver nitrate
      penetration. One-way ANOVA and Tukey tests were applied (alpha=0.05) for MUTBS
      values. The fracture mode was evaluated under a stereomicroscope and a scanning
      electron microscope (SEM). Groups with two and four layers of bond showed higher
      MUTBS to dentin and they also showed lower adhesive permeability than ONE layer.
      The silver nitrate uptake occurred in the hybrid layer in practically all groups.
      Fracture occurred predominantly at the mixed interface. The authors recommend the
      application of more than one layer of Adper Single Bond 2, because a single layer
      showed lower MUTBS and higher permeability values.

PMID- 28569446
TI  - The Effect of Lithium Disilicate Opacity on Polymerization of a Dual-Cured Resin
      Cement.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different levels of
      opacity of the lithium disilicate framework upon polymerization of dual-cured
      resin cement. Four ceramic discs were used, one for each opacity framework
      covered by their respective ceramic veneering, and a cement group without a
      ceramic cover. The degree of conversion for each resin cement was estimated using
      the Knoop microhardness test. The group with the highest opacity showed the
      lowest hardness score at baseline. The study concluded that the opacity level of
      lithium disilicate framework could influence the degree of polymerization of a
      dual-cured resin cement.

PMID- 28569447
TI  - Marginal Accuracy and Internal Fit of Dental Copings Fabricated by Modern
      Additive and Subtractive Digital Technologies.
AB  - The margins of copings for crowns and retainers of fixed partial dentures affect
      the progress of microleakage and dental caries. Failures occur due to altered fit
      which is also influenced by the method of fabrication. An in-vitro study was
      conducted to determine among the cast base metal, copy milled zirconia, computer
      aided designing computer aided machining/manufacturing zirconia and direct metal
      laser sintered copings which showed best marginal accuracy and internal fit.
      Forty extracted maxillary premolars were mounted on an acrylic model and reduced
      occlusally using a milling machine up to a final tooth height of 4 mm from the
      cementoenamel junction. Axial reduction was accomplished on a surveyor and a
      chamfer finish line was given. The impressions and dies were made for fabrication
      of copings which were luted on the prepared teeth under standardized loading,
      embedded in self-cure acrylic resin, sectioned and observed using scanning
      electron microscope for internal gap and marginal accuracy. The copings
      fabricated using direct metal laser sintering technique exhibited best marginal
      accuracy and internal fit. Comparison of mean between the four groups by ANOVA
      and post-hoc Tukey HSD tests showed a statistically significant difference
      between all the groups (p?0.05). It was concluded that the copings fabricated
      using direct metal laser sintering technique exhibited best marginal accuracy and
      internal fit. Additive digital technologies such as direct metal laser sintering
      could be cost-effective for the clinician, minimize failures related to fit and
      increase longevity of teeth and prostheses.

PMID- 28569448
TI  - Outcomes of Immediate Function Implant Prosthetic Restorations with Mechanical
      Complications: A Retrospective Clinical Study with 5 Years of Follow-Up.
AB  - Mechanical complications may have a significant impact on the outcome of implant
      supported restorations; however, few studies address the topic. This study
      investigated the outcomes of implant supported restorations with mechanical
      complications. A total of 378 patients with 378 restorations supported by 1283
      implants were included. Results demonstrated a prosthetic and implant cumulative
      survival rate at 5 years of 99.7% and 95.7%, respectively. Maxillary implants
      were a determinant for implant failure (hazard ratio= 6.7), while a reduced risk
      was registered for single tooth restorations (hazard ratio= 0.1) after adjusting
      for other variables of interest.

PMID- 28569449
TI  - A randomised controlled trial of a nanofilled composite at three years: Did
      selective enamel etching have an effect?
AB  - General dental practice is increasingly being recognised as the ideal situation
      for the conduct of clinical trials into the longevity of restorations. The aim of
      this study was to investigate the survival of 75 nanofilled resin composite
      restorations placed in an assortment of cavities using a self-etch dentine
      bonding agent, in five UK dental practices by members of the UK-based practice
      based research group, the PREP Panel, with half of the restorations receiving a
      selective enamel etch and the other half being placed using a self-etching
      approach. The results indicated good performance of the restorations examined,
      with no failures being identified and excellent surface characteristics, in terms
      of colour stability, minimal surface roughness and optimal anatomic form.
      Selective enamel etching tended to produce less marginal discolouration, although
      these results were not statistically significant.

PMID- 28569450
TI  - A Cross-Sectional Survey on Reasons for Initial Placement and Replacement of
      Single Crowns.
AB  - This cross-sectional survey investigated the reasons for placement and
      replacement of single crowns, the type of materials selected for initial
      placement and evaluated their longevity. Information was collected over 19 months
      period using a questionnaire focusing on the principal reasons for the placement
      and replacement of crowns, selected material type and the age of the crowns at
      the time of replacement. A total of 842 single crowns were evaluated in 476
      patients. Of the 842 crowns, 472 (56%) were initial placements and 370 (44%)
      replacements. The main reason for placement of first single crowns was related to
      endodontic problems (26.5%). Metal-ceramic was indicated significantly more
      frequent (88.9%; p?0.01) than other materials for the placement and replacement
      of single crowns. The median age of the replaced crowns was 6 years.

PMID- 28569452
TI  - Zirconia-Reinforced Lithium Silicate Ceramic - A 2-Year Follow-up of a Clinical
      Experience with Anterior Crowns.
AB  - The aim of this manuscript is to describe 2-year follow-up of a clinical
      experience with a zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramic for an anterior
      rehabilitation with single metal-free crowns. The maxillary-central incisor teeth
      crowns were made by zirconium-reinforced lithium silicate and covered with
      porcelain were obtained with a digital impression with the intra-oral scanner of
      the CEREC system as a basis for virtual design, as well as a laminate for the
      left lateral maxillary incisor, based on a "double scanning" technique. Lithium
      silicate material seems to be a safe and satisfactory alternative for anterior
      crowns' rehabilitation.

PMID- 28569451
TI  - Treatment Outcomes and Assessment of Oral Health Related Quality of Life in
      Treated Hypodontia Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: 1. Assess treatment outcomes and oral health related quality of lifeM
      (OHRQoL) of hypodontia patients after completing dental treatment at the Eastman
      Dental Hospital and compare it with British public norms. 2. Assess factors which
      have an association with patients' reported OHRQoL. METHODS: Hypodontia patients
      who finished their treatment completed a 16-item questionnaire (UK oral health
      related quality-of-life measure), a list of four questions about their
      satisfaction with treatment received and a clinical assessment using modified
      USPHS criteria. RESULTS: The sample included 52 participants; median age 28 years
      (range 16 - 61 years). All participants had completed treatment for at least 6
      months (range 6-60 months). Clinical assessment revealed 4 of the participants
      had complications requiring treatment. The OHRQoL mean scores of the sample were
      statistically significantly higher than the mean scores of the British public
      norms for most age groups (P?0.05). Factors which revealed association with
      OHRQoL scores were: gender (P=.047) and satisfaction with dental aesthetics
      (P=.006). CONCLUSIONS: Hypodontia patients following treatment reported higher
      OHRQoL average scores compared to the British population. Higher OHRQoL scores
      were related to patients' satisfaction with dental aesthetics after treatment.
      Females tended to report higher OHRQoL scores than males.

PMID- 28569453
TI  - Stratification of prosthetic complications by manufacturer in implant-supported
      restorations with a 5 years' follow-up: systematic review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prosthetic complications on implant-supported restorations have
      been documented in several papers published in the literature. Several
      manufacturers are present on the market but results are often cumulated and may
      thus be misleading. The objective of the present review is to assess the
      prosthetic complications of implant-supported restorations with particular
      interest of the results obtained with prostheses from different manufacturers.
      EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A manual search of Medline/PubMed was carried out up to
      June 2016, yielding a total of 6832 articles, which were narrowed down to 1450,
      then 347 abstracts to include 55 papers after full text reading. Papers with at
      least 5 years of follow-up reporting on prosthetic complications of single and
      fixed partial prosthesis were included. Prosthetic complications were divided
      into mechanical and technical complications, and reported in a table. EVIDENCE
      SYNTHESIS: Overall 14.4% of prosthetic complication was found for a total of 6623
      restorations followed for an average of 7.4 years (range 5-16 years). Results
      where then sorted and compared. Single crowns were affected by 1.4% of mechanical
      complications and 10.9% of technical complications after a mean of 7.4 years.
      Fixed partial prosthesis were affected by 2.5% of mechanical complications and
      18% of technical complications. Screw-retained and cemented restorations were
      calculated to have a 5 years rate of complications of 21.2% and 9.3%,
      respectively, which demonstrated a statistically difference with fisher exact
      test with P<0.1. Only 3 manufacturers presented more than 10 articles and were
      directly compared with Fisher's exact test with P<0.1. The incidence of overall
      complications was estimated to be after 5 years of 11.2%, 10.8% and 13.8% for
      Straumann, Nobel, and Astratech, respectively, but dividing results in mechanical
      and technical complications, gave different results. Straumann was estimated to
      have less mechanical complications after 5 years in respect to Nobel and
      Astratech, but the three were similar for technical complications. CONCLUSIONS:
      although studies present very different material and methods and do not report
      all data, some conclusions can be made. The difference between mechanical
      complications lead the authors to suppose that there might be a difference in
      results obtained by different implant abutment connections. It is also noticed
      that all papers were published by expert clinicians and universities research
      centers that apply rigid surgical and prosthetic protocols and use original
      abutments.

PMID- 28569454
TI  - Antibiotic treatment to prevent postextraction complications: a monocentric,
      randomized clinical trial. Preliminary outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tooth extraction is a very common procedure in oral surgery. Despite
      this, very little information is available in the literature as to the antibiotic
      management of the patient. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the
      antibiotic prophylaxis could be beneficial in preventing postextraction local
      complications and whether the use of a probiotic could help reduce the antibiotic
      gastro-intestinal side effects. METHODS: One hundred eleven patients meeting the
      inclusion criteria were initially included in this randomized clinical trial and
      randomly allocated to one of the three experimental groups according to a
      computer-generated randomization list. Patients allocated to the group 1 were
      given amoxicillin+clavulanic acid (2 g/day for 6 days), patients allocated to the
      group 2 received antibiotic + probiotic (Bifidobacterium longum+lactoferrin) and
      patients allocated to the group 3 received no antibiotic therapy after the
      extraction. To evaluate post-extractive complications, controls were performed at
      days 7, 14 and 21 after the extraction. RESULTS: At T1 pain at the surgical site
      was present in the 48%, 30% and 71.4% of the patients belonging respectively to
      the antibiotic alone group, to the antibiotic+probiotic group and to the control
      group. The mean Numeric Rating Score (NRS) score was 1.56+/-1.91, 1.08+/-1.93,
      2.02+/-2.27 respectively (P=0.0498). Two patients belonging to the control group
      experienced dry socket. In addition, 9 patients (33.3%) in the antibiotic-alone
      group and 1 patient (2.7%) in the antibiotic+probiotic group reported intestinal
      distension (P=0.0012), 7 days after surgery. Finally, diarrhea was recorded in 5
      patients of the antibiotic alone group (18.5%), on the other hand, no patients of
      the antibiotic+probiotic group and the control group reported diarrhea.
      CONCLUSIONS: Postextractive complications observed in each group have been mild
      and fast to resolve. The antibiotic administration showed a decrease in pain
      suffered by patients but a higher incidence of gastrointestinal side effects,
      such as abdominal distension and diarrhea, which seemed to be relieved by the
      concomitant use of the probiotic.

PMID- 28569455
TI  - Nordic walking and specific strength training for neck- and shoulder pain in
      office workers: a pilot-study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: More than half of all adults have experienced neck pain during the
      last six months. Studies have demonstrated reduced pain in the neck-and shoulder
      region after specific strength training of the affected muscles, but specific
      endurance training of neck and shoulder muscles has not been properly examined.
      AIM: To examine the impact of Nordic walking (NW) compared to specific strength
      training (ST) and a non-training control group (Con) on self-reported neck-and
      shoulder pain among office workers. DESIGN: Randomized intervention trial with a
      stratified control group. SETTINGS: University research laboratory. POPULATION:
      Thirty-four female office workers with neck- and shoulder pain. METHODS: The
      participants were allocated to NW, ST or Con. Pain intensity (0-100 mm Visual
      Analog Scale), isometric abduction strength and a Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT)
      were assessed pre, post and 10 weeks postintervention. Both training groups
      attended the training programs twice per week for ten weeks (30 minutes per
      session). RESULTS: Both training groups demonstrated a similar (P=0.421-0.802),
      but significant reduction in pain intensity (P=0.014-0.018). Between post-test
      and the 10 weeks postintervention test, similar pain intensity was observed in
      the NW (P=0.932) while the ST demonstrated an increase (P=0.136). Throughout the
      testing period, no difference in pain was observed for the Con (P=0.724-1.000) or
      between the Con and the training groups (P=0.421-0.802). No changes in strength
      and 6MWT were observed between or within the groups (P=0.184-0.870). CONCLUSIONS:
      Both NW and ST reduced pain for office workers with low neck-and shoulder pain
      and appear to be useful exercise modalities for this group. CLINICAL
      REHABILITATION IMPACT: Both interventions reduced pain, but larger randomized
      studies should verify these findings.

PMID- 28569456
TI  - ICF-OB: a multidisciplinary questionnaire based on the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to address disability in
      obesity.

PMID- 28569458
TI  - Inflammation.

PMID- 28569457
TI  - Advances in radioguided surgery in oncology.
AB  - The sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is probably the most well-known radioguided
      technique in surgical oncology. Today SLN biopsy reduces the morbidity associated
      with lymphadenectomy and increases the identification rate of occult lymphatic
      metastases by offering the pathologist the lymph nodes with the highest
      probability of containing metastatic cells. These advantages may result in a
      change in clinical management both in melanoma and breast cancer patients. The
      SLN evaluation by pathology currently implies tumor burden stratification for
      further prognostic information. The concept of SLN biopsy includes pre-surgical
      lymphoscintigraphy as a "roadmap" to guide the surgeon toward the SLNs and to
      localize unpredictable lymphatic drainage patterns. In addition to planar images,
      SPECT/CT improves SLN detection, especially in sites closer to the injection
      site, providing anatomic landmarks which are helpful in localizing SLNs in
      difficult to interpret studies. The use of intraoperative imaging devices allows
      a better surgical approach and SLN localization. Several studies report the value
      of such devices for excision of additional sentinel nodes and for monitoring the
      whole procedure. The combination of preoperative imaging and radioguided
      localization constitutes the basis for a whole spectrum of basic and advanced
      nuclear medicine procedures, which recently have been encompassed under the term
      "guided intraoperative scintigraphic tumor targeting" (GOSTT). Excepting SLN
      biopsy, GOSTT includes procedures based on the detection of target lesions with
      visible uptake of tumor-seeking radiotracers on SPECT/CT or PET/CT enabling their
      subsequent radioguided excisional biopsy for diagnostic of therapeutic purposes.
      The incorporation of new PET-tracers into nuclear medicine has reinforced this
      field delineating new strategies for radioguided excision. In cases with
      insufficient lesion uptake after systemic radiotracer administration,
      intralesional injection of a tracer without migration may enable subsequent
      excision of the targeted tissue. This approach has been helpful in non-palpable
      breast cancer and in solitary pulmonary nodules. The introduction of allied
      technologies like fluorescence constitutes a recent advance aimed to refine the
      search for SLNs and tracer-avid lesions in the operation theatre in combination
      with radioguidance.

PMID- 28569460
TI  - Antibiotics and Chemotherapy in Surgery.

PMID- 28569459
TI  - Natural Resistance to Infection.

PMID- 28569462
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569461
TI  - Progress in Surgery of the Pancreas Since 1945.

PMID- 28569463
TI  - Portal Hypertension.

PMID- 28569464
TI  - Some Aspects of the Repair Process in Mammals.

PMID- 28569465
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569466
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569468
TI  - New Concepts in Burn Physiology and Burn Treatment.

PMID- 28569467
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569469
TI  - Current Concepts and Controversies on Traumatic Shock.

PMID- 28569471
TI  - University Hospitals of Today and Tomorrow.

PMID- 28569470
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569472
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569473
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569474
TI  - University Surgery in America 1782-1962.

PMID- 28569475
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569476
TI  - University Surgery in Sweden.

PMID- 28569477
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569478
TI  - ?

PMID- 28569482
TI  - Liver Surgery.

PMID- 28569483
TI  - Thoracic Transposition of the Spleen and Spleno-pneumorrhaphy in Portal
      Hypertension Experimental Studies in Dogs.

PMID- 28569485
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28569484
TI  - Fat Embolism.

PMID- 28569486
TI  - First to Third Week.

PMID- 28569487
TI  - Fourth Week.

PMID- 28569489
TI  - Sixth Week.

PMID- 28569488
TI  - Fifth Week.

PMID- 28569490
TI  - Seventh Week.

PMID- 28569491
TI  - Eighth Week.

PMID- 28569492
TI  - Third Month.

PMID- 28569493
TI  - Fourth Month.

PMID- 28569494
TI  - Fifth Month.

PMID- 28569495
TI  - Sixth Month.

PMID- 28569497
TI  - Eighth Month.

PMID- 28569496
TI  - Seventh Month.

PMID- 28569498
TI  - Ninth Month.

PMID- 28569499
TI  - Birth and after Birth.

PMID- 28569501
TI  - Protonated MIL-125-NH2: Remarkable Adsorbent for the Removal of Quinoline and
      Indole from Liquid Fuel.
AB  - The removal of nitrogen-containing compounds (NCCs) from fossil fuels prior to
      combustion is currently of particular importance, and so we investigated an
      adsorptive method using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the removal of indole
      (IND) and quinoline (QUI), which are two of the main NCCs present in fossil
      fuels. We herein employed an amino (-NH2)-functionalized MIL-125 (MIL-125-NH2)
      MOF, which was further modified by protonation (P-MIL-125-NH2). These modified
      MOFs exhibited extraordinary performance in the adsorption of both IND (as
      representative neutral NCC) and QUI (as representative basic NCC). These MOFs
      were one of the most efficient adsorbents for the removal of NCCs. For example, P
      MIL-125-NH2 showed the highest adsorption capacity for QUI among ever reported
      adsorbent. The improved adsorption of IND was explained by H-bonding and cation
      pi interactions for MIL-125-NH2 and P-MIL-125-NH2, respectively, while the
      mechanisms for QUI were H-bonding and acid-base interactions, respectively. This
      is a rare phenomenon for a single material (especially not with very high
      porosity) to exhibit such remarkable performances in the adsorption of both basic
      QUI and neutral IND. The adsorption results obtained using regenerated MIL-125
      NH2 and P-MIL-125-NH2 also showed that these materials can be used several times
      without any severe degradation.

PMID- 28569500
TI  - Extreme Dynamics in the BamA beta-Barrel Seam.
AB  - BamA is an essential component of the beta-barrel assembly machine (BAM) that is
      responsible for insertion and folding of beta-barrel outer membrane proteins
      (OMPs) in Gram-negative bacteria. BamA is an OMP itself, and its beta-barrel
      transmembrane domain is thought to catalyze OMP insertion and folding, although
      the molecular mechanism remains poorly understood. Crystal structures of BamA and
      complementary molecular dynamics simulations have shown that its beta-barrel seam
      (the interface between the first and last barrel strands) is destabilized. This
      has led to mechanistic models in which the BamA barrel seam functions as a
      lateral gate that opens and successively accepts beta-hairpins from a nascent OMP
      such that a nascent barrel can bud from BamA. Consistent with this model,
      disulfide locking of the BamA barrel seam is lethal in Escherichia coli. Here we
      show that disulfide locking of the BamA barrel has no effect on its ability to
      catalyze folding of a model OMP into liposomes. However, disulfide trapping
      experiments indicate that the BamA barrel is highly dynamic in the liposome
      membranes, with the beta-strands at the barrel seam undergoing "register sliding"
      by more than 14 A both up and down the membrane. Remarkably, these extreme
      dynamics were also observed in the BamA barrel in the context of the native E.
      coli outer membrane. These results are consistent with a model in which the BamA
      barrel dynamics induce defects in the outer membrane that facilitate insertion of
      nascent OMPs.

PMID- 28569502
TI  - Prevention of Bacterial Colonization on Catheters by a One-Step Coating Process
      Involving an Antibiofouling Polymer in Water.
AB  - As reports of multidrug resistant pathogens have increased, patients with
      implanted medical catheters increasingly need alternative solutions to antibiotic
      treatments. As most catheter-related infections are directly associated with
      biofilm formation on the catheter surface, which, once formed, is difficult to
      eliminate, a promising approach to biofilm prevention involves inhibiting the
      initial adhesion of bacteria to the surface. In this study, we report an
      amphiphilic, antifouling polymer, poly(DMA-mPEGMA-AA) that can facilely coat the
      surfaces of commercially available catheter materials in water and prevent
      bacterial adhesion to and subsequent colonization of the surface, giving rise to
      an antibiofilm surface. The antifouling coating layer was formed simply by
      dipping a model substrate (polystyrene, PET, PDMS, or silicon-based urinary
      catheter) in water containing poly(DMA-mPEGMA-AA), followed by characterization
      by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The antibacterial adhesion properties
      of the polymer-coated surface were assessed for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
      and Escherichia coli (E. coli) growth under static (incubation in the presence of
      a bacterial suspension) and dynamic (bacteria suspended in a solution under flow)
      conditions. Regardless of the conditions, the polymer-coated surface displayed
      significantly reduced attachment of the bacteria (antiadhesion effect > ~8-fold)
      compared to the bare noncoated substrates. Treatment of the implanted catheters
      with S. aureus in vivo further confirmed that the polymer-coated silicon urinary
      catheters could significantly reduce bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation in
      a bacterial infection animal model. Furthermore, the polymer-coated catheters did
      not induce hemolysis and were resistant to the adhesion of blood-circulating
      cells, indicative of high biocompatibility. Collectively, the present amphiphilic
      antifouling polymer is potentially useful as a coating platform that renders
      existing medical devices resistant to biofilm formation.

PMID- 28569503
TI  - Interpenetrated Networks between Graphitic Carbon Infilling and Ultrafine TiO2
      Nanocrystals with Patterned Macroporous Structure for High-Performance Lithium
      Ion Batteries.
AB  - Interpenetrated networks between graphitic carbon infilling and ultrafine TiO2
      nanocrystals with patterned macropores (100-200 nm) were successfully
      synthesized. Polypyrrole layer was conformably coated on the primary TiO2
      nanoparticles (~8 nm) by a photosensitive reaction and was then transformed into
      carbon infilling in the interparticle mesopores of the TiO2 nanoparticles.
      Compared to the carbon/graphene supported TiO2 nanoparticles or carbon coated
      TiO2 nanostructures, the carbon infilling would provide a conductive medium and
      buffer layer for volume expansion of the encapsulated TiO2 nanoparticles, thus
      enhancing conductivity and cycle stability of the C-TiO2 anode materials for
      lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In addition, the macropores with diameters of 100
      200 nm in the C-TiO2 anode and the mesopores in carbon infilling could improve
      electrolyte transportation in the electrodes and shorten the lithium ion
      diffusion length. The C-TiO2 electrode can provide a large capacity of 192.8 mA h
      g-1 after 100 cycles at 200 mA g-1, which is higher than those of the pure
      macroporous TiO2 electrode (144.8 mA h g-1), C-TiO2 composite electrode without
      macroporous structure (128 mA h g-1), and most of the TiO2 based electrodes in
      the literature. Importantly, the C-TiO2 electrode exhibits a high rate
      performance and still delivers a high capacity of ~140 mA h g-1 after 1000 cycles
      at 1000 mA g-1 (~5.88 C), suggesting good lithium storage properties of the
      macroporous C-TiO2 composites with high capacity, cycle stability, and rate
      capability. This work would be instructive for designing hierarchical porous TiO2
      based anodes for high-performance LIBs.

PMID- 28569505
TI  - Copper(I) Complexes of a Flexible Bis-phospholane Ligand: Route to Paddle-Wheel-
      and Box-Type Macrocycles.
AB  - Two bis-phospholane copper(I) metallamacrocycles were selectively synthesized
      starting from the same two building blocks, namely, ligand 1 and [Cu(NCCH3)4]BF4.
      Reaction conditions (ligand:metal (L:M) ratio and dilution) can be tuned to
      obtain either a paddle-wheel- (2, L:M = 3:2) or box-type complex (3, L:M = 8:4).
      Their structures were unequivocally determined by X-ray crystallography. The
      solution 31P{1H} NMR spectrum of complex 2 consists of a broad signal, as is
      common for such complexes, whereas complex 3 shows splitting of the 31P{1H} NMR
      signal into a pseudoquartet due to 63,65Cu-31P coupling, a rare occurrence
      exhibited only by highly symmetrical copper(I) phosphine complexes.

PMID- 28569506
TI  - Tunable Luminescent Heterometallic Zn2Ln2 Edge-Defective Molecular Cubane with
      Stimuli-Responsive Properties.
AB  - Heterometallic Zn2Ln2 [Ln = Gd (1), Eu (2), Tb (3), Dy (4)] discrete molecules
      with edge-defective cubane structure are assembled from a multifunctional
      fluorescent conjugate ligand and LnIII/ZnII mixed-metal ions; they exhibit the
      tunable luminescence, including ligand-based yellow-green light emission for 1
      and 4 and lanthanide-center emission for 2 and 3. The multiple stimuli-responsive
      photoluminescences were investigated to show a two-step thermal-responsive
      luminescence increase in the intensity upon cooling and piezochromic
      luminescence.

PMID- 28569504
TI  - pH-Switchability and Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of
      Monocyclopentadienylruthenium(II)/iron(II) Tetrazoles/Tetrazolates: Synthesis,
      Characterization, and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Calculations.
AB  - Tetrazole/tetrazolate monocyclopentadienyliron(II) and ruthenium(II) compounds of
      general formulas [(eta5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6]/[(eta5
      C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)] were investigated for their pH-switching second-order
      nonlinear optical (SONLO) properties. Compounds [(eta5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)]
      (M = Fe, Ru) and compound [(eta5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] were fully
      characterized by (1H-, 13C-, 31P-) NMR, cyclic voltammetry, and elemental
      analysis, and compounds [(eta5-C5H5)Fe(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)] and [(eta5
      C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] were further characterized by single-crystal X
      ray diffraction; the synthesis of [(eta5-C5H5)Fe(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] was
      unsuccessful. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations were
      performed using PBE0 and CAM-B3LYP functionals to evaluate the first
      hyperpolarizability (betatot) of the tetrazole/tetrazolate complexes and for a
      detailed analysis of the experimental data. Both functionals predict (i) high
      first hyperpolarizabilities for the tetrazolate complexes [(eta5
      C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)], with betatot[Ru] ~ 1.2betatot[Fe], and (ii) a 3-fold
      reduction in betatot[Ru] upon protonation, in complex [(eta5
      C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)]+, forecasting [(eta5
      C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)]/[(eta5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)]+ complexes as
      on/off, pH-switchable SONLO forms.

PMID- 28569507
TI  - The Role of Ligand Steric Bulk in New Monovalent Aluminum Compounds.
AB  - The tetrameric Al(I) cyclopentadienyl compound Al4Cp*4 (Cp* = C5Me5) is a
      prototypical low-valence Al compound, with delocalized bonding between four Al(I)
      atoms and eta5 ligands bound to the cluster exterior. The synthesis of new [AlR]4
      (R = C5Me4Pr, C5Me4iPr) tetramers is presented. Though these systems failed to
      crystallize, comparison of variable-temperature 27Al NMR data with density
      functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that these are Al4R4 tetramers
      analogous to Al4Cp*4 but with increased ligand steric bulk. NMR, DFT, and Atoms
      in Molecules analyses show that these clusters are enthalpically more stable as
      tetramers than the Cp* variant, due in part to noncovalent interactions across
      the bulkier ligand groups. Thermochemistry calculations for the low-valence metal
      interactions were found to be extremely sensitive to the DFT methodology used;
      the M06-2X functional with a cc-pVTZ basis set is shown to provide very accurate
      values for the enthalpy of tetramerization and 27Al NMR shifts. This
      computational method is then used to predict geometrical structures, noncovalent
      ligand interactions, and monomer/tetramer equilibrium in solution for a series of
      Al(I) cyclopentadienyl compounds of varying steric bulk.

PMID- 28569508
TI  - Tailoring Metalloporphyrin Frameworks for an Efficient Carbon Dioxide
      Electroreduction: Selectively Stabilizing Key Intermediates with H-Bonding
      Pockets.
AB  - The electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2ER) is a great challenge
      within the field of energy and environmental research. Competing reactions,
      including hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and surface oxidation, limit the
      conversion of CO2ER at low overpotentials. This is because these competing
      reactions produce intermediates (adsorbed H and OH) with chemical bonds similar
      to those formed in CO2ER (adsorbed COOH and OCHO). Here, we report the adsorption
      free energies of CO2ER and competitive intermediates within H-bonding
      functionalized metalloporphyrin frameworks using first-principles calculations.
      The functionalized frameworks shift the scaling relation of adsorption free
      energies to favor the CO2ER intermediates rather than the HER. Inspired by
      molecular catalysts, we proposed and studied H-bonding interfaces that
      specifically stabilize the target intermediates of the CO2ER. The selective H
      bonding stabilization reduced the limiting potential for CO2ER by up to 0.2-0.3
      V. Our results agree with previous experiments that found that cobalt- and iron
      based metalloporphyrins exhibited the most promising catalytic activity in CO2-to
      CO reduction, with small potential barriers for the adsorbed COOH intermediate.
      In addition, embedding the functionalized metalloporphyrin moieties in a rigid
      framework structure acted to enhance the CO2ER selectivity by preventing the
      porphyrin from stacking and keeping H-bonding interfaces in close proximity to
      only CO2ER intermediates. Improved selectivity to the desired CO2ER was achieved
      through three steps: first by systematically screening for metal centers, second
      by creating an ideal H-bonding environment, and finally by using a rigid
      macrocycle ring structure.

PMID- 28569509
TI  - Correction to "Do Cyclodextrins Aggregate in Water? Insights from NMR
      Experiments".

PMID- 28569510
TI  - In Situ Electrodeposited Synthesis of Electrochemiluminescent Ag Nanoclusters as
      Signal Probe for Ultrasensitive Detection of Cyclin-D1 from Cancer Cells.
AB  - Metal nanoclusters (NCs) as a new type of electrochemiluminescence (ECL)
      nanomaterials have attracted great attention, but their applications are limited
      due to relatively low luminescent efficiency and a complex preparation process.
      Herein, an ultrasensitive ECL biosensor for the detection of Cyclin-D1 (CCND1)
      was designed by utilizing in situ electrogenerated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) as
      ECL emitters and Fe3O4-CeO2 nanocomposites as a coreaction accelerator. The ECL
      luminous efficiency of AgNCs on the electrode could be significantly enhanced
      with the use of the Fe3O4-CeO2 for accelerating the reduction of S2O82- to
      generate the strong oxidizing intermediate radical SO4*-. As a result, the assay
      for CCND1 detection achieved excellent sensitivity with a linear range from 50
      fg/mL to 50 ng/mL and limit of detection down to 28 fg/mL. Impressively, the
      efficiency of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM), sophorae, toward MCF-7 cells
      was successfully investigated due to the overexpression of CCND1 in relation to
      the growth and metastasis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. In general, the
      proposed strategy provided an effective method for anticancer drug screening and
      expanded the application of metal NCs in ultrasensitive biodetection.

PMID- 28569511
TI  - New Insight of Water-Splitting Photocatalyst: H2O2-Resistance Poisoning and
      Photothermal Deactivation in Sub-micrometer CoO Octahedrons.
AB  - Hydrogen production by photocatalytic overall water-splitting represents an ideal
      pathway for clean energy harvesting, for which developing high-efficiency
      catalysts has been the central scientific topic. Nanosized CoO with high solar-to
      hydrogen efficiency (5%) is one of the most promising catalyst candidates.
      However, poor understanding of this photocatalyst leaves the key issue of rapid
      deactivation unclear and severely hinders its wide application. Here, we report a
      sub-micrometer CoO octahedron photocatalyst with high overall-water-splitting
      activity and outstanding ability of H2O2-resistance poisoning. We show that the
      deactivation of CoO catalyst originates from the unintended thermoinduced
      oxidation of CoO during photocatalysis, with coexistence of oxygen and water. We
      then demonstrate that introduction of graphene, as a heat conductor, largely
      enhanced the photocatalytic activity and stability of the CoO. Our work not only
      provides a new insight of CoO for photocatalytic water splitting but also
      demonstrates a new concept for photocatalyst design.

PMID- 28569512
TI  - Medical and non-medical costs of Parkinson disease - comparison of Europe, USA,
      Asia an Australia.
AB  - At present different kinds of dementia impose a significant economic burden on
      the whole societies. Parkinsons disease is the second most common type of
      dementia. The purpose of this study is to analyze the costs of people suffering
      from Parkinsons disease in the context of public expenditure needs for the
      affected people. Firstly, the treatment costs and care in the selected European
      countries are analyzed, and secondly, these data are compared with the data from
      other countries and continents. The focus is not only on the developed economies
      where the issue of costs and PD already causes significant expenditure from
      public budgets, but also on the developing economies. The methods applied in this
      study include a method of literature search of available sources describing the
      costs of PD and a qualitative comparative analysis method. The findings show that
      the data from the European countries range between 1,949 ? and 12,054 ?.
      Comparable data are in the USA at 17,064 ?, in Australia at 7,020 ? and in Asia
      they range between 649 ? and 9,544 ?. These values are certainly connected not
      only with the available data, but also with the level and possibilities of
      healthcare services in these countries. In addition, GDP for these continents and
      countries was specified and the cost ratio of patient with respect to GHD per
      capita was described. This calculation provides an orientation relative indicator
      about the economic burden with respect to the countrys development. The results
      indicate that the most significant issues are diseases and treatment in the
      European countries in which their highest incidence is expected in future.Key
      words: Parkinsons disease costs health care analysis.

PMID- 28569513
TI  - Gas chromatography - mass spectrometry studies of the component composition of
      carboxylic acids of the rhizomes of Iris medwedewii and Iris carthaliniae
      (Iridaceae).
AB  - The composition of carboxylic acids of the rhizomes of Iris carthaliniae and Iris
      medwedewii by the gas chromatography - mass spectrometry method has been studied
      for the first time. The total content of carboxylic acids for I. carthaliniae was
      1.34%, including (%) - 0.65 fatty; 0.36 mono-, di- and tri-carboxylic; 0.33
      phenol carboxylic acids. The yield of carboxylic acids for I. medwedewii was
      1.58%, including (%) - 0.73 fatty; 0.38 mono-, di- and tri-carboxylic; 0.47
      phenol carboxylic acids. The dominant fatty acids in the rhizomes of I.
      carthaliniae were myristic acid (25%), palmitic acid (14.41%), stearic acid
      (10.51%) and linoleic acid (6.05%). Besides, levulinic acid (15.84%) and oxalic
      acid (4.42%) prevailed among organic acids, while ferulic acid (2.43%), citric
      acid (1.88%) and malic acid (3.62%) prevailed among the hydroxy acids. The fatty
      acids palmitic acid (6.51%), linoleic acid (8.38%), oleic acid (3.87%) and capric
      acid (3.21%) were found in the rhizomes of I. medwedewii, and also, levulinic
      (29.39%), malonic (1.45%), succinic (1.72%) acids prevailed among the organic
      acids and citric (25.37%), malic (3.30%) and ferulic (2.42%) acids in the
      rhizomes of I. medwedewii prevailed among the hydroxy acids.Key words: Iris
      carthaliniae Iris medwedewii rhizomes carboxylic acids GC-MS analysis.

PMID- 28569515
TI  - Self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) of Ibuprofen: formulation, in vitro
      and in vivo evaluation.
AB  - The goal of the present study was to develop a self-emulsifying drug delivery
      system for the oral poorly water-soluble drug ibuprofen and to evaluate its oral
      bioavailability. Phase diagrams were constructed to determine the phase behaviour
      of the microemulsions and to compare the efficiency of various surfactant-oil
      mixtures. The SEDDS formulations of ibuprofen were prepared from a mixture of
      Labrafil M2125, Cremophor RH40, and Plurol oleique. The prepared emulsions were
      characterized for in vitro and in vivo behaviour. A FTIR study confirmed there is
      no interaction between the drug and excipients. DSC studies showed that the drug
      is in a solubilised form in the self-emulsifying formulations. The formulations
      were evaluated for thermodynamic stability, dispersibility, refractive index,
      viscosity and cloud point. Formulations showed a negative charge on globules
      which indicates their stability. The optimized formulation produced a
      microemulsion with a globule size of 177.5 nm. The in vitro release profile of
      the optimized formulation was significantly higher than that of the marketed
      formulation and pure drug. The anti-inflammatory activity of the optimized
      formulation was significantly higher than that of the marketed formulation and
      pure drug. The AUC and Cmax values after oral administration were higher for the
      ibuprofen SEDDS in comparison with the marketed product. These results suggest
      that SEDDS of Ibuprofen can be a useful tool to increase the bioavailability and
      an alternative to enhance the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs.Key words:
      ibuprofen self-emulsifying system phase diagram zeta potential, anti-inflammatory
      activity.

PMID- 28569514
TI  - Cytotoxic, anti-cancer, and anti-microbial effects of different extracts obtained
      from Artemisia rupestris.
AB  - Artemisia rupestris is a part of traditional Kazakh folk medicine. Extracts
      obtained from this plant are used to treat various diseases, including cancer.
      This study evaluates the anti-microbial, cytotoxic, and anti-cancer effects of
      different extracts of the plant. Different extraction techniques were used and
      the resultant activities were compared. Extracts of A. rupestris were prepared
      from the flowers plus the leaves and from the stems. The antimicrobial activity
      against Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus was quantified. Cell lines
      L1210 and THP-1 were used to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of these extracts
      in vitro. The anti-cancer effect was tested using L1210-induced tumorgenesis in
      mouse model. The aqueous extract of stems was the most active against C.
      albicans, whereas the methanolic extract of flowers plus leaves especially
      inhibited the growth of S. aureus. The aqueous extracts were found to be non
      cytotoxic for both cell lines, whereas the lipophilic extracts showed cytotoxic
      effects. The extract obtained from flowers plus leaves was more cytotoxic than
      that from stems. The tested extracts showed no anti-cancer potential. The results
      obtained testify to the relatively safe consumption of aqueous extracts of A.
      rupestris, but lipophilic extracts showed toxic effects and their consumption
      should be considered more carefully.Key words: L1210 cell line THP-1 cell line
      microwave-assisted extraction ultrasonic-assisted extraction Candida albicans
      Staphylococcus aureus.

PMID- 28569516
TI  - [The fate of Jewish pharmacists from the Czech Lands during the holocaust].
AB  - The authors describe the lives of several Jewish pharmacists and their families
      who lived and worked in the Czech Lands during the years 1918-1945. Their stories
      represented a typical mosaic, which corresponds to the fate of the Jewish
      community in the Czech Lands during World War II - all lost their property and
      the majority of them were murdered or lost their immediate families. Only a few
      of them succeeded to survive thanks to early emigration. Some of them lived until
      the liberation of the concentration camp Theresienstadt, too.Key words: Jews
      pharmacy shoah concentration camp Auschwitz.

PMID- 28569517
TI  - Quantifying the structure of free association networks across the life span.
AB  - We investigate how the mental lexicon changes over the life span using free
      association data from over 8,000 individuals, ranging from 10 to 84 years of age,
      with more than 400 cue words per age group. Using network analysis, with words as
      nodes and edges defined by the strength of shared associations, we find that
      associative networks evolve in a nonlinear (U-shaped) fashion over the life span.
      During early life, the network converges and becomes increasingly structured,
      with reductions in average path length, entropy, clustering coefficient, and
      small world index. Into late life, the pattern reverses but shows clear
      differences from early life. The pattern is independent of the increasing number
      of word types produced per cue across the life span, consistent with a network
      encoding an increasing number of relations between words as individuals age.
      Lifetime variability is dominantly driven by associative change in the least well
      connected words. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569518
TI  - Outcomes of psychological therapies for prisoners with mental health problems: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prisoners worldwide have substantial mental health needs, but the
      efficacy of psychological therapy in prisons is unknown. We aimed to
      systematically review psychological therapies with mental health outcomes in
      prisoners and qualitatively summarize difficulties in conducting randomized
      clinical trials (RCTs). METHOD: We systematically identified RCTs of
      psychological therapies with mental health outcomes in prisoners (37 studies).
      Effect sizes were calculated and meta-analyzed. Eligible studies were assessed
      for quality. Subgroup and metaregression analyses were conducted to examine
      sources of between-study heterogeneity. Thematic analysis reviewed difficulties
      in conducting prison RCTs. RESULTS: In 37 identified studies, psychological
      therapies showed a medium effect size (0.50, 95% CI [0.34, 0.66]) with high
      levels of heterogeneity with the most evidence for CBT and mindfulness-based
      trials. Studies that used no treatment (0.77, 95% CI [0.50, 1.03]) or waitlist
      controls (0.71, 95% CI [0.43, 1.00]) had larger effect sizes than those that had
      treatment-as-usual or other psychological therapies as controls (0.21, 95% CI
      [0.01, 0.41]). Effects were not sustained on follow-up at 3 and 6 months. No
      differences were found between group and individual therapy, or different
      treatment types. The use of a fidelity measure was associated with lower effect
      sizes. Qualitative analysis identified difficulties with follow-up and
      institutional constraints on scheduling and implementation of trials.
      CONCLUSIONS: CBT and mindfulness-based therapies are modestly effective in
      prisoners for depression and anxiety outcomes. In prisons with existing
      psychological therapies, more evidence is required before additional therapies
      can be recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569520
TI  - Rapid response to intensive treatment for bulimia nervosa and purging disorder: A
      randomized controlled trial of a CBT intervention to facilitate early behavior
      change.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Rapid response to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for eating
      disorders (i.e., rapid and substantial change to key eating disorder behaviors in
      the initial weeks of treatment) robustly predicts good outcome at end-of
      treatment and in follow up. The objective of this study was to determine whether
      rapid response to day hospital (DH) eating disorder treatment could be
      facilitated using a brief adjunctive CBT intervention focused on early change.
      METHOD: 44 women (average age 27.3 [8.4]; 75% White, 6.3% Black, 6.9% Asian) were
      randomly assigned to 1 of 2 4-session adjunctive interventions: CBT focused on
      early change, or motivational interviewing (MI). DH was administered as usual.
      Outcomes included binge/purge frequency, Eating Disorder Examination
      Questionnaire and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Intent-to-treat
      analyses were used. RESULTS: The CBT group had a higher rate of rapid response
      (95.7%) compared to MI (71.4%; p = .04, V = .33). Those who received CBT also had
      fewer binge/purge episodes (p = .02) in the first 4 weeks of DH. By end-of-DH,
      CBT participants made greater improvements on overvaluation of weight and shape
      (p = .008), and emotion regulation (ps < .008). Across conditions, there were no
      significant baseline differences between rapid and nonrapid responders (ps >
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate that rapid response can
      be clinically facilitated using a CBT intervention that explicitly encourages
      early change. This provides the foundation for future research investigating
      whether enhancing rates of rapid response using such an intervention results in
      improved longer term outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569521
TI  - How dispositional social risk-seeking promotes trusting strangers: Evidence based
      on brain potentials and neural oscillations.
AB  - Trust is a risky social decision because betrayal may occur. It's not clear how
      individual differences in social risk-seeking propensity modulate brain processes
      of trusting strangers. We examined event-related potentials and time-frequency
      power to investigate this question while 40 participants played the one-shot
      trust game. Twenty high social risk-seekers (HSR) and 20 low social risk-seekers
      (LSR) made trusting or distrusting decisions regarding unknown trustees while
      their electroencephalogram activity was recorded. At the decision-making stage,
      HSR participants exhibited a larger N2 and increased beta power following
      distrusting decisions than trusting decisions, suggesting greater cognitive
      control exerted to distrust. By contrast, no such N2 and beta differences were
      found for LSR participants. At the outcome evaluation stage, LSR participants
      exhibited a more negative-going difference wave between loss feedback-related
      negativity (FRN) and gain FRN (dFRN) and increased theta power (following losses
      compared to gains) than did HSR participants, indicating enhanced risk
      sensitivity of LSR people. Our findings provide insights into the mechanism by
      which social risk-taking facilitates trusting strangers. The results also shed
      light on the temporal course of brain activity involved in trust decision-making
      and outcome evaluation, as well as how individual differences modulate brain
      dynamics of trusting strangers. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569519
TI  - Concurrent varenicline and prolonged exposure for patients with nicotine
      dependence and PTSD: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevalence of smoking among individuals with posttraumatic stress
      disorder (PTSD) is disproportionately high, and PTSD is associated with
      especially poor response to smoking cessation treatment. OBJECTIVE: The current
      study examined whether integrating treatments for smoking cessation (varenicline
      plus smoking cessation counseling; VARCC) and PTSD (prolonged exposure therapy;
      PE) enhances smoking outcomes among smokers diagnosed with PTSD. METHOD: 142
      adults with nicotine dependence (ND) and PTSD were randomized to a treatment
      program consisting of varenicline, smoking cessation counseling, and PE (VARCC +
      PE) or to VARCC only. Seven-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA) at
      posttreatment (3-months postquit day) and follow-up (6-months postquit day),
      verified by serum cotinine levels and exhaled carbon monoxide, was the primary
      smoking outcome. Psychological outcomes were PTSD and depression severity. Mixed
      effects models included baseline PTSD severity as a moderator of treatment
      condition effects. RESULTS: Overall, VARCC + PE participants did not show greater
      PPA than VARCC participants. However, treatment effects were moderated by
      baseline PTSD severity. For participants with moderate and high PTSD severity,
      VARCC + PE led to significantly higher PPA than VARCC alone (ps<.05). No
      differences between treatment conditions emerged for participants with low
      baseline PTSD severity. Participants who received PE showed significantly greater
      reduction of PTSD and depression symptoms than those who did not receive PE.
      CONCLUSIONS: Integrating psychological treatment for PTSD and smoking cessation
      treatment enhances smoking cessation for participants with moderate or severe
      PTSD symptom severity, but does not enhance smoking cessation for participants
      with low baseline PTSD severity. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569522
TI  - Exercise motivation and nonspecific back pain: A comparison of patients and
      nonpatients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Motivation is a key variable to consider during exercise or exercise
      therapy of individuals with back pain. Based on organismic integration theory,
      this study aims to improve the understanding of exercise motivation in patients
      and nonpatients by evaluating the relationships between typical motivational
      profiles and personal characteristics, therapy parameters and pain related
      variables. METHOD: One hundred nine women and 145 men with back pain (mean age
      33.3 years; 31.9% currently under the care of a physician) involved in some kind
      of exercise for current nonspecific back pain voluntarily participated in this
      study. An adapted version of the Behavioral Regulation in Sport Questionnaire was
      used to measure exercise motivation. Furthermore, data on pain, disability
      status, level of sport activity, body concept, and the type of treatment or
      exercise were gathered. RESULTS: Autonomous forms of regulation were most
      prevalent among subjects. Of 4 motivational profiles found, 2 showed a positive
      pattern (29.1% highly motivated individuals, 21.7% autonomously convinced
      individuals), and 2 showed a more negative pattern (19.7% controlled convinced
      individuals, 29.5% less motivated individuals). Relationships between profiles
      and age, body concept, involvement in sport competition, and type of exercise
      were found. CONCLUSIONS: The different motivational profiles respectively reveal
      specific practical relevance. In particular, the controlled convinced pattern is
      supposed to be more maladaptive than all other profiles. The insights provided by
      this study supports the development of motivation-oriented treatments based on
      the assessment of individuals' motivational profiles. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569523
TI  - Mastery motivation and executive functions as predictors of adaptive behavior in
      adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy or myelomeningocele.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: To examine mastery motivation and executive functions or
      behaviors as predictors of adaptive behavior in adolescents and young adults with
      congenital neurodevelopmental conditions. METHOD: Participants were 2 groups of
      adolescents and young adults, ages 13-29, including 43 with cerebral palsy and 36
      with myelomeningocele living with a parent or caregiver. Participants completed
      measures of mastery motivation, executive functions or behaviors, and a measure
      of adaptive behavior. RESULTS: Group differences in mastery motivation, executive
      functions and executive behaviors, and adaptive behavior profiles were not
      significant. Mastery motivation, executive functions, and executive behaviors
      explained a significant portion of variance in adaptive behavior. CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings highlight the importance of assessing and addressing motivational and
      executive needs in developing interventions to promote independence. Findings
      also suggest the need for more comprehensive assessment of adaptive behaviors
      that include the ability to self-direct others in the completion of tasks
      necessary for successful daily functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569524
TI  - Mentalizing as a mechanism of change in the treatment of patients with borderline
      personality disorder: A parallel process growth modeling approach.
AB  - Although a number of effective psychotherapeutic treatments have been developed
      for borderline personality disorder (BPD), little is known about the mechanisms
      of change explaining the effects of these treatments. There is increasing
      evidence that impairments in mentalizing or reflective functioning-the capacity
      to reflect on the internal mental states of the self and others-are a central
      feature of BPD. To date, no study has directly investigated the core assumption
      of the mentalization-based approach to BPD, that changes in this capacity are
      associated with treatment outcome in BPD patients. This study is the first to
      directly investigate this assumption in a sample of 175 patients with BPD who
      received long-term hospitalization-based psychodynamic treatment. Using a
      parallel process growth modeling approach, this study investigated whether (a)
      treatment was related to changes in mentalizing capacity as measured with the
      Reflective Functioning Questionnaire; (b) these changes could be explained by
      pretreatment levels of mentalizing and/or symptomatic distress; and (c) changes
      in mentalizing capacity over time were associated with symptomatic improvement.
      Mentalizing and symptomatic distress were assessed at admission, 12 and 24 weeks
      into treatment, and at discharge. Results showed that treatment was associated
      with significant decreases in mentalizing impairments (i.e., uncertainty about
      mental states) and symptomatic distress. Pretreatment levels of mentalizing and
      symptomatic distress did not predict these changes. However, improvements in
      mentalizing were strongly associated with the rate of decrease in symptomatic
      distress over time (r = .89). These findings suggest that increases in
      mentalizing may indeed in part explain therapeutic change in the treatment of
      BPD, but more research is needed to further substantiate these conclusions.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569525
TI  - Web-based alcohol intervention for veterans: PTSD, combat exposure, and alcohol
      outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the relationship
      between baseline levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), combat exposure,
      and alcohol outcomes in a sample of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and
      Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans using a web-based self-management
      intervention (VetChange) for problem drinking. METHOD: The current study focuses
      on 523 veterans who participated in a larger randomized clinical trial. Analyses
      in the current study include (a) multivariable linear regression models to assess
      the relationship between PTSD, combat exposure, and alcohol variables at
      baseline, and (b) general linear models accounting for correlated data within
      subjects to analyze change over time for alcohol outcomes as a function of
      baseline PTSD symptoms, combat exposure, and covariates. RESULTS: There was a
      positive association between PTSD symptom severity and alcohol use and alcohol
      problem severity at baseline. However, participants with higher baseline PTSD
      symptoms demonstrated a significantly greater reduction in alcohol use during the
      intervention and a greater reduction in alcohol problems from baseline to 3-month
      follow-up. Combat exposure severity was positively associated with alcohol
      problems at baseline. However, veterans with higher exposure demonstrated a
      greater reduction in average weekly drinking between end of intervention and
      follow-up, and otherwise showed changes similar to participants with lower
      exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of baseline PTSD symptoms and combat
      exposure severity did not prevent OEF/OIF veterans from achieving positive
      alcohol outcomes through participation in a self-management web intervention for
      problem drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569526
TI  - Noisy preferences in risky choice: A cautionary note.
AB  - We examine the effects of multiple sources of noise in risky decision making.
      Noise in the parameters that characterize an individual's preferences can combine
      with noise in the response process to distort observed choice proportions. Thus,
      underlying preferences that conform to expected value maximization can appear to
      show systematic risk aversion or risk seeking. Similarly, core preferences that
      are consistent with expected utility theory, when perturbed by such noise, can
      appear to display nonlinear probability weighting. For this reason, modal choices
      cannot be used simplistically to infer underlying preferences. Quantitative model
      fits that do not allow for both sorts of noise can lead to wrong conclusions.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569527
TI  - Pseudocontingencies and choice behavior in probabilistic environments with
      context-dependent outcomes.
AB  - Pseudocontingencies are inferences about correlations in the environment that are
      formed on the basis of statistical regularities like skewed base rates or varying
      base rates across environmental contexts. Previous research has demonstrated that
      pseudocontingencies provide a pervasive mechanism of inductive inference in
      numerous social judgment tasks (Fiedler, Freytag, & Meiser, 2009). The present
      research extended the analysis of pseudocontingencies from social judgment to
      actual choice behavior in a decision scenario of personal relevance. In 4
      experiments, participants were first exposed to a learning environment in which
      choice options were presented together with positive or negative outcomes. The
      base rates of options and outcomes were skewed and varied across different
      contexts. After the learning phase, participants chose between options on the
      basis of the previously learned outcome probabilities and were rewarded in
      accordance with their individual performance. The results revealed that
      participants inferred a pseudocontingency between options and outcomes and
      followed the pseudocontingency in their decision behavior (Experiments 1-4). The
      observed pseudocontingency was stronger in a context with predominantly positive
      outcomes and replicated with different learning distributions. Pseudocontingency
      effects were related to interindividual differences in risk aversion and
      moderated by ease of base rate learning (Experiment 2) and processing time
      (Experiment 4), whereas the salience of rare events with extreme outcomes did not
      affect choice behavior (Experiment 3). The findings underline the role of
      pseudocontingencies in choice behavior as a subjectively cogent tool for decision
      making in complex probabilistic environments. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569528
TI  - Context influences on the relationship between views of aging and subjective age:
      The moderating role of culture and domain of functioning.
AB  - Subjective age has been shown to reliably predict a variety of psychological and
      physical health outcomes, yet our understanding of its determinants is still
      quite limited. Using data from the Aging as Future project, the authors examined
      the degree to which views of aging influence subjective age and how this
      influence varies across cultures and domains of everyday functioning. Using data
      from 1,877 adults aged from 30 to 95 years of age collected in China, Germany,
      and the United States, they assessed how general attitudes about aging and
      perceptions of oneself as an older adult influenced subjective age estimates in 8
      different domains of functioning. More positive attitudes about aging were
      associated with older subjective ages, whereas more positive views of self in old
      age were associated with younger subjective age. It is hypothesized that these
      effects are reflective of social-comparison processes and self-protective
      mechanisms. These influences varied considerably over contexts, with views of
      aging having a greater impact in domains associated with stronger negative
      stereotypes of aging (e.g., health) compared to those with more positive ones
      (e.g., family). Culture also moderated the impact of aging views in terms of the
      strength of prediction, direction of effect, and age of greatest influence,
      presumably due to cultural differences in the salience and strength of aging
      related belief systems across contexts. The results illustrate the contextual
      sensitivity of subjective age and highlight the role played by an individual's
      views of old age-both in general and regarding oneself-in determining their own
      experience of aging. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569529
TI  - Age differences in coupling of intraindividual variability in mnemonic strategies
      and practice-related associative recall improvements.
AB  - The importance of encoding strategies for associative recall is well established,
      but there have been no studies of aging and intraindividual variability (IAV) in
      strategy use during extended practice. We observed strategy use and cued-recall
      test performance over 101 days of practice in 101 younger adults (M = 25.6 years)
      and 103 older adults (M = 71.3 years) sandwiched by a pretest and posttest
      battery including an associative recall test. Each practice session included 2
      lists of 12 number-noun paired-associate (PA) items (e.g., 23-DOGS), presented
      for brief exposures titrated to maintain below-ceiling performance throughout
      practice. Participants reported strategy use (e.g., rote repetition, imagery)
      after each test. Substantial IAV in strategy use was detected that was coupled
      with performance; lists studied with normatively effective strategies (e.g.,
      imagery) generated higher PA recall than lists studied with less effective
      strategies (e.g., rote repetition). In comparison to younger adults, older
      adults' practice (a) relied more on repetition and less on effective strategies,
      (b) showed lower levels of IAV in effective strategy use, and (c) had lower
      within-person strategy-recall coupling, especially late in practice. Individual
      differences in pretest-posttest gains in PA recall were predicted by average
      level of effective strategy use in young adults but by strategy-recall coupling
      in older adults. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that experiencing
      variability in strategic outcomes during practice helps hone the effectiveness of
      strategic encoding behavior, and that older adults' reduced degree of pretest
      posttest gains is influenced by lower likelihood of using and optimizing
      effective strategies through practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569530
TI  - Network analysis for the visualization and analysis of qualitative data.
AB  - We present a novel manner in which to visualize the coding of qualitative data
      that enables representation and analysis of connections between codes using graph
      theory and network analysis. Network graphs are created from codes applied to a
      transcript or audio file using the code names and their chronological location.
      The resulting network is a representation of the coding data that characterizes
      the interrelations of codes. This approach enables quantification of qualitative
      codes using network analysis and facilitates examination of associations of
      network indices with other quantitative variables using common statistical
      procedures. Here, as a proof of concept, we applied this method to a set of
      interview transcripts that had been coded in 2 different ways and the resultant
      network graphs were examined. The creation of network graphs allows researchers
      an opportunity to view and share their qualitative data in an innovative way that
      may provide new insights and enhance transparency of the analytical process by
      which they reach their conclusions. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569531
TI  - Social-cognitive factors of long-term physical exercise 7 years after orthopedic
      treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although it has been confirmed that physical exercise improves
      orthopedic conditions, many individuals fail to maintain a regular exercise
      regimen after being discharged from medical rehabilitation. The present study
      examines the role of intention, social support, self-determination, planning, and
      self-efficacy in facilitating strength and endurance training. DESIGN: In a 7
      year observational study, intention, received social support and self
      determination were assessed at baseline, self-efficacy and planning at 6-month
      follow-up, and physical exercise at 1-year, 3-year, and 7-year follow-up. Study
      participants were recruited from an orthopedic rehabilitation center, N = 641
      participated in the survey at baseline, n = 495 at 6-month follow-up, n = 373 at
      1-year follow-up, n = 330 at 3-year follow-up, and n = 191at 7-year follow-up.
      Path analyses were applied to investigate whether personal and social resources
      contribute to long-term physical activity. RESULTS: Self-determination and
      planning mediated the link from intention and from social support to physical
      exercise at 1-, 3- and 7-year follow-ups. Self-efficacy facilitated planning and
      bridged the intention-behavior relationship in the domain of strength training
      after 1 year. An inverse direct relationship between social support and strength
      training was also found for all follow-ups. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that
      intention, received social support and self-determination act as crucial
      resources in the long-term management of exercise. Planning can bridge the
      intention-behavior gap on a long-term basis. Behavior change interventions should
      replenish personal and social resources to empower individuals to maintain a
      healthy lifestyle (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569532
TI  - College-age adults' religiosity, family functioning and values, and willingness
      to provide care for a relative with a chronic health condition.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: The population of adults age 65 and older is increasing at a
      faster rate than the rest of the U.S. POPULATION: As such, older adults,
      particularly those with chronic health conditions and disabilities, will require
      informal care from today's college-age adults. At present, there is no research
      examining factors predicting college-age individuals' willingness to provide care
      for a family member with a chronic condition. The purpose of this study was to
      examine the pattern of associations among college-age adults' religiosity, family
      functioning, family values, and willingness to provide care for a family member
      with a chronic health condition. Research Method/Design: A sample of 330
      undergraduate students from a major public research university completed an
      online survey with measures assessing these constructs. Four different structural
      equation models were tested. RESULTS: The fourth model revealed good fit indices
      and was therefore retained. This model found that religiosity and family values
      were positively and uniquely associated with willingness to provide care. Family
      functioning yielded a significant indirect effect through family values.
      CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The current study findings suggest religiosity, family
      functioning, and family values play a role in willingness to provide care, and
      thus, future researchers should target these constructs for intervention-based
      studies. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569533
TI  - Evaluation of a concentric biopsychosocial model of well-being in persons with
      spinal cord injuries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate a concentric
      biopsychosocial model of well-being in individuals with spinal cord injuries
      (SCI). METHOD: Adults (N = 235) with SCI participated in this study. A cross
      sectional design with hierarchical regression and Andrew Hayes' (2013) PROCESS
      mediation analysis procedure was used to evaluate the model. RESULTS: Each step
      of the hierarchical regression on life satisfaction, in which biological
      variables were entered first, social variables were entered second, and
      psychological variables were entered third, was significant. Examining the
      standardized partial coefficients, pain, interpersonal self-efficacy, social
      support, hope-agency, and self-esteem were all significantly associated with life
      satisfaction, controlling for variables in each outward ring of the concentric
      model. Four serial mediational analyses were also conducted in which the social
      and psychological variables significantly partially mediated the relationship
      between pain and life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide support for
      a concentric biopsychosocial model of well-being in persons with SCI.
      Rehabilitation interventions should focus on augmenting biopsychosocial factors
      to allow for maximum improvement in well-being outcomes in individuals with SCI.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569534
TI  - Family caregivers' opinions about interaction with the environment in
      consciousness disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess family caregivers' opinions about level of interaction with
      the environment in their relatives with disorders of consciousness (DOCs) and to
      explore psychological features of caregivers whose opinions diverge from
      clinicians' diagnosis. METHOD: Forty-five family caregivers of 38 DOC inpatients
      without communication abilities answered 2 questions assessing their opinion
      about level of interaction with the environment in their relatives. Self-report
      questionnaires were used to evaluate caregivers' depression, anxiety,
      psychophysiological disturbances, prolonged grief disorder, coping strategies,
      quality of perceived needs and social support. RESULTS: Fifteen caregivers (5
      relatives of patients in vegetative state and 10 of patients in minimally
      conscious state) considered their relatives able to communicate, in contrast with
      clinical diagnosis. These caregivers had significantly higher depressive
      symptoms, and higher worries about possible death of their relatives with respect
      to the remaining caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers of DOC patients detected
      some interaction with the environment in their relatives more often than care
      professionals. This is likely related to caregivers' beliefs and expectations,
      but is also based on observations closer and longer than those possible for
      physicians. These considerations are important to build a therapeutic alliance
      with caregivers and to involve them in the diagnostic process and rehabilitative
      program. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569535
TI  - A review of the use and psychometric properties of the Cognistat/Neurobehavioral
      Cognitive Status Examination in adults post-cerebrovascular accident.
AB  - This Rehabilitation Measures Database summary provides a review of the
      psychometric properties of the Cognistat/Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status
      Examination in individuals with cognitive impairment. A full review of the
      Cognistat/Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination as well as reviews of over
      300 other instruments can be found at www.rehabmeasures.org. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28569536
TI  - Health-related quality of life trajectories during predialysis care and
      associated illness perceptions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify health-related quality of life (HRQOL) trajectories during
      18 months of predialysis care and associated patient characteristics and illness
      perceptions. METHOD: 396 incident predialysis patients participating in the
      prospective PREdialysis PAtient REcord-2 study completed every 6 months the 36
      item Short Form Health Survey (i.e., mental and physical HRQOL) and Revised
      Illness Perception Questionnaire. HRQOL trajectories were examined using latent
      class growth models, and associated baseline factors were identified using
      logistic regression. Analyses for illness perceptions were adjusted for
      demographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Three physical HRQOL
      trajectories (low-stable [34.1% of the sample], medium-declining [32.5%], and
      high-increasing [33.4%]) and two mental HRQOL trajectories (low-stable [38.7%]
      and high-stable [61.3%]) were identified. Increased odds for a low-stable
      physical HRQOL trajectory were detected in older patients (Odds ratio [OR] =
      1.04), patients with cardiovascular disease (OR = 2.1) and patients who believed
      to a lesser extent they can personally control their disease (ORadj = 0.88).
      Increased odds for both a low-stable physical and mental HRQOL trajectory were
      detected in patients who believed to a higher extent that their disease is
      cyclical, has negative consequences, causes negative feelings, and in patients
      who believed to a lesser extent they understand their disease (ORadj ranged
      between 0.84 and 1.36). Additionally, patients who attributed more symptoms to
      their disease had increased odds for a medium-declining (ORadj = 1.21) and low
      stable physical HRQOL trajectory (ORadj = 1.50). CONCLUSIONS: Older age and
      cardiovascular disease are markers for unfavorable physical HRQOL trajectories,
      and stronger negative illness perceptions are markers for unfavorable physical
      and mental HRQOL trajectories. Targeting negative illness perceptions could
      possibly optimize HRQOL during predialysis care. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569538
TI  - Suppression and expression as distinct emotion-regulation processes in daily
      interactions: Longitudinal and meta-analyses.
AB  - Emotional suppression and expression both occur frequently in daily social
      interactions, yet research examining these emotion regulation processes
      simultaneously in naturalistic contexts remains limited. Although theory and
      research tend to reflect an implicit assumption that suppression and expression
      represent opposite sides of the same construct, they are likely to occur
      independently and exert different influences on intrapersonal and interpersonal
      experiences. In 4 experience-sampling and longitudinal studies, we assessed the
      personal and interpersonal consequences of daily emotional suppression and
      expression within romantic and close relationships. Mixed-model analyses revealed
      that suppression and expression consistently predicted independent and distinct
      outcomes across the studies. When individuals suppressed their emotions, they
      experienced more intrapersonal costs such as greater depressed mood, greater
      fatigue, lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction. Interpersonally, they
      also felt less acceptance from others, more distancing by others, and less
      relationship satisfaction. Greater suppression in daily life also predicted
      increases in depressive symptoms and reductions in relationship satisfaction 3
      months later. In contrast, when individuals were more emotionally expressive
      during daily interactions, they experienced interpersonal benefits such as
      greater acceptance from others, greater relatedness and relationship
      satisfaction, and less distancing by others. Greater emotional expression in
      daily life also predicted increases in self-esteem and relationship satisfaction
      across time. Meta-analyses of the 4 studies confirmed the reliability and
      significance of these relationships; |r's| = .12-.33. These studies demonstrate
      that suppression and expression are distinct processes used to manage emotions
      within social relationships and operate differently in shaping personal well
      being and relationship functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569537
TI  - Variation in the serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and inertia of
      negative and positive emotions in daily life.
AB  - An important element of understanding the genotype-phenotype link in psychiatric
      disorders lies in identifying the psychological mechanisms through which genetic
      variation impacts mental health. Here we examined whether emotional inertia, the
      tendency for a person's emotions to carry over from 1 moment to the next and a
      prospective predictor of the development of depression, is associated with a
      known genetic risk factor for emotional dysregulation, a polymorphism in the
      serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR). Two hundred thirty-six adolescents
      recorded their positive and negative emotions in daily life 9 times a day for 6
      consecutive days using smartphones, completed a depression questionnaire, and
      were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Carriers of the short 5-HTTLPR were
      characterized by higher inertia for negative emotions, even after controlling for
      depressive symptoms. These findings suggest a possible psychological pathway how
      the serotonin transporter gene contributes to risk for depression. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28569539
TI  - Distracting tracking: Interactions between negative emotion and attentional load
      in multiple-object tracking.
AB  - Stimuli that attract exogenous attention have been shown to interfere with
      behavioral performance on various tasks. In the present study, participants
      performed multiple-object tracking (MOT) in conditions where either neutral or
      negatively valenced images were flashed at fixation. Results reveal a significant
      impairment of tracking accuracy in the emotional MOT conditions compared to the
      neutral conditions specifically at the highest level of task difficulty. These
      findings suggest that emotional distraction is most detrimental when maximal
      endogenous attentional engagement is required. This interaction between emotional
      distraction and attentional load is inconsistent with existing models of
      emotional distraction. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569540
TI  - Vicarious learning and reduction of fear in children via adult and child models.
AB  - Children can learn to fear stimuli vicariously, by observing adults' or peers'
      responses to them. Given that much of school-age children's time is typically
      spent with their peers, it is important to establish whether fear learning from
      peers is as effective or robust as learning from adults, and also whether peers
      can be successful positive models for reducing fear. During a vicarious fear
      learning procedure, children (6 to 10 years; N = 60) were shown images of novel
      animals together with images of adult or peer faces expressing fear. Later they
      saw their fear-paired animal again together with positive emotional adult or peer
      faces. Children's fear beliefs and avoidance for the animals increased following
      vicarious fear learning and decreased following positive vicarious
      counterconditioning. There was little evidence of differences in learning from
      adults and peers, demonstrating that for this age group peer models are effective
      models for both fear acquisition and reduction. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569541
TI  - "Embodiment as procedures: Physical cleansing changes goal priming effects":
      Correction to Dong and Lee (2017).
AB  - Reports an error in "Embodiment as procedures: Physical cleansing changes goal
      priming effects" by Ping Dong and Spike W. S. Lee (Journal of Experimental
      Psychology: General, 2017[Apr], Vol 146[4], 592-605). In the article, the
      following F-value and p-values in the Results section of Experiment 3 were set
      incorrectly: The p-value p=.925 should be p=.922. The F- and p-values F(1,
      201)=.011, p=.916 should be F(1, 201) .014, p= .906. (The following abstract of
      the original article appeared in record 2017-14922-010.) Physical cleansing
      reduces the influence of numerous psychological experiences, such as guilt from
      immoral behavior, dissonance from free choice, and good/bad luck from
      winning/losing. How do these domain-general effects occur? We propose an
      integrative account of cleansing as an embodied procedure of psychological
      separation. By separating physical traces from a physical target object (e.g.,
      detaching dirt from hands), cleansing serves as the embodied grounding for the
      separation of psychological traces from a psychological target object (e.g.,
      dissociating prior experience from the present self). This account predicts that
      cleansing reduces the accessibility of psychological traces and their
      consequences for judgments and behaviors. Testing these in the context of goal
      priming, we find that wiping one's hands (vs. not) decreases the mental
      accessibility (Experiment 1), behavioral expression (Experiment 2), and judged
      importance (Experiments 3-4) of previously primed goals (e.g., achievement,
      saving, fitness). But if a goal is primed after cleansing, its importance gets
      amplified instead (Experiment 3). Based on the logic of moderation-of-process, an
      alternative manipulation that psychologically separates a primed goal from the
      present self produces the same effects, but critically, the effects vanish once
      people wipe their hands clean (Experiment 4), consistent with the notion that
      cleansing functions as an embodied procedure of psychological separation. These
      findings have implications for the flexibility of goal pursuit. More broadly, our
      procedural perspective generates novel predictions about the scope and mechanisms
      of cleansing effects and may help integrate embodied and related phenomena.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569542
TI  - "Racial bias in mock juror decision-making: A meta-analytic review of defendant
      treatment": Correction to Mitchell et al. (2005).
AB  - Reports an error in "Racial Bias in Mock Juror Decision-Making: A Meta-Analytic
      Review of Defendant Treatment" by Tara L. Mitchell, Ryann M. Haw, Jeffrey E.
      Pfeifer and Christian A. Meissner (Law and Human Behavior, 2005[Dec], Vol 29[6],
      621-637). In the article, all of the numbers in Appendix A were correct, but the
      signs were reversed for z' in a number of studies, which are listed. Also, in
      Appendix B, some values were incorrect, some signs were reversed, and some values
      were missing. The corrected appendix is included. (The following abstract of the
      original article appeared in record 2006-00971-001.) Common wisdom seems to
      suggest that racial bias, defined as disparate treatment of minority defendants,
      exists in jury decision-making, with Black defendants being treated more harshly
      by jurors than White defendants. The empirical research, however, is inconsistent
      -some studies show racial bias while others do not. Two previous meta-analyses
      have found conflicting results regarding the existence of racial bias in juror
      decision-making (Mazzella & Feingold, 1994, Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
      24, 1315-1344; Sweeney & Haney, 1992, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 10, 179
      195). This research takes a meta-analytic approach to further investigate the
      inconsistencies within the empirical literature on racial bias in juror decision
      making by defining racial bias as disparate treatment of racial out-groups
      (rather than focusing upon the minority group alone). Our results suggest that a
      small, yet significant, effect of racial bias in decision-making is present
      across studies, but that the effect becomes more pronounced when certain
      moderators are considered. The state of the research will be discussed in light
      of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28569543
TI  - The Effects of Attractiveness and Source Expertise on Online Health Sites.
AB  - The surface characteristics (presentational or design elements) of online content
      have been the focus of a growing body of credibility literature in recent
      decades. However, since the online health information communities such as WebMD
      do not provide any design options when writing comments on the original post, how
      the simplistic presentational of comments (e.g., spacing, bullet-points,
      labeling, and line breaks) can affect web users' responses was examined. Our
      study found that minimal variations in the presentation of online contents can
      influence assessments of their credibility and behavioral intentions. In
      addition, the current study revealed interaction effects between surface
      characteristics and source expertise. Other findings and implications are
      discussed.

PMID- 28569545
TI  - Interview with Alexander Cohen.
AB  - Ander Cohen speaks to Adam Price-Evans, Commissioning Editor of Future
      Cardiology: Alexander (Ander) Cohen MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD, FRACP is a vascular
      physician and epidemiologist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, King's College
      (London, UK). He graduated with honors in medicine and honors in surgery from the
      University of Melbourne, Australia, and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian
      College of Physicians in 1990. He was awarded an MSc in Epidemiology from the
      London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London in 1991 with
      a thesis on the metabolic syndrome in South-Asian populations. In 1998, he was
      awarded an MD with a thesis on the epidemiology of venous thromboembolism and
      thromboprophylaxis. In addition to his clinical work, he is involved in
      designing, managing and analyzing clinical trials from Phase I to IV. He is the
      Chairman and a member of many international steering committees for multicenter
      trials, epidemiological and pharmacoeconomic studies, and was previously the
      Director of Clinical Research and an Epidemiologist in Thrombosis Research at
      King's College Hospital.

PMID- 28569544
TI  - Novel reading index for identifying disordered reading skill development: A
      preliminary study.
AB  - Children with ADHD are at high risk of developing a Reading Disability (RD),
      although the reasons remain unclear. ADHD-associated impairments, including
      processing speed, can complicate clinical evaluation for a co-occurring RD
      diagnosis. We propose a novel metric to (a) assess reading development and (b)
      provide an alternative method to classifying readers that may aid investigations
      for etiologies of RD in ADHD. Specifically, as both phonological decoding and
      word recognition skills are important precursors of reading fluency, we propose a
      new quantitative method comparing these skills after accounting for variations in
      perception, motor response, or processing speeds. Forty boys (14 control, 15
      ADHD, 11 ADHD/ + RD) completed a lexical decision task testing decoding and
      another assessing word recognition. Response time data was modeled using a Drift
      Diffusion approach to estimate the underlying reading skills. Using these reading
      skill estimates, we calculated a novel Reading Tendency Index and classified
      participants into three reading groups (Decoders, Balanced Readers, and Sight
      Readers). The reading and cognitive performance of these groups were consistent
      with theoretical predictions and subsequently provided external validity for the
      novel Reading Tendency Index classification. Our findings demonstrate a potential
      classification tool for readers based on individual's developed, reading
      tendencies.

PMID- 28569546
TI  - What should the blood pressure be in patients with a prior ischemic stroke or a
      transient ischemic attack?

PMID- 28569547
TI  - Phylodynamic Analysis Revealed That Epidemic of CRF07_BC Strain in Men Who Have
      Sex with Men Drove Its Second Spreading Wave in China.
AB  - CRF07_BC was originally formed in Yunnan province of China in 1980s and spread
      quickly in injecting drug users (IDUs). In recent years, it has been introduced
      into men who have sex with men (MSM) and become the most dominant strain in
      China. In this study, we performed a comprehensively phylodynamic analysis of
      CRF07_BC sequences from China. All CRF07_BC sequences identified in China were
      retrieved from database. More sequences obtained in our laboratory were added to
      make the dataset more representative. A maximum-likelihood (ML) tree was
      constructed with PhyML3.0. Maximum clade credibility (MCC) tree and effective
      population size were predicted by using Markov Chains Monte Carlo sampling method
      with Beast software. A total of 610 CRF07_BC sequences coving 1,473 bp of the gag
      gene (from 817 to 2,289 according to HXB2 calculator) were included into the
      dataset. Three epidemic clusters were identified; two clusters comprised
      sequences from IDUs, while one cluster mainly contained sequences from MSMs. The
      time of the most recent common ancestor of clusters that composed of sequences
      from MSMs was estimated to be in 2000. Two rapid spreading waves of effective
      population size of CRF07_BC infections were identified in the skyline plot. The
      second wave coincided with the expanding of MSM cluster. The results indicated
      that the control of CRF07_BC infections in MSMs would help to decrease its
      epidemic in China.

PMID- 28569548
TI  - Collective occupation in public spaces and the construction of the social fabric:
      L'occupation collective dans les espaces publics et la construction du tissu
      social.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contemporary research is expanding understandings of occupation
      beyond that of the individual's doing, including the shared and social nature of
      occupation. The concept of collective occupation has been introduced to capture
      this broader understanding. PURPOSE: This study aimed to explicate the concept of
      occupation in a Greek town. METHOD: Ethnographic methodology was used and primary
      data were collected through observation, participation, and informal interviews.
      Analysis involved a hermeneutic process to develop a narrative of occupation in
      the town, including action, setting, and plots. FINDINGS: Occupation, a dynamic
      and multidimensional process, served to maintain the self, family, and social
      fabric and balance between and within them. Collective occupation maintained the
      social fabric through three forms: informal daily encounters in public spaces,
      organization and associations, and celebration and commemoration. IMPLICATIONS:
      Occupational therapists may consider engaging with the potential power of such
      collective occupation when working toward social change to enable just and
      inclusive societies.

PMID- 28569549
TI  - The efficacy of a video-based marker-less tracking system for gait analysis.
AB  - Most clinical gait analyses are conducted using motion capture systems which
      track retro-reflective markers that are placed on key landmarks of the
      participants. An alternative to a three-dimensional (3D) motion capture, marker
      based, optical camera system may be a marker-less video-based tracking system.
      The aim of our study was to investigate the efficacy of the use of a marker-less
      tracking system in the calculation of 3D joint angles for possible use in
      clinical gait analysis. Ten participants walked and jogged on a treadmill and
      their kinematic data were captured with a marker and marker-less tracking system
      simultaneously. The hip, knee and ankle angles in the frontal, sagittal and
      transverse planes were computed. Root Mean Square differences (RMSdiff) between
      corresponding angles for each participant's support phase were calculated and
      averaged to derive the mean within-subject RMSdiff. These within-subject means
      were averaged to obtain the mean between-subject RMSdiff for the relevant joint
      angles in the two gait conditions (walking and jogging). The RMSdiff between the
      two tracking systems was less than 1 degrees  for all rotations of the three
      joint angles of the hip and knee. However, there were slightly larger differences
      in the ankle joint angles. The results of this study suggest a potential
      application in gait analysis in clinical settings where observations of
      anatomical motions may provide meaningful feedback.

PMID- 28569551
TI  - Nanoparticle delivery of mitoprotective agents to target ischemic heart disease.

PMID- 28569550
TI  - Ultra-Deep Sequencing Analysis on HIV Drug-Resistance-Associated Mutations Among
      HIV-Infected Individuals: First Report from the Philippines.
AB  - A sharp increase in the number of people living with HIV has been documented in
      the Philippines. In response, the government has instituted antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) nationwide through HIV treatment hubs. However, no data presently
      exist on the status of ART drug-resistance-associated mutations (DRMs). In this
      study, we aim at analyzing DRM profiles in the Philippines and at providing
      comprehensive data on DRMs to guide treatment decisions and prevent viral
      failures. We conducted a cross-sectional study in 119 volunteers who tested
      positive for HIV from more than 8,000 participants screened for HIV across the
      nation through the 2013 Integrated HIV Behavioral and Serologic Surveillance
      (IHBSS) program. Amplicons were generated from plasma RNA by using primers
      designed to analyze diverse HIV-1 isolates targeting the reverse transcriptase
      region and sequenced on a 454 ultra-deep sequencing (UDS) platform to assess
      DRMs. DRMs were defined by using the Stanford HIV drug resistance database, and
      we found only 2 from 110 evaluable individuals with major HIV variants (>20%
      prevalence) that were highly resistant to the non-nucleoside reverse
      transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI: efavirenz and nevirapine). However, a larger
      fraction of individuals harbored minority drug-resistant HIV variants (0.5%-20%
      prevalence) and they were highly resistant to NNRTI nevirapine (89/110),
      rilpivirine (5/110), and efavirenz (49/110). This study is the first report on
      the presence of HIV drug resistance in the Philippines and demonstrates the
      utility of UDS in assisting the detection of HIV minor variants. Monitoring for
      ART-DRMs will assist in improving HIV management strategies in curtailing the
      evolving epidemic in the Philippines.

PMID- 28569552
TI  - Cardiac troponins: Potential biomarkers for the detection of subclinical coronary
      artery disease in athletes participating in endurance sports.

PMID- 28569554
TI  - Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug related upper gastrointestinal bleeding:
      types of drug use and patient profiles in real clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The best available evidence regarding non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
      drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding comes from randomized
      controlled trials including patients who use NSAIDs to manage chronic rheumatic
      diseases; however, patients with varying background profiles commonly take NSAIDs
      for many other reasons, often without prescription, and such usage has not been
      well studied. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: To define the characteristics of patients
      hospitalized for upper GI bleeding in clinical practice, we conducted a case
      control study among patients with endoscopy-proven major upper GI bleeding due to
      gastroduodenal peptic lesions and control subjects. We used adjusted logistic
      regression models to estimate bleeding risks. Data analysis was performed using
      SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: Our analysis included 3785 cases and 6540 controls, including
      1270 cases (33.55%) and 834 controls (12.75%) reporting recent use (<30 days) of
      NSAIDs including high-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). NSAID use was associated
      with increased risk of upper GI bleeding, with an adjusted relative risk of 4.86
      (95% CI, 4.32-5.46). Acute musculoskeletal pain (36.1%), chronic osteoarthritis
      (13.5%), and headache (13.6%) were the most common reasons for NSAID use. Among
      cases, only 17.31% took NSAIDs and 6.38% took high dose ASA due to chronic
      osteoarthritis. Demographic characteristics significantly differed between
      subjects with chronic vs. acute musculoskeletal pain. Proton pump inhibitor use
      was significantly higher in patients who used NSAIDs due to chronic
      osteoarthritis compared to patients with acute musculoskeletal pain. NSAID
      (65.15%) or high-dose ASA use (65.83%) preceding upper GI bleeding was most often
      short-term. In over half of cases (63.62%), the upper GI bleeding event was not
      preceded by dyspeptic warning symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients
      hospitalized due to NSAID-related upper GI bleeding reported short-term NSAID use
      for reasons other than chronic rheumatic disease. These findings suggest that
      current prevention strategies may not reach a wide population of short-term NSAID
      users.

PMID- 28569553
TI  - Effects of combined exercise training and electromyostimulation treatments in
      chronic heart failure: A prospective multicentre study.
AB  - Background Exercise training as part of a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is
      recommended for patients with cardiac heart failure. It is a valuable method for
      the improvement of exercise tolerance. Some studies reported a similar
      improvement with quadricipital electrical myostimulation, but the effect of
      combined exercise training and electrical myostimulation in cardiac heart failure
      has not been yet evaluated in a large prospective multicentre study. Purpose The
      aim of this study was to determine whether the addition of low frequency
      electrical myostimulation to exercise training may improve exercise capacity
      and/or muscular strength in cardiac heart failure patients. Methods Ninety-one
      patients were included (mean age: 58 +/- 9 years; New York Heart Association
      II/III: 52/48%, left ventricular ejection fraction: 30 +/- 7%) in a prospective
      French study. The patients were randomised into two groups: 41 patients in
      exercise training and 50 in exercise training + electrical myostimulation. All
      patients underwent 20 exercise training sessions. In addition, in the exercise
      training + electrical myostimulation group, patients underwent 20 low frequency
      (10 Hz) quadricipital electrical myostimulation sessions. Each patient underwent
      a cardiopulmonary exercise test, a six-minute walk test, a muscular function
      evaluation and a quality of life questionnaire, before and at the end of the
      study. Results A significant improvement of exercise capacity (Delta peak oxygen
      uptake+15% in exercise training group and +14% in exercise training + electrical
      myostimulation group) and of quality of life was observed in both groups without
      statistically significant differences between the two groups. Mean creatine
      kinase level increased in the exercise training group whereas it remained stable
      in the combined group. Conclusions This prospective multicentre study shows that
      electrical myostimulation on top of exercise training does not demonstrate any
      significant additional improvement in exercise capacity in cardiac heart failure
      patients.

PMID- 28569555
TI  - Sleep and Mechanical Ventilation in Stable COPD Patients.
AB  - Respiratory work is physiologically increased during sleep and leads to severe
      alterations in COPD patients, especially by raising sleep hypoventilation. The
      diurnal impact of these nocturnal events may have been underestimated in COPD
      patients. Impaired sleep and the increase of respiratory work may be one of the
      major trigger of diurnal events like hypoventilation, exacerbation and even
      mortality. One of the most commonly used nocturnal treatments at the present time
      is noninvasive ventilation (NIV). However, there is an on-going debate concerning
      the indications and objectives of NIV in COPD patients. In most studies, NIV
      initiation and monitoring depend on diurnal tools like PaCO2, and the nocturnal
      efficacy of this treatment has not yet been adequately determined. In other
      respiratory diseases, sleep events have a predominant role in NIV therapy. Such
      nocturnal events drive NIV initiation and setting adaptation. Monitoring of sleep
      events is associated with an increase in health related to quality of life and a
      decrease in mortality. The monitoring may be the solution to solve the debate of
      NIV in COPD patients. This article reviews the impact of sleep in COPD patients
      and the value of long-term NIV.

PMID- 28569556
TI  - Guarana, a Highly Caffeinated Food, Presents in vitro Antitumor Activity in
      Colorectal and Breast Cancer Cell Lines by Inhibiting AKT/mTOR/S6K and MAPKs
      Pathways.
AB  - The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and mitogen-activated protein kinases
      (MAPKs) pathways are frequently upregulated in cancer. Some authors have reported
      that some antioxidant molecules could be potential inhibitors of these pathways.
      Therefore, we investigated the in vitro antitumor effect of guarana by inhibiting
      the AKT/mTOR/S6K and MAPKs pathways. Colorectal and breast cancer cell lineages,
      HT-29 and MCF-7 cells, respectively, were exposed to different guarana
      concentrations (0.1, 1, 10, and 100 ug/mL) as well as its main bioactive
      molecule, caffeine, in proportional concentrations to those found in the extract.
      Western blot, clonogenic assay, and growth curve were performed. Moreover, we
      investigated the potential cytotoxic effect of guarana in normal cells. The
      results revealed that guarana and caffeine inhibited some MAPKs proteins (p-p38
      and p-HSP27) in MCF-7 cells. However, they did not affect this pathway in HT-29
      cells. Furthermore, guarana inhibited mTORC1 (p-S6K) and mTORC2 (p-AKT) in MCF-7
      cells, but only mTORC1 in HT-29 cells. Caffeine only inhibited the mTOR pathway
      in MCF-7 cells. Guarana decreased the colony formation and cell growth in MCF-7
      and HT-29 cells. Guarana did not affect normal cells. In conclusion, guarana
      could be an important agent in antitumor pharmacologic therapies by inhibiting
      the mTOR and MAPKs pathways.

PMID- 28569557
TI  - Effects of acute blood pressure elevation on biochemical-metabolic parameters in
      individuals with hypertensive crisis.
AB  - Hypertensive crisis is a common clinical situation that presents a high rate of
      morbidity and mortality and it is characterized by symptomatic rise of blood
      pressure (BP), systolic (SBP) >= 180 mmHg and/or diastolic (DBP) >= 120 mmHg. It
      is classified as emergency (HE) or hypertensive urgency (HU). There is no
      description of laboratory findings in patients who present acute BP elevation.
      Thus, this study had the objective to assess the biochemical-metabolic parameters
      of patients with HC. We studied 74 normotensive individuals (NT), 74 controlled
      hypertensive patients (ContrHT), 50 subjects with HU, and 78 with HE for
      evaluating biochemical-metabolic parameters. HE occurs in older individuals and
      more frequently in those with known hypertension. More patients with HE had
      dyslipidemia than those with HU (58% vs. 38%). The diastolic BP and heart rate
      were higher in the HE group (120 mmHg and 87 bpm) compared to ContrHT (71 mmHg
      and 71 bpm; p < 0.0001) and NT groups (75 mmHg and 68 bpm; p < 0.0001). Glycemia
      was higher in HE vs. NT and ContrHT (p < 0.05). HDL cholesterol was lower in HE
      than NT (p = 0.0088). Potassium was lower in HE vs. NT, ContrHT and HU groups (p
      < 0.05). Creatinine was higher in the HC group vs. NT and ContrHT (p < 0.05). The
      GFR was significantly lower in HE group vs. HU, ContrHT and NT (p < 0.001). In
      conclusion, individuals with HC show biochemical alterations when compared to
      ContrHT and NT. Acute BP elevations are associated with hyperglycemia,
      dyslipidemia, and higher potassium and creatinine levels and lower renal
      function. Abbreviations BMI = body mass index BP = blood pressure CH =
      hypertensive crisis ContrHT = controlled hypertensive DBP = diastolic blood
      pressure GFR = glomerular filtration rate HbA1c = glycated hemoglobin HDLc = high
      density lipoprotein cholesterol HE = hypertensive emergency HPLC = high
      performance liquid chromatography HR = heart rate HU = hypertensive urgency JNC 7
      = VII Joint National Committee on the Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of
      High Blood Pressure LDLc = low-density lipoprotein cholesterol MDRD =
      Modification of Diet in Renal Disease NT = normotensive RASB = renin-angiotensin
      system blockers SBP = systolic blood pressure TC = total cholesterol TG =
      triglycerides.

PMID- 28569560
TI  - E- Only Section.

PMID- 28569558
TI  - Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava in Fetuses: An Autopsy Series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review fetal autopsy reports with persistent left superior vena
      cava (PLSVC) and identify its associations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Autopsy
      reports of all fetuses diagnosed with PLSVC in our center from January 2011 to
      December 2015 were reviewed. Fetuses less than 15 weeks gestational age along
      with autolyzed and damaged hearts were excluded from the study. The study group
      was compared with controls during this period. RESULTS: Prenatal ultrasound
      detection rate of PLSVC was 13.06%. All the cases had associated anomalies of
      which 96% had extra cardiac anomalies and 67% had intrinsic cardiac defects among
      which septal defects were most common (39.6%). Anomalies of cardiovascular,
      respiratory, genitourinary and musculoskeletal, hypoplastic thymus and single
      umbilical artery were significantly higher in the study group. CONCLUSION: This
      study emphasizes on the importance of improving the technical skill for imaging
      the three-vessel view as PLSVC seems to have significant associations.

PMID- 28569561
TI  - Vitamin B6 Intake and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of
      Prospective Cohort Studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We performed this meta-analysis to estimate the association between
      vitamin B6 intake and colorectal cancer risk. METHODS: Prospective cohort studies
      on vitamin B6 intake and colorectal cancer risk were identified by searching
      databases from the period of 1960 to 2016. Results from individual studies were
      synthetically combined using Stata 13.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 10
      prospective cohort studies including 13 data sets were included in our meta
      analysis, containing 7,817 cases and 784,550 subjects. The combined relative
      risks (RR) of colorectal cancer for the highest vitamin B6 intake compared with
      the lowest vitamin B6 intake was 0.88 [95% confidence intervals (CIs): 0.77
      1.02]. Dose-response meta-analysis based on five eligible studies showed that for
      each additional 3 and 5 mg of vitamin B6 intake, the risk would decrease by 11%
      (RR: 0.89, 95%CI: 0.81-0.98) and 17% (RR: 0.83, 95%CI: 0.71-0.97), respectively.
      Little evidence of publication bias was found. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis
      provides evidence of a nonsignificant decrease in colorectal cancer risk
      associated with the high level of vitamin B6 intake, but the risk in dose
      response analysis is significant. However, the latter finding is based on a
      limited number of studies, which should be interpreted with caution.

PMID- 28569562
TI  - Low-grade bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma during pregnancy successfully
      treated by lobectomy.

PMID- 28569563
TI  - Impact of Early Enteral Nutrition on Nutritional and Immunological Outcomes of
      Gastric Cancer Patients Undergoing Gastrostomy: A Systematic Review and Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present systematic review and meta-analysis study evaluated the
      impact of early enteral nutrition (EN) on postoperative nutritional and
      immunological outcomes of gastric cancer (GC) patients. METHOD: The databases of
      PubMed, Embase, Springer, and Cochrane library were searched till September 2016
      to identify studies which evaluated the effects of EN compared with parenteral
      nutrition (PN) on postoperative immunological and nutritional status and
      hospitalization time in GC patients. Mean difference (MD) or standard mean
      difference (SMD) was calculated and I-square statistic test was used for
      heterogeneity analysis. RESULTS: The present systematic review and meta-analysis
      have consisted of seven trials, containing 835 GC patients. According to the
      result of meta-analysis, compared with PN, EN significantly resulted in more
      increase in the level of albumin [MD = 2.07 (0.49, 3.64)], prealbumin [MD = 9.41
      (049, 33.55)], weight [MD = 1.52 (0.32, 2.72)], CD3+ [SMD = 1.96 (1.50, 2.43)],
      CD4+ [SMD = 2.45 (1.97, 2.93)], natural killers [MD = 5.80 (3.75, 7.85)], and
      also a decrease in the hospitalization time [MD=-2.39 (-2.74, -2.03)].
      CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that early administration of EN is more
      effective in improving postsurgical nutrition status and immune index in GC
      patients. So, based on these results, postoperative early administration of EN is
      recommended for GC patients where possible.

PMID- 28569564
TI  - Inhibition of the alpha-carbonic anhydrase from Vibrio cholerae with amides and
      sulfonamides incorporating imidazole moieties.
AB  - We discovered novel and selective sulfonamides/amides acting as inhibitors of the
      alpha-carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) from the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio
      cholerae (VchCA). This Gram-negative bacterium is the causative agent of cholera
      and colonises the upper small intestine where sodium bicarbonate is present at a
      high concentration. The secondary sulfonamides and amides investigated here were
      potent, low nanomolar VchCA inhibitors whereas their inhibition of the human
      cytosolic isoforms CA I and II was in the micromolar range or higher. The
      molecules represent an interesting lead for antibacterial agents with a possibly
      new mechanism of action, although their CA inhibition mechanism is unknown for
      the moment.

PMID- 28569565
TI  - Prediction of preeclampsia in primigravida in late first trimester using serum
      placental growth factor alone and by combination model.
AB  - We investigated a placental growth factor alone and combined clinical (mean
      arterial pressure, MAP), biophysical (uterine artery pulsability index, PI) and
      biochemical (placental growth factor, PLGF) model for predicting preeclampsia in
      late first trimester. The inclusion criteria was primigravida (<40 years)
      attending their first hospital visit with singleton pregnancy at 11-14 weeks of
      gestation. Of the enrolled and followed 291 subjects, 35 (12%) later developed PE
      (5.8%)/GH (6.2%). An equal number of randomised women with normotensive non
      proteinuric course were considered as reference group. For preeclampsia, PLGF
      alone had detection rate of 40% and 51% with 5% and 10% FPR, respectively. On
      addition of MAP, the AUC improved to 0.937 for PE. Further, addition of mean PI
      slightly improved AUC to 0.965. This signifies that a model with all three
      markers had better prediction of preeclampsia rather than PLGF alone. Impact
      statement In view of high morbidity and mortality due to hypertensive disorders
      in pregnancy, there has been extensive research for developing markers to
      detect/screen the condition in early pregnancy. Several such markers have been
      tested in their individual capacities and in combination during early pregnancy.
      Most of these studies have originated from high income countries and focussed
      mainly on the second trimester of pregnancy. We investigated a placental growth
      factor alone and combined clinical (mean arterial pressure, MAP), biophysical
      (uterine artery pulsability index, PI) and biochemical (placental growth factor,
      PLGF) model for predicting preeclampsia in the first trimester in primigravida
      (<40 years). A nested case control model was used for our study. For
      preeclampsia, PLGF alone had detection rate of 40% and 51% with 5% and 10% FPR,
      respectively. On addition of MAP, the AUC improved to 0.937 for PE. Further,
      addition of mean PI slightly improved AUC to 0.965. The present study has been
      done in an Indian subcontinent setting (where maternal mortality related to
      preeclampsia are even higher) where very limited studies are available for the
      role of either PLGF or in combinations for prediction of preeclampsia. Our
      research pointed shows better predictability for PE when a combination of markers
      is used especially in low-risk nulligravida. These are easy, cheap and non
      invasive measurements that can be taken in all women at their first routine
      antenatal visit.

PMID- 28569566
TI  - Ocular biometry and determinants of refractive error in a founder population of
      European ancestry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of myopia is increasing worldwide. Previous studies
      have found a positive association between myopia, education, and near activities,
      while others have noted a negative association with outdoor exposure. This study
      reports refractive error and biometry in a founder population of European
      ancestry, the Hutterites, and discusses risk factors contributing to myopia.
      METHODS: Cross-sectional study, including complete eye exams with retinoscopy and
      biometry. RESULTS: 939 study participants, ages 6 to 89, were examined. Females
      were significantly more myopic than males (SE -0.87 +/- 2.07 and -0.40 +/- 1.49
      in females and males, respectively, p < 0.0001). Males had significantly longer
      axial lengths. Females had steeper corneas. This is the first epidemiological
      report of refractive error among the Hutterites. DISCUSSION: As a genetically
      isolated population with a communal lifestyle, the Hutterites present a unique
      opportunity to study risk factors for myopia. Hutterite females are more myopic
      than males, a finding which has only been reported in a few other populations.
      Hutterite children complete compulsory education through the 8th grade, after
      which women and men assume gender-specific occupational tasks. Men often work
      outside on the farm, while women engage in more domestic activities inside. These
      occupational differences likely contribute to the increased myopia comparing
      females to males, and their uniform lifestyle reduces the impact of potential
      confounding factors, such as education and income. CONCLUSIONS: The Hutterites
      are more myopic than most other North American and European populations. Greater
      time spent doing near work and less time spent outdoors likely explain the
      increased myopia comparing females to males.

PMID- 28569567
TI  - Nomograms of the whole foetal adrenal gland and foetal zone at gestational age of
      16-24 weeks.
AB  - The aim of this study was to create nomograms of the whole foetal adrenal gland
      and the foetal zone at 16-24 weeks of gestation in the Thai population, as well
      as to evaluate the relationships between the gestational age and the whole foetal
      adrenal gland and the foetal zone. Transabdominal measurement of the whole foetal
      adrenal gland and adrenal foetal zone were added to the routine biometric
      measurements at 16-24 weeks of gestation of singleton low-risk pregnancies. A
      total of 189 measurements were used for analysis. A linear correlation was
      observed between gestational age and the length, width and depth of the whole
      foetal adrenal gland at 16-24 weeks of gestation. A linear correlation was also
      found between gestational age and the length, width and depth of the foetal zone
      at 16-24 weeks of gestation. This study shows the linear growth of the foetal
      adrenal gland and foetal zone from 16-24 weeks of gestation. These reference
      values may be helpful in detecting abnormal growth of foetal adrenal gland or any
      abnormalities of the foetal adrenal gland. Impact Statement What is already known
      on this subject: Foetal adrenal glands play a pivotal role, mainly through
      steroidogenesis, in the regulation of the intrauterine homeostasis, and in foetal
      development and maturation. There is evidence to support that the foetus may be
      in control of the timing of its own birth by activating its hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal axis to increase the production of dehydroepiandrosterone
      sulphate to predominately induce the enlargement of the central foetal zone. What
      the results of this study add: This study shows the nomograms of the foetal
      adrenal gland and foetal zone from 16-24 weeks of gestation and the linear growth
      of the foetal adrenal gland and foetal zone from 16-24 weeks of gestation. What
      are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further
      research:These reference values may be helpful in detecting abnormal growth of
      foetal adrenal gland or any abnormalities of the foetal adrenal gland.

PMID- 28569568
TI  - Performance of the classification criteria in patients with late-onset axial
      spondyloarthritis.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the performance of four different classification criteria for
      spondyloarthritis (SpA) in patients with late-onset symptoms and to compare the
      clinical, laboratory and radiographic outcomes among the patients with symptoms
      before and after 45 years of age. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 329 patients
      with SpA were enrolled in this prospective cohort. Patients with psoriatic
      arthritis, reactive arthritis, colitis associated arthritis and peripheral or
      undifferentiated SpA were excluded. The remaining individuals were divided into
      two groups based on their ages at the time of onset of symptoms: from 16 to 45
      years of age (adult-onset, A-O) and after 45 years of age (late-onset, L-O). The
      clinical data were collected, including BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI, mSASSS, ASDAS, as
      were concomitant diseases and medications, efficacy and safety data. The
      performance of four SpA classification criteria, including modified New York,
      ESSG, Amor and ASAS, was evaluated in both groups. p value <.05 was considered as
      significant. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients (9.72%) had L-O axial SpA. Mean age of
      diagnosis and symptoms were 57.6 (8.0) years and 7.6 (5.1) years, respectively. L
      O patients had statistically worse functional impairment and higher disease
      activity. However, they had lower radiographic sacroiliac and spine damage (p <
      .001). CONCLUSION: Our data showed that almost 10% of the patients with SpA had
      late-onset of symptoms. Moreover, they had higher disease activity, worse
      physical function and lower spine radiographic damage than A-O SpA patients.
      Additionally, the ASAS classification criteria had the best performance and might
      be used in clinical practice.

PMID- 28569569
TI  - Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cardiovascular safety - translating
      pharmacological data into clinical readouts.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The pharmacological management of pain includes the use of
      nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs). They comprise traditional(t) NSAIDs
      and selective cyclooxygenase(COX)-2 inhibitors (named coxibs). The analgesic and
      anti-inflammatory effects of NSAIDs are dependent on the extent and duration of
      COX-2 inhibition in the spinal cord and inflammatory sites. However, the
      simultaneous inhibition of COX-2 in the vasculature translates into a
      prothrombotic phenotype and promotes hypertension and heart failure. Areas
      covered: The results of the clinical pharmacology of coxibs and the most used
      tNSAIDs provide a mechanistic interpretation of the cardiovascular(CV) outcomes
      found in randomized clinical trials(RCTs), meta-analyses of RCTs and
      epidemiological studies. A critical analysis of the design and results of the
      PRECISION trial, which compared the CV risk of celecoxib, ibuprofen, and naproxen
      in high-risk CV patients, was performed. Expert opinion: tNSAIDs and coxibs may
      increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke. The reduction of the dose of
      NSAIDs may mitigate, but not avoid, the risk of CV adverse effects. The
      development of novel biomarkers which identify susceptibility phenotypes
      associated with increased risk of CV complications by COX-2 inhibition is an
      unmet clinical need that once filled will lead to personalized treatments with
      NSAIDs.

PMID- 28569570
TI  - Efficacy of peeling during different periods of the menstrual cycle on acne.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND DESIGN: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of
      50% glycolic acid peeling performed at different phases of menstruation on acne.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 30 patients with mild-to-moderate
      acne. Those with regular menstrual cycles and no history or laboratory evidence
      of hormonal pathology, hirsutism were selected. Thirty patients were divided in
      three groups. The first group received peeling applications in the first 7 days
      of menstruation; the second group received the peel between 10 and 14 days; and
      the third group received the peel during the last 10 days of menstruation.
      RESULTS: The 30 female patients included in study. All patients' menstrual cycles
      were regular. All groups were homogenous in terms of initial acne severity
      scores. Acne severity scores decreased in all groups after 3 months of therapy;
      statistically significant differences were achieved only in the second group.
      DISCUSSION: The results of our study suggest that chemical peeling administered
      during ovulation provides the most significant benefit for acne lesions.
      Ovulation is the period when estrogen reaches its highest level. Estrogen
      decreases sebum production through different mechanisms. The beneficial effects
      of estrogen on acne and healing in combination with those of chemical peeling may
      cause synergistic therapeutic effects with pronounced results.

PMID- 28569572
TI  - Erratum: New Guidelines for the Treatment of Drug-Susceptible Tuberculosis from
      the American Thoracic Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
      the Infectious Diseases Society of America: Now Comes the Hard Part.

PMID- 28569571
TI  - Curcumin inhibits oxidative stress-induced TRPM2 channel activation, calcium ion
      entry and apoptosis values in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells: Involvement of
      transfection procedure.
AB  - Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels are mostly Ca2+ permeable cation
      channels. Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin-like 2 (TRPM2) is expressed in
      neurological tissues such as brain, dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons,
      hippocampus and also liver, heart and kidney. The SH-SY5Y cells are mostly used
      as a cellular model of neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
      diseases. Curcumin, shows phenolic structure, synthesized by Curcuma longa L.
      (turmeric), has powerful non-enzymatically antioxidant effects compared with
      Vitamin E. Hence, we aimed to investigate that effects of curcumin on TRPM2
      cation channel currents using the whole-cell Patch-Clamp method, Ca2+ signaling,
      apoptosis and cell viability (MTT) assays, reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      production, mitochondrial membrane potential levels, caspase 3 and caspase 9
      activities in TRPM2 transfected SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. For this aim, we
      designed four experimental groups named; control, curcumin, transfected and
      transfected + curcumin groups. Cytosolic free calcium concentrations were higher
      in transfected group compared with curcumin and transfected + curcumin group.
      Moreover, these data examined with whole-cell Patch-Clamp recordings of single
      cells in all groups. ROS levels were significantly higher in transfected group
      than in transfected + curcumin group. Apoptosis levels in transfected + curcumin
      group were lower than in transfected group. Procaspase 9 and procaspase 3 levels
      measured by western blotting and caspase 3 and caspase 9 levels by
      spectrophotometric methods show that TRPM2 transfected cells are more tended to
      apoptosis. In conclusion, curcumin strongly induces modulator effects on TRPM2
      mediated Ca2+ influx caused by ROS and caspase 3 and 9 processes in SH-SY5Y
      neuroblastoma cells.

PMID- 28569573
TI  - Using Network Analysis to Understand Severe Asthma Phenotypes.

PMID- 28569574
TI  - Reply: The Genetic Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease: A Need for an
      International Consensus.

PMID- 28569576
TI  - EnRAGEed Kidneys in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

PMID- 28569575
TI  - Airway Hyperresponsiveness Does Not Predict Morbidity in Children with Sickle
      Cell Anemia.

PMID- 28569577
TI  - Fletcher and Peto 40 Years On. A Tribute and Reflection.

PMID- 28569578
TI  - Integrative Medicine (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) for the Lungs.

PMID- 28569579
TI  - Hypotrophy versus Hypertrophy: It's Not Black or White with Gray Matter.

PMID- 28569580
TI  - Stress Testing the Respiratory System: Too Little or Too Much?

PMID- 28569581
TI  - Investigating the Pathogen Genomic Determinants of Tuberculosis Transmission.

PMID- 28569583
TI  - Lung Function Abnormalities in Smokers with Ischemic Heart Disease.

PMID- 28569582
TI  - Metagenomic Analysis Identified Human Rhinovirus B91 Infection in an Adult
      Suffering from Severe Pneumonia.

PMID- 28569584
TI  - Reply: Lung Function Abnormalities in Smokers with Ischemic Heart Disease.

PMID- 28569585
TI  - Continuity of Care for Complex Medical Patients: How Far Do We Go?

PMID- 28569586
TI  - Erratum: An Official American Thoracic Society/European Society of Intensive Care
      Medicine/Society of Critical Care Medicine Clinical Practice Guideline:
      Mechanical Ventilation in Adult Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress
      Syndrome.

PMID- 28569587
TI  - The Genetic Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease: A Need for an International
      Consensus.

PMID- 28569588
TI  - Increasing relevance of sunfleck research.
AB  - Contemporary reviews of leaf responses to sunflecks indicate gymnosperms exhibit
      slower photosynthetic inductions times than angiosperms, but the gymnosperms were
      represented exclusively by conifers. I recently reported that the gymnosperm
      Cycas micronesica exhibited photosynthetic induction times in conformity with
      some of the most rapid angiosperms and opined that representatives from non
      conifer gymnosperms must be added to the published conifer database before
      gymnosperm-wide conclusions can be formulated. Guiding principles for this
      urgently needed research will maximize relevance and improve accuracy of
      conclusions.

PMID- 28569589
TI  - Cytokine signal suppressor (SOCS) 1-1478 CA/del gene polymorphism in Turkish
      patients with polycystic ovary syndrome.
AB  - Eighty-four subjects, premenopausal female patients (n = 42, mean (SD) age: 26.4
      (4.2) years) diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and age-matched
      healthy volunteers (n = 42, mean (SD) age: 27.6(3.4) years), were included in
      this study. Data on physical examination, anthropometric measurements and blood
      biochemistry analysis were recorded for each subject along with analysis for
      SOCS1-1478 CA/del polymorphism by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment
      length polymorphism. The relation of SOCS1-1478 CA/del polymorphism to PCOS
      status and insulin resistance was analysed via logistic regression analysis. Mean
      (SD) levels for BMI (28.5(6.5) vs.22.5 (4.9) kg/m2, p < .001), HOMA-IR (3.1(1.8)
      vs.1.5 (1.0), p < .001), LDL-cholesterol (115.9(32.7) vs.100.7 (27.3)mg/dL, p =
      .03) and triglyceride (113.8(64.9) vs.83.3(36.3)mg/dL, p = .017) were
      significantly higher in patients. Groups were similar in terms of SOCS1-1478
      CA/del polymorphism. No significant relation of this polymorphism was noted to
      PCOS and HOMA-IR. Our findings revealed no difference between groups in terms of
      the rate of SOCS1-1478 CA/del polymorphism, and no significant relation of this
      polymorphism to insulin resistance and PCOS status. Impact statement Polycystic
      ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common cause of anovulation and the most commonly
      encountered form of female endocrine disease. SOCS proteins have been suggested
      to play a fundamental role in the negative feedback regulation of the JAK-STAT
      pathway, which is the major signalling pathway involved in a wide range of
      physiologic and pathologic processes, including inflammatory diseases,
      malignancies and immune disorders. Pathways involving the induction of
      suppression of SOCS proteins were also shown likely to be involved in mediating
      cytokine-induced insulin resistance. The present study was designed to determine
      the frequency of SOCS1-1478 CA/del gene polymorphism in patients with PCOS in
      relation to healthy controls and insulin resistance. Our findings revealed
      significantly higher rates of insulin resistance, obesity and dyslipidaemia in
      Turkish patients with PCOS compared with age-matched healthy controls, while no
      difference between study groups in terms of the rate of SOCS1-1478 CA/del
      polymorphism along with no significant relation of SOCS1-1478 CA/del polymorphism
      to insulin resistance and PCOS status. Future larger scale studies with the
      application of standardised diagnostic methods and criteria, and of state-of-the
      art modern techniques including genomics, proteomics and pharmacogenetics would
      provide better understanding of the association between PCOS and genomic
      variants.

PMID- 28569590
TI  - Pharmacokinetic comparison of two buprenorphine formulations after buccal
      administration in healthy male cats.
AB  - Objectives The objective of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetics of
      compounded and commercially available aqueous formulations of buprenorphine after
      a single buccal dose to healthy cats and to evaluate the concentrations of a
      compounded buprenorphine solution over 21 days when stored at room temperature
      (RT; 22-24 degrees C) with exposure to light or when refrigerated at 4 degrees C
      while protected from light. Methods Six young healthy male cats were administered
      single buccal doses of compounded and commercially available formulations of
      buprenorphine (0.03 mg/kg) using a randomized, blinded, two-period crossover
      design. Blood samples were obtained over a 24 h period and plasma buprenorphine
      concentrations were determined using ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography
      with mass spectrometry detection. Three batches of the compounded formulation
      were stored at RT or 4 degrees C and aliquots were evaluated over 21 days for
      buprenorphine concentration using high-performance liquid chromatography with
      fluorescence detection. Results Plasma concentrations of buprenorphine were above
      the limit of quantification up to 6 h in some cats and up to 3 h in all cats. The
      area under the curve was significantly less for the compounded formulation ( P =
      0.004). A significant difference was not detected between formulations for time
      to maximum concentration ( P = 0.11), maximum concentration ( P = 0.06), half
      life ( P = 0.88) and mean residence time ( P = 0.57). Buprenorphine concentration
      in the compounded formulation was not affected by storage condition or time and
      remained between 90% and 110% of the target concentration at all time points.
      Conclusions and relevance A buprenorphine solution prepared from sublingual
      tablets is absorbed after buccal administration in healthy cats. The extent of
      absorption is significantly less than that of the commercially available
      formulation. The compounded solution maintains an acceptable buprenorphine
      concentration for at least 21 days when stored at RT or refrigerated.

PMID- 28569593
TI  - FAM13A, A Fatty Acid Oxidation Switch in Mitochondria. Friend or Foe in Chronic
      Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Pathogenesis?

PMID- 28569591
TI  - Influence of the loop size and nucleotide composition on AgoshRNA biogenesis and
      activity.
AB  - Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) are widely used for gene silencing by the RNA
      interference (RNAi) mechanism. The shRNA precursor is processed by the Dicer
      enzyme into active small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that subsequently target a
      complementary mRNA for cleavage by the Argonaute 2 (Ago2) complex. Recent
      evidence indicates that shRNAs with a relatively short basepaired stem bypass
      Dicer and are instead processed by Ago2. We termed these molecules AgoshRNAs as
      both processing and silencing steps are mediated by Ago2 and proposed rules for
      the design of effective AgoshRNA molecules. Active and non-cytotoxic AgoshRNAs
      against HIV-1 RNA were generated, but their silencing activity was generally
      reduced compared with the matching shRNAs. Thus, further optimization of the
      AgoshRNA design is needed. In this study, we evaluated the importance of the
      single-stranded loop, in particular its size and nucleotide sequence, in AgoshRNA
      mediated silencing. We document that the pyrimidine/purine content is important
      for AgoshRNA-mediated silencing activity.

PMID- 28569594
TI  - A New Step in the Marathon of Understanding Chronic Rejection after Lung
      Transplantation.

PMID- 28569595
TI  - Roles for Myoepithelial Cells in the Formation and Maintenance of Submucosal
      Glands.

PMID- 28569596
TI  - Vitamin D in Host Defense: Implications for Future Research.

PMID- 28569598
TI  - Associations Between Nutritional Parameters and Clinicopathologic Factors in
      Patients with Gastric Cancer: A Comprehensive Study.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess and analyze the nutritional status of gastric
      cancer (GC) patients. The analysis included 207 patients with GC treated in a
      large center of oncology. Patients were divided into two groups according to the
      cutoff value of the mean prognostic nutritional index (PNI): those with a PNI <
      52.78 and those with a PNI >= 52.78. The higher PNI was associated with lower age
      and higher total protein and hemoglobin levels (P < 0.01). The total lymphocyte
      count (P = 0.02), albumin, total protein and PNI (P < 0.01) were significantly
      higher in stable-weight patients and lower in the group with weight loss > 10% (P
      = 0.000031). Body mass index (BMI) after disease recognition, albumin and total
      protein (0.003) levels, total lymphocyte count, and PNI were significantly lower
      in patients with nutritional risk. Significantly lower BMI before disease and BMI
      after disease recognition were noted in smoking patients. Significantly higher
      total lymphocyte count was observed in smoking patients (P < 0.01). Significantly
      lower PNI was noted in tumors with lymph node metastasis (N+). G3 tumors were
      associated with the lowest total lymphocyte count (P = 0.01). Assessment of
      nutritional status using PNI calculation should be the standard management of
      patients with GC before treatment.

PMID- 28569597
TI  - Endothelial Glycocalyx Repair: Building a Wall to Protect the Lung during Sepsis.

PMID- 28569599
TI  - The Tridimensional Structure of Sociosexuality: Spanish Validation of the Revised
      Sociosexual Orientation Inventory.
AB  - Casual sex has become a common experience for many university students.
      Therefore, it is necessary to have instruments and studies that analyze youth's
      orientation toward sociosexuality. The SOI-R assesses sociosexual behavior,
      attitudes toward sociosexuality, and the desire for relationships without
      commitment with just nine items. The goal of this study was to validate the
      Spanish version of the SOI-R, to improve the scale, and to contribute evidence of
      the utility of the Sociosexual Desire subscale. Participants were 839
      heterosexual university students of both sexes, aged between 18 and 26, who
      completed a battery of online questionnaires. The internal structure of the SOI-R
      revealed the three proposed theoretical dimensions, with medium to low
      relationships between factors. The instrument has measurement invariance with
      regards to sex and age. The Spanish version of the SOI-R had adequate levels of
      reliability. The modification of the first item of the scale is suggested, as
      well as the relevance of assessing sociosexual desire as an independent
      construct. The relation between sociosexuality and other sociodemographic and
      psychosocial variables was also analyzed. The discussion highlights the need for
      research to determine youth's sociosexual orientation and patterns of casual sex.

PMID- 28569600
TI  - The associations among co-morbidity, cardiac geometries and mechanics in
      hospitalized heart failure with or without preserved ejection fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The associations among chronic health conditions, ventricular
      geometric alterations or cardiac contractile mechanics in different phenotypes
      heart failure (HF) remain largely unexplored. METHODS: We studied 438 consecutive
      hospitalized patients (mean age: 64.9 +/- 16.6 years, 52.5% female) with or
      without clinical evidence of HF. We examined the associations among clinical co
      morbidities, LV geometries and systolic mechanics in terms of global myocardial
      strains. RESULTS: Increasing clinical co-morbidities was associated with greater
      LV mass, worse longitudinal deformations and higher proportion of admission with
      HF diagnosis, which was more pronounced in HFpEF (from 6.4% to 40.7%, X2 <
      0.001). The independent association between co-morbidity burden and longitudinal
      functional decay remained unchanged after adjusting for age and sex for all
      admissions and in HFpEF (Coef: 0.82 & 0.71, SE: 0.13 & 0.21, both p<=0.001). By
      using co-morbidity scores, the area under receiver operating characteristic
      curves (AUROC) in identifying HFpEF was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.65 to 0.77), 0.64 (95%
      CI: 0.58 to 0.71) for HFrEF and 0.72 for both (95% CI: 0.67 to 0.77). Co
      morbidity burden superimposed on LV mass index and LV filling pressure (E/E')
      further expanded the AUROC significantly in diagnosing both types HF (c
      statistics from 0.73 to 0.81, p for DeltaAUROC: 0.0012). CONCLUSION: Chronic
      health conditions in the admission population were associated with unfavorable
      cardiac remodeling, impair cardiac contractile mechanics and further added
      significantly incremental value in HF diagnosis. Our data suggested the
      potentiality for better cardiac function by controlling baseline co-morbidities
      in hospitalized HF patients, especially HFpEF. ABBREVIATIONS: CAD: coronary
      artery disease; CKD: chronic kidney disease; DT: deceleration time; eGFR:
      Estimated glomerular filtration rate; HF: heart failure; IVRT: iso-volumic
      relaxation time; LV: left ventricular; LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction;
      RWT: relative wall thickness; TDI: Tissue Doppler imaging.

PMID- 28569601
TI  - Prevalence of Fatigue and Associated Factors in a Spinal Cord Injury Population:
      Data from an Internet-Based and Face-to-Face Surveys.
AB  - Fatigue has a profound impact on patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), but only
      limited treatments are available. The aim of this study was to determine the
      prevalence of fatigue in SCI and its association with clinical and demographic
      factors. We used an internet-based survey and a face-to-face interview to
      estimate the prevalence of fatigue in a SCI population. Fatigue was measured
      using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Clinically significant fatigue was
      defined as FSS scores greater than or equal to four. A total of 253 participants
      with SCI were included in the study. Clinically significant fatigue was present
      in one third of our sample. There was no relationship between fatigue and injury
      level or completeness. We found significant correlations between depression,
      pain, and level of injury. The relation of fatigue with completeness of injury
      and spasticity is less clear. Moreover, the online survey and the standard face
      to-face interview showed similar results concerning fatigue evaluation. Several
      factors may contribute to fatigue, however. Future studies should be conducted to
      clarify which are the most relevant ones and, if possible, to determine which
      factors are modifiable.

PMID- 28569602
TI  - Factors Associated With Risky Alcohol Consumption Among Male Street Laborers in
      Urban Vietnam.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption is of global concern. However, drinking patterns
      and associated factors remain under-investigated, especially among low
      socioeconomic groups such as street laborers. OBJECTIVE: Using the social
      cognitive model as a framework for the study we aimed to identify factors
      associated with risky alcohol consumption. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study
      using structured questionnaires, 450 male street laborers searching for casual
      works in Hanoi, Vietnam were interviewed. A logistic regression was applied in
      order to detect predictors of risky alcohol drinking. RESULTS: During the last
      month, 45% of the participants reported daily consumption while the other 55%
      consumed weekly or less. Among the drinkers (416 out of 450, 92%), 27% were
      identified as high-risk drinkers who reported more than 14 standard drinks per
      week, while only 8% were lifetime abstainers. The multivariable logistic
      regression showed that older age, higher income were positively associated with a
      higher likelihood of drinking alcohol, while high school level negatively. The
      environmental predictor was the higher level of peer connection. The association
      between drinking and risky behavior was found positive with regards to the number
      of sexual partners. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that male street laborers are
      vulnerable to health risks. Decision makers should note that a significant
      proportion of this target group exceeds the guidelines for alcohol use and this
      should be included in future interventions or further research. A multisectoral
      approach together with an important strategy of education is needed to control
      alcohol use.

PMID- 28569603
TI  - Clinical accuracy of point-of-care urine culture in general practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical accuracy (sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE),
      positive predictive value and negative predictive value) of two point-of-care
      (POC) urine culture tests for the identification of urinary tract infection (UTI)
      in general practice. DESIGN: Prospective diagnostic accuracy study comparing two
      index tests (FlexicultTM SSI-Urinary Kit or ID FlexicultTM) with a reference
      standard (urine culture performed in the microbiological department). SETTING:
      General practice in the Copenhagen area patients. Adult female patients
      consulting their general practitioner with suspected uncomplicated, symptomatic
      UTI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Overall accuracy of POC urine culture in general
      practice. (2) Individual accuracy of each of the two POC tests in this study. (3)
      Accuracy of POC urine culture in general practice with enterococci excluded,
      since enterococci are known to multiply in boric acid used for transportation for
      the reference standard. (4) Accuracy based on expert reading of photographs of
      POC urine cultures performed in general practice. Standard culture performed in
      the microbiological department was used as reference standard for all four
      measures. RESULTS: Twenty general practices recruited 341 patients with suspected
      uncomplicated UTI. The overall agreement between index test and reference was
      0.76 (CI: 0.71-0.80), SEN 0.88 (CI: 0.83-0.92) and SPE 0.55 (CI: 0.46-0.64). The
      two POC tests produced similar results individually. Overall agreement with
      enterococci excluded was 0.82 (0.77-0.86) and agreement between expert readings
      of photographs and reference results was 0.81 (CI: 0.76-0.85). CONCLUSIONS: POC
      culture used in general practice has high SEN but low SPE. Low SPE could be due
      to both misinterpretation in general practice and an imperfect reference
      standard. Registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02323087.

PMID- 28569604
TI  - Adaptation and implementation of family-based treatment enhanced with dialectical
      behavior therapy skills for anorexia nervosa in community-based specialist
      clinics.
AB  - Although family-based therapy (FBT) is a well-established treatment for anorexia
      nervosa, its implementation and effectiveness in clinical settings has been
      neglected. A group of seven therapists at a community-based eating disorders
      clinic were trained in skills-enhanced FBT and provided treatment to 11 youth
      with anorexia nervosa. Family-based skills training, which borrowed heavily from
      dialectical behavior therapy, was introduced in four additional sessions and then
      integrated throughout the remainder of FBT. FBT was perceived as appropriate and
      acceptable by all participants. Therapists reported high treatment fidelity.
      There was a large improvement in weight and moderate improvement in caregiver
      reported eating disorder psychopathology but no clinically significant change by
      youth report. This study provides preliminary data on the implementation and
      effectiveness of FBT in the community.

PMID- 28569605
TI  - Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive.
AB  - In people's imagination, dying seems dreadful; however, these perceptions may not
      reflect reality. In two studies, we compared the affective experience of people
      facing imminent death with that of people imagining imminent death. Study 1
      revealed that blog posts of near-death patients with cancer and amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis were more positive and less negative than the simulated blog
      posts of nonpatients-and also that the patients' blog posts became more positive
      as death neared. Study 2 revealed that the last words of death-row inmates were
      more positive and less negative than the simulated last words of noninmates-and
      also that these last words were less negative than poetry written by death-row
      inmates. Together, these results suggest that the experience of dying-even
      because of terminal illness or execution-may be more pleasant than one imagines.

PMID- 28569606
TI  - Spatial surrogate for domestic combustion's air emissions: A case study from
      Silesian Metropolis, Poland.
AB  - : The aim of this study is improving currently applied methodology for spatial
      disaggregation, as well as mapping air emission inventories by taking into
      account the auxiliary spatial data on population density. District heating
      infrastructure occurring in more populated areas changes distinctly the spatial
      distribution of estimated air emission; however, it does not change the initial
      estimate. That means the total, disaggregated value is constant. Considered
      sources of domestic combustion are located in the central part of the Silesian
      Metropolis, in the southern part of Poland. A large part of this area is strongly
      urbanized and supplied with heat (hot water) from the district heating system.
      Data on population density help to determine the area within which the dwellers
      use heat energy and hot water supplied by the heating infrastructure, apart from
      heating with small domestic boilers and stoves. This causes the domestic
      combustion's emission impact within the distinguished area to be significantly
      lower in comparison to the official guidelines on air emission inventories. The
      important differences in spatial air emissions distributions calculated using a
      top-down approach are found for strongly urbanized areas supplied partly with
      heat and hot water from the district heating network. This fact should be taken
      into account when preparing detailed, high-resolution emission inventories for
      air regional and local quality modeling. IMPLICATIONS: The spatial issues
      connected with elaboration of the high-resolution emission inventories are
      presented for the example of the populated area of the Silesian Metropolis
      (Poland). Spatial distribution of the population density is used to determine the
      area supplied with heat and hot water from the district heating system. It
      changes distinctly the spatial distribution of the air emission from small
      residential combustion sources.

PMID- 28569607
TI  - Validation of TICS for detection of dementia and mild cognitive impairment among
      individuals characterized by low levels of education or illiteracy: a population
      based study in rural Greece.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The efficacy of the most widely used tests for dementia screening is
      limited in populations characterized by low levels of education. This study aimed
      to validate the face-to-face administered Telephone Interview for Cognitive
      Status (TICS) for detection of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a
      population-based sample of community dwelling individuals characterized by low
      levels of education or illiteracy in rural Greece. METHODS: The translated Greek
      version of TICS was administered through face-to-face interview in 133 elderly
      residents of Velestino of low educational level (<12 years). We assessed its
      internal consistency and test-retest reliability, its correlation with
      sociodemographic parameters, and its discriminant ability for cognitive
      impairment and dementia, as defined by a brief neurological evaluation, including
      assessment of cognitive status and level of independence. RESULTS: TICS was
      characterized by adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: .72) and very
      high test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient: .93); it was
      positively correlated with age and educational years. MCI and dementia were
      diagnosed in 18 and 10.5% of the population, respectively. Its discriminant
      ability for detection of dementia was high (Area under the curve, AUC: .85), with
      a sensitivity and specificity of 86 and 82%, respectively, at a cut-off point of
      24/25. TICS did not perform well in differentiating MCI from cognitively normal
      individuals though (AUC: .67). CONCLUSION: The directly administered TICS
      questionnaire provides an easily applicable and brief option for detection of
      dementia in populations of low educational level and might be useful in the
      context of both clinical and research purposes.

PMID- 28569608
TI  - Visceral Adipose Tissue Volume and the Occurrence of Colorectal Adenoma in Follow
      up Colonoscopy for Screening and Surveillance.
AB  - Whether obesity accelerates adenoma recurrence is not yet clear; therefore, we
      analyzed the risk factors for adenoma occurrence at follow-up colonoscopy, with a
      focus on visceral adiposity. In total, 1516 subjects underwent index colonoscopy,
      computed tomography, and questionnaire assessment from February to May 2008; 539
      subjects underwent follow-up colonoscopy at the National Cancer Center at least 6
      mo after the index colonoscopy. The relationships between the presence of adenoma
      at follow-up colonoscopy and anthropometric obesity measurements, including body
      mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume,
      and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volume, were analyzed. 188 (34.9%) had
      adenomatous polyps at follow-up colonoscopy. Multivariate analysis revealed that
      VAT volume >= 1000 cm3 and BMI >= 30 kg/m2 were related to the presence of
      adenoma at follow-up colonoscopy (VAT volume 1000-1500 cm3: odds ratio [OR] =
      2.13(95% confidence interval, CI = 1.06-4.26), P = 0.034; VAT volume >= 1000 cm3:
      OR = 2.24(95% CI = 1.03-4.88), P = 0.043; BMI >= 30 kg/m2: OR = 4.22(95% CI =
      1.12-15.93), P = 0.034). In contrast, BMI 25-29.9 kg/m2, SAT volume, and WC were
      not associated with the presence of adenoma at follow-up colonoscopy. In
      conclusion, excess VAT can contribute to the development and growth of new
      colorectal adenomas, and is a better predictor of colorectal adenoma occurrence
      at follow-up colonoscopy than BMI, WC, and SAT volume.

PMID- 28569609
TI  - Progress in acetylcholinesterase reactivators and in the treatment of
      organophosphorus intoxication: a patent review (2006-2016).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: organophosphorus compounds act as irreversible inhibitors of the
      vital enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). this leads in the accumulation of
      acetylcholine (ACh) leading to cholinergic crisis and death. The main therapeutic
      approach is based on immediate administration of an ache reactivator as an
      antidote enabling recovery of the ache function. Areas covered: This review
      covers the development of AChE reactivators in order to introduce a new efficient
      drug that will overcome significant failures of common antidotes. Further options
      together with methods of detection are also discussed in order to assure a
      complete insight into the treatment of intoxication. Expert opinion: Since
      organophosphates belong to the most toxic chemical warfare agents, efficient
      antidotes are a matter of importance. The solution of how to limit the basic
      drawbacks of clinically used reactivators remained a spotlight for many
      researches worldwide. Recent strategies of the treatment of OP exposure bring us
      new possibilities which may overcome classic antidotes. The importance of
      detection of OP also has to be taken into consideration. Especially, with the
      fast spreading toxic effect when death can occur within minutes.

PMID- 28569610
TI  - The Stability of Retrospective Child Sexual Abuse Reports and its Association
      With Problem Avoidance.
AB  - Due to reliability problems, use of retrospective measurement to assess child
      sexual abuse has long concerned researchers. Possible psychosocial causes of
      these reliability issues-including problem avoidance-have not been thoroughly
      studied. We tested the reliability of retrospective child sexual abuse
      measurement in a nationally representative sample of 12,438 adults over two
      periods (2001-2002, 2007-2008), assessed sex differences in reliability, and
      examined whether reliability depends on problem avoidance tendencies. Nearly
      three-fourths of child sexual abuse cases in the former wave were not again
      reported, and two-thirds of child sexual abuse cases in the latter wave were not
      previously reported. Females were more likely to report CSA later if reported
      previously (OR = 5.11). Participants who reported child sexual abuse in the
      former wave but not the latter were more avoidant than consistent reporters (3.13
      versus 2.77). Our findings suggest that females may report child sexual abuse
      more consistently. Furthermore, inconsistent reporting may indicate problem
      avoidance. Suggestions for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

PMID- 28569611
TI  - Parental marital satisfaction in a family-based partial hospitalization program.
AB  - In family-based treatment, parents are initially put in charge of the weight
      restoration process, requiring parents to work closely together to help their
      child recover, possibly putting a strain on the marital relationship. The purpose
      of the current study was to examine marital satisfaction in families before and
      after treatment in a family-based program and to determine whether marital
      satisfaction is related to patient outcome. Parents of 53 adolescent patients
      participated in the study. Almost half of mothers and a third of fathers reported
      a decrease in marital satisfaction over the course of treatment. Descriptive
      analyses revealed that patients whose parents reported a decrease in marital
      satisfaction scored worse on a measure of eating disorder psychopathology.
      Further research is needed to determine the direction of causality.

PMID- 28569612
TI  - Prospective study of serum uric acid levels and stroke in a Chinese hypertensive
      cohort.
AB  - Our aim was to investigate the association between serum uric acid (SUA) levels
      and the risk of first stroke in a Chinese population of hypertensive patients.
      This prospective study enrolled 20,577 hypertensive participants who without a
      history of stroke, and was conducted from May 2008 to August 2013 in Anqing and
      Lianyungang (China). A total of 632 (3.1%) first stroke events (510 ischemic
      events, 120 hemorrhagic events and 2 unspecified stroke events) were identified
      during a mean 4.5-year follow-up period. The risk of first stroke was not
      significantly associated with the increased SUA levels; this conclusion was also
      found after adjustment for gender and age. However, a statistically significant
      decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke for the second SUA quartile (Q2) compared to
      the first quartile (Q1) (HR 0.56, 95%CI: 0.32-0.97, P = 0.037) was found. In
      addition, when grouped by tertiles of diastolic blood pressure (DBP), the results
      showed that high SUA lowered the risk of total stroke in participants in the
      third SUA quartile (Q3) (HR 0.69, 95%CI: 0.49-0.96, P = 0.028) and fourth SUA
      quartile (Q4) (HR 0.70, 95%CI: 0.50-0.99, P = 0.043) as compared with that in the
      first quartile (Q1). To sum up, no significant evidence in present study
      indicates that increased SUA levels are predictive of first stroke in a Chinese
      population of hypertensive patients.

PMID- 28569613
TI  - The role of bone marrow microenvironment in platelet production and their
      implications for the treatment of thrombocytopenic diseases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Impaired platelet production has been found to be an important
      pathological mechanism of thrombocytopenia in many diseases. Platelet generation
      is a complex process that mainly occurs in the bone marrow, and thus is closely
      regulated by the bone marrow microenvironment. This review attempts to summarize
      the most current knowledge referring the role of bone marrow microenvironment in
      the regulation of platelet production. METHODS: The effects of multiple
      microenvironment ingredients in regulating megakaryopoiesis and
      thrombocytopoiesis have been discussed. Abnormalities of these components in
      thrombocytopenic diseases are also described. DISCUSSIONS: Thrombocytopenia is a
      common clinical manifestation of a variety of diseases. The functional importance
      of platelets has driven the developments of a broad range of studies. Platelet
      generation mainly occurs within the bone marrow, where the cells, soluble
      factors, and extracellular matrix proteins collaboratively form a complex
      regulatory network, directing megakaryocytic proliferation and differentiation.
      Alteration in any part of the regulating network may result in defective platelet
      formation, and eventually lead to thrombocytopenia. A variety of thrombocytopenic
      diseases have been found to be related with the disregulated bone marrow
      microenvironment. Identification of the variations of these niche ingredients in
      certain diseases has facilitated the developments of multiple therapeutic
      regimes. Further studies that can combine these niche factors with their
      downstream regulatory factors will be beneficial for developing more effective
      therapies. CONCLUSIONS: Further definition of the role of bone marrow
      microenvironment in platelet generation may deepen our understanding of the
      underlying mechanisms as well as provide new therapeutic targets for
      thrombocytopenic diseases.

PMID- 28569614
TI  - Stability of Blood Eosinophil Count in Patients with COPD in the UK Clinical
      Practice Research Datalink.
AB  - Blood eosinophil counts may be predictive of corticosteroid response in chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. However, little is known about
      measurement stability, which is important for understanding the utility of blood
      eosinophil counts as a potential biomarker. We evaluated the stability of blood
      eosinophil counts over 1 year in a population-based cohort of patients with COPD
      in primary care. Patients were aged >= 40 years with forced expiratory volume in
      1 second/forced vital capacity < 0.7 and >= 1 blood eosinophil measurement taken
      during a period of stable disease within 6 months of a COPD diagnosis code
      recorded between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012. Generalized linear mixed
      models were fitted to log-transformed data to estimate the between-(s2between)
      and within-patient (s2within) variance in eosinophil count; an intra-class
      correlation coefficient Ri was calculated (s2between/[s2between + s2within]). A
      sensitivity analysis was performed from which patients who were prescribed
      systemic corticosteroids or antibiotics at any time during follow-up were
      excluded. All models were adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, and asthma
      history. Overall, 27,557 patients were included in the full cohort (51.5% male,
      mean age [standard deviation] 71.1 [10.6] years) and 54% of patients had >= 2
      eosinophil measurements (median 2 [interquartile range 1]) during follow-up. For
      the full cohort, Ri = 0.64, and in the sensitivity analysis subgroup, Ri = 0.70,
      mainly due to a decrease in s2within. For patients with COPD in primary care,
      eosinophil measurements demonstrated reasonable repeatability over 1 year, which
      increased after exclusion of patients who were prescribed systemic
      corticosteroids or antibiotics.

PMID- 28569616
TI  - Doctor-Related Medication Safety Incidents on a Specialist Palliative Medicine
      Inpatient Unit: A Retrospective Analysis of Three Years of Voluntary Reporting.
AB  - Patients receiving palliative care and those at the end of life are known to be
      susceptible to medical errors. Errors related to medications are the most
      avoidable cause of patient harm. This retrospective study examined reported
      anonymized medication safety incidents, related to physician errors, assessed by
      the risk committee in a specialist palliative care unit over a 3-year time
      period. The aim of the study was to describe medication errors, with specific
      attention paid to what type of errors occurred and when these errors happened. Of
      the 218 reported medication safety incidents 28% (n = 62) were related to doctor
      prescribing. The data showed that there was a wide variation per year in the
      numbers of reported medication safety incidents. Medication prescribing errors
      were the most common error, followed by medication omissions. Medication safety
      incidents are at least in part dependent on staff reporting. Fostering a culture
      of openness that is blame free is crucial to medication error reporting. Formal
      reporting may help to increase patient safety and forms an essential element in
      the clinical governance and risk management of an institution.

PMID- 28569615
TI  - Assessment of relationships between novel inflammatory markers and presence and
      severity of preeclampsia: Epicardial fat thickness, pentraxin-3, and neutrophil
      to-lymphocyte ratio.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of three new
      inflammatory markers with presence and severity of preeclampsia and to compare
      the predictive values of all markers for presence of this setting. METHODS: In
      this study, a total of 100 consecutive pregnants with a diagnosis of preeclampsia
      and 40 healthy pregnants between October 2014 and April 2015 were included.
      Epicardial fat tissue was calculated by two-dimensional transthoracic
      echocardiography, and pentraxin-3 and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were
      measured by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method and routine blood
      count analysis, respectively. RESULTS: Epicardial fat thickness (p < 0.001),
      pentraxin-3 (p < 0.001), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.001) were
      found to be significantly increased in the preeclampsia as compared to the
      healthy pregnants. Furthermore, epicardial fat thickness (p = 0.002), pentraxin-3
      (p < 0.001), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.001) were significantly
      elevated in the severe preeclampsia compared to mild preeclampsia. In the
      multivariate analysis, epicardial fat thickness (p = 0.013), pentraxin-3 (p =
      0.04), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.001) were found as significant
      independent predictors of presence of preeclampsia after adjusting for other risk
      factors. CONCLUSION: Epicardial fat thickness, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio,
      and pentraxin-3 are important markers that provide an additional information
      beyond that provided by conventional methods in predicting presence and severity
      of preeclampsia.

PMID- 28569617
TI  - Multimodal partial volume correction: Application to [11C]PIB PET/MRI myelin
      imaging in multiple sclerosis.
AB  - The [11C]PIB PET tracer, originally developed for amyloid imaging, has been
      recently repurposed to quantify demyelination and remyelination in multiple
      sclerosis (MS). Myelin PET imaging, however, is limited by its low resolution
      that deteriorates the quantification accuracy of white matter (WM) lesions. Here,
      we introduce a novel partial volume correction (PVC) method called
      Multiresolution-Multimodal Resolution-Recovery (MM-RR), which uses the wavelet
      transform and a synergistic statistical model to exploit MRI structural images to
      improve the resolution of [11C]PIB PET myelin imaging. MM-RR performance was
      tested on a phantom acquisition and in a dataset comprising [11C]PIB PET and MR
      T1- and T2-weighted images of 8 healthy controls and 20 MS patients. For the
      control group, the MM-RR PET images showed an average increase of 5.7% in WM
      uptake while the grey-matter (GM) uptake remained constant, resulting in +31%
      WM/GM contrast. Furthermore, MM-RR PET binding maps correlated significantly with
      the mRNA expressions of the most represented proteins in the myelin sheath (R2 =
      0.57 +/- 0.09). In the patient group, MM-RR PET images showed sharper lesion
      contours and significant improvement in normal-appearing tissue/WM-lesion
      contrast compared to standard PET (contrast improvement > +40%). These results
      were consistent with MM-RR performances in phantom experiments.

PMID- 28569619
TI  - Effects of point massage of liver and stomach channel combined with pith and
      trotter soup on postpartum lactation start time.
AB  - Delay in lactation initiation causes maternal anxiety and subsequent adverse
      impact on maternal exclusive breast feeding. It is important to explore a safe
      and convenient way to promote lactation initiation. The feasibility of point
      massage of liver and stomach channel combined with pith and trotter soup on
      prevention of delayed lactation initiation was investigated in the present study.
      320 women were enrolled and randomly divided into four groups, control group (80
      women), point massage group (80 women), pith and trotter soup group (80 women),
      and massage + soup group (80 women) to compare the lactation initiation time. We
      found that women in point massage group, pith and trotter soup group and massage
      + soup group had earlier initiation of lactation compared with control group.
      Women in massage + soup group had the earliest initiation time of lactation.
      There were significant differences between massage + soup group and pith and
      trotter soup group. But, there were no significant differences between massage +
      soup group and massage group. We conclude that point massage of the liver and
      stomach channel is easy to operate and has the preventive effect on delayed
      lactation initiation. Impact statement What is already known on this subject:
      Initiation of lactation is a critical period in postpartum milk secretion. Delays
      in lactation initiation lead to maternal anxiety and have an adverse impact on
      maternal exclusive breastfeeding. Sucking frequently by babies and mammary
      massage might be effective but insufficient for delayed lactation initiation.
      What the results of this study add: We found in the present study that lactation
      initiation is significantly earlier in women receiving routine nursing combined
      with point massage of liver and stomach channel, or pith trotters soup, or
      massage of liver and stomach channel with pith and trotters soup than in a
      control group receiving routine nursing. These three methods are all effective,
      while the most effective method is point massage combined with pith trotter soup.
      There was no maternal drug allergy, postpartum bleeding or other adverse
      reactions noted in all women. What the implications are of these findings for
      clinical practice and/or further research: The present study suggested that the
      application of point massage in clinic might be useful for preventing lack of
      milk postpartum by delayed lactation initiation and improving the exclusive
      breastfeeding rate. Further research might explore that molecular mechanism of
      lactation promotion by point massage using blood samples or animal models.

PMID- 28569618
TI  - Effects of chronic exposure to triclosan on reproductive and thyroid endpoints in
      the adult Wistar female rat.
AB  - Triclosan (TCS), an antibacterial, has been shown to be an endocrine disruptor in
      the rat. Previously, subchronic TCS treatment to female rats was found to advance
      puberty and potentiate the effect of ethinyl estradiol (EE) on uterine growth
      when EE and TCS were co-administered prior to weaning. In the pubertal study, a
      decrease in serum thyroxine (T4) concentrations with no significant change in
      serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was also observed. The purpose of the
      present study was to further characterize the influence of TCS on the
      reproductive and thyroid axes of the female rat using a chronic exposure regimen.
      Female Wistar rats were exposed by oral gavage to vehicle control, EE (1 MUg/kg),
      or TCS (2.35, 4.69, 9.375 or 37.5 mg/kg) for 8 months and estrous cyclicity
      monitored. Although a divergent pattern of reproductive senescence appeared to
      emerge from 5 to 11 months of age between controls and EE-treated females, no
      significant difference in cyclicity was noted between TCS-treated and control
      females. A higher % control females displayed persistent diestrus (PD) by the end
      of the study, whereas animals administered with positive control (EE) were
      predominately persistent estrus (PE). Thyroxine concentration was significantly
      decreased in TCS-administered 9.375 and 37.5 mg/kg groups, with no marked effects
      on TSH levels, thyroid tissue weight, or histology. Results demonstrate that a
      long-term exposure to TCS did not significantly alter estrous cyclicity or timing
      of reproductive senescence in females but suppressed T4 levels at a lower dose
      than previously observed.

PMID- 28569620
TI  - Indoor air quality in preschools (3- to 5-year-old children) in the Northeast of
      Portugal during spring-summer season: pollutants and comfort parameters.
AB  - Indoor air quality at schools (elementary, primary) has been the subject of many
      studies; however, there are still relative few data regarding preschool (3- to 5
      year-old children) environments. This investigation determined the concentrations
      of particulate matter (PM)2.5, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC),
      formaldehyde, carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) as well as the levels of
      carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature, and relative humidity (RH) in the indoor and
      outdoor air of two preschools situated in different geographical regions of
      Portugal. The indoor concentrations of TVOC, CO, O3, and CO2 were predominantly
      higher at the end of school day compared to early morning periods. The TVOC and
      CO2 concentrations were higher indoors than outdoors suggesting predominantly an
      indoor origin. Outdoor air infiltrations were the major contributing source of CO
      and O3 to indoor air in both preschools. The concentrations of all pollutants
      were within the limits defined by national regulations and international
      organizations, except for TVOC that exceeded 8-12-fold higher than the
      recommendation of 0.2 mg/m3 proposed by European Commission. The levels of CO2
      were below the protective guideline of 2250 mg/m3 (Portuguese legislation);
      however, the observed ranges exceeded the Portuguese margin of tolerance (2925
      mg/m3) at the end of school days, indicating the impact of occupancy rates
      particularly at one of the preschools. Regarding comfort parameters, temperature
      exerted a significant influence on O3 concentrations, while RH values were
      significantly correlated with TVOC levels in indoor air of preschools,
      particularly during the late afternoon periods.

PMID- 28569622
TI  - Homophobic Bullying and Cyberbullying: Study of a Silenced Problem.
AB  - Bullying and cyberbullying have been studied extensively. In lesbian, gay,
      bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) students, these phenomena seem to be
      overrepresented so that, although they share some common elements, homophobic
      bullying and cyberbullying could be considered as specific phenomena. This study
      analyzed homophobic bullying and cyberbullying, with the participation of 533
      Spanish secondary school students aged from 12 to 20 (M = 14.9, SD = 1.7). The
      results showed that students identified as non-heterosexual experienced a higher
      level of being targeted with bullying and cyberbullying, almost one half of them
      declaring that they had been victimized and more than 20% cybervictimized. Many
      stated they had suffered both kinds of harassment. In addition, the prevalence of
      all kinds of bullying was higher among non-heterosexual students. Regression
      analyses showed that sexual orientation could be considered a risk factor for
      suffering these aggressions. We discuss results in relation to previous research
      and look at their practical implications.

PMID- 28569621
TI  - Attachment orientations and psychological adjustment of parents of children with
      cancer: A matched-group comparison.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of childhood cancer on parents' adult
      attachment, social support, marital adjustment, anxiety, and depression. METHODS:
      30 parents of children with childhood cancer and 30 matched controls completed
      the following questionnaires: Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised, Dyadic
      Adjustment Scale-4, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, State
      Trait Anxiety Inventory - form Y, and Beck Depression Inventory. RESULTS: Parents
      of children with childhood cancer had a significantly lower dyadic adjustment
      than controls, and higher levels of insecure-avoidant attachment, state anxiety,
      and depression. CONCLUSION: It is important for health-care personnel to take
      into account these parents' propensity to show increased levels of avoidant
      attachment during children's treatment to foster effective communication and
      supportive relationships between clinicians, pediatric patients, and parents.

PMID- 28569623
TI  - Increased total DNA damage and oxidative stress in brain are associated with
      decreased longevity in high sucrose diet fed WNIN/Gr-Ob obese rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) are chronic nutrient-related
      disorders that occur together and pose a grave burden to society. They are among
      the most common causes of ageing and death. Obesity and T2D per se accelerate
      ageing albeit the underlying mechanisms are unclear yet. Also, it is not clear
      whether or not superimposing T2D on obesity accelerates ageing. Present study
      validated the hypothesis, 'super-imposing T2D on obesity accelerates ageing' in
      WNIN/Gr-Ob, the impaired glucose tolerant, obese rat as the model and evaluated
      probable underlying mechanisms. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the survival analysis of
      WNIN/Gr-Ob rats induced with T2D. To determine the extent of DNA damage and
      oxidative stress in the brain, the master controller of the body, in WNIN/Gr-Ob
      rats with/without high sucrose induced T2D/aggravation of insulin resistance (IR)
      after 3 and 6 months of feeding. METHODS: T2D was induced/IR was aggravated by
      feeding high sucrose diet (HSD) to 9-10 weeks old, male WNIN/Gr-Ob rats. Survival
      percentage was determined statistically by Kaplan-Meier estimator. Neuronal DNA
      damage was quantified by the Comet assay while the oxidative stress and
      antioxidant status were evaluated from the levels of malonaldialdehyde, reduced
      glutathione, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: HSD
      feeding decreased longevity of WNIN/Gr-Ob rats and was associated with
      significantly higher total neuronal DNA damage after three months of feeding but
      not later. In line with this was the increased neuronal oxidative stress (lipid
      peroxidation) and decreased antioxidant status (reduced glutathione and SOD
      activity) in HSD than Starch-based diet (SBD) fed rats. The results suggest that
      HSD feeding decreased the longevity of WNIN/Gr-Ob obese rats probably by
      increasing oxidative stress and aggravating IR, a condition that precedes T2D.

PMID- 28569624
TI  - Effectiveness of Parenteral Glutamine on Methotrexate-induced Oral Mucositis in
      Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - High-dose methotrexate (HDMTX) is important for children with acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia (ALL). There is no effective treatment for patients with oral mucositis,
      which is a major side effect associated with HDMTX. Here, we reviewed the medical
      records of patients younger than 18 yr with newly diagnosed ALL in our hospitals
      from 2002 to 2013. According to the nationwide protocol (TPOG-ALL-2002), each
      patient received four courses of HDMTX (2.5 or 5 g/m2) during consolidation
      therapy. HDMTX courses with glutamine therapy were as the glutamine group, and
      intravenous glutamine (0.4 g/kg/day) was started within 48 h after the initiation
      of HDMTX for 3 consecutive days. HDMTX courses without glutamine were as the
      control group. A total of 347 HDMTX courses were administrated in the 96 children
      with ALL during the study period. The incidence of oral mucositis was
      significantly lower in the glutamine group than in the control group (3.8% vs.
      17.6%; P = 0.004). In the glutamine group, no patients suffered from severe oral
      mucositis. No severe adverse effects associated with glutamine administration
      were noted. Accordingly, parenteral glutamine appears to be feasible and safe to
      prevent oral mucositis in patients receiving HDMTX.

PMID- 28569625
TI  - Sexual Preferences and Partnerships of Transgender Persons Mid- or Post
      Transition.
AB  - The process of gender transition has varying effects on various aspects of
      sexuality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of
      transitioning on transgender persons' sexual preferences and partnerships. Data
      were collected through an anonymous online survey. Questions focused on timing of
      gender transition in relation to change in sexual preference. Transgender
      individuals have a variety of sexual partners, predominantly cisgender, and may
      change sexual preference when they transition. Transitioning can be associated
      with having no primary sexual partner, despite past sexual partnerships. Length
      of time between identifying as transgender and starting the transition might be
      associated with changing sexual partner preference, particularly in transgender
      women. The emerging trends of sexual partnerships and changing sexual preferences
      related to the transition in this study warrant further investigation. These data
      provide more understanding of the relationship between transitioning and sexual
      preferences and partnerships.

PMID- 28569626
TI  - What Is Your Diagnosis?

PMID- 28569628
TI  - Pathology in Practice.

PMID- 28569629
TI  - ECG of the Month.

PMID- 28569630
TI  - A case-control study developing a model for predicting risk factors for high SeM
      specific antibody titers after natural outbreaks of Streptococcus equi subsp equi
      infection in horses.
AB  - OBJECTIVE To develop a risk prediction model for factors associated with an SeM
      specific antibody titer >= 3,200 in horses after naturally occurring outbreaks of
      Streptococcus equi subsp equi infection and to validate this model. DESIGN Case
      control study. ANIMALS 245 horses: 57 horses involved in strangles outbreaks
      (case horses) and 188 healthy horses (control horses). PROCEDURES Serum samples
      were obtained from the 57 cases over a 27.5-month period after the start of
      outbreaks; serum samples were obtained once from the 188 controls. A Bayesian
      mixed-effects logistic regression model was used to assess potential risk factors
      associated with an antibody titer >= 3,200 in the case horses. A cutoff
      probability for an SeM-specific titer >= 3,200 was determined, and the model was
      externally validated in the control horses. Only variables with a 95% credibility
      interval that did not overlap with a value of 1 were considered significant.
      RESULTS 9 of 57 (6%) case horses had at least 1 titer >= 3,200, and 7 of 188
      (3.7%) of control horses had a titer >= 3,200. The following variables were found
      to be significantly associated with a titer >= 3,200 in cases: farm size > 20
      horses (OR, 0.11), history of clinically evident disease (OR, 7.92), and male sex
      (OR, 0.11). The model had 100% sensitivity but only 24% specificity when applied
      to the 188 control horses (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve
      = 0.62.) CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Although the Bayesian mixed-effects
      logistic regression model developed in this study did not perform well, it may
      prove useful as an initial screening tool prior to vaccination. We suggest that
      SeM-specific antibody titer be measured prior to vaccination when our model
      predicts a titer >= 3,200.

PMID- 28569631
TI  - Evaluation of pyramid training as a method to increase diagnostic sampling
      capacity during an emergency veterinary response to a swine disease outbreak.
AB  - OBJECTIVE To develop and evaluate a pyramid training method for teaching
      techniques for collection of diagnostic samples from swine. DESIGN Experimental
      trial. SAMPLE 45 veterinary students. PROCEDURES Participants went through a
      preinstruction assessment to determine their familiarity with the equipment
      needed and techniques used to collect samples of blood, nasal secretions, feces,
      and oral fluid from pigs. Participants were then shown a series of videos
      illustrating the correct equipment and techniques for collecting samples and were
      provided hands-on pyramid-based instruction wherein a single swine veterinarian
      trained 2 or 3 participants on each of the techniques and each of those
      participants, in turn, trained additional participants. Additional assessments
      were performed after the instruction was completed. RESULTS Following the
      instruction phase, percentages of participants able to collect adequate samples
      of blood, nasal secretions, feces, and oral fluid increased, as did scores on a
      written quiz assessing participants' ability to identify the correct equipment,
      positioning, and procedures for collection of samples. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE Results suggested that the pyramid training method may be a feasible
      way to rapidly increase diagnostic sampling capacity during an emergency
      veterinary response to a swine disease outbreak.

PMID- 28569632
TI  - Diagnostic Imaging in Veterinary Dental Practice.

PMID- 28569633
TI  - Pathology in Practice.

PMID- 28569634
TI  - Open reduction and cranial bone plate fixation of fractures involving the distal
      aspect of the radius and ulna in miniature- and toy-breed dogs: 102 cases (2008
      2015).
AB  - OBJECTIVE To determine outcomes and complication rates of open reduction and
      cranial bone plate fixation of fractures involving the distal aspect of the
      radius and ulna in miniature- and toy-breed dogs. DESIGN Retrospective case
      series. ANIMALS 102 miniature- and toy-breed dogs (105 fractures) weighing <= 7
      kg (15.4 lb) that had undergone open reduction and cranial bone plate fixation of
      a fracture involving the distal aspect of the radius and ulna from 2008 through
      2015. PROCEDURES Medical records were reviewed and information extracted
      regarding dog and fracture characteristics, surgical variables, and follow-up
      examination data (including postoperative complications). Postoperative
      radiographs were examined for distal fragment size, implant placement,
      apposition, alignment, and healing stage. A long-term follow-up questionnaire was
      completed by telephone interview with dog owners at least 6 months after surgery.
      RESULTS Mean length of the distal bone fragment in all fractures was 19.2 mm,
      with a mean distal-to-total radial length ratio of 0.21. At last follow-up
      examination (typically 6 weeks after surgery), 97 (95%) dogs had no signs of
      lameness; minor lameness was identified in 5 (5%) dogs. Complications developed
      in 26 (25%) fractures (23 [22%] minor and 3 [3%] major complications). Sixty
      eight of 71 (96%) owners rated the overall and long-term outcome as excellent and
      3 (4%) as good; 68 of 71 (96%) dogs reportedly had no signs of residual lameness.
      CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Open reduction and cranial bone plate fixation
      for the treatment of radius-ulna fractures in miniature- and toy-breed dogs
      provided an excellent outcome with a low complication rate.

PMID- 28569637
TI  - What Is Your Neurologic Diagnosis?

PMID- 28569638
TI  - Anesthesia Case of the Month.

PMID- 28569635
TI  - Thyrotoxicosis induced by excessive 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine in a dog.
AB  - CASE DESCRIPTION A 7-year-old castrated male Havanese was evaluated at a
      veterinary teaching hospital because of a 12-week history of hyperactivity,
      aggression, and progressive weight loss despite a healthy appetite. CLINICAL
      FINDINGS Tachycardia was the only remarkable finding during physical examination.
      Serum 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) and free T3 concentrations were markedly
      increased, and thyroxine (T4), free T4, and thyroid-stimulating hormone
      concentrations were at or decreased from the respective reference ranges. Thyroid
      scintigraphy revealed suppressed uptake of sodium pertechnetate Tc 99m by the
      thyroid gland but no ectopic thyroid tissue, which was indicative of
      thyrotoxicosis induced by an exogenous source of T3. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME The
      dog was hospitalized for 24 hours, and its diet was changed, after which the
      clinical signs rapidly resolved and serum T3 and free T3 concentrations returned
      to within the respective reference ranges. This raised suspicion of an exogenous
      source of T3 in the dog's home environment. Analysis of the commercial beef-based
      canned food the dog was being fed revealed a high concentration of T3 (1.39
      MUg/g) and an iodine (82.44 MUg/g) concentration that exceeded industry
      recommendations. No other source of T3 was identified in the dog's environment.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE To our knowledge, this is the first report of clinical
      thyrotoxicosis in a dog induced by exogenous T3, although the source of exogenous
      T3 was not identified. This case highlights the importance of measuring serum T3
      and thyroid-stimulating hormone concentrations in addition to T4 and free T4
      concentrations when there is incongruity between clinical findings and thyroid
      function test results.

PMID- 28569640
TI  - Prevalence of serum antibody titers against canine distemper virus and canine
      parvovirus in dogs hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of dogs hospitalized in an intensive care
      unit (ICU) with serum antibody titers against canine distemper virus (CDV) and
      canine parvovirus (CPV). DESIGN Prospective observational study. ANIMALS 80 dogs.
      PROCEDURES Dogs hospitalized in an ICU for > 12 hours between February 1 and June
      1, 2015, that had at least 0.25 mL of serum left over from diagnostic testing
      were eligible for study inclusion. Dogs with serum antibody titers > 1:32 (as
      determined by serum neutralization) and > 1:80 (as determined by hemagglutination
      inhibition) were considered seropositive for CDV and CPV, respectively. The date
      of last vaccination was obtained from the medical record of each dog. RESULTS Of
      the 80 dogs, 40 (50%) and 65 (81%) dogs were seropositive for CDV and CPV,
      respectively. Of the 40 dogs that were seronegative for CDV, 27 had been
      vaccinated against CDV within 3 years prior to testing. Of the 15 dogs that were
      seronegative for CPV, 3 had been vaccinated against CPV within 3 years prior to
      testing. Ten dogs were seronegative for both CDV and CPV. CONCLUSIONS AND
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated the prevalence of dogs hospitalized in an
      ICU that were seropositive for CDV and CPV was lower than expected given the high
      vaccination rate reported for dogs. Although the antibody titer necessary to
      prevent disease caused by CDV or CPV in critically ill dogs is unknown, adherence
      to infectious disease control guidelines is warranted when CDV- or CPV-infected
      dogs are treated in an ICU.

PMID- 28569641
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28569642
TI  - Effects of colonization of a bacterial endophyte, Azospirillum sp. B510, on
      disease resistance in tomato.
AB  - A plant growth-promoting bacteria, Azospirillum sp. B510, isolated from rice, can
      enhance growth and yield and induce disease resistance against various types of
      diseases in rice. Because little is known about the interaction between other
      plant species and this strain, we have investigated the effect of its
      colonization on disease resistance in tomato plants. Treatment with this strain
      by soil-drenching method established endophytic colonization in root tissues in
      tomato plant. The endophytic colonization with this strain-induced disease
      resistance in tomato plant against bacterial leaf spot caused by Pseudomonas
      syringae pv. tomato and gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea. In Azospirillum
      treated plants, neither the accumulation of SA nor the expression of defense
      related genes was observed. These indicate that endophytic colonization with
      Azospirillum sp. B510 is able to activate the innate immune system also in
      tomato, which does not seem to be systemic acquired resistance.

PMID- 28569643
TI  - The HOOK region of beta subunits controls gating of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels
      by electrostatically interacting with plasma membrane.
AB  - Recently, we showed that the HOOK region of the beta2 subunit electrostatically
      interacts with the plasma membrane and regulates the current inactivation and
      phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) sensitivity of voltage-gated Ca2+
      (CaV) 2.2 channels. Here, we report that voltage-dependent gating and current
      density of the CaV2.2 channels are also regulated by the HOOK region of the beta2
      subunit. The HOOK region can be divided into 3 domains: S (polyserine), A
      (polyacidic), and B (polybasic). We found that the A domain shifted the voltage
      dependent inactivation and activation of CaV2.2 channels to more hyperpolarized
      and depolarized voltages, respectively, whereas the B domain evoked these
      responses in the opposite directions. In addition, the A domain decreased the
      current density of the CaV2.2 channels, while the B domain increased it.
      Together, our data demonstrate that the flexible HOOK region of the beta2 subunit
      plays an important role in determining the overall CaV channel gating properties.

PMID- 28569644
TI  - Microwave-assisted facile fabrication of porous poly (glycerol sebacate)
      scaffolds.
AB  - The biodegradable elastomeric polyester poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) was
      developed for soft-tissue engineering. It has been used in various research
      applications such as wound healing, cartilage tissue engineering, and vascular
      grafting due to its biocompatibility and elastomeric properties. However
      conventional PGS manufacture is generally limited by the laborious reaction
      conditions needed for curing which requires elevated reaction temperatures, high
      vacuum and multi-day reaction times. In this study, we developed a microwave
      irradiation methodology to fabricate PGS scaffolds under milder conditions with
      curing times that are 8 times faster than conventional methods. In particular, we
      determined microwave reaction temperatures and times for maximum crosslinking of
      PGS elastomers, demonstrating that PGS is fully crosslinked using gradual heating
      up to 160  degrees C for 3 h. Porosity and mechanical properties of these
      microwave-cured PGS elastomers were shown to be similar to PGS elastomers
      fabricated by the conventional polycondensation method (150  degrees C under 30
      Torr for 24 h). To move one step closer to clinical application, we also examined
      the biocompatibility of microwave-cured PGS using in vitro cell viability assays
      with primary baboon arterial smooth muscle cells (SMCs). These combined results
      show microwave curing of PGS is a viable alternative to conventional curing.

PMID- 28569646
TI  - Mapping Exposure to Multi-Pollutants Using Environmental Biomonitors-A Multi
      Exposure Index.
AB  - Atmosphere is a major pathway for transport and deposition of pollutants in the
      environment. In industrial areas, organic compounds are released or formed as by
      products, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F's).
      Inorganic chemical elements, including lead and arsenic, are also part of the
      pollutants mixture, and even in low concentrations may potentially be toxic and
      carcinogenic. However, assessing the spatial pattern of their deposition is
      difficult due to high spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Lichens have been used
      as biomonitors of atmospheric deposition, because these organisms encompass
      greater spatial detail than air monitoring stations and provide an integration of
      overall pollution. Based upon the ability of lichens to concentrate pollutants
      such as PCDD/F and chemical elements, the main objectives of this study were to
      develop a new semi-quantitative multi-pollutant toxicity exposure index (TEQ
      like), derived from risk estimates, in an attempt to correlate several
      atmospheric pollutants to human exposure levels. The actual pollutant
      concentrations were measured in the environment, from biomonitors (organisms that
      integrate multi-pollutants), enabling interpolation and mapping of contaminant
      deposition within the region. Thus, the TEQ-like index provides a spatial
      representation not from absolute accumulation of the different pollutants, but
      from the accumulation weighted by their relative risk. The assessment of
      environmental human exposure to multi-pollutants through atmospheric deposition
      may be applied to industries to improve mitigation processes or to health
      stakeholders to target populations for a comprehensive risk assessment,
      epidemiological studies, and health recommendations.

PMID- 28569647
TI  - Matching Message Design and Depressed Cognition: An Exploration of Attention
      Patterns for Gain- and Loss-Framed Depression Help-Seeking Messages.
AB  - Although disproportionally affected by depression, most depressed college
      students do not seek the help they need. Research has recently uncovered the
      potential negative effects of depression help-seeking messages if depressed
      cognition is not considered in the health message design process. It is unclear
      if depression determines whether and how individuals pay attention to gain- and
      loss-framed depression help-seeking messages-a mechanism that has significant
      implications for the strategic planning of health communication interventions. In
      order to enable the effective matching of message design and audience features,
      this study investigated attention patterns for gain (n = 75)- and loss (n = 78)
      framed depression help-seeking messages using eye-tracking technology and self
      report measures. The results confirmed that depression is a characteristic of
      risk avoidance and negative cognition. Depressed participants tended to pay more
      attention to disease information that was placed in a loss-framed rather than a
      gain-framed depression help-seeking message. Using negative message framing
      strategies for health messages seeking to educate about depression symptoms might
      therefore be a useful persuasive strategy-particularly when disseminated to
      vulnerable populations affected by depression. Furthermore, the present study
      emphasizes the effective use of eye-tracking technology in communication
      research.

PMID- 28569645
TI  - In vivo evidence of oxidative stress in brains of patients with progressive
      multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The oxidative stress hypothesis links neurodegeneration in the later,
      progressive stages of multiple sclerosis (MS) to the loss of a major brain
      antioxidant, glutathione (GSH). OBJECTIVE: We measured GSH concentrations among
      major MS subtypes and examined the relationships with other indices of disease
      status including physical disability and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      measures. METHODS: GSH mapping was performed on the fronto-parietal region of
      patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS, n = 21), primary
      progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS, n = 20), secondary progressive multiple
      sclerosis (SPMS, n = 20), and controls ( n = 28) using GSH chemical shift
      imaging. Between-group comparisons were performed on all variables (GSH, T2
      lesion, atrophy, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)). RESULTS: Patients with
      MS had substantially lower GSH concentrations than controls, and GSH was lower in
      progressive MS (PPMS and SPMS) compared with RRMS. GSH concentrations were not
      significantly different between PPMS and SPMS, or between RRMS and controls.
      Brain atrophy was significant in both RRMS and progressive MS compared with
      controls. CONCLUSION: Markedly lower GSH in progressive MS than RRMS indicates
      more prominent involvement of oxidative stress in the progressive stage of MS
      than the inflammatory stage. The association between GSH and brain atrophy
      suggests the important role of oxidative stress contributing to neurodegeneration
      in progressive MS, as suggested in other neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28569648
TI  - Edutainment as a Strategy for Parental Discussion With Israeli Children: The
      Potential of a Children's Play in Preventing Sexual Abuse.
AB  - Edutainment is a communication strategy to influence attitudes and behaviors
      through the use of the media. Through the children's play "Yael Learns to Take
      Care of Her Body," designed for joint viewing by children aged 5-8 and their
      parents, sexual abuse is raised. This qualitative study findings indicate that
      parents from low socioeconomic subgroups from the secular sector reported that
      their awareness had been raised by viewing the play and that they received tools
      for holding a conversation. Conversely, parents from high socioeconomic subgroups
      in the secular sector and parents from the national-religious sector were more
      ambivalent regarding the play's effectiveness. In order to make the conversation
      meaningful, the play has to tailor different messages to different audiences. A
      single program is not enough but should be part of a series of customized
      intervention programs for different subpopulations and separate programs for
      parents and children accompanied by professionals.

PMID- 28569649
TI  - Antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in Norwegian
      primary care out-of-hours service.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine factors correlating with antibiotic prescribing for acute
      respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in Norwegian primary care out-of-hours
      service. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective data analysis for the year 2014 in
      two out-of-hours primary care units located in the towns of Hamar and Tonsberg in
      Norway, analysing type and frequency of different antibiotics prescribed by 117
      medical doctors for ARTIs, and factors correlating with these. RESULTS: The 117
      doctors in two out-of-hours units diagnosed 6757 cases of ARTIs. 2310 (34.2%) of
      these resulted in an antibiotic prescription, where of 1615 (69.9%) were
      penicillin V (PcV). Tonsillitis and sinusitis were the two ARTI diagnoses with
      the highest antibiotic prescription rate. The antibiotic prescription rate
      increased successively with increasing activity level, measured as shorter median
      duration of consultations per session, from 28.7% (reference) in the least busy
      quintile of sessions to 36.6% (OR: 1.38 (95% CI =1.06-1.80)) in the busiest
      quintile of sessions. Prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics was not
      correlated with median duration of consultations per session. Female doctors had
      an OR of 0.61 (0.40-0.92) of a broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription compared to
      their male colleagues. CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic prescribing for ARTIs in the
      primary care out-of-hours services investigated is at the same level as in
      Norwegian general practice, but with a higher prescription rate of PcV.
      Antibiotic prescribing increases on busy sessions, measured as median duration of
      consultations per session. The work frame in primary care out-of-hours service
      might influence the quality of clinical decisions.

PMID- 28569650
TI  - High Betrayal Child Sexual Abuse and Hallucinations: A Test of an Indirect Effect
      of Dissociation.
AB  - Though hallucinations traditionally have been conceptualized as a central feature
      of psychosis, some hallucinations may be dissociative, with dissociation
      potentially contributing to hallucinations. Childhood trauma has been linked with
      dissociation and hallucinations. Betrayal trauma theory distinguishes abusive
      experiences based on closeness to the perpetrator. In the current study, we
      examined the indirect effect of dissociation on the relationship between high
      betrayal child sexual abuse (perpetrated by a close other) and hallucinations.
      Participants (N = 192) from a northwestern university in the United States
      completed self-report measures online assessing history of high betrayal child
      sexual abuse and current dissociation and hallucinations. Bootstrapping analyses
      indicated a significant indirect effect of high betrayal child sexual abuse on
      hallucinations through dissociation, 95% Confidence Interval (.16, .66). Through
      betrayal trauma theory, this study provides a non-pathologizing framework for
      understanding how dissociation and hallucinations may develop as natural
      reactions to the harm inherent in child sexual abuse perpetrated by a close
      other. These findings have clinical implications for relational models of healing
      for trauma survivors who are distressed by dissociation and hallucinations.

PMID- 28569651
TI  - "How We Stay Together Without Going Crazy:" Reconstruction of Reality Among Women
      of Mixed-Orientation Relationships.
AB  - Until recently, the literature that addressed the phenomenon of mixed-orientation
      relationships, in which the female partner is straight and the male partner is
      non-straight, has focused mainly on the men's perspective. Most of the studies
      have employed a pessimistic tone, underscoring the obstacles faced by each of the
      partners. This study was designed to understand how women of mixed-orientation
      relationships construct their reality within such a relationship, focusing on
      elements that assist them in maintaining those relationships. Based on the
      phenomenological paradigm, in-depth interviews with eight women in mixed
      orientation relationships were conducted. The findings indicate that in order to
      adapt to their newly constructed reality, women reframe various individual,
      marital, and social aspects in their lives. Those reframing processes constituted
      a point of departure to developing a conceptual model, which outlines the journey
      to reality reconstruction among women in mixed-orientation relationships.

PMID- 28569653
TI  - Physiological responses and lipid storage of the coral Lophelia pertusa at
      varying food density.
AB  - Despite the importance of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa to deep-sea reef
      ecosystem functioning, current knowledge of key physiological responses to
      available food resources is scarce. Scenarios with varying food density may help
      to understand how corals deal with seasonal variations in the dark ocean and
      might be used to study consequences of anthropogenic activities potentially
      affecting food availability. Thus, the physiological responses of L. pertusa to
      varying food (Artemia salina nauplii) concentration, ranging from 20% to 300% of
      carbon equivalent turned over by basal coral respiration, were investigated. A
      starvation group was also included. Measurements of respiration, growth, mucus
      production, and energy reserves (storage fatty acids) were performed at several
      time intervals over 26 weeks. In general, data showed a stronger effect of
      experimental time on measured responses, but no significant influence of food
      density treatment. In starved corals, respiration rate declined to 52% of initial
      respiration, while skeleton growth rate was maintained at the same rate as
      Artemia-fed corals throughout the investigation. Mucus production measured as the
      sum of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) was
      also similar across food treatments, but POC production exceeded that of DOC at
      the highest food density. No marked effect was observed on storage fatty acids.
      These results confirm that L. pertusa is highly resilient to environmental
      conditions with suboptimal food densities over a time scale of months. Regulation
      of several physiological processes, including respiration and mucus production,
      possibly in combination with an opportunistic feeding strategy, contributed to
      this tolerance to maintain viable corals. Thus, it appears that L. pertusa is
      well adapted to life in the deep sea.

PMID- 28569652
TI  - Something New about Something Old: A 10-Year Follow-Up on Classical and New
      Psychoactive Tryptamines and Results of Analysis.
AB  - New psychoactive tryptamines may be a public health risk since they intend to
      mimic the hallucinogenic effects of regulated psychoactive drugs. Few studies
      describe uses and clinical effects of unregulated new psychoactive tryptamines.
      This study aims (1) to explore the presence of tryptamines classified as NPS
      among the substances delivered for analysis to a harm-reduction organization; (2)
      to describe the substances found in the samples after analysis; and (3) to
      compare analytical results of regulated vs. non-regulated tryptamines. Samples
      delivered and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from 2006 to 2015
      were included. A descriptive study of results was conducted. From 25,296 samples
      that were delivered, 436 were tryptamines; from these 232 (53.21%) were non
      regulated. The most delivered non-regulated tryptamine was 4-AcO-DMT. A search of
      the PubMed database in July 2016 revealed that no studies in humans have ever
      been carried out with 4-AcO-DMT. Unregulated tryptamines likely contained one
      unadulterated substance (p <= 0.001). The number of samples submitted which
      contained tryptamines increased during the course of the study, with significant
      differences in client expectations vs. analysis results between the controlled
      and uncontrolled groups. There is a need for further research in order to prevent
      the potential health risks associated with their use.

PMID- 28569654
TI  - "Unexpected and Distressing": Understanding and Improving the Experience of
      Transferring Palliative Care Inpatients to Residential Care.
AB  - The survival of patients with advanced cancer, coupled with the increased
      presence of end-stage chronic illnesses in an aging population, is leading to a
      demand in palliative care. Due to the ongoing need for acute-pain and symptom
      control in hospice/palliative care units, few are able to offer long-stay
      admission for those whose symptoms have stabilized. When a patient no longer
      requires specialist palliative care services, transfer from an inpatient
      palliative care facility may then be necessary. A core component of the role of
      palliative-care social workers involves working with patients and their
      families/carers when the care pathway shifts and the option of residential aged
      care facility (RACF) needs to be considered. This research explored several
      issues, including the impact of this transition on the patient and their families
      and on the interdisciplinary health care team treating the patient. An
      investigation was undertaken to identify concerns and barriers regarding the
      transition from hospice care to RACF and opportunities were highlighted to
      improve clinical practice in this area. A tripartite approach was adopted
      conducting face-to-face interviews with patients, their families/carers, and
      health care professionals. Members of the interdisciplinary team were interviewed
      and social workers working in similar inpatient palliative-care facilities
      undertook telephone interviews to gauge their experiences. A thematic analysis
      discerned a number of themes highlighting the impact of this transition on key
      stakeholders and incorporated recommendations to improve or best manage this
      process. The research has highlighted the difficulties that patients/families
      encounter in this transition, as well as the emphases of protecting the integrity
      of the patient and family. This is achieved by holding open and ongoing dialogue,
      particularly through family meetings and working in collaboration with the
      patient, the family, and the team. Understanding the experience and impact of
      this transition on key stakeholders is helpful in building up a knowledge base
      and to ensure a more effective relationship occurs. This research incorporated
      the voices of terminally ill patients, families, and members of the health care
      team in order to understand their views and recommendations for best managing the
      transition from a hospice/inpatient palliative-care facility to a RACF. This
      enables their input to have some real impetus in clinical practice and service
      delivery.

PMID- 28569656
TI  - Leveraging Technology for Innovation.

PMID- 28569657
TI  - Consultation: A Key Component of Case Studies?

PMID- 28569655
TI  - Sustained (S)-roscovitine delivery promotes neuroprotection associated with
      functional recovery and decrease in brain edema in a randomized blind focal
      cerebral ischemia study.
AB  - Stroke is a devastating disorder that significantly contributes to death,
      disability and healthcare costs. In ischemic stroke, the only current acute
      therapy is recanalization, but the narrow therapeutic window less than 6 h limits
      its application. The current challenge is to prevent late cell death, with
      concomitant therapy targeting the ischemic cascade to widen the therapeutic
      window. Among potential neuroprotective drugs, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors
      such as (S)-roscovitine are of particular relevance. We previously showed that
      (S)-roscovitine crossed the blood-brain barrier and was neuroprotective in a dose
      dependent manner in two models of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo).
      According to the Stroke Therapy Academic Industry Roundtable guidelines, the
      pharmacokinetics of (S)-roscovitine and the optimal mode of delivery and
      therapeutic dose in rats were investigated. Combination of intravenous (IV) and
      continuous sub-cutaneous (SC) infusion led to early and sustained delivery of (S)
      roscovitine. Furthermore, in a randomized blind study on a transient MCAo rat
      model, we showed that this mode of delivery reduced both infarct and edema volume
      and was beneficial to neurological outcome. Within the framework of preclinical
      studies for stroke therapy development, we here provide data to improve
      translation of pre-clinical studies into successful clinical human trials.

PMID- 28569658
TI  - Long-Term Care: Safe Drug Handling of Oral Chemotherapy.
AB  - Many oral chemotherapy agents have been approved over the last 15 years and are
      displacing or augmenting parenteral chemotherapy. As 8,000 Baby Boomers turn 65
      years of age every day, more elders will migrate to long-term care and assisted
      living facilities, and consultant pharmacists may need to manage chemotherapy for
      the first time. Though many therapeutic classes of oral drugs are hazardous, the
      majority of oral chemotherapy agents are hazardous by virtue of their mechanisms
      of action. Previous hazardous drug-handling recommendations from the Occupational
      Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute of Occupational Safety
      and Health, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the American
      Society of Clinical Oncology, the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association, and
      the Oncology Nursing Society have matured into new standards from the United
      States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), Chapter <800>, "Hazardous Drugs-Handling
      in Health Care Settings." These standards provide a comprehensive approach for
      safe drug handling across all health care settings and underscore the need for
      consultant pharmacist involvement in nursing and assisted living facilities.

PMID- 28569659
TI  - Highlights from the 2016 Annual Meeting.

PMID- 28569660
TI  - Use of Telemedicine to Enhance Pharmacist Services in the Nursing Facility.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic literature review to determine what
      telemedicine services are provided by pharmacists and the impact of these
      services in the nursing facility setting. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE(r), Scopus(r),
      and Embase(r) databases. STUDY SELECTION: The terms "telemedicine" or
      "telehealth" were combined by "and" with the terms "pharmacist" or "pharmacy" to
      identify pharmacists' use of telemedicine. Also, "telepharmacy" was added as a
      search term. The initial search yielded 322 results. These abstracts were
      reviewed by two individuals independently, for selection of articles that
      discussed telemedicine and involvement of a pharmacist, either as the primary
      user of the service or as part of an interprofessional health care team. Those
      abstracts discussing the pharmacist service for purpose of dispensing or product
      preparation were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION: A description of pharmacists'
      services provided and the impact on resident care. DATA SYNTHESIS: Only three
      manuscripts met inclusion criteria. One was a narrative proposition of the
      benefits of using telemedicine by senior care pharmacists. Two published original
      research studies indirectly assessed the pharmacists' use of telemedicine in the
      nursing facility through an anticoagulation program and an osteoporosis
      management service. Both services demonstrated improvement in patient care.
      CONCLUSION: There is a general paucity of practice-related research to
      demonstrate potential benefits of pharmacists' services incorporating
      telemedicine. Telemedicine may be a resource-efficient approach to enhance
      pharmacist services in the nursing facility and improve resident care.

PMID- 28569661
TI  - Incorporation of Herbal Supplements into a Pharmacogenomic Medication Therapy
      Management Practice.
AB  - Personalized medicine, including direct-to-consumer (DTC) testing, is becoming a
      more common patient-centered approach to pharmacotherapy. However, DTC testing
      companies may not provide adequate information and follow-up to patients after
      genetic testing is done. This article is the first report describing a medication
      therapy management pharmacotherapy service that specializes in pharmacogenomic
      counseling, specifically geared toward identifying implications of dietary and
      herbal supplements. A pharmacist provides a comprehensive review of
      pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic consequences of a patient's herbal
      substances, and counseling is provided on subsequent drug therapy effects. If
      properly implemented, offering a pharmacogenomic medication therapy management
      service that specializes in the use of herbal supplements provides patients with
      education on the safe use of these substances based on their genetic factors.

PMID- 28569662
TI  - Sliding-Scale Insulin Use in Long-Term Care: An Updated Perspective.
AB  - Diabetes affects approximately 26% of individuals oldeR THAN 65 years of age in
      the United States and up to 33% of patients in long-term care facilities. The
      most commonly prescribed insulin therapy for patients in long-term care is
      sliding-scale insulin (SSI): the use of finger-stick blood glucose testing to
      assess the need for insulin administration based on current blood glucose levels.
      SSI has been on the Beers Criteria of Potentially Inappropriate Medications since
      2012. However, its sole use for long-term treatment is specifically not
      recommended by the American Diabetes Association and other stakeholders in
      diabetes management. This review discusses recent updates to several published
      guidelines, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Beers
      criteria, the American Medical Directors Association, and the American Diabetes
      Association regarding the use of SSI-only insulin regimens for elderly patients
      in long-term care.

PMID- 28569663
TI  - Do Restrictions on Antipsychotic Use Differ Between Medicare Part D Stand-Alone
      Versus Medicare Advantage Plans?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to describe the type of restrictions
      and differences among antipsychotic users enrolled in Medicare Part D Stand-Alone
      (PDPs) and Advantage (MAPDs) prescription drug plans. METHODS: This retrospective
      study used data from Chronic Condition Data Warehouse, comprising a random 5%
      sample of the Medicare population in 2008. This study used bivariate analyses and
      multivariate logistical regression models to study differences in formulary
      restrictions on antipsychotic use between PDP and MAPD enrollees, adjusting for
      enrollee characteristics. Dependent variables included type of restriction and
      antipsychotic therapeutic class. The study sample was restricted to continuous
      Part D enrollees (N = 1,346,978) stratified by plan type, MAPDs (N = 435,591),
      and PDPs (N = 911,387). RESULTS: According to the bivariate analysis,
      antipsychotic users enrolled in PDPs were more likely to encounter restrictions
      (39.8%), compared with those in MAPDs (30.3%). In the multivariate analyses,
      antipsychotic users in MAPDs were less likely to face any restriction (odds ratio
      [OR] = 0.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.72-0.78). Furthermore, atypical
      antipsychotic users in MAPDs were less likely to face any restriction (OR = 0.76,
      95% CI 0.73-0.79), while first-generation antipsychotic users in MAPDs were more
      likely to face any restriction (OR = 1.87, 95% CI 1.32-2.65). Low-income subsidy
      (LIS) beneficiaries using any antipsychotic were much more likely to face
      restrictions compared with non-LIS beneficiaries. CONCLUSION: PDP enrollees
      prescribed antipsychotics were more likely to face formulary restrictions, as
      opposed to those in MAPDs. LIS beneficiaries enrolled in PDPs faced much higher
      risk of restricted access to this "protected" drug class.

PMID- 28569664
TI  - The Importance of Early Grassroots on Policy.

PMID- 28569667
TI  - Piezoelectric effects in boron nitride nanotubes predicted by the atomistic
      finite element method and molecular mechanics.
AB  - We calculate the tensile and shear moduli of a series of boron nitride nanotubes
      and their piezoelectric response to applied loads. We compare in detail results
      from a simple molecular mechanics (MM) potential, the universal force field, with
      those from the atomistic finite element method (AFEM) using both Euler-Bernoulli
      and Timoshenko beam formulations. The MM energy minimisations are much more
      successful than those using the AFEM, and we analyse the failure of the latter
      approach both qualitatively and quantitatively.

PMID- 28569665
TI  - A vitamin-B2-sensing mechanism that regulates gut protease activity to impact
      animal's food behavior and growth.
AB  - To survive challenging environments, animals acquired the ability to evaluate
      food quality in the intestine and respond to nutrient deficiencies with changes
      in food-response behavior, metabolism and development. However, the regulatory
      mechanisms underlying intestinal sensing of specific nutrients, especially
      micronutrients such as vitamins, and the connections to downstream physiological
      responses in animals remain underexplored. We have established a system to
      analyze the intestinal response to vitamin B2 (VB2) deficiency in Caenorhabditis
      elegans, and demonstrated that VB2 level critically impacts food uptake and
      foraging behavior by regulating specific protease gene expression and intestinal
      protease activity. We show that this impact is mediated by TORC1 signaling
      through reading the FAD-dependent ATP level. Thus, our study in live animals
      uncovers a VB2-sensing/response pathway that regulates food-uptake, a mechanism
      by which a common signaling pathway translates a specific nutrient signal into
      physiological activities, and the importance of gut microbiota in supplying
      micronutrients to animals.

PMID- 28569668
TI  - Achieving independent control of core diameter and carbon shell thickness in Pd-C
      core-shell nanoparticles by gas phase synthesis.
AB  - Pd-C core-shell nanoparticles with independently controllable core size and shell
      thickness are grown by gas phase synthesis. First, the core size is selected by
      electrical mobility values of charged particles, and second, the shell thickness
      is controlled by the concentration of carbon precursor gas. The carbon shell
      grows by adsorption of carbon precursor gas molecules on the surface of
      nanoparticles, followed by sintering. The presence of a carbon shell on Pd
      nanoparticles is potentially important in hydrogen-related applications operating
      at high temperatures or in catalytic reactions in acidic/aqueous environments.

PMID- 28569666
TI  - Substrate transport and anion permeation proceed through distinct pathways in
      glutamate transporters.
AB  - Advances in structure-function analyses and computational biology have enabled a
      deeper understanding of how excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) mediate
      chloride permeation and substrate transport. However, the mechanism of structural
      coupling between these functions remains to be established. Using a combination
      of molecular modeling, substituted cysteine accessibility, electrophysiology and
      glutamate uptake assays, we identified a chloride-channeling conformer, iChS,
      transiently accessible as EAAT1 reconfigures from substrate/ion-loaded into a
      substrate-releasing conformer. Opening of the anion permeation path in this iChS
      is controlled by the elevator-like movement of the substrate-binding core, along
      with its wall that simultaneously lines the anion permeation path (global); and
      repacking of a cluster of hydrophobic residues near the extracellular vestibule
      (local). Moreover, our results demonstrate that stabilization of iChS by chemical
      modifications favors anion channeling at the expense of substrate transport,
      suggesting a mutually exclusive regulation mediated by the movement of the
      flexible wall lining the two regions.

PMID- 28569669
TI  - Scaling up liquid state machines to predict over address events from dynamic
      vision sensors.
AB  - Short-term visual prediction is important both in biology and robotics. It allows
      us to anticipate upcoming states of the environment and therefore plan more
      efficiently. In theoretical neuroscience, liquid state machines have been
      proposed as a biologically inspired method to perform asynchronous prediction
      without a model. However, they have so far only been demonstrated in simulation
      or small scale pre-processed camera images. In this paper, we use a liquid state
      machine to predict over the whole  [Formula: see text]  event stream provided by
      a real dynamic vision sensor (DVS, or silicon retina). Thanks to the event-based
      nature of the DVS, the liquid is constantly fed with data when an object is in
      motion, fully embracing the asynchronicity of spiking neural networks. We propose
      a smooth continuous representation of the event stream for the short-term visual
      prediction task. Moreover, compared to previous works (2002 Neural Comput. 2525
      282-93 and Burgsteiner H et al 2007 Appl. Intell. 26 99-109), we scale the input
      dimensionality that the liquid operates on by two order of magnitudes. We also
      expose the current limits of our method by running experiments in a challenging
      environment where multiple objects are in motion. This paper is a step towards
      integrating biologically inspired algorithms derived in theoretical neuroscience
      to real world robotic setups. We believe that liquid state machines could
      complement current prediction algorithms used in robotics, especially when
      dealing with asynchronous sensors.

PMID- 28569670
TI  - Construction of cell-containing, anisotropic, three-dimensional collagen fibril
      scaffolds using external vibration and their influence on smooth muscle cell
      phenotype modulation.
AB  - Numerous methods have been developed for preparing guiding channels/tracks to
      promote the alignment of highly oriented cell types. However, these manufacture
      methods cannot fabricate interconnected guiding channels within three-dimensional
      (3D) scaffolds. Providing a suitable architectural scaffold for cell attachment
      could lead cells to more rapidly display a desired phenotype and perform their
      unique functions. Previously, we developed a simple device composed of a
      pneumatic membrane that can generate a tunable vibration frequency to apply
      physical stimulation for fabricating a 3D aligned collagen fibril matrix with the
      characteristic D-period structure in one step. In the present study, we aimed to
      evaluate the cellular responses of thoracic aortic smooth muscle cells (A7r5)
      incorporated during the fabrication of 3D-aligned collagen fibrils with D-periods
      and compared these cells with those incorporated in a 3D, randomly distributed
      collagen matrix and in a two-dimensional (2D) aligned substrate after up to 10
      days of culture. The results consistently demonstrated that A7r5 cells cultured
      within the 3D and 2D anisotropic matrices were aligned. Cells cultured in the 3D
      aligned scaffolds exhibited a higher proliferation rate as well as higher F-actin
      and smoothelin expression levels compared with cells cultured in 3D randomly
      distributed scaffolds. Together, these results indicate that a 3D-reconstituted,
      anisotropic collagen matrix fabricated by our process provides synergistic
      effects of tension stimulation and matrix stiffness on encapsulated cells and can
      direct A7r5 cells to transform from a synthetic phenotype into a contractile
      state.

PMID- 28569671
TI  - Degradable magnesium implant-associated infections by bacterial biofilms induce
      robust localized and systemic inflammatory reactions in a mouse model.
AB  - Biomaterial-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm infections constitute a
      cascade of host immune reactions ultimately leading to implant failure. Due to
      the lack of relevant in vivo biofilm models, the majority of the studies report
      host immune responses to free-living or planktonic bacteria, while bacteria in
      clinical situations live more frequently as biofilm communities than as single
      cells. The present study investigated host immune responses to biomaterial
      associated P. aeruginosa biofilms in a clinically relevant mouse model.
      Previously, we reported metallic magnesium, a prospective biodegradable implant,
      to be permissive for bacterial biofilm in vivo even though it exhibits
      antibacterial properties in vitro. Therefore, magnesium was employed as
      biomaterial to investigate in vivo biofilm formation and associated host immune
      responses by using two P. aeruginosa strains and two mouse strains. P. aeruginosa
      formed biofilm on subcutaneously implanted magnesium disks. Non-invasive in vivo
      imaging indicated transient inflammatory responses at control sites, whereas
      robust prolonged interferon-beta (IFN-beta) expression was observed from biofilm
      in a transgenic animal reporter. Furthermore, immunohistology and electron
      microscopic results showed that bacterial biofilms were located in 2D immediately
      on the implant surface and at a short distance in the adjacent tissue. These
      biofilms were surrounded by inflammatory cells (mainly polymorphonuclear cells)
      compared to the controls. Interestingly, even though the number of live bacteria
      in various organs remained below detectable levels, splenomegaly indicated
      systemic inflammatory processes. Overall, these findings confirmed the resistance
      of biofilm infections in vivo to potentially antibacterial properties of
      magnesium degradation products. In vivo imaging and histology indicated the
      induction of both local and systemic host inflammatory responses to P. aeruginosa
      biofilms. Even though the innate host immune defenses could not eliminate the
      local infection for up to two weeks, there was no apparent systemic bacteremia
      and all the animals investigated survived the infection.

PMID- 28569673
TI  - "Unmasked to a Positive Triumph": Women With HIV Share the Benefits of Showing
      Their Faces Through Photovoice.

PMID- 28569672
TI  - Implementing a Community-Driven Research Partnership: The Backyard Initiative
      Community Health Survey Methods and Approach.

PMID- 28569675
TI  - "Unmasked to a Positive Triumph": Women With HIV Share the Benefits of Showing
      Their Faces Through Photovoice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS continue to affect
      the quality of life for minority and low-income women at alarming rates. As a
      result, research studies that collaborate with women with HIV are increasing with
      the intent of identifying ways to improve their outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This
      article identifies the effects on women with HIV who chose to show their faces in
      photographs taken to express their personal experiences. METHODS: In multiple
      community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies, researchers collaborated
      with participants to identify personal experiences of women with HIV using
      photovoice. During the data analysis of photographs, discussions, and interviews,
      the women with HIV shared the importance of showing their faces. This article
      presents the common themes to explain why some of the women desired to or
      actually chose to show their faces in the photographs. RESULTS: Of the 35 women
      with HIV who collaborated, 14 chose to show their self-portraits. Reasons for
      showing their faces varied and included to express self-pride, to reduce stigma
      by fighting stereotypes, to get help for their HIV, to help or educate others,
      and to show progression from sickness to health. The most prominent themes in the
      analysis were to (1) reveal the "real" face of HIV/AIDS, (2) share self-portraits
      as an act of resistance, and (3) help other women living with HIV. CONCLUSIONS:
      Photovoice is valuable and beneficial for participants. The women with HIV
      demonstrated strength and power as they explained reasons for showing their faces
      and revealing their selfies.

PMID- 28569674
TI  - Implementing a Community-Driven Research Partnership: The Backyard Initiative
      Community Health Survey Methods and Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In community-based participatory research (CBPR), issues such as
      creating a setting where community members drive decisions and creating
      culturally relevant processes remain largely underachieved. The Backyard
      Initiative (BYI) provided the setting for implementing a community-centered
      collaborative research process. The BYI is a partnership between Allina Health,
      the Cultural Wellness Center (CWC), and community residents to improve health.
      OBJECTIVES: To describe the unique community-centered method used in the 2013 BYI
      Community Health Survey (CHS) as a viable approach for collecting meaningful and
      valid health related data. With this approach, the community operates as the
      agent of change rather than the target. METHODS: At the core was the BYI
      assessment team, which brought together conventional researchers and community
      members to collaboratively design, implement, analyze, interpret, and disseminate
      the CHS results. Focusing on the CHS, this structure and process permitted and
      facilitated important and difficult discussions about approach, content and
      outcomes of the research. RESULTS: We held seven sessions (239 participants).
      Participants were 37% African American/African and 34% Native American, 65%
      female, and 72% spoke English at home. Achievement of our recruitment goals,
      participation of groups typically underrepresented in research, and positive
      community feedback were indications that the BYI approach to survey research was
      successful. CONCLUSIONS: The BYI CHS community-centered methods built trust among
      research partners and participants, engaged populations often underrepresented in
      research, and collected meaningful data. Our success indicates that it is
      possible to co-design and implement a lengthy survey to inform future research
      and community activities.

PMID- 28569676
TI  - The State as Community in Community-Based Participatory Research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) typically defines
      communities by geography, ethnicity, shared health needs, or some combination.
      OBJECTIVES: We describe a CBPR project aiming to engage diverse minority and
      underserved communities throughout Michigan in deliberations about health
      research priorities. METHODS: A steering committee (SC) with 15 members from
      minority and underserved communities and 4 members from research organizations
      led the project, with the help of regional advisory groups (RAGs) formed at the
      SC's request. Evaluation of the SC used questionnaires, focused group discussion,
      and review of SC meetings to describe engagement, partnership, and communication.
      LESSONS LEARNED: An academic-community partnership with a diverse, dispersed, and
      broadly defined community found value in RAGs, dedicated academic staff, face-to
      face meetings, varied communication modalities, capacity building tailored to
      varying levels of CBPR experience, and ongoing evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: A
      geographically and culturally diverse partnership presents challenges and
      opportunities in representativeness, relationship building, capacity building,
      and communication.

PMID- 28569677
TI  - SMART (Student Media-based Asthma Research Team): Engaging Adolescents to
      Understand Asthma in Their Communities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asthma rates in Chicago exceed national averages and
      disproportionately affect minority adolescents. We collaborated with students in
      a neighborhood with high asthma prevalence to better understand community factors
      impacting asthma. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of our Student Media-based
      Asthma Research Team (SMART) program on student, parent, and student-peer
      outcomes related to asthma. METHODS: Students with asthma (n = 11), their parents
      (n = 9), and student-peers (n = 91) participated in a school-based asthma
      intervention grounded in community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles
      and completed multiple pre-/post-intervention questionnaires. RESULTS: After the
      program, participants significantly increased (p < 0.05) asthma-related quality
      of life (QOL), asthma control, emotional support, and empowerment. Parents
      significantly increased their QOL and student-peers showed significant
      improvements in asthma knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: This novel intervention-which used
      participatory media as a vehicle through which children learn about their own
      asthma and share their findings with parents and peers-was successful in engaging
      adolescents to improve asthma management and community support.

PMID- 28569678
TI  - Performing the Peace: Using Playback Theatre in the Strengthening of Police
      Community Relations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Police-community relations have catapulted onto the national stage
      after several high-profile instances of alleged police brutality. Blame and
      hostility can be barriers to positive police-community relations. Playback is a
      form of audience-inspired, improvisational theater designed to promote
      connectivity and empathy through storytelling. OBJECTIVES: We tested the
      feasibility and acceptability of an arts-based intervention, bringing together
      police officers and formerly incarcerated individuals from the same community in
      Memphis, Tennessee. METHODS: We collected pre/post quantitative data from five
      police officers and five ex-offenders who took part in the intervention, as well
      as qualitative data to provide contextual information. RESULTS: The project was
      feasible and acceptable to participants. Participants showed gains in their
      ability to make meaning of stressful life experiences. The officers and ex
      offenders showed parallel gains in their increased positive attitudes toward the
      other group. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that creating contexts of
      safety and understanding necessary to address relational problems is both
      feasible and acceptable to law enforcement and ex-offenders.

PMID- 28569679
TI  - Strategic Partnerships for Change in an Environmental Justice Community: The
      ENRRICH Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: San Bernardino, California, is home to the San Bernardino Railyard
      (SBR), a major commerce hub with high associated air-pollution, identified as an
      environmental justice (EJ) issue by local community and air quality agencies.
      Alarmingly, one elementary school is located only a few hundred yards from SBR.
      METHODS: The school, university researchers, and a local community-based
      organization (CBO) established a partnership to assess potential adverse health
      impacts in the children and develop interventions and mitigation plans. RESULTS:
      Study results comparing target school with a demographically matched school
      verified community concerns finding significantly poorer respiratory health in
      children attending school near the railyard. Partners are working with local and
      state collaboratives, the school board, and funding agencies to address the
      resulting needs of children through education, mitigation, and prevention in an
      environment where necessary systems changes involving the railyard are elusive.
      CONCLUSIONS: This paper shares lessons learned in moving toward change when
      addressing an EJ community's health challenges.

PMID- 28569680
TI  - A Co-Learning Model for Community-Engaged Program Evaluation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The development, implementation, and assessment of a masters-level
      program evaluation course designed to train future and current leaders of
      community-based organizations (CBOs) is described. BACKGROUND: In addition to
      sending students "out" into the community, staff from local community
      organizations were invited "in" to the classroom to take the course alongside
      students. Community partners selected a specific evaluation need within their
      organization that teams could address. The "final" for the course involved
      creating a comprehensive evaluation plan for each organization to implement.
      METHODS: Student course evaluations and semistructured interviews with community
      partners were conducted and analyzed to assess how course goals were
      met.Results/Lessons Learned: The course goals were met, the partnering experience
      was highly valued, and insightful improvements were suggested. CONCLUSIONS: This
      program evaluation course provides an innovative, effective, flexible, and
      replicable partnership practice model that builds student skills and community
      capacity in evaluation research.

PMID- 28569681
TI  - Lessons Learned From Implementing Health Coaching in The Heart Healthy Lenoir
      Hypertension Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health coaching is increasingly important in patient-centered medical
      homes. OBJECTIVES: Describe formative evaluation results and lessons learned from
      implementing health coaching to improve hypertension self-management in rural
      primary care. METHODS: A hypertension collaborative was formed consisting of six
      primary care sites. Twelve monthly health coaching phone calls were attempted for
      487 participants with hypertension. LESSONS LEARNED: Participant engagement was
      challenging; 58% remained engaged, missing fewer than three consecutive calls.
      Multivariate analyses revealed that older age (odds ratio [OR], 1.03; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.05), African American race (O,R 1.73; 95% CI,
      1.15-2.60), greater number of comorbidities (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.05-1.30) and
      receiving coaching closer to enrollment (OR, 5.03; 95% CI, 2.53-9.99) were
      correlated independently with engagement. Participants reported the coaching
      valuable; 96% would recommend health coaching to others. CONCLUSIONS: Health
      coaching in hypertension care can be successful strategy for engaging more
      vulnerable groups. A more tailored approach may improve engagement with
      counseling.

PMID- 28569682
TI  - Engaging Study Participants in Research Dissemination at a Center for Population
      Health and Health Disparities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research dissemination is a priority for The Partnership for
      Understanding and Eliminating Disparate Outcomes (PUEDO) for Latinas, a Center
      for Population Health and Health Disparities located at the Fred Hutchinson
      Cancer Research Center (FHCRC). OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify types of PUEDO
      research findings our participants wanted and why, dissemination audiences beyond
      PUEDO participants, and strategies to communicate diverse findings about breast
      cancer and breast cancer disparities. METHODS: Five focus groups with PUEDO study
      participants (N = 25) were transcribed for qualitative content analysis (average
      participants per focus group, 5; range, 2-11). RESULTS: Participants reported
      wanting to learn aggregate and personal results and were influenced by their life
      experiences, their experiences as study participants, and the relevance they
      believed specific results would have for their lives. Women advocated for broad
      dissemination and inclusive communication using a simple paper-based strategy
      that would be accessible to diverse audiences (e.g., study participants,
      policymakers, recent immigrants). CONCLUSIONS: Focus groups informed PUEDO's
      dissemination strategy, which concentrates on study participants and the regional
      Latino community. This approach to dissemination should maximize information
      uptake and community benefit.

PMID- 28569683
TI  - Lessons Learned From a Partnership to Evaluate a School Food Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2013, leadership at a Boston school approached academic
      investigators for help with assessing their new school food program. METHODS: The
      community-academic partnership implemented a two-phase community-based
      participatory research (CBPR) assessment. The qualitative phase involved key
      stakeholder focus groups. The quantitative assessment involved height/weight
      measurement and dietary recalls at the beginning and end of the year. RESULTS:
      The qualitative assessment revealed low stakeholder engagement in the food
      program and resulted in substantive changes. In the quantitative phase, the
      partnership terminated the study after recruitment goals were not met. LESSONS
      LEARNED: The quantitative assessment faced administrative hurdles to conducting
      school-based research and obtaining institutional review board (IRB) approval of
      CBPR projects, low recruitment, and diminished partnership strength. The constant
      effort to sustain partnerships, IRB processes mal adapted for CBPR, and training
      needs for community investigators are challenges and opportunities for success.
      CONCLUSIONS: CBPR can be useful for school-based research, but key process
      changes could increase its effectiveness.

PMID- 28569686
TI  - The Evolution of an Innovative Community-Engaged Health Navigator Program to
      Address Social Determinants of Health.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health navigators and other types of community health workers (CHWs)
      have become recognized as essential components of quality care, and key for
      addressing health disparities owing to the complex health care services landscape
      presents almost insurmountable challenges for vulnerable individuals. Bernalillo
      County, New Mexico, has high rates of uninsurance, poverty, and food insecurity.
      OBJECTIVES: The design of the Pathways to a Healthy Bernalillo County Program
      (BP) has evolved innovations that are unique in terms of program stability and
      security, expansive reach, and community capacity across six domains: sustainable
      public mechanism for program funding, involvement of community organizations in
      designing the program, expanded focus to address the broader social determinants
      of health with targeted outreach, an integrated, community-based implementation
      structure, an outcomes-based payment structure, and using an adaptive program
      design that actively incorporates navigators in the process. METHODS: In 2008,
      the Pathways to a Healthy Bernalillo County Program (BP), located in the
      Albuquerque metropolitan area in central New Mexico, was established to provide
      navigation and support for the most vulnerable county residents. BP is funded
      through a 1% carve out of county mill levy funds. RESULTS: The pathways model is
      an outcome-based approach for health and social services coordination that uses
      culturally competent CHW as "navigators" trained to connect at-risk individuals
      to needed health and social services. CONCLUSIONS: One of the important
      innovations of the pathways approach is a shift in focus from merely providing
      discrete services to confirming healthy outcomes for the individual patient.

PMID- 28569684
TI  - A Community-Based Participatory Research Guided Model for the Dissemination of
      Evidence-Based Interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dissemination is a principle within community-based participatory
      research (CBPR); however, published research focuses on the dissemination of
      findings from CBPR projects but less on dissemination of interventions developed
      through CBPR approaches. To disseminate an evidence-based lifestyle intervention
      tailored for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, the PILI 'Ohana
      Project (POP), an 11-year CBPR initiative, developed an innovative dissemination
      model. OBJECTIVES: The community-to-community mentoring (CCM) model described in
      this paper extends the application of CBPR values and principles used in
      intervention development to intervention dissemination. METHODS: The CCM model
      combines a CBPR orientation with the diffusion of innovation theory, the social
      cognitive theory, and key concepts from community organizing and community
      building to address the multilevel factors that influence uptake of an evidence
      based intervention (EBI). Grounding the model in CBPR principles provides
      benefits for intervention dissemination and integrates a focus on community
      benefits and capacity building. CONCLUSIONS: By establishing co-equal, mutually
      beneficial relationships at the core of the CCM model, opportunities are created
      for building critical consciousness, community capacity, and social capital. More
      research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this model of intervention
      dissemination which may enhance diffusion of CBPR interventions and empower
      communities in the process.

PMID- 28569688
TI  - Engineering Philosophy: Theories of Technology, German Idealism, and Social Order
      in High-Industrial Germany.
AB  - During the so-called "Second Industrial Revolution," engineers were constituting
      themselves as a new social and professional group, and found themselves in often
      fierce competition with existing elites-the military, the nobility, and educated
      bourgeois mandarins-whose roots went back to medieval and early modern pre
      industrial social orders. During that same time, engineers also discovered the
      discipline of philosophy: as a means to express their intellectual and social
      agendas, and to theorize technology and its relationship to art, history,
      culture, philosophy, and the state. This article analyzes engineers' own
      philosophical writings about technology as well as the institutions in which they
      composed them in 1910s and 1920s Germany. It emphasizes engineers' contributions
      to well-known discourses founded by canonical philosophers, the role of
      preindustrial economies and their imagination in such philosophies, and the role
      of both the history and the philosophy of technology in engineers' desire for
      upward social mobility.

PMID- 28569689
TI  - The Text in the Machine: American Copyright Law and the Many Natures of Software,
      1974-1978.
AB  - This article is a case study in the history of software copyright in the United
      States from 1974 to 1978. It focuses on the work of a group called the National
      Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works. CONTU, as this group
      was known, faced the problem of choosing which ontology of software-by which I
      mean a conception of the nature of software as an invention-should serve as the
      conceptual underpinning for the law of software copyright. In particular, the
      commissioners needed to decide whether computer programs are texts, machines,
      means to communicate with machines, or many of these things at once. CONTU's
      history shows how the discursive emergence of software as a new technology has
      been shaped by the convergence of commercial interests, the transmission of
      technical knowledge to lay audiences, and idiosyncratic views on the nature of
      information technology and human creativity.

PMID- 28569690
TI  - Droughts and Dragons: Geography, Rainfall, and Eighteenth-Century London's Water
      Systems.
AB  - By the end of the eighteenth century the majority of households in London
      received a piped water supply. This article examines the geographical,
      technological, and environmental challenges that London's private water companies
      faced as they created and expanded the large technological networks necessary to
      provide the growing city's water supply. It identifies geography and drought as
      the main drivers of innovation in London's water supply neworks, and argues that
      the main impediment to expansion for the majority of the water companies was
      overcoming the differences in elevation between their intake points and customer
      bases, with major improvements often made as a result of water shortages. The
      timing and the success or failure of a company's technological improvements
      proved pivotal in the subsequent development of the water market.

PMID- 28569691
TI  - From Natural Monopoly to Public Utility: Technological Determinism and the
      Political Economy of Infrastructure in Progressive-Era America.
AB  - In present-day debates regarding telecommunication policy, one frequently hears
      the terms natural monopoly and public utility. This article investigates the
      origins of these ideas, finding that Richard T. Ely-a celebrated American
      economist of the late nineteenth century-embedded in the term "natural monopoly"
      a narrative of technological determinism. By arguing that certain services had
      monopolizing tendencies hardwired into them, Ely argued for their regulation.
      Ely's theory of natural monopoly formed the basis of Wisconsin's 1907 public
      utilities law, which served as a model for many other states' regulatory
      policies. The modern notion of public utility thus carries with it the
      technological determinism of Ely's natural monopoly idea. By tracing the lineage
      of these two terms, this article recaptures the influence that activists and
      progressive politicians exercised over the formation of large technological
      systems during the Second Industrial Revolution.

PMID- 28569692
TI  - Detente from the Air: Monitoring Air Pollution during the Cold War.
AB  - During the period of detente in the 1970s, a Norwegian proposal to construct an
      air pollution monitoring network for the European continent resulted in the first
      concrete collaboration between the communist and capitalist blocs after the 1975
      Helsinki Accords. Known as the "European-wide monitoring programme" or EMEP, the
      network earned considerable praise from diplomats for facilitating cooperation
      across the Iron Curtain. Yet as this article argues, EMEP was strongly influenced
      by the politics of detente and the constraints of the Cold War even as it helped
      to decrease tensions. Concerns about national security and sharing data with the
      enemy shaped both the construction of the monitoring network and the modeling of
      pollution transport. The article also proposes that environmental monitoring
      systems like EMEP reveal the ways in which observational technologies can affect
      conceptions of the natural world and the role of science in public policy.

PMID- 28569693
TI  - Proximal Design: Users as Designers of Mobility in the Russian North.
AB  - By examining mobility in remote Arctic areas, we analyze how challenging
      environmental conditions, while affecting technology performance, evoke people's
      creativity and efforts as technology users. Based on historical materials and
      ethnographic observations of user inventiveness in the transport sector in the
      Russian North, we define and document a phenomenon of "proximal design" in three
      different modes: the proximal complementation of "distant design" machines
      (trucks and military equipment) to ascertain their reliability; the emergence of
      a new type of homemade all-terrain vehicle called a "karakat," made from salvaged
      parts to specialize in times and locations where other vehicles turn unreliable;
      and the traditional craft of sledge-making by nomadic reindeer herders of the
      Yamal area, where even materials are proximally collected and shaped. Our main
      argument is that continuous tuning, modification, and redesign of technology
      carried out by immediate users in situ make it possible for humans and machines
      to function in extreme settings and that this can lead also to emergence of
      enduring design principles. We outline key characteristics of proximal design
      such as constraining environment, inventiveness by necessity, flexible
      construction, personalization and symbolic meaning, and social embeddedness of
      making/maintaining practices.

PMID- 28569694
TI  - The Concave Faces of the Great Pyramid: An Explanation.
AB  - A construction methodology proposed by the author in 2003 to explain how the
      Great Pyramid was built suggested that workers used the angled faces of the
      pyramid as surfaces on which to transport block and sledge assemblies. This
      methodology however would leave few material traces behind making it more
      difficult to conclusively prove. This article argues that the known concavity of
      the outer packing blocks of the Great Pyramid provides meangingful archaeological
      evidence to add weight to the author's proposed construction methodology.

PMID- 28569695
TI  - STEP Matters: Historiographical Considerations.
AB  - In this introduction, we revisit major discussions around historical themes and
      historiographical issues that took place during the fifteen-year life of STEP
      (Science and Technology at the European Periphery). We will attempt to draw the
      profile of STEP, and put forth some concrete proposals as to its prospects of
      collaboration with other groups and societies. We also elaborate on the rationale
      behind the selection of topics presented in this issue, analyse questions posed
      and challenges faced, and offer some historiographical comments on the potential
      of the STEP perspective in the context of international scholarship.

PMID- 28569696
TI  - Beyond Fixed Geographies: Moving Localities and the Making of Knowledge.
AB  - In recent historiography the notion of circulation serves as a basis for weaving
      together global narratives of the history of science. However, the emphasis
      placed by such narratives on the impact of European science should not overshadow
      the fact that the making of knowledge in Europe is a dynamic and multi-layered
      process that cannot be reduced to simple models of knowledge circulation among
      fixed localities. In order to develop this perspective, the authors introduce the
      notion of "moving localities," as a means to depict the mutually transformative
      encounters that shaped the notion of European science and technology.

PMID- 28569697
TI  - Education and Textbooks.
AB  - Education and textbooks have traditionally been standard objects of research in
      the history of science, technology, and medicine. However, they have often
      remained marginal in the formulation of large historiographical questions. In the
      last decades, the work of some historians of science has challenged this state of
      affairs. STEP has promoted a distinctive focus on education and textbooks,
      compared to other scholarship cultures such as the Anglo-American. This essay
      reviews its work in this field and stresses the potential of education and
      textbooks to produce interdisciplinary research in local, national, and
      international perspective.

PMID- 28569698
TI  - Experts and Peripheries: Ongoing Research and Future Challenges.
AB  - Based on existing research on Spain and Greece, the essay is focused upon the
      activity of experts in criminal courts and advisory committees. Following the
      experts in these settings, we offer examples of their roles in governing techno
      sciences in societies of the European periphery. We highlight the tensions
      between the creative powers of localities and the movement of expert knowledge in
      a world marked by striking inequalities concerning economic, political and
      academic power. We claim that a comparative study of these movements will be
      refine the historical understanding of experts and expertise.

PMID- 28569699
TI  - Popularization of Science, Technology, and Medicine in the "Periphery": A Step
      Further?
AB  - Based on the research that has been carried out within STEP, this essay suggests
      an integrative approach for the study of science, technology and medicine
      popularization in the European periphery during the nineteenth and early
      twentieth century. Such an approach can be a privileged tool not only for
      examining the complex processes of institutionalization and specialization of STM
      in peripheral countries, but also for exploring the interplay of STM in the
      making of modernity, since popularization seemed to have deep political
      implications in the implementation of modernization programs and the construction
      of national and professional identities in the European periphery.

PMID- 28569700
TI  - How to Write an Urban History of STM on the "Periphery".
AB  - Within the STEP research agenda there has never been an explicit focus on the
      city as a central place for knowledge production. Scholars of the urban history
      of science tend to concentrate on the metropolis and have not looked in any
      systematic way at the scientific culture in "peripheral" urban contexts. To fill
      this gap, this essay proposes to focus on: (1) the role of science, technology
      and medicine in everyday life and the experiences of the citizens; (2) the
      plurality of the often conflicting notions of urban modernity; (3) the complex
      networks of interurban connections between the "peripheries."

PMID- 28569701
TI  - Technology and Nation: Learning from the Periphery.
AB  - This essay explores the role of technology in building nations as material and
      cultural artifacts from two peripheral perspectives. First, it brings to the fore
      what we call epistemic peripheries in the history of technology, be they objects
      or actors usually neglected when studying the interplay between technology and
      the nation. Second, it deals with geographic peripheries by focusing on
      connections, networks, and circulation processes far beyond linear and static
      core-periphery relations. We claim that one cannot properly understand how
      technological national identities were created if national boundaries are taken
      as strict analytical frameworks. In this sense, the essay advocates a
      transnational history with a wider empirical focus.

PMID- 28569702
TI  - Volume 57 (2016).

PMID- 28569703
TI  - Scholars versus Practitioners?: Anchor Proof Testing and the Birth of a Mixed
      Culture in Eighteenth-Century France.
AB  - In line with studies that question the conventional dichotomies between "head"
      and "hand," this article analyzes the emergence of a mixed naval culture, between
      science and technology, during the French Enlightenment. The case at issue is
      that of the circuitous development of an anchor proof testing protocol, an
      important method in the competition for maritime supremacy used at least until
      the first third of the nineteenth century. The story begins in the dockyard of
      Brest with a humble boatswain, and continues with the dissemination of his
      experiments thanks to prominent figures of the Naval Academy of Brest and of the
      Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. The article suggests that if the findings of
      the latter were rather inconclusive, nevertheless, over time, a collaboration
      between practitioners and scientists did eventually generate a regular protocol
      for testing anchors.

PMID- 28569704
TI  - She Wears the Pants: The Reform Dress as Technology in Nineteenth-Century
      America.
AB  - This article examines the American dress-reform movement, detailing the ways in
      which reformers conceptualized clothing as a social and bodily technology. In the
      mid-nineteenth century, women began making and wearing the "reform dress"-a
      costume consisting of pants and shortened, lightweight skirts-as an alternative
      to burdensome feminine fashions. When ridiculed in public for wearing overtly
      masculine garments, dress reformers insisted their clothing was healthful,
      functional, and natural. This article discusses women's use of medical science
      and technical knowledge in their rejection of fashion, promotion of sexual
      equality, and efforts to change mainstream clothing practices. When approached
      from a technological perspective, the reform dress reveals broader tensions in an
      industrializing American society, such as changing gender relations and new
      understandings of the relationship between humans and technology.

PMID- 28569705
TI  - What's in a Pipe?: NATO's Confrontation on the 1962 Large-Diameter Pipe Embargo.
AB  - By the late 1950s, the Soviet Union had acquired a strong position as a world oil
      exporter, thanks to major discoveries in the Ural-Volga area. In order to
      transport their oil to strategic areas within the Union and to Europe, the
      Soviets devised a project to build a colossal pipeline system. This plan caused
      anxiety at NATO since Russian oil could be wielded as a weapon to weaken the West
      both militarily and economically. In order to complete the system, however, the
      Soviets needed large-diameter steel pipes and equipment, which they had to import
      from the West. Thus in 1961 the U.S. delegation at NATO proposed a comprehensive
      embargo of large-diameter pipes in order to delay the system's construction. I
      argue that the definition of what oil pipes were as technological artifacts, as
      well as their final content, was ultimately shaped by the NATO debate on this
      U.S. proposition.

PMID- 28569706
TI  - Naked Gene Salmon: Debating Fish, Genes, and the Politics of Science in the "Age
      of Publics".
AB  - This article follows what was supposed to become a new salmon for the aquaculture
      industry on its travels through Norwegian society during the 1980s. This is a
      history of a new animal technology that was born out of the biotechnology hype of
      the 1980s. The article takes Edmund Russell's claim that the tools of historians
      of technology can be utilized for investigating animals as technologies as a
      point of departure. However, instead of investigating the construction of the
      fish, the article focuses on how the new creature was integrated into society
      through controversy.

PMID- 28569707
TI  - Know-How in Postwar Business and Law.
AB  - In the mid-twentieth century, businesses around the world began to see technical
      know-how as one of the most important assets they could possess. While their
      exact definitions of know-how varied (usually centering on employees' tacit
      knowledge; accumulated, minor innovations rather than just patentable inventions;
      and tailoring to local conditions), the rapidly growing perception that it was
      invaluable led to widespread know-how licensing. As businesses embraced it, legal
      scholars and business lawyers during the 1950s through the 1970s scrambled to
      clarify legal bases for intellectual property protections for know-how. In the
      1970s Supreme Court decisions undermined this effort, and a consortium of legal
      organizations turned instead to lobbying for statutory protection for the
      related, narrower category of "trade secrets." Despite the rise and relative
      decline of know-how in American business and law, interest in the term spread to
      other languages and legal systems, and the repercussions of these shifting
      understandings of technology transfer remain with us today.

PMID- 28569708
TI  - Introduction: Searching for the Historical Roots of 11 March 2011.
AB  - Debates about preserving traces of disaster for historical commemoration have
      emerged amid the processes of recovery and healing from the 2011 Great Tohoku
      Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disasters. Prompted by the tensions
      that underlie decisions about the value of maintaining damaged artifacts and
      structures for public memorialization, this essay introduces the forum "Japan
      Before Disaster Studies," which encourages a reconsideration of "disaster
      heritage" as something that also maintains an active awareness of the roles of
      technology and science in the depths of Japan's disaster histories.
      Reconstructing these roots of disaster histories should enrich a more accessible
      understanding of the actors, institutions, policies, and discourses connected to
      various disaster contexts.

PMID- 28569709
TI  - Remembering Future Risk: Considering Technologies of the Archive for Discussion
      of Tohoku's Seismological Past after 2011.
AB  - In Japan, calls for the discovery, preservation, and translation of old documents
      that mention past earthquakes only intensified after the earthquake, tsunami, and
      nuclear disaster of March 2011. A closer look at the original record and archival
      processes that have gone into the historical account of the earthquake and
      tsunami of 9 July 869 reveals the ways in which the "memory" of the Jogan tsunami
      depends as much on modern seismic archaeology and educational institutions as
      ancient documents. Historical risk assessment, therefore, must draw on both old
      and new technologies of the archive.

PMID- 28569710
TI  - Reverse Flow: The Role of Built Environments in Shaping Disaster.
AB  - In contrast to approaches that examine the impacts of human-built efforts to
      ameliorate calamitous natural events, this essay argues that a wide array of
      large structures shape the outcomes of these events. Further, significant human
      artifacts can succeed in their function vis-a-vis one set of natural events, but
      can have unanticipated, even reverse effects when natural forces exceed planned
      expectations. Risk assessments do not normally consider such side effects,
      suffering from an agnotological narrowing of focus. The historian's emphasis on
      temporal contextualization and contingency has important implications for policy
      and assessment of risk.

PMID- 28569711
TI  - Reorganization, Deregulation, and Liberalization: Postwar Development of the
      Japanese Electric Power Industry and Its Change after 11 March 2011.
AB  - The reform of Japan's electric power industry after the Fukushima nuclear
      accident is, despite public expectations for the shutdown or reduction of nuclear
      power, placing more emphasis on liberalizing the industry. This essay tries to
      show that the present reform is a revival of the government's liberalization plan
      that emerged in the mid-1990s and was aborted around 2003 since the power
      companies hinted that further deregulation might discourage them from following
      the government's nuclear policy. The Fukushima accident changed the balance of
      power-political, not electric-between them and allowed the government to
      implement its long-cherished reform plan.

PMID- 28569713
TI  - Awards.

PMID- 28569712
TI  - Reconstructing the Linear No-Threshold Model in Japan: A Historical Perspective
      on the Technics of Evaluating Radiation Exposure.
AB  - The 2011 nuclear power plant disaster and subsequent medical surveys of citizens
      in Fukushima Prefecture have helped reopen questions about competing models'
      effects of long-term, low-dose radiation exposure on human health. A
      reconstruction of how Japanese scientists studied low-dose effects of radiation
      in the years following the 1954 Castle Bravo detonation can deepen understandings
      as to why questions about the reliability of such risk analysis tools persist.
      Greater attention to the hopes associated with local research contributions to
      building international safety standards can begin to shed historical light upon
      how different technics of evaluating radiation effects have allowed scientists to
      envision either uncertain or certain futures in Japan with respect to radiation.

PMID- 28569714
TI  - The Singapore Meeting, 22-26 June 2016.

PMID- 28569715
TI  - Forty-third Symposium of the International Committee for the History of
      Technology: "Technology, Innovation, and Sustainability: Historical and
      Contemporary Narratives," Porto, Portugal, 26-30 July 2016.

PMID- 28569716
TI  - In Memoriam Richard Selzer (1928-2016).

PMID- 28569717
TI  - Introduction: Pathological Reading.

PMID- 28569718
TI  - Two Kinds of "Literary Poison": Diseases of the Learned and Overstimulating
      Novels in Georgian Britain.
AB  - This article will analyze the complex relationship between two separate
      traditions of anxiety about the medical impact of reading. On the one hand there
      was the older concept of the diseases of the learned (Gelehrtenkrankheiten),
      associated with crabbed, often impecunious academics. This is a tradition that
      went back centuries and drew on the six non-naturals of Galenic medicine. On the
      other hand there was fear that the sentimental novel-reading habits of the
      leisured elite were overstimulating their nerves, a model that was based
      primarily on the newer medicine of stimulation associated with physicians such as
      Cullen, Whytt, Tissot, and Brown. This article will examine how these two models
      of pathological reading came together during the late eighteenth and early
      nineteenth centuries, and what they show about the role of the imagination,
      luxury, gender, and sexuality.

PMID- 28569719
TI  - Toxic Texts and Reading Remedies: Literary Medicine in Eighteenth-Century Print
      Cultures.
AB  - Today the idea of reading for health is perhaps most commonly associated with the
      term bibliotherapy. This seemingly new practice might be considered a significant
      shift of public and professional medical attitudes when compared with historical
      interpretations of the impact of reading on individuals' health. Much
      historiography concerning the reception of popular literature in eighteenth
      century print culture has focused on the belief that readers of fiction, most
      often women, were at risk of corrupting their own minds and bodies through their
      reading choices. Yet, although popular, this view was not exclusively subscribed
      to by either medical practitioners or the wider public. This article reveals
      perspectives that warned against and celebrated the effects of reading on human
      health during the eighteenth century. Unlike what we see from much contemporary
      scholarship there is, in fact, a range of evidence which demonstrates that
      eighteenth-century medical practitioners were already engaging with the concept
      of reading as a therapeutic activity.

PMID- 28569721
TI  - Leaky Bodies, Bawdy Books: Gonorrhea and Reading in Eighteenth-Century Britain.
AB  - In eighteenth-century Britain, reading lewd books was understood to exacerbate
      gonorrhea. That pathology corresponded to a specific physiological model, which
      historians describe as the leaky male body. This article demonstrates how the
      connection between reading and gonorrhea correlated to three phenomena: 1) the
      neuro-sexual economy of bodily fluids; 2) the effects of reading on the sensible
      mind and body; and 3) the crossover of erotic and medical literatures. Aware of
      the physiological power of imagination, authors intentionally wrote to elicit
      strong physiological and sexual responses in readers. Concerns about the
      pathological and moral consequences of reading provocative material similarly
      informed criticisms of both the outright pornographic and the ostensibly medical.
      Partly in response to such criticisms, medical authors developed a more careful,
      decorous, and objective tone for writing about sexual topics. Ultimately, the
      culture of sensibility receded, as did anxieties about involuntary leaks of
      bodily fluids caused by reading.

PMID- 28569720
TI  - The Medical Dangers of Literary Genius.
AB  - This essay examines three key texts by William Buchan, Isaac D'Israeli, and
      Richard Robert Madden, which demonstrate the emergence of the newly conceived
      idea of literary genius in the Romantic period. It considers the role of a new
      genre, the "medical biography," in the development of this phenomenon. While the
      mental precariousness of the Romantic genius has been much commented upon, this
      essay concentrates instead on the bodily or physical aspects of genius, which is
      itself figured as a disease. The study and writing involved in publication are
      viewed as stimulants that can be addictive, ruining the health and wellbeing of
      authors and even leading to their early deaths.

PMID- 28569722
TI  - The Visceral Novel Reader and Novelized Medicine in Georgian Britain.
AB  - The article introduces "the visceral novel reader" as a diachronic, context
      sensitive mode of novelistic reception, in which fact and fiction overlap
      cognitively: the mental rehearsal of the activity of seeing, hearing, smelling,
      tasting, and touching while reading novels and, vice versa, the mental rehearsal
      of novels in the act of perceiving the real world. Located at the intersection of
      literature, medicine and science, "the visceral novel reader" enhances our
      understanding of the role that novels played in the dialectic construction of
      erudition in English. In Georgian Britain, reading practices became a testing
      ground for the professionalization of physicians, natural philosophers, and men
      of letters. While it was in the professionals' common interest to implement
      protocols that taught readers to separate body from mind, and fact from fiction,
      novels came to stand for "debased" (visceral) reading. Novels inverted these
      notions by means of medicalization (regimentation, somatization, and
      individuation) and contributed to the professional stratification of medicine and
      literature.

PMID- 28569723
TI  - French <i>Hoffmania</i>: Theophile Gautier's "Onuphrius" (1833) and the Critique
      of the Etiology of Pathological Reading.
AB  - "Of unknown cause"- in the conclusion of the eponymous tale written by Theophile
      Gautier in 1833, it is not clear what exactly the protagonist Onuphrius dies of
      after his infatuation with E. T. A. Hoffmann drove him mad. Thus, the reference
      to the possibility of "Hoffmania" is both highly medicalized, as Hoffmann appears
      as a case study of the sick author, while all its causes and mechanisms are left
      unexplored. With this suppression of the etiology of pathological reading,
      Gautier separates himself from both the tradition of literary discourses on
      pathological reading and from the new etiology of mental disorders. This allows
      him to expound the premises of his theory of "art for art's sake," as it echoes
      the paradox this theory is based upon, which contends that art is free and
      independent, yet its effects are deeply felt on the subject's body, in a way that
      must remain unclear.

PMID- 28569724
TI  - <i>Werther</i> Goes Viral: Suicidal Contagion, Anti-Vaccination, and Infectious
      Sympathy.
AB  - The fear that suicidality could spread through textual contagion-that textually
      represented suicide could enter the reader's mind and cause self-destruction-took
      hold long before Emile Durkheim theorized it in the Victorian period. This
      article argues that the fear of suicidal contagion and the horror of vaccination,
      both of which raged in Britain in the long eighteenth century, were linked to
      ideas about sympathy and the importation of the Other into the Self. With
      reference to the psychoanalytic notions of extimite and etrangerete; the
      eighteenth-century medical theories of William Rowley and Edward Jenner; the
      philosophy of "sympathy," as adumbrated in the work of John Locke, Adam Smith,
      David Hume and Edmund Burke; and two key novels of sensibility (Jean-Jacques
      Rousseau's Julie and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther),
      this article examines the root of a belief that exists even today: that, in a
      suicidal process, the invading Other could become the Self and, Trojan horse
      style, destroy it from the inside.

PMID- 28569725
TI  - Radical Contagion and Healthy Literature in <i>Blackwood's Edinburgh
      Magazine</i>.
AB  - During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the revolution in
      France served as a catalyst for heavily allegorical political rhetoric, and the
      idea that radical politics were contagious became commonplace in conservative
      writing and oratory. This political contagion is described by Blackwood's as
      raging through the ranks of the rural poor as late as 1830. Confronted by this
      threat, Blackwood's promoted itself alternatively as a stimulant or as a cure for
      the metaphorical poison or infection that radical publications were seen to be
      spreading amongst the poor. Blackwood's also strove to maintain the political
      health of its readership by identifying healthy literature for its readers and
      the lower order. This article analyzes Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine's
      application of the vocabulary of disease and contagion to radical politics and
      publications, and considers questions of taste, class, and Britishness in
      discussions of healthy reading habits.

PMID- 28569726
TI  - The Lazy Reader: Labor, Books, and Disease in Nineteenth-Century Germany.
AB  - Looking at nineteenth-century Germany, this article investigates the origin of
      the idea that fiction causes disease, among both the bourgeoisie and the working
      class. I argue that the socially constructed notions of reading addiction, which
      were consistent with medical concepts at that time, touched the bourgeois virtues
      of industriousness and health. However, little has been written about the
      transfer of the bourgeois attitudes towards reading to the German working class.
      The study of workers' autobiographies shows that social circumstances and the
      emulation of bourgeois values and attitudes resulted in appropriating the concept
      of lazy readers in the working class. The paper follows the paths from the early
      nineteenth century accusation of readers to the working class's perception of
      novels causing disease around 1900.

PMID- 28569727
TI  - The Discourse on Dangerous Reading in Nineteenth-Century Latvia.
AB  - During the nineteenth century, Latvian society experienced significant social and
      cultural changes due to a transition from agrarian to modern society and the
      emergence of a Latvian national culture. Reading, previously a mostly religious
      and practical activity, took new forms among the Latvian middle class and
      steadily began to be depicted as a dangerous pastime. In this essay, we have
      explored the connection between social change and pathological reading by turning
      attention to the rhetoric of the dangerous reading discourse, representations of
      effects of reading in the press, and the condemnation of female reading.

PMID- 28569728
TI  - Reading Disorders: Pro-Eating Disorder Rhetoric and Anorexia Life-Writing.
AB  - This article explores the relationship between eating disorders and reading
      behaviors, arguing that there is a meaningful difference in a minority of
      readers' approach to and understanding of anorexia life-writing, and of literary
      texts more broadly. To illuminate this distinction, this article begins by
      considering the reported deleterious influence of Marya Hornbacher's anorexia
      memoir, Wasted, elaborating the ways Hornbacher offers a positive presentation of
      anorexia nervosa that may, intentionally or not, induce certain readers to "try
      it" themselves. This is followed by an exploration of how Hornbacher's own
      reading praxis is implicated in a discursive feedback loop around anorexia
      narratives. It concludes with a discussion of disordered reading attitudes in
      relation to the emergence of the "pro-anorexia" phenomenon.

PMID- 28569731
TI  - ?????? ??????.
AB  - L'dor vador, transliterated from the Hebrew above, is an ancient concept in
      Judaic scripture meaning "from generation to generation," which is now generally
      interpreted to mean that we have a responsibility to pass on teachings to future
      generations. It has been 5 years that I have been at the helm of the Duke-UNC
      Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and have had the
      privilege of publishing scientific knowledge that will be passed on to
      generations of future scientists. Now, with the selection of Dr. Gordon Tomaselli
      as the next editor in chief, I pass on the editorial duties for the JCI to him
      and his team at Johns Hopkins.

PMID- 28569730
TI  - Inflammasomes and IL-1 biology in the pathogenesis of allograft dysfunction.
AB  - Inflammasomes are high-molecular-weight cytosolic complexes that mediate the
      activation of caspases. There are many inflammasomes, and each is influenced by a
      unique pattern-recognition receptor response. Two signals are typically involved
      in the inflammasome pathways. Signal one involves recognition of pathogen
      associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as LPS or other colonizing/invading
      microbes, that interact with TLRs, which induce the downstream production of pro
      IL-1beta. This is followed by signal two, which involves recognition of PAMPs or
      damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), such as uric acid or ATP, via
      NLRP3, which leads to caspase-1-dependent cleavage of pro-IL-1beta to active IL
      1beta and pyroptosis. Ultimately, these two signals cause the release of multiple
      proinflammatory cytokines. Both PAMPs and DAMPs can be liberated by early insults
      to the allograft, including ischemia/reperfusion injury, infections, and
      rejection. The consequence of inflammasome activation and IL-1 expression is the
      upregulation of adhesion molecules and chemokines, which leads to allograft
      neutrophil sequestration, mononuclear phagocyte recruitment, and T cell
      activation, all of which are key steps in the continuum from allograft insult to
      chronic allograft dysfunction.

PMID- 28569733
TI  - Twenty fascinating conversations.

PMID- 28569734
TI  - Ablation of PI3K blocks BCR-ABL leukemogenesis in mice, and a dual PI3K/mTOR
      inhibitor prevents expansion of human BCR-ABL+ leukemia cells.

PMID- 28569735
TI  - Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) regulates postischemic blood flow
      during acute kidney injury in mice.

PMID- 28569732
TI  - Inflammatory osteolysis: a conspiracy against bone.
AB  - There are many causes of inflammatory osteolysis, but regardless of etiology and
      cellular contexts, the osteoclast is the bone-degrading cell. Thus, the impact of
      inflammatory cytokines on osteoclast formation and function was among the most
      important discoveries advancing the treatment of focal osteolysis, leading to
      development of therapeutic agents that either directly block the bone-resorptive
      cell or do so indirectly via cytokine arrest. Despite these advances, a
      substantial number of patients with inflammatory arthritis remain resistant to
      current therapies, and even effective anti-inflammatory drugs frequently do not
      repair damaged bone. Thus, insights into events such as those impacted by
      inflammasomes, which signal through cytokine-dependent and -independent
      mechanisms, are needed to optimize treatment of inflammatory osteolysis.

PMID- 28569737
TI  - Nursing Care Management: Influence on Bundled Payments: Erratum.

PMID- 28569736
TI  - Orthopaedic Nurses-Pioneers in Care Management: Erratum.

PMID- 28569738
TI  - Implementation of a Pediatric Orthopaedic Bundle to Reduce Surgical Site
      Infections: Erratum.

PMID- 28569740
TI  - Do the Data Support Manometric Subclassifications for Ineffective Esophageal
      Motility?

PMID- 28569739
TI  - Endoscopic-Guided Measurement of Mucosal Admittance can Discriminate
      Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease from Functional Heartburn.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A novel catheter that can measure mucosal admittance (MA), the
      inverse of impedance, was developed recently. In this pilot study, we aimed to
      clarify the usefulness of measuring MA for diagnosing gastroesophageal reflux
      disease (GERD). METHODS: We conducted two prospective studies. In the first
      study, esophageal MA was evaluated in 120 participants (24 with erosive
      esophagitis, 82 with heartburn but non-erosive esophagitis, and 14 healthy
      volunteers) and compared with the endoscopic findings. In the second study,
      multichannel intraluminal impedance combined with pH (MII-pH) tests was conducted
      followed by an MA measurement in 33 patients with non-erosive esophagitis and
      proton pump inhibitor (PPI)-refractory heartburn. Based on the MII-pH test
      results, patients were divided into GERD or functional heartburn (FH). MA was
      compared between the GERD and FH groups and also compared with the baseline
      impedance (BI) and acid exposure time (AET). RESULTS: Median MA at the distal
      esophagus was significantly higher in patients with erosive esophagitis compared
      with that in patients with non-erosive esophagitis and healthy volunteers (46.8,
      13.1 and 6.5, respectively, P<0.01). In patients with PPI-refractory heartburn,
      the median MA at the distal esophagus was significantly higher in patients with
      GERD than those with FH (19.3 vs. 7.2, P<0.05). There was a negative correlation
      between MA and BI, and a positive correlation between MA and AET at the distal
      esophagus (r=-0.46 and r=0.53, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Real-time measurement of MA
      is useful to distinguish GERD from non-GERD.

PMID- 28569741
TI  - Detection of Zak phases and topological invariants in a chiral quantum walk of
      twisted photons.
AB  - Topological insulators are fascinating states of matter exhibiting protected edge
      states and robust quantized features in their bulk. Here we propose and validate
      experimentally a method to detect topological properties in the bulk of one
      dimensional chiral systems. We first introduce the mean chiral displacement, an
      observable that rapidly approaches a value proportional to the Zak phase during
      the free evolution of the system. Then we measure the Zak phase in a photonic
      quantum walk of twisted photons, by observing the mean chiral displacement in its
      bulk. Next, we measure the Zak phase in an alternative, inequivalent timeframe
      and combine the two windings to characterize the full phase diagram of this
      Floquet system. Finally, we prove the robustness of the measure by introducing
      dynamical disorder in the system. This detection method is extremely general and
      readily applicable to all present one-dimensional platforms simulating static or
      Floquet chiral systems.

PMID- 28569742
TI  - Quantum test of the equivalence principle for atoms in coherent superposition of
      internal energy states.
AB  - The Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) has a central role in the understanding
      of gravity and space-time. In its weak form, or weak equivalence principle (WEP),
      it directly implies equivalence between inertial and gravitational mass.
      Verifying this principle in a regime where the relevant properties of the test
      body must be described by quantum theory has profound implications. Here we
      report on a novel WEP test for atoms: a Bragg atom interferometer in a gravity
      gradiometer configuration compares the free fall of rubidium atoms prepared in
      two hyperfine states and in their coherent superposition. The use of the
      superposition state allows testing genuine quantum aspects of EEP with no
      classical analogue, which have remained completely unexplored so far. In
      addition, we measure the Eotvos ratio of atoms in two hyperfine levels with
      relative uncertainty in the low 10-9, improving previous results by almost two
      orders of magnitude.

PMID- 28569743
TI  - Sources of discordance among germ-line variant classifications in ClinVar.
AB  - PurposeClinVar is increasingly used as a resource for both genetic variant
      interpretation and clinical practice. However, controversies exist regarding the
      consistency of classifications in ClinVar, and questions remain about how best to
      use these data. Our study systematically examined ClinVar to identify common
      sources of discordance and thus inform ongoing practices.MethodsWe analyzed
      variants that had multiple classifications in ClinVar, excluding benign
      polymorphisms. Classifications were categorized by potential actionability and
      pathogenicity. Consensus interpretations were calculated for each variant, and
      the properties of the discordant outlier classifications were
      summarized.ResultsOur study included 74,065 classifications of 27,224 unique
      variants in 1,713 genes. We found that (i) concordance rates differed among
      clinical areas and variant types; (ii) clinical testing methods had much higher
      concordance than basic literature curation and research efforts; (iii) older
      classifications had greater discordance than newer ones; and (iv) low-penetrance
      variants had particularly high discordance.ConclusionRecent variant
      classifications from clinical testing laboratories have high overall concordance
      in many (but not all) clinical areas. ClinVar can be a reliable resource
      supporting variant interpretation, quality assessment, and clinical practice when
      factors uncovered in this study are taken into account. Ongoing improvements to
      ClinVar may make it easier to use, particularly for nonexpert users.

PMID- 28569745
TI  - The microprotein Minion controls cell fusion and muscle formation.
AB  - Although recent evidence has pointed to the existence of small open reading frame
      (smORF)-encoded microproteins in mammals, their function remains to be
      determined. Skeletal muscle development requires fusion of mononuclear
      progenitors to form multinucleated myotubes, a critical but poorly understood
      process. Here we report the identification of Minion (microprotein inducer of
      fusion), a smORF encoding an essential skeletal muscle specific microprotein.
      Myogenic progenitors lacking Minion differentiate normally but fail to form
      syncytial myotubes, and Minion-deficient mice die perinatally and demonstrate a
      marked reduction in fused muscle fibres. The fusogenic activity of Minion is
      conserved in the human orthologue, and co-expression of Minion and the
      transmembrane protein Myomaker is sufficient to induce cellular fusion
      accompanied by rapid cytoskeletal rearrangement, even in non-muscle cells. These
      findings establish Minion as a novel microprotein required for muscle
      development, and define a two-component programme for the induction of mammalian
      cell fusion. Moreover, these data also significantly expand the known functions
      of smORF-encoded microproteins.

PMID- 28569744
TI  - Delivery room interventions to prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia in extremely
      preterm infants.
AB  - Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common chronic respiratory
      complication of preterm birth. Preterm infants are at risk for acute lung injury
      immediately after birth, which predisposes to BPD. In this article, we review the
      current evidence for interventions applied during neonatal transition (delivery
      room and first postnatal hours of life) to prevent BPD in extremely preterm
      infants: continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), sustained lung inflation,
      supplemental oxygen use during neonatal resuscitation, and surfactant therapy
      including less-invasive surfactant administration. Preterm infants should be
      stabilized with CPAP in the delivery room, reserving invasive mechanical
      ventilation for infants who fail non-invasive respiratory support. For infants
      who require endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation soon after birth,
      surfactant should be given early (<2 h of life). We recommend prudent titration
      of supplemental oxygen in the delivery room to achieve targeted oxygen
      saturations. Promising interventions that may further reduce BPD, such as
      sustained inflation and non-invasive surfactant administration, are currently
      under investigation.

PMID- 28569746
TI  - Ants regulate colony spatial organization using multiple chemical road-signs.
AB  - Communication provides the basis for social life. In ant colonies, the prevalence
      of local, often chemically mediated, interactions introduces strong links between
      communication networks and the spatial distribution of ants. It is, however,
      unknown how ants identify and maintain nest chambers with distinct functions.
      Here, we combine individual tracking, chemical analysis and machine learning to
      decipher the chemical signatures present on multiple nest surfaces. We present
      evidence for several distinct chemical 'road-signs' that guide the ants'
      movements within the dark nest. These chemical signatures can be used to classify
      nest chambers with different functional roles. Using behavioural manipulations,
      we demonstrate that at least three of these chemical signatures are functionally
      meaningful and allow ants from different task groups to identify their specific
      nest destinations, thus facilitating colony coordination and stabilization. The
      use of multiple chemicals that assist spatiotemporal guidance, segregation and
      pattern formation is abundant in multi-cellular organisms. Here, we provide a
      rare example for the use of these principles in the ant colony.

PMID- 28569749
TI  - One-Year stable perovskite solar cells by 2D/3D interface engineering.
AB  - Despite the impressive photovoltaic performances with power conversion efficiency
      beyond 22%, perovskite solar cells are poorly stable under operation, failing by
      far the market requirements. Various technological approaches have been proposed
      to overcome the instability problem, which, while delivering appreciable
      incremental improvements, are still far from a market-proof solution. Here we
      show one-year stable perovskite devices by engineering an ultra-stable 2D/3D
      (HOOC(CH2)4NH3)2PbI4/CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite junction. The 2D/3D forms an
      exceptional gradually-organized multi-dimensional interface that yields up to
      12.9% efficiency in a carbon-based architecture, and 14.6% in standard mesoporous
      solar cells. To demonstrate the up-scale potential of our technology, we
      fabricate 10 * 10 cm2 solar modules by a fully printable industrial-scale
      process, delivering 11.2% efficiency stable for >10,000 h with zero loss in
      performances measured under controlled standard conditions. This innovative
      stable and low-cost architecture will enable the timely commercialization of
      perovskite solar cells.

PMID- 28569747
TI  - Tumour-associated macrophages secrete pleiotrophin to promote PTPRZ1 signalling
      in glioblastoma stem cells for tumour growth.
AB  - Intense infiltration of tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) facilitates
      malignant growth of glioblastoma (GBM), but the underlying mechanisms remain
      undefined. Herein, we report that TAMs secrete abundant pleiotrophin (PTN) to
      stimulate glioma stem cells (GSCs) through its receptor PTPRZ1 thus promoting GBM
      malignant growth through PTN-PTPRZ1 paracrine signalling. PTN expression
      correlates with infiltration of CD11b+/CD163+ TAMs and poor prognosis of GBM
      patients. Co-implantation of M2-like macrophages (MLCs) promoted GSC-driven
      tumour growth, but silencing PTN expression in MLCs mitigated their pro
      tumorigenic activity. The PTN receptor PTPRZ1 is preferentially expressed in GSCs
      and also predicts GBM poor prognosis. Disrupting PTPRZ1 abrogated GSC maintenance
      and tumorigenic potential. Moreover, blocking the PTN-PTPRZ1 signalling by shRNA
      or anti-PTPRZ1 antibody potently suppressed GBM tumour growth and prolonged
      animal survival. Our study uncovered a critical molecular crosstalk between TAMs
      and GSCs through the PTN-PTPRZ1 paracrine signalling to support GBM malignant
      growth, indicating that targeting this signalling axis may have therapeutic
      potential.

PMID- 28569748
TI  - The critical role of SENP1-mediated GATA2 deSUMOylation in promoting endothelial
      activation in graft arteriosclerosis.
AB  - Data from clinical research and our previous study have suggested the potential
      involvement of SENP1, the major protease of post-translational SUMOylation, in
      cardiovascular disorders. Here, we investigate the role of SENP1-mediated
      SUMOylation in graft arteriosclerosis (GA), the major cause of allograft failure.
      We observe an endothelial-specific induction of SENP1 and GATA2 in clinical graft
      rejection specimens that show endothelial activation-mediated vascular
      remodelling. In mouse aorta transplantation GA models, endothelial-specific SENP1
      knockout grafts demonstrate limited neointima formation with attenuated leukocyte
      recruitment, resulting from diminished induction of adhesion molecules in the
      graft endothelium due to increased GATA2 SUMOylation. Mechanistically,
      inflammation-induced SENP1 promotes the deSUMOylation of GATA2 and IkappaBalpha
      in endothelial cells, resulting in increased GATA2 stability, promoter-binding
      capability and NF-kappaB activity, which leads to augmented endothelial
      activation and inflammation. Therefore, upon inflammation, endothelial SENP1
      mediated SUMOylation drives GA by regulating the synergistic effect of GATA2 and
      NF-kappaB and consequent endothelial dysfunction.

PMID- 28569750
TI  - Evidence for a palaeo-subglacial lake on the Antarctic continental shelf.
AB  - Subglacial lakes are widespread beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet but their control
      on ice-sheet dynamics and their ability to harbour life remain poorly
      characterized. Here we present evidence for a palaeo-subglacial lake on the
      Antarctic continental shelf. A distinct sediment facies recovered from a bedrock
      basin in Pine Island Bay indicates deposition within a low-energy lake
      environment. Diffusive-advection modelling demonstrates that low chloride
      concentrations in the pore water of the corresponding sediments can only be
      explained by initial deposition of this facies in a freshwater setting. These
      observations indicate that an active subglacial meltwater network, similar to
      that observed beneath the extant ice sheet, was also active during the last
      glacial period. It also provides a new framework for refining the exploration of
      these unique environments.

PMID- 28569751
TI  - Simple and scalable growth of AgCl nanorods by plasma-assisted strain relaxation
      on flexible polymer substrates.
AB  - Implementing nanostructures on plastic film is indispensable for highly efficient
      flexible optoelectronic devices. However, due to the thermal and chemical
      fragility of plastic, nanostructuring approaches are limited to indirect transfer
      with low throughput. Here, we fabricate single-crystal AgCl nanorods by using a
      Cl2 plasma on Ag-coated polyimide. Cl radicals react with Ag to form AgCl
      nanorods. The AgCl is subjected to compressive strain at its interface with the
      Ag film because of the larger lattice constant of AgCl compared to Ag. To
      minimize strain energy, the AgCl nanorods grow in the [200] direction. The
      epitaxial relationship between AgCl (200) and Ag (111) induces a strain, which
      leads to a strain gradient at the periphery of AgCl nanorods. The gradient causes
      a strain-induced diffusion of Ag atoms to accelerate the nanorod growth. Nanorods
      grown for 45 s exhibit superior haze up to 100% and luminance of optical device
      increased by up to 33%.

PMID- 28569752
TI  - Direct and simultaneous observation of ultrafast electron and hole dynamics in
      germanium.
AB  - Understanding excited carrier dynamics in semiconductors is crucial for the
      development of photovoltaics and efficient photonic devices. However, overlapping
      spectral features in optical pump-probe spectroscopy often render assignments of
      separate electron and hole carrier dynamics ambiguous. Here, ultrafast electron
      and hole dynamics in germanium nanocrystalline thin films are directly and
      simultaneously observed by ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy in the
      extreme ultraviolet at the germanium M4,5 edge. We decompose the spectra into
      contributions of electronic state blocking and photo-induced band shifts at a
      carrier density of 8 * 1020 cm-3. Separate electron and hole relaxation times are
      observed as a function of hot carrier energies. A first-order electron and hole
      decay of ~1 ps suggests a Shockley-Read-Hall recombination mechanism. The
      simultaneous observation of electrons and holes with extreme ultraviolet
      transient absorption spectroscopy paves the way for investigating few- to sub
      femtosecond dynamics of both holes and electrons in complex semiconductor
      materials and across junctions.

PMID- 28569753
TI  - Ultrafast terahertz snapshots of excitonic Rydberg states and electronic
      coherence in an organometal halide perovskite.
AB  - How photoexcitations evolve into Coulomb-bound electron and hole pairs, called
      excitons, and unbound charge carriers is a key cross-cutting issue in
      photovoltaics and optoelectronics. Until now, the initial quantum dynamics
      following photoexcitation remains elusive in the hybrid perovskite system. Here
      we reveal excitonic Rydberg states with distinct formation pathways by observing
      the multiple resonant, internal quantum transitions using ultrafast terahertz
      quasi-particle transport. Nonequilibrium emergent states evolve with a complex co
      existence of excitons, carriers and phonons, where a delayed buildup of excitons
      under on- and off-resonant pumping conditions allows us to distinguish between
      the loss of electronic coherence and hot state cooling processes. The nearly ~1
      ps dephasing time, efficient electron scattering with discrete terahertz phonons
      and intermediate binding energy of ~13.5 meV in perovskites are distinct from
      conventional photovoltaic semiconductors. In addition to providing implications
      for coherent energy conversion, these are potentially relevant to the development
      of light-harvesting and electron-transport devices.

PMID- 28569754
TI  - Broad-spectrum kinetic resolution of alcohols enabled by Cu-H-catalysed
      dehydrogenative coupling with hydrosilanes.
AB  - The enantioselective silylation of racemic alcohols, where one enantiomer reacts
      faster than the other, is an alternative approach to established enzymatic and
      non-enzymatic acylation techniques. The existing art is either limited to
      structurally biased alcohols or requires elaborate catalysts. Simple substrates,
      such as benzylic and allylic alcohols, with no coordinating functionality in the
      proximity of the hydroxy group have been challenging in these kinetic
      resolutions. We report here the identification of a broadly applicable chiral
      catalyst for the enantioselective dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and
      hydrosilanes with both the chiral ligand and the hydrosilane being commercially
      available. The efficiency of kinetic resolutions is characterized by the
      selectivity factor, that is, the ratio of the reaction rates of the fast-reacting
      over the slow-reacting enantiomer. The selectivity factors achieved with the new
      method are good for acyclic benzylic alcohols (<=170) and high for synthetically
      usefully cyclic benzylic (<=40.1) and allylic alcohols (<=159).

PMID- 28569755
TI  - Myomerger induces fusion of non-fusogenic cells and is required for skeletal
      muscle development.
AB  - Despite the importance of cell fusion for mammalian development and physiology,
      the factors critical for this process remain to be fully defined, which has
      severely limited our ability to reconstitute cell fusion. Myomaker (Tmem8c) is a
      muscle-specific protein required for myoblast fusion. Expression of myomaker in
      fibroblasts drives their fusion with myoblasts, but not with other myomaker
      expressing fibroblasts, highlighting the requirement of additional myoblast
      derived factors for fusion. Here we show that Gm7325, which we name myomerger,
      induces the fusion of myomaker-expressing fibroblasts. Thus, myomaker and
      myomerger together confer fusogenic activity to otherwise non-fusogenic cells.
      Myomerger is skeletal muscle-specific and genetic deletion in mice results in a
      paucity of muscle fibres demonstrating its requirement for normal muscle
      formation. Myomerger deficient myocytes differentiate and harbour organized
      sarcomeres but are fusion-incompetent. Our findings identify myomerger as a
      fundamental myoblast fusion protein and establish a system that begins to
      reconstitute mammalian cell fusion.

PMID- 28569756
TI  - Neuronal population coding of perceived and memorized visual features in the
      lateral prefrontal cortex.
AB  - The primate lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) encodes visual stimulus features
      while they are perceived and while they are maintained in working memory.
      However, it remains unclear whether perceived and memorized features are encoded
      by the same or different neurons and population activity patterns. Here we record
      LPFC neuronal activity while monkeys perceive the motion direction of a stimulus
      that remains visually available, or memorize the direction if the stimulus
      disappears. We find neurons with a wide variety of combinations of coding
      strength for perceived and memorized directions: some neurons encode both to
      similar degrees while others preferentially or exclusively encode either one.
      Reading out the combined activity of all neurons, a machine-learning algorithm
      reliably decode the motion direction and determine whether it is perceived or
      memorized. Our results indicate that a functionally diverse population of LPFC
      neurons provides a substrate for discriminating between perceptual and mnemonic
      representations of visual features.

PMID- 28569757
TI  - Fetal and postnatal metal dysregulation in autism.
AB  - Genetic and environmental factors contribute to the etiologies of autism spectrum
      disorder (ASD), but evidence of specific environmental exposures and
      susceptibility windows is limited. Here we study monozygotic and dizygotic twins
      discordant for ASD to test whether fetal and postnatal metal dysregulation
      increases ASD risk. Using validated tooth-matrix biomarkers, we estimate pre- and
      post-natal exposure profiles of essential and toxic elements. Significant
      divergences are apparent in metal uptake between ASD cases and their control
      siblings, but only during discrete developmental periods. Cases have reduced
      uptake of essential elements manganese and zinc, and higher uptake of the
      neurotoxin lead. Manganese and lead are also correlated with ASD severity and
      autistic traits. Our study suggests that metal toxicant uptake and essential
      element deficiency during specific developmental windows increases ASD risk and
      severity, supporting the hypothesis of systemic elemental dysregulation in ASD.
      Independent replication in population-based studies is needed to extend these
      findings.

PMID- 28569758
TI  - Polymorphism in a high-entropy alloy.
AB  - Polymorphism, which describes the occurrence of different lattice structures in a
      crystalline material, is a critical phenomenon in materials science and condensed
      matter physics. Recently, configuration disorder was compositionally engineered
      into single lattices, leading to the discovery of high-entropy alloys and high
      entropy oxides. For these novel entropy-stabilized forms of crystalline matter
      with extremely high structural stability, is polymorphism still possible? Here by
      employing in situ high-pressure synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction, we
      reveal a polymorphic transition from face-centred-cubic (fcc) structure to
      hexagonal-close-packing (hcp) structure in the prototype CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy
      alloy. The transition is irreversible, and our in situ high-temperature
      synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction experiments at different pressures of the
      retained hcp high-entropy alloy reveal that the fcc phase is a stable polymorph
      at high temperatures, while the hcp structure is more thermodynamically
      favourable at lower temperatures. As pressure is increased, the critical
      temperature for the hcp-to-fcc transformation also rises.

PMID- 28569759
TI  - Biogenic non-crystalline U(IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore
      deposits.
AB  - Historically, it is believed that crystalline uraninite, produced via the abiotic
      reduction of hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is the dominant reduced U species formed
      in low-temperature uranium roll-front ore deposits. Here we show that non
      crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the
      predominant U(IV) species in an undisturbed U roll-front ore deposit in Wyoming,
      USA. Characterization of U species revealed that the majority (~58-89%) of U is
      bound as U(IV) to C-containing organic functional groups or inorganic carbonate,
      while uraninite and U(VI) represent only minor components. The uranium deposit
      exhibited mostly 238U-enriched isotope signatures, consistent with largely biotic
      reduction of U(VI) to U(IV). This finding implies that biogenic processes are
      more important to uranium ore genesis than previously understood. The
      predominance of a relatively labile form of U(IV) also provides an opportunity
      for a more economical and environmentally benign mining process, as well as the
      design of more effective post-mining restoration strategies and human health-risk
      assessment.

PMID- 28569761
TI  - Chemically induced mouse models of acute and chronic intestinal inflammation.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) result in diarrhea and abdominal pain with
      further potential complications such as tissue fibrosis and stenosis. Animal
      models help in understanding the immunopathogenesis of IBDs and in the design of
      novel therapeutic concepts. Here we present an updated version of a protocol we
      published in 2007 for key models of acute and chronic forms of colitis induced by
      2,4,6-trinitro-benzene sulfonic acid (TNBS), oxazolone and dextran sulfate sodium
      (DSS). This protocol update describes an adaptation of the existing protocol that
      modifies the technique. This protocol has been used to generate improved mouse
      models that better reflect the nature of IBDs in humans. In TNBS and oxazolone
      colitis models, topical administration of hapten reagents results in T-cell
      mediated immunity against haptenized proteins and luminal antigens. By contrast,
      to generate DSS colitis models, mice orally receive DSS, causing death of
      epithelial cells, compromising barrier function and causing subsequent
      inflammation. The analysis of the acute colitis models can be performed within 1
      2 weeks, whereas that of the chronic models may take 2-4 months. The strengths of
      the acute models are that they are based on the analysis of short-lasting barrier
      alterations, innate immune effects and flares. The advantages of the chronic
      models are that they may offer better insight into adaptive immunity and
      complications such as neoplasia and tissue fibrosis. The protocol requires basic
      skills in laboratory animal research.

PMID- 28569760
TI  - Strength of Neisseria meningitidis binding to endothelial cells requires highly
      ordered CD147/beta2-adrenoceptor clusters assembled by alpha-actinin-4.
AB  - Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) is an invasive bacterial pathogen that
      colonizes human vessels, causing thrombotic lesions and meningitis. Establishment
      of tight interactions with endothelial cells is crucial for meningococci to
      resist haemodynamic forces. Two endothelial receptors, CD147 and the beta2
      adrenergic receptor (beta2AR), are sequentially engaged by meningococci to adhere
      and promote signalling events leading to vascular colonization, but their
      spatiotemporal coordination is unknown. Here we report that CD147 and beta2AR
      form constitutive hetero-oligomeric complexes. The scaffolding protein alpha
      actinin-4 directly binds to the cytosolic tail of CD147 and governs the assembly
      of CD147-beta2AR complexes in highly ordered clusters at bacterial adhesion
      sites. This multimolecular assembly process increases the binding strength of
      meningococci to endothelial cells under shear stress, and creates molecular
      platforms for the elongation of membrane protrusions surrounding adherent
      bacteria. Thus, the specific organization of cellular receptors has major impacts
      on host-pathogen interaction.

PMID- 28569764
TI  - The sands of time run faster near the end.
AB  - Grains exiting an underwater silo exhibit an unexpected surge in discharge rate
      as they empty. This contrasts with the constant flow rate of dry granular hoppers
      and the decreasing flow rate of pure liquids. Here we find that this surge
      depends on hopper diameter and happens also in air. The surge can be turned off
      by fixing the rate of fluid flow through the granular packing. With no flow
      control, dye injected on top of the packing gets drawn into the grains. We
      conclude that the surge is caused by a self-generated pumping of fluid through
      the packing. The effect is modelled via a driving pressure set by the exit speed
      of the grains. This highlights a surprising and unrecognized role that
      interstitial fluid plays in setting the discharge rate, and perhaps in
      controlling clog formation, for granular hoppers whether in air or under water.

PMID- 28569763
TI  - Integrating macromolecular X-ray diffraction data with the graphical user
      interface iMosflm.
AB  - X-ray crystallography is the predominant source of structural information for
      biological macromolecules, providing fundamental insights into biological
      function. The availability of robust and user-friendly software to process the
      collected X-ray diffraction images makes the technique accessible to a wider
      range of scientists. iMosflm/MOSFLM (http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/harry/imosflm)
      is a software package designed to achieve this goal. The graphical user interface
      (GUI) version of MOSFLM (called iMosflm) is designed to guide inexperienced users
      through the steps of data integration, while retaining powerful features for more
      experienced users. Images from almost all commercially available X-ray detectors
      can be handled using this software. Although the program uses only 2D profile
      fitting, it can readily integrate data collected in the 'fine phi-slicing' mode
      (in which the rotation angle per image is less than the crystal mosaic spread by
      a factor of at least 2), which is commonly used with modern very fast readout
      detectors. The GUI provides real-time feedback on the success of the indexing
      step and the progress of data processing. This feedback includes the ability to
      monitor detector and crystal parameter refinement and to display the average spot
      shape in different regions of the detector. Data scaling and merging tasks can be
      initiated directly from the interface. Using this protocol, a data set of 360
      images with ~2,000 reflections per image can be processed in ~4 min.

PMID- 28569762
TI  - Quantitative proteomics: challenges and opportunities in basic and applied
      research.
AB  - In this Perspective, we discuss developments in mass-spectrometry-based proteomic
      technology over the past decade from the viewpoint of our laboratory. We also
      reflect on existing challenges and limitations, and explore the current and
      future roles of quantitative proteomics in molecular systems biology, clinical
      research and personalized medicine.

PMID- 28569765
TI  - Corrigendum: Small genomic insertions form enhancers that misregulate oncogenes.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14385.

PMID- 28569766
TI  - Experimental discrimination of ion stopping models near the Bragg peak in highly
      ionized matter.
AB  - The energy deposition of ions in dense plasmas is a key process in inertial
      confinement fusion that determines the alpha-particle heating expected to trigger
      a burn wave in the hydrogen pellet and resulting in high thermonuclear gain.
      However, measurements of ion stopping in plasmas are scarce and mostly restricted
      to high ion velocities where theory agrees with the data. Here, we report
      experimental data at low projectile velocities near the Bragg peak, where the
      stopping force reaches its maximum. This parameter range features the largest
      theoretical uncertainties and conclusive data are missing until today. The
      precision of our measurements, combined with a reliable knowledge of the plasma
      parameters, allows to disprove several standard models for the stopping power for
      beam velocities typically encountered in inertial fusion. On the other hand, our
      data support theories that include a detailed treatment of strong ion-electron
      collisions.

PMID- 28569767
TI  - Large spin accumulation and crystallographic dependence of spin transport in
      single crystal gallium nitride nanowires.
AB  - Semiconductor spintronics is an alternative to conventional electronics that
      offers devices with high performance, low power and multiple functionality.
      Although a large number of devices with mesoscopic dimensions have been
      successfully demonstrated at low temperatures for decades, room-temperature
      operation still needs to go further. Here we study spin injection in single
      crystal gallium nitride nanowires and report robust spin accumulation at room
      temperature with enhanced spin injection polarization of 9%. A large Overhauser
      coupling between the electron spin accumulation and the lattice nuclei is
      observed. Finally, our single-crystal gallium nitride samples have a trigonal
      cross-section defined by the (001), () and () planes. Using the Hanle effect, we
      show that the spin accumulation is significantly different for injection across
      the (001) and () (or ()) planes. This provides a technique for increasing room
      temperature spin injection in mesoscopic systems.

PMID- 28569768
TI  - Cancer nanobiotechnolgy.

PMID- 28569769
TI  - Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth's atmosphere using
      cosmic spherules.
AB  - Molten I-type cosmic spherules formed by heating, oxidation and melting of
      extraterrestrial Fe,Ni metal alloys. The entire oxygen in these spherules sources
      from the atmosphere. Therefore, I-type cosmic spherules are suitable tracers for
      the isotopic composition of the upper atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 115
      km. Here we present data on I-type cosmic spherules collected in Antarctica.
      Their composition is compared with the composition of tropospheric O2. Our data
      suggest that the Earth's atmospheric O2 is isotopically homogenous up to the
      thermosphere. This makes fossil I-type micrometeorites ideal proxies for ancient
      atmospheric CO2 levels.

PMID- 28569770
TI  - Interferon-gamma derived from cytotoxic lymphocytes directly enhances their
      motility and cytotoxicity.
AB  - Interferon gamma (IFNgamma) is a key moderator of cell-mediated immunity with
      diverse, mainly pro-inflammatory actions on immunocytes and target tissue. Recent
      studies have shown it may enhance anti-tumor and antiviral effects of CD8 T
      cells. Here we investigate the mechanisms by which IFNgamma mediates CD8 T-cell
      cytotoxic function. We show that in vivo, antigen-specific CD8 T cells that
      produce INFgamma are necessary to effect rejection of skin grafts expressing OVA
      as a transgene in keratinocytes. The ability of CD8 T cells to produce IFNgamma
      enhanced their ability to migrate to the site of antigen-presenting skin cells.
      By in vivo imaging, we show that CTL motility, particularly speed, during graft
      rejection was enhanced by locally available IFNgamma. We then used a reductionist
      two-cell model of CTL effectors and keratinocyte targets to investigate the
      effects of locally available (paracrine) and CTL-producing (autocrine) IFNgamma
      on the motility behavior and killing ability of the CTL. Using live-cell imaging
      by prolonged time-lapse microscopy of primary effector CD8 T cells and antigen
      expressing primary keratinocyte targets, we show that CD8 T-cell cytotoxic
      function and motility is enhanced by locally available IFNgamma. Conversely,
      deprivation of either autocrine or paracrine IFNgamma, or blockade of IFNgamma
      signaling to CTL markedly reduced their cytotoxic function, their kinematics, and
      effector cell survival. We conclude that in vitro and in vivo, autocrine
      production of IFNgamma by CTL enhances their motility and promotes killing of
      primary target keratinocytes. The absolute need for local IFNgamma to enable
      cytotoxic CD8 T-cell function is of significance for immunotherapy for chronic
      viral infection and for cancer.

PMID- 28569771
TI  - MiR-125b regulates proliferation and apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma by
      targeting A20/NF-kappaB signaling pathway.
AB  - MiR-125b is aberrantly expressed and has a role in the various types of tumors.
      However, the role and mechanism of miR-125b in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are
      unclear. In this study, we investigated the role and mechanism of miR-125b in
      NPC. We observed that miR-125b was significantly upregulated in the NPC tissues
      relative to normal nasopharyngeal mucosa (NNM), and its increment was correlated
      with poor patient survival, and was an independent predictor for reduced patient
      survival; miR-125b promoted NPC cell proliferation and inhibited NPC cell
      apoptosis; in a mouse model, administration of miR-125b antagomir significantly
      reduced the growth of NPC xenograft tumors. Mechanistically, we confirmed that
      A20 was a direct target of miR-125b, and found that activation of nuclear factor
      kappaB (NF-kappaB) signaling pathway by A20 mediated miR-125b-promoting NPC cell
      proliferation and -inhibiting NPC cell apoptosis. With a combination of loss-of
      function and gain-of-function approaches, we further showed that A20 inhibited
      NPC cell proliferation, induced NPC cell apoptosis, and reduced the growth of NPC
      xenograft tumors. Moreover, A20 was significantly downregulated, whereas p
      p65(RelA) was significantly upregulated in the NPC tissues relative to normal
      nasopharyngeal mucosa, and miR-125b level was negatively associated with A20
      level, whereas positively associated with p-p65 level. Our data demonstrate that
      miR-125b regulates NPC cell proliferation and apoptosis by targeting A20/NF
      kappaB signaling pathway, and miR-125b acts as oncogene, whereas A20 functions as
      tumor suppressor in NPC, highlighting the therapeutic potential of miR
      125b/A20/NF-kappaB signaling axis in the NPC.

PMID- 28569772
TI  - Deficiency of pigment epithelium-derived factor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells
      triggers the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis.
AB  - Distant metastasis is the primary cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)
      treatment failure while epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the critical
      process of NPC invasion and metastasis. However, tumor-suppressor genes involved
      in the EMT and metastasis of NPC have not been explored clearly compared with the
      oncogenes. In the present study, the expression of pigment epithelium-derived
      factor (PEDF), a potent endogenous antitumor factor, was diminished in human NPC
      tissues and associated with clinicopathological and EMT features. The knockdown
      of PEDF induced EMT in lower metastatic NPC cell lines and overexpression of PEDF
      restored epithelial phenotype in higher metastatic NPC cell lines with typical
      EMT. The inhibition of PEDF mediated NPC cell spontaneous metastasis in vivo.
      LRP6/GSK3beta/beta-catenin signal pathway rather than AKT/GSK3beta pathway was
      involved in the effects of PEDF on EMT. The expression of PEDF was directly
      downregulated by elevated miR-320c in NPC. In conclusion, our findings indicate
      for the first time that PEDF functions as tumor-suppressor gene in the occurrence
      of EMT and metastasis in NPC. PEDF could serve as a promising candidate for NPC
      diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

PMID- 28569773
TI  - In vitro expansion impaired the stemness of early passage mesenchymal stem cells
      for treatment of cartilage defects.
AB  - In vitro cultured autologous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) within passage 5 have
      been approved for clinical application in stem cell-based treatment of cartilage
      defects. However, their chondrogenic potential has not yet been questioned or
      verified. In this study, the chondrogenic potential of bone marrow MSCs at
      passage 3 (P3 BMSCs) was investigated both in cartilage repair and in vitro, with
      freshly isolated bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) as controls. The results
      showed that P3 BMSCs were inferior to BMMNCs not only in their chondrogenic
      differentiation ability but also as candidates for long-term repair of cartilage
      defects. Compared with BMMNCs, P3 BMSCs presented a decay in telomerase activity
      and a change in chromosomal morphology with potential anomalous karyotypes,
      indicating senescence. In addition, interindividual variability in P3 BMSCs is
      much higher than in BMMNCs, demonstrating genomic instability. Interestingly,
      remarkable downregulation in cell cycle, DNA replication and mismatch repair
      (MMR) pathways as well as in multiple genes associated with telomerase activity
      and chromosomal stability were found in P3 BMSCs. This result indicates that
      telomerase and chromosome anomalies might originate from expansion, leading to
      impaired stemness and pluripotency of stem cells. In vitro culture and expansion
      are not recommended for cell-based therapy, and fresh BMMNCs are the first
      choice.

PMID- 28569775
TI  - Promoting tumorigenesis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, NEDD8 serves as a potential
      theranostic target.
AB  - Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), is one of the most common human malignancies in
      south China, it has the highest recurrence rate and treatment resistance. The
      underlying molecular mechanisms of NPC relapse and treatment tolerance are not
      fully understood. In this study, the effects of NEDD8 and NEDD8-activating enzyme
      inhibitor (MLN4924) on NPC were studied both in vitro and in vivo.
      Immunohistochemical staining of 197 NPC tissues revealed an elevated NEDD8
      expression as an unfavorable independent factor in overall survival and disease
      free survival rates. NEDD8 expression was positively correlated with a high risk
      of death and positivity of lymph node metastasis. Depleted NEDD8 expression by
      shRNA and inhibited by specific inhibitor MLN4924 dramatically suppressed cell
      proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, while ectopic NEDD8 exhibited
      opposing effects. NEDD8 affected cancer stem cell phenotypes of NPC as assessed
      in vitro using the cell number of side population (SP) by flow cytometry
      analysis, colony formation assay, sphere formation assay, and tumor initiation
      ability in vivo. Downregulation of NEDD8 enhanced the susceptibility of NPC cells
      to cisplatin and radiation. Moreover, we found that MLN4924 suppressed c-Jun
      degradation in human NPC cells. Taken together, this report revealed that NEDD8
      may act as a novel prognostic marker and MLN4924 may serve as a promising
      therapeutic target for patients with NPC.

PMID- 28569774
TI  - RGD-modified oncolytic adenovirus-harboring shPKM2 exhibits a potent cytotoxic
      effect in pancreatic cancer via autophagy inhibition and apoptosis promotion.
AB  - The M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) is a key driver of glycolysis in cancer
      cells and has critical 'non-metabolic' functions in some cancers; however, the
      role of PKM2 in pancreatic cancer remains unclear. The aim of the current study
      was to elucidate the role of PKM2 in pancreatic cancer progression and the
      potential of PKM2 as a therapeutic target. In this study, we observed that PKM2
      is highly expressed in patients with pancreatic cancer and is correlated to
      survival. Elevated PKM2 expression promoted cell proliferation, migration and
      tumor formation. The inhibition of cell growth by silencing PKM2 is caused by
      impairment of the autophagy process. To test the potential effects of
      downregulating PKM2 as a clinical therapy, we constructed an RGD-modified
      oncolytic adenovirus containing shPKM2 (OAd.R.shPKM2) to knock down PKM2 in
      pancreatic cancer cells. Cells transduced with OAd.R.shPKM2 exhibited decreased
      cell viability, and, in a PANC-1 xenograft model, intratumoral injection of
      OAd.R.shPKM2 resulted in reduced tumor growth. Furthermore, OAd.R.shPKM2 induced
      apoptosis and impaired autophagy in PANC-1 cells. Our results suggested that
      targeting PKM2 with an oncolytic adenovirus produced a strong antitumor effect,
      and that this strategy could broaden the therapeutic options for treating
      pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28569776
TI  - HIV integrase inhibitor, Elvitegravir, impairs RAG functions and inhibits V(D)J
      recombination.
AB  - Integrase inhibitors are a class of antiretroviral drugs used for the treatment
      of AIDS that target HIV integrase, an enzyme responsible for integration of viral
      cDNA into host genome. RAG1, a critical enzyme involved in V(D)J recombination
      exhibits structural similarity to HIV integrase. We find that two integrase
      inhibitors, Raltegravir and Elvitegravir, interfered with the physiological
      functions of RAGs such as binding, cleavage and hairpin formation at the
      recombination signal sequence (RSS), though the effect of Raltegravir was
      limited. Circular dichroism studies demonstrated a distinct change in the
      secondary structure of RAG1 central domain (RAG1 shares DDE motif amino acids
      with integrases), and when incubated with Elvitegravir, an equilibrium
      dissociation constant (Kd) of 32.53+/-2.9 MUM was determined by Biolayer
      interferometry, leading to inhibition of its binding to DNA. Besides, using
      extrachromosomal assays, we show that Elvitegravir inhibited both coding and
      signal joint formation in pre-B cells. Importantly, treatment with Elvitegravir
      resulted in significant reduction of mature B lymphocytes in 70% of mice studied.
      Thus, our study suggests a potential risk associated with the use of Elvitegravir
      as an antiretroviral drug, considering the evolutionary and structural
      similarities between HIV integrase and RAGs.

PMID- 28569777
TI  - The novel hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha inhibitor IDF-11774 regulates cancer
      metabolism, thereby suppressing tumor growth.
AB  - HIF-1 is associated with poor prognoses and therapeutic resistance in cancer
      patients. We previously developed a novel hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1
      inhibitor, IDF-11774, a clinical candidate for cancer therapy. We also reported
      that IDF-1174 inhibited HSP70 chaperone activity and suppressed accumulation of
      HIF-1alpha. In this study, IDF-11774 inhibited the accumulation of HIF-1alpha in
      vitro and in vivo in colorectal carcinoma HCT116 cells under hypoxic conditions.
      Moreover, IDF-11774 treatment suppressed angiogenesis of cancer cells by reducing
      the expression of HIF-1 target genes, reduced glucose uptake, thereby sensitizing
      cells to growth under low glucose conditions, and decreased the extracellular
      acidification rate (ECAR) and oxygen consumption rate of cancer cells. Metabolic
      profiling of IDF-11774-treated cells revealed low levels of NAD+, NADP+, and
      lactate, as well as of intermediates in glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid
      cycle. In addition, we observed elevated AMP and diminished ATP levels, resulting
      in a high AMP/ATP ratio. The level of AMP-activated protein kinase
      phosphorylation also increased, leading to inhibition of mTOR signaling in
      treated cells. In vivo xenograft assays demonstrated that IDF-11774 exhibited
      substantial anticancer efficacy in mouse models containing KRAS, PTEN, or VHL
      mutations, which often occur in malignant cancers. Collectively, our data
      indicate that IDF-11774 suppressed hypoxia-induced HIF-1alpha accumulation and
      repressed tumor growth by targeting energy production-related cancer metabolism.

PMID- 28569780
TI  - MicroRNA-195 prevents dendritic degeneration and neuron death in rats following
      chronic brain hypoperfusion.
AB  - Impaired synaptic plasticity and neuron loss are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease
      and vascular dementia. Here, we found that chronic brain hypoperfusion (CBH) by
      bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2VO) decreased the total length,
      numbers and crossings of dendrites and caused neuron death in rat hippocampi and
      cortices. It also led to increase in N-terminal beta-amyloid precursor protein (N
      APP) and death receptor-6 (DR6) protein levels and in the activation of caspase-3
      and caspase-6. Further study showed that DR6 protein was downregulated by miR-195
      overexpression, upregulated by miR-195 inhibition, and unchanged by binding-site
      mutation and miR-masks. Knockdown of endogenous miR-195 by lentiviral vector
      mediated overexpression of its antisense molecule (lenti-pre-AMO-miR-195)
      decreased the total length, numbers and crossings of dendrites and neuron death,
      upregulated N-APP and DR6 levels, and elevated cleaved caspase-3 and caspase-6
      levels. Overexpression of miR-195 using lenti-pre-miR-195 prevented these changes
      triggered by 2VO. We conclude that miR-195 is involved in CBH-induced dendritic
      degeneration and neuron death through activation of the N-APP/DR6/caspase
      pathway.

PMID- 28569778
TI  - Single-cell time-lapse imaging of intracellular O2 in response to metabolic
      inhibition and mitochondrial cytochrome-c release.
AB  - The detection of intracellular molecular oxygen (O2) levels is important for
      understanding cell physiology, cell death, and drug effects, and has recently
      been improved with the development of oxygen-sensitive probes that are compatible
      with live cell time-lapse microscopy. We here provide a protocol for the use of
      the nanoparticle probe MitoImage-MM2 to monitor intracellular oxygen levels by
      confocal microscopy under baseline conditions, in response to mitochondrial
      toxins, and following mitochondrial cytochrome-c release. We demonstrate that the
      MitoImage-MM2 probe, which embeds Pt(II)-5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(2,3,4,5,6
      pentafluorophenyl)-porphyrin as oxygen sensor and poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) as an
      O2-independent component, enables quantitative, ratiometric time-lapse imaging of
      intracellular O2. Multiplexing with tetra-methyl-rhodamine-methyl ester in HeLa
      cervical cancer cells showed significant increases in intracellular O2
      accompanied by strong mitochondrial depolarization when respiratory chain
      complexes III or IV were inhibited by Antimycin A or sodium azide, respectively,
      and when cells were maintained at 'physiological' tissue O2 levels (5% O2).
      Multiplexing also allowed us to monitor intracellular O2 during the apoptotic
      signaling process of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization in HeLa
      expressing cytochrome-c-eGFP, and demonstrated that mitochondria post cytochrome
      c release are able to retain their capacity to respire at physiological O2
      despite a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential.

PMID- 28569779
TI  - Long noncoding RNA UCA1 induced by SP1 promotes cell proliferation via recruiting
      EZH2 and activating AKT pathway in gastric cancer.
AB  - Long noncoding RNA UCA1 has emerged as a novel regulator in cancer initiation and
      progression of various cancers. However, function and underlying mechanism of
      UCA1 in the progression of gastric cancer (GC) remain unclear. In the present
      study, we report that UCA1 expressed highly in GC tissues and GC cells, which was
      partly induced by SP1. UCA1 promoted GC cell proliferation and G1/S transition in
      vitro and in vivo. Moreover, UCA1 exerted its function through interacting with
      EZH2, promoting direct interaction with cyclin D1 promoter to activate the
      translation of cyclin D1. Furthermore, AKT/GSK-3B/cyclin D1 axis was activated to
      upregulate cyclin D1 due to overexpression of UCA1. In addition, EZH2 and
      phosphorylated AKT induced by UCA1 could impact each other to form a positive
      feedback to promote cyclin D1 expression. This study demonstrated that UCA1 as a
      critical regulator involved in GC proliferation and cell cycle progression by
      promoting cyclin D1 expression, which indicates that it may be clinically a
      potential therapeutic target in GC.

PMID- 28569782
TI  - The putative tumor suppressor microRNA-30a-5p modulates clear cell renal cell
      carcinoma aggressiveness through repression of ZEB2.
AB  - Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common subtype of renal cell
      carcinoma, can easily invade local tissues and metastasize, and is resistant to
      currently available treatments. Recent studies profiling microRNA expression in
      ccRCC have suggested miR-30a-5p may be deregulated in these cancer cells. To
      determine its role and mechanism of action in ccRCC, miR-30-5p expression levels
      were quantified and functions were analyzed using in vitro and in vivo
      experiments and bioinformatics. A decrease in miR-30a-5p expression was
      frequently noted in ccRCC cells and tissues. Importantly, low miR-30a-5p levels
      were significantly associated with a poor ccRCC patient prognosis. Stable
      overexpression of miR-30a-5p in 769-P cells was sufficient to prevent cellular
      proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Upon further examination, it was
      found that miR-30a-5p directly targeted the 3'-UTR of ZEB2 and suppressed ccRCC
      cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In addition, miR-30a-5p may be
      downregulated by the long non-coding RNA DLEU2. Taken together, these data reveal
      an important role for miR-30a-5p in the regulation of ccRCC proliferation and
      invasion, and indicate the potential for miR-30a-5p in applications furthering
      ccRCC prognostics and therapeutics.

PMID- 28569783
TI  - Damage-induced neuronal endopeptidase (DINE) enhances axonal regeneration
      potential of retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve injury.
AB  - Damage-induced neuronal endopeptidase (DINE)/endothelin-converting enzyme-like 1
      (ECEL1) is a membrane-bound metalloprotease that we identified as a nerve
      regeneration-associated molecule. The expression of DINE is upregulated in
      response to nerve injury in both the peripheral and central nervous systems,
      while its transcription is regulated by the activating transcription factor 3
      (ATF3), a potent hub-transcription factor for nerve regeneration. Despite its
      unique hallmark of injury-induced upregulation, the physiological relevance of
      DINE in injured neurons has been unclear. In this study, we have demonstrated
      that the expression of DINE is upregulated in injured retinal ganglion cells
      (RGCs) in a coordinated manner with that of ATF3 after optic nerve injury,
      whereas DINE and ATF3 are not observed in any normal retinal cells. Recently, we
      have generated a mature DINE-deficient (KOTg) mouse, in which exogenous DINE is
      overexpressed specifically in embryonic motor neurons to avoid aberrant
      arborization of motor nerves and lethality after birth that occurs in the
      conventional DINE KO mouse. The DINE KOTg mice did not show any difference in
      retinal structure and the projection to brain from that of wild-type (wild type)
      mice under normal conditions. However, injured RGCs of DINE KOTg mice failed to
      regenerate even after the zymosan treatment, which is a well-known regeneration
      promoting reagent. Furthermore, a DINE KOTg mouse crossed with a Atf3:BAC Tg
      mouse, in which green fluorescent protein (GFP) is visualized specifically in
      injured RGCs and optic nerves, has verified that DINE deficiency leads to
      regeneration failure. These findings suggest that injury-induced DINE is a
      crucial endopeptidase for injured RGCs to promote axonal regeneration after optic
      nerve injury. Thus, a DINE-mediated proteolytic mechanism would provide us with a
      new therapeutic strategy for nerve regeneration.

PMID- 28569781
TI  - Mitochondrial AKAP1 supports mTOR pathway and tumor growth.
AB  - Mitochondria are the powerhouses of energy production and the sites where
      metabolic pathway and survival signals integrate and focus, promoting adaptive
      responses to hormone stimulation and nutrient availability. Increasing evidence
      suggests that mitochondrial bioenergetics, metabolism and signaling are linked to
      tumorigenesis. AKAP1 scaffolding protein integrates cAMP and src signaling on
      mitochondria, regulating organelle biogenesis, oxidative metabolism and cell
      survival. Here, we provide evidence that AKAP1 is a transcriptional target of Myc
      and supports the growth of cancer cells. We identify Sestrin2, a leucine sensor
      and inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), as a novel component
      of the complex assembled by AKAP1 on mitochondria. Downregulation of AKAP1
      impaired mTOR pathway and inhibited glioblastoma growth. Both effects were
      reversed by concomitant depletion of AKAP1 and sestrin2. High levels of AKAP1
      were found in a wide variety of high-grade cancer tissues. In lung cancer, AKAP1
      expression correlates with high levels of Myc, mTOR phosphorylation and reduced
      patient survival. Collectively, these data disclose a previously unrecognized
      role of AKAP1 in mTOR pathway regulation and cancer growth. AKAP1/mTOR signal
      integration on mitochondria may provide a new target for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28569784
TI  - Histone deacetylase 3 overexpression in human cholangiocarcinoma and promotion of
      cell growth via apoptosis inhibition.
AB  - Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) has an oncogenic role in apoptosis and contributes
      to the proliferation of cancer cells. MI192 is a novel HDAC3-specific inhibitor
      that displays antitumor activity in many cancer cell lines. However, the role of
      HDAC3 and the antitumor activity of its inhibitor MI192 are not known in
      cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). The present study aims to identify the target of MI192
      in CCA as well as evaluate its therapeutic efficacy. CCK8 and colony formation
      assays showed that HDAC3 overexpression promotes proliferation in CCA cell lines.
      HDAC3 knockdown or treatment with MI192 decreased CCA cell growth and increased
      caspase-dependent apoptosis, while apoptosis was partially rescued by HDAC3
      overexpression. We demonstrated that MI192 can inhibit the deacetylation activity
      of HDAC3 and its downstream targets in vitro, and MI192 inhibited xenograft tumor
      growth in vivo. Immunochemistry showed that HDAC3 was upregulated in CCA tissues
      compared with adjacent normal tissues, and this was correlated with reduced
      patient survival. Taken together, these results demonstrate for the first time
      that MI192 targets HDAC3 and induces apoptosis in human CCA cells. MI192
      therefore shows the potential as a new drug candidate for CCA therapy.

PMID- 28569785
TI  - Cytoprotective effect of neuropeptides on cancer stem cells: vasoactive
      intestinal peptide-induced antiapoptotic signaling.
AB  - Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are increasingly considered to be responsible for tumor
      initiation, metastasis and drug resistance. The drug resistance mechanisms
      activated in CSCs have not been thoroughly investigated. Although neuropeptides
      such as vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) can promote tumor growth and activate
      antiapoptotic signaling in differentiated cancer cells, it is not known whether
      they can activate antiapoptotic mechanisms in CSCs. The objectives of this study
      are to unravel the cytoprotective effects of neuropeptides and identify
      antiapoptotic mechanisms activated by neuropeptides in response to anticancer
      drug treatment in CSCs. We enriched and purified CSCs (CD44+/high/CD24-/low or
      CD133+ population) from breast and prostate cancer cell lines, and demonstrated
      their stemness phenotype. Of the several neuropeptides tested, only VIP could
      protect CSCs from drug-induced apoptosis. A functional correlation was found
      between drug-induced apoptosis and dephosphorylation of proapoptotic Bcl2 family
      protein BAD. Similarly, VIP-induced cytoprotection correlated with BAD
      phosphorylation at Ser112 in CSCs. Using pharmacological inhibitors and dominant
      negative proteins, we showed that VIP-induced cytoprotection and BAD
      phosphorylation are mediated via both Ras/MAPK and PKA pathways in CSCs of
      prostate cancer LNCaP and C4-2 cells, but only PKA signaling was involved in CSCs
      of DUVIPR (DU145 prostate cancer cells ectopically expressing VIP receptor) and
      breast cancer MCF7 cells. As each of these pathways partially control BAD
      phosphorylation at Ser112, both have to be inhibited to block the cytoprotective
      effects of VIP. Furthermore, VIP is unable to protect CSCs that express
      phosphorylation-deficient mutant-BAD, suggesting that BAD phosphorylation is
      essential. Thus, antiapoptotic signaling by VIP could be one of the drug
      resistance mechanisms by which CSCs escape from anticancer therapies. Our
      findings suggest the potential usefulness of VIP receptor inhibition to eliminate
      CSCs, and that targeting BAD might be an attractive strategy for development of
      novel therapeutics.

PMID- 28569786
TI  - Brg1-mediated Nrf2/HO-1 pathway activation alleviates hepatic ischemia
      reperfusion injury.
AB  - Cytoprotective gene heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) could be induced by nuclear factor E2
      related factor 2 (Nrf2) nuclear translocation. The purpose of this study was to
      determine the role of Brahma-related gene 1 (Brg1), a catalytic subunit of
      SWI2/SNF2-like chromatin remodeling complexes, in Nrf2/HO-1 pathway activation
      during hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (HIR). Our results showed that hepatic Brg1
      was inhibited during early HIR while Brg1 overexpression reduced oxidative injury
      in CMV-Brg1 mice subjected to HIR. Moreover, promoter-driven luciferase assay
      showed that overexpression of Brg1 by adenovirus transfection in AML12 cells
      selectively enhanced HO-1 gene expression after hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)
      treatment but did not affect the other Nrf2 target gene NQO1. Furthermore,
      inhibition of HO-1 by the selective HO-1 inhibitor zinc protoporphyria could
      partly reverse the hepatic protective effects of Brg1 overexpression while HO-1
      Adv attenuated AML12 cells H/R damage. Further, chromatin immunoprecipitation
      analysis revealed that Brg1 overexpression, which could significantly increase
      the recruitment of Brg1 protein to HO-1 but not NQO1 promoter, was recruited by
      Nrf2 to the HO-1 regulatory regions in AML12 hepatocytes subjected to H/R. In
      conclusion, our results demonstrated that restoration of Brg1 during reperfusion
      could enhance Nrf2-mediated inducible expression of HO-1 during HIR to
      effectively increase antioxidant ability to combat against hepatocytes damage.

PMID- 28569788
TI  - Disease-linked connexin26 S17F promotes volar skin abnormalities and mild wound
      healing defects in mice.
AB  - Several mutant mice have been generated to model connexin (Cx)-linked skin
      diseases; however, the role of connexins in skin maintenance and during wound
      healing remains to be fully elucidated. Here we generated a novel, viable, and
      fertile mouse (Cx26CK14-S17F/+) with the keratitis-ichthyosis-deafness mutant
      (Cx26S17F) driven by the cytokeratin 14 promoter. This mutant mouse mirrors
      several Cx26-linked human skin pathologies suggesting that the etiology of Cx26
      linked skin disease indeed stems from epidermal expression of the Cx26 mutant.
      Cx26CK14-S17F/+ foot pad epidermis formed severe palmoplantar keratoderma, which
      expressed elevated levels of Cx26 and filaggrin. Primary keratinocytes isolated
      from Cx26CK14-S17F/+ neonates exhibited reduced gap junctional intercellular
      communication and migration. Furthermore, Cx26CK14-S17F/+ mouse skin wound
      closure was normal but repaired epidermis appeared hyperplastic with elevated
      expression of cytokeratin 6. Taken together, we suggest that the Cx26S17F mutant
      disturbs keratinocyte differentiation and epidermal remodeling following wound
      closure. We further posit that Cx26 contributes to epidermal homeostasis by
      regulating keratinocyte differentiation, and that mice harboring a disease-linked
      Cx26 mutant display epidermal abnormalities yet retain most wound healing
      properties.

PMID- 28569787
TI  - Inflammatory mediator ultra-low-molecular-weight hyaluronan triggers necrosis of
      B-precursor leukemia cells with high surface CD44 expression.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene
      rearrangements (MLL+ALL) has a dismal prognosis and is characterized by high
      surface CD44 expression. Known that CD44 has the specific binding sites for a
      natural ligand hyaluronan (HA), we investigated biological effects of HA with
      different molecular sizes on MLL+ALL cell lines, and found that the addition of
      ultra-low-molecular-weight (ULMW)-HA strongly suppressed their thymidine uptakes.
      The MLL+ALL cell line lacking surface CD44 expression established by genome
      editing showed no suppression of thymidine uptake. Surface CD44-high B-precursor
      ALL cell lines other than MLL+, but not T-ALL cell lines, were also suppressed in
      their thymidine uptakes. The inhibition of thymidine uptakes was because of
      induction of cell death, but dead cells lacked features of apoptosis on cytospin
      smears and flow cytometric analysis. The cell death was neither blocked by pan
      caspase inhibitor nor autophagy inhibitor, but was completely blocked by necrosis
      inhibitor necrostatin-1. Necrotic cell death was further supported by a marked
      release of a high-mobility protein group B1 and morphological changes on
      transmission electron microscopy. Elevation of intracellular reactive oxygen
      species production suggested a role for inducing this necrotic cell death. ULMW
      HA-triggered cell death was similarly demonstrated in surface CD44-high primary B
      precursor leukemia cells. Assuming that ULMW-HA is abundantly secreted at the
      site of infection and inflammation, this study sheds light on understanding the
      mechanism of a transient inflammation-associated remission of leukemia. Further,
      the CD44-targeting may become an effective approach in future for the treatment
      of refractory B-precursor ALL by its capability of predominantly eradicating CD44
      high leukemia-initiating cells.

PMID- 28569789
TI  - Knockdown of miR-128a induces Lin28a expression and reverts myeloid
      differentiation blockage in acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Lin28A is a highly conserved RNA-binding protein that concurs to control the
      balance between stemness and differentiation in several tissue lineages. Here, we
      report the role of miR-128a/Lin28A axis in blocking cell differentiation in acute
      myeloid leukemia (AML), a genetically heterogeneous disease characterized by
      abnormally controlled proliferation of myeloid progenitor cells accompanied by
      partial or total inability to undergo terminal differentiation. First, we found
      Lin28A underexpressed in blast cells from AML patients and AML cell lines as
      compared with CD34+ normal precursors. In vitro transfection of Lin28A in NPM1
      mutated OCI-AML3 cell line significantly triggered cell-cycle arrest and myeloid
      differentiation, with increased expression of macrophage associate genes (EGR2,
      ZFP36 and ANXA1). Furthermore, miR-128a, a negative regulator of Lin28A, was
      found overexpressed in AML cells compared with normal precursors, especially in
      acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and in 'AML with maturation' (according to
      2016 WHO classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia). Its forced
      overexpression by lentiviral infection in OCI-AML3 downregulated Lin28A with
      ensuing repression of macrophage-oriented differentiation. Finally, knockdown of
      miR-128a in OCI-AML3 and in APL/AML leukemic cells (by transfection and
      lentiviral infection, respectively) induced myeloid cell differentiation and
      increased expression of Lin28A, EGR2, ZFP36 and ANXA1, reverting myeloid
      differentiation blockage. In conclusion, our findings revealed a new mechanism
      for AML differentiation blockage, suggesting new strategies for AML therapy based
      upon miR-128a inhibition.

PMID- 28569790
TI  - Human cancer-associated fibroblasts enhance glutathione levels and antagonize
      drug-induced prostate cancer cell death.
AB  - Drug resistance is a major problem in cancer therapy. A growing body of evidence
      demonstrates that the tumor microenvironment, including cancer-associated
      fibroblasts (CAFs), can modulate drug sensitivity in tumor cells. We examined the
      effect of primary human CAFs on p53 induction and cell viability in prostate
      cancer cells on treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs. Co-culture with prostate
      CAFs or CAF-conditioned medium attenuated DNA damage and the p53 response to
      chemotherapeutic drugs and enhanced prostate cancer cell survival. CAF
      conditioned medium inhibited the accumulation of doxorubicin, but not taxol, in
      prostate cancer cells in a manner that was associated with increased cancer cell
      glutathione levels. A low molecular weight fraction (<3 kDa) of CAF-conditioned
      medium had the same effect. CAF-conditioned medium also inhibited induction of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) in both doxorubicin- and taxol-treated cancer
      cells. Our findings suggest that CAFs can enhance drug resistance in cancer cells
      by inhibiting drug accumulation and counteracting drug-induced oxidative stress.
      This protective mechanism may represent a novel therapeutic target in cancer.

PMID- 28569791
TI  - E2F1 induces TINCR transcriptional activity and accelerates gastric cancer
      progression via activation of TINCR/STAU1/CDKN2B signaling axis.
AB  - Recent evidence indicates that E2F1 transcription factor have pivotal roles in
      the regulation of cellular processes, and is found to be dysregulated in a
      variety of cancers. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are also reported to exert
      important effect on tumorigenesis. E2F1 is aberrantly expressed in gastric cancer
      (GC), and biology functions of E2F1 in GC are controversial. The biological
      characteristics of E2F1 and correlation between E2F1 and lncRNAs in GC remain to
      be found. In this study, integrated analysis revealed that E2F1 expression was
      significantly increased in GC cases and its expression was positively correlated
      with the poor pathologic stage, large tumor size and poor prognosis. Forced E2F1
      expression promotes proliferation, whereas loss of E2F1 function decreased cell
      proliferation by blocking of cell cycle in GC cells. Mechanistic analyses
      indicated that E2F1 accelerates GC growth partly through induces TINCR
      transcription. TINCR could bind to STAU1 (staufen1) protein, and influence CDKN2B
      mRNA stability and expression, thereby affecting the proliferation of GC cells.
      Together, our findings suggest that E2F1/TINCR/STAU1/CDKN2B signaling axis
      contributes to the oncogenic potential of GC and may constitute a potential
      therapeutic target in this disease.

PMID- 28569793
TI  - Oocyte-specific deletion of furin leads to female infertility by causing early
      secondary follicle arrest in mice.
AB  - The process of follicular development involves communications between oocyte and
      surrounding granulosa cells. FURIN is a member of the family of proprotein
      convertases that is involved in the activation of a large number of zymogens and
      proproteins by cleavage at its recognition motif. To investigate the functions of
      FURIN in female fertility, furinflox/flox (furfl/fl) mice were crossed with Zp3
      Cre mice and Gdf9-Cre, respectively, to achieve oocyte-specific disruption of
      FURIN. Here we report for the first time that FURIN is dispensable for primordial
      follicle maintenance and activation but important for early secondary follicular
      development, as ablation of FURIN in oocytes caused failure of follicle
      development beyond the type 4 and/or 5a follicles in mutant mice, resulting in
      increased number of early secondary follicles and the severely decreased number
      of mature follicles, thus anovulation and infertility. We also found that the
      developmental arrest of early secondary follicles might be rooted in the loss of
      the mature form of ADAMTS1 (85-kDa prodomain truncated) and compromised
      proliferation of granulosa cells in mutant mice. Taken together, our data
      highlight the importance of FURIN in follicle development beyond the early
      secondary follicle stage and indicate that compromised FURIN function leads to
      follicular dysplasia and female infertility in mice.

PMID- 28569792
TI  - Loss of epidermal AP1 transcription factor function reduces filaggrin level,
      alters chemokine expression and produces an ichthyosis-related phenotype.
AB  - AP1 transcription factors are important controllers of epidermal differentiation.
      Multiple family members are expressed in the epidermis in a differentiation
      dependent manner, where they function to regulate gene expression. To study the
      role of AP1 factor signaling, TAM67 (dominant-negative c-jun) was inducibly
      expressed in the suprabasal epidermis. The TAM67-positive epidermis displays
      keratinocyte hyperproliferation, hyperkeratosis and parakeratosis, delayed
      differentiation, extensive subdermal vasodilation, nuclear loricrin localization,
      tail and digit pseudoainhum and reduced filaggrin level. These changes are
      associated with increased levels of IFNgamma, CCL3, CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10, and
      CXCL11 (Th1-associated chemokines), and CCL1, CCL2, CCL5 and CCL11 (Th2
      associated chemokines) in the epidermis and serum. S100A8 and S100A9 protein
      levels are also markedly elevated. These changes in epidermal chemokine level are
      associated with increased levels of the corresponding chemokine mRNA. The largest
      increases were observed for CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, and S100A8 and S100A9. To
      assess the role of CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, which bind to CXCR3, on phenotype
      development, we expressed TAM67 in CXCR3 knockout mice. Using a similar strategy,
      we examine the role of S100A8 and S100A9. Surprisingly, loss of CXCR3 or
      S100A8/A9 did not attenuate phenotype development. These studies suggest that
      interfering with epidermal AP1 factor signaling initiates a loss of barrier
      function leading to enhanced epidermal chemokine production, but that CXCR3 and
      S100A8/A9 do not mediate the phenotypic response.

PMID- 28569794
TI  - P7C3 inhibits GSK3beta activation to protect dopaminergic neurons against
      neurotoxin-induced cell death in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease.
      Although its pathogenesis remains unclear, mitochondrial dysfunction plays a
      vital role in the pathology of PD. P7C3, an aminopropyl carbazole, possesses a
      significant neuroprotective ability in several neurodegenerative disorders,
      including PD. Here, we showed that P7C3 stabilized mitochondrial membrane
      potential, reduced reactive oxygen species production, and inhibited cytochrome c
      release in MES23.5 cells (a dopaminergic (DA) cell line) exposed to 1-methyl-4
      phenylpyridinium (MPP+). In MES23.5 cells, P7C3 inhibited glycogen synthase
      kinase-3 beta (GSK3beta) activation induced by MPP+. P7C3 also inhibited p53
      activity and repressed Bax upregulation to protect cells from MPP+ toxicity. In
      addition, the activation of p53 was significantly attenuated with the inhibition
      of GSK3beta activity by P7C3. Furthermore, P7C3 blocked GSK3beta and p53
      activation in the midbrain, and prevented DA neuronal loss in the substantia
      nigra in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyridine mice. Thus, our study
      demonstrates that P7C3 protects DA neurons from neurotoxin-induced cell death by
      repressing the GSK3beta-p53-Bax pathway both in vitro and in vivo, thus providing
      a theoretical basis for P7C3 in the potential clinical treatment of PD.

PMID- 28569796
TI  - Future threats to biodiversity and pathways to their prevention.
AB  - Tens of thousands of species are threatened with extinction as a result of human
      activities. Here we explore how the extinction risks of terrestrial mammals and
      birds might change in the next 50 years. Future population growth and economic
      development are forecasted to impose unprecedented levels of extinction risk on
      many more species worldwide, especially the large mammals of tropical Africa,
      Asia and South America. Yet these threats are not inevitable. Proactive
      international efforts to increase crop yields, minimize land clearing and habitat
      fragmentation, and protect natural lands could increase food security in
      developing nations and preserve much of Earth's remaining biodiversity.

PMID- 28569797
TI  - Speciation gradients and the distribution of biodiversity.
AB  - Global patterns of biodiversity are influenced by spatial and environmental
      variations in the rate at which new species form. We relate variations in
      speciation rates to six key patterns of biodiversity worldwide, including the
      species-area relationship, latitudinal gradients in species and genetic
      diversity, and between-habitat differences in species richness. Although they
      sometimes mirror biodiversity patterns, recent rates of speciation, at the tip of
      the tree of life, are often highest where species richness is low. Speciation
      gradients therefore shape, but are also shaped by, biodiversity gradients and are
      often more useful for predicting future patterns of biodiversity than for
      interpreting the past.

PMID- 28569798
TI  - Deletion of a mycobacterial divisome factor collapses single-cell phenotypic
      heterogeneity.
AB  - Microorganisms are often studied as populations but the behaviour of single,
      individual cells can have important consequences. For example, tuberculosis,
      caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, requires months of
      antibiotic therapy even though the bulk of the bacterial population dies rapidly.
      Shorter courses lead to high rates of relapse because subpopulations of bacilli
      can survive despite being genetically identical to those that are easily killed.
      In fact, mycobacteria create variability each time a cell divides, producing
      daughter cells with different sizes and growth rates. The mechanism(s) that
      underlie this high-frequency variation and how variability relates to survival of
      the population are unknown. Here we show that mycobacteria actively create
      heterogeneity. Using a fluorescent reporter and a fluorescence-activated cell
      sorting (FACS)-based transposon screen, we find that deletion of lamA, a gene of
      previously unknown function, decreases heterogeneity in the population by
      decreasing asymmetric polar growth. LamA has no known homologues in other
      organisms, but is highly conserved across mycobacterial species. We find that
      LamA is a member of the mycobacterial division complex (the 'divisome'). It
      inhibits growth at nascent new poles, creating asymmetry in polar growth. The
      kinetics of killing individual cells that lack lamA are more uniform and more
      rapid with rifampicin and drugs that target the cell wall. Our results show that
      mycobacteria encode a non-conserved protein that controls the pattern of cell
      growth, resulting in a population that is both heterogeneous and better able to
      survive antibiotic pressure.

PMID- 28569795
TI  - Cystatin C as a potential therapeutic mediator against Parkinson's disease via
      VEGF-induced angiogenesis and enhanced neuronal autophagy in neurovascular units.
AB  - Cystatin C (CYS C, Cst3) is an endogenous cysteine protease inhibitor that plays
      neuroprotective roles in neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to explore the
      association of CYS C with Parkinson's disease (PD) models and investigate its
      involvement in the role of neurovascular units (NVUs) in PD neuro-pathogenesis.
      We used A53T alpha-synuclein (SNCA) transgenic mice and 6-hydroxydopamine
      lesioned DAergic PC12 cells as experimental PD models to investigate the
      mechanisms behind this association. The injections of CYS C were administered to
      the right substantia nigra (SN) of A53T SNCA transgenic mice to measure the
      effects of CYS C in transgenic A53T SNCA mice. To explore the angiogenesis in
      vivo and in vitro, we used the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay
      and tube formation (TF) assay. We found that CYS C has a neuroprotective effect
      in this in vivo PD model. We observed increased VEGF, NURR1 and autophagy markers
      LC3B and decreased SNCA and apoptosis marker cleaved CASP3 in different brain
      regions of CYS C-treated A53T SNCA transgenic mice. In vitro, we observed that
      CYS C-induced VEGF, a secreted protein, attenuated 6-OHDA-lesioned DAergic PC12
      cell degeneration by regulating p-PKC-alpha/p-ERK1/2-Nurr1 signaling and inducing
      autophagy. VEGF-mediated angiogenesis was markedly enhanced in the conditioned
      media of 6-OHDA-lesioned PC12 cells with CYS C-overexpression, whereas blockage
      of autophagy in CYS C-overexpressing PC12 cells significantly downregulated VEGF
      expression and the associated angiogenesis. Our data indicate that CYS C displays
      dual neuronal-vascular functions, promoting PC12 cell survival and angiogenesis
      via regulating the level of secreted VEGF in NVUs. Our study provides evidence
      that may aid in the development of an alternative approach for the treatment of
      PD through modulation of CYS C-mediated neuronal-vascular pathways.

PMID- 28569800
TI  - Biodiversity.

PMID- 28569799
TI  - Femtosecond response of polyatomic molecules to ultra-intense hard X-rays.
AB  - X-ray free-electron lasers enable the investigation of the structure and dynamics
      of diverse systems, including atoms, molecules, nanocrystals and single
      bioparticles, under extreme conditions. Many imaging applications that target
      biological systems and complex materials use hard X-ray pulses with extremely
      high peak intensities (exceeding 1020 watts per square centimetre). However,
      fundamental investigations have focused mainly on the individual response of
      atoms and small molecules using soft X-rays with much lower intensities. Studies
      with intense X-ray pulses have shown that irradiated atoms reach a very high
      degree of ionization, owing to multiphoton absorption, which in a heteronuclear
      molecular system occurs predominantly locally on a heavy atom (provided that the
      absorption cross-section of the heavy atom is considerably larger than those of
      its neighbours) and is followed by efficient redistribution of the induced
      charge. In serial femtosecond crystallography of biological objects-an
      application of X-ray free-electron lasers that greatly enhances our ability to
      determine protein structure-the ionization of heavy atoms increases the local
      radiation damage that is seen in the diffraction patterns of these objects and
      has been suggested as a way of phasing the diffraction data. On the basis of
      experiments using either soft or less-intense hard X-rays, it is thought that the
      induced charge and associated radiation damage of atoms in polyatomic molecules
      can be inferred from the charge that is induced in an isolated atom under
      otherwise comparable irradiation conditions. Here we show that the femtosecond
      response of small polyatomic molecules that contain one heavy atom to ultra
      intense (with intensities approaching 1020 watts per square centimetre), hard
      (with photon energies of 8.3 kiloelectronvolts) X-ray pulses is qualitatively
      different: our experimental and modelling results establish that, under these
      conditions, the ionization of a molecule is considerably enhanced compared to
      that of an individual heavy atom with the same absorption cross-section. This
      enhancement is driven by ultrafast charge transfer within the molecule, which
      refills the core holes that are created in the heavy atom, providing further
      targets for inner-shell ionization and resulting in the emission of more than 50
      electrons during the X-ray pulse. Our results demonstrate that efficient
      modelling of X-ray-driven processes in complex systems at ultrahigh intensities
      is feasible.

PMID- 28569802
TI  - Ageing: Rejuvenation study stirs old memories.

PMID- 28569801
TI  - Coral reefs in the Anthropocene.
AB  - Coral reefs support immense biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services
      to many millions of people. Yet reefs are degrading rapidly in response to
      numerous anthropogenic drivers. In the coming centuries, reefs will run the
      gauntlet of climate change, and rising temperatures will transform them into new
      configurations, unlike anything observed previously by humans. Returning reefs to
      past configurations is no longer an option. Instead, the global challenge is to
      steer reefs through the Anthropocene era in a way that maintains their biological
      functions. Successful navigation of this transition will require radical changes
      in the science, management and governance of coral reefs.

PMID- 28569804
TI  - Biomedical research: Premature lambs grown in a bag.

PMID- 28569803
TI  - Genomics: Sunflowers sequenced.

PMID- 28569805
TI  - Atmospheric science: The self-cleansing ability of prehistoric air.

PMID- 28569807
TI  - Upgrading protected areas to conserve wild biodiversity.
AB  - International agreements mandate the expansion of Earth's protected-area network
      as a bulwark against the continued extinction of wild populations, species, and
      ecosystems. Yet many protected areas are underfunded, poorly managed, and
      ecologically damaged; the conundrum is how to increase their coverage and
      effectiveness simultaneously. Innovative restoration and rewilding programmes in
      Costa Rica's Area de Conservacion Guanacaste and Mozambique's Parque Nacional da
      Gorongosa highlight how degraded ecosystems can be rehabilitated, expanded, and
      woven into the cultural fabric of human societies. Worldwide, enormous potential
      for biodiversity conservation can be realized by upgrading existing nature
      reserves while harmonizing them with the needs and aspirations of their
      constituencies.

PMID- 28569808
TI  - Data management: Stable identifiers for collection specimens.

PMID- 28569809
TI  - Retractions: Stamp out fake peer review.

PMID- 28569810
TI  - Condensed-matter physics: Functional materials at the flick of a switch.

PMID- 28569812
TI  - Unsung heroes: Value coordinating roles in research.

PMID- 28569813
TI  - Beyond pairwise mechanisms of species coexistence in complex communities.
AB  - The tremendous diversity of species in ecological communities has motivated a
      century of research into the mechanisms that maintain biodiversity. However, much
      of this work examines the coexistence of just pairs of competitors. This approach
      ignores those mechanisms of coexistence that emerge only in diverse competitive
      networks. Despite the potential for these mechanisms to create conditions under
      which the loss of one competitor triggers the loss of others, we lack the
      knowledge needed to judge their importance for coexistence in nature. Progress
      requires borrowing insight from the study of multitrophic interaction networks,
      and coupling empirical data to models of competition.

PMID- 28569811
TI  - Linking the influence and dependence of people on biodiversity across scales.
AB  - Biodiversity enhances many of nature's benefits to people, including the
      regulation of climate and the production of wood in forests, livestock forage in
      grasslands and fish in aquatic ecosystems. Yet people are now driving the sixth
      mass extinction event in Earth's history. Human dependence and influence on
      biodiversity have mainly been studied separately and at contrasting scales of
      space and time, but new multiscale knowledge is beginning to link these
      relationships. Biodiversity loss substantially diminishes several ecosystem
      services by altering ecosystem functioning and stability, especially at the large
      temporal and spatial scales that are most relevant for policy and conservation.

PMID- 28569816
TI  - Microbiology: Diversity breeds tolerance.

PMID- 28569818
TI  - Electric-field control of tri-state phase transformation with a selective dual
      ion switch.
AB  - Materials can be transformed from one crystalline phase to another by using an
      electric field to control ion transfer, in a process that can be harnessed in
      applications such as batteries, smart windows and fuel cells. Increasing the
      number of transferrable ion species and of accessible crystalline phases could in
      principle greatly enrich material functionality. However, studies have so far
      focused mainly on the evolution and control of single ionic species (for example,
      oxygen, hydrogen or lithium ions). Here we describe the reversible and non
      volatile electric-field control of dual-ion (oxygen and hydrogen) phase
      transformations, with associated electrochromic and magnetoelectric effects. We
      show that controlling the insertion and extraction of oxygen and hydrogen ions
      independently of each other can direct reversible phase transformations among
      three different material phases: the perovskite SrCoO3-delta (ref. 12), the
      brownmillerite SrCoO2.5 (ref. 13), and a hitherto-unexplored phase, HSrCoO2.5. By
      analysing the distinct optical absorption properties of these phases, we
      demonstrate selective manipulation of spectral transparency in the visible-light
      and infrared regions, revealing a dual-band electrochromic effect that could see
      application in smart windows. Moreover, the starkly different magnetic and
      electric properties of the three phases-HSrCoO2.5 is a weakly ferromagnetic
      insulator, SrCoO3-delta is a ferromagnetic metal, and SrCoO2.5 is an
      antiferromagnetic insulator-enable an unusual form of magnetoelectric coupling,
      allowing electric-field control of three different magnetic ground states. These
      findings open up opportunities for the electric-field control of multistate phase
      transformations with rich functionalities.

PMID- 28569821
TI  - LHC fires up, Google bot retires and Jupiter up close.

PMID- 28569820
TI  - Training: Lure young surgeons on to research tracks.

PMID- 28569822
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28569823
TI  - Announcement: Towards greater reproducibility for life-sciences research in
      Nature.

PMID- 28569824
TI  - UK election: science spending pledges overshadowed by Brexit.

PMID- 28569825
TI  - Biodiversity moves beyond counting species.

PMID- 28569826
TI  - Govern land as a global commons.

PMID- 28569827
TI  - Keep shouting to save science.

PMID- 28569828
TI  - Why function is catching on in conservation.

PMID- 28569829
TI  - Trump budget would slash science programmes across government.

PMID- 28569830
TI  - Crowd-based peer review can be good and fast.

PMID- 28569831
TI  - Trials of embryonic stem cells to launch in China.

PMID- 28569832
TI  - Mummy DNA unravels ancient Egyptians' ancestry.

PMID- 28569833
TI  - Taxonomy anarchy hampers conservation.

PMID- 28569834
TI  - Neutron stars set to open their heavy hearts.

PMID- 28569835
TI  - Software simplified.

PMID- 28569836
TI  - Single-cell entropy for accurate estimation of differentiation potency from a
      cell's transcriptome.
AB  - The ability to quantify differentiation potential of single cells is a task of
      critical importance. Here we demonstrate, using over 7,000 single-cell RNA-Seq
      profiles, that differentiation potency of a single cell can be approximated by
      computing the signalling promiscuity, or entropy, of a cell's transcriptome in
      the context of an interaction network, without the need for feature selection. We
      show that signalling entropy provides a more accurate and robust potency estimate
      than other entropy-based measures, driven in part by a subtle positive
      correlation between the transcriptome and connectome. Signalling entropy
      identifies known cell subpopulations of varying potency and drug resistant cancer
      stem-cell phenotypes, including those derived from circulating tumour cells. It
      further reveals that expression heterogeneity within single-cell populations is
      regulated. In summary, signalling entropy allows in silico estimation of the
      differentiation potency and plasticity of single cells and bulk samples,
      providing a means to identify normal and cancer stem-cell phenotypes.

PMID- 28569837
TI  - A robot for high yield electrophysiology and morphology of single neurons in
      vivo.
AB  - Single-cell characterization and perturbation of neurons provides knowledge
      critical to addressing fundamental neuroscience questions including the structure
      function relationship and neuronal cell-type classification. Here we report a
      robot for efficiently performing in vivo single-cell experiments in deep brain
      tissues optically difficult to access. This robot automates blind (non-visually
      guided) single-cell electroporation (SCE) and extracellular electrophysiology,
      and can be used to characterize neuronal morphological and physiological
      properties of, and/or manipulate genetic/chemical contents via delivering
      extraneous materials (for example, genes) into single neurons in vivo. Tested in
      the mouse brain, our robot successfully reveals the full morphology of single
      infragranular neurons recorded in multiple neocortical regions, as well as deep
      brain structures such as hippocampal CA3, with high efficiency. Our robot thus
      can greatly facilitate the study of in vivo full morphology and electrophysiology
      of single neurons in the brain.

PMID- 28569838
TI  - USP13 regulates the RAP80-BRCA1 complex dependent DNA damage response.
AB  - BRCA1 regulates multiple cellular pathways that maintain genomic stability
      including cell cycle checkpoints, DNA repair, protein ubiquitination, chromatin
      remodelling, transcriptional regulation and apoptosis. Receptor-associated
      protein 80 (RAP80) helps recruit BRCA1 to double-strand breaks (DSBs) through the
      scaffold protein CCDC98 (Abraxas) and facilitates DNA damage response (DDR).
      However, the regulation of RAP80-BRCA1 complex is still unclear. Here we report
      that a deubiquitinase, USP13, regulates DDR by targeting RAP80. Mechanistically,
      USP13 is phosphorylated by ATM following DNA damage which, in turn, facilitates
      its DSB localization. USP13, in turn, deubiquitinates RAP80 and promotes RAP80
      recruitment and proper DDR. Depleting or inhibiting USP13 sensitizes ovarian
      cancer cells to cisplatin and PARP inhibitor (olaparib) while overexpression of
      USP13 renders ovarian cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy. Overall, we
      identify USP13 as a regulator of DNA repair and reveal a model in which a
      phosphorylation-deubiquitination axis dynamically regulates RAP80-BRCA1 complex
      foci formation and function.

PMID- 28569839
TI  - Multicentennial record of Labrador Sea primary productivity and sea-ice
      variability archived in coralline algal barium.
AB  - Accelerated warming and melting of Arctic sea-ice has been associated with
      significant increases in phytoplankton productivity in recent years. Here,
      utilizing a multiproxy approach, we reconstruct an annually resolved record of
      Labrador Sea productivity related to sea-ice variability in Labrador, Canada that
      extends well into the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1646 AD). Barium-to-calcium ratios
      (Ba/Ca) and carbon isotopes (delta13C) measured in long-lived coralline algae
      demonstrate significant correlations to both observational and proxy records of
      sea-ice variability, and show persistent patterns of co-variability broadly
      consistent with the timing and phasing of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
      (AMO). Results indicate reduced productivity in the Subarctic Northwest Atlantic
      associated with AMO cool phases during the LIA, followed by a step-wise increase
      from 1910 to present levels-unprecedented in the last 363 years. Increasing
      phytoplankton productivity is expected to fundamentally alter marine ecosystems
      as warming and freshening is projected to intensify over the coming century.

PMID- 28569840
TI  - Thermal annihilation of photo-induced radicals following dynamic nuclear
      polarization to produce transportable frozen hyperpolarized 13C-substrates.
AB  - Hyperpolarization via dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is pivotal for boosting
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sensitivity and dissolution DNP can be used to
      perform in vivo real-time 13C MRI. The type of applications is however limited by
      the relatively fast decay time of the hyperpolarized spin state together with the
      constraint of having to polarize the 13C spins in a dedicated apparatus nearby
      but separated from the MRI magnet. We herein demonstrate that by polarizing 13C
      with photo-induced radicals, which can be subsequently annihilated using a
      thermalization process that maintains the sample temperature below its melting
      point, hyperpolarized 13C-substrates can be extracted from the DNP apparatus in
      the solid form, while maintaining the enhanced 13C polarization. The melting
      procedure necessary to transform the frozen solid into an injectable solution
      containing the hyperpolarized 13C-substrates can therefore be performed ex situ,
      up to several hours after extraction and storage of the polarized solid.

PMID- 28569843
TI  - 5.6  W monolithic fiber laser at 3.55  MUm.
AB  - We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first monolithic erbium-doped
      fluorozirconate fiber laser bounded by two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) operating
      at 3.55 MUm. Its output power and total optical efficiency are 5.6 W and 26.4%
      respectively, the highest ever achieved at this wavelength from a fiber laser.
      The monolithic design of the cavity also increases its stability and prevents
      fiber tip damage which has limited prior demonstrations to a maximum output power
      of 1.5 W. This Letter also studies the performances of the laser cavity for
      various output FBG reflectivities and presents numerical modeling results
      exhibiting remarkable agreement with experimental results.

PMID- 28569841
TI  - Myosin Va molecular motors manoeuvre liposome cargo through suspended actin
      filament intersections in vitro.
AB  - Intracellular cargo transport relies on myosin Va molecular motor ensembles to
      travel along the cell's three-dimensional (3D) highway of actin filaments. At
      actin filament intersections, the intersecting filament is a structural barrier
      to and an alternate track for directed cargo transport. Here we use 3D super
      resolution fluorescence imaging to determine the directional outcome (that is,
      continues straight, turns or terminates) for an ~10 motor ensemble transporting a
      350 nm lipid-bound cargo that encounters a suspended 3D actin filament
      intersection in vitro. Motor-cargo complexes that interact with the intersecting
      filament go straight through the intersection 62% of the time, nearly twice that
      for turning. To explain this, we develop an in silico model, supported by optical
      trapping data, suggesting that the motors' diffusive movements on the vesicle
      surface and the extent of their engagement with the two intersecting actin tracks
      biases the motor-cargo complex on average to go straight through the
      intersection.

PMID- 28569842
TI  - Giant barocaloric effect in the ferroic organic-inorganic hybrid [TPrA][Mn(dca)3]
      perovskite under easily accessible pressures.
AB  - The fast growing family of organic-inorganic hybrid compounds has recently been
      attracting increased attention owing to the remarkable functional properties
      (magnetic, multiferroic, optoelectronic, photovoltaic) displayed by some of its
      members. Here we show that these compounds can also have great potential in the
      until now unexplored field of solid-state cooling by presenting giant barocaloric
      effects near room temperature already under easily accessible pressures in the
      hybrid perovskite [TPrA][Mn(dca)3] (TPrA: tetrapropylammonium, dca: dicyanamide).
      Moreover, we propose that this will not be an isolated example for such an
      extraordinary behaviour as many other organic-inorganic hybrids (metal-organic
      frameworks and coordination polymers) exhibit the basic ingredients to display
      large caloric effects which can be very sensitive to pressure and other external
      stimuli. These findings open up new horizons and great opportunities for both
      organic-inorganic hybrids and for solid-state cooling technologies.

PMID- 28569844
TI  - 4.2  PW, 20  fs Ti:sapphire laser at 0.1  Hz.
AB  - We demonstrated the generation of 4.2 PW laser pulses at 0.1 Hz from a chirped
      pulse amplification Ti:sapphire laser. The cross-polarized wave generation and
      the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification stages were installed for the
      prevention of the gain narrowing and for the compensation of the spectral
      narrowing in the amplifiers, obtaining the spectral width of amplified laser
      pulses of 84 nm (FWHM), and enhancing the temporal contrast. The amplified laser
      pulses of 112 J after the final booster amplifier were compressed to the pulses
      with 83 J at 19.4 fs with a shot-to-shot energy stability of 1.5% (RMS). This 4.2
      PW laser will be a workhorse for exploring high field science.

PMID- 28569845
TI  - Combining phase images measured in the radio frequency and the optical frequency
      ranges.
AB  - Phase images measured in the radio frequency (RF) and optical frequency (OF)
      ranges, whose difference was about 4*10<sup>5</sup>, were combined on the basis
      of a pattern matching method. RF phase imaging was implemented with an optical
      frequency-comb femtosecond laser and a single-pixel camera to measure a meter
      order depth object with micrometer-order accuracy. OF phase imaging was
      implemented with an optical interferometer using a low-coherence femtosecond
      laser pulse to measure the profile with nanometer-order accuracy and high spatial
      resolution. Combining the images obtained from both phase measurement systems
      enabled profilometry of a large depth object with high lateral and axial
      resolutions.

PMID- 28569846
TI  - Mid-infrared sensing of molecular vibrational modes with tunable graphene
      plasmons.
AB  - We study the tunable plasmons based on a graphene integrated gold grating
      structure to sense the vibrational modes of nanometric molecules. The greatly
      enhanced light-matter interaction and the broadband tunability of the localized
      graphene plasmonic resonance enable accurate label-free identification of the
      molecular vibrational modes at subwavelength scale. Our results may accelerate
      the further development of novel cost-effective biosensors with superior
      molecular chemical fingerprint sensitivity in an active graphene plasmonic
      device.

PMID- 28569847
TI  - Heart diffraction.
AB  - A theoretical study of the plane-wave diffraction by a heart-like sharp-edge
      aperture corresponding to the involute of a circle is proposed here. Through the
      recently developed paraxial boundary diffraction wave theory, expressed via the
      language of catastrophe optics, the presence of pseudo-nondiffracting regions
      within the three-dimensional spatial intensity distribution of the diffracted
      wavefield is intuitively explained and quantitatively characterized. The results
      of some old, beautiful, but nearly forgotten, diffraction experiments have also
      been reconsidered from such a peculiar and rather unorthodox perspective.

PMID- 28569848
TI  - Higher-order mode suppression in twisted single-ring hollow-core photonic crystal
      fibers.
AB  - A hollow-core single-ring photonic crystal fiber (SR-PCF) consists of a ring of
      capillaries arranged around a central hollow core. Spinning the preform during
      drawing introduces a continuous helical twist, offering a novel means of
      controlling the modal properties of hollow-core SR-PCF. For example, twisting
      geometrically increases the effective axial propagation constant of the
      LP<sub>01</sub>-like modes of the capillaries, providing a means of optimizing
      the suppression of HOMs, which occurs when the LP<sub>11</sub>-like core mode
      phase-matches to the LP<sub>01</sub>-like modes of the surrounding capillaries.
      (In a straight fiber, optimum suppression occurs for a capillary-to-core diameter
      ratio d/D=0.682.) Twisting also introduces circular birefringence (to be studied
      in a future Letter) and has a remarkable effect on the transverse intensity
      profiles of the higher-order core modes, forcing the two-lobed LP<sub>11</sub>
      like mode in the untwisted fiber to become three-fold symmetric in the twisted
      case. These phenomena are explored by means of extensive numerical modeling, an
      analytical model, and a series of experiments. Prism-assisted side-coupling is
      used to measure the losses, refractive indices, and near-field patterns of
      individual fiber modes in both the straight and twisted cases.

PMID- 28569849
TI  - Graphene-coated nanowires with a drop-shaped cross section for 10  nm confinement
      and 1  mm propagation.
AB  - Strong confinement and long-range propagation of electromagnetic energy are
      longed for when designing efficient miniaturized photonic devices. Here, a
      graphene-coated nanowire with a drop-shaped cross section is proposed for guiding
      graphene surface plasmon polaritons to demonstrate an extremely long propagation
      length (1 mm) with ultra-strong mode confinement (10 nm), which results from the
      distinctive mode field distribution caused by both the top and bottom arcs of the
      waveguide. The combination of nanoconcentration and long-range propagation makes
      the waveguide very useful in nanophotonics, bio-photonics, and highly integrated
      photonic circuits.

PMID- 28569850
TI  - Tunable time-resolved tick-tock pulsed digital holographic microscopy for
      ultrafast events.
AB  - This study presents a time-resolved imaging technique for detecting ultrafast
      events in the sample with tunable tick-tock pulses in common-path digital
      holographic microscopy. The tick-tock pulses are generated from the same single
      femtosecond pulse source and manipulated through a spatial-multiplexing
      encoding/decoding scheme with two complementary binary codes for digital hologram
      recording and reconstruction. The spatial-multiplexing encoding/decoding scheme
      with compressive sensing on the Fresnel digital hologram is used to recover
      missing data and achieve high-fidelity wavefront reconstruction. The elapsed time
      of tick-tock pulses can be adjusted by changing the optical path difference
      between the pulse pair arms for dynamic observation at various timescales. The
      proposed method is applied to explore the ultrafast physical phenomenon by
      quantitative phase imaging with a stopwatch-like tunable timescale ranging from
      nanoseconds to femtoseconds.

PMID- 28569852
TI  - Micro-sized tunable liquid crystal optical filters.
AB  - Liquid crystal arrayed microcavities (LCAM) is a new technology for ultra-narrow
      optical filtering (FWHM ~0.1  nm) that uses picoliter volume Fabry-Perot-type
      optical cavities filled with liquid crystal for tuning. LCAMs are sub-nm spectral
      resolution filters, which utilize well-established laser writing, thin film
      deposition, and wafer manufacturing techniques. These filters are compact,
      robust, and inexpensive. Compact, high-resolution optical filters have
      applications, including biomedical imaging, chemical detection, and environmental
      monitoring. Here, we describe the LCAM design and initial performance metrics.

PMID- 28569851
TI  - Contribution of angle-dependent light penetration to electric-field enhancement
      at nodules in optical coatings.
AB  - The influence of angle-dependent light penetration on electric-field intensity
      (EFI) enhancement at nodules was investigated in this Letter. An experiment
      consisting of 3D finite-difference time-domain simulations was conducted on two
      types of polarizers that prevent light penetration at a low and a high incident
      angular range (IAR). The EFI at the focal point region is six times lower, and
      the laser damage resistance is three times higher in the polarizer blocking light
      penetration in a high IAR. These results reveal for the first time, to the best
      of our knowledge, that light penetration at a high IAR, rather than at a low IAR,
      contributes to EFI enhancement at the focal region of the nodules. Our findings
      may provide useful guidance in selecting optimal designs to suppress EFI
      enhancement at nodules in multilayer coatings.

PMID- 28569853
TI  - Focusing subwavelength grating coupler for mid-infrared suspended membrane
      germanium waveguides.
AB  - We present a focusing subwavelength grating (SWG) for efficient coupling of mid
      infrared (mid-IR) light into suspended membrane Ge photonic integrated circuits
      (PICs) that enable mid-IR applications in the entire fingerprint region. By
      virtue of their wide spectral transparency window and air-cladding device
      configuration, the suspended membrane Ge PICs are expected to be effective for
      mid-IR applications over the spectral region covering from 2 to 15 MUm.
      Specifically, we demonstrate the maximum coupling efficiency of -11  dB with a 1
      dB bandwidth of ~58  nm at the SWG's center wavelength of 2.37 MUm. Our focusing
      SWG is expected to advance the development of on-chip long-wavelength mid-IR
      applications such as biochemical sensing, thermal imaging, and nonlinear optics
      in the fingerprint region.

PMID- 28569854
TI  - Tunable 7-12  MUm picosecond optical parametric amplifier based on a
      LiInSe<sub>2</sub> mid-infrared crystal.
AB  - Mid-infrared (MIR) nonlinear optical crystals of LiInSe<sub>2</sub> (LISe) were
      grown by a modified Bridgman technique on a (001)-seed. A 7-12 MUm widely tunable
      picosecond (ps) MIR optical parametric amplifier (OPA) based on a LISe crystal
      was demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The MIR OPA
      was pumped by a 30 ps 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser and injected by a KTiOPO<sub>4</sub>
      (KTP)-based widely tunable near-infrared seed. The idler operating at 7.5 MUm
      with the highest pulse energy of 170 MUJ was obtained under a pump energy of 14
      mJ. The corresponding energy conversion efficiency is ~1.21%, and the photon
      conversion efficiency is 8.6%. The output energies were measured to be ~121  MUJ
      at 7 MUm and ~21  MUJ at 12 MUm.

PMID- 28569855
TI  - Temporally versatile polarization entanglement from Bragg reflection waveguides.
AB  - Bragg reflection waveguides emitting broadband parametric downconversion (PDC)
      have been proven to be well suited for the on-chip generation of polarization
      entanglement in a straightforward fashion [Sci. Rep.3, 2314 (2013)SRWSDA2045
      232210.1038/srep02314]. Here, we investigate how the properties of the created
      states can be modified by controlling the relative temporal delay between the
      pair of photons created via PDC. Our results offer an easily accessible approach
      for changing the coherence of the polarization entanglement, in other words, to
      tune the phase of the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Furthermore,
      we provide valuable insight into the engineering of these states directly at the
      source.

PMID- 28569856
TI  - Magnetic annihilation of the dark mode in a strongly coupled bright-dark
      terahertz metamaterial.
AB  - Dark mode in metamaterials has become a vital component in determining the merit
      of the Fano type of interference in the system. Its strength dictates the
      enhancement and suppression in the amplitude and Q-factors of resulting resonance
      features. In this work, we experimentally probe the effect of strong near-field
      coupling on the strength of the dark mode in a concentrically aligned bright
      resonator and a dark split ring resonator (SRR) system exhibiting the classical
      analog of the electromagnetically induced transparency effect. An enhanced strong
      magnetic field between the bright-dark resonators destructively interferes with
      the inherent magnetic field of the dark mode to completely annihilate its effect
      in the coupled system. Moreover, the observed annihilation effect in the dark
      mode has a direct consequence on the disappearance of the SRR effect in the
      proposed system, wherein under the strong magnetic interactions, the LC resonance
      feature of the split ring resonator becomes invisible to the incident terahertz
      wave.

PMID- 28569857
TI  - Editorial: Serving the Optics and Photonics Community for 40 Years.
AB  - Editor-in-Chief Xi-Cheng Zhang celebrates Optics Letters' 40th anniversary by
      discussing the Journal's success and clarifying an editorial policy that balances
      the Journal's high standards with the fulfillment of its mission to support the
      greater optics and photonics community.

PMID- 28569858
TI  - Quasi-phase-matched multispectral Kerr frequency comb.
AB  - We study a new type of Kerr frequency comb where the momentum conservation law is
      fulfilled by azimuthal modulation of the waveguide dispersion. The concept can
      expand the parametric range in which a Kerr frequency comb is obtained. In a good
      agreement with the theoretical analysis, we demonstrate a multispectral Kerr
      frequency comb covering important fiber-optic communication bands. Comb coherence
      and absence of a sub-comb offset are confirmed by continuous-wave heterodyne beat
      note and amplitude noise spectra measurements. The device can be used for
      achieving broadband optical frequency synthesizers and high-capacity coherent
      communication.

PMID- 28569859
TI  - Fiber-ring laser-based intracavity photoacoustic spectroscopy for trace gas
      sensing.
AB  - We demonstrated a novel trace gas sensing method based on fiber-ring laser
      intracavity photoacoustic spectroscopy. This spectroscopic technique is a merging
      of photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) with a fiber-ring cavity for sensitive and
      all-fiber gas detection. A transmission-type PAS gas cell (resonant frequency
      f<sub>0</sub>=2.68  kHz) was placed inside the fiber-ring laser to fully utilize
      the intracavity laser power. The PAS signal was excited by modulating the laser
      wavelength at f<sub>0</sub>/2 using a custom-made fiber Bragg grating-based
      modulator. We used this spectroscopic technique to detect acetylene
      (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>) at 1531.6 nm as a proof of principle. With a low Q
      factor (4.9) of the PAS cell, our sensor achieved a good linear response
      (R<sup>2</sup>=0.996) to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub> concentration and a minimum
      detection limit of 390 ppbv at 2-s response time.

PMID- 28569860
TI  - Narrowband terahertz generation with chirped-and-delayed laser pulses in
      periodically poled lithium niobate.
AB  - We generate narrowband terahertz (THz) radiation in periodically poled lithium
      niobate (PPLN) crystals using two chirped-and-delayed driver pulses from a high
      energy Ti:sapphire laser. The generated frequency is determined by the phase
      matching condition in the PPLN and influences the temporal delay of the two
      pulses for efficient terahertz generation. We achieve internal conversion
      efficiencies up to 0.13% as well as a record multicycle THz energy of 40 MUJ at
      0.544 THz in a cryogenically cooled PPLN.

PMID- 28569861
TI  - Optical path difference microscopy with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.
AB  - In this Letter, we show that a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor can be used for
      the quantitative measurement of the specimen optical path difference (OPD) in an
      ordinary incoherent optical microscope, if the spatial coherence of the
      illumination light in the plane of the specimen is larger than the microscope
      resolution. To satisfy this condition, the illumination numerical aperture should
      be smaller than the numerical aperture of the imaging lens. This principle has
      been successfully applied to build a high-resolution reference-free instrument
      for the characterization of the OPD of micro-optical components and microscopic
      biological samples.

PMID- 28569862
TI  - Kerr frequency combs and triangular spectra.
AB  - Nonlinear externally driven optical cavities are known to generate periodic
      patterns. They grow from the linearly unstable background states due to
      modulation instability. These periodic solutions are also known as Kerr frequency
      combs, which have a variety of applications in metrology. The stationary state of
      periodic wave trains can be explained theoretically only in weakly nonlinear
      regimes near the onset of the instability using the order parameter description.
      However, in both weakly and strongly nonlinear dissipative regimes, only
      numerical solutions can be found. No analytic solutions are known so far except
      for the homogeneous continuous wave solution. Here, we derive an analytical
      expression for the intracavity fully nonlinear dissipative periodic wave train
      profiles that provides good agreement with the results of numerical simulations.
      Our approach is based on empirical knowledge of the triangular shape of the
      frequency comb spectrum.

PMID- 28569863
TI  - Hybrid single-mode laser based on graphene Bragg gratings on silicon.
AB  - We exploit distributed optoelectronic properties enabled by graphene Bragg
      gratings (GBGs) to realize a hybrid single-mode laser on silicon. This hybrid
      laser achieves single-mode, continuous-wave operation at 1540 nm with a
      remarkable side-mode suppression ratio of 48 dB, benefitting from the coupling of
      the GBGs. These results suggest that graphene thin films can be used as an
      essential and cost-saving component for hybrid photonic integration on silicon.

PMID- 28569864
TI  - Polarization dynamics induced by parallel optical injection in a single-mode
      VCSEL.
AB  - We report an experimental study of the polarization nonlinear dynamics in a 1550
      nm single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) subject to parallel
      optical injection. Experimentally measured stability maps identifying regions of
      different nonlinear dynamics for various values of bias current are reported. We
      show that VCSELs with more than a 35 dB polarization mode suppression ratio can
      have rich nonlinear dynamics in both linear polarizations, including periodic and
      chaotic behaviors appearing simultaneously in both polarization modes.

PMID- 28569865
TI  - Silicon waveguide polarization rotator sampled Bragg grating.
AB  - In this Letter, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first
      experimental results of sampled Bragg grating with polarization rotator function.
      Silicon waveguide is used. Multiple polarization-independent reflection
      wavelength peaks were obtained.

PMID- 28569866
TI  - Absolute noninvasive measurement of CO<sub>2</sub> mole fraction emitted by E.
      coli and S. aureus using calibration-free 2f WMS applied to a 2004  nm VCSEL.
AB  - We report the first demonstration, to the best of our knowledge, of accurate real
      time noninvasive measurement of the absolute cumulative mole fraction of
      metabolic carbon dioxide emitted by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus
      over a period of several hours of their life cycles using a recently developed
      calibration-free wavelength modulation spectroscopy technique. A 1 mW vertical
      cavity surface-emitting laser is used to interrogate a single rotational
      vibrational absorption line of carbon dioxide at 2003.5 nm. The measurements are
      immune to laser intensity fluctuations and variable optical coupling that is
      inevitable in such free-space coupled experiments that run over 10-18 h. The
      cumulative carbon dioxide mole fraction follows the characteristic modified
      Gompertz model that is typical of bacterial growth in batch cultures. The
      characteristic growth parameters are extracted from this curve. The technique can
      be readily extended to study multiple volatile organic compounds that bacteria
      are known to emit.

PMID- 28569867
TI  - Optical biopsy approach to basal cell carcinoma and melanoma based on all
      optically integrated photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography.
AB  - Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and melanoma (MM), with the highest morbidity and
      mortality, respectively, are considered as two skin cancers of concern in
      dermatology. Histological studies have demonstrated that vascular patterns and
      collagenous stroma serve as key parameters for BCC and MM classification. In this
      Letter, we sought to identify BCC and MM based on the dual parameters of vascular
      patterns and scattering structures provided by all-optically integrated
      photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography (AOPA/OCT). The imaging capability
      of the AOPA/OCT was verified by the mimic phantoms. Furthermore, in vivo
      characterization of vasculatures and tissue structures from BCC and MM mice were
      successfully achieved with high resolution. Results prove the feasibility of
      AOPA/OCT as a novel method to dedicate to the in vivo biopsy of skin cancers
      which shows new insights into the study of skin diseases in early stages.

PMID- 28569869
TI  - Optimal Mueller matrix estimation in the presence of additive and Poisson noise
      for any number of illumination and analysis states.
AB  - We investigate the optimal strategies for estimating the Mueller matrix with
      arbitrary numbers of illumination and analysis states, in the presence of signal
      independent additive noise or signal-dependent Poisson shot noise. We demonstrate
      that the architectures that minimize and equalize the estimation variances for
      both types of noise sources are based on spherical designs of order 2 or 3, and
      we provide closed-form expressions of the estimation precision obtained with
      these optimal measurement strategies. The obtained results are important to
      design Mueller polarimeters in practice and assess their fundamental limits in
      terms of estimation precision.

PMID- 28569868
TI  - Frequency comb generation in SNAP bottle resonators.
AB  - We develop a theory of optical frequency comb generation in ultra-compact surface
      nanoscale axial photonic (SNAP) bottle microresonators, employing the nonlinear
      interaction of whispering gallery modes which are confined along an optical fiber
      with nanoscale radius variation. We predict that a SNAP microresonator with a
      radius of a few micrometers can generate a frequency comb with an ultra-fine sub
      gigahertz spectral spacing, which would require traditional ring resonators of
      centimeter radius. We identify regimes of stable or quasi-periodic comb dynamics
      due to soliton excitation, and show that special engineering of the SNAP radius
      profile can be used to compensate for nonlinearity-induced dispersion.

PMID- 28569870
TI  - Electro-optical effects of high aspect ratio P3HT nanofibers colloid in polymer
      micro-fluid cells.
AB  - This Letter reports the electro-optical (EO) effect of Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5
      diyl) (P3HT) nanofibers colloid in a polymer micro-fluidic EO cell. P3HT
      nanofibers are high aspect ratio semiconducting nanostructures, and can be
      collectively aligned by an external alternating electric field. Optical
      transmission modulated by the electric field is a manifestation of the electro
      optical effect due to high inner crystallinity of P3HT nanofibers. According to
      our results, the degree of alignment reaches a maximum at 0.6 V/MUm of electric
      field strength, implying a big polarizability value due to geometry and
      electrical properties of P3HT nanofibers. We believe that one-dimensional
      crystalline organic nanostructures have a large potential in EO devices due to
      their significant anisotropy, wide variety of properties, low actuation voltages,
      and opportunity to be tailored via adjustment of the fabrication process.

PMID- 28569871
TI  - Temperature-independent optical transition with sub-nanometer linewidth in
      thermally diffused Gadolinium in GaN.
AB  - We have demonstrated temperature-independent optical transitions from thermally
      diffused Gd in GaN. The emission wavelength is sub-bandgap with respect to GaN.
      The origin of photon generation is identified as atomic transitions in Gd hosted
      in the weak interaction field of GaN. The emission linewidth remains sub
      nanometer (0.1-0.6 nm) from 19 to 300 K for all the optical pumping intensities.
      The shift in wavelength with temperature and optical pumping is negligible (~0.8 
      nm) for the entire temperature window. The output intensity is found to scale
      linearly with the pumping power. The magnetic, electrical, and physical
      characterizations indicate that Gd acts as an electron trap in GaN. Transient
      absorption spectroscopy discovers a major nonradiative parallel path for carrier
      leaking. The observed characteristics may find potential applications in narrow
      linewidth optical sources.

PMID- 28569872
TI  - Transverse Anderson localization of surface plasmon polaritons.
AB  - We investigate the effect of disorder on the propagation of surface plasmon
      polaritons in arrays of evanescently coupled dielectric loaded surface plasmon
      polariton waveguides. Diagonal disorder is implemented by randomly varying the
      heights of the waveguides. Real-space as well as momentum-space images of the
      surface plasmon polariton intensity distribution in the waveguide arrays are
      recorded by leakage radiation microscopy. In real space, increasing disorder
      results in a transverse localization of surface plasmon polaritons. In the
      momentum distribution, we observe for the first time a disorder-induced
      transition from a continuous band to a set of discrete modes.

PMID- 28569873
TI  - Single-shot chemical detection and identification with compressed hyperspectral
      Raman imaging.
AB  - Raman imaging is a powerful method to identify and detect chemicals, but the long
      acquisition time required for full spectroscopic Raman images limits many
      practical applications. Compressive sensing and compressed ultrafast photography
      have recently demonstrated the acquisition of multi-dimensional data sets with
      single-shot detection. In this Letter, we demonstrate the utilization of
      compressed sensing for single-shot compressed Raman imaging. In particular, we
      use this technique to demonstrate the identification of two similarly white
      substances in one image via the recovered two-dimensional array of Raman spectra.
      This technique can be further extended by coupling the compressed sensing
      apparatus with a microscope for compressed hyperspectral imaging microscopy.

PMID- 28569874
TI  - Demonstration of intradyne BPSK optical free-space transmission in representative
      atmospheric turbulence conditions for geostationary uplink channel.
AB  - Binary phase-shift keying optical transmission in the C-band with coherent
      intradyne reception is demonstrated over a long-range (10.45 km) link through the
      atmosphere. The link emulates representative channel conditions for geostationary
      optical feeder uplinks in satellite communications. The digital signal processing
      used in recovering the transmitted data and the performed measurements are
      described. Finally, the bit error rate results for 10 Gbit/s, 20 Gbit/s, and 30
      Gbit/s of the outdoor experiments are presented and compared with back-to-back
      measurements and theory.

PMID- 28569875
TI  - Vectorial extreme events in VCSEL polarization dynamics.
AB  - We report on the occurrence of extreme events (EEs) in the polarization dynamics
      of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with optical feedback. We have
      identified two types of EEs based on numerical simulations: vectorial and scalar
      events corresponding, respectively, to the emission of a high-power pulse in both
      linear polarizations simultaneously and in single linear polarization. We show
      that these two types of events follow the typical statistics of rogue waves.
      Finally, we observe that an emission in both polarizations leads to a larger
      generation rate of EEs with a saturation over a wide range of feedback strength
      by comparison to a single-polarization mode emission.

PMID- 28569876
TI  - Optical modulation based on tunable light absorption and amplification in
      metasurfaces coupled with gain medium.
AB  - While previous tunable metasurfaces were based mainly on tuning of dielectric
      permittivity or losses in associated tunable elements, here we propose gain
      assisted tunable metasurfaces as optical modulators with high ON-OFF ratio. They
      consist of a dye-doped film placed within metal-insulator-metal (MIM) cavities.
      Plasmonic modes with enhanced electric field significantly enhance both
      absorption and emission of light by dye molecules. As a result, it is possible to
      achieve the perfect absorption in MIM cavities with zero reflection, as well as
      to compensate losses thus achieving unit reflection. As a result, the achievable
      ON/OFF ratio is more than 100.

PMID- 28569878
TI  - Generation of unipolar half-cycle pulses via unusual reflection of a single-cycle
      pulse from an optically thin metallic or dielectric layer.
AB  - We propose a strikingly simple method to form approximately unipolar half-cycle
      optical pulses via reflection of a single-cycle optical pulse from a thin flat
      metallic or dielectric layer. Unipolar pulses in reflection arise due to
      specifics of one-dimensional pulse propagation. Namely, we show that the field
      emitted by the layer is proportional to the velocity of the oscillating charges
      in the medium, instead of their acceleration. Besides, the oscillation velocity
      of the charges can be forced to keep a constant sign throughout the pulse
      duration. That is, reflection of ultrashort pulses from broad-area layers with
      nanometer-scale thickness can be very different from the common reflection in the
      case of longer pulses and thicker layers. This suggests a possibility of unusual
      transformations of few-cycle light pulses in completely linear optical systems.

PMID- 28569877
TI  - Interferometric time-domain ptychography for ultrafast pulse characterization.
AB  - A novel pulse characterization method is presented, favorably combining
      interferometric frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) and time-domain
      ptychography. This new variant is named ptychographic-interferometric frequency
      resolved optical gating (piFROG). The measurement device is simple, bearing
      similarity to standard second-harmonic FROG, yet with a collinear beam geometry
      and an added bandpass filter in one of the correlator arms. The collinear beam
      geometry allows tight focusing and circumvents possible geometrical distortion
      effects of noncollinear methods, making piFROG especially suitable for the
      characterization of unamplified few-cycle pulses. Moreover, the direction-of-time
      ambiguity afflicting most second-order FROG variants is eliminated. Possible
      group delay dispersion of pulses leads to a characteristic tilt in the piFROG
      traces, allowing the detection of uncompensated dispersion without a retrieval.
      Using nanojoule, three-cycle pulses at 800 nm, the piFROG method is tested, and
      the results are compared with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric
      field reconstruction measurements. Measured pulse durations agree within a
      fraction of a femtosecond. As a further test, the piFROG measurements are
      repeated with added group delay dispersion, and found to accurately reproduce the
      dispersion computed with Sellmeier equations.

PMID- 28569879
TI  - Nanosecond difference-frequency generation in orientation-patterned gallium
      phosphide.
AB  - We report a tunable, single-pass, pulsed nanosecond difference-frequency
      generation (DFG) source based on the new semiconductor nonlinear material,
      orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP). The DFG source is realized by
      mixing the output signal of a nanosecond OPO tunable over 1723-1827 nm with the
      input pump pulses of the same OPO at 1064 nm in an OP-GaP crystal, resulting in
      tunable generation over 233 nm in the mid-infrared from 2548 to 2781 nm. Using a
      40-mm-long crystal, we have produced ~14  mW of average DFG output power at 2719
      nm for a pump power of 5 W and signal power of 1 W at 80 kHz repetition rate. To
      the best of our knowledge, this is the first single-pass nanosecond DFG source
      based on OP-GaP. The DFG output beam has a TEM<sub>00</sub> spatial mode profile
      and exhibits passive power stability better than 1.7% rms over 1.4 h at 2774 nm,
      compared to 1.6% and 0.1% rms for the signal and pump, respectively. The OP-GaP
      crystal is recorded to have a temperature acceptance bandwidth of 17.7 degrees C.

PMID- 28569880
TI  - Characterization of optical frequency transfer over 154  km of aerial fiber.
AB  - We present measurements of the frequency transfer stability and analysis of the
      noise characteristics of an optical signal propagating over aerial suspended
      fiber links up to 153.6 km in length. The measured frequency transfer stability
      over these links is on the order of 10<sup>-11</sup> at an integration time of 1
      s dropping to 10<sup>-12</sup> for integration times longer than 100 s. We show
      that wind-loading of the cable spans is the dominant source of short-timescale
      noise on the fiber links. We also report an attempt to stabilize the optical
      frequency transfer over these aerial links.

PMID- 28569881
TI  - High-energy pulse stacking via regenerative pulse-burst amplification.
AB  - Here we present a coherent pulse stacking approach for upscaling the energy of a
      solid-state femtosecond chirped pulse amplifier. We demonstrate pulse splitting
      into four replicas, amplification in a burst-mode regenerative Yb:CaF<sub>2</sub>
      amplifier, designed to overcome intracavity optical damage by colliding pulse
      replicas, and coherent combining into a single millijoule level pulse. The
      thresholds of pulse-burst-induced damage of optical elements are experimentally
      investigated. The scheme allows achieving an enhancement factor of 2.62 using a
      single-stage stacker cavity and, potentially, much higher enhancement factors
      using cascaded stacking.

PMID- 28569882
TI  - Polynomials of Gaussians and vortex-Gaussian beams as complete, transversely
      confined bases.
AB  - A novel type of discrete basis for paraxial beams is proposed, consisting of
      monomial vortices times polynomials of Gaussians in the radial variable. These
      bases have the distinctive property that the effective size of their elements is
      roughly independent of element order, meaning that the optimal scaling for
      expanding a localized field does not depend significantly on truncation order.
      This behavior contrasts with that of bases composed of polynomials times
      Gaussians, such as Hermite-Gauss and Laguerre-Gauss modes, where the scaling
      changes roughly as the inverse square root of the truncation order.

PMID- 28569883
TI  - BDK-doped core microstructured PMMA optical fiber for effective Bragg grating
      photo-inscription.
AB  - An endlessly single-mode doped microstructured poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
      optical fiber is produced for effective fiber Bragg grating (FBG) photo
      inscription by means of a 400 nm femtosecond pulsed laser and the phase mask
      technique. The fiber presents a uniform benzyl dimethyl ketal (BDK) distribution
      in its core without drastic loss increase. It was produced using the selected
      center hole doping technique, and the BDK dopant acts as a photoinitiator. In
      this Letter, we report a rapidly growing process of the grating reflection band.
      For an 11 mW mean laser power, the FBG reflectivity reaches 83% in only 40 s.

PMID- 28569884
TI  - Silicon PAM-4 optical modulator driven by two binary electrical signals with
      different peak-to-peak voltages.
AB  - We demonstrate a silicon PAM-4 optical modulator, which is based on a symmetric
      Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Two uncorrelated binary electrical signals with
      different peak-to-peak voltages are applied to the phase shifters of the silicon
      optical modulator. Accordingly, two different phase shifts are generated in the
      two arms. After the permutation, there are totally four phase differences between
      the two arms and the output optical power has four levels. The device can work at
      32 Gbaud in the wavelength range from 1525 to 1565 nm, which is promising for the
      next-generation high-speed silicon optical link.

PMID- 28569885
TI  - Experimental study on the statistic characteristics of a 3x3 RF MIMO channel over
      a single conventional multimode fiber.
AB  - Based on the observed random fluctuation phenomenon of speckle pattern across
      multimode fiber (MMF) facet and received optical power distribution across three
      output ports, we experimentally investigate the statistic characteristics of a
      3*3 radio frequency multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel enabled by mode
      division multiplexing in a conventional 50 um MMF using non-mode-selective three
      dimensional waveguide photonic lanterns as mode multiplexer and demultiplexer.
      The impacts of mode coupling on the MIMO channel coefficients, channel matrix,
      and channel capacity have been analyzed over different fiber lengths. The results
      indicate that spatial multiplexing benefits from the greater fiber length with
      stronger mode coupling, despite a higher optical loss.

PMID- 28569886
TI  - Enhanced self-mixing interferometry based on volume Bragg gratings and laser
      diodes emitting at 405-nm wavelengths.
AB  - Self-mixing interferometry (SMI) represents a robust, self-aligned technique for
      metrology applications. Recently, it has been shown that the detection of the
      frequency-modulated (FM) signal enhances the conventional SMI signal based on the
      amplitude modulation. Here, an all-optical, simple and effective alternative
      approach to detect the FM self-mixing signal is presented. We demonstrate the
      enhanced self-mixing approach using a laser diode emitting at 405 nm and a volume
      Bragg grating (VBG) to map frequency to intensity modulations for further optical
      detection. Our approach overcomes the spectral range limitation of the edge
      filtering approach based on molecular absorption filters, since the VBGs can be
      fabricated at any spectral range.

PMID- 28569887
TI  - Compact coupling scheme to achieve the synchronously dual self-mode-locked
      operation with a 35.2  THz optical beating.
AB  - A synchronously dual self-mode-locked (SML) operation at 946 and 1064 nm is
      experimentally accomplished by using a compact coupling scheme to obtain the
      optical beating frequency up to 35.2 THz. The SML emissions at 946 and 1064 nm
      are established by a monolithic Nd:YAG cavity and a Nd:YVO<sub>4</sub> crystal in
      a flat-flat cavity, respectively. Two gain media are butt adjoined to be
      longitudinally pumped by a single laser diode. The monolithic Nd:YAG crystal is
      used not only as the 946 nm laser cavity, but also as the output coupler of the
      Nd:YVO<sub>4</sub> 1064 nm laser. More importantly, the output surface of the
      monolithic Nd:YAG laser is coated to generate the optical feedback for the
      synchronization of the dual SML operation. At a pump power of 10.7 W, the output
      powers at 1064 and 946 nm can simultaneously reach 1.5 W by controlling the focal
      position of the pump waist.

PMID- 28569888
TI  - Narrow-linewidth carbon nanotube emission in silicon hollow-core photonic crystal
      cavity.
AB  - Polymer-sorted semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) provide room
      temperature emission at near-infrared wavelengths, with potential for large
      volume production of high-quality solutions and wafer-scale deposition. These
      features make SWNTs a very attractive material for the realization of on-chip
      light sources. Coupling SWNT into optical microcavities could enhance and guide
      their emission, while enabling spectral selection by cavity resonance
      engineering. This could allow the realization of bright, narrowband sources.
      Here, we report the first demonstration of coupling SWNTs into the resonant modes
      of Si hollow-core photonic crystal cavities. We exploit the strong evanescent
      field in these resonators to interact with SWNT emission, coupling it into an
      integrated access waveguide. Based on this concept, we demonstrate narrowband
      SWNT emission resonantly coupled into a Si bus waveguide with a full width at
      half-maximum of 0.34 nm and an off-resonance rejection exceeding 5 dB.

PMID- 28569889
TI  - Soliton-plasma nonlinear dynamics in mid-IR gas-filled hollow-core fibers.
AB  - We investigate numerically soliton-plasma interaction in a noble-gas-filled
      silica hollow-core anti-resonant fiber pumped in the mid-IR at 3.0 MUm. We
      observe multiple soliton self-compression stages due to distinct stages where
      either the self-focusing or the self-defocusing nonlinearity dominates.
      Specifically, the parameters may be tuned so the competing plasma self-defocusing
      nonlinearity only dominates over the Kerr self-focusing nonlinearity around the
      soliton self-compression stage, where the increasing peak intensity on the
      leading pulse edge initiates a competing self-defocusing plasma nonlinearity
      acting nonlocally on the trailing edge, effectively preventing soliton formation
      there. As the plasma switches off after the self-compression stage, self-focusing
      dominates again, initiating another soliton self-compression stage in the
      trailing edge. This process is accompanied by supercontinuum generation spanning
      1-4 MUm. We find that the spectral coherence drops as the secondary compression
      stage is initiated.

PMID- 28569890
TI  - Light-induced self-written waveguide fabrication using 1550  nm laser light.
AB  - Light-induced self-written (LISW) optical waveguides were fabricated for the
      first time, to the best of our knowledge, using a photopolymerizable resin system
      formed by 1550 nm pulse laser light. A two-photon absorption (TPA) chromophore
      with a TPA cross section of several hundred Goeppert-Mayer (GM) at 1550 nm was
      used. Furthermore, the optical interconnection between a single-mode fiber and a
      fiber Bragg grating was demonstrated by the present technique, using one-way
      irradiation of 1550 nm laser light through the single-mode fiber. The LISW
      waveguide formation using 1550 nm laser light offers a new and promising
      alternative route for optical interconnection in silicon photonics technology.

PMID- 28569891
TI  - Temperature dependence mitigation in stationary Fourier-transform on-chip
      spectrometers.
AB  - We present two techniques for mitigating the effects of temperature drifts in
      waveguide spatial heterodyne Fourier-transform on-chip spectrometers. In high
      resolution devices, large optical path length differences result in an increased
      sensitivity to temperature variations and impose stringent requirements on the
      thermal stabilization system. In order to overcome this limitation, here we
      experimentally demonstrate two new temperature mitigation techniques based on a
      temperature-sensitive calibration and phase error correction. The spectrometer
      chip under analysis comprises an array of 32 Mach-Zehnder interferometers
      fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The optical path delays are
      implemented as microphotonic spirals of linearly increasing length up to 3.779
      cm, yielding a spectral resolution of 17 pm. We demonstrate that the degradation
      in retrieved spectra caused by temperature drift is effectively eliminated by
      temperature-sensitive calibration and phase error correction.

PMID- 28569892
TI  - Facile solvent-free fabrication of nitric oxide (NO)-releasing coatings for
      prevention of biofilm formation.
AB  - We describe a simple and solvent-free method to generate nitric oxide (NO)
      releasing coatings by incorporating diazeniumdiolate (NONOate) into allylamine or
      diallylamine plasma polymer coatings. The resulting coatings demonstrate
      continuous release of NO for over 48 hours and are effective at reducing the
      adhesion and biofilm formation of medically-relevant Gram-negative and Gram
      positive opportunistic pathogens.

PMID- 28569893
TI  - Single-component white-light emission via intramolecular electronic conjugation
      truncation with perylenemonoimide.
AB  - Solvent specific intramolecular electronic communication truncated optical
      behaviour, and white light emission with a CIE chromaticity index of (0.33, 0.33)
      using only a single component via non-covalent nano-assembly of alkyne
      phenanthrene conjugated perylenemonoimide (PMIAP) are demonstrated.

PMID- 28569894
TI  - Reliable nanometre-range distance distributions from 5-pulse double electron
      electron resonance.
AB  - Double electron electron resonance (DEER) enables determination of distance
      distributions in the nanometre range. A recently introduced 5-pulse version of
      this experiment prolongs the electron spin coherence lifetime and thus provides
      improved sensitivity or an extended distance range, but suffers from artefacts
      due to partial excitation and excitation band overlap. In particular, the partial
      excitation artefact is hard to eliminate experimentally at frequencies where DEER
      is most sensitive or on spectrometers that provide only monochromatic pulses.
      Here, a data post-processing method is introduced that removes the partial
      excitation artefact without relying on previous knowledge of its amplitude and
      without sensitivity loss. The method is based on acquisition of two traces with
      shifted positions of the artefact and computation of the artefact shape from the
      difference of the two traces. Artefact removal was successfully tested both on
      simulated and experimental data. It was found to be stable for a variety of
      distance distributions and down to low signal-to-noise ratios in the presence of
      moderate background decay. The artefact correction method also performs well in
      the regime of rather strong partial excitation artefacts that is usually
      encountered with rectangular monochromatic pump pulses on widely available
      commercial spectrometers.

PMID- 28569895
TI  - Quantification of f-element covalency through analysis of the electron density:
      insights from simulation.
AB  - The electronic structure of f-element compounds is complex due to a combination
      of relativistic effects, strong electron correlation and weak crystal field
      environments. However, a quantitative understanding of bonding in these compounds
      is becoming increasingly technologically relevant. Recently, bonding
      interpretations based on analyses of the physically observable electronic density
      have gained popularity and, in this Feature Article, the utility of such density
      based approaches is demonstrated. Application of Bader's Quantum Theory of Atoms
      in Molecules (QTAIM) is shown to elucidate many properties including bonding
      trends, orbital overlap and energy degeneracy-driven covalency, oxidation state
      identification and bond stability, demonstrating the increasingly important role
      that simulation and analysis play in the area of f-element bond characterisation.

PMID- 28569896
TI  - Designing polymer nanocomposites with a semi-interpenetrating or interpenetrating
      network structure: toward enhanced mechanical properties.
AB  - Using short polymer chains and through molecular dynamics simulation, we designed
      a well-dispersed nanoparticle (NP) network, which was then incorporated with the
      polymer matrix. First, we examined the effects of the dual-end grafted chains
      flexibility and density on the spatial distribution of this particular polymer
      nanocomposites system. By changing the interaction strength between the matrix
      polymer chains and the dual-end grafted chains in the semi-interpenetrating
      network system (NP network), we analyzed the interpenetration state between the
      linear polymer matrix and the NP network via calculating the total interfacial
      interaction energy. Moreover, the uniaxial tensile stress-strain and orientation
      behavior influenced by the interaction strength between the matrix polymer and
      the grafted chains were investigated for both the semi-interpenetrating network
      system and the interpenetrating network system (NP network and matrix network).
      Furthermore, for the interpenetrating network system, we modulated the integrity
      of the NP network ranging from 0% to 100%, corresponding to the gradual
      transition of the dispersion morphology of the NPs from the aggregation state to
      the uniform dispersion state, to examine the effect of the NP network on the
      tensile mechanical behavior. In particular, by simulating the dynamic shear
      process in the semi-interpenetrating network system, the composites were found to
      exhibit a lower non-linear behavior (the famous Payne effect), a higher storage
      modulus, and a lower tangent loss at large strain amplitude with increasing NP
      network integrity. In general, our results could provide a new approach for the
      design of high-performance polymer nanocomposites by taking advantage of the semi
      interpenetrating or interpenetrating network reinforcing structure.

PMID- 28569897
TI  - Reconfigurable opto-thermoelectric printing of colloidal particles.
AB  - We have developed a new optical technique - opto-thermoelectric printing - to
      print colloidal particles with reconfigurable patterns on substrates via light
      controlled thermoelectric fields.

PMID- 28569898
TI  - Pillar[n]arene-based supramolecular organic frameworks with high hydrocarbon
      storage and selectivity.
AB  - We report the high hydrocarbon storage capacity and adsorption selectivity of two
      low-density pillar[n]arene-based SOFs. Our study would open new perspectives in
      the development of pillar[n]arene-based SOFs and study of their great potential
      in gas-storage and gas-separation applications.

PMID- 28569899
TI  - Palladium-catalyzed benzofuran and indole synthesis by multiple C-H
      functionalizations.
AB  - Heterocyclic compounds are commonly found in the core structures of several
      pharmaceuticals, natural products, and agrochemicals, thus spurring intensive
      research for conducting their synthesis in a mild and simpler way. Over the
      years, a host of different strategies has been introduced in an effort to
      synthesize these heterocyles. In this context, significant attention has been
      gained by methodologies that ensure both step as well as atom efficiency.
      Synthesis of heterocyclic moieties via multiple C-H activations was found to
      fulfill these expectations besides guaranteeing the use of starting materials
      that are easily procurable. This review is focused on the current development in
      the field of benzofuran and indole synthesis using multiple C-H functionalization
      strategies.

PMID- 28569900
TI  - Bis(trialkylsilyl) peroxides as alkylating agents in the copper-catalyzed
      selective mono-N-alkylation of primary amides.
AB  - The copper-catalyzed selective mono-N-alkylation of primary amides with
      bis(trialkylsilyl) peroxides as alkylating agents was reported. The results of a
      mechanistic study suggest that this reaction should proceed via a free radical
      process that includes the generation of alkyl radicals from bis(trialkylsilyl)
      peroxides.

PMID- 28569902
TI  - pH-Driven self-sorting in a four component host-guest system.
AB  - A four component host-guest system comprising beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD),
      cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) and two chalcone guests was demonstrated to undergo pH
      triggered self-sorting in aqueous solution. This phenomenon arises from the
      contrasting complexation induced pKa shifts displayed by these guests after
      complexation with CB7.

PMID- 28569901
TI  - Rates and equilibrium constants of the ligand-induced conformational transition
      of an HCN ion channel protein domain determined by DEER spectroscopy.
AB  - Ligand binding can induce significant conformational changes in proteins. The
      mechanism of this process couples equilibria associated with the ligand binding
      event and the conformational change. Here we show that by combining the
      application of W-band double electron-electron resonance (DEER) spectroscopy with
      microfluidic rapid freeze quench (MURFQ) it is possible to resolve these
      processes and obtain both equilibrium constants and reaction rates. We studied
      the conformational transition of the nitroxide labeled, isolated carboxy-terminal
      cyclic-nucleotide binding domain (CNBD) of the HCN2 ion channel upon binding of
      the ligand 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Using model-based global
      analysis, the time-resolved data of the MURFQ DEER experiments directly provide
      fractional populations of the open and closed conformations as a function of
      time. We modeled the ligand-induced conformational change in the protein using a
      four-state model: apo/open (AO), apo/closed (AC), bound/open (BO), bound/closed
      (BC). These species interconvert according to AC + L ? AO + L ? BO ? BC. By
      analyzing the concentration dependence of the relative contributions of the
      closed and open conformations at equilibrium, we estimated the equilibrium
      constants for the two conformational equilibria and the open-state ligand
      dissociation constant. Analysis of the time-resolved MURFQ DEER data gave
      estimates for the intrinsic rates of ligand binding and unbinding as well as the
      rates of the conformational change. This demonstrates that DEER can
      quantitatively resolve both the thermodynamics and the kinetics of ligand binding
      and the associated conformational change.

PMID- 28569903
TI  - The role of acid-base equilibria in formal hydrogen transfer reactions:
      tryptophan radical repair by uric acid as a paradigmatic case.
AB  - The results presented in this work demonstrate the high complexity of chemical
      reactions involving species with multiple acid-base equilibria. For the case
      study investigated here, it was necessary to consider two radical species for
      tryptophan (Trp(-H) and Trp+) and three fractions for uric acid (H3Ur, H2Ur- and
      HUr2-) in order to properly reproduce the experimental results. At pH = 7.4, two
      main reaction mechanisms were identified: proton-electron sequential transfer
      (PEST) and sequential proton gain-electron transfer (SPGET). Combined, they
      account for more than 99% of the overall reaction, despite the fact that they
      involve minor species, i.e., H3Ur and Trp+, respectively. The excellent agreement
      between the calculated overall rate constant and the experimental value seems to
      support this proposal. In addition, if only the dominant species at pH = 7.4
      (H2Ur- and Trp(-H)) were considered, there would be a large discrepancy with the
      experimental value (about 4 orders of magnitude), which also supports the finding
      that the key species in this case are not the most abundant ones. The influence
      of the pH on the kinetics of the investigated reaction was explored. It was found
      that the maximum repairing ability of uric acid does not occur at physiological
      pH, but at a more acidic pH (pH = 5.0).

PMID- 28569904
TI  - The first synthesis of Bi self-doped Bi2MoO6-Bi2Mo3O12 composites and their
      excellent photocatalytic performance for selective oxidation of aromatic alkanes
      under visible light irradiation.
AB  - We report the synthesis of Bi self-doped Bi2MoO6-Bi2Mo3O12 composites with
      heterostructures by a one-step method using Bi3.64Mo0.36O6.55 as precursor. Among
      them, Bi2.1MoO6-Bi2.1Mo3O12 shows excellent selectivity as well as recyclability
      in the oxidation of aromatic alkanes to aldehydes under visible light
      irradiation.

PMID- 28569905
TI  - Theoretical perspectives on the structure, electronic, and optical properties of
      titanosilicates Li2M4[(TiO)Si4O12] (M = K+, Rb+).
AB  - It is still a challenge to design and synthesize high performance broader
      ultraviolet non-linear optical (NLO) materials. Two new transition-metal
      silicates have recently attracted a lot of attention due to their strong phase
      matched second harmonic generation (SHG) responses (about 4.5 times higher than
      KDP). However, the electronic and optical properties underlying the high
      performance of these materials and consequently, the possibility of designing
      more efficient silicates for NLO applications are not presently clear. In this
      study, the geometrical structure and bonding character, electronic structure and
      optical properties of Li2M4[(TiO)Si4O12] (M = K+, Rb+) crystals have been
      systematically determined based on the density functional theory. Satisfactory
      agreement between the experimental and theoretical results indicates that the
      method and conditions used herein are favorable. A detailed analysis of the
      precise electronic structure and dipole moments of the two compounds suggests
      that it is the strong covalent character between Ti(Si) and O and the same
      orientation alignment of the dipole moment vector of the constituent asymmetric
      [TiO5]6- square pyramid anion units that result in the large SHG responses for
      the two compounds. In addition, the unavailable linear and non-linear optical
      experimental parameters, including dielectric function, optical absorption and
      birefringence, and all the components of the SHG coefficients are reported for
      the first time. This investigation unravels the structure-property relationships
      of titanosilicates and may be significant in terms of providing an efficient
      strategy towards designing more potential and competitive NLO materials.

PMID- 28569906
TI  - Development of a kit-like radiofluorinated biomolecule leading to a controlled
      self-assembly of 18F nanoparticles for a smart PET imaging application.
AB  - A kit-like 18F-fluorination method has been successfully applied to prepare an
      activatable probe 1 with good radiochemical yield and high specific activity. The
      probe has good in vitro stability and favorable cell membrane permeability. A
      controlled condensation reaction was initiated, and self-assembly into
      nanoparticles occurred when the probe was in a reducing environment. Positron
      emission tomography (PET) imaging of the biothiol level in living subjects was
      conveniently and precisely realized using this probe. The present study may
      provide a new platform for the development of "smart" PET tracers for tumor
      imaging.

PMID- 28569907
TI  - Rovibrational quantum dynamical computations for deuterated isotopologues of the
      methane-water dimer.
AB  - Rovibrational states of four dimers formed by the light and the heavy
      isotopologues of the methane and water molecules are computed using a potential
      energy surface taken from the literature. The general rovibrational energy-level
      pattern characteristic to all systems studied is analyzed employing two models of
      a dimer: the rigidly rotating complex and the coupled system of two rigidly
      rotating monomers. The rigid-rotor model highlights the presence of rovibrational
      sequences corresponding to formally negative rotational excitation energies,
      which is explained in terms of the coupled-rotors picture.

PMID- 28569908
TI  - Correction: Supramolecular influence on cis-trans isomerization probed by ion
      mobility spectrometry.
AB  - Correction for 'Supramolecular influence on cis-trans isomerization probed by ion
      mobility spectrometry' by Izabella Czerwinska et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.,
      2016, 18, 32331-32336.

PMID- 28569909
TI  - Direct folding simulation of helical proteins using an effective polarizable bond
      force field.
AB  - We report a direct folding study of seven helical proteins (, Trpcage, , C34,
      N36, , ) ranging from 17 to 53 amino acids through standard molecular dynamics
      simulations using a recently developed polarizable force field-Effective
      Polarizable Bond (EPB) method. The backbone RMSDs, radius of gyrations, native
      contacts and native helix content are in good agreement with the experimental
      results. Cluster analysis has also verified that these folded structures with the
      highest population are in good agreement with their corresponding native
      structures for these proteins. In addition, the free energy landscape of seven
      proteins in the two dimensional space comprised of RMSD and radius of gyration
      proved that these folded structures are indeed of the lowest energy
      conformations. However, when the corresponding simulations were performed using
      the standard (nonpolarizable) AMBER force fields, no stable folded structures
      were observed for these proteins. Comparison of the simulation results based on a
      polarizable EPB force field and a nonpolarizable AMBER force field clearly
      demonstrates the importance of polarization in the folding of stable helical
      structures.

PMID- 28569911
TI  - A rational catalyst design of CO oxidation using the bonding contribution
      equation.
AB  - A rational design of heterogeneous catalysts is an important yet challenging
      task. We show how the bonding contribution equation, a quantitative relation
      between the surface structure and adsorption energy, can be utilized for a
      rational catalyst design. Dozens of catalysts were efficiently designed, and full
      DFT calculations demonstrate that they possess excellent activities.

PMID- 28569912
TI  - Active sites on graphene-based materials as metal-free catalysts.
AB  - Graphenes and related materials have attracted growing interest as metal-free
      catalysts. The present review is focused on describing the active sites that have
      been proposed to be responsible for the catalytic activity observed for such
      systems. It will be shown that diverse defects and chemical functionalities on
      the graphene layers can catalyze reactions, including oxygenated functional
      groups, carbon vacancies and holes, edge effects, and the presence of dopant
      elements. Besides discrete active sites, the catalytic activity arising from the
      collective properties of graphenes as materials by adsorbing substrates and
      reagents and activating them by charge transfer is also commented. The review has
      an introductory general section summarizing the general methodologies that have
      been used to support the proposed structure of the active sites, including
      theoretical calculations, comparison of the catalytic activity of graphene
      samples with different compositions, the use of organic molecules as models of
      the active centers, and selective masking of functional groups. The review is
      concluded with our view on future developments in the field.

PMID- 28569917
TI  - Photoinduced excitation and charge transfer processes of organic dyes with
      siloxane anchoring groups: a combined spectroscopic and computational study.
AB  - Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted significant interest in the
      last few years as effective low-cost devices for solar energy conversion. We have
      analyzed the excited state dynamics of several organic dyes bearing both
      cyanoacrylic acid and siloxane anchoring groups. The spectroscopic properties of
      the dyes have been studied both in solution and when adsorbed on a TiO2 film
      using stationary and time-resolved techniques, probing the sub-picosecond to
      nanosecond time interval. The comparison between the spectra registered in
      solution and on the solid substrate evidences different pathways for energy and
      electron relaxation. The transient spectra of the TiO2-adsorbed dyes show the
      appearance of a long wavelength excited state absorption band, attributed to the
      cationic dye species, which is absent in the spectra measured in solution.
      Furthermore, the kinetic traces of the samples adsorbed on the TiO2 film show a
      long decay component not present in solution which constitutes indirect evidence
      of electron transfer between the dye and the semiconductor. The interpretation of
      the experimental results has been supported by theoretical DFT calculations of
      the excited state energies and by the analysis of molecular orbitals of the
      analyzed dye molecules.

PMID- 28569910
TI  - Cations induce shape remodeling of negatively charged phospholipid membranes.
AB  - The divalent cation Ca2+ is a key component in many cell signaling and membrane
      trafficking pathways. Ca2+ signal transduction commonly occurs through
      interaction with protein partners. However, in this study we show a novel
      mechanism by which Ca2+ may impact membrane structure. We find an asymmetric
      concentration of Ca2+ across the membrane triggers deformation of membranes
      containing negatively charged lipids such as phosphatidylserine (PS) and
      phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2). Membrane invaginations in
      vesicles were observed forming away from the leaflet with higher Ca2+
      concentration, showing that Ca2+ induces negative curvature. We hypothesize that
      the negative curvature is produced by Ca2+-induced clustering of PS and
      PI(4,5)P2. In support of this notion, we find that Ca2+-induced membrane
      deformation is stronger for membranes containing PI(4,5)P2, which is known to
      more readily cluster in the presence of Ca2+. The observed Ca2+-induced membrane
      deformation is strongly influenced by Na+ ions. A high symmetric [Na+] across the
      membrane reduces Ca2+ binding by electrostatic shielding, inhibiting Ca2+-induced
      membrane deformation. An asymmetric [Na+] across the membrane, however, can
      either oppose or support Ca2+-induced deformation, depending on the direction of
      the gradient in [Na+]. At a sufficiently high asymmetric Na+ concentration it can
      impact membrane structure in the absence of Ca2+. We propose that Ca2+ works in
      concert with curvature generating proteins to modulate membrane curvature and
      shape transitions. This novel structural impact of Ca2+ could be important for
      Ca2+-dependent cellular processes that involve the creation of membrane
      curvature, including exocytosis, invadopodia, and cell motility.

PMID- 28569918
TI  - The Rashba effect and indirect electron-hole recombination in hybrid organic
      inorganic perovskites.
AB  - Slow electron-hole recombination, characterized by the bimolecular coefficient k2
      in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs), is a key to their outstanding
      photovoltaic performance. The measured k2 in HOIPs strongly deviates from k2 ? T
      3/2 (T is the temperature) in typical direct-gap semiconductors. Here we show
      that the observed temperature dependence can be quantitatively accounted for by
      phonon-assisted recombination of electrons and holes located at the band extrema,
      which become indirect due to the Rashba effect. Polar optical phonons are most
      effective in facilitating this indirect recombination. The variation in k2 in
      HOIPs among different studies in the literature can be attributed to different
      Rashba strengths in their samples. Our results indicate that the confluence of
      the Rashba effect and polar coupling transform HOIPs into a unique indirect
      semiconductor that can accommodate both strong optical absorption and slow
      carrier dynamics.

PMID- 28569919
TI  - Elevated plasma TFPI activity causes attenuated TF-dependent thrombin generation
      in early onset preeclampsia.
AB  - Early onset preeclampsia (EOP) is a pregnancy-specific proinflammatory disorder
      that is characterised by competing thrombotic and bleeding risks. It was the aim
      of this study to characterise thrombin generation, a major determinant of
      thrombotic and bleeding risk, in order to better understand the haemostatic
      balance in patients with EOP. Patients with EOP were recruited at the Rotunda
      Hospital, Dublin. Twenty-six cases of EOP were recruited over a 21-month period,
      out of 15,299 deliveries at the Rotunda. Blood samples were collected into sodium
      citrate plus corn trypsin inhibitor anticoagulated vacutainers, platelet-poor
      plasma was prepared, and calibrated automated thrombography was used to assess
      thrombin generation. Results were compared to age and sex-matched non-pregnant
      controls (n=13) and age- and gestation-matched pregnant controls (n=20). The rate
      and extent of thrombin generation triggered by low-dose tissue factor (TF) was
      significantly reduced in patients with EOP compared to pregnant controls, most
      significantly in cases of severe EOP. EOP patients displayed a trend towards an
      increased response to endogenous activated protein C and thrombomodulin relative
      to pregnant controls. Plasma tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) activity was
      increased in EOP patients. Inhibition of TFPI abolished the attenuation of
      thrombin generation stimulated by low-dose TF. In conclusion, patients with EOP
      are characterised by an attenuated coagulation response characterised by reduced
      thrombin generation stimulated by low-dose TF and elevated plasma TFPI activity.
      These changes in coagulation may modulate thrombotic risk and bleeding risk in
      patients with EOP.

PMID- 28569920
TI  - Recombinant GPVI-Fc added to single or dual antiplatelet therapy in vitro
      prevents plaque-induced platelet thrombus formation.
AB  - The efficiency of current dual antiplatelet therapy might be further improved by
      its combination with a glycoprotein (GP) VI-targeting strategy without increasing
      bleeding. GPVI-Fc, a recombinant dimeric fusion protein binding to plaque
      collagen and concealing binding sites for platelet GPVI, acts as a lesion-focused
      antiplatelet drug, and does not increase bleeding in vivo. We investigated,
      whether GPVI-Fc added in vitro on top of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), the P2Y12
      antagonist ticagrelor, and the fibrinogen receptor antagonist abciximab alone or
      in combination would increase inhibition of platelet activation by
      atherosclerotic plaque. Under static conditions, GPVI-Fc inhibited plaque-induced
      platelet aggregation by 53 %, and increased platelet inhibition by ASA (51 %) and
      ticagrelor (64 %) to 66 % and 80 %, respectively. Under arterial flow, GPVI-Fc
      inhibited plaque-induced platelet aggregation by 57 %, and significantly
      increased platelet inhibition by ASA (28 %) and ticagrelor (47 %) to about 81 %
      each. The triple combination of GPVI-Fc, ASA and ticagrelor achieved almost
      complete inhibition of plaque-induced platelet aggregation (93 %). GPVI-Fc alone
      or in combination with ASA or ticagrelor did not increase closure time measured
      by the platelet function analyzer (PFA)-200. GPVI-Fc added on top of abciximab, a
      clinically used anti-fibrinogen receptor antibody which blocks platelet
      aggregation, strongly inhibited total (81 %) and stable (89 %) platelet adhesion.
      We conclude that GPVI-Fc added on top of single or dual antiplatelet therapy with
      ASA and/or a P2Y12 antagonist is likely to improve anti-atherothrombotic
      protection without increasing bleeding risk. In contrast, the strong inhibition
      of platelet adhesion by GPVI-Fc in combination with GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors could
      be harmful.

PMID- 28569921
TI  - Microvesicles in vascular homeostasis and diseases. Position Paper of the
      European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group on Atherosclerosis and
      Vascular Biology.
AB  - Microvesicles are members of the family of extracellular vesicles shed from the
      plasma membrane of activated or apoptotic cells. Microvesicles were initially
      characterised by their pro-coagulant activity and described as "microparticles".
      There is mounting evidence revealing a role for microvesicles in intercellular
      communication, with particular relevance to hemostasis and vascular biology.
      Coupled with this, the potential of microvesicles as meaningful biomarkers is
      under intense investigation. This Position Paper will summarise the current
      knowledge on the mechanisms of formation and composition of microvesicles of
      endothelial, platelet, red blood cell and leukocyte origin. This paper will also
      review and discuss the different methods used for their analysis and
      quantification, will underline the potential biological roles of these vesicles
      with respect to vascular homeostasis and thrombosis and define important themes
      for future research.

PMID- 28569922
TI  - Thrombin is a selective inducer of heparanase release from platelets and
      granulocytes via protease-activated receptor-1.
AB  - Heparanase, known to be involved in angiogenesis and metastasis, was shown to
      form a complex with tissue factor (TF) and to enhance the generation of factor
      Xa. Platelets and granulocytes contain abundant amounts of heparanase that may
      enhance the coagulation system upon discharge. It was the aim of this study to
      identify the inducer and pathway of heparanase release from these cells.
      Platelets and granulocytes were purified from pooled normal plasma and were
      incubated with ATP, ADP, epinephrine, collagen, ristocetin, arachidonic acid,
      serotonin, LPS and thrombin. Heparanase levels were assessed by ELISA, heparanase
      procoagulant activity assay and western blot analysis. The effects of selective
      protease-activated receptor (PAR)-1 and 2 inhibitors and PAR-1 and 4 activators
      were studied. An in-house synthesised inhibitory peptide to heparanase was used
      to evaluate platelet heparanase involvement in activation of the coagulation
      system. Heparanase was released from platelets only by thrombin induction while
      other inducers exerted no such effect. The heparanase level in a platelet was
      found to be 40 % higher than in a granulocyte. Heparanase released from platelets
      or granulocytes increased factor Xa generation by three-fold. PAR-1 activation
      via ERK intracellular pathway was found to induce heparanase release. In
      conclusion, heparanase is selectively released from platelets and granulocytes by
      thrombin interacting with PAR-1. Heparanase derived from platelets and
      granulocytes is involved in activation of the extrinsic coagulation pathway. The
      present study implies on a potential anticoagulant effect, in addition to anti
      platelet effect, of the new clinically studied PAR-1 inhibitors.

PMID- 28569923
TI  - Interplay between elevated cellular fibronectin and plasma fibrin clot properties
      in type 2 diabetes.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes is associated with faster formation of poorly lysable, denser
      fibrin clots and elevated cellular fibronectin (cFn), a marker of vascular
      injury. We investigated whether cFn affects clot properties in type 2 diabetes.
      In 200 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes and 100 control subjects matched
      for age and sex, we determined plasma cFn along with clot formation and
      degradation using turbidimetric and permeability assays. Diabetic patients had
      elevated cFn (median, 3.99 [interquartile range, 2.87-4.81] ug/ml]), increased
      clot density (MaxAbsC) and prolonged lysis time (LysT) compared with those
      without type 2 diabetes (all p<0.01). Diabetic patients with documented
      cardiovascular disease (CVD, n=127, 63.5 %) had increased cFn (4.53 [3.68-4.95]
      ug/ml), decreased clot permeability (Ks) and increased MaxAbsC compared with
      those without CVD (all p<0.001). Diabetic patients with cFn in the top quartile
      (>4.81 ug/ml) were two times more likely to have CVD compared with those in the
      lowest quartile (odds ratio 1.80, 95 % confidence interval 1.41-2.46, p<0.001).
      No differences in cFn were observed in relation to microvascular complications.
      After adjustment for potential confounders, cFn accounted for 10.2 % of variance
      in Ks, 18.2 % of variance in clot density and 10.2 % of variance in AUC in
      diabetic patients. This study shows that elevated cFn is associated with
      unfavourably modified clot properties in type 2 diabetes, especially with
      concomitant CVD, which indicates novel links between vascular injury and
      prothrombotic alterations in diabetes. Coagulation, cellular fibronectin, type 2
      diabetes, cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28569925
TI  - Research on Primary Care: a necessity and a challenge to health professionals.

PMID- 28569924
TI  - Is a normal computed tomography pulmonary angiography safe to rule out acute
      pulmonary embolism in patients with a likely clinical probability? A patient
      level meta-analysis.
AB  - A normal computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) remains a controversial
      criterion for ruling out acute pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients with a likely
      clinical probability. We set out to determine the risk of VTE and fatal PE after
      a normal CTPA in this patient category and compare these risk to those after a
      normal pulmonary angiogram of 1.7 % (95 %CI 1.0-2.7 %) and 0.3 % (95 %CI 0.02-0.7
      %). A patient-level meta-analysis from 4 prospective diagnostic management
      studies that sequentially applied the Wells rule, D-dimer tests and CTPA to
      consecutive patients with clinically suspected acute PE. The primary outcome was
      the 3-month VTE incidence after a normal CTPA. A total of 6,148 patients were
      included with an overall PE prevalence of 24 %. The 3-month VTE incidence in all
      4,421 patients in whom PE was excluded at baseline was 1.2 % (95 %CI 0.48-2.6)
      and the risk of fatal PE was 0.11 % (95 %CI 0.02-0.70). In patients with a likely
      clinical probability the 3-month incidences of VTE and fatal PE were 2.0 % (95
      %CI 1.0-4.1 %) and 0.48 % (95 %CI 0.20-1.1 %) after a normal CTPA. The 3-month
      incidence of VTE was 6.3 % (95 %CI 3.0-12) in patients with a Wells rule >6
      points. In conclusion, this study suggests that a normal CTPA may be considered
      as a valid diagnostic criterion to rule out PE in the majority of patients with a
      likely clinical probability, although the risk of VTE is higher in subgroups such
      as patients with a Wells rule >6 points for which a closer follow-up should be
      considered.

PMID- 28569926
TI  - Spirituality and Religiosity in Elderly Adults with Chronic Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to explore the relationship between spirituality and
      religiosity in elderly adults with chronic disease. METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional cohort study with a representative sample of 229 elderly adults with
      chronic disease registered in 12 life centers in the city of Cartagena. Reed's
      Spiritual Perspective and Francis' Religiosity scales were applied. RESULTS: Mean
      age was 74.4 years, 62.9% were women, and the most frequent occupations were:
      unemployed (45.9%) and housewives (44.5%); the religion most practiced was
      Catholicism (81.2%). Levels of spirituality and religiosity were high, showing a
      moderate and direct correlation (r = 0.57). CONCLUSION: A directly proportional
      relationship exists between spirituality and religiosity in elderly adults with
      chronic disease.

PMID- 28569927
TI  - Attitudes toward consumer involvement in mental health services: a cross
      sectional survey of Indian medical and nursing undergraduates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the views of medical and nursing undergraduates
      regarding consumer involvement in mental health services. METHODS: A descriptive
      cross sectional survey was conducted in Bangalore, South India, among medical
      (n=155) and nursing (n=116) undergraduates using self-reported the Mental Health
      Consumer Participation Questionnaire of Happell et al. ''Mental health consumer''
      or ''consumer'' is defined as a person who is currently using mental health
      services as either an in-patient or out-patient. RESULTS: The overall mean score
      on Mental Health Consumer Participation Questionnaire (54.1+/-6.7) implies that
      64% of the participants hold positive attitudes towards consumer involvement in
      mental health services. Medical students possessed more positive attitudes than
      nursing in: consumer capacity (p<0.001), consumer as staff (p< 0.001) and overall
      score on mental health consumer participation questionnaire (t=6.892, p<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that majority of the participants hold positive
      attitudes towards mental health consumer involvement in health care services.
      However, additional research is urgently required from developing countries to
      understand the effectiveness of involving mental health consumers in academic
      programs at undergraduate level.

PMID- 28569929
TI  - Gender subordination in the vulnerability of women to domestic violence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To create and validate an instrument that identifies women's
      vulnerability to domestic violence through gender subordination indicators in the
      family. METHODS: An instrument consisting on 61 phrases was created, that
      indicates gender subordination in the family. After the assessment from ten
      judges, 34 phrases were validated. The approved version was administered to 321
      health service users of Sao Jose dos Pinhais (Estado de Parana, Brasil), along
      with the validated Portuguese version of the Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) (for
      purposes of separating the sample group - the ''YES'' group was composed of women
      who have suffered violence and the ''NO'' group consisted of women who had not
      suffered violence). Data were transferred into the Statistical Package for the
      Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 22, and quantitatively analyzed using
      exploratory and factor analysis, and tests for internal consistency. RESULTS:
      After analysis (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistics, Monte Carlo Principal
      Components Analysis (PCA, and diagram segmentation), two factors were identified:
      F1 - consisting of phrases related to home maintenance and family structure; F2 -
      phrases intrinsic to the couple's relationship. For the statements that reinforce
      gender subordination, the mean of the factors were higher for the group that
      answered YES to one of the violence identifying issues. CONCLUSIONS: The created
      instrument was able to identify women who were vulnerable to domestic violence
      using gender subordination indicators. This could be an important tool for nurses
      and other professionals in multidisciplinary teams, in order to organize and plan
      actions to prevent violence against women.

PMID- 28569928
TI  - Expectations and satisfaction of pregnant women: unveiling prenatal care in
      primary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the perception of primiparous women about prenatal care in
      Basic Health Units in a municipality in southern Brazil. METHODS: This is a
      qualitative research from the perspective of Social Representation Theory, from
      the following question: How has been the pre-natal care for you? Eighteen
      pregnant women were interviewed. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in three
      categories: Expectation representation about prenatal care; Rescuing the care
      offered in prenatal consultation; Unveiling the (dis) satisfaction with prenatal
      consultation. The prenatal care was apprehended as an essential moment for safe
      pregnancy, although centered on the doctor's figure and guarantee access to early
      laboratory and imaging tests. On the other hand, dissatisfaction was revealed
      from the reception at the entrance to the health unit to the consultations
      access, although some statements suggest timely satisfaction. CONCLUSION:
      Prenatal care did not meet the specific expectations of the study group and
      unveiled that the nurse did not supply it, as a member of the multidisciplinary
      team. The organization of the nursing work process in primary care, related to
      prenatal care, needs to be revisited to promote the effectiveness of its actions.

PMID- 28569930
TI  - Male and female condoms: What do women of a subnormal agglomerate know.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the knowledge about male and female condoms among women
      living in subnormal agglomerate and identify sources of information and
      appropriate care to use. METHODS: Household survey, descriptive, transversal and
      quantitative study with 300 women over 18 of Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brasil, who
      began their sexual life. The systematic sampling plan for data collection was
      used. The interview form included sociodemographic questions and gazed relevant
      aspects of the use of condoms as a preventive measure of sexually transmitted
      infections and AIDS. RESULTS: TV and healthcare professionals were the main
      sources of information. The participants knew more often the male condom features
      compared to women. The care most often mentioned by women as the use of male and
      female condoms were related to the validity, form of openness and conditions of
      packaging and storage of condoms. The largest number of care focused on measures
      taken in the pre-sexual moment. Moreover, care was nonspecific on the female
      condom. CONCLUSION: The participating women have inadequate knowledge on female
      and male condoms. It is necessary that the nursing seek health education
      strategies for improving knowledge about relevant information about male and
      female condoms.

PMID- 28569931
TI  - Caregiver role strain: bi-national study of content validation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate content validity of the diagnosis Caregiver Role Strain.
      METHODS: Content validation of the defining characteristics according to
      Fehring's model was undertaken by 6 Colombian nurses and 9 Brazilian
      counterparts. The relevance of each defining characteristic for the diagnosis was
      assessed using 5-point Likert type scale. The Mann-Whitney test was used to
      estimate differences in assessing the relevance of defining characteristics
      between Brazilian and Colombian nurses. RESULTS: From 36 defining
      characteristics, 22 were identified as major, 13 as secondary and one as
      irrelevant (rash). The content validity index(sum of weighted averages divided by
      the total number of defining characteristics) was 0.79, considered adequate.
      CONCLUSION: Most of the defining characteristics were considered relevant to the
      nursing diagnosis Caregiver Role Strain. These findings reflect consensus among
      specialists from two different countries in relation to the relevance of the
      defining characteristics for this diagnosis.

PMID- 28569932
TI  - Interdisciplinary debate in the teaching-learning process on bioethics: academic
      health experiences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to understand the health of student experiences to
      participate in interdisciplinary discussions in bioethics and know the
      contributions of interdisciplinary methodological resource for the teaching
      learning process at graduation. METHODS: Descriptive study of qualitative
      approach in a public higher education institution of Divinopolis, Minas Gerais,
      Brazil. RESULTS: Three categories of analysis were identified: ''active
      methodologies in the training of a professional critic,'' ''interdisciplinary
      debate as facilitator reflection of bioethics'' and ''feelings and attitudes
      caused by the interdisciplinary debate.'' Discussion. There was a lack of
      approach of bioethical contents in the health curriculum, and the adoption of
      active methodologies provides a better reflection in bioethics, but that requires
      changing paradigms of teachers and educational institutions.

PMID- 28569933
TI  - Use of digital applications in the medicament calculation education for nursing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of the use of digital applications in
      medicament calculation education for nursing students. METHODS: An experimental
      study was developed with a sample of 100 nursing students, who were divided
      randomly into two groups (use of the Calculation Medicines - CalcMed application 
      available free on the Internet, n=50) and control (conventional method of the
      calculator use and pre-math skills, n=50). Both groups were assessed before and
      after the application of the teaching strategy through a test with ten specific
      questions of medicament calculations. RESULTS: The study group showed a mean
      score of 8.14 versus an average of 5.02 in the control group. The average time of
      test execution was faster in the study group compared to the control group (15.7
      versus 38.9 minutes). CONCLUSION: The strategy of using this application
      positively influences learning and enables greater security in the implementation
      of medicament calculations.

PMID- 28569934
TI  - Association between risk factors for hypertension and the Nursing Diagnosis
      overweight in adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify associations between the risk factors for hypertension and
      the nursing diagnosis of overweight in adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional
      study conducted in 2013 with 347 teenagers attending schools in Natal, Rio Grande
      do Norte, Brazil, who answered a form about the socioeconomic profile, physical
      activity, eating habits and family history of disease and who underwent physical
      examination. For analytical analysis, two groups were formed: students with the
      Nursing Diagnosis overweight (n=100) and students without this diagnosis (n=247).
      RESULTS: the risk factors for hypertension associated with the Nursing Diagnosis
      were: abdominal obesity (OR=40.0), food intake rich in sugar and fat (OR=40.0),
      family history of hypertension (OR=6.9), obesity and diabetes (OR=2.0), abnormal
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure (OR=5.5). CONCLUSION: the risk factors for
      hypertension that presented association with the Nursing Diagnosis overweight
      were abdominal obesity, eating habits, family history of diseases and abnormal
      blood pressure. These findings may contribute to prevent hypertension in
      adolescents, in that it directs the gaze of nurses to develop effective measures
      to address these risk factors.

PMID- 28569935
TI  - Impact of educational group strategy to improve clinical and glycemic parameters
      in individuals with diabetes and hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of an educational group strategy to improve
      clinical and glycemic parameters in individuals with diabetes and hypertension.
      METHODS: This descriptive prospective study included 172 individuals living in
      Sao Jose do Rio Preto-SP, Brazil, who were enrolled in a well-integrated
      educational group called HIPERDIA (Record System for Follow-up of Hypertensive
      and Diabetic Individuals) coordinated by a qualified multidisciplinary team. We
      analyzed sociodemographic, anthropometric, clinical, and laboratory data. Data
      were collected in the first, fifth, and eighth meeting of the educational group.
      RESULTS: A total of 68.6% of patients were women, 85.4% were white, 64.0% had an
      incomplete basic education, 47.7% were retired, 79.7% had been diagnosed with
      diabetes for 6 or more years, 9.9% were smokers, and 9.9% used alcohol.
      Individuals' diastolic blood pressure decreased between the fifth and eighth
      meeting (p<0.05). Between the first and fifth meeting, both fasting glucose
      levels (p<0.05) and glycated hemoglobin decreased; the latter continue to drop at
      the fifth and eighth meetings (p<0.001). Anthropometric parameters remained
      unchanged. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that an educational group strategy is
      favorable for controlling diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

PMID- 28569936
TI  - Depressive symptoms in patients with coronary artery disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with
      coronary artery disease in the preoperative period for coronary artery bypass
      surgery (CABG) in Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with
      63 hospitalized patients prior to CABG. Two instruments were used for data
      collection; one for the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, and the
      other to evaluate the presence of depressive symptoms, Beck Depression Inventory
      (BDI). RESULTS: The mean age was 58 years; most were male (60.3%); with a partner
      (81%) low educational level (71.4% attended school through elementary school).
      Among the patients, 36.5% were classified with dysphoria, and 25.4% had some
      degree of depression (6.3% mild, 17.5% moderate, and 1.6% severe). The group of
      patients with lower educational level presented higher depressive symptoms.
      CONCLUSION: Six of every ten patients with coronary artery disease showed
      dysphoria or some degree of depression. The results of this study can support the
      planning of nursing care for patients before and after CABG, as well as the
      development of public health policies to ensure complete, quality care for these
      patients, understanding depression as a variable that can interfere with recovery
      after cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28569937
TI  - Nursing care in postwar Madrid.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the work of the Salus Infirmorum Sisterhood in caring for
      the most underprivileged individuals from the postwar outskirts of Madrid,
      through the voluntary service of the nurses who were part of that Institution.
      METHODS: A historical study based on the analysis of primary sources from the
      Sisterhood's archives. RESULTS: Salus Infirmorum once relied on more than 100
      volunteer nurses who treated over 425-thousand people in 21 parish dispensaries
      located within the neediest neighborhoods of Madrid, providing both preventative
      and curative medical care. Nurses were offered adequate training in exchange for
      the care provided. CONCLUSION: Salus Infirmorum took healthcare to the streets of
      Madrid, treating patients in improvised medical clinics set up in parishes or in
      the patient's own home, as the situation required, in addition to training women
      who otherwise would not have had access to it.

PMID- 28569938
TI  - Depression in pregnancy. Prevalence and associated factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the occurrence of depression during pregnancy and its
      associated factors. METHODS: Epidemiological, quantitative, descriptive and cross
      sectional study, conducted from January to May 2013 with 209 pregnant women in
      the city of Alfenas, State of South Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Hospital Anxiety
      and Depression Scale (HASD) of Zigmond y Snaith and a form for characterization
      of participants were used for data collection. RESULTS: Depression was present in
      14.8% of the pregnant women and was more frequent during the second trimester of
      pregnancy. Depression during pregnancy was significantly associated with number
      of births, number of children, ranking as the number of pregnancies, family
      support, amount of cigarettes smoked per day, consumption of alcohol, use of
      daily medications, history of mental disorder, presence of striking events in the
      last 12 months and history of domestic violence. CONCLUSION: The evaluation of
      depression showed that this disorder is common during pregnancy, and the risk is
      higher among primigravidae women, women who use alcohol, use daily medications,
      have history of mental disorder, have experienced a striking event in the last 12
      months and who have suffered domestic violence. Knowledge of the factors
      associated with occurrence of depression allows early adoption of interventions
      to monitor the mental health of women throughout pregnancy, preventing this and
      other disorders.

PMID- 28569939
TI  - Educational software and improvement of first grade school students' knowledge
      about prevention of overweight and obesity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of educational software to improve first grade
      school students' knowledge about prevention of overweight and obesity. METHODS:
      This non-controlled trial with a before-and-after evaluation was carried out in
      an school located in the municipality of Divinopolis (Brazil) among 71 students
      aged 6 to 10 years. The educational software about prevention of overweight and
      obesity was designed and then validated. The educational intervention comprised
      the use of the software. Before and after of the intervention we applied a
      questionnaire based on the Ten Steps to Healthy Eating for Children, proposed by
      the Brazilian Ministry of Health. RESULTS: Comparing the times before and after
      application of the educational software, we observed statistically significant
      differences in proportion of questions answered correctly by first grade school
      students, mainly concerning daily eating of healthy and unhealthy food, adequate
      preparation of food and importance of exercise. CONCLUSION: This study highlights
      the importance of educational actions using software to build knowledge of first
      grade school students about prevention of overweight and obesity.

PMID- 28569940
TI  - Uncertainty Associated to Parents of Preterm Infants Hospitalized in Neonatal
      Intensive Care Units.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to determine the factors associated to uncertainty in
      parents of preterm newborns hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
      METHODS: This was a cross-sectional analytic study with 117 parents (79 mothers
      and 38 fathers) of preterm newborns hospitalized in three NICUs of Cartagena
      (Colombia). Sociodemographic information was included; the biophysical profile of
      the preterm infant (PTI) and the results from the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness
      Scale. RESULTS: A high level of uncertainty was found in 49.3% of the mothers and
      52.6% of the fathers. The OR lower limits the variables of the parents that were
      associated to uncertainty were: OR = 2.5 not having a partner and OR = 2.3 having
      secondary education, plan OR = 2.8 belonging to socioeconomic levels 1 and 2. In
      the PTI variables, the following were related to uncertainty: weight <1500 gr and
      mechanical ventilation care, with lower limits of the OR of 1.9 and 1.3,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Nurses must incorporate in the care plan the evaluation
      and intervention of uncertainty in fathers and mothers of PTIs hospitalized in
      NICU.

PMID- 28569941
TI  - Representations by Caregivers, Teachers, and Children on Food, Nutrition, Health,
      and School Breakfast Contributions for the "ESNUT" Nutritional Stabilization
      Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to determine the social representations conferred by
      caregivers, teachers, and children to food, health, and nutrition and the school
      breakfast program for children from three to seven years of age in the city of
      San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, through identifying a) knowledge and
      practices and b) meanings attributed on health and nutrition of children from
      three to seven years of age and on the school breakfast program. METHODS: This
      was a qualitative health study. The sample included 33 mothers, 3 grandmothers, 1
      father, 30 children from 3 to 7 years of age, and 8 teachers who signed an
      informed consent. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview and
      treated through content analysis modality thematic analysis. RESULTS: The
      analysis yielded the categories: knowledge on food, the health-feeding relation,
      customs and practices of the child's feeding, and meanings of the school
      breakfast program. CONCLUSION: On the reflection on the representations of the
      different players included in the school breakfast program, elements become
      manifest that would support an educational intervention by nursing, which would
      have to be based on the family as the central figure to provide good nutrition
      and teach good habits.

PMID- 28569943
TI  - Social representations of nurses about professional autonomy and the use of
      technologies in the care of patients with wounds.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the social representations by nurses about professional
      autonomy in the care of patients with wounds and analyze their interfaces with
      the constant incorporation of technologies in this care. METHODS: This is a
      qualitative research, outlined from the Theory and method of social
      representations in its procedural approach and performed with 31 nurses. The
      interviews were submitted to thematic content analysis software NVivo
      instrumentalized by 10. RESULTS: The representational content on autonomy is
      linked mainly to the level of knowledge, power of decision, vocational training
      and institutional factors. The subjects are positioned favorably to the
      incorporation of care technologies in professional practice, which involves
      elements such as cost-effective structure, training, and other resources.
      CONCLUSION: It is concluded that autonomy is configured as a prerequisite for the
      full use of technology and technology is configured as a facilitator for nurses
      to become more autonomous.

PMID- 28569942
TI  - Risk factors associated with treatment abandonment by overweight or obese
      children and adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risk factors associated with treatment abandonment by
      overweight or obese children and adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional study,
      conducted in 2011, at the Childhood Obesity Center, in Campina Grande, Brazil,
      with the records of 208 children and adolescents, between three and 18 years of
      age, divided into two groups: Group I included those who abandoned treatment, and
      Group II included those who did not abandon treatment. RESULTS: Non-adherence was
      significantly associated with higher income (OR=5.8), high maternal education
      (OR=2.4), white skin color (OR=2.9), and obesity (OR=3.6). CONCLUSION: Despite
      the new academic-care approach, the non-adherence to treatment rate was high, and
      was associated with sociodemographic and nutritional factors.

PMID- 28569944
TI  - Breastfeeding Education: disagreement of meanings.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to analyze how educational processes have been
      developed for breastfeeding in a health institution, starting from the meanings
      mothers, families, and health staff construct thereon. METHODS: This was
      qualitative research of ethnographic approach, which included observations during
      the group educational activities of the programs, focal groups, and interviews of
      mothers, their families, and the health staff of a hospital unit in the city of
      Medellin, Colombia. The analysis was guided by the constant comparison method.
      RESULTS: The categories emerging from the data were: 1) breast milk is an ideal
      food. 2) The mothers' experiences influence upon the breastfeeding practice. 3)
      Family beliefs sometimes operate as cultural barriers. 4) Disagreements are
      revealed in the educational process. CONCLUSION: The way educational processes
      have taken place for breastfeeding reveals a break expressed by the scarce
      interaction between the meanings professionals have constructed on the topic and
      those the mothers and their families give to the experience of breastfeeding.

PMID- 28569945
TI  - The Faculty of Nursing. 65 years preparing professionals to care for life.

PMID- 28569946
TI  - Reproductive calendar of the Zenu and Embera indigenous peoples of the Eyabida
      and Chamibida subgroups from Antioquia (Colombia).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to compare the reproductive calendar of the Zenu and
      Embera ethnicities of the Eyabida and Chamibida subgroups in Antioquia, Colombia
      from 2011 to 2013. METHODOLOGY: This was a sociodemographic study of purposive
      sampling through the reproductive history technique, conducted with 165
      indigenous women older than 10 years of age. RESULTS: The reproductive calendar
      is characterized by an age of menarche between 12 and 13 years for both
      ethnicities; entry to union with a partner occurs 30 months and more in all
      groups; the first pregnancy 7.9 months after the entry to union with a partner
      for the Eyabida, 14.0 months for the Chamibida, and 11.3 months for the Zenu; the
      first delivery happens at 15 years of age among the Zenu, at 16 and 17 for the
      Eyabida and Chamibida, respectively. The use of Western contraceptive methods is
      highlighted in the ethnicities. CONCLUSION: For the ethnicities studied, early
      ages of onset of reproductive life are noted, along with the fastness of the
      divergent pattern conserved since the late 1990s for the Chamibida and the
      growing use of contraceptive methods to limit the number of children.

PMID- 28569947
TI  - Care management in nursing within emergency care units.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Understand the conditions involved in the management of nursing care
      in emergency care units. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative research using the
      methodological framework of the Grounded Theory. Data collection occurred from
      September 2011 to June 2012 through semi-structured interviews with 20
      participants of the two emergency care units in the city of Florianopolis,
      Brazil. RESULTS: Hindering factors to care management are: lack of experience and
      knowledge of professionals in emergency services; inadequate number of
      professionals; work overload of emergency care units in the urgent care network;
      difficulty in implementing nursing care systematization, and need for team
      meetings. Facilitating factors are: teamwork; importance of professionals; and
      confidence of the nursing technicians in the presence of the nurse. CONCLUSION:
      Whereas the hindering factors in care management are related to the
      organizational aspects of the emergency care units in the urgency care network,
      the facilitating ones include specific aspects of teamwork.

PMID- 28569948
TI  - Risk factors for prostate cancer, and motivational and hindering aspects in
      conducting preventive practices.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identify risk factors for Prostate Cancer (PC), preventive practices,
      and hindering and motivating factors for disease prevention among workers of a
      public university. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive study, conducted with 92 workers
      who answered a self-administered questionnaire on the variables related to
      sociodemographic characteristics and clinical risk factors, sources of
      information about PC, practices related to prevention, and information on the
      hindering and motivating factors for prevention of the disease. RESULTS: Most
      (95.0%) participants had one or more risk factors for PC; 68.5% underwent
      completion of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test annually at the request of
      the university; 50.0% of participants never performed the digital rectal
      examination (DRE); the main source of information was the media (64.1%); the main
      complicating factor for realization of the yearly preventive screening test was
      the lack of request for examination by their doctor; and the main motivating
      reason was recognition of the severity of the disease. CONCLUSION: Most
      participants had risk factors for the disease, do not perform the DRE, presented
      difficulties in carrying out prevention, and revealed they do not receive
      information about the disease from healthcare professionals, which could in turn
      lead to an erroneous understanding, resulting in hindering factors for practices
      to prevent PC. Thus, health care managers and multidisciplinary teams should
      engage in preventive health care for men in order to initiate preventive
      practices, and clarify any doubts about the disease.

PMID- 28569949
TI  - Relationship between risk stratification, mortality and length of stay in a
      Emergency Hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between risk stratification, mortality
      and hospital length of stay in emergency medical services. METHODOLOGY: A
      prospective cohort study that used the information in the ALERTO database of the
      HOSPUB to know the evolution of patients classified by nurses using the
      Manchester Risk Classification Triage System in the emergency medical services,
      of the Belo Horizonte Municipal Hospital - MG, Brazil. RESULTS: 147,167 patients
      were analyzed, 5.9% were female. The most common risk classification was yellow
      (47.4%), followed by green (36.5%), orange (14.2%), blue (1.3%) and red (0.6%).
      The mean length of stay was less than one day in 95.4% of patients who were
      discharged from the hospital. Thirty percent of the patients classified as red,
      2% of those classified as orange, and 0.3% of those classified as yellow died.
      There was direct a relationship between the severity of patient classification
      and the length of hospital stay. CONCLUSION: The risk classification system used
      by nurses in the hospital was a good predictor of death and hospital length of
      stay for patients admitted to the emergency medical services.

PMID- 28569950
TI  - Assessment of an educational intervention based on constructivism in nursing
      students from a Mexican public university.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention
      centered on the analysis of clinical cases to inquire on conceptual learning in
      students on the theme of nursing care of women with complicated puerperium.
      METHODOLOGY: This was a quasi-experimental study with before and after
      evaluation. Two groups of students participated from the eighth semester of the
      nursing program, which professionalized individuals who were already nursing
      technicians: the study group (n = 33) was taught the theme of nursing care to
      women with complicated puerperium with the case analysis technique and the
      control group (n = 27) received traditional teaching. A self-applied question
      here was used related to the thematic unit, which included three clinical cases
      and the resolution of a total of 37 questions related to set cases. This
      questionnaire was the same applied before and after the intervention. RESULTS:
      The pre-intervention mean score was similar in both groups (26 during the study
      and 27 during the intervention). Upon completing the educational intervention,
      the post-intervention scores were equal in both groups (27 points). The intra
      group analysis showed that in the study group the intervention produced a slight
      change in conceptual learning, which was statistically significant. During the
      post-hoc analysis differences in scores were found in students who worked in
      hospitals with tier three level of care. CONCLUSION: Educational intervention
      favored conceptual learning slightly in the study group. It is necessary to
      explore other intervening variables that propitiate this learning in the program.

PMID- 28569951
TI  - Maternity perception by pregnant women living with HIV.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identify the perceptions of pregnant women living with HIV about
      motherhood and understand the expectations and feelings experienced by these
      women. METHODOLOGY: Study with descriptive design and qualitative approach,
      carried out with 10 pregnant women living with HIV who attend the prenatal
      service of a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The participants
      answered a semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed using the content
      analysis technique. RESULTS: Pregnant women in their descriptions revealed that
      motherhood gives them different perspectives on the present and future. They see
      it as a good thing, a responsibility to care for the child, and consider bearing
      a child to be a gift. CONCLUSION: For pregnant women living with HIV, motherhood
      is a positive experience in their lives. Nurses must be sensitive to the needs of
      this group and aware of their role in health care and preventing any possible
      complications that may affect the mother and her baby.

PMID- 28569952
TI  - Validation of an instrument to assess the homecare competency of the family
      caregiver of a person with chronic disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to develop, validate, and determine the reliability
      of an instrument on Competency in Homecare of the family caregiver of an
      individual with chronic disease. METHODOLOGY: The test validation study was
      carried out in the following phases: 1) literature review; 2) analysis of results
      of programs to help family caregivers in Latin America; 3) exploration of the
      classification of nursing results (NOC) related to the family caregiver and
      discharge; 4) proposal of an instrument of care competence; and 5) psychometric
      tests: apparent validity with 25 family caregivers of individuals with chronic
      disease and six experts in the area; construct validity and reliability through
      internal consistency with 311 family caregivers of chronic patients. RESULTS: The
      instrument on homecare competency of the family caregiver of an individual with
      chronic disease (CUIDAR, for the term in Spanish) has 60 items that inquire on
      six categories: knowledge, uniqueness, instrumentation, enjoyment of life,
      anticipation and relationships, and social interaction. The apparent validity
      evidences clarity, coherence, sufficiency, and relevance of the scale. With the
      factor analysis six components were obtained through the Varimax rotation in
      which most of the items are associated according to the categories proposed. The
      reliability (internal consistency) reported a Cronbach's alpha of 0.96.
      CONCLUSION: The Homecare Competency instrument permits assessing the capacity of
      a family caregiver to care for an individual with chronic disease, proving valid
      and reliable for the Colombian context.

PMID- 28569953
TI  - Knowledge of supplemental folic acid during pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the use of folic acid during pregnancy, as well as the new
      mothers' knowledge about folic acid. METHODOLOGY: Quantitative, descriptive
      exploratory, and prospective study. A total of 198 mothers were interviewed in
      the pediatric outpatient service of Hospital de Base Sao Jose do Rio Preto,
      Brazil. They have taken their children for neonatal screening and formally
      consented to participating in the study. The research project was approved by the
      Research Ethics Committee (350,287). A specific instrument was used for data
      collection. The data were entered into an appropriate spreadsheet and later
      statistically analyzed. Pearson's chi-squared test, p <0.15, was used. RESULTS:
      On average, the interviewed mothers were 25 years old and received less than two
      minimum wages. Most had prenatal in the first quartile and a mean of seven
      appointments, starting the use of folic acid from the 7th to the 9th week of
      gestational age. However, when asked about the importance of folic acid and its
      action, almost the majority was not able to answer. CONCLUSION: Although daily
      acid supplementation is recommended in prenatal care, this study found that
      consumption is inadequate, contributing to the increased risk of fetal
      malformation. Healthcare professionals, especially nurses, should develop
      educational activities for women about the use of folic acid in the pre-gestation
      period and in the first pregnancy trimester.

PMID- 28569954
TI  - Coping with the diagnosis and hospitalization of a child with childhood cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Find out how family members cope with hospitalization due to the
      diagnosis of childhood cancer. METHODOLOGY: This is a descriptive-exploratory
      design study with qualitative data analyses, undertaken in the Support Center for
      Childhood Cancer in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. 10 members of the families of
      children with cancer underwent a semi-structured interview as a resource to
      collect empirical data. Data were submitted to thematic content analysis. Two
      categories emerged: "family coping with diagnosis" and "family coping with
      hospitalization." RESULTS: It was observed that family members suffer deeply and
      cope with the diagnosis of cancer in different manners. In addition,
      psychological stress has a cumulative impact on long periods of hospitalization
      and occurs in the presence of sadness, anxiety, suffering due to the invasive
      procedures the children are submitted to, fear and uncertainties related to
      prognosis. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of cancer and hospitalization process causes
      severe impact on family dynamics. A competent nurse must be aware and sensitive
      to minimize this suffering by listening carefully and providing humanized and
      comprehensive care to children and their families.

PMID- 28569955
TI  - Patient satisfaction with nursing care in an emergency service.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze patient satisfaction with nursing care received at a
      hospital emergency service. METHODOLOGY: This is a quantitative, descriptive,
      cross-sectional study. The sample was composed by 250 patients over 18 years old
      who used an emergency service in the south region of Brazil. Data were collected
      using an identification form and the Patient Satisfaction Instrument. RESULTS:
      Results point to a good level of satisfaction of patients with the nursing care
      received, with the greatest mean found in the technical-professional care domain.
      Satisfaction was significantly associated with the room where the patient was and
      correlated to age, education and the length of stay in the service. CONCLUSION:
      It was concluded that patients have good level of satisfaction with the care
      provided by nurses in emergency service.

PMID- 28569956
TI  - The transition of palliative care from the hospital to the home: a narrative
      review of experiences of patients and family caretakers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to identify, analyze, and synthesize the qualitative
      studies published on the experiences of patients and family caretakers during the
      transition of palliative care from the hospital to the home. METHODOLOGY: A
      narrative review was conducted on the PubMed, Cochrane Central, ScienceDirect,
      Ovid Nursing, CINALH, Scielo, and Bireme databases, from 2000 to 2014. RESULTS:
      After the analysis and comparison of the data, the results were grouped into six
      themes: (1) the dyad and its knowledge regarding the diagnosis and prognosis; (2)
      emotions experienced by the family caretaker and the patient during discharge;
      (3) effective communication among those involved with the care; (4) education for
      the care of the person at home; (5) continuous support to the dyad at home, and
      (6) care overload: social support for the family caretaker. CONCLUSION: Patients
      and relatives in palliative care experience a broad range of needs during the
      transition process from the hospital to the home, which are often not covered by
      healthcare professionals. This review evidences the need to research further on
      the experiences of these families, especially during the stage prior to the
      transfer to the domicile.

PMID- 28569957
TI  - Maternal care at home for children with special needs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the feasibility of home care and difficulties of mothers
      who deliver this care for children with special health needs (CRIANES) and to
      analyze the role of nurses as facilitators of this care. METHODS: This
      descriptive study with a qualitative approach included ten mothers of CRIANES who
      completed a semi-structured interview at a teaching hospital in the municipality
      of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. RESULTS:
      Participants pointed out as difficulties the accessibility of treatment
      facilities and the presence of complex disease. The administration of medicines
      was classified as both easy and difficult. Features that made home care feasible
      were help of the child and preparation of nurses in the hospital context for home
      care. Maternal love helped mothers to overcome difficulties. CONCLUSION:
      Encouragement from the nursing team for centered family care is needed. In
      addition, mothers should be better prepared for the transition from hospital to
      home. The health network needs to be reorganized with inclusion of CRIANES in the
      primary care network in order to reduce the dependency of this population on
      hospitals and to help broaden the social network for CRIANES.

PMID- 28569958
TI  - Education for the unified health system: what do good professors do from the
      perspective of students?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: to analyze the educational practices for the Unified Health System
      performed by good professors, from the perspective of nursing, medical and
      odontology students, based on the Shulman's concepts of knowledge of educational
      ends, purposes, values and their historical and philosophical grounds, at a
      university in southern Brazil. METHODS: A qualitative study with an exploratory
      and analytical approach in which the participants were graduating students,
      interviewed with the aid of vignettes, between October of 2011 and January of
      2012. Data were analyzed based on thematic analysis. RESULTS: it was observed
      that good professors educate for the Unified Health System through the promotion
      of teamwork, interdisciplinary practices, good communication, leadership
      exercises, and promotion of a student's desire to be an agent of change for the
      sake of improvement and guaranteeing the right to health. CONCLUSION: the
      students attribute to professors the responsibility for the performance of these
      practices. Despite their consistency with the Brazilian curriculum guidelines,
      the professors that perform them are seen as a minority.

PMID- 28569959
TI  - Nursing Diagnosis of overweight and related factors in adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to compare the related factors to the
      nursing diagnosis (ND) of overweight in adolescents with and without overweight.
      METHODOLOGY: Transversal study conducted in 2013 with 347 adolescents that
      attended public schools in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, answered a
      questionnaire and had anthroprometric evaluation. The subjects were divided into
      two groups, the group without ND (n=247) and the group with ND (n=100). RESULTS:
      The prevalence of adolescents with ND overweight was 28.8%. The groups presented
      an unsatisfactory frequency of physical activity and a low consumption of healthy
      foods. The group with the ND overweight showed greater chance of consuming sweets
      and fried foods. The group with ND overweight had higher frequency of history
      family of illnesses. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of the ND overweight among
      adolescents in the public schools of Natal constitute a relevant nutritional
      deviance and the associated factors diet and family history disease are an alert
      for nursing in activities of prevention and follow-up for this population.

PMID- 28569960
TI  - Knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward dementia: An
      Indian perspective.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work evaluated nursing students' knowledge and attitudes toward
      individuals with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. METHODOLOGY: This was a
      transversal, descriptive study carried out with a randomly selected group of
      nursing students (N = 122) from Bangalore, India, in 2013. The study used the
      Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge scale (30 questions with true-false options) and
      the Attitude toward Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias scale (20 questions
      scored with seven Likert-type options; the higher the score, the better the
      attitude). RESULTS: The findings revealed that 56% of the questions were answered
      correctly and the average attitude score was 95 +/- 1.5. A negative correlation
      was observed between age and knowledge of dementia (r = -0.323; p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The participants have inadequate knowledge of dementia. However, they
      have positive attitudes towards patients with dementia, giving way to improving
      their knowledge related to this disease. Thereby, there is urgent need to enhance
      the undergraduate study plan with respect to the content of this theme and
      strengthen the attitudes of comprehensive care to individuals with dementia.

PMID- 28569961
TI  - Quality of life of caregivers of octogenarians: a study using the WHOQOL-BREF.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of life of octogenarians and to identify the
      domains related to quality of life and health. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional,
      quantitative study conducted in 2010 in the Family Health Units of Campina
      Grande/PB, Brazil. The study sample consisted of 52 subjects that met the
      eligibility criteria of: 18 years or older, being a lay caregiver of
      octogenarians, and having no apparent cognitive problem. A questionnaire
      containing a sociodemographic section and the WHOQOL-BREF that is composed of two
      questions about the perceptions of quality of life and health, and 24 on the
      physical, psychological, social relationships and environmental domains. The
      Cronbach's-alpha test and the logical regression analysis of the data were
      conducted using SPSS. The project was approved by the Research Committee of the
      Center for Development and Higher Education (CAAE no0490.0.133.000-08). RESULTS:
      The Cronbach's alpha was 0.72, attesting to the reliability of the instrument
      used. The domain scores were: environmental (59.43), psychological (59.01),
      social relationships (46.77) and physical (43.86), whose values indicate
      dissatisfaction of subjects with regard to aspects related to quality of life.
      The environmental domain was correlated with quality of life (p=0.014) and the
      physical domain with perceptions of health (p=0.019); the daily safety and pain
      aspects had the highest correlations with quality of life (p=0.001). CONCLUSION:
      The perception of the caregivers regarding quality of life was not good. The
      environmental and physical domains had the highest correlations with quality of
      life and health.

PMID- 28569962
TI  - Revealing the relationship of couples facing prophylaxis of vertical transmission
      of HIV.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To reveal the behavior of couples who face prophylaxis of vertical
      transmission of HIV. METHODOLOGY: This study, based on Heidegger's theory of
      phenomenology, included 14 participants (7 couples), who received prophylaxis
      against HIV vertical transmission. The study was conducted from February 2011 to
      December 2012 in a prenatal outpatient and child care unit at a hospital in the
      countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. RESULTS: Given the possibility of
      infection and of having a child, the couples revealed the existential movement of
      staying together to face the situation. The couple learn to take care of
      themselves in order to be able to care for and become involved with the baby. In
      this relationship, they teach themselves how to be a family. CONCLUSION: The
      inclusion of men in women's health care process, with both serving as a unit,
      makes it possible to develop assistance in the context of considering the family
      as being a participant in care.

PMID- 28569963
TI  - Families' concerns about the care of children with technology-dependent special
      health care needs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify concerns of family members of Children with Special Health
      Care Needs (CSHCN) as far as care related to using technology, and to discuss
      nurses' performance in the face of these concerns. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative
      descriptive research, developed through February and March 2014, through semi
      structured interviews with six family members, caregivers of technology-dependent
      CSHCN who are followed at a University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The setting
      chosen was the family members' home. Data were submitted to content analysis.
      RESULTS: Concerns were distributed in a timeframe, divided between those
      occurring the moment the family members received the information about the
      technological device needed, then those which arose while accompanying the child
      during hospitalization, and finally those that remained after the hospital
      discharge. CONCLUSION: The family needs information and support from nurses,
      because different concerns emerge throughout the treatment and accompaniment of a
      technology-dependent child.

PMID- 28569964
TI  - Women's primary care nursing in situations of gender violence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identify the actions conducted by primary health care nurses for women
      in situations of domestic violence. METHODOLOGY: Exploratory-descriptive study
      with a qualitative approach. Participants were 17 nurses who worked in the Basic
      Health Unit in a city in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The data was
      collected through semi-structured interviews and the information processing was
      performed using the interview content analysis technique. RESULTS: By acting in a
      context of the violence, the nurses describe some elements and strategies they
      use that allow recognition and action to combat violence, namely: acceptance and
      empathy, establishing a bond of trust between the professional and the woman,
      dialogue, and intent listening. The limitations mentioned by participants were:
      lack of professional training to address the situation, feeling of
      unpreparedness, lack of time for the workload, the professional's difficulty in
      recognizing and dealing with violence given its complexity, low efficiency of the
      service network, and the sense of professional impotence against the gravity and
      complexity involved in violence. CONCLUSION: The participants are not adequately
      prepared to care for women in situations of domestic violence. It is necessary
      that this issue be addressed in the training of nursing professionals.

PMID- 28569965
TI  - Hospitalized child and teenager with chronic diseases: feelings about death.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Analyze the feelings of hospitalized children and adolescents with
      chronic diseases towards death. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative research, with four
      children and one teenager with chronic diseases, aged between 11 and 13 years
      old, who were admitted at a teaching hospital in Brazil, in the period from
      January to March 2009. In-depth interviews were carried out using a ludic
      material for therapeutic purposes, named ''As a guest in the hospital". The
      empirical material was submitted to thematic analysis. RESULTS: Two mains
      meanings were obtained: Feelings of hospitalized children and adolescents with
      chronic diseases dealing with the death of the other; and children and
      adolescents with chronic diseases and the fear of their own deaths.
      Hospitalization makes children and adolescents come across the death of other
      sick people, arousing feelings of sadness, consternation, anxiety, making the
      fear of their own death become a threat. CONCLUSION: The health team needs to be
      attentive to the feelings of hospitalized children and adolescents facing death
      so that they can get the demands, minimizing fears and anguish.

PMID- 28569966
TI  - The father's decision making in home birth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to inquire on the father's role on the decision
      making regarding home birth from the perspective of both partners. METHODOLOGY:
      The design was ethnographic of qualitative nature, conducted in the province of
      Alicante, Spain. A total of 11 couples participated voluntarily in the study. To
      gather the data, the following techniques were used: two life stories, five
      narrations, and in-depth interviews of all the study participants. The data
      obtained were analyzed with the ATLAS-ti v6.2 software. RESULTS: Four fundamental
      categories were obtained: father's attitude, role performed, influencing factors,
      and perception of the woman. Theproposal to carry out the delivery at home tends
      to be made by the woman, but its decision is made jointly. This decision is
      influenced by different factors, like: good evolution of the pregnancy,
      accompaniment by a professional, and the couple's beliefs on the delivery. The
      fathers consider they must be respectful of the woman's decision and accompany
      them during the whole process; the women are comforted by their unconditional
      support and accompaniment, considering it essential. CONCLUSION: The father's
      role is fundamental in the planned decision of having a home birth; a decision
      discussed and mediated by the couple in which their fears and beliefs are
      determinant in their decision. The woman has her partner's support to implement
      her decision.

PMID- 28569967
TI  - Publication among academic staff and students: an analysis from the ethical
      perspective.
AB  - This article analyzes, from the ethical perspective, the authorship of particles
      carried out among students and professors and their potential conflicts. After
      the literature review, it has been found that the Vancouver criteria that should
      be fulfilled for the attribution of authorship of an article are not popularly
      known by students and academic staff. Many problems are posed in this area, among
      which the following are highlighted: ghost writer, honorary author, and incorrect
      assignment in the order authors should appear. The professor-student relationship
      brings with it implicit risks that could lead to conflict, against which it is
      the academician who should be cautious to curtail any ethical fault when
      assigning the authors. The measures recommended to avoid conflicts of authorship
      among students and academic staff are: early assignment of the authors,
      reflection among academicians, education to students/academic staff, and external
      control conducted by journal editors. Conclusion is that lack of awareness of the
      criteria of authorship by academicians and students is the principal problem in
      the attribution of authorships. It is indispensable to improve this knowledge and
      look after the application of said criteria in practice.

PMID- 28569968
TI  - Research and Nursing Education changes to care for the environment.

PMID- 28569969
TI  - Homeless children: Experiences and meanings of the environments they construct.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to learn of the experiences of homeless children and
      understand the meanings they give to environments they construct within these
      spaces. The study took place in Medellin, Colombia in 2015. METHODS: Ours was a
      qualitative research with ethnographic approach. Non-structured interviews and
      observations were conducted; a field diary was kept. RESULTS: The street,
      although a space of public use, is converted by children into their private
      space; they carry in it almost all their activities and construct two big
      environments: that of the street that attracts and educates and that of the work
      that is transitory because it is performed to survive. These children dream with
      an ideal environment that allows them to live quietly. CONCLUSION: Children
      convert the street into a private place where they carry out their daily
      practices: socializing, working, sleeping, having fun, and relaxing, that is, a
      place of social construction.

PMID- 28569970
TI  - The meaning of humanized nursing care for those participating in it: Importance
      of efforts of nurses and healthcare institutions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study sought to understand this study sought to understand the
      meaning of the experience of humanized nursing care from the perspective of
      patients, relatives, and nurses. METHODS: This was an interpretative
      phenomenological study that included 16 adult participants and which was based on
      in-depth interviews to gather the information and on the procedures proposed by
      Cohen, Kahn, and Steeves to analyze the information. RESULTS: Efforts by
      healthcare institutions and nurses are key elements to advance from impersonal
      care toward humanized care because these will permit revising and eliminating the
      barriers present in the current exercise of caring. The results highlight the
      importance of the effort for humanized behavior from nurses, given that because
      they are human beings their behavior in the relationship with patients is not
      always have that connotation. CONCLUSION: Humanized care is not only supported on
      the human condition of nurses or on the institutional intentions, but on
      attitudes and on a disposition focused on the patient's wellbeing. Additionally,
      tensions in nursing care are solved through humanizing efforts.

PMID- 28569971
TI  - Needs of Parents in Caring for Their Children in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to describe the needs of parents to participate in
      caring for their children hospitalized in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
      METHODS: This is a qualitative study based on the ethno-nursing research method
      proposed by Leininger. For data collection and analysis, in-depth open interviews
      were used, along with field notes and enabler guidelines proposed by Leininger:
      stranger-friend, observation, participation, reflexion, and the Sunrise model.
      Parents of children hospitalized in a PICU in the city of Tunja (Boyaca,
      Colombia) participated between February 2012 and October 2013. RESULTS: The needs
      of parents to care for their children were described in the following themes:
      clear and timely communication, familiarization with technology, the value of the
      family, favoring the parent-children interaction during visits, and valuing and
      respecting generic (folk) knowledge. CONCLUSION: The study provides knowledge,
      from the cultural perspective of parents with children hospitalized in PICU, as
      input to plan and develop care actions with them, according to their own needs.

PMID- 28569972
TI  - Nursing outcome "Severity of infection": conceptual definitions for indicators
      related to respiratory problems.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Build conceptual definitions for some indicators of the nursing
      outcome Infection Severity in the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) related
      to respiratory problems, based on scientific evidence of signs and symptoms of
      infection in adults. METHODS: Integrative literature review with search in the
      databases PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS and SCOPUS. Studies whose full texts were
      available, published in Spanish, Portuguese or English, using the descriptors
      infection severity, nursing outcomes classification NOC, respiratory infections
      and respiratory signs and symptoms. RESULTS: Nine publications were analyzed that
      supported the elaboration of the conceptual definitions for eight indicators of
      the Nursing Outcome Infection Severity: purulent drainage, fever, chilling,
      unstable temperature, pain, colonization of drainage cultivation, white blood
      cell count elevation and white blood cell count drop. CONCLUSION: This study
      contributed to understand the terms used in the nursing outcome Infection
      Severity, in order to improve and facilitate the use of the NOC, as it enhances
      the conceptual clarity of the selected indicators with a view to producing better
      scientific evidence.Objetivo.Construir definicoes conceituais para alguns
      indicadores do resultado de enfermagem Gravidade de Infeccao da Nursing Outcomes
      Classification (NOC) relacionados aos problemas respiratorios, a partir de
      evidencias cientificas sobre sinais e sintomas de infeccao em pessoas adultas.
      Metodos. Revisao integrativa da literatura com busca nas bases de dados PubMed,
      CINAHL, LILACS e SCOPUS. Foram incluidos estudos com textos na integra,
      publicados em espanhol, portugues ou ingles, usando os descritores gravidade da
      infeccao, classificacao dos resultados de enfermagem da NOC, infeccoes
      respiratorias, e sinais e sintomas respiratorios. Resultados. Analisaram-se nove
      publicacoes que embasaram a elaboracao das definicoes conceituais de oitos
      indicadores do Resultado de Enfermagem Gravidade de Infeccao: expectoracao
      purulenta, febre, hipotermia, instabilidade da temperatura, dor, colonizacao em
      cultura de expectoracao, elevacao na contagem das celulas brancas e depressao na
      contagem das celulas brancas. Conclusao. O estudo contribuiu para a compreensao
      dos termos utilizados no resultado enfermagem Gravidade de Infeccao, de modo a
      aperfeicoar e facilitar o uso da NOC, a medida que apresenta refinamento do ponto
      de vista conceitual dos indicadores selecionados, de modo a produzir melhores
      evidencias cientificas.

PMID- 28569973
TI  - New demands for primary health care in Brazil: palliative care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Assess the need for incorporation of palliative care in primary health
      care (PHC) through the characterization of users eligible for this type of care,
      enrolled in a program for devices dispensing. METHODS: Descriptive study of case
      series conducted in 14 health units in Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 2012. It was
      included medical records of those enrolled in a program for users with urinary
      and fecal incontinence, and it was applied Karnofsky Performance Scale Index
      (KPS) to identify the indication of palliative care. RESULTS: 141 of the 160
      selected medical records had KPS information. Most cases (98.3%, 138/141) had
      performance below 70% and, therefore, patients were eligible for palliative care.
      The most frequent pathologies was related to chronic degenerative diseases
      (46.3%), followed by disorders related to quality of care during pregnancy and
      childbirth (24.38%). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to include palliative care in
      PHC in order to provide comprehensive, shared and humanized care to patients who
      need this.

PMID- 28569974
TI  - Barriers to prevention of cervical cancer in the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia,
      Brazil.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identify the related factors with the no adhesion of women in
      preventive practices of cervical cancer (CC), in a coverage area of a Family
      Health Team in the city of Porto Velho (Rondonia, Brazil). METHODS: Descriptive,
      cross-sectional study held in 2013. It was applied a questionnaire containing
      questions related to the health belief model (HBM) of the instrument "Champion's
      Health Belief Model Scale", validated and culturally adapted to Brazil, to 286
      women. RESULTS: 87.7% of women state that they have been submitted to prevention
      of CC; Regarding the parameters of the HBM, it was found that 74.5% of the women
      had low scores for the perception of susceptibility to the disease; equal
      percentage of women had an moderate perception of severity; 52.8% have an
      moderate perception of the benefits gained from the examination of prevention;
      and 51.4% have moderate perception of barriers to perform the same test.
      CONCLUSION: the process involving the prevention of CC involves the supply of
      services and availability of skilled professionals. However, the adoption of
      preventive behavior depends not only on external factors, but also own subjective
      factors to women.

PMID- 28569975
TI  - Functional social support in family caregivers of elderly adults with severe
      dependence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to determine functional social support in family
      caregivers of severely dependent elderly adults and its relationship with
      sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. The
      Duke-UNC-11 Functional Social Support questionnaire was applied to 67 family
      caregivers from Family Healthcare Centers in Valdivia (Chile) in 2012. RESULTS:
      Family caregivers perceived low levels of affective social support (49.3%) and of
      trust (98.5%); considering insufficient the information and advice they receive
      related, principally, to the scarce number of people who help, they need to
      establish communication to share their feelings and problems derived from the
      task of caring. These caregivers recognize the support from community healthcare
      centers. Functional social support is correlated to the following variables:
      number of people who live in the home, years of study, age of the caregiver, and
      number of people who help; with this last variable predicting the level of social
      support in its two dimensions. CONCLUSION: Family caregivers of severely
      dependent elderly adults perceive a level of functional social support,
      especially in the dimension of trust. Community nurses must increase the number
      of home visits, evaluate the needs for social support perceived in caregivers,
      and teach coping strategies to mitigate problems that emerge in this work.

PMID- 28569976
TI  - Validation of an instrument to measure tutor performance in promoting self
      directed learning by using confirmatory factor analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work sought to validate and propose an instrument to measure the
      performance of tutors in promoting self-directed learning in students involved in
      processes of problem-based learning. METHODS: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
      was applied to validate the instrument composed of 60 items and six factors (self
      assessment of learning gaps within the United Nations specific context: self
      assessment, reflexion, critical thinking, administration of information, group
      skills), using a sample of 207 students from a total of 279, which comprise the
      student population of the Faculty of Nursing at Universidad de Colima in Mexico.
      (2007). RESULTS: The CFA results demonstrated that the instrument is acceptable
      to measure performance of tutors in promoting self-directed learning, given that
      all the indicators, variances, covariances, and thresholds are statistically
      significant. CONCLUSION: The instrument permits obtaining students' opinions on
      how much professors contribute for them to develop each of the 60 skills
      described in the scale. Lastly, the results could report if professors are
      placing more emphasis in some areas than in other areas they should address
      during the problem-based learning (PBL) process, or if definitely their actions
      are removed from the premises of PBL, information that will be useful for school
      management in decision making on the direction of teaching as a whole.

PMID- 28569977
TI  - Body and Corporality in adolescents and young adults with spinal cord injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the meaning given by adolescents and young adults to the
      changes in their bodies and corporality after a spinal cord injury. METHODS:
      Qualitative study based on symbolic interactionism in which 12 adolescents and
      young adults, who had suffered spinal cord injury 6 months or more before,
      participated. The information was recollected through a series of in-depth
      interviews and field journals. The guidelines proposed by Corbin and Strauss were
      followed for the process of codification and categorization of the data. RESULTS:
      Four categories were identified that describe the meanings given by participants
      to the changes in their bodies and corporality: Transformation of self-image,
      living with contradictions in the relationships with others, withstanding the
      burden of a disability and adapting to the new conditions. CONCLUSION: The
      results allow for the comprehension of the meanings that are given by the people
      who have suffered a spinal cord lesion to their situation. This will in turn open
      the possibility of offering these people a better individual nursing care that
      focuses more on the particular needs, so that both they and their families can be
      helped on their way to adaptation to the new situation.

PMID- 28569978
TI  - Lifestyles of nursing students from a Colombian public university.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the lifestyles of nursing students from a Colombian public
      university. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. 380 students
      answered by self-reporting the adapted version in Spanish of FANTASTIC Lifestyles
      Assessment Questionnaire of Wilson and Ciliska. RESULTS: Lifestyles were poor in
      9.2%, fair in 31.3%, good in 53.7%, and excellent in only 5.8% of the
      participants. Statistically-significant differences of the total mean score were
      not found when comparing with gender, age group, and course year, but were
      detected in two domains by gender: a) physical activity (higher score in men) and
      b) cigarette smoking (higher score in women). CONCLUSION: An important proportion
      of our nursing students has inadequate lifestyles, which means deferred risks for
      the development of chronic diseases. Universities should promote the training of
      the future professionals in nursing with knowledge and skills aimed at healthy
      lifestyles.

PMID- 28569979
TI  - Strategies for neonatal developmental care and family-centered neonatal care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate neonatal developmental care and family-centered care in a
      neonatal unit. METHODS: Participatory action research with a purposive sample of
      health personnel and parents of hospitalized newborn in a Neonatal Unit in Valle
      del Cauca, Colombia. Five focal groups were conducted with seven mothers and 40
      professionals of the unit team, and additionally, 24 non-participant observations
      were conducted about neonatal developmental care and family-centered care. Three
      strategies for promotion were implemented for both approaches and subsequently,
      results were evaluated in terms of practices that take place during neonatal
      care, after the intervention. A quantitative analysis with descriptive statistics
      and a qualitative content analysis were done to process the data. Three
      strategies were implemented: continuing education for professionals, allocation
      of materials for the positioning of the babies and an informative video for the
      parents about how the unit operates. RESULTS: The focus groups and the initial
      observation showed the necessity to enhance knowledge and practices of the
      personnel regarding neonatal developmental care and family-centered care.
      CONCLUSION: The promotion of neonatal developmental care and family-centered care
      generated positive changes in care practices of the professionals in the neonatal
      unit, through the use of education strategies, communication and the provision of
      positioning materials.

PMID- 28569980
TI  - Classification tree for the assessment of sedentary lifestyle among hypertensive.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a classification tree of clinical indicators for the
      correct prediction of the nursing diagnosis "Sedentary lifestyle" (SL) in people
      with high blood pressure (HTN). METHODS: A cross-sectional study conducted in an
      outpatient care center specializing in high blood pressure and Mellitus diabetes
      located in northeastern Brazil. The sample consisted of 285 people between 19 and
      59 years old diagnosed with high blood pressure and was applied an interview and
      physical examination, obtaining socio-demographic information, related factors
      and signs and symptoms that made the defining characteristics for the diagnosis
      under study. The tree was generated using the CHAID algorithm (Chi-square
      Automatic Interaction Detection). RESULTS: The construction of the decision tree
      allowed establishing the interactions between clinical indicators that facilitate
      a probabilistic analysis of multiple situations allowing quantify the probability
      of an individual presenting a sedentary lifestyle. The tree included the clinical
      indicator Choose daily routine without exercise as the first node. People with
      this indicator showed a probability of 0.88 of presenting the SL. The second node
      was composed of the indicator Does not perform physical activity during leisure,
      with 0.99 probability of presenting the SL with these two indicators. The
      predictive capacity of the tree was established at 69.5%. CONCLUSION: Decision
      trees help nurses who care HTN people in decision-making in assessing the
      characteristics that increase the probability of SL nursing diagnosis, optimizing
      the time for diagnostic inference.

PMID- 28569981
TI  - Construction and validation of a virtual learning object on intestinal
      elimination stoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To construct and validate a virtual learning object (VLO) on
      intestinal elimination stoma. METHODS: Applied, descriptive and quantitative
      study. In 2014, eight stoma therapists and eight experts in computer science took
      part of the research. The VLO included four steps: i) planning, ii) construction
      of VLO and changes of content; iii) development of dynamic, and iv) conclusion
      and analysis. The VLO was inserted into the Moodle virtual learning environment.
      The ergonomic and pedagogical validation of the VLO was performed. RESULTS: The
      experts appreciated the VLO satisfactorily, and scored it between good and full
      agreement. CONCLUSION: The VLO on intestinal elimination stoma is a tool that can
      be implemented at undergraduate programs in nursing and continuing education
      programs for nurses in clinical practice, contributing significantly to improve
      the theoretical skills necessary for the care of ostomized people safely, with
      quality and enabling self-care.

PMID- 28569982
TI  - Relationship between wellness and sociodemographic characteristics of caregivers
      of people with cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between wellness and sociodemographic
      characteristics of caregivers of people with cancer. METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional study conducted in Maringa, Parana, Brazil, with 96 caregivers. Data
      were collected between July 2011 and February 2012. A global wellness assessment
      scale was used to measure wellness and data on sociodemographic characteristics
      were gathered using a complementary form. RESULTS: The characteristics associated
      with reduced wellness among caregivers of people with cancer were: being
      separated, being a mother, having a higher education degree, being employed,
      being the sole caregiver, having a family income of up to one minimum wage and
      presenting health problems. CONCLUSION: Some demographic characteristics are
      associated with loss of wellness among these caregivers. Nurses must take this
      information into account when formulating strategies to improve the wellness of
      caregivers, considering their context.

PMID- 28569983
TI  - Patient education among nurses: bringing evidence into clinical applicability in
      Iran.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to present a comprehensive review of the
      literatures describing barriers and facilitators of patient education (PE)
      perceived by Iranian nurses in order to explain clinical applicability of patient
      education. METHODS: Review of the literature was undertaken using the
      international databases including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, ScienceDirect, as well
      as Google Scholar. Also, Persian electronic databases such as Magiran, SID and
      IranMedex were searched. Electronic databases were searched up from conception to
      September 2014 using search terms: "patient education", " patients education",
      "patient teaching", "patient training", "nurse", " nurses", " nursing", " and
      "Iran". Only studies were included that were related to barriers and facilitators
      of PE among Iranian nurses. RESULTS: Twenty-seven studies were included. The main
      influential barriers were categorized into three major areas: 1) Nurse-related
      factors: nursing shortage 2) Administration-related factors: unsupportive
      organizational culture, and 3) Patient-related factors: low compliance. The most
      perceived facilitators were recognized as "increasing, selecting and training
      special nurses for providing PE" and "providing PE courses for nurses and
      appropriate facilities for PE". CONCLUSION: Iranian nurses encounter barriers in
      PE, and the most frequently encountered barriers were related to administration
      factors. These findings have implications for administrators and managers in
      health settings. In order to promote PE among nurses, administrators should
      create a supportive environment and use effective strategies to smooth the
      progress of PE by nurses in their practice in order to ensure optimal outcomes
      for patients.

PMID- 28569984
TI  - Reporting of violence against children and adolescents in a protective
      institution in southern Brazil.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the reports of violence against children
      and adolescents in the period between January 2009 and May 2014 in a municipality
      protection institution of Rio Grande, RS. METHODS: This is a descriptive and
      documentary study with a quantitative approach that analyzed 800 medical records
      of Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance (CREAS), from the
      development of a research instrument containing the study variables. RESULTS: The
      results show that 44.5% of the notifications sent to the protection of organs
      were carried out by family members and evidence of physical signs was the reason
      that triggered them (34%). The dismissing by abandonment of families is very
      present in the institution (36.9%), which possibly supports the maintenance of
      the cycle of violence. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that although
      there were improvements regarding the notification by the family, the number of
      notifications made by the health and education sectors are still reduced, thereby
      increasing the need for more effective and articulated actions in these sectors.

PMID- 28569986
TI  - Correlation of quality of life with knowledge and attitude of diabetic elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of life (QL), knowledge and attitude of the
      elderly with diabetes mellitus (DM) and to correlate the QL with the knowledge
      and the attitude of the elderly. METHOD: It is a cross-sectional study of
      household inquiry type and developed with 296 elderly with DM. The used
      instruments were: World Health Organization Quality of Life Bref (WHOQOL-BREF),
      World Health Organization Quality of Life Old (WHOQOL-OLD), Diabetes Knowledge
      Scale Questionnaire (DKN-A) and Diabetes Attitudes Questionnaire (ATT-19).
      RESULTS: The female were predominant (68.2%), aged from 70 - 79 years old
      (43.9%), married or living with a partner (41.6%), living with their children
      (43.2%), with income of one minimum wage (52.4%), had 4 - 7 years of education
      (32.8%), on diet use and oral hypoglycemic (68.6%) and less than five years
      diagnosis (29.1%). The greater the knowledge and the attitude the higher QL
      scores in physical, psychological, social relationships and environment domains;
      and facets of sensory works, autonomy, and intimacy. CONCLUSION: Educational
      activities need to be worked improving the knowledge and attitude of the elderly
      about the DM.

PMID- 28569985
TI  - Analysis of YouTube videos about urinary catheterization technique of male delay.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the execution of urinary catheterization technique of male
      delay in YouTube videos. METHODS: This is an exploratory research with a
      quantitative approach, performed using the YouTube sharing site. The search of
      the videos was conducted in September 2014, using the controlled descriptor
      "urinary catheterization". RESULTS: 32 videos were analyzed, none were in
      accordance with the standards established in the literature; among the main
      errors highlight the absence of hand washing (78.1%), the absence of the medical
      recording (71.8%), the absence of cleaning and drying of the patient at the end
      of the procedure (71.8%), the incorrect technique during antisepsis (62.5%) and
      the absence of gloves changes (59.3%). CONCLUSION: Although the YouTube sharing
      video site is currently a widespread tool, there is an absence of videos that
      reproduce the technique according to what is recommended in the literature.

PMID- 28569987
TI  - The bond as a soft technology in the daily routine of the Family Health Strategy:
      perception of the user.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the production of a bond between users and
      health care professionals in a Family Health Unit (FHU). METHODS: This was a
      qualitative, descriptive study, with 33 hypertensive and/or diabetic users.
      Interviews were transcribed, analyzed and data were compared to the literature.
      RESULTS: The users who have been accessing the FHU for years stated that the bond
      with professionals has grown weak, it is a fragile bond. When it does exist, it
      is directed toward some professionals in the team. A disruption in the bond was
      also mentioned in some situations, owing to individual issues. Establishment of a
      bond between the user and the health care professionals in the reference FHU
      consists of a soft technology. Therefore, it impacts quality of health care and
      the prevention and management of chronic diseases. CONCLUSION: Establishment of a
      bond is essential for health care professionals to become references for the
      users of health care services.

PMID- 28569988
TI  - Which factors influence women in the decision to breastfeed?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identify the factors that influence women in the decision to
      breastfeed. METHODS: Integrative review. Information was gathered from original
      articles, case studies, theoretical studies, consensus and systematic reviews
      published between 2007-2013 in Spanish, Portuguese and English and recovered in
      the databases MEDLINE and LILACS. The descriptors used in this study were:
      breastfeeding, maternal behavior, risk factors, lactation and newborn. RESULTS:
      Were included 30 articles, grouped into five categories. Factors influencing the
      decision of the breastfeeding woman are a convergence of breastfeeding's
      advantages, benefits and justifications, family, social and professional support,
      sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of women, personal experience and
      family tradition and personal choice. CONCLUSION: The decision to breastfeed by
      women is influenced by a convergence of factors. It is essential the role of
      nursing to encourage women in the decision to initiate and maintain breastfeeding
      her child.

PMID- 28569989
TI  - Stressful situations and factors in students of nursing in clinical practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the risk factors for stress in undergraduate students of
      nursing in clinical practice in a public university in the Northeast region of
      Brazil. METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive study with 116 students from the
      fifth to the ninth period. The bilingual KEZKAK questionnaire, validated for
      Portuguese, was used. Stress was considered to be present when the score was
      equal or superior to 2. RESULTS: The students with stress in clinical practice
      were 18 to 22 years old (2.82 +/- 0.98), women (2.81 +/- 0.96), married (2.80 +/-
      0.97), and who were permanent contracted employees (2.74 +/- 0.94). The factors
      which were most associated with stress were: Lack of competence (2.99 +/- 0.88);
      Impotence and uncertainty (2.98 +/- 0.85); and Patients seeking a closer
      relationship (2.93 +/- 1.01). The students of the sixth period were the most
      vulnerable to stress (2.85+/-0.96). CONCLUSION: The studies showed the main risk
      factors for stress among students of nursing in their clinical practice. These
      results could be used in the development of strategies seeking to reduce stress
      in this context as well as to contribute to promoting mental health.

PMID- 28569990
TI  - Prospective, randomized, multicenter, controlled trial (TRIATHRON 1) on a new
      antithrombogenic hydrophilic dialysis membrane.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hemodialysis treatment requires anticoagulation to prevent
      thrombosis of the dialyzer. The Hydrolink(r) (NV series; Toray) has been designed
      to reduce thrombotic complications by increasing membrane hydrophilic properties.
      Previous studies have confirmed reduced platelet activation, improved removal of
      beta2-microglobulin and excellent small-solute removal. METHODS: We designed a
      prospective, multi-centered, randomized clinical study to compare the
      antithrombogenic effects (platelet count) of NV dialyzers versus conventional
      treatment. To compare the possibility of performing heparin-free dialysis, we
      carried out progressive heparin reduction tests. Patients with an average
      platelet count lower than 170,000 cells/mm3 using standard high flux membranes in
      the 6 months prior to the study were enrolled and randomized. Patients were
      either dialyzed for 6 months without changing the previous membrane (control
      group) or treated with the Hydrolink(r) membrane (NV group). After the third
      week, the heparin reduction test was conducted for 5 weeks in order to assess the
      minimum amount of anticoagulant needed to safely perform a 4-hour dialysis
      treatment. Performance and safety were evaluated measuring platelet count and
      activation, middle-molecule removal rate and nutritional status. RESULTS: We
      found no significant difference in platelet count, platelet activation factors
      beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4 (PF-4), between the groups. More
      patients in the study group reached heparin-free dialysis without clotting events
      during the heparin reduction test. The NV dialyzers displayed anti-thrombogenic
      effects as compared to conventional dialyzers. CONCLUSIONS: The NV dialyzer
      series is safe with no adverse events reported. Further studies are required to
      understand the mechanisms of anti-thrombogenic effects.

PMID- 28569991
TI  - The role of 5-lipoxygenase in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans-induced
      alveolar bone loss.
AB  - AIM: Leukotrienes (LTs) are pro-inflammatory lipid mediators formed by the enzyme
      5-lipoxygenase (5-LO). The involvement of 5-LO metabolites in periodontal disease
      (PD) is not well defined. This study aimed to assess the role of 5-LO in
      experimental PD induced by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa). MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: In vivo experiments were carried out using SV129 wild-type (WT) and
      5-LO-deficient (5lo-/- ) mice inoculated with Aa. Osteoclasts were stimulated in
      vitro with AaLPS in the presence or not of selective inhibitors of the 5-LO
      pathway, or LTB4 or platelet-activating factor (PAF), as PAF has already been
      shown to increase osteoclast activity. RESULTS: In 5lo-/- mice, there were no
      loss of alveolar bone and less TRAP-positive osteoclasts in periodontal tissues,
      after Aa inoculation, despite local production of TNF-alpha and IL-6. The
      differentiation and activity of osteoclasts stimulated with AaLPS were diminished
      in the presence of BLT1 antagonist or 5-LO inhibitor, but not in the presence of
      cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist. The osteoclast differentiation induced
      by PAF was impaired by the BLT1 antagonism. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, LTB4 but
      not CysLTs is important for Aa-induced alveolar bone loss. Overall, LTB4 affects
      osteoclast differentiation and activity and is a key intermediate of PAF-induced
      osteoclastogenesis.

PMID- 28569992
TI  - Technical Note: Detective quantum efficiency simulation of a-Se imaging detectors
      using ARTEMIS.
AB  - PURPOSE: This work studies the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) of a-Se-based
      solid state x-ray detectors for medical imaging applications using ARTEMIS, a
      Monte Carlo simulation tool for modeling x-ray photon, electron and charged
      carrier transport in semiconductors with the presence of applied electric field.
      METHODS: ARTEMIS is used to model the signal formation process in a-Se. The
      simulation model includes x-ray photon and high-energy electron interactions, and
      detailed electron-hole pair transport with applied detector bias taking into
      account drift, diffusion, Coulomb interactions, recombination and trapping. For
      experimental validation, the DQE performance of prototype a-Se detectors is
      measured following IEC Testing Standard 62220-1-3. RESULTS: Comparison of
      simulated and experimental DQE results show reasonable agreement for RQA beam
      qualities. Experimental validation demonstrated within 5% percentage difference
      between simulation and experimental DQE results for spatial frequency above 0.25
      cycles/mm using uniform applied electric field for RQA beam qualities (RQA5, RQA7
      and RQA9). Results include two different prototype detectors with thicknesses of
      240 MUm and 1 mm. CONCLUSIONS: ARTEMIS can be used to model the DQE of a-Se
      detectors as a function of x-ray energy, detector thickness, and spatial
      frequency. The ARTEMIS model can be used to improve understanding of the physics
      of x-ray interactions in a-Se and in optimization studies for the development of
      novel medical imaging applications.

PMID- 28569993
TI  - A pretrained neural network shows similar diagnostic accuracy to medical students
      in categorizing dermatoscopic images after comparable training conditions.

PMID- 28569995
TI  - Lymphomatoid papulosis associated with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small
      lymphocytic lymphoma: three cases.

PMID- 28569994
TI  - Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling for Predicting the Effect of
      Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Darunavir or Lopinavir Exposure Coadministered
      With Ritonavir.
AB  - Management of comorbidities and medications is complex in HIV-1-infected
      patients. The overall objective of this project was to develop separate
      physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) substrate models for the protease
      inhibitors darunavir and lopinavir. These protease inhibitors are used in the
      treatment of HIV infection. Both darunavir and lopinavir are coadministered with
      another medication that inhibits cytochrome (CYP) 3A. The current project focused
      on PBPK modeling for darunavir and lopinavir coadministered with ritonavir.
      Darunavir and lopinavir PBPK models that accounted for ritonavir CYP3A inhibition
      effects (linked PBPK models) were developed. The linked PBPK models were then
      used to predict the effect on darunavir or lopinavir exposure from CYP
      modulators. In the next step, the predicted effect of hepatic impairment was
      evaluated. Additional exploratory analyses predicted CYP3A inhibition effects on
      darunavir or lopinavir exposure in simulated hepatically impaired subjects. The
      linked PBPK models reasonably predicted darunavir or lopinavir exposure based on
      simulations with CYP inhibitors or inducers. Exploratory simulations using the
      linked darunavir or lopinavir PBPK models indicated CYP3A inhibition may further
      increase darunavir or lopinavir exposure in patients with hepatic impairment.

PMID- 28569996
TI  - Technical Note: Validation of two methods to determine contact area between
      breast and compression paddle in mammography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the accuracy of two methods of determining the contact area
      between the compression paddle and the breast in mammography. An accurate method
      to determine the contact area is essential to accurately calculate the average
      compression pressure applied by the paddle. METHODS: For a set of 300 breast
      compressions, we measured the contact areas between breast and paddle, both
      capacitively using a transparent foil with indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coating
      attached to the paddle, and retrospectively from the obtained mammograms using
      image processing software (Volpara Enterprise, algorithm version 1.5.2). A gold
      standard was obtained from video images of the compressed breast. During each
      compression, the breast was illuminated from the sides in order to create a dark
      shadow on the video image where the breast was in contact with the compression
      paddle. We manually segmented the shadows captured at the time of x-ray exposure
      and measured their areas. RESULTS: We found a strong correlation between the
      manual segmentations and the capacitive measurements [r = 0.989, 95% CI (0.987,
      0.992)] and between the manual segmentations and the image processing software [r
      = 0.978, 95% CI (0.972, 0.982)]. Bland-Altman analysis showed a bias of -0.0038
      dm2 for the capacitive measurement (SD 0.0658, 95% limits of agreement [-0.1329,
      0.1252]) and -0.0035 dm2 for the image processing software [SD 0.0962, 95% limits
      of agreement (-0.1921, 0.1850)]. CONCLUSIONS: The size of the contact area
      between the paddle and the breast can be determined accurately and precisely,
      both in real-time using the capacitive method, and retrospectively using image
      processing software. This result is beneficial for scientific research, data
      analysis and quality control systems that depend on one of these two methods for
      determining the average pressure on the breast during mammographic compression.

PMID- 28569997
TI  - Impact of spot charge inaccuracies in IMPT treatments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spot charge is one parameter of pencil-beam scanning dose delivery
      system whose accuracy is typically high but whose required value has not been
      investigated. In this work we quantify the dose impact of spot charge
      inaccuracies on the dose distribution in patients. Knowing the effect of charge
      errors is relevant for conventional proton machines, as well as for new
      generation proton machines, where ensuring accurate charge may be challenging.
      METHODS: Through perturbation of spot charge in treatment plans for seven
      patients and a phantom, we evaluated the dose impact of absolute (up to 5* 106
      protons) and relative (up to 30%) charge errors. We investigated the dependence
      on beam width by studying scenarios with small, medium and large beam sizes.
      Treatment plan statistics included the Gamma passing rate, dose-volume-histograms
      and dose differences. RESULTS: The allowable absolute charge error for small spot
      plans was about 2* 106 protons. Larger limits would be allowed if larger spots
      were used. For relative errors, the maximum allowable error size for small,
      medium and large spots was about 13%, 8% and 6% for small, medium and large
      spots, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Dose distributions turned out to be
      surprisingly robust against random spot charge perturbation. Our study suggests
      that ensuring spot charge errors as small as 1-2% as is commonly aimed at in
      conventional proton therapy machines, is clinically not strictly needed.

PMID- 28569998
TI  - Recurrent deep vein thrombosis with a protein S Tokushima mutation.

PMID- 28569999
TI  - Second generation stationary digital breast tomosynthesis system with faster scan
      time and wider angular span.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to characterize a new generation stationary
      digital breast tomosynthesis system with higher tube flux and increased angular
      span over a first generation system. METHODS: The linear CNT x-ray source was
      designed, built, and evaluated to determine its performance parameters. The
      second generation system was then constructed using the CNT x-ray source and a
      Hologic gantry. Upon construction, test objects and phantoms were used to
      characterize system resolution as measured by the modulation transfer function
      (MTF), and artifact spread function (ASF). RESULTS: The results indicated that
      the linear CNT x-ray source was capable of stable operation at a tube potential
      of 49 kVp, and measured focal spot sizes showed source-to-source consistency with
      a nominal focal spot size of 1.1 mm. After construction, the second generation
      (Gen 2) system exhibited entrance surface air kerma rates two times greater the
      previous s-DBT system. System in-plane resolution as measured by the MTF is 7.7
      cycles/mm, compared to 6.7 cycles/mm for the Gen 1 system. As expected, an
      increase in the z-axis depth resolution was observed, with a decrease in the ASF
      from 4.30 mm to 2.35 mm moving from the Gen 1 system to the Gen 2 system as
      result of an increased angular span. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the
      Gen 2 stationary digital breast tomosynthesis system, which has a larger angular
      span, increased entrance surface air kerma, and faster image acquisition time
      over the Gen 1 s-DBT system, results in higher resolution images. With the
      detector operating at full resolution, the Gen 2 s-DBT system can achieve an in
      plane resolution of 7.7 cycles per mm, which is better than the current
      commercial DBT systems today, and may potentially result in better patient
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28570000
TI  - Morphological and molecular characterization of actinic lentigos reveals
      alterations of the dermal extracellular matrix.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Actinic lentigos (AL) are benign hyperpigmented skin lesions
      associated with photoageing. Despite their high prevalence, biological mechanisms
      driving their formation remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: To provide new insights about
      the physiopathology of AL through a comprehensive description of their
      histological and molecular features. METHODS: Quantitative analysis of
      dermoscopic images was used to select AL containing elongated patterns, predicted
      to display a highly deformed dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), on the back of the
      hands of 15 Caucasian women. Biopsies from lesional and adjacent nonlesional (NL)
      areas were processed for histological analysis or gene expression profiling.
      RESULTS: Histological staining confirmed a drastic deformation of the DEJ in AL,
      with deep epidermal invaginations into the dermis. Although the melanin content
      was significantly higher in AL compared with NL epidermis, the distribution of
      melanocytes along the DEJ was unchanged. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a
      signature of 529 genes differently expressed in AL vs. NL skin. Alteration of
      epidermal homeostasis was confirmed by the dysregulation of keratinocyte
      proliferation and differentiation markers. Surprisingly, canonical genes involved
      in melanogenesis were not significantly modulated in AL. A striking finding was
      the overexpression of a large group of genes involved in dermal extracellular
      matrix organization and remodelling. Dermal alterations were confirmed by
      immunolabellings on AL and NL sections. CONCLUSIONS: Drastic disorganization of
      the cutaneous structure in AL is accompanied by a specific molecular signature
      revealing alterations in both epidermal and dermal compartments. In particular,
      our results suggest that local modifications of the dermal extracellular matrix
      might contribute to hyperpigmentation in AL.

PMID- 28570001
TI  - A clinically validated prediction method for facial soft-tissue changes following
      double-jaw surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: It is clinically important to accurately predict facial soft-tissue
      changes prior to orthognathic surgery. However, the current simulation methods
      are problematic, especially in anatomic regions of clinical significance, e.g.,
      the nose, lips, and chin. We developed a new 3-stage finite element method (FEM)
      approach that incorporates realistic tissue sliding to improve such prediction.
      METHODS: In Stage One, soft-tissue change was simulated, using FEM with patient
      specific mesh models generated from our previously developed eFace template.
      Postoperative bone movement was applied on the patient mesh model with standard
      FEM boundary conditions. In Stage Two, the simulation was improved by
      implementing sliding effects between gum tissue and teeth using a nodal force
      constraint scheme. In Stage Three, the result of the tissue sliding effect was
      further enhanced by reassigning the soft-tissue-bone mapping and boundary
      conditions using nodal spatial constraint. Finally, our methods have been
      quantitatively and qualitatively validated using 40 retrospectively evaluated
      patient cases by comparing it to the traditional FEM method and the FEM with
      sliding effect, using a nodal force constraint method. RESULTS: The results
      showed that our method was better than the other two methods. Using our method,
      the quantitative distance errors between predicted and actual patient surfaces
      for the entire face and any subregions thereof were below 1.5 mm. The overall
      soft-tissue change prediction was accurate to within 1.1 +/- 0.3 mm, with the
      accuracy around the upper and lower lip regions of 1.2 +/- 0.7 mm and 1.5 +/- 0.7
      mm, respectively. The results of qualitative evaluation completed by clinical
      experts showed an improvement of 46% in acceptance rate compared to the
      traditional FEM simulation. More than 80% of the result of our approach was
      considered acceptable in comparison with 55% and 50% following the other two
      methods. CONCLUSION: The FEM simulation method with improved sliding effect
      showed significant accuracy improvement in the whole face and the clinically
      significant regions (i.e., nose and lips) in comparison with the other published
      FEM methods, with or without sliding effect using a nodal force constraint. The
      qualitative validation also proved the clinical feasibility of the developed
      approach.

PMID- 28570002
TI  - Role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activation in the pathogenesis of
      periodontitis in diabetes.
AB  - AIM: The aetiology of progressive periodontitis in diabetes has not yet been
      elucidated. We previously demonstrated that nitrosative stress is increased in
      diabetic rats with periodontitis. Nitrosative stress induces poly(ADP-ribose)
      polymerase (PARP) activation. Here, we demonstrated the involvement of PARP
      activation in diabetic periodontitis and detailed the therapeutic effects of PARP
      inhibitor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Experimental periodontitis was induced by
      placing a nylon thread ligature. Half of the normal and diabetic rats received
      the PARP inhibitor, 1,5-isoquinolinediol, for 2 weeks. Gingival PARP activation
      was detected by immunostaining for poly(ADP-ribose). Periodontitis was evaluated
      by gingival inflammatory cell infiltration, inflammatory gene expressions and
      micro-CT analyses. RESULTS: Although both periodontitis and the presence of
      diabetes increased PARP activation in the gingiva, diabetic rats with
      periodontitis had the highest activation of PARP. Diabetic rats with
      periodontitis also showed significant increases in monocyte/macrophage invasion
      into the gingiva, inflammatory gene expressions, nitrotyrosine-positive cells in
      the gingiva and alveolar bone loss, all of which were suppressed by treatment
      with the PARP inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate the involvement of
      PARP activation in the pathogenesis and aggravation of periodontal disease in
      diabetes and suggest the therapeutic potential of PARP inhibition for treating
      periodontal disease, especially in patients with diabetes.

PMID- 28570003
TI  - Age of onset of disease in subjects with severe periodontitis: A 9- to 34-year
      retrospective study.
AB  - AIM: The aim was to retrospectively assess the age of onset of disease in a group
      of patients, 30-45 years of age, diagnosed with severe, generalised
      periodontitis. MATERIAL & METHODS: Seventy-four patients agreed to be part of the
      study. Patient files and radiographs of 42 patients were retrieved from >80
      private and public dental clinics. Interproximal sites in radiographs presenting
      with identifiable cement-enamel junction (CEJ) and alveolar bone crest (BC) were
      analysed. The distance between CEJ and BC was measured, and two thresholds were
      used; >=3 mm and >=5 mm. The lowest patient age at which a radiographic
      examination revealed a CEJ-BC distance of >=3 mm (F3) and >=5 mm (F5) at any site
      was recorded. Similarly, the highest patient age at which a radiographic
      examination revealed absence of sites with CEJ-BC >=3 mm (L0) was assessed.
      RESULTS: Complete sets of radiographs including periods prior to periodontal
      breakdown (L0) and disease stages F3, F5 and at recruitment were retrieved in 19
      patients. Onset of disease, that is, the interval between L0 and F3, occurred on
      the average between 22.3 and 28.1 years of age and sites exhibiting severe bone
      loss (F5) were detected at the age of about 32.4 years. CONCLUSION: Severe,
      generalised periodontitis in 30- to 45-year-old subjects of the current sample
      commenced mainly between 22 and 28 years of age.

PMID- 28570004
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28570006
TI  - Primary conjunctival myxoma: case series and review of the literature.
AB  - AIMS: Myxomas are benign soft tissue tumours resembling primitive mesenchyme.
      They rarely involve ocular structures, and have been recognized in the
      conjunctiva, eyelids, cornea, and orbit. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the clinicopathological features of seven patients with primary conjunctival
      myxoma seen at Dr Luis Sanchez Bulnes Hospital, an ophthalmological referral
      centre in Mexico City. METHODS AND RESULTS: We reviewed the clinical,
      histochemical and immunohistochemical studies of patients with documented myxoma
      of the conjunctiva diagnosed in our hospital. Seven conjunctival myxomas were
      retrieved from 5923 conjunctival biopsies (0.1%). The mean age of patients was 40
      years, with a range of 27-51 years. Females were more frequently affected, and
      none of our patients had systemic disease. The left eye was involved in five
      cases, and most of the lesions were located in the bulbar conjunctiva.
      Histopathological examination revealed a benign tumour composed of spindle-shaped
      and stellate-shaped cells immersed within an abundant mucinous matrix with sparse
      vessels and reticulin fibres. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated positivity for
      vimentin and negativity for smooth muscle actin, SOX10 and GLUT1 in myxoma cells
      of all cases. S100 was found to be positive in four cases, and muscle-specific
      actin in three cases. CONCLUSIONS: Conjunctival myxomas are uncommon tumours. For
      accurate diagnosis, histopathological examination is mandatory. The treatment of
      choice is surgical removal, and the prognosis is excellent.

PMID- 28570007
TI  - Atypical intraductal proliferation and intraductal carcinoma of the prostate on
      core needle biopsy: a comparative clinicopathological and molecular study with a
      proposal to expand the morphological spectrum of intraductal carcinoma.
AB  - AIMS: Atypical intraductal proliferation (AIP) of the prostate is histologically
      worse than high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia, but lacks the
      diagnostic criteria of intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P). The aim of
      this study was to compare the clinicopathological and molecular characteristics
      (ERG overexpression and PTEN loss) of AIP and IDC-P in core needle biopsies.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred and six [84 (5.6%) of 1480 consecutive and 22
      retrospectively collected] cases met the criteria: AIP only (2.4%), IDC-P only
      (1.3%), and IDC-P coexisting with AIP (2%). Invasive adenocarcinoma [prostate
      adenocarcinoma (PCa)] was present in 96% and 97% cases of AIP and IDC-P,
      respectively. The mean number of glands/focus and the largest gland diameter for
      AIP and IDC-P were 7.6 (range, 2-27) and 11.7 (range, 1-51), and 0.59 mm (range,
      0.2-1.1 mm) and 0.75 mm (range, 0.2-1.8 mm), respectively. For AIP, loose
      cribriform architecture was the most common (93%) morphology. IDC-P-associated
      PCa had more aggressive pathology, including the highest combined Gleason score
      (GS), high-grade GS >= 4 + 3, and largest percentage involvement of core by PCa
      and percentage positive cores, than AIP-associated PCa (P < 0.05). Within the AIP
      group, ERG status and PTEN status were similar to those of adjacent PCa in 97%
      and 88% of cases, respectively. Within the IDC-P group, ERG status and PTEN
      status were similar among IDC-P, AIP and PCa in 96% and 91% of cases,
      respectively. PTEN loss was frequently heterogeneous in PCa, and localized
      adjacent to AIP or IDC-P. CONCLUSIONS: AIP represents a lower-grade morphological
      spectrum of IDC-P, associated with intermediate-risk PCa. Patients with only AIP
      need an immediate repeat biopsy to rule out clinically significant PCa.

PMID- 28570008
TI  - A comparison of p53 and WT1 immunohistochemical expression patterns in tubo
      ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
AB  - AIMS: The treatment of patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma
      (HGSC) is increasingly based on diagnosis on small biopsy samples, and the first
      surgical sample is often taken post-chemotherapy. p53 and WT1 are important
      diagnostic markers for HGSC. The effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on p53 and
      WT1 expression has not been widely studied. We aimed to compare p53 and WT1
      expression in paired pre-chemotherapy and post-chemotherapy samples of HGSC.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was carried out for p53 and WT1
      on paired omental HGSC samples pre-chemotherapy and post-chemotherapy. p53 IHC
      was recorded as normal (wild-type) or abnormal (mutation-type), and was further
      classified as overexpression, complete absence, or cytoplasmic. WT1 IHC was
      classified as positive or negative. A subset of cases were further assessed for
      the extent of nuclear immunoreactivity of WT1 by use of the H-score. Fifty-seven
      paired samples were stained with p53. Fifty-six of 57 (98%) cases showed mutation
      type p53 staining. Pre-chemotherapy and post-chemotherapy IHC results were
      concordant in 55 of 57 (96%) cases. For WT1, pre-chemotherapy and post
      chemotherapy IHC results were concordant in 56 of 58 (97%) cases. In 23 paired
      WT1 cases, the mean post-treatment H-score decreased from 227 [range 20-298,
      standard deviation (SD) 64] to 151 (range 0-288, SD 78) (P = 0.0008).
      CONCLUSIONS: Immunohistochemical expression of p53 (abnormal/mutation-type
      pattern) and WT1 in HGSC is almost universal and is largely concordant before and
      after chemotherapy. This finding underscores the reliability of these diagnostic
      markers in small samples and in surgical samples following neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy, with very few exceptions. A novel finding was the significant
      diminution in intensity of WT1 staining following chemotherapy.

PMID- 28570009
TI  - Mucinous cystic neoplasms of the liver and pancreas: relationship between KRAS
      driver mutations and disease progression.
AB  - AIMS: To compare the oncogenic mutation status among mucinous cystic neoplasms
      (MCNs) of different histological grades and between liver and pancreatic MCNs.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: KRAS, GNAS, RNF43 and PIK3CA were sequenced in 25 surgical
      cases of hepatopancreatic MCN. Molecular features were correlated with
      clinicopathological and immunohistochemical findings. KRAS mutations were
      identified in five cases (20%), whereas GNAS, RNF43 and PIK3CA were wild-type in
      all cases. KRAS mutations were uncommon in cases of low-grade dysplasia (1/20,
      5%), whereas KRAS was mutated in all cases of higher grades, except for one liver
      MCN with intermediate-grade dysplasia (4/5, 80%; P = 0.002). This genetic
      alteration was slightly more frequent in the pancreas than in the liver [4/17
      (24%) versus 1/8 (13%), P = not significant]. KRAS-mutated MCNs more commonly had
      a multilocular cystic appearance (P = 0.040) and expression of mucin (MUC) 1 (P =
      0.040), MUC2 (P = 0.016) and MUC5AC (P = 0.015) than KRAS-wild-type tumours. In
      cases of KRAS-mutated MCNs with intermediate-grade or high-grade dysplasia,
      identical mutations were also detected in areas of adjacent low-grade dysplasia.
      CONCLUSIONS: KRAS mutations appear to be major driver genetic alterations in both
      liver and pancreatic MCNs. As identical KRAS mutations were present in low-grade
      and higher-grade areas in individual cases, KRAS mutations occurring in low-grade
      MCNs may lead to tumour progression. Thus, preoperative KRAS testing may
      contribute to estimations of malignant potential. The lower incidence of KRAS
      mutations in liver MCNs may also explain why the risk of malignant transformation
      in liver MCNs is lower than that in pancreatic MCNs.

PMID- 28570010
TI  - Targeting microtubules in axonal re- and degeneration (Commentary on Li et al.
      ()).

PMID- 28570012
TI  - Vancomycin-Dependent Response in Live Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Metabolic
      Labeling.
AB  - The surge in drug-resistant bacterial infections threatens to overburden
      healthcare systems worldwide. Bacterial cell walls are essential to bacteria,
      thus making them unique targets for the development of antibiotics. We describe a
      cellular reporter to directly monitor the phenotypic switch in drug-resistant
      bacteria with temporal resolution. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) escape
      the bactericidal action of vancomycin by chemically modifying their cell-wall
      precursors. A synthetic cell-wall analogue was developed to hijack the
      biosynthetic rewiring of drug-resistant cells in response to antibiotics. Our
      study provides the first in vivo VanX reporter agent that responds to cell-wall
      alteration in drug-resistant bacteria. Cellular reporters that reveal mechanisms
      related to antibiotic resistance can potentially have a significant impact on the
      fundamental understanding of cellular adaption to antibiotics.

PMID- 28570011
TI  - Effect of transcervical arterial ligation on the severity of postoperative
      hemorrhage after transoral robotic surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The value of transcervical arterial ligation during transoral robotic
      surgery (TORS) as a measure to decrease postoperative bleeding incidence or
      severity is unclear. METHODS: A retrospective single institution study was
      performed to identify risk factors for hemorrhage after TORS for oropharyngeal
      squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). RESULTS: Overall, 13.2% of patients (35/265)
      experience postoperative hemorrhage. T classification, perioperative use of
      anticoagulants, surgeon experience >50 cases, and tumor subsite were not
      predictors of postoperative hemorrhage. Of this cohort, 28% underwent
      prophylactic arterial ligation. The overall incidence of bleeding was not
      significantly decreased in patients who underwent arterial ligation (12.1% vs
      13.6%; p = .84). However, arterial ligation significantly reduced the incidence
      of major and severe bleeding events (1.3% vs 7.8%; p = .04). Radiation before
      TORS was a risk factor for major and severe postoperative hemorrhage (p < .02).
      CONCLUSION: Transcervical arterial ligation during TORS may reduce the severity
      of postoperative hemorrhagic events. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck
      39: 1510-1515, 2017.

PMID- 28570013
TI  - Toll-like receptor 2 antagonists identified through virtual screening and
      experimental validation.
AB  - Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) antagonists are key therapeutic targets because they
      inhibit several inflammatory diseases caused by surplus TLR2 activation. In this
      study, we identified two novel nonpeptide TLR2 antagonists, C11 and C13, through
      pharmacophore-based virtual screening. At 10 MUm, the level of interleukin (IL)-8
      inhibition by C13 and C11 in human embryonic kidney TLR2 overexpressing cells was
      comparable to the commercially available TLR2 inhibitor CU-CPT22. In addition,
      C11 and C13 acted in mouse macrophage-like RAW 264.7 cells as TLR2-specific
      inhibitors and did not suppress the tumor necrosis factor-alpha induction by TLR3
      and TLR4 activators. Moreover, the two identified compounds bound directly to the
      human recombinant TLR2 ectodomain, during surface plasmon resonance analysis, and
      did not affect cell viability in a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5(3
      carboxymethonyphenol)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium assay. In total, two
      virtually screened molecules, C11 and C13, were experimentally proven to be
      effective as TLR2 antagonists, and thus will provide new insights into the
      structure of TLR2 antagonists, and pave the way for the development of TLR2
      targeted drug molecules.

PMID- 28570015
TI  - Genomewide patterns of variation in genetic diversity are shared among
      populations, species and higher-order taxa.
AB  - Genomewide screens of genetic variation within and between populations can reveal
      signatures of selection implicated in adaptation and speciation. Genomic regions
      with low genetic diversity and elevated differentiation reflective of locally
      reduced effective population sizes (Ne ) are candidates for barrier loci
      contributing to population divergence. Yet, such candidate genomic regions need
      not arise as a result of selection promoting adaptation or advancing reproductive
      isolation. Linked selection unrelated to lineage-specific adaptation or
      population divergence can generate comparable signatures. It is challenging to
      distinguish between these processes, particularly when diverging populations
      share ancestral genetic variation. In this study, we took a comparative approach
      using population assemblages from distant clades assessing genomic parallelism of
      variation in Ne . Utilizing population-level polymorphism data from 444
      resequenced genomes of three avian clades spanning 50 million years of evolution,
      we tested whether population genetic summary statistics reflecting genomewide
      variation in Ne would covary among populations within clades, and importantly,
      also among clades where lineage sorting has been completed. All statistics
      including population-scaled recombination rate (rho), nucleotide diversity (pi)
      and measures of genetic differentiation between populations (FST , PBS, dxy )
      were significantly correlated across all phylogenetic distances. Moreover,
      genomic regions with elevated levels of genetic differentiation were associated
      with inferred pericentromeric and subtelomeric regions. The phylogenetic
      stability of diversity landscapes and stable association with genomic features
      support a role of linked selection not necessarily associated with adaptation and
      speciation in shaping patterns of genomewide heterogeneity in genetic diversity.

PMID- 28570014
TI  - Metronomic treatment in immunocompetent preclinical GL261 glioblastoma: effects
      of cyclophosphamide and temozolomide.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM) causes poor survival in patients even when applying aggressive
      treatment. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the standard chemotherapeutic choice for GBM
      treatment, but resistance always ensues. In previous years, efforts have focused
      on new therapeutic regimens with conventional drugs to activate immune responses
      that may enhance tumor regression and prevent regrowth, for example the
      "metronomic" approaches. In metronomic scheduling studies, cyclophosphamide (CPA)
      in GL261 GBM growing subcutaneously in C57BL/6 mice was shown not only to
      activate antitumor CD8+ T-cell response, but also to induce long-term specific T
      cell tumor memory. Accordingly, we have evaluated whether metronomic CPA or TMZ
      administration could increase survival in orthotopic GL261 in C57BL/6 mice, an
      immunocompetent model. Longitudinal in vivo studies with CPA (140 mg/kg) or TMZ
      (range 140-240 mg/kg) metronomic administration (every 6 days) were performed in
      tumor-bearing mice. Tumor evolution was monitored at 7 T with MRI (T2 -weighted,
      diffusion-weighted imaging) and MRSI-based nosological images of response to
      therapy. Obtained results demonstrated that both treatments resulted in increased
      survival (38.6 +/- 21.0 days, n = 30) compared with control (19.4 +/- 2.4 days, n
      = 18). Best results were obtained with 140 mg/kg TMZ (treated, 44.9 +/- 29.0
      days, n = 12, versus control, 19.3 +/- 2.3 days, n = 12), achieving a longer
      survival rate than previous group work using three cycles of TMZ therapy at 60
      mg/kg (33.9 +/- 11.7 days, n = 38). Additional interesting findings were, first,
      clear edema appearance during chemotherapeutic treatment, second, the ability to
      apply the semi-supervised source analysis previously developed in our group for
      non-invasive TMZ therapy response monitoring to detect CPA-induced response, and
      third, the necropsy findings in mice cured from GBM after high TMZ cumulative
      dosage (980-1400 mg/kg), which demonstrated lymphoma incidence. In summary, every
      6 day administration schedule of TMZ or CPA improves survival in orthotopic GL261
      GBM with respect to controls or non-metronomic therapy, in partial agreement with
      previous work on subcutaneous GL261.

PMID- 28570016
TI  - Divergent taxonomic and functional responses of microbial communities to field
      simulation of aeolian soil erosion and deposition.
AB  - Aeolian soil erosion and deposition have worldwide impacts on agriculture, air
      quality and public health. However, ecosystem responses to soil erosion and
      deposition remain largely unclear in regard to microorganisms, which are the
      crucial drivers of biogeochemical cycles. Using integrated metagenomics
      technologies, we analysed microbial communities subjected to simulated soil
      erosion and deposition in a semiarid grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. As
      expected, soil total organic carbon and plant coverage were decreased by soil
      erosion, and soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was increased by soil
      deposition, demonstrating that field simulation was reliable. Soil microbial
      communities were altered (p < .039) by both soil erosion and deposition, with
      dramatic increase in Cyanobacteria related to increased stability in soil
      aggregates. amyA genes encoding alpha-amylases were specifically increased (p =
      .01) by soil deposition and positively correlated (p = .02) to DOC, which likely
      explained changes in DOC. Surprisingly, most of microbial functional genes
      associated with carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium cycling were decreased
      or unaltered by both erosion and deposition, probably arising from acceleration
      of organic matter mineralization. These divergent responses support the necessity
      to include microbial components in evaluating ecological consequences.
      Furthermore, Mantel tests showed strong, significant correlations between soil
      nutrients and functional structure but not taxonomic structure, demonstrating
      close relevance of microbial function traits to nutrient cycling.

PMID- 28570017
TI  - User Authorization at the Molecular Scale.
AB  - Electronic user authorization systems help us maintain our privacy in many
      aspects of everyday life. However, the increasing difficulty to secure access
      and/or information digitally has inspired chemists to devise alternative,
      molecular approaches, in which users are identified by chemical means. The
      potential advantages of using molecular user authentication systems over
      conventional electronic devices are their versatility and unusual operating
      principles, which complicate replicating and, consequently, breaking into
      molecular security devices. Their molecular scale is another unique property that
      enables hiding such systems and, consequently, applying steganography as an
      additional layer of protection. Although the area of molecular-based user
      authorization is still in its infancy, the development of various molecular
      keypad locks and, more recently, a password-protected molecular cryptographic
      machine, indicate the possibility of protecting information at the molecular
      scale.

PMID- 28570018
TI  - Surface-Modified Gold Nanoparticles Possessing Two-Channel Responsive EuIII
      /TbIII Cyclen Complexes as Luminescent Logic Gate Mimics.
AB  - The development of material-supported molecular logic gate mimics (MGLMs) for
      contained application and device fabrication has become of increasing interest.
      Herein, we present the formation of ~5 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that have
      been surface-modified (via a thiol linkage) with heptadentate cyclen-based
      complexes of europium and terbium for sensing applications using delayed
      lanthanide luminescence and as integrated logic gate mimics within competitive
      media.

PMID- 28570019
TI  - Clinical assessment of cryoballoon ablation in cases with atrial fibrillation and
      a left common pulmonary vein.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using a cryoballoon (CB) is a useful
      tool for treating atrial fibrillation (AF); however, the clinical efficacy of the
      CB has never been fully investigated in patients with a left common pulmonary
      vein (LCPV). METHODS AND RESULTS: Three hundred twenty-four consecutive
      paroxysmal AF patients underwent PVI with a CB. Three-dimensional computed
      tomography was performed in all patients before the ablation. The clinical
      outcomes of the AF ablation between patients with (Group A) and without an LCPV
      (Group B) were compared. An LCPV was observed in 27 (8%) patients. There were no
      significant differences in the procedure time (149 +/- 45 min vs. 143 +/- 40 min,
      respectively; P = 0.42) and percentage needing touch up ablation between the 2
      groups (26% vs. 20%, respectively; P = 0.45). At a mean follow-up of 454 +/- 195
      days, 282 of 324 (87%) patients were free from any atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATs)
      after a single procedure. Twenty out of 27 (74%) Group A patients and 262 of 297
      (88%) Group B patients were free from ATs (15-month Kaplan-Meier event free rate
      estimates, 77% and 89%, respectively; P = 0.02). A multivariate analysis
      identified the presence of an LCPV and the left atrial diameter as reliable
      predictors of recurrent ATs. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term clinical outcomes of
      ablation of AF with the CB was worse in patients with an LCPV than in those
      without. The presence of an LCPV and the LA size seemed to be reliable predictors
      of a worse outcome.

PMID- 28570021
TI  - Crack abuse-induced recalcitrant ulcers.

PMID- 28570020
TI  - Coordination-Driven Folding in Multi-ZnII -Porphyrin Arrays Constructed on a
      Pillar[5]arene Scaffold.
AB  - Pillar[5]arene derivatives bearing peripheral porphyrin subunits have been
      efficiently prepared from a deca-azide pillar[5]arene building block (17) and
      ZnII -porphyrin derivatives bearing a terminal alkyne function (9 and 16). For
      the resulting deca-ZnII -porphyrin arrays (18 and 20), variable temperature NMR
      studies revealed an intramolecular complexation of the peripheral ZnII -porphyrin
      moieties by 1,2,3-triazole subunits. As a result, the molecules adopt a folded
      conformation. This was further confirmed by UV/Vis spectroscopy and cyclic
      voltammetry. In addition, we have also demonstrated that the coordination-driven
      unfolding of 18 and 20 can be controlled by an external chemical stimulus.
      Specifically, addition of an imidazole derivative (22) to solution of 18 or 20
      breaks the intramolecular coordination at the origin of the folding. The
      resulting molecular motions triggered by the addition of the imidazole ligand
      mimic the blooming of a flower.

PMID- 28570022
TI  - Slow antegrade excitation and delayed retrograde activation through an
      "inexcitable zone": A basis for arrhythmia formation in infarcted myocardium ex
      vivo.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The electrophysiologic mechanism for rate-dependent PVBs associated
      with double potentials (DPs) was investigated in infarcted canine hearts using
      bipolar and intracellular microelectrode recordings. METHODS AND RESULTS: Dogs
      exhibiting rate-related ventricular ectopic beats (coupling interval, 390 +/- 54
      milliseconds) during sinus rhythm or atrial pacing were studied 4-5 days (N = 63)
      or 25 days (N = 16) following anterior descending coronary artery ligation. Sites
      of DP and rate-dependent arrhythmia formation were identified in vivo using
      bipolar recordings for subsequent ex vivo studies. Rate-dependent conduction
      delays with increasing duration isoelectric intervals representing very slow
      conduction were observed at sites of DP formation, frequently provoking both
      manifest and concealed reentry (non-stimulated beats) over a narrow range of
      paced cycle lengths. Both slow antegrade and retrograde activation across an
      inexcitable gap (reflection) were integral components of extrasystole formation.
      Retrograde reflection to a region of very slow conduction (mid-potential) during
      antegrade activation was routinely observed at 4-5 days (42 of 63 preparations,
      67%) and 25 days (22 of 26 preparations, 85%) postcoronary artery ligation.
      Reflection and premature re-activation of the proximal site was then observed in
      6 of 63 (9%), and 3 of 26 preparations (12%). CONCLUSION: The present experiments
      demonstrate DP formation and rate-dependent constant-coupled late epicardial
      premature beats in infarcted dog hearts. Microelectrode recordings at DP sites
      demonstrating prolonged isoelectric intervals display very slow conduction
      preceding distal activation and "reentrant" re-activation of more proximal sites,
      representing reflection as an arrhythmia mechanism in ischemically injured
      epicardium during subacute myocardial infarction.

PMID- 28570024
TI  - Direct and indirect effects of attention and visual function on gait impairment
      in Parkinson's disease: influence of task and turning (Commentary on Stuart et
      al. (2017)).

PMID- 28570023
TI  - Strength, toughness, and reliability of a porous glass/biopolymer composite
      scaffold.
AB  - Development of bioactive glass and ceramic scaffolds intended for the
      reconstruction of large segmental bone defects remains a challenge for materials
      science due to the complexities involved in clinical implantation, bone-implant
      reaction, implant degradation and the multiple loading modes the implants
      subjected to. A comprehensive evaluation of the mechanical properties of
      inorganic scaffolds and exploration of new ways to toughen brittle constructs are
      critical prior to their successful application in loaded sites. A simple and
      widely adopted approach involves the coating of an inorganic scaffold with a
      polymeric material. In this work, a systematic evaluation of the influence of a
      biopolymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), coating on the mechanical performance of
      bioactive glass scaffolds was carried out. Results from this work indicate that a
      biopolymer PCL coating was more effective in increasing the compressive strength
      and reliability of the glass scaffold under compression, but less effective in
      improving its flexural strength or fracture toughness. This is the first report
      that reveals the limited successfulness of a polymer coating in improving the
      toughness of strong scaffolds, suggesting that new and novel ways of toughening
      inorganic scaffolds should be future research directions for scaffolds applied in
      loaded sites. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl
      Biomater, 106B: 1209-1217, 2018.

PMID- 28570025
TI  - Unraveling the Nature of Sites Active toward Hydrogen Peroxide Reduction in Fe-N
      C Catalysts.
AB  - Fe-N-C catalysts with high O2 reduction performance are crucial for displacing Pt
      in low-temperature fuel cells. However, insufficient understanding of which
      reaction steps are catalyzed by what sites limits their progress. The nature of
      sites were investigated that are active toward H2 O2 reduction, a key
      intermediate during indirect O2 reduction and a source of deactivation in fuel
      cells. Catalysts comprising different relative contents of FeNx Cy moieties and
      Fe particles encapsulated in N-doped carbon layers (0-100 %) show that both types
      of sites are active, although moderately, toward H2 O2 reduction. In contrast, N
      doped carbons free of Fe and Fe particles exposed to the electrolyte are
      inactive. When catalyzing the ORR, FeNx Cy moieties are more selective than Fe
      particles encapsulated in N-doped carbon. These novel insights offer rational
      approaches for more selective and therefore more durable Fe-N-C catalysts.

PMID- 28570026
TI  - Purpuric macules and plaques in a patient with myasthenia gravis.

PMID- 28570027
TI  - Structure-Activity Relationship Studies on 6,7-Dimethoxy-2-phenethyl-1,2,3,4
      tetrahydroisoquinoline Derivatives as Multidrug Resistance Reversers.
AB  - A series of derivatives were synthesized and studied with the aim to investigate
      the structure-activity relationships of the two P-glycoprotein (P-gp) modulators
      elacridar and tariquidar. Then, different aryl-substituted amides were inserted,
      and to explore the effects of varying the amide function, the corresponding
      isosteric ester derivatives and some alkylamine analogues were synthesized. The
      new compounds were studied to evaluate their P-gp interaction profile and
      selectivity toward the two other ABC transporters, multidrug-resistance
      associated protein-1 (MRP-1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP).
      Investigation of the chemical stability of the amide and ester derivatives toward
      spontaneous or enzymatic hydrolysis showed that these compounds were stable in
      phosphate-buffered saline and human plasma. This study allowed us to evaluate the
      selectivity of the three series on the three efflux pumps and to propose the
      structural requirements that define the P-gp interaction profile. We identified
      two P-gp substrates, a P-gp inhibitor, and three ester derivatives that were
      active on BCRP, which opens a new scenario in the development of ligands active
      toward this pump.

PMID- 28570029
TI  - Plasticity contributes to a fine-scale depth gradient in sticklebacks' visual
      system.
AB  - The light environment influences an animal's ability to forage, evade predators,
      and find mates, and consequently is known to drive local adaptation of visual
      systems. However, the light environment may also vary over fine spatial scales at
      which genetic adaptation is difficult. For instance, in aquatic systems, the
      available wavelengths of light change over a few metres depth. Do animals
      plastically adjust their visual system to such small-scale environmental light
      variation? Here, we show that in three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus
      aculeatus), opsin gene expression (an important determinant of colour vision)
      changes over a 2-m vertical gradient in nest depth. By experimentally altering
      the light environment using light filters to cover enclosures in a lake, we found
      that opsin expression can be adjusted on a short time frame (weeks) in response
      to the local light environment. This is to our knowledge the smallest spatial
      scale on which visual adjustments through opsin expression have been recorded in
      a natural setting along a continuously changing light environment.

PMID- 28570030
TI  - Swearing and verbal aggression in China: A call to action.

PMID- 28570028
TI  - Transthyretin stability is critical in assisting beta amyloid clearance-
      Relevance of transthyretin stabilization in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The absence of transthyretin (TTR) in AD mice decreases brain Abeta
      clearance and reduces the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1
      (LRP1). It is possible that neuroprotection by TTR is dependent on its tetramer
      structural stability, as studies using TTR mutants showed that unstable L55P TTR
      has low affinity for Abeta, and TTR tetrameric stabilizers such as iododiflunisal
      ameliorate AD features in vivo. METHODS: We firstly investigated TTR folding
      status in human plasma measuring the resistance to urea denaturation. The
      importance of TTR stability on Abeta internalization was studied in human
      cerebral microvascular endothelial (hCMEC/D3) and hepatoma cells (HepG2), by flow
      cytometry. To investigate the fate of Abeta at the blood-brain barrier, Abeta
      efflux from hCMEC/D3 cells seeded on transwells was measured using ELISA.
      Further, to assess Abeta colocalization with lysosomes, Lysotracker was used.
      Moreover, levels of LRP1 were assessed in the liver and plasma of mice with
      different TTR backgrounds or treated with iododiflunisal. RESULTS: We showed that
      TTR stability is decreased in AD and that WT TTR and drug-stabilized L55P TTR are
      able to increase uptake of Abeta. Furthermore, measurement of Abeta efflux showed
      that stable or stabilized TTR increased Abeta efflux from the basolateral to the
      apical side. Moreover, HepG2 cells incubated with Abeta in the presence of WT
      TTR, but not L55P TTR, showed an increased number of lysosomes. Further, in the
      presence of WT TTR, Abeta peptide colocalized with lysosomes, indicating that
      only stable TTR assists Abeta internalization, leading to its degradation.
      Finally, we demonstrated that only stable TTR can increase LRP1 levels.
      CONCLUSION: TTR stabilization exerts a positive effect on Abeta clearance and
      LRP1 levels, suggesting that TTR protective role in AD is dependent on its
      stability. These results provide relevant information for the design of TTR-based
      therapeutic strategies for AD.

PMID- 28570031
TI  - Evolution of sociality in spiders leads to depleted genomic diversity at both
      population and species levels.
AB  - Across several animal taxa, the evolution of sociality involves a suite of
      characteristics, a "social syndrome," that includes cooperative breeding,
      reproductive skew, primary female-biased sex ratio, and the transition from
      outcrossing to inbreeding mating system, factors that are expected to reduce
      effective population size (Ne). This social syndrome may be favoured by short
      term benefits but come with long-term costs, because the reduction in Ne
      amplifies loss of genetic diversity by genetic drift, ultimately restricting the
      potential of populations to respond to environmental change. To investigate the
      consequences of this social life form on genetic diversity, we used a comparative
      RAD-sequencing approach to estimate genomewide diversity in spider species that
      differ in level of sociality, reproductive skew and mating system. We analysed
      multiple populations of three independent sister-species pairs of social
      inbreeding and subsocial outcrossing Stegodyphus spiders, and a subsocial
      outgroup. Heterozygosity and within-population diversity were sixfold to 10-fold
      lower in social compared to subsocial species, and demographic modelling revealed
      a tenfold reduction in Ne of social populations. Species-wide genetic diversity
      depends on population divergence and the viability of genetic lineages.
      Population genomic patterns were consistent with high lineage turnover, which
      homogenizes the genetic structure that builds up between inbreeding populations,
      ultimately depleting genetic diversity at the species level. Indeed, species-wide
      genetic diversity of social species was 5-8 times lower than that of subsocial
      species. The repeated evolution of species with this social syndrome is
      associated with severe loss of genomewide diversity, likely to limit their
      evolutionary potential.

PMID- 28570032
TI  - Free-breathing pediatric chest MRI: Performance of self-navigated golden-angle
      ordered conical ultrashort echo time acquisition.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the feasibility and performance of conical k-space trajectory
      free-breathing ultrashort echo time (UTE) chest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      versus four-dimensional (4D) flow and effects of 50% data subsampling and soft
      gated motion correction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two consecutive children
      who underwent both 4D flow and UTE ferumoxytol-enhanced chest MR (mean age: 5.4
      years, range: 6 days to 15.7 years) in one 3T exam were recruited. From UTE k
      space data, three image sets were reconstructed: 1) one with all data, 2) one
      using the first 50% of data, and 3) a final set with soft-gating motion
      correction, leveraging the signal magnitude immediately after each excitation.
      Two radiologists in blinded fashion independently scored image quality of
      anatomical landmarks on a 5-point scale. Ratings were compared using Wilcoxon
      rank-sum, Wilcoxon signed-ranks, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Interobserver
      agreement was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).
      RESULTS: For fully sampled UTE, mean scores for all structures were >=4 (good
      excellent). Full UTE surpassed 4D flow for lungs and airways (P < 0.001), with
      similar pulmonary artery (PA) quality (P = 0.62). 50% subsampling only slightly
      degraded all landmarks (P < 0.001), as did motion correction. Subsegmental PA
      visualization was possible in >93% scans for all techniques (P = 0.27).
      Interobserver agreement was excellent for combined scores (ICC = 0.83).
      CONCLUSION: High-quality free-breathing conical UTE chest MR is feasible,
      surpassing 4D flow for lungs and airways, with equivalent PA visualization. Data
      subsampling only mildly degraded images, favoring lesser scan times. Soft-gating
      motion correction overall did not improve image quality. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2
      Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:200-209.

PMID- 28570034
TI  - Risk factors for vertical transmission of hepatitis E virus infection.
AB  - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection can be vertically transmitted, but the factors
      that transmit the disease to foetuses are still unclear. We studied a total of
      144 pregnant women with HEV infection. Cord blood and newborn samples were taken
      for analysis. Nutritional factors were evaluated on the basis of anthropometric
      parameters and biochemical factors, and HEV viral load was quantified by real
      time PCR. Sequencing of HEV-positive samples was performed. Approximately 14.63%
      (6/41) of pregnant patients with acute liver failure (ALF) died before delivery.
      Vertical transmission was observed in 46.09% (59/128) of HEV-IgM-positive
      mothers. Approximately 23.80% (10/42) of newborns in the acute viral hepatitis
      group and 29.41% (5/17) in the ALF group were positive for HEV-RNA. No
      significant difference was observed in the occurrence of vertical transmission in
      HEV groups. Viral load was found to be a significant predictor for vertical
      transmission of HEV infection adjusted with haemoglobin and folate in derivation
      cohort group. Incorporating these variables, a new score predicting vertical
      transmission of HEV was derived. Using these significant predictors, the
      probability for vertical transmission of HEV was well stratified in the
      validation group (P>.05). In conclusion, viral load was associated with vertical
      transmission of HEV infection. A valid prediction score model was generated that
      was verified in a validation cohort group.

PMID- 28570037
TI  - Families with Young Children in California: Findings from the California Health
      Interview Survey, 2011-2014, by Geography and Home Language.
AB  - Using data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) for the years 2011
      2014, this report presents findings on families with children ages 0-5 years. It
      breaks down differences between urban, suburban, and rural families, and it
      highlights the characteristics of families who speak a language other than
      English in the home. As more than half of families with young children in
      California speak a language other than English in the home, the characteristics
      of dual language households are highlighted. In 1998, California passed the
      California Children and Families Act to improve development for children from the
      prenatal stage to five years of age. One goal of this ongoing commitment is to
      expand our understanding of the social and physical environments that can impact
      a child's well-being and school readiness.

PMID- 28570033
TI  - Quantitative MRI and spectroscopy of bone marrow.
AB  - : Bone marrow is one of the largest organs in the human body, enclosing
      adipocytes, hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for blood cell
      production, and mesenchymal stem cells, which are responsible for the production
      of adipocytes and bone cells. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the ideal
      imaging modality to monitor bone marrow changes in healthy and pathological
      states, thanks to its inherent rich soft-tissue contrast. Quantitative bone
      marrow MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques have been also
      developed in order to quantify changes in bone marrow water-fat composition,
      cellularity and perfusion in different pathologies, and to assist in
      understanding the role of bone marrow in the pathophysiology of systemic diseases
      (e.g. osteoporosis). The present review summarizes a large selection of studies
      published until March 2017 in proton-based quantitative MRI and MRS of bone
      marrow. Some basic knowledge about bone marrow anatomy and physiology is first
      reviewed. The most important technical aspects of quantitative MR methods
      measuring bone marrow water-fat composition, fatty acid composition, perfusion,
      and diffusion are then described. Finally, previous MR studies are reviewed on
      the application of quantitative MR techniques in both healthy aging and diseased
      bone marrow affected by osteoporosis, fractures, metabolic diseases, multiple
      myeloma, and bone metastases. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J.
      Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:332-353.

PMID- 28570038
TI  - Molecular detecting of piroplasms in feeding and questing Ixodes ricinus ticks
AB  - The purpose of this study was to detect piroplasms, which are pathogens of
      veterinary and zoonotic importance in ticks, that were collected from ponies and
      field vegetation and to determine the role of Shetland ponies as potential
      reservoir hosts for piroplasms. A total of 1737 feeding and 371 questing Ixodes
      ricinus collected from horses or vegetation were tested for the presence of
      Babesia and Theileria DNA. Piroplasm 18S rRNA gene amplification was conducted,
      and the obtained amplicons were sequenced. Babesia DNA was detected in only three
      ticks (one tick collected from a pony and two collected from vegetation), and all
      of the obtained sequences had 100% similarity to B. divergens. Theileria DNA was
      not present in the examined ticks. Thus, the above results indicate that ponies
      are probably not essential hosts for the detected species of piroplasms.
      Piroplasm species typical for horses (Babesia caballi and Theileria equi) were
      not detected because I. ricinus is not their vector. The low infection rate of I.
      ricinus with B. divergens shows that the disease risk for the local horse
      population and people associated with pony horses is low, but it demonstrates
      their possible role as a source of human infection in northern Poland.

PMID- 28570035
TI  - Metabolic rewiring in mutant Kras lung cancer.
AB  - Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, reflecting an
      unfortunate combination of very high prevalence and low survival rates, as most
      cases are diagnosed at advanced stages when treatment efficacy is limited. Lung
      cancer comprises several disease groups with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      accounting for ~ 85% of cases and lung adenocarcinoma being its most frequent
      histological subtype. Mutations in Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homologue
      (KRAS) affect ~ 30% of lung adenocarcinomas but unlike other commonly altered
      proteins (EGFR and ALK, affected in ~ 14% and 7% of cases respectively), mutant
      KRAS remains untargetable. Therapeutic strategies that rely instead on the
      inhibition of mutant KRAS functional output or the targeting of mutant KRAS
      cellular dependencies (i.e. synthetic lethality) are an appealing alternative
      approach. Recent studies focused on the metabolic properties of mutant KRAS lung
      tumours have uncovered unique metabolic features that can potentially be
      exploited therapeutically. We review these findings here with a particular focus
      on in vivo, physiologic, mutant KRAS activity.

PMID- 28570039
TI  - Salt-Responsive Bilayer Hydrogels with Pseudo-Double-Network Structure Actuated
      by Polyelectrolyte and Antipolyelectrolyte Effects.
AB  - Development of stimuli-responsive, shape-transformable materials is fundamentally
      and practically important for smart actuators. Herein, we design and synthesize a
      bilayer hydrogel by assembling a polycationic (polyMETAC/HEAA) layer with
      polyelectrolyte effect and a polyzwitterionic (polyVBIPS) layer with
      antipolyelectrolyte effect together. The bilayer hydrogels adopt a pseudo-double
      network structure, and both polyelectrolyte and polyzwitterionic layers have salt
      responsive swelling and shrinkage properties, but in a completely opposite way.
      The resulting polyMETAC/HEAA-polyVBIPS bilayer hydrogels exhibit bidirectional
      bending in response to salt solutions, salt concentrations, and counterion types.
      Such bidirectional bending of this bilayer hydrogel is fully reversible and
      triggered between salt solution and pure water multiple times. The bending
      orientation and degree of the bilayer hydrogel is driven by the opposite volume
      changes between the volume shrinking (swelling) of polyMETAC/HEAA layer and the
      volume swelling (shrinking) of polyVBIPS layer. Such cooperative, not
      competitive, salt-responsive swelling-shrinking properties of the two layers are
      contributed to by the polyelectrolyte and antipolyelectrolyte effects from the
      respective layers. Moreover, an eight-arm gripper made of this bilayer hydrogel
      is fabricated and demonstrates its ability to grasp an object in salt solution
      and release the object in water. This work provides a new shape-regulated,
      stimuli-responsive asymmetric hydrogel for actuator-based applications.

PMID- 28570040
TI  - Self-Assembly of Mesoscopic Peptide Surfactant Fibrils Investigated by STORM
      Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy.
AB  - Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, specifically stochastic reconstruction
      microscopy (STORM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to image the self
      assembly processes of the peptide surfactant I3K. The peptide surfactants self
      assembled into giant helical fibrils with diameters between 5 and 10 nm with
      significant helical twisting. The resolution of the STORM images was 30 nm,
      calculated using the Fourier ring correlation method. STORM compares favorably
      with AFM for the calculation of contour lengths (~6 MUm) and persistence lengths
      (10.1 +/- 1.2 MUm) due to its increased field of view (50 MUm), and its ability
      to image bulk morphologies away from surfaces under ambient solution conditions.
      Two-color STORM experiments were performed to investigate the dynamic process of
      self-assembly after mixing of two separately labeled samples, and the results
      revealed the formation of long nanofibers via end-to-end connections of short
      ones. No evidence was found for significant monomer exchange between the samples,
      and the self-assembled structures were very stable and long-lived.

PMID- 28570041
TI  - Prussian Blue Analogue with Fast Kinetics Through Electronic Coupling for Sodium
      Ion Batteries.
AB  - Alternative battery systems based on the chemistry of sodium are being considered
      to offer sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Herein, a simple and new method
      is demonstrated to enable nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) Prussian blue analogues
      (PBA) nanocrystals to be an excellent host for sodium ion storage by
      functionalization with redox guest molecule. The method is achieved by using
      NiHCF PBA powders infiltrated with the 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinododimethane (TCNQ)
      solution. Experimental and ab initio calculations results suggest that TCNQ
      molecule bridging with Fe atoms in NiHCF Prussian blue analogue leads to
      electronic coupling between TCNQ molecules and NiHCF open-framework, which
      functions as an electrical highway for electron motion and conductivity
      enhancement. Combining the merits including high electronic conductivity, open
      framework structure, nanocrystal, and interconnected mesopores, the NiHCF/TCNQ
      shows high specific capacity, fast kinetics and good cycling stability,
      delivering a high specific capacity of 35 mAh g-1 after 2000 cycles,
      corresponding a capacity loss of 0.035% decay per cycle.

PMID- 28570042
TI  - Anchoring Iodine to N-Doped Hollow Carbon Fold-Hemisphere: Toward a Fast and
      Stable Cathode for Rechargeable Lithium-Iodine Batteries.
AB  - Rechargeable lithium-iodine batteries with abundant raw materials and low cost
      are promising electrochemical energy storage systems. Herein, we demonstrate that
      anchoring iodine to N-doped hollow carbon fold-hemisphere (N-FHS) is highly
      efficient to overcome slow kinetics and low stability of iodine cathode in
      lithium-iodine batteries. For the first time, significant effects of carbon
      framework architecture on the lithium storage performance of iodine cathode are
      studied in detail. Notably, the fold-hemisphere (N-FHS) is more effective than
      the similar architectures, such as hollow sphere (N-S) or hemisphere (N-HS), in
      modifying slow ion transport capability and fast structure deterioration. The
      superior property of iodine@N-FHS is associated with its highly porous structure
      and strong interconnection to iodine. The iodine deterioration mechanism in
      lithium-iodine battery is analyzed, and the deterioration processes of iodine in
      different carbon frameworks during cycling are investigated. This work opens a
      new avenue to solve the key problems in lithium-iodine batteries, allowing it an
      important candidate for energy storage.

PMID- 28570043
TI  - Fabrication of Polymeric Micelles with Aggregation-Induced Emission and Forster
      Resonance Energy Transfer for Anticancer Drug Delivery.
AB  - With the aim of obtaining effective cancer therapy with simultaneous cellular
      imaging, dynamic drug-release monitoring, and chemotherapeutic treatment, a
      polymeric micelle with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) imaging and a Forster
      resonance energy transfer (FRET) effect was fabricated as the drug carrier. An
      amphiphilic conjugate of 1H-pyrrole-1-propanoicacid (MAL)-poly(ethylene glycol)
      (PEG)-Tripp-bearing AIE molecules were synthesized and self-assembled into
      micelles to load the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). Spherical DOX-loaded
      micelles with the mean size of 106 nm were obtained with good physiological
      stability (CMC, 12.5 MUg/mL), high drug-loading capacity (10.4%), and
      encapsulation efficiency (86%). The cellular uptake behavior of DOX-loaded MAL
      PEG-Tripp micelles was visible for high-quality intracellular imaging due to the
      AIE property. The delivery of DOX from the drug-loaded micelles was dynamic
      monitored by the FRET effect between the DOX and MAL-PEG-Tripp. Both in vitro
      (IC50, 2.36 MUg/mL) and in vivo anticancer activity tests revealed that the DOX
      loaded MAL-PEG-Tripp micelles exhibited promising therapeutic efficacy to cancer
      with low systematic toxicity. In summary, this micelle provided an effective way
      to fabricate novel nanoplatform for intracellular imaging, drug-delivery tracing,
      and chemotherapy.

PMID- 28570044
TI  - Control Synthesis of Tubular Hyper-Cross-Linked Polymers for Highly Porous Carbon
      Nanotubes.
AB  - Porous carbon nanotubes (PCNTs) have attracted considerable attention due to
      their large specific surface areas and unique one-dimensional (1D) structures.
      However, most of the reported synthetic strategies for PCNTs are complex and
      expensive. Herein, we present a self-templated, surfactant-free strategy for the
      synthesis of high-quality PCNTs with high surface area by direct carbonization of
      1D hyper-cross-linked polymer nanotubes. The precursors of the 1D hyper-cross
      linked polymer nanotubes were synthesized by FeCl3 catalyzed Friedel-Crafts
      alkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with formaldehyde dimethyl acetal. It was
      found that the monomer concentration and mechanical agitation play crucial roles
      in the formation of the 1D tubular hyper-cross-linked polymer precursor. The tube
      size of the resulting PCNTs could be finely controlled by the aromatic monomers
      with different molecular sizes. The excellent electrochemical performances of the
      supercapacitors fabricated from the PCNTs demonstrate that these PCNTs are
      promising for the electrode materials of high-performance supercapacitors. This
      work highlights that the facile synthetic strategy for PCNTs would open up new
      avenues of porous carbon nanotube materials with promising applications.

PMID- 28570045
TI  - Characterization of DNA Binding by the Isolated N-Terminal Domain of Vaccinia
      Virus DNA Topoisomerase IB.
AB  - Vaccinia TopIB (vTopIB), a 314-amino acid eukaryal-type IB topoisomerase,
      recognizes and transesterifies at the DNA sequence 5'-(T/C)CCTT?, leading to the
      formation of a covalent DNA-(3'-phosphotyrosyl274)-enzyme intermediate in the
      supercoil relaxation reaction. The C-terminal segment of vTopIB (amino acids 81
      314), which engages the DNA minor groove at the scissile phosphodiester,
      comprises an autonomous catalytic domain that retains cleavage specificity,
      albeit with a cleavage site affinity lower than that of the full-length enzyme.
      The N-terminal domain (amino acids 1-80) engages the major groove on the DNA face
      opposite the scissile phosphodiester. Whereas DNA contacts of the N-terminal
      domain have been implicated in the DNA site affinity of vTopIB, it was not known
      whether the N-terminal domain per se could bind DNA. Here, using isothermal
      titration calorimetry, we demonstrate the ability of the isolated N-terminal
      domain to bind a CCCTT-containing 24-mer duplex with an apparent affinity that is
      ~2.2-fold higher than that for an otherwise identical duplex in which the
      pentapyrimidine sequence is changed to ACGTG. Analyses of the interactions of the
      isolated N-terminal domain with duplex DNA via solution nuclear magnetic
      resonance methods are consistent with its DNA contacts observed in DNA-bound
      crystal structures of full-length vTopIB. The chemical shift perturbations and
      changes in hydrodynamic properties triggered by CCCTT DNA versus non-CCCTT DNA
      suggest differences in DNA binding dynamics. The importance of key N-terminal
      domain contacts in the context of full-length vTopIB is underscored by assessing
      the effects of double-alanine mutations on DNA transesterification and its
      sensitivity to ionic strength.

PMID- 28570046
TI  - Novel Green Luminescent and Phosphorescent Material: Semiconductive Nanoporous
      ZnMnO with Photon Confinement.
AB  - A novel green luminescent and phosphorescent material of semiconductive
      nanoporous ZnMnO was synthesized by the thermal nucleation of nanopores in the 20
      period Zn0.93Mn0.07O/Zn0.65Mn0.35O multilayer structure. Nanoporous ZnMnO showed
      an n-type semiconducting property and exhibited an extremely strong green light
      emission in its luminescence and phosphorescence characteristics. This arises
      from the formation of the localized energy level (i.e., green emission band)
      within the energy band gap and the confinement of photons. The results suggest
      nanoporous ZnMnO to have a great potential for the new type of semiconducting
      green phosphors and semiconductor light-emitting diodes with lower thresholds,
      producing an efficient light emission. In-depth analyses on the structural,
      electrical, and optical properties are thoroughly examined, and the formation
      mechanism of nanoporous ZnMnO and the origin of the strong green light emission
      are discussed.

PMID- 28570047
TI  - Scaling Proteome-Wide Reactions of Activity-Based Probes.
AB  - Unified analysis of complex reactions of an activity-based probe with proteins in
      a proteome remains an unsolved challenge. We propose a power expression, rate =
      kobs[Probe]alpha, for scaling the progress of proteome-wide reactions and use the
      scaling factor (0 <= alpha <= 1) as an apparent, partial order with respect to
      the probe to measure the "enzyme-likeness" for a protein in reaction
      acceleration. Thus, alpha reports the intrinsic reactivity of the protein with
      the probe. When alpha = 0, the involved protein expedites the reaction to the
      maximal degree; when alpha = 1, the protein reacts with the probe via an
      unaccelerated, bimolecular reaction. The selectivity (beta) of the probe reacting
      with two proteins is calculated as a ratio of conversion factors (kobs values)
      for corresponding power equations. A combination of alpha and beta provides a
      tiered system for quantitatively assessing the probe efficacy; an ideal probe
      exhibits high reactivity with its protein targets (low in alpha) and is highly
      selective (high in beta) in forming the probe-protein adducts. The scaling
      analysis was demonstrated using proteome-wide reactions of HT-29 cell lysates
      with a model probe of threonine beta-lactone.

PMID- 28570048
TI  - Aerosol Mass Spectrometer for Simultaneous Detection of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons
      and Inorganic Components from Individual Particles.
AB  - Online studies of single airborne particles represent a demanding challenge in
      aerosol chemistry. New technologies that help to unravel the role of ambient
      aerosols in earth climate and to assess local and specific health risks from air
      pollution are highly desired. Of particular relevance are polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAHs) from combustion processes that are associated with both acute
      and long-term health effects. Usually, online single particle analyses apply
      laser desorption/ionization (LDI) in a bipolar mass spectrometer, revealing
      elemental constituents and limited molecular information by detection of both
      positive and negative ions. Approaches for the detection of PAHs from single
      particles have been developed but the elemental information from LDI that allows
      particle classification and source apportionment is lost in that case. Here we
      present a novel laser desorption and ionization method delivering both the PAH
      profile and the inorganic composition from the same, individual particle. Test
      measurements demonstrate the technique's capability to reveal the single-particle
      PAH-distribution in aerosols (mixing state) and its assignment to specific
      pollution sources in a new and direct way.

PMID- 28570049
TI  - Titanium Sulfides as Intercalation-Type Cathode Materials for Rechargeable
      Aluminum Batteries.
AB  - We report the electrochemical intercalation-extraction of aluminum (Al) in the
      layered TiS2 and spinel-based cubic Cu0.31Ti2S4 as the potential cathode
      materials for rechargeable Al-ion batteries. The electrochemical
      characterizations demonstrate the feasibility of reversible Al intercalation in
      both titanium sulfides with layered TiS2 showing better properties. The
      crystallographic study sheds light on the possible Al intercalation sites in the
      titanium sulfides, while the results from galvanostatic intermittent titration
      indicate that the low Al3+ diffusion coefficients in the sulfide crystal
      structures are the primary obstacle to facile Al intercalation-extraction.

PMID- 28570050
TI  - Conductivity Optimization of Tysonite-type La1-xBaxF3-x Solid Electrolytes for
      Advanced Fluoride Ion Battery.
AB  - Use of lithium ion batteries is currently the method of choice when it comes to
      local stationary storage of electrical energy. In the search for an alternative
      system, fluoride ion batteries (FIBs) emerge as a candidate due to their high
      theoretical capacity, and no lithium is needed for its operation. To improve the
      cycling performance and lower the working temperature of a solid-state battery,
      one of the critical components is the electrolyte, which needs advanced
      performance. This paper aims at developing an electrolyte with enhanced ionic
      conductivity for fluoride ions, to be used in a FIB. Tysonite La1-xBaxF3-x (0 <=
      x <= 0.15) solid solutions were synthesized by a facile wet chemical method, and
      its ionic conductivity was analyzed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.
      A composition study shows that the conductivity reaches a maximum of 1.26 * 10-4
      S.cm-1 at 60  degrees C for the La0.95Ba0.05F2.95 pellet sintered at 800  degrees
      C for 20 h, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than that for the as-prepared
      pellet and 2 times higher than the conductivity of sintered ball-milled batches.
      The reason for this dramatic increment is the more efficient decrement of grain
      boundary resistance upon sintering. Morphological, chemical, and structural
      characterizations of solid electrolytes were studied by X-ray diffraction,
      scanning electron microscopy , energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy,
      physisorption by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, and transmission electron
      microscopy. Electrochemical testing was carried out for the FIB cell using
      La0.95Ba0.05F2.95 as electrolyte due to its highest conductivity among the
      compositions, Ce as anode, and BiF3 as a cathode. The cycling performance was
      found to be considerably improved when compared to our earlier work, which used
      the ball-milled electrolyte.

PMID- 28570051
TI  - Cellulose Fibers Constructed Convenient Recyclable 3D Graphene-Formicary-like
      delta-Bi2O3 Aerogels for the Selective Capture of Iodide.
AB  - Radioiodine is highly radioactive and acutely toxic, which can be a serious
      health threat, and requires effective control. To fully utilize an adsorbent and
      reduce the overall production cost, successive recycling applications become
      necessary. Here, 3D formicary-like delta-Bi2O3 (FL-delta-Bi2O3) aerogel
      adsorbents were synthesized using a one-pot hydrothermal method. In this hybrid
      structure, abundant flowerlike delta-Bi2O3 (MR-delta-Bi2O3) microspheres were
      inlaid into the interconnected ant nest channel, forming a 3D hierarchical
      structure, which is applied as an efficient adsorbent with easy recovery for
      radioiodine removal. Notably, the FL-delta-Bi2O3 aerogel adsorbent exhibited a
      very high uptake capacity of 2.04 mmol/g by forming an insoluble Bi4I2O5 phase.
      Moreover, the FL-delta-Bi2O3 worked in a wide pH range of 4-10 and displayed fast
      uptake kinetics and excellent selectivity due to the 3D porous interconnected
      network and larger specific surface area. Importantly, the recycling process is
      easy, using only tweezers to directly move the 3D aerogel adsorbents from one
      reaction system to another. Therefore, the FL-delta-Bi2O3 aerogel may be a
      promising practical adsorbent for the selective capture of radioactive iodide.

PMID- 28570052
TI  - MoS2-Nanosheet-Assisted Coordination of Metal Ions with Porphyrin for Rapid
      Detection and Removal of Cadmium Ions in Aqueous Media.
AB  - Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a two-dimensional (2D) graphene-like material that
      is gaining great attention because of its potential application in various
      fields. Here, we reported a self-assembled nanocomposite consisted of MoS2
      nanosheets and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(1-methyl-4-pyridinio)porphyrintetra(p
      toluenesulfonate) (TMPyP), named MoS2@TMPyP. This nanocomposite can be used as a
      sensing probe for low cost, rapid, selective detection of cadmium (Cd2+) ions. It
      is found that a new Soret band at 442 nm in UV-vis absorption spectra represented
      the coordination of Cd2+ ions into TMPyP of the MoS2@TMPyP. The coordination
      rates between TMPyP and Cd2+ ions is greatly accelerated from 72 h to 20 min with
      the assistance of MoS2, which is 200 times faster than in the absence of MoS2.
      The limit of detection (LOD) of the Cd2+ is as low as 7.2 * 10-8 mol/L. The
      binding behavior between the cationic TMPyP and MoS2 nanosheets was corroborated
      by molecular dynamics simulation and various control experiments. The results
      demonstrated that electrostatic interaction was the main force for driving TMPyP
      enriching around the MoS2 surface, resulting in an accelerated complexation of
      Cd2+ and TMPyP. Moreover, MoS2@TMPyP nanocomposite can also be used for removing
      of Cd2+ in water. The removal efficiency (RF) of the MoS2@TMPyP can reach to 91%
      for high concentrations of Cd2+. This work provides a new insight into detection
      and removal of Cd2+ ions in water.

PMID- 28570053
TI  - Correlative Analysis of Fluorescent Phytoalexins by Mass Spectrometry Imaging and
      Fluorescence Microscopy in Grapevine Leaves.
AB  - Plant response to their environment stresses is a complex mechanism involving
      secondary metabolites. Stilbene phytoalexins, namely resveratrol, pterostilbene,
      piceids and viniferins play a key role in grapevine (Vitis vinifera) leaf
      defense. Despite their well-established qualities, conventional analyses such as
      HPLC-DAD or LC-MS lose valuable information on metabolite localization during the
      extraction process. To overcome this issue, a correlative analysis combining mass
      spectroscopy imaging (MSI) and fluorescence imaging was developed to localize in
      situ stilbenes on the same stressed grapevine leaves. High-resolution images of
      the stilbene fluorescence provided by macroscopy were supplemented by specific
      distributions and structural information concerning resveratrol, pterostilbene,
      and piceids obtained by MSI. The two imaging techniques led to consistent and
      complementary data on the stilbene spatial distribution for the two stresses
      addressed: UV-C irradiation and infection by Plasmopara viticola. Results
      emphasize that grapevine leaves react differently depending on the stress. A
      rather uniform synthesis of stilbenes is induced after UV-C irradiation, whereas
      a more localized synthesis of stilbenes in stomata guard cells and cell walls is
      induced by P. viticola infection. Finally, this combined imaging approach could
      be extended to map phytoalexins of various plant tissues with resolution
      approaching the cellular level.

PMID- 28570055
TI  - Metamorphic Proteins: Emergence of Dual Protein Folds from One Primary Sequence.
AB  - Every amino acid exhibits a different propensity for distinct structural
      conformations. Hence, decoding how the primary amino acid sequence undergoes the
      transition to a defined secondary structure and its final three-dimensional fold
      is presently considered predictable with reasonable certainty. However, protein
      sequences that defy the first principles of secondary structure prediction (they
      attain two different folds) have recently been discovered. Such proteins, aptly
      named metamorphic proteins, decrease the conformational constraint by increasing
      flexibility in the secondary structure and thereby result in efficient
      functionality. In this review, we discuss the major factors driving the
      conformational switch related both to protein sequence and to structure using
      illustrative examples. We discuss the concept of an evolutionary transition in
      sequence and structure, the functional impact of the tertiary fold, and the
      pressure of intrinsic and external factors that give rise to metamorphic
      proteins. We mainly focus on the major components of protein architecture,
      namely, the alpha-helix and beta-sheet segments, which are involved in
      conformational switching within the same or highly similar sequences. These
      chameleonic sequences are widespread in both cytosolic and membrane proteins, and
      these folds are equally important for protein structure and function. We discuss
      the implications of metamorphic proteins and chameleonic peptide sequences in de
      novo peptide design.

PMID- 28570056
TI  - Intensity-Independent Noise Filtering in FT MS and FT MS/MS Spectra for Shotgun
      Lipidomics.
AB  - Shotgun lipidomics relies on the direct infusion of total lipid extracts into a
      high resolution tandem mass spectrometer. A single shotgun analysis produces
      several hundred of densely populated FT MS and FT MS/MS spectra, each of which
      might comprise thousands of peaks although a very small percentage of those
      belong to lipids. Eliminating noise by adjusting a minimal peak intensity
      threshold is biased and inefficient since lipid species and classes vary in their
      natural abundance and ionization capacity. We developed a method of peak
      intensity-independent noise filtering in shotgun FT MS and FT MS/MS spectra that
      capitalizes on a stable composition of the infused analyte leading to consistent
      time-independent detection of its bona fide components. Repetition rate filtering
      relies on a single quantitative measure of peaks detection reproducibility
      irrespectively of their absolute intensities, masses, or assumed elemental
      compositions. In comparative experiments, it removed more than 95% of signals
      detectable in shotgun spectra without compromising the accuracy and scope of
      lipid identification and quantification. It also accelerated spectra processing
      by 15-fold and increased the number of simultaneously processed spectra by ~500
      fold hence eliminating the major bottleneck in high-throughput bottom-up shotgun
      lipidomics.

PMID- 28570054
TI  - Directing the Heterologous Production of Specific Cyanobacterial Toxin Variants.
AB  - Microcystins are globally the most commonly occurring freshwater cyanotoxins,
      causing acute poisoning and chronically inducing hepatocellular carcinoma.
      However, the detection and toxicological study of microcystins is hampered by the
      limited availability and high cost of pure toxin standards. Biosynthesis of
      microcystin variants in a fast-growing heterologous host offers a promising
      method of achieving reliable and economically viable alternative to isolating
      toxin from slow-growing cyanobacterial cultures. Here, we report the heterologous
      expression of recombinant microcystin synthetases in Escherichia coli to produce
      [d-Asp3]microcystin-LR and microcystin-LR. We assembled a 55 kb hybrid polyketide
      synthase/nonribosomal peptide synthetase gene cluster from Microcystis aeruginosa
      PCC 7806 using Red/ET recombineering and replaced the native promoters with an
      inducible PtetO promoter to yield microcystin titers superior to M. aeruginosa.
      The expression platform described herein can be tailored to heterologously
      produce a wide variety of microcystin variants, and potentially other
      cyanobacterial natural products of commercial relevance.

PMID- 28570057
TI  - Differences in the Oxylipid Profiles of Bovine Milk and Plasma at Different
      Stages of Lactation.
AB  - Mastitis is caused by a bacterial infection of the mammary gland, which reduces
      both milk quality and quantity produced for human consumption. The incidence and
      severity of bovine mastitis are greatest during the periparturient period that
      results from dysfunctional inflammatory responses and causes damage to milk
      synthesizing tissues. Oxylipids are potent fatty acid-derived mediators that
      control the onset and resolution of the inflammatory response. The purpose of
      this study was to investigate how oxylipid profiles change in bovine milk at
      different stages of the lactation cycle. Results showed significantly lower
      concentrations of both milk polyunsaturated fatty acid content and total oxylipid
      biosynthesis during early lactation when compared to mid- or late-lactation. The
      only oxylipid that was higher during early lactation was 20
      hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HETE), which is often associated with inflammatory
      based diseases. Milk oxylipid profiles during the different stages of lactation
      differed from plasma profiles. As such, plasma fatty acid and oxylipid
      concentrations are not a proxy for local changes in the mammary gland during the
      lactation cycle.

PMID- 28570058
TI  - Elucidating the Photoprotection Mechanism of Eumelanin Monomers.
AB  - Eumelanin, the functional polymer in human skin, forms a heterogeneous layered
      structure intrinsic to its broadband monotonic spectra. The inherent structural
      heterogeneity of eumelanin makes the photoprocesses very complex and diverse in
      nature. Due to this diversity, a complete mechanistic picture of these
      photoprocesses, essential to understanding the photoprotective properties, has
      been missing to date. In this study, we recreate the potential energy surfaces of
      the low-lying excited states of the multiple monomeric forms of eumelanin
      constituents that play a prominent role in either photoprotection or photodamage
      pathways. Our results indicate a diverse set of pathways for the photoexcited
      species to relax back to the ground state, that depends on the specific monomeric
      form. Furthermore, the excited state reaction channels show the scope of
      extensive interconversion between the different monomers and therefore, we
      propose that the heterogeneity of eumelanin is key to its photoprotection
      capability.

PMID- 28570059
TI  - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Flow Chemistry ?.
AB  - Flow chemistry involves the use of channels or tubing to conduct a reaction in a
      continuous stream rather than in a flask. Flow equipment provides chemists with
      unique control over reaction parameters enhancing reactivity or in some cases
      enabling new reactions. This relatively young technology has received a
      remarkable amount of attention in the past decade with many reports on what can
      be done in flow. Until recently, however, the question, "Should we do this in
      flow?" has merely been an afterthought. This review introduces readers to the
      basic principles and fundamentals of flow chemistry and critically discusses
      recent flow chemistry accounts.

PMID- 28570060
TI  - Evidence for the Importance of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition to Eutrophic Lake
      Dianchi, China.
AB  - Elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has significantly influenced aquatic
      ecosystems, especially with regard to their N budgets and phytoplankton growth
      potentials. Compared to a considerable number of studies on oligotrophic lakes
      and oceanic waters, little evidence for the importance of N deposition has been
      generated for eutrophic lakes, even though emphasis has been placed on reducing
      external N inputs to control eutrophication in these lakes. Our high-resolution
      observations of atmospheric depositions and riverine inputs of biologically
      reactive N species into eutrophic Lake Dianchi (the sixth largest freshwater lake
      in China) shed new light onto the contribution of N deposition to total N loads.
      Annual N deposition accounted for 15.7% to 16.6% of total N loads under variable
      precipitation conditions, 2-fold higher than previous estimates (7.6%) for the
      Lake Dianchi. The proportion of N deposition to total N loads further increased
      to 27-48% in May and June when toxic blooms of the ubiquitous non-N2 fixing
      cyanobacteria Microcystis spp. are initiated and proliferate. Our observations
      reveal that reduced N (59%) contributes a greater amount than oxidized N to total
      N deposition, reaching 56-83% from late spring to summer. Progress toward
      mitigating eutrophication in Lake Dianchi and other bloom-impacted eutrophic
      lakes will be difficult without reductions in ammonia emissions and subsequent N
      deposition.

PMID- 28570061
TI  - Evidence for Anisotropic Electronic Coupling of Charge Transfer States in Weakly
      Interacting Organic Semiconductor Mixtures.
AB  - We present a comprehensive investigation of the charge-transfer (CT) effect in
      weakly interacting organic semiconductor mixtures. The donor-acceptor pair
      diindenoperylene (DIP) and N,N'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-1,7-dicyanoperylene-3,4/9,10
      bis(dicarboxyimide) (PDIR-CN2) has been chosen as a model system. A wide range of
      experimental methods was used in order to characterize the structural, optical,
      electronic, and device properties of the intermolecular interactions. By detailed
      analysis, we demonstrate that the partial CT in this weakly interacting mixture
      does not have a strong effect on the ground state and does not generate a hybrid
      orbital. We also find a strong CT transition in light absorption as well as in
      photo- and electroluminescence. By using different layer sequences and
      compositions, we are able to distinguish electronic coupling in-plane vs out-of
      plane and, thus, characterize the anisotropy of the CT state. Finally, we discuss
      the impact of CT exciton generation on charge-carrier transport and on the
      efficiency of photovoltaic devices.

PMID- 28570062
TI  - Impact of Photooxidation and Biodegradation on the Fate of Oil Spilled During the
      Deepwater Horizon Incident: Advanced Stages of Weathering.
AB  - While the biogeochemical forces influencing the weathering of spilled oil have
      been investigated for decades, the environmental fate and effects of
      "oxyhydrocarbons" in sand patties deposited on beaches are not well-known. We
      collected sand patties deposited in the swash zone on Gulf of Mexico beaches
      following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. When sand patties were exposed to
      simulated sunlight, a larger concentration of dissolved organic carbon was
      leached into seawater than the corresponding dark controls. This result was
      consistent with the general ease of movement of seawater through the sand patties
      as shown with a 35SO42- radiotracer. Ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry, as
      well as optical measurements revealed that the chemical composition of dissolved
      organic matter (DOM) leached from the sand patties under dark and irradiated
      conditions were substantially different, but neither had a significant inhibitory
      influence on the endogenous rate of aerobic or anaerobic microbial respiratory
      activity. Rather, the dissolved organic photooxidation products stimulated
      significantly more microbial O2 consumption (113 +/- 4 MUM) than either the dark
      (78 +/- 2 MUM) controls or the endogenous (38 MUM +/- 4) forms of DOM. The
      changes in the DOM quality and quantity were consistent with biodegradation as an
      explanation for the differences. These results confirm that sand patties undergo
      a gradual dissolution of DOM in both the dark and in the light, but
      photooxidation accelerates the production of water-soluble polar organic
      compounds that are relatively more amenable to aerobic biodegradation. As such,
      these processes represent previously unrecognized advanced weathering stages that
      are important in the ultimate transformation of spilled crude oil.

PMID- 28570064
TI  - Tandem Reaction of Cationic Copolymerization and Concertedly Induced Hetero-Diels
      Alder Reaction Preparing Sequence-Regulated Polymers.
AB  - A unique tandem reaction of sequence-controlled cationic copolymerization and
      site-specific hetero-Diels-Alder (DA) reaction is demonstrated. In the controlled
      cationic copolymerization of furfural and 2-acetoxyethyl vinyl ether (AcOVE),
      only the furan ring adjacent to the propagating carbocation underwent the hetero
      DA reaction with the aldehyde moiety of another furfural molecule. A further and
      equally important feature of the copolymerization is that the obtained copolymers
      had unprecedented 2:(1 + 1)-type alternating structures of repeating sequences of
      two VE and one furfural units in the main chain and one furfural unit in the side
      chain. The specific DA reaction is attributed to the delocalization of the
      positive charge to the side furan ring.

PMID- 28570063
TI  - Tetra- and Heptametallic Ru(II),Rh(III) Supramolecular Hydrogen Production
      Photocatalysts.
AB  - Supramolecular mixed metal complexes combining the trimetallic chromophore
      [{(bpy)2Ru(dpp)}2Ru(dpp)]6+ (Ru3) with [Rh(bpy)Cl2]+ or [RhCl2]+ catalytic
      fragments to form [{(bpy)2Ru(dpp)}2Ru(dpp)RhCl2(bpy)](PF6)7 (Ru3Rh) or
      [{(bpy)2Ru(dpp)}2Ru(dpp)]2RhCl2(PF6)13 (Ru3RhRu3) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine and dpp
      = 2,3-bis(2-pyridyl)pyrazine) catalyze the photochemical reduction of protons to
      H2. This first example of a heptametallic Ru,Rh photocatalyst produces over 300
      turnovers of H2 upon photolysis of a solution of acetonitrile, water, triflic
      acid, and N,N-dimethylaniline as an electron donor. In contrast, the
      tetrametallic Ru3Rh produces only 40 turnovers of H2 due to differences in the
      excited state properties and nature of the catalysts upon reduction as
      ascertained from electrochemical data, transient absorption spectroscopy, and
      flash-quench experiments. While the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of Ru3Rh
      is localized on a bridging ligand, it is Rh-centered in Ru3RhRu3 facilitating
      electron collection at Rh in the excited state and reductively quenched state.
      The Ru -> Rh charge separated state of Ru3RhRu3 is endergonic with respect to the
      emissive Ru -> dpp 3MLCT excited and cannot be formed by static electron transfer
      quenching of the 3MLCT state. Instead, a mechanism of subnanosecond charge
      separation from high lying states is proposed. Multiple reductions of Ru3 and
      Ru3Rh using sodium amalgam were carried out to compare UV-vis absorption spectra
      of reduced species and to evaluate the stability of highly reduced complexes. The
      Ru3 and Ru3Rh can be reduced by 10 and 13 electrons, respectively, to final
      states with all bridging ligands doubly reduced and all bpy ligands singly
      reduced.

PMID- 28570066
TI  - Synthesis of Spirocyclic Amines by Using Dipolar Cycloadditions of Nitrones.
AB  - Aliphatic ketones containing a chloride and alkene were heated with hydroxylamine
      to promote cascade, tandem condensation to oximes, cyclization to nitrones, and
      1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to tricyclic isoxazolidines as single stereoisomers.
      Single regioisomers were obtained when three atoms linked the ketone and
      dipolarophile to give five-membered rings but mixtures resulted with four atoms
      in the tether unless a terminal ester was located on the alkene. The N-O bond in
      the products could be reduced to give spirocyclic amines and diamines.

PMID- 28570065
TI  - Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Silyl Electrophiles with Alkylzinc Halides:
      A Silyl-Negishi Reaction.
AB  - We report the first example of a silyl-Negishi reaction between secondary zinc
      organometallics and silicon electrophiles. This palladium-catalyzed process
      provides direct access to alkyl silanes. The delicate balance of steric and
      electronic parameters of the employed DrewPhos ligand is paramount to suppressing
      isomerization and promoting efficient and selective cross-coupling.

PMID- 28570068
TI  - Solvent-Controlled Chemoselectivity in the Photolytic Release of Hydroxamic Acids
      and Carboxamides from Solid Support.
AB  - The synthetic utility and theoretical basis of a photolabile hydroxylamine-linker
      are presented. The developed protocols enable the efficient synthesis and
      chemoselective photolytic release of either hydroxamates or carboxamides from
      solid support. The bidetachable mode of the linker unit is uniquely dependent on
      the solvent. Hydroxamic acids are obtained by performing photolysis in protic
      solvents, whereas photolysis in aprotic solvents enables the selective release of
      carboxamides.

PMID- 28570067
TI  - Lead Optimization Generates CYP11B1 Inhibitors of Pyridylmethyl Isoxazole Type
      with Improved Pharmacological Profile for the Treatment of Cushing's Disease.
AB  - Cushing's disease, characterized by elevated plasma cortisol levels, can be
      controlled by inhibition of 11beta-hydroxylase (CYP11B1). The previously
      identified selective and potent CYP11B1 inhibitor 5-((5-methylpyridin-3
      yl)methyl)-2-phenylpyridine Ref 7 (IC50= 2 nM) exhibited promutagenic potential
      as well as very low oral bioavailability in rats (F = 2%) and was therefore
      modified to overcome these drawbacks. Successful lead optimization resulted in
      similarly potent and selective 5-((5-methoxypyridin-3-yl)methyl)-3
      phenylisoxazole 25 (IC50 = 2 nM, 14-fold selectivity over CYP11B2), exhibiting a
      superior pharmacological profile with no mutagenic potential. Furthermore,
      compound 25 inhibited rat CYP11B1 (IC50 = 2 MUM) and showed a high oral
      bioavailability (F = 50%) and sufficient plasma concentrations in rats, providing
      an excellent starting point for a proof-of-principle study.

PMID- 28570070
TI  - Divergent Asymmetric Total Synthesis of (+)-Vincadifformine, (-)-Quebrachamine,
      (+)-Aspidospermidine, (-)-Aspidospermine, (-)-Pyrifolidine, and Related Natural
      Products.
AB  - A uniformly strategic total synthesis of Aspidosperma alkaloids (+)
      vincadifformine, (-)-quebrachamine, (+)-aspidospermidine, (-)-aspidospermine, (-)
      pyrifolidine, and nine others from efficiently constructed tricyclic ketone 13 is
      reported. Highlights of these divergent and practical syntheses include (i)
      stereoselective intermolecular [4 + 2] cycloaddition to establish a C-E ring with
      one all-carbon quaternary stereocenter (C-5) and two bridged contiguous cis
      stereocenters (C-12 and C-19), (ii) a Pd/C-catalyzed
      hydrogenation/deprotection/amidation cascade process to assemble the D ring, and
      (iii) Fischer indolization to forge the A-B ring.

PMID- 28570069
TI  - Electrochemical Growth of Copper Hydroxy Double Salt Films and Their Conversion
      to Nanostructured p-Type CuO Photocathodes.
AB  - New electrochemical synthesis methods were developed to produce copper hydroxy
      double salt(Cu-HDS) films with four different intercalated anions (NO3-, SO42-,
      Cl-, and dodecyl sulfate (DS)) as pure crystalline films as deposited
      (Cu2NO3(OH)3, Cu4SO4(OH)6, Cu2Cl(OH)3, and Cu2DS(OH)3). These methods are based
      on p-benzoquinone reduction, which increases the local pH at the working
      electrode and triggers the precipitation of Cu2+ and appropriate anions as Cu-HDS
      films on the working electrode. The resulting Cu-HDS films could be converted to
      crystalline Cu(OH)2 and CuO films by immersing them in basic solutions. Because
      Cu-HDS films were composed of 2D crystals as a result of the atomic-level layered
      structure of HDS, the CuO films prepared from Cu-HDS films have unique low
      dimensional nanostructures, creating high surface areas that cannot be obtained
      by direct deposition of CuO, which has a 3D atomic-level crystal structure. The
      resulting nanostructures allowed the CuO films to facilitate electron-hole
      separation and demonstrate great promise for photocurrent generation when
      investigated as a photocathode for a water-splitting photoelectrochemical cell.
      Electrochemical synthesis of Cu-HDS films and their facile conversion to CuO
      films will provide new routes to tune the morphologies and properties of the CuO
      electrodes that may not be possible by other synthesis means.

PMID- 28570071
TI  - Inhibitory Effect of Adsorbed Water on the Transport of Methane in Carbon
      Nanotubes.
AB  - We investigate the transport diffusion of methane at 300 K and pressures of up to
      15 bar in dry and wetted carbon nanotubes (CNTs) having diameters ranging from
      0.95 to 2.034 nm using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulation.
      Because of their strong hydrogen bonding, preadsorbed water molecules transport
      in the form of clusters and block the diffusion of methane, reducing the Onsager
      coefficient of methane dramatically compared to that in dry CNTs. The reduction
      in the methane Onsager coefficient is greater in narrower CNTs or at higher water
      densities. Because the diameter of the water clusters is almost invariant with
      water density, the Onsager coefficient of water in the (10, 10) CNT increases
      linearly with water density. It is further found that whereas decreasing the CNT
      diameter from 2.034 to 0.95 nm enhances the Onsager coefficient of pure methane
      by about 1 order of magnitude, the Onsager coefficient of water is almost
      independent of the CNT diameter at a water density of 0.05 g/cm3. We propose a
      theoretical model for the strong dependency of methane diffusion in wetted CNTs
      on the Onsager coefficient of water, the preadsorbed water density, and the CNT
      diameter. The model predicts the Onsager coefficients of the methane/water
      mixture from the Onsager coefficients of the pure components. Our study provides
      a basic understanding of the coupled diffusion of immiscible components in
      nanochannels and will facilitate progress in gas storage and carbon capture as
      well as nanofiltration and biomedical and biotechnological applications.

PMID- 28570072
TI  - Friction between van der Waals Solids during Lattice Directed Sliding.
AB  - Nanometer-scale crystals of the two-dimensional oxide molybdenum trioxide (MoO3)
      were formed atop the transition metal dichalcogenides MoS2 and MoSe2. The MoO3
      nanocrystals are partially commensurate with the dichalcogenide substrates, being
      aligned only along one of the substrate's crystallographic axes. These
      nanocrystals can be slid only along the aligned direction and maintain their
      alignment with the substrate during motion. Using an AFM probe to oscillate the
      nanocrystals, it was found that the lateral force required to move them increased
      linearly with nanocrystal area. The slope of this curve, the interfacial shear
      strength, was significantly lower than for macroscale systems. It also depended
      strongly on the duration and the velocity of sliding of the crystal, suggesting a
      thermal activation model for the system. Finally, it was found that lower
      commensuration between the nanocrystal and the substrate increased the
      interfacial shear, a trend opposite that predicted theoretically.

PMID- 28570073
TI  - Efficient and Stable Ternary Organic Solar Cells Based on Two Planar Nonfullerene
      Acceptors with Tunable Crystallinity and Phase Miscibility.
AB  - Planar perylene diimides (PDIs), when used as nonfullerene acceptors for organic
      photovoltaics, are constrained by their large pi-aggregation in solid state. To
      tackle this issue, another planar nonfullerene acceptor 3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3
      (1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone)-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3
      d:2',3'-d']-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene (ITIC) with weak crystallinity
      and near-infrared light absorption is introduced into the PTB7-Th:PDI binary
      blend to fabricate efficient and stable ternary solar cells. We have finely tuned
      the PDI/ITIC weight ratio to investigate the influences of individual ITIC and
      PDI on the optical, electronic, and morphological properties of the PTB7
      Th:ITIC:PDI ternary blend. Compared to the binary blend, complementary optical
      absorption is achieved in all ternary blends. More importantly, it is found that
      ITIC plays a critical role on largely suppressing the PDI aggregates in the PTB7
      Th:PDI blend, while PDI aids to form an interpenetrating network morphology to
      facilitate charge transport in the PTB7-Th:ITIC blend. Consequently, when the
      PDI/ITIC ratio is 3:7 (w/w), the PTB7-Th:ITIC:PDI based inverted solar cells
      exhibit the highest power conversion efficiency of 8.64% due to their favorable
      out-of-plane pi-pi stacking, finest phase-separation morphology, and highest
      charge mobility. Remarkably, the optimal cells that are solution-processed in air
      show the promising efficiency of 7.09%, suggesting good ambient stability of such
      ternary solar cells.

PMID- 28570074
TI  - Rational Design of Wide Spectral-Responsive Heterostructures of Au Nanorod
      Coupled Ag3PO4 with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance.
AB  - Noble metallic nanomaterials with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects and hot
      electron cell effects open new opportunities for designing efficient visible
      light-driven hybrid photocatalysts. In this work, we reported a broadband visible
      light responsive photocatalyst by incorporating Au nanorods (AuNRs) into Ag3PO4
      nanostructures. The longitudinal plasma of AuNRs enabled AuNRs/Ag3PO4
      heterostructures to harvest light energy up to 800 nm. The obtained AuNRs/Ag3PO4
      hybrid exhibited enhanced photocatalytic efficiency toward the degradation of
      rhodamine B (RhB) under solar irradiation. Ag3PO4, RhB, and AuNRs played
      different roles according to the distinct optical properties of each individual
      component. The dominant photocatalytic process in the different light regions
      were divided as follows: direct excitation of Ag3PO4 for lambda >= 420 nm, RhB
      sensitization for lambda >= 550 nm, and SPR effect for lambda >= 600 nm. The
      relationship between the pathway of charge transfer and the photocatalytic
      activity of the AuNRs/Ag3PO4 heterostructures was investigated systematically,
      revealing the specific role of AuNRs in regulating the photocatalytic activity.
      This work presents an innovative strategy for determining the comprehensive
      function of the SPR effect in relevant semiconductor-based photocatalysis and
      functional nanodevices with a broadband light responses.

PMID- 28570075
TI  - Comparative Proteome Reveals Metabolic Changes during the Fruiting Process in
      Flammulina velutipes.
AB  - Understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating the fruiting process in macro
      fungi, especially industrially cultivated mushrooms, has long been a goal in
      mycological research. To gain insights into the events accompanying the
      transformation of mycelia into fruit-bodies in Flammulina velutipes, proteins
      expressed characteristically and abundantly at primordium and fruit-body stages
      were investigated by using the iTRAQ labeling technique. Among the 171
      differentially expressed proteins, a total of 68 displayed up-regulated
      expression levels that were associated with 84 specific KEGG pathways. Some up
      regulated proteins, such as pyruvate carboxylase, aldehyde dehydrogenase, fatty
      acid synthase, aspartate aminotransferase, 2-cysteine peroxiredoxin, FDS protein,
      translation elongation factor 1-alpha, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs),
      and heat-shock protein 70 that are involved in carbohydrate metabolism,
      carotenoid formation, the TCA cycle, MAPK signaling pathway, and the biosynthesis
      of fatty acids and branched-chain amino acids, could serve as potential stage
      specific biomarkers to study the fruiting process in F. velutipes. Knowledge of
      the proteins might provide valuable evidence to better understand the molecular
      mechanisms of fruit-body initiation and development in basidiomycete fungi.
      Furthermore, this study also offers valuable evidence for yield improvement and
      quality control of super golden-needle mushroom in practice.

PMID- 28570077
TI  - Explicitly Correlated Orbital Optimized Contracted Pair Correlation Methods: A
      Short Overview.
AB  - Designing efficient algorithms to apply highly accurate pair correlation methods
      to large molecules of scientific interest has remained an important field of
      research for a long period of time. We present a new approach toward fast
      algorithms, which represents an interesting alternative and extension to
      currently existing methods. The presented new contraction scheme saves a
      significant amount of memory and can be easily combined with efficient linear
      scaling algorithms. Additionally, the extension to orbital optimization and
      explicitly correlated f12-theory is demonstrated to further improve accuracy and
      applicablility.

PMID- 28570076
TI  - Insight into the Complexity of the i-Motif and G-Quadruplex DNA Structures Formed
      in the KRAS Promoter and Subsequent Drug-Induced Gene Repression.
AB  - Activating KRAS mutations frequently occur in pancreatic, colorectal, and lung
      adenocarcinomas. While many attempts have been made to target oncogenic KRAS, no
      clinically useful therapies currently exist. Most efforts to target KRAS have
      focused on inhibiting the mutant protein; a less explored approach involves
      targeting KRAS at the transcriptional level. The promoter element of the KRAS
      gene contains a GC-rich nuclease hypersensitive site with three potential DNA
      secondary structure-forming regions. These are referred to as the Near-, Mid-,
      and Far-regions, on the basis of their proximity to the transcription start site.
      As a result of transcription-induced negative superhelicity, these regions can
      open up to form unique DNA secondary structures: G-quadruplexes on the G-rich
      strand and i-motifs on the C-rich strand. While the G-quadruplexes have been well
      characterized, the i-motifs have not been investigated as thoroughly. Here we
      show that the i-motif that forms in the C-rich Mid-region is the most stable and
      exists in a dynamic equilibrium with a hybrid i-motif/hairpin species and an
      unfolded hairpin species. The transcription factor heterogeneous nuclear
      ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) was found to bind selectively to the i-motif
      species and to positively modulate KRAS transcription. Additionally, we
      identified a benzophenanthridine alkaloid that dissipates the hairpin species and
      destabilizes the interaction of hnRNP K with the Mid-region i-motif. This same
      compound stabilizes the three existing KRAS G-quadruplexes. The combined effect
      of the compound on the Mid-region i-motif and the G-quadruplexes leads to
      downregulation of KRAS gene expression. This dual i-motif/G-quadruplex
      interactive compound presents a new mechanism to modulate gene expression.

PMID- 28570078
TI  - Micellar Self-Assembly of Recombinant Resilin-/Elastin-Like Block Copolypeptides.
AB  - Reported here is the synthesis of perfectly sequence defined, monodisperse
      diblock copolypeptides of hydrophilic elastin-like and hydrophobic resilin-like
      polypeptide blocks and characterization of their self-assembly as a function of
      structural parameters by light scattering, cryo-TEM, and small-angle neutron
      scattering. A subset of these diblock copolypeptides exhibit lower critical
      solution temperature and upper critical solution temperature phase behavior and
      self-assemble into spherical or cylindrical micelles. Their morphologies are
      dictated by their chain length, degree of hydrophilicity, and hydrophilic weight
      fraction of the ELP block. We find that (1) independent of the length of the
      corona-forming ELP block there is a minimum threshold in the length of the RLP
      block below which self-assembly does not occur, but that once that threshold is
      crossed, (2) the RLP block length is a unique molecular parameter to
      independently tune self-assembly and (3) increasing the hydrophobicity of the
      corona-forming ELP drives a transition from spherical to cylindrical morphology.
      Unlike the self-assembly of purely ELP-based block copolymers, the self-assembly
      of RLP-ELPs can be understood by simple principles of polymer physics relating
      hydrophilic weight fraction and polymer-polymer and polymer-solvent interactions
      to micellar morphology, which is important as it provides a route for the de novo
      design of desired nanoscale morphologies from first principles.

PMID- 28570079
TI  - Amorphous Polymeric Drug Salts as Ionic Solid Dispersion Forms of Ciprofloxacin.
AB  - Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a poorly soluble drug that also displays poor
      permeability. Attempts to improve the solubility of this drug to date have
      largely focused on the formation of crystalline salts and metal complexes. The
      aim of this study was to prepare amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) by ball
      milling CIP with various polymers. Following examination of their solid state
      characteristics and physical stability, the solubility advantage of these ASDs
      was studied, and their permeability was investigated via parallel artificial
      membrane permeability assay (PAMPA). Finally, the minimum inhibitory
      concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the ASDs were
      compared to those of CIP. It was discovered that acidic polymers, such as
      Eudragit L100, Eudragit L100-55, Carbopol, and HPMCAS, were necessary for the
      amorphization of CIP. In each case, the positively charged secondary amine of CIP
      was found to interact with carboxylate groups in the polymers, forming amorphous
      polymeric drug salts. Although the ASDs began to crystallize within days under
      accelerated stability conditions, they remained fully X-ray amorphous following
      exposure to 90% RH at 25  degrees C, and demonstrated higher than predicted glass
      transition temperatures. The solubility of CIP in water and simulated intestinal
      fluid was also increased by all of the ASDs studied. Unlike a number of other
      solubility enhancing formulations, the ASDs did not decrease the permeability of
      the drug. Similarly, no decrease in antibiotic efficacy was observed, and
      significant improvements in the MIC and MBC of CIP were obtained with ASDs
      containing HPMCAS-LG and HPMCAS-MG. Therefore, ASDs may be a viable alternative
      for formulating CIP with improved solubility, bioavailability, and antimicrobial
      activity.

PMID- 28570080
TI  - Access to Tetronic Acids via Silver-Catalyzed CO2 Incorporation into Conjugated
      Ynones.
AB  - Facile and versatile access to highly functionalized tetronic acids has been
      successfully achieved through the reaction of conjugated ynones with carbon
      dioxide. In the presence of a base, the enolates generated from the ynones
      capture CO2 via a carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction, accompanied by a 5-exo-dig
      cyclization reaction of the resulting carboxylate to the alkyne, activated by a
      silver catalyst. The present method should be applicable to the synthesis of a
      wide variety of tetronic acids.

PMID- 28570081
TI  - Iridium(III)-Catalyzed Synthesis of Benzimidazoles via C-H Activation and
      Amidation of Aniline Derivatives.
AB  - Ir(III)-catalyzed synthesis of benzimidazoles has been realized under redox
      neutral conditions by annulation of aniline derivatives with dioxazolones. The
      reaction proceeded via a C-H activation-amidation-cyclization pathway with a
      decent substrate scope.

PMID- 28570082
TI  - Management of the Nasopalatine Canal and Foramen Associated With Dental Implant
      Therapy.
AB  - In some patients, the contents of the nasopalatine canal must be removed to
      facilitate placement of a dental implant into the canal. Reasons to enucleate the
      canal in preparation for a bone graft or a dental implant include inadvertent
      perforation into the canal when creating an osteotomy for an implant, severe
      atrophy of the maxilla, and a large foramen that precludes placing an implant
      into the desired location along the bony ridge. The authors searched the dental
      literature for clinical reports in humans that addressed placement of dental
      implants into or adjacent to the nasopalatine canal. They found that the
      nasopalatine canal is usually around 10-mm long and 4-mm wide and slants from the
      horizontal plane at a 66-degree angle, and there is considerable variation
      regarding these measurements. Several clinical reports demonstrate that the canal
      can be enucleated and bone grafted before successful implant placement. It is
      also possible to place an implant into the canal at the time of surgery and this
      procedure may or may not be combined with an adjunctive bone graft. Numerous case
      reports indicate there is usually no permanent loss of sensation of the anterior
      palate when an implant is placed into the nasopalatine canal. The authors
      concluded that placing an implant into the nasopalatine canal is a viable
      procedure as part of a surgical and prosthetic treatment plan when there is a
      dearth of alternate sites for implant placement. In patients with severe atrophy
      of the maxilla, combination syndrome, or who have a large or malpositioned
      nasopalatine canal, the canal can be used as a site to place a dental implant to
      support a fixed or removable dental prosthesis.

PMID- 28570083
TI  - Bioactive Materials in Endodontics: An Evolving Component of Clinical Dentistry.
AB  - Achieving biocompatibility in a material requires an interdisciplinary approach
      that involves a sound knowledge of materials science, bioengineering, and
      biotechnology. The host microbial-material response is also critical. Endodontic
      treatment is a delicate procedure that must be planned and executed properly.
      Despite major advances in endodontic therapy in recent decades, clinicians are
      confronted with a complex root canal anatomy and a wide selection of endodontic
      filling materials that, in turn, may not be well tolerated by the periapical
      tissues and may evoke an immune reaction. This article discusses published
      reports of various bioactive materials that are used in endodontic therapy,
      including calcium hydroxide, mineral trioxide aggregate, a bioactive dentin
      substrate, calcium phosphate ceramics, and calcium phosphate cements.

PMID- 28570084
TI  - Compromised Hard- and Soft-Tissue Architecture: Immediate Implant Placement and
      Provisionalization in the Esthetic Zone.
AB  - Careful case selection is crucial for achieving short- and long-term success with
      immediate implant placement and provisionalization. Caution should be exercised
      for a tooth that presents with a compromised soft- and hard-tissue architecture.
      Nevertheless, a successful outcome can be achieved provided that the principles
      elucidated in the current literature are applied. The following report describes
      a case with a severely reduced but healthy periodontium around a tooth scheduled
      for extraction. Immediate implant placement and provisionalization utilizing the
      extracted tooth with simultaneous hard- and soft-tissue augmentation were
      performed in one surgical visit. This facilitated the restoration of a healthy
      peri-implant tissue complex and delivery of a functional and esthetic final
      implant-supported restoration.

PMID- 28570085
TI  - Use of Bloodborne Pathogens Exposure Control Plans in Private Dental Practices:
      Results and Clinical Implications of a National Survey.
AB  - Dental healthcare workers (DHWs) are at risk for occupational exposure to
      bloodborne pathogens (BBPs). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
      Bloodborne Pathogens Standard requires employers to have a written exposure
      control plan (ECP) detailing methods and means to reduce and manage occupational
      BBP exposures. Because little information is available on whether ECPs are
      created and used, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and
      the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention conducted an online survey to
      determine if dental practices had an ECP, whether present ECPs had the necessary
      components, and if impediments existed to prevent having an ECP in place.
      Respondents were primarily from nonfranchised practices (69%) and dentists who
      owned the practice (63%). Seventy-two percent of survey participants had an ECP,
      and 20% were unaware of any federal requirements for an ECP prior to the survey.
      Engineering controls were used by many practices, although the type varied.
      Fifteen percent of practices did not offer the hepatitis B vaccine for employees.
      The survey revealed many dental practices were unaware of or were lacking
      required elements of the ECP. Findings from this survey indicate DHWs would
      benefit from increased education regarding methods to prevent occupational
      exposures to BBPs.

PMID- 28570086
TI  - Today's Solutions for Edentulous Patients: Implants, Digital Dentures, and
      Streamlined Technologies.

PMID- 28570087
TI  - Viral hepatitis A, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2007-2016.
AB  - During 2007-2016, there were 237 incident diagnoses of acute hepatitis A, with an
      overall incidence rate of 1.88 cases per 100,000 person-years (p-yrs). Crude
      overall rates of hepatitis A were highest among service members in the youngest
      age group, those in healthcare occupations, and among Air Force and Navy members.
      Service members of "other" or unknown race/ethnicity and non-Hispanic black
      service members had higher overall incidence rates of hepatitis A, compared to
      their non-Hispanic white and Hispanic counterparts. Annual incidence rates of
      hepatitis A were relatively stable until 2012 when rates peaked at 2.94 per
      100,000. Rates dipped to 1.41 per 100,000 p-yrs in 2015 and then increased to
      2.22 per 100,000 p-yrs in 2016. During the 10-year period, annual rates among
      male service members were relatively stable. The low rates of acute hepatitis A
      among U.S. service members overall reflect the widespread use of the hepatitis A
      virus vaccine.

PMID- 28570088
TI  - Viral hepatitis B, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2007-2016.
AB  - During 2007-2016, there were 1,258 and 1,259 incident diagnoses of acute and
      chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, respectively. The overall incidence
      rates of diagnoses of acute and chronic hepatitis B were both 10.0 per 100,000
      person-years (p-yrs). Overall crude incidence rates of acute hepatitis B were
      highest among females, Navy members, Asian/Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic
      black service members, those in healthcare occupations, recruits, and service
      members with no history of deployment. Overall incidence rates of chronic
      hepatitis B were highest among service members who were female; in the Navy or
      the Army; in healthcare occupations; and of non-recruit status. Asian/Pacific
      Islander service members, those of other/unknown race/ethnicity, and non-Hispanic
      black service members had overall rates of chronic hepatitis B that were more
      than 41, 11, and 10 times that of non-Hispanic white service members,
      respectively. Crude annual incidence rates of acute hepatitis B fluctuated
      between 7.7 per 100,000 p-yrs and 13.2 per 100,000 p-yrs during the surveillance
      period. Approximately one of 10 acute cases and close to one of five chronic
      cases had at least one HBV-related hospitalization. Rates of hospitalized cases
      of acute hepatitis B decreased over the 10-year period.

PMID- 28570089
TI  - Viral hepatitis C, active component, U.S. military service members and
      beneficiaries, 2008-2016.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains an important concern for the Military
      Health System (MHS). This report updates numbers and incidence rates of HCV
      infection of U.S. military service members and MHS beneficiaries, incorporating a
      surveillance period before and after 2012 screening policy changes for military
      members. From 2008 to 2016, there were 342 and 1,491 incident cases of acute and
      chronic hepatitis C, respectively, among active component members of the U.S.
      Armed Forces; crude overall incidence rates during the period were 2.8 (acute)
      and 12.2 (chronic) cases per 100,000 person-years. Annual incidence rates of
      chronic hepatitis C decreased over the surveillance period; however, rates of
      acute hepatitis C remained steady. There were 141 acute and 587 chronic incident
      cases among reserve/guard service members, with annual counts of both acute and
      chronic cases decreasing over the surveillance period. In addition, there were
      2,541 acute and 21,418 chronic cases among non-service member beneficiaries, with
      annual counts of acute and chronic cases also decreasing steadily over the
      surveillance period. Given recent pharmaceutical advances in treatment, screening
      and linkage to care are critical to improving health outcomes for those with HCV
      infection.

PMID- 28570090
TI  - Brief report: Tinea pedis, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2000-2016.

PMID- 28570091
TI  - Surveillance snapshot: Respiratory infections resulting in hospitalization, U.S.
      Air Force recruits, October 2010-February 2017.

PMID- 28570092
TI  - The Effect of Physical Exercise After a Concussion: A Systematic Review and Meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data evaluating the role of exercise in patients with a concussion
      are contradictory. Studies have reported improvement in the Post-Concussion
      Symptom Scale (PCSS) score, whereas others showed no effect on the PCSS score.
      PURPOSE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the role of physical
      exercise on different outcomes in patients with a concussion. STUDY DESIGN:
      Systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: A search of 5 databases from the
      earliest available date to September 30, 2016, and a hand search of a few
      articles were performed. Trial registries were reviewed, and authors of multiple
      studies were contacted to find additional published or unpublished studies.
      Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cohort studies, and before and after (pre
      post) studies evaluating the effect of physical exercise, compared with control,
      in patients with a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury were included.
      RESULTS: The search generated 1096 studies. Of these, 14 studies (5 RCTs, 1
      propensity score matching study, 3 cohort studies, and 5 before and after
      studies) met our inclusion criteria. Exercise significantly decreased the PCSS
      score (mean difference, -13.06; 95% CI, -16.57 to -9.55; P < .00001; I2 = 44%),
      percentage of patients with symptoms of a concussion (risk ratio, 0.74; 95% CI,
      0.63 to 0.86; P = .0001; I2 = 0%), and days off work (17.7 days vs 32.2 days,
      respectively; P < .05) compared with control. Exercise improved the reaction time
      (standard mean difference, -0.43; 95% CI, -0.80 to -0.06; P = .02) component of
      the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) score
      without affecting the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) score and
      neuropsychological parameters. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment,
      Development and Evaluation (GRADE) scores were moderate for the PCSS, symptoms,
      ImPACT, BESS, and neuropsychological tests. CONCLUSION: Physical exercise appears
      to improve the PCSS score and symptoms in patients with a concussion. A high
      quality RCT evaluating different intensities of exercise at different time
      points, for different durations after a concussion, for different
      races/ethnicities, and for sex needs to be conducted to evaluate a clear effect
      of exercise in patients with a concussion.

PMID- 28570093
TI  - Predicting Future Hip Fractures on Routine Abdominal CT Using Opportunistic
      Osteoporosis Screening Measures: A Matched Case-Control Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hip fracture is a major consequence of low bone mineral density, which
      is treatable but underdiagnosed. The purpose of this case-control study is to
      determine whether lumbar vertebral trabecular attenuation, vertebral compression
      fractures, and femoral neck T scores readily derived from abdominopelvic CT scans
      obtained for various indications are associated with future hip fragility
      fracture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cohort of 204 patients with hip fracture (130
      women and 74 men; mean age, 74.3 years) who had undergone abdominopelvic CT
      before fracture occurred (mean interval, 24.8 months) was compared with an age-
      and sex-matched control cohort without hip fracture. L1 trabecular attenuation,
      vertebral compression fractures of grades 2 and 3, and femoral neck T scores
      derived from asynchronous quantitative CT were recorded. The presence of one or
      more clinical risk factor for fracture was also recorded. Multivariate logistic
      regression models were used to determine the association of each measurement with
      the occurrence of hip fracture. RESULTS: The mean L1 trabecular attenuation
      value, the presence of one or more vertebral compression fracture, and CT-derived
      femoral neck T scores were all significantly different in patients with hip
      fracture versus control subjects (p < 0.01). Logistic regression models showed a
      significant association of all measurements with hip fracture outcome after
      adjustments were made for age, sex, and the presence of one or more clinical risk
      factor. L1 trabecular attenuation and CT-derived femoral neck T scores showed
      moderate accuracy in differentiating case and control patients (AUC, 0.70 and
      0.78, respectively). CONCLUSION: L1 trabecular attenuation, CT-derived femoral
      neck T scores, and the presence of at least one vertebral compression fracture on
      CT are all associated with future hip fragility fracture in adults undergoing
      routine abdominopelvic CT for a variety of conditions.

PMID- 28570094
TI  - Femoral Torsion: Impact of Femur Position on CT and Stereoradiography
      Measurements.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate stereoradiographic
      measurements of femoral torsion with different femoral positions, in comparison
      with CT measurements, with use of the current standard axial-slice technique. We
      hypothesize that CT measurements vary with femoral spatial positioning because of
      the resulting projection onto the CT plane, whereas stereoradiographic
      measurements, which are derived from a 3D reconstruction of the femur, remain
      constant. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both in vitro and in vivo studies were
      conducted. CT and stereoradiographic examinations were performed using 30 dry
      femurs in the following six femoral positions: neutral position (with the femoral
      mechanical axis aligned with the longitudinal axis of the CT scanner or
      stereoradiography system), 10 degrees  of abduction, 10 degrees  of adduction, 5
      degrees  of flexion, 10 degrees  of flexion, and 5 degrees  of extension. The
      impact of femoral position on torsion measurement was assessed using paired t
      tests. In addition, 18 patients (mean [+/- SD] age, 42.3 +/- 19.9 years) who
      underwent both CT and stereoradiography examinations were retrospectively
      assessed. The correlation between femoral positioning and torsion measurement was
      determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Flexion and
      extension statistically significantly affected CT measurement of femoral torsion
      (p < 0.01) but not stereoradiography measurement (p > 0.21). A strong correlation
      existed between hip flexion and the difference between femoral torsion measured
      by CT and stereoradiography (r = -0.80). CONCLUSION: The accuracy of femoral
      torsion determined by axial CT depends on the position of the femur. Hip flexion
      significantly reduced the femoral torsion angle measured by CT. Conversely, the
      accuracy of stereoradiography was independent of femur positioning. Thus,
      stereoradiography is preferable to CT for accurate measurement of femoral
      torsion, while it also substantially reduces the radiation dose.

PMID- 28570095
TI  - Differentiating Transudative From Exudative Ascites Using Quantitative B-Mode
      Gray-Scale Ultrasound Histogram.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to differentiate exudative from
      transudative ascites using B-mode gray-scale ultrasound histogram analysis.
      SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty-two consecutive patients with ascites were
      prospectively studied from June 2014 through June 2015. All underwent ultrasound
      (US) and paracentesis in the radiology department. Five patients were excluded
      (three with hemorrhage and two with peritoneal carcinomatosis). The remaining 57
      patients were divided into those with exudative and transudative ascites
      according to results of paracentesis. Electronically recorded US images were
      transferred to a workstation, and gray-scale histograms were generated. The
      ascites-to-rectus abdominis muscle echogenicity ratio (ARAER) was obtained from
      ascites adjacent to the rectus abdominis muscle. ROC curves were used to evaluate
      the sensitivity and specificity of this method in differentiating exudative from
      transudative ascites. RESULTS: ARAERs for exudative ascites were significantly
      higher than those for transudative ascites (p < 0.001). ROC was done to evaluate
      ARAERs for exudative ascites. The best cutoff value for ARAER histogram was
      0.002. The sensitivity and specificity of ARAER were 87.5% and 79.2% (AUC =
      0.843), respectively. CONCLUSION: ARAER is an easily applicable noninvasive
      quantitative sonographic method with high sensitivity and specificity in
      differentiating exudative from transudative ascites.

PMID- 28570096
TI  - Advanced MRI Techniques for the Ankle.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this article are to present a state-of-the-art routine
      protocol for MRI of the ankle, to provide problem-solving tools based on specific
      clinical indications, and to introduce principles for the implementation of
      ultrashort echo time MRI of the ankle, including morphologic and quantitative
      assessment. CONCLUSION: Ankle injury is common among both athletes and the
      general population, and MRI is the established noninvasive means of evaluation.
      The design of an ankle protocol depends on various factors. Higher magnetic field
      improves signal-to-noise ratio but increases metal artifact. Specialized imaging
      planes are useful but prolong acquisition times. MR neurography is useful, but
      metal reduction techniques are needed whenever a metal prosthesis is present. An
      ultrashort echo time sequence is a valuable tool for both structural and
      quantitative evaluation.

PMID- 28570097
TI  - CT Intensity Distribution Curve (Histogram) Analysis of Patients Undergoing
      Antiangiogenic Therapy for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the median versus mean
      attenuation obtained from histograms in the response assessment of renal cell
      carcinoma (RCC) target lesions in patients treated with vascular endothelial
      growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Imaging findings of 19 patients with RCC and treated with a VEGFR tyrosine kinase
      inhibitor that included a baseline study and at least two follow-up studies were
      retrospectively analyzed. Histograms of target lesions were created from ROI
      measurements, and mean and median lesion attenuation were obtained. Shift of mean
      and median was used to classify response of lesions between baseline CT and the
      first follow-up examination according to the Choi criteria; morphology,
      attenuation, size, and structure (MASS) criteria; and the Response Evaluation
      Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). RECIST classification of the last follow-up CT
      examination was considered the reference standard. RESULTS: Among the 19 patients
      (six women, 13 men; mean age, 60 +/- 8 [SD] years; body mass index, 24.5 +/- 4.6
      kg/m2), three (16%) had evidence of disease progression; nine (47%), partial
      response; and seven (37%), stable disease. Temporal change in the shape of the
      histograms from or to gaussian occurred in 11 of the 19 (58%) lesions, which
      accounted for a significant difference between mean (64.3 +/- 38.5 HU) and median
      (71.0 +/- 36.5 HU) lesion attenuation (p < 0.001). According to the shift of
      median for outcome analysis, the number of properly classified lesions increased
      from 12 of 19 (63%) to 13 of 19 (68%) for the Choi criteria and from 14 of 19
      (74%) to 15 of 19 (79%) for the MASS criteria. CONCLUSION: Mean and median
      attenuation of RCC target lesions differed significantly. Use of shift of median
      rather than shift of mean increased the number of accurate classifications of
      lesions at the first follow-up CT examination.

PMID- 28570098
TI  - Variation in Screening CT-Detected Nodule Volumetry as a Function of Size.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate measurement variability in
      volumetric assessment of pulmonary nodules on low-dose CT images with a view
      toward determining how this variability is influenced by nodule size. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A large CT screening database was reviewed to identify solid
      pulmonary nodules that had remained stable in size on the basis of findings from
      at least three scans obtained over a 2-year period. Two software packages (Lung
      VCAR and syngo.via) were used to assess the nodule volume on the two most recent
      CT scans, which were obtained at a slice thickness of 0.625 mm. The percentage of
      volume change was calculated for each nodule. The SD of the percentage of volume
      change was determined for nodules in each of the following nodule diameter size
      categories: less than 4 mm, 4-5 mm, 6-9 mm, and 10 mm or larger. The diameter was
      the mean of the length and width in the CT image that represented the largest
      cross-sectional area of the nodule. RESULTS: The 171 stable nodules that were
      identified in 117 CT screening participants (median age, 61 years) ranged in size
      from 2.2 to 18.7 mm. The time between acquisition of the first and last CT images
      ranged from 3.7 to 17.8 years (median, 11.5 years). For each of the four
      categories of diameter size (< 4, 4-5, 6-9, and >= 10 mm), the SD of the
      percentage of volume change was 20.4%, 17.7%, 14.6%, and 3.7%, with the use of
      Lung VCAR, and 59.5%, 24.3%, 9.1%, and 6.2%, with the use of syngo.via,
      respectively. The SD decreased with increasing nodule diameter, with the use of
      both software packages. CONCLUSION: Measurement variability decreased with
      increasing nodule diameter for both software packages and was different between
      the two software packages.

PMID- 28570099
TI  - Accuracy and Interobserver Agreement for Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data
      System, Version 2, for the Characterization of Lesions Identified on
      Multiparametric MRI of the Prostate.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to measure the accuracy and
      interobserver agreement of the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System,
      version 2 (PI-RADSv2), for the characterization of prostate lesions on
      multiparametric MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 170
      men examined at a single institution between August 2014 and February 2015 on a 3
      T MRI scanner. Study patients were found to have lesions concerning for prostate
      cancer that were targeted for MRI/transrectal ultrasound fusion biopsy. Two
      experienced readers independently assigned a PI-RADSv2 assessment category to the
      dominant lesion in each patient. The AUC was calculated to determine reader
      accuracy for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer (Gleason
      score >= 3 + 4). The Cohen kappa statistic was used to quantify interobserver
      agreement. RESULTS: The prevalence of clinically significant prostate cancer was
      0.36 (61/170 patients). The AUCs for readers 1 and 2 were 0.871 and 0.882,
      respectively. The AUCs were greater for peripheral zone lesions than for
      transition zone lesions. When a PI-RADSv2 assessment category >= 3 was considered
      positive, the agreement between readers was good overall (kappa = 0.63) and was
      fair for transition zone lesions (kappa = 0.53). When a PI-RADSv2 assessment
      category >= 4 was considered positive, the agreement was excellent overall (kappa
      = 0.91) and was excellent for both peripheral zone lesions (kappa = 0.91) and
      transition zone lesions (kappa = 0.87). CONCLUSION: Two experienced readers were
      able to accurately identify patients with clinically significant prostate cancer
      using PI-RADSv2 with good interobserver agreement overall.

PMID- 28570102
TI  - Cross-Sectional Imaging of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: Development, Growth,
      Spread, and Prognosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a malignant tumor that arises
      from the intrahepatic bile ducts. Although the pathologic and imaging features of
      ICC have been clearly identified, recent updates have addressed the pathologic
      classification and imaging features of ICC using new imaging techniques. First, a
      proposed new pathologic ICC subclassification includes perihilar large duct and
      peripheral small duct ICCs. Second, advanced MR-based imaging features of ICC,
      such as hepatobiliary phase imaging using hepatocytespecific contrast material
      and DWI, have recently been described. These imaging features are important when
      differentiating ICCs from hepatocellular carcinomas. Finally, some imaging
      features of ICC, such as prominent arterial enhancement or degree of delayed
      enhancement, exhibit potential as prognostic imaging biomarkers. CONCLUSION:
      Comprehensive and updated knowledge of ICC is necessary for accurate diagnosis
      and could facilitate prediction of clinical outcomes for patients with ICC.

PMID- 28570100
TI  - Serum Matrix Metalloproteinase-7, Respiratory Symptoms, and Mortality in
      Community-Dwelling Adults. MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).
AB  - RATIONALE: Matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) has been implicated in interstitial
      lung disease pathobiology and proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker
      of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. OBJECTIVES: To test associations between serum
      MMP-7 and lung function, respiratory symptoms, interstitial lung abnormalities
      (ILA), and all-cause mortality in community-dwelling adults sampled without
      regard to respiratory symptoms or disease. METHODS: We measured serum MMP-7 in
      1,227 participants in MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) at baseline.
      The 5-year outcome data were available for spirometry (n = 697), cough (n = 722),
      and dyspnea (n = 1,050). The 10-year outcome data were available for ILA (n =
      561) and mortality (n = 1,227). We used linear, logistic, and Cox regression to
      control for potential confounders. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The mean (+/
      SD) serum MMP-7 level was 4.3 (+/-2.5) ng/ml (range, 1.2-24.1 ng/ml). In adjusted
      models, each natural log unit increment in serum MMP-7 was associated with a 3.7%
      absolute decrement in FVC% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.9-6.6%), a 1.6-fold
      increased odds of exertional dyspnea (95% CI = 1.3-1.9), a 1.5-fold increased
      odds of ILAs (95% CI = 1.1-2.1), and a 2.2-fold increased all-cause mortality
      rate (95% CI = 1.9-2.5). The associations with ILA and mortality tended to be
      stronger among never-smokers (P values for interaction 0.06 and 0.01,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Serum MMP-7 levels may be a quantitative biomarker of
      subclinical extracellular matrix remodeling in the lungs of community-dwelling
      adults, which may facilitate investigation of subclinical interstitial lung
      disease.

PMID- 28570103
TI  - Cavity Versus Ligand Shape Descriptors: Application to Urokinase Binding Pockets.
AB  - We analyzed 78 binding pockets of the human urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA)
      catalytic domain extracted from a data set of crystallized uPA-ligand complexes.
      These binding pockets were computed with an original geometric method that does
      NOT involve any arbitrary parameter, such as cutoff distances, angles, and so on.
      We measured the deviation from convexity of each pocket shape with the pocket
      convexity index (PCI). We defined a new pocket descriptor called distributional
      sphericity coefficient (DISC), which indicates to which extent the protein atoms
      of a given pocket lie on the surface of a sphere. The DISC values were computed
      with the freeware PCI. The pocket descriptors and their high correspondences with
      ligand descriptors are crucial for polypharmacology prediction. We found that the
      protein heavy atoms lining the urokinases binding pockets are either located on
      the surface of their convex hull or lie close to this surface. We also found that
      the radii of the urokinases binding pockets and the radii of their ligands are
      highly correlated (r = 0.9).

PMID- 28570101
TI  - MR Elastography Demonstrates Unique Regional Brain Stiffness Patterns in
      Dementias.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate age-corrected brain MR
      elastography (MRE) findings in four dementia cohorts (Alzheimer disease, dementia
      with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, and normal pressure hydrocephalus) and
      determine the potential use as a differentiating biomarker in dementia subtypes.
      SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Institutional review board approval and written informed
      consent were obtained to perform MRE on 84 subjects: 20 patients with normal
      pressure hydrocephalus, eight with Alzheimer disease, five with dementia with
      Lewy bodies, five with frontotemporal dementia, and 46 cognitively normal control
      subjects. Shear waves of 60-Hz vibration frequency were transmitted into the
      brain using a pillowlike passive driver, and brain stiffness was determined in
      eight different regions (cerebrum, frontal, occipital, parietal, temporal, deep
      gray matter-white matter, sensorimotor cortex, and cerebellum). All stiffness
      values were age-corrected and compared with control subjects. The Wilcoxon rank
      sum test and linear regression were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS:
      Regional stiffness patterns unique to each dementing disorder were observed.
      Patients with Alzheimer disease and frontotemporal dementia showed decreased
      cerebral stiffness (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively) with regional
      softening of the frontal and temporal lobes. Patients with Alzheimer disease
      additionally showed parietal lobe and sensorimotor region softening (p = 0.039
      and p = 0.018, respectively). Patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus showed
      stiffening of the parietal, occipital, and sensorimotor regions (p = 0.007, p <
      0.001, and p < 0.0001, respectively). Patients with dementia with Lewy bodies did
      not show significant stiffness changes in any of the regions. CONCLUSION:
      Quantitative MRE of changes in brain viscoelastic structure shows unique regional
      brain stiffness patterns between common dementia subtypes.

PMID- 28570104
TI  - Detection of Complexes in Biological Networks Through Diversified Dense Subgraph
      Mining.
AB  - Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, providing a comprehensive landscape
      of protein interaction patterns, enable us to explore biological processes and
      cellular components at multiple resolutions. For a biological process, a number
      of proteins need to work together to perform a job. Proteins densely interact
      with each other, forming large molecular machines or cellular building blocks.
      Identification of such densely interconnected clusters or protein complexes from
      PPI networks enables us to obtain a better understanding of the hierarchy and
      organization of biological processes and cellular components. However, most
      existing graph clustering algorithms on PPI networks often cannot effectively
      detect densely connected subgraphs and overlapped subgraphs. In this article, we
      formulate the problem of complex detection as diversified dense subgraph mining
      and introduce a novel approximation algorithm to efficiently enumerate putative
      protein complexes from biological networks. The key insight of our algorithm is
      that instead of enumerating all dense subgraphs, we only need to find a small
      diverse subset of subgraphs that cover as many proteins as possible. The problem
      is modeled as finding a diverse set of maximal dense subgraphs where we develop
      highly effective pruning techniques to guarantee efficiency. To scale up to large
      networks, we devise a divide-and-conquer approach to speed up the algorithm in a
      distributed manner. By comparing with existing clustering and dense subgraph
      based algorithms on several yeast and human PPI networks, we demonstrate that our
      method can detect more putative protein complexes and achieves better prediction
      accuracy.

PMID- 28570105
TI  - Understanding Consumer Interaction on Instagram: The Role of Satisfaction,
      Hedonism, and Content Characteristics.
AB  - The increasing relevance of Instagram and its growing adoption among top brands
      suggest an effort to better understand consumers' behaviors within this context.
      The purpose of this study is to examine the role of perceived hedonism and
      satisfaction in determining consumers' intentions to interact and their actual
      interaction behaviors (the number of likes, by tapping a heart icon, and
      comments) in a brand's official Instagram account. Also, we investigate the
      effect of consumer perceptions about the characteristics of the content generated
      in the account (perceived originality, quantity, and quality) on their perceived
      hedonism and satisfaction. Data were collected in two stages from 808 members of
      a fashion brand's official Instagram account. First, participants answered an
      online questionnaire to evaluate their perceptions, satisfaction, and interaction
      intentions. Second, 1 month later, we measure the number of likes and comments
      done by each participant in the brand's official Instagram account during that
      month. Using partial least squares to analyze the data, perceived hedonism is
      found to affect both satisfaction and the intention to interact in Instagram,
      which in turn influences actual behavior. Besides, perceived originality is the
      most relevant content characteristic to develop perceived hedonism. These
      findings offer managers a general vision of consumers' behaviors on Instagram,
      highlighting the importance of hedonism to create a satisfactory experience.

PMID- 28570106
TI  - Cause for optimism?

PMID- 28570107
TI  - Chronic oedema in the community: an overview.

PMID- 28570108
TI  - Time to make nursing the number one priority.

PMID- 28570109
TI  - Management of long-term conditions and dementia: The role of the Admiral Nurse.
AB  - As life expectancy increases so people often develop a range of conditions and
      disabilities in the years before death. Multimorbidity represents the most common
      'disease pattern' found among the elderly and is characterised by complex
      interactions of co-existing diseases where a medical approach focused on a single
      disease does not suffice. People with dementia who also have other comorbidities
      do not always have their comorbid conditions managed as those without dementia
      which often lead to a high number of hospital admissions with longer lengths of
      stay and greater treatment costs. This case study presents the case management
      approach taken by Admiral Nursing in managing the complexities where there is
      comorbidity of a long-term condition and a diagnosis of dementia. By empowering
      the person and their carer with information and choices and through good case
      management and communication, people can be supported to live well and avoid
      inappropriate hospital admissions.

PMID- 28570110
TI  - The challenges of upskilling health care assistants in community nursing.
AB  - Community care is at the forefront of the National Health Service reforms. Role
      redistribution from registered nurses to health care assistants is growing. This
      paper examines the challenges of upskilling community health care assistants to
      undertake catheterisation for uncomplicated patients in the community. Social
      constructivist methods facilitated reflective practice. Challenges included fears
      around delegation, accountability and the responsibilities involved in supporting
      the development of health care assistants. Recommendations suggest that community
      health care assistants offer a valuable and much needed contribution to health
      care delivery and are enthusiastic to upskill in catheterisation. However,
      reluctance from community registered nurses around delegation delayed the
      process. Registered nurses will need to address these fears and engage in
      workforce planning to proactively influence role developments and safe practice.
      National guidance needs to be structured around clear pathways to support these
      valued participants in delivering health care.

PMID- 28570111
TI  - Diagnosis and management of cellulitis: a dermatology perspective.

PMID- 28570112
TI  - Physical exercise for those living with and beyond cancer: Changing perceptions
      in palliative caring.

PMID- 28570113
TI  - Giving evidence in court.
AB  - Appearing in court is becoming an almost routine part of a district nurse's role
      and the prospect of appearing in court or giving evidence at fitness to practice
      hearings remains a daunting one. The process is still largely adversarial and
      cross examination is a hostile experience that must be met with professionalism
      and gravitas. In this article Richard Griffith highlights the principles of
      effective evidence giving.

PMID- 28570114
TI  - Introducing community integrated nursing teams: How one Clinical Commissioning
      Group applied an evidence-based approach.
AB  - The present day collection of financial and demographic challenges confronted by
      health and social care mean that integrated services are undoubtedly essential to
      sustain adequate care. However, the impact of integrated care upon healthcare
      staff and patients as well as new ways of working will need to be demonstrated,
      with collaboration and engagement throughout any transition. This paper provides
      an overview of the evidence relating to the delivery of effective, integrated out
      of-hospital care, with a discussion of the literature. It also considers how one
      Clinical Commissioning Group has begun the process of integration with the focus
      on community nursing services for the provision of better care for patients with
      an evidence-based approach.

PMID- 28570115
TI  - Managing sepsis effectively with national early warning scores and screening
      tools.

PMID- 28570117
TI  - Effects of Chromium on Glucose Tolerance in Infants Receiving Parenteral
      Nutrition Therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Early hyperglycemia is prevalent in preterm infants receiving
      parenteral nutrition (PN) therapy. Chromium improves glucose tolerance by
      potentiating the action of insulin. Therefore, we hypothesized that supplementing
      PN with chromium would improve glucose tolerance and PN calorie delivery in
      infants during the first week of life. METHODS: We collected data on neonates
      receiving PN initiated at birth with chromium (0.2 mcg/kg/d) started either on
      days 5-7 (group A) vs day 1 (group B) on PN and compared glucose tolerance and PN
      calorie administration over the first week of life. RESULTS: For similar mean
      serum glucose concentrations between group A (n = 348) and B (n = 358) (107 +/-
      48 vs 111 +/- 52 mg/dL, P = .3), infants in group B tolerated higher glucose
      infusion rates and received more PN calories during the first week of life: 8.4
      +/- 2 vs 8 +/- 2 mg/kg/min (P < .001) and 74.8 +/- 23 vs 71.5 +/- 12 kcal/kg/d (P
      = .017), respectively. The difference in calories delivered was more pronounced
      among very low birth weight (VLBW) infants compared with infants >1500 g: 76.5 +/
      14 vs 72.4 +/- 11 kcal/kg/d (P = .009) and 73.8 +/- 27 vs 70.3 +/- 12 kcal/kg/d
      (P = .079), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PN chromium supplementation resulted in
      better glucose tolerance and calorie delivery during the first week of life,
      especially in VLBW infants. This supports chromium's essential role in enhancing
      glucose tolerance during PN therapy in VLBW infants at risk for early
      hyperglycemia.

PMID- 28570119
TI  - Effect of Opioids and Benzodiazepines on Clinical Outcomes in Patients Receiving
      Palliative Care: An Exploratory Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medications for symptom management in palliative care have
      associated, but poorly understood, harms. Drug-related harms have important
      clinical implications, may impact on patients' compliance and contribute to
      symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To explore the longitudinal relationship between oral
      morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD) and oral diazepam equivalent daily dose
      (DEDD) with functional, cognitive, and symptom outcomes in patients receiving
      palliative care. DESIGN: Secondary longitudinal analysis of cancer decedents (n =
      235) was carried out from a palliative care randomized controlled trial with
      multiple outcome measures. At each time point, MEDD and DEDD were calculated.
      Multilevel modeling was used to investigate independent associations between MEDD
      and DEDD, and cognitive and gastrointestinal symptoms, quality of life (QoL),
      performance status, and survival. SETTING/SUBJECTS: Participants were recruited
      from a specialist palliative care program in southern Adelaide, were expected to
      live >=48 hours, had pain in the previous 3 months, and a baseline Folstein Mini
      Mental Status Examination score >=25. RESULTS: Cognitive and gastrointestinal
      symptoms, performance status, and QoL worsened over time. In the adjusted
      multilevel analysis, statistically significant relationships remained between
      MEDD/DEDD and worsening performance status (p = 0.001), DEDD and gastrointestinal
      effects (p < 0.001), MEDD and QoL (p < 0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Commonly used
      palliative medications were associated with deteriorating performance status. The
      lack of association between MEDD with gastrointestinal or cognitive symptoms
      underlines that these associations are not inevitable with close attention. This
      analysis highlights the importance of including other medications as confounders
      when exploring medication-related harms. An understanding of the risk-benefit
      balance of medications is needed to maximize net benefits for patients.

PMID- 28570118
TI  - Distinct Genetic Diversity of Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii from
      Colombian Hospitals.
AB  - The global success of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii has been
      associated with the dissemination of a high-risk clone designated clonal complex
      (CC) 92B (Bartual scheme)/CC2P (Pasteur scheme), which is the most frequent
      genetic lineage in European, Asian, and North American carbapenem-resistant
      Acinetobacter isolates. In these isolates, carbapenem resistance is mainly
      mediated by beta-lactamases encoded by blaOXA-23-like, blaOXA-24-like, blaOXA-51
      like, and/or blaOXA-58-like genes. In this study, we characterized the population
      genetics of 121 carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii complex isolates recovered from
      14 hospitals in seven cities in Colombia (2008-2010). Multiplex PCR was used to
      detect blaOXA-23-like, blaOXA-24-like, blaOXA-51-like, and blaOXA-58-like genes.
      Molecular typing was performed using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and
      multilocus sequence typing (MLST). PCR showed that 118 (97.5%) of the isolates
      were positive for both blaOXA-23-like and blaOXA-51-like genes, and three other
      isolates were only positive for blaOXA-51-like. PFGE identified 18 different
      pulsotypes, while MLST identified 11 different sequence types (STs), seven of
      which had not been previously described in Acinetobacter. None of the STs found
      in this study was associated with CC92B/CC2P. The most widespread STs in our
      isolates belonged to ST636 and their single-locus variants ST121/ST124/ST634
      (CC636B) followed by STs belonging to CC110B. Our observations suggest a wide
      distribution of diverse A. baumannii complex clones containing blaOXA-23-like in
      Colombian hospitals (especially CC636B and CC110B) that differ from the high-risk
      clones commonly found in other regions of the world, indicating a distinct
      molecular epidemiology of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. in Colombia.

PMID- 28570120
TI  - Characterization of the coagulation profile in children with liver disease and
      extrahepatic portal vein obstruction or shunt.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic liver disease causes a disruption of procoagulant and
      anticoagulant factors, resulting in a fragile state, prone to increased rates of
      both bleeding and thrombosis. Currently, there is limited literature describing
      the changes observed in pediatric liver disease and extrahepatic portal vein
      obstruction or shunt. This study aimed to describe the changes that occur in
      children with chronic liver disease and extrahepatic portal vein obstruction or
      shunt. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We measured the concentration and activity of key
      procoagulant and anticoagulant factors in children with liver disease, children
      with extrahepatic portal vein obstruction or shunt, and healthy children.
      RESULTS: Children with severe liver disease had coagulopathic changes, including
      either decreased concentration or activity of factor II, factor V, and factor
      VII. Nineteen percent (8/42) of the cohort had significant bleeding.
      Thrombophilic changes were also observed, including decreased concentration or
      activity of protein C, protein S, and antithrombin and increased concentration
      and activity of factor VIII and Von Willebrand factor. Similar coagulation factor
      changes were observed in children with extrahepatic portal vein obstruction or
      shunt. There was a trend toward greater changes in coagulation factor activity
      compared to concentration. CONCLUSION: This study provides a detailed description
      of the changes in both the concentration and activity of coagulation factors in
      pediatric liver disease and extrahepatic portal vein obstruction or shunt.
      Interestingly, procoagulant and anticoagulant factors were deranged in portal
      vein obstruction or shunt to a similar degree as in liver disease. An improved
      understanding of the coagulation profile in the pediatric setting will contribute
      to the improved management of liver disease and extrahepatic portal obstruction
      or shunt. ABBREVIATIONS: PELD: pediatric end-stage liver disease score; MELD:
      model for end-stage liver disease score; ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay; MCRI: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute; FII: factor II; FV: factor V;
      FVII: factor VII; FVIII: factor VIII; AT: antithrombin III; A2M: alpha-2
      macroglobulin; vWF: Von Willebrand factor; PC: protein C; PS: protein S; ISTH
      BAT: International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis Bleeding Assessment
      Tool.

PMID- 28570121
TI  - Update in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2016.

PMID- 28570122
TI  - simUfish: An Interactive Application to Teach K-12 Students About Zebrafish
      Behavior.
AB  - As the zebrafish is rapidly becoming a species of choice in preclinical research,
      several efforts are being placed toward creating educational programs for K-12
      students based on this promising model organism. However, as any other model
      organisms, the use of zebrafish in classroom settings requires additional
      experimental resources and poses ethical challenges related to animal use. To
      mitigate these factors, we have developed an application (app), simUfish, which
      implements a mathematical model of zebrafish behavior for generating multiple
      fish trajectories and animating their body undulations. simUfish is developed
      using a multiplatform game engine and is expected to promote the knowledge of
      zebrafish behavior to both K-12 students and the general public. Specifically, it
      demonstrates basic principles of fish individual and social behaviors, including
      environment interaction; fear response toward a predator; shoaling; and
      attraction toward a stimulus, which can be a food source or simply a finger
      placed on the touch screen. The effectiveness of the app as an accessible
      experimental tool for learning was tested in an outreach activity on middle
      school students from the New York City school system. The results from this
      activity show an immediate, tangible improvement of students' satisfaction and
      willingness to learn about key concepts on zebrafish behavior, accompanied by
      high level of interest in life sciences.

PMID- 28570123
TI  - Functional insights into the Magnaporthe oryzae class II myosin.

PMID- 28570124
TI  - Impact of the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System, Version 2, on MRI
      Diagnosis for Extracapsular Extension of Prostate Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to validate the Prostate Imaging
      Reporting and Data System, version 2 (PI-RADSv2), in assessing extracapsular
      extension (ECE), compared with PI-RADS, version 1 (PI-RADSv1). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 210 patients with clinically localized prostate cancer
      underwent MRI and radical prostatectomy. Two readers independently interpreted
      the MR images. In PI-RADSv1, 5-point ECE risk scoring was used. In PI-RADSv2, ECE
      criteria included morphologic features and a tumor-capsule contact length (CL)
      greater than 10 mm. The diagnostic performance of each PI-RADS version and the
      cutoff CL were evaluated. RESULTS: ECE was found in 56 patients (26.7%). In PI
      RADSv1, maximal accuracy was achieved with a risk score of 3 or greater. At this
      threshold, positive findings on PI-RADSv1 and PI-RADSv2 were identified in 21.0
      34.3% and 49.0-51.4% of patients, respectively. Compared with PI-RADSv1, PI
      RADSv2 had higher negative predictive values (84.9-89.1% vs 96.3-97.1%,
      respectively; p = 0.003 and 0.021, for each reader). PI-RADSv1 and PI-RADSv2 had
      positive predictive values of 56.9-70.5% and 49.1-50.5%, respectively (p = 0.025
      and 0.300, respectively). Interobserver kappa values for PI-RADSv1 and PI-RADSv2
      were 0.511 and 0.781, respectively. The best cutoff CL was greater than 10 mm
      among patients without morphologic features of ECE. For patients positive for ECE
      on the basis of PI-RADSv2 but not PI-RADSv1, 73.3-74.1% of prostate cancer cases
      with a biopsy Gleason score of 7 or less and 35.7-44.4% of cases with a biopsy
      Gleason score of 8 or higher were overstaged. CONCLUSION: PI-RADSv2 reduces
      understaging and improves interobserver agreement in ECE assessment. However,
      overstaging is a concern, and the biopsy Gleason score may have a complementary
      role in reducing overstaging.

PMID- 28570125
TI  - High Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in fat-1 Mice Reduce Inflammatory Pain.
AB  - Omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as alpha-linolenic
      and linoleic acids, are essential fatty acids in mammals, because they cannot be
      synthesized de novo. However, fat-1 transgenic mice can synthesize omega-3 PUFAs
      from omega-6 PUFAs without dietary supplementation of omega-3, leading to
      abundant omega-3 PUFA accumulation in various tissues. In this study, we used fat
      1 transgenic mice to investigate the role of omega-3 PUFAs in response to
      inflammatory pain. A high omega-3 PUFA tissue content attenuated formalin-induced
      pain sensitivity, microglial activation, inducible nitric oxide synthase
      expression, and the phosphorylation of NR2B, a subunit of the N-methyl-d
      aspartate (NMDA) receptor. Our findings suggest that elevated omega-3 PUFA levels
      inhibit NMDA receptor activity in the spinal dorsal horn and modulate
      inflammatory pain transmission by regulating signal transmission at the spinal
      dorsal horn, leading to the attenuation of chemically induced inflammatory pain.

PMID- 28570126
TI  - Second and Third Metatarsophalangeal Plantar Plate Tears: Diagnostic Performance
      of Direct and Indirect MRI Features Using Surgical Findings as the Reference
      Standard.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to assess the diagnostic performance
      and associations of the direct and indirect MRI features of the
      metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint that are thought to be related to tears of the
      plantar plate (PP) using surgical findings as the reference standard. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We retrospectively included 23 patients with symptomatic instability
      of lesser MTP joints who had undergone preoperative 1.5-T MRI and surgical
      assessment. The MRI examinations were independently assessed by two
      musculoskeletal radiologists. Using the surgical data as the reference standard,
      we calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of each MRI feature in
      the detection of PP tears. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was
      performed to identify which MRI features were independently associated with PP
      tears. Interobserver reliability was assessed using kappa statistics. RESULTS:
      Forty-five lesser MTP joints were included. The presence of pericapsular fibrosis
      was highly sensitive (91.2%), specific (90.9%), and accurate (91.1%) for the
      diagnosis of PP tears. With a cutoff value of 0.275 cm, the PP-proximal phalanx
      distance had a sensitivity of 64.7%, specificity of 90.9%, and accuracy of 71.1%
      in diagnosing PP tears. CONCLUSION: In patients with clinical features indicating
      lesser MTP joint instability, some direct and indirect MRI features exhibited
      good to excellent diagnostic performance in detecting the presence of PP tears.

PMID- 28570127
TI  - JOURNAL CLUB: Benefit of Epinephrine Autoinjector for Treatment of Contrast
      Reactions: Comparison of Errors, Administration Times, and Provider Preferences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Given the rarity of contrast reactions in practice, most radiologists
      have little to no experience in their management, and errors are common. The
      purpose of this study was to compare treatment of a moderate-severity reaction
      with intramuscular epinephrine by either the traditional manual method of drawing
      up and delivering epinephrine with a needle and syringe or the use of an
      epinephrine autoinjector. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: All diagnostic radiologists at
      the study institution were requested to participate in an annual contrast
      reaction simulation program, which consisted of three simulation scenarios in a
      high-fidelity simulation laboratory. During the moderate-severity simulation
      scenario, the time to administer intramuscular epinephrine and any errors in
      administration were recorded. Groups were randomized to use an autoinjector
      device or manual delivery. All participants completed a survey assessing the
      experience with epinephrine and their comfort in treating contrast reactions
      using a traditional manual approach versus an epinephrine autoinjector. RESULTS:
      Among 189 participants in the contrast reaction simulation program, 76
      participated in a moderate-severity reaction simulation two to five at a time in
      25 sessions. Mean total time to administration was significantly longer for
      manual (108.8 seconds) than for autoinjector (38.7 seconds) delivery (p < 0.001).
      There were 11 errors in the manual group and one error in the autoinjector group
      (p = 0.005). Ninety-four percent of participants reported feeling very
      comfortable or comfortable with the autoinjector as opposed to 60% for manual
      delivery (p < 0.001). Overall, 96% of participants thought the autoinjector was
      easier to use. CONCLUSION: Use of an epinephrine autoinjector for treatment of
      contrast reactions was associated with a significantly greater degree of provider
      comfort, shorter time to administration, and fewer errors.

PMID- 28570128
TI  - Effect of a Biopsy Center on Adequacy Rates of Thyroid Nodule Fine-Needle
      Aspiration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a biopsy
      center-a dedicated space with a dedicated ultrasound machine and technologist,
      staffed daily by a radiologist responsible for performing ultrasound-guided
      procedures only-on the rate of non-diagnostic or unsatisfactory thyroid fine
      needle aspiration (FNA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three radiologists performed FNA
      on 1200 nodules in 998 patients between September 2010 and November 2015. We
      compared rates of nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory FNA before and after
      implementation of a biopsy center in September 2014 as part of a quality
      improvement initiative. Before the establishment of our biopsy center, ultrasound
      guided procedures were scheduled between diagnostic studies in the main
      ultrasound department and were performed by a radiologist responsible for both.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of
      the biopsy center on the odds of obtaining an adequate sample. RESULTS: Rates of
      nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory FNA decreased significantly from 15.1% to 8.5% (p
      < 0.001) after implementation of the biopsy center. The odds of obtaining an
      adequate sample were higher in the biopsy center (odds ratio, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.43
      3.01), even after adjusting for patient age, nodule size, the radiologist
      performing the procedure, and time over the study period. CONCLUSION: The
      implementation of a biopsy center was associated with significantly lower rates
      of nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory thyroid FNA, suggesting target rates of 10% or
      lower are achievable with quality improvement measures.

PMID- 28570129
TI  - Sexual Self-Schemas in the Real World: Investigating the Ecological Validity of
      Language-Based Markers of Childhood Sexual Abuse.
AB  - This is the first study to examine language use and sexual self-schemas in
      natural language data extracted from posts to a large online forum. Recently, two
      studies applied advanced text analysis techniques to examine differences in
      language use and sexual self-schemas between women with and without a history of
      childhood sexual abuse. The aim of the current study was to test the ecological
      validity of the differences in language use and sexual self-schema themes that
      emerged between these two groups of women in the laboratory. Archival natural
      language data were extracted from a social media website and analyzed using
      LIWC2015, a computerized text analysis program, and other word counting
      approaches. The differences in both language use and sexual self-schema themes
      that manifested in recent laboratory research were replicated and validated in
      the large online sample. To our knowledge, these results provide the first
      empirical examination of sexual cognitions as they occur in the real world. These
      results also suggest that natural language analysis of text extracted from social
      media sites may be a potentially viable precursor or alternative to laboratory
      measurement of sexual trauma phenomena, as well as clinical phenomena, more
      generally.

PMID- 28570130
TI  - An Integrative Computational Approach to Evaluate Genetic Markers for Chronic
      Lymphocytic Leukemia.
AB  - Recent studies reported hundreds of genes linked to chronic lymphocytic leukemia
      (CLL). However, many of these candidate genes were lack of replication and
      results were not always consistent. Here, we proposed a computational workflow to
      curate and evaluate CLL-related genes. The method integrates large-scale
      literature knowledge data, gene expression data, and related pathways/network
      information for quantitative marker evaluation. Pathway Enrichment, Sub-Network
      Enrichment, and Gene-Gene Interaction analysis were conducted to study the
      pathogenic profile of the candidate genes, with four metrics proposed and
      validated for each gene. By using our approach, a scalable CLL genetic database
      was developed including CLL-related genes, pathways, diseases and information of
      supporting references. The CLL case/control classification supported the
      effectiveness of the four proposed metrics, which successfully identified nine
      well-studied CLL genes (i.e., TNF, BCL2, TP53, VEGFA, P2RX7, AKT1, SYK, IL4, and
      MDM2) and highlighted two newly reported CLL genes (i.e., PDGFRA and CSF1R). The
      computational biology approach and the CLL database developed in this study
      provide a valuable resource that may facilitate the understanding of the genetic
      profile of CLL.

PMID- 28570131
TI  - Simplifying the management of venous leg ulcers: Choosing appropriate and
      acceptable compression therapy.

PMID- 28570132
TI  - Leg ulcers: time to benchmark?

PMID- 28570133
TI  - Biofilm-based wound care: the importance of debridement in biofilm treatment
      strategies.

PMID- 28570134
TI  - The sun, the potential for skin cancer, and the affect on wound healing.

PMID- 28570135
TI  - The Lindsay Leg Club Foundation update.

PMID- 28570136
TI  - More wounds, less time to treat them: 1717 nurses discuss the challenges in wound
      care in a series of study days.

PMID- 28570138
TI  - The use of prophylactic dressings in the prevention of pressure ulcers: a
      literature review.
AB  - Pressure ulcers pose a significant burden to both patients and health care
      resources. There are an increasing number of studies that have examined the use
      of prophylactic dressings, and their ability to redistribute pressure and protect
      the skin from shear and friction damage. This literature review examines six
      studies conducted on this controversial subject. Brindle and Wegelin ( 2012 ;
      Chaiken, 2012 ; Cubit et al, 2012 ; Santamaria et al, 2012) all examined the role
      of dressings to prevent pressure ulcers, and Call et al (2013a ; 2013b ),
      conducted in vitro research into the mode of dressings. Current research suggests
      that while further research is required, the use of prophylactic dressings have a
      place alongside standard measures, in helping to prevent pressure, shear and
      friction damage.

PMID- 28570137
TI  - Benefits of maggot debridement therapy on leg ulcers: a literature review.
AB  - Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) is an effective method for debriding wounds such
      as leg ulcers, supporting the concept of wound bed preparation ( Dumville et al,
      2009 ; Soares et al, 2009 ; Mudge et al, 2014 ). New evidence is emerging to
      suggest that maggots might contribute to wound healing in other ways. For
      example, the reduction of biofilms and disinfection of wounds ( Van Der Plas et
      al, 2008 ; Brown et al, 2012 ; Pritchard and Brown, 2015 ) plus regulation of
      protease levels ( Chambers et al, 2003 ; Van Der Plas et al, 2009a ; Van Der Plas
      et al, 2009b ). This review will discuss research exploring new benefits of
      maggots in the management of individuals with chronic leg ulcers.

PMID- 28570139
TI  - Woundcare4Heroes celebrates its 5th anniversary.

PMID- 28570140
TI  - Does Conversion to Open of Laparoscopically Attempted Rectal Cancer Cases Affect
      Short- and Long-Term Outcomes? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopy for rectal cancer is a challenge as it presents many
      technical difficulties and requires high level of expertise. That is the reason
      for the high conversion rate. Reports on outcomes of converted cases after
      laparoscopic rectal resection for cancer are conflicting. AIM: The present meta
      analysis compares short- and long-term outcomes between converted rectal cancer
      cases with both open and laparoscopically completed cases. METHOD: All studies
      reporting on outcomes separately for the converted cases were reviewed
      systematically. Main outcomes were intraoperative complications, procedure
      duration, short-term mortality and morbidity, length of stay, local recurrence,
      number of lymph nodes retrieved, and distant metastases. Quality assessment and
      data extraction were performed independently by 3 reviewers. RESULTS: Fourteen
      studies were eligible for analysis, including 10,845 patients. Overall conversion
      rate was 11.9%. Converted cases had significantly longer duration, hospital stay,
      and higher rates of wound infection compared with laparoscopic cases. All other
      outcomes had no difference. When compared with open cases, conversions displayed
      longer operative times, but there was no other significant difference in the
      short- or long-term outcomes. CONCLUSION: Converted cases seem to have some short
      term unfavorable outcomes. Further retrospective analysis of big registries will
      be helpful for further investigation of converted cases.

PMID- 28570142
TI  - An Efficient Approach to Explore and Discriminate Anomalous Regions in Bacterial
      Genomes Based on Maximum Entropy.
AB  - Recently, there has been an increase in the number of whole bacterial genomes
      sequenced, mainly due to the advancing of next-generation sequencing
      technologies. In face of this, there is a need to provide new analytical
      alternatives that can follow this advance. Given our current knowledge about the
      genomic plasticity of bacteria and that those genomic regions can uncover
      important features about this microorganism, our goal was to develop a fast
      methodology based on maximum entropy (ME) to guide the researcher to regions that
      could be prioritized during the analysis. This methodology was compared with
      other available methods. In addition, ME was applied to eight different bacterial
      genera. The methodology consists of two main steps: processing the nucleotide
      sequence and ME calculation. We applied ME to Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri
      306 (XAC) and Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris ATCC 33913 (XCC), both of
      which have their anomalous regions well documented. We then compared our results
      against those from Alien Hunter, HGT-DB, Islander, IslandPath, and SIGI-HMM. ME
      was shown to be superior in terms of efficiency and analysis duration. Besides,
      ME only needs the genome sequence in FASTA format as input. The proposed strategy
      based on ME is able to help in bacterial genome exploration. This is a simple and
      fast strategy for individual genomes in comparison with other available methods,
      without relying on previous annotation and alignments. This methodology can also
      be a new option in the early stages of analysis of newly sequenced bacterial
      genomes.

PMID- 28570144
TI  - Translational Animal Models in Orthopaedic Research.

PMID- 28570143
TI  - Zebrafish and the Cancer Moonshot.

PMID- 28570141
TI  - Management of ischemic coronary disease in patients receiving chemotherapy: an
      uncharted clinical challenge.
AB  - Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) coinciding with active malignancy presents a unique
      clinical challenge given intersecting pathophysiology and treatment-related
      effects. There is little established clinical guidance on management strategies,
      rendering most treatment approaches anecdotal. We present a case highlighting the
      complexity of managing a patient being treated for malignancy who concurrently
      suffers from ACS. We then review the literature on co-management of ACS and
      malignancy, including reports of specific cancer therapies associated with ACS,
      unique features of clinical presentation and optimal use of dual antiplatelet
      therapy to minimize risks of bleeding and thrombosis. We also describe gaps in
      current literature, challenges in systematically studying the clinical
      intersection of these disease processes and propose alternative methodologies for
      further research.

PMID- 28570146
TI  - Recombinant C1 Esterase Inhibitor Reduces Cytokine Storm in an Ex Vivo Whole
      Blood Model.
AB  - C1 esterase inhibitor (C1INH) is an abundant component of blood plasma (the
      average concentration is 250 mg/L); it is known to be involved in several
      biological processes, for instance, in the regulation of the coagulation system,
      adhesion of leukocytes on endothelial cells, and in the regulation of complement
      and kallikrein cascades. Lately, the role of C1INH in immunomodulation has gained
      considerable attention. We used an ex vivo whole blood model to examine the
      influence of C1INH and its mutated variants on the inflammatory cytokines
      interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), and IL-1beta. The
      present study demonstrated for the first time that recombinant C1INH or its
      Seprin domain can downregulate bacterial endotoxin induced IL-6 release. We also
      observed that unstructured N-terminal domain of C1INH downregulates the release
      of IL-1beta and TNFalpha, but not IL-6. Our results suggest that C1INH may have
      therapeutic potential for treatment of inflammatory conditions.

PMID- 28570147
TI  - Estimating Arterial Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide in Ventilated Patients:
      How Valid Are Surrogate Measures?
AB  - The arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) is an important parameter
      in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. To limit invasive procedures
      or for more continuous monitoring of PaCO2, clinicians often rely on venous blood
      gases, capnography, or transcutaneous monitoring. Each of these has advantages
      and limitations. Central venous Pco2 allows accurate estimation of PaCO2,
      differing from it by an amount described by the Fick principle. As long as
      cardiac output is relatively normal, central venous Pco2 exceeds the arterial
      value by approximately 4 mm Hg. In contrast, peripheral venous Pco2 is a poor
      predictor of PaCO2, and we do not recommend using peripheral venous Pco2 in this
      manner. Capnography offers measurement of the end-tidal Pco2 (PetCO2), a value
      that is close to PaCO2 when the lung is healthy. It has the advantage of being
      noninvasive and continuously available. In mechanically ventilated patients with
      lung disease, however, PetCO2 often differs from PaCO2, sometimes by a large
      degree, often seriously underestimating the arterial value. Dependence of PetCO2
      on alveolar dead space and ventilator expiratory time limits its value to predict
      PaCO2. When lung function or ventilator settings change, PetCO2 and PaCO2 can
      vary in different directions, producing further uncertainty. Transcutaneous Pco2
      measurement has become practical and reliable. It is promising for judging steady
      state values for PaCO2 unless there is overt vasoconstriction of the skin.
      Moreover, it can be useful in conditions where capnography fails (high-frequency
      ventilation) or where arterial blood gas analysis is burdensome (clinic or home
      management of mechanical ventilation).

PMID- 28570149
TI  - Free Access to Costly Medical Resources: Provision of Extracorporeal Membrane
      Oxygenation for Profound Respiratory Failure in the French Health Care System.

PMID- 28570150
TI  - Stressing the Brain: The Immune System, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis, and
      Psychiatric Symptoms in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Survivors.

PMID- 28570152
TI  - Shockingly Deficient: An Elderly Woman with Refractory Hypotension and Acidosis.

PMID- 28570151
TI  - A Tale of Two Hearts: Patients with Decompensated Right Heart Failure in the
      Intensive Care Unit.

PMID- 28570153
TI  - Managing Post-Pneumonectomy Tension Hydrothorax.

PMID- 28570148
TI  - An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report: Obesity and Metabolism. An
      Emerging Frontier in Lung Health and Disease.
AB  - The world is in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic of obesity. This epidemic
      has changed the presentation and etiology of common diseases. For example,
      steatohepatitis, directly attributable to obesity, is now the most common cause
      of cirrhosis in the United States. Type 2 diabetes is increasingly being
      diagnosed in children. Pulmonary researchers and clinicians are just beginning to
      appreciate the impact of obesity and altered metabolism on common pulmonary
      diseases. Obesity has recently been identified as a major risk factor for the
      development of asthma and for acute respiratory distress syndrome. Obesity is
      associated with profound changes in pulmonary physiology, the development of
      pulmonary hypertension, sleep-disordered breathing, and altered susceptibility to
      pulmonary infection. In short, obesity is leading to dramatic changes in lung
      health and disease. Simultaneously, the rapidly developing field of metabolism,
      including mitochondrial function, is shifting the paradigms by which the
      pathophysiology of many pulmonary diseases is understood. Altered metabolism can
      lead to profound changes in both innate and adaptive immunity, as well as the
      function of structural cells. To address this emerging field, a 3-day meeting on
      obesity, metabolism, and lung disease was convened in October 2015 to discuss
      recent findings, foster research initiatives, and ultimately guide clinical care.
      The major findings arising from this meeting are reported in this document.

PMID- 28570154
TI  - Cryobiopsy: A Work in Progress.

PMID- 28570155
TI  - Supplemental Oxygen for Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease: Managing
      Expectations.

PMID- 28570156
TI  - Refining the Burden of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: The Cocktail Party Effect.

PMID- 28570157
TI  - Preserving Lung Function: The Holy Grail in Managing Cystic Fibrosis.

PMID- 28570158
TI  - Inhaled Corticosteroids and Systemic or Topical Antifungal Therapy: A Symmetry
      Analysis.

PMID- 28570159
TI  - Canon in Intensive Care Unit Utilization: The Importance of a Fine-Tuned
      Instrument.

PMID- 28570160
TI  - Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Diffuse Alveolar Damage. New Insights on
      a Complex Relationship.
AB  - Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major clinical problem with high
      morbidity and mortality. Diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) is considered the
      histological hallmark for the acute phase of ARDS. DAD is characterized by an
      acute phase with edema, hyaline membranes, and inflammation, followed by an
      organizing phase with alveolar septal fibrosis and type II pneumocyte
      hyperplasia. Given the difficulties in obtaining a biopsy in patients with ARDS,
      the presence of DAD is not required to make the diagnosis. However, biopsy and
      autopsy studies suggest that only one-half of patients who meet the clinical
      definition of ARDS also have DAD. The other half are found to have a group of
      heterogeneous disorders, including pneumonia. Importantly, the subgroup of
      patients with ARDS who also have DAD appears to have increased mortality. It is
      possible that the response of these patients to specific therapies targeting the
      molecular mechanisms of ARDS may differ from patients without DAD. Therefore, it
      may be important to develop noninvasive methods to identify DAD. A predictive
      model for DAD based on noninvasive measurements has been developed in an autopsy
      cohort but must be validated. It would be ideal to identify biomarkers or imaging
      techniques that help determine which patients with ARDS have DAD. We conclude
      that additional studies are needed to determine the effect of DAD on outcomes in
      ARDS, and whether noninvasive techniques to identify DAD should be developed with
      the goal of determining whether this population responds differently to specific
      therapies targeting the molecular mechanisms of ARDS.

PMID- 28570162
TI  - Sequential Bronchoscopic Cryobiopsy and Cryotherapy.

PMID- 28570161
TI  - A Phase II Clinical Trial of an Aromatase Inhibitor for Postmenopausal Women with
      Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
AB  - RATIONALE: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a progressive cystic lung disease
      that predominantly affects women and can worsen with pregnancy, estrogen
      treatment, and the menstrual cycle, suggesting an important role for estrogen in
      disease pathogenesis. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of the
      aromatase inhibitor letrozole in the treatment of LAM. METHODS: Seventeen
      postmenopausal women with LAM were enrolled in this phase II trial and randomized
      to receive letrozole 2.5 mg daily (n = 9) or placebo (n = 8) for a period of 12
      months. Five patients in each group were also taking sirolimus at baseline and
      remained on the drug throughout the treatment period. Lung function, exercise
      capacity, quality of life, and serum vascular endothelial growth factor D (VEGF
      D) were measured at baseline and at 3-month intervals. RESULTS: Fifteen patients
      completed the study. Two patients withdrew. There were no differences in adverse
      events in the letrozole and placebo groups. The target enrollment of 25 patients
      per arm was not met, so the efficacy of letrozole could not be assessed as
      planned. After adjusting for sirolimus use, we found that the rate of change in
      FEV1 for all subjects was -3 +/- 3 ml/mo (P = 0.4), and for serum VEGF-D, the
      rate of change was -0.024 +/- 0.009 pg/ml/mo (P = 0.015), showing a steeper
      decline in the letrozole group (-0.029 +/- 0.013; P = 0.025). All patients who
      were taking sirolimus had a reduction in VEGF-D levels from baseline to the last
      visit, compared with only half of the patients who were not taking sirolimus. In
      a post hoc analysis, eight matched letrozole-treated-placebo-treated pairs were
      constructed, six of which demonstrated better FEV1 improvement for the letrozole
      treated patients. CONCLUSIONS: Letrozole treatment appears to be safe and well
      tolerated in postmenopausal patients with LAM, including those taking sirolimus.
      Enrollment in this trial was compromised by the publication of an effective
      treatment (sirolimus) in the same month as the study opened, resulting in limited
      power to detect treatment effects. Post hoc matched pairs exploration studies
      provide tentative support for additional studies of letrozole in LAM. Considering
      the reduced rate of lung function decline in postmenopausal patients, future
      studies will likely require enhanced study designs, such as selective enrollment
      of those with prognostic biomarkers predictive of decline. Clinical trial
      registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01353209).

PMID- 28570164
TI  - Reply to Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28570163
TI  - Direct-Access Online Care for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis: A Randomized
      Clinical Trial Examining Patient Quality of Life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic disease requiring regular follow
      up. To increase access to dermatological care, online management of AD is being
      studied. However, a critical knowledge gap exists in determining AD patients'
      quality of life in direct-to-patient online models. In this study, we examined
      quality of life in AD patients managed through a direct-access online model.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We randomized 156 patients to receiving care through a
      direct-access online platform or in person. Patients were seen for six visits
      over 12 months. At each visit, the patients completed Dermatology Life Quality
      Index/Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI/CDLQI), and Short Form (SF
      12). RESULTS: Between baseline and 12 months, the mean (standard deviation, SD)
      within-group difference in DLQI score in the online group was 4.1 (+/-2.3); for
      the in-person group, the within-group difference was 4.8 (+/-2.7). The mean (SD)
      within-group difference in CDLQI score in the online group was 4.7 (+/-2.8); for
      the in-person group, the within-group difference was 4.9 (+/-3.1). The mean (SD)
      within-group difference in physical component score (PCS) and mental component
      score (MCS) SF-12 scores in the online group was 6.5 (+/-3.8) and 8.6 (+/-4.3);
      for the in-person group, it was 6.8 (+/-3.2) and 9.1(+/-3.8), respectively. The
      difference in the change in DLQI, CDLQI, SF-12 PCS, and SF-12 MCS scores between
      the two groups was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [90% CI], -0.97 to 2.41), 0.23
      (90% CI, -2.21 to 2.67), 0.34 (90% CI, -1.16 to 1.84), and 0.51 (90% CI, -1.11 to
      2.13), respectively. All differences were contained within their equivalence
      margins. CONCLUSION: Adult and pediatric AD patients receiving direct-access
      online care had equivalent quality of life outcomes as those see in person. The
      direct-access online model has the potential to increase access to care for
      patients with chronic skin diseases.

PMID- 28570165
TI  - Response to Commentators on "What's Wrong With Enhancement?"

PMID- 28570166
TI  - Response to Commentators on "Will the 'Real Boy' Please Behave: Dosing Dilemmas
      for Parents of Boys with ADHD".

PMID- 28570167
TI  - Population Size and Site Fidelity of Fundulus heteroclitus in a Macrotidal
      Saltmarsh Creek.

PMID- 28570168
TI  - Interaction of Nitrogen Supply, Sea Level Rise, and Elevation on Species Form and
      Composition of Salt Marsh Plants.

PMID- 28570169
TI  - Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen Flux and Mineralization in Waquoit Bay Sediments as
      Measured by Core Incubations.

PMID- 28570171
TI  - Temperature-Independent Period Immediately After Fertilization in Sea Urchin
      Eggs.
AB  - The experiments described here explore the regulation of the duration of cleavage
      cycles in sea urchin eggs. We measured the timing of early cleavages in
      individual fertilized eggs under various temperature conditions and applied
      methods of statistical analysis to the data obtained. At least for the first
      three cleavages, the temperature dependence of the cleavage intervals was nearly
      equal. In addition, we identified a temperature-independent period at the
      beginning of the first cleavage cycle. This period occurs immediately after
      fertilization and lasts for several minutes. Our results suggest that this
      interval of temperature independence is related to the process of egg activation.

PMID- 28570170
TI  - Effect of Methyl Farnesoate on Late Larval Development and Metamorphosis in the
      Prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Decapoda, Palaemonidae): A Juvenoid-like Effect?
AB  - Methyl farnesoate (MF), the unepoxidated form of insect juvenile hormone III, was
      detected in larvae of the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, which
      metamorphose to post-larvae following 11 larval stages. The possible role of MF
      as a morphogen was studied by administering the compound to M. rosenbergii larvae
      via an Artemia vector. Higher MF levels caused earlier retardation of late larval
      growth, and the highest dose retarded larval development. Furthermore, MF
      significantly affected the patterns of metamorphosis and the appearance of
      intermediate individuals exhibiting both larval and post-larval morphology and
      behavior. Three intermediate types were defined, two of which were found only at
      the MF-treated groups and one that was exclusive to the higher dose treatments.
      The relative abundance of intermediate specimens increased from 2% in the control
      to 32% in the high MF concentration, which suggests that MF has a juvenoid-like
      effect in this decapod crustacean.

PMID- 28570172
TI  - Body Polarity and Mineral Selectivity in the Demosponge Chondrosia reniformis.
AB  - The skeleton of the common Mediterranean demosponge Chondrosia reniformis lacks
      endogenous spicules; but exogenous siliceous material is selectively incorporated
      into its collagenous ectosome, strengthening this layer. Nevertheless, the
      settling of sponge buds during asexual reproduction necessitates an active
      incorporation of the calcareous substratum through the sponge lower ectosome.
      This fact suggests the presence of a polarity in the sponge, with the lower
      surface selecting primarily carbonates, and the upper surface selecting
      exclusively silicates and quartz. Our observations under experimental conditions
      showed that the strong selectivity of the upper ectosome is realized only when
      the sponge is fixed to the substratum; if detached, the sponge incorporates both
      quartz and carbonates. In laboratory experiments, the incapacity of both kinds of
      ectosome to regenerate into a new complete sponge suggests that this polarity
      arises early in ontogeny.

PMID- 28570173
TI  - Lead Concentration as an Indicator of Contamination History in Estuarine
      Sediments.

PMID- 28570174
TI  - Effect of Eelgrass (Zostera marina) Density on the Feeding Efficiency of
      Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus).

PMID- 28570175
TI  - Planktonic Feeding and Evolutionary Significance of the Lobate Body Plan Within
      the Ctenophora.

PMID- 28570176
TI  - Effects of Nitrogen Loading on Eelgrass Seed Coat Abundance, C to N Ratios, and
      delta15N in Sediments of Waquoit Bay.

PMID- 28570177
TI  - Calcium Regulatory Endomembranes of the Prophase Mitotic Apparatus of Sand Dollar
      Cells Contain Enzyme Activities That Produce Leukotriene B4 but Not 1,4,5
      Inositol Trisphosphate.

PMID- 28570178
TI  - Structural Strengthening of Urchin Skeletons by Collagenous Sutural Ligaments.
AB  - Sea urchin skeletons are strengthened by flexible collagenous ligaments that bind
      together rigid calcite plates at sutures. Whole skeletons without ligaments
      (removed by bleaching) broke at lower apically applied forces than did intact,
      fresh skeletons. In addition, in three-point bending tests on excised plate
      combinations, sutural ligaments strengthened sutures but not plates. The degree
      of sutural strengthening by ligaments depended on sutural position; in tensile
      tests, ambital and adapical sutures were strengthened more than adoral sutures.
      Adapical sutures, which grow fastest, were also the loosest, suggesting that
      strengthening by ligaments is associated with growth. In fed, growing urchins,
      sutures overall were looser than in unfed urchins. Looseness was demonstrated
      visually and by vibration analysis: bleached skeletons of unfed urchins rang at
      characteristic frequencies, indicating that sound traveled across tightly fitting
      sutures; skeletons of fed urchins damped vibrations, indicating loss of
      vibrational energy across looser sutures. Furthermore, bleached skeletons of fed
      urchins broke at lower apically applied forces than bleached skeletons of unfed
      urchins, indicating that the sutures of fed urchins had been held together
      relatively loosely by sutural ligaments. Thus, the apparently rigid dome-like
      skeleton of urchins sometimes transforms into a flexible, jointed membrane as
      sutures loosen and become flexible during growth.

PMID- 28570179
TI  - Effect of Larval Swimming Duration on Growth and Reproduction of Bugula neritina
      (Bryozoa) Under Field Conditions.
AB  - A growing body of evidence indicates that even subtle events occurring during one
      portion of an animal's life cycle can have detrimental, and in some cases,
      lasting effects on later stages. Using a laboratory-field transplant design,
      postmetamorphic costs associated with the duration of larval swimming were
      investigated in the bryozoan Bugula neritina. Larvae were induced to metamorphose
      in the laboratory after swimming for either less than 1 h or between 23 and 24 h;
      colonies that developed from these two groups of larvae are referred to hereafter
      as "1-h colonies" and "24-h colonies," respectively. After completing
      metamorphosis, individuals were transplanted to the field, where rates of growth
      and reproduction were monitored. In a study of the interaction between colony
      orientation (up or down) and larval swimming duration, both factors significantly
      affected the number of autozooids produced. For example, 14 days after
      metamorphosis, 1-h colonies facing up were approximately 40% smaller than 1-h
      colonies facing down. In another study, the effects of larval swimming duration,
      orientation, and a neighboring conspecific colony on growth and reproduction were
      examined. In this experiment, proximity to a conspecific colony and orientation
      did not significantly affect growth or fecundity, whereas increased larval
      swimming duration significantly reduced both. For example, 14 days after
      metamorphosis, the 24-h colonies were 35% smaller than 1-h colonies. Furthermore,
      from the time metamorphosis was initiated, the onset of reproduction was delayed
      by about 1.5 days in 24-h colonies when compared to 1-h colonies; and a slight
      delay (ca. 1 day) was associated with proximity of a developing conspecific in 1
      h and 24-h colonies. In addition, 17 days after metamorphosis, 24-h colonies had
      about half as many brood chambers (an index of fecundity) as 1-h colonies. Costs
      associated with increasing the larval swimming phase by only 24 h are significant
      in postmetamorphic individuals, and they clearly compromise colony fitness.

PMID- 28570180
TI  - Oocyte Maturation in Chaetopterus pergamentaceous Observed With Centrifuge
      Polarizing Microscope.

PMID- 28570181
TI  - Role of Mechanosensory Stimuli in Intraspecific Agonistic Encounters of the
      Snapping Shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis).
AB  - Intraspecific agonistic encounters in snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis)
      were analyzed using single-frame video analysis. The pair of conspecifics in such
      an encounter are designated as the snapper, which emits a fast water jet by very
      rapid closure, or snap, of the large modified snapper claw, and the receiver,
      which is the target of the water jet. The behavior of both snapper and receiver
      was evaluated before, during, and after the snap. Interactions between two intact
      shrimp (experimental series I) were compared with those between an intact shrimp
      and a "deprived" opponent (one with mechanosensory occlusion produced by coating
      the setae on the snapper claw with clear lacquer) (experimental series II). The
      behavior of the receiver is significantly changed by the occlusion, but that of
      the snapper is not. Intact and deprived opponents usually face each other during
      snapping, which is often preceded by touching of frontal appendages. The mean
      duration of claw cocking before snapping is about 500 ms. More than 50% of all
      snaps (and especially initial snaps) are directed towards the opponent, the water
      jet usually hitting the snapper claw of the receiver from a mean distance of 0.9
      cm. Male shrimp show longer cocking durations, keep a shorter distance, and hit
      their opponents more often than do females. Intact and deprived snappers usually
      retreat immediately after snapping, but intact receivers usually approach. In
      contrast, deprived receivers retreat in most cases and show significantly
      prolonged latencies compared to intact receivers. Thus, mechanoreceptors on the
      snapper claw of the receiver play a significant role in intraspecific agonistic
      encounters.

PMID- 28570182
TI  - Fluorescence Localization of Cytoskeletal Proteins in Fibrin-Trapped Cells.

PMID- 28570183
TI  - Efferent Mechanisms of Discharging Cnidae: II. A Nematocyst Release Response in
      the Sea Anemone Tentacle.
AB  - Feeding behavior in cnidarians is a sequence of coordinated responses beginning
      with nematocyst discharge. The nematocyst response produces prey capture by
      envenomating prey and attaching prey to the tentacle. The strength of attachment
      of discharged nematocysts to the tentacle is termed intrinsic adherence and is
      calculated from measurements of adhesive force. Following prey capture, the
      feeding response involves movement of the tentacles toward the mouth and mouth
      opening. For ingestion to occur, nematocysts attaching the prey to the tentacles
      must be released from the tentacle. A nematocyst release response has been
      proposed, but never documented nor measured. Our criterion for a nematocyst
      release response is that the intrinsic adherence of discharged nematocysts must
      decrease to zero. The unit of nematocyst discharge in sea anemone tentacles is
      the cnidocyte/ supporting cell complex (CSCC). The nematocyst response includes
      nematocysts discharged from Type C CSCCs by physical contact alone and
      nematocysts discharged from the more numerous Type B CSCCs that require both
      chemosensitization and physical contact. We identify two prey-derived substances,
      N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) and glycine, both of which chemosensitize
      nematocyst discharge from Type B CSCCs at low concentrations. At higher
      concentrations NANA stimulates the release response of Type Cs, and glycine
      stimulates the release response of Type Bs.

PMID- 28570184
TI  - Migratory Behavior of Ovigerous Blue Crabs Callinectes sapidus: Evidence for
      Selective Tidal-Stream Transport.
AB  - In the late summer and early fall, newly inseminated female blue crabs
      (Callinectes sapidus) leave low-salinity areas of estuaries and migrate seaward
      to spawn near the entrance. We tested the hypothesis that migration of female C.
      sapidus to spawning grounds is facilitated by selective tidal-stream transport
      (STST). We monitored the swimming direction of adult crabs from a stationary
      platform located about 1 km inside the entrance to the Newport River Estuary
      (Beaufort, North Carolina). Swimming activity near the surface occurred primarily
      at night and most crabs avoided swimming against tidal currents. Eighty-one
      percent of the crabs observed moving down-estuary toward the inlet during ebb
      tide were ovigerous females. Of the 36 gravid females captured traveling in ebb
      currents, 97% possessed dark egg masses containing late-stage embryos.
      Conversely, nearly all (98%) adult crabs observed traveling in flood currents
      lacked egg masses, and all the females captured while migrating up-estuary
      exhibited signs of recent spawning. These observations indicate that ovigerous
      blue crabs use ebb-tide transport to migrate seaward to spawn and flood-tide
      transport to reenter the estuary shortly after larval release.

PMID- 28570186
TI  - Distribution of Setae on the Homarus americanus Lateral Antennular Flagellum.

PMID- 28570185
TI  - A Little Shell to Live In: Evidence That the Fertilization Envelope Can Prevent
      Mechanically Induced Damage of the Developing Sea Urchin Embryo.

PMID- 28570187
TI  - Hydrodynamic Coupling of Lobster Antennule Motion to Oscillatory Water Flow.

PMID- 28570188
TI  - Juvenile Limulus polyphemus Generate Two Water Currents That Contact One Proven
      and One Putative Chemoreceptor Organ.

PMID- 28570189
TI  - The Biomechanics of Odorant Access to Aesthetascs in the Grass Shrimp,
      Palaemonetes vulgaris.

PMID- 28570190
TI  - In vivo and in vitro Growth of Nerve Parasite from Lophius americanus.

PMID- 28570191
TI  - Evidence for Multiple Spawning by Squids (Loligo pealei) in Captivity.

PMID- 28570192
TI  - Dependence of Herbivory on Autotrophic Nitrogen Content and on Net Primary
      Production Across Ecosystems.

PMID- 28570193
TI  - Preliminary Evaluation of Sedimentation Rates and Species Distribution in Plum
      Island Estuary, Massachusetts.

PMID- 28570194
TI  - Transport Pathways in the Neotropical Sponge Aplysina.
AB  - Strands of cells distinct from the rest of the tissue were found running
      lengthwise through the endosome of four species of the sponge Aplysina. Although
      the strands were more highly pigmented than the adjacent tissue and could be
      removed intact with forceps, ultra-structural studies revealed no obvious barrier
      separating the cells in the strands from the rest of the tissue. The strands
      consist of stretches of elongate cells tightly aligned along densely bundled
      collagen fibrils, and areas of other elongate cells that possess numerous
      filopodia. When sponges were fed fluorescent latex beads in situ, beads were
      taken up and transported specifically into the strands; eventually they were
      found at the tip of the sponge and further down the stalk, away from the site of
      feeding. Beads injected into endosomal strands were also transported upwards in
      the strands to the tip of the sponge. Video microscopy of cells in strands that
      had been exposed along a portion of their length showed no bulk movement of
      cells; but individual cells were seen moving in both directions along the strands
      at 0.025-0.04 {mu}m.s-1. The endosomal cell strands are suggestive of a primitive
      nutrient transport pathway in sponges.

PMID- 28570195
TI  - Metamorphic-Signal Transduction in Hydroides elegans (Polychaeta: Serpulidae) Is
      Not Mediated by a G Protein.
AB  - Evidence from larvae of hydrozoans, gastropods, and barnacles suggests that G
      protein-coupled receptors mediate induction of settlement and metamorphosis in
      response to environmental cues. We examined responses of larvae of the serpulid
      polychaete Hydroides elegans to neuropharmacological agents to determine if G
      protein-coupled receptors or their associated signal-transduction pathways
      regulated induction of metamorphosis by bacterial cues. Larvae of Hydroides
      elegans metamorphose rapidly and in high proportions when exposed to bacterial
      biofilms. Neither the G-protein activator Gpp[NH]p nor the inhibitor GDP-{beta}-S
      affected metamorphosis. Although the nonspecific phosphodiesterase inhibitors
      IBMX, theophylline, and papaverine induced larvae to metamorphose, RO-20-1724 (an
      inhibitor selective for cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase IV) and the cyclic
      nucleotide analogs db-cAMP and db-cGMP had no effect on metamorphosis. The
      adenylate cyclase activator forskolin inhibited responses of larvae to inductive
      bacterial biofilms. These apparently conflicting results may be due to side
      effects of IBMX, theophylline, papaverine, and forskolin on ion transport. The
      phorbol ester TPA, an activator of protein kinase C, also had no effect on larval
      metamorphosis. These experiments indicate that G protein-coupled receptors and
      signal transduction by the adenylate cyclase/cyclic AMP or phosphatidyl-inositol/
      diacylglycerol/protein kinase C pathways are not components of the morphogenetic
      pathway that is directly responsible for processing metamorphic cues in H.
      elegans.

PMID- 28570196
TI  - Induction of Extra Claws on the Chelipeds of a Crayfish, Procambarus clarkii.
AB  - In a crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, growth of an extra claw was induced by making
      a V-shaped wound in the proximal end of the propodus of the second and third
      chelipeds. Two nerve bundles were damaged by the wounding. Some type of extra
      growth developed on the propodi of 13 of the damaged chelipeds: a pair of extra
      claws (2 chelipeds), a pair of extra dactyls (1 cheliped), a single extra dactyl
      (2 chelipeds), and a single slight projection (8 chelipeds). The extra claws and
      dactyls developed from the peripheral side of the propodus away from the wound
      site. One of a pair of extra dactyls and the single extra dactyls could be moved
      only slightly, either manually or by the crayfish. The other extra dactyls could
      be moved by the crayfish. Muscles were associated with each of the extra and
      primary claws. The muscles attached to the double extra claw or dactyl were
      innervated by nerve bundles that were branches from the primary thick nerve
      bundles. One possible explanation for these findings is that the severed nerve
      fibers in the thick nerve bundles regenerate, elongate into aberrant roots, and
      form extra claws or dactyls.

PMID- 28570197
TI  - Electrophysiology and Innervation of the Photosensitive Epistellar Body in the
      Lesser Octopus Eledone cirrhosa.
AB  - The innervation and responses to light of the cephalopod epistellar body were
      investigated in preparations isolated from the stellate ganglia of the lesser or
      northern octopus, Eledone cirrhosa. Extracellular generator potentials in
      response to flashes of light were recorded from these photosensitive vesicles,
      with the amplitude of the response being found to be dependent upon the intensity
      of the flash and the level of ambient illumination. Intracellular recordings from
      photoreceptor cells of the epistellar body showed that they had resting
      potentials of about -49 +/- 7 mV (mean +/- SD, n = 43) and were depolarized by
      flashes of white, but not red (>650 nm) light. The evoked depolarization
      consisted of a transient component, followed by a steady plateau in which the
      amplitude of the depolarization was well correlated with the log of the stimulus
      intensity. The evoked depolarizations induced action potentials in the
      photoreceptor cells, with the frequency of firing being well correlated with the
      stimulus intensity. The morphologies of individual photoreceptor cells were
      visualized by intracellular injections of the fluorescent dye Lucifer yellow, and
      the path of the epistellar nerve across the stellate ganglion, into the pallial
      nerve, toward the brain was traced using the lipophilic dye Di-I. This pathway
      was confirmed physiologically by recording light-evoked responses from the cut
      end of the pallial nerve.

PMID- 28570198
TI  - Physiological Progenesis in Cephalopod Molluscs.
AB  - The coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, squid and octopus) arose from their shelled
      ancestors during the late Devonian; they diversified in the Jurassic but did not
      radiate substantially until the Tertiary. Since then they have coevolved with the
      fish (1). Squid are less efficient energetically than fish (2) but have survived
      alongside them by evolving highly opportunistic reproductive and feeding
      strategies (3, 4) as well as rapid jetting and inking for escape and defense.
      Little is known about the life history strategies of the fossil forms, but the
      only surviving shelled cephalopods, the nautiluses, have relatively long life
      spans and are iteroparous; that is, in common with most members of other
      molluscan classes, they breed more than once during their lives. In contrast, all
      other living cephalopods are generally short lived (usually 1 year) and have
      monocyclic reproduction and a semelparous life history. The short-lived
      semelparous coleoids are typified by the mid-latitude ommastrephid squid which
      provide the basic model considered here. This family is relatively primitive and
      biologically well known. Its members are essentially monocyclic, but some species
      may spawn their eggs in batches (5, 6) although there is no evidence of this in
      laboratory spawnings (7). Most loliginid squid, at least in temperate seas, have
      a life cycle similar to that of the ommastrephids, despite having different
      spawning habits. A comparison of the lifetime energetics and growth pattern of
      benthic, iteroparous molluscs with those of the pelagic, semelparous
      ommastrephids shows that, although some squid may attain a length of 1 m or more,
      the allocation of their energy resource among growth components is essentially
      characteristic of the early life, especially the first year, of iteroparous
      forms. The life-time energy budget of these squid thus seems to have evolved by
      physiological progenesis, a process in which maturation is accelerated while
      other aspects of the physiology are more typical of the juvenile.

PMID- 28570199
TI  - D- and L-beta-Hydroxybutyrate Dehydrogenases and the Evolution of Ketone Body
      Metabolism in Gastropod Molluscs.
AB  - In vertebrate animals, ketone bodies, synthesized primarily from stored lipid,
      are important metabolic substrates (1). During starvation, ketone bodies,
      acetoacetate (Acac) and {beta}-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), are oxidized by some
      extrahepatic tissues at high rates, and thus perform the important function of
      sparing limited glycogen stores (1, 2). The enzyme {beta}-hydroxybutyrate
      dehydrogenase (BHBDH), which catalyzes the interconversion of the ketone bodies,
      is found in all mammals and most vertebrates, but is absent in most invertebrates
      (1, 3), including marine molluscs (4). The highest measured BHBDH activities in
      the animal kingdom, however, are found in the hearts of terrestrial gastropod
      molluscs (5, 6). We have recently demonstrated that, in tissues of the
      terrestrial gastropod Cepaea nemoralis, two unique and previously unknown
      isoforms of BHBDH occur (5). The isoforms differ from the well-characterized
      mitochondrial membrane-bound D-BHBDH found in all other animals (7) in that they
      are cytosolic, and one isoform is specific for the L-enantiomer of BHB. Here we
      identify patterns in the evolution of these enzyme isoforms in the Gastropoda.
      BHBDH activities, stereospecificity and subcellular compartmentalization were
      measured in gastropod species representing four major groups with freshwater and
      terrestrial representation: Neritomorpha (primitive gilled gastropods),
      Architaenioglossa (more advanced gilled gastropods), Basommatophora (freshwater
      pulmonates), and Stylommatophora (terrestrial pulmonates). Mapping of these data
      onto a phylogeny of the Gastropoda (8) indicates that cytosolic D- and L-BHBDH
      have arisen a single time, in an ancestral stylommatophoran. All gastropods of
      the order Stylommatophora possess this unique organization of ketone body
      metabolism, which has not been found elsewhere in the animal kingdom.

PMID- 28570200
TI  - Evolutionary Implications of FGF and Distal-Less Expressions During Proximal
      Distal Axis Formation in the Ampulla of a Direct-Developing Ascidian, Molgula
      pacifica.
AB  - The present results provide the first evidence of a fibroblast growth factor
      (FGF) family protein in a urochordate. Anti-FGF2 immunoreactive hemoblast cells
      were detected at day 3 of juvenile development in a direct-developing urochordate
      ascidian, Molgula pacifica. The detection of FGF in hemoblast cells coincided
      with the appearance of distal-less protein along the proximal-distal axis of
      growing ampullae. Ampullae are limb-like, fluid-filled ectodermal appendages that
      contain hemoblast cells and have holdfast, respiratory, and immunological
      functions (1). Given the evolutionary conservation of the genes encoding FGF (2)
      their receptors (2), and distal-less (3) the present results suggest that the
      formation of non-homologous ascidian appendages shares genetic elements in common
      with proximal-distal axis formation in arthropod limbs and vertebrate limbs
      (4,5). The possible evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed.

PMID- 28570201
TI  - Luciferase of the Scyphozoan Medusa Periphylla periphylla.
AB  - Two types of luciferase that catalyze the luminescent oxidation of coelenterazine
      were isolated from the marginal exumbrella epithelium (lappet) and the ovary of
      Periphylla periphylla; they were designated luciferase-L and luciferase-O,
      respectively. Luciferase-L (Mr 32,000), probably derived from highly specialized
      photocytes, was very resistant to heat, and its activity was little affected by
      boiling; but it was unstable in solutions of low ionic strength if bovine serum
      albumin was not included in the solvent. Luciferase-O (Mr 75,000) occurred in the
      eggs in association with particulate matter, and was solubilized and extracted
      with a buffer containing 2 M guanidine hydrochloride; the enzyme was highly
      stable in this strongly denaturing solvent. The intensities of the coelenterazine
      luminescence catalyzed by both luciferases were maximal at pH 7.8 and in the
      presence of about 1 M NaCl. The quantum yield of coelenterazine was estimated to
      be 0.14 with luciferase-L (emission max. at 465 nm) and 0.12 with luciferase-O
      (emission max. at 470 nm). The luminescence caused by both luciferases was
      strongly inhibited by Cu2+ and thiol compounds.

PMID- 28570202
TI  - Comparative Morphology of the Eyes of Postlarval Bresiliid Shrimps From the
      Region of Hydrothermal Vents.
AB  - The structure and ultrastructure of the eyes of postlarval vent shrimps
      provisionally designated 'Alvinocaris' and 'Chorocaris' are described. The eyes
      of the postlarval 'Alvinocaris' are cylindrical, borne on short stalks, and
      contain closely packed rhabdoms. The ommatidia lack dioptric apparatus and have
      rhabdoms extending almost to the cornea. The rhabdoms consist of orthogonal
      layers of microvilli typical of crustacean rhabdoms. The eyes of the 'Chorocaris'
      are similar, but the rhabdom layer extends back through the reduced eyestalks and
      covers some of the dorsal surface of the cephalothorax. The rhabdoms from both
      the anterior and the thoracic regions consist of layered microvilli. The eyes of
      a slightly smaller postlarval vent shrimp, termed 'Type A', differ. Although
      clearly related to the other vent shrimps, Type A has stalked eyes held at an
      angle to the head. The eye displays a gradient of ommatidial development, with
      the older ommatidia closely resembling those seen in the other postlarval types.
      Between the cornea and the rhabdom layer, the youngest ommatidia possess
      quadripartite crystalline cones similar to those seen in related families of
      caridean shrimps; these are absent in the more mature ommatidia. The external
      structure of the anterior and thoracic eyes of juvenile Rimicaris exoculata
      (after settlement at the vent site) is also described. Juveniles up to 9 mm in
      carapace length have anterior corneas similar to those seen in postlarvae,
      whereas in larger specimens the corneas are progressively replaced by an ocular
      plate.

PMID- 28570203
TI  - Nitric Oxide Function in an Echinoderm.
AB  - In vertebrates, nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthase
      (NOS) and regulates relaxation of smooth muscle by activating the cyclic-GMP
      (cGMP) generating enzyme soluble guanylyl cyclase (SGC). Here we show that the NO
      cGMP pathway mediates relaxation of the cardiac stomach in the starfish Asterias
      rubens. The NO-donors hydroxylamine, S-nitrosoglutathione (SNOG) and S-nitroso-N
      acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) and the NOS substrate L-arginine cause relaxation of
      the cardiac stomach. The relaxing effect of SNAP is blocked by the SGC inhibitor
      1H-[1,2,4]-oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), and the relaxing effect of L
      arginine is inhibited by ODQ and the NOS inhibitor Nw-monomethyl-L-arginine (L
      NMMA). ODQ and methylene blue also cause contraction, which may be due to
      inhibition of the relaxing action of NO produced by cells in the cardiac stomach.
      These results suggest that NO is synthesized in the cardiac stomach and regulates
      relaxation by activating SGC. NO-cGMP-mediated relaxation of the cardiac stomach
      may be important during feeding in starfish where the relaxed stomach is everted
      through an oral opening and over the digestible parts of prey. The discovery of
      NO-cGMP-mediated relaxation in an echinoderm demonstrates that regulation of
      smooth muscle tone by this signaling pathway also occurs in animals other than
      vertebrates.

PMID- 28570204
TI  - Predation on Bivalve Veligers by Polychaete Larvae.
AB  - Polychaete larvae from several families are thought to be natural predators upon
      planktonic bivalve larvae. However, little direct evidence of interactions
      between these predators and prey is available. We conducted predator-prey
      experiments on laboratory roller tables for five putative predatory polychaete
      larvae, representing four families (metatroch-less larvae of the Polynoidae and
      metatrochophore larvae of the Spionidae, the Magelonidae, and the Phyllodocidae).
      D-hinge veliger larvae of the oyster Crassostrea gigas were offered as prey.
      Predation was monitored over a range of prey densities and in the presence and
      absence of background plankton. "Background plankton" are any naturally occurring
      plankton assemblages found in whole, unfiltered seawater at ambient
      concentrations. For all polychaete larvae examined, when natural C. gigas
      densities and background plankton were used, no predation was observed.
      Magelonids and phyllodocids did not consume any C. gigas larvae, regardless of
      conditions. Polynoid and spionid trochophores consumed C. gigas veligers at both
      the "natural" and unnaturally high prey densities in filtered seawater. The
      addition of background plankton eliminated the predation at all natural prey
      densities and significantly reduced the predation observed at high prey
      densities.

PMID- 28570205
TI  - Oyster Shell Protein and Atomic Force Microscopy of Oyster Shell Folia.
AB  - The organic layers within biominerals often are viewed as sheets that may
      function in part to limit and define the underlying crystal structure, as well as
      to promote formation of the next mineral layer. Some insights into the nature of
      the sheets were revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) of surfaces of freshly
      cleaved fragments of oyster shell folia. Visible in the micrographs were arrays
      of globular structures that resembled the globules seen in isolated oyster shell
      protein bound to calcite, mica, and glass. The results of chemical treatment
      showed that the foliar globules slowly dissolved in 5.25% NaOCl or 1 N NaOH,
      reacted with an antibody prepared against an isolated oyster shell protein, and
      were hydrolyzed by several proteolytic enzymes. These morphological and chemical
      observations suggested that protein was a significant component of the foliar
      globules. Although they might also have a significant mineral content, the foliar
      globules were not effective as nucleators of CaCO3 crystal formation at low
      levels of supersaturation in artificial seawater. Overall, the results suggested
      that molecules of oyster shell protein may agglomerate and combine with mineral
      to form a surface of complex topography that coats the calcite laths but exhibits
      no obvious correspondence to any specific crystallographic plane.

PMID- 28570206
TI  - Increased incidence of gonorrhoea and chlamydia in Greenland 1990-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the 1970s, Greenland has presented the highest reported
      incidence rates of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) gonorrhoea and
      chlamydia in the Arctic regions. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe sex- and
      age-specific incidence rates of gonorrhoea and chlamydia from 1990 to 2012 in
      Greenland, and to evaluate if changes in case definitions, diagnostic procedures
      and implementation of STI interventions during the period coincide with rate
      changes. DESIGN: Gonorrhoea and chlamydia cases were identified from the national
      STI surveillance. For 1990-2008, STI cases were identified from weekly notified
      aggregated data. For 2009-2012, cases were identified in person-identifiable
      national registers. We used log-linear Poisson regression to calculate incidence
      rates (IRs) and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%
      CI). Analyses were stratified according to sex, age and calendar period. RESULTS:
      Gonorrhoea and chlamydia incidence rates have increased since 1995 to reach 2,555
      per 100,000 person-years (PY) for gonorrhoea and 6,403 per 100,000 PY for
      chlamydia in 2012. From 2006 to 2012, the incidence rates among young adults aged
      15-19 years were 8,187 and 22,515 per 100,000 PY for gonorrhoea and chlamydia,
      respectively. Changes in surveillance reporting did not seem to influence the
      incidence rates for either disease, whereas a change in diagnostic test coincided
      with an increased incidence of chlamydia. CONCLUSION: Overall, the incidence of
      chlamydia in Greenland increased during the study period, whereas the incidence
      of gonorrhoea decreased until 1995 but increased thereafter. Young adults aged 15
      24 years were at highest risk of infection. The increase in incidence rates was
      independent of changes in case definitions, whereas an observed increase in
      chlamydia incidence in 2005 coincided with a change in diagnostic test. None of
      the STI interventions launched after 1995 seemed to coincide with decreasing
      national incidence rates.

PMID- 28570208
TI  - Evaluating Healthy Corner Stores: A Survey of Assessment Tools Used in the San
      Francisco Bay Area, 2016.
AB  - Stakeholders from healthy corner store programs in the San Francisco Bay Area
      convened in November 2015 to discuss the future of programmatic and collaborative
      efforts. This study's objective, to gather and synthesize the types of evaluation
      tools used in the 9-county region, was identified as one of several priorities.
      Tools were collected via an online survey in July 2016, and data were extracted
      for comparison, including data on the number and types of food items, nutritional
      standards, and store characteristics. Twenty-five evaluation tools were
      collected, and differences were found in nutritional standards, terminology, and
      use of validated measures. Discrepancies between evaluation tools should be
      reconciled to make robust regional comparisons.

PMID- 28570207
TI  - Improving access to specialists in remote communities: a cross-sectional study
      and cost analysis of the use of eConsult in Nunavut.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Residents of remote communities face inequities in access to
      specialists, excessive wait times, and poorly coordinated care. The Champlain
      BASETM (Building Access to Specialists through eConsultation) service facilitates
      asynchronous communication between primary care providers (PCP) and specialists.
      The service was extended to several PCPs in Nunavut in 2014. OBJECTIVE: To (1)
      describe the use of eConsult services in Nunavut, and (2) conduct a costing
      evaluation. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study and cost analysis of all eConsult
      cases submitted between August 2014 and April 2016. RESULTS: PCPs from Nunavut
      submitted 165 eConsult cases. The most popular specialties were dermatology
      (16%), cardiology (8%), endocrinology (7%), otolaryngology (7%), and
      obstetrics/gynaecology (7%). Specialists provided a response in a median of 0.9
      days (IQR=0.3-3.0, range=0.01-15.02). In 35% of cases, PCPs were able to avoid
      the face-to-face specialist visits they had originally planned for their
      patients. Total savings associated with eConsult in Nunavut are estimated at
      $180,552.73 or $1,100.93 per eConsult. CONCLUSIONS: The eConsult service provided
      patients in Nunavut's remote communities with prompt access to specialist advice.
      The service's chief advantage in Canada's northern communities is its ability to
      offer electronic access to a breadth of specialties far greater than could be
      supported locally. Our findings suggest that a territory-wide adoption of
      eConsult would generate enormous savings.

PMID- 28570210
TI  - Surgical innovation is harder than it looks.

PMID- 28570212
TI  - Vascular control during laparoscopic kidney donation.
AB  - SUMMARY: Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) is the gold standard for kidney
      donation. Recent literature has led to considerable debate regarding the safest
      route to provide vascular control during this procedure. The most common devices
      used for vascular control during LDN are staplers and surgical clips. Opinions
      regarding the safety of these devices vary, as both are prone to dysfunction.
      Certain clips have already been contraindicated for use on the donor artery owing
      to reports of catastrophic complications of falling off. Donor safety is
      paramount to the continued success of renal transplantation in Canada. A review
      of existing practice at each institution may be called for to ensure the safest
      standards possible are in place. An appendix to this commentary is available at
      canjsurg.ca.

PMID- 28570209
TI  - Contrasting Trends of Smoking Cessation Status: Insights From the Stages of
      Change Theory Using Repeat Data From the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, Thailand
      (2009 and 2011) and Turkey (2008 and 2012).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization recommends that smokers be offered help
      to quit. A better understanding of smokers' interest in and commitment to
      quitting could guide tobacco control efforts. We assessed temporal differences in
      stages of change toward quitting among smokers in Thailand and Turkey. METHODS:
      Two waves (independent samples) of data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, a
      national household survey of adults aged 15 years or older, were assessed for
      Thailand (2009 and 2011) and Turkey (2008 and 2012). Current smokers were
      categorized into 3 stages of change based on their cessation status:
      precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation. Relative change in the
      proportion of smokers in each stage between waves 1 and 2 was computed for each
      country. RESULTS: Between waves, overall current tobacco smoking did not change
      in Thailand (23.7% to 24.0%) but declined in Turkey (31.2% to 27.1%; P < .001).
      Between 2009 and 2011, precontemplation increased among smokers in Thailand
      (76.1% to 85.4%; P < .001), whereas contemplation (17.6% to 12.0%; P < .001) and
      preparation (6.3% to 2.6%; P < .001) declined. Between 2008 and 2012, there were
      declines in precontemplation among smokers in Turkey (72.2% to 64.6%; P < .001),
      whereas there were increases in contemplation (21.2% to 26.9%; P = .008) and no
      significant change in preparation (6.5% to 8.5%; P = .097). CONCLUSION: Nearly
      two-thirds of smokers in Turkey and more than two-thirds in Thailand were in the
      precontemplation stage during the last survey wave assessed. The proportion of
      smokers in the preparation stage increased in Turkey but declined in Thailand.
      Identifying stages of cessation helps guide population-based targeted
      interventions to support smokers at varying stages of change toward quitting.

PMID- 28570213
TI  - The University of Toronto's lasting contribution to war surgery: how Maj. L.
      Bruce Robertson fundamentally transformed thinking toward blood transfusion
      during the First World War.
AB  - SUMMARY: During the Great War, Canadian military surgeons produced some of the
      greatest innovations to improve survival on the battlefield. Arguably, the most
      important was bringing blood transfusion practice close to the edge of the
      battlefield to resuscitate the many casualties dying of hemorrhagic shock. Dr. L.
      Bruce Robertson of the Canadian Army Medical Corps was the pioneering surgeon
      from the University of Toronto who was able to demonstrate the benefit of blood
      transfusions near the front line and counter the belief that saline was the
      resuscitation fluid of choice in military medicine. Robertson would go on to
      survive the Great War, but would be taken early in life by influenza. Despite his
      life and career being cut short, Robertson's work is still carried on today by
      many military medical organizations who strive to bring blood to the wounded in
      austere and dangerous settings. This article has an Appendix, available at
      canjsurg.ca.

PMID- 28570214
TI  - Comparison of outcomes of root replacement procedures and supracoronary
      techniques for surgical repair of acute aortic dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical approach to type A acute aortic dissection (AADA) is usually
      dictated by the presenting anatomy. We compared long-term outcomes of AADA
      repaired with a root replacement versus a supracoronary tube graft, regardless of
      the proximal extent of the intimal tear. METHODS: A single-centre, retrospective
      cohort of consecutive patients undergoing repair of AADA between December 1999
      and March 2012 were stratified based on the proximal surgical procedure
      performed: supracoronary tube graft or root replacement. Imaging, chart reviews
      and clinical follow-ups were analyzed to identify the presenting anatomy and
      clinical outcomes. RESULTS: We included the cases of 75 patients in our analysis:
      54 received a supracoronary tube graft and 21 received a root replacement. The
      proximal tear was identified below the sinotubular junction in all patients in
      the root group and in 61% of patients in the supracoronary group. We detected no
      differences between the groups for in-hospital mortality, length of stay, or
      complications. However, the root group had significantly increased renal failure
      (0% v. 9.5%, p = 0.018), cardiopulmonary bypass time (198.4 +/- 80.0 min v. 316.5
      +/- 102.5 min, p < 0.001), cross-clamp time (91.6 +/- 34.9 min v. 191.3 +/- 52.8
      min, p < 0.001), duration of surgery (457.5 +/- 129.9 min v. 611.6 +/- 197.8 min,
      p < 0.001), and platelet transfusions (8.1 +/- 7.6 v. 12.8 +/- 8.7 units, p =
      0.021) than the supracoronary group. Long-term follow-up demonstrated a greater
      incidence of 2+ aortic regurgitation among patients in the supracoronary group
      than the root group (29.7% v. 0.0%, p = 0.006); however, there was no difference
      between the groups in symptoms or reoperation. CONCLUSION: In AADA, aortic root
      replacement involves a longer procedure with increased risk of early renal
      impairment. Long-term follow-up identified significantly more aortic
      regurgitation and root dilation in the supracoronary group than the root group,
      with a trend toward worse long-term survival. However, we found no difference
      between the groups in mortality, reoperation or New York Heart Association class.

PMID- 28570215
TI  - A comparison of revisional and primary bariatric surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Revisional surgery is an important component of addressing weight
      regain and complications following primary bariatric surgery. Owing to provincial
      need and the complexity of this patient population, a specialized
      multidisciplinary revision clinic was developed. We sought to characterize
      patients who undergo revision surgery and compare their outcomes with primary
      bariatric surgery clinic data. METHODS: We completed a retrospective chart review
      of bariatric revision clinic patients compared with primary bariatric surgery
      patients from December 2009 to June 2014. RESULTS: We reviewed the charts of 2769
      primary bariatric clinic patients, 886 of whom had bariatric surgery, and 534
      revision bariatric clinic patients, 83 of whom had revision surgery. Fewer
      revision clinic patients underwent surgery than primary clinic patients (22% v.
      32%). The mean preoperative body mass index (BMI) was 44.7 +/- 9.5 in revision
      patients compared with 45.7 +/- 7.6 in primary bariatric surgery patients. Most
      revision patients had a prior vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG; 48%) or a
      laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB; 24%). Bands were removed in 36% of
      all LAGB patients presenting to clinic. Of the 134 procedures performed in the
      revision clinic, 83 were bariatric weight loss surgeries, and 51 were band
      removals. Revision clinic patients experienced a significant decrease in BMI
      (from 44.7 +/- 9.5 to 33.8 +/- 7.5, p < 0.001); their BMI at 12-month follow-up
      was similar to that of primary clinic patients (34.5 +/- 7.0, p = 0.7).
      Complications were significantly more frequent in revision patients than primary
      patients (41% v. 15%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: A bariatric revision clinic manages
      a wide variety of complex patients distinct from those seen in a primary clinic.
      Operative candidates at the revision clinic are chosen based on favourable
      medical, anatomic and psychosocial factors, keeping in mind the resource
      constraints of a public health care system.

PMID- 28570216
TI  - Thirteen-year wear rate comparison of highly crosslinked and conventional
      polyethylene in total hip arthroplasty: long-term follow-up of a prospective
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to report the radiographic wear rates
      from a previous randomized controlled trial of first-generation highly
      crosslinked versus conventional polyethylene in total hip arthroplasty (THA) at a
      minimum of 13 years' follow-up. METHODS: Patients returned for radiographic
      imaging and radiostereometric analysis (RSA). Radiographs were reviewed for the
      presence of osteolysis or component loosening. Femoral head penetration (which
      includes both wear and creep) was measured using RSA. We compared Western Ontario
      and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), 12-Item Short Form Health
      Survey (SF-12) and Harris Hip Scores (HHS) with preoperative values. RESULTS:
      There was 1 revision in each group. There was no difference in WOMAC, SF-12, or
      HHS outcome scores between the highly crosslinked and conventional polyethylene
      groups (all p >= 0.13). Wear rate was lower with crosslinked polyethylene than
      conventional polyethylene (0.04 +/- 0.02 mm/year v. 0.08 +/- 0.03 mm/year, p =
      0.007). CONCLUSION: First-generation crosslinked polyethylene demonstrates
      greater wear resistance than conventional polyethylene after 13 years of
      implantation. Crosslinked polyethylene continues to outperform conventional
      polyethylene into the second decade of implantation.

PMID- 28570217
TI  - In memoriam of Dr. Tom Starzl.

PMID- 28570218
TI  - Surgical mentorship in Canada in 2017.

PMID- 28570223
TI  - First Case Report of Aseptic Meningitis Induced by Adalimumab Administered for
      Treatment of Chronic Plaque Psoriasis.

PMID- 28570224
TI  - Component-Resolved Diagnosis of Dog Allergy.

PMID- 28570219
TI  - Experimental and observational studies find contrasting responses of soil
      nutrients to climate change.
AB  - Manipulative experiments and observations along environmental gradients, the two
      most common approaches to evaluate the impacts of climate change on nutrient
      cycling, are generally assumed to produce similar results, but this assumption
      has rarely been tested. We did so by conducting a meta-analysis and found that
      soil nutrients responded differentially to drivers of climate change depending on
      the approach considered. Soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations
      generally decreased with water addition in manipulative experiments but increased
      with annual precipitation along environmental gradients. Different patterns were
      also observed between warming experiments and temperature gradients. Our findings
      provide evidence of inconsistent results and suggest that manipulative
      experiments may be better predictors of the causal impacts of short-term (months
      to years) climate change on soil nutrients but environmental gradients may
      provide better information for long-term correlations (centuries to millennia)
      between these nutrients and climatic features. Ecosystem models should
      consequently incorporate both experimental and observational data to properly
      assess the impacts of climate change on nutrient cycling.

PMID- 28570226
TI  - Pulmonary Embolism After Ceftriaxone-Induced Anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28570225
TI  - Identification of Novel JAK3 Mutations by Whole-Exome Sequencing in a Korean Boy
      With Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.

PMID- 28570227
TI  - Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Overlap Induced by
      Fexofenadine.

PMID- 28570228
TI  - Troponin as a Cause of Hypersensitivity to Barnacle.

PMID- 28570230
TI  - Kounis Syndrome: Is it Really a Takotsubo-Like Syndrome?

PMID- 28570229
TI  - Desensitization to Cyanocobalamin: Rush Protocol.

PMID- 28570231
TI  - A Minimum Difference Between 2 Syndromes.

PMID- 28570232
TI  - Training of Spanish Allergology Residents in Pediatric Allergology: A Survey of
      the Current Situation.

PMID- 28570233
TI  - Sex-Related Differences in Outcomes After Percutaneous Balloon Aortic
      Valvuloplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate sex-related differences in short-term and long
      term outcomes of patients undergoing balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) for
      severe aortic stenosis (AS). METHODS: A total of 112 patients with severe AS
      underwent 114 BAV procedures as palliative procedure, bridge to definitive
      treatment, or before urgent non-cardiac surgery. Patients were followed for 24
      months. RESULTS: Of the 112 patients, 70 (62.5%) were women. Women were older,
      and had a higher STS score and higher prevalence of chronic kidney disease and
      arterial hypertension. Indications for BAV did not differ by gender. Women had a
      higher risk of vascular complications than men (15.7% vs 0.0%; P=.01), but with a
      similar rate of major periprocedural complications (17.1% vs 9.5%; P=.40).
      Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was performed in 22.8% of women
      and 26.2% of men (P=.61) and surgical aortic valve replacement in 10% of women
      and 11.9% of men (P=.70). Women and men treated finally with TAVI/aortic valve
      replacement had lower mortality as compared with conservative treatment (P<.01).
      No difference in in-hospital and 24-month mortality between women and men was
      observed (11.4% vs 4.9% [P=.26]; 63.3% vs 39.0% [P=.22], respectively). In a
      multivariable Cox model, STS score above 9.8% (hazard ratio, 2.29; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.09-4.83; P=.03) was an independent predictor of all-cause death only
      in women. CONCLUSION: Despite the presence of sex-related differences in baseline
      and procedural characteristics as well as in the risk of vascular complications,
      no difference in major procedural complications and long-term mortality was
      confirmed for patients with severe AS undergoing BAV.

PMID- 28570234
TI  - Impact of the Occlusion Duration on the Performance of J-CTO Score in Predicting
      Failure of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Chronic Total Occlusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present study examined the association between Multicenter CTO
      Registry in Japan (J-CTO) score in predicting failure of percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) correlating with the estimated duration of chronic total
      occlusion (CTO). BACKGROUND: The J-CTO score does not incorporate estimated
      duration of the occlusion. METHODS: This was an observational retrospective study
      that involved all consecutive procedures performed at a single tertiary-care
      cardiology center between January 2009 and December 2014. RESULTS: A total of 174
      patients, median age 59.5 years (interquartile range [IQR], 53-65 years),
      undergoing CTO-PCI were included. The median estimated occlusion duration was 7.5
      months (IQR, 4.0-12.0 months). The lesions were classified as easy (score = 0),
      intermediate (score = 1), difficult (score = 2), and very difficult (score >=3)
      in 51.1%, 33.9%, 9.2%, and 5.7% of the patients, respectively. Failure rate
      significantly increased with higher J-CTO score (7.9%, 20.3%, 50.0%, and 70.0% in
      groups with J-CTO scores of 0, 1, 2, and >=3, respectively; P<.001). There was no
      significant difference in success rate according to estimated duration of
      occlusion (P=.63). Indeed, J-CTO score predicted failure of CTO-PCI independently
      of the estimated occlusion duration (P=.24). Areas under receiver-operating
      characteristic curves were computed and it was observed that for each occlusion
      time period, the discriminatory capacity of the J-CTO score in predicting CTO-PCI
      failure was good, with a C-statistic >0.70. CONCLUSION: The estimated duration of
      occlusion had no influence on the J-CTO score performance in predicting failure
      of PCI in CTO lesions. The probability of failure was mainly determined by grade
      of lesion complexity.

PMID- 28570235
TI  - Five-Year Freedom From Target-Lesion Revascularization Using Excimer Laser
      Ablation Therapy in the Treatment of In-Stent Restenosis of Femoropopliteal
      Arteries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Target-lesion revascularization (TLR) and loss of patency remain high
      following treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) of the femoropopliteal (FP)
      artery. Excimer laser atherectomy (ELA) is effective in reducing TLR and improves
      patency at 6-month and 1-year follow-up when compared with balloon angioplasty
      (PTA). The long-term sustainability of these early results is unknown. We present
      a retrospective analysis from our center on the 5-year outcomes of ELA in the
      treatment of ISR of the FP arteries. METHODS: Patients who underwent ELA for FP
      ISR from February 2005 to April 2010 at a single medical center were included.
      Demographics, angiographic and procedural variables were included. Major adverse
      events and 5-year TLR and target-vessel revascularization were obtained from
      medical records. Descriptive analysis was performed on all variables. Kaplan
      Meier survival curves for TLR were plotted censored for death among patients who
      died before the occurrence of a TLR. RESULTS: Forty consecutive patients (mean
      age, 67.2 +/- 9.0 years; 57.5% males) were included. Angiographic variables
      included: lesion length, 210.4 +/- 104.0 mm; lesion severity, 93.9 +/- 8.9%; and
      number of vessel runoffs, 1.7 +/- 1.0. All patients were treated with adjunctive
      PTA. Acute procedural success was achieved in 92.5% of vessels. Distal
      embolization requiring treatment was 2.5%. No unplanned amputation occurred.
      Total deaths occurred in 8/40 (20%). At 5-year follow-up, TLR occurred in 62.5%
      with the steepest decline in freedom from TLR occurred in the first year followed
      by a less decline in the subsequent 2 to 3 years. CONCLUSION: ELA for FP-ISR
      continues to show progressive increase in TLR up to 5-year follow-up, but mostly
      occurs in the first 3 years after index procedure. These data suggest that a
      minimum follow-up of 3 years is needed to determine stability of treatment of FP
      ISR with laser.

PMID- 28570236
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Versus Surgical Valve Replacement in Low
      Intermediate Surgical Risk Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a viable alternative
      to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with severe aortic
      stenosis (SAS) who are at high risk for surgery. We sought to evaluate the
      outcomes of TAVR vs SAVR in low-intermediate risk patients with SAS. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We performed random-effects meta-analysis of randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) and propensity-matched observational studies comparing TAVR vs SAVR
      for low-intermediate risk patients. Five RCTs and 5 observational studies with a
      total of 6891 patients (3489 TAVR patients; 3402 SAVR patients) were included.
      Pooled data from RCTs showed no significant differences in all-cause mortality
      between TAVR and SAVR at 30 days (risk ratio [RR], 1.04; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 0.73-1.47) and intermediate-term follow-up (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.67-1.10). A
      trend toward decreased mortality was found with TAVR using the self-expandable vs
      balloon-expandable valves (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.52-1.15 and RR, 1.91; 95% CI, 0.25
      14.53, respectively) and transfemoral vs transthoracic approach (RR, 0.74; 95%
      CI, 0.55-1.01 and RR, 2.09; 95% CI, 0.40-11.03, respectively). Compared to SAVR,
      TAVR was associated with similar risks of stroke (RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.74-1.11)
      and myocardial infarction (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.71-1.41). Furthermore, risks of
      major vascular complications, moderate-severe paravalvular regurgitation, and new
      permanent pacemaker implantation were higher with TAVR, whereas SAVR was
      associated with higher rates of acute kidney injury, atrial fibrillation, and
      major or life-threatening bleed. Finally, the above results from RCTs were
      consistent with pooled analyses of observational studies. CONCLUSION: TAVR
      appears to be a suitable alternative for patients with SAS who are at low
      intermediate risk for SAVR.

PMID- 28570237
TI  - Born From Risk: What Made TAVR Possible and the Future of a Transformational
      Technology.

PMID- 28570238
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement for Perceval Sutureless Aortic Valve
      Failure.
AB  - As experience with Perceval aortic prosthesis and valve-in-valve TAVR grows, it
      will be crucial to meticulously document short- and long-term follow-up for
      establishment of real-world safety and durability of these new technologies.

PMID- 28570240
TI  - Retrograde Intervention of a Right Coronary Artery Chronic Total Occlusion
      Through an Ipsilateral Kugel's Artery Collateral.
AB  - Kugel described the arteria anastomotica auricularis magna. We describe a first
      case of chronic total occlusion of the right coronary artery that was
      successfully recanalized using the reverse controlled antegrade and retrograde
      subintimal tracking technique through the ipsilateral Kugel's artery collateral.

PMID- 28570239
TI  - Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection After Pregnancy as First Manifestation of
      a Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
AB  - We report the case of a myocardial infarction in the post-partum period due to a
      spontaneous coronary artery dissection. The role of intracoronary imaging was
      critical: OCT imaging led us to formulate the right diagnosis.OCT imaging
      revealed a multiple coronary artery dissection in the left main non-detectable on
      angiography and in the circumflex, with evidence of coronary hematoma in the
      circumflex and left anterior descending. Beside dissection, OCT showed evidence
      of a thrombus near the coronary tear in the left main. Our invasive OCT-based
      strategy proved to be non-harmful and gave an excellent clinical result in the
      clinical context of a spontaneous multivessel coronary dissection with left main
      involvement in a rare connective tissue disorder.

PMID- 28570241
TI  - Coronary CT Angiography for In-Stent Restenosis: Diagnosis and Therapeutic
      Planning.
AB  - A 64-year-old man presented with previous non-ST elevation myocardial infarction
      and cardiogenic shock. Due to hemodynamic instability, percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) was performed with implantation of two everolimus-eluting
      stents by V-stenting technique to LM-LAD and LM-LCX. After 9 months without
      symptoms, he developed progressive angina. Non-selective LM coronary angiography
      was performed due to stents protrusion in the aortic root. A 128-slice dual
      source coronary CT angiography showed severe LM-LAD stent underexpansion with
      critical in-stent restenosis at the proximal third. Two days later, selective
      angiography and optical coherence tomography depicted stent underexpansion and
      confirmed the in-stent restenosis. This case is illustrative of the potential
      role of the complementary use of invasive and non-invasive imaging techniques.
      The coronary CT angiography was very useful to identify the severity and
      mechanism of restenosis, and thus guiding the PCI procedure in a case of
      especially difficult catheterization.

PMID- 28570242
TI  - Percutaneous Transaxillary Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - The axillary artery is an alternative, large-caliber vessel that can be utilized
      in the presence of hostile aortoiliac segments. It can accommodate sheaths up to
      18 Fr and is infrequently affected by atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28570243
TI  - Hemodynamic Findings of Severe Subacute Aortic Regurgitation.
AB  - The hemodynamic features of subacute aortic regurgitation include equalization of
      the left ventricular pressure and the aortic pressure during diastole, a mildly
      increased pulse pressure, and systemic hypotension. These findings are distinct
      from the hemodynamics of chronic aortic regurgitation.

PMID- 28570244
TI  - Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement in Orthotopic Heart Transplant.
AB  - A patient with history of orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) followed by tricuspid
      valve replacement and two subsequent balloon valvuloplasties was offered
      transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) to avoid what would have been
      his fourth sternotomy. TTVR in patients with OHT can be a valuable approach to
      prevent further open-heart surgeries, which carry added morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28570245
TI  - A Descriptive Study to Explore the Effect of Peristomal Skin Complications on
      Quality of Life of Adults With a Permanent Ostomy.
AB  - Approximately 1 million people are living with an ostomy, and 100 000 to 130 000
      new ostomies are created each year. The exact incidence and prevalence of
      complications are unknown but have been reported to be as high as 70% and to
      affect quality of life (QoL). Using convenience sampling methods, a descriptive
      study was conducted to explore QoL scores and peristomal complications reported
      by adults with a permanent ostomy attending the 2009 United Ostomy Associations
      of America conference. Attendees who had a permanent ileostomy, colostomy, or
      urostomy; were at least 18 years of age; and able to read and speak English were
      invited to participate. Participants completed a paper/pen survey containing
      questions about demographics (age, gender, marital status), ostomy (time since
      and reason for surgery, ostomy type), and peristomal complication variables
      (number and type, who provided help, and satisfaction with treatment rated on a
      Likert-type scale from 0 [not satisfied] to 100 [completely satisfied]). QoL data
      were collected using the City of Hope-Quality of Life-Ostomy Questionnaire (COH
      QOL-OQ), which consists of 2 sections - Lifestyle Impact and Quality of Life
      Impact - and measures 4 QoL domains on a scale of 1 (lower) to 10 (higher) QoL.
      Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviation, frequencies, percentages) were
      used to describe the demographic, ostomy, and peristomal complication variables.
      Univariate analyses of covariance were used to investigate the relationships
      among QoL scores and peristomal complications, and the number of different
      complications was correlated with the QoL total score using hierarchical multiple
      regression analysis. Of the 230 eligible participants invited, 140 (the majority
      women [83, 59.3%], with an ileostomy [86, 61.4%], and a diagnosis of ulcerative
      colitis [55, 39.3%]) met inclusion criteria and completed the survey. The
      majority of participants were married both before (97, 69.3%) and after (88,
      62.9%) surgery; the mean QoL score was 7.56 (SD 1.59). The mean number of
      complications was 0.83 (SD 1.03); approximately one third of participants
      experienced allergic contact dermatitis (43, 32.3%), and persons with irritant
      contact dermatitis reported significantly lower QoL total scores (mean 6.64 [SD
      1.64], P = .02) than those without this complication (mean 7.77 [1.56]). Of those
      with complications, most saw an ostomy nurse (33, 47.8%), but many did not see
      anyone for help with their complications (24, 16.3%). Persons who sought help
      were generally satisfied with the help received (mean satisfaction score 77.94 +/
      24.71). In this study, allergic contact dermatitis was the most common
      peristomal complication reported. Irritant contact dermatitis negatively affected
      QoL, and almost half of the participants sought the help of an ostomy care nurse.
      The results of this study suggest patients may benefit from more education about
      peristomal complications and the reporting of appliance-related contact
      dermatitis. Studies examining the presence of peristomal skin complications and
      their influence on QoL, as well as availability of and access to follow-up care
      with qualified ostomy nurses, are needed.

PMID- 28570246
TI  - A Retrospective Study of the Impact of Pressure Ulcers on Survival in Elderly
      Persons With Chronic Diseases.
AB  - Medical advancements are extending the lives of persons with chronic diseases,
      increasing their risk for pressure ulcer (PU) development. A retrospective chart
      review of 192 patients (49.48% male, mean age 9.7 +/- 10.9 years) admitted to a
      skilled nursing department between 2008 and 2013 was performed to determine
      whether PUs and comorbidities, singly and combined, affect patient survival.
      Characteristics abstracted and assessed included sociodemographic factors (age,
      gender), diseases/comorbidities (eg, chronic renal failure, dementia, Parkinson's
      disease [PD], ischemic heart disease, and diabetes mellitus), persistent
      vegetative state (PVS), type and quantity of PUs (excluding Stage I and PUs that
      developed during the study), body mass index (BMI) <22, and laboratory data
      (serum albumin, total protein level, and hemoglobin [Hg] <10). Results were
      expressed as proportion or mean +/- standard deviation. All statistical tests
      were 2-sided. A P value <.05 was considered significant. Hazard ratios (HR) and
      statistical significance for survival by risk factors were calculated by the Cox
      proportional hazards model. Univariate survival models were fitted for all risk
      factors. Statistical and clinical considerations were used to choose a subset of
      significant factors to include in a multivariate survival model; all chosen
      factors were fitted at the first step of the univariate survival models. Age,
      gender, and BMI were included in the model due to their known clinical effects on
      survival and their influence on other prognostic factors. In assessing anemia and
      Hg, only anemia was included due to multicollinearity. From the chosen factors
      fitted at the first step, a backward elimination was used to successively remove
      nonsignificant factors until all factors were significant at the 0.10 level.
      Patients were followed from hospitalization date until death or censoring of
      study. Median survival time was 122 days (CI: 82-192 days). The median survival
      time of patients with PUs was 72 days. Every increase in the number of PUs
      increased mortality by 14% (P <.001, HR = 1.14, CI: 1.07-1.20). In univariate
      analysis, PUs, anemia, dementia, and PD were found to have a significant
      association with decreased survival (P = .0001, .003, .001, and .004,
      respectively). In multivariate analysis, significant risk factors for decreasing
      survival time were the presence of PUs (HR = 1.14, P = .0001) and dementia (HR =
      1.585, P = .009). Anemia (HR = 1.345, P = .09) and PVS (HR = 0.51, P = .09) were
      determined not to be significant. Anemia was found to decrease survival time and
      PVS was found to increase survival time. When number of PUs was combined with
      anemia, advanced dementia, or BMI, the median survival decreased from 72 days to
      52, 63, and 63 days, respectively. These findings suggest that PUs in this
      population are not an isolated health problem but are 1 indicator of systemic
      deterioration and decreased survival time. The significance of knowing the
      survival time of patients with PUs has clinical and ethical implications for the
      comprehensive treatment of elderly patients, particularly those with advanced
      dementia and other associated medical conditions.

PMID- 28570247
TI  - Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Stoma Quality of Life
      Questionnaire for Patients With a Colostomy or Ileostomy in Brazil: A Cross
      sectional Study.
AB  - Many studies examining the quality of life of stoma patients utilize
      questionnaires that have not been validated specifically for these patients in
      their native language. Owing to the large and increasing prevalence of intestinal
      stomas, a cross-sectional study was conducted among patients of a stoma patient
      health care service in Juiz de Fora, Brazil between September 2014 and August
      2015 to validate the Stoma Quality of Life (Stoma-QoL) questionnaire in
      Portuguese (Brazilian variant). In addition, the effect of sociodemographic,
      clinical, and eating habit variables on the quality of life of people with a
      colostomy or ileostomy was assessed. Eating habit variables included eating
      comfort in the postoperative period, excluding foods for a period of time, fear
      of eating, and excluding foods that may cause odor, gas, diarrhea, and/or
      constipation. All patients with a colostomy or ileostomy served by 1 ostomy care
      center were invited to participate. Patients who were at least 18 years of age,
      provided signed informed consent, and had the physical and mental capacity to
      complete the questionnaire were eligible to participate. The sociodemographic,
      clinical history, eating behavior, and Stoma-QoL questionnaires were administered
      by trained researchers as part of patient nutritional care. A sample of 11 (10%
      of all study participants) also completed the 12-item Short Form Health Survey
      (SF-12), which includes a Mental Component Summary (MCS) and a Physical Component
      Summary (PCS), to establish convergent validity. All participant response data
      were collected using a standardized form developed for this study and stored in
      electronic files. The identities of patients were kept anonymous, and patients
      had the option to refuse to participate during the assessment. Data were analyzed
      descriptively; the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyze
      associations among the variables collected. Normal distribution of the Stoma-QoL
      total scores was assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Internal consistency
      was assessed as a whole using Cronbach's alpha, and agreement and reproducibility
      were determined using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Relationships
      between the Stoma-QoL and the SF-12 items were examined using the Pearson
      correlation coefficient. The majority of the 111 participants were men (57,
      51.4%), most (94, 84.7%) were 50 years of age or older, 70 (63.1%) had a
      colostomy, and 41 (36.9%) had an ileostomy. Most stomas (79, 71.2%) were created
      to treat cancer of the colon and rectum. The mean overall Stoma-QoL score for
      study participants was 58.7 +/- SD 12.0 (range 32.0-78.0). The internal
      consistency of the translated Stoma-QoL was .87, demonstrating a high degree of
      reliability. The convergent validity of the Stoma-QoL with the SF-12 confirmed
      higher correlation among the items regarding emotional aspects, mental health,
      social aspects, and vitality, with a higher correlation with the MCS (r = .52; P
      = .02) and lower correlation between the PCS and the items that assess general
      health, functional capacity, physical aspects, and pain (r = .38; P = .04),
      although both were significant. A moderate and significant association was noted
      between the questionnaires. Women (P = .02) and patients who deprived themselves
      of food for a certain period of time had a lower quality of life (P = .05).
      Persons who excluded foods out of fear of repercussions also had significantly
      lower QoL scores (P <.001). Colostomy and ileostomy patients had a similar
      quality of life. This study confirms the Stoma-QoL is a valid research tool for
      colostomy and ileostomy patients in Brazil. Further studies are recommended in
      the field of food and nutrition to verify observed concerns related to the eating
      behavior of intestinal stoma patients and the relationship to their quality of
      life.

PMID- 28570248
TI  - The International Consolidated Venous Ulcer Guideline Update 2015: Process
      Improvement, Evidence Analysis, and Future Goals.
AB  - In 2015, members of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC),
      Wound Healing Society, and the Canadian Association for Enterostomal Therapy
      formed the International Consolidated Guidelines Taskforce to update the AAWC
      Venous Ulcer Guidelines to the collaborative, intersociety, endorsed
      International Consolidated Venous Ulcer Guideline. This "guideline of guidelines"
      integrates recommendations from all relevant, published evidence-based guidelines
      on venous ulcer care and prevention. The update process was conducted in
      accordance with the National Guideline Clearinghouse inclusion criteria and was
      informed by a systematic review of the evidence, with additional content
      validation of each venous ulcer management recommendation. Twenty-three (23)
      wound experts participated. Compared to the 2010 version of the guideline, A
      level recommendations increased from 62% to 77%, 31 recommendations were removed,
      and new recommendations included quality of life evaluations and surgical
      treatment options. Gaps in the evidence and needed areas for research include
      surgical, topical, and pharmaceutical interventions. Collaboration among
      societies and stakeholders and rigorous guideline development processes may
      expedite the implementation of evidence-based practices, fill in research gaps,
      and provide a powerful unified voice to regulatory and reimbursement agencies
      with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for persons with a venous ulcer.

PMID- 28570249
TI  - Early Detection of Pressure Injury Using a Forensic Alternate Light Source.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine if an alternate light source (ALS) can
      be used to detect tissue trauma before visible manifestations of tissue injury
      are evident with the naked eye. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten participants were
      recruited and gave consent, and 7 completed the study. Researchers examined and
      photographed participants' heels in ambient light to establish baseline. A series
      of photographs using ALS and camera were taken as follows: violet wavelength at
      415 nm to 445 nm with yellow lens; blue wavelength at 455 nm to 515 nm with
      orange lens; and green wavelength at 535 nm to 575 nm with red lens. Participants
      were examined weekly for 6 consecutive weeks to ascertain skin changes in ambient
      light and through the ALS. RESULTS: Overt tissue changes were noted when viewed
      with the ALS and camera compared with visual screens in ambient light.
      Descriptive statistics were calculated for all wavelengths. Two chi-square tests
      of independence were run to look for relationships between wavelength and the
      number of detected injuries (absorption). CONCLUSIONS: Participants presenting
      with nonblanching erythema in ambient light showed significant tissue absorption
      under ALS and camera, depicting the actual scope and magnitude of the tissue
      trauma. Participants with scars, areas of previous injury, and pigmentary changes
      also showed significant absorption at those sites. These combined findings
      indicate that ALS can detect tissue trauma and areas at risk not readily visible
      by the naked eye. This noninvasive tool could help identify patients in the early
      stages of tissue trauma as well as screen for sites of previous injury that are
      at risk for subsequent breakdown, saving significant health care dollars and
      improving outcomes and quality of life.

PMID- 28570250
TI  - Effect of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy With Instillation on Bioburden in
      Chronically Infected Wounds.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Standard negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has been shown to
      help close wounds despite increasing planktonic bioburden. Both planktonic and
      biofilm critical colonization are associated with delayed wound healing;
      therefore, reducing microbial colonization is thought to aid wound healing. The
      use of NPWT with topical antimicrobial irrigation solution has previously shown
      reduction in quantitative planktonic bioburden when combined with sharp
      debridement in chronic wounds. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to evaluate
      the effectiveness of NPWT with instillation (NPWTi) on biofilm of chronic wounds.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective, randomized trial was conducted. Following
      sharp debridement, 20 patients with chronic wounds were randomized to 1 week of
      either NPWTi with 0.125% sodium hypochlorite solution (n = 10) or NPWT without
      instillation (n = 10). Serial wound biopsy was performed predebridement,
      postdebridement, and after 1 week of study therapy to test for quantitative
      nonplanktonic or biofilm-protected bacteria. RESULTS: As expected, there was no
      difference in change in wound size between the 2 groups at 1 week. The NPWTi
      group had a mean reduction in quantitative biofilm-protected bacteria of 48%,
      while the NPWT without instillation group had a mean increase of 14% (P < .05).
      DISCUSSION: Consistent with previous studies, this trial demonstrates that NPWTi
      with dilute sodium hypochlorite solution is effective at reducing nonplanktonic
      bioburden of chronically, critically colonized wounds. CONCLUSION: Therefore,
      based on this and previously published work, this therapy provides both
      planktonic and nonplanktonic bioburden reduction as well as NPWT benefits and may
      be a tool for the preparation of infected wound beds prior to definitive closure.

PMID- 28570251
TI  - Comparative Clinical Study of the Wound Healing Effects of a Novel Micropore
      Particle Technology: Effects on Wounds, Venous Leg Ulcers, and Diabetic Foot
      Ulcers
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the wound healing effects
      of Acapsil, a white, odorless powder based on micropore particle technology
      (MPPT) (Willingsford Ltd, Southampton, UK) by comparing it to Gentaxane
      (Gentaksan, Borshchagovsky CCP, Kyiv, Ukraine) (polydimethylsiloxane powder with
      gentamicin antibiotic) and Ioddicerin (Farmak, Kyiv, Ukraine) (iodine with
      dimethyl sulfoxide [DMSO]). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 266
      patients with primarily trophic ulcers caused by pancreatic diabetes and venous
      insufficiency of the lower extremities, carbuncles, phlegmons, infected third- or
      fourth-degree heat burns, and infiltrations of postoperative wounds. The products
      were applied once daily to the wound until it was clean (ie, free from necrosis,
      pus, and fibrinogenous thickenings). RESULTS: The number of days (mean +/-
      standard deviation) to a clean wound was 3.0 +/- 0.9 for MPPT (n = 88) compared
      with 7.0 +/- 1.2 and 8.0 +/- 1.1 for Gentaxane (n = 90) and iodine/DMSO (n = 88),
      respectively. Thus, MPPT reduced the time to reach a clean wound by 57% and 62%,
      respectively. Products were used once daily until a clean wound was reached,
      which also reflects the number of applications. Days to onset of granulation for
      MPPT, Gentaxane, and iodine/DMSO were 4.5 +/- 0.8, 9.2 +/- 1.4, and 10.3 +/- 1.5
      days, respectively; and days to onset of epithelialization were 7.8 +/- 1.1, 14.1
      +/- 1.9, and 16.4 +/- 2.7 days, respectively. Subgroup analysis of patients with
      diabetic foot and venous leg ulcers found that each of these demonstrated the
      same pattern of healing as the overall study. The number of hospitalization days
      was 14.6 +/- 5.6 for MPPT, 21.0 +/- 10.7 for Gentaxane, and 24.0 +/- 7.9 for
      iodine/DMSO. Compared with Gentaxane, patients receiving MPPT had a 31% reduction
      in hospitalization duration and a 39% reduction compared with iodine/DMSO.
      CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that MPPT represents a valuable new
      approach to wound care.

PMID- 28570252
TI  - The Comparative Effectiveness of a Human Fibroblast Dermal Substitute versus a
      Dehydrated Human Amnion/Chorion Membrane Allograft for the Treatment of Diabetic
      Foot Ulcers in a Real-world Setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Impaired wound healing is associated with serious complications in
      patients with diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) can lead to costly
      complications and an increased mortality rate. Standard treatments for DFUs often
      need to be augmented with adjunctive therapies designed to stimulate healing in
      recalcitrant wounds. OBJECTIVE: This analysis was conducted to evaluate the
      comparative effectiveness of a human broblast-derived dermal substitute (HFDS)
      and a dehydrated human amnion/chorion membrane allograft (dHACM) for the
      treatment of DFUs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a wound care-specic electronic
      health record database, real-world outcomes from 122 patients with 122 DFUs
      receiving treatment in 2014 in 72 wound care facilities across the United States
      were evaluated. Key criteria for entry into the analysis included ulcer size >= 1
      cm2 to < 25 cm2, ulcer duration <= 1 year, and ulcer area reduction <= 20% in the
      14 days prior to the rst treatment. Key exclusion criteria included lack of
      follow-up visits and lack of baseline wound measurements. The frequency of wound
      closure by weeks 12 and 24, median time to wound closure, hazard ratio with 95%
      con dence interval, and P value were estimated from a Cox model with terms for
      treatment, baseline wound area, baseline wound duration, baseline wound depth,
      and wound location. RESULTS: The results show the incidence of wound closure for
      HFDS compared with dHACM was signicantly improved by weeks 12 (55% vs. 32%) and
      24 (76% vs. 50%). The HFDS treatment signi cantly increased the probability of
      wound closure by 107%, with a median time to closure of 7.4 weeks (38%) less than
      that of dHACM treatment (P = .02).

PMID- 28570253
TI  - Review of Silicone Gel Sheeting and Silicone Gel for the Prevention of
      Hypertrophic Scars and Keloids.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Keloids and hypertrophic scars are fibroproliferative disorders of
      dermal tissue after skin injury. Many clinical control studies have reported
      evidence that silicone gel is effective in preventing and alleviating
      hypertrophic scarring. Whether silicone gel sheeting prevents hypertrophic scars
      or keloids requires clear evidence of its clinical effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: This
      review investigated the effectiveness of silicone gel and silicone gel sheeting
      for the prevention of hypertrophic or keloid scarring in patients with newly
      healed wounds. METHODS: The authors searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and
      CENTRAL databases (January 1, 1990 to September 24, 2014) for any randomized or
      quasi-randomized controlled trials or controlled clinical trials comparing
      silicone gel sheeting or silicone gel with a control group for prevention of
      hypertrophic scars or keloids. All collected trials were assessed for
      methodological quality, control group and treatment group, and number of
      participants developing hypertrophic scars and keloids. The authors calculated
      risk ratios (RR) from each trial for the development of abnormal scarring and
      combined these using random-effects model meta-analysis. Between-study
      heterogeneity was calculated by using the I2 statistic. RESULTS: Ten trials in 9
      studies were pooled (random effect; I2 = 88%). There was a significant difference
      between the silicone gel sheeting group and the placebo group (RR 0.70; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.49-0.99; P = .04) in preventing the risk of hypertrophic
      scars. CONCLUSION: There was statistical significance in the effectiveness of
      silicone gel and silicone gel sheeting on the prevention of keloids or
      hypertrophic scars, especially in skin lesion wounds. However, most of the trials
      evaluating silicone gel sheeting or silicone gel as a prevention of hypertrophic
      scars and keloids had poor quality with high or uncertain risk of biases either
      in study design or in conduct.

PMID- 28570255
TI  - An Unusual Presentation of Deep Tissue Injury, Do We Really Understand It? A Case
      Report and Literature Review
AB  - Deep tissue injury (DTI) is an injury to the soft tissue under the skin due to
      pressure and is usually over boney prominence. This injury is commonly seen in
      bedridden patients in hospitals and nursing homes. Although many efforts were
      made to elucidate the precise mechanism and clinical presentation, the
      pathogenesis and the final clinical outcome are yet to be determined. Although
      the current agreed upon presentation describes DTI as purple- or maroon-colored
      skin with ulceration, presented herein is an unusual case where DTI presented
      with only erythema and induration over the sacrum and right gluteal area.

PMID- 28570256
TI  - The Vulva: An Uncommon Presentation of a Pressure Ulcer.
AB  - : Pressure ulcers may develop in different locations. Vulvar pressure ulcers can
      be easily misdiagnosed and, moreover, have been rarely reported in the
      literature. Surgical procedures that involve prolonged pressure on this area may
      trigger these lesions. CASE REPORT: The authors present a case of a vulvar
      pressure ulcer secondary to the use of a perineal post to provide countertraction
      during surgical repair of a hip fracture. Diagnosis was made after excluding
      other possible causes with anatomopathological and microbiological analysis.
      Wound care was based on relieving local pressure. CONCLUSION: Faced with the
      acute development of ulcers in the external genitals of women after this kind of
      surgical procedure, even with the use of padded posts, diagnosis of a pressure
      ulcer should be considered after excluding other possible causes.

PMID- 28570257
TI  - The Impact of Proximal Vessel Tortuosity on the Outcomes of Chronic Total
      Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Insights From a Contemporary
      Multicenter Registry.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We examined the impact of proximal vessel tortuosity on the
      outcomes of chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI). METHODS: The baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics and
      procedural outcomes of 1618 consecutive CTO-PCIs performed between 2012 and 2016
      at 14 United States centers in 1589 patients were reviewed. RESULTS: Mean patient
      age was 65.3 +/- 10.0 years and 85% were men. Moderate/severe proximal vessel
      tortuosity was present in 35.7% of target lesions. Compared with non-tortuous
      lesions, tortuous lesions had longer length (30 mm [interquartile range, 20-50
      mm] vs 28 mm [interquartile range, 16-40 mm]; P<.001), more proximal cap
      ambiguity (36% vs 28%; P<.01), and more frequent utilization of the retrograde
      approach (52% vs 37%; P<.001). Moderate/severe proximal vessel tortuosity was
      associated with lower technical success rates (84.1% vs 91.3%; P<.001) and
      procedural success rates (82.3% vs 89.9%; P<.001), but similar incidence of major
      cardiac adverse events (3.0% vs 2.5%; P=.59). Moderate/severe tortuosity was
      associated with longer procedure time and fluoroscopy time, higher air kerma
      radiation dose, and larger contrast volume. CONCLUSION: In a contemporary
      multicenter registry, moderate/severe proximal vessel tortuosity was present in
      approximately one-third of target CTO lesions and was associated with more
      frequent use of the retrograde approach and lower success rates, but similar
      complication rates.

PMID- 28570258
TI  - Novel Method for Exchange of Impella Circulatory Assist Catheter: The "Trojan
      Horse" Technique.
AB  - Patients with an indwelling Impella may require escalation of hemodynamic support
      or exchange to another circulatory assistance platform. As such, preservation of
      vascular access is preferable in cases where anticoagulation cannot be
      discontinued or to facilitate exchange to an alternative catheter or closure
      device. Challenges exist in avoiding bleeding and loss of wire access in these
      situations. We describe a single-access "Trojan Horse" technique that minimizes
      bleeding while maintaining arterial access for rapid exchange of this
      percutaneous ventricular assist device.

PMID- 28570259
TI  - Propensity-Score Matched Comparison of the Cera PFO Occluder With the Amplatzer
      PFO Occluder for Percutaneous Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale Without
      Echocardiographic Guidance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure has become a routine
      procedure and was proven to be safe and feasible. In a recently published pooled
      analysis of randomized trials, percutaneous PFO closure was shown to more
      effectively reduce recurrent stroke when compared with medical therapy in
      patients with cryptogenic strokes. However, procedural safety and closure rate
      are device dependent. METHODS: We performed a propensity-score matched comparison
      of 28 patients undergoing percutaneous PFO closure using the Cera PFO occluder
      (CPO) with 28 patients who received the Amplatzer PFO occluder (APO). The main
      endpoints were procedural complications and closure rate at 6 months verified by
      transesophageal echocardiography. RESULTS: The implantation procedure using the
      CPO was successful and without complications in all cases. After propensity-score
      matching, there was no significant difference between groups for the primary
      endpoint of residual shunt at 6 months (7% in the CPO group vs 4% in the APO
      group; log-rank test P=.15). CONCLUSIONS: With regard to procedural safety and
      closure rate at 6 months, the performance of the CPO is comparable with the APO
      in this small patient cohort.

PMID- 28570261
TI  - A general method for motion compensation in x-ray computed tomography.
AB  - Motion during data acquisition is a known source of error in medical tomography,
      resulting in blur artefacts in the regions that move. It is critical to reduce
      these artefacts in applications such as image-guided radiation therapy as a
      clearer image translates into a more accurate treatment and the sparing of
      healthy tissue close to a tumour site. Most research in 4D x-ray tomography
      involving the thorax relies on respiratory phase binning of the acquired data and
      reconstructing each of a set of images using the limited subset of data per
      phase. In this work, we demonstrate a motion-compensation method to reconstruct
      images from the complete dataset taken during breathing without recourse to phase
      binning or breath-hold techniques. As long as the motion is sufficiently well
      known, the new method can accurately reconstruct an image at any time during the
      acquisition time span. It can be applied to any iterative reconstruction
      algorithm.

PMID- 28570260
TI  - Comparison of Non-Contrast Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Computed
      Tomography Angiography for Aortic Annular Sizing Before Transcatheter Aortic
      Valve Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate measurement of aortic annulus is crucial before
      transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Computed tomography (CT)
      angiography is the most commonly utilized method, but requires contrast
      administration. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is a promising
      alternative modality to provide aortic annulus measurements. Few studies have
      compared the clinical feasibility and accuracy of non-contrast CMR to contrast
      enhanced computed tomography (CT) angiography in order to provide a non-contrast
      alternative to CT annular sizing. METHODS: Twenty-one consecutive patients (mean
      age, 85.7 +/- 5.2 years) with severe aortic stenosis (mean aortic valve area, 0.6
      +/- 0.1 cm2) underwent pre-TAVR CT angiography and a non-contrast CMR at 1.5 T.
      CT measurements were performed during systole as the clinical non-invasive
      standard. CMR measurements were performed during systole and diastole and
      included three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) methods. Interobserver
      differences were assessed using intraclass correlation. We recorded scan time in
      each patient. RESULTS: The mean systolic annular area was not significantly
      different between CT and 3D-CMR (480.0 +/- 77.9 mm2 vs 479.4 +/- 66.2 mm2; P=.98)
      in systole. There was no clinically relevant systematic difference between area
      measurements [mean difference, 0.6 mm2; limits of agreement -38.2 mm2; 39.3 mm2]
      using Bland-Altman analyses. Interobserver correlation was excellent. The
      diagnostic systolic 3D-CMR annular sizing scan was achieved in 4.4 +/- 2.7 min.
      CONCLUSION: Non-contrast CMR protocol for the measurement of aortic annulus area
      is feasible and accurate. 3D-CMR could provide an alternative for annular sizing
      pre-TAVR assessment in patients who cannot undergo contrast-enhanced CT studies.

PMID- 28570262
TI  - Automatized spleen segmentation in non-contrast-enhanced MR volume data using
      subject-specific shape priors.
AB  - To develop the first fully automated 3D spleen segmentation framework derived
      from T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data and to verify its
      performance for spleen delineation and volumetry. This approach considers the
      issue of low contrast between spleen and adjacent tissue in non-contrast-enhanced
      MR images. Native T1-weighted MR volume data was performed on a 1.5 T MR system
      in an epidemiological study. We analyzed random subsamples of MR examinations
      without pathologies to develop and verify the spleen segmentation framework. The
      framework is modularized to include different kinds of prior knowledge into the
      segmentation pipeline. Classification by support vector machines differentiates
      between five different shape types in computed foreground probability maps and
      recognizes characteristic spleen regions in axial slices of MR volume data. A
      spleen-shape space generated by training produces subject-specific prior shape
      knowledge that is then incorporated into a final 3D level set segmentation
      method. Individually adapted shape-driven forces as well as image-driven forces
      resulting from refined foreground probability maps steer the level set
      successfully to the segment the spleen. The framework achieves promising
      segmentation results with mean Dice coefficients of nearly 0.91 and low
      volumetric mean errors of 6.3%. The presented spleen segmentation approach can
      delineate spleen tissue in native MR volume data. Several kinds of prior shape
      knowledge including subject-specific 3D prior shape knowledge can be used to
      guide segmentation processes achieving promising results.

PMID- 28570263
TI  - PET image reconstruction using multi-parametric anato-functional priors.
AB  - In this study, we investigate the application of multi-parametric anato
      functional (MR-PET) priors for the maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction of
      brain PET data in order to address the limitations of the conventional anatomical
      priors in the presence of PET-MR mismatches. In addition to partial volume
      correction benefits, the suitability of these priors for reconstruction of low
      count PET data is also introduced and demonstrated, comparing to standard maximum
      likelihood (ML) reconstruction of high-count data. The conventional local
      Tikhonov and total variation (TV) priors and current state-of-the-art anatomical
      priors including the Kaipio, non-local Tikhonov prior with Bowsher and Gaussian
      similarity kernels are investigated and presented in a unified framework. The
      Gaussian kernels are calculated using both voxel- and patch-based feature
      vectors. To cope with PET and MR mismatches, the Bowsher and Gaussian priors are
      extended to multi-parametric priors. In addition, we propose a modified joint
      Burg entropy prior that by definition exploits all parametric information in the
      MAP reconstruction of PET data. The performance of the priors was extensively
      evaluated using 3D simulations and two clinical brain datasets of
      [18F]florbetaben and [18F]FDG radiotracers. For simulations, several anato
      functional mismatches were intentionally introduced between the PET and MR
      images, and furthermore, for the FDG clinical dataset, two PET-unique active
      tumours were embedded in the PET data. Our simulation results showed that the
      joint Burg entropy prior far outperformed the conventional anatomical priors in
      terms of preserving PET unique lesions, while still reconstructing functional
      boundaries with corresponding MR boundaries. In addition, the multi-parametric
      extension of the Gaussian and Bowsher priors led to enhanced preservation of edge
      and PET unique features and also an improved bias-variance performance. In
      agreement with the simulation results, the clinical results also showed that the
      Gaussian prior with voxel-based feature vectors, the Bowsher and the joint Burg
      entropy priors were the best performing priors. However, for the FDG dataset with
      simulated tumours, the TV and proposed priors were capable of preserving the PET
      unique tumours. Finally, an important outcome was the demonstration that the MAP
      reconstruction of a low-count FDG PET dataset using the proposed joint entropy
      prior can lead to comparable image quality to a conventional ML reconstruction
      with up to 5 times more counts. In conclusion, multi-parametric anato-functional
      priors provide a solution to address the pitfalls of the conventional priors and
      are therefore likely to increase the diagnostic confidence in MR-guided PET image
      reconstructions.

PMID- 28570264
TI  - Fast interactive segmentation of the pulmonary lobes from thoracic computed
      tomography data.
AB  - Automated lung lobe segmentation methods often fail for challenging and
      clinically relevant cases with incomplete fissures or substantial amounts of
      pathology. We present a fast and intuitive method to interactively correct a
      given lung lobe segmentation or to quickly create a lobe segmentation from
      scratch based on a lung mask. A given lobar boundary is converted into a mesh by
      principal component analysis of 3D lobar boundary markers to obtain a plane where
      nodes correspond to the position of the markers. An observer can modify the mesh
      by drawing on 2D slices in arbitrary orientations. After each drawing, the mesh
      is immediately adapted in a 3D region around the user interaction. For evaluation
      we participated in the international lung lobe segmentation challenge LObe and
      lung analysis 2011 (LOLA11). Two observers applied the method to correct a given
      lung lobe segmentation obtained by a fully automatic method for all 55 CT scans
      of LOLA11. On average observer 1/2 required 8  +/-  4/25  +/-  12 interactions
      per case and took 1:30  +/-  0:34/3:19  +/-  1:29 min. The average distances to
      the reference segmentation were improved from an initial 2.68  +/-  14.71 mm to
      0.89  +/-  1.63/0.74  +/-  1.51 mm. In addition, one observer applied the
      proposed method to create a segmentation from scratch. This took 3:44  +/-  0:58
      minutes on average per case, applying an average of 20  +/-  3 interactions to
      reach an average distance to the reference of 0.77  +/-  1.14 mm. Thus, both the
      interactive corrections and the creation of a segmentation from scratch were
      feasible in a short time with excellent results and only little interaction.
      Since the mesh adaptation is independent of image features, the method can
      successfully handle patients with severe pathologies, provided that the human
      operator is capable of correctly indicating the lobar boundaries.

PMID- 28570266
TI  - Integrin-Kindlin3 requirements for microglial motility in vivo are distinct from
      those for macrophages.
AB  - Microglia play a critical role in the development and homeostasis of the CNS.
      While mobilization of microglia is critical for a number of pathologies,
      understanding of the mechanisms of their migration in vivo is limited and often
      based on similarities to macrophages. Kindlin3 deficiency as well as Kindlin3
      mutations of integrin-binding sites abolish both integrin inside-out and outside
      in signaling in microglia, thereby resulting in severe deficiencies in cell
      adhesion, polarization, and migration in vitro, which are similar to the defects
      observed in macrophages. In contrast, while Kindlin3 mutations impaired
      macrophage mobilization in vivo, they had no effect either on the population of
      microglia in the CNS during development or on mobilization of microglia and
      subsequent microgliosis in a model of multiple sclerosis. At the same time, acute
      microglial response to laser-induced injury was impaired by the lack of Kindlin3
      integrin interactions. Based on 2-photon imaging of microglia in the brain,
      Kindlin3 is required for elongation of microglial processes toward the injury
      site and formation of phagosomes in response to brain injury. Thus, while
      Kindlin3 deficiency in human subjects is not expected to diminish the presence of
      microglia within CNS, it might delay the recovery process after injury, thereby
      exacerbating its complications.

PMID- 28570265
TI  - Identification and characterization of a supraclavicular brown adipose tissue in
      mice.
AB  - A fundamental challenge to our understanding of brown adipose tissue (BAT) is the
      lack of an animal model that faithfully represents human BAT. Such a model is
      essential for direct assessment of the function and therapeutic potential of BAT
      depots in humans. In human adults, most of the thermoactive BAT depots are
      located in the supraclavicular region of the neck, while mouse studies focus on
      depots located in the interscapular region of the torso. We recently discovered
      BAT depots that are located in a region analogous to that of human
      supraclavicular BAT (scBAT). Here, we report that the mouse scBAT depot has
      morphological characteristics of classical BAT, possesses the potential for high
      thermogenic activity, and expresses a gene signature that is similar to that of
      human scBAT. Taken together, our studies reveal a mouse BAT depot that represents
      human BAT and provides a unique tool for developing new translatable approaches
      for utilizing human scBAT.

PMID- 28570267
TI  - Allergen-encoding bone marrow transfer inactivates allergic T cell responses,
      alleviating airway inflammation.
AB  - Memory Th2 cell responses underlie the development and perpetuation of allergic
      diseases. Because these states result from immune dysregulation, established Th2
      cell responses represent a significant challenge for conventional
      immunotherapies. New approaches that overcome the detrimental effects of immune
      dysregulation are required. We tested whether memory Th2 cell responses were
      silenced using a therapeutic approach where allergen expression in DCs is
      transferred to sensitized recipients using BM cells as a vector for therapeutic
      gene transfer. Development of allergen-specific Th2 responses and allergen
      induced airway inflammation was blocked by expression of allergen in DCs.
      Adoptive transfer studies showed that Th2 responses were inactivated by a
      combination of deletion and induction of T cell unresponsiveness. Transfer of BM
      encoding allergen expression targeted to DCs terminated, in an allergen-specific
      manner, Th2 responses in sensitized recipients. Importantly, when preexisting
      airway inflammation was present, there was effective silencing of Th2 cell
      responses, airway inflammation was alleviated, and airway hyperreactivity was
      reversed. The effectiveness of DC-targeted allergen expression to terminate
      established Th2 responses in sensitized animals indicates that exploiting cell
      intrinsic T cell tolerance pathways could lead to development of highly effective
      immunotherapies.

PMID- 28570268
TI  - Network analysis of the genomic basis of the placebo effect.
AB  - The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which patients who are given an inactive
      treatment (e.g., inert pill) show a perceived or actual improvement in a medical
      condition. Placebo effects in clinical trials have been investigated for many
      years especially because placebo treatments often serve as the control arm of
      randomized clinical trial designs. Recent observations suggest that placebo
      effects may be modified by genetics. This observation has given rise to the term
      "placebome," which refers to a group of genome-related mediators that affect an
      individual's response to placebo treatments. In this study, we conduct a network
      analysis of the placebome and identify a placebome module in the comprehensive
      human interactome using a seed-connector algorithm. The placebome module is
      significantly enriched with neurotransmitter signaling pathways and brain
      specific proteins. We validate the placebome module using a large cohort of the
      Women's Genome Health Study (WGHS) trial and demonstrate that the placebome
      module is significantly enriched with genes whose SNPs modify the outcome in the
      placebo arm of the trial. To gain insights into placebo effects in different
      diseases and drug treatments, we use a network proximity measure to examine the
      closeness of the placebome module to different disease modules and drug target
      modules. The results demonstrate that the network proximity of the placebome
      module to disease modules in the interactome significantly correlates with the
      strength of the placebo effect in the corresponding diseases. The proximity of
      the placebome module to molecular pathways affected by certain drug classes
      indicates the existence of placebo-drug interactions. This study is helpful for
      understanding the molecular mechanisms mediating the placebo response, and sets
      the stage for minimizing its effects in clinical trials and for developing
      therapeutic strategies that intentionally engage it.

PMID- 28570270
TI  - Molecular imaging of oxidized collagen quantifies pulmonary and hepatic
      fibrogenesis.
AB  - Fibrosis results from the dysregulation of tissue repair mechanisms affecting
      major organ systems, leading to chronic extracellular matrix buildup, and
      progressive, often fatal, organ failure. Current diagnosis relies on invasive
      biopsies. Noninvasive methods today cannot distinguish actively progressive
      fibrogenesis from stable scar, and thus are insensitive for monitoring disease
      activity or therapeutic responses. Collagen oxidation is a universal signature of
      active fibrogenesis that precedes collagen crosslinking. Biochemically targeting
      oxidized lysine residues formed by the action of lysyl oxidase on collagen with a
      small-molecule gadolinium chelate enables targeted molecular magnetic resonance
      imaging. This noninvasive direct biochemical elucidation of the fibrotic
      microenvironment specifically and robustly detected and staged pulmonary and
      hepatic fibrosis progression, and monitored therapeutic response in animal
      models. Furthermore, this paradigm is translatable and generally applicable to
      diverse fibroproliferative disorders.

PMID- 28570269
TI  - Zinc deficiency primes the lung for ventilator-induced injury.
AB  - Mechanical ventilation is necessary to support patients with acute lung injury,
      but also exacerbates injury through mechanical stress-activated signaling
      pathways. We show that stretch applied to cultured human cells, and to mouse
      lungs in vivo, induces robust expression of metallothionein, a potent antioxidant
      and cytoprotective molecule critical for cellular zinc homeostasis. Furthermore,
      genetic deficiency of murine metallothionein genes exacerbated lung injury caused
      by high tidal volume mechanical ventilation, identifying an adaptive role for
      these genes in limiting lung injury. Stretch induction of metallothionein
      required zinc and the zinc-binding transcription factor MTF1. We further show
      that mouse dietary zinc deficiency potentiates ventilator-induced lung injury,
      and that plasma zinc levels are significantly reduced in human patients who go on
      to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) compared with healthy and
      non-ARDS intensive care unit (ICU) controls, as well as with other ICU patients
      without ARDS. Taken together, our findings identify a potentially novel adaptive
      response of the lung to stretch and a critical role for zinc in defining the
      lung's tolerance for mechanical ventilation. These results demonstrate that
      failure of stretch-adaptive responses play an important role in exacerbating
      mechanical ventilator-induced lung injury, and identify zinc and metallothionein
      as targets for lung-protective interventions in patients requiring mechanical
      ventilation.

PMID- 28570271
TI  - Delayed decompression exacerbates ischemia-reperfusion injury in cervical
      compressive myelopathy.
AB  - Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is the most common progressive
      nontraumatic spinal cord injury. The most common recommended treatment is
      surgical decompression, although the optimal timing of intervention is an area of
      ongoing debate. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether a delay
      in decompression could influence the extent of ischemia-reperfusion injury and
      alter the trajectory of outcome in DCM. Using a DCM mouse model, we show that
      decompression acutely led to a 1.5- to 2-fold increase in levels of inflammatory
      cytokines within the spinal cord. Delayed decompression was associated with
      exacerbated reperfusion injury, astrogliosis, and poorer neurological recovery.
      Additionally, delayed decompression was associated with prolonged elevation of
      inflammatory cytokines and an exacerbated peripheral monocytic inflammatory
      response (P < 0.01 and 0.001). In contrast, early decompression led to resolution
      of reperfusion-mediated inflammation, neurological improvement, and reduced
      hyperalgesia. Similar findings were observed in subjects from the CSM AOSpine
      North America and International studies, where delayed decompressive surgery
      resulted in poorer neurological improvement compared with patients with an
      earlier intervention. Our data demonstrate that delayed surgical decompression
      for DCM exacerbates reperfusion injury and is associated with ongoing enhanced
      levels of cytokine expression, microglia activation, and astrogliosis, and
      paralleled with poorer neurological recovery.

PMID- 28570273
TI  - Myeloid-related protein-14 regulates deep vein thrombosis.
AB  - Using transcriptional profiling of platelets from patients presenting with acute
      myocardial infarction, we identified myeloid-related protein-14 (MRP-14, also
      known as S100A9) as an acute myocardial infarction gene and reported that
      platelet MRP-14 binding to platelet CD36 regulates arterial thrombosis. However,
      whether MRP-14 plays a role in venous thrombosis is unknown. We subjected WT and
      Mrp-14-deficient (Mrp-14-/-) mice to experimental models of deep vein thrombosis
      (DVT) by stasis ligation or partial flow restriction (stenosis) of the inferior
      vena cava. Thrombus weight in response to stasis ligation or stenosis was reduced
      significantly in Mrp-14-/- mice compared with WT mice. The adoptive transfer of
      WT neutrophils or platelets, or the infusion of recombinant MRP-8/14, into Mrp-14
      /- mice rescued the venous thrombosis defect in Mrp-14-/- mice, indicating that
      neutrophil- and platelet-derived MRP-14 directly regulate venous thrombogenesis.
      Stimulation of neutrophils with MRP-14 induced neutrophil extracellular trap
      (NET) formation, and NETs were reduced in venous thrombi harvested from Mrp-14-/-
      mice and in Mrp-14-/- neutrophils stimulated with ionomycin. Given prior evidence
      that MRP-14 also regulates arterial thrombosis, but not hemostasis (i.e., reduced
      bleeding risk), MRP-14 appears to be a particularly attractive molecular target
      for treating thrombotic cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction,
      stroke, and venous thromboembolism.

PMID- 28570274
TI  - Tristetraprolin expression by keratinocytes controls local and systemic
      inflammation.
AB  - Tristetraprolin (TTP, encoded by the Zfp36 gene) regulates the mRNA stability of
      several important cytokines. Due to the critical role of this RNA-binding protein
      in the control of inflammation, TTP deficiency leads to the spontaneous
      development of a complex inflammatory syndrome. So far, this phenotype has been
      largely attributed to dysregulated production of TNF and IL-23 by myeloid cells,
      such as macrophages or DCs. Here, we generated mice with conditional deletion of
      TTP in keratinocytes (Zfp36fl/flK14-Cre mice, referred to herein as Zfp36DeltaEP
      mice). Unlike DC-restricted (CD11c-Cre) or myeloid cell-restricted (LysM-Cre) TTP
      ablation, these mice developed exacerbated inflammation in the imiquimod-induced
      psoriasis model. Furthermore, Zfp36DeltaEP mice progressively developed a
      spontaneous pathology with systemic inflammation, psoriatic-like skin lesions,
      and dactylitis. Finally, we provide evidence that keratinocyte-derived TNF
      production drives these different pathological features. In summary, these
      findings expand current views on the initiation of psoriasis and related
      arthritis by revealing the keratinocyte-intrinsic role of TTP.

PMID- 28570272
TI  - Immunity against fungi.
AB  - Pathogenic fungi cause a wide range of syndromes in immune-competent and immune
      compromised individuals, with life-threatening disease primarily seen in humans
      with HIV/AIDS and in patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies for cancer,
      autoimmunity, and end-organ failure. The discovery that specific primary immune
      deficiencies manifest with fungal infections and the development of animal models
      of mucosal and invasive mycoses have facilitated insight into fungus-specific
      recognition, signaling, effector pathways, and adaptive immune responses.
      Progress in deciphering the molecular and cellular basis of immunity against
      fungi is guiding preclinical studies into vaccine and immune reconstitution
      strategies for vulnerable patient groups. Furthermore, recent work has begun to
      address the role of endogenous fungal communities in human health and disease. In
      this review, we summarize a contemporary understanding of protective immunity
      against fungi.

PMID- 28570275
TI  - Long-term culture of human liver tissue with advanced hepatic functions.
AB  - A major challenge for studying authentic liver cell function and cell replacement
      therapies is that primary human hepatocytes rapidly lose their advanced function
      in conventional, 2-dimensional culture platforms. Here, we describe the
      fabrication of 3-dimensional hexagonally arrayed lobular human liver tissues
      inspired by the liver's natural architecture. The engineered liver tissues
      exhibit key features of advanced differentiation, such as human-specific
      cytochrome P450-mediated drug metabolism and the ability to support efficient
      infection with patient-derived inoculums of hepatitis C virus. The tissues permit
      the assessment of antiviral agents and maintain their advanced functions for over
      5 months in culture. This extended functionality enabled the prediction of a
      fatal human-specific hepatotoxicity caused by fialuridine (FIAU), which had
      escaped detection by preclinical models and short-term clinical studies. The
      results obtained with the engineered human liver tissue in this study provide
      proof-of-concept determination of human-specific drug metabolism, demonstrate the
      ability to support infection with human hepatitis virus derived from an infected
      patient and subsequent antiviral drug testing against said infection, and
      facilitate detection of human-specific drug hepatotoxicity associated with late
      onset liver failure. Looking forward, the scalability and biocompatibility of the
      scaffold are also ideal for future cell replacement therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28570276
TI  - Macrophage infiltration and genetic landscape of undifferentiated uterine
      sarcomas.
AB  - Endometrial stromal tumors include translocation-associated low- and high-grade
      endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) and highly malignant undifferentiated uterine
      sarcomas (UUS). UUS is considered a poorly defined group of aggressive tumors and
      is often seen as a diagnosis of exclusion after ESS and leiomyosarcoma (LMS) have
      been ruled out. We performed a comprehensive analysis of gene expression, copy
      number variation, point mutations, and immune cell infiltrates in the largest
      series to date of all major types of uterine sarcomas to shed light on the
      biology of UUS and to identify potential novel therapeutic targets. We show that
      UUS tumors have a distinct molecular profile from LMS and ESS. Gene expression
      and immunohistochemical analyses revealed the presence of high numbers of tumor
      associated macrophages (TAMs) in UUS, which makes UUS patients suitable
      candidates for therapies targeting TAMs. Our results show a high genomic
      instability of UUS and downregulation of several TP53-mediated tumor suppressor
      genes, such as NDN, CDH11, and NDRG4. Moreover, we demonstrate that UUS carry
      somatic mutations in several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes implicated in
      RAS/PI3K/AKT/mTOR, ERBB3, and Hedgehog signaling.

PMID- 28570277
TI  - Epithelial Gpr116 regulates pulmonary alveolar homeostasis via Gq/11 signaling.
AB  - Pulmonary function is dependent upon the precise regulation of alveolar
      surfactant. Alterations in pulmonary surfactant concentrations or function impair
      ventilation and cause tissue injury. Identification of the molecular pathways
      that sense and regulate endogenous alveolar surfactant concentrations, coupled
      with the ability to pharmacologically modulate them both positively and
      negatively, would be a major therapeutic advance for patients with acute and
      chronic lung diseases caused by disruption of surfactant homeostasis. The orphan
      adhesion GPCR GPR116 (also known as Adgrf5) is a critical regulator of alveolar
      surfactant concentrations. Here, we show that human and mouse GPR116 control
      surfactant secretion and reuptake in alveolar type II (AT2) cells by regulating
      guanine nucleotide-binding domain alpha q and 11 (Gq/11) signaling. Synthetic
      peptides derived from the ectodomain of GPR116 activated Gq/11-dependent inositol
      phosphate conversion, calcium mobilization, and cortical F-actin stabilization to
      inhibit surfactant secretion. AT2 cell-specific deletion of Gnaq and Gna11
      phenocopied the accumulation of surfactant observed in Gpr116-/- mice. These data
      provide proof of concept that GPR116 is a plausible therapeutic target to
      modulate endogenous alveolar surfactant pools to treat pulmonary diseases
      associated with surfactant dysfunction.

PMID- 28570280
TI  - Battlefield Acupuncture: An Emerging Method for Easing Pain.

PMID- 28570279
TI  - Optimized multiplex immunofluorescence single-cell analysis reveals tuft cell
      heterogeneity.
AB  - Intestinal tuft cells are a rare, poorly understood cell type recently shown to
      be a critical mediator of type 2 immune response to helminth infection. Here, we
      present advances in segmentation algorithms and analytical tools for multiplex
      immunofluorescence (MxIF), a platform that enables iterative staining of over 60
      antibodies on a single tissue section. These refinements have enabled a
      comprehensive analysis of tuft cell number, distribution, and protein expression
      profiles as a function of anatomical location and physiological perturbations.
      Based solely on DCLK1 immunoreactivity, tuft cell numbers were similar throughout
      the mouse small intestine and colon. However, multiple subsets of tuft cells were
      uncovered when protein coexpression signatures were examined, including two new
      intestinal tuft cell markers, Hopx and EGFR phosphotyrosine 1068. Furthermore, we
      identified dynamic changes in tuft cell number, composition, and protein
      expression associated with fasting and refeeding and after introduction of
      microbiota to germ-free mice. These studies provide a foundational framework for
      future studies of intestinal tuft cell regulation and demonstrate the utility of
      our improved MxIF computational methods and workflow for understanding cellular
      heterogeneity in complex tissues in normal and disease states.

PMID- 28570281
TI  - Response to the Letter to the Editor on "Ultrasound Anatomy of the Transverse
      Carpal Ligament".

PMID- 28570278
TI  - CXCL13-producing TFH cells link immune suppression and adaptive memory in human
      breast cancer.
AB  - T follicular helper cells (TFH cells) are important regulators of antigen
      specific B cell responses. The B cell chemoattractant CXCL13 has recently been
      linked with TFH cell infiltration and improved survival in human cancer. Although
      human TFH cells can produce CXCL13, their immune functions are currently unknown.
      This study presents data from human breast cancer, advocating a role for tumor
      infiltrating CXCL13-producing (CXCR5-) TFH cells, here named TFHX13 cells, in
      promoting local memory B cell differentiation. TFHX13 cells potentially trigger
      tertiary lymphoid structure formation and thereby generate germinal center B cell
      responses at the tumor site. Follicular DCs are not potent CXCL13 producers in
      breast tumor tissues. We used the TFH cell markers PD-1 and ICOS to identify
      distinct effector and regulatory CD4+ T cell subpopulations in breast tumors.
      TFHX13 cells are an important component of the PD-1hiICOSint effector
      subpopulation and coexpanded with PD-1intICOShiFOXP3hi Tregs. IL2 deprivation
      induces CXCL13 expression in vitro with a synergistic effect from TGFbeta1,
      providing insight into TFHX13 cell differentiation in response to Treg
      accumulation, similar to conventional TFH cell responses. Our data suggest that
      human TFHX13 cell differentiation may be a key factor in converting Treg-mediated
      immune suppression to de novo activation of adaptive antitumor humoral responses
      in the chronic inflammatory breast cancer microenvironment.

PMID- 28570282
TI  - Ultrasound Anatomy of the Transverse Carpal Ligament.

PMID- 28570283
TI  - Novel insights of microRNAs in the development of systemic lupus erythematosus.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To provide a brief overview of recent progress in microRNA
      biogenesis and homeostasis, its function in immune system and systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE), as well as successful microRNA-based therapy in vivo. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Stepwise microRNA biogenesis is elaborately regulated at multiple
      levels, ranging from transcription to ultimate function. Mature microRNAs have
      inhibitory effects on various biological molecules, which are crucial for
      stabilizing and normalizing differentiation and function of immune cells.
      Abnormality in microRNA expression contributes to dysfunction of lupus immune
      cells and resident cells in local tissues. Manipulation of dysregulated microRNAs
      in vivo through microRNA delivery or targeting microRNA might be promising for
      SLE treatment. SUMMARY: Recent advances highlight that microRNAs are important in
      immunity, lupus autoimmunity and as potential therapy target for SLE.

PMID- 28570284
TI  - Mathematical models of infection transmission in healthcare settings: recent
      advances from the use of network structured data.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mathematical modeling approaches have brought important
      contributions to the study of pathogen spread in healthcare settings over the
      last 20 years. Here, we conduct a comprehensive systematic review of mathematical
      models of disease transmission in healthcare settings and assess the application
      of contact and patient transfer network data over time and their impact on our
      understanding of transmission dynamics of infections. RECENT FINDINGS: Recently,
      with the increasing availability of data on the structure of interindividual and
      interinstitution networks, models incorporating this type of information have
      been proposed, with the aim of providing more realistic predictions of disease
      transmission in healthcare settings. Models incorporating realistic data on
      individual or facility networks often remain limited to a few settings and a few
      pathogens (mostly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). SUMMARY: To
      respond to the objectives of creating improved infection prevention and control
      measures and better understanding of healthcare-associated infections
      transmission dynamics, further innovations in data collection and parameter
      estimation in modeling is required.

PMID- 28570285
TI  - SymptomCare@Home: Developing an Integrated Symptom Monitoring and Management
      System for Outpatients Receiving Chemotherapy.
AB  - SymptomCare@Home, an integrated symptom monitoring and management system, was
      designed as part of randomized clinical trials to help patients with cancer who
      receive chemotherapy in ambulatory clinics and often experience significant
      symptoms at home. An iterative design process was informed by chronic disease
      management theory and features of assessment and clinical decision support
      systems used in other diseases. Key stakeholders participated in the design
      process: nurse scientists, clinical experts, bioinformatics experts, and computer
      programmers. Especially important was input from end users, patients, and nurse
      practitioners participating in a series of studies testing the system. The system
      includes both a patient and clinician interface and fully integrates two
      electronic subsystems: a telephone computer-linked interactive voice response
      system and a Web-based Decision Support-Symptom Management System. Key features
      include (1) daily symptom monitoring, (2) self-management coaching, (3) alerting,
      and (4) nurse practitioner follow-up. The nurse practitioner is distinctively
      positioned to provide assessment, education, support, and pharmacologic and
      nonpharmacologic interventions to intensify management of poorly controlled
      symptoms at home. SymptomCare@Home is a model for providing telehealth. The
      system facilitates using evidence-based guidelines as part of a comprehensive
      symptom management approach. The design process and system features can be
      applied to other diseases and conditions.

PMID- 28570286
TI  - Design and Implementation of the Intensive Care Unit Quality Management Registry:
      Monitoring Quality and Cost of an Adult Intensive Care Unit in a Greek State
      Hospital.
AB  - Intensive care electronic registries have been instrumental in quality
      measurement, improvement, and assurance of intensive care. In this article, the
      development and pilot implementation of the Intensive Care Unit Quality
      Management Registry are described, with a particular focus on monitoring the
      quality and operational cost in an adult ICU at a northern Greek state hospital.
      A relational database was developed for a hospital ICU so that qualitative and
      financial data are recorded for further analysis needed for planning quality care
      improvement and enhanced efficiency. Key features of this database registry were
      low development cost, user friendliness, maximum data security, and
      interoperability in existing hospital information systems. The database included
      patient demographics, nursing and medical parameters, and quality and performance
      indicators as established in many national registries worldwide. Cost recording
      was based on a mixed approach: at patient level ("bottom-up" method) and at
      department level ("top-down" method). During the pilot phase of the database
      operation, regular monitoring of quality and cost data revealed several fields of
      quality excellence, while indicating room for improvement for others. Parallel
      recording and trending of multiple parameters showed that the database can be
      utilized for optimum ICU quality and cost management and also for further
      research purposes by nurses, physicians, and administrators.

PMID- 28570287
TI  - Usual and unusual pitfalls of 18F-FDG-PET/CT in lymphoma after treatment: a
      pictorial review.
AB  - Fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET/computed tomography (CT) is now a
      standard of care in initial staging and treatment evaluation of lymphomas. It is
      also used in the interim evaluation in diffuse large B cell lymphoma and Hodgkin
      lymphoma. However, several pitfalls may occur during or after treatment, because
      of the nonspecificity of F-FDG for lymphoma disease and treatment as
      immunotherapy, thus possibly induces misinterpretation and wrong treatment
      decision. The aim of this pictorial review is to provide an illustrated tutorial
      of the most frequent pitfalls found on F-FDG-PET/CT during or after treatment.

PMID- 28570288
TI  - Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells Associated With Disease Progression in Primary
      HIV Infection: PD-L1 Blockade Attenuates Inhibition.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Events occurring during the initial phase of human immunodeficiency
      virus (HIV) infection are intriguing because of their dramatic impact on the
      subsequent course of the disease. In particular, the relationship between myeloid
      derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and HIV pathogenesis in primary infection
      remains unknown and the mechanism of MDSCs in HIV infection are incompletely
      defined. METHODS: The frequency of MDSC expression in patients with primary HIV
      infection (PHI) and chronic HIV infection was measured, and the association with
      disease progression was studied. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and galectin-9
      (Gal-9) expression on MDSCs was measured and in vitro blocking experiments were
      performed to study the role of PD-L1 in MDSCs' inhibition. RESULTS: We found
      increased levels of HLA-DRCD14CD33CD11b granulocytic(G)-MDSCs in PHI individuals
      compared with normal controls, which correlated with viral loads and was
      negatively related to CD4 T-cell levels. When cocultured with purified G-MDSCs,
      both proliferation and interferon-gamma secretion by T cell receptor (TCR)
      stimulated CD8 T cells from HIV-infected patients were significantly inhibited.
      We also demonstrated that PD-L1, but not Gal-9, expression on HLA-DRCD14CD33CD11b
      cells increased during HIV infection. The suppressive activity of G-MDSCs from
      HIV-infected patients was attenuated by PD-L1 blockade. CONCLUSIONS: We found a
      significant increase in G-MDSCs in PHI patients that was related to disease
      progression and PD-L1 was used by MDSCs to inhibit CD8 T cells in HIV infection.
      Our data improve the understanding of HIV pathogenesis in PHI.

PMID- 28570289
TI  - Hydraulic Transcrestal Sinus Lift: Different Patterns of Elevation in Pig
      Sinuses.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate different patterns of sinus
      membrane elevation in pig jaws. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 30 pig jaws (60
      sinuses) were used for the present investigation. The hydraulic Crestal Approach
      Sinus kit was used to elevate sinus membrane, and different elevation patterns
      were recorded. RESULTS: There were 4 different scenarios of membrane separation
      patterns: center dome-shaped elevation, off-center dome-shaped elevation,
      horizontally spreading membrane elevation, and perforation. The incidence of each
      different type was 35.0% (n = 21) in center dome-shaped separation, 51.7% (n =
      31) in off-center dome-shaped separation, 10.0% (n = 6) in horizontally spreading
      separation, and 3.3% (n = 2) in membrane perforation. CONCLUSION: Different
      patterns of membrane elevations are observed in pig sinuses and introduced in
      this study. The off-center dome-shaped elevation was the most common pattern
      followed by the center dome-shaped elevation and horizontally spreading
      elevation, respectively.

PMID- 28570290
TI  - Secondary data analysis: techniques for comparing interventions and their
      limitations.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Secondary data analysis has become increasingly common in
      health services research, specifically comparative effectiveness research. While
      a comprehensive study of the techniques and methods for secondary data analysis
      is a wide-ranging topic, we sought to perform a descriptive study of some key
      methodological issues related to secondary data analyses and to provide a basic
      summary of techniques to address them. RECENT FINDINGS: In this study, we first
      address common issues seen in analysis of secondary datasets, and limitations of
      datasets with respect to bias. We cover some strategies for handling missing or
      incomplete data and a basic summary of three statistical approaches that can be
      used to address the problem of bias. SUMMARY: While it is unrealistic for surgeon
      scientists to aspire to the depth of knowledge of professional statisticians or
      data scientists, it is important for researchers and clinicians reading to
      understand some of the common pitfalls and issues when using secondary data to
      investigate clinical questions. Ultimately, the choice of analytical technique
      and the particular data sets used should be dictated by the research question and
      hypothesis being tested. Transparency about data handling and statistical
      techniques are vital elements of secondary data analysis.

PMID- 28570293
TI  - Mother's Lived Experience During Repair of Long-Gap Esophageal Atresia: A
      Phenomenological Inquiry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infants born with long-gap esophageal atresia (LGEA) pose unique
      physiologic risks in the newborn period. Anatomic and physiologic anomalies
      require an extended hospitalization with procedural analgesia and sedation that
      impact the mother's experience of birth, maternal response, and nurturing of her
      infant. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to understand the meaning of
      experiences that mothers of infants born with LGEA encounter in the neonatal
      intensive care unit while their infant undergoes esophageal repair. METHODS: A
      hermeneutical phenomenological design was used to guide this inquiry. Three
      mothers were interviewed on 3 separate occasions. The conversations were audio
      recorded and transcribed verbatim. The findings were analyzed using fundamental
      existential lifeworld themes. RESULTS: The essence that conceptualized the study
      was "making connections: day-by-day." Themes that emerged are (a) the many
      phases; (b) the long and winding road; (c) a new me, my purpose; and (d) our new
      community. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurses' knowledge and understanding of
      maternal experiences of having an infant with LGEA will enable for increased
      physical closeness, optimizing time spent together to learn their infant's unique
      personality. Creating partnerships with mothers can enhance our understanding of
      their perspectives, concerns, needs, and guide interventions. IMPLICATIONS FOR
      RESEARCH: Further exploration of family dynamics including fathers, siblings, and
      contextual factors may illuminate interventions to enhance relationships and
      communication that may influence developmental outcomes for families of infants
      with LGEA.

PMID- 28570294
TI  - Blind Intubation through Self-pressurized, Disposable Supraglottic Airway
      Laryngeal Intubation Masks: An International, Multicenter, Prospective Cohort
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Supraglottic airway devices commonly are used for securing the airway
      during general anesthesia. Occasionally, intubation with an endotracheal tube
      through a supraglottic airway is indicated. Reported success rates for blind
      intubation range from 15 to 97%. The authors thus investigated as their primary
      outcome the fraction of patients who could be intubated blindly with an Air-Qsp
      supraglottic airway device (Mercury Medical, USA). Second, the authors
      investigated the influence of muscle relaxation on air leakage pressure,
      predictors for failed blind intubation, and associated complications of using the
      supraglottic airway device. METHODS: The authors enrolled 1,000 adults having
      elective surgery with endotracheal intubation. After routine induction of general
      anesthesia, a supraglottic airway device was inserted and patients were
      ventilated intermittently. Air leak pressure was measured before and after full
      muscle relaxation. Up to two blind intubation attempts were performed. RESULTS:
      The supraglottic airway provided adequate ventilation and oxygenation in 99% of
      cases. Blind intubation succeeded in 78% of all patients (95% CI, 75 to 81%).
      However, the success rate was inconsistent among the three centers (P < 0.001):
      80% (95% CI, 75 to 85%) at the Institute of Anesthesia and Pain Therapy,
      Kantonsspital Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland; 41% (95% CI, 29 to 53%) at the
      Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Medical University of Lodz,
      Lodz, Poland; and 84% (95% CI, 80 to 88%) at the Institute of Anesthesiology,
      University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Leak pressure before relaxation
      correlated reasonably well with air leak pressure after relaxation. CONCLUSIONS:
      The supraglottic airway device reliably provided a good airway and allowed blind
      intubation in nearly 80% of patients. It is thus a reasonable initial approach to
      airway control. Muscle relaxation can be used safely when unparalyzed leak
      pressure is adequate.

PMID- 28570297
TI  - Reinforcing effects of abused 'bath salts' constituents 3,4
      methylenedioxypyrovalerone and alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone and their
      enantiomers.
AB  - Synthetic cathinones found in abused 'bath salts' preparations are chiral
      molecules. Racemic 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and alpha
      pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP) are two common constituents of these
      preparations that have been reported to be highly effective reinforcers; however,
      the relative contribution of each enantiomer toward these effects has not been
      determined. Thus, male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to respond for racemic
      MDPV or alpha-PVP (n=9/drug), with full dose-response curves for the racemate and
      the S and R enantiomers of MDPV and alpha-PVP generated under a progressive ratio
      schedule of reinforcement. Racemic mixtures of both MDPV and alpha-PVP as well as
      each enantiomer maintained responding in a dose-dependent manner, with racemic
      MDPV and alpha-PVP being equipotent. The rank order of potency within each drug
      was S enantiomer>racemate ? R enantiomer. Although both enantiomers of alpha-PVP
      were as effective as racemic alpha-PVP, R-MDPV was a slightly less effective
      reinforcer than both S and racemic MDPV. The results of these studies provide
      clear evidence that both enantiomers of MDPV and alpha-PVP function as highly
      effective reinforcers and likely contribute toward the abuse-related effects of
      'bath salts' preparations containing racemic MDPV and/or alpha-PVP.

PMID- 28570296
TI  - ADAMTS5 Deficiency Protects Mice From Chronic Tobacco Smoking-induced
      Intervertebral Disc Degeneration.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: ADAMTS5-deficient and wild type (WT) mice were chronically exposed
      to tobacco smoke to investigate effects on intervertebral disc degeneration
      (IDD). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to demonstrate a role for ADAMTS5 in
      mediating tobacco smoking-induced IDD. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: We previously
      demonstrated that chronic tobacco smoking causes IDD in mice because, in part, of
      proteolytic destruction of disc aggrecan. However, it was unknown which matrix
      proteinase(s) drive these detrimental effects. METHODS: Three-month-old WT
      (C57BL/6) and ADAMTS5 mice were chronically exposed to tobacco smoke (four
      cigarettes/day, 5 day/week for 6 months). ADAMTS-mediated cleavage of disc
      aggrecan was analyzed by Western blot. Disc total glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content
      was assessed by dimethyl methylene blue assay and safranin O/fast green
      histology. Vertebral osteoporosity was measured by microcomputed tomography.
      Human nucleus pulposus (hNP) cell cultures were also exposed directly to tobacco
      smoke extract (TSE), a condensate containing the water-soluble compounds inhaled
      by smokers, to measure ADAMTS5 expression and ADAMTS-mediated cleavage of
      aggrecan. Activation of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB, a family of transcription
      factors essential for modulating the cellular response to stress, was measured by
      immunofluorescence assay. RESULTS: Genetic depletion of ADAMTS5 prevented
      vertebral bone loss, substantially reduced loss of disc GAG content, and
      completely obviated ADAMTS-mediated proteolysis of disc aggrecan within its
      interglobular domain (IGD) in mice following exposure to tobacco smoke. hNP cell
      cultures exposed to TSE also resulted in upregulation of ADAMTS5 protein
      expression and a concomitant increase in ADAMTS-mediated cleavage within aggrecan
      IGD. Activation of NF-kappaB, known to be required for ADAMTS5 gene expression,
      was observed in both TSE-treated hNP cell cultures and disc tissue of tobacco
      smoke-exposed mice. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that ADAMTS5 is the
      primary aggrecanase mediating smoking-induced disc aggrecanolysis and IDD. Mouse
      models of chronic tobacco smoking are important and useful for probing the
      mechanisms of disc aggrecan catabolism and IDD. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A.

PMID- 28570298
TI  - The effect of litter separation on methamphetamine-conditioned place preference
      in post-partum dams.
AB  - Methamphetamine (METH) abuse among women has recently increased to levels
      comparable to those observed in men. Although studies using animal models of
      addiction have begun to include more female subjects, examination of the effects
      of drugs of abuse on post-partum females is currently lacking. This is especially
      important in light of the significant hormonal and neurobiological changes that
      accompany pregnancy and rearing experiences. Furthermore, stress in a known
      factor in addiction vulnerability and the post-partum experience in the clinical
      population can be highly stressful. Here, we utilized the conditioned place
      preference paradigm to investigate the conditioned rewarding effects of METH
      either in virgin rats or in dams exposed to brief separation (15 min) or long
      separation (180 min) from the litter. We found that females in the brief
      separation group showed significantly greater METH conditioned place preference
      compared with both the long separation and virgin groups. No differences were
      found in locomotor activity during the conditioning sessions. These findings
      suggest that peripartum experience and brief litter separation may enhance the
      rewarding effects of METH.

PMID- 28570299
TI  - HLA-A*31: 01 and HLA-B*15:02 association with Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic
      epidermal necrolysis to carbamazepine in a multiethnic Malaysian population.
AB  - The majority of the carbamazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic
      epidermal necrolysis CBZ-SJS/TEN are associated with HLA-B*15:02 in Asian
      populations where this allele is common. In contrast, the association with HLA
      A*31:01 is only reported in Japanese and Europeans. This study aimed to further
      investigate the association with HLA-A*31:01 besides HLA-B*15:02 in a multiethnic
      Malaysian population. Twenty-eight CBZ-SJS/TEN cases and 227 CBZ-tolerant
      controls were recruited. Association was tested by comparing carrier frequencies
      of the alleles between cases and controls. Significant associations were detected
      between HLA-B*15:02 and CBZ-SJS/TEN in independent ethnic groups: Malays
      [P=2.00*10; odds ratio (OR): 49.0; 95% confidence interval (CI): 9.36-256.81],
      Chinese (P=0.0047; OR: 14.3; 95% CI: 2.38-86.03) and Indians (P=0.04; OR: 13.8;
      95% CI: 1.51-124.99). Combined analysis of all ethnic groups showed a significant
      association with OR Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (ORCMH) of 26.6 (95% CI: 12.80-55.25;
      PCMH=2.31*10). In Indians, HLA-A*31:01 was found to be associated significantly
      with CBZ-SJS/TEN (P=0.023; OR: 10.4; 95% CI: 1.64-65.79) and combined analyses of
      both variants, HLA-A*31:01 and HLA-B*15:02, increased the strength of the
      association (P=0.0068; OR: 14.3; 95% CI: 2.20-92.9). Besides HLA-B*15:02, our
      study found a new association between HLA-A*31:01 and CBZ-SJS/TEN in Indians.

PMID- 28570300
TI  - Impact of novel polymorphisms related to cytotoxicity of cytarabine in the
      induction treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Several novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in cytarabine
      cytotoxicity and related to clinical outcomes have been reported recently in a
      series of 232 pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We report the
      first adult AML cohort in which the influence of these SNPs in cytarabine
      efficacy and toxicity was analyzed. Six of polymorphisms with clinical
      significance in the previous study [rs12036333, rs10758713, rs9883101, rs6550826,
      IRX2: rs2897047, mutated in colorectal cancers (MCC): rs7729269] were analyzed in
      a cohort of 225 adult patients at initial diagnosis of AML treated with an
      induction scheme of idarubicin plus cytarabine. The variant alleles of rs12036333
      and rs10758713 confirmed the previous associations with lower survival rates. The
      minor alleles of rs9883101 and rs6550826 were also related to lower survival, in
      concordance with higher cytarabine-induced cytotoxicity observed in pediatric
      patients. However, discordant findings between AML adult and pediatric population
      were observed with IRX2 rs2897047, showing higher survival in heterozygous
      genotype carriers. The heterozygous genotype of MCC rs7729269 was associated with
      higher cytarabine-induced toxicities (renal, hepatic, lung, skin toxicities),
      whereas lower time to thrombocytopenia recovery was associated with the MCC
      rs7729269 minor allele. This study confirms the influence in survival rates of
      these polymorphisms in an adult AML population. Novel associations between MCC
      SNPs and cytarabine toxicities were reported and should be validated in
      prospective studies involving larger groups of patients.

PMID- 28570302
TI  - Ascending to descending aortic pulse pressure amplification in children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A peripheral pulse pressure (PP) is larger than a central PP (PP
      amplification). The phenomenon has been examined in adult, but not in children.
      METHODS: Fifty-four patients with a normal aorta were enrolled. The ascending and
      descending aorta pressure waveforms were recorded by a pressure sensor-mounted
      catheter. The difference of the PP, which was defined as the PP in the descending
      aorta minus that in the ascending aorta and the ratio of the PP, which was
      defined as the ratio of the descending to the ascending aortic PP, was examined
      as the index of the PP amplification. RESULTS: The patient's age was 6.2 +/- 3.0
      years. The difference of the PP was 4.5 +/- 2.7 mmHg and had a significant
      positive relationship with the mean blood pressure (r = 0.46, P = 0.0005) and the
      age (r = 0.36, P = 0.009). The ratio of the PP was 1.14 +/- 0.08 and had a
      significant positive relationship with the mean blood pressure (r = 0.42, P =
      0.002) and the age (r = 0.29, P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The PP amplification is
      observed even in children. The degree of the PP amplification increases with age
      during childhood contrary to the relationship in adults.

PMID- 28570301
TI  - Clinical examination for diagnosing circulatory shock.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In the acute setting of circulatory shock, physicians largely
      depend on clinical examination and basic laboratory values. The daily use of
      clinical examination for diagnostic purposes contrasts sharp with the limited
      number of studies. We aim to provide an overview of the diagnostic accuracy of
      clinical examination in estimating circulatory shock reflected by an inadequate
      cardiac output (CO). RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies showed poor correlations
      between CO and mottling, capillary refill time or central-to-peripheral
      temperature gradients in univariable analyses. The accuracy of physicians to
      perform an educated guess of CO based on clinical examination lies around 50% and
      the accuracy for recognizing a low CO is similar. Studies that used predefined
      clinical profiles composed of several clinical examination signs show more
      reliable estimations of CO with accuracies ranging from 81 up to 100%. SUMMARY:
      Single variables obtained by clinical examination should not be used when
      estimating CO. Physician's educated guesses of CO based on unstructured clinical
      examination are like the 'flip of a coin'. Structured clinical examination based
      on combined clinical signs shows the best accuracy. Future studies should focus
      on using a combination of signs in an unselected population, eventually to
      educate physicians in estimating CO by using predefined clinical profiles.

PMID- 28570303
TI  - Current Status of Fellowship Programs for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in
      the Nurse Practitioner Role.
AB  - Students completing an advanced practice RN program for practice as a nurse
      practitioner may seek options for further advancement. Although postgraduate
      clinical fellowship programs exist, information about such programs is not
      readily available. This article offers a resource for faculty to assist graduate
      students in finding advanced practice RN nurse practitioner fellowship programs
      in the United States.

PMID- 28570304
TI  - Defining Roles and Expectations for Faculty, Nurses, and Students in a Dedicated
      Education Unit.
AB  - The dedicated education unit (DEU) model of clinical nursing education is an
      innovative, evidence-based model for creating a more effective learning
      environment. Although nursing programs have used this model for years, the
      literature provides minimal direction to assist faculty in transitioning from
      traditional clinical teaching to the DEU model. This article reports the
      development and evaluation of 2 resources to help all involved understand
      teaching roles and desired learning outcomes in the DEU model.

PMID- 28570305
TI  - Randomized, Crossover Study of Immersive Virtual Reality to Decrease Opioid Use
      During Painful Wound Care Procedures in Adults.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of immersive virtual
      reality (IVR) distraction therapy during painful wound care procedures in adults
      on the amount of opioid medications required to manage pain. A convenience sample
      of consenting, adult inpatients requiring recurrent painful wound care procedures
      was studied. Using a within-subject, randomized controlled trial study design, 2
      sequential wound procedures were compared, 1 with IVR distraction therapy and 1
      without IVR. Total opioid medications administered before and during the wound
      procedures were recorded and pain and anxiety were rated before and after the 2
      wound procedures. The IVR intervention included the wearing of virtual reality
      goggles and participation in an immersive, computer generated, interactive, 3
      dimensional virtual world program. Data were analyzed with Student's t test and
      chi-square analysis, with P < 0.05 considered significant. A total of 18 patients
      were studied, with 12 completing both study wound procedures and 6 completing a
      single wound procedure. The amount of opioid administered before each of the 2
      wound procedures was similar with and without IVR. Total opioid administration
      during the dressing procedures with IVR was significantly less than when no IVR
      was used, 17.9 +/- 6.0 and 29.2 +/- 4.5 mcg/kg fentanyl, respectively (t = -2.7;
      df = 14; P = 0.02). Two of 15 patients (11%) requested more than 1 opioid rescue
      dose with IVR and 9 of 15 patients (60%) requested more than 1 rescue dose
      without IVR. Seventy-five percentage of participants stated that they would want
      to use IVR with future dressing changes. Pain and anxiety scores were similar for
      the wound procedures with and without IVR (P > 0.05). IVR significantly reduced
      the amount of opioid medication administered during painful wound care procedures
      when IVR was used compared with no IVR. Since pain scores were similar before and
      after the wound procedures with IVR and without IVR, the 39% reduction in opioid
      medication during IVR supports its use as a pain distraction therapy during
      painful procedures.

PMID- 28570306
TI  - Analysis of Electrocardiograms Associated with Pediatric Electrical Burns.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of electrocardiograms (EKGs)
      for low-risk, low-voltage pediatric electrical burn victims. A retrospective
      chart review was conducted on 86 pediatric patients who presented to the
      children's hospital between 2000 and 2015 after sustaining electrical burns.
      Variables included source and estimated voltage, extent of injuries, length of
      stay, high risk factors, and EKG results. High risk factors included estimated
      voltage > 1000 V, lightning, tetany, symptoms, loss of consciousness, or
      seizures. Statistical analyses were conducted. Average age was 5 years. Of those
      who sustained burns, 84.5% (n = 71/84) had second-degree burns <= 1% TBSA or
      less. Eleven patients had high risk factors, 12.9% (n = 11/85) and most had
      length of stay < 3 days (91.8%; n = 78/85). Majority sustained burns from low
      voltage (< 300 V) household electrical outlets, cords, or light bulb sockets
      (90.4%; n = 75/83). Among patients with available EKGs, 12 had arrhythmias on
      initial EKG (i.e., low right atrial rhythm, t-wave inversions, sinus tachycardia,
      bundle branch block; 20.7%; n = 12/58). All were transient and nonfatal. The data
      suggest that low estimated voltage (< 300 V) electrical injuries were associated
      with negative EKGs; however, due to the low rate of arrhythmias, a Fisher's exact
      test did not show significance, P = 0.09 (P > 0.05). Preliminary data suggest
      that most pediatric electrical burns are due to low voltage (< 300 V) household
      sources. Few have high risk factors or arrhythmias that were transient and
      nonfatal. These data suggest that low-risk, asymptomatic, low-voltage pediatric
      electrical burns may not require an initial screening EKG.

PMID- 28570307
TI  - Early Mobilization in Lower Extremity Frostbite Injury: Preliminary Experience at
      a Single Burn Center.
AB  - Cold exposure that leads to frostbite puts patients at high risk for extremity
      amputations. Recent treatment advances, such as thrombolytic administration, have
      decreased amputation rates. However, little is known about patient outcomes with
      early mobilization of affected limbs. A retrospective review of 41 patients
      admitted for lower extremity frostbite was performed at an urban hospital burn
      unit. All patients received the institution's standard frostbite treatment
      protocol. The study group was allowed to bear weight within 72 hours, while the
      control group was immobilized beyond this time frame. No significant differences
      were found between groups when comparing total tissue loss, complications, or
      hospital length of stay. Previous treatment of frostbite at our institution
      involved strict avoidance of weight bearing to the affected extremity due to
      concern for repeat trauma and associated complications. Our findings show that
      patients who ambulated sooner had comparable outcomes to those immobilized for
      longer time periods. Larger studies would be useful to determine a standard time
      to mobilization in frostbite treatment protocols.

PMID- 28570308
TI  - Patient With Scald Burn of the Esophagus.
AB  - Burns of the esophagus are usually caused by chemical substances. In our report,
      we present a case of burn injury burn caused by swallowing boiling water under
      the influence of controlled substances. During the initial diagnostic procedures,
      a CT scan was performed. In contrast, in the later on performed gastroscopy, the
      computed tomography (CT scan) revealed intramural and free air. A conservative
      treatment was started including parenteral nutrition, application of a
      nasogastric tube, and administration of proton pump inhibitor (PPIs). We conclude
      that for diagnosing the extend of a burn of the esophagus, a CT scan should be
      performed in addition to endoscopic procedures.

PMID- 28570309
TI  - Admission Rapid Thrombelastography (rTEG(r)) Values Predict Resuscitation Volumes
      and Patient Outcomes After Thermal Injury.
AB  - In trauma, admission rapid thrombelastography (rTEG) has been shown to predict in
      hospital thromboembolic events, guide treatment of coagulopathy, and identify
      likely to require large volume resuscitations. We sought to evaluate the use of
      rTEG in describing the coagulation status of major burn patients at admission and
      assess whether rTEG values predicted resuscitation volumes and patient outcomes.
      This is a retrospective study of all patients admitted to our Burn intensive care
      unit between January 2010 and December 2012. We excluded those with < 15% TBSA
      burns, < 18 years of age, and with concomitant injuries requiring admission to
      the Trauma intensive care unit. Previously published and validated cut points for
      hypocoagulable (activated clotting time >= 128; k-time >= 2.5; angle <= 60; mA <=
      55; LY30 >= 3%) and hypercoagulable (mA >= 65) rTEG values were used. Supra
      normal burn resuscitation was defined as >= 5.0 mL/kg/TBSA. Statistical analyses
      were conducted using STATA 13.1. Sixty-five patients met inclusion with a median
      age of 45 years, 74% male and 49% white. Median TBSA was 38% with 14% having
      third-degree burns. Sixty percentage of patients were hypercoagulable on
      admission, while 24% were hypocoagulable. rTEG values predicted increased 24-hour
      resuscitation volumes, as well as plasma and platelet transfusions (P < 0.05).
      Controlling for age, TBSA, and base deficit, admission rTEG >= 128 predicted a 5
      fold increased likelihood of supra-normal resuscitation. In addition, an angle <
      60 predicted in-hospital mortality. While the majority of severely burned
      patients arrive hypercoagulable, one-quarter are hypocoagulable and have
      increased resuscitation and transfusion requirements. Moreover, those with
      admission activated clotting time >= 128 are at 5-fold increased risk of supra
      normal resuscitation.

PMID- 28570310
TI  - Terminal Maturation of Orthochromatic Erythroblasts Is Impaired in Burn Patients.
AB  - Mechanisms of erythropoietin (Epo)-resistant anemia in burn patients are poorly
      understood. We have recently found that administering a nonselective beta 1,2
      adrenergic blocker propranolol (PR) was effective in reversing myelo-erythroid
      commitment through MafB regulation and increase megakaryocyte erythrocyte
      progenitors in burn patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC)-derived ex
      vivo culture system. Having known that Epo-dependent proliferation of early
      erythroblasts is intact after burn injury, here we inquired whether or not Epo
      independent maturation stage of erythropoiesis is affected by burn injury and the
      relative role of PR on late-stage erythropoiesis. While majority of
      erythropoiesis occurs in the bone marrow, maturation into reticulocytes is
      crucial for their release into sinusoids to occupy the peripheral circulation for
      which enucleation is vital. peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from burn
      patients were extended beyond commitment and proliferation stages to late
      maturation stage in ex vivo culture to understand the role of PR in burn
      patients. Burn impedes late maturation of orthochromatic erythroblasts into
      reticulocytes by restricting the enucleation step. Late-stage erythropoiesis is
      impaired in burn patients irrespective of PR treatment. Further, substituting the
      microenvironment with control plasma (homologous) in place of autologous plasma
      rescues the conversion of orthochromatic erythroblasts to reticulocytes. Results
      show promise in formulating interventions to regulate late-stage erythropoiesis,
      which can be used in combination with PR to reduce the number of transfusions.

PMID- 28570311
TI  - The Importance of a Three-dimensional-Based Approach With Personalized Models for
      Accurately Assessing TBSA.
AB  - In this article, the relevance of a new three-dimensional computer-Based computer
      based framework with personalized 3D models for accurately assessing the TBSA is
      demonstrated through preliminary results and validation studies. First, a 3D
      rendering interface was developed for representation and calculation of TBSA. The
      personalized 3D models were built from anthropometric measurements using
      MakeHuman software. Fifteen paired models were randomly built with an equal BSA
      but a different morphology. The difference of local BSA, TBSA burned, and
      Parkland fluids between each paired models were observed to highlight the impact
      of morphology's variation on the TBSA. Finally, a preliminary validation study
      was made on 4 mannequins by 14 volunteers to assess the accuracy of the 3D models
      built with MakeHuman software and TBSA burned assessment with the proposed
      method. Small variations in the morphology impacted the TBSA assessment.
      Mannequin's 3D models built with MakeHuman software presented an absolute error
      of 3 +/- 2.2 % with no significant difference with their scans. The proposed
      approach allows for a better assessment of TBSA with a lower variability. No
      significant difference in the scores for expert and nonexpert conditions was
      observed. Personalized 3D model to the patient's morphology is suggested to
      overcome the difficulty of patients with specific morphologies such as obese and
      children. The proposed framework appears to be relevant for personalizing and
      accurately assessing TBSA and could reduce morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28570312
TI  - Validation of the Ludwigshafen German Version of the Burn Specific Health Scale
      Brief.
AB  - The Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B) is one of the most commonly used
      instruments to measure quality of life after burns. Our aim was to establish and
      to provide a German version of the BSHS-B for all German-speaking burn
      facilities. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the original English
      version into the German language was conducted. In a pilot study, 20 burn
      patients qualitatively validated the translated version concerning
      comprehensibility and content validity. The final version was then quantitatively
      validated by 364 patients who were treated in our burn center between 2011 and
      2015. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were assessed. Criterion
      validity was determined by correlating the subscales with relevant instruments
      (Short-Form Health Survey 36, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and
      Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Outcome Measure). The structure of the
      German version was investigated by principal component analysis. Confirmatory
      factor analysis was used to compare the structure with the original 9-factor
      structure and the second-order 3-factor structure. Qualitative testing revealed
      adequate comprehension and content validity. Cronbach's alphas ranged from alpha
      = 0.80 to alpha = 0.92. The test-retest reliability ranged from r = 0.72 to r =
      0.97. The subscales correlated significantly with the measures of criterion
      validity (r = 0.30 to r = -0.77). The principal component analysis results showed
      a satisfactory overlap with the original data structure, except for the Affect
      and Sexuality domains, which were merged into 1 factor. The confirmatory factor
      analyses revealed the best model fit for the second-order 3-factor structure,
      excluding the Work domain. The Ludwigshafen German version of the BSHS-B shows
      good psychometric properties. It is well suited for clinical use, further
      research, and international comparison.

PMID- 28570313
TI  - The Cost of Burn Transfers: A Retrospective Review of 7 Years of Admissions to a
      Regional Burn Center.
AB  - The transport of thermally injured patients can involve significant costs;
      however, not all thermally injured patients necessitate transfer to a burn
      center. The purpose of this study was to review transfers to an American Burn
      Association-verified regional burn center to determine whether the transfers were
      necessary and the cost associated with unnecessary transfers. A retrospective
      chart review identified 707 patients transferred to an American Burn Association
      verified burn center with an acute burn injury during a 7-year period. For the
      purposes of this study, "unnecessary transfer" was defined as any patient
      admitted fewer than 7 days who did not undergo operative intervention. Transfer
      cost estimates were based on records from regional land paramedic and land and
      air medical transport services. In total, 27.3% of transfers were potentially
      "unnecessary transfers," with an associated cost of approximately $227,396.93
      (18.9% of total transfer costs in study). Average unnecessary transfer cost
      varied by method of transport: land ambulance (n = 130) $285.72, helicopter (n =
      27) $4,136.34, and airplane (n = 15) $4,908.67. The transfer of thermally injured
      patients is associated with significant cost. Unnecessary transfers represent an
      inefficient use of a limited resource in an already strained healthcare system.
      The findings of this study suggest that further initiatives should be explored to
      ensure the appropriate transfer of thermally injured patients.

PMID- 28570314
TI  - Negative Pressure Wound Therapy to the Dura.
AB  - Negative-pressure wound therapy is historically contraindicated in patients with
      osteomyelitis or exposed dura. The authors present a case of a complex
      reconstruction of an infected full thickness scalp burn, where negative-pressure
      wound therapy was successfully used over the dura.

PMID- 28570315
TI  - Assessment of Outreach by a Regional Burn Center: Could Referral Criteria
      Revision Help with Utilization of Resources?
AB  - The objectives of this study were to identify trends in preburn center care,
      assess needs for outreach and education efforts, and evaluate resource
      utilization with regard to referral criteria. We hypothesized that many
      transferred patients were discharged home after brief hospitalizations and
      without need for operation. Retrospective chart review was performed for all
      adult and pediatric transfers to our regional burn center from July 2012 to July
      2014. Details of initial management including TBSA estimation, fluid
      resuscitation, and intubation status were recorded. Mode of transport, burn
      center length of stay, need for operation, and in-hospital mortality were
      analyzed. In two years, our burn center received 1004 referrals from other
      hospitals including 713 inpatient transfers. Within this group, 621 were included
      in the study. Among transferred patients, 476 (77%) had burns less than 10% TBSA,
      69 (11%) had burns between 10-20% TBSA, and 76 (12%) had burns greater than 20%
      TBSA. Referring providers did not document TBSA for 261 (42%) of patients. Among
      patients with less than 10% TBSA burns, 196 (41%) received fluid boluses. Among
      patients with TBSA < 10%, 196 (41%) were sent home from the emergency department
      or discharged within 24 hours, and an additional 144 (30%) were discharged within
      48 hours. Overall, 187 (30%) patients required an operation. In-hospital
      mortality rates were 1.5% for patients who arrived by ground transport, 14.9% for
      rotor wing transport, and 18.2% for fixed wing transport. Future education
      efforts should emphasize the importance of calculating TBSA to guide need for
      fluid resuscitation and restricting fluid boluses to patients that are
      hypotensive. Clarifying the American Burn Association burn center referral
      criteria to distinguish between immediate transfer vs outpatient referral may
      improve patient care and resource utilization.

PMID- 28570316
TI  - Severity of Inhalation Injury is Predictive of Alterations in Gas Exchange and
      Worsened Clinical Outcomes.
AB  - Inhalation injury (INH) is present in one third of large burn injuries and
      increases oxygenation and fluid resuscitation requirements, incidences of
      pulmonary complications, risk for multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), and
      overall mortality. Previous studies have demonstrated inconsistent correlation
      between bronchoscopic evaluation and clinical outcomes. The authors reviewed 161
      patients admitted with a diagnosis of INH or underwent diagnostic bronchoscopy
      for suspected INH over a period of 8.5 years. One hundred one patients had
      concomitant burn injury and 60 had isolated INH. Seventeen patients had
      abbreviated injury score (AIS) 0, 81 patients had low-grade injury (AIS 1 and 2),
      and 63 patients had high-grade injury (AIS 3 and 4). Patients with high-grade INH
      had worse pulmonary dysfunction, worse oxygenation indices (P = 0.01) and plasma
      carboxyhemoglobin (COHgb; P < 0.01) on admission, increased fluid requirements (P
      < 0.01 at 24 hours; P = 0.04 at 48 hours), MODS (P = 0.04), pneumonia (P < 0.01),
      acute respiratory distress syndrome (P = 0.01 at 48 hours), fewer 28-day
      ventilator-free days (P < 0.01), greater ventilator dependence (P = 0.03), and
      longer length of stay (P < 0.01). Multivariate analyses demonstrated increased
      risk of MODS (P = 0.03), acute respiratory distress syndrome at 48 hours (P <
      0.01), pneumonia (P = 0.01), prolonged ventilator dependence (P = 0.03), and a
      trend toward mortality (P = 0.08) with higher AIS groups. More severe INH
      correlates with early oxygenation impairments and is associated with more
      complicated hospitalization, fluid resuscitation requirements, and ventilation
      demands. Severe INH is associated with and predictive of increased morbidity and
      mortality.

PMID- 28570321
TI  - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Continuum Issue.

PMID- 28570322
TI  - Autoimmune Neurology of the Central Nervous System.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article reviews the rapidly evolving spectrum of
      autoimmune neurologic disorders with a focus on those that involve the central
      nervous system, providing an understanding of how to approach the diagnostic
      workup of patients presenting with central nervous system symptoms or signs that
      could be immune mediated, either paraneoplastic or idiopathic, to guide
      therapeutic decision making. RECENT FINDINGS: The past decade has seen a dramatic
      increase in the discovery of novel neural antibodies and their targets. Many
      commercial laboratories can now test for these antibodies, which serve as
      diagnostic markers of diverse neurologic disorders that occur on an autoimmune
      basis. Some are highly specific for certain cancer types, and the neural antibody
      profiles may help direct the physician's cancer search. SUMMARY: The diagnosis of
      an autoimmune neurologic disorder is aided by the detection of an objective
      neurologic deficit (usually subacute in onset with a fluctuating course), the
      presence of a neural autoantibody, and improvement in the neurologic status after
      a course of immunotherapy. Neural autoantibodies should raise concern for a
      paraneoplastic etiology and may inform a targeted oncologic evaluation (eg, N
      methyl-D-aspartate [NMDA] receptor antibodies are associated with teratoma,
      antineuronal nuclear antibody type 1 [ANNA-1, or anti-Hu] are associated with
      small cell lung cancer). MRI, EEG, functional imaging, videotaped evaluations,
      and neuropsychological evaluations provide objective evidence of neurologic
      dysfunction by which the success of immunotherapy may be measured. Most treatment
      information emanates from retrospective case series and expert opinion.
      Nonetheless, early intervention may allow reversal of deficits in many patients
      and prevention of future disability.

PMID- 28570317
TI  - Safety of Nebulized Epinephrine in Smoke Inhalation Injury.
AB  - This pilot study was conducted to profile safety of nebulized racemic epinephrine
      when used as a therapy for smoke inhalation injury in severely burned children.
      We enrolled 16 patients who were 7 to 19 years of age ([mean +/- SD], 12 +/- 4
      years) with burns covering more than 30% of the TBSA (55 +/- 17%) and smoke
      inhalation injury, as diagnosed by bronchoscopy at burn center admission.
      Patients were randomized to receive either standard of care (n = 8), which
      consisted of nebulized acetylcysteine, nebulized heparin, and nebulized
      albuterol, or to receive standard of care plus nebulized epinephrine (n = 8).
      Primary endpoints were death, chest pain, and adverse changes in cardiopulmonary
      hemodynamics (arrhythmia, arterial blood pressure, electrocardiographic [ST
      segment] changes, and peak inspiratory pressure). Additional endpoints included
      total days on ventilator, pulmonary function, and physiological cardiopulmonary
      measurements at intensive care unit discharge. No adverse events were observed
      during or after the nebulization of epinephrine, and no deaths were reported that
      were attributable to the administration of nebulized epinephrine. The groups did
      not significantly differ with regard to age, sex, burn size, days on ventilator,
      pulmonary function, or cardiopulmonary fitness. Results of this pilot trial
      indicate epinephrine to be safe when administered to pediatric burn patients with
      smoke inhalation injury. Current data warrant future efficacy studies with a
      greater number of patients.

PMID- 28570323
TI  - Neurologic Complications of Cardiac and Aortic Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article discusses neurologic complications that can arise
      from cardiac and aortic disease and dysfunction. RECENT FINDINGS: Advances in the
      care of patients with cardiac or aortic disease include the use of prolonged
      cardiac monitoring in cryptogenic stroke and the approval of the use of left
      atrial appendage closure devices for stroke prevention in patients with atrial
      fibrillation who are not candidates for anticoagulation. Continuing controversy
      surrounds patent foramen ovale closure, and new evidence indicates that cognitive
      impairment following coronary artery bypass grafting surgery may be less common
      than previously thought. SUMMARY: Dysfunction of the cardiovascular system can
      cause serious neurologic injury. In some cases, both the initial presenting
      symptom and the most serious damage done by cardiac or aortic dysfunction may be
      neurologic. Prompt recognition of the symptoms, combined with recent advances in
      both cardiology and neurology, may permit more accurate diagnoses, more effective
      treatment, and less injury to patients.

PMID- 28570324
TI  - Neurologic Complications of Lymphoma, Leukemia, and Paraproteinemias.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article reviews the spectrum of neurologic complications
      associated with lymphoma, leukemia, and paraproteinemic disorders. While
      leptomeningeal metastasis is the most common complication of lymphoma and
      leukemia and peripheral neuropathy is the most common complication of
      paraproteinemic disorders, clinicians need to be familiar with the diverse
      neurologic complications of these disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: Lymphomatous
      nervous system involvement can be difficult to diagnose, especially when it is
      the presenting symptom. CSF cytology and flow cytometry, as well as the imaging
      pattern, assist in diagnosis. Neurologic complications are less common in Hodgkin
      lymphoma; however, some unique paraneoplastic syndromes are associated with
      Hodgkin lymphoma, including primary central nervous system angiitis, limbic
      encephalitis, and cerebellar degeneration. Recent reports suggest that anti
      metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) antibodies are associated with limbic
      encephalitis and that anti-Tr antibodies are associated with cerebellar
      degeneration in Hodgkin lymphoma. Polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy,
      monoclonal plasma cell disorder, and skin changes (POEMS) syndrome is often
      misdiagnosed as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP).
      A lambda protein, thrombocytosis, and elevated vascular endothelial growth factor
      (VEGF) can all be helpful clues in diagnosis. Early recognition is important, as
      the neuropathy responds to radiation therapy or chemotherapy. SUMMARY: Neurologic
      involvement can occur throughout the disease course in lymphoma and leukemia,
      including at presentation, with systemic progression, and at relapse. In
      paraproteinemias, the peripheral neuropathy phenotype, monoclonal protein type,
      and associated autonomic and systemic features aid in identification of an
      underlying plasma cell disorder.

PMID- 28570325
TI  - Rheumatology and Neurology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article reviews the various rheumatologic disorders that
      have neurologic complications and manifestations. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent
      advances have improved the understanding of the true epidemiology of many
      rheumatologic diseases and their complications. Many years of observation have
      clarified findings even in rarer disorders. Classification and diagnostic
      criteria have been updated and validated. As newer pharmacologic agents have
      become available, new information regarding efficacy and toxicity has emerged.
      SUMMARY: Rheumatologic disorders are common, as can be their neurologic
      complications. In many instances, these complications are treatable, but
      clinicians' understanding of the underlying disorder, its neurologic risks, and
      the risk of therapy is required.

PMID- 28570326
TI  - Renal Disease and Neurology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Neurologic dysfunction is prevalent in patients with acute and
      chronic renal disease and may affect the central nervous system, peripheral
      nervous system, or both. Neurologic manifestations may result directly from the
      uremic state or as a consequence of renal replacement therapy. Early recognition
      of neurologic dysfunction may provide opportunities for intervention and reduced
      morbidity. RECENT FINDINGS: Advances in the understanding of neurologic
      complications of renal disease and its treatments have led to more widespread
      recognition and earlier identification of encephalopathy syndromes such as
      cefepime neurotoxicity and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES),
      dramatic reductions in the incidence of dialysis disequilibrium syndrome and
      dialysis dementia, and improved survival in disorders such as von Hippel-Lindau
      disease and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. SUMMARY: This article summarizes
      the conditions that affect both the renal and the nervous systems, the effects of
      renal failure on the nervous system, and the neurologic complications of
      dialysis.

PMID- 28570327
TI  - Gastroenterology and Neurology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Just as gastrointestinal dysfunction may develop in the
      setting of neurologic disease, neurologic dysfunction may become evident in the
      setting of gastrointestinal disease. This article describes the range of
      neurologic features that have been described in three primary gastrointestinal
      diseases: celiac disease and gluten-related disorders, inflammatory bowel
      disease, and Whipple disease. Particular emphasis is placed on the controversial
      and evolving clinical picture of neurologic dysfunction in disorders of gluten
      sensitivity. RECENT FINDINGS: Gluten-related disorders, including both the
      traditional autoimmune-based celiac disease and the more recently recognized
      nonautoimmune, nonallergic gluten sensitivity, have been the source of much
      attention in both medical and lay publications. The possible association between
      Crohn disease and neurologic disorders also is receiving attention. The
      recognition that, although Whipple disease is an exceedingly rare disorder, a
      surprising percentage of the population may be asymptomatic stool carriers of the
      causative organism makes it important to always be cognizant of the disorder.
      SUMMARY: The range of neurologic dysfunction in gastrointestinal diseases is
      broad and spans the spectrum from peripheral to central processes. Peripheral
      neuropathy, myopathy, myelopathy, cerebrovascular events, epilepsy,
      encephalopathy, and cerebellar dysfunction have all been described. Neurologists
      should be aware of the possibility that an underlying gastrointestinal disease
      process may be present in and responsible for the neurologic dysfunction that has
      prompted referral of an individual for evaluation.

PMID- 28570328
TI  - Liver Disease and Neurology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Neurologists often encounter patients with acute and chronic
      liver disease and must be aware of how these diseases can affect the nervous
      system. This is particularly true when evaluating patients with alterations in
      cognition and level of consciousness. Wilson disease, while uncommon, is a
      treatable condition with many neurologic and psychiatric symptoms. Neurologic
      disorders associated with liver disease may affect not only the brain, but also
      the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system. This article reviews the
      association of liver disease and the nervous system and provides new information
      regarding diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to evaluating patients with liver
      diseases. RECENT FINDINGS: Early recognition of hepatic encephalopathy may be
      possible using a combination of clinical suspicion and various neuropsychological
      studies. Management of severe hepatic encephalopathy from acute liver failure is
      important to neurologists involved in neurocritical care. Next-generation genetic
      testing may aid in the diagnosis of patients suspected of having Wilson disease.
      The relationship of numerous neurologic findings from hepatocerebral degeneration
      and from viral hepatitis is more widely recognized. SUMMARY: It is important for
      neurologists to recognize the neurologic symptoms that may occur in patients with
      acute and chronic liver failure, Wilson disease, and viral hepatitis to inform
      prompt diagnostic and management decisions.

PMID- 28570330
TI  - Neurologic Complications of Transplantation.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article describes the diagnosis and management of
      neurologic problems during hematopoietic cell and solid organ transplantation
      using time elapsed since transplantation as a guide to expected complications,
      including drug toxicities, infections, strokes, autoimmune phenomena, disease
      recurrence, and secondary neoplasms. RECENT FINDINGS: Growing clinical experience
      in the neurology of transplantation has led to appreciation of the diverse
      clinical and radiographic spectrum of calcineurin inhibitor-related posterior
      reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) and progressive multifocal
      leukoencephalopathy. Novel autoimmune phenomena illustrate the delicate balance
      between adequate immunosuppression and necessary host inflammatory defenses that
      can lead to organ rejection. The spectrum of infectious complications has changed
      with the evolution of new conditioning regimens. SUMMARY: Neurologic problems
      remain an important source of morbidity and mortality, both in the immediate
      transplantation period and for years after the procedure. As perioperative
      management has reduced the incidence of acute infections, graft versus host
      disease, and organ rejection, problems of long-term survivors require neurologic
      input into multidisciplinary management of chronic neurologic conditions
      impacting quality of life.

PMID- 28570331
TI  - Nutrients and Neurology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article provides an update on the clinical presentation
      and management of neurologic disease related to key nutrient deficiencies. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Major advances have been made in understanding the pathway related to
      vitamin B12 absorption and distribution. It is now known that deficiencies of
      vitamin B12 and copper have similar neurologic manifestations. Bariatric surgery
      is a risk factor for both. Alcoholism is just one of the many causes of thiamine
      deficiency. Early neurologic complications following bariatric surgery are often
      due to thiamine deficiency. Encephalopathy in the setting of alcoholism that
      persists despite thiamine replacement should prompt consideration of niacin
      deficiency. Pyridoxine deficiency and toxicity both have neurologic sequelae.
      Vitamin D deficiency and the risk for multiple sclerosis has been an area of
      ongoing research. SUMMARY: Optimal functioning of the nervous system is dependent
      on a constant supply of certain vitamins and nutrients. This article discusses
      neurologic manifestations related to deficiency of these key nutrients.

PMID- 28570329
TI  - Endocrine Emergencies With Neurologic Manifestations.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article provides an overview of endocrine emergencies
      with potentially devastating neurologic manifestations that may be fatal if left
      untreated. Pituitary apoplexy, adrenal crisis, myxedema coma, thyroid storm,
      acute hypercalcemia and hypocalcemia, hyperglycemic emergencies (diabetic
      ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state), and acute hypoglycemia are
      discussed, with an emphasis on identifying the signs and symptoms as well as
      diagnosing and managing these clinical entities. RECENT FINDINGS: To identify the
      optimal management of endocrine emergencies, using formal clinical diagnostic
      criteria and grading scales such as those recently proposed for pituitary
      apoplexy will be beneficial in future prospective studies. A 2015 prospective
      study in patients with adrenal insufficiency found a significant number of
      adrenal crisis-related deaths despite all study patients receiving standard care
      and being educated on crisis prevention strategies, highlighting that current
      prevention strategies and medical management remain suboptimal. SUMMARY: Early
      diagnosis and prompt treatment of endocrine emergencies are essential but remain
      challenging because of a lack of objective diagnostic tools. The optimal
      management is also unclear as prospective and randomized studies are lacking.
      Additional research is needed for these clinical syndromes that can be fatal
      despite intensive medical intervention.

PMID- 28570332
TI  - Environmental Neurologic Injuries.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article discusses neurologic complications resulting from
      environmental injuries and the treatment modalities for these conditions. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Recent advances include improved management of altitude sickness.
      Relatively uncommon conditions, such as keraunoparalysis (lightning-induced
      paralysis) and high-pressure neurologic syndrome, are areas of ongoing study.
      SUMMARY: Environmental injuries may be associated with serious neurologic
      sequelae. This article reviews thermal and electrical injuries as well as
      injuries related to aviation, altitude, and diving. Recognition of signs and
      symptoms of such complex injuries and exposures will permit accurate diagnoses
      and improved outcomes.

PMID- 28570333
TI  - Response to Medical Errors.
AB  - Despite improvements in patient safety science over the past 15 years since the
      Institute of Medicine's publication of To Err Is Human, medical errors remain a
      major contributor to adverse patient outcomes and mortality. In the aftermath of
      a harmful medical error, providers often face dilemmas regarding how to best
      report and disclose errors.

PMID- 28570334
TI  - Safety Considerations During Transitions of Care From Inpatient to Outpatient
      Settings.
AB  - Hospital admissions are times of intense change. New medications are started,
      treatment regimens are modified, and care plans that will continue in the
      outpatient setting are initiated. After discharge, most patients receive care
      from different providers than those seen in the hospital. This situation will
      increase as inpatient-based practice patterns, such as neurohospitalist
      practices, become more prevalent. Communication failures during the transition
      from hospital to clinic increase the risk of adverse events. Providers must
      realize that successful transition can impact the patient's health as
      significantly as treatment of the admitting diagnosis. The transition should be
      carefully planned and standardized. This article discusses common pitfalls
      encountered during the transition period and highlights methods to improve
      patient care and safety.

PMID- 28570339
TI  - Patient Management Problem.

PMID- 28570335
TI  - Coding for Medication-related Poisoning and Adverse Effects.
AB  - Accurate coding is important for proper reimbursement and documentation of care
      provided. This article provides an overview of coding considerations for patient
      encounters associated with medication use, abuse, or poisoning.

PMID- 28570340
TI  - Patient Management Problem-Preferred Responses.

PMID- 28570342
TI  - The Perceval Sutureless Aortic Valve: Review of Outcomes, Complications, and
      Future Direction.
AB  - Surgical aortic valve replacement with a stented prosthesis has been the standard
      of care procedure for aortic stenosis. The Perceval (LivaNova, London, United
      Kingdom) is a sutureless aortic valve bioprosthesis currently implanted in more
      than 20,000 patients. The purpose of this article was to review the literature
      available after 9 years of clinical experience of the Perceval aortic valve.
      PubMED, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched. A meta-analysis
      of summary statistics from individual studies was conducted. A total of 333
      studies were identified and 84 studies were included. Thirty-day mortality and 5
      year survival ranged from 0% to 4.9% and 71.3% to 85.5%, respectively. Compared
      with stented prosthesis, pooled analysis demonstrated a statistically significant
      reduction in aortic cross-clamp and cardiopulmonary bypass times (minutes) with
      Perceval (38.6 vs 63.3 and 61.4 vs 84.9, P < 0.00001, respectively). Compared
      with transcatheter aortic valve implantation, pooled analysis demonstrated a
      statistically significant reduction with Perceval in paravalvular leakage (1.26%
      vs 14.31%) and early mortality (2.3% vs 6.9%). Favorable hemodynamics, acceptable
      valve durability, and ease of implantation in minimally invasive cases were
      reported as benefits. A trend toward increased rates of permanent pacemaker
      implantation and low postoperative platelet count were identified. Special use
      and off-label procedures described included bicuspid aortic valves, valve-in
      valve for homograft and stentless prosthesis failure, concomitant valvular
      procedures, porcelain aorta, and endocarditis. The Perceval valve has shown safe
      clinical and hemodynamic outcomes. Outcomes support its continued usage and
      potential expansion.

PMID- 28570343
TI  - Controlled attenuation parameter for diagnosing steatosis in bariatric surgery
      candidates with suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Steatosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
      is often benign, but may progress to fibrosis. The accurate diagnosis of hepatic
      steatosis is therefore important for clinical decision-making and prognostic
      assessments. The controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), a noninvasive
      measurement obtained with Fibro-Scan, has been developed for liver steatosis
      assessment. CAP performs poorly in patients with high BMI. The XL probe was
      initially developed for measuring liver stiffness in overweight patients. We
      assessed the diagnostic value of CAP in candidates for bariatric surgery with
      suspected NAFLD examined with the XL probe. PATIENTS AND METHODS: For the
      retrospective group, raw ultrasonic radiofrequency signals were stored
      prospectively in the Fibro-Scan examination file for offline CAP calculation in
      194 consecutive obese patients undergoing liver stiffness measurement in the 15
      days before liver biopsy. For the prospective group, CAP was calculated
      automatically and prospectively from the XL probe in 123 obese patients. RESULTS:
      In the retrospective group, the diagnostic accuracy of CAP was satisfactory for
      differentiating S3 from S0-S1-S2 (0.79+/-0.03; 95% confidence interval: 0.71
      0.84) and S3 from S0 (0.85+/-0.05; 95% confidence interval: 0.73-0.92). The
      Obuchowski measure demonstrated a very good discriminatory performance: 0.87+/
      0.02 in the retrospective group and 0.91+/-0.02 in the prospective group.
      CONCLUSION: CAP calculations from XL probe measurements efficiently detected
      severe steatosis in morbidly obese patients with suspected NAFLD. However, the
      cutoff values should now be confirmed in a larger prospective cohort.

PMID- 28570344
TI  - Pharmacotherapy of mast cell disorders.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mast cell disorders (MCDs) comprise mastocytosis and disorders
      referred to as mast cell activation syndrome and are caused by abnormal
      accumulation and/or activation of mast cells in tissues. Clinical signs and
      symptoms are protean; therefore, finding suitable treatment options for
      individual patients entails a challenge for clinicians. The purpose of this
      manuscript is to review the literature on the available therapeutic interventions
      in patients with MCD. RECENT FINDINGS: Pharmacotherapy is mainly directed against
      the effects of mast cells and their mediators. The current recommendations are
      exclusively based on expert opinions due to the lack of controlled clinical
      trials. The targeted therapies aiming at blocking mutant KIT variants and/or
      downstream signaling pathways are currently being developed and may be considered
      in severely affected, therapy-refractory patients. SUMMARY: There is currently no
      method for predicting the best available approach to control symptoms in
      individual patients with MCD. Therefore, a stepwise, individual-based approach in
      pharmacotherapy options appears to be most successful strategy and is recommended
      in all patients. The core component of the treatment in most patients is to
      control symptoms caused by mast cell mediator release, whereas cytoreductive
      therapies are mainly reserved for patients with advanced/aggressive systemic
      mastocytosis.

PMID- 28570345
TI  - Reduction of pediatric pedestrian hazardous road conditions in a school drop-off
      zone using video review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2012, 76,000 pedestrians were struck by motor vehicles. This
      resulted in 20% of all pediatric mortalities between the ages of 5 and 15. We
      hypothesize that children are exposed to increased risk as pedestrians to motor
      vehicle injury when arriving to school and that identification of these hazards
      would improve targeting of injury prevention efforts. METHODS: Within a county
      containing 355 public schools, we identified a primary school with 588 students
      located in an urban setting with concerns for a high-risk traffic environment.
      Field surveys observed traffic patterns and established an optimal surveillance
      period 30 minutes before school. Three observation periods, from two discreet and
      blinded locations, were conducted from January to March 2016. Videos were
      evaluated by two independent reviewers to identify and score quantifiable
      hazards. Three controlled observations were conducted on non-school days,
      followed by three post-intervention observations from October to December 2016.
      Comparison was made using Student's t test. Data was analyzed using SAS version
      9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). RESULTS: We identified nine safety hazards
      including double parking (29.3 +/- 5.5), dropping off in a bus stop (23.3 +/-
      7.6), and jaywalking (9.3 +/- 3.1). Combining all hazards seen in each
      observation resulted in an overall hazard average of 83.0 +/- 3.6 events/period.
      Comparing control periods to school observation identified significantly
      increased hazard events on school days (p < 0.0001). Targeted safety intervention
      demonstrated a 26% reduction in hazard events (p < 0.0005). CONCLUSION: We
      identified the most common hazards associated with children arriving at a primary
      school in an urban setting, used our analysis to develop an intervention, and
      demonstrated the impact of our intervention. Our novel use of video review to
      identify hazards provides a metric against which the impact of pedestrian road
      safety interventions might be measured. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Epidemiological, level
      II; Therapeutic, level IV.

PMID- 28570346
TI  - Child welfare professionals' determination of when children's access or potential
      access to loaded firearms constitutes child neglect.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric deaths and injuries from access to firearms are a
      significant public health problem. No studies have examined how experts determine
      child neglect regarding firearm access in the home. Our study objectives were to
      identify factors that influenced pediatric experts' finding of firearm-related
      child neglect and to assess their attitudes toward child access prevention (CAP)
      laws. METHODS: A survey was distributed to the American Academy of Pediatrics
      Section on Child Abuse and Neglect members. Demographics, attitudes regarding CAP
      laws, and ages (up to 14 years old) at which experts deemed several scenarios as
      child neglect were determined. Scenarios tested potential versus actual loaded
      firearm access, presence or absence of a CAP law, and injury versus no injury
      when the firearm was accessed. RESULTS: One hundred ninety-three surveys were
      completed. Experts agreed (>95%) that CAP laws were important, even for children
      up to age 15 years. Although a high percentage considered potential access to a
      loaded firearm as child neglect, a CAP law significantly increased the percentage
      for each age. In addition, higher percentages of respondents from states with CAP
      laws than those without deemed potential access as child neglect for 12- and 14
      year-olds. In contrast, if the child had accessed a loaded firearm, there were no
      significant differences in the high percentages that deemed the scenario as child
      neglect under any conditions, including with and without a CAP law. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although almost all child neglect experts considered potential and actual access
      to loaded firearms as child neglect, CAP laws increased the percentage for cases
      of potential access. Universal CAP laws may help ensure that determinations of
      child neglect are more consistent across states. The deterrent effect of
      potential child neglect findings may increase the number of parents securing
      firearms in ways that prevent child access and reduce firearm-related deaths and
      injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Epidemiologic study, level III.

PMID- 28570347
TI  - Natural history of splenic vascular abnormalities after blunt injury: A Western
      Trauma Association multicenter trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Following blunt splenic injury, there is conflicting evidence
      regarding the natural history and appropriate management of patients with
      vascular injuries of the spleen such as pseudoaneurysms or blushes. The purpose
      of this study was to describe the current management and outcomes of patients
      with pseudoaneurysm or blush. METHODS: Data were collected on adult (aged >=18
      years) patients with blunt splenic injury and a splenic vascular injury from 17
      trauma centers. Demographic, physiologic, radiographic, and injury
      characteristics were gathered. Management and outcomes were collected. Univariate
      and multivariable analyses were used to determine factors associated with
      splenectomy. RESULTS: Two hundred patients with a vascular abnormality on
      computed tomography scan were enrolled. Of those, 14.5% were managed with early
      splenectomy. Of the remaining patients, 59% underwent angiography and
      embolization (ANGIO), and 26.5% were observed. Of those who underwent ANGIO, 5.9%
      had a repeat ANGIO, and 6.8% had splenectomy. Of those observed, 9.4% had a
      delayed ANGIO, and 7.6% underwent splenectomy. There were no statistically
      significant differences between those observed and those who underwent ANGIO.
      There were 111 computed tomography scans with splenic vascular injuries available
      for review by an expert trauma radiologist. The concordance between the original
      classification of the type of vascular abnormality and the expert radiologist's
      interpretation was 56.3%. Based on expert review, the presence of an actively
      bleeding vascular injury was associated with a 40.9% risk of splenectomy. This
      was significantly higher than those with a nonbleeding vascular injury.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this series, the vast majority of patients are managed with ANGIO
      and usually embolization, whereas splenectomy remains a rare event. However,
      patients with a bleeding vascular injury of the spleen are at high risk of
      nonoperative failure, no matter the strategy used for management. This group may
      warrant closer observation or an alternative management strategy. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Prognostic study, level III.

PMID- 28570349
TI  - Expert opinion: A spontaneous pneumoperitoneum following Klebsiella induced
      chronic granulomatous cholecystitis: Is the surgery warranted?

PMID- 28570348
TI  - Early infectious outcomes after addition of fluoroquinolone or aminoglycoside to
      posttrauma antibiotic prophylaxis in combat-related open fracture injuries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We examined combat-related open extremity fracture infections as a
      function of whether posttrauma antimicrobial prophylaxis included expanded Gram
      negative (EGN) coverage. METHODS: Military personnel with open extremity
      fractures sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan (2009-2014) who transferred to
      participating hospitals in the United States were assessed. The analysis was
      restricted to patients with a U.S. hospitalization period of >=7 days.
      Prophylaxis was classified as narrow (e.g., IV cefazolin, clindamycin, and/or
      amoxicillin-clavulanate) or EGN, if the prophylactic regimen included
      fluoroquinolones and/or aminoglycosides. RESULTS: The study population included
      1,044 patients, of which 585 (56%) and 459 (44%) received narrow and EGN
      coverage, respectively (p < 0.001). Skin and soft-tissue infections (SSTIs) were
      more common among patients who received narrow prophylaxis compared to EGN
      coverage (28% vs. 22%; p = 0.029), whereas osteomyelitis rates were comparable
      between regimens (8%). Similar findings were noted when endpoints were measured
      at 2 and 4 weeks postinjury. There was no significant difference related to
      length of hospitalization between narrow and EGN regimens (median: 34 and 32
      days, respectively) or operating room visits (median: 5 and 4). A higher
      proportion of EGN coverage patients had Gram-negative organisms isolated that
      were not susceptible to fluoroquinolones and/or aminoglycosides (49% vs. 40%; p <
      0.001). In a Cox proportional model, narrow prophylaxis was independently
      associated with an increased risk of extremity SSTIs (hazard ratio: 1.41; 95%
      confidence interval: 1.09-1.83). DISCUSSION: Despite seeing a small benefit with
      EGN coverage related to a reduction of SSTIs, it does not decrease the risk of
      osteomyelitis, and there seems to be a cost of increased antibiotic resistance
      associated with use. Overall, our findings support the current post-combat trauma
      antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines, which recommend the use of cefazolin or
      clindamycin with open fractures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic/Epidemiological,
      Level II; Therapy, level IV.

PMID- 28570350
TI  - Impact of Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) ventilator management on
      combat mortality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aeromedical evacuation platforms such as Critical Care Air Transport
      Teams (CCATTs) play a vital role in the transport and care of critically injured
      and ill patients in the combat theater. Mechanical ventilation is used to support
      patients with failing respiratory function and patients requiring high levels of
      sedation. Mechanical ventilation, if not managed appropriately, can worsen or
      cause lung injury and contribute to increased morbidity. The purpose of this
      study was to evaluate the impact of ARDSNet protocol compliance during
      aeromedical evacuation of ventilated combat injured patients. METHODS: We
      performed a retrospective chart review of combat injured patients transported by
      CCATTs from Afghanistan to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany
      between January 2007 and January 2012. After univariate analyses, we performed
      regression analyses to assess compliance and post-flight outcomes. Cox
      proportional hazard models were used to evaluate associations between the risk
      factor of non-compliance with increased number of ventilator, ICU, or hospital
      days. Nominal logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the
      association between non-compliance and mortality. RESULTS: Sixty-two percent (n =
      669) of 1,086 patients required mechanical ventilation during transport. A total
      of 650 patients required volume-controlled mechanical ventilation and were
      included in the analysis. Of the 650 subjects, 62% (n = 400) were non-compliant
      per tidal volume and ARDSNet table recommendations. The groups were similar in
      all demographic variables, except the Non-compliant group had a higher Injury
      Severity Score compared to the Compliant group. Subjects in the Compliant group
      were less likely to have an incidence of acute respiratory distress, acute
      respiratory failure, and ventilator-associated pneumonia when combing the
      variables (2% vs. 7%, p < 0.0069). The Non-compliant group had an increased
      incidence of in-flight respiratory events, required more days on the ventilator
      and in the ICU, and had a higher mortality rate. CONCLUSIONS: Compliance with the
      ARDSNet guidelines was associated with a decrease in ventilator days, ICU days,
      and 30-day mortality. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic/care management, level IV.

PMID- 28570351
TI  - Editor's Foreward: Proliferation versus prevention.

PMID- 28570352
TI  - From the Editor.

PMID- 28570353
TI  - Dramatic Changes in Health Care Professions in the Past 40 Years.
AB  - During the forty-year life of the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management,
      revolutionary transformations have occurred in the roles of existing health
      professions, as has the emergence of new categories of health professionals. This
      paper specifies the reasons for these dramatic changes, the new types of health
      care professions that have emerged, changes in existing professions, and
      suggestions of future directions. Many of these changes will be impacted by what
      occurs in Washington, DC in the debate over the Accountable Care Act.

PMID- 28570354
TI  - Commentry on "The Changing Medical Division of Labor".

PMID- 28570355
TI  - Transforming Health Care Systems: CHWs as the Glue in Multidisciplinary Teams.

PMID- 28570356
TI  - Commentary on "Evidence-Based Self-management Programs for Seniors and Other With
      Chronic Diseases": Patient Experience-Patient Health-Return on Investment.

PMID- 28570357
TI  - Commentary on "Changes in the Roles of Health Care Professionals in Primary Care
      in England's National Health Service".

PMID- 28570358
TI  - Commentary on "Community Health Workers and the Changing Workforce": No More
      Opportunities Lost.

PMID- 28570359
TI  - Changes in the Health Professions: A Commentary.
AB  - Increased life expectancy in the United States has been accompanied by a
      concomitant increase in the prevalence of chronic conditions in persons of all
      ages, especially older Americans. This necessitates new ways of organizing and
      conducting medical practice, and this affects the roles and interactions of
      health professionals. Physicians and other health professionals require
      appropriate training and more efficient workplaces to enhance their functioning
      and reduce burnout. Additional factors influencing the success of health
      professionals in further advancing the health and well-being of Americans are
      health information technology and ensuring that all have access to care.

PMID- 28570360
TI  - Atlanto-Axial Subluxation After Adenoidectomy.
AB  - Atlanto-axial subluxation is a rare but potentially serious complication after
      otolaryngological procedures. We are describing a case of a 4-year-old child who
      developed atlanto-axial subluxation of the cervical spine after adenoidectomy.
      Our patient underwent adenoidectomy and, 18 days later, presented to the
      emergency department with her neck tilted to the left in a cock-robin position
      and complaining of neck pain persisting since the surgery. A multiplanar 3
      dimensional computed tomography was obtained and confirmed the diagnosis of an
      atlanto-axial subluxation (Fielding type 3). She was managed conservatively with
      the application of a cervical collar, anti-inflammatory medication, and manual
      reduction under anesthesia later in the course because of persistence of her
      symptoms. It is important to consider this diagnosis in any child who undergoes
      ENT surgical procedures complaining of neck pain subsequent to surgery or holding
      the head in a fixed position persistently after surgery. Early diagnosis is
      important to reduce the time between the onset of symptoms and reduction to
      reduce the risk or need for surgical intervention.

PMID- 28570361
TI  - Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia.
AB  - Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia is a rare cause of exercise
      induced arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death in the pediatric patient. This
      arrhythmia is difficult to diagnose in the emergency department, given the range
      of presentations; thus, a familiarity with and high index of suspicion for this
      pathology are crucial. Furthermore, recognition of the characteristic
      electrocardiogram findings and knowledge of the management of the symptomatic
      patient are necessary, given the risk of arrhythmia recurrence and cardiac
      arrest. In this review, we discuss the presentation, differential diagnosis, and
      management of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia for the
      emergency care provider.

PMID- 28570363
TI  - Point-of-Care Ultrasound Identification of a Psoas Abscess in a Child Presenting
      With Hip Pain.
AB  - This case-report describes a 4-year-old girl brought to the emergency department
      for the evaluation of limp and elevated inflammatory markers. The patient's
      history and physical examination did not reveal a clear source of pathology.
      Point-of-care ultrasound identified a right-sided psoas abscess that was
      confirmed with computed tomography scan. This case demonstrates the potential
      utility of point-of-care ultrasound in the diagnosis and management of patients
      presenting to the emergency department with symptoms concerning for pathology in
      the hip or lower abdomen.

PMID- 28570364
TI  - Backyard Pool Party: Not Your Typical Sunburn.

PMID- 28570365
TI  - Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Legal Briefs.

PMID- 28570366
TI  - ECGs in the ED.

PMID- 28570367
TI  - Antiretroviral dose optimization: the future of efavirenz 400 mg dosing.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy costs in low-income and middle
      income countries are major concerns, and lower doses of first-line treatment
      components, when possible, would save millions of dollars, which could be used to
      treat more people living with HIV. RECENT FINDINGS: The Encore-1 study, followed
      by a detailed pharmacokinetic analysis of efavirenz 400 versus 600 mg once daily,
      produced enough information for the most recent ARV treatment WHO guidelines to
      include efavirenz 400 mg among agents used for first-line treatment. However,
      data on efavirenz 400 mg plasma concentrations during pregnancy and when
      coadministered with rifampicin-containing antituberculosis (TB) treatment are not
      yet available as formal pharmacokinetic studies under these circumstances are
      ongoing. SUMMARY: Although efavirenz at a daily dose of 400 mg once daily in
      combination with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine has shown
      noninferiority to the approved 600 mg once-daily dose, large global uptake has
      been delayed by the lack of data on drug exposure during pregnancy and anti-TB
      treatment. Knowledge on efavirenz 400 mg exposure in these scenarios will arise
      in mid-late 2017.

PMID- 28570368
TI  - Prioritizing the most needed formulations to accelerate paediatric antiretroviral
      therapy scale-up.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Initiatives are in place to reach super-fast targets by 2018
      for paediatric patients living with HIV. However, these efforts are unlikely to
      be successful until better paediatric antiretrovirals and treatment strategies
      are available. This commentary reviews the specific features, challenges, and
      recent developments in paediatric HIV treatment to determine optimal regimen
      sequencing and use of available drug options. It also outlines a medium and long
      term vision for treatment optimization as endorsed by the paediatric
      antiretroviral drug optimization group. RECENT FINDINGS: Optimizing
      antiretroviral therapy (ART) is critical in the context of limited treatment
      options for children. A first-line dolutegravir-based regimen is the long-term
      goal for paediatric first-line ART across all age groups. Protease inhibitor
      based regimens are expected to continue to play a critical role for second and
      third-line treatment. New efforts are urgently needed to optimize treatment for
      children, ensuring access to existing drugs and speeding up development of newer
      and better formulations moving forward. SUMMARY: Over the last few years there
      have been a number of key developments in paediatric ART which offer the
      opportunity to reconsider the way ART is optimized for children. Additional
      evidence is needed to ensure optimal options are available from infancy through
      adulthood.

PMID- 28570369
TI  - Drug interactions and the role of pharmacokinetic trials in guiding choices in
      first-line HIV therapy in low-income and middle-income countries.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face specific
      challenges in the treatment of people living with HIV. Drug-drug interactions
      (DDIs) involving antiretrovirals (ARVs) are prevalent in all settings and have
      considerable potential to cause clinical harm to patients via toxicity or reduced
      efficacy of treatment. Differing comorbidities, endemic infections and
      traditional medicines may complicate ARV therapy (ART) in LMICs, which usually
      takes a public health approach in these settings, with fewer alternative regimens
      available. This review discusses the issues surrounding pharmacokinetic DDI
      studies and their application to ART in LMICs, with particular reference to first
      line ART regimens. RECENT FINDINGS: Pharmacokinetic studies with clinical
      endpoints are the gold standard for informing management of DDIs; however, data
      relevant to LMICs are sparse and of low quality. There is significant potential
      for clinically relevant DDIs between ARVs and antimalarials, antimycobacterials
      and drugs used in the treatment of neglected tropical diseases. SUMMARY: Many
      pharmacokinetic studies are difficult to interpret in LMICs due to differences in
      patient factors including weight, disease state and genetic polymorphisms. DDI
      studies relevant to LMICs may also be lacking due to the neglected nature of
      relevant comorbidities. The ARVs currently available as first-line ART in LMICs
      are among those with highest propensity for DDIs.

PMID- 28570370
TI  - Immunoassays for Measuring Serum Concentrations of Monoclonal Antibodies and Anti
      biopharmaceutical Antibodies in Patients.
AB  - Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) may be used as biopharmaceuticals to treat various
      diseases, ranging from oncology to inflammatory and cardiovascular affections.
      Trustworthy analytical methods are necessary to study their pharmacokinetics,
      both during their development and in post-marketing studies. Because
      biopharmaceuticals are macromolecules, ligand-binding assays (both immunoassays
      and bioassays) are methods of choice to measure their concentrations.
      Immunoassays are based on the capture of biopharmaceuticals by their target,
      which may be a circulating or membrane antigen or by an antibody recognizing
      their structure. Bioassays measure the activity of the biopharmaceutical in a
      specific in vitro test. A number of techniques have been reported, but their
      limits of detection and quantification vary widely. Anti-drug antibodies (ADA)
      against biopharmaceuticals are often formed and sometimes interfere with clinical
      efficacy. Accurate and reliable detection of ADA is therefore necessary. Binding
      of ADA is dependent on affinity and avidity, which makes quantification
      challenging. In this review, we discuss the benefits and limitations of each
      method to determine mAb levels and carefully compare ADA assays.

PMID- 28570371
TI  - Prolongation of Biologic Dosing Intervals in Patients With Stable Psoriasis: A
      Feasibility Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biologics are usually licensed according to the "one dose fits all"
      principle. It is therefore suspected that a significant number of patients with
      psoriasis are overtreated. However, evidence for successful dose reduction of
      biologics in psoriasis is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate
      whether the dosing interval of 3 biologics, adalimumab, etanercept, or
      ustekinumab could be prolonged successfully in patients with plaque psoriasis.
      METHODS: In a prospective exploratory cohort study, 59 patients with psoriasis on
      maintenance treatment with adalimumab, etanercept, or ustekinumab were included.
      After a run-in period of 6 weeks, the dosing interval of the biologics was
      prolonged according to a predefined schedule. Our primary objective was to
      determine the proportion of patients who could maintain a successful prolongation
      of the per label dosing interval. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the
      predictive value of baseline serum trough concentrations for successful dosing
      interval prolongation and to explore the feasibility of dosing interval
      prolongations in off-label-treated patients. RESULTS: In the per label group, 7
      out of 16 (44%) adalimumab patients, 5 out of 16 (31%) etanercept patients, and 2
      out of 10 (20%) ustekinumab patients achieved a successful dosing interval
      prolongation. Baseline serum trough concentrations did not differ significantly
      between patients with successful dosing interval prolongation and failures. In
      the off-label group, prolongation in patients with already extended intervals was
      unsuccessful. For patients with shortened intervals, minor prolongation was
      successful in 3 out of 17 (17.6%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Prolongation of the per
      label biologic dosing interval was feasible in approximately 30% of patients with
      psoriasis with stable minimal disease activity and can reduce costs in clinical
      practice. Baseline serum trough concentrations were not predictive for successful
      dosing interval prolongation.

PMID- 28570372
TI  - Exploring APN Students' Perceptions, Self-Confidence, and Satisfaction With
      Clinical Simulation.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore advanced practice students' perceptions,
      self-confidence, and satisfaction with clinical simulation as a learning tool.
      The simulation was part of a health assessment course with 69 students, 25 of
      whom had no RN experience. On average, students were undecided but trended toward
      agreement that each key simulation feature was present in the simulation.
      Students without experience were significantly less likely to feel supported
      during the simulation and to endorse the appropriateness of the selected problem
      for the simulation. Upon multiple regression analysis, only fidelity was
      significantly associated with self-confidence (p = .003).

PMID- 28570373
TI  - Effects of white noise on event-related potentials in somatosensory Go/No-go
      paradigms.
AB  - Exposure to auditory white noise has been shown to facilitate human cognitive
      function. This phenomenon is termed stochastic resonance, and a moderate amount
      of auditory noise has been suggested to benefit individuals in hypodopaminergic
      states. The present study investigated the effects of white noise on the N140 and
      P300 components of event-related potentials in somatosensory Go/No-go paradigms.
      A Go or No-go stimulus was presented to the second or fifth digit of the left
      hand, respectively, at the same probability. Participants performed somatosensory
      Go/No-go paradigms while hearing three different white noise levels (45, 55, and
      65 dB conditions). The peak amplitudes of Go-P300 and No-go-P300 in ERP waveforms
      were significantly larger under 55 dB than 45 and 65 dB conditions. White noise
      did not affect the peak latency of N140 or P300, or the peak amplitude of N140.
      Behavioral data for the reaction time, SD of reaction time, and error rates
      showed the absence of an effect by white noise. This is the first event-related
      potential study to show that exposure to auditory white noise at 55 dB enhanced
      the amplitude of P300 during Go/No-go paradigms, reflecting changes in the neural
      activation of response execution and inhibition processing.

PMID- 28570374
TI  - What Can Be and What Cannot Be Accomplished With PET: Rectifying Ongoing
      Misconceptions.

PMID- 28570375
TI  - DCCN Welcomes Kelly A. Powers, PhD, RN, CNE, to 2017 Editorial Board.

PMID- 28570376
TI  - Research Use of Nurses Working in the Critical Care Units: Barriers and
      Facilitators.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a distinct gap between theory and practice with respect to
      research use in clinical practice, particularly in critical care units, that
      could be related to the presence of a number of barriers that hinder the use of
      research findings. AIMS: The aims of the study were to identify barriers and
      facilitators to research use as perceived by Jordanian nurses in critical care
      units and to examine the predictors of research use among those nurses. METHODS:
      The study used a cross-sectional, correlational design. The self-administered
      "Barriers Scale" was introduced to 200 registered critical care nurses, using the
      drop-and-collect technique, between October and November 2015. RESULTS: The
      results revealed that "nurse does not have time to read research at work" was the
      top ranked barrier that hinders research use (mean [SD], 3.45 [0.79]). The first
      7 ranked barriers were related to the organizational subscale. Managerial support
      was the top perceived facilitator for research use. Only "attending special
      training courses in nursing research" was the significant predictor of research
      use and explained 59.1% of the variance in research use, t(190) = -3.93, P =
      .003. The most identified barriers toward research use revealed by the
      qualitative data include dominant routine nursing tasks, existence of gap between
      theory and practice, shortage of nursing staff, and public negative image about
      nursing profession. Participants suggested the importance of increasing
      organizational support and creating an organizational research culture to further
      promote research use in clinical nursing practice. CONCLUSIONS: Research use has
      not been widely implemented yet in Jordan because of various barriers. The
      organization-related barriers were the most influential. Factors hindering
      research use are multidimensional, and optimizing them should be a shared
      responsibility of nurse managers, researchers, clinicians, and academicians.
      Further initiatives are required to raise awareness of the importance of using
      evidence-based practice.

PMID- 28570377
TI  - Part I: The Effects of Music for the Symptom Management of Anxiety, Pain, and
      Insomnia in Critically Ill Patients: An Integrative Review of Current Literature.
AB  - Critical care environments are known for provoking anxiety, pain, and
      sleeplessness. Often, these symptoms are attributed to patients' underlying
      physiological conditions; life-sustaining or life-prolonging treatments such as
      ventilators, invasive procedures, tubes, and monitoring lines; and noise and the
      fast-paced technological nature of the critical care environment. This, in turn,
      possibly increases length of stay and morbidity and challenges the recovery and
      healing of critically ill patients. Complementary therapies can be used as
      adjunctive therapies alongside pharmacological interventions and modalities. One
      complementary therapy with promise in critical care for improving symptoms of
      anxiety, pain, and sleeplessness is music. A review of current literature from
      Ovid MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and
      PubMed was conducted to examine the evidence for the use of this complementary
      therapy in critical care settings. This review presents the evidence on
      effectiveness of music for the symptom management of anxiety, pain, and insomnia
      in critically ill adult patients. The evidence from this review supports music in
      symptom management of pain, insomnia, and anxiety in critically ill patients.
      This review provides practice recommendations, generates dialog, and promotes
      future research. This review is part I of a 2-part series that focuses on
      evidence for use of music, aromatherapy and guided imagery for improving anxiety,
      pain, and sleeplessness of patients in critically ill patients.

PMID- 28570379
TI  - Promoting Evidence-Based Practice at a Primary Stroke Center: A Nurse Education
      Strategy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Promoting a culture of evidence-based practice within a health care
      facility is a priority for health care leaders and nursing professionals;
      however, tangible methods to promote translation of evidence to bedside practice
      are lacking. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to
      design and implement a nursing education intervention demonstrating to the
      bedside nurse how current evidence-based guidelines are used when creating
      standardized stroke order sets at a primary stroke center, thereby increasing
      confidence in the use of standardized order sets at the point of care and
      supporting evidence-based culture within the health care facility. METHODS: This
      educational intervention took place at a 286-bed community hospital certified by
      the Joint Commission as a primary stroke center. Bedside registered nurse (RN)
      staff from 4 units received a poster presentation linking the American Heart
      Association's and American Stroke Association's current evidence-based clinical
      practice guidelines to standardized stroke order sets and bedside nursing care.
      The 90-second oral poster presentation was delivered by a graduate nursing
      student during preshift huddle. The poster and supplemental materials remained in
      the unit break room for 1 week for RN viewing. After the pilot unit, a pdf of the
      poster was also delivered via an e-mail attachment to all RNs on the
      participating unit. A preintervention online survey measured nurses' self
      perceived likelihood of performing an ordered intervention based on whether they
      were confident the order was evidence based. The preintervention survey also
      measured nurses' self-reported confidence in their ability to explain how the
      standardized order sets are derived from current evidence. The postintervention
      online survey again measured nurses' self-reported confidence level. However, the
      postintervention survey was modified midway through data collection, allowing for
      the final 20 survey respondents to retrospectively rate their confidence before
      and after the educational intervention. This modification ensured that the
      responses for each individual participant in this group were matched. RESULTS:
      Registered nurses reported a significant increase in perceived confidence in
      ability to explain how standardized stroke order sets reflect current evidence
      after the intervention (n = 20, P < .001). This sample was matched for each
      individual respondent. No significant change was shown in unmatched group mean
      self-reported confidence ratings overall after the intervention or separately by
      unit for the progressive care unit, critical care unit, or intensive care unit (n
      = 89 preintervention, n = 43 postintervention). However, the emergency department
      demonstrated a significant increase in group mean perceived confidence scores (n
      = 20 preintervention, n = 11 postintervention, P = .020). Registered nurses
      reported a significantly higher self-perceived likelihood of performing an
      ordered nursing intervention when they were confident that the order was evidence
      based compared with if they were unsure the order was evidence based (n = 88, P <
      .001). DISCUSSION: This nurse education strategy increased RNs' confidence in
      ability to explain the path from evidence to bedside nursing care by
      demonstrating how evidence-based clinical practice guidelines provide current
      evidence used to create standardized order sets. Although further evaluation of
      the intervention's effectiveness is needed, this educational intervention has the
      potential for generalization to different types of standardized order sets to
      increase nurse confidence in utilization of evidence-based practice.

PMID- 28570380
TI  - Rigor or Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research: Perspectives,
      Strategies, Reconceptualization, and Recommendations.
AB  - Issues are still raised even now in the 21st century by the persistent concern
      with achieving rigor in qualitative research. There is also a continuing debate
      about the analogous terms reliability and validity in naturalistic inquiries as
      opposed to quantitative investigations. This article presents the concept of
      rigor in qualitative research using a phenomenological study as an exemplar to
      further illustrate the process. Elaborating on epistemological and theoretical
      conceptualizations by Lincoln and Guba, strategies congruent with qualitative
      perspective for ensuring validity to establish the credibility of the study are
      described. A synthesis of the historical development of validity criteria evident
      in the literature during the years is explored. Recommendations are made for use
      of the term rigor instead of trustworthiness and the reconceptualization and
      renewed use of the concept of reliability and validity in qualitative research,
      that strategies for ensuring rigor must be built into the qualitative research
      process rather than evaluated only after the inquiry, and that qualitative
      researchers and students alike must be proactive and take responsibility in
      ensuring the rigor of a research study. The insights garnered here will move
      novice researchers and doctoral students to a better conceptual grasp of the
      complexity of reliability and validity and its ramifications for qualitative
      inquiry.

PMID- 28570382
TI  - Critical Care Nurses' Suggestions to Improve End-of-Life Care Obstacles: Minimal
      Change Over 17 Years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Critical-care nurses (CCNs) provide end-of-life (EOL) care on a daily
      basis as 1 in 5 patients dies while in intensive care units. Critical-care nurses
      overcome many obstacles to perform quality EOL care for dying patients.
      OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to collect CCNs' current suggestions
      for improving EOL care and determine if EOL care obstacles have changed by
      comparing results to data gathered in 1998. METHODS: A 72-item questionnaire
      regarding EOL care perceptions was mailed to a national, geographically
      dispersed, random sample of 2000 members of the American Association of Critical
      Care Nurses. One of 3 qualitative questions asked CCNs for suggestions to improve
      EOL care. Comparative obstacle size (quantitative) data were previously
      published. RESULTS: Of the 509 returned questionnaires, 322 (63.3%) had 385
      written suggestions for improving EOL care. Major themes identified were ensuring
      characteristics of a good death, improving physician communication with patients
      and families, adjusting nurse-to-patient ratios to 1:1, recognizing and avoiding
      futile care, increasing EOL education, physicians who are present and "on the
      same page," not allowing families to override patients' wishes, and the need for
      more support staff. When compared with data gathered 17 years previously, major
      themes remained the same but in a few cases changed in order and possible
      causation. CONCLUSION: Critical-care nurses' suggestions were similar to those
      recommendations from 17 years ago. Although the order of importance changed
      minimally, the number of similar themes indicated that obstacles to providing EOL
      care to dying intensive care unit patients continue to exist over time.

PMID- 28570383
TI  - Validity of Cardiovascular Disease Event Ascertainment Using Linkage to UK
      Hospital Records.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of electronic health records for ascertainment of disease
      outcomes in large population-based studies holds much promise due to low costs,
      diminished study participant burden, and reduced selection bias. However, the
      validity of cardiovascular disease endpoints derived from electronic records is
      unclear. METHODS: Participants were 7860 study members of the UK Whitehall II
      cohort study. We compared cardiovascular disease ascertainment using linkage to
      the National Health Service's Hospital Episode Statistics database records
      (hereafter, "HES-ascertainment") against repeated biomedical examinations-our
      gold standard ascertainment method (Whitehall-ascertainment). Follow-up for both
      methods was from 1997 to 2013 for coronary heart disease and from 1997 to 2009
      for stroke. RESULTS: We identified 950 prevalent or incident nonfatal coronary
      heart disease cases and 118 prevalent or incident nonfatal stroke cases using
      Whitehall-ascertainment. The corresponding figures for HES-ascertainment were 926
      and 107. For coronary heart disease, the sensitivity of HES-ascertainment was
      70%, positive predictive value 72%, specificity 96%, and the negative predictive
      value 96%. The pattern of results for stroke was similar. These statistics did
      not differ in analyses stratified by age, sex, baseline risk factor status, or
      after exclusion of prevalent cases. Estimates of risk factor-disease associations
      were similar between the two ascertainment methods. Including fatal
      cardiovascular disease in the outcomes improved the agreement between the
      methods. CONCLUSION: Our analyses support the validity of cardiovascular disease
      ascertainment using linkage to the UK Hospital Episode Statistics database
      records by showing agreement with high resolution disease data collected in the
      Whitehall II cohort.

PMID- 28570384
TI  - Team Logo Predicts Concussion Risk: Lessons in Protecting a Vulnerable Sports
      Community from Misconceived, but Highly Publicized Epidemiologic Research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Observational research has linked altitude to concussion risk, but
      the physiologic and epidemiologic bases for this association remain questionable.
      METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study by analyzing four seasons of
      National Football League data from a widely used database (Concussion Watch) to
      determine if previous claims that altitude >=196 m reduced concussion risk were
      replicable and whether an arbitrary predictor variable (animal vs. non-animal
      team logo) was related to concussion risk. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence
      intervals (95% CIs) were computed. RESULTS: The previous association with
      altitude was reproduced for earlier seasons, but not replicable for recent
      seasons (RR = 0.92 [95% CI = 0.70, 1.22]). Across four combined seasons, "higher
      altitude" (RR = 0.78 [0.64, 0.96]) and animal logo (RR = 0.75 [0.63, 0.89]) were
      similarly associated with reduced concussion risk. CONCLUSIONS: Inconsistent
      epidemiologic effects, combined with weak physiologic rationale, suggest links
      between altitude and concussion are coincidental. Interdisciplinary critique of
      concussion research is necessary to ensure that marketing claims and clinical
      recommendations are scientifically justified.See video abstract at,
      http://links.lww.com/EDE/B234.

PMID- 28570385
TI  - Validation of Self-reported Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes at 6-weeks
      Postpartum.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-report is often used in identifying gestational diabetes events
      in epidemiologic studies; however, validity data are limited, with little to no
      data on self-reported severity or treatment. METHODS: We aimed to assess the
      validity of self-reported gestational diabetes diagnosis and evaluate the
      accuracy of glucose diagnosis results and gestational diabetes treatment self
      reported at 6-week postpartum. Data were from 82 and 83 women with and without
      gestational diabetes, respectively, within the prospective National Institute
      Child Health and Human Development Fetal Growth Studies-Singletons (2009-2013).
      Medical record data were considered the gold standard. RESULTS: Sensitivity was
      95% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 88, 98), and specificity was 100% (95% CI =
      96, 100); four women with gestational diabetes incorrectly reported not having
      the disease, and none of the women without gestational diabetes reported having
      gestational diabetes. Sensitivity did not vary substantially across maternal
      characteristics including race/ethnicity. For women who attempted to recall their
      values (84/159 women), self-reported glucose challenge test results did not
      differ from the medical records (median difference: 0; interquartile range: 0-0
      mg/dl). Medical records indicated that 42 (54%) of 78 women with confirmed
      gestational diabetes were treated by diet only and 33 (42%) were treated by
      medication. All 42 women with diet-treated gestational diabetes correctly
      reported having had diet and lifestyle modification, and 28 (85%) of 33 women
      with medication-treated gestational diabetes indicated postpartum that they had
      medication treatment. CONCLUSIONS: At 6-week postpartum, regardless of
      race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status, women accurately recalled whether they
      had gestational diabetes and, as applicable, their treatment method.

PMID- 28570386
TI  - Re: Seasonal Variation in Exposure to Endocrine-disrupting Chemicals.

PMID- 28570387
TI  - Douglas Wiebe, Winner of the 2017 Kenneth Rothman EPIDEMIOLOGY Prize.

PMID- 28570389
TI  - Interstitial granulomatous dermatitis during talimogen laherparepvec treatment.

PMID- 28570388
TI  - Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work and Incident Coronary Heart Disease: A
      Multicohort Study of 90,164 Individuals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic evidence for work stress as a risk factor for coronary
      heart disease is mostly based on a single measure of stressful work known as job
      strain, a combination of high demands and low job control. We examined whether a
      complementary stress measure that assesses an imbalance between efforts spent at
      work and rewards received predicted coronary heart disease. METHODS: This
      multicohort study (the "IPD-Work" consortium) was based on harmonized individual
      level data from 11 European prospective cohort studies. Stressful work in 90,164
      men and women without coronary heart disease at baseline was assessed by
      validated effort-reward imbalance and job strain questionnaires. We defined
      incident coronary heart disease as the first nonfatal myocardial infarction or
      coronary death. Study-specific estimates were pooled by random effects meta
      analysis. RESULTS: At baseline, 31.7% of study members reported effort-reward
      imbalance at work and 15.9% reported job strain. During a mean follow-up of 9.8
      years, 1,078 coronary events were recorded. After adjustment for potential
      confounders, a hazard ratio of 1.16 (95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.35) was
      observed for effort-reward imbalance compared with no imbalance. The hazard ratio
      was 1.16 (1.01-1.34) for having either effort-reward imbalance or job strain and
      1.41 (1.12-1.76) for having both these stressors compared to having neither
      effort-reward imbalance nor job strain. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with effort
      reward imbalance at work have an increased risk of coronary heart disease, and
      this appears to be independent of job strain experienced. These findings support
      expanding focus beyond just job strain in future research on work stress.

PMID- 28570390
TI  - Lymph Node Metastasis With Both Components of Combined Cutaneous Squamous Cell
      Carcinoma/Merkel Cell (Neuroendocrine) Carcinoma.

PMID- 28570391
TI  - Spiradenocarcinoma: A Comprehensive Data Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spiradenocarcinomas (SCs) are rare and potentially aggressive skin
      adnexal tumors. Optimal treatment has not yet been established. Experiences with
      this carcinoma are mostly presented in case reports and few case series.
      OBJECTIVE: To generate to a synopsis of published data on SC with regard to
      diagnostic procedures, treatment, and outcome. RESULTS: Median patient age was 60
      years and sex distribution was balanced. Tumor manifestations were evenly
      distributed within the sweat gland carrying skin. The most commonly reported
      symptom was accelerated growth of a longstanding indolent lesion, typically
      present for more than 2 years. Metastatic spread to the lung, bone, lymph nodes,
      liver, kidney, and breast has been documented. For staging computed tomography
      (CT) and positron emission tomography-CT are recommended, especially for
      detection of hematogenic metastases and lymph node involvement. Clear resection
      margins and tumor free regional lymph nodes reduce recurrence and carcinoma
      related death. Although low-grade SCs were reported over 3 times more often, high
      grade carcinomas show a greater likelihood for recurrence and lethal outcome.
      CONCLUSION: Suspicion of an SC should lead to performance of a magnetic resonance
      imaging for defining tumor extent, and a fludeoxyglucose positron emission
      tomography-CT for detection of metastases. Radical tumor excision and resection
      of tumor involved regional lymph nodes are essential for a curative approach.
      Histopathological evaluation should involve determination of tumor
      differentiation grade, because high-grade carcinomas seem to have a much more
      aggressive behavior. Excision of distant metastases has no therapeutic value.
      Follow-up needs to be carried out in short intervals with frequent imaging.

PMID- 28570392
TI  - Primary Cutaneous Small Cell Variant of Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma: A Case
      Series and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), similar to systemic
      ALCL, has as its histomorphologic hallmarks cohesive sheets of large lymphoid
      cells expressing CD30. Several morphologic variants of systemic ALCL have been
      reported, including the common (classic) type, lymphohistiocytic, and small cell
      variants. The small cell variant of ALCL is characterized by a predominant
      cytomorphology which is unexpected for ALCL, being in the context of a small- to
      medium-sized hyperchromatic atypical lymphocyte. Although well recognized in its
      systemic form including cases with secondary cutaneous involvement, it is less
      well characterized as a form of primary cutaneous ALCL. In this study, we
      collected 8 cases of primary cutaneous small cell variant of ALCL and examined
      their clinical, histologic, and phenotypic features. All patients were middle
      aged to older adult men; the youngest patient was a 46-year-old man with
      underlying hepatitis C. In one case, there was a history of lymphomatoid
      papulosis. In all patients, the disease was in the context of a local regional
      presentation. Patients were treated with complete excision and/or radiation
      except in one in whom chemotherapy was administered. In all but one patient, the
      cutaneous presentation was a regionally confined process; however, in 2 cases,
      recurrent disease occurred, and in 25% of cases, extracutaneous dissemination
      specifically to regional lymph nodes was observed. Although there was nodal
      involvement, there was no dissemination to bone marrow or peripheral blood; no
      patient has died because of disseminated lymphoma. In all cases, there was a
      predominance of small atypical hyperchromatic cells with a variable background of
      larger hallmark cells typical of ALCL. Epidermotropism was seen in half of the
      cases, and in one case, there was striking pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia. The
      smaller cells demonstrated CD30 positivity, and the neoplastic cells showed a CD4
      positive phenotype with a variable expression of cytotoxic proteins in about half
      of the cases, whereas in the remaining cases, a double negative phenotype was
      observed. Epithelial membrane antigen expression was observed in the cases
      tested. In our literature review, similar demographics were observed with a
      comparable percent of cases with extracutaneous dissemination; one case
      manifested an aggressive clinical course eventuating in death. In summation, the
      small cell variant of primary cutaneous ALCL exhibits distinctive features
      clinically and histologically. While exhibiting an overall higher incidence of
      extracutaneous dissemination, the prognosis fairs better compared with other
      forms of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma associated with extracutaneous dissemination,
      an event that defines a harbinger of aggressive disease.

PMID- 28570394
TI  - Longitudinal changes of associations between the preproghrelin Leu72Met
      polymorphism with depression in Chinese Han adolescents after the Wenchuan
      earthquake.
AB  - AIM: The present study aimed to investigate longitudinal associations of
      preproghrelin Leu72Met with depression in Chinese Han adolescents after the
      Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 709 volunteers
      were enrolled from a high school near the epicenter of the earthquake and 662,
      643, and 510 students were finally included at 6, 12, and 18 months,
      respectively, after the earthquake. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the
      Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The genotypes were identified by PCR-restriction
      fragment length polymorphism analyses and verified by DNA sequencing. RESULTS:
      Females had a higher prevalence of depression than males at 6 months after the
      earthquake in 72Leu/Leu homozygotes (chi-test, P=0.007), but not in 72Met allele
      carriers. 72Met allele carriers had lower prevalence (chi-test, P=0.025) and BDI
      scores (Kruskal-Wallis test, P=0.034) than 72Leu/Leu homozygotes only among males
      at 18 months, but not at 6 or 12 months. The prevalence was consecutively
      decreased in male 72Met allele carriers (chi-test, P=0.010), but not in male
      72Leu/Leu homozygotes, female 72Met allele carriers, or female 72Leu/Leu
      homozygotes during follow-up. Potential factors of depression prevalence and
      predictors of BDI scores were different between 72Leu/Leu homozygotes and 72Met
      allele carriers at different time points during follow-up. CONCLUSION: These
      results suggest that the 72Met allele of the preproghrelin Leu72Met polymorphism
      may be associated with rehabilitation of depression in male Chinese Han
      adolescents after the natural disaster.

PMID- 28570396
TI  - How to Achieve Facial Balance by Mandibular Contouring Ostectomy in
      Hemimandibular Hyperplasia.
AB  - Hemimandibular hyperplasia is a rare type of condylar hyperplasia which leads to
      facial asymmetry. Its surgical correction may be challenging since it usually
      requires complex mandibular osteotomies. Mandibular inferior border ostectomy is
      poorly described in the literature. The aim of this report is to present a new
      surgical technique guided by a customized surgical splint manufactured using
      computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing technology. Very good
      aesthetic results are achieved as it is very precise.

PMID- 28570397
TI  - Coexistence of Lymphoepithelial Carcinoma of the Parotid Gland and Submandibular
      Gland Pleomorphic Adenoma.
AB  - Lymphoepithelial carcinoma is a variant of undifferentiated carcinoma with
      characteristic dense lymphoid stroma in which nasopharynx is site of
      predilection. Racial and geographic association and Epstein-Barr virus positivity
      in endemic areas are other characteristics of this rare neoplasm.
      Lymphoepithelial carcinoma accounts for only 0.4% of malignant salivary gland
      tumors. The authors present a patient with Epstein-Barr virus positive
      lymphoepithelial carcinoma of the parotid gland in a nonendemic region. Besides
      this, synchronous pleomorphic adenoma in the contralateral submandibular gland
      caused a challenge in making initial therapeutic decision.

PMID- 28570395
TI  - Runs of homozygosity, copy number variation, and risk for depression and suicidal
      behavior in an Arab Bedouin kindred.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Inbreeding increases the probability of homozygosity of deleterious
      alleles. Inbreeding and runs of homozygosity (ROH) are associated with an
      increased risk for disease phenotypes, including schizophrenia and other
      psychiatric disorders. The effects of inbreeding, ROH, homozygous deletions, and
      other copy number variations (CNVs) on risk for depression and suicide attempt
      (SA) were quantified in an Arab Bedouin Kindred. METHODS: We carried out genetic
      analyses of 439 individuals from an Arab kindred with high rates of depression
      and suicidal behavior. We obtained complete ascertainment of SAs and first-degree
      relatives of individuals who have attempted or died by suicide. RESULTS: We found
      extensive regions of ROH. On average, 5% of the genome is covered by ROH for
      these individuals, two-fold higher than ROH rates for individuals from
      populations of European ancestry. Inbreeding and total length of ROH were not
      associated with risk for depression or attempt. For CNVs, an increased number of
      duplications more than 500 kb was associated with an increased risk for attempt
      (odds ratio: 2.9; P=0.01; 95% confidence interval: 1.3-6.6). Although not
      significant after correction for multiple testing, the risk for SA appears to
      increase with copy number for a CNV on chromosome 9p24.1. This possibility is
      intriguing because the CNV covers GLDC, which encodes glycine dehydrogenase that
      binds to glycine, a co-agonist at N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors, and
      is involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission. CONCLUSION: Our findings add to
      the growing evidence of genetic risk factors that act pleiotropically to increase
      the risk for several neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and SA,
      irrespective of ancestry.

PMID- 28570398
TI  - Patient With Cleft Maxillary Hypoplasia Who Underwent Distraction Osteogenesis
      and Conservative Therapies to Postoperative Velopharyngeal Insufficiency.
AB  - The authors performed distraction osteogenesis using The Maxillary Distractor
      System (SYNTHES) to maxillary hypoplasia patient with cleft lip palate, and
      consequently improved the aesthetic complexion of the patient. Velopharyngeal
      insufficiency developed after bone elongation; the authors improved the
      insufficiency with conservative therapies such as articulatory training using the
      bulb attached palatal lift prosthesis. The authors were successful and accepted
      postoperative speech outcome.

PMID- 28570399
TI  - Canine Eruption After Secondary Alveolar Bone Graft in Unilateral Cleft Lip and
      Palate Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this article is to analyze dental abnormalities in unilateral
      cleft lip and palate patients by focusing on the role of the secondary alveolar
      bone graft (SABG) surgery and its outcomes on canine eruption/inclusion.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 24 patients with unilateral cleft lip and
      palate were selected.Dental anomalies, canine eruption based on the existence of
      supernumeraries, agenesis elements, inclination of the major canine axis before
      and after surgery, distance from the occlusal plane before and after surgery, and
      sector classification were analyzed. RESULTS: Out of the 24 patients, 87.5%
      presented a canine spontaneously erupted in the dental arch while 12.5% needed
      surgical-orthodontic traction.There is also no proof that inclination of the
      canine significantly influenced the eruption before (P = 0.5889) and after (P =
      0.4029) surgery. Also, there is no any correlation between the 2 sides (P =
      0.1257).The SABG surgery showed a significant correlation with canine eruption (P
      = 0.009242); moreover, SABG shows a positive relationship with the radicular
      development of the canine (P = 0.005163).Lateral incisive (P = 0.8493) and second
      premolar agenesis (P = 1) are not statistically correlated with the eruption of
      the canine. This does not happen with supernumerary elements that are correlated
      with the surgical-orthodontic traction (P = 0.0004464). CONCLUSIONS: Agenesis
      does not play any role in the process of canine eruption while supernumeraries
      do. There is no relationship between the inclination and eruption of the
      canine.The SABG surgery has a key role because it contributes to create an
      appropriate support for the erupting canine, the nasal base and the anterior
      maxilla.

PMID- 28570400
TI  - Fibrin Tissue Sealant as an Adjunct to Cleft Palate Repair.
AB  - PURPOSE: Fibrin glue is a common tissue sealant used to promote hemostasis,
      adhere tissues, and accelerate healing. Cleft palate repair can be technically
      challenging, creating dead space between tissue planes, and can be prone to
      complications such as would dehiscence or bleeding. The purpose of this study is
      to assess the role of fibrin glue as an adjunct to cleft palate repair. The
      authors hypothesize a beneficial impact on complication rates, including
      bleeding, dehiscence, and fistula formation, among others. METHODS: Primary cleft
      palate repairs using fibrin glue were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic,
      intraoperative, perioperative, and postoperative data were combed for outcome
      variables. Complication rates were calculated in percentages and the results were
      compared to the published literature. Z-test statistics were performed for
      comparison. RESULTS: A total of 45 patients, 21 females and 24 males, who
      underwent primary cleft palate repair with fibrin glue between 2011 and 2014, had
      sufficient data to be reviewed. There were no instances of bleeding, dehiscence,
      airway obstruction, infection, oronasal fistula, or return to the operating room
      in any patients. One patient exhibited mild postoperative coughing and secretions
      that resolved with conservative measures. Another patient displayed postoperative
      seizure activity due to a pre-existing condition. All complication rates in our
      fibrin glue series were lower than those reported without the use of fibrin glue.
      Overall complication rates with fibrin sealant are significantly lower than
      overall complication rates without. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that fibrin
      sealant is a beneficial adjunct to cleft palate repair. Its application is well
      tolerated and the complication profile in our cohort was much less than the
      reported rates. The results of this preliminary study should be vetted with a
      prospective analysis involving a control group.

PMID- 28570401
TI  - Asymmetry of Preoperative Incision Design Markings for Upper Blepharoplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare preoperative incision design markings between both eyelids in
      upper blepharoplasty. METHODS: This retrospective study examined 22 patients who
      underwent bilateral upper blepharoplasty surgery resulting from senile
      dermatochalasis and/or blepharoptosis. The initial preoperative incision design
      markings were drawn with the patient sitting upright. Then, with the patient in a
      supine position, preoperative design photographs were taken. The authors measured
      medial canthal excision angle, maximal lid excision height, maximal lid excision
      width, peak point angle, and peak point distance and compared measurements
      between both upper eyelids designs using Image J software. RESULTS: The mean
      medial canthal excision angle, maximal lid excision height, and maximal lid
      excision width for the right side (30.68 degrees  +/- 10.16 degrees , 1.17 +/-
      0.24 cm, and 0.72 +/- 0.19 cm) were significantly different from those for the
      left side (35.39 degrees  +/- 13.82 degrees ; P < 0.001, 1.24 +/- 0.25 cm; P =
      0.002, and 0.77 +/- 0.21 cm; P = 0.011). The mean peak point angle and peak point
      distance for the right side (15.67 degrees  +/- 5.09 degrees , 2.41 degrees  +/-
      0.31 degrees ) were significantly different from those for the left side (18.11
      degrees  +/- 5.49 degrees ; P = 0.001, 2.22 +/- 0.28 cm; P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      In upper blepharoplasty, the preoperative incision marking design measurements of
      the left side were significantly greater than those of the right side. The
      symmetry can therefore be maximized by including the asymmetries in the
      preoperative design.

PMID- 28570402
TI  - Genetic Factors Involved in Mandibular Prognathism.
AB  - Mandibular prognathism is defined as an abnormal forward projection of the
      mandible beyond the standard relation to the cranial base and it is usually
      categorized as both a skeletal Class III pattern and Angle Class III
      malocclusion. The etiology of mandibular prognathism is still uncertain, with
      various genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors possibly involved.
      However, many reports on its coexistence in both twins and segregation in
      families suggest the importance of genetic influences. A multifactorial and
      polygenic background with a threshold for expression or an autosomal dominant
      mode with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity are the most probable
      inheritance patterns. Linkage analyses have, thus far, shown the statistical
      significance of such loci as 1p22.1, 1p22.3, 1p32.2, 1p36, 3q26.2, 4p16.1, 6q25,
      11q22, 12pter-p12.3, 12q13.13, 12q23, 12q24.11, 14q24.3 to 31.2, and 19p13.2. The
      following appear among candidate genes: MATN1, EPB41, growth hormone receptor,
      COL2A1, COL1A1, MYO1H, DUSP6, ARHGAP21, ADAMTS1, FGF23, FGFR2, TBX5, ALPL, HSPG2,
      EVC, EVC2, the HoxC gene cluster, insulin-like growth factor 1, PLXNA2, SSX2IP,
      TGFB3, LTBP2, MMP13/CLG3, KRT7, and FBN3. On the other hand, MYH1, MYH2, MYH3,
      MYH7, MYH8, FOXO3, NFATC1, PTGS2, KAT6B, HDAC4, and RUNX2 expression is suspected
      to be involved in the epigenetic regulations behind the mandibular prognathism
      phenotype.

PMID- 28570403
TI  - Nasolabial Growth in Individuals With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate: A
      Preliminary Study of Longitudinal Observation Using Three-Dimensional
      Stereophotogrammetry.
AB  - There are limited numbers of studies comparing the preoperative and postoperative
      facial features of infants with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) using
      three-dimensional (3D) stereophotogrammetry. The authors attempted an
      anthropometric analysis of nasolabial asymmetry 1 year after primary lip repair
      using a handheld 3D imaging system. Five different nasolabial dimensions in 24
      infants with UCLP were measured using 3D images captured during primary lip
      repair and again, 1 year after the repair. The nasal and upper-lip elements of
      the cleft side were significantly changed after primary lip repair, and
      nasolabial asymmetry was anthropometrically improved. This is a preliminary
      longitudinal observation of nasolabial growth in individuals with UCLP using 3D
      stereophotogrammetric technique. The authors would like to follow these children
      until adulthood, capturing 3D images at every intervention.

PMID- 28570404
TI  - Surrogate Outcome Measures for Corneal Neurotization in Infants and Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Corneal anesthesia is a rare and challenging condition, particularly
      in young children. The insensate cornea leads to abnormal epithelial cell
      metabolism and loss of trophic influences supplied by the corneal nerve fibers.
      This results in recurrent spontaneous epithelia erosion and eventual loss of
      sight. Corneal reinnervation is a definitive treatment option for neuropathic
      keratitis. The outcome measures in young children following corneal sensitization
      are different to adults as esthesiometry is unachievable. METHODS: The authors
      have undertaken corneal reinnervation in a young patient using a sural nerve
      graft. Surrogate measures suitable for pediatric patients were used for
      assessment of the outcome. RESULTS: Postoperatively there was evidence of
      improved corneal healing and function after 8 weeks. At 10 months postprocedure,
      the cornea was completely free of vascularization. CONCLUSION: Resensitization of
      the cornea using nerve grafts has previously been reported in older children and
      adults. This is the first time the procedure has been undertaken in a young
      child. Although the technique is still in its infancy with only 4 patients
      reported worldwide including our report, it seems to hold promise of improvement
      to this challenging cohort of patients.

PMID- 28570406
TI  - Coding Challenges in Craniofacial Surgery.

PMID- 28570405
TI  - Nasal Root Deviation in Unicoronal Craniosynostosis: A Craniometric Analysis of
      Early and Late Postoperative Outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Current operative techniques for correcting unicoronal craniosynostosis
      (UCS) leave the nasal bones untouched, resulting in an unclear long-term impact
      on nasal root deviation. The purpose of this study is to quantify nasal root
      deviation in the preoperative and late postoperative setting in patients who have
      undergone conventional single-staged UCS correction. METHODS: The authors
      performed a retrospective, craniometric analysis of nasal root deviation
      comparing preoperative computed tomography scans, with those of the early, and
      late postoperative period. Three vectors were analyzed to measure nasal root
      deviation, one extending from the nasion to the rhinion (nasal bone vector), the
      second from the rhinion to the anterior nasal spine (nasal aperture vector), and
      the third from the nasion to the anterior nasal spine (nasal longitudinal
      vector). RESULTS: Twenty-five subjects were included in the study. Average ages
      at the time of preoperative, early, and late postoperative imaging were 0.6 +/-
      0.3, 0.9 +/- 0.6, and 9.3 +/- 2.7 years, respectively. Improvement of angular
      deviation of both the nasal aperture vector and nasal longitudinal vector was
      observed. Mean angular deviation of the nasal aperture vector was 6.0 +/- 1.9
      degrees preoperatively, 6.0 +/- 2.1 degrees early postoperatively (P = 0.952),
      and 2.4 +/- 2.1 in the late postoperative period (P = 0.013). Mean angular
      deviation of the nasal longitudinal vector was 5.7+2.0 degrees preoperatively,
      5.8 +/- 2.3 degrees early postoperatively (P = 0.948), and 3.7 +/- 1.6 degrees in
      the late postoperative period (P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: Nasal root deviation
      decreased significantly only in the late postoperative period, lending credence
      to the notion that though UCS correction does not directly address nasal root
      deviation, this pathology improves significantly over time.

PMID- 28570408
TI  - Hidradenoma of the Chin.
AB  - Clear cell hidradenoma is a rare skin tumor in the head and neck. Clear cell
      hidradenoma of skin is an uncommon soft tissue tumor originating from the sweat
      glands. The authors report a case of clear cell hidradenoma developing in the
      chin in a 61-year-old woman, which occurred during the course of 8 months. The
      clinical and histologic findings of the tumor are documented. The lesion was
      totally removed by excision and revealed no evidence of recurrence.

PMID- 28570407
TI  - A Modified External Fixator System in Treatment of Mandibular Condylar Fractures.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to evaluate patient's outcomes after condylar
      fractures treated with the modified external fixation system from 2008 to 2012.A
      group of 58 patients with unilateral and bilateral fractures of mandibular
      condyle was admitted in the authors' study.The final sample included a total of
      44 patients, 24 males (54.6%) and 20 females (45.4%).The remaining 14 (24%)
      patients were excluded because they did not fulfill all the criteria
      requested.After 12 months from surgery, the functional-clinical evaluation of
      mouth's maximum opening and mostly extent of lateral excursion and of protrusion
      showed the following results: 8% of the sample showed a maximum mouth opening <30
      mm, 72% of the sample showed a maximum mouth opening between 30 and 40 mm, 20% of
      the sample showed a maximum mouth opening >40 mm lateral excursion (contralateral
      to fracture) and protrusion was respectively of 9.5 and 3.9 mm.Only 2 (4.5%) of
      the 44 evaluated patients reported headaches. 86.5% of the patients showed no
      postoperative temporomandibular joint dysfunction; 9% of them reported occasional
      clicking, while 4.5% reported recurrent disorders. The average satisfaction score
      of surgery outcome reported by patients was 94.5/100, and it ranged between
      50/100 and 100/100.

PMID- 28570409
TI  - Microsurgical Decompression of Inferior Alveolar Nerve After Endodontic Treatment
      Complications.
AB  - Iatrogenic injury in oral surgery is the most frequent cause of sensory
      disturbance in the distribution of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) and mental
      nerve.Inferior alveolar nerve damage can occur during third molar extraction,
      implant location, orthognathic surgery, preprosthetic surgery, salivary gland
      surgery, local anesthetic injections or during the resection of benign or
      malignant tumors.Injuries to the IAN can be caused also by endodontic treatment
      of mandibular molars and premolars when filling material is forced into the tooth
      and mandibular canal.The sensory disturbances that could follow a damage of the
      IAN could be hypoesthesia, dysesthesia, hyperesthesia, anesthesia, and sometimes
      a painful anesthesia that strike ipsilateral lower lip, chin, and teeth. These
      can undermine life quality by affecting speech, chewing, and social
      interaction.Treatment of these complications is sometimes difficult and could
      consist in observation or in surgical decompression of the involved nerve to
      relieve the patient's symptoms and improve sensory recovery. The most debated
      points are the timing of intervention and the effective role of decompression in
      clinical outcome-improvement.The purpose of this article is to show authors'
      experience with 2 patients treated with microsurgical nerve decompression to
      remove endodontic material from the mandibular canal and providing also a
      comprehensive review of the literature.

PMID- 28570410
TI  - Nasal Soft Tissue Change Following Bimaxillary Orthognathic Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to identify the correlation between
      maxillary movement and nasal soft tissue changes on three-dimensional
      reconstructed cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images after Le Fort I
      osteotomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors also investigate the long-term
      change of alar base width (ABW) to determine the effect of cinch suture. The
      authors retrospectively studied 52 subjects (14 males and 38 females) who were
      treated by bimaxillary orthognathic surgery including Le Fort I osteotomy and
      mandibular ramus surgery. The landmarks and planes were established on three
      dimensional reconstructed CBCT images. The authors measured each parameters
      preoperatively, 1 month postoperatively, and 1 year postoperatively. RESULTS:
      There was no significant correlation between the horizontal movement of A-point
      and the widening of ABW (P < 0.038), nor was there a significant correlation
      between the vertical movement of A-point and the change of ABW (P < 0.61). There
      was no significant correlation between horizontal and vertical movement of
      anterior nasal spine and the widening of ABW, nor was there a significant
      correlation between the nasal tip length and the vector of maxillary movement.
      CONCLUSION: There was no significant correlation between the ABW widening and the
      vector of surgical maxillary movement. The effect and stability of the alar base
      cinch suture is difficult to determine and require further investigation.

PMID- 28570413
TI  - Professional Reimbursement by Medicaid for Cochlear Implants and Related
      Services.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Medicaid reimbursement rates for cochlear implants and related
      services fall short of the federal benchmark set by Medicare. BACKGROUND: The
      financial hardships of cochlear implant centers around the United States may be a
      repercussion of poor Medicaid reimbursement. In time, these reimbursement
      discrepancies could force additional Otolaryngologists and cochlear implant
      centers to not provide these crucial services due to financial limitations.
      METHODS: Based on Medicare (MCR) claims data, current procedural terminology
      (CPT) codes used for cochlear implantation and related services were selected.
      Medicaid (MCD) and Medicare (MCR) payment schemes were queried for the same
      services in 49 states and Washington, D.C. The difference in MCD and MCR payment
      in dollars and percent was determined and reimbursement per relative value of
      work (RVU) calculated. MCD reimbursement differences (by dollar amount and by
      percentage) were qualified as a shortfall or excess as compared with the MCR
      benchmark. RESULTS: Marked differences in MCD and MCR reimbursement exist for all
      cochlear implant related services, most commonly as a substantial shortfall. The
      MCD shortfall varied in amount between states and great variability in
      reimbursement exists within and between audiology, surgery, and speech services.
      Shortfalls and excesses were not consistent between procedures or states.
      CONCLUSIONS: The variation in MCD payment models reflects marked differences in
      the value of the same work provided, which in many cases is far less than federal
      benchmarks. These results question the fairness of the MCD reimbursement scheme
      in cochlear implantation with potential serious implications on access to care
      for this underserved patient population.

PMID- 28570412
TI  - Perceived Maternal Behavioral Control, Infant Behavior, and Milk Supply: A
      Qualitative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Disparities persist in breastfeeding exclusivity and duration despite
      increases in breastfeeding initiation. The objective of this study was to examine
      factors that influence maternal decision making surrounding infant feeding
      practices over time in a diverse inner-city population. METHODS: We conducted a
      prospective qualitative study with 20 mothers recruited from 2 urban primary care
      clinics. Participants completed open-ended interviews and demographic
      questionnaires in English or Spanish administered at approximately 2 weeks and 6
      months postpartum. Transcripts were analyzed using a combined technique of
      inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven, based on the Theory of
      Planned Behavior) thematic analysis using 3 independent coders and iterative
      discussion to reach consensus. RESULTS: All women initiated breastfeeding, and
      65% reported perceived insufficient milk (PIM). An association between PIM and
      behavioral control emerged as the overarching theme impacting early breastfeeding
      cessation and evolved over time. Early postpartum, PIM evoked maternal distress
      strong emotional responses to infant crying and need to control infant behaviors.
      Later, mothers accepted a perceived lack of control over milk supply with minimal
      distress or as a natural process. Decisions to stop breastfeeding occurred
      through an iterative process, informed by trials of various strategies and
      observations of subsequent changes in infant behavior, strongly influenced by
      competing psychosocial demands. CONCLUSION: Infant feeding decisions evolve over
      time and are influenced by perceptions of control over infant behavior and milk
      supply. Tailored anticipatory guidance is needed to provide time-sensitive
      strategies to cope with challenging infant behaviors and promote maternal agency
      over breastfeeding in low-income populations.

PMID- 28570414
TI  - Head Shadow and Binaural Squelch for Unilaterally Deaf Cochlear Implantees.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cochlear implants (CIs) can improve speech-in-noise performance for
      listeners with unilateral sensorineural deafness. But these benefits are modest
      and in most cases are limited to head-shadow advantages, with little evidence of
      binaural squelch. HYPOTHESIS: The goal of the investigation was to determine
      whether CI listeners with normal hearing or moderate hearing loss in the
      contralateral ear would receive a larger head-shadow benefit for target speech
      and noise originating from opposite sides of the head, and whether listeners
      would experience binaural squelch in the free field in a test involving
      interfering talkers. METHODS: Eleven CI listeners performed a speech
      identification task in the presence of interfering noise or speech. Six listeners
      had single-sided deafness (normal or near-normal audiometric thresholds in the
      acoustic ear) and five had asymmetric hearing loss (hearing loss in the acoustic
      ear treated with a hearing aid). Listeners were tested with the acoustic ear only
      and bilaterally with the CI turned on. One set of conditions examined head-shadow
      effects with target speech and masking noise presented from azimuths of 0 or +/
      108 degrees. A second set of conditions examined binaural squelch, with target
      speech presented from the front and interfering talkers symmetrically placed on
      both sides. RESULTS: On average, the largest head-shadow benefit (5 dB) occurred
      when the target and masking noise were presented on opposite sides of the head.
      Listeners also showed an average of 2 dB of squelch, but only when the target
      speech was masked by interfering talkers of the same sex as the target.
      CONCLUSIONS: CIs provide listeners with unilateral deafness important benefits
      for speech perception in complex spatial environments, including a larger head
      shadow benefit when speech and noise originate on opposite sides of the head, and
      an improved ability to perceptually organize an auditory scene with multiple
      competing voices.The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors
      and do not reflect the official policy of the Department of Army/Navy/Air Force,
      Department of Defense, or US Government.

PMID- 28570416
TI  - In Response to Letter to the Editor Entitled, "The Role of Radiation in
      Tympanojugular Paragangliomas Needs to be Re-evaluated".

PMID- 28570415
TI  - Inflammatory Pseudotumor of the Temporal Bone: A Case Series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory pseudotumor of the temporal bone is a benign, idiopathic
      inflammatory process that is locally invasive and a cause of significant
      morbidity. This study reviews our experience with seven patients and is currently
      the largest series to date. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review from January 1,
      2014 to January 1, 2016. SETTING: Single tertiary medical center. PATIENTS: There
      were five male and two female (n = 7) subjects with a diagnosis of temporal bone
      inflammatory pseudotumor. The mean age at presentation was 41 years old. The most
      common presenting symptoms were hearing loss (7/7) and headache (4/7). Four
      patients demonstrated an inflammatory aural polyp. Two patients experienced
      facial nerve paralysis. INTERVENTION(S): Seven patients underwent computed
      tomography and six underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Corticosteroids and
      antibiotics were the initial treatment of choice. Five patients also underwent
      surgery. As adjuvant therapy, two patients received Rituximab, one patient
      received radiation, and one received mycophenolate mofetil. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Clinical courses were followed with focus on symptoms, disease
      recurrence, duration, and treatment. Mean follow-up was 17.8 months. RESULTS: The
      primary lesions demonstrated T2 hypo-intensity and enhancement as well as diffuse
      dural thickening on magnetic resonance imaging in five of six patients.
      Histopathology demonstrated chronic inflammation in the setting of hyalinized
      fibrosis (7/7). All the patients are currently symptomatically stable.
      CONCLUSION: Inflammatory pseudotumor of the temporal bone can cause devastating
      effects on neurological function and quality of life. Recognition of
      characteristic imaging and histopathology can expedite appropriate treatment.
      Patients may require chronic steroid therapy. Adjunctive therapy with radiation
      and immuno-modulation are currently being explored.

PMID- 28570418
TI  - Cochlear Implant Electrode Localization Using an Ultra-High Resolution Scan Mode
      on Conventional 64-Slice and New Generation 192-Slice Multi-Detector Computed
      Tomography.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: A new generation 192-slice multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT)
      clinical scanner provides enhanced image quality and superior electrode
      localization over conventional MDCT. BACKGROUND: Currently, accurate and reliable
      cochlear implant electrode localization using conventional MDCT scanners remains
      elusive. METHODS: Eight fresh-frozen cadaveric temporal bones were implanted with
      full-length cochlear implant electrodes. Specimens were subsequently scanned with
      conventional 64-slice and new generation 192-slice MDCT scanners utilizing ultra
      high resolution modes. Additionally, all specimens were scanned with micro-CT to
      provide a reference criterion for electrode position. Images were reconstructed
      according to routine temporal bone clinical protocols. Three neuroradiologists,
      blinded to scanner type, reviewed images independently to assess resolution of
      individual electrodes, scalar localization, and severity of image artifact.
      RESULTS: Serving as the reference standard, micro-CT identified scalar crossover
      in one specimen; imaging of all remaining cochleae demonstrated complete scala
      tympani insertions. The 192-slice MDCT scanner exhibited improved resolution of
      individual electrodes (p < 0.01), superior scalar localization (p < 0.01), and
      reduced blooming artifact (p < 0.05), compared with conventional 64-slice MDCT.
      There was no significant difference between platforms when comparing streak or
      ring artifact. CONCLUSION: The new generation 192-slice MDCT scanner offers
      several notable advantages for cochlear implant imaging compared with
      conventional MDCT. This technology provides important feedback regarding
      electrode position and course, which may help in future optimization of surgical
      technique and electrode design.

PMID- 28570417
TI  - Vestibular Restoration and Adaptation in Vestibular Neuritis and Ramsay Hunt
      Syndrome With Vertigo.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate vestibular restoration and the evolution of the
      compensatory saccades in acute severe inflammatory vestibular nerve paralysis,
      including vestibular neuritis and Ramsay Hunt syndrome with vertigo. STUDY
      DESIGN: Prospective. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS: Vestibular
      neuritis (n = 18) and Ramsay Hunt syndrome patients with vertigo (n = 13) were
      enrolled. INTERVENTION: After treatment with oral corticosteroids, patients were
      followed up for 6 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Functional recovery of the
      facial nerve was scored according to the House-Brackman grading system. Caloric
      and video head impulse tests were performed in every patient at the time of
      enrolment. Subsequently, successive video head impulse test (vHIT) exploration
      was performed at the 1, 3, and 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: Eighteen patients with
      vestibular neuritis and 13 with Ramsay Hunt syndrome and associated vertigo were
      included. Vestibular function was significantly worse in patients with Ramsay
      Hunt syndrome than in those with vestibular neuritis. Similar compensatory
      saccades velocity and latency values were observed in both groups, in both the
      caloric and initial vHIT tests. Successive vHIT results showed a significantly
      higher vestibulo-ocular reflex gain recovery in vestibular neuritis patients than
      in Ramsay Hunt syndrome patients. A significantly faster reduction in the
      latency, velocity, and organization of the compensatory saccades was observed in
      neuritis than in Ramsay Hunt syndrome patients. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the
      recovery of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, the reduction of latency, velocity and
      the organization of compensatory saccades play a role in vestibular compensation.

PMID- 28570419
TI  - Ultra-high-field (9.4 T) MRI Analysis of Contrast Agent Transport Across the
      Blood-Perilymph Barrier and Intrastrial Fluid-Blood Barrier in the Mouse Inner
      Ear.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Effective paramagnetic contrast agent for the penetration of the
      perilymphatic spaces of the scala tympani, scala vestibuli, and scala media of
      the mouse inner ear can be determined using intravenous injection of various
      gadolinium (Gd) complexes and ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      at 9.4 Tesla. BACKGROUND: A number of contrast agents have been explored in
      experimental high-field MRI to determine the most effective Gd complex for ideal
      signal-to-noise ratio and maximal visualization of the in vivo mammalian inner
      ear in analyzing the temporal and spatial parameters involved in drug penetration
      of the blood-perilymph barrier and intrastrial fluid-blood barrier in the mouse
      model using MRI. METHODS: Gadoteric acid (Dotarem), Gadobutrol (Gadovist),
      Gadodiamide (Omniscan), Gadopent acid (Magnevist), and Mangafodipir (Teslascan)
      were administered intravenously using the tail vein of 60 Balb/C mice. High
      resolution T1 images of drug penetration were acquired with a horizontal 9.4 T
      Agilent magnet after intravenously injection. Signal intensity was used as a
      metric of temporal and spatial parameters of drug delivery and penetration of the
      perilymphatic and endolymphatic spaces. RESULTS: ANOVA analysis of the area under
      the curve of intensity enhancement in perilymph revealed a significant difference
      (p < 0.05) in the scalae uptake using different contrast agents (F (3,25) = 3.54,
      p = 0.029). The Gadoteric acid complex Dotarem was found to be the most effective
      Gd compound in terms of rapid, morphological enhancement for analysis of the
      temporal, and spatial distribution in the perilymphatic space of the inner ear.
      CONCLUSION: Gadoteric acid (Dotarem) demonstrated efficacy as a contrast agent
      for enhanced visualization of the perilymphatic spaces of the inner ear
      labyrinthine in the mouse, including the scala tympani and scala vestibuli of the
      cochlea, and the semicircular canals of the vestibular apparatus. These findings
      may inform the clinical application of Gd compounds in patients with inner ear
      fluid disorders and vertigo.

PMID- 28570420
TI  - Semicircular Canal Pressure Changes During High-intensity Acoustic Stimulation.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Acoustic stimulation generates measurable sound pressure levels in
      the semicircular canals. BACKGROUND: High-intensity acoustic stimuli can cause
      hearing loss and balance disruptions. To examine the propagation of acoustic
      stimuli to the vestibular end-organs, we simultaneously measured fluid pressure
      in the cochlea and semicircular canals during both air- and bone-conducted sound
      presentation. METHODS: Five full-cephalic human cadaveric heads were prepared
      bilaterally with a mastoidectomy and extended facial recess. Vestibular pressures
      were measured within the superior, lateral, and posterior semicircular canals,
      and referenced to intracochlear pressure within the scala vestibuli with fiber
      optic pressure probes. Pressures were measured concurrently with laser Doppler
      vibrometry measurements of stapes velocity during stimulation with both air- and
      bone-conduction. Stimuli were pure tones between 100 Hz and 14 kHz presented with
      custom closed-field loudspeakers for air-conducted sounds and via commercially
      available bone-anchored device for bone-conducted sounds. RESULTS: Pressures
      recorded in the superior, lateral, and posterior semicircular canals in response
      to sound stimulation were equal to or greater in magnitude than those recorded in
      the scala vestibuli (up to 20 dB higher). The pressure magnitudes varied across
      canals in a frequency-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: High sound pressure levels
      were recorded in the semicircular canals with sound stimulation, suggesting that
      similar acoustical energy is transmitted to the semicircular canals and the
      cochlea. Since these intralabyrinthine pressures exceed intracochlear pressure
      levels, our results suggest that the vestibular end-organs may also be at risk
      for injury during exposure to high-intensity acoustic stimuli known to cause
      trauma in the auditory system.

PMID- 28570421
TI  - Time for more creativity in health care management research and practice.

PMID- 28570422
TI  - STRONGER TEAM, BETTER CARE: BUILDING THE BIG PICTURE IN GASTROENTEROLOGY.

PMID- 28570423
TI  - Effectiveness of a Dietary Support Program Based on Behavior Analysis Approach
      for Patients With Crohn Disease.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a dietary support
      program for patients with Crohn disease based on behavior analysis and designed
      to maintain remission and improve satisfaction with meals. The core of the
      program consisted of self-monitoring by patients and evaluation by a healthcare
      professional. The 32-week program consisted of a 4-week baseline period, 20-week
      intervention period, and 8-week follow-up period. Participants filled out
      questionnaires measuring outcomes every 4 weeks, for a total of nine
      questionnaires per patient. Of the 13 patients who started the program, 11
      completed the study. Of these, nine showed increased frequency of testing foods
      during the intervention period, with seven maintaining testing during the follow
      up period. No patient experienced a worsening of health conditions. Of the 11
      patients who completed the program, seven reported increased satisfaction with
      meals. In conclusion, this program helped increase the frequency of testing foods
      in patients with Crohn disease, while maintaining health conditions and improving
      satisfaction with meals.

PMID- 28570424
TI  - Adherence to Hepatitis B Antiviral Therapy: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) antiviral therapies potentially suppress HBV viral load
      to an undetectable level reducing the risk of progressive liver disease and the
      development of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Adherence to antiviral
      therapies is imperative to achieve and maintain viral suppression. To date, there
      has been limited research on adherence to HBV therapies. Our study aimed to
      explore factors influencing adherence to antiviral therapy. A total of 29
      participants consented to in-depth qualitative interviews at three outpatient
      clinics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were digitally recorded
      and transcribed. Transcripts were initially classified as adherent or nonadherent
      and thematic analysis was used to identify dominant themes. Adherent behavior was
      reported by 59% (n = 17) of participants. Several themes influenced adherence
      including routine, fear of HBV-related disease progression, clinician-patient
      communication, treatment knowledge, and forgetfulness. To our knowledge, this is
      the first qualitative study to explore adherence to HBV antiviral therapy. An
      interplay of several dominant themes emerged from our data including fear of
      chronic HBV disease progression, clinician-patient communication, treatment
      knowledge, routine, and forgetfulness. Study findings have the potential to
      change nursing clinical practice, especially the way nurses and other clinicians
      target key HBV treatment messages and education, while monitoring adherence.

PMID- 28570425
TI  - THYROID HEMATOMA: AN UNUSUAL COMPLICATION OF UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY.

PMID- 28570426
TI  - ACUTE MUCOSAL PERFORATION AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC HELLER MYOTOMY IN A CHILD.

PMID- 28570427
TI  - THIS I KNOW.

PMID- 28570428
TI  - Combined Detection of NUDT15 Variants Could Highly Predict Thiopurine-induced
      Leukopenia in Chinese Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Multicenter
      Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NUDT15 c.415C>T was a novel genetic marker confirmed in our center
      for thiopurine-induced leukopenia in Chinese inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
      For validation, a large cohort study is needed. Meanwhile, the newly discovered
      NUDT15 coding variants (c.36_37insGGAGTC and c.52 G>A) have not been studied in
      patients with IBD. We aimed to further confirm the influence of 3 NUDT15 variants
      (c.415C>T, c.36_37insGGAGTC, and c.52G>A) on thiopurine-induced leukopenia in
      Chinese patients with IBD. METHODS: Patients prescribed on thiopurines for at
      least 2 weeks were recruited from 4 tertiary hospitals. Clinical data were
      collected. NUDT15 genotypes were determined with polymerase chain reaction-RFLP
      and sequencing. The interactions between variants and leukopenia were analyzed.
      RESULTS: A total of 732 patients were included, 177 (24.3%) of whom developed
      leukopenia. There were strong associations of NUDT15 c.415C>T, c.36_37insGGAGTC,
      and c.52G>A with thiopurine-induced leukopenia (P = 1.81 * 10, P = 4.74 * 10 and
      P = 0.04, respectively), whereas there was no relevance for thiopurine S
      methyltransferase genotypes (P = 0.25). The predictive sensitivity of NUDT15
      c.415C>T was 49.2%, whereas it increased to 55.4% when combined analysis with
      c.36_37insGGAGTC and c.52G>A. Notably, not only the homozygotes with NUDT15
      c.415C>T but also the heterozygotes both carrying c.415C>T and c.52G>A developed
      early leukopenia. The median dosage for NUDT15 c.415C>T carriers was
      significantly lower than that for wild-type (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We
      confirmed that NUDT15 c.415C>T, c.36_37insGGAGTC, and c.52G>A variants were risk
      factors for thiopurine-induced leukopenia. Combined detection of the 3 variants
      could increase the predictive sensitivity of thiopurine-induced leukopenia and
      help to distinguish early leukopenia in heterozygote of c.415C>T in Chinese
      patients with IBD. Treatment monitoring by NUDT15 variants may be promising in
      individualized therapy.

PMID- 28570429
TI  - Incidence of and Predictors for Early Discontinuation of Biological Therapies in
      Veteran Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biological therapies are effective for inducing and maintaining
      remission in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but patients often require changes
      in biological agents over the course of their illness. We sought to evaluate the
      rate of and reasons for discontinuing biological agents and to identify risk
      factors for their discontinuation. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort
      study across 4 VA hospital systems (Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Ann Arbor, MI;
      Richmond, VA). Patients with IBD who were started on biological therapy between
      1998 and 2015 were identified, and their medical records were reviewed to confirm
      the diagnosis of IBD and to collect study data. RESULTS: Of 1969 patients with
      IBD; 256 were treated with 346 courses of therapy. By 6 months after initiation
      of therapy, 82 (24%) had stopped the biological agent. Among patients starting
      their first biological agent, 21.5% had stopped by 6 months. Patients taking a
      concomitant thiopurine and those with ileocolonic disease or a nonpenetrating,
      nonstricturing phenotype were less likely to discontinue biological therapy,
      whereas those taking 5-ASA concomitantly were more likely to discontinue
      biological therapy. The most common reasons for discontinuation were primary
      nonresponse (40%) and adverse drug reactions (29%). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion,
      in a large multicenter VA cohort, we found that 24% of patients who are
      prescribed a biological stop their treatment early, most commonly for primary
      nonresponse or for an adverse drug reaction. Consideration should be given to
      treating patients with a concomitant thiopurine if at all possible, as this
      reduces the likelihood of early discontinuation.

PMID- 28570430
TI  - Point Prevalence of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in New Zealand in 2015:
      Initial Results from the PINZ Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) around
      the world is increasing. However, there is a scarcity of data on the epidemiology
      of pediatric IBD in the Southern Hemisphere. This study aimed to document the
      point prevalence of pediatric IBD in New Zealand on June 30, 2015. METHODS: All
      patients in New Zealand, under 16 years of age, with a diagnosis of IBD on June
      30, 2015 were identified. Demographic and disease phenotypic details were
      collected and entered into a secure database. Age-specific population data for
      New Zealand were obtained and national and regional prevalence rates were
      calculated. RESULTS: The point prevalence of pediatric IBD, Crohn's disease,
      ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory bowel disease unclassified in New Zealand on
      June 30, 2015 was (95% confidence intervals) 21.7 (18.9-24.8), 16.5 (14.0-19.2),
      3.3 (2.2-4.6), and 1.9 (1.2-3.0) per 100,000 children, respectively. There was a
      striking disparity between the prevalence rates in the North and South Islands.
      CONCLUSIONS: The point prevalence of pediatric IBD in New Zealand represents the
      first-ever national, population-based prevalence rates of pediatric IBD
      published. Results from the Paediatric IBD in New Zealand (PINZ) study are also
      the first to show markedly higher prevalence rates of IBD in the southern part of
      a country compared with its northern counterpart. Ongoing prospective
      ascertainment of the incidence of pediatric IBD is required.

PMID- 28570431
TI  - Comparative Acceptability and Perceived Clinical Utility of Monitoring Tools: A
      Nationwide Survey of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Objective control of intestinal inflammation during inflammatory
      bowel disease (IBD) is becoming the main driver for medical treatment. However,
      the monitoring tools-related burden remains poorly investigated. We aimed to
      evaluate their comparative acceptability and utility according to patients with
      IBD. METHODS: After a preliminary phase, the final questionnaire encompassing
      self-administered and physician questionnaires was prospectively and
      consecutively submitted to 916 patients with IBD from 20 public and private
      centers. Acceptability and utility visual analog scales (VAS) were expressed as
      median with interquartile range. RESULTS: Regarding the group of patients with
      Crohn's disease (n = 618), venipuncture (VAS = 9.3 [8.8-9.7]) and ultrasonography
      (VAS = 9.3 [8.7-9.7]) were the most acceptable tools (P < 0.0001, for each
      comparison), whereas rectosigmoidoscopy was the least acceptable tool (VAS = 4.4
      [1.2-7.3]) (P < 0.0001, for each comparison). Wireless capsule endoscopy (VAS =
      8.5 [5.2-9.3]), magnetic resonance enterocolonography (VAS = 8.0 [5.0-9.2]), and
      stools collection (VAS = 7.7 [4.6-9.3]) were more acceptable than colonoscopy
      (VAS = 6.7 [4.3-8.9]) (P < 0.0001, for each comparison). The acceptability was
      assessed in 298 patients with ulcerative colitis for venipuncture (VAS = 9.4 [8.8
      9.7]), stools collection (VAS = 8.1 [5.7-9.4]), colonoscopy (VAS = 7.5 [4.7
      9.2]), and rectosigmoidoscopy (VAS = 6.7 [2.8-9.1]); (P < 0.001 for each
      comparison). All monitoring tools were considered as highly useful by patients
      with IBD. Decreased acceptability was related to embarrassment for the
      collection/transport of stools (60.7%), bowel cleansing (76.3%) for colonoscopy,
      abdominal discomfort (51.3%) and rectal enema (36.6%) for rectosigmoidoscopy,
      bowel distension (48.3%) for magnetic resonance enterocolonography, and potential
      capsule retention (21.4%) for wireless capsule endoscopy. CONCLUSIONS: Among the
      IBD monitoring tools, endoscopy demonstrated the lowest acceptability supporting
      the development of alternative modalities. Patients' information and examination
      conditions should be improved to ensure proper monitoring adherence.

PMID- 28570434
TI  - The Prospective Association of the Diurnal Cortisol Rhythm With Sleep Duration
      and Perceived Sleeping Problems in Preschoolers: The Generation R Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cortisol, the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis,
      plays an important role in modulating sleep. Yet, studies investigating the
      association between diurnal cortisol rhythm and sleep patterns in young children
      are scarce. We tested the hypothesis that the diurnal cortisol rhythm is
      associated with shorter sleep duration and more sleep problems across early
      childhood. METHODS: This study was embedded in Generation R, a population-based
      cohort from fetal life onward. Parents collected saliva samples from their infant
      at five moments during day 1. In 322 infants aged 12 to 20 months, we determined
      the diurnal cortisol rhythm by calculating the area under the curve (AUC), the
      cortisol awakening response (CAR), and the diurnal slope. Sleep duration and
      sleep behavior were repeatedly assessed across ages of 14 months to 5 years.
      Generalized estimating equation models were used to assess related cortisol
      measures to sleep duration and sleep behavior. RESULTS: The diurnal cortisol
      slope and the CAR, but not the AUC, were associated with sleep duration across
      childhood. Children with flatter slopes and children with a more positive CAR
      were more likely to have shorter nighttime sleep duration (beta per nmol/L/h
      slope = -0.12, 95% confidence interval = -0.19 to -0.05, p = .001; beta per
      nmol/L CAR = -0.01, 95% confidence interval = -0.02 to 0.00, p = .04). Cortisol
      measures did not predict sleep problems. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests
      that a flatter diurnal cortisol slope and a more marked morning rise, which can
      indicate stress (or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal dysregulation), have a long
      term association with sleep regulation.

PMID- 28570435
TI  - INTERMEDIATE UVEITIS ASSOCIATED WITH PERIODIC FEVER, APHTHOUS STOMATITIS,
      PHARYNGITIS, AND CERVICAL ADENITIS SYNDROME.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: To report two novel cases of intermediate uveitis associated
      with Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis
      syndrome. METHODS: Observational case reports and review of the literature.
      RESULTS: Both patients in this report had an established diagnosis of Periodic
      Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome before
      the onset of ocular inflammation. Infectious and noninfectious systemic
      conditions known to be associated with intermediate uveitis were excluded.
      Intermediate uveitis was confirmed clinically in both patients by the presence of
      vitritis, snowballs, and peripheral snowbanks in the region of the pars plana.
      Both cases had a course characterized by recurrent inflammation; in which
      systemic steroid treatment, and in one case, immunomodulatory therapy was
      necessary. CONCLUSION: Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and
      Cervical Adenitis syndrome is an auto-inflammatory fever disorder in childhood.
      Although other auto-inflammatory disorders such as, Blau syndrome, Muckle-Wells
      syndrome, and Behcets disease have been associated with various forms of uveitis,
      Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis has never
      been reported to be associated with any type of ocular inflammation. We describe
      for the first time, two cases of Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis,
      Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome presenting with intermediate uveitis.

PMID- 28570433
TI  - Trauma and Autonomic Dysregulation: Episodic-Versus Systemic-Negative Affect
      Underlying Cardiovascular Risk in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to elevated heart
      rate (HR) and reduced heart rate variability (HRV) in cross-sectional research.
      Recent evidence suggests that this link may be driven by individual differences
      in autonomic arousal associated with momentary negative affect (NA). Using
      ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of NA and minute-to-minute HR/HRV
      monitoring, we examined whether NA-related HR/HRV mediated the association of
      PTSD symptom severity with 24-hour HRV and endothelial functioning. METHODS: One
      hundred ninety-seven young adults (18-39 years), 93 with PTSD, underwent 1 day of
      Holter monitoring while concurrently reporting NA levels via EMA. Two noninvasive
      measures of endothelial functioning-flow-mediated dilation and hyperemic flow
      were also collected. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the associations of
      momentary NA with HR and low- and high-frequency HRV during the 5-minute
      intervals after each EMA reading. Latent variable modeling was then used to
      determine whether individual differences in these associations mediated the
      association of PTSD symptom severity with 24-hour HRV, flow-mediated dilation,
      and hyperemic flow. RESULTS: PTSD symptom severity was positively associated with
      NA-related autonomic arousal (beta = .21, p < .001), which significantly mediated
      the association of PTSD symptom severity with 24-hour HRV and hyperemic flow,
      accounting for 62% and 34% of their associations, respectively, while
      overshadowing the influence of smoking, lifetime alcohol dependence, sleep
      duration, mean NA, and episodes of acute NA. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that NA
      related autonomic arousal is both a primary factor driving cardiovascular risk in
      PTSD and a potential point of intervention.

PMID- 28570436
TI  - Integration of Mobile Health Technology in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: A
      Critical Review.
AB  - This article provides a critical overview and best-evidence synthesis of the use
      of mobile health (mHealth) technology among persons with chronic pain and their
      health care providers and examines the future benefits and barriers of
      implementing mHealth technology in clinical care. We critically review articles
      about electronic pain diaries, pain assessment programs, text messaging, and
      smartphone pain apps for management of persons with pain. Also presented are
      findings on the utility of activity trackers and use of telehealth to deliver
      cognitive behavioral therapy. Finally, barriers, study gaps, and future
      challenges of incorporating mobile technology for chronic pain are discussed.
      Although the future of mHealth technology and telemedicine in clinical practice
      is promising, this critical review highlights the need for rigorous studies to
      establish an association of the use of mHealth technology with improved quality
      of life, functional autonomy, and decreased hospital use.

PMID- 28570437
TI  - Identification and Validation of Clinically Relevant Clusters of Severe Fatigue
      in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The considerable heterogeneity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related
      fatigue is the greatest challenge to determining pathogenesis. The identification
      of homogenous subtypes of severe fatigue would inform the design and analysis of
      experiments seeking to characterize the likely numerous causal pathways that
      underpin the symptom. This study aimed to identify and validate such fatigue
      subtypes in patients with RA. METHODS: Data were obtained from patients recruited
      to the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics register for RA, as either
      receiving traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD cohort, n =
      522) or commencing anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy (anti-TNF cohort, n =
      3909). In those reporting severe fatigue (Short-Form 36 vitality <= 12.5), this
      cross-sectional analysis applied hierarchical clustering with weighted-average
      linkage identified clusters of pain, fatigue, mental health (all Short-Form 36),
      disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire), and inflammation (erythrocyte
      sedimentation rate) in the DMARD cohort. K-means clustering sought to validate
      the solution in the anti-TNF cohort. Clusters were characterized using a priori
      generated symptom definitions and between-cluster comparisons. RESULTS: Four
      severe fatigue clusters, labeled as basic (46%), affective (40%), inflammatory
      (4.5%), and global (8.9%) were identified in the DMARD cohort. All clusters had
      severe levels of pain and disability and were distinguished by the
      presence/absence of poor mental health and high inflammation. The same symptom
      clusters were present in the anti-TNF cohort, although the proportion of
      participants in each cluster differed (basic = 28.7%; affective = 30.2%; global =
      24.1%; inflammatory = 16.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Among RA patients with severe fatigue,
      recruited to two diverse RA cohorts, clinically relevant clusters were identified
      and validated. These may provide the basis for future mechanistic studies and
      ultimately support a stratified approach to fatigue management.

PMID- 28570438
TI  - Surgically Induced Changes in Gut Microbiome and Hedonic Eating as Related to
      Weight Loss: Preliminary Findings in Obese Women Undergoing Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Weight loss surgery results in significant changes in the anatomy,
      function, and intraluminal environment of the gastrointestinal tract affecting
      the gut microbiome. Although bariatric surgery results in sustained weight loss,
      decreased appetite, and hedonic eating, it is unknown whether the surgery-induced
      alterations in gut microbiota play a role in the observed changes in hedonic
      eating. We explored the following hypotheses: (1) laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy
      (LSG) results in changes in gut microbial composition; (2) alterations in gut
      microbiota are related to weight loss; (3) alterations in gut microbiome are
      associated with changes in appetite and hedonic eating. METHODS: Eight obese
      women underwent LSG. Their body mass index, body fat mass, food intake, hunger,
      hedonic eating scores, and stool samples were obtained at baseline and 1-month
      postsurgery. 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was performed on stool samples.
      DESeq2 changes in microbial abundance. Multilevel-sparse partial least squares
      discriminant analysis was applied to genus-level abundance for discriminative
      microbial signatures. RESULTS: LSG resulted in significant reductions in body
      mass index, food intake, and hedonic eating. A microbial signature composed of
      five bacterial genera discriminated between pre- and postsurgery status. Several
      bacterial genera were significantly associated with weight loss (Bilophila, q =
      3E-05; Faecalibacterium q = 4E-05), lower appetite (Enterococcus, q = 3E-05), and
      reduced hedonic eating (Akkermansia, q = .037) after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: In
      this preliminary analysis, changes in gut microbial abundance discriminated
      between pre- and postoperative status. Alterations in gut microbiome were
      significantly associated with weight loss and with reduced hedonic eating after
      surgery; however, a larger sample is needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28570440
TI  - Successful Reinnervation of the Diaphragm After Intercostal to Phrenic Nerve
      Neurotization in Patients With High Spinal Cord Injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our objective in this study was to extend diaphragmatic pacing therapy
      to include paraplegic patients with high cervical spinal cord injuries between C3
      and C5. INTRODUCTION: Diaphragmatic pacing has been used in patients experiencing
      ventilator-dependent respiratory failure due to spinal cord injury as a means to
      reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical ventilation. However, this technique
      relies on intact phrenic nerve function. Recently, phrenic nerve reconstruction
      with intercostal nerve grafting has expanded the indications for diaphragmatic
      pacing. Our study aimed to evaluate early outcomes and efficacy of intercostal
      nerve transfer in diaphragmatic pacing. METHODS: Four ventilator-dependent
      patients with high cervical spinal cord injuries were selected for this study.
      Each patient demonstrated absence of phrenic nerve function via external neck
      stimulation and laparoscopic diaphragm mapping. Each patient underwent
      intercostal to phrenic nerve grafting with implantation of a phrenic nerve pacer.
      The patients were followed, and ventilator dependence was reassessed at 1 year
      postoperatively. RESULTS: Our primary outcome was measured by the amount of time
      our patients tolerated off the ventilator per day. We found that all 4 patients
      have tolerated paced breathing independent of mechanical ventilation, with 1
      patient achieving 24 hours of tracheostomy collar. CONCLUSIONS: From this study,
      intercostal to phrenic nerve transfer seems to be a promising approach in
      reducing or eliminating ventilator support in patients with C3 to C5 high spinal
      cord injury.

PMID- 28570439
TI  - Cortisol Awakening Response as a Prospective Risk Factor for Depressive Symptoms
      in Women After Treatment for Breast Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
      axis (HPA axis) functioning as a neurobiological risk factor for depressive
      symptoms in an ongoing longitudinal, observational study of women undergoing
      treatment and recovery from breast cancer. Many women with breast cancer
      experience depressive symptoms that interfere with their treatment, recovery, and
      quality of life. Psychosocial risk factors for depression among patients with
      cancer and survivors have been identified, yet neurobiological risk factors in
      this population remain largely unexamined. METHODS: Women recently diagnosed with
      early-stage breast cancer (N = 135) were enrolled before starting
      neoadjuvant/adjuvant treatment (radiation, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy). At
      baseline, participants collected saliva samples to measure diurnal HPA axis
      functioning for 3 days: at waking, 30 minutes after waking, 8 hours after waking,
      and bedtime. Participants also completed a standardized measure of depressive
      symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale) at baseline and 6
      months after completion of primary treatment. Multivariate regression was used to
      predict continuous depressive symptoms at 6-month posttreatment from continuous
      depressive symptoms at baseline, cortisol awakening response (CAR), and other
      measures of diurnal HPA axis functioning. RESULTS: The magnitude of CAR predicted
      changes in depressive symptoms over time, such that women with a higher CAR
      showed a greater increase from baseline to 6-month posttreatment (b = 5.67, p =
      .023). Diurnal slope and total cortisol output were not associated with
      concurrent depressive symptoms or their change over time. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated
      CAR may be a neurobiological risk factor for increases in depressive symptoms in
      the months after breast cancer treatment and warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28570442
TI  - Localized Arm Volume Index: A New Method for Body Type-Corrected Evaluation of
      Localized Arm Lymphedematous Volume Change.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Volume measurement is a common evaluation for upper extremity
      lymphedema. However, volume comparison between different patients with different
      body types may be inappropriate, and it is difficult to evaluate localized limb
      volume change using arm volume. METHODS: Localized arm volumes (Vk, k = 1-5) and
      localized arm volume indices (LAVIk) at 5 points (1, upper arm; 2, elbow; 3,
      forearm; 4, wrist; 5, hand) of 106 arms of 53 examinees with no arm edema were
      calculated based on physical measurements (arm circumferences and lengths and
      body mass index [BMI]). Interrater and intrarater reliabilities of LAVIk were
      assessed, and Vk and LAVIk were compared between lower BMI (BMI, <22 kg/m) group
      and higher BMI (BMI, >=22 kg/m) group. RESULTS: Interrater and intrarater
      reliabilities of LAVIk were all high (all, r > 0.98). Between lower and higher
      BMI groups, significant differences were observed in all Vk (V1 [P = 6.8 * 10],
      V2 [P = 3.1 * 10], V3 [P = 1.1 * 10], V4 [P = 8.3 * 10], and V5 [P = 3.0 * 10]).
      Regarding localized arm volume index (LAVI) between groups, significant
      differences were seen in LAVI1 (P = 9.7 * 10) and LAVI5 (P = 1.2 * 10); there was
      no significant difference in LAVI2 (P = 0.60), LAVI3 (P = 0.61), or LAVI4 (P =
      0.22). CONCLUSIONS: Localized arm volume index is a convenient and highly
      reproducible method for evaluation of localized arm volume change, which is less
      affected by body physique compared with arm volumetry.

PMID- 28570441
TI  - Significance of the Lateral Thoracic Artery in Pectoralis Major Musculocutaneous
      Flap Reconstruction: Quantitative Assessment of Blood Circulation Using
      Indocyanine Green Angiography.
AB  - Free tissue transfer is the preferred reconstruction option in most major head
      and neck reconstructions. The pectoralis major muscle musculocutaneous (PMMC)
      flap is commonly used in salvage of necrotic free flaps and is the first choice
      for patients who are not candidates for free flaps. The lateral thoracic artery
      (LTA), which is thought to contribute to blood perfusion of the inferior and
      lateral mammary area, is not preserved in a conventionally harvested PMMC flap.
      With regard to blood supply, it has been suggested that the LTA should be
      preserved, in addition to the pectoral branch of the thoracoacromial artery, when
      a skin island is designed in the lower chest to attain a pedicle length
      sufficient for head and neck reconstruction. However, an effect on hemodynamic
      improvement using the LTA has not been shown quantitatively. In this study, we
      examined 8 patients with oral cancer who underwent reconstruction procedures with
      a bipedicle PMMC flap that included the LTA, in addition to the thoracoacromial
      artery. Intraoperative indocyanine green angiography was performed to examine
      circulation to the PMMC flap with or without LTA clamping after harvesting. After
      image processing, data were analyzed using a new quantitative perfusion
      assessment system with parameters that we recently established for assessment of
      peripheral arterial disease of the lower limbs. All patients had good clinical
      courses with whole-flap survival, no vascular insufficiency of the skin island,
      and no fistula formation. Intraoperative indocyanine green angiography showed an
      increased inflow rate into the skin island in an LTA-declamped condition in all
      cases, implying that the preserved LTA increased the blood supply to skin islands
      in the pectoralis major muscle. We conclude that preserving the LTA in a PMMC
      flap can increase blood perfusion and stabilize the vascularity of the flap,
      making the reconstruction more effective and reliable than with use of a
      conventionally harvested flap. Therefore, it is worthwhile to preserve the LTA as
      a major contributor to a lateral and distal PMMC flap.

PMID- 28570443
TI  - Outcomes of Geriatric Burns Treated as Outpatients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Most literature about geriatric burns has focused on inpatient
      management; therefore, our study investigated the effects of burn characteristics
      and preexisting medical comorbidities on treatment outcomes for geriatric burn
      patients treated as outpatients. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted
      for 391 patients over 65 years of age seen in the emergency department of Fukui
      Prefectural Hospital over a 10-year period. Charts were reviewed for age, sex,
      burn characteristics, burn mechanisms, preexisting medical comorbidities, and
      treatment outcomes. Multivariate regression analysis was used to examine the
      relationship between outcomes of outpatients and comorbidities, which were
      calculated by the Charlson comorbidity index. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients
      aged 65 years and older were treated as outpatients at Fukui Prefectural
      Hospital. The majority (80%) of these patients had burns on less than 5% of their
      total body surface area. Scald burns accounted for 63% of burn mechanisms, with
      burns to the lower extremities being the most frequent. The mean percentage of
      total burn surface area was 4% in the outpatient group and 28% for the inpatient
      group. The mean time to healing was 24.3 days in outpatients. Of the 73
      outpatients, 17 (23%) showed delayed healing. Of these 17 patients, 3 patients
      experienced wound infection and 2 patients had documented hypertrophic scarring.
      Four patients ultimately underwent excision and grafting. The common preexisting
      medical comorbidities in the outpatient group were congestive heart failure and
      diabetic mellitus. There were no significant differences for medical
      comorbidities between outpatients and inpatients. The Charlson comorbidity index
      for outpatients with delayed healing was higher than that for those without
      delayed healing. The Charlson comorbidity index was associated with delayed
      healing of outpatients, but age or total burn surface area were not. CONCLUSIONS:
      The characteristics of geriatric burn outpatients were distinct from those of
      inpatients. The weighted sum of preexisting medical comorbidities may affect
      wound healing among geriatric burn outpatients.

PMID- 28570444
TI  - Mastering Lymphatic Microsurgery: A New Training Model in Living Tissue.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advanced microsurgical techniques have emerged as a promising
      approach for the treatment of lymphedema, but achieving international standards
      is limited by a scarcity of adequate training models. The purpose of this report
      is to describe our in vivo porcine training model for microsurgery. STUDY DESIGN:
      Five female common-breed pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) weighing 20 to 28 kg were
      placed under general anesthesia, and blue patent violet dye was injected to
      highlight lymphatic structures and prepare the pigs for anatomical exploration
      and microsurgery. The number and type of patent anastomoses achieved and lymph
      node flaps created and any anatomical differences between porcine and human
      vessels were noted, in light of evaluating the use of pigs as a training model
      for microsurgery in living tissue. RESULTS: Multiple lymphatic-venous anastomoses
      were created at the site of a single incision made at the subinguinal region,
      running medial and parallel to the saphenous vessels. Ten multiple lymphatic
      venous anastomoses were created in total, and all were demonstrated to be patent.
      Four lymph node flaps were prepared for lymph node transfer. The superficial
      lymphatic collector system in the caudal limb of the pig was identified and
      described with particular reference to the superficial, medial (dominant), and
      lateral branches along the saphenous vein and its accessory. CONCLUSIONS: The
      authors present a safe and adaptable in vivo experimental microsurgical porcine
      model that provides the opportunity to practice several advanced lymphatic
      microsurgical techniques in the same animal. The ideal lymph node transfer
      training model can be developed from this anatomical detail, giving the
      opportunity to use it for artery-to-artery anastomoses, vein-to-vein anastomoses,
      and lymphatic-to-lymphatic anastomoses.

PMID- 28570445
TI  - Characteristics, Management Techniques, and Outcomes of the Most Common Soft
      Tissue Hand Tumors: A Literature Review and Our Experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diagnosis of the hand's soft-tissue tumors is often difficult
      because of the different anatomic structures present in this region and yet
      clinicians must be able to distinguish typical benign entities from life
      threatening or limb-threatening malignant diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At the
      Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Palermo,
      629 patients with hand tumors were studied. Treatment was surgical for all of
      them; also radiotherapy and chemotherapy were necessary based on the histological
      diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our retrospective study with a literature review aims to
      present the most commonly observed soft-tissue hand lesions, analyzing their
      causes, their objective and instrumental evaluation, and their treatments.

PMID- 28570447
TI  - The Prevalence of Congenital Heart Disease in Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and/or
      Palate: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Life-threatening anomalies, such as congenital heart disease (CHD)
      must be identified in patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) to minimize
      perioperative risk. Nevertheless, screening practices vary highly among cleft
      teams and programs, and little is known about the prevalence and clinical
      significance of CHD in nonsyndromic CL/P patients. Through a systematic
      literature review, this study examines the demographics and severity of CHD in
      the nonsyndromic CL/P population. The implications of concomitant CHD in
      providing safe and comprehensive cleft care both in the United States and abroad
      are discussed. METHODS: A systematic review of PubMed literature from 1980 to
      September 2015 was performed following PRISMA guidelines. Studies describing
      rates of CHD and severity of lesions specifically in nonsyndromic and all CL/P
      patients were included. Analysis of cumulative data was performed according to
      nonsyndromic status and cleft type. RESULTS: Twelve studies were found to meet
      inclusion criteria. Of the 4055 nonsyndromic CL/P patients who met inclusion
      criteria, 7.42% (n=301) had CHD, which was significantly greater than the general
      population (~1%; odds ratio [OR], 7.94; P<0.0001). Congenital heart disease was
      significantly more common in cleft palate (CP) (OR, 15.1), combined CL and palate
      (CL+P) (OR, 13.5), and CL (OR, 4.23) compared with the general population.
      Palatal clefts (CP and CL+P) had significantly increased odds of CHD compared
      with CL (OR, 3.58 and 3.19, respectively, both P<0.0001). The most common forms
      of CHD were atrial or ventricular septal defects (n=210, 74.2%), which typically
      do not require surgical intervention in the general population. Clinical
      significance of these CHD lesions in CL/P patients is not fully known.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cleft management programs aim to maximize the number of patients
      receiving care while maintaining patient safety. Appropriate evaluation of
      perioperative risk necessitates understanding the prevalence of CHD in CL/P
      patients and the severity of those lesions. Patients with CL/P, particularly
      patients with palatal clefts, have significantly higher odds of having CHD than
      the general population. Congenital heart disease is most likely to present as
      atrial or ventricular septal defects, which are lesions that are unlikely to
      impact safety during cleft repair surgery.

PMID- 28570446
TI  - Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Induction of Muscle-Derived Stem Cells
      Enhances Vascular Phenotype While Preserving Myogenic Potential.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous work by our group and other laboratories have revealed that
      muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) may contain both myogenic and endothelial
      progenitors, making MDSCs a promising option for skeletal muscle regeneration.
      The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF) induction on the vascular and myogenic potential of MDSCs.
      METHODS: Muscle-derived stem cells were isolated from 4- to 8-week-old C57BL/6J
      mice using a preplate technique and recombinant human VEGFa was used as the
      induction agent. Cellular proliferation and migration were assessed using serial
      imaging and wound healing assays, respectively. Myosin heavy chain staining was
      performed to assess MDSC myotube formation. Vascular potential of MDSCs was
      measured by expression of CD31 and in vitro capillary tube formation. RESULTS:
      Vascular endothelial growth factor stimulation led to a dose-dependent increase
      in MDSC proliferation (P < 0.05) and migration kinetics (P < 0.01). Control MDSCs
      had low levels of baseline expression of CD31, which was significantly
      upregulated by VEGF stimulation. Similarly, MDSCs demonstrated a basal capability
      for capillary tube formation, which was significantly increased after VEGF
      induction as evidenced by increased branches (5.91 +/- 0.58 vs 9.23 +/- 0.67, P <
      0.01) and total tube length (11.73 +/- 0.97 vs 18.62 +/- 1.57 mm, P < 0.01).
      Additionally, the myogenic potential of MDSCs as measured by fusion index
      remained unchanged with increasing concentration of VEGF up to 250 ng/mL (P =
      0.77). CONCLUSIONS: Vascular endothelial growth factor induction enhances MDSC
      proliferation, migration, and endothelial phenotypes without negatively impacting
      myogenic potential. These results suggest that VEGF stimulation may improve
      vascularization of MDSC-based strategies for skeletal muscle regeneration.

PMID- 28570448
TI  - Free Lateral Digital Flap for Reconstruction of the Fingers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The region between the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) and the
      metacarpophalangeal (MP) creases has greater laxity than other regions in the
      fingers, allowing for primary closure of the donor site. We postulated if we
      could consistently locate perforators from the region between the PIP and the MP
      crease on the radial side of the middle and ring fingers, on which a scar would
      be less conspicuous than one on the radial side of the index finger, these
      regions would be ideal donor sites for digital reconstruction using very small
      flaps. METHODS: In 20 fingers (10 middle fingers and 10 ring fingers) from 5
      volunteers, perforators from the radial proper digital artery were visualized
      between the PIP and the MP creases using ultrasonography. Based on this
      information, and to evaluate its feasibility, a free lateral digital flap was
      used for reconstruction of small digital defects in 3 cases. RESULTS: Of the 20
      fingers, 19 had at least 1 digital artery perforator (DAP) arising from the
      radial proper digital artery between the PIP and MP creases. The average distance
      from the PIP crease to the DAP was 9.0 mm. The average diameter of the DAP was
      0.37 mm. In all clinical cases, flaps survived completely with pleasing cosmesis.
      There were no donor site complications. CONCLUSIONS: With their consistent
      anatomy and relatively low donor site morbidity, free lateral digital flaps from
      the radial side of the middle or ring fingers may be a reliable option for
      reconstruction of the volar surface of the digits.

PMID- 28570449
TI  - Quality Measures in Breast Reconstruction: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The importance of providing quality care over quantity of care, and
      its positive effects on health care expenditure and health, has motivated a
      transition toward value-based payments. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
      Services and private payers are establishing programs linking financial
      incentives and penalties to adherence to quality measures. As payment models
      based on quality measures are transitioned into practice, it is beneficial to
      identify current quality measures that address breast reconstruction surgery as
      well as understand gaps to inform future quality measure development. METHODS: We
      performed a systematic review of quality measures for breast reconstruction
      surgery by searching quality measure databases, professional society clinical
      practice guidelines, and the literature. Measures were categorized as structure,
      process, or outcome according to the Donabedian domains of quality. RESULTS: We
      identified a total of 27 measures applicable to breast reconstruction: 5
      candidate quality measures specifically for breast reconstruction surgery and 22
      quality measures that relate broadly to surgery. Of the breast reconstruction
      candidate measures, 3 addressed processes and 2 addressed outcomes. Seventeen of
      the general quality measures were process measures and 5 were outcome measures.
      We did not identify any structural measures. CONCLUSIONS: Currently, an
      overrepresentation of process measures exists, which addresses breast
      reconstruction surgery. There is a limited number of candidate measures that
      specifically address breast reconstruction. Quality measure development efforts
      on underrepresented domains, such as structure and outcome, and stewarding the
      measure development process for candidate quality measures can ensure breast
      reconstruction surgery is appropriately evaluated in value-based payment models.

PMID- 28570450
TI  - The Impact of Physician Assistants on a Breast Reconstruction Practice: Outcomes
      and Cost Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physician assistants (PAs) are commonly employed in plastic surgery.
      However, limited data exist on their impact, which may guide decisions regarding
      how best to integrate them into practice. METHODS: A review of the practices of 2
      breast reconstructive surgeons was performed. A comparison was made between a 1
      year period before to a 1-year period after the addition of a PA into practice.
      The practice model was a one-to-one pairing of a plastic surgeon and a PA.
      RESULTS: A total of 4141 clinic encounters and 1356 surgical cases were reviewed.
      After the addition of PAs, there was a significant increase in relative value
      units (1057 vs 1323 per month per surgeon, P < 0.001). Operative times were
      similar with and without PAs (P = 0.45). However, clinic encounter times for
      surgeons were shorter for all visit types when patients were first seen by a PA
      before the surgeon: global follow-up (P = 0.03), other follow-up (P = 0.002),
      consultation (P = 0.76), and preoperative (P = 0.02), translating to 9 additional
      patients seen per day. Charges (P = 0.001) and payments (P = 0.007) also
      increased, which offset the cost of using a PA. However, the financial
      contribution from PA involvement as first assistant in surgery was limited
      (5.2%). The peak effect of PAs was observed between the third and fourth
      quarters. CONCLUSIONS: In breast reconstruction, PAs primarily enhance the
      efficiency of plastic surgeons, particularly in the clinic, with downstream
      clinical and financial gains of an indirect nature for surgeons.

PMID- 28570451
TI  - The Cardioplastic Approach to the Treatment of Infected Aortic Grafts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aortic graft infection (AGI) is a rare complication following
      reconstructive aortic surgery, yet it represents a significant source of
      morbidity and mortality. There is no consensus regarding the optimal surgical
      management, due in part to the small cohorts of patient reports. Pedicled muscle
      or omental flap coverage of AGI has been shown to improve outcomes, making them a
      valuable consideration in the treatment algorithm. Thus, we aim to compile and
      evaluate cases of autologous vascularized tissue (AVT) in the treatment of
      infected aortic grafts, summarizing location specific trends, treatments, and
      outcomes. METHODS: A comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature regarding
      the management of AGI was performed. Data collected included patient
      characteristics, original procedure, pathogen, infection location, tissue
      utilized, technique of tissue isolation and delivery, staging, outcome, length of
      follow-up, and level of evidence. RESULTS: Ninety-four cases of AGI managed with
      AVT transfer were identified. Infection of ascending aorta grafts accounted for
      59% of cases, followed by a combination of ascending aorta and aortic arch (21%),
      the descending thoracic aorta (18%), and the thoracoabdominal aorta (2%). The
      infected graft was preserved in 81% of cases, followed by debridement and AVT
      coverage. The omentum was the most commonly applied flap (69%) for all divisions
      of the aorta followed by the pectoralis major (19%), the rectus abdominis (5%),
      and latissimus dorsi (4%). Mortality was limited, and the Powered by Editorial
      Manager and ProduXion Manager from Aries Systems Corporation overall survival was
      93% (7 deaths), with a mean follow-up of 33.5 months. CONCLUSIONS: Autologous
      vascularized tissue coverage has proven to be a successful approach for treatment
      of infected aortic grafts. Although the incidence of AGI is rare, it represents
      an area of scarce evidence-based literature that warrants increased attention and
      surgical refinement. These results, which show a remarkably low infection-related
      mortality rate (3%), should encourage interdisciplinary collaboration with the
      plastic surgeon, cardiothoracic surgeon, and infectious disease specialists with
      the goal of improving outcomes in the treatment of infected aortic grafts.

PMID- 28570452
TI  - Comparison of V-Y Advancement Flap Versus Lotus Petal Flap for Plastic
      Reconstruction After Surgery in Case of Vulvar Malignancies: A Retrospective
      Single Center Experience.
AB  - Vulvoperineal defects after demolitive surgery for preneoplastic or malignant
      vulvar lesions require a reconstruction to restore good sexual functions and to
      offer a satisfactory cosmetic result. Several techniques of reconstruction have
      been described in the past, leading to a more conservative and localized
      treatment. This study retrospectively reviewed patients with primary or recurrent
      vulvar malignancies that had undergone vulvoperineal reconstruction between 2010
      and 2016 using the V-Y advancement flap and the 2 variant of the lotus petal flap
      (LPF) in terms of surgical outcome and postoperative complications. Two hundred
      eighty-four (284) women were reviewed, 234 of them having undergone V-Y flap and
      128, the LPF. Overall, postoperative complications occurred in 21.5% of patients
      including 21% (27/128) of the V-Y group and in 13% (14/106) of the LPF group. The
      2 techniques are valid and feasible for vulvar reconstruction in case of moderate
      defects. No statistically significant differences in terms of complications were
      observed between the 2 groups overall (P = 0.588), or by comparing the primary (P
      = 0.202) or the recurrent setting (P = 0.281). Lotus petal flap, particularly the
      tunneled variant, was superior to V-Y advancement flap in terms of functional and
      cosmetic results in patients undergoing resection for primary vulvar
      malignancies.

PMID- 28570453
TI  - Anterolateral Thigh Flap for Reconstruction in Postburn Axillary Contractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reconstruction of postburn axillary contractures is difficult and
      particularly challenging without healthy adjacent soft tissue for axillary scar
      resurfacing. In this case, a free soft-tissue transfer is among the best
      treatment options. Here, we describe our experience with free anterolateral thigh
      (ALT) flap for reconstruction in postburn axillary contractures. METHODS: We
      enrolled 10 patients with postburn axillary contractures from August 2003 to July
      2015. They all underwent wide scar contracture release through a transverse
      incision from the anterior axillary fold to the posterior axillary fold. The ALT
      flap was subfascially raised. The huge soft tissue defect after scar release was
      resurfaced with the ALT flap. RESULTS: Eight male patients and 2 female patients
      (age, 16-64 years; mean, 46 years) were included. The mean total burn surface
      area, follow-up time, duration between injury onset and free-flap transfer
      surgery, and flap size were 48%, 27 months, 7.7 months, and 12 * 23 cm,
      respectively. The most common recipient vessels were the thoracodorsal artery and
      vein (77%). The mean improvement in the range of motion of shoulder abduction was
      86 degrees (range, 60-130 degrees). The mean operative time was 7 hours. All
      flaps survived without reexploration or failure. All but 1 donor site was managed
      by split-thickness skin grafting. No infection, hematoma, or deaths were noted
      postoperatively. Transient brachial palsy was noted in a 16-year-old male patient
      postoperatively, with full recovery 3 months after. CONCLUSIONS: For postburn
      axillary contractures without healthy adjacent soft tissue for scar resurfacing,
      ALT flap reconstruction represents a suitable treatment option. It allows
      simultaneous surgery on both the donor and recipient sites, without the need to
      change the patient's position. Furthermore, the ALT flap provides sufficient soft
      tissue and blood flow for reconstruction, leading to satisfactory functional
      outcomes.

PMID- 28570454
TI  - Intramedullary Venous Drainage System for Distal Fingertip Replantations.
AB  - The number of venous anastomoses performed during fingertip replantation is one
      of the most important factors affecting the success of replantation. However,
      because vessel diameters decrease in the zone 1 level, vessel anastomoses,
      especially vein anastomoses, are technically difficult and, thus, cannot be
      performed in most cases. Alternative venous drainage methods are crucial when any
      reliable vein repair is not possible. In the literature, so many artery-only
      replantation techniques have been defined, such as arteriovenous anastomoses,
      forming an arteriovenous or venocutaneous fistula, manual milking and massage,
      puncturing, and external bleeding via a fishmouth incision and using a medical
      leech. It has been shown that, in distal fingertip replantations, the medullary
      cavity may also be a good way for venous return. In this study, we introduce an
      alternative intramedullary venous drainage system we developed to facilitate
      venous drainage in artery-only fingertip replantations. The results of 24
      fingertip replantations distal to the nail fold by using this system are
      presented with a literature review.

PMID- 28570455
TI  - Anatomical Reconstruction of the Nasal Floor in Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip
      Repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous methods exist for repairing unilateral cleft lips and mainly
      focus on cutaneous design to achieve sufficient rotation of the medial (M) cleft
      lip and produce a natural Cupid's bow and philtrum. However, precise nasal floor
      reconstruction has not been described in detail. This is the first study to
      introduce a technique for repairing complete unilateral cleft lips with a focus
      on nasal floor reconstruction. METHODS: In our technique, "Straight-Line Advanced
      Release Technique (StART)," the nasal floor is considered a 3-dimensional cuboid
      structure; the M mucosal and lateral (L) mucosal flaps constituted the posterior
      surface. The M flap became the roof of the orbicularis oris muscle sling and the
      posterior side of the nasal lining. The B flap met the L lip flap at the superior
      border of the M flap, and together they formed the roof and anterior surface. The
      B flap also formed a transitional zone connecting the columella and nasal floor.
      RESULTS: Seventy-two patients with complete unilateral cleft lip were treated
      from 2003 to 2015. The difference in the height of the nostril sills between the
      cleft and non-cleft sides was not significantly different from that in control
      patients (P = 0.472) 1 year postoperatively. Twenty operations for secondary
      deformities were performed: 8 for nose deformities not involving the nasal floor.
      The transverse scar at the alar base was concealed within the nostril.
      CONCLUSIONS: Nasal floor reconstruction is important in complete unilateral cleft
      lip repair. Our technique provides a naturally shaped, symmetrical nasal floor
      without conspicuous scarring.

PMID- 28570456
TI  - Significance of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations to Plastic Surgery
      Residency Training.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) have proven to
      be a powerful tool. They possess more than a 30-year track record in assessing
      the competency of medical students, residents, and fellows. Objective structured
      clinical examinations have been used successfully in a variety of medical
      specialties, including surgery. They have recently found their way into the
      subspecialty of plastic surgery. METHODS: This article uses a systematic review
      of the available literature on OSCEs and their recent use in plastic surgery. It
      incorporates survey results assessing program directors' views on the use of
      OSCEs. RESULTS: Approximately 40% of programs surveyed use OSCEs to assess the
      Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. We found
      that 40% use OSCEs to evaluate specific plastic surgery milestones. Objective
      structured clinical examinations are usually performed annually. They cost
      anywhere between $100 and more than $1000 per resident. Four milestones giving
      residents the most difficulties on OSCEs were congenital anomalies, noncancer
      breast surgery, breast reconstruction, and practice-based learning and
      improvement. It was determined that challenges with milestones were due to lack
      of adequate general knowledge and surgical ward patient care, as well as deficits
      in professionalism and system-based problems. Programs were able to remediate
      weakness found by OSCEs using a variety of methods. CONCLUSIONS: Objective
      structured clinical examinations offer a unique tool to objectively assess the
      proficiency of residents in key areas of the Accreditation Council for Graduate
      Medical Education core competencies. In addition, they can be used to assess the
      specific milestones that plastic surgery residents must meet. This allows
      programs to identify and improve identified areas of weakness.

PMID- 28570457
TI  - Reviewing the Evidence to Guide Clinical Care: Proliferative Breast Lesions in
      Breast Reduction Specimens.
AB  - The number of reduction mammoplasties performed in the United States continues to
      increase annually. Given the high incidence of breast cancer in women, it is
      routine practice for breast tissue excised during routine breast reductions
      procedures to be sent for pathology review. During pathology assessment, occult
      malignancy and on-occasion proliferative breast lesions of unknown and/or
      variable malignancy may also be present. We provide a review of commonly
      diagnosed atypical proliferative breast lesions in breast reduction specimens and
      a guide to plastic surgeons for further management.

PMID- 28570458
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of the Babysitter Procedure With Different Percentages of
      Partial Neurectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After 2 months of denervation, the number of motor units in the
      muscle decreases; after 6 months of denervation, muscle atrophy and weakness are
      irreversible and successful nerve reconstruction does not generally restore
      function. The babysitter procedure was reported to successfully avoid muscle
      atrophy. One study found that the babysitter procedure with a 40% neurectomy was
      most suitable; however, the amount of donor nerve that can be borrowed for the
      babysitter procedure in peripheral nerve injury is unknown. METHOD: One hundred
      adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. The rats were randomly
      allocated to 5 groups (groups A-E; n = 20 each). The rats underwent different
      surgeries based on their grouping. At 6, 12, 18, and 24 weeks after surgery, 5
      rats in each group were selected for electrophysiology and muscle force tests.
      These rats were then killed, and the gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles
      were harvested for weight measurement and cross-sectional muscle measurement.
      RESULT: The results of the effects on the peroneal nerves and tibialis anterior
      muscles after the babysitter procedure with 40% and 80% neurectomies showed that
      the functional ability of the recipient nerves was maintained and the muscle was
      effectively prevented from atrophy, whereas the 20% neurectomy and end-to-side
      procedures showed relatively poor performance. The results of the effects on the
      tibial nerve and gastrocnemius muscles after the babysitter procedure with 20%
      and 40% neurectomies showed that there was little effect on the donor nerve. By
      contrast, 80% neurectomy strongly and negatively affected the donor nerve.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the babysitter procedure using a donor
      nerve with a partial neurectomy of 40% was the best choice for effectively
      treating peripheral (peroneal) nerve injury in rats.

PMID- 28570459
TI  - Alar Pinning in Rigid External Distraction for Midfacial Hypoplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distraction osteogenesis with a rigid external distractor is a widely
      accepted treatment for midfacial hypoplasia. In this study, the authors introduce
      the utilization of alar pinning with the external halo distractor for maxillary
      advancement, in place of an oral splint. METHODS: A retrospective chart review
      was conducted of 7 patients who successfully underwent distraction osteogenesis
      using the alar pinning technique. Midfacial hypoplasia was secondary to Crouzon
      syndrome (n = 4), Apert syndrome (n = 1), Pfeiffer syndrome (n = 1), or bacterial
      meningitis (n = 1). Three patients were managed with monobloc osteotomies, 2 with
      Le Fort III osteotomies, 1 with Le Fort III osteotomy and frontoorbital
      advancement, and 1 with Le Fort I osteotomy alone. Patient charts were analyzed
      for postoperative course and complications relating to the alar pins. RESULTS:
      Two patients had minor complications specifically related to the alar pins. One
      patient had concern for a mild skin infection at a pin site that resolved with
      oral antibiotics. The other patient had loosening of an alar pin, which did not
      require operative management. Retrospective chart review indicated that all
      patients were pleased with their results from the distraction, and no patients
      opted for further advancement. DISCUSSION: Utilization of alar pin sites for
      external distraction is a feasible and reasonable option for treatment of
      midfacial hypoplasia involving a Le Fort osteotomy or monobloc procedure.
      Fixation sites within the alar crease minimize the visibility of pin site scars
      and eliminate the need for a custom-made oral splint, which prevents usage of the
      upper dentition and frequently requires consulting a dentist or orthodontist for
      fabrication. CONCLUSIONS: Alar pinning with an external halo distraction system
      for management of midfacial hypoplasia has minimal complications and is an
      alternative to using a custom-made oral splint.

PMID- 28570460
TI  - Lesions Associated With Calcium Gluconate Extravasation: Presentation of 5
      Clinical Cases and Analysis of Cases Published.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Calcium gluconate extravasation is a process, which, while not
      common, occurs more frequently in neonatal intensive care units. The aim of this
      study is to present a number of cases of calcium gluconate extravasation, which
      have occurred in our hospital, and to carry out a review of those clinical cases
      published in the literature to obtain relevant epidemiological data. METHODS:
      Data were gathered on the medical histories of 5 patients who presented lesions
      secondary to calcium gluconate extravasation in our center. A review of the
      literature was also performed to include clinical cases of calcium gluconate
      extravasation already published. RESULTS: Data were collected on 60 cases
      published in 37 articles. Most patients (55%) were neonates. The average age of
      these neonates was 8 days. The commonest location of injuries was the back of the
      hand and wrist (42%). The 2 most frequent symptoms were the appearance of
      erythema (65%) and swelling/edema (48%) followed by the appearance of skin
      necrosis (47%), indurated skin (33%), and yellow-white plaques or papules (33%).
      Most cases are cured within a period of 3 to 6 months. Fifty percent of patients
      required surgery, and in 13% of cases, skin grafts were performed. The most
      frequent histological finding was the presence of calcium deposits. Other
      histological findings described were the presence of necrosis, lymphohistiocytic
      infiltrate, and granulomas. Most histological findings were located in the
      dermis. Most x-rays showing calcium deposits had been performed at 3 to 4 weeks.
      CONCLUSIONS: Calcium gluconate extravasation is a process, which, although
      infrequent, is associated with serious skin and soft-tissue lesions, mainly
      affecting infants. Further studies are needed to determine possible specific
      procedures to be carried out in these cases.

PMID- 28570461
TI  - Epineural Sheath Jacket as a New Surgical Technique for Neuroma Prevention in the
      Rat Sciatic Nerve Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Terminal neuromas resulting from severe nerve injuries and traumatic
      or surgical limb amputations can become a source of pain, and significantly
      impair patients' quality of life. Recently, the number of patients with
      peripheral nerve injuries increased due to modern war conflicts, natural
      disasters, and traffic accidents. This study investigated the efficacy of the
      epineural sheath jacket (ESJ) as a novel technique for neuroma prevention in the
      rat sciatic nerve model. METHODS: A 20-mm segment of the right sciatic nerve was
      excised in 18 Lewis rats, and the animals were divided into 3 experimental groups
      (n = 6/group): group I-control, nerve stump without protection; group II-muscle
      burying group, nerve stump buried in the muscle; group III-ESJ group, nerve stump
      protected by ESJ. The ESJ was created from the excised sciatic nerve and applied
      as a "cap" over the proximal nerve stump. The presence of neuropathic pain was
      assessed weekly by pinprick test and Tinel sign, up to 24 weeks postsurgery. At
      24 weeks, assessments, such as macroscopic evaluation, retrograde neuronal
      labeling analysis, histomorphometry, and neural/connective tissue ratio were
      performed. RESULTS: Epineural sheath jacket significantly reduced neuroma
      formation, which was associated with decreased Tinel sign (16.7%, P < 0.05)
      response compared with the nerve stump control. Moreover, ESJ reduced axonal
      sprouting, bulb-shaped nerve ending formation and perineural adhesions, as
      confirmed by macroscopic evaluation. Histological evaluation confirmed that nerve
      stumps protected with the ESJ showed less fibrosis and presented well-organized
      axonal structure. Neural/connective tissue ratio and retrograde neuronal labeling
      analysis revealed significantly improved results in the ESJ group compared to the
      control nerve stump group (P = 0.032 and P = 0.042, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      The protective effect of the ESJ against neuroma formation was confirmed by
      behavioral and histological analyses, showing outcomes comparable to the muscle
      burying technique-the criterion standard of neuroma management.

PMID- 28570462
TI  - Visualization of Accessory Lymphatic Pathways in Secondary Upper Extremity
      Lymphedema Using Indocyanine Green Lymphography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The anatomical variations in accessory lymphatic pathways around
      the axillary region may work as a drainage route for excess lymphatic fluid
      accumulation in secondary upper extremity lymphedema. In this report, accessory
      lymphatic pathways extending to the shoulder, neck, and breast regions in
      secondary upper extremity lymphedema patients are shown using indocyanine green
      (ICG) lymphography. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2012 and May 2015, 30
      limbs of 29 patients with upper extremity lymphedema after malignant tumor
      resection were evaluated. ICG lymphography was performed after chronic lymphedema
      formation. RESULTS: Of the 30 limbs, accessory lymphatic pathways were identified
      across the axillary region in 3 patients using ICG lymphography. In 2 of these 3
      patients, accessory drainage lymphatics were connected to the cervical lymph
      nodes. In regard to the distribution of dermal backflow patterns, dermal backflow
      appeared in 26 patients-in the forearm in 26 patients and in the upper arm in 20
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: Accessory lymphatic pathways are thought to be the
      drainage routes in the affected arm, which may prevent edema progression to the
      terminal stage. Variations in the lymphatic system are easily visualized using
      ICG lymphography. Understanding of accessory lymphatic routes in lymphedema
      patients may provide new insight for further understanding the pathophysiology of
      lymphedema.

PMID- 28570463
TI  - Does the Sequence of Tattooing and Nipple Reconstruction Affect Nipple
      Projection?
AB  - BACKGROUND: In nipple reconstruction, the maintenance of adequate projection is
      one of the most important and challenging aspects. However, no reports have
      evaluated whether tattooing after nipple reconstruction affects nipple
      projection. This study aimed to test our hypothesis that tattooing after
      reconstruction adversely affects nipple projection. METHOD: Between September
      2001 and July 2009, 384 nipples were reconstructed using the modified top hat
      technique after breast reconstruction with a transverse rectus abdominis
      musculocutaneous flap. Of these, 320 were reconstructed before tattooing, and 64
      were reconstructed after tattooing. Projection at 6 months and 1 year was
      compared with that measured immediately after the operation, and projection was
      compared between the nipples reconstructed after tattooing and those
      reconstructed before tattooing. RESULTS: After 6 months, the mean loss of
      projection was 52.5% in the tattoo-after group and 55.1% in the tattoo-before
      group. After 1 year, it was 59.2% in the tattoo-after group and 58.6% in the
      tattoo-before group. There were no significant differences between the groups
      regarding the sequence of the procedures. The additional tattoo and retattoo rate
      was 20% in the tattoo-before group and 1% in the tattoo-after group. CONCLUSIONS:
      These findings showed that the sequence of nipple reconstruction and tattooing
      had no significant effect on the projection of the reconstructed nipple. It is
      easier to tattoo homogeneously before nipple reconstruction because of the flat
      surface but more difficult to make a smooth areolar peripheral margin and
      circular areolar shape when reconstructing the nipple. The sequence of tattooing
      and nipple reconstruction can be determined according to esthetic and clinical
      considerations.

PMID- 28570464
TI  - Analysis of Mechanical Behavior of Dermal Fibroblasts Obtained From Various
      Anatomical Sites in Humans.
AB  - PURPOSE: Facial skin fibroblasts imposed with cyclic stretch at 10% magnitude
      display considerable mechanotransduction properties and biochemical reactions in
      our previous study. However, it is poorly understood how these shared traits are
      fully parallel to the common features across all fibroblasts derived from
      different skin-based anatomical regions in response to cyclic stretch
      stimulation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of
      various cyclic stretches on fibroblasts derived from multiple anatomical skin
      sites of human bodies, and the optimal stretch magnitude was defined based on the
      changes to cell mechanical behavior. METHODS: Fibroblasts from skin areas of the
      scalp, anterior chest, suprapubic, axilla, and planta were cultured and
      characterized in vitro. Cyclic stretch at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% magnitudes
      was imposed at a loading frequency of 0.1 Hz for 48 hours, and thereafter, the
      mechanical behavior and biochemical reaction of the dermal fibroblasts were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Dermal fibroblasts from various anatomical sites
      preconditioned with varying cyclic stretch led to an evident increase in the cell
      proliferation ability, the expression of integrin beta1 and p130 Crk-associated
      substrate messenger RNA and protein, and the productions of type I collagen and
      transforming growth factor beta1, most importantly in a strain magnitude
      dependent manner with the peak appearing in the range of 10% to 15% magnitude
      cyclic stretch. CONCLUSIONS: These findings may facilitate the subsequent studies
      on the conversion of normal skin fibroblasts into hypertrophic scar cells, which
      should be considered in an interpretation of the mechanisms of hypertrophic
      scarring and skin mechanics.

PMID- 28570465
TI  - Shared Medical Appointments for Adolescent Breast Reduction.
AB  - Adolescents with macromastia face serious physical, emotional, and social burdens
      because of their large breast size. Studies have shown that reduction mammoplasty
      results in improvement in physical symptoms and quality of life for these
      patients. Shared medical appointments (SMAs), defined as individual patient
      physician encounters that occur in a group setting, have been successfully
      applied to clinics for adult patients seeking breast reduction for this
      condition. We decided to apply the SMA model to our clinic for preoperative
      evaluation of adolescent patients with macromastia. The purpose of this article
      is to describe how our clinic implemented SMAs, evaluate changes in clinic
      efficiency, measure patient quality of life before surgery, and assess patient
      and provider satisfaction with the SMA model.From February to June 2016, our
      department instituted SMAs for preoperative evaluation of female adolescent
      patients with macromastia. We measured days from referral to appointment for 25
      patients who attended SMAs and compared this with a retrospective cohort of 21
      patients who attended traditional visits from 2013 to 2015.Clinic efficiency was
      measured in new patients per hour. During SMAs, we also administered the BREAST
      Q, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, and patient and provider satisfaction
      surveys. Mean days between referral and office visit was reduced from 75.3 with
      traditional visits to 40.3 with shared appointments, although this finding was
      not statistically significant (P = 0.69). New patients per hour increased from
      1.33 with traditional visits to 3 with SMAs, without reducing time spent on
      education or with the surgeon. The mean preoperative BREAST-Q scores were less
      than 40 for the 4 tested domains, and the mean (SD) total Pediatric Quality of
      Life Inventory score was 56.7 (14.8). Patients and the provider reported high
      satisfaction with SMAs, and the provider wishes to continue using SMAs in the
      clinic.In conclusion, SMAs resulted in high patient and provider satisfaction and
      increased clinic efficiency, without sacrificing time spent on education or with
      the surgeon. Low quality-of-life scores demonstrate a need for these patients to
      be evaluated and treated for their condition. Measuring patient-reported outcomes
      with validated surveys and improving clinic efficiency without sacrificing
      patient care have the potential to increase value at our institution.

PMID- 28570466
TI  - Risk Factors for Urethrocutaneous Fistula Repair After Hypospadias Surgery: A
      Retrospective Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We review our experience in urethrocutaneous fistula (UCF) repair
      after hypospadias surgery to investigate the risk factors for unsuccessful
      outcome. METHODS: Two hundred eleven patients had undergone UCF repair in our
      department from January 2005 to December 2015. This study included 185 patients
      who were followed up for more than 6 months. The age of patients, size, site and
      number of UCFs, number of UCF repairs, urethral complications other than UCF, and
      postoperative infection were included as potential risk factors. Binary logistic
      regression analysis was used for multivariate analysis. Odds ratio (OR) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Stratified analysis and assessment of
      additive interaction were performed to have a better understanding of the
      relation between the risk factors. RESULTS: Urethrocutaneous fistula repairs
      failed in 38 patients (20.5%) at first attempt. In the univariate analysis, size
      of UCFs (P = 0.012), times of UCF repair (P = 0.008), and postoperative infection
      (P = 0.044) were statistically related with the outcome of surgery. In the
      multivariate analysis, only the size of UCFs (P = 0.030; adjusted OR, 2.42; 95%
      CI, 1.09-5.36) and times of repair (P = 0.008; adjusted OR, 3.09; 95% CI, 1.35
      7.07) were identified as risk factors for unsuccessful outcome. We had consistent
      results in the stratified analysis. No additive or multiplicative interaction
      between the 2 risk factors was found. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that UCF
      repairs after hypospadias surgery were easier to fail if one of the UCFs was
      larger than 2 mm or it had been repaired repeatedly. But when both factors
      existed, the increase of the risk was not statistically significant. The age of
      patients, site and number of UCFs, complications other than UCF, and
      postoperative infection were not significantly related to the success rate of UCF
      repair.

PMID- 28570470
TI  - Advances in Aesthetic Therapies: Plasma-Rich Protein Procedure for the Treatment
      of Alopecia.
AB  - Predominance of aesthetic options is growing and evolving to include procedures
      that have traditionally been much more invasive and fiscally challenging for the
      average patient. It is not uncommon now for the Canadian consumers to begin to
      look for lesser invasive options that show results significant enough to improve
      their appearance but that may not fall under the traditional health care
      coverage. One area that is evolving quickly is the nonsurgical treatment of hair
      loss. This is not a new condition, but generally the methods of treatment are not
      under the current health coverage; therefore, consumers are paying out of pocket
      to reduce or replace their hair loss. Recently, more options have evolved, and
      utilizing platelet-rich plasma has become more prevalent as a method to support
      hair growth and prevent hair loss.

PMID- 28570471
TI  - Vaginal Health and Wellness: Vaginal Laser Therapy.

PMID- 28570472
TI  - A Recipe for Improved Nonsurgical Cosmetic Outcomes: Know Your Herbs and Spices.
AB  - The nonsurgical cosmetic arena continues to grow, with more people consistently
      seeking minimally invasive procedures for facial rejuvenation. However, although
      these prospective patients are not seeking surgical correction to obtain their
      results, there is still the potential for nonsurgical procedures to yield adverse
      events posttreatment. Patients often do not realize that their dietary regimens
      may affect their nonsurgical cosmetic outcomes. For example, many patients
      desiring these types of treatments are often found to be taking prescription
      medications, herbs, and spices on a daily basis that may have the capacity to
      potentiate adverse outcomes such as bleeding and/or bruising. For these reasons,
      it is important for clinicians to be inclusive while taking health histories and
      to properly educate their patients so that administered treatments have the best
      chance of yielding the desired results. The focus of this article is to provide
      health care providers information on many of the herbs and spices that have the
      potential to negatively impact nonsurgical cosmetic outcomes.

PMID- 28570473
TI  - Evaluating Long-Term Outcomes following Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy and
      Reconstruction in the Irradiated Breast.

PMID- 28570474
TI  - Acellular Dermal Matrix for the Treatment and Prevention of Implant-Associated
      Breast Deformities.

PMID- 28570475
TI  - How to Write a Journal Article for PSN.
AB  - Are you considering writing a journal article for Plastic Surgical Nursing? This
      official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses presents the
      latest advances in plastic and reconstructive surgical nursing practice. The
      journal features clinical articles covering a wide variety of surgical and
      nonsurgical procedures. Patient education techniques and research findings are
      also included, as well as articles discussing the ethical issues and trends in
      this expanding clinical nursing specialty. This is a perfect forum to share your
      knowledge with others in the plastic surgery field, resulting in improved patient
      care. The editorial board is established and available to assist you in the
      writing process. It is important to know that you do not have to be an academic
      scholar to write an article; instead, you have information that you would like to
      share. This article is intended to provide key points to follow to make sure that
      writing your article is a positive experience.

PMID- 28570479
TI  - Sensitization of C-fiber nociceptors in mice with sickle cell disease is
      decreased by local inhibition of anandamide hydrolysis.
AB  - Chronic pain and hyperalgesia, as well as pain resulting from episodes of vaso
      occlusion, are characteristic features of sickle cell disease (SCD) and are
      difficult to treat. Since there is growing evidence that increasing local levels
      of endocannabinoids can decrease hyperalgesia, we examined the effects of URB597,
      a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor, which blocks the hydrolysis of the
      endogenous cannabinoid anandamide, on hyperalgesia and sensitization of cutaneous
      nociceptors in a humanized mouse model of SCD. Using homozygous HbSS-BERK sickle
      mice, we determined the effects of URB597 on mechanical hyperalgesia and on
      sensitization of C-fiber nociceptors in vivo. Intraplantar administration of
      URB597 (10 MUg in 10 MUL) decreased the frequency of withdrawal responses evoked
      by a von Frey monofilament (3.9 mN bending force) applied to the plantar hind
      paw. This was blocked by the CB1 receptor antagonist AM281 but not by the CB2
      receptor antagonist AM630. Also, URB597 decreased hyperalgesia in HbSS-BERK/CB2R
      sickle mice, further confirming the role of CB1 receptors in the effects produced
      by URB597. Electrophysiological recordings were made from primary afferent fibers
      of the tibial nerve in anesthetized mice. The proportion of Adelta- and C-fiber
      nociceptors that exhibited spontaneous activity and responses of C-fibers to
      mechanical and thermal stimuli were greater in HbSS-BERK sickle mice as compared
      to control HbAA-BERK mice. Spontaneous activity and evoked responses of
      nociceptors were decreased by URB597 via CB1 receptors. It is suggested that
      enhanced endocannabinoid activity in the periphery may be beneficial in
      alleviating chronic pain associated with SCD.

PMID- 28570481
TI  - The relationship of sociodemographic and psychological variables with chronic
      pain variables in a low-income population.
AB  - Chronic pain is a pervasive condition that is complicated by economic,
      educational, and racial disparities. This study analyzes key factors associated
      with chronic pain within an understudied and underserved population. The sample
      is characterized by a triple disparity with respect to income,
      education/literacy, and racial barriers that substantially increase the
      vulnerability to the negative consequences of chronic pain. The study examined
      the pretreatment data of 290 participants enrolled in the Learning About My Pain
      trial, a randomized controlled comparative effectiveness trial of psychosocial
      interventions (B.E.T., Principal Investigator, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
      Institute Contract No. 941; clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT01967342) for
      chronic pain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses evaluated the
      relationships among sociodemographic (sex, age, race, poverty status, literacy,
      and education level) and psychological (depressive symptoms and pain
      catastrophizing) variables and pain interference, pain severity, and disability.
      The indirect effects of depressive symptoms and pain catastrophizing on the
      sociodemographic and pain variables were investigated using bootstrap resampling.
      Reversed mediation models were also examined. Results suggested that the
      experience of chronic pain within this low-income sample is better accounted for
      by psychological factors than sex, age, race, poverty status, literacy, and
      education level. Depressive symptoms and pain catastrophizing mediated the
      relationships between age and pain variables, whereas pain catastrophizing
      mediated the effects of primary literacy and poverty status. Some reversed models
      were equivalent to the hypothesized models, suggesting the possibility of
      bidirectionality. Although cross-sectional findings cannot establish causality,
      our results highlight the critical role psychological factors play in individuals
      with chronic pain and multiple health disparities.

PMID- 28570480
TI  - Sequential analysis of child pain behavior and maternal responses: an
      observational study.
AB  - This laboratory-based study examined lagged associations between child pain
      behavior and maternal responses as a function of maternal catastrophizing (CAT).
      Mothers completed the parent version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale. Children
      participated in a validated water ingestion procedure to induce abdominal
      discomfort with mothers present. Video recordings of their interactions were
      edited into 30-second segments and coded by 2 raters for presence of child pain
      behavior, maternal solicitousness, and nontask conversation. Kappa reliabilities
      ranged from 0.83 to 0.95. Maternal CAT was positively associated with child pain
      behavior and maternal solicitousness, P values <0.05. In lagged analyses, child
      pain behavior during a given segment (T) was positively associated with child
      pain behavior during the subsequent segment (T + 1), P <0.05. Maternal CAT
      moderated the association between (1) child pain behavior at T and maternal
      solicitousness at T + 1, and (2) solicitousness at T and child pain behavior at T
      + 1, P values <0.05. Mothers higher in CAT responded solicitously at T + 1
      irrespective of their child's preceding pain behavior, and their children
      exhibited pain behavior at T + 1 irrespective of the mother's preceding
      solicitousness. Mothers lower in CAT were more likely to respond solicitously at
      T + 1 after child pain behavior, and their children were more likely to exhibit
      pain behavior at T + 1 after maternal solicitousness. These findings indicate
      that high CAT mothers and their children exhibit inflexible patterns of maternal
      solicitousness and child pain behavior, and that such families may benefit from
      interventions to decrease CAT and develop more adaptive responses.

PMID- 28570483
TI  - The Efficacy of Superior Inverted Internal Limiting Membrane Flap Technique for
      the Treatment of Full-Thickness Macular Hole.

PMID- 28570484
TI  - OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY FEATURES OF CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION
      ASSOCIATED WITH CHOROIDAL NEVUS.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the imaging features of choroidal neovascularization (CNV)
      associated with choroidal nevus using optical coherence tomography angiography
      (OCT-A) imaging. METHODS: Retrospective observational case series. Patients with
      CNV secondary to choroidal nevus underwent full imaging examination including
      fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography,
      spectral domain OCT, and OCT-A. The OCT-A features were analyzed and correlated
      with conventional angiography findings and spectral domain OCT. RESULTS: There
      were 11 eyes from 11 patients (6 men and 5 women, mean age of 65 +/- 20.4 years)
      included in the analysis. Fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green
      angiography disclosed CNV in 90% and 83%, respectively. Optical coherence
      tomography angiography displayed CNV network in 11 eyes (100%) and the pattern
      was classified as "sea-fan" in 8 (73%) and "long filamentous linear vessels" in 3
      (27%) eyes. Distinct from CNV, intrinsic vasculature within the nevus was
      observed in six eyes (55%), corresponding to those with chronic retinal pigment
      epithelium changes. CONCLUSION: Optical coherence tomography angiography is a
      useful imaging technique to disclose CNV associated with choroidal nevus. Despite
      the presence of intraretinal or subretinal fluid and hemorrhage, OCT-A revealed
      the CNV in all cases, results noninferior to indocyanine green angiography. This
      imaging modality can be useful for analysis of long-standing nevi with related
      exudation.

PMID- 28570482
TI  - Targeting the S1P/S1PR1 axis mitigates cancer-induced bone pain and
      neuroinflammation.
AB  - Metastatic bone pain is the single most common form of cancer pain and persists
      as a result of peripheral and central inflammatory, as well as neuropathic
      mechanisms. Here, we provide the first characterization of sphingolipid
      metabolism alterations in the spinal cord occurring during cancer-induced bone
      pain (CIBP). Following femoral arthrotomy and syngenic tumor implantation in
      mice, ceramides decreased with corresponding increases in sphingosine and the
      bioactive sphingolipid metabolite, sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). Intriguingly,
      de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis was increased as shown by the elevations of
      dihydro-ceramides and dihydro-S1P. We next identified the S1P receptor subtype 1
      (S1PR1) as a novel target for therapeutic intervention. Intrathecal or systemic
      administration of the competitive and functional S1PR1 antagonists, TASP0277308
      and FTY720/Fingolimod, respectively, attenuated cancer-induced spontaneous
      flinching and guarding. Inhibiting CIBP by systemic delivery of FTY720 did not
      result in antinociceptive tolerance over 7 days. FTY720 administration enhanced
      IL-10 in the lumbar ipsilateral spinal cord of CIBP animals and intrathecal
      injection of an IL-10 neutralizing antibody mitigated the ability of systemic
      FTY720 to reverse CIBP. FTY720 treatment was not associated with alterations in
      bone metabolism in vivo. Studies here identify a novel mechanism to inhibit bone
      cancer pain by blocking the actions of the bioactive metabolites S1P and dihydro
      S1P in lumbar spinal cord induced by bone cancer and support potential fast-track
      clinical application of the FDA-approved drug, FTY720, as a therapeutic avenue
      for CIBP.

PMID- 28570485
TI  - RISK FACTORS FOR RECURRENCES OF CENTRAL SEROUS CHORIORETINOPATHY.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe recurrence patterns and investigate candidate risk factors
      for recurrences of central serous chorioretinopathy. METHODS: In 46 patients with
      acute central serous chorioretinopathy and follow-up >12 months after first
      episode resolution, parameters influencing recurrences were retrospectively
      evaluated using a frailty Cox proportional hazard survival model. Covariates
      included baseline systemic findings: age, gender, corticosteroid use, stress,
      shift work, sleep disorder, depression, allergy, cardiovascular risk; baseline
      optical coherence tomography findings: subfoveal choroidal thickness, pigment
      epithelial detachment pattern (regular/bump/irregular), number of subretinal
      hyperreflective foci at leakage site; baseline angiographic findings: fluorescein
      leakage intensity (intense/moderate/subtle/absent), hyperpermeability pattern on
      indocyanine-green angiography (focal/multifocal); and episode-related findings:
      duration and treatment of previous episode. RESULTS: Twenty of 46 subjects (43%)
      presented >=1 recurrences during a mean follow-up of 29.9 +/- 9.5 months (range,
      15-54 months). Follow-up duration did not differ between cases with or without
      recurrences (P = 0.3). Worse final visual acuity levels (logarithm of the minimal
      angle of resolution) were associated with a higher number of episodes during
      follow-up (P = 0.032, r = 0.28). In a univariate analysis, higher subfoveal
      choroidal thickness (P = 0.021), nonintense fluorescein leakage (=
      moderate/subtle/absent, P = 0.033), multiple subretinal hyperreflective foci (P =
      0.026), and shift work (P < 0.0001) were significantly associated with
      recurrences, with a near-significant influence of irregular pigment epithelial
      detachment (P = 0.093). In a multivariate analysis, higher subfoveal choroidal
      thickness (P = 0.007), nonintense fluorescein leakage (P = 0.003) and shift work
      (P < 0.0001) remained significant and independent risk factors for recurrences.
      CONCLUSION: Multiple factors influence the risk of central serous
      chorioretinopathy recurrence. These findings may contribute to identify patients
      at higher risk, who could benefit from earlier or more intensive treatment.

PMID- 28570486
TI  - HANDHELD SPECTRAL DOMAIN OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING THROUGH THE
      UNDILATED PUPIL IN INFANTS BORN PRETERM OR WITH HYPOXIC INJURY OR HYDROCEPHALUS.
AB  - PURPOSE: The authors investigated feasibility of undilated handheld spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) retinal imaging in preterm infants
      and children with neurologic abnormalities. METHODS: Under an institutional
      review board-approved protocol, the authors attempted handheld SDOCT imaging of
      the retina, choroid, and optic nerve in infants and young children without pupil
      dilation. Scans were analyzed for quality and successful capture of foveal, optic
      nerve, and retinal structural parameters and abnormalities. RESULTS: The authors
      obtained images through an undilated pupil of 11 infants/children over 28 eye
      imaging sessions, 27 at the bedside without sedation, and one under anesthesia.
      Infants had retinopathy of prematurity (n = 8), hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy
      (n = 2), or obstructive hydrocephalus (n = 1 child). Pupil sizes ranged from 1.0
      mm to 3.5 mm. The authors captured fovea and optic nerve scans in 25/28 eye
      imaging sessions, with scans of adequate quality to discern prespecified foveal
      and optic nerve morphology, and of the 25 sessions, the choroidal-scleral
      junction was visible in all but 6 sessions. CONCLUSION: Undilated, handheld SDOCT
      imaging is a potential alternative method to evaluate the retina and optic nerve
      in patients with relative contraindication to pharmacological pupil dilation.
      This approach will enable the study of the eye-brain connection and ocular
      manifestations of neurologic diseases.

PMID- 28570487
TI  - Stopping the Resuscitation When Family Is Present: Teaching Ethical and
      Professional Challenges.

PMID- 28570488
TI  - Experience of Simulation-Based Training in a Developing Country.

PMID- 28570489
TI  - Possible Hormone Predictors Of Physical Performance In Adolescent Team Sport
      Athletes.
AB  - The research aim of this study was to determine possible hormone predictors of
      physical performance in adolescent team sport athletes. Saliva samples were
      collected immediately prior to performance testing sessions from 114 state squad
      athletes (77 male, 37 female) participating in either Australian football,
      basketball, hockey, or netball. Participants completed tests of aerobic and
      anaerobic capacity, agility, power and speed. Samples were collected over 22
      months at quarterly, six-monthly and/or yearly intervals depending on the testing
      schedule of the athlete. Saliva was analysed for testosterone (T), cortisol (C),
      estradiol (E) and progesterone (P) levels. A strong negative correlation existed
      between multistage fitness test performance and T:E ratio (r=-0.76, p=0.01) in
      females not taking oral contraceptives and a strong positive correlation existed
      between repeat agility total time and estradiol levels (r=-0.71, p=0.001) in
      females taking oral contraceptives. In males, strong negative correlations were
      evident for individual changes in planned agility time and estradiol levels
      (r=0.87, p=0.02), and CMJ height and T:C (r=-0.88, p=0.01). In females taking
      oral contraceptives a strong positive correlation was noted between individual
      change in yo-yo intermittent recovery test performance and T:E (r=0.74, p=0.01)
      and a strong negative correlation was noted between 20m speed and T:P (r=0.73,
      p=0.01). In females not taking oral contraceptives a strong negative correlation
      was found between individual change in CMJ height and T:P (r=-0.72, p=0.02). The
      findings show that in adolescent team sport athletes the P:E, T:E and the T:P
      ratios are important predictors of performance in tests of physical capacity. The
      findings also indicate estradiol and progesterone have a predictive function in
      the physical performance of adolescent male team sport athletes.

PMID- 28570490
TI  - A Review of the Biomechanical Differences Between the High-Bar and Low-Bar Back
      Squat.
AB  - Glassbrook, DJ, Helms, ER, Brown, SR, and Storey, AG. A review of the
      biomechanical differences between the high-bar and low-bar back-squat. J Strength
      Cond Res 31(9): 2618-2634, 2017-The back-squat is a common exercise in strength
      and conditioning for a variety of sports. It is widely regarded as a fundamental
      movement to increase and measure lower-body and trunk function, as well as an
      effective injury rehabilitation exercise. There are typically 2 different bar
      positions used when performing the back-squat: the traditional "high-bar" back
      squat (HBBS) and the "low-bar" back-squat (LBBS). Different movement strategies
      are used to ensure that the center of mass remains in the base of support for
      balance during the execution of these lifts. These movement strategies manifest
      as differences in (a) joint angles, (b) vertical ground reaction forces, and (c)
      the activity of key muscles. This review showed that the HBBS is characterized by
      greater knee flexion, lesser hip flexion, a more upright torso, and a deeper
      squat. The LBBS is characterized by greater hip flexion and, therefore, a greater
      forward lean. However, there are limited differences in vertical ground reaction
      forces between the HBBS and LBBS. The LBBS can also be characterized by a greater
      muscle activity of the erector spinae, adductors, and gluteal muscles, whereas
      the HBBS can be characterized by greater quadriceps muscle activity.
      Practitioners seeking to develop the posterior-chain hip musculature (i.e.,
      gluteal, hamstring, and erector muscle groups) may seek to use the LBBS. In
      comparison, those seeking to replicate movements with a more upright torso and
      contribution from the quadriceps may rather seek to use the HBBS in training.

PMID- 28570491
TI  - Effects of a 6-Week Upper Extremity Low-Volume, High Intensity Interval Training
      on Oxygen Uptake, Peak Power Output and Total Exercise Time.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of upper extremity (UE) high
      intensity interval training (HIIT) to UE continuous training (CT) when training
      at a similar intensity. 20 participants (mean age = 23 +/- 3 yrs) were randomly
      assigned to either a HIIT (n = 10) or CT (n = 10) group. Participants completed a
      graded exercise test utilizing arm cranking prior to and following 6 wks (2
      sessions . wk-1) of UE training. During sessions, HIIT performed 10 repetitions
      of 60 s of work at 92.3 +/- 1.0% of the arm HRpeak (%aHRpeak) and 60 s of passive
      recovery (%aHRpeak = 73.0 +/- 4.0%) yielding an average training intensity of
      82.6 +/- 1.5 %aHRpeak. CT exercised for 20 min. at an average intensity of 81.9
      +/- 2.2 %aHRpeak. Following training HIIT showed greater improvement in
      V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak compared to CT (Delta = 4.1 ml . min-1 . kg-1,
      95%CI: 1.3 - 6.9 ml . min-1 . kg-1, p = .007). Total exercise time during the
      post-test GXT was also improved as a result of HIIT (Delta = 1.4 min, 95%CI: 0.4 
      2.3 min, p = .008). Both groups improved peak power output, but no difference
      was observed between them (Delta = 3.3 W, 95%CI: -3.3 - 9.9 W, p = .305). For a
      similar time investment, HIIT appeared to improve cardiopulmonary capacity and
      exercise time to a greater extent than CT and may be a time-efficient alternative
      for those who incorporate UE aerobic activity into a training program.

PMID- 28570492
TI  - Estimation of peak muscle power from a countermovement vertical jump in children
      and adolescents.
AB  - Several equations to predict muscle power (MP) from vertical jump height (VJH)
      have been developed in adults. However, few have been derived in children. We
      therefore aimed to: 1) evaluate the validity of existing MP estimation equations
      from a vertical countermovement jump (CMJ) in children and adolescents, and 2)
      develop and validate a new MP estimation equation for use in children and
      adolescents. We measured peak MP (Watts) and VJH (cm) during a CMJ using a force
      platform in 249 children and adolescents (9-17 years; 119 boys). We compared
      actual (force platform) to predicted (twelve existing prediction equations) MP
      using repeated measures ANOVA and estimated bias using modified Bland-Altman
      plots. We developed a new prediction equation using stepwise linear regression,
      assessed predictive error using leave-one-out and ten-fold cross-validation and
      externally validated the equation in an independent sample (n=100). All existing
      prediction equations demonstrated some degree of bias, either systematic bias
      (mean differences ranging 178 W to 1377 W; 8%-64%), bias at the extremes or
      interactions with sex. Our new prediction equation estimates MP from VJH and body
      mass: Power (W) = 54.2*VJH(cm) + 34.4*body mass(kg) - 1520.4. With this new
      equation, there was no difference between actual and predicted MP (0%) and
      negligible differences (0.2-0.9%) in R and root mean square error between our
      observed and cross-validated sets. Actual and predicted MP were not different in
      our external validation (p=0.12). The new equation demonstrates excellent
      validity and can be used to predict MP from a CMJ in children and adolescents.

PMID- 28570493
TI  - Effects of intra-cyclic velocity variations on the drag exerted by different
      swimming parachutes.
AB  - Swimming parachutes are often used as a tool for resisted swimming training.
      However, little is known on their behavior in terms of exerted drag as a
      consequence of intra-cyclic velocity fluctuations. This study aimed to assess the
      drag provided by two swimming parachutes of different shape, also characterized
      by different volumes and cross-sectional areas, under conditions of velocity
      variations in the range of those occurring in swimming. A flat square shaped
      parachute (FLAT, cross-sectional area and volume: 400 cm; 0.12 l) and a truncated
      cone shaped parachute (CONE, 380 cm; 7.15 l) were passively towed: 1) at constant
      velocities ranging from 1.0 to 2.2 m/s, and 2) with velocity fluctuations from 10
      to 40 % around a mean of 1.6 m/s. At constant velocities, FLAT showed 0.1 N (at
      1.0 m/s) to 10.8 N (at 2.2 m/s) higher drag than CONE. For both parachutes, the
      average drag showed trivial differences between constant and any fluctuating
      velocity. Conversely, the maximum drag values were higher under conditions of
      velocity fluctuations than the respective values estimated under stationary
      instantaneous velocity, although this was observed in CONE only. These findings
      suggest that swimmers and coaches can select the parachute characteristics based
      on whether the focus is on increasing/decreasing the average drag or regulating
      the maximum resistance provided.

PMID- 28570494
TI  - Endurance Running Training Individually-Guided By Hrv In Untrained Women.
AB  - The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of HRV-guided training compared
      to a standardized prescription on i) time to complete 5-km running performance
      (t5km), ii) peak treadmill running speed (Vpeak) and its time limit (tlim at
      Vpeak), and iii) autonomic cardiac modulation (i.e., parasympathetic activity and
      recovery) in untrained women. Additionally, we correlated changes in t5km with
      changes in Vpeak, tlim at Vpeak and autonomic cardiac modulation. Thirty-six
      untrained women were divided into a HRV-guided training group (HRVG) and a
      control group (CG). The CG followed a pre-defined program, alternating moderate
      intensity continuous training (MICT) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
      The determination of MICT or HIIT was based on the pre-training HRV for HRVG.
      MICT was performed if HRV was < mean - 1 SD of previous measures. Otherwise, HIIT
      was prescribed. The t5km, Vpeak, tlim at Vpeak, parasympathetic activity (i.e.,
      rMSSD) and parasympathetic reactivation (i.e., HRR) were measured before and
      after the training period. The t5km decreased to a greater magnitude in the HRVG
      (-17.5+/-5.6% vs. -14+/-4.7%; Effect Size (ES) between-group
      difference=moderate). rMSSD and tlim at Vpeak only improved in HRVG (+23.3+/
      27.8% and +23.6+/-31.9%, respectively). The HRVG experienced greater improvements
      in Vpeak and HRR (Vpeak: 10+/-7.3% vs. 8.2+/-4.7%; HRR: 19.1+/-28.1% vs. 12.6+/
      12.9%; ES between-group difference=small). Although HRVG performed less MICT than
      CG, the volume of MICT was negatively related to changes in t5km. Vpeak changes
      were highly correlated with t5km changes. The greater improvements in HRVG for
      t5km and autonomic modulation reinforce the potential application of this tool.

PMID- 28570495
TI  - Power profiles of competitive and non-competitive mountain bikers.
AB  - The performance of Olympic distance cross-country mountain bikers (XCO-MTB) is
      affected by constraints such as erosion of track surfaces and mass start
      congestion which can affect race results. Standardised laboratory assessments
      quantify inter-seasonal and intra-seasonal cycling potential through the
      assessment of multiple physiological capacities. Therefore, this study examined
      whether the power profile assessment could discriminate between competitive XCO
      MTB and non-competitive mountain bikers (NC-MTB). Secondly, it aimed to report
      normative power profile data for competitive XCO-MTB cyclists. Twenty-nine male
      participants were recruited across groups of XCO-MTB (n=14) and NC-MTB (n=15)
      mountain bikers. Each cyclist completed a power profile assessment that consisted
      of increasing duration maximal efforts (6, 15, 30, 60, 240 and 600 s) that were
      interspersed by longer rest periods (174, 225, 330, 480 and 600 s) between
      efforts. Normative power outputs were established for XCO-MTB cyclists ranging
      between 13.8 +/- 1.5 W.kg (5 s effort) to 4.1 +/- 0.6 W.kg (600 s effort). No
      differences in absolute peak power or cadence were identified between groups
      across any effort length (p>0.05). However, the XCO-MTB cyclists produced greater
      mean power outputs relative to body mass than the NC-MTB during the 60 s (6.9 +/-
      0.8 vs 6.4 +/- 0.6 W.kg; p=0.002), 240 s (4.7 +/- 0.7 vs 3.8 +/- 0.4 W.kg;
      p<0.001) and 600 s (4.1 +/- 0.6 vs 3.4 +/- 0.3 W.kg; p<0.001) efforts. The power
      profile assessment is a useful discriminative assessment tool for XCO-MTB and
      highlights the importance of aerobic power for XCO-MTB performance.

PMID- 28570496
TI  - The Effect of Training Load Distribution on Aerobic Fitness Measures in Hurling
      Players.
AB  - The aim of the current investigation was to quantify the training intensity
      distribution of hurling players and their association to changes in aerobic
      fitness measures within hurling players. Thirty hurling players (n = 30; age 25.5
      +/- 3.2 years; height 178.9 +/- 3.2 cm; body mass 78.5 30 +/- 4.5 kg) were
      observed during the pre-championship training period (12 weeks). Aerobic fitness
      measures (VO2max), peak treadmill velocity (PVT; km.h) and heart rates (HR) at 2
      and 4 mmol.L blood-lactate concentrations, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test
      performance (Yo-YoIR1) were assessed pre and post the training period. Training
      intensities were categorized using 3 individualised HR zones based on the
      following criteria: low intensity (<= HR 2 mmol.L), moderate intensity (between
      HR 2 and 4 mmol.L), and high intensity (>=HR 4 mmol.L). Analysis of 1025
      individual training sessions showed that players spent 58.1 +/- 2.5%, 24.3 +/-
      2.9% and 17.6 +/- 1.3% of time in the low, moderate and high intensity zones. The
      training time spent at high intensity (Zone 3) showed moderate to large
      associations with improvements in S2 (r = 0.80; p = 0.04) and S4 (r = 0.58; p =
      0.03). Similar trends were observed for time spent in high intensity and
      improvements in VO2max (r = 0.77; p = 0.001) and Yo-YoIR1 performance (r = 0.65;
      p = 0.05). Hurling players have been shown to spend the majority of training time
      in low (<= HR 2 mmol.L) to moderate intensity (between HR 2 and 4 mmol.L)
      training. However, only the time spent at high intensity (>= 90% of maximal HR)
      was related to changes in aerobic fitness. These results support the usefulness
      of the quantification of aerobic training load using HR. The study also supports
      the efficacy of spending elements of training time within the high intensity zone
      in order to increase hurling player's aerobic fitness characteristics.

PMID- 28570497
TI  - A Time-Out Before Every ECT Procedure.

PMID- 28570498
TI  - Factors Associated With Global Variability in Electroconvulsive Therapy
      Utilization.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to investigate the social and economic
      factors that contribute to global variability in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
      utilization and to contrast these to the factors associated with antidepressant
      medication rates. METHODS: Rates of ECT and antidepressant utilization across
      nations and data on health, social, and economic indices were obtained from
      multiple international organizations including the World Health Organization and
      the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as from the
      published literature. To assess whether relationships exist between selected
      indices and each of the outcome measures, a correlational analysis was conducted
      using Pearson correlation coefficients. Those that were significant at a level of
      P < 0.05 in the correlation analysis were selected for entry into the
      multivariate analyses. Selected predictor variables were entered into a stepwise
      multiple regression models for ECT and antidepressant utilization rates
      separately. RESULTS: A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that
      government expenditure on mental health was the only significant contributor to
      the model, explaining 34.2% of global variation in ECT use worldwide. Human
      Development Index was the only variable found to be significantly correlated with
      global antidepressant utilization, accounting for 71% of the variation in global
      antidepressant utilization. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that across the
      globe ECT but not antidepressant medication utilization is associated with the
      degree to which a nation financially invests in mental health care for its
      citizens.

PMID- 28570499
TI  - Stable Remission of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome and Major Depression
      With Citalopram and 1-Month Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Case
      Report.

PMID- 28570500
TI  - Concurrent Electroconvulsive Therapy and Bupropion Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bupropion is associated with a dose-dependent increased risk of
      seizures. Use of concomitant bupropion and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
      remains controversial because of an increased risk of prolonged seizures. This is
      the first systematic evaluation of the effect of bupropion on ECT. METHODS: A
      case group (n = 119), patients treated with concomitant ECT and bupropion, was
      compared with an age and gender frequency-matched control group (n = 261),
      treated with only ECT. Electroconvulsive therapy treatment data including seizure
      length, number of treatments, and concurrent medications were extracted.
      Longitudinal mixed models examined ECT versus ECT + bupropion group differences
      over the course of treatments measured by seizure duration (electroencephalogram
      [EEG] and motor). Multivariable models examined the total number of treatments
      and first and last seizure duration. All models considered group differences with
      ECT treatment measures adjusted for age, gender, benzodiazepine treatment, lead
      placement, and setting. RESULTS: Electroconvulsive therapy treatment with
      bupropion led to shorter motor seizure duration (0.047) and EEG seizure duration
      (P = 0.001). The number of ECT treatments (7.3 vs 7.0 treatments; P = 0.23),
      respectively, or the probability of a prolonged seizure (P = 0.15) was not
      significantly different. Benzodiazepine use was significantly more common in
      control subjects (P = 0.01). LIMITATIONS: This is a retrospective analysis
      limited in part by unavailable variables (seizure threshold, nature of EEG and
      motor seizure monitoring, type of ECT device, dosing and formulation of
      bupropion, and duration of the current depressive illness). CONCLUSIONS: This
      study revealed a significantly shorter duration in seizure length with ECT +
      concomitant bupropion, but not in the number of required treatments in those
      treated compared with ECT without bupropion. There remains a critical need to
      reevaluate the efficacy of concomitant use of psychotropic medications + ECT.

PMID- 28570502
TI  - QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Rate* of Motor Vehicle Traffic Deaths,? by Urbanization
      of County of ResidenceS - 2005 and 2015.
AB  - The overall age-adjusted rate of motor vehicle traffic deaths in the United
      States decreased 25% from 14.6 deaths per 100,000 population in 2005 to 10.9 in
      2015. During this period, the rate declined in each of the county groupings, with
      the largest decline of 26% in the large fringe metropolitan and micropolitan
      counties and the smallest decline of 20% in rural counties. For both years, the
      rates for motor vehicle traffic deaths were higher in nonmetropolitan areas than
      in metropolitan areas. In 2015, the age-adjusted rate in rural counties was
      nearly three times the rate for large central metropolitan counties (23.0
      compared with 7.9 per 100,000).

PMID- 28570501
TI  - Estrogen Receptor Mediates the Radiosensitivity of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
      Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate differences in the radiosensitivities of
      triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and luminal-type breast cancer cells and to
      investigate the effects of estrogen receptor (ER) expression on the biological
      behaviors of the cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS Colony-forming assays were performed
      to detect differences in radiosensitivities in breast cancer cell lines. Gene
      transfection technology was used to introduce the expression of ERalpha in TNBC
      cells to compare the difference in radiosensitivity between the TNBC cells and
      ERalpha transfected cells. CCK-8 assays were used to observe changes in the
      proliferation of TNBC cells after ERalpha transfection. Immunofluorescence was
      used to detect the number of gammaH2AX foci in nuclei. Flow cytometry was used to
      detect changes in cell cycle distribution and apoptosis. Western blotting was
      used to detect changes in autophagy-associated proteins. RESULTS The
      radioresistance of the TNBC cell line MDA-MB-231 (231 cells) was greater than
      that of ERalpha-positive luminal-type breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Moreover,
      231 cell proliferation and radioresistance decreased after ERalpha transfection.
      Interestingly, ERalpha-transfected 231 cells showed increased double-stranded
      breaks and delayed repair compared with 231 cells, and ERalpha-transfected 231
      cells showed increased G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis after irradiation compared
      with those in 231 cells. ERalpha transfection in 231 cells reduced autophagy
      related protein expression, suggesting that autophagy activity decreased in 231
      ER-positive cells after irradiation. CONCLUSIONS TNBC cells were more resistant
      to radiation than luminal-type breast cancer cells. ERalpha expression may have
      major roles in modulating breast cancer cell radiosensitivity.

PMID- 28570503
TI  - Notes from the Field: Veillonella Misidentified as Francisella tularensis -
      Idaho, 2016.

PMID- 28570504
TI  - Amanita phalloides Mushroom Poisonings - Northern California, December 2016.
AB  - Amanita phalloides, colloquially known as the "death cap," belongs to the
      Phalloideae section of the Amanita family of mushrooms and is responsible for
      most deaths following ingestion of foraged mushrooms worldwide (1). On November
      28, 2016, members of the Bay Area Mycological Society notified personnel at the
      California Poison Control System (CPCS) of an unusually large A. phalloides bloom
      in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, coincident with the abundant rainfall and
      recent warm weather. Five days later, CPCS received notification of the first
      human A. phalloides poisoning of the season. Over the following 2 weeks, CPCS was
      notified of an additional 13 cases of hepatotoxicity resulting from A. phalloides
      ingestion. In the past few years before this outbreak, CPCS received reports of
      only a few mushroom poisoning cases per year. A summary of 14 reported cases is
      presented here. Data extracted from patient medical charts revealed a pattern of
      delayed gastrointestinal manifestations of intoxication leading to dehydration
      and hepatotoxicity. Three patients received liver transplants and all but one
      recovered completely. The morbidity and potential lethality associated with A.
      phalloides ingestion are serious public health concerns and warrant medical
      provider education and dissemination of information cautioning against consuming
      foraged wild mushrooms.

PMID- 28570505
TI  - Notice to Readers: Special Podcast: "Defining Moments in MMWR History - E. coli
      O157:H7".
AB  - MMWR has released a special podcast that highlights the leading role that MMWR
      played in reporting on the deadly multistate Escherichia coli O157:H7 foodborne
      outbreak of 1993. "Defining Moments in MMWR History - E. coli O157:H7" features
      an interview with Dr. Beth Bell conducted by MMWR Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sonja
      Rasmussen. Dr. Bell, who served as director of the National Center for Emerging
      and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) from 2010 to 2017 and as an Epidemic
      Intelligence Service Officer during 1992-1994, was one of the first public health
      responders on the scene for this landmark public health emergency.

PMID- 28570506
TI  - Strategies for Preventing HIV Infection Among HIV-Uninfected Women Attempting
      Conception with HIV-Infected Men - United States.
AB  - By the end of 2014, a total of 955,081 persons in the United States (299.5 per
      100,000 population) had received a diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus type
      1 (HIV-1) infection (1). The annual estimated number of HIV infections and
      incidence rate in the United States decreased from 2010 to 2014, and the survival
      rate has increased over time (1). Effective highly active antiretroviral therapy
      (HAART) is helping persons with HIV to live longer, healthier lives. Many of
      these persons, including an unknown percentage in discordant relationships (i.e.,
      one partner is HIV-infected, and the other is HIV-uninfected), might wish to have
      their own biologic children. When the female partner is HIV-infected and the male
      partner is not, a discordant couple can undergo autologous sperm intrauterine
      inseminations to achieve conception without placing the man at risk for
      infection. However, for HIV-discordant couples in which the man is HIV-infected
      and the woman is not, strategies to minimize the risk for sexual transmission are
      needed. In 1988, CDC recommended against insemination with semen from HIV
      infected men (2). Since 1988, new information has emerged regarding prevention of
      HIV transmission in HIV-discordant couples. This report reviews laboratory and
      epidemiologic information regarding the prevention of HIV transmission for HIV
      discordant couples, in which the male is HIV-infected and the female is HIV
      uninfected, who would like to attempt conception.

PMID- 28570508
TI  - En Face Preparation of Mouse Blood Vessels.
AB  - Sections of paraffin embedded tissues are routinely used for studying tissue
      histology and histopathology. However, it is difficult to determine what the
      three-dimensional tissue morphology is from such sections. In addition, the
      sections of tissues examined may not contain the region within the tissue that is
      necessary for the purpose of the ongoing study. This latter limitation hinders
      histopathological studies of blood vessels since vascular lesions develop in a
      focalized manner. This requires a method that enables us to survey a wide area of
      the blood vessel wall, from its surface to deeper regions. A whole mount en face
      preparation of blood vessels fulfills this requirement. In this article, we will
      demonstrate how to make en face preparations of the mouse aorta and carotid
      artery and to immunofluorescently stain them for confocal microscopy and other
      types of fluorescence-based imaging.

PMID- 28570507
TI  - Trends in Prevalence of Advanced HIV Disease at Antiretroviral Therapy Enrollment
      - 10 Countries, 2004-2015.
AB  - Monitoring prevalence of advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease
      (i.e., CD4+ T-cell count <200 cells/MUL) among persons starting antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) is important to understand ART program outcomes, inform HIV
      prevention strategy, and forecast need for adjunctive therapies.*,?,S To assess
      trends in prevalence of advanced disease at ART initiation in 10 high-burden
      countries during 2004-2015, records of 694,138 ART enrollees aged >=15 years from
      797 ART facilities were analyzed. Availability of national electronic medical
      record systems allowed up-to-date evaluation of trends in Haiti (2004-2015),
      Mozambique (2004-2014), and Namibia (2004-2012), where prevalence of advanced
      disease at ART initiation declined from 75% to 34% (p<0.001), 73% to 37%
      (p<0.001), and 80% to 41% (p<0.001), respectively. Significant declines in
      prevalence of advanced disease during 2004-2011 were observed in Nigeria,
      Swaziland, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The encouraging declines in prevalence
      of advanced disease at ART enrollment are likely due to scale-up of testing and
      treatment services and ART-eligibility guidelines encouraging earlier ART
      initiation. However, in 2015, approximately a third of new ART patients still
      initiated ART with advanced HIV disease. To reduce prevalence of advanced disease
      at ART initiation, adoption of World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended "treat
      all" guidelines and strategies to facilitate earlier HIV testing and treatment
      are needed to reduce HIV-related mortality and HIV incidence.

PMID- 28570509
TI  - Mapping RNA-RNA Interactions Globally Using Biotinylated Psoralen.
AB  - Knowing how RNAs interact with themselves and with others is key to understanding
      RNA based gene regulation in the cell. While examples of RNA-RNA interactions
      such as microRNA-mRNA interactions have been shown to regulate gene expression,
      the full extent to which RNA interactions occur in the cell is still unknown.
      Previous methods to study RNA interactions have primarily focused on subsets of
      RNAs that are interacting with a particular protein or RNA species. Here, we
      detail a method named Sequencing of Psoralen crosslinked, Ligated, and Selected
      Hybrids (SPLASH) that allows genome-wide capture of RNA interactions in vivo in
      an unbiased manner. SPLASH utilizes in vivo crosslinking, proximity ligation, and
      high throughput sequencing to identify intramolecular and intermolecular RNA base
      pairing partners globally. SPLASH can be applied to different organisms including
      bacteria, yeast and human cells, as well as diverse cellular conditions to
      facilitate the understanding of the dynamics of RNA organization under diverse
      cellular contexts. The entire experimental SPLASH protocol takes about 5 days to
      complete and the computational workflow takes about 7 days to complete.

PMID- 28570510
TI  - Simultaneous Isolation of High Quality Cardiomyocytes, Endothelial Cells, and
      Fibroblasts from an Adult Rat Heart.
AB  - The rat is an important animal model used in cardiovascular research, and rat
      cardiac cells are used routinely for in vitro analysis of the molecular
      mechanisms of cardiovascular disease progression such as cardiac hypertrophy,
      fibrosis, and atherosclerosis. Although several attempts with variable success
      have been made to develop immortalized cell lines from the cardiovascular system
      to understand these cellular mechanisms, primary cells offer a more natural and
      close to in vivo environment for such studies. Therefore, different laboratories
      working on a particular cell type have developed protocols to isolate individual
      types of rat cardiac cells of interest. A protocol that allows the isolation of
      more than one cell type, however, is missing. Here an optimized protocol is
      described that allows the isolation of high-quality major cardiac cell types
      (cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts) from a single preparation
      and enables their use for cellular analyses. This permits the most efficient use
      of available resources, which may save time and reduce research costs.

PMID- 28570512
TI  - Atomic Force Microscopy Investigations of DNA Lesion Recognition in Nucleotide
      Excision Repair.
AB  - AFM imaging is a powerful technique for the study of protein-DNA interactions.
      This single molecule method allows the simultaneous resolution of different
      molecules and molecular assemblies in a heterogeneous sample. In the particular
      context of DNA interacting protein systems, different protein complex forms and
      their corresponding binding positions on target sites containing DNA fragments
      can thus be distinguished. Here, an application of AFM to the study of DNA lesion
      recognition in the prokaryotic and eukaryotic nucleotide excision DNA repair
      (NER) systems is presented. The procedures of DNA and protein sample preparations
      are described and experimental as well as analytical details of the experiments
      are provided. The data allow important conclusions on the strategies by which
      target site verification may be achieved by the NER proteins. Interestingly, they
      indicate different approaches of lesion recognition and identification for the
      eukaryotic NER system, depending on the type of lesion. Furthermore, distinct
      structural properties of the two different helicases involved in prokaryotic and
      eukaryotic NER result in and explain the different strategies observed for these
      two systems. Importantly, these experimental and analytical approaches can be
      applied not only to the study of DNA repair but also very similarly to other DNA
      interacting protein systems such as those involved in replication or
      transcription processes.

PMID- 28570511
TI  - Ovine Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Model Utilizing a Lateral
      Retroperitoneal Drill Bit Injury.
AB  - Intervertebral disc degeneration is a significant contributor to the development
      of back pain and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Numerous animal
      models of intervertebral disc degeneration have been developed. The ideal animal
      model should closely mimic the human intervertebral disc with regard to
      morphology, biomechanical properties and the absence of notochordal cells. The
      sheep lumbar intervertebral disc model fulfils these criteria. We present an
      ovine model of intervertebral disc degeneration utilizing a drill bit injury
      through a lateral retroperitoneal approach. The lateral approach significantly
      reduces the incision and potential morbidity associated with the traditional
      anterior approach to the ovine spine. Utilization of a drill-bit method of injury
      affords the ability to produce a consistent and reproducible injury, of precise
      dimensions, that initiates a consistent degree of intervertebral disc
      degeneration. The focal nature of the annular and nucleus pulposus defect more
      closely mimics the clinical condition of focal intervertebral disc herniation.
      Sheep recover rapidly following this procedure and are typically mobile and
      eating within the hour. Intervertebral disc degeneration ensues and sheep undergo
      necropsy and subsequent analysis at periods from eight weeks. We believe that the
      drill bit injury model of intervertebral disc degeneration offers advantages over
      more conventional annular injury models.

PMID- 28570513
TI  - Oligopeptide Competition Assay for Phosphorylation Site Determination.
AB  - Protein phosphorylation at specific sites determines its conformation and
      interaction with other molecules. Thus, protein phosphorylation affects
      biological functions and characteristics of the cell. Currently, the most common
      method for discovering phosphorylation sites is by liquid chromatography/mass
      spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis, a rapid and sensitive method. However, relatively
      labile phosphate moieties are often released from phosphopeptides during the
      fragmentation step, which often yields false-negative signals. In such cases, a
      traditional in vitro kinase assay using site-directed mutants would be more
      accurate, but this method is laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, an
      alternative method using peptide competition may be advantageous. The consensus
      recognition motif of 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)
      has been established1 and was validated using a positional scanning peptide
      library assay2. Thus, AMPK phosphorylation sites for a novel substrate could be
      predicted and confirmed by the peptide competition assays. In this report, we
      describe the detailed steps and procedures for the in vitro oligopeptide
      competing kinase assay by illustrating AMPK-mediated nuclear factor erythroid 2
      related factor 2 (Nrf2) phosphorylation. To authenticate the phosphorylation
      site, we carried out a sequential in vitro kinase assay using a site-specific
      mutant. Overall, the peptide competition assay provides a method to screen
      multiple potential phosphorylation sites and to identify sites for validation by
      the phosphorylation site mutants.

PMID- 28570514
TI  - Single-cell RNA-Seq of Defined Subsets of Retinal Ganglion Cells.
AB  - The discovery of cell type-specific markers can provide insight into cellular
      function and the origins of cellular heterogeneity. With a recent push for the
      improved understanding of neuronal diversity, it is important to identify genes
      whose expression defines various subpopulations of cells. The retina serves as an
      excellent model for the study of central nervous system diversity, as it is
      composed of multiple major cell types. The study of each major class of cells has
      yielded genetic markers that facilitate the identification of these populations.
      However, multiple subtypes of cells exist within each of these major retinal cell
      classes, and few of these subtypes have known genetic markers, although many have
      been characterized by morphology or function. A knowledge of genetic markers for
      individual retinal subtypes would allow for the study and mapping of brain
      targets related to specific visual functions and may also lend insight into the
      gene networks that maintain cellular diversity. Current avenues used to identify
      the genetic markers of subtypes possess drawbacks, such as the classification of
      cell types following sequencing. This presents a challenge for data analysis and
      requires rigorous validation methods to ensure that clusters contain cells of the
      same function. We propose a technique for identifying the morphology and
      functionality of a cell prior to isolation and sequencing, which will allow for
      the easier identification of subtype-specific markers. This technique may be
      extended to non-neuronal cell types, as well as to rare populations of cells with
      minor variations. This protocol yields excellent-quality data, as many of the
      libraries have provided read depths greater than 20 million reads for single
      cells. This methodology overcomes many of the hurdles presented by Single-cell
      RNA-Seq and may be suitable for researchers aiming to profile cell types in a
      straightforward and highly efficient manner.

PMID- 28570515
TI  - High-resolution Single Particle Analysis from Electron Cryo-microscopy Images
      Using SPHIRE.
AB  - SPHIRE (SPARX for High-Resolution Electron Microscopy) is a novel open-source,
      user-friendly software suite for the semi-automated processing of single particle
      electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) data. The protocol presented here describes in
      detail how to obtain a near-atomic resolution structure starting from cryo-EM
      micrograph movies by guiding users through all steps of the single particle
      structure determination pipeline. These steps are controlled from the new SPHIRE
      graphical user interface and require minimum user intervention. Using this
      protocol, a 3.5 A structure of TcdA1, a Tc toxin complex from Photorhabdus
      luminescens, was derived from only 9500 single particles. This streamlined
      approach will help novice users without extensive processing experience and a
      priori structural information, to obtain noise-free and unbiased atomic models of
      their purified macromolecular complexes in their native state.

PMID- 28570517
TI  - Micro/Nano-scale Strain Distribution Measurement from Sampling Moire Fringes.
AB  - This work describes the measurement procedure and principles of a sampling moire
      technique for full-field micro/nano-scale deformation measurements. The developed
      technique can be performed in two ways: using the reconstructed multiplication
      moire method or the spatial phase-shifting sampling moire method. When the
      specimen grid pitch is around 2 pixels, 2-pixel sampling moire fringes are
      generated to reconstruct a multiplication moire pattern for a deformation
      measurement. Both the displacement and strain sensitivities are twice as high as
      in the traditional scanning moire method in the same wide field of view. When the
      specimen grid pitch is around or greater than 3 pixels, multi-pixel sampling
      moire fringes are generated, and a spatial phase-shifting technique is combined
      for a full-field deformation measurement. The strain measurement accuracy is
      significantly improved, and automatic batch measurement is easily achievable.
      Both methods can measure the two-dimensional (2D) strain distributions from a
      single-shot grid image without rotating the specimen or scanning lines, as in
      traditional moire techniques. As examples, the 2D displacement and strain
      distributions, including the shear strains of two carbon fiber-reinforced plastic
      specimens, were measured in three-point bending tests. The proposed technique is
      expected to play an important role in the non-destructive quantitative
      evaluations of mechanical properties, crack occurrences, and residual stresses of
      a variety of materials.

PMID- 28570516
TI  - Fiber Connections of the Supplementary Motor Area Revisited: Methodology of Fiber
      Dissection, DTI, and Three Dimensional Documentation.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to show the methodology for the examination of the
      white matter connections of the supplementary motor area (SMA) complex (pre-SMA
      and SMA proper) using a combination of fiber dissection techniques on cadaveric
      specimens and magnetic resonance (MR) tractography. The protocol will also
      describe the procedure for a white matter dissection of a human brain, diffusion
      tensor tractography imaging, and three-dimensional documentation. The fiber
      dissections on human brains and the 3D documentation were performed at the
      University of Minnesota, Microsurgery and Neuroanatomy Laboratory, Department of
      Neurosurgery. Five postmortem human brain specimens and two whole heads were
      prepared in accordance with Klingler's method. Brain hemispheres were dissected
      step by step from lateral to medial and medial to lateral under an operating
      microscope, and 3D images were captured at every stage. All dissection results
      were supported by diffusion tensor imaging. Investigations on the connections in
      line with Meynert's fiber tract classification, including association fibers
      (short, superior longitudinal fasciculus I and frontal aslant tracts), projection
      fibers (corticospinal, claustrocortical, cingulum, and frontostriatal tracts),
      and commissural fibers (callosal fibers) were also conducted.

PMID- 28570518
TI  - High Precision FRET at Single-molecule Level for Biomolecule Structure
      Determination.
AB  - A protocol on how to perform high-precision interdye distance measurements using
      Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) at the single-molecule level in
      multiparameter fluorescence detection (MFD) mode is presented here. MFD maximizes
      the usage of all "dimensions" of fluorescence to reduce photophysical and
      experimental artifacts and allows for the measurement of interdye distance with
      an accuracy up to ~1 A in rigid biomolecules. This method was used to identify
      three conformational states of the ligand-binding domain of the N-methyl-D
      aspartate (NMDA) receptor to explain the activation of the receptor upon ligand
      binding. When comparing the known crystallographic structures with experimental
      measurements, they agreed within less than 3 A for more dynamic biomolecules.
      Gathering a set of distance restraints that covers the entire dimensionality of
      the biomolecules would make it possible to provide a structural model of dynamic
      biomolecules.

PMID- 28570520
TI  - Measuring Protein Binding to F-actin by Co-sedimentation.
AB  - Filamentous actin (F-actin) organization within cells is regulated by a large
      number of actin-binding proteins that control actin nucleation, growth, cross
      linking and/or disassembly. This protocol describes a technique - the actin co
      sedimentation, or pelleting, assay - to determine whether a protein or protein
      domain binds F-actin and to measure the affinity of the interaction (i.e., the
      dissociation equilibrium constant). In this technique, a protein of interest is
      first incubated with F-actin in solution. Then, differential centrifugation is
      used to sediment the actin filaments, and the pelleted material is analyzed by
      SDS-PAGE. If the protein of interest binds F-actin, it will co-sediment with the
      actin filaments. The products of the binding reaction (i.e., F-actin and the
      protein of interest) can be quantified to determine the affinity of the
      interaction. The actin pelleting assay is a straightforward technique for
      determining if a protein of interest binds F-actin and for assessing how changes
      to that protein, such as ligand binding, affect its interaction with F-actin.

PMID- 28570519
TI  - Whole-cell Patch-clamp Recordings for Electrophysiological Determination of Ion
      Selectivity in Channelrhodopsins.
AB  - Over the past decade, channelrhodopsins became indispensable in neuroscientific
      research where they are used as tools to non-invasively manipulate electrical
      processes in target cells. In this context, ion selectivity of a channelrhodopsin
      is of particular importance. This article describes the investigation of chloride
      selectivity for a recently identified anion-conducting channelrhodopsin of
      Proteomonas sulcata via electrophysiological patch-clamp recordings on HEK293
      cells. The experimental procedure for measuring light-gated photocurrents demands
      a fast switchable - ideally monochromatic - light source coupled into the
      microscope of an otherwise conventional patch-clamp setup. Preparative procedures
      prior to the experiment are outlined involving preparation of buffered solutions,
      considerations on liquid junction potentials, seeding and transfection of cells,
      and pulling of patch pipettes. The actual recording of current-voltage relations
      to determine the reversal potentials for different chloride concentrations takes
      place 24 h to 48 h after transfection. Finally, electrophysiological data are
      analyzed with respect to theoretical considerations of chloride conduction.

PMID- 28570521
TI  - Histological Analyses of Acute Alcoholic Liver Injury in Zebrafish.
AB  - Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD) refers to damage to the liver due to acute or
      chronic alcohol abuse. It is among the leading causes of alcohol-related
      morbidity and mortality and affects more than 2 million people in the United
      States. A better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms
      underlying alcohol-induced liver injury is crucial for developing effective
      treatment for ALD. Zebrafish larvae exhibit hepatic steatosis and fibrogenesis
      after just 24 h of exposure to 2% ethanol, making them useful for the study of
      acute alcoholic liver injury. This work describes the procedure for acute ethanol
      treatment in zebrafish larvae and shows that it causes steatosis and swelling of
      the hepatic blood vessels. A detailed protocol for Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E)
      staining that is optimized for the histological analysis of the zebrafish larval
      liver, is also described. H&E staining has several unique advantages over
      immunofluorescence, as it marks all liver cells and extracellular components
      simultaneously and can readily detect hepatic injury, such as steatosis and
      fibrosis. Given the increasing usage of zebrafish in modeling toxin and virus
      induced liver injury, as well as inherited liver diseases, this protocol serves
      as a reference for the histological analyses performed in all these studies.

PMID- 28570522
TI  - fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant
      and Dissonant Intervals.
AB  - The neural correlates of consonance and dissonance perception have been widely
      studied, but not the neural correlates of consonance and dissonance production.
      The most straightforward manner of musical production is singing, but, from an
      imaging perspective, it still presents more challenges than listening because it
      involves motor activity. The accurate singing of musical intervals requires
      integration between auditory feedback processing and vocal motor control in order
      to correctly produce each note. This protocol presents a method that permits the
      monitoring of neural activations associated with the vocal production of
      consonant and dissonant intervals. Four musical intervals, two consonant and two
      dissonant, are used as stimuli, both for an auditory discrimination test and a
      task that involves first listening to and then reproducing given intervals.
      Participants, all female vocal students at the conservatory level, were studied
      using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during the performance of the
      singing task, with the listening task serving as a control condition. In this
      manner, the activity of both the motor and auditory systems was observed, and a
      measure of vocal accuracy during the singing task was also obtained. Thus, the
      protocol can also be used to track activations associated with singing different
      types of intervals or with singing the required notes more accurately. The
      results indicate that singing dissonant intervals requires greater participation
      of the neural mechanisms responsible for the integration of external feedback
      from the auditory and sensorimotor systems than does singing consonant intervals.

PMID- 28570524
TI  - Comparing the Effects of Electronic Cigarette Vapor and Cigarette Smoke in a
      Novel In Vivo Exposure System.
AB  - Electronic cigarettes (E-cigarettes) are being widely used, and growing in
      popularity. It is estimated that more than 9 million adults use them regularly.
      The potential adverse health effects of electronic cigarette vapor (E-vapor)
      exposure are poorly defined. While several animal models of E-vapor exposure have
      been developed, few models expose rodents to clinically relevant quantities of
      nicotine and make direct comparisons to cigarette smoke within the same exposure
      system. Here, we present a method for constructing and operating an E-vapor
      chamber and cigarette smoke chamber. The chambers are constructed by outfitting
      anesthesia chambers with a computer controlled pumping system that delivers
      consistent amounts of E-vapor or cigarette smoke to rodents. Nicotine exposure is
      measured indirectly by quantifying pre and post-exposure serum cotinine levels.
      This exposure system can be modified to accommodate various types of E-cigarettes
      and tobacco cigarettes, and can be used to compare the effects of E-vapor and
      cigarette smoke in vivo.

PMID- 28570523
TI  - Cellular Redox Profiling Using High-content Microscopy.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) regulate essential cellular processes including
      gene expression, migration, differentiation and proliferation. However, excessive
      ROS levels induce a state of oxidative stress, which is accompanied by
      irreversible oxidative damage to DNA, lipids and proteins. Thus, quantification
      of ROS provides a direct proxy for cellular health condition. Since mitochondria
      are among the major cellular sources and targets of ROS, joint analysis of
      mitochondrial function and ROS production in the same cells is crucial for better
      understanding the interconnection in pathophysiological conditions. Therefore, a
      high-content microscopy-based strategy was developed for simultaneous
      quantification of intracellular ROS levels, mitochondrial membrane potential
      (DeltaPsim) and mitochondrial morphology. It is based on automated widefield
      fluorescence microscopy and image analysis of living adherent cells, grown in
      multi-well plates, and stained with the cell-permeable fluorescent reporter
      molecules CM-H2DCFDA (ROS) and TMRM (DeltaPsim and mitochondrial morphology). In
      contrast with fluorimetry or flow-cytometry, this strategy allows quantification
      of subcellular parameters at the level of the individual cell with high
      spatiotemporal resolution, both before and after experimental stimulation.
      Importantly, the image-based nature of the method allows extracting morphological
      parameters in addition to signal intensities. The combined feature set is used
      for explorative and statistical multivariate data analysis to detect differences
      between subpopulations, cell types and/or treatments. Here, a detailed
      description of the assay is provided, along with an example experiment that
      proves its potential for unambiguous discrimination between cellular states after
      chemical perturbation.

PMID- 28570525
TI  - Full-root Aortic Valve Replacement by Stentless Aortic Xenografts in Patients
      with Small Aortic Roots.
AB  - In patients with small aortic roots who need an aortic valve replacement with
      biological valve substitutes, the implantation of the stented pericardial valve
      might not meet the functional needs. The implantation of a too-small stented
      pericardial valve, leading to an effective orifice area indexed to a body surface
      area less than 0.85 cm2/m2, is regarded as prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM). A
      PPM negatively affects the regression of left ventricular hypertrophy and thus
      the normalization of left ventricular function and the alleviation of symptoms.
      Persistent left ventricular hypertrophy is associated with an increased risk of
      arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. In the case of predictable PPM, there are
      three options: 1) accept the PPM resulting from the implantation of a stented
      pericardial valve when comorbidities of the patient forbid the more technically
      demanding operative technique of implanting a larger prosthesis, 2) enlarge the
      aortic root to accommodate a larger stented valve substitute, or 3) implant a
      stentless biological valve or a homograft. Compared to classical aortic valve
      replacement with stented pericardial valves, the full-root implantation of
      stentless aortic xenografts offers the possibility of implanting a 3-4 mm larger
      valve in a given patient, thus allowing significant reduction in transvalvular
      gradients. However, a number of cardiac surgeons are reluctant to transform a
      classical aortic valve replacement with stented pericardial valves into the more
      technically challenging full-root implantation of stentless aortic xenografts.
      Given the potential hemodynamic advantages of stentless aortic xenografts, we
      have adopted full-root implantation to avoid PPM in patients with small aortic
      roots necessitating an aortic valve replacement. Here, we describe in detail a
      technique for the full-root implantation of stentless aortic xenografts, with
      emphasis on the management of the proximal suture line and coronary anastomoses.
      Limitations of this technique and alternative options are discussed.

PMID- 28570526
TI  - Methods to Classify Cytoplasmic Foci as Mammalian Stress Granules.
AB  - Cells are often challenged by sudden environmental changes. Stress Granules
      (SGs), cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein complexes that form in cells exposed to
      stress conditions, are implicated in various aspects of cell metabolism and
      survival. SGs modulate cellular signaling pathways, post-transcriptional gene
      expression, and stress response programs. The formation of these mRNA-containing
      granules is directly connected to cellular translation. SG assembly is triggered
      by inhibited translation initiation, and SG disassembly is promoted by
      translation activation or by inhibited translation elongation. This relationship
      is further highlighted by SG composition. Core SG components are stalled
      translation pre-initiation complexes, mRNA, and selected RNA-binding Proteins
      (RBPs). The purpose of SG assembly is to conserve cellular energy by sequestering
      translationally stalled housekeeping mRNAs, allowing for the enhanced translation
      of stress-responsive proteins. In addition to the core constituents, such as
      stalled translation preinitiation complexes, SGs contain a plethora of other
      proteins and signaling molecules. Defects in SG formation can impair cellular
      adaptation to stress and can thus promote cell death. SGs and similar RNA
      containing granules have been linked to a number of human diseases, including
      neurodegenerative disorders and cancer, leading to the recent interest in
      classifying and defining RNA granule subtypes. This protocol describes assays to
      characterize and quantify mammalian SGs.

PMID- 28570527
TI  - Induction of Cellular Differentiation and Single Cell Imaging of Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus Swimmer and Swarmer Cells.
AB  - The ability to study the intracellular localization of proteins is essential for
      the understanding of many cellular processes. In turn, this requires the ability
      to obtain single cells for fluorescence microscopy, which can be particularly
      challenging when imaging cells that exist within bacterial communities. For
      example, the human pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus exists as short rod-shaped
      swimmer cells in liquid conditions that upon surface contact differentiate into a
      subpopulation of highly elongated swarmer cells specialized for growth on solid
      surfaces. This paper presents a method to perform single cell fluorescence
      microscopy analysis of V. parahaemolyticus in its two differential states. This
      protocol very reproducibly induces differentiation of V. parahaemolyticus into a
      swarmer cell life-cycle and facilitates their proliferation over solid surfaces.
      The method produces flares of differentiated swarmer cells extending from the
      edge of the swarm-colony. Notably, at the very tip of the swarm-flares, swarmer
      cells exist in a single layer of cells, which allows for their easy transfer to a
      microscope slide and subsequent fluorescence microscopy imaging of single cells.
      Additionally, the workflow of image analysis for demographic representation of
      bacterial societies is presented. As a proof of principle, the analysis of the
      intracellular localization of chemotaxis signaling arrays in swimmer and swarmer
      cells of V. parahaemolyticus is described.

PMID- 28570528
TI  - Subsurface Defect Localization by Structured Heating Using Laser Projected
      Photothermal Thermography.
AB  - The presented method is used to locate subsurface defects oriented
      perpendicularly to the surface. To achieve this, we create destructively
      interfering thermal wave fields that are disturbed by the defect. This effect is
      measured and used to locate the defect. We form the destructively interfering
      wave fields by using a modified projector. The original light engine of the
      projector is replaced with a fiber-coupled high-power diode laser. Its beam is
      shaped and aligned to the projector's spatial light modulator and optimized for
      optimal optical throughput and homogeneous projection by first characterizing the
      beam profile, and, second, correcting it mechanically and numerically. A high
      performance infrared (IR) camera is set up according to the tight geometrical
      situation (including corrections of the geometrical image distortions) and the
      requirement to detect weak temperature oscillations at the sample surface. Data
      acquisition can be performed once a synchronization between the individual
      thermal wave field sources, the scanning stage, and the IR camera is established
      by using a dedicated experimental setup which needs to be tuned to the specific
      material being investigated. During data post-processing, the relevant
      information on the presence of a defect below the surface of the sample is
      extracted. It is retrieved from the oscillating part of the acquired thermal
      radiation coming from the so-called depletion line of the sample surface. The
      exact location of the defect is deduced from the analysis of the spatial-temporal
      shape of these oscillations in a final step. The method is reference-free and
      very sensitive to changes within the thermal wave field. So far, the method has
      been tested with steel samples but is applicable to different materials as well,
      in particular to temperature sensitive materials.

PMID- 28570529
TI  - Vegetated Treatment Systems for Removing Contaminants Associated with Surface
      Water Toxicity in Agriculture and Urban Runoff.
AB  - Urban stormwater and agriculture irrigation runoff contain a complex mixture of
      contaminants that are often toxic to adjacent receiving waters. Runoff may be
      treated with simple systems designed to promote sorption of contaminants to
      vegetation and soils and promote infiltration. Two example systems are described:
      a bioswale treatment system for urban stormwater treatment, and a vegetated
      drainage ditch for treating agriculture irrigation runoff. Both have similar
      attributes that reduce contaminant loading in runoff: vegetation that results in
      sorption of the contaminants to the soil and plant surfaces, and water
      infiltration. These systems may also include the integration of granulated
      activated carbon as a polishing step to remove residual contaminants.
      Implementation of these systems in agriculture and urban watersheds requires
      system monitoring to verify treatment efficacy. This includes chemical monitoring
      for specific contaminants responsible for toxicity. The current paper emphasizes
      monitoring of current use pesticides since these are responsible for surface
      water toxicity to aquatic invertebrates.

PMID- 28570530
TI  - Preparation of Plasma Membrane Vesicles from Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells
      for Potential Cytoplasm Replacement Therapy.
AB  - We have previously reported on the generation of plasma membrane vesicles (PMVs)
      through the mechanical extrusion of mammalian cells. The fusion of PMVs with
      mitochondrial deficient Rho0 cells restored mitotic activity under normal culture
      conditions. Atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer are
      age-related diseases that have been reported to be associated with multiple
      mechanical and functional defects in the cytosol and organelles of a variety of
      cell types. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) represent a unique cell
      population from the bone marrow that possess self-renewal capabilities while
      maintaining their multipotency. The supplementation of senescence cells with
      young cytoplasm from autologous BMSCs via the fusion of PMVs provides a promising
      approach to ameliorate or even reverse age-associated phenotypes. This protocol
      describes how to prepare PMVs from BMSCs via extrusion through a polycarbonate
      membrane with 3 um pores, determine the existence of mitochondria and examine the
      maintenance of membrane potential within PMVs using a confocal microscope,
      concentrate PMVs by centrifugation, and carry out the in vivo injection of PMVs
      into the gastrocnemius muscle of mice.

PMID- 28570531
TI  - A 5-mC Dot Blot Assay Quantifying the DNA Methylation Level of Chondrocyte
      Dedifferentiation In Vitro.
AB  - The dedifferentiation of hyaline chondrocytes into fibroblastic chondrocytes
      often accompanies monolayer expansion of chondrocytes in vitro. The global DNA
      methylation level of chondrocytes is considered to be a suitable biomarker for
      the loss of the chondrocyte phenotype. However, results based on different
      experimental methods can be inconsistent. Therefore, it is important to establish
      a precise, simple, and rapid method to quantify global DNA methylation levels
      during chondrocyte dedifferentiation. Current genome-wide methylation analysis
      techniques largely rely on bisulfite genomic sequencing. Due to DNA degradation
      during bisulfite conversion, these methods typically require a large sample
      volume. Other methods used to quantify global DNA methylation levels include high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). However, HPLC requires complete
      digestion of genomic DNA. Additionally, the prohibitively high cost of HPLC
      instruments limits HPLC's wider application. In this study, genomic DNA (gDNA)
      was extracted from human chondrocytes cultured with varying number of passages.
      The gDNA methylation level was detected using a methylation-specific dot blot
      assay. In this dot blot approach, a gDNA mixture containing the methylated DNA to
      be detected was spotted directly onto an N+ membrane as a dot inside a previously
      drawn circular template pattern. Compared with other gel electrophoresis-based
      blotting approaches and other complex blotting procedures, the dot blot method
      saves significant time. In addition, dot blots can detect overall DNA methylation
      level using a commercially available 5-mC antibody. We found that the DNA
      methylation level differed between the monolayer subcultures, and therefore could
      play a key role in chondrocyte dedifferentiation. The 5-mC dot blot is a
      reliable, simple, and rapid method to detect the general DNA methylation level to
      evaluate chondrocyte phenotype.

PMID- 28570532
TI  - Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic
      Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets.
AB  - In liquid crystal (LC) physical chemistry, molecules near the surface play a
      great role in controlling bulk orientation. Thus far, mainly to achieve desired
      molecular orientation states in LC displays, the "static" surface property of
      LCs, so-called surface anchoring, has been intensively studied. As a rule of
      thumb, once the initial orientation of LCs is "locked" by specific surface
      treatments, such as rubbing or treatment with a specific alignment layer, it
      hardly changes with temperature. Here, we present a system exhibiting an
      orientational transition upon temperature variation, which conflicts with the
      consensus. Right on the transition, the bulk LC molecules experience the
      orientational rotation, with 90 degrees  between the planar (P) orientation at
      high temperatures and the vertical (V) orientation at low temperatures in the
      first-order transitional manner. We have tracked thermodynamic surface anchoring
      behavior by means of polarizing optical microscopy (POM), dielectric spectroscopy
      (DS), high-resolution differential scanning calorimetry (HR-DSC), and grazing
      incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) and reached a plausible physical
      explanation: that the transition is triggered by a growth of surface wetting
      sheets, which impose the V orientation locally against the P orientation in the
      bulk. This landscape would provide a general link explaining how the equilibrium
      bulk orientation is affected by surface-localized orientation in many LC systems.
      In our characterization, POM and DS are advantageous by offering information on
      the spatial distribution of the orientation of LC molecules. HR-DSC gives
      information about the precise thermodynamic information on transitions, which
      cannot be addressed by conventional DSC instruments due to limited resolution. GI
      XRD provides information on surface-specific molecular orientation and short
      range orderings. The goal of this paper is to present a protocol for preparing a
      sample that exhibits the transition and to demonstrate how the thermodynamic
      structural variation, both in the bulk and on surfaces, can be analyzed through
      the abovementioned methods.

PMID- 28570533
TI  - A Real-world What-Where-When Memory Test.
AB  - Episodic memory is a complex memory system which allows recall and mental re
      experience of previous episodes from one's own life. Real-life episodic memories
      are about events in their spatiotemporal context and are typically visuospatial,
      rather than verbal. Yet often, tests of episodic memory use verbal material to be
      recalled (word lists, stories). The Real-World What-Where-When memory test
      requires participants to hide a total of 16 different objects in 16 different
      locations over two temporal occasions, 2 h apart. Another two hours later, they
      are then asked to recall which objects (What) they had hidden in which locations
      (Where) and on which of the two occasions (When). In addition to counting the
      number of correctly recalled complete what-where-when combinations, this task can
      also be used to test real-world spatial memory and object memory. This task is
      sensitive to normal cognitive aging, and correlates well with performance on
      other episodic memory tasks, while at the same time providing more ecological
      validity and being cheap and easy to run.

PMID- 28570534
TI  - Quantification of Endosome and Lysosome Motilities in Cultured Neurons Using
      Fluorescent Probes.
AB  - In the brain, membrane trafficking systems play important roles in regulating
      neuronal functions, such as neuronal morphology, synaptic plasticity, survival,
      and glial communications. To date, numerous studies have reported that defects in
      these systems cause various neuronal diseases. Thus, understanding the mechanisms
      underlying vesicle dynamics may provide influential clues that could aid in the
      treatment of several neuronal disorders. Here, we describe a method for
      quantifying vesicle motilities, such as motility distance and rate of movement,
      using a software plug-in for the ImageJ platform. To obtain images for
      quantification, we labeled neuronal endosome-lysosome structures with EGFP-tagged
      vesicle marker proteins and observed the movement of vesicles using a time-lapse
      microscopy. This method is highly useful and simplify measuring vesicle motility
      in neurites, such as axons and dendrites, as well as in the soma of both neurons
      and glial cells. Furthermore, this method can be applied to other cell lines,
      such as fibroblasts and endothelial cells. This approach could provide a valuable
      advancement of our understanding of membrane trafficking.

PMID- 28570535
TI  - Visualization and Quantitative Analysis of Embryonic Angiogenesis in Xenopus
      tropicalis.
AB  - Blood vessels supply oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, and the formation
      of the vascular network is under tight developmental control. The efficient in
      vivo visualization of blood vessels and the reliable quantification of their
      complexity are key to understanding the biology and disease of the vascular
      network. Here, we provide a detailed method to visualize blood vessels with a
      commercially available fluorescent dye, human plasma acetylated low density
      lipoprotein DiI complex (DiI-AcLDL), and to quantify their complexity in Xenopus
      tropicalis. Blood vessels can be labeled by a simple injection of DiI-AcLDL into
      the beating heart of an embryo, and blood vessels in the entire embryo can be
      imaged in live or fixed embryos. Combined with gene perturbation by the targeted
      microinjection of nucleic acids and/or the bath application of pharmacological
      reagents, the roles of a gene or of a signaling pathway on vascular development
      can be investigated within one week without resorting to sophisticated
      genetically engineered animals. Because of the well-defined venous system of
      Xenopus and its stereotypic angiogenesis, the sprouting of pre-existing vessels,
      vessel complexity can be quantified efficiently after perturbation experiments.
      This relatively simple protocol should serve as an easily accessible tool in
      diverse fields of cardiovascular research.

PMID- 28570537
TI  - Brain Membrane Fractionation: An Ex Vivo Approach to Assess Subsynaptic Protein
      Localization.
AB  - Assessing the synaptic protein composition and function constitutes an important
      challenge in neuroscience. However, it is not easy to evaluate neurotransmission
      that occurs within synapses because it is highly regulated by dynamic protein
      protein interactions and phosphorylation events. Accordingly, when any method is
      used to study synaptic transmission, a major goal is to preserve these transient
      physiological modifications. Here, we present a brain membrane fractionation
      protocol that represents a robust procedure to isolate proteins belonging to
      different synaptic compartments. In other words, the protocol describes a
      biochemical methodology to carry out protein enrichment from presynaptic,
      postsynaptic, and extrasynaptic compartments. First, synaptosomes, or synaptic
      terminals, are obtained from neurons that contain all synaptic compartments by
      means of a discontinuous sucrose gradient. Of note, the quality of this initial
      synaptic membrane preparation is critical. Subsequently, the isolation of the
      different subsynaptic compartments is achieved with light solubilization using
      mild detergents at differential pH conditions. This allows for separation by
      gradient and isopycnic centrifugations. Finally, protein enrichment at the
      different subsynaptic compartments (i.e., pre-, post- and extrasynaptic membrane
      fractions) is validated by means of immunoblot analysis using well-characterized
      synaptic protein markers (i.e., SNAP-25, PSD-95, and synaptophysin,
      respectively), thus enabling a direct assessment of the synaptic distribution of
      any particular neuronal protein.

PMID- 28570536
TI  - Isolation of Intermediate Filament Proteins from Multiple Mouse Tissues to Study
      Aging-associated Post-translational Modifications.
AB  - Intermediate filaments (IFs), together with actin filaments and microtubules,
      form the cytoskeleton - a critical structural element of every cell. Normal
      functioning IFs provide cells with mechanical and stress resilience, while a
      dysfunctional IF cytoskeleton compromises cellular health and has been associated
      with many human diseases. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) critically
      regulate IF dynamics in response to physiological changes and under stress
      conditions. Therefore, the ability to monitor changes in the PTM signature of IFs
      can contribute to a better functional understanding, and ultimately conditioning,
      of the IF system as a stress responder during cellular injury. However, the large
      number of IF proteins, which are encoded by over 70 individual genes and
      expressed in a tissue-dependent manner, is a major challenge in sorting out the
      relative importance of different PTMs. To that end, methods that enable
      monitoring of PTMs on IF proteins on an organism-wide level, rather than for
      isolated members of the family, can accelerate research progress in this area.
      Here, we present biochemical methods for the isolation of the total, detergent
      soluble, and detergent-resistant fraction of IF proteins from 9 different mouse
      tissues (brain, heart, lung, liver, small intestine, large intestine, pancreas,
      kidney, and spleen). We further demonstrate an optimized protocol for rapid
      isolation of IF proteins by using lysing matrix and automated homogenization of
      different mouse tissues. The automated protocol is useful for profiling IFs in
      experiments with high sample volume (such as in disease models involving multiple
      animals and experimental groups). The resulting samples can be utilized for
      various downstream analyses, including mass spectrometry-based PTM profiling.
      Utilizing these methods, we provide new data to show that IF proteins in
      different mouse tissues (brain and liver) undergo parallel changes with respect
      to their expression levels and PTMs during aging.

PMID- 28570538
TI  - Uncontrolled Hemorrhagic Shock Modeled via Liver Laceration in Mice with Real
      Time Hemodynamic Monitoring.
AB  - Uncontrolled hemorrhage is an important cause of preventable deaths among trauma
      patients. We have developed a murine model of uncontrolled hemorrhage via a liver
      laceration that results in consistent blood loss, hemodynamic alterations, and
      survival. Mice undergo a standardized resection of the left-middle lobe of the
      liver. They are allowed to bleed without mechanical intervention. Hemostatic
      agents can be administered as pre-treatment or rescue therapy depending on the
      interest of the investigator. During the time of hemorrhage, real-time
      hemodynamic monitoring via a left femoral arterial line is performed. Mice are
      then sacrificed, blood loss is quantified, blood is collected for further
      analysis, and organs are harvested for analysis of injury. Experimental design is
      described to allow for simultaneous testing of multiple animals. Liver hemorrhage
      as a model of uncontrolled hemorrhage exists in the literature, primarily in rat
      and porcine models. Some of these models utilize hemodynamic monitoring or
      quantify blood loss but lack consistency. The present model incorporates
      quantification of blood loss, real-time hemodynamic monitoring in a murine model
      that offers the advantage of using transgenic lines and a high-throughput
      mechanism to further investigate the pathophysiologic mechanisms in uncontrolled
      hemorrhage.

PMID- 28570539
TI  - Monitoring ER/SR Calcium Release with the Targeted Ca2+ Sensor CatchER.
AB  - Intracellular calcium (Ca2+) transients evoked by extracellular stimuli initiate
      a multitude of biological processes in living organisms. At the center of
      intracellular calcium release are the major intracellular calcium storage
      organelles, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the more specialized sarcoplasmic
      reticulum (SR) in muscle cells. The dynamic release of calcium from these
      organelles is mediated by the ryanodine receptor (RyR) and the inositol 1,4,5
      triphosphate receptor (IP3R) with refilling occurring through the
      sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA) pump. A genetically encoded
      calcium sensor (GECI) called CatchER was created to monitor the rapid calcium
      release from the ER/SR. Here, the detailed protocols for the transfection and
      expression of the improved, ER/SR-targeted GECI CatchER+ in HEK293 and C2C12
      cells and its application in monitoring IP3R, RyR, and SERCA pump-mediated
      calcium transients in HEK293 cells using fluorescence microscopy is outlined. The
      receptor agonist or inhibitor of choice is dispersed in the chamber solution and
      the intensity changes are recorded in real time. With this method, a decrease in
      ER calcium is seen with RyR activation with 4-chloro-m-cresol (4-cmc), the
      indirect activation of IP3R with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and inhibition of
      the SERCA pump with cyclopiazonic acid (CPA). We also discuss protocols for
      determining the in situ Kd and quantifying basal [Ca2+] in C2C12 cells. In
      summary, these protocols, used in conjunction with CatchER+, can elicit receptor
      mediated calcium release from the ER with future application in studying ER/SR
      calcium related pathologies.

PMID- 28570540
TI  - Recombinant Protein Expression, Crystallization, and Biophysical Studies of a
      Bacillus-conserved Nucleotide Pyrophosphorylase, BcMazG.
AB  - To overcome safety restrictions and regulations when studying genes and proteins
      from true pathogens, their homologues can be studied. Bacillus anthracis is an
      obligate pathogen that causes fatal inhalational anthrax. Bacillus cereus is
      considered a useful model for studying B. anthracis due to its close evolutionary
      relationship. The gene cluster ba1554 - ba1558 of B. anthracis is highly
      conserved with the bc1531- bc1535 cluster in B. cereus, as well as with the
      bt1364-bt1368 cluster in Bacillus thuringiensis, indicating the critical role of
      the associated genes in the Bacillus genus. This manuscript describes methods to
      prepare and characterize a protein product of the first gene (ba1554) from the
      gene cluster in B. anthracis using a recombinant protein of its ortholog in B.
      cereus, bc1531.

PMID- 28570541
TI  - Preparation and Characterization of Novel HDL-mimicking Nanoparticles for Nerve
      Growth Factor Encapsulation.
AB  - The objective of this article is to introduce preparation and characterization
      methods for nerve growth factor (NGF)-loaded, high-density, lipoprotein (HDL)
      mimicking nanoparticles (NPs). HDLs are endogenous NPs and have been explored as
      vehicles for the delivery of therapeutic agents. Various methods have been
      developed to prepare HDL-mimicking NPs. However, they are generally complicated,
      time consuming, and difficult for industrial scale-up. In this study, one-step
      homogenization was used to mix the excipients and form the prototype NPs. NGF is
      a water-soluble protein of 26 kDa. To facilitate the encapsulation of NGF into
      the lipid environment of HDL-mimicking NPs, protamine USP was used to form an ion
      pair complex with NGF to neutralize the charges on the NGF surface. The
      NGF/protamine complex was then introduced into the prototype NPs. Apolipoprotein
      A-I was finally coated on the surface of the NPs. NGF HDL-mimicking NPs showed
      preferable properties in terms of particle size, size distribution, entrapment
      efficiency, in vitro release, bioactivity, and biodistribution. With the careful
      design and exploration of homogenization in HDL-mimicking NPs, the procedure was
      greatly simplified, and the NPs were made scalable. Moreover, various challenges,
      such as separating unloaded NGF from the NPs, conducting reliable in vitro
      release studies, and measuring the bioactivity of the NPs, were overcome.

PMID- 28570542
TI  - Expression, Purification, and Antimicrobial Activity of S100A12.
AB  - Calgranulin proteins are important mediators of innate immunity and are members
      of the S100 class of the EF-hand family of calcium binding proteins. Some S100
      proteins have the capacity to bind transition metals with high affinity and
      effectively sequester them away from invading microbial pathogens in a process
      that is termed "nutritional immunity". S100A12 (EN-RAGE) binds both zinc and
      copper and is highly abundant in innate immune cells such as macrophages and
      neutrophils. We report a refined method for the expression, enrichment and
      purification of S100A12 in its active, metal-binding configuration. Utilization
      of this protein in bacterial growth and viability analyses reveals that S100A12
      has antimicrobial activity against the bacterial pathogen, Helicobacter pylori.
      The antimicrobial activity is predicated on the zinc-binding activity of S100A12,
      which chelates nutrient zinc, thereby starving H. pylori which requires zinc for
      growth and proliferation.

PMID- 28570543
TI  - A Simple Method to Identify Kinases That Regulate Embryonic Stem Cell
      Pluripotency by High-throughput Inhibitor Screening.
AB  - Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can self-renew or differentiate into all cell types,
      a phenomenon known as pluripotency. Distinct pluripotent states have been
      described, termed "naive" and "primed" pluripotency. The mechanisms that control
      naive-primed transition are poorly understood. In particular, we remain poorly
      informed about protein kinases that specify naive and primed pluripotent states,
      despite increasing availability of high-quality tool compounds to probe kinase
      function. Here, we describe a scalable platform to perform targeted small
      molecule screens for kinase regulators of the naive-primed pluripotent transition
      in mouse ESCs. This approach utilizes simple cell culture conditions and standard
      reagents, materials and equipment to uncover and validate kinase inhibitors with
      hitherto unappreciated effects on pluripotency. We discuss potential applications
      for this technology, including screening of other small molecule collections such
      as increasingly sophisticated kinase inhibitors and emerging libraries of
      epigenetic tool compounds.

PMID- 28570544
TI  - A Simple Chamber for Long-term Confocal Imaging of Root and Hypocotyl
      Development.
AB  - Several aspects of plant development, such as lateral root morphogenesis, occur
      on time spans of several days. To study underlying cellular and subcellular
      processes, high resolution time-lapse microscopy strategies that preserve
      physiological conditions are required. Plant tissues must have adequate nutrient
      and water supply with sustained gaseous exchange but, when submerged and
      immobilized under a coverslip, they are particularly susceptible to anoxia. One
      strategy that has been successfully employed is the use of a perfusion system to
      maintain a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients. However, such arrangements
      can be complicated, cumbersome, and require specialized equipment. Presented here
      is an alternative strategy for a simple imaging system using perfluorodecalin as
      an immersion medium. This system is easy to set up, requires minimal equipment,
      and is easily mounted on a microscope stage, allowing several imaging chambers to
      be set up and imaged in parallel. In this system, lateral root growth rates are
      indistinguishable from growth rates under standard conditions on agar plates for
      the first two days, and lateral root growth continues at reduced rates for at
      least another day. Plant tissues are supplied with nutrients via an agar slab
      that can be used also to administer a range of pharmacological compounds. The
      system was established to monitor lateral root development but is readily
      adaptable to image other plant organs such as hypocotyls and primary roots.

PMID- 28570545
TI  - Transplantation of Zebrafish Pediatric Brain Tumors into Immune-competent Hosts
      for Long-term Study of Tumor Cell Behavior and Drug Response.
AB  - Tumor cell transplantation is an important technique to define the mechanisms
      controlling cancer cell growth, migration, and host response, as well as to
      assess potential patient response to therapy. Current methods largely depend on
      using syngeneic or immune-compromised animals to avoid rejection of the tumor
      graft. Such methods require the use of specific genetic strains that often
      prevent the analysis of immune-tumor cell interactions and/or are limited to
      specific genetic backgrounds. An alternative method in zebrafish takes advantage
      of an incompletely developed immune system in the embryonic brain before 3 days,
      where tumor cells are transplanted for use in short-term assays (i.e., 3 to 10
      days). However, these methods cause host lethality, which prevents the long-term
      study of tumor cell behavior and drug response. This protocol describes a simple
      and efficient method for the long-term orthotopic transplantation of zebrafish
      brain tumor tissue into the fourth ventricle of a 2-day-old immune-competent
      zebrafish. This method allows: 1) long-term study of tumor cell behaviors, such
      as invasion and dissemination; 2) durable tumor response to drugs; and 3) re
      transplantation of tumors for the study of tumor evolution and/or the impact of
      different host genetic backgrounds. In summary, this technique allows cancer
      researchers to assess engraftment, invasion, and growth at distant sites, as well
      as to perform chemical screens and cell competition assays over many months. This
      protocol can be extended to studies of other tumor types and can be used to
      elucidate mechanisms of chemoresistance and metastasis.

PMID- 28570546
TI  - Electrophysiological Analysis of human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived
      Cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) Using Multi-electrode Arrays (MEAs).
AB  - Cardiomyocytes can now be derived with high efficiency from both human embryonic
      and human induced-Pluripotent Stem Cells (hPSC). hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes
      (hPSC-CMs) are increasingly recognized as having great value for modeling
      cardiovascular diseases in humans, especially arrhythmia syndromes. They have
      also demonstrated relevance as in vitro systems for predicting drug responses,
      which makes them potentially useful for drug-screening and discovery, safety
      pharmacology and perhaps eventually for personalized medicine. This would be
      facilitated by deriving hPSC-CMs from patients or susceptible individuals as
      hiPSCs. For all applications, however, precise measurement and analysis of hPSC
      CM electrical properties are essential for identifying changes due to cardiac ion
      channel mutations and/or drugs that target ion channels and can cause sudden
      cardiac death. Compared with manual patch-clamp, multi-electrode array (MEA)
      devices offer the advantage of allowing medium- to high-throughput recordings.
      This protocol describes how to dissociate 2D cell cultures of hPSC-CMs to small
      aggregates and single cells and plate them on MEAs to record their spontaneous
      electrical activity as field potential. Methods for analyzing the recorded data
      to extract specific parameters, such as the QT and the RR intervals, are also
      described here. Changes in these parameters would be expected in hPSC-CMs
      carrying mutations responsible for cardiac arrhythmias and following addition of
      specific drugs, allowing detection of those that carry a cardiotoxic risk.

PMID- 28570547
TI  - Evaluating the Procedure for Performing Awake Cystometry in a Mouse Model.
AB  - Awake filling cystometry has been used for a long time to evaluate bladder
      function in freely moving mice, however, the specific methods used, vary among
      laboratories. The goal of this study was to describe the microsurgical procedure
      used to implant an intravesical tube and the experimental technique for recording
      urinary bladder pressure in an awake, freely moving mouse. In addition,
      experimental data is presented to show how surgery, as well as tubing type and
      size, affect lower urinary tract function and recording sensitivity. The effect
      of tube diameter on pressure recording was assessed in both polyethylene and
      polyurethane tubing with different internal diameters. Subsequently, the best
      performing tube from both materials was surgically implanted into the dome of the
      urinary bladder of male C57BL/6 mice. Twelve-hour, overnight micturition
      frequency was recorded in healthy, intact animals and animals 2, 3, 5, and 7 days
      post-surgery. At harvest, bladders were assessed for signs of swelling using
      gross observation and were subsequently processed for pathological analysis. The
      greatest extent of bladder swelling was observed on day 2 and 3, which correlated
      with behavioral voiding data showing significantly impaired bladder function. By
      day 5, bladder histology and voiding frequency had normalized. Based on the
      literature and evidence provided by our studies, we propose the following steps
      for in vivo recording of intravesical pressure and voided volume in an awake
      mouse: 1) Perform the surgery using an operating microscope and microsurgical
      tools, 2) Use polyethylene-10 tubing to minimize movement artifacts, and 3)
      Perform cystometry on post-operative day 5, when bladder swelling resolves.

PMID- 28570548
TI  - A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in
      Response to Antibiotic Treatment.
AB  - Assessment of antibiotic action with new drug development directed towards
      anaerobic bacteria is difficult and technically demanding. To gain insight into
      possible MOA, morphologic changes associated with antibiotic exposure can be
      visualized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Integrating SEM imaging with
      traditional kill curves may improve our insight into drug action and advance the
      drug development process. To test this premise, kill curves and SEM studies were
      conducted using drugs with known but different MOA (vancomycin and
      metronidazole). C. difficile cells (R20291) were grown with or without the
      presence of antibiotic for up to 48 h. Throughout the 48 h interval, cells were
      collected at multiple time points to determine antibiotic efficacy and for
      imaging on the SEM. Consistent with previous reports, vancomycin and
      metronidazole had significant bactericidal activity following 24 h of treatment
      as measured by colony-forming unit (CFU) counting. Using SEM imaging we
      determined that metronidazole had significant effects on cell length (> 50%
      reduction in cell length for each antibiotic; P< 0.05) compared to controls and
      vancomycin. While the phenotypic response to drug treatment has not been
      documented previously in this manner, they are consistent with the drug's MOA
      demonstrating the versatility and reliability of the imaging and measurements and
      the application of this technique for other experimental compounds.

PMID- 28570549
TI  - Non-invasive Assessment of Changes in Corticomotoneuronal Transmission in Humans.
AB  - The corticospinal pathway is the major pathway connecting the brain with the
      muscles and is therefore highly relevant for movement control and motor learning.
      There exists a number of noninvasive electrophysiological methods investigating
      the excitability and plasticity of this pathway. However, most methods are based
      on quantification of compound potentials and neglect that the corticospinal
      pathway consists of many different connections that are more or less direct.
      Here, we present a method that allows testing excitability of different fractions
      of the corticospinal transmission. This so called H-reflex conditioning technique
      allows one to assess excitability of the fastest (monosynaptic) and also
      polysynaptic corticospinal pathways. Furthermore, by using two different
      stimulation sites, the motor cortex and the cervicomedullary junction, it allows
      not only differentiation between cortical and spinal effects but also assessment
      of transmission at the corticomotoneural synapse. In this manuscript, we describe
      how this method can be used to assess corticomotoneural transmission after low
      frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, a method that was
      previously shown to reduce excitability of cortical cells. Here we demonstrate
      that not only cortical cells are affected by this repetitive stimulation but also
      transmission at the corticomotoneuronal synapse at the spinal level. This finding
      is important for the understanding of basic mechanisms and sites of
      neuroplasticity. Besides investigation of basic mechanisms, the H-reflex
      conditioning technique may be applied to test changes in corticospinal
      transmission following behavioral (e.g., training) or therapeutic interventions,
      pathology or aging and therefore allows a better understanding of neural
      processes that underlie movement control and motor learning.

PMID- 28570550
TI  - Dissection and Culture of Mouse Embryonic Kidney.
AB  - The goal of this protocol is to describe a method for the dissection, isolation,
      and culture of mouse metanephric rudiments. During mammalian kidney development,
      the two progenitor tissues, the ureteric bud and the metanephric mesenchyme,
      communicate and reciprocally induce cellular mechanisms to eventually form the
      collecting system and the nephrons of the kidney. As mammalian embryos grow
      intrauterine and therefore are inaccessible to the observer, an organ culture has
      been developed. With this method, it is possible to study epithelial-mesenchymal
      interactions and cellular behavior during kidney organogenesis. Furthermore, the
      origin of congenital kidney and urogenital tract malformations can be
      investigated. After careful dissection, the metanephric rudiments are transferred
      onto a filter that floats on culture medium and can be kept in a cell culture
      incubator for several days. However, one must be aware that the conditions are
      artificial and could influence the metabolism in the tissue. Also, the
      penetration of test substances could be limited due to the extracellular matrix
      and basal membrane present in the explant. One main advantage of organ culture is
      that the experimenter can gain direct access to the organ. This technology is
      cheap, simple, and allows a large number of modifications, such as the addition
      of biologically active substances, the study of genetic variants, and the
      application of advanced imaging techniques.

PMID- 28570551
TI  - Assay to Measure Nucleocytoplasmic Transport in Real Time within Motor Neuron
      like NSC-34 Cells.
AB  - Nucleocytoplasmic transport refers to the import and export of large molecules
      from the cell nucleus. Recently, a number of studies have shown a connection
      between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and impairments in the
      nucleocytoplasmic pathway. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the motor
      neurons and resulting in paralysis and ultimately in death, within 2-5 years on
      average. Most cases of ALS are sporadic, lacking any apparent genetic linkage,
      but 10% are inherited in a dominant manner. Recently, hexanucleotide repeat
      expansions (HREs) in the chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) gene were
      identified as a genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
      Importantly, different groups have recently proposed that these mutants affect
      nucleocytoplasmic transport. These studies have mostly shown the final outcome
      and manifestations caused by HREs on nucleocytoplasmic transport, but they do not
      demonstrate nuclear transport dysfunction in real time. As a result, only severe
      nucleocytoplasmic transport deficiency can be determined, mostly due to high
      overexpression or exogenous protein insertion. This protocol describes a new and
      very sensitive assay to evaluate and quantify nucleocytoplasmic transport
      dysfunction in real time. The rate of import of a NLS-NES-GFP protein (shuttle
      GFP) can be quantified in real time using fluorescent microscopy. This is
      performed by using an exportin inhibitor, thus allowing the shuttle GFP only to
      enter the nucleus. To validate the assay, the C9orf72 HRE translated dipeptide
      repeats, poly(GR) and poly(PR), which have been previously shown to disrupt
      nucleocytoplasmic transport, were used. Using the described assay, a 50% decrease
      in the nuclear import rate was observed compared to the control. Using this
      system, minute changes in nucleocytoplasmic transport can be examined and the
      ability of different factors to rescue (even partially) a nucleocytoplasmic
      transport defect can be determined.

PMID- 28570552
TI  - Development of Quality Indicators for Endoscopic Eradication Therapies in
      Barrett's Esophagus: The TREAT-BE (Treatment With Resection and Endoscopic
      Ablation Techniques for Barrett's Esophagus) Consortium.

PMID- 28570554
TI  - Role of metastasis-associated protein 1 in prognosis of patients with digestive
      tract cancers: A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) is a transcriptional regulator
      and significantly associated with prognosis of patients with cancer. However, its
      role as a potential prognostic marker in digestive tract cancer (DTC) is
      controversial. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the MTA1
      expression as a predictor of clinicopathology and survival of patients with DTC.
      METHODS: We searched PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science and Cochrane databases using
      multiple search strategies for eligible studies. STATA 11.0 software was used to
      pool the data and analyze the association, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were used to measure the strength of the association.
      Furthermore, the Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to evaluate the quality of
      eligible studies. RESULTS: MTA1 overexpression was strongly associated with depth
      of invasion (OR = 1.88, 95%CI: 1.05-3.37, P = 0.03), lymph node metastasis (OR =
      2.30, 95%CI: 1.76-3.01, P<0.001), vascular invasion (OR = 2.02, 95%CI: 1.40-2.91,
      P<0.001) and TNM stage (OR = 2.78, 95%CI: 1.63-4.74, P<0.001), and was related to
      1- (RR = 1.84, 95%CI: 1.18-2.89, P = 0.008), 3- (RR = 1.74, 95%CI: 1.32-2.30,
      P<0.001) and 5-year (RR = 1.64, 95%CI: 1.18-2.27, P = 0.003) OS. Further, MTA1
      was associated with 1- (RR = 4.16, 95%CI: 1.35-12.81, P = 0.01), 3- (RR = 1.90,
      95%CI: 1.02-3.53, P = 0.04) and 5- (RR = 2.17, 95%CI: 1.41-3.32, P<0.001) year
      DFS. In subgroup analyses based on study quality and tumor type, MTA1
      overexpression was obviously related to clinical parameters, such as lymph node
      metastasis and TNM stage, and was also associated with prognosis of patients with
      gastrointestinal or esophageal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: MTA1 expression is strongly
      correlated with metastasis-related variables, and represents a promising
      prognostic factor in DTC.

PMID- 28570553
TI  - Genetic rescue of an endangered domestic animal through outcrossing with closely
      related breeds: A case study of the Norwegian Lundehund.
AB  - Genetic rescue, outcrossing with individuals from a related population, is used
      to augment genetic diversity in populations threatened by severe inbreeding and
      extinction. The endangered Norwegian Lundehund dog underwent at least two severe
      bottlenecks in the 1940s and 1960s that each left only five inbred dogs, and the
      approximately 1500 dogs remaining world-wide today appear to descend from only
      two individuals. The Lundehund has a high prevalence of a gastrointestinal
      disease, to which all remaining dogs may be predisposed. Outcrossing is currently
      performed with three Nordic Spitz breeds: Norwegian Buhund, Icelandic Sheepdog,
      and Norrbottenspets. Examination of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
      genotypes based on 165K loci in 48 dogs from the four breeds revealed
      substantially lower genetic diversity for the Lundehund (HE 0.035) than for other
      breeds (HE 0.209-0.284). Analyses of genetic structure with > 15K linkage
      disequilibrium-pruned SNPs showed four distinct genetic clusters. Pairwise FST
      values between Lundehund and the candidate breeds were highest for Icelandic
      Sheepdog, followed by Buhund and Norrbottenspets. We assessed the presence of
      outlier loci among candidate breeds and examined flanking genome regions (1
      megabase) for genes under possible selection to identify potential adaptive
      differences among breeds; outliers were observed in flanking regions of genes
      associated with key functions including the immune system, metabolism, cognition
      and physical development. We suggest crossbreeding with multiple breeds as the
      best strategy to increase genetic diversity for the Lundehund and to reduce the
      incidence of health problems. For this project, the three candidate breeds were
      first selected based on phenotypes and then subjected to genetic investigation.
      Because phenotypes are often paramount for domestic breed owners, such a strategy
      could provide a helpful approach for genetic rescue and restoration of other
      domestic populations at risk, by ensuring the involvement of owners, breeders and
      managers at the start of the project.

PMID- 28570555
TI  - Geometric classification of scalp hair for valid drug testing, 6 more reliable
      than 8 hair curl groups.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Curly hair is reported to contain higher lipid content than
      straight hair, which may influence incorporation of lipid soluble drugs. The use
      of race to describe hair curl variation (Asian, Caucasian and African) is
      unscientific yet common in medical literature (including reports of drug levels
      in hair). This study investigated the reliability of a geometric classification
      of hair (based on 3 measurements: the curve diameter, curl index and number of
      waves). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After ethical approval and informed consent,
      proximal virgin (6cm) hair sampled from the vertex of scalp in 48 healthy
      volunteers were evaluated. Three raters each scored hairs from 48 volunteers at
      two occasions each for the 8 and 6-group classifications. One rater applied the 6
      group classification to 80 additional volunteers in order to further confirm the
      reliability of this system. The Kappa statistic was used to assess intra and
      inter rater agreement. RESULTS: Each rater classified 480 hairs on each occasion.
      No rater classified any volunteer's 10 hairs into the same group; the most
      frequently occurring group was used for analysis. The inter-rater agreement was
      poor for the 8-groups (k = 0.418) but improved for the 6-groups (k = 0.671). The
      intra-rater agreement also improved (k = 0.444 to 0.648 versus 0.599 to 0.836)
      for 6-groups; that for the one evaluator for all volunteers was good (k = 0.754).
      CONCLUSIONS: Although small, this is the first study to test the reliability of a
      geometric classification. The 6-group method is more reliable. However, a digital
      classification system is likely to reduce operator error. A reliable objective
      classification of human hair curl is long overdue, particularly with the
      increasing use of hair as a testing substrate for treatment compliance in
      Medicine.

PMID- 28570556
TI  - Ultra-widefield fundus autofluorescence in age-related macular degeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Establish accuracy and reproducibility of subjective grading in ultra
      widefield fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging in patients with age-related
      macular degeneration (AMD), and determine if an association exists between
      peripheral FAF abnormalities and AMD. METHODS: This was a prospective, single
      blinded case-control study. Patients were consecutively recruited for the study.
      Patients were excluded if there was a history of prior or active ocular pathology
      other than AMD or image quality was insufficient for analysis as determined by
      two independent graders. Control patients were those without any evidence of AMD
      or other ophthalmic disease apart from cataract. Using the Optos 200Tx (Optos,
      Marlborough, MA, USA), a ResMax central macula and an ultra-widefield peripheral
      retina image was taken for each eye in both normal color and short wavelength
      FAF. Ultra-widefield photographs were modified to mask the macula. Each ResMax
      and ultra-widefield image was independently graded by two blinded investigators.
      RESULTS: There were 28 AMD patients and 11 controls. There was a significant
      difference in the average age between AMD patients and control groups (80 versus
      64, respectively P<0.001). There was moderate, statistically significant
      agreement between observers regarding image interpretation (78.4%, K = 0.524,
      P<0.001), and 69.0% (K = 0.49, P<0.001) agreement between graders for FAF
      abnormality patterns. Patients with AMD were at greater risk for peripheral FAF
      abnormalities (OR: 3.43, P = 0.019) and patients with FAF abnormalities on
      central macular ResMax images were at greater risk of peripheral FAF findings
      (OR: 5.19, P = 0.017). CONCLUSION: Subjective interpretation of FAF images has
      moderate reproducibility and validity in assessment of peripheral FAF
      abnormalities. Peripheral FAF abnormalities are seen in both AMD and control
      patients. Those with AMD, poor visual acuity, and macular FAF abnormalities are
      at greater risk.

PMID- 28570557
TI  - Classification of breast cancer histology images using Convolutional Neural
      Networks.
AB  - Breast cancer is one of the main causes of cancer death worldwide. The diagnosis
      of biopsy tissue with hematoxylin and eosin stained images is non-trivial and
      specialists often disagree on the final diagnosis. Computer-aided Diagnosis
      systems contribute to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of this
      process. Conventional classification approaches rely on feature extraction
      methods designed for a specific problem based on field-knowledge. To overcome the
      many difficulties of the feature-based approaches, deep learning methods are
      becoming important alternatives. A method for the classification of hematoxylin
      and eosin stained breast biopsy images using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)
      is proposed. Images are classified in four classes, normal tissue, benign lesion,
      in situ carcinoma and invasive carcinoma, and in two classes, carcinoma and non
      carcinoma. The architecture of the network is designed to retrieve information at
      different scales, including both nuclei and overall tissue organization. This
      design allows the extension of the proposed system to whole-slide histology
      images. The features extracted by the CNN are also used for training a Support
      Vector Machine classifier. Accuracies of 77.8% for four class and 83.3% for
      carcinoma/non-carcinoma are achieved. The sensitivity of our method for cancer
      cases is 95.6%.

PMID- 28570558
TI  - Introducing the TrypanoGEN biobank: A valuable resource for the elimination of
      human African trypanosomiasis.

PMID- 28570559
TI  - Analysis of DNA polymerase nu function in meiotic recombination, immunoglobulin
      class-switching, and DNA damage tolerance.
AB  - DNA polymerase nu (pol nu), encoded by the POLN gene, is an A-family DNA
      polymerase in vertebrates and some other animal lineages. Here we report an in
      depth analysis of pol nu-defective mice and human cells. POLN is very weakly
      expressed in most tissues, with the highest relative expression in testis. We
      constructed multiple mouse models for Poln disruption and detected no anatomic
      abnormalities, alterations in lifespan, or changed causes of mortality. Mice with
      inactive Poln are fertile and have normal testis morphology. However, pol nu
      disrupted mice have a modestly reduced crossover frequency at a meiotic
      recombination hot spot harboring insertion/deletion polymorphisms. These
      polymorphisms are suggested to generate a looped-out primer and a hairpin
      structure during recombination, substrates on which pol nu can operate. Pol nu
      defective mice had no alteration in DNA end-joining during immunoglobulin class
      switching, in contrast to animals defective in the related DNA polymerase theta
      (pol theta). We examined the response to DNA crosslinking agents, as purified pol
      nu has some ability to bypass major groove peptide adducts and residues of DNA
      crosslink repair. Inactivation of Poln in mouse embryonic fibroblasts did not
      alter cellular sensitivity to mitomycin C, cisplatin, or aldehydes. Depletion of
      POLN from human cells with shRNA or siRNA did not change cellular sensitivity to
      mitomycin C or alter the frequency of mitomycin C-induced radial chromosomes. Our
      results suggest a function of pol nu in meiotic homologous recombination in
      processing specific substrates. The restricted and more recent evolutionary
      appearance of pol nu (in comparison to pol theta) supports such a specialized
      role.

PMID- 28570560
TI  - qPCR-High resolution melt analysis for drug susceptibility testing of
      Mycobacterium leprae directly from clinical specimens of leprosy patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Real-Time PCR-High Resolution Melting (qPCR-HRM) analysis has been
      recently described for rapid drug susceptibility testing (DST) of Mycobacterium
      leprae. The purpose of the current study was to further evaluate the validity,
      reliability, and accuracy of this assay for M. leprae DST in clinical specimens.
      METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The specificity and sensitivity for determining
      the presence and susceptibility of M. leprae to dapsone based on the folP1 drug
      resistance determining region (DRDR), rifampin (rpoB DRDR) and ofloxacin (gyrA
      DRDR) was evaluated using 211 clinical specimens from leprosy patients, including
      156 multibacillary (MB) and 55 paucibacillary (PB) cases. When comparing the
      results of qPCR-HRM DST and PCR/direct DNA sequencing, 100% concordance was
      obtained. The effects of in-house phenol/chloroform extraction versus column
      based DNA purification protocols, and that of storage and fixation protocols of
      specimens for qPCR-HRM DST, were also evaluated. qPCR-HRM results for all DRDR
      gene assays (folP1, rpoB, and gyrA) were obtained from both MB (154/156; 98.7%)
      and PB (35/55; 63.3%) patients. All PCR negative specimens were from patients
      with low numbers of bacilli enumerated by an M. leprae-specific qPCR. We observed
      that frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues or archival
      Fite's stained slides were suitable for HRM analysis. Among 20 mycobacterial and
      other skin bacterial species tested, only M. lepromatosis, highly related to M.
      leprae, generated amplicons in the qPCR-HRM DST assay for folP1 and rpoB DRDR
      targets. Both DNA purification protocols tested were efficient in recovering DNA
      suitable for HRM analysis. However, 3% of clinical specimens purified using the
      phenol/chloroform DNA purification protocol gave false drug resistant data. DNA
      obtained from freshly frozen (n = 172), formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE)
      tissues (n = 36) or archival Fite's stained slides (n = 3) were suitable for qPCR
      HRM DST analysis. The HRM-based assay was also able to identify mixed infections
      of susceptible and resistant M. leprae. However, to avoid false positives we
      recommend that clinical specimens be tested for the presence of the M. leprae
      using the qPCR-RLEP assay prior to being tested in the qPCR-HRM DST and that all
      specimens demonstrating drug resistant profiles in this assay be subjected to DNA
      sequencing. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together these results further
      demonstrate the utility of qPCR-HRM DST as an inexpensive screening tool for
      large-scale drug resistance surveillance in leprosy.

PMID- 28570561
TI  - Rabies surveillance in dogs in Lao PDR from 2010-2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rabies is a fatal viral disease that continues to threaten both human
      and animal health in endemic countries. The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao
      PDR) is a rabies-endemic country in which dogs are the main reservoir and
      continue to present health risks for both human and animals throughout the
      country. METHODS: Passive, laboratory-based rabies surveillance was performed for
      suspected cases of dog rabies in Vientiane Capital during 2010-2016 and eight
      additional provinces between 2015-2016 using the Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test
      (DFAT). RESULTS: There were 284 rabies positive cases from 415 dog samples
      submitted for diagnosis. 257 cases were from Vientiane Capital (2010-2016) and
      the remaining 27 cases were submitted during 2015-2016 from Champassak (16
      cases), Vientiane Province (4 cases), Xieng Kuang (3 cases), Luang Prabang (2
      cases), Saravan (1 case), Saisomboun (1 case) and Bokeo (1 case). There was a
      significant increase in rabies cases during the dry season (p = 0.004) (November
      to April; i.e., <100mm of rainfall per month). No significant differences were
      noted between age, sex, locality of rabies cases. CONCLUSION: The use of
      laboratory-based rabies surveillance is a useful method of monitoring rabies in
      Lao PDR and should be expanded to other provincial centers, particularly where
      there are active rabies control programs.

PMID- 28570562
TI  - Anomalous diffusion on the servosphere: A potential tool for detecting inherent
      organismal movement patterns.
AB  - Tracking animal movements such as walking is an essential task for understanding
      how and why animals move in an environment and respond to external stimuli.
      Different methods that implemented image analysis and a data logger such as GPS
      have been used in laboratory experiments and in field studies, respectively.
      Recently, animal movement patterns without stimuli have attracted an increasing
      attention in search for common innate characteristics underlying all of their
      movements. However, it is difficult to track the movements in a vast and
      homogeneous environment without stimuli because of space constraints in
      laboratories or environmental heterogeneity in the field, hindering our
      understanding of inherent movement patterns. Here, we applied an omnidirectional
      treadmill mechanism, or a servosphere, as a tool for tracking two-dimensional
      movements of small animals that can provide both a homogenous environment and a
      virtual infinite space for walking. To validate the use of our tracking system
      for assessment of the free-walking behavior, we compared walking patterns of
      individual pillbugs (Armadillidium vulgare) on the servosphere with that in two
      types of experimental flat arenas. Our results revealed that the walking patterns
      on the servosphere showed similar diffusive characteristics to those observed in
      the large arena simulating an open space, and we demonstrated that our mechanism
      provides more robust measurements of diffusive properties compared to a small
      arena with enclosure. Moreover, we showed that anomalous diffusion properties,
      including Levy walk, can be detected from the free-walking behavior on our
      tracking system. Thus, our novel tracking system is useful to measure inherent
      movement patterns, which will contribute to the studies of movement ecology,
      ethology, and behavioral sciences.

PMID- 28570563
TI  - A natural product-like JAK2/STAT3 inhibitor induces apoptosis of malignant
      melanoma cells.
AB  - The JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway plays a critical role in tumorigenesis, and has
      been suggested as a potential molecular target for anti-melanoma therapeutics.
      However, few JAK2 inhibitors were being tested for melanoma therapy. In this
      study, eight amentoflavone analogues were evaluated for their activity against
      human malignant melanoma cells. The most potent analogue, compound 1, inhibited
      the phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 in human melanoma cells, but had no
      discernible effect on total JAK2 and STAT3 levels. A cellular thermal shift assay
      was performed to identify that JAK2 is engaged by 1 in cell lysates. Moreover,
      compound 1 showed higher antiproliferative activity against human melanoma A375
      cells compared to a panel of cancer and normal cell lines. Compound 1 also
      activated caspase-3 and cleaved PARP, which are markers of apoptosis, and
      suppressed the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 level. Finally, compound 1 induced apoptosis
      in 80% of treated melanoma cells. To our knowledge, compound 1 is the first
      amentoflavone-based JAK2 inhibitor to be investigated for use as an anti-melanoma
      agent.

PMID- 28570564
TI  - Identification of TIFY/JAZ family genes in Solanum lycopersicum and their
      regulation in response to abiotic stresses.
AB  - Plant phenotypic plasticity determines plant adaptation to changing environments
      and agricultural productivity. Phytohormones are essential plant signalling
      molecules regulating this plasticity through complex signalling networks.
      Jasmonates (JAs) are key phytohormones regulating many aspects of growth,
      development and defence responses. An important role of JAs in tolerance to
      abiotic stresses is also emerging. The expression of JAZ (JASMONATE-ZIM-DOMAIN
      PROTEIN) genes, encoding for the key repressors in the JA-pathway, is regulated
      by multiple abiotic stresses, suggesting a role for the JAZ proteins in response
      to these stresses. The JAZ proteins belong to the TIFY family, well described in
      many plant species. However, only the role of few tomato JAZ proteins in response
      to microbial infection has been analysed so far. Here, we identify the members of
      the tomato TIFY family, and characterize them phylogenetically. In addition, we
      analyse the transcriptional regulation of several SlJAZ in response to abiotic
      stresses and hormone treatments both in root and leaves to assess their specific
      expression in response to stresses. Most SlJAZ are JA-induced and responsive to
      one or more abiotic stresses, providing clues for functional analysis of JAZ
      genes in abiotic responses in tomato.

PMID- 28570565
TI  - Assessing computational genomics skills: Our experience in the H3ABioNet African
      bioinformatics network.
AB  - The H3ABioNet pan-African bioinformatics network, which is funded to support the
      Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program, has developed node
      assessment exercises to gauge the ability of its participating research and
      service groups to analyze typical genome-wide datasets being generated by
      H3Africa research groups. We describe a framework for the assessment of
      computational genomics analysis skills, which includes standard operating
      procedures, training and test datasets, and a process for administering the
      exercise. We present the experiences of 3 research groups that have taken the
      exercise and the impact on their ability to manage complex projects. Finally, we
      discuss the reasons why many H3ABioNet nodes have declined so far to participate
      and potential strategies to encourage them to do so.

PMID- 28570567
TI  - And, not or: Quality, quantity in scientific publishing.
AB  - Scientists often perceive a trade-off between quantity and quality in scientific
      publishing: finite amounts of time and effort can be spent to produce few high
      quality papers or subdivided to produce many papers of lower quality. Despite
      this perception, previous studies have indicated the opposite relationship, in
      which productivity (publishing more papers) is associated with increased paper
      quality (usually measured by citation accumulation). We examine this question in
      a novel way, comparing members of the National Academy of Sciences with
      themselves across years, and using a much larger dataset than previously
      analyzed. We find that a member's most highly cited paper in a given year has
      more citations in more productive years than in in less productive years. Their
      lowest cited paper each year, on the other hand, has fewer citations in more
      productive years. To disentangle the effect of the underlying distributions of
      citations and productivities, we repeat the analysis for hypothetical publication
      records generated by scrambling each author's citation counts among their
      publications. Surprisingly, these artificial histories re-create the above trends
      almost exactly. Put another way, the observed positive relationship between
      quantity and quality can be interpreted as a consequence of randomly drawing
      citation counts for each publication: more productive years yield higher-cited
      papers because they have more chances to draw a large value. This suggests that
      citation counts, and the rewards that have come to be associated with them, may
      be more stochastic than previously appreciated.

PMID- 28570566
TI  - Targeting YAP/TAZ-TEAD protein-protein interactions using fragment-based and
      computational modeling approaches.
AB  - The Hippo signaling pathway, which is implicated in the regulation of organ size,
      has emerged as a potential target for the development of cancer therapeutics.
      YAP, TAZ (transcription co-activators) and TEAD (transcription factor) are the
      downstream transcriptional machinery and effectors of the pathway. Formation of
      the YAP/TAZ-TEAD complex leads to transcription of growth-promoting genes.
      Conversely, disrupting the interactions of the complex decreases cell
      proliferation. Herein, we screened a 1000-member fragment library using Thermal
      Shift Assay and identified a hit fragment. We confirmed its binding at the
      YAP/TAZ-TEAD interface by X-ray crystallography, and showed that it occupies the
      same hydrophobic pocket as a conserved phenylalanine of YAP/TAZ. This hit
      fragment serves as a scaffold for the development of compounds that have the
      potential to disrupt YAP/TAZ-TEAD interactions. Structure-activity relationship
      studies and computational modeling were also carried out to identify more potent
      compounds that may bind at this validated druggable binding site.

PMID- 28570568
TI  - The risk of tuberculosis disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients on biologics
      and targeted therapy: A 15-year real world experience in Taiwan.
AB  - The objective of this study is to determine the risk of tuberculosis (TB) disease
      in biologics users among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in Taiwan from 2000
      to 2015. This retrospective cohort study enrolled adult RA patients initiated on
      first biologics at Taichung Veterans General Hospital. TB risks were determined
      as hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) using cox regression. A
      total of 951 patients were recruited; etanercept (n = 443), adalimumab (n = 332),
      abatacept (n = 74), golimumab (n = 60), tocilizumab (n = 31) and tofacitinib (n =
      11). Twenty-four TB cases were identified; 13 in etanercept and 11 in adalimumab
      group with the TB incidence rate of 889.3/ 100,000 and 1055.6/ 100,000 patient
      years respectively. There was no significant difference in TB risk between
      adalimumab and etanercept users with an incidence rate ratio of 1.27 (p = 0.556
      by Poisson model). Significant 2-year TB risk factors included elderly patient
      >65 year-old (HR: 2.72, 95% CI: 1.06-6.99, p = 0.037), history of TB (HR: 6.24,
      95% CI: 1.77-22.00, p = 0.004) and daily glucocorticoid use >=5mg (HR:5.01, 95%
      CI: 1.46-17.21, p = 0.010). Sulfasalazine treatment appeared to be protective
      (HR: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.11-0.97, p = 0.043). Risk management plan (RMP) for TB
      before initiation of biologics commenced in 2012. The 2-year TB risks after RMP
      was compared with that before 2012 (HR:0.67, 95% CI: 0.30-1.49, p = 0.323).
      Elderly RA patients with a history of previous TB infection and concomitant
      moderate dose glucocorticoid were at higher risk of TB disease. Concurrent
      sulfasalazine treatment appeared to be a protective factor against TB disease.

PMID- 28570569
TI  - Patterns of use and impact of standardised MedDRA query analyses on the safety
      evaluation and review of new drug and biologics license applications.
AB  - PURPOSE: Standardised MedDRA Queries (SMQs) have been developed since the early
      2000's and used by academia, industry, public health, and government sectors for
      detecting safety signals in adverse event safety databases. The purpose of the
      present study is to characterize how SMQs are used and the impact in safety
      analyses for New Drug Application (NDA) and Biologics License Application (BLA)
      submissions to the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). METHODS:
      We used the PharmaPendium database to capture SMQ use in Summary Basis of
      Approvals (SBoAs) of drugs and biologics approved by the USFDA. Characteristics
      of the drugs and the SMQ use were employed to evaluate the role of SMQ safety
      analyses in regulatory decisions and the veracity of signals they revealed.
      RESULTS: A comprehensive search of the SBoAs yielded 184 regulatory submissions
      approved from 2006 to 2015. Search strategies more frequently utilized
      restrictive searches with "narrow terms" to enhance specificity over strategies
      using "broad terms" to increase sensitivity, while some involved modification of
      search terms. A majority (59%) of 1290 searches used descriptive statistics,
      however inferential statistics were utilized in 35% of them. Commentary from
      reviewers and supervisory staff suggested that a small, yet notable percentage
      (18%) of 1290 searches supported regulatory decisions. The searches with
      regulatory impact were found in 73 submissions (40% of the submissions
      investigated). Most searches (75% of 227 searches) with regulatory implications
      described how the searches were confirmed, indicating prudence in the decision
      making process. CONCLUSIONS: SMQs have an increasing role in the presentation and
      review of safety analysis for NDAs/BLAs and their regulatory reviews. This study
      suggests that SMQs are best used for screening process, with descriptive
      statistics, description of SMQ modifications, and systematic verification of
      cases which is crucial for drawing regulatory conclusions.

PMID- 28570570
TI  - A machine learning approach for gait speed estimation using skin-mounted wearable
      sensors: From healthy controls to individuals with multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Gait speed is a powerful clinical marker for mobility impairment in patients
      suffering from neurological disorders. However, assessment of gait speed in
      coordination with delivery of comprehensive care is usually constrained to
      clinical environments and is often limited due to mounting demands on the
      availability of trained clinical staff. These limitations in assessment design
      could give rise to poor ecological validity and limited ability to tailor
      interventions to individual patients. Recent advances in wearable sensor
      technologies have fostered the development of new methods for monitoring
      parameters that characterize mobility impairment, such as gait speed, outside the
      clinic, and therefore address many of the limitations associated with clinical
      assessments. However, these methods are often validated using normal gait
      patterns; and extending their utility to subjects with gait impairments continues
      to be a challenge. In this paper, we present a machine learning method for
      estimating gait speed using a configurable array of skin-mounted, conformal
      accelerometers. We establish the accuracy of this technique on treadmill walking
      data from subjects with normal gait patterns and subjects with multiple sclerosis
      induced gait impairments. For subjects with normal gait, the best performing
      model systematically overestimates speed by only 0.01 m/s, detects changes in
      speed to within less than 1%, and achieves a root-mean-square-error of 0.12 m/s.
      Extending these models trained on normal gait to subjects with gait impairments
      yields only minor changes in model performance. For example, for subjects with
      gait impairments, the best performing model systematically overestimates speed by
      0.01 m/s, quantifies changes in speed to within 1%, and achieves a root-mean
      square-error of 0.14 m/s. Additional analyses demonstrate that there is no
      correlation between gait speed estimation error and impairment severity, and that
      the estimated speeds maintain the clinical significance of ground truth speed in
      this population. These results support the use of wearable accelerometer arrays
      for estimating walking speed in normal subjects and their extension to MS patient
      cohorts with gait impairment.

PMID- 28570571
TI  - Construction and analyses of the microRNA-target gene differential regulatory
      network in thyroid carcinoma.
AB  - Thyroid-carcinoma (THCA) is the most common malignancy with an increasing
      incidence. Recent evidence has emphasized the role of microRNA (miRNA) in THCA.
      However, knowledge concerning the roles of miRNAs in THCA is still limited. We
      therefore use a miRNA-target gene differential regulatory network (MGDRN) to
      identify key miRNAs and characterize their synergistic regulation in THCA. Both
      miRNA-target gene interactions from multiple databases and negative expression
      correlations between miRNA-target genes were used to characterize the
      interactions. Then, two regulatory networks involving normal and tumor conditions
      were constructed, respectively. The MGDRN was finally constructed using different
      interactions between the above two regulatory networks. By analyzing topological
      features of the MGDRN, four miRNAs (hsa-mir-152-3p, hsa-mir-148a, hsa-mir-130b
      and hsa-mir-15b) are identified as key miRNAs in THCA. Over-expression of mir-152
      3p inhibited proliferation and colony formation of TPC-1 cells. Furthermore, mir
      152-3p negatively regulated ERBB3 by binding to the 3'-UTR of ERBB3, and down
      regulation of ERBB3 by small interfering (si)RNAs inhibited proliferation and
      colony formation of TPC-1 cells, indicating that mir-152-3p acted as an anti
      tumor miRNA by negatively regulating ERBB3. Finally, two synergistically
      dysregulated modules were identified which may contribute to the initiation and
      progression of THCA. Overall, the results provided a better understanding of the
      molecular basis of THCA, and suggested novel treatment strategies for this
      cancer.

PMID- 28570572
TI  - Optimal costs of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis for men who have sex with men.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by
      HIV due to their increased risk of infection. Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis
      (PrEP) is a highly effictive HIV-prevention strategy for MSM. Despite evidence of
      its effectiveness, PrEP uptake in the United States has been slow, in part due to
      its cost. As jurisdictions and health organizations begin to think about PrEP
      scale-up, the high cost to society needs to be understood. METHODS: We modified a
      previously-described decision-analysis model to estimate the cost per quality
      adjusted life-year (QALY) gained, over a 1-year duration of PrEP intervention and
      lifetime time horizon. Using updated parameter estimates, we calculated: 1) the
      cost per QALY gained, stratified over 4 strata of PrEP cost (a function of both
      drug cost and provider costs); and 2) PrEP drug cost per year required to fall at
      or under 4 cost per QALY gained thresholds. RESULTS: When PrEP drug costs were
      reduced by 60% (with no sexual disinhibition) to 80% (assuming 25% sexual
      disinhibition), PrEP was cost-effective (at <$100,000 per QALY averted) in all
      scenarios of base-case or better adherence, as long as the background HIV
      prevalence was greater than 10%. For PrEP to be cost saving at base-case
      adherence/efficacy levels and at a background prevalence of 20%, drug cost would
      need to be reduced to $8,021 per year with no disinhibition, and to $2,548 with
      disinhibition. CONCLUSION: Results from our analysis suggest that PrEP drug costs
      need to be reduced in order to be cost-effective across a range of background HIV
      prevalence. Moreover, our results provide guidance on the pricing of generic
      emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, in order to provide those at high
      risk for HIV an affordable prevention option without financial burden on
      individuals or jurisdictions scaling-up coverage.

PMID- 28570573
TI  - Evidence of selective reporting bias in hematology journals: A systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Selective reporting bias occurs when chance or selective outcome
      reporting rather than the intervention contributes to group differences. The
      prevailing concern about selective reporting bias is the possibility of results
      being modified towards specific conclusions. In this study, we evaluate
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in hematology journals, a group in
      which selective outcome reporting has not yet been explored. METHODS: Our primary
      goal was to examine discrepancies between the reported primary and secondary
      outcomes in registered and published RCTs concerning hematological malignancies
      reported in hematology journals with a high impact factor. The secondary goals
      were to address whether outcome reporting discrepancies favored statistically
      significant outcomes, whether a pattern existed between the funding source and
      likelihood of outcome reporting bias, and whether temporal trends were present in
      outcome reporting bias. For trials with major outcome discrepancies, we contacted
      trialists to determine reasons for these discrepancies. Trials published between
      January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 in Blood; British Journal of Haematology;
      American Journal of Hematology; Leukemia; and Haematologica were included.
      RESULTS: Of 499 RCTs screened, 109 RCTs were included. Our analysis revealed 118
      major discrepancies and 629 total discrepancies. Among the 118 discrepancies, 30
      (25.4%) primary outcomes were demoted, 47 (39.8%) primary outcomes were omitted,
      and 30 (25.4%) primary outcomes were added. Three (2.5%) secondary outcomes were
      upgraded to a primary outcome. The timing of assessment for a primary outcome
      changed eight (6.8%) times. Thirty-one major discrepancies were published with a
      P-value and twenty-five (80.6%) favored statistical significance. A majority of
      authors whom we contacted cited a pre-planned subgroup analysis as a reason for
      outcome changes. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that outcome changes occur
      frequently in hematology trials. Because RCTs ultimately underpin clinical
      judgment and guide policy implementation, selective reporting could pose a threat
      to medical decision making.

PMID- 28570574
TI  - The dynamics of immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis during different
      stages of natural infection: A longitudinal study among Greenlanders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Understanding human immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)
      during different stages of infection is important for development of an effective
      tuberculosis (TB) vaccine. We aimed to evaluate immunity to Mtb infection by
      measuring immune responses to selected Mtb antigens expressed during different
      stages of infection over time and to observe sustainability of immunity. METHODS:
      In a cohort study comprising East Greenlanders aged 17-22 years (2012 to 2014)
      who had either; undetectable Mtb infection, ongoing or prior Mtb infection at
      enrolment, we measured immunity to 15 antigens over a one-year period.
      Quantiferon-TB Gold testing (QFT) defined Mtb infection status
      (undetected/detected). The eligible study population of East Greenlanders aged 17
      22 years was identified from the entire population using the Civil Registration
      System. From the source population 65 participants were selected by stratified
      random sampling according to information on Mtb infection stage. Retrospective
      and prospective information on notified TB (including treatment) was obtained
      through the mandatory TB notification system and was used to characterise Mtb
      infection stage (ongoing/prior). Immunity to 15 antigens including two QFT
      antigens, PPD and 12 non-QFT antigens (representing early, constitutive and
      latent Mtb infection) was assessed by measuring immune responses using whole
      blood antigen stimulation and interferon gamma measurement. RESULTS: Of 65
      participants, 54 were considered Mtb-infected. Immunity to Mtb infection
      fluctuated with high annual risk of conversion (range: 6-69%) and reversion
      (range: 5-95%). During follow-up, five (8%) participants were notified with TB;
      neither conversion nor reversion was associated with an increased risk of
      progressing to TB. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that human immunity to
      natural Mtb infection over time is versatile with fluctuations, resulting in high
      levels of conversion and reversion of immunity, thus human immunity to Mtb is
      much more dynamic than anticipated. The study findings suggest future use of
      longitudinal assessment of immune responses when searching for TB vaccine
      candidate antigens.

PMID- 28570575
TI  - Phylogeny and diversity of neotropical monkey lizards (Iguanidae: Polychrus
      Cuvier, 1817).
AB  - Neotropical monkey lizards (Polychrus) are arboreal lizards with compressed
      bodies, partially fused eyelids and strikingly long, whip-like tails. The eight
      currently recognized species occur in the lowlands of South and Central America.
      Based on the largest taxon and character sampling to date, we analyze three
      mitochondrial and one nuclear gene using Bayesian methods to (1) infer the
      phylogeny of Polychrus under both concatenated-tree and species-tree methods; (2)
      identify lineages that could represent putative undescribed species; and (3)
      estimate divergence times. Our species tree places P. acutirostris as the sister
      taxon to all other species of Polychrus. While the phylogenetic position of P.
      gutturosus and P. peruvianus is poorly resolved, P. marmoratus and P. femoralis
      are strongly supported as sister to P. liogaster and P. jacquelinae,
      respectively. Recognition of P. auduboni and P. marmoratus sensu stricto as
      distinct species indicates that the populations of "P. marmoratus" from the
      Amazon and the Atlantic coast in Brazil represent separate species. Similarly,
      populations of P. femoralis from the Tumbes region might belong to a cryptic
      undescribed species. Relative divergence times and published age estimates
      suggest that the orogeny of the Andes did not play a significant role in the
      early evolution of Polychrus.

PMID- 28570577
TI  - Partial coupling delay induced multiple spatiotemporal orders in a modular
      neuronal network.
AB  - The influence of partial coupling delay on the spatiotemporal spiking dynamics is
      explored in a modular neuronal network. The modular neuronal network is composed
      of two subnetworks which present the small-world property and scale-free
      property, respectively. Numerical results show that spatiotemporal order that the
      modular network is most coherent in time and nearly synchronized in space can
      emerge intermittently when the coupling delays among neurons are appropriately
      tuned. The appropriately tuned delays are further detected to be integer
      multiples of the intrinsic spiking period of the modular neuronal network, which
      implies that the phenomenon of multiple spatiotemporal orders could be the result
      of a locking between the length of coupling delay and the intrinsic spiking
      period of the modular neuronal network. Moreover, the multiple spatiotemporal
      orders are verified to be robust against variations of the fraction of delayed
      connection as well as the key parameters of network architecture such as the
      rewiring probability, the average degree of small-world subnetwork, the initial
      nodes of scale-free subnetwork and the total size of the modular network.

PMID- 28570576
TI  - Characteristics of HIV target CD4 T cells collected using different sampling
      methods from the genital tract of HIV seronegative women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the immune profile of CD4 T cells, the primary targets
      for HIV, in the female genital tract (FGT) is critical for evaluating and
      developing effective biomedical HIV prevention strategies in women. However,
      longitudinal investigation of HIV susceptibility markers expressed by FGT CD4 T
      cells has been hindered by low cellular yield and risk of sampling-associated
      trauma. We investigated three minimally invasive FGT sampling methods to
      characterize and compare CD4 T cell yield and phenotype with the goal of
      establishing feasible sampling strategies for immune profiling of mucosal CD4 T
      cells. METHODS AND RESULTS: FGT samples were collected bimonthly from 12 healthy
      HIV negative women of reproductive age in the following order: 1) Cervicovaginal
      lavage (CVL), 2) two sequential endocervical flocked swabs (FS), and 3) two
      sequential endocervical cytobrushes (CB1, CB2). Cells were isolated and
      phentoyped via flow cytometry. CD4 T cell recovery was highest from each
      individual CB compared to either CVL or FS (p < 0.0001). The majority of CD4 T
      cells within the FGT, regardless of sampling method, expressed CCR5 relative to
      peripheral blood (p < 0.01). Within the CB, CCR5+ CD4 T cells expressed
      significantly higher levels of alpha4beta7, CD69, and low levels of CD27 relative
      to CCR5- CD4 T cells (all p < 0.001). We also identified CD4 Treg lineage cells
      expressing CCR5 among CB samples. CONCLUSIONS: Using three different mucosal
      sampling methods collected longitudinally we demonstrate that CD4 T cells within
      the FGT express CCR5 and alpha4beta7 and are highly activated, attributes which
      could act in concert to facilitate HIV acquisition. FS and CB sampling methods
      can allow for investigation of strategies to reduce HIV target cells in the FGT
      and could inform the design and interpretation microbicide and vaccine studies in
      women.

PMID- 28570578
TI  - Effect of post-mortem delay on N-terminal huntingtin protein fragments in human
      control and Huntington disease brain lysates.
AB  - Huntington disease is associated with elongation of a CAG repeat in the HTT gene
      that results in a mutant huntingtin protein. Several studies have implicated N
      terminal huntingtin protein fragments in Huntington disease pathogenesis.
      Ideally, these fragments are studied in human brain tissue. However, the use of
      human brain tissue comes with certain unavoidable variables such as post mortem
      delay, artefacts from freeze-thaw cycles and subject-to-subject variation.
      Knowledge on how these variables might affect N-terminal huntingtin protein
      fragments in post mortem human brain is important for a proper interpretation of
      study results. The effect of post mortem delay on protein in human brain is known
      to vary depending on the protein of interest. In the present study, we have
      assessed the effect of post mortem delay on N-terminal huntingtin protein
      fragments using western blot. We mimicked post mortem delay in one individual
      control case and one individual Huntington disease case with low initial post
      mortem delay. The influence of subject-to-subject variation on N-terminal
      huntingtin fragments was assessed in human cortex and human striatum using two
      cohorts of control and Huntington disease subjects. Our results show that effects
      of post mortem delay on N-terminal huntingtin protein fragments are minor in our
      individual subjects. Additionally, one freeze-thaw cycle decreases the huntingtin
      western blot signal intensity in the cortex control subject, but does not
      introduce additional N-terminal huntingtin fragments. Our results suggest that
      subject-to-subject variation contributes more to variability in N-terminal
      huntingtin fragments than post mortem delay.

PMID- 28570579
TI  - Global transcriptome profiling identifies KLF15 and SLC25A10 as modifiers of
      adipocytes insulin sensitivity in obese women.
AB  - Although the mechanisms linking obesity to insulin resistance (IR) and type 2
      diabetes (T2D) are not entirely understood, it is likely that alterations of
      adipose tissue function are involved. The aim of this study was to identify new
      genes controlling insulin sensitivity in adipocytes from obese women with either
      insulin resistant (OIR) or sensitive (OIS) adipocytes. Insulin sensitivity was
      first determined by measuring lipogenesis in isolated adipocytes from abdominal
      subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) in a large observational study.
      Lipogenesis was measured under conditions where glucose transport was the rate
      limiting step and reflects in vivo insulin sensitivity. We then performed
      microarray-based transcriptome profiling on subcutaneous WAT specimen from a
      subgroup of 9 lean, 21 OIS and 18 obese OIR women. We could identify 432 genes
      that were differentially expressed between the OIR and OIS group (FDR <=5%).
      These genes are enriched in pathways related to glucose and amino acid
      metabolism, cellular respiration, and insulin signaling, and include genes such
      as SLC2A4, AKT2, as well as genes coding for enzymes in the mitochondria
      respiratory chain. Two IR-associated genes, KLF15 encoding a transcription factor
      and SLC25A10 encoding a dicarboxylate carrier, were selected for functional
      evaluation in adipocytes differentiated in vitro. Knockdown of KLF15 and SLC25A10
      using siRNA inhibited insulin-stimulated lipogenesis in adipocytes. Transcriptome
      profiling of siRNA-treated cells suggested that KLF15 might control insulin
      sensitivity by influencing expression of PPARG, PXMP2, AQP7, LPL and genes in the
      mitochondrial respiratory chain. Knockdown of SLC25A10 had only modest impact on
      the transcriptome, suggesting that it might directly influence insulin
      sensitivity in adipocytes independently of transcription due to its important
      role in fatty acid synthesis. In summary, this study identifies novel genes
      associated with insulin sensitivity in adipocytes in women independently of
      obesity. KFL15 and SLC25A10 are inhibitors of insulin-stimulated lipogenesis
      under conditions when glucose transport is the rate limiting step.

PMID- 28570580
TI  - CT volumetric measurement of colorectal cancer helps predict tumor staging and
      prognosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate feasibility of CT colonography (CTC) volumetry of colorectal
      cancer (CRC) and its correlation with disease stage and patients' survival.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: CTC volumetry was performed for 126 patients who underwent
      preoperative CTC. Reproducibility of tumor volume (Tvol) between two readers was
      assessed. One-way ANOVA and ROC analysis evaluated correlation between Tvol and
      pTNM staging. ROC analysis compared diagnostic performance to predict pTNM
      staging between Tvol and radiologist. Kaplan-Meier test compared overall
      survival. RESULTS: Reproducibility among readers was excellent (interclass
      correlation = 0.9829). Mean Tvol showed an incremental trend with T stage and
      Tvol of pT4b stage was significantly larger than other stages (P<0.0001). Az
      value (0.780) of Tvol to predict pT4b stage was significantly larger than that
      (0.591) of radiologist (P = 0.004). However, Tvol was not significantly different
      according to pN stage. Az values (0.723~0.857) of Tvol to predict M1 or M1b were
      comparable to those (0.772~0.690) of radiologist (P>0.05). Smaller tumor burden
      (<=12.85cm3), <=T3, N0, M0 stages, and curative surgery were significantly
      associated with patients' longer survival (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: CT volumetry has
      a limited value to predict N stage; however, it may outperform the radiologist's
      performance when predicting pT4b and M1b stage and can be a useful prognostic
      marker.

PMID- 28570581
TI  - Environmental contaminants of honeybee products in Uganda detected using LC-MS/MS
      and GC-ECD.
AB  - Pollinator services and the development of beekeeping as a poverty alleviating
      tool have gained considerable focus in recent years in sub-Saharan Africa. An
      improved understanding of the pervasive environmental extent of agro-chemical
      contaminants is critical to the success of beekeeping development and the
      production of clean hive products. This study developed and validated a multi
      residue method for screening 36 pesticides in honeybees, honey and beeswax using
      LC-MS/MS and GC-ECD. Of the 36 screened pesticides, 20 were detected. The highest
      frequencies occurred in beeswax and in samples from apiaries located in the
      proximity of citrus and tobacco farms. Fungicides were the most prevalent
      chemical class. Detected insecticides included neonicotinoids, organophosphates,
      carbamates, organophosphorus, tetrazines and diacylhydrazines. All detected
      pesticide levels were below maximum residue limits (according to EU regulations)
      and the lethal doses known for honeybees. However, future risk assessment is
      needed to determine the health effects on the African genotype of honeybees by
      these pesticide classes and combinations of these. In conclusion, our data
      present a significant challenge to the burgeoning organic honey sector in Uganda,
      but to achieve this, there is an urgent need to regulate the contact routes of
      pesticides into the beehive products. Interestingly, the "zero" detection rate of
      pesticides in the Mid-Northern zone is a significant indicator of the large
      potential to promote Ugandan organic honey for the export market.

PMID- 28570582
TI  - Handling of thermal paper: Implications for dermal exposure to bisphenol A and
      its alternatives.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting chemical used in a wide range of
      consumer products including photoactive dyes used in thermal paper. Recent
      studies have shown that dermal absorption of BPA can occur when handling these
      papers. Yet, regulatory agencies have largely dismissed thermal paper as a major
      source of BPA exposure. Exposure estimates provided by agencies such as the
      European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are based on assumptions about how humans
      interact with this material, stating that 'typical' exposures for adults involve
      only one handling per day for short periods of time (<1 minute), with limited
      exposure surfaces (three fingertips). The objective of this study was to
      determine how individuals handle thermal paper in one common setting: a cafeteria
      providing short-order meals. We observed thermal paper handling in a college-aged
      population (n = 698 subjects) at the University of Massachusetts' dining
      facility. We find that in this setting, individuals handle receipts for an
      average of 11.5 min, that >30% of individuals hold thermal paper with more than
      three fingertips, and >60% allow the paper to touch their palm. Only 11% of the
      participants we observed were consistent with the EFSA model for time of contact
      and dermal surface area. Mathematical modeling based on handling times we
      measured and previously published transfer coefficients, concentrations of BPA in
      paper, and absorption factors indicate the most conservative estimated intake
      from handling thermal paper in this population is 51.1 ng/kg/day, similar to
      EFSA's estimates of 59 ng/kg/day from dermal exposures. Less conservative
      estimates, using published data on concentrations in thermal paper and transfer
      rates to skin, indicate that exposures are likely significantly higher. Based on
      our observational data, we propose that the current models for estimating dermal
      BPA exposures are not consistent with normal human behavior and should be
      reevaluated.

PMID- 28570585
TI  - Prevalence of depression and associated clinical and socio-demographic factors in
      people living with lymphatic filariasis in Plateau State, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphatic filariasis is a chronic, disabling and often disfiguring
      condition that principally impacts the world's poorest people. In addition to the
      well-recognised physical disability associated with lymphedema and hydrocele,
      affected people often experience rejection, stigma and discrimination. The
      resulting emotional consequences are known to impact on the quality of life and
      the functioning of the affected individuals. However, the management of this
      condition has focused on prevention and treatment through mass drug
      administration, with scant attention paid to the emotional impact of the
      condition on affected individuals. This study aimed to determine the prevalence
      and severity of depression among individuals with physical disfigurement from
      lymphatic filariasis in Plateau State, Nigeria. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional 2
      stage convenience study was conducted at 5 designated treatment centers across
      Plateau State, Nigeria. All available and consenting clients with clearly visible
      physical disfigurement were recruited. A semi-structured socio-demographic
      questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-esteem and a 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire
      (PHQ-9) were administered at the first stage. Those who screened positive (with a
      PHQ-9 score of five and above) were further interviewed using the Depression
      module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). RESULTS:
      Ninety-eight individuals met the criteria and provided consent. Twenty percent of
      the respondents met criteria for depression, with the following proportions based
      on severity: Mild (42.1%), Moderate (31.6%) and Severe (26.3%). History of mental
      illness (OR 40.83, p = 0.008); Median duration of the illness was 17 years (IQR
      7.0-30 years) and being unemployed (OR 12.71, p = 0.003) were predictive of
      depression. High self-esteem was negatively correlated (OR 0.09, p<0.004).
      CONCLUSION: Prevalence of depression is high among individuals with lymphatic
      filariasis and depression in sufferers is associated with low self-esteem and low
      levels of life satisfaction.

PMID- 28570583
TI  - Metabolomic and proteomic investigations of impacts of titanium dioxide
      nanoparticles on Escherichia coli.
AB  - In a previous study, it was demonstrated that the toxic impact of titanium
      dioxide nanoparticles on Escherichia coli starts at 10 ppm and is closely related
      to the presence of little aggregates. It was also assumed that only a part of the
      bacterial population is able to adapt to this stress and attempts to survive.
      Proteomic analyses, supported by results from metabolomics, reveal that exposure
      of E. coli to nano-TiO2 induces two main effects on bacterial metabolism:
      firstly, the up-regulation of proteins and the increase of metabolites related to
      energy and growth metabolism; secondly, the down-regulation of other proteins
      resulting in an increase of metabolites, particularly amino acids. Some proteins,
      e.g. chaperonin 1 or isocitrate dehydrogenase, and some metabolites, e.g.
      phenylalanine or valine, might be used as biomarkers of nanoparticles stress.
      Astonishingly, the ATP content gradually rises in relation with the nano-TiO2
      concentration in the medium, indicating a dramatic release of ATP by the damaged
      cells. These apparently contradictory results accredit the thesis of a
      heterogeneity of the bacterial population. This heterogeneity is also confirmed
      by SEM images which show that while some bacteria are fully covered by nano-TiO2,
      the major part of the bacterial population remains free from nanoparticles,
      resulting in a difference of proteome and metabolome. The use of combined-omics
      has allowed to better understand the heterogeneous bacterial response to nano
      TiO2 stress due to heterogeneous contacts between the protagonists under
      environmental conditions.

PMID- 28570586
TI  - Inferring and analysis of social networks using RFID check-in data in China.
AB  - Social networks play an important role in our daily lives. However, social ties
      are rather elusive to quantify, especially for large groups of subjects over
      prolonged periods of time. In this work, we first propose a methodology for
      extracting social ties from long spatio-temporal data streams, where the subjects
      are 17,795 undergraduates from a university of China and the data streams are the
      9,147,106 time-stamped RFID check-in records left behind by them during one
      academic year. By several metrics mentioned below, we then analyze the structure
      of the social network. Our results center around three main observations. First,
      we characterize the global structure of the network, and we confirm the small
      world phenomenon on a global scale. Second, we find that the network shows clear
      community structure. And we observe that younger students at lower levels tend to
      form large communities, while students at higher levels mostly form smaller
      communities. Third, we characterize the assortativity patterns by studying the
      basic demographic and network properties of users. We observe clear degree
      assortativity on a global scale. Furthermore, we find a strong effect of grade
      and school on tie formation preference, but we do not find any strong region
      homophily. Our research may help us to elucidate the structural characteristics
      and the preference of the formation of social ties in college students' social
      network.

PMID- 28570584
TI  - Characterisation of the canine faecal virome in healthy dogs and dogs with acute
      diarrhoea using shotgun metagenomics.
AB  - The virome has been increasingly investigated in numerous animal species and in
      different sites of the body, facilitating the identification and discovery of a
      variety of viruses. In spite of this, the faecal virome of healthy dogs has not
      been investigated. In this study we describe the faecal virome of healthy dogs
      and dogs with acute diarrhoea in Australia, using a shotgun metagenomic approach.
      Viral sequences from a range of different virus families, including both RNA and
      DNA families, and known pathogens implicated in enteric disease were documented.
      Twelve viral families were identified, of which four were bacteriophages. Eight
      eukaryotic viral families were detected: Astroviridae, Coronaviridae, Reoviridae,
      Picornaviridae, Caliciviridae, Parvoviridae, Adenoviridae and Papillomaviridae.
      Families Astroviridae, Picornaviridae and Caliciviridae were found only in dogs
      with acute diarrhoea, with Astroviridae being the most common family identified
      in this group. Due to its prevalence, characterisation the complete genome of a
      canine astrovirus was performed. These studies indicate that metagenomic analyses
      are useful for the investigation of viral populations in the faeces of dogs.
      Further studies to elucidate the epidemiological and biological relevance of
      these findings are warranted.

PMID- 28570587
TI  - Non-standard radiotherapy fractionations delay the time to malignant
      transformation of low-grade gliomas.
AB  - Grade II gliomas are slowly growing primary brain tumors that affect mostly young
      patients. Cytotoxic therapies (radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy) are used
      initially only for patients having a bad prognosis. These therapies are planned
      following the "maximum dose in minimum time" principle, i. e. the same schedule
      used for high-grade brain tumors in spite of their very different behavior. These
      tumors transform after a variable time into high-grade gliomas, which
      significantly decreases the patient's life expectancy. In this paper we study
      mathematical models describing the growth of grade II gliomas in response to
      radiotherapy. We find that protracted metronomic fractionations, i.e.
      therapeutical schedules enlarging the time interval between low-dose radiotherapy
      fractions, may lead to a better tumor control without an increase in toxicity.
      Other non-standard fractionations such as protracted or hypoprotracted schemes
      may also be beneficial. The potential survival improvement depends on the tumor's
      proliferation rate and can be even of the order of years. A conservative
      metronomic scheme, still being a suboptimal treatment, delays the time to
      malignant progression by at least one year when compared to the standard scheme.

PMID- 28570589
TI  - A hyperspectral vessel image registration method for blood oxygenation mapping.
AB  - Blood oxygenation mapping by the means of optical oximetry is of significant
      importance in clinical trials. This paper uses hyperspectral imaging technology
      to obtain in vivo images for blood oxygenation detection. The experiment involves
      dorsal skin fold window chamber preparation which was built on adult (8-10 weeks
      of age) female BALB/c nu/nu mice and in vivo image acquisition which was
      performed by hyperspectral imaging system. To get the accurate spatial and
      spectral information of targets, an automatic registration scheme is proposed. An
      adaptive feature detection method which combines the local threshold method and
      the level-set filter is presented to extract target vessels. A reliable feature
      matching algorithm with the correlative information inherent in hyperspectral
      images is used to kick out the outliers. Then, the registration images are used
      for blood oxygenation mapping. Registration evaluation results show that most of
      the false matches are removed and the smooth and concentrated spectra are
      obtained. This intensity invariant feature detection with outliers-removing
      feature matching proves to be effective in hyperspectral vessel image
      registration. Therefore, in vivo hyperspectral imaging system by the assistance
      of the proposed registration scheme provides a technique for blood oxygenation
      research.

PMID- 28570588
TI  - Predictive validity of the GOSLON Yardstick index in patients with unilateral
      cleft lip and palate: A systematic review.
AB  - Among the various indices developed for measuring the results of treatment in
      patients born with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP), the GOSLON Yardstick
      index is the most widely used to assess the efficacy of treatment and treatment
      outcomes, which in UCLP cases are closely linked to jaw growth. The aim of this
      study was to conduct a systematic review to validate the predictability of growth
      using the GOSLON Yardstick in patients born with UCLP. A systematic literature
      review was conducted in four Internet databases: Medline, Cochrane Library,
      Scopus and Embase, complemented by a manual search and a further search in the
      databases of the leading journals that focus on this topic. An electronic search
      was also conducted among grey literature. The search identified a total of 131
      articles. Duplicated articles were excluded and after reading titles and
      abstracts, any articles not related to the research objective were excluded,
      leaving a total of 21 texts. After reading the complete text, only three articles
      fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The results showed a predictive validity of
      between 42.2% and 64.7%, which points to a lack of evidence in the literature for
      the predictive validity of the GOSLON Yardstick index used in children born with
      UCLP.

PMID- 28570590
TI  - Influence of environmental factors on Cucumis melo L. var. agrestis Naud. seed
      germination and seedling emergence.
AB  - Cucumis melo L. var. agrestis Naud. (field muskmelon) is an annual invasive weed
      in many parts of Asia. However, there is very little available information about
      the germination and emergence of this species. Therefore, laboratory experiments
      were conducted to evaluate the effects of light, temperature, salt stress,
      osmotic stress, pH, and depth of planting on field muskmelon germination and
      seedling emergence. Light had no effect on seed germination, and the seeds
      germinated at a wide range of temperatures. More than 90% of the seeds germinated
      at constant temperatures between 20 degrees C and 35 degrees C, and fluctuating
      day/night temperatures between 15/25 and 30/40 degrees C. The seeds were tolerant
      to salinity as germination occurred up to the 200 mM NaCl treatment. However, the
      seeds were sensitive to osmotic stress as seed germination was completely
      inhibited at -0.6 MPa. The seeds germinated over a pH range of 4 to 10, which
      suggested that pH was not a limiting factor for germination. Seedling emergence
      was greatest (97.86%) when the seeds were planted on the soil surface, but
      emergence declined as the burial depth increased. Information from this study can
      be used to predict future infestations in China and help develop strategies to
      manage this species.

PMID- 28570592
TI  - A prospective study of the demographics, management and outcome of patients with
      acute kidney injury in Cape Town, South Africa.
AB  - AIM: To study the demographics and outcome of acute kidney injury (AKI) at Groote
      Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A prospective
      observational study of AKI fulfilling the Kidney Disease: Improving Global
      Outcomes definition, from 8 July 2012 to 8 July 2013. Ethics approval was granted
      by the University of Cape Town Human Research Ethics Committee. Consent was
      waived because patient data was de-identified and patient management was not
      adversely affected by the study. A clerking sheet was used for data collection.
      Patients were reassessed after 3 months. Main outcomes were renal recovery and 3
      month mortality. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression were
      carried out for risk factors. Over this period there were 10,750 hospital
      admissions and 366 patients with AKI giving an incidence of 3.4%. Median age was
      44 years (IQR 14-82) and 214 (58.5%) were male, with 152 (41.5%) female. Most,
      265 (72.4%), had community acquired AKI. Common underlying comorbidities were
      hypertension (n = 152, 41.5%), diabetes mellitus (n = 65, 17.8%) Human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (n = 75, 20.6%), heart disease (n = 58, 16.1%), and
      chronic kidney disease (n = 37, 10.1%). Renal biopsies were performed in 36
      (9.8%) patients. In total, 202 (55.2%) patients were in the intensive care unit,
      and of the whole study population 204 (55.7%) were dialysed. Those admitted to
      ICU who required dialysis amounted to 145 (39.6%). The overall 3 month mortality
      was 38.8%. Among the 145 patients dialysed in ICU, there were 71 deaths (49%) at
      3 month follow up. Of the 119 patients with follow up serum creatinine, 95
      (79.8%) had full renal recovery, and 4 (3.4%) had end-stage renal disease. On
      multivariate analysis, mechanical ventilation was associated with 3 month
      mortality (OR 2.46, p-value 0.019, 95% CI 1.41-4.03). Sepsis had a borderline
      significant association (OR 1.83, P-value 0.066, 95%CI 1.02-3.27), as did
      prolonged time to dialysis (OR 1.93, p-value 0.08, 095% CI 0.93-4.03). HIV status
      did not affect outcome. The main study limitations were the large numbers of
      patients with AKI stage 3, reflecting the fact that the institution is a tertiary
      referral centre and that patients with earlier stages of AKI tended not to be
      referred. Another study limitation was the low number of patients who were
      available for follow up for 3 month serum creatinine. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence
      of AKI in the population studied is 3.4% of hospital admissions and carries a
      high mortality risk, most significant in mechanically ventilated patients. Sepsis
      and late dialysis initiation may carry a risk of mortality, but HIV infection did
      not affect outcome. Follow up of patients at least 3 months after an episode of
      AKI is essential to detect and appropriately manage those with incomplete renal
      recovery. In this study 36 patients underwent a kidney biopsy, and in many of
      these the results guided patient management. This study demonstrates finally that
      it remains imperative that clinicians actively pursue underlying causes of acute
      decline in renal function, including urine analysis, renal ultrasonography and if
      indicated and safe, a renal biopsy.

PMID- 28570593
TI  - A review of active learning approaches to experimental design for uncovering
      biological networks.
AB  - Various types of biological knowledge describe networks of interactions among
      elementary entities. For example, transcriptional regulatory networks consist of
      interactions among proteins and genes. Current knowledge about the exact
      structure of such networks is highly incomplete, and laboratory experiments that
      manipulate the entities involved are conducted to test hypotheses about these
      networks. In recent years, various automated approaches to experiment selection
      have been proposed. Many of these approaches can be characterized as active
      machine learning algorithms. Active learning is an iterative process in which a
      model is learned from data, hypotheses are generated from the model to propose
      informative experiments, and the experiments yield new data that is used to
      update the model. This review describes the various models, experiment selection
      strategies, validation techniques, and successful applications described in the
      literature; highlights common themes and notable distinctions among methods; and
      identifies likely directions of future research and open problems in the area.

PMID- 28570591
TI  - Statin and rottlerin small-molecule inhibitors restrict colon cancer progression
      and metastasis via MACC1.
AB  - MACC1 (Metastasis Associated in Colon Cancer 1) is a key driver and prognostic
      biomarker for cancer progression and metastasis in a large variety of solid tumor
      types, particularly colorectal cancer (CRC). However, no MACC1 inhibitors have
      been identified yet. Therefore, we aimed to target MACC1 expression using a
      luciferase reporter-based high-throughput screening with the ChemBioNet library
      of more than 30,000 compounds. The small molecules lovastatin and rottlerin
      emerged as the most potent MACC1 transcriptional inhibitors. They remarkably
      inhibited MACC1 promoter activity and expression, resulting in reduced cell
      motility. Lovastatin impaired the binding of the transcription factors c-Jun and
      Sp1 to the MACC1 promoter, thereby inhibiting MACC1 transcription. Most
      importantly, in CRC-xenografted mice, lovastatin and rottlerin restricted MACC1
      expression and liver metastasis. This is-to the best of our knowledge-the first
      identification of inhibitors restricting cancer progression and metastasis via
      the novel target MACC1. This drug repositioning might be of therapeutic value for
      CRC patients.

PMID- 28570594
TI  - Automated high throughput nucleic acid purification from formalin-fixed paraffin
      embedded tissue samples for next generation sequence analysis.
AB  - Curation and storage of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples are
      standard procedures in hospital pathology laboratories around the world. Many
      thousands of such samples exist and could be used for next generation sequencing
      analysis. Retrospective analyses of such samples are important for identifying
      molecular correlates of carcinogenesis, treatment history and disease outcomes.
      Two major hurdles in using FFPE material for sequencing are the damaged nature of
      the nucleic acids and the labor-intensive nature of nucleic acid purification.
      These limitations and a number of other issues that span multiple steps from
      nucleic acid purification to library construction are addressed here. We
      optimized and automated a 96-well magnetic bead-based extraction protocol that
      can be scaled to large cohorts and is compatible with automation. Using sets of
      32 and 91 individual FFPE samples respectively, we generated libraries from 100
      ng of total RNA and DNA starting amounts with 95-100% success rate. The use of
      the resulting RNA in micro-RNA sequencing was also demonstrated. In addition to
      offering the potential of scalability and rapid throughput, the yield obtained
      with lower input requirements makes these methods applicable to clinical samples
      where tissue abundance is limiting.

PMID- 28570595
TI  - Plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels are elevated in patients with cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Natriuretic peptides have been proposed as biomarkers of
      cardiovascular disease, especially heart failure. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)
      has also been shown to be upregulated at the transcriptional and translational
      levels by pro-inflammatory cytokines in cardiac myocytes. Although we often
      measure plasma BNP levels in cancer patients, it remains unknown whether cancer
      related inflammation affects the plasma BNP levels. We investigated the
      relationship between the BNP and human cancers. METHODS: We retrospectively
      studied 2,923 patients in whom the plasma BNP levels and serum C-reactive protein
      (CRP) were measured and echocardiography was performed. Patients with clinically
      evident heart failure (NYHA II or higher), heart disease requiring medical
      treatment or surgery, renal dysfunction, and inflammatory disease were excluded.
      There were 234 patients in the final analysis. Blood sampling was performed
      before surgery and chemotherapy. In addition, we evaluated the relationship
      between the inflammation and plasma BNP levels in mouse models of colon cancer.
      RESULTS: Of the 234 patients, 80 were diagnosed with cancer. Both the plasma BNP
      and serum CRP levels were significantly higher in cancer patients than those
      without. There were no significant differences in the echocardiographic
      parameters. There was a significant positive correlation between the plasma BNP
      and serum CRP levels in cancer patients (r = 0.360, P<0.01) but not in those
      without. In cancer patients, only the CRP correlated with the BNP independent of
      the age, creatinine level, hypertension, and body mass index. In addition, in
      nude mice with subcutaneous colon cancer, the plasma BNP level was elevated
      compared with that in non-cancer mice, and there was a significant relationship
      between the plasma BNP and serum levels of the inflammatory markers. CONCLUSIONS:
      In cancer patients, as well as colon cancer model mice, the plasma BNP levels
      were elevated, possibly due to cancer-related inflammation. The effect of cancer
      on the BNP levels should be considered when using BNP as an indicator of heart
      failure in cancer patients.

PMID- 28570596
TI  - Implementing the PHMRC shortened questionnaire: Survey duration of open and
      closed questions in three sites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: More countries are using verbal autopsy as a part of routine
      mortality surveillance. The length of time required to complete a verbal autopsy
      interview is a key logistical consideration for planning large-scale
      surveillance. METHODS: We use the PHMRC shortened questionnaire to conduct verbal
      autopsy interviews at three sites and collect data on the length of time required
      to complete the interview. This instrument uses a novel checklist of keywords to
      capture relevant information from the open response. The open response section is
      timed separately from the section consisting of closed questions. RESULTS: We
      found the median time to complete the entire interview was approximately 25
      minutes and did not vary substantially by age-specific module. The median time
      for the open response section was approximately 4 minutes and 60% of interviewees
      mentioned at least one keyword within the open response section. CONCLUSIONS: The
      length of time required to complete the interview was short enough for large
      scale routine use. The open-response section did not add a substantial amount of
      time and provided useful information which can be used to increase the accuracy
      of the predictions of the cause of death. The novel checklist approach further
      reduces the burden of transcribing and translating a large amount of free text.
      This makes the PHMRC instrument ideal for national mortality surveillance.

PMID- 28570598
TI  - Does optimal partitioning of color space account for universal color
      categorization?
AB  - A 2007 study by Regier, Kay, and Khetarpal purports to show that universal
      categories emerge as a result of optimal partitioning of color space. Regier,
      Kay, and Khetarpal only consider color categorizations of up to six categories.
      However, in most industrialized societies eleven color categories are observed.
      This paper shows that when applied to the case of eleven categories, Regier, Kay,
      and Khetarpal's optimality criterion yields unsatisfactory results. Applications
      of the criterion to the intermediate cases of seven, eight, nine, and ten color
      categories are also briefly considered and are shown to yield mixed results. We
      consider a number of possible explanations of the failure of the criterion in the
      case of eleven categories, and suggest that, as color categorizations get more
      complex, further criteria come to play a role, alongside Regier, Kay, and
      Khetarpal's optimality criterion.

PMID- 28570597
TI  - "I was in the darkness but the group brought me light": Development, relevance
      and feasibility of the Sondela HIV adjustment and coping intervention.
AB  - Developing interventions that address psychosocial wellbeing of people living
      with HIV is critical to ensure strong linkages to and retention in HIV care. This
      paper describes the development of Sondela, an HIV adjustment and coping
      intervention for heterosexual men and women living with HIV, and its relevance
      and feasibility in the South African context. Sondela is a six three-hour, small
      group-based, participatory workshop series. We followed an iterative, multi
      phased process of curriculum development that involved research, theoretical
      frameworks and piloting. A systematic review highlighted the absence of
      psychosocial interventions targeting heterosexual HIV positive populations living
      in high HIV prevalence and resource-poor settings. Formative studies demonstrated
      risk and social factors associated with adjustment and coping with HIV,
      emphasising the need for interventions that acknowledge gendered experiences. Our
      pilot of Sondela demonstrated high levels of relevance and feasibility. Men
      appreciated the workshop "space" to openly talk about their HIV positive status
      and what is means for their role as partners and fathers and friends. Women
      valued the skills and approaches because they were relevant to "real life"
      situations and not just about HIV. Sondela promises to be valuable in supporting
      health system initiatives and psychosocial support to strengthen linkages to and
      retention in HIV care, and this suggests a need for rigorous evaluation of
      Sondela to establish evidence for its effectiveness in a general population.

PMID- 28570600
TI  - 3D fractional moving blood volume (3D-FMBV) demonstrates decreased first
      trimester placental vascularity in pre-eclampsia but not the term, small for
      gestation age baby.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To undertake an observational study to see whether first trimester
      placental vascularity, measured with a standardized power Doppler index: 3D-FMBV,
      is different in pregnancies which either develop pre-eclampsia or lead to term,
      normotensive small for gestational age (SGA) babies. METHODS: Women were scanned
      between 11 and 13+6 weeks. The placental volume (sPlaV) was estimated using our
      previously validated semi-automated tool. Estimates of 3D-FMBV were generated
      from the raw power Doppler signal for the whole utero-placental interface, UPI
      (FMBV-UPI) and 5mm into the placenta (FMBV-IVS). Differences in the placental
      volume and FMBV for pregnancies developing pre-eclampsia and resulting in term,
      normotensive SGA babies were compared with term, normotensive, appropriate for
      gestational age (AGA), controls. RESULTS: Results were available for 143 women.
      The placental volume (sPlaV) was reduced in both pre-eclampsia (p = 0.007) and
      term, normotensive SGA (p = 0.001) when compared with term normotensive AGA
      controls. 3D-FMBV estimates were significantly lower for pregnancies developing
      pre-eclampsia (FMBV-UPI, p = 0.03, FMBV-IVS, p = 0.01) but not for the
      normotensive SGA pregnancies (FMBV-UPI, p = 0.16, FMBV-IVS, p = 0.27).
      CONCLUSION: Pregnancies destined to develop pre-eclampsia are more likely to have
      small placentas with significantly reduced vascularity at 11-13 weeks. Those
      pregnancies which were normotensive throughout but resulted in an SGA baby
      delivered at term, had significantly smaller placentas but with similar
      vascularity to normotensive AGA pregnancies.

PMID- 28570599
TI  - Imatinib attenuates cardiac fibrosis by inhibiting platelet-derived growth factor
      receptors activation in isoproterenol induced model.
AB  - Cardiac fibrosis is a significant global health problem with limited treatment
      choices. Although previous studies have shown that imatinib (IMA) inhibited
      cardiac fibrosis, the anti-fibrotic mechanisms have not been clearly uncovered.
      The aim of this study is to evaluate whether IMA attenuates cardiac fibrosis by
      inhibiting platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFR) on isoproterenol
      (ISO)-induced mice. Adult male C57BL/6 mice were treated with vehicle or ISO +/-
      IMA for one week. After echocardiography examination, the hearts of mice were
      used for histopathologic, RT-qPCR, and western blot analyses. We found that the
      ventricular wall thickness, cardiac hypertrophy, and apoptosis were enhanced
      following ISO treatment. IMA decreased the left ventricular wall thickness,
      prevented hypertrophy, and inhibited apoptosis induced by ISO. In addition, IMA
      attenuated the accumulation of collagens and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha
      SMA) (the markers of fibrosis) caused by ISO treatment. Moreover, the expression
      of fibrosis related genes, and the phosphorylation of PDGFRs in ISO-treated mice
      hearts were inhibited by IMA as well. However, IMA did not change the expression
      of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in ISO-treated hearts. Furthermore, IMA
      reduced the expressions of collagens as well as alpha-SMA caused by activation of
      PDGFRalpha in cardiac fibroblasts. Taken together, our data demonstrate that IMA
      attenuated the cardiac fibrosis by blocking the phosphorylation of PDGFRs in the
      ISO-induced mice model. This study indicates that IMA could be a potentially
      therapeutic option for cardiac fibrosis in clinical application.

PMID- 28570601
TI  - Characterization of 2-(2-nitro-4-trifluoromethylbenzoyl)-1,3-cyclohexanedione
      resistance in pyomelanogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa DKN343.
AB  - Pyomelanin is a reddish-brown pigment that provides bacteria and fungi protection
      from oxidative stress, and is reported to contribute to infection persistence.
      Production of this pigment can be inhibited by the anti-virulence agent 2-(2
      nitro-4-trifluoromethylbenzoyl)-1,3-cyclohexanedione (NTBC). The Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa clinical isolate DKN343 exhibited high levels of resistance to NTBC,
      and the mechanism of pyomelanin production in this strain was uncharacterized. We
      determined that pyomelanin production in the clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      isolate DKN343 was due to a loss of function in homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase
      (HmgA). Several potential resistance mechanisms were investigated, and the MexAB
      OprM efflux pump is required for resistance to NTBC. DKN343 has a frameshift
      mutation in NalC, which is a known indirect repressor of the mexAB-oprM operon.
      This frameshift mutation may contribute to the increased resistance of DKN343 to
      NTBC. Additional studies investigating the prevalence of resistance in
      pyomelanogenic microbes are necessary to determine the future applications of
      NTBC as an anti-virulence therapy.

PMID- 28570602
TI  - A comparison of nucleosome organization in Drosophila cell lines.
AB  - Changes in the distribution of nucleosomes along the genome influence chromatin
      structure and impact gene expression by modulating the accessibility of DNA to
      transcriptional machinery. However, the role of genome-wide nucleosome
      positioning in gene expression and in maintaining differentiated cell states
      remains poorly understood. Drosophila melanogaster cell lines represent distinct
      tissue types and exhibit cell-type specific gene expression profiles. They thus
      could provide a useful tool for investigating cell-type specific nucleosome
      organization of an organism's genome. To evaluate this possibility, we compared
      genome-wide nucleosome positioning and occupancy in five different Drosophila
      tissue-specific cell lines, and in reconstituted chromatin, and then tested for
      correlations between nucleosome positioning, transcription factor binding motifs,
      and gene expression. Nucleosomes in all cell lines were positioned in accordance
      with previously known DNA-nucleosome interactions, with helically repeating A/T
      di-nucleotide pairs arranged within nucleosomal DNAs and AT-rich pentamers
      generally excluded from nucleosomal DNA. Nucleosome organization in all cell
      lines differed markedly from in vitro reconstituted chromatin, with highly
      expressed genes showing strong nucleosome organization around transcriptional
      start sites. Importantly, comparative analysis identified genomic regions that
      exhibited cell line-specific nucleosome enrichment or depletion. Further analysis
      of these regions identified 91 out of 16,384 possible heptamer sequences that
      showed differential nucleosomal occupation between cell lines, and 49 of the
      heptamers matched one or more known transcription factor binding sites. These
      results demonstrate that there is differential nucleosome positioning between
      these Drosophila cell lines and therefore identify a system that could be used to
      investigate the functional significance of differential nucleosomal positioning
      in cell type specification.

PMID- 28570604
TI  - Weed abundance is positively correlated with native plant diversity in grasslands
      of southern Australia.
AB  - Weeds are commonly considered a threat to biodiversity, yet interactions between
      native and exotic species in grasslands are poorly understood and reported
      results vary depending on the spatial scale of study, the factors controlled for
      and the response variables analysed. We tested whether weed presence and
      abundance is related to declines in biodiversity in Australian grasslands. We
      employed existing field data from 241 plots along a disturbance gradient and
      correlated species richness, cover and Shannon diversity for natives and exotics,
      controlling for seasonal rainfall, climatic gradients and nutrient status. We
      found no negative relationships in terms of emergent diversity metrics and
      occupation of space, indeed, many positive relationships were revealed. When
      split by land-use, differences were found along the disturbance gradient. In high
      moderately disturbed grasslands associated with land-uses such as cropping and
      modified pastures, positive associations were enhanced. Tolerance and
      facilitation mechanisms may be involved, such as complementary roles through
      different life history strategies: the exotic flora was dominated mainly by
      annual grasses and herbs whereas the native flora represented more diverse growth
      forms with a higher proportion of perennials. The positive relationships existing
      between native and exotic plant species in high-moderately disturbed grasslands
      of South Australia are most likely due to facilitation through different
      strategies in occupation of space given that the effect of habitat suitability
      was controlled for by including environmental and disturbance factors.
      Consequently, although particular weeds may negatively impact biodiversity, this
      cannot be generalised and management focusing on general weed eradication in
      grasslands might be ineffectual.

PMID- 28570603
TI  - Evolution of Salmonella Typhi outer membrane protein-specific T and B cell
      responses in humans following oral Ty21a vaccination: A randomized clinical
      trial.
AB  - : Vaccination against complex pathogens such as typhoidal and non-typhoidal
      Salmonella requires the concerted action of different immune effector mechanisms.
      Outer membrane proteins (Omps) of Salmonella Typhi are potent immunogens, which
      elicit long-lasting and protective immunity. Here, we followed the evolution of
      S. Typhi OmpC and F-specific T and B cell responses in healthy volunteers after
      vaccination with the vaccine strain Ty21a. To follow humoral and cellular immune
      responses, pre- and post-vaccination samples (PBMC, serum and stool) collected
      from 15 vaccinated and 5 non-vaccinated individuals. Immunoglobulin levels were
      assessed in peripheral blood by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. B cell and T
      cell activation were analyzed by flow cytometry. We observed a significant
      increase of circulating antibody-secreting cells and maximal Omp-specific serum
      IgG titers at day 25 post vaccination, while IgA titers in stool peaked at day
      60. Likewise, Omp-specific CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood showed the highest
      expansion at day 60 post vaccination, concomitant with a significant increase in
      IFN-gamma and TNFalpha production. These results indicate that S. Typhi Omp
      specific B cell responses and polyfunctional CD4+ T cell responses evolve over a
      period of at least two months after application of the live attenuated vaccine.
      Moreover, these findings underscore the potential of S. Typhi Omps as subunit
      vaccine components. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN18360696.

PMID- 28570605
TI  - Frameshift indels introduced by genome editing can lead to in-frame exon
      skipping.
AB  - The introduction of frameshift indels by genome editing has emerged as a powerful
      technique to study the functions of uncharacterized genes in cell lines and model
      organisms. Such mutations should lead to mRNA degradation owing to nonsense
      mediated mRNA decay or the production of severely truncated proteins. Here, we
      show that frameshift indels engineered by genome editing can also lead to
      skipping of "multiple of three nucleotides" exons. Such splicing events result in
      in-frame mRNA that may encode fully or partially functional proteins. We also
      characterize a segregating nonsense variant (rs2273865) located in a "multiple of
      three nucleotides" exon of LGALS8 that increases exon skipping in human
      erythroblast samples. Our results highlight the potentially frequent contribution
      of exonic splicing regulatory elements and are important for the interpretation
      of negative results in genome editing experiments. Moreover, they may contribute
      to a better annotation of loss-of-function mutations in the human genome.

PMID- 28570606
TI  - Effects of two different decellularization routes on the mechanical properties of
      decellularized lungs.
AB  - Considering the limited number of available lung donors, lung bioengineering
      using whole lung scaffolds has been proposed as an alternative approach to obtain
      lungs suitable for transplantation. However, some decellularization protocols can
      cause alterations on the structure, composition, or mechanical properties of the
      lung extracellular matrix. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the
      acellular lung mechanical properties when using two different routes through the
      trachea and pulmonary artery for the decellularization process. This study was
      performed by using the lungs excised from 30 healthy male C57BL/6 mice, which
      were divided into 3 groups: tracheal decellularization (TDG), perfusion
      decellularization (PDG), and control groups (CG). Both decellularized groups were
      subjected to decellularization protocol with a solution of 1% sodium dodecyl
      sulfate. The behaviour of mechanical properties of the acellular lungs was
      measured after decellularization process. Static (Est) and dynamic (Edyn)
      elastances were obtained by the end-inspiratory occlusion method. TDG and PDG
      showed reduced Est and Edyn elastances after lung decellularization. Scanning
      electron microscopy showed no structural changes after lung decellularization of
      the TDG and PDG. In conclusion, was demonstrated that there is no significant
      difference in the behaviour of mechanical properties and extracellular matrix of
      the decellularized lungs by using two different routes through the trachea and
      pulmonary artery.

PMID- 28570607
TI  - Discovery of a new hypotrich ciliate from petroleum contaminated soil.
AB  - Pollution after oil spill represents extreme habitat for survival and is a major
      concern for loss of species diversity in the affected area. In this study, we
      investigated soil samples collected from a petrochemical industry, Ulsan, South
      Korea. The soil was in the phase of recovery from the contamination of crude oil
      spill. Detailed investigation, based on morphology, ontogenesis, and molecular
      phylogenetic methods, resulted in discovery of a novel hypotrich ciliate, i.e.,
      Metasterkiella koreana n. gen., n. sp., which is morphologically characterized by
      a semirigid body, undulating membranes in Oxytricha pattern, 18 frontal-ventral
      transverse cirri with cirrus V/3 placed posteriorly, one right and one left row
      of marginal cirri, four dorsal kineties, two dorsomarginal rows, and caudal cirri
      at the end of dorsal kineties 1, 2, and 4. Interestingly, during ontogenesis,
      formation of three common anlagen for the proter and the opisthe and involvement
      of cirrus V/3 in anlagen formation was observed. The dorsal ontogenesis was
      typical of oxytrichids, i.e., simple fragmentation of dorsal kinety 3 and
      formation of dorsomarginal rows close to the right marginal row. The new species
      was found to be similar with Sterkiella subtropica, except for some minor
      differences in morphometry, and at gene level with only one base pair difference.
      In phylogenetic analyses, based on SSU rRNA gene sequence, M. koreana cluster in
      a clade away from Sterkiella species, which could be explained by the differences
      in the morphogenetic pattern between these two genera. It is proposed that S.
      subtropica probably belongs to Metasterkiella; however, we do not perform changes
      and wait for the reinvestigation of its morphogenetic pattern.

PMID- 28570608
TI  - The spread of Wolbachia through mosquito populations.
AB  - In many regions of the world, mosquito-borne viruses pose a growing threat to
      human health. As an alternative to traditional control measures, the bacterial
      symbiont Wolbachia has been transferred from Drosophila into the mosquito Aedes
      aegypti, where it can block the transmission of dengue and Zika viruses. A recent
      paper has reported large-scale releases of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti in the
      city of Cairns, Australia. Wolbachia, which is maternally transmitted, invaded
      and spread through the populations due to a sperm-egg incompatibility called
      cytoplasmic incompatibility. Over a period of 2 years, a wave of Wolbachia
      infection slowly spread out from 2 release sites, demonstrating that it will be
      possible to deploy this strategy in large urban areas. In line with theoretical
      predictions, Wolbachia infection at a third, smaller release site collapsed due
      to the immigration of Wolbachia-free mosquitoes from surrounding areas. This
      remarkable field experiment has both validated theoretical models of Wolbachia
      population dynamics and demonstrated that this is a viable strategy to modify
      mosquito populations.

PMID- 28570609
TI  - Construction of an enantiopure bivalent nicotine vaccine using synthetic
      peptides.
AB  - Clinical outcomes of anti-nicotine vaccines may be improved through enhancements
      in serum antibody affinity and concentration. Two strategies were explored to
      improve vaccine efficacy in outbred mice: the use of enantiopure haptens and
      formulation of a bivalent vaccine. Vaccines incorporating natural (-) nicotine
      haptens improved relative antibody affinities >10-fold over (+) haptens,
      stimulated a two-fold boost in nicotine serum binding capacity, and following
      injection with 3 cigarette equivalents of nicotine, prevented a larger proportion
      of nicotine (>85%) from reaching the brain. The activity of a bivalent vaccine
      containing (-) 3'AmNic and (-) 1'SNic haptens was then compared to dose-matched
      monovalent groups. It was confirmed that antisera generated by these structurally
      distinct haptens have minimal cross-reactivity and stimulate different B cell
      populations. Equivalent antibody affinities were detected between the three
      groups, but the bivalent group showed two-fold higher titers and an additive
      increase in nicotine serum binding capacity as compared to the monovalent groups.
      Mice immunized with the bivalent formulation also performed better in a nicotine
      challenge experiment, and prevented >85% of a nicotine dose equivalent to 12
      cigarettes from reaching the brain. Overall, enantiopure conjugate vaccines
      appear to improve serum antibody affinity, while multivalent formulations
      increase total antibody concentration. These findings may help improve the
      performance of future clinical candidate vaccines.

PMID- 28570610
TI  - Bacterial community structure transformed after thermophilically composting human
      waste in Haiti.
AB  - Recycling human waste for beneficial use has been practiced for millennia.
      Aerobic (thermophilic) composting of sewage sludge has been shown to reduce
      populations of opportunistically pathogenic bacteria and to inactivate both
      Ascaris eggs and culturable Escherichia coli in raw waste, but there is still a
      question about the fate of most fecal bacteria when raw material is composted
      directly. This study undertook a comprehensive microbial community analysis of
      composting material at various stages collected over 6 months at two composting
      facilities in Haiti. The fecal microbiota signal was monitored using a high
      density DNA microarray (PhyloChip). Thermophilic composting altered the bacterial
      community structure of the starting material. Typical fecal bacteria classified
      in the following groups were present in at least half the starting material
      samples, yet were reduced below detection in finished compost: Prevotella and
      Erysipelotrichaceae (100% reduction of initial presence), Ruminococcaceae (98
      99%), Lachnospiraceae (83-94%, primarily unclassified taxa remained), Escherichia
      and Shigella (100%). Opportunistic pathogens were reduced below the level of
      detection in the final product with the exception of Clostridium tetani, which
      could have survived in a spore state or been reintroduced late in the outdoor
      maturation process. Conversely, thermotolerant or thermophilic Actinomycetes and
      Firmicutes (e.g., Thermobifida, Bacillus, Geobacillus) typically found in compost
      increased substantially during the thermophilic stage. This community DNA-based
      assessment of the fate of human fecal microbiota during thermophilic composting
      will help optimize this process as a sanitation solution in areas where
      infrastructure and resources are limited.

PMID- 28570611
TI  - Lipid profile of different infant formulas for infants.
AB  - Situations including premature infants, or those in which there is a rejection to
      breastfeeding, require the use infant formulas for total or partial replacement
      of human milk. The objective of this study was to determine the lipid content and
      to identify the lipid profile of infant formulas. Samples were collected from ten
      different infant formulas, used as a substitute for breast milk at the Maternal
      and Child Hospital of Brasilia. The human milk sample consisted of a pool of
      samples from 10 mature milk donors at the milk bank of the University Hospital of
      Brasilia. The lipid content and lipid profile of the different infant formulas
      and human milk were analyzed. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block
      design, with eleven treatments and three replicates, in triplicate. The data
      obtained in this study indicated significant differences between infant formulas
      and human milk, and among the infant formulas analyzed in relation to the
      percentage of total lipids and the fatty acid profile, except for the fractions
      of linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Regarding the percentage of polyunsaturated
      fatty acids in relation to the total unsaturated fatty acids, only the Soy
      Protein Isolate-based Infant Formula (SPIIF) and Whey Protein Extensively
      Hydrolyzed Infant Formula (WPEHIF) resembled human milk. It was concluded that
      despite the observed differences, the use of infant formulas is a viable strategy
      for the development of infants subjected or not to specific physiological
      conditions.

PMID- 28570612
TI  - Caveolin1 protects against diet induced hepatic lipid accumulation in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Caveolin1 (CAV1) is involved in lipid homeostasis and
      endocytosis, but little is known about the significance of CAV1 in the
      pathogenesis and development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This
      study aimed to determine the role of CAV1 in NAFLD. METHODS: Expression of CAV1
      in the in vitro and in vivo models of NAFLD was analyzed. The effects of CAV1
      knockdown or overexpression on free fatty acid (FFA)-induced lipid accumulation
      in L02 cells and AML12 cells were determined. CAV1 knockout (CAV1-KO) mice and
      their wild-type (WT) littermates were subjected to a high fat diet (HFD) for 4
      weeks, and the functional consequences of losing the CAV1 gene and its subsequent
      molecular mechanisms were also examined. RESULTS: Noticeably, CAV1 expression was
      markedly reduced in NAFLD. CAV1 knockdown led to the aggravation of steatosis
      that was induced by FFA in both L02 cells and AML12 cells, while CAV1
      overexpression markedly attenuated lipid accumulation in the cells. Consistent
      with CAV1 repression in the livers of HFD-induced mice, the CAV1-KO mice
      exhibited more severe hepatic steatosis upon HFD intake. In addition, increased
      cholesterol levels and elevated transaminases were detected in the plasma of CAV1
      KO mice. The protein expression of SREBP1, a key gene involved in lipogenesis,
      was augmented following CAV1 suppression in FFA-treated hepatocytes and in the
      livers of HFD-fed CAV1-KO mice. CONCLUSIONS: CAV1 serves as an important
      protective factor in the development of NAFLD by modulating lipid metabolism gene
      expression.

PMID- 28570613
TI  - Clinical, ultrasound and molecular biomarkers for early prediction of large for
      gestational age infants in nulliparous women: An international prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a prediction model for term infants born large for
      gestational age (LGA) by customised birthweight centiles. METHODS: International
      prospective cohort of nulliparous women with singleton pregnancy recruited to the
      Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE) study. LGA was defined as birthweight
      above the 90th customised centile, including adjustment for parity, ethnicity,
      maternal height and weight, fetal gender and gestational age. Clinical risk
      factors, ultrasound parameters and biomarkers at 14-16 or 19-21 weeks were
      combined into a prediction model for LGA infants at term using stepwise logistic
      regression in a training dataset. Prediction performance was assessed in a
      validation dataset using area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics curve
      (AUC) and detection rate at fixed false positive rates. RESULTS: The prevalence
      of LGA at term was 8.8% (n = 491/5628). Clinical and ultrasound factors selected
      in the prediction model for LGA infants were maternal birthweight, gestational
      weight gain between 14-16 and 19-21 weeks, and fetal abdominal circumference,
      head circumference and uterine artery Doppler resistance index at 19-21 weeks
      (AUC 0.67; 95%CI 0.63-0.71). Sensitivity of this model was 24% and 49% for a
      fixed false positive rate of 10% and 25%, respectively. The addition of
      biomarkers resulted in selection of random glucose, LDL-cholesterol, vascular
      endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR1) and neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin (NGAL), but with minimal improvement in model performance
      (AUC 0.69; 95%CI 0.65-0.73). Sensitivity of the full model was 26% and 50% for a
      fixed false positive rate of 10% and 25%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Prediction of
      LGA infants at term has limited diagnostic performance before 22 weeks but may
      have a role in contingency screening in later pregnancy.

PMID- 28570614
TI  - Employment history indicators and mortality in a nested case-control study from
      the Spanish WORKing life social security (WORKss) cohort.
AB  - Employment has transitioned from stable to more flexible schemes. Little is known
      about the effects of dynamic working lives and mortality. We examined the
      association of employment, unemployment and inactivity on mortality among workers
      born in 1926-1988, in a nested case-control study of workers from the Spanish
      WORKss cohort. Cases were all deaths that occurred during 2004-2013 and controls
      were living persons, matched for sex and age at the time the case occurred. We
      had information on employment from 1981 to 2013. Logistic regression was used to
      measure the associations between the 3 employment history indicators separately
      by sex. There were 53,989 cases and an equal number of controls (n = 107,978).
      More than 16 years employed showed a protective effect against mortality in women
      (OR = 0.88, 95%CI: 0.81, 0.94) and men (OR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.70, 0.79). The number
      of spells and time in unemployment and inactivity were significantly related to
      mortality in men, but not women. Sensitivity analyses by labor relationship
      showed stronger associations of unemployment (OR = 1.42, 95%CI: 1.13, 1.78) and
      inactivity (OR = 1.34; 95%CI: 1.09, 1.65) for temporary workers. Employment gaps
      are detrimental to health and have worse effects if the gaps occur without
      unemployment benefits or after temporary contracts. These results may drive
      improvement of labor and social policies that protect workers against the
      potential negative effects of dynamic work lives.

PMID- 28570615
TI  - Liver biopsy in type 2 diabetes mellitus: Steatohepatitis represents the sole
      feature of liver damage.
AB  - Recent studies report a prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
      of between 70% and 80% in patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Nevertheless, it is not possible to differentiate
      between simple steatosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with non
      invasive tests. The aim of this study was to differentiate between simple
      steatosis and NASH by liver biopsy in patients with hypertransaminasemia and MS
      or T2DM. Two hundred and fifteen patients with increased ALT levels and MS, and
      136 patients at their first diagnosis of T2DM regardless of ALT values were
      consecutively admitted to a tertiary hepatology center between January 2004 and
      November 2014. Exclusion criteria were other causes of liver disease/ALT
      increase. Each patient underwent a clinical, laboratory and ultrasound
      evaluation, and a liver biopsy. Gender distribution, age, and body mass index
      were similar in the two groups of patients, whereas cholesterol levels, glycemia
      and blood pressure were significantly different between the two groups. The
      prevalence of NAFLD was 94.82% in MS patients and 100% in T2DM patients. NASH was
      present in 58.52% of MS patients and 96.82% of T2DM. Consequently, this study
      reveals that, by using liver biopsy, almost all patients with T2DM or MS have
      NAFLD, which in patients with T2DM means NASH. Importantly, it suggests that NASH
      may be one of the early complications of T2DM due to its pathophysiological
      correlation with insulin resistance.

PMID- 28570616
TI  - Does expert knowledge improve automatic probabilistic classification of gait
      joint motion patterns in children with cerebral palsy?
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to improve the automatic probabilistic
      classification of joint motion gait patterns in children with cerebral palsy by
      using the expert knowledge available via a recently developed Delphi-consensus
      study. To this end, this study applied both Naive Bayes and Logistic Regression
      classification with varying degrees of usage of the expert knowledge (expert
      defined and discretized features). A database of 356 patients and 1719 gait
      trials was used to validate the classification performance of eleven joint
      motions. HYPOTHESES: Two main hypotheses stated that: (1) Joint motion patterns
      in children with CP, obtained through a Delphi-consensus study, can be
      automatically classified following a probabilistic approach, with an accuracy
      similar to clinical expert classification, and (2) The inclusion of clinical
      expert knowledge in the selection of relevant gait features and the
      discretization of continuous features increases the performance of automatic
      probabilistic joint motion classification. FINDINGS: This study provided
      objective evidence supporting the first hypothesis. Automatic probabilistic gait
      classification using the expert knowledge available from the Delphi-consensus
      study resulted in accuracy (91%) similar to that obtained with two expert raters
      (90%), and higher accuracy than that obtained with non-expert raters (78%).
      Regarding the second hypothesis, this study demonstrated that the use of more
      advanced machine learning techniques such as automatic feature selection and
      discretization instead of expert-defined and discretized features can result in
      slightly higher joint motion classification performance. However, the increase in
      performance is limited and does not outweigh the additional computational cost
      and the higher risk of loss of clinical interpretability, which threatens the
      clinical acceptance and applicability.

PMID- 28570618
TI  - Correction: Change in the Interstitial Cells of Cajal and nNOS Positive Neuronal
      Cells with Aging in the Stomach of F344 Rats.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169113.].

PMID- 28570617
TI  - Environmental and phenotype-related risk factors for owner-reported
      allergic/atopic skin symptoms and for canine atopic dermatitis verified by
      veterinarian in a Finnish dog population.
AB  - The aim of this cross-sectional study was to observe whether environmental
      factors and phenotypic traits are associated with owner-reported skin problems
      and with veterinary diagnosed canine atopic dermatitis (CAD). Data were collected
      using the validated online DOGRISK questionnaire. Out of the data that the
      questionnaire provides for analysis, focus was first turned towards addressing
      questions regarding 'Atopy/allergy (skin symptoms)' using a total of 8643 dogs:
      1585 dogs with owner-reported allergic/atopic skin symptoms and 7058 dogs
      without. A subsequent analysis compared dogs with veterinary-verified CAD (n =
      322) as a case group against the 7058 dogs without owner-reported skin symptoms.
      The association between 21 factors related to the environment, canine phenotypes
      and breed groups within both populations were analysed using univariable and
      multivariable logistic regression. The environmental factors that showed a
      significant inverse association with the risk of owner-reported allergic/atopic
      skin symptoms were as following: whether the dog was living in a detached house,
      whether there were other dogs in the household, and whether the dog was born in
      the current household. Having over 50% white colour in the coat and living in an
      extremely clean household were significantly associated with an increased risk of
      owner-reported allergic/atopic skin symptoms. The five breeds demonstrating the
      highest proportion of owner-reported allergic/atopic skin symptoms were West
      Highland white terrier, Boxer, English bulldog, Dalmatian and French bulldog. The
      Federation Cynologique Internationale dog breed groups 3 (Terriers) and 6 (Scent
      hounds and related breeds) showed a significantly higher risk for owner-reported
      allergic/atopic skin symptoms than mixed breed dogs. In the second population,
      the inverse association was observed between the risk of CAD and the presence of
      other dogs in the household, and whether the dog had been born in the current
      household. The results indicate that some environmental factors and canine
      phenotypes are associated with CAD and owner-reported skin symptoms, but they
      still do not prove causality.

PMID- 28570619
TI  - Impact of magnesium:calcium ratio on calcification of the aortic wall.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An inverse relationship between serum magnesium concentration and
      vascular calcification has been reported following observational clinical
      studies. Moreover, several studies have been suggesting a protective effect of
      magnesium on the vascular calcification. However, the exact mechanism remains
      elusive, and investigators have speculated among a myriad of potential actions.
      The effect of magnesium on calcification of the aortic wall is yet to be
      investigated. In the present study, the effects of magnesium and calcium on the
      metabolism of extracellular PPi, the main endogenous inhibitor of vascular
      calcification, were investigated in the rat aorta. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Calcium
      and magnesium have antagonist effects on PPi hydrolysis in the aortic wall. Km
      and Ki values for PPi hydrolysis in rat aortic rings were 1.1 mmol/L magnesium
      and 32 MUmol/L calcium, respectively, but ATP hydrolysis was not affected with
      calcium. Calcium deposition in the rat aortic wall dramatically increased when
      the magnesium concentration was increased (ratio of Mg:Ca = 1:1; 1.5 mmol/L
      calcium and 1.5 mmol/L magnesium) respect to low magnesium concentration (ratio
      Mg:Ca = 1:3, 1.5 mmol/L calcium and 0.75 mmol/L magnesium). CONCLUSION: Data from
      observational clinical studies showing that the serum magnesium concentration is
      inversely correlated with vascular calcification could be reinterpreted as a
      compensatory regulatory mechanism that reduces both PPi hydrolysis and vascular
      calcification. The impact of magnesium in vascular calcification in humans could
      be studied in association with calcium levels, for example, as the
      magnesium:calcium ratio.

PMID- 28570620
TI  - Viral etiologies in adult patients with encephalitis in Poland: A prospective
      single center study.
AB  - Encephalitis is a severe neurological syndrome associated with high morbidity and
      mortality as well as long-term neurological sequelae. Despite being an important
      public health problem, very few extensive population-based studies were conducted
      so far in the world and none in Central Europe. Altogether 114 consecutive
      patients meeting the initial criteria for encephalitis were enrolled at the
      Warsaw Hospital for Infectious Diseases between June 2012 and July 2015. Eighteen
      patients were secondarily excluded from the analysis due to incomplete data or
      noinfectious cause. Potential pathogen sequences were searched for by molecular
      methods in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and specific antibodies were detected in
      CSF and sera. An infectious agent was identified in 41 patients (42.7%). The most
      frequently diagnosed infections were Human herpesvirus 1 (HHV-1) (22 cases, 24%)
      followed by Enterovirus (6 cases, 6.3%), Varicella zoster virus (VZV) (5 cases,
      5.2%), Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) (6 cases, 6.3%) and Cytomegalovirus
      (CMV) (2 cases, 2.1%). There were no cases of human adenovirus, Human herpesvirus
      6 (HHV-6) or West Nile virus (WNV) infection identified. In 55 cases (57.3%) the
      cause of encephalitis remained unknown. Compared to patients in whom the
      diagnosis was determined the latter group contained more women, was less likely
      to manifest fever and had lower CSF pleocytosis (p < 0.05) In summary, we
      identified HHV-1 followed by Enterovirus, VZV and TBEV as the most common causes
      of encephalitis among adult patients in Poland. In a large proportion of patients
      the cause of encephalitis remained unknown.

PMID- 28570622
TI  - Correction: MUC1 facilitates metabolomic reprogramming in triple-negative breast
      cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176820.].

PMID- 28570621
TI  - Effect of glaucoma on eye movement patterns and laboratory-based hazard detection
      ability.
AB  - PURPOSE: The mechanisms underlying the elevated crash rates of older drivers with
      glaucoma are poorly understood. A key driving skill is timely detection of
      hazards; however, the hazard detection ability of drivers with glaucoma has been
      largely unexplored. This study assessed the eye movement patterns and visual
      predictors of performance on a laboratory-based hazard detection task in older
      drivers with glaucoma. METHODS: Participants included 30 older drivers with
      glaucoma (71+/-7 years; average better-eye mean deviation (MD) = -3.1+/-3.2 dB;
      average worse-eye MD = -11.9+/-6.2 dB) and 25 age-matched controls (72+/-7
      years). Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, useful field of view
      (UFoV; processing speeds), and motion sensitivity were assessed. Participants
      completed a computerised Hazard Perception Test (HPT) while their eye movements
      were recorded using a desk-mounted Tobii TX300 eye-tracking system. The HPT
      comprises a series of real-world traffic videos recorded from the driver's
      perspective; participants responded to road hazards appearing in the videos, and
      hazard response times were determined. RESULTS: Participants with glaucoma
      exhibited an average of 0.42 seconds delay in hazard response time (p = 0.001),
      smaller saccades (p = 0.010), and delayed first fixation on hazards (p<0.001)
      compared to controls. Importantly, larger saccades were associated with faster
      hazard responses in the glaucoma group (p = 0.004), but not in the control group
      (p = 0.19). Across both groups, significant visual predictors of hazard response
      times included motion sensitivity, UFoV, and worse-eye MD (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Older drivers with glaucoma had delayed hazard response times compared to
      controls, with associated changes in eye movement patterns. The association
      between larger saccades and faster hazard response time in the glaucoma group may
      represent a compensatory behaviour to facilitate improved performance.

PMID- 28570623
TI  - Genetic diversity of hepatitis C virus in Ethiopia.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is genetically highly divergent and classified in seven
      major genotypes and approximately hundred subtypes. These genotypes/subtypes have
      different geographic distribution and response to antiviral therapy. In Ethiopia,
      however, little is known about their molecular epidemiology and genetic
      diversity. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution and genetic
      diversity of HCV genotypes/subtypes in Ethiopia, using 49 HCV RNA positive
      samples. HCV genotypes and subtypes were determined based on the sequences of the
      core and the nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) genomic regions. Phylogenetic
      analysis revealed that the predominant was genotype 4 (77.6%) followed by 2
      (12.2%), 1 (8.2%), and 5 (2.0%). Seven subtypes were identified (1b, 1c, 2c, 4d,
      4l, 4r and 4v), with 4d (34.7%), 4r (34.7%) and 2c (12.2%) as the most frequent
      subtypes. Consistent with the presence of these subtypes was the identification
      of a potential recombinant virus. One strain was typed as genotype 2c in the NS5B
      region sequence and genotype 4d in the core region. In conclusion, genotype 4 HCV
      viruses, subtypes 4d and 4r, are most prevalent in Ethiopia. This genotype is
      considered to be difficult to treat, thus, our finding has an important impact on
      the development of treatment strategies and patient management in Ethiopia.

PMID- 28570624
TI  - Macular Bruch's membrane defect and dome-shaped macula in high myopia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine an association between macular Bruch's membrane defects
      (MBMD) and a dome-shaped appearance of the macula (DSM). DESIGN: Retrospective,
      observational case series study. METHODS: The study included highly myopic
      individuals who were consecutively examined between May 2014 and December 2015.
      The patients underwent swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) for
      visualization of DSM and MBMDs defined as Bruch's membrane defects located at a
      distance of maximal 1500 MUm from the foveola. RESULTS: Out of 1983 highly myopic
      eyes (1057 patients), 166 eyes (8.4%; 95% confidence interval (CI):7.2%,9.6%))
      showed a DSM and 534 eyes showed a MBMD. In multivariate binary regression
      analysis, higher prevalence of DSM was associated with a higher prevalence of a
      MBMD (P<0.001; OR: 1.96; 95%CI: 1.40, 2.75) after adjusting for longer axial
      length (P<0.001; odds ratio (OR): 1.27; 95%CI: 1.16, 1.38). In eyes with a DSM
      partially surrounded by a MBMD, the retina, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and
      choroid appeared relatively unchanged in the central region with Bruch's membrane
      (BM) preserved. In the ring-like BM-free region surrounding the central prominent
      island of the DSM, the RPE, the outer and middle retinal layers, the
      choriocapillaris and the middle-sized choroidal vessel layer were absent. In
      association with a DSM, three MBMD types were differentiated: MBMDs in patchy
      chorioretinal atrophy, MBMDs in choroidal neovascularization-related macular
      atrophy, and MBMDs as temporally extending large parapapillary gamma zone.
      CONCLUSIONS: Presence of a DSM was significantly associated with the presence of
      MBMDs. The morphology of the DSM in association with MBMDs may be associated with
      a focal relaxation of the posterior sclera, no longer pushed outward by an
      expanding BM but allowed to partially bulge inward, leading to the formation of a
      DSM.

PMID- 28570625
TI  - An androgen response element driven reporter assay for the detection of androgen
      receptor activity in prostate cells.
AB  - The androgen receptor (AR) transcription factor plays a key role in the
      development and progression of prostate cancer, as is evident from the efficacy
      of androgen-deprivation therapy, AR is also the most frequently mutated gene, in
      castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). AR has therefore become an even more
      attractive therapeutic target in aggressive and disseminated prostate cancer. To
      investigate mechanisms of AR and AR target gene activation in different
      subpopulations of prostate cancer cells, a toolkit of AR expressor and androgen
      response element (ARE) reporter vectors were developed. Three ARE reporter
      vectors were constructed with different ARE consensus sequences in promoters
      linked to either fluorescence or luciferase reporter genes in lentiviral vector
      backbones. Cell lines transduced with the different vectors expressed the
      reporters in an androgen-dependent way according to fluorescence microscopy, flow
      cytometry and multi-well fluorescent and luminescence assays. Interestingly, the
      background reporter activity in androgen-depleted medium was significantly higher
      in LNCaP cells compared to the prostate transit amplifying epithelial cell lines,
      EP156T-AR and 957E/hTERT-AR with exogenous AR. The androgen-induced signal to
      background was much higher in the latter benign prostate cells than in LNCaP
      cells. Androgen-independent nuclear localization of AR was seen in LNCaP cells
      and reduced ARE-signaling was seen following treatment with abiraterone, an
      androgen synthesis inhibitor. The ARE reporter activity was significantly
      stronger when stimulated by androgens than by beta-estradiol, progesterone and
      dexamethasone in all tested cell types. Finally, no androgen-induced ARE reporter
      activity was observed in tumorigenic mesenchymal progeny cells of EP156T cells
      following epithelial to mesenchymal transition. This underscores the observation
      that expression of the classical luminal differentiation transcriptome is
      restricted in mesenchymal type cells with or without AR expression, and presence
      of androgen.

PMID- 28570627
TI  - Effect of climate on incidence of respiratory syncytial virus infections in a
      refugee camp in Kenya: A non-Gaussian time-series analysis.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the major causes of acute lower
      respiratory tract infections (ALRTI) in children. Children younger than 1 year
      are the most susceptible to RSV infection. RSV infections occur seasonally in
      temperate climate regions. Based on RSV surveillance and climatic data, we
      developed statistical models that were assessed and compared to predict the
      relationship between weather and RSV incidence among refugee children younger
      than 5 years in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Most time-series analyses rely on
      the assumption of Gaussian-distributed data. However, surveillance data often do
      not have a Gaussian distribution. We used a generalized linear model (GLM) with a
      sinusoidal component over time to account for seasonal variation and extended it
      to a generalized additive model (GAM) with smoothing cubic splines. Climatic
      factors were included as covariates in the models before and after timescale
      decompositions, and the results were compared. Models with decomposed covariates
      fit RSV incidence data better than those without. The Poisson GAM with decomposed
      covariates of climatic factors fit the data well and had a higher explanatory and
      predictive power than GLM. The best model predicted the relationship between
      atmospheric conditions and RSV infection incidence among children younger than 5
      years. This knowledge helps public health officials to prepare for, and respond
      more effectively to increasing RSV incidence in low-resource regions or
      communities.

PMID- 28570628
TI  - Meaning and coping orientation of bereaved parents: Individual and dyadic
      processes.
AB  - The present study aimed to examine whether bereaved parents "meaning-made"
      defined as results of attempts to reduce discrepancies between the meaning
      assigned to the death of the child and self and world-views-was influenced by
      their own and their partner's coping orientations. Coping orientations were
      conceptualized within the Dual Process Model, which entails loss coping
      orientation (LO; focus on the loss itself), restoration coping orientations (RO;
      focus on stressors that come about as an indirect consequence of the
      bereavement), and a flexible oscillation between both coping orientations. The
      sample consisted of 227 couples identified through obituary notices in local and
      national newspapers, who provided data at 6, 13, and 20 months after the death of
      their child. At all three points of measurement, both partners independently
      completed the Dual Coping Inventory (DCI) and a scale developed by the authors
      about meaning-made from the loss. Data were analyzed using a multi-level Actor
      Partner Interdependence Model. Results show that the combination of parents' own
      LO and RO (operationalized through the interaction effect between LO and RO) have
      a positive effect in parents' meaning-made. Partners' LO have a negative effect
      in parents' meaning-made. These results highlight the importance of, in the
      context of parental bereavement, being flexible by using both coping
      orientations, and of acknowledging the interdependence between partners, namely,
      the interpersonal process by which partner's coping affect one's meaning-made.

PMID- 28570626
TI  - Surface radiation dose comparison of a dedicated extremity cone beam computed
      tomography (CBCT) device and a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) machine
      in pediatric ankle and wrist phantoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and compare surface doses of a cone beam computed
      tomography (CBCT) and a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) device in
      pediatric ankle and wrist phantoms. METHODS: Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD)
      were used to measure and compare surface doses between CBCT and MDCT in a left
      ankle and a right wrist pediatric phantom. In both modalities adapted pediatric
      dose protocols were utilized to achieve realistic imaging conditions. All
      measurements were repeated three times to prove test-retest reliability.
      Additionally, objective and subjective image quality parameters were assessed.
      RESULTS: Average surface doses were 3.8 +/-2.1 mGy for the ankle, and 2.2 +/-1.3
      mGy for the wrist in CBCT. The corresponding surface doses in optimized MDCT were
      4.5 +/-1.3 mGy for the ankle, and 3.4 +/-0.7 mGy for the wrist. Overall, mean
      surface dose was significantly lower in CBCT (3.0 +/-1.9 mGy vs. 3.9 +/-1.2 mGy,
      p<0.001). Subjectively rated general image quality was not significantly
      different between the study protocols (p = 0.421), whereas objectively measured
      image quality parameters were in favor of CBCT (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Adapted
      extremity CBCT imaging protocols have the potential to fall below optimized
      pediatric ankle and wrist MDCT doses at comparable image qualities. These
      possible dose savings warrant further development and research in pediatric
      extremity CBCT applications.

PMID- 28570629
TI  - Retinal artery occlusion and associated recurrent vascular risk with underlying
      etiologies.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: RAO is caused by various etiologies and subsequent
      vascular events may be associated with underlying etiologies. Our aim is to
      investigate the etiologies of RAO, the occurrence of subsequent vascular events
      and their association in patients with RAO. METHODS: We analyzed data from 151
      consecutive patients presenting with acute non-arteritic RAO between 2003 and
      2013 in a single tertiary-care hospital. The primary outcome was the occurrence
      of a vascular event defined as stroke, myocardial infarction, and vascular death
      within 365 days of the RAO onset. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox
      proportional hazard model were used to estimate the hazard ratio of the vascular
      events. RESULTS: Large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) was the etiology more
      frequently associated with of RAO (41.1%, 62/151). During the one year follow-up,
      ischemic stroke and vascular events occurred in 8.6% and 9.9% of patients,
      respectively. Ten vascular events occurred in RAO patients attributed to LAA and
      4 occurred in undetermined etiology. RAO patients with LAA had a nearly four
      times higher risk of vascular events compared to those without LAA (hazard ratio
      3.94, 95% confidence interval 1.21-12.81). More than a half of all events
      occurred within one month and over three fourths of ischemic strokes occurred
      ipsilateral to the RAO. CONCLUSION: After occurrence of RAO, there is a high risk
      of a subsequent vascular event, particularly ipsilateral stroke, within one
      month. LAA is an independent factor for the occurrence of a subsequent vascular
      event. Management for the prevention of secondary vascular events is necessary in
      patients with RAO especially with LAA. Large clinical trials are needed to
      confirm these findings.

PMID- 28570630
TI  - Multilocus sequence typing provides insights into the population structure and
      evolutionary potential of Brenneria goodwinii, associated with acute oak decline.
AB  - Brenneria goodwinii is one of the most frequently isolated Gram-negative bacteria
      from native oak species, Quercus robur and Q. petraea, affected by acute oak
      decline (AOD) in the UK. We investigated the population biology of this bacterial
      species using a multilocus sequence analysis to determine the population
      structure and evolutionary potential. Seven partial housekeeping genes were used
      in the analyses. Amongst 44 bacterial strains from seven different locations, we
      identified 22 unique sequence types [STs]; only one ST was found at two separate
      locations. Phylogenetic and cluster-based analyses suggested that B. goodwinii
      STs form two main distinct groups; however, no geographical pattern of their
      distribution could be observed. Clonality and recombination tests demonstrated
      that the studied population is primarily clonal, however both mutation and
      recombination processes play a role in shaping the genetic structure and
      evolution of the population. Our study suggests that the B. goodwinii population
      on oak in the UK has an endemic form, with background recombination appearing to
      generate new alleles more frequently than mutation, despite the introduction of
      nucleotide substitutions being approximately twice less likely than mutation. The
      newly emerged STs subsequently undergo clonal expansion to become dominant
      genotypes within their specific geographical locations and even within the
      individual host oak trees.

PMID- 28570631
TI  - Interference figures of polarimetric interferometry analysis of the human corneal
      stroma.
AB  - A rotating polarimetric 90 degrees -cross linear-filter interferometry system was
      used to detect the morphological characteristics and features of interference
      patterns produced in in-vivo corneal stroma in healthy human corneas of 23
      subjects. The characteristic corneal isogyres presenting with an evident cross
      shaped pattern, grossly aligned with the fixation axis, were observed in all
      patients with centers within the pupillary dark area, impeding the exact
      determination of the center point. During the rotational scan in 78.3% of the
      eyes the cross-shaped pattern of the isogyre gradually separated to form two
      distinct hyperbolic arcs in opposite quadrants, reaching their maximal separation
      at 45 degrees with respect to angle of cross-shaped pattern formation. The
      corneal cross and hyperbolic-pattern repeated every 90 degrees  throughout the
      360 degrees  rotational scan. While the interpretation of the isogyres presents
      particular difficulties, two summary parameters can be extracted for each cornea:
      the presence/orientation of a single or two dark areas in post-processed images
      and isochromes. However, the development of dedicated software for semi
      quantitative analysis of these parameters and enantiomorphism may become
      available in the near future. The possible application of polarimetric
      interferometry in the field of both corneal pathologies and corneal surgery may
      be of great interest for clinical purposes.

PMID- 28570632
TI  - Quantile regression of microgeographic variation in population characteristics of
      an invasive vertebrate predator.
AB  - Localized ecological conditions have the potential to induce variation in
      population characteristics such as size distributions and body conditions. The
      ability to generalize the influence of ecological characteristics on such
      population traits may be particularly meaningful when those traits influence
      prospects for successful management interventions. To characterize variability in
      invasive Brown Treesnake population attributes within and among habitat types, we
      conducted systematic and seasonally-balanced surveys, collecting 100 snakes from
      each of 18 sites: three replicates within each of six major habitat types
      comprising 95% of Guam's geographic expanse. Our study constitutes one of the
      most comprehensive and controlled samplings of any published snake study.
      Quantile regression on snake size and body condition indicated significant
      ecological heterogeneity, with a general trend of relative consistency of size
      classes and body conditions within and among scrub and Leucaena forest habitat
      types and more heterogeneity among ravine forest, savanna, and urban residential
      sites. Larger and more robust snakes were found within some savanna and urban
      habitat replicates, likely due to relative availability of larger prey. Compared
      to more homogeneous samples in the wet season, variability in size distributions
      and body conditions was greater during the dry season. Although there is evidence
      of habitat influencing Brown Treesnake populations at localized scales (e.g., the
      higher prevalence of larger snakes-particularly males-in savanna and urban
      sites), the level of variability among sites within habitat types indicates
      little ability to make meaningful predictions about these traits at unsampled
      locations. Seasonal variability within sites and habitats indicates that
      localized population characterization should include sampling in both wet and dry
      seasons. Extreme values at single replicates occasionally influenced overall
      habitat patterns, while pooling replicates masked variability among sites. A full
      understanding of population characteristics should include an assessment of
      variability both at the site and habitat level.

PMID- 28570633
TI  - Thin silica shell coated Ag assembled nanostructures for expanding generality of
      SERS analytes.
AB  - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) provides a unique non-destructive
      spectroscopic fingerprint for chemical detection. However, intrinsic differences
      in affinity of analyte molecules to metal surface hinder SERS as a universal
      quantitative detection tool for various analyte molecules simultaneously. This
      must be overcome while keeping close proximity of analyte molecules to the metal
      surface. Moreover, assembled metal nanoparticles (NPs) structures might be
      beneficial for sensitive and reliable detection of chemicals than single NP
      structures. For this purpose, here we introduce thin silica-coated and assembled
      Ag NPs (SiO2@Ag@SiO2 NPs) for simultaneous and quantitative detection of
      chemicals that have different intrinsic affinities to silver metal. These
      SiO2@Ag@SiO2 NPs could detect each SERS peak of aniline or 4-aminothiophenol (4
      ATP) from the mixture with limits of detection (LOD) of 93 ppm and 54 ppb,
      respectively. E-field distribution based on interparticle distance was simulated
      using discrete dipole approximation (DDA) calculation to gain insight into
      enhanced scattering of these thin silica coated Ag NP assemblies. These NPs were
      successfully applied to detect aniline in river water and tap water. Results
      suggest that SiO2@Ag@SiO2 NP-based SERS detection systems can be used as a simple
      and universal detection tool for environment pollutants and food safety.

PMID- 28570634
TI  - Neuroprotective effect of bilberry extract in a murine model of photo-stressed
      retina.
AB  - Excessive exposure to light promotes degenerative and blinding retinal diseases
      such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. However, the
      underlying mechanisms of photo-induced retinal degeneration are not fully
      understood, and a generalizable preventive intervention has not been proposed.
      Bilberry extract is an antioxidant-rich supplement that ameliorates ocular
      symptoms. However, its effects on photo-stressed retinas have not been clarified.
      In this study, we examined the neuroprotective effects of bilberry extract
      against photo-stress in murine retinas. Light-induced visual function impairment
      recorded by scotopic and phototopic electroretinograms showing respective rod and
      cone photoreceptor function was attenuated by oral administration of bilberry
      extract through a stomach tube in Balb/c mice (750 mg/kg body weight). Bilberry
      extract also suppressed photo-induced apoptosis in the photoreceptor cell layer
      and shortening of the outer segments of rod and cone photoreceptors. Levels of
      photo-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum
      (ER) stress markers, as measured by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase
      chain reaction, were reduced by bilberry extract treatment. Reduction of ROS by N
      acetyl-L-cysteine, a well-known antioxidant also suppressed ER stress.
      Immunohistochemical analysis of activating transcription factor 4 expression
      showed the presence of ER stress in the retina, and at least in part, in Muller
      glial cells. The photo-induced disruption of tight junctions in the retinal
      pigment epithelium was also attenuated by bilberry extract, repressing an
      oxidative stress marker, although ER stress markers were not repressed. Our
      results suggest that bilberry extract attenuates photo-induced apoptosis and
      visual dysfunction most likely, and at least in part, through ROS reduction, and
      subsequent ER stress attenuation in the retina. This study can help understand
      the mechanisms of photo-stress and contribute to developing a new, potentially
      useful therapeutic approach using bilberry extract for preventing retinal photo
      damage.

PMID- 28570635
TI  - Probing planetary biodiversity with DNA barcodes: The Noctuoidea of North
      America.
AB  - This study reports the assembly of a DNA barcode reference library for species in
      the lepidopteran superfamily Noctuoidea from Canada and the USA. Based on the
      analysis of 69,378 specimens, the library provides coverage for 97.3% of the
      noctuoid fauna (3565 of 3664 species). In addition to verifying the strong
      performance of DNA barcodes in the discrimination of these species, the results
      indicate close congruence between the number of species analyzed (3565) and the
      number of sequence clusters (3816) recognized by the Barcode Index Number (BIN)
      system. Distributional patterns across 12 North American ecoregions are examined
      for the 3251 species that have GPS data while BIN analysis is used to quantify
      overlap between the noctuoid faunas of North America and other zoogeographic
      regions. This analysis reveals that 90% of North American noctuoids are endemic
      and that just 7.5% and 1.8% of BINs are shared with the Neotropics and with the
      Palearctic, respectively. One third (29) of the latter species are recent
      introductions and, as expected, they possess low intraspecific divergences.

PMID- 28570637
TI  - Temperature-mediated biosynthesis of the phytotoxin phaseolotoxin by Pseudomonas
      syringae pv. phaseolicola depends on the autoregulated expression of the phtABC
      genes.
AB  - Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola produces phaseolotoxin in a temperature
      dependent manner, being optimally synthesized between 18 degrees C and 20 degrees
      C, while no detectable amounts are present above 28 degrees C. The Pht cluster,
      involved in the biosynthesis of phaseolotoxin, contains 23 genes that are
      organized in five transcriptional units. The function of most of the genes from
      the Pht cluster is still unknown and little information about the regulatory
      circuitry leading to expression of these genes has been reported. The purpose of
      the present study was to investigate the participation of pht genes in the
      regulation of the operons coded into the Pht cluster. We conducted Northern blot,
      uidA fusions and reverse transcription-PCR assays of pht genes in several mutants
      unable to produce phaseolotoxin. This allowed us to determine that, in P.
      syringae pv. phaseolicola NPS3121, genes phtABC are essential to prevent their
      own expression at 28 degrees C, a temperature at which no detectable amounts of
      the toxin are present. We obtained evidence that the phtABC genes also
      participate in the regulation of the phtD, phtM and phtL operons. According to
      our results, we propose that PhtABC and other Pht product activities could be
      involved in the synthesis of the sulfodiaminophosphinyl moiety of phaseolotoxin,
      which indirectly could be involved in the transcriptional regulation of the phtA
      operon.

PMID- 28570636
TI  - Alport syndrome cold cases: Missing mutations identified by exome sequencing and
      functional analysis.
AB  - Alport syndrome (AS) is an inherited progressive renal disease caused by
      mutations in COL4A3, COL4A4, and COL4A5 genes. Despite simultaneous screening of
      these genes being widely available, mutation detection still remains incomplete
      in a non-marginal portion of patients. Here, we applied whole-exome sequencing
      (WES) in 3 Italian families negative after candidate-gene analyses. In Family 1,
      we identified a novel heterozygous intronic variant (c.2245-40A>G) -outside the
      conventionally screened candidate region for diagnosis- potentially disrupting
      COL4A5 exon29 splicing. Using a minigene-based approach in HEK293 cells we
      demonstrated that this variant abolishes exon29 branch site, causing exon
      skipping. Moreover, skewed X-inactivation of the c.2245-40A>G allele correlated
      with disease severity in heterozygous females. In Family 2, WES highlighted a
      novel COL4A5 hemizygous missense mutation (p.Gly491Asp), which segregates with
      the phenotype and impacts on a highly-conserved residue. Finally, in Family 3, we
      detected a homozygous 24-bp in-frame deletion in COL4A3 exon1
      (NM_000091.4:c.30_53del:p.Val11_Leu18del or c.40_63del24:p.Leu14_Leu21del), which
      is ambiguously annotated in databases, although it corresponds to a recurrent AS
      mutation. Functional analyses showed that this deletion disrupts COL4A3 signal
      peptide, possibly altering protein secretion. In conclusion, WES -together with
      functional studies- was fundamental for molecular diagnosis in 3 AS families,
      highlighting pathogenic variants that escaped previous screenings.

PMID- 28570639
TI  - Cerclage position, cervical length and preterm delivery in women undergoing
      ultrasound indicated cervical cerclage: A retrospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objectives were to assess whether anatomical location of
      ultrasound (USS) indicated cervical cerclage and/or the degree of cervical
      shortening (cervical length; CL) prior to and following cerclage affects the risk
      of preterm birth (PTB). METHOD: A retrospective cohort study of 179 women
      receiving cerclage for short cervix (<=25mm) was performed. Demographic data, CL
      before and after cerclage insertion, height of cerclage (distance from external
      os) and gestation at delivery were collected. Relative risk (RR) and odds ratio
      (OR) of preterm delivery were calculated according to the anatomical location of
      the cerclage within the cervix and the CL before and after cerclage as
      categorical and continuous variables. Partition tree analysis was used to
      identify the threshold cerclage height that best predicts PTB. RESULTS: 25% (n =
      45) delivered <34 weeks and 36% (n = 65) delivered <37 weeks. Risk of PTB was
      greater with cerclage in the distal 10mm (RR2.37, 95% CI 1.45-3.87) or the distal
      half of a closed cervix (RR2.16, 95% CI 1.45-3.87). Increasing absolute cerclage
      height was associated with a reduction in PTB (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.82-0.94). A
      cerclage height <14.5 mm best predicts PTB (70.8%). Increasing CL following
      cerclage was associated with a reduction in PTB (OR0.87, 95% CI 0.82-0.94).
      Conversely, the risk of PTB was increased where CL remained static or shortened
      further following cerclage (RR2.34, 95% CI 1.04-5.25). CONCLUSION: The higher a
      cerclage was placed within a shortened cervix, the lower the subsequent odds of
      PTB. Women whose cerclage is placed in the distal 10mm of closed cervix or whose
      cervix fails to elongate subsequently, should remain under close surveillance as
      they have the highest risk of PTB.

PMID- 28570638
TI  - Detection of a microbial metabolite by STING regulates inflammasome activation in
      response to Chlamydia trachomatis infection.
AB  - The innate immune system is a critical component of host defence against
      microbial pathogens, but effective responses require an ability to distinguish
      between infectious and non-infectious insult to prevent inappropriate
      inflammation. Using the important obligate intracellular human pathogen Chlamydia
      trachomatis; an organism that causes significant immunopathology, we sought to
      determine critical host and pathogen factors that contribute to the induction of
      inflammasome activation. We assayed inflammasome activation by immunoblotting and
      ELISA to detect IL-1beta processing and LDH release to determine pyroptosis.
      Using primary murine bone marrow derived macrophages or human monocyte derived
      dendritic cells, infected with live or attenuated Chlamydia trachomatis we report
      that the live organism activates both canonical and non-canonical inflammasomes,
      but only canonical inflammasomes controlled IL-1beta processing which preceded
      pyroptosis. NADPH oxidase deficient macrophages were permissive to Chlamydia
      trachomatis replication and displayed elevated type-1 interferon and inflammasome
      activation. Conversely, attenuated, non-replicating Chlamydia trachomatis, primed
      but did not activate inflammasomes and stimulated reduced type-1 interferon
      responses. This suggested bacterial replication or metabolism as important
      factors that determine interferon responses and inflammasome activation. We
      identified STING but not cGAS as a central mediator of interferon regulated
      inflammasome activation. Interestingly, exogenous delivery of a Chlamydia
      trachomatis metabolite and STING ligand-cyclic di-AMP, recovered inflammasome
      activation to attenuated bacteria in a STING dependent manner thus indicating
      that a bacterial metabolite is a key factor initiating inflammasome activation
      through STING, independent of cGAS. These data suggest a potential mechanism of
      how the innate immune system can distinguish between infectious and non
      infectious insult and instigate appropriate immune responses that could be
      therapeutically targeted.

PMID- 28570640
TI  - Aspects of the ecology of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the
      Private Natural Heritage Reserve Sanctuary Caraca.
AB  - Leishmaniases are a set of parasitic diseases of zoonotic origin that are
      transmitted by sandfly vectors in wild, rural and urban environments. Their
      distribution is dependent not only the distribution of vectors, but also on the
      distribution of mammalian reservoirs. Only by understanding the transmission
      cycle of these diseases, such as knowing the participating vectors and
      reservoirs, can one can understand the epidemiology and ecological relationships
      of leishmaniases. Ecotourism has become an important area of economic growth in
      Brazil. One of the most visited tourist attractions in the state of Minas Gerais,
      the Reserva Particular do Patrimonio Natural Santuario do Caraca (RPPNSC) is
      located in the Quadrilatero Ferrifero. The aim of this study was to contribute to
      the control of leishmaniasis among tourists of the RPPNPC by surveying its sand
      fly fauna and testing for the presence of Leishmania DNA in females. Twenty-five
      CDC light traps were exposed on 7 trails of the RPPNPC where samples were
      collected bimonthly for a year, starting in June 2013. A total of 376 specimens
      of 18 species and 10 genera of sandflies were captured. The predominant species
      were Psychodopygus lloydi (72.34%) and Pintomyia monticola (5.59%). HaeIII
      restriction enzyme detected and characterized Leishmania braziliensis DNA in 2 of
      the samples for an infection rate of 0.7% (2/266). Recent studies found specimens
      of Ps. lloyd infected with Leishmania braziliensis elsewhere in Minas Gerais,
      which may be an indication that this species is involved in the transmission of
      Leishmania in this state.

PMID- 28570641
TI  - Correlation study between facet joint cartilage and intervertebral discs in early
      lumbar vertebral degeneration using T2, T2* and T1rho mapping.
AB  - Recent advancements in magnetic resonance imaging have allowed for the early
      detection of biochemical changes in intervertebral discs and articular cartilage.
      Here, we assessed the feasibility of axial T2, T2* and T1rho mapping of the
      lumbar facet joints (LFJs) to determine correlations between cartilage and
      intervertebral discs (IVDs) in early lumbar vertebral degeneration. We recruited
      22 volunteers and examined 202 LFJs and 101 IVDs with morphological (sagittal and
      axial FSE T2-weighted imaging) and axial biochemical (T2, T2* and T1rho mapping)
      sequences using a 3.0T MRI scanner. IVDs were graded using the Pfirrmann system.
      Mapping values of LFJs were recorded according to the degeneration grades of IVDs
      at the same level. The feasibility of T2, T2* and T1rho in IVDs and LFJs were
      analyzed by comparing these mapping values across subjects with different rates
      of degeneration using Kruskal-Wallis tests. A Pearson's correlation analysis was
      used to compare T2, T2* and T1rho values of discs and LFJs. We found excellent
      reproducibility in the T2, T2* and T1rho values for the nucleus pulposus (NP),
      anterior and posterior annulus fibrosus (PAF), and LFJ cartilage (intraclass
      correlation coefficients 0.806-0.955). T2, T2* and T1rho mapping (all P<0.01) had
      good Pfirrmann grade performances in the NP with IVD degeneration. LFJ T2* values
      were significantly different between grades I and IV (PL = 0.032, PR = 0.026), as
      were T1rho values between grades II and III (PL = 0.002, PR = 0.006) and grades
      III and IV (PL = 0.006, PR = 0.001). Correlations were moderately negative for
      T1rho values between LFJ cartilage and NP (rL = -0.574, rR = -0.551), and between
      LFJ cartilage and PAF (rL = -0.551, rR = -0.499). T1rho values of LFJ cartilage
      was weakly correlated with T2 (r = 0.007) and T2* (r = -0.158) values. Overall,
      we show that axial T1rho effectively assesses early LFJ cartilage degeneration.
      Using T1rho analysis, we propose a link between LFJ degeneration and IVD NP or
      PAF changes.

PMID- 28570642
TI  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis subverts negative regulatory pathways in human
      macrophages to drive immunopathology.
AB  - Tuberculosis remains a global pandemic and drives lung matrix destruction to
      transmit. Whilst pathways driving inflammatory responses in macrophages have been
      relatively well described, negative regulatory pathways are less well defined. We
      hypothesised that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) specifically targets negative
      regulatory pathways to augment immunopathology. Inhibition of signalling through
      the PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 pathway increased matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) gene
      expression and secretion, a collagenase central to TB pathogenesis, and multiple
      pro-inflammatory cytokines. In patients with confirmed pulmonary TB, PI3Kdelta
      expression was absent within granulomas. Furthermore, Mtb infection suppressed
      PI3Kdelta gene expression in macrophages. Interestingly, inhibition of the MNK
      pathway, downstream of pro-inflammatory p38 and ERK MAPKs, also increased MMP-1
      secretion, whilst suppressing secretion of TH1 cytokines. Cross-talk between the
      PI3K and MNK pathways was demonstrated at the level of eIF4E phosphorylation. Mtb
      globally suppressed the MMP-inhibitory pathways in macrophages, reducing levels
      of mRNAs encoding PI3Kdelta, mTORC-1 and MNK-1 via upregulation of miRNAs.
      Therefore, Mtb disrupts negative regulatory pathways at multiple levels in
      macrophages to drive a tissue-destructive phenotype that facilitates
      transmission.

PMID- 28570643
TI  - Maternal outcome after abdominal packing for uncontrolled postpartum hemorrhage
      despite peripartum hysterectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intra-abdominal packing is a possible option for persistent bleeding
      following hysterectomy for postpartum hemorrhage. However, to date, only very
      limited data about maternal outcome after intra-abdominal packing for surgically
      uncontrolled hemorrhage following hysterectomy are available. The objective of
      the current study was to estimate maternal outcome after intra-abdominal packing
      following unsuccessful peripartum hysterectomy for postpartum hemorrhage.
      METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to all maternity units performing more than
      850 deliveries per year. Inclusion criteria were: all cases of abdominal packing
      performed following unsuccessful peripartum hysterectomy for postpartum
      hemorrhage between 2003 and 2013. The primary outcome was success of intra
      abdominal packing, defined as the arrest of hemorrhage with no need of additional
      procedure. RESULTS: The total number of deliveries during the study period that
      occurred in the 51 participating centers was 1,430,142. The centers reported a
      total of 718 (1 per 2000 deliveries) peripartum hysterectomies for PPH and 53
      abdominal packings performed after unsuccessful peripartum hysterectomy (about 1
      per 14 hysterectomies). A median of 5 [IQR 3-7] pads were used for packing.
      Abdominal packing was removed after a median of 39.5 hours [IQR 24-48]. The
      success rate of abdominal packing was 62% (33/53). Among the 20 (38%) women in
      whom bleeding did not stop following the use of abdominal packing, 6 required a
      second surgical intervention, 6 a pelvic artery embolization and the 8 other
      women had "only" further intensive resuscitation and pharmacological treatments.
      Finally, mortality rate was 24% (13/53). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that
      abdominal packing, used for duration of 24 to 48 hours, seems to be an option as
      an ultimate procedure to control persistent life-threatening postpartum
      hemorrhage following peripartum hysterectomy.

PMID- 28570644
TI  - Comparison of the adolescent and adult mouse prefrontal cortex proteome.
AB  - Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by unique behavioral
      phenotypes (increased novelty seeking, risk taking, sociability and impulsivity)
      and increased risk for destructive behaviors, impaired decision making and
      psychiatric illness. Adaptive and maladaptive adolescent traits have been
      associated with development of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a brain
      region that mediates regulatory control of behavior. However, the molecular
      changes that underlie brain development and behavioral vulnerability have not
      been fully characterized. Using high-throughput 2D DIGE spot profiling with
      identification by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, we identified 62 spots in the PFC
      that exhibited age-dependent differences in expression. Identified proteins were
      associated with diverse cellular functions, including intracellular signaling,
      synaptic plasticity, cellular organization and metabolism. Separate Western blot
      analyses confirmed age-related changes in DPYSL2, DNM1, STXBP1 and CFL1 in the
      mPFC and expanded these findings to the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, motor
      cortex, amygdala and ventral tegmental area. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA)
      identified functional interaction networks enriched with proteins identified in
      the proteomics screen, linking age-related alterations in protein expression to
      cellular assembly and development, cell signaling and behavior, and psychiatric
      illness. These results provide insight into potential molecular components of
      adolescent cortical development, implicating structural processes that begin
      during embryonic development as well as plastic adaptations in signaling that may
      work in concert to bring the cortex, and other brain regions, into maturity.

PMID- 28570645
TI  - How do SMA-linked mutations of SMN1 lead to structural/functional deficiency of
      the SMA protein?
AB  - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neuromuscular disease
      with dysfunctional alpha-motor neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord.
      SMA is caused by loss (~95% of SMA cases) or mutation (~5% of SMA cases) of the
      survival motor neuron 1 gene SMN1. As the product of SMN1, SMN is a component of
      the SMN complex, and is also involved in the biosynthesis of the small nuclear
      ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), which play critical roles in pre-mRNA splicing in
      the pathogenesis of SMA. To investigate how SMA-linked mutations of SMN1 lead to
      structural/functional deficiency of SMN, a set of computational analysis of SMN
      related structures were conducted and are described in this article. Of
      extraordinary interest, the structural analysis highlights three SMN residues
      (Asp44, Glu134 and Gln136) with SMA-linked missense mutations, which cause
      disruptions of electrostatic interactions for Asp44, Glu134 and Gln136, and
      result in three functionally deficient SMA-linked SMN mutants, Asp44Val,
      Glu134Lys and Gln136Glu. From the computational analysis, it is also possible
      that SMN's Lys45 and Asp36 act as two electrostatic clips at the SMN-Gemin2
      complex structure interface.

PMID- 28570646
TI  - Diurnal fluctuation in the number of hypocretin/orexin and histamine producing:
      Implication for understanding and treating neuronal loss.
AB  - The loss of specific neuronal phenotypes, as determined by immunohistochemistry,
      has become a powerful tool for identifying the nature and cause of neurological
      diseases. Here we show that the number of neurons identified and quantified using
      this method misses a substantial percentage of extant neurons in a phenotype
      specific manner. In mice, 24% more hypocretin/orexin (Hcrt) neurons are seen in
      the night compared to the day, and an additional 17% are seen after inhibiting
      microtubule polymerization with colchicine. We see no such difference between the
      number of MCH (melanin concentrating hormone) neurons in dark, light or
      colchicine conditions, despite MCH and Hcrt both being hypothalamic peptide
      transmitters. Although the size of Hcrt neurons did not differ between light and
      dark, the size of MCH neurons was increased by 15% in the light phase. The number
      of neurons containing histidine decarboxylase (HDC), the histamine synthesizing
      enzyme, was 34% greater in the dark than in the light, but, like Hcrt, cell size
      did not differ. We did not find a significant difference in the number or the
      size of neurons expressing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the acetylcholine
      synthesizing enzyme, in the horizontal diagonal band (HBD) during the dark and
      light conditions. As expected, colchicine treatment did not increase the number
      of these neurons. Understanding the function and dynamics of transmitter
      production within "non-visible" phenotypically defined cells has fundamental
      implications for our understanding of brain plasticity.

PMID- 28570647
TI  - Differences in inflammation and acute phase response but similar genotoxicity in
      mice following pulmonary exposure to graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide.
AB  - We investigated toxicity of 2-3 layered >1 MUm sized graphene oxide (GO) and
      reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in mice following single intratracheal exposure with
      respect to pulmonary inflammation, acute phase response (biomarker for risk of
      cardiovascular disease) and genotoxicity. In addition, we assessed exposure
      levels of particulate matter emitted during production of graphene in a clean
      room and in a normal industrial environment using chemical vapour deposition.
      Toxicity was evaluated at day 1, 3, 28 and 90 days (18, 54 and 162 MUg/mouse),
      except for GO exposed mice at day 28 and 90 where only the lowest dose was
      evaluated. GO induced a strong acute inflammatory response together with a
      pulmonary (Serum-Amyloid A, Saa3) and hepatic (Saa1) acute phase response. rGO
      induced less acute, but a constant and prolonged inflammation up to day 90. Lung
      histopathology showed particle agglomerates at day 90 without signs of fibrosis.
      In addition, DNA damage in BAL cells was observed across time points and doses
      for both GO and rGO. In conclusion, pulmonary exposure to GO and rGO induced
      inflammation, acute phase response and genotoxicity but no fibrosis.

PMID- 28570648
TI  - Performance of 18F-fluorodesoxyglucose positron-emission tomography combined with
      low-dose computed tomography for cancer screening in patients with unprovoked
      venous thromboembolism.
AB  - PURPOSE: Small series have suggested that Fluorodesoxyglucose Positron-Emission
      Tomography with Computed-Tomography (FDG-PET/CT) is feasible to screen for cancer
      in patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE), but without validation
      in a large population. The aim was to assess diagnostic accuracy indices of FDG
      PET/CT for occult cancer diagnosis in patients with unprovoked VTE. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We analysed patients from the FDG-PET/CT group of a randomized trial
      that compared a screening strategy based on FDG-PET/CT with a limited screening
      strategy for occult malignancy detection in patients with unprovoked VTE. FDG
      PET/CT was interpreted as positive for cancer, as negative or as equivocal.
      Patients were considered as having cancer on the basis of screening results, or
      of any test performed during a two-years follow-up period. We ran two sets of
      analysis, considering patients with equivocal FDG-PET/CT as positive, then as
      negative for malignancy. RESULTS: Between March 2009, and August 2012, 172
      patients were included. FDG-PET/CT was interpreted as positive for malignancy in
      10 patients (5.8%), as equivocal in 23 patients (13.4%) and as negative in 139
      patients (80.8%). Malignancy was diagnosed in 7/10 (70.0%), 2/23 (8.7%) and 1/139
      (0.7%) patients, respectively. Grouping positive and equivocal results,
      sensitivity and specificity were 90% (95%CI 60% to 98%) and 85% (95%CI 79% to
      90%), respectively. Grouping negative and equivocal results, sensitivity and
      specificity were 70% (95%CI 40% to 89%) and 98% (95%CI 95% to 99%), respectively.
      CONCLUSION: FDG-PET/CT showed good accuracy for occult cancer screening in
      patients with unprovoked VTE. Remaining challenges include the need to define
      specific interpretation criteria in this dedicated population.

PMID- 28570649
TI  - Antioxidant agents for delaying diabetic kidney disease progression: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is a key player in the genesis and worsening of
      diabetic kidney disease (DKD). We aimed at collecting all available information
      on possible benefits of chronic antioxidant supplementations on DKD progression.
      STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. POPULATION: Adults with DKD
      (either secondary to type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus). SEARCH STRATEGY AND SOURCES:
      Cochrane CENTRAL, Ovid-MEDLINE and PubMed were searched for randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs without language or follow-up restriction.
      INTERVENTION: Any antioxidant supplementation (including but not limited to
      vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, zinc, methionine or ubiquinone) alone
      or in combination. OUTCOMES: Primary outcome was progression to end-stage kidney
      disease (ESKD). Secondary outcomes were change in albuminuria, proteinuria, serum
      creatinine and renal function. RESULTS: From 13519 potentially relevant citations
      retrieved, 15 articles referring to 14 full studies (4345 participants) met the
      inclusion criteria. Antioxidant treatment significantly decreased albuminuria as
      compared to control (8 studies, 327 participants; SMD: -0.47; 95% CI -0.78, 
      0.16) but had apparently no tangible effects on renal function (GFR) (3 studies,
      85 participants; MD -0.12 ml/min/1.73m2; 95% CI -0.06, 0.01). Evidence of
      benefits on the other outcomes of interest was inconclusive or lacking.
      LIMITATIONS: Small sample size and limited number of studies. Scarce information
      available on hard endpoints (ESKD). High heterogeneity among studies with respect
      to DKD severity, type and duration of antioxidant therapy. CONCLUSIONS: In DKD
      patients, antioxidants may improve early renal damage. Future studies targeting
      hard endpoints and with longer follow-up and larger sample size are needed to
      confirm the usefulness of these agents for retarding DKD progression.

PMID- 28570650
TI  - Cardiovascular health status between standard and nonstandard workers in Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The effect of employment insecurity on employee health is an
      important public health issue due to the recent effects of neoliberalism and the
      global financial crisis (2007-2008) on labor markets. This study aims to evaluate
      the differences in cardiovascular health status and the use of preventive
      screening services between standard and nonstandard workers. METHODS: Waged
      employees (N = 5,338) between the ages of 20 and 64 were grouped into standard
      (full-time, permanent) and nonstandard (part-time, temporary, or daily)
      employees. Data from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey, 2007-2009, a nationwide representative survey, were examined, including
      cardiovascular health risk behaviors (tobacco, alcohol, physical inactivity),
      measured morbidities (blood pressure, blood glucose level, lipid profiles, body
      mass index), and the use of screening services for hypertension and diabetes
      mellitus. RESULTS: Female nonstandard employees tended to have higher blood
      pressure than did female standard employees (adjusted odds ratio, aOR 1.42, 95%
      confidence interval, CI 1.02 to 1.98). However, nonstandard employees (both men
      and women) were less likely to use preventive screening services for hypertension
      (aOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.94 in men; aOR 0.56, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.73 in women)
      and diabetes (aOR 0.58, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.79 in men; aOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.71
      in women). CONCLUSION: Nonstandard work is associated with the underuse of
      screening services and poorer cardiovascular health in a specific population.
      Policies to reduce employment insecurity and encourage nonstandard employees to
      receive health screening services should be prioritized.

PMID- 28570651
TI  - Polydim-I antimicrobial activity against MDR bacteria and its model membrane
      interaction.
AB  - The rapid spread of multi-drug resistant pathogens represents a serious threat to
      public health, considering factors such as high mortality rates, treatment
      restrictions and high prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in the hospital
      environment. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may exhibit powerful antimicrobial
      activity against different and diverse microorganisms, also presenting the
      advantage of absence or low toxicity towards animal cells. In this study, the
      evaluation of the antimicrobial activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria of
      a recently described AMP from wasp, Polydim-I, was performed. Polydim-I presented
      activity against standard strains (non-carriers of multi-resistant genes) that
      are susceptible to commercial antimicrobials, and also against multi-drug
      resistant strains at concentrations bellow 1MUg/ml (0.41 MUM). This is a rather
      low concentration among those reported for AMPs. At this concentration we found
      out that Polydim-I inhibits almost 100% of the tested pathogens growth, while
      with the ATCC strains the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC100) is 400 times
      higher. Also, in relation to in vitro activity of conventional drugs against
      multi-drug resistant bacteria strains, Polydim-I is almost 10 times more
      efficient and with broader spectrum. Cationic AMPs are known as multi-target
      compounds and specially for targeting the phospholipid matrix of bacterial
      membranes. Exploring the interactions of Polydim-I with lipid bilayers, we have
      confirmed that this interaction is involved in the mechanism of action. Circular
      dichroism experiments showed that Polydim-I undergoes a conformational transition
      from random coil to a mostly helical conformation in the presence of membrane
      mimetic environments. Zeta potential measurements confirmed the binding and
      partial charge neutralization of anionic asolectin vesicles, and also suggested a
      possible aggregation of peptide molecules. FTIR experiments confirmed that some
      peptide aggregation occurs, which is minimized in the presence of strongly
      anionic micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate. Also, Polydim-I induced channel-like
      structures formation to asolectin lipid bilayers, as demonstrated in the
      electrophysiology experiments. We suggest that cationic Polydim-I targets the
      membrane lipids due to electrostatic attraction, partially accumulates,
      neutralizing the opposite charges and induces pore formation. Similar mechanism
      of action has already been suggested for other peptides from wasp venoms,
      especially mastoparans.

PMID- 28570652
TI  - Prediction model for 30-day morbidity after gynecological malignancy surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The potential risk of postoperative morbidity is important for
      gynecologic cancer patients because it leads to delays in adjunctive therapy and
      additional costs. We aimed to develop a preoperative nomogram to predict 30-day
      morbidity after gynecological cancer surgery. METHODS: Between 2005 and 2015, 533
      consecutive patients with elective gynecological cancer surgery in our center
      were reviewed. Of those patients, 373 and 160 patients were assigned to the model
      development or validation cohort, respectively. To investigate independent
      predictors of 30-day morbidity, a multivariate Cox regression model with backward
      stepwise elimination was utilized. A nomogram based on this Cox model was
      developed and externally validated. Its performance was assessed using the
      concordance index and a calibration curve. RESULTS: Ninety-seven (18.2%) patients
      had at least one postoperative complication within 30 days after surgery. After
      bootstrap resampling, the final model indicated age, operating time, and serum
      albumin level as statistically significant predictors of postoperative morbidity.
      The bootstrap-corrected concordance index of the nomogram incorporating these
      three predictors was 0.656 (95% CI, 0.608-0.723). In the validation cohort, the
      nomogram showed fair discrimination [concordance index: 0.674 (95% CI = 0.619
      0.732] and good calibration (P = 0.614; Hosmer-Lemeshow test). CONCLUSION: The 30
      day morbidity after gynecologic cancer surgery could be predicted according to
      age, operation time, and serum albumin level. After further validation using an
      independent dataset, the constructed nomogram could be valuable for predicting
      operative risk in individual patients.

PMID- 28570653
TI  - Improved efficacy of allergen-specific immunotherapy by JAK inhibition in a
      murine model of allergic asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only curative treatment
      for type-1 allergies, but sometimes shows limited therapeutic response as well as
      local and systemic side effects. Limited control of local inflammation and
      patient symptoms hampers its widespread use in severe allergic asthma. OBJECTIVE:
      Our aim was to evaluate whether AIT is more effective in suppression of local
      inflammation if performed under the umbrella of short-term non-specific
      immunomodulation using a small molecule inhibitor of JAK pathways. METHODS: In
      C57BL/6J mice, a model of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic airway inflammation
      and allergen-specific immunotherapy was combined with the administration of
      Tofacitinib (TOFA, a FDA-approved JAK inhibitor) from 48 hours prior to 48 hours
      after therapeutic OVA-injection. The effect of TOFA on human FOXP3+CD4+ T cells
      was studied in vitro. RESULTS: AIT combined with short-term TOFA administration
      was significantly more effective in suppressing total cell and eosinophil
      infiltration into the lung, local cytokine production including IL-1beta and
      CXCL1 and showed a trend for the reduction of IL-4, IL-13, TNF-alpha and IL-6
      compared to AIT alone. Furthermore, TOFA co-administration significantly reduced
      systemic IL-6, IL-1beta and OVA-specific IgE levels and induced IgG1 to the same
      extent as AIT alone. Additionally, TOFA enhanced the induction of human
      FOXP3+CD4+ T cells. CONCLUSIONS: This proof of concept study shows that JAK
      inhibition did not inhibit tolerance induction, but improved experimental AIT at
      the level of local inflammation. The improved control of local inflammation might
      extend the use of AIT in more severe conditions such as polyallergy, asthma and
      high-risk patients suffering from mastocytosis or anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28570654
TI  - Haplotypes on pig chromosome 3 distinguish metabolically healthy from unhealthy
      obese individuals.
AB  - We have established a pig resource population specifically designed to elucidate
      the genetics involved in development of obesity and obesity related co
      morbidities by crossing the obesity prone Gottingen Minipig breed with two lean
      production pig breeds. In this study we have performed genome wide association
      (GWA) to identify loci with effect on blood lipid levels. The most significantly
      associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used for linkage
      disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype analyses. Three separate haploblocks which
      influence the ratio between high density lipoprotein cholesterol and total
      cholesterol (HDL-C/CT), triglycerides (TG) and low density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C) levels respectively were identified on Sus Scrofa chromosome
      3 (SSC3). Large additive genetic effects were found for the HDL-C/CT and LDL-C
      haplotypes. Haplotypes segregating from Gottingen Minipigs were shown to impose a
      positive effect on blood lipid levels. Thus, the genetic profile of the Gottingen
      Minipig breed seems to support a phenotype comparable to the metabolic healthy
      obese (MHO) phenotype in humans.

PMID- 28570655
TI  - Circulating FGF19 closely correlates with bile acid synthesis and cholestasis in
      patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Bile acid (BA) synthesis in the liver is regulated by
      Fibroblast Growth Factor 19 (FGF19) secreted from the ileum as an enterohepatic
      feedback mechanism. Although FGF19 mRNA is absent in normal liver, FGF19 gene
      expression was reported to increase in response to both extrahepatic and
      intrahepatic cholestasis. The impact of upregulated FGF19 expression on BA
      synthesis is unclear and the overall role of circulating FGF19 and BA synthesis
      under cholestatic conditions needs to be further investigated. METHODS: BA
      synthesis was directly quantified by measuring serum concentrations of 7alpha
      hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one (C4), along with serum FGF19 and other parameters, in
      44 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and 10 healthy subjects.
      RESULTS: Serum C4 were substantially lower, while those of FGF19 were higher, in
      cirrhotic PBC patients, as compared to those of either healthy or non-cirrhotic
      PBC patients. Analyses of the relationships between circulating FGF19, BA
      synthesis and cholestasis revealed that circulating FGF19 was strongly correlated
      with BA synthesis (r = -0.735, p<0.0001) and the severity of cholestasis (r =
      0.590, p<0.001). Moreover, BA synthesis was found to be strongly correlated with
      the degree of cholestasis (r = 0.522, p = 0.0005). CONCLUSION: These findings
      demonstrate that the regulation of BA synthesis in response to cholestasis is
      primarily controlled by circulating FGF19 and that under cholestatic conditions,
      the FGF19-BA synthesis feedback mechanism remains intact. Administering FGF19, or
      suitable mimetic, as a pharmacological intervention to increase circulating
      levels of FGF19 and suppress BA synthesis by inhibiting CYP7A1 gene expression is
      likely to provide therapeutic benefits for many PBC patients.

PMID- 28570656
TI  - Validation of a scale for assessing attitudes towards outcomes of genetic cancer
      testing among primary care providers and breast specialists.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a generic scale for assessing attitudes towards genetic
      testing and to psychometrically assess these attitudes in the context of BRCA1/2
      among a sample of French general practitioners, breast specialists and gyneco
      obstetricians. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Nested within the questionnaire
      developed for the European InCRisC (International Cancer Risk Communication
      Study) project were 14 items assessing expected benefits (8 items) and drawbacks
      (6 items) of the process of breast/ovarian genetic cancer testing (BRCA1/2).
      Another item assessed agreement with the statement that, overall, the expected
      health benefits of BRCA1/2 testing exceeded its drawbacks, thereby justifying its
      prescription. The questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 1,852 French doctors.
      Of these, 182 breast specialists, 275 general practitioners and 294 gyneco
      obstetricians completed and returned the questionnaire to the research team.
      Principal Component Analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and Pearson's
      correlation coefficients were used in the statistical analyses of collected data.
      RESULTS: Three dimensions emerged from the respondents' responses, and were
      classified under the headings: "Anxiety, Conflict and Discrimination", "Risk
      Information", and "Prevention and Surveillance". Cronbach's alpha coefficient for
      the 3 dimensions was 0.79, 0.76 and 0.62, respectively, and each dimension
      exhibited strong correlation with the overall indicator of agreement (criterion
      validity). CONCLUSIONS: The validation process of the 15 items regarding BRCA1/2
      testing revealed satisfactory psychometric properties for the creation of a new
      scale entitled the Attitudes Towards Genetic Testing for BRCA1/2 (ATGT-BRCA1/2)
      Scale. Further testing is required to confirm the validity of this tool which
      could be used generically in other genetic contexts.

PMID- 28570657
TI  - Modeling of a viscoelastic damper and its application in structural control.
AB  - Conventional seismic rehabilitation methods may not be suitable for some
      buildings owing to their high cost and time-consuming foundation work. In recent
      years, viscoelastic dampers (VEDs) have been widely used in many mid- and high
      rise buildings. This study introduces a viscoelastic passive control system
      called rotary rubber braced damper (RRBD). The RRBD is an economical,
      lightweight, and easy-to-assemble device. A finite element model considering
      nonlinearity, large deformation, and material damage is developed to conduct a
      parametric study on different damper sizes under pushover cyclic loading. The
      fundamental characteristics of this VED system are clarified by analyzing
      building structures under cyclic loading. The result show excellent energy
      absorption and stable hysteresis loops in all specimens. Additionally, by using a
      sinusoidal shaking table test, the effectiveness of the RRBD to manage the
      response displacement and acceleration of steel frames is considered. The RRBD
      functioned at early stages of lateral displacement, indicating that the system is
      effective for all levels of vibration. Moreover, the proposed damper shows
      significantly better performance in terms of the column compression force
      resulting from the brace action compared to chevron bracing (CB).

PMID- 28570658
TI  - Estimation of preterm labor immediacy by nonlinear methods.
AB  - Preterm delivery affects about one tenth of human births and is associated with
      an increased perinatal morbimortality as well as with remarkable costs. Even if
      there are a number of predictors and markers of preterm delivery, none of them
      has a high accuracy. In order to find quantitative indicators of the immediacy of
      labor, 142 cardiotocographies (CTG) recorded from women consulting because of
      suspected threatened premature delivery with gestational ages comprehended
      between 24 and 35 weeks were collected and analyzed. These 142 samples were
      divided into two groups: the delayed labor group (n = 75), formed by the women
      who delivered more than seven days after the tocography was performed, and the
      anticipated labor group (n = 67), which corresponded to the women whose labor
      took place during the seven days following the recording. As a means of finding
      significant differences between the two groups, some key informational properties
      were analyzed by applying nonlinear techniques on the tocography recordings. Both
      the regularity and the persistence levels of the delayed labor group, which were
      measured by Approximate Entropy (ApEn) and Generalized Hurst Exponent (GHE)
      respectively, were found to be significantly different from the anticipated labor
      group. As delivery approached, the values of ApEn tended to increase while the
      values of GHE tended to decrease, suggesting that these two methods are sensitive
      to labor immediacy. On this paper, for the first time, we have been able to
      estimate childbirth immediacy by applying nonlinear methods on tocographies. We
      propose the use of the techniques herein described as new quantitative diagnosis
      tools for premature birth that significantly improve the current protocols for
      preterm labor prediction worldwide.

PMID- 28570659
TI  - Caffeic acid and hydroxytyrosol have anti-obesogenic properties in zebrafish and
      rainbow trout models.
AB  - Some natural products, known sources of bioactive compounds with a wide range of
      properties, may have therapeutic values in human health and diseases, as well as
      agronomic applications. The effect of three compounds of plant origin with well
      known dietary antioxidant properties, astaxanthin (ATX), caffeic acid (CA) and
      hydroxytyrosol (HT), on zebrafish (Danio rerio) larval adiposity and rainbow
      trout (Onchorynchus mykiss) adipocytes was assessed. The zebrafish obesogenic
      test (ZOT) demonstrated the anti-obesogenic activity of CA and HT. These
      compounds were able to counteract the obesogenic effect produced by the
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonist,
      rosiglitazone (RGZ). CA and HT suppressed RGZ-increased PPARgamma protein
      expression and lipid accumulation in primary-cultured rainbow trout adipocytes.
      HT also significantly reduced plasma triacylglycerol concentrations, as well as
      mRNA levels of the fasn adipogenic gene in the adipose tissue of HT-injected
      rainbow trout. In conclusion, in vitro and in vivo approaches demonstrated the
      anti-obesogenic potential of CA and HT on teleost fish models that may be
      relevant for studying their molecular mode of action. Further studies are
      required to evaluate the effect of these bioactive components as food supplements
      for modulating adiposity in farmed fish.

PMID- 28570660
TI  - Epidemiological and economic impact of pandemic influenza in Chicago: Priorities
      for vaccine interventions.
AB  - The study objective is to estimate the epidemiological and economic impact of
      vaccine interventions during influenza pandemics in Chicago, and assist in
      vaccine intervention priorities. Scenarios of delay in vaccine introduction with
      limited vaccine efficacy and limited supplies are not unlikely in future
      influenza pandemics, as in the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. We simulated
      influenza pandemics in Chicago using agent-based transmission dynamic modeling.
      Population was distributed among high-risk and non-high risk among 0-19, 20-64
      and 65+ years subpopulations. Different attack rate scenarios for catastrophic
      (30.15%), strong (21.96%), and moderate (11.73%) influenza pandemics were
      compared against vaccine intervention scenarios, at 40% coverage, 40% efficacy,
      and unit cost of $28.62. Sensitivity analysis for vaccine compliance, vaccine
      efficacy and vaccine start date was also conducted. Vaccine prioritization
      criteria include risk of death, total deaths, net benefits, and return on
      investment. The risk of death is the highest among the high-risk 65+ years
      subpopulation in the catastrophic influenza pandemic, and highest among the high
      risk 0-19 years subpopulation in the strong and moderate influenza pandemics. The
      proportion of total deaths and net benefits are the highest among the high-risk
      20-64 years subpopulation in the catastrophic, strong and moderate influenza
      pandemics. The return on investment is the highest in the high-risk 0-19 years
      subpopulation in the catastrophic, strong and moderate influenza pandemics. Based
      on risk of death and return on investment, high-risk groups of the three age
      group subpopulations can be prioritized for vaccination, and the vaccine
      interventions are cost saving for all age and risk groups. The attack rates among
      the children are higher than among the adults and seniors in the catastrophic,
      strong, and moderate influenza pandemic scenarios, due to their larger social
      contact network and homophilous interactions in school. Based on return on
      investment and higher attack rates among children, we recommend prioritizing
      children (0-19 years) and seniors (65+ years) after high-risk groups for
      influenza vaccination during times of limited vaccine supplies. Based on risk of
      death, we recommend prioritizing seniors (65+ years) after high-risk groups for
      influenza vaccination during times of limited vaccine supplies.

PMID- 28570661
TI  - Breakdown of local information processing may underlie isoflurane anesthesia
      effects.
AB  - The disruption of coupling between brain areas has been suggested as the
      mechanism underlying loss of consciousness in anesthesia. This hypothesis has
      been tested previously by measuring the information transfer between brain areas,
      and by taking reduced information transfer as a proxy for decoupling. Yet,
      information transfer is a function of the amount of information available in the
      information source-such that transfer decreases even for unchanged coupling when
      less source information is available. Therefore, we reconsidered past
      interpretations of reduced information transfer as a sign of decoupling, and
      asked whether impaired local information processing leads to a loss of
      information transfer. An important prediction of this alternative hypothesis is
      that changes in locally available information (signal entropy) should be at least
      as pronounced as changes in information transfer. We tested this prediction by
      recording local field potentials in two ferrets after administration of
      isoflurane in concentrations of 0.0%, 0.5%, and 1.0%. We found strong decreases
      in the source entropy under isoflurane in area V1 and the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
      as predicted by our alternative hypothesis. The decrease in source entropy was
      stronger in PFC compared to V1. Information transfer between V1 and PFC was
      reduced bidirectionally, but with a stronger decrease from PFC to V1. This links
      the stronger decrease in information transfer to the stronger decrease in source
      entropy-suggesting reduced source entropy reduces information transfer. This
      conclusion fits the observation that the synaptic targets of isoflurane are
      located in local cortical circuits rather than on the synapses formed by
      interareal axonal projections. Thus, changes in information transfer under
      isoflurane seem to be a consequence of changes in local processing more than of
      decoupling between brain areas. We suggest that source entropy changes must be
      considered whenever interpreting changes in information transfer as decoupling.

PMID- 28570662
TI  - Gait characteristics under different walking conditions: Association with the
      presence of cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older people.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gait characteristics measured at usual pace may allow profiling in
      patients with cognitive problems. The influence of age, gender, leg length,
      modified speed or dual tasking is unclear. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis was
      performed on a data registry containing demographic, physical and spatial
      temporal gait parameters recorded in five walking conditions with a GAITRite(r)
      electronic carpet in community-dwelling older persons with memory complaints.
      Four cognitive stages were studied: cognitively healthy individuals, mild
      cognitive impaired patients, mild dementia patients and advanced dementia
      patients. RESULTS: The association between spatial-temporal gait characteristics
      and cognitive stages was the most prominent: in the entire study population using
      gait speed, steps per meter (translation for mean step length), swing time
      variability, normalised gait speed (corrected for leg length) and normalised
      steps per meter at all five walking conditions; in the 50-to-70 years old
      participants applying step width at fast pace and steps per meter at usual pace;
      in the 70-to-80 years old persons using gait speed and normalised gait speed at
      usual pace, fast pace, animal walk and counting walk or steps per meter and
      normalised steps per meter at all five walking conditions; in over-80 years old
      participants using gait speed, normalised gait speed, steps per meter and
      normalised steps per meter at fast pace and animal dual-task walking.
      Multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for gender predicted in two
      compiled models the presence of dementia or cognitive impairment with acceptable
      accuracy in persons with memory complaints. CONCLUSION: Gait parameters in
      multiple walking conditions adjusted for age, gender and leg length showed a
      significant association with cognitive impairment. This study suggested that
      multifactorial gait analysis could be more informative than using gait analysis
      with only one test or one variable. Using this type of gait analysis in clinical
      practice could facilitate screening for cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28570663
TI  - Rectal administration of a chlamydial subunit vaccine protects against genital
      infection and upper reproductive tract pathology in mice.
AB  - In this study, we tested the hypothesis that rectal immunization with a VCG-based
      chlamydial vaccine would cross-protect mice against heterologous genital
      Chlamydia trachomatis infection and Chlamydia-induced upper genital tract
      pathologies in mice. Female mice were immunized with a C. trachomatis serovar D
      derived subunit vaccine or control or live serovar D elementary bodies (EBs) and
      the antigen-specific mucosal and systemic immune responses were characterized.
      Vaccine efficacy was determined by evaluating the intensity and duration of
      genital chlamydial shedding following intravaginal challenge with live serovar E
      chlamydiae. Protection against upper genital tract pathology was determined by
      assessing infertility and tubal inflammation. Rectal immunization elicited high
      levels of chlamydial-specific IFN-gamma-producing CD4 T cells and humoral immune
      responses in mucosal and systemic tissues. The elicited immune effectors cross
      reacted with the serovar E chlamydial antigen and reduced the length and
      intensity of genital chlamydial shedding. Furthermore, immunization with the VCG
      vaccine but not the rVCG-gD2 control reduced the incidence of tubal inflammation
      and protected mice against Chlamydia-induced infertility. These results highlight
      the potential of rectal immunization as a viable mucosal route for inducing
      protective immunity in the female genital tract.

PMID- 28570664
TI  - SCYL1 does not regulate REST expression and turnover.
AB  - A recent study identified SCYL1 as one of the components of the oncogenic STP
      axis, which promotes triple-negative breast cancer by regulating degradation of
      the REST tumor suppressor. Contrary to the findings of that study, herein we show
      by using 3 distinct genetic approaches that SCYL1 does not regulate REST
      turnover. Specifically, REST protein levels and turnover were identical in
      Scyl1+/+ and Scyl1-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Similarly, targeted
      inactivation of SCYL1 in Hek293T cells by using CRIPSR-Cas9 technology did not
      affect REST steady-state level and turnover. Furthermore, RNA interference
      mediated depletion of SCYL1 in Hek293T or MDA-MB-231 cells did not alter REST
      steady-state level and turnover. Together, our findings indicate that SCYL1 does
      not contribute to REST turnover and thus do not support a previous study
      suggesting a role for SCYL1 in mediating REST degradation.

PMID- 28570665
TI  - PD-L1/PD-L2-expressing B-1 cells inhibit alloreactive T cells in mice.
AB  - B cells constitute a complex system of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and exist
      as distinct subsets that differ in their lineage affiliation, surface molecule
      expression, and biological function, thus potentially regulating the immune
      response. In this study, we investigated the immune-regulatory roles of murine B
      cell subsets as regulatory APCs targeting alloreactive T cells. Either splenic B
      cells, peritoneal cavity (PerC) B cells, or non-B cells from Balb/c mice were
      intravenously injected into B6 mice. Serum levels of anti-Balb/c antibodies in
      the recipients of PerC B cells were significantly lower than those in the
      recipients of splenic B cells and PerC non-B cells, as determined over a 4-week
      period after the injection. Mixed-lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assays using
      splenocytes from the B6 mice at 2 weeks after the injection revealed the
      significantly reduced anti-Balb/c T cell-responses in the recipients of PerC B
      cells, as compared to those in the recipients of splenic B cells or untreated
      control mice. Since PerC B cells contained MHC class II+ CD80+ CD86+ PD-L1+ PD
      L2+ cells among the CD5+ B-1a cell subset, PerC B cells from Balb/c mice were pre
      incubated with anti-PD-L1/PD-L2 mAbs prior to injection. This treatment abrogated
      their immune-regulatory effects on anti-Balb/c T cells in the MLR assays. In
      addition, the inoculation with Balb/c PerC B cells significantly prolonged the
      survival of subsequently grafted Balb/c hearts in B6 mouse recipients, whereas
      that with SPL B cells did not. These findings indicate that the PerC B cells,
      including PD-L1/PD-L2 B-1a cells, may suppress T cells responding to
      allostimulation, and thus may be optimal for donor lymphocyte injection.

PMID- 28570666
TI  - Loose Panicle1 encoding a novel WRKY transcription factor, regulates panicle
      development, stem elongation, and seed size in foxtail millet [Setaria italica
      (L.) P. Beauv.].
AB  - Panicle development is an important agronomic trait that aids in determining crop
      productivity. Foxtail millet and its wild ancestor green foxtail have recently
      been used as model systems to dissect gene functions. Here, we characterized a
      recessive mutant of foxtail millet, loose-panicle 1 (lp1), which showed
      pleiotropic phenotypes, such as a lax primary branching pattern, aberrant branch
      morphology, semi-dwarfism, and enlarged seed size. The loose panicle phenotype
      was attributed to increased panicle lengths and decreased primary branch numbers.
      Map-based cloning, combined with high-throughput sequencing, revealed that LP1,
      which encodes a novel WRKY transcription factor, is responsible for the mutant
      phenotype. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that LP1 belongs to the Group I WRKY
      subfamily, which possesses two WRKY domains (WRKY I and II). A single G-to-A
      transition in the fifth intron of LP1 resulted in three disorganized splicing
      events in mutant plants. For each of these aberrant splice variants, the normal
      C2H2 motif in the WRKY II domain was completely disrupted, resulting in a loss-of
      function mutation. LP1 mRNA was expressed in all of the tissues examined, with
      higher expression levels observed in inflorescences, roots, and seeds at the
      grain-filling stage. A subcellular localization analysis showed that LP1
      predominantly accumulated in the nucleus, which confirmed its role as a
      transcriptional regulator. This study provides novel insights into the roles of
      WRKY proteins in regulating reproductive organ development in plants and may help
      to develop molecular markers associated with crop yields.

PMID- 28570667
TI  - Correction: The Single-Breath Diffusing Capacity of CO and NO in Healthy Children
      of European Descent.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113177.].

PMID- 28570668
TI  - Cooperative inhibition of RIP1-mediated NF-kappaB signaling by cytomegalovirus
      encoded deubiquitinase and inactive homolog of cellular ribonucleotide reductase
      large subunit.
AB  - Several viruses have been found to encode a deubiquitinating protease (DUB).
      These viral DUBs are proposed to play a role in regulating innate immune or
      inflammatory signaling. In human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), the largest tegument
      protein encoded by UL48 contains DUB activity, but its cellular targets are not
      known. Here, we show that UL48 and UL45, an HCMV-encoded inactive homolog of
      cellular ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) large subunit (R1), target receptor
      interacting protein kinase 1 (RIP1) to inhibit NF-kappaB signaling. Transfection
      assays showed that UL48 and UL45, which binds to UL48, interact with RIP1 and
      that UL48 DUB activity and UL45 cooperatively suppress RIP1-mediated NF-kappaB
      activation. The growth of UL45-null mutant virus was slightly impaired with
      showing reduced accumulation of viral late proteins. Analysis of a recombinant
      virus expressing HA-UL45 showed that UL45 interacts with both UL48 and RIP1
      during virus infection. Infection with the mutant viruses also revealed that UL48
      DUB activity and UL45 inhibit TNFalpha-induced NF-kappaB activation at late times
      of infection. UL48 cleaved both K48- and K63-linked polyubiquitin chains of RIP1.
      Although UL45 alone did not affect RIP1 ubiquitination, it could enhance the UL48
      activity to cleave RIP1 polyubiquitin chains. Consistently, UL45-null virus
      infection showed higher ubiquitination level of endogenous RIP1 than HA-UL45
      virus infection at late times. Moreover, UL45 promoted the UL48-RIP1 interaction
      and re-localization of RIP1 to the UL48-containing virion assembly complex. The
      mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV)-encoded DUB, M48, interacted with mouse RIP1 and
      M45, an MCMV homolog of UL45. Collectively, our data demonstrate that
      cytomegalovirus-encoded DUB and inactive R1 homolog target RIP1 and cooperatively
      inhibit RIP1-mediated NF-kappaB signaling at the late stages of HCMV infection.

PMID- 28570669
TI  - Extraocular motoneurons of the adult rat show higher levels of vascular
      endothelial growth factor and its receptor Flk-1 than other cranial motoneurons.
AB  - Recent studies show a relationship between the deficit of vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF) and motoneuronal degeneration, such as that occurring in
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). VEGF delivery protects motoneurons from cell
      death and delayed neurodegeneration in animal models of ALS. Strikingly,
      extraocular motoneurons show lesser vulnerability to neurodegeneration in ALS
      compared to other cranial or spinal motoneurons. Therefore, the present study
      investigates possible differences in VEGF and its main receptor VEGFR-2 or Flk-1
      between extraocular and non-extraocular brainstem motoneurons. We performed
      immunohistochemistry and Western blot to determine the presence of VEGF and Flk-1
      in rat motoneurons located in the three extraocular motor nuclei (abducens,
      trochlear and oculomotor) and to compare it to that observed in two other
      brainstem nuclei (hypoglossal and facial) that are vulnerable to degeneration.
      Extraocular motoneurons presented higher amounts of VEGF and its receptor Flk-1
      than other brainstem motoneurons, and thus these molecules could be participating
      in their higher resistance to neurodegeneration. In conclusion, we hypothesize
      that differences in VEGF availability and signaling could be a contributing
      factor to the different susceptibility of extraocular motoneurons, when compared
      with other motoneurons, in neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28570670
TI  - Pneumonia is an independent risk factor for pyogenic liver abscess: A population
      based, nested, case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacteremic pneumonia is considered a potential cause of distal organ
      abscess formation. Therefore, we hypothesize that pneumonia is a risk factor for
      pyogenic liver abscess (PLA).The aim of this study is to explore the association
      between pneumonia and PLA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A nationwide,
      population-based, nested, case-control study was conducted using data from the
      Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. In total, 494 patients with
      PLA and 1,976 propensity score matched controls were enrolled. Conditional
      logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) in patients
      with exposure to pneumonia before PLA. After matched and adjusted for confounding
      factors including age, sex, urbanization, income, chronic liver disease, alcohol
      related disease, biliary stone, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus,
      chronic liver disease, and cancer, hospitalization for pneumonia remained an
      independent risk factor for PLA with an aORs of 2.104 [95% confidence interval
      (CI) = 1.309-3.379, p = 0.0021]. Moreover, the aORs were significantly higher
      among patients hospitalized for pneumonia within 30 days (aORs = 10.73, 95% CI =
      3.381-34.054), 30-90 days (aORs = 4.698, 95% CI = 1.541-14.327) and 90-180 (aORs
      = 4.000, 95% CI = 1.158-13.817) days before PLA diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Pneumonia
      is an independent risk factor for subsequent PLA. Moreover, hospitalization for
      pneumonia within 180 days before PLA diagnosis was associated with an increased
      risk of PLA.

PMID- 28570671
TI  - The rib cage stabilizes the human thoracic spine: An in vitro study using
      stepwise reduction of rib cage structures.
AB  - The stabilizing effect of the rib cage on the human thoracic spine is still not
      sufficiently analyzed. For a better understanding of this effect as well as the
      calibration and validation of numerical models of the thoracic spine,
      experimental biomechanics data is required. This study aimed to determine (1) the
      stabilizing effect of the single rib cage structures on the human thoracic spine
      as well as the effect of the rib cage on (2) the flexibility of the single motion
      segments and (3) coupled motion behavior of the thoracic spine. Six human
      thoracic spine specimens including the entire rib cage were loaded quasi
      statically with pure moments of +/- 2 Nm in flexion/extension (FE), lateral
      bending (LB), and axial rotation (AR) using a custom-built spine tester. Motion
      analysis was performed using an optical motion tracking system during load
      application to determine range of motion (ROM) and neutral zone (NZ). Specimens
      were tested (1) in intact condition, (2) after removal of the intercostal
      muscles, (3) after median sternotomy, after removal of (4) the anterior rib cage
      up to the rib stumps, (5) the right sixth to eighth rib head, and (6) all rib
      heads. Significant (p < 0.05) increases of the ROM were found after dissecting
      the intercostal muscles (LB: + 22.4%, AR: + 22.6%), the anterior part of the rib
      cage (FE: + 21.1%, LB: + 10.9%, AR: + 72.5%), and all rib heads (AR: + 5.8%)
      relative to its previous condition. Compared to the intact condition, ROM and NZ
      increased significantly after removing the anterior part of the rib cage (FE: +
      52.2%, + 45.6%; LB: + 42.0%, + 54.0%; AR: + 94.4%, + 187.8%). Median sternotomy
      (FE: + 11.9%, AR: + 21.9%) and partial costovertebral release (AR: + 11.7%)
      significantly increased the ROM relative to its previous condition. Removing the
      entire rib cage increased both monosegmental and coupled motion ROM, but did not
      alter the qualitative motion behavior. The rib cage has a strong effect on
      thoracic spine rigidity, especially in axial rotation by a factor of more than
      two, and should therefore be considered in clinical scenarios, in vitro, and in
      silico.

PMID- 28570672
TI  - Mirasol pathogen reduction technology treatment of human whole blood does not
      induce acute lung injury in mice.
AB  - In resource-limited settings and in the military theater, fresh human whole blood
      is commonly transfused, but infectious risks are a concern. Sophisticated
      molecular testing for potential infectious agents in the whole blood is often
      unavailable. To address this unmet need, pathogen reduction technology (PRT) has
      been developed, and it is an effective approach to inactivate a broad range of
      pathogens found in human blood. However, studies are needed to determine if it is
      harmful to blood cells and whether these cells could damage the transfused
      recipient, including the development of acute lung injury/acute respiratory
      distress syndrome. In this study, we used a commercial PRT system to treat human
      whole blood that was then transfused into immunodeficient mice, and the
      development of acute lung injury was determined. In a model of transfusion
      related acute lung injury (TRALI), BALB/c SCID mice developed more robust lung
      injury when challenged with a MHC Class I monoclonal antibody compared to BALB/c
      wild-type and NOD/SCID mice. Transfusion of control versus Mirasol PRT-treated
      whole blood (25% blood volume exchange) into BALB/c SCID mice did not produce
      lung injury at storage day 1. However, mild lung injury at storage days 14 and 21
      was observed without significant differences in lung injury measurements between
      Mirasol PRT-treated and control groups. The mild storage-dependent acute lung
      injury correlated with trends for increased levels of cell-free hemoglobin that
      accumulated in both the control and Mirasol PRT-treated groups. Neutrophil
      extracellular traps were elevated in the plasma of BALB/c SCID mice in the
      monoclonal antibody TRALI model, but were not different in mice that received
      exchange transfusions. In conclusion, exchange transfusion of human whole blood
      into immunodeficient mice produces mild lung injury that is storage-dependent and
      not related to pathogen reduction treatment.

PMID- 28570673
TI  - Determinants of adherence to recommendations for cancer prevention among Lynch
      Syndrome mutation carriers: A qualitative exploration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lynch Syndrome (LS) mutation carriers are at high risk for various
      cancer types, particularly colorectal cancer. Adherence to lifestyle and body
      weight recommendations for cancer prevention may lower this risk. To promote
      adherence to these recommendations, knowledge on determinants of adherence in LS
      mutation carriers is needed. Therefore, this study aimed to identify determinants
      of adherence to lifestyle recommendations for cancer prevention in LS mutation
      carriers. METHODS: Five focus groups were conducted with DNA confirmed LS
      mutation carriers (n = 29). Transcripts were analyzed by thematic analysis, using
      the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical framework. RESULTS: Tolerance of
      an unhealthy lifestyle because of the desire to enjoy life and avoidance of LS
      dominating their life were most frequently reported as important barriers of
      adherence to the recommendations. Most important facilitators of adherence to the
      recommendations were enhancement of wellbeing and intolerance of unhealthy foods
      due to colon surgery. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a comprehensive overview
      of determinants of adherence to recommendations for cancer prevention. These
      determinants, of which some are typically and unique for LS mutation carriers,
      can be used to design a lifestyle intervention that meets the needs of LS
      mutation carriers.

PMID- 28570674
TI  - Genomic abundance is not predictive of tandem repeat localization in grass
      genomes.
AB  - Highly repetitive regions have historically posed a challenge when investigating
      sequence variation and content. High-throughput sequencing has enabled
      researchers to use whole-genome shotgun sequencing to estimate the abundance of
      repetitive sequence, and these methodologies have been recently applied to
      centromeres. Previous research has investigated variation in centromere repeats
      across eukaryotes, positing that the highest abundance tandem repeat in a genome
      is often the centromeric repeat. To test this assumption, we used shotgun
      sequencing and a bioinformatic pipeline to identify common tandem repeats across
      a number of grass species. We find that de novo assembly and subsequent abundance
      ranking of repeats can successfully identify tandem repeats with homology to
      known tandem repeats. Fluorescent in-situ hybridization shows that de novo
      assembly and ranking of repeats from non-model taxa identifies chromosome domains
      rich in tandem repeats both near pericentromeres and elsewhere in the genome.

PMID- 28570676
TI  - Shaofu Zhuyu decoction ameliorates obesity-mediated hepatic steatosis and
      systemic inflammation by regulating metabolic pathways.
AB  - Shaofu Zhuyu decoction (SFZYD, also known as Sobokchugeo-tang), a classical
      prescription drug in traditional East Asian medicine, has been used to treat
      blood stasis syndrome (BSS). Hepatic steatosis is the result of excess caloric
      intake, and its pathogenesis involves internal retention of phlegm and dampness,
      blood stasis, and liver Qi stagnation. To evaluate the effects of treatment with
      SFZYD on obesity-induced inflammation and hepatic steatosis, we fed male C57BL/6N
      mice a high fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and then treated them with SFZYD by oral
      gavage for an additional 4 weeks. The results of histological and biochemical
      examinations indicated that SFZYD treatment ameliorates systemic inflammation and
      hepatic steatosis. A partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) scores
      plot of serum metabolites showed that HFD mice began to produce metabolites
      similar to those of normal chow (NC) mice after SFZYD administration. We noted
      significant alterations in the levels of twenty-seven metabolites, alterations
      indicating that SFZYD regulates the TCA cycle, the pentose phosphate pathway and
      aromatic amino acid metabolism. Increases in the levels of TCA cycle intermediate
      metabolites, such as 2-oxoglutaric acid, isocitric acid, and malic acid, in the
      serum of obese mice were significantly reversed after SFZYD treatment. In
      addition to inducing changes in the above metabolites, treatment with SFZYD also
      recovered the expression of genes related to hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction,
      including Ucp2, Cpt1alpha, and Ppargc1alpha, as well as the expression of genes
      involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation, without affecting glucose uptake
      or insulin signaling. Taken together, these findings suggest that treatment with
      SFZYD ameliorated obesity-induced systemic inflammation and hepatic steatosis by
      regulating inflammatory cytokine and adipokine levels in the circulation and
      various tissues. Moreover, treatment with SFZYD also reversed alterations in the
      levels of metabolites of the TCA cycle, the pentose phosphate pathway and
      aromatic amino acid metabolism.

PMID- 28570677
TI  - Detecting early signs of heat and drought stress in Phoenix dactylifera (date
      palm).
AB  - Plants adapt to the environment by either long-term genome evolution or by
      acclimatization processes where the cellular processes and metabolism of the
      plant are adjusted within the existing potential in the genome. Here we studied
      the adaptation strategies in date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, under mild heat,
      drought and combined heat and drought by transcriptomic and metabolomic
      profiling. In transcriptomics data, combined heat and drought resembled heat
      response, whereas in metabolomics data it was more similar to drought. In both
      conditions, soluble carbohydrates, such as fucose, and glucose derivatives, were
      increased, suggesting a switch to carbohydrate metabolism and cell wall
      biogenesis. This result is consistent with the evidence from transcriptomics and
      cis-motif analysis. In addition, transcriptomics data showed transcriptional
      activation of genes related to reactive oxygen species in all three conditions
      (drought, heat, and combined heat and drought), suggesting increased activity of
      enzymatic antioxidant systems in cytosol, chloroplast and peroxisome. Finally,
      the genes that were differentially expressed in heat and combined heat and
      drought stresses were significantly enriched for circadian and diurnal rhythm
      motifs, suggesting new stress avoidance strategies.

PMID- 28570679
TI  - Correction: The perceptual saliency of fearful eyes and smiles: A signal
      detection study.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173199.].

PMID- 28570675
TI  - Mitochondrial complex I bridges a connection between regulation of carbon
      flexibility and gastrointestinal commensalism in the human fungal pathogen
      Candida albicans.
AB  - Efficient assimilation of alternative carbon sources in glucose-limited host
      niches is critical for colonization of Candida albicans, a commensal yeast that
      frequently causes opportunistic infection in human. C. albicans evolved
      mechanistically to regulate alternative carbon assimilation for the promotion of
      fungal growth and commensalism in mammalian hosts. However, this highly adaptive
      mechanism that C. albicans employs to cope with alternative carbon assimilation
      has yet to be clearly understood. Here we identified a novel role of C. albicans
      mitochondrial complex I (CI) in regulating assimilation of alternative carbon
      sources such as mannitol. Our data demonstrate that CI dysfunction by deleting
      the subunit Nuo2 decreases the level of NAD+, downregulates the NAD+-dependent
      mannitol dehydrogenase activity, and consequently inhibits hyphal growth and
      biofilm formation in conditions when the carbon source is mannitol, but not
      fermentative sugars like glucose. Mannitol-dependent morphogenesis is controlled
      by a ROS-induced signaling pathway involving Hog1 activation and Brg1 repression.
      In vivo studies show that nuo2Delta/Delta mutant cells are severely compromised
      in gastrointestinal colonization and the defect can be rescued by a glucose-rich
      diet. Thus, our findings unravel a mechanism by which C. albicans regulates
      carbon flexibility and commensalism. Alternative carbon assimilation might
      represent a fitness advantage for commensal fungi in successful colonization of
      host niches.

PMID- 28570678
TI  - Bringing functional status into a big data world: Validation of national Veterans
      Affairs functional status data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ability to perform basic daily activities ("functional status")
      is key to older adults' quality of life and strongly predicts health outcomes.
      However, data on functional status are seldom collected during routine clinical
      care in a way that makes them available for clinical use and research.
      OBJECTIVES: To validate functional status data that Veterans Affairs (VA) medical
      centers recently started collecting during routine clinical care, compared to the
      same data collected in a structured research setting. DESIGN: Prospective
      validation study. SETTING: Seven VA medical centers that collected complete data
      on 5 activities of daily living (ADLs) and 8 instrumental activities of daily
      living (IADLs) from older patients attending primary care appointments.
      PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected patients aged 75 and older who had new ADL and
      IADL data collected during a primary care appointment (N = 252). We oversampled
      patients with ADL dependence and applied these sampling weights to our analyses.
      MEASUREMENTS: Telephone-based interviews using a validated measure to assess the
      same 5 ADLs and 8 IADLs. RESULTS: Mean age was 83 years, 96% were male, and 75%
      were white. Of 85 participants whom VA data identified as dependent in 1 or more
      ADLs, 74 (87%) reported being dependent by interview; of 167 whom VA data
      identified as independent in ADLs, 149 (89%) reported being independent. The
      sample-weighted sensitivity of the VA data for identifying ADL dependence was 45%
      (95% CI, 29%, 62%) compared to the reference standard, the specificity was 99%
      (95% CI, 99%, >99%), and the positive predictive value was 87% (95% CI, 79%,
      93%). The weighted kappa statistic was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.41, 0.68) for the
      agreement between VA data and research-collected data in identifying ADL
      dependence. CONCLUSION: Overall agreement of VA functional status data with a
      reference standard was moderate, with fair sensitivity but high specificity and
      positive predictive value.

PMID- 28570680
TI  - The correlation between HER-2 expression and the CEUS and ARFI characteristics of
      breast cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to explore the correlation
      between the contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and acoustic radiation force
      impulse (ARFI) characteristics of breast cancers and the expression of human
      epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2). METHODS: HER-2 expression levels in
      the tumor masses of 167 clearly diagnosed cases of breast cancer were measured
      and analyzed. The enhancement features and time intensity curve (TIC) of CEUS and
      virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ)
      technology of ARFI were employed to analyze the relationship between HER-2
      expression and the CEUS and ARFI characteristics of breast cancer. RESULTS: (1)
      Statistically significant differences in the distribution of the contrast agent,
      perforator blood flow, the overranging phenomenon and perfusion defects between
      the study groups with different HER-2 expression levels (P < 0.05) were observed
      on CEUS. In addition, statistically significant differences in the TIC peak time
      (PT), slope of the ascending branch (K) and area under the curve (AUC) were found
      in the groups expressing different levels of HER-2 (P < 0.05). In contrast, the
      degree of contrast agent enhancement and TIC peak intensity (PI) were found to be
      independent of the expression status of HER-2, as they were not statistically
      significant (P > 0.05). (2) Statistically significant differences in the VTQ
      results between the groups with different HER-2 expression levels were found (P <
      0.05). However, no statistically significant differences in VTI image
      characteristics were detected between the groups expressing different levels of
      HER-2 (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: A correlation was found between the CEUS and ARFI
      characteristics of breast cancer and HER-2 expression levels. This correlation
      was principally reflected in perfusion defects, perforator blood flow, PI, PT, K
      and VTQ.

PMID- 28570682
TI  - ADAMTS-1 in abdominal aortic aneurysm.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Extracellular matrix degradation is a hallmark of abdominal aortic
      aneurysm (AAA). Among proteases that are capable of degrading extracellular
      matrix are a disintegrin and metalloproteases with thrombospondin motifs
      (ADAMTS). Pathogenesis of these proteases in AAA has not been investigated until
      date. METHODS AND RESULTS: Human aneurysmal and control aortas were collected and
      analyzed with RT-PCR measuring the ADAMTS-1, 4,5,6,8,9,10,13,17 and ADAMTSL-1.
      Expression of a majority of the investigated ADAMTS members on mRNA level was
      decreased in aneurysm compared to control aorta. ADAMTS-1 was one of the members
      that was reduced most. Protein analysis using immunohistochemistry and western
      blot for localization and expression of ADAMTS-1 revealed that ADAMTS-1 was
      present predominantly in areas of SMCs and macrophages in aneurysmal aorta and
      higher expressed in AAA compared to control aortas. The role of ADAMTS-1 in AAA
      disease was further examined using ADAMTS-1 transgenic/apoE-/- mice with the
      experimental angiotensin II induced aneurysmal model. Transgenic mice
      overexpressing ADAMTS-1 showed to be similar to ADAMTS-1 wild type mice
      pertaining collagen, elastin content and aortic diameter. CONCLUSION: Several of
      the ADAMTS members, and especially ADAMTS-1, are down regulated at mRNA level in
      AAA, due to unknown mechanisms, at the same time ADAMTS-1 protein is induced. The
      cleavage of its substrates, don't seem to be crucial for the pathogenesis of AAA
      but rather more important in the development of thoracic aortic aneurysm and
      atherosclerosis as shown in previous studies.

PMID- 28570681
TI  - Activated E2F activity induces cell death in papillary thyroid carcinoma K1 cells
      with enhanced Wnt signaling.
AB  - Disruption of Wnt signaling often happens in tumorigenesis, but whether Wnt
      signaling affects the early stages of thyroid tumor, such as papillary thyroid
      carcinoma, is still a question, especially in the papillary thyroid carcinoma
      without genomic RET/PTC mutation. In this study, we demonstrated the important
      function of Wnt signaling in papillary thyroid carcinoma K1 cells, which have no
      RET/PTC mutation. We found that K1 cells have enhanced Wnt signaling in
      comparison to normal thyroid cells. We further demonstrated that K1 cells require
      the enhanced Wnt signaling for growth and survival. Interestingly, we identified
      that enhancing E2F activity by either knockdown of Rb or overexpression of Cyclin
      D1 induces cell death in K1 cells. And we further revealed that the cell death is
      caused by enhanced oxidative stress. Our studies present a novel cell model to
      support the key roles of Wnt signaling in early stage of thyroid tumor, and also
      provide an alternative way to limit thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28570683
TI  - Bacterial outer membrane vesicles at the plant-pathogen interface.

PMID- 28570684
TI  - Correction: A spatial method to calculate small-scale fisheries effort in data
      poor scenarios.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174064.].

PMID- 28570685
TI  - Comparative transcription analysis of different Antirrhinum phyllotaxy nodes
      identifies major signal networks involved in vegetative-reproductive transition.
AB  - Vegetative-reproductive phase change is an indispensable event which guarantees
      several aspects of successful meristem behaviour and organ development.
      Antirrhinum majus undergoes drastic changes of shoot architecture during the
      phase change, including phyllotactic change and leaf type alteration from
      opposite decussate to spiral. However, the regulation mechanism in both of
      phyllotactic morphology changes is still unclear. Here, the Solexa/Illumina RNA
      seq high-throughput sequencing was used to evaluate the global changes of
      transcriptome levels among four node regions during phyllotactic development.
      More than 86,315,782 high quality reads were sequenced and assembled into 58,509
      unigenes. These differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were classified into 118
      pathways described in the KEGG database. Based on the heat-map analysis, a large
      number of DEGs were overwhelmingly distributed in the hormone signal pathway as
      well as the carbohydrate biosynthesis and metabolism. The quantitative real time
      (qRT)-PCR results indicated that most of DEGs were highly up-regulated in the
      swapping regions of phyllotactic morphology. Moreover, transcriptions factors
      (TFs) with high transcripts were also identified, controlling the phyllotactic
      morphology by the regulation of hormone and sugar-metabolism signal pathways. A
      number of DEGs did not align with any databases and might be novel genes involved
      in the phyllotactic development. These genes will serve as an invaluable genetic
      resource for understanding the molecular mechanism of the phyllotactic
      development.

PMID- 28570686
TI  - Acute bout of exercise induced prolonged muscle glucose transporter-4
      translocation and delayed counter-regulatory hormone response in type 1 diabetes.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated that an acute bout of aerobic exercise induces
      a subsequent delayed onset of hypoglycemia among patients with type 1 diabetes.
      However, the mechanisms of exercise-induced hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes are
      still unclear. Streptozotocin (STZ) was injected to 6-week-old male Wistar rats,
      and three days after STZ injection, animals were randomly assigned into 2 groups:
      STZ with insulin only (STZ) and STZ with insulin and exercise (STZ+EX). Normal
      Wistar rats with exercise were used as control (CON+EX). Insulin was
      intraperitoneally injected (0.5 U/kg) to both STZ groups (-0.5 h), and a bout of
      aerobic exercise (15 m/min for 30 min) was conducted at euglycemic conditions (0
      h). Blood was collected at 0, 1, 3, and 5 h after exercise from the carotid
      artery. While the blood glucose level was stable during the post-exercise period
      (0-5 h) in the STZ and CON+EX groups, it decreased significantly only in the
      STZ+EX group at 3 h. Plasma glucagon, adrenalin, and noradrenalin levels
      significantly increased at 1 h in the STZ group, whereas significant hormonal
      responses were observed at 5 h in the STZ+EX group. In skeletal muscle glucose
      metabolism-related pathway, the level of glucose transporter-4 (GLUT-4)
      translocation was significantly higher at 1 h in the CON and STZ groups. However,
      in the STZ+EX group, these activations were maintained by 5 h, indicating a
      sustained glucose metabolism in the STZ+EX group. A single bout of aerobic
      exercise induced a delayed onset of hypoglycemia in STZ-treated rats. A prolonged
      enhancement of GLUT-4 translocation and delayed counter-regulatory hormone
      responses may have contributed to the induction of hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28570687
TI  - Intervention using a novel biodegradable hollow stent containing polylactic acid
      polyprolactone-polyethylene glycol complexes against lacrimal duct obstruction
      disease.
AB  - Lacrimal duct obstruction disease (LDOD) is a common ophthalmologic disease.
      Stent implantation surgery is one of the most effective therapies. In this study,
      we intended to find out the satisfactory biodegradable stents containing poly-L
      lactic acid-polycaprolactone-polyethylene glycol (PLLA- PCL- PEG) complexes for
      therapeutic application in LDOD. Stents made of PLLA- PCL- PEG complexes in
      various ratios, were prepared and used in vitro to determine stents with
      appropriate mechanical properties and shorter range of bio-degradation for study
      in vivo. Thirty-two rabbits were randomized into eight groups of four eyes each
      in advance for test in vivo. The selected stents were implanted into the left
      lacrimal ducts of 16 rabbits and silica gel stents as the control for the other
      16 rabbits. At four points in time (1, 4, 10 and 16 weeks after the
      implantation), weight loss rate (WLR) of the stents was measured and analysed. To
      access the change of lacrimal duct, fluorescein excretion test, lacrimal duct
      endoscopy and histopathological testing were conducted. The stent containing
      PLLA: PCL6: 4+ 15%PEG was selected for study in vivo. Analysis of weight loss
      rate (WLR), fluorescein excretion test, lacrimal duct endoscopy and
      histopathological testing indicated that the selected stent was biodegradable and
      caused minimal stimulation and earlier tissue restoration in the lacrimal
      epithelium compared with the silica gel stent used as the control. The study
      results suggest that the PLLA: PCL6: 4+ 15% PEG stent is a satisfactory
      biodegradable stent as a promising alternative for therapeutic application in
      LDOD, which showed tissue compatibility, biodegradation and adequate mechanical
      intensity.

PMID- 28570688
TI  - Genetic diversity and accession structure in European Cynara cardunculus
      collections.
AB  - Understanding the distribution of genetic variations and accession structures is
      an important factor for managing genetic resources, but also for using proper
      germplasm in association map analyses and breeding programs. The globe artichoke
      is the fourth most important horticultural crop in Europe. Here, we report the
      results of a molecular analysis of a collection including globe artichoke and
      leafy cardoon germplasm present in the Italian, French and Spanish gene banks.
      The aims of this study were to: (i) assess the diversity present in European
      collections, (ii) determine the population structure, (iii) measure the genetic
      distance between accessions; (iv) cluster the accessions; (v) properly
      distinguish accessions present in the different national collections carrying the
      same name; and (vi) understand the diversity distribution in relation to the gene
      bank and the geographic origin of the germplasm. A total of 556 individuals
      grouped into 174 accessions of distinct typologies were analyzed by different
      types of molecular markers, i.e. dominant (ISSR and AFLP) and co-dominant (SSR).
      The data of the two crops (globe artichoke and leafy cardoon) were analyzed
      jointly and separately to compute, among other aims, the gene diversity,
      heterozygosity (He, Ho), fixation indexes, AMOVA, genetic distance and structure.
      The findings underline the huge diversity present in the analyzed material, and
      the existence of alleles that are able to discriminate among accessions. The
      accessions were clustered not only on the basis of their typology, but also on
      the basis of the gene bank they come from. Probably, the environmental conditions
      of the different field gene banks affected germplasm conservation. These outcomes
      will be useful in plant breeding to select accessions and to fingerprint
      varieties. Moreover, the results highlight the particular attention that should
      be paid to the method used to conserve the Cynara cardunculus germplasm and
      suggest to the preference of using accessions from different gene banks to run an
      association map.

PMID- 28570690
TI  - Correction: ExtremeDB: A Unified Web Repository of Extremophilic Archaea and
      Bacteria.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063083.].

PMID- 28570689
TI  - Population dynamics of the critically endangered toad Atelopus cruciger and the
      fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
AB  - Harlequin toads (Atelopus) are among the most severely impacted amphibians by the
      emergence of chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease caused by the pathogen
      Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Many species disappeared while others
      suffered drastic contractions of their geographic distribution to lower
      altitudes. A diminished virulence of Bd in warm habitats was proposed to explain
      the survival of lowland populations of harlequin toads (i.e. thermal refuge
      hypothesis). To understand the mechanisms that allow some populations to reach an
      endemic equilibrium with this pathogen, we estimated demographic and
      epidemiological parameters at one remnant population of Atelopus cruciger in
      Venezuela using mark-recapture data from 2007-2013. We demonstrated that Bd is
      highly virulent for A. cruciger, increasing the odds of dying of infected adults
      four times in relation to uninfected ones and reducing the life expectancy of
      reproductive toads to a few weeks. Despite an estimated annual loss of 18% of the
      reproductive population due to Bd-induced mortality, this population has
      persisted in an endemic equilibrium for the last decade through the large
      recruitment of healthy adults every year. Given the high vulnerability of
      harlequin toads to Bd in lowland populations, thermal refuges need to be
      redefined as habitats of reduced transmission rather than attenuated virulence.

PMID- 28570691
TI  - Memory for faces and voices varies as a function of sex and expressed emotion.
AB  - We investigated how memory for faces and voices (presented separately and in
      combination) varies as a function of sex and emotional expression (anger,
      disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral). At encoding, participants judged
      the expressed emotion of items in forced-choice tasks, followed by incidental
      Remember/Know recognition tasks. Results from 600 participants showed that
      accuracy (hits minus false alarms) was consistently higher for neutral compared
      to emotional items, whereas accuracy for specific emotions varied across the
      presentation modalities (i.e., faces, voices, and face-voice combinations). For
      the subjective sense of recollection ("remember" hits), neutral items received
      the highest hit rates only for faces, whereas for voices and face-voice
      combinations anger and fear expressions instead received the highest recollection
      rates. We also observed better accuracy for items by female expressers, and own
      sex bias where female participants displayed memory advantage for female faces
      and face-voice combinations. Results further suggest that own-sex bias can be
      explained by recollection, rather than familiarity, rates. Overall, results show
      that memory for faces and voices may be influenced by the expressions that they
      carry, as well as by the sex of both items and participants. Emotion expressions
      may also enhance the subjective sense of recollection without enhancing memory
      accuracy.

PMID- 28570693
TI  - Mosquito co-infection with Zika and chikungunya virus allows simultaneous
      transmission without affecting vector competence of Aedes aegypti.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Zika virus (ZIKV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are highly pathogenic
      arthropod-borne viruses that are currently a serious health burden in the
      Americas, and elsewhere in the world. ZIKV and CHIKV co-circulate in the same
      geographical regions and are mainly transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
      There is a growing number of case reports of ZIKV and CHIKV co-infections in
      humans, but it is uncertain whether co-infection occurs via single or multiple
      mosquito bites. Here we investigate the potential of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to
      transmit both ZIKV and CHIKV in one bite, and we assess the consequences of co
      infection on vector competence. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: First, growth
      curves indicated that co-infection with CHIKV negatively affects ZIKV production
      in mammalian, but not in mosquito cells. Next, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were
      infected with ZIKV, CHIKV, or co-infected via an infectious blood meal or
      intrathoracic injections. Infection and transmission rates, as well as viral
      titers of positive mosquitoes, were determined at 14 days after blood meal or 7
      days after injection. Saliva and bodies of (co-)infected mosquitoes were scored
      concurrently for the presence of ZIKV and/or CHIKV using a dual-colour
      immunofluorescence assay. The results show that orally exposed Ae. aegypti
      mosquitoes are highly competent, with transmission rates of up to 73% for ZIKV,
      21% for CHIKV, and 12% of mosquitoes transmitting both viruses in one bite.
      However, simultaneous oral exposure to both viruses did not change infection and
      transmission rates compared to exposure to a single virus. Intrathoracic
      injections indicate that the selected strain of Ae. aegypti has a strong salivary
      gland barrier for CHIKV, but a less profound barrier for ZIKV.
      CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study shows that Ae. aegypti can transmit both
      ZIKV and CHIKV via a single bite. Furthermore, co-infection of ZIKV and CHIKV
      does not influence the vector competence of Ae. aegypti.

PMID- 28570692
TI  - Natural killer T cell sensitization during neonatal respiratory syncytial virus
      infection induces eosinophilic lung disease in re-infected adult mice.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major viral pathogen that causes severe
      lower respiratory tract infections in infants and the elderly worldwide. Infants
      with severe RSV bronchiolitis tend to experience more wheezing and asthma in
      later childhood. Because invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are associated
      with the asthma pathology, we investigated whether neonatal iNKT cells are
      involved in the aggravation of pulmonary diseases following RSV infection in
      mice. Intranasal exposure to the iNKT cell ligand alpha-galactosylceramide (alpha
      GC) with RSV primary infection in neonatal mice elicited neither cytokine
      production (except for a slight increase of IL-5) nor pulmonary eosinophilia,
      despite the presence of both CD1d+ cells and NKT cells. Interestingly, in adult
      mice re-infected with RSV, neonatal iNKT cell sensitization by alpha-GC during
      RSV primary infection resulted in much higher levels of pulmonary Th2 cytokines
      and elevated eosinophilia with airway hyperresponsiveness, whereas this was not
      observed in cd1d knockout mice. In contrast, alpha-GC priming of adults during
      RSV re-infection did not induce more severe airway symptoms than RSV re-infection
      in the absence of alpha-GC. alpha-GC co-administration during RSV primary
      infection facilitated RSV clearance regardless of age, but viral clearance
      following re-infection was not iNKT cell-dependent. This study clearly
      demonstrates that RSV-induced immune responses can be altered by iNKT cells,
      suggesting that neonatal iNKT cell sensitization during RSV primary infection is
      associated with exacerbation of pulmonary diseases following RSV re-infection in
      adulthood.

PMID- 28570694
TI  - Trends of vaccine-preventable diseases in Afghanistan from the Disease Early
      Warning System, 2009-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Afghanistan's public health system was neglected during decades of
      military and civil conflict, and trends in infectious disease occurrence remain
      poorly characterized. This study examines cyclical and long-term trends of six
      vaccine-preventable diseases: pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis, typhoid, measles,
      and acute viral hepatitis. METHODS: Using weekly data collected between 2009 and
      2015 through Afghanistan's Disease Early Warning System, we calculated monthly
      case counts, and fit a Poisson regression with a Fourier transformation for
      seasonal cycles and dummy variables for year. RESULTS: We found the greatest
      incidence of diarrhea and typhoid in the summer, pneumonia in the winter, and
      measles in the late spring. Meningitis and acute viral hepatitis did not
      demonstrate substantial seasonality. Rates of pneumonia and diarrhea were
      constant across years whereas rates of meningitis, typhoid, and acute viral
      hepatitis decreased. Measles incidence increased in 2015. CONCLUSIONS:
      Communicable disease reporting systems can guide public health operations-such as
      the implementation of new vaccines, and permit evaluation of health
      interventions. For example, measles supplementary immunization activities in
      Afghanistan have not slowed long-term transmission of the disease, but decreases
      in typhoid fever and acute viral hepatitis are probably tied to improvements in
      sanitation in the country.

PMID- 28570697
TI  - Correction: High fibroblast growth factor 23 levels are associated with decreased
      ferritin levels and increased intravenous iron doses in hemodialysis patients.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176984.].

PMID- 28570696
TI  - An investigation of emotion dynamics in major depressive disorder patients and
      healthy persons using sparse longitudinal networks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Differences in within-person emotion dynamics may be an important
      source of heterogeneity in depression. To investigate these dynamics, researchers
      have previously combined multilevel regression analyses with network
      representations. However, sparse network methods, specifically developed for
      longitudinal network analyses, have not been applied. Therefore, this study used
      this approach to investigate population-level and individual-level emotion
      dynamics in healthy and depressed persons and compared this method with the
      multilevel approach. METHODS: Time-series data were collected in pair-matched
      healthy persons and major depressive disorder (MDD) patients (n = 54). Seven
      positive affect (PA) and seven negative affect (NA) items were administered
      electronically at 90 times (30 days; thrice per day). The population-level
      (healthy vs. MDD) and individual-level time series were analyzed using a sparse
      longitudinal network model based on vector autoregression. The population-level
      model was also estimated with a multilevel approach. Effects of different
      preprocessing steps were evaluated as well. The characteristics of the
      longitudinal networks were investigated to gain insight into the emotion
      dynamics. RESULTS: In the population-level networks, longitudinal network
      connectivity was strongest in the healthy group, with nodes showing more and
      stronger longitudinal associations with each other. Individually estimated
      networks varied strongly across individuals. Individual variations in network
      connectivity were unrelated to baseline characteristics (depression status,
      neuroticism, severity). A multilevel approach applied to the same data showed
      higher connectivity in the MDD group, which seemed partly related to the
      preprocessing approach. CONCLUSIONS: The sparse network approach can be useful
      for the estimation of networks with multiple nodes, where overparameterization is
      an issue, and for individual-level networks. However, its current inability to
      model random effects makes it less useful as a population-level approach in case
      of large heterogeneity. Different preprocessing strategies appeared to strongly
      influence the results, complicating inferences about network density.

PMID- 28570695
TI  - Molecular basis for the binding and modulation of V-ATPase by a bacterial
      effector protein.
AB  - Intracellular pathogenic bacteria evade the immune response by replicating within
      host cells. Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires' Disease,
      makes use of numerous effector proteins to construct a niche supportive of its
      replication within phagocytic cells. The L. pneumophila effector SidK was
      identified in a screen for proteins that reduce the activity of the proton
      pumping vacuolar-type ATPases (V-ATPases) when expressed in the yeast
      Saccharomyces cerevisae. SidK is secreted by L. pneumophila in the early stages
      of infection and by binding to and inhibiting the V-ATPase, SidK reduces
      phagosomal acidification and promotes survival of the bacterium inside
      macrophages. We determined crystal structures of the N-terminal region of SidK at
      2.3 A resolution and used single particle electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) to
      determine structures of V-ATPase:SidK complexes at ~6.8 A resolution. SidK is a
      flexible and elongated protein composed of an alpha-helical region that interacts
      with subunit A of the V-ATPase and a second region of unknown function that is
      flexibly-tethered to the first. SidK binds V-ATPase strongly by interacting via
      two alpha-helical bundles at its N terminus with subunit A. In vitro activity
      assays show that SidK does not inhibit the V-ATPase completely, but reduces its
      activity by ~40%, consistent with the partial V-ATPase deficiency phenotype its
      expression causes in yeast. The cryo-EM analysis shows that SidK reduces the
      flexibility of the A-subunit that is in the 'open' conformation. Fluorescence
      experiments indicate that SidK binding decreases the affinity of V-ATPase for a
      fluorescent analogue of ATP. Together, these results reveal the structural basis
      for the fine-tuning of V-ATPase activity by SidK.

PMID- 28570698
TI  - High prevalence of cognitive impairment after intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment seems to be frequent in intracerebral hemorrhage
      (ICH) survivors, but remains widely understudied. In this study, we investigated
      the frequency and patterns of vascular cognitive disorders (VCDs) in patients
      with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)-related and deep ICH compared to patients
      with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD) and healthy
      controls. METHODS: We prospectively recruited 20 patients with CAA-related lobar
      ICH, 20 with deep ICH, 20 with MCI-AD and 17 healthy controls. Patients with
      cognitive decline pre-ICH were excluded from the analysis. Each participant
      underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and a structural brain
      MRI. Cognitive assessment was performed at a median delay of 4 months after the
      acute phase in ICH patients, and more than 6 months after the first complaint in
      MCI-AD patients. Cognitive profiles were compared between groups. The prevalence
      of VCDs in the ICH groups was estimated using the recent VASCOG criteria.
      RESULTS: "Mild" and "major VCDs" were respectively observed in 87.5% and 2.5% of
      all ICH patients. Every patient in the CAA group had mild VCDs. No significant
      difference was observed in cognitive functioning between CAA-related and deep ICH
      patients. The most impaired process in the CAA group was naming, with a mean (+/
      standard deviation) z-score of -5.2 +/-5.5, followed by processing speed (-4.1+/
      3.3), executive functioning (-2.6 +/-2.5), memory (-2.4 +/-3.5) and attention (
      0.9 +/-1.3). This cognitive pattern was different from the MCI-AD patients, but
      the groups were only different in gestural praxis, and by construction, in memory
      processes. CONCLUSIONS: VCDs are frequent after ICH. Cognitive patterns of
      patients with deep or CAA-related ICH did not differ, but there was impaired
      performance in specific domains distinct from the effects of Alzheimer's disease.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique
      identifier: NCT01619709.

PMID- 28570699
TI  - Vimentin is a potential prognostic factor for tongue squamous cell carcinoma
      among five epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related proteins.
AB  - We aimed to investigate the association of the expression levels of five
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins (Snail, Twist, E
      cadherin, N-cadherin, and Vimentin) with tumorigenesis, pathologic parameters and
      prognosis in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) patients by
      immunohistochemistry of tissue microarray. The expression levels of Snail, E
      cadherin, N-cadherin and Vimentin were significantly different between the tumor
      adjacent normal and tumor tissues. In tumor tissues, lower E-cadherin and higher
      N-cadherin levels were associated with a higher grade of cell differentiation,
      advanced stage of disease, and lymph node metastasis. However, higher Vimentin
      expression was associated with poor cell differentiation and lymph node
      metastasis. Patients with low E-cadherin expression had poor disease-specific
      survival (DSS). Conversely, positive N-cadherin and higher Vimentin expression
      levels were associated with poor DSS and disease-free survival. Notably, our
      multivariate Cox regression model indicated that high Vimentin expression was an
      adverse prognostic factor for DSS in TSCC patients, even after the adjustment for
      cell differentiation, pathological stage, and expression levels of Snail, Twist,
      E-cadherin, and N-cadherin. Snail, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and Vimentin were
      associated with tumorigenesis and pathological outcomes. Among the five EMT
      related proteins, Vimentin was a potential prognostic factor for TSCC patients.

PMID- 28570700
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of Phytophthora litchii reveals pathogenicity arsenals and
      confirms taxonomic status.
AB  - Litchi downy blight, caused by Peronophythora litchii, is one of the major
      diseases of litchi and has caused severe economic losses. P. litchii has the
      unique ability to produce downy mildew like sporangiophores under artificial
      culture. The pathogen had been placed in a new family Peronophytophthoraceae by
      some authors. In this study, the whole transcriptome of P. litchii from mycelia,
      sporangia, and zoospores was sequenced for the first time. A set of 23637
      transcripts with an average length of 1284 bp was assembled. Using six open
      reading frame (ORF) predictors, 19267 representative ORFs were identified and
      were annotated by searching against several public databases. There were 4666
      conserved gene families and various sets of lineage-specific genes among P.
      litchii and other four closely related oomycetes. In silico analyses revealed 490
      pathogen-related proteins including 128 RXLR and 22 CRN effector candidates.
      Based on the phylogenetic analysis of 164 single copy orthologs from 22 species,
      it is validated that P. litchii is in the genus Phytophthora. Our work provides
      valuable data to elucidate the pathogenicity basis and ascertain the taxonomic
      status of P. litchii.

PMID- 28570701
TI  - Genetic diversity of Xanthoceras sorbifolium bunge germplasm using morphological
      traits and microsatellite molecular markers.
AB  - Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge has great potential for producing biodiesel. In
      order to select and evaluate appropriate germplasm to produce biodiesel, we
      analyzed the genetic diversity of Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge germplasm based
      on morphological traits and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in this study. Fifty
      six germplasm samples were evaluated using nine morphological traits and 23 SSR
      loci. Significant differences among germplasms were observed in eight
      morphological characters. The SSR markers analysis showed high genetic diversity
      among the germplasms. All SSRs had polymorphisms, and we detected 77 alleles in
      total. The number of alleles at each locus ranged from two to six, averaging 3.35
      per marker. The polymorphic information content values ranged from 0.36 to 0.61,
      averaging 0.49. Expected heterozygosity, observed heterozygosity, and Shannon's
      information index calculations detected large genetic variations among
      germplasms. The high average number of alleles per locus and the allelic
      diversity observed in the set of genotypes analyzed indicated that the genetic
      base of this species is relatively wide. Thus, microsatellite markers can be used
      to efficiently distinguish Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge germplasms and assess
      their genetic diversity. Hundred-grain weight and lateral diameter were
      positively correlated with monounsaturated fatty acids and depended on genotype.
      These results suggest that seeds with higher hundred-grain weight and lateral
      diameter could be more suitable to produce biodiesel. Our data will lay a
      foundation for selecting appropriate germplasm to produce biodiesel based on seed
      phenotype and will contribute to the conservation and management of this
      important plant genetic resource.

PMID- 28570702
TI  - Depletion of ATP and glucose in advanced human atherosclerotic plaques.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Severe hypoxia develops close to the necrotic core of advanced human
      atherosclerotic plaques, but the energy metabolic consequences of this hypoxia
      are not known. In animal models, plaque hypoxia is also associated with depletion
      of glucose and ATP. ATP depletion may impair healing of plaques and promote
      necrotic core expansion. To investigate if ATP depletion is present in human
      plaques, we analyzed the distribution of energy metabolites (ATP, glucose,
      glycogen and lactate) in intermediate and advanced human plaques. APPROACH AND
      RESULTS: Snap frozen carotid endarterectomies from 6 symptomatic patients were
      analyzed. Each endarterectomy included a large plaque ranging from the common
      carotid artery (CCA) to the internal carotid artery (ICA). ATP, glucose, and
      glycogen concentrations were lower in advanced (ICA) compared to intermediate
      plaques (CCA), whereas lactate concentrations were higher. The lowest
      concentrations of ATP, glucose and glycogen were detected in the perinecrotic
      zone of advanced plaques. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates severe ATP
      depletion and glucose deficiency in the perinecrotic zone of human advanced
      atherosclerotic plaques. ATP depletion may impair healing of plaques and promote
      disease progression.

PMID- 28570703
TI  - Distributed optimization of multi-class SVMs.
AB  - Training of one-vs.-rest SVMs can be parallelized over the number of classes in a
      straight forward way. Given enough computational resources, one-vs.-rest SVMs can
      thus be trained on data involving a large number of classes. The same cannot be
      stated, however, for the so-called all-in-one SVMs, which require solving a
      quadratic program of size quadratically in the number of classes. We develop
      distributed algorithms for two all-in-one SVM formulations (Lee et al. and Weston
      and Watkins) that parallelize the computation evenly over the number of classes.
      This allows us to compare these models to one-vs.-rest SVMs on unprecedented
      scale. The results indicate superior accuracy on text classification data.

PMID- 28570704
TI  - One bout of open skill exercise improves cross-modal perception and immediate
      memory in healthy older adults who habitually exercise.
AB  - One single bout of exercise can be associated with positive effects on cognition,
      due to physiological changes associated with muscular activity, increased
      arousal, and training of cognitive skills during exercise. While the positive
      effects of life-long physical activity on cognitive ageing are well demonstrated,
      it is not well established whether one bout of exercise is sufficient to register
      such benefits in older adults. The aim of this study was to test the effect of
      one bout of exercise on two cognitive processes essential to daily life and known
      to decline with ageing: audio-visual perception and immediate memory. Fifty-eight
      older adults took part in a quasi-experimental design study and were divided into
      three groups based on their habitual activity (open skill exercise (mean age =
      69.65, SD = 5.64), closed skill exercise, N = 18, 94% female; sedentary activity
      control group, N = 21, 62% female). They were then tested before and after their
      activity (duration between 60 and 80 minutes). Results showed improvement in
      sensitivity in audio-visual perception in the open skill group and improvements
      in one of the measures of immediate memory in both exercise groups, after
      controlling for baseline differences including global cognition and health. These
      findings indicate that immediate benefits for cross-modal perception and memory
      can be obtained after open skill exercise. However, improvements after closed
      skill exercise may be limited to memory benefits. Perceptual benefits are likely
      to be associated with arousal, while memory benefits may be due to the training
      effects provided by task requirements during exercise. The respective role of
      qualitative and quantitative differences between these activities in terms of
      immediate cognitive benefits should be further investigated. Importantly, the
      present results present the first evidence for a modulation of cross-modal
      perception by exercise, providing a plausible avenue for rehabilitation of cross
      modal perception deficits, which are emerging as a significant contributor to
      functional decline in ageing.

PMID- 28570705
TI  - vWF correlates with visceral and pericardial adipose tissue in patients with a
      recent stroke of suspected cardiogenic etiology.
AB  - AIMS: A chronically elevated level of von Willebrand factor (vWF) is a common
      finding in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Obesity is a well-recognized
      risk factor for thrombotic cardiovascular complications including ischemic
      stroke, and it has been linked with increased plasma vWF. We evaluated whether
      elevated plasma levels of vWF associate with areas of visceral (VAT), pericardial
      (PAT), and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) compartments in patients with
      acute/subacute stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 69 patients with stroke of
      suspected cardiogenic etiology were examined. The plasma level of vWF antigen
      (vWF-ag) was measured both in the acute phase and in the chronic phase three
      months after stroke. The areas of VAT and/or PAT were assessed with computed
      tomography. As expected, in stroke patients, the levels of plasma vWF-ag were
      significantly higher than in the national reference population both in the acute
      and in the chronic phase. The level of vWF-ag in the chronic phase correlated
      with the amounts of VAT and PAT, but not with subcutaneous adipose tissue.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results agree with previous observations of the chronic
      inflammation/prothrombotic tendency in patients with cerebrovascular disease.
      Future studies should seek to clarify the role of visceral type adipose tissue in
      the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28570706
TI  - Coplanar UHF RFID tag antenna with U-shaped inductively coupled feed for metallic
      applications.
AB  - In this paper, we present a novel compact, coplanar, tag antenna design for
      metallic objects. Electrically small antenna has designed for a UHF RFID (860-960
      MHz) based on a proximity-coupled feed through. Furthermore, two symmetrical Via
      loaded coplanar grounds fed by a U-shaped inductively coupled feed through an
      embedded transmission line. This configuration results in an antenna with
      dimensions of 31 * 19.5 * 3.065 mm3 at 915 MHz, and the total gain for the
      antenna is 0.12 dBi. The Via-loaded coplanar and U-shaped inductively coupled
      feeds allow the antenna to provide flexible tuning in terms of antenna impedance.
      In addition, a figure of merit is applied for the proposed tag antenna, and the
      results are presented. The read range is measured to be 4.2 m, which is very
      close to simulated values. This antenna measurement shows very good agreement
      with simulations.

PMID- 28570708
TI  - Designing small molecules to target cryptic pockets yields both positive and
      negative allosteric modulators.
AB  - Allosteric drugs, which bind to proteins in regions other than their main ligand
      binding or active sites, make it possible to target proteins considered
      "undruggable" and to develop new therapies that circumvent existing resistance.
      Despite growing interest in allosteric drug discovery, rational design is limited
      by a lack of sufficient structural information about alternative binding sites in
      proteins. Previously, we used Markov State Models (MSMs) to identify such
      "cryptic pockets," and here we describe a method for identifying compounds that
      bind in these cryptic pockets and modulate enzyme activity. Experimental tests
      validate our approach by revealing both an inhibitor and two activators of TEM
      beta-lactamase (TEM). To identify hits, a library of compounds is first virtually
      screened against either the crystal structure of a known cryptic pocket or an
      ensemble of structures containing the same cryptic pocket that is extracted from
      an MSM. Hit compounds are then screened experimentally and characterized
      kinetically in individual assays. We identify three hits, one inhibitor and two
      activators, demonstrating that screening for binding to allosteric sites can
      result in both positive and negative modulation. The hit compounds have modest
      effects on TEM activity, but all have higher affinities than previously
      identified inhibitors, which bind the same cryptic pocket but were found, by
      chance, via a computational screen targeting the active site. Site-directed
      mutagenesis of key contact residues predicted by the docking models is used to
      confirm that the compounds bind in the cryptic pocket as intended. Because hit
      compounds are identified from docking against both the crystal structure and
      structures from the MSM, this platform should prove suitable for many proteins,
      particularly targets whose crystal structures lack obvious druggable pockets, and
      for identifying both inhibitory and activating small-molecule modulators.

PMID- 28570709
TI  - Magnitude and correlates of bird collisions at glass bus shelters in an urban
      landscape.
AB  - Wildlife residing in urban landscapes face many human-related threats to their
      survival. For birds, collision with glass on manmade structures has been
      identified as a major hazard, causing hundreds of millions of avian fatalities in
      North America every year. Although research has investigated factors associated
      with bird-glass collision mortality at buildings, no prior studies have focused
      on bird fatalities at glass-walled bus shelters. Our objectives in this study
      were to describe the magnitude of bird-bus shelter collisions in the city of
      Stillwater, Oklahoma and assess potential predictors of collision risk, including
      characteristics of shelters (glass area) and surrounding land cover (e.g.,
      vegetative features). We surveyed for bird carcasses and indirect collision
      evidence at 18 bus shelters over a five-month period. Linear regression and model
      selection results revealed that the amount of glass on shelters and the area of
      lawn within 50 m of shelters were both positively related to fatal bird
      collisions; glass area was also positively associated with observations of
      collision evidence on glass surfaces. After accounting for scavenger removal of
      carcasses, we estimate that a minimum of 34 birds are killed each year between
      May and September by collision with the 36 bus shelters in the city of
      Stillwater. While our study provides an initial look at bird fatalities at bus
      shelters, additional research is needed to generate a large-scale estimate of
      collision mortality and to assess species composition of fatalities at a national
      scale. Designing new bus shelters to include less glass and retrofitting existing
      shelters to increase visibility of glass to birds will likely reduce fatal bird
      collisions at bus shelters and thus reduce the cumulative magnitude of
      anthropogenic impacts to birds in cities.

PMID- 28570707
TI  - De novo characterization of the pine aphid Cinara pinitabulaeformis Zhang et
      Zhang transcriptome and analysis of genes relevant to pesticides.
AB  - The pine aphid Cinara pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang is the main pine pest in
      China, it causes pine needles to produce dense dew (honeydew) which can lead to
      sooty mold (black filamentous saprophytic ascomycetes). Although common chemical
      and physical strategies are used to prevent the disease caused by C.
      pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang, new strategies based on biological and/or
      genetic approaches are promising to control and eradicate the disease. However,
      there is no information about genomics, proteomics or transcriptomics to allow
      the design of new control strategies for this pine aphid. We used next generation
      sequencing technology to sequence the transcriptome of C. pinitabulaeformis Zhang
      et Zhang and built a transcriptome database. We identified 80,259 unigenes
      assigned for Gene Ontology (GO) terms and information for a total of 11,609
      classified unigenes was obtained in the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs). A
      total of 10,806 annotated unigenes were analyzed to identify the represented
      biological pathways, among them 8,845 unigenes matched with 228 KEGG pathways. In
      addition, our data describe propagative viruses, nutrition-related genes,
      detoxification related molecules, olfactory related receptors, stressed-related
      protein, putative insecticide resistance genes and possible insecticide targets.
      Moreover, this study provides valuable information about putative insecticide
      resistance related genes and for the design of new genetic/biological based
      strategies to manage and control C. pinitabulaeformis Zhang et Zhang populations.

PMID- 28570710
TI  - PmRunt regulated by Pm-miR-183 participates in nacre formation possibly through
      promoting the expression of collagen VI-like and Nacrein in pearl oyster Pinctada
      martensii.
AB  - Heterodimeric PEBP2/CBFs are key regulators in diverse biological processes, such
      as haematopoietic stem-cell generation, bone formation and cancers. In this work,
      we cloned runt-like transcriptional factor (designated as PmRunt) and CBF beta
      (designated as PmCBF) gene, which comprise the heterodimeric transcriptional
      factor in Pinctada martensii. PmRunt was identified with an open reading frame
      that encodes 545 amino acids and has typical Runt domain. Phylogenetic analysis
      results speculated that runt-like transcriptional factors (RDs) in vertebrates
      and invertebrates are separated into two branches. In molluscs, PmRunt and other
      RDs are clustered in one of these branches. Direct interaction between PmRunt and
      PmCBF was evidenced by yeast two-hybrid assay results. Gene repression by RNA
      interference decreased the expression level of PmRunt, and subsequent observation
      of the inner surface of the nacre by scanning electron microscopy demonstrated
      disordered growth. The luciferase activities of reporters that contain promoter
      regions of Collagen VI-like (PmColVI) and PmNacrein were enhanced by PmRunt.
      Meanwhile, Pm-miR-183 apparently inhibited the relative luciferase activity of
      reporters containing the 3'-UTR of PmRunt. The expression level of PmRunt was
      repressed after Pm-miR-183 was overexpressed in the mantle tissue. Therefore, we
      proposed that PmRunt could be targeted by Pm-miR-183 and regulate the
      transcription of PmColVI and PmNacrein by increasing their transcriptional
      activity, thereby governing nacre formation.

PMID- 28570711
TI  - IGF1 and IGF2 specificities to the two insulin receptor isoforms are determined
      by insulin receptor amino acid 718.
AB  - METHODS: Alanine scan of insulin receptor (IR)-B exon 11 and site-directed
      mutagenesis of amino acid 718 in human IR-A and IR-B were performed. Ligand
      affinities to wild type and mutated receptors were studied by displacement of
      radioactive insulin in binding assay on secreted soluble midi receptors or
      solubilized semi-purified full length receptors stably expressed in Baby Hamster
      Kidney cells. Phosphorylation of IR in response to insulin, IGF1 and IGF2 was
      measured using ELISA. RESULTS: Insulin, insulin detemir and insulin glargine
      maximally showed two fold differences in affinity for human IR-A and IR-B, but
      IGF1 and IGF2 had up to 10 fold preference for IR-A. Alanine scan of exon 11
      revealed that position 718 is important for low IGF1 affinity to IR-B. Mutational
      analysis of amino acid residue 718 in IR-A and IR-B demonstrated that charge is
      important for IGF1 and IGF2 affinity but not important for insulin affinity. The
      affinity of IGF1 and IGF2 for the mutant IR-A P718K was comparable to the wild
      type IR-B whereas the affinity of IGF1 and IGF2 for the mutant IR-B K718P was
      comparable to the wild type IR-A. Changes in affinity were also reflected in the
      IR activation pattern. CONCLUSION: Mutating position 718 in human IR-B to the
      proline found at position 718 in human IR-A increased IGF1 and IGF2 affinity to a
      level comparable to IR-A and mutating position 718 in IR-A to the lysine found at
      position 718 in IR-B decreased IGF1 and IGF2 affinity to a level comparable to IR
      B, whereas a negatively charged glutamate did not. These changes in the
      affinities were also reflected in the IR phosphorylation pattern, meaning that
      position 718 is important for both affinity and activation of the receptor. It
      should be emphasized that none of the mutations affected insulin affinity,
      indicating that the mutations did not alter the overall receptor structure and
      that the effect is ligand specific.

PMID- 28570712
TI  - Low pH reduces the virulence of black band disease on Orbicella faveolata.
AB  - Black band is a deadly coral disease found worldwide, which may become more
      virulent as oceanic conditions continue to change. To determine the effects of
      climate change and ocean acidification on black band disease virulence, Orbicella
      faveolata corals with black band were exposed to different temperature and pH
      conditions. Results showed a significant decrease in disease progression under
      low pH (7.7) conditions. Low pH also altered the relative abundance of the
      bacterial community of the black band disease consortium. Here, there was a
      significant decrease in Roseofilum, the cyanobacterium that typically dominates
      the black band mat. These results indicate that as oceanic pH decreases so may
      the virulence of a worldwide coral disease.

PMID- 28570714
TI  - Correction: Prediction of Impending Type 1 Diabetes through Automated Dual-Label
      Measurement of Proinsulin:C-Peptide Ratio.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166702.].

PMID- 28570713
TI  - Does time-lapse imaging have favorable results for embryo incubation and
      selection compared with conventional methods in clinical in vitro fertilization?
      A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to undertake a review of available evidence
      assessing whether time-lapse imaging (TLI) has favorable outcomes for embryo
      incubation and selection compared with conventional methods in clinical in vitro
      fertilization (IVF). METHODS: Using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library and
      ClinicalTrial.gov up to February 2017 to search for randomized controlled trials
      (RCTs) comparing TLI versus conventional methods. Both studies randomized women
      and oocytes were included. For studies randomized women, the primary outcomes
      were live birth and ongoing pregnancy, the secondary outcomes were clinical
      pregnancy and miscarriage; for studies randomized oocytes, the primary outcome
      was blastocyst rate, the secondary outcome was good quality embryo on Day 2/3.
      Subgroup analysis was conducted based on different incubation and embryo
      selection between groups. RESULTS: Ten RCTs were included, four randomized
      oocytes and six randomized women. For oocyte-based review, the pool-analysis
      observed no significant difference between TLI group and control group for
      blastocyst rate [relative risk (RR) 1.08, 95% CI 0.94-1.25, I2 = 0%, two studies,
      including 1154 embryos]. The quality of evidence was moderate for all outcomes in
      oocyte-based review. For woman-based review, only one study provided live birth
      rate (RR 1,23, 95% CI 1.06-1.44,I2 N/A, one study, including 842 women), the
      pooled result showed no significant difference in ongoing pregnancy rate (RR
      1.04, 95% CI 0.80-1.36, I2 = 59%, four studies, including 1403 women) between two
      groups. The quality of the evidence was low or very low for all outcomes in woman
      based review. CONCLUSIONS: Currently there is insufficient evidence to support
      that TLI is superior to conventional methods for human embryo incubation and
      selection. In consideration of the limitations and flaws of included studies,
      more well designed RCTs are still in need to comprehensively evaluate the
      effectiveness of clinical TLI use.

PMID- 28570717
TI  - The Columella Retraction Suture: A Powerful Suture Technique.

PMID- 28570715
TI  - Exhaled volatile substances mirror clinical conditions in pediatric chronic
      kidney disease.
AB  - Monitoring metabolic adaptation to chronic kidney disease (CKD) early in the time
      course of the disease is challenging. As a non-invasive technique, analysis of
      exhaled breath profiles is especially attractive in children. Up to now, no
      reports on breath profiles in this patient cohort are available. 116 pediatric
      subjects suffering from mild-to-moderate CKD (n = 48) or having a functional
      renal transplant KTx (n = 8) and healthy controls (n = 60) matched for age and
      sex were investigated. Non-invasive quantitative analysis of exhaled breath
      profiles by means of a highly sensitive online mass spectrometric technique (PTR
      ToF) was used. CKD stage, the underlying renal disease (HUS; glomerular diseases;
      abnormalities of kidney and urinary tract or polycystic kidney disease) and the
      presence of a functional renal transplant were considered as classifiers. Exhaled
      volatile organic compound (VOC) patterns differed between CKD/ KTx patients and
      healthy children. Amounts of ammonia, ethanol, isoprene, pentanal and heptanal
      were higher in patients compared to healthy controls (556, 146, 70.5, 9.3, and
      5.4 ppbV vs. 284, 82.4, 49.6, 5.30, and 2.78 ppbV). Methylamine concentrations
      were lower in the patient group (6.5 vs 10.1 ppbV). These concentration
      differences were most pronounced in HUS and kidney transplanted patients. When
      patients were grouped with respect to degree of renal failure these differences
      could still be detected. Ammonia accumulated already in CKD stage 1, whereas
      alterations of isoprene (linked to cholesterol metabolism), pentanal and heptanal
      (linked to oxidative stress) concentrations were detectable in the breath of
      patients with CKD stage 2 to 4. Only weak associations between serum creatinine
      and exhaled VOCs were noted. Non-invasive breath testing may help to understand
      basic mechanisms and metabolic adaptation accompanying progression of CKD. Our
      results support the current notion that metabolic adaptation occurs early during
      the time course of CKD.

PMID- 28570716
TI  - Host lipid droplets: An important source of lipids salvaged by the intracellular
      parasite Toxoplasma gondii.
AB  - Toxoplasma is an obligate intracellular parasite that replicates in mammalian
      cells within a parasitophorous vacuole (PV) that does not fuse with any host
      organelles. One mechanism developed by the parasite for nutrient acquisition is
      the attraction of host organelles to the PV. Here, we examined the exploitation
      of host lipid droplets (LD), ubiquitous fat storage organelles, by Toxoplasma. We
      show that Toxoplasma replication is reduced in host cells that are depleted of
      LD, or impaired in TAG lipolysis or fatty acid catabolism. In infected cells, the
      number of host LD and the expression of host LD-associated genes (ADRP, DGAT2),
      progressively increase until the onset of parasite replication. Throughout
      infection, the PV are surrounded by host LD. Toxoplasma is capable of accessing
      lipids stored in host LD and incorporates these lipids into its own membranes and
      LD. Exogenous addition of oleic acid stimulates LD biogenesis in the host cell
      and results in the overaccumulation of neutral lipids in very large LD inside the
      parasite. To access LD-derived lipids, Toxoplasma intercepts and internalizes
      within the PV host LD, some of which remaining associated with Rab7, which become
      wrapped by an intravacuolar network of membranes (IVN). Mutant parasites impaired
      in IVN formation display diminished capacity of lipid uptake from host LD.
      Moreover, parasites lacking an IVN-localized phospholipase A2 are less proficient
      in salvaging lipids from host LD in the PV, suggesting a major contribution of
      the IVN for host LD processing in the PV and, thus lipid content release.
      Interestingly, gavage of parasites with lipids unveils, for the first time, the
      presence in Toxoplasma of endocytic-like structures containing lipidic material
      originating from the PV lumen. This study highlights the reliance of Toxoplasma
      on host LD for its intracellular development and the parasite's capability in
      scavenging neutral lipids from host LD.

PMID- 28570719
TI  - Association Between Quality of Care for Breast Cancer and Health Insurance
      Exchange Coverage: An Analysis of Use of Radiation Therapy After Breast
      Conserving Surgery.

PMID- 28570720
TI  - Conventional Radiation Therapy Compared With Stereotactic Conformal Therapy-A
      Rare and Laudable Randomized Trial.

PMID- 28570718
TI  - Free Flap Reconstruction Monitoring Techniques and Frequency in the Era of
      Restricted Resident Work Hours.
AB  - Importance: Free flap reconstruction of the head and neck is routinely performed
      with success rates around 94% to 99% at most institutions. Despite experience and
      meticulous technique, there is a small but recognized risk of partial or total
      flap loss in the postoperative setting. Historically, most microvascular surgeons
      involve resident house staff in flap monitoring protocols, and programs relied
      heavily on in-house resident physicians to assure timely intervention for
      compromised flaps. In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
      Education mandated the reduction in the hours a resident could work within a
      given week. At many institutions this new era of restricted resident duty hours
      reshaped the protocols used for flap monitoring to adapt to a system with reduced
      resident labor. Objectives: To characterize various techniques and frequencies of
      free flap monitoring by nurses and resident physicians; and to determine if
      adapted resident monitoring frequency is associated with flap compromise and
      outcome. Design, Setting, and Participants: This multi-institutional
      retrospective review included patients undergoing free flap reconstruction to the
      head and/or neck between January 2005 and January 2015. Consecutive patients were
      included from different academic institutions or tertiary referral centers to
      reflect evolving practices. Main Outcomes and Measures: Technique, frequency, and
      personnel for flap monitoring; flap complications; and flap success. Results:
      Overall, 1085 patients (343 women [32%] and 742 men [78%]) from 9 institutions
      were included. Most patients were placed in the intensive care unit
      postoperatively (n = 790 [73%]), while the remaining were placed in intermediate
      care (n = 201 [19%]) or in the surgical ward (n = 94 [7%]). Nurses monitored
      flaps every hour (q1h) for all patients. Frequency of resident monitoring varied,
      with 635 patients monitored every 4 hours (q4h), 146 monitored every 8 hours
      (q8h), and 304 monitored every 12 hours (q12h). Monitoring techniques included
      physical examination (n = 949 [87%]), handheld external Doppler sonography (n =
      739 [68%]), implanted Doppler sonography (n = 333 [31%]), and needle stick (n =
      349 [32%]); 105 patients (10%) demonstrated flap compromise, prompting return to
      the operating room in 96 patients. Of these 96 patients, 46 had complete flap
      salvage, 22 had partial loss, and 37 had complete loss. The frequency of resident
      flap checks did not affect the total flap loss rate (q4h, 25 patients [4%]; q8h,
      8 patients [6%]; and q12h, 8 patients [3%]). Flap salvage rates for compromised
      flaps were not statistically different. Conclusions and Relevance: Academic
      centers rely primarily on q1h flap checks by intensive care unit nurses using
      physical examination and Doppler sonography. Reduced resident monitoring
      frequency did not alter flap salvage nor flap outcome. These findings suggest
      that institutions may successfully monitor free flaps with decreased resident
      burden.

PMID- 28570721
TI  - Assumptions of Quality Medicine: The Role of Uncertainty.

PMID- 28570722
TI  - Use of Corneal Confocal Microscopy to Detect Corneal Nerve Loss and Increased
      Dendritic Cells in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - Importance: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by demyelination, axonal
      degeneration, and inflammation. Corneal confocal microscopy has been used to
      identify axonal degeneration in several peripheral neuropathies. Objective: To
      assess corneal subbasal nerve plexus morphologic features, corneal dendritic cell
      (DC) density, and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in
      patients with MS. Design, Setting, and Participants: This single-center, cross
      sectional comparative study was conducted at a tertiary referral university
      hospital between May 27, 2016, and January 30, 2017. Fifty-seven consecutive
      patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 30 healthy, age-matched control
      participants were enrolled in the study. Corneal subbasal nerve plexus measures
      and DC density were quantified in images acquired with the laser scanning in vivo
      corneal confocal microscope, and peripapillary RNFL thickness was measured with
      spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Main Outcomes and Measures: Corneal
      nerve fiber density, nerve branch density, nerve fiber length, DC density,
      peripapillary RNFL thickness, and association with the severity of neurologic
      disability as assessed by the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (score
      range, 0-10; higher scores indicate greater disability) and Multiple Sclerosis
      Severity Score (score range, 0.01-9.99; higher scores indicate greater severity).
      Results: Of the 57 participants with MS, 42 (74%) were female and the mean (SD)
      age was 35.4 (8.9) years; of the 30 healthy controls, 19 (63%) were female and
      the mean (SD) age was 34.8 (10.2) years. Corneal nerve fiber density (mean [SE]
      difference, -6.78 [2.14] fibers/mm2; 95% CI, -11.04 to -2.52; P = .002), nerve
      branch density (mean [SE] difference, -17.94 [5.45] branches/mm2; 95% CI, -28.77
      to -7.10; P = .001), nerve fiber length (mean [SE] difference, -3.03 [0.89]
      mm/mm2; 95% CI, -4.81 to -1.25; P = .001), and the mean peripapillary RNFL
      thickness (mean [SE] difference, -17.06 [3.14] MUm; 95% CI, -23.29 to -10.82; P <
      .001) were reduced in patients with MS compared with healthy controls. The DC
      density was increased (median [interquartile range], 27.7 [12.4-66.8] vs 17.3 [0
      28.2] cells/mm2; P = .03), independent of a patient's history of optic neuritis.
      Nerve fiber density and RNFL thickness showed inverse associations with the
      Expanded Disability Status Scale (rho = -0.295; P = .03 for nerve fiber density
      and rho = -0.374; P = .004 for RNFL thickness) and the Multiple Sclerosis
      Severity Score (R = -0.354; P = .007 for nerve fiber density and R = -0.283; P =
      .03 for RNFL thickness), whereas other study measures did not. Conclusions and
      Relevance: These data suggest that corneal confocal microscopy demonstrates
      axonal loss and increased DC density in patients with MS. Additional longitudinal
      studies are needed to confirm the use of corneal confocal microscopy as an
      imaging biomarker in patients with MS.

PMID- 28570724
TI  - Opsoclonus Recorded by a Smartphone.

PMID- 28570723
TI  - Oral Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration:
      A Phase 1 Dose-Escalation Study.
AB  - Importance: An oral treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration
      would be less burdensome than repeated intravitreous injections. X-82 is an oral
      tyrosine kinase inhibitor active against vascular endothelial growth factor
      (VEGF) and platelet-derived growth factor. Objective: To undertake safety testing
      of oral X-82 administered for the treatment of neovascular AMD. Design, Setting,
      and Participants: Phase 1, open-label, uncontrolled, dose-escalation study at 5
      US retinal clinics between November 2012 and March 2015 (Retina-Vitreous
      Associates Medical Group, Beverly Hills, California; Blanton Eye Institute,
      Houston Methodist Hospital, Retina Consultants of Houston, Houston, Texas; New
      England Retina Associates, Guilford, Connecticut; Elman Retina Group, Baltimore,
      Maryland; and Retina Research Institute of Texas, Abilene). Thirty-five
      participants with neovascular age-related macular degeneration, 7 of whom were
      treatment naive. Interventions: Participants received oral X-82 for 24 weeks at
      50 mg alternate days (n = 3), 50 mg daily (n = 8), 100 mg alternate days (n = 4),
      100 mg daily (n = 10), 200 mg daily (n = 7), and 300 mg daily (n = 3), with
      intravitreous anti-VEGF therapy using predefined retreatment criteria. Every 4
      weeks, participants underwent best-corrected visual acuity measurement, fundus
      examination, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Main Outcomes and
      Measures: The main outcome was adverse events. Other outcomes included visual
      acuity, central subfield retinal thickness, and number of anti-VEGF injections.
      Results: Of the 35 participants, the mean age was 76.8 years, 16 were men and 19
      were women, and 33 were white and 2 were nonwhite. Of 25 participants (71%) who
      completed the 24 weeks of X-82 treatment, all except 1 maintained or improved
      their visual acuity (mean [SD], +3.8 [9.6] letters). Fifteen participants (60%)
      required no anti-VEGF injections (mean, 0.68). Mean [SD] central subfield
      thickness reduced by -50 [97] MUm, with 8 participants (all receiving at least
      100 mg daily) demonstrating sustained reductions despite no anti-VEGF injections.
      The most common adverse events attributed to X-82 were diarrhea (n = 6), nausea
      (n = 5), fatigue (n = 5), and transaminase elevation (n = 4). A dose relationship
      to the transaminase elevations was not identified; all normalized when X-82 was
      discontinued. All but 1 were asymptomatic. Ten participants withdrew consent or
      discontinued prematurely, 6 owing to adverse events attributed to X-82 including
      leg cramps (n = 2), elevated alanine aminotransferase (n = 2), diarrhea (n = 1),
      and nausea/anorexia (n = 1). Conclusions and Relevance: X-82 can be associated
      with reversible, elevated liver enzymes; hence, liver function testing is needed
      to identify those unsuited to treatment. Although 17% of participants
      discontinued X-82 owing to AEs, those who completed the study had lower than
      expected anti-VEGF injection rates. Further studies appear justified, with a
      phase 2 randomized clinical study under way.

PMID- 28570725
TI  - An HIV-Positive Child With a Gingival Mass.

PMID- 28570727
TI  - Dose Escalation Optimization in Patients With Locally Advanced Non-Small-Cell
      Lung Cancer: The Right Dose, in the Right Location, to the Right Patient, at the
      Right Time.

PMID- 28570726
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of Early Division of the Forehead Flap Pedicle.
AB  - Importance: The paramedian forehead flap is considered the gold standard
      procedure to optimally reconstruct major defects of the nose, but this procedure
      generally requires 2 stages, where the flap pedicle is divided 3 weeks following
      the initial surgery to ensure adequate revascularization of the flap from the
      surrounding recipient tissue bed, which can cost a patient time out of work or
      away from normal social habits. It has previously been shown that the pedicle may
      be safely divided after 2 weeks in select patients where revascularization from
      the recipient bed was confirmed using intraoperative laser fluorescence
      angiography to potentially save the patient time and money. Objective: To
      demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of takedown of the paramedian forehead flap
      pedicle after 2 weeks using angiography with indocyanine green (ICG). Design,
      Setting, and Participants: Retrospective cohort study of all patients who
      underwent 2-week division of the forehead flap after nasal reconstruction.
      Patient, tumor, defect, and outcomes data were collected. Cost-minimization
      analysis was performed by comparing the overall costs of 2-week takedown with
      angiography to a hypothetical patient undergoing 3-week takedown without
      angiography. Intervention: Two-week division of the forehead flap after nasal
      reconstruction. Main Outcomes and Measures: Cost-minimization analysis performed
      by calculating the total variable costs for a patient in our cohort vs costs to a
      theoretical patient for whom angiography was not performed and the pedicle was
      divided at the 3-week mark. Results: A total of 22 patients were included (mean
      [SD] age, 70.3 [10.0] years; 8 women [36.4%] and 14 men [63.6%]). The selection
      criteria for 2-week division of the pedicle are a wound bed with at least 50%
      vascularized tissue present, partial-thickness defects, and absence of nicotine
      use. All were divided at the 2-week mark with no instances of flap necrosis. One
      patient had a squamous eccrine carcinoma histology before reconstruction, all
      other patients had basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.
      Cost-minimization analysis showed that the use of angiography with ICG results in
      cost savings of $177 per patient on average. Conclusions and Relevance: Two-week
      takedown of select paramedian forehead flap patients can be performed safely with
      verification using angiography with ICG. Although this technology inherently adds
      cost, it is cost-effective, saving a total of $177 per patient. Level of
      Evidence: NA.

PMID- 28570728
TI  - No Shortcuts on the Long Road to Evidence-Based Genomic Medicine.

PMID- 28570729
TI  - Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

PMID- 28570730
TI  - Efficacy of Stereotactic Conformal Radiotherapy vs Conventional Radiotherapy on
      Benign and Low-Grade Brain Tumors: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Evidence for application of stereotactic and other conformal
      radiotherapy techniques in treating brain tumors is largely based on data derived
      from dosimetric, retrospective, or small prospective studies. Therefore, we
      conducted a randomized clinical trial of stereotactic conformal radiotherapy
      (SCRT) compared with conventional radiotherapy (ConvRT) evaluating clinically
      meaningful end points. Objective: To compare neurocognitive and endocrine
      functional outcomes and survival at 5 years in young patients with residual
      and/or progressive benign or low-grade brain tumors treated with SCRT and ConvRT
      techniques. Design, Setting, and Participants: This phase 3 randomized clinical
      trial enrolled 200 young patients (ages 3-25 years) with residual or progressive
      benign or low-grade brain tumors at a single center between April 2001 to March
      2012. Patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either SCRT (n = 104) or ConvRT
      (n = 96) arms. Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to either high
      precision SCRT or ConvRT to a dose of 54 Gy in 30 fractions over 6 weeks. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: Detailed neuropsychological and neuroendocrine assessments
      were performed at preradiotherapy baseline, at 6 months, and annually thereafter
      until 5 years on longitudinal follow-up. Change in these functional parameters
      was compared between the 2 arms as the primary end point and overall survival
      (OS) as the secondary end point. Results: In total, 200 young patients (median
      [interquartile range] age, 13 [9-17] years; 133 males and 67 females) were
      enrolled. Mean full-scale or global intelligence quotient (IQ) and performance IQ
      scores over a period of 5 years were significantly superior in patients treated
      with SCRT compared with those treated with ConvRT (difference in slope = 1.48; P
      = .04 vs difference in slope = 1.64; P = .046, respectively). Cumulative
      incidence of developing new neuroendocrine dysfunction at 5 years was
      significantly lower in patients treated with SCRT compared with ConvRT (31% vs
      51%; P = .01) while developing a new neuroendocrine axis dysfunction in patients
      with preexisting dysfunction in at least 1 axis at baseline was also
      significantly lower in the SCRT arm compared with the ConvRT arm (29% vs 52%; P =
      .02). Five-year OS in SCRT and ConvRT arms was 86% and 91%, respectively (P =
      .54). Conclusions and Relevance: In young patients with residual and/or
      progressive benign or low-grade brain tumors requiring radiotherapy for long-term
      tumor control, SCRT compared with ConvRT achieves superior neurocognitive and
      neuroendocrine functional outcomes over 5 years without compromising survival.
      Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00517959.

PMID- 28570732
TI  - Interventions to Improve Oral Chemotherapy Safety and Quality: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - Importance: With the growing use of oral chemotherapy, there is an urgent need to
      develop safe and effective systems to administer and manage these agents. A
      comprehensive synthesis of literature on oral chemotherapy care delivery programs
      to which clinicians can look for best practices is lacking. Objective: To
      summarize the peer-reviewed and gray literature on interventions to improve oral
      chemotherapy care delivery toward describing best practices and identifying
      current gaps. Evidence Review: Using search terms pertaining to the concepts of
      oral chemotherapy, cancer, and interventions and outcomes, we performed a
      systematic review of PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL from January 1995 to May 24,
      2016, to identify oral chemotherapy intervention programs. We searched the gray
      literature from January 1995 through February 2016 and contacted gray literature
      authors for further information. Four physician abstractors reviewed the titles,
      abstracts, and articles. Quality of the articles was assessed using SQUIRE2
      guidelines. Interventions were evaluated in the categories of prescribing,
      preparation/dispensing, education, administration, monitoring, and
      storage/disposal. The population of interest included all ages and was limited to
      traditional cytotoxic and targeted anticancer oral agents. Findings: From 7984
      abstracts identified in the peer-reviewed literature search, 16 full-text
      articles met inclusion criteria representing 3612 patients. Interventions focused
      on prescribing (n = 1), preparation/dispensing (n = 2), education (n = 11),
      administration (n = 5), monitoring (n = 14), and storage/disposal (n = 1). In the
      10 articles with adherence as the primary outcome, 4 evaluation methods were
      used. Most improvements were seen in toxic effects/safety compared with
      adherence. Of the 7 interventions with statistically significant improvement in
      the primary outcome, 3 nursing phone calls to contact patients within the first
      few days after treatment initiation, 2 of them with standardized toxic effects
      management protocols. Interventions using technology to increase touch points
      between care teams and patients (including video directly observed therapy,
      automated voice response, and text messages) were not effective. Conclusions and
      Relevance: A framework for the oral chemotherapy management process with
      standardized outcome definitions is needed to ensure constructive research.
      Existing data suggest that a monitoring program should include personal contact
      with patients within the first weeks of treatment. Whether such contact can be
      enhanced by technology is uncertain.

PMID- 28570731
TI  - Consensus on Diagnostic Criteria of Idiopathic Orbital Inflammation Using a
      Modified Delphi Approach.
AB  - Importance: Current practice to diagnose idiopathic orbital inflammation (IOI) is
      inconsistent, leading to frequent misdiagnosis of other orbital entities,
      including cancer. By specifying criteria, diagnosis of orbital inflammation will
      be improved. Objective: To define a set of criteria specific for the diagnosis of
      IOI. Design, Setting, and Participants: A 3-round modified Delphi process with an
      expert panel was conducted from June 8, 2015, to January 25, 2016. Fifty-three
      orbital scientist experts, identified through membership in the Orbital Society,
      were invited to participate in on online survey and they scored, using 5-point
      Likert scales, items that are eligible as diagnostic criteria from the literature
      and from personal experience. The items were clustered around the anatomic
      subtypes of IOI: idiopathic dacryoadenitis and idiopathic orbital fat
      inflammation (2 nonmyositic IOIs), and idiopathic orbital myositis (myositic
      IOI). Items with dissensus were rescored in the second round, and all items with
      consensus (median, >=4; interquartile range, <=1) were ranked by importance in
      the third round. Main Outcomes and Measures: Consensus on items to be included in
      the criteria. Results: Of the 53 experts invited to participate, a multinational
      panel of 35 (66%) individuals with a mean (SD) years of experience of 31 (11)
      years were included. Consensus was achieved on 7 of 14 clinical and radiologic
      items and 5 of 7 pathologic items related to diagnosis of nonmyositic IOI, and 11
      of 14 clinical and radiologic items and 1 of 5 pathologic items for myositic IOI.
      There was agreement among panelists to focus on surgical tissue biopsy results in
      the diagnosis of nonmyositic IOI and on a trial with systemic corticosteroids in
      myositic IOI. Panelists agreed that a maximum number of 30 IgG4-positive plasma
      cells per high-power field in the orbital tissue is compatible with the diagnosis
      of IOI. Conclusions and Relevance: An international panel of experts endorsed
      consensus diagnostic criteria of IOI. These criteria define a level of exclusion
      suggested for diagnosis and include tissue biopsy for lesions not confined to the
      extraocular muscles. This consensus is a step toward developing guidelines for
      the management of IOI, which needs to be followed by validation studies of the
      criteria.

PMID- 28570733
TI  - Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial of Aflibercept vs Panretinal
      Photocoagulation for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy: Is It Time to Retire
      Your Laser?

PMID- 28570734
TI  - Deconstructing Clinical Trials-Help From Oncology Value Frameworks.

PMID- 28570736
TI  - Preclinical PET Study of Intravitreal Injections.
AB  - Purpose: This work aimed at describing the time course of vitreous clearance
      through the use of positron emission tomography (PET) as a noninvasive tool for
      pharmacokinetic studies of intravitreal injection. Methods: The pharmacokinetic
      profile of intravitreal injections of molecules labeled with 18Fluorine (18F) was
      evaluated in adult Sprague Dawley rats by using a dedicated small-animal
      PET/computed tomography scanner. Different conditions were studied: three
      molecules radiolabeled with 18F (18F-FDG, 18F-NaF, and 18F-Choline), three
      volumes of intravitreal injections (7, 4, and 2 MUL), and absence or presence of
      eye inflammation (uveitis). Results: Our results showed that there are
      significant pharmacokinetic differences among the radiolabeled molecules studied
      but not among the injected volumes. The presence or absence of uveitis was an
      important factor in vitreous clearance, since the elimination of the drug was
      clearly increased when this condition is present. Conclusions: Intravitreal
      pharmacokinetic studies based on the use of dedicated PET imaging can be of
      potential interest as noninvasive tools in ophthalmic drug development in small
      animals.

PMID- 28570735
TI  - Accuracy of Billing Codes Used in the Therapeutic Care of Diabetic Retinopathy.
AB  - Importance: Insurance billing claim databases represent a growing field of
      scientific inquiry within ophthalmology. Validating the accuracy of billing claim
      codes used during the care of diabetic retinopathy is a necessary precursor to
      fully understanding the underlying data and subsequent results of these types of
      studies. Objective: To determine the accuracy of diagnostic, procedural, and
      therapeutic billing codes used in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: This retrospective medical record review was conducted
      at 3 clinical practices (1 academic and 2 private). Insured patients with
      diabetic retinopathy were seen by the practices between 2011 and 2013. Each
      patient then had every visit for 2 years reviewed twice, once for billing data
      and the second for data from the medical record. Data were collected and analyzed
      from October 2015 to July 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures: The positive
      predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) for each code of
      interest. Sensitivity and specificity were secondary outcomes. Results: A total
      of 146 patients (mean [SD] age, 60.3 [12.5] years) from 11 physicians had 1072
      encounters reviewed over 2 calendar years. Among the included patients, 49.3%
      were female (n = 72), 48.6% were white (n = 71), 37.0% were black (n = 54), and
      18.5% had type 1 diabetes and a mean (SD) hemoglobin A1C level of 7.7% (1.8) (n =
      27). Nearly all codes of interest that were used frequently also had a high PPV
      (range, 89.5%-100%) and NPV (88.6%-100%) including billing codes for intravitreal
      injection, focal laser, panretinal photocoagulation, laterality of procedure,
      ranibizumab, bevacizumab, fundus photographs, fluorescein angiography, and
      optical coherence tomography. Codes that were used infrequently (<20 instances)
      but still had a high PPV (all 100%) and NPV (99.7%-100%) were codes for
      aflibercept, triamcinolone, and the dexamethasone implant. Only the codes for
      infrequently used B-scan ultrasonography (PPV, 69.6%) and subtenon injection
      (PPV, 100%; NPV, 99.7%, but sensitivity of only 40%) were found to be of
      questionable accuracy. Other than subtenon injection (40%), all codes were also
      found to have a high sensitivity (range, 87.6%-100%) and a high specificity
      (range, 97.2%-100%). Conclusions and Relevance: These data suggest diagnostic,
      procedure, and therapeutic codes derived from insurance billing claims accurately
      reflect the medical record for patients with diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28570737
TI  - Subconjunctival Delivery of p75NTR Antagonists Reduces the Inflammatory,
      Vascular, and Neurodegenerative Pathologies of Diabetic Retinopathy.
AB  - Purpose: The p75NTR is a novel therapeutic target validated in a streptozotocin
      mouse model of diabetic retinopathy. Intravitreal (IVT) injection of small
      molecule p75NTR antagonist THX-B was therapeutic and resolved the inflammatory,
      vascular, and neurodegenerative phases of the retinal pathology. To simplify
      clinical translation, we sought a superior drug delivery method that circumvents
      risks associated with IVT injections. Methods: We compared the pharmacokinetics
      of a single 40 MUg subconjunctival (SCJ) depot to the reported effective 5 MUg
      IVT injections of THX-B. We quantified therapeutic efficacy, with endpoints of
      inflammation, edema, and neuronal death. Results: The subconjunctival depot
      affords retinal exposure equal to IVT injection, without resulting in detectable
      drug in circulation. At week 2 of diabetic retinopathy, the SCJ depot provided
      therapeutic efficacy similar to IVT injections, with reduced inflammation,
      reduced edema, reduced neuronal death, and a long-lasting protection of the
      retinal structure. Conclusions: Subconjunctival injections are a safe and
      effective route for retinal delivery of p75NTR antagonists. The subconjunctival
      route offers an advantageous, less-invasive, more compliant, and nonsystemic
      method to deliver p75NTR antagonists for the treatment of retinal diseases.

PMID- 28570738
TI  - Cellular Senescence Is Associated With Human Retinal Microaneurysm Formation
      During Aging.
AB  - Purpose: Microaneurysms are present in healthy old-age human retinas. However, to
      date, no age-related pathogenic mechanism has been implicated in their formation.
      Here, cellular senescence, a hallmark of aging and several age-related diseases,
      has been analyzed in the old-age human retina and in the retina of a progeric
      mouse. Methods: Retinas were obtained from 17 nondiabetic donors and from mice
      deficient in Bmi1. Cellular senescence was analyzed by immunohistochemistry,
      senescent-associated beta-galactosidase activity assay, Sudan black B staining,
      conventional transmission electron microscopy, and immunoelectronmicroscopy.
      Results: Neurons, but not neuroglia, and blood vessels undergo cellular
      senescence in the old-age human retina. The canonical senescence markers p16,
      p53, and p21 were up-regulated and coexisted with apoptosis in old-age human
      microaneurysms. Senescent endothelial cells were discontinuously covered by
      fibronectin, and p16 colocalized with the beta1 subunit of fibronectin receptor
      alpha5beta1 integrin under the endothelial cellular membrane, suggesting anoikis
      as a mechanism involved in endothelial cell apoptosis. In a progeric mouse model
      deficient in Bmi1, where p21 was overexpressed, the retinal blood vessels
      displayed an aging phenotype characterized by enlarged caveolae and lipofuscin
      accumulation. Although mouse retina is not prone to develop microaneurysms, Bmi1
      deficient mice presented abundant retinal microaneurysms. Conclusions: Together,
      these results uncover cellular senescence as a player during the formation of
      microaneurysms in old-age human retinas.

PMID- 28570740
TI  - Chorioretinal Lesions and Symptoms of Elevated Intracranial Pressure.

PMID- 28570739
TI  - Exploring the spatio-temporal neural basis of face learning.
AB  - Humans are experts at face individuation. Although previous work has identified a
      network of face-sensitive regions and some of the temporal signatures of face
      processing, as yet, we do not have a clear understanding of how such face
      sensitive regions support learning at different time points. To study the joint
      spatio-temporal neural basis of face learning, we trained subjects to categorize
      two groups of novel faces and recorded their neural responses using
      magnetoencephalography (MEG) throughout learning. A regression analysis of neural
      responses in face-sensitive regions against behavioral learning curves revealed
      significant correlations with learning in the majority of the face-sensitive
      regions in the face network, mostly between 150-250 ms, but also after 300 ms.
      However, the effect was smaller in nonventral regions (within the superior
      temporal areas and prefrontal cortex) than that in the ventral regions (within
      the inferior occipital gyri (IOG), midfusiform gyri (mFUS) and anterior temporal
      lobes). A multivariate discriminant analysis also revealed that IOG and mFUS,
      which showed strong correlation effects with learning, exhibited significant
      discriminability between the two face categories at different time points both
      between 150-250 ms and after 300 ms. In contrast, the nonventral face-sensitive
      regions, where correlation effects with learning were smaller, did exhibit some
      significant discriminability, but mainly after 300 ms. In sum, our findings
      indicate that early and recurring temporal components arising from ventral face
      sensitive regions are critically involved in learning new faces.

PMID- 28570741
TI  - Association of Gender With Financial Relationships Between Industry and Academic
      Otolaryngologists.
AB  - Importance: Gender disparities continue to exist in the medical profession,
      including potential disparities in industry-supported financial contributions.
      Although there are potential drawbacks to industry relationships, such industry
      ties have the potential to promote scholarly discourse and increase understanding
      and accessibility of novel technologies and drugs. Objectives: To evaluate
      whether gender disparities exist in relationships between pharmaceutical and/or
      medical device industries and academic otolaryngologists. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: An analysis of bibliometric data and industry funding of academic
      otolaryngologists. Main Outcomes and Measures: Industry payments as reported
      within the CMS Open Payment Database. Methods: Online faculty listings were used
      to determine academic rank, fellowship training, and gender of full-time faculty
      otolaryngologists in the 100 civilian training programs in the United States.
      Industry contributions to these individuals were evaluated using the CMS Open
      Payment Database, which was created by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act in
      response to increasing public and regulatory interest in industry relationships
      and aimed to increase the transparency of such relationships. The Scopus database
      was used to determine bibliometric indices and publication experience (in years)
      for all academic otolaryngologists. Results: Of 1514 academic otolaryngologists
      included in this analysis, 1202 (79.4%) were men and 312 (20.6%) were women. In
      2014, industry contributed a total of $4.9 million to academic otolaryngologists.
      $4.3 million (88.5%) of that went to men, in a population in which 79.4% are
      male. Male otolaryngologists received greater median contributions than did
      female otolaryngologists (median [interquartile range (IQR)], $211 [$86-$1245] vs
      $133 [$51-$316]). Median contributions were greater to men than women at
      assistant and associate professor academic ranks (median [IQR], $168 [$77-$492]
      vs $114 [$55-$290] and $240 [$87-$1314] vs $166 [$58-$328], respectively).
      Overall, a greater proportion of men received industry contributions than women
      (68.0% vs 56.1%,). By subspecialty, men had greater median contribution levels
      among otologists and rhinologists (median [IQR], $609 [$166-$6015] vs $153 [$56
      $336] and $1134 [$286-$5276] vs $425 [$188-$721], respectively). Conclusions and
      Relevance: A greater proportion of male vs female academic otolaryngologists
      receive contributions from industry. These differences persist after controlling
      for academic rank and experience. The gender disparities we have identified may
      be owing to men publishing earlier in their careers, with women often surpassing
      men later in their academic lives, or as a result of previously described gender
      disparities in scholarly impact and academic advancement.

PMID- 28570743
TI  - A life course perspective on mental health problems, employment, and work
      outcomes.
AB  - Objectives Little is known about how employment and work outcomes among young
      adults are influenced by their life-course history of mental health problems.
      Therefore, the aims of this study were to (i) identify trajectories of mental
      health problems from childhood to young adulthood and (ii) investigate the
      association between these trajectories and employment and work outcomes among
      young adults. Methods Data were used from 360 participants of the Tracking
      Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a Dutch prospective cohort study,
      with 12-year follow-up. Trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems
      were identified with latent class growth models. Employment conditions and work
      outcomes (ie, psychosocial work characteristics) were measured at age 22. We
      assessed the association between mental health trajectories and employment
      conditions and work outcomes. Results Four trajectories of mental health problems
      were identified: high-stable, decreasing, moderate-stable and low-stable. Young
      adults with high-stable trajectories of externalizing problems worked over six
      hours more [B=6.71, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.82-10.6] and had a higher
      income [odds ratio (OR) 0.33, 95% CI 0.15-0.71], than young adults with low
      stable trajectories. Young adults with high-stable trajectories of internalizing
      problems worked six hours less per week (B=-6.07, 95% CI -10.1- -2.05) and
      reported lower income (OR 3.44, 95% CI 1.53-7.74) and poorer psychosocial work
      characteristics, compared to young adults with low-stable trajectories.
      Conclusions Among young adults who had a paid job at the age of 22 (and were not
      a student or unemployed), those with a history of internalizing problems are less
      likely to transition successfully into the labor market, compared to other young
      adults.

PMID- 28570744
TI  - In response to: "Is testis sparing surgery an acceptable option for small
      testicular malignant tumor with normal contralateral testicle?"

PMID- 28570742
TI  - Effect of Midtreatment PET/CT-Adapted Radiation Therapy With Concurrent
      Chemotherapy in Patients With Locally Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A
      Phase 2 Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Our previous studies demonstrated that tumors significantly decrease
      in size and metabolic activity after delivery of 45 Gy of fractionated
      radiatiotherapy (RT), and that metabolic shrinkage is greater than anatomic
      shrinkage. This study aimed to determine whether 18F-fludeoxyglucose-positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) acquired during the course
      of treatment provides an opportunity to deliver higher-dose radiation to the more
      aggressive areas of the tumor to improve local tumor control without increasing
      RT-induced lung toxicity (RILT), and possibly improve survival. Objective: To
      determine whether adaptive RT can target high-dose radiation to the FDG-avid
      tumor on midtreatment FDG-PET to improve local tumor control of locally advanced
      non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Design, Setting, and Participants: A phase 2
      clinical trial conducted at 2 academic medical centers with 42 patients who had
      inoperable or unresectable stage II to stage III NSCLC enrolled from November
      2008, to May 2012. Patients with poor performance, more than 10% weight loss,
      poor lung function, and/or oxygen dependence were included, providing that the
      patients could tolerate the procedures of PET scanning and RT. Intervention:
      Conformal RT was individualized to a fixed risk of RILT (grade >2) and adaptively
      escalated to the residual tumor defined on midtreatment FDG-PET up to a total
      dose of 86 Gy in 30 daily fractions. Medically fit patients received concurrent
      weekly carboplatin plus paclitaxel followed by 3 cycles of consolidation. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was local tumor control. The trial
      was designed to achieve a 20% improvement in 2-year control from 34% of our prior
      clinical trial experience with 63 to 69 Gy in a similar patient population.
      Results: The trial reached its accrual goal of 42 patients: median age, 63 years
      (range, 45-83 years); male, 28 (67%); smoker or former smoker, 39 (93%); stage
      III, 38 (90%). Median tumor dose delivered was 83 Gy (range, 63-86 Gy) in 30
      daily fractions. Median follow-up for surviving patients was 47 months. The 2
      year rates of infield and overall local regional tumor controls (ie, including
      isolated nodal failure) were 82% (95% CI, 62%-92%) and 62% (95% CI, 43%-77%),
      respectively. Median overall survival was 25 months (95% CI, 12-32 months). The 2
      year and 5-year overall survival rates were 52% (95% CI, 36%-66%) and 30% (95%
      CI, 16%-45%), respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Adapting RT-escalated
      radiation dose to the FDG-avid tumor detected by midtreatment PET provided a
      favorable local-regional tumor control. The RTOG 1106 trial is an ongoing
      clinical trial to validate this finding in a randomized fashion. Trial
      Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01190527.

PMID- 28570745
TI  - Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis versus pars plana vitrectomy for vitreous floaters.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vitreous is the clear jelly of the eye and contains fine strands
      of proteins. Throughout life the composition of this vitreous changes, which
      causes the protein strands in it to bundle together and scatter light before it
      reaches the retina. Individuals perceive the shadows cast by these protein
      bundles as 'floaters'. Some people are so bothered by floaters that treatment is
      required to control their symptoms. Two major interventions for floaters include
      Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis and vitrectomy. Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis involves using
      laser energy to fragment the vitreous opacities via a non-invasive approach.
      Vitrectomy involves the surgical replacement of the patient's vitreous (including
      the symptomatic vitreous floaters) with an inert and translucent balanced salt
      solution, through small openings in the pars plana. OBJECTIVES: To compare the
      effectiveness and safety of Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis to pars plana vitrectomy for
      symptomatic vitreous floaters. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central
      Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and
      Vision Trials Register) (2016, Issue 12), MEDLINE Ovid (1946 to 17 January 2017),
      Embase Ovid (1947 to 17 January 2017), LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean
      Health Sciences Literature Database) (1982 to 17 January 2017), the ISRCTN
      registry (www.isrctn.com/editAdvancedSearch); searched 17 January 2017,
      ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov); searched 17 January 2017 and the
      World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
      (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en); searched 17 January 2017. We did not use
      any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We also
      searched conference proceedings to identify additional studies. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: We included only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared
      Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis to pars plana vitrectomy for treatment of symptomatic
      floaters. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We planned to use methods recommended by
      Cochrane. The primary outcome we planned to measure was change in vision-related
      quality of life from baseline to 12 months, as determined by a vision-related
      quality of life questionnaire. The secondary outcomes we planned to measure were
      best corrected logMAR or Snellen visual acuity at 12 months for the treated
      eye(s) and costs. Adverse outcomes we planned to record were the occurrence of
      sight-threatening complications by 12 months (asymptomatic retinal tears,
      symptomatic retinal tears, retinal detachment, cataract formation, and
      endophthalmitis). MAIN RESULTS: No studies met the inclusion criteria of this
      review. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There are currently no RCTs that compare Nd:YAG
      laser vitreolysis with pars plana vitrectomy for the treatment of symptomatic
      floaters. Properly designed RCTs are needed to evaluate the treatment outcomes
      from the interventions described. We recommend future studies randomise
      participants to either a Nd:YAG laser vitreolysis group or a vitrectomy group,
      with participants in each group assigned to either receive treatment or a sham
      intervention. Future studies should follow participants at six months and 12
      months after the intervention. Also they should use best corrected visual acuity
      (BCVA) using an Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) chart read
      at 4 metres, vision-related quality of life (VRQOL), and adverse outcomes as the
      outcome measures of the trial.

PMID- 28570746
TI  - Influence of extremely low frequency magnetic fields on Ca2+ signaling and double
      messenger system in mice hippocampus and reversal function of procyanidins
      extracted from lotus seedpod.
AB  - This research investigated the influence of extremely low frequency magnetic
      fields (ELF-MF; 50 Hz, 8 mT, 4 h per day, for 28 days) on calcium ion signaling
      and the double messenger system in the hippocampus of mice. Messengers that were
      studied included: G-protein, Ins(1,4,5)P3 (IP3 ), diacylglycerol (DAG), cAMP
      dependent protein kinase (PKA), and Ca2+ -dependent protein kinase C (PKC). The
      results showed that ELF-MF caused an increase in the levels of Gi protein, IP3,
      DAG, PKA and PKC beta, calcium and calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase
      calcineuring (PP2B), and intracellular Ca2+ content, and a decrease in
      calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMK II) and PKC alpha. In
      addition, ELF-MF exposure decreased the level of brain-derived neurotrophic
      factor (BDNF), which played a key role in hippocampal neuronal cell death.
      However, oral administration of procyanidins from lotus seedpod (LSPCs)
      (especially 90 mg kg-1 ) significantly recovered these changes, and nearly
      reached normal levels. All these showed that LSPCs may mediate calcium signal and
      double messenger system through Ca2+ /CaMK II/CREB/BDNF and DG/PKC/MAPK signaling
      pathways to reverse the alteration caused by ELF-MF. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:436
      446, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28570747
TI  - Caspase14 expression is associated with triple negative phenotypes and cancer
      stem cell marker expression in breast cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Caspase14 (CASP14) was reported that the low
      expression of CASP14 in ovarian cancer and colon cancer was associated with
      cancer progression, on the other hand, that the CASP14 expression in breast
      cancer was higher than that of non-cancerous tissues. The purpose of this study
      is to determine the clinical significance of CASP14 in breast cancer. METHODS: We
      performed immunohistochemistry for CASP14, ER, PgR, HER2, Ki67, EGFR, CK5/6,
      CD44, CD24, ALDH1, claudins, and androgen receptor in 222 breast cancer patients
      including 55 TNBC cases, and evaluated the relationship of CASP14, above
      mentioned markers, and prognosis. Using public microarray database of breast
      cancer, the prognostic value of CASP14 was calculated. RESULTS: High CASP14
      expression was significantly associated with TNBC subtype (P = 0.015), nuclear
      grade (P = 0.006), Ki67, EGFR (P < 0.001, P = 0.016), ALDH1, CD44 and CD24 (P <
      0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.001) in 222 breast cancer cases, and the high expression
      of claudin1 (P = 0.017), and androgen receptor (P = 0.002) in TNBC cases was
      related to the high CASP14. According to the public database, survival in the
      high CASP14 breast cancer patients was shorter than low CASP14 patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: High CASP14 expression is a marker of breast cancer aggressiveness
      in association with proliferation, TNBC phenotype, and cancer stemness.

PMID- 28570748
TI  - Sensitivity and specificity of indocyanine green near-infrared fluorescence
      imaging in detection of metastatic lymph nodes in colorectal cancer: Systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - This review aimed to determine the overall sensitivity and specificity of
      indocyanine green (ICG) near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence in sentinel lymph node
      (SLN) detection in Colorectal cancer (CRC). A systematic search in electronic
      databases was conducted. Twelve studies including 248 patients were reviewed. The
      median sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy rates were 73.7, 100, and 75.7. The
      pooled sensitivity and specificity rates were 71% and 84.6%. In conclusion, ICG
      NIR fluorescence is a promising technique for detecting SLNs in CRC.

PMID- 28570749
TI  - Comparison of sporadic and FAP-associated desmoid-type fibromatoses.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Desmoid-type fibromatosis is a rare disease of which
      7.5-16% have been reported to be related to familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP).
      We sought to compare the characteristics and treatment of sporadic and FAP
      related desmoid-type fibromatoses. METHODS: Altogether 220 patients were included
      in the study after receiving a diagnosis of desmoid-type fibromatosis by the
      Pathology Department of Helsinki University Hospital, with adequate follow-up.
      Patients were included from January 1, 1980 until April 30, 2015. RESULTS: FAP
      related tumors were found in 22 (10%) patients. FAP-related desmoid-type
      fibromatoses were larger, more commonly multiple, and more often intra
      abdominally situated. Surgery was the treatment of choice for 179 (90%) of the
      sporadic patients and for 18 (82%) of FAP-related patients. Resections with non
      involved margins (R0) were more common in sporadic desmoid-type fibromatoses (55%
      vs. 23%, P = 0.048). The risk of recurrence was 25% in sporadic- and 44% in the
      FAP-related group. Three (14%) patients with FAP-related desmoid-type
      fibromatoses died from the disease. CONCLUSIONS: The predictors for FAP
      occurrence among desmoid tumor patients are large tumor size, intra-abdominal
      location, multiple tumors, and patient's young age. Desmoid-type fibromatosis
      patients suffer a high recurrence rate, also among those experiencing sporadic
      tumors, but the risk of death due to the tumor is low. Conversely, desmoid
      disease represents a substantial cause of death among FAP patients.

PMID- 28570750
TI  - Epithelial-mesenchymal transition inducer Snail1 and invasive potential of
      intraductal breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Transcription factor Snail1 is a key inducer of
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a biological process implicated in the
      cancer progression and metastasis. The aim of the study was to investigate Snail1
      expression in DCIS found on breast biopsy and assess its predictive value for the
      final invasion. METHODS: A total of 209 patients with histologically diagnosed
      pure DCIS entered the study. Snail1 reactivity was evaluated with
      immunohistochemistry in tumor tissue from stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy of
      suspicious microcalcifications. RESULTS: Snail1 staining was observed in 62% of
      tumors: weak, intermediate, and strong in 27%, 21%, and 14% of lesions,
      respectively. Positive Snail1 expression was significantly rarer in DCIS
      presenting as powdery microcalcifications, when compared with crushed stone-like
      and casting-type and was more common in DCIS with comedonecrosis. Correlation
      with other features was not significant. None of standard parameters
      significantly influenced the upgrading rate. In contrast, in uni- and
      multivariate analysis the risk of postoperative invasion was significantly
      associated with positive Snail1 immunoreactivity. Moreover, there was a
      significant stepwise increase of upgrading rate according to Snail1 expression in
      DCIS cells: weak 9%, intermediate 26%, and strong 55%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Snail1 can reflect the invasive potential of DCIS and help identify its more
      aggressive subtypes.

PMID- 28570751
TI  - Preoperative clinicopathological characteristics of patients with solitary
      encapsulated follicular variants of papillary thyroid carcinomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Clinical outcomes in patients with the follicular
      variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (FVPTC) tend to vary according to the
      pathological subtypes. We aimed to evaluate the clinicopathological
      characteristics including preoperative radiological and cytopathological
      diagnoses in patients with solitary encapsulated FVPTCs (EFVPTCs) to prove the
      preoperative assessment dilemma. METHODS: Patients with solitary FVPTCs who
      underwent thyroid surgery were included. RESULTS: Of 271 patients, 194 patients
      (72%) had EFVPTCs, whereas 77 patients (28%) had infiltrative FVPTCs (IFVPTCs).
      EFVPTCs had larger tumor sizes (P < 0.001) and lower frequencies of
      extrathyroidal extension (P < 0.001) and cervical lymph node (LN) metastasis (P <
      0.001) than IFVPTCs. There were significant differences in ultrasonography (US)
      findings, preoperative cytopathological diagnosis, and the prevalence of BRAF
      mutations between EFVPTCs and IFVPTCs. Invasive EFVPTCs were diagnosed in 89
      patients (33%) and non-invasive EFVPTCs in 105 patients (39%). Non-invasive
      subtype had smaller tumor sizes (P = 0.001) and lower frequencies of vascular
      invasion (P = 0.04) and cervical LN metastasis (P = 0.02). There were no
      significant differences in preoperative US findings and cytopathological
      diagnoses between invasive and non-invasive EFVPTCs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Clinicopathological characteristics of EFVPTCs, including preoperative US
      findings, are different from those of IFVPTCs. However, preoperative radiological
      and cytopathological findings could not distinguish non-invasive and invasive
      EFVPTCs.

PMID- 28570752
TI  - External validation of the Arterial Based Complexity (ABC) scoring system in
      renal tumors treated by minimally invasive partial nephrectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of the Arterial Based Complexity (ABC) scoring
      system in predicting clinically relevant outcomes of a minimally invasive partial
      nephrectomy (MIPN). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 350
      consecutive patients who underwent a MIPN between 2013 and 2014. Tumor complexity
      was evaluated according to the ABC scoring system. Complications, surgical, and
      renal outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: There were respectively 36 (10.3%), 229
      (65.4%), 43 (12.3%), and 42 (12.0%) patients in category 1, 2, 3S, 3H.
      Multivariate regression showed category assignment was associated with warm
      ischemia time (P < 0.001), estimated blood loss (P = 0.001), and operative time
      (P = 0.032). On multivariate analyses, tumor size was the only independent
      predictor of overall (P = 0.035) and minor (P = 0.032) complications, but ABC
      category failed to predict complications (P > 0.05 for all). For renal function,
      ABC category failed to predict postoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate
      at 1 day and 6 months (P > 0.05 for both). CONCLUSIONS: In MIPN, the ABC scoring
      system predicted a prolonged warm ischemia time and operative time, and an added
      estimated blood loss. This scoring system was not a predictor for the occurrence
      of complications and postoperative renal function.

PMID- 28570754
TI  - Is testis sparing surgery an acceptable option for small testicular malignant
      tumor with normal contralateral testicle?

PMID- 28570753
TI  - Screening for adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in high-dose
      benzodiazepine dependent patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
      is frequent in patients with substance use disorders (SUD), but information on
      its prevalence in high-dose benzodiazepine (BZD) dependence is lacking. We
      estimated the prevalence of adult ADHD in a group of treatment-seeking high-dose
      BZD dependent patients according to a valid screening tool, and explored the
      demographic and clinical characteristics of patients that screened positive for
      ADHD (ADHD+) in comparison to those that screened negative (ADHD-). METHODS: We
      prospectively recruited 167 consecutive patients with high-dose BZD dependence
      and screened them for adult ADHD with the World Health Organization Adult ADHD
      Self-Report Scale version 1.1 (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist Part A. We compared
      demographic and clinical characteristics in ADHD+ and ADHD- groups. RESULTS:
      Fifty-three patients (31.7% of the sample) were positive to adult ADHD screening.
      ADHD+ patients showed a significantly larger prevalence of poly-drug abuse than
      ADHD- ones. BZD formulation and active principle significantly differed between
      the two groups. The other clinical variables, including psychiatric comorbidity,
      as well as the demographic ones, did not differ in ADHD+ versus ADHD- comparison.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Adult ADHD may be common in treatment-seeking high
      dose BZD dependent patients according to ASRS-v1.1 Symptom Checklist Part A.
      SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Screening for ADHD in this type of SUD with this
      questionnaire is quick and may offer useful information for prognosis and
      treatment. (Am J Addict 2017;26:610-614).

PMID- 28570755
TI  - Personal and hospital factors associated with limited surgical resection for lung
      cancer, in-hospital mortality and complications in New York State.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Early stage lung cancer is generally treated with
      surgical resection. The objective of the study was to identify patient and
      hospital characteristics associated with the type of lung cancer surgical
      approach utilized in New York State (NYS), and to assess in-hospital adverse
      events. METHODS: A total of 33 960 lung cancer patients who underwent limited
      resection (LR) or lobectomy (L) were selected from the NYS Statewide Planning and
      Research Cooperative System database (1995-2012). RESULTS: LR patients were more
      likely to be older (adjusted odds ratio ORadj and [95% confidence interval]: 1.01
      [1.01-1.02]), female (ORadj : 1.11 [1.06-1.16]), Black (ORadj : 1.17 [1.08
      1.27]), with comorbidities (ORadj : 1.08 [1.03-1.14]), and treated in more recent
      years than L patients. Length of stay and complications were significantly less
      after LR than L (ORadj : 0.56 [0.53-0.58] and 0.65 [0.62-0.69]); in-hospital
      mortality was similar (ORadj : 0.93 [0.81-1.07]), and was positively associated
      with age and urgent/emergency admission, but inversely associated with female
      gender, private insurance, recent admission year, and surgery volume.
      CONCLUSIONS: There was a growing trend toward LR, which was more likely to be
      performed in older patients with comorbidities. In-hospital outcomes were better
      after LR than L, and were affected by patient and hospital characteristics.

PMID- 28570756
TI  - Two-Dimensional Haeckelite NbS2 : A Diamagnetic High-Mobility Semiconductor with
      Nb4+ Ions.
AB  - In all known Group 5 transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers (MLs), the metal
      centers carry a spin, and their ground-state phases are either metallic or
      semiconducting with indirect band gaps. Here, on grounds of first-principles
      calculations, we report that the Haeckelite polytypes 1S-NbX2 (X=S, Se, Te) are
      diamagnetic direct-band-gap semiconductors even though the Nb atoms are in the 4+
      oxidation state. In contrast, 1S-VX2 MLs are antiferromagnetically coupled
      indirect-band-gap semiconductors. The 1S phases are thermodynamically and
      dynamically stable but of slightly higher energy than their 1H and 1T ML
      counterparts. 1S-NbX2 MLs are excellent candidates for optoelectronic
      applications owing to their small band gaps (between 0.5 and 1 eV). Moreover, 1S
      NbS2 shows a particularly high hole mobility of 2.68*103  cm2  V-1  s-1 , which
      is significantly higher than that of MoS2 and comparable to that of WSe2 .

PMID- 28570757
TI  - Illuminating Iron: Mesoionic Carbenes as Privileged Ligands in Photochemistry.
AB  - The new iron age: The stabilization of an iron(III) complex with mesoionic
      carbenes has been shown to lead to record-breaking excited-state lifetimes and an
      unprecedented spin-allowed radiative decay from a 2 LMCT state. These results set
      the stage for a sustainable future in the new "iron age".

PMID- 28570759
TI  - Catalytic Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Indolizines to alpha,beta-Unsaturated
      Ketones.
AB  - A catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition of indolizines to enones is
      described. The chiral phosphoric acid (S)-TRIP activates alpha,beta-unsaturated
      ketones, thereby promoting an enantioface-differentiating attack by indolizines.
      Using this reaction, several alkylated indolizines were synthesized in good
      yields and with enantiomeric ratios of up to 98:2.

PMID- 28570760
TI  - Immunoreduction of locally advanced orbito-conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma
      with intraorbital interferon alpha-2b injection: a globe saving approach.

PMID- 28570758
TI  - Variation in use of postoperative chemoradiation following surgery for T1 and T2
      oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; National Cancer Database.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Primary surgical treatment of patients with early T
      classification (T1-T2) oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has
      increased. We sought to determine how often these patients receive postoperative
      chemoradiation (CRT). METHODS: Patients with T1-T2 OPSCC in the National Cancer
      Database who underwent primary surgery were evaluated for receipt of
      postoperative CRT. Postoperative CRT use was examined among patients with high
      risk factors (positive margins and/or extracapsular spread [ECS]), intermediate
      risk factors (negative margins, no ECS, and either pT3-4 and/or N2-N3), and no
      apparent risk factors. RESULTS: Of 4833 patients with T1-T2 OPSCC who underwent
      primary surgery, 43% had high risk pathologic factors, of whom only 63% received
      postoperative CRT. Another 31% had no apparent risk factors, of whom 16%
      nonetheless received postoperative CRT. On multivariable analysis, in addition to
      tumor and demographic factors, patients treated at community hospitals were more
      likely to receive postoperative CRT (O.R. 1.41 C.I. 1.18-1.87, P = 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Variation in postoperative CRT use indicates a lack of consensus
      and/or knowledge about its benefits and indications. Usage of postoperative CRT
      regardless of pathologic risk factors suggests an area where future efforts at
      implementation of best practices may be targeted.

PMID- 28570761
TI  - The Effect of Drug Loading on Micelle Properties: Solid-State NMR as a Tool to
      Gain Structural Insight.
AB  - The present study highlights the importance of understanding the structural
      changes of micelles induced by drug loading on their physico-chemical properties.
      A block copolymer with attached fructose, which interacts with GLUT5 receptor,
      was used and conjugated with a low and a high amount of platinum drugs. Against
      expectations, the low-loading micelle, despite having a less defined morphology
      and larger nanoparticle size according to TEM, displays higher cellular uptake
      and higher toxicity. This behaviour can only be understood when elucidating
      additional information on the structure of micelles. Extensive solid-state NMR
      measurements were therefore employed to reveal that the drug loading affected
      swelling and mobility of core and shell of the micelle. The results obtained from
      solid-state NMR spectroscopy could explain all the observations on this system.
      In summary, solid-state NMR spectroscopy is an excellent tool to understand the
      effects of drug loading on the behavior of micelles.

PMID- 28570763
TI  - Discovery of Potent Dual Binding Site Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors via Homo-
      and Heterodimerization of Coumarin-Based Moieties.
AB  - Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors still comprise the majority of the
      marketed drugs for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The structural arrangement of the
      enzyme, which features a narrow gorge that separates the catalytic and peripheral
      anionic subsites (CAS and PAS, respectively), inspired the development of
      bivalent ligands that are able to bind and block the catalytic activity of the
      CAS as well as the role of the PAS in beta amyloid (Abeta) fibrillogenesis. With
      the aim of discovering novel AChE dual binders with improved drug-likeness, homo-
      and heterodimers containing 2H-chromen-2-one building blocks were developed. By
      exploring diverse linkages of neutral and protonatable amino moieties through
      aliphatic spacers of different length, a nanomolar bivalent AChE inhibitor was
      identified (3-[2-({4-[(dimethylamino)methyl]-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl}oxy)ethoxy]
      6,7-dimethoxy-2H-chromen-2-one (6 d), IC50 =59 nm) from originally weakly active
      fragments. To assess the potential against AD, the disease-related biological
      properties of 6 d were investigated. It performed mixed-type AChE enzyme kinetics
      (inhibition constant Ki =68 nm) and inhibited Abeta self-aggregation. Moreover,
      it displayed an outstanding ability to protect SH-SY5Y cells from Abeta1-42
      damage.

PMID- 28570764
TI  - Controllable N-Doped CuCo2 O4 @C Film as a Self-Supported Anode for Ultrastable
      Sodium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - Rational synthesis of flexible electrodes is crucial to rapid growth of
      functional materials for energy-storage systems. Herein, a controllable
      fabrication is reported for the self-supported structure of CuCo2 O4 nanodots (~3
      nm) delicately inserted into N-doped carbon nanofibers (named as 3-CCO@C); this
      composite is first used as binder-free anode for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs).
      Benefiting from the synergetic effect of ultrasmall CuCo2 O4 nanoparticles and a
      tailored N-doped carbon matrix, the 3-CCO@C composite exhibits high cycling
      stability (capacity of 314 mA h g-1 at 1000 mA g-1 after 1000 cycles) and high
      rate capability (296 mA h g-1 , even at 5000 mA g-1 ). Significantly, the Na
      storage mechanism is systematically explored, demonstrating that the irreversible
      reaction of CuCo2 O4 , which decomposes to Cu and Co, happens in the first
      discharge process, and then a reversible reaction between metallic Cu/Co and
      CuO/Co3 O4 occurrs during the following cycles. This result is conducive to a
      mechanistic study of highly promising bimetallic-oxide anodes for rechargeable
      SIBs.

PMID- 28570765
TI  - Hierarchical and Heterogeneous Bioinspired Composites-Merging Molecular Self
      Assembly with Additive Manufacturing.
AB  - Biological composites display exceptional mechanical properties owing to a highly
      organized, heterogeneous architecture spanning several length scales. It is
      challenging to translate this ordered and multiscale structural organization in
      synthetic, bulk composites. Herein, a combination of top-down and bottom-up
      approach is demonstrated, to form a polymer-ceramic composite by macroscopically
      aligning the self-assembled nanostructure of polymerizable lyotropic liquid
      crystals via 3D printing. The polymer matrix is then uniformly reinforced with
      bone-like apatite via in situ biomimetic mineralization. The combinatorial method
      enables the formation of macrosized, heterogeneous composites where the
      nanostructure and chemical composition is locally tuned over microscopic
      distances. This enables precise control over the mechanics in specific directions
      and regions, with a unique intrinsic-extrinsic toughening mechanism. As a proof
      of-concept, the method is used to form large-scale composites mimicking the local
      nanostructure, compositional gradients and directional mechanical properties of
      heterogeneous tissues like the bone-cartilage interface, for mechanically stable
      osteochondral plugs. This work demonstrates the possibility to create
      hierarchical and complex structured composites using weak starting components,
      thus opening new routes for efficient synthesis of high-performance materials
      ranging from biomaterials to structural nanocomposites.

PMID- 28570766
TI  - Thermally Stable Metal-Organic Framework-Templated Synthesis of Hierarchically
      Porous Metal Sulfides: Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production.
AB  - Porous nanostructured materials are demonstrated to be very promising in
      catalysis due to their well accessible active sites. Thermally stable metal
      organic frameworks (MOFs) as hard templates are successfully utilized to afford
      porous metal oxides and subsequently metal sulfides by a nanocasting method. The
      resultant metal oxides/sulfides show considerable Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)
      surface areas, by partially inheriting the pore character of MOF templates.
      Preliminary investigation on the obtained hierarchically porous CdS for water
      splitting, as a proof of concept, demonstrates its much higher activity than both
      corresponding bulk and nanosized counterparts, under visible light irradiation.
      Given the structural diversity and tailorability of MOFs, such synthetic approach
      may open an avenue to the synthesis of advanced porous materials for functional
      applications.

PMID- 28570767
TI  - Polymeric Tubular Aromatic Amide Helices.
AB  - Conjugated polymers may be induced by intra- and/or intermolecular non-covalent
      forces to fold into helical conformations. Helices formed by aromatic amide,
      hydrazide, and urea polymers possess a well-organized cavity and depth, which is
      defined by their degree of polymerization. Driving forces may be intramolecular
      hydrogen bonding and/or solvophobicity, or guest induction. The resulting long
      helices represent a new class of unimacromolecular dynamic tubular architectures
      that exhibit unique properties or functions in, for example, molecular
      recognition, chirality transfer, and ion transporting. The recent advances are
      highlighted here.

PMID- 28570768
TI  - Electrostatic Mechanophores in Tuneable Light-Emitting Piezopolymer Nanowires.
AB  - Electromechanical coupling through piezoelectric polymer chains allows the
      emission of organic molecules in active nanowires to be tuned. This effect is
      evidenced by highly bendable arrays of counter-ion dye-doped nanowires made of a
      poly(vinylidenefluoride) copolymer. A reversible redshift of the dye emission is
      found upon the application of dynamic stress during highly accurate bending
      experiments. By density functional theory calculations it is found that these
      photophysical properties are associated with mechanical stresses applied to
      electrostatically interacting molecular systems, namely to counterion-mediated
      states that involve light-emitting molecules as well as charged regions of
      piezoelectric polymer chains. These systems are an electrostatic class of
      supramolecular functional stress-sensitive units, which might impart new
      functionalities in hybrid molecular nanosystems and anisotropic nanostructures
      for sensing devices and soft robotics.

PMID- 28570769
TI  - Incidental positive lymph nodes in patients with papillary thyroid cancer is
      independently associated with recurrent disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pathological examination occasionally reveals
      incidental central lymph nodes metastasis (iLNM) after thyroidectomy for patients
      with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) who did not undergo compartment-orientated
      lymphadenectomy. We aimed to investigate the risk of recurrence for patients with
      iLNM. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of all patients undergoing
      total thyroidectomy for PTC (January 2000 to January 2010). Patients with distant
      metastases, central- or lateral neck dissection and pre-operative suspicious
      lymph nodes (by ultrasound or clinical examination) were excluded. The
      association between iLNM and recurrent disease was investigated using Kaplan
      Meier survival estimates and Cox proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS: 225/1000
      patients had incidental nodes after total thyroidectomy for PTC. 183 were node
      negative and 42 had iLNM. Mean age was 46 years and 201 (89%) were women. Mean
      number of resected nodes was 2.3. Disease recurred in 8/183 (4.4%) of patients
      with N0 versus 7/42 (17%) with iLNM. After adjusting for other factors, iLNM was
      independently associated with recurrent disease (hazard ratio = 4.01 [95% CI 1.21
      13.3]). CONCLUSIONS: Positive incidental lymph nodes are independently associated
      with recurrent disease in patients with PTC. These patients should therefore be
      monitored more carefully.

PMID- 28570770
TI  - Stable Heterometallic Cluster Ions based on Werner's Hexol.
AB  - Large aqueous ions are interesting because they are useful in materials science
      (for example to generate thin films) but also because they serve as molecular
      models for the oxide-aqueous mineral interface where spectroscopy is difficult.
      Here we show that new clusters of the type M[(MU-OH)2 Co(NH3 )4 ]3 (NO3 )6 (M=Al,
      Ga) can be synthesized using Werner's century-old cluster as a substitutable
      framework. We substituted Group 13 metals into the hexol Co[(MU-OH)2 Co(NH3 )4
      ]36+ ion to make diamagnetic heterometallic ions. The solid-state structure of
      the hexol-type derivatives were determined by single-crystal XRD and NMR
      spectroscopy and confirmed that the solid-state structure persists in solution
      after dissolution into either D2 O or [D6 ]DMSO. Other compositions besides these
      diamagnetic ions can undoubtedly be made using a similar approach, which
      considerably expands the number of stable aqueous heteronuclear ions.

PMID- 28570771
TI  - How exaptations facilitated photosensory evolution: Seeing the light by accident.
AB  - Exaptations are adaptations that have undergone a major change in function. By
      recruiting genes from sources originally unrelated to vision, exaptation has
      allowed for sudden and critical photosensory innovations, such as lenses,
      photopigments, and photoreceptors. Here we review new or neglected findings, with
      an emphasis on unicellular eukaryotes (protists), to illustrate how exaptation
      has shaped photoreception across the tree of life. Protist phylogeny attests to
      multiple origins of photoreception, as well as the extreme creativity of
      evolution. By appropriating genes and even entire organelles from foreign
      organisms via lateral gene transfer and endosymbiosis, protists have cobbled
      photoreceptors and eyespots from a diverse set of ingredients. While refinement
      through natural selection is paramount, exaptation helps illustrate how novelties
      arise in the first place, and is now shedding light on the origins of
      photoreception itself.

PMID- 28570772
TI  - Structural Transition in Liquid Crystal Bubbles Generated from Fluidic
      Nanocellulose Colloids.
AB  - The structural transition in micrometer-sized liquid crystal bubbles (LCBs)
      derived from rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) was studied. The CNC-based
      LCBs were suspended in nematic or chiral nematic liquid-crystalline CNCs, which
      generated topological defects and distinct birefringent textures around them. The
      ordering and structure of the LCBs shifted from a nematic to chiral nematic
      arrangement as water evaporation progressed. These packed LCBs exhibited a
      specific photonic cross-communication property that is due to a combination of
      Bragg reflection and bubble curvature and size.

PMID- 28570773
TI  - Integrated care pathway for co-occurring major depressive and alcohol use
      disorders: Outcomes of the first two years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) are
      highly prevalent, comorbid, and have significant impact on morbidity, mortality,
      and socioeconomic burden in Canada. Combined psycho- and pharmacotherapies for
      both conditions promise better outcomes than treatment as usual (TAU). At the
      Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada, we developed and
      implemented an Integrated Care Pathway (ICP) specifically for treatment of
      concurrent MDD and AUD. The goal of the study is to assess the clinical
      effectiveness of the ICP approach in comparison to TAU. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Non-randomized design, clinical chart review, Chi-square and t-tests, Cohen's d,
      Linear Mixed Effects Models, Kaplan-Meier, and log-rank analyses. RESULTS: Eighty
      one ICP patients were included, matched to 81 controls by age, sex, severity of
      depressive symptoms, and patterns of drinking. ICP cohort had a significantly
      lower dropout rate (18.5% vs 69.1%, p < .001; at 16 weeks of treatment,
      respectively), both cohorts demonstrated significant reduction in the number of
      heavy drinking days (beta = .01, p < .001) and standard drinks per week (beta =
      .15, p < .001) with a significantly higher reduction of both indicators over time
      in the ICP cohort. Significant reduction in depressive symptoms severity (QIDS:
      14.6 vs 10.0, p < .001; BDI: 26.3 vs 16.2, p < .001) was observed in ICP cohort
      (no data for TAU cohort). CONCLUSIONS: The ICP patients demonstrated improvements
      on several levels including depressive symptoms, and changes in alcohol drinking
      patterns. The study demonstrated the overall effectiveness of the ICP and
      apparent advantage over TAU, which must be corroborated through a randomized
      clinical trial. (Am J Addict 2017;26:602-609) SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This study
      is one of the first works showing the outcomes of an ICP developed in the mental
      health area and for co-occurring disorders. Despite the limitations, the relative
      advantage of the ICP methodology warrants future research in this area.

PMID- 28570774
TI  - A Generalized Strategy for the Synthesis of Large-Size Ultrathin Two-Dimensional
      Metal Oxide Nanosheets.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials show unique electrical, mechanical, and
      catalytic performance owing to their ultrahigh surface-to-volume ratio and
      quantum confinement effects. However, ways to simply synthesize 2D metal oxide
      nanosheets through a general and facile method is still a big challenge. Herein,
      we report a generalized and facile strategy to synthesize large-size ultrathin 2D
      metal oxide nanosheets by using graphene oxide (GO) as a template in a wet
      chemical system. Notably, the novel strategy mainly relies on accurately
      controlling the balance between heterogeneous growth and nucleation of metal
      oxides on the surface of GO, which is independent on the individual character of
      the metal elements. Therefore, ultrathin nanosheets of various metal oxides,
      including those from both main-group and transition elements, can be synthesized
      with large size. The ultrathin 2D metal oxide nanosheets also show controllable
      thickness and unique surface chemical state.

PMID- 28570775
TI  - Fe2 PO5 -Encapsulated Reverse Energetic ZnO/Fe2 O3 Heterojunction Nanowire for
      Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Oxidation of Water.
AB  - Zinc oxide is regarded as a promising candidate for application in
      photoelectrochemical water oxidation due to its higher electron mobility.
      However, its instability under alkaline conditions limits its application in a
      practical setting. Herein, we demonstrate an easily achieved wet-chemical route
      to chemically stabilize ZnO nanowires (NWs) by protecting them with a thin layer
      Fe2 O3 shell. This shell, in which the thickness can be tuned by varying reaction
      times, forms an intact interface with ZnO NWs, thus protecting ZnO from corrosion
      in a basic solution. The reverse energetic heterojunction nanowires are
      subsequently activated by introducing an amorphous iron phosphate, which
      substantially suppressed surface recombination as a passivation layer and
      improved photoelectrochemical performance as a potential catalyst. Compared with
      pure ZnO NWs (0.4 mA cm-2 ), a maximal photocurrent of 1.0 mA cm-2 is achieved
      with ZnO/Fe2 O3 core-shell NWs and 2.3 mA cm-2 was achieved for the PH3 -treated
      NWs at 1.23 V versus RHE. The PH3 low-temperature treatment creates a dual
      function, passivation and catalyst layer (Fe2 PO5 ), examined by X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy, TEM, photoelectrochemical characterization, and
      impedance measurements. Such a nano-composition design offers great promise to
      improve the overall performance of the photoanode material.

PMID- 28570778
TI  - A Binuclear Zinc Interaction Fold Discovered in the Homodimer of Alzheimer's
      Amyloid-beta Fragment with Taiwanese Mutation D7H.
AB  - Zinc-induced oligomerization of amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) produces potentially
      pathogenic agents of Alzheimer's disease. Mutations and modifications in the
      metal binding domain 1-16 of Abeta peptide crucially affect its zinc-induced
      oligomerization by changing intermolecular zinc mediated interface. The 3D
      structure of this interface appearing in a range of Abeta species is a
      prospective drug target for disease modifying therapy. Using NMR spectroscopy,
      EXAFS spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and isothermal titration calorimetry the
      interaction of zinc ions with Abeta fragments 1-7 and 1-10 carrying familial
      Taiwanese mutation D7H was studied. Zinc ions induce formation of a stable
      homodimer formed by the two peptide chains fastened by two zinc ions and stacking
      interactions of imidazole rings. A binuclear zinc interaction fold in the dimer
      structure was discovered. It can be used for designing zinc-regulated proteins
      and zinc-mediated self-assembling peptides.

PMID- 28570776
TI  - The personality basis of aggression: The mediating role of anger and the
      moderating role of emotional intelligence.
AB  - High neuroticism and low agreeableness have been found to predict higher levels
      of aggression through an increase of negative emotions such as anger. However,
      previous research has only investigated these indirect associations for physical
      aggression, whereas evidence for such indirect effects on other types of
      aggression (i.e., verbal or indirect aggression) is currently lacking. Moreover,
      no previous work has investigated the moderating role of Ability Emotional
      Intelligence (AEI), which may buffer against the effects of anger on aggression.
      The present study (N = 665) directly addresses these gaps in the literature. The
      results demonstrate that high neuroticism and low agreeableness were indirectly
      related to higher levels of physical, verbal, and indirect aggression via
      increased chronic accessibility to anger. Importantly however, the associations
      with physical aggression were significantly weaker for those higher (vs. lower)
      on AEI, confirming the buffering role of AEI. We discuss the implications of our
      findings for theoretical frameworks aiming to understand and reduce aggression
      and violent behavior.

PMID- 28570779
TI  - Electronic Origin of the Competitive Mechanisms in the Thermal Activation of
      Methane by the Heteronuclear Cluster Oxide [Al2 ZnO4 ].
AB  - The thermal gas-phase reactions of [Al2 ZnO4 ].+ with methane have been explored
      by using FT-ICR mass spectrometry complemented by high-level quantum chemical
      calculations. Two competitive mechanisms, that is, hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT)
      and proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) are operative. Interestingly, while
      the HAT process is influenced by the polarity of the transition structure, both
      the ionic nature of the metal-oxygen bond and the structural rigidity of the
      cluster oxide affect the PCET pathway. As compared to the previously reported
      homonuclear [Al2 O3 ].+ and [ZnO].+ , the heteronuclear oxide [Al2 ZnO4 ].+
      exhibits a much higher chemoselectivity towards methane. The electronic origins
      of the doping effect have been explored.

PMID- 28570780
TI  - Development and validation of a nomogram to estimate the pretest probability of
      cancer in Chinese patients with solid solitary pulmonary nodules: A multi
      institutional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a nomogram to estimate the pretest
      probability of malignancy in Chinese patients with solid solitary pulmonary
      nodule (SPN). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A primary cohort of 1798 patients with
      pathologically confirmed solid SPNs after surgery was retrospectively studied at
      five institutions from January 2014 to December 2015. A nomogram based on
      independent prediction factors of malignant solid SPN was developed. Predictive
      performance also was evaluated using the calibration curve and the area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: The mean age of the
      cohort was 58.9 +/- 10.7 years. In univariate and multivariate analysis, age;
      history of cancer; the log base 10 transformations of serum carcinoembryonic
      antigen value; nodule diameter; the presence of spiculation, pleural indentation,
      and calcification remained the predictive factors of malignancy. A nomogram was
      developed, and the AUC value (0.85; 95%CI, 0.83-0.88) was significantly higher
      than other three models. The calibration cure showed optimal agreement between
      the malignant probability as predicted by nomogram and the actual probability.
      CONCLUSIONS: We developed and validated a nomogram that can estimate the pretest
      probability of malignant solid SPNs, which can assist clinical physicians to
      select and interpret the results of subsequent diagnostic tests.

PMID- 28570782
TI  - A Bifunctional Spin Label for Ligand Recognition on Surfaces.
AB  - In situ monitoring of biomolecular recognition, especially at surfaces, still
      presents a significant technical challenge. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)
      of biomolecules spin-labeled with nitroxides can offer uniquely sensitive and
      selective insights into these processes, but new spin-labeling strategies are
      needed. The synthesis and study of a bromoacrylaldehyde spin label (BASL), which
      features two attachment points with orthogonal reactivity is reported. The first
      examples of mannose and biotin ligands coupled to aqueous carboxy-functionalized
      gold nanoparticles through a spin label are presented. EPR spectra were obtained
      for the spin-labeled ligands both free in solution and attached to nanoparticles.
      The labels were recognized by the mannose-binding lectin, Con A, and the biotin
      binding protein avidin-peroxidase. Binding gave quantifiable changes in the EPR
      spectra from which binding profiles could be obtained that reflect the strength
      of binding in each case.

PMID- 28570781
TI  - The effect of antioxidants on the long-term stability of THC and related
      cannabinoids in sampled whole blood.
AB  - The stability of cannabinoids is complex and crucial for the assessment of
      impaired driving caused by cannabis. Therefore, the effect of antioxidants on the
      long-term stability of Delta9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN),
      cannabidiol (CBD), 11-hydroxy-Delta9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-OH), and 11-nor-9
      carboxy-Delta9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) in whole blood samples preserved
      with fluoride citrate (FC) and fluoride oxalate (FX) mixtures was investigated at
      different temperatures. The measured concentrations of the cannabinoids in
      authentic whole blood preserved solely with FC or FX mixtures decreased
      significantly during prolonged storage at -20 degrees C. On average, less than 5%
      of the initial concentrations of THC and CBD were recovered after 19 weeks of
      storage interrupted by 5 thawing/freezing cycles. The rate of decrease was
      greatest in FC-preserved blood. The repeated thawing/freezing of the samples
      accelerated the instability progression. At 5 degrees C approximately 60% of the
      initial concentrations of THC and CBD were recovered after 19 weeks of storage.
      No significant decrease was observed in samples stored at -80 degrees C during
      the test period of 5 months. The instability at -20 degrees C was to a great
      extend avoided by adding 30 mM ascorbic acid (ASC) to the samples before storage.
      Samples preserved with a combination of the FX mixture and ASC showed no
      significant decrease in the recovered concentrations during a 5-month storage
      period interrupted by 6 thawing/freezing cycles. Samples preserved with a
      combination of the FC mixture and ASC showed almost similar improvements in
      cannabinoid stability. Other reducing agents such as sodium metabisulfite and
      glutathione also improved the stability in FX-preserved blood stored at -20
      degrees C.

PMID- 28570783
TI  - On the importance of retaining stresses and strains in repositioning
      computational biomechanical models of the cervical spine.
AB  - Human body models are created in a specific posture and often repositioned and
      analyzed without retaining stresses that result from repositioning. For example,
      repositioning a human neck model within the physiological range of motion to a
      head-turned posture prior to an impact results in initial stresses within the
      tissues distracted from their neutral position. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the effect of repositioning on the subsequent kinetics, kinematics,
      and failure modes, of a lower cervical spine motion segment, to support future
      research at the full neck level. Repositioning was investigated for 3 modes
      (tension, flexion, and extension) and 3 load cases. The model was repositioned
      and loaded to failure in one continuous load history (case 1), or repositioned
      then restarted with retained stresses and loaded to failure (case 2). In case 3,
      the model was repositioned and then restarted in a stress-free state,
      representing current repositioning methods. Not retaining the repositioning
      stresses and strains resulted in different kinetics, kinematics, or failure
      modes, depending on the mode of loading. For the motion segment model, the
      differences were associated with the intervertebral disc fiber reorientation and
      load distribution, because the disc underwent the largest deformation during
      repositioning. This study demonstrated that repositioning led to altered response
      and tissue failure, which is critical for computational models intended to
      predict injury at the tissue level. It is recommended that stresses and strains
      be included and retained for subsequent analysis when repositioning a human
      computational neck model.

PMID- 28570785
TI  - Dual-Action Cancer Therapy with Targeted Porous Silicon Nanovectors.
AB  - There is a pressing need to develop more effective therapeutics to fight cancer.
      An idyllic chemotherapeutic is expected to overcome drug resistance of tumors and
      minimize harmful side effects to healthy tissues. Antibody-functionalized porous
      silicon nanoparticles loaded with a combination of chemotherapy drug and gold
      nanoclusters (AuNCs) are developed. These nanocarriers are observed to
      selectively deliver both payloads, the chemotherapy drug and AuNCs, to human B
      cells. The accumulation of AuNCs to target cells and subsequent exposure to an
      external electromagnetic field in the microwave region render them more
      susceptible to the codelivered drug. This approach represents a targeted two
      stage delivery nanocarrier that benefits from a dual therapeutic action that
      results in enhanced cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28570787
TI  - Bridging the Knowledge of Different Worlds to Understand the Big Picture of
      Cancer Nanomedicines.
AB  - Explosive growth of nanomedicines continues to significantly impact the
      therapeutic strategies for effective cancer treatment. Despite the significant
      progress in the development of advanced nanomedicines, successful clinical
      translation remains challenging. As cancer nanomedicine is a multidisciplinary
      field, the fundamental problem is that the knowledge gaps stem from different
      vantage points in the understanding of cancer nanomedicines. The complexities and
      heterogenecity of both nanomedicines and cancer are further demanding the
      integration of highly diverse expertise to develop clinically translatable cancer
      nanomedicines. This progress report aims to discuss the current understanding of
      cancer nanomedicines between different research areas in terms of nanoparticle
      engineering, formulation, tumor patho-physiology and clinical medicine, as well
      as to identify the knowledge gaps lying at the interface between the different
      fields of research in nanomedicine. Here we also highlight for the necessity to
      harmonize the multidisciplinary effort in the research of nanomedicines in order
      to bridge the knowledge and to advance the full understanding in cancer
      nanomedicines. A paradigm shift is needed in the strategic development of disease
      specific nanomedicines in order to foster the successful translation into clinic
      of future cancer nanomedicines.

PMID- 28570788
TI  - Thermoelectric Properties of Solution-Processed n-Doped Ladder-Type Conducting
      Polymers.

PMID- 28570789
TI  - New Members and Foreign Associates of the National Academy of Sciences New
      Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society.

PMID- 28570790
TI  - Introducing JCP Weekly.

PMID- 28570791
TI  - Patients With Co-Occurring Bipolar Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A
      Rapid Review of the Literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To summarize the current literature on epidemiology, clinical
      correlates, and treatment of individuals with co-occurring bipolar disorder and
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). DATA SOURCES: We conducted a focused, time
      sensitive review called "rapid review" in November 2015, using keyword searches
      (including keywords bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and
      others) in PubMed for studies of adults with co-occurring bipolar disorder and
      PTSD. STUDY SELECTION: Results were sorted and systematically searched. An
      article was excluded if it did not describe adult patients with co-occurring PTSD
      and bipolar disorder or did not report original data on epidemiology, clinical
      correlates, or treatment. DATA EXTRACTION: Information on study characteristics
      including population studied and key findings were extracted onto a data
      collection tool. RESULTS: Thirty-two articles were included. Over two-thirds of
      articles reported epidemiology of co-occurring bipolar disorder and PTSD.
      Prevalence of PTSD among individuals with bipolar disorder ranged from 4% to 40%,
      with women and those with bipolar I versus bipolar II disorder experiencing
      higher prevalence of PTSD. Prevalence of bipolar disorder among individuals with
      PTSD ranged from 6% to 55%. Baseline PTSD or bipolar disorder was associated with
      incidence of the other illness. Individuals with co-occurring bipolar disorder
      and PTSD experienced high symptom burden and low quality of life. No studies
      evaluated prospective treatment of patients with co-occurring bipolar disorder
      and PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: Bipolar disorder and PTSD commonly co-occur and result in
      greater symptom burden than either condition alone. Few published treatment
      strategies exist for patients with both conditions.

PMID- 28570792
TI  - A Pilot, Randomized Controlled Study of Tai Chi With Passive and Active Controls
      in the Treatment of Depressed Chinese Americans.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This pilot, randomized clinical trial investigates the effectiveness
      of tai chi as the primary treatment for Chinese Americans with major depressive
      disorder (MDD). METHODS: 67 Chinese Americans with DSM-IV MDD and no treatment
      for depression were recruited between March 2012 and April 2013 and randomized
      (1:1:1) into a tai chi intervention, an education program, or a waitlisted group
      for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the 17-item Hamilton Depression
      Rating Scale (HDRS17); positive response for this outcome was defined as a
      decrease in total score of 50% or more, and remission was defined as HDRS17 <= 7.
      RESULTS: Participants (N = 67) were 72% female with a mean age of 54 +/- 13
      years. No serious adverse events were reported. After the end of the 12-week
      intervention, response rates were 25%, 21%, and 56%, and remission rates were
      10%, 21%, and 50% for the waitlisted, education, and tai chi intervention groups,
      respectively. The tai chi group showed improved treatment response when compared
      to both the waitlisted group (odds ratio [OR] = 2.11; 95% CI, 1.01-4.46) and to
      the education group (OR = 8.90; 95% CI, 1.17-67.70). Tai chi intervention showed
      significantly improved remission rate over the waitlisted group (OR = 3.01; 95%
      CI, 1.25-7.10), and a trend of improved remission compared to the education group
      (OR = 4.40; 95% CI, 0.78-24.17). CONCLUSIONS: As the primary treatment, tai chi
      improved treatment outcomes for Chinese Americans with MDD over both passive and
      active control groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:
      NCT01619631.

PMID- 28570793
TI  - Anticonvulsant Medication Use in Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Anticonvulsants have been studied for many indications, including
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The limited efficacy research on
      anticonvulsants for PTSD is mixed. However, anticonvulsants are prescribed widely
      to veterans with PTSD. Our objective was to measure trends and factors associated
      with anticonvulsant prescriptions among veterans with PTSD. METHODS: We obtained
      administrative and pharmacy data for veterans who initiated PTSD treatment in the
      US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) between 2004 and 2013 (N = 731,520). We
      identified those who received anticonvulsants during the year following their
      initial clinical PTSD diagnosis and examined common indications for
      anticonvulsant use, patient characteristics, and service use characteristics.
      Using logistic regression, we determined the predictors of anticonvulsant
      initiation among those without an indication. RESULTS: Although 24.9% of patients
      in the cohort received an anticonvulsant during their initial year of PTSD
      treatment, 94.6% had an indication unrelated to PTSD and 51.2% initiated
      anticonvulsant use before their PTSD diagnosis. While there was growth in
      anticonvulsant initiation over the 10-year period, this was explained both by
      growth in indications unrelated to PTSD and by increased use of anticonvulsants
      for these indications. The rate of anticonvulsant initiation without an
      indication was stable at approximately 5% throughout the period, with patient and
      service use characteristics driving the selection of individual agents.
      CONCLUSIONS: A large and increasing proportion of veterans with PTSD receives
      anticonvulsant prescriptions. However, this may be appropriate use driven by
      increased prevalence of comorbid conditions that may be an indication for
      anticonvulsant use, including pain and headache disorders.

PMID- 28570795
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28570794
TI  - Usual Course of Treatment and Predictors of Treatment Utilization for Patients
      With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric
      illness that frequently remains undiagnosed and untreated. While extensive
      research has been conducted among veterans, little research has evaluated course
      of treatment for PTSD in a general hospital setting. METHODS: We utilized data
      from the Partners HealthCare Research Patient Data Registry to evaluate mental
      health treatment utilization, including psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, by
      patients with recently diagnosed primary PTSD following DSM-IV criteria between
      January 1, 2002, and June 30, 2011. We additionally evaluated predictors of
      treatment utilization 6 months postdiagnosis. RESULTS: Among 2,475 patients with
      recently diagnosed primary PTSD, approximately half (55.7%) had any therapy visit
      and 10% had at least 12 therapy visits in the 6 months following diagnosis.
      Approximately half (47.0%) received a psychiatric prescription, with 29.3%
      receiving a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), 11.8% receiving an
      atypical antipsychotic, and 24.4% receiving a benzodiazepine. Latinos were 25%
      (95% CL = 1.09, 1.43) more likely to have an SSRI prescription, 35% (95% CL =
      1.05, 1.75) more likely to have an atypical antipsychotic prescription, and 28%
      (95% CL = 1.19, 1.38) more likely to receive any psychotherapy. Women were 49%
      (95% CL = 0.42, 0.63) less likely to have an atypical antipsychotic prescription.
      Patients with Medicare were 23% (95% CL = 0.67, 0.88) less likely to have any
      psychotherapy, and patients with Medicaid were 35% (95% CL = 0.46, 0.92) less
      likely to have 12 or more therapy visits. CONCLUSIONS: Many patients with a
      primary diagnosis of PTSD do not receive psychotherapy, and psychiatric
      prescriptions, including atypical antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, are common.
      Future research is needed to determine the quality of care received and explore
      subpopulation-specific barriers limiting access to care.

PMID- 28570796
TI  - Neonatal Discontinuation Syndrome in Serotonergic Antidepressant-Exposed
      Neonates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether infants exposed in utero to serotonin reuptake
      inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants or a DSM-IV-TR-defined mood disorder have
      significantly more neonatal discontinuation signs compared to an unexposed group
      of infants at 2-4 weeks after birth. METHODS: This secondary analysis was derived
      from 2 observational studies with enrollment from July 2000 to December 2011 in
      Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mothers (n = 214) belonged to one
      of 3 groups based on exposure status during pregnancy: (1) Comparison-women who
      did not take psychotropics during pregnancy and had no major mood disorder; (2)
      SRI-exposed-women with a mood disorder who were taking an SRI but no
      benzodiazepines; and (3) Mood Disorder-women with depression or bipolar disorder
      who did not take psychotropic medications. The infants were examined for signs
      according to the Finnegan Scale by evaluators blind to maternal exposure status.
      RESULTS: The rates of sign presence (defined as a score >= 2 on the Finnegan
      Scale) in the SRI, Mood Disorder, and Comparison groups were similar at 34.1%,
      35.1%, and 30.4%, respectively. Women in the SRI group had a significantly higher
      preterm birth rate (24.4%) compared to the other 2 groups (7.4% and 8.9% in the
      Mood Disorder and Comparison groups, respectively; P = .012). Preterm newborns
      had a significantly higher sign rate compared to full-term newborns (54% vs 31%,
      P = .020). We observed a significant relationship between Finnegan signs and
      preterm birth. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of neonatal signs at 2-4 weeks was more
      closely associated with prematurity than with in utero SRI or mood disorder
      exposure. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT00279370 and
      NCT00585702.

PMID- 28570798
TI  - A Potential Gap in the Perinatal Depression Treatment Cascade.

PMID- 28570797
TI  - Depression and Anxiety in the Postpartum Period and Risk of Bipolar Disorder: A
      Danish Nationwide Register-Based Cohort Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The first-onset affective episode requiring inpatient treatment in the
      postpartum period can be a marker of bipolar disorder, but it is unknown whether
      milder postpartum affective episodes are also indicators of underlying
      bipolarity. Therefore, we aimed to study whether women with a nonpsychotic
      postpartum affective episode treated with antidepressants have an increased risk
      of bipolar disorder. METHODS: A register-based cohort study was conducted in
      Denmark of 122,622 parous women without psychiatric history who received a first
      time antidepressant prescription during 1997-2012. We compared women with a first
      time antidepressant prescription, which was our indicator of a first-onset
      affective disorder, within 1 year postpartum to women with a first-time
      antidepressant prescription outside the postpartum period. Our outcome was
      psychiatric contact for bipolar disorder (ICD-10 criteria) during follow-up, and
      we estimated hazard ratios using Cox regressions. RESULTS: The risk of bipolar
      disorder among women with a postpartum affective episode was higher than that in
      women with an affective episode outside the postpartum period. The risk of
      bipolar disorder was 1.66 (95% CI, 1.12-2.48) for postpartum antidepressant
      monotherapy and 10.15 (95% CI, 7.13-14.46) for postpartum antidepressant therapy
      plus a subsequent prescription for anxiolytics when these therapies were compared
      to antidepressant monotherapy outside the postpartum period. CONCLUSIONS: First
      onset nonpsychotic postpartum affective disorder can be a marker of underlying
      bipolarity. Women who fill an antidepressant prescription following childbirth
      should be asked about hypomanic or manic symptoms and monitored long term.
      Clinically, when antidepressant monotherapy is ineffective or the individual
      woman experiences persistent and concerning symptoms, health professionals should
      consider a possible bipolar spectrum disorder.

PMID- 28570799
TI  - Dr Cox and Colleagues Reply.

PMID- 28570800
TI  - Correction. Suicide Risk Assessment in Hospitals: An Expert System-Based Triage
      Tool

PMID- 28570801
TI  - Lurasidone-Induced Rabbit Syndrome: A Case Report.

PMID- 28570802
TI  - Sensitive and Personalized Determinations of Likelihood of Being Helped or
      Harmed.

PMID- 28570803
TI  - Ketamine for Depression, 2: Diagnostic and Contextual Indications.
AB  - There is a substantial body of literature comprising anecdotal material and
      descriptions of uncontrolled and randomized controlled trials addressing the use
      of subanesthetic doses of ketamine for the off-label treatment of major
      depressive episodes. This article examines diagnostic indications for the off
      label use of ketamine as an antidepressant and possible contexts in which
      ketamine may be trialled. Ketamine is indicated in patients who are in a major
      depressive episode. Most of the research data have been collected from patients
      with major depressive disorder, but patients with bipolar depression have also
      been studied. Ketamine is effective in both diagnostic groups, but its benefits
      are impermanent, perhaps more so in bipolar depression. There are several
      contexts within this diagnostic framework when a ketamine trial may be
      considered. These include severe depression and depression that is refractory to
      conventional antidepressant medication; this is because there is little purpose
      in trialling an experimental treatment in patients who are less severely ill and
      those who are antidepressant responsive. More importantly, ketamine has
      demonstrated efficacy in the rapid reduction of suicidal symptoms and can
      therefore be trialled when rapid reduction in suicidality is necessary. Likewise,
      because of its swift and dramatic antidepressant action, it can be trialled in
      patients in whom improvement is urgently desired in order to allow the patient to
      attend to pressing life circumstances. Some data suggest that the use of ketamine
      early during the course of an antidepressant trial, or as anesthesia during
      electroconvulsive therapy, can improve early antidepressant outcomes. It is not
      clear whether the presence of psychotic symptoms is a contraindication for
      ketamine use. Issues related to these indications and contexts are briefly
      discussed.

PMID- 28570805
TI  - Silica-Derived Hydrophobic Colloidal Nano-Si for Lithium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - Silica can be converted to silicon by magnesium reduction. Here, this classical
      reaction is renovated for more efficient preparation of silicon nanoparticles
      (nano-Si). By reducing the particle size of the starting materials, the reaction
      can be completed within 10 min by mechanical milling at ambient temperature. The
      obtained nano-Si with high surface reactivity are directly reacted with 1
      pentanol to form an alkoxyl-functionalized hydrophobic colloid, which
      significantly simplifies the separation process and minimizes the loss of small
      Si particles. Nano-Si in 5 g scale can be obtained in one single batch with
      laboratory scale setups with very high yield of 89%. Utilizing the excellent
      dispersion in ethanol of the alkoxyl-functionalized nano-Si, surface carbon
      coating can be readily achieved by using ethanol soluble oligomeric phenolic
      resin as the precursor. The nano-Si after carbon coating exhibit excellent
      lithium storage performance comparable to the state of the art Si-based anode
      materials, featured for the high reversible capacity of 1756 mAh.g-1 after 500
      cycles at a current density of 2.1 A.g-1. The preparation approach will
      effectively promote the development of nano-Si-based anode materials for lithium
      ion batteries.

PMID- 28570804
TI  - Self-Assembled DNA Dendrimer Nanoparticle for Efficient Delivery of
      Immunostimulatory CpG Motifs.
AB  - Dendrimer-like DNA nanostructures have attractive properties such as mechanical
      stability, highly branched nanostructure, customized sizes, and biocompatibility.
      In this study, we construct programmable DNA dendrimeric nanoparticles as
      efficient vehicles to deliver immunostimulatory cytosine-phosphate-guanosine
      (CpG) sequences for activation of the immune response. DNA dendrimers decorated
      with CpG-containing hairpin-loops triggered stronger immune response
      characterized by pro-inflammatory cytokines production, in contrast to DNA
      dendrimers loading linear CpG. After further modification with TAT peptide, a
      typical cell-penetrating peptide, on the surface of the nanocarriers, CpG loops
      loaded DNA dendrimers showed the enhanced cell internalization and cytokines
      production. The TAT-DNA dendrimer-CpG loops constructs did not affect the
      viability of immune cells and no detectable cytotoxicity was observed. Our
      results demonstrate that the DNA dendrimers can serve as designable and safe
      vehicles for delivery of immune modulators and anticancer drugs.

PMID- 28570806
TI  - Second-Generation ReaxFF Water Force Field: Improvements in the Description of
      Water Density and OH-Anion Diffusion.
AB  - Hydronium (H3O+) and hydroxide (OH-) ions have anomalously large diffusion
      constants in aqueous solutions due to their combination of vehicular and
      Grotthuss hopping diffusion mechanisms. An improvement of the ReaxFF reactive
      water force field on the basis of our first-generation water force field (water
      2010) is presented to describe the proton transfer (PT) mechanisms of H3O+ and OH
      in water. Molecular dynamics simulation studies with the water-2017 force field
      support the Eigen-Zundel-Eigen mechanism for PT in acidic aqueous solution and
      reproduce the hypercoordinated solvation structure of the OH- in a basic
      environment. In particular, it predicts the correct order of the diffusion
      constants of H2O, H3O+, and OH- and their values are in agreement with the
      experimental data. Another interesting observation is that the diffusion
      constants of H3O+ and OH- are close to each other at high concentration due to
      the strong correlation between OH- ions in basic aqueous solution. On the basis
      of our results, it is shown that ReaxFF provides a novel approach to study the
      complex acid-base chemical reactions in aqueous solution with any pH value.

PMID- 28570807
TI  - Mechanism of Formation of the Nonstandard Product in the Prenyltransferase
      Reaction of the G115T Mutant of FtmPT1: A Case of Reaction Dynamics Calling the
      Shots?
AB  - FtmPT1 is a fungal indole prenyltransferase that affords Tryprostatin B from
      Brevianamide F and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate; however, when a single residue in
      the active site is mutated (Gly115Thr), a novel five-membered ring compound is
      obtained as the major product with Tryprostatin B as the minor product. Herein,
      we describe detailed studies of the catalysis of the Gly115Thr mutant of FtmPT1
      with a focus on the observed regioselectivity of the reaction. We employ one- and
      two-dimensional potential of mean force simulations to explore the catalytic
      mechanism, along with molecular dynamics simulations exploring the reaction
      dynamics of the prenyl transfer reaction. Single-point electronic structure
      calculations were also used to explore the performance of the self-consistent
      charge density functional tight-binding method to model specific reaction steps.
      Importantly, we observe that the two reaction pathways have comparable activation
      parameters and propose that the origin of the novel product is predicated, at
      least in part, on the topology of the potential energy surface as revealed by
      reaction dynamics studies.

PMID- 28570808
TI  - Development and Characterization of a Fluorescent Tracer for the Free Fatty Acid
      Receptor 2 (FFA2/GPR43).
AB  - The free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFA2/GPR43) is considered a potential target for
      treatment of metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Here we describe the
      development of the first fluorescent tracer for FFA2 intended as a tool for
      assessment of thermodynamic and kinetic binding parameters of unlabeled ligands.
      Starting with a known azetidine FFA2 antagonist, we used a carboxylic acid moiety
      known not to be critical for receptor interaction as attachment point for a
      nitrobenzoxadiazole (NBD) fluorophore. This led to the development of 4 (TUG
      1609), a fluorescent tracer for FFA2 with favorable spectroscopic properties and
      high affinity, as determined by bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)
      based saturation and kinetic binding experiments, as well as a high specific to
      nonspecific BRET binding signal. A BRET-based competition binding assay with 4
      was also established and used to determine binding constants and kinetics of
      unlabeled ligands.

PMID- 28570809
TI  - Reduced Iron-Containing Clay Minerals as Antibacterial Agents.
AB  - Previous work documented the general antibacterial mechanism of iron containing
      clays that involved hydroxyl radical (*OH) production from soluble Fe2+, and
      attack of cell membrane and intracellular proteins. Here we explore the role of
      clay structural Fe(II) in *OH production at near neutral pH and identify a lipid
      involved in the antibacterial process. Structural Fe(III) in nontronite NAu-2 was
      reduced (rNAu-2) and E. coli, a model bacterium, was exposed to rNAu-2 in oxic
      suspension. The antibacterial activity of rNAu-2 was dependent on pH and Fe(II)
      concentration, where E. coli were completely killed at pH 6, but survived at pH 7
      and 8. In the presence of a *OH scavenger or in anaerobic atmosphere, E. coli
      survived better, suggesting that cell death may be caused by *OH generated from
      oxidation of structural Fe(II) in rNAu-2. In-situ imaging revealed damage of a
      membrane lipid, cardiolipin, in the polar region of E. coli cells, where reactive
      oxygen species and redox-active labile Fe were enriched. Our results advance the
      previous antibacterial model by demonstrating that the structural Fe(II) is the
      primary source of *OH, which damages cardiolipin, triggers the influx of soluble
      Fe2+ into the cell, and ultimately leads to cell death.

PMID- 28570810
TI  - Admittance Scanning for Whole Column Detection.
AB  - Whole column detection (WCD) is as old as chromatography itself. WCD requires an
      ability to interrogate column contents from the outside. Other than the obvious
      case of optical detection through a transparent column, admittance (often termed
      contactless conductance) measurements can also sense changes in the column
      contents (especially ionic content) from the outside without galvanic contact
      with the solution. We propose here electromechanically scanned admittance imaging
      and apply this to open tubular (OT) chromatography. The detector scans across the
      column; the length resolution depends on the scanning velocity and the data
      acquisition frequency, ultimately limited by the physical step resolution (40 MUm
      in the present setup). Precision equal to this step resolution was observed for
      locating an interface between two immiscible liquids inside a 21 MUm capillary.
      Mechanically, the maximum scanning speed was 100 mm/s, but at 1 kHz sampling rate
      and a time constant of 25 ms, the highest practical scan speed (no peak
      distortion) was 28 mm/s. At scanning speeds of 0, 4, and 28 mm/s, the S/N for 180
      pL (zone length of 1.9 mm in a 11 MUm i.d. column) of 500 MUM KCl injected into
      water was 6450, 3850, and 1500, respectively. To facilitate constant and
      reproducible contact with the column regardless of minor variations in outer
      diameter, a double quadrupole electrode system was developed. Columns of
      significant length (>1 m) can be readily scanned. We demonstrate its
      applicability with both OT and commercial packed columns and explore uniformity
      of retention along a column, increasing S/N by stopped-flow repeat scans, etc. as
      unique applications.

PMID- 28570811
TI  - Allosteric Fine-Tuning of the Binding Pocket Dynamics in the ITK SH2 Domain by a
      Distal Molecular Switch: An Atomistic Perspective.
AB  - Although the regulation of function of proteins by allosteric interactions has
      been identified in many subcellular processes, molecular switches are also known
      to induce long-range conformational changes in proteins. A less well understood
      molecular switch involving cis-trans isomerization of a peptidyl-prolyl bond
      could induce a conformational change directly to the backbone that is propagated
      to other parts of the protein. However, these switches are elusive and hard to
      identify because they are intrinsic to biomolecules that are inherently dynamic.
      Here, we explore the conformational dynamics and free energy landscape of the SH2
      domain of interleukin-2-inducible T-cell or tyrosine kinase (ITK) to fully
      understand the conformational coupling between the distal cis-trans molecular
      switch and its binding pocket of the phosphotyrosine motif. We use multiple
      microsecond-long all-atom molecular dynamics simulations in explicit water for
      over a total of 60 MUs. We show that cis-trans isomerization of the Asn286-Pro287
      peptidyl-prolyl bond is directly coupled to the dynamics of the binding pocket of
      the phosphotyrosine motif, in agreement with previous NMR experiments. Unlike the
      cis state that is localized and less dynamic in a single free energy basin, the
      trans state samples two distinct conformations of the binding pocket-one that
      recognizes the phosphotyrosine motif and the other that is somewhat similar to
      that of the cis state. The results provide an atomic-level description of a less
      well understood allosteric regulation by a peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans molecular
      switch that could aid in the understanding of normal and aberrant subcellular
      processes and the identification of these elusive molecular switches in other
      proteins.

PMID- 28570812
TI  - Swelling of Graphene Oxide Membranes in Aqueous Solution: Characterization of
      Interlayer Spacing and Insight into Water Transport Mechanisms.
AB  - Graphene oxide (GO) has recently emerged as a promising 2D nanomaterial to make
      high-performance membranes for important applications. However, the aqueous-phase
      separation capability of a layer-stacked GO membrane can be significantly limited
      by its natural tendency to swell, that is, absorb water into the GO channel and
      form an enlarged interlayer spacing (d-spacing). In this study, the d-spacing of
      a GO membrane in an aqueous environment was experimentally characterized using an
      integrated quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation and ellipsometry. This
      method can accurately quantify a d-spacing in liquid and well beyond the typical
      measurement limit of ~2 nm. Molecular simulations were conducted to fundamentally
      understand the structure and mobility of water in the GO channel, and a
      theoretical model was developed to predict the d-spacing. It was found that, as a
      dry GO membrane was soaked in water, it initially maintained a d-spacing of 0.76
      nm, and water molecules in the GO channel formed a semiordered network with a
      density 30% higher than that of bulk water but 20% lower than that of the rhombus
      shaped water network formed in a graphene channel. The corresponding mobility of
      water in the GO channel was much lower than in the graphene channel, where water
      exhibited almost the same mobility as in the bulk. As the GO membrane remained in
      water, its d-spacing increased and reached 6 to 7 nm at equilibrium. In
      comparison, the d-spacing of a GO membrane in NaCl and Na2SO4 solutions decreased
      as the ionic strength increased and was ~2 nm at 100 mM.

PMID- 28570813
TI  - Polymer Composite with Carbon Nanofibers Aligned during Thermal Drawing as a
      Microelectrode for Chronic Neural Interfaces.
AB  - Microelectrodes provide a direct pathway to investigate brain activities
      electrically from the external world, which has advanced our fundamental
      understanding of brain functions and has been utilized for rehabilitative
      applications as brain-machine interfaces. However, minimizing the tissue response
      and prolonging the functional durations of these devices remain challenging.
      Therefore, the development of next-generation microelectrodes as neural
      interfaces is actively progressing from traditional inorganic materials toward
      biocompatible and functional organic materials with a miniature footprint, good
      flexibility, and reasonable robustness. In this study, we developed a
      miniaturized all polymer-based neural probe with carbon nanofiber (CNF)
      composites as recording electrodes via the scalable thermal drawing process. We
      demonstrated that in situ CNF unidirectional alignment can be achieved during the
      thermal drawing, which contributes to a drastic improvement of electrical
      conductivity by 2 orders of magnitude compared to a conventional polymer
      electrode, while still maintaining the mechanical compliance with brain tissues.
      The resulting neural probe has a miniature footprint, including a recording site
      with a reduced size comparable to a single neuron and maintained impedance that
      was able to capture neural activities. Its stable functionality as a chronic
      implant has been demonstrated with the long-term reliable electrophysiological
      recording with single-spike resolution and the minimal tissue response over the
      extended period of implantation in wild-type mice. Technology developed here can
      be applied to basic chronic electrophysiological studies as well as clinical
      implementation for neuro-rehabilitative applications.

PMID- 28570814
TI  - Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence of One-Dimensional Self-Assembled Porphyrin
      Hexagonal Nanoprisms.
AB  - In this work, we synthesized the one-dimensional nanostructure of zinc 5,10,15,20
      tetra(4-pyridyl)-21H,23H-porphine (ZnTPyP) via a self-assembly technique. Using
      sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as "soft template", the self-assembled ZnTPyP (SA
      ZnTPyP) had the morphology of hexagonal nanoprisms with a uniform size (diameter
      of 100 nm). The SA-ZnTPyP exhibited remarkably different spectral properties
      compared to those of the original ZnTPyP. The as-prepared SA-ZnTPyP was used to
      modify glassy carbon electrodes (GCE), and the electrochemiluminescence (ECL)
      behaviors of the SA-ZnTPyP/GCE were investigated. The hydrophilic carbon dots (C
      dots) could efficiently prevent the dissolution of SA-ZnTPyP in DMF containing
      0.1 mol L-1 TBAP and, simultaneously, could accelerate electron transfer.
      Therefore, the enhanced ECL was realized by C-dots/SA-ZnTPyP/GCE by using H2O2 as
      co-reactant. This amplification of ECL was further studied by ECL spectroscopies
      and cyclic voltammetry, and the corresponding mechanism was proposed.

PMID- 28570815
TI  - Co4N Nanosheet Assembled Mesoporous Sphere as a Matrix for Ultrahigh Sulfur
      Content Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
AB  - High utilization and loading of sulfur in cathodes holds the key in the
      realization of Li-S batteries. We here synthesized a Co4N mesoporous sphere,
      which was made up of nanosheets, via an easy and convenient method. This material
      presents high affinity, speedy trapping, and absorbing capacity for polysulfides
      and acts as a bifunctional catalysis for sulfur redox processes; therefore it is
      an ideal matrix for S active material. With such a mesoporous sphere used as a
      sulfur host in Li-S batteries, extraordinary electrochemistry performance has
      been achieved. With a sulfur content of 72.3 wt % in the composite, the Co4N@S
      delivered a high specific discharge capacity of 1659 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C, almost
      reaching its theoretic capacity. Also, the battery exhibited a large reversible
      capacity of about 1100 mAh g-1 at 0.5 C and 1000 mAh g-1 at 1 C after 100 cycles.
      At a high rate of 2 C and 5 C, after 300 cycles, the discharge capacity finally
      stabilized at 805 and 585 mAh g-1. Even at a 94.88% sulfur content, the cathode
      can still deliver an extremely high specific discharge capacity of 1259 mAh g-1
      with good cycle performance.

PMID- 28570816
TI  - Enzymatic Browning in Sugar Beet Leaves (Beta vulgaris L.): Influence of Caffeic
      Acid Derivatives, Oxidative Coupling, and Coupled Oxidation.
AB  - Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) leaves of 8 month (8m) plants showed more enzymatic
      browning than those of 3 month (3m). Total phenolic content increased from 4.6 to
      9.4 mg/g FW in 3m and 8m, respectively, quantitated by reverse-phase-ultrahigh
      performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet-mass spectrometry (RP-UHPLC-UV-MS).
      The PPO activity was 6.7 times higher in extracts from 8m than from 3m leaves.
      Substrate content increased from 0.53 to 2.45 mg/g FW in 3m and 8m, respectively,
      of which caffeic acid glycosyl esters were most important, increasing 10-fold
      with age. Caffeic acid glycosides and vitexin derivatives were no substrates. In
      3m and 8m, nonsubstrate-to-substrate ratios were 8:1 and 3:1, respectively. A
      model system showed browning at 3:1 ratio due to formation of products with
      extensive conjugated systems through oxidative coupling and coupled oxidation.
      The 8:1 ratio did not turn brown as oxidative coupling occurred without much
      coupled oxidation. We postulate that differences in nonsubstrate-to-substrate
      ratio and therewith extent of coupled oxidation explain browning.

PMID- 28570817
TI  - Insights into CC Chemokine Ligand 2/Chemokine Receptor 2 Molecular Recognition: A
      Step Forward toward Antichemotactic Agents.
AB  - Chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), also known as monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP
      1), is a chemokine that recruits immune cells to inflammatory sites by
      interacting with G protein-coupled receptor CCR2. The CCL2/CCR2 axis is also
      involved in pathological processes such as tumor growth and metastasis and hence
      is currently considered as an important drug target. CCL2 exists in a dynamic
      monomer-dimer equilibrium that is modulated by CCR2 binding. We used solution
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations
      to study the interactions between CCL2 and a sulfopeptide corresponding to the N
      terminal sequence of CCR2 (CCR218-31). Peptide binding induced the dissociation
      of CCL2 into monomers, forming stable CCL2/CCR218-31 complexes. NMR relaxation
      measurements indicated that residues around the CCR218-31 binding site, which are
      located at the dimer interface, undergo a complex regime of motions. NMR data
      were used to construct a three-dimensional structural model of the CCL2/CCR218-31
      complex, revealing that CCR218-31 occupies a binding site juxtaposed to the dimer
      interface, partially replacing monomer-monomer contacts, explaining why CCR218-31
      binding weakens the dimer interface and induces dissociation. We found that the
      main interactions governing receptor binding are highly stable salt bridges with
      conserved chemokine residues as well as hydrophobic interactions. These data
      provide new insights into the structure-function relationship of the CCL2-CCR2
      interaction and may be helpful for the design of novel antichemotactic agents.

PMID- 28570818
TI  - Chirality Dependent Potency Enhancement and Structural Impact of Glycol Nucleic
      Acid Modification on siRNA.
AB  - Here we report the investigation of glycol nucleic acid (GNA), an acyclic nucleic
      acid analogue, as a modification of siRNA duplexes. We evaluated the impact of
      (S)- or (R)-GNA nucleotide incorporation on RNA duplex structure by determining
      three individual crystal structures. These structures indicate that the (S)
      nucleotide backbone adopts a conformation that has little impact on the overall
      duplex structure, while the (R)-nucleotide disrupts the phosphate backbone and
      hydrogen bonding of an adjacent base pair. In addition, the GNA-T nucleobase
      adopts a rotated conformation in which the 5-methyl group points into the minor
      groove, rather than the major groove as in a normal Watson-Crick base pair. This
      observation of reverse Watson-Crick base pairing is further supported by thermal
      melting analysis of GNA-C and GNA-G containing duplexes where it was demonstrated
      that a higher thermal stability was associated with isoguanine and isocytosine
      base pairing, respectively, over the canonical nucleobases. Furthermore, it was
      also shown that GNA nucleotide or dinucleotide incorporation increases resistance
      against snake venom phosphodiesterase. Consistent with the structural data,
      modification of an siRNA with (S)-GNA resulted in greater in vitro potencies over
      identical sequences containing (R)-GNA. A walk of (S)-GNA along the guide and
      passenger strands of a GalNAc conjugate duplex targeting mouse transthyretin
      (TTR) indicated that GNA is well tolerated in the seed region of both strands in
      vitro, resulting in an approximate 2-fold improvement in potency. Finally, these
      conjugate duplexes modified with GNA were capable of maintaining in vivo potency
      when subcutaneously injected into mice.

PMID- 28570819
TI  - Proposed Hydrogen-Bonding Index of Donor or Acceptor Reflecting Its Intrinsic
      Contribution to Hydrogen-Bonding Strength.
AB  - In this work, we tentatively propose that the hydrogen-bonding strength EHB
      (referring to the minimal hydrogen-bonding energy) and its corresponding hydrogen
      bond (HB) distance (referring to the optimal HB distance dHB) for simple mono-HB
      systems have an exponential relationship on the basis of MP2 and DFT
      computational results. We take a step further and propose that the hydrogen
      bonding indices of the donor (Idonor) and acceptor (Iacceptor), reflecting their
      intrinsic contributions to hydrogen-bonding strength, also have an exponential
      relation with the hypothetical effective hydrogen-bond radii of the donor
      (rdonor) and acceptor (racceptor), respectively. On the basis of extensive
      quantum-mechanical calculations, relevant assumptions about the hydrogen-bonding
      index are rationalized. Moreover, the hydrogen-bonding index is also suggested as
      an additional prefiltering criterion for virtual screening besides the widely
      accepted Lipinski's rule of five. Finally, a "Hydrogen-Bond Index Estimator
      (HBIE)" module has been implemented in our Visual Force Field Derivation Toolkit
      (VFFDT) program to approximately and rapidly estimate the hydrogen-bonding
      indices of any small molecules in batch and screen possible stronger donors or
      acceptors from the small-molecule database. To the best of our knowledge, the
      concept of the hydrogen-bonding index and its potential application are proposed
      here for the first time.

PMID- 28570821
TI  - Hydrophobic Effect of Alkyl Groups Stabilizing Self-Assembled Colloids in Water.
AB  - Self-assembling behavior of hydrophobic molecules in water confirms that the
      hydrophobic effect (HE) of alkyl groups stabilizes the aqueous colloids.
      Fe(CO){CO(CH2)n-1CH3}(Cp)(PPh3) molecules (FpCn) with a Fp head and alkyl tail
      are water-insoluble. FpC1 aggregates in water precipitated in hours, whereas the
      hydrophobic interaction (HI) of long alkyl groups drove FpCn (n = 6-18) molecules
      assemble into colloids in water. The alkyl tails interacted and stretched as
      indicated by IR analysis, while the separation of Fp head groups at the surface
      of colloids was indicated by the redox behavior of Fe elements. The molecules
      therefore arranged into a proposed "Y" shape with hydration cavities. The IR and
      cyclic voltammetry (CV) analyses indicated that the longer the alkyl tail, the
      larger the hydration cavity and the stronger the HI. Both HI and hydrophobic
      hydration (HH) were identified as the HE stabilizing the colloids in water. This
      knowledge is applicable for a broad range of disciplines, including biology,
      chemistry, and material science.

PMID- 28570822
TI  - Comment on "X-ray Reflectivity Study of the Interaction of an Imidazolium-Based
      Ionic Liquid with a Soft Supported Lipid Membrane".

PMID- 28570820
TI  - Human Milk Oligosaccharides Exhibit Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Properties
      against Group B Streptococcus.
AB  - Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) is a Gram-positive
      bacterial pathogen that causes invasive infections in both children and adults.
      During pregnancy, GBS is a significant cause of infection of the fetal membranes
      (chorioamnionitis), which can lead to intra-amniotic infection, preterm birth,
      stillbirth, and neonatal sepsis. Recently, breastfeeding has been thought to
      represent a potential mode of GBS transmission from mother to newborn, which
      might increase the risk for late-onset sepsis. Little is known, however, about
      the molecular components of breast milk that may support or prevent GBS
      colonization. In this study, we examine how human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs)
      affect the pathogenesis of GBS. HMOs from discrete donor samples were isolated
      and profiled by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass
      spectrometry (MS). Growth and biofilm assays show that HMOs from mothers of
      specific milk groups can modulate the growth and biofilm formation of GBS. High
      resolution field-emission gun scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal
      laser scanning microscopy confirmed the quantitative biofilm assays and
      demonstrated cell arrangement perturbations in bacterial cultures treated with
      specific oligosaccharides. These findings demonstrate that HMOs affect the growth
      and cell biology of GBS. Finally, this study provides the first example of HMOs
      functioning as antibiofilm agents against GBS.

PMID- 28570823
TI  - Formulation of Nonionic Surfactant Vesicles (NISV) Prepared by Microfluidics for
      Therapeutic Delivery of siRNA into Cancer Cells.
AB  - Small interfering RNAs (siRNA) have a broad potential as therapeutic agents to
      reversibly silence any target gene of interest. The clinical application of siRNA
      requires the use of safe and effective delivery systems. In this study, we
      investigated the use of nonionic surfactant vesicles (NISV) for the delivery of
      siRNA. Different types of NISV formulations were synthesized by microfluidic
      mixing and then evaluated for their physiochemical properties and cytotoxicity.
      The ability of the NISV to carry and transfect siRNA targeting green fluorescent
      protein (GFP) into A549 that stably express GFP (copGFP-A549) was evaluated. Flow
      cytometry and Western blotting were used to study the GFP expression knockdown,
      and significant knockdown was observed as a result of siRNA delivery to the cells
      by NISV. This occurred in particular when using Tween 85, which was able to
      achieve more than 70% GFP knockdown. NISV were thus demonstrated to provide a
      promising and effective platform for therapeutic delivery of siRNA.

PMID- 28570824
TI  - Protein Epitope Mimetics: From New Antibiotics to Supramolecular Synthetic
      Vaccines.
AB  - Protein epitope mimetics provide powerful tools to study biomolecular recognition
      in many areas of chemical biology. They may also provide access to new
      biologically active molecules and potentially to new classes of drug and vaccine
      candidates. Here we highlight approaches for the design of folded, structurally
      defined epitope mimetics, by incorporating backbone and side chains of hot
      residues onto a stable constrained scaffold. Using robust synthetic methods, the
      structural, biological, and physical properties of epitope mimetics can be
      optimized, by variation of both side chain and backbone chemistry. To illustrate
      the potential of protein epitope mimetics in medicinal chemistry and
      biotechnology, we present studies in two areas of infectology; the discovery of
      new antibiotics targeting essential outer membrane (OM) proteins in Gram-negative
      bacteria and the design of supramolecular synthetic vaccines. The discovery of
      new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action, in particular to combat
      infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens, represents a major challenge in
      medicinal chemistry. We were inspired by naturally occurring cationic
      antimicrobial peptides to design structurally related peptidomimetics and to
      optimize their antimicrobial properties through library synthesis and screening.
      Through these efforts, we could show that antimicrobial beta-hairpin mimetics may
      have structures and properties that facilitate interactions with essential
      bacterial beta-barrel OM proteins. One recently discovered family of
      antimicrobial peptidomimetics targets the beta-barrel protein LptD in Pseudomonas
      spp. This protein plays a key role in lipopolysaccaride (LPS) transport to the
      cell surface during OM biogenesis. Through a highly selective interaction with
      LptD, the peptidomimetic blocks LPS transport, resulting in nanomolar
      antimicrobial activity against the important human pathogen P. aeruginosa.
      Epitope mimetics may also have great potential in the field of vaccinology, where
      structural information on complexes between neutralizing antibodies and their
      cognate epitopes can be taken as a starting point for B cell epitope mimetic
      design. In order to generate potent immune responses, an effective method of
      delivering epitope mimetics to relevant cells and tissues in the immune system is
      also required. For this, engineered synthetic nanoparticles (synthetic virus-like
      particles, SVLPs) prepared using supramolecular chemistry can be designed with
      optimal surface properties for efficient dendritic cell-mediated delivery of
      folded B-cell and linear T-cell epitopes, along with ligands for pattern
      recognition receptors, into lymphoid tissues. In this way, multivalent display of
      the epitope mimetics occurs over the surface of the nanoparticle, suitable for
      cross-linking B cell receptors. In this highly immunogenic format, strong epitope
      specific humoral immune responses can be elicited that target infections caused
      by pathogenic microorganisms. Other potential applications of epitope mimetics in
      next-generation therapeutics are also discussed.

PMID- 28570825
TI  - Effects of Cinnamoyloxy-mammeisin from Geopropolis on Osteoclast Differentiation
      and Porphyromonas gingivalis-Induced Periodontitis.
AB  - Bone-loss-related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteomyelitis,
      osteoporosis, and periodontitis are associated with high rates of morbidity
      worldwide. These disorders are characterized by an imbalance between the
      formation and activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, leading to bone loss. In
      this context, we evaluated the effect of cinnamoyloxy-mammeisin (CNM), an anti
      inflammatory coumarin found in Melipona scutellaris geopropolis, on key targets
      related to bone remodeling. In the present study we investigated the in vitro
      effects of CNM on osteoclast differentiation and M-CSF+RANKL-induced
      osteoclastogenic marker expression. Additionally, the interference of CNM
      treatment on osteoclast activity was evaluated by zymography and resorption area.
      Finally, we assessed the capacity of the compound to mitigate alveolar bone loss
      in vivo in experimental murine periodontitis induced by Porphyromonas gingivalis.
      We observed that treatment with CNM impaired osteoclast differentiation, as
      evidenced by a reduced number of tartrate-resistant acid-phosphatase-positive
      multinucleated cells (TRAP+) as well as the expression of osteoclastogenic
      markers upon M-CSF+RANKL-induced stimulation. Similarly, we observed reduced
      gelatinolytic and resorption capacity in M-CSF+RANKL-induced cells in vitro.
      Lastly, CNM attenuated alveolar bone loss in an experimental murine periodontitis
      model. These findings indicate that CNM may be considered a promising treatment
      for bone loss diseases.

PMID- 28570826
TI  - Specific Monoclonal Antibodies Recognizing the Endogenous Chicken High Mobility
      Group Box 1 Protein.
AB  - High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a key member of the "danger associated
      molecular patterns" (DAMPs), which can localize in various compartments of the
      cell, and plays important roles in systemic inflammation. In the present study,
      monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specifically against chicken HMGB1 were generated.
      The open reading frame of chicken HMGB1 was amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into
      the prokaryotic expression vector pET-28a to construct a recombinant plasmid pET
      chHMGB1. The recombinant chicken HMGB1 protein was expressed in Escherichia coli
      Rosetta under IPTG induction and then purified by Ni-NTA Purification System.
      BALB/c mice were immunized with the purified recombinant HMGB1 protein, and three
      strains of hybridoma cells named 1F10, 8C11, and 4D8 secreting MAbs of chicken
      HMGB1 were obtained by hybridoma technique. Western blot and indirect
      immunofluorescence assays showed that the endogenous HMGB1 in various cell lines
      and glycosylated HMGB1 could both be specifically recognized by the prepared
      MAbs. This work indicated that the MAbs against chicken HMGB1 would be a valuable
      tool for further studies of HMGB1-mediated signaling in virus-infected cells and
      investigates the role of HMGB1 in avian virus pathogenesis.

PMID- 28570828
TI  - The role of androgens in the regulation of muscle oxidative capacity following
      aerobic exercise training.
AB  - Reduced production or bioavailability of androgens, termed hypogonadism, occurs
      in a variety of pathological conditions. While androgens target numerous tissues
      throughout the body, hypogonadism specifically reduces the ability of skeletal
      muscle to produce adenosine triphosphate aerobically, i.e., muscle oxidative
      capacity. This has important implications for overall health as muscle oxidative
      capacity impacts a number of metabolic processes. Although androgen replacement
      therapy is effective at restoring muscle oxidative capacity in hypogonadal
      individuals, this is not a viable therapeutic option for all who are experiencing
      hypogonadism. While aerobic exercise may be a viable alternative to increase
      muscle oxidative capacity, it is unknown whether androgen depletion affects this
      adaptation. To determine this, sham and castrated mice were randomized to remain
      sedentary or undergo 8 weeks of aerobic treadmill exercise training. All mice
      were fasted overnight prior to sacrifice. Though exercise increased markers of
      muscle oxidative capacity independent of castration (cytochrome c oxidase subunit
      IV and cytochrome c), these measures were lower in castrated mice. This reduction
      was not due to a difference in peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma
      coactivator 1 alpha protein content, as expression was increased to a similar
      absolute value in sham and castrated animals following exercise training.
      However, markers of BCL2/Adenovirus E1B 19 kDa Interacting Protein 3 (BNIP3)
      mediated mitophagy were increased by castration independent of exercise.
      Together, these data show that exercise training can increase markers of muscle
      oxidative capacity following androgen depletion. However, these values are
      reduced by androgen depletion likely due in part to elevated BNIP3-mediated
      mitophagy.

PMID- 28570827
TI  - Race, Menopausal Hormone Therapy, and Invasive Breast Cancer in the Carolina
      Breast Cancer Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of combined estrogen-progestin menopausal hormone therapy (MHT)
      has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer, however, recent
      observational studies have suggested that the association between MHT and breast
      cancer may be modified by race. The objective of this study was to investigate
      the association between MHT use and incidence of invasive breast cancer in Black
      and White women aged >=40 years at diagnosis after accounting for racial
      differences in patterns of MHT use and formulation. METHODS: Data from the
      Carolina Breast Cancer Study, a population-based case-control study of Black and
      White women in North Carolina conducted between 1993 and 2001, was used to
      analyze 1474 invasive breast cancer cases and 1339 controls using unconditional
      logistic regression. RESULTS: Black women were less likely than White women to
      use any MHT and were more likely to use an unopposed-estrogen formulation.
      Combined estrogen-progestin MHT use was associated with a greater odds of breast
      cancer in White (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]:
      1.03-2.13) and Black (OR 1.43, 95% CI: 0.76-2.70) women, although the estimate in
      Black women was imprecise. In contrast, use of unopposed-estrogen MHT among women
      with prior hysterectomy was not associated with breast cancer in women of either
      race. CONCLUSION: The association between MHT and invasive breast cancer appears
      to be similar in both Black and White women after accounting for differences in
      formulation and prior hysterectomy. These findings emphasize the importance of
      accounting for MHT formulation in race-stratified analyses of breast cancer risk.

PMID- 28570829
TI  - Therapeutic Hypothermia for Asphyxial Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Due to
      Drowning: A Systematic Review of Case Series and Case Reports.
AB  - The objective of this review was to summarize published evidence of the
      effectiveness of therapeutic hypothermia in patients with drowning-associated
      asphyxial out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and to explore any preliminary
      favorable factors in the management of therapeutic hypothermia to improve
      survival and neurological outcome. Drowning may result in asphyxial OHCA or
      hypothermic OHCA, but the former does not provide any potential neuroprotective
      effect as the latter may do. Electronic literature searches of Ovid Medline,
      Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus were performed for all years from inception
      to July 2016. Primary studies in the form of case reports, letters to the editor,
      and others with higher quality are included, but guidelines, reviews, editorials,
      textbook chapters, conference abstracts, and nonhuman studies are excluded. Non
      English articles are excluded. Relevant studies are then deemed eligible if the
      drowning OHCA patient's initial temperature was above 28 degrees C, which implies
      asphyxial cardiac arrest, and intentional therapeutic hypothermia was instituted.
      Because of the narrow scope of interest and strict definition of the condition,
      limited studies addressed it, and no randomized controlled trials (RCT) could be
      selected. Thirteen studies covering 35 patients are included. No quantitative
      synthesis, assessment of study quality, or assessment of bias was performed. It
      is conjectured that extended therapeutic hypothermia of 48-72 hours might help
      prevent reperfusion injury during the intermediate phase of postcardiac arrest
      care to benefit patients of drowning-associated asphyxial OHCA, but this finding
      only serves as preliminary observation for future research. No conclusive
      recommendation could be made regarding the duration of and the time of onset of
      therapeutic hypothermia. Future research should put effort on RCT, particularly
      the effect of extended duration of 48-72 hours. Important parameters should be
      reported in detail. Asphyxial and hypothermic OHCA should be differentiated.

PMID- 28570830
TI  - Comparison of Three Adiposity Indexes and Cutoff Values to Predict Metabolic
      Syndrome Among University Students.
AB  - PURPOSE: Obesity and high body fat are related to diabetes and metabolic syndrome
      (MetS) in all ethnic groups. Based on the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
      definition of MetS, the aim of the present study was to compare body adiposity
      indexes (BAIs) and to assess their various cutoff values for the prediction of
      MetS in university students from Colombia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted on 886 volunteers (51.9% woman; age mean 21.4 years). Anthropometric
      characteristics (height, weight, waist circumference [WC], and hip circumference
      [HC]) were measured, and body composition was assessed by bioelectrical impedance
      analysis. MetS was defined as including >=3 of the metabolic abnormalities (WC,
      high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], triglycerides, fasting glucose, and
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure [BP]) in the definition provided by the
      IDF. The BAIs (i.e., BAI-HC [BAI], BAI-WC [BAI-w], and [BAI-p]) were calculated
      from formulas taking into account, height, weight, and WC, and for the visceral
      adiposity indexes, a formula, including WC, HDL-C, and triglycerides, was used.
      RESULTS: The overall prevalence of MetS was 5.9%, higher in men than in women.
      The most prevalent components were low HDL-C, high triglyceride levels, WC, and
      BP levels. The receiver operating characteristic curves analysis showed that BAI,
      BAI-w, and BAI-p could be useful tools to predict MetS in this population.
      CONCLUSION: For women, the optimal MetS threshold was found to be 30.34 (area
      under curve [AUC] = 0.720-0.863), 19.10 (AUC = 0.799-0.925), and 29.68 (AUC =
      0.779-0.901), for BAI, BAI-w, and BAI-p, respectively. For men, the optimal MetS
      threshold was found to be 27.83 (AUC = 0.726-0.873), 21.48 (AUC = 0.755-0.906),
      and 26.18 (AUC = 0.766-0.894), for BAI, BAI-w, and BAI-p, respectively. The three
      indexes can be useful tools to predict MetS according to the IDF criteria in
      university students from Colombia. Data on larger samples are needed.

PMID- 28570831
TI  - Recovery of Salmonella enterica from Australian Layer and Processing Environments
      Following Outbreaks Linked to Eggs.

PMID- 28570833
TI  - Medicine, public health and the populist radical right.

PMID- 28570832
TI  - Spearcons for Patient Monitoring: Laboratory Investigation Comparing Earcons and
      Spearcons.
AB  - Objective We compared the effectiveness of single-tone earcons versus spearcons
      in conveying information about two commonly monitored vital signs: oxygen
      saturation and heart rate. Background The uninformative nature of many medical
      alarms-and clinicians' lack of response to alarms-is a widespread problem that
      can compromise patient safety. Auditory displays, such as earcons and spearcons
      (speech-based earcons), may help clinicians maintain awareness of patients' well
      being and reduce their reliance on alarms. Earcons are short abstract sounds
      whose properties represent different types and levels of information, whereas
      spearcons are time-compressed spoken phrases that directly state their meaning.
      Listeners might identify patient vital signs more accurately with spearcons than
      with earcons. Method In Experiment 1 we compared how accurately 40 nonclinician
      participants using either (a) single-tone earcons differentiated by timbre and
      tremolo or (b) Cantonese spearcons recorded using a female Cantonese voice could
      identify both oxygen saturation and heart rate levels. In Experiment 2 we tested
      the identification performance of six further nonclinician participants with
      spearcons recorded using a male Cantonese voice. Results In Experiment 1,
      participants using spearcons identified both vital signs together more accurately
      than did participants using earcons. Participants using Cantonese spearcons also
      learned faster, completed trials faster, identified individual vital signs more
      accurately, and felt greater ease and more confident when identifying oxygen
      saturation levels. Experiment 2 verified the previous findings with male-voice
      Cantonese spearcons. Conclusion Participants identified vital signs more
      accurately using spearcons than with the single-tone earcons. Application
      Spearcons may be useful for patient monitoring in situations in which
      intermittently presented information is desirable.

PMID- 28570834
TI  - In Vitro Antistaphylococcal Synergistic Effect of Isoflavone Metabolite
      Demethyltexasin with Amoxicillin and Oxacillin.
AB  - Staphylococcal infections are often hard to treat due to increasing resistance,
      especially to beta-lactams. Previous studies described the synergy between common
      antibiotics and isoflavonoids; however, little is yet known about the combinatory
      effects of antibiotics with products of human isoflavone metabolism. In this
      study, demethyltexasin (DT), a human body metabolite of soybean isoflavones, was
      evaluated for its possible antistaphylococcal combinatory effect with amoxicillin
      and oxacillin. For comparison, common therapeutically used combination of
      amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was tested. DT showed strong synergistic interactions
      against most of Staphylococcus aureus strains when combined with amoxicillin (sum
      of fractional inhibitory concentrations [SigmaFIC] 0.257-0.461) and oxacillin
      (SigmaFIC 0.109-0.484). When oxacillin was combined with DT, resistance to this
      antibiotic was overcome in many cases. Moreover, antibiotic/DT combinations were
      effective mainly against methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA); however, the
      commonly used drug amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was effective only against
      sensitive strains. Our results indicated DT as a compound able to act
      synergistically with beta-lactams. In addition, some combinations are effective
      against MRSA and decrease staphylococcal resistance. To the best of our knowledge
      this is the first report of the antimicrobial synergistic effects of isoflavone
      human body metabolite with common antibiotics. DT seems to be a possible
      candidate for further research focused on antistaphylococcal drug development,
      especially against antibiotic-resistant strains.

PMID- 28570835
TI  - Lifestyle and Behavioral Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
AB  - Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common condition with serious physiological
      and psychological health consequences. It affects women across their reproductive
      lifespan and is associated with pregnancy complications, including gestational
      diabetes, preeclampsia, and large gestational-age babies. PCOS is associated with
      excess weight gain, which, in turn, exacerbates the health burden of PCOS.
      Therefore, weight management, including a modest weight loss, maintenance of
      weight loss, prevention of weight gain, and prevention of excess gestational
      weight gain, is a first-line treatment for women with PCOS during and independent
      of pregnancy. Despite evidence-based guidelines, international position
      statements, and Cochrane reviews promoting lifestyle interventions for PCOS, the
      optimal complexity, intensity, and behavioral components of lifestyle
      interventions for women with PCOS are not well understood. The focus of this
      narrative review is the evidence supporting the use of behavioral strategies in
      weight management interventions for reproductive-aged women to apply to PCOS.
      Behavioral theories, behavior change strategies, and psychological correlates of
      weight management have been thoroughly explored in weight loss interventions in
      the general population, reproductive-aged women, and peri-natal women. This
      article uses this parallel body of research to inform suggestions regarding
      lifestyle interventions in women with PCOS. Outcomes of weight management
      programs in women with PCOS are likely to be improved with the inclusion of
      behavioral and psychological strategies, including goal setting, self-monitoring,
      cognitive restructuring, problem solving, and relapse prevention. Strategies
      targeting improved motivation, social support, and psychological well-being are
      also important. These can be applied to the clinical management of women with
      PCOS at different reproductive life stages.

PMID- 28570837
TI  - High-Throughput Screening and Analysis of Charge Variants of Monoclonal
      Antibodies in Multiple Formulations.
AB  - Among different biopharmaceutical products, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) show a
      high level of complexity, including heterogeneity due to differences in size,
      hydrophobicity, charge, and so forth. Such heterogeneity can be related to both
      cell-based production and any of the stages of purification, storage, and
      delivery that the mAb is subjected to. Choosing the right formulation composition
      providing both physical and chemical stabilities can be a very challenging
      process, especially when done in the limited time frame required for a typical
      drug development cycle. Charge variants, a common type of heterogeneity for mAbs,
      are easy to detect by ion exchange, specifically cation exchange chromatography
      (CEX). We have developed and implemented a high-throughput CEX-based approach for
      the rapid screening and analysis of charge modifications in multiple formulation
      conditions. In this work, 96 different formulations of antistreptavidin IgG1 and
      IgG2 molecules were automatically prepared and analyzed after incubation at high
      temperature. Design of experiment and statistical analysis tools have been
      utilized to determine the major formulation factors responsible for chemical
      stability of antibodies. Regression models were constructed to find the optimal
      formulation conditions. The methodology can be applied to different stages of
      preformulation and formulation development of mAbs.

PMID- 28570836
TI  - The Influence of Hepatitis C Virus Therapy on the DNA Base Excision Repair System
      of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can infect extrahepatic tissues, including lymphocytes,
      creating reservoir of the virus. Moreover, HCV proteins can interact with DNA
      damage response proteins of infected cells. In this article we investigated the
      influence of the virus infection and a new ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir +/-
      dasabuvir +/- ribavirin (OBV/PTV/r +/- DSV +/- RBV) anti-HCV therapy on the PBMCs
      (peripheral blood mononuclear cells, mainly lymphocytes) DNA base excision repair
      (BER) system. BER protein activity was analyzed in the nuclear and mitochondrial
      extracts (NE and ME) of PBMC isolated from patients before and after therapy, and
      from subjects without HCV, using modeled double-strand DNA, with 2'-deoxyuridine
      substitution as the DNA damage. The NE and ME obtained from patients before
      therapy demonstrated lower efficacy of 2'-deoxyuridine removal and DNA repair
      polymerization than those of the control group or patients after therapy.
      Moreover, the extracts from the patients after therapy had similar activity to
      those from the control group. However, the efficacy of apurinic/apyrimidinic site
      excision in NE did not differ between the studied groups. We postulate that
      infection of lymphocytes by the HCV can lead to a decrease in the activity of BER
      enzymes. However, the use of novel therapy results in the improvement of
      glycosylase activity as well as the regeneration of endonuclease and other
      crucial repair enzymes.

PMID- 28570838
TI  - A High-Throughput Screening Strategy to Identify Inhibitors of SSB Protein
      Protein Interactions in an Academic Screening Facility.
AB  - Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are increasingly prevalent worldwide,
      and there is an urgent need for novel classes of antibiotics capable of
      overcoming existing resistance mechanisms. One potential antibiotic target is the
      bacterial single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB), which serves as a hub for
      DNA repair, recombination, and replication. Eight highly conserved residues at
      the C-terminus of SSB use direct protein-protein interactions (PPIs) to recruit
      more than a dozen important genome maintenance proteins to single-stranded DNA.
      Mutations that disrupt PPIs with the C-terminal tail of SSB are lethal,
      suggesting that small-molecule inhibitors of these critical SSB PPIs could be
      effective antibacterial agents. As a first step toward implementing this
      strategy, we have developed orthogonal high-throughput screening assays to
      identify small-molecule inhibitors of the Klebsiella pneumonia SSB-PriA
      interaction. Hits were identified from an initial screen of 72,474 compounds
      using an AlphaScreen (AS) primary screen, and their activity was subsequently
      confirmed in an orthogonal fluorescence polarization (FP) assay. As an additional
      control, an FP assay targeted against an unrelated eukaryotic PPI was used to
      confirm specificity for the SSB-PriA interaction. Nine potent and selective
      inhibitors produced concentration-response curves with IC50 values of <40 MUM,
      and two compounds were observed to directly bind to PriA, demonstrating the
      success of this screen strategy.

PMID- 28570839
TI  - miR-26b Promotes 3T3-L1 Adipocyte Differentiation Through Targeting PTEN.
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in adipogenesis that is closely linked to
      obesity and energy homeostasis. Thus far, only a few miRNAs have been identified
      to regulate adipocyte development, arousing interest in the detailed function of
      miRNAs during adipogenesis. In this study, we found that the miR-26b expression
      showed an increasing trend during 3T3-L1 cells differentiation. To investigate
      the role of miR-26b in adipogenesis, the synthetic miR-26b agomirs and antagomirs
      were used to perform overexpression and knockdown experiment, respectively. Our
      data revealed that overexpression of miR-26b significantly accelerated the mRNA
      expression of the adipogenic markers, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
      gamma (PPARgamma), fatty acid synthase (FAS), CCAAT/enhancer binding protein
      alpha (C/EBPalpha), and lipoprotein lipase, and the protein level of PPARgamma
      and FAS. miR-26b overexpression also resulted in a significant increase in lipid
      accumulation. In contrast, inhibition of miR-26b expression decreased
      differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells. By target gene prediction and luciferase
      reporter assay, we demonstrated that miR-26b may directly bind to the 3' UTR of
      phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). Taken together, these results demonstrate
      that miR-26b might participate in regulating adipogenic differentiation in 3T3-L1
      cells by inhibiting the PTEN expression, further highlighting the importance of
      miRNA in adipogenesis.

PMID- 28570841
TI  - Gastrovascular Circulation in an Octocoral: Evidence of Significant Transport of
      Coral and Symbiont Cells.
AB  - The gastrovascular system in the Red Sea soft coral Parerythropodium fulvum
      fulvum comprises two interconnected networks of canals filled with fluid and
      circulating cells. The first network is composed of narrow canals (50-80 {mu}m in
      width) located below the upper ectodermal layer; the second network includes
      larger canals (300-500 {mu}m in width) that are located deeper in the coral
      tissue. Particle movement in the second network is faster than in the superficial
      network, but in both, coral cells with and without healthy zooxanthellae
      circulate freely. To investigate the movement of metabolites and cellular
      components within the colony, coral fragments were exposed to 14C-labeled
      seawater for 24 h in the laboratory and in situ under saturating photosynthetic
      photon flux and then grafted back to their original colonies. Grafts fused after
      24 h. In the laboratory experiment, up to 45% of the fixed 14C was translocated
      to the unlabeled colony within 48 h after fusion. In the in situ experiment,
      significant translocation of labeled materials occurred at the furthest parts of
      the colonies, 390 mm away from the fusion line, in 24 h. Even though the amount
      of labeling varied between colonies, labeled material spread throughout all the
      unlabeled parts. It thus appears that the gastrovascular system in
      Parerythropodium fulvum fulvum functions as an effective circulatory apparatus
      for fast translocation of organic compounds and cellular components within the
      colony.

PMID- 28570840
TI  - Sex differences in the oxygen delivery, extraction, and uptake during moderate
      walking exercise transition.
AB  - Previous studies in children and older adults demonstrated faster oxygen uptake
      (VO2) kinetics in males compared with females, but young healthy adults have not
      been studied. We hypothesized that young men would have faster aerobic system
      dynamics in response to the onset of exercise than women. Interactions between
      oxygen supply and utilization were characterized by the dynamics of VO2,
      deoxyhemoglobin (HHb), tissue saturation index (TSI), cardiac output (Q), and
      calculated arteriovenous O2 difference (a-vO2diff) in women and men. Eighteen
      healthy active young women and men (9 of each sex) with similar aerobic fitness
      levels volunteered for this study. Participants performed an incremental
      cardiopulmonary treadmill exercise test and 3 moderate-intensity treadmill
      exercise tests (at 80% VO2 of gas exchange threshold). Data related to the
      moderate exercise were submitted to exponential data modelling to obtain
      parameters related to the aerobic system dynamics. The time constants of VO2, a
      vO2diff, HHb, and TSI (30 +/- 6, 29 +/- 1, 16 +/- 1, and 15 +/- 2 s,
      respectively) in women were statistically (p < 0.05) faster than the time
      constants in men (42 +/- 10, 49 +/- 21, 19 +/- 3, and 20 +/- 4 s, respectively).
      Although Q dynamics were not statistically different (p = 0.06) between groups,
      there was a trend to slower Q dynamics in men corresponding with the slower VO2
      kinetics. These results indicated that the peripheral and pulmonary oxygen
      extraction dynamics were remarkably faster in women. Thus, contrary to the
      hypothesis, VO2 dynamics measured at the mouth at the onset of submaximal
      treadmill walking were faster in women compared with men.

PMID- 28570842
TI  - Paracellular Solute Uptake in the Freshwater Bivalves Corbicula fluminea and
      Toxolasma texasensis.
AB  - Two species of freshwater bivalve were exposed to hyperosmotic solutions of
      various nonelectrolytes to compare the paracellular permeability of their gill
      epithelia. In Corbicula fluminea, exposure resulted in an elevation of blood
      solutes that was primarily due to dehydration. After 36 h of exposure, the
      concentration of Na in the blood decreased precipitously, and the nonelectrolyte
      accumulated. When lanthanum was added to the solution as a diffusion tracer, its
      electron-dense precipitate was rarely observed to penetrate the paracellular
      spaces of the gill epithelial cells in the absence of hyperosmotic stress. In
      contrast, precipitated lanthanum was commonly observed in the paracellular
      junctional complexes of the gill in animals that were subjected to hyperosmotic
      conditions. When the second species, Toxolasma texasensis, was exposed to
      hyperosmotic solutions of nonelectrolyte, dehydration appeared to be minimal and
      a seemingly normal concentration of ions was maintained in the blood. This,
      however, was because of the simultaneous loss of ions and water and a small gain
      in nonelectrolytes. Longer exposure (12 h or more) produced a precipitous
      decrease in most blood solutes and an extensive accumulation of nonelectrolyte.
      More lanthanum precipitate was seen in the paracellular spaces of both control
      and hyperosmotically stressed T. texasensis than in identically treated C.
      fluminea. We conclude that the epithelial junctions found in C. fluminea are
      relatively tight, which probably contributes to the ability of this species to
      maintain the solute in its body fluid at concentrations higher than are possible
      in T. texasensis.

PMID- 28570843
TI  - Cloning by Ophiuroid Echinoderm Larvae.
AB  - Larvae of the brittle star Ophiopholis aculeata, common to the North Pacific
      coast of the United States, and an unidentified species of ophiuroid, collected
      from waters off the eastern coast of Florida, undergo asexual reproduction of the
      primary larva to produce a secondary larval clone. Generation of a secondary
      larva begins with the release of the larval posterolateral arms, which are
      initially retained by the settled juvenile. In O. aculeata, the released arms
      regenerate all the structures typical of the primary ophiopluteus. Tissue and
      energy reserves required for formation of the secondary feeding larva appear to
      be supplied by the absorption and reorganization of part of the posterolateral
      arms. Various developmental stages of the unidentified ophiopluteus were
      collected from plankton samples taken off the coast of Florida. These included
      just-released posterolateral arms, plutei, and metamorphosed juveniles with the
      posterolateral arms still attached. The identification of regenerating arms from
      the plankton demonstrates that asexual reproduction by ophiuroid larvae is not
      restricted to a single, laboratory-cultured species. In both O. aculeata and the
      unidentified Atlantic ophiopluteus, cloning involves the dedifferentiation of
      primary larval tissue and a developmental progression similar to that followed by
      the zygote, although it is not known whether the formation of the secondary larva
      follows the same pathway utilized by the primary larva or a novel developmental
      program. Asexually produced secondary larvae of O. aculeata undergo
      metamorphosis, settle to the benthos, and initiate a tertiary larval generation,
      indicating that cloned larvae could be added to the population as long as
      environmental conditions could support a planktonic existence. This phenomenon
      represents an unusual potential to increase the geographic range and the number
      of juveniles of a given parentage in future generations without additional
      reproductive input from the adult.

PMID- 28570844
TI  - Minerals of the Radular Apparatus of Falcidens sp. (Caudofoveata) and the
      Evolutionary Implications for the Phylum Mollusca.
AB  - Minerals have been found in the radular teeth of molluscs from the classes
      Caudofoveata, Polyplacophora, Monoplacophora, and Gastropoda (Patellogastropoda:
      Acmaeidae, Patellidae). Here we report the discovery of amorphous iron oxide and
      hydroxyapatite in the highly modified radular apparatus of Falcidens sp.
      (Caudofoveata). The mineralization process in Falcidens sp. is unique: the
      components of the radular apparatus, unlike those of other molluscs, are not
      renewed during the animal's lifetime. We propose that the presence of mineralized
      teeth among the molluscs is not necessarily connected to their manner of
      obtaining food and suggest that the molluscan common ancestor had mineralized
      teeth.

PMID- 28570845
TI  - Celestial Mechanics, Sea-Level Changes, and Intertidal Ecology.
AB  - Celestial mechanics has long been known to affect life on Earth, but exploration
      of these influences has been hampered by long temporal scales and complex
      biological relations. Here we report on a periodic fluctuation in tidal exposure
      driven by the 18.6-y oscillation of the moon's orbital inclination, which can
      change by almost 50% the average time that intertidal organisms are exposed to
      air. The temperature of nearshore water and the upper limits to mussels are shown
      to vary with the lunar oscillation. Such variation challenges the value of
      ecological and physiological generalizations based on snapshot measures, and
      highlights the value of long-term studies.

PMID- 28570846
TI  - Evaluation of the Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on
      Movement in the Marine Diatom Amphora coffeaeformis.
AB  - Published work has shown that population motility in the marine diatom Amphora
      coffeaeformis can be influenced by externally applied electromagnetic fields
      (EMFs). Here we report attempts to repeat these experiments, which have been
      proposed as a model for assessing the effects of EMFs on biological systems.
      Susceptibility to EMFs was tested using five strains of diatoms on agar plates at
      a very broad range of field conditions, but no effect on population motility was
      demonstrated. Exposure period to the EMFs, cell density, and position in the cell
      cycle had no effect on EMF susceptibility, and the direction and distance moved
      by the diatoms were not affected by EMFs. When tested after at least a month of
      preincubation at 20 {mu}T, diatoms of strains #2038, IIIB, and IIIF did show an
      EMF-induced increase in population motility over control cells (up to ~20%) at
      conditions predicted by the "ion cyclotron resonance" model, but this effect was
      ephemeral. Later, IIIB showed a similar increase that was abolished when (1) non
      pre-incubated cells were used, (2) the EMF-producing coils were not energized,
      and (3) even harmonics were used. On observing the response of diatoms to EMFs in
      real time, a significant increase (~2-fold) in diatom speed over control cells
      was evident at "ion cyclotron resonance" conditions, using strain #2038 (pre
      incubated at 20 {mu}T). The effect was abolished at an even harmonic. We conclude
      that EMFs can modulate diatom motility, but that the system is, as yet, not
      consistently reproducible.

PMID- 28570847
TI  - Carbohydrates of the Organic Shell Matrix and the Shell-Forming Tissue of the
      Snail Biomphalaria glabrata (Say).
AB  - Sulfated carbohydrates may play a role in the biomineralization of the molluscan
      shell. The carbohydrates of the extracted water-insoluble organic shell matrix
      (IM) of the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata were identified as glucose,
      mannose, galactose, and N-acetyl-glucosamine, whereas the water-soluble organic
      matrix (SM) additionally contained N-acetyl-galactosamine. A specific lectin
      binding pattern of the matrix was obtained. One prominent protein of the SM, with
      a size of 19.6 kDa and a pI of 7.4, was shown to be a glycoprotein with terminal
      glucosyl or mannosyl moieties. The acidic constitutents of the matrix showed a
      variety of possible terminal sugars, indicating a heterogenous mixture of
      proteoglycans or glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and glycoproteins. At the shell
      forming mantle edge, an alcian-blue-positive material was observed in the
      periostracum groove (PG), the belt, and apically in the cells of the outer mantle
      epithelium (OME). With the help of lectins, all sugars in question were detected
      in the PG and the belt, whereas the OME was bound by glucose/mannose- and GlcNac
      specific lectins only. Although the complete set of GAGs will be produced in the
      PG and the belt, a very acidic fraction of GAGs and the 19.6-kDa protein can also
      be delivered by the OME.

PMID- 28570848
TI  - Zebra Mussel Spawning Is Induced in Low Concentrations of Putative Serotonin
      Reuptake Inhibitors.
AB  - Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) and its receptor ligands induce both oocyte
      maturation and spawning in zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). The selective
      serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) fluvoxamine ("Luvox"), fluoxetine
      ("Prozac"), and paroxetine ("Paxil") are commonly prescribed drugs for the
      treatment of depression in humans. They act to increase 5-HT neurotransmission by
      inhibiting reuptake transport proteins at synapses. I tested the efficacy of
      these drugs at inducing spawning in zebra mussels. All three compounds induced
      spawning in both sexes at concentrations lower than that for 5-HT itself.
      Fluvoxamine was particularly potent, inducing spawning in 100% of both sexes at
      10-5 and 10-6 M. The concentration that induced a significant percentage of
      animals to spawn was as low as 10-9 M for males and and 10-7 M for females. The
      lowest concentration of fluvoxamine to induce spawning was 10-8 M for females
      (40%) and 10-10 M for males (20%). Gametes spawned in fluvoxamine (10-5 M and
      lower) were viable, and swimming trochophores were formed within 20 hours.
      Fluoxetine was also an effective spawning inducer, causing 100% of males to spawn
      at 5 x 10-6 M. The concentration of fluoxetine required to induce a significant
      percentage of spawning was as low as 5 x 10-8 M for males and 5 x 10-6 M for
      females. In both fluvoxamine and fluoxetine, more than 60% of the males spawned
      within the first hour of exposure. In contrast, paroxetine was a weak spawning
      inducer. At concentrations of 10-5 and 10-6 M it induced significant, but low
      (50% and 40%, respectively) percentages of males to spawn. Paroxetine did not
      induce significant spawning in females. Thus, fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, and
      paroxetine can induce spawning at low concentrations, and fluvoxamine is the most
      powerful spawning inducer in any bivalve. These may be useful agents for
      stimulating invertebrate serotonergic mechanisms without applying exogenous 5-HT,
      and they are potentially important in bivalve aquaculture. Moreover, these
      results suggest, for the first time, the presence of 5-HT reuptake transporters
      in bivalve molluscs.

PMID- 28570849
TI  - Role of Chemical Inducers in Larval Metamorphosis of Queen Conch, Strombus gigas
      Linnaeus: Relationship to Other Marine Invertebrate Systems.
AB  - Chemical cues are important in the exogenous and endogenous control of
      metamorphosis in many marine invertebrate larvae. In the queen conch, Strombus
      gigas Linnaeus, larval metamorphosis is induced by low molecular weight compounds
      associated with dominant species of red algae found in conch nursery grounds;
      these species include the foliose rhodophyte Laurencia poitei (Lamouroux). The
      responses of conch larvae to the algal-associated cues are dependent on
      concentration and length of exposure, with the initial events of metamorphosis
      occurring within 10 min of treatment with an aqueous extract of L. poitei. The
      free amino acids valine and isoleutine mimic the effects of the natural inducer,
      and they may bind to and be recognized by the same sites on the larvae as the
      algal cues. Hydrogen peroxide, vanadate, and {gamma}-aminobutyric acid (GABA), as
      well as elevated K+ concentrations (i.e., above ambient seawater levels), also
      induce larval metamorphosis. Acetylsalicylic acid decreases the responses of
      conch larvae to the algal-associated cues and to the free amino acids, but it has
      no effect on the induction triggered by hydrogen peroxide. The chemical induction
      of metamorphosis in conch larvae shares many general features with chemoreception
      in aquatic invertebrates. The natural inducers of metamorphosis, like the cues
      involved in olfactory responses in other marine organisms, are of low molecular
      weight and water soluble. In addition, the results of the experiments with
      hydrogen peroxide, vanadate, and GABA suggest that second messenger pathways are
      involved in conch metamorphosis.

PMID- 28570850
TI  - Ion Transport in the Freshwater Bivalve Corbicula fluminea.
AB  - In freshwater bivalves such as the mussel Corbicula fluminea, uptake of chloride
      depends on the external concentration of the chloride ion. In C. fluminea, Cl-
      uptake displayed saturation kinetics both in animals acclimated to pondwater and
      in those subjected to salt depletion by storage in deionized water. The transport
      capacity (Jmax) was 7.00 +/- 0.51 {mu}eq g-1 dry tissue h-1 and the transport
      affinity (Km) was 0.21 +/- 0.08 mM in animals acclimated to pondwater. Animals
      subjected to salt depletion had a higher rate of Cl- uptake than did animals
      acclimated to pondwater. After 4 weeks in deionized water, the longer the animals
      were salt-depleted, the higher their rate of Cl- uptake. Na+ and Cl- transport
      were independent in pondwater-acclimated C. fluminea. For salt-depleted animals,
      Cl- transport was Na+-independent, but Na+ transport depended partially on
      external Cl-. Serotonin stimulated Cl- and Na+ transport in pond-water-acclimated
      animals by increasing influx while having little influence on efflux.
      Acetazolamide increased the Cl- and Na+ efflux of salt-depleted animals. Both
      serotonin and acetazolamide elevated the net loss of titratable base.

PMID- 28570851
TI  - Effect of seminal plasma from high- and low-fertility bulls on cauda epididymal
      sperm function.
AB  - The aim of this study was to characterise the effect of seminal plasma (SP) from
      bulls of high or low fertility on sperm function. First, the effect of SP on the
      motility of fresh cauda epididymal spermatozoa (CES) and frozen-thawed ejaculated
      spermatozoa was assessed (Experiment 1a). Seminal plasma was then collected from
      bulls of known high and low fertility. Pooled CES were incubated in the SP from
      each bull, diluted and assessed for motility and viability on Days 1, 2, 3 and 5
      after packaging as fresh semen (Experiment 1b). Also assessed were motility,
      kinematics, viability and mitochondrial membrane potential after thawing
      (Experiment 1c) as well as hypotonic resistance (Experiment 2) and fertilisation
      potential using in vitro fertilisation (Experiment 3). Seminal plasma increased
      the motility of CES (P<0.05); however, there was no effect of SP on the motility
      and viability of fresh CES or on CES post-thaw motility, viability and
      mitochondrial membrane potential (P>0.05). The hypotonic resistance of CES was
      reduced by SP (P<0.05), irrespective of whether the SP was from high- or low
      fertility bulls. Seminal plasma from high- or low-fertility bulls had no effect
      on cleavage or blastocyst rates (P>0.05). In conclusion, SP affects the
      physiological function of CES but there is no difference between SP from high- or
      low-fertility bulls.

PMID- 28570852
TI  - Synthesis of uniform cadmium sulphide thin film by the homogeneous precipitation
      method on cadmium telluride nanorods and its application in three-dimensional
      heterojunction flexible solar cells.
AB  - High-density CdTe nanorod arrays are successfully embedded in a uniform and
      compact CdS layer, forming a novel three-dimensional (3D) CdTe NRs/CdS
      heterojunction structure. The CdS layer is prepared by homogeneous precipitation
      (HP) method using decomposition of urea. The effects of temperature and
      concentration of reactants on the growth and composition of CdS film are
      investigated in detail. The results demonstrate that the temperature affects the
      thermal decomposition of urea significantly, and the concentration of CdCl2 and
      CS (NH2)2 plays an essential role in the compositional ratio of CdS film. Further
      investigations reveal that, in comparison with the traditional precipitation
      method, a better coverage of CdS on the surface of CdTe NRs can be obtained by HP
      method due to the slow and even hydrolysis of urea. Moreover, photovoltaic
      performance of the novel CdTe NRs/CdS 3D photovoltaic device is also
      investigated. This study demonstrates that the 3D heterostructure has potential
      application in thin film solar cells, and the successful deposition of CdS layer
      on the surface of CdTe NRs by HP method suggests a promising technique for large
      scale fabrication of these solar cells.

PMID- 28570853
TI  - Polyurethane foam membranes filled with humic acid-chitosan crosslinked gels for
      selective and simultaneous removal of dyes.
AB  - Polyurethane foam membrane filled with humic acid-chitosan crosslinked gels (HA
      CS-PUF) for dye removal was prepared by soaking the foams into humic acid
      chitosan (HA-CS) crosslinked gels and hot-pressing them into membranes. Scanning
      electron microscope, derivative thermogravimetry and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy were used to characterize the HA-CS-PUF membrane. Results showed
      that the interaction of HA and CS was mainly through ionic cross-linking between
      carboxyl and protonated amino groups. Three types of dyes, including positively
      charged methylene blue (MB), neutrally charged rhodamine B (RB) and negatively
      charged methyl orange (MO), were used to test membranes properties through static
      adsorption and membrane filtration experiments. It revealed that adsorption
      process was better fitted with Pseudo-second-order and Freundlich model. In
      membrane filtration experiments, we found that the retention rates of membrane 1
      (ratio of HA to CS was 0:1) to MO and RB were 99.7% and 65%, respectively, and
      nearly no retention to MB. While membrane 4 (ratio of HA to CS was 0.2:1) can
      retain 97.7% of MO, 71.6% of RB and 62.1% of MB. Based on the experimental
      results, membrane 1 possessed the ability of selectively separating MB from MO/MB
      and RB/MB solutions, and membrane 4 can simultaneously retain RB and MB from
      RB/MB solution.

PMID- 28570854
TI  - Fabrication of a transparent conducting electrode based on graphene/silver
      nanowires via layer-by-layer method for organic photovoltaic devices.
AB  - A solution-processed transparent conducting electrode was fabricated via layer-by
      layer (LBL) deposition of graphene oxide (GO) and silver nanowires (Ag NWs).
      First, graphite was oxidized with a modified Hummer's method to obtain negatively
      charged GO sheets, and Ag NWs were functionalized with cysteamine hydrochloride
      to acquire positively-charged silver nanowires. Oppositely-charged GO and Ag NWs
      were then sequentially coated on a 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane modified glass
      substrate via LBL deposition, which provided highly controllable thin films in
      terms of optical transmittance and sheet resistance. Next, the reduction of GO
      sheets was performed to improve the electrical conductivity of the multilayer
      films. The resulting GO/Ag NWs multilayer was characterized by a UV-Vis
      spectrometer, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), optical
      microscope (OM) and sheet resistance using a four-point probe method. The best
      result was achieved with a 2-bilayer film, resulting in a sheet resistance of
      6.5Omega sq-1 with an optical transmittance of 78.2% at 550nm, which values are
      comparable to those of commercial ITO electrodes. The device based on a 2-bilayer
      hybrid film exhibited the highest device efficiency of 1.30% among the devices
      with different number of graphene/Ag NW LBL depositions.

PMID- 28570855
TI  - Dispersion characteristics of the flexural wave assessed using low frequency (50
      150kHz) point-contact transducers: A feasibility study on bone-mimicking
      phantoms.
AB  - Guided waves-based techniques are currently under development for quantitative
      cortical bone assessment. However, the signal interpretation is challenging due
      to multiple mode overlapping. To overcome this limitation, dry point-contact
      transducers have been used at low frequencies for a selective excitation of the
      zeroth order anti-symmetric Lamb A0 mode, a mode whose dispersion characteristics
      can be used to infer the thickness of the waveguide. In this paper, our purpose
      was to extend the technique by combining a dry point-contact transducers approach
      to the SVD-enhanced 2-D Fourier transform in order to measure the dispersion
      characteristics of the flexural mode. The robustness of our approach is assessed
      on bone-mimicking phantoms covered or not with soft tissue-mimicking layer.
      Experiments were also performed on a bovine bone. Dispersion characteristics of
      measured modes were extracted using a SVD-based signal processing technique. The
      thickness was obtained by fitting a free plate model to experimental data. The
      results show that, in all studied cases, the estimated thickness values are in
      good agreement with the actual thickness values. From the results, we speculate
      that in vivo cortical thickness assessment by measuring the flexural wave using
      point-contact transducers is feasible. However, this assumption has to be
      confirmed by further in vivo studies.

PMID- 28570856
TI  - Identification of the mechanical moduli of flexible thermoplastic thin films
      using reflected ultrasonic waves: Inverse problem.
AB  - A method for the identification of the mechanical moduli and density of flexible,
      supple thermoplastic thin films placed on elastic substrates using ultrasonic
      waves has been developed. The composite medium immersed in a fluid host medium
      (water) was excited using a 50MHz transducer operating at normal incidence in
      reflection mode. Inverse problems involving experimental data pertaining to
      elastic wave propagation in the thin films on their substrates and theoretical
      fluid-solid interaction models for stratified media using elasticity theory were
      solved. Two configurations having different interface boundary conditions (BC)
      were modeled, transverse slip for the sliding contact interface in the case where
      the thin films were placed on the substrate without bonding; a bonded interface
      condition. The inverse problem for the recovery of the mechanical parameters were
      solved for the thin films under the bonded and slip BCs. Substrates made of
      different elastic materials having different geometries were also evaluated and
      their advantages discussed.

PMID- 28570858
TI  - Chronological narratives from smoking initiation through to pregnancy of
      Indigenous Australian women: A qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: One in two Indigenous Australian pregnant women smoke, yet little is
      known about their trajectory of smoking. This study aimed to explore Aboriginal
      women's narratives from starting smoking through to pregnancy. METHODS: A female
      Aboriginal Researcher conducted individual face-to-face interviews with 20
      Aboriginal women from New South Wales, Australia. Recruitment, through Aboriginal
      services and community networks, continued until saturation was reached. Audio
      recorded transcripts were independently open coded by two researchers,
      inductively analysed and reported using a three-dimensional structure of looking
      backwards, forwards, inwards, outwards and a sense of place, to elucidate the
      chronology of events, life stages, characters, environments, and turning points
      of the stories. RESULTS: A chronology emerged from smoking initiation in
      childhood, coming of age, becoming pregnant, through to attempts at quitting, and
      relapse post-partum. Several new themes emerged: the role mothers play in women's
      smoking and quitting; the contribution of nausea to spontaneous quitting;
      depression as a barrier to quitting; and the hopes of women for their own and
      their children's future. The epiphany of pregnancy was a key turning point for
      many - including the interplay of successive pregnancies; and the intensity of
      expressed regret. CONCLUSIONS: Aboriginal women report multiple influences in the
      progression of early smoking to pregnancy and beyond. Potential opportunities to
      intervene include: a) childhood, coming of age, pregnancy, post-natal, in-between
      births; b) key influencers; c) environments, and d) targeting concurrent
      substance use. Morning sickness appears to be a natural deterrent to continued
      smoking. Depression, and its relationship to smoking and quitting in Australian
      Indigenous pregnant women, requires further research.

PMID- 28570857
TI  - 'Even when you are afraid, you stay': Provision of maternity care during the
      Ebola virus epidemic: A qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: to explore nurse-midwives understanding of their role in and ability
      to continue to provide routine and emergency maternity services during the time
      of the Ebola virus disease epidemic in Sierra Leone. DESIGN: a hermenuetic
      phenomenological approach was used to discover the lived experiences of nurse
      midwives through 66 face to face interviews. Following verbatim transcription, an
      iterative approach to data analysis was adopted using framework analysis to
      discover the essence of the lived experience. SETTING: health facilities
      designated to provide maternity care across all 14 districts of Sierra Leone.
      PARTICIPANTS: nurses, midwives, medical staff and managers providing maternal and
      newborn care during the Ebola epidemic in facilities designated to provide basic
      or emergency obstetric care. FINDINGS: the healthcare system in Sierra Leone was
      ill prepared to cope with the epidemic. Fear of Ebola and mistrust kept women
      from accessing care at a health facility. Healthcare providers continued to
      provide maternity care because of professional duty, responsibility to the
      community and religious beliefs. KEY CONCLUSIONS: nurse-midwives faced increased
      risks of catching Ebola compared to other health workers but continued to provide
      essential maternity care. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: future preparedness plans
      must take into account the impact that epidemics have on the ability of the
      health system to continue to provide vital routine and emergency maternal and
      newborn health care. Healthcare providers need to have a stronger voice in health
      system rebuilding and planning and management to ensure that health service can
      continue to provide vital maternal and newborn care during epidemics.

PMID- 28570859
TI  - The contribution of task-choice response selection to the switch cost in
      voluntary task switching.
AB  - Mental flexibility not only enables us to switch between tasks but also to select
      the tasks we want to perform. The latter scenario is central to voluntary task
      switching, in which participants are free to select on each trial which task to
      perform. The present study argues that voluntary task switching also includes and
      additional component, namely task-choice response selection. Task-choice response
      selection refers to the whole chain of processes involved in the overt report or
      indication of the task that was selected by emitting an arbitrary response. Task
      choice response selection is not required to voluntarily switch between tasks,
      but serves the measurement of participants' covert task selection. The results of
      two experiments indicate that the contribution of task-choice response selection
      to switch performance in voluntary task switching is substantial. It is proposed
      that task-choice response selection delays the top-down retrieval of task rules
      in voluntary task switching.

PMID- 28570860
TI  - How humans use visual optic flow to regulate stepping during walking.
AB  - Humans use visual optic flow to regulate average walking speed. Among many
      possible strategies available, healthy humans walking on motorized treadmills
      allow fluctuations in stride length (Ln) and stride time (Tn) to persist across
      multiple consecutive strides, but rapidly correct deviations in stride speed
      (Sn=Ln/Tn) at each successive stride, n. Several experiments verified this
      stepping strategy when participants walked with no optic flow. This study
      determined how removing or systematically altering optic flow influenced peoples'
      stride-to-stride stepping control strategies. Participants walked on a treadmill
      with a virtual reality (VR) scene projected onto a 3m tall, 180 degrees  semi
      cylindrical screen in front of the treadmill. Five conditions were tested: blank
      screen ("BLANK"), static scene ("STATIC"), or moving scene with optic flow speed
      slower than ("SLOW"), matched to ("MATCH"), or faster than ("FAST") walking
      speed. Participants took shorter and faster strides and demonstrated increased
      stepping variability during the BLANK condition compared to the other conditions.
      Thus, when visual information was removed, individuals appeared to walk more
      cautiously. Optic flow influenced both how quickly humans corrected stride speed
      deviations and how successful they were at enacting this strategy to try to
      maintain approximately constant speed at each stride. These results were
      consistent with Weber's law: healthy adults more-rapidly corrected stride speed
      deviations in a no optic flow condition (the lower intensity stimuli) compared to
      contexts with non-zero optic flow. These results demonstrate how the temporal
      characteristics of optic flow influence ability to correct speed fluctuations
      during walking.

PMID- 28570861
TI  - Cognitive tasks promote automatization of postural control in young and older
      adults.
AB  - Researchers looking at the effects of performing a concurrent cognitive task on
      postural control in young and older adults using traditional center-of-pressure
      measures and complexity measures found discordant results. Results of experiments
      showing improvements of stability have suggested the use of strategies such as
      automatization of postural control or stiffening strategy. This experiment aimed
      to confirm in healthy young and older adults that performing a cognitive task
      while standing leads to improvements that are due to automaticity of sway by
      using sample entropy. Twenty-one young adults and twenty-five older adults were
      asked to stand on a force platform while performing a cognitive task. There were
      four cognitive tasks: simple reaction time, go/no-go reaction time, equation and
      occurrence of a digit in a number sequence. Results demonstrated decreased sway
      area and variability as well as increased sample entropy for both groups when
      performing a cognitive task. Results suggest that performing a concurrent
      cognitive task promotes the adoption of an automatic postural control in young
      and older adults as evidenced by an increased postural stability and postural
      sway complexity.

PMID- 28570862
TI  - Monocyte inflammatory profile is specific for individuals and associated with
      altered blood lipid levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Atherogenesis is dependent upon monocyte influx into the
      vessel wall. In humans, three monocyte subsets exist, the number and function of
      which are significantly altered in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether such
      alterations arise in individuals with a perturbed lipid profile remains largely
      unanswered, but is important to delineate, as adoption of a pro-inflammatory
      state may promote plaque formation. Here, we compared the inflammatory status of
      monocyte subsets and determined whether monocyte inflammatory changes are evident
      in individuals with a perturbed lipid profile. METHODS: Monocyte subset cytokine
      production, inflammatory and anti-inflammatory marker expression were determined
      by whole blood flow cytometry and related to participants' lipid levels. RESULTS:
      The intermediate and non-classical monocytes were more inflammatory than
      classicals as seen by their higher cytokine production (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL
      6) and M1 marker (CD86) expression, but lower levels of M2 markers (CD93, CD163).
      More importantly, a considerable variation was seen between participants, with
      all monocytes of one individual being more inflammatory than those of another.
      Many inter-individual differences were related to participants' lipid levels. IL
      1beta production correlated negatively with Apo A1 and HDL-C. CD86 and TLR2
      correlated positively with Chol:HDL-C but negatively with HDL-C and Apo A1:Apo B.
      Interestingly, CD163 expression correlated positively with Chol:HDL-C but
      negatively with Apo A1:Apo B. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicates that priming of all
      monocytes to an inflammatory state occurs in individuals with a perturbed lipid
      profile, overriding the normal functional distinction attributed to the different
      monocyte subsets. As such, all monocytes may be important in CVD.

PMID- 28570863
TI  - Closing the gap: long-term presynaptic plasticity in brain function and disease.
AB  - Synaptic plasticity is critical for experience-dependent adjustments of brain
      function. While most research has focused on the mechanisms that underlie
      postsynaptic forms of plasticity, comparatively little is known about how
      neurotransmitter release is altered in a long-term manner. Emerging research
      suggests that many of the features of canonical 'postsynaptic' plasticity, such
      as associativity, structural changes and bidirectionality, also characterize long
      term presynaptic plasticity. Recent studies demonstrate that presynaptic
      plasticity is a potent regulator of circuit output and function. Moreover,
      aberrant presynaptic plasticity is a convergent factor of synaptopathies like
      schizophrenia, addiction, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, and may be a potential
      target for treatment.

PMID- 28570864
TI  - Molecular mechanisms of astrocyte-induced synaptogenesis.
AB  - Astrocytes are morphologically complex cells that perform a wide variety of
      critical functions in the brain. As a structurally and functionally integrated
      component of the synapse, astrocytes secrete proteins, lipids, and small
      molecules that bind neuronal receptors to promote synaptogenesis and regulate
      synaptic connectivity. Additionally, astrocytes are key players in circuit
      formation, instructing the formation of synapses between distinct classes of
      neurons. This review highlights recent publications on the topic of astrocyte
      mediated synaptogenesis, with a focus on the molecular mechanisms through which
      astrocytes orchestrate the formation of synaptic circuits.

PMID- 28570865
TI  - Cyclic peptide natural products chart the frontier of oral bioavailability in the
      pursuit of undruggable targets.
AB  - As interest in protein-protein interactions and other previously-undruggable
      targets increases, medicinal chemists are returning to natural products for
      design inspiration toward molecules that transcend the paradigm of small molecule
      drugs. These compounds, especially peptides, often have poor ADME properties and
      thus require a more nuanced understanding of structure-property relationships to
      achieve desirable oral bioavailability. Although there have been few clinical
      successes in this chemical space to date, recent work has identified
      opportunities to introduce favorable physicochemical properties to peptidic
      macrocycles that maintain activity and oral bioavailability.

PMID- 28570866
TI  - Differentiated effects of deep brain stimulation and medication on somatosensory
      processing in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) and dopaminergic medication effectively
      alleviate the motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, but their
      effects on the sensory symptoms of PD are still not well understood. To explore
      early somatosensory processing in PD, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG)
      from thirteen DBS-treated PD patients and ten healthy controls during median
      nerve stimulation. METHODS: PD patients were measured during DBS-treated,
      untreated and dopaminergic-medicated states. We focused on early cortical
      somatosensory processing as indexed by N20m, induced gamma augmentation (31-45Hz
      and 55-100Hz) and induced beta suppression (13-30Hz). PD patients' motor symptoms
      were assessed by UPDRS-III. RESULTS: Using Bayesian statistics, we found positive
      evidence for differentiated effects of treatments on the induced gamma
      augmentation (31-45Hz) with highest gamma in the dopaminergic-medicated state and
      lowest in the DBS-treated and untreated states. In contrast, UPDRS-III scores
      showed beneficial effects of both DBS and dopaminergic medication on the
      patients' motor symptoms. Furthermore, treatments did not affect the amplitude of
      N20m. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest differentiated effects of DBS and
      dopaminergic medication on cortical somatosensory processing in PD patients
      despite consistent ameliorating effects of both treatments on PD motor symptoms.
      SIGNIFICANCE: The differentiated effect suggests differences in the effect
      mechanisms of the two treatments.

PMID- 28570867
TI  - Evoked potentials recorded during routine EEG predict outcome after perinatal
      asphyxia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the added value of somatosensory (SEPs) and visual evoked
      potentials (VEPs) recorded simultaneously with routine EEG in early outcome
      prediction of newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy under modern
      intensive care. METHODS: We simultaneously recorded multichannel EEG, median
      nerve SEPs, and flash VEPs during the first few postnatal days in 50 term
      newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. EEG background was scored into
      five grades and the worst two grades were considered to indicate poor cerebral
      recovery. Evoked potentials were classified as absent or present. Clinical
      outcome was determined from the medical records at a median age of 21months.
      Unfavorable outcome included cerebral palsy, severe mental retardation, severe
      epilepsy, or death. RESULTS: The accuracy of outcome prediction was 98% with SEPs
      compared to 90% with EEG. EEG alone always predicted unfavorable outcome when it
      was inactive (n=9), and favorable outcome when it was normal or only mildly
      abnormal (n=17). However, newborns with moderate or severe EEG background
      abnormality could have either favorable or unfavorable outcome, which was
      correctly predicted by SEP in all but one newborn (accuracy in this subgroup
      96%). Absent VEPs were always associated with an inactive EEG, and an unfavorable
      outcome. However, presence of VEPs did not guarantee a favorable outcome.
      CONCLUSIONS: SEPs accurately predict clinical outcomes in newborns with hypoxic
      ischemic encephalopathy and improve the EEG-based prediction particularly in
      those newborns with severely or moderately abnormal EEG findings. SIGNIFICANCE:
      SEPs should be added to routine EEG recordings for early bedside assessment of
      newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

PMID- 28570868
TI  - Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations is disrupted in Alzheimer's
      disease with depression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore brain activity in AD with depression (D-AD) based on
      fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF). METHODS: Twenty-two D
      AD and 21 AD without depression patients (nD-AD) were examined by magnetic
      resonance imaging during resting state. Neuropsychiatric Inventory and Hamilton
      Depression Rating Scale were employed to assess the severity of depression. We
      analysed the characteristics of fALFF in D-AD differing from nD-AD. We also
      examined the correlation between fALFF and the depression severity. RESULTS: D-AD
      patients had higher fALFF in right fusiform gyrus, left caudate nucleus, and
      right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), meanwhile lower fALFF in supplementary motor
      area (SMA) than nD-AD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal fALFF changes in fusiform
      gyrus, caudate nucleus, MTG and SMA may be important neuropathophysiologic
      characteristics of depression in AD. SIGNIFICANCE: We have clarified the
      potential neuropathological changes of depression in AD based on fALFF method,
      which is crucial for effective intervention.

PMID- 28570869
TI  - The Effect of Adding Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy to Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in
      Patients with Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Undetectable
      Pretreatment Epstein-Barr Virus DNA.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the effect of adding neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to
      concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with locoregionally advanced
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and undetectable pretreatment Epstein-Barr virus
      (pEBV) DNA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 639 NPC patients with stage II to
      IVB and undetectable pEBV DNA to receive CCRT with or without NACT. Radiotherapy
      was 2.0 to 2.27 Gy per fraction with five daily fractions per week for 6 to 7
      weeks to the primary tumor and 62 to 70 Gy to the involved neck area. NACT was
      cisplatin (80-100 mg/m2day 1) and 5-fluorouracil (800-1000 mg/m2, 120-hour
      continuous intravenous infusion) every 3 weeks for two or three cycles. CCRT was
      cisplatin (80-100 mg/m2day 1) every 3 weeks for three cycles. RESULTS: For all
      patients, the 5-year overall survival (OS), locoregional relapse-free survival
      (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and progression-free survival
      (PFS) rates were 91.9%, 92.2%, 95.0%, and 86.4%, respectively. There was no
      significant difference in OS (5-year OS 90.8% [NACT + CCRT group] vs 92.7% [CCRT
      alone]; hazard ratio [HR] 1.24; P=.486), LRFS (HR 1.13, 95% confidence interval
      [CI] 0.59-2.14, P=.715), DMFS (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.34-1.78, P=.554), or PFS (HR
      1.21, 95% CI 0.75-1.95, P=.472). CONCLUSION: CCRT with or without NACT produced a
      good treatment outcome in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC and
      undetectable pEBV DNA, but NACT before CCRT did not significantly improve
      survival rates.

PMID- 28570870
TI  - Tetraselmis as a challenge organism for validation of ballast water UV systems.
AB  - Transport and release of waterborne organisms as a result of ballasting and de
      ballasting operations is widely acknowledged to represent an important mechanism
      for invasions by non-indigenous species. Regulatory requirements have been
      implemented globally to require treatment of ballast water before its release to
      the environment as a means of minimizing risks of invasion. UV-based processes
      represent an option for ballast water treatment; however, their use will require
      development of appropriate methods for reactor validation. To address this need,
      Tetraselmis was examined as challenge organism using a most probable number (MPN)
      assay for quantification of the concentration of viable (reproductively active)
      cells in suspension. A low pressure collimated-beam reactor was used to
      investigate UV254 dose-response behavior of Tetraselmis. Based on the
      experimental conditions applied, Tetraselmis indicated 4.5-5 log10 units of
      inactivation for UV254 doses of approximately 120 mJ/cm2, with no apparent change
      of resistance resulting from repeated exposure. A medium pressure UV collimated
      beam reactor equipped with a series of narrow bandpass optical filters was used
      to investigate the action spectrum of Tetraselmis for wavelengths ranging from
      228 nm-297 nm. Radiation with wavelengths in the range 254-280 nm was observed to
      be most efficient for inactivation of Tetraselmis. Additionally, DNA was
      extracted from Tetraselmis to allow measurement of its absorption spectrum. These
      results indicated strong absorbance from 254 nm to 280 nm, thereby suggesting
      that damage to DNA plays an important role in the inactivation of Tetraselmis sp.
      However, deviations of the action spectrum shape from the shape of the DNA
      absorption spectrum suggest that UV-induced damage to biomolecules other than DNA
      may contribute to Tetraselmis inactivation at some wavelengths in the UVC range.

PMID- 28570871
TI  - Influence of dissolved organic matter concentration and composition on the
      removal efficiency of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) during drinking water
      treatment.
AB  - Drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) are constantly adapting to a host of
      emerging threats including the removal of micro-pollutants like perfluoroalkyl
      substances (PFASs), while concurrently considering how background levels of
      dissolved organic matter (DOM) influences their removal efficiency. Two
      adsorbents, namely anion exchange (AE) and granulated active carbon (GAC) have
      shown particular promise for PFAS removal, yet the influence of background levels
      of DOM remains poorly explored. Here we considered how the removal efficiency of
      13 PFASs are influenced by two contrasting types of DOM at four concentrations,
      using both AE (Purolite A-600(r)) and GAC (Filtrasorb 400(r)). We placed emphasis
      on the pre-equilibrium conditions to gain better mechanistic insight into the
      dynamics between DOM, PFASs and adsorbents. We found AE to be very effective at
      removing both PFASs and DOM, while largely remaining resistant to even high
      levels of background DOM (8 mg carbon L-1) and surprisingly found that smaller
      PFASs were removed slightly more efficiently than longer chained counterparts, In
      contrast, PFAS removal efficiency with GAC was highly variable with PFAS chain
      length, often improving in the presence of DOM, but with variable response based
      on the type of DOM and PFAS chain length.

PMID- 28570872
TI  - Quantitative characterization of organic diffusion using an analytical diffusion
      reaction model and its application to assessing BOD removal when treating
      municipal wastewater in a plug flow reactor.
AB  - The present study aimed to derive an analytical formula to quantify the diffusion
      of organic contaminant in a biofilm. The experiments were conducted to
      investigate the BOD degradation under the conditions of influent COD
      concentration from 50 to 300 mg/L, COD:N:P ratios of 100:5:1 and 100:15:3, with
      and without auxiliary aeration. The BOD removal rate was around 73% for non
      aerated influent COD of 50 mg/L with 1-h hydraulic retention time. The BOD
      removal rate increased as the influent loading and hydraulic retention time
      increased while the influent COD was no more than 150 mg/L. Without aeration, the
      removal rate dropped significantly when influent COD increased to the range no
      less than 200 mg/L, due to the fact that the BOD diffusive flux driven by the
      biomass uptake was not further enhanced by higher ambient organic loading. The
      diffusion coefficient was calculated to be 1.12 * 10-6 m2/d with influent COD of
      50 mg/L at COD:N:P ratio of 100:5:1 and 1 h hydraulic retention time and
      aeration, and the coefficient increased to 3.35 * 10-6 m2/d as the influent COD
      concentration increased to 300 mg/L. The diffusion coefficient decreased to 4.09
      * 10-7 m2/d as the retention time increased to 3 h. The overall diffusion
      coefficients showed an increasing trend as the influent organic loading
      increased. The difference in diffusion coefficients between 1 and 2 h was
      apparently greater than that between 2 and 3 h, indicating a smaller overall
      diffusive flux due to a longer retention time. Further analysis revealed that BOD
      diffusion activity exhibited a declining trend as the wastewater travelled
      through the system. An analytical diffusion-reaction model was developed to
      characterize the diffusion behaviour, and applied to estimating the treatment
      efficiency for real domestic sewage. The result showed that the estimated
      effluent BOD concentrations were quite comparable to those from experimental
      measurements.

PMID- 28570873
TI  - Biotransformation of nitrogen- and sulfur-containing pollutants during coking
      wastewater treatment: Correspondence of performance to microbial community
      functional structure.
AB  - Although coking wastewater is generally considered to contain high concentration
      of nitrogen- and sulfur-containing pollutants, the biotransformation processes of
      these compounds have not been well understood. Herein, a high throughput
      functional gene array (GeoChip 5.0) in combination with Illumina MiSeq sequencing
      of the 16S rRNA gene were used to identify microbial functional traits and their
      role in biotransformation of nitrogen- and sulfur-containing compounds in a bench
      scale aerobic coking wastewater treatment system operated for 488 days.
      Biotransformation of nitrogen and sulfur-containing pollutants deteriorated when
      pH of the bioreactor was increased to >8.0, and the microbial community
      functional structure was significantly associated with pH (Mantels test, P <
      0.05). The release of ammonia nitrogen and sulfate was correlated with both the
      taxonomic and functional microbial community structure (P < 0.05). Considering
      the abundance and correlation with the release of ammonia nitrogen and sulfate,
      aromatic dioxygenases (e.g. xylXY, nagG), nitrilases (e.g. nhh, nitrilase),
      dibenzothiophene oxidase (DbtAc), and thiocyanate hydrolase (scnABC) were
      important functional genes for biotransformation of nitrogen- and sulfur
      containing pollutants. Functional characterization of taxa and network analysis
      suggested that Burkholderiales, Actinomycetales, Rhizobiales, Pseudomonadales,
      and Hydrogenophiliales (Thiobacillus) were key functional taxa. Variance
      partitioning analysis showed that pH and influent ammonia nitrogen jointly
      explained 25.9% and 35.5% of variation in organic pollutant degrading genes and
      microbial community structure, respectively. This study revealed a linkage
      between microbial community functional structure and the likely biotransformation
      of nitrogen- and sulfur-containing pollutants, along with a suitable range of pH
      (7.0-7.5) for stability of the biological system treating coking wastewater.

PMID- 28570874
TI  - Suitability of humic substances recovered from sewage sludge to remedy soils from
      a former As mining area - a novel approach.
AB  - Batch washing experiments were performed to evaluate the feasibility of using a
      solution of humic substances (HS) extracted from municipal sewage sludge as a
      washing agent to remove As from soils at a former As mining area. Soils (S1, S2,
      S3) differed in organic matter content, pH and As concentration. At pH 4 and a HS
      concentration of 4000mgTOCL-1, As removal efficiency ranged from 18% (S2) to 27%
      (S3). In all cases, As removal proceeded according to pseudo-second-order
      kinetics (equilibrium As concentrations ranged from 625mgkg-1 (S3) to 1250mgkg-1
      (S3); rate constants, from 1.02*10-5kgmg-1min-1 (S1) to 2.05*10-5kgmg-1min-1
      (S3). The time needed to reach equilibrium was 12h. With double washing, the
      efficiency of As removal was 1.5-times higher (on average) than with single
      washing. Double washing increased As stability, as indicated by the reduced
      partition index, especially in soils S1 and S3. Moreover, HS effectively
      decreased the content of the most toxic As(III) (by 95-97%).

PMID- 28570875
TI  - The impact of modified nano-carbon black on the earthworm Eisenia fetida under
      turfgrass growing conditions: Assessment of survival, biomass, and antioxidant
      enzymatic activities.
AB  - Modified nano-carbon adsorbents have been employed in the immobilization of heavy
      metals in soil due to their good adsorption capabilities regarding metal ions.
      However, an assessment of their risks has not been extensively performed with
      soil organisms. To assess the toxic effects of three types of modified nano
      carbon black (CB) on soil organisms, a laboratory test was conducted to expose
      the earthworm Eisenia fetida to artificial soil supplemented with 5% H2SO4-, HNO3
      and KMnO4-modified nano-CB (SCB, NCB and KCB, respectively) under turfgrass
      growing conditions. The tested earthworms were systematically investigated for
      survival, biomass and the activities of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT). SCB and NCB were found to
      be more toxic and ecologically dangerous to E. fetida because significant
      decreases in biomass and survival were observed after 35- and 60-d exposures and
      the survival rate showed a tendency to decrease with exposure duration. The
      activities of SOD, CAT and POD were inhibited in all treatments with modified
      nano-CBs at 35- and 60-d, which indicated that oxidative stress was induced by
      modified nano-CBs. The results suggest that there is potential harm to earthworms
      in soil with 5% modified nano-CB and that it deserves special attention.

PMID- 28570876
TI  - Novel N-rich porous organic polymers with extremely high uptake for capture and
      reversible storage of volatile iodine.
AB  - The imino group-contained porous organic polytriphenylamine, which originated
      from diphenylamine and 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene, was designedly
      synthesized though Buchwald-Hartwig coupling reaction. The basic properties
      including morphologies, structure and thermal stability of the resulting POPs
      were investigated by scanning electron microscope(SEM), thermo gravimeter
      analysis (TGA), 13C CP/MAS solid state NMR and Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscope (FTIR). The pore size distribution of POPs present uniform
      mesoporous of sizes less than 50nm. Scanning electron microscope images show that
      the resulting POPs formed as an aggregation composed of nanospheres. The POPs
      were employed as a physicochemical stable porous medium for removal of
      radioactive iodine and an iodine uptake of up to 382wt% was obtained. To our
      knowledge, this is one of the highest adsorption value reported to date. Based on
      these findings, the resulting POPs shows great potential in the removal of
      radioactive iodine at different states, through a green, environmentally
      friendly, and sustainable way.

PMID- 28570877
TI  - Quinone-functionalized activated carbon improves the reduction of congo red
      coupled to the removal of p-cresol in a UASB reactor.
AB  - In this research was immobilized anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (AQS) on granular
      activated carbon (GAC) to evaluate its capacity to reduce congo red (CR) in batch
      reactor and continuous UASB reactors. The removal of p-cresol coupled to the
      reduction of CR was also evaluated. Results show that the immobilization of AQS
      on GAC (GAC-AQS) achieved 0.469mmol/g, improving 2.85-times the electron
      transferring capacity compared to unmodified GAC. In batch, incubations with GAC
      AQS achieved a rate of decolorization of 2.64-fold higher than the observed with
      GAC. Decolorization efficiencies in UASB reactor with GAC-AQS were 83.9, 82, and
      79.9% for periods I, II, and III; these values were 14.9-22.8% higher than the
      obtained by reactor with unmodified GAC using glucose as energy source. In the
      fourth period, glucose and p-cresol were simultaneously fed, increasing the
      decolorization efficiency to 87% for GAC-AQS and 72% for GAC. Finally, reactors
      efficiency decreased when p-cresol was the only energy source, but systems
      gradually recovered the decolorization efficiency up to 84% (GAC-AQS) and 71%
      (GAC) after 250 d. This study demonstrates the longest and efficient continuous
      UASB reactor operation for the reduction of electron-accepting contaminant in
      presence of quinone-functionalized GAC, but also using a recalcitrant pollutant
      as electron donor.

PMID- 28570879
TI  - Acute onset of paraganglioma of filum terminale: A case report and surgical
      treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Paragangliomas of filum terminale are rare benign tumors, arising
      from the adrenal medulla or extra-adrenal paraganglia. These lesions usually
      present with chronic back pain and radiculopathy and only two cases of acute
      neurological deficit have been reported in literature. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A
      case with an acute paraplegia and cauda equina syndrome due to an hemorrhagic
      paraganglioma of the filum terminale is described. Magnetic resonance imaging
      showed an intradural tumor extending from L1 to L2 compressing the cauda equina,
      with an intralesional and intradural bleed. An emergent laminectomy with total
      removal of the tumor was performed allowing a post-operative partial sensory
      recovery. Histopathological examination diagnosed paraganglioma. DISCUSSION:
      Paragangliomas are solid, slow growing tumors arising from specialized neural
      crest cells, mostly occurring in the head and neck and rarely in cauda equina or
      filum terminale. MRI is gold standard radiological for diagnosis and follow-up of
      these lesions. They have no pathognomonic radiological and clinical features and
      are frequently misdiagnosed as other spinal lesions. No significant correlation
      was observed between the duration of symptoms and tumor dimension. Acute
      presentation is unusual and emergent surgical treatment is fondamental. The
      outcome is very good after complete excision and radiotherapical treatment is
      recommended after an incomplete resection. CONCLUSION: Early radiological
      assessment and timely surgery are mandatory to avoid progressive neurological
      deficits in case of acute clinical manifestation of paraganglioma of filum
      terminale.

PMID- 28570878
TI  - Porous chitosan/hydroxyapatite composite membrane for dyes static and dynamic
      removal from aqueous solution.
AB  - The unique characteristics of Chitosan (CS) such as resource abundance, good
      biocompatibility, film-forming ability and sufficient sites (NH2 and OH) for
      adsorption of heavy metals or organic pollutants make CS-based membranes a
      promising membrane adsorbent. In this work, a porous Chitosan/Hydroxyapatite
      (CS/HA) membrane with a sponge-like surface and a three-dimensional
      interpenetrated porous structure of about mean pore size less than 10MUm was
      developed. The most striking advantage of the proposed membrane lies on the
      integration of appreciably high adsorption capacity (as compared with current CS
      based membranes, also 2.5 times and 4 times higher than that of non-porous CS/HA
      membrane and the commercially available activate carbon) and the high-speed
      dynamic dye removal (98% or even better in less than 15min). Besides, the
      synthesis protocol for the proposed membrane is also much simpler, environmental
      friendly and economical. Moreover, the proposed membrane also featured repeated
      dye removal (above 80% after 5 cycles of dynamic adsorption at dye concentration
      of 150mgL-1). All the above advantages indicated the intriguing potential of the
      porous membrane in practical wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28570880
TI  - Giant epidermoid cyst in the breast: A common benign lesion at a rare site-A case
      report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Epidermoid cyst is a common clinical entity and it can occur
      anywhere in the body. But its occurrence and huge size in the breast is very rare
      and more liable to develop complications, including malignant transformation.
      PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present here an unusual case of a giant epidermoid cyst
      in the breast, which is about 7cm in greatest dimension. After proper
      preoperative diagnosis by clinical, imaging and histopathological findings, it
      was managed by total excision. DISCUSSION: Imaging and fine needle aspiration
      cytology is essential for accurate preoperative diagnosis. However, it is often
      very difficult to differentiate it from other benign and malignant conditions of
      breast. Infection and malignant transformation are its potential complications.
      Total excision along with its capsule is the treatment of an epidermoid cyst.
      CONCLUSION: Epidermoid cyst is an important differential diagnosis while managing
      benign breast disease.

PMID- 28570881
TI  - Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography uncovering massive gallbladder
      mucocele in a patient with ambiguous clinical and laboratory findings: A case
      report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Radiological imaging of the gallbladder is a fundamental aspect of
      assessing severity of acute cholecystitis in addition to guiding the optimal
      timing of surgical intervention. We present a case of acute severe cholecystitis
      with massive gallbladder mucocele initially presenting with equivocal and
      inconclusive clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound findings. Magnetic resonance
      cholangiopancreatography allowed accurate evaluation of cholelithiasis and
      demonstrated a massive gallbladder mucocele. CASE PRESENTATION: A 39-year-old
      Caucasian female presented with mild right upper quadrant pain coupled with
      intermittent epigastric discomfort after meals. Diagnostic abdominal ultrasound
      could not reliably detect cystic or common bile duct stones due to patient
      obesity and meteorism. Computed tomography was contraindicated due to severe
      contrast allergy. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography allowed timely,
      accurate evaluation of cholelithiasis. This subsequently demonstrated a massive
      gallbladder mucocele requiring urgent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. CONCLUSION:
      Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography should be considered as a
      complementary imaging modality to assess patients presenting with atypical
      biliary symptoms, particularly when ultrasound is equivocal or inconclusive,
      clinical and laboratory findings are non-specific, and computer tomography is
      contraindicated. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography can also be
      considered in patients with acute cholecystitis not adherent to a specific
      severity grade.

PMID- 28570882
TI  - Ileo-ileal intussusception of a sutured enterotomy site, 6days after laparotomy
      due to fetobezoar: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Postoperative small bowel obstruction due to intussusception is a
      rare entity but can lead to severe morbidity and even mortality. We present a
      case of this rare complication produced by an unusual cause. CASE REPORT: A
      22year old male, who is a fruitarian, presented to the E.R on day 6 after
      laparotomy due to obstructing fetobezors that were removed via gastrotomy and
      enterotomy. In his readmission, he had severe, diffuse abdominal pain, distended
      abdomen and diffuse peritonitis. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed a
      large amount of fluid in the abdomen, distended small bowel loops, a small amount
      of free air around the stomach and a suspected ileo-ileal intussusception. The
      patient underwent emergent laparotomy which revealed an ileo-ileal
      intussusception with the sutured enterotomy site from the previous operation as
      the lead point. In addition, a minor dehiscence of the gastrotomy site was
      identified. A reduction of the intussusception was performed with resection of
      the enterotomy site and side to side anastomosis. The gastrotomy site was
      debrided and re-sutured. Recovery was uneventful. CONCLUSION: Postoperative
      intussusception, although rare, is potentially a dangerous complication, often
      not involving the site of the primary operation. To our knowledge this is the
      first report of an intussusception with a sutured enterotomy site as the lead
      point. Clinicians should be aware of this entity when assessing a patient with
      abdominal pain and distention after surgery with enterotomy or resection of
      bowel.

PMID- 28570883
TI  - Terminal ileostomy and on-table enteroscopy-A case report describing a novel
      approach for retrieval of foreign bodies in the difficult abdomen.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: With any abdominal surgery in a difficult abdomen, the procedure is
      filled with potential hazards. In addition to a prolonged operative time, there
      is a risk of enterotomy or damage to blood vessels and ureters. An irradiated
      pelvis increases this risk and may cause additional morbidity such as delayed
      healing. An impacted foreign body can also be a challenging problem to deal with
      alone but when combined with a difficult abdomen can make the problem impossible.
      PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 67 year-old male presented with a small bowel obstruction
      secondary to a foreign body impacted in the distal. The patient had a history of
      prostate cancer with radiation to the pelvis and thereafter developed perforated
      diverticulitis, requiring end colostomy. Later he underwent a colostomy take-down
      but developed wound infection and dehiscence resulting in an incisional hernia
      which was repaired. The patient failed conservative management and operative
      intervention was undertaken. Due to the extensive scarring of his midline
      abdomen, a right sided transverse incision was used. An enterotomy was made in
      the terminal ileum allowing the endoscope to advance to the foreign body to be
      retrieved with a snare. The foreign body was found to be a 3.5cm piece of bone.
      Post-operative course was unremarkable. DISCUSSION: Foreign body ingestion is a
      rare cause of small bowel obstruction, and exploration and retrieval is
      recommended if the obstruction does not resolve or if the bowels perforate. The
      method of retrieval depends on the site of the foreign body. Fortunately, in the
      small bowel, the terminal ileum is the narrowest part and most likely the site of
      impaction. Operative retrieval is easier if there are no prior abdominal
      interventions. An irradiated pelvis or abdomen, multiple prior procedures and a
      frozen abdomen warrant an alternative approach. As it can be difficult or
      impossible to access the ileum using a colonoscope transanally, a limited right
      sided transverse incision can be employed allowing immediate access to the cecum
      and terminal ileum through which endoscopic retrieval could be performed. A
      review of the literature to date did not yield any other descriptions of this
      approach for foreign body retrieval, however, an appendostomy and endoscopy to
      rule out malignancy in patients with right sided diverticulitis has been
      documented. CONCLUSION: Consideration should be given to foreign body retrieval
      through an appendostomy or ileostomy if a midline laparotomy is considered too
      high risk in the setting of pelvic irradiation and multiple prior abdominal
      surgeries.

PMID- 28570885
TI  - Ex-situ catalytic co-pyrolysis of lignin and polypropylene to upgrade bio-oil
      quality by microwave heating.
AB  - Microwave-assisted fast co-pyrolysis of lignin and polypropylene for bio-oil
      production was conducted using the ex-situ catalysis technology. Effects of
      catalytic temperature, feedstock/catalyst ratio, and lignin/polypropylene ratio
      on product distribution and chemical components of bio-oil were investigated. The
      catalytic temperature of 250 degrees C was the most conducive to bio-oil
      production in terms of the yield. The bio-oil yield decreased with the addition
      of catalyst during ex-situ catalytic co-pyrolysis. When the feedstock/catalyst
      ratio was 2:1, the minimum char and coke values were 21.22% and 1.54%,
      respectively. The proportion of cycloalkanes decreased and the aromatics
      increased with the increasing catalyst loading. A positive synergistic effect was
      observed between lignin and polypropylene. The char yield dramatically deceased
      and the bio-oil yield improved during co-pyrolysis compared with those during
      lignin pyrolysis alone. The proportion of oxygenates dramatically and the minimum
      value of 6.74% was obtained when the lignin/polypropylene ratio was 1:1.

PMID- 28570884
TI  - Biosurfactant surfactin with pH-regulated emulsification activity for efficient
      oil separation when used as emulsifier.
AB  - In the present study, the pH-regulated emulsification activity of surfactin was
      studied and its potential application in oil separation towards enhanced oil
      recovery (EOR) was investigated. As demonstrated, surfactin can stabilize
      emulsions quite well beyond pH 7.4. An oil emulsification ratio of about 98% was
      obtained at pH 11.0; while this emulsification activity was rapidly and
      completely lost when pH decreased to below 3.0, having an oil separation ratio of
      over 98%. This pH-sensitive property is probably due to surfactin dissolution
      precipitation induced by the ionization-protonation of a carboxyl group in its
      structure under alkaline or acidic conditions. This property allows oil
      emulsification or oil separation to be readily achieved via simple pH adjustments
      when surfactin is used as an emulsifier. Furthermore, surfactin sustained its
      activity after demulsification and can be readily reused many times. The above
      obtained results indicated surfactin-based EOR processes have great application
      feasibility.

PMID- 28570886
TI  - Regularity and mechanism of wheat straw properties change in ball milling process
      at cellular scale.
AB  - To investigate the change of structure and physicochemical properties of wheat
      straw in ball milling process at cellular scale, a series of wheat straws samples
      with different milling time were produced using an ultrafine vibration ball mill.
      A multitechnique approach was used to analyze the variation of wheat straw
      properties. The results showed that the characteristics of wheat straw powder
      displayed regular changes as a function of the milling time, i.e., the powder
      underwent the inversion of breakage to agglomerative regime during wheat straw
      ball milling process. The crystallinity index, bulk density and water retention
      capacity of wheat straw were exponential relation with ball milling time.
      Moreover, ball milling continually converted macromolecules of wheat straw cell
      wall into water-soluble substances resulting in the water extractives
      proportional to milling time.

PMID- 28570887
TI  - Bacterial community shift and incurred performance in response to in situ
      microbial self-assembly graphene and polarity reversion in microbial fuel cell.
AB  - In this work, bacterial community shift and incurred performance of graphene
      modified bioelectrode (GM-BE) in microbial fuel cell (MFC) were illustrated by
      high throughput sequencing technology and electrochemical analysis. The results
      showed that Firmicutes occupied 48.75% in graphene modified bioanode (GM-BA),
      while Proteobacteria occupied 62.99% in graphene modified biocathode (GM-BC),
      both were dominant bacteria in phylum level respectively. Typical exoelectrogens,
      including Geobacter, Clostridium, Pseudomonas, Geothrix and Hydrogenophaga, were
      counted 26.66% and 17.53% in GM-BA and GM-BC. GM-BE was tended to decrease the
      bacterial diversity and enrich the dominant species. Because of the enrichment of
      exoelectrogens and excellent electrical conductivity of graphene, the maximum
      power density of MFC with GM-BA and GM-BC increased 33.1% and 21.6% respectively,
      and the transfer resistance decreased 83.8% and 73.6% compared with blank
      bioelectrode. This study aimed to enrich the microbial study in MFC and broaden
      the development and application for bioelectrode.

PMID- 28570889
TI  - Hydrochar production from watermelon peel by hydrothermal carbonization.
AB  - Watermelon peel waste was hydrothermally carbonized under 190 degrees C and 260
      degrees C for 1h, 6h, and 12h, respectively. The hydrochar and spent liquor were
      collected and assayed for their properties. The results indicated that hydrochar
      yield was 2-5% and 46-95% on fresh and dry matter, respectively. Low temperature
      (190 degrees C) was conducive to high conversion efficiency. The hydrochar had
      higher C/N ratio (22.19-26.86), more alkyl C, aryl C, and carbonyl C, but lower
      H/C (0.98-1.22) and O/C ratios (0.13-0.38), and less O-alky C, carboxylic C,
      compared with feedstock. So the aliphaticity decreased, whereas aromaticity
      increased significantly, especially under severe conditions. It should be
      watchful for that the toxic compounds in hydrochar may induce environmental risk
      while it is amended into soil. The spent liquor with abundant nutrients could be
      used as a fertilizer. Further work is required for testing the application in
      soil.

PMID- 28570888
TI  - An integrated process to produce bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides rich in
      xylobiose and xylotriose from high ash content waste wheat straw.
AB  - A bio-refinery process of wheat straw pulping solid residue (waste wheat straw,
      WWS) was established by combining prewashing and liquid hot water pretreatment
      (LHWP). The results showed that employing a prewashing step prior to the LHWP
      remarkably improved enzymatic glucose yields from 39.7% to 76.6%. Moreover, after
      96h simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), identical ethanol
      yields of 0.41g/g-cellulose were obtained despite varied solid loadings (5-30%).
      Beyond ethanol, enzymatic post-hydrolysis of the prehydrolyzate effectively
      increased xylobiose and xylotriose yields from 15mg/g-WWS and 14mg/g-WWS to
      53mg/g-WWS and 20mg/g-WWS, respectively. For mass balance, about 10.9tons raw WWS
      will be consumed to produce 1ton ethanol, in addition to producing 614.8kg
      xylooligosaccharides (XOS) containing 334.3kg xylobiose and 124.8kg xylotriose.
      The results demonstrated that the integrated process for the WWS bio-refinery is
      promising, based on value-adding co-production in addition to robust ethanol
      yields.

PMID- 28570890
TI  - Air pollution tolerance index and heavy metal bioaccumulation in selected plant
      species from urban biotopes.
AB  - This research was carried out on plants Taraxacum officinale, Plantago
      lanceolata, Betula pendula and Robinia pseudoacacia growing in urban biotopes
      with different levels of heavy metal contamination in the city of Dabrowa
      Gornicza (southern Poland). Based on the pollution index, the highest heavy metal
      contamination was determined in the site 4 (connected with industry emitters) and
      6 (high traffic). The metal accumulation index (MAI) values ranged within the
      biotopes in Dabrowa Gornicza between 7.3 and 20.6 for R. pseudoacacia, 4.71-23.1
      for P. lanceolata, 4.68-28.1 for T. officinale and 10.5-27.2 for B. pendula.
      Increasing tendency in proline content in biotopes connected with high traffic
      was found in the leaves of investigated plants (except R. pseudoacacia). Similar
      tendency was observed for ascorbic acid content in the foliage of the plants as
      well as in T. officinalle in stands connected industrial emission. Non-protein
      thiols content increased especially in the leaves of R. pseudoacacia in biotopes
      with high traffic emissions as well as in T. officinale in stands connected with
      industry. The mean values of APTI (Air Pollution Tolerance Index) within the city
      of Dabrowa Gornicza for investigated plants were found in the following ascending
      order P. lanceolata < R. pseudoacacia < B. pendula < T. officinale. Among the
      investigated plants B. pendula and T. officinale may be postulated as appropriate
      plants in urban areas with considerable soil and air contamination, especially
      with heavy metals. The results indicate that species deemed tolerant according to
      APTI are suitable plants in barriers areas to combat atmospheric pollution.

PMID- 28570891
TI  - Silica nanoparticles inhibit macrophage activity and angiogenesis via VEGFR2
      mediated MAPK signaling pathway in zebrafish embryos.
AB  - The safety evaluation of silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are getting great attention
      due to its widely-used in food sciences, chemical industry and biomedicine.
      However, the adverse effect and underlying mechanisms of SiNPs on cardiovascular
      system, especially on angiogenesis is still unclear. This study was aimed to
      illuminate the possible mechanisms of SiNPs on angiogenesis in zebrafish
      transgenic lines, Tg(fli-1:EGFP) and Albino. SiNPs caused the cardiovascular
      malformations in a dose-dependent manner via intravenous microinjection. The
      incidences of cardiovascular malformations were observed as: Pericardial edema >
      Bradycardia > Blood deficiency. The area of subintestinal vessels (SIVs) was
      significant reduced in SiNPs-treated groups, accompanied with the weaken
      expression of vascular endothelial cells in zebrafish embryos. Using neutral red
      staining, the quantitative number of macrophage was declined; whereas macrophage
      inhibition rate was elevated in a dose-dependent way. Furthermore, SiNPs
      significantly decreased the mRNA expression of macrophage activity related gene,
      macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and the angiogenesis related gene,
      vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2). The protein levels of p
      Erk1/2 and p-p38 MAPK were markedly decreased in zebrafish exposed to SiNPs. Our
      results implicate that SiNPs inhibited the macrophage activity and angiogenesis
      via the downregulation of MAPK singaling pathway.

PMID- 28570892
TI  - The genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of tannery effluent in bullfrog (Lithobates
      catesbeianus).
AB  - Some of the most polluting activities occur in bovine skin processing. Tannery
      generates effluents containing high concentrations of heavy metals and organic
      compounds. The phases composing the leather production process generate a large
      volume of tannery effluents that are often discarded in aquatic environments
      without any previous treatment. However, the effect these xenobiotics have on
      adult representatives belonging to the class Amphibia remains unknown. Thus, the
      aim of the present study is to assess the geno- and cytotoxic effects of tannery
      effluent on adult male bullfrogs (Lithobates castesbeianus) exposed to it.
      Accordingly, the animals were divided into the following groups: negative control
      (tannery effluent-free water), positive control (cyclophosphamide), and effluent
      (water added with 5% tannery effluent). The animals were euthanized for blood
      collection, and erythrocyte analyses were conducted after 35 and 90 days of
      exposure. The micronuclei (MN) frequency and the frequency of other nuclear
      abnormalities in each of the animals in the experimental groups were assessed in
      2000 erythrocytes. According to the present results, the exposure to tannery
      effluents increased MN frequency as well as other nuclear abnormalities (i.e.,
      lobed nuclei, binucleated cell, kidney-shaped nuclei, notched nuclei, and
      apoptotic cell) in the erythrocytes of animals in the effluent group and in the
      positive control group after 35 and 90 exposure days. Thus, the current study
      corroborated the hypothesis that the tannery effluent has aneugenic and
      clastogenic potential in adult male bullfrogs (L. castesbeianus). The present
      study is the first to report such effect.

PMID- 28570893
TI  - Dietary Zn and the subsequent organotropism in fish: No influence of food
      quality, frequency of feeding and environmental conditions (pH and temperature).
AB  - Trophic transfer of Zn in fish is affected by the type of food and environmental
      variables such as temperature. However, there is still a lack of knowledge
      regarding the effects of such factors on Zn organotropism. For this reason, a
      series of experimental studies have investigated how the distribution and the
      concentration of Zn is affected by some environmentally-relevant factors (food
      quality, food availability, water pH, and temperature) in turbot Scophthalmus
      maximus using radiotracer techniques. In three different experiments, Zn
      distribution in seven body compartments of juvenile turbot and the calculation of
      Zn concentration index (IC) for each compartment were compared. Its distribution
      as well as its concentration in the body compartments of juvenile turbots were
      not affected by the experimental conditions tested. This apparent consistency in
      the Zn organotropism can be explained by the ability of the fish to maintain Zn
      homeostasis at non-toxic Zn concentrations in their diet. These results are
      important to better understand the trophic transfer of Zn in fish under realistic
      environmental conditions.

PMID- 28570894
TI  - Effects of stereoscopic artificial floating wetlands on nekton abundance and
      biomass in the Yangtze Estuary.
AB  - Habitat degradation is one of the greatest existing threats to nekton
      biodiversity in estuarine and coastal habitats. Stereoscopic artificial floating
      wetlands (SAFWs) can provide new nekton habitats and have been widely used as
      conservation and management tools in freshwater and marine environments. In the
      current study, we constructed Phragmites australis SAFWs: the P. australis
      rhizomes were planted on the artificial floating beds, and palm slices were hung
      under the floating platforms to act as submerged plants. These SAFWs were
      anchored in the north channel of the Yangtze Estuary. To determine if SAFWs can
      serve as fish aggregation devices, fishes and crustaceans were sampled monthly
      using a bottom lift net during high-tide from July to October 2014. Our
      assessment was based on environmental parameters, nekton density, nekton species
      composition and the total length of the three most abundant fishes at the
      experimental and control sites. Nekton abundance was approximately three times
      greater in the SAFWs than that in the control habitats (108.2 +/- 27.56 ind./m2
      vs. 28.37 +/- 15.88 ind./m2, respectively). There were no significant habitat
      specific differences in the size distribution of the three most abundant fish
      species (Acanthogobius ommaturus, Odontamblyopus rubicundus and Eleutheronema
      tetradactylum) because most of the individuals sampled were juveniles. This study
      demonstrates that SAFWs can form stable environments for nekton and increase
      habitat available to juvenile fish.

PMID- 28570895
TI  - Adsorption of Pb and Zn from binary metal solutions and in the presence of
      dissolved organic carbon by DTPA-functionalised, silica-coated magnetic
      nanoparticles.
AB  - The ability of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)-functionalised, silica
      coated magnetic nanoparticles to adsorb Pb and Zn from single and bi-metallic
      metal solutions and from solutions containing dissolved organic carbon was
      assessed. In all experiments 10 mL solutions containing 10 mg of nanoparticles
      were used. For single metal solutions (10 mg L-1 Pb or Zn) at pH 2 to 8,
      extraction efficiencies were typically >70%. In bi-metallic experiments,
      examining the effect of a background of either Zn or Pb (0.025 mmol L-1) on the
      adsorption of variable concentrations (0-0.045 mmol L-1) of the other metal (Pb
      or Zn, respectively) adsorption was well modelled by linear isotherms (R2 > 0.60;
      p <= 0.001) and Pb was preferentially adsorbed relative to Zn. In dissolved
      organic carbon experiments, the presence of fulvic acid (0, 2.1 and 21 mg DOC L
      1) reduced Pb and Zn adsorption from 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 mmol L-1 solutions.
      However, even at 21 mg DOC L-1 fulvic acid, extraction efficiencies from 0.01 to
      0.1 mmol L-1 solutions remained >80% (Pb) and >50% (Zn). Decreases in extraction
      efficiency were significant between initial metal concentrations of 0.1 and 1.0
      mmol L-1 indicating that at metal loadings between c. 100 mg kg-1 and 300 mg kg-1
      occupancy of adsorption sites began to limit further adsorption. The
      nanoparticles have the potential to perform effectively as metal adsorbents in
      systems containing more than one metal and dissolved organic carbon at a range of
      pH values.

PMID- 28570896
TI  - High-efficiency and mechano-/photo- bi-catalysis of piezoelectric-ZnO@
      photoelectric-TiO2 core-shell nanofibers for dye decomposition.
AB  - A mechano-/photo- bi-catalyst of piezoelectric-ZnO@photoelectric-TiO2 core-shell
      nanofibers was hydrothermally synthesized for Methyl Orange (10 mg L-1)
      decomposition. The mechano-/photo- bi-catalysis in ZnO@TiO2 is superior to
      mechano- or photo-catalysis in decomposing Methyl Orange, which is mainly
      attributed to the synergy effect of the piezoelectric-ZnO core's mechano
      catalysis and the thin photoelectric TiO2 shell's photo-catalysis. The
      heterostructure of the piezoelectric-ZnO@photoelectric-TiO2 core-shell interface,
      being helpful to reduce electron-hole pair recombination and to separate the
      piezoelectrically-/photoelectric ally- induced electrons and holes, may also make
      a great contribution to the enhanced catalysis performance. The mechano-/photo-bi
      catalysis in ZnO@TiO2 core-shell nanofibers possesses the advantages of high
      efficiency, non-toxicity and tractability and is potential in utilizing
      mechanical/solar energy to deal with dye wastewater.

PMID- 28570897
TI  - Simultaneous selenate reduction and denitrification by a consortium of enriched
      mine site bacteria.
AB  - Increasing selenium concentrations in aquatic environments downstream of mine
      sites is of great concern due to selenium's bioaccumulation propensity and
      teratogenic toxicity. Removal of selenium from mine influenced water is
      complicated by the presence of nitrate, which is also elevated in mine influenced
      water due to the use of explosives in mining. In many biological treatment
      processes, nitrate as a thermodynamically more preferable electron acceptor
      inhibits selenate reduction. Here we report on an enrichment of a bacterial
      assemblage from a mine impacted natural marsh sediment that was capable of
      simultaneous selenate reduction and denitrification. Selenate reduction followed
      first order kinetics with respect to the concentration of total dissolved
      selenium. The kinetic rate constant was independent of initial nitrate
      concentration over the range 3-143 mg L-1-NO3--N. The initial concentration of
      selenate inhibited selenate reduction kinetics over the range 1-24 mg-Se L-1.
      Dominant taxa that grew in selenate only medium were classified in the genera
      Pseudomonas, Lysinibacillus and Thauera. When nitrate was introduced in addition
      to selenate, previously rare taxa that became dominant were relatives of
      Exiguobacterium, Tissierella and Clostridium. Open reading frames (ORFs)
      associated with dissimilatory denitrification were identified for Pseudomonas,
      Thauera and Clostridium. In addition, ORFs were found that were homologous with
      known selenate reductase subunits (SerA and SerB). These findings suggest that
      native mine site bacteria can be used for removing selenate and nitrate from mine
      wastewater.

PMID- 28570898
TI  - Trace elements of concern affecting urban agriculture in industrialized areas: A
      multivariate approach.
AB  - The urban and peri-urban soils used for agriculture could be contaminated by
      atmospheric deposition or industrial releases, thus raising concerns about the
      potential risk to public health. Here we propose a method to evaluate potential
      soil pollution based on multivariate statistics, geostatistics (kriging), a novel
      soil pollution index, and bioavailability assessments. This approach was tested
      in two districts of a highly populated and industrialized city (Gijon, Spain).
      The soils showed anomalous content of several trace elements, such as As and Pb
      (up to 80 and 585 mg kg-1 respectively). In addition, factor analyses associated
      these elements with anthropogenic activity, whereas other elements were
      attributed to natural sources. Subsequent clustering also facilitated the
      differentiation between the northern area studied (only limited Pb pollution
      found) and the southern area (pattern of coal combustion, including simultaneous
      anomalies of trace elements and benzo(a)pyrene). A normalized soil pollution
      index (SPI) was calculated by kriging, using only the elements falling above
      threshold levels; therefore point-source polluted zones in the northern area and
      diffuse contamination in the south were identified. In addition, in the six
      mapping units with the highest SPIs of the fifty studied, we observed low
      bioavailability for most of the elements that surpassed the threshold levels.
      However, some anomalies of Pb contents and the pollution fingerprint in the
      central area of the southern grid call for further site-specific studies. On the
      whole, the combination of a multivariate (geo) statistic approach and a
      bioavailability assessment allowed us to efficiently identify sources of
      contamination and potential risks.

PMID- 28570899
TI  - Characterisation and potential source identification of polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons in atmospheric particles (PM10) from urban and suburban residential
      areas in Shiraz, Iran.
AB  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a generally hazardous class of
      organic compounds that are identified as toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, and
      teratogenic, and are considered to be a concern for human health because of their
      potential for causing adverse health effects. The present study aims to determine
      the atmospheric concentration and potential sources of particulate-bound PAHs in
      urban and suburban atmospheric particulate matter (PM10) in Shiraz, Iran. Ambient
      air samples were collected from urban and suburban areas using a SKC sampling
      pump equipped with a size-selective air intake during the spring of 2015. The
      mean PM10 concentration at the urban station (62.73 +/- 23.38 MUg m-3) was higher
      than that at the suburban station (60.88 +/- 31.03 MUg m-3). The mean (+/-SD)
      concentrations of the 16 total PAHs in the particulate phase were 19.28 +/- 7.48
      ng m-3and 17.80 +/- 9.17 ng m-3 at the urban and suburban stations, respectively.
      Among different types of PAHs, phenanthrene had the highest concentration in both
      stations. Various diagnostic ratios have been suggested, which were used in this
      study for identification of PAHs' sources. The results of these diagnostics
      showed that in Shiraz, the most dominant sources of PAHs were traffic emissions,
      especially vehicle emissions and petroleum automobiles emissions.

PMID- 28570900
TI  - Glutathione biosynthesis plays an important role against 4-tert-octylphenol
      induced oxidative stress in Ceratophyllum demersum.
AB  - 4-tert-octylphenol (OP) is a persistent environmental pollutant with an endocrine
      disrupting property. In the present study, we examined the effect of various
      concentrations of OP (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 mg L-1) applied to an aquatic
      plant, the submersed macrophyte Ceratophyllum demersum. The toxic effect caused
      by OP inhibited the plant's growth rate, reduced total chlorophyll content and
      increased levels of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) O2*- and H2O2. OP treatment
      significantly increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes including
      superoxide dismutase, guaiacol peroxidase, glutathione reductase and ascorbate
      peroxidase. The contents of the non-enzymatic antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and
      ratio of GSH to glutathione disulfide were markedly increased with OP treatment.
      Pretreatment with buthionine sulfoximine, a specific and potent inhibitor of GSH
      biosynthesis, significantly reduced total GSH content and conferred a more severe
      toxic phenotype on OP exposure. Thus, with OP-induced oxidative stress, C.
      demersum might actively regulate the antioxidant machinery, especially the
      biosynthesis and redox state of GSH.

PMID- 28570901
TI  - Hypoxia exacerbates the cardiotoxic effect of the polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbon, phenanthrene in Danio rerio.
AB  - The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 released a mixture of polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the Gulf of Mexico presenting a complex exposure regime
      for native species. Concurrently, the Gulf has experienced an increase in hypoxic
      events due to agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River outflow. This
      combination presents a unique physiological challenge to native species and a
      challenge for researchers. The purpose of this study was to determine how the
      cardiotoxic PAH, phenanthrene interacts with hypoxia to affect the cardiovascular
      system of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio). We exposed zebrafish larvae to 0, 1,
      100, and 1000 MUg/L of phenanthrene in combination with normoxia and hypoxia. At
      late hatching, video of hearts and vessels were used to measure heart rate (fH),
      stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (Q), red blood cell velocity, and caudal
      vessel diameter. We found that the highest concentration of phenanthrene caused a
      58, 80, and 84% decrease in fH, Q, and arterial red blood cell velocity in
      normoxia and an 88, 98, and 99% decrease in hypoxia, respectively. Co-exposed
      larvae also experienced higher rates of edema and lordosis in addition to a 33%
      increase in mortality rate with co-exposure to hypoxia at the 1000 MUg/L
      concentration of phenanthrene. At 12 dpf, baseline swimming behavior was similar
      between treatments indicating partial recovery from embryonic exposure. This
      study shows that phenanthrene decreases cardiac parameters, most significantly
      heart rate and that this effect is exacerbated by simultaneous exposure to
      hypoxia.

PMID- 28570902
TI  - Bromate formation from the oxidation of bromide in the UV/chlorine process with
      low pressure and medium pressure UV lamps.
AB  - When a bromide-containing water is treated by the ultraviolet (UV)/chlorine
      process, hydroxyl radicals (HO) and halogen radicals such as Cl or Br are formed
      due to the UV photolysis of free halogens. These reactive species may induce the
      formation of bromate, which is a probable human carcinogen. Bromate formation in
      the UV/chlorine process using low pressure (LP) and medium pressure (MP) lamps in
      the presence of bromide was investigated in the present study. The UV/chlorine
      process significantly enhanced bromate formation as compared to dark
      chlorination. The bromate formation was elevated with increasing UV fluence,
      bromide concentration, and pH values under both LP and MP UV irradiations. It was
      significantly enhanced at pH 9 compared to those at pH 6 and 7 with MP UV
      irradiation, while it was slightly enhanced at pH 9 with LP UV. The formation by
      UV/chlorine process started with the formation of free bromine (HOBr/OBr-)
      through the reaction of chlorine and bromide, followed by a subsequent oxidation
      of free bromine and formation of BrO and bromate by reacting with radicals.

PMID- 28570903
TI  - The stratifying role of job level for sickness absence and the moderating role of
      gender and occupational gender composition.
AB  - The study investigates whether sickness absence is stratified by job level -
      understood as the authority and autonomy a worker holds - beyond the association
      with education, income, and occupation. A second objective is to establish the
      moderating role of gender and occupational gender composition on this
      stratification of sickness absence. Four competing hypotheses are developed that
      predict different patterns of moderation. Associations between job level and
      sickness absence are estimated for men and women in three groups of differing
      occupational gender composition, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel
      Study (SOEP). For the purpose of moderation analysis, this study employs a new
      method based on Bayesian statistics, which enables the testing of complex
      moderation hypotheses. The data support the hypothesis that the stratification of
      sickness absence by job level is strongest for occupational minorities, meaning
      men in female-dominated and women in male-dominated occupations.

PMID- 28570904
TI  - Dual burden of chronic physical diseases and anxiety/mood disorders among Sao
      Paulo Megacity Mental Health Survey Sample, Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We assessed comorbid associations of 12-month DSM-IV mood/any anxiety
      disorders with chronic physical conditions within the Sao Paulo (SP) Megacity
      Mental Health cross-sectional survey of 5037 participants and explored whether
      strength of comorbid associations were modified when controlling for
      demographics. METHODS: Chi-square tests and logistic regressions were used to
      examine comorbid associations of DSM-IV mood/anxiety disorders as measured by the
      WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0), and self-reported
      chronic physical conditions among adults from the SP Megacity Mental Health
      Survey. RESULTS: Among those with any mood or anxiety disorder, chronic pain
      disorder was the most common physical condition (48.9% and 44.9%, respectively).
      Significant unadjusted odds ratios (OR) of comorbidity were found between
      diagnosis of two or more physical conditions and any mood disorders (3.08, 95%
      CI: 2.27-4.17), and any anxiety disorders (2.49, 95% CI: 1.95-3.17).
      Comorbidities remained significant when stratified by gender and controlling for
      marital status, household income, and education (latter two only included within
      anxiety models). LIMITATIONS: These results cannot be generalized to other cities
      or rural populations. Homeless and institutionalized populations were not
      surveyed. Due to cross-sectional study design, the direction of association
      between chronic disease/chronic disease risk factors and mood disorders is
      unclear. CONCLUSIONS: Dual burden of chronic physical conditions and mood/anxiety
      disorders is a notable problem among the Sao Paulo Megacity Survey population,
      with enhanced comorbidity experienced by community members with multiple physical
      conditions. Clinicians should consider these findings in understanding healthcare
      delivery for individuals suffering from both psychiatric disorders and chronic
      physical conditions.

PMID- 28570905
TI  - The role of affective evaluation in conflict adaptation: An LRP study.
AB  - Conflict between incompatible response tendencies is typically followed by
      control adjustments aimed at diminishing subsequent conflicts, a phenomenon often
      called conflict adaptation. Dreisbach and Fischer (2015, 2016) recently proposed
      that it is not the conflict per se but the aversive quality of a conflict that
      originally motivates this kind of sequential control adjustment. With the present
      study we tested the causal role of aversive signals in conflict adaptation in a
      more direct way. To this end, after each trial of a vertical Simon task
      participants rated whether they experienced the last trial as rather pleasant or
      unpleasant. Conflict adaptation was measured via lateralized readiness potentials
      as a measure of early motor-related activation that were computed on the basis of
      event-related brain potentials. Results showed the typical suppression of
      automatic response activation following trials rated as unpleasant, whereas
      suppression was relaxed following trials rated as pleasant. That is, sequential
      control adaptation was not based on previous conflict but on the subjective
      affective experience. This is taken as evidence that negative affect even in the
      absence of actual conflict triggers subsequent control adjustments.

PMID- 28570906
TI  - Green synthesis of biogenic silver nanoparticles using Solanum tuberosum extract
      and their interaction with human serum albumin: Evidence of "corona" formation
      through a multi-spectroscopic and molecular docking analysis.
AB  - Biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been synthesized by using Solanum
      tuberosum (potato) extract (PE) as a reducing as well as stabilizing agent which
      is reasonably cheaper, non-toxic and easily available material. The green
      synthesis of silver nanoparticles has been carried out by very simple method and
      the nanoparticles were characterized by surface plasmon band as well as TEM
      measurements. The PE-AgNPs were highly dispersed in the solution and found to be
      spherical with around 10nm in size. Interaction of these nanoparticles was
      studied with plasma protein HSA by means of various spectroscopies, such as, UV
      visible, fluorescence, DLS, CD and FTIR spectroscopies. The HSA was found to form
      the protein "corona" around the starch-capped PE-AgNPs. Absorption spectroscopy
      revealed that the interaction between HSA and PE-AgNPs resulted in the ground
      state complex formation. Due to the strong absorption of PE-AgNPs, the inner
      filter effect was corrected for the fluorescence data. PE-AgNPs were found to
      quench the fluorescence of HSA with a small blue shift attributed to the increase
      in the hydrophobicity near tryptophan residue due to the presence of amylopectin
      and amylose units in the starch. The value of n, Hill's constant, was found to be
      >1 which determines the existence of a cooperative binding between nanoparticle
      and albumin. Several parameters such as Stern-Volmer and binding constants in
      addition to the thermodynamic parameters have been analyzed and discussed which
      established that the complex formation has taken place via static quenching
      mechanism and the corona formation between albumin and PE-AgNPs was entropy
      driven process. Binding of biogenic PE-AgNPs to the HSA slightly affected the
      secondary structure of latter with a small decrease in alpha-helical contents
      resulting in the partial unfolding of the protein, though the structural motif
      remained the same. Molecular docking simulations revealed various possible
      binding modes between PE-AgNPs and albumin.

PMID- 28570908
TI  - New insight on the role of melatonin receptors in reproductive processes of
      seasonal breeders on the example of mature male European bison (Bison bonasus,
      Linnaeus 1758).
AB  - Melatonin receptors (MT1 and MT2) were shown to regulate proper functioning of
      reproductive system, especially in seasonally breeding animals. European bison is
      a unique endangered seasonal breeder and knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of
      its reproduction is crucial for the survival of the species. The aim of this
      study was to assess gene expression, protein synthesis and immunohistochemical
      localization of MT1 and MT2 receptors in testicular and spermatic cord vessels
      tissues collected in pre-rut (June) and post-rut (December) seasons from adult
      male European bisons in Bialowieza National Park. We confirmed the highest
      expression of MT1 and MT2 mRNA and protein levels in testis in December, while in
      spermatic cord gene expression was also highest in December, but protein amounts
      were comparable in both analyzed periods. Furthermore, immunohistochemical
      staining revealed the same amount of both receptors in arteries and veins of
      spermatic cord in both periods and increased amounts in December in Leydig,
      Sertoli and germ cells. The high level of testicular melatonin in December
      confirms the inhibition of spermatogenesis and increased anti-oxidant and anti
      inflammatory protection. In spermatic cord vessels, it may prevent from age
      related changes due to the overexploitation and ensure a constant temperature
      regardless of changing environmental conditions. This knowledge can contribute to
      finding a solution of problems associated with male infertility in general and
      also further explore the mechanisms regulating the proper functions of the male
      reproductive system.

PMID- 28570907
TI  - Melanin-gamma rays assistants for bismuth oxide nanoparticles synthesis at room
      temperature for enhancing antimicrobial, and photocatalytic activity.
AB  - Melanin pigment has been deemed as a natural photoprotector with strong
      hydrophobicity. It allured considerable compatibility with many applications in
      medicine, food, and nanotechnology. Penicillium chrysogenium has been devoted to
      the green synthesis of melanin whereby optimizing its culture and environmental
      conditions. The impacts of alternative economic L-tyrosine natural sources
      (unprecedented alternate origins) and gamma radiation were pledged for the
      potential growing of the pigment. Herein, notable increases in melanin yield
      (6.4mg/ml; much higher than nonoptimized one by 40 folds) was obtained by
      optimizing the culture, and environmental requirements [potato starch (3.0%),
      yeast extract (5.0%), copper sulfate (0.2mM), 0.25% L-tyrosine, 0.1% L-glycine,
      and 0.1% Tween 20 at pH5.0, and 30 degrees C for 7.0days using 180.0rpm shaking
      speed]. The addition of banana's peel (2.0%) has been led to increase the melanin
      production up to (8.3mg/ml; much higher than optimized one by 1.29 folds). It
      stimulated the induced enzymes, (i.e., tyrosinase) because it contained
      significant amounts of L-tyrosine, dopamine, and L-DOPA as resources for melanin
      biosynthesis. Then irradiated P. chrysogenium (2.5kGy) induced the pigment yield
      to 10.3mg/ml; much higher than optimized one by (1.61 folds). On the other hand,
      we tailored a methodology involved the product of melanin and gamma rays
      (25.0kGy) to an eco-friendly synthesis of Bismuth oxide nanoparticles (BiONPs) at
      the room temperature. Melanin under such alkaline condition functioning as
      simultaneously hydrolyzes, photoprotection of the Bi seeds, and stabilizer
      against the uncontrolled growth and the free radicals attack. Whereas the gamma
      irradiation induced the room temperature condensation reaction to occur, a novel
      mechanism proposal was discussed. BiONPs were characterized by UV-Vis., DLS, XRD,
      SEM, EDX, and FTIR. DLS and XRD calculations with TEM analysis exhibited the mean
      diameter of BiONPs was 29.82nm. Moreover, the as-prepared BiONPs presented a
      unique antimicrobial activity against some oral, standard ATCC, and multidrug
      resistant microbes with ultralow concentrations (0.8MUg/ml). Also, the
      photocatalytic degradation of Tartrazine dye (TZ), under the UV-Light
      irradiation, reached 85.0% in 140.0min. Thereby, owing to its unique
      characteristics such as cost-effective and scalability method with long-term
      stabilization, nontoxic nature, excellent chemical inertness, biocompatibility
      and active properties of BiONPs can find possible purposes in the medical,
      dental, and cosmetic approaches.

PMID- 28570909
TI  - Raman spectral characteristics of neck and head of femur in low-density
      lipoprotein receptor gene knockout mice submitted to treadmill aerobic training.
AB  - Hypercholesterolemia is associated with deterioration of bone tissue. Trough
      Raman spectroscopy, the present study aimed to assess the molecular changes in
      terms of mineral and organic bone-tissue remodeling in low-density lipoprotein
      receptor gene knockout mice (LDLr-/-) submitted to treadmill aerobic training. In
      order to evaluate alterations in trabecular bone and cartilage surface, neck and
      head femoral were assessed into four groups: (CON, n=7), the 1) animals did not
      perform any physical activity and had hypercholesterolemia (CON, n=7); The
      trained groups where animals underwent a protocols of low, moderate and high
      training for 8weeks and 4 times per week on a treadmill with progressive
      intensities: running speed (8-13m/min) and time of exercise (20-60min). These
      progressive intensities were needed to adjust the working load for the physical
      training to 2) 30-49% (LOW, n=7), 3) 50-79% (MOD, n=7), and 4) 80-100% (HIGH,
      n=7) of the maximum running speed. Each group was examined for molecular changes
      in both bone phases (mineral and organic) using principal components analysis
      (PCA). All exercised groups showed a significant increase (p<0.05) of bone
      remodeling in trabecular area and a higher content of proteins (organic content)
      in cartilage independently of physical activity intensity. Thus, this work
      demonstrated that physical training could act as a bone-protector factor in
      hyperlipidemic animal model as well as Raman technique associated with PCA
      analysis may be feasible methodology for assessment or monitoring of bone at the
      molecular level.

PMID- 28570910
TI  - The impact of anticancer activity upon Beta vulgaris extract mediated
      biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (ag-NPs) against human breast (MCF-7), lung
      (A549) and pharynx (Hep-2) cancer cell lines.
AB  - The present study tried for a phyto-synthetic method of producing silver
      nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with size controlled as and eco-friendly route that can
      lead to their advanced production with decorative tranquil morphology. By
      inducing temperature fluctuation of the reaction mixture from 25 to 80 degrees C
      the plasmon resonance band raised slowly which had an ultimate effect on size and
      shape of Ag-NPs as shown by UV-visible spectroscopy and TEM results. The
      biosynthesized nanoparticles showed good cytotoxic impact against MCF-7, A549 and
      Hep2 cells compared to normal cell lines. Compared to control plates, the
      percentage of cell growth inhibition was found to be high with as concentrations
      of Ag-NPs becomes more as determined by MTT assay. The AO/EtBr staining
      observations demonstrated that the mechanism of cell death induced by Ag-NPs was
      due to apoptosis in cancer cells. These present results propose that the silver
      nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) may be utilized as anticancer agents for the treatment of
      various cancer types. However, there is a need for study of in vivo examination
      of these nanoparticles to find their role and mechanism inside human body.
      Further, studies we plan to do biomarker fabrication from the green synthesized
      plant extract nanoparticles like silver, gold and copper nanoparticles with
      optimized shape and sizes and their enhancement of these noble nanoparticles.

PMID- 28570912
TI  - Current suicidal ideation in treatment-seeking individuals in the United Kingdom
      with gambling problems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies show higher lifetime prevalence of suicidality in individuals
      with pathological gambling. However, less is known about the relationship between
      pathological gambling and current suicidal ideation. OBJECTIVES: We investigated
      socio-demographic, clinical and gambling-related variables associated with
      suicidality in treatment-seeking individuals. METHODS: Bivariate analyses and
      logistic regression models were generated on data from 903 individuals to
      identify measures associated with aspects of suicidality. RESULTS: Forty-six
      percent of patients reported current suicidal ideation. People with current
      suicidal thoughts were more likely to report greater problem-gambling severity
      (p<0.001), depression (p<0.001) and anxiety (p<0.001) compared to those without
      suicidality. Logistic regression models suggested that past suicidal ideation
      (p<0.001) and higher anxiety (p<0.05) may be predictive factors of current
      suicidality. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the severity of anxiety
      disorder, along with a lifetime history of suicidal ideation, may help to
      identify treatment-seeking individuals with pathological gambling with a higher
      risk of suicidality, highlighting the importance of assessing suicidal ideation
      in clinical settings.

PMID- 28570913
TI  - Impulsivity and history of behavioral addictions are associated with drug use in
      adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous literature suggests that trait impulsivity and engagement in
      non-drug-related behavioral addictions (e.g., Internet addiction, food addiction)
      are two risk factors for drug use. Here we further investigated the potential
      impact of having one or both of these risk factors on drug use in Los Angeles
      area adolescents. METHOD: High school students (N=1612; Mean age=14.1) completed
      self-report surveys measuring two potential risk factors (impulsivity, lifetime
      history of several behavioral addictions), and past 6-month use of tobacco,
      alcohol and marijuana. Participants who reported never using drugs completed
      questionnaires assessing their susceptibility for future use. RESULTS: In
      general, adolescents who endorsed either impulsivity alone or at least two
      behavioral addictions alone were more likely to have used tobacco, alcohol, or
      marijuana compared to individuals who had neither risk factor (OR=2.50-4.13), and
      individuals who endorsed both impulsivity and three or more behavioral addictions
      were the most likely to have used these drugs (OR=9.40-10.13). Similarly, among
      those who had never tried a drug, individuals with this combined set of risk
      factors were the most likely to be susceptible to future drug use (OR=3.37-5.04).
      DISCUSSION: These results indicate that the combination of trait impulsivity and
      a history of behavioral addictions increases the risk for current and future drug
      use in adolescents, to a greater extent than either risk factor alone. It may be
      useful for drug prevention efforts to target impulsive adolescents who also
      actively engage in other non-drug-related addictive behaviors.

PMID- 28570911
TI  - Binge-drinking and non-partner aggression are associated with gambling among
      Veterans with recent substance use in VA outpatient treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gambling is relatively under-assessed in Veterans Affairs (VA)
      substance use disorder (SUD) treatment settings, yet shared characteristics with
      substance addiction suggest the importance of understanding how gambling
      behaviors present in Veterans seeking SUD care. METHOD: We evaluated substance
      use, mental health, and violence-related correlates of past 30-day gambling among
      833 Veterans (93% male, M age 48years, 72% Caucasian) seeking treatment in VA
      outpatient mental health and SUD clinics who completed screening for a randomized
      clinical trial. RESULTS: A total of 288 (35%) Veterans reported past 30-day
      gambling. Among those who gambled, 79% had cravings/urges to gamble, whereas
      between 20%-27% of gamblers reported perceived relationship, legal, and daily
      life problems related to gambling, as well as difficulty controlling gambling. A
      logistic regression analysis revealed that age, recent binge-drinking, and non
      partner physical aggression were associated with recent gambling. CONCLUSIONS:
      Gambling was associated with binge-drinking and non-partner physical aggression,
      supporting potential shared characteristics among these behaviors such as
      impulsivity and risk-taking, which may complicate SUD treatment engagement and
      effectiveness. Findings support the need to screen for gambling in the VA, and to
      adapt treatments to include gambling as a potential behavioral target or relapse
      trigger, particularly among heavy drinking patients.

PMID- 28570915
TI  - Evaluation of uncertainties in lung measurement of actinides due to non-uniform
      distribution of activity in lungs.
AB  - Various parameters can introduce uncertainties in the lung activity measurements
      of actinides. In this study, uncertainties due to non-uniform distribution of
      activity in the lungs are evaluated. To study the effect of non-uniform
      distribution, lungs of ICRP male thorax voxel and resized phantoms are divided
      into upper and lower parts of both right and left lungs as well as into anterior
      and posterior lung regions. Simulation of uniform and non-uniform distribution of
      activity in lungs is carried out using thorax voxel phantoms in FLUKA for
      Phoswich and an array of three HPGe detectors for 18-238keV photons. Source
      sampling for non-uniform distribution of activity is carried out by selecting the
      source points by varying the weightage to 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 1 in different parts
      of lungs. Uncertainties in lung activity estimation at different energies are
      quantified in the form of scattering factors (SFs) which are geometric standard
      deviations. The SFs due to non-uniform distribution of activity of the order of
      0.4-0.6 in different parts of the lungs are found to be ~ 1.25 for Phoswich and
      HPGe array detectors above 18keV.

PMID- 28570914
TI  - The health consequences of aerial spraying illicit crops: The case of Colombia.
AB  - This paper exploits variations in aerial spraying across time and space in
      Colombia and employs a panel of individual health records in order to study the
      causal effects of the aerial spraying of herbicides (glyphosate) on short-term
      health-related outcomes. Our results show that exposure to the herbicide used in
      aerial spraying campaigns increases the number of medical consultations related
      to dermatological and respiratory illnesses, as well as the number of
      miscarriages. These findings are robust to the inclusion of individual fixed
      effects, which compare the prevalence of these medical conditions for the same
      person under different levels of exposure to the herbicide used in the aerial
      spraying program over a period of 5 years. Also, our results are robust to
      controlling for the extent of illicit coca cultivation in the municipality of
      residence.

PMID- 28570916
TI  - Theoretical assessment and targeted modeling of TiO2 in reactor towards the
      scandium radioisotopes estimation.
AB  - 47Sc radioisotope with beta particle emission can be used for targeted
      radionuclide therapy in nuclear medicine and can be produced by nuclear reactor
      (with high activities) and accelerator. In this work, the specific activity of
      47Sc with the isotopic impurities produced through irradiating the enriched
      47Tio2 and natural TiO2 targets have been calculated by the MCNPX-2.6 and the
      TALYS-1.8 codes and also theoretical approach in a fast neutron flux 3*1013ncm-2s
      1 in the reactor. In addition, the cross sections of 46Ti(n,p)46Sc reaction have
      been interpolated in the 1-10MeV energy range and compared with the corresponding
      experimental data, as well. Moreover, the average cross sections of
      46Ti(n,p)46Sc, 47Ti(n,p)47Sc and 48Ti(n,p)48Sc reactions were reproduced.
      Acceptable agreement between the experimental data and calculated results
      confirms the ability of the used methods to design and predict the production
      process in reactor.

PMID- 28570917
TI  - Improved method for preparing Ni(II) complex of (S)-tyrosine Schiff base and its
      use in the automated synthesis of O-(2'-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine using solid
      phase extraction purification.
AB  - O-(2'-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine is reportedly suitable for PET-imaging of
      brain tumours. We report here the synthesis of Ni(II)-complex of Schiff's base
      (S)-[N-2-(N'-benzylprolyl)amino]-benzophenone,((S)BPB) and alkylated l-tyrosine
      precursor, Ni(II)-(S)-BPB-l-Tyr-O-CH2-CH2-OTs by an improved method. A fully
      automated radio-synthesis including non-HPLC purification was developed with a
      radio-chemical yield of 24.6 +/- 2% in 70 +/- 2min (n = 5). Radiochemical and
      enantiomeric purity was > 98% and 94% respectively. Bio-distribution and micro
      PET studies in C57BL/6 mice bearing B16F10 melanoma showed tumor to brain ratio
      of 3.36 and 3.62 respectively at 60min post-injection.

PMID- 28570918
TI  - Purification of leucocin A for use on wieners to inhibit Listeria monocytogenes
      in the presence of spoilage organisms.
AB  - The aims of this study were to improve the method for purification of leucocin A
      to increase yield of peptide and to evaluate the efficacy of leucocin A and an
      analogue of leucocin A (leucocin N17L) to inhibit the growth of Listeria
      monocytogenes on wieners in the presence of spoilage organisms. Leucocin A was
      produced by Leuconostoc gelidum UAL187 and purified with a five-fold increase in
      yield; leucocin N17L was synthesized replacing asparagine at residue 17 with
      leucine. Five strains of L. monocytogenes associated with foodborne illness were
      used to assess bacteriocin efficacy in vitro and in situ. Minimum inhibitory
      concentrations could not be determined in broth; however, on agar the minimum
      inhibitory concentrations ranged from 11.7-62.5MUM and 62.5->500MUM for leucocin
      A and leucocin N17L, respectively. Leucocin N17L was less effective than the
      native bacteriocin at controlling the growth of L. monocytogenes. The
      inactivation profiles of L. monocytogenes in broth in the presence of leucocin A
      suggested each isolate had different levels of resistance to the bacteriocin as
      determined by the initial bactericidal effect. The formation of spontaneously
      resistance subpopulations were also observed for each strain of L. monocytogenes.
      In situ, wieners were inoculated with the spoilage organisms, Carnobacterium
      divergens and Brochothrix thermosphacta, followed by surface application of
      purified leucocin A, and inoculated with a cocktail of L. monocytogenes. Wieners
      were vacuum packaged and stored at 7 degrees C for 16d. Leucocin A reduced the
      counts L. monocytogenes on wieners during storage, regardless of the presence of
      C. divergens. B. thermosphacta was unaffected by the presence of leucocin A on
      wieners over the duration of storage. This study suggests that leucocin A may be
      beneficial to industry as a surface application on wieners to help reduce L.
      monocytogenes counts due to post-processing contamination even in the presence of
      spoilage organisms. However, further investigation on the ability of L.
      monocytogenes to form spontaneous resistance to class II bacteriocins on food
      matrices during prolonged storage is warranted.

PMID- 28570919
TI  - Calcein represses human papillomavirus 16 E1-E2 mediated DNA replication via
      blocking their binding to the viral origin of replication.
AB  - Human papillomaviruses are causative agents in several human diseases ranging
      from genital warts to ano-genital and oropharyngeal cancers. Currently only
      symptoms of HPV induced disease are treated; there are no antivirals available
      that directly target the viral life cycle. Previously, we determined that the
      cellular protein TopBP1 interacts with the HPV16 replication/transcription factor
      E2. This E2-TopBP1 interaction is essential for optimal E1-E2 DNA replication and
      for the viral life cycle. The drug calcein disrupts the interaction of TopBP1
      with itself and other host proteins to promote cell death. Here we demonstrate
      that calcein blocks HPV16 E1-E2 DNA replication via blocking the viral
      replication complex forming at the origin of replication. This occurs at non
      toxic levels of calcein and demonstrates specificity as it does not block the
      ability of E2 to regulate transcription. We propose that calcein or derivatives
      could be developed as an anti-HPV therapeutic.

PMID- 28570920
TI  - Body dissatisfaction and associated factors among Brazilian adolescents: A
      longitudinal study.
AB  - We conducted a longitudinal investigation of body dissatisfaction in adolescent
      boys and girls, in order to evaluate the influence of biological, psychological,
      and sociocultural predictors for body dissatisfaction, and its association with
      eating disorder symptoms. Validated self-administered scales were selected,
      thereby assessing the various aspects of body image, symptoms of eating
      disorders, depression, and self-esteem. Four hundred and ninety-eight adolescents
      (236 girls) participated in the study. Most of the evaluated outcomes remained
      stable for over a year. Overall, results pointed to sociocultural influence, as
      evaluated by SATAQ-3, as the main influencing factor on body dissatisfaction in
      both boys and girls, with less drastic effects seen for both biological and
      psychological variables. Body dissatisfaction also predicted symptoms of eating
      disorders. These results produce longitudinal evidence of the importance of
      sociocultural influence on body image among Brazilian boys and girls.

PMID- 28570921
TI  - Airborne gamma-ray spectrometry data processing using 1.5D inversion.
AB  - Standard processing of Airborne Gamma-Ray Spectrometry data generally gives good
      results when the measurement conditions are almost constant within several
      footprint area sizes, with the possible exception of flight height variations in
      a small range. In practice, deviations, such as large or abrupt changes of flight
      height and/or rugged terrain are not so rare and lead to certain problems. This
      article proposes a different approach where the solutions of inverse problems are
      used for data processing. The approach is quite natural in the processing of
      field data measured along the flight lines: it explicitly takes into account 1.5D
      survey models and flight parameters - from topography to sources distribution on
      the surface. Also, it clearly demonstrates that the inverse problem of the
      Airborne Gamma-Ray Spectrometry does not have a unique solution. This feature can
      be used in accordance with the underlying geological problem since various
      formulations of inverse problems can lead to various geological solutions. The
      use of the approach is illustrated by several examples given for flight lines and
      survey areas. This approach can be particularly useful in situations where
      geological, geophysical and/or geographic survey conditions are far from the
      standard assumptions.

PMID- 28570922
TI  - The critical amino acids of a nephritogenic epitope on human Goodpasture
      autoantigen for binding to HLA-DRB1*1501.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anti-GBM disease is caused by autoimmunity to Goodpasture antigen on
      alpha3(IV)NC1 and had strong associations with HLA-DRB1*1501. Previous studies
      identified alpha3127-148 (P14: TDIPPCPHGWISLWKGFSFIMF) as a T cell epitope. The
      present study was aimed to investigate the binding capacity of P14 to HLA
      DRB1*1501 and the critical amino acids for this binding. METHODS: A line of EBV
      transformed human B cells homozygous for HLA-DRB1*1501 was used to detect the
      binding capacity of peptides to HLA-DRB1*1501 using flow cytometry analysis. P14
      was sequentially truncated into 8 peptides with 15 amino acids to identify the
      core binding motif. A set of alanine substituted peptides of P14-2 was then
      synthesized to identify its critical residues for binding to HLA-DRB1*1501. The
      structure of HLA-DR2b-Peptide-TCR complex was constructed by modeling to analyze
      the interaction of each amino acids of P14-2 with the HLA-DR2b molecule. RESULTS:
      P14 could bind to HLA-DRB1*1501 expressed on B cell surface. The N-terminus of
      P14 was the core binding motif and the truncated peptide P14-2 (DIPPCPHGWISLWKG)
      128-142 had the strongest binding capacity. After sequential amino acid
      substitution, we found the binding capacity of P14-2 was completely lost by the
      substitution of cysteine (C) 132 and significantly decreased by the substitution
      of tryptophan (W) 136, lysine (K) 141, or glycine (G) 142, but still at a high
      level. The modeling showed that (C) 132 had a strong interaction with pocket 4 on
      the beta chain of DR2b. Thus, C132, W 136, K141, and G142 were defined as the
      critical amino acid residues for the binding capacity of P14 to HLA-DRB1*1501.
      CONCLUSION: We identified alpha3128-142 (DIPPCPHGWISLWKG) as the core binding
      motif of P14 to HLA-DRB1*1501 molecule. And the critical amino acid residues for
      this binding were further defined as C132, W 136, K 141, and G 142.

PMID- 28570923
TI  - 4-Nitrophenol (PNP) inhibits the expression of estrogen receptor beta and
      disrupts steroidogenesis during the ovarian development in female rats.
AB  - 4-nitrophenol (PNP), isolated from diesel exhaust particles, has estrogenic and
      anti-androgenic activities, and affects the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis in
      male rats. However, the effect of PNP on the reproduction of the female rats is
      still unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of neonatal PNP
      exposure on the ovarian function of female rats. The neonatal female rats were
      exposed to PNP (10 mg/kg, subcutaneously injection), the ovary and serum samples
      were collected at postnatal day (PND) 7, 14 and 21. The results showed that the
      ratio of primordial and primary follicles increased whereas the ratio of antral
      follicles decreased in the PNP treated ovaries at PND21. Even though no
      abnormality was observed in cyclicity, there was a significantly delayed timing
      of vaginal opening in PNP treated rats. The ovarian expression of steroidogenic
      enzymes including StAR, P450scc, P450c17 and P450arom increased at PND14 in the
      PNP treated rats compared with the control rats. In consistent with the gene
      expression, the concentration of estradiol-17beta showed the similar pattern.
      However, PNP exposure failed to cause any significant change in the expression of
      steroidogenic enzymes in cultured neonatal ovaries. Furthermore, PNP suppressed
      the expression of estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta), but not estrogen receptor
      alpha (ERalpha), in cultured ovaries or developmental ovaries. These results
      suggested that PNP might directly affect the expression of ERbeta in the rat
      ovaries, resulting in the disrupted steroidogenesis during ovarian development
      and the delayed puberty.

PMID- 28570924
TI  - Effects of SGLT-2 inhibitors on diabetic ketoacidosis: A meta-analysis of
      randomised controlled trials.
AB  - AIMS: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) associated with SGLT-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) is
      a possible adverse event. In fact, SGLT-2i are capable of stimulating the release
      of glucagon and ketone re-absorption in the renal tubuli, thus increasing the
      concentration of ketone bodies. METHODS: A Medline search for SGLT2i
      (dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, canagliflozin, ipragliflozin, ertugliflozin,
      luseogliflozin) was performed, collecting all randomized trials with a duration
      of treatment>=12weeks, enrolling patients with type 2 diabetes, and comparing a
      SGLT2i with placebo or other comparators. The principal outcome was the effect of
      SGLT2i on ketoacidosis as serious adverse event. RESULTS: Out of 72 trials
      reporting information on DKA, 9 reported at least one event of ketoacidosis;
      those eight trials enrolled 10,157 and 5396 in SGLT-2 inhibitors and comparator
      groups, respectively. No signal of increased risk for ketoacidosis was observed
      for SGLT2 inhibitors as a class (MH-OR [95% CI] 1.14 [0.45-2.88], p=0.78) or as
      individual molecule. The sensitivity analysis with continuity correction
      (inputing one event each in drug and comparator arms of each trial with zero
      events) suggested a reduced incidence of ketoacidosis in patients treated with
      SGLT-2 inhibitors (MH-OR 0.65 [0.47-0.90]; p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The results of
      clinical trials summarized in the present meta-analysis reassure us that, when
      the drug is properly prescribed, the risk of DKA is negligible.

PMID- 28570925
TI  - Exploring factors influencing HbA1c and psychosocial outcomes in people with type
      1 diabetes after training in advanced carbohydrate counting.
AB  - AIMS: The purpose of this secondary analysis of the StenoABC Study was to
      identify determinants of the changes in HbA1c observed after training of people
      with type 1 diabetes in advanced carbohydrate counting (ACC) and automated bolus
      calculator (ABC) use, and further to investigate psychosocial effects of these
      insulin dosing approaches. METHODS: Validated diabetes-specific questionnaires
      were used to assess diabetes treatment satisfaction, problem areas in diabetes,
      fear of hypoglycemia and diabetes dependent quality of life before and one year
      after the training. In addition, numeracy was tested (using a non-validated test
      developed specifically for this study) and behavioral measures (number of daily
      blood glucose measurements and self-reported use of ACC) were obtained.
      Associations between change in HbA1c and these measures plus sex, age, diabetes
      duration and BMI were tested. RESULTS: Numeracy was the only baseline predictor
      of yearly change in HbA1c identified. Higher levels of numeracy were associated
      with greater reductions in HbA1c (P=0.031). No associations between change in
      HbA1c and the behavioral measures investigated were found, nor were any
      clinically relevant associations between changes in HbA1c and questionnaire
      scores. Treatment satisfaction increased in all users of ACC (P<0.001). People
      who also used an ABC reported significantly lower levels of fear of hypoglycemia
      than people who practiced ACC without such device (P=0.005). CONCLUSIONS:
      Improvements in HbA1c after training in ACC were inversely related to numeracy.
      Use of an ABC did not compensate for poor numeracy skills. However, device use
      reduced fear of hypoglycemia compared with ACC without ABC use.

PMID- 28570926
TI  - Predictive utility and measurement properties of the Strength of Implementation
      Intentions Scale (SIIS) for condom use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implementation intentions are situation-linked action plans that
      increase health behaviors such as condom use. Few studies have measured the
      strength of implementation intentions, especially regarding condom use. Non
      injection drug users are at high risk for HIV due to risky sexual practices.
      Substance use before sex may increase risky sexual behaviors, and implementation
      intentions are a promising, practical route for HIV prevention. PURPOSE: This
      prospective study assessed the measurement properties of the newly developed
      Strength of Implementation Intentions Scale (SIIS) for condom use and
      investigated whether the SIIS predicted condom use one-year later. The study
      evaluated whether behavioral intentions and alcohol or methamphetamine use before
      sex modified the relationship between the SIIS and condom use. METHODS:
      Participants were 590 non-injection drug users convicted of nonviolent drug
      offenses in court-mandated outpatient drug diversion programs. They completed
      self-directed computer assessments at baseline and at one-year follow-up.
      Measures included demographics, behavioral intentions to use condoms, the SIIS
      for condom use, alcohol and methamphetamine use before or during sex, and condom
      use. Psychometric properties, direct, and interaction effects of the SIIS were
      evaluated using structural equation modeling and general linear regressions.
      RESULTS: The SIIS, behavioral intentions, and condom use were positively
      correlated and there was discriminant validity between all three constructs. In
      addition, the SIIS predicted condom use one-year later in this high-risk
      population. No significant interactions were detected. CONCLUSIONS: The SIIS is
      predictive of condom use behavior, is psychometrically sound and distinct from
      behavioral intentions, and can be incorporated into HIV prevention interventions
      and used as a mediator variable. In addition, it can be used as an outcome
      measure where a follow-up is not feasible. The SIIS can also be tailored for
      additional HIV-related behaviors such as HIV-testing, adhering to antiretroviral
      medication, prescribing and adhering to pre-exposure prophylaxis, and other
      health behaviors.

PMID- 28570927
TI  - Girl child marriage as a risk factor for early childhood development and
      stunting.
AB  - This paper quantitatively examines the intergenerational effects of girl child
      marriage, or the developmental and health outcomes of children born to women who
      marry before age 18. The overall objective is to understand the mechanisms
      through which girl child marriage affects the health and well-being of children
      in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the relative magnitude and impact of these
      mechanisms. We used data from 37,558 mother-child pairs identified through 16
      national and sub-national cross-sectional surveys across sub-Saharan Africa
      conducted between 2010 and 2014 by the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Clusters Survey
      program. The Early Childhood Development Index was used to measure child
      development, and stunting was used to measure health. Using logistic regression,
      we found that the odds of being off-track for development and being stunted were
      25% and 29% higher, respectively, for children born to women who married before
      age 18 compared to those whose mothers married later (p < 0.001). Geographic
      location and primary education, which were conceptualized as contextual factors,
      explained most of this relationship, controlling for country fixed-effects. In
      adjusted models, we found that early childbearing was not the sole pathway
      through which girl child marriage affected child development and health. Our
      final models revealed that disparities in advanced maternal education and wealth
      explained child development and stunting. We conclude that there are
      intergenerational consequences of girl child marriage on her child's well-being,
      and that through association with other contextual, socioeconomic, and biological
      factors, marrying early does matter for child development and health. Our
      findings resonate with existing literature and point toward important policy
      considerations for improving early childhood outcomes.

PMID- 28570928
TI  - Cross-situational word learning in aphasia.
AB  - Human learners can resolve referential ambiguity and discover the relationships
      between words and meanings through a cross-situational learning (CSL) strategy.
      Some people with aphasia (PWA) can learn word-referent pairings under referential
      uncertainty supported by online feedback. However, it remains unknown whether PWA
      can learn new words cross-situationally and if such learning ability is supported
      by statistical learning (SL) mechanisms. The present study examined whether PWA
      can learn novel word-referent mappings in a CSL task without feedback. We also
      studied whether CSL is related to SL in PWA and neurologically healthy
      individuals. We further examined whether aphasia severity, phonological
      processing and verbal short-term memory (STM) predict CSL in aphasia, and also
      whether individual differences in verbal STM modulate CSL in healthy older
      adults. Sixteen people with chronic aphasia underwent a CSL task that involved
      exposure to a series of individually ambiguous learning trials and a SL task that
      taps speech segmentation. Their learning ability was compared to 18 older
      controls and 39 young adults recruited for task validation. CSL in the aphasia
      group was below the older controls and young adults and took place at a slower
      rate. Importantly, we found a strong association between SL and CSL performance
      in all three groups. CSL was modulated by aphasia severity in the aphasia group,
      and by verbal STM capacity in the older controls. Our findings indicate that some
      PWA can preserve the ability to learn new word-referent associations cross
      situationally. We suggest that both PWA and neurologically intact individuals may
      rely on SL mechanisms to achieve CSL and that verbal STM also influences CSL.
      These findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the cognitive mechanisms
      underlying this learning ability.

PMID- 28570929
TI  - Patterning of the turtle shell.
AB  - Interest in the origin and evolution of the turtle shell has resulted in a most
      unlikely clade becoming an important research group for investigating
      morphological diversity in developmental biology. Many turtles generate a two
      component shell that nearly surrounds the body in a bony exoskeleton. The
      ectoderm covering the shell produces epidermal scutes that form a
      phylogenetically stable pattern. In some lineages, the bones of the shell and
      their ectodermal covering become reduced or lost, and this is generally
      associated with different ecological habits. The similarity and diversity of
      turtles allows research into how changes in development create evolutionary
      novelty, interacting modules, and adaptive physiology and anatomy.

PMID- 28570930
TI  - Activation of the semispinalis cervicis and splenius capitis with cervical pulley
      exercises.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Quasi-Experimental. OBJECTIVE: To assess the activation of
      semispinalis cervicis (d-SSC) and splenius capitis (s-SC) muscles, and the
      activation between the two during neck pulley and free weight exercises.
      BACKGROUND: Altered activation of cervical extensors may occur with neck pain,
      suggesting that exercises should be designed to target these muscles. METHODS: d
      SSC and s-SC activity was recorded unilaterally with intramuscular
      electromyography from healthy volunteers during cervical isometric exercises: 1)
      extension with a pulley rope angled from incline to vertical, 2) extension with
      right, left and central forehead hanging weight, and 3) rotation with pulley rope
      angled from incline to decline. RESULTS: Extension against a vertical force led
      to greater activation of d-SSC (P < 0.001) and s-SC (P < 0.001) compared to the
      inclined, declined and horizontal pulley. With each of these conditions,
      amplitude of muscle activity was higher for the d-SSC compared to the s-SC muscle
      (P < 0.0001). Extension with free weight hanging on right, left or central
      forehead, showed no differences across conditions, although in each condition,
      the d-SSC amplitude was higher than the s-SC. For cervical rotation, the declined
      pulley led to the greatest activation of both muscles (P < 0.05). Higher levels
      of activity were observed for the s-SC compared to the d-SSC (P < 0.01) for all
      rotation conditions. CONCLUSION: A vertical resistance during an extension
      exercise or a declined resistance during cervical rotation, increased neck
      extensor activation. The results from this preliminary study provide guidance for
      future work on the exploration and development of low-load exercise design for
      patients with neck pain disorders.

PMID- 28570931
TI  - IL-17A causes depression-like symptoms via NFkappaB and p38MAPK signaling
      pathways in mice: Implications for psoriasis associated depression.
AB  - Psoriasis has been shown to be associated with an increased prevalence of
      comorbid major depression. IL-17A plays an important role in both depression and
      psoriasis. IL-17A has been shown to be elevated in systemic circulation of
      psoriatic patients. IL-17A released from different immune cells during psoriasis
      may be responsible for the development of neuropsychiatric symptoms associated
      with depression. Therefore, this study explored the association of systemic IL
      17A with depression. The present study utilized imiquimod model of psoriatic
      inflammation as well as IL-17A administration in mice to investigate the effect
      of IL-17A on depression-like behavior. Psoriatic inflammation led to enhanced IL
      17A expression in peripheral immune cells of both innate and adaptive origin.
      This was associated with increased NFkappaB/p38MAPK signaling and inflammatory
      mediators in different brain regions, and depression-like symptoms (as reflected
      by sucrose preference and tail suspension tests). The role of IL-17A was further
      confirmed by administering it alone for ten days, followed by assessment of the
      same parameters. IL-17A administration produced effects similar to psoriasis-like
      inflammation on neurobehavior and NFkappaB/p38MAPK pathways. Moreover, both
      NFkappaB and p38MAPK inhibitors led to attenuation in IL-17A associated with
      depression-like behavior via reduction in inflammatory mediators, such as MCP-1,
      iNOS, IL-6, and CXCL-2. Furthermore, anti-IL17A antibody also led to a reduction
      in imiquimod-induced depression-like symptoms, as well as NFkappaB/p38MAPK
      signaling. The present study shows that IL-17A plays an important role in
      comorbid depression associated with psoriatic inflammation, where both NFkappaB
      and p38MAPK pathways play significant roles via upregulation of inflammatory
      mediators in the brain.

PMID- 28570932
TI  - Cytokines as biomarkers to monitoring the impact of multidrug therapy in immune
      response of leprosy patients.
AB  - Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic infectious disease of the skin and
      nerves, caused by the intracellular bacilli Mycobacterium leprae. It is
      characterized by a spectrum of clinical forms depending on the host's immune
      response to M. leprae. Patients with tuberculoid (TT) leprosy have strong cell
      mediated immunity (CMI) with elimination of the bacilli, whereas patients with
      lepromatous (LL) leprosy exhibit defective CMI to M. leprae. Despite advances in
      the understanding of the pathogenesis of leprosy and the development of new
      therapeutic strategies, there is a need for the identification of biomarkers
      which be used for early diagnosis and to discrimination between different forms
      of the disease, as prognostic markers. Here, we analyzed the serum levels of IL
      1beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-17A, IFN-gamma and TNF in order to
      address the contribution of these cytokines in late phase of M. leprae infection,
      and the impact of multidrug therapy (MDT). Our results demonstrated that patients
      of LL group presented higher expression of serum levels of inflammatory cytokines
      before MDT, while TT patients presented a balance between inflammatory and
      regulatory cytokines. MDT changes the profile of serum cytokines in M. leprae
      infected patients, as evidenced by the cytokine network, especially in TT
      patients. LL patients displayed a multifaceted cytokine system characterized by
      strong connecting axes involving inflammatory/regulatory molecules, while TT
      patients showed low involvement of regulatory cytokines in network overall.
      Cytokines can be identified as good biomarkers of the impact of MDT on the immune
      system and the effectiveness of treatment.

PMID- 28570934
TI  - Selective determination of aromatic amino acids by magnetic hydroxylated MWCNTs
      and MOFs based composite.
AB  - A novel magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) based method was established for
      aromatic amino acids (AAAs) selective determination. Central to the method was
      the adopted extractant. An explored composite of metal organic frameworks (MOFs)
      and magnetic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was employed for that, which exhibited
      superior adsorption affinity and selectivity to AAAs as compared to other amino
      acids with the mechanisms attributed to multiple hydrogen bonding and pi-pi
      electron-donor-acceptor (EDA) interactions. The morphology, structure and
      magnetic behavior of the composite were characterized and related MSPE procedure
      was established. Critical extraction conditions including pH, extraction time,
      temperature and salt addition were investigated and optimized. Subsequently the
      concentrations of three AAAs tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr) and phenylalanine
      (Phe) in Lanzhou lily were determined by the composite based MSPE procedure
      coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC
      UV). The composite provided a superior sample clean-up function and many of the
      matrix interferences were eliminated, thus ensured AAAs were accurately and
      efficiently determined. The results showed that the method had good linearities
      with the linear coefficients above 0.99, desirable recoveries ranged from 88.0%
      to 96.8% with the RSD less than 5.1%, satisfactory precision and low limits of
      detection (LODs) which were respectively 0.04, 0.11, and 0.87ng/g for Trp, Tyr
      and Phe. The composite based MSPE-HPLC-UV method has great potentials for the
      AAAs selective determination from complex matrix samples.

PMID- 28570935
TI  - Pharmacokinetics study of Erhuang decoction extracts in rats by HPLC-MS/MS.
AB  - To study the pharmacokinetics of Erhuang decoction extracts, a high performance
      liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was
      established for the determination of effective substances in rat plasma. The
      extracts prepared by water extraction (WE) method were given to rats by oral
      administration. After collected from the orbital venous plexus, plasma was
      treated by protein precipitation method. Then, the concentration of index
      components, including baicalin, liquiritin, berberine, palmatine and
      glycyrrhetinic acid, were determined by HPLC-MS/MS. Gradient elution mode was
      used to the chromatographic separation with an Inertsil ODS-SP column (100
      mm*2.1mm, 5MUm), with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid containing 10mmolL-1
      ammonium acetate as the mobile phase. MS analysis was conducted by multiple
      reactions monitoring (MRM) with Electrospray Ionization (ESI). The extraction
      recoveries of the five active ingredients from plasma were greater than 86.04%,
      and the intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 16.57%. Results indicated
      that active ingredients in plasma of rats with oral administration of extracts
      showed certain difference in the pharmacokinetic parameters, which proved that
      the active ingredients were effectively absorbed. The established HPLC-MS/MS
      analytical method was sensitive and accurate, suitable for the pharmacokinetic
      study of active ingredients in Erhuang decoction.

PMID- 28570936
TI  - A UPLC-MS/MS method for the quantitation of Ulipristal acetate in human serum.
AB  - The progesterone receptor modulator, Ulipristal acetate (UPA) has proven to be an
      effective emergency contraceptive. Conflicting data has been reported that
      suggests different efficacy of the drug in different populations, which may be
      explained by the systemic exposure to the drug. A UPLC-MS/MS method was developed
      and validated for the accurate and sensitive measurement of UPA in human serum to
      address this matter. UPA was extracted from human serum using liquid-liquid
      extraction with a combination of hexane and dichloromethane. An analytical
      platform comprising reverse-phase chromatographic separation followed by mass
      spectrometric detection by positive electrospray ionization in multiple reaction
      monitoring was used for quantitation of UPA within 7min. The method was linear
      from 0.1 to 250ng/mL. The matrix effect was minimal and intra- and inter-assay
      precision and accuracy were all within the acceptable limits. UPA was found to be
      stable at all processing and storage conditions. The method was used to
      investigate the pharmacokinetics of UPA in a clinical trial designed to explore
      the effect of obesity on its bioavailability.

PMID- 28570937
TI  - Recent advancements in supporting materials for immobilised photocatalytic
      applications in waste water treatment.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to provide a review on the usage of different anchoring
      media (supports) for immobilising commonly employed photocatalysts for
      degradation of organic pollutants. The immobilisation of nano-sized
      photocatalysts can eliminate costly and impractical post-treatment recovery of
      spent photocatalysts in largescale operations. Some commonly employed
      immobilisation aids such as glass, carbonaceous substances, zeolites, clay and
      ceramics, polymers, cellulosic materials and metallic agents that have been
      previously discussed by various research groups have been reviewed. The study
      revealed that factors such as high durability, ease of availability, low density,
      chemical inertness and mechanical stability are primary factors responsible for
      the selection of suitable supports for catalysts. Common techniques for
      immobilisation namely, dip coating, cold plasma discharge, polymer assisted
      hydrothermal decomposition, RF magnetron sputtering, photoetching, solvent
      casting, electrophoretic deposition and spray pyrolysis have been discussed in
      detail. Finally, some common techniques adopted for the characterisation of the
      catalyst particles and their uses are also discussed.

PMID- 28570938
TI  - Strategic planning in Brazilian protected areas: Uses and adjustments.
AB  - Management plans for protected areas commonly use strategic planning tools in
      their drafting. It is proposed that the adequate use of the instruments of
      planning and management of protected areas can improve their strategic
      competitiveness, providing greater financial and administrative independence,
      enabling them to be economically sustainable organizations. This study evaluated
      the application of concepts and strategy formulation, strategy principles and
      competitiveness, organizational diagnosis, strategic maps, scenarios, and other
      strategic planning instruments used for conservation management in Brazil. 25
      management plans of 25 different protected areas were selected and studied, with
      special attention to the indicators used in each plan. Results indicate that
      there is a high suitability for the application of SP tools to the universe of
      protected areas, although management plans did not take full advantage of these
      tools. We also found that the broader use of these tools did not guarantee
      greater managerial effectiveness. We suggest that other governance variables
      beyond planning strategies must be improved, to ensure a better performance of
      protected areas.

PMID- 28570939
TI  - Removal of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole by zero-valent iron under oxic and anoxic
      conditions: Removal mechanisms in acidic, neutral and alkaline solutions.
AB  - Removal of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) by zero-valent iron (ZVI) was
      examined in the range of pH from 3.0 to 11.0 under oxic and anoxic conditions to
      clarify mechanisms of SMX removal in acidic, neutral and alkaline solutions. SMX
      removal was affected by solution pH and related to the speciation of SMX. Under
      the oxic condition, the maximums of SMX removal efficiency and rate were obtained
      at pH 3.0. The SMX removal efficiency decreased from 100 to 32% with increasing
      pH in the acidic solutions (3 ? pH ? 5) and increased to 88% in neutral and
      moderately alkaline solutions (6 ? pH ? 10). In highly alkaline solution (pH =
      11), the SMX removal was significantly suppressed due to the formation of passive
      layer on ZVI surface. The removal rate of SMX under the oxic condition
      significantly declined with increasing pH. Under the anoxic condition, SMX
      removal was completed within 300 min in the acidic solutions and remained to less
      than 70% after 300 min in neutral and moderately alkaline solutions. For pH ? 10,
      no SMX removal practically occurred. The removal rate of SMX under the anoxic
      condition approximately remained constant in the acidic solution and largely
      decreased in neutral and moderately alkaline solutions. SMX removal by ZVI was
      found to be dominated by the reductive degradation and adsorption under both the
      oxic and anoxic conditions. It was concluded that ZVI has the potential for
      effective removal of antibiotic SMX under the oxic and anoxic conditions. A
      kinetic model could reasonably simulate the dynamic profiles of SMX removal.

PMID- 28570940
TI  - Electrochemical sensors for identifying pyocyanin production in clinical
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates.
AB  - In clinical practice, delays in obtaining culture results impact patient care and
      the ability to tailor antibiotic therapy. Despite the advancement of rapid
      molecular diagnostics, the use of plate cultures inoculated from swab samples
      continues to be the standard practice in clinical care. Because the inoculation
      culture process can take between 24 and 48h before a positive identification test
      can be run, there is an unmet need to develop rapid throughput methods for
      bacterial identification. Previous work has shown that pyocyanin can be used as a
      rapid, redox-active biomarker for identifying Pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical
      infections. However, further validation is needed to confirm pyocyanin production
      occurs in all clinical strains of P. aeruginosa. Here, we validate this
      electrochemical detection strategy using clinical isolates obtained from patients
      with hospital-acquired infections or with cystic fibrosis. Square-wave
      voltammetric scans of 94 different clinical P. aeruginosa isolates were taken to
      measure the concentration of pyocyanin. The results showed that all isolates
      produced measureable concentrations of pyocyanin with production rates correlated
      with patient symptoms and comorbidity. Further bioinformatics analysis confirmed
      that 1649 genetically sequenced strains (99.9%) of P. aeruginosa possess the two
      genes (PhzM and PhzS) necessary to produce pyocyanin, supporting the specificity
      of this biomarker. Confirming the production of pyocyanin by all clinically
      relevant strains of P. aeruginosa is a significant step towards validating this
      strategy for rapid, point-of-care diagnostics.

PMID- 28570933
TI  - The Goldilocks model of immune symbiosis with Mycobacteria and Candida
      colonizers.
AB  - Mycobacteria and Candida species include significant human pathogens that can
      cause localized or disseminated infections. Although these organisms may appear
      to have little in common, several shared pathways of immune recognition and
      response are important for both control and infection-related pathology. In this
      article, we compare and contrast the innate and adaptive components of the immune
      system that pertain to these infections in humans and animal models. We also
      explore a relatively new concept in the mycobacterial field: biological
      commensalism. Similar to the well-established model of Candida infection,
      Mycobacteria species colonize their human hosts in equilibrium with the immune
      response. Perturbations in the immune response permit the progression to
      pathologic disease at the expense of the host. Understanding the immune factors
      required to maintain commensalism may aid with the development of diagnostic and
      treatment strategies for both categories of pathogens.

PMID- 28570942
TI  - The change in retinoic acid receptor signaling induced by prenatal marginal
      vitamin A deficiency and its effects on learning and memory.
AB  - This study investigated the prenatal marginal vitamin A deficiency (mVAD)-related
      impairment in learning and memory and the interactions between RARalpha, Src and
      NR1. Learning and memory were assessed in adult rats that were exposed to
      prenatal mVAD with Morris water maze. The average escape time was longer in mVAD
      rats, and they passed the hidden platform fewer times during the memory retention
      test than normal vitamin A intake (VAN) rats. The mRNA and protein levels of
      RARalpha, Src and NR1 in mVAD rats were significantly lower than those in VAN
      rats. RARalpha and Src, but not NR1, were in the same protein complex. RA
      treatment-induced increase in RARalpha, Src and NR1 expressions in mVAD neurons
      was much lower than that in VAN neurons. Overexpression of RARalpha gene in VAN
      neurons induced an increase in RARalpha, Src and NR1 expressions, while silencing
      of RARalpha gene induced a decrease in expressions of RARalpha and Src, but not
      that of of NR1. In mVAD neurons, however, overexpression of RARalpha did not
      induce an increase in NR1 expression, while silencing of RARalpha gene had no
      effect on Src and NR1 expressions. Furthermore, inhibition of Src was associated
      with a decrease in NR1 expression but not that of RARalpha. Prenatal mVAD was
      associated with impaired learning and memory in adult rats. It is possible that
      mVAD-related decrease in RARalpha led to a decrease in Src expression, which in
      turn down-regulated NR1 expression and Ca2+ influx and eventually caused learning
      and memory deficits.

PMID- 28570941
TI  - Diet-dependent retinoid effects on liver gene expression include stellate and
      inflammation markers and parallel effects of the nuclear repressor Shp.
AB  - For mice, a maternal vitamin A (VA)-deficient diet initiated from midgestation
      (GVAD) produces serum retinol deficiency in mature offspring. We hypothesize that
      the effects of GVAD arise from preweaning developmental changes. We compare the
      effect of this GVAD protocol in combination with a postweaning high-fat diet
      (HFD) or high-carbohydrate diet (LF12). Each is compared to an equivalent VA
      sufficient combination. GVAD extensively decreased serum retinol and liver
      retinol, retinyl esters, and retinoid homeostasis genes (Lrat, Cyp26b1 and
      Cyp26a1). These suppressions were each more effective with LF12 than with HFD.
      Postweaning initiation of VA deficiency with LF12 depleted liver retinoids, but
      serum retinol was unaffected. Liver retinoid depletion, therefore, precedes serum
      attenuation. Maternal LF12 decreased the obesity response to the HFD, which was
      further decreased by GVAD. LF12 fed to the mother and offspring extensively
      stimulated genes marking stellate activation (Col1a1, Timp2 and Cyp1b1) and novel
      inflammation markers (Ly6d, Trem2 and Nupr1). The GVAD with LF12 diet combination
      suppressed these responses. GVAD in combination with the HFD increased these same
      clusters. A further set of expression differences on the HFD when compared to a
      high-carbohydrate diet was prevented when GVAD was combined with HFD. Most of
      these GVAD gene changes match published effects from deletion of Nr0b2/Shp, a
      retinoid-responsive, nuclear co-repressor that modulates metabolic homeostasis.
      The stellate and inflammatory increases seen with the high-carbohydrate LF12 diet
      may represent postprandial responses. They depend on retinol and Shp, but the
      regulation reverses with an HFD.

PMID- 28570943
TI  - alpha-Glucosidase inhibitory effect of resveratrol and piceatannol.
AB  - Dietary polyphenols have been shown to inhibit alpha-glucosidase, an enzyme
      target of some antidiabetic drugs. Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in grapes and
      wine, has been reported to inhibit the activity of yeast alpha-glucosidase. This
      triggered our interest to synthesize analogs and determine their effect on
      mammalian alpha-glucosidase activity. Using either sucrose or maltose as
      substrate resveratrol, piceatannol and 3'-hydroxypterostilbene showed strong
      inhibition of mammalian alpha-glucosidase activity; pinostilbene, cis
      desoxyrhapontigenin and trans-desoxyrhapontigenin had moderate inhibition.
      Compared to acarbose (IC50 3-13 MUg/ml), piceatannol and resveratrol inhibited
      mammalian alpha-glucosidase to a lesser extent (IC50 14-84 and 111-120 MUg/ml,
      respectively). 3'-Hydroxypterostilbene (IC50 105-302 MUg/ml) was 23-35-fold less
      potent than acarbose. We investigated the effect of piceatannol and resveratrol
      on postprandial blood glucose response in high-fat-fed C57Bl/6 mice. Animals
      administered resveratrol (30 mg/kg body weight [BW]) or piceatannol (14 mg/kg BW)
      60 min prior to sucrose or starch loading had a delayed absorption of
      carbohydrates, resulting in significant lowering of postprandial blood glucose
      concentrations, similar to the antidiabetic drug acarbose, while no significant
      effect was observed with the glucose-loaded animals. Our studies demonstrate that
      the dietary polyphenols resveratrol and piceatannol lower postprandial
      hyperglycemia and indicate that inhibition of intestinal alpha-glucosidase
      activity may be a potential mechanism contributing to their antidiabetic
      property.

PMID- 28570944
TI  - Oral feeding with polyunsaturated fatty acids fosters hematopoiesis and
      thrombopoiesis in healthy and bone marrow-transplanted mice.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cells play the vital role of maintaining appropriate levels of
      cells in blood. Therefore, regulation of their fate is essential for their
      effective therapeutic use. Here we report the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids
      (PUFAs) in regulating hematopoiesis which has not been explored well so far. Mice
      were fed daily for 10 days with n-6/n-3 PUFAs, viz. linoleic acid (LA),
      arachidonic acid (AA), alpha-linolenic acid and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) in four
      separate test groups with phosphate-buffered saline fed mice as control set. The
      bone marrow cells of PUFA-fed mice showed a significantly higher hematopoiesis as
      assessed using side population, Lin-Sca-1+ckit+, colony-forming unit (CFU), long
      term culture, CFU-spleen assay and engraftment potential as compared to the
      control set. Thrombopoiesis was also stimulated in PUFA-fed mice. A combination
      of DHA and AA was found to be more effective than when either was fed
      individually. Higher incorporation of PUFAs as well as products of their
      metabolism was observed in the bone marrow cells of PUFA-fed mice. A stimulation
      of the Wnt, CXCR4 and Notch1 pathways was observed in PUFA-fed mice. The clinical
      relevance of this study was evident when bone marrow-transplanted recipient mice,
      which were fed with PUFAs, showed higher engraftment of donor cells, suggesting
      that the bone marrow microenvironment may also be stimulated by feeding with
      PUFAs. These data indicate that oral administration of PUFAs in mice stimulates
      hematopoiesis and thrombopoiesis and could serve as a valuable supplemental
      therapy in situations of hematopoietic failure.

PMID- 28570945
TI  - The impact of short term clinical placement in a developing country on nursing
      students: A qualitative descriptive study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Offering nursing students' international clinical placement during
      the educational program is one response to meet the need of cultural competence
      among nurses. This paper provides insight into the impact of clinical placement,
      in a developing country, on third year nursing students. In the study we
      investigated how short term international clinical placement impacted Norwegian
      nursing students' development of cultural competency. DESIGN AND METHODS: In this
      study we utilised a qualitative descriptive design and used individual interviews
      with eighteen Norwegian nursing students who had all participated in an
      international clinical placement. The data were analysed using the principles of
      systematic text condensation. RESULTS: In spite the international clinical
      placement only was four weeks, the findings suggested that real life experience
      culturally awakened the students and forced an ongoing process developing
      cultural competence. However, it is important to give students time to
      reflection. CONCLUSIONS: Although increased cultural awareness and a growing
      cultural competence was identified by the students undertaking international
      clinical placement, further research is required. It is important to investigate
      the best methods to support the students' reflection such that the experiences
      lead to learning.

PMID- 28570946
TI  - Microfabricated blood vessels undergo neoangiogenesis.
AB  - The greatest ambition and promise of tissue engineering is to manufacture human
      organs. Before "made-to-measure" tissues can become a reality [1-3], however,
      three-dimensional tissues must be reconstructed and characterized. The current
      inability to manufacture operational vasculature has limited the growth of
      engineered tissues. Here, free-standing, small diameter blood vessels with
      organized cell layers that recapitulate normal biological functionality are
      fabricated using microfluidic technology. Over time in culture, the endothelial
      cells form a monolayer on the luminal wall and remodel the scaffold with human
      extracellular matrix proteins. After integration into three-dimensional gels
      containing fibroblasts, the microvessels sprout and generate extended hollow
      branches that anastomose with neighboring capillaries to form a network. Both the
      microfabricated vessels and the extended sprouts support perfusion of fluids and
      particles. The ability to create cellularized microvessels that can be designed
      with a diameter of choice, produced by the meter, and undergo angiogenesis and
      anastomoses will be an extremely valuable tool for vascularization of engineered
      tissues. To summarize, ultraviolet (UV) photo-crosslinkable poly(ethylene glycol)
      and gelatin methacrylate polymers used in combination with sheath-flow
      microfluidics allow for the fabrication of small diameter blood vessels which
      undergo neoangiogenesis as well as other developmental processes associated with
      normal human blood vessel maturation. Once mature, these vessels can be embedded;
      perfused; cryogenically stored and respond to stimuli such as chemokines and
      shear stresses to mimic native human blood vessels. The applications range from
      tissue-on-chip systems for drug screening, characterization of normal and
      pathologic processes, and creation and characterization of engineered tissues for
      organ repair.

PMID- 28570947
TI  - Aphasia in vascular lesions of the basal ganglia: A comprehensive review.
AB  - Between 1970 and 1990, the study of aphasia secondary to subcortical lesions
      (including the basal ganglia - BG) was largely driven by the advent of modern
      neuroimaging techniques such as MRI and PET. However, attempts to characterize a
      pattern of language abnormalities in patients with basal ganglia lesions proved
      unfruitful. We conducted a comprehensive review of language disturbances after
      vascular lesions in the BG. Literature search in Medline and LILACS (1966-2016)
      and PsychINFO (last 25years) was conducted, and returned 145 articles, with 57
      eligible for the review yielding data on 303 patients. We report the clinical and
      neuroimaging features of these cases. Results showed that aphasias caused by BG
      lesions are heterogeneous with weak clinicoanatomical correlations. Data derived
      from follow-up and flow/metabolism studies suggest that subcortical aphasia
      caused by BG lesions involves hypoperfusion in the cortical territories of the
      middle cerebral/internal carotid arteries (MCA/ICA) and their branches.

PMID- 28570951
TI  - Dietary Lactobacillus plantarum supplementation enhances growth performance and
      alleviates aluminum toxicity in tilapia.
AB  - We investigated the protection offered by the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum
      CCFM639 against waterborne Al exposure in tilapia. Fish were allocated to
      control, CCFM639-only, Al-only or Al plus CCFM639 groups. The fish were exposed
      to 2.73mg/L Al ions for 4 weeks. The probiotic was incorporated into the fish
      diet at 108 CFU/g and provided twice daily. Our results showed that L. plantarum
      CCFM639 significantly enhanced feed utilization, growth performance and
      antioxidant ability in the absence of waterborne Al exposure. When fish were
      exposed to Al, dietary supplementation with the strain effectively decreased the
      death rate and accumulation of Al in tissues, and enhanced growth performance.
      Moreover, Al-induced changes in hematobiochemical parameters and hepatic
      oxidative stress and histopathology were also alleviated. Therefore, L. plantarum
      CCFM639 may be a novel dietary supplement for fish to enhance growth performance
      and prevent aquaculture and food safety problems induced by Al pollution.

PMID- 28570949
TI  - Does hypoxia play a role in the development of sarcopenia in humans? Mechanistic
      insights from the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Sarcopenia refers to the involuntary loss of skeletal muscle and is a
      predictor of physical disability/mortality. Its pathogenesis is poorly
      understood, although roles for altered hypoxic signaling, oxidative stress,
      adipokines and inflammatory mediators have been suggested. Sarcopenia also occurs
      upon exposure to the hypoxia of high altitude. Using data from the Caudwell
      Xtreme Everest expedition we therefore sought to analyze the extent of hypoxia
      induced body composition changes and identify putative pathways associated with
      fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) loss. METHODS: After baseline testing in
      London (75m), 24 investigators ascended from Kathmandu (1300m) to Everest base
      camp (EBC 5300m) over 13 days. Fourteen investigators climbed above EBC, eight of
      whom reached the summit (8848m). Assessments were conducted at baseline, during
      ascent and after one, six and eight week(s) of arrival at EBC. Changes in body
      composition (FM, FFM, total body water, intra- and extra-cellular water) were
      measured by bioelectrical impedance. Biomarkers of nitric oxide and oxidative
      stress were measured together with adipokines, inflammatory, metabolic and
      vascular markers. RESULTS: Participants lost a substantial, but variable, amount
      of body weight (7.3+/-4.9kg by expedition end; p<0.001). A progressive loss of
      both FM and FFM was observed, and after eight weeks, the proportion of FFM loss
      was 48% greater than FM loss (p<0.008). Changes in protein carbonyls (p<0.001)
      were associated with a decline in FM whereas 4-hydroxynonenal (p<0.001) and IL-6
      (p<0.001) correlated with FFM loss. GLP-1 (r=-0.45, p<0.001) and nitrite (r=
      0.29, p<0.001) concentration changes were associated with FFM loss. In a
      multivariate model, GLP-1, insulin and nitrite were significant predictors of FFM
      loss while protein carbonyls were predicted FM loss. CONCLUSIONS: The putative
      role of GLP-1 and nitrite as mediators of the effects of hypoxia on FFM is an
      intriguing finding. If confirmed, nutritional and pharmacological interventions
      targeting these pathways may offer new avenues for prevention and treatment of
      sarcopenia.

PMID- 28570950
TI  - Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking and environmental RNAi for powerful innovative pre-
      and post-harvest plant protection.
AB  - Small RNA (sRNA) induces RNA interference (RNAi) in almost all eukaryotes. While
      sRNAs can move within an organism, they can also move between interacting
      organisms to induce gene silencing, a phenomenon called 'cross-kingdom RNAi'.
      Some sRNAs from pathogens or pests move into host cells and suppress host
      immunity in both plants and animals; whereas some host sRNAs travel into
      pathogen/pest cells to inhibit their virulence. Moreover, uptake of exogenous
      RNAs from the environment was recently discovered in certain fungal pathogens,
      which makes it possible to suppress fungal diseases by directly applying pathogen
      targeting RNAs on crops and post-harvest products. This new-generation of RNA
      based fungicides is powerful, environmentally friendly, and can be easily adapted
      to control multiple diseases simultaneously.

PMID- 28570952
TI  - Ecotoxicological evaluation of magnetic ionic liquids.
AB  - Although magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) are not yet industrially applied, their
      continued development and eventual commercial use may lead to their appearance
      into the aquatic ecosystem through accidental spills or effluents, consequently
      promoting aquatic contaminations. Furthermore, the deficient information and
      uncertainty surrounding the environmental impact of MILs could be a major barrier
      to their widespread industrial application and international registration. Thus,
      in the present work, a range of cholinium salt derivatives with magnetic
      properties was synthesized and their ecotoxicity was evaluated towards the
      luminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri. The results suggest that all MILs
      structures tested are moderately toxic, or even toxic, to the bacteria.
      Furthermore, their toxicity is highly dependent on the structural modifications
      of the cation, namely the alkyl side chain length and the number of hydroxyethyl
      groups, as well as the atomic number of the metal anion. Finally, from the
      magnetic anions evaluated, the [MnCl4]2- is the less toxic. In order to improve
      the knowledge for the prospective design of environmentally safer MILs, it is
      important to expand this study to other aquatic organisms at different trophic
      levels.

PMID- 28570948
TI  - Direct 1O2 optical excitation: A tool for redox biology.
AB  - Molecular oxygen (O2) displays very interesting properties. Its first excited
      state, commonly known as singlet oxygen (1O2), is one of the so-called Reactive
      Oxygen Species (ROS). It has been implicated in many redox processes in
      biological systems. For many decades its role has been that of a deleterious
      chemical species, although very positive clinical applications in the
      Photodynamic Therapy of cancer (PDT) have been reported. More recently, many ROS,
      and also 1O2, are in the spotlight because of their role in physiological
      signaling, like cell proliferation or tissue regeneration. However, there are
      methodological shortcomings to properly assess the role of 1O2 in redox biology
      with classical generation procedures. In this review the direct optical
      excitation of O2 to produce 1O2 will be introduced, in order to present its main
      advantages and drawbacks for biological studies. This photonic approach can
      provide with many interesting possibilities to understand and put to use ROS in
      redox signaling and in the biomedical field.

PMID- 28570953
TI  - Oscillations, neural computations and learning during wake and sleep.
AB  - Learning and memory theories consider sleep and the reactivation of waking
      hippocampal neural patterns to be crucial for the long-term consolidation of
      memories. Here we propose that precisely coordinated representations across brain
      regions allow the inference and evaluation of causal relationships to train an
      internal generative model of the world. This training starts during wakefulness
      and strongly benefits from sleep because its recurring nested oscillations may
      reflect compositional operations that facilitate a hierarchical processing of
      information, potentially including behavioral policy evaluations. This suggests
      that an important function of sleep activity is to provide conditions conducive
      to general inference, prediction and insight, which contribute to a more robust
      internal model that underlies generalization and adaptive behavior.

PMID- 28570954
TI  - Intracellular transport and compartmentation of phosphate in plants.
AB  - Phosphate (Pi) is an essential macronutrient with structural and metabolic roles
      within every compartment of the plant cell. Intracellular Pi transporters direct
      Pi to each organelle and also control its exchange between subcellular
      compartments thereby providing the means to coordinate compartmented metabolic
      processes, including glycolysis, photosynthesis, and respiration. In this review
      we summarize recent advances in the identification and functional analysis of Pi
      transporters that localize to vacuoles, chloroplasts, non-photosynthetic
      plastids, mitochondria, and the Golgi apparatus. Electrical potentials across
      intracellular membranes and the pH of subcellular environments will also be
      highlighted as key factors influencing the energetics of Pi transport, and
      therefore pose limits for Pi compartmentation.

PMID- 28570955
TI  - 1H NMR spectral identification of medication in cerebrospinal fluid of pediatric
      meningitis.
AB  - Exploratory metabolomics studies of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), using proton
      nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, hold major potential
      application in neurodiagnostics. Such studies, however, rely upon established
      databases of known metabolites. Here we address the 'unknowns' in the 1H NMR
      spectra of CSF from treated pediatric meningitis cases. Through knowledge of the
      clinical information given by the pediatrician and analytical application of 1H
      NMR spectroscopy on pure reference compounds of the medication used, we
      identified four of the previously unknown compounds in the 1H NMR CSF spectra -
      the drugs pyrazinamide, isoniazid, acyclovir, and sulfamethoxazole. We report on
      the one- and two-dimensional 1H NMR spectral data and chemical information of
      these four compounds. By expanding our knowledge of 1H NMR CSF spectra from
      treated meningitis cases, we are able to bring 1H NMR closer to the forefront of
      neurodiagnostics.

PMID- 28570956
TI  - Worry and risk perception of breast cancer in a prevention trial of low dose
      tamoxifen in midlife postmenopausal hormone users.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is increasing interest in combining postmenopausal hormone
      therapy (HT) and SERMs in midlife women. We previously showed that refusal to
      participate in a prevention trial of low dose tamoxifen in HT users was
      associated with higher worry about breast cancer. Given this counterintuitive
      finding, we studied which factors influenced worry and risk perception of breast
      cancer. METHODS: We assessed the relationships of breast cancer worry and risk
      perception with age, age at menopause, Gail risk, education, adherence to
      mammographic screening, BMI, smoking, physical activity, alcohol use, anxiety and
      depression in 457 midlife HT users who were eligible to participate in the trial.
      RESULTS: Women with menopause <48 years were more worried about breast cancer
      than women with menopause >52 years (OR = 5.0, 95% CI, 1.2-21.1). Worry was also
      associated with high absolute risk perception and former smoking. Factors
      associated with higher risk perception were age>60 years, at-risk life style,
      worry about breast cancer and depression. CONCLUSIONS: The inverse association
      between early menopause and worry about breast cancer is in contrast with the
      known protective effect of early menopause on breast cancer risk and seems to
      reflect a feeling of aging and disease vulnerability. Our findings indicate that
      worry about cancer has an affective construct which is independent of breast
      cancer biology but is engaged in health decision making. Increasing breast cancer
      risk awareness in subjects high in worry without a plan of emotional coping may
      therefore be counterproductive because of avoidant attitudes.

PMID- 28570957
TI  - Membrane technology costs and me.
AB  - A reflection of the place cost analysis holds in membrane process technology
      research and development is provided. The review encompassed two membrane
      processes and applications: (a) reverse osmosis (RO) for seawater desalination,
      and (b) membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology for wastewater treatment. The cost
      analysis undertaken extended to (i) the determination of operating expenditure
      (OPEX) trends using simple analytical expressions, (ii) the subsequent estimation
      of the sensitivity of OPEX to individual system parameters, and (iii) published
      data on CAPEX for individual full-scale installations or from cost analyses. An
      appraisal of the peer-reviewed literature through a survey of a leading
      scientific database was also carried out. This bibliometric analysis was based on
      authors' keywords; it aimed to establish the profile of process cost for each of
      the two applications when compared with other popular research topics. The OPEX
      analysis, ostensibly through a consideration of specific energy demand in kWh per
      m3 permeate, revealed it to relate primarily to hydrodynamics in the case of RO,
      and to both membrane fouling and air scouring for MBRs. The bibliometric analysis
      of research trends revealed a marked difference in emphasis on cost aspects
      between the two research areas, with the focus on cost specifically being 16
      times greater for RO desalination of seawater than MBR treatment of wastewater.
      MBR research appears to be dominated by fouling and foulant characterisation,
      making up almost a quarter of all studies, notwithstanding evidence from
      practitioners that other process parameters are as important in determining MBR
      process OPEX and operability.

PMID- 28570958
TI  - Interplay between alternatively spliced Tissue Factor and full length Tissue
      Factor in modulating coagulant activity of endothelial cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Full length Tissue factor (flTF) is a key player in hemostasis and
      also likely contributes to venous thromboembolism (VTE), the third most common
      cardiovascular disease. flTF and its minimally coagulant isoform, alternatively
      spliced TF (asTF), have been detected in thrombi, suggesting participation of
      both isoforms in thrombogenesis, but data on participation of asTF in hemostasis
      is lacking. Therefore, we assessed the role of asTF in flTF cofactor activity
      modulation, using a co-expression system. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the interplay
      between flTF and asTF in hemostasis on endothelial cell surface. METHODS:
      Immortalized endothelial (ECRF) cells were adenovirally transduced to express
      asTF and flTF, after which flTF cofactor activity was measured on cells and
      microvesicles (MVs). To study co-localization of flTF/asTF proteins, confocal
      microscopy was performed. Finally, intracellular distribution of flTF was studied
      in the presence or absence of heightened asTF levels. RESULTS: Levels of flTF
      antigen and cofactor activity were not affected by asTF co-expression. asTF and
      flTF were found to localize in distinct subcellular compartments. Only upon
      heightened overexpression of asTF, lower flTF protein levels and cofactor
      activity were observed. Heightened asTF levels also induced a shift of flTF from
      non-raft to lipid raft plasma membrane fractions, and triggered the expression of
      ER stress marker BiP. Proteasome inhibition resulted in increased asTF - but not
      flTF - protein expression. CONCLUSION: At moderate levels, asTF appears to have
      negligible impact on flTF cofactor activity on endothelial cells and MVs;
      however, at supra-physiological levels, asTF is able to reduce the levels of flTF
      protein and cofactor activity.

PMID- 28570959
TI  - Non-survivor septic patients have persistently higher serum sCD40L levels than
      survivors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) is a protein with proinflammatory and
      prothrombotic effects. Previously we found higher circulating sCD40L levels in
      non-survivor than in survivor patients at sepsis diagnosis. Now some questions
      arise such as how are serum sCD40L levels during the first week of severe
      sepsis?, is there an association between serum sCD40L levels during the first
      week and mortality?, and serum sCD40L levels during the first week could be used
      as sepsis mortality biomarker?. This study was developed to answer these asks.
      METHODS: Study from 6 Spanish Intensive Care Units with 291 severe septic
      patients. There were determined serum levels of sCD40L and tumor necrosis factor
      (TNF)-alpha during the first week. The end-point study was 30-day mortality.
      RESULTS: We found that serum sCD40L at days 1, 4, and 8 could predict mortality
      at 30days, and are associated with mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The novel findings of
      our study were that there were higher serum sCD40L levels persistently during the
      first week in non-survivor than in survivor patients, that there is an
      association between serum sCD40L levels during the first week and sepsis
      mortality, and that serum sCD40L levels during the first week could be used as
      sepsis mortality biomarker.

PMID- 28570960
TI  - Four phases of the Flint Water Crisis: Evidence from blood lead levels in
      children.
AB  - The Flint Water Crisis (FWC) is divisible into four phases of child water-lead
      exposure risk: Phase A) before the switch in water source to the Flint River (our
      baseline); Phase B) after the switch in water source, but before boil water
      advisories; Phase C) after boil water advisories, but before the switch back to
      the baseline water source of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD);
      and Phase D) after the switch back to DWSD. The objective of this work is to
      estimate water-lead attributable movements in child blood lead levels (BLLs) that
      correspond with the four phases in the FWC. With over 21,000 geo-referenced and
      time-stamped blood lead samples from children in Genesee County drawn from
      January 01, 2013 to July 19, 2016, we develop a series of quasi-experimental
      models to identify the causal effect of water-lead exposure on child BLLs in
      Flint. We find that the switch in water source (transitioning from phase A to B)
      caused mean BLLs to increase by about 0.5MUg/dL, and increased the likelihood of
      a child presenting with a BLL >= 5MUg/dL by a factor of 1.91-3.50, implying an
      additional 561 children exceeding 5MUg/dL. We conservatively estimate cohort
      social costs (through lost earnings alone) of this increase in water-lead exposed
      children at $65 million, contrasted with expected annual savings of $2 million
      from switching water source. On the switch from Phase B to C, we find BLLs
      decreased about 50% from their initial rise following boil water advisories and
      subsequent water avoidance behaviors by households. Finally, the return to the
      baseline source water (Phase D) returned child BLLs to pre-FWC levels further
      implicating water-lead exposure as a causal source of child BLLs throughout the
      FWC.

PMID- 28570961
TI  - Nonlinear responses to waterborne cadmium exposure in zebrafish. An in vivo
      study.
AB  - Cadmium (Cd) has proved to be associated with numerous toxic effects in aquatic
      organisms via waterborne exposure. With a view to investigate Cd toxicity along a
      broad spectrum of exposures reaching from environmental to toxic, we employed
      adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) for an in vivo study. A number of 10 fish per tank
      were placed in 40L tanks and were exposed for 30 days to 0.0, 5.0, 25, 50, 75,
      100 and 1000MUgCd per liter. There were 2 tanks for each Cd exposure (duplicate
      experiment). Mortality was recorded daily, dead fish were collected and tissue
      samples were obtained for histologic observation, whereas remaining tissues were
      stored for Cd burden determination. Surviving fish were collected at the end of
      the experiment. Median overall survival (OS) in days was found to be 9.0, 11.0,
      8.0 and 7.0 for 25MUg/L, 50MUg/L, 75MUg/L and 100MUg/L respectively, with all of
      them showing mortality greater than 50%. Remarkably, fish exposed to the highest
      Cd concentration (1000MUg/L) survived the longest exhibiting a mean OS of 29.2
      days. Cd determination in fish tissue was conducted with an in house ICP-MS
      method and levels ranged from 3.1 to 29.1ng/mg. Log Cd tissue levels were
      significantly correlated with the log Cd exposure levels (r = 0.535, p < 0.001).
      The highest Cd burden was determined for fish exposed to 1000MUgCd /L (mean =
      12.2ng/mg). Histopathology supported these results. Our findings disclose a
      deviation in toxic responses through the range of Cd concentrations, leading to
      nonlinear responses. These differentiated responses, could be linked to hormesis
      phenomena.

PMID- 28570962
TI  - Climate change policies: The role of democracy and social cognitive capital.
AB  - The impact of democracy on governments' choice of environmental policies has
      attracted significant academic attention in recent years. However, less attention
      has been devoted to the role of the social cognitive capital of the national
      population. Does society's cognitive capital matter in governmental choice
      regarding environmental policies, if at all? This study addresses this question
      through a large-N analysis of 94 countries accounting for the role of both
      political regimes and social capital in governmental choice of climate change
      policies. We find that higher social cognitive capital within a democratic state
      radically increases that state's commitment to adopt environmental policies. More
      specifically, a 1-point increase in the democracy index is associated with nearly
      5 points increase in the adoption of the Climate Laws, Institutions and Measures
      Index (CLIMI). In a similar vein, a 10 points increase in social cognitive
      capital is associated with a nearly 16 points increase in CLIMI. The findings
      presented in this study aim to contribute to the ongoing debate on the impact of
      democracy and the cognitive capital of society on international environmentalism.
      The findings will also be interesting for scholars working on the impact of
      political institutional factors and the role of society in environmental policy
      choices made at the international level.

PMID- 28570963
TI  - Fatigue during treatment with antiepileptic drugs: A levetiracetam-specific
      adverse event?
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the prevalence and clinical correlates of fatigue as an
      adverse event (AE) of antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment in patients with
      epilepsy. METHODS: Data from 443 adult outpatients with epilepsy assessed with
      the Adverse Event Profile (AEP) and the Neurological Disorder Depression
      Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDIE) were analysed. RESULTS: Fatigue is reported by
      36.6% of patients as always a problem during AED treatment. Fatigue is more
      likely to be reported by females (64.8% vs. 35.2%; Chi-Square=16.762; df=3;
      p=0.001) and during treatment with levetiracetam (42.3% vs. 33.2%; Chi
      Square=11.462; df=3; p=0.009). The associations with the female gender and
      levetiracetam treatment were not mediated by depression, as identified with the
      NDDIE, and could not be simply explained by the large number of subjects on
      levetiracetam treatment, as analogous figures resulted from the analysis of a
      monotherapy subsample (41.7% vs. 30.3%; Chi-Square=11.547; df=3; p=0.009).
      CONCLUSIONS: One third of patients with epilepsy reports fatigue as a significant
      problem during AED treatment. Fatigue is more likely to be reported by females
      and seems to be specifically associated with LEV treatment. However, fatigue is
      not mediated by a negative effect of LEV on mood.

PMID- 28570964
TI  - Prenatal stress potentiates febrile seizure and leads to long-lasting increase in
      cortisol blood levels in children under 2years old.
AB  - Neurological disorders can be exacerbated in an offspring that is exposed to
      stress prenatally. This study is aimed to investigate the severity of febrile
      seizures (FS) in the offspring under 2years old that were prenatally stressed. In
      this study, 158 children below 2years old with FS were selected. Information
      about convulsion including seizure lasting, recurrence of seizure, age of the
      first seizure and type of FS was gathered. Blood samples were obtained from the
      offspring to measure the cortisol blood levels. Questionnaire was filled in to
      evaluate the perceived stress and exposure or non-exposure to major stresses
      during pregnancy. Results of this study showed that both high Perceived Stress
      Scores (PSS) during pregnancy and exposure to major stresses during pregnancy
      significantly increased seizure duration and seizure intensity. Also, the
      appearance of complex FS was significantly higher in prenatally stressed children
      than the unexposed ones. Further, cortisol blood levels were significantly higher
      in prenatally stressed subjects. It can be concluded that both higher PSS and/or
      exposure to major stresses during pregnancy potentiate FS parameters and lead to
      long lasting increase in cortisol blood levels in the offspring.

PMID- 28570967
TI  - Meta-analysis of radiocesium contamination data in Japanese forest trees over the
      period 2011-2013.
AB  - The fate and dispersion of radiocesium in forests affected by the Fukushima
      atmospheric fallouts have been efficiently characterized by Japanese scientists
      thanks to monitoring surveys of radioactive contents in contaminated soil, water,
      and vegetation samples at numerous sites. In this paper, we carry out a meta
      analysis of the field surveys conducted over the period 2011-2013 in evergreen
      coniferous and deciduous broadleaf forests of Fukushima or neighboring
      prefectures. The review focuses on contamination data acquired in tree vegetation
      - about 1500 spatio-temporal measurements of concentrations, inventories and
      depuration fluxes - with a particular interest for organs that were directly
      exposed to the atmospheric fallouts and subjected to depuration mechanisms
      (foliage, branches and outer bark). To reduce the spatial variability between the
      sites, radioactive data were normalized by the total deposit estimated at each
      site. Our analysis highlights the overall consistency of field observations
      despite the variety of experimental protocols, disparate sampling periods,
      differences in the forest stand characteristics and variability of the
      atmospheric deposition conditions. Assuming that the sites conformed to the same
      dynamics (within the range of residual variability), we then derive, discuss, and
      compare the mean representative evolutions of radiocesium contamination in the
      two categories of forest. Thanks to a simple mass balance approach, we finally
      demonstrate that: (i) about 90% of the radiocesium deposit was intercepted by
      evergreen coniferous vegetation, (ii) 80% of the deposit was gradually
      transferred to the forest floor in 3years, according to a well characterized
      depuration kinetics, and (iii) about 4% was readily absorbed by the foliage and
      translocated to internal organs (inner bark, stem wood and roots) at a rate of
      about 10-4d-1.

PMID- 28570965
TI  - Neurochemical evidence based suggested therapy for safe management of
      epileptogenesis.
AB  - Most of the clinically available antiepileptic drugs have only antiseizure
      effects and are reported unable to prevent epileptogenesis. In the past decade,
      several drugs underwent clinical trials for management of epileptogenesis, but
      none of the drugs tested was found effective. One of the major lacunas is
      availability of appropriate preclinical approaches to delineate mechanisms of
      epileptogenesis. Thus, the present study attempts to suggest a neurochemistry
      based approach for safe management of epileptogenesis. The altered neurochemical
      milieu in amygdala, cortex and hippocampus areas of the mice brain in naive,
      kindled and kindling resistant animals has been delineated. The endogenous
      natural antiepileptogenic neurochemical defense mechanism observed in kindling
      resistant animals may uncover neurochemical mechanisms of epileptogenesis and in
      turn suggest us novel interventions for safe management of epileptogenesis. The
      kindling epileptogenesis was carried out in two month old male Swiss albino mice
      by administering subconvulsive pentylenetetrazole (35mg/kg; i.p.) at an interval
      of 48+/-2h for 42days. 2h after the last pentylenetetrazole injection, the
      animals were subjected to behavioral evaluations. Four hours after behavioral
      evaluation, all animals were euthanized and discrete parts of brain (amygdala,
      cortex and hippocampus) were harvested for neurochemical analysis. Results
      revealed that 60% of animals responded to kindling as observed with decreased
      seizure threshold, while the rest were found resistant. The kindled animals were
      found to be associated with anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment; while
      in kindling resistant animals no such behavioral deficits were observed. The
      neurochemical analysis revealed that in kindled animals altered glutamate-GABA
      neurotransmission, and decreased taurine, glycine, d-serine, monoamine levels
      with elevated indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity were observed, which may be
      convicted for progression of kindling epileptogenesis. However, in kindling
      resistant animals elevated GABA, taurine, tryptophan, serotonin, glycine, and d
      serine levels with decreased indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity were observed
      as natural endogenous antiepileptogenic mechanisms, which may be foreseen as safe
      pharmacological targets for management of epileptogenesis.

PMID- 28570966
TI  - Enhancing quality of life among adolescents with bipolar disorder: A randomized
      trial of two psychosocial interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) report lower quality of life
      (QoL) than adolescents with other psychiatric disorders. This study compared the
      efficacy of family-focused therapy for adolescents (FFT-A) plus pharmacotherapy
      to brief psychoeducation (enhanced care, or EC) plus pharmacotherapy on self
      rated QoL in adolescents with BD over 2 years. METHODS: Participants were 141
      adolescents (mean age: 15.6+/-1.4yr) with BD I or II who had a mood episode in
      the previous 3 months. Adolescents and parents were randomly assigned to (1) FFT
      A, given in 21 sessions in 9 months of psychoeducation, communication enhancement
      training, and problem-solving skills training, or (2) EC, given in 3 family
      psychoeducation sessions. Study psychiatrists provided patient participants with
      protocol-based pharmacotherapy for the duration of the study. QoL was assessed
      with The KINDLRQuestionnaire (Ravens-Sieberer and Bullinger, 1998) during active
      treatment (baseline to 9 months) and during a post-treatment follow-up (9-24
      months). RESULTS: The two treatment groups did not differ in overall QoL scores
      over 24 months. However, adolescents in FFT-A had greater improvements in quality
      of family relationships and physical well-being than participants in EC. For
      quality of friendships, the trajectory during active treatment favored EC,
      whereas the trajectory during post-treatment favored FFT-A. LIMITATIONS: We were
      unable to standardize medication use or adherence over time. Quality of life was
      based on self-report rather than on observable functioning. CONCLUSIONS: A short
      course of family psychoeducation and skills training may enhance relational
      functioning and health in adolescents with BD. The effects of different
      psychosocial interventions on peer relationships deserves further study.

PMID- 28570968
TI  - Sources of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions to Irish rivers and coastal waters:
      Estimates from a nutrient load apportionment framework.
AB  - More than half of surface water bodies in Europe are at less than good ecological
      status according to Water Framework Directive assessments, and diffuse pollution
      from agriculture remains a major, but not the only, cause of this poor
      performance. Agri-environmental policy and land management practices have, in
      many areas, reduced nutrient emissions to water. However, additional measures may
      be required in Ireland to further decouple the relationship between agricultural
      productivity and emissions to water, which is of vital importance given on-going
      agricultural intensification. The Source Load Apportionment Model (SLAM)
      framework characterises sources of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) emissions to
      water at a range of scales from sub-catchment to national. The SLAM synthesises
      land use and physical characteristics to predict emissions from point
      (wastewater, industry discharges and septic tank systems) and diffuse sources
      (agriculture, forestry, etc.). The predicted annual nutrient emissions were
      assessed against monitoring data for 16 major river catchments covering 50% of
      the area of Ireland. At national scale, results indicate that total average
      annual emissions to surface water in Ireland are over 2700tyr-1 of P and
      82,000tyr-1 of N. The proportional contributions from individual sources show
      that the main sources of P are from municipal wastewater treatment plants and
      agriculture, with wide variations across the country related to local
      anthropogenic pressures and the hydrogeological setting. Agriculture is the main
      source of N emissions to water across all regions of Ireland. These policy
      relevant results synthesised large amounts of information in order to identify
      the dominant sources of nutrients at regional and local scales, contributing to
      the national nutrient risk assessment of Irish water bodies.

PMID- 28570969
TI  - Estimation of total CH4 emission from Japanese rice paddies using a new
      estimation method based on the DNDC-Rice simulation model.
AB  - Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas, and paddy fields are one of its main
      anthropogenic sources. In Japan, country-specific emission factors (EFs) have
      been applied since 2003 to estimate national-scale CH4 emission from paddy field.
      However, these EFs did not consider the effects of factors that influence CH4
      emission (e.g., amount of organic C inputs, field drainage rate, climate) and can
      therefore produce estimates with high uncertainty. To improve the reliability of
      national-scale estimates, we revised the EFs based on simulations by the
      DeNitrification-DeComposition-Rice (DNDC-Rice) model in a previous study. Here,
      we estimated total CH4 emission from paddy fields in Japan from 1990 to 2010
      using these revised EFs and databases on independent variables that influence
      emission (organic C application rate, paddy area, proportions of paddy area for
      each drainage rate class and water management regime). CH4 emission ranged from
      323 to 455ktCyr-1 (1.1 to 2.2 times the range of 206 to 285ktCyr-1 calculated
      using previous EFs). Although our method may have overestimated CH4 emissions,
      most of the abovementioned differences were presumably caused by underestimation
      by the previous method due to a lack of emission data from slow-drainage fields,
      lower organic C inputs than recent levels, neglect of regional climatic
      differences, and underestimation of the area of continuously flooded paddies. Our
      estimate (406ktC in 2000) was higher than that by the IPCC Tier 1 method (305ktC
      in 2000), presumably because regional variations in CH4 emission rates are not
      accounted for by the Tier 1 method.

PMID- 28570970
TI  - Altered humin compositions under organic and inorganic fertilization on an
      intensively cultivated sandy loam soil.
AB  - Humin is the most recalcitrant fraction of soil organic matter (SOM). However,
      little is known about quantitative structural information on humin and the roles
      of soil mircoorganisms involved in the humin formation. We applied advanced solid
      state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to provide deep insights
      into humin structural changes in response to long-term balanced fertilization on
      a Calcaric Fluvisol in the North China plain. The relationships between humin
      structure and microbiological properties such as microbial biomass, microbial
      quotient (qmic) and metabolic quotient (qCO2) were also studied. The humins had a
      considerable (35-44%) proportion of aromatic C being nonprotonated and the vast
      majority of O-alkyl and anomeric C being protonated. Alkyl (24-27% of all C),
      aromatic C (17-28%) and O-alkyl (13-20%) predominated in humins. Long-term
      fertilization promoted the aliphatic nature of humins, causing increases in O
      alkyl, anomeric and NCH functional groups and decreases in aromatic C and
      aromatic CO groups. All these changes were more prominent for treatments of
      organic fertilizer (OF) and combined mineral NPK fertilizer with OF (NPKOF)
      relative to the Control and NPK treatments. Fertilization also decreased the
      alkyl/O-alkyl ratio, aromaticity and hydrophobic characteristics of humins,
      suggesting a more decomposed and humified state of humin in the Control soil.
      Moreover, the soil microbiological properties had strong correlations with
      functional groups of humins. Particularly, microbial biomass C was a relatively
      sensitive indicator, having positive correlations with oxygen-containing
      functional groups, i.e., COO/NCO and protonated O-alkyl C, and negative
      correlations with nonprotonated aromatic C. The qmic and qCO2 were also
      significantly positively correlated with NCH and aromatic CO, respectively. Our
      results deepen our understanding of how long-term fertilization impacts the
      structure of humin, and highlight a linkage between microbiological properties
      and recalcitrant fraction of SOM besides labile fraction.

PMID- 28570971
TI  - The impact of land use and spatial mediated processes on the water quality in a
      river system.
AB  - River systems are highly complex, hierarchical and patchy systems which are
      greatly influenced by both catchment surroundings and in-stream processes.
      Natural and anthropogenic land uses and processes affect water quality (WQ)
      through different pathways and scales. Understanding under which conditions these
      different river and catchment properties become dominant towards water chemistry
      remains a challenge. In this study we analyzed the impact of land use and spatial
      scales on a range of WQ variables within the Kleine Nete catchment in Belgium.
      Multivariate statistics and spatial descriptors (Moran's and Asymmetric
      Eigenvector Maps) were used to assess changes in water chemistry throughout the
      catchment. Both land use and complex mixes of spatial descriptors of different
      scales were found to be significantly associated to WQ parameters. However,
      unidirectional, upstream-downstream changes in water chemistry, often described
      in river systems, were not found within the Kleine Nete catchment. As different
      sources and processes obscure and interact with each other, it is generally
      difficult to understand the correct impact of different pollution sources and the
      predominant pathways. Our results advocate for WQ management interventions on
      large and small scales where needed, taking the predominate pathways in to
      account.

PMID- 28570972
TI  - Bromine in plastic consumer products - Evidence for the widespread recycling of
      electronic waste.
AB  - A range of plastic consumer products and components thereof have been analysed by
      x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry in a low density mode for Br as a surrogate
      for brominated flame retardant (BFR) content. Bromine was detected in about 42%
      of 267 analyses performed on electronic (and electrical) samples and 18% of 789
      analyses performed on non-electronic samples, with respective concentrations
      ranging from 1.8 to 171,000MUgg-1 and 2.6 to 28,500MUgg-1. Amongst the electronic
      items, the highest concentrations of Br were encountered in relatively small
      appliances, many of which predated 2005 (e.g. a fan heater, boiler thermostat and
      smoke detector, and various rechargers, light bulb collars and printed circuit
      boards), and usually in association with Sb, a component of antimony oxide flame
      retardant synergists, and Pb, a heavy metal additive and contaminant. Amongst the
      non-electronic samples, Br concentrations were highest in items of jewellery, a
      coffee stirrer, a child's puzzle, a picture frame, and various clothes hangers,
      Christmas decorations and thermos cup lids, and were often associated with the
      presence of Sb and Pb. These observations, coupled with the presence of Br at
      concentrations below those required for flame-retardancy in a wider range of
      electronic and non-electronic items, are consistent with the widespread recycling
      of electronic plastic waste. That most Br-contaminated items were black suggests
      the current and recent demand for black plastics in particular is met, at least
      partially, through this route. Given many Br-contaminated items would evade the
      attention of the end-user and recycler, their disposal by conventional municipal
      means affords a course of BFR entry into the environment and, for food-contact
      items, a means of exposure to humans.

PMID- 28570974
TI  - Photodegradation of micropollutants using V-UV/UV-C processes; Triclosan as a
      model compound.
AB  - Non-potable reuse of treated wastewater is becoming widespread as means to
      address growing water scarcity. Removal of micropollutants (MPs) from such water
      often requires advanced oxidation processes using OH radicals. OH can be
      generated in-situ via water photolysis under vacuum-UV (lambda<200nm)
      irradiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of unmasking
      V-UV radiation from low pressure Hg lamps (emitting at 185 and 254nm), commonly
      used in decentralized treatment systems, for enhancing MPs removal efficiency.
      Triclosan, a biocide of limited biodegradability, served as a model compound for
      MPs that are not very biodegradable. Its degradation kinetics and identification
      of intermediate products were investigated under 254nm and under combined
      254/185nm irradiation both in dry thin films and in aqueous solutions. In the
      latter, degradation was faster under combined 254/185nm radiation, although the
      185nm radiation accounted for only 4% of the total UV light intensity. In
      contrast, triclosan photodegradation in dry film did not show significant
      differences between these irradiation wavelengths, suggesting that the enhanced
      degradation of dissolved triclosan under combined radiation is mainly due to
      oxidation by OH formed via water photolysis under V-UV. This conclusion was
      supported by slower TCS degradation in aqueous solution when methanol was added
      as OH scavenger. Under both irradiation types (254, 254/185nm) three
      transformation products (TPs) were identified: 2,8-dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, 5
      chloro-2-(4- or 2-chlorophenoxy)phenol, and 2-hydroxy-8-chlorodibenzodioxin. In
      silico QSAR toxicity assessment predicted potential toxicity and moderate-to-low
      biodegradability of these TPs. Removal of these TPs was faster under 254/185nm
      irradiation. Considering the low cost, simple operation (i.e. no chemicals
      addition) and small size of such low-pressure mercury lamps, this is a promising
      direction. Further investigation of the process in flow-through reactors and real
      wastewater/greywater effluent is needed for its future implementation in small on
      site systems for post-treatment of persistent pollutants.

PMID- 28570973
TI  - Costs of coronary heart disease and mortality associated with near-roadway air
      pollution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence indicates that the near-roadway air pollution
      (NRAP) mixture contributes to CHD, yet few studies have evaluated the associated
      costs. OBJECTIVE: We integrated an assessment of NRAP-attributable CHD in
      Southern California with new methods to value the associated mortality and
      hospitalizations. METHODS: Based on population-weighted residential exposure to
      NRAP (traffic density, proximity to a major roadway and elemental carbon), we
      estimated the inflation-adjusted value of NRAP-attributable mortality and costs
      of hospitalizations that occurred in 2008. We also estimated anticipated costs in
      2035 based on projected changes in population and in NRAP exposure associated
      with California's plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For comparison, we
      estimated the value of CHD mortality attributable to PM less than 2.5MUm in
      diameter (PM2.5) in both 2008 and 2035. RESULTS: The value of CHD mortality
      attributable to NRAP in 2008 was between $3.8 and $11.5 billion, 23% (major
      roadway proximity) to 68% (traffic density) of the $16.8 billion attributable to
      regulated regional PM2.5. NRAP-attributable costs were projected to increase to
      $10.6 to $22 billion in 2035, depending on the NRAP metric. Cost of NRAP
      attributable hospitalizations for CHD in 2008 was $48.6 million and was projected
      to increase to $51.4 million in 2035. CONCLUSIONS: We developed an economic
      framework that can be used to estimate the benefits of regulations to improve air
      quality. CHD attributable to NRAP has a large economic impact that is expected to
      increase by 2035, largely due to an aging population. PM2.5-attributable costs
      may underestimate total value of air pollution-attributable CHD.

PMID- 28570976
TI  - Assessing climate change impacts on fresh water resources of the Athabasca River
      Basin, Canada.
AB  - Proper management of blue and green water resources is important for the
      sustainability of ecosystems and for the socio-economic development of river
      basins such as the Athabasca River Basin (ARB) in Canada. For this reason,
      quantifying climate change impacts on these water resources at a finer temporal
      and spatial scale is often necessary. In this study, we used a Soil and Water
      Assessment Tool (SWAT) to assess climate change impacts on fresh water resources,
      focusing explicitly on the impacts to both blue and green water. We used future
      climate data generated by the Canadian Center for Climate Modelling and Analysis
      Regional Climate Model (CanRCM4) with a spatial resolution of 0.22 degrees *0.22
      degrees  (~25km) for two emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5). Results projected
      the climate of the ARB to be wetter by 21-34% and warmer by 2-5.4 degrees C on an
      annual time scale. Consequently, the annual average blue and green water flow was
      projected to increase by 16-54% and 11-34%, respectively, depending on the
      region, future period, and emission scenario. Furthermore, the annual average
      green water storage at the boreal region was expected to increase by 30%, while
      the storage was projected to remain fairly stable or decrease in other regions,
      especially during the summer season. On average, the fresh water resources in the
      ARB are likely to increase in the future. However, evidence of temporal and
      spatial heterogeneity could pose many future challenges to water resource
      planners and managers.

PMID- 28570975
TI  - Nutrient dynamics and eutrophication in the Sea of Marmara: Data from recent
      oceanographic research.
AB  - This work was implemented to study the physicochemical and biological
      characteristics of the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish straits (TSS: Bosporus and
      Dardanelles straits) for the period 2010-2013 and to calculate winter and summer
      fluxes of nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) between the Aegean and Black Seas
      through the TSS. The brackish Black Sea waters reach the Dardanelles Strait with
      modified biochemical properties. The salinity and phosphates of the surface
      waters increased westwards. Biologically labile nutrients of Black Sea origin are
      utilized through biological processes in the Marmara Sea. On the other hand,
      increase of nutrients due to land based sources has led to eutrophication
      problems in the area. The sub surface water layer of Mediterranean origin is
      oxygen depleted (saturation<30%) and rich in nutrients. Higher oxygen values
      indicated water mixing of the Sea of Marmara during winter 2012. Ammonium was the
      predominant form of inorganic nitrogen. The study area has been classified from
      Moderate to Bad trophic status. Izmit Bay also faced serious eutrophication
      problems together with hypoxic conditions below the halocline. Nutrient fluxes
      through the TSS showed temporal variation in the upper and lower layers related
      to changes in both nutrient concentrations and the water mass volume fluxes.
      Surface nitrates and phosphates outflux from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea
      was higher than the influx from the Black Sea through Bosporus strait, indicating
      high enrichment of nutrients in the Sea of Marmara from anthropogenic sources.

PMID- 28570977
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of nitrogen-containing macrocyclic
      bisbibenzyl derivatives as potent anticancer agents by targeting the lysosome.
AB  - A series of novel nitrogen-containing macrocyclic bisbibenzyl derivatives was
      designed, synthesized, and evaluated for antiproliferative activity against three
      anthropic cancer cell lines. Among these novel molecules, the tri-O-alkylated
      compound 18a displayed the most potent anticancer activity against the A549, MCF
      7, and k562 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 0.51, 0.23, and 0.19 MUM,
      respectively, which were obviously superior to those of the parent compound
      riccardin D, and were 3-10-fold better than those of the clinical used drug ADR.
      The bis-Mannich derivative 11b also exhibited significantly enhanced
      antiproliferative potency, with submicromolar IC50 values. Structure-activity
      relationship analyses of these newly synthesized compounds were also performed.
      Mechanistic studies indicated that these compounds could target the lysosome to
      induce lysosomal membrane permeabilization, and could also induce cell death that
      displayed features characteristic of both apoptosis and necrosis.

PMID- 28570978
TI  - Inhibition of long noncoding RNA IGF2AS promotes angiogenesis in type 2 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, the angiogenic effect of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA),
      insulin growth factor 2 antisense (IGF2AS) in type 2 diabetes was evaluated.
      METHODS: Between Wistar rat and Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat, a genetic model of type 2
      diabetes, mRNA expressions of IGF2AS and IGF2 in myocardial microvascular
      endothelial (mMVE) cells were compared by qRT-PCR. In GK mMVE cells, IGF2AS was
      inhibited by siRNA. Its effects on cell proliferation and invasion were evaluated
      by MTT and wound-healing assays. Also, changes of IGF2, VEGF and IGF1 in siRNA
      transfected GK mMVE cells were evaluated by qRT-PCR and western blot. In IGF2AS
      inhibited GK mMVE cells, IGF2 was further downregulated to evaluate its role in
      IGF2AS-associated angiogenic regulation, using MTT, wound-healing qRT-PCR and
      western blot assays, respectively. RESULTS: IGF2AS was upregulated, whereas IGF2
      was downregulated, in diabetic GK mMVE cells. IGF2AS inhibition augmented
      proliferation and invasion in GK mMVE cells. It also upregulated IGF2 and VEGF
      (not IGF1) at both molecular and protein levels. Conversely, IGF2 downregulation
      upregulated IGF2AS and reversely inhibited angiogenic effect of IGF2AS inhibition
      in GK mMVE cells. It also downregulated VEGF but had no effect on IGF1.
      CONCLUSION: IGF2AS inhibition has angiogenic effect in diabetic GK mMVE cells.
      The functions of IGF2AS in type 2 diabetes are very likely through the inverse
      regulation of IGF2, but independent of IGF1.

PMID- 28570979
TI  - Physcion 8-O-beta-glucopyranoside suppresses tumor growth of Hepatocellular
      carcinoma by downregulating PIM1.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) presents one of leading causes of cancer-related
      mortality worldwidely. This study is aimed to investigate the anti-tumor activity
      of physcion 8-O-beta-glucopyranoside (PG) in HCC. Our results have showed that PG
      significantly suppresses cell growth and induces apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.
      At molecular level, PG represses the expression of Pim family kinases 1 (PIM1),
      which is responsible for the anti-tumor effect of PG in HCC. Ectopic over
      expression of PIM1 significantly abrogates the suppressing effect of PG on cell
      growth and inducing effect of PG on apoptosis. In contrast, knockdown of PIM1 by
      siRNA enhances the anti-tumor effect of PG in HCC cells.

PMID- 28570980
TI  - Local infiltration of the surgical wounds with levobupivacaine, dexibuprofen, and
      norepinephrine to reduce postoperative pain: A randomized, vehicle-controlled,
      and preclinical study.
AB  - Postoperative pain may lead to poor wound healing, insomnia, and increased
      postoperative hospitalization. The objective of the study was to explore the
      effect of local infiltration of the surgical wound with levobupivacaine,
      dexibuprofen, and norepinephrine in postoperative pain. A randomized, parallel
      experimental design was applied in 40, 9-11-week-old Wister albino rats. A
      laparotomy was performed in all groups of 10 rats each. During surgery, the
      sutured muscle was infiltrated with 40MUL of a normal saline (vehicle group), a
      normal saline containing 0.25% v/v levobupivacaine, 0.2mg/mL dexibuprofen, and
      0.1mg/mL norepinephrine (treatment group) before skin closure. The same
      combination (negative control group) and a 10-fold higher dose (positive control
      group) were administered systematically. Rat Grimace Scale scores, based on
      facial expression, 24h after suturing of the tissues, histopathology and tensile
      strength of the surgical wound, two weeks after suturing of the tissues were
      measured. The one-way ANOVA and the two-tailed paired t-test/the Dunnett multiple
      comparisons test were used to compare the Rat Grimace Scale scores for pain
      within the group and between groups. The Kruskal-Wallis test and the one-way
      ANOVA/the Dunnett multiple comparisons test were used to compare the
      histopathology study and the tensile strength. The difference for statistical
      analysis was considered significant at the 95% of confidence level. The mean Rat
      Grimace Scale score at 24h for the treatment, negative control, and positive
      control groups was 1.945 (p=0.0025; q=3.257), 1.1 (p=0.1), and 1.95 (p=0.0021
      q=3.547) respectively. The reduction in postoperative pain started within 1h
      after the suturing of the tissues in the treatment group. There were significant
      difference for epidermal and dermal regeneration (p=0.043), granulation tissue
      thickness (p=0.025), and angiogenesis (p=0.002) between treatment group and
      vehicle group. Tensile strength for the treatment group was 0.82+/
      0.013N/cm2(p=0.003; q=5.231). The rapid infiltration of surgical wounds with a
      low-dose levobupivacaine, dexibuprofen, and norepinephrine may reduce
      postoperative pain and increase the wound regeneration process.

PMID- 28570981
TI  - Ethyl pyruvate alleviates radiation-induced lung injury in mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is a common complication of
      thoracic cancer radiation therapy. Ethyl pyruvate (EP) was reported to have an
      ameliorating effect on a variety of systemic inflammation reactions, including
      acute lung injury. However, the protective effect of EP on RILI has not been
      explored. MATERIALS/METHODS: RILI was induced by a single thoracic irradiation of
      16Gy X-rays in C57BL/6 mice. Mice were divided into four groups: control,
      radiation, 100mg/kg EP, and 200mg/kg dexamethasone. Inflammation and fibrosis
      grade of lung tissue were scored by H&E and Masson's trichrome staining.
      Cytokines include IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, GM-CSF, M-CSF, TGF-beta1, and HMGB1
      were measured after irradiation. Colony formation assay was performed to
      determine the protective effect of EP in RAW264.7 and HBE cells. The effect of EP
      on HMGB1 was also explored in vitro. RESULT: The cytoplasm of bronchial
      epithelium cells in mice was positive-stained of HMGB1 accompanying with an
      increase of HMGB1, IL-6, IL-1beta, GM-CSF, M-CSF, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta1 after
      irradiation. EP prescription significantly reduced pulmonary inflammation
      infiltration of RILI, along with a decrease of HMGB1, IL-6, IL-1beta, and GM-CSF
      at 4 weeks after irradiation. Furthermore, EP decreased radiation-induced
      collagen deposition at 20 weeks after irradiation. Pro-fibrotic cytokines
      including TGF-beta1 and HMGB1 in irradiated lung tissue and plasma obviously
      decreased in EP administration group in the later stage. In vitro, EP
      administration protected HBE cells from radiation injury. EP also rescued
      radiation-induced release but not translocation of HMGB1 in RAW264.7 and HBE
      cells. CONCLUSION: EP treatment ameliorates RILI, including radiation-induced
      fibrosis in mice. The inhibition of production and release of pro-inflammatory or
      fibrotic cytokines, especially HMGB1, may partly attribute to its attenuating
      RILI effect.

PMID- 28570982
TI  - Synthesis of platinum nanoparticles using seaweed Padina gymnospora and their
      catalytic activity as PVP/PtNPs nanocomposite towards biological applications.
AB  - In the recent years, synthesis of nanomaterials using seaweeds and their diverse
      applications is escalating research in modern era. Among the noble metals,
      platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) are of great importance owing to their catalytic
      property and less toxicity. The significance of this work is a simple one-step
      synthesis of PtNPs using aqueous extract of Indian brown seaweed Padina
      gymnospora and their catalytic activity with a polymer Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)
      as PVP/PtNPs nanocomposite towards antimicrobial, haemolytic, cytotoxic (Artemia
      salina) and antioxidant properties. Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrum
      results showed diversified functional groups (biomoeities such as carbohydrates
      and proteins) present in the seaweed extract is responsible for the reduction of
      platinum ions (Pt+) to PtNPs. The seaweed mediated PtNPs was characterized by UV
      vis spectrophotometer, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, Field Emission Scanning
      Electron Microscopy (FESEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX)
      spectroscopy and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM)
      analysis. The synthesized PtNPs was found to be truncated octahedral in shape
      with the range of 5-50nm. Crystalline nature of the nanoparticles was evidenced
      by Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) pattern with bright circular spots
      corresponding to (111), (200), (220) and (311) Bragg's reflection planes. The
      size of the PtNPs was further evidenced by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)
      analysis and it is originate to be stable at -22.5mV through Zeta Potential (ZP)
      analysis. The present study shows that the catalytic behavior of PtNPs as
      polymer/metal nanocomposite (PVP/PtNPs) preparation for an antibacterial activity
      against seven disease causing pathogenic bacterial strains with the maximum
      activity against Escherichia coli (15.6mm) followed by Lactococcus lactis
      (14.8mm) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (14.4mm). But no haemolytic activity was seen
      at their effective bactericidal concentration, whereas increase in the haeomyltic
      activity was seen only in higher concentrations (600, 900 and 1200MUgmL-1). On
      the other hand, PVP/PtNPs nanocomposite has shown cytotoxic activity at 100+/
      4MUgmL-1 (LC50) against Artemia salina nauplii. Furthermore, PVP/PtNPs
      nanocomposite showed an enhanced scavenging activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1
      picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide, nitric oxide and hydroxyl radicals.

PMID- 28570983
TI  - Gauging the performance of some density functionals including dispersion and
      nonlocal corrections for relative energies of water 20-mers.
AB  - Currently, development of density functional theory approximations and their
      benchmarking for accurately modeling different types of molecular interactions
      become a very active field of research. In this report, performance of the
      dispersion (D3) and nonlocal (NL) corrected density functionals has been compared
      with generalized energy-based fragmentation approach at the complete basis set
      limit for predicting the relative energies of 10 low-energy isomers of water
      nanoclusters (H2O)20 as an illustrative example of hydrogen bonded systems.
      Considering a variety of exchange-correlation density functionals in combination
      with D3 and NL corrections we find that the D3 based approximations outperform
      the functionals incorporating NL correction. It is also shown that the LC
      omegaPBE-D3 and rPW86PBE-NL functionals have the best trend from the viewpoint of
      the order of stabilities in water nanoclusters under study.

PMID- 28570984
TI  - In silico identification of vaccine candidates against Klebsiella oxytoca.
AB  - Klebsiella oxytoca causes several diseases in immunocompromised as well as
      healthy individuals. Increasing resistance to a number of antibiotics makes
      treatment options limited. Prevention using vaccine could be an important
      solution to get rid of infections caused by Klebsiella oxytoca. In recent time,
      genome based approaches have contributed significantly in vaccine development.
      Our aim was to identify the most conserved and immunogenic antigens that can be
      considered as potential vaccine candidates. KEGG database was used to find out
      pathways unique to the bacteria. Subcellular localization of the protein
      sequences taken from the selected 36 pathways were predicted using PSORTb v3.0.2
      and CELLO v2.5. Prediction of B cell epitope and the probability of the
      antigenicity were evaluated by using IEDB and Vaxijen respectively. BLASTp was
      done to find out the similarity of the selected proteins with the human proteome.
      Proteins failing to comply with the set parameters were filtered at each step.
      Finally, we identified 6 surface exposed proteins as potential vaccine candidates
      against Klebsiella oxytoca.

PMID- 28570985
TI  - Structural, electronic and spectral properties of carborane-containing boron
      dipyrromethenes (BODIPYs): A first-principles study.
AB  - In this work, we reported the geometrical structures, electronic and spectral
      properties of the carborane-containing BODIPYs complexes using the density
      functional theory calculations. In two structures, the calculated main bond
      lengths and bond angels of structural framework are consistent with X-ray
      experiment, and the two BODIPYs complexes are thermodynamically and kinetically
      stable. The strongest DOS band is mainly dominated by the BB and BH sigma-bonds
      of carborane fragment, whereas the pi-type MOs on the pyrromethene fragment
      contribute to the high-energy DOS bands. Analysis of the AdNDP chemical bonding
      indicates that the carborane cage can be stabilized by eleven delocalized 3c2e
      and two delocalized 4c2e sigma-bonds, while the pyrromethene fragment corresponds
      to five delocalized 3c2e pi-bonds. In addition, the main characteristic peaks of
      the two simulated IR spectra for the BODIPYs complexes are properly assigned.
      Hopefully, all these results will be helpful for understanding the electronic
      structures, and further stimulate the study on the biological and medical
      applications.

PMID- 28570986
TI  - Effect of the concentration of the dopants (Er3+, Yb3+ and Zn2+) and temperature
      on the upconversion emission behavior of Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped SrAl2O4 phosphor.
AB  - Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped SrAl2O4 (SRA: Er3+, Yb3+) phosphor has been synthesized by
      high temperature solid state reaction technique. The pure phase formation has
      been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The surface morphology is
      studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. The FTIR measurements
      give the information of vibrational bands arising due to sample. The intense UC
      emission from SRA: Er3+, Yb3+ phosphor has been monitored on excitation with
      980nm diode laser. The SRA: Er3+, Yb3+ samples prepared at 1473K show a dominant
      green emission. On the other hand it shows dominant red emission when the sample
      is heated to 1623K. Variation of concentration of Er3+ and Yb3+ ions in SRA:
      Er3+, Yb3+ phosphor suggests two possible mechanisms involved in UC emission
      process viz. cross relaxation (CR) process and energy back transfer (EBT)
      process, respectively. The cross relaxation mechanism seems to play a major role.
      The UC emission efficiency is enhanced several times on co-doping of Zn2+ ion
      replacing Al3+ or Sr2+ in SRA: Er3+, Yb3+ phosphor sample. The color of the UC
      emission can be tuned from green to red region by varying the concentration of
      zinc.

PMID- 28570987
TI  - X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopic and Raman microscopic investigation of the
      variscite group minerals: Variscite, strengite, scorodite and mansfieldite.
AB  - Several structurally related AsO4 and PO4 minerals, were studied with Raman
      microscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). XPS revealed only Fe, As
      and O for scorodite. The Fe 2p, As 3d, and O 1s indicated one position for Fe2+,
      while 2 different environments for O and As were observed. The O 1s at 530.3eV
      and the As 3d 5/2 at 43.7eV belonged to AsO4, while minor bands for O 1s at
      531.3eV and As 3d 5/2 at 44.8eV were due to AsO4 groups exposed on the surface
      possibly forming OH-groups. Mansfieldite showed, besides Al, As and O, a trace of
      Co. The PO4 equivalent of mansfieldite is variscite. The change in crystal
      structure replacing As with P resulted in an increase in the binding energy (BE)
      of the Al 2p by 2.9eV. The substitution of Fe3+ for Al3+ in the structure of
      strengite resulted in a Fe 2p at 710.8eV. An increase in the Fe 2p BE of 4.8eV
      was found between mansfieldite and strengite. The scorodite Raman OH-stretching
      region showed a sharp band at 3513cm-1 and a broad band around 3082cm-1. The
      spectrum of mansfieldite was like that of scorodite with a sharp band at 3536cm-1
      and broader maxima at 3100cm-1 and 2888cm-1. Substituting Al in the arsenate
      structure instead of Fe resulted in a shift of the metal-OH-stretching mode by
      23cm-1 towards higher wavenumbers due to a slightly longer H-bonding in
      mansfieldite compared to scorodite. The intense band for scorodite at 805cm-1 was
      ascribed to the symmetric stretching mode of the AsO4. The medium intensity bands
      at 890, 869, and 830cm-1 were ascribed to the internal modes. A significant shift
      towards higher wavenumbers was observed for mansfieldite. The strengite Raman
      spectrum in the 900-1150cm-1 shows a strong band at 981cm-1 accompanied by a
      series of less intense bands. The 981cm-1 band was assigned to the PO4 symmetric
      stretching mode, while the weak band at 1116cm-1 was the corresponding
      antisymmetric stretching mode. The remaining bands at 1009, 1023 and 1035cm-1
      were assigned to upsilon1(A1) internal modes in analogy to the interpretation of
      the AsO4 bands for scorodite and mansfieldite. The variscite spectrum showed a
      shift towards higher wavenumbers in comparison to the strengite spectrum with the
      strongest band observed at 1030cm-1 and was assigned to the symmetric stretching
      mode of the PO4, while the corresponding antisymmetric stretching mode was
      observed at 1080cm-1. Due to the band splitting component bands were observed at
      1059, 1046, 1013 and 940cm-1. The AsO4 symmetric bending modes for scorodite were
      observed at 381 and 337cm-1, while corresponding antisymmetric bending modes
      occurred at 424, 449 and 484cm-1. Comparison with other arsenate and phosphate
      minerals showed that both XPS and Raman spectroscopy are fast and non-destructive
      techniques to identify these minerals based on their differences in chemistry and
      the arsenate/phosphate vibrational modes due to changes in the symmetry and the
      unique fingerprint region of the lattice modes.

PMID- 28570988
TI  - Photon correlation spectroscopy applied to tear analysis.
AB  - This study aims to deepen the knowledge on tear film properties by the
      development of a protocol for analyses of Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS)
      on human tears and by the comparison between PCS results obtained on tears of
      contact lens wearers and non-wearers. Tears (5MUL) were collected by a glass
      capillary. The analyses provide the hydrodynamic diameter of tear components by
      analyzing intensity fluctuations in time of scattered light. PCS appears a
      promising technique for studying tear features and for shedding light on specific
      eye conditions, such as on the clinical effects of CL wear. In fact, statistical
      difference (p<0.001) was found between the measured mean hydrodynamic diameter of
      tear components of wearers and non-wearers, the resulting value significantly
      higher for CL wearers. The scenario does not substantially change after (25+/
      5)min from the CL removal. The difference is attributed to changes in the
      interactions between tear constituents due to CL wear. In order to get deeper
      insights on the influence of CL wear on aggregation and structure of tear
      components, a preliminary Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) investigation was
      performed, monitoring Fe3+ species. ESR spectra on tears of both CL wearers and
      non-wearers showed the presence of intense signals, probably associated to iron
      (III) centers in proteins such as lactoferrin, and a weaker resonance
      attributable to Fe3+ species interacting with S-S bridges of lysozyme.
      Differences in ESR spectra between CL wearers and non-wearers were detected and
      tentatively ascribed to changes in coordination or in local environment of Fe3+
      centers connected to aggregation phenomena induced by CL wear, which promote
      their interaction with other neighboring iron species.

PMID- 28570989
TI  - Quick and sensitive SPR detection of prion disease-associated isoform (PrPSc)
      based on its self-assembling behavior on bare gold film and specific interactions
      with aptamer-graphene oxide (AGO).
AB  - Herein, we constructed a novel sandwich surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection
      assay for sensitive prion disease-associated isoform (PrPSc) detection, utilizing
      bare gold film and apatamer-graphene oxide (AGO). Due to the self-assembling
      behavior of PrPSc on gold surface, the non-modified gold surface can be directly
      used as sensing surface for the quick detection, for the purpose to avoid the
      interference from the traditional, complex and changeable probe-modified sensing
      surface. And due to the highly specific affinity of AGO towards PrPSc, the
      sandwich type SPR sensor exhibits excellent analytical performance towards the
      discrimination and quantitation of PrPSc. A good linear relationship was obtained
      between SPR responses and the logarithm of PrPSc concentrations over a range of
      0.001-1ng/mL. The detection sensitivity for PrPSc was improved by ~156 orders of
      AGO compared with SPR direct detection format. Besides, morphological changes of
      the sensing film surfaces were investigated by high resolution AFM imaging,
      confirming the capture of PrPSc molecules and their further specific recognition
      by AGO. The specificity of the present biosensor was also investigated by PrPC
      and other regents as controls. By compared with other reported methods, the AGO
      enhanced sandwich SPR assay was confirmed to be efficient, sensitive, and with
      wide working range.

PMID- 28570990
TI  - Preparation for workplace adversity: Student narratives as a stimulus for
      learning.
AB  - Nursing students are not always well prepared for the kind of adverse events they
      may experience in the workplace and yet it seems apparent that future students
      could benefit from learning about such experiences so that they can be avoided,
      or their impact minimised. This research aimed to identify nursing students'
      experiences of adversity, collaborate with students to discern important lessons
      for future students in their experiences, and make recommendations for other
      educators on how to use these adversity stories as lessons. Seven Australian
      nursing students were interviewed using critical incident technique consisting of
      7 questions. This paper focuses on the responses to the questions: "Does this
      story's message have a place in the curriculum?" and "How would you teach this
      lesson?" Data were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Four recurring
      discourses emerged including: power relationships are a two-way street; learn
      from mistakes to prevent mistakes; begin cultural consciousness-raising in first
      year, first semester; and become critically self-aware. Narratives derived from
      original stories of adversity may be a valuable source of learning about the
      realities of the workplace but to benefit fully, educators need to assist
      students to notice and analyse embedded messages.

PMID- 28570991
TI  - From Antarctica to the subtropics: Contrasted geographical concentrations of
      selenium, mercury, and persistent organic pollutants in skua chicks (Catharacta
      spp.).
AB  - Seabirds integrate bioaccumulative contaminants via food intake and have revealed
      geographical trends of contamination in a variety of ecosystems. Pre-fledging
      seabird chicks are particularly interesting as bioindicators of chemical
      contamination, because concentrations in their tissues reflect primarily dietary
      sources from the local environment. Here we measured 14 trace elements and 18
      persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in blood of chicks of skuas that breed in
      four sites encompassing a large latitudinal range within the southern Indian
      Ocean, from Antarctica (Adelie Land, south polar skua Catharacta maccormicki),
      through subantarctic areas (Crozet and Kerguelen Islands, brown skua C.
      lonnbergi), to the subtropics (Amsterdam Island, C. lonnbergi). Stables isotopes
      of carbon (delta13C, feeding habitat) and nitrogen (delta15N, trophic position)
      were also measured to control for the influence of feeding habits on contaminant
      burdens. Concentrations of mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) were very high at all
      the four sites, with Amsterdam birds having the highest concentrations ever
      reported in chicks worldwide (4.0 +/- 0.8 and 646 +/- 123 MUg g-1 dry weight,
      respectively). Blood Hg concentrations showed a clear latitudinal pattern,
      increasing from chicks in Antarctica to chicks in the subantarctic and
      subtropical islands. Interestingly, blood Se concentrations showed similar
      between-population differences to Hg, suggesting its involvement in protective
      mechanisms against Hg toxicity. Chicks' POPs pattern was largely dominated by
      organochlorine pesticides, in particular DDT metabolites and hexachlorobenzene
      (HCB). Skua chicks from subantarctic islands presented high concentrations and
      diversity of POPs. By contrast, chicks from the Antarctic site overall had the
      lowest concentrations and diversity of both metallic and organic contaminants,
      with the exception of HCB and arsenic. Skua populations from these sites, being
      naturally exposed to different quantities of contaminants, are potentially good
      models for testing toxic effects in developing chicks in the wild.

PMID- 28570992
TI  - Inhalation of concentrated PM2.5 from Mexico City acts as an adjuvant in a guinea
      pig model of allergic asthma.
AB  - Exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) could function as an adjuvant depending on
      the city of origin in mice allergic asthma models. Therefore, our aim was to
      determine whether inhalation of fine particles (PM2.5) from Mexico City could act
      as an adjuvant inducing allergic sensitization and/or worsening the asthmatic
      response in guinea pig, as a suitable model of human asthma. Experimental groups
      were Non-Sensitized (NS group), sensitized with Ovalbumin (OVA) plus Aluminum
      hydroxide (Al(OH)3) as adjuvant (S + Adj group), and sensitized (OVA) without
      adjuvant (S group). All the animals were exposed to Filtered Air (FA) or
      concentrated PM2.5 (5 h/daily/3 days), employing an aerosol concentrator system,
      PM2.5 composition was characterized. Lung function was evaluated by barometric
      plethysmography (Penh index). Inflammatory cells present in bronchoalveolar
      lavage were counted as well as OVA-specific IgG1 and IgE were determined by ELISA
      assay. Our results showed in sensitized animals without Al(OH)3, that the PM2.5
      exposure (609 +/- 12.73 MUg/m3) acted as an adjuvant, triggering OVA-specific
      IgG1 and IgE concentration. Penh index increased ~9-fold after OVA challenge in
      adjuvant-sensitized animals as well as in S + PM2.5 group (~6-fold), meanwhile NS
      + FA and S + FA lacked response. S + Adj + PM2.5 group showed an increase
      significantly of eosinophils and neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage. PM2.5
      composition was made up of inorganic elements and Polycyclic Aromatic
      Hydrocarbons, as well as endotoxins and beta-glucan, all these components could
      act as adjuvant. Our study demonstrated that acute inhalation of PM2.5 acted as
      an adjuvant, similar to the aluminum hydroxide effect, triggering allergic asthma
      in a guinea pig model. Furthermore, in sensitized animals with aluminum hydroxide
      an enhancing influence of PM2.5 exposure was observed as specific
      hyperresponsiveness to OVA challenge (quickly response) and eosinophilic and
      neutrophilic airway inflammation. Fine particles from Mexico City is a complex
      mix, which play a significant role as adjuvant in allergic asthma.

PMID- 28570993
TI  - Landscape care of urban vacant properties and implications for health and safety:
      Lessons from photovoice.
AB  - Care of vacant properties in urban environments is of particular interest to
      planners and residents alike. We report on a photovoice project completed by
      community leaders, researchers, and residents in two Detroit neighborhoods
      experiencing longtime systemic disinvestment. Participants photographed and
      discussed examples of care in a series of three focus groups in each
      neighborhood. Analyses highlight how acts of landscape care and visible cues to
      care contribute to changes in physical and social environments, and explore
      various links to health. We suggest theoretical and practical applications of
      residents' perspectives on landscape care and identify implications for well
      being and neighborhood stability.

PMID- 28571004
TI  - Health Literacy: Readability of ACC/AHA Online Patient Education Material.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the online patient education material offered by
      the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA)
      is written at a higher level than the 6th-7th grade level recommended by the
      National Institute of Health (NIH). METHODS: Online patient education material
      from each website was subjected to reading grade level (RGL) analysis using the
      Readability Studio Professional Edition. One-sample t testing was used to compare
      the mean RGLs obtained from 8 formulas to the NIH-recommended 6.5 grade level and
      8th grade national mean. RESULTS: In total, 372 articles from the ACC website and
      82 from the AHA were studied. Mean (+/-SD) RGLs for the 454 articles were 9.6 +/-
      2.1, 11.2 +/- 2.1, 11.9 +/- 1.6, 10.8 +/- 1.6, 9.7 +/- 2.1, 10.8 +/- 0.8, 10.5 +/
      2.6, and 11.7 +/- 3.5 according to the Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FKGL), Simple
      Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG Index), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Gunning-Fog Index
      (GFI), New Dale-Chall reading level formula (NDC), FORCAST, Raygor Readability
      Estimate (RRE), and Fry Graph (Fry), respectively. All analyzed articles had
      significantly higher RGLs than both the NIH-recommended grade level of 6.5 and
      the national mean grade level of 8 (p < 0.00625). CONCLUSIONS: Patient education
      material provided on the ACC and AHA websites is written above the NIH
      recommended 6.5 grade level and 8th grade national mean reading level. Additional
      studies are required to demonstrate whether lowering the RGL of this material
      improves outcomes among patients with cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28571005
TI  - Importance of Light Filters in Modern Vitreoretinal Surgery: An Update of the
      Literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: Direct endobulbar illumination during vitreoretinal surgery causes light
      induced retinal damage known as phototoxicity. Spectral filters have been
      proposed to eliminate hazardous wavelengths from the emission spectrum before
      entering the eye. The purpose of our paper is to review advances in vitreoretinal
      surgery, focusing on intraoperative light filters. METHODS: A PubMed and Medline
      database search was carried out using the terms "spectral filters" associated
      with "vitreoretinal surgery," "phototoxicity," and "vitrectomy." Original
      articles, reviews, and book chapters up to March 2017 were reviewed; a few select
      articles published before 2000 are included for historical purposes. Material
      from recent meeting presentations was also added. The preferred language for the
      reviewed literature was English. RESULTS: Spectral filters significantly reduce
      the risk of phototoxicity associated with endoillumination in vitreoretinal
      surgery, allowing higher exposure times than with optic light fibers alone.
      Spectral filters may affect intraoperative luminance, but do not alter color
      contrast. Amber filters showed superiority over green and yellow filters.
      CONCLUSION: The choice of light sources coupled to spectral filters is strongly
      suggested, especially in dye-assisted chromovitrectomy. Histological donor eye
      studies and large multicenter trials are needed to validate the amount of
      photoprotection provided by spectral filters before a general recommendation can
      be made.

PMID- 28571006
TI  - Extensive Sex Chromosome Polymorphism of Microtus thomasi/Microtus atticus
      Species Complex Associated with Cryptic Chromosomal Rearrangements and
      Independent Accumulation of Heterochromatin.
AB  - The sibling species Microtus thomasi and M. atticus represent probably the
      highest karyotypic diversity within the genus Microtus and are an interesting
      model for chromosomal evolution studies. In addition to variation in autosomes,
      they show a high intraspecific variation in the size and morphology of both sex
      chromosomes. We analyzed individuals with different sex chromosome constitutions
      using 3 painting probes, 2 from Y chromosome variants and 1 from the small arm of
      the submetacentric X chromosome. Our comparative painting approach uncovered 12
      variants of Y and 14 variants of X chromosomes, which demonstrates that the
      polymorphism of sex chromosomes is substantially larger than previously reported.
      We suggest that 2 main processes are responsible for this sex chromosome
      polymorphism: change of morphology from acrocentric to submetacentric or
      metacentric chromosomes and increase in size due to accumulation of repetitive
      DNA sequences, generating heterochromatic blocks. Strong genetic drift in small
      and fragmented populations of these 2 species could be related to the origin and
      maintenance of the large polymorphism of sex chromosomes. We proposed that a
      similar polymorphism variation combined with random drift fixing the biggest sex
      chromosomes could have occurred in the origin of some of the actual Microtus
      species with giant sex chromosomes.

PMID- 28571007
TI  - Eplerenone Prevents Atrial Fibrosis via the TGF-beta Signaling Pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Eplerenone (EPL), an antagonist of the mineralocorticoid receptor, is
      beneficial for atrial fibrillation and atrial fibrosis. However, the underlying
      mechanism remains less well known. We aimed to investigate the effect of EPL on
      atrial fibrosis using a mouse with selective atrial fibrosis and to explore the
      underlying mechanisms. METHODS: EPL-treated MHC-TGFcys33ser transgenic mice that
      have selective atrial fibrosis (Tx+EPL mice), as well as control mice, were used
      for in vivo studies including histological analyses, Western blotting, and qRT
      PCR studies. TGF-beta1-stimulated atrial fibroblasts were treated with EPL or
      vehicle for the in vitro studies including Western blotting and qRT-PCR studies.
      In addition, Smad7 siRNA was used to knock down Smad7. RESULTS: EPL inhibited
      atrial fibrosis in the Tx mice. In addition, EPL suppressed the expression of
      fibrosis-related molecules induced by TGF-beta1 in vivo and in vitro. This
      occurred in concert with a downregulation of Smad7 protein expression and an
      upregulation of p-Smad2/3 protein expression. In addition, knockdown of Smad7 by
      siRNA abolished the protective roles of EPL. CONCLUSIONS: EPL inhibited atrial
      fibrosis in Tx mice. The underlying mechanism may involve increased protein
      expression of Smad7, which enhances the inhibitory feedback regulation of TGF
      beta1/Smad signaling.

PMID- 28571008
TI  - MicroRNA-200b Expression in the Vitreous Humor of Patients with Proliferative
      Diabetic Retinopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of microRNA (miRNA)-200b in the pathogenesis of
      proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) has been studied in diabetic animal
      models. The aim of this study was to assess miRNA-200b expression in the vitreous
      of patients with PDR and to determine its correlation with vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF), one of the pathogenic mechanisms in PDR. METHODS:
      Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to measure
      miRNA-200b expression in the vitreous from 29 eyes with PDR and 30 eyes with
      idiopathic macular holes (IMH; control group). Vitreous VEGF was measured using
      an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: miRNA-200b expression was about 5
      fold increased in the vitreous samples from eyes with PDR compared with the
      controls (p <= 0.001). Vitreous VEGF expression was also significantly higher in
      the PDR group than in the IMH group (p <= 0.001), but no significant correlation
      was found between miRNA-200b and VEGF. CONCLUSION: Both miRNA-200b and VEGF are
      increased in the vitreous of patients with PDR but in a noncorrelated pattern.
      miRNA-200b may be involved in the pathogenesis of PDR but through VEGF
      independent mechanisms. Further studies are needed to identify the miRNA-200b
      targeted genes involved in the pathogenesis of PDR and to examine the potential
      role of miRNA-200b as a target for PDR treatment.

PMID- 28571009
TI  - Surgery Is an Effective Option after Failure of Chemoradiation in Cancers of the
      Anal Canal and Anal Margin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery for anal canal cancer (ACC) and anal margin cancer (AMC) is
      the only curative option after failure of chemoradiotherapy (CRT). This study
      aimed to determine the efficacy of surgery for ACC or AMC after failed CRT.
      METHODS: This was a single-centre, retrospective study of 161 patients initially
      treated with CRT. We compared the survival rates of patients successfully treated
      by CRT with those of patients whose CRT failed (both surgically salvaged and
      treated palliatively). RESULTS: Thirty-one patients underwent surgery with
      curative intent, 20 received palliative treatment after failure of CRT, and 110
      had effective CRT. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was significantly higher
      among patients with successful CRT than among patients who underwent surgery with
      curative intent (86 vs. 66%, p < 0.001). On the other hand, the 5-year OS of
      patients treated with curative surgery was significantly better than that of
      patients who underwent palliative treatment (66 vs. 13.5%, p < 0.001). The
      postoperative morbidity and mortality rates were 32 and 3%, respectively.
      Considering patients with failed CRT, curative surgery was the only factor
      prognostic of favourable OS in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Curative
      surgery after failure of CRT for ACC or AMC remains an effective treatment to
      improve survival in two-thirds of cases, resulting in high but manageable
      morbidity.

PMID- 28571011
TI  - Vasoinhibin Suppresses the Neurotrophic Effects of VEGF and NGF in Newborn Rat
      Primary Sensory Neurons.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Studies on the biological actions of vasoinhibins have focused
      mainly on endothelial cells. However, there is incipient knowledge about how
      vasoinhibins affect the nervous system, even if the target cells and mechanisms
      of action involved in these effects are unknown. METHODS: In order to determine
      if neurons are direct targets of vasoinhibins, we examined cellular outcomes and
      the intracellular pathways involved in the neuronal actions of vasoinhibins using
      newborn rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons as a model system. RESULTS:
      Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or nerve growth factor (NGF) treatment
      for 48 h resulted in neurite outgrowth stimulation in both DRG cultured explants
      and isolated primary sensory neurons. Interestingly, a recombinant vasoinhibin
      containing the first 123 amino acids of human prolactin antagonized the VEGF- and
      NGF-induced stimulation of neurite outgrowth. Vasoinhibin significantly reduced
      the density of neurites in DRG explants and obliterated neuritogenesis in
      isolated DRG neurons in primary culture, supporting a direct neuronal effect of
      vasoinhibin. In cultures of isolated DRG cells, virtually all beta3-tubulin
      labeled cells express TrkA, and the majority of these cells also express VEGFR2.
      Short-term VEGF or NGF treatment of DRG explants resulted in increased ERK1/2 and
      AKT phosphorylation, whereas incubation of DRG with the combination of either
      VEGF or NGF together with vasoinhibin resulted in blunted VEGF- or NGF-induced
      phosphorylation of both ERK1/2 and AKT. CONCLUSION: Our results show that primary
      sensory neurons are direct targets of vasoinhibin, and suggest that vasoinhibin
      inhibition of neurite outgrowth involves the disruption of ERK and AKT
      phosphorylation cascades.

PMID- 28571010
TI  - Blood Pressure of Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients in the Dalmatian Region of
      Croatia: Differences between Hospital and Out-of-Hospital Dialysis Centers.
AB  - AIMS: This study was aimed at comparing the incidence of arterial hypertension
      and blood pressure (BP) variance in hospital and out-of-hospital hemodialysis
      (HD) patients during HD sessions. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted
      for 1 week at all the HD centers in Dalmatia, Croatia. The pre-, intra-, and post
      dialysis BP values were collected for 3 consecutive HD sessions per patient.
      RESULTS: Of the 399 subjects, 73.9% were hypertensives, who showed higher
      interdialytic weight gain compared to the normotensives (2.58 vs. 2.40). Hospital
      and out-of-hospital HD patients received identical antihypertensive therapies,
      except that beta blockers were more frequently administered to out-of-hospital HD
      patients. Higher pre-, intra-, and post-dialysis BP values were recorded in
      patients at out-of-hospital HD centers. CONCLUSION: The differences in BP
      variability and antihypertensive therapies administered to hospital HD patients
      as compared to out-of-hospital HD patients may reflect differing approaches by
      the nephrologists at these centers.

PMID- 28571012
TI  - Challenges in Modern Anti-Doping Analytical Science.
AB  - The challenges facing modern anti-doping analytical science are increasingly
      complex given the expansion of target drug substances, as the pharmaceutical
      industry introduces more novel therapeutic compounds and the internet offers
      designer drugs to improve performance. The technical challenges are manifold,
      including, for example, the need for advanced instrumentation for greater speed
      of analyses and increased sensitivity, specific techniques capable of
      distinguishing between endogenous and exogenous metabolites, or biological assays
      for the detection of peptide hormones or their markers, all of which require an
      important investment from the laboratories and recruitment of highly specialized
      scientific personnel. The consequences of introducing sophisticated and complex
      analytical procedures may result in the future in a change in the strategy
      applied by the Word Anti-Doping Agency in relation to the introduction and
      performance of new techniques by the network of accredited anti-doping
      laboratories.

PMID- 28571013
TI  - Education in Anti-Doping: The Art of Self-Imposed Constraints.
AB  - The pillars of anti-doping are detection, deterrence, and prevention. Detection
      takes the form of testing for banned substances. Deterrence builds on testing and
      gathering evidence. Athletes who test positive are exposed to penalties. The main
      tool of prevention is education. Education takes many forms and can be
      implemented in many ways. This chapter addresses the nature and challenges of
      current anti-doping education. Firstly, general goals of education and their
      connection to sport are discussed. Secondly, three normative interpretations of
      sport are presented, and their implications for anti-doping education are
      examined. Instrumentalist interpretations and interpretations with emphasis on
      performance and enhancement challenge the anti-doping campaign. A human
      excellence interpretation is advocated in which anti-doping is considered a
      consistent and integral part of sport. Thirdly, future challenges for anti-doping
      education are reflected upon.

PMID- 28571014
TI  - A Moral Foundation for Anti-Doping: How Far Have We Progressed? Where Are the
      Limits?
AB  - Clarity about the ethical justification of anti-doping is essential. In its
      absence, critics multiply and confusion abounds. Three broad reasons are
      typically offered in anti-doping's defense: to protect athletes' health; to
      promote fairness; and to preserve meaning and values in sport - what the World
      Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code refers to as the spirit of sport. Protecting
      health is itself an important value, but many sports encourage athletes to take
      significant risks. The case against doping is buttressed by concern for athletes'
      health, but it cannot be the sole foundation. Promoting fairness is vital in all
      sports as the metaphor of the level playing field attests. But playing fields can
      be leveled by providing performance-enhancing drugs to all competitors. When
      doping is prohibited, fairness is aided by effective anti-doping. But the
      fundamental justification for anti-doping is found in the meanings and values we
      pursue in and through sport.

PMID- 28571015
TI  - Insulin-Like Growth Factors and Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I is related to cardiometabolic
      risk in adults, whereas the metabolic role of IGF-II is unclear. The aim of this
      study was to assess IGFs in obese children and correlate them with metabolic
      syndrome (MetS) components. METHODS: This is a retrospective study including 574
      obese children (11.34 +/- 3.16 years). All subjects underwent complete
      anthropometry and biochemical assessment. In a subgroup of 136 subjects, body
      composition was evaluated. IGF-I was measured in 300 obese subjects and IGF-II in
      77 obese and 15 lean children. 177 subjects were divided according to the
      presence of 1 or more MetS criteria: group 1, subjects with 1 MetS criterion;
      group 2, subjects with 2 components; and group 3, subjects with MetS diagnosis.
      RESULTS: IGF-I, IGF-II, and IGF-I/insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3
      ratio were not different among subjects with an increasing number of MetS
      criteria and were not associated with single components of MetS as well as with
      body composition parameters. In children younger than 10 years, IGF-I directly
      correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < 0.005) even after
      controlling for confounders. IGF-II was significantly higher in obese children
      and correlated with parameters of insulin sensitivity (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      IGFs were neither related to MetS nor to body composition parameters in obese
      children. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying the
      relationship between IGF-II and insulin sensitivity.

PMID- 28571016
TI  - Next Generation "Omics" Approaches in the "Fight" against Blood Doping.
AB  - Despite being prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), blood
      manipulations such as the use of recombinant human erythropoietin and blood
      transfusions are a well-known method used by athletes to enhance performance.
      Direct detection of illicit blood manipulation has been partially successful due
      to the short detection window of the substances/methods, sample collection
      timing, and the use of sophisticated masking strategies. In response, WADA
      introduced the athlete biological passport (ABP) in 2009, which is an
      individualised longitudinal monitoring approach that tests primarily haematologic
      biomarkers of doping in order to identify atypical variability in response(s) in
      athletes, highlighting a potential doping violation. Although the implementation
      of the ABP has been an encouraging step forward in the quest for clean/drug-free
      sport, this detection method has some limitations. To reduce the risk of being
      detected by the ABP method, athletes are now resorting to microdoses of
      prohibited blood boosting substances to prevent abnormal fluctuations in
      haematologic biomarkers, thereby reducing the sensitivity of the ABP detection
      method. Recent studies from numerous laboratories, including our own, have
      confirmed the potential of transcriptomic microarrays, which can reveal distinct
      changes in gene expression after blood manipulations, to enhance the ABP. There
      is, therefore, an urgent need to intensify research efforts that involve
      transcriptomics and other state-of-the-art molecular methods, collectively known
      as "omics", e.g., proteomics (proteins) and metabolomics (metabolites), in order
      to identify new and even more robust molecular signatures of blood manipulation
      that can be used in combination with the ABP and, intriguingly, even as a stand
      alone test.

PMID- 28571017
TI  - Can We Better Integrate the Role of Anti-Doping in Sports and Society? A
      Psychological Approach to Contemporary Value-Based Prevention.
AB  - In sport, a wide array of substances with established or putative performance
      enhancing properties is used. Most substances are fully acceptable, whilst a
      defined set, revised annually, is prohibited; thus, using any of these prohibited
      substances is declared as cheating. In the increasingly tolerant culture of
      pharmacological and technical human enhancements, the traditional normative
      approach to anti-doping, which involves telling athletes what they cannot do to
      improve their athletic ability and performance, diverges from the otherwise
      positive values attached to human improvement and enhancement in society. Today,
      doping is the epitome of conflicting normative expectations about the goal
      (performance enhancement) and the means by which the goal is achieved (use of
      drugs). Owing to this moral-functional duality, addressing motivations for doping
      avoidance at the community level is necessary, but not sufficient, for effective
      doping prevention. Relevant and meaningful anti-doping must also recognise and
      respect the values of those affected, and consolidate them with the values
      underpinning structural, community level anti-doping. Effective anti-doping
      efforts are pragmatic, positive, preventive, and proactive. They acknowledge the
      progressive nature of how a "performance mindset" forms in parallel with the
      career transition to elite level, encompasses all levels and abilities, and
      directly addresses the reasons behind doping use with tangible solutions. For
      genuine integration into sport and society, anti-doping should consistently
      engage athletes and other stakeholders in developing positive preventive
      strategies to ensure that anti-doping education not only focuses on the intrinsic
      values associated with the spirit of sport but also recognises the values
      attached to performance enhancement, addresses the pressures athletes are under,
      and meets their needs for practical solutions to avoid doping. Organisations
      involved in anti- doping should avoid the image of "controlling" but, instead,
      work in partnerships with all stakeholders to involve and ensure integration of
      the targeted individuals in global community-based preventive interventions.

PMID- 28571018
TI  - Achievements and Challenges in Anti-Doping Research.
AB  - The most important element in achieving athlete compliance with anti-doping rules
      is the certainty of detection. Thus, scientific research plays a mission critical
      role in achieving clean competition. Many factors contribute to the advances in
      detection. Incremental advances in the ability to detect prohibited substances
      and methods, and identification of long-lived metabolites continue to lengthen
      detection windows. While the athlete biological passport hematological and
      steroidal modules hold great promise, experience shows that new research is
      needed to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the approach for current
      doping techniques. Indirect detection strategies using biomarkers or
      transcriptomic techniques have been increasingly investigated. The incorporation
      of more cost-effective sampling strategies using dried blood and plasma spots,
      oral fluid, and breath analysis show great promise toward increasing the number
      of tests while remaining within testing budget constraints. Despite the
      importance of research to ensuring rule compliance, a major challenge for anti
      doping research is achieving and maintaining sufficient funding in the reality of
      the myriad of new substances introduced for disease treatment but abused for
      performance enhancement. In addition, obtaining metabolism and population
      reference range data, particularly for new drugs or designer drugs that have not
      obtained approval for administration to human subjects, remains a significant
      problem. Nevertheless, research continues to contribute important data to support
      anti-doping efforts.

PMID- 28571019
TI  - High-Flux Dialysis: Clinical, Biochemical, and Proteomic Comparison with Low-Flux
      Dialysis and On-Line Hemodiafiltration.
AB  - Hemodiafiltration on-line (on-line HDF) is a more efficient treatment than low
      flux hemodialysis (HD). Unfortunately, it cannot be proposed to all patients. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, efficiency, and mechanisms of
      removal of toxins with high-flux HD vs. low-flux HD and on-line HDF. Randomized
      cross-over study designed to evaluate efficiency and tolerability of high-flux HD
      vs. low-flux HD in aged patients; to compare by means of biochemical and
      proteomic analyses the efficiency and mechanisms of removal of toxins with high
      flux HD vs. on-line HDF. The removal of small toxins was similar with high-flux
      and low-flux HD. beta2-microglobulin was removed only with high-flux HD, which
      had an excellent tolerability. The efficiency of high-flux HD was similar to on
      line HDF. Proteomic analysis demonstrated that only high-flux membranes remove
      and adsorb small proteins. High-flux HD may be an efficient alternative to on
      line HDF.

PMID- 28571020
TI  - Optimising Intravenous Volume Resuscitation of the Newborn in the Delivery Room:
      Practical Considerations and Gaps in Knowledge.
AB  - Volume resuscitation (VR) for the treatment of newborn shock is a rare but
      potentially lifesaving intervention. Conducting clinical studies to assess the
      effectiveness of VR in the delivery room during newborn stabilization is
      challenging. We review the available literature and current management guidelines
      to determine which infants will benefit from VR, the frequency of VR, and the
      choice of agents used. In addition, the potential role for placental transfusion
      in the prevention of newborn shock is explored.

PMID- 28571021
TI  - Brief History of Anti-Doping.
AB  - The fight against doping in sport as we know it today commenced by the creation
      of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission in 1961 following
      the death of a Danish cyclist during the Rome Olympic Games the year before.
      After a slow start, the fight got under way as from the early 1970s under the
      leadership of the IOC and of the International Association of Athletics
      Federations. Despite a lack of understanding and weak support even from the
      sports community, a series of measures were taken during the 1970s and 1980s
      which still form cornerstones of today's anti-doping strategy. In addition to
      information and education campaigns, the most important examples are the
      introduction of procedural rules for doping controls, the establishment and
      follow-up of a list of prohibited substances and methods, the accreditation of
      doping control laboratories, the introduction of in- and out-of-competition
      testing, rules for therapeutic use exemption, and the introduction of blood
      sampling. During the 1990s, the anti-doping fight gained increasing support both
      inside and outside the sport community. In order to harmonize the wide variety of
      rules that had developed both in sport organizations and at the domestic level
      and to promote anti-doping activities, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was
      jointly created by the Olympic movement and the public authorities in 1999. WADA
      is today carrying on the fight supported by the universally accepted WADA Code
      and an International Anti-Doping Convention under UNESCO.

PMID- 28571022
TI  - Therapeutic Use Exemptions.
AB  - The introduction, in 2004, of the World Anti-Doping Code and a standardized
      "prohibited list" of substances and methods proscribed in sport represented a
      consistent, international response to the escalating challenge of drug misuse in
      contemporary sport. Simultaneously, it was recognized that athletes experiencing
      illness or injury might legitimately require the use of "prohibited" medications
      or procedures, and the concept of the "therapeutic use exemption" (TUE) was
      introduced. The mechanisms of the TUE process are carefully defined and described
      in a specific WADA "international standard" (IS). As a consequence, anti-doping
      organizations (ADOs) were empowered to establish "Therapeutic Use Exemption
      Committees" (TUECs) whose membership and responsibilities were clearly delineated
      in the IS, and to whom an athlete and treating physician(s) could make
      appropriate application for a TUE. A careful review of such an application by a
      TUEC panel of physicians might allow permission for an otherwise prohibited
      course of treatment, provided that appropriate criteria had been met. Sport
      physicians have a clear responsibility to ensure accurate and complete
      documentation of the clinical circumstances requiring a TUE when completing such
      applications. Typically, applications for consideration by TUECs are forwarded to
      a national ADO, but depending on an applicant's level of competition, it may
      become necessary to involve an international federation or major event
      organization (e.g., International Olympic Committee, or Commonwealth Games
      Federation). Such organizations may receive, review, and grant TUEs specific to
      the competitions over which they preside. Increasingly, there is recognition of
      TUEs granted by other ADOs. However, this is not always the case; in certain
      circumstances, the decisions of other TUECs to grant or deny an application may
      be appealed. The advent of the TUE process ensures that an athlete with a genuine
      medical condition that necessitates the use of a prohibited substance or
      procedure can apply for permission to use such treatments and is not denied
      access to competition or training.

PMID- 28571023
TI  - Is the Fight against Doping in Sport a Legal Minefield like Any Other?
AB  - In the fight against doping, creating a level playing field across all sports is
      very challenging from a legal perspective. A harmonized approach presupposes
      first and foremost a supreme regulatory authority on a global level. This task
      cannot be attributed to the public sector, because there is no supranational
      authority of public international law capable of dealing with it. Thus,
      responsibility has to be assumed by a private law entity. This in turn requires
      complicated contractual agreements by which duties and responsibilities are
      transferred from the individual to the national level and from there to the top
      of the pyramid. In practice, this process is not only difficult and cumbersome,
      it also leads to an accumulation of power at the top of the sports pyramid that
      must be contained by organizational checks and balances, such as access to
      justice and the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and possibilities for
      the respective stakeholders to partake in the decision-making process. The
      weighting of all these different aspects is demanding and further complicated by
      the regulatory reach of the various national lawmakers. Since national laws
      differ considerably and a harmonized legislative approach is nowhere near in
      sight, a global approach in the fight against doping must push back national laws
      and legal concepts as much as possible. The purpose of this chapter is to give an
      overview on all these legal challenges.

PMID- 28571025
TI  - The Development of the World Anti-Doping Code.
AB  - This chapter addresses both the development and substance of the World Anti
      Doping Code, which came into effect in 2003, as well as the subsequent Code
      amendments, which came into effect in 2009 and 2015. Through an extensive process
      of stakeholder input and collaboration, the World Anti-Doping Code has
      transformed the hodgepodge of inconsistent and competing pre-2003 anti-doping
      rules into a harmonized and effective approach to anti-doping. The Code, as
      amended, is now widely recognized worldwide as the gold standard in anti-doping.
      The World Anti-Doping Code originally went into effect on January 1, 2004. The
      first amendments to the Code went into effect on January 1, 2009, and the second
      amendments on January 1, 2015. The Code and the related international standards
      are the product of a long and collaborative process designed to make the fight
      against doping more effective through the adoption and implementation of
      worldwide harmonized rules and best practices.

PMID- 28571026
TI  - Sport, Society, and Anti-Doping Policy: An Ethical Overview.
AB  - The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the philosophical and
      ethical underpinnings of anti-doping policy. The nature of sport and its
      gratuitous logic is explored. The doping rules in sport, such as the Prohibited
      List, are ways of drawing a line to facilitate a certain sort of competition.
      Sports can be understood as a means of testing the natural physical abilities of
      the athlete, combined with the hard work they put into improving their
      performance. A test promoted by the anti-doping laws. Permitting certain forms of
      performance enhancement would threaten the special nature of such a test. Doping
      can be seen as a threat to the integrity of sport, not just because of the rule
      breaking doping currently entails. The chapter explores the ethical issues that
      arise with such forms of enhancement, such as fairness, harms to health, and
      indeed a refusal to accept human limitations. Finally, the criteria upon which a
      substance or method may be prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is
      addressed. The 3-part criteria, concerning (1) enhancement, (2) health, and (3)
      the spirit of sport are described, and literature that takes a critical line is
      addressed. Particular reference is made to the public health agenda explicit
      within anti-doping policy.

PMID- 28571024
TI  - Elevated Preoperative CA125 or CA19-9 in Borderline Ovarian Tumors: Could It Be
      Suggestive of Advanced Stage or a Poor Prognosis?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether elevated levels of CA125 (>=35 U/mL) and CA19
      9 (>=37 U/mL) suggest advanced-stage disease (defined as stage II or higher) or
      poor prognosis in patients with borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs). STUDY DESIGN:
      We retrospectively identified 591 patients with BOTs. Multivariate logistic
      regressions and Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to determine the
      clinicopathologic factors associated with the presence of advanced-stage disease
      and the prognostic factors associated with recurrence-free survival. RESULTS:
      CA125 was elevated more often in serous than in mucinous tumors (50.6 vs. 35.5%;
      p = 0.003), whereas CA19-9 was elevated more often in mucinous than serous tumors
      (33.6 vs. 15.3%; p = 0.001). An elevated CA125 level was independently associated
      with the presence of advanced-stage disease in serous (p = 0.005) and in mucinous
      BOTs (p = 0.015). However, preoperative elevation of CA19-9, unlike CA125, was
      not associated with the advanced-stage disease. Elevated preoperative CA125 level
      (p = 0.037) was an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival in
      patients with serous BOTs. However, neither CA125 nor CA19-9 had prognostic
      significance in mucinous BOTs. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated preoperative CA125, unlike
      CA19-9, is a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker associated with the presence of
      advanced-stage disease and risk of relapse in patients with serous BOTs.

PMID- 28571027
TI  - Structure and Development of the List of Prohibited Substances and Methods.
AB  - The list of prohibited substances and methods (the List) is the international
      standard that determines what is prohibited in sport both in- and out-of
      competition. Since 2004, the official text of the List is produced by the World
      Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the international independent organization responsible
      for promoting, coordinating, and monitoring the fight against doping in sport.
      Originally based on the prohibited lists established by the International Olympic
      Committee, the List has evolved to incorporate new doping trends, distinguish
      permitted from prohibited routes of administration, and adjust to new analytical
      and pharmacological breakthroughs. In this chapter, the elements that compose the
      List as well as the updates over the years are presented.

PMID- 28571028
TI  - Integration of the Forensic Dimension into Anti-Doping Strategies.
AB  - Traditionally, research in anti-doping has been stimulated by the need for
      technological improvements to accommodate the expansion of the list of prohibited
      substances and methods. Nevertheless, in recent years, anti-doping found itself
      at a crossroads due to the increasing complexity and constant refinement of
      doping methods. As illustrated by the 2012 USADA (United States Anti-Doping
      Agency) versus Lance Armstrong case, a change in paradigm was necessary. The
      exploration of new scientific avenues to understand the mechanisms of doping and
      pinpoint its practice was most needed to allow designing more efficient
      preventive or disruptive strategies. In this context, and at the time of writing
      in 2017, transposing the concept of forensic intelligence to anti-doping was
      identified as a promising approach to address the different aspects of doping,
      from the individual athlete to organized doping and trafficking of substances in
      a proactive rather than a reactive way. Indeed, collection, structuring, and
      logical processing of multiple sources of information, and not strictly results
      of bioanalytical testing of urinary and blood samples, can bring additional value
      to detect and describe potential, emerging, or existing doping issues. This anti
      doping intelligence can provide anti-doping authorities and relevant stakeholders
      with timely, accurate, and usable information for decision making to solve,
      reduce, and/or prevent doping-related activities. The integration of intelligence
      to complement other anti-doping approaches is a potentially major step forward in
      the development of more effective and robust anti-doping strategies.

PMID- 28571029
TI  - Roles of High Mobility Group Box 1 in Cardiovascular Calcification.
AB  - Calcific disease of the cardiovascular system, including atherosclerotic
      calcification, medial calcification in diabetes and calcific aortic valve
      disease, is an important risk factor for many adverse cardiovascular events such
      as ischemic cardiac events and subsequent mortality. Although cardiovascular
      calcification has long been considered to be a passive degenerative occurrence,
      it is now recognized as an active and highly regulated process that involves
      osteochondrogenic differentiation, apoptosis and extracellular vesicle release.
      Nonetheless, despite numerous studies on the pathogenesis of cardiovascular
      calcification, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. High mobility
      group box 1 (HMGB1), a nuclear protein bound to chromatin in almost all
      eukaryotic cells, acts as a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) when
      released into the extracellular space upon cell activation, injury or death.
      Moreover, HMGB1 also functions as a bone-active cytokine participating in bone
      remodeling and ectopic calcification pathogenesis. However, studies on the roles
      of HMGB1 in promoting cardiovascular calcification are limited to date, and the
      mechanisms involved are still unclear. In this review, we summarize recent
      studies investigating the mechanism of cardiovascular calcification and discuss
      multiple roles of HMGB1 in its development.

PMID- 28571030
TI  - Less Fibrotic Burden Differently Affects the Long-Term Outcomes of Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma after Curative Resection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical features of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) differ in
      patients with and without cirrhosis. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the long
      term outcomes of noncirrhotic HCC patients after curative resection. METHODS: We
      retrospectively examined 649 consecutive patients with HCC who underwent curative
      resection from 1996 to 2012; 387 (59.6%) were cirrhotic and 262 (40.4%) were
      noncirrhotic. RESULTS: The mean age was 54.7 years, and 511 (78.7%) of the study
      participants were men. The most common cause of HCC was hepatitis B virus (n =
      419, 64.6%). Noncirrhotic tumors were larger and more advanced than cirrhotic
      tumors. However, the noncirrhotic group showed better disease-free survival (DFS)
      and overall survival (OS) after resection than the cirrhotic group (median 64.0
      vs. 56.0 months for OS and 48.0 vs. 31.0 months for DFS, p < 0.05). The
      predictors for HCC recurrence were cirrhosis, tumor number, portal vein invasion,
      and major surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Noncirrhotic HCC showed better DFS and OS after
      resection than cirrhotic HCC, although noncirrhotic HCC presented more
      aggressively.

PMID- 28571031
TI  - Perimortem Demonstration and Treatment of Recipient-to-Donor Transfusion in
      Monochorionic-Diamniotic Twin Gestation.
AB  - Twin-twin transfusion syndrome is a complication of monochorionic-diamniotic
      placentation. Should one twin die, ~30% of co-twins will also die, and if they
      survive, ~30% experience severe morbidity rates, each believed secondary to
      hemorrhage of the co-twin into the deceased twin. We report apparently the first
      ultrasound-documented case of perimortem hemorrhage in twin-twin transfusion
      syndrome and its treatment by emergent ultrasound-guided percutaneous cord
      occlusion followed by percutaneous fetal intravascular transfusion. The case
      illustrates three important pathophysiologic events. First, it confirms acute
      twin-to-twin hemorrhage occurs and reveals it can begin before the first twin
      dies. Thus, delivery of the survivor after its dead co-twin is discovered is
      unlikely to protect the survivor. Second, the elevated fetal middle cerebral
      artery peak systolic velocity due to acute anemia requires hours to develop. And
      thirdly, intracardiac epinephrine can correct the acute fetal bradycardia
      associated with hemorrhage that is presumably due to fetal hypotension.

PMID- 28571033
TI  - How to Develop Intelligence Gathering in Efficient and Practical Anti-Doping
      Activities.
AB  - Prior to the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the fight against
      doping in sport was not unified; instead, it relied on individual approaches
      established by various stakeholders to make it effective. The scandal of the
      Festina Affair, during the Tour de France 1998, and other drug doping scandals
      revealed the ineffectiveness and inadequacy of such an approach. The resulting
      media scandal raised public authorities' awareness about the necessity to deal
      with doping in sport with a harmonized and a more effective approach. The
      International Olympic Committee interceded and convened a World Conference on
      Doping, bringing together all parties involved in the fight against doping. As a
      result, WADA was established on November 10, 1999, in Lausanne to promote and
      coordinate the fight against doping in sport internationally. In this regard, the
      World Anti-Doping Code (WADC or the Code) is the core document harmonizing anti
      doping rules and regulations within sport organizations and public authorities.
      The Code was instrumental in introducing the concept of "nonanalytical" rule
      violations, which are emphasized within the revised 2015 Code. Nonanalytical rule
      violations allow anti-doping organizations (ADOs) to apply sanctions in cases
      where there is no positive doping sample, but where there may still be evidence
      that a doping violation has occurred. This recognition of "nonanalytical" rule
      violations by WADA is the concrete result of taking into account lessons learned
      from prior infamous doping scandals. Thus, intelligence gathering, particularly
      through cooperation with global law enforcement agencies, is a key tool in the
      fight against doping. The 2015 Code and the international standards on testing
      and investigations establish and implement intelligence gathering as part of
      ADOs' routine activities in the fight against doping in sport.

PMID- 28571034
TI  - Remotely Programmed Deep Brain Stimulation of the Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus
      for the Treatment of Primary Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial
      Investigating the Safety and Efficacy of a Novel Deep Brain Stimulation System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the most commonly performed surgery
      for the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson disease (PD). However, DBS systems
      remain largely unaffordable to patients in developing countries, warranting the
      development of a safe, economically viable, and functionally comparable
      alternative. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of wirelessly
      programmed DBS of bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients with primary
      PD. METHODS: Sixty-four patients with primary PD were randomly divided into test
      and control groups (1:1), where DBS was initiated at either 1 month or 3 months,
      respectively, after surgery. Safety and efficacy of the treatment were compared
      between on- and off-medication states 3 months after surgery. Outcome measures
      included analysis of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores,
      duration of "on" periods, and daily equivalent doses of levodopa. All patients
      were followed up both 6 and 12 months after surgery. RESULTS: Three months after
      surgery, significant decrease in the UPDRS motor scores were observed for the
      test group in the off-medication state (25.08 +/- 1.00) versus the control group
      (4.20 +/- 1.99). CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral wireless programming STN-DBS is safe and
      effective for patients with primary PD in whom medical management has failed to
      restore motor function.

PMID- 28571035
TI  - Serological Evaluation of Gastric Cancer Risk Based on Pepsinogen and
      Helicobacter pylori Antibody: Relationship to Endoscopic Findings.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: The serological risk-prediction system combined the
      pepsinogen (PG) test, and anti-Helicobacter pylori antibody is available for
      evaluation of gastric cancer risk. In this system, chronic atrophic gastritis
      (CAG) or H. pylori infection is diagnosed. Subjects with H. pylori negative and
      PG test negative (group A) are supposed to be those who have never been infected
      with H. pylori and are at extremely low risk for gastric cancer. However, a
      certain proportion of patients with CAG has been identified as the extremely low
      risk group (group A). Here we examined endoscopic atrophy and investigated its
      relationship with the ABC classification system. METHODS: We examined 540
      patients. All patients underwent an endoscopic examination for evaluating corpus
      atrophy. Fasting sera were collected and serum PGs and anti-H. pylori antibody
      (Hp-Ab) titer (E-plate Eiken) were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 540 patients, 306
      were classified into group A. However, 136 of them showed signs of endoscopic
      atrophy (group A with CAG). Group A with CAG frequently comprised the elderly. A
      new titer cut-off (<3 U/mL) of the Hp-Ab improved the discrimination of group A
      with CAG by 8%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of group A with CAG patients is a
      critical problem, especially in elderly subjects.

PMID- 28571036
TI  - Sexual Dynamics of Married Women with Interpersonal Dependency: A Qualitative
      Study on Iranian Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Considering the lack of documented research on the sexuality of
      dependent persons, this qualitative study examined sexual dynamics among Iranian
      married women with excessive interpersonal dependency. METHODS: Interviews with
      18 married women with high interpersonal dependency were coded using thematic
      analysis. RESULTS: Three major areas emerged from the data under which the themes
      clustered. These were (1) intrapersonal level which included confused sexual
      cognitions, intrusive thoughts during sex, preoccupation by sexual thoughts, low
      tolerance for reduction or interruption of sexual activity, and emotional
      distress during sex, (2) interactional dynamics including imposing pressure on
      the husband to have sex and assuming a submissive and receptive role during sex,
      and (3) contextual processes including social stigma and the effects of social
      phenomena. CONCLUSIONS: These findings presented a relatively clear understanding
      of the impacts of interpersonal dependency on the sexuality of Iranian women. The
      majority of the women reported maladaptive sexual strategies, attitudes, and
      emotions. Moreover, there were several similarities between the sexual dynamics
      of the women and those of individuals with anxious attachment style. These
      findings suffer from some limitations in terms of generalization due to the small
      size of the sample and clinical and cultural considerations. The implications of
      these findings for practitioners are also considered.

PMID- 28571037
TI  - Conclusion and Perspectives.

PMID- 28571038
TI  - How Will the Legal and Sport Environment Influence a Future Code?

PMID- 28571039
TI  - Johnny Can't Read and It Is Killing Him.

PMID- 28571040
TI  - Videolaryngoscopy during Conscious Sedation in Patients Not Suitable for
      Phonosurgery by Microlaryngoscopy: A Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microlaryngoscopy is the preferred and most widely used technique in
      phonosurgery for the treatment of benign and early malignant glottic lesions.
      However, the procedure may be technically difficult or impossible due to
      alterations of the cervical spine that may not allow hyperextension of the head
      or may present general anesthesia contraindications. The aim of this study is to
      evaluate the efficacy and safety of our surgical approach for lesions of the
      vocal folds in patients who are not suitable for phonosurgery by
      microlaryngoscopy. This approach applies videolaryngoscopy during conscious
      sedation, which combines local anesthesia with moderate analgosedation by using
      midazolam and fentanyl with premedication. METHODS: A total of 235 patients
      affected by benign diseases or suspicious cancerous lesions of the vocal folds
      were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: The method has shown a success rate of
      95.5, 89, 52.3, and 86.7% in cases of polyps of the vocal folds, Reinke's edema,
      cysts of the vocal folds, and suspicious lesions of the larynx, respectively.
      Only 3 patients (1.27%) have been reported to experience adverse events.
      CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the method is an effective and safe
      procedure without relevant local and/or general complications.

PMID- 28571042
TI  - MicroRNA-211-5p suppresses tumour cell proliferation, invasion, migration and
      metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer by directly targeting SETBP1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15-20% of all
      breast cancer in women globally. This subtype often has early and high recurrence
      rates, resulting in poor survival, partially due to lack of targeted therapies.
      To date, the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying TNBC progression are
      unclear. Given the crucial role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer metastasis, we
      aimed to analyse the expression and function of a metastasis-associated miRNA
      named miR-211-5p in TNBC. METHODS: MiRNA array analysis was performed to search
      for metastasis-associated miRNAs in TNBC. The miR-211-5p expression in tumour
      tissues, adjacent non-tumourous breast tissues of TNBC patients and cell lines
      were evaluated by real-time PCR. The protein expression levels were analysed by
      western blot, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation. Luciferase reporter
      assays were employed to validate the target of miR-211-5p. The effect of miR-211
      5p on TNBC progression was investigated in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: MiR-211-5p
      was significantly downregulated in TNBC, and its expression level was associated
      with overall survival in TNBC. The expression of miR-211-5p suppressed TNBC cell
      proliferation, invasion, migration and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.
      Furthermore, SETBP1 was identified as a target of miR-211-5p. Through gain-of
      function and loss-of-function studies, SETBP1 was shown to significantly affect
      colony and cell number in vitro. Enforced expression of miR-211-5p inhibited the
      expression of SETBP1 significantly and the restoration of SETBP1 expression
      reversed the inhibitory effects of miR-211-5p on TNBC cell proliferation and
      metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: These findings collectively demonstrate a tumour
      suppressor role of miR-211-5p in TNBC progression by targeting SETBP1, suggesting
      that miR-211-5p could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic
      target for TNBC.

PMID- 28571041
TI  - CBF1 is clinically prognostic and serves as a target to block cellular invasion
      and chemoresistance of EMT-like glioblastoma cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma is the most common and most lethal primary brain cancer.
      CBF1 (also known as Recombination signal Binding Protein for immunoglobulin kappa
      J, RBPJ) is the cardinal transcriptional regulator of the Notch signalling
      network and has been shown to promote cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) in
      glioblastoma. Recent studies suggest that some of the malignant properties of
      CSCs are mediated through the activation of pro-invasive programme of epithelial
      to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Little is known whether CBF1 is involved in the
      EMT-like phenotype of glioma cells. METHODS: In a collection of GBM neurosphere
      lines, we genetically inhibited CBF1 and investigated the consequences on EMT
      related properties, including in vitro invasiveness by Boyden chambers assay,
      chemoresistance using a clinical drug library screen and glycolytic metabolism
      assessing live-cell extracellular acidification rate. We also compared CBF1
      expression in cells exposed to low and high oxygen tension. In silico analysis in
      large-scale Western and Eastern patient cohorts investigated the clinical
      prognostic value of CBF1 expression in low- and high-grade glioma as well as
      medulloblastoma. RESULTS: Mean CBF1 expression is significantly increased in
      isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) R132H mutant glioblastoma and serves as
      prognostic marker for prolonged overall survival in brain tumours, particularly
      after therapy with temozolomide. Hypoxic regions of glioblastoma have higher CBF1
      activation and exposure to low oxygen can induce its expression in glioma cells
      in vitro. CBF1 inhibition blocks EMT activators such as zinc finger E-box-binding
      homeobox 1 (ZEB1) and significantly reduces cellular invasion and resistance to
      clinically approved anticancer drugs. Moreover, we indicate that CBF1 inhibition
      can impede cellular glycolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Mean CBF1 activation in bulk tumour
      samples serves as a clinical predictive biomarker in brain cancers but its
      intratumoral and intertumoral expression is highly heterogeneous.
      Microenvironmental changes such as hypoxia can stimulate the activation of CBF1
      in glioblastoma. CBF1 blockade can suppress glioblastoma invasion in vitro in
      particular in cells undergone EMT such as those found in the hypoxic niche.
      Targeting CBF1 can be an effective anti-EMT therapy to impede invasive properties
      and chemosensitivity in those cells.

PMID- 28571044
TI  - A wealth of tobacco control research in New Zealand: time for the New Zealand
      Government to do its bit.

PMID- 28571045
TI  - New Zealand doctors' and nurses' views on legalising assisted dying in New
      Zealand.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assisted dying (AD) has been legalised by statute or court decisions
      in at least 15 jurisdictions internationally. Nonetheless, only three medical
      professional bodies (and none in nursing) across those jurisdictions have
      proactively developed authorised policy, practice standards, guidelines or
      protocols, or other professional supports for health practitioners who may
      legally participate in AD services, and the majority internationally remain
      formally opposed to AD. There is a perceived likelihood that AD may be legalised
      in New Zealand soon. AIM: This study explored the views of doctors and nurses as
      to support for or opposition to legalising AD, including reasons for those views,
      what might deter generally willing doctors and nurses from providing AD services
      and what professional supports were perceived as essential or desirable to enable
      willing engagement in AD service provision. RESULTS: While only 37% of doctors
      supported legalising AD in New Zealand, 67% of nurses were supportive. Of those
      respondents who were willing in principle to provide AD services, large
      majorities identified a range of practical and ethical professional supports as
      essential to safe practitioner engagement. Those respondents overwhelmingly saw
      the provision of most of those supports as the responsibility of the medical and
      nursing professional bodies. CONCLUSION: There is a substantial cohort of doctors
      and nurses in New Zealand who support legalising AD, potentially sufficient for
      reasonable seeker access to AD services once legalised. However, many doctors in
      particular still oppose AD, and international research shows that the main
      barrier to access to legal AD is a lack of capacity and capability among health
      professionals, due in large part to several related factors, in particular: a
      lack of either accredited training and education for the AD provider tasks and
      roles; inadequate immunities within the legislation to protect participating
      professionals; and most importantly, a lack of practice standards and guidelines
      authorised by the relevant medical and nursing professional bodies. The challenge
      is for such protections to be available well in advance of legalisation, so that
      health practitioners are not at risk ethically or otherwise in early
      participation.

PMID- 28571046
TI  - New Zealand tobacco control experts' views towards policies to reduce tobacco
      availability.
AB  - AIM: Higher tobacco retailer density promotes smoking by making cigarettes more
      accessible and available, and by increasing environmental cues to smoke. We aimed
      to examine tobacco control experts' views on policies that could reduce tobacco
      retail availability. METHODS: Telephone interviews with 25 individuals drawn from
      academia, non-governmental organisations, Maori and Pacific health, smoking
      cessation services, district health boards and other public health-related
      organisations. We used a semi-structured interview guide to explore the perceived
      importance of reducing tobacco retail supply, views on different policy options
      and barriers to policy adoption. Qualitative content analysis was conducted using
      transcripts as the data source. RESULTS: Participants believed tobacco retailer
      licensing was an important short-term step towards the 2025 goal. In the long
      term, participants envisaged tobacco only being available at a small number of
      specialised outlets, either pharmacies or adult-only stores. To achieve that long
      term scenario, participants suggested a sinking-lid policy on licences or a
      zoning approach could be adopted to gradually reduce outlet density. Policies
      banning sales at certain types of outlet were not considered feasible.
      CONCLUSIONS: There is tension between the tobacco retail reduction policies seen
      as more likely to be politically acceptable, and the need to make substantial
      changes to the tobacco retail environment by 2025. Future research could
      investigate possible legal mechanisms for requiring existing tobacco retailers to
      transition out of selling tobacco.

PMID- 28571043
TI  - MicroRNA-7 suppresses the homing and migration potential of human endothelial
      cells to highly metastatic human breast cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-7 (miR-7) has been observed as a potent tumour suppressor in
      multiple cancer types including breast cancer. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the response sensitivities of metastatic breast cancer cells to miR-7
      and the roles of miR-7 in the interaction of endothelial cells and metastatic
      cancer cells. METHODS: Expression profile of miRNAs in a breast cancer specimen
      cohort and breast cancer cells were determined using real-time quantitative miRNA
      assays. Effect of the altering expression of miR-7 on migration, invasion,
      proliferation, interaction and underlying molecular mechanism of breast cancer
      cells and endothelial cells was investigated after treatment with the synthesised
      mimic of miR-7. Luciferase activity analysis was performed to validate Wave-3 as
      a novel target of miR-7. RESULTS: miR-7 expression was negatively correlated with
      the stage, grade and survival of the breast cancer patients. There was also
      differential expression of miRNAs including miR-7 in the breast cancer cells. The
      synthesised mimic of miR-7 inhibits the motility and wound healing potential of
      breast cancer cells. The highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells are more sensitive to
      the miR-7 treatment than the poorly invasive MCF-7 cells. Treatment with miR-7
      downregulated the expression of EGFR, IGF1R and Wave3 in MDA-MB-231 cells but not
      in MCF-7 cells. In addition, we further demonstrated that miR-7 inhibited the
      proliferation, migration and invasion of endothelial cells. And more importantly,
      miR-7 suppressed the homing and migration of endothelial cells to more aggressive
      tumour cell conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Given the dual inhibitory effect of miR-7 on
      metastatic breast cancer cells alone and the interaction of endothelial cells
      with the tumour-conditioned microenvironment, we suggest miR-7 may be a new
      therapeutic candidate for its capacity not only to prevent breast cancer cell
      spreading but also to inhibit tumour-associated angiogenesis in the metastatic
      breast cancer.

PMID- 28571047
TI  - Perspectives of key stakeholders and smokers on a very low nicotine content
      cigarette-only policy: qualitative study.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate views of New Zealand key stakeholders (stakeholders) and
      smokers on very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes, and a policy mandating
      that only VLNC cigarettes are available for sale. METHODS: Using a semi
      structured interview schedule, we interviewed 17 stakeholders and held focus
      groups with 21 smokers. Questions were asked about VLNC cigarettes and a VLNC
      cigarette-only policy. Smokers were given approximately 15 VLNC cigarettes to
      take home and smoke. One week after the focus groups, 17 smokers were
      interviewed. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach. RESULTS:
      Stakeholders and smokers were largely unconvinced of the value of a mandated
      reduction in nicotine in cigarettes. After smoking VLNC cigarettes, smokers had
      less interest in them but would support them being sold alongside high nicotine
      content (HNC) cigarettes at a much cheaper price. CONCLUSION: The government is
      not likely to mandate nicotine reduction in cigarettes if there is a perceived
      lack of support from stakeholders or smokers. However, they could make VLNC
      cigarettes available as an option for smokers utilising a differential tax
      favouring VLNC cigarettes. If this were combined with better access to nicotine
      containing e-cigarettes, smokers may shift away from HNC cigarettes.

PMID- 28571048
TI  - Reduced tobacco consumption, improved diet and life expectancy for 1988-1998:
      analysis of New Zealand and OECD data.
AB  - AIM: We compared changes in tobacco consumption and diet in relation to changes
      in life expectancy in 1988-1998 in 22 OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation
      and Development) countries. METHOD: Between 1985 and 1995 using regression
      analysis we estimated differences in tobacco consumption per adult and the
      differences in the sum of atherogenic and thrombogenic indices against life
      expectancy. Each index was derived from the various fats per gram of food from
      standard texts, and from the annual measurements of fat in the food balance
      sheets of each country. RESULTS: In 1985-1995, New Zealand showed the largest
      decrease in tobacco consumption per adult (41%) and the greatest decrease (except
      for Switzerland) in the sum of atherogenic and thrombogenic indices (17%) as a
      measure of diet. New Zealand ranked first for life expectancy increases from 1988
      1998 for men (3.2 years), women (2.8 years) and both sexes combined. Regression
      analyses revealed that increases in life expectancy across the OECD for males,
      but not females, were strongly associated with decreases in tobacco consumption,
      with a weaker effect of diet improvement. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that
      reduced tobacco consumption in 1985-1995 likely contributed to New Zealand's
      gains in life expectancy from 1988-1998.

PMID- 28571050
TI  - A kick in the butt: time to address tobacco waste in New Zealand.
AB  - Tobacco consumption is a significant national public health issue. The waste it
      generates-tobacco product waste (TPW)-is also an environmental hazard. Targeting
      TPW through novel policies/regulations-such as a cigarette butt deposit scheme
      may serve the dual purposes of reducing an environment nuisance and progressing
      Aotearoa New Zealand to its goal of being smokefree by 2025.

PMID- 28571049
TI  - The combination of bed sharing and maternal smoking leads to a greatly increased
      risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy: the New Zealand SUDI Nationwide Case
      Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite a major reduction in overall infant mortality, sudden
      unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) continues to be of concern in New Zealand, as
      the rate is high by international standards, and is even higher in indigenous
      Maori. AIM: To identify modifiable risk factors for SUDI. METHODS: A three-year
      (1 March 2012-28 February 2015) nationwide case-control study was conducted in
      New Zealand. RESULTS: There were 137 SUDI cases, giving a SUDI mortality rate of
      0.76/1,000 live births. The rate for Maori was 1.41/1,000, Pacific 1.01/1,000 and
      non-Maori non-Pacific (predominantly European) 0.50/1,000. The parent(s) of 97%
      of the SUDI cases were interviewed. Six hundred and forty-nine controls were
      selected and 258 (40%) were interviewed. The two major risk factors for SUDI
      were: maternal smoking in pregnancy (adjusted OR=6.01, 95% CI=2.97, 12.15) and
      bed sharing (aOR=4.96, 95% CI=2.55, 9.64). There was a significant interaction
      (p=0.002) between bed sharing and antenatal maternal smoking. Infants exposed to
      both risk factors had a markedly increased risk of SUDI (aOR=32.8, 95% CI=11.2,
      95.8) compared with infants not exposed to either risk factor. Infants not
      sharing the parental bedroom were also at increased risk of SUDI (aOR=2.77, 95%
      CI=1.45, 5.30). Just 21 cases over the three-year study were not exposed to
      smoking in pregnancy, bed sharing or front or side sleeping position.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that many of the risk factors that were
      identified in the original New Zealand Cot Death Study (1987-1989) are still
      relevant today. The combination of maternal smoking in pregnancy and bed sharing
      is extremely hazardous for infants. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the
      SUDI prevention messages are still applicable today and should be reinforced.
      SUDI mortality could be reduced to just seven p.a. in New Zealand (approximately
      one in 10,000 live births).

PMID- 28571051
TI  - A comparison of the use of interpreters in New Zealand and the US.
AB  - Cultural competency in medicine is not possible unless language differences are
      addressed effectively. Many disparities that appear to be based on cultural,
      socioeconomic, demographic and other differences can be reduced or eliminated
      with the use of qualified medical interpretation and translation in multilingual
      situations. The development of this precious resource varies from country to
      country around the world as most developed countries face increasingly diverse
      groups of immigrants and refugees as well as inclusion of more indigenous groups
      of patients. The US has been one of the leaders in this area since the 1980s.
      Countries like New Zealand are in different stages of development and on
      different pathways. Increased international collaboration may facilitate
      evolution of cost-effective inclusion of professional medical interpreters as
      part of multidisciplinary health care teams.

PMID- 28571053
TI  - Intramural oesophageal haematoma-a rare complication of dabigatran.
AB  - An 85-year-old female presented to hospital with haemoptysis. She underwent
      investigations which confirmed oesophageal submucosal haematoma. Oesophageal
      haematoma along with Mallory-Weiss and Boerhaave's syndromes make up acute
      mucosal injury of the oesophagus. It can be managed conservatively in the
      majority of cases.

PMID- 28571052
TI  - Melioidosis with possible Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

PMID- 28571054
TI  - Ocular exposure to paraquat resulting in keratopathy, pseudomembranous
      conjunctivitis and symblepharon.

PMID- 28571055
TI  - Potential Drug Interactions and Drug Risk during Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: An
      Observational Study in a Women's Health Intensive Care Unit
AB  - Introduction In the pregnancy-puerperal cycle, women may develop complications
      that require admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Thus, special attention
      to pharmacotherapy is necessary, particularly to potential drug interactions
      (PDIs) and to the effect of the drugs on the fetus and newborn. Objective The aim
      of this study was to determine the profile of PDIs and the potential risk of
      drugs used during pregnancy and breastfeeding among patients admitted to the ICU.
      Methods We conducted an observational, cross-sectional and prospective study,
      including pregnant and breastfeeding women admitted to the ICU at the Women's
      Hospital of a university in the city of Campinas, Brazil, for one year. Online
      databases were used to identify and classify the PDIs and the potential risk of
      the drugs used during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Results We evaluated 305
      prescriptions of 58 women, 31 pregnant and 27 breastfeeding, and 284 (91%)
      prescriptions presented PDIs. A total of 175 different combinations of PDIs were
      identified in the prescriptions, and adverse effects caused by the simultaneous
      use of drugs were not actually observed in the clinical practice. A total of 26
      (1.4%) PDIs were classified as contraindicated. We identified 15 (13.8%) drugs
      prescribed with risk D, and 2 (1.8%) with risk X for pregnant women, as well as 4
      (4.9%) drugs prescribed with high risk for breastfeeding women. Conclusions This
      study demonstrates that there is a high incidence of PDIs in prescriptions. Most
      drugs used by pregnant and breastfeeding women at the ICU did not present serious
      risks to their fetus and newborns, but sometimes drugs with risk D or X are
      necessary in the course of the treatment.

PMID- 28571056
TI  - [Not Available].

PMID- 28571057
TI  - [Not Available].

PMID- 28571058
TI  - Beyond the Facelift: Procedures to Enhance Rhytidectomy.

PMID- 28571060
TI  - Surgical Anatomy for Facelift.

PMID- 28571059
TI  - The History of Rhytidectomy.

PMID- 28571061
TI  - Psychology of the Facelift Patient.
AB  - This paper presents an extensive literature review of the psychology of facelift
      patients as it has evolved over the past 50 years. Earlier studies revealed
      significant levels of pre and perioperative depression. Facelift patients
      generally exhibit emotional and social concerns about facial appearance that are
      higher than the general population. Many are undergoing midlife situational
      stresses and may lack the positive characteristics to deal with them. The most
      common diagnoses seen include depression, impulsivity, unstable personality, and
      passive dependence, albeit not necessarily serious. Improvement in body image is
      the major driver for surgery. Characteristics of female patients as defined by
      their age are described. These include the younger emotionally dependent group,
      the worker group of middle age, and the older grief group. Male patients are seen
      to have a higher level of psychological dysfunction, but a higher improvement in
      postoperative quality of life. Motivations for surgery include increasing self
      esteem, making new friends, improving relationships, and getting better jobs.
      Overall patient satisfaction is more than 95%, with improvement seen in positive
      changes in their life, increased self-confidence and self-esteem, decreased self
      consciousness about their appearance, and overall improvement in quality of life.
      Postoperative psychological reactions are seen in about half the patients, these
      primarily being anxiety and depression of varying degrees. Predictors of patient
      satisfaction include the desire for self-image improvement in contradistinction
      to a change in life situation. Negative predictors include male sex, young age,
      unrealistic expectations, relationship disturbances, and preexisting
      psychological pathology. The importance of good patient selection in achieving a
      satisfied patient is outlined and emphasized.

PMID- 28571062
TI  - The Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System Facelift: A Prudent Balance of Risks
      and Benefits.

PMID- 28571064
TI  - The Difficult Neck in Facelifting.
AB  - As the popularity and acceptance of facial and cervical rejuvenation procedures
      grows, surgeons are increasingly encountering patients with less favorable
      anatomical characteristics for rhytidectomy. These patients will typically
      display an obtuse cervicomental angle, underprojected chin, excess cervical
      adiposity, and platysmal banding, in addition to ptotic submandibular glands,
      tenacious jowls, and prejowl volume deficits. Recognition of these problems and
      the correct application of available techniques to address the difficult neck in
      facelifting are critical in maximizing success.

PMID- 28571063
TI  - The Horizontal Neck Lift.
AB  - The horizontal neck lift is a procedure involving direct excision of a
      horizontally oriented ellipse of skin from the neck. This procedure was developed
      for neck rejuvenation in patients with significant horizontal creases and excess
      skin of the middle and lower neck, areas that often cannot be adequately
      addressed with traditional techniques. This article describes the procedure,
      indications, patient counseling, and postoperative care in detail from the senior
      author's (H. M.) experience.

PMID- 28571065
TI  - Cheek and Chin Implants to Enhance Facelift Results.
AB  - The traditional rhytidectomy addresses facial and neck aging as it relates to
      soft tissue laxity. The modern volumetric facelift provides optimal results by
      addressing not only skin laxity but also the loss of volume secondary to tissue
      atrophy and bony resorption. While multiple techniques including fat grafting,
      dermal fillers, and tissue resuspension are used to correct the tissue loss,
      alloplastic midface augmentation remains the most permanent method. In our
      practice we often address midface cheek hollowness or atrophy with the placement
      of submalar implants at the time of rhytidectomy. In addition to midface
      volumetric rejuvenation, alloplastic chin implantation can help strengthen and
      further define a retrusive chin and weak jawline. In this article we discuss
      technique, indications, and benefits of performing alloplastic augmentation as an
      adjunct to rhytidectomy.

PMID- 28571066
TI  - Autologous Fat Grafting Combined with Facelifting.
AB  - There are multiple factors contributing to facial aging. Rejuvenation of the
      aging face, therefore, requires a multimodal approach to attain an overall
      natural and uniform result that is long lasting. Fat grafting has become a very
      important method for restoring facial soft-tissue atrophy, while facelifting
      procedures address the ptosis and descent of facial and neck tissue. These
      modalities performed together offer the patient a comprehensive approach to
      attain a more attractive and youthful facial appearance.

PMID- 28571067
TI  - Skin Resurfacing in Combination with Facelift Surgery.

PMID- 28571068
TI  - Rhytidectomy: Analysis of Videos Available Online.

PMID- 28571069
TI  - Lateral Crural Tensioning for Refinement of the Nasal Tip and Increasing Alar
      Stability: A Case Series.

PMID- 28571070
TI  - Preoperative Simulation in Planning Rhinoplasty: Evaluation from Patients' and
      Surgeons' Perspectives.
AB  - Among aesthetic surgery procedures, rhinoplasty is one of the most common.
      Preoperative simulations have become increasingly commonplace through the recent
      years along with a controversy regarding their use. Although capable of building
      a solid rapport between the surgeon and the patient by visualizing the end
      result, it can also prove to be a liability for a surgeon who is not confident
      about delivering the result which has been put on screen. The objective of this
      study is to evaluate the outlook of the surgeons and patients on preoperative
      simulations. Plastic surgeons who perform rhinoplasty and individuals who
      consider rhinoplasty were surveyed via an online questionnaire system. Their
      opinions about the practice of simulation were questioned and they were asked to
      distinguish between simulated and actual postoperative results. Statistical
      analyses were performed using SPSS software. Major factors influencing the
      decision-making process of patients were the availability of preoperative
      simulation, being shown appealing results of the surgeon's previous work and a
      personal reference from a patient with an appealing result. Within the health
      care professionals, it has been observed that experienced surgeons are more
      confident about using simulations, while inexperienced ones are daunted by being
      bound with a visual contract (p < 0.05). However, it has been noted that the
      preference of withholding the simulation or providing a copy to the patient was
      similar in all experience levels (p > 0.05). In conclusion, our findings suggest
      that the patients' self-consciousness regarding preoperative simulations seem to
      grow faster than the surgeons' confidence in their use. Level of evidence is
      Level V.

PMID- 28571071
TI  - V-Y Advancement Flap for Defects of the Lid-Cheek Junction.

PMID- 28571072
TI  - Revision Rhinoplasty: Retrospective Chart Review Analysis of Deformities and
      Surgical Maneuvers in Patients with Nasal Airway Obstruction-Five Years of
      Experience.
AB  - Nasal airway obstruction is one of the most frequent causes of revision
      rhinoplasty in patients after previous rhinoplasty procedure. Purpose of this
      study is to present the deformities and the surgical maneuvers conducted in
      revision rhinoplasty patients with functional complaint, anatomical sites at
      risk, and potential prophylactic maneuvers. This study is a retrospective chart
      review analysis of 46 consecutive revision rhinoplasty procedures in patients
      with nasal airway obstruction. Inclusion criteria were at least one previous
      rhinoplasty and nasal airway obstruction as the epicenter of patients' complaint.
      Thorough clinical examination to certify the obstruction was performed.
      Deformities noted were separated in three categories according to functional,
      cosmetic, and combination of functional and cosmetic implications. Surgical
      maneuvers conducted were reviewed. Deformities found were checked for
      statistically significant coexistences. The average patient age was 34.9 years.
      The mean number of previous septorhinoplasties was 1.33. Nasal ventilation
      obstruction mainly caused either by septum deviation or nasal valve dysfunction
      was identified in 91.3% of our patients. Surgical maneuvers conducted included
      placement of grafts in 89.1% of all cases, septoplasty in 76.1%, lateral wall
      support in 47.8%, and placement of spreader grafts in 39.1% of patients. The
      average preoperative Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) score was 61 +/-
      15 and it improved substantially, even from month 1, postoperatively. Owing to
      high prevalence of nasal airway obstruction after primary or secondary
      rhinoplasty, we conducted the first retrospective chart review study to identify
      the most common deformities in revision rhinoplasty patients with nasal airway
      obstruction and the appropriate surgical maneuvers to address them. Septum
      deviation and nasal valve dysfunction were the two pillars of nasal airway
      obstruction in those patients.

PMID- 28571073
TI  - Effects of Tumescent Solution on Fat Survival.

PMID- 28571075
TI  - Erratum: Rhytidoplasty: SMAS Imbrication Vector Comparison.

PMID- 28571074
TI  - Prophylactic Midface Lift in Midfacial Trauma.

PMID- 28571076
TI  - Erratum: Absorbable Implant to Treat Nasal Valve Collapse.

PMID- 28571077
TI  - A Systematic Review of Mechanisms of Change in Body-Oriented Yoga in Major
      Depressive Disorders.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite empirical evidence for the efficacy of body-oriented yoga
      as add-on treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), the specific mechanisms
      by which yoga leads to therapeutic changes remain unclear. By means of a
      systematic review, we evaluate how the field is progressing in its empirical
      investigation of mechanisms of change in yoga for MDD. METHODS: To identify
      relevant studies, a systematic search was conducted. RESULTS: The search produced
      441 articles, of which 5 were included, that empirically examined 2 psychological
      mechanisms (mindfulness, rumination) and 3 biological mechanisms (vagal control,
      heart rate variability [HRV], brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF],
      cortisol). 2 studies found that decreased rumination and 1 study that increased
      mindfulness was associated with the effect of yoga on treatment outcome. In
      addition, preliminary studies suggest that alterations in cortisol, BDNF, and HRV
      may play a role in how yoga exerts its clinical effect. DISCUSSION: The results
      suggest that body-oriented yoga could work through some of the theoretically
      predicted mechanisms. However, there is a need for more rigorous designs that can
      assess greater levels of causal specificity.

PMID- 28571078
TI  - Incidence of Sudden Unexpected Postnatal Collapse in the Therapeutic Hypothermia
      Era.

PMID- 28571079
TI  - Fetal Heart Function by Tricuspid Annular Plane Systolic Excursion and
      Ventricular Shortening Fraction Using STIC M-Mode: Reference Ranges and
      Validation.

PMID- 28571080
TI  - Bioactive Bafilomycins and a New N-Arylpyrazinone Derivative from Marine-derived
      Streptomyces sp. HZP-2216E.
AB  - A MeOH extract prepared from culture of an actinomycete Streptomyces sp. HZP
      2216E isolated from marine green algae Ulva pertusa was found to significantly
      inhibit proliferation of human glioma cells. Two different media were applied to
      culture this marine actinomycete, which produced two new compounds of 23-O
      butyrylbafilomycin D and streptoarylpyrazinone A, together with known bafilomycin
      D, 9-hydroxybafilomycin D, and bafilomycin A1. Structures of new compounds were
      determined by extensive NMR spectroscopic analyses and HRESIMS data. Bioactive
      assay indicated that all isolated bafilomycins significantly inhibited the
      proliferation of different glioma cell lines and the growth of methicillin
      resistant Staphylococcus aureus with 23-O-butyrylbafilomycin D as the most active
      compound. Streptoarylpyrazinone A is a new N-arylpyrazinone derivative existing
      as a zwitterion, and this type of compounds was rarely found from natural
      resources.

PMID- 28571081
TI  - Emergency and Trauma in MSK Radiology.

PMID- 28571082
TI  - Upper Limbs Trauma in Pediatrics.

PMID- 28571083
TI  - Lower Limbs Trauma in Pediatrics.

PMID- 28571084
TI  - Trauma Imaging of the Acute Cervical Spine.

PMID- 28571085
TI  - Emergency and Trauma Imaging of the Thoracolumbar Spine.

PMID- 28571086
TI  - Emergency and Trauma of the Pelvic Ring.

PMID- 28571087
TI  - Hip and Pelvis: MRI of Musculotendinous Trauma and Mimickers.

PMID- 28571088
TI  - Emergency and Trauma of Hand and Wrist.

PMID- 28571089
TI  - Emergency and Trauma of the Elbow.

PMID- 28571090
TI  - Emergency and Trauma of the Ankle.

PMID- 28571091
TI  - Cone Beam CT of Trauma of Small Bones and Joints.

PMID- 28571092
TI  - Imaging Assessment of Thoracic Cage Injuries.

PMID- 28571093
TI  - Nontraumatic Emergency of the Spine.

PMID- 28571094
TI  - Imaging of Vascular Injuries of the Extremities.

PMID- 28571095
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Vertebral Fractures.

PMID- 28571096
TI  - Implant Alternatives for Tibial Osteotomies.

PMID- 28571098
TI  - Prenatal Brainstem Disruptions: Small Lesions-Big Problems.

PMID- 28571100
TI  - Diagnosis and New Treatment Avenues in Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

PMID- 28571099
TI  - Neurological Involvement in Pediatric Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome: A Symptom
      Oriented Analysis.

PMID- 28571102
TI  - Antiplatelet Therapy, Platelet Function Testing, and Bleeding Complications in
      Cardiac Surgery Patients.

PMID- 28571101
TI  - GNAQ Mutation in the Venous Vascular Malformation and Underlying Brain Tissue in
      Sturge-Weber Syndrome.

PMID- 28571103
TI  - Epidemiology and outcomes of missing admission medication history in severe
      trauma: A retrospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Anticoagulant and antiplatelet (ACAP) drugs are associated with
      increased mortality in trauma patients, therefore medication history on admission
      is important. Whether these medications are recorded on trauma admission has not
      been investigated, nor if absence of a medication history is associated with
      worse patient outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective database review
      combining demographic and outcome data from the St George Hospital (Sydney)
      trauma registry with admission medication history in the electronic record. To
      contrast medications with a known increased risk (ACAP) to patients with unknown
      risk, patients were divided into three groups: those on ACAPs, no-ACAP if
      medication history was present and no-ACAP documented, or no-Hx if no medication
      history recorded. Inclusion criteria were aged >16 and Injury Severity Score
      (ISS) >12. Admission demographic data and outcome data were compared between all
      three groups. RESULTS: Of 533 consecutive patients, 21% comprised the no-Hx
      group, while 22% were on an ACAP and 57% not on an ACAP. No-Hx patients had more
      severe head injuries and a younger median age compared to ACAP patients (42 vs 82
      years old, P < 0.001). Mortality was higher for ACAP (24%; 95% CI 17-33%)
      compared to no-ACAP (11%; 95% CI 8-16%) or no-Hx patients (12%; 95% CI 7-20%) (P
      = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: While a large number of severe trauma patients were
      admitted without a medication history, no-Hx patients did not appear at increased
      risk of adverse outcomes. ACAP patients had a higher mortality compared to no
      ACAP highlighting the vulnerability of this group.

PMID- 28571104
TI  - A review of the burns caseload of a physician-based helicopter emergency medical
      service.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe patient demographics, injuries,
      physiology and interventions performed by retrieval physicians in the care of
      burns patients in both a pre-hospital and interhospital setting. METHODS: A
      retrospective review of patient records from a large Australian Helicopter
      Emergency Medical Service was conducted. Demographics, injury, burn type,
      physiology and intervention data were extracted into a database for statistical
      analysis. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated, and patient physiology
      measures were compared at arrival and destination. RESULTS: A total of 490 burns
      cases were identified from a 5 year period (January 2010-August 2015). The
      majority (78.6%) were interhospital transfers conducted by road (49.4%) or
      helicopter (36.9%). Patients were predominantly men (75.7%) with a median age of
      37 years (interquartile range [IQR] 23-50). Median estimated total body surface
      area burned was 15% (IQR 8.5-20) and 18% (IQR 10-30) in pre-hospital and
      interhospital groups, respectively; however, retrieval physicians tended to
      overestimate total body surface area burned in comparison to destination burns
      units. Flash burn or explosion were the predominant aetiology of burn (49.4%),
      although the majority (95.3%) of patients had no associated traumatic injuries.
      Sixty patients were intubated by the Service. Escharotomies were performed on
      eight occasions resulting in improvement in circulation or ventilation. Overall
      mortality was 3.7% at 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: The Service cares for 80-100 burns
      patients annually, a proportion of whom require complex interventions such as
      intubation and escharotomy, which was performed by retrieval physicians
      appropriately. Associated traumatic injuries were infrequent in patients who
      sustained burns from flashes or explosions.

PMID- 28571105
TI  - Visualising emergency department capacity in an 'Emergency Department Capacity
      Clock': A novel tool to assess and communicate overcrowding and access block.
AB  - Hospital-wide engagement is required to alleviate the problem of ED crowding and
      its associated adverse effects. To this end, the article describes a novel
      visualisation termed 'the ED Capacity Clock', which can be formatted using
      business intelligence software. This radial diagram represents ED capacity and
      its consumption in a format that can be understood intuitively and at a glance.
      The ED Capacity Clock is designed to promote common understanding and discussion
      between relevant hospital services and also acts as an auditing tool to monitor
      processes implemented to alleviate ED crowding.

PMID- 28571106
TI  - SDF-1alpha peptide tethered polyester facilitates tissue repair by endogenous
      cell mobilization and recruitment.
AB  - The design of bioactive scaffolds that can invoke host's own regenerative
      capabilities and facilitate endogenous tissue repair hold great promise. This
      study aims to evaluate the potential of stromal cell-derived factor 1 alpha (SDF
      1alpha)-derived peptide and heparin tethered poly(L-lactide-co-epsilon
      caprolactone) (PLCL) copolymers for blood vessel regeneration applications. Amino
      acid analysis and toluidine blue assays confirm successful conjugation of SDF
      1alpha peptide and heparin with the PLCL copolymers. Assessment of
      biocompatibility after subcutaneous implantation in rats discloses higher cell
      infiltration in SDF-1alpha peptide (SDF-1 group) or SDF-1 peptide and heparin
      (SDF-1/heparin group) than the control group. SDF-1 and SDF-1/heparin grafts also
      show more numbers of laminin+ blood vessels, CD90+ stem cells, and alpha smooth
      muscle actin+ cells than the control group. However, SDF-1 and SDF-1/heparin
      groups did not significantly differ in terms of blood vessel regeneration and
      stem cell recruitment. Evaluation of the inflammatory response reveal less
      numbers of CD68+ macrophages in SDF-1 and SDF-1/heparin groups compared with the
      control group; whereas three groups show similar numbers of CD206+ macrophages.
      These results indicate that completely synthetic, cell-free grafts can attract
      endogenous cells and enhance tissue repair. Bioactive polyesters can be
      fabricated into different shapes and structures for various tissue engineering
      applications. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomater Res Part A: 105A: 2670
      2684, 2017.

PMID- 28571107
TI  - Age-Specific Prevalence of Binge and High-Intensity Drinking Among U.S. Young
      Adults: Changes from 2005 to 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study examined changes during the past decade, from 2005 to
      2015, in binge and high-intensity drinking in 7 separate age groups of U.S. 12th
      graders and young adults. METHODS: National longitudinal data (N = 6,711) from
      Monitoring the Future were used to examine trends in consuming 5+, 10+, and 15+
      drinks on the same occasion in the past 2 weeks from ages 18 to 29/30 overall and
      by gender. Results were compared with trends in past 12-month and 30-day alcohol
      use for the same age groups. RESULTS: Between 2005 and 2015, binge (5+) and high
      intensity drinking (10+, 15+) generally decreased for individuals in their early
      20s, remained somewhat stable for individuals in their mid-20s, and increased for
      individuals at the end of young adulthood (age 29/30). The observed historical
      trends in binge and high-intensity drinking were similar to those for past 12
      month and past 30-day alcohol use for those aged 18 to 20, but diverged for most
      other age groups in young adulthood. Trends were generally similar for men and
      women, except that the increase in prevalence began earlier in young adulthood
      for women than for men. CONCLUSIONS: Binge and high-intensity drinking among U.S.
      12th graders and young adults are dynamic phenomena. Prevention and intervention
      efforts aimed at reducing the harms resulting from 5+, 10+, and 15+ drinking
      should acknowledge and focus on differences in trends in these behaviors by age
      and gender.

PMID- 28571109
TI  - Fabrication of in situ polymerized poly(butylene succinate-co-ethylene
      terephthalate)/hydroxyapatite nanocomposite to fibrous scaffolds for enhancement
      of osteogenesis.
AB  - A combination of elastic poly(butylene succinate-co-ethylene terephthalate) and
      rigid nano-hydroxyapatite were used to prepare an in-situ synthesized
      nanocomposite mimicing bone structure. The microstructure, morphology, and
      dispersion of nanoparticles in the nanocomposites were studied using proton
      nuclear magnetic resonance (1 HNMR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. Then, electrospinning
      method was used to produce nanofiber matrix with lowest fiber diameter. Presence
      of chemical bonds among nanoparticles and polymer leads to the excellent particle
      dispersion and solution phase stability. SEM results show that continuous and
      bead-free nanofibers were produced and incorporating nanoparticle slightly
      increased fibers diameter. Elastic modulus, tensile strength, crystallinity,
      hydrophilicity and hydrolytic degradability of resulted nanofiber increased with
      nanoparticle but elongation at break slightly decreased. Proliferation and
      osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cell significantly improved
      by introducing nanoparticle which indicate that electrospun nanofibers could be
      used as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2622-2631, 2017.

PMID- 28571108
TI  - Quinary interactions with an unfolded state ensemble.
AB  - Anfinsen's thermodynamic hypothesis states that the native three-dimensional fold
      of a protein represents the structure with the lowest Gibbs free energy. Changes
      in the free energy of denaturation can arise from changes to the folded state,
      the unfolded state, or both. It has been recently recognized that quinary
      interactions, transient contacts that take place only in cells, can modulate
      protein stability through interactions involving the folded state. Here we show
      that the cellular environment can also remodel the unfolded state ensemble.

PMID- 28571110
TI  - A new teaching model for demonstrating the movement of the extraocular muscles.
AB  - The extraocular muscles consist of the superior, inferior, lateral, and medial
      rectus muscles and the superior and inferior oblique muscles. This study aimed to
      create a new teaching model for demonstrating the function of the extraocular
      muscles. A coronal section of the head was prepared and sutures attached to the
      levator palpebral superioris muscle and six extraocular muscles. Tension was
      placed on each muscle from a posterior approach and movement of the eye
      documented from an anterior view. All movements were clearly seen less than that
      of the inferior rectus muscle. To our knowledge, this is the first cadaveric
      teaching model for demonstrating the movements of the extraocular muscles. Clin.
      Anat. 30:733-735, 2017. (c) 2017Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28571111
TI  - Occupational solvent exposure and adult chronic lymphocytic leukemia: No risk in
      a population-based case-control study in four Nordic countries.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the effect of occupational solvent exposure
      on the risk of adult chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The current case-control
      study was nested in the Nordic Occupational Cancer Study (NOCCA) cohort. 20,615
      CLL cases diagnosed in 1961-2005 in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, and
      103,075 population-based controls matched by year of birth, sex, and country were
      included. Occupational histories for cases and controls were obtained from census
      records in 1960, 1970, 1980/1981, and 1990. Exposure to selected solvents was
      estimated by using the NOCCA job-exposure matrix (NOCCA-JEM). Odds ratios (OR)
      and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated by using conditional
      logistic regression models. Overall, nonsignificant CLL risk elevations were
      observed for methylene chloride, perchloroethylene, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane.
      Compared to unexposed, significantly increased risks were observed for cumulative
      perchloroethylene exposure <=13.3 ppm-years (OR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.16-2.96) and
      average life-time perchloroethylene exposure <=2.5 ppm (1.61, 95% CI 1.01-2.56)
      among women, and cumulative methylene chloride exposure <=12.5 ppm-years (OR =
      1.19, 95% CI 1.01-1.41) and 12.5-74.8 ppm-years (OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.01-1.51)
      among men in an analysis with 5 years lag-time, though without dose-response
      pattern. Decreased CLL risk was observed for aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbon
      solvents and toluene. This study did not support associations for solvent
      exposure and CLL. Observed weak associations for methylene chloride,
      perchloroethylene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane exposures, aliphatic and alicyclic
      hydrocarbons and toluene were not consistent across sexes, and showed no gradient
      with amount of exposure.

PMID- 28571112
TI  - A Translational Systems Pharmacology Model for Abeta Kinetics in Mouse, Monkey,
      and Human.
AB  - A mechanistic model of amyloid beta production, degradation, and distribution was
      constructed for mouse, monkey, and human, calibrated and externally verified
      across multiple datasets. Simulations of single-dose avagacestat treatment
      demonstrate that the Abeta42 brain inhibition may exceed that in cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF). The dose that achieves 50% CSF Abeta40 inhibition for humans (both
      healthy and with Alzheimer's disease (AD)) is about 1 mpk, one order of magnitude
      lower than for mouse (10 mpk), mainly because of differences in pharmacokinetics.
      The predicted maximal percent of brain Abeta42 inhibition after single-dose
      avagacestat is higher for AD subjects (about 60%) than for healthy individuals
      (about 45%). The probability of achieving a normal physiological level for
      Abeta42 in brain (1 nM) during multiple avagacestat dosing can be increased by
      using a dosing regimen that achieves higher exposure. The proposed model allows
      prediction of brain pharmacodynamics for different species given differing dosing
      regimens.

PMID- 28571113
TI  - Comparison of the effects of 45S5 and 1393 bioactive glass microparticles on hMSC
      behavior.
AB  - Bioactive glasses (BAGs) are highly interesting materials for bone regeneration
      applications in orthopedic and dental defects. It is quite well known that ionic
      release from BAGs influences cell behavior and function. Mindful of the clinical
      scenario, we hypothesized that local cell populations might additionally
      physically interact with the implanted BAG particles and respond differently than
      to just the ionic stimuli. We therefore studied the biological effect of two BAG
      types (45S5 and 1393) applied to human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) in three
      distinct presentation modes: (a) direct contact; and to dissolution products in
      (b) 2D, and (c) 3D culture. We furthermore investigated how the dose-dependence
      of these BAG particles, in concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 2.5 w/v %,
      influenced hMSC metabolic activity, proliferation, and cell spreading. These
      cellular functions were significantly hampered when hMSCs were exposed to high
      concentrations of either glasses, but the effects were more pronounced in the
      45S5 groups and when the cells were in direct contact with the BAGs. Furthermore
      the biological effect of 1393 BAG outperformed that of 45S5 BAG in all tested
      presentation modes. These outcomes highlight the importance of investigating cell
      BAG interactions in experimental set-ups that recapitulate host cell interactions
      with BAG particles. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A:
      105A: 2772-2782, 2017.

PMID- 28571115
TI  - Improvement of covalent immobilization procedure of beta-galactosidase from
      Kluyveromyces lactis for galactooligosaccharides production: Modeling and kinetic
      study.
AB  - Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are prebiotics produced from lactose through an
      enzymatic reaction. Employing an immobilized enzyme may result in cost
      reductions; however, the changes in its kinetics due to immobilization has not
      been studied. This study experimentally determined the optimal reaction
      conditions for the production of GOS from lactose by beta-galactosidase (EC
      3.2.1.23) from Kluyveromyces lactis covalently immobilized to a polysiloxane
      polyvinyl alcohol (POS-PVA) polymer activated with glutaraldehyde (GA), and to
      study the transgalactosylation kinetics. Yield immobilization was 99 +/- 1.1%
      with 78.5 +/- 2.4% enzyme activity recovery. An experimental design 24 with 1
      center point and 2 replicates was used. Factors were lactose [L], enzyme
      concentration [E], pH and temperature (T). Response variables were glucose and
      galactose as monosaccharides [G1], residual lactose [Lac]r and GOS as
      disaccharides [G2] and trisaccharides [G3]. Best conditions were pH 7.1, 40 
      degrees C, 270 gL-1 initial lactose concentration and 6 U mL-1 enzyme
      concentration, obtaining 25.46 +/- 0.01 gL-1 yield of trisaccharides. Although
      below the HPLC-IR detection limit, tetrasaccharides were also identified after
      115 min of reaction. The immobilization protocol was then optimized by
      diminishing total reactant volumes : support ratio, resulting in improved enzyme
      activity synthesizing 43.53 +/- 0.02 gL-1 of trisaccharides and 13.79 +/- 0.21 gL
      1 of tetrasaccharides, and after four cycles remaining relative activity was 94%.
      A reaction mechanism was proposed through which a mathematical model was
      developed and rate constants were estimated, considering a pseudo steady-state
      hypothesis for two concomitant reactions, and from this simplified analysis, the
      reaction yield could eventually be improved. (c) 2017 American Institute of
      Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1568-1578, 2017.

PMID- 28571116
TI  - Plasma microRNA signature is associated with risk stratification in prostate
      cancer patients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to establish a unique expression profile of circulating
      cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) capable of differentiating between prostate cancer
      (PCa) patients with high-risk and intermediate-risk Gleason scores. MiRNA
      expression profiles were determined in plasma samples from 79 treatment-naive PCa
      patients, 1-2 follow-up samples after radical prostatectomy (RP) from 51 out of
      the 79 PCa patients, and 33 healthy men, using a quantitative real-time PCR-based
      array containing 48 selected miRNAs. We identified 27 up- and 2 downregulated
      plasma miRNAs in PCa patients compared with healthy men. Most of the upregulated
      miRNA levels were also associated with increasing PSA levels and Gleason scores.
      Particularly, the levels of miR-16 (p = 0.002), miR-148a (p = 0.006) and miR-195
      (p = 0.006) significantly correlated with high-risk Gleason scores, whereby miR
      148a (p = 0.003) was also significantly associated with increasing PSA values.
      The high miRNA levels before RP remained increased in the postsurgical plasma
      samples. Our findings show a network of deregulated plasma miRNAs. In particular,
      miR-16, miR-148a and miR-195 are involved in the regulation of the PI3K/Akt
      signaling pathway. These miRNAs may be promising therapeutic targets for high
      risk PCa stratification.

PMID- 28571114
TI  - Population Modeling Integrating Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics,
      Pharmacogenetics, and Clinical Outcome in Patients With Sunitinib-Treated Cancer.
AB  - The tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib is used as first-line therapy in patients
      with metastasized renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), given in fixed-dose regimens
      despite its high variability in pharmacokinetics (PKs). Interindividual
      variability of drug exposure may be responsible for differences in response.
      Therefore, dosing strategies based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD)
      models may be useful to optimize treatment. Plasma concentrations of sunitinib,
      its active metabolite SU12662, and the soluble vascular endothelial growth factor
      receptors sVEGFR-2 and sVEGFR-3, were measured in 26 patients with mRCC within
      the EuroTARGET project and 21 patients with metastasized colorectal cancer (mCRC)
      from the C-II-005 study. Based on these observations, PK/PD models with potential
      influence of genetic predictors were developed and linked to time-to-event (TTE)
      models. Baseline sVEGFR-2 levels were associated with clinical outcome in
      patients with mRCC, whereas active drug PKs seemed to be more predictive in
      patients with mCRC. The models provide the basis of PK/PD-guided strategies for
      the individualization of anti-angiogenic therapies.

PMID- 28571117
TI  - Do all adult orthopaedic injuries seen in emergency departments need to attend
      fracture clinic? A Queensland multicentred review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Musculoskeletal injuries account for a significant proportion of ED
      presentations annually, with a large percentage being referred to the fracture
      clinic (FC). A literature review found that many referrals could be safely
      managed outside the traditional model of care. The present study aims to review
      all adult presentations to FCs at two Queensland metropolitan hospitals, finding
      low-risk injuries that can safely and appropriately be managed by their general
      practitioner (GP) or allied health professionals (AHPs), potentially affording
      significant savings to the health system. METHODS: A retrospective study at Logan
      and Redland Hospitals was undertaken, reviewing all adult patients (>=16 years)
      referred to FCs over an eight week period. Injuries were categorised into those
      requiring FC care supervised by an orthopaedic surgeon (fracture clinic pathway)
      and those that could be safely managed by GPs or AHPs, with the aid of evidence
      based, protocol-driven guidelines known as the primary care pathway (PCP).
      RESULTS: A total of 1367 patients were referred to FC over the study period, of
      whom 546 (40%) were assessed as suitable candidates for PCP. Redland Hospital
      accounted for 65% of all PCP-suitable patients, whereas Logan Hospital accounted
      for 35%. Failure-to-attend rates were significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the PCP
      patients compared to other patients attending FCs. CONCLUSION: Adopting the PCP
      could potentially reduce fracture clinic referrals by 40%. Having a structured
      pathway has the potential to empower primary health professionals, which could
      result in a more streamlined process that aids in significant time and financial
      savings and maintains good patient satisfaction and outcomes.

PMID- 28571118
TI  - The role of oxidative stress in EBV lytic reactivation, radioresistance and the
      potential preventive and therapeutic implications.
AB  - Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an important cancer causing virus. Cancer associated
      with EBV account for approximately 1.5% of all cancers, and represent 1.8% of all
      cancer deaths worldwide. EBV reactivation plays an important role in the
      development of EBV-related diseases and is closely related with patients'
      survival and clinical stages of EBV-related cancers. The therapy regarding to EBV
      related cancers is very urgent, especially in endemic areas. Generating oxidative
      stress is a critical mechanism by which host cells defend against infection by
      virus. In addition, ROS-mediated oxidative stress plays a significant but
      paradoxical role acting as a "double-edged sword" to regulate cellular response
      to radiation, which is the main therapy strategy for EBV-related cancers,
      especially nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Therefore, in this review we primarily
      discuss the possible interplay among the oxidative stress, EBV lytic reactivation
      and radioresistance. Understanding the role of oxidative stress in EBV lytic
      reactivation and radioresistance will assist in the development of effective
      strategies for prevention and treatment of EBV-related cancers.

PMID- 28571119
TI  - Item Response Theory to Quantify Longitudinal Placebo and Paliperidone Effects on
      PANSS Scores in Schizophrenia.
AB  - As biomarkers are lacking, multi-item questionnaire-based tools like the Positive
      and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) are used to quantify disease severity in
      schizophrenia. Analyzing composite PANSS scores as continuous data discards
      information and violates the numerical nature of the scale. Here a longitudinal
      analysis based on Item Response Theory is presented using PANSS data from phase
      III clinical trials. Latent disease severity variables were derived from item
      level data on the positive, negative, and general PANSS subscales each. On all
      subscales, the time course of placebo responses were best described with Weibull
      models, and dose-independent functions with exponential models to describe the
      onset of the full effect were used to describe paliperidone's effect. Placebo and
      drug effect were most pronounced on the positive subscale. The final model
      successfully describes the time course of treatment effects on the individual
      PANSS item-levels, on all PANSS subscale levels, and on the total score level.

PMID- 28571120
TI  - Development of Physiologically Based Organ Models to Evaluate the
      Pharmacokinetics of Drugs in the Testes and the Thyroid Gland.
AB  - We extended a generic whole-body physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK)
      model for rats and humans for organs of the reproductive and endocrine systems
      (i.e., the testes and the thyroid gland). An extensive literature search was
      performed, first, to determine the most generic organ model structures for testes
      and thyroid across species, and, second, to identify the corresponding anatomic
      and physiological parameters in rats and humans. The testes and thyroid organ
      models were implemented in the PBPK modeling software PK-Sim and MoBi. The
      capability of the PBPK approach to simulate the testes and thyroid tissue
      concentration data was demonstrated using a series of test compounds. The
      presented organ model structures and parameterization yielded a close agreement
      between observed and simulated tissue concentrations over time. The organ models
      are ready to be used to predict the pharmacokinetics of passively entering drugs
      in the testes and thyroid tissue in a generic PBPK modeling framework.

PMID- 28571121
TI  - Mechanistic Oral Absorption Modeling and Simulation for Formulation Development
      and Bioequivalence Evaluation: Report of an FDA Public Workshop.
AB  - On May 19, 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted a public
      workshop, entitled "Mechanistic Oral Absorption Modeling and Simulation for
      Formulation Development and Bioequivalence Evaluation." The topic of mechanistic
      oral absorption modeling, which is one of the major applications of
      physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling and simulation, focuses on
      predicting oral absorption by mechanistically integrating gastrointestinal
      transit, dissolution, and permeation processes, incorporating systems, active
      pharmaceutical ingredient (API), and the drug product information, into a
      systemic mathematical whole-body framework.

PMID- 28571122
TI  - Detecting the Non-physiological, Surgically Tailored Ileocolic Anastomosis Using
      the Wireless Motility Capsule. A Pre- and Post-operative, Prospective, Within
      Subject Trial.
AB  - Background/Aims: Wireless motility capsule (WMC) detects the ileocolic junction
      (ICJ) in most non-operated patients. We find no data concerning this examination
      in patients where the ileocolic valve is replaced by a per definition
      incompetent, surgically created ICJ. We wanted to see if WMC could detect the ICJ
      after a right colectomy and assess the competency. Methods: Prospective cohort
      study using a within-subject design to eliminate subject-subject variability.
      Selected patients operated with right colectomy underwent 3 WMC examinations (pre
      operatively, 3 weeks, and 6 months after surgery). Results: Twenty patients (8
      men) included, 7 (4 men) excluded due to poor recordings (4) and unforeseen
      events (3). Thirteen patients (4 men), median age 63 years completed 3 tests.
      Median bowel lengths removed were 11 cm for ileum and 21 cm for colon. Thirty
      nine examinations analyzed by 2 physicians who found all 13 ICJs at 3
      examinations with high inter-rater reliability (intra-class correlation
      coefficient: 0.99, 0.91, and 0.99 respectively), whereas the computer found 9, 8,
      and 10 out of the 13 ICJs, respectively. Computed values significantly more often
      deviated from the 2 raters. Mean magnitude and duration of pH-drop at the ICJ (3
      examinations) was 1.16-1.02-1.13 pH units and 3.15-4.78-3.75 minutes,
      respectively. pH-drop was smaller and duration longer at 3 weeks. We found no
      differences between the pre-operative (competent ICJ) and post-operative 6-month
      examinations (incompetent ICJ). Highest pressure immediately prior to ICJ was
      equal before and after surgery. Conclusion: WMC can identify the non
      physiological ICJ after right colectomy. Ileocolic competence cannot be assessed.

PMID- 28571123
TI  - Correction: eIF3f reduces tumor growth by directly interrupting clusterin with
      anti-apoptotic property in cancer cells.

PMID- 28571124
TI  - Correction: PDGFRalpha depletion attenuates glioblastoma stem cells features by
      modulation of STAT3, RB1 and multiple oncogenic signals.

PMID- 28571125
TI  - Preinguinal Splitting and Reunion of Femoral Nerve Entrapping the Fleshy Fibres
      of Iliacus Muscle - A Case Report.
AB  - Division of nerves close to their origin and muscular entrapments by nerves in
      the limbs is not very common. Femoral nerve is the largest branch of the lumbar
      plexus and arises from dorsal divisions of ventral rami of L2 to L4 spinal
      nerves. During routine cadaveric dissection for first year medical students at
      Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Karnataka, India, we observed a
      variation in the division and course of left femoral nerve in about 65-year-old
      male cadaver. The femoral nerve was split into two divisions above the inguinal
      ligament after its origin from the lumbar plexus. The lower division of the nerve
      passed deep to the iliopsoas muscle fibres and the upper division ran superficial
      to iliacus muscle deep to fascia iliaca. Both the divisions joined just above the
      inguinal ligament to form the trunk of the femoral nerve. Further course and
      distribution of the nerve was normal. The reports have shown that compression
      neuropathies of femoral nerve in the limbs are caused by neoplastic masses,
      vascular abnormalities and also by different anomalous muscles. Such neuropathies
      may also result from indirect compression of femoral nerve between the fibres of
      psoas major muscle and lateral pelvic wall. The potential clinical importance of
      above mentioned variations in the division of femoral nerve would emphasize the
      surgeons to diagnose the neuromuscular entrapments and consequent alterations of
      sensation in the anterior and medial aspects of the thigh.

PMID- 28571126
TI  - Study of Glycated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) In Non-Diabetic Subjects with Subclinical
      Hypothyroidism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: India has the higher prevalence of prediabetes, diabetes and
      hypothyroidism. Subclinical Hypothyroidism (SH) is more prevalent in the females
      than in the males. Studies have shown the elevated HbA1c in the non-diabetic
      hypothyroid patients. SH is defined by normal serum triiodothyronine (T3),
      thyroxine (T4) levels and serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) level falling
      between 4.2 to 10 mU/L. AIM: To study the HbA1c level in the non-diabetic SH
      patients and to compare the HbA1c level with the controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This case-control study was conducted on 200 subjects. A total of 100 subjects of
      the SH without diabetes were selected on the basis of the serum TSH (> 4.2 to <
      10 mU/L), Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) (< 110 mg/dl) level and another 100 age and
      sex matched normal healthy individuals were selected as the control. The HbA1c
      levels were measured using Immunoturbidimetry method in the Cobas Integra 400
      plus. An independent t-test is applied to find out the statistically significant
      difference in the level of HbA1c in the case and the control groups. RESULTS:
      Subjects with the non-diabetic SH had a significant higher level (5.70+/-0.35 %)
      of the HbA1c than the controls (5.26+/-0.17 %) (p<0.0001). There was no
      significant difference between the cases and the controls for the age, sex, FBS,
      vitamin D3, Haemoglobin (Hb), serum T3 and serum T4 levels. CONCLUSION: Our data
      suggest that the non-diabetic subjects with SH show misleadingly high levels of
      the HbA1c. Therefore, the effect of altered levels of the serum TSH on the HbA1c
      must be considered when interpreting the HbA1c for the diagnosis of diabetes in
      the SH patients.

PMID- 28571127
TI  - Physicochemical Characteristics of Rat Muscle Glycogen Fractions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Homogenization of animal tissues with cold Perchloric Acid (PCA)
      produces two fractions of glycogen, Acid Soluble Glycogen (ASG) and Acid
      Insoluble Glycogen (AIG). AIM: To determine some physicochemical characteristics
      of muscle glycogen fractions in two groups of rat. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An
      experimental study was conducted on two groups of five male rats. Rats in control
      group were kept at rest and in case group on 30 minutes physical activity. The
      content of carbohydrate, protein, phosphate, index and relative Molecular Weights
      (MWs) were determined for glycogen fractions. RESULTS: Total glycogen decreased
      following muscular activity (1.40+/-0.08, mg/g wet muscle vs. 0.97+/-0.11,
      p<0.05) and the change occurred totally in ASG (1.02+/-0.07 vs. 0.57+/-0.07,
      p=0.017), whereas, AIG changed insignificantly (0.39+/-0.05 vs. 0.36+/-0.02,
      p=0.5). The protein content of AIG was about 5.5 times of ASG fraction. The ratio
      of carbohydrate to protein was 0.33+/-0.01 (mg/mg) in ASG and decreased to 0.19+/
      0.02, p=0.01 after 30 minute activity. This ratio in AIG was about 6% of ASG
      fraction and did not change significantly during physical activity. The ratio of
      phosphate to protein was three times in ASG relative to AIG at rest and did not
      change following activity. The index of molecular weight was calculated for each
      fraction of glycogen as the ratio of concentration per osmolality (mg/mmol). The
      index was 1.82+/-0.02 for ASG at rest and decreased significantly to 1.07+/-0.12,
      p<0.05 following 30 minutes activity. The index did not change significantly for
      AIG fraction (0.56+/-0.05 vs. 0.48+/-0.10, p=0.4). The relative MW of the
      fractions of ASG to AIG was 3.3+/-0.3 at rest and decreased significantly to
      2.2+/-0.6, p<0.05 following 30 minutes activity. CONCLUSION: Two fractions of
      muscle glycogen, ASG and AIG, differ in the relative carbohydrate: protein
      content and ASG have a higher mean of MW and is more metabolic active form.

PMID- 28571128
TI  - Association Between Serum Cystatin C and Creatinine in Chronic Kidney Disease
      Subjects Attending a Tertiary Health Care Centre.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is an emerging health problem due to
      the increasing prevalence of conditions like diabetes mellitus and hypertension.
      Most patients are diagnosed during the later stages of CKD when the clinical
      symptoms become apparent. There is a need for early diagnosis to prevent disease
      progression and associated morbidities. Serum Creatinine (SCr) is commonly used
      among clinicians to determine renal function. However, SCr is affected by several
      factors and cannot be entirely relied upon. In pursuit of an alternative
      indicator of renal function, several biomarkers have been discovered and their
      utility in prompt diagnosis has been evaluated. Among such biomarkers, serum
      cystatin C (SCysC) has been extensively studied. AIM: To determine and compare
      the levels of SCr and SCysC in CKD subjects across various severity groups based
      on estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study
      comprised of 120 CKD subjects. SCr was estimated by modified Jaffe's method and
      SCysC was estimated by particle enhanced immunoturbidimetric method. Estimated
      GFR (eGFR) was determined using Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology collaboration
      (CKD EPI) 2009 creatinine based formula. Based on eGFR, CKD subjects were further
      categorized into four groups. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS. Data were
      represented as median and interquartile range. Kruskal Wallis test was used for
      comparison between more than two groups. Correlation was done using Pearson's
      test. Statistical significance was considered as p <0.05. RESULTS: Both SCr and
      SCysC levels increased significantly across CKD groups (p<0.001). In CKD subjects
      with eGFR >= 60 ml/min/1.732 m2, the median value of SCr (1.01 mg/dl) was well
      within the normal range while median value of SCysC (1.34 mg/l) was found to be
      more than the upper reference limit. A positive correlation was present between
      SCysC and SCr (r=0.875, p<0.001). Both SCysC (r=-0.736) and SCr (r=-0.719) had a
      negative correlation with eGFR (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: SCysC is useful in
      detecting individuals with CKD having mild decrease in GFR compared to SCr. Both
      SCr and SCysC levels increase with decrease in eGFR. SCysC may be used to screen
      patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus or hypertension when SCr level
      is inconclusive.

PMID- 28571129
TI  - Comparative Diagnostic Utility of IS6110 PCR Assay in CSF and Peripheral Blood
      Samples of Tuberculous Meningitis Patients: A Pilot Study from Central India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tuberculous Meningitis (TBM) is the most severe form of Central
      Nervous System Tuberculosis (CNS-TB) and constitutes about 6% of all
      Extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) cases. Most guidelines for the diagnosis and management
      of TBM agree on the use of simple Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) analysis using
      molecular tools like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). However, the sensitivity of
      PCR varies while using a CSF sample. In the present study, we have compared the
      diagnostic utility of PCR assay in both peripheral blood and CSF sample collected
      from TBM cases. AIM: To evaluate the application of the peripheral blood PCR
      assay as an alternate tool for TBM diagnosis compared to conventional CSF-PCR
      based system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50 TBM patients were
      prospectively recruited from in patient department wards of Central India
      Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS) between January 2014 - Feburary 2015.
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) specific IS6110 PCR and BactT liquid culture
      were performed in 20 of recruited cases classified as Stage 1, 2 and 3 based on
      British Medical Research Council (BMRC) contemporary clinical criteria for the
      severity of TBM. Clinical characteristics were summarised in terms of percentages
      for categorical variables, i.e., age groups, gender, signs and symptoms. All
      statistical analysis was carried out using MedCalc software version 11.6.
      RESULTS: Overall IS6110 PCR positivity in CSF was around 80% (16/20), which was
      higher than culture (29.3%) and peripheral blood (39%). Out of 8 positive cases,
      stage wise positivity of peripheral blood PCR assay in three TBM stages was 0%
      (stage1) 50% (stage 2) and 67% (Stage 3) respectively. Positivity of peripheral
      blood PCR was significantly more (86%) in patients with CSF culture/ IS6110 PCR
      positive for MTB infection with sensitivity and specificity of 50 and 100%
      respectively. Increased positivity rates of peripheral blood PCR was observed
      with decreased CSF/Blood sugar ratio in stage 3 cases, suggesting enhanced
      probability of mycobacterial blood dissemination in cases of TBM severity.
      CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that although the molecular diagnosis of TBM
      infection in CSF remains the method of choice, peripheral blood based PCR can be
      used as a good alternative to CSF in case of TBM severity where the repeated CSF
      collection may be needed. However, study demands further validation in large
      cohorts to justify the present hypothesis.

PMID- 28571130
TI  - Effect of DOTS Treatment on Vitamin D Levels in Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D (Vit D) modulates a variety of processes and regulatory
      systems including host defense, inflammation, immunity, and repair. Vit D
      Deficiency (VDD) is been implicated as a cause in diabetes, immune dysfunction
      and Tuberculosis (TB). Impaired metabolism of Vit D and an adverse outcome is
      associated with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB). Directly Observed Treatment Short
      Course (DOTS) consist of drugs like rifampicin and isoniazid, which respectively
      cause accelerated loss of Vit D due to increased clearance and impairment of 25
      hydroxylation causing diminished Vit D action. AIM: The aim of the present study
      was to estimate and compare serum Vit D status in newly diagnosed PTB patients
      before and after DOTS to validate the supplementation of Vit D in PTB patients.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty four newly diagnosed PTB patients of both the sexes
      in the age group of 18 to 60 years before starting DOTS were recruited to
      participate in this non- randomized controlled trial with their voluntary
      consent. Vit D status in these patients and the effect of DOTS on Vit D were
      evaluated. RESULTS: Mean Vit D levels of the study population aged 43+/-13 years
      was 20.74 ng/ml (normal >30 ng/ml) at the time of diagnosis. After completion of
      six months of therapy mean Vit D reduced to 17.49 ng/ml (p-value=0.041). On
      individual observations, 70% of the participants showed a decrease in Vit D
      levels from their baseline, whereas 30% showed an increase. Comparison between
      the two groups indicated the possible role of younger age in the improved status.
      CONCLUSION: VDD was seen in PTB patients, which worsened in majority of the study
      population after treatment; hence it would be advisable to recommend Vit D
      supplementation in PTB patients for a better outcome.

PMID- 28571131
TI  - Systemic and Local Effects of Warm Oxygen Exposure to the Lower Extremities in
      Healthy Volunteers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Warmth to the extremity is known to improve the cutaneous blood
      flow and tissue perfusion. Oxygen is essential for healing of chronic wounds.
      Topical oxygen therapy has become standard therapy in management of lower
      extremity wounds. A combination of local heat and oxygen is likely to be
      beneficial in many clinical scenarios of non-healing wounds without any systemic
      effects. AIM: To evaluate the local and systemic effects of the exposure of
      extremity to warm oxygen in healthy volunteers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty one
      volunteers were included in the study. The index foot was exposed to oxygen
      7l/min, 93%-95% concentration at temperature of 43oC for 90 minutes with the
      device. The following parameters such as basal and periprocedural blood pressure,
      body temperature, heart rate, 24 lead ECG, temperatures at foot and
      plethysmographic waveforms from the index foot were measured. A NRS-11
      questionnaire was asked to the patient to rate his or her pain from 0 to 10 and
      documented by health care worker at the end of the session. RESULTS: The skin
      temperature of index foot reached to 34oC from 32.9oC, (p=0.011). The average
      pulse amplitude changed from 39.8 mV to 79.8 mV over the duration of the
      experiment (p< 0.001). Overall heart rate and core body temperature decreased and
      not much change in blood pressure. CONCLUSION: The result of the study can be
      extrapolated to the healing of chronic non healing wounds using warm oxygen
      therapy. Further studies are required on patient population to prove benefits in
      clinical settings.

PMID- 28571132
TI  - Cardiovascular Response and Serum Interleukin-6 Level in Concentric Vs. Eccentric
      Exercise.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and
      mortality in India. Resistance exercise is strongly recommended for
      implementation in CVD prevention programs. Dynamic resistance exercise comprises
      of concentric (muscle shortening) and eccentric (muscle lengthening) phase. The
      contraction of skeletal muscle promotes the synthesis and secretion of cytokines
      and peptides from myocytes, known as 'myokines'. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is the
      first myokine to be released in the blood in response to exercise. AIM: To
      compare the cardiovascular response and serum IL-6 level in concentric and
      eccentric exercise done at same absolute workload. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      non-randomised crossover study 24, apparently healthy and young male adults
      performed an acute bout of concentric and eccentric exercise. Systolic Blood
      Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Heart Rate (HR), Mean Arterial
      Pressure (MAP), Pulse Pressure (PP) and serum IL-6 were measured just before and
      immediately after exercise. Paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test were
      applied to compare the data within-group and in-between group. RESULTS: SBP, HR,
      MAP, PP, DBP and IL-6 level increased significantly after both, concentric and
      eccentric exercise. The mean change in SBP, HR, MAP, PP, and IL-6 after
      concentric exercise (18.54+/-3.06, 57.21+/-10.73, 8.35+/-1.40, 15.25+/-5.29,
      5.40+/-3.13 respectively) was significantly higher than after eccentric exercise
      (13.38+/-1.72, 43.25+/-8.34, 6.50+/-1.0, 10.21+/-3.16, 4.36+/-2.54 respectively).
      A non-significant rise in DBP was obtained after concentric exercise (3.25+/
      2.79) as compared to eccentric exercise (3.08+/-1.89). CONCLUSION: Eccentric
      exercise not only caused a lesser cardiovascular demand as compared to concentric
      exercise but also a significant increment in IL-6 level. Exercise-induced IL-6
      may prevent the initiation and development of CVD. Hence, eccentric exercise
      training might be recommended for reducing morbidity and mortality in individuals
      with- or at a risk of developing CVD.

PMID- 28571133
TI  - Influence of Central Obesity Assessed by Conicity Index on Lung Age in Young
      Adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Central obesity is an emerging public health problem in young
      adults which compromises lung mechanics. Conicity Index (CI) is a simple
      anthropometric measure to assess central adiposity. The concept of lung age
      relates to a person's current lung function at which his/her lung function would
      be considered abnormal in relation to the present actual age. AIM: To determine
      the effect of central obesity by CI on lung age in young adults. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 319 young adults in the age group 18-25 years were recruited
      for this cross-sectional observational study. Written informed consent and
      Institutional Ethical Clearance (IEC) approval were obtained. Anthropometric
      parameters were measured and CI was calculated using the following formula: CI =
      Waist Circumference (WC) (m)/ [0.109 X? {Bodyweight (kg)/ Height (m)}] where
      0.109 is a constant. Spirometry was performed and all the lung volumes and
      capacities were obtained. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in mean
      values of CI in obese young adults compared to non obese (1.36+/-0.15 and 1.16+/
      0.08, p<0.001). The effect of central obesity on lung age in young adults was
      compared using an independent t-test. Mean of lung age was significantly higher
      in centrally obese young adults compared to non obese 23.87+/-3.03 and 21.30+/
      2.6, p<0.001) which was statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Lung age is
      significantly increased in centrally obese young adults compared to non obese.
      Hence, lung age can be used as a potential psychological tool to show an
      individual with central obesity that there is premature aging of their lungs.

PMID- 28571134
TI  - Correlation of Body Mass Index (BMI) with Thyroid Function in Euthyroid Pregnant
      Women in Manipur, India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Body Mass Index (BMI) is significantly increased during pregnancy
      due to gain of weight with normal progression of pregnancy. The exact influence
      of thyroid function on BMI are ill defined in euthyroid pregnant women. AIM: To
      correlate serum levels of Free Triiodothyronine (FT3), Free Thyroxine (FT4) and
      Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) level with BMI of participant normal pregnant
      women in all the three trimesters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional
      comparative study, total of 210 healthy pregnant women comprising of 70
      participants in each trimester, attending Obstetrics Outpatient Department (OPD)
      for antenatal check-up were consecutively selected. Estimation of serum FT3, FT4
      and TSH level was done by ELISA based methods. The correlation of BMI with serum
      levels of FT3, FT4 and TSH was done using Pearson correlation test (r) by SPSS
      version 21.0 software. RESULTS: TSH level of participant normal pregnant women
      showed significant positive correlation with BMI during first (r=0.254 and
      p=0.034) and second trimester (r=0.263 and p=0.028) of pregnancy. FT4 level
      showed significant negative correlation in second (r= -0.454 and p<0.001) and
      third trimester (r= -0.351 and p=0.003) of pregnancy. Correlation between BMI and
      FT3 level showed no significant association in any of the trimesters. CONCLUSION:
      BMI correlates positively with TSH level in first and second trimesters while it
      correlates negatively with FT4 level in second and third trimesters, but, failed
      to demonstrate significant association with FT3 level in any of trimesters in
      euthyroid pregnant women. Serum TSH along with FT4 level appears more useful
      modality compared to serum TSH alone for targeted thyroid screening particularly
      in obese pregnant women.

PMID- 28571135
TI  - Moringa oleifera Leaf Extract: Beneficial Effects on Cadmium Induced Toxicities -
      A Review.
AB  - Environment has been contaminated by heavy metals ever since the original magma
      of earth has solidified. One such toxin is cadmium. Cadmium that has been around
      since the industrial age, is considered hazardous both to us and to the
      environment. From time immemorial man is dependent on plants available in nature
      for several health benefits. Moringa oleifera, has nutritional, pharmacological
      and antioxidant properties, thus having several medicinal applications. In the
      present article, we discuss the dose and time dependent damage due to exposure to
      cadmium on kidneys, liver, testis, lipid profile and haematological parameters in
      adult Wistar rats and the protective effects of Moringa oleifera (pre-treatment)
      on cadmium induced damage.

PMID- 28571136
TI  - Correspondance:Level of Motivation during Cardiac Efficiency Test; A Confounding
      Factor to Consider.

PMID- 28571137
TI  - Auxanographic Carbohydrate Assimilation Method for Large Scale Yeast
      Identification.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The auxanographic carbohydrate assimilation had been an important
      method for differentiation of yeasts. Prevailing methods described in the
      literature for carbohydrate assimilation has limited scope for use in large scale
      yeast identification. AIM: To optimize the large scale auxanographic carbohydrate
      assimilation method for yeast identification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A modified
      auxanographic carbohydrate assimilation method was developed and a total of 35
      isolates of Candida species comprising of four ATCC (American Type Culture
      Collection) Candida strains (Candida albicans ATCC 90028, Candida tropicalis ATCC
      90018, Candida parapsilosis ATCC 750, Candida krusei ATCC 6258) and 31 clinical
      isolates of Candida tropicalis (n=13), Candida krusei (n=7), Candida glabrata
      (n=3), Candida kefyr (n=3), Candida albicans (n=5) were validated. The
      carbohydrates tested were Glucose, Sucrose, Maltose, Lactose, Cellubiose,
      Raffinose, Trehalose, Xylose, Galactose and Dulcitol. RESULTS: A total of 35
      Candida species were tested for their carbohydrate assimilative property and the
      results were consistent with the existing standard protocols. A well
      circumscribed opaque yeast growth indicated assimilation of the test carbohydrate
      and translucent to opalescent growth with the outline of initial inoculum alone
      indicated lack of assimilation. The control plate indicated no growth of the
      Candida species. CONCLUSION: The carbohydrate assimilation tests finds utility
      for yeast diversity studies exploring novel ecological niches. The technique
      described here facilitates testing of an extended range of carbohydrates and
      yeasts in a cost effective manner.

PMID- 28571138
TI  - Bacterial Contamination of Adult House Flies (Musca domestica) and Sensitivity of
      these Bacteria to Various Antibiotics, Captured from Hamadan City, Iran.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: House flies (Musca domestica) have been known as a mechanical
      vector in spreading infectious diseases such as cholera, shigellosis,
      salmonellosis and skin infections. AIM: To investigate the bacterial
      contaminations of house flies and determine the resistance of these bacteria
      against various antibiotics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An analytical descriptive
      cross- sectional study was conducted. The study was performed from July to
      September 2015 in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran. A total
      number of 300 house flies were collected from four places, 75 flies from each
      place, including two educational hospitals belonging to Hamadan University of
      Medical Sciences, a fruit and vegetables center, and a livestock slaughter. The
      body surface of house flies was washed using the physiological sterile serum and
      the obtained solution was centrifuged at 2000 rpm for five minutes. The
      identification of bacteria was carried out using the phenotypic methods. The
      resistance of bacteria against various antibiotics was determined using the disk
      diffusion approach. Data were analysed by the employment of SPSS software package
      version 20.0. RESULTS: A total number of 394 bacterial strains were isolated from
      275 house flies. The most prevalent type of bacteria was Bacillus spp which was
      detected in 31.1% of house flies. Moreover, Staphylococcusspp. (22.9%),
      Escherichiacoli (11.6%) were other prevalent species, whereas, Enterococcusspp.
      was the least prevalent type of bacteria in the collected house flies. In terms
      of resistance to antibiotics, it was identified that bacteria extracted from
      house flies which were collected from hospital environments were more resistant
      to antibiotics compared with the resistance of bacteria extracted from house
      flies which were collected from non hospital environments. The maximum bacterial
      isolation was found in houseflies from hospital No.1 environment from around the
      accumulation of garbage. CONCLUSION: It is a well-known fact that house flies are
      a source of bacterial contamination and can act as a mechanical carrier and cause
      bacterial diseases. It can be postulated that house flies play a major role in
      spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria. However, the flies from hospital
      environments were more contaminated, mainly because the people referring to
      health center are normally ill and carrier of many pathogens. Further, hospital
      environments should be controlled using administrative procedures.

PMID- 28571139
TI  - Invasive Mucormycosis in a Case of Aluminium Phosphide Poisoning.
AB  - Mucormycosis is a rapidly progressive disease with high mortality reported mostly
      in immunocompromised individuals. We report a case of Rhino-orbital mucormycosis
      (Lichtheimia corymbifera) in an immunocompetent individual with history of
      consumption of Aluminium Phosphide (ALP) tablets. We postulated the following
      effects of ALP poisoning that would have increased the chances of mucormycosis in
      this patient: 1) Metabolic acidosis; 2) Acute Kidney Injury (AKI); and 3)
      Liberation of free oxygen radicals.

PMID- 28571141
TI  - Evaluation of Masood's and Modified Masood's Scoring Systems in the Cytological
      Diagnosis of Palpable Breast Lump Aspirates.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) has a leading role in the
      assessment of breast lesions. Masood's Scoring Index (MSI) and its modification
      (Modified Masood's scoring index; MMSI) has been proposed to aid in sub-grouping
      breast lesions and to help in subsequent management. AIM: To assess and compare
      the diagnostic accuracy of MSI and MMSI by subsequent correlation with
      histopathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was cross-sectional in nature
      and was conducted in a tertiary care setting. The study included 207 cases
      presenting as palpable breast lump, which had undergone FNAC and subsequent
      excision biopsy for histopathology. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The cases were grouped
      into four categories as suggested by Masood et al., (MSI) and Nandini et al.,
      (MMSI) and concordance analysis with reference to histopathological diagnosis was
      done. RESULTS: In comparison to MSI, MMSI showed better concordance with
      histopathological diagnosis and superior diagnostic accuracy in non-proliferative
      breast disease category (p-value = 0.046) as well as in proliferative breast
      disease without atypia category. The overall diagnostic accuracy of the
      cytological scoring was 97.5%, with 94.5% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
      CONCLUSION: Though both MSI and MMSI were found effective in subcategorizing
      breast lesions, MMSI was found to have better concordance with histopathology.
      Inclusion of cellular pattern and background material may further help in
      increasing the accuracy.

PMID- 28571140
TI  - HER2/neu Testing In 432 Consecutive Breast Cancer Cases using FISH and IHC - A
      Comparative Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The development of trastuzumab, a HER-2/neu targeted monoclonal
      antibody resulted in significant improvements in clinical response and survival
      in HER-2/neu gene amplified group of patients. Thus, accurate assessment of HER
      2/neu status becomes critical. Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) and
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) are the most commonly used methods for this purpose
      and specific recommendations exist with regard to the concordance to be observed
      between the two tests. AIM: Here, we report and evaluate the concordance rate
      between FISH and IHC for HER-2/neu status in breast cancer specimens. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Archival paraffin blocks of tumour tissue from 450 patients of
      breast cancer were analyzed for Her-2/neu status using FISH and IHC. RESULTS:
      There was a highly significant concordance between the results of FISH and IHC
      assays in HER-2/neu status assessment in invasive breast cancer cases. There were
      inverse associations between the expression of Oestrogen Receptors/Progesterone
      Receptors (ER/PR) and HER-2/neu amplification. CONCLUSION: Although, IHC gave
      significant concordant results with FISH in determining HER-2/neu status, its
      subjective grading system precludes its use as a gold standard. FISH should
      always be used to determine true gene amplification when the IHC results are
      equivocal.

PMID- 28571142
TI  - Clinicopathological Evaluation of 223 Cases of Mature Cystic Teratoma, Ovary: 25
      Year Experience in a Single Tertiary Care Centre in India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mature Cystic Teratoma (MCT) is the most common benign neoplasm of
      the ovary constituting 10-20% of all the ovarian tumours. Although, much has been
      published about ovarian teratomas, in English literature, there are very few
      retrospective cross sectional studies from India to understand the epidemiology
      of the disease. AIM: To evaluate the prevalence, clinicopathological
      characteristics and complications of MCT of the ovary. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This was a retrospective study of 223 cases of MCT of ovary received over a
      period of 25 years from 1990 to 2014. The data regarding age, size, laterality,
      gross, morphological features, complications and surgery performed was retrieved
      from the archives of pathology department. Descriptive statistics was performed
      using SPSS software version 22 and the results were expressed as percentages.
      RESULTS: MCT constituted 20.2% of the total ovarian neoplasms and 78.5% of all
      the germ cell tumours. The mean age of the patients with MCT was 32.5+/-13.11
      years and the mean size of tumour was 8.6+/-3.1 cm. Torsion was the most common
      complication of these tumours. Malignant transformation of this tumour though
      rare was seen in 3.5% of the cases. CONCLUSION: MCT are most common tumours of
      the ovary. Though predominantly seen in reproductive age group, they may also be
      seen in children and postmenopausal women. Torsion is the most common
      complication of this tumour. Age of the patient and the size of the tumour are
      important prognostic factors in terms of malignant transformation of teratomas.
      Since 8.9% of these tumours were bilateral it is essential to thoroughly examine
      the contralateral ovary to rule out bilaterality. Early diagnosis and early
      treatment is essential to preserve fertility in these patients.

PMID- 28571143
TI  - Histopathological Study of Central Nervous System Lesions: Emphasizing
      Association of Neoplasms with ABO Blood Groups.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Central Nervous System (CNS) lesions show considerable
      geographic and racial variations with respect to the incidence and the pattern of
      distribution of lesions. The ABO blood status is a readily accessible factor in
      genetic constitution of the patients. It has been shown to be associated with
      many diseases. But the influence of blood group status on the pathogenesis of
      brain tumours is still unclear. AIM: To study various histopathological patterns
      of CNS lesions and to evaluate the association of CNS tumours with the
      distribution of ABO blood groups in documented cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      the present study, 147 cases were analyzed. It was an analytical type of study,
      done at JSS Medical College, Mysore, over a period of 2 years and 8 months from
      January 2009 to August 2011. Histopathology slides were routinely stained by
      Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain. Special stains were performed in selected
      cases. Blood group of the patients and the control group were documented. Blood
      group distribution pattern was assessed in relation to histopathological
      diagnosis of various CNS tumours. RESULTS: Histopathological diagnosis of 147
      cases included neoplastic lesions (84.35%) and non-neoplastic lesions (15.64%).
      Neoplastic lesions (84.35%) constituted the majority, which included
      neuroepithelial tumours (29.25%) as predominant pattern. Non-neoplastic lesions
      constituted only 15.64%, which included inflammatory lesion (8.16%) as the
      predominant pattern. ABO blood group data was available in 92 cases (84.4%) of
      neoplastic lesions, which included 71 cases (48.29%) of primary CNS neoplasms
      categorized according to WHO grades. The control group constituted 21,067 healthy
      voluntary donors. Blood group O was the most frequent blood group in neoplastic
      lesions (40.21%) and primary CNS neoplasms categorized according to WHO grades
      (45.07%). The association between the CNS neoplasms and ABO blood groups was not
      statistically significant (p = 0.055). But a definite change in the pattern of
      distribution of ABO blood groups observed between neoplastic lesions and control
      groups. CONCLUSION: The influence of blood group types on the development of
      brain tumours appears intriguing and needs to be well established. Though
      statistically insignificant, a definite change in the pattern of distribution of
      ABO blood groups was observed between neoplastic lesions and control groups. This
      necessitates attention and stratification of patients for effective management.

PMID- 28571144
TI  - Seroprevalence and Trends of Transfusion Transmissible Infections in Blood Donors
      in Andaman and Nicobar Islands- An Institutional Retrospective Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs) such as Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)
      and syphilis pose a threat to blood safety in a developing country like India.
      AIM: To determine the prevalence of TTIs among healthy donors in Andaman and
      Nicobar Islands, India, and to further help in determination of the population
      subset to be focused on for enhancing blood donor pool. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on all voluntary and
      replacement donors in a tertiary health care centre in Andaman and Nicobar
      Islands for a period of three years. Donor blood was screened for HIV, HBV, HCV,
      Syphilis and malarial parasite using rapid kits and ELISA. RESULTS: Out of 12,118
      donors, 97.01% were males and 2.99% were females. 9409 (77.64%) were voluntary
      donors and 2709 (22.35%) were replacement donors. Majority of the screened donors
      belonged to 25 to 40 age group. Out of 12,118 donors, 265 (2.18%) were
      seropositive. Among them, 8 (0.066%) were HIV positive, 15 (0.124%) HCV positive,
      128 (1.056%) HBsAg positive, 30 (0.247%) Syphilis positive and 84 (0.693%) were
      positive for malarial antigen. Yearly prevalence of seropositivity was 2.370%,
      2.113% and 2.082% for three consecutive years. CONCLUSION: With high prevalence
      of TTIs among healthy donors, safe blood transfusion is still a challenge in
      developing countries. This continues to place unacceptable burden on health
      sector. There is a need for encouragement of voluntary blood donation, strict
      donor selection criteria and sensitive screening tests to minimize TTIs in Indian
      setting.

PMID- 28571145
TI  - Morphological Changes in Bone Marrow Post Imatinib Therapy in Chronic Phase CML:
      A Follow up Study on Sequential Bone Marrow Aspirates and Biopsies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Imatinib mesylate is used extensively for first line treatment of
      Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). However, not many studies have documented
      morphological changes in bone marrow biopsies produced during Imatinib therapy
      with reference to myelofibrosis. AIM: To document the morphological changes
      produced in the bone marrow during Imatinib therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      longitudinal study followed up 75 Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Chronic
      Myeloid Leukemia with chronic phase(Ph+ CML- CP) patients sequentially, receiving
      400-600mg Imatinib over a period of 12 or more months. Haematologic parameters
      were measured at admission, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 or more
      months. Morphologic changes in bone marrow aspirate and biopsy were evaluated at
      admission, 6 months and >=12 months of treatment in accordance with National
      Comprehensive Cancer Network(NCCN) guidelines. RESULTS: Complete Haematologic
      Response (CHR) was seen in 47.1%, 80%, 85.4%, 90.4% at >=1 month, 3 months, 6
      months and 12 months respectively after therapy. It was noted that patients not
      showing CHR by 3 months were less likely to show CHR at 6 months and beyond. Bone
      marrow aspirates and biopsies showed reduction in cellularity and myeloid
      precursors with regeneration of erythroid precursors in 70-83% at >=12 months. A
      significant decrease in myelofibrosis (p-value< 0.04) was noted as early as 6
      months. Mild to moderate hypoplasia was noted in 31.8% of biopsies within 6
      months. Pseudo gaucher cells and benign lymphoid nodules were also seen.
      CONCLUSION: Sequential analysis showed that Imatinib reduced the grade of
      myelofibrosis significantly (p-value< 0.04). It also prevented development of
      myelofibrosis in patients who did not have it at presentation. Hence Imatinib is
      effective when used early in the course of CML-CP.

PMID- 28571146
TI  - Immunohistochemical Study of MUC1, MUC2 and MUC5AC Expression in Primary Breast
      Carcinoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Breast Cancer (BC) is the second most common cancer among women in
      India and accounts for 7% of global burden of BC and one-fifth of all Cancers
      (CA) among women in India. AIM: This study was conducted for studying the
      expression of MUC1, MUC2 and MUC5AC in breast carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Fifty cases of primary breast carcinoma diagnosed between years 2013 to 2015 were
      included in the study. Manual tissue array technique was applied for cases
      subjected to Immunohistochemistry (IHC). An analysis of the expression of IHC
      markers (MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, ER, PR and HER2/neu) was attempted. Results were
      subjected to statistical analysis. They were considered to be significant when
      the p-value was less than 0.05. RESULTS: The positivity for MUC1, MUC2 and MUC5AC
      in BC was 58%, 8% and 6% and for ER, PR and HER2 was 48%, 36% and 64%
      respectively. There was a significant correlation between MUC1 expression and ER
      and PR positivity. There was a significant correlation between MUC2 expression
      and ER positivity. No significant association was observed between MUC2 and PR
      expression, MUC5AC expression and ER and PR positivity. There was statistically
      significant correlation between negative MUC2 and MUC5AC expression and
      histopathological grade. It was noted that MUC2 and MUC5AC negative tumours were
      associated with higher tumour stage though not statistically significant. It was
      noted that MUC5AC negative tumours showed higher frequency of lymphovascular
      invasion though not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Our experience with
      the present study highlights the role of mucins in the development and
      progression of BC.

PMID- 28571147
TI  - Expression of Alpha - Methylacyl - Coenzyme A Racemase (AMACR) in Colorectal
      Neoplasia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Red meat and dairy products have been implicated in colonic
      cancers. They are rich in branched chain fatty acids which require an enzyme
      Alpha-Methylacyl-Coenzyme A Racemase (AMACR) for their oxidation. Increased
      expression of AMACR in colorectal premalignant lesions and carcinomas suggests
      its possible role in carcinogenesis. AIM: To study the expression of AMACR in
      colorectal neoplasia and its correlation with the histological grade, stage and
      nodal status of colorectal malignancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All cases of
      colorectal neoplasms were included in the study. AMACR expression was studied in
      56 cases which included 44 cases of adenocarcinoma and 12 cases of adenoma and a
      normal colonic mucosal tissue was used as a control. A tissue microarray was
      prepared by manual method. AMACR expression was studied by Immunohistochemistry
      (IHC) and it was correlated with the grade, stage and nodal status of the cancer.
      Chi-square test was used for analysis or results. The p-value of <0.05 was
      considered significant. RESULTS: Out of 12 cases of adenoma 25% (3/12) were
      negative; 50% (6/12) showed poor expression, 25% (3/12) had moderate expression
      and none showed strong expression. Nearly, 34.1% (15/44) case of carcinoma were
      negative; 45.45% (20/44) had poor; 13.63% (6/44) had moderate and 6.81% (3/44)
      had a strong expression. Normal colonic tissue showed no expression. There was no
      significant difference of AMACR expression between adenoma and carcinoma cases.
      AMACR expression was found to be increased in low grade carcinomas (G1 and G2).
      G1 showed AMACR positivity in 62% cases and G2 showed 71.4% positivity. No
      association was found between AMACR expression and different American Joint
      Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stages and nodal status of CRC. CONCLUSION: Increased
      expression of AMACR in adenomas and carcinomas as compared to non-neoplastic
      epithelium of colon implies that, it plays a role in colorectal neoplasia.
      Decreased expression of AMACR in high grade carcinomas suggests its role in
      differentiation of the tumour.

PMID- 28571148
TI  - De Novo Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis in Renal Allograft-Histological
      Presentation and Clinical Correlation: Single Centre Experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recurrent or de novo glomerulonephritis are one of the well-known
      causes for renal allograft dysfunction in early and late period after renal
      transplantation. Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a devastating
      lesion of the renal allograft. De novo FSGS is uncommon compared to recurrent
      FSGS. AIM: To find out the incidence of de novo FSGS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective evaluation of renal allograft biopsies was performed from 2007 to
      2015, by light microscopy and immunohistochemistry including patient-donor
      demographics. Graft function status in terms of serum creatinine (SCr) and
      proteinuria were evaluated. RESULTS: Out of 2,599 renal allograft biopsies
      performed, 1.6% biopsies were reported as de novo FSGS. Majority were live
      related females donors with mean age of 43.8 years. Mean time of biopsy was 1.1
      years post-transplant with proteinuria of 2.95 grams/24 hours and SCr of 2.24
      mg/dL. Histopathological variants were collapsing 47.6%, Not Otherwise Specified/
      classical 35.7%, cellular 9.5% and perihilar 7.1% biopsies. Associated Antibody
      Mediated Rejection (AMR) with T-Cell Rejection (TCR) was observed in 35.7%
      biopsies, acute on chronic CNI toxicity (calcineurin inhibitor) in five biopsies.
      Majority of the patients were on CNI based maintenance immunosuppression regimen.
      Total 28.6% patients and 23.8% grafts were lost over a mean follow up of 2.40
      years. The mean SCr of remaining patients was 1.98 mg/dL. CONCLUSION: De novo
      FSGS can occur after the first year of renal transplant with related Human
      Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)matched donors leading to poor allograft survival. Close
      monitoring of urinary proteinuria and evaluation of allograft biopsy help in
      appropriate therapeutic modification to improve long term outcome of graft
      function.

PMID- 28571149
TI  - VEGF Expression to Support Targeted Therapy in Ovarian Surface Epithelial
      Neoplasms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a promoter of
      angiogenesis, is a promising target for anti-angiogenic therapy in ovarian
      cancer. In our study, we examined the expression of VEGF in the spectrum of
      epithelial ovarian neoplasms (benign, borderline and malignant) by
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC). AIM: Diagnosing ovarian epithelial neoplasms,
      examining the expression of VEGF in benign, borderline and malignant neoplasms
      and correlating it with histological grade and stage of malignant cases.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, observational study where,
      total of 50 cases of surface epithelial ovarian neoplasms were examined for
      expression of VEGF by IHC. Scoring for VEGF expression was done for each case.
      RESULTS: A total of 42 of the 50 cases (84%) showed VEGF expression. Out of the
      42 positive cases, 19 were high VEGF expressors and 23 were low VEGF expressors.
      VEGF expression was significantly higher in carcinomas as compared to benign and
      borderline neoplasms (p=<0.001). All neoplasms of serous morphology were positive
      for VEGF. High VEGF expression was significantly associated with high grade
      (p=0.003) and stage (p=0.001) of disease. CONCLUSION: Ovarian surface epithelial
      neoplasms significantly express VEGF. Though, some VEGF expression was noted in
      benign and some borderline neoplasms, high VEGF expression was noted only in
      carcinomas and one case of borderline serous papillary tumour. Thus, these
      results suggest that epithelial ovarian tumours are candidates for VEGF targeting
      therapy as most of them are dependent on VEGF for progression.

PMID- 28571150
TI  - Isolated Skull Metastasis of Follicular Carcinoma Thyroid in an Elderly Female: A
      Rare Case.
AB  - Isolated skull metastasis from a well differentiated follicular thyroid
      carcinoma, as the presenting feature is a rare manifestation. We report a case of
      a 79-year-old female who presented to us with only a painful, gradually
      increasing scalp swelling with associated pain and blurring of vision over the
      past few days. Neuroimaging findings strongly favoured a diagnosis of meningioma.
      A bifrontal craniotomy was performed and the tumour was excised.
      Histopathological examination of the same showed, it to be a case of metastatic
      thyroid carcinoma. We present this case not only because of the diagnostic
      challenge it posed, but also because the patient in our case is one of the oldest
      case of skull metastasis from follicular thyroid carcinoma till date.

PMID- 28571151
TI  - Leiomyosarcoma of Renal Vein - A Rare Case Report.
AB  - Leiomyosarcomas (LMS) arising from vascular channel are rare and more often arise
      from inferior vena cava and pulmonary arteries. Primary renal vein LMS are even
      rarer and occur predominantly in females with peak in fifth and sixth decade.
      Preoperative diagnosis is difficult because these are rare tumours and present
      with symptoms and radiological findings similar to Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC). We
      report a case of 55-year-old female who presented with abdominal discomfort with
      radiology showing a renal mass with features of RCC, radical nephrectomy was done
      and resected tumour showed an attachment to the wall of renal vein with
      morphology resembling LMS.

PMID- 28571152
TI  - Oncogenic Osteomalacia: An Approach to Diagnosis with a Case Report.
AB  - Oncogenic osteomalacia, also known as tumour induced osteomalacia, is a rare
      paraneoplastic syndrome caused by mesenchymal tumours secreting Fibroblast Growth
      Factor-23 (FGF-23). The characteristic biochemical findings include
      hypophosphatemia and low 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D. The differential diagnosis for
      hypophosphatemia are varied. We present a case of oncogenic osteomalacia in a 29
      year-old female, who presented with complaints of generalized diffuse bone pain
      and walking difficulty for six months duration. Thus, we have discussed the
      approach to diagnosis in such a case.

PMID- 28571153
TI  - Osteosarcoma Arising in Carcinosarcoma De Novo Parotid Gland in a Young Man: An
      Unusual Case with Review of Literature.
AB  - Carcinosarcoma of the parotid gland, a true malignant mixed tumour is extremely
      rare. It may occur in a pre-existing pleomorphic adenoma or arise de novo. We
      report a case of carcinosarcoma de novo harbouring an osteosarcomatous element in
      a 35-year-old man along with review of the reported cases. Excision was done and
      histopathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis. Long term follow up has been
      recommended for these tumours owing to their high propensity of recurrence and
      metastasis. Our case discusses the importance of histopathology and limitation of
      preoperative imaging in the diagnosis of such an aggressive neoplasm; emphasizing
      the fact that possibility of carcinosarcoma should be kept in mind while dealing
      with salivary gland lesions even at a younger age.

PMID- 28571154
TI  - Fraternal Twin Tumours of the Oesophagus and Stomach Presenting in the Advanced
      Stage - A Rare Case with a Fatal End.
AB  - Synchronous primary tumours of the aerodigestive tract presenting with different
      histologies is a very rare event. A case with such an association is presented
      here. A 50-year-old lady presented with symptoms of abdominal obstruction like
      abdominal pain, distention and vomiting since one month. Her radiological imaging
      and biopsies revealed a primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and primary
      gastric adenocarcinoma. Western medical literature has shown the occurrence of
      multiple synchronous cancers; however, cases from India have seldom been
      reported. Early screening, correct diagnosis and appropriate plans of management
      are crucial to reduce the morbidity and mortality of such patients who bear the
      burden of not just one, but multiple primary cancers.

PMID- 28571155
TI  - Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Causing Small Intestinal Polyps with
      Intussusception: A Report of Two Cases.
AB  - Renal cell carcinomas have diverse clinical presentations. Patients may present
      with metastatic symptoms at the time of diagnosis or years after resection of
      primary tumour. Small intestine is a rare site for metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma. Presentation as polypoid metastasis with intussusception is extremely
      rare. Here, we report two cases with this rare presentation. Case 1 was a 65-year
      old male with multiple polypoid metastasis causing intussusception while on
      palliative chemotherapy for renal cell carcinoma. Case 2 was a 68-year-old female
      with history of nephrectomy presenting with single polypoid metastasis causing
      intussusception.

PMID- 28571156
TI  - Blastoid Variant of Mantle Cell Lymphoma with Leukemic Presentation - A Rare Case
      Report.
AB  - Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) is a type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and has a wide
      spectrum of histopathological subtypes of which the blastoid or the blastic
      variant constitutes 10-15% of all cases. It is difficult to diagnose blastoid
      variant of MCL on the basis of morphology alone as it mimics lymphoblastic
      lymphoma and centroblastic large cell lymphoma, hence additional analysis like
      immunophenotyping and molecular studies aid in its diagnosis. We present a case
      of 45-year-old male who presented to medicine OPD with chief complaints of fever,
      fatigability and inguinal swelling. Complete blood count, peripheral smear and
      bone marrow examination was performed. Peripheral smear showed thrombocytopenia
      along with 53% abnormal cells. On bone marrow examination 43% abnormal lymphoid
      cells were seen. This case was diagnosed as blastoid variant of MCL on the basis
      of routine morphology and immunohistochemistry on bone marrow biopsy and flow
      cytometric immunophenotyping on peripheral blood.

PMID- 28571157
TI  - A Rare Presentation of Metastasis to the Thyroid Gland.
AB  - The thyroid gland has a rich vascular supply. However, metastasis to the thyroid
      is exceedingly rare. The most common tumours that metastasize to the thyroid are
      breast and lung. The incidence of metastasis is on the rise due to better imaging
      techniques as well as procedures such as Fine Needle Aspitation Cytology (FNAC)
      and Immunohistochemistry (IHC). Secondaries from a prostate cancer are most
      commonly seen in bone, lung and liver. To our knowledge, metastasis from the
      prostate gland to the thyroid is exceedingly rare. Here, we report a case of
      metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma to the thyroid gland two years after
      prostatectomy.

PMID- 28571158
TI  - Cytomorphology of Basaloid Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Diagnostic Dilemma.
AB  - Basaloid Squamous Cell Carcinoma (BSCC) is an unusual and high grade variant of
      Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) with a predilection for the upper aerodigestive
      tract. The cytomorphologic diagnosis of this tumour is challenging as it shares
      common cytomorphologic features with its differential diagnoses. However, a
      careful examination of the cytology can help in delivering a diagnosis of BSCC.
      In this case report we present the imprint cytology findings of histologically
      proven BSCC in a 60-year-old male who presented with an ulcerated lesion at the
      umbilical region.

PMID- 28571159
TI  - Anaplastic Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma in a Case of Neurofibromatosis Type 1: A
      Case Report.
AB  - Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) is a rare brain tumour comprising only <1% of
      primary brain tumours which is seen in children and young adults. Only 9-20% of
      the PXA shows anaplastic features and this has a bad prognosis. PXA is a WHO
      grade II tumour while anaplastic PXA is a WHO grade III tumour. Neurofibromatosis
      type 1(NF1), which is an autosomal dominant condition, predisposes to tumours of
      the central nervous system; most of which are pilocytic astrocytomas. Association
      of PXA with NF1 is very rare and only a very few cases have been reported. Here,
      we present a case of 42-year-old male, a known case of NF1, with multiple
      neurofibromas, who presented with right sided hemiparesis, seizures and vomiting.
      The histopathology and immunohistochemistry features were suggestive of
      anaplastic PXA.

PMID- 28571160
TI  - Molecular Investigation of a Suspected Myeloproliferative Neoplasm in Patients
      with Basophilia.

PMID- 28571161
TI  - Emphysematous Pyelonephritis with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.

PMID- 28571162
TI  - A Qualitative Study of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Pharmacovigilance
      among Doctors and Nursing Staff in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pharmacovigilance is the branch of science that deals with the
      detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse reactions to
      medicines (i.e., adverse drug reactions or ADRs). The purpose of
      pharmacovigilance is to implement the safe and rational use of medicines, which
      ultimately helps in improving patient care. AIM: To investigate the Knowledge,
      Attitude And Practice (KAP) of clinicians, residents and nursing staff towards
      pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Events (ADE) reporting and to identify
      possible reasons for underreporting and to receive suggestions to improve the ADE
      reporting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a qualitative study, conducted at
      Shree Krishna Hospital, attached to Pramukhswami Medical Collage, Karamsad,
      Gujarat, India. 'Focused Group Discussions' were organized which consisted of 5
      10 clinicians and residents of the same departments and 10-15 nursing staff
      members. Their KAP regarding ADE reporting were assessed by using a structured
      open ended questionnaire. Data were analysed with qualitative methods. RESULTS:
      Total six sessions of Focused group discussion were conducted consisting of 42
      clinicians and residents (16 were faculty members and 26 were residents) and
      seven sessions of Focused group discussion were conducted, consisting of 89
      nursing staff members. Most of the participants knew the meaning of ADR and
      importance of ADR reporting. They all agreed that it's their responsibility also
      to report ADE. Some of the participants admitted, forgetfulness and workload as
      major constraints. There was a suggestion of display phone number of department
      of Pharmacology for coordination and maintaining a separate register for ADEs in
      each ward. CONCLUSION: In spite of awareness and willingness for reporting of
      ADEs amongst the clinicians and residents, the practice is lacking because they
      do not consider this work as their priority.

PMID- 28571163
TI  - Utilization Pattern of Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Geriatric
      Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Retrospective Observational Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Geriatric population is on the rise throughout the world, hence the
      quality and the safety of prescribing in the elderly is a global healthcare
      concern. It is important for the healthcare providers to be aware of the
      limitations in prescribing certain drugs to the elderly. This study was an
      attempt to shed light on the utilization pattern of Potentially Inappropriate
      Medications (PIMs) in elderly patients admitted in the medicine wards in a
      tertiary care hospital in Goa. AIM: To measure the percentage prevalence of PIMs
      prescribed in the admitted geriatric patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      retrospective observational study, 150 case records of patients aged 60 years or
      more were analysed. All the prescribed medications, for each case record, were
      then analysed by referring to the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Beers
      Criteria 2015. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences
      (SPSS) software. RESULTS: Of the 150 patients, 99 (66%) received at least one PIM
      according to the Beers Criteria 2015 (including drugs to be used with caution).
      However, after excluding the drugs to be used with caution, the prevalence of
      PIMs decreased to 44%. The most commonly prescribed PIMs were ranitidine (17.33%)
      and prazosin (8.66%) and the most commonly prescribed drug to be used with
      caution was furosemide (35.33%). CONCLUSION: As the medication needs of the
      geriatric population are unique, it is essential that the healthcare
      professionals are aware of these needs and also follow the available guidelines
      and tools. Formulation of hospital policies and protocols in this regard would
      help to improve the scenario. Increased education, awareness and reporting of
      drug-related problems along with more doctor-patient interaction in these
      situations are some of the factors that could play an important role in promoting
      better and safer prescribing practices and a better quality of life to the older
      generations of our communities.

PMID- 28571165
TI  - The Study of Cognitive Change Process on Depression during Aerobic Exercises.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Several studies have shown that aerobic exercise is effective in
      treating the depression and improving the mental health. There are various
      theories which explains why aerobic exercise is effective in the treatment of
      depression and improve mental health, but there are limited studies to show how
      cognitive components and depression improve during aerobic exercises. AIM: The
      current study was carried out to investigate the cognitive change process during
      aerobic exercises in depressed students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was
      conducted through structural equation modeling; the study sample included 85
      depressed students. Participants were selected through purposive sampling method.
      Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Automatic Negative Thoughts (ATQ), and the
      Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) were used as the data collection instruments.
      The participants received eight sessions of aerobic exercise (three times a
      week). The obtained data was analysed by AMOS-18 & SPSS 18 software. RESULTS: The
      results showed that depression (p=0.001), automatic thoughts (ferquency p=0.413,
      beliefs p=0.676) and dysfunctional assumptions (p=0.219) reduce during aerobic
      exercise; however, it was only meaningful for the depression. The casual and
      consequential models were not fit to the data and partially and fully interactive
      models provided an adequate fit to the data. CONCLUSION: Fully interactive model
      provided the best fit of the data. It seems that aerobic exercise reduced
      cognitive components separately leading to reduce depression.

PMID- 28571164
TI  - A Retrospective Study to Assess the Effect of Proton Pump Inhibitors on Renal
      Profile in a South Indian Hospital.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) are arguably among the most commonly
      prescribed drugs in clinical practice, either as part of treatment or
      prophylaxis. Many clinicians prescribe these drugs as part of any prescription,
      without a proper rationale. Recent studies done outside India have shown that
      these drugs are not entirely safe, and they can result in the development of
      acute renal injury. AIM: To assess the effect of PPIs on blood urea and serum
      creatinine, when administered for at least seven consecutive days. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The study was conducted in a retrospective manner, using data from the
      medical records department. Values of blood urea and serum creatinine were taken
      twice, first before start of therapy and then after at least one week of therapy.
      RESULTS: A total of 175 subjects were selected for the study. When their case
      files were analysed, acute kidney injury was identified in 19 (10.86%) of them.
      Pantoprazole was the most common drug involved (84.21%). Renal injury was more
      common in the age group of over 50 years of age. CONCLUSION: PPIs are not
      entirely free of adverse effects, as assumed by several practitioners. A vigilant
      eye has to be maintained on the patient's renal profile so as to avoid any
      untoward decline in renal function, as evidenced in the current study.

PMID- 28571167
TI  - Gap between the Expectations and Perceptions of Students regarding the
      Educational Services Offered in a School of Nursing and Midwifery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Awareness of students' opinions about the various aspects of
      training provided is an essential factor to evaluate the quality of education.
      AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the gap between the students'
      expectations and perceptions from the educational services provided to them in
      the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 320 students were selected
      by stratified random sampling method and data were collected by SERVQUAL
      questionnaire to examine the areas of assurance, responsiveness, empathy,
      tangibles and confidence. Data analysis was conducted by descriptive (frequency,
      percentage, mean+/-SD) and analytical (paired t-test, independent t-test and One
      Way ANOVA) statistics in SPSS 20. RESULTS: The mean scores of the students'
      expectations and perceptions of the educational services delivered to them were
      4.34+/-0.63 and 3.56+/-0.68, respectively, with a significant, negative gap (
      0.77+/-0.77, p<0.001). The lowest gap of quality was derived for assurance (
      0.65) followed by reliability (-0.69), accountability (-0.74), and empathy (
      0.81), and the greatest gap observed in tangibles (-0.96). CONCLUSION: A negative
      gap was observed between the students' expectations and perceptions of the
      quality of educational services delivered to them. This means that the quality of
      services delivered to students was less than what they expected. The highest gap
      was related to the tangibles. In order to improve the educational services,
      paying attention to different areas of quality of educational services,
      especially, the tangibles, is necessary.

PMID- 28571166
TI  - The Relationship between Anxiety and Coping Strategies in Family Caregivers of
      Patients with Trauma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Traumatic events are of high incidence and affect not only the
      patient but also their family members, causing psychological problems such as
      stress and anxiety for caregivers of these patients. Therefore, the application
      of appropriate coping strategies by them seems necessary in order to promote
      mental health. AIM: To study the relationship of anxiety with coping strategies
      in family caregivers of trauma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present
      research was a descriptive-correlational study which was carried out on 127
      family caregivers of patients with trauma in intensive care unit, surgery ward
      and emergency unit of Amir al-Mu'minin Hospital of Zabol, Sistan and Baluchestan
      Province. The respondents were selected based on the convenience sampling method.
      Demographics questionnaire, DASS-21, and Coping Strategies questionnaire were
      used for data collection. The obtained data were statistically analysed using
      descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), t-test, and Pearson
      correlation coefficient in statistical package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
      version 21.0. RESULTS: Based on the results, 89.9% of family caregivers suffer
      from mild to severe anxiety. The most common type of coping strategy used by the
      respondents was emotion-focused. The results showed no relationship between
      anxiety and emotion-centrism, but an inverse relationship was found between
      problem-centrism and anxiety. CONCLUSION: The majority of family caregivers had
      anxiety. Given, the inverse relationship between the level of anxiety and the use
      of problem-based coping strategy, in addition to identifying and reducing the
      causes of anxiety in caregivers. It is recommended that appropriate coping
      strategies should be trained to them.

PMID- 28571168
TI  - AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) to Estimate the Pattern and
      Correlates of Alcohol Consumption among the Adult Population of West Bengal,
      India: A Community Based Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pattern of alcohol consumption substantially changed in India with
      in last 20 to 25 years. Excessive alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for
      various morbidity and mortality. So, scientific study to identify alcohol
      consumption patterns and its correlates will be helpful to formulate preventive
      strategies. AIM: To estimate the pattern of alcohol consumption and to determine
      its correlates, among the adult population of the state of West Bengal in India.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted
      among the adult population of the state of West Bengal at Gram Panchayat (GP)
      level. Ninety-nine (n=99) adult (>= 18 years) men and women of Guchati GP at
      Paschim Medinipur district, was selected using Lot Quality Assurance Sampling
      (LQAS) technique. The study participants were interviewed using a pre-designed
      and pre-tested schedule. RESULTS: It was estimated that the prevalence of low
      risk drinking or abstinence (Zone I) was 65.5% (95% CI 55.5% to 75.5%) and the
      prevalence of alcohol use in excess of low-risk (Zone II) was 17.6% (95% CI 7.6%
      to 27.6%), and the prevalence of harmful and hazardous drinking (Zone III) was
      8.5% (95% CI 0% to 18.5%) and the prevalence alcohol dependence (Zone-IV) was
      8.4% (0% to 18.4%). Logistic regression model shows that "gender" (p = 0.00) and
      "employment status" (p = 0.01) added significantly to the model with adjusted
      odds ratio of 82.27 (95% CI 18.17-372.58) and 0.13 (0.03-0.66). CONCLUSION: There
      is a need for comprehensive screening and treatment programme to deal with the
      problems of Alcohol Use Disorders among adults to achieve good health and well
      being for sustainable development.

PMID- 28571169
TI  - Significance of Platelet Volume Indices in STEMI Patients: A Case-Control Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Platelets have been well known contributors in the pathogenesis of
      cardiovascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and its complications such as
      acute Myocardial Infarction (MI). AIM: To study the changes in platelet volume
      indices and platelet count in ST-Elevated Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and
      assess their usefulness in predicting coronary events. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      case-control observational study was carried out on 173 cases diagnosed with
      STEMI and 191 controls from January 2015 to December 2015, considering the
      inclusion and exclusion criteria. In total, 364 patients were included, 173
      patients with STEMI, from those patients admitted to the intensive care unit and
      the emergency ward. In addition, 191 healthy non diabetic non hypertensive age
      matched controls were enrolled. RESULTS: The mean age of cases was 59.4+/-11.9
      years and of controls were 55.25+/-8.5 years. Males (74.6%) had higher incidence
      of STEMI then females (25.4%). The Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) was significantly
      higher in patients with STEMI (10.2+/-2.8) as compared to controls (8.5+/-6.9).
      The Platelet Distribution Width (PDW) was also significantly higher in cases
      compared to controls (p<0.05). According to Pearson correlation analysis, the
      positive relationship determined between MPV and Gensini score was statistically
      significant (p < 0.001, r = 0.132). CONCLUSION: High MPV and PDW seem to be an
      independent risk factor for STEMI and correlated with the severity of the STEMI.
      They can be used as a simple, reliable, and economical method for predicting an
      impending acute coronary event.

PMID- 28571170
TI  - Financial Burden of Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for Primary Health Care in Hilly
      Areas of Garhwal Region, Uttarakhand, North India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: High total health expenditures via Out-of-Pocket (OOP) as formal
      user fees and informal payments put India in challenging situation to achieve
      towards universal health coverage. AIM: To assess the (OOP) expenditure and its
      determinants among outpatient in primary care settings of Uttarakhand, North
      India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A hospital based cross-sectional study was
      conducted in a Outpatient Department of Urban Health Training Centre, Srinagar,
      Uttarakhand, India and Rural Health Training Centre, Kritinagar, Uttarakhand in
      2015. A total of 200 patients were enrolled in the study using random sampling.
      Questionnaire covering costs like: travel cost, drug cost, investigation cost,
      and others was used for measuring OOP expenditure incurred toward health care by
      patients. RESULTS: Of the total 200 patients, 43.5% were males and 56.5% were
      females with mean age 40.36 (SD 19.45) in years. Average annual family income was
      11718.5 INR+/-13457.3 INR. Of the total study subjects, 42.5% were unskilled or
      had no occupation (unemployed, student, and homemaker). The majority (68.5%) had
      travelled less than or equal to 10 km to reach the health facility. About 50% of
      the study subjects presented with communicable diseases and 20% with non
      communicable diseases. The health expenditure of the outpatient revealed that
      major part of the expenditure is the direct cost of the treatment, including
      registration fee, drugs, and investigation. Mean OOP expenditure for drugs and
      investigations was 509 INR and 673.1 INR, respectively. Mean total out-of-patient
      expenditure was 303.1 INR. The proportion of monthly family income spent on out
      of-patient expenditure was 2.58%. CONCLUSION: The implementation of primary
      health care needs to be further strengthened in order to improve access of public
      sector hospitals for curative care.

PMID- 28571171
TI  - A Goal Unrealized: Patient Empowerment on Hand Hygiene- A Web-Based Survey from
      India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Each year, millions of patients around the world are affected by
      Health Care Associated Infections (HCAIs). Understanding and assessing the global
      burden of HCAI is one of the key areas of work to improve the hand hygiene. AIM:
      To assess the patient empowerment and awareness on hand hygiene among online
      users. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted
      during September 2013 to December 2013 among adults. A predesigned questionnaire
      to assess the awareness on hand hygiene was sent to volunteers through emails and
      social networking sites. The data were transferred to excel sheet and analyzed in
      Epi info and represented in proportions and percentages. RESULTS: Total 94 (57%)
      participants responded to the survey among which 51.1% were males and 48.9% were
      females. Majority of them belongs to the age group of 20 to 35 years. Only 28.7%
      of them said they will ever ask health care worker to wash their hands before
      they examine. A 27.7% of the participants reported that their country/community
      have a program that educates/communicates with patients about the importance of
      hand hygiene. CONCLUSION: Adherence and compliance to hand hygiene practices is
      suboptimal among people. There seems to be a lack of knowledge regarding hand
      hygiene.

PMID- 28571174
TI  - Comparison of Steroid and Itraconazole for Prevention of Recurrence in Allergic
      Fungal Rhinosinusitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Allergic Fungal Rhinosinusitis (AFRS) is due to the continuous
      exposure of fungal antigens to an atopic individual. Medical treatment following
      the surgery is the standard protocol often practiced for the treatment of AFRS.
      Steroid (systemic/topical) has been considered as the standard medical treatment
      for the control of the disease in AFRS although most of the patients show
      recurrence with long term follow up. Instead, antifungals (itraconazole) can be
      tried to decrease the recurrence rate which acts by inhibiting the fungal growth
      in the postoperative period. AIM: In the current study, we have compared the
      efficacy between steroid and the itraconazole in preventing the recurrence of the
      disease in patients with AFRS in postoperative period. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in
      a tertiary care referral hospital from October 2013 to February 2015. Total 60
      patients with AFRS with nasal polyposis, diagnosed by Bent-Kuhn's criteria were
      included in the study. For patients of Group A (containing 30 patients), systemic
      steroid (oral prednisolone 30 mg OD) was continued for one month and afterwards
      topical steroid (nasal spray) was continued till six months after surgery. In
      Group B (containing 30 patients), oral itraconazole (100 mg BID) was continued
      for six months. Clinical and haematological parameters were compared at the end
      of six months. RESULTS: The average pre-treatment and post treatment scores of
      Absolute Eosinophil Count (AEC) in the patients of Group A was 532 MUg/l and 482
      MUg/l respectively and the corresponding values in Group B were 578 MUg/L and 438
      MUg/L respectively at the end of six months (p=0.912). Similarly, the
      preoperative and postoperative serum IgE level in Group A was 886.20 IU/ml and
      620 IU/ml and the respective values in Group B were 935 IU/ml and 570 IU/ml
      (p=0.555). Mean preoperative and postoperative mean SNOT score in Group A and
      Group B were 52.5 in 34.3 and respective values in Group B were 55.7 and 29.5.
      CONCLUSION: Itraconazole can be considered as an effective treatment alternative
      to the steroid for postoperative management of AFRS. Although there was no
      significant difference noted between two groups, patients treated with
      itraconazole had a better symptomatic relief and endoscopic clearance of disease.

PMID- 28571172
TI  - Disparities in Oral Health Behaviour among Young Adults in Mangalore, India: A
      Psychosocial Perspective.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Oral health inequalities imply unequal distribution of health and
      disease across socioeconomic gradients. Oral health related behaviour and its
      psychosocial antecedents can have a major impact on oral disease pathways in
      communities. AIM: To ascertain disparities in oral health behaviour and its
      psychosocial antecedents among young adults in Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Present study was carried out among 341 degree students at
      three randomly chosen institutions belonging to government, aided and private
      colleges in Mangalore. Oral health behaviour was assessed by a structured, pre
      tested, self-administered questionnaire. Information about oral hygiene habits,
      tobacco use, sugar consumption, dental attendance patterns were collected.
      Respondent's self-reported gingivitis, perceived general and oral health,
      perceived need for care and locus of control were assessed. Information about
      demographic details was collected. Correlation analysis employed Pearson's
      correlation coefficient and binary logistic regression analysis was employed with
      snacking as dependent variable. RESULTS: Twice daily brushing was significantly
      associated with gender (r=0.142, p=0.009), type of college (r=-0.164, p=0.003)
      and father's occupation (r=0.107, p=0.049), while tobacco use was significantly
      associated with gender (r=0.284, p=0.000), religion (r=-0.234, p=0.000), type of
      college (r=0.312, p=0.000), father's education (r=0.130, p=0.017) and occupation
      (r=0.120, p=0.027). Self-perceived oral health was significantly associated with
      snacking (r=0.173, p=0.001) and tobacco use (r=-0.261, p=0.000), while locus of
      control was associated with snacking (r=0.140, p=0.009). Regression analysis
      revealed that father's education (OR=0.399, p=0.014), self-perceived need for
      care (OR=0.354, p=0.009), and locus of control (OR=0.166, p=0.003) emerged as
      significant predictors of snacking behaviour. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial
      antecedents were significantly associated with oral health behaviour among the
      respondents. Policy and decision makers should consider causes of causes while
      tackling oral health problems. Present study may contribute towards addressing
      oral health inequalities in developing nations, where oral health issues are
      compounded by a definite paucity of resources.

PMID- 28571175
TI  - Unilateral Absence of Ethmoid Sinus and Nasal Turbinates: A Rare Case Report.
AB  - A variety of anatomical variation of paranasal sinus and nasal turbinates exist,
      as its development is a complex and long standing process. Computerized
      Tomography (CT) of the paranasal sinuses is a very valuable tool in diagnosing
      these variations. Preoperatively defining the anatomical variations of the
      intranasal structures is essential in performing the safe functional endoscopic
      sinus surgery and to avoid unnecessary complications. Several degrees and
      combinations of aplasias and hypoplasias have been reported. We report a case of
      37-year-old male who presented with bilateral nasal block and rhinorrhea and his
      CT paranasal sinuses showed gross septal spur in left side, absence of right
      middle, inferior and superior turbinates, absent right ethmoid air cells,
      aplastic right frontal sinus, left concha bullosa with bilateral maxillary
      sinusitis.

PMID- 28571173
TI  - Flat Foot in a Random Population and its Impact on Quality of Life and
      Functionality.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Flat foot is a common deformity in adults. It is characterized by
      medial rotation and plantar flexion of the talus, eversion of the calcaneus,
      collapsed medial arch and abduction of the forefoot. AIM: The aim of this study
      was to determine the prevalence of flat foot and its impact on quality of life,
      dependence, foot pain, disability and functional limitation among random
      population of 40-year-old and above. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional
      study in a random population sample from Cambre (A Coruna-Spain) (n=835) was
      performed (alpha =0.05; Precision=+/-3.4%). The diagnosis of flat foot was
      stablished by the study of the footprint obtained with a pedograph.
      Anthropometric variables were studied, Charlson's Comorbidity Index, function and
      state of foot (Foot Function Index (FFI), Foot Health Status Questionnaire
      (FHSQ)), quality of life (SF-36), and dependence for activities of daily living
      (Barthel and Lawton index). A logistic and linear multiple regression analysis
      was performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of flat foot was 26.62%. Patients with
      flat foot were significantly older (65.73+/-11.04 vs 61.03+/-11.45-year-old),
      showed a higher comorbidity index (0.92+/-1.49 vs 0.50+/-0.98), had a greater BMI
      (31.45+/-5.55 vs 28.40+/-4.17) and greater foot size (25.16+/-1.66 vs 24.82+/
      1.65). The presence of flat foot diminishes the quality of life, as measured by
      the FHSQ, and foot function, measured by the FFI. The presence of flat foot does
      not alter the physical and mental dimension of the SF-36 or the degree of
      dependence. CONCLUSION: Flat foot was associated with age, Charlson's Comorbidity
      Index, BMI and foot size. The SF-36, Barthel and Lawton questionnaires remained
      unaltered by the presence of flat foot. The FHSQ and FFI questionnaires did prove
      to be sensitive to the presence of flat foot in a significant manner.

PMID- 28571176
TI  - Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma: A Case Report.
AB  - Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma is tumour almost exclusively seen in
      adolescent males, constituting less than 1% of all neoplasms in head and neck.
      They are benign and locally spreading and are highly vascular in nature and thus
      prove to be a surgical challenge because of its complex anatomical location.
      Here, we present a case report of a 18-year-old male presenting with a mass in
      his left nasal cavity, with recurrent epistaxis and nasal obstruction. Computed
      tomography imaging revealed a non-encapsulated lobulated heterogeneous mass
      lesion in the naso-pharynx and left posterior choana of the nasal cavity,
      extending to pterygopalatine and infratemporal fossa, masseter space of left
      side. The approach to its surgical management was a combined multi-disciplinary
      effort of otorhinolaryngology surgeons and maxillofacial surgeons.

PMID- 28571177
TI  - Quality of Life in People with Diabetic Retinopathy: Indian Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a well-known consequence of long
      standing and poorly controlled Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Several studies have
      demonstrated both a qualitative and quantitative reduction in health related
      quality of life in persons with DR. But no such study has been done in the Indian
      population. AIM: To assess health related and vision related quality of life in
      people with DR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study included two groups of
      patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Cases included 97 patients with DR. The
      control group (n=26) consisted of diabetic cases with no clinically detectable DR
      changes. After taking informed consent, health and vision related quality of life
      was assessed using National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Function Questionnaire
      (NEI-VFQ-25). Demographic information, social history and diabetic history were
      also obtained from all patients. DR was graded using the Early Treatment Diabetic
      Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) classification. RESULTS: Of the 97 cases with DR, 42.3%
      were females. Of the 26 controls, 53.8% were females. The mean+/-SD age in years
      of the cases was 55.09+/-9.56 and controls were 54.12+/-13.01. The mean+/-SD of
      DM in years for the cases was 10.98+/-5.62 and for controls was 6.69+/-2.29.
      There were statistically significant (p<0.001) lower VFQ-25 composite and sub
      scale scores of the cases when compared with controls. As the grade of DR
      increased, VFQ-25 sub-scale scores decreased and this was statistically
      significant for composite and all sub scales (p<0.005) except ocular pain. Mann
      Whitney test Z-value was highest in general health, general vision, composite
      score and mental health. CONCLUSION: Quality of life was significantly lower in
      diabetics with DR when compared with those without DR with maximum effect seen on
      general health, general vision and mental health. Quality of life decreased as
      the duration of retinopathy and severity of retinopathy increased.

PMID- 28571178
TI  - A Case of Bilateral Corneal Perforation in a Patient with Severe Dry Eye.
AB  - Dry eye is a common problem affecting mainly the adult population. In severe
      cases, it can result in sterile corneal ulcer and perforation. We report a rare
      case of a 26-year-old male, a known patient of severe dry eye who presented with
      sterile corneal ulcer with corneal perforation in both the eyes. The patient was
      managed by applying cyanoacrylate glue and bandage contact lens in both eyes and
      topical antibiotic, topical cyclosporine and preservative free artificial tears
      at two hourly intervals. The patient was investigated for the systemic cause of
      severe dry eye but no cause could be ascertained. On follow up, the patient
      reported marked relief in photophobia. On examination, both eyes showed sealed
      perforation with well formed anterior chamber. In conclusion, one should examine
      a dry eye patient carefully and detect corneal ulcers and perforations in time so
      as to prevent its sequelae.

PMID- 28571179
TI  - Cow Urine Keratopathy: A Case Report.
AB  - Injury to the ocular surface has been described to occur with a wide variety of
      chemicals. In most cases the cause is industrial injury with acids or alkalis. We
      are reporting a case of ocular surface injury due to "Cow urine" which to the
      best of our knowledge is been reported for the first time. Cow urine is a well
      accepted medicinal ingredient in ancient Indian medicine. However, wrong
      formulation and inadvertent prescriptions by quacks can lead to severe ocular
      surface injury and morbidity. Here, with this case report we have discussed the
      possible culprit and possible mechanism of ocular injury due to instillation of a
      concoction containing cow urine as an active ingredient and also discuss legal
      aspects of quackery in India.

PMID- 28571181
TI  - Accuracy and Precision of Measured Blood Sugar Values by Three Glucometers
      Compared to the Standard Technique.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus has magnified, globally. Being
      cost effective and user friendly, using the glucometer systems has become more
      widespread. However, despite their advantages, there are controversies regarding
      their accuracy and precision. AIM: To determine the accuracy and precision of the
      common glucometers of Bionime, Accu-check, and Beurer compared with the
      laboratory technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 257
      patients of a general internal unit of Imam Reza hospital of Kermanshah were
      recruited. The blood sample of the subjects was transferred to the laboratory,
      then, two samples of capillary blood were tested by the three glucometers. The
      data was entered into a checklist, then entered to SPSS-16.0 software, and
      analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: In this study, there
      was a positive correlation between the three blood glucose measurement methods
      with the standard approach, significantly, which indicates acceptable accuracy.
      However, this correlation was higher in the Beurer Glucometer (r=0.976, p<0.001).
      There were no significant differences in repeated measurements of blood glucose
      in the glucometers of Beurer (t=0.96, p=0.92), and Bionime (t=0.50, p=0.61) by
      paired t-test, but this test was significant for Accu-chek system (t=2.7,
      p=0.006). CONCLUSION: With respect to the acceptable accuracy and precision of
      Beurer and Bionime glucometers, it is suggested to use these methods for diabetic
      patients at homes as well as in the hospital units.

PMID- 28571180
TI  - Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and its Association with Body Mass Index:
      Clinical and Endoscopic Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obesity is rapidly becoming a pandemic and poses a serious health
      risk to the individuals. Abdominal obesity is quite common in India and is a
      prime risk factor for diseases like diabetes, coronary artery disease,
      Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), osteoarthritis etc. A complex and
      multifactorial aetiopathogenesis of GERD exists in presence of obesity. The
      current study focuses on high Body Mass Index (BMI), a marker of obesity, as a
      risk factor for GERD and aims for a better understanding of their complex
      association. AIM: To study the association between the BMI and symptoms as well
      as gross endoscopic appearance of GERD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective
      cross-sectional study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra,
      India, between January 2016 and June 2016. A total of 176 patients referred for
      upper Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy due to dyspeptic symptoms of more than two
      months duration were selected. BMI (weight in kilograms/square of height in
      metres) was calculated for all patients and they were classified as normal weight
      (BMI 18.5 -24.9), overweight (BMI 25-29.9) and obese (BMI>=30). The frequency and
      severity of GERD symptoms was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. Data
      on typical and atypical symptoms of GERD was collected. Upper GI endoscopy was
      done on all patients. Based on gross endoscopic appearance, the disease was
      divided as Endoscopy Negative Reflux Disease (ENRD) and true GERD (as per Los
      Angeles staging system). Association between BMI and frequency, severity and type
      of symptoms of GERD and also between BMI and gross endoscopic oesophagitis was
      studied using various statistical tests. All tests were two-tailed with a
      confidence level of 95%. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically
      significant. RESULTS: Typical symptoms of heartburn and acidic regurgitation were
      present in 71.6% subjects. The frequency and the severity of the dyspeptic
      symptoms increased significantly with increasing BMI (p<0.05). Based on the
      endoscopic gross appearance of the oesophageal mucosa, 48.3% participants had
      ENRD and 51.7% had erosive disease (GERD). High BMI had a statistically
      significant relationship with occurrence of both ENRD and GERD (p<0.05) but a
      statistically insignificant relationship with LA classification system for
      endoscopic oesophagitis. CONCLUSION: The prevalence, frequency and severity of
      symptoms of GERD increases with increase in the BMI. Erosive oesophagitis has
      significant correlation with increasing BMI, but the staging and classification
      of endoscopic erosive oesophagitis is independent of the BMI of the patients.

PMID- 28571182
TI  - Prevalence of Autonomic Neuropathy in Patients of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Its
      Correlation with Disease Severity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Autonomic Neuropathy (AN), found to be a strong predictor of sudden
      cardiac death, has been reported variably in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
      (RA). Manifesting as sweating disturbances, gastrointestinal irregularities,
      bladder or erectile dysfunction, AN can significantly affect a patient's quality
      of life and alter the course of the disease. AIM: This study was undertaken to
      find out the prevalence and severity of AN in RA patients attending the
      Rheumatology Clinic at a Tertiary Care Hospital in New Delhi, India and also to
      investigate its correlation with patient and disease factors such as age, gender,
      disease severity, duration and serological status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      cross-sectional study, AN was assessed subjectively by a survey of autonomic
      symptoms. Cardiac autonomic involvement was assessed by five cardiovascular
      reflex tests as described by Ewing: Heart Rate (HR) response to deep breathing,
      standing, and Valsalva and Blood Pressure (BP) response to standing and sustained
      handgrip. RESULTS: A total of 31 RA patients and 31 age and sex matched healthy
      volunteers were recruited. Upon analysis it was found that the prevalence of
      cardiac AN was significantly higher in patients (80.65%) as compared to controls
      (51.61%) (p=0.016). Positive correlation with disease severity was observed with
      the patient reported questionnaire but not with the objective cardiovascular
      reflex tests. No significant correlation between grade of AN and patient's age,
      gender, disease duration or serological status was established. CONCLUSION: At
      the end of the study, it was concluded that the pathological mechanisms
      responsible for autonomic dysfunction are more active in RA as compared to
      others.

PMID- 28571183
TI  - Effect of Ranolazine in Patients with Chest Pain and Normal Coronaries- A
      Hospital Based Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is an important role of coronary microcirculation in the
      clinical presentation and prognosis of patients who have typical chest pain
      despite normal epicardial coronary arteries (microvascular angina). Treatment of
      these patients is empirical because of the incomplete knowledge of its cause.
      Limited data has shown that ranolazine reduces angina and improves exercise
      performance in such patients with frequent angina. AIM: To evaluate the effect of
      ranolazine in patients with chest pain and normal epicardial coronaries (micro
      vascular angina). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-five patients with anginal
      symptoms with abnormal exercise stress test and normal epicardial coronaries were
      enrolled for the study. All participants had baseline demographic and health
      history questionnaires, including Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) and Duke
      Activity Status Index (DASI). After enrolment, patients were randomly divided
      into two groups. One group (group 1) was assigned to ranolazine for six weeks
      along with other indicated anti-anginal drugs. The other group (group 2) was
      assigned to anti-anginal drugs other than ranolazine. Patients were reassessed
      for symptomatic and functional improvement (SAQ, DASI) at six weeks. RESULTS:
      Mean age of patients examined were 49.03 years in group 1 and 49.77 years in
      group 2. Approximately 42.9% of patients in group 1 and 40% in group 2 were male.
      Despite current anti-anginal therapy, patients in both the groups were
      symptomatic. At six weeks, 60% of patients in group 1 had angina as compared to
      88.6% at baseline (p<0.05). Similarly, scores of domains of SAQ were higher at
      six weeks as compared to baseline (p<0.05) except for treatment satisfaction. No
      improvement of DASI score and functional capacity were seen in either group at
      six weeks as compared to baseline (p>0.05). At six weeks, angina was
      significantly lower in group 1 as compared to group 2 (60 % vs 86.7%; p<0.05).
      Four out of five SAQ subscale score were higher in ranolazine group as compared
      to the other group (p<0.05). Treatment satisfaction trended lower on ranolazine
      group (p<0.05). There was no significant differences in DASI in the two groups
      (DASI score 30.59 vs 29.85, p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Ranolazine is safe and improves
      symptoms significantly in patients with micro-vascular angina.

PMID- 28571185
TI  - Determination and Validation of a Lower Cut Off Value of Cerebrospinal Fluid
      Adenosine Deaminase (CSF-ADA) Activity in Diagnosis of Tuberculous Meningitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tuberculous meningitis is an infection of the meninges caused by
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is one of the most common infectious diseases of
      the Central Nervous System (CNS) and a major health problem in developing
      countries like India. If there is delay in diagnosis and initiation of specific
      treatment, it causes significant morbidity and mortality. CSF-ADA 10 U/l is the
      standard cut off value that is used for differentiation between Tuberculous (TBM)
      and Non-Tuberculous Meningitis (non-TBM). AIM: To determine and validate a lower
      cut off value for CSF-ADA for diagnosing TBM in an Indian setting. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This was a prospective study involving 85 cases of meningitis whose CSF
      were analysed and ADA estimated using an enzymatic deamination assay kit.
      Diagnosis of various types of meningitis was made based on specified diagnostic
      criteria. The comparison of mean value of CSF- ADA activity of the two types of
      meningitis was done using two Sample t-test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as
      significant. Cut off value to differentiate between TBM and non-TBM meningitis
      was determined using ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: The CSF-ADA activity of TBM and
      non-TBM cases was compared. The mean CSF-ADA activity was found to be
      significantly higher in TBM patients (10.97+/-4.43; Mean+/-SD) than in non-TBM
      patients (5.09+/-1.53) which was statistically significant with a p-value of
      <0.001. A cut off value of 6.65 was calculated using ROC curve for the diagnosis
      of TBM which gave a sensitivity of 85.3% and a specificity of 84.3% for
      differentiating TBM from non-TBM. The positive predictive value was 78.3% and
      negative predictive value of 89.5% using the above cut off. The positive
      likelihood ratio was 5.44 and negative likelihood ratio of 0.17 when this lower
      cut off value was applied. CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that CSF-ADA
      can be used as an important diagnostic tool in early diagnosis of TBM using a cut
      off value of 6.65. This cut off value gave a good sensitivity and specificity in
      differentiating it from non-TBM.

PMID- 28571184
TI  - The Importance of Liver-Fatty Acid Binding Protein in Diagnosis of Liver Damage
      in Patients with Acute Hepatitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute hepatitis is acute inflammation of liver elicited by a large
      number of causes. It sometimes spontaneously recovers, sometimes may progress to
      chronic hepatitis. Liver- Fatty Acid Binding Protein (L-FABP) is a small protein
      that is abundant in hepatocytes, and which binds most of the long-chain fatty
      acids present in the cytosol. AIM: The present study was aimed to investigate the
      levels of serum and urine L-FABP in acute hepatitis and diagnostic value of serum
      and urine L-FABP levels in patients with acute hepatitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The present study included a total of 85 patients. Total number of patients with
      acute hepatitis were 17 (five of acute hepatitis B, one of acute hepatitis A, two
      of acute hepatitis C, five of autoimmune hepatitis and four of toxic hepatitis),
      19 of hepatic encephalopathy, 29 of liver cirrhosis, and 20 controls were
      included. Serum and urinary L-FABP levels were analyzed by the Enzyme-Linked
      Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Serum L-FABP levels were 9110+/-3352.5,
      9410+/-1355, 9715+/-2462 and 3672+/-982.5 ng/l in patients with acute hepatitis,
      hepatic encephalopathy and cirrhosis and control subjects, respectively. There
      were statistically significant positive correlations between serum levels of L
      FABP and Aspartate Aminotransferases (AST), Alanine Aminotransferases (ALT),
      Creatinine (Cre) and Gamma Glutamyl Transferases (GGT) (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001
      and p<0.001, respectively). While the cut-off value of serum L-FABP for all of
      the patients was 5183 ng/l {p<0.001 and Area Under Curve (AUC) 0.985}, the
      sensitivity and specificity were 95.4% and 100%, respectively. Positive and
      negative predictive values for serum L-FABP were 100% and 87%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Serum and urine L-FABP may be a new diagnostic marker for liver
      damage in patients with acute hepatitis. However, our study showed that except of
      aminotransferases, L-FABP should be used for diagnosis of liver damage in
      patients with acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis and also cirrhosis.

PMID- 28571186
TI  - Clinical and Laboratory Profile of Urinary Tract Infections in Type 2 Diabetics
      Aged over 60 Years.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Urinary tract infections are frequently encountered among diabetic
      patients and the incidence rate increases with age. There have been growing
      research to identify the clinical profile of urinary tract infections in diabetic
      patients. However, such studies on elderly patients are rare. AIM: To determine
      the risk factors, clinical/laboratory profiles, causative organisms and
      antimicrobial susceptibilities in type 2 diabetics aged over 60 years. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: This prospective single centre study was conducted at NRI Medical
      College and General Hospital, Guntur, India, between November 2012 and November
      2014. A total of 100 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged
      over 60 years, with symptoms suggestive of urinary tract infection were examined.
      Subsequently, the demographic characteristics, detailed medical history,
      signs/symptoms of urinary tract infections, laboratory investigations for blood
      and urine samples, ultrasound abdomen findings were compared between bacteriuric
      and non bacteriuric patients. In addition, the organisms in urine cultures and
      antibiotic sensitivity patterns were investigated for bacteriuric patients. Two
      groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables and the
      Chi-square or the Fisher's exact test for categorical respectively. RESULTS:
      Bacteriuria was found in 43% of type 2 diabetic patients aged over 60 years.
      Comparative analysis revealed that bacteriuria was more common among patients
      with female gender (p=0.028), diabetes duration of >15 years (p=0.011) and
      diabetes complications such as neuropathy (p=0.027) and diabetic foot (p=0.003).
      Age and uncontrolled fasting blood sugar or HbA1c levels did show an increased
      propensity for developing urinary tract infections. Increased frequency (76.7%),
      and urgency (67.4%), dysuria (65.1%) were significantly more common among
      bacteriuric patients than that in nonbacteriuric patients (p<0.05). Urine culture
      analysis revealed that E. coli (69.8%) was the most common causative organism,
      followed by Klebsiella (16.3%). Majority of isolated organisms were sensitive to
      antimicrobial agents like nitrofurantoin and imipenem. CONCLUSION: Bacteriuria
      was very common in elderly patients with diabetes. The observed trends in risk
      factors, clinical profile, laboratory profile, causative organism patterns, and
      antimicrobial susceptibilities will help to add the growing literature on this
      topic.

PMID- 28571187
TI  - Study of Short and Intermediate Term Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Protected
      and Unprotected LMCA Stenting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Significant unprotected Left Main Coronary Artery (LMCA) disease is
      detected in 5%-7% of cases undergoing Coronary Angiography (CAG). Present
      guidelines have revealed the significance of anatomical location in left main
      artery stenosis and syntax scores for determination of Major Adverse Cardiac
      Events (MACE). Debate still persists over the best treatment regarding outcomes
      of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and LMCA stenting for patients with
      LMCA disease. AIM: Aim of the study was to evaluate short and intermediate term
      clinical outcomes of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) in LMCA disease in
      respect to mortality, Cerebrovascular Accidents (CVA), reinfarction, stent
      restenosis and need for repeat target lesion revascularization. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: From July 2013 to February 2015, 50 patients underwent LMCA stenting.
      All patients underwent detailed clinical assessment, detailed 2D
      echocardiographic assessment. Syntax score was calculated in all patients.
      Clinical in hospital and outpatient follow up was obtained at one, three, six,
      nine months and one year. RESULTS: Mean age was 53.14+/-9.60 years. On CAG 16
      (32%) patients had ostial LMCA lesion, 8 (16%) had mid LMCA lesion, distal LMCA
      was diseased in 6 (12%). In emergency situation, two bail out LMCA stenting were
      done for treatment of LMCA dissection. A total of 42 (84%) patients had low
      syntax score, 6 (12%) had intermediate and 2 (4%) had high syntax score. Only
      LMCA stenting was done in 22 (44%) patients, LMCA to Left Anterior Descending
      (LAD) stenting was done in 22 (44%) and LMCA to Left Circumflex (LCX) stenting
      was done in 6 (12%) patients. Drug-Eluting Stent (DES) was used in 35 (70%) cases
      while Bare-Metal Stent (BMS) was used in 15 (30%). An 8% mortality and 8% target
      lesion revascularization rate were observed in our study. CONCLUSION: Our study
      revealed that LMCA stenting is a safe and feasible alternative mode of
      revascularization in selected patients. Patients most suitable for LMCA stenting
      in our study were those with isolated ostial/mid LMCA disease, with protected
      LMCA disease and those who underwent elective stenting procedure.

PMID- 28571188
TI  - Six Minute Walk Test: A Tool for Predicting Mortality in Chronic Pulmonary
      Diseases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Six Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is a simple test used to measure
      exercise capacity in Chronic Pulmonary Diseases (CPDs). Decreased exercise
      capacity significantly affects the quality of life. The 6MWT is a known tool to
      measure exercise capacity and quality of life in CPD. However, the role of change
      in follow up Six Minute Walk Distance (6MWD) in assessing mortality and its
      correlation with known prognostic factors haven't been tested to the best of our
      knowledge. AIM: To study the correlation of change in 6MWD with change in
      spirometry and to study the role of 6MWD in predicting mortality in CPD. SETTINGS
      AND DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 139 CPD
      patients were grouped into obstructive, restrictive and post Tuberculosis (TB)
      sequelae. Optimized treatment was given and they were followed up regularly.
      Spirometry and 6MWT was done at the beginning and after one year. Mean decline in
      FEV1, FVC was correlated with mean decline in 6MWD. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: With
      STATA 13.1 correlation between 6MWT and spirometric values were done using
      Wilcoxon signed rank test. Predictors of mortality were studied using
      multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Overall mean decline in 6MWD was 16.07 m/year.
      There was no correlation between mean change in 6MWD and change in FEV1, FVC, and
      FEV1/FVC. On multivariate analysis, 6MWD was the better predictor of mortality
      than FEV1 (p<0.001), FVC (p<0.001). At cut off value of 240 meters, sensitivity
      and specificity of 6MWT in predicting mortality was 71.05% and 81.94%
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The 6MWD changes independently and has no correlation
      with change in spirometry, it is an independent predictor of mortality in CPD.

PMID- 28571189
TI  - Evaluation of ECG Abnormalities in Patients with Asymptomatic Type 2 Diabetes
      Mellitus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is the most common chronic disease. DM is
      considered a Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk equivalent. Its macrovascular
      complications are associated with two-fold increased risk of premature
      atherosclerotic CVD. Most of the diabetics with cardiovascular involvement are
      asymptomatic. Electro Cardio Graph (ECG) abnormalities are found to be predictors
      of silent ischaemia in asymptomatic persons. An abnormal ECG response is
      associated with statistically significant high risk for cardiac mortality and
      morbidity. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate ECG changes in asymptomatic
      Type 2 DM patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional comparative study
      was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in North India. One hundred diabetics
      presenting to Medicine OPD/IPD were included in the study who had no symptoms of
      heart disease and no diabetic complications. Fifty person with age and sex
      matched controls were included in the study. Relevant history and physical
      examination findings were recorded in a protocol. The variables studied were:
      gender, age, smoking, physical activity, and waist circumference, Body Mass Index
      (BMI) and blood pressure. Resting ECG was recorded. RESULTS: Mean age of
      asymptomatic diabetic patients was 50.3+/-11.90 years (age range 25-75 years). In
      this study, none of the control group had ECG abnormality whereas, 26%
      asymptomatic diabetics had ECG abnormalities. Most of the asymptomatic cases with
      ECG changes had 5-10 year of duration of diabetes mellitus; 70% patients with ECG
      changes had poor glycaemic control, increased triglyceride and decreased High
      Density Lipoprotein (HDL) levels. Most common abnormality observed was ST-T
      changes, followed by Left Atrial Enlargement (LAE), Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
      (LVH), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB) and Right Bundle Branch Block (RBBB).
      CONCLUSION: ECG changes are present in quarter of asymptomatic Type 2 DM
      patients. However, nonspecific ST-T changes, LVH and LAE are common.

PMID- 28571190
TI  - The Study of Different Clinical Pattern of Diabetic Ketoacidosis and Common
      Precipitating Events and Independent Mortality Factors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is an important cause of morbidity and
      mortality among diabetic patients in spite of major advances in the pathogenesis
      and more standardized diagnosis and treatment. AIM: To find out the different
      patterns of clinical presentations, common precipitating factors and independent
      mortality factors in DKA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in a
      tertiary care hospital, Mysuru on 110 patients from November 2007 to October
      2009. Clinical presentation and precipitating factors of DKA were monitored.
      Univariate analysis was done to identify statistically significant risk factors
      contributing to DKA mortality and was used for multiple logistic regressions to
      identify independent mortality predictors. A scoring methodology was used to
      identify the risk of having multiple risk factors in an individual. RESULTS: In
      this study, the mean age was 42.33 years, with a male to female ratio of 1.2:1.
      The most common complaints were vomiting and generalized weakness seen in 55
      (50%) and 49 (44.5%) cases respectively. The most common precipitating factors
      were infections and poor compliance to antidiabetic treatment seen in 57 (52%)
      and 23 (21%) cases respectively. The predictors of mortality included age equal
      to or more than 65 years, Depressed Mental State (DMS) in the first 24 hour,
      insulin requirement equal to or more than 50 units in the 12 hours to bring blood
      glucose to less than 300 mg%, fever in the first 24 hours, shock in the first 24
      hours, RBS persistently equal to or more than 300 mg% even after 12 hours with
      standard treatment protocol, fluid requirement equal to or more than 6 L in the
      first 24 hours, pH less than 7.2 and bicarbonate less than 15 mmol/l at
      presentation were statistically significant predictors of mortality. Multivariate
      analysis failed to identify an independent mortality factor; but, adverse
      parameters of more than 5 was significantly associated with death. CONCLUSION:
      Risk stratification of patients with DKA is possible from simple clinical and
      laboratory variables available during the first day of hospitalization and
      further channeling the patients to ICU at the correct time to prevent
      mortalities.

PMID- 28571191
TI  - A Successfully Treated Case of Criminal Thallium Poisoning.
AB  - Thallium was once commonly used as a household rodent or ant killer, but many
      countries have banned such use due to unintentional or criminal poisonings of
      humans. A common initial clinical manifestation of thallium poisoning is
      gastrointestinal symptoms followed by delayed onset of neurological symptoms and
      alopecia. These clinical characteristics can provide important diagnostic clues
      regarding thallium poisoning. Here, we report a 23-year-old woman who was
      poisoned by a business colleague when she unknowingly drank tea containing the
      toxic substance several times. The patient was treated with multi-dose activated
      charcoal with airway protection and Prussian blue.

PMID- 28571192
TI  - Youngest Case of Allergic Broncho Pulmonary Aspergillosis in India: A Case Report
      from Arid Zone of India.
AB  - Allergic Broncho Pulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) is an immunological allergic
      disorder and asthmatic patients are predisposed to ABPA. Although, ABPA commonly
      develops in the third and fourth decades but no age group is unaffected from the
      disease. Youngest case of ABPA in India so far reported was four years of age.
      This case report is about a young child of bronchial asthma with ABPA aged four
      years and nine days only, from arid zone of country. Her diagnosis of ABPA was
      supported by clinical, serological and radiological findings. This case report
      concludes the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of ABPA along with
      general awareness for the disease.

PMID- 28571193
TI  - Recurrent Longitudinally Extensive Myelitis and Aquaporin-4 Seronegativity - The
      Expanding Spectrum of Neuromyelitis Optica.
AB  - Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) is a recently proposed unifying
      term for Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), also known as Devic's disease and related
      syndromes. It is a relapsing inflammatory demyelinating disease that most
      commonly affects optic nerves and the spinal cord, leading to sudden vision loss
      or weakness in one or both eyes, and loss of sensation and bladder function.
      Though inflammation may also involve the brain, the lesions seen in NMO are
      different from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) which has a similar clinical course.
      Attacks of NMOSD tend to be more severe and often different in nature from MS. MS
      and NMOSD are often confused but require a different course of treatment for
      optimal results. Here, we describe a patient who had clinical features suggestive
      of NMO but showed seronegativity for anti-aquaporin antibodies, done twice.
      Initially he was managed on the lines of MS but showed a deteriorating clinical
      course on initiation of treatment with interferons. Later, his diagnosis was
      revised to seronegative NMO and he was started on immunosuppressive therapy with
      azathioprine to which he showed optimal response and achieved disease
      stabilization.

PMID- 28571194
TI  - Bilateral Cervical Lymphadenopathy Atypical Presentation of Malaria-A Rare Case
      Report.
AB  - Malaria, the most common parasitic disease of humans, remains a major health and
      economic burden in most tropical countries. An 18-year-old male from rural north
      eastern India presented with four days fever with chill. The patient was
      conscious, oriented but confused. Physical examination revealed bilateral
      multiple, discrete cervical lymphadenitis without organomegaly or sternal
      tenderness. Blood parameters were normal except transient thrombocytopenia. Blood
      smear and antigen were positive for both Plasmodium vivax and falciparum with
      negative viral markers. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) of cervical lymph
      nodes showed non-specific reactive lymphadenitis which subsided with antimalarial
      treatment. Lymphadenitis is an extremely rare presentation in malaria and is
      considered as an important negative finding. We reported this case to highlight
      that such unusual manifestations may present in malaria in endemic areas which
      may baffle the clinicians.

PMID- 28571195
TI  - Primary Pulmonary Artery Intimal Sarcoma Case with Elevated Coagulation Markers.
AB  - Primary Sarcoma of the Pulmonary Artery (PAS) is a very rare and miserable
      disease. The clinical signs and symptoms of PAS are non- specific, which usually
      prevents diagnosis before surgery or autopsy. The current guidelines for the
      diagnosis and treatment of PAS have not been well established. Several reported
      cases of PAS have been mistaken for Pulmonary Artery Thromboembolism (PTE),
      because the clinical signs and symptoms of PAS are non-specific. Elevated
      coagulation markers are generally absent in PAS and therefore, support a
      differential diagnosis of PTE. We herein report a patient with PAS who presented
      with elevated coagulation markers and later showed rapidly improved values
      mimicking response of PTE to anticoagulant therapy.

PMID- 28571196
TI  - Addison's Disease Mimicking as Acute Pancreatitis: A Case Report.
AB  - Over past two decades there has been significant improvement in medical field in
      elucidating the underlying pathophysiology and genetics of Addison's disease.
      Adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease) is a rare disease with an incidence of
      0.8/100,000 cases. The diagnosis may be delayed if the clinical presentation
      mimics a gastrointestinal disorder or psychiatric illness. We report a case of
      Addison's disease presenting as acute pain in abdomen mimicking clinical
      presentation of acute pancreatitis.

PMID- 28571197
TI  - Cardiac Amyloidosis, An Infiltrative Heart Disease Presenting as Arrhythmia-A
      Case Report.
AB  - Cardiac amyloidosis is a manifestation of amyloidosis which is a multisystem
      disorder. This is difficult to diagnose, rare disease which eventually leads to
      the mortality. Diagnosis requires a high index of clinical suspicion along with
      echocardiographic clues like, diastolic dysfunction, bi-atrial enlargement and
      ventricular thickening. Treatment is mainly supportive with disappointing
      outcomes. We present a case of systemic amyloidosis with negative congo red
      staining, presenting with predominantly cardiac features.

PMID- 28571198
TI  - Deep Cerebral Vein Thrombosis: A Clinical Masquerader.
AB  - Cerebral Vein Thrombosis (CVT) is an uncommon cause of stroke. Thrombosis can
      occur in superficial veins, deep venous system or cortical veins of brain. The
      term Deep Cerebral Vein Thrombosis (DCVT) is used for thrombosis of internal
      cerebral vein, vein of Galen and basal vein of Rosenthal. Only 10% cases of CVT
      are because of thrombosis of deep cerebral vein. The diagnosis of DCVT is often
      missed because of its heterogenous presentation. Herein, we present a case of
      DCVT which was initially treated as meningoencephalitis. A timely advised brain
      imaging helped in making the diagnosis and patient recovered completely after
      institution of anticoagulation.

PMID- 28571199
TI  - An Unusual Case of Eosinophilia.
AB  - Various inflammatory markers have been used to show an association between
      welding and respiratory tract disorders due to inhalation of fumes. We hereby
      present a case of 19-year-old male, welder by occupation who presented with upper
      respiratory tract infection and was documented to have persistent moderate
      eosinophilia on serial Complete Blood Count (CBC) examination. This was also
      confirmed by bone marrow examination which was suggestive of increased
      eosinophilic precursors. Eosinophils are an inflammatory marker and are increased
      most commonly in respiratory tract of welders due to inhalation of metal fumes.
      Treatment with steroid is gratifying and provides short term symptomatic relief.
      Avoidance of metal fumes and/or change of job is the long term preventive
      measure. Welding occupation, as a risk factor, should be considered for causation
      of persistent respiratory tract inflammation with eosinophilia.

PMID- 28571200
TI  - Inhaled Insulin - Current Direction of Insulin Research.
AB  - Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by relative or
      absolute deficiency of insulin, resulting in hyperglycemia. Subcutaneous insulin
      and Oral Hypoglycaemic Agents (OHA) constitute the main treatment option for DM.
      Insulin is administered by injection or continuous infusion to control glucose
      levels mainly in Type I diabetes. Newer routes both oral and non oral, for
      insulin administration are current direction of insulin research as insulin
      injection therapy is burdensome and painful for many patients. Inhalational
      insulin is an attractive alternative for systemic administration of insulin given
      its accessibility and large alveolar-capillary network of lungs for drug
      absorption. Afrezza, inhaled insulin has been recently approved by Food and Drug
      Administration (FDA). It is a new, quicker acting inhalable insulin with a
      different and safer pharmacokinetic profile in comparison to previously failed
      inhaled form of insulin.

PMID- 28571201
TI  - Primary Hypothyroid and Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency-Searching the Missing
      Link.

PMID- 28571202
TI  - Vocal Hoarseness in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Early Recognition is Critical.

PMID- 28571203
TI  - A Comparative Study of Antegrade Air Pyelogram and Retrograde Air Pyelogram for
      Initial Puncture Access during Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Access into the collecting system is considered to be the most
      critical step for Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL). AIM: The present study
      provides a comparative view into antegrade air pyelography and retrograde air
      pyelography procedures for percutaneous renal access. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 patients with radiopaque renal calculi
      indicated for PCNL procedure. These patients were randomly assigned to two groups
      namely antegrade air pyelogram group (Group I) and retrograde air pyelogram group
      (Group II). In antegrade air pyelogram group, the collecting system was
      delineated by targeting the renal stone using a 22 gauge spinal needle where the
      patients were in the prone position. In another group, the collecting system was
      delineated by retrograde air pyelogram under fluoroscopy guidance. The method of
      tract dilatation and stone extraction were the same in both groups for comparison
      of outcome and complication. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 41.7+/-13 and
      41.4+/-13.6 years in Group-I and Group-II respectively. The male to female ratio
      in Groups I and II was 35/15 (70.00%) and 38/12 (76.00%) respectively. In Group-I
      the average duration of access was 2.66+/-1.0 minutes after prone positioning
      whereas it was recorded to be 19.48+/-5.0 minutes in Group-II, after lithotomy
      followed by prone positioning of the patient. Duration of radiation exposure was
      almost similar in both groups. Additional procedural cost was significantly
      higher in Group II. CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that access for PCNL using
      antegrade air pyelogram can be a cost-effective and acceptable alternative to
      retrograde air pyelogram with decreased access time.

PMID- 28571204
TI  - Impact of Biliary Calculi on the Liver.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gallstone is implicated for hepatocellular injury due to chronic
      extra hepatic large bile duct obstruction with or without repeated episodes of
      cholangitis. AIM: To study the liver changes in patients undergoing operative
      procedure for gallstone disease and to determine the relationship between
      severity of these changes with position of biliary calculus in biliary tree.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients who underwent operative procedure for
      gallstone disease between October 2013 and September 2015 were evaluated. The
      Liver Function Test (LFT) was done preoperatively and postoperatively.
      Intraoperative liver biopsy was taken. The histopathological changes of liver and
      their severity were noted. RESULTS: The most commonly observed liver function
      abnormality both in cholelithiasis (12.8%) and choledocholithiasis patients (50%)
      was increased alkaline phosphatase. Most commonly observed liver histology
      changes in patients with cholelithiasis was nonspecific reactive hepatitis
      (46.9%) and in choledocholithiasis was chronic cholestasis (50%). Patient with
      choledocholithiasis showed significant changes (p<0.001) in liver histopathology
      and LFT as compared to cholelithiasis. CONCLUSION: Patients with gallstone
      diseases developed significant functional as well as structural hepatic changes.
      Though the change was more significant in patient with choledocholithiasis
      compared to cholelithiasis, early operative procedure is recommended in all
      gallstone disease patients to prevent potential liver damage, irrespective of
      position of biliary calculi in biliary tree to prevent morbidities associated
      with it.

PMID- 28571205
TI  - Postoperative Malignant Hyperthermia- A Medical Emergency: A Case Report and
      Review of Literature.
AB  - Malignant hyperthermia is a rare life threatening pharmacological disorder.
      Preoperative clinical diagnosis is not possible. Due to its rarity and severity,
      it must be taken as an important differential diagnosis for postoperative
      hyperthermia. We hereby report a case of postoperative malignant hyperthermia in
      a four-year-old female child, who was operated for type 1 choledochal cyst and
      had difficult postoperative sequel. We lost that child due to unavailability of
      Dantrolene sodium in emergency drug cart.

PMID- 28571206
TI  - Spontaneous Intracerebral Bleed Post Snake Envenomation.
AB  - Snakebite envenomation is a commonly encountered emergency in tropical countries
      with potentially fatal complications. Life threatening neurosurgical
      complications are rare and infrequently documented in literature. We discuss the
      case of 28-year-old gentleman, managed successfully for an intracerebral
      haemorrhage following a viper bite and attempt to obviate some management
      dilemmas often encountered in viperine envenomation.

PMID- 28571207
TI  - Bilateral Synchronous Paratesticular Leiomyoma - A Rare Entity.
AB  - Paratesticular region is an obscure anatomical region that includes spermatic
      cord and its contents, tunica of the testes, epididymis and appendices of
      epididymis and testis. Paratesticular tumours may closely resemble and be
      clinically indistinguishable from testicular tumours, resulting in a diagnostic
      dilemma. Preoperative distinction between the benign and malignant paratesticular
      tumour is extremely difficult, resulting in difficulty in diagnosis and
      management. We hereby present a case of a 56-year-old male who reported with a
      painless bilateral scrotal mass and underwent surgical excision of the same. The
      final biopsy report was paratesticular leiomyoma. The main purpose of this
      manuscript is to emphasize on the fact that it is imperative for the treating
      urologists to be aware of such potentially benign rare entity. A high index of
      clinical suspicion is mandatory, as lack of knowledge about this condition would
      result in an unnecessary radical orchidectomy.

PMID- 28571208
TI  - Giant Leiomyoma of the Oesophagus.
AB  - Leiomyomas are rare benign tumours of the oesophagus that remain silent in more
      than 50% of the cases. Giant leiomyomas measuring more than 5 cm are very rare. A
      47-year-old female presented with chest pain, cough and dysphagia for two months.
      Imaging studies were indicative of a 12.1x11.9 cm mass lesion in the distal
      oesophagus, CT guided biopsy confirmed leiomyoma. The patient being taken up for
      surgery was found to have a 20x19x17 cm irregular lobulated and encapsulated mass
      lesion arising from distal oesophagus encapsulating submucosally. En bloc
      resection of the tumour along with distal oesophagus with a clearance of 4 cm
      above and below the oesophagogastric junction was done followed by gastro
      oesophageal anastomosis. Histopathologically, leiomyoma was confirmed. The
      patient had a smooth postoperative recovery.

PMID- 28571209
TI  - Pseudo Aneurysm of Aberrant Right Gastroepiploic Artery Mimicking Pseudocyst of
      Pancreas- A Rare Case Report.
AB  - Pseudoaneurysm of peripancreatic vessel is a rare complication of pancreatitis.
      The splenic artery is the most commonly affected vessels close to the pancreas.
      Pseudoaneurysm of right gastroepiploic artery is rare. It can rupture into Gastro
      Intestinal (GI) tract, retroperitoneum, peritoneal cavity, biliopancreatic duct
      or pseudocyst. Clinical diagnosis of unruptured pseudoaneurysm is rarely possible
      because there are no specific signs and symptoms. We hereby report a case of
      pseudoaneurysm of aberrant right gastroepiploic artery in 30-year-old male which
      presented with history of epigastric pain and lump with episode of haematemesis
      and malena. Diagnosis was suspected on Doppler Ultrasonography (USG), which was
      later confirmed by CECT and angiography. Patient was treated by coil
      embolization. The pain and lump in epigastrium disappeared within five to six
      days. Patient is symptom free after six months of follow up.

PMID- 28571210
TI  - Meckel's Diverticulum Enterolith: An Extremely Rare Cause of Intestinal
      Obstruction.
AB  - Meckel's diverticulum is usually asymptomatic but occasionally presents with
      complications. Formation of an enterolith inside a Meckel's diverticulum is very
      uncommon and dislodgement of such a stone causing obstruction is extremely rare.
      We herein present a case of a 48-year-old man who presented with small bowel
      obstruction. Preoperative radiologic studies revealed a stone-like lesion in the
      right lower quadrant. Upon laparotomy, an inflamed Meckel's diverticulum was
      found as well as a 2.5 cm stone obstructing the terminal ileum. The stone was
      removed and the diverticulum was excised. The differential diagnosis of acute
      intestinal obstruction should include this extremely rare clinical entity
      especially when the combination of small bowel obstruction with radiopaque stone
      like finding on preoperative x-rays is present.

PMID- 28571211
TI  - Pentazocine Alone Versus Pentazocine Plus Diclofenac for Pain Relief in the First
      24 Hours after Caesarean Section: A Randomized Controlled Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Postoperative pain is one of the main postoperative adverse
      outcomes following caesarean section. Its management still remains a challenge
      especially in a low resource setting. AIM: To compare the efficacy of
      intramuscular pentazocine alone and combined intramuscular pentazocine with
      diclofenac for pain relief within 24 hours after caesarean section. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This was a double blind randomized control study of post caesarean
      section pain management of 140 participants between April and December, 2015 at
      the Federal Teaching hospital, Abakaliki. Inclusion criteria involved consenting
      and low risk parturients who had caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. The
      participants were randomly grouped into Pentazocine-Placebo (PP) group and
      Pentazocine-Diclofenac (PD) group. The PP group received pentazocine 30 mg every
      4 hours for 24 hours and 3 milliliters of water for injection as placebo 12
      hourly for 24 hours while the PD group received pentazocine 30 mg every 4 hours
      and diclofenac 75 mg every 12 hours for 24 hours. The level of pain control was
      assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The data was analysed with IBM SPSS
      version 20.0. The level of significance was set at < 0.05. RESULTS: The use of PD
      for 24 hour post caesarean section analgesia achieved better pain relief, faster
      onset of postoperative ambulation, bowel sound auscultation and oral feeding than
      the use of PP (p-value <=0.002). However, the use of PD is more expensive than PP
      (p-value =0.0001). There was no difference between the two groups of participants
      on the passage of flatus and duration of hospital stay (p-value>=0.05). The use
      of PP was associated with more maternal side effects (p-value=0.009). There was
      no difference on the level of satisfaction between the two groups of participants
      (p-value>=0.05). CONCLUSION: The use of PD for post caesarean section analgesia
      is more effective in achieving a satisfactory pain relief and has less side
      effects.

PMID- 28571212
TI  - Disorders Affecting Quality of Life During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy is a special condition which results in unique
      physiological responses which is more than any other physiological event and it
      increase stress in women's body. Information about the changes experienced by
      pregnant women in physical, psychological, and social areas is limited,
      indicating that the quality of life and changeable areas in pregnant women
      require more attention. AIM: This study was aimed to identify the disorders
      affecting the quality of life during pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      qualitative study was performed with the conventional content analysis approach.
      Participants included 16 pregnant women who were recruited using purposive
      sampling and performed with maximum variety. The semi-structured in depth
      interview started face to face with the general question and was followed with
      specific questions. The interviews were conducted in Fatemieh Hospital in
      Hamadan, Iran. Data analysis and data collection were conducted concurrently and
      the interviews were continued until achieving data saturation. RESULTS: Five main
      categories emerged in this study including "psychological disorders of
      pregnancy", "disorders of activities", "body-image disorder", "disorders in
      sexual intercourse" and "physical disorders" that were analyzed revolves common
      around of disorders affecting quality of life. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy can have
      undesirable effects on various aspects of women's lives in their point of view
      and lead to a decreased life quality. Therefore, it is essential in prenatal
      care. In addition to addressing the physical aspects of maternal health, other
      aspects are also evaluated, and in case of any disorder, the necessary
      consultation should be done.

PMID- 28571213
TI  - The Effect of Metoclopramide Addition to Lidocaine on Pain of Patients with
      Grades II and III Post-Episiotomy Repair.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Episiotomy is the most common procedure used for dilatation of the
      vaginal opening for giving birth. Although episiotomy is associated with benefits
      for the mother, it may lead to short term and long term disabilities, including
      postpartum perineal pain that is secondary to perineal tearing. AIM: The aim of
      this study was to investigate the effect of subcutaneous lidocaine compared with
      lidocaine and metoclopramide on pain after episiotomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this clinical trial study, the patients (83 for control group and 83 for case
      group) with episiotomy Grades II and III were enrolled and were asked to express
      their postpartum episiotomy pain as a number, from zero (no pain) to 10 (severest
      pain) Visual Analogue Scale (VAS score) at 0, 30 minute, 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour,
      6 hour and 12 hour postpartum. Patients at the second stage of labour (crowning)
      were assigned to two groups: In the control group, 5 cc lidocaine 2% and in the
      case group, 5 cc lidocaine + 10 mg metoclopramide was injected for episiotomy.
      Then, the pain score was compared between the two groups. The data were analyzed
      by t-test and chi-square test with software SPSS version 20.0. RESULTS: Mean age
      of the women was 23.19+/-0.46 years in the control group and 23.96+/-0.58 years
      in the case group with no significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05).
      The mean pain score in the control group was 3.54+/-0.71 and in the case group
      2.93+/-0.91 at 30 minutes after the injection, with a statistically significant
      difference. At other intervals, postnatal pain scores in the case group was lower
      than those of the control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Injection of metoclopramide
      with lidocaine is more effective than lidocaine alone for relieving the pain
      after episiotomy.

PMID- 28571215
TI  - Carcinoma Cervix Presenting as Ischaemic Stroke in Young Female: A Case Report
      and Review of Literature.
AB  - Stroke is a disabling disease which increases the burden of already suffering
      cancer patients. Several mechanisms of stroke exist in cancer patients which
      includes - metastatic or non-metastatic such as coagulation disorders, infections
      or therapy related. Increased risk of ischaemic stroke has been validated for
      several cancers. However, there is scarce literature reported in carcinoma cervix
      patients. Review of literature suggests that stroke occurs more frequently in
      cancer patients than in the average population. We report an unusual case of a
      patient who presented with stroke but was later diagnosed as a case of carcinoma
      cervix.

PMID- 28571214
TI  - Segregation of Patients for Intrapartum Monitoring, using Robson's
      Classification.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Monitoring labour by intermittent or continuous foetal heart rate
      monitoring has been discussed widely in literature. Robson's classification has
      categorized pregnant women in ten groups. The study proposes to examine in which
      patients one must recommend continuous or intermittent foetal heart rate
      monitoring. AIM: To study the effect of Continuous Electronic Foetal Monitoring
      (CEFM) on the overall rate of operative deliveries as well as the rate using
      Robson's classification and the neonatal outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After
      Institutional Review Board approval, low risk parturients with a reactive foetal
      heart rate at arrival in labour were prospectively analysed. Women with a
      previous caesarean section, those requiring elective caesarean section and having
      high risk factors were excluded. Patient details, history, examination findings
      and the method of monitoring, whether continuous or intermittent was noted. 1803
      women were monitored by CEFM and 2107 by intermittent auscultation. In both the
      groups of intrapartum monitoring, suspected foetal distress was followed by
      immediate intervention in the form of caesarean section or operative vaginal
      delivery without resorting to any other monitoring methods such as foetal scalp
      blood sampling, as per the institutional policy. Comparison was based on the need
      for operative deliveries in view of presumed foetal distress and the neonatal
      outcome between the two groups of monitoring and further in each Robson's class.
      Results were assessed using IBM(r) SPSS Version 22.0, Chi-square test,
      considering p<0.05 as significant. RESULTS: Operative deliveries in view of
      suspected foetal distress increased and the neonatal outcome was better with
      CEFM. Assessing in each Robson's class, only class 4A, 7A and 10A results were
      consistent with the overall outcome. In others (class 2A), women experienced
      reduced rate of operative deliveries and better neonatal outcome with CEFM. In
      yet others, there was no benefit with CEFM as there were increased operative
      deliveries without any difference in the neonatal outcome. CONCLUSION:
      Segregation of patients for intrapartum monitoring using Robson's classification
      would result in decreased operative deliveries and a better neonatal outcome.

PMID- 28571216
TI  - Plasmodium vivax Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome - A Diagnostic and
      Therapeutic Dilemma in Preeclampsia.
AB  - Malaria during pregnancy can cause various feto-maternal complications. Life
      threatening respiratory involvement is rare with vivax malaria but common with
      Plasmodium falciparum. In most of the cases severe respiratory involvement
      occurs, after beginning of anti-malarial treatment. We are reporting a case which
      involved a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge, as the pregnant woman with
      severe preeclampsia developed acute respiratory distress, actually caused by
      Plasmodium vivax.

PMID- 28571217
TI  - Missing IUCD Strings: Role of Imaging in Locating the Misplaced Device.

PMID- 28571218
TI  - Functional Results of Communited Intra-articular Distal Humerus Fractures Treated
      with Bicolumnar Plating.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Communited intra-articular distal humerus fractures are commonly
      encountered in orthopaedic practice and they are present with unique difficulties
      for internal fixation. This problem is especially worse in the elderly due to
      osteoporotic bone. AIM: To evaluate the intermediate term results (minimum follow
      up of two years) of communited intra-articular distal humerus fractures treated
      with bicolumnar plating with or without olecranon osteotomy in elderly Indian
      population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty three consecutive patients operated with
      bicolumnar plating for communited intra-articular distal humerus fractures at the
      tertiary care centre were identified in the time period between 2009 and 2013.
      All patients had an age more than 60 years at the time of surgery. A minimum
      follow up of two years post surgery was a mandatory criteria. The Disabilities of
      Arm and Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score and the Mayo Elbow Performance (MEP) score
      calculated along with complete range of motion. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was
      38 months. All patients achieved fracture union with mean MEP and DASH scores
      being 85 +/- 15.5 and 21.4 +/- 4.9 respectively. These scores although poor were
      comparable to the opposite side (90 and 12.2 respectively). Also the mean
      supination-pronation arc and flexion-extension arc was 156 degrees and 105
      degrees respectively. This is well within the functional range of elbow. The mean
      block to extension was at 15 degrees with a mean maximal flexion of 120 degrees.
      CONCLUSION: Our study conclusively establishes that excellent functional outcome
      can be achieved with open reduction and internal fixation in Type C distal
      humerus fractures in elderly including the ones that are communited. Total elbow
      arthroplasty although a viable option, gives similar results to a well done
      internal fixation with added cost.

PMID- 28571219
TI  - Bi-Pedicle Fixation of Affected Vertebra in Thoracolumbar Burst Fracture.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Burst fractures of the spine account for 14% of all spinal injuries
      and more than 50% of all thoracolumbar trauma. However, there is ambiguity while
      choosing the right treatment plan. Short Segment Pedicle screw Fixation (SSPF)
      has become an increasingly popular method of treatment of thoracolumbar burst
      fractures, providing the advantage of incorporating fewer motion segments in the
      fixation. Various biomechanical studies showed that the use of pedicle screws
      could achieve stable construct within short-segment fixation. AIM: To evaluate
      the efficacy of SSPF using longest possible screws in both pedicles of fractured
      vertebra. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review of 25 single burst
      thoracolumbar fracture patients, operated between May 2009 to 2015 in a tertiary
      care trauma center, was conducted. Preoperative and post-operative plain
      radiographs were evaluated for kyphotic angulations using the traditional Cobb
      method. Anterior Vertebral Height (AVH), Posteriors Vertebral Height (PVH) were
      measured preoperatively and immediate postoperatively. Average percentage loss of
      AVH and mid-sagittal height were calculated on preoperative and postoperative X
      rays on follow up. RESULTS: Fourteen men and 11 women with an average age of
      42.92 years comprised the study population. Mean age at the time of operation was
      34.5+/-14.2 years. Mean operation time was 168+/-72 (minutes). Average
      hospitalization time was 9+/-7 (days). Mean blood loss was 515+/-485 (ml). There
      were two cases of postoperative infection and implant failure each. A mean of
      15.2 degrees  of kyphosis correction was attained from pre-operation to post
      operation (p<0.0001). Although, there was a 15 degrees  average improvement of
      kyphosis post-fixation, loss of correction over time was nearly 8 degrees ,
      resulting in a 7 degrees  mean correction of kyphosis. A mean loss of AVH on
      postoperative radiograph was 6.12% and maintained 12.4% at the time of review
      (p<0.001). Similarly, there was 32.8% mid-sagittal height loss at time of injury,
      which was improved to only 12.6% as compare to initial height loss (p<0.0001).
      CONCLUSION: In this study, we propose SSPF using longest possible screws in both
      pedicle of fractured vertebra. Bi-pedicular fixation gives significant
      radiological corrections.

PMID- 28571220
TI  - Interlocking Nailing Versus Plating in Tibial Shaft Fractures in Adults: A
      Comparative Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tibial diaphyseal fractures are the commonest long bone fractures
      in adults, most commonly managed by intramedullary interlocking nailing. However,
      several meta-analysis show that locking plate osteosynthesis is equally effective
      in managing tibial diaphyseal fractures and are associated with less number of
      complications. AIM: To compare the results of fixation of tibial fractures
      following plating and nailing in terms of union, patient satisfaction and
      complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A hospital based non randomized clinical
      trial was performed from September 2013 to August 2016 where closed or open
      diaphyseal or metaphyseo- diaphyseal fractures of the tibia (closed or open
      Gustilo Anderson type 1 through 3B) were included. Simple sequential allocation
      was used for allotting the patients to two groups, one for interlocking nailing
      and other for plating. The patients were followed up for clinical, radiographic
      and functional results. RESULTS: Forty patients with 41 involved limbs completed
      follow up for one year. The duration of surgery and average blood loss during
      surgery was 75.45+/-3.03 minutes and 165.00+/-5.31 ml respectively in case of
      nailing and 85.05+/-2.54 minutes and184.29+/-5.33 ml respectively in case of
      plating and their difference was statistically significant. In our study union
      was achieved in less than 20 weeks in 29 (70.8%) of the patients and 25-30 weeks
      in nine (22%) cases. The average time of union in our study was 19.55+/-0.69
      weeks in case of interlocking nailing and 20.38+/-1.39 weeks in case of plating
      and there was no statistically significant difference between the two. However,
      there is statistically significant difference in the functional score in between
      the two groups in terms of Lower Extremity Functional Score (LEFS). Delayed union
      in one case of nailing and two cases of plating, valgus malunion in one case of
      nailing and joint stiffness in two cases each of nailing and plating were the
      major complications observed. CONCLUSION: There was no difference between the two
      modalities in terms of fracture union. Complications were lesser but more serious
      in case of plating. Patient satisfaction was more with plating.

PMID- 28571221
TI  - A Comparative study of the Dynamic Hip Screw, the Cemented Bipolar
      Hemiarthroplasty and the Proximal Femoral Nail for the Treatment of Unstable
      Intertrochanteric Fractures.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fractures of the Intertrochanteric (IT) region are some of the most
      common fractures encountered by an orthopedic surgeon in his lifetime. With
      increase in life expectancy, the incidence of these fractures is also increasing.
      By 2040, the incidence of these fractures is expected to double. Unstable IT
      fractures are a major cause of concern in the elderly due to the associated
      increase in morbidity and mortality. AIM: The purpose of this study was to
      compare the intraoperative and postoperative parameters using the Dynamic Hip
      Screw (DHS), the Cemented Bipolar Hemiarthroplasty (BH) and the Proximal Femoral
      Nail (PFN) for the management of unstable IT fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Fifty patients, having unstable IT fractures with age more than 60 years were
      randomly selected and were followed up averagely for 19 months (12- 30 months).
      The type of implant for a particular patient and a particular type of fracture
      was randomly selected and the same surgical team treated all patients. Total
      number of 19 patients were operated using the DHS (Group-1), 13 using the BH
      (Group-2) and 18 using the PFN (Group-3). All patients in the three groups were
      compared in terms of preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative parameters
      and functionally assessed using the Harris hip score and the mobility score of
      Parker and Palmer. RESULTS: Patients operated using the PFN had significantly
      lower mean blood loss as compared to the other two groups. The mean days to
      unaided Full Weight Bearing (FWB) was significantly higher in patients treated by
      the DHS as compared to the other two groups. All three groups were comparable in
      terms of functional assessment. CONCLUSION: Treatment of unstable IT fracture of
      femur is a matter open to debate. IT fractures of elderly must be treated with
      considering the age of the patient, mental status, bone quality, and the type of
      fracture. Level of Evidence according to OCEBM Levels of Evidence Working Group -
      Level 2.

PMID- 28571222
TI  - The Effect of Metformin as an Adjunct Therapy in Adolescents with Type 1
      Diabetes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The strict control of blood glucose levels in adolescents with Type
      1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is accompanied with a considerable long term decrease
      in microvasular and macrovascular complications. AIM: This study was conducted to
      investigate the effect of metformin as an adjunct therapy in adolescents with
      poorly controlled Type 1 diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a quasi
      experimental (an uncontrolled before and after) study. The study population
      consisted of the patients aged over 10 years with T1DM. Metformin tablet was
      added to patient's insulin therapy for 12 months. Haemoglobin A1c protein was
      measured in the beginning of the study and repeated with three months intervals
      till the end of it. Insulin dosage, Body Mass Index (BMI), serum lipid,
      creatinine and lactate level were measured twice; in the beginning of the study
      and at the end of it (after 12 months). Data was analysed by SPSS (version 18)
      software. Paired- t-test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Repeated Measure ANOVA
      were used to examine the study's hypothesis. A p-value <0.05 was considered as
      significant. RESULTS: Twenty nine patients were included in the study. HbA1c
      level and insulin dosage was significantly reduced (p<0.001) after one month of
      metformin as an adjunct therapy. Serum lipid was decreased (p=0.7). Weight
      (p<0.001) and BMI (p=0.007) were increased. CONCLUSION: Adjunctive metformin
      therapy reduced HbA1c value and the insulin dosage received in adolescents with
      T1DM.

PMID- 28571224
TI  - Waldmann's Disease (Primary Intestinal Lymphangiectasia) with Atrial Septal
      Defect.
AB  - Waldmann's disease or Primary Intestinal Lymphangiectasia (PIL) is a rare
      disorder of gastrointestinal tract characterized by dilated lymphatics and
      widened villi causing leakage of lymph into intestinal lumen. Loss of lymph leads
      to hypoalbuminemia, hyogammaglobulinemia and lymphopenia. Secondary
      lymphangiectasia occurs secondary to an elevated lymphatic pressure as in
      lymphoma, systemic lupus erythematosus, constrictive pericarditis, cardiac
      surgeries (Fontan's procedure), inflammatory bowel disease and malignancies. We,
      hereby present a five-year-old male child who presented with abdominal distension
      and poor weight gain. He had hypoalbuminemia, lymphocytopenia and
      hypogammaglobulinemia. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed normal gastric
      mucosa and punctate white lesions in duodenal mucosa with biopsy confirming
      intestinal lymphangiectasia. Secondary causes of intestinal lymphangiectasia were
      ruled out. Echocardiography revealed atrial septal defect which is an uncommon
      association with Waldmann's disease. He was started on low fat, high protein diet
      and medium chain triglyceride supplementation following which he improved
      symptomatically. High index of suspicion, early diagnosis and appropriate dietary
      treatment are necessary to alleviate symptoms as well as to achieve a sustainable
      growth and development in these children.

PMID- 28571223
TI  - Neonatal Hyperthyroidism with Fulminant Liver Failure: A Case Report.
AB  - Neonatal hyperthyroidism is a rare disease that is seen in infants born to
      mothers with Graves' disease. Hepatic manifestation of neonatal hyperthyroidism
      is extremely rare. We describe a neonate with fulminant liver failure secondary
      to neonatal hyperthyroidism caused by maternal Graves's disease. The baby was
      admitted with low birth weight and hepatosplenomegaly. At day 2 of life, the baby
      was irritable and he developed respiratory distress and fulminant hepatic failure
      which required mechanical ventilation. All investigations of obstructive,
      infectious and metabolic causes of hepatic failure were negative. His hepatic
      dysfunction improvement was correlated with initiation carbimazole as anti
      thyroid medication. The conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, liver enzymes and
      International Normalised Ratio (INR) were gradually improved with normalization
      by eight weeks. This case has been reported to illustrate lessons learnt for
      early identification of neonate with hyperthyroidism as potential cause of
      cholestasis is important, because delayed treatment of hyperthyroidism might lead
      to irreversible consequences such as mental retardation or even death due to
      liver failure.

PMID- 28571225
TI  - Correspondence: Skeletal Maturation and Mineralization of Children with Moderate
      to Severe Spastic Quadriplegia.

PMID- 28571226
TI  - Optic Nerve Canal Relation to Posterior Paranasal Sinuses in Indian Ethnics:
      Review and Objective Classification.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Posterior paranasal sinuses consisting of posterior ethmoid and
      sphenoid sinuses show varying pneumatization and relationship to Optic Nerve
      Canal (ONC). Most commonly ONC is superolateral to sphenoid sinus, however varied
      protrusion of ONC into the sinuses may occur. Rarely it may pass completely
      through the sinus. Optic Nerve (ON) is covered by a thin bony layer or by
      periosteum and sinus mucosa without bone. Extensive pneumatization of sphenoid
      sinus and bony dehiscence predisposes to ON injury. The posterior ethmoid cell
      namely the Onodi cell is of great surgical importance when the ON is along its
      lateral wall and surrounds the nerve. These varied relations imply that a
      detailed knowledge of the intimate relationship of ONC with the posterior
      paranasal sinuses is necessary to avoid unintentional complications during the
      surgeries involving the ONC region. AIM: To assess relationship of ONC to the
      posterior paranasal sinuses in Indian Ethnic study group. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective review of 100 paranasal sinus Computed Tomography (CT) scans were
      done using 64 row Multi Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT). Multiplanar
      reformation images were assessed for ONC relation to posterior ethmoid and
      sphenoid sinuses, wall dehiscence, and Pneumatization of Anterior Clinoid Process
      (PACP). RESULTS: 200 optic nerve canals were assessed and grouped into four types
      based on the modification of Delano et al., classification. The most common OCN
      was Type-1 (60%), followed by Type-2 (15%), Type-3 (14%) and Type-4 (11%).
      Dehiscence was seen in 35(17.5%) mostly in Type-3 canals. PACP was seen in 30
      (15%). CONCLUSION: Knowledge of ON relationship to posterior paranasal sinuses
      will reduce the devastating complications during sinus surgeries. Our modified
      ONC classification is based on the bony canal morphology and the degree of
      protrusion into sinuses. As with other reported studies worldwide, Type-1 ONC is
      the commonest among the Indians also. Type-2 and 3 ONC with sinus wall dehiscence
      and PACP are the most important anatomical variations which may potentially
      predispose to risk of surgical injury to the optic nerves.

PMID- 28571227
TI  - Ultrasound Guided Percutaneous Injection of Thrombin: Effective Technique for
      Treatment of Iatrogenic Femoral Pseudoaneurysms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Arterial pseudoaneurysms are well known iatrogenic complication of
      percutaneous angiographic or interventional vascular procedures. In the past, the
      definitive treatment option was open surgical repair which is a relatively
      invasive procedure. In the last few years, Ultrasound (US) guided percutaneous
      thrombin injection has been gaining popularity as definitive treatment of
      pseudoaneurysms. AIM: To evaluate efficacy and safety of US guided percutaneous
      injection of thrombin for treatment of iatrogenic femoral pseudoanurysms at a
      tertiary care interventional radiological and cardiology centre. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 38 consecutive patients,
      diagnosed to have iatrogenic femoral artery pseudoaneurysms by Doppler study, in
      the period from Jan 2013 to Jun 2016. All these patients were treated by US
      guided percutaneous injection of thrombin solution inside the pseudoaneurysm sac
      till contents became echogenic and flow inside the pseudoaneurysm stopped
      completely. One month further follow up in all these patients was done. RESULTS:
      The dose of thrombin injected varied from 200-1000 IU (mean 300 IU). Immediate
      thrombosis was seen in all the pseusdoaneurysms. Follow up at 24-48 hours showed
      complete thrombosis and regression of pseudoaneurysm in all the patients except
      one in whom a small residual sac was seen which thrombosed completely on second
      thrombin injection. Further follow up at one month showed regression of aneurysms
      in all the cases. No significant post procedural clinically significant
      complications were seen in any of the patients. CONCLUSION: US guided
      percutaneous thrombin injection is a highly successful and safe procedure for the
      treatment of iatrogenic femoral pseudoaneurysms.

PMID- 28571228
TI  - Imaging Evaluation of Enhancement Patterns of Flat Gall Bladder Wall Thickening
      and Its Correlation with Clinical and Histopathological Findings.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gall bladder Wall Thickening (GWT) is caused by wide spectrum of
      diseases. Initially Ultrasound (USG) was used as imaging modality for screening
      of acute abdomen because of its high sensitivity and real time character. Now,
      Computed Tomography (CT) is used because of its high temporal and spatial
      resolution. AIM: Evaluation of GWT and its enhancement patterns on contrast
      enhanced CT scan in a bid to differentiate benign from malignant causes and to
      correlate the imaging features with clinical and histopathological findings.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a hospital based prospective study in which USG was
      done as an initial modality for screening and Multi Detector Computed Tomography
      (MDCT) scan was done later on for detailed evaluation of enhancement patterns of
      GWT. The study cases were then divided into five CT patterns according to
      enhancement patterns. The diagnostic performance of MDCT was compared with
      histopathological and serological findings. Relevant history, clinical
      examination and routine investigations were done. RESULTS: The one layered
      pattern with a heterogeneously enhancing thick layered pattern (Type 1) was
      significantly associated with gall bladder cancer (p<0.001). The sensitivity and
      specificity of Type 1 enhancement pattern on CT for predicting the Gall Bladder
      (GB) malignancy were 90.476% and 97.43% respectively. The positive and negative
      predictive values were 95% and 95%, respectively. Focal wall thickening,
      irregular margin character and hepatic infiltration by GWT and lymphadenopathy
      were other findings that predict malignancy (p-value<0.05). CONCLUSION: MDCT
      enhancement patterns of a thickened GB wall and associated findings were helpful
      in differentiating malignant GWT from benign GWT.

PMID- 28571229
TI  - Role of Echocardiography in Prenatal Screening of Congenital Heart Diseases and
      its Correlation with Postnatal Outcome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) are one of the most common forms of
      congenital anomalies. Fetal echocardiography performed during second trimester
      aims at early diagnosis of congenital heart disease which is instrumental in
      proper planning of delivery, perinatal care and counselling of parents. AIM: To
      evaluate the role of fetal echocardiography in prenatal screening of CHDs and to
      study the role of associated extracardiac anomalies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      was a hospital based prospective and correlative type of study, done over a
      period of one year. Antenatal screening of fetal heart was done in mid-trimester
      high and low risk pregnancies. The prenatal echo findings were co-related with
      postnatal findings in case of any abnormality detected. The extra-cardiac
      anomalies associated with positive cases were evaluated and studied for their
      impact on postnatal outcome. RESULTS: A total of 1200 pregnancies were screened
      out of which 672 were low risk and 528 were high risk. The cases with abnormal
      echo findings were followed postnatally. The overall incidence of CHD in study
      population was 15 per 1000. The incidence in high and low risk pregnancies were
      16.3 and 13.25 per thousand respectively. Complete agreement of 68.17% was found
      between prenatal and postnatal findings. The most frequent Extra-Cardiac
      Anomalies (ECA) in cases with CHD was of musculoskeletal system. The CHD cases
      with ECA were significantly of low birth weight, born preterm and delivered by
      Lower Segment Caesarean Section (LSCS). CONCLUSION: Fetal heart is the most
      overlooked part in every routine anomaly scan. We conclude that fetal
      echocardiography should be an integral part of every second trimester anomaly
      scan for all pregnant females irrespective of their risk factors. The associated
      ECAs are another factor that causes increased mortality both in antenatal and
      neonatal life, again warranting an early fetal echo.

PMID- 28571230
TI  - Comparison of Ultrasonography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Cone Beam Computed
      Tomography for Detection of Foreign Bodies in Maxillofacial Region.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Foreign Bodies (FBs) entrapped in the maxillofacial region have a
      high prevalence due to trauma and accidents. Accurate localization of FBs and
      verifying their type and size are critical to assist the surgeon in their fast
      retrieval with minimal tissue damage. AIM: To assess and compare the imaging
      modalities including MRI, ultrasonography and Cone Beam Computed Tomography
      (CBCT) for detection of different types of FBs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      study, four types of FBs including pieces of normal glass, barium glass, wood and
      pebbles with equal sizes were placed randomly in two sheep heads in different
      locations such as upper lip, maxillary sinus and body of mandible as FBs and
      subjected to MRI, ultrasound and CBCT. The images were interpreted by expert
      observers and the data was analysed using the stata 11 software, kappa test and
      chi-square test. RESULTS: Sensitivity of CBCT, MRI and ultrasound for detecting
      foreign bodies was 79.19%, 20.83% and 33.33%, respectively. None of the imaging
      modalities could clearly visualize wooden FBs. Among different FBs, pebbles and
      barium glass were detected more accurately by radiographic imaging technique. The
      sensitivity of CBCT, ultrasound and MRI for pebbles was 100%, 33.33% and 16.67%,
      respectively. The sensitivity of CBCT, ultrasound and MRI for barium glass was
      100%, 33.33% and 41.69%, respectively. The sensitivity of CBCT, ultrasound and
      MRI for wood was 33.33%, 33.33% and 16.67%, respectively. Specificity of all
      three imaging modalities was 100%. Diagnostic accuracy of all three imaging
      modalities was higher for detection of FBs in the upper lip than those in the
      body of mandible, and FBs in the latter location had higher detection accuracy
      than those in the maxillary sinus. CONCLUSION: Among the three imaging
      modalities, CBCT had the highest diagnostic sensitivity for the examined FBs. The
      highest diagnostic sensitivity was noted for pebbles and barium glass.

PMID- 28571231
TI  - Central Variant of Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome - A Rare Case
      Report.
AB  - Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) is a clinicoradiological
      condition associated with headache, altered mental status, dizziness and white
      matter vasogenic oedema in parieto-occipital region. It is often associated with
      hypertension but can also occur in diverse clinical settings like
      immunosuppression, eclampsia, etc. It is due to failure of autoregulatory
      mechanism of posterior circulation in response to change in blood pressure. We
      hereby report a rare case of central variant of PRES secondary to severe
      hypertension diagnosed with 3T MRI. Objective of reporting this case was to
      describe the imaging findings of typical and rare atypical patterns of PRES. A 71
      year-old male hypertensive patient was referred for brain imaging with history of
      short period of loss of consciousness, headache and dizziness. MRI brain showed
      central variant pattern of PRES with preferential involvement of brainstem,
      thalami and periventricular white matter with sparing of frontal, parietal and
      occipital lobes. The patient was treated with anti-hypertensive after which
      patient's symptoms subsided. The patient was followed up conservatively. Atypical
      variants of PRES should be borne in mind when pontine hyperintensity is
      encountered in hypertensive patient.

PMID- 28571233
TI  - Health Issues among Radiologists: Toll they Pay to their Profession.
AB  - In modern era, with tremendous competition, long working hours and more demanding
      workstyle, nearly every profession is associated with some or the other health
      hazards. These may develop and progress rapidly or in a gradual way but
      ultimately add up unwanted morbidities and in long run affects the production and
      work output. Unfortunately, doctors and other health professionals who look after
      the health of society, are not the exceptions to this rule and depending upon
      their specialty, they have to face some or the other health issues. This article
      highlights some important though underestimated health issues among radiologists
      and some remedies. It aims to sensitize radiologists about such health issues so
      that they can take timely remedial measures before it is really late.

PMID- 28571232
TI  - Morel-Lavallee Lesions-Review of Pathophysiology, Clinical Findings, Imaging
      Findings and Management.
AB  - Morel-Lavallee lesion is a post-traumatic soft tissue degloving injury. This is
      commonly associated with sports injury caused by a shearing force resulting in
      separation of the hypodermis from the deeper fascia. Most common at the greater
      trochanter, these injuries also occur at flank, buttock, lumbar spine, scapula
      and the knee. Separation of the tissue planes result in a complex serosanguinous
      fluid collection with areas of fat within it. The imaging appearance is variable
      and non specific, potentially mimicking simple soft tissue haematoma, superficial
      bursitis or necrotic soft tissue neoplasms. If not treated in the acute or early
      sub acute settings, these collections are at risk for superinfection, overlying
      tissue necrosis and continued expansion. In this review article, we discuss the
      clinical presentation, pathophysiology, imaging features and differential
      diagnostic considerations of Morel-Lavallee lesions. Role of imaging in guiding
      prompt and appropriate treatment has also been discussed.

PMID- 28571234
TI  - CLOVES Syndrome: Severe Neonatal Presentation.
AB  - Congenital Lipomatous Overgrowth, Vascular Malformations, Epidermal Nevi and
      Spinal Abnormalities (CLOVES syndrome) is a newly described and rare overgrowth
      disorder with serious morbidity. The course of this disease is not well
      understood and few cases have been reported among neonates. Moreover, not all of
      the signs of this syndrome are present at birth, making a high index of suspicion
      necessary. We present a cohort of three newborns with CLOVES syndrome who died
      due to septic and hemodynamic complications directly related to extensive
      vascular malformations. We discuss the clinical presentation in the neonatal
      period and propose a clinical classification.

PMID- 28571235
TI  - Effect of Dexmedetomidine Versus Fentanyl on Haemodynamic Response to Patients
      Undergoing Elective Laparoscopic Surgery: A Double Blinded Randomized Controlled
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dexmedetomidine, an alpha2 agonist, can be used as an adjuvant in
      general anaesthesia as it attenuates the stress response to various noxious
      stimuli and helps in maintaining the perioperative haemodynamic stability along
      with sedation and not causing any significant respiratory depression in the
      postoperative period. AIM: To study the difference in haemodynamic responses of
      dexmedetomidine and fentanyl in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients were divided into two groups of 30 each
      randomly. In Group F, fentanyl 0.5 MUg/kg as loading dose over 10 minutes prior
      to induction followed by 0.2-0.7 MUg/kg/hr as maintenance dose and in Group D,
      Dexmedetomidine 0.5 MUg/kg as loading dose over 10 minutes prior to induction
      followed by 0.2 MUg/kg/hr-0.7 MUg/kg/hr as maintenance dose till surgery was
      over. Haemodynamic variables and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores were recorded
      continuously. Postoperative sedation and recovery were assessed by modified
      Ramsay sedation score. RESULTS: Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) fell by 9% in Group
      D as compared to no fall in Group F during intubation. After intubation, 9%
      increase is seen in Group D v/s 19% in Group F. During the period of
      pneumoperitoneum upto 5 minutes post extubation, the SBP in Group D was
      significantly lower as compared to Group F rest duration, the difference was not
      significant between both groups. Heart Rate (HR) remained stable throughout the
      study except at laryngoscopy when it rose. Heart rate was similar in both groups
      at intubation, decreased by 3.51% in Group D as compare to 11.11% rise in Group
      F. Post intubate on, heart rate fell by 2% in Group D vs 15% rise in Group F.
      Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) remained higher than baseline than throughout the
      study. After intubation, 3% higher in Group D where as 15% in Group F increase
      was seen. In intraoperative period the difference between both groups was not
      significant. There was significant difference between two groups at 10 minutes,
      45 minutes of pneumoperitoneum. End Tidal CO2 (ETCO2) was similar in both groups.
      CONCLUSION: Dexmedetomidine is better drug as compared to fentanyl for
      maintaining the haemodynamic response during intubation and intraoperative
      period.

PMID- 28571236
TI  - The Effect of Sevoflurane Plus Propofol on Pain and Complications after
      Laminectomy: A Randomized Double Blind Clinical Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pain is one of the most important reasons for the patients concern
      after surgery. The perfect sedative should have properties like rapid onset,
      least pain and adverse effects. AIM: To assess the effect of sevoflurane plus
      propofol on postoperative pain, haemodynamic stability and complication after
      lumbar disc surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a randomized double- blind
      clinical trial. A total of 75 patients scheduled for elective lumbar disc surgery
      with simple random sampling design received sevoflurane (n=25, induced with
      Thiopentone and maintained with sevoflurane), propofol (n=25, induced and
      maintained with propofol) and sevoflurane plus propofol (n=25, induced with
      propofol and maintained with sevoflurane). Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to
      determine the intensity of postoperative pain. Complications after surgery and
      haemodynamic changes during surgery were recorded. RESULTS: The mean pain
      intensity and morphine consumption in the sevoflurane plus propofol group was
      lower compared to the propofol and sevoflurane groups at different intervals
      (p<0.001). The prevalence of shivering, nausea and vomiting in the sevoflurane
      plus propofol group was 24%, 28%, 28% respectively vs sevoflurane group 32%, 60%,
      48% respectively and propofol group 32%, 16%, 12% respectively with p-value >
      0.05, <0.001, <0.05 respectively. The mean blood pressure and heart rate were
      significantly lower in the sevoflurane plus propofol group compared to the
      propofol and sevoflurane groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the effect on
      pain and complications after lumbar disc surgery sevoflurane plus propofol can be
      regarded as safe and alternative drug in general anaesthesia for these patients.

PMID- 28571237
TI  - Dexmedetomidine as an Additive to Spinal Anaesthesia in Orthopaedic Patients
      Undergoing Lower Limb Surgeries: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Two
      Different Doses of Dexmedetomidine.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Use of dexmedetomidine as an additive to spinal anaesthesia is
      gaining popularity; but there seems to be no clear consensus on the ideal dose to
      be used. Because of dose related prolongation of duration of motor blockade along
      with increase in the incidence of side effects of dexmedetomidine namely
      hypotension and bradycardia, use of higher doses is not recommended. AIM: To
      evaluate the efficacy of two different doses of dexmedetomidine (3 MUg and 5 MUg)
      given in combination with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine via intrathecal route with
      regard to the quality of anaesthesia namely the time to attain highest sensory
      and motor blockade, side effects of dexmedetomidine and time to first rescue
      analgesia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty American Society of Anaesthesiologist
      (ASA) Grade I and II orthopaedic patients undergoing lower limb surgeries between
      the ages of 20-60 years and height >150 cm were randomly divided into two groups
      of 30 patients each: Group D3 to receive 3 MUg of Inj. Dexmedetomidine (0.5 ml,
      reconstituted using normal saline) along with 12.5 mg (2.5 ml) of 0.5% hyperbaric
      bupivacaine and Group D5 to receive 5 MUg of inj. Dexmedetomidine (0.5 ml,
      reconstituted using normal saline) along with 12.5 mg (2.5 ml) of 0.5% hyperbaric
      bupivacaine keeping the total volume of study drug constant in all 60 patients (3
      ml). Data recordings were done for time to reach best sensory and motor block,
      intraoperative haemodynamic changes and time to first postoperative rescue
      analgesia. Statistical analysis was done using student's t-test and Chi-square
      test with p-value of <0.05 considered to be significant. RESULTS: The two groups
      analysed were similar in terms of demographic profile, time to reach highest
      sensory block (T10) dermatome, time to reach Bromage scale 4, time to surgical
      incision after spinal and the total duration of surgery (p>0.05). The change in
      haemodynamics was similar (p>0.05). A statistically significant difference
      (p<0.001) was observed in time to first rescue analgesia after skin closure with
      Group D3 having 206.47 minutes while in Group D5 the time was 271.33 minutes.
      CONCLUSION: Used in a dose of 5 MUg (in 0.5 ml volume) as an additive in spinal
      anaesthesia maximal beneficial effect of dexmedetomidine can be obtained without
      any side effects.

PMID- 28571239
TI  - Efficacy of Dexmedetomidine in two Different Doses as an Adjuvant to Lignocaine
      in Patients Scheduled for Surgeries under Axillary Block.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The effect of adding dexmedetomidine (alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist)
      to local anaesthetics in brachial plexus blocks has been evaluated, however there
      has been no consensus regarding the ideal dose of dexmedetomidine. Without
      ultrasound axillary block has been considered as the safest approach for brachial
      block. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of two doses of dexmedetomidine (0.5 MUg/kg
      and 1 MUg/kg) as an adjuvant to lignocaine in patients undergoing forearm
      surgeries under axillary brachial plexus block. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      prospective randomized controlled study was conducted on 104 adult patients,
      American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) physical status 1 or 2. They were
      randomized and given following drug formulations, Group L (n=35) received 23 ml
      of 2% lignocaine with adrenaline + 7 ml of saline, Group LD0.5 (n=34) received 23
      ml of 2% lignocaine with adrenaline + 0.5 MUg/kg of dexmedetomidine diluted in
      saline to make a volume of 7 ml, Group LD1 (n=35) was given 23 ml of 2%
      lignocaine with adrenaline + 1 MUg/kg of dexmedetomidine diluted in saline to
      make volume of 7 ml, the total volume of drug being 30 ml in each group and
      concentration of lignocaine 1.5%. The duration of postoperative analgesia and
      demand for rescue analgesia were the primary outcomes and block characteristics
      taken as secondary outcome. RESULTS: Sensory and motor block onset times were
      shorter in Group L than in group LD0.5, LD1 (p < 0.05). Sensory and motor
      blockade durations were longer in Group LD1, LD0.5 than Group L (p<0.01).
      Duration of analgesia was longer in Group LD1 than in group LD0.5 and least in
      Group L (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Dexmedetomidine (0.5 MUg/kg and 1 MUg/kg) as an
      adjuvant in axillary brachial plexus increases the duration of postoperative
      analgesia and delays the requirement of first dose of analgesic in a dose
      dependent manner and 1 MUg/kg seems to be the near ideal dose of dexmedetomidine
      as an adjuvant in axillary block.

PMID- 28571238
TI  - Analgesic Effect of Intra-articular Morphine or Dexmedetomidine Added with
      Levobupivacaine in Arthroscopic Knee Surgeries - A Comparative Evaluation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Knee arthroscopy is associated with variable amount of
      postoperative pain. In an attempt to improve postoperative analgesia, intra
      articular injection of local anaesthetic in combination with other agent have
      been studied. However, the best combination is not known. AIM: To compare the
      analgesic efficacy of intra-articular injection of morphine and dexmedetomidine
      when added with levobupivacaine in arthroscopic knee surgeries. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Seventy eight patients, scheduled to undergo elective arthroscopic
      procedure under spinal anaesthesia were recruited for the study. All the patients
      received 18 ml of 0.25% levobupivacaine however in addition to this Group M
      patients received 8 mg (2 ml) morphine, Group D patients received 100MUg (2 ml)
      of dexmedetomidine while Group C patients received 2 ml of isotonic saline intra
      articularly. Postoperatively the intensity of pain was assessed using Numerical
      Rating Scale (NRS). Rescue analgesia was given at NRS >= 4. The duration of
      analgesia and total diclofenac consumption was noted. RESULTS: The mean duration
      of analgesia was longest in Group M (576.20+/-67.09 minutes) followed by Group D
      (460.93+/-38.95 minutes) and Group C (370.27+/-58.80 minutes) statistically this
      difference was found to be highly significant (p-value < 0.001). Total
      consumption of diclofenac in 24 hours was found lowest in group M (86.25+/-27.48
      mg) followed by group D (110.87+/-44.48 mg) and group C (141.35+/-44.13 mg) this
      difference was found to be highly significant (p-value < 0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Morphine when added with levobupivacaine in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee
      surgery improves the quality and prolongs the duration of postoperative
      analgesia.

PMID- 28571240
TI  - Monitoring Microcirculatory Blood Flow during Cardiopulmonary Bypass in
      Paediatric Cardiac Surgery Patients as a Predictor for Anaerobic Metabolism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Improving tissue oxygenation is one of most important tasks in
      management of low cardiac output. Central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) and
      lactate are established criteria for monitoring the adequacy of tissue
      oxygenation. The venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide difference [P(v-a)CO2] is
      inversely associated with cardiac output. AIM: To study the use of P(v-a)CO2/C(a
      v)O2 ratio as a marker of low cardiac output during Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB)
      in paediatric cardiac surgical patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study
      was a prospective observational study conducted over a period of nine months from
      1st August 2015 to 30th April 2016. A total of 110 children were enrolled, who
      underwent CPB during cardiac surgery. The CPB time, Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP),
      flow rate, cross clamp time, were recorded for all the patients as well as
      Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) and Venous Blood Gas (VBG) were checked at four
      different points of time: 1) Before CPB, 2) 10 minutes after initiation of CPB,
      3) 30 minutes on CPB and 4) off CPB. RESULTS: The results indicated that Receiver
      Operating Characteristic curve (ROC curve) at 30 minute of CPB time P(v-a)CO2/C(a
      v)O2 was more specific and sensitive than lactate to detect anaerobic metabolism.
      Decrease platelet count was significant on second postoperative day. CONCLUSION:
      The present study suggests the use of P(v-a)CO2/C(a-v)O2 ratio as a marker to
      detect low flow on CPB. Our study was single centric and with a small size,
      studies involving large population and multiple centers are required to support
      the recent findings.

PMID- 28571241
TI  - Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Complicated by Amiodarone Induced Pulmonary
      Fibrosis: Don't Let Your Guard Down.
AB  - Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic agent which is commonly used to treat both
      supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. This iodine containing compound has
      been associated with several adverse events like it tends to accumulate in
      several organs. Among those, the most serious is Amiodarone Pulmonary Toxicity
      (APT). While the incidence of this complication has decreased with the use of
      lower doses of amiodarone but it can occur with any dose. Pulmonary complications
      usually present as an acute or subacute pneumonitis. On chest X-ray and high
      resolution Computed Tomography (CT), diffuse infiltrates were found. Here, we
      present a case in which acute respiratory distress syndrome like features were
      detected which got subsided after stopping tablet amiodarone. The patient was a
      known case of atrial fibrillation for which she was taking tablet amiodarone for
      the last six months.

PMID- 28571242
TI  - The Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Resilience among the Wives
      of Patients with Schizophrenia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The wives of patients with schizophrenia experience high levels of
      stress due to their spouses' disease, which leads to certain problems and
      decreased adaptability and efficiency in them. AIM: This study investigated the
      efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on resilience in
      schizophrenia patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study,
      40 wives of patients with schizophrenia (20 assigned to experimental group and 20
      to control group) whose husbands were kept in rehabilitation centers for mental
      disorders were enrolled according to convenience sampling. In the experimental
      group, the therapeutic protocol of MBCT was conducted. Accordingly, the patients
      were encouraged to process the experiences in a non-judgmental manner as they
      have been formed, and to change their relationship with and embrace challenging
      thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, the control group underwent no intervention.
      The research instrument was Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Data were analysed
      by ANCOVA in SPSS 16. RESULTS: At post-test, mean resilience score of the
      experimental group (77.95+/-4.71) was much higher than that of the control group
      (71.75+/-5.81). There was a significant difference in the mean resilience score
      at post-test between the experimental and control groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Training MBCT strategies was effective on resilience in the wives of
      schizophrenia patients. Therefore, this approach can be incorporated into mental
      health-related interventions for the families of patients with psychiatric
      disorders such as schizophrenia.

PMID- 28571243
TI  - Relationship between Maternal General and Specific-Pregnancy Stress, Anxiety, and
      Depression Symptoms and Pregnancy Outcome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite scientific advances in the field of physical problems
      during pregnancy, the effect of mental problems on the health of pregnant women
      is still an important issue that needs further research. AIM: To determine the
      association of symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression during pregnancy and
      there effect on the pregnancy outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a
      descriptive correlational study. The population included 200 pregnant women of
      the urban and rural health centers affiliated with Babol University of Medical
      Sciences. There were 100 each in second and third trimester. Convenience multi
      stage cluster sampling was performed. Data collection was received through the
      Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), Pregnancy Distress Questionnaire (PDQ),
      and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) questionnaires. RESULTS: The correlation
      results showed a significant difference between variables of depression, stress,
      and anxiety with birth weight, birth height and head circumference and infants'
      APGAR score (p<0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that interpersonal
      relationships on prediction of infant weight (B=-0.324), anxiety on prediction of
      infant height (B=-0.197), stress on prediction of head circumference (B=-0.350)
      and depression on prediction of APGAR score (B=-0.323) are effective (p<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The findings emphasize the need to identify women with depression,
      anxiety and stress in pregnancy, and scheduling to avoid adverse consequences of
      the pregnancy outcome.

PMID- 28571244
TI  - Psychogenic Belching: A Case Report.
AB  - Conversion symptoms usually appear with emotional conflicts of the patient.
      Belching's psychogenic aetiology is not unheard of and can be a manifestation of
      conversion disorder though rare. Current case is of a middle aged woman
      presenting with belching unresponsive to medical management. The patient improved
      after supportive psychotherapy sessions and placebo medication.

PMID- 28571245
TI  - Rituximab: A Magic Bullet for Pemphigus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pemphigus, an autoimmune disease, was fatal before the era of
      corticosteroids. With the advent of steroids, mortality decreased but morbidity
      was present due to the side effects of high dose steroids. Newer drugs targeted
      at the molecular level are said to have fewer side effects and improved
      effectiveness. AIM: The aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness of one
      such drug, Rituximab, a biological, in treating pemphigus vulgaris and to
      identify common adverse events. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was an open label
      prospective interventional study, conducted from September 2013 to May 2015, in
      the Department of Dermatology, Stanley Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,
      India. Twenty patients with pemphigus were included in the study. Ten were
      refractory to conventional therapy and 10, new cases. Patients who satisfied
      inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study after informed,
      written consent. Rituximab was administered according to Rheumatoid arthritis
      protocol. The patients were followed up as out patients after discharge, end
      points and adverse events were noted. RESULTS: There were 14 females (70%) and
      six males (30%). The mean age of the study group was 41.35 years. The mean
      disease duration was 11.7 months. The mean duration of follow up being 14.25
      months. After rituximab, 13 patients remained in remission for varying periods of
      3-22 months. The mean duration of complete remission off- treatment with
      Dexamethasone Cyclophosphamide Pulse (DCP) was 3.6 months; with rituximab it was
      8.8 months. Seven (35%) patients relapsed during the study of whom six had
      received rituximab after being refractory to conventional treatment. Patients who
      relapsed had higher mean disease duration (21 months) than the remission group
      (6.384 months). Two patients (10%) developed immediate adverse events. Six
      patients (30%) developed late adverse events the commonest being reactivation of
      herpes labialis. CONCLUSION: Rituximab was effective in treating pemphigus
      vulgaris, was significantly better than conventional treatment, decreased the
      need for additional steroids and other immunosuppressants and induced prolonged
      remission. Rituximab was more effective when given early in the disease process.
      Further studies may highlight the need for additional cycles of rituximab to
      maintain sustained remission.

PMID- 28571246
TI  - A Comparative Analysis of Two Different Dose Fractionation Regimens of High Dose
      Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy in Treatment of Carcinoma of Uterine Cervix: A
      Prospective Randomized Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: High Dose Rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy is an integral
      component in treatment of carcinoma uterine cervix. There is no consensus about
      optimal fractionation in HDR brachytherapy. AIM: To assess the feasibility,
      tolerability of HDR intracavitary brachytherapy schedule of 8 Gy per fraction per
      week for 3 fractions over 6Gy per fraction per week for 4 fractions with or
      without chemotherapy in the treatment of carcinoma of uterine cervix. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: From 2013 to 2014 total 80 patients with carcinoma of the uterine
      cervix (Stages IIB and IIIB) were treated with External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT)
      and High Dose Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy (HDR- ICBT). During course of
      EBRT, those patients fit for brachytherapy were randomized to arm A- 6 Gy per
      fraction per week for 4 fractions and arm B - 8 Gy per fraction per week for 3
      fractions. RESULTS: The median follow up was 30 months, local control was 90% in
      Arm A and 83.3% in Arm B (p= 0.21) and the disease-free survival was 90% in Arm A
      and 83.3% in Arm B (p= 0.39). There is no significance difference for late rectal
      and bladder toxicities between two arms (p=0.43). CONCLUSION: Taking into account
      of increased hospital burden of locally advanced cancer cervix patients in Indian
      context, HDR intracavitary brachytherapy schedule of 8 Gy per fraction per week x
      3 fractions is the preferable option over 6 Gy per fraction per week x 4
      fractions with regard to comparable loco-regional control, acute and late
      toxicity, disease free survival and better patients compliance to lesser
      fractionation schedule.

PMID- 28571247
TI  - Extramedullary Solitary Plasmacytoma: Demonstrating the Role of 18F-FDG PET
      Imaging.
AB  - An Extramedullary Plasmacytoma (EMP) is characterized by a neoplastic
      proliferation of clonal plasma cells outside the medullary cavity. EMPs are a
      rare occurrence compared to other malignant plasma cell disorders and account for
      approximately 3-5% of plasma-cell neoplasms. Although most cases of EMP are not
      immediately life threatening at diagnosis, EMPs can progress to Multiple Myeloma
      (MM) and thus, warrant monitoring. Currently, there are no standard guidelines
      for when and how to monitor patients who are diagnosed with or treated for a
      solitary plasmacytoma. We present a case of solitary EMP who was treated
      adequately and definitively but developed a distinct, non-contiguous subsequent
      solitary EMP and was only discovered due to surveillance 18F-Fludeoxyglucose
      Positron Emission Tomography (18F-FDG) (PET) scan. Uniform surveillance
      guidelines should be developed and the potential benefits of PET and other
      imaging techniques as well as their cost should be considered.

PMID- 28571248
TI  - Anaemia in CD5 Negative Chronic Lymphoproliferative Disorder: Importance of Bone
      Marrow Examination.

PMID- 28571249
TI  - Effectiveness of Various Endodontic Irrigants on the Micro-Hardness of the Root
      Canal Dentin: An in vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Irrigating solutions used for the elimination of micro-organisms
      during root canal preparation may affect the chemical and the physical properties
      of dentin thereby rendering the tooth more susceptible to fracture. Therefore
      careful and judicious selection of irrigant is required which have maximum
      benefits with minimum undesirable properties. AIM: The aim of the present study
      was to evaluate the effect of various endodontic irrigants on the micro-hardness
      of the root canal dentin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This in vitro study was carried
      out on eighty freshly extracted mandibular premolars with single canals. They
      were decoronated at the cemento-enamel junction. Roots were sectioned
      longitudinally into two halves. They were then polished and placed in
      autopolymerised resin moulds with the polished surface facing outside. The
      samples were divided into four groups based on the irrigants in which they were
      immersed i.e., 3% Sodium Hypochlorite (3% NaOCl), 17% Ethylene Dioxide Tetra
      Acetic Acid (17% EDTA), 0.2% Chitosan and 6% Morindacitrifolia Juice (MCJ) for 15
      minutes each. All the specimens were then subjected to micro-hardness testing
      using a Vickers micro-hardness tester. Statistical analysis was done using one
      way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Post-Hoc Tukey test and Paired t-test to
      compare the pre and post immersion micro-hardness values of the selected samples.
      RESULTS: The results of the present study indicated that 17% EDTA and 0.2%
      Chitosan, significantly decreased the micro-hardness of root dentin whereas 6%
      MCJ and 3% NaOCl had no significant effect on the microhardness before and after
      immersing in the irrigants. CONCLUSION: A 6% MCJ and 3% NaOCl which have
      significant antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and smear layer removing
      properties showed negligible effect on the micro-hardness of root canal dentin
      making them suitable endodontic irrigating solution.

PMID- 28571250
TI  - Impact of Dental Disorders and its Influence on Self Esteem Levels among
      Adolescents.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Self esteem is more of a psychological concept therefore, even the
      common dental disorders like dental trauma, tooth loss and untreated carious
      lesions may affect the self esteem thus influencing the quality of life. AIM:
      This study aims to assess the impact of dental disorders among the adolescents on
      their self esteem level. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present cross-sectional study
      was conducted among 10 to 17 years adolescents. In order to obtain a
      representative sample, multistage sampling technique was used and sample was
      selected based on Probability Proportional to Enrolment size (PPE). Oral health
      assessment was carried out using WHO type III examination and self esteem was
      estimated using the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale score (RSES). The descriptive and
      inferential analysis of the data was done by using IBM SPSS software. Logistic
      and linear regression analysis was executed to test the individual association of
      different independent clinical variables with self esteem. RESULTS: Total sample
      of 1140 adolescents with mean age of 14.95 +/-2.08 and RSES of 27.09 +/-3.12 were
      considered. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was applied and best
      predictors in relation to RSES in the descending order were Dental Health
      Component (DHC), Aesthetic Component (AC), dental decay {(aesthetic zone),
      (masticatory zone)}, tooth loss {(aesthetic zone), (masticatory zone)} and
      anterior fracture of tooth. CONCLUSION: It was found that various dental
      disorders like malocclusion, anterior traumatic tooth, tooth loss and untreated
      decay causes a profound impact on aesthetics and psychosocial behaviour of
      adolescents, thus affecting their self esteem.

PMID- 28571251
TI  - Evaluation of Interdental Spaces of the Mandibular Posterior Area for Orthodontic
      Mini-Implants with Cone-Beam Computed Tomography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The use of mini-implants has increased in recent years because of
      their role in absolute anchorage, but the placement sites may affect the success
      or failure of the procedure, so it is very important to determine the appropriate
      and safe location for orthodontic mini-implants. On the other hand, the Cone Beam
      Computed Tomography (CBCT), which offers clear 3-Dimentional (3D) images, has
      been widely used in orthodontics and implant dentistry for surgical guidance of
      mini-implant placement. AIM: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate
      inter-radicular spaces between mandibular canines to second molars using cone
      beam 3D images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective cross-sectional
      descriptive study, maxillofacial CBCT scan data were obtained from 40 adults. The
      3D images were evaluated in five axial sections at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm from the
      cementoenamel Junction (CEJ). To determine inter-radicular spaces, tangent lines
      were drawn buccolingually to the roots in axial section and the minimum distance
      between these two lines was measured. The data was analysed using Friedman test
      with SPSS(ver.13). RESULTS: Interradicular spaces of canine to second molar
      increased from cervical to apical direction. The maximum distance was recorded at
      4 mm from the CEJ between first and second molars. CONCLUSION: According to our
      findings there is a distinct pattern of inter-radicular space changes in
      mandible. Attention to this pattern during placement of mini-implants can ensure
      the safety of the procedure.

PMID- 28571252
TI  - Nature of Hard Tissues in Oral Pathological Lesions -Using Modified Gallego's
      Stain.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Histological stains are dyes that bind to various tissues. Special
      stains form an integral part of routine histopathology as an adjunct to
      Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E), and give meaningful diagnostic information of the
      tissues available. By using routine histological procedure like H&E alone, it is
      difficult to differentiate the various hard tissues present in the oral
      pathological lesions. Modified Gallego's stain can be used as one of the
      differential stain for these hard tissues. AIM: To differentiate various hard
      tissues of teeth and to identify the presence of hard tissue components in
      different oral pathological lesions using Modified Gallego's stain under light
      microscope. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total sample of 20 cases, amongst which 10
      were human extracted teeth and 10 oral pathological lesions were included. From
      10 human extracted teeth, five ground sections and five decalcified sections were
      prepared. From pathological lesions, two slides of each lesion were prepared. All
      the sections were stained with Modified Gallego's stain and viewed under light
      microscopy. RESULTS: In properly stained slides, cementum stained red, dentin and
      bone stained green and enamel stained pink in colour. CONCLUSION: Modified
      Gallego's stain can be used as a differential stain for various hard tissues in
      oral pathological lesions and also for ground sections for which histochemical
      stains are very rare.

PMID- 28571253
TI  - Antibacterial Effects of Garlic Extracts and Ziziphora Essential Oil on Bacteria
      Associated with Peri-Implantitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Peri-implantitis is an inflammatory process, characterized by loss
      of bone around implants and bleeding on probing. Colonization of bacteria in the
      pocket created around the implant is one of the most important aetiologic factors
      involved. Although antibiotics are routinely used and are effective agents
      against this bacterial infection, due to the side effects and drug resistance of
      these medications, researchers are more interested in using herbal derivatives.
      There are relatively limited number of studies in this respect. AIM: To evaluate
      and compare the antibacterial effects of the extracts of Allium sativum and
      Ziziphora clinopodioides essential oil on S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: In this in vitro study conducted at Tabriz University of Medical
      Sciences between March 2016 and July 2016, aqueous and methanolic extracts of
      garlic and ziziphora essential oil were prepared and then their effects on one
      standard strain of P. aeruginosa and two standard strains of S. aureus and 18
      clinical strains, (nine strains of P. aeruginosa and nine strains of S. aureus)
      which had been isolated from wound and blood cultures, were evaluated using the
      reference broth macro dilution method and disk diffusion technique. Data were
      evaluated with descriptive statistical techniques and t-test for independent
      groups, using SPSS 17. RESULTS: Aqueous and methanolic extracts of garlic did not
      exhibit inhibitory effects on S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Minimum Inhibitory
      Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) for ziziphora
      essential oil against S. aureus were 0.25 and 0.5 MUg/mL, respectively. The mean
      diameter of growth inhibition zone for S. aureus in the ziziphora essential oil
      group (0.25MUg/mL) and Vancomycin group (10 MUg/mL) were 26.09+/-5.8 and 14.63+/
      1.20 mm respectively (p<0.001). Growth inhibition zone for P. aeruginosa were
      observed in only one (35 mm) and three cases (12.5+/-3.4 mm) in the ziziphora
      essential oil group (0.5 MUg/mL) and Nalidixic acid group (10 MUg/mL)
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The essential oil of ziziphora exhibited a favourable
      antibacterial effect on S. aureus; therefore, its extract can be used as an
      effective antimicrobial agent alone or in association with other antibiotics in
      the treatment of infections due to S. aureus.

PMID- 28571254
TI  - Quantitative Analysis of Remineralization of Artificial Carious Lesions with
      Commercially Available Newer Remineralizing Agents Using SEM-EDX- In Vitro
      Study".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The basic principle of remineralization is by advocating a
      biological or non-invasive approach rather than the surgical approach for early
      enamel lesions. There are relatively newer products available for
      remineralization, latest being the resin-infiltration technique, commercially
      available as Icon. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the remineralizing
      potential of Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate (CPP-ACP), Vantej
      and Icon by the quantitative evaluation of mineral gain. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Seventy eight maxillary premolars were decoronated at Cemento-Enamel Junction
      (CEJ) and then sectioned mesio-distally using diamond disc into two halves.
      Mineral content of the sound specimens were recorded using Energy Dispersive X
      ray (EDAX) micro-analyser. The samples were then subjected to demineralization by
      using demineralizing solution. The samples were grouped (n=26) based on the
      remineralizing agent used, Group 1: Vantej, Group 2: CPP-ACP, Group 3: Icon.
      After the application of remineralizing agent, the mineral content was measured
      using EDAX. RESULTS: After remineralization, there was a significant difference
      between the groups when calcium and phosphorous ratios (Ca:P) were compared,
      showing greater potential of remineralization for CPP-ACP followed by Vantej and
      Icon group. CONCLUSION: CPP-ACP performed better than Vantej and Icon in
      remineralizing the demineralized enamel.

PMID- 28571255
TI  - Effect of Diclofenac Mouthwash on Postoperative Pain after Periodontal Surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Non-Steroidal AntiInflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used drugs
      for the management of pain. Oral administration of NSAIDs has various adverse
      events like gastrointestinal alterations - nausea, dyspepsia and gastrointestinal
      bleeding, hepatotoxicity and blood dyscrasias. As orally given NSAIDs are
      associated with systemic side effects, it is preferred to alleviate pain and
      inflammation using topical medication. Thus, recently the focus has been on the
      development of topical administration of NSAIDs in the form of gels, toothpastes
      and rinses. AIM: To determine if diclofenac mouthwash, would be a better
      alternative to its systemic administration post surgery, in terms of patient
      acceptance and to minimize the adverse effects of orally administered drug.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was designed as a single blinded, randomized,
      controlled clinical trial. Thirty chronic periodontitis patients scheduled for
      full mouth flap surgeries were randomized to receive either Diclofenac Mouthwash
      (MW) or Diclofenac Tablets (TB), post surgery. The MW group patients (15) were
      advised to rinse undiluted 15 ml solution for 30 secs, twice daily for three
      days. TB group (15) was advised to take 50 mg tablet twice daily for three days.
      A 10 point Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Wong Baker Facial Rating Scale (FRS) was
      recorded to measure the pain perception by the patients. Gingival status was
      assessed by the Modified Gingival Index (MGI) at Baseline and seventh day. Data
      pertaining to pain perception were analysed using repeated measures of ANOVA
      (Analysis of Variance) with post-hoc LSD test. RESULTS: Intra group comparisons
      showed a significant reduction in pain, post surgery. Inter group comparisons
      showed a significant reduction only in the MGI scores of MW group, when compared
      to TB group. Intergroup comparisons showed no significant reduction in pain
      scores between both the groups, stating that diclofenac mouthwash is as effective
      as oral administration. CONCLUSION: Diclofenac mouthwash is a better alternative
      to the systemic administration post surgery, in terms of patient acceptance and
      to minimize the adverse effects of orally administrated drug.

PMID- 28571256
TI  - Keeping up with Dental Literature: A Study on Continuing Professional Development
      among Dental Practitioners in Hubli-Dharwad, India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) refers to skills and
      knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. In
      India, very few studies have been documented to discover the patterns of
      information update by dental practitioners. AIM: To discover the educational
      tools that dentists of Hubli - Dharwad, Karnataka, India, prefer for updating
      their knowledge on new therapeutic methods and to assess the perceived usefulness
      of these CPD activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Face to face interview was
      carried out using questionnaire comprising questions on various CPD activities
      among all the practicing dentists. Pearson's chi-square test was used to evaluate
      any association between the frequency of information update and perceived
      usefulness with gender, qualification, practice types and academic attachments.
      RESULTS: Out of 112 practicing dentists in Hubli-Dharwad, 104 consented for the
      study. Mean age group of the study population was 32.3+/-7.56 (SD) years.
      Discussion with colleagues and discussion with medical sales representatives were
      the most frequently utilized information sources. On the other hand, attending
      dental fairs was found to be the most rarely utilized method of information
      access. Discussion with colleagues, reading textbooks and accessing internet were
      rated as most useful CPD activities and discussion with sales representatives and
      attending dental fairs were rated as least useful CPD activities. CONCLUSION:
      Both conventional methods of information sources like discussions with colleagues
      and textbook reading as well as contemporary information sources like accessing
      internet were the preferred methods of information update by dental practitioners
      of Hubli-Dharwad.

PMID- 28571257
TI  - Comparative Assessment of Canal Transportation and Centering Ability of Reciproc
      and One Shape File Systems Using CBCT-An In Vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Root canal preparation leads to deviation of the canal anatomy
      causing canal transportation which affects the success of the treatment. Cone
      Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is a non invasive imaging technique to analyse
      the shape of the root canal before and after the preparation. AIM: The purpose of
      this study was to investigate and evaluate the canal transportation in curved
      mandibular molar root canals and centering ability of Reciproc and One Shape file
      systems after instrumentation using CBCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty
      mandibular molars were taken and allocated into two groups (n=10): Group 1-One
      Shape and Group 2-Reciproc. The canals were then scanned using CS 3D CBCT scanner
      (Carestream) before and after preparation, to assess the transportation and
      centering values at different levels respectively from the apex. The data
      gathered were then assessed statistically with Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS:
      Analysis revealed that Reciproc and One Shape showed statistically no significant
      difference in terms of canal transportation and centering ability (p>0.05).
      CONCLUSION: One shape and Reciproc performed similar in terms of canal
      transportation & centering ability.

PMID- 28571258
TI  - Immediate Versus Delayed Loading of Implant for Replacement of Missing Mandibular
      First Molar: A Randomized Prospective Six Years Clinical Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Emergence of dental implants made the replacement of missing tooth
      easy. During the early days of introduction, implants were loaded three to six
      months after implant insertion, but understanding of healing cascade and improved
      production technology has changed the phase of restoration from delayed to
      immediate loading. AIM: To evaluate and compare the clinical outcome of immediate
      and delayed loaded implant supported prosthesis for missing mandibular first
      molar. The objectives were bleeding on probing, probing depth, implant mobility,
      marginal bone level and peri-implant radiolucency were evaluated during follow up
      period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients were included in this study who
      were in the need of fixed implant supported prosthesis for missing mandibular
      first molar. Single tooth implant with immediate loading done within two days of
      implant insertion in one group and another group were loaded after three months
      of implant insertion. These groups were evaluated clinically and radiographically
      over a period of 72 months after loading using Wilcoxon matched pairs test and
      Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: The study consists of 14 male and six female
      patients with the age range of 19 to 31 years. There was no bleeding on probing
      and probing depth remained well within the normal range even after 72 months of
      loading among both the groups. Minimal marginal bone loss observed with no
      mobility and peri-implant radiolucency. CONCLUSION: Implant supported prosthesis
      for missing mandibular first molar with immediate loading can be used as a
      successful treatment modality. It reduces treatment time, provides early function
      and prevents undue migration of adjacent tooth. Immediate loading showed similar
      clinical and radiographic results as that of delayed loading, indicating it as an
      equally efficient technique for implant supported prosthesis.

PMID- 28571259
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Two Bis-GMA Based Orthodontic Bonding Adhesives - A
      Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Of the various orthodontic bonding materials, orthofix is a fairly
      new entrant into this field. This material was exclusively introduced for
      orthodontic bonding purposes; however, the application of this material for
      orthodontic purpose has not been scientifically evaluated so far. AIM: The aim of
      the present study was to evaluate by an in-vivo double blinded split mouth rando
      mized clinical trial, the overall bond failure rates of two Bis-GMA based
      composite materials namely Transbond XT and Orthofix. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Thirty three participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were randomly
      allocated by lottery method into two groups. Group A participants had maxillary
      right and the mandibular left quadrants bonded using Orthofix and the remaining
      quadrants were bonded using Transbond XT. In Group B, the quadrants were
      reversed. Both groups were followed for a period of six months and were reviewed
      every 3-4 weeks. If a bond failed, the details were recorded and the duration of
      treatment before each breakage was calculated. Data were analyzed using
      Independent t-test and chi-square test. (p< 0.05) at 90% power. RESULTS: The
      overall bond failure rate for 263 brackets was 2.7% for Orthofix and 3.6% for
      Transbond XT. The mean esitmated survival time was 221.58 days for Transbond XT
      and for Orthofix was 220.07 days. The difference between these mean values were
      statistically insignificant (p>0.05). Similarly, failure rates of the anterior
      and posterior segment were compared and no difference was observed between the
      groups (p>0.05). The maxillary and mandibular teeth were compared and more
      failures were found in the mandibular teeth among both the groups but they were
      not statistically significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The overall bond failure rate
      and mean survival time for Transbond XT was similar to Orthofix with no
      statistically significant difference.

PMID- 28571260
TI  - Anxiety Levels among Five-Year-Old Children Undergoing ART Restoration- A Cross
      Sectional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) involves manually excavating
      the carious part of the tooth and restoring the prepared cavity with chemically
      adhesive restorative material [Glass Ionomer Cement (GIC)] and it may induce
      and/or impact the dental anxiety in children. It is well established that ART
      procedure is less anxiety producing when compared with other restorative
      procedures using dental drill. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      anxiety levels among five-year-old children undergoing ART restoration in I.T.S.
      Dental College, Greater Noida, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 50, five
      year-old children visiting the Outpatient Department (OPD) of ITS Dental College,
      Greater Noida was selected for ART treatment using Fuji IX GIC. Modified Venham
      Anxiety Scale based on their behaviour and heart rate of the children were
      measured and recorded before, during and after the ART procedure. Heart rate was
      measured using Radial Pulse examination method. Chi-square test was used and
      tests were conducted using IBM SPSS software (ver.20.0; IBM, Chicago, IL, USA).
      RESULTS: Before the ART treatment, heart rates and Modified Venham Anxiety Scores
      of majority of children were higher than that after the treatment. A p-value was
      statistically significant (0.028 and 0.048 respectively) for association of
      gender with heart rate and Modified Venham's score before the ART treatment. No
      statistically significant relation was found between the variables during and
      after the ART treatment. CONCLUSION: The level of anxiety for ART treatment in
      children was higher before the treatment than that during and after the
      treatment. There is a correlation between the gender of children and their level
      of anxiety for ART treatment.

PMID- 28571261
TI  - Effect of Different Ferrule Length on Fracture Resistance of Endodontically
      Treated Teeth: An In vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A ferrule has been described as a key element of tooth preparation
      when using a post and a core. It is a vertical band of tooth structure at the
      gingival aspect of crown preparation. It lessens the stress transmission to the
      root which is due to forces from posts or bending during seating of the post. The
      incorporation of a ferrule can help to withstand the forces of occlusion,
      preserve the hermetic seal of the luting cement, and minimize the concentration
      of stresses at the junction of post and core. AIM: To evaluate and compare the
      effect of ferrule length on fracture resistance of endodontically treated
      mandibular premolar teeth, restored with prefabricated glass fiber post luted
      with resin cement, composite core and a full coverage metal crown. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Forty freshly extracted mandibular premolars were treated
      endodontically. They were randomly divided into four groups according to their
      ferrule height: 3 mm, 2 mm, 1 mm and 0 mm (no ferrule). All specimens were
      restored with prefabricated glass fibre posts (Reforpost, Angelus) and composite
      resin (FiltekTM Z250XT). Standardized preparation was done on each specimen to
      receive a cast metal crown. The specimens were thermocycled and compressive
      static load at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min was applied at an angle of 30
      degrees  on lingual incline of buccal cusp of the crown until failure occurred.
      The load (N) at failure and mode of failure were recorded. Statistical analysis
      was performed with Kruskal Wallis test. RESULT: Fracture resistance values among
      the groups was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). The 3 mm ferrule
      group had significantly higher failure load (971.99+/-133.07) compared to 2 mm
      (848.84+/-109.60), 1 mm (714.64+/-133.89) and 0 mm ferrule groups (529.36+/
      119.95). More favourable failure modes were observed in almost all groups.
      CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that fracture resistance of
      endodontically treated teeth increases as ferrule length increases.

PMID- 28571262
TI  - Evaluation of Microleakage with Total Etch, Self Etch and Universal Adhesive
      Systems in Class V Restorations: An In vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adhesive dentistry is overwhelmingly evolving with respect to the
      dental surgeon's and patient's perspective. Embracing the concept of minimally
      invasive dentistry which follows minimum intervention performed to produce good
      adhesion and tooth coloured restoration, in turn makes the newer generation
      bonding agents more acceptable and appropriate withstanding the demand for stable
      restoration. AIM: To study and compare the extent of microleakage between tooth
      and restoration interface in class V composite resin restorations applying one
      Total Etch (AdperTM single bond), two Self Etch (AdperTM SE Plus, AdperTM Easy
      One) and Universal bonding agents using dye penetration method. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 120 freshly orthodontically extracted human maxillary and
      mandibular premolars were included in the study. Class V cavities were prepared
      with a cylindrical diamond bur on the facial surface of each tooth, having
      approximate dimensions of 3 mm * 2.5 mm * 1.5 mm. Teeth were divided into four
      groups (30 in each group). Group A AdperTM single bond 2 (3M ESPE), Group B
      AdperTM SE Plus (3M ESPE), Group C AdperTM Easy One (3M ESPE), Group D AdperTM
      Single Bond Universal (3M ESPE) bonding agents were applied as per the
      manufacturer's instructions and the cavities were then restored with nanohybrid
      composite resin (Tetric N Ceram Ivoclar Vivadent). Teeth were then thermocycled
      for 200 cycles at 5 degrees -55 degrees C with 60 seconds of dwell time.
      Specimens were subjected to a dye leakage test. Microleakage was evaluated using
      a stereomicroscope. Data was analysed using Kruskal- Wallis, Dunn and Mann
      Whitney test to assess the difference in microleakage among various adhesives.
      RESULTS: The present study revealed that the microleakage was more at the
      gingival margin when compared with occlusal and this was found to be
      statistically significant. At the occlusal margin statistical significant
      difference was found only between AdperTM Easy one and AdperTM SE Plus, on the
      other hand at gingival margin no statistical significant difference was found.
      CONCLUSION: One step self etch agents showed less microleakage than total etches
      and universal adhesive at occlusal margin. Higher degree of microleakage was
      observed at gingival margin compared to occlusal margin.

PMID- 28571263
TI  - The Effect of Accelerated Aging on the Colour Stability of Composite Resin Luting
      Cements using Different Bonding Techniques.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The main criterion of successful aesthetic restoration is to match
      the colour of the adjacent teeth. Porcelain laminate veneer is widely practiced
      indirect restoration in the contemporary aesthetic dentistry. The underlying
      luting cement colour influences the final outcome of the thin, translucent veneer
      shade. Hence, colour stability of luting cement is important criteria during
      their selection. AIM: The objective of the study was to assess the colour
      stability of the different dentin bonding techniques in composite resin luting
      cements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of forty intact, non carious teeth were
      prepared to receive Porcelain Laminate Veneers (PLV). The lithium disilicate PLV
      were fabricated, and fitting surface was conditioned with 5% hydrofluoric acid
      and silane application. According to the bonding technique employed for the
      cementation of the PLV, the teeth samples were randomly divided into the four
      groups of ten each. The Group I and Group II samples were conditioned with etch
      and wash; the polymerization of resin was accomplished with the dual cure for
      Group I and light cure for Group II. The Group III and Group IV samples were
      conditioned with self-etch and self-adhesive technique correspondingly. The teeth
      shade was recorded in similar locations with a spectrophotometer before and after
      subjecting them to the accelerated ageing process. The ageing process included
      the thermocycling process in water between 5 degrees C and 55 degrees C for 5000
      cycles followed by 100 hours xenon light exposure. The data were analysed with
      SPSS 19.0 by ANOVA and LSD post-hoc comparison. RESULTS: The higher mean colour
      change was observed in Group I sample (etch washdual cure) with a ?E value of
      2.491. The ?E value for Group II (etch wash-light cure) and Group III (selfetch)
      was 1.110 and 2.357 respectively. The lowest mean colour change was observed in
      Group IV (self-adhesive) with ?E at 0.614. Statistical analysis showed
      significant differences between Group IV and Group I; Group IV and Group III with
      p<0.05. CONCLUSION: The self-adhesive and etch-wash light cure luting cements
      were found to be less susceptible for colour changes due to accelerated ageing.

PMID- 28571264
TI  - Evaluation of Resting Tongue Position in Recently Extracted and Long Term
      Completely Edentulous Patients: A Prospective Interventional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Presence of abnormal resting tongue position can lead to poor
      denture retention and stability. The prevalence of retracted tongue position has
      been found to be higher in partially edentulous subjects compared to dentate
      subjects and is greatest in completely edentulous individuals. AIM: To evaluate
      resting tongue position in recently extracted and long term completely edentulous
      patients, and to evaluate the efficacy of achieving retracted tongue position by
      simple modification in complete denture along with certain tongue exercises.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 62 study subjects were classified into two
      groups based on duration of edentulousness. Group A: Recently extracted
      completely edentulous subjects (<1 year), Group B: Long term completely
      edentulous subjects (>1-10 year). The patients with retracted tongue position
      were subjected to a simple modification in complete denture along with inclusion
      of certain tongue exercises. After eight months patients were recalled and
      evaluated. The data was analysed using SPSS statistical tests like mean, standard
      deviation, proportion, Chi square test and McNemar Test. RESULTS: Among the study
      subjects, 54.9% had retracted tongue position. Group B showed high proportion of
      retracted tongue position (68.8%) as compared to Group A. After the intervention,
      42.8% study subjects gained normal resting tongue position. CONCLUSION: Long term
      completely edentulous subjects presented retracted tongue position in higher
      percentage when compared to the recently extracted group. The interventional
      method employed for the subjects with retracted tongue position, played a
      significant role to assume normal resting tongue position and showed improvement
      in denture stability and retention.

PMID- 28571265
TI  - Comparative Analyses of Smear Layer Removal Using Four Different Irrigant
      Solutions in the Primary Root Canals - A Scanning Electron Microscopic Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A clinician's path to success is a clean root canal system with
      three dimensional seal. Mechanical instrumentation of root canals alone leaves
      behind a smear layer covering the dentinal walls. Instrumentation must always be
      supported by use of irrigants which are considered as an essential prerequisite
      for root canal debridement. AIM: The aim of this in vitro study was to compare
      the efficacy of four irrigating solutions in removing the smear layer in primary
      root canals after hand instrumentation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total number of
      40 human primary incisors were decoronated and split longitudinally. The
      specimens were divided randomly into four groups (n=10): Group I: 5.25% Sodium
      Hypochloride (NaOCl), Group II: 6% citric acid solution, Group III: smear clear
      and Group IV: 0.2% chitosan. Scanning electron microscopic analysis was performed
      to assess the presence or absence of smear layer at the coronal, middle and the
      apical portion of each canal. The data was analysed using Stastical Package For
      Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 Armonk, NY IBM Corp soft ware. RESULTS: The
      pictures from the scanning electron microscopy showed that Group II exhibited
      better efficacy in removing smear layer without altering the normal dentinal
      structures with lowest mean scores (p<0.001) followed by Group III, Group IV and
      Group I. The presence of debris was more evident in the apical third rather than
      in the middle and the coronal part of the root canal. CONCLUSION: A 6% citric
      acid removed the smear layer more efficiently than other test irrigants in
      primary root canals.

PMID- 28571267
TI  - Effect of Autologous Platelet Rich Fibrin in Human Mandibular Molar Grade II
      Furcation Defects- A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Furcation of multirooted teeth is difficult region to gain
      access for treatment due to their complex anatomy. Modifications have been made
      in the periodontal instrument armamentarium to facilitate treatment of
      furcations. Moreover, many new materials have been introduced to attempt
      regeneration in the furcation defects. AIM: This study evaluated the role of
      Platelet Rich Fibrin (PRF) in comparison with allograft and Guided Tissue
      Regeneration (GTR) in the treatment of Grade II mandibular molar furcations.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a parallel arm prospective randomized,
      interventional trial (NCT 02430519) conducted on 22 patients, with Grade II
      mandibular furcation defects. Patients were divided into two equal groups. Group
      A, were treated by the placement of PRF as a graft and as a membrane while in
      Group B, the defects were treated by the placement of allograft and Healiguide
      collagen membrane. Clinical parameters {Plaque Index (PI), Probing Depth (PD),
      Relative Vertical Clinical Attachment Level (RVCAL), Relative Horizontal Clinical
      Attachment Level (RHCAL), Gingival Marginal Level(GML), and amount of Bonefill
      using Radio-Visiography (RVGBF)}, were estimated at baseline and nine months
      postoperatively. Comparison between the groups was analysed by using independent
      sample t-test, whereas, paired t-test was used to assess the mean values within
      the groups. RESULTS: The intergroup comparison for PI, PD, RHCAL, GML, was
      statistically not significant. Pertaining to RVCAL, there was a statistically
      significant difference at nine months (p-value=0.04) in Group A. Also, there was
      a statistically significant difference related to RVGBF (p-value=0.006) in Group
      A at nine months. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of PRF should be ascertained by
      conducting more studies with a larger sample size, on a long term basis, in
      patients with molar Grade II furcation defects.

PMID- 28571266
TI  - Formulation and Evaluation of Sol-Gel Drug Delivery System for Intracanal pH
      Sensitive Controlled Delivery of Chlorhexidine.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Persistence of viable micro-organisms even after thorough
      chemomechanical debridement has been cited as a major cause for endodontic
      failure. Chlorhexidine is a drug, which has shown marked efficacy against
      Enterococcus faecalis and Candida spp., which are mostly accounted for endodontic
      failure and it has demonstrated high degree of substantivity to dentin by
      adsorption. Another issue with chlorhexidine and other intracanal medicaments is
      the excessive or premature peaking of the drug leading to possible side effects.
      AIM: The objective of this experimental work undertaken was to formulate a pH
      sensitive sol-gel sustained drug delivery system containing chlorhexidine.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The formulations were prepared using different
      concentrations of GELRITE(r) (0.1% and 0.2%) and Chlorhexidine (0.1% and 0.2%).
      The prepared solutions were evaluated for pharmacological properties like
      sterility test, viscosity, drug content, drug release characteristics, drug
      excipient compatible study. RESULTS: The drug excipient compatibility studies
      showed no interaction between the excipient and the active constituent. The
      microbial analysis showed good efficacy against the test micro-organisms and
      Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values against Candida albicans (ATCC(r)
      14053TM) was observed as 4 MUl/ml for both formulation containing 0.1% and 0.2%
      of GELRITE(r) Gellan (polymer). Whereas, MIC values against Enterococcus faecalis
      was observed to be 3.2 MUl/ml and 6 MUl/ml for formulation containing 0.1% and
      0.2% of GELRITE(r) Gellan (polymer) respectively. CONCLUSION: From the present
      study, it could be successfully demonstrated that sol-gel formulations can be
      simple, easy to administer mode of intracanal drug delivery system. Localized pH
      changes present within the canal can trigger sol-gel conversion thereby releasing
      the drug in sustained manner with less toxicity and side effects.

PMID- 28571268
TI  - Comparison of Serum Levels of Endothelin-1 in Chronic Periodontitis Patients
      Before and After Treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a potent vasoconstrictive peptide with multi
      functional activity in various systemic diseases. Previous studies indicate the
      detection of ET-1 in gingival tissues and gingival crevicular fluid. AIM: The aim
      of this study was to estimate the serum ET-1 levels in clinically healthy
      subjects and subjects with chronic periodontitis, before and after treatment, and
      correlate it with the clinical parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 44
      patients were included in the study. Group I comprised of 20 subjects with
      clinically healthy periodontium. Group II comprised of 24 subjects with chronic
      periodontitis. Group III comprised of same Group II subjects following
      periodontal management. Serum samples were collected from the subjects and an
      Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was done to estimate the ET-1 levels.
      The ET-1 levels were then correlated among the three groups with the clinical
      parameters namely, Plaque Index (PI), Sulcus Bleeding Index (SBI), probing pocket
      depth, clinical attachment loss and Periodontally Inflamed Surface Area (PISA).
      The independent t-test and paired t-test were used for comparison of clinical
      parameters and Pearson's correlation coefficient test was used for correlating
      the ET-1 levels. RESULTS: ET-1 levels in chronic periodontitis subjects were
      significantly higher compared to healthy subjects (p<0.001). However, the
      clinical parameters did not statistically correlate with the ET-1 levels. There
      was a significant decrease in ET-1 levels following treatment (p<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Serum ET-1 is increased in chronic periodontitis and reduces after
      periodontal therapy. Further studies are required to establish ET-1 as a
      biomarker for periodontal disease.

PMID- 28571269
TI  - Effect of Pre-Procedural Chair-Side Finger Stretches on Pinch Strength amongst
      Dental Cohort- A Biomechanical Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ergonomics is the essential principle behind the health and
      successful practice for a dentist and dental hygienist. During the procedure of
      dental Scaling and Root Planing (SRP), a high level of pinch force is exerted by
      the finger muscles resulting in early muscle fatigue. AIM: This pilot study
      comparatively evaluated the Pinch Strength (PS) of the finger muscles, prior to
      and after SRP, amongst dental cohort performing chair-side hand and finger
      stretches to those not performing the same. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty dental
      professionals were recruited by purposive sampling for the study and allocated
      into a test and control group. PS was recorded for both groups following which
      the test group performed finger stretches comprising of rubber band stretch,
      tendon glide, finger flexion and extension, thumb flexion and finger webbing. The
      subjects of both the groups carried out SRP for 30 minutes after which PS was
      again recorded. Inter-group difference was analysed for variability at baseline
      and 30 minutes after SRP using independent samples/unpaired t-test. Within group
      comparison of PS measurement was done using paired t-test. RESULTS: The PS for
      the test group declined from 14.425+/-2.577 pounds (lbs) to 13.725+/-2.557 lbs,
      while for the control group, a decline in PS from 13.65+/-2.636 lbs to 10.675+/
      2.478 lbs after SRP was noted. On comparing the difference of means of both
      groups, a statistically significant result was obtained. CONCLUSION: Work-related
      musculoskeletal disorders can be reduced by performing a few simple chair-side
      stretches. These stretches can help prevent the finger muscle fatigue during SRP
      and thus, increase its efficacy.

PMID- 28571270
TI  - Incidence of Natal Teeth in Newborns in Government Medical College and Hospital,
      Chengalpattu: A Pilot Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Natal teeth are teeth which are seen at birth and neonatal teeth
      erupt during the first thirty days after birth. Exact cause is however unknown
      but trauma, malnutrition, infection or environmental factor can be the causitive
      factor. Different studies have shown different incident rates. AIM: To find the
      incidence of natal teeth in neonates born in the hospital over a period of seven
      months and also to find out the most commonly occurring natal teeth among them.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was conducted in the Government Medical
      College and Hospital, Chengalpattu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, for a period of
      seven months. A questionnaire was given to the mothers for gaining relevant
      information regarding the age, gender of neonate, type of delivery, etc. The
      cohort of neonates delivered in the hospital was examined clinically to note the
      presence of natal teeth. RESULTS: Out of 4,341 children four neonates were born
      with natal teeth. Our study showed female preponderance and most commonly erupted
      teeth were mandibular anteriors. The type of delivery had no significant relation
      with the presence or absence of natal teeth. CONCLUSION: The presence of natal
      teeth was very rare in our study group. The neonates with natal teeth should be
      thoroughly examined and parent counselling is also important in these cases.

PMID- 28571271
TI  - Evaluation of Efficacy of 1% Curcuminoids as Local Application in Management of
      Oral Lichen Planus - Interventional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory mucocutaneous
      disease affecting the oral cavity which has been associated with severe burning
      sensation which in turn affects the quality of life of the patients. Currently,
      the effective treatment of choice remains the use of corticosteroids. The
      chronicity and recalcitrant nature of the disease demand the long term use of
      these drugs with ensuing adverse effects. Turmeric and its active ingredient,
      "curcumin", have been found to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anticancer
      properties. Hence, this intervention study was done to evaluate the efficacy of
      curcumin oral gel in the management of oral lichen planus. AIM: The study was
      conducted to compare the efficacy of 1% curcumin gel with the conventional mid
      potent topical corticosteroid, triamcinolone acetonide 0.1% in managing the signs
      and symptoms of OLP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An intervention study was conducted
      on 75 patients diagnosed with OLP divided into three groups, Group 1 (0.1%
      triamcinolone acetonide oral paste thrice daily in tapering doses), Group 2
      (curcumin oral gel thrice daily) and Group 3 (curcumin oral gel six times daily).
      The patients were analysed for the symptom (burning) and sign (erythema and
      ulceration) using the numerical rating score and Modified Oral Mucositis Index
      (MOMI) for a period of three months on a bimonthly basis. The results were
      analysed using Students t-test and unpaired t-test. RESULTS: Intragroup
      comparison using paired t-test showed statistically significant reduction in
      burning sensation (p<0.001) as well as erythema and ulceration (p<0.001) in all
      the three groups. However, when the three groups were compared Group 1 showed the
      maximum reduction in burning sensation (77%) and erythema and ulceration (67%).
      Among the curcuminoid group, increased frequency was found to be more beneficial.
      CONCLUSION: Curcumin oral gel can bring about clinical improvements in OLP
      patients; however it cannot be used as a mainstay drug. Instead, it can be used
      as a maintenance drug after the patient is treated with an initial course of
      corticosteroids. Further studies with larger sample size and increased drug
      concentrations may be required.

PMID- 28571272
TI  - Effect of Oral Tissue Fluids on Compressive Strength of MTA and Biodentine: An In
      vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Over the past many years various root end filling materials have
      been used which have been tested for their physical properties but each of them
      had certain limitations. In clinical practice, root end filling materials are
      exposed to oral tissue fluids which may compromise their longevity. AIM: The aim
      of this study was to investigate the effects of oral tissue fluids on compressive
      strength of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) and biodentine. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: MTA and biodentine cylinders measuring 6 mm * 4 mm were prepared using
      acrylic blocks. They were divided into six groups; (Group 1) (MTA) (n=3), (Group
      2) MTA contaminated with saliva, (MTA-S) (n=3), Group 3: MTA contaminated with
      blood, MTA-B (n=3), Group 4: Biodentine (BD), Group 5: Biodentine contaminated
      with saliva (BD-S) (n=5), Group 6: Biodentine contaminated with blood (BD-B)
      (n=5). The mould was contaminated with saliva and blood and incubated at 37
      degrees C at 100% humidity for three days and compressive strength (MPa) was
      measured using universal testing machine and the data was analyzed statistically
      using one-way ANOVA test. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the
      compressive strength between the three groups i.e., MTA, MTA-S, MTA-B (p > 0.05).
      However, there was higher compressive strength in the MTA-B group when compared
      to MTA and MTA-S. Also, there was no statistical significant difference between
      BD, BD-S, BD-B (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: This study showed that the compressive
      strength of MTA and biodentine was not adversely affected by contamination with
      oral tissue fluids like blood and saliva.

PMID- 28571273
TI  - An In-vivo Comparison of Vertical and Horizontal Distance between Incisive
      Papilla and Incisal Edge of Maxillary Central Incisors in Dentates with Different
      Arch Forms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The incisive papilla is one of the most stable landmarks for
      assessing the original position of certain key teeth. To place anterior
      artificial teeth back in its original position such as in denture construction
      and full mouth rehabilitation cases vertical and horizontal distance from
      incisive papilla in different arch forms, imparts a significant role. The average
      distance will be helpful for arrangement of teeth in its original position which
      not only provides a pleasing appearance and normal function but also will save
      the dentists' chair side effort. AIM: To determine the average vertical and
      horizontal distance of the maxillary central incisors from the incisive papilla
      in dentate individuals with different arch forms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Primary
      impressions and casts were made for 72 dentate patients, sorted into different
      arch forms and mid point of the incisive papilla was established. The vertical
      and horizontal distances were measured with the digital vernier caliper. The mean
      and standard deviation were subjected to Students t-test. RESULTS: The range of
      horizontal distance was 4-7 mm, 6-8 mm, 5-8 mm and vertical distance was 4-6 mm
      in ovoid, square and tapered arch forms respectively. CONCLUSION: Horizontal
      distance of the maxillary central incisors from the incisive papilla varies in
      different arch forms whereas, vertical distance is almost same in all the arch
      forms.

PMID- 28571274
TI  - Reinforcement of Aluminum Oxide Filler on the Flexural Strength of Different
      Types of Denture Base Resins: An In vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acrylic resins have been used extensively for the fabrication of
      denture bases because of their aesthetic qualities, ease of manipulation and
      repairability. Flexural fatigue of the denture base has been shown to be a factor
      in the clinical failure of polymethyl methacrylate resin dentures. Also, the
      fracture can result from impact, fatigue or degradation of the base material.
      Hence, there is a need to increase the strength of denture base resins. AIM: To
      evaluate the effect of reinforcing alumina oxide filler on the flexural strength
      of different acrylic resins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 180 acrylic
      specimens were fabricated, which were divided into three groups self cure acrylic
      resin (SC), conventional heat cure resin (HC) and high strength heat cure resin
      (HI). Each group was divided into four subgroups i.e., control group and the
      specimens of the remaining three groups were reinforced with aluminum oxide
      (Al2O3) powder by 5%, 10% and 15% by weight. Specimens were stored in distilled
      water for one week; flexural strength was tested by universal testing machine.
      Results were analysed by one-way analysis of variance and post-hoc Tukey paired
      group comparison tests. RESULTS: Flexural strength of SC increased by 9%, 13% and
      19%, Flexural strength of HC increased by 8%, 15% and 19% and that of HI
      increased by 21%, 26% and 29% compared to control group by adding 5%,10% and 15%
      of alumina filler (p-value <0.001). Addition of 15% of alumina powder to SC
      showed high flexure strength compared to control group of HC (p-value <0.001).
      Addition of 10% and 15% of alumina powder to HC showed high flexural strength
      compared to control group of HI (p-value <0.001). CONCLUSION: Addition of alumina
      to self cure acrylic resin, conventional heat cure acrylic resin and high
      strength heat cure acrylic resin increased the flexural strength. Increasing the
      flexural strength of the acrylic resin base material could lead to more clinical
      success.

PMID- 28571275
TI  - In Vitro Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Novel Nano-Hydroxyapatite-Silica Incorporated
      Glass Ionomer Cement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Glass Ionomer Cements (GIC) are among the most popular restorative
      materials, but their use in dentistry is limited due to their physical
      properties. The hardness of GIC was improved by incorporation of nano
      hydroxyapatite-silica into GIC, to expand its applicability. AIM: To evaluate the
      cytotoxic effects of nano-hydroxyapatite-silica incorporated glass ionomer cement
      (HA-SiO2-GIC) on human Dental Pulp Stem Cells (DPSC) and compare it with
      conventional GIC and resin modified GIC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Material extracts
      of Fuji IX, Fuji II LC and HA-SiO2-GIC were prepared into seven serial
      concentrations and applied to 96-well-plates seeded with DPSC. The 96-well-plates
      were incubated for 24 and 72 hours. The morphology of DPSC was observed under the
      inverted phase contrast microscope, and the cell viability was determined using
      MTT assay at both time intervals. Kruskal-Wallis test was performed for
      statistical analysis. RESULTS: At maximum concentration, DPSC appeared fewer in
      number, but the normal spindle morphology was maintained in all groups except for
      Fuji II LC. At lower concentrations, DPSC appeared normal and more confluent in
      all groups. The cytotoxic effects of all groups were dose dependent. Fuji IX
      demonstrated the lowest cytotoxicity, followed by HA-SiO2-GIC. Fuji II LC
      demonstrated the highest cytotoxicity. The difference was significant between all
      groups at 200 mg/ml concentration (p<0.05). At concentration <100 mg/ml,
      cytotoxicity of HA-SiO2-GIC was comparable to that of Fuji IX and lower than that
      of Fuji II LC. CONCLUSION: HA-SiO2-GIC showed a favourable cytotoxicity response
      and thus holds promise as a future potential restorative material in clinical
      dentistry.

PMID- 28571276
TI  - Demystifying the Mysteries: Sexual Dimorphism in Primary Teeth.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: One of the critical steps in the process of identification is the
      sex determination of an unknown individual. Many studies have shown that sex can
      be determined using the human skeleton, especially by examining the pelvis and
      skull. Odontometric analysis of the human sexual variation has been less
      investigated, especially of primary dentition. AIM: To verify the presence of
      sexual dimorphism in primary teeth of local population of Faridabad, Haryana,
      India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research was performed on dental casts of 500
      children (250 boys and 250 girls, age range 3-5 years). Mesiodistal and
      buccolingual crown dimensions of maxillary and mandibular primary teeth were
      measured with a digital Vernier's caliper and were analysed for sexual
      dimorphism. Mann-Whitney-U test was used to check the statistical significance of
      difference in tooth dimensions among boys and girls. RESULTS: Differences were
      found in the mean values of mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters of primary
      teeth, in which boys generally had larger crown diameters than girls. CONCLUSION:
      Primary teeth may be used as an additional tool for sex identification of
      juvenile skeletons where other dimorphic features are not much developed.

PMID- 28571277
TI  - Periodontal and Dentition Status among Orphans and Children with Parents in
      Mysore City, India: A Comparative Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Oral health symbolises the general health and quality of life of an
      individual. The socioeconomic status of the parents shows direct impact on oral
      health status of children. Thus, it can be hypothesised that the pattern of oral
      diseases would be different among children living with parents and orphans. AIM:
      To explore periodontal and dentition status among orphans and children with
      parents in Mysore city, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted among six to 15-year-old children residing in eight orphanages. Equal
      number of age and gender matched children living with parents were selected from
      government schools (non orphans) located in the same geographical areas for
      comparison. Clinical examination was conducted by a single trained, calibrated
      examiner and oral findings were recorded according to World Health Organization
      (WHO) diagnostic criteria 2013. The data collected was analysed using Mann
      Whitney U test and Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 957 children (478 from
      orphanages and 479 from government schools) were examined in the study. The mean
      defs and DMFS were significantly higher among government school children (non
      orphans) (defs: 3.20+/-4.0; DMFS: 2.43+/-2.8) compared to children from
      orphanages (defs: 2.72+/-4.4; DMFS: 1.72+/-2.3). Prevalence of gingival bleeding
      among orphans (79.49%) was higher compared to non orphans (71.4%). CONCLUSION:
      The present study concluded that prevalence of caries was lower among orphans but
      periodontal status was poor among them as compared to non orphans.

PMID- 28571278
TI  - Applicability of the CIELAB and CIEDE2000 Formulae for Detection of Colour
      Changes in Colour-Changeable Chewing Gum for Evaluating Masticatory Function.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mastication is one of the essential stomatognathic functions and is
      impaired when mandibulectomy is performed for removal of head and neck lesions.
      AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between
      perceived chewing ability {Masticatory Score (MS)} and objective mixing ability
      (?E) in patients who had undergone marginal mandibulectomy. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Twenty normal dentate subjects as control group and twenty
      mandibulectomy patients who had undergone marginal mandibulectomy and wearing a
      dentomaxillary prosthesis were enrolled. Perceived chewing ability MS and
      objective ?E were evaluated using a food intake questionnaire and the colour
      changeable chewing gum, respectively. They were instructed to chew the gum
      continuously for 100 strokes on their usual side. The chewed gum was measured
      using the CIELAB colour space defined by a colourimeter and L, a* and b* were
      obtained. The change in colour of the gum after chewing was calculated using
      CIELAB (?Eab) and the CIEDE2000 (?E00) formula. The relationships of a*, ?Eab,
      and ?E00 with MS score were analyzed using the Spearman's rank correlation
      coefficient. RESULTS: A correlation was found between perceived chewing ability
      (MS) and objective mixing ability (index of the masticatory function {?E}) in
      marginal mandibulectomy patients. (?E00 = 0.481, a* = 0.587, ?Eab = 0.668).
      CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that the
      CIEDE2000 formula for calculation of colour difference can be used to evaluate
      masticatory function in patients who have undergone marginal mandibulectomy.

PMID- 28571279
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Different Modes of Laser Assisted Endodontics in
      Primary Teeth: An In vitro Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The presence of bacteria in root canals has been considered to be
      responsible for endodontic treatment failure, even in case of primary teeth. The
      use of lasers can be a valuable addition in removing bacterial load in areas
      where traditional methods may fail to succeed. Methods like direct laser
      irradiation of canals, Laser Activated Irrigation (LAI) with sodium hypochlorite
      (NaOCl) and Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) seem to be a promising alternative for
      disinfection. AIM: This study was designed to compare the efficacy of latest
      advancements in disinfection techniques using diode laser namely direct laser
      irradiation, photodynamic therapy and laser activated irrigation using sodium
      hypochlorite. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty freshly extracted primary teeth either
      single or multi-rooted teeth with two third of their root length intact were
      collected. Instrumentation was completed to size 30 H-file. Teeth were randomly
      divided into Group 1- Direct Laser- irradiation, Group 2 - Photodynamic therapy;
      Group 3- Laser activated irrigation with 2.5% NaOCl. The tooth specimens were
      inoculated with Enterococcus faecalis. The bacterial colonies were counted
      preoperatively. Laser irradiation was performed for all groups in accordance to
      the groups each tooth belonged to. Postoperatively the bacterial colonies were
      counted. One-way Analysis was applied to compare bacterial count at baseline and
      post-test between three groups. Tukey's post-hoc test was applied for pairwise
      comparison between groups. Paired t-test was applied to compare the mean baseline
      bacterial count with post-test mean bacterial count. RESULTS: The results
      obtained with all the three groups postoperatively were highly significant (p
      value<0.001). Statistically significant difference between results of Group 1 and
      Group 2 and also between Group 1 and Group 3 was found (p-value<= 0.001).
      However, no statistical difference between Group 2 and Group 3 was found (p-value
      0.96). CONCLUSION: Disinfection strategies using diode laser by techniques gives
      promising results. Techniques like laser activated irrigation and photoactivated
      disinfection are better than direct laser irradiation in eliminating Enterococcus
      feacalis.

PMID- 28571280
TI  - A Comparative Evaluation of Accuracy of the Dies Affected by Tray Type, Material
      Viscosity, and Pouring Sequence of Dual and Single Arch Impressions- An In vitro
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The clinician's skill, impression techniques, and materials play a
      very important role in recording fine details in an impression for accuracy of
      fixed partial denture prosthesis. Impression of prepared teeth and of the
      opposing arch can be recorded simultaneously by dual-arch trays, while the full
      arch metal trays are used for impressions of prepared teeth in one arch. AIM: To
      measure and compare the accuracy of working dies made from impressions with metal
      and plastic dual arch trays and metal full arch trays, for two viscosities of
      impression material and by changing the sequence of pour of working and non
      working sides. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A balanced design with independent samples
      was used to study the three variables (tray type, impression material viscosity,
      and pouring sequence). An impression made by dual arch trays and single arch
      trays were divided in to three groups (Group A-plastic dual arch tray, Group B
      metal dual arch tray, Group C-full arch metal stock tray). Out of these three
      groups, two groups (Group A and B) were subdivided in to four subgroups each and
      one group (Group C) was subdivided in to two subgroups. A sample size of 30 was
      used in each subgroup yielding a total 300 impressions in three groups or ten
      subgroups. Impressions were made of a machined circular stainless steel die. All
      three dimensions (Occlusogingival, Mesiodistal, and Buccolingual) of the working
      dies as well as stainless steel standard die were measured three times, and the
      mean was used for the three standard sample values to which all working dies
      means were compared. Statistical analysis used for this study was a 3-factor
      analysis of variance with hypothesis testing at alpha =0.05. RESULTS: With
      respect to the selection of impression material viscosity statistically
      significant differences were found in the dies for the buccolingual and
      mesiodistal dimensions. Metal dual arch trays were slightly more accurate in the
      mesiodistal dimension in comparison to the plastic trays in reference of tray
      selection and in view of pouring sequence no differences were observed in
      occlusogingival dimension but in buccolingual and mesiodistal dimensions
      nonworking side was more accurate. CONCLUSION: The gypsum dies produced from the
      dual arch impressions were generally smaller in all three dimensions than the
      stainless steel standard die. Plastic dual-arch trays were more accurate with
      rigid impression material and there was not statistically significant difference
      for sequence of pouring. Metal dual-arch trays were more accurate with monophase
      impression material and working side was more accurate. Stock metal full arch
      trays were more accurate for monophase impression material.

PMID- 28571281
TI  - Assessment of Enamel Remineralisation After Treatment with Four Different
      Remineralising Agents: A Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Decades of research has helped to increase our knowledge of dental
      caries and reduce its prevalence. However, according to World Oral Health report,
      dental caries still remains a major dental disease. Fluoride therapy has been
      utilised in a big way to halt caries progression, but has been met with
      limitations. This has paved the way for the development of newer preventive
      agents that can function as an adjunct to fluoride or independent of it. AIM: The
      purpose of the present study was to evaluate the ability of Casein Phosphopeptide
      Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Fluoride (CPP ACPF), Bioactive Glass (BAG), fluoride
      enhanced Hydroxyapatite (HA) gel and self-assembling peptide P11-4 to
      remineralise artificial carious lesions in enamel in vitro using a 30 day pH
      cycling model through surface microhardness analysis and SEM. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Sixty enamel samples were divided into five groups of 12 samples each.
      The control Group A consisted of intact enamel samples, Group B: CPP-ACPF (Tooth
      Mousse Plus), Group C: BAG (SHY- NM), Group D: fluoride enhanced HA gel
      (ReminPro) and Group E: Self-assembling peptide P11-4 (Curodont Protect). All
      groups excluding the control group were subjected to demineralisation following
      which four of these groups were remineralised using the four remineralising
      agents. The treated groups were subjected to pH cycling over a period of 30 days.
      This was followed by assessment of surface microhardness and SEM for qualitative
      evaluation of surface changes. The results were analysed by One-Way Analysis Of
      Variance (ANOVA). Multiple comparisons between groups were performed by paired t
      test and post-hoc Tukey test. RESULTS: The results of the study revealed that
      remineralisation of enamel was the highest in samples of Group E (Self assembling
      peptide P11-4) followed by Group B (CPP-ACPF), Group C (BAG) and Group D
      (fluoride enhanced HA gel). There was a significant difference (p<0.05) in the
      remineralising ability between the self assembling peptide P11-4 group and BAG
      and fluoride enhanced HA gel group. Although no significant difference was
      observed between the self assembling peptide P11-4 and CPP-ACPF group, the self
      assembling peptide P11-4 remineralised the enamel lesions more effectively. SEM
      photomicrographs of the test groups demonstrated either amorphous crystals or
      particles scattered on the surface or lines of remineralisation along the
      prismatic borders. CONCLUSION: Self assembling peptide P11-4 demonstrated
      promising results by effectively and significantly remineralising the enamel
      lesions as compared to other test agents.

PMID- 28571282
TI  - Microhardness and Penetration of Artificial White Spot Lesions Treated with Resin
      or Colloidal Silica Infiltration.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infiltration of early enamel lesions by materials having
      remineralizing capacity seems to improve aesthetics and arrests caries
      progression. AIM: To evaluate and compare the surface microhardness and
      penetration depth of a low viscosity resin and colloidal silica nanoparticle
      infiltrates into artificially created white spot lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Forty extracted human central incisors were embedded in acrylic resin blocks
      exposing the labial surfaces of the crowns. The specimens were immersed in
      demineralizing solution for 96 hours to create white spot lesions on labial
      surfaces. The samples were then divided into two groups (n=20 each), where in
      Group 1-resin infiltration (ICON DMG, Hamburg, Germany) and Group 2-colloidal
      silica infiltration (Arrow Fine chemicals, Rajkot, Gujarat, India) was done.
      Samples were subjected to vicker's microhardness testing at baseline, after
      demineralization and after treatment with resin or colloidal silica infiltrates.
      Then, the crowns were sectioned longitudinally and penetration depth of the
      infiltrants was measured using confocal laser scanning microscope and compared
      the readings to lesion depth. All the collected data was subjected to statistical
      analysis using t-test. RESULTS: Resin infiltration group showed significantly
      greater increase in microhardness compared to colloidal silica infiltration
      (p=0.001). The percentage of penetration of the resin group was 67.14% and that
      of colloidal silica group was 54.53% indicating significant difference between
      the two. CONCLUSION: Resin infiltrates performed better in regaining the baseline
      microhardness and penetrating deep into the porous white spot lesions, when
      compared to colloidal silica infiltrates.

PMID- 28571283
TI  - Estimation of DMFT, Salivary Streptococcus Mutans Count, Flow Rate, Ph, and
      Salivary Total Calcium Content in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women: A Prospective
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy, a period from conception till birth, causes changes in
      the functioning of the human body as a whole and specifically in the oral cavity
      that may favour the emergence of dental caries. Many studies have shown pregnant
      women at increased risk for dental caries, however, specific salivary caries risk
      factors and the particular period of pregnancy at heightened risk for dental
      caries are yet to be explored and give a scope of further research in this area.
      AIM: The aim of the present study was to assess the severity of dental caries in
      pregnant women compared to non-pregnant women by evaluating parameters like
      Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth (DMFT) index, salivary Streptococcus mutans count,
      flow rate, pH and total calcium content. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50
      first time pregnant women in the first trimester were followed during their
      second trimester, third trimester and postpartum period for the evaluation of
      DMFT by World Health Organization (WHO) scoring criteria, salivary flow rate by
      drooling method, salivary pH by pH meter, salivary total calcium content by
      bioassay test kit and salivary Streptococcus mutans count by semiautomatic
      counting of colonies grown on Mitis Salivarius (MS) agar supplemented by 0.2U/ml
      of bacitracin and 10% sucrose. The observations of pregnant women were then
      compared with same parameters evaluated in the 50 non-pregnant women. Paired t
      test and Wilcoxon sign rank test were performed to assess the association between
      the study parameters. RESULTS: Evaluation of different caries risk factors
      between pregnant and non-pregnant women clearly showed that pregnant women were
      at a higher risk for dental caries. Comparison of caries risk parameters during
      the three trimesters and postpartum period showed that the salivary Streptococcus
      mutans count had significantly increased in the second trimester, third trimester
      and postpartum period while the mean pH and mean salivary total calcium content
      decreased in the third trimester and postpartum period. These changes reflected
      on the DMFT score which increased in the third trimester and postpartum period.
      CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that there is a definite
      correlation between pregnancy and dental caries. We conclude that the third
      trimester and postpartum period of pregnancy are the periods during which the
      pregnant women are at a higher risk for development of dental caries.

PMID- 28571284
TI  - Evaluation of Periapical Healing of Apicomarginal Defect in Mandibular First
      Molar Treated with Platelet Rich Fibrin: A Case Report.
AB  - The presence of an apicomarginal defect is one of the reasons for the failure of
      endodontic treatment. The best treatment option to treat an apicomarginal defect
      is to perform endodontic surgery using Guided Tissue Regeneration (GTR)
      membranes. The present case report evaluated the healing of periapical lesion
      along with apicomarginal defect using Platelet Rich Fibrin (PRF) as membrane in
      periapical surgery of mandibular first molar. Recall examination was performed at
      3 and 18 months post surgery. A satisfactory periapical healing was evident using
      PRF in apicomarginal defect of mandibular first molar. PRF may be considered as
      an alternative treatment for GTR membranes in the treatment of apicomarginal
      defects.

PMID- 28571285
TI  - Unicystic Ameloblastoma of Mandible with an Unusual Diverse Histopathology: A
      Rare Case Report.
AB  - Ameloblastomas of jaws are benign odontogenic tumours with four clinical variants
      being solid multicystic type, unicystic type, extra osseous type and desmoplastic
      type. Unicystic ameloblastoma accounts for only 13% of all the known cases in the
      scientific literature. Follicular and plexiform patterns are the commonly seen
      histopathological patterns in unicystic ameloblastoma. Though rare in itself,
      presence of granular cells along with acanthomatous changes occurring in
      unicystic ameloblastoma is a rare phenomenon. We present a rare case report of
      unicystic ameloblastoma of right mandible with an unusual histopathology. It
      exhibited both luminal and mural types as well as both acanthomatous and granular
      cell changes found together. As occurrence of unicystic ameloblastoma of jaws
      with such varied histopathology is rare, their course, clinical outcome,
      prognosis and recurrence rate are not clear. Documentation of more such cases in
      literature may make pathogenesis and nature of these lesions more insightful.

PMID- 28571286
TI  - Staged Hard and Soft Tissue Reconstruction Followed by Implant Supported
      Restoration in the Aesthetic Zone: A Case Report.
AB  - Alveolar ridge deficiency is a common clinical consequence following tooth loss
      due to chronic periodontitis complicating ideal implant placement. Advanced hard
      and soft tissue augmentation procedures have been developed in the recent past
      with predictable clinical outcomes. A male patient presented with a Grade III
      mobile upper right central incisor associated with advanced bone loss and soft
      tissue deficit. Following extraction of tooth #11, socket augmentation was done
      using an autogenous cortico-cancellous block graft and subsequent soft tissue
      augmentation was done with palatal connective tissue graft. At the end of six
      months, a tapered self tapping implant fixture was placed with adequate primary
      stability and after eight weeks, second stage implant surgery was done with the
      Misch technique in order to recreate papillae and the implant was prosthetically
      restored. The alveolar ridge was adequately recontoured following the staged
      surgical protocol. The implant was well integrated at the end of 15 months.
      Execution of sequential surgical procedures in a highly deficient edentulous site
      made it possible to achieve of optimal pink and white aesthetics with stable
      implant supported fixed prosthesis.

PMID- 28571287
TI  - Surgical Management of a Rare Case of Massive Compound Odontome Associated with
      Missing Primary Tooth.
AB  - Odontomes are considered to be the most common odontogenic tumours of the jaws.
      They are benign, mixed tumours arising from the remnants of both odontogenic
      epithelium and the ectomesenchyme resulting in the deposition of varied
      propotions of enamel, dentin, cementum and pulp tissues. As these lesions show
      deficiency only in structural arrangement, some authors consider odontomes as
      hamartomas or tumour like malformations. Though these lesions are more common in
      children, very few cases have been reported in less than five years age group.
      Blood loss is a major issue in paediatric surgery. Careful and safe surgery is
      the primary goal of the surgeon. The external carorid artery which is the only
      feeder of blood to the face and oral cavity can be ligated to control bleeding in
      extensive maxillofacial injuries and orofacial malignancies. Herewith, we report
      a massive odontome in a three and half-year-old child which was treated by
      surgical excision along with carotid control to prevent excess bleeding.

PMID- 28571288
TI  - Solitary Myofibroma of the Mandible in a Six-Year Old-Child: Diagnosis of a Rare
      Lesion.
AB  - Myofibroma is a benign uncommon fibroblastic tumour originating from the soft
      tissue, bone and may affect both children and adults. Radiographically myofibroma
      presents as unilocular radiolucency. Histologically, typical biphasic cellular
      arrangement is noted. Immunohistochemical markers are useful for definitive
      diagnosis of this uncommon neoplasm. Here, a case of six-year-old male child with
      a localized swelling in the left body of mandible is presented. The clinical,
      radiological, histological and immunohistochemical findings were corroborative of
      Infantile Myofibroma.

PMID- 28571289
TI  - A Custom Made Skeletal Class II Corrector Appliance in Late Adolescent Phase.
AB  - Skeletal Class II correction in deceleration phase of growth is both a challenge
      and dilemma with choice between extraction and myofunctional therapy. With
      marginal growth remaining the convenient choice is extraction for camouflage of
      the skeletal discrepancy. On the other hand, the treatment with Fixed Functional
      Appliances (FFAs) helps in resolution of the problem without sacrificing the
      dentition. However, the conventional FFAs requires a phase of alignment which
      results in further loss of time to utilize any remaining growth. The present
      report proposes the use of a novel custom made functional appliance for Class II
      skeletal correction which is simple to fabricate and convenient to use.

PMID- 28571290
TI  - Leprosy in an Eight-Year-Old Child - An Exceptional Case with Unusual Oral
      Manifestation.
AB  - Leprosy is a contagious and granulomatous disease which is caused by
      Mycobacterium leprae. The incubation period for leprosy is five to seven years
      and it can take as long as about 30 years before signs and symptoms of leprosy
      develop in some patients. It is a chronic systemic disease which mostly affects
      the skin and peripheral nerves. It has been seen that indeterminate leprosy is
      the most common type seen in childhood followed by tuberculoid variant.
      Borderline lepromatous and lepromatous leprosy are only occasionally encountered
      in children and rarely affects the oral cavity. Here, we report a rare case of an
      eight-year-old female child patient who presented primarily with oral
      manifestations and was subsequently diagnosed as having lepromatous leprosy.

PMID- 28571291
TI  - Membranous Basal Cell Adenoma - A Rare Entity in an Unusual Location.
AB  - Basal cell adenoma is a rare benign salivary gland neoplasm exhibiting an
      isomorphic basaloid tumour cell pattern, commonly occurring in the parotid.
      Membranous variant warrants separate consideration because of its recurrence and
      rate of malignant transformation. We report a case of membranous type basal cell
      adenoma occurring in minor salivary gland in a 61-year-old female patient. The
      histopathological diagnosis was supported by immunohistochemical analysis and
      serum Carcinoembryonic antigen level.

PMID- 28571292
TI  - Oral Spindle Cell Sarcoma: A Rare Case Report and Review of Literature.
AB  - Spindle cell lesions of the head and neck region are diverse in nature by means
      of clinical and biological heterogeneity. Though few lesions are found to be
      malignant, several others are benign or merely reactive in nature. Although these
      lesions are fairly common occurring in other parts of the body, they are very
      rare in the oral cavity, accounting for less than 1% of all tumours in the oral
      region. Herein, a case of 48-year-old man who presented with a polypoid lesion of
      the maxilla has been reported. Histopathological examination and
      immunohistochemistry revealed spindle cell sarcoma of the left maxillary sinus.
      We present this rare tumour to contribute to the better understanding and
      awareness of this rare malignancy where diagnosis can be very challenging.

PMID- 28571293
TI  - Management of Severely Atrophic Mandibular Ridge using Hollow Denture with an
      Analytical Discussion: A Clinical Case Report.
AB  - A severely resorbed edentulous mandibular ridge, although fairly common in
      occurrence, its rehabilitation poses a challenging clinical situation for the
      prosthodontist. This has implored prosthodontists to seek for ingenious
      modifications in the conventional prosthetic forms so as to gratify patient's
      expectations who have difficulty in wearing the mandibular complete dentures.
      Opting for the most suitable treatment modality mandates equilibrating the
      retention, stability and support triad to the fullest. Extreme resorption of the
      denture bearing tissue bed may lead to problems with achieving adequate levels of
      prosthetic satisfaction for the patient. One such entrusted treatment option,
      that has proven its mettle over tides of time in such a scenario, the hollow
      denture by virtue of its reduced excessive acrylic resin weight, efficaciously
      replaces the lost voluminous alveolar ridge in the increased inter-ridge space of
      the denture wearer.

PMID- 28571294
TI  - A Rare Case of Digoxin Associated Gingival Overgrowth.
AB  - This case report presents a case of drug induced gingival overgrowth in a 28-year
      old female patient with history of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and was
      prescribed digoxin in combination with furosemide and acitrom for the same. On
      clinical examination, the patient presented with severe gingival overgrowth. The
      volume of enlargement seen did not correlate solely with the diagnosis of
      inflammatory Gingival Enlargement (GE), hence an added drug induced component to
      the Gingival Overgrowth (GO) was suspected. It was decided to treat the condition
      using initial therapy {meticulous Scaling and Root Planning (SRP)} followed by a
      period of observation and maintenance. On recall, since there was no marked
      improvement, surgical intervention was planned. Periodic treatment combining
      surgery and maintenance ultimately produced the desired results clinically. Thus,
      this article within limits highlights that because of time-relationship between
      the starting of the medication that is digoxin and manifestation of GO, a causal
      relationship is likely.

PMID- 28571295
TI  - Dental Avengers: Taking Retainer Stability and Aesthetics into Next Era.
AB  - Adult patients are realizing that practical, realistic options now exist to
      "straighten" their teeth because the cosmetic dentistry revolution has begun to
      include even "adult short-term cosmetic orthodontics" as an integral part.
      Previously, the patients were bound to select between either the aesthetic
      benefits of ceramic or the bondability characteristic of composite, however this
      can now be fabricated in such a manner that still allows placement of a lingual
      splint so as to steady the orthodontic movement. This article describes a case
      study whereby the patient can attain the aesthetic benefits of an all ceramic
      crown or a veneer which was retained by incorporating/reinforcing a metal
      framework of crown itself. Orthodontic treatment was initiated to correct the
      alignment, overjet and overbite which were followed by endodontic, periodontic
      and prosthodontic rehabilitation with full ceramic crowns to achieve ideal
      aesthetics, and an improved occlusion and stable function.

PMID- 28571296
TI  - Maxillary Second Molar with Fused Root and Six Canals- A Case Report.
AB  - One of the known aberrations in root canal morphology of maxillary second
      permanent molars is the presence of collateral mesiobuccal canals. This case
      report describes the endodontic management of a maxillary second molar that had a
      single fused root with six canals that was successfully managed with the aid of
      dental operating microscope. Six canal orifices were located namely MB1
      (Mesiobuccal), MB2, MB3, DB1 (Distobuccal), DB2 and palatal. During the cleaning
      and shaping, instrument separation occurred at the apical third of the palatal
      canal which was removed with ultrasonics. After cleaning and shaping, the canals
      were obturated with resin sealer and laterally condensed gutta-percha. The
      patient was recalled for periodic review. After two years of follow up the
      patient remained asymptomatic. Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) evaluation
      revealed satisfactory periapical status.

PMID- 28571297
TI  - Prosthetic Rehabilitation of an Insidiously Enlarged Traumatic Palatal
      Perforation after Orotracheal Intubation in a Young Diabetic Child.
AB  - This report describes an unusual case of an insidiously enlarged traumatic
      palatal perforation after orotracheal intubation in a four-year-old female child
      with Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM). The child was first diagnosed
      with diabetes at 10 months of age when she was hospitalized for pneumonia. Severe
      respiratory distress warranted assisted ventilation via orotracheal intubation.
      Multiple factors namely infection, relative immunodeficiency, poor wound healing,
      trauma via orotracheal intubation as well as uncontrolled glucose levels, all
      contributed to the formation and deterioration of the palatal perforation. A
      palatal obturator was fabricated as an interim treatment until surgical closure
      could be performed.

PMID- 28571298
TI  - Are we Training Enough of Communication Skills and Patient Psychology Required in
      Dental Practice.
AB  - The aim of this review is to discuss about lacunae in the areas of Communication
      skills and Patient psychology teaching in the dental set up in India. A
      literature search was performed using various databases and other resources. Data
      obtained was reviewed to obtain the work done in this field. It was found that
      there is currently no clear data in literature as to how much and how well
      students are taught about communication and behavioural skills and patient
      personality in dental curriculum in India. Pinpointing such lacunae can help
      dental colleges and universities to focus on the emphasis of their approaches to
      teaching about communication skills and psychology of the patient. Identification
      of future research area in this field is the need of the time for future
      discovery and progress in this overlooked field.

PMID- 28571299
TI  - Patient Centered Outcomes in Periodontal Treatment-An Evidenced Based Approach.
AB  - Transformation of research into clinical practice is the most challenging step in
      evidence based dental practice. Designing the most reliable research with
      applicable endpoint evaluation is very important as it can lead to successful
      research outcomes that can be accepted in clinical practice. In the periodontal
      research few accepted endpoints are used frequently as they are believed to be
      the gold standard in measuring the periodontal disease and the treatment
      outcomes. However, a wide range of endpoints used are surrogate endpoints and
      these endpoints have no direct correlation with the patient centered outcomes.
      Hence, a direct relationship of surrogate endpoints with true endpoints needs to
      be established. This review highlights the importance of true endpoints and
      challenges in implementing these in clinical research. Importance of patient's
      centered outcomes are also reviewed and duly discussed here. Need for conducting
      research which includes the true endpoints or the surrogate endpoints with
      clinical applicability and tangible outcomes, was also suggested in this review.

PMID- 28571300
TI  - Mucous Cell Prosoplasia in Oral Pathologies: A Brief Review.
AB  - One of the enigmas in cell differentiation process is prosoplasia, which is
      contemplated as forward differentiation. A well-known example of prosoplastic
      switch is mucous cell prosoplasia, which is the transformation of a simple
      squamous epithelial cell into mucous secreting cell. Numerous theories have been
      proposed for histogenesis of this phenomenon, which are comprehensively discussed
      in the present paper. Oral pathologies like odontogenic cysts and salivary gland
      tumours show mucous prosoplasia quite often; sometimes leading to diagnostic
      difficulties. In the present paper, efforts have been made to comprehensively
      discuss diverse aspects of mucous prosoplasia like histogenesis, theories and
      diagnostic importance in various oral pathologies.

PMID- 28571301
TI  - Images in Medicine - An Atypical Presentation of Unilateral Tongue Angioedema
      Caused by Acetaminophen.

PMID- 28571303
TI  - Ergonomically Designed Patient Drape.

PMID- 28571302
TI  - Successful Surgical Outcome for an Endodontic Failure using BiodentineTM as
      Retrograde Restoration in Conjunction with Platelet Rich Fibrin (PRF) for
      Progressive Healing.

PMID- 28571304
TI  - Slingshot - An Easy Way Out.
AB  - Orthodontic alignment of ectopically placed incisors or canines can be
      challenging and time consuming. A variety of techniques are used to align such
      palatally or lingually placed teeth including indirect ties with ligature wires,
      E-chains, piggy-back methods. This article presents two case reports to describe
      an effective technique using 'slingshot' method. It is a relatively simple and
      rapid method which is operator friendly and easily tolerated by the patients.

PMID- 28571305
TI  - Correction.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/10451.5465.].

PMID- 28571306
TI  - Characterisation and antimicrobial activity of biosurfactant extracts produced by
      Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from a wastewater
      treatment plant.
AB  - Biosurfactants are unique secondary metabolites, synthesised non-ribosomally by
      certain bacteria, fungi and yeast, with their most promising applications as
      antimicrobial agents and surfactants in the medical and food industries.
      Naturally produced glycolipids and lipopeptides are found as a mixture of
      congeners, which increases their antimicrobial potency. Sensitive analysis
      techniques, such as liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, enable
      the fingerprinting of different biosurfactant congeners within a naturally
      produced crude extract. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ST34 and Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa ST5, isolated from wastewater, were screened for biosurfactant
      production. Biosurfactant compounds were solvent extracted and characterised
      using ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to electrospray
      ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Results indicated that B.
      amyloliquefaciens ST34 produced C13-16 surfactin analogues and their identity
      were confirmed by high resolution ESI-MS and UPLC-MS. In the crude extract
      obtained from P. aeruginosa ST5, high resolution ESI-MS linked to UPLC-MS
      confirmed the presence of di- and monorhamnolipid congeners, specifically Rha-Rha
      C10-C10 and Rha-C10-C10, Rha-Rha-C8-C10/Rha-Rha-C10-C8 and Rha-C8-C10/Rha-C10-C8,
      as well as Rha-Rha-C12-C10/Rha-Rha-C10-C12 and Rha-C12-C10/Rha-C10-C12. The crude
      surfactin and rhamnolipid extracts also retained pronounced antimicrobial
      activity against a broad spectrum of opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms,
      including antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains
      and the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. In addition, the rapid solvent
      extraction combined with UPLC-MS of the crude samples is a simple and powerful
      technique to provide fast, sensitive and highly specific data on the
      characterisation of biosurfactant compounds.

PMID- 28571307
TI  - Variants of lipopeptides and glycolipids produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
      and Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultured in different carbon substrates.
AB  - The quantitative and qualitative effect of water immiscible and miscible carbon
      rich substrates on the production of biosurfactants, surfactin and rhamnolipids,
      by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ST34 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ST5, respectively,
      was analysed. A small-scale high throughput 96 deep-well micro-culture method was
      utilised to cultivate the two strains in mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented
      with the water miscible (glucose, glycerol, fructose and sucrose) and water
      immiscible carbon sources (diesel, kerosene and sunflower oil) under the same
      growth conditions. The biosurfactants produced by the two strains were isolated
      by acid precipitation followed by an organic solvent extraction. Ultra
      performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionisation mass
      spectrometry was utilised to analyse yields and characterise the biosurfactant
      variants. For B. amyloliquefaciens ST34, maximum surfactin production was
      observed in the MSM supplemented with fructose (28 mg L-1). In addition, four
      surfactin analogues were produced by ST34 using the different substrates,
      however, the C13-C15 surfactins were dominant in all extracts. For P. aeruginosa
      ST5, maximum rhamnolipid production was observed in the MSM supplemented with
      glucose (307 mg L-1). In addition, six rhamnolipid congeners were produced by ST5
      using different substrates, however, Rha-Rha-C10-C10 and Rha-C10-C10 were the
      most abundant in all extracts. This study highlights that the carbon sources
      utilised influences the yield and analogues/congeners of surfactin and
      rhamnolipids produced by B. amyloliquefaciens and P. aeruginosa, respectively.
      Additionally, glucose and fructose were suitable substrates for rhamnolipid and
      surfactin, produced by P. aeruginosa ST5 and B. amyloliquefaciens ST34, which can
      be exploited for bioremediation or as antimicrobial agents.

PMID- 28571308
TI  - Bright Single-Photon Source at 1.3 MUm Based on InAs Bilayer Quantum Dot in
      Micropillar.
AB  - A pronounced high count rate of single-photon emission at the wavelength of 1.3
      MUm that is capable of fiber-based quantum communication from InAs/GaAs bilayer
      quantum dots coupled with a micropillar (diameter ~3 MUm) cavity of distributed
      Bragg reflectors was investigated, whose photon extraction efficiency has
      achieved 3.3%. Cavity mode and Purcell enhancement have been observed clearly in
      microphotoluminescence spectra. At the detection end of Hanbury-Brown and Twiss
      setup, the two avalanched single-photon counting modules record a total count
      rate of ~62,000/s; the time coincidence counting measurement demonstrates single
      photon emission, with the multi-photon emission possibility, i.e., g 2(0), of
      only 0.14.

PMID- 28571309
TI  - Multiplex Genome Editing by Natural Transformation (MuGENT) for Synthetic Biology
      in Vibrio natriegens.
AB  - Vibrio natriegens has recently emerged as an alternative to Escherichia coli for
      molecular biology and biotechnology, but low-efficiency genetic tools hamper its
      development. Here, we uncover how to induce natural competence in V. natriegens
      and describe methods for multiplex genome editing by natural transformation
      (MuGENT). MuGENT promotes integration of multiple genome edits at high-efficiency
      on unprecedented time scales. Also, this method allows for generating highly
      complex mutant populations, which can be exploited for metabolic engineering
      efforts. As a proof-of-concept, we attempted to enhance production of the value
      added chemical poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) in V. natriegens by targeting the
      expression of nine genes involved in PHB biosynthesis via MuGENT. Within 1 week,
      we isolated edited strains that produced ~100 times more PHB than the parent
      isolate and ~3.3 times more than a rationally designed strain. Thus, the methods
      described here should extend the utility of this species for diverse academic and
      industrial applications.

PMID- 28571310
TI  - Brook Rearrangement as Trigger for Carbene Generation: Synthesis of Stereodefined
      and Fully Substituted Cyclobutenes.
AB  - Through a sequence that can be performed in a single vessel, involving regio- and
      diastereoselective copper-catalyzed carbomagnesiation of cyclopropenes, reaction
      with acylsilanes, and addition of THF as cosolvent, Brook rearrangement can be
      triggered to furnish a wide range of cyclobutenes with exceptional
      diastereoselectivity. Accordingly, stereodefined and highly substituted
      cyclobutenes with contiguous quaternary carbon centers can be synthesized easily
      and in high yield. The new strategy constitutes an unprecedented application of
      Brook rearrangement, one which involves the intermediacy of carbene species.

PMID- 28571311
TI  - Trichoderpyrone, a Unique Polyketide Hybrid with a Cyclopentenone-Pyrone Skeleton
      from the Plant Endophytic Fungus Trichoderma gamsii.
AB  - Trichoderpyrone (1), a unique polyketide with a cyclopentenone-pyrone hybrid
      skeleton, was isolated from the plant endophytic fungus Trichoderma gamsii. The
      structure of 1 was determined by detailed analysis of NMR data together with
      comparison of chemical shift values of similar fragments. The relative and
      absolute configurations were established by NOESY correlations and CD experiment.
      Trichoderpyrone (1) displayed weak cytotoxic activities against A549, HepG2, and
      HeLa cancer cell lines. 1 might originate from a hybrid biosynthetic pathway
      through two nonreduced (NR) polyketide megasynthetases.

PMID- 28571312
TI  - Identification of Indole Diterpenes in Ipomoea asarifolia and Ipomoea muelleri,
      Plants Tremorgenic to Livestock.
AB  - Ipomoea asarifolia has been associated with a tremorgenic syndrome in livestock
      in Brazil and was recently reported to contain tremorgenic indole diterpenes.
      Ipomoea muelleri has been reported to cause a similar tremorgenic syndrome in
      livestock in Australia. Ipomoea asarifolia and I. muelleri were investigated by
      high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectometry (HPLC
      HRMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC
      MS/MS) for indole diterpene composition. The high-resolution mass spectrometric
      data in combination with MS/MS fragmentation mass spectral data provided valuable
      information for indole diterpene characterization. The previous report of indole
      diterpenes in I. asarifolia was confirmed and expanded; and the presence of
      indole diterpenes in I. muelleri is reported for the first time. Two new indole
      diterpenes were isolated and their structures determined by 1D and 2D NMR
      spectroscopy and given the names 11-hydroxy-12,13-epoxyterpendole K and 6,7
      dehydroterpendole A. The presence of terpendole K and terpendole E in I.
      asarifolia is unequivocally demonstrated for the first time. This is the first
      detailed MS analysis of known indole diterpenes and possible isomers in I.
      asarifolia and I. muelleri.

PMID- 28571313
TI  - Performance of Homeostatic Controller Motifs Dealing with Perturbations of Rapid
      Growth and Depletion.
AB  - An essential property of life is that cells and organisms have the ability to
      protect themselves against external disturbances/attacks by using homeostatic
      mechanisms. These defending mechanisms are based on negative feedback regulation
      and often contain additional features, such as integral control, where the
      integrated error between a controlled variable and its set-point is used to
      achieve homeostasis. Although the concept of integral control has its origin in
      industrial processes, recent findings suggest that biological systems are also
      capable of showing integral control. We recently described a basic set of
      negative feedback structures (controller motifs) where robust homeostasis is
      achieved against different but constant perturbations. As many perturbations in
      biology, such as infections, increase rapidly over time, we investigated how the
      different controller motifs equipped with different implementations of integral
      control perform in relation to rapidly changing perturbations, including
      exponential and hyperbolic changes. The findings show that the construction of an
      optimum biochemical controller design for time-dependent perturbations requires a
      certain match between the structure of the negative feedback loop, its signaling
      kinetics, and the kinetics of how integral control is implemented within the
      negative feedback loop.

PMID- 28571314
TI  - Photoconversion Mechanisms and the Origin of Second-Harmonic Generation in Metal
      Iodates with Wide Transparency, NaLn(IO3)4 (Ln = La, Ce, Sm, and Eu) and
      NaLa(IO3)4:Ln3+ (Ln = Sm and Eu).
AB  - Four new metal iodates, namely, NaLn(IO3)4 (Ln = La, Ce, Sm, and Eu), and a
      series of NaLa(IO3)4:Ln3+ (Ln = Sm and Eu) solid solutions were synthesized
      through hydrothermal reactions. The structures of the title compounds are similar
      to that of NaY(IO3)4 crystallizing in the acentric monoclinic space group Cc. The
      iodate materials reveal layered structures composed of LnO8 square antiprisms and
      IO3 polyhedra, in which each layer is connected by the I...O interactions.
      NaLa(IO3)4 suggests a great potential as a matrix for optical source attributed
      to its acentricity and broad transparency from visible to mid-IR region. The
      photoluminescence properties depending on the concentration of Sm3+ reveal that
      NaLa(IO3)4:Sm3+ undergoes a self-quenching relaxation over 7 mol % of Sm3+ by
      dipole-quadrupole interactions. Attributable to the asymmetric coordination
      environment of Ln3+, stronger electric dipole transitions compared to magnetic
      dipole transitions were observed for both compounds. In addition, the materials
      exhibit strong second-harmonic generation (SHG) responses and are type I phase
      matchable. The structural origin of the SHG properties for the reported iodates
      is elucidated.

PMID- 28571315
TI  - Tetraaza[1.1.1.1]m,p,m,p-cyclophane Diradical Dications Revisited: Tuning Spin
      States by Confronted Arenes.
AB  - Diradical dications of two kinds of alternate-meta-para-linked
      tetraazacyclophanes in which p-phenylene (1) and 9,10-anthracenylene (2a)
      moieties are embedded in their macrocyclic backbones were successfully isolated
      as air-stable salts. The structures of 12+ and 2a2+ were elucidated by X-ray
      analysis, and significantly different types of structural deformation led to
      different spin density distributions due to the steric demand of the confronted
      arene moieties. The singlet-triplet energy gaps were determined to be +0.3 kcal
      mol-1 (+151 K) and -1.0 kcal mol-1 (-503 K) by SQUID measurements, indicating the
      triplet ground state for 12+ and the singlet ground state for 2a2+.

PMID- 28571317
TI  - Correction to "Comment on 'Nanohole-Structured and Palladium-Embedded 3D Porous
      Graphene for Ultrahigh Hydrogen Storage and CO Oxidation Multifunctionalities'".

PMID- 28571316
TI  - Co-assembly of Peptide Amphiphiles and Lipids into Supramolecular Nanostructures
      Driven by Anion-pi Interactions.
AB  - Co-assembly of binary systems driven by specific non-covalent interactions can
      greatly expand the structural and functional space of supramolecular
      nanostructures. We report here on the self-assembly of peptide amphiphiles and
      fatty acids driven primarily by anion-pi interactions. The peptide sequences
      investigated were functionalized with a perfluorinated phenylalanine residue to
      promote anion-pi interactions with carboxylate headgroups in fatty acids. These
      interactions were verified here by NMR and circular dichroism experiments as well
      as investigated using atomistic simulations. Positioning the aromatic units close
      to the N-terminus of the peptide backbone near the hydrophobic core of
      cylindrical nanofibers leads to strong anion-pi interactions between both
      components. With a low content of dodecanoic acid in this position, the
      cylindrical morphology is preserved. However, as the aromatic units are moved
      along the peptide backbone away from the hydrophobic core, the interactions with
      dodecanoic acid transform the cylindrical supramolecular morphology into ribbon
      like structures. Increasing the ratio of dodecanoic acid to PA leads to either
      the formation of large vesicles in the binary systems where the anion-pi
      interactions are strong, or a heterogeneous mixture of assemblies when the
      peptide amphiphiles associate weakly with dodecanoic acid. Our findings reveal
      how co-assembly involving designed specific interactions can drastically change
      supramolecular morphology and even cross from nano to micro scales.

PMID- 28571318
TI  - Visible-Light-Mediated Thiol-Ene Reactions through Organic Photoredox Catalysis.
AB  - Synthetically useful radical thiol-ene reactions can be initiated by visible
      light irradiation in the presence of an organic photocatalyst, 9-mesityl-10
      methylacridinum tetrafluoroborate. The key thiyl radical intermediates are
      generated upon quenching of the photoexcited catalyst with a variety of thiols.
      The success of this method requires only the use of near-stoichiometric levels of
      alkene coupling partners. Using these highly efficient metal-free conditions,
      thiol-ene reactions between carbohydrates and peptides can be accomplished in
      excellent yields.

PMID- 28571319
TI  - Isatin N,N'-Cyclic Azomethine Imine 1,3-Dipole and Base Catalyzed Michael
      Addition with beta-Nitrostyrene via C3 Umpolung of Oxindole.
AB  - A new isatin N,N'-cyclic azomethine imine 1,3-dipole was devised, and an unusual
      Michael addition with beta-nitrostyrene catalyzed by tributylamine under mild
      conditions has been developed. The new reaction featured the C3 umpolung of
      oxindole and an unusual formation of double bond. Notably, this new synthon
      performed as a donor rather than an acceptor. This protocol provided a promising
      method for the preparation of various 3-aminooxindoles with good yields in
      moderate diastereoselectivities.

PMID- 28571320
TI  - Combining Precipitation and Vitrification to Control the Number of Surface
      Patches on Polymer Nanocolloids.
AB  - In an effort to incorporate increasingly higher levels of functionality into soft
      nanoparticles, heterogeneously structured particles stand out as a simple means
      to enhance functionality by tailoring only particle architecture. Various means
      exist for the fabrication of particles with specific structural configurations;
      however, the tunability of particle morphology is still a challenging and often
      laborious task, especially in self-assembled systems where a single equilibrium
      configuration dominates. Improved strategies for multipatch particle assembly are
      therefore needed to allow for the tailoring of particle structure via a single,
      continuous assembly route. One means of accomplishing this is through kinetic
      trapping of particle morphologies along the path to the final equilibrium
      configuration in precipitation-induced, phase-separating polymer blends. Here, we
      demonstrate this capability by using rapid nanoprecipitation to control the
      overall size, composition, and patch distribution of soft colloids. In
      particular, we illustrate that polymer feed concentration, blend ratio, and
      polymer molecular weight can all serve as functional handles with which to
      consistently alter particle patch distributions in a self-assembling homopolymer
      system without redesigning the starting materials. We furthermore delineate the
      role of polymer vitrification in the determination of particle structure.

PMID- 28571322
TI  - La1+xBa1-xGa3O7+0.5x Oxide Ion Conductor: Cationic Size Effect on the
      Interstitial Oxide Ion Conductivity in Gallate Melilites.
AB  - Substitution of La3+ for Ba2+ in LaBaGa3O7 melilite yields a new interstitial
      oxide-ion conducting La1+xBa1-xGa3O7+0.5x solid solution, which only extends up
      to x = 0.35, giving a maximum interstitial oxygen content allowed in La1+xBa1
      xGa3O7+0.5x as about half of those allowed in La1+x(Sr/Ca)1-xGa3O7+0.5x.
      La1.35Ba0.65Ga3O7.175 ceramic displays bulk conductivity ~1.9 * 10-3 S/cm at 600 
      degrees C, which is lower than those of La1.35(Sr/Ca)0.65Ga3O7.175, showing the
      reduced mobility for the oxygen interstitials in La1+xBa1-xGa3O7+0.5x than in
      La1+x(Sr/Ca)1-xGa3O7+0.5x. Rietveld analysis of neutron powder diffraction data
      reveals that the oxygen interstitials in La1.35Ba0.65Ga3O7.175 are located within
      the pentagonal tunnels at the Ga level between two La/Ba cations along the c-axis
      and stabilized via incorporating into the bonding environment of a three-linked
      GaO4 among the five GaO4 tetrahedra forming the pentagonal tunnels, similar to
      the Sr and Ca counterparts. Both static lattice atomistic simulation and density
      functional theory calculation show that LaBaGa3O7 has the largest formation
      energy for oxygen interstitial defects among La1+xM1-xGa3O7+0.5x (M = Ba, Sr,
      Ca), consistent with the large Ba2+ cations favoring interstitial oxygen defects
      in melilite less than the small cations Sr2+ and Ca2+. The cationic-size control
      of the ability to accommodate the oxygen interstitials and maintain high mobility
      for the oxygen interstitials in La1+xM1-xGa3O7+0.5x (M = Ba, Sr, Ca) gallate
      melilites is understood in terms of local structural relaxation to accommodate
      and transport the oxygen interstitials. The accommodation and migration of the
      interstitials in the melilite structure require the tunnel-cations being able to
      adapt to the synergic size expansion for the interstitial-containing tunnel and
      contraction for the tunnels neighboring the interstitial-containing tunnel and
      continuous tunnel-size expansion and contraction. However, the large oxygen
      bonding separation requirement of the large Ba2+ along the tunnel not only
      suppresses the ability to accommodate the interstitials in the tunnels
      neighboring the Ba2+-containing tunnel but also reduces the mobility of the
      oxygen interstitials among the pentagonal tunnels.

PMID- 28571323
TI  - Convergent Synthesis of the ent-ZA'B'C'D'-Ring System of Maitotoxin.
AB  - Stereoselective synthesis of the ent-ZA'B'C'D'-ring system of maitotoxin has been
      accomplished through a convergent strategy utilizing Suzuki-Miyaura cross
      coupling reaction of ZA'-ring alkylborane and C'D'-ring (Z)-vinyl iodide, and
      subsequent construction of the B'-ring by reduction of the O,S-acetal.

PMID- 28571321
TI  - EPR/ENDOR and Theoretical Study of the Jahn-Teller-Active [HIPTN3N]MoVL Complexes
      (L = N-, NH).
AB  - The molybdenum trisamidoamine (TAA) complex [Mo] {[3,5-(2,4,6-i
      Pr3C6H2)2C6H3NCH2CH2N]Mo} carries out catalytic reduction of N2 to ammonia (NH3)
      by protons and electrons at room temperature. A key intermediate in the proposed
      [Mo] nitrogen reduction cycle is nitridomolybdenum(VI), [Mo(VI)]N. The addition
      of [e-/H+] to [Mo(VI)]N to generate [Mo(V)]NH might, in principle, follow one of
      three possible pathways: direct proton-coupled electron transfer; H+ first and
      then e-; e- and then H+. In this study, the paramagnetic Mo(V) intermediate
      {[Mo]N}- and the [Mo]NH transfer product were generated by irradiating the
      diamagnetic [Mo]N and {[Mo]NH}+ Mo(VI) complexes, respectively, with gamma-rays
      at 77 K, and their electronic and geometric structures were characterized by
      electron paramagnetic resonance and electron nuclear double resonance
      spectroscopies, combined with quantum-chemical computations. In combination with
      previous X-ray studies, this creates the rare situation in which each one of the
      four possible states of [e-/H+] delivery has been characterized. Because of the
      degeneracy of the electronic ground states of both {[Mo(V)]N}- and [Mo(V)]NH,
      only multireference-based methods such as the complete active-space self
      consistent field (CASSCF) and related methods provide a qualitatively correct
      description of the electronic ground state and vibronic coupling. The molecular g
      values of {[Mo]N}- and [Mo]NH exhibit large deviations from the free-electron
      value ge. Their actual values reflect the relative strengths of vibronic and spin
      orbit coupling. In the course of the computational treatment, the utility and
      limitations of a formal two-state model that describes this competition between
      couplings are illustrated, and the implications of our results for the chemical
      reactivity of these states are discussed.

PMID- 28571324
TI  - Asymmetric Total Synthesis of Eburnamine and Eucophylline: A Biomimetic Attempt
      for the Total Synthesis of Leucophyllidine.
AB  - The first enantiospecific total synthesis of (+)-6 has been achieved employing a
      Friedlander quinoline synthesis as a key step. Asymmetric synthesis of the
      architecturally complex eburnamine 5 has also been accomplished utilizing an
      intramolecular acid-mediated cyclization of a carbinol amine lactone moiety.
      Highlights of the effective modular synthetic strategy include development of the
      common precursor 4 for the construction of the privileged scaffolds 5 and 6 with
      an all-carbon quaternary stereocenter utilizing a Johnson-Claisen rearrangement
      strategy. Attempts have been made to synthesize 1 by the biomimetic coupling of 5
      and (+)-6; however, regioisomeric 26 was formed.

PMID- 28571325
TI  - Poly(ethylene) glycol hydrogel based on oxa-Michael reaction: Precursor synthesis
      and hydrogel formation.
AB  - This paper reported a facile strategy for the one-pot synthesis of vinyl sulfone
      (VS) group terminated hydrogel precursors [poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG)-VS] and
      PEG hydrogels via catalytic oxa-Michael reaction. Nine potential catalysts were
      investigated for the reaction between PEG and divinyl sulfone, among which 4
      dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) prevailed for its high catalytic activity. DMAP
      produced PEG-VS with a conversion of more than 90% in 2 h under a solvent-free
      condition at room temperature, which significantly simplifies the synthesis of
      PEG-VS. The preparation of PEG hydrogels was realized by adding glycerol as a
      crosslinker, and the physical and the mechanical properties were easily
      controlled by changing the crosslinker concentration as well as the PEG chain
      length. This strategy can also be applied to other polyhydroxy compounds as
      crosslinkers, and thus, a library of hydrogels with designed structures and
      desired properties could be prepared. The PEG hydrogels showed good antifouling
      properties, low cytotoxicity, and ability to release drugs at a tunable rate,
      indicating versatile potential bioapplications.

PMID- 28571326
TI  - Anomalous barrier escape: The roles of noise distribution and correlation.
AB  - We study numerically and analytically the barrier escape dynamics of a particle
      driven by an underlying correlated Levy noise for a smooth metastable potential.
      A "quasi-monochrome-color" Levy noise, i.e., the first-order derivative variable
      of a linear second-order differential equation subjected to a symmetric alpha
      stable white Levy noise, also called the harmonic velocity Levy noise, is
      proposed. Note that the time-integral of the noise Green function of this kind is
      equal to zero. This leads to the existence of underlying negative time
      correlation and implies that a step in one direction is likely followed by a step
      in the other direction. By using the noise of this kind as a driving source, we
      discuss the competition between long flights and underlying negative correlations
      in the metastable dynamics. The quite rich behaviors in the parameter space
      including an optimum alpha for the stationary escape rate have been found.
      Remarkably, slow diffusion does not decrease the stationary rate while a negative
      correlation increases net escape. An approximate expression for the Levy-Kramers
      rate is obtained to support the numerically observed dependencies.

PMID- 28571327
TI  - The covalent interaction between dihydrogen and gold: A rotational spectroscopic
      study of H2-AuCl.
AB  - The pure rotational transitions of H2-AuCl have been measured using a pulsed-jet
      cavity Fourier transform microwave spectrometer equipped with a laser ablation
      source. The structure was found to be T-shaped, with the H-H bond interacting
      with the gold atom. Both 35Cl and 37Cl isotopologues have been measured for both
      ortho and para states of H2. Rotational constants, quartic centrifugal distortion
      constants, and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants for gold and chlorine have
      been determined. The use of the nuclear spin-nuclear spin interaction terms Daa,
      Dbb, and Dcc for H2 were required to fit the ortho state of hydrogen, as well as
      a nuclear-spin rotation constant Caa. The values of the nuclear quadrupole
      coupling constant of gold are chiaa=-817.9929(35) MHz, chibb=504.0(27) MHz, and
      chicc=314.0(27). This is large compared to the eQq of AuCl, 9.63 312(13) MHz,
      which indicates a strong, covalent interaction between gold and dihydrogen.

PMID- 28571328
TI  - Unexpected behavior of ultra-thin films of blends of polystyrene/poly(vinyl
      methyl ether) studied by specific heat spectroscopy.
AB  - Specific heat spectroscopy (SHS) employing AC nanochip calorimetry was used to
      investigate the glassy dynamics of ultra-thin films (thicknesses: 10 nm-340 nm)
      of a polymer blend, which is miscible in the bulk. In detail, a Poly(vinyl methyl
      ether) (PVME)/Polystyrene (PS) blend with the composition of 25/75 wt. % was
      studied. The film thickness was controlled by ellipsometry while the film
      topography was checked by atomic force microscopy. The results are discussed in
      the framework of the balance between an adsorbed and a free surface layer on the
      glassy dynamics. By a self-assembling process, a layer with a reduced mobility is
      irreversibly adsorbed at the polymer/substrate interface. This layer is discussed
      employing two different scenarios. In the first approach, it is assumed that a PS
      rich layer is adsorbed at the substrate. Whereas in the second approach, a PVME
      rich layer is suggested to be formed at the SiO2 substrate. Further, due to the
      lower surface tension of PVME, with respect to air, a nanometer thick PVME-rich
      surface layer, with higher molecular mobility, is formed at the polymer/air
      interface. By measuring the glassy dynamics of the thin films of PVME/PS in
      dependence on the film thickness, it was shown that down to 30 nm thicknesses,
      the dynamic Tg of the whole film was strongly influenced by the adsorbed layer
      yielding a systematic increase in the dynamic Tg with decreasing the film
      thickness. However, at a thickness of ca. 30 nm, the influence of the mobile
      surface layer becomes more pronounced. This results in a systematic decrease in
      Tg with the further decrease of the film thickness, below 30 nm. These results
      were discussed with respect to thin films of PVME/PS blend with a composition of
      50/50 wt. % as well as literature results.

PMID- 28571329
TI  - Erratum: "Polymer dynamics under cylindrical confinement featuring a locally
      repulsive surface: A quasielastic neutron scattering study" [J. Chem. Phys. 146,
      203306 (2017)].

PMID- 28571330
TI  - Influence of chemistry, interfacial width, and non-isothermal conditions on
      spatially heterogeneous activated relaxation and elasticity in glass-forming free
      standing films.
AB  - We employ the Elastically Collective Nonlinear Langevin Equation (ECNLE) theory
      of activated relaxation to study several questions in free standing thin films of
      glass-forming molecular and polymer liquids. The influence of non-universal
      chemical aspects on dynamical confinement effects is found to be relatively weak,
      but with the caveat that for the systems examined, the bulk ECNLE polymer theory
      does not predict widely varying fragilities. Allowing the film model to have a
      realistic vapor interfacial width significantly enhances the reduction of the
      film-averaged glass transition temperature, Tg, in a manner that depends on
      whether a dynamic or pseudo-thermodynamic averaging of the spatial mobility
      gradient is adopted. The nature of film thickness effects on the spatial profiles
      of the alpha relaxation time and elastic modulus is studied under non-isothermal
      conditions and contrasted with the corresponding isothermal behavior. Modest
      differences are found if a film-thickness dependent Tg is defined in a dynamical
      manner. However, adopting a pseudo-thermodynamic measure of Tg leads to a
      qualitatively new form of the alpha relaxation time gradient where highly mobile
      layers near the film surface coexist with strongly vitrified regions in the film
      interior. As a consequence, the film-averaged shear modulus can increase with
      decreasing film thickness, despite the Tg reduction and presence of a mobile
      surface layer. Such a behavior stands in qualitative contrast to the predicted
      mechanical softening under isothermal conditions. Spatial gradients of the
      elastic modulus are studied as a function of temperature, film thickness, probing
      frequency, and experimental protocol, and a rich behavior is found.

PMID- 28571331
TI  - Grafted polymer chains suppress nanoparticle diffusion in athermal polymer melts.
AB  - We measure the center-of-mass diffusion of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
      grafted nanoparticles (NPs) in unentangled to slightly entangled PMMA melts using
      Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. These grafted NPs diffuse ~100 times
      slower than predicted by the Stokes-Einstein relation assuming a viscosity equal
      to bulk PMMA and a hydrodynamic NP size equal to the NP core diameter, 2Rcore =
      4.3 nm. This slow NP diffusion is consistent with an increased effective NP size,
      2Reff ~ 20 nm, nominally independent of the range of grafting density and matrix
      molecular weights explored in this study. Comparing these experimental results to
      a modified Daoud-Cotton scaling estimate for the brush thickness as well as
      dynamic mean field simulations of polymer-grafted NPs in athermal polymer melts,
      we find that 2Reff is in quantitative agreement with the size of the NP core plus
      the extended grafted chains. Our results suggest that grafted polymer chains of
      moderate molecular weight and grafting density may alter the NP diffusion
      mechanism in polymer melts, primarily by increasing the NP effective size.

PMID- 28571332
TI  - Exploring the broadening and the existence of two glass transitions due to
      competing interfacial effects in thin, supported polymer films.
AB  - In this report, we use ellipsometry to characterize the glass transition in ultra
      thin films of poly(2-vinyl pyridine) (P2VP) supported on a silicon substrate.
      P2VP is known to have attractive substrate interactions, which can increase the
      Tg of ultra-thin films compared to the bulk value. Here, we use an extended
      temperature range to show that the glass transition can be extremely broad,
      indicating that a large gradient of the dynamics exists through the film with
      slow dynamics near the substrate and enhanced dynamics at the free surface. To
      observe the effect of these two interfaces on the average thin film dynamics,
      cooling rate-dependent Tg (CR-Tg) measurements were used to indirectly probe the
      average relaxation times of the films. We demonstrate that ultra-thin films have
      lower fragility compared to bulk films, and, when cooled at slow cooling rates
      (<1 K/min), exhibit extreme broadening of the dynamics (<70 nm) and eventually
      complete decoupling between the free surface and substrate regions to produce
      films with two distinct Tg's (<16 nm). Tg,high increases with decreasing
      thickness in a similar manner to what has been observed in previous studies on
      P2VP, and Tg,low decreases with decreasing film thickness in a similar manner to
      what has been observed in polymer films with enhanced free surfaces and neutral
      substrate interactions. These observations indicate that the dynamics in thin
      films of P2VP can be strongly coupled over a length scale of ~10-20 nm, resulting
      in two co-existing layers with two distinct glass transitions when the range of
      the dynamical gradients become too large to sustain (breadth of the transition >
      50 K).

PMID- 28571333
TI  - Focus: Structure and dynamics of the interfacial layer in polymer nanocomposites
      with attractive interactions.
AB  - In recent years it has become clear that the interfacial layer formed around
      nanoparticles in polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) is critical for controlling their
      macroscopic properties. The interfacial layer occupies a significant volume
      fraction of the polymer matrix in PNCs and creates strong intrinsic heterogeneity
      in their structure and dynamics. Here, we focus on analysis of the structure and
      dynamics of the interfacial region in model PNCs with well-dispersed, spherical
      nanoparticles with attractive interactions. First, we discuss several
      experimental techniques that provide structural and dynamic information on the
      interfacial region in PNCs. Then, we discuss the role of various microscopic
      parameters in controlling structure and dynamics of the interfacial layer. The
      analysis presented emphasizes the importance of the polymer-nanoparticle
      interactions for the slowing down dynamics in the interfacial region, while the
      thickness of the interfacial layer appears to be dependent on chain rigidity, and
      has been shown to increase with cooling upon approaching the glass transition.
      Aside from chain rigidity and polymer-nanoparticle interactions, the interfacial
      layer properties are also affected by the molecular weight of the polymer and the
      size of the nanoparticles. In the final part of this focus article, we emphasize
      the important challenges in the field of polymer nanocomposites and a potential
      analogy with the behavior observed in thin films.

PMID- 28571334
TI  - A simple model for electrical charge in globular macromolecules and linear
      polyelectrolytes in solution.
AB  - We present a model for calculating the net and effective electrical charge of
      globular macromolecules and linear polyelectrolytes such as proteins and DNA,
      given the concentration of monovalent salt and pH in solution. The calculation is
      based on a numerical solution of the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation using
      a finite element discretized continuum approach. The model simultaneously
      addresses the phenomena of charge regulation and renormalization, both of which
      underpin the electrostatics of biomolecules in solution. We show that while
      charge regulation addresses the true electrical charge of a molecule arising from
      the acid-base equilibria of its ionizable groups, charge renormalization finds
      relevance in the context of a molecule's interaction with another charged entity.
      Writing this electrostatic interaction free energy in terms of a local electrical
      potential, we obtain an "interaction charge" for the molecule which we
      demonstrate agrees closely with the "effective charge" discussed in charge
      renormalization and counterion-condensation theories. The predictions of this
      model agree well with direct high-precision measurements of effective electrical
      charge of polyelectrolytes such as nucleic acids and disordered proteins in
      solution, without tunable parameters. Including the effective interior dielectric
      constant for compactly folded molecules as a tunable parameter, the model
      captures measurements of effective charge as well as published trends of pKa
      shifts in globular proteins. Our results suggest a straightforward general
      framework to model electrostatics in biomolecules in solution. In offering a
      platform that directly links theory and experiment, these calculations could
      foster a systematic understanding of the interrelationship between molecular 3D
      structure and conformation, electrical charge and electrostatic interactions in
      solution. The model could find particular relevance in situations where molecular
      crystal structures are not available or rapid, reliable predictions are desired.

PMID- 28571335
TI  - How thermal stress alters the confinement of polymers vitrificated in nanopores.
AB  - Understanding and controlling the glass transition temperature (Tg) and dynamics
      of polymers in confined geometries are of significance in both academia and
      industry. Here, we investigate how the thermal stress induced by a mismatch in
      the coefficient of thermal expansion affects the Tg behavior of polystyrene (PS)
      nanorods located inside cylindrical alumina nanopores. The size effects and
      molecular weight dependence of the Tg are also studied. A multi-step relaxation
      process was employed to study the relationship between thermal stress and cooling
      rate. At fast cooling rates, the imparted thermal stress would overcome the yield
      stress of PS and peel chains off the pore walls, while at slow cooling rates,
      chains are kept in contact with the pore walls due to timely dissipation of the
      produced thermal stress during vitrification. In smaller nanopores, more PS
      chains closely contact with pore walls, then stronger internal thermal stress
      would be generated between core and shell of PS nanorod, which results in a
      larger deviation between two Tgs. The core part of PS shows lower Tg than bulk
      value, which can induce faster dynamics in the center region. A complex and
      important role stress plays is supposed in complex confinement condition, e.g.,
      in nanopores, during vitrification.

PMID- 28571336
TI  - Resolving dispersion and induction components for polarisable molecular
      simulations of ionic liquids.
AB  - One important development in interaction potential models, or atomistic force
      fields, for molecular simulation is the inclusion of explicit polarisation, which
      represents the induction effects of charged or polar molecules on polarisable
      electron clouds. Polarisation can be included through fluctuating charges,
      induced multipoles, or Drude dipoles. This work uses Drude dipoles and is focused
      on room-temperature ionic liquids, for which fixed-charge models predict too slow
      dynamics. The aim of this study is to devise a strategy to adapt existing non
      polarisable force fields upon addition of polarisation, because induction was
      already contained to an extent, implicitly, due to parametrisation against
      empirical data. Therefore, a fraction of the van der Waals interaction energy
      should be subtracted so that the Lennard-Jones terms only account for dispersion
      and the Drude dipoles for induction. Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory is used
      to resolve the dispersion and induction terms in dimers and to calculate scaling
      factors to reduce the Lennard-Jones terms from the non-polarisable model. Simply
      adding Drude dipoles to an existing fixed-charge model already improves the
      prediction of transport properties, increasing diffusion coefficients, and
      lowering the viscosity. Scaling down the Lennard-Jones terms leads to still
      faster dynamics and densities that match experiment extremely well. The concept
      developed here improves the overall prediction of density and transport
      properties and can be adapted to other models and systems. In terms of
      microscopic structure of the ionic liquids, the inclusion of polarisation and the
      down-scaling of Lennard-Jones terms affect only slightly the ordering of the
      first shell of counterions, leading to small decreases in coordination numbers.
      Remarkably, the effect of polarisation is major beyond first neighbours,
      significantly weakening spatial correlations, a structural effect that is
      certainly related to the faster dynamics of polarisable models.

PMID- 28571337
TI  - Irradiation- vs. vitrification-induced disordering: The case of ??-quartz and
      glassy silica.
AB  - Irradiation and vitrification can both result in the disordering of minerals.
      However, it remains unclear whether these effects are comparable or if the glassy
      state represents an upper limit for irradiation-induced disordering. By reactive
      molecular dynamics simulations, we compare the structure of irradiated quartz to
      that of glassy silica. We show that although they share some degree of
      similarity, the structure of irradiated quartz and glassy silica differs from
      each other, both at the short- (<3 A) and the medium-range (>3 A and <10 A). In
      particular, the atomic network of irradiated quartz is found to comprise
      coordination defects, edge-sharing units, and large rings, which are absent from
      glassy silica. These results highlight the different nature of irradiation- and
      vitrification-induced disordering.

PMID- 28571338
TI  - Adsorption of atmospheric gases on cementite 010 surfaces.
AB  - We study the adsorption of a series of small molecules on the nonstoichiometric
      {010} surface of cementite (theta-Fe3C) by means of first-principles
      calculations. We find that CO, N2, H2O, and CH4 prefer to adsorb over iron atoms
      in an atop configuration. O2, CO2, and the OH radical prefer a configuration
      bridging two iron atoms and CH2O adsorbs in a configuration bridging a surface
      iron atom and a surface carbon atom. Adsorption energies are small for H2, CO2,
      and CH4, indicating a physisorption process, while those for CO, CH2O and
      especially for O2 and the OH radical are large, indicating a strong chemisorption
      process. H2O and N2 display adsorption energies between these two extremes,
      indicating moderate chemisorption. The dissociation of H2, CH2O, the OH radical,
      and O2 is favoured on this surface. Comparison with adsorption on Fe{100}
      surfaces indicates that most of these gases have similar adsorption energies on
      both surfaces, with the exception of CO and the OH radical. In addition, we find
      similarities between the reactivities of cementite and Mo2C surfaces, due to the
      similar covalent character of both carbides.

PMID- 28571339
TI  - Unexpected impact of irreversible adsorption on thermal expansion: Adsorbed
      layers are not that dead.
AB  - We investigated the impact of irreversible adsorption on the mechanisms of
      thermal expansion of 1D confined polymer layers. For spincoated films
      (polystyrene on aluminum) of constant thickness, the thermal expansion
      coefficient of the melt drops upon annealing following the kinetics of
      irreversible adsorption of the chains onto the supporting substrate, while the
      thermal expansion of the glass is annealing invariant. These perturbations are
      explained in terms of the reduction in free volume content, upon immobilization
      of monomers onto the substrate. To shed more light on this phenomenon, we
      performed an extensive investigation of the thermal expansion of irreversibly
      adsorbed layers of polystyrene on silicon oxide. We verified that, contrarily to
      recent speculations, these films cannot be modeled as dead layers - immobilized
      slabs lacking of segmental relaxation. On the contrary, thin adsorbed layers show
      an increase in thermal expansion with respect to the bulk, due to packing
      frustration. Immobilization plays a role only when the thickness of the adsorbed
      layers overcomes ~10 nm. Finally, we show that for adsorbed layers the difference
      in thermal expansion between the melt and the glass is sufficiently high to
      investigate the glass transition down to 3 nm. Owing to this unique feature, not
      shared by spincoated films, adsorbed layers are the perfect candidate to study
      the properties of extremely thin polymer films.

PMID- 28571340
TI  - A transformation theory of stochastic evolution in Red Moon methodology to time
      evolution of chemical reaction process in the full atomistic system.
AB  - Atomistic information of a whole chemical reaction system, e.g., instantaneous
      microscopic molecular structures and orientations, offers important and deeper
      insight into clearly understanding unknown chemical phenomena. In accordance with
      the progress of a number of simultaneous chemical reactions, the Red Moon method
      (a hybrid Monte Carlo/molecular dynamics reaction method) is capable of
      simulating atomistically the chemical reaction process from an initial state to
      the final one of complex chemical reaction systems. In the present study, we have
      proposed a transformation theory to interpret the chemical reaction process of
      the Red Moon methodology as the time evolution process in harmony with the
      chemical kinetics. For the demonstration of the theory, we have chosen the gas
      reaction system in which the reversible second-order reaction H2 + I2 ? 2HI
      occurs. First, the chemical reaction process was simulated from the initial
      configurational arrangement containing a number of H2 and I2 molecules, each at
      300 K, 500 K, and 700 K. To reproduce the chemical equilibrium for the system,
      the collision frequencies for the reactions were taken into consideration in the
      theoretical treatment. As a result, the calculated equilibrium concentrations
      [H2]eq and equilibrium constants Keq at all the temperatures were in good
      agreement with their corresponding experimental values. Further, we applied the
      theoretical treatment for the time transformation to the system and have shown
      that the calculated half-life tau's of [H2] reproduce very well the analytical
      ones at all the temperatures. It is, therefore, concluded that the application of
      the present theoretical treatment with the Red Moon method makes it possible to
      analyze reasonably the time evolution of complex chemical reaction systems to
      chemical equilibrium at the atomistic level.

PMID- 28571341
TI  - Molecular dynamics simulation of the capillary leveling of viscoelastic polymer
      films.
AB  - Surface tension-driven flow techniques have recently emerged as an efficient
      means of shedding light into the rheology of thin polymer films. Motivated by
      experimental and theoretical approaches in films bearing a varying surface
      topography, we present results on the capillary relaxation of a square pattern at
      the free surface of a viscoelastic polymer film, using molecular dynamics
      simulations of a coarse-grained polymer model. Height profiles are monitored as a
      function of time after heating the system above its glass-transition temperature
      and their time dependence is fitted to the theory of capillary leveling. Results
      show that the viscosity is not constant, but time dependent. In addition to
      providing a complementary insight about the local inner mechanisms, our
      simulations of the capillary-leveling process therefore probe the viscoelasticity
      of the polymer and not only its viscosity, in contrast to most experimental
      approaches.

PMID- 28571342
TI  - Dewetting and spreading transitions for active matter on random pinning
      substrates.
AB  - We show that sterically interacting self-propelled disks in the presence of
      random pinning substrates exhibit transitions among a variety of different
      states. In particular, from a phase separated cluster state, the disks can spread
      out and homogeneously cover the substrate in what can be viewed as an example of
      an active matter wetting transition. We map the location of this transition as a
      function of activity, disk density, and substrate strength, and we also identify
      other phases including a cluster state, coexistence between a cluster and a
      labyrinth wetted phase, and a pinned liquid. Convenient measures of these phases
      include the cluster size, which dips at the wetting-dewetting transition, and the
      fraction of sixfold coordinated particles, which drops when dewetting occurs.

PMID- 28571343
TI  - Spherical harmonics based descriptor for neural network potentials: Structure and
      dynamics of Au147 nanocluster.
AB  - We propose a highly efficient method for fitting the potential energy surface of
      a nanocluster using a spherical harmonics based descriptor integrated with an
      artificial neural network. Our method achieves the accuracy of quantum mechanics
      and speed of empirical potentials. For large sized gold clusters (Au147), the
      computational time for accurate calculation of energy and forces is about 1.7 s,
      which is faster by several orders of magnitude compared to density functional
      theory (DFT). This method is used to perform the global minimum optimizations and
      molecular dynamics simulations for Au147, and it is found that its global minimum
      is not an icosahedron. The isomer that can be regarded as the global minimum is
      found to be 4 eV lower in energy than the icosahedron and is confirmed from DFT.
      The geometry of the obtained global minimum contains 105 atoms on the surface and
      42 atoms in the core. A brief study on the fluxionality in Au147 is performed,
      and it is concluded that Au147 has a dynamic surface, thus opening a new window
      for studying its reaction dynamics.

PMID- 28571344
TI  - Polymer and spherical nanoparticle diffusion in nanocomposites.
AB  - Nanoparticle and polymer dynamics in nanocomposites containing spherical
      nanoparticles were investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We
      show that the polymer diffusivity decreases with nanoparticle loading due to an
      increase of the interfacial area created by nanoparticles, in the polymer matrix.
      We show that small sized nanoparticles can diffuse much faster than that
      predicted from the Stokes-Einstein relation in the dilute regime. We show that
      the nanoparticle diffusivity decreases at higher nanoparticle loading due to
      nanoparticle-polymer interface. Increase of the nanoparticle radius slows the
      nanoparticle diffusion.

PMID- 28571345
TI  - Using deposition rate to increase the thermal and kinetic stability of vapor
      deposited hole transport layer glasses via a simple sublimation apparatus.
AB  - Deposition rate is known to affect the relative stability of vapor-deposited
      glasses; slower rates give more stable materials due to enhanced mobility at the
      free surface of the film. Here we show that the deposition rate can affect both
      the thermodynamic and kinetic stabilities of N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'
      diphenylbenzidine (TPD) and N,N'-di-[(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenyl]-1,1'-biphenyl)
      4,4'-diamine (NPD) glasses used as hole transport layers for organic light
      emitting diodes (OLEDs). A simple, low-vacuum glass sublimation apparatus and a
      high vacuum deposition chamber were used to deposit the glass. 50 MUm thick films
      were deposited in the sublimation apparatus and characterized by differential
      scanning calorimetry while 75 nm thick films were prepared in the high vacuum
      chamber and studied by hot-stage spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The
      thermodynamic stability from both preparation chambers was consistent and showed
      that the fictive temperature (Tfictive) was more than 30 K lower than the
      conventional glass transition temperature (Tg) at the slowest deposition rates.
      The kinetic stability, measured as the onset temperature (Tonset) where the glass
      begins to transform into the supercooled liquid, was 16-17 K greater than Tg at
      the slowest rates. Tonset was systematically lower for the thin films
      characterized by SE and was attributed to the thickness dependent transformation
      of the glass into the supercooled liquid. These results show the first
      calorimetric characterization of the stability of glasses for OLED applications
      made by vapor deposition and the first direct comparison of deposition
      apparatuses as a function of the deposition rate. The ease of fabrication will
      create an opportunity for others to study the effect of deposition conditions on
      glass stability.

PMID- 28571346
TI  - Descriptors for predicting the lattice constant of body centered cubic crystal.
AB  - The prediction of the lattice constant of binary body centered cubic crystals is
      performed in terms of first principle calculations and machine learning. In
      particular, 1541 binary body centered cubic crystals are calculated using density
      functional theory. Results from first principle calculations, corresponding
      information from periodic table, and mathematically tailored data are stored as a
      dataset. Data mining reveals seven descriptors which are key to determining the
      lattice constant where the contribution of descriptors is also discussed and
      visualized. Support vector regression (SVR) technique is implemented to train the
      data where the predicted lattice constants have the mean score of 83.6% accuracy
      via cross-validation and maximum error of 4% when compared to experimentally
      determined lattice constants. In addition, trained SVR is successful in
      predicting material combinations from a desired lattice constant. Thus, a set of
      descriptors for determining the lattice constant is identified and can be used as
      a base descriptor for lattice constants of further complex crystals. This would
      allow for the acceleration of the search for lattice constants of desired atomic
      compositions as well as the prediction of new materials based on a specified
      lattice constant.

PMID- 28571347
TI  - Interfacial interaction and glassy dynamics in stacked thin films of poly(methyl
      methacrylate).
AB  - Neutron reflectivity and dielectric permittivity of alternately stacked thin
      films of protonated and deuterated poly(methyl methacrylate) were measured to
      elucidate a correlation between the time evolution of the interfacial structure
      and the segmental dynamics in the stacked thin polymer films during isothermal
      annealing above the glass transition temperature. The roughness at the interface
      between two thin layers increases with the annealing time, whereas the relaxation
      rate and strength of the alpha-process decrease with an increase in the annealing
      time. A strong correlation between the time evolution of the interfacial
      structure and the dynamics of the alpha-process during annealing could be
      observed using neutron reflectivity and dielectric relaxation measurements.

PMID- 28571348
TI  - An intertwined method for making low-rank, sum-of-product basis functions that
      makes it possible to compute vibrational spectra of molecules with more than 10
      atoms.
AB  - We propose a method for solving the vibrational Schrodinger equation with which
      one can compute spectra for molecules with more than ten atoms. It uses sum-of
      product (SOP) basis functions stored in a canonical polyadic tensor format and
      generated by evaluating matrix-vector products. By doing a sequence of partial
      optimizations, in each of which the factors in a SOP basis function for a single
      coordinate are optimized, the rank of the basis functions is reduced as matrix
      vector products are computed. This is better than using an alternating least
      squares method to reduce the rank, as is done in the reduced-rank block power
      method. Partial optimization is better because it speeds up the calculation by
      about an order of magnitude and allows one to significantly reduce the memory
      cost. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method by computing vibrational
      spectra of two molecules, ethylene oxide (C2H4O) and cyclopentadiene (C5H6), with
      7 and 11 atoms, respectively.

PMID- 28571350
TI  - Dynamical heterogeneity in a vapor-deposited polymer glass.
AB  - Recently, there has been great interest in "ultrastable" glasses formed via vapor
      deposition, both because of emerging engineering applications of these materials
      (e.g., active layers in light-emitting diodes and photovoltaics) and,
      theoretically, as materials for probing the equilibrium properties of glassy
      materials below their glass transition, based on the conjecture that these
      materials are equivalent to glassy materials aged over astronomical time scales.
      We use molecular dynamics simulations to examine the properties of ultrastable
      vapor-deposited and ordinary polymer glasses. Based on the difference in the
      energy of the deposited and ordinary films, we estimate the effective cooling
      rate for the vapor deposited films to be 1 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than
      that of the ordinary film, depending on the deposition temperature. Similarly, we
      find an increase in the average segmental relaxation time of the vapor-deposited
      film compared to the ordinary glass. On the other hand, the normal mode spectrum
      is essentially identical for the vapor-deposited and the ordinary glass film,
      suggesting that the high-frequency dynamics should be similar. In short, the
      segmental relaxation dynamics of the polymer vapor-deposited glass are consistent
      with those of an ordinary polymer glass with a somewhat slower effective cooling
      rate. Of course, one would expect a larger effect on dynamics approaching the
      experimental glass transition, where the cooling rates are much slower than
      accessible in simulation. To more precisely probe the relationship between the
      dynamics of these glasses, we examine dynamical heterogeneity within the film.
      Due to the substantial mobility gradient in the glassy films, we find that it is
      crucial to distinguish the dynamics of the middle part of the film from those of
      the entire film. Considering the film as a whole, the average dynamical
      heterogeneity is dominated by the mobility gradient, and as a consequence the
      heterogeneity is nearly indistinguishable between the ordinary and vapor
      deposited glass films. In contrast, in the middle part of the film, where there
      is almost no mobility gradient, we find the dynamical heterogeneity within the
      deposited film is somewhat larger than that of the ordinary film at the same
      temperature. We further show that the scale of the interfacial region grows on
      cooling in the equilibrium film, but this trend reverses in the glass state. We
      attribute this reversal in part to a shrinking ratio of the relaxation time in
      the middle of the film to that of the interfacial layer in the non-equilibrium
      state. The dynamics in this mobile interfacial layer for the ordinary and
      deposited film are nearly the same, suggesting that the interfacial region is
      always in a near-equilibrium state. These results emphasize the importance of
      distinguishing between interfacial and internal relaxation processes in this
      emerging class of materials.

PMID- 28571349
TI  - Asymmetric osmotic water permeation through a vesicle membrane.
AB  - Understanding the water permeation through a cell membrane is of primary
      importance for biological activities and a key step to capture its shape
      transformation in salt solution. In this work, we reveal the dynamical behaviors
      of osmotically driven transport of water molecules across a vesicle membrane by
      molecular dynamics simulations. Of particular interest is that the water
      transport in and out of vesicles is highly distinguishable given the osmotic
      force are the same, suggesting an asymmetric osmotic transportation. This
      asymmetric phenomenon exists in a broad range of parameter space such as the salt
      concentration, temperature, and vesicle size and can be ascribed to the similar
      asymmetric potential energy of lipid-ion, lipid-water, lipid-solution, lipid
      lipid, and the lipid-lipid energy fluctuation. Specifically, the water flux has a
      linear increase with the salt concentration, similar to the prediction by Nernst
      Planck equation or Fick's first law. Furthermore, due to the Arrhenius relation
      between the membrane permeability and temperature, the water flux also exhibits
      excellent Arrhenius dependence on the temperature. Meanwhile, the water flux
      shows a linear increase with the vesicle surface area since the flux amount
      across a unit membrane area should be a constant. Finally, we also present the
      anonymous diffusion behaviors for the vesicle itself, where transitions from
      normal diffusion at short times to subdiffusion at long times are identified. Our
      results provide significant new physical insights for the osmotic water
      permeation through a vesicle membrane and are helpful for future experimental
      studies.

PMID- 28571351
TI  - A coarse-grain molecular dynamics study of oil-water interfaces in the presence
      of silica nanoparticles and nonionic surfactants.
AB  - In this work, we have studied the effect of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles
      (NPs), in the presence of nonionic surfactants (Triethylene glycol monododecyl
      ether and Tween 20), on the oil-water (n-octane-water, n-dodecane-water and n
      hexadecane-water) interfacial tensions (IFTs) at 300 K, using coarse-grained
      molecular dynamics simulations based on the MARTINI force field. Simulation
      results indicate that silica NPs solely do not affect the IFT. However, the
      silica NPs may or may not increase the IFT of oil-water containing nonionic
      surfactant, depending on the tendency of the surfactant to adsorb on the surface
      of NPs. The adsorption occurs due to the formation of hydrogen bonds, and
      adsorption increases with a decrease in pH, as seen in experimental studies. In
      this work, we found that the oil-water IFT increases with an increasing amount of
      adsorption of the surfactant on NPs. At a fixed amount of adsorption of the
      surfactant on NPs, the IFT behavior is indifferent to the change in concentration
      of NPs. However, the IFT decreases with an increase in surfactant concentration.
      We present a detailed analysis of the density profile and intrinsic width of the
      interface. The IFT behavior is found to correlate extremely well with the
      intrinsic width of the interface. The current study provides an explanation for
      the increase in IFT observed in a recent experiment [N. R. Biswal et al., J.
      Phys. Chem. B 120, 7265-7274 (2016)] for various types of NPs and nonionic
      surfactant systems.

PMID- 28571352
TI  - Polymer dynamics under cylindrical confinement featuring a locally repulsive
      surface: A quasielastic neutron scattering study.
AB  - We investigated the effect of intermediate cylindrical confinement with locally
      repulsive walls on the segmental and entanglement dynamics of a polymer melt by
      quasielastic neutron scattering. As a reference, the corresponding polymer melt
      was measured under identical conditions. The locally repulsive confinement was
      realized by hydrophilic anodic alumina nanopores with a diameter of 20 nm. The
      end-to-end distance of the hydrophobic infiltrated polyethylene-alt-propylene was
      close to this diameter. In the case of hard wall repulsion with negligible local
      attraction, several simulations predicted an acceleration of segmental dynamics
      close to the wall. Other than in attractive or neutral systems, where the
      segmental dynamics is slowed down, we found that the segmental dynamics in the
      nanopores is identical to the local mobility in the bulk. Even under very careful
      scrutiny, we could not find any acceleration of the surface-near segmental
      motion. On the larger time scale, the neutron spin-echo experiment showed that
      the Rouse relaxation was not altered by confinement effects. Also the
      entanglement dynamics was not affected. Thus at moderate confinement conditions,
      facilitated by locally repulsive walls, the dynamics remains as in the bulk melt,
      a result that is not so clear from simulations.

PMID- 28571353
TI  - The boomerang effect in electron-hydrogen molecule scattering as determined by
      time-dependent calculations.
AB  - The appearance of oscillations in the energy-dependent cross sections of the
      vibrational excitation nu=0->nu>=3 of the hydrogen molecule in its electronic
      ground state as predicted by Mundel, Berman, and Domcke [Phys. Rev. A 32, 181
      (1985)] was confirmed in the electron scattering experiments by Allan [J. Phys.
      B: At. Mol. Phys. 18, L451 (1985)]. These unusual structures were obtained in
      spite of the extremely short lifetime of H2- in its ro-vibrational states. Based
      on the standard (Hermitian) time-independent scattering calculations, Horacek et
      al. [Phys. Rev. A 73, 022701 (2006)] associated these oscillations with the
      boomerang effect. Here, we show the boomerang effect as developed in time, based
      on our time-dependent nuclear wavepacket (WP) calculations. The nuclear WP
      dynamics of H2- is determined using the non-Hermitian quantum mechanics (NH-QM)
      which enables the use of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation with complex
      potential energy surfaces. This NH-QM approach, which enables us the association
      of the nuclear WP dynamics as obtained from the complex potential energy curve of
      H2- with the evolution of cross section in time, can enlighten the dynamics in
      other scattering experiments.

PMID- 28571354
TI  - Efficient evaluation of three-center Coulomb integrals.
AB  - In this study we pursue the most efficient paths for the evaluation of three
      center electron repulsion integrals (ERIs) over solid harmonic Gaussian functions
      of various angular momenta. First, the adaptation of the well-established
      techniques developed for four-center ERIs, such as the Obara-Saika, McMurchie
      Davidson, Gill-Head-Gordon-Pople, and Rys quadrature schemes, and the
      combinations thereof for three-center ERIs is discussed. Several algorithmic
      aspects, such as the order of the various operations and primitive loops as well
      as prescreening strategies, are analyzed. Second, the number of floating point
      operations (FLOPs) is estimated for the various algorithms derived, and based on
      these results the most promising ones are selected. We report the efficient
      implementation of the latter algorithms invoking automated programming techniques
      and also evaluate their practical performance. We conclude that the simplified
      Obara-Saika scheme of Ahlrichs is the most cost-effective one in the majority of
      cases, but the modified Gill-Head-Gordon-Pople and Rys algorithms proposed herein
      are preferred for particular shell triplets. Our numerical experiments also show
      that even though the solid harmonic transformation and the horizontal recurrence
      require significantly fewer FLOPs if performed at the contracted level, this
      approach does not improve the efficiency in practical cases. Instead, it is more
      advantageous to carry out these operations at the primitive level, which allows
      for more efficient integral prescreening and memory layout.

PMID- 28571355
TI  - The glass transition temperature of thin films: A molecular dynamics study for a
      bead-spring model.
AB  - Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out on free-standing liquid films of
      different thicknesses h using a bead-spring model of 10 beads per chain. The
      glass transition temperatures, Tg, of the various films were determined from
      plots of the internal energy versus temperature. We used these simulations to
      test the validity of our earlier conjecture that the glass transition of a
      confined liquid could be approximated by pre-averaging over the non-uniform
      density profile of the film. Using the density profiles from our simulations, we
      computed the average density of the free-standing films as a function of
      temperature. In all our film simulations we found, within the error of the
      simulation, that Tg of the film occurred at the same density (or packing
      fraction) as the bulk system at the bulk glass transition temperature TgB. By
      equating these densities at their respective glass transition temperatures, as
      suggested by the simulations, we deduced that Tg/TgB is proportional to h0/h.
      This is consistent with previous simulations and experimental data. Moreover, the
      parameter h0 is determinable in our model from the density profile of the films.

PMID- 28571356
TI  - Double photoionization of tropone and cyclooctatetraene.
AB  - We have studied the double-photoionization process of tropone (C7H6O) and
      cyclooctatetraene (C8H8) as a function of photon energy using monochromatized
      synchrotron radiation between 18 and 270 eV. We compare our results with
      previously published data for partially deuterated benzene (C6H3D3), which
      exhibits three distinct features in the ratio of doubly to singly charged parent
      ions, whereas pyrrole (C4H4N) exhibits only two of these features. The question
      that we address in this paper is how molecules with different molecular
      structures (pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, and octagonal carbon rings) affect
      the photon-energy dependence of this ratio.

PMID- 28571357
TI  - Preface: Special Topic on Dynamics of Polymer Materials in Thin Films and Related
      Geometries.
AB  - The last twenty years have seen a substantial effort to understand relaxation,
      mechanics, diffusion, and the glass transition in thin polymer films and related
      geometries. Recent progress in this field is highlighted in this special issue of
      The Journal of Chemical Physics on "Dynamics of Polymer Materials in Thin Films
      and Related Geometries." With the goal of providing an entry point to these 35
      papers for those not working in this field, we provide some background and
      perspective in this introduction to the special topic section.

PMID- 28571358
TI  - Complex nonequilibrium dynamics of stacked polystyrene films deep in the glassy
      state.
AB  - We investigate the kinetics of enthalpy recovery in stacked glassy polystyrene
      (PS) films with thickness from 30 to 95 nm over a wide temperature range below
      the glass transition temperature (Tg). We show that the time evolution toward
      equilibrium exhibits two mechanisms of recovery, in ways analogous to bulk PS.
      The fast mechanism, allowing partial enthalpy recovery toward equilibrium,
      displays Arrhenius temperature dependence with low activation energy, whereas the
      slow mechanism follows pronounced super-Arrhenius temperature dependence. In
      comparison to bulk PS, the time scales of the two mechanisms of recovery are
      considerably shorter and decreasing with the film thickness. Scaling of the
      equilibration times at various thicknesses indicates that the fast mechanism of
      recovery is compatible with the free volume holes diffusion model. Conversely,
      the slow mechanism of recovery appears to be accelerated with decreasing
      thickness more than predicted by the model and, therefore, its description
      requires additional ingredients. The implications, from both a fundamental and
      technological viewpoint, of the ability of thin polymer films to densify in
      relatively short time scales are discussed.

PMID- 28571359
TI  - Side-group size effects on interfaces and glass formation in supported polymer
      thin films.
AB  - Recent studies on glass-forming polymers near interfaces have emphasized the
      importance of molecular features such as chain stiffness, side-groups, molecular
      packing, and associated changes in fragility as key factors that govern the
      magnitude of Tg changes with respect to the bulk in polymer thin films. However,
      how such molecular features are coupled with substrate and free surface effects
      on Tg in thin films remains to be fully understood. Here, we employ a chemically
      specific coarse-grained polymer model for methacrylates to investigate the role
      of side-group volume on glass formation in bulk polymers and supported thin
      films. Our results show that bulkier side-groups lead to higher bulk Tg and
      fragility and are associated with a pronounced free surface effect on overall Tg
      depression. By probing local Tg within the films, however, we find that the
      polymers with bulkier side-groups experience a reduced confinement-induced
      increase in local Tg near a strongly interacting substrate. Further analyses
      indicate that this is due to the packing frustration of chains near the substrate
      interface, which lowers the attractive interactions with the substrate and thus
      lessens the surface-induced reduction in segmental mobility. Our results reveal
      that the size of the polymer side-group may be a design element that controls the
      confinement effects induced by the free surface and substrates in supported
      polymer thin films. Our analyses provide new insights into the factors governing
      polymer dynamics in bulk and confined environments.

PMID- 28571360
TI  - Interfacial and topological effects on the glass transition in free-standing
      polystyrene films.
AB  - United-atom molecular-dynamics computer simulations of atactic polystyrene (PS)
      were performed for the bulk and free-standing films of 2 nm-20 nm thickness, for
      both linear and cyclic polymers comprised of 80 monomers. Simulated volumetric
      glass-transition temperatures (Tg) show a strong dependence on the film thickness
      below 10 nm. The glass-transition temperature of linear PS is 13% lower than that
      of the bulk for 2.5 nm-thick films, as compared to less than 1% lower for 20 nm
      films. Our studies reveal that the fraction of the chain-end groups is larger in
      the interfacial layer with its outermost region approximately 1 nm below the
      surface than it is in the bulk. The enhanced population of the end groups is
      expected to result in a more mobile interfacial layer and the consequent
      dependence of Tg on the film thickness. In addition, the simulations show an
      enrichment of backbone aliphatic carbons and concomitant deficit of phenyl
      aromatic carbons in the interfacial film layer. This deficit would weaken the
      strong phenyl-phenyl aromatic (pi-pi) interactions and, hence, lead to a lower
      film-averaged Tg in thin films, as compared to the bulk sample. To investigate
      the relative importance of the two possible mechanisms (increased chain ends at
      the surface or weakened pi-pi interactions in the interfacial region), the data
      for linear PS are compared with those for cyclic PS. For the cyclic PS, the
      reduction of the glass-transition temperature is also significant in thin films,
      albeit not as much as for linear PS. Moreover, the deficit of phenyl carbons in
      the film interface is comparable to that observed for linear PS. Therefore, chain
      end effects alone cannot explain the observed pronounced Tg dependence on the
      thickness of thin PS films; the weakened phenyl-phenyl interactions in the
      interfacial region seems to be an important cause as well.

PMID- 28571361
TI  - Relaxation processes and glass transition of confined polymer melts: A molecular
      dynamics simulation of 1,4-polybutadiene between graphite walls.
AB  - Molecular dynamics simulations of a chemically realistic model for 1,4
      polybutadiene in a thin film geometry confined by two graphite walls are
      presented. Previous work on melts in the bulk has shown that the model faithfully
      reproduces static and dynamic properties of the real material over a wide
      temperature range. The present work studies how these properties change due to
      nano-confinement. The focus is on orientational correlations observable in
      nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and on the local intermediate incoherent
      neutron scattering function, Fs(qz, z, t), for distances z from the graphite
      walls in the range of a few nanometers. Temperatures from about 2Tg down to about
      1.15Tg, where Tg is the glass transition temperature in the bulk, are studied. It
      is shown that weakly attractive forces between the wall atoms and the monomers
      suffice to effectively bind a polymer coil that is near the wall. For a wide
      regime of temperatures, the Arrhenius-like adsorption/desorption kinetics of the
      monomers is the slowest process, while very close to Tg the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann
      like alpha-relaxation takes over. The alpha-process is modified only for z<=1.2
      nm due to the density changes near the walls, less than expected from studies of
      coarse-grained (bead-spring-type) models. The weakness of the surface effects on
      the glass transition in this case is attributed to the interplay of density
      changes near the wall with the torsional potential. A brief discussion of
      pertinent experiments is given.

PMID- 28571362
TI  - Dissociation cross sections for N2 + N -> 3N and O2 + O -> 3O using the QCT
      method.
AB  - Cross sections for the homo-nuclear atom-diatom collision induced dissociations
      (CIDs): N2 + N and O2 + O are calculated using Quasi-Classical Trajectory (QCT)
      method on ab initio Potential Energy Surfaces (PESs). A number of studies for
      these reactions carried out in the past focused on the CID cross section values
      generated using London-Eyring-Polanyi-Sato PES and seldom listed the CID cross
      section data. A highly accurate CASSCF-CASPT2 N3 and a new O3 global PES are used
      for the present QCT analysis and the CID cross section data up to 30 eV relative
      energy are also published. In addition, an interpolating scheme based on
      spectroscopic data is introduced that fits the CID cross section for the entire
      ro-vibrational spectrum using QCT data generated at chosen ro-vibrational levels.
      The rate coefficients calculated using the generated CID cross section compare
      satisfactorily with the existing experimental and theoretical results. The CID
      cross section data generated will find an application in the development of a
      more precise chemical reaction model for Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code
      simulating hypersonic re-entry flows.

PMID- 28571363
TI  - Applying Bogomolny's quantization method to generic classical systems.
AB  - The quantization method of Bogomolny [Nonlinearity 5, 805 (1992)] can potentially
      provide semiclassical estimates for energy levels of all bound states of
      arbitrary systems. This approach requires the formation of the transfer matrix TE
      as a function of energy E. Existing practical methods for calculating this matrix
      require a recalculation of many classical trajectories for each energy. This has
      hampered the application of Bogomolny's method to generic systems that do not
      possess special classical scaling properties. Generalizing earlier work [H. Barak
      and K. G. Kay, Phys. Rev. E 88, 062926 (2013)], we develop initial value
      representation formulas for TE that overcome this problem. These expressions are
      obtained from a generalized Herman-Kluk formula for the propagator that allows
      one to easily derive a family of semiclassical integral approximations for the
      Green's function that are, in turn, used to form the transfer matrix.
      Calculations for two-dimensional systems show that Bogomolny's method with the
      present expressions for TE produces accurate semiclassical energy levels from
      small transfer matrices.

PMID- 28571364
TI  - Erratum: "Gas phase hyper-Rayleigh scattering measurements" [J. Chem. Phys. 137,
      044312 (2012)].

PMID- 28571365
TI  - First-principle simulations of electronic structure in semicrystalline
      polyethylene.
AB  - In order to increase our fundamental knowledge about high-voltage cable
      insulation materials, realistic polyethylene (PE) structures, generated with a
      novel molecular modeling strategy, have been analyzed using first principle
      electronic structure simulations. The PE structures were constructed by first
      generating atomistic PE configurations with an off-lattice Monte Carlo method and
      then equilibrating the structures at the desired temperature and pressure using
      molecular dynamics simulations. Semicrystalline, fully crystalline and fully
      amorphous PE, in some cases including crosslinks and short-chain branches, were
      analyzed. The modeled PE had a structure in agreement with established
      experimental data. Linear-scaling density functional theory (LS-DFT) was used to
      examine the electronic structure (e.g., spatial distribution of molecular
      orbitals, bandgaps and mobility edges) on all the materials, whereas conventional
      DFT was used to validate the LS-DFT results on small systems. When hybrid
      functionals were used, the simulated bandgaps were close to the experimental
      values. The localization of valence and conduction band states was demonstrated.
      The localized states in the conduction band were primarily found in the free
      volume (result of gauche conformations) present in the amorphous regions. For
      branched and crosslinked structures, the localized electronic states closest to
      the valence band edge were positioned at branches and crosslinks, respectively.
      At 0 K, the activation energy for transport was lower for holes than for
      electrons. However, at room temperature, the effective activation energy was very
      low (~0.1 eV) for both holes and electrons, which indicates that the mobility
      will be relatively high even below the mobility edges and suggests that charge
      carriers can be hot carriers above the mobility edges in the presence of a high
      electrical field.

PMID- 28571366
TI  - Dynamics of poly(vinyl methyl ketone) thin films studied by local dielectric
      spectroscopy.
AB  - Local dielectric spectroscopy, which entails measuring the change in resonance
      frequency of the conducting tip of an atomic force microscope to determine the
      complex permittivity of a sample with high spatial (lateral) resolution, was
      employed to characterize the dynamics of thin films of poly(vinyl methyl ketone)
      (PVMK) having different substrate and top surface layers. A free surface yields
      the usual speeding up of the segmental dynamics, corresponding to a glass
      transition suppression of 6.5 degrees  for 18 nm film thickness. This result is
      unaffected by the presence of a glassy, compatible polymer, poly-4-vinyl phenol
      (PVPh), between the metal substrate and the PVMK. However, covering the top
      surface with a thin layer of the PVPh suppresses the dynamics. The speeding up of
      PVMK segmental motions observed for a free surface is absent due to interfacial
      interactions of the PVMK with the glass layer, an effect not seen when the top
      layer is an incompatible polymer.

PMID- 28571367
TI  - The glass transition and enthalpy recovery of a single polystyrene ultrathin film
      using Flash DSC.
AB  - The kinetics of the glass transition are measured for a single polystyrene
      ultrathin film of 20 nm thickness using Flash differential scanning calorimetry
      (DSC). Tg is measured over a range of cooling rates from 0.1 to 1000 K/s and is
      depressed compared to the bulk. The depression decreases with increasing cooling
      rate, from 12 K lower than the bulk at 0.1 K/s to no significant change at 1000
      K/s. Isothermal enthalpy recovery measurements are performed from 50 to 115 
      degrees C, and from these experiments, the temperature dependence of the
      induction time along the glass line is obtained, as well as the temperature
      dependence of the time scale required to reach equilibrium, providing a measure
      of the shortest effective glassy relaxation time and the longest effective
      equilibrium relaxation time, respectively. The induction time for the ultrathin
      film is found to be similar to the bulk at all temperatures presumably because
      the Tg values are the same due to the use of a cooling rate of 1000 K/s prior to
      the enthalpy recovery measurements. On the other hand, the times required to
      reach equilibrium for the ultrathin film and bulk are similar at 100  degrees C,
      and considerably shorter for the ultrathin film at 90  degrees C, consistent with
      faster dynamics under nanoconfinement at low temperatures. The magnitude of the
      "Tg depression" is smaller when using the equilibrium relaxation time from the
      structural recovery experiment as a measure of the dynamics than when measuring
      Tg after a cooling experiment. A relaxation map is developed to summarize the
      results.

PMID- 28571368
TI  - First principles centroid molecular dynamics simulation of hydride in nanoporous
      C12A7:H.
AB  - Hydrides in nanoporous [Ca24Al28O64]4+(H-)4 (C12A7:H-) were investigated via
      first principles centroid molecular dynamics (CMD). The quality of our CMD
      simulations was assessed by examining the temperature dependence of the
      distribution of hydrides in the cages constituting the C12A7 framework. The
      vibrational states of C12A7:H- were analyzed by using the trajectories of the
      centroids generated in our CMD simulations. We find that the rattling motions of
      H- and D- behave qualitatively differently, resulting in non-trivial isotope
      effects, which are suggested to be detectable by using infrared and Raman
      spectroscopy.

PMID- 28571369
TI  - Network confinement and heterogeneity slows nanoparticle diffusion in polymer
      gels.
AB  - Nanoparticle (NP) diffusion was measured in polyacrylamide gels (PAGs) with a
      mesh size comparable to the NP size, 21 nm. The confinement ratio (CR), NP
      diameter/mesh size, increased from 0.4 to 3.8 by increasing crosslinker density
      and from 0.4 to 2.1 by adding acetone, which collapsed the PAGs. In all gels, NPs
      either became localized, moving less than 200 nm, diffused microns, or exhibited
      a combination of these behaviors, as measured by single particle tracking. Mean
      squared displacements (MSDs) of mobile NPs decreased as CR increased. In
      collapsed gels, the localized NP population increased and MSD of mobile NPs
      decreased compared to crosslinked PAGs. For all CRs, van Hove distributions
      exhibited non-Gaussian displacements, consistent with intermittent localization
      of NPs. The non-Gaussian parameter increased from a maximum of 1.5 for
      crosslinked PAG to 5 for collapsed PAG, consistent with greater network
      heterogeneity in these gels. Diffusion coefficients decreased exponentially as CR
      increased for crosslinked gels; however, in collapsed gels, the diffusion
      coefficients decreased more strongly, which was attributed to network
      heterogeneity. Collapsing the gel resulted in an increasingly tortuous pathway
      for NPs, slowing diffusion at a given CR. Understanding how gel structure affects
      NP mobility will allow the design and enhanced performance of gels that separate
      and release molecules in membranes and drug delivery platforms.

PMID- 28571370
TI  - Surface transport mechanisms in molecular glasses probed by the exposure of nano
      particles.
AB  - For a glass-forming liquid, the mechanism by which its surface contour evolves
      can change from bulk viscous flow at high temperatures to surface diffusion at
      low temperatures. We show that this mechanistic change can be conveniently
      detected by the exposure of nano-particles native in the material. Despite its
      high chemical purity, the often-studied molecular glass indomethacin contains low
      concentration particles approximately 100 nm in size and 0.3% in volume fraction.
      Similar particles are present in polystyrene, another often-used model. In the
      surface-diffusion regime, particles are gradually exposed in regions vacated by
      host molecules, for example, the peak of a surface grating and the depletion zone
      near a surface crystal. In the viscous-flow regime, particle exposure is not
      observed. The surface contour around an exposed particle widens over time in a
      self-similar manner as 3 (Bt)1/4, where B is a surface mobility constant and the
      same constant obtained by surface grating decay. This work suggests that in a
      binary system composed of slow- and fast-diffusing molecules, slow-diffusing
      molecules can be stranded in surface regions vacated by fast-diffusing molecules,
      effectively leading to phase separation.

PMID- 28571371
TI  - Publisher's Note: "Perturbative density functional methods for cholesteric liquid
      crystals" [J. Chem. Phys. 146, 184504 (2017)].

PMID- 28571372
TI  - Reactivity of O2 on Pd/Ru(0001) and PdRu/Ru(0001) surface alloys.
AB  - The reactivity of a Pd monolayer epitaxially grown on Ru(0001) toward O2 has been
      investigated by molecular beam techniques. O2 initial sticking coefficients were
      determined using the King and Wells method in the incident energy range of 40-450
      meV and for sample temperatures of 100 K and 300 K, and compared to the
      corresponding values measured on the clean Ru(0001) and Pd(111) surfaces. In
      contrast to the high reactivity shown by Ru(0001) at 100 K, the Pd/Ru(0001)
      system exhibits a monotonic decrease in the sticking probability of O2 as a
      function of normal incident energy. At room temperature, the system was found to
      be inert. Thermal desorption measurements show that O2 is adsorbed molecularly at
      100 K. A completely different behaviour has been measured for the
      Pd0.95Ru0.05/Ru(0001) surface alloy. On this surface, the O2 sticking probability
      increases with incident energy and resembles the one observed on the clean
      Ru(0001) surface, even at 300 K. Thermal desorption measurements point to
      dissociative adsorption of O2 in this system. Both the charge transfer from the
      Pd to the Ru substrate and the compressive strain on the Pd monolayer contribute
      to decrease in the reactivity of the Pd/Ru(0001) system well below those of both
      Ru(0001) and Pd(111).

PMID- 28571373
TI  - Excited state gradients for a state-specific continuum solvation approach: The
      vertical excitation model within a Lagrangian TDDFT formulation.
AB  - The accurate modeling of the environment response is a fundamental challenge for
      accurately describing the photophysics and photochemistry of molecules both in
      solution and in more complex embeddings. When large rearrangements of the
      electron density occur after an electronic transition, state-specific
      formulations, such as the vertical excitation model, are necessary to achieve a
      proper modeling of the processes. Such a state-specific model is fundamental not
      only to obtain accurate energies, but also to follow the geometrical relaxation
      accompanying the evolution of the excited-states. This study presents the
      analytical expression of the gradients of the vertical excitation model approach
      by a Lagrangian formulation in the time dependent density functional theory
      framework. Representative organic chromophores in solution are used to test the
      reliability of the implementation and provide comparisons with the linear
      response description.

PMID- 28571374
TI  - The relationship between dynamic and pseudo-thermodynamic measures of the glass
      transition temperature in nanostructured materials.
AB  - Despite decades of research on the effects of nanoconfinement on the glass
      transition temperature Tg, apparent discrepancies between pseudothermodynamic and
      dynamic measurements of these effects have raised questions regarding the
      presence of long-ranged interfacial dynamic gradients in glass-forming liquids.
      Here we show that these differences can be accounted for based on disparities in
      these methods' weightings over local Tg's within an interfacial gradient. This
      finding suggests that a majority of experimental data are consistent with a broad
      interfacial dynamic interphase in glass-forming liquids.

PMID- 28571375
TI  - Depth-resolved local conformation and thermal relaxation of polystyrene near
      substrate interface.
AB  - By means of sum-frequency generation spectroscopy, we report a depth-resolved
      measurement of the local conformation and chain relaxation of polystyrene (hPS)
      located at different distances from the quartz interface. To control the distance
      from the quartz interface, deuterated polystyrene (dPS) layers with thicknesses
      of 3.4, 7.5, and 20 nm were coated on the quartz substrates. The hPS chains in
      direct contact with the substrate surface predominantly orient their phenyl rings
      in a direction normal to the substrate. This conformation was found to be barely
      relaxed when the film was annealed for 24 h at 423 K, higher than the bulk glass
      transition temperature. In contrast, for the hPS chains supported on the dPS
      layer, the orientation of phenyl rings of hPS became weaker with the annealing
      and this trend was more significant with increasing distance from the quartz
      substrate. In particular, the orientation of phenyl rings of hPS after annealing
      vanished at a distance of 20 nm. These results might provide an important
      evidence of the difference in the relaxation dynamics of the PS chains located at
      different distances from the quartz interface.

PMID- 28571376
TI  - Dynamics of ultra-thin polystyrene with and without a (artificial) dead layer
      studied by resonance enhanced dynamic light scattering.
AB  - Using non-invasive, marker-free resonance enhanced dynamic light scattering, the
      dynamics of capillary waves on ultrathin polystyrene films' coupling to the
      viscoelastic and mechanical properties have been studied. The dynamics of
      ultrathin polymer films is still debated. In particular the question of what
      influence either the solid substrate and/or the fluid-gas interface has on the
      dynamics and the mechanical properties of films of glass forming liquids as
      polymers is in the focus of the present research. As a consequence, e.g.,
      viscosity close to interfaces and thus the average viscosity of very thin films
      are prone to change. This study is focused on atactic, non-entangled polystyrene
      thin films on the gold surface. A slow dynamic mode was observed with Vogel
      Fulcher-Tammann temperature dependence, slowing down with decreasing film
      thickness. We tentatively attribute this relaxation mode to overdamped capillary
      waves because of its temperature dependence and the dispersion with a wave vector
      which was found. No signs of a more mobile layer at the air/polymer interface or
      of a "dead layer" at the solid/polymer interface were found. Therefore we
      investigated the influence of an artificially created dead layer on the capillary
      wave dynamics by introducing covalently bound polystyrene polymer brushes as
      anchors. The dynamics was slowed down to a degree more than expected from
      theoretical work on the increase of density close to the solid liquid interface
      instead of a "dead layer" of 2 nm, the interaction seems to extend more than 10
      nm into the polymer.

PMID- 28571377
TI  - Reduced-mobility layers with high internal mobility in poly(ethylene oxide)
      silica nanocomposites.
AB  - A series of poly(ethylene oxide) nanocomposites with spherical silica was studied
      by proton NMR spectroscopy, identifying and characterizing reduced-mobility
      components arising from either room-temperature lateral adsorption or possibly
      end-group mediated high-temperature bonding to the silica surface. The study
      complements earlier neutron-scattering results for some of the samples. The
      estimated thickness of a layer characterized by significant internal mobility
      resembling backbone rotation ranges from 2 nm for longer (20 k) chains adsorbed
      on 42 nm diameter particles to 0.5 nm and below for shorter (2 k) chains on 13 nm
      particles. In the latter case, even lower adsorbed amounts are found when hydroxy
      endgroups are replaced by methyl endgroups. Both heating and water addition do
      not lead to significant changes of the observables, in contrast to other systems
      such as acrylate polymers adsorbed to silica, where temperature- and solvent
      induced softening associated with a glass transition temperature gradient was
      evidenced. We highlight the actual agreement and complementarity of NMR and
      neutron scattering results, with the earlier ambiguities mainly arising from
      different sensitivities to the component fractions and the details of their
      mobility.

PMID- 28571378
TI  - Molecular weight dependence of the intrinsic size effect on Tg in AAO template
      supported polymer nanorods: A DSC study.
AB  - Many studies have established a major effect of nanoscale confinement on the
      glass transition temperature (Tg) of polystyrene (PS), most commonly in thin
      films with one or two free surfaces. Here, we characterize smaller yet
      significant intrinsic size effects (in the absence of free surfaces or
      significant attractive polymer-substrate interactions) on the Tg and fragility of
      PS. Melt infiltration of various molecular weights (MWs) of PS into anodic
      aluminum oxide (AAO) templates is used to create nanorods supported on AAO with
      rod diameter (d) ranging from 24 to 210 nm. The Tg (both as Tg,onset and fictive
      temperature) and fragility values are characterized by differential scanning
      calorimetry. No intrinsic size effect is observed for 30 kg/mol PS in template
      supported nanorods with d = 24 nm. However, effects on Tg are present for PS
      nanorods with Mn and Mw >= ~175 kg/mol, with effects increasing in magnitude with
      increasing MW. For example, in 24-nm-diameter template-supported nanorods, Tg,
      rod - Tg, bulk = -2.0 to -2.5  degrees C for PS with Mn = 175 kg/mol and Mw = 182
      kg/mol, and Tg, rod - Tg, bulk = ~-8  degrees C for PS with Mn = 929 kg/mol and
      Mw = 1420 kg/mol. In general, reductions in Tg occur when d <= ~2Rg, where Rg is
      the bulk polymer radius of gyration. Thus, intrinsic size effects are significant
      when the rod diameter is smaller than the diameter (2Rg) associated with the
      spherical volume pervaded by coils in bulk. We hypothesize that the Tg reduction
      occurs when chain segment packing frustration is sufficiently perturbed by
      confinement in the nanorods. This explanation is supported by observed reductions
      in fragility with the increasing extent of confinement. We also explain why these
      small intrinsic size effects do not contradict reports that the Tg-confinement
      effect in supported PS films with one free surface exhibits little or no MW
      dependence.

PMID- 28571379
TI  - Limited surface mobility inhibits stable glass formation for 2-ethyl-1-hexanol.
AB  - Previous work has shown that vapor-deposition can prepare organic glasses with
      extremely high kinetic stabilities and other properties that would be expected
      from liquid-cooled glasses only after aging for thousands of years or more.
      However, recent reports have shown that some molecules form vapor-deposited
      glasses with only limited kinetic stability when prepared using conditions
      expected to yield a stable glass. In this work, we vapor deposit glasses of 2
      ethyl-1-hexanol over a wide range of deposition rates and test several hypotheses
      for why this molecule does not form highly stable glasses under normal deposition
      conditions. The kinetic stability of 2-ethyl-1-hexanol glasses is found to be
      highly dependent on the deposition rate. For deposition at Tsubstrate = 0.90 Tg,
      the kinetic stability increases by 3 orders of magnitude (as measured by
      isothermal transformation times) when the deposition rate is decreased from 0.2
      nm/s to 0.005 nm/s. We also find that, for the same preparation time, a vapor
      deposited glass has much more kinetic stability than an aged liquid-cooled glass.
      Our results support the hypothesis that the formation of highly stable 2-ethyl-1
      hexanol glasses is inhibited by limited surface mobility. We compare our
      deposition rate experiments to similar ones performed with ethylcyclohexane
      (which readily forms glasses of high kinetic stability); we estimate that the
      surface mobility of 2-ethyl-1-hexanol is more than 4 orders of magnitude less
      than that of ethylcyclohexane at 0.85 Tg.

PMID- 28571380
TI  - Local glass transition temperature Tg(z) of polystyrene next to different
      polymers: Hard vs. soft confinement.
AB  - The depth to which the local glass transition temperature Tg and alpha
      relaxations are perturbed near a boundary is believed to be related to the
      characteristic length scales associated with cooperative dynamics in dynamically
      heterogeneous glasses. Following our recent work [R. R. Baglay and C. R. Roth, J.
      Chem. Phys. 143, 111101 (2015)] that measured a very broad 350-400 nm local Tg(z)
      profile across a glassy-rubbery interface of polystyrene (PS)/poly(n-butyl
      methacrylate) (PnBMA), we compare here how the Tg(z) profile in PS varies when
      changing the neighboring polymer from a lower Tg material to a higher Tg
      material. Here we report local Tg(z) profiles for PS when in contact with
      polysulfone (PSF), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and poly(isobutyl
      methacrylate) (PiBMA). We find that the distance from the interface before bulk
      Tg of PS (Tgbulk=101  degrees C) is recovered depends on whether PS forms the
      high-Tg glassy component experiencing so-called soft confinement, z ~ 225-250 nm
      for PS next to PiBMA (Tgbulk=62  degrees C) and PnBMA (Tgbulk=21  degrees C), or
      PS forms the low-Tg rubbery component experiencing hard confinement, z ~ 100-125
      nm for PS next to PSF (Tgbulk=186  degrees C) and PMMA (Tgbulk=120  degrees C).
      The depth to which these Tg(z) perturbations persist and the magnitude of the
      local Tg perturbation at the interface are independent of the difference in
      Tgbulk between the two polymers, the interaction parameter, and the chemical
      structure. We demonstrate that these broad, extended Tg(z) length scales appear
      to be universal across these different systems but show that the strong dynamical
      coupling across the dissimilar polymer-polymer interface only occurs when this
      interface has been annealed to equilibrium. We consider why dissimilar polymer
      polymer interfaces exhibit continuous local dynamics across the interface in
      contrast to polymer-free surface, polymer-substrate, or polymer-liquid interfaces
      that show discontinuous local dynamics.

PMID- 28571381
TI  - Angular distributions for the inelastic scattering of NO(X2Pi) with O2(X3Sigmag
      ).
AB  - The inelastic scattering of NO(X2Pi) by O2(X3Sigmag-) was studied at a mean
      collision energy of 550 cm-1 using velocity-map ion imaging. The initial quantum
      state of the NO(X2Pi, v = 0, j = 0.5, Omega=0.5, ?? = -1, f) molecule was
      selected using a hexapole electric field, and specific Lambda-doublet levels of
      scattered NO were probed using (1+1') resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization.
      A modified "onion-peeling" algorithm was employed to extract angular scattering
      information from the series of "pancaked," nested Newton spheres arising as a
      consequence of the rotational excitation of the molecular oxygen collision
      partner. The extracted differential cross sections for NO(X) f->f and f->e Lambda
      doublet resolved, spin-orbit conserving transitions, partially resolved in the
      oxygen co-product rotational quantum state, are reported, along with O2 fragment
      pair-correlated rotational state population. The inelastic scattering of NO with
      O2 is shown to share many similarities with the scattering of NO(X) with the rare
      gases. However, subtle differences in the angular distributions between the two
      collision partners are observed.

PMID- 28571382
TI  - Complex dynamics of capillary imbibition of poly(ethylene oxide) melts in
      nanoporous alumina.
AB  - Capillary penetration of a series of entangled poly(ethylene oxide) melts within
      nanopores of self-ordered alumina follows an approximate t1/2 behavior according
      to the Lucas-Washburn equation; t is the time. However, the dependence on the
      capillary diameter deviates from the predicted proportionality to d1/2; d is the
      pore diameter. We observed a reversal in the dynamics of capillary rise with
      polymer molecular weight. Chains with 50 entanglements (Mw <= 100 kg/mol) or less
      show a slower capillary rise than theoretically predicted as opposed to chains
      with more entanglements (Mw >= 500 kg/mol) that display a faster capillary rise.
      Although a faster capillary rise has been predicted by theory and observed
      experimentally, it is the first time to our knowledge that a slower capillary
      rise is observed for an entangled polymer melt under conditions of strong
      confinement (with 2Rg/d = 1). These results are discussed in the light of
      theoretical predictions for the existence of a critical length scale that depends
      on the molecular weight and separates the microscopic (d < d*) from the
      macroscopic (d > d*) regime.

PMID- 28571384
TI  - Description of poly(ethylenepropylene) confined in nanopores by a modified Rouse
      model.
AB  - A recent model for unentangled polymer chains in confinement [M. Dolgushev and M.
      Krutyeva, Macromol. Theory Simul. 21, 565 (2012)] is scrutinized by small-angle
      neutron scattering (SANS) with respect to its static prediction, the single-chain
      structure factor. We find a remarkable agreement although the model simplifies
      the effect of the confinement to a harmonic potential. The effective confinement
      size from fits of SANS data with the model agrees well with the actual pore size.
      Starting from this result we discuss the possibility of an experiment on the
      dynamic structure factor predicted by the model. It turns out that such an
      experiment would need a large ratio polymer dimension/pore size which is
      difficult but not impossible to achieve.

PMID- 28571383
TI  - An empirical correction for moderate multiple scattering in super-heterodyne
      light scattering.
AB  - Frequency domain super-heterodyne laser light scattering is utilized in a low
      angle integral measurement configuration to determine flow and diffusion in
      charged sphere suspensions showing moderate to strong multiple scattering. We
      introduce an empirical correction to subtract the multiple scattering background
      and isolate the singly scattered light. We demonstrate the excellent feasibility
      of this simple approach for turbid suspensions of transmittance T >= 0.4. We
      study the particle concentration dependence of the electro-kinetic mobility in
      low salt aqueous suspension over an extended concentration regime and observe a
      maximum at intermediate concentrations. We further use our scheme for
      measurements of the self-diffusion coefficients in the fluid samples in the
      absence or presence of shear, as well as in polycrystalline samples during
      crystallization and coarsening. We discuss the scope and limits of our approach
      as well as possible future applications.

PMID- 28571385
TI  - Direction-dependent elastic properties and phononic behavior of PMMA/BaTiO3
      nanocomposite thin films.
AB  - Determination of the anisotropic mechanical properties of nanostructured hybrid
      films is of great importance to improve fabrication and to enable reliable
      utility. Here, we employ spontaneous Brillouin light spectroscopy to record the
      phononic dispersion relation along the two symmetry directions in a supported
      PMMA (poly(methylmethacrylate))-BaTiO3 hybrid superlattice (SL) with a lattice
      constant of about 140 nm. Several dispersive elastic modes are resolved for in
      plane wave propagation, whereas along the periodicity direction the SL opens a
      wide propagation stop band for hypersonic phonons and near UV photons both
      centered at about 280 nm. A thorough theoretical analysis based on the finite
      element method quantitatively captures the band diagrams along the two main
      symmetry directions, helps identify the large density mismatch effect on the
      unexpectedly low sound phase velocity, and reveals significant anisotropy of the
      SL elastic tensor. Phonon propagation is a sensitive index of the structure,
      density, and the mechanical moduli of nanocomposite films.

PMID- 28571386
TI  - Glassy dynamics of polymethylphenylsiloxane in one- and two-dimensional
      nanometric confinement-A comparison.
AB  - Glassy dynamics of polymethylphenylsiloxane (PMPS) is studied by broadband
      dielectric spectroscopy in one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D)
      nanometric confinement; the former is realized in thin polymer layers having
      thicknesses down to 5 nm, and the latter in unidirectional (thickness 50 MUm)
      nanopores with diameters varying between 4 and 8 nm. Based on the dielectric
      measurements carried out in a broad spectral range at widely varying
      temperatures, glassy dynamics is analyzed in detail in 1D and in 2D confinements
      with the following results: (i) the segmental dynamics (dynamic glass transition)
      of PMPS in 1D confinement down to thicknesses of 5 nm is identical to the bulk in
      the mean relaxation rate and the width of the relaxation time distribution
      function; (ii) additionally a well separated surface induced relaxation is
      observed, being assigned to adsorption and desorption processes of polymer
      segments with the solid interface; (iii) in 2D confinement with native inner pore
      walls, the segmental dynamics shows a confinement effect, i.e., the smaller the
      pores are, the faster the segmental dynamics; on silanization, this dependence on
      the pore diameter vanishes, but the mean relaxation rate is still faster than in
      1D confinement; (iv) in a 2D confinement, a pronounced surface induced relaxation
      process is found, the strength of which increases with the decreasing pore
      diameter; it can be fully removed by silanization of the inner pore walls; (v)
      the surface induced relaxation depends on its spectral position only negligibly
      on the pore diameter; (vi) comparing 1D and 2D confinements, the segmental
      dynamics in the latter is by about two orders of magnitude faster. All these
      findings can be comprehended by considering the density of the polymer; in 1D it
      is assumed to be the same as in the bulk, hence the dynamic glass transition is
      not altered; in 2D it is reduced due to a frustration of packaging resulting in a
      higher free volume, as proven by ortho-positronium annihilation lifetime
      spectroscopy.

PMID- 28571387
TI  - A theoretical study of the dissociative recombination of SH+ with electrons
      through the 2Pi states of SH.
AB  - A quantitative theoretical study of the dissociative recombination of SH+ with
      electrons has been carried out. Multireference, configuration interaction
      calculations were used to determine accurate potential energy curves for SH+ and
      SH. The block diagonalization method was used to disentangle strongly interacting
      SH valence and Rydberg states and to construct a diabatic Hamiltonian whose
      diagonal matrix elements provide the diabatic potential energy curves. The off
      diagonal elements are related to the electronic valence-Rydberg couplings. Cross
      sections and rate coefficients for the dissociative recombination reaction were
      calculated with a stepwise version of the multichannel quantum defect theory,
      using the molecular data provided by the block diagonalization method. The
      calculated rates are compared with the most recent measurements performed on the
      ion Test Storage Ring (TSR) in Heidelberg, Germany.

PMID- 28571388
TI  - Molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulations of electrosprayed water
      nanodroplets including sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate micelles.
AB  - The behavior of aqueous solutions of sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate
      (AOTNa) under conditions of electrospray ionization (ESI) has been investigated
      by molecular dynamics (MD) and well-tempered metadynamics (WTM) simulations at
      300 K and 400 K. We have examined water droplets with initial fixed numbers of
      water molecules (1000) and AOT- anions (100), and with sodium cations in the
      range of 70-130. At 300 K, all charged droplets show the water evaporation rate
      increasing with the absolute value of the initial droplet charge state (Z),
      accompanied by ejection of an increasing number of solvated sodium ions or by
      expulsion of AOT- anions depending on the sign of Z and by fragmentation in the
      case of high |Z|. At 400 K, the water evaporation becomes more rapid and the
      fission process more extensive. In all cases, the AOTNa molecules, arranged as a
      direct micelle inside the aqueous system, undergo a rapid inversion in vacuo so
      that the hydrophilic heads and sodium ions surrounded by water molecules move
      toward the droplet interior. At the end of the 100-ns MD simulations, some water
      molecules remain within the aggregates at both temperatures. The subsequent
      metadynamics simulations accelerate the droplet evolution and show that all
      systems become anhydrous, in agreement with the experimental results of ESI mass
      spectrometry. This complete water loss is accompanied by sodium counterion
      emission for positively charged aggregates at 300 K. The analysis shows how the
      temperature and droplet charge state affect the populations of the generated
      surfactant aggregates, providing information potentially useful in designing
      future ESI experimental conditions.

PMID- 28571389
TI  - On the error in the nucleus-centered multipolar expansion of molecular electron
      density and its topology: A direct-space computational study.
AB  - The convergence of nucleus-centered multipolar expansion of the quantum-chemical
      electron density (QC-ED), gradient, and Laplacian is investigated in terms of
      numerical radial functions derived by projecting stockholder atoms onto real
      spherical harmonics at each center. The partial sums of this exact one-center
      expansion are compared with the corresponding Hansen-Coppens pseudoatom (HC-PA)
      formalism [Hansen, N. K. and Coppens, P., "Testing aspherical atom refinements on
      small-molecule data sets," Acta Crystallogr., Sect. A 34, 909-921 (1978)]
      commonly utilized in experimental electron density studies. It is found that the
      latter model, due to its inadequate radial part, lacks pointwise convergence and
      fails to reproduce the local topology of the target QC-ED even at a high-order
      expansion. The significance of the quantitative agreement often found between HC
      PA-based (quadrupolar-level) experimental and extended-basis QC-EDs can thus be
      challenged.

PMID- 28571390
TI  - Influence of bidisperse self-assembled monolayer structure on the slip boundary
      condition of thin polymer films.
AB  - Alkylsilane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are often used as model substrates
      for their ease of preparation and hydrophobic properties. We have observed that
      these atomically smooth monolayers also provide a slip boundary condition for
      dewetting films composed of unentangled polymers. This slip length, an indirect
      measure of the friction between a given liquid and different solids, is
      switchable and can be increased [R. Fetzer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 127801
      (2005); O. Baumchen et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 24, 325102 (2012)] if the
      alkyl chain length is changed from 18 to 12 backbone carbons, for example.
      Typically, this change in boundary condition is affected in a quantized way,
      using one or the other alkyl chain length, thus obtaining one or the other slip
      length. Here, we present results in which this SAM structure is changed in a
      continuous way. We prepare bidisperse mixed SAMs of alkyl silanes, with the
      composition as a control parameter. We find that all the mixed SAMs investigated
      show an enhanced slip boundary condition as compared to the single-component
      SAMs. The slip boundary condition is accessed using optical and atomic force
      microscopy, and we describe these observations in the context of X-ray
      reflectivity measurements. The slip length, varying over nearly two orders of
      magnitude, of identical polymer melts on chemically similar SAMs is found to
      correlate with the density of exposed alkyl chains. Our results demonstrate the
      importance of a well characterized solid/liquid pair, down to the angstrom level,
      when discussing the friction between a liquid and a solid.

PMID- 28571391
TI  - Shape and energy consistent pseudopotentials for correlated electron systems.
AB  - A method is developed for generating pseudopotentials for use in correlated
      electron calculations. The paradigms of shape and energy consistency are combined
      and defined in terms of correlated-electron wave-functions. The resulting energy
      consistent correlated electron pseudopotentials (eCEPPs) are constructed for H,
      Li-F, Sc-Fe, and Cu. Their accuracy is quantified by comparing the relaxed
      molecular geometries and dissociation energies which they provide with all
      electron results, with all quantities evaluated using coupled cluster singles,
      doubles, and triples calculations. Errors inherent in the pseudopotentials are
      also compared with those arising from a number of approximations commonly used
      with pseudopotentials. The eCEPPs provide a significant improvement in optimised
      geometries and dissociation energies for small molecules, with errors for the
      latter being an order-of-magnitude smaller than for Hartree-Fock-based
      pseudopotentials available in the literature. Gaussian basis sets are optimised
      for use with these pseudopotentials.

PMID- 28571393
TI  - Laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition setup for fast synthesis of graphene
      patterns.
AB  - An automatic setup based on the laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition method
      has been developed for the rapid synthesis of graphene patterns. The key
      components of this setup include a laser beam control and focusing unit, a laser
      spot monitoring unit, and a vacuum and flow control unit. A laser beam with
      precision control of laser power is focused on the surface of a nickel foil
      substrate by the laser beam control and focusing unit for localized heating. A
      rapid heating and cooling process at the localized region is induced by the
      relative movement between the focalized laser spot and the nickel foil substrate,
      which causes the decomposing of gaseous hydrocarbon and the out-diffusing of
      excess carbon atoms to form graphene patterns on the laser scanning path. All the
      fabrication parameters that affect the quality and number of graphene layers,
      such as laser power, laser spot size, laser scanning speed, pressure of vacuum
      chamber, and flow rates of gases, can be precisely controlled and monitored
      during the preparation of graphene patterns. A simulation of temperature
      distribution was carried out via the finite element method, providing a
      scientific guidance for the regulation of temperature distribution during
      experiments. A multi-layer graphene ribbon with few defects was synthesized to
      verify its performance of the rapid growth of high-quality graphene patterns.
      Furthermore, this setup has potential applications in other laser-based graphene
      synthesis and processing.

PMID- 28571392
TI  - A comparison between quantum chemistry and quantum Monte Carlo techniques for the
      adsorption of water on the (001) LiH surface.
AB  - We present a comprehensive benchmark study of the adsorption energy of a single
      water molecule on the (001) LiH surface using periodic coupled cluster and
      quantum Monte Carlo theories. We benchmark and compare different implementations
      of quantum chemical wave function based theories in order to verify the
      reliability of the predicted adsorption energies and the employed approximations.
      Furthermore we compare the predicted adsorption energies to those obtained
      employing widely used van der Waals density-functionals. Our findings show that
      quantum chemical approaches are becoming a robust and reliable tool for condensed
      phase electronic structure calculations, providing an additional tool that can
      also help in potentially improving currently available van der Waals density
      functionals.

PMID- 28571394
TI  - Development of a novel precision instrument for high-resolution simultaneous
      normal and shear force measurements between small planar samples.
AB  - In the design and development of end effector pads for silicon wafer handling
      robots, it is imperative that the static friction/adhesion force properties of
      the pads with respect to a variety of planar surfaces be characterized. In this
      work, the overall design, calibration, and data acquisition procedure of an
      instrument developed for performing these measurements on small (<10 mm * 10 mm)
      planar samples is presented. This device was used to perform adhesion/maximum
      shear force measurements on polydimethylsiloxane, a silicon wafer, and custom
      carbon nanotubes forest surfaces. The device was successfully able to measure an
      effective, mean profile adhesion force of 715 MUN between a silicon wafer and a
      polydimethylsiloxane (2.768 * 10-6 m2) sample. In addition, a nonlinear maximum
      shear over normal force relationship was also measured between custom carbon
      nanotubes forest and the silicon wafer surfaces. The maximum shear over a normal
      force coefficient was found to decrease with increasing initial normal force.
      Currently, there are numerous devices for measuring normal/shear forces at the
      nano/micro- and macroscales; however, this device allows for the consistent
      measurement of these same types of forces on components with surface dimensions
      ranging from 0.1 mm to 10 mm.

PMID- 28571395
TI  - A low-drift, low-noise, multichannel dc voltage source for segmented-electrode
      Paul traps.
AB  - We present the design, construction, and characterization of a multichannel, low
      drift, low-noise dc voltage source specially designed for biasing the electrodes
      of segmented linear Paul traps. The system produces 20 output voltage pairs
      having a common-mode range of 0 to +120 V with 3.7 mV/LSB (least significant bit)
      resolution and differential ranges of +/-5 V with 150 MUV/LSB or +/-16 V with 610
      MUV/LSB resolution. All common-mode and differential voltages are independently
      controllable, and all pairs share the same ground reference. The measured drift
      of the voltages after warm-up is lower than 1 LSB peak-to-peak on the time scale
      of 2 h. The noise of an output voltage measured with respect to ground is <10
      MUVRMS within 10 Hz-100 kHz, with spectral density lower than 3 nV Hz-1/2 above
      50 kHz. The performance of the system is limited by the external commercial
      multichannel DAC unit NI 9264, and in principle, it is possible to achieve higher
      stability and lower noise with the same voltage ranges. The system has a compact,
      modular, and scalable architecture, having all parts except for the DAC chassis
      housed within a single 19" 3HE rack.

PMID- 28571396
TI  - Analyzing X-ray tomographies of granular packings.
AB  - Starting from three-dimensional volume data of a granular packing, as, e.g.,
      obtained by X-ray Computed Tomography, we discuss methods to first detect the
      individual particles in the sample and then analyze their properties. This
      analysis includes the pair correlation function, the volume and shape of the
      Voronoi cells, and the number and type of contacts formed between individual
      particles. We mainly focus on packings of monodisperse spheres, but we will also
      comment on other monoschematic particles such as ellipsoids and tetrahedra. This
      paper is accompanied by a package of free software containing all programs
      (including source code) and an example three-dimensional dataset which allows the
      reader to reproduce and modify all examples given.

PMID- 28571397
TI  - Simultaneous measurement of film thickness, temperature, and mass fraction of
      urea-water-solutions by multi-wavelength laser absorption spectroscopy.
AB  - Quantitative analysis for thickness, temperature, and mass fraction of liquid
      film is extremely crucial to the relevant industrial processes, but these
      parameters cannot be determined simultaneously by conventional measurement
      techniques. In the present work, a novel measurement method based on laser
      absorption spectroscopy was developed to measure the film temperature, thickness,
      and mass fraction of urea-water-solutions simultaneously by combining three
      wavelengths, 1420 nm, 1488 nm, and 1531 nm. Moreover, measurement accuracy of
      this method was validated by a calibration tool which provided liquid film with
      known film thickness, temperature, and mass fraction, respectively. It revealed
      that the deviation between the measured and known parameters with the developed
      method was 0.86%, 4.58%, and 3.85%, respectively.

PMID- 28571398
TI  - Online measurement of conductivity/permittivity of fluid by a new contactless
      impedance sensor.
AB  - By expanding the contactless conductivity detection (CCD) technique to
      contactless impedance detection technique, a new contactless impedance sensor is
      designed to implement the online measurement for both the conductivity of a
      conductive fluid and the permittivity of a non-conductive fluid. In the new
      contactless impedance sensor, a new simulated inductor is developed to overcome
      the unfavorable influences of the coupling capacitances by impedance elimination
      principle, and the digital phase-sensitive demodulation (DPSD) technique is
      adopted to realize the impedance measurement. To verify the effectiveness of the
      new contactless impedance sensor, simulation experiments (using different
      resistors, capacitors, and their combinations) and practical fluid experiments
      (using KCl solutions with different concentrations, eight organic solvents, and
      pure water) are carried out. The experimental results show that the development
      of the new contactless impedance sensor is successful and the
      conductivity/permittivity measurement performance of the new sensor is
      satisfactory. The maximum relative error of conductivity measurement is 3.1% and
      the maximum relative error of permittivity measurement is 5.5%. Compared with the
      conventional conductivity/permittivity sensors, the new sensor can implement the
      contactless online measurement of both the two electrical parameters of fluid.
      Meanwhile, the new contactless impedance sensor is suitable for industrial
      applications and has the advantages of simple construction and low cost.

PMID- 28571399
TI  - Alignment of a vector magnetometer to an optical prism.
AB  - A method for alignment of a vector magnetometer to a rigidly attached prism is
      presented. This enables optical comparison of the magnetometer axes to physical
      surfaces in the apparatus, and thus an absolute determination of the magnetic
      field direction in space. This is in contrast with more common techniques, which
      focus on precise determination of the relative angles between magnetometer axes,
      and so are more suited to measuring differences in the direction of magnetic
      fields. Here we demonstrate precision better than 500 MUrad on a fluxgate
      magnetometer, which also gives the coil orthogonality errors to a similar
      precision. The relative sensitivity of the three axes is also determined, with a
      precision of about 5 * 10-4.

PMID- 28571400
TI  - Design and calibration of hot-electron spectrometer array for angle-resolved
      measurement.
AB  - A hot-electron spectrometer array with two-dimensional distribution has been
      designed with a wide-angle range and high-energy resolution to measure the
      spatially resolved electron spectra for high-power-laser plasma interaction
      experiments. It consisted of 19 identical electron spectrometers set in three
      directions with an interval of 10 degrees . Each electron spectrometer was
      designed with a uniform magnetic field to detect electrons in the range from 20
      to 500 keV. The spectrometers were calibrated using electrons from an
      accelerator. In an experiment, the spatially resolved electron energy spectra,
      which approximately had a Maxwell distribution, were obtained from an aluminum
      foil target irradiated by a 0.53-MUm laser pulse.

PMID- 28571401
TI  - A novel signal acquisition platform of human cardiovascular information with
      noninvasive method.
AB  - Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are considered the major cause of death worldwide,
      so more researchers pay more and more attention to the development of a non
      invasive method to obtain as much cardiovascular information (CVI) as possible
      for early screening and diagnosing. It is known that considerable brain
      information could be probed by a variety of stimuli (such as video, light, and
      sound). Therefore, it is quite possible that much more CVI could be extracted via
      giving the human body some special interrelated stimulus. Based on this
      hypothesis, we designed a novel signal platform to acquire more CVI with a
      special stimulus, which is to give a gradual decrease and a different settable
      constant pressure to six air belts placed on two-side brachia, wrists, and
      ankles, respectively. During the stimulating process, the platform is able to
      collect 24-channel dynamic signals related with CVI synchronously. Moreover, to
      improve the measurement accuracy of signal acquisition, a high precision
      reference chip and a software correction are adopted in this platform.
      Additionally, we have also shown some collection instances and analysis results
      in this paper for its reliability. The results suggest that our platform can not
      only be applied on study in a deep-going way of relationship between collected
      signals and CVDs but can also serve as the basic tool for developing a new
      noninvasive cardiovascular function detection instrument and system that can be
      used both at home and in the hospital.

PMID- 28571402
TI  - Highly efficient evaluation of a gas mixer using a hollow waveguide based laser
      spectral sensor.
AB  - This paper aims to provide a fast, sensitive, and accurate characterization of a
      Mass Flow Controller (MFC) based gas mixer. The gas mixer was evaluated by using
      a hollow waveguide based laser spectral sensor with high efficiency. Benefiting
      from the sensor's fast response, high sensitivity and continuous operation,
      multiple key parameters of the mixer, including mixing uncertainty, linearity,
      and response time, were acquired by a one-round test. The test results show that
      the mixer can blend multi-compound gases quite efficiently with an uncertainty of
      1.44% occurring at a flow rate of 500 ml/min, with the linearity of 0.998 43 and
      the response time of 92.6 s. The results' reliability was confirmed by the
      relative measurement of gas concentration, in which the isolation of the sensor's
      uncertainty was conducted. The measured uncertainty has shown well coincidence
      with the theoretical uncertainties of the mixer, which proves the method to be a
      reliable characterization. Consequently, this sort of laser based
      characterization's wide appliance on gas analyzer's evaluations is demonstrated.

PMID- 28571403
TI  - Preface: Focus on imaging methods in granular physics.

PMID- 28571404
TI  - A novel dual-color bifocal imaging system for single-molecule studies.
AB  - In this paper, we report the design and implementation of a dual-color bifocal
      imaging (DBI) system that is capable of acquiring two spectrally distinct,
      spatially registered images of objects located in either same or two distinct
      focal planes. We achieve this by separating an image into two channels with
      distinct chromatic properties and independently focusing both images onto a
      single CCD camera. The two channels in our device are registered with subpixel
      accuracy, and long-term stability of the registered images with nanometer
      precision was accomplished by reducing the drift of the images to ~5 nm. We
      demonstrate the capabilities of our DBI system by imaging biomolecules labeled
      with spectrally distinct dyes and micro- and nano-sized spheres located in
      different focal planes.

PMID- 28571405
TI  - Note: Using a Kosters prism to create a fringe pattern.
AB  - The interference of two crossed laser beams results in a standing wave. Such
      fringe patterns are exploited in different instruments such as interferometers or
      laser-Doppler anemometers. We create a fringe pattern in the sample plane of a
      microscope using a compact apparatus based on a Kosters prism. The fringe pattern
      is shown to be spatially and temporally very stable, covers a large area, and its
      spacing is easily tunable. In addition, we exploit it to impose a sinusoidal
      potential on colloidal particles.

PMID- 28571406
TI  - Note: A dual-channel sensor for dew point measurement based on quartz crystal
      microbalance.
AB  - A new sensor with dual-channel was designed for eliminating the temperature
      effect on the frequency measurement of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in
      dew point detection. The sensor uses active temperature control, produces
      condensation on the surface of QCM, and then detects the dew point. Both the
      single-channel and the dual-channel methods were conducted based on the device.
      The measurement error of the single-channel method was less than 0.5  degrees C
      at the dew point range of -2  degrees C-10  degrees C while the dual-channel was
      0.3  degrees C. The results showed that the dual-channel method was able to
      eliminate the temperature effect and yield better measurement accuracy.

PMID- 28571407
TI  - Development of a linear-type double reflectron for focused imaging of
      photofragment ions from mass-selected complex ions.
AB  - An ion imaging apparatus with a double linear reflectron mass spectrometer has
      been developed, in order to measure velocity and angular distributions of mass
      analyzed fragment ions produced by photodissociation of mass-selected gas phase
      complex ions. The 1st and the 2nd linear reflectrons were placed facing each
      other and controlled by high-voltage pulses in order to perform the mass
      separation of precursor ions in the 1st reflectron and to observe the focused
      image of the photofragment ions in the 2nd reflectron. For this purpose, metal
      meshes were attached on all electrodes in the 1st reflectron, whereas the mesh
      was attached only on the last electrode in the 2nd reflectron. The performance of
      this apparatus was evaluated using imaging measurement of Ca+ photofragment ions
      from photodissociation reaction of Ca+Ar complex ions at 355 nm photoexcitation.
      The focused ion images were obtained experimentally with the double linear
      reflectron at the voltages of the reflection electrodes close to the predictions
      by ion trajectory simulations. The velocity and angular distributions of the
      produced Ca+ ([Ar] 4p1, 2P3/2) ion were analyzed from the observed images. The
      binding energy D0 of Ca+Ar in the ground state deduced in the present measurement
      was consistent with those determined theoretically and by spectroscopic
      measurements. The anisotropy parameter beta of the transition was evaluated for
      the first time by this instrument.

PMID- 28571408
TI  - Multipurpose setup for low-temperature conversion electron Mossbauer
      spectroscopy.
AB  - We describe an experimental setup for conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy
      (CEMS) at low temperature. The setup is composed of a continuous flow cryostat
      (temperature range of 4.2-500 K), detector housing, three channel electron
      multipliers, and corresponding electronics. We demonstrate the capabilities of
      the setup with CEMS measurements performed on a sample consisting of a thin
      enriched 57Fe film, with a thickness of 20 nm, deposited on a silicon substrate.
      We also describe exchangeable adaptations (lid and sample holder) which extend
      the applicability of the setup to emission Mossbauer spectroscopy as well as
      measurements under an applied magnetic field.

PMID- 28571409
TI  - A manipulative instrument with simultaneous gesture and end-effector trajectory
      planning and controlling.
AB  - To operate a redundant manipulator to accomplish the end-effector trajectory
      planning and simultaneously control its gesture in online programming,
      incorporating the human motion is a useful and flexible option. This paper
      focuses on a manipulative instrument that can simultaneously control its arm
      gesture and end-effector trajectory via human teleoperation. The instrument can
      be classified by two parts; first, for the human motion capture and data
      processing, marker systems are proposed to capture human gesture. Second, the
      manipulator kinematics control is implemented by an augmented multi-tasking
      method, and forward and backward reaching inverse kinematics, respectively.
      Especially, the local-solution and divergence problems of a multi-tasking method
      are resolved by the proposed augmented multi-tasking method. Computer simulations
      and experiments with a 7-DOF (degree of freedom) redundant manipulator were used
      to validate the proposed method. Comparison among the single-tasking, original
      multi-tasking, and augmented multi-tasking algorithms were performed and the
      result showed that the proposed augmented method had a good end-effector position
      accuracy and the most similar gesture to the human gesture. Additionally, the
      experimental results showed that the proposed instrument was realized online.

PMID- 28571410
TI  - Low-loss pigtail reflector for fiber lasers.
AB  - We demonstrate a low-loss pigtail reflector for a fiber laser comprising off-the
      shelf components. A pigtail configuration has the advantage of easy alteration of
      the reflection properties, which is highly desired for basic studies and
      metrological applications. Our proposed reflector consists of a dielectric-coated
      bulk mirror and an Ferrule connector (FC)-type fiber receptacle, which are fixed
      with a machined holder such that the FC-type connector at the fiber end can be
      attached onto the mirror surface with an appropriate amount of pressure, which is
      essential for minimal reflection loss. The measured reflection loss is 0.07 dB,
      which is one order of magnitude less than that of the typical connection loss,
      0.52 dB, of an FC-FC interconnection; it is comparable to the typical splice loss
      of a single-mode fiber (0.05 dB). The benefit of the proposed method is its
      versatility that enables its application to various types of fiber lasers.

PMID- 28571411
TI  - A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and
      laboratory science.
AB  - We describe a series of microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometers designed for a broad
      suite of measurement applications. The chief advantage of this type of
      spectrometer is that it can be orders of magnitude more efficient at collecting X
      rays than more traditional high-resolution spectrometers that rely on wavelength
      dispersive techniques. This advantage is most useful in applications that are
      traditionally photon-starved and/or involve radiation-sensitive samples. Each
      energy-dispersive spectrometer is built around an array of several hundred
      transition-edge sensors (TESs). TESs are superconducting thin films that are
      biased into their superconducting-to-normal-metal transitions. The spectrometers
      share a common readout architecture and many design elements, such as a compact,
      65 mK detector package, 8-column time-division-multiplexed superconducting
      quantum-interference device readout, and a liquid-cryogen-free cryogenic system
      that is a two-stage adiabatic-demagnetization refrigerator backed by a pulse-tube
      cryocooler. We have adapted this flexible architecture to mate to a variety of
      sample chambers and measurement systems that encompass a range of observing
      geometries. There are two different types of TES pixels employed. The first,
      designed for X-ray energies below 10 keV, has a best demonstrated energy
      resolution of 2.1 eV (full-width-at-half-maximum or FWHM) at 5.9 keV. The second,
      designed for X-ray energies below 2 keV, has a best demonstrated resolution of
      1.0 eV (FWHM) at 500 eV. Our team has now deployed seven of these X-ray
      spectrometers to a variety of light sources, accelerator facilities, and
      laboratory-scale experiments; these seven spectrometers have already performed
      measurements related to their applications. Another five of these spectrometers
      will come online in the near future. We have applied our TES spectrometers to the
      following measurement applications: synchrotron-based absorption and emission
      spectroscopy and energy-resolved scattering; accelerator-based spectroscopy of
      hadronic atoms and particle-induced-emission spectroscopy; laboratory-based time
      resolved absorption and emission spectroscopy with a tabletop, broadband source;
      and laboratory-based metrology of X-ray-emission lines. Here, we discuss the
      design, construction, and operation of our TES spectrometers and show first-light
      measurements from the various systems. Finally, because X-ray-TES technology
      continues to mature, we discuss improvements to array size, energy resolution,
      and counting speed that we anticipate in our next generation of TES-X-ray
      spectrometers and beyond.

PMID- 28571412
TI  - Apparatus for the investigation of high-temperature, high-pressure gas-phase
      heterogeneous catalytic and photo-catalytic materials.
AB  - A high-temperature, high-pressure, pulsed-gas sampling and detection system has
      been developed for testing new catalytic and photocatalytic materials for the
      production of solar fuels. The reactor is fitted with a sapphire window to allow
      the irradiation of photocatalytic samples from a lamp or solar simulator light
      source. The reactor has a volume of only 3.80 ml allowing for the investigation
      of very small quantities of a catalytic material, down to 1 mg. The stainless
      steel construction allows the cell to be heated to 350  degrees C and can
      withstand pressures up to 27 bar, limited only by the sapphire window. High
      pressure sampling is made possible by a computer controlled pulsed valve that
      delivers precise gas flow, enabling catalytic reactions to be monitored across a
      wide range of pressures. A residual gas analyser mass spectrometer forms a part
      of the detection system, which is able to provide a rapid, real-time analysis of
      the gas composition within the photocatalytic reaction chamber. This apparatus is
      ideal for investigating a number of industrially relevant reactions including
      photocatalytic water splitting and CO2 reduction. Initial catalytic results using
      Pt-doped and Ru nanoparticle-doped TiO2 as benchmark experiments are presented.

PMID- 28571413
TI  - High sensitive and high temporal and spatial resolved image of reactive species
      in atmospheric pressure surface discharge reactor by laser induced fluorescence.
AB  - The current paucity of spatial and temporal characterization of reactive oxygen
      and nitrogen species (RONS) concentration has been a major hurdle to the
      advancement and clinical translation of low temperature atmospheric plasmas. In
      this study, an advanced laser induced fluorescence (LIF) system has been
      developed to be an effective antibacterial surface discharge reactor for the
      diagnosis of RONS, where the highest spatial and temporal resolution of the LIF
      system has been achieved to ~100 MUm scale and ~20 ns scale, respectively.
      Measurements on an oxidative OH radical have been carried out as typical RONS for
      the benchmark of the whole LIF system, where absolute number density calibration
      has been performed on the basis of the laser Rayleigh scattering method.
      Requirements for pixel resolved spatial distribution and outer plasma region
      detection become challenging tasks due to the low RONS concentration (~ppb level)
      and strong interference, especially the discharge induced emission and pulsed
      laser induced stray light. In order to design the highly sensitive LIF system, a
      self-developed fluorescence telescope, the optimization of high precision
      synchronization among a tunable pulsed laser, a surface discharge generator,
      intensified Charge Coupled Device (iCCD) camera, and an oscilloscope have been
      performed. Moreover, an image BOXCAR approach has been developed to remarkably
      improve the sensitivity of the whole LIF system by optimizing spatial and
      temporal gating functions via both hardware and software, which has been
      integrated into our automatic control and data acquisition system on the LabVIEW
      platform. In addition, a reciprocation averaging measurement has been applied to
      verify the accuracy of the whole LIF detecting system, indicating the relative
      standard deviation of ~3%.

PMID- 28571414
TI  - Temperature measurement using frequency comb absorption spectroscopy of CO2.
AB  - Absorption spectroscopy on CO2 for the determination of gas temperature is
      reported. Direct absorption of a frequency comb laser through a gas cell at
      atmospheric conditions is analysed with a virtually imaged phased array
      spectrometer. Several measurement and analysis techniques are investigated to
      find the parameters most sensitive to changes in the temperature. Some of these
      show qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions where the trend is
      similar to the calculated values.

PMID- 28571415
TI  - A physics-based solver to optimize the illumination of cylindrical targets in
      spherically distributed high power laser systems.
AB  - In recent years, our understanding of high energy density plasmas has played an
      important role in improving inertial fusion confinement and in emerging new
      fields of physics, such as laboratory astrophysics. Every new idea required
      developing innovative experimental platforms at high power laser facilities, such
      as OMEGA or NIF. These facilities, designed to focus all their beams onto
      spherical targets or hohlraum windows, are now required to shine them on more
      complex targets. While the pointing on planar geometries is relatively
      straightforward, it becomes problematic for cylindrical targets or target with
      more complex geometries. This publication describes how the distribution of laser
      beams on a cylindrical target can be done simply by using a set of physical laws
      as a pointing procedure. The advantage of the method is threefold. First, it is
      straightforward, requiring no mathematical enterprise besides solving ordinary
      differential equations. Second, it will converge if a local optimum exists.
      Finally, it is computationally inexpensive. Experimental results show that this
      approach produces a geometrical beam distribution that yields cylindrically
      symmetric implosions.

PMID- 28571417
TI  - Transient surface photovoltage measurement over 12 orders of magnitude in time.
AB  - The measurement of transient surface photovoltage (SPV) signals in a fixed
      capacitor arrangement over 12 orders of magnitude in time has been demonstrated
      for a SnO2:F/TiO2/In2S3 layer system under high vacuum. For this purpose, a high
      impedance buffer with a bandwidth above 200 MHz and an effective input resistance
      of 200-700 TOmega has been developed. Fast separation of photo generated charge
      carriers within ns and very slow relaxation of SPV signals excited with short
      laser pulses and the measurement of SPV spectra under continuous illumination
      with a halogen lamp were demonstrated.

PMID- 28571416
TI  - Sensitivity enhancement and fringe reduction in tunable diode laser spectroscopy
      using hemispherical diffusers.
AB  - The use of diffuse, highly reflective optical components, in particular, a
      hemispherical BaSO4 diffuser, at the point of light injection into non
      transparent or turbid media was evaluated as a means to increase the measurement
      sensitivity of spectroscopic absorption measurements. By performing the light
      injection from, e.g., an optical fiber through a component designed to make the
      light diffuse and to reflect (and thereby re-inject) light scattered from the
      sample, the total amount of light delivered into the sample is increased.
      Further, the occurrence of possible interference fringes is strongly reduced.

PMID- 28571418
TI  - Note: Evaluation of magnetometry data acquired from elongated samples.
AB  - We document and validate an analytic expression for the flux integral
      characterizing the response (or sensitivity) of a magnetometer equipped with
      second-order axial gradiometer coils to long, thin, uniformly magnetized samples.
      We then demonstrate an application inspired by this analysis, in which
      magnetometric sensitivity to weak magnetic signatures is readily and appreciably
      enhanced by increasing the sample volume (and hence the quantity of analyte) well
      beyond conventional limits.

PMID- 28571419
TI  - Four channel high power rf source with beam steering based on gyromagnetic
      nonlinear transmission lines.
AB  - The synchronized operation of four gyromagnetic nonlinear transmission lines
      (NLTLs) was tested with a pulse repetition frequency up to 1 kHz during 1 s
      bursts. High voltage pulses with a duration of ~5 ns from the solid state driver
      S-500 were split into four 48 Omega channels reaching about -200 kV in each
      channel with ~10% variation in the amplitude. The maximum peak voltage at the
      NLTL output was within 220-235 kV with the maximum modulation depth of decaying
      oscillations up to 90% at the center frequency near 2.1 GHz. The relative delay
      between channels reached the half-period of the center frequency of oscillations.
      The associated beam steering by four element array of conical helical antennas
      was demonstrated in a horizontal plane at 17 degrees . The effective potential of
      radiation reached 360 kV at the radiation axis. The effect of ferrite temperature
      on the shock wave velocity in gyromagnetic NLTL is observed.

PMID- 28571420
TI  - A versatile atomic force microscope integrated with a scanning electron
      microscope.
AB  - A versatile atomic force microscope (AFM), which can be installed in a scanning
      electron microscope (SEM), is introduced. The flexible design of the instrument
      enables correlated analysis for different experimental configurations, such as
      AFM imaging directly after nanoindentation in vacuum. In order to demonstrate the
      capabilities of the specially designed AFM installed inside a SEM, slip steps
      emanating around nanoindents in single crystalline brass were examined. This
      example showcases how the combination of AFM and SEM imaging can be utilized for
      quantitative dislocation analysis through the measurement of the slip step
      heights without the hindrance of oxide formation. Finally, an in situ
      nanoindentation technique is introduced, illustrating the use of AFM imaging
      during indentation experiments to examine plastic deformation occurring under the
      indenter tip. The mechanical indentation data are correlated to the SEM and AFM
      images to estimate the number of dislocations emitted to the surface.

PMID- 28571421
TI  - Combination volumetric and gravimetric sorption instrument for high accuracy
      measurements of methane adsorption.
AB  - The accurate measurement of adsorbed gas up to high pressures (~100 bars) is
      critical for the development of new materials for adsorbed gas storage. The
      typical Sievert-type volumetric method introduces accumulating errors that can
      become large at maximum pressures. Alternatively, gravimetric methods employing
      microbalances require careful buoyancy corrections. In this paper, we present a
      combination gravimetric and volumetric system for methane sorption measurements
      on samples between ~0.5 and 1 g. The gravimetric method described requires no
      buoyancy corrections. The tandem use of the gravimetric method allows for a check
      on the highest uncertainty volumetric measurements. The sources and proper
      calculation of uncertainties are discussed. Results from methane measurements on
      activated carbon MSC-30 and metal-organic framework HKUST-1 are compared across
      methods and within the literature.

PMID- 28571422
TI  - Lagrangian 3D tracking of fluorescent microscopic objects in motion.
AB  - We describe the development of a tracking device, mounted on an epi-fluorescent
      inverted microscope, suited to obtain time resolved 3D Lagrangian tracks of
      fluorescent passive or active micro-objects in microfluidic devices. The system
      is based on real-time image processing, determining the displacement of a x, y
      mechanical stage to keep the chosen object at a fixed position in the observation
      frame. The z displacement is based on the refocusing of the fluorescent object
      determining the displacement of a piezo mover keeping the moving object in focus.
      Track coordinates of the object with respect to the microfluidic device as well
      as images of the object are obtained at a frequency of several tenths of Hertz.
      This device is particularly well adapted to obtain trajectories of motile micro
      organisms in microfluidic devices with or without flow.

PMID- 28571424
TI  - Thermal diffusivity measurement of focused-ion-beam fabricated sample using
      photothermal reflectance technique.
AB  - Focused-Ion-Beam (FIB) can lift-off micrometer-sized samples from bulk materials
      for structural characterization and property measurement. The ability to
      determine thermophysical properties of such samples offers unique insight into
      the local microstructure-property relationship. A photothermal reflectance
      technique is developed to measure the thermal diffusivity of FIB-fabricated,
      micrometer-sized samples in this study. An analytic model is established to guide
      the experimental design and data analysis for the limited sample size and
      thickness. The thermal diffusivity of the sample can be extracted from a series
      of spatial-scan measurements at several modulated heating frequencies. To
      demonstrate the viability of the technique, a FIB-fabricated SiC plate with the
      size of 42 MUm * 31 MUm * 8 MUm was used to represent high conductivity
      materials, which pose more challenges for the technique. The result compares
      favorably with literature values of SiC. The measurement uncertainty is
      quantified and possible experimental error sources are discussed. This technique
      is specially promising for thermal property measurements on nuclear fuels and
      materials.

PMID- 28571423
TI  - A new method for measuring the neutron lifetime using an in situ neutron
      detector.
AB  - In this paper, we describe a new method for measuring surviving neutrons in
      neutron lifetime measurements using bottled ultracold neutrons (UCN), which
      provides better characterization of systematic uncertainties and enables higher
      precision than previous measurement techniques. An active detector that can be
      lowered into the trap has been used to measure the neutron distribution as a
      function of height and measure the influence of marginally trapped UCN on the
      neutron lifetime measurement. In addition, measurements have demonstrated phase
      space evolution and its effect on the lifetime measurement.

PMID- 28571425
TI  - Solution electrostatic levitator for measuring surface properties and bulk
      structures of an extremely supersaturated solution drop above metastable zone
      width limit.
AB  - We report on the first integrated apparatus for measuring surface and
      thermophysical properties and bulk structures of a highly supersaturated solution
      by combining electrostatic levitation with real-time laser/x-ray scattering. Even
      today, a proper characterization of supersaturated solutions far above their
      solubility limits is extremely challenging because heterogeneous nucleation sites
      such as container walls or impurities readily initiate crystallization before the
      measurements can be performed. In this work, we demonstrate simultaneous
      measurements of drying kinetics and surface tension of a potassium dihydrogen
      phosphate (KH2PO4) aqueous solution droplet and its bulk structural evolution
      beyond the metastable zone width limit. Our experimental finding shows that the
      noticeable changes of the surface properties are accompanied by polymerizations
      of hydrated monomer clusters. The novel electrostatic levitation apparatus
      presented here provides an effective means for studying a wide range of highly
      concentrated solutions and liquids in deep metastable states.

PMID- 28571426
TI  - Versatile synchronized real-time MEG hardware controller for large-scale fast
      data acquisition.
AB  - Versatile controllers for accurate, fast, and real-time synchronized acquisition
      of large-scale data are useful in many areas of science, engineering, and
      technology. Here, we describe the development of a controller software based on a
      technique called queued state machine for controlling the data acquisition (DAQ)
      hardware, continuously acquiring a large amount of data synchronized across a
      large number of channels (>400) at a fast rate (up to 20 kHz/channel) in real
      time, and interfacing with applications for real-time data analysis and display
      of electrophysiological data. This DAQ controller was developed specifically for
      a 384-channel pediatric whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) system, but its
      architecture is useful for wide applications. This controller running in a
      LabVIEW environment interfaces with microprocessors in the MEG sensor electronics
      to control their real-time operation. It also interfaces with a real-time MEG
      analysis software via transmission control protocol/internet protocol, to control
      the synchronous acquisition and transfer of the data in real time from >400
      channels to acquisition and analysis workstations. The successful implementation
      of this controller for an MEG system with a large number of channels demonstrates
      the feasibility of employing the present architecture in several other
      applications.

PMID- 28571428
TI  - Deep cooling of optically trapped atoms implemented by magnetic levitation
      without transverse confinement.
AB  - We report a setup for the deep cooling of atoms in an optical trap. The deep
      cooling is implemented by eliminating the influence of gravity using specially
      constructed magnetic coils. Compared to the conventional method of generating a
      magnetic levitating force, the lower trap frequency achieved in our setup
      provides a lower limit of temperature and more freedoms to Bose gases with a
      simpler solution. A final temperature as low as ~6nK is achieved in the optical
      trap, and the atomic density is decreased by nearly two orders of magnitude
      during the second stage of evaporative cooling. This deep cooling of optically
      trapped atoms holds promise for many applications, such as atomic
      interferometers, atomic gyroscopes, and magnetometers, as well as many basic
      scientific research directions, such as quantum simulations and atom optics.

PMID- 28571429
TI  - Detection of particle motion using image processing with particular emphasis on
      rolling motion.
AB  - Image-processing has been used in granular systems for detecting particle
      positions and motion near optically accessible surfaces like sediment flow and
      bedload transport. We review the image-processing techniques used for single and
      multiple particles. To enhance reliability in particle recognition, tools like
      Canny edge and Hough transform are intensively used. We show exemplarily how they
      can be applied to detect not only particle positions but also rotatory motion.
      The different steps are described in detail and the algorithm is applied to
      different examples, which are discussed in view of the obtained accuracy.

PMID- 28571430
TI  - Note: Coincidence measurements of 3He and neutrons from a compact D-D neutron
      generator.
AB  - Tagging of neutrons (2.45 MeV) with their associated 3He particles from deuterium
      deuterium (D-D) fusion reactions has been demonstrated in a compact neutron
      generator setup enabled by a high brightness, microwave-driven ion source with a
      high fraction of deuterons. Energy spectra with well separated peaks of the D-D
      fusion reaction products, 3He, tritons, and protons, were measured with a silicon
      PIN diode. The neutrons were detected using a liquid scintillator detector with
      pulse shape discrimination. By correlating the 3He detection events with the
      neutron detection in time, we demonstrated the tagging of emitted neutrons with
      3He particles detected with a Si PIN diode detector mounted inside the neutron
      generator vacuum vessel.

PMID- 28571431
TI  - Note: Photoluminescence measurement system for multi-junction solar cells.
AB  - We describe a photoluminescence spectroscopy system developed for studying
      phenomena of optical coupling in multiple-junction solar cells and
      processed/unprocessed wafers, under the high solar concentration levels typical
      of HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic) systems. The instrument operates at
      room temperature over two spectral ranges: 475 nm-1100 nm and 950 nm-1650 nm.
      Power densities exceeding 10 000 suns can be obtained on the sample. The system
      can host up to four compact focusable solid state laser sources, presently only
      three are mounted and operated at 450 nm, 520 nm, and 785 nm; they provide
      overlapped beams on the sample surface and can shine simultaneously the sample to
      study possible mutual interaction between the different junctions.

PMID- 28571432
TI  - Extension of the T-bridge method for measuring the thermal conductivity of two
      dimensional materials.
AB  - In this paper, the T-bridge method is extended to measure the thermal properties
      of two-dimensional nanomaterials. We present an analysis of the measureable
      positions, width, and thermal resistance of two-dimensional materials. For
      verification purposes, the thermal conductivity of a SiO2 nanoribbon was
      measured. To enhance the thermal contact between the nanoribbon and the heater in
      the setup, the nanoribbon was dipped into either isopropanol or water in order to
      promote a sticking force. Also, focused ion beam deposition was used to deposit
      the nanoribbon onto the contact. The thermal conductivities of all three cases
      were identical, showing that water dipping could be used to enhance the thermal
      contact. Due to the simple structure of this method and the analysis provided
      herein, the T-bridge method can be widely used for measuring the thermal
      conductivity of two-dimensional materials.

PMID- 28571433
TI  - Highly hydrogen-sensitive thermal desorption spectroscopy system for quantitative
      analysis of low hydrogen concentration (~1 * 1016 atoms/cm3) in thin-film
      samples.
AB  - We developed a highly hydrogen-sensitive thermal desorption spectroscopy (HHS
      TDS) system to detect and quantitatively analyze low hydrogen concentrations in
      thin films. The system was connected to an in situ sample-transfer chamber
      system, manipulators, and an rf magnetron sputtering thin-film deposition chamber
      under an ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) atmosphere of ~10-8 Pa. The following key
      requirements were proposed in developing the HHS-TDS: (i) a low hydrogen residual
      partial pressure, (ii) a low hydrogen exhaust velocity, and (iii) minimization of
      hydrogen thermal desorption except from the bulk region of the thin films. To
      satisfy these requirements, appropriate materials and components were selected,
      and the system was constructed to extract the maximum performance from each
      component. Consequently, ~2000 times higher sensitivity to hydrogen than that of
      a commercially available UHV-TDS system was achieved using H+-implanted Si
      samples. Quantitative analysis of an amorphous oxide semiconductor InGaZnO4 thin
      film (1 cm * 1 cm * 1 MUm thickness, hydrogen concentration of 4.5 * 1017
      atoms/cm3) was demonstrated using the HHS-TDS system. This concentration level
      cannot be detected using UHV-TDS or secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS)
      systems. The hydrogen detection limit of the HHS-TDS system was estimated to be
      ~1 * 1016 atoms/cm3, which implies ~2 orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than
      that of SIMS and resonance nuclear reaction systems (~1018 atoms/cm3).

PMID- 28571434
TI  - Generating circularly polarized radiation in the extreme ultraviolet spectral
      range at the free-electron laser FLASH.
AB  - A new device for polarization control at the free electron laser facility FLASH1
      at DESY has been commissioned for user operation. The polarizer is based on phase
      retardation upon reflection off metallic mirrors. Its performance is
      characterized in three independent measurements and confirms the theoretical
      predictions of efficient and broadband generation of circularly polarized
      radiation in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range from 35 eV to 90 eV. The
      degree of circular polarization reaches up to 90% while maintaining high total
      transmission values exceeding 30%. The simple design of the device allows
      straightforward alignment for user operation and rapid switching between left and
      right circularly polarized radiation.

PMID- 28571435
TI  - Conceptual design of imaging bolometer for use of computed tomography in JT-60SA.
AB  - An InfraRed imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) system in JT-60SA has been designed
      for the two-dimensional (2D) Computed Tomography (CT) analysis of radiation. To
      achieve complete viewing of the whole poloidal cross section for plasmas having a
      low aspect ratio, a new IRVB concept, which has two sets of pin-hole camera
      systems viewing two different directions, has been introduced. Fields of view of
      the IRVB have been successfully designed by moving apertures to be sufficient for
      CT use without installation in tangential ports. The size of the aperture, which
      determines the width of the sightline of the IRVB channels, has also been
      optimized with respect to the reconstruction error with well-established solvers
      of tomography. The optimization indicates that the 7 mm square aperture is the
      best for this system, and the CT measurement without this optimization can become
      degraded. A synthetic image using an estimated radiation profile shows that the
      signal to noise (S/N) ratio of the designed IRVB is large enough to identify the
      incident radiation power. The result indicates that the designed IRVB can be used
      for the 2D CT measurement of radiation in JT-60SA.

PMID- 28571436
TI  - Development of PZT-excited stroboscopic shearography for full-field
      nondestructive evaluation.
AB  - Nondestructive evaluation using shearography requires a way to stress the
      inspection target. This technique is able to directly measure the displacement
      gradient distribution on the object surface. Shearography visualizes the internal
      structural damages as the anomalous pattern in the shearograpic fringe pattern. A
      piezoelectric (PZT) excitation system is able to generate loadings in the
      vibrational, acoustic, and ultrasonic regimes. In this paper, we propose a PZT
      excited stroboscopic shearography. The PZT excitation could generate vibrational
      loading, a stationary wavefield, and a nonstationary propagation wave to fulfill
      the external loading requirement of shearography. The sweeping of the PZT
      excitation frequency, the formation of a standing wave, and a small shearing to
      suppress the incident wave were powerful controllable tools to detect the
      defects. The sweeping of the PZT excitation frequency enabled us to determine one
      of the defect-sensitive frequencies almost in real time. In addition, because the
      defect sensitive frequencies always existed in wide and plural ranges, the risk
      of the defect being overlooked by the inspector could be alleviated. The results
      of evaluation using stroboscopic shearography showed that an artificial 20 mm
      diameter defect could be visualized at the excitation frequencies of 5-8 kHz
      range and 12.5-15.5 kHz range. This technique provided full field reliable and
      repeatable inspection results. Additionally, the proposed method overcame the
      important drawback of the time-averaged shearography, being required to identify
      the resonance vibration frequency sensitive to the defect.

PMID- 28571437
TI  - Publisher's Note: "New method of extracting information of arterial oxygen
      saturation based on ?|Delta|" [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88, 043107 (2017)].

PMID- 28571438
TI  - The application of chaotic oscillator in detecting weak resonant signal of MEMS
      resonator.
AB  - In this paper, a detection model of a chaotic oscillator is applied in the weak
      signal detection of an electrothermal excitation MEMS resonator, and the maximum
      Lyapunov exponent is used to obtain the threshold value and monitor the motion
      transition of a detection system. The phase drift caused by the electrothermal
      excitation is studied theoretically and experimentally, and according to the
      results of above study, the phase of a reference current signal is set to
      eliminate the phase when the resonator is in a resonant state. Then a new
      detection algorithm is proposed to detect the resonant signal. The simulation
      experiment on a weak signal under different magnifications and different levels
      of noises is conducted, after the impact of the quality factor Q of a resonator
      on detection results is analyzed. Finally, experiments on the output signal of a
      detected sensor sample are carried out by a proposed algorithm. Simulation and
      experiment results show that the detection model can effectively detect the weak
      signal and accurately obtain the resonant frequency, and it is immune to the
      noises.

PMID- 28571439
TI  - Removal of anti-Stokes emission background in STED microscopy by FPGA-based
      synchronous detection.
AB  - In stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, the role of the STED beam is
      to de-excite, via stimulated emission, the fluorophores that have been previously
      excited by the excitation beam. This condition, together with specific beam
      intensity distributions, allows obtaining true sub-diffraction spatial resolution
      images. However, if the STED beam has a non-negligible probability to excite the
      fluorophores, a strong fluorescent background signal (anti-Stokes emission)
      reduces the effective resolution. For STED scanning microscopy, different
      synchronous detection methods have been proposed to remove this anti-Stokes
      emission background and recover the resolution. However, every method works only
      for a specific STED microscopy implementation. Here we present a user-friendly
      synchronous detection method compatible with any STED scanning microscope. It
      exploits a data acquisition (DAQ) card based on a field-programmable gate array
      (FPGA), which is progressively used in STED microscopy. In essence, the FPGA
      based DAQ card synchronizes the fluorescent signal registration, the beam
      deflection, and the excitation beam interruption, providing a fully automatic
      pixel-by-pixel synchronous detection method. We validate the proposed method in
      both continuous wave and pulsed STED microscope systems.

PMID- 28571440
TI  - A trough for improved SFG spectroscopy of lipid monolayers.
AB  - Lipid monolayers are indispensable model systems for biological membranes. The
      main advantage over bilayer model systems is that the surface pressure within the
      layer can be directly and reliably controlled. The sensitive interplay between
      surface pressure and temperature determines the molecular order within a model
      membrane and consequently determines the membrane phase behavior. The lipid phase
      is of crucial importance for a range of membrane functions such as protein
      interactions and membrane permeability. A very reliable method to probe the
      structure of lipid monolayers is sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational
      spectroscopy. Not only is SFG extremely surface sensitive but it can also
      directly access critical parameters such as lipid order and orientation, and it
      can provide valuable information about protein interactions along with
      interfacial hydration. However, recent studies have shown that temperature
      gradients caused by high power laser beams perturb the lipid layers and
      potentially obscure the spectroscopic results. Here we demonstrate how the local
      heating problem can be effectively reduced by spatially distributing the laser
      pulses on the sample surface using a translating Langmuir trough for SFG
      experiments at lipid monolayers. The efficiency of the trough is illustrated by
      the detection of enhanced molecular order due to reduced heat load.

PMID- 28571441
TI  - Filter-based ultralow-frequency Raman measurement down to 2 cm-1 for fast
      Brillouin spectroscopy measurement.
AB  - Simultaneous Stokes and anti-Stokes ultralow-frequency (ULF) Raman measurement
      down to ~2 cm-1 or 60 GHz is realized by a single-stage spectrometer in
      combination with volume-Bragg-grating-based notch filters. This system reveals
      its excellent performance by probing Brillouin signal of acoustic phonons in
      silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, and gallium nitride. The deduced sound
      velocity and elastic constants are in good accordance with previous results
      determined by various methods. This system can shorten the integration time of
      the Brillouin signal with a good signal-to-noise ratio by more than 2000-fold
      compared to a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). This study shows how a filter
      based ULF Raman system can be used to reliably achieve Brillouin spectroscopy for
      condensed materials with high sensitivity and high signal-to-noise ratio,
      stimulating fast Brillouin spectrum measurements to probe acoustic phonons in
      semiconductors.

PMID- 28571442
TI  - Design and analysis of an MR rotary brake for self-regulating braking torques.
AB  - This paper presents a novel Magneto-rheological (MR) brake system that can self
      regulate the output braking torques. The proposed MR brake can generate a braking
      torque at a critical rotation speed without an external power source, sensors, or
      controllers, making it a simple and cost-effective device. The brake system
      consists of a rotary disk, permanent magnets, springs, and MR fluid. The
      permanent magnets are attached to the rotary disk via the springs, and they move
      outward through grooves with two different gap distances along the radial
      direction of the stator due to the centrifugal force. Thus, the position of the
      magnets is dependent on the spin speed, and it can determine the magnetic fields
      applied to MR fluids. Proper design of the stator geometry gives the system
      unique torque characteristics. To show the performance of an MR brake system, the
      electromagnetic characteristics of the system are analyzed, and the torques
      generated by the brake are calculated using the result of the electromagnetic
      analysis. Using a baseline model, a parametric study is conducted to investigate
      how the design parameters (geometric shapes and material selection) affect the
      performance of the brake system. After the simulation study, a prototype brake
      system is constructed and its performance is experimentally evaluated. The
      experimental results show that the prototype produced the maximum torque of 1.2 N
      m at the rotational speed of 100 rpm. The results demonstrate the feasibility of
      the proposed MR brake as a speed regulator in rotating systems.

PMID- 28571443
TI  - Simultaneous measurement of the HT and DT fusion burn histories in inertial
      fusion implosions.
AB  - Measuring the thermonuclear burn history is an important way to diagnose inertial
      fusion implosions. Using the gas Cherenkov detectors at the OMEGA laser facility,
      we measure the HT fusion burn in a H2+T2 gas-fueled implosion for the first time.
      Using multiple detectors with varied Cherenkov thresholds, we demonstrate a
      technique for simultaneously measuring both the HT and DT burn histories from an
      implosion where the total reaction yields are comparable. This new technique will
      be used to study material mixing and kinetic phenomena in implosions.

PMID- 28571444
TI  - Photoelastic force measurements in granular materials.
AB  - Photoelastic techniques are used to make both qualitative and quantitative
      measurements of the forces within idealized granular materials. The method is
      based on placing a birefringent granular material between a pair of polarizing
      filters, so that each region of the material rotates the polarization of light
      according to the amount of local stress. In this review paper, we summarize the
      past work using the technique, describe the optics underlying the technique, and
      illustrate how it can be used to quantitatively determine the vector contact
      forces between particles in a 2D granular system. We provide a description of
      software resources available to perform this task, as well as key techniques and
      resources for building an experimental apparatus.

PMID- 28571445
TI  - Note: Development of real-time epithermal neutron detector for boron neutron
      capture therapy.
AB  - The real-time detection of epithermal neutrons forms an important aspect of boron
      neutron capture therapy. In this context, we developed an epithermal neutron
      detector based on the combination of a small Eu:LiCaAlF6 scintillator and a
      quartz fiber in order to fulfill the irradiation-field requirements for boron
      neutron capture therapy. The irradiation test is performed with the use of a
      reactor-based neutron source. The thermal and epithermal neutron sensitivities of
      our epithermal neutron detector are estimated to be 9.52 * 10-8 +/- 1.59 * 10-8
      cm2 and 1.20 * 10-6 cm2 +/- 8.96 * 10-9 cm2, respectively. We also subject the
      developed epithermal neutron detector to actual irradiation fields, and we
      confirm that the epithermal neutron flux can be measured in realtime.

PMID- 28571447
TI  - An integrated and multi-purpose microscope for the characterization of atomically
      thin optoelectronic devices.
AB  - Optoelectronic devices based on graphene and other two-dimensional (2D)
      materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are the focus of wide
      research interest. They can be the key to improving bandwidths in
      telecommunications, capacity in data storage, and new features in consumer
      electronics, safety devices, and medical equipment. The characterization of these
      emerging atomically thin materials and devices strongly relies on a set of
      measurements involving both optical and electronic instrumentation ranging from
      scanning photocurrent mapping to Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy.
      Furthermore, proof-of-concept devices are usually fabricated from micro-meter
      size flakes, requiring microscopy techniques to characterize them. Current state
      of-the-art commercial instruments offer the ability to characterize individual
      properties of these materials with no option for the in situ characterization of
      a wide enough range of complementary optical and electrical properties.
      Presently, the requirement to switch atomically thin materials from one system to
      another often radically affects the properties of these uniquely sensitive
      materials through atmospheric contamination. Here, we present an integrated,
      multi-purpose instrument dedicated to the optical and electrical characterization
      of devices based on 2D materials which is able to perform low frequency
      electrical measurements, scanning photocurrent mapping, and Raman, absorption,
      and PL spectroscopy in one single setup with full control over the polarization
      and wavelength of light. We characterize this apparatus by performing multiple
      measurements on graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and Si. The
      performance and resolution of each individual measurement technique is found to
      be equivalent to that of commercially available instruments. Contrary to
      nowadays' commercial systems, a significant advantage of the developed instrument
      is that for the first time the integration of a wide range of complementary
      optoelectronic and spectroscopy characterization techniques is demonstrated in a
      single compact unit. Our design offers a versatile solution to face the
      challenges imposed by the advent of atomically thin materials in optoelectronic
      devices.

PMID- 28571446
TI  - Development of a programmable standard of ultra-low capacitance values.
AB  - A set of ultra-low value capacitance standards together with a programmable
      coaxial multiplexer (mux) have been developed. The mux allows the connection of
      these capacitances in parallel configuration and they together form the
      programmable capacitance standard. It is capable of producing decadic standard
      capacitances from 10 aF to at least 0.1 pF, which are later used to calibrate
      commercial precision capacitance bridges. This paper describes the realization
      and the characterization of this standard together with results obtained during
      the calibration of Andeen-Hagerling AH2700A bridges with a maximum uncertainty of
      0.8 aF for all the capacitances generated ranging from 10 aF to 0.1 pF, at 1 kHz.
      These latter could be then integrated to functionalized AFMs or probe stations
      for quantitative capacitance measurements. Sources of uncertainties of the
      programmable capacitance standard, such as parasitic effects due to stray
      impedances, are evaluated and a method to overcome these hindrances is also
      discussed.

PMID- 28571448
TI  - Note: A SMA wire actuated extremely long-lifetime release actuator using two ball
      lock mechanisms.
AB  - A shape memory alloy (SMA)-wire actuated release actuator with an extremely long
      lifetime was designed and validated. To ensure the ability of repeated actuation,
      two stages of ball-lock mechanisms were adopted to reduce the load in the SMA
      wire. In addition, a length-increasing design of the SMA wire was employed.
      Validation tests, including function tests, vibration tests, shock tests, and
      thermal vacuum tests were conducted on prototypes. According to the test results,
      the actuator can release a maximum preload of 15 kN and has a lifetime of more
      than 693 cycles. Furthermore, the actuator can function well, even under severe
      thermal and vibration environments.

PMID- 28571449
TI  - Erratum: "Dual analyzer system for surface analysis dedicated for angle-resolved
      photoelectron spectroscopy at liquid surfaces and interfaces" [Rev. Sci. Instrum.
      87, 045105 (2016)].

PMID- 28571450
TI  - Interferometric characterization of rotation stages for X-ray nanotomography.
AB  - The field of three-dimensional multi-modal X-ray nanoimaging relies not only on
      high-brilliance X-rays but also on high-precision mechanics and position
      metrology. Currently available state-of-the-art linear and rotary drives can
      provide 3D position accuracy within tens to hundreds of nm, which is often
      insufficient for high resolution imaging with nanofocused X-ray beams. Motion
      errors are especially troublesome in the case of rotation drives and their
      correction is more complicated and relies on the metrology grade reference
      objects. Here we present a method which allows the characterisation and
      correction of the radial and angular errors of the rotary drives without the need
      for a highly accurate metrology object. The method is based on multi-probe error
      separation using fiber-laser interferometry and uses a standard cylindrical
      sample holder as a reference. The obtained runout and shape measurements are then
      used to perform the position corrections using additional drives. We demonstrate
      the results of the characterization for a piezo-driven small rotation stage. The
      error separation allowed us to measure the axis runout to be approximately +/
      1.25 MUm, and with active runout compensation this could be reduced down to +/-42
      nm.

PMID- 28571451
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging of granular materials.
AB  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has become one of the most important tools to
      screen humans in medicine; virtually every modern hospital is equipped with a
      Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) tomograph. The potential of NMR in 3D imaging
      tasks is by far greater, but there is only "a handful" of MRI studies of
      particulate matter. The method is expensive, time-consuming, and requires a deep
      understanding of pulse sequences, signal acquisition, and processing. We give a
      short introduction into the physical principles of this imaging technique,
      describe its advantages and limitations for the screening of granular matter, and
      present a number of examples of different application purposes, from the
      exploration of granular packing, via the detection of flow and particle
      diffusion, to real dynamic measurements. Probably, X-ray computed tomography is
      preferable in most applications, but fast imaging of single slices with modern
      MRI techniques is unmatched, and the additional opportunity to retrieve spatially
      resolved flow and diffusion profiles without particle tracking is a unique
      feature.

PMID- 28571452
TI  - Miniaturized thermocycler based on thermoelectric heating for diagnosis of
      sexually transmitted disease by DNA amplification.
AB  - Sexually transmitted disease (STD) is among the most common infectious diseases;
      therefore, it is necessary to develop sensitive early diagnostic techniques. As
      the gold standard, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been most widely employed
      for STD diagnosis; however, PCR requires large and expensive instruments. In this
      study, miniaturized thermal cycler using Peltier modules was developed for the
      PCR analysis. In comparison with the conventional PCR instrument, the Peltier
      based micro-PCR (P-mPCR) device developed in this study enables one to amplify
      and successfully distinguish between DNA of different sizes. Furthermore, by
      using the clinical vaginal sample collected with the vaginal swab and tampon,
      different kinds of STD bacteria could be detected with high accuracy (~94.19%)
      and high sensitivity (~95.6%). Therefore, the P-mPCR device will be applicable in
      STD diagnosis as well as the detection of other bacteria/viruses using DNA
      amplification in regions including those with limited resources.

PMID- 28571453
TI  - An open-source platform to study uniaxial stress effects on nanoscale devices.
AB  - We present an automatic measurement platform that enables the characterization of
      nanodevices by electrical transport and optical spectroscopy as a function of the
      uniaxial stress. We provide insights into and detailed descriptions of the
      mechanical device, the substrate design and fabrication, and the instrument
      control software, which is provided under open-source license. The capability of
      the platform is demonstrated by characterizing the piezo-resistance of an InAs
      nanowire device using a combination of electrical transport and Raman
      spectroscopy. The advantages of this measurement platform are highlighted by
      comparison with state-of-the-art piezo-resistance measurements in InAs nanowires.
      We envision that the systematic application of this methodology will provide new
      insights into the physics of nanoscale devices and novel materials for
      electronics, and thus contribute to the assessment of the potential of strain as
      a technology booster for nanoscale electronics.

PMID- 28571454
TI  - A frequency-modulated continuous-wave reflectometer for the Lithium Tokamak
      Experiment.
AB  - The frequency-modulated continuous-wave reflectometer on LTX (Lithium Tokamak
      Experiment) and the data analysis methods used for determining electron density
      profiles are described. The diagnostic uses a frequency range of 13.1-33.5 GHz,
      for covering a density range of 0.21-1.4*1013 cm-3 (in O-mode polarization) with
      a time resolution down to 8 MUs. The design of the diagnostic incorporates the
      concept of an "optimized" source frequency sweep, which minimizes the large
      variation in the intermediate frequency signal due to a long dispersive
      transmission line. The quality of the raw data is dictated by the tuning
      characteristics of the microwave sources, as well as the group delay ripple in
      the transmission lines, which can generate higher-order nonlinearities in the
      frequency sweep. Both effects are evaluated for our diagnostic and best practices
      are presented for minimizing "artifacts" generated in the signals. The quality of
      the reconstructed profiles is also improved using two additional data analysis
      methods. First, the reflectometer data are processed as a radar image, where
      clutter due to echoes from the wall and backscattering from density fluctuations
      can be easily identified and removed. Second, a weighed least-squares lamination
      algorithm POLAN (POLynomial ANalysis) is used to reconstruct the electron density
      profile. Examples of density profiles in LTX are presented, along with
      comparisons to measurements from the Thomson scattering and the lambda = 1 mm
      interferometer diagnostics.

PMID- 28571455
TI  - Spatially resolved measurements of micro-deformations in granular materials using
      diffusing wave spectroscopy.
AB  - This article is a tutorial on the practical implementation of a method of
      measurement of minute deformations based on multiple scattering. This technique
      has been recently developed and has proven to give new insights into the spatial
      repartition of strain in a granular material. We provide here the basics to
      understand the method by giving a synthetic review on diffusing wave spectroscopy
      and multiple scattering in granular materials. We detail a simple experiment
      using standard lab equipment to pedagogically demonstrate the implementation of
      the method. Finally we give a few examples of measurements that have been
      obtained in other works to discuss the potential of the method.

PMID- 28571456
TI  - Microchannel plate detector detection efficiency to monoenergetic electrons
      between 3 and 28 keV.
AB  - An unshielded microchannel plate (MCP) detector with an ultrafine pore diameter
      of 2 MUm was irradiated by an electron beam to determine the detection efficiency
      of electrons for creating detector signals, or counts. Tested electron energies
      spanned a range of 3 kiloelectron volts (keV) to 28 keV. Higher detection
      efficiencies were measured at the lower end of this energy range, 0.376 counts
      per incident electron at 3 keV down to 0.155 at 15 keV with an increase to 0.217
      at 18 keV and then another decrease down to 0.15 counts per incident electron at
      28 keV. The increase at 18 keV is attributed to primary electron interaction with
      the L shell electrons of lead (Pb), leading to an increase in secondary electron
      and X-ray generation within the MCP and thus an increase in detection efficiency.
      For the electron beam directed normal to the MCP surface, the lowest efficiency
      of 0.15 counts per incident electron was observed at 28 keV. Detection efficiency
      was also tested as a function of incident angle with angular steps of 5 degrees .
      Detection efficiency was more sensitive to the angle of incidence as the incident
      electron energy decreased. The detection efficiency at 3 keV decreased from 0.376
      counts per electron at the zero degree angle (normal incidence to MCP surface) to
      0.027 counts per electron at an incident angle of 50 degrees  (average in both
      orientations). At 28 keV, the decrease in detection efficiency as a function of
      increasing angle was less pronounced, ranging from 0.15 counts per electron at
      zero degrees to 0.08 counts per electron at 50 degrees  (average in both
      orientations). Experimental data showed lower detection efficiencies compared
      with previously published data.

PMID- 28571457
TI  - Ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) systems for the Keda Mirror with
      AXisymmetry (KMAX).
AB  - In this paper, we describe the engineering work involved in constructing two ion
      cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) systems for use in the Keda Mirror with
      AXisymmetry tandem mirror experiment. Because they offer an effective and robust
      heating method, ICRH systems have been widely used in a variety of plasma
      experiments. The goal of our system is to heat the hydrogen plasma contained in
      the central cell using the fundamental ion cyclotron frequency. Both systems can
      deliver a radiofrequency power of ~120 kW with adjustable operating frequencies
      that are tuned to be slightly lower than their local ion cyclotron frequencies.
      Two types of antennas are installed in the central cell in an attempt to launch
      both slow and fast waves. The heating mechanism is reliant on the magnetic beach
      effect for slow waves.

PMID- 28571458
TI  - Refractive index matched scanning and detection of soft particles.
AB  - We describe here how to apply the three-dimensional imaging technique of
      refractive index matched scanning to hydrogel spheres. Hydrogels are water based
      materials with a low refractive index, which allows for index matching with water
      based solvent mixtures. We discuss here various experimental techniques required
      to handle specifically hydrogel spheres as opposed to other transparent
      materials. The deformability of hydrogel spheres makes their identification in
      three-dimensional images non-trivial. We will also discuss numerical techniques
      that can be used in general to detect contacting, non-spherical particles in a
      three-dimensional image. The experimental and numerical techniques presented here
      give experimental access to the stress tensor of a packing of deformed particles.

PMID- 28571459
TI  - An experimental setup to study delayed electron emission upon photoexcitation of
      trapped polyatomic anions.
AB  - A Velocity Map Imaging (VMI) spectrometer has been designed and integrated with
      an electrostatic ion beam trap to study delayed electron emission from trapped
      polyatomic anions upon photodetachment. The VMI spectrometer is small in size and
      can record a wide range of photoelectron energies, with variable magnification.
      Delayed electron emission can be recorded in our experimental setup for any time
      duration after the photoexcitation of the polyatomic anions. Experiments were
      carried out with trapped O- and C5- ions to demonstrate the capability of the
      spectrometer. Delayed electron emissions from C5- as well as prompt
      photoelectrons from O- were detected by the VMI spectrometer upon
      photoexcitation. The design and performance of the spectrometer are presented in
      detail.

PMID- 28571460
TI  - Correlative imaging across microscopy platforms using the fast and accurate
      relocation of microscopic experimental regions (FARMER) method.
AB  - Imaging specific regions of interest (ROIs) of nanomaterials or biological
      samples with different imaging modalities (e.g., light and electron microscopy)
      or at subsequent time points (e.g., before and after off-microscope procedures)
      requires relocating the ROIs. Unfortunately, relocation is typically difficult
      and very time consuming to achieve. Previously developed techniques involve the
      fabrication of arrays of features, the procedures for which are complex, and the
      added features can interfere with imaging the ROIs. We report the Fast and
      Accurate Relocation of Microscopic Experimental Regions (FARMER) method, which
      only requires determining the coordinates of 3 (or more) conspicuous reference
      points (REFs) and employs an algorithm based on geometric operators to relocate
      ROIs in subsequent imaging sessions. The 3 REFs can be quickly added to various
      regions of a sample using simple tools (e.g., permanent markers or conductive
      pens) and do not interfere with the ROIs. The coordinates of the REFs and the
      ROIs are obtained in the first imaging session (on a particular microscope
      platform) using an accurate and precise encoded motorized stage. In subsequent
      imaging sessions, the FARMER algorithm finds the new coordinates of the ROIs (on
      the same or different platforms), using the coordinates of the manually located
      REFs and the previously recorded coordinates. FARMER is convenient, fast (3-15
      min/session, at least 10-fold faster than manual searches), accurate (4.4 MUm
      average error on a microscope with a 100x objective), and precise (almost all
      errors are <8 MUm), even with deliberate rotating and tilting of the sample well
      beyond normal repositioning accuracy. We demonstrate this versatility by imaging
      and re-imaging a diverse set of samples and imaging methods: live mammalian cells
      at different time points; fixed bacterial cells on two microscopes with different
      imaging modalities; and nanostructures on optical and electron microscopes.
      FARMER can be readily adapted to any imaging system with an encoded motorized
      stage and can facilitate multi-session and multi-platform imaging experiments in
      biology, materials science, photonics, and nanoscience.

PMID- 28571461
TI  - Positron emission particle tracking and its application to granular media.
AB  - Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a technique for tracking a single
      radioactively labelled particle. Accurate 3D tracking is possible even when the
      particle is moving at high speed inside a dense opaque system. In many cases,
      tracking a single particle within a granular system provides sufficient
      information to determine the time-averaged behaviour of the entire granular
      system. After a general introduction, this paper describes the detector systems
      (PET scanners and positron cameras) used to record PEPT data, the techniques used
      to label particles, and the algorithms used to process the data. This paper
      concentrates on the use of PEPT for studying granular systems: the focus is
      mainly on work at Birmingham, but reference is also made to work from other
      centres, and options for wider diversification are suggested.

PMID- 28571462
TI  - Analysis of granular packing structure by scattering of THz radiation.
AB  - Scattering methods are widely used to characterize the structure and constituents
      of matter on small length scales. This motivates this introductory text on
      identifying prospective approaches to scattering-based methods for granular
      media. A survey to light scattering by particles and particle ensembles is given.
      It is elaborated why the established scattering methods using X-rays and visible
      light cannot in general be transferred to granular media. Spectroscopic
      measurements using terahertz radiation are highlighted as they probe the
      scattering properties of granular media, which are sensitive to the packing
      structure. Experimental details to optimize a spectrometer for measurements on
      granular media are discussed. We perform transmission measurements on static and
      agitated granular media using Fourier transform spectroscopy at the THz beamline
      of the Bessy II storage ring. The measurements demonstrate the potential to
      evaluate degrees of order in the media and to track transient structural states
      in agitated bulk granular media.

PMID- 28571463
TI  - A Q-band low noise GaAs pHEMT MMIC power amplifier for pulse electron spin
      resonance spectrometer.
AB  - We present the design and development of a single stage pulse power amplifier
      working in the frequency range 32-38 GHz based on a monolithic microwave
      integrated circuit (MMIC). We have designed the MMIC power amplifier by using the
      commercially available packaged GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility
      transistor. The circuit fabrication and assembly process includes the elaboration
      of the matching networks for the MMIC power amplifier and their assembling as
      well as the topology outline and fabrication of the printed circuit board of the
      waveguide-microstrip line transitions. At room ambient temperature, the measured
      peak output power from the prototype amplifier is 35.5 dBm for 16.6 dBm input
      driving power, corresponding to 19 dB gain. The measured rise/fall time of the
      output microwave signal modulated by a high-speed PIN diode was obtained as 5-6
      ns at 20-250 ns pulse width with 100 kHz pulse repetition rate frequency.

PMID- 28571464
TI  - Apparatus and test method for characterizing the temperature regulating
      properties of thermal functional porous polymeric materials.
AB  - In order to evaluate the temperature regulating properties of thermal functional
      porous polymeric materials such as fabrics treated with phase change material
      microcapsules, a new apparatus was developed. The apparatus and the test method
      can measure the heat flux, temperature, and displacement signals during the
      dynamic contact and then quickly give an evaluation for the temperature
      regulating properties by simulating the dynamic heat transfer and temperature
      regulating process when the materials contact the body skin. A series of indices
      including the psychosensory intensity, regulating capability index, and relative
      regulating index were defined to characterize the temperature regulating
      properties. The measurement principle, the evaluation criteria and grading
      method, the experimental setup and the test results discussion, and the gage
      capability analysis of the apparatus are presented. The new apparatus provides a
      method for the objective measurement and evaluation of the temperature regulating
      properties of thermal functional porous polymeric materials.

PMID- 28571465
TI  - A high-flux upgrade for the BRISP spectrometer at ILL.
AB  - To date, the BRISP spectrometer represents the state-of-the-art for every
      instrument aiming to perform Brillouin neutron scattering. Exploiting accurate
      ray-tracing McStas simulations, we investigate an improved configuration of the
      BRISP primary spectrometer to provide a higher flux at the sample position, while
      preserving all the present capabilities of the instrument. This configuration is
      based on a neutron guide system and is designed to fit the instrument platform
      with no modifications of the secondary spectrometer. These evaluations show that
      this setup can achieve a flux gain factor ranging from 3 to 6, depending on the
      wavelength. This can expand the experimental possibilities of BRISP towards
      smaller samples, possibly using also complex sample environments.

PMID- 28571466
TI  - Localized thin film damage sourced and monitored via pump-probe modulated
      thermoreflectance.
AB  - Damage in the form of dewetting and delamination of thin films is a major concern
      in applications requiring micro- or nano-fabrication. In non-contact nanoscale
      characterization, optical interrogation must be kept to energies below damage
      thresholds in order to conduct measurements such as pump-probe spectroscopy. In
      this study, we show that the thermoreflectance of thin films can indicate the
      degree of film damage induced by a modulated optical heating source. By adjusting
      the absorbed power of the pump heating event, we identify the characteristics of
      the change in the thermoreflectance signal when leading up to and exceeding the
      damage threshold of gold films of varying thicknesses on glass substrates.

PMID- 28571467
TI  - Acoustic spectrometer with minimized background dissipation.
AB  - Apparatus for measurements of internal friction from Q-1~10-6 and elastic moduli
      in the kilohertz frequency range in which external friction losses were minimized
      using a new-type of three-reed tuning fork as a sample under study is described.
      High sensitivity of the apparatus made it possible to observe a resonance
      plasticization of diamagnetic LiF crystals under the action of crossed magnetic
      fields (~100 MUT) in the EPR conditions.

PMID- 28571468
TI  - Radar for tracer particles.
AB  - We introduce a radar system capable of tracking a 5 mm spherical target
      continuously in three dimensions. The 10 GHz (X-band) radar system has a
      transmission power of 1 W and operates in the near field of the horn antennae. By
      comparing the phase shift of the electromagnetic wave traveling through the free
      space with an IQ-mixer, we obtain the relative movement of the target with
      respect to the antennae. From the azimuth and inclination angles of the receiving
      antennae obtained in the calibration, we reconstruct the target trajectory in a
      three-dimensional Cartesian system. Finally, we test the tracking algorithm with
      target moving in circular as well as in pendulum motions and discuss the
      capability of the radar system.

PMID- 28571469
TI  - Robust regression and its application in absolute gravimeters.
AB  - Maximum-likelihood estimation of robust regression is employed to process
      absolute gravimeter data because this method is insensitive to outliers. Gravity
      values obtained by both ordinary least squares and different approaches for
      robust regression are compared with the results obtained by the g9 processing
      software for the FG5 gravimeter. The results show that the accuracy of gravity
      data can be improved by rejecting certain outliers via adjustments to a suitable
      weighting function of time-distance pairs. A convenient method of identifying
      those outliers by their weight is also presented.

PMID- 28571470
TI  - Choosing the filter for catenary image enhancement method based on the non
      subsampled contourlet transform.
AB  - The quality of image enhancement plays an important role in the catenary fault
      diagnosis system based on the image processing technique. It is necessary to
      enhance the low contrast image of catenary for better detecting the state of
      catenary part. The Non-subsampled Contourlet transform (NSCT) is the improved
      Contourlet transform (CT), which can effectively solve the problem of artifact
      phenomenon in the enhanced catenary image. Besides, choosing the enhancement
      function and the filter of the NSCT will directly influence the image enhancement
      effect. In this paper, the proposed method is implemented by combining the NSCT
      with the nonlinear enhancement function to enhance the catenary image. First, how
      to choose the filter of the NSCT is discussed. Second, the NSCT is used to
      decompose the image. Then, the chosen nonlinear enhancement function is used to
      process the decomposed coefficient of the NSCT. Finally, the NSCT is inversed to
      obtain the enhanced image. In this paper, we evaluate our algorithm using the
      lifting wavelet transform, retinex enhancement method, dark channel enhancement
      method, curvelet transform, and CT method as a comparison to enhance a group of
      randomly selected low contrast catenary images, respectively. The results of
      comparative experiments conducted show that the proposed method can effectively
      enhance the catenary image, the contrast of image is improved, the catenary parts
      are obvious, and the artifact phenomenon is effectively eliminated, where image
      details (edges, textures, or smooth areas) are also well preserved. Besides, the
      values (detail variance-background variance, signal-to-noise ratio, and edge
      preservation index) of measuring the image enhancement capacity are improved,
      while the mean squared error value is decreased when compared to the CT method.
      These indicate that the proposed method is an excellent catenary image
      enhancement approach.

PMID- 28571471
TI  - Imaging at an x-ray absorption edge using free electron laser pulses for
      interface dynamics in high energy density systems.
AB  - Tuning the energy of an x-ray probe to an absorption line or edge can provide
      material-specific measurements that are particularly useful for interfaces.
      Simulated hard x-ray images above the Fe K-edge are presented to examine ion
      diffusion across an interface between Fe2O3 and SiO2 aerogel foam materials. The
      simulations demonstrate the feasibility of such a technique for measurements of
      density scale lengths near the interface with submicron spatial resolution. A
      proof-of-principle experiment is designed and performed at the Linac coherent
      light source facility. Preliminary data show the change of the interface after
      shock compression and heating with simultaneous fluorescence spectra for
      temperature determination. The results provide the first demonstration of using x
      ray imaging at an absorption edge as a diagnostic to detect ultrafast phenomena
      for interface physics in high-energy-density systems.

PMID- 28571472
TI  - A compact multi-wire-layered secondary winding for Tesla transformer.
AB  - A compact multi-wire-layered (MWL) secondary winding for a Tesla transformer is
      put forward. The basic principle of this winding is to wind the metal wire on a
      polymeric base tube in a multi-layer manner. The tube is tapered and has high
      electrical strength and high mechanical strength. Concentric-circle grooves
      perpendicular to the axis of the tube are carved on the surface of the tube to
      wind the wire. The width of the groove is basically equal to the diameter of the
      wire so that the metal wire can be fixed in the groove without glue. The depth of
      the groove is n times of the diameter of the wire to realize the n-layer winding
      manner. All the concentric-circle grooves are connected via a spiral groove on
      the surface of the tube to let the wire go through. Compared with the traditional
      one-wire-layered (OWL) secondary winding for the Tesla transformer, the most
      conspicuous advantage of the MWL secondary winding is that the latter is compact
      with only a length of 2/n of the OWL. In addition, the MWL winding has the
      following advantages: high electrical strength since voids are precluded from the
      surface of the winding, high mechanical strength because polymer is used as the
      material of the base tube, and reliable fixation in the Tesla transformer as
      special mechanical connections are designed. A 2000-turn MWL secondary winding is
      fabricated with a winding layer of 3 and a total length of 1.0 m. Experiments to
      test the performance of this winding on a Tesla-type pulse generator are
      conducted. The results show that this winding can boost the voltage to 1 MV at a
      repetition rate of 50 Hz reliably for a lifetime longer than 104 pulses, which
      proves the feasibility of the MWL secondary winding.

PMID- 28571473
TI  - An interferometric system for measuring thickness of parallel glass plates
      without 2pi ambiguity using phase analysis of quadrature Haidinger fringes.
AB  - An interferometric system is proposed for measuring the thickness of parallel
      glass plates by analyzing Haidinger fringes. Although a conventional Haidinger
      interferometer can measure thickness without 2pi ambiguity using positions of
      peak and valley points in the interferogram, measurement accuracy is directly
      affected by the number of these points involved in the calculation. The proposed
      method obtains phase values over the entire interferogram by analyzing the
      quadrature Haidinger fringes generated by a current modulated laser diode.
      Therefore, it can achieve high speed measurement and nanometric resolution
      without mechanical rotation and thickness limitation of specimens. In the
      experiments, the standard deviation of repeated thickness measurement was
      evaluated as less than 0.3 nm, and the measured thickness profile of the proposed
      system agreed with that of a conventional thickness interferometer within +/-15
      nm. We also discussed the required accuracy of refractive index of specimens to
      implement the proposed method successfully and presented an exemplary measurement
      result of a multi-layer coated sample having a discontinuous thickness profile.

PMID- 28571474
TI  - Psychometric validation of the Persian nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale -
      Short Form: Does gender and hours spent online gaming affect the interpretations
      of item descriptions?
AB  - Background and aims The nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale - Short Form
      (IGDS-SF9) is brief and effective to evaluate Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD)
      severity. Although its scores show promising psychometric properties, less is
      known about whether different groups of gamers interpret the items similarly.
      This study aimed to verify the construct validity of the Persian IGDS-SF9 and
      examine the scores in relation to gender and hours spent online gaming among
      2,363 Iranian adolescents. Methods Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch
      analysis were used to examine the construct validity of the IGDS-SF9. The effects
      of gender and time spent online gaming per week were investigated by multigroup
      CFA and Rasch differential item functioning (DIF). Results The unidimensionality
      of the IGDS-SF9 was supported in both CFA and Rasch. However, Item 4 (fail to
      control or cease gaming activities) displayed DIF (DIF contrast = 0.55) slightly
      over the recommended cutoff in Rasch but was invariant in multigroup CFA across
      gender. Items 4 (DIF contrast = -0.67) and 9 (jeopardize or lose an important
      thing because of gaming activity; DIF contrast = 0.61) displayed DIF in Rasch and
      were non-invariant in multigroup CFA across time spent online gaming. Conclusions
      Given the Persian IGDS-SF9 was unidimensional, it is concluded that the
      instrument can be used to assess IGD severity. However, users of the instrument
      are cautioned concerning the comparisons of the sum scores of the IGDS-SF9 across
      gender and across adolescents spending different amounts of time online gaming.

PMID- 28571475
TI  - Biological Sensitivity to the Effects of Childhood Family Adversity on
      Psychological Well-Being in Young Adulthood.
AB  - The theory of biological sensitivity to context may inform our understanding of
      why some children exposed to family adversity develop mental health problems in
      emerging adulthood whereas others demonstrate resilience. This study investigated
      the interactive effects of heart rate (HR) reactivity and childhood family
      adversity (maltreatment and changes in family structure) on depressive symptoms
      and positive affect among 150 undergraduate students (18-28 years old; 77% White,
      non-Hispanic; 61% female). Participants reported on childhood parental divorce or
      death, and child maltreatment, and current depressive symptoms and positive
      affect. HR reactivity was assessed in response to a laboratory interpersonal
      stressor. HR reactivity moderated the effects of child maltreatment on depressive
      symptoms and positive affect; higher maltreatment was associated with more
      depressive symptoms and less positive affect, but only among those with average
      and higher levels of HR reactivity. Results suggest that higher physiological
      reactivity may confer greater susceptibility to environmental contexts.

PMID- 28571476
TI  - The safety and tolerability of nintedanib in the treatment of idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial
      lung disease that primarily affects older individuals. Nintedanib, a tyrosine
      kinase inhibitor, has been approved for the treatment of IPF in several
      countries. The safety and tolerability of nintedanib have been investigated in
      clinical trials and in real-world studies (compassionate use programs and post
      marketing surveillance). Areas covered: Most frequent adverse events reported in
      patients treated with nintedanib (gastrointestinal); additional adverse events of
      special interest (elevations in liver enzymes, bleeding, cardiovascular adverse
      events); recommendations for managing adverse events. Expert opinion: Experience
      with nintedanib in real-world clinical practice suggests that it has a safety and
      tolerability profile consistent with that observed in clinical trials. Upon
      initiation of nintedanib, patient education, regular monitoring and proactive
      management of adverse events such as diarrhea are needed to minimize the risk of
      permanent treatment discontinuation. Algorithms are available to help manage
      diarrhea and liver enzyme elevations. Further investigation of the safety and
      tolerability profile of nintedanib when used in combination with pirfenidone is
      warranted.

PMID- 28571477
TI  - Cardiotoxicity of ErbB2-targeted therapies and its impact on drug development, a
      spotlight on trastuzumab.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Trastuzumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody directed against
      ErbB2, is often noted as a successful example of targeted therapy. Trastuzumab
      improved outcomes for many patients with ErbB2-positive breast and gastric
      cancers, however, cardiac side effects [e.g., left ventricular dysfunction and
      congestive heart failure (CHF)] were reported in the early phase clinical
      studies. This finding, subsequently corroborated by multiple clinical studies,
      raised concerns that the observed cardiotoxicity induced by trastuzumab might
      adversely impact the clinical development of other therapeutics targeting ErbB
      family members. Areas covered: In this review we summarize both basic research
      and clinical findings regarding trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity and assess if
      there has been an impact of trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity on the development
      of other agents targeting ErbB family members. Expert opinion: There are a number
      of scientific gaps that are critically important to address for the continued
      success of HER2-targeted agents. These include: 1) elucidating the molecular
      mechanisms contributing to cardiotoxicity; 2) developing relevant preclinical
      testing systems for predicting cardiotoxicity; 3) developing clinical strategies
      to identify patients at risk of cardiotoxicity; and 4) enhancing management of
      clinical symptoms of cardiotoxicity.

PMID- 28571478
TI  - Nutriepigenomics and malnutrition.
AB  - Epigenetics is defined as the modulation of gene expression without changes to
      the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic alterations, as a consequence of in utero
      malnutrition, may play a role in susceptibility to develop adulthood diseases and
      inheritance. However, the mechanistic link between epigenetic modifications and
      abnormalities in nutrition remains elusive. This review provides an update on the
      association of suboptimal nutritional environment and the high propensity to
      produce adult-onset chronic illnesses with a particular focus on modifications in
      genome functions that occur without alterations to the DNA sequence. We will
      mention the drivers of the phenotype and pattern of epigenetic markers set down
      during the reprogramming along with novel preventative and therapeutic
      strategies. New knowledge of epigenetic alterations is opening a gate toward
      personalized medicine.

PMID- 28571479
TI  - Assessing the therapeutic readiness of stem cells for cardiovascular repair.

PMID- 28571480
TI  - New routes in frontotemporal dementia drug discovery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Research into the pathogenic mechanisms behind frontotemporal
      dementia (FTD) has yielded several new targets for therapeutic intervention; such
      targets include specific new pathways uncovered by mutations as well as targets
      involving the modulation, formation and degradation of protein aggregates. Areas
      covered: Herein, the authors outline the principal molecular causes underlying
      FTD to date and the research that has been performed in these areas with respect
      to an eventual corrective strategy. Expert opinion: While it is worthwhile
      targeting pathways affected by specific mutations with a causative loss of
      function linked to FTD, research still has to contend with issues including the
      remaining presence of protein aggregates or that treatments are rarely
      universally applicable. Aiming to recover function in a downstream target caused
      by the protein aggregates will likely be insufficient due to the large cascade of
      events affected. It is our belief that the clearance of these aggregates and the
      inhibition of protein misfolding are more appropriate and direct routes to an
      eventual therapy.

PMID- 28571481
TI  - Blood biomarkers of kidney transplant rejection, an endless search?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The tailoring of immunosuppressive treatment is recognized as a
      promising strategy to improve long-term kidney graft outcome. To guide the
      standard care of transplant recipients, physicians need objective biomarkers that
      can identify an ongoing pathology with the graft or low intensity signals that
      will be later evolved to accelerated transplant rejection. The early
      identification of 'high-risk /low-risk' patients enables the adjustment of
      standard of caring, including managing the frequency of clinical visits and the
      immunosuppression dosing. Given their ease of availability and the compatibility
      with a large technical array, blood-based biomarkers have been widely scrutinized
      for use as potential predictive and diagnostic biomarkers. Areas covered: Here,
      the authors report on non-invasive biomarkers, such as modification of immune
      cell subsets and mRNA and miRNA profiles, identified in the blood of kidney
      transplant recipients collected before or after transplantation. Expert
      commentary: Combined with functional tests, the identification of biomarkers will
      improve our understanding of pathological processes and will contribute to a
      global improvement in clinical management.

PMID- 28571482
TI  - Introduction to selected papers from the 8th International Conference on
      Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BICOB 2016).

PMID- 28571483
TI  - An efficient method for significant motifs discovery from multiple DNA sequences.
AB  - Identification of transcription factor binding sites or biological motifs is an
      important step in deciphering the mechanisms of gene regulation. It is a classic
      problem that has eluded a satisfactory and efficient solution. In this paper, we
      devise a three-phase algorithm to mine for biologically significant motifs. In
      the first phase, we generate all the possible string motifs, this phase is
      followed by a filtering process where we discard all motifs that do not meet the
      constraints. And in the final phase, motifs are scored and ranked using a
      combination of stochastic techniques and [Formula: see text]-value. We show that
      our method outperforms some very well-known motif discovery tools, e.g. MEME and
      Weeder on well-established benchmark data suites. We also apply the algorithm on
      the non-coding regions of M. tuberculosis and report significant motifs of size
      10 with excellent [Formula: see text]-values in a fraction of the time MEME and
      MoSDi did. In fact, among the best 10 motifs ([Formula: see text]-value wise) in
      the non-coding regions of M. tuberculosis reported by the tools MEME, MoSDi and
      ours, five were discovered by our approach which included the third and the
      fourth best ones. All this in 1/17 and 1/6 the time which MEME and MoSDi
      (respectively) took.

PMID- 28571484
TI  - Sclerostin Deficiency Promotes Reparative Dentinogenesis.
AB  - In humans, the SOST gene encodes sclerostin, an inhibitor of bone growth and
      remodeling, which also negatively regulates the bone repair process. Sclerostin
      has also been implicated in tooth formation, but its potential role in pulp
      healing remains unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the role of
      sclerostin in reparative dentinogenesis using Sost knockout mice ( Sost-/-). The
      pulps of the first maxillary molars were mechanically exposed in 3-mo-old Sost-/-
      and wild-type (WT) mice ( n = 14 mice per group), capped with mineral trioxide
      aggregate cement, and the cavities were filled with a bonded composite resin.
      Reparative dentinogenesis was dynamically followed up by micro-computed
      tomography and characterized by histological analyses. Presurgical analysis
      revealed a significantly lower pulp volume in Sost-/- mice compared with WT. At
      30 and 49 d postsurgery, a large-forming reparative mineralized bridge,
      associated with osteopontin-positive mineralization foci, was observed in the
      Sost-/- pulps, whereas a much smaller bridge was detected in WT. At the longer
      time points, the bridge, which was associated with dentin sialoprotein-positive
      cells, had expanded in both groups but remained significantly larger in Sost-/-
      pulps. Sclerostin expression in the healing WT pulps was detected in the cells
      neighboring the forming dentin bridge. In vitro, mineralization induced by Sost-/
      dental pulp cells (DPCs) was also dramatically enhanced when compared with WT
      DPCs. These observations were associated with an increased Sost expression in WT
      cells. Taken together, our data show that sclerostin deficiency hastened
      reparative dentinogenesis after pulp injury, suggesting that the inhibition of
      sclerostin may constitute a promising therapeutic strategy for improving the
      healing of damaged pulps.

PMID- 28571485
TI  - Continuous Autoregulatory Indices Derived from Multi-Modal Monitoring: Each One
      Is Not Like the Other.
AB  - We assess the relationships between various continuous measures of autoregulatory
      capacity in a cohort of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). We assessed
      relationships between autoregulatory indices derived from intracranial pressure
      (ICP: PRx, PAx, RAC), transcranial Doppler (TCD: Mx, Sx, Dx), brain tissue
      oxygenation (ORx), and spatially resolved near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS
      resolved: TOx, THx). Relationships between indices were assessed using Pearson
      correlation coefficient, Friedman test, principal component analysis (PCA),
      agglomerative hierarchal clustering (AHC) and k-means cluster analysis (KMCA).
      All analytic techniques were repeated for a range of temporal resolutions of
      data, including minute-by-minute averages, moving means of 30 samples, and grand
      mean for each patient. Thirty-seven patients were studied. The PRx displayed
      strong association with PAx/RAC across all the analytical techniques: Pearson
      correlation (r = 0.682/r = 0.677, p < 0.0001), PCA, AHC, and KMCA in the grand
      mean data sheet. Most TCD-based indices (Mx, Dx) were correlated and co-clustered
      on PCA, AHC, and KMCA. The Sx was found to be more closely associated with ICP
      derived indices on Pearson correlation, PCA, AHC, and KMCA. The NIRS indices
      displayed variable correlation with each other and with indices derived from ICP
      and TCD signals. Of interest, TOx and THx co-cluster with ICP-based indices on
      PCA and AHC. The ORx failed to display any meaningful correlations with other
      indices in neither of the analytical method used. Thirty-minute moving average
      and minute-by-minute data set displayed similar results across all the methods.
      The RAC, Mx, and Sx were the strongest predictors of outcome at six months.
      Continuously updating autoregulatory indices are not all correlated with one
      another. Caution must be advised when utilizing less commonly described
      autoregulation indices (i.e., ORx) for the clinical assessment of autoregulatory
      capacity, because they appear to not be related to commonly measured/establish
      indices, such as PRx. Further prospective validation is required.

PMID- 28571486
TI  - Repositionable self-expanding aortic bioprosthesis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation/replacement (TAVI or TAVR)
      has been established as a first line therapy in patients with symptomatic severe
      aortic stenosis (AS) at high or prohibitive surgical risk and as an alternative
      in elderly patients with intermediate surgical risk. Since its first-in-human
      procedure in 2002, the past 15-years have shown rapid developments in TAVI
      technology with the introduction and further improvement of new transcatheter
      heart valves (THV). Areas covered: There are currently several THV systems
      available, based on balloon-expandable, self-expandable or other technologies.
      Some of these are repositionable and retrievable even after partial or full
      deployment, potentially reducing the risk of malpositioning. The aim of this
      review is to describe such repositionable self-expandable THV systems. Expert
      commentary: Repositionability potentially represents a crucial step towards
      higher safety and efficacy of TAVI. It is unclear if full self-expandability or a
      combination of self and mechanical expansion will be more advantageous.

PMID- 28571490
TI  - Laboratory animal science course in Switzerland: participants' points of view and
      implications for organizers.
AB  - Switzerland has implemented a mandatory training in laboratory animal science
      since 1999; however a comprehensive assessment of its effects has never been
      undertaken so far. The results from the analysis of participants in the Swiss
      Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) Category B
      compulsory courses in laboratory animal science run in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016
      showed that the participants fully appreciated all elements of the course. The
      use of live animals during the course was supported and explained by six
      arguments characterized with cognitive, emotional and forward-looking factors. A
      large majority considered that the 3R (replacement, reduction and refinement)
      principles were adequately applied during the course. Responses to an open
      question offered some ideas for improvements. This overall positive picture,
      however, revealed divergent answers from different subpopulations in our sample
      (for example, scientists with more hindsight, scientists trained in biology, or
      participants from Asian countries).

PMID- 28571491
TI  - Insights into unbound-bound states of GPR142 receptor in a membrane-aqueous
      system using molecular dynamics simulations.
AB  - G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are source machinery in signal transduction
      pathways and being one of the major therapeutic targets play a significant in
      drug discovery. GPR142, an orphan GPCR, has been implicated in the regulation of
      insulin, thereby having a crucial role in Type II diabetes management.
      Deciphering of the structures of orphan, GPCRs (O-GPCRs) offer better prospects
      for advancements in research in ion translocation and transduction of
      extracellular signals. As the crystallographic structure of GPR142 is not
      available in PDB, therefore, threading and ab initio-based approaches were used
      for 3D modeling of GPR142. Molecular dynamic simulations (900 ns) were performed
      on the 3D model of GPR142 and complexes of GPR142 with top five hits, obtained
      through virtual screening, embedded in lipid bilayer with aqueous system using
      OPLS force field. Compound 1, 3, and 4 may act as scaffolds for designing
      potential lead agonists for GPR142. The finding of GPR142 MD simulation study
      provides more comprehensive representation of the functional properties. The
      concern for Type II diabetes is increasing worldwide and successful treatment of
      this disease demands novel drugs with better efficacy.

PMID- 28571489
TI  - Thioredoxin-1, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand-9 and interferon-gamma expression
      in the neoplastic cells and macrophages of Hodgkin lymphoma: clinicopathologic
      correlations and potential prognostic implications.
AB  - Expression of thioredoxin-1 (TXN) and CXCL9 is not restricted to THRLBCL
      macrophages, but may be observed in histiocytes and neoplastic (HRS) cells of EBV
      + mixed cellularity (MC) classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and nodular lymphocyte
      predominant HL. We aimed to validate and extend the above observations in 174 cHL
      patients evaluating the immunohistochemical expression of TXN, CXCL9 and IFN
      gamma. HRS-cell CXCL9 expression was higher in latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1)+,
      MC and Stage IV. TXN and CXCL9 expression by cHL histiocytes was more frequent in
      LMP1+, MC and older patients (only for CXCL9). TXN expression by HRS cells
      (>=80%) was independently associated with better failure-free survival. In
      conclusion, markers of TCHRLBCL histiocytes (TXN, CXCL9), as well as IFN-gamma
      are also expressed by histiocyte subsets and neoplastic cells of cHL. The
      expression of some of them is more prominent in EBV + MC, but not restricted to
      this subtype. The prognostic implication of TXN needs further evaluation.

PMID- 28571487
TI  - Targeting of Streptococcus mutans Biofilms by a Novel Small Molecule Prevents
      Dental Caries and Preserves the Oral Microbiome.
AB  - Dental caries is a costly and prevalent disease characterized by the
      demineralization of the tooth's enamel. Disease outcome is influenced by host
      factors, dietary intake, cariogenic bacteria, and other microbes. The cariogenic
      bacterial species Streptococcus mutans metabolizes sucrose to initiate biofilm
      formation on the tooth surface and consequently produces lactic acid to degrade
      the tooth's enamel. Persistence of S. mutans biofilms in the oral cavity can lead
      to tooth decay. To date, no anticaries therapies that specifically target S.
      mutans biofilms but do not disturb the overall oral microbiome are available. We
      screened a library of 2-aminoimidazole antibiofilm compounds with a biofilm
      dispersion assay and identified a small molecule that specifically targets S.
      mutans biofilms. At 5 uM, the small molecule annotated 3F1 dispersed 50% of the
      established S. mutans biofilm but did not disperse biofilms formed by the
      commensal species Streptococcus sanguinis or Streptococcus gordonii. 3F1
      dispersed S. mutans biofilms independently of biofilm-related factors such as
      antigen I/II and glucosyltransferases. 3F1 treatment effectively prevented dental
      caries by controlling S. mutans in a rat caries model without perturbing the oral
      microbiota. Our study demonstrates that selective targeting of S. mutans biofilms
      by 3F1 was able to effectively reduce dental caries in vivo without affecting the
      overall oral microbiota shaped by the intake of dietary sugars, suggesting that
      the pathogenic biofilm-specific treatment is a viable strategy for disease
      prevention.

PMID- 28571493
TI  - Optimizing beta-lactams treatment in critically-ill patients using
      pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics targets: are first conventional doses
      effective?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic index determining beta-lactam
      activity is the percentage of the dosing interval (%T) during which their free
      serum concentration remains above a critical threshold over the minimum
      inhibitory concentration (MIC). Regrettably, neither the value of %T nor that of
      the threshold are clearly defined for critically-ill patients. Areas covered: We
      review and assess the targets proposed for beta-lactams in critical illness by
      screening the literature since 1997. Depending on the study intention (clinical
      cure vs. suppression of resistance), targets proposed range from 20%T > 1xMIC to
      100%T > 5xMIC. Assessment and comparative analysis of their respective clinical
      efficacy suggest that a value of 100%T > 4xMIC may be needed. Simulation studies,
      however, show that this target will not be reached at first dose for the majority
      of critically-ill patients if using the most commonly recommended doses. Expert
      commentary: Considering that critically-ill patients are highly vulnerable and
      likely to experience antibiotic underexposure, and because effective initial
      treatment is a key determinant of clinical outcome, we support the use of a
      target of 100%T > 4xMIC, which could not only maximize efficacy but also minimize
      emergence of resistance. Clinical and microbiological studies are needed to test
      for the feasibility and effectiveness of reaching such a demanding target.

PMID- 28571494
TI  - Cardiovascular pleiotropic effects of statins and new onset diabetes: is there a
      common link: do we need to evaluate the role of KATP channels?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Statins are considered the main stay of treatment in the prevention
      of cardio-vascular morbidity and mortality. They have multiple pleiotropic
      effects, like stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques, inhibition of platelet
      aggregation, and vascular smooth muscle proliferation; in addition to their lipid
      lowering action. Statins manifest these pleiotropic effects because they activate
      KATP channels in the cardiac and vascular tissue. Simultaneous activation of the
      KATP channels by statins in beta cells of pancreas may inhibit insulin release
      which may lead to diabetes. Areas covered: Literature published between 1980 and
      2016 on cholesterol biosynthesis, new onset diabetes and on the pleiotropic
      effects of statins, was reviewed. A comprehensive search on PubMed, Embase and
      Cochrane databases was carried out. Expert opinion: Statins exert their
      beneficial pleiotropic effects on the cardiovascular system by activating KATP
      channels in the cardiac and vascular tissue. However, simultaneous activation of
      KATP channels in the beta cells of pancreas leads to inhibition of insulin
      release. This disturbs the carbohydrate metabolism and probably leads to
      diabetes. In our opinion, use of stains should be more judicious and restricted
      to secondary prevention only.

PMID- 28571495
TI  - Phytochemical characterisation and bioprospection for antibacterial and
      antioxidant activities of Lippia alba Brown ex Britton & Wilson (Verbenaceae).
AB  - Ethanol extract and fractions obtained from fresh and dry aerial parts of Lippia
      alba were examined in order to determine their phytochemical composition,
      antioxidant capacity and antibacterial activities. The ethanol extracts and
      fractions exhibited an antioxidant effect by the DPPH assay, especially samples
      of fresh plant. HPLC analysis of the ethyl acetate fractions identified the
      presence of phenolic acids and flavonoids. The ethanol extract and fractions
      showed activity against reference and multidrug-resistant strains of
      Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis (MIC range 2000-250 MUg/mL). The
      hexane and dichloromethane fractions of fresh plant showed better activity
      against reference strains of Escherichia coli (MIC of 250 and 125 MUg/mL,
      respectively), but all extracts and fractions were less active against multidrug
      resistant strains of all the Gram-negative species evaluated. The results showed
      that the extract and fractions of L alba aerial parts showed antibacterial
      activity, even against multidrug-resistant Gram-positive bacteria, and
      antioxidant effect (DPPH assay).

PMID- 28571492
TI  - Eccentric Exercise to Enhance Neuromuscular Control.
AB  - CONTEXT: Neuromuscular alterations are a major causal factor of primary and
      secondary injuries. Though injury prevention programs have experienced some
      success, rates of injuries have not declined, and after injury, individuals often
      return to activity with functionality below clinical recommendations. Considering
      alternative therapies to the conventional concentric exercise approach, such as
      one that can target neuromuscular injury risk and postinjury alterations, may
      provide for more effective injury prevention and rehabilitation protocols.
      EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Peer-reviewed sources available on the Web of Science and
      MEDLINE databases from 2000 through 2016 were gathered using searches associated
      with the keywords eccentric exercise, injury prevention, and neuromuscular
      control. HYPOTHESIS: Eccentric exercise will reduce injury risk by targeting
      specific neural and morphologic alterations that precipitate neuromuscular
      dysfunction. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical review. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 4. RESULTS:
      Neuromuscular control is influenced by alterations in muscle morphology and
      neural activity. Eccentric exercise beneficially modifies several underlying
      factors of muscle morphology (fiber typing, cross-sectional area, working range,
      and pennation angle), and emerging evidence indicates that eccentric exercise is
      also beneficial to peripheral and central neural activity (alpha motorneuron
      recruitment/firing, sarcolemma activity, corticospinal excitability, and brain
      activation). CONCLUSION: There is mounting evidence that eccentric exercise is
      not only a therapeutic intervention influencing muscle morphology but also
      targets unique alterations in neuromuscular control, influencing injury risk.

PMID- 28571496
TI  - Occupational Variation in End-of-Life Care Intensity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: End-of-life (EOL) care intensity is known to vary by secular and
      geographic patterns. US physicians receive less aggressive EOL care than the
      general population, presumably the result of preferences shaped by work-place
      experience with EOL care. OBJECTIVE: We investigated occupation as a source of
      variation in EOL care intensity. METHODS: Across 4 states, we identified 660 599,
      nonhealth maintenance organization Medicare beneficiaries aged >=66 years who
      died between 2004 and 2011. Linking death certificates, we identified
      beneficiaries with prespecified occupations: nurses, farmers, clergy, mortuary
      workers, homemakers, first-responders, veterinary workers, teachers, accountants,
      and the general population. End-of-life care intensity over the last 6 months of
      life was assessed using 5 validated measures: (1) Medicare expenditures, rates of
      (2) hospice, (3) surgery, (4) intensive care, and (5) in-hospital death. RESULTS:
      Occupation was a source of large variation in EOL care intensity across all
      measures, before and after adjustment for sex, education, age-adjusted Charlson
      Comorbidity Index, race/ethnicity, and hospital referral region. For example,
      absolute and relative adjusted differences in expenditures were US$9991 and 42%
      of population mean expenditure ( P < .001 for both). Compared to the general
      population on the 5 EOL care intensity measures, teachers (5 of 5), homemakers (4
      of 5), farmers (4 of 5), and clergy (3 of 5) demonstrated significantly less
      aggressive care. Mortuary workers had lower EOL care intensity (4 of 5) but small
      numbers limited statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Occupations with likely
      exposure to child development, death/bereavement, and naturalistic influences
      demonstrated lower EOL care intensity. These findings may inform patients and
      clinicians navigating choices around individual EOL care preferences.

PMID- 28571497
TI  - Strategies to Improve Quality of Life at the End of Life: Interdisciplinary Team
      Perspectives.
AB  - This ethnographic study draws on the experiences of members of interdisciplinary
      care teams working with end-of-life care patients to identify strategies to
      improve quality of life through care practices. We surveyed 133 staff and
      volunteers (physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered
      nurses, social workers, chaplains, administrators, and volunteers) who provide
      end-of-life care to patients in both home and institutional settings for 4
      organizations in 2 counties in Upstate New York. Survey responses were analyzed
      using qualitative content analysis. The results identified numerous strategies to
      enhance and safeguard quality of life for end-of-life care patients and their
      family members. These strategies can be categorized into 6 domains: organization
      philosophy and mission; organizational policies; caregivers' behaviors and
      practices; symptom management; facility design, operation and management; and
      patient, family member, and caregiver experience. The diverse list of identified
      strategies indicates that improving care to address the unique, complex,
      multilayered dimensions of quality of life at the end of life requires a
      multidisciplinary approach and consistency among care providers, including
      administration, clinical management, front-line caregivers, and support staff.
      When all of these strategies are used in harmony, care can truly be enhanced.

PMID- 28571498
TI  - Preliminary Analysis of a Modified Screening Tool to Increase the Frequency of
      Palliative Care Consults.
AB  - PURPOSE: Palliative care interventions have been shown to improve patient quality
      of life but the benefit may be less if interventions occur late in the patient's
      disease process. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether an objective
      screening tool could improve the frequency and timeliness of palliative care
      consultation. METHODS: Using a quasi-experimental design with 2 geographically
      separate medical intensive care units (MICUs), the control MICU continued
      existing consultation practice and the intervention MICU implemented a screening
      tool with each new admission. Any item checked on the screening tool triggered a
      palliative care consult within 24 hours of admission to the MICU. RESULTS: A
      total of 223 MICU admissions were evaluated: 156 patients in the control group
      and 67 patients in the intervention group. More consults were generated in the
      intervention group (22.39%) compared to the control group (7.05%; P < .001). The
      median time to consultation was lower in the intervention group compared to the
      control group (1 day vs 2 days; P < .01). CONCLUSION: Implementing a simple,
      objective screening tool increased palliative consultation rates and decreased
      median time to palliative consultation in our institution's MICU.

PMID- 28571499
TI  - Amelioration of hyperglycaemia and modulation of antioxidant status by Alcea
      rosea seeds in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - CONTEXT: Alcea rosea L. (Malvaceae) has various medicinal uses including
      anticancer, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. However, there is no
      report on its antidiabetic activity. OBJECTIVE: Alcea rosea seed extracts were
      evaluated for antihyperglycaemic and antioxidative potential in diabetic rats.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Single intra-peritoneal injection of alloxan (130 mg/kg
      b.w.) was used for induction of diabetes in Albino Wistar rats.
      Antihyperglycaemic and antioxidant activities of methanol and aqueous extracts of
      Alcea rosea seed (100 and 300 mg/kg b.w.), administered orally on daily basis for
      15 days, were assessed in vivo for fasting blood glucose level and antioxidant
      status of liver and pancreas. Metformin was used as a positive control. RESULTS:
      Aqueous and methanol extracts (300 mg/kg b.w.) decreased blood glucose level in
      diabetic rats by 24% and 46%, respectively. Administration of aqueous and
      methanol extracts at 300 mg/kg b.w. significantly (p < 0.01) modulated the
      antioxidant status of liver in diabetic rats by increasing levels of GR (22.5 +/-
      1.0, 24.4 +/- 1.02 MUg GSSG utilized/min/mg of protein), GPx (20.7 +/- 1.2, 23.6
      +/- 2.04 MUg GSH utilized/min/mg of protein), SOD (36.1 +/- 1.7, 39.05 +/- 1.5
      units/mg of protein) and CAT (1744.5 +/- 132.5, 1956.6 +/- 125.2 nmol H2O2
      decomposed/min/mg of protein), respectively. Similar results were observed for
      pancreas. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Antihyperglycaemic and antioxidative
      potentials of Alcea rosea seeds suggest its usefulness in management of diabetes
      and its complications. This is the first report on antidiabetic activity of this
      plant.

PMID- 28571501
TI  - CT-P13 in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The first biosimilar infliximab, CT-P13 infliximab-dyyb was
      approved in 2013 by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and in 2016 by the United
      States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been used for the treatment of
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for 4 years. Areas covered: CT-P13 with the three brand
      names on the market has highly similar efficacy and safety profiles but lower
      price than originator infliximab and are approved in more than 80 countries. One
      of the most important determinants of the implementation of CT-P13 in the
      treatment of RA is scientific evidence from clinical studies and real-world
      pharmacovigilance data. Here, we review all available clinical data supporting
      the similarity of CT-P13 to originator infliximab in its clinical efficacy and
      safety for the treatment of RA and related arthritis. In addition, we consider
      the role of CT-P13 in therapeutic strategies for RA treatment. Expert commentary:
      With its highly similar efficacy and safety profile to originator infliximab and
      its lower price, CT-P13 is expected to be very useful in RA treatment, whether it
      is applied earlier or switched from originator infliximab or other biologics.
      Future educational initiatives will be important to overcome misunderstandings
      about biosimilars and to improve the implementation of CT-P13.

PMID- 28571500
TI  - Safety of oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-based HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis
      use in lactating HIV-uninfected women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In settings where HIV is prevalent in heterosexual populations,
      pregnancy and postpartum breastfeeding periods can be associated with substantial
      HIV acquisition risk. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with daily oral tenofovir
      disoproxil fumarate (TDF)/emtricitabine is an attractive HIV prevention option
      for women who are lactating but data are limited on its safety during the
      lactation period. Areas covered: We provide a concise synthesis and summary of
      current evidence on the safety of TDF-based PrEP during breastfeeding. We
      conducted a review, searching Pubmed database and major PrEP conferences for
      primary studies with TDF-based PrEP exposure during postpartum breastfeeding.
      Expert opinion: TDF-based oral PrEP is an effective female-controlled HIV
      prevention option. There is evidence supporting the safety of TDF use for infant
      outcomes during breastfeeding in antiretroviral treatment regimens for HIV and
      hepatitis B virus, and more limited, but consistently safe, data from use of TDF
      as PrEP. The potential for risk is arguably outweighed for at-risk individuals by
      HIV prevention benefits, including indirect protection to the infant as a result
      of preventing HIV in the breastfeeding mother. As PrEP delivery is scaled up in
      heterosexual populations in high HIV prevalence settings and for at-risk persons
      in other settings, implementation science studies can provide a framework to
      increase the accrual of safety, acceptability, and use data related to PrEP
      during lactation.

PMID- 28571502
TI  - Liver toxicity mechanisms of herbs commonly used in Latin America.
AB  - Mexico owns approximately 4500 medicinal plants species, a great diversity that
      position it at the second place after China. According to the Mexican health
      department, 90% of common population consumes them to treat various diseases.
      Additionally, herbal remedies in Latin America (LA) are considered a common
      practice, but the frequency of use and the liver damage related to its
      consumption is still unknown. Despite the high prevalence and indiscriminate
      herbal consumption, the exact mechanism of hepatotoxicity and adverse effects is
      not fully clarified and is still questioned. Some herb products associated with
      herb induced liver injury (HILI) are characterized by presenting a different
      chemical composition that may vary from batch to batch, also the biological
      activity of many medicinal plants and other natural products are directly related
      to their most active component and its concentration. There are two main
      biological components that are associated with liver damage, alkaloids, and
      flavonoids, which are frequent constituents of commonly used herbs. The
      interaction with the different cytochrome P-450 isoforms, inflammatory, and
      oxidative activities seem to be the main damage pathway involved in the liver. It
      is important to know the herbal adverse effects and mechanisms involved;
      therefore, this article is focused on the beneficial and deleterious effects as
      well as the possible toxicity mechanisms and interactions of the herbs that are
      frequently used in LA, since the herb-host interaction may not always be the
      expected or desired depending on the clinical context in which it is
      administered.

PMID- 28571503
TI  - Managing side effects of JAK inhibitors for myelofibrosis in clinical practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Myelofibrosis (MF) is characterized by bone marrow fibrosis,
      abnormalities in peripheral counts, extramedullary hematopoiesis, splenomegaly
      and an increased risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukaemia. The disease
      course is often heterogeneous and management can range from observation alone
      through to allogeneic stem cell transplantation. As of 2017, the only approved
      medication for MF remains the JAK Inhibitor (JAKi), ruxolitinib (Novartis
      Pharmaceuticals, Basel, Switzerland; Incyte, Wilmington, Detroit, USA) although
      several others have reached advanced stages of clinical trials. Areas covered: In
      this review, we focus on the management of both common and uncommon side effects
      arising from the use of currently approved and clinical trial JAKi. Most of the
      discussion concerns ruxolitinib although we also cover both pacritinib (CTI
      BioPharma) and momelotinib (Gilead Sciences, Foster City, California) which have
      been in recent large, multinational phase III trials. The various approaches to
      management of JAKi-related side effects are discussed - with particular emphasis
      to anaemia, thrombocytopaenia and infection risk. Expert commentary: JAK
      inhibitors are effective in many individuals with MF and have revolutionized the
      current treatment paradigm. The side effect profile, in the most, is predictable
      and manageable with high degrees of clinical surveillance and dose modifications.

PMID- 28571504
TI  - Impact of protein D-containing pneumococcal conjugate vaccines on non-typeable
      Haemophilus influenzae acute otitis media and carriage.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Protein D-containing vaccines may decrease acute otitis media (AOM)
      burden and nasopharyngeal carriage of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi).
      Protein D-containing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine PHiD-CV (Synflorix, GSK
      Vaccines) elicits robust immune responses against protein D. However, the phase
      III Clinical Otitis Media and PneumoniA Study (COMPAS), assessing PHiD-CV
      efficacy against various pneumococcal diseases, was not powered to demonstrate
      efficacy against NTHi; only trends of protective efficacy against NTHi AOM in
      children were shown. Areas covered: This review aims to consider all evidence
      available to date from pre-clinical and clinical phase III studies together with
      further evidence emerging from post-marketing studies since PHiD-CV has been
      introduced into routine clinical practice worldwide, to better describe the
      clinical utility of protein D in preventing AOM due to NTHi and its impact on
      NTHi nasopharyngeal carriage. Expert commentary: Protein D is an effective
      carrier protein in conjugate vaccines and evidence gathered from pre-clinical,
      clinical and observational studies suggest that it also elicits immune response
      that can help to reduce the burden of AOM due to NTHi. There remains a need to
      develop improved vaccines for prevention of NTHi disease, which could be achieved
      by combining protein D with other antigens.

PMID- 28571505
TI  - Buprenorphine implants in medical treatment of opioid addiction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Opioid use disorder is a chronic, relapsing disease that
      encompasses use of both prescription opioids and heroin and is associated with a
      high annual rate of overdose deaths. Medical treatment has proven more successful
      than placebo treatment or psychosocial intervention, and the partial u-opioid
      receptor agonist and kappa-opioid receptor antagonist buprenorphine is similar in
      efficacy to methadone while offering lower risk of respiratory depression.
      However, frequent dosing requirements and potential for misuse and drug diversion
      contribute to significant complications with treatment adherence for available
      formulations. Areas covered: This review describes the development of and
      preliminary data from clinical trials of an implantable buprenorphine
      formulation. Efficacy and safety data from comparative studies with other
      administrations of buprenorphine, including tablets and sublingual film, will be
      described. Key premises of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program
      for safely administering buprenorphine implants, which all prescribing physicians
      must complete, are also discussed. Expert commentary: Long-acting implantable
      drug formulations that offer consistent drug delivery and lower risk of misuse,
      diversion, or accidental pediatric exposure over traditional formulations
      represent a promising development for the effective treatment of opioid use
      disorder.

PMID- 28571506
TI  - Longitudinal Study of Caries Development from Childhood to Adolescence.
AB  - The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that globally, dental caries is the
      most important oral condition. To develop effective prevention strategies
      requires an understanding of how this condition develops and progresses over
      time, but there are few longitudinal studies of caries onset and progression in
      children. The aim of the study was to establish the pattern of caries development
      from childhood into adolescence and to explore the role of potential risk factors
      (age, sex, ethnicity, and social deprivation). Of particular interest was the
      disease trajectory of dentinal caries in the permanent teeth in groups defined by
      the presence or absence of dentinal caries in the primary teeth. Intraoral
      examinations to assess oral health were performed at 4 time points by trained and
      calibrated dentist examiners using a standardized, national diagnostic protocol.
      Clinical data were available from 6,651 children. Mean caries prevalence (% D3MFT
      > 0) was 16.7% at the first clinical examination (ages 7-9 y), increasing to
      31.0%, 42.2%, and 45.7% at subsequent examinations. A population-averaged model
      (generalized estimating equations) was used to model the longitudinal data.
      Estimated mean values indicated a rising D3MFT count as pupils aged (consistent
      with new teeth emerging), which was significantly higher (4.49 times; 95%
      confidence interval, 3.90-5.16) in those pupils with caries in their primary
      dentition than in those without. This study is one of the few large longitudinal
      studies to report the development of dental caries from childhood into
      adolescence. Children who developed caries in their primary dentition had a very
      different caries trajectory in their permanent dentition compared to their caries
      free contemporaries. In light of these results, caries-free and caries-active
      children should be considered as 2 separate populations, suggesting different
      prevention strategies are required to address their different risk profiles.

PMID- 28571507
TI  - The genetic basis of antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy: A pharmacogenetic
      review of newer antiplatelets (clopidogrel, prasugrel and ticagrelor) and
      anticoagulants (dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The study of pharmacogenomics presents the possibility of
      individualised optimisation of drug therapy tailored to each patients' unique
      physiological traits. Both antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs play a key role
      in the management of cardiovascular disease. Despite their importance, there is a
      substantial volume of literature to suggest marked person-to-person variability
      in their effect. Areas covered: This article reviews the data available for the
      genetic cause for this inter-patient variability of antiplatelet and
      anticoagulant drugs. The genetic basis for traditional antiplatelets (i.e.
      aspirin) is compared with the newly available antiplatelet medicines
      (clopidogrel, prasugrel and ticagrelor). Similarly, the pharmacogenetics of
      warfarin is compared with the newer direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in detail.
      Expert Opinion: We identify strengths and weaknesses in the research thus far;
      including shortcomings in trial design and a review of newer analytical
      techniques. The direction of this research and its real-world implications are
      discussed.

PMID- 28571508
TI  - From Neoliberalism to Neofascism.

PMID- 28571509
TI  - A long history of breakdowns: A historiographical review.
AB  - The introduction to this special issue argues that network breakdowns play an
      important and unacknowledged role in the shaping and emergence of scientific
      knowledge. It focuses on transnational scientific networks from the early modern
      Republic of Letters to 21st-century globalized science. It attempts to unite the
      disparate historiography of the early modern Republic of Letters, the literature
      on 20th-century globalization, and the scholarship on Actor-Network Theory. We
      can perceive two, seemingly contradictory, changes to scientific networks over
      the past four hundred years. At the level of individuals, networks have become
      increasing fragile, as developments in communication and transportation
      technologies, and the emergence of regimes of standardization and
      instrumentation, have made it easier both to create new constellations of people
      and materials, and to replace and rearrange them. But at the level of
      institutions, collaborations have become much more extensive and long-lived, with
      single projects routinely outlasting even the arc of a full scientific career. In
      the modern world, the strength of institutions and macro-networks often relies on
      ideological regimes of standardization and instrumentation that can flexibly
      replace elements and individuals at will.

PMID- 28571510
TI  - Panacea or diagnosis? Imaginaries of innovation and the 'MIT model' in three
      political cultures.
AB  - Innovation studies continue to struggle with an apparent disconnect between
      innovation's supposedly universal dynamics and a sense that policy frameworks and
      associated instruments of innovation are often ineffectual or even harmful when
      transported across regions or countries. Using a cross-country comparative
      analysis of three implementations of the 'MIT model' of innovation in the UK,
      Portugal and Singapore, we show how key features in the design, implementation
      and performance of the model cannot be explained as mere variations on an
      identical solution to the same underlying problem. We draw on the concept of
      sociotechnical imaginaries to show how implementations of the 'same' innovation
      model - and with it the notion of 'innovation' itself - are co-produced with
      locally specific diagnoses of a societal deficiency and equally specific
      understandings of acceptable remedies. Our analysis thus flips the conventional
      notion of 'best-practice transfer' on its head: Instead of asking 'how well' an
      innovation model has been implemented, we analyze the differences among the three
      importations to reveal the idiosyncratic ways in which each country imagines the
      purpose of innovation. We replace the notion of innovation as a 'panacea' - a
      universal fix for all social woes - with that of innovation-as-diagnosis in which
      a particular 'cure' is 'prescribed' for a 'diagnosed' societal 'pathology,' which
      may in turn trigger 'reactions' within the receiving body. This approach offers
      new possibilities for theorizing how and where culture matters in innovation
      policy. It suggests that the 'successes' and 'failures' of innovation models are
      not a matter of how well societies are able to implement a sound, universal
      model, but more about how effectively they articulate their imaginaries of
      innovation and tailor their strategies accordingly.

PMID- 28571511
TI  - Grain-Boundary Engineering for Aging and Slow-Crack-Growth Resistant Zirconia.
AB  - Ceramic materials are prone to slow crack growth, resulting in strength
      degradation over time. Although yttria-stabilized zirconia (Y-TZP) ceramics have
      higher crack resistance than other dental ceramics, their aging susceptibility
      threatens their long-term performance in aqueous environments such as the oral
      cavity. Unfortunately, increasing the aging resistance of Y-TZP ceramics normally
      reduces their crack resistance. Our recently conducted systematic study of doping
      3Y-TZP with various trivalent cations revealed that lanthanum oxide (La2O3) and
      aluminum oxide (Al2O3) have the most potent effect to retard the aging kinetics
      of 3Y-TZP. In this study, the crack-propagation behavior of La2O3 and Al2O3 co
      doped 3Y-TZP ceramics was investigated by double-torsion methods. The grain
      boundaries were examined using scanning transmission electron microscopy and
      energy-dispersive spectroscopy (STEM-EDS). Correlating these analytic data with
      hydrothermal aging studies using different doping systems, a strategy to strongly
      bind the segregated dopant cations with the oxygen vacancies at the zirconia
      grain boundary was found to improve effectively the aging resistance of Y-TZP
      ceramics without affecting the resistance to crack propagation.

PMID- 28571513
TI  - A Pulmonary Embolism Response Team: initial experiences and future directions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common cardiovascular condition
      resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Consensus recommendations
      suggest risk stratification of patients into three main categories: high-risk or
      'massive' PE, intermediate-risk or 'submassive' PE, and low-risk PE. Given the
      relative dearth of prospective, randomized clinical trials delineating optimal
      selection of the diverse medical, interventional, and surgical treatment
      approaches, clinical care requires a multidisciplinary expert approach to
      patients with PE. Areas covered: The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
      Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) was the first of its kind to create a
      multidisciplinary, rapid response team for acute PE, integrated within a research
      and educational framework. The MGH PERT has treated more than 700 patients with
      PE, the majority of which are in the 'massive' or 'submassive' categories. The
      PERT ConsortiumTM was founded in 2015 as a collaborative network between the
      growing number of PERT programs internationally, with greater than 80
      institutions participating within one year of establishment. Expert commentary:
      Since its advent, the PERT model has expanded throughout the United States and
      internationally through a collaborative institutional and research network. PERT
      may represent a new standard for the care of patients with acute PE.

PMID- 28571512
TI  - Relationships among Bone Quality, Implant Osseointegration, and Wnt Signaling.
AB  - A variety of clinical classification schemes have been proposed as a means to
      identify sites in the oral cavity where implant osseointegration is likely to be
      successful. Most schemes are based on structural characteristics of the bone, for
      example, the relative proportion of densely compact, homogenous (type I) bone
      versus more trabeculated, cancellous (type III) bone. None of these schemes,
      however, consider potential biological characteristics of the bone. Here, we
      employed multiscale analyses to identify and characterize type I and type III
      bones in murine jaws. We then combined these analytical tools with in vivo models
      of osteotomy healing and implant osseointegration to determine if one type of
      bone healed faster and supported osseointegration better than another.
      Collectively, these studies revealed a strong positive correlation between bone
      remodeling rates, mitotic activity, and osteotomy site healing in type III bone
      and high endogenous Wnt signaling. This positive correlation was strengthened by
      observations showing that the osteoid matrix that is responsible for implant
      osseointegration originates from Wnt-responsive cells and their progeny. The
      potential application of this knowledge to clinical practice is discussed, along
      with a theory unifying the role that biology and mechanics play in implant
      osseointegration.

PMID- 28571515
TI  - Advanced clinical interpretation of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System:
      multivariate base rates of low scores.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Multivariate base rates allow for the simultaneous statistical
      interpretation of multiple test scores, quantifying the normal frequency of low
      scores on a test battery. This study provides multivariate base rates for the
      Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). METHOD: The D-KEFS consists of 9
      tests with 16 Total Achievement scores (i.e. primary indicators of executive
      function ability). Stratified by education and intelligence, multivariate base
      rates were derived for the full D-KEFS and an abbreviated four-test battery (i.e.
      Trail Making, Color-Word Interference, Verbal Fluency, and Tower Test) using the
      adult portion of the normative sample (ages 16-89). RESULTS: Multivariate base
      rates are provided for the full and four-test D-KEFS batteries, calculated using
      five low score cutoffs (i.e. <=25th, 16th, 9th, 5th, and 2nd percentiles). Low
      scores occurred commonly among the D-KEFS normative sample, with 82.6 and 71.8%
      of participants obtaining at least one score <=16th percentile for the full and
      four-test batteries, respectively. Intelligence and education were inversely
      related to low score frequency. CONCLUSIONS: The base rates provided herein allow
      clinicians to interpret multiple D-KEFS scores simultaneously for the full D-KEFS
      and an abbreviated battery of commonly administered tests. The use of these base
      rates will support clinicians when differentiating between normal variations in
      cognitive performance and true executive function deficits.

PMID- 28571514
TI  - Obstetric ultrasound aids prompt referral of gestational trophoblastic disease in
      marginalized populations on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of obstetric ultrasound in the diagnosis of gestational
      trophoblastic disease (GTD) in high-income settings is well established, leading
      to prompt management and high survival rates. Evidence from low-income settings
      suggests ultrasound is essential in identifying complicated pregnancies, but with
      limited studies reviewing specific conditions including GTD. OBJECTIVE: The aim
      of this study is to review the role of ultrasound in diagnosis and management of
      GTD in a marginalized population on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Antenatal
      ultrasound became available in this rural setting in 2001 and care for women with
      GTD has been provided by Thailand public hospitals for 20 years. DESIGN:
      Retrospective record review. RESULTS: The incidence of GTD was 103 of 57,004
      pregnancies in Karen and Burmese women on the Thailand-Myanmar border from 1993
      2013. This equates to a rate of 1.8 (95% CI 1.5-2.2) per 1000 or 1 in 553
      pregnancies. Of the 102 women with known outcomes, one (1.0%) died of haemorrhage
      at home. The median number of days between first antenatal clinic attendance and
      referral to hospital was reduced from 20 (IQR 5-35; range 1-155) to 2 (IQR 2-6;
      range 1-179) days (p = 0.002) after the introduction of ultrasound. The
      proportion of severe outcomes (death and total abdominal hysterectomy) was 25%
      (3/12) before ultrasound compared to 8.9% (8/90) with ultrasound (p = 0.119). A
      recurrence rate of 2.5% (2/80) was observed in the assessable population. The
      presence of malaria parasites in maternal blood was not associated with GTD.
      CONCLUSIONS: The rate of GTD in pregnancy in this population is comparable to
      rates previously reported within South-East Asia. Referral time for uterine
      evacuation was significantly shorter for those women who had an ultrasound.
      Ultrasound is an effective method to improve diagnosis of GTD in low-income
      settings and an effort to increase availability in marginalized populations is
      required.

PMID- 28571516
TI  - NSAIDs as potential treatment option for preventing amyloid beta toxicity in
      Alzheimer's disease: an investigation by docking, molecular dynamics, and DFT
      studies.
AB  - Aggregation of amyloid beta (Abeta) protein considered as one of contributors in
      development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Several investigations have identified
      the importance of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as Abeta
      aggregation inhibitors. Here, we have examined the binding interactions of 24
      NSAIDs belonging to eight different classes, with Abeta fibrils by exploiting
      docking and molecular dynamics studies. Minimum energy conformation of the docked
      NSAIDs were further optimized by density functional theory (DFT) employing
      Becke's three-parameter hybrid model, Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) correlation
      functional method. DFT-based global reactivity descriptors, such as electron
      affinity, hardness, softness, chemical potential, electronegativity, and
      electrophilicity index were calculated to inspect the expediency of these
      descriptors for understanding the reactive nature and sites of the molecules. Few
      selected NSAID-Abeta fibrils complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics
      simulation to illustrate the stability of these complexes and the most prominent
      interactions during the simulated trajectory. All of the NSAIDs exhibited
      potential activity against Abeta fibrils in terms of predicted binding affinity.
      Sulindac was found to be the most active compound underscoring the contribution
      of indene methylene substitution, whereas acetaminophen was observed as least
      active NSAID. General structural requirements for interaction of NSAIDs with
      Abeta fibril include: aryl/heteroaryl aromatic moiety connected through a linker
      of 1-2 atoms to a distal aromatic group. Considering these structural
      requirements and electronic features, new potent agents can be designed and
      developed as potential Abeta fibril inhibitors for the treatment of AD.

PMID- 28571517
TI  - Mechanistic insights into the activity of Ptf1-p48 (pancreas transcription factor
      1a): probing the interactions levels of Ptf1-p48 with E2A-E47 (transcription
      factor E2-alpha) and ID3 (inhibitor of DNA binding 3).
AB  - Ptf1-p48 (Pancreas specific transcription factor 1a) is transcription regulatory
      protein known for the activation of exocrine specific genes. Downregulation of
      its expression formulates early stages of pancreatic adenocarcinoma as deduced by
      its association with oncogenic bHLH (Basic Helix-Loop-Helix) protein ID3
      (Inhibitor of DNA binding 3) protein whose overexpression induces cytoplasmic
      mislocalization of Ptf1-p48. The precise mechanism and/or functional role of Ptf1
      p48in promoting pancreatic cancer is vague. The structural features of the Ptf1
      p48 and its dimerization with E47 (Transcription factor E2-alpha) and ID3
      mediated by their HLH (Helix-Loop-Helix) domain were perceived through MD
      (Molecular Dynamics) simulations of 50 ns. The interactions formed by the HLH
      domain in both Ptf1-E47 and Ptf1-ID3 complexes are favored by the synergistic
      movement of their domain helices. Accordingly, in the Ptf1-E47 complex alpha7 of
      Ptf1-p48 and alpha1 helix of E47 along with the loop residues of their HLH domain
      exhibit transitions marked by inward movement toward each other and forms polar
      and charged interactions. In the Ptf1-ID3 complex, alpha8 of Ptf1-p48 moves
      toward the alpha3 helix of ID3 and forms hydrogen bonds. The interface analysis
      also reveals better interface in the Ptf1-p48 complex than the Ptf1-ID3 evident
      by energetics and number of hydrogen bonds. The interactions in each of these
      complexes, supported by angular displacement and mode vector analyzes,
      comprehensibly describe the considerable structural changes induced upon dimer
      formation. It thereby gives an insight into the interfaces that could help in
      designing of potential inhibitors for ID3 to curb the cancer cell growth.

PMID- 28571518
TI  - Anetoderma due to secondary syphilis: Report of two cases and discussion of the
      histopathological findings.
AB  - Anetoderma is a rare benign condition of diverse etiology whose characteristic is
      the diminution or absence of the dermal elastic fibers. Classified as primary and
      secondary, the latter associated with tumors, inflammatory, and infectious
      diseases. Although the etiology of the lesions is well described in literature,
      the pathogenesis is still poorly determined. Anetoderma in syphilis is rare, and
      occurs even in the most uncommon cutaneous manifestations of the disease, such as
      the nodular form. In order to better understand the changes that lead to
      elastolysis, we propose a better correlation with the histopathological findings
      of the lesions that precede it. We present two cases of anetoderma secondary to
      syphilis, whose clinical aspects resembled the pattern of their initial secondary
      syphilis rash.

PMID- 28571519
TI  - Using lean manufacturing principles to evaluate wait times for HIV-positive
      patients in an urban clinic in Kenya.
AB  - As human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment programs expand in Africa,
      delivery systems must be strengthened to support patient retention. Clinic
      characteristics may affect retention, but a relationship between clinic flow and
      attrition is not established. This project characterized HIV patient experience
      and flow in an urban Kenyan clinic to understand how these may affect retention.
      We used Toyota's lean manufacturing principles to guide data collection and
      analysis. Clinic flow was evaluated using value stream mapping and time and
      motion techniques. Clinic register data were analyzed. Two focus group
      discussions were held to characterize HIV patient experience. Results were shared
      with clinic staff. Wait times in the clinic were highly variable. We identified
      four main barriers to patient flow: inconsistent patient arrivals, inconsistent
      staffing, filing system defects, and serving patients out of order. Focus group
      participants explained how clinic operations affected their ability to engage in
      care. Clinic staff were eager to discuss the problems identified and identified
      numerous low-cost potential solutions. Lean manufacturing methodologies can guide
      efficiency interventions in low-resource healthcare settings. Using lean
      techniques, we identified bottlenecks to clinic flow and low-cost solutions to
      improve wait times. Improving flow may result in increased patient satisfaction
      and retention.

PMID- 28571520
TI  - Profiles of Elderly People Infected with HIV and Response to Antiretroviral
      Treatment in Burkina Faso: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan Africa, few studies exist on elderly HIV-positive
      populations. Therefore, we aimed to examine the profiles of elderly people living
      with HIV (PLHIV) in Burkina Faso and their response to antiretroviral therapy
      (ART). METHODS: We reviewed the monitoring and treatment of PLHIV over the age of
      50 years and then compared with the monitoring and treatment of PLHIV under 50
      years. RESULTS: A total of 3367 patients were included. The median age of elderly
      people was 54.5 years and of young people was 34.9 years ( P = .03). In both the
      groups, screening was performed following clinical suspicion (64.9% in elderly
      versus 56% in young people; P < .001). Cardiovascular risk factors were generally
      more significant in the elderly people. The risk of death while on ART was 2.3
      times higher in elderly people ( P < .001). CONCLUSION: HIV infection in older
      people occurs in those who already have some cardiovascular risk factors.
      Particular attention should be given to multidisciplinary care for the elderly
      individuals.

PMID- 28571521
TI  - Estimating age-specific reproductive numbers-A comparison of methods.
AB  - Large outbreaks, such as those caused by influenza, put a strain on resources
      necessary for their control. In particular, children have been shown to play a
      key role in influenza transmission during recent outbreaks, and targeted
      interventions, such as school closures, could positively impact the course of
      emerging epidemics. As an outbreak is unfolding, it is important to be able to
      estimate reproductive numbers that incorporate this heterogeneity and to use
      surveillance data that is routinely collected to more effectively target
      interventions and obtain an accurate understanding of transmission dynamics.
      There are a growing number of methods that estimate age-group specific
      reproductive numbers with limited data that build on methods assuming a
      homogenously mixing population. In this article, we introduce a new approach that
      is flexible and improves on many aspects of existing methods. We apply this
      method to influenza data from two outbreaks, the 2009 H1N1 outbreaks in South
      Africa and Japan, to estimate age-group specific reproductive numbers and compare
      it to three other methods that also use existing data from social mixing surveys
      to quantify contact rates among different age groups. In this exercise, all
      estimates of the reproductive numbers for children exceeded the critical
      threshold of one and in most cases exceeded those of adults. We introduce a
      flexible new method to estimate reproductive numbers that describe heterogeneity
      in the population.

PMID- 28571523
TI  - Association of heterogenicity of Helicobacter pylori cag pathogenicity island
      with peptic ulcer diseases and gastric cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency and integrity of certain cag
      pathogenicity island genes (cagPAI) in Helicobacter pylori strains and their
      association with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and gastric cancer. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We enrolled 240 adult patients [120 with functional dyspepsia (FD), 50
      with PUD and 70 with gastric cancer] undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.
      H. pylori infection was diagnosed when either culture or any two of the three
      tests (rapid urease test, histopathology and specific ureA PCR) were positive.
      DNA extracted from H. pylori isolates and positive gastric tissues were tested by
      PCR for the presence of different genes of cagPAI using specific primers.
      RESULTS: A total of 122 (51%) patients were H. pylori positive. Frequencies of
      cagPAI genes cagA, cagE, cagT and cagM in H. pylori strains from different groups
      of patients were as follows: functional dyspepsia 73, 83, 76 and 60%, PUD 70, 94,
      91, 70% and gastric cancer 75, 95, 90 and 70%, respectively. Risk associated for
      the presence of PUD and gastric cancer with cagPAI genes cagE, cagT and cagM was
      5.0-, 4.6- and 4.1- and 3.0-, 2.8- and 2.5-folds, respectively. Prevalence of
      intact cagPAI was significantly higher in PUD and gastric cancer compared to
      functional dyspepsia (PUD vs. functional dyspepsia, 71% vs. 38%, P = 0.01;
      gastric cancer vs. functional dyspepsia, 75% vs. 38%, P < 0.01). Intact cagPAI
      was associated with increased risk for the presence of PUD (odds ratio 5.2, 95%
      CI 2.4-11.3) and for the presence of gastric cancer (odds ratio 4.5, 95% CI 2.3
      7.1). CONCLUSIONS: cagPAI integrity and its different genes are linked to
      different forms of gastric disease and so may have a role in pathogenesis,
      diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28571522
TI  - Risk factors predicting the survival of pediatric patients with
      relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma who underwent hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation: a retrospective study from the Turkish pediatric bone marrow
      transplantation registry.
AB  - We examined outcomes of 62 pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory non
      Hodgkin lymphoma (rr-NHL) who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (HSCT). The overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) rates were 65%
      and 48%, respectively. Survival rates for patients with chemosensitive disease at
      the time of HSCT were significantly higher than those of patients with
      chemoresistant disease (69% vs. 37%, p = .019 for OS; 54% vs. 12%, p < .001 for
      EFS; respectively). A chemoresistant disease at transplantation was the only
      factor that predicted a limited OS (hazard ratio = 10.00) and EFS (hazard ratio =
      16.39) rates. Intensive chemotherapy followed by HSCT could be an effective
      strategy for treating children with rr-NHL and may offer improved survival for a
      significant group of pediatric patients, particularly those with chemosensitive
      disease at transplantation.

PMID- 28571524
TI  - Implementation of lung cancer CT screening in the Nordic countries.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We review the current knowledge of CT screening for lung cancer and
      present an expert-based, joint protocol for the proper implementation of
      screening in the Nordic countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Experts representing
      all the Nordic countries performed literature review and concensus for a joint
      protocol for lung cancer screening. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Areas of concern and
      caution are presented and discussed. We suggest to perform CT screening pilot
      studies in the Nordic countries in order to gain experience and develop specific
      and safe protocols for the implementation of such a program.

PMID- 28571525
TI  - An influenza A virus agglutination test using antibody-like polymers.
AB  - Antibodies are commonly used in diagnostic routines to identify pathogens. The
      testing protocols are relatively simple, requiring a certain amount of a specific
      antibody to detect its corresponding pathogen. Antibody functionality can be
      mimicked by synthesizing molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), i.e. polymers
      that can selectively recognize a given template structure. Thus, MIPs are
      sometimes termed 'plastic antibody (PA)'. In this study, we have synthesized new
      granular MIPs using influenza A virus templates by precipitation polymerization.
      The selective binding of influenza A to the MIP particles was assessed and
      subsequently contrasted with other viruses. The affinities of influenza A virus
      towards the MIP was estimated based on an agglutination test by measuring the
      amount of influenza subtypes absorbed onto the MIPs. The MIPs produced using the
      H1N1 template showed specific reactivity to H1N1 while those produced using H5N1
      and H3N2 templates showed cross-reactivity.

PMID- 28571526
TI  - TRPA1 Channels Mediate Human Gingival Fibroblast Response to Phenytoin.
AB  - Drug-induced gingival enlargement (GE) is a frequent adverse effect observed in
      patients treated with anticonvulsant, immunosuppressant, and some
      antihypertensive medications-the antiepileptic phenytoin being the main drug
      associated with GE due to its high incidence (around 50%). The molecular
      mechanisms behind drug-induced gingival overgrowth are still unknown. By reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction, we demonstrate that the calcium
      permeable ion channels TRPA1, TRPV1, and its capsaicin-insensitive isoform TRPV1b
      are expressed in human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs), the most abundant cellular
      type in periodontal tissue. Cultured HGFs responded with intracellular calcium
      elevations to phenytoin and to the canonical TRPA1 agonist allyl isothiocyanate.
      Application of phenytoin activated a nonselective cationic current in HGFs with a
      typical signature for TRPA1 channels. Moreover, this activation was blocked by
      HC030031, a specific TRPA1 blocker. Similarly, the use of shRNAs against hTRPA1
      in HGFs reduced TRPA1 expression and activation by phenytoin. In addition, we
      show that phenytoin increased intracellular calcium levels in cells transfected
      with mouse or human TRPA1 channels. Responses to phenytoin were not observed in
      untransfected cells or cells expressing TRPM8 or TRPV1. The activation of HGFs by
      phenytoin was markedly reduced in the presence of antioxidant vitamins: ascorbic
      acid, folic acid, and alpha-tocopherol. By performing cell proliferation assays,
      we found that phenytoin did not augment the proliferation rate of HGFs. In
      contrast, alcian blue and picrosirius red staining of long-term HGFs cultures
      indicated that phenytoin induces extracellular matrix accumulation of collagen.
      Collectively, these findings support an important role of TRPA1 channels in
      phenytoin-induced GE, provide insight into the pathophysiologic mechanism, and
      offer novel therapeutic opportunities for its treatment.

PMID- 28571529
TI  - Implementation and evaluation of an algorithm-based order set for the outpatient
      treatment of urinary tract infections in the spinal cord injury population in a
      VA Medical Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment of urinary tract infections (UTI) in the spinal cord injury
      (SCI) population is often difficult due to the lack of symptoms, increased
      resistance, and increased morbidity and mortality associated with UTIs.
      OBJECTIVE: To develop an algorithm-based order set for the treatment of UTIs for
      patients with SCI based on SCI-specific antibiogram data in order to assess and
      improve current antimicrobial prescribing practices at the Clement J. Zablocki
      Veterans Affairs Medical Center (ZVAMC). METHODS: This study is a retrospective,
      pre- and post-implementation analysis of an order set based on SCI antibiogram
      data. Descriptive statistics were used to compare baseline data and
      characteristics and chi squared tests were used to evaluate the primary outcome
      and all secondary outcomes. To achieve a power of 80% with an effect size of 0.3,
      the goal was to assess 45 antimicrobial treatment courses in the pre
      implementation group and 45 antimicrobial treatment courses in the post
      implementation group. RESULTS: The percentage of appropriate antimicrobial
      treatment courses increased from 47.9% in the pre-intervention group (n = 73) to
      71.8% in the post-intervention group (n = 39), which was statistically
      significant (P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SCI treated for UTIs within
      the ZVAMC had a significantly higher percentage of appropriate treatment courses
      following the implementation of a unit-specific antibiogram, electronic order
      set, and educational in-service for providers. An order set and unit-specific
      antibiogram with related education may be beneficial in improving antimicrobial
      therapy from a stewardship perspective.

PMID- 28571528
TI  - Antioxidant activity against H2O2-induced cytotoxicity of the ethanol extract and
      compounds from Pyrola decorate leaves.
AB  - CONTEXT: The leaves of Pyrola decorate H. Andr (Pyrolaceae), known as Luxiancao,
      have long been used for treating kidney deficiency, gastric haemorrhage and
      rheumatic arthritic diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. OBJECTIVE: The
      phytochemicals and antioxidant capacities in vitro of P. decorate leaves were
      investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ethanol, petroleum ether, acetidin, n-butyl
      alcohol and aqueous extracts of Pyrola decorate leaves were prepared by solvent
      sequential process, and then isolated and purified to obtain phytochemicals. Cell
      viability was measured by MTT assay. PC12 cells were pretreated for 24 h with
      different extractions of P. decorate leaves at concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5
      and 10 mg/mL, then H2O2 of 0.4 mM was added in all samples for an additional 2 h.
      The antioxidant capacities of betulin, ursolic acid and monotropein were
      determined in PC12 cells against H2O2 induced cytotoxicity in vitro as well.
      RESULTS: Nine compounds (1-9) were isolated and structurally determined by
      spectroscopic methods, especially 2D NMR analyses. Ethanol extract treated groups
      showed inhibitory activity with IC50 value of 10.83 mg/mL. Betulin, ursolic acid
      and monotropein were isolated from P. decorate, and demonstrated with IC50 values
      of 6.88, 6.15 and 6.13 MUg/mL, respectively. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In
      conclusion, Pyrola decorate is a potential antioxidative natural plant and worth
      testing for further pharmacological investigation in the treatment of oxidative
      stress related neurological disease.

PMID- 28571530
TI  - Plasma-treated Ce/TiO2-SiO2 catalyst for the NH3-SCR of NOx.
AB  - Ce/TiO2-SiO2 catalysts with different Ti/Si molar ratios are prepared by the
      incipient impregnation method and their NH3-SCR activities are evaluated at 100
      500 degrees C on a fixed reactor. The Ce/TiO2-SiO2 (3/1) catalyst, modified by
      non-thermal plasma (NTP) treatment and then activated by thermal treatment at 500
      degrees C for 4 h, exhibits best performance. Comprehensive deNOx performance of
      the catalyst is evidently improved and its efficiency reaches up to 99.21% at 350
      degrees C. NO conversion efficiency of the treated catalyst doped with K remains
      about 90.23% at 300 degrees C and the catalyst also shows improved activity at
      lower temperatures. Various characterization methods show that the activity
      enhancement is correlated only with NTP treatment, as it increases the number of
      Ce3+ species, which generates more chemisorbed oxygen, leads to improved
      dispersion of Bronsted and Lewis acidic sites and finally has an inherent etching
      effect.

PMID- 28571527
TI  - Assessment and management of acute spinal cord injury: From point of injury to
      rehabilitation.
AB  - CONTEXT: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that can lead to
      significant neurological impairment and reduced quality of life. Despite
      advancements in our understanding of the pathophysiology and secondary injury
      mechanisms involved in SCI, there are currently very few effective treatments for
      this condition. The field, however, is rapidly changing as new treatments are
      developed and key discoveries are made. METHODS: In this review, we outline the
      pathophysiology, management, and long-term rehabilitation of individuals with
      traumatic SCI. We also provide an in-depth overview of emerging therapies along
      the spectrum of the translational pipeline. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: The concept of
      "time is spine" refers to the concept which emphasizes the importance of early
      transfer to specialized centers, early decompressive surgery, and early delivery
      of other treatments (e.g. blood pressure augmentation, methylprednisolone) to
      affect long-term outcomes. Another important evolution in management has been the
      recognition and prevention of the chronic complications of SCI including
      respiratory compromise, bladder dysfunction, Charcot joints, and pressure sores
      through directed interventions along with early integration of physical
      rehabilitation and mobilization. There have also been significant advances in
      neuroprotective and neuroregenerative strategies for SCI, many of which are
      actively in clinical trial including riluzole, Cethrin, stem cell
      transplantation, and the use of functional electrical stimulation. CONCLUSION:
      Pharmacologic treatments, cell-based therapies, and other technology-driven
      interventions will likely play a combinatorial role in the evolving management of
      SCI as the field continues to evolve.

PMID- 28571531
TI  - C-Abl Inhibition; A Novel Therapeutic Target for Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most prevalent movement disorder in the world.
      The major pathological hallmarks of PD are death of dopaminergic neurons and the
      formation of Lewy bodies. At the moment, there is no cure for PD; current
      treatments are symptomatic. Investigators are searching for neuroprotective
      agents and disease modifying strategies to slow the progress of
      neurodegeneration. However, due to lack of data about the main pathological
      sequence of PD, many drug targets failed to provide neuroprotective effects in
      human trials. Recent evidence suggests the involvement of C-Abelson (c-Abl)
      tyrosine kinase enzyme in the pathogenesis of PD. Through parkin inactivation,
      alpha synuclein aggregation, and impaired autophagy of toxic elements.
      Experimental studies showed that (1) c-Abl activation is involved in
      neurodegeneration and (2) c-Abl inhibition shows neuroprotective effects and
      prevents dopaminergic neuronal' death. Current evidence from experimental studies
      and the first in-human trial shows that c-Abl inhibition holds the promise for
      neuroprotection against PD and therefore, justifies the movement towards larger
      clinical trials. In this review article, we discussed the role of c-Abl in PD
      pathogenesis and the findings of preclinical experiments and the first in-human
      trial. In addition, based on lessons from the last decade and current preclinical
      evidence, we provide recommendations for future research in this area.

PMID- 28571532
TI  - Rapid Access to Oxazine Fused Furocoumarins and in vivo and in silico Studies of
      theirs Biological Activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The synthesis of 1,2-oxazine-fused linear furocoumarins was performed
      involving the transition metal catalysis reaction of plant coumarin oreoselone
      derivatives. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: The Pd-catalyzed desulfonative cross-coupling
      reactions of 2-(tosyl)oreoselone with terminal alkynes and the successive
      treatment of the obtained 2-(arylethynyl)furocoumarins with an excess of
      hydroxylamine gave the expected (Z,E)-3-(hydroxyimino)-2
      (arylethynyl)furocoumarins with an (Z:E) ratio of about 1:0.5. The gold(III)
      catalyzed cycloisomerization of furocoumarin beta,gamma-acetylenic (Z)-oximes led
      to a new group of heterocyclic compounds - chromeno[6',7':4,5]furo[3,2
      c][1,2]oxazine. The (E)-isomer in this condition was transformed into (E)-3
      (hydroxyimino)-2-(propan-2-ylidene) furocoumarin. RESULTS: Pharmacological
      screening of the synthesized 1,2-oxazine-fused linear furocoumarins for anti
      inflammatory and analgesic activity in vivo revealed that this compounds
      possessed high activity which was depend on the substitution in the aromatic ring
      of the oxazine unit. The results of experimental studies were found to be in
      accordance with that of the in silico docking results. CONCLUSION: The moderate
      toxicity of compounds (LD50 value was more than 2000 mg/kg) encouraged the
      further design of therapeutically relevant analogues based on this novel type of
      fused linear furocoumarins.

PMID- 28571533
TI  - Cdc42 Signaling Pathway Inhibition as a Therapeutic Target in Ras- Related
      Cancers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The frequency of pro-oncogenic mutations and development of drug
      resistance are major challenges for successful Ras-related cancer treatment.
      Novel targets in the Ras-signaling pathway may address these challenges. Cell
      division cycle protein 42 (Cdc42) is a classical member of the Rho family of
      small GTPases in the Ras oncogene superfamily. Enhanced Cdc42-signaling
      facilitates Ras-mediated cellular transformation, tumorigenesis, and metastasis.
      Cdc42, Ras, and EGFR are involved in an activation loop that prolongs their
      signaling. This review evaluates the benefits of targeting Cdc42 signaling as an
      anti-Ras cancer target. METHODS: We review the link between Ras and Cdc42 and
      summarize the roles of Cdc42 and select effectors in cancers. We discuss the
      discovery/development of Cdc42-signaling modulators and highlight studies that
      report the inhibition of the Cdc42-signaling pathway in several Ras-related
      cancer cell lines. RESULTS: Compared to EGFR and Ras, mutations that lead to the
      prolonged activation of Cdc42 are less common. Activation of upstream signals,
      changes in regulator expression, and alterations of Cdc42 protein expression play
      an important role in regulating Cdc42 activity. Eight selected effectors/adaptors
      of Cdc42 play a role in oncogenic Ras signaling. Of the fourteen natural and
      synthetic Cdc42 inhibitors discussed, eight small molecule inhibitors of Cdc42
      have been used effectively in Ras-related cancer lines derived from breast,
      colon, lung, and pancreatic cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Cdc42 is a putative therapeutic
      target in Ras-related cancers since Cdc42 functions downstream of EGFR and Ras,
      Cdc42 promotes/activates EGFR and Ras signaling, and Cdc42 inhibition in Ras
      related cancers elicits anticancer effects.

PMID- 28571534
TI  - The Evaluation and Utilization of Marine-derived Bioactive Compounds with Anti
      obesity Effect.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global epidemic throughout the world. There is thus
      increasing interest in searching for natural bioactive compounds with anti
      obesity effect. A number of marine compounds have been regarded as potential
      sources of bioactive compounds and are associated with an anti-obesity effect.
      OBJECTIVE: Marine-derived compounds with anti-obesity effect and their current
      applications, methods and indicators for the evaluation of anti-obesity activity
      are summarized in this review. in order to make contributions to the development
      of marine-derived functional food against obesity. RESULTS: In this review, an
      overview of marine-derived compounds with anti-obesity effect, including marine
      polysaccharides, marine lipid, marine peptides, marine carotenoids is intensively
      made with an emphasis on their efficacy and mechanism of action. Meanwhile,
      methods and indicators for the evaluation of anti-obesity activity are discussed.
      We summarize these methods into three categories: in vitro assay (including
      adsorption experiments and enzyme inhibitory assay), cell line study, animal
      experiments and clinical experiments. In addition, a brief introduction of the
      current applications of marine bioactive compounds with anti-obesity activity is
      discussed. CONCLUSION: Marine environment is a rich source of both biological and
      chemical diversity. In the past decades, numerous novel compounds with anti
      obesity activity have been obtained from marine organisms, and many of them have
      been applied to industrial production such as functional foods and
      pharmaceuticals. Further studies are needed to explore the above-mentioned facts.

PMID- 28571535
TI  - Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs: Exploiting Bivalent COXIB/ TP Antagonists
      for the Control of Cardiovascular Risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are some of the most
      widely prescribed or dispensed over the counter analgesics and antipyretics that
      act by inhibiting prostaglandins and thromboxane synthesis. After the
      identification of a second isoform of COX, the pharmaceutical research focused on
      developing COX-2- selective drugs (COXIBs) considered as second generation NSAIDs
      that would retain the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of traditional
      NSAID without blunting the gastrointestinal cytoprotection sustained by COX1
      derived products such as PGE2. However, while several clinical trials confirmed a
      gastrointestinal safer profile of COXIBs vs unselective COX inhibitors,
      increasing evidence for potential cardiovascular risk associated with COXIBs
      rapidly emerged. Today, there are no really safe NSAIDs to be used in chronic
      pain and anti-inflammatory treatments, as an adequate therapy associated with a
      minimal gastrointestinal damage and cardiovascular toxicity is yet to be
      developed. OBJECTIVE: Here, we present evidences that combining the anti
      aggregating and antiatherotrombotic activities of a thromboxane receptor
      antagonist with the antiinflammatory activity of a COXIB we could obtain a new
      multitarget drug providing protection against the harmful activities mediated by
      the COXIB component, yet exploiting its recognized therapeutic advantages as a
      gastrointestinal-safer anti-inflammatory drug. We also summarize recent progress
      achieved in this field of research and possible new strategies to obtain a new
      bivalent compound. CONCLUSION: This possible third-generation NSAID with a safer
      pharmacological profile, will have all the pharmacological characteristics for
      the long-term therapy of chronic disorders such as inflammatory diseases or
      selected forms of cancer.

PMID- 28571536
TI  - AMP-activated Protein Kinase as a Drug Target in Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition increasingly affecting
      millions of individuals worldwide and is ranked as the ninth leading cause of
      death in the United States. AMPactivated protein kinase (AMPK) is an energy
      sensor that plays a pivotal role in cellular homoeostasis. Deficiency in AMPK
      activity and autophagic signaling, and sustained activation of mammalian target
      of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress have been
      shown to promote epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and renal cell
      apoptosis and contribute to CKD. Emerging evidences demonstrate that AMPK acts as
      a modulator of the aforementioned pathways that underpin the pathophysiology of
      CKD. Furthermore, pharmacological activators of AMPK such as metformin have been
      shown to exert renoprotective effects in experimental studies and improve
      clinical outcomes in patients with CKD. OBJECTIVE: The current review focuses on
      the nephroprotective effects of AMPK and its utility as a therapeutic target for
      the prevention and treatment of CKD.

PMID- 28571537
TI  - Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of New Tyrosol-Salicylate Derivatives as
      Potential Anti-Inflammatory Agents.
AB  - Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most commonly used
      medications in inflammatory illnesses. However, the gastrointestinal bleeding and
      toxicity associated with NSAIDs long term use prompted the quest towards
      investigations for new anti-inflammatory agents. Natural and natural-derived
      molecules proved its anti-inflammatory efficacy in vitro as well as in vivo.
      Given this background, the scope of this research involves structural changes of
      the natural polyphenol (tyrosol) generating two new salicylate derivatives and
      testing their biological properties, focusing on anti-inflammatory effects
      assessed in vitro and in vivo assays. The first molecular modification was the
      introduction of a carboxylic acid group adjacent to the phenol group present in
      this compound, which creates a new salicylate-like tyrosol. In addition, the
      acetylation of phenol group in this molecule produced an acetylsalicylate
      derivative, which may be regarded as aspirin-like natural polyphenol.
      Interestingly, tyrosol and its novel derivatives attenuated the edema in acute
      inflammatory response on carrageenan- induced local inflammation in mice. In
      addition, our results demonstrated that tyrosol and its novel derivatives were
      able to reduce the chemotaxis of neutrophil assessed in vitro model by chemo
      attractant (fMLP). Furthermore, only derivative 2 was able to reduce this effect
      in the acute inflammatory model. In (DPPH)- scavenging activity, tyrosol
      derivatives demonstrated a minor antioxidant activity, which may suggest that
      radical scavenging is not a major pathway involved in the anti-inflammatory
      effects of these derivatives. Salicylate-like tyrosol derivatives are of
      particular interest for future studies.

PMID- 28571538
TI  - High Throughput Screening Assay to Identify Modulators of IL-17 Expression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Herein we demonstrate the successful development of a new RORgammat
      enhanced IL-17F promoter-luciferase reporter assay and its use in a parallel high
      throughput screening approach, alongside a RORgammat TR-FRET assay, to rapidly
      identify new small molecule RORgammat/IL-17 inhibitors and evaluate their mode of
      action. MATERIAL & METHODS: We sought to identify cell-permeable small-molecule
      inhibitors of RORgammat for rapid progression into hit-to-lead chemistry. As
      such, we developed the IL-17F promoter luciferase reporter assay in a stable
      human T-cell (Jurkat) line expressing the RORgammat receptor and miniaturised it
      to a final volume of 8 uL in 1536 well plates for HTS use in screening a library
      of > 350k compounds. In parallel, a RORgammat TR-FRET binding assay was employed
      to cross-screen the same set of compounds. This enabled the rapid identification
      of a small number of cell permeable RORgammat antagonists showing promising
      activity in both assays and also highlighted a larger group of potentially very
      interesting hits which inhibited IL-17 reporter activity, but did not appear to
      modulate RORgammat directly. RESULT: A rigorous triaging process of the novel non
      RORgammat IL-17 antagonists was followed, making use of in-silico filtering,
      historical screening data, selectivity screening using an IL-2 reporter assay
      with an identical cellular background, and final profiling in a phenotypic PBMC
      IL-17A production assay. This resulted in the identification of a set of
      promising small molecule compounds which show IL-17 inhibition via potentially
      novel pathways. CONCLUSION: This technique for the fast identification of cell
      permeable IL-17 modulators acting through different mechanisms, highlights the
      benefits of adopting a parallel approach combining high throughput profiling of
      hits in multiple assay formats, with robust in-silico triaging.

PMID- 28571539
TI  - Polymer-supported (-)-8-phenylmenthyl Auxiliary as an Effective Solidphase Chiral
      Inductor in the Addition of Nucleophiles to N-acyliminium Ions.
AB  - AIM AND OBJECTIVE: According to our interest in developing new methods for the
      construction of intricate molecules, a reliable polymer-supported (-)-8
      phenylmenthyl chiral auxiliary for the addition of different nucleophiles to
      chiral-supported N-acyliminium precursors were developed. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Merrifield resin was employed to anchor (-)-8-phenylmenthol, which was prepared
      by nitration of (-)-8-phenylmenthyl chloroacetate followed by reduction of nitro
      group and subsequent Merrifield resin coupling. Treatment of a suspension of
      polymer-supported chloroformate and piperidinone in the presence of Et3N resulted
      in attachment of the substrate onto the solid-support. Treatment of the resulting
      resin with LiEt3BH/MeOH afforded methoxypiperidine in 87% yield. Then, the
      addition of allyltrimethylsilane, TMSCN, 2-(trimethylsiloxy)propene and
      triisopropylsilyloxyfuran and others to the N-acyliminium ion derived from chiral
      2- methoxypiperidine carbamate was studied. RESULTS: The stereochemical outcome
      of the addition of nucleophiles to the supported N-acyliminium ion derived from 2
      methoxypiperidine carbamate was proposed through the Si-face, affording after
      resin cleavage 2-substituted piperidines in 70%-84% yields and selectivities
      ranging from 4:1-11.1. Moreover, the key intermediates of chiral piperidines have
      been employed for the synthesis of simple chiral alkaloids such as (R)-pipecolic
      acid, (R)-pelletierine, (S)-coniine and (R,R)-myrtine. CONCLUSION: The proposed
      supported-chiral auxiliary for asymmetric approach may be expected to result not
      only in efficient solid-phase syntheses of a wide range of alkaloids but also in
      the development of useful new solid-phase methodologies, particularly for the
      asymmetric additions to iminium precursors. This work describes the first example
      of solid-phase synthesis by using supported (-)-8-phenylmenthyl as an effective
      chiral inductor and would be useful for the synthesis of chiral building block
      libraries.

PMID- 28571540
TI  - Caffeic Acid in Dermatological Formulations: In Vitro Release Profile and Skin
      Absorption.
AB  - AIM AND OBJECTIVE: Caffeic acid (CA) is a cinnamic acid derivative, found in many
      vegetable products, with powerful antioxidant activity, the ability to increase
      collagen production and capacity to prevent premature aging of the skin. The
      classic emulsions of CA are widely used by the consumer to provide a pleasant,
      refreshing sensorial experience; however, preparations developed in the form of
      dry film are presented as a technological alternative due to its facile and safe
      transportation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the release, permeation,
      and retention of CA in a film and emulsion through in vitro experiments. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: The release evaluation of CA from the emulsion and the film was
      performed using modified Franz diffusion cells, with an area of 1.77 cm2, using
      Microette equipment (Hanson Research) with a cellulose membrane. The evaluation
      of the permeation of CA from the formulations was conducted using a similar
      technique of release, except that a biological membrane was used. RESULTS: High
      release of active compound and reduced permeation was observed, indicating that
      CA was able to be retained in the epidermis/dermis, where it should have the
      desired action. The concentration of caffeic acid in the skin was higher for the
      film formulation than for the emulsion. This demonstrates a greater efficiency of
      this type of innovative release system, besides its facile and safe
      transportation. CONCLUSION: The formulations tested in this paper can release
      caffeic acid with a Higuchi kinetic profile, in which release of active
      ingredient occurs by a diffusion process. The film formulations exhibited a lower
      permeation rate and higher retention in the skin, which is essential for a
      cosmetic product. The concentration of CA in the skin was also higher for the
      film formulation when compared to the emulsion. This demonstrates a greater
      efficiency of this type of innovative release system, in addition to its easy and
      safe transportation. Therefore, it is possible to suggest CA as a promising
      substance for dermal use due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
      antimicrobial, and collagen production stimulating activity.

PMID- 28571541
TI  - Investigation of Methylene Blue Release from Functional Polymeric Systems Using
      Dielectric Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methylene blue (MB) is a photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy
      (PDT) to treat colorectal cancer tumors and leishmaniasis infection. The clinical
      efficacy of PDT using MB is dependent on the physicochemical characteristics of
      the formulation. Bioadhesive thermoresponsive systems containing poloxamer 407
      and Carbopol 934P have been proposed as platforms for PDT. However, the effect of
      MB on the physicochemical properties of these platforms is not fully understood,
      particularly in light of the MB availability. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to investigate the dielectric characteristics of functional polymeric systems
      containing MB and their influence on mucoadhesion and drug release. METHODS:
      Binary polymeric systems containing different concentrations of poloxamer 407,
      Carbopol 934P and MB were evaluated as dielectric and mucoadhesive properties, as
      well as in vitro drug release profile. RESULTS: MB, temperature and polymeric
      composition influenced the physicochemical properties of the systems. The
      presence of MB altered the supramolecular structure of the preparations. The
      mucoadhesive properties of systems were influenced by MB presence and the
      formulation with the lowest amount of MB displayed faster release. CONCLUSION:
      The lower MB concentration in the systems displayed better results in terms of
      ionic mobility and drug release, and is indicative of a suitable clinical
      performance.

PMID- 28571542
TI  - Folic acid Targeted Polymeric Micelles Based on Tocopherol Succinate- Pulluan as
      an Effective Carrier for Epirubicin: Preparation, Characterization and In-vitro
      Cytotoxicity Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy still encounters a serious drawback, the lack of
      selectivity of anticancer drugs toward neoplastic cells, thus, the normal cells
      are affected by the cytotoxic action of the drugs. This causes a narrow
      therapeutic index in most anticancer drugs. OBJECTIVE: We describe the
      preparation of pullulan-tocopherol succinate-folic acid (Pu-TS-FA) micelles for
      the first time to targeted delivery of Epirubicin (EPI) to Hela and MCF-7 cell
      lines. METHODS: We confirmed the structure of conjugate using spectroscopic
      methods. The degree of substitution for both folic acid and tocopherol succinate
      was calculated using 1HNMR. We prepared the micelles via direct dissolution
      method. All the physicochemical properties of micelles including size, zeta
      potential, polydispersity index (PDI), critical micelle concentration (CMC),
      entrapment efficiency (EE %) and release efficiency (RE24%) were determined. The
      morphology of particles was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM),
      and the in-vitro cell cytotoxicity of EPI loaded micelles was studied using MTT
      assay on MCF-7 and Hela cell lines. RESULTS: The optimized micelles showed the
      particle size of 149.5 nm, the zeta potential of -6.49 mV, a polydispersity index
      of 0.259 +/- 0.07, LE% of 88 %, and RE24% of 63 +/- 2.45 % with a relatively low
      CMC 194.87 ug/ml. TEM showed the relatively uniform spherical structure for
      particles and in vitro MTT assay showed that EPI loaded micelles were more toxic
      on Hela cell line than MCF7 as expected. CONCLUSION: Since the Pu-TS-FA micelle
      could improve the anticancer activity of epirubicin and would be a promising
      candidate for EPI treatment of cancers.

PMID- 28571543
TI  - Aspartame: Should Individuals with Type II Diabetes be Taking it?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with Type II Diabetes (T2D) have to manage blood glucose
      levels to sustain health and longevity. Artificial sweeteners (including
      aspartame) are suggested sugar alternatives for these individuals. The safety of
      aspartame in particular, has long been the centre of debate. Although it is such
      a controversial product, many clinicians recommend its use to T2D patients,
      during a controlled diet and as part of an intervention strategy. Aspartame is
      200 times sweeter than sugar and has a negligible effect on blood glucose levels,
      and it is suggested for use so that T2D can control carbohydrate intake and blood
      glucose levels. However, research suggests that aspartame intake may lead to an
      increased risk of weight gain rather than weight loss, and cause impaired blood
      glucose tolerance in T2D. OBJECTIVE: This review consolidates knowledge gained
      from studies that link aspartame consumption to the various mechanisms associated
      with T2D. METHOD: We review literature that provides evidence that raise concerns
      that aspartame may exacerbate T2D and add to the global burden of disease.
      RESULT: Aspartame may act as a chemical stressor by increasing cortisol levels,
      and may induce systemic oxidative stress by producing excess free radicals, and
      it may also alter gut microbial activity and interfere with the N-methyl D
      aspartate (NMDA) receptor, resulting in insulin deficiency or resistance.
      CONCLUSION: Aspartame and its metabolites are safe for T2D is still debatable due
      to a lack of consistent data. More research is required that provides evidence
      and raise concerns that aspartame may exacerbate prevalence of pathological
      physiology in the already stressed physiology of T2D.

PMID- 28571544
TI  - Programmed Cell Death after Intracerebral Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for up to 15% of all strokes
      and is characterized by high rates of mortality and morbidity. The post-ICH brain
      injury can be distinguished in 1) primary, which are caused by disruption and
      mechanical deformation of brain tissue due to hematoma growth and 2) secondary,
      which are induced by microglia activation, mitochondrial dysfunction,
      neurotransmitter and inflammatory mediator release. Although these events
      typically lead to necrosis, the occurrence of programmed cell death has also been
      reported after ICH. METHODS: We reviewed recent publications describing advance
      in pre- and clinic ICH research. RESULTS: At present, treatment of ICH patients
      is based on oral anticoagulant reversal, management of blood pressure and other
      medical complications. Several pre-clinical studies showed promising results and
      demonstrated that anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory treatments reduced
      neuronal cell death, however, to date, all of these attempts have failed in
      randomized controlled clinical trials. Yet, the time frame of administration may
      be crucial in translation from animal to clinical studies. Furthermore, the
      latest pre-clinical research points toward the existence of other,
      apoptosisunrelated forms kinds of programmed cell death. CONCLUSION: Our review
      summarizes current knowledge of pathways leading to programmed cell death after
      ICH in addition to data from clinical trials. Some of the pre-clinical results
      have not yet demonstrated clinical confirmation, however they significantly
      contribute to our understanding of post-ICH pathology and can contribute to
      development of new therapeutic approaches, decreasing mortality and improving ICH
      patients' quality of life.

PMID- 28571547
TI  - Potential of Macroalgae Ulva lactuca as a Source Feedstock for Biodiesel
      Production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of growing
      of algae Ulva lactuca L.under different salinity levels coupled with varied KNO3
      concentrations (source of N) as a potential source of oil for biodiesel
      production. METHODS: U. lactuta was cultured in 10.0% NaCl coupled with either
      2.5 g/L (S1+ 1N) or 1.0 g/L KNO3 (S1+ 2N) and in 30.0% NaCl coupled with 2.5 g/L
      (S2+ 1N) or 1.0 g/L KNO3 (S2+ 2N) nutrient medium. Among all algae cultures,
      biomass (dry weight) and lipid accumulation (total lipid content, TL) were
      significantly different (P>0.5%), with various degrees. The TL was increased
      (8.21% to 15.95%, g/100g) by increasing the NaCl % (from 10% to 30%) coupled with
      the depletion of KNO3 level (from 2.5% to 1%) in culture medium. High lipid
      content (15.95%) was obtained in S2+ 2N culture, this lipid showed physical
      (density, viscosity and average molecular weight) and chemical (iodine, acid,
      saponification and peroxide values) properties suitable for biodiesel production.
      RESULTS: The fatty acid methyl esters (FAME, biodiesel) prepared by trans
      esterifiction reaction under acidic condition were mainly composed of saturated
      (50.33%), monounsaturated (MUFA, 36.12%) and polyunsaturated (13.55%) esters. C
      18:1 was found to be the main MUFA, representing 25.76% of total FAME. On the
      other hand, the values of some critical of physiochemical parameter (density,
      kinematic viscosity, iodine value, acid value and oxidation stability) of
      biodiesel were found to meet the standards for a high quality biodiesel.
      CONCLUSION: Hence, U. lactuta could be serving as a valuable renewable biomass of
      oil for biodiesel production. There are recent patents also suggesting use of oil
      of U. lactuta marine biomass for biodiesel production.

PMID- 28571546
TI  - Chromatin Changes Associated with Neuronal Maintenance and Their Pharmacological
      Application.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The transcriptional control of neuronal specification and early
      development has been intensively studied over the past few decades. However,
      relatively little is known about transcriptional programs associated with the
      maintenance of terminally differentiated neuronal cells with respect to their
      functions, structures, and cell type-specific identity features. METHODS:
      Notably, largely because of the recent advances in related techniques such as
      next generation sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing, the
      physiological implications of system-wide regulation of gene expression through
      changes in chromatin states have begun to be extensively studied in various
      contexts and systems, including the nervous system. RESULTS: Here, we attempt to
      review our current understanding of the link between chromatin changes and
      neuronal maintenance in the period of life after the completion of neuronal
      development. Perturbations involving chromatin changes in the system-wide
      transcriptional control are believed to be closely associated with diverse
      aspects of neuronal aging and neurodegenerative conditions. CONCLUSION: In this
      review, we focused on heterochromatin and epigenetic dysregulation in
      neurodegenerative conditions as well as neuronal aging, the most important risk
      factor leading to neuronal degeneration, in order to highlight the close
      association between chromatin changes and neuronal maintenance. Lastly, we
      reviewed the currently available and potential future applications of
      pharmacological control of the chromatin states associated with neuronal
      maintenance.

PMID- 28571545
TI  - Potential Medications or Compounds Acting on Toll-like Receptors in Cerebral
      Ischemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Toll-like receptors play an integral role in the process of
      inflammatory response after ischemic injury. The therapeutic potential acting on
      TLRs is worth of evaluations. The aim of this review was to introduce readers
      some potential medications or compounds which could alleviate the ischemic damage
      via TLRs. METHODS: Research articles online on TLRs were reviewed.
      Categorizations were listed according to the follows, methods acting on TLRs
      directly, modulations of MyD88 or TRIF signaling pathway, and the ischemic
      tolerance induced by the preconditioning or postconditioning with TLR ligands or
      minor cerebral ischemia via acting on TLRs. RESULTS: There are only a few studies
      concerning on direct effects. Anti-TLR4 or anti-TLR2 therapies may serve as
      promising strategies in acute events. Approaches targeting on inhibiting NF
      kappaB signaling pathway and enhancing interferon regulatory factor dependent
      signaling have attracted great interests. Not only drugs but compounds extracted
      from traditional Chinese medicine have been used to identify their
      neuroprotective effects against cerebral ischemia. In addition, many researchers
      have reported the positive therapeutic effects of preconditioning with agonists
      of TLR2, 3, 4, 7 and 9. Several trails have also explored the potential of
      postconditioning, which provide a new idea in ischemic treatments. Considering
      all the evidence above, many drugs and new compounds may have great potential to
      reduce ischemic insults. CONCLUSION: This review will focus on promising
      therapies which exerting neuroprotective effects against ischemic injury by
      acting on TLRs.

PMID- 28571548
TI  - Intermittent Transient Motor Aphasia Associated with Acute Lithium Toxicity: A
      Case Report and Brief Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lithium is known to cause certain neurological deficits. However,
      reports of aphasia secondary to lithium toxicity are scant. We report the case of
      a 70 year old African American woman with a history of schizoaffective disorder
      and mild dementia who developed transient intermittent aphasia secondary to
      lithium toxicity. METHODS: Patient was admitted because of agitation, delusional
      behavior, and pressured speech. Her previous medications included divalproex
      sodium 500 mg po bid, valproic acid 250 mg po qd, risperidone 3.5 mg po bid,
      lorazepam 1 mg po bid, amlodipine besylate 5 mg po qd, levothyroxine sodium 25
      mcg po qd, gabapentin 300 mg po qd, amantadine HCl 100 mg po bid, and aspirin 81
      mg po qd. Since patient's symptoms have not improved, she was started on lithium
      300mg po bid and titrated up to 300 mg po bid and 450 mg po qhs over 7-8 days.
      Her lithium levels ranged from 0.4 mEq/L on 11/11/16 to 1.5 mEq/L on 11/22/16.
      Patient was observed to have aphasia symptoms intermittently at lithium level of
      1.5 mEq/L. CT scan of head and neurology consultations were unremarkable. The
      Naranjo Adverse Drug Reaction Probability Scale score was 8 in the probable range
      for an adverse drug reaction. Patient's sodium was also found to be high at 148
      mmol/L. RESULTS: Lithium was discontinued and patient rehydrated with intravenous
      fluids. Patients aphasia resolved completely in 2-3 days. CONCLUSION: Clinicians
      should be aware of this rarely reported side effect of lithium particularly in
      patients at risk for volume depletion and closely monitor fluid intake, lithium
      level, and potential side effects.

PMID- 28571549
TI  - Nanoemulsion-Based Transdermal Drug Delivery System for the Treatment of
      Tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The nanoemulsion based carriers are the most suitable delivery
      systems for poorly soluble drugs to improve the drugs solubility, permeation of
      drugs and ultimately increase bioavailability by transdermal therapeutic system.
      The nanoemulsion for poorly soluble drugs is admirable and offered several
      advantages over others drug delivery. METHODS: For nanoemulsions formulation,
      they have to deliver the energetic element at the specific organ with nominal
      uneasiness. Because of the prevention of hepatic first pass uptake transdermal
      course excel usual crest and trough plasma shape that usually comfort the
      administration. The antitubercular drugs relate to the formulation of Poly DL
      Lactide-Co-Glycolide nanoparticles having an active substance encapsulated within
      and that the encapsulated substances are stable with respect to each other.
      CONCLUSION: The present study aimed to explore the challenges and methods in
      order to increase the solubility of poorly aqueous soluble drug for improved
      bioavailability alongwith relative study of toxicity problems related to anti
      tubercular drug.

PMID- 28571550
TI  - An Overwiev of ORF Virus Infection in Humans and Animals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orf virus is a DNA virus that belongs to the Parapoxvirus genus. The
      virus is a causative agent of orf in humans or contagious ecthyma in animals
      which is mostly seen in sheep, goat and cattle. DISCUSSION: Orf is an emerging
      zoonosis with an increasing number of worldwide outbreaks that have been
      reported. It is a contagious disease that tends to spread very fast among
      livestock. The morbidity rate is very high, particularly among young unvaccinated
      animals. The fatality rate is low but can be seen due to secondary infections.
      The disease has a significant effect on livestock health and may lead to
      economical losses. Humans may become infected if they have a direct contact with
      animal lesions. The disease is seen as a cutaneous lesion with a mild clinical
      outcome. Human to human transmission exists but is very rare. Nosocomial
      transmission was reported with one outbreak in a burn unit. The diagnosis is
      mostly based on the history of animal contact and clinical findings. Molecular
      tests are used to confirm clinical diagnose. There is no specific treatment but a
      live vaccine is available for animals. Surveillance implementations and infection
      control measurements are very important for the prevention of infection.
      Currently, there are limited studies on orf or contagious ecthyma. It has been
      observed that there are few studies that have resulted in patents. CONCLUSION:
      The aim of this paper was to review the current relevant patents, epidemiological
      features, clinical presentations, the diagnosis and treatment of orf.

PMID- 28571551
TI  - Application of Bone Marrow Stem Cell Based Therapy in Bone Loss Diseases.
AB  - Hematopoietic bone marrow stem cell transplantation has been regularly used in
      clinical practice for over 40 years. Further research indicates that bone marrow
      stromal cells are also stem cells that are capable of self-renewal, proliferation
      and differentiation. With appropriate induction, the bone marrow stromal cells
      can differentiate into bone, cartilage, tendon, adipose tissue and fibrous
      tissue, which would potentially be applied for treating bone loss diseases. This
      review outlines research in understanding role of bone marrow stem cells and stem
      cells from other origins in bone repair, and highlight the current and potential
      stem cell based treatment for bone loss diseases in the future.

PMID- 28571552
TI  - Micro-RNA Profiling as a Predictor of Clinical Outcomes for Head and Neck Cancer
      Patients.
AB  - Head and neck cancer is one of the leading malignancies worldwide. Due to the
      lack of symptoms in the early stage of the disease, about two thirds of patients
      present with locally advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Even with
      significantly improved survival rates over the past two decades due to advanced
      imaging and treatment modalities, locoregional recurrence rates in patients with
      advanced disease ranges from 16% to 35%. Alternative therapeutic targets are
      being developed to improve survival outcomes. MicroRNAs (miRNA or miRs) are a
      family of small non-coding RNA species that have been demonstrated to regulate
      all cellular, physiological and developmental processes. Recently, there has been
      an exponential increase in the number of studies suggesting that miRNA is
      involved in regulating tumor metastasis, chemoresistance, radioresistance and
      survival outcomes. MiRNA candidates have been identified as potential prognostic
      biomarkers to diagnose cancer stages and progression, as well as to monitor
      follow-up treatment. In this review, we will discuss the miRNA profile in each
      stage of head and neck patients' therapy, with an emphasis on its application to
      clinical outcome prognosis.

PMID- 28571553
TI  - Parasite Polyamines as Pharmaceutical Targets.
AB  - There is an urgent need for the identification and validation of new therapeutic
      targets in protozoan parasites because currently available drugs are limited in
      number and usefulness, and no vaccines are available. The discovery that alpha
      difluoromethylornithine, an inhibitor of polyamine biosynthesis, is an
      efficacious treatment for African Sleeping Sickness caused by the protozoan
      parasite Trypanosoma brucei, has validated the polyamine pathway as a target in
      protozoan parasites. Polyamines are ubiquitous organic cations that play critical
      roles in key cellular processes such as growth, differentiation, and
      macromolecular biosynthesis. In recent years, remarkable progress has been made
      in the characterization of the polyamine pathway in a variety of protozoan
      parasites and this review will highlight surprising and unique features that
      could lead to new therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28571554
TI  - Methotrexate in the Treatment of Psoriasis and Rheumatoid Arthritis: Mechanistic
      Insights, Current Issues and Novel Delivery Approaches.
AB  - Our review is focused on the use of methotrexate in drug therapy of two
      autoimmune diseases, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The article
      describes the pathogenesis of psoriasis and RA, the role of methotrexate in the
      treatment of these diseases with more focused review on the mechanism behind the
      clinical benefits of methotrexate therapy. Methotrexate due to its cytotoxic,
      anti-inflammatory and immune modulatory activities provides clinical benefits in
      the therapy of the selected diseases. This review also gives a panorama of the
      problems associated with the use of methotrexate in the selected diseases and the
      guidelines provided by FDA for its safe use. The novel colloidal drug delivery
      systems of methotrexate, with particular emphasis on advantages offered by
      liposomal formulation, niosomal gel, hydrogel, albumin conjugates, nanoparticles
      and nano structured lipid carriers in psoriasis and RA are also reviewed. It
      seemed that the use of newer colloidal carriers with improved skin permeability
      by minimizing its systemic availability will be a useful strategy to reduce the
      toxic effects of the drug in psoriatic patients. In rheumatoid arthritis
      patients, the development of newer therapeutic strategies using appropriate
      targeting ligands that specifically deliver the drug to the inflamed joint space
      will help to overcome its toxic effects by minimizing the systemic exposure.

PMID- 28571555
TI  - Editorial: Lipoprotein (a), More than Just Cholesterol?

PMID- 28571556
TI  - Interactions of VDAC with Proteins Involved in Neurodegenerative Aggregation: An
      Opportunity for Advancement on Therapeutic Molecules.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Voltage Dependent Anion Channel (VDAC) proteins represent the
      most important pore-forming proteins of the mitochondrial outer membrane,
      directly involved in metabolism and apoptosis regulation. Literature has
      highlighted a key role of VDACs in mitochondrial dysfunction typical of many
      neurodegenerative disorders. In particular, the principal isoform VDAC1
      represents the main mitochondrial docking site of many misfolded proteins, such
      as amyloid beta and Tau in Alzheimer's disease, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's
      disease and several SOD1 mutants in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The
      interaction of misfolded proteins with VDAC1 has a strong impact on both cellular
      bioenergetics and apoptosis' pathways alteration. Therefore, VDACs represent a
      promising therapeutic target in neurodegeneration. OBJECTIVE: This review
      summarizes the roles of VDAC isoforms, and particularly of VDAC1, in the most
      common neurological disorders and analyzes in detail molecules and peptides
      available so far, able to interact and modulate VDAC1 in any considered
      pathological condition. CONCLUSION: This review offers a description of the most
      promising therapeutic strategies acting on VDAC1, for the treatment of
      neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28571557
TI  - Recent Advances of Individual BODIPY and BODIPY-Based Functional Materials in
      Medical Diagnostics and Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The group of fluorophores on boron dipyrrin platform (4,4- difluoro-4
      bora3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene, also known as BODIPY) has attracted much attention in
      the field of molecular sensorics, including sensing of biomolecules and
      bioprocesses. Structural diversity of existing BODIPY with ample opportunities of
      directed modification of compounds makes this class of fluorophores attractive
      for medical and biological purposes. The recent progress in the design and
      functionalization of BODIPY allows using them for modification of drug micro- and
      nanocarriers in order to improve their therapeutic effect in cancer treatment. At
      the same time, integration of BODIPY into drug carriers provides the possibility
      of in vitro and in vivo real time imaging of used drug carriers. The high
      fluorescent intensity and low toxicity of BODIPY granted for conjugation with
      different biomolecules. RESULTS: The present review focuses on the recent
      advances for application of individual BODIPY in medical diagnostics,
      antimicrobial activity, as well as establishing the role of BODIPY in labeling of
      biomolecules (e.g. proteins, hormones and DNA). Also the review highlights the
      potential of BODIPY in functionalization of drug micro- and nanocarriers in order
      to achieve better therapeutic efficiency compared with non-modified materials.
      The advantages derived from the use of BODIPY for preparation and modification of
      drug carriers are critically evaluated and potential for future challenges,
      especially concerning the design of innovative multi-functional BODIPY-based
      nanocarriers, is discussed in detail using representative examples from
      literature. CONCLUSION: Our objective was to show that BODIPY are powerful tools
      for bioimaging, labeling of biomolecules and construction of new multifunctional
      drug carriers.

PMID- 28571558
TI  - Protein Profile Analysis of Two Australian Snake Venoms by One- Dimensional Gel
      Electrophoresis and MS/MS Experiments.
AB  - The Pseudechis colletti and Pseudechis butleri venoms were analyzed by 1-D gel
      electrophoresis, followed by mass spectrometric analysis of tryptic peptides
      obtained from the protein bands. Both venoms contain highly potent
      pharmacologically active components, which were assigned to the following protein
      families: basic and acidic phospholipases A2 (PLA2s), L-amino acid oxidases
      (LAAOs), P-III metalloproteinases (P-III SVMPs), 5'- nucleotidases (5'-NTDs),
      cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISPs), venom nerve growth factors (VNGFs) and
      post-synaptic neurotoxins. Considerable predominance of PLA2s over other toxins
      is a characteristic feature of both venoms. The major differences in the venom
      compositions are the higher concentration of SVMPs and CRISPs in the P. butleri
      venom, as well as the presence of post-synaptic neurotoxins. Furthermore, the
      analysis revealed a high concentration of proteins with myotoxic, coagulopathic
      and apoptotic activities. PLA2s are responsible for the myotoxic and
      anticoagulant effects observed in patients after envenomation (4). The other
      protein families, encountered in the two venoms, probably contribute to the major
      symptoms described for these venoms. These results explain the observed clinical
      effects of the black snake envenomation. The analyzed venoms contain group P-III
      metalloproteinases of medical importance with the potency to be used for
      diagnostic purposes of von Willebrand factor (vWF) disease, for regulation of vWF
      in thrombosis and haemostasis, for studying the function of the complement system
      in host defense and in the pathogenesis of diseases. Comparison of venomic data
      showed similarities in the major venom components of snakes from the genus
      Pseudechis, resulting in common clinical effects of envenomation, and
      demonstrating close relationships between venom toxins of Elapidae snakes.

PMID- 28571559
TI  - A Mini-Review on Thalidomide: Chemistry, Mechanisms of Action, Therapeutic
      Potential and Anti-Angiogenic Properties in Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - Thalidomide is a drug with interesting therapeutic properties but also with
      severe side effects which require a careful and monitored use. Potential
      immunomodulatory, antiinflammatory, anti-angiogenic and sedative properties make
      thalidomide a good candidate for the treatment of several diseases such as
      multiple myeloma. Through an increase in the degradation of TNFalpha-mRNA,
      thalidomide reduces the production of TNFalpha by monocytes and macrophages
      stimulated by lipopolysaccharide or by T lymphocytes induced by mitogenic
      stimuli. The decreased level of TNFalpha alters the mechanisms of intracellular
      transduction by preventing the activation of NF-kB and by decreasing the
      synthesis of proteins, in particular IL-6, involved in cell proliferation,
      inflammation, angiogenesis and protection from apoptosis. Furthermore,
      thalidomide affects VEGF levels by down-regulating its expression. Nowadays, new
      safer and less toxic drugs, analogs of thalidomide, are emerging as beneficial
      for a more targeted treatment of multiple myeloma and several other diseases such
      as Crohn';s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, erythema nodosum
      leprosum, graft-versus-host disease.

PMID- 28571560
TI  - The Use of Biomarkers in Sepsis: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the extended laboratory and clinical study of sepsis, its
      diagnosis remains a clinical challenge. The initiation of sepsis activates many
      different biochemical and immunological pathways being expressed by alterations
      of various molecules in human tissues. The detection and measurement of the
      concentration of such molecules, known as biomarkers, may be a diagnostic tool of
      great significance for clinicians dealing with suspected sepsis. Additionally,
      biomarkers may predict patients ' outcome and may play a role in monitoring
      response to therapy. METHODS: Most relevant clinical and experimental biomarker
      studies on sepsis were retrieved and reviewed in this article. RESULTS: Although
      many biomarkers were evaluated for the diagnosis and prognosis in sepsis, until
      now not one has been proven to be absolutely reliable in the clinical field.
      Currently C-reactive proteine (CPR) and procalcitonin (PCT) are used worldwide
      routinely, nevertheless their values may elevate in clinical settings without
      sepsis, while they often fail to provide reliable prediction of the patient
      outcome. CONCLUSION: This review outlines most relevant circulating biomarkers in
      sepsis.

PMID- 28571561
TI  - High Sensitivity Troponin I and T Reflect the Presence of Obstructive and Multi
      Vessel Coronary Artery Disease Being Assessed by Coronary Computed Tomography
      Angiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the association between high sensitivity
      troponin I (hsTnI) and T (hsTnT) in patients with suspected stable Coronary
      Artery Disease (CAD) undergoing Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA).
      METHODS: Patients undergoing CCTA were enrolled prospectively. CCTA was indicated
      in patients with angina and a low to intermediate pre-test probability for CAD
      during routine clinical care. Blood samples were taken at the time of CCTA to
      measure cardiac biomarkers. RESULTS: A total of 99 patients were enrolled with 43
      % revealing no CAD, 30 % with non-obstructive and 26 % with obstructive CAD. Out
      of these, 61 % had single-vessel and 39 % had multi-vessel CAD. Both hsTnI and
      hsTnT levels increased significantly according to the presence and extent of CAD
      (p = 0.0001) and were able to discriminate the presence of both obstructive (AUC
      range: 0.775 - 0.785; p = 0.0001) and multi-vessel CAD (AUC range: 0.740 - 0.749;
      p = 0.01). In multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for cardiovascular
      risk factors and NT-proBNP, both hsTn were still associated significantly with
      obstructive CAD (range of odds ratios (OR): 8.3-32.3; p < 0.02). DISCUSSION: This
      study shows that high sensitivity troponin I and T reflect the presence and
      extent of CAD being diagnosed by CCTA in patients with a low to intermediate
      pretest probability for CAD.

PMID- 28571562
TI  - Advantages and Limitations of Current Biomarker Research: From Experimental
      Research to Clinical Application.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biomarkers are indispensable tools for screening, diagnosis, and
      prognosis in cardiovascular diseases and their clinical application increases
      steadily. As cardiovascular diseases include various pathophysiological
      processes, no single biomarker, even natriuretic peptides, can be regarded as
      ideal fulfilling all necessary criteria for a comprehensive diagnostic or
      prognostic assessment revealing optimal clinical application. Hence, multi-marker
      approaches using different biomarkers reflecting different pathophysiologies were
      highlighted recently. Advances in biomedical technologies expanded the spectrum
      of novel blood-derived biomarkers, such as micro-RNA (miRNA) or "omics"- data
      potentially providing a more advanced knowledge about pathogenesis of
      cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSION: This review describes the advantages and
      limitations of blood circulating biomarkers with regard to proteins, metabolomics
      and transcriptional level both within single as well as multi-marker strategies.
      Moreover, their usefulness is focused on clinical decision-making in
      cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28571563
TI  - The design and development of a complex multifactorial falls assessment
      intervention for falls prevention: The Prevention of Falls Injury Trial (PreFIT).
AB  - BACKGROUND: This paper describes the design and development of a complex
      multifactorial falls prevention (MFFP) intervention for implementation and
      testing within the framework of a large UK-based falls prevention randomised
      controlled trial (RCT). METHODS: A complex intervention was developed for
      inclusion within the Prevention of Falls Injury Trial (PreFIT), a multicentre
      pragmatic RCT. PreFIT aims to compare the clinical and cost-effectiveness of
      three alternative primary care falls prevention interventions (advice, exercise
      and MFFP), on outcomes of fractures and falls. Community-dwelling adults, aged 70
      years and older, were recruited from primary care in the National Health Service
      (NHS), England. RESULTS: Development of the PreFIT MFFP intervention was informed
      by the existing evidence base and clinical guidelines for the assessment and
      management of falls in older adults. After piloting and modification, the final
      MFFP intervention includes seven falls risk factors: a detailed falls history
      interview with consideration of 'red flags'; assessment of balance and gait;
      vision; medication screen; cardiac screen; feet and footwear screen and home
      environment assessment. This complex intervention has been fully manualised with
      clear, documented assessment and treatment pathways for each risk factor. Each
      risk factor is assessed in every trial participant referred for MFFP. Referral
      for assessment is based upon a screening survey to identify those with a history
      of falling or balance problems. Intervention delivery can be adapted to the local
      setting. CONCLUSION: This complex falls prevention intervention is currently
      being tested within the framework of a large clinical trial. This paper adheres
      to TIDieR and CONSORT recommendations for the comprehensive and explicit
      reporting of trial interventions. Results from the PreFIT study will be published
      in due course. The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the PreFIT MFFP
      intervention, compared to advice and exercise, on the prevention of falls and
      fractures, will be reported at the conclusion of the trial.

PMID- 28571564
TI  - Systemic treatment in advanced soft tissue sarcoma: what is standard, what is
      new.
AB  - For metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (STS) patients not eligible for surgery,
      systemic treatments, including standard chemotherapy and newer biological
      compounds, still play the most relevant role in the management of the disease. An
      anthracycline and alkylating agent combination has formed the cornerstone of
      chemotherapy in STS for more than 30 years, with its value over that of
      administration of anthracycline as a single agent still being debated. Efforts
      have been made to improve the activity and minimise the toxicity of the
      combination, as well as to explore the upfront efficacy of agents known to be
      active in sarcoma and to develop new biological compounds. Nevertheless, beyond
      the first line, evidence for medical treatment in STS is less robust and all the
      more driven by histology. Thus, the introduction of kinases and small molecule
      inhibitors in the treatment armamentarium for STS is a major achievement in this
      setting. Preliminary data on immunotherapy are also available and discussed in
      this review.

PMID- 28571565
TI  - C-reactive protein is differentially modulated by co-existing infections, vitamin
      deficiencies and maternal factors in pregnant and lactating indigenous Panamanian
      women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The usefulness of C-reactive protein (CRP) as a non-specific marker
      of inflammation during pregnancy and lactation is unclear in impoverished
      populations where co-existing infections and vitamin deficiencies are common.
      METHODS: This cross-sectional study in Panama recruited 120 pregnant and 99
      lactating Ngabe-Bugle women from 14 communities in rural Panama. Obstetric
      history, indoor wood smoke exposure, fieldwork, BMI, vitamins A, B12, D, and
      folic acid, and inflammation markers (CRP, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR),
      plateletcrit and cytokines) were measured. Multiple regressions explored both
      associations of CRP with other inflammatory markers and associations of CRP and
      elevated CRP based on trimester-specific cut-offs with maternal factors,
      infections and vitamin deficiencies. RESULTS: CRP was higher in pregnancy (51.4
      +/- 4.7 nmol/L) than lactation (27.8 +/- 3.5 nmol/L) and was elevated above
      trimester specific cut-offs in 21% of pregnant and 30% of lactating women.
      Vitamin deficiencies were common (vitamin A 29.6%; vitamin D 68.5%; vitamin B12
      68%; folic acid 25.5%) and over 50% of women had two or more concurrent
      deficiencies as well as multiple infections. Multiple regression models
      highlighted differences in variables associated with CRP between pregnancy and
      lactation. In pregnancy, CRP was positively associated with greater indoor wood
      smoke exposure, caries and hookworm and negatively associated with Ascaris and
      vaginal Lactobacillus and Bacteroides/Gardnerella scores. Consistent with this,
      greater wood smoke exposure, caries as well as higher diplococcal infection score
      increased the odds of trimester-elevated CRP concentrations whereas longer
      gestational age lowered the likelihood of a trimester-elevated CRP. During
      lactation, folic acid deficiency was associated with higher CRP whereas parity,
      number of eosinophils and Mobiluncus score were associated with lower CRP. Also,
      a higher BMI and Trichomonas vaginalis score increased the likelihood of an
      elevated CRP whereas higher parity and number of eosinophils were associated with
      lower likelihood of an elevated CRP. CONCLUSIONS: Infections both raise and lower
      CRP concentrations in pregnant and lactating mothers. Only folic acid deficiency
      during lactation was associated with higher CRP concentrations. Caution is
      required when interpreting CRP concentrations in pregnant and lactating women who
      have co-existing nutrient deficiencies and multiple infections.

PMID- 28571566
TI  - Knowledge, attitude and practice related to diabetes mellitus among the general
      public in Galle district in Southern Sri Lanka: a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) has become a global epidemic with
      significant disability and premature death. Identification of the level of
      knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) related to diabetes among the general
      public is important in strategies for prevention of diabetes mellitus. METHODS:
      This study was conducted as a community based cross sectional study in three
      Medical Officers of Health (MOH) areas in Galle district. Previously healthy
      literate individuals who have not attended any diabetes education program in the
      last two years were selected for this study. RESULTS: A total of 277 participants
      were included in the study. The majority (77%) had either moderate (39%) or above
      moderate knowledge (38%) on diabetes mellitus. Even though, level of education
      was significantly and positively associated with knowledge (p = 0.001), the
      association of gender and age with knowledge was not significant. Unlike
      knowledge, the attitude towards diabetes was poor in majority (90%) and level of
      education had no significant effect on attitude. With regards to practices, more
      than half of study subjects never had their blood sugar checked and, about 65%
      used to take refined sugar liberally and a large majority (80%) had no regular
      exercise activity. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the majority (77%) had moderate or
      above moderate knowledge on diabetes, their attitudes towards diabetes was poor
      (88%). It appears that the higher knowledge on diabetes did not translate into
      good practices as over 50% of study subjects did not involve with any preventive
      measures. Therefore, more emphasis should be given to address the issue of poor
      attitude and practices towards diabetes mellitus among general public in Sri
      Lanka.

PMID- 28571567
TI  - Clostridium butyricum maximizes growth while minimizing enzyme usage and ATP
      production: metabolic flux distribution of a strain cultured in glycerol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The increase in glycerol obtained as a byproduct of biodiesel has
      encouraged the production of new industrial products, such as 1,3-propanediol
      (PDO), using biotechnological transformation via bacteria like Clostridium
      butyricum. However, despite the increasing role of Clostridium butyricum as a bio
      production platform, its metabolism remains poorly modeled. RESULTS: We
      reconstructed iCbu641, the first genome-scale metabolic (GSM) model of a PDO
      producer Clostridium strain, which included 641 genes, 365 enzymes, 891
      reactions, and 701 metabolites. We found an enzyme expression prediction of
      nearly 84% after comparison of proteomic data with flux distribution estimation
      using flux balance analysis (FBA). The remaining 16% corresponded to enzymes
      directionally coupled to growth, according to flux coupling findings (FCF). The
      fermentation data validation also revealed different phenotype states that
      depended on culture media conditions; for example, Clostridium maximizes its
      biomass yield per enzyme usage under glycerol limitation. By contrast, under
      glycerol excess conditions, Clostridium grows sub-optimally, maximizing biomass
      yield while minimizing both enzyme usage and ATP production. We further evaluated
      perturbations in the GSM model through enzyme deletions and variations in biomass
      composition. The GSM predictions showed no significant increase in PDO
      production, suggesting a robustness to perturbations in the GSM model. We used
      the experimental results to predict that co-fermentation was a better alternative
      than iCbu641 perturbations for improving PDO yields. CONCLUSIONS: The agreement
      between the predicted and experimental values allows the use of the GSM model
      constructed for the PDO-producing Clostridium strain to propose new scenarios for
      PDO production, such as dynamic simulations, thereby reducing the time and costs
      associated with experimentation.

PMID- 28571568
TI  - Environmental temperature variation influences fitness trade-offs and tolerance
      in a fish-tapeworm association.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing temperatures are predicted to strongly impact host
      parasite interactions, but empirical tests are rare. Host species that are
      naturally exposed to a broad temperature spectrum offer the possibility to
      investigate the effects of elevated temperatures on hosts and parasites. Using
      three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., and tapeworms,
      Schistocephalus solidus (Muller, 1776), originating from a cold and a warm water
      site of a volcanic lake, we subjected sympatric and allopatric host-parasite
      combinations to cold and warm conditions in a fully crossed design. We predicted
      that warm temperatures would promote the development of the parasites, while the
      hosts might benefit from cooler temperatures. We further expected adaptations to
      the local temperature and mutual adaptations of local host-parasite pairs.
      RESULTS: Overall, S. solidus parasites grew faster at warm temperatures and
      stickleback hosts at cold temperatures. On a finer scale, we observed that
      parasites were able to exploit their hosts more efficiently at the parasite's
      temperature of origin. In contrast, host tolerance towards parasite infection was
      higher when sticklebacks were infected with parasites at the parasite's 'foreign'
      temperature. Cold-origin sticklebacks tended to grow faster and parasite
      infection induced a stronger immune response. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest
      that increasing environmental temperatures promote the parasite rather than the
      host and that host tolerance is dependent on the interaction between parasite
      infection and temperature. Sticklebacks might use tolerance mechanisms towards
      parasite infection in combination with their high plasticity towards temperature
      changes to cope with increasing parasite infection pressures and rising
      temperatures.

PMID- 28571569
TI  - Erratum to Acupuncture to improve live birth rates for women undergoing in vitro
      fertilization: a protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PMID- 28571570
TI  - Immunological and virological characterization of HIV-1 viremia controllers in
      the North Region of Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A rare phenotype of clinical non-progressors to AIDS is not well
      understood and the new protocol for universal treatment, may block the
      understanding of viral control thus it is crucial to define this controversial
      group. METHODS: A cohort of 30 persons followed a criteria for viremia control
      groups 1 (VC1; n = 2) and 2 (VC2; n = 7) and non-viral controllers (NC; n = 21)
      including number of years of diagnosis, LTCD4+, LTCD8+ counts, plasma viral load
      and the absence of ART; 241 uninfected control persons were matched to age and
      sex. Infected persons were regularly examined and submitted to two or three
      annual laboratory measurements. Polymorphisms and allele frequencies of
      CCR5Delta32 and SDF1-3'A were detected in the genomic DNA. Plasma levels of
      cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-9, IL-10, IL-13, IL-17 and IFN-y) were measured.
      RESULTS: The group investigated is originated from a miscigenetic population and
      demographic and social characteristics were not significantly relevant. LTCD4+
      median values were higher among VC than NC, but significantly lower than
      uninfected controls. Evolution of LTCD4+ and LTCD8+ counts, showed a slight
      increase of LTCD4+ among VC, but a significant decrease in the NC. The percentage
      of annual change in LTCD4+ was also significantly different between the groups.
      LTCD4+/LTCD8+ ratio was inverted but not significant among the VC, thus the ratio
      may be a useful biomarker for the VC. A clear signature indicated a change from
      Th1 to Th2 cytokine profiles from VC to NC, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The
      knowledge of viral controllers characteristics in different population groups is
      important to define a strict universal definition for the sake of learning about
      the pathogenesis of HIV-1. Data on LTCD4+ seems to be stable and repetitive from
      published data, but the LTCD8+ response and the significance of LTCD4+/LTCD8+
      ratio values are in need to further exploration as biomarkers. The change from
      Th1 to Th2 cytokine profile may help to design and adjust specific treatment
      protocols for the group.

PMID- 28571572
TI  - Assessment of climate-driven variations in malaria incidence in Swaziland: toward
      malaria elimination.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Swaziland aims to eliminate malaria by 2020. However, imported cases
      from neighbouring endemic countries continue to sustain local parasite reservoirs
      and initiate transmission. As certain weather and climatic conditions may trigger
      or intensify malaria outbreaks, identification of areas prone to these conditions
      may aid decision-makers in deploying targeted malaria interventions more
      effectively. METHODS: Malaria case-surveillance data for Swaziland were provided
      by Swaziland's National Malaria Control Programme. Climate data were derived from
      local weather stations and remote sensing images. Climate parameters and malaria
      cases between 2001 and 2015 were then analysed using seasonal autoregressive
      integrated moving average models and distributed lag non-linear models (DLNM).
      RESULTS: The incidence of malaria in Swaziland increased between 2005 and 2010,
      especially in the Lubombo and Hhohho regions. A time-series analysis indicated
      that warmer temperatures and higher precipitation in the Lubombo and Hhohho
      administrative regions are conducive to malaria transmission. DLNM showed that
      the risk of malaria increased in Lubombo when the maximum temperature was above
      30  degrees C or monthly precipitation was above 5 in. In Hhohho, the minimum
      temperature remaining above 15  degrees C or precipitation being greater than 10
      in. might be associated with malaria transmission. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of short-term climate variations
      on malaria transmission in Swaziland. The geographic separation of imported and
      locally acquired malaria, as well as population behaviour, highlight the varying
      modes of transmission, part of which may be relevant to climate conditions. Thus,
      the impact of changing climate conditions should be noted as Swaziland moves
      toward malaria elimination.

PMID- 28571573
TI  - Comparison of molecular serotyping approaches of Streptococcus agalactiae from
      genomic sequences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Group B streptococcus (GBS) capsular polysaccharide is one of the
      major virulence factors underlying invasive GBS disease and a component of
      forthcoming vaccines. Serotype classification of GBS is based on the capsule
      polysaccharide of which ten variants are known to exist (Ia, Ib, II-IX). Current
      methods for GBS serotype assignment rely on latex agglutination or PCR while more
      recently a whole genome sequencing method was reported. In this study, three
      distinct algorithms for serotype assignment from genomic data were assessed using
      a panel of 790 clinical isolates. METHODS: The first approach utilised the entire
      capsular locus coupled with a mapping methodology. The second approach continues
      from the first and utilised a SNP-based methodology across the conserved cpsD-G
      region to differentiate serotypes Ia-VII and IX. Finally the third approach used
      the variable cpsG -K region coupled with a mapping methodology. All three
      approaches were assessed for typeability (percentage of isolates assigned a
      serotype) and concordance to the latex agglutination methodology. RESULTS:
      Following comparisons, the third approach using the variable cpsG-K region
      demonstrated the best performance with 99.9% typeability and 86.7% concordance.
      Overall, of the 105 discordant isolates, 71 were resolved following retesting of
      latex agglutination and whole genome sequencing, 20 failed to assign a serotype
      using latex agglutination and only 14 were found to be truly discordant on re
      testing. Comparison of this final approach with the previously described assembly
      based approach returned identical results. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      demonstrated that molecular capsular typing using whole genome sequencing and a
      mapping-based approach is a viable alternative to the traditional, latex
      agglutination-based serotyping method and can be implemented in a public health
      microbiology setting.

PMID- 28571574
TI  - The use of Local Ecological Knowledge as a complementary approach to understand
      the temporal and spatial patterns of fishery resources distribution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acquiring fast and accurate information on ecological patterns of
      fishery resources is a basic first step for their management. However, some
      countries may lack the technical and/or the financial means to undergo
      traditional scientific samplings to get such information; therefore affordable
      and reliable alternatives need to be sought. METHODS: We compared two different
      approaches to identify occurrence patterns and catch for three main fish species
      caught with bottom-set gillnets used by artisanal fishers from northeast Brazil:
      (1) scientific on-board record data of small-scale fleet (n = 72 trips), and (2)
      interviews with small-scale fishers on Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) (n = 32
      interviews). We correlated (Pearson correlations) the months cited by fishers
      (LEK) as belonging to the rainy or to the dry season with observed periods of
      higher and lower precipitation (SK). The presence of the three main fish species
      at different depths was compared between LEK and SK by Spearman correlations.
      Spearman correlations were also used to compare the depths of greatest abundance
      (with the highest Capture per Unit Effort - CPUE) of these species; the CPUEs
      were descendly ordered. RESULTS: Both methods provided similar and complementary
      bathymetric patterns of species occurrence and catch. The largest catches occured
      in deeper areas, which also happened to be less intensively fished. The
      preference for fishing in shallower and less productive areas was mostly due to
      environmental factors, such as weaker currents and less drifting algae at such
      depths. CONCLUSION: Both on-board and interview methods were accurate and brought
      complementary information, even though fishers provided faster data when compared
      to scientific on-board observations. When time and funding are not limited,
      integrative approaches such as the one presented here are likely the best option
      to obtain information, otherwise fishers' LEK could be a better choice for when a
      compromise between speed, reliability and cost needs to be reached.

PMID- 28571575
TI  - Active case-finding for tuberculosis by mobile teams in Myanmar: yield and
      treatment outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2005, the Myanmar National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) has
      been implementing active case finding (ACF) activities involving mobile teams in
      hard-to-reach areas. This study revealed the contribution of mobile team
      activities to total tuberculosis (TB) case detection, characteristics of TB
      patients detected by mobile teams and their treatment outcomes. METHODS: This was
      a descriptive study using routine programme data between October 2014 and
      December 2014. Mobile team activities were a one-stop service and included
      portable digital chest radiography (CXR) and microscopy of two sputum samples.
      The algorithm of the case detection included screening patients by symptoms, then
      by CXR followed by sputum microscopy for confirmation. Diagnosed patients were
      started on treatment and followed until a final outcome was ascertained. RESULTS:
      A total of 9 349 people with symptoms suggestive of TB were screened by CXR, with
      an uptake of 96.6%. Of those who were meant to undergo sputum smear microscopy,
      51.4% had sputum examinations. Finally, 504 TB patients were identified by the
      mobile teams and the overall contribution to total TB case detection in the
      respective townships was 25.3%. Among total cases examined by microscopy, 6.4%
      were sputum smear positive TB. Treatment success rate was high as 91.8% in study
      townships compared to national rate 85% (2014 cohort). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      confirmed the feasibility and acceptability of ACF by mobile teams in hard-to
      reach contexts, especially when equipped with portable, digital CXR machines that
      provided immediate results. However, the follow-up process of sputum examination
      created a significant barrier to confirmation of the diagnosis. In order to
      optimize the ACF through mobile team activity, future ACF activities were needed
      to be strengthened one stop service including molecular diagnostics or provision
      of sputum cups to all presumptive TB cases prior to CXR and testing if CXR
      suggestive of TB.

PMID- 28571571
TI  - Renal association clinical practice guideline in post-operative care in the
      kidney transplant recipient.
AB  - These guidelines cover the care of patients from the period following kidney
      transplantation until the transplant is no longer working or the patient dies.
      During the early phase prevention of acute rejection and infection are the
      priority. After around 3-6 months, the priorities change to preservation of
      transplant function and avoiding the long-term complications of immunosuppressive
      medication (the medication used to suppress the immune system to prevent
      rejection). The topics discussed include organization of outpatient follow up,
      immunosuppressive medication, treatment of acute and chronic rejection, and
      prevention of complications. The potential complications discussed include heart
      disease, infection, cancer, bone disease and blood disorders. There is also a
      section on contraception and reproductive issues.Immediately after the
      introduction there is a statement of all the recommendations. These
      recommendations are written in a language that we think should be understandable
      by many patients, relatives, carers and other interested people. Consequently we
      have not reworded or restated them in this lay summary. They are graded 1 or 2
      depending on the strength of the recommendation by the authors, and AD depending
      on the quality of the evidence that the recommendation is based on.

PMID- 28571576
TI  - Matriptase zymogen supports epithelial development, homeostasis and regeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Matriptase is a membrane serine protease essential for epithelial
      development, homeostasis, and regeneration, as well as a central orchestrator of
      pathogenic pericellular signaling in the context of inflammatory and
      proliferative diseases. Matriptase is an unusual protease in that its zymogen
      displays measurable enzymatic activity. RESULTS: Here, we used gain and loss of
      function genetics to investigate the possible biological functions of zymogen
      matriptase. Unexpectedly, transgenic mice mis-expressing a zymogen-locked version
      of matriptase in the epidermis displayed pathologies previously reported for
      transgenic mice mis-expressing wildtype epidermal matriptase. Equally surprising,
      mice engineered to express only zymogen-locked endogenous matriptase, unlike
      matriptase null mice, were viable, developed epithelial barrier function, and
      regenerated the injured epithelium. Compatible with these observations, wildtype
      and zymogen-locked matriptase were equipotent activators of PAR-2 inflammatory
      signaling. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that the matriptase zymogen is
      biologically active and is capable of executing developmental and homeostatic
      functions of the protease.

PMID- 28571577
TI  - Protocol for the Emory University African American Vaginal, Oral, and Gut
      Microbiome in Pregnancy Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse birth and neonatal outcomes disproportionately affect African
      American women and infants compared to those of other races/ethnicities. While
      significant research has sought to identify underlying factors contributing to
      these disparities, current understanding remains limited, constraining
      prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment. With the development of next
      generation sequencing techniques, the contribution of the vaginal microbiome to
      adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes has come under consideration. However,
      most microbiome in pregnancy studies include few African American women, do not
      consider the potential contribution of non-vaginal microbiome sites, and do not
      consider the effects of sociodemographic or behavioral factors on the microbiome.
      METHODS: We conceived our on-going, 5-year longitudinal study, Biobehavioral
      Determinants of the Microbiome and Preterm Birth in Black Women, as an intra-race
      study to enable the investigation of risk and protective factors within the
      disparate group. We aim to recruit over 500 pregnant African American women,
      enrolling them into the study at 8-14 weeks of pregnancy. Participants will be
      asked to complete questionnaires and provide oral, vaginal, and gut microbiome
      samples at enrollment and again at 24-30 weeks. Chart review will be used to
      identify pregnancy outcomes, infections, treatments, and complications. DNA will
      be extracted from the microbiome samples and sequencing of the V3 and V4 regions
      of the 16S rRNA gene will be conducted. Processing and mapping will be completed
      with QIIME and operational taxonomic units (OTUs) will be mapped to Greengenes
      version 13_8. Community state types (CSTs) and diversity measures at each site
      and time will be identified and considered in light of demographic, psychosocial,
      clinical, and biobehavioral variables. DISCUSSION: This rich data set will allow
      future consideration of risk and protective factors, between and within groups of
      women, providing the opportunity to uncover the roots of the persistent health
      disparity experienced by African American families.

PMID- 28571579
TI  - How could we enhance translation of sepsis immunology to inform immunomodulation
      trials in sepsis?
AB  - Sepsis results in complex alterations to the immune system. Our understanding of
      how these alterations in immune responses could help characterize extreme immune
      phenotypes, identify biomarkers with the ability to stratify patients for
      therapeutic interventions, surrogates in the causal pathway of clinical end
      points, and treatable traits are still rudimentary. A methodologically rigorous,
      consensus-based approach should enrich sepsis immune subpopulations to increase
      the probability of successful trials.

PMID- 28571578
TI  - Immunotherapy in head and neck cancer: aiming at EXTREME precision.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Locoregionally advanced, recurrent, and metastatic squamous cell
      carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) remain difficult to treat disease
      entities, in which systemic treatment often forms an integral part of their
      management. Immunotherapy is based on functional restoration of the host immune
      system, helping to counteract various tumour evasion strategies. Broadly,
      immunotherapeutic approaches encompass tumour-specific antibodies, cancer
      vaccines, cytokines, adoptive T-cell transfer, and immune-modulating agents.
      Until 2015, the epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor cetuximab, a tumour
      specific antibody, represented the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
      approved targeted therapy for SCCHN. Subsequently, in 2016, the results from two
      prospective trials employing the immune-modulating antibodies nivolumab and
      pembrolizumab heralded a new era of anticancer treatment. DISCUSSION: Nivolumab
      and pembrolizumab are monoclonal antibodies against programmed cell death protein
      1 (PD-1), an 'immune checkpoint' receptor. Found on the surface of T-cells, PD-1
      negatively regulates their activation and can thus be exploited during
      carcinogenesis. The second-line phase III trial CheckMate-141 randomly assigned
      361 patients with recurrent and/or metastatic SCCHN in a 2:1 ratio to receive
      either single-agent nivolumab (3 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks) or standard
      monotherapy (methotrexate, docetaxel, or cetuximab). Nivolumab improved the
      objective response rate (13% versus 6%) and median overall survival (OS; 7.5
      versus 5.1 months, p = 0.01) without increasing toxicity. Exploratory biomarker
      analyses indicated that patients treated with nivolumab had longer OS than those
      given standard therapy, regardless of tumour PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) expression or
      p16 status. In the non-randomised, multicohort phase Ib study KEYNOTE-012,
      treatment with pembrolizumab achieved comparable results. Importantly, most of
      the responding patients had a long-lasting response. CONCLUSION: Based on recent
      results, nivolumab and pembrolizumab have been approved by the FDA as new
      standard-of-care options for the second-line treatment of recurrent and/or
      metastatic SCCHN. Generally well tolerated, these novel drugs demonstrated modest
      response rates, with tumour regressions usually being durable, even in platinum
      resistant/refractory cases. The next step will be to extend the observed benefit
      to first-line treatment, currently dominated by the EXTREME regimen (platinum/5
      fluorouracil/cetuximab), and to the locoregionally advanced setting, where
      concurrent chemoradiation with cisplatin is standard. Regimens combining
      immunotherapy with other modalities will probably further improve outcomes.

PMID- 28571580
TI  - Exposure to trace amounts of sulfonylurea herbicide tribenuron-methyl causes male
      sterility in 17 species or subspecies of cruciferous plants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For most cruciferous plants, which are known as important crops and a
      number of weeds, hybrid breeding is hampered by the unavailability of a
      pollination control system. Male sterility induced by a gametocide can be useful
      for the utilization of plant heterosis. RESULTS: The gametocidal effect of
      sulfonylurea herbicide tribenuron-methyl was tested across seventeen cruciferous
      species or subspecies including Brassica juncea, B. carinata, B. oleracea ssp.
      capitata, B. oleracea ssp. acephala, B. rapa ssp. pekinensis, B. rapa ssp.
      chinensis, B. rapa ssp. parachinensis, B. nigra, Orychophragmus violaceus,
      Matthiola incana, Raphanus sativa, Sisymbrium altissimum, Eruca sativa, Sinapis
      alba, Sinapis arvensis, Capsella bursa-pastoris and Camelina sativa. The plants
      of 23 cultivars in these species or subspecies were foliar sprayed with 10 ml of
      0.2 or 0.4 mg/L of tribenuron-methyl before the vacuolated microspore formed in
      the largest flower buds; the application was repeated ten to twelve days
      afterwards. Tribenuron-methyl exposure significantly changed the flowering
      phenology and reproductive function. The treated plants demonstrated a one to
      four day delay in flowering time and a shortened duration of flowering, as well
      as other slight phytotoxic effects including a reduction in plant height and
      floral organ size. Approximately 80% to 100% male sterility, which was estimated
      by both pollen staining and selfing seed-set rate, was induced in the plants. As
      a result, plants were rendered functionally able to out-cross, with an average
      87% and 54% manually pollinated seed-set rate compared to the corresponding
      controls at the 0.2 mg/L and 0.4 mg/L doses, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results suggested that male reproductive function was much more sensitive to
      tribenuron-methyl exposure than female function. This sulfonylurea herbicide has
      a promising use as the gametocide for hybrid production in cruciferous plants.

PMID- 28571581
TI  - Erratum to Protective intraoperative ventilation with higher versus lower levels
      of positive end-expiratory pressure in obese patients (PROBESE): study protocol
      for a randomized controlled trial.

PMID- 28571582
TI  - The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series:
      questions 31-39 : Edited by Chinese Journal of Cancer.
AB  - To accelerate our endeavors to overcome cancer, Chinese Journal of Cancer has
      launched a program of publishing 150 most important questions in cancer research
      and clinical oncology. In this article, 9 more questions are presented as
      follows. Question 31: How does aging process inhibit the formation of sarcoma?
      Question 32: Is intratumoral morphological heterogeneity the consequence of tumor
      genomic instability or the cause of aggressive tumor behavior? Can we identify
      more aggressive tumors by computationally analyzing the morphological
      heterogeneity of the tumor tissues? Question 33: How to pre-surgically
      differentiate irradiation-induced ulceration from cancerous ulceration? Question
      34: Why is epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) 19 Del-positive tumor more
      sensitive to targeted therapy than EGFR 21 L858R-positive tumor in patients with
      non-small cell lung cancer? Question 35: Can an Epstein-Barr virus vaccine be
      developed to reduce the incidence of EBV-related malignancies? Question 36: What
      is the unique feature in sarcoma vasculature that causes the intrinsic resistance
      of sarcoma against anti-angiogenic therapy? Question 37: How many ways can
      sarcoma cells protect themselves from the attacks of cytotoxic drugs? Question
      38: How stable does the tumor heterogeneity remain along with cytotoxic
      chemotherapy? Question 39: How to generate a prognostic classifier for diffuse
      low-grade gliomas by integrating genetic and epigenetic signatures with
      histological features?

PMID- 28571583
TI  - Effect of user preferences on ITN use: a review of literature and data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) are the primary tool for vector
      control, and optimizing ITN use is a key concern of national programmes.
      Available evidence indicates that bed net users often have preferences for shape,
      colour, size, and other attributes, but it is unclear whether these preferences
      are strong enough to have any significant effect on bed net use, and whether
      countries and donors should invest in more expensive attributes in order to
      maximize ITN use. The link between bed net attributes, preferences, and use was
      investigated using a literature review and review of publicly available,
      nationally representative household surveys from sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: A
      literature search was conducted to identify publications with data on preferences
      for net attributes and on associations between net attributes and use. Publicly
      available DHS and MIS datasets were screened for variables on net preferences and
      net attributes. Wald tests were run to obtain odds ratios and confidence
      intervals for the use of nets of various attributes in univariate analysis. A
      multilevel logistic regression was constructed to assess the odds of a net's use,
      controlling for background variables and adding random effects variables at the
      household and cluster level. RESULTS: Preferences for certain net attributes
      exist, but do not impede high rates of net use in countries where data were
      available. Stated preferences for shape and colour do not significantly influence
      net use to degrees that would require action by programme planners. By and large,
      people are using the nets they receive, and when they do not, it is for reasons
      unrelated to shape and size (primarily perceived mosquito density, heat or an
      excess of nets). Households in higher wealth quintiles tend to own greater
      numbers of conical nets, indicating that they have the ability to obtain or
      purchase these nets on their own, and individuals resident in higher wealth
      quintile households also use conical nets preferentially. CONCLUSIONS: The
      increased manufacturing costs for conical nets are not outweighed by the very
      small, often non-existent, increases in use rates in sub-Saharan Africa.
      Programmes that wish to explore the relationship between net attributes,
      preferences and use rates should include these questions in nationally
      representative household surveys to be able to capture trends across geographic
      and socio-economic groups.

PMID- 28571584
TI  - Spotlight on landmark oncology trials: the latest evidence and novel trial
      designs.
AB  - The era of precision oncology is marked with prominent successes in the therapy
      of advanced soft tissue sarcomas, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and
      haematological neoplasms, among others. Moreover, recent trials of immune
      checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, and head and
      neck cancers have significantly influenced the therapeutic landscape by providing
      promising evidence for immunotherapy efficacy in the adjuvant setting in high
      risk locoregional disease. To speed up the introduction of targeted therapy for
      cancer patients, novel phase II trials are being designed, and may likely form
      the basis for the 'landmark trials' of the future. A special article collection
      in BMC Medicine, "Spotlight on landmark oncology trials", features articles from
      invited experts on recent clinical practice-changing trials.

PMID- 28571585
TI  - Number needed to treat (NNT) in clinical literature: an appraisal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number needed to treat (NNT) is an absolute effect measure that
      has been used to assess beneficial and harmful effects of medical interventions.
      Several methods can be used to calculate NNTs, and they should be applied
      depending on the different study characteristics, such as the design and type of
      variable used to measure outcomes. Whether or not the most recommended methods
      have been applied to calculate NNTs in studies published in the medical
      literature is yet to be determined. The aim of this study is to assess whether
      the methods used to calculate NNTs in studies published in medical journals are
      in line with basic methodological recommendations. METHODS: The top 25 high
      impact factor journals in the "General and/or Internal Medicine" category were
      screened to identify studies assessing pharmacological interventions and
      reporting NNTs. Studies were categorized according to their design and the type
      of variables. NNTs were assessed for completeness (baseline risk, time horizon,
      and confidence intervals [CIs]). The methods used for calculating NNTs in
      selected studies were compared to basic methodological recommendations published
      in the literature. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The
      search returned 138 citations, of which 51 were selected. Most were meta-analyses
      (n = 23, 45.1%), followed by clinical trials (n = 17, 33.3%), cohort (n = 9,
      17.6%), and case-control studies (n = 2, 3.9%). Binary variables were more common
      (n = 41, 80.4%) than time-to-event (n = 10, 19.6%) outcomes. Twenty-six studies
      (51.0%) reported only NNT to benefit (NNTB), 14 (27.5%) reported both NNTB and
      NNT to harm (NNTH), and 11 (21.6%) reported only NNTH. Baseline risk (n = 37,
      72.5%), time horizon (n = 38, 74.5%), and CI (n = 32, 62.7%) for NNTs were not
      always reported. Basic methodological recommendations to calculate NNTs were not
      followed in 15 studies (29.4%). The proportion of studies applying non
      recommended methods was particularly high for meta-analyses (n = 13, 56.5%).
      CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of studies, particularly meta-analyses,
      applied methods that are not in line with basic methodological recommendations.
      Despite their usefulness in assisting clinical decisions, NNTs are
      uninterpretable if incompletely reported, and they may be misleading if
      calculating methods are inadequate to study designs and variables under
      evaluation. Further research is needed to confirm the present findings.

PMID- 28571588
TI  - Expression profiling indicating low selenium-sensitive microRNA levels linked to
      cell cycle and cell stress response pathways in the CaCo-2 cell line.
AB  - Se is an essential micronutrient for human health, and fluctuations in Se levels
      and the potential cellular dysfunction associated with it may increase the risk
      for disease. Although Se has been shown to influence several biological pathways
      important in health, little is known about the effect of Se on the expression of
      microRNA (miRNA) molecules regulating these pathways. To explore the potential
      role of Se-sensitive miRNA in regulating pathways linked with colon cancer, we
      profiled the expression of 800 miRNA in the CaCo-2 human adenocarcinoma cell line
      in response to a low-Se (72 h at <40 nm) environment using nCounter direct
      quantification. These data were then examined using a range of in silico
      databases to identify experimentally validated miRNA-mRNA interactions and the
      biological pathways involved. We identified ten Se-sensitive miRNA (hsa-miR-93
      5p, hsa-miR-106a-5p, hsa-miR-205-5p, hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-99b-5p, hsa-miR
      302d-3p, hsa-miR-373-3p, hsa-miR-483-3p, hsa-miR-512-5p and hsa-miR-4454), which
      regulate 3588 mRNA in key pathways such as the cell cycle, the cellular response
      to stress, and the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin, p53 and ERK/MAPK signalling
      pathways. Our data show that the effects of low Se on biological pathways may, in
      part, be due to these ten Se-sensitive miRNA. Dysregulation of the cell cycle and
      of the stress response pathways due to low Se may influence key genes involved in
      carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28571586
TI  - Complement C5a-C5aR1 signalling drives skeletal muscle macrophage recruitment in
      the hSOD1G93A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The terminal pathway of the innate immune complement system is
      implicated in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Terminal
      complement activation leads to generation of C5a, which through its receptor,
      C5aR1, drives immune cell recruitment and activation. Importantly, genetic or
      pharmacological blockage of C5aR1 improves motor performance and reduces disease
      pathology in hSOD1G93A rodent models of ALS. In this study, we aimed to explore
      the potential mechanisms of C5aR1-mediated pathology in hSOD1G93A mice by
      examining their skeletal muscles. RESULTS: We found elevated levels of C1qB, C4,
      fB, C3, C5a, and C5aR1 in tibialis anterior muscles of hSOD1G93A mice, which
      increased with disease progression. Macrophage cell numbers also progressively
      increased in hSOD1G93A muscles in line with disease progression. Immuno
      localisation demonstrated that C5aR1 was expressed predominantly on macrophages
      within hSOD1G93A skeletal muscles. Notably, hSOD1G93A * C5aR1-/- mice showed
      markedly decreased numbers of infiltrating macrophages, along with reduced
      neuromuscular denervation and improved grip strength in hind limb skeletal
      muscles, when compared to hSOD1G93A mice. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that
      terminal complement activation and C5a production occur in skeletal muscle tissue
      of hSOD1G93A mice, and that C5a-C5aR1 signalling contributes to the recruitment
      of macrophages that may accelerate muscle denervation in these ALS mice.

PMID- 28571587
TI  - Supplementation of grazing beef cows during gestation as a strategy to improve
      skeletal muscle development of the offspring.
AB  - The appropriate supply of nutrients in pregnant cows has been associated with the
      optimal development of foetal tissues, performance of their progeny and their
      meat quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate supplementation effects of
      grazing cows in different stages of gestation on skeletal muscle development and
      performance of the progeny. Thereby, 27 Nellore cows were divided into three
      groups (n=9 for each group) and their progeny as follows: UNS, unsupplemented
      during gestation; MID, supplemented from 30 to 180 days of gestation; LATE,
      supplemented from 181 to 281 days of gestation. The percentage composition of the
      supplement provided for the matrices was the following: ground corn (26.25%),
      wheat bran (26.25%) and soya bean meal (47.5%). The supplement was formulated to
      contain 30% CP. Supplemented matrices received 150 kg of supplement (1 and 1.5
      kg/day for cows in the MID and LATE groups, respectively). After birth, a biopsy
      was performed to obtain samples of skeletal muscle tissue from calves to
      determine number and size of muscle fibres and for messenger RNA (mRNA)
      expression analysis. The percentage composition of the supplement provided for
      the progeny was the following: ground corn grain (30%), wheat bran (30%), soya
      bean meal (35%) and molasses (5%). The supplement was formulated to contain 25%
      CP and offered in an amount of 6 g/kg BW. Performance of the progeny was
      monitored throughout the suckling period. Means were submitted to ANOVA and
      regression, and UNS, MID and LATE periods of supplementation were compared.
      Differences were considered at P0.10). Similarly, no differences were observed
      between calves for nutrient intake (P>0.10). However, greater subcutaneous fat
      thickness (P=0.006) was observed in the calves of LATE group. The ribeye area
      (P=0.077) was greater in calves born from supplemented compared with UNS cows.
      The supplementation of pregnant cows did not affect the muscle fibre size of
      their progeny (P=0.208). On the other hand, calves born from dams supplemented at
      mid-gestation had greater muscle fibre number (P=0.093) compared with calves from
      UNS group. Greater mRNA expression of peroxysome proliferator-activated receptor
      alpha (P=0.073) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (P=0.003) was observed in the
      calves born from MID cows. Although strategic supplementation did not affect the
      BW of offspring, it did cause changes in carcass traits, number of myofibres, and
      mRNA expression of a muscle hypertrophy and lipid oxidation markers in skeletal
      muscle of the offspring.

PMID- 28571589
TI  - Computer-Assisted Antimicrobial Recommendations for Optimal Therapy: Analysis of
      Prescribing Errors in an Antimicrobial Stewardship Trial.
AB  - Clinician education and prospective audit and feedback interventions, deployed
      separately and concurrently, did not reduce antimicrobial use errors or rates
      compared to a control group of general medicine inpatients at our public
      hospital. Additional research is needed to define the optimal scope and intensity
      of hospital antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Infect Control Hosp
      Epidemiol 2017;38:857-859.

PMID- 28571591
TI  - Dietary inflammatory index and risk of reflux oesophagitis, Barrett's oesophagus
      and oesophageal adenocarcinoma: a population-based case-control study.
AB  - The dietary inflammatory index (DIITM) is a novel composite score based on a
      range of nutrients and foods known to be associated with inflammation. DII scores
      have been linked to the risk of a number of cancers, including oesophageal
      squamous cell cancer and oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). Given that OAC stems
      from acid reflux and that the oesophageal epithelium undergoes a metaplasia
      dysplasia transition from the resulting inflammation, it is plausible that a high
      DII score (indicating a pro-inflammatory diet) may exacerbate risk of OAC and its
      precursor conditions. The aim of this analytical study was to explore the
      association between energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DIITM) in
      relation to risk of reflux oesophagitis, Barrett's oesophagus and OAC. Between
      2002 and 2005, reflux oesophagitis (n 219), Barrett's oesophagus (n 220) and OAC
      (n 224) patients, and population-based controls (n 256), were recruited to the
      Factors influencing the Barrett's Adenocarcinoma Relationship study in Northern
      Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. E-DII scores were derived from a 101-item
      FFQ. Unconditional logistic regression analysis was applied to determine odds of
      oesophageal lesions according to E-DII intakes, adjusting for potential
      confounders. High E-DII scores were associated with borderline increase in odds
      of reflux oesophagitis (OR 1.87; 95 % CI 0.93, 3.73), and significantly increased
      odds of Barrett's oesophagus (OR 2.05; 95 % CI 1.22, 3.47), and OAC (OR 2.29; 95
      % CI 1.32, 3.96), when comparing the highest with the lowest tertiles of E-DII
      scores. In conclusion, a pro-inflammatory diet may exacerbate the risk of the
      inflammation-metaplasia-adenocarcinoma pathway in oesophageal carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28571592
TI  - Hyperkinesia in ancient China: perspectives and prescriptions.

PMID- 28571593
TI  - Structure, signaling and the drug discovery of the Ras oncogene protein.
AB  - Mutations in Ras GTPase are among the most common genetic alterations in human
      cancers. Despite extensive research investigating Ras proteins, their functions
      still remain a challenge over a long period of time. The currently available data
      suggests that solving the outstanding issues regarding Ras could lead to
      development of effective drugs that could have a significant impact on cancer
      treatment. Developing a better understanding of their biochemical properties or
      modes of action, along with improvements in their pharmacologic profiles,
      clinical design and scheduling will enable the development of more effective
      therapies. [BMB Reports 2017; 50(7): 355-360].

PMID- 28571595
TI  - Message from the Board.

PMID- 28571596
TI  - American association of heart failure nurses (AAHFN) position statement on
      patient access to healthcare.

PMID- 28571594
TI  - Dual TORCs driven and B56 orchestrated signaling network guides eukaryotic cell
      migration.
AB  - Different types of eukaryotic cells may adopt seemingly distinct modes of
      directional cell migration. However, several core aspects are regarded common
      whether the movement is either ameoboidal or mesenchymal. The region of cells
      facing the attractive signal is often termed leading edge where lamellipodial
      structures dominates and the other end of the cell called rear end is often
      mediating cytoskeletal F-actin contraction involving Myosin-II. Dynamic
      remodeling of cell-to-matrix adhesion involving integrin is also evident in many
      types of migrating cells. All these three aspects of cell migration are
      significantly affected by signaling networks of TorC2, TorC1, and PP2A/B56. Here
      we review the current views of the mechanistic understanding of these regulatory
      signaling networks and how these networks affect eukaryotic cell migration. [BMB
      Reports 2017; 50(9): 437-444].

PMID- 28571598
TI  - Breaking Bad: The Heartbreak of Drug Abuse.

PMID- 28571597
TI  - Clinical Characteristics, Histopathological Features, and Clinical Outcome of
      Methamphetamine-Associated Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess characteristics including endomyocardial
      biopsy and outcome of patients with methamphetamine (MA)-associated
      cardiomyopathy in a series of patients treated in Germany. BACKGROUND: MA abuse
      is an increasing problem worldwide. METHODS: The cases of 30 consecutive MA
      abusing patients with a left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction of <40% and
      endomyocardial biopsy performed at initial diagnosis were analyzed. Baseline
      characteristics were collected retrospectively, whereas follow-up was
      prospective. The primary endpoint was a composite of death, nonfatal stroke, and
      rehospitalization for heart failure. RESULTS: Patients were 30.3 +/- 1.9 years of
      age, predominantly male (93.3%), and highly symptomatic; 83.3% had New York Heart
      Association functional class III or IV dyspnea. Echocardiography revealed marked
      LV dilatation (mean LV end-diastolic diameter 67.1 +/- 7.4 mm) and impaired LV
      ejection fraction (mean 19 +/- 6%). One-third of the patients had
      intraventricular thrombi. Endomyocardial biopsy revealed markers of inflammation
      and fibrosis; the fibrosis correlated with the duration of MA abuse. At follow
      up, discontinuation of MA abuse together with medical therapy partially improved
      cardiac function (LV ejection fraction, 19 +/- 6 vs. 43 +/- 13; p < 0.001) and
      symptoms (p = 0.056), whereas patients with continued abuse did not show any
      improvement. The improvement in cardiac function was independently associated
      with the extent of fibrosis. The primary endpoint occurred more often in patients
      with continued MA abuse (57.1% vs. 13.0%; p = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: MA-associated
      cardiomyopathy is characterized by severe heart failure and depressed cardiac
      function. The extent of myocardial fibrosis seems to predict the recoverability
      of LV function. Cessation of MA abuse is associated with improvement in cardiac
      function and symptoms, whereas continued MA abuse leads to ongoing heart failure
      and worse outcome.

PMID- 28571599
TI  - Patients Not Meeting PARADIGM-HF Enrollment Criteria Are Eligible for
      Sacubitril/Valsartan on the Basis of FDA Approval: The Need to Close the Gap.

PMID- 28571600
TI  - Development of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Therapies: Is the Journey Over?

PMID- 28571601
TI  - Decreased Mortality With Beta-Blockers in Patients With Heart Failure and
      Coexisting Atrial Fibrillation.

PMID- 28571602
TI  - Reply: Decreased Mortality With Beta-Blockers in Patients With Heart Failure and
      Coexisting Atrial Fibrillation.

PMID- 28571603
TI  - All Roads Lead to Rome: Myocardial Fibrosis.

PMID- 28571604
TI  - Is Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction by Echo in Patients With Atrial
      Fibrillation Reliable?

PMID- 28571606
TI  - ?

PMID- 28571605
TI  - Survivorship After Cancer.

PMID- 28571607
TI  - The theory of change of the evaluation support program: Enhancing the role of
      community organizations in providing an ecology of care for neurological
      disorders.
AB  - This paper discusses the Ontario Brain Institute's theory of change for the
      Evaluation Support Program, a program designed to enhance the role of community
      organizations in providing care and services for people living with a brain
      disorder. This is done by helping community organizations build evaluation
      capacity and foster the use of evidence to inform their activities and services.
      Helping organizations to build capacities to track the 'key ingredients' of their
      successes will help ensure that successes are replicated and services can be
      improved to maximize the benefit that people receive from them. This paper
      describes the hypothesized outcomes and early impacts of the Evaluation Support
      Program, as well as how the program will contribute to the field of evaluation
      capacity building.

PMID- 28571608
TI  - Editorial for special issue - 'Improving cyclist safety through scientific
      research'.

PMID- 28571609
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28571610
TI  - [Erosive pustular dermatosis].

PMID- 28571611
TI  - Incorporation of ion and solvent structure into mean-field modeling of the
      electric double layer.
AB  - An electric double layer forms when the small mobile ions of an electrolyte
      interact with an extended charged object, a macroion. The competition between
      electrostatic attraction and translational entropy loss of the small ions results
      in a diffuse layer of partially immobilized ions in the vicinity of the macroion.
      Modeling structure and energy of the electric double layer has a long history
      that has lead to the classical Poisson-Boltzmann theory and numerous extensions
      that account for ion-ion correlations and structural ion and solvent properties.
      The present review focuses on approaches that instead of going beyond the mean
      field character of Poisson-Boltzmann theory introduce structural details of the
      ions and the solvent into the Poisson-Boltzmann modeling framework. The former
      include not only excluded volume effects but also the presence of charge
      distributions on individual ions, spatially extended ions, and internal ionic
      degrees of freedom. The latter treat the solvent either explicitly as interacting
      Langevin dipoles or in the form of effective non-electrostatic interactions, in
      particular Yukawa interactions, that are added to the Coulomb potential. We
      discuss how various theoretical models predict structural properties of the
      electric double layer such as the differential capacitance and compare some of
      these predictions with computer simulations.

PMID- 28571612
TI  - Microbiological quality of Argentinian paprika.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of paprika
      produced in Catamarca, Argentina. Microbiological analyses were carried out for
      the enumeration of total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, coliforms, yeasts and
      molds, and the detection of Salmonella in samples obtained from different local
      producers during three consecutive years. The mycobiota was identified paying
      special attention to the mycotoxigenic molds. Standard plate counts of aerobic
      mesophilic bacteria ranged from 2.7*105 to 3.7*107CFU/g. Coliform counts ranged
      from <10 to 8.1*104CFU/g. Salmonella was not detected in any of the samples
      tested. Fungal counts (including yeasts and molds) ranged between 2*102 and
      1.9*105CFU/g. These results showed a high level of microbial contamination,
      exceeding in several samples the maximum limits set in international food
      regulations. The study of the mycobiota demonstrated that Aspergillus was the
      predominant genus and Aspergillus niger (potential producer of ochratoxin A) the
      most frequently isolated species, followed by Aspergillus flavus (potential
      producer of aflatoxins). Other species of potential toxigenic fungi such as
      Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus westerdijkiae, Penicillium chrysogenum,
      Penicillium crustosum, Penicillium commune, Penicillium expansum and Alternaria
      tenuissima species group were encountered as part of the mycobiota of the paprika
      samples indicating a risk of mycotoxin contamination. A. westerdijkiae was
      isolated for the first time in Argentina.

PMID- 28571614
TI  - Canis familiaris As a Model for Non-Invasive Comparative Neuroscience.
AB  - There is an ongoing need to improve animal models for investigating human
      behavior and its biological underpinnings. The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is
      a promising model in cognitive neuroscience. However, before it can contribute to
      advances in this field in a comparative, reliable, and valid manner, several
      methodological issues warrant attention. We review recent non-invasive canine
      neuroscience studies, primarily focusing on (i) variability among dogs and
      between dogs and humans in cranial characteristics, and (ii) generalizability
      across dog and dog-human studies. We argue not for methodological uniformity but
      for functional comparability between methods, experimental designs, and neural
      responses. We conclude that the dog may become an innovative and unique model in
      comparative neuroscience, complementing more traditional models.

PMID- 28571615
TI  - Reinforcement Learning: Computing the Temporal Difference of Values via Distinct
      Corticostriatal Pathways: (Trends in Neurosciences 35, 457-467; 2012).

PMID- 28571616
TI  - Advances in translational inner ear stem cell research.
AB  - Stem cell research is expanding our understanding of developmental biology as
      well as promising the development of new therapies for a range of different
      diseases. Within hearing research, the use of stem cells has focused mainly on
      cell replacement. Stem cells however have a broad range of other potential
      applications that are just beginning to be explored in the ear. Mesenchymal stem
      cells are an adult derived stem cell population that have been shown to produce
      growth factors, modulate the immune system and can differentiate into a wide
      variety of tissue types. Potential advantages of mesenchymal/adult stem cells are
      that they have no ethical constraints on their use. However, appropriate
      regulatory oversight seems necessary in order to protect patients from side
      effects. Disadvantages may be the lack of efficacy in many preclinical studies.
      But if proven safe and efficacious, they are easily translatable to clinical
      trials. The current review will focus on the potential application on mesenchymal
      stem cells for the treatment of inner ear disorders.

PMID- 28571617
TI  - Brain activity underlying the recovery of meaning from degraded speech: A
      functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to establish whether functional near-infrared
      spectroscopy (fNIRS), an emerging brain-imaging technique based on optical
      principles, is suitable for studying the brain activity that underlies effortful
      listening. In an event-related fNIRS experiment, normally-hearing adults listened
      to sentences that were either clear or degraded (noise vocoded). These sentences
      were presented simultaneously with a non-speech distractor, and on each trial
      participants were instructed to attend either to the speech or to the distractor.
      The primary region of interest for the fNIRS measurements was the left inferior
      frontal gyrus (LIFG), a cortical region involved in higher-order language
      processing. The fNIRS results confirmed findings previously reported in the
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature. Firstly, the LIFG
      exhibited an elevated response to degraded versus clear speech, but only when
      attention was directed towards the speech. This attention-dependent increase in
      frontal brain activation may be a neural marker for effortful listening.
      Secondly, during attentive listening to degraded speech, the haemodynamic
      response peaked significantly later in the LIFG than in superior temporal cortex,
      possibly reflecting the engagement of working memory to help reconstruct the
      meaning of degraded sentences. The homologous region in the right hemisphere may
      play an equivalent role to the LIFG in some left-handed individuals. In
      conclusion, fNIRS holds promise as a flexible tool to examine the neural
      signature of effortful listening.

PMID- 28571613
TI  - Declining Skeletal Muscle Function in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present review highlights current concepts regarding the effects of
      diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in skeletal muscle. It discusses the lack of
      effective pharmacologic treatments and the role of physical exercise intervention
      in limb protection and symptom reversal. It also highlights the importance of
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques in providing a mechanistic
      understanding of the disease and helping develop targeted treatments. METHODS:
      This review provides a comprehensive reporting on the effects of DPN in the
      skeletal muscle of patients with diabetes. It also provides an update on the most
      recent trials of exercise intervention targeting DPN pathology. Lastly, we report
      on emerging MRI techniques that have shown promise in providing a mechanistic
      understanding of DPN and can help improve the design and implementation of
      clinical trials in the future. FINDINGS: Impairments in lower limb muscles reduce
      functional capacity and contribute to altered gait, increased fall risk, and
      impaired balance in patients with DPN. This finding is an important concern for
      patients with DPN because their falls are likely to be injurious and lead to bone
      fractures, poorly healing wounds, and chronic infections that may require
      amputation. Preliminary studies have shown that moderate-intensity exercise
      programs are well tolerated by patients with DPN. They can improve their
      cardiorespiratory function and partially reverse some of the symptoms of DPN. MRI
      has the potential to bring new mechanistic insights into the effects of DPN as
      well as to objectively measure small changes in DPN pathology as a result of
      intervention. IMPLICATIONS: Noninvasive exercise intervention is particularly
      valuable in DPN because of its safety, low cost, and potential to augment
      pharmacologic interventions. As we gain a better mechanistic understanding of the
      disease, more targeted and effective interventions can be designed.

PMID- 28571619
TI  - Elevated NT-proBNP is associated with unfavorably altered plasma fibrin clot
      properties in atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dense fibrin clot formation and hypofibrinolysis have been reported
      in atrial fibrillation (AF). It is unclear which factors affect fibrin clot
      properties in AF. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated plasma fibrin clot
      permeability (Ks), clot lysis time (CLT), endogenous thrombin potential (ETP) as
      well as other coagulation and fibrinolysis parameters along with N-terminal pro-B
      type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in 160 AF patients (median age, 70.5years).
      Previous stroke (n=15; 9.4%) was associated with decreased Ks (P=0.04) and longer
      CLT (P=0.005), together with higher antiplasmin (P=0.03) and lower tissue-type
      plasminogen activator (P=0.01). Lower Ks (P=0.04) and tendency towards longer CLT
      (P=0.10) were observed in patients with a left atrium diameter>40mm. Patients
      with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 3 or more (82.5%) were characterized by higher
      thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor antigen (P=0.009). Ks was inversely
      correlated with log NT-proBNP (r=-0.34, P<0.0001), plasminogen activator
      inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen (r=-0.24, P=0.002) and C-reactive protein (r=-0.18,
      P=0.02), while CLT was positively correlated with log NT-proBNP (R=0.61,
      P<0.0001) and ETP (r=0.37, P<0.0001), which were interrelated (r=0.59, P<0.0001).
      After adjustment for potential confounders, PAI-1 (odds ratio [OR]: 1.14; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.26) was the only independent predictor of low Ks
      (the lowest quartile,<=6*10-9cm2), while NT-proBNP (OR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.12-1.31)
      and PAI-1 (OR: 1.30; 95% CI: 1.12-1.51) both predicted prolonged CLT (the top
      quartile,>=109min). CONCLUSION: In AF patients prothrombotic fibrin clot
      properties assessed ex vivo are determined by PAI-1 and NT-proBNP and this
      phenotype is associated with prior ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28571618
TI  - Repetitive use of levosimendan in advanced heart failure: need for stronger
      evidence in a field in dire need of a useful therapy.
AB  - Patients in the latest stages of heart failure are severely compromised, with
      poor quality of life and frequent hospitalizations. Heart transplantation and
      left ventricular assist device implantation are viable options only for a
      minority, and intermittent or continuous infusions of positive inotropes may be
      needed as a bridge therapy or as a symptomatic approach. In these settings,
      levosimendan has potential advantages over conventional inotropes (catecholamines
      and phosphodiesterase inhibitors), such as sustained effects after initial
      infusion, synergy with beta-blockers, and no increase in oxygen consumption.
      Levosimendan has been suggested as a treatment that reduces re-hospitalization
      and improves quality of life. However, previous clinical studies of intermittent
      infusions of levosimendan were not powered to show statistical significance on
      key outcome parameters. A panel of 45 expert clinicians from 12 European
      countries met in Rome on November 24-25, 2016 to review the literature and
      envision an appropriately designed clinical trial addressing these needs. In the
      earlier FIGHT trial (daily subcutaneous injection of liraglutide in heart failure
      patients with reduced ejection fraction) a composite Global Rank Score was used
      as primary end-point where death, re-hospitalization, and change in N-terminal
      prohormone-brain natriuretic peptide level were considered in a hierarchical
      order. In the present study, we tested the same end-point post hoc in the PERSIST
      and LEVOREP trials on oral and repeated i.v. levosimendan, respectively, and
      demonstrated superiority of levosimendan treatment vs placebo. The use of the
      same composite end-point in a properly powered study on repetitive levosimendan
      in advanced heart failure is strongly advocated.

PMID- 28571620
TI  - Cardiovascular risk and hypertension control in Italy. Data from the 2015 World
      Hypertension Day.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the first cause of death and
      disability in western countries. Despite therapeutic advances, their prevalence
      is constantly increasing. Detailed assessment of modifiable CV risk factors could
      improve CVD prevention and management. METHODS: to assess CV risk and
      hypertension control in a sample of the Italian population, individuals
      participating to the 2015 "World Hypertension Day" were interviewed in 62sites
      all over Italy. Blood pressure was measured with a validated auscultatory or
      oscillometric device and information on demography and prevalence of CVD risk
      factors was collected by an anonymous questionnaire. An ad-hoc modified version
      of the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) system was then applied.
      RESULTS: 8657 recruited individuals (43%women, aged 56.68+/-16years) were
      subdivided into 3 age groups (40-49y, 50-59y, 60-69y) for analysis. CV risk was
      low in 62.4%, 18.0% and 0%; moderate in 26.0%, 66.0% and 62.5%; high/very high in
      11.6%, 16% and 37.4%, respectively. Smoking was mainly responsible for increased
      CV risk among those aged 40-49y (26%smokers), while hypertension was the main
      factor in the whole sample and in subjects over 50y (36% and 42% respectively).
      Overall, BP control was unsatisfactory in 36% of individuals (28%, 48% and 31% of
      those who declared to be normotensive, hypertensive on treatment or unaware of
      their BP condition, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of the Italian
      population, CV risk was alarmingly high, irrespectively of age, mostly due to
      presence of modifiable risk factors, including hypertension, which should thus be
      better addressed, especially in the youngsters.

PMID- 28571622
TI  - Reprint of: Development of methods for avian oil toxicity studies using the
      double crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).
AB  - Oral and external dosing methods replicating field exposure were developed using
      the double crested cormorant (DCCO) to test the toxicity of artificially
      weathered Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon 252 oil. The majority of previous
      oil dosing studies conducted on wild-caught birds used gavage methods to dose
      birds with oil and determine toxicity. However, rapid gut transit time of gavaged
      oil likely reduces oil absorption. In the present studies, dosing relied on
      injection of oil into live feeder fish for oral dosing of these piscivorous
      birds, or applying oil to body contour feathers resulting in transdermal oil
      exposure and oral exposure through preening. Both oral and external oil dosing
      studies identified oil-related toxicity endpoints associated with oxidative
      stress such as hemolytic anemia, liver and kidney damage, and immuno-modulation
      or compromise. External oil application allowed for controlled study of
      thermoregulatory stress as well. Infrared thermal images indicated significantly
      greater surface temperatures and heat loss in treated birds following external
      oil applications; however, measurements collected by coelomically implanted
      temperature transmitters showed that internal body temperatures were stable over
      the course of the study period. Birds exposed to oil externally consumed more
      fish than control birds, indicating metabolic compensation for thermal stress.
      Conversely, birds orally dosed with oil experienced hypothermia and consumed less
      fish compared to control birds.

PMID- 28571623
TI  - Reprint of: Assay Validation of the Cardiac Isoform of Troponin I in Double
      Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) Plasma for Diagnosis of Cardiac Damage.
AB  - Cardiac abnormalities, initially found in Deepwater Horizon weathered MC252 crude
      oil exposed Double Crested Cormorants (DCCOs) upon gross necropsy, were further
      investigated using echocardiography. Clinical and statistically significant
      changes including decreased ventricular myocardial contractility and arrhythmia
      were elucidated by echocardiography and interpreted by boarded cardiologists as
      potentially life threatening. The objective of this investigation was to initiate
      development of an antemortem, sensitive blood screening test for cardiac damage
      due to oil exposure of avian species. An assay for the cardiac isoform of
      troponin I (cTnI) which is known to be highly cross-reactive across mammalian
      species was chosen and analytically validated in DCCO. This is the first time
      this test has been analytically validated in avian species. All plasma samples
      from birds assessed as healthy had trace concentrations (<0.016ng/ml). The assays
      was precise and accurate revealing a coefficient of variation <3% and an R2>0.99.
      Diagnostic investigation revealed that the test appears to have diagnostic
      potential for the diagnosis of cardiomyocyte damage. Diagnostic sensitivity and
      specificity were 91% and 73% in this laboratory population. Due to an equivocal
      sample population in which health could not be proven, further investigation is
      needed to diagnostically validate troponin I in the assessment of oil exposure in
      DCCO.

PMID- 28571624
TI  - Reprint of: CYP1A protein expression and catalytic activity in double-crested
      cormorants experimentally exposed to Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon 252
      oil.
AB  - Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus, DCCO) were orally exposed to
      Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon 252 (DWH) oil to investigate oil-induced
      toxicological impacts. Livers were collected for multiple analyses including
      cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) enzymatic activity and protein expression. CYP1A
      enzymatic activity was measured by alkoxyresorufin O-dealkylase (AROD) assays.
      Activities specific to the O-dealkylation of four resorufin ethers are reported:
      benzyloxyresorufin O-debenzylase (BROD), ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD),
      methoxyresorufin O-demethylase (MROD), and pentoxyresorufin O-depentylase (PROD).
      CYP1A protein expression was measured by western blot analysis with a CYP1A1
      mouse monoclonal antibody. In study 1, hepatic BROD, EROD, and PROD activities
      were significantly induced in DCCO orally exposed to 20ml/kg body weight (bw) oil
      as a single dose or daily for 5 days. Western blot analysis revealed hepatic
      CYP1A protein induction in both treatment groups. In study 2 (5ml/kg bw oil or
      10ml/kg bw oil, 21day exposure), all four hepatic ARODs were significantly
      induced. Western blots showed an increase in hepatic CYP1A expression in both
      treatment groups with a significant induction in birds exposed to 10ml/kg oil.
      Significant correlations were detected among all 4 AROD activities in both
      studies and between CYP1A protein expression and both MROD and PROD activities in
      study 2. EROD activity was highest for both treatment groups in both studies
      while BROD activity had the greatest fold-induction. While PROD activity values
      were consistently low, the fold-induction was high, usually 2nd highest to BROD
      activity. The observed induced AROD profiles detected in the present studies
      suggest both CYP1A4/1A5 DCCO isoforms are being induced after MC252 oil
      ingestion. A review of the literature on avian CYP1A AROD activity levels and
      protein expression after exposure to CYP1A inducers highlights the need for
      species-specific studies to accurately evaluate avian exposure to oil.

PMID- 28571621
TI  - Hemodynamic, catecholamine, vasomotor and vascular responses: Determinants of
      myocardial ischemia during mental stress.
AB  - AIMS: Mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI) in patients with coronary
      artery disease (CAD) is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. We aim
      to assess hemodynamic, neuro-hormonal, endothelial, vasomotor and vascular
      predictors of MSIMI. METHODS AND RESULTS: We subjected 660 patients with stable
      CAD to 99mTc sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging at rest, with mental (speech
      task) and with conventional (exercise/pharmacological) stress. Endothelium
      dependent flow-mediated dilation (FMD), microvascular reactivity [reactive
      hyperemia index (RHI)] and arterial stiffness [pulse wave velocity (PWV)] were
      measured at rest and 30-min after mental stress. The digital microvascular
      vasomotor response during mental stress was assessed using peripheral arterial
      tonometry (PAT). A total of 106(16.1%) patients had MSIMI. Mental stress was
      accompanied by significant increases in rate-pressure-product (heart rate x
      systolic blood pressure; RPP), epinephrine levels and PWV, and significant
      decreases in FMD and PAT ratio denoting microvascular constriction. In comparison
      to those with no MSIMI, patients with MSIMI had higher hemodynamic and digital
      vasoconstrictive responses (p<0.05 for both), but did not differ in epinephrine,
      endothelial or macrovascular responses. Only presence of ischemia during
      conventional stress (OR of 7.1, 95%CI of 4.2, 11.9), high hemodynamic response
      (OR for RPP response>=vs<ROC cutoff of 1.8, 95%CI of 1.1, 2.8), and high digital
      vasoconstriction (OR for PAT ratio<vs>=ROC cutoff of 2.1, 95%CI of 1.3, 3.3) were
      independent predictors of MSIMI. CONCLUSION: Ischemia during conventional stress
      testing and hemodynamic and vasoconstrictive responses to mental stress can help
      predict subjects with CAD at greater risk of developing MSIMI.

PMID- 28571625
TI  - Staff perceptions of a patient at risk team: A survey design.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Whilst research demonstrates the benefits of critical care
      outreach, limited research describes staffs' perspective of these teams.
      OBJECTIVE: This study examined ward nurses' and doctors' perceptions of the
      service provided by a nurse-led 24hours a day, seven days a week Patient at Risk
      team. DESIGN: Using an exploratory survey research design and a previously used
      instrument, data were collected between January and March (2016). The
      instruments' reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (a=0.90). RESULTS:
      339 participants, including 255 nurses and 84 doctors, completed the
      questionnaire (70.48% response rate). Most participants agreed the Patient at
      Risk team 1) were accessible and approachable, 2) recognised deterioration and
      reduced serious events, 3) provided ward staff teaching and coaching and 4) aided
      allied health referral and improved transfer of patients from critical care. More
      nurses than doctors perceived the team's role more positively in some aspects of
      the service they provided. Whilst most comments were positive, some comments
      identified improvements could be made to the service. CONCLUSION: Ward nurses'
      and doctors' perceived the Patient at Risk team contributed to improving care of
      deteriorating ward patients. The instrument used in this study may be useful to
      other outreach teams to identify service improvements.

PMID- 28571626
TI  - Effects of reduced plantar cutaneous sensation on static postural control in
      individuals with and without chronic ankle instability.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine how reduced plantar
      cutaneous sensation influences static postural control in individuals with and
      without CAI. DESIGN: A case-control study design. METHODS: Twenty-six individuals
      with self-reported CAI and 26 matched healthy controls participated in this
      study. The plantar aspect of the participants' foot was then submersed in ice
      water (0 degrees C) for 10min to reduce plantar sensation. Before and after the
      cooling procedure, plantar cutaneous sensation thresholds and single leg balance
      with eyes open and closed were assessed. RESULTS: Significantly, higher scores
      were observed in both groups after ice water submersion (p<0.001) indicating a
      significant reduction in the plantar cutaneous sensitivity after the cooling
      procedure. In single limb balance with eyes open, there were significant
      intervention main effects for the TTB ML mean (p<0.001), TTB AP mean (p=0.035)
      and TTB ML SD (p=0.021); indicating postural control improvement in both groups
      post-cooling. In single limb balance with eyes closed, Group*Intervention
      interactions were observed for the TTB AP mean (p=0.003) and TTB AP SD (p=0.017);
      indicating postural control deficits in CAI group post-cooling, but no changes in
      the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The main finding of this study was that reduced
      plantar cutaneous sensation induced by an ice submersion procedure caused eyes
      closed postural control impairments in those with CAI but not healthy controls.
      The present investigation demonstrated that the ability to dynamically reweight
      among sensory inputs to maintain postural stability appears to be diminished in
      CAI patients compared to healthy controls.

PMID- 28571627
TI  - Directed evolution of Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase to enhance methanol
      tolerance for efficient production of biodiesel from waste grease.
AB  - Engineering a methanol tolerant lipase is of great importance in biodiesel
      production. Here, the first semi-rational method for directed enzyme evolution to
      enhance methanol tolerance by targeting high B-factor residues for iterative
      saturation mutagenesis (ISM) is reported. The best double mutant, TLL-S105C/D27R,
      retained 71% of its original activity after incubation in methanol, showing 30%
      greater methanol tolerance than TLL. TLL-S105C/D27R also displayed 27% higher
      activity over TLL. Structure modelling suggested that the increased stability of
      TLL-S105C/D27R was caused by the formation of a new hydrogen bond which
      stabilized the protein structure. E. coli (TLL-S105C/D27R)-catalyzed
      biotransformation of waste grease produced biodiesel in 81% yield in 8h, showing
      improvement over the 67% yield for E. coli (TLL), while retaining 92%
      productivity after 4 cycles of biotransformation of waste grease. The engineered
      TLL mutant shows high potential for commercial biodiesel production.

PMID- 28571628
TI  - Enhancing sludge biodegradability and volatile fatty acid production by tetrakis
      hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate pretreatment.
AB  - A new pretreatment method based on tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate
      (THPS) biocide was tried to enhance sludge disintegration, and improved sludge
      biodegradability and subsequent volatile fatty acid (VFA) production. Sludge
      activity decreased to less than 10% after 2 days pretreatment using 20mg/g-TSS
      THPS, which also obviously destroyed EPS and cell membrane, and dissolved more
      biodegradable substances (48.8%) than raw sludge (19.7%). Moreover, 20mg/g-TSS
      THPS pretreatment shortened fermentation time to 4days and improved VFA
      production to 2778mg COD/L (4.35 times than that in control). Therein, the sum of
      n-butyric, n-valeric and iso-valeric acids unexpectedly accounted for 60.5% of
      total VFA (only 20.1% of that in control). The more high molecular weight VFAs
      (C4-C5) than low molecular VFAs (C2-C3) resulted from THPS pretreatment benefited
      to subsequent medium-chain volatile acids (C6-C12) generation to realize the
      separation and recovery of organic carbon more efficiently.

PMID- 28571629
TI  - Ubiquity of microplastics in coastal seafloor sediments.
AB  - Microplastic pollutants occur in marine environments globally, however estimates
      of seafloor concentrations are rare. Here we apply a novel method to quantify
      size-graded (0.038-4.0mm diam.) concentrations of plastics in marine sediments
      from 42 coastal and estuarine sites spanning pollution gradients across south
      eastern Australia. Acid digestion/density separation revealed 9552 individual
      microplastics from 2.84l of sediment across all samples; equating to a regional
      average of 3.4 microplastics.ml-1 sediment. Microplastics occurred as filaments
      (84% of total) and particle forms (16% of total). Positive correlations between
      microplastic filaments and wave exposure, and microplastic particles with finer
      sediments, indicate hydrological/sediment-matrix properties are important for
      deposition/retention. Contrary to expectations, positive relationships were not
      evident between microplastics and other pollutants (heavy metals/sewage), nor
      were negative relationships with neighbouring reef biota detected. Rather,
      microplastics were ubiquitous across sampling sites. Positive associations with
      some faunal-elements (i.e. invertebrate species richness) nevertheless suggest
      high potential for microplastic ingestion.

PMID- 28571630
TI  - Occipital transcranial magnetic stimulation discriminates transient neurological
      symptoms of vascular origin from migraine aura without headache.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The diagnosis of transient neurological attacks (TNA) relies on
      medical history. Transient ischemic attack is often considered until proven
      otherwise, because of lack of objective paraclinical tools that can help
      discriminate TIA from differential diagnoses such as migraine aura. This may lead
      to needless and potentially harmful stroke secondary prevention in many cases.
      This study aimed at determining the yield of occipital transcranial magnetic
      stimulation (oTMS) in discriminating TNA of vascular origin from migraine aura
      without headache (MAWH). METHODS: Ten patients with acute TNA of vascular origin
      and ten patients with migraine aura without headache (MAWH), without prior
      history of migrainous headache, were prospectively included. TNA of vascular
      origin were considered for individuals presenting unilateral focal symptoms with
      full resolution within 24hours and positive diffusion weighted imaging (DWI+).
      For individuals with MAWH, diagnostic criteria were either ICHD-III beta or
      Fischer criteria for a first episode of MAWH. All participants underwent one
      session of oTMS. Induction and threshold of phosphene induction were recorded.
      RESULTS: In TNA of vascular origin, MRI disclosed cortical lesions in nine and
      one sub-cortical lesion. Phosphenes were induced in 9/10 subjects with MAWH with
      a mean threshold of 66% of the maximal intensity, whereas oTMS induced phosphenes
      in only one subject with TNA of vascular origin at a threshold of 85%.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, oTMS was found to be an effective tool to
      discriminate between MAWH and transient neurological symptoms of vascular origin.

PMID- 28571632
TI  - Anticoagulation Therapy for Pregnant Women With Mechanical Prosthetic Heart
      Valves: How to Improve Safety?

PMID- 28571631
TI  - Maternal and Fetal Outcomes of Anticoagulation in Pregnant Women With Mechanical
      Heart Valves.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anticoagulation for mechanical heart valves during pregnancy is
      essential to prevent thromboembolic events. Each regimen has drawbacks with
      regard to maternal or fetal risk. OBJECTIVES: This meta-analysis sought to
      estimate and compare the risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnant
      women with mechanical heart valves who received different methods of
      anticoagulation. METHODS: Studies were identified using a Medline search
      including all publications up to June 5, 2016. Study inclusion required reporting
      of maternal death, thromboembolism, and valve failure, and/or fetal spontaneous
      abortion, death, and congenital defects in pregnant women treated with any of the
      following: 1) a vitamin K antagonist (VKA) throughout pregnancy; 2) low-molecular
      weight heparin (LMWH) throughout pregnancy; 3) LMWH for the first trimester,
      followed by a VKA (LMWH and VKA); or 4) unfractionated heparin for the first
      trimester, followed by a VKA (UFH and VKA). RESULTS: A total of 800 pregnancies
      from 18 publications were included. Composite maternal risk was lowest with VKA
      (5%), compared with LMWH (16%; ratio of averaged risk [RAR]: 3.2; 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 1.5 to 7.5), LMWH and VKA (16%; RAR: 3.1; 95% CI: 1.2 to 7.5), or
      UFH and VKA (16%; RAR: 3.1; 95% CI: 1.5 to 7.1). Composite fetal risk was lowest
      with LMWH (13%; RAR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1 to 0.8), compared with VKA (39%), LMWH and
      VKA (23%), or UFH and VKA (34%). No significant difference in fetal risk was
      observed between women taking <=5 mg daily warfarin and those with an LMWH
      regimen (RAR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.3 to 2.4). CONCLUSIONS: VKA treatment was associated
      with the lowest risk of adverse maternal outcomes, whereas the use of LMWH
      throughout pregnancy was associated with the lowest risk of adverse fetal
      outcomes. Fetal risk was similar between women taking <=5 mg warfarin daily and
      women treated with LMWH.

PMID- 28571633
TI  - Trends in Use of High-Intensity Statin Therapy After Myocardial Infarction, 2011
      to 2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data prior to 2011 suggest that a low percentage of patients
      hospitalized for acute coronary syndromes filled high-intensity statin
      prescriptions upon discharge. Black-box warnings, generic availability of
      atorvastatin, and updated guidelines may have resulted in a change in high
      intensity statin use. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine trends and
      predictors of high-intensity statin use following hospital discharge for
      myocardial infarction (MI) between 2011 and 2014. METHODS: Secular trends in high
      intensity statin use following hospital discharge for MI were analyzed among
      patients 19 to 64 years of age with commercial health insurance in the MarketScan
      database (n = 42,893) and 66 to 75 years of age with U.S. government health
      insurance through Medicare (n = 75,096). Patients filling statin prescriptions
      within 30 days of discharge were included. High-intensity statins included
      atorvastatin 40 or 80 mg and rosuvastatin 20 or 40 mg. RESULTS: The percentage of
      beneficiaries whose first statin prescriptions filled following hospital
      discharge for MI were for high-intensity doses increased from 33.5% in January
      through March 2011 to 71.7% in October through November 2014 in MarketScan and
      from 24.8% to 57.5% in Medicare. Increases in high-intensity statin use following
      hospital discharge occurred over this period among patients initiating treatment
      (30.6% to 72.0% in MarketScan and 21.1% to 58.8% in Medicare) and those taking
      low- or moderate-intensity statins prior to hospitalization (from 27.8% to 62.3%
      in MarketScan and from 12.6% to 45.1% in Medicare). In 2014, factors associated
      with filling high-intensity statin prescriptions included male sex, filling beta
      blocker and antiplatelet agent prescriptions, and attending cardiac
      rehabilitation within 30 days following discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The use of high
      intensity statins following hospitalization for MI increased progressively from
      2011 through 2014.

PMID- 28571634
TI  - Statins in Secondary Prevention: Intensity Matters.

PMID- 28571636
TI  - The Swing of beta-Blockers: Time for a System Reboot.

PMID- 28571637
TI  - Interventional Treatment of Patients With Congenital Heart Disease: Nationwide
      Danish Experience Over 39 Years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment of congenital heart (CHD) has changed rapidly.
      OBJECTIVES: The authors reviewed CHD treatment through a 39-year nationwide
      population-based study on congenital heart surgery and catheter-based
      interventions, unbiased by referral patterns. METHODS: Using medical registries,
      the authors identified children (<18 years of age) treated for CHD in Denmark
      from 1977 to 2015, their need for reinterventions, and their long-term survival.
      Ten controls per patient, matched by sex and year of birth, allowed comparison
      with the background population. Survival was described using Kaplan-Meier curves.
      RESULTS: A total of 9,372 patients underwent 11,968 cardiac surgeries and 1,912
      catheter-based interventions. Median age at first procedure decreased from 3.4
      years (5th and 95th percentiles: 0.01 to 15.4 years) in 1977 to 1989 (period 1),
      0.8 years (5th and 95th percentiles: 0.003 to 13.8 years) in 1990 to 2002 (period
      2), and to 0.6 years (5th and 95th percentiles: 0.0 to 14.9 years) in 2003 to
      2015 (period 3). More patients were born preterm (<37 weeks) in period 3 compared
      with those in period 1 (18.5% vs. 6.7%). Catheter-based interventions, not
      recorded before 1990, were increasingly used as the initial procedure in 5.8% of
      patients in period 2 and 25.9% of patients in period 3. An increasing part of the
      population did not undergo surgery at all (4.8% in period 2; 24.0% in period 3).
      Thirty-day survival increased from 97% (period 1) to 98% (period 2) to 100%
      (period 3). Ten-year survival increased from 80% (period 1) to 87% (period 2) to
      93% (period 3). Compared with the background population, CHD was associated with
      lower survival in all 3 time periods. CONCLUSIONS: Interventional treatment of
      CHD has evolved from 1977 to 2015 and is now performed on younger and more
      preterm patients, often with catheter-based interventions. However, compared with
      the background population, survival remains significantly reduced.

PMID- 28571635
TI  - beta-Blockers and Mortality After Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients Without
      Heart Failure or Ventricular Dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For acute myocardial infarction (AMI) without heart failure (HF), it
      is unclear if beta-blockers are associated with reduced mortality. OBJECTIVES:
      The goal of this study was to determine the association between beta-blocker use
      and mortality in patients with AMI without HF or left ventricular systolic
      dysfunction (LVSD). METHODS: This cohort study used national English and Welsh
      registry data from the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. A total of
      179,810 survivors of hospitalization with AMI without HF or LVSD, between January
      1, 2007, and June 30, 2013 (final follow-up: December 31, 2013), were assessed.
      Survival-time inverse probability weighting propensity scores and instrumental
      variable analyses were used to investigate the association between the use of
      beta-blockers and 1-year mortality. RESULTS: Of 91,895 patients with ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction and 87,915 patients with non-ST-segment elevation
      myocardial infarction, 88,542 (96.4%) and 81,933 (93.2%) received beta-blockers,
      respectively. For the entire cohort, with >163,772 person-years of observation,
      there were 9,373 deaths (5.2%). Unadjusted 1-year mortality was lower for
      patients who received beta-blockers compared with those who did not (4.9% vs.
      11.2%; p < 0.001). However, after weighting and adjustment, there was no
      significant difference in mortality between those with and without beta-blocker
      use (average treatment effect [ATE] coefficient: 0.07; 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: -0.60 to 0.75; p = 0.827). Findings were similar for ST-segment elevation
      myocardial infarction (ATE coefficient: 0.30; 95% CI: -0.98 to 1.58; p = 0.637)
      and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (ATE coefficient: -0.07; 95%
      CI: -0.68 to 0.54; p = 0.819). CONCLUSIONS: Among survivors of hospitalization
      with AMI who did not have HF or LVSD as recorded in the hospital, the use of beta
      blockers was not associated with a lower risk of death at any time point up to 1
      year. (beta-Blocker Use and Mortality in Hospital Survivors of Acute Myocardial
      Infarction Without Heart Failure; NCT02786654).

PMID- 28571638
TI  - Congenital Heart Defects: Amazing Advances and Ongoing Challenges.

PMID- 28571640
TI  - Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Not the Severity of the Condition, Dictates Late
      Outcomes After Fontan Procedures.

PMID- 28571641
TI  - A Test in Context: Fractional Flow Reserve: Accuracy, Prognostic Implications,
      and Limitations.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is an invasive procedure used during coronary
      angiography to determine the functional significance of coronary stenoses. Its
      use is particularly helpful in intermediate or angiographically ambiguous lesions
      in the absence of noninvasive functional studies. Randomized clinical trials have
      reported improved clinical outcomes with the use of FFR to guide coronary
      revascularization, including a reduction in cardiac death or myocardial
      infarction, as well as costs, with an FFR-based strategy compared with a
      conventional angiography-based approach. Current societal guidelines provide a
      Class II, Level of Evidence: A recommendation to perform FFR in angiographically
      intermediate stenoses in the absence of stress testing or in the presence of
      discordant stress test results and angiographic findings. However, despite the
      relative ease of use of FFR, multiple technical factors can impair its accuracy,
      and attention to detail is critical when performing the test. This review focuses
      on the fundamental basics of FFR testing, clinical evidence, and limitations.

PMID- 28571639
TI  - Longitudinal Outcomes of Patients With Single Ventricle After the Fontan
      Procedure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multicenter longitudinal objective data for survival into adulthood
      of patients who have undergone Fontan procedures are lacking. OBJECTIVES: This
      study sought to describe transplant-free survival and explore relationships
      between laboratory measures of ventricular performance and functional status over
      time. METHODS: Exercise testing, echocardiography, B-type natriuretic peptide,
      functional health assessment, and medical history abstraction were repeated 9.4
      +/- 0.4 years after the Fontan Cross-Sectional Study (Fontan 1) and compared with
      previous values. Cox regression analysis explored risk factors for interim death
      or cardiac transplantation. RESULTS: From the original cohort of 546 subjects,
      466 were contacted again, and 373 (80%) were enrolled at 21.2 +/- 3.5 years of
      age. Among subjects with paired testing, the percent predicted maximum oxygen
      uptake decreased (69 +/- 14% vs. 61 +/- 16%; p < 0.001; n = 95), ejection
      fraction decreased (58 +/- 11% vs. 55 +/- 10%; p < 0.001; n = 259), and B-type
      natriuretic peptide increased (median [interquartile range] 13 [7 to 25] pg/mol
      vs. 18 [9 to 36] pg/mol; p < 0.001; n = 340). At latest follow-up, a lower
      Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory physical summary score was associated with
      poorer exercise performance (R2 adjusted = 0.20; p < 0.001; n = 274). Cumulative
      complications since the Fontan procedure included additional cardiac surgery
      (32%), catheter intervention (62%), arrhythmia treatment (32%), thrombosis (12%),
      and protein-losing enteropathy (8%). Since Fontan 1, 54 subjects (10%) have
      received a heart transplant (n = 23) or died without transplantation (n = 31).
      The interval risk of death or/cardiac transplantation was associated with poorer
      ventricular performance and functional health status assessed at Fontan 1, but it
      was not associated with ventricular morphology, the subject's age, or the type of
      Fontan connection. CONCLUSIONS: Interim transplant-free survival over 12 years in
      this Fontan cohort was 90% and was independent of ventricular morphology.
      Exercise performance decreased and was associated with worse functional health
      status. Future interventions might focus on preserving exercise capacity.
      (Relationship Between Functional Health Status and Ventricular Performance After
      Fontan-Pediatric Heart Network; NCT00132782).

PMID- 28571642
TI  - LOX-1 in Atherosclerosis and Myocardial Ischemia: Biology, Genetics, and
      Modulation.
AB  - Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1), one of the
      scavenger receptors for oxidized low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (ox-LDL),
      plays a crucial role in the uptake of ox-LDL by cells in the arterial wall.
      Mounting evidence suggests a role for LOX-1 in various steps of the
      atherosclerotic process, from initiation to plaque destabilization. Studies of
      the genetic structure of LOX-1 have also uncovered various genetic polymorphisms
      that could modulate the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. As
      evidence supporting the vital role of LOX-1 in atherogenesis keeps accumulating,
      there is growing interest in LOX-1 as a potential therapeutic target. This review
      discusses the discovery and genetics of LOX-1; describes existing evidence
      supporting the role of LOX-1 in atherogenesis and its major complication,
      myocardial ischemia; and summarizes LOX-1 modulation by some naturally occurring
      compounds and efforts toward development of small molecules and biologics that
      could be of therapeutic use.

PMID- 28571643
TI  - Multiple Biomarkers in the Context of Conventional Risk Factors in Patients With
      Coronary Artery Disease.

PMID- 28571644
TI  - Serum Magnesium Levels and In-Hospital Mortality in Acute Myocardial Infarction.

PMID- 28571645
TI  - Concerns About the Stability of hsTnI Assay After 20 Years of Storage.

PMID- 28571646
TI  - Relativism and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol: Absolute or Relative Truth?

PMID- 28571647
TI  - Risk of Adverse Neurocognitive Outcomes With PCSK-9 Inhibitors.

PMID- 28571648
TI  - Reply: Acute and Recurrent Pericarditis: Still Idiopathic?

PMID- 28571649
TI  - Acute and Recurrent Pericarditis: Still Idiopathic?

PMID- 28571650
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28571651
TI  - Timing therapeutic donor inseminations in natural cycles: human chorionic
      gonadotrophin administration versus urinary LH monitoring.
AB  - This cohort study assessed whether timing therapeutic donor sperm inseminations
      (TDI) in natural cycles (NC) using ultrasound monitoring and ovulation trigger
      with human chorionic gonadotrophin (US/HCG) improves cumulative live birth rates
      (LBR) compared with detection of LH surge with urinary kits (u-LH). It included
      232 normo-ovulatory women aged <=40 years, undergoing 538 TDI in NC between 2011
      and 2014. In the u-LH group (113 women, 267 cycles), TDI was performed the day
      following a positive test. In the US/HCG group (119 women, 271 cycles), ovulation
      was triggered with HCG when a follicle >=17 mm was noted, and TDI performed 36 h
      later. The first three cycles were analysed per patient. Groups were comparable
      for baseline characteristics. Cumulative LBR were comparable between u-LH and
      US/HCG groups (31.47% versus 23.11%, respectively) (log-rank test). A generalized
      estimating equation analysis was performed to compare outcomes per cycle. The LBR
      per started cycle was comparable between the u-LH and US/HCG groups (12.4% versus
      9.2%, respectively). Cancellation rate was significantly higher with u-LH (19.1%
      versus 11.4%, P = 0.011), but did not impact overall outcomes. In conclusion,
      urinary LH monitoring is as effective as ultrasound monitoring and ovulation
      trigger with HCG in TDI performed in NC.

PMID- 28571653
TI  - CSF ApoE predicts clinical progression in nondemented APOEepsilon4 carriers.
AB  - Possible associations between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma apolipoprotein
      E (ApoE) concentration and early clinical and pathophysiological manifestation of
      Alzheimer's disease were studied in a large and well-defined population of
      nondemented patients. CSF and plasma ApoE concentrations were related to CSF
      Abeta42, Tau and pTau levels and clinical characteristics in patients with
      subjective cognitive decline (n = 207) or mild cognitive impairment (n = 213)
      aged 64.2 +/- 9.0 years, with a 2.5 +/- 1.5 years follow-up. A 1 standard
      deviation increase in log-transformed CSF ApoE concentrations increased the risk
      of clinical progression in APOEepsilon4 carriers 1.5 times (hazard ratio [95%
      confidence interval] 1.5 [1.1-2.0]), while this was not the case in APOEepsilon4
      noncarriers (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] 1.0 [0.8-1.2]). Plasma ApoE
      did not predict clinical progression. Using linear regression models, strong
      associations between CSF ApoE levels and CSF Tau (beta 0.51 [0.38-0.65]) and pTau
      (beta 0.53 [0.40-0.60]) values were observed in APOEepsilon4 carriers. We
      hypothesize CSF ApoE4 increases risk of clinical progression through its
      association with CSF Tau in APOEepsilon4 carriers. Development of Alzheimer's
      disease in APOEepsilon4 noncarriers may be unrelated to ApoE concentration.

PMID- 28571652
TI  - Functional neuroanatomy of speech signal decoding in primary progressive
      aphasias.
AB  - The pathophysiology of primary progressive aphasias remains poorly understood.
      Here, we addressed this issue using activation fMRI in a cohort of 27 patients
      with primary progressive aphasia (nonfluent, semantic, and logopenic variants)
      versus 15 healthy controls. Participants listened passively to sequences of
      spoken syllables in which we manipulated 3-key auditory speech signal
      characteristics: temporal regularity, phonemic spectral structure, and pitch
      sequence entropy. Relative to healthy controls, nonfluent variant patients showed
      reduced activation of medial Heschl's gyrus in response to any auditory
      stimulation and reduced activation of anterior cingulate to temporal
      irregularity. Semantic variant patients had relatively reduced activation of
      caudate and anterior cingulate in response to increased entropy. Logopenic
      variant patients showed reduced activation of posterior superior temporal cortex
      to phonemic spectral structure. Taken together, our findings suggest that
      impaired processing of core speech signal attributes may drive particular
      progressive aphasia syndromes and could index a generic physiological mechanism
      of reduced computational efficiency relevant to all these syndromes, with
      implications for development of new biomarkers and therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28571654
TI  - Is Nutrient Content and Other Label Information for Prescription Prenatal
      Supplements Different from Nonprescription Products?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prenatal supplements are often recommended to pregnant women to help
      meet their nutrient needs. Many products are available, making it difficult to
      choose a suitable supplement because little is known about their labeling and
      contents to evaluate their appropriateness. OBJECTIVE: To determine differences
      between prescription and nonprescription prenatal supplements available in the
      United States regarding declared nutrient and nonnutrient ingredients and the
      presence of dosing and safety-related information. DESIGN: Using two publicly
      available databases with information about prenatal supplement products,
      information from prescription and nonprescription product labels were extracted
      and evaluated. For the 82 prescription and 132 nonprescription products, declared
      label amounts of seven vitamins and minerals, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the
      presence of other nonnutrient components, and the presence of key safety and
      informational elements as identified in two Department of Health and Human
      Services Office of Inspector General (OIG)'s 2003 reports were compiled and
      compared. RESULTS: Compared with nonprescription products, prescription products
      contained significantly fewer vitamins (9+/-0.2 vs 11+/-0.3; P<=0.05) and
      minerals (4+/-0.1 vs 8+/-0.3; P<=0.05). Declared amounts of folic acid were
      higher in prescription products, whereas vitamin A, vitamin D, iodine, and
      calcium were higher in the nonprescription products. Amounts of iron, zinc, and
      DHA were similar. Virtually all products contained levels of one or more
      nutrients that exceeded the Recommended Dietary Allowances for pregnant and/or
      lactating women. Product type also influenced ingredients added. Fewer
      prescription products contained botanical ingredients (6% prescription vs 33%
      nonprescription) and probiotics (2% prescription vs 8% nonprescription). Only
      prescription products contained the stool softener docusate sodium. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our analysis of prenatal supplements indicates that prescription and
      nonprescription supplements differ in terms of declared composition and nutrient
      strength, but have labels that are similarly sparse regarding aspects of use such
      as dosing information.

PMID- 28571655
TI  - A Novel Approach to Predict 24-Hour Energy Expenditure Based on Hematologic
      Volumes: Development and Validation of Models Comparable to Mifflin-St Jeor and
      Body Composition Models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate prediction of 24-hour energy expenditure (24EE) relies on
      knowing body composition, in particular fat-free mass (FFM), the largest
      determinant of 24EE. FFM is closely correlated with hematologic volumes: blood
      volume (BV), red cell mass (RCM), and plasma volume (PV). However, it is unknown
      whether predicted hematologic volumes, based on easily collected variables, can
      improve 24EE prediction. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to develop and validate equations
      to predict 24EE based on predicted BV, RCM, and PV and to compare the accuracy
      and agreement with models developed from FFM and with the Mifflin-St Jeor
      equation, which is recommended for clinical use by the Academy of Nutrition and
      Dietetics. DESIGN: Participants had body composition measured by underwater
      weighing and 24EE by respiratory chamber. BV, RCM, and PV were calculated from
      five published equations. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Native American and white men and
      women were studied (n=351). Participants were healthy adults aged 18 to 49 years
      from the Phoenix, AZ, metropolitan area. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Accuracy to within
      +/-10% of measured 24EE and agreement by Bland-Altman analysis. STATISTICAL
      ANALYSIS: Regression models to predict 24EE from hematologic and body composition
      variables were developed in half the dataset and validated in the other half.
      RESULTS: Hematologic volumes were all strongly correlated with FFM in both men
      and women (r>=0.94). Whereas the accuracy of FFM alone was 69%, four hematologic
      volumes were individually more accurate (75% to 78%) in predicting 24EE.
      Equations based on hematologic volumes plus demographics had mean prediction
      errors comparable to those based on body composition plus demographics; although
      the Mifflin-St Jeor had modestly better mean prediction error, body composition,
      hematologic, and Mifflin-St Jeor models all had similar accuracy (approximately
      80%). CONCLUSIONS: Prediction equations based on hematologic volumes were
      developed, validated, and found to be comparable to Mifflin-St Jeor and body
      composition models in this population of healthy adults.

PMID- 28571656
TI  - Development of a novel method for amniotic fluid stem cell storage.
AB  - BACKGROUND AIMS: Current procedures for collection of human amniotic fluid stem
      cells (hAFSCs) indicate that cells cultured in a flask for 2 weeks can then be
      used for research. However, hAFSCs can be retrieved directly from a small amount
      of amniotic fluid that can be obtained at the time of diagnostic amniocentesis.
      The aim of this study was to determine whether direct freezing of amniotic fluid
      cells is able to maintain or improve the potential of a sub-population of stem
      cells. METHODS: We compared the potential of the hAFSCs regarding timing of
      freezing, cells obtained directly from amniotic fluid aspiration (D samples) and
      cells cultured in a flask before freezing (C samples). Colony-forming-unit
      ability, proliferation, morphology, stemness-related marker expression,
      senescence, apoptosis and differentiation potential of C and D samples were
      compared. RESULTS: hAFSCs isolated from D samples expressed mesenchymal stem
      cells markers until later passages, had a good proliferation rate and exhibited
      differentiation capacity similar to hAFSCs of C samples. Interestingly, direct
      freezing induced a higher concentration of cells positive for pluripotency stem
      cell markers, without teratoma formation in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      suggests that minimal processing may be adequate for the banking of amniotic
      fluid cells, avoiding in vitro passages before the storage and exposure to high
      oxygen concentration, which affect stem cell properties. This technique might be
      a cost-effective and reasonable approach to the process of Good Manufacturing
      Process accreditation for stem-cell banks.

PMID- 28571657
TI  - Transplantation of bone marrow stromal stem cells overexpressing tropomyosin
      receptor kinase A for peripheral nerve repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND AIMS: Previously we reported that overexpression of tropomyosin
      receptor kinase A (TrkA) could improve the survival and Schwann-like cell
      differentiation of bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs) in nerve grafts for
      bridging rat sciatic nerve defects. The aim of this study was to investigate how
      TrkA affects the efficacy of BMSCs transplantation on peripheral nerve
      regeneration and functional recovery. METHODS: Rat BMSCs were infected with
      recombinant lentiviruses to construct TrkA-overexpressing BMSCs and TrkA-shRNA
      expressing BMSCs, which were then seeded in acellular nerve allografts for
      bridging 10-mm rat sciatic nerve defects. RESULTS: At 8 weeks post
      transplantation, compared with Vector and Control BMSCs-laden groups, TrkA
      overexpressing BMSCs-laden group demonstrated obviously improved axon growth,
      such as significantly higher expression of myelin basic protein and superior
      results of myelinated fiber density, axon diameter and myelin sheaths thickness.
      In accordance with this increased nerve regeneration, the animals of TrkA
      overexpressing BMSCs-laden group showed significantly better restoration of
      sciatic nerve function, manifested as greater sciatic function index value and
      superior electrophysiological parameters including shorter onset latency and
      higher peak amplitude of compound motor action potentials and faster nerve
      conduction velocity. However, these beneficial effects could be reversed in TrkA
      shRNA-expressing BMSCs-laden group, which showed much fewer and smaller axons
      with thinner myelin sheaths and correspondingly poor functional recovery.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated that TrkA may regulate the regenerative
      potential of BMSCs in nerve grafts, and TrkA overexpression can enhance the
      efficacy of BMSCs on peripheral nerve regeneration and functional recovery, which
      may help establish novel strategies for repairing peripheral nerve injuries.

PMID- 28571658
TI  - [Primary pulmonary sarcoma in a patient with pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema].

PMID- 28571659
TI  - Gut Microbiota, Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals, and the Diabetes Epidemic.
AB  - Diabetes is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest health concerns worldwide,
      with profound implications for disability, mortality, and costs. This suddenly
      escalating rate of diabetes correlates with global industrialization and the
      production of plastics, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, electronic waste, and
      food additives that release endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) into the
      environment and the food chain. Emerging evidence indicates an association
      between exposure of EDCs and diabetes. In humans, these chemicals are also
      metabolized by the gut microbiota and thereby their toxicodynamics are altered.
      In this review we highlight studies that focus on the role of gut microbiota in
      EDC-induced hyperglycemia and dysregulated glucose homeostasis. We also discuss
      the translational implications of understanding EDC-microbiota interactions for
      the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.

PMID- 28571660
TI  - Routine use of bronchoscopy in percutaneous tracheostomy.

PMID- 28571661
TI  - [Evaluation and perioperative management of patients with diabetes mellitus. A
      challenge for the anesthesiologist].
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by alteration in carbohydrate metabolism,
      leading to hyperglycemia and increased perioperative morbidity and mortality. It
      evolves with diverse and progressive physiological changes, and the anesthetic
      management requires attention regarding this disease interference in multiple
      organ systems and their respective complications. Patient's history, physical
      examination, and complementary exams are important in the preoperative
      management, particularly glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), which has a strong
      predictive value for complications associated with diabetes. The goal of surgical
      planning is to reduce the fasting time and maintain the patient's routine.
      Patients with Type 1 DM must receive insulin (even during the preoperative fast)
      to meet the basal physiological demands and avoid ketoacidosis. Whereas patients
      with Type 2 DM treated with multiple injectable and/or oral drugs are susceptible
      to develop a hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state (HHS). Therefore, the management of
      hypoglycemic agents and different types of insulin is fundamental, as well as
      determining the surgical schedule and, consequently, the number of lost meals for
      dose adjustment and drug suspension. Current evidence suggests the safe target to
      maintain glycemic control in surgical patients, but does not conclude whether it
      should be obtained with either moderate or severe glycemic control.

PMID- 28571662
TI  - Benefits, challenges and critical factors of success for Zero Waste: A systematic
      literature review.
AB  - Considering the growing concern with solid wastes problems and the pressing need
      for a holistic approach to their management, this study developed a literature
      review about the subject "Zero Waste". To that end, a systematic literature
      review was executed, through which 102 published articles were analyzed with the
      aim to, initially, comprehend the concept of Zero Waste, and, then, map its
      benefits, challenges, and critical success factors. The results show that
      scholars have not reached a consensus regarding the concept of ZW. While some
      studies fully address this philosophy, other studies are based on just one or on
      some of its topics. The benefits were grouped and organized into four dimensions:
      benefits to the community, financial-economic benefits, benefits to the
      environment and benefits to the industry and stakeholders. As to the challenges,
      barriers were identified both in the macro environment (mainly political and
      cultural) and in the meso and micro environments (stakeholders, industries, and
      municipalities). The analysis of the articles enabled listing critical success
      factors, supported by a set of activities that must be carried out. Regarding
      future studies, it is worth noting that more empirical studies about ZW
      implementation are necessary, particularly with regard to educational practices
      designed to promote changes in user behavior.

PMID- 28571663
TI  - Quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from a biological waste treatment
      facility.
AB  - Whole-site emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, from a combined dry anaerobic
      digestion and composting facility treating biowaste, were quantified using a
      tracer dispersion technique that combines a controlled tracer gas release from
      the treatment facility with time-resolved concentration measurements downwind of
      the facility. Emission measurements were conducted over a period of three days,
      and in total, 80 plume traverses were obtained. On-site screening showed that
      important processes resulting in methane emissions were aerobic composting
      reactors, anaerobic digester reactors, composting windrows and the site's
      biofilter. Average whole-site methane emissions measured during the three days
      were 27.5+/-7.4, 28.5+/-6.1 and 30.1+/-11.4kg CH4 h-1, respectively. Turning the
      windrows resulted in an increase in methane emission from about 26.3-35.9kg CH4 h
      1. Lower emissions (21.5kg CH4 h-1) were measured after work hours ended, in
      comparison to emissions measured during the facility's opening hours (30.2kg CH4
      h-1). Nitrous oxide emission was too small for a downwind quantification. Direct
      on-site measurements, however, suggested that the main part of the emitted
      nitrous oxide came from the biofilter (about 1.4kg N2O h-1). Whole-site emissions
      were compared to emissions previously measured at different point sources on
      site. Whole-site fugitive emissions were three to eight times higher than the sum
      of emissions measured at on-site sources. The magnitude of the emissions had a
      significant influence on the overall environmental impact of the treatment
      facility, assessed by consequential life cycle assessment. Including the higher
      whole-site fugitive emissions led to an increase in global warming potential,
      from a saving of 97kgCO2-eq.tonne-1 of treated waste (wet weight) to a loading of
      71kg CO2-eq. tonne-1, ultimately flipping the environmental profile of the
      treatment facility.

PMID- 28571664
TI  - The Role of Patients: Shared Decision-Making.
AB  - Shared decision-making affords patients and their families the autonomy to make
      difficult decisions after receiving comprehensive information about medical facts
      and treatment options. It is essential that patients' values are respected. The
      essential steps include first informing patients of the need for a decision, then
      explaining the various facts involved; after which, it is important to elicit
      patients' preferences and goals. Once the treatment options and outcomes
      important to patients are identified, an actual decision can be made. This
      activity is complex and requires a commitment of time and is enhanced through
      employment of a multidisciplinary team approach.

PMID- 28571665
TI  - Decision Making for Diagnosis and Management: A Consensus Comes to Life.
AB  - The diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancer is extremely complex. As a
      result, multiple medical providers are involved in a patient's care, and the
      multidisciplinary tumor boards provide a forum whereby they can share and discuss
      the intricacies of each individual patient's case. When recommendations are
      presented to the patient and decisions are to be finalized, the patient should
      benefit from the collective wisdom of a team of providers to achieve and
      implement a patient-centric and clinically sound consensus.

PMID- 28571666
TI  - Including values in evidence-based policy making for breast screening: An
      empirically grounded tool to assist expert decision makers.
AB  - Values are an important part of evidence-based decision making for health policy:
      they guide the type of evidence that is collected, how it is interpreted, and how
      important the conclusions are considered to be. Experts in breast screening
      (including clinicians, researchers, consumer advocates and senior administrators)
      hold differing values in relation to what is important in breast screening policy
      and practice, and committees may find it difficult to incorporate the complexity
      and variety of values into policy decisions. The decision making tool provided
      here is intended to assist with this process. The tool is modified from more
      general frameworks that are intended to assist with ethical decision making in
      public health, and informed by data drawn from previous empirical studies on
      values amongst Australian breast screening experts. It provides a structured
      format for breast screening committees to consider and discuss the values of
      themselves and others, suggests relevant topics for further inquiry and
      highlights areas of need for future research into the values of the public. It
      enables committees to publicly explain and justify their decisions with reference
      to values, improving transparency and accountability. It is intended to act
      alongside practices that seek to accommodate the values of individual women in
      the informed decision making process for personal decision making about
      participation in breast screening.

PMID- 28571667
TI  - The role of the European Structural and Investment Funds in Financing Health
      System in Lithuania: Experience from 2007 to 2013 funding period and implications
      for the future.
AB  - European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) are a major source of investments
      in the newer EU member states. In Lithuania's health sector, the amount for the
      2007-2013 funding period reached more than ?400 million. In this paper we aim to
      (i) identify the key areas in the health sector which were supported by ESIF,
      (ii) determine the extent to which ESIF assisted the implementation of the
      ongoing health system reform; and (iii) assess whether the use of funds has led
      to expected improvements in healthcare. We review the national strategic
      documents and legislation, and perform calculations to determine funding
      allocations by specific area, based on the available data. We analyse changes
      according to a set of selected indicators. We find that implementation of
      programmes funded by the ESIF lacks formal evaluation. Existing evidence suggests
      that some improvement has been achieved by 2013. However, there are persisting
      challenges, including failure to reach a broad agreement on selection of health
      and healthcare indicators, lack of transparency in allocations, and absence of
      coherent assessment measures of healthcare quality and accessibility.

PMID- 28571668
TI  - Thermodynamic stability of biomolecules and evolution.
AB  - The thermodynamic stability of biomolecules in the perspective of evolution is a
      complex issue and needs discussion. Intra molecular bonds maintain the structure
      and the state of internal energy (E) of a biomolecule at "local minima". In this
      communication, possibility of loss in internal energy level of a biomolecule
      through the changes in the bonds has been discussed, that might earn more
      thermodynamic stability for the molecule. In the process variations in structure
      and functions of the molecule could occur. Thus, E of a biomolecule is likely to
      have energy stature for minimization. Such change in energy status is an
      intrinsic factor for evolving biomolecules buying more stability and generating
      variations in the structure and function of DNA molecules undergoing natural
      selection. Thus, the variations might very well contribute towards the process of
      evolution. A brief discussion on conserved sequence in the light of proposition
      in this communication has been made at the end. Extension of the idea may resolve
      certain standing problems in evolution, such as maintenance of conserved
      sequences in genome of diverse species, pre- versus post adaptive mutations,
      'orthogenesis', etc.

PMID- 28571669
TI  - Fetal programming and eating disorder risk.
AB  - Fetal programming describes the process by which environmental stimuli impact
      fetal development to influence disease development later in life. Our analysis
      summarizes evidence for the role of fetal programming in eating disorder etiology
      through review of studies demonstrating specific obstetric complications and
      later eating risk of anorexia or bulimia. Using Pubmed, we found thirteen studies
      investigating obstetric factors and eating disorder risk published between 1999
      and 2016. We then discuss modifiable maternal risk factors, including nutrition
      and stress, that influence anorexia or bulimia risk of their offspring.
      Translation of these findings applies to preventative strategies by health
      organizations and physicians to provide optimal health for mothers and their
      children to prevent development of medical and psychiatric illnesses.

PMID- 28571670
TI  - Accuracy and Interobserver Variability in Reporting of PI-RADS Version 2.

PMID- 28571671
TI  - The Microbiome of Infants Recruited to a Randomised Placebo-controlled Probiotic
      Trial (PiPS Trial).
AB  - The microbial dysbiosis associated with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in
      preterm infants suggests that early exposure to probiotics may decrease and
      antibiotics may increase NEC risk. However, administration of Bifidobacterium
      breve strain BBG-001 to preterm infants did not affect NEC incidence in a
      multicenter randomised controlled phase 3 trial (PiPS trial). Using a subset of
      these subjects we compared the fecal microbiome of probiotic and placebo groups
      and assessed the impact of early antibiotic treatment. Extracted DNA from 103
      fecal samples collected at 36weeks post-menstrual age underwent PCR amplification
      of a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene. Heatmaps were constructed showing the
      proportions of sequences from bacterial families present at >1% of the community.
      Stepwise logistic regression assessed the association between early antibiotic
      exposure and microbiome group. There was no difference in the microbial richness
      and diversity of the microbiome of preterm infants following treatment with
      probiotic or a placebo. Conversely, early antimicrobial exposure was associated
      with different patterns of colonisation, specifically a relative abundance of
      Proteobacteria. These findings highlight that the potential influence of
      probiotics on the microbiome of preterm infants remains unclear whereas the
      modulatory effect of antibiotic exposure on microbial colonisation requires
      further research.

PMID- 28571673
TI  - A Toe Flexion NIRS assisted Test for Rapid Assessment of Foot Perfusion in
      Peripheral Arterial Disease: Feasibility, Validity, and Diagnostic Accuracy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Feasibility, validity, and diagnostic accuracy of a non-invasive
      dynamic ambulatory test were assessed with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
      evaluating foot perfusion in peripheral arterial disease (PAD). METHODS: This was
      a prospective observational study. Eighty PAD patients (63 males, 71 +/- 9
      years), including 41 patients with coexisting diabetes, participated. Thirteen
      healthy subjects (8 males, 26 +/- 8 years) were also studied by echo colour
      Doppler providing 160 diseased and 26 non-diseased limbs. Under identical
      clinostatic conditions, participants performed a 10-repetition toe flexion tests
      with NIRS probes on the dorsum of each foot; the area under the curve of the
      oxygenated haemoglobin trace ("toflex area") was calculated and the ankle
      brachial index (ABI) was measured. Time of execution, rate of wrong tests, and
      adverse reactions were recorded. Within session reliability was assessed by
      administering the test twice, with a 5 minute interval between tests. The
      validity was assessed determining whether the toflex area was (a) dependent on
      the oxygen delivery from the lower limb arteries simulating PAD conditions by a
      progressive blood flow restriction (40-120% of systolic pressure) in healthy
      subjects; (b) consistent with the degree of PAD ranked by ABI and correlated with
      ABI and ankle pressure values in PAD patients. The diagnostic accuracy in
      detecting PAD was compared with examination using echo colour Doppler ultrasound.
      RESULTS: All tests were rapidly, satisfactorily (<1% mistakes), and safely
      performed. Toflex area values, superimposable in the two sessions (intra-class
      correlation coefficient 0.92), were comparable to PAD values following blood flow
      restriction, consistent with PAD severity, correlated with dorsal pedis artery
      pressure (r = .21; p = .007) and ABI (r = .65; p < .001) in PAD, but not in the
      presence of diabetes. Toflex area was similar to echo colour Doppler for
      detecting PAD following receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (area =
      0.987, p < .001; toflex area values <= -28 arbitrary units,
      sensitivity/specificity 95.6/100). CONCLUSION: The toe flexion test enables
      ambulatory assessment of foot perfusion and PAD detection, even in the presence
      of non-measurable ABI or diseases affecting the microcirculation.

PMID- 28571674
TI  - Gillies temporal incision: an alternate approach to superficial temporal artery
      biopsy.
AB  - The main complications of a biopsy of the superficial temporal artery using a
      standard preauricular approach include scars on the face, weakness of the
      temporal branch of the facial nerve, and the possible harvest of a disease-free
      segment of artery. We describe a modification of the Gillies temporal approach,
      which when placed at the junction of the frontal and parietal branch can be
      easily modified to harvest either branch. It avoids scarring to the face as it is
      hidden within the hairline. The incision placed with specific measurements and
      palpation is easily reproducible. In patients with giant cell arteritis, arterial
      wall thickening, and narrowing of the lumen, reduced blood flow makes it harder
      to identify the artery with a Doppler scan. A procedure based on measurements and
      palpation is therefore likely to yield better results.

PMID- 28571672
TI  - Targeting CD147 for T to NK Lineage Reprogramming and Tumor Therapy.
AB  - CD147 is highly expressed on the surface of numerous tumor cells to promote
      invasion and metastasis. Targeting these cells with CD147-specific antibodies has
      been validated as an effective approach for lung and liver cancer therapy. In the
      immune system, CD147 is recognized as a co-stimulatory receptor and impacts the
      outcome of thymic selection. Using T cell-specific deletion, we showed here that
      in thymus CD147 is indispensable for the stable alphabeta T cell lineage
      commitment: loss of CD147 biases both multipotent DN (double negative) and fully
      committed DP (double positive) cells into innate NK-like lineages.
      Mechanistically, CD147 deficiency results in impaired Wnt signaling and
      expression of BCL11b, a master transcription factor in determining T cell
      identity. In addition, functional blocking of CD147 by antibody phenocopies
      genetic deletion to enrich NK-like cells in the periphery. Furthermore, using a
      melanoma model and orthotopic liver cancer transplants, we showed that the
      augmentation of NK-like cells strongly associates with resistance against tumor
      growth upon CD147 suppression. Therefore, besides its original function in
      tumorigenesis, CD147 is also an effective surface target for immune modulation in
      tumor therapy.

PMID- 28571675
TI  - Re: Wrong tooth extraction: an examination of 'Never Event' data.

PMID- 28571676
TI  - Long non-coding RNA PCAT-1 over-expression promotes proliferation and metastasis
      in gastric cancer cells through regulating CDKN1A.
AB  - Prostate cancer-associated transcript1 (PCAT-1) is a novel lncRNA that involved
      in cell apoptosis and proliferation of prostate cancer. However, the role of PCAT
      1 on gastric cancer remains unclear. In the present study, we found that PCAT-1
      was increased in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. Over-expression of PCAT-1
      was correlated with poor overall survival in gastric cancer patients. PCAT-1
      knockdown through shRNA in AGS and MGC-803 cells inhibited cell proliferation,
      migration and invasion by regulating CDKN1A. Our data suggested that PCAT-1 could
      play an oncogenic role in gastric cancer progression. Silencing PCAT-1 is a
      potential novel therapeutic approach for gastric cancer.

PMID- 28571678
TI  - Central airway obstruction due to inflammatory bowel disease and rescue with
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

PMID- 28571677
TI  - BRM promoter insertion polymorphisms increase the risk of cancer: A meta
      analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Many studies have suggested that the BRM promoter insertion
      polymorphisms might be associated with susceptibility to many different types of
      cancer. However, previous studies reported contradictory results. This current
      meta-analysis was performed to address this issue. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A
      comprehensive search was conducted in multiple databases, including PubMed,
      Embase and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). We collected relevant
      articles to explore the association between the BRM insertion polymorphisms and
      susceptibility of cancers. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: For the BRM-741 polymorphism, a
      total of 2901 cases and 3667 controls from 6 studies were included. For the BRM
      1321 polymorphism, a total of 2899 cases and 3769 controls from 6 studies were
      included. Overall, a significant difference was observed in BRM-741 (OR 0.81;
      95%CI 0.68, 0.96; P=0.02) and BRM-1321 (OR 0.76; 95%CI 0.66, 0.88; P<0.01) for
      allele frequency (D versus I). In the subgroup analysis, for the BRM-741, a
      significant difference was observed in Asian (OR 0.88; 95%CI 0.78, 0.99; P=0.03)
      for D versus I. Similarly, for the BRM-1321, a significant difference was
      observed in Asian (OR 0.43; 95%CI 0.32, 0.58; P<0.001) and Caucasian (OR 0.74;
      95%CI 0.62, 0.88; P<0.001) for DD versus II. CONCLUSIONS: BRM-741 and BRM-1321
      insertion polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to cancer. Further
      studies are warranted to verify the clinical utility of BRM promoter insertion
      polymorphisms in human tumors.

PMID- 28571679
TI  - Side-to-Side Refluxing Nondismembered Ureterocystotomy: A Novel Strategy to
      Address Obstructed Megaureters in Children.
AB  - PURPOSE: A nonrefluxing megaureter is a relatively common cause of antenatal
      hydronephrosis. Although nonoperative management is favored, surgical
      intervention is sometimes warranted. However, there is controversy regarding the
      best approach, particularly in young children. We describe our experience with
      nondismembered side-to-side refluxing ureterocystotomy as a simple option to
      address obstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2012 and January
      2017, 32 patients underwent ureterocystotomy at 4 referral centers in North
      America. Demographics, surgical indications, complications, need for further
      interventions and change in hydronephrosis were captured. Patients were monitored
      clinically and with serial ultrasounds. RESULTS: Mean age at surgery was 3.7
      months (range 0 to 33) and 25 (78%) patients were male. Unilateral procedures
      were performed in 29 patients. All patients were initially identified based on
      the presence of antenatal hydronephrosis and symptoms developed in 10. The
      procedure was conducted for primary nonrefluxing megaureter in 27 patients and to
      address secondary obstruction in the remainder. Mean followup was 34.3 months
      (range 6 to 58). At the most recent evaluation most children demonstrated
      significant improvement in dilation (86%). To date, 6 patients have undergone
      further procedures, including a circumcision and 2 ureteral reimplantations for
      recurrent infections. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that side-to-side
      refluxing ureterocystotomy is a straightforward, minimally invasive alternative
      for the surgical management of nonrefluxing megaureter. Despite the trade-off of
      relieving obstruction and creating reflux, it can be considered a potentially
      definitive procedure in patients who remain infection-free, particularly
      circumcised boys. Extended followup with close monitoring is critical to document
      long-term results with this intervention.

PMID- 28571680
TI  - Reproductive effects of irisin: Initial in vitro studies.
AB  - The recently discovered myo- and adipokine irisin affects insulin sensitivity in
      classical insulin target tissues (adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and liver), but
      the reproductive effects of this hormone, if any, remain largely unexplored. We
      hypothesized that irisin may have effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal
      axis. To test this hypothesis, we used murine pituitary mPit12 and human ovarian
      granulosa cells. GnRH treatment resulted in significant (up to 2.5-fold,
      p<0.0005) and dose-dependent stimulation of LH production by the mPit12 cells.
      Treating these cells with irisin alone showed a significant stimulatory effect on
      LH synthesis only at irisin concentration of 100ng/ml. When used together with
      GnRH, irisin abolished the stimulatory effect of GnRH on LH production. Human
      ovarian granulosa cells were treated with insulin, irisin or a combination of
      both and the estradiol (E2) production was measured. Both insulin or irisin
      stimulated granulosa cell E2 production (1.4-fold, p<0.05 and 2.5-fold, p=0.0002,
      respectively), but when insulin and irisin were used in combination, this
      stimulatory effect on E2 production was abolished. We conclude that irisin may
      have reproductive axis effects in the pituitary and in the ovary. Further studies
      are needed to confirm these initial observations and to explore the mechanisms of
      irisin effects in the reproductive system.

PMID- 28571681
TI  - Harnessing the Potential of the Tea Tree Genome.

PMID- 28571682
TI  - Home parenteral nutrition for advanced cancer patients: Contributes to survival?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Patients with advanced cancer often suffer from severe malnutrition
      and gastrointestinal obstruction. This population could benefit from home
      parenteral nutrition (HPN). The aim of this study was to observe the outcome of
      patients with advanced cancer patients who were eligible for HPN. METHODS: All
      patients in the nutrition clinic who received HPN over the past 7 y were included
      in the present study. We compared patients with advanced cancer with the
      noncancer population in terms of hospitalization rate and mortality. RESULTS: Of
      221 advanced cancer patients, 153 who had no oral/enteral intake and who received
      HPN survived. Of these, 35% survived for 6 mo, 27% for 1 y, 18.9% survived 2 y,
      and 3.9% survived for the 7 y of the follow-up. Hospitalization rate was not
      significantly different from the noncancer population. CONCLUSION: These results
      show that HPN is a relevant palliative therapy for patients with advanced cancer
      patients without oral or enteral feeding access.

PMID- 28571683
TI  - Erratum to "The impact of nutrition support on clinical outcome and cost
      effectiveness analysis in patients at nutritional risk: a prospective cohort
      study with propensity score matching," Nutrition (2017) 37C, 53-59.

PMID- 28571684
TI  - Mediterranean diet to prevent/treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children:
      A promising approach.

PMID- 28571685
TI  - Activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor decreases rifampicin-induced CYP3A4
      expression in primary human hepatocytes and HepaRG.
AB  - The role of the cross-talk between nuclear receptors in the regulation of
      Cytochrome P450 expression in the liver is well-documented. Most studies have
      focused on the cross-talk between the pregnane X receptor (PXR) and other
      receptors, such as the constitutive androstane receptor. However, cross-talk
      between PXRs and aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AhRs) has also been suggested, but
      reports regarding this cross-talk are conflicting. In the present study, we
      treated HepaRG and primary human hepatocytes (PHHs) with both a strong (TCDD) and
      weak (3-methylindole; 3MI) AhR activator to investigate their impact on PXR
      regulated expression of CYP3A4. Moreover, we investigated the effect of co
      activation of PXR, using rifampicin, and AhR, using TCDD and 3MI, on the
      regulation of CYP3A4 induction. We also investigated whether knockdown of AhR
      using siRNA affected the basal expression of PXR and CYP3A4 and induction of
      CYP3A4 by rifampicin, TCDD and 3MI. The results showed that the treatment of
      HepaRG cells, but not of PHHs, with AhR activators decreased mRNA expression of
      CYP3A4 and PXR. Moreover, in both HepaRG and PHHs, AhR activation decreased
      rifampicin-induced expression of CYP3A4 mRNA. Knock-down of AhR in PHHs increased
      both basal and rifampicin-induced expression of CYP3A4 mRNA. In conclusion, the
      presented results suggested that the cross-talk between PXR and AhR plays a role
      in the regulation of CYP3A4 gene expression.

PMID- 28571686
TI  - Agonistic and antagonistic effects of phthalates and their urinary metabolites on
      the steroid hormone receptors ERalpha, ERbeta, and AR.
AB  - Phthalate plasticizers have been reported to exert adverse effects via activation
      of the estrogen receptors ERalpha and ERbeta and inhibition of the androgen
      receptor AR as molecular initiating events. After oral uptake, phthalates are
      metabolized to their corresponding monoesters and subsequently to oxidized
      phthalate monoester derivatives, which are in turn conjugated to glucuronic acid
      and finally excreted with the urine. In contrast to the parent phthalates,
      toxicological data regarding their primary and secondary metabolites are rare.
      The present study aimed at the characterization of potential endocrine effects of
      15 phthalates and 19 phthalate metabolites by using reporter gene assays to
      monitor human ERalpha, ERbeta, and AR activity. In these in vitro assays, the
      phthalates either stimulated or inhibited ERalpha and ERbeta activity and
      inhibited AR activity, whereas the phthalate metabolites had no impact on the
      activity of these human hormone receptors. In contrast, the metabolites of di-(2
      ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) stimulated transactivation of the human peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptors PPARalpha and PPARgamma in analogous reporter
      gene assays, although DEHP itself did not activate these nuclear receptors.
      Therefore, primary and secondary phthalate metabolites appear to exert different
      effects at the molecular level compared to the parent compounds.

PMID- 28571687
TI  - Next-generation sequencing virulome analysis of a Yersinia enterocolitica subsp.
      palearctica bioserotype 4/O:3 ST18 isolated from human blood in Brazil.
AB  - Yersinia enterocolitica is a widespread Gram-negative bacterium that causes
      gastrointestinal disease and other clinical manifestations in humans. Potentially
      pathogenic Y. enterocolitica has been isolated in Brazil, from human,
      environmental, food, and animal sources. Herein we report a genome sequence of Y.
      enterocolitica subsp. palearctica strain YE 19, serotype O:3, biotype 4, sequence
      type 18, with virulence determinants isolated from human blood in Rio de Janeiro
      in 2005. The results corroborate other findings that this strain harbors a set of
      virulence determinants that could play a role in host pathoadaptation and may
      also justify the successful dissemination of bioserotype 4/O:3 in Brazil. The
      presence of strains harboring all of these virulence genes in Brazil is a
      potential threat to young children and immunocompromised individuals, for whom
      yersiniosis are a significant source of morbidity and mortality. The results of a
      genomic data analysis will help understand the virulence of Brazilian strains and
      provide data for Y. enterocolitica studies worldwide.

PMID- 28571688
TI  - Systematic Review of Brain Metastases in Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
      in the United States, European Union, and Japan.
AB  - Brain metastases (BRM) occur frequently in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and
      present a substantial unmet medical need. Previous literature on global BRM
      prevalence, treatment patterns, costs, and outcomes typically has described a
      subset of these factors. The primary objective of this systematic literature
      review was to summarize BRM-related epidemiology, treatment patterns, costs, and
      survival of patients with NSCLC in the United States, European Union, and Japan.
      The study was conducted in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standards. Literature searches were
      conducted in PubMed, Ovid MedLine, and Embase to identify studies published
      between 2003 and 2014. Peer-reviewed, English language, and human observational
      studies of patients with NSCLC and BRM were identified. Demographic
      characteristics, treatment patterns, histology subtype, costs, and survival data
      were extracted into Microsoft Excel and descriptively analyzed using SAS version
      9.2 (SAS Institute, Inc). Of 8257 studies, 243 were eligible. Data from 46,422
      patients with NSCLC and 27,907 patients with BRM were summarized. Radiation
      therapy was used by 70.7% (n = 19,736) of the total BRM population, followed by
      systemic therapy (8.9%, n = 2497), and surgery (6.1%, n = 1690). Reported median
      survival was 9.78 months ranging from 2.5 to 38 months. Radiation therapy had the
      best outcome at 10.0 months with 41.6% (n = 101) of the studies reporting the use
      of stereotactic radiosurgery. Highly variable median survival and treatment
      patterns were reported between countries. Costs and histology subtype data were
      not reported for most countries, highlighting the need for additional research to
      describe the economic burden of BRM and improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and
      prescription of effective therapies.

PMID- 28571689
TI  - Consequences of Referral Time and Volume Doubling Time in Inoperable Patients
      With Early Stage Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inoperable patients with early stage lung cancer are referred late.
      The purpose was to calculate the referral time and the volume doubling time
      (VDT), and to investigate its consequence with regard to staging and survival in
      117 inoperable patients with early stage lung cancer treated with stereotactic
      body radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tumor VDT was calculated using the
      modified Schwartz formula of exponential growth model and was on the basis of
      volumes measured on initial diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scans and the
      planning CT scan. VDT was defined as fast (<100 days), moderate (100-249 days),
      slow (250-399 days), and no growth (>=400 days). The referral time is the time
      between the diagnostic CT scan and the radiotherapy planning CT scan. RESULTS:
      The median referral time was 86 days. The VDT was fast in 53 patients [45%] of
      tumors. No significant difference in VDT was found between different tumor or
      patient characteristics. Patients with T1 tumors that progressed to T2 had a
      significant worse median survival (P = .01). The overall survival at 5 years
      according to VDT was 21% for fast-growing tumors, 19% for moderate growth, 31%
      for slow, and 46% for no growth. CONCLUSION: The median referral time was almost
      3 months. VDT was considered as fast in almost half of tumors examined. This
      resulted in significant growth and upstaging in 35% of the tumors, with a
      significant worse survival if T1 tumors progressed to T2 tumors. Therefore,
      medically inoperable patients should also be offered a fast workup and referral.

PMID- 28571690
TI  - The Definition of Healing Depends on How One Defines Health.

PMID- 28571691
TI  - [Factors associated with the satisfaction of prescribers of blood products in
      Burkina Faso].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The National Blood Transfusion Centre, unique operator of blood
      transfusion in Burkina Faso is engaged into the quality process according to ISO
      9001. Therefore, the assessment of customer satisfaction is a main part of its
      system. Our study conceives "customer satisfaction" as dependant to the perceived
      service quality based on SERVQUAL model. OBJECTIVES: To identify factors
      associated with the satisfaction of blood products prescribers in order to help
      decision-makers for continuous improvement of services. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We
      conducted a cross-sectional survey among prescribers of blood components in
      Ouagadougou, between February 27 and April 30, 2015. We used an anonymous self
      administered questionnaire, including 13 items associated to the 5 dimensions of
      SERVQUAL model. The different satisfaction gaps were calculated and linear
      regression was used to determine statistical associations with a significance
      level of 5%. RESULTS: The return rate was 94.5% about the 256 questionnaires
      distributed. A total of 30% of respondents were satisfied to very satisfied. The
      overall global gap of satisfaction was -5.74. The product delivery time, the
      efficacy and safety of blood products, the medical and clinical support, the pro
      activity of the communication, the management of blood products reservation and
      the satisfaction of needs in blood products were the factors associated with the
      prescribers' satisfaction. CONCLUSION: This first study in blood transfusion
      services in our context was been useful to assess customer satisfaction and
      identify the main axes on which targeting priority actions in order to
      effectively use available resources.

PMID- 28571693
TI  - Molecular insights into the multilayered regulation of ADAM17: The role of the
      extracellular region.
AB  - In contrast to many other signalling mechanisms shedding of membrane-anchored
      proteins is an irreversible process. A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase (ADAM)
      17 is one of the major sheddases involved in a variety of physiological and
      pathophysiological processes including regeneration, differentiation, and cancer
      progression. Due to its central role in signalling the shedding activity of
      ADAM17 is tightly regulated, especially on the cell surface, where shedding
      events take place. The activity of ADAM17 can be subdivided into a catalytic
      activity and the actual shedding activity. Whereas the catalytic activity is
      constitutively present, the shedding activity has to be induced and is tightly
      controlled to prevent pathological situations induced by the release of its
      substrates. The regulation of the shedding activity of ADAM17 is multilayered and
      different regions of the protease are involved. Intriguingly, its extracellular
      domains play crucial roles in different regulatory mechanisms. We will discuss
      the role of these domains in the control of ADAM17 activity. This article is part
      of a Special Issue entitled: Proteolysis as a Regulatory Event in Pathophysiology
      edited by Stefan Rose-John.

PMID- 28571694
TI  - [French teaching in nephrology: What is the residents' feeling? Results from the
      first national survey].

PMID- 28571692
TI  - Understanding long-term silver release from surface modified porous titanium
      implants.
AB  - : Prevention of orthopedic device related infection (ODRI) using antibiotics has
      met with limited amount of success and is still a big concern during post
      surgery. As an alternative, use of silver as an antibiotic treatment to prevent
      surgical infections is being used due to the well-established antimicrobial
      properties of silver. However, in most cases silver is used in particulate form
      with wound dressings or with short-term devices such as catheters but not with
      load-bearing implants. We hypothesize that strongly adherent silver to load
      bearing implants can offer longer term solution to infection in vivo. Keeping
      that in mind, the focus of this study was to understand the long term release
      study of silver ions for a period of minimum 6months from silver coated surface
      modified porous titanium implants. Implants were fabricated using a LENSTM
      system, a powder based additive manufacturing technique, with at least 25% volume
      porosity, with and without TiO2 nanotubes in phosphate buffer saline (pH 7.4) to
      see if the total release of silver ions is within the toxic limit for human
      cells. Considering the fact that infection sites may reduce the local pH, silver
      release was also studied in acetate buffer (pH 5.0) for a period of 4weeks. Along
      with that, the osseointegrative properties as well as cytotoxicity of porous
      titanium implants were assessed in vivo for a period of 12weeks using a rat
      distal femur model. In vivo results indicate that porous titanium implants with
      silver coating show comparable, if not better, biocompatibility and bonding at
      the bone-implant interface negating any concerns related to toxicity related to
      silver to normal cells. The current research is based on our recently patented
      technology, however focused on understanding longer-term silver release to
      mitigate infection related problems in load-bearing implants that can even arise
      several months after the surgery. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Prevention of
      orthopedic device related infection using antibiotics has met with limited
      success and is still a big concern during post-surgery. Use of silver as an
      antibiotic treatment to prevent surgical infections is being explored due to the
      well-established antimicrobial properties of silver. However, in most cases
      silver is used in particulate form with wound dressings or with short-term
      devices such as catheters but not with load-bearing implants. We hypothesize that
      strongly adherent silver to load-bearing implants can offer longer-term solution
      towards infection in vivo. Keeping that in mind, the focus of this study was to
      understand the long-term release of silver ions, for a period of minimum 6months,
      from silver coated surface modified porous titanium implants.

PMID- 28571695
TI  - Influenza viruses production: Evaluation of a novel avian cell line DuckCelt(r)
      T17.
AB  - The influenza vaccine manufacturing industry is looking for production cell lines
      that are easily scalable, highly permissive to multiple viruses, and more
      effective in term of viral productivity. One critical characteristic of such cell
      lines is their ability to grow in suspension, in serum free conditions and at
      high cell densities. Influenza virus causing severe epidemics both in human and
      animals is an important threat to world healthcare. The repetitive apparition of
      influenza pandemic outbreaks in the last 20years explains that manufacturing
      sector is still looking for more effective production processes to
      replace/supplement embryonated egg-based process. Cell-based production strategy,
      with a focus on avian cell lines, is one of the promising solutions. Three avian
      cell lines, namely duck EB66(r)cells (Valneva), duck AGE.CR(r) cells (Probiogen)
      and quail QOR/2E11 cells (Baxter), are now competing with traditional mammalian
      cell platforms (Vero and MDCK cells) used for influenza vaccine productions and
      are currently at advance stage of commercial development for the manufacture of
      influenza vaccines. The DuckCelt(r)-T17 cell line presented in this work is a
      novel avian cell line developed by Transgene. This cell line was generated from
      primary embryo duck cells with the constitutive expression of the duck telomerase
      reverse transcriptase (dTERT). The DuckCelt(r)-T17 cells were able to grow in
      batch suspension cultures and serum-free conditions up to 6.5*106cell/ml and were
      easily scaled from 10ml up to 3l bioreactor. In the present study, DuckCelt(r)
      T17 cell line was tested for its abilities to produce various human, avian and
      porcine influenza strains. Most of the viral strains were produced at significant
      infectious titers (>5.8 log TCID50/ml) with optimization of the infection
      conditions. Human strains H1N1 and H3N2, as well as all the avian strains tested
      (H5N2, H7N1, H3N8, H11N9, H12N5) were the most efficiently produced with highest
      titre reached of 9.05 log TCID50/ml for A/Panama/2007/99 influenza H3N2. Porcine
      strains were also greatly rescued with titres from 4 to 7 log TCID50/ml depending
      of the subtypes. Interestingly, viral kinetics showed maximal titers reached at
      24h post-infection for most of the strains, allowing early harvest time (Time Of
      Harvest: TOH). The B strains present specific production kinetics with a delay of
      24h before reaching the maximal viral particle release. Process optimization on
      H1N1 2009 human pandemic strain allowed identifying best operating conditions for
      production (MOI, trypsin concentration, cell density at infection) allowing
      improving the production level by 2 log. Our results suggest that the DuckCelt(r)
      T17 cell line is a very promising platform for industrial production of influenza
      viruses and particularly for avian viral strains.

PMID- 28571696
TI  - Functional electrical stimulation improves muscle strength and endurance in
      patients after cardiac surgery: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has shown benefits in
      patients with chronic heart failure. Therefore, it is possible that FES can
      benefit patients similarly after cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVE: This randomized
      placebo-controlled trial aimed to evaluate the effects of FES on lower limb
      functional capacity, strength, endurance, and muscle mass after discharge from
      cardiac surgery. METHODS: Twenty patients were allocated (1:1) to the group
      receiving FES to the quadriceps (FESG) or FES placebo (FESPG). FES was applied at
      a frequency of 15Hz, with 0.5ms pulse width, 5s contraction time, and 10s resting
      time, twice a week for 40min over a period of eight weeks. Functional capacity
      was assessed using the six-minute walk test (6MWT), lower limb muscle strength
      using the one repetition maximum test (1RM), endurance using the sit-and-stand
      test (SST), and muscle using the perimeter of the thighs. RESULTS: Both groups
      increased the distance covered in the 6MWT (FESG: 49.6m, 95% CI 15.9-83.3; FESPG:
      41.5m, 95% CI 7.8-75.2), but without a difference between groups. There were
      significant between-group differences for quadriceps muscle strength (7.2kg, 95%
      CI 0.2-14.2) and muscle endurance (2.2 repetitions, 95% CI 1.0-3.4) in favor of
      the FESG. CONCLUSION: FES improves lower limb muscle strength and endurance in
      patients after cardiac surgery. Larger trials are needed to confirm our findings.

PMID- 28571697
TI  - Effects of monochromatic infrared phototherapy in patients with diabetic
      peripheral neuropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized
      controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Monochromatic infrared energy (MIRE) or phototherapy has been used to
      improve plantar sensitivity and pain in lower limbs of patients with diabetic
      sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy (DSPN), but the available primary results are
      inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: To review systematically the effects of MIRE on plantar
      sensitivity and neuropathic pain in patients with DSPN. METHODS: Medline, EMBASE,
      Cochrane CENTRAL, and Google Scholar were searched up to September 2016.
      Randomized controlled trials addressing the effects of MIRE on plantar
      sensitivity and neuropathic pain in patients with DSPN were selected. Study
      inclusion, risk of bias and quality assessment, and data extraction were
      completed by two independent reviewers. RESULTS: Of 2549 records identified, six
      studies met the selection criteria, with 304 patients (594 feet) randomized. MIRE
      was not associated with improvement in plantar tactile sensitivity (SMD=0.22,
      95%CI -0.07 to 0.51, low quality of evidence). Subgroups of studies with short
      term (up to 2 weeks) follow-up showed significant improvement in plantar
      sensitivity (SMD=0.41, 95% CI 0.18-0.64). Neuropathic pain increased
      significantly in patients who received MIRE (MD=0.49, 95% CI 0.30-0.68, low
      quality of evidence). CONCLUSIONS: There was limited evidence that MIRE results
      in short-term improvement of tactile sensitivity probably not sustained over
      time. Limited evidence also suggested that MIRE does not provide relief for
      neuropathic pain. As quality of evidence is low, further studies are likely to
      change the estimated effect.

PMID- 28571698
TI  - A novel antimicrobial peptide against dental-caries-associated bacteria.
AB  - Dental caries, a highly prevalent oral disease, is primarily caused by pathogenic
      bacteria infection, and most of them are anaerobic. Herein, we investigated the
      activity of a designed antimicrobial peptide ZXR-2, and found it showed broad
      spectrum activity against a variety of Gram-positive and Gram-negative oral
      bacteria, particularly the caries-related taxa Streptococcus mutans. Time-course
      killing assays indicated that ZXR-2 killed most bacterial cells within 5 min at 4
      * MIC. The mechanism of ZXR-2 involved disruption of cell membranes, as observed
      by scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, ZXR-2 inhibited the formation of S.
      mutans biofilm, but showed limited hemolytic effect. Based on its potent
      antimicrobial activity, rapid killing, and inhibition of S. mutans biofilm
      formation, ZXR-2 represents a potential therapeutic for the prevention and
      treatment of dental caries.

PMID- 28571699
TI  - Acute gastrointestinal bleeding: A slowly changing paradigm.

PMID- 28571700
TI  - Diabetic retinopathy and dysregulated innate immunity.
AB  - Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the progressive degeneration of retinal blood
      vessels and neurons. Inflammation is known to play an important role in the
      pathogenesis of DR. During diabetes, metabolic disorder leads to the release of
      damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) both in the retina and elsewhere in
      the body. The innate immune system provides the first line of defense against the
      DAMPs. In the early stages of DR when the blood retinal barrier (BRB) is intact,
      retinal microglia and the complement system are activated at low levels. This low
      level of inflammation (para-inflammation) is believed to be essential to maintain
      homeostasis and restore functionality. However, prolonged stimulation by DAMPs in
      the diabetic eye leads to maladaptation of the innate immune system and
      dysregulated para-inflammation may contribute to DR development. In the advanced
      stages of DR where immune privilege is comprised, circulating immune cells and
      serum proteins may infiltrate the retina and participate in retinal chronic
      inflammation and retinal vascular and neuronal damage. This review discusses how
      the innate immune system is activated in diabetes and DR. The view also discusses
      why the protective immune response becomes detrimental in DR.

PMID- 28571701
TI  - Adaptation effects in grasping the Muller-Lyer illusion.
AB  - Recent results have shown that effects of pictorial illusions in grasping may
      decrease over the course of an experiment. This can be explained as an effect of
      sensorimotor learning if we consider a pictorial size illusion as simply a
      perturbation of visually perceived size. However, some studies have reported very
      constant illusion effects over trials. In the present paper, we apply an error
      correction model of adaptation to experimental data of N=40 participants grasping
      the Muller-Lyer illusion. Specifically, participants grasped targets embedded in
      incremental and decremental Muller-Lyer illusion displays in (1) the same block
      in pseudo-randomised order, and (2) separate blocks of only one type of illusion
      each. Consistent with predictions of our model, we found an effect of
      interference between the two types when they were presented intermixed,
      explaining why adaptation rates may vary depending on the experimental design. We
      also systematically varied the number of object sizes per block, which turned out
      to have no effect on the rate of adaptation. This was also in accordance with our
      model. We discuss implications for the illusion literature, and lay out how error
      correction models can explain perception-action dissociations in some, but not
      all grasping-of-illusion paradigms in a parsimonious and plausible way, without
      assuming different illusion effects.

PMID- 28571702
TI  - Corrigendum to "A reconnaissance analysis of groundwater quality in the Eagle
      Ford shale region reveals two distinct bromide/chloride populations" [Sci. Total
      Environ. 575 (2017) 672-680].

PMID- 28571703
TI  - Diagnosis of intracranial calcification and hemorrhage in pediatric patients:
      Comparison of quantitative susceptibility mapping and phase images of
      susceptibility-weighted imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prospectively compare the diagnostic capabilities of quantitative
      susceptibility mapping (QSM) with those of phase images of susceptibility
      weighted imaging (SWI) in the detection and differentiation of intracranial
      calcification and hemorrhage in pediatric patients. METHOD: Sixteen pediatric
      patients (9 girls, 7 boys) with a mean age of 9.4+/-6.3 (SD) years (range, 6 days
      15 years) were included. Fifty-nine calcifications and 31 hemorrhages were
      detected. Sensitivities and specificities of the two magnetic resonance (MR)
      imaging techniques were calculated and compared using McNemar test. RESULTS: QSM
      had a sensitivity of 84.7% and specificity of 100% for the detection of
      calcification. SWI phase images had a sensitivity of 49.1% and specificity of
      100%. For the detection of hemorrhage, QSM had a sensitivity of 90.3% and a
      specificity of 98.3% whereas SWI phase images yielded a sensitivity of 64.5% and
      specificity of 96.6%. Overall, QSM displayed significantly better sensitivity
      than SWI phase images in identification of calcification and hemorrhage (P<0.05).
      CONCLUSION: QSM is more reliable than SWI phase images in the identification of
      intracranial calcification and hemorrhage in pediatric patients using MR imaging.

PMID- 28571704
TI  - Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of lung metastases from colorectal carcinoma
      under C-arm cone beam CT guidance.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility, safety and efficacy
      of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of lung metastases from colorectal
      carcinoma using C-arm cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) guidance. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: This single-center prospective observational study was performed from
      August 2013 to August 2016, and included consecutive patients referred for
      radiofrequency ablation of lung metastases from colorectal cancer. Radiofrequency
      ablation procedures were performed under C-arm CBCT guidance. Feasibility was
      assessed by probe accuracy placement, time to accurate placement and number of C
      arm CBCT acquisitions to reach the target lesion. Safety was assessed by the
      report of adverse event graded using the common terminology criteria for adverse
      events (CTCAE-V4.0). Efficacy was assessed by metastases response rate using
      RECIST 1.1 and 18FDG-PET-CT tumor uptake at 6months. RESULTS: Fifty-four
      consecutive patients (32 men, 22 women) with a mean age of 63+/-8 (SD) years
      (range: 51-81years) with a total of 56 lung metastasis from colorectal metastases
      were treated in a single session. The mean tumor diameter was 25.6+/-4.5 (SD)mm
      (range: 17-31mm). Median time to insert the needle into the target lesion was
      10min (range: 5-25min). Median number of needles repositioning and C-arm CBCT
      acquisition per patient was 1 (range: 0-3) and 4 (range: 3-6) respectively. The
      accuracy for radiofrequency ablation probe placement was 2+/-0.2 (SD)mm (range: 0
      9mm). Pneumothorax requiring chest tube placement occurred in one patient (CTCAE
      V4.0 grade 3). At 6months, all patients were alive with tumor response rate of 
      27% and had no significant activity on the 18FDG-PET CT follow-up. CONCLUSION:
      Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of lung metastases from colorectal cancer
      under C-arm CBCT guidance is feasible and safe, with immediate and short-term
      results similar to those obtained using conventional CT guidance.

PMID- 28571705
TI  - Factors affecting fracture location in atypical femoral fractures: A cross
      sectional study with 147 patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Many studies have tried to determine the characteristics of
      atypical femoral fractures (AFFs) through age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched
      comparison with non-AFFs. However, we hypothesized that diaphyseal AFFs would
      have characteristics different from those of subtrochanteric AFFs. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the clinical features of diaphyseal/subtrochanteric
      AFFs and determine the factors related to fracture location. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: One hundred forty-seven patients with AFF were enrolled, 114 patients
      (78%) had a history of bisphosphonate use. Forty-nine patients (33%) had
      bilateral lesion, and 35% of patients had thigh pain. Patients were divided into
      two groups according to fracture location: 52 patients (35.4%) with
      subtrochanteric AFF and 95 patients (64.6%) with diaphyseal AFF. The patient
      demographics and fracture characteristics of the two groups were compared.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for variables
      related to fracture location. RESULTS: The patients in the diaphyseal AFFs group
      were older and had lower BMI, lower BMD, and larger lateral and anterior bowing.
      Multivariate analysis revealed that age greater than 65 years and low BMD were
      related with diaphyseal location. With greater lateral bowing angle, the AFF
      location was moved from the subtrochanteric area to the diaphyseal area.
      CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that patients with diaphyseal AFFs had
      different characteristics compared with those with subtrochanteric AFFs.

PMID- 28571706
TI  - Lactated Ringer-based storage solutions are equally well suited for the storage
      of fresh osteochondral allografts as cell culture medium-based storage solutions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the rising interest in Europe to treat large cartilage defects
      with osteochondrale allografts, research aims to find a suitable solution for
      long-term storage of osteochondral allografts. This is further encouraged by the
      fact that legal restrictions currently limit the use of the ingredients from
      animal or human sources that are being used in other regions of the world (e.g.
      in the USA). Therefore, the aim of this study was A) to analyze if a Lactated
      Ringer (LR) based solution is as efficient as a Dulbecco modified Eagle's minimal
      essential medium (DMEM) in maintaining chondrocyte viability and B) at which
      storage temperature (4 degrees C vs. 37 degrees C) chondrocyte survival of the
      osteochondral allograft is optimally sustained. METHODS: 300 cartilage grafts
      were collected from knees of ten one year-old Black Head German Sheep. The grafts
      were stored in four different storage solutions (one of them DMEM-based, the
      other three based on Lactated Ringer Solution), at two different temperatures (4
      and 37 degrees C) for 14 and 56days. At both points in time, chondrocyte survival
      as well as death rate, Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content, and Hydroxyproline (HP)
      concentration were measured and compared between the grafts stored in the
      different solutions and at the different temperatures. RESULTS: Independent of
      the storage solutions tested, chondrocyte survival rates were higher when stored
      at 4 degrees C compared to storage at 37 degrees C both after short-term (14days)
      and long-term storage (56days). At no point in time did the DMEM-based solution
      show a superior chondrocyte survival compared to lactated Ringer based solution.
      GAG and HP content were comparable across all time points, temperatures and
      solutions. CONCLUSION: LR based solutions that contain only substances that are
      approved in Germany may be just as efficient for storing grafts as the USA DMEM
      based solution gold standard. Moreover, in the present experiment storage of
      osteochondral allografts at 4 degrees C was superior to storage at 37 degrees C.

PMID- 28571707
TI  - Intraoperative MRI for the management of brain lesions adjacent to eloquent
      areas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of our study was to report the usefulness of intraoperative
      MRI guidance in the resection of brain lesions adjacent to eloquent areas.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A single center prospective series of gliomas amenable to
      optimized resection with intraoperative MRI between September 2014 and December
      2015. RESULTS: The study included 56 patients. The median duration of the first
      intraoperative MRI was 38min, interquartile range (IQR 30-46). Fourteen patients
      (40%) underwent a second intraoperative MRI, which had a median duration of 26min
      (IQR, 18-30). The median total operative time was 265min (IQR, 242-337). After
      the first intraoperative MRI, the median residual glioma volume of the 35 gliomas
      adjacent to eloquent areas was 7.04cm3 (IQR, 2.22-13.8), which did not
      significantly differ from the other gliomas (P=0.07). After the second
      intraoperative MRI, the median residual glioma volume was 3.86cm3 (IQR, 0.82
      6.99), which did not significantly differ from the other patients (P=0.700). On
      the postoperative MRI, the median extent of the glioma resections adjacent to
      eloquent areas was 99.78% (IQR, 88.9-100), which was not significantly different
      from the rest of the population (P=0.290). At 6 months after surgery, the median
      Karnofsky Performance Score was 90, and 2.8% of the patients presented a
      permanent new neurological deficit. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that
      intraoperative MRI is an effective and safe technique to improve the extent of
      brain lesion resections close to eloquent areas.

PMID- 28571708
TI  - Quality assurance of the jaws only-intensity modulated radiation therapy plans
      for head-and-neck cancer.
AB  - Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is a treatment technique which has
      become routine in developed countries. In most centers this technique is
      delivered with multi-leaf collimators (MLCs). However, the use of MLCs is not
      mandatory. Several oncology centres in developing countries are still using
      linear accelerators (LINAC) without MLCs, and can potentially deliver IMRT plans
      with the use of collimator jaws. In this report, we present the results of
      quality assurance of this Jaws-Only-IMRT (JO-IMRT) technique in treating
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Twenty-five plans of nasopharyngeal
      patients were randomly chosen. For each patient, a JO-IMRT plan was generated and
      a series of pre-treatment verification measurements was performed including (1)
      point dose measurement with an ionization chamber, (2) planar dose measurement
      with a 2D-array detector and (3) 3-dimensional dose measurement using a rotatable
      phantom with a 2D-array detector. The average differences between the measured
      and TPS-calculated point doses were found to be 1.26+/-0.77%, which is within the
      institution's dose constraint limits. For the planar dose and 3D dose
      measurements, the average gamma index based on 3%/3mm criteria were 96.77+/-2.33%
      and 94.72+/-2.67%, respectively. Our measurements showed that the JO-IMRT
      treatment plans applied to the H&N patients were accurate for the treatment
      delivery based on our established pass criteria.

PMID- 28571711
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28571710
TI  - Identification of odorant binding proteins in Carpomya vesuviana and their
      binding affinity to the male-borne semiochemicals and host plant volatiles.
AB  - Carpomya vesuviana (Costa; Diptera: Tephritidae) is an agricultural pest that
      causes serious damage to jujube fruits. However, the mechanism of olfaction,
      which is critical for host identification, is not well understood in this pest.
      In this study, we have identified for the first time five protein types involved
      in the olfactory signal transduction of C. vesuviana by using transcriptome
      sequencing. These include 6 odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), 15 odorant receptors
      (ORs), 22 gustatory receptors (GRs), 2 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), and 2
      sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs). Amino acids alignment and phylogenetic
      analysis showed that all 6 OBPs have a signal peptide at their respective N
      termini with four OBPs belonging with the classic OBPs, and OBP2 and OBP5
      belonging to the Minus-C family. OBP3 clustered with the OBP83a/83b clade, which
      comprised pheromone binding protein related proteins (PBPRPs). Moreover,
      volatiles from C. vesuviana adults and its host plants were collected and
      identified by using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas
      chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The results indicated that male adults
      emitted nonanal, and five other compounds, caryophyllene, chamigrene, camphene,
      (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol acetate, and ocimene were identified in the fruits of jujubes.
      Electroantennogram (EAG) assays revealed that adult C. vesuviana responded to all
      six compounds along with two additional pheromones (geranyl acetate and alpha
      farnesene) from other tephritids and the values ranged from 0.50mV to 1.26mV. To
      further explore the interaction between OBPs and volatiles, competitive binding
      assays were carried out. The results showed that only CvesOBP2 had binding
      affinity to (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol acetate. OBP5 and OBP6 exhibited broad spectrum
      binding to compounds with relatively low molecular weights, and OBP1 and OBP4 had
      some affinity to caryophyllene and chamigrene. However, OBP3 exhibited relatively
      high binding affinity to alpha-farnesene. The findings of this study provide
      insights into the olfactory mechanisms and the potential functions of OBPs in the
      olfactory reception pathway in C. vesuviana. The OBPs identified in this study
      could be used as potential targets to develop attractants to monitor this insect
      pest for effective pest control.

PMID- 28571709
TI  - Phospho-specific antibodies targeting the amino terminus of the human dopamine
      transporter.
AB  - The dopamine transporter (DAT), which mediates the inactivation of released
      dopamine through its reuptake, is the primary molecular target for the actions of
      psychostimulants. An increasing number of studies support an essential role for
      phosphorylation of serines (Ser) in the distal amino (N) terminus of DAT in
      regulating its function. Still, the molecular details of the regulation of
      phosphorylation and its impact on function are not fully understood. To address
      this, we have developed and characterized two distinct phospho-antibodies that
      recognize human DAT when it is phosphorylated at Ser7 or Ser12. Our data show
      that treatment of cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), amphetamine
      (AMPH) or okadaic acid (OA) leads to an increase in the phosphorylation of DAT at
      both residues and that these responses are dependent on the activity of protein
      kinase C. We also show that AMPH-induced and OA-induced phosphorylation of DAT
      are dependent on Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase alpha. Our data further
      suggest that the lipid raft localization of DAT is necessary for efficient N
      terminal phosphorylation and for the associated behavioral effects of AMPH,
      demonstrating the potential of these novel antibodies as powerful tools to study
      DAT regulation and function in vivo.

PMID- 28571712
TI  - Effects of weight loss on adipose visceral and subcutaneous tissue in overweight
      adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Weight loss is an important strategy for mitigating the
      complications of obesity. However, weight reduction does not provide detailed
      information on relative changes in bodily behaviors and in abdominal fat deposits
      (adipose visceral tissue (AVT) and adipose subcutaneous tissue (AST)). The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the effect of weight loss based on calorie restriction
      on AVT and AST in overweight individuals (1); to verify the metabolic benefits
      resulting from AVT reduction (2); and to the analyze the influence of covariates
      in AVT and AST reduction (3). METHODS: Clinical intervention study involving
      overweight adult patients, seen at a public hospital in the Northeast of Brazil,
      who underwent three months of calorie restriction. AVT and AST were quantified
      using computed tomography at the baseline and at the end of a follow up. RESULTS:
      51 patients were evaluated (50.2 +/- 11.3 years old), for whom it was verified
      that a 5.8(+/-6.2)% weight reduction in the men resulted in a 11.2(+/-7.9)%
      reduction in AVT and 6.8(+/-11.2)% in AST. Among the women, a 4.1(+/-2.5)%
      reduction in initial weight resulted in a 11.1(+/-8.8)% decrease in AVT and
      5.6(+/-7.4)% in AST. Simple linear regression showed that a reduction in AVT
      caused a 54.9% reduction in triglyceride concentrations in the men and a 12.2%
      reduction in cholesterol and 31.4% in triglyceride levels in women. Multiple
      regression identified different factors that influenced the reduction in visceral
      and subcutaneous fat. The predictive models explained 42.9% and 54.8% of the AVT
      reduction in the females and males, respectively; and 39.9% and 86.7% of the AST
      reduction in the females and males, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A modest 5% weight
      loss caused substantial AVT and AST mobilization, with potential benefits to
      cardiometabolic profile.

PMID- 28571713
TI  - Protein-enriched familiar foods and drinks improve protein intake of hospitalized
      older patients: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Adequate protein intake is important in preventing and
      treating undernutrition. Hospitalized older patients are recommended to consume
      1.2-1.5 g of protein per kg body weight per day (g/kg/d) but most of them fail to
      do so. Therefore, we investigated whether a range of newly developed protein
      enriched familiar foods and drinks were effective in increasing protein intake of
      hospitalized older patients. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial involved
      147 patients of >=65 years (mean age: 78.5 +/- 7.4 years). The control group (n =
      80) received the standard energy and protein rich hospital menu. The intervention
      group (n = 67) received the same menu with various protein-enriched intervention
      products replacing regular products or added to the menu. Macronutrient intake on
      the fourth day of hospitalization, based on food ordering data, was compared
      between the two groups by using Independent T-tests and Mann Whitney U-tests.
      RESULTS: In the intervention group 30% of total protein was provided by the
      intervention products. The intervention group consumed 105.7 +/- 34.2 g protein
      compared to 88.2 +/- 24.4 g in the control group (p < 0.01); corresponding with
      1.5 vs 1.2 g/kg/d (p < 0.01). More patients in the intervention group than in the
      control group reached a protein intake of 1.2 g/kg/d (79.1% vs 47.5%). Protein
      intake was significantly higher in the intervention group at breakfast, during
      the morning between breakfast and lunch, and at dinner. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      shows that providing protein-enriched familiar foods and drinks, as replacement
      of regular products or as additions to the hospital menu, better enables
      hospitalized older patients to reach protein intake recommendations. This trial
      is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT02213393.

PMID- 28571716
TI  - Post-translational dysfunctions in channelopathies of the nervous system.
AB  - Channelopathies comprise various diseases caused by defects of ion channels.
      Modifications of their biophysical properties are common and have been widely
      studied. However, ion channels are heterogeneous multi-molecular complexes that
      are extensively modulated and undergo a maturation process comprising numerous
      steps of structural modifications and intracellular trafficking. Perturbations of
      these processes can give rise to aberrant channels that cause pathologies. Here
      we review channelopathies of the nervous system associated with dysfunctions at
      the post-translational level (folding, trafficking, degradation, subcellular
      localization, interactions with associated proteins and structural post
      translational modifications). We briefly outline the physiology of ion channels'
      maturation and discuss examples of defective mechanisms, focusing in particular
      on voltage-gated sodium channels, which are implicated in numerous neurological
      disorders. We also shortly introduce possible strategies to develop therapeutic
      approaches that target these processes. This article is part of the Special Issue
      entitled 'Channelopathies.'

PMID- 28571717
TI  - Mysticism in the history of mathematics.
AB  - We examine the relationship between mysticism and mathematical creativity through
      case studies from the history of mathematics.

PMID- 28571715
TI  - The novel multitarget iron chelating and propargylamine drug M30 affects APP
      regulation and processing activities in Alzheimer's disease models.
AB  - In many of the neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and
      AD-related disorders, as well as in the regular ageing process, excessive
      generation of oxidative stress (OS) and accumulation of iron levels and
      deposition have been observed in specific affected-brain regions and thus,
      regarded as contributing factors to the pathogenesis of the diseases. In AD, iron
      promotes amyloid beta (Abeta) neurotoxicity by producing free radical damage and
      OS in brain areas affected by neurodegeneration, presumably by facilitating the
      aggregation of Abeta. In addition, it was shown that iron modulates intracellular
      levels of the holo amyloid precursor protein (APP) by iron-responsive elements
      (IRE) RNA stem loops in the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) of the APP transcript.
      As a consequence of these observations, iron chelation is one of the major new
      therapeutic strategies for the treatment of AD. This review describes the
      benefits and importance of the multimodal brain permeable chimeric iron
      chelating/propargylamine drug M30, concerning its
      neuroprotective/neurorestorative inter-related activities relevant of the
      pathological features ascribed to AD, with a special focus on the effect of the
      drug on APP regulation and processing.

PMID- 28571718
TI  - Effects of simulated ischemia on the transmural differences in the Frank-Starling
      relationship in isolated mouse ventricular cardiomyocytes.
AB  - The electrical and mechanical functions of cardiomyocytes differ in relation to
      the spatial locations of cells in the ventricular wall. This physiological
      heterogeneity may change under pathophysiological conditions, providing
      substrates for arrhythmia and contractile dysfunctions. Previous studies have
      reported distinctions in the electrophysiological and mechanical responses to
      ischemia of unloaded subendocardial (ENDO) and subepicardial (EPI) single
      cardiomyocytes. In this paper, we briefly recapitulated the available
      experimental data on the ischemia effects on the transmural cellular gradient in
      the heart ventricles and for the first time evaluated the preload-dependent
      changes in passive and active forces in ENDO and EPI cardiomyocytes isolated from
      mouse hearts subjected to simulated ischemia. Combining the results obtained in
      mechanically loaded contracting cardiomyocytes with data from previous studies,
      we showed that left ventricular ENDO and EPI cardiomyocytes are different in
      their mechanical responses to metabolic inhibition. Simulated ischemia showed
      opposite effects on the stiffness of ENDO and EPI cells and greatly prolonged the
      time course of contraction in EPI cells than in ENDO cells, thereby changing the
      normal transmural gradient in the cellular mechanics.

PMID- 28571719
TI  - Blockade of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans-induced axonal growth inhibition by
      LOTUS.
AB  - Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are axon growth inhibitors in the glial
      scar, and restrict axon regeneration following damage to the adult mammalian
      central nervous system. CSPGs have recently been identified as functional ligands
      for Nogo receptor-1 (NgR1), which is the common receptor for Nogo proteins,
      myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), oligodendrocyte myelin glycoprotein (OMgp)
      and B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS). We have previously reported that through its
      binding to NgR1, lateral olfactory tract usher substance (LOTUS) suppresses Nogo,
      MAG, OMgp, and BLyS-induced axon growth inhibition. However, it remains unknown
      whether LOTUS also exerts this suppressive action on CSPG-induced axon growth
      inhibition. LOTUS overexpression rescued CSPG-induced growth cone collapse and
      neurite outgrowth inhibition in cultured dorsal root ganglion neurons, which only
      weakly express endogenous LOTUS. In cultured olfactory bulb neurons, which
      endogenously express LOTUS, the growth cone was insensitive to CSPG-induced
      collapse, but was sensitive to collapse induced by CSPGs in lotus-deficient mice.
      Our data demonstrate that LOTUS suppresses CSPG-induced axon growth inhibition,
      suggesting that LOTUS may represent a promising therapeutic agent for promoting
      axon regeneration.

PMID- 28571714
TI  - L-Tyrosine availability affects basal and stimulated catecholamine indices in
      prefrontal cortex and striatum of the rat.
AB  - We previously found that L-tyrosine (L-TYR) but not D-TYR administered by reverse
      dialysis elevated catecholamine synthesis in vivo in medial prefrontal cortex
      (MPFC) and striatum of the rat (Brodnik et al., 2012). We now report L-TYR
      effects on extracellular levels of catecholamines and their metabolites. In MPFC,
      reverse dialysis of L-TYR elevated in vivo levels of dihydroxyphenylacetic acid
      (DOPAC) (L-TYR 250-1000 MUM), homovanillic acid (HVA) (L-TYR 1000 MUM) and 3
      methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) (L-TYR 500-1000 MUM). In striatum L-TYR 250
      MUM elevated DOPAC. We also examined L-TYR effects on extracellular dopamine (DA)
      and norepinephrine (NE) levels during two 30 min pulses (P2 and P1) of K+ (37.5
      mM) separated by t = 2.0 h. L-TYR significantly elevated the ratio P2/P1 for DA
      (L-TYR 125 MUM) and NE (L-TYR 125-250 MUM) in MPFC but lowered P2/P1 for DA (L
      TYR 250 MUM) in striatum. Finally, we measured DA levels in brain slices using ex
      vivo voltammetry. Perfusion with L-TYR (12.5-50 MUM) dose-dependently elevated
      stimulated DA levels in striatum. In all the above studies, D-TYR had no effect.
      We conclude that acute increases within the physiological range of L-TYR levels
      can increase catecholamine metabolism and efflux in MPFC and striatum.
      Chronically, such repeated increases in L-TYR availability could induce adaptive
      changes in catecholamine transmission while amplifying the metabolic cost of
      catecholamine synthesis and degradation. This has implications for
      neuropsychiatric conditions in which neurotoxicity and/or disordered L-TYR
      transport have been implicated.

PMID- 28571720
TI  - Astrocytes in Memory Function: Pioneering Findings and Future Directions.
AB  - Astrocytes have been generally believed to perform mainly homeostatic and
      supportive functions for neurons in the central nervous system. Recently, a
      growing body of evidence suggests previously unrecognized and surprising
      functions for astrocytes, including regulation of synaptic formation,
      transmission and plasticity, all of which are considered as the infrastructure
      for information processing and memory formation and stabilization. This review
      discusses the involvement of astrocytes in memory functions and the possible
      mechanisms that may underlie it. We review the important breakthroughs obtained
      in this field, as well as some of the controversies that arose from the past
      difficulty to manipulate these cells in a cell type-specific and non-invasive
      manner. Finally, we present new research avenues based on the advanced tools
      becoming available in recent years: optogenetics and chemogenetics, and the
      potential ways in which these tools may further illuminate the role of astrocytes
      in memory processes.

PMID- 28571721
TI  - Transcriptome Analysis Revealed Impaired cAMP Responsiveness in PHF21A-Deficient
      Human Cells.
AB  - Potocki-Shaffer Syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental syndrome associated with
      microdeletion of a region of Chromosome 11p11.2. Genetic evidence has implicated
      haploinsufficiency of PHF21A, a gene that encodes a histone-binding protein, as
      the likely cause of intellectual disability and craniofacial abnormalities in
      Potocki-Shaffer Syndrome. However, the molecular consequences of reduced PHF21A
      expression remain elusive. In this study, we analyzed by RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq)
      two patient-derived cell lines with heterozygous loss of PHF21A compared to
      unaffected individuals and identified 1,885 genes that were commonly
      misregulated. The patient cells displayed down-regulation of key pathways
      relevant to learning and memory, including Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (cAMP)
      signaling pathway genes. We found that PHF21A is required for full induction of a
      luciferase reporter carrying cAMP-responsive elements (CRE) following stimulation
      by the cAMP analog, forskolin. Finally, PHF21A-deficient patient-derived cells
      exhibited a delayed induction of immediate early genes following forskolin
      stimulation. These results suggest that an impaired response to cAMP signaling
      might be involved in the pathology of PHF21A deficiency. This article is part of
      a Special Issue entitled: [SI: Molecules & Cognition].

PMID- 28571722
TI  - Arthroscopic Reconstruction of Segmental Defects of the Hip Labrum: Results in 22
      Patients With Mean 2-Year Follow-Up.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report mean 2-year patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and the incidence
      of revision hip arthroscopy or conversion to total hip arthroplasty (THA) in
      patients who had undergone arthroscopic reconstruction of the hip labrum for
      segmental defects. METHODS: Data were prospectively collected and retrospectively
      reviewed on all patients who had undergone hip arthroscopy from April 2008 to
      April 2013. All patients who underwent arthroscopic labral reconstruction with
      either a semitendinosus allograft or a gracilis autograft with mean 2-year follow
      up were part of the inclusion criteria. The following outcomes were recorded:
      modified Harris hip score, nonarthritic athletic hip score, hip outcome score
      sports-specific subscale, hip outcome score-activities of daily living subscale,
      visual analog scale, for pain, patient satisfaction, revision hip arthroscopies,
      and conversion to THA. A 2-tailed Student's t-test was used to assess for
      statistically significant differences between the mean of preoperative and
      postoperative PROs. P values less than .05 were considered statistically
      significant. RESULTS: A total of 22 patients (14 females, 8 males) met the
      inclusion criteria. There was 100% follow-up. The mean age of the study
      population was 32.2 years. Twelve patients had reconstruction as part of a
      revision procedure and 10 patients had a reconstruction at the time of primary
      arthroscopy. Concomitant arthroscopic procedures included acetabuloplasty and
      femoroplasty. There was statistically significant improvement in all PROs (P =
      .013 to < .001). The mean changes for the modified Harris hip score, nonarthritic
      athletic hip score, hip outcome score-sports-specific subscale, and hip outcome
      score-activities of daily living subscale were 11.0 +/- 19.5, 22.2 +/- 15.0, 23.1
      +/- 30.9, and 19.1 +/- 17.5 points, respectively. The mean improvement in the
      visual analog scale was 3.33 +/- 2.92 points (P < .001), and the mean patient
      satisfaction was 6.73 out of 10 points. One patient required conversion to THA
      for presumed progression of osteoarthritis and 2 patients required a revision
      procedure for adhesions. CONCLUSIONS: This arthroscopic technique for labral
      reconstruction was associated with a significant improvement in PROs and
      function. Conversion to THA with the procedure was 4.5%. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level
      IV, therapeutic case series.

PMID- 28571723
TI  - Opioid Consumption After Rotator Cuff Repair.
AB  - PURPOSE: Rising perioperative opioid use in the United States is of increasing
      concern. The purposes of this study were (1) to define opioid consumption after
      rotator cuff repair (RCR) in the United States and (2) to evaluate patient
      factors that may be associated with prolonged opioid use after arthroscopic RCR.
      METHODS: All arthroscopic RCRs performed between 2007 and 2014 were identified by
      use of Current Procedural Terminology code (29,827). Patients who filled opioid
      prescriptions preoperatively were divided into those who filled prescriptions at
      1 to 3 months preceding RCR and those who filled opioid prescriptions only in the
      1 month preceding RCR. Risk ratios (RRs) were calculated by dividing the
      cumulative incidence of opioid prescriptions in patients with each patient factor
      by the cumulative incidence in those without each patient factor. RESULTS: During
      the study period, 35,155 arthroscopic RCRs were performed. Of the patients,
      approximately 43% had filled an opioid prescription in the 3 months before RCR.
      At 3 months after RCR, patients who filled opioid prescriptions at 1 to 3 months
      before RCR were 7.45 (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.95-7.98) times more likely
      to be filling opioid medication prescriptions than those who had not been
      prescribed opioid medications before surgery; patients who filled opioid
      prescriptions in the month before RCR were 3.04 (95% CI, 2.8-3.29) times more
      likely to be filling opioid prescriptions at 3 months after RCR. Patients with
      psychiatric diagnoses (RR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.85-2.04), myalgia (RR, 1.67; 95% CI,
      1.6-1.75), and low-back pain (RR, 2.09; 95% CI, 2-2.2) were also found to be at
      risk of filling opioid prescriptions at 3 months postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: We
      found approximately 43% of patients undergoing RCR received opioid medications
      before RCR. Patients who are prescribed narcotics before RCR are at increased
      risk of postoperative opioid demand. Patients with psychiatric diagnoses,
      myalgia, and low-back pain may be at increased risk of prolonged opioid use after
      surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective case-control study.

PMID- 28571724
TI  - Premenstrual disorders.
AB  - Premenstrual disorders include premenstrual syndrome, premenstrual dysphoric
      disorder, and premenstrual worsening of another medical condition. While the
      underlying causes of these conditions continue to be explored, an aberrant
      response to hormonal fluctuations that occurs with the natural menstrual cycle
      and serotonin deficits have both been implicated. A careful medical history and
      daily symptom monitoring across 2 menstrual cycles is important in establishing a
      diagnosis. Many treatments have been evaluated for the management of premenstrual
      disorders. The most efficacious treatments for premenstrual syndrome and
      premenstrual dysphoric disorder include serotonin reuptake inhibitors and
      contraceptives with shortened to no hormone-free interval. Women who do not
      respond to these and other interventions may benefit from gonadotropin-releasing
      hormone agonist treatment.

PMID- 28571725
TI  - The scapular dyskinesis test: Reliability, agreement, and predictive value in
      patients with subacromial impingement syndrome.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort. INTRODUCTION: Assessment of scapular
      dysfunction is considered important in the clinical evaluation and treatment of
      patients with symptoms of subacromial impingement. However, sparse research has
      been conducted into the reliability and predictive value of clinical tests with
      which to identify scapular dyskinesis. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To evaluate
      intrarater and interrater reliability and predictive value of the Scapular
      Dyskinesis Test (SDT) in patients with subacromial impingement syndrome. METHODS:
      Forty-five patients with subacromial impingement syndrome were included. The
      presence of scapular dyskinesis was classified by 2 raters using the SDT.
      Intrarater and interrater reliabilities were examined and compared. Patients with
      and without scapular dyskinesis were compared in terms of Oxford Shoulder Score
      and EQ-5D-5L scores at baseline and 3 months, as well rating of overall
      improvement in shoulder condition. RESULTS: SDT could not be performed in 5
      patients, leaving 40 patients for further analysis. Kappa with squared weights
      was 0.64 for rater A and 0.86 for rater B; the intrarater agreement was 88% for A
      and 96% for B. For interrater comparison, the Kappa value was 0.59 and agreement
      86%. No statically significant differences in Oxford Shoulder Score and EQ-5D-5L
      baseline and change scores or overall improvement in shoulder condition at 3
      months were observed between patients with or without scapular dyskinesis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Intrarater and interrater reliability and agreement of the SDT were
      determined. The findings that functional impairment and outcomes did not differ
      between patients with or without the presences of scapular dyskinesis may
      question the clinical value of the SDT in patients with subacromial impingement
      syndrome. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1b.

PMID- 28571726
TI  - Anti-tumor effect of Scutellaria barbata D. Don extracts on ovarian cancer and
      its phytochemicals characterisation.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Scutellaria barbata D. Don is a widely used
      medicinal herb in China. It possess various medicinal properties including
      antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. The aim of this study
      was to explore whether Scutellaria barbata D. Don could inhibit the growth of
      ovarian cancer cells in vitro and further investigate the underlying mechanisms.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Effects of Scutellaria barbata D. Don on the viability of
      ovarian cancer A2780 cells were measured by MTT assay. Apoptosis was measured by
      cell morphologic observation through DAPI staining and Annexin V-FITC staining
      assay for apoptosis analysis. The migration of ovarian cancer cells which exposed
      to Scutellaria barbata D. Don were measured by wound healing and transwell
      chamber assays. The protein levels of caspase 3/9, Bcl-2 and MMP-2/9 in human
      ovarian cancer cells treated with Scutellaria barbata D. Don were assessed by
      western blotting analysis. The potential bioactive compounds were characterized
      by HPLC-Q-TOF-MS. RESULTS: The present study was to investigate the anticancer
      effects of crude extracts from Scutellaria barbata D. Don on ovarian cancer A2780
      cells by MTT, DAPI staining, wound healing assay, transwell migration assay and
      western blotting analysis. Our study showed that Scutellaria barbata D. Don
      reduced the viability of A2780 cells and induced apoptosis by down-regulated Bcl
      2 protein and increased Caspase 3/9 proteins. Furthermore, migration of A2780
      cells were significantly inhibited by Scutellaria barbata D. Don and the
      underlying mechanism may be related to the decrease of MMP-2/9. The main
      constituents from Scutellaria barbata D. Don were identified to be thirteen
      flavonoids. A HPLC-Q-TOF-MS analysis of Scutellaria barbata D. Don indicated the
      presence of 14 flavonoids compounds, which may contribute to the anticancer
      activity of the Scutellaria barbata D. Don. CONCLUSIONS: Scutellaria barbata D.
      Don could inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in A2780 cells through
      mitochondrial pathway. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of Scutellaria barbata D.
      Don on the migration of ovarian cancer cells was associated with the down
      regulation of MMP-2/9 expression. These findings could shed a light on the
      therapy of ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28571727
TI  - Efficacy of Mentha pulegium extract in the treatment of functional dyspepsia: A
      randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL EVIDENCE: Mentha pulegium L. leaves are used in the Iranian
      traditional medicine for the treatment of functional dyspepsia. AIM OF STUDY: To
      study the efficacy and safety of M. pulegium in the treatment of functional
      dyspepsia patients fulfilling the Rome III criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      efficacy and safety of a standardized Mentha pulegium leaf extract (drug extract
      ratio: 15.9:1, extraction solvent: 70% v/v aqueous ethanol) (330mg three times
      daily taken for 2 months) as add-on to one famotidine 40mg tablet per day in the
      treatment of 50 functional dyspepsia patients were compared with those of a
      parallel placebo group (n =50). RESULTS: The extract significantly decreased the
      total dyspepsia score measured by the Hong Kong dyspepsia index compared to the
      placebo and baseline (P=0.011 and P<0.001 respectively). The stomach pain, upper
      abdominal bloating, upper abdominal dull ache, belching and total dyspepsia
      scores were decreased from baseline in the extract group significantly compared
      to the placebo (P<0.001, P<0.001, P=0.003, P<0.001 and P<0.001 respectively).
      However, the decreases of other dyspepsia symptoms scores from baseline in the
      extract group were not significant compared to the placebo (P>0.05). The extract
      improved the quality of life measured by the SF-36 questionnaire significantly
      compared to the placebo and baseline (P=0.003 and P<0.001 respectively).
      Moreover, the extract lowered the rate of H. pylori infection determined by the
      urease test significantly compared to the placebo and baseline (P=0.001 and
      P<0.001 respectively). The extract did not significantly affect the complete
      blood count and liver and kidney function tests (P>0.05). The patients did not
      experience any adverse drug effect. CONCLUSIONS: M. pulegium extract (genuine
      drug extract ratio: 19.4:1; extraction solvent: 70% v/v aqueous ethanol) 270mg
      three times daily taken for 2 months as adjunct to one famotidine 40mg tablet per
      day seems safe, improves dyspeptic symptoms and quality of life and eradicates H.
      pylori in functional dyspepsia patients.

PMID- 28571728
TI  - Light source is critical to induce glioblastoma cell death by photodynamic
      therapy using chloro-aluminiumphtalocyanine albumin-based nanoparticles.
AB  - Selection of an efficient light source is fundamental in the development of
      photodynamic therapy (PDT) protocols. However, few studies provide a comparison
      of different light sources with regard to phototoxic effects. Here, we compared
      the cell death induced by photoactivation of chloro-aluminiumphtalocyanine
      (AlClPc)-loaded human serum albumin nanoparticles under irradiation with
      different light sources: continuous laser (CL), pulsed laser (PL), and light
      emitting diode (LED). Cells were exposed to three different AlClPc concentrations
      (1, 3, and 5MUM) and three different light doses (200, 500, and 700mJ/cm2) for
      each light source. Cell death and differentiation of apoptosis and necrosis
      pathway were measured by flow cytometry. CL was the best light source for
      improving the photodynamic action of AlClPc-loaded albumin nanoparticles in
      glioblastoma cells and avoiding undesirable side effects, especially at low
      photosensitizer doses (200mJ/cm2). In addition, apoptosis was the main cell death
      pathway in all evaluated cases (70% for CL, and greater than 50% for PL and LED).
      In conclusion, the search for optimal light sources and light/photosensitizer
      doses is a crucial step in improving PDT outcomes and enhancing the clinical
      translation of PDT.

PMID- 28571729
TI  - Corrigendum to "Non-Invasive Lung Impedance-Guided Preemptive Treatment in
      Chronic Heart Failure Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Impedance-HF
      Trial)": Journal of Cardiac Failure Vol. 22 No. 9, pp. 713-722.

PMID- 28571730
TI  - Serum Neuronal Biomarkers in Neonates With Congenital Heart Disease Undergoing
      Cardiac Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Newborns with congenital heart disease have associated brain damage
      that affects short-and long-term neurodevelopment. Several neuronal biomarkers
      exist that could predict brain damage. We investigated the pattern of neuron
      specific enolase (NSE) and s100B levels after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery in
      neonates with congenital heart disease. METHODS: We completed a prospective
      observational study of neonates with congenital heart disease who were undergoing
      cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. NSE and s100B levels were measured from serum
      samples obtained preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and once daily on
      postoperative days one to seven. Cranial ultrasounds were obtained preoperatively
      and postoperatively and findings were scored using an internally developed
      scoring system. RESULTS: Eighteen neonates were included. Immediate postoperative
      and peak levels of both NSE (58.0 [21.6] and 68.1 [55.7] MUg/L) and s100B (0.14
      [0.3] and 0.14 [0.3] MUg/L) were significantly increased when compared with
      preoperative levels (34.0 [21.6] MUg/L; P < 0.01 and 0.08 [0.1] MUg/L; P < 0.02).
      By postoperative day seven, NSE and s100B levels were lower than preoperative
      levels: NSE (18 [5.7]; P = 0.09) and s100B (0.03 [0.05]; P < 0.01). Postoperative
      s100B levels were negatively correlated with age at surgery and positively
      correlated with circulatory arrest time. Although there was no significant
      correlation between either NSE or s100B levels and intensive care unit length of
      stay, hospital length of stay, and pediatric cerebral performance category score,
      there was a negative correlation between postoperative levels of NSE and
      ventriculomegaly. CONCLUSIONS: NSE and s100B levels increase after bypass surgery
      and return below preoperative baseline levels by postoperative day seven. The
      levels of s100B were positively correlated with circulatory arrest time and
      negatively correlated with age at time of surgery. This finding may be supportive
      of pre-existing prenatal brain injury that could be enhanced by longer surgical
      times but also of some brain protection effect associated with longer wait until
      surgery.

PMID- 28571731
TI  - Epigenetic therapies, still in the midway between facts and fiction.

PMID- 28571732
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28571733
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28571734
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28571735
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28571736
TI  - Thin layer chitosan-coated cellulose filter paper as substrate for immobilization
      of catalytic cobalt nanoparticles.
AB  - A facile approach utilizing synthesis of cobalt nanoparticles in green polymers
      of chitosan (CS) coating layer on high surface area cellulose microfibers of
      filter paper (CFP) is described for the catalytic reduction of nitrophenol and an
      organic dye using NaBH4. Simple steps of CFP coating with 1wt% CS aqueous
      solution followed by Co2+ ions adsorption from 0.2M CoCl2 aqueous solution were
      carried out to prepare pre-catalytic strips. The Co2+ loaded pre-catalytic strips
      of CS-CFP were treated with 0.19M NaBH4 aqueous solution to convert the ions into
      nanoparticles. Successful Co nanoparticles formation was assessed by various
      characterization techniques of FESEM, EDX and XRD analyzes. TGA analyses were
      carried out on CFP, CS-CFP, and Co-CS-CFP for the determination of the amount of
      Co particles formed on the CS-FP, and to track their thermal properties.
      Furthermore, we demonstrated that the Co-CS-CFP showed an excellent catalytic
      activity and reusability in the reduction reactions a nitroaromatic compound of
      2,6-dintirophenol (2,6-DNP) and brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) dye by NaBH4. The Co
      CS-CFP catalyzed the reduction reactions of 2,6-DNP and BCB by NaBH4 with psuedo
      first order rate constants of 0.0451 and 0.1987min-1, respectively.

PMID- 28571737
TI  - Fabrication and characterization of electrospun gelatin nanofibers crosslinked
      with oxidized phenolic compounds.
AB  - In this study, the ability of oxidized phenolic compounds of tannic, gallic,
      ferulic and caffeic acids to crosslink gelatin (G) was investigated. The
      electrospun crosslinked gelatin nanofibers were assessed in terms of gelatin
      solution properties, fiber morphology, thermal properties, FTIR spectra, XRD
      pattern and antioxidant activity. Tannic acid showed the most crosslinking
      activity towards gelatin (13.3 vs 7.44, 4.65, and 3.45% for caffeic, gallic and
      ferulic, respectively). Crosslinking enhanced roughly electrical conductivity of
      gelatin solution while the surface tension and viscosity reduced. According to
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results, the fibrous structure of crosslinked
      gelatin nanofibers didn't change while their diameter increased to the highest
      value of 280nm for gelatin-tannic. Gelatin-gallic sample showed the highest total
      phenolic content (86.3mg gallic acid equivalent/g) and antioxidant activity
      (86.5%). Surprisingly, from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves, it
      was found that crosslinking led to the reduction of thermal stability of gelatin
      nanofibers.

PMID- 28571738
TI  - GPR3 and GPR6, novel molecular targets for cannabidiol.
AB  - GPR3 and GPR6 are members of a family of constitutively active, Gs protein
      coupled receptors. Previously, it has been reported that GPR3 is involved in
      Alzheimer's disease whereas GPR6 plays potential roles in Parkinson's disease.
      GPR3 and GPR6 are considered orphan receptors because there are no confirmed
      endogenous agonists for them. However, GPR3 and GPR6 are phylogenetically related
      to the cannabinoid receptors. In this study, the activities of endocannabinoids
      and phytocannabinoids were tested on GPR3 and GPR6 using a beta-arrestin2
      recruitment assay. Among the variety of cannabinoids tested, cannabidiol (CBD),
      the major non-psychoactive component of marijuana, significantly reduced beta
      arrestin2 recruitment to both GPR3 and GPR6. In addition, the inhibitory effects
      of CBD on beta-arrestin2 recruitment were concentration-dependent for both GPR3
      and GPR6, with a higher potency for GPR6. These data show that CBD acts as an
      inverse agonist at both GPR3 and GPR6 receptors. These results demonstrate for
      the first time that both GPR3 and GPR6 are novel molecular targets for CBD. Our
      discovery that CBD acts as a novel inverse agonist on both GPR3 and GPR6
      indicates that some of the potential therapeutic effects of CBD (e.g. treatment
      of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease) may be mediated through these
      important receptors.

PMID- 28571739
TI  - Amelioration of adjuvant-induced arthritis in CCDC134-overexpressing transgenic
      mice.
AB  - CCDC134 might be an immune cytokine and plays important and complex roles in the
      process in vivo. It was proved to illustrate its potent antitumor effects by
      augmenting CD8+ T-cell-mediated immunity, but its role in the development of
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that
      development of adjuvant-induced arthritis and pro-inflammatory responses were
      more ameliorated in CCDC134-overexpressing transgenic mice than those in WT mice.
      The underlying mechanism of CCDC134-induced effects involved inhibition of T
      helper (Th) 1 and Th17 cell differentiation. These findings indicate that
      overexpression of CCDC134 exerts potent anti-inflammatory effects through
      selective modulation of pathogenic Th1 and Th17 cells, and might provide insights
      into the role of CCDC134 as a unique therapeutic agent for the treatment of
      rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28571740
TI  - Phytol increases adipocyte number and glucose tolerance through activation of
      PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in mice fed high-fat and high-fructose diet.
AB  - It has been shown that adipose tissue hyperplasia (increased adipocyte number or
      adipogenesis) has beneficial effects on metabolic health. The aim of the present
      study was to determine whether phytol could modulate hyperplasia/adipogenesis and
      glucose homeostasis, and to explore the underlying mechanisms in mice fed high
      fat and high fructose diet (HFFD). Our results demonstrated that phytol
      administration decreased body weight gain and inguinal subcutaneous white adipose
      tissue (iWAT) weight. However, phytol significantly increased the adipocyte
      number in iWAT, with the smaller average adipocyte diameter. Meanwhile, OGTT
      result showed that phytol improved glucose tolerance. In accord, phytol
      administration markedly increased expression of marker genes associated with
      adipogenesis (PPARgamma and C/EBPalpha) and glucose uptake (AS160 and GLUT4) and
      activated PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in mice iWAT. In agreement with the in vivo
      findings, the in vitro results indicated that 100 MUM phytol significantly
      enhanced 3T3-L1 adipogenesis and glucose uptake, and activated PI3K/Akt signaling
      pathway. However, phytol-induced enhancement of 3T3-L1 adipognesis and glucose
      uptake, activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, elevation of marker genes
      involved in adipogensis and glucose uptake, as well as translocation of GLUT4
      from cytoplasm to membrane were abolished by Wortmannin, a specific PI3K/Akt
      inhibitor. Taken together, phytol increased adipocyte number in iWAT and improved
      glucose tolerance in mice fed HFFD, which was coincident with the enhanced
      adipogenesis and glucose uptake in 3T3-L1, and was associated with activation of
      PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. These data suggested the application of phytol as a
      potential nutritional agent to combat obesity and type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28571741
TI  - Circular RNA hsa_circ_0010729 regulates vascular endothelial cell proliferation
      and apoptosis by targeting the miR-186/HIF-1alpha axis.
AB  - Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a group of non-protein-coding RNAs generated from
      back splicing. Emerging evidence has demonstrated its vital regulation on
      angiogenesis. However, the underlying mechanism responsible for circRNAs effects
      on vascular endothelial cells is still unclear. In the present study, we screened
      the expression profiles and investigated the physiological role of circRNAs in
      hypoxia-induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Using circRNA
      microarray analysis, we identified 36 circRNAs that were significantly
      dysregulated including 14 down-regulated circRNAs and 22 up-regulated with 2-fold
      change (P < 0.05). From the over-expressed circRNAs, hsa_circ_0010729 was
      selected as candidate circRNA and which was validated to be significantly up
      regulated using RT-PCR. In loss-of-function experiments of HUVECs,
      hsa_circ_0010729 knockdown suppressed the proliferation and migration ability and
      enhanced apoptosis. Bioinformatic prediction and luciferase assay revealed that
      hsa_circ_0010729 and hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1alpha) were targeted
      by miR-186. Validation experiments verified that hsa_circ_0010729 was co
      expressed with HIF-1alpha, being negatively correlated with miR-186. Moreover,
      rescue experiments demonstrated that miR-186 inhibitor could reverse the role of
      hsa_circ_0010729 knockdown on HUVECs progression. Overall, the present study
      identifies the crucial regulation of hsa_circ_0010729 on vascular endothelial
      cell proliferation and apoptosis via targeting miR-186/HIF-1alpha axis.

PMID- 28571742
TI  - Characterization and enzymatic properties of protein kinase ACR4 from Arabidopsis
      thaliana.
AB  - Serine/threonine-protein kinase-like protein ARABIDOPSIS CRINKLY4 (ACR4), a
      transmembrane protein of Arabidopsis thaliana, plays important roles in cell
      division and differentiation. Although accumulating studies shed light on the
      function of ACR4, the structure and catalytic mechanism of ACR4 remain to be
      elucidated. Here, we report the purification and enzymatic properties of the
      intracellular kinase domain (residues 464-799) of ACR4 (ACR4IKD). Through Ni
      affinity chromatography and gel filter chromatography methods, we successfully
      obtain high-purity ACR4IKD protein from Escherichia coli. Dynamic light
      scattering and gel-filtration methods reveal that ACR4IKD distributes with high
      homogeneity and exists as a monomer in solution. In addition, the ACR4IKD protein
      has typical kinase activity with myelin basic protein (MBP) as the substrate. Our
      study may lay the foundation for structure determination of ACR4IKD and further
      functional research, for example, screening significant substrates of ACR4 in
      Arabidopsis thaliana.

PMID- 28571743
TI  - On the use of the experimentally determined enzyme inhibition constant as a
      measure of absolute binding affinity.
AB  - Defined as a state function representing an inhibitor's absolute affinity for its
      target enzyme, the experimentally determined enzyme inhibition constant (Ki) is
      widely used to rank order binding affinities of different inhibitors for a common
      enzyme or different enzymes for a common inhibitor and to benchmark computational
      approaches to predicting binding affinity. Herein, we report that adsorption of
      bis(7)-tacrine to the glass container surface increased its Ki against
      Electrophorus electricus acetylcholinesterase (eeAChE) to 3.2 +/- 0.1 nM (n = 5)
      compared to 2.9 +/- 0.4 pM (n = 5) that was determined using plastic containers
      with other assay conditions kept the same. We also report that, due to binding or
      "adsorption" of bis(7)-tacrine to the inactive eeAChE, the bis(7)-tacrine Ki
      increased from 2.9 +/- 0.4 pM (n = 5) to 734 +/- 70 pM (n = 5) as the specific
      eeAChE activity decreased from 342 U/mg to 26 U/mg while other assay conditions
      were kept the same. These results caution against using Kis to rank order binding
      potencies, define selectivity, or benchmark computational methods without knowing
      detailed assay conditions.

PMID- 28571745
TI  - Acetylation of MKL1 by PCAF regulates pro-inflammatory transcription.
AB  - Inflammation is considered a fundamental host defense mechanism and, when
      aberrantly activated, contributes to a host of human diseases. Previously we have
      reported that the transcriptional regulator megakaryocytic leukemia 1 (MKL1)
      plays a role programming cellular inflammatory response by modulating NF-kappaB
      activity. Here we report that MKL1 was acetylated in vivo and pro-inflammatory
      stimuli (TNF-alpha and LPS) augmented MKL1 acetylation accompanying increased
      MKL1 binding to NF-kappaB target promoters. Further analysis revealed that the
      lysine acetyltransferase PCAF mediated MKL1 acetylation: TNF-alpha and LPS
      promoted the interaction between MKL1 and PCAF whereas depletion of PCAF
      abrogated the induction of MKL1 acetylation by TNF-alpha and LPS. Acetylation of
      MKL1 was necessary for MKL1 to activate the transcription of pro-inflammatory
      genes because mutation of four conserved lysine residues in MKL1 attenuated its
      capacity as a trans-activator of NF-kappaB target genes. Mechanistically, MKL1
      acetylation served to promote MKL1 nuclear enrichment, to enhance the MKL1-NF
      kappaB interaction, and to stabilize the binding of MKL1 on target promoters. In
      conclusion, our data unveil an important pathway that contributes to the
      transcriptional regulation of inflammatory response.

PMID- 28571746
TI  - Experimental Theileria lestoquardi infection in sheep: Biochemical and
      hematological changes.
AB  - Malignant theileriosis (Theileria lestoquardi infection) is a hemoparasitic tick
      borne disease that affects both wild and domestic small ruminants. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate biochemical and hematological characteristics of sheep
      after being experimentally infected by T. lestoquardi. T. lestoquardi infection
      was induced in seven Baluchi sheep of six-to-eight months old via experimentally
      infected Hyalomma anatolicum adult ticks. Biochemical and hematological
      parameters were measured twice a week during the three weeks' post infection.
      Twenty-three biochemical analytes and seven hematological ones were measured.
      After three to four days infection, body temperature rose above 40 degrees C.
      Maximum and minimum parasitaemia were 3.3% and 0.28%, respectively. Piroplasms
      and schizont were seen on average from days 7.2 and 4 post infection,
      respectively. The concentrations and activities of Alb, HDL, ALT, T3, T4, Ca, Fe,
      Mg, iP, WBC, RBC, PCV, Hb, Plt, neutrophil and lymphocytes significantly
      decreased (P<=0.05) during experimental infection. However, concentrations and
      activities of BT, GGT, Glu, BUN, Crea, FIB and Cu significantly increased
      (P<=0.05). There was no significant change in the serum amounts of Chol, LDL, TG,
      VLDL and Zn. The observed hypoalbuminemia and increase of FIB concentrations
      referred to pro-inflammatory cytokines production. Moreover, the raising of GGT
      activity indicates liver damage, cholestatic disorders or schizont infiltration.
      The disease stress and corticosteroids are suspected to cause the Glu
      concentration increase. The present study is aimed at improving the knowledge of
      malignant theileriosis.

PMID- 28571744
TI  - Kr-POK (ZBTB7c) regulates cancer cell proliferation through glutamine metabolism.
AB  - Kr-POK (ZBTB7c) is a kidney cancer-related POK transcription factor that not only
      represses transcription of CDKN1A but also increases expression of FASN. However,
      precisely how Kr-POK affects cell metabolism by controlling gene expression in
      response to an energy source in rapidly proliferating cells remains unknown. In
      this study, we characterized the molecular and functional features of Kr-POK in
      the context of tumor growth and glutamine metabolism. We found that cells
      expressing Kr-POK shRNA exhibited more severe cell death than control cells in
      glucose-deprived medium, and that knockdown of Kr-POK decreased glutamine uptake.
      Glutamine is critical for tumor cell proliferation. Glutaminase (GLS1), which is
      activated by p-STAT1, catalyzes the initial reaction in the pathway of
      glutaminolysis. Kr-POK interacts with PIAS1 to disrupt the interaction between
      PIAS1 and p-STAT1, and free p-STAT1 can activate GLS1 transcription through an
      interaction with p300. Kr-POK can be also sumoylated by PIAS1, facilitating Kr
      POK degradation by the ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal pathway. Finally, we showed
      that repression of Kr-POK inhibited tumor growth in vivo in a xenograft model by
      repressing GLS1 expression. Taken together, our data reveal that Kr-POK activates
      GLS1 transcription and increases glutamine uptake to support rapid cancer cell
      proliferation.

PMID- 28571747
TI  - Cancer cell mechanics with altered cytoskeletal behavior and substrate effects: A
      3D finite element modeling study.
AB  - A robust computational model of a cancer cell is presented using finite element
      modeling. The model accurately captures nuances of the various components of the
      cellular substructure. The role of degradation of cytoskeleton on overall elastic
      properties of the cancer cell is reported. The motivation for degraded cancer
      cellular substructure, the cytoskeleton is the observation that the innate
      mechanics of cytoskeleton is disrupted by various anti-cancer drugs as
      therapeutic treatments for the destruction of the cancer tumors. We report a
      significant influence on the degradation of the cytoskeleton on the mechanics of
      cancer cell. Further, a simulations based study is reported where we evaluate
      mechanical properties of the cancer cell attached to a variety of substrates. The
      loading of the cancer cell is less influenced by nature of the substrate, but low
      modulus substrates such as osteoblasts and hydrogels indicate a significant
      change in unloading behavior and also the plastic deformation. Overall, softer
      substrates such as osteoblasts and other bone cells result in a much altered
      unloading response as well as significant plastic deformation. These substrates
      are relevant to metastasis wherein certain type of cancers such as prostate and
      breast cancer cells migrate to the bone and colonize through mesenchymal to
      epithelial transition. The modeling study presented here is an important first
      step in the development of strong predictive methodologies for cancer
      progression.

PMID- 28571748
TI  - Corrigendum to "Recombinant expression of surfactant protein H (SFTA3) in
      Escherichia coli" [Ann. Anat. 208C (2016) 129-134].

PMID- 28571749
TI  - Altered expression of epidermal lipid bio-synthesis enzymes in atopic dermatitis
      skin is accompanied by changes in stratum corneum lipid composition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The barrier dysfunction in atopic dermatitis (AD) skin correlates
      with stratum corneum (SC) lipid abnormalities including reduction of global lipid
      content, shorter ceramide (CER) as well as free fatty acid (FFA) chain length and
      altered CER subclass levels. However, the underlying cause of these changes in
      lipid composition has not been fully investigated. AIM: We investigated whether
      the expression of CER and FFA biosynthesis enzymes are altered in AD skin
      compared with control skin and determine whether changes in enzyme expression can
      be related with changes in lipid composition. METHODS: In AD patients and
      controls the expression of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of FFAs and CERs
      was analyzed in relation to the SC lipid composition. These enzymes include
      stearoyl CoA desaturase (SCD), elongase 1 (ELOVL1) and ELOVL6 involved in FFA
      synthesis and beta-glucocerebrosidase (GBA), acid-sphingomyelinase (aSmase),
      ceramide synthase 3 (CerS3) involved in CER synthesis. In TH2 treated human skin
      equivalents (AD HSEs) mimicking lesional AD skin, the mRNA expression of these
      enzymes was investigated. RESULTS: The results reveal an altered expression of
      SCD and ELOVL1 in AD lesional skin. This was accompanied by functional changes
      displayed by increased unsaturated FFAs (SCD) and reduced FFA C22-C28 (ELOVL1) in
      AD lesional skin. The expression of GBA, aSmase and CerS3 were also altered in
      lesional skin. The CER composition in AD lesional skin showed corresponding
      changes such as increased CER AS and NS (aSmase) and decreased esterified omega
      hydroxy CERs (CerS3). In support of the results from AD skin, the AD HSEs showed
      reduced mRNA ELOVL1, GBA and a Smase levels. CONCLUSION: This study shows that
      alterations in the expression of key enzymes involved in SC lipid synthesis
      contribute to changes in the lipid composition in AD skin and inflammation may
      influence expression of these enzymes.

PMID- 28571750
TI  - Measuring O-GlcNAc cleavage by OGA and cell lysates on a peptide microarray.
AB  - O-GlcNAcylation is a post-translational modification resulting from the addition
      of an N-acetylglucosamine moiety to the hydroxyl groups of serine and threonine
      residues of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. In addition, O-GlcNAcylated
      proteins can be phosphorylated, which suggests the possibility for crosstalk
      between O-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation. Dysregulation of O-GlcNAcylation
      affects cell signaling, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle control and can
      e.g. lead to tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis. There is a strong demand for
      efficient analytical techniques to better detect and investigate this abundant
      modification and its role in cancer. Herein we demonstrated the utility of an O
      GlcNAcylated peptide array to examine O-GlcNAcase (OGA) activity and substrate
      specificity of both purified protein as well cell lysates of different cancer
      cell lines. Using this microarray, we clearly observed OGA activity and also
      inhibition thereof by OGA inhibitor thiamet G. Interestingly, different levels of
      OGA activity were observed of lysates derived from different cancer cell lines.
      This suggests that the tool may be useful in cancer research and biomarker
      development.

PMID- 28571751
TI  - Plasma-induced selectivity in bone cancer cells death.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current therapies for bone cancers - either primary or metastatic -
      are difficult to implement and unfortunately not completely effective. An
      alternative therapy could be found in cold plasmas generated at atmospheric
      pressure which have already demonstrated selective anti-tumor action in a number
      of carcinomas and in more relatively rare brain tumors. However, its effects on
      bone cancer are still unknown. METHODS: Herein, we employed an atmospheric
      pressure plasma jet (APPJ) to validate its selectivity towards osteosarcoma cell
      line vs. osteoblasts & human mesenchymal stem cells. RESULTS: Cytotoxicity
      following direct interaction of APPJ with cells is comparable to indirect
      interaction when only liquid medium is treated and subsequently added to the
      cells, especially on the long-term (72h of cell culture). Moreover, following
      contact of the APPJ treated medium with cells, delayed effects are observed which
      lead to 100% bone cancer cell death through apoptosis (decreased cell viability
      with incubation time in contact with APPJ treated medium from 24h to 72h), while
      healthy cells remain fully viable and unaffected by the treatment. CONCLUSIONS:
      The high efficiency of the indirect treatment indicates that an important role is
      played by the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS)
      in the gaseous plasma stage and then transmitted to the liquid phase, which
      overall lead to lethal and selective action towards osteosarcoma cells. These
      findings open new pathways for treatment of metastatic bone disease with a
      minimally invasive approach.

PMID- 28571753
TI  - Real-time 3D transesophageal echocardiography-guided closure of a complicated
      patent ductus arteriosus in a dog.
AB  - Advanced imaging modalities are becoming more widely available in veterinary
      cardiology, including the use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during
      occlusion of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in dogs. The dog in this report had a
      complex history of attempted ligation and a large PDA that initially precluded
      device placement thereby limiting the options for PDA closure. Following a second
      thoracotomy and partial ligation, the morphology of the PDA was altered and
      device occlusion was an option. Angiographic assessment of the PDA was limited by
      the presence of hemoclips, and the direction of ductal flow related to the change
      in anatomy following ligature placement. Intra-operative TEE, in particular real
      time three-dimensional imaging, was pivotal for assessing the PDA morphology,
      monitoring during the procedure, selecting the device size, and confirming device
      placement. The TEE images increased operator confidence that the size and
      location of the device were appropriate before release despite the unusual
      position. This report highlights the benefit of intra-operative TEE, in
      particular real-time three-dimensional imaging, for successful PDA occlusion in a
      complicated case.

PMID- 28571754
TI  - Nonlinear adaptive control based on fuzzy sliding mode technique and fuzzy-based
      compensator.
AB  - It is difficult to efficiently control nonlinear systems in the presence of
      uncertainty and disturbance (UAD). One of the main reasons derives from the
      negative impact of the unknown features of UAD as well as the response delay of
      the control system on the accuracy rate in the real time of the control signal.
      In order to deal with this, we propose a new controller named CO-FSMC for a class
      of nonlinear control systems subjected to UAD, which is constituted of a fuzzy
      sliding mode controller (FSMC) and a fuzzy-based compensator (CO). Firstly, the
      FSMC and CO are designed independently, and then an adaptive fuzzy structure is
      discovered to combine them. Solutions for avoiding the singular cases of the
      fuzzy-based function approximation and reducing the calculating cost are
      proposed. Based on the solutions, fuzzy sliding mode technique, lumped
      disturbance observer and Lyapunov stability analysis, a closed-loop adaptive
      control law is formulated. Simulations along with a real application based on a
      semi-active train-car suspension are performed to fully evaluate the method. The
      obtained results reflected that vibration of the chassis mass is insensitive to
      UAD. Compared with the other fuzzy sliding mode control strategies, the CO-FSMC
      can provide the best control ability to reduce unwanted vibrations.

PMID- 28571752
TI  - Insights into the differential toxicological and antioxidant effects of 4
      phenylchalcogenil-7-chloroquinolines in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Organic selenium and tellurium compounds are known for their broad-spectrum
      effects in a variety of experimental disease models. However, these compounds
      commonly display high toxicity and the molecular mechanisms underlying these
      deleterious effects have yet to be elucidated. Thus, the need for an animal model
      that is inexpensive, amenable to high-throughput analyses, and feasible for
      molecular studies is highly desirable to improve organochalcogen pharmacological
      and toxicological characterization. Herein, we use Caenorhabdtis elegans (C.
      elegans) as a model for the assessment of pharmacological and toxicological
      parameters following exposure to two 4-phenylchalcogenil-7-chloroquinolines
      derivatives (PSQ for selenium and PTQ for tellurium-containing compounds). While
      non-lethal concentrations (NLC) of PTQ and PSQ attenuated paraquat-induced
      effects on survival, lifespan and oxidative stress parameters, lethal
      concentrations (LC) of PTQ and PSQ alone are able to impair these parameters in
      C. elegans. We also demonstrate that DAF-16/FOXO and SKN-1/Nrf2 transcription
      factors underlie the mechanism of action of these compounds, as their targets sod
      3, gst-4 and gcs-1 were modulated following exposures in a daf-16- and skn-1
      dependent manner. Finally, in accordance with a disturbed thiol metabolism in
      both LC and NLC, we found higher sensitivity of trxr-1 worm mutants (lacking the
      selenoprotein thioredoxin reductase 1) when exposed to PSQ. Finally, our study
      suggests new targets for the investigation of organochalcogen pharmacological
      effects, reinforcing the use of C. elegans as a powerful platform for preclinical
      approaches.

PMID- 28571755
TI  - New methods of Laguerre pole optimization for the ARX model expansion on Laguerre
      bases.
AB  - The ARX-Laguerre model is a very important reduced complexity representation of
      linear system. However a significant reduction of this model is subject to an
      optimal choice of both Laguerre poles. Therefore we propose in this paper two new
      methods to estimate, from input/output measurements, the optimal values of
      Laguerre poles of the ARX-Laguerre model. The first method is based on the Newton
      Raphson's iterative technique where we prove that the gradient and the Hessian
      can be expressed analytically. The second method is based on Genetic Algorithms.
      Both proposed algorithms are tested on a numerical example and on a heating
      benchmark.

PMID- 28571756
TI  - Further triple integral approach to mixed-delay-dependent stability of time-delay
      neutral systems.
AB  - This paper studies the asymptotic stability for a class of neutral systems with
      mixed time-varying delays. Through utilizing some Wirtinger-based integral
      inequalities and extending the convex combination technique, the upper bound on
      derivative of Lyapunov-Krasovskii (L-K) functional can be estimated more tightly
      and three mixed-delay-dependent criteria are proposed in terms of linear matrix
      inequalities (LMIs), in which the nonlinearity and parameter uncertainties are
      also involved, respectively. Different from those existent works, based on the
      interconnected relationship between neutral delay and state one, some novel
      triple integral functional terms are constructed and the conservatism can be
      effectively reduced. Finally, two numerical examples are given to show the
      benefits of the proposed criteria.

PMID- 28571757
TI  - HMGB1 promotes HLF-1 proliferation and ECM production through activating HIF1
      alpha-regulated aerobic glycolysis.
AB  - Aerobic glycolysis is a crucial event in fibroblast differentiation, and
      extracellular matrix (ECM) production in the progression of pulmonary fibrosis
      (PF). Abnormal high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1) activation is involved in
      the pathogenesis of PF. However, whether aerobic glycolysis contributes to HMGB1
      induced fibroblast proliferation and ECM production in PF has not yet been
      determined. In this study, we investigated the effects of HMGB1 on human
      embryonic lung fibroblast (HLF-1) proliferation, ECM production, and aerobic
      glycolysis. The lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor oxamic acid (OA), and PFKFB3
      inhibitor 3PO were used to block certain crucial steps of aerobic glycolysis. As
      a result, we observed an increase of HMGB1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF)
      in bleomycin (BLM)-treated rats as compared to non-treated rats (control group).
      A concentration-dependent increase of HLF-1 proliferation and expression of alpha
      SMA and alpha-collagen I were observed in the HMGB1 group, as well as increases
      of LDHA activation, glucose uptake levels, glycolytic rate, lactate level, and
      ATP production. OA and 3PO, or suppression of HIF1-alpha, blocked the effects of
      HMGB1. In summary, HMGB1 promotes fibroblast proliferation and ECM production
      though upregulating expression of HIF1-alpha to induce an increase of aerobic
      glycolysis.

PMID- 28571758
TI  - Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)
      class I genetic diversity in four South African populations.
AB  - Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) and Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)
      genotypes vary considerably between individuals and populations due to KIR/HLA
      allelic variation and variable haplotype configurations of KIR. HLA mediate
      natural killer cell activity by serving as KIR ligands. KIR/HLA polymorphisms
      associate with both disease susceptibility and severity. We determined the
      frequencies of KIR, KIR genotypes and KIR-HLA combinations in 364 healthy
      individuals from four South African populations. Study participants included
      black African (n=167), Caucasian (n=97), Mixed ancestry (n=50) and Indian (n=50)
      individuals. We identified 48 KIR genotypes that included two genotypes not
      previously reported. Based on KIR gene content, Indian individuals represented
      the most distinct group, showing the highest frequencies of KIR2DL2, KIR2DL5,
      KIR2DS1, KIR2DS2, KIR2DS3 and KIR3DS1, the lowest frequencies of KIR2DL3, KIR2DS4
      and KIR3DL1; and a KIR2DL4-negative individual. KIR2DS1 and KIR3DS1 were
      infrequent in black African populations. HLA-C2 was more common in black African
      individuals, while HLA-C1 predominated in the other populations. Indian
      individuals were more likely to possess KIR2DL2 paired with HLA-C1, while
      Caucasian individuals exhibited the highest frequencies of KIR2DL3 paired with
      HLA-C1. This report provides comprehensive reference data for further study of
      the roles of KIR/HLA in non-communicable and infectious diseases in South African
      populations.

PMID- 28571759
TI  - Efficient production of recombinant adeno-associated viral vector, serotype DJ/8,
      carrying the GFP gene.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to establish an efficient method for the
      preparation of an adeno-associated viral (AAV), serotype DJ/8, carrying the GFP
      gene (AAV-DJ/8-GFP). We compared the yields of AAV-DJ/8 vector, which were
      produced by three different combination methods, consisting of two plasmid DNA
      transfection methods (lipofectamine and calcium phosphate co-precipitation; CaPi)
      and two virus DNA purification methods (iodixanol and cesium chloride; CsCl). The
      results showed that the highest yield of AAV-DJ/8-GFP vector was accomplished
      with the combination method of lipofectamine transfection and iodixanol
      purification. The viral protein expression levels and the transduction efficacy
      in HEK293 and CHO cells were not different among four different combination
      methods for AAV-DJ/8-GFP vectors. We confirmed that the AAV-DJ/8-GFP vector could
      transduce to human and murine hepatocyte-derived cell lines. These results show
      that AAV-DJ/8-GFP, purified by the combination of lipofectamine and iodixanol,
      produces an efficient yield without altering the characteristics of protein
      expression and AAV gene transduction.

PMID- 28571760
TI  - A bivalent dendrimeric peptide bearing a T-cell epitope from foot-and-mouth
      disease virus protein 3A improves humoral response against classical swine fever
      virus.
AB  - Three dendrimeric peptides were synthesized in order to evaluate their
      immunogenicity and their potential protection against classical swine fever virus
      (CSFV) in domestic pigs. Construct 1, an optimized version of a previously used
      dendrimer, had four copies of a B-cell epitope derived from CSFV E2 glycoprotein
      connected to an also CSFV-derived T-cell epitope through maleimide instead of
      thioether linkages. Construct 2 was similarly built but included only two copies
      of the B-cell epitope, and in also bivalent construct 3 the CSFV T-cell epitope
      was replaced by a previously described one from the 3A protein of foot-and-mouth
      disease virus (FMDV). Animals were inoculated twice with a 21-day interval and
      challenged 15days after the second immunization. Clinical signs were recorded
      daily and ELISA tests were performed to detect antibodies against specific
      peptide and E2. The neutralising antibody response was assessed 13days after
      challenge. Despite the change to maleimide connectivity, only partial protection
      against CSFV was again observed. The best clinical protection was observed in
      group 3. Animals inoculated with constructs 2 and 3 showed higher anti-peptide
      humoral response, suggesting that two copies of the B-cell epitope are sufficient
      or even better than four copies for swine immune recognition. In addition, for
      construct 3 higher neutralizing antibody titres against CSFV were detected. Our
      results support the immunogenicity of the CSFV B-cell epitope and the cooperative
      role of the FMDV 3A T-cell epitope in inducing a neutralising response against
      CSFV in domestic pigs. This is also the first time that the FMDV T-cell epitope
      shows effectivity in improving swine immune response against a different virus.
      Our findings highlight the relevance of dendrimeric peptides as a powerful tool
      for epitope characterization and antiviral strategies development.

PMID- 28571761
TI  - The temperature dependence of the BK channel activity - kinetics, thermodynamics,
      and long-range correlations.
AB  - Large-conductance, voltage dependent, Ca2+-activated potassium channels (BK) are
      transmembrane proteins that regulate many biological processes by controlling
      potassium flow across cell membranes. Here, we investigate to what extent
      temperature (in the range of 17-37 degrees C with DeltaT=5 degrees C step) is a
      regulating parameter of kinetic properties of the channel gating and memory
      effect in the series of dwell-time series of subsequent channel's states, at
      membrane depolarization and hyperpolarization. The obtained results indicate that
      temperature affects strongly the BK channels' gating, but, counterintuitively, it
      exerts no effect on the long-range correlations, as measured by the Hurst
      coefficient. Quantitative differences between dependencies of appropriate
      channel's characteristics on temperature are evident for different regimes of
      voltage. Examining the characteristics of BK channel activity as a function of
      temperature allows to estimate the net activation energy (Eact) and changes of
      thermodynamic parameters (DeltaH, DeltaS, DeltaG) by channel opening. Larger Eact
      corresponds to the channel activity at membrane hyperpolarization. The analysis
      of entropy and enthalpy changes of closed to open channel's transition suggest
      the entropy-driven nature of the increase of open state probability during
      voltage activation and supports the hypothesis about the voltage-dependent
      geometry of the channel vestibule.

PMID- 28571762
TI  - Filling bone defects with beta-TCP in maxillofacial surgery: A review.
AB  - Reconstruction of bone defects prior to implant placement now involves synthetic
      substitutes such as beta-TCP because of its ability to promote bone remodeling.
      Its capacity to be progressively substituted by the patient's bone allows to
      regenerate a dense bone volume. In addition, its availability in large
      quantities, avoiding the morbidity observed with harvesting autogenous bone,
      widens the operative indications. In this paper, the main indications of beta-TCP
      in maxillofacial surgery (dentistry, parodontology and dental implant surgery)
      are reviewed. They include periodontal bone disease, bone disjunction, pre
      implant surgery (sinus floor elevation and lateralization of the inferior
      alveolar nerve).

PMID- 28571763
TI  - Effect of target-enriched multiplex polymerase chain reaction on patient outcomes
      and costs during the 2013-14 influenza season.
AB  - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the initial use of
      rapid antigen influenza diagnostic test (RIDT) for the detection of influenza A
      (H1N1-09). Nasopharyngeal samples were tested from 246 patients for H1N1-09 using
      target-enriched multiplex polymerase chain reaction (TEM-PCR), of which 163 were
      additionally tested via RIDT. RIDTs had a sensitivity of 18.7% compared with TEM
      PCR as the reference standard. Patients with false-negative RIDTs were withheld
      from 111 days of oseltamivir and 65 days of isolation. Patients negative for H1N1
      via TEM-PCR had antiviral therapy immediately stopped, thereby evading 408 days
      of oseltamivir and 315 days of unnecessary isolation. This cost avoidance saved
      US$208,982.

PMID- 28571764
TI  - Protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms in cancer, tumor promotion and tumor suppression.
AB  - The AGC family of serine/threonine kinases (PKA, PKG, PKC) includes more than 60
      members that are critical regulators of numerous cellular functions, including
      cell cycle and differentiation, morphogenesis, and cell survival and death.
      Mutation and/or dysregulation of AGC kinases can lead to malignant cell
      transformation and contribute to the pathogenesis of many human diseases. Members
      of one subgroup of AGC kinases, the protein kinase C (PKC), have been singled out
      as critical players in carcinogenesis, following their identification as the
      intracellular receptors of phorbol esters, which exhibit tumor-promoting
      activities. This observation attracted the attention of researchers worldwide and
      led to intense investigations on the role of PKC in cell transformation and the
      potential use of PKC as therapeutic drug targets in cancer diseases. Studies
      demonstrated that many cancers had altered expression and/or mutation of specific
      PKC genes. However, the causal relationships between the changes in PKC gene
      expression and/or mutation and the direct cause of cancer remain elusive.
      Independent studies in normal cells demonstrated that activation of PKC is
      essential for the induction of cell activation and proliferation,
      differentiation, motility, and survival. Based on these observations and the
      general assumption that PKC isoforms play a positive role in cell transformation
      and/or cancer progression, many PKC inhibitors have entered clinical trials but
      the numerous attempts to target PKC in cancer has so far yielded only very
      limited success. More recent studies demonstrated that PKC function as tumor
      suppressors, and suggested that future clinical efforts should focus on
      restoring, rather than inhibiting, PKC activity. The present manuscript provides
      some historical perspectives on the tumor promoting function of PKC, reviewing
      some of the observations linking PKC to cancer progression, and discusses the
      role of PKC in the pathogenesis of cancer diseases and its potential usage as a
      therapeutic target.

PMID- 28571765
TI  - Potential of synthetic endoperoxides against Trichomonas vaginalis in vitro.
AB  - Metronidazole is well known for medicine against Trichomonas vaginalis infection,
      but it has side effects though it is effective, and especially because reports of
      metronidazole-tolerant species are increasing, the development of new medicine is
      being required. Here, we noticed the killing effects of endoperoxide compounds, N
      89 and N-251 as new antimalarial drug candidates, on T. vaginalis and searched
      the possibility of development of new medicine. We added each of metronidazole,
      artemisinin, and two of new endoperoxides (N-89 and N-251) to metronidazole
      resistant and -sensitive species and compared its anti-trichomonal efficacy. For
      metronidazole, IC50 value, 50% of killing concentration for T. vaginalis, was
      very low for metronidazole-sensitive isolates (11.7 to 22.8MUM), but was high for
      metronidazole-resistant ones (182.9 to 730.4MUM). The IC50 values of N-89 and N
      251 were 41.0 to 60.0MUM, and 82.0 to 300.0MUM for metronidazole-sensitive and 
      resistant isolates, respectively. In conclusion, we found the endoperoxides, N-89
      and N-251, have anti-trichomonal effect against metronidazole-resistant T.
      vaginalis as well as metronidazole-sensitive ones. These results indicate that
      the anti-trichomonal effects for our endoperoxides are equivalent or better in
      metronidazole-resistant T. vaginalis in comparison to metronidazole.

PMID- 28571766
TI  - Evaluation of novel oocyst wall protein candidates of Toxoplasma gondii.
AB  - Oocyst stage of Toxoplasma gondii is characterized by a durable wall that confers
      a strong protection to this protozoan parasite in face of harsh environmental
      conditions. Thus, it is considered the key for transmission of T. gondii.
      Analysis of oocyst wall composition is mandatory therefore; the aim of this study
      was to identify novel T. gondii oocyst wall proteins and test their use in
      detection of these oocysts in environmental samples. Five candidates of novel T.
      gondii oocyst wall proteins (TgOWPs) were identified and named TgOWP8 through
      TgOWP12. Recombinant protein of TgOWP8 was expressed in E. coli using glutathione
      S-transferase as fusion protein. Polyclonal antibody was produced and validated
      by indirect immunofluorescence antibody assay (IFA). For detection by IFA, we
      used different methods for fixation and permeabilization of oocysts to improve
      the antigen-antibody detection. Specificity to wall of T. gondii oocyst was
      confirmed and revealed absence of cross reactivity with bradyzoite cyst wall and
      tachyzoites. Although some TgOWPs were identified previously, our study
      represents a continuation of molecular investigations of oocyst wall proteins as
      an essential structure for the longevity and infectivity of this stage and also
      provided new trial to improve T. gondii oocysts detection.

PMID- 28571767
TI  - Good epidemiological practice: a narrative review of appropriate scientific
      methods to evaluate the impact of antimicrobial stewardship interventions.
AB  - AIMS: In this narrative review, we provide a framework for assessing the quality
      of evidence provided by studies investigating antimicrobial stewardship (AMS)
      interventions, and inform the design and planning stage for future AMS evaluation
      studies to determine the best strategies to keep antimicrobial resistance at bay.
      SOURCES: Cochrane/Pubmed. CONTENT: As AMS is mostly applied in a complex, real
      world setting, bias and random time effects can jeopardize the validity of causal
      inference. The most important risks include simultaneously implemented infection
      prevention strategies and regression to the mean. Inclusion of homogeneous
      intervention and control arms, through randomization of the intervention, can
      limit these risks. However, contamination can play an important role for AMS;
      therefore, randomization at cluster-level, instead of randomization at individual
      level, is recommended. It can be challenging to identify enough representative
      clusters, and implementation of a cluster-RCT (cRCT) can be costly. Controlled
      interrupted time series (ITS) design has a high validity as well, and is
      relatively straightforward to implement, although time-varying confounding should
      be considered. Independent of the study design, it is crucial to include multiple
      process, clinical outcome, microbiological and financial measures, to be able to
      detect possible, unintended consequences. IMPLICATIONS: Future studies assessing
      the impact of new AMS strategies should produce compelling evidence by opting for
      cRCTs, or ITS including a control arm. Furthermore, a holistic view of intended
      and unintended consequences should be reported, and a detailed process evaluation
      should be provided to adequately inform implementation of successful AMS
      strategies to battle the rising burden of AMR.

PMID- 28571768
TI  - Copper activation of organophosporus compounds detoxication by chicken serum.
AB  - Avian species contain low levels of enzymes that hydrolyze organophosphorus
      compounds (OPs), and chickens are used as a model of OPs delayed neurotoxicity.
      For both reasons, we studied the ability of chicken tissue for OP detoxication. A
      significant activating effect of Cu2+ on the hydrolysis of O-hexyl O-2,5
      dichlorophenyl phosphoramidate (HDCP) was observed in hen plasma and the
      microsomal fractions of the liver, brain, and mainly in hen serum, by
      spectrophotometric and chiral chromatography methods. The concentration of 1 mM
      of Cu2+ or Zn2+ showed 200% and 168% activation, respectively, in hen plasma
      compared with the Ca2+-dependent hydrolysis, whereas these cations had an
      inhibitory effect on soluble liver and brain fractions. An increase of 1.5 to
      19.5 fold in HDCP hydrolyzing activity was obtained for the 30-250 MUM Cu2+ range
      when using chicken serum instead of hen plasma. This Cu2+-dependent hydrolysis in
      chicken serum was stereoselective for the R-(+)-HDCP isomer, which proved the
      opposite to the Ca2+-dependent stereoselective hydrolysis of the S-(-)-HDCP
      isomer reported in rat and rabbit serum. The level of copper needed to exert this
      effect should be further evaluated for its suitability for potential therapeutic
      and biotechnological applications.

PMID- 28571769
TI  - An effect-directed strategy for characterizing emerging chemicals in food contact
      materials made from paper and board.
AB  - Food contact materials (FCM) are any type of item intended to come into contact
      with foods and thus represent a potential source for human exposure to chemicals.
      Regarding FCMs made of paper and board, information pertaining to their chemical
      constituents and the potential impacts on human health remains scarce, which
      hampers safety evaluation. We describe an effect-directed strategy to identify
      and characterize emerging chemicals in paper and board FCMs. Twenty FCMs were
      tested in eight reporter gene assays, including assays for the AR, ER, AhR,
      PPARgamma, Nrf2 and p53, as well as mutagenicity. All FCMs exhibited activities
      in at least one assay. As proof-of-principle, FCM samples obtained from a
      sandwich wrapper and a pizza box were carried through a complete step-by-step
      multi-tiered approach. The pizza box exhibited ER activity, likely caused by the
      presence of bisphenol A, dibutyl phthalate, and benzylbutyl phthalate. The
      sandwich wrapper exhibited AR antagonism, likely caused by abietic acid and
      dehydroabietic acid. Migration studies confirmed that the active chemicals can
      transfer from FCMs to food simulants. In conclusion, we report an effect-directed
      strategy that can identify hazards posed by FCMs made from paper and board,
      including the identification of the chemical(s) responsible for the observed
      activity.

PMID- 28571770
TI  - Leptin induces CREB-dependent aromatase activation through COX-2 expression in
      breast cancer cells.
AB  - Leptin plays a key role in the control of adipocyte formation, as well as in the
      associated regulation of energy intake and expenditure. The goal of this study
      was to determine if leptin-induced aromatase enhances estrogen production and
      induces tumor cell growth stimulation. To this end, breast cancer cells were
      incubated with leptin in the absence or presence of inhibitor pretreatment, and
      changes in aromatase and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression were evaluated at
      the mRNA and protein levels. Transient transfection assays were performed to
      examine the aromatase and COX-2 gene promoter activities and immunoblot analysis
      was used to examine protein expression. Leptin induced aromatase expression,
      estradiol production, and promoter activity in breast cancer cells. Protein
      levels of phospho-STAT3, PKA, Akt, ERK, and JNK were increased by leptin. Leptin
      also significantly increased cAMP levels, cAMP response element (CRE) activation,
      and CREB phosphorylation. In addition, leptin induced COX-2 expression, promoter
      activity, and increased the production of prostaglandin E2. Finally, a COX-2
      inhibitor and aromatase inhibitor suppressed leptin-induced cell proliferation in
      MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Together, our data show that leptin increased
      aromatase expression in breast cancer cells, which was correlated with COX-2
      upregulation, mediated through CRE activation and cooperation among multiple
      signaling pathways.

PMID- 28571771
TI  - The lemon balm extract ALS-L1023 inhibits obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver
      disease in female ovariectomized mice.
AB  - Increasing evidence indicates that angiogenesis inhibitors regulate obesity. This
      study aimed to determine whether the lemon balm extract ALS-L1023 inhibits diet
      induced obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in female
      ovariectomized (OVX) mice. OVX mice received a low fat diet (LFD), a high fat
      diet (HFD) or HFD supplemented with ALS-L1023 (ALS-L1023) for 15 weeks. HFD mice
      exhibited increases in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) angiogenesis, body weight,
      VAT mass and VAT inflammation compared with LFD mice. In contrast, all of these
      effects were reduced in ALS-L1023 mice compared with HFD mice. Serum lipids and
      liver injury markers were improved in ALS-L1023 mice. Hepatic lipid accumulation,
      inflammatory cells and collagen levels were lower in ALS-L1023 mice than in HFD
      mice. ALS-L1023 mice exhibited a tendency to normalize hepatic expression of
      genes involved in lipid metabolism, inflammation and fibrosis to levels in LFD
      mice. ALS-L1023 also induced Akt phosphorylation and increased Nrf2 mRNA
      expression in livers of obese mice. Our results indicate that the angiogenesis
      inhibitor ALS-L1023 can regulate obesity, hepatic steatosis and fibro
      inflammation, in part through improvement of VAT function, in obese OVX mice.
      These findings suggest that angiogenesis inhibitors may contribute to alleviation
      of NAFLD in post-menopausal women with obesity.

PMID- 28571772
TI  - Consumption of cosmetic products by the French population. Third part: Product
      exposure amount.
AB  - A recent study in France provided valuable data on the frequency and amount of
      use of cosmetic products (Ficheux et al., 2015, 2016a). The aim of the present
      study was to generate Product Exposure Amount data, i.e. the amounts of cosmetics
      applied to the skin among the French population using the raw data collected
      during the previous enquiry. These data are useful to derive Consumer exposure
      level data which are paramount for skin sensitization risk assessments. Exposure
      data were generated for 69 different cosmetics, classified as products for the
      hair, face, buccal hygiene, hands, feet, body, shaving and depilation, sunscreens
      as well as products specifically intended for babies. Exposure was calculated
      using a probabilistic Monte Carlo method. The main strength of this work was the
      break-down of data by age and sex. The results showed that some data used by the
      International Fragrance Association in skin sensitization risk assessments, in
      particular facial care products and deodorants, could be unsuitable for the
      protection of French consumers. For the first time, data were also generated for
      products intended for babies' nappy area. These data will be useful for the
      implementation of the Quantitative Risk Assessment for skin sensitization among
      the French population.

PMID- 28571773
TI  - DATS sensitizes glioma cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis by up-regulation of
      death receptor 5 via ROS.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-induced ligand (TRAIL) is a promising
      anticancer reagent for antitumor therapy. However, many cancer cells, including
      malignant glioma cells, tend to be resistant to TRAIL, due to repeat treat to
      cancer cells, highlighting the need for strategies to overcome TRAIL resistance.
      Here we present that in combination with diallyl trisulfide (DATS), exposure to
      TRAIL induced apoptosis in TRAIL-resistant glioma cells. Surprisingly, we found
      that subtoxic concentrations of DATS significantly potentiated TRAIL-induced
      cytotoxicity and apoptosis in glioma cells. DATS dramatically upregulated DR5
      receptor expression but had no effects on DR4 receptor. In addition, DATS
      enhances TRAIL-induced apoptosis through the downregulation of anti-apoptotic
      protein (Mcl-1) and the upregulation of DR5 receptors through actions on the ROS-
      induced-p53.

PMID- 28571774
TI  - Modulatory effects of metformin on mutagenicity and epithelial tumor incidence in
      doxorubicin-treated Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - Metformin (MET) is an anti-diabetic drug used to prevent hepatic glucose release
      and increase tissue insulin sensitivity. Diabetic cancer patients are on
      additional therapy with anticancer drugs. Doxorubicin (DXR) is a cancer
      chemotherapeutic agent that interferes with the topoisomerase II enzyme and
      generates free radicals. MET (2.5, 5, 10, 25 or 50 mM) alone was examined for
      mutagenicity, recombinogenicity and carcinogenicity, and combined with DXR (0.4
      mM) for antimutagenicity, antirecombinogenicity and anticarcinogenicity, using
      the Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test and the Test for Detecting Epithelial
      Tumor Clones in Drosophila melanogaster. MET alone did not induce mutation or
      recombination. Modulating effects of MET on DXR-induced DNA damage were observed
      at the highest concentrations. In the evaluation of carcinogenesis, MET alone did
      not induce tumors. When combined with DXR, MET also reduced the DXR-induced
      tumors at the highest concentrations. Therefore, in the present experimental
      conditions, MET alone did not present mutagenic/recombinogenic/carcinogenic
      effects, but it was able to modulate the effect of DXR in the induction of DNA
      damage and of tumors in D. melanogaster. It is believed that this modulating
      effect is mainly related to the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and apoptotic
      effects of this drug, although such effects have not been directly evaluated.

PMID- 28571775
TI  - Critical role of CA1 muscarinic receptors on memory acquisition deficit induced
      by total (TSD) and REM sleep deprivation (RSD).
AB  - AIM: Despite different theories regarding sleep physiological function, an
      overall census indicates that sleep is useful for neural plasticity which
      eventually strengthens cognition and brain performance. Different studies show
      that sleep deprivation (SD) leads to impaired learning and hippocampus dependent
      memory. According to some studies, cholinergic system plays an important role in
      sleep (particularly REM sleep), learning, memory, and its retrieval. So this
      study has been designed to investigate the effect of CA1 Cholinergic Muscarinic
      Receptors on memory acquisition deficit induced by total sleep deprivation (TSD)
      and REM sleep deprivation (RSD). METHOD: A modified water box (locomotor activity
      may be provide a limiting factor in this method of SD) or multiple platforms were
      used for induction of TSD or RSD, respectively. Inhibitory passive avoidance
      apparatus has been used to determine the effects of SD and its changes by
      physostigmine (as cholinesterase inhibitor) or scopolamine (muscarinic receptor
      antagonist) on memory formation. Because locomotor activity and pain perception
      induce critical roles in passive avoidance memory formation, we also measured
      these factors by open field and hot-plate instruments, respectively. RESULTS: The
      results showed that TSD and RSD for 24 hours impaired memory formation but they
      did not alter locomotor activity. TSD also induced analgesia effect, but RSD did
      not alter it. Intra-CA1 injection of physostigmine (0.0001MUg/rat) and
      scopolamine (0.01MUg/rat) did not alter memory acquisition in the sham-TSD or
      sham-RSD, by themselves. Moreover, intra-CA1 injection of sub-threshold dose of
      physostigmine (0.0001MUg/rat) and scopolamine (0.01MUg/rat) could restore the
      memory acquisition deficit induced by RSD, while scopolamine could restore TSD
      induced amnesia. Both drugs reversed analgesia induced by TSD. None of previous
      interventions altered locomotor activity. CONCLUSION: According to this study,
      CA1 cholinergic muscarinic receptors play an important role in amnesia induced by
      both TSD and RSD. However further studies are needed for showing cellular and
      molecular mechanisms of surprising result of similar pharmacological effects
      using compounds with opposite profiles.

PMID- 28571776
TI  - Neurodevelopmental theory of depression.
AB  - The aim of research studies in the field of psychiatry conducted in recent years
      is to formulate a consistent theory that would exhaustively explain the aetiology
      of depression. So far, biochemical, genetic, anatomical and environmental
      factors, which may play a role in the occurrence of the first symptoms of
      depressive disorders, have been sought. The authors of this paper present a
      theory that combines the previously mentioned elements into one whole and links
      them to one another. We have called our theory "neurodevelopmental" to underline
      the importance and impact of earlier stages of human life, including the prenatal
      period, on the occurrence of depressive disorders. We will make an attempt to
      find an answer to why this time in the life of a human being is so important,
      what kind of biological mechanisms are activated then, and what aspects of our
      later functioning are affected by them.

PMID- 28571777
TI  - Postpartum screening practices, progression to abnormal glucose tolerance and its
      related risk factors in Asian women with a known history of gestational diabetes:
      A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Rate of postpartum screening and progression to glucose intolerance
      (diabetes and/or pre-diabetes) in Asian women with prior GDM and risk factors of
      diversion to abnormal glucose tolerance were reviewed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      searched Pub Med, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Ovid data base.
      About 1300 studies were screened and 27 articles were selected. Meta-analysis
      using Comprehensive Meta -Analysis software was conducted. All results were
      reported at the pooled ORs and 95% CI. Quantitative heterogeneity (I2) was
      assessed. To estimate the variances between studies, the statistical method "tau
      squared" was applied. Statistical models like fixed effect or Mantel-Haenszel,
      and random effect (REM) or Dersimonian-laird were used for the analysis and
      integration of results. RESULTS: Rate of glucose testing ranged from 13.1% to
      81.9%. Prevalence of pre-diabetes was 3.9%-50.9%. Diabetes was reported in 2.8%
      58% of women with history of gestational diabetes based on length of follow-up.
      Factor associated with postpartum diabetes mellitus included family History of
      diabetes mellitus, gestational age at diagnosis of GDM, insulin use during
      pregnancy and pre-pregnancy BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Rate of postpartum screening in
      most of the Asian countries population is sub-optimal, in spite of high rate of
      glucose intolerance in this high risk group of women. Risk factors of progression
      to pre-diabetes and diabetes are similar to previous reported in developed
      countries.

PMID- 28571779
TI  - Clinical and molecular characterization of 6 children with glutamate-cysteine
      ligase deficiency causing hemolytic anemia.
AB  - Glutathione (gamma-glutamylcysteinylglycine) has diverse functions including free
      radicals scavenging and modulating many critical cellular processes. Glutathione
      is synthesized by the consecutive action of the enzymes glutamate-cysteine ligase
      (GCL) and glutathione synthetase. GCL is composed of a catalytic subunit encoded
      by the GCLC gene and a regulatory subunit encoded by the GCLM gene. GCL
      deficiency due to homozygous mutations in GCLC has been reported in 6 individuals
      from 4 independent families. All presented with hemolytic anemia and 4 had
      additional neurological manifestations including cognitive impairment,
      neuropathy, ataxia, and myopathy. In this report, we present additional 6
      children from 2 independent consanguineous families with GCL deficiency. All the
      children presented with neonatal hemolytic anemia. Beyond the neonatal period,
      they did not have jaundice or hemolysis, but continued to have mild anemia. They
      all had normal development and neurological examination. The affected children
      from the first family had the homozygous mutation c.1772G>A (p.S591N) and the
      second family had the homozygous mutation c.514T>A (p.S172T) in GCLC. GCL
      deficiency can have a mild non-neurological phenotype or a more severe phenotype
      with neurological manifestations. GCL deficiency can be an underdiagnosed cause
      of hemolytic anemia, thus awareness may aid in early diagnosis, appropriate
      genetic counseling, and management.

PMID- 28571778
TI  - Long-term outcomes in ypT0 rectal cancers: An international multi-centric
      investigation on behalf of Italian Society of Surgical Oncology Young Board
      (YSICO).
AB  - AIM: To investigate the outcome and pattern of survivals of rectal cancer
      patients presenting a complete or nearly complete tumor response after neo
      adjuvant treatment. METHODS: Young surgeons <40 years old affiliated to the
      Italian Society of Surgical Oncology (YSICO) from 13 referral centers for
      colorectal cancer treatment, were invited to participate a retrospective study.
      Records from patients treated from 2005 to 2015 with a pathological diagnosis of
      ypT0/ypTis were retrieved and pooled in a common data-base for statistical
      purposes. All clinical and pathological variables were reviewed. Univariate and
      multivariate analyses were conducted with the end-point of survivals. RESULTS:
      Two hundreds and sixty-one patients were analyzed including 237 ypT0 and 24
      ypTis. Nodal positive patients were 8.7%. More than sixty-six percent of the
      patients did not perform adjuvant chemotherapy, with a statistical difference
      comparing N0 versus N+ patients (66.8% vs 40.9%, p 0.02). Mean follow-up was of
      47.6 months. Twenty-two relapses were observed, 91.6% at a distant site. The mean
      time to recurrence was of 35.3 months. On univariate analysis, the use of
      adjuvant chemotherapy correlated with better OS exclusively in ypT0N + patients
      and not in ypT0N0. Univariate and multivariate analyses documented nodal
      positivity as the only prognostic factor correlated with a worse OS. CONCLUSION:
      Recurrences were mostly diagnosed at a distant site and within the third year of
      follow-up. Nodal positivity was the only variable independently correlated with a
      worse OS. Univariate analysis documented a benefit for the use of adjuvant
      chemotherapy treatment exclusively in ypT0N + rectal cancers.

PMID- 28571780
TI  - The first report of chronic myelogenous leukemia with e19a2 micro-BCR/ABL1
      presenting with massive myelofibrosis.

PMID- 28571781
TI  - Development of a Sigma-2 Receptor affinity filter through a Monte Carlo based
      QSAR analysis.
AB  - For the first time in sigma-2 (sigma2) receptor field, a quantitative structure
      activity relationship (QSAR) model has been built using pKi values of the whole
      set of known selective sigma2 receptor ligands (548 compounds), taken from the
      Sigma-2 Receptor Selective Ligands Database (S2RSLDB)
      (http://www.researchdsf.unict.it/S2RSLDB/), through the Monte Carlo technique and
      employing the software CORAL. The model has been developed by using a large and
      structurally diverse set of compounds, allowing for a prediction of different
      populations of chemical compounds endpoint (sigma2 receptor pKi). The statistical
      quality reached, suggested that model for pKi determination is robust and
      possesses a satisfactory predictive potential. The statistical quality is high
      for both visible and invisible sets. The screening of the FDA approved drugs,
      external to our dataset, suggested that sixteen compounds might be repositioned
      as sigma2 receptor ligands (predicted pKi>=8). A literature check showed that six
      of these compounds have already been tested for affinity at sigma2 receptor and,
      of these, two (Flunarizine and Terbinafine) have shown an experimental sigma2
      receptor pKi>7. This suggests that this QSAR model may be used as focusing
      screening filter in order to prospectively find or repurpose new drugs with high
      affinity for the sigma2 receptor, and overall allowing for an enhanced hit rate
      respect to a random screening.

PMID- 28571782
TI  - Importance of reversed-phase chromatographic parameters in predicting
      biopharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic descriptors on the group of androgen
      derivatives.
AB  - Nowadays the standard measure of lipophilicity, the logarithm of n-octanol-water
      partition coefficient, logP, is proposed to be replaced with chromatographic
      techniques. Chromatography techniques (reversed phase thin layer chromatography
      RPTLC and reversed phase thin layer chromatography RPHPLC) are the most widely
      used alternatives to the shake flask method. However, it is shown that, by
      changing the temperature or concentration of organic modifier in the
      chromatography experiment, it is possible to derive data matrix of retention
      parameters from which, by principle component analysis, structural
      characteristics of the examined molecules can be gained. The question may be
      asked which of the chromatography experimentally obtained and calculated
      parameters: capacity factor k, DeltaGx (the change in Gibbs energy of binding of
      molecule for stationary phase), DeltaHx (the change in enthalpy of binding of
      molecule for stationary phase) or DeltaSx (the change in the entropy of binding
      of molecule for stationary phase) is the most suitable in describing
      hydrophobicity. The canonical correlation analysis (CCA) method is used to
      evaluate the importance of the n functions in explaining the variance of
      molecular descriptors connected to pharmaceutical processes and wherein
      molecule's hydrophobicity is expressed and possible differences between molecular
      descriptors with realistic conformations of the analyzed molecules steroid
      skeleton are discussed. Conformational analysis showed that structure of steroid
      skeleton in hydrophobicity is most completely described with k or DeltaGx, and
      connection between conformation of the steroid skeleton and hydrophobicity to a
      lesser extent is projected on temperature dependence on DeltaHx and similarly on
      DeltaSx, so in describing molecules hydrophobicity it is necessary to observe
      entropic as well as enthalpic contribution together, expressed with DeltaGx
      function. Canonical conformation analysis (CCA) showed that hydrophobicity
      contained in DeltaGx and k explains 61% of variance represented in in silico
      descriptors. Analyzed molecular descriptors, derived from different molecules
      fragments don't map conformational specifics of those molecules in small groups
      so recommendation is to use them complementary with chromatographic data in
      describing hydrophobicity.

PMID- 28571783
TI  - Improving the physicochemical properties of bicalutamide by complex formation
      with bovine serum albumin.
AB  - Bicalutamide-bovine serum albumin (Bic-BSA) complexes were prepared by anti
      solvent precipitation. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a stabilizer for
      particle growth. The physicochemical properties of Bic-BSA were analyzed by
      scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning
      calorimetry. The interaction between Bic and BSA was characterized by Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy
      and molecular docking. The particle size could be easily reduced to 1-10MUm with
      a good lognormal distribution. The Bic-BSA complexes exhibited nonporous
      spherical morphology with a uniformly plicated surface. Moreover, the crystal
      form and thermostability of Bic were altered in the presence of BSA. Bic was
      found to make hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions with BSA by
      spectroscopic studies and molecular docking. Results from the Van't Hoff equation
      and binding free energy calculations indicated that the improvement of
      physicochemical properties was the consequence of a variety of interactions in
      the Bic-BSA system. Bic-BSA tablets showed significantly enhanced dissolution. It
      was concluded that BSA plays an important role in improving the physicochemical
      properties of Bic due to strong multiple interactions between Bic and BSA.

PMID- 28571784
TI  - Predictive modeling for classification of positive valence system symptom
      severity from initial psychiatric evaluation records.
AB  - In response to the challenges set forth by the CEGS N-GRID 2016 Shared Task in
      Clinical Natural Language Processing, we describe a framework to automatically
      classify initial psychiatric evaluation records to one of four positive valence
      system severities: absent, mild, moderate, or severe. We used a dataset provided
      by the event organizers to develop a framework comprised of natural language
      processing (NLP) modules and 3 predictive models (two decision tree models and
      one Bayesian network model) used in the competition. We also developed two
      additional predictive models for comparison purpose. To evaluate our framework,
      we employed a blind test dataset provided by the 2016 CEGS N-GRID. The predictive
      scores, measured by the macro averaged-inverse normalized mean absolute error
      score, from the two decision trees and Naive Bayes models were 82.56%, 82.18%,
      and 80.56%, respectively. The proposed framework in this paper can potentially be
      applied to other predictive tasks for processing initial psychiatric evaluation
      records, such as predicting 30-day psychiatric readmissions.

PMID- 28571785
TI  - Harnessing Peer Support in an Online Intervention for Older Adults with
      Depression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of two methods
      of delivering a cognitive behaviorally informed Internet intervention for
      depression for adults 65 years and older. METHODS: Forty-seven participants were
      enrolled and assigned to receive one of two versions of the Internet
      intervention, either delivered individually (III) or with peer support (II+PS),
      or to a wait list control group (WLC). Primary outcomes included change in
      depressive symptoms from baseline to post-intervention (week 8), site use, self
      reported usability, and coach time. Secondary outcomes included measures of
      social support and isolation and anxiety. RESULTS: Follow-up data were provided
      by 85.1% (40 of 47) of enrolled participants. There were significant differences
      in depression change across groups (F(2,37) = 3.81, p = 0.03). Greater reductions
      in depressive symptoms were found for the III (p = 0.02) and II+PS (p = 0.03)
      compared with WLC, and significantly less coach time was required in the II+PS (p
      = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the potential of cognitive
      behaviorally informed Internet interventions for older adults with depression,
      and indicate that peer-supported programs are both acceptable and equivalent to
      individually delivered Internet interventions. Including peer support may be a
      viable and potentially more cost-effective option for disseminating online
      treatments for depression for older adults.

PMID- 28571786
TI  - Biodegradation of 7-Ketocholesterol by Rhodococcus erythropolis MTCC 3951:
      Process optimization and enzymatic insights.
AB  - The oxidation of cholesterol results in the formation of oxysterols such as 7
      ketocholesterol (7KC), which are implicated in a number of age-related disorders
      such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimers' disease and macular degeneration. Current
      modalities use antioxidants and other natural or synthetic molecules to reduce
      7KC-induced cytotoxity. The alternative application of enzymes from microbial
      sources to degrade oxysterols in vitro and in vivo is an innovative approach. The
      present study aims to assess the potential of the bacteria Rhodococcus
      erythropolis MTCC 3951 in degrading 7KC and mining relevant enzymes involved.
      This strain has been previously reported to be a degrader of xenobiotics such as
      polyphenols, toluene and catechol. Under optimized conditions, Rhodococcus
      erythropolis MTCC 3951 is found to degrade 93% of 1g/l concentration of 7KC
      within 15days of incubation. The extra- and intra-cellular extracts were also
      able to hydrolyse the compound indicating the involvement of enzymatic systems in
      the process. The strain produced cholesterol oxidase, lipase, dehydrogenase and
      reductase in the presence of 7KC. We have also identified a few intermediate
      products to predict the degradation pathway.

PMID- 28571787
TI  - Probing topology and dynamics of the second transmembrane domain (M2delta) of the
      acetyl choline receptor using magnetically aligned lipid bilayers (bicelles) and
      EPR spectroscopy.
AB  - Characterizing membrane protein structure and dynamics in the lipid bilayer
      membrane is very important but experimentally challenging. EPR spectroscopy
      offers a unique set of techniques to investigate a membrane protein structure,
      dynamics, topology, and distance constraints in lipid bilayers. Previously our
      lab demonstrated the use of magnetically aligned phospholipid bilayers (bicelles)
      for probing topology and dynamics of the membrane peptide M2delta of the acetyl
      choline receptor (AchR) as a proof of concept. In this study, magnetically
      aligned phospholipid bilayers and rigid spin labels were further utilized to
      provide improved dynamic information and topology of M2delta peptide. Seven TOAC
      labeled AchR M2delta peptides were synthesized to demonstrate the utility of a
      multi-labeling amino acid substitution alignment strategy. Our data revealed the
      helical tilts to be 11 degrees , 17 degrees , 9 degrees , 17 degrees , 16 degrees
      , 11 degrees , 9 degrees +/-4 degrees  for residues I7TOAC, Q13TOAC, A14TOAC,
      V15TOAC, C16TOAC, L17TOAC, and L18TOAC, respectively. The average helical tilt of
      the M2delta peptide was determined to be ~13 degrees . This study also revealed
      that the TOAC labels were attached to the M2delta peptide with different dynamics
      suggesting that the sites towards the C-terminal end are more rigid when compared
      to the sites towards the N-terminus. The dynamics of the TOAC labeled sites were
      more resolved in the aligned samples when compared to the randomly disordered
      samples. This study highlights the use of magnetically aligned lipid bilayer EPR
      technique to determine a more accurate helical tilt and more resolved local
      dynamics of AchR M2delta peptide.

PMID- 28571788
TI  - Shape change in the atlas with congenital midline non-union of its posterior
      arch: a morphometric geometric study.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The congenital midline non-union of the posterior arch of the
      atlas is a developmental variant present at a frequency ranging from 0.7% to
      3.9%. Most of the reported cases correspond to incidental findings during routine
      medical examination. In cases of posterior non-union, hypertrophy of the anterior
      arch and cortical bone thickening of the posterior arches have been observed and
      interpreted as adaptive responses of the atlas to increased mechanical stress.
      PURPOSE: We sought to determine if the congenital non-union of the posterior arch
      results in a change in the shape of the atlas. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This study
      is an analysis of the first cervical vertebrae from osteological collections
      through morphometric geometric techniques. METHODS: A total of 21 vertebrae were
      scanned with a high-resolution three-dimensional scanner (Artec Space Spider,
      Artec Group, Luxembourg). To capture vertebral shape, 19 landmarks and 100
      semilandmarks were placed on the vertebrae. Procrustes superimposition was
      applied to obtain size and shape data (MorphoJ 1.02; Klingenberg, 2011), which
      were analyzed through principal component analysis (PCA) and mean shape
      comparisons. RESULTS: The PCA resulted in two components explaining 22.32% and
      18.8% of the total shape variance. The graphic plotting of both components
      indicates a clear shape difference between the control atlas and the atlas with
      posterior non-union. This observation was supported by statistically significant
      differences in mean shape comparisons between both types of vertebra (p<.0001).
      Changes in shape were observed in the superior and inferior articular facets, the
      transverse processes, and the neural canal between the control and non-union
      vertebrae. CONCLUSIONS: Non-union of the posterior arch of the atlas is
      associated with significant changes in the shape of the vertebra.

PMID- 28571789
TI  - Virtual reality-based simulators for spine surgery: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Virtual reality (VR)-based simulators offer numerous benefits
      and are very useful in assessing and training surgical skills. Virtual reality
      based simulators are standard in some surgical subspecialties, but their actual
      use in spinal surgery remains unclear. Currently, only technical reviews of VR
      based simulators are available for spinal surgery. PURPOSE: Thus, we performed a
      systematic review that examined the existing research on VR-based simulators in
      spinal procedures. We also assessed the quality of current studies evaluating VR
      based training in spinal surgery. Moreover, we wanted to provide a guide for
      future studies evaluating VR-based simulators in this field. STUDY DESIGN AND
      SETTING: This is a systematic review of the current scientific literature
      regarding VR-based simulation in spinal surgery. METHODS: Five data sources were
      systematically searched to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles regarding
      virtual, mixed, or augmented reality-based simulators in spinal surgery. A
      qualitative data synthesis was performed with particular attention to evaluation
      approaches and outcomes. Additionally, all included studies were appraised for
      their quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument
      (MERSQI) tool. RESULTS: The initial review identified 476 abstracts and 63 full
      texts were then assessed by two reviewers. Finally, 19 studies that examined
      simulators for the following procedures were selected: pedicle screw placement,
      vertebroplasty, posterior cervical laminectomy and foraminotomy, lumbar puncture,
      facet joint injection, and spinal needle insertion and placement. These studies
      had a low-to-medium methodological quality with a MERSQI mean score of 11.47 out
      of 18 (standard deviation=1.81). CONCLUSIONS: This review described the current
      state and applications of VR-based simulator training and assessment approaches
      in spinal procedures. Limitations, strengths, and future advancements of VR-based
      simulators for training and assessment in spinal surgery were explored. Higher
      quality studies with patient-related outcome measures are needed. To establish
      further adaptation of VR-based simulators in spinal surgery, future evaluations
      need to improve the study quality, apply long-term study designs, and examine non
      technical skills, as well as multidisciplinary team training.

PMID- 28571790
TI  - Iron chelation for the treatment of uveitis.
AB  - Inflammatory eye diseases such as uveitis are common and may eventually result in
      vision loss. Iron can play a critical role in ocular inflammation via promoting
      the generation of oxygen free radicals and it is also nutritionally essential for
      microbial growth. Considering this involvement of iron in inflammation and
      microbial infection, we hypothesize that administration of iron chelators has
      potential to function as a novel therapy in uveitis and help improve clinical
      outcomes.

PMID- 28571791
TI  - Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno: A novel, evidence-based, unifying theory for the
      pathogenesis of endometriosis.
AB  - The theory of retrograde menstruation as aetiopathogenesis of endometriosis
      formulated by John Sampson in 1927 shows clear shortcomings: this does not
      explain why retrograde menstruation is a physiological process that affects 90%
      of women, while endometriosis occurs in only 10% of cases; it also does not
      explain the endometriotic foci distant from the pelvis, nor explains the cases of
      endometriosis in male patients. The immunological alterations of the peritoneal
      fluid explains the effects of disease, such as the inhibition of the
      physiological processes of cytolysis, but does not explain the cause. There is
      evidence to support the hypothesis that ectopic mullerian remnants of the
      endometrium, endocervix and endosalpinx are items from the genital ridge leaked
      during organogenesis. It is known that tissues derived from coelomatic epithelial
      and mesenchymal cells have the potential to metaplastically differentiate into
      epithelium and stroma. In addition, the phenotype of the ectopic endometrial
      cells is significantly different from those ectopic. There is scientific evidence
      that, during organogenesis, the genes of the Homeobox and Wingless family play a
      fundamental role in the differentiation of the ducts of Muller and development of
      the anatomical structure of the urogenital tract. We present here a hypothesis
      that deregulation of genes and the Wnt signaling pathway Wnt/beta-catenin leads
      to aberrations and deregulation within the mesoderm, thus, may cause aberrant
      placement of stem cells. In addition, immune cells, adhesion molecules,
      extracellular matrix metalloproteinase and pro-inflammatory cytokines
      activate/alter peritoneal microenvironment, creating the conditions for
      differentiation, adhesion, proliferation and survival of ectopic endometrial
      cells.

PMID- 28571792
TI  - Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism:
      Is there a link?
AB  - Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is present in up to 0.1% of the general
      population. The incidence is higher in women and increases with age. The majority
      of the cases is asymptomatic and up to 85% are due to single gland adenoma.
      Parathyroidectomy is the treatment of choice after localization of the
      hyperactive gland. Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) is the most common cancer of
      the thyroid and constitutes more than 70% of thyroid malignancies. PTC can
      present as a single nodule or can be Multifocal. The incidence is higher in
      women. Early treatment favors a good prognosis. PTC with PHPT has been reported
      in 2.3-4.3% of patients undergoing surgery for PHPT. The coexistence of
      parathyroid adenoma and incidental PTC is thought to be rare. The mechanisms
      underlying the relationship between PHPT and PTC have not been established. We
      suggest a possible hypothesis for the relationship based on shared embryological
      origin and genes, high parathyroid hormone (PTH), low 1,25 hydroxy vitamin D,
      hypercalcemia resulting in high levels of angiogenic growth factors. This
      promotes the formation of parathyroid adenomas and papillary thyroid carcinoma.
      Presence of these two diseases can complicate patient management due to untreated
      hypercalcemia, unrecognized thyroid cancer and need for second surgery if not
      screened for both diseases carefully.

PMID- 28571793
TI  - Saturated fatty acids recognition by the CD14-TLR4-MD2 complex may engage in the
      presurgical anxiety-induced persistent postsurgical pain.
AB  - It has been proved that presurgical anxiety can induce the development and
      progression of persistent postsurgical pain through elevating circulating
      corticosterone levels and activating the glucocorticoids receptor. Under
      stressful circumstances, the concentration of blood saturated fatty acids (SFAs)
      increases rapidly to provide enough ATP for individuals' survival owing to stress
      hormones such as glucocorticoid, catecholamine and glucagon. It is reported that
      SFAs can trigger an inflammatory response through CD14-TLR4-MD2 complex. The role
      of TLR4 and its downstream signaling pathway has been confirmed in the
      pathogenesis of cancer pain and inflammatory pain. Furthermore, a newly clinical
      research uncovers that the children with recurrent abdominal pain, which is
      triggered by early psychosomatic stress, have higher levels of SFAs than healthy
      individuals. We therefore put forward the hypothesis that the elevated level of
      SFAs induced by stress hormones may be engaged in the presurgical anxiety-induced
      persistent postsurgical pain. If established, it's of important clinical
      significance, which will make great contributions to the prevention and treatment
      of the presurgical anxiety-induced persistent postsurgical pain.

PMID- 28571794
TI  - Playing brass instruments by breast cancer patients: A way of combating anxiety.

PMID- 28571795
TI  - Misophonia: A new mental disorder?
AB  - Misophonia, a phenomenon first described in the audiology literature, is
      characterized by intense emotional reactions (e.g., anger, rage, anxiety,
      disgust) in response to highly specific sounds, particularly sounds of human
      origin such as oral or nasal noises made by other people (e.g., chewing,
      sniffing, slurping, lip smacking). Misophonia is not listed in any of the
      contemporary psychiatric classification systems. Some investigators have argued
      that misophonia should be regarded as a new mental disorder, falling within the
      spectrum of obsessive-compulsive related disorders. Other researchers have
      disputed this claim. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the
      proposition that misophonia should be classified as a new mental disorder. The
      clinical and research literature on misophonia was examined and considered in the
      context of the broader literature on what constitutes a mental disorder. There
      have been growing concerns that diagnostic systems such as DSM-5 tend to over
      pathologize ordinary quirks and eccentricities. Accordingly, solid evidence is
      required for proposing a new psychiatric disorder. The available evidence
      suggests that (a) misophonia meets many of the general criteria for a mental
      disorder and has some evidence of clinical utility as a diagnostic construct, but
      (b) the nature and boundaries of the syndrome are unclear; for example, in some
      cases misophonia might be simply one feature of a broader pattern of sensory
      intolerance, and (c) considerably more research is required, particularly work
      concerning diagnostic validity, before misophonia, defined as either as a
      disorder or as a key feature of some broader syndrome of sensory intolerance,
      should be considered as a diagnostic construct in the psychiatric nomenclature. A
      research roadmap is proposed for the systematic evaluation as to whether
      misophonia should be considered for future editions of DSM or ICD.

PMID- 28571796
TI  - Connecting the dots: Overlaps between autism and cancer suggest possible common
      mechanisms regarding signaling pathways related to metabolic alterations.
AB  - Common features between autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and cancer have been
      discerned using methodologies from a number of disciplines, including genetics,
      bioinformatics and epidemiological studies. To understand such apparent overlaps
      between these two conditions and the mechanisms that may underlie these linkages,
      it is important to look at their multi-level systems context. Here we discuss
      ASDs and cancer linkages across levels ranging from genes to pathways and
      systems, as well as from the vantage points of mechanism and of clinical and
      epidemiological studies. Review of existing findings yielded evidence that ASDs
      and cancer overlap extensively in signal transduction pathways that are involved
      in metabolic processes. We hypothesize that further studies focusing on
      illuminating the relationships between ASDs and cancer, specifically with regard
      to signaling pathways that regulate metabolic activities, could help shed new
      insight on these conditions and develop treatment strategies that, by targeting
      underlying mechanisms, may be more efficient and effective for both conditions.

PMID- 28571797
TI  - Towards the targeted management of aggressive periodontitis.

PMID- 28571798
TI  - Olfactory vector hypothesis for encephalitis lethargica.
AB  - Viruses have long been implicated in the pathogenesis of classical encephalitis
      lethargica, which was first described by Constantin von Economo in 1917. In this
      article, I propose the hypothesis that an airborne virus travels along the
      olfactory conduit to infect the olfactory bulb; this local infection or induced
      neuroinflammation, in turn, retrogradely targets certain neuronal populations
      with sleep-wake regulatory functions in the hypothalamus and midbrain, leading to
      the development of wakeful inactivity, a hallmark clinical feature of the
      disease. Furthermore, the olfactory vector hypothesis may also explain the
      pathomechanism of the debilitating complication of the disease, i.e.,
      postencephalitic parkinsonism, in terms of a recently discovered nigro-olfactory
      projection.

PMID- 28571799
TI  - Human body may produce bacteria.
AB  - "Human body may produce bacteria" proposes that human body may produce bacteria
      and represent an independent source of infections contrary to the current
      paradigm of infectious disorders proposed by Louis Pasteur in 1880. The following
      observations are consistent with this hypothesis: A. Bidirectional
      transformations of both living and nonliving things have been commonly observed
      in nature. B. Complex multicellular organisms harbor the necessary properties to
      produce bacteria (water, nitrogen and oxygen). C. Physical laws suggest any
      previously observed phenomenon or action will occur again (life began on earth; a
      non living thing). D. Animal muscle cells may generate energy (fermentation). E.
      Sterilized food products (i.e. boiled eggs), may produce bacteria and fungus
      under special conditions and without any exposure to foreign living cells. "Human
      body may produce bacteria" may challenge the current medical paradigm that views
      human infectious disorders as the exclusive causative byproducts of invading
      foreign cells. It may also introduce new avenues to treat infectious disorders.

PMID- 28571800
TI  - The length and complexity of mesentery are related to the locoregional recurrence
      of the carcinoma in gut.
AB  - Local-regional relapse is the main recurrence pattern of the carcinoma in gut,
      and leads to poor prognosis. With the development of the total mesorectal and
      complete mesocolic excision (TME/CME), the local relapse rate of colorectal
      cancer has significantly decreased. People attributed it to the improvement of
      lymphadenectomy, but lymphatic metastasis is difficult to explain the local
      relapse in N0 patients. Previously, we have proven the existence of "Metastasis
      V" in mesogastrium and mesocolorectum, and supposed that it is one of the major
      risk factors in local recurrence. Therefore, we think complete mesentery excision
      can effectively reduce "Metastasis V", prevent cancer leak and improve patients'
      outcome. Due to the different length and complexity of mesentery, the difficulty
      of mesentery excision varies. Meanwhile, there is an obvious distinction of local
      relapse rate in different alimentary tract, even in different segment of a same
      organ. Thus we assume that the length and complexity of mesentery may be a risk
      factor of the locoregional recurrence of the carcinoma in gut.

PMID- 28571801
TI  - Hypothesis: Exosomal microRNAs as potential biomarkers for schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder with lifelong morbidity and increased
      mortality. Currently, the diagnosis of the disorder is based on patient history
      and clinical examination, but it has a low inter-rater reliability and validity.
      Various biological variables, such as event related potentials, hormonal levels,
      brain ventricular volume and hippocampal size, have been put forth as objective
      markers to diagnose schizophrenia, but none with the desired sensitivity and
      specificity. It has been shown that microRNAs play a vital role in gene
      regulation in schizophrenia and have been proposed as possible biomarkers for the
      disease. When compared to the free microRNAs in the body fluids, exosomal
      microRNAs are more resistant to degradation and are easier to isolate. There are
      no studies reporting exosomal microRNAs as biomarkers for schizophrenia, but we
      hypothesize that exosomal microRNAs will be found to be potential biomarkers for
      diagnosis, prognosis assessment and medication response to patients with this
      disease.

PMID- 28571803
TI  - In Brucella: Selective pressure may turn some genes on instead of default off
      position.
AB  - Brucellosis is a major zoonosis with worldwide prevalence; more than half a
      million new human cases are expected every year. The genus Brucella (B)
      encompasses 12 accepted nomo-species and brucellae were described as Gram
      negative, aerobic, non-motile and non-haemolytic facultative intracellular
      bacteria. The Brucella genome contains flagella-specific genes and various
      hemolysins, but no flagella are formed and nor hemolysis is seen. Selective
      pressure can cause accumulation of mutations that turn those genes on instead of
      default off position and provoked the motile and hemolytic phenotypes. The
      ability of brucellae to change from a non-haemolytic to a haemolytic phenotype
      might influence their pathogenicity and could provide a substantial insight to
      explain the correlation of acute brucellosis and hemolytic anemia in humans.

PMID- 28571802
TI  - A homologous stem cell therapy for obesity and its related metabolic disorders.
AB  - Obesity and overweight have become a leading health problem in the world. But we
      have not yet had any optimal therapy to prevent this health issue. Accumulating
      evidence suggests that there is existence of functional brown/brite adipocytes in
      both infants and adult humans, and the activated brown/brite can burn energy by
      generating heat. These adipocytes can be differentiated from stem cells and
      transplantation of pre-activated human thermogenic adipocytes in vitro benefits
      to glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity and reduces body fat in normal or
      obese immunodeficient mice. These investigations lead us to hypothesize a
      homologous stem cell therapy to treat obesity and its related disorders. The
      therapy bases on functional brown/brite adipocytes which are differentiated from
      homologous stem cells isolated from fat depot of an obese person, and those
      adipocytes are activated to have a full thermogenic program before being
      transplanted back to that patient to improve glucose homeostasis and reduce fat
      content.

PMID- 28571804
TI  - Bacterial resistance and failure of clinical cure could be produced by oxidative
      stress in patients with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases during
      fluoroquinolone therapy.
AB  - Fluoroquinolone agents are used widely for the treatment of infectious diseases
      which are a common cause of deaths around the world. The level of oxidative
      stress in patients taking fluoroquinolone antibiotics has not been considered a
      factor to reduce the clinical efficacy of this kind of drugs. Patients with
      diabetes and/or cardiovascular diseases present abnormal levels of oxidative
      stress in the blood stream. In this regards, our hypothesis supposes that
      patients with diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease suffering a bacterial
      disease could experience a therapeutic failure and bacterial resistance when
      treated with fluoroquinolones. The crucial mechanism could be an inefficient
      blood distribution of the drug via red blood cell dysfunction induced by
      oxidative stress that might reduce the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodinamic ratios. In
      this way, we review the scientific information to support our hypothesis
      alongside possible implications. Additionally, this work exhibits the urgent need
      of studies considering these conditions for quinolone agents.

PMID- 28571805
TI  - Gallium and silicon synergistically promote osseointegration of dental implant in
      patients with osteoporosis.
AB  - Over the last few decades, a wide variety of dental implants have been
      successfully placed in jaw bones to restore tooth function. But major challenges
      still remain in patients with osteoporosis involving compromised
      osseointegration, and the therapeutic methods is far from optimism. Gallium can
      directly inhibit bone osteolysis, prevent bone calcium release and augment bone
      mass, which makes Ga unique among the potential antiresorptive drugs. Silicon, as
      an indispensable modulator in bone formation, presents its bone anabolic effects,
      while reduces, at least doesn't increase, bone resorption. We hypothesize that
      the combination of bone anabolic effects of Si and antiresorptive effects of Ga
      will result in synergistic effects on the improvement of osteointegration under
      osteoporotic condition. In our strategy, in order to maximize the efficacy while
      minimize the side effects of ions, a novel titania mesoporous layer fabricated by
      electrochemical anodization on the surface of titanium implant will be employed
      as a promising local drug delivery system. The synergistic effects of Ga and Si
      on improving osseointegration will be verified by animal experiments, and be
      furthered by clinical trials. Our hypothesis could help to create an option to
      improve success rate of dental implants in osteoporotic patients.

PMID- 28571806
TI  - Bioinformatics approach to prioritize known drugs towards repurposing for
      tuberculosis.
AB  - New drugs are urgently needed to cure tuberculosis (TB) in a short period of time
      without causing any adverse effects since currently used drugs for the treatment
      of multi drug-resistant TB cause several adverse effects with poor success rate.
      Therefore, we aimed to prioritize known drugs towards repurposing for TB by
      employing bioinformatics approach in the present study. A total of 1554 FDA
      approved drugs were obtained from DrugBank. Serine/threonine-protein kinase, pknB
      (Rv0014c) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) was selected as the drug target
      since it involves in several vital functions of the Mtb. All of the 1554 drugs
      were subjected to molecular docking with pknB. Glide and AutoDock Vina were
      employed using rigid docking followed by induced fit docking protocol for
      prioritization of drugs. Out of 14 drugs prioritized, six are suggested as high
      confident drugs towards repurposing for TB as they were consistently found within
      top 10 ranks of both methods, and strongly binding in the active site of the
      pknB. We also found atorvastatin as one of the high-confident drugs, which has
      already been demonstrated to be active against Mtb under in vitro conditions by
      other researchers. Therefore, we propose that the prioritized six high-confident
      drugs as potential candidates for repurposing for TB and suggest for further
      experimental studies. We also suggest that the bioinformatics procedure we have
      employed in this study could be effectively applied for prioritization of drugs
      for other diseases.

PMID- 28571807
TI  - Dilated cardiomyopathy-induced disruption of basement membrane alters the lever
      systems acting on the heart.
AB  - Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is considered the most common form of non-ischemic
      heart diseases. DCM, occurs in response to both non-genetic and genetic factors,
      and has been associated with cytoskeletal protein mutations, impairing the
      contractile apparatus of cardiac myocytes. However, the pathology underlying the
      marked left ventricular dilatation remains unclear. Moreover, patients with end
      stage DCM show alterations in the composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM),
      and myocardial fibrosis even when the cardiac myocytes are intact. Therefore we
      hypothesize that DCM is a disease of basement membrane, which functions to
      support sarcomeric interactions with the ECM, and not only impaired cardiac
      contractility. We propose that under physiological conditions, the heart could be
      considered a second-class lever system. Disruption of the basement membrane in
      DCM would cause disarray in the alignment of cardiac myocytes and alteration in
      the second-class lever system of the heart. Thus, current inotropic agents show
      minimal or no effect on therapy as they target cardiac contractility rather than
      cardiac architecture and the lever systems of the heart.

PMID- 28571808
TI  - Nanoparticle-loaded biodegradable light-responsive in situ forming injectable
      implants for effective peptide delivery to the posterior segment of the eye.
AB  - Diseases affecting the posterior segment the eye, such as age-related macular
      degeneration (AMD), are the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Conventional
      dosage forms, such as eye drops, have to surmount several elimination mechanisms
      and complex barriers to achieve therapeutic concentrations at the target site
      often resulting in low anterior segment bioavailability (ca. 2-5%) with generally
      none of the drug reaching posterior segment tissues. Thus, frequent intravitreal
      injections are currently required to treat retinal conditions which have been
      associated with poor patient compliance due to pain, risk of infection,
      hemorrhages, retinal detachment and high treatment related costs. To partially
      overcome these issues, ocular implants have been developed for some posterior
      segment indications; however, the majority require surgical implantation and
      removal at the end of the intended treatment period. The transparent nature of
      the cornea and lens render light-responsive systems an attractive strategy for
      the management of diseases affecting the back of the eye. Light-responsive in
      situ forming injectable implants (ISFIs) offer various benefits such as ease of
      application in a minimally invasive manner and more site specific control over
      drug release. Moreover, the biodegradable nature of such implants avoids the need
      for surgical removal after release of the payload. Incorporating drug-loaded
      polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) into these implants may reduce the high initial
      burst release from the polymeric matrix and further sustain drug release thus
      avoiding the need for frequent injections as well as minimizing associated side
      effects. However, light-responsive systems for ophthalmic application are still
      in their early stages of development with limited reports on their safety and
      effectiveness. We hypothesize that the innovative design and properties of NP
      containing light-responsive ISFIs can serve as a platform for effective
      management of ocular diseases requiring long term treatment.

PMID- 28571809
TI  - Was aneurysm rupture a frequent cause of death in past population?

PMID- 28571810
TI  - Predictive role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte
      ratio in normal-tension glaucoma.
AB  - As a type of primary open-angle glaucoma, normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) is a
      health problem that manifests itself with low intraocular pressure (IOP) levels
      and preserves its importance for public health care. In population-based
      screenings, which take the IOP levels of 21mmHg as a cut-off for the diagnosis of
      glaucoma, the diagnosis is usually delayed, and the treatment is started in an
      advanced stage by the referred ophthalmologists. NTG is associated with some
      autoimmune conditions and systemic diseases, such as paraproteinemia, nocturnal
      hypotension, and migraine. Recently, a simple and cheap test (namely the
      hemogram) was defined as measure of systemic inflammation, measuring the
      neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). A
      recent study displayed an altered platelet function in NTG patients. We
      hypothesize that an automated hemogram analysis for NLR together with IOP
      measurements may be used to screen NTG patients who are admitted to primary care
      clinics if any relationship between NTG and NLR could be demonstrated in future
      researches.

PMID- 28571811
TI  - Can modifying content of hallucinations be a strategy to treat schizophrenia?

PMID- 28571812
TI  - A hypothesis for mechanism for brain oedema due to glycine.
AB  - Death following the use the glycine distension solution in transurethral
      prostatectomy (TURP) or hysteroscopic surgery has been attributed to the toxic
      effect of glycine on the brain through the glycine receptors and hyperammonemia,
      contending that glycine-associated hyponatremia is isosmotic and therefore would
      not cause brain oedema. Here we propose a hypothesis that the mechanism of brain
      oedema and death is actually osmotic brain oedema caused by selective diffusion
      of glycine into the brain while sodium cannot diffuse out of the brain despite
      favourable concentration gradient because of the absence of sodium transporter on
      the cerebral capillaries needed for the exit of sodium from the brain. The
      mechanism for unidirectional diffusion of solutes into the brain in glycine
      associated hyponatremia is explained.

PMID- 28571813
TI  - Might tumor secreted cathepsin proteases leave specific molecular signals in
      skin, hair and nails years before a cancer becomes clinically apparent?
AB  - X-ray fiber diffraction analysis (FDA) of the fibrous macromolecules in hair,
      nails and skin has been shown to non-invasively diagnose various cancers, at
      sites remote from the cancer, years before the cancer becomes clinically
      apparent. The technology is not widely accepted because of reproducibility issues
      (that can be easily resolved) and lack of an explanation as to how a clinically
      unapparent tumor can leave molecular "signatures" at remote sites. However, there
      is evidence that tumor-specific cathepsins (lysosomal proteases) circulate
      systemically long before a cancer is clinically apparent. As such, we hypothesize
      that cathepsins, by virtue of their proteolytic activity, impart molecular
      changes in tissues remote from the primary tumor. These subtle molecular changes,
      which are specific for various tumors, can be readily detected by FDA of hair,
      nails and skin. We call for more research in the utility of FDA and tumor
      specific cathepsins for the early and non-invasive diagnosis of various
      malignancies.

PMID- 28571814
TI  - Polycystic ovary syndrome in men.

PMID- 28571815
TI  - Hypothesis: Co-transfer of genuine embryos and implantation-promoting compounds
      via artificial containers improve endometrium receptivity.
AB  - As with other organs endometrial functions are altered with the advancing age.
      Age related decrease in reproductive functions leads to decline in the number of
      oocytes retrieved and the synthesis of endometrial receptivity molecules. Despite
      the significant improvement in assisted reproductive technologies we do not have
      so many options to enhance endometrial receptivity. Due to lack of drugs having
      endometrium receptivity enhancement properties, oocyte donation seems to be the
      only solution for women with implantation failure. The euploid oocytes come from
      young and healthy donors may overcome age associated endometrial receptivity
      defect. Nevertheless, many reasons restrict us from using oocyte donation in
      women with implantation failure. We, therefore, hypothesized that by mimicking a
      young blastocyst's effect on endometrium, the transfer of genuine embryos and
      implantation-promoting compounds together might be the new treatment option for
      infertile women with recurrent implantation failure. Artificial beads, MI or GV
      oocytes, and empty zona can be used as a container for intrauterine replacement
      of implantation-promoting compounds.

PMID- 28571816
TI  - The role of predictive coding in the pathogenesis of delirium.
AB  - Delirium and dementia represent an emerging global crisis in healthcare. Attempts
      have been made to identify the pathognomonic feature that would make delirium
      stand out from dementia but unfortunately the global neural dysfunction of both
      disorders has made the establishment of a direct measurement difficult. Modern
      conceptualisations of delirium have been influenced by the assessment tools used
      to assess, detect, and analyse its complex and transient nature. Recent
      publication of the DSM-V criteria for delirium has marginally altered the
      previous DSM-IV criteria with a focus upon inattention with vague terms such as
      consciousness downplayed. Such an alteration has been found to be restrictive and
      thus impact upon delirium case identification. Although these findings are
      approximating the empirical state of delirium as measured by validated
      instruments, a more refined neuroscientifically informed phenomenological
      framework is required in order to enhance the theoretical understanding of
      delirium assessment and resolve these challenges. One such application is the
      predictive coding (PC) model, also known as the hierarchical Bayesian inference
      model, to interpreting delirium pathophysiology. Therefore, the aims of this
      paper are to 1) propose the hypothesis that delirium pathophysiology can be
      explained in terms of the PC model, 2) support this hypothesis by applying this
      model to current methods of assessing delirium phenomenology, particularly
      attention, and 3) outline a future programme of research to test many of the
      parameters of this application.

PMID- 28571817
TI  - Development of orbital adipose-derived stem cells as a model for studying the
      formation of baggy lower eyelids.
AB  - In old population, there is often a protrusion of the orbital fat pad underlying
      the skin in the lower eyelids, giving an aspect of palpable pouches. It is
      generally thought that orbital fat hyperplasia is the main contributing factor to
      the formation of baggy lower eyelids, and resection of excessive orbital fat pad
      is routinely performed during the eyelid cosmetic surgery. In our clinical study,
      however, it was revealed that the adipocytes in orbital fat tissue from older
      people became smaller compared to those from the young individuals. Based on this
      finding, we hypothesize that the orbital fat size may not increase, but decrease
      with age, and the declined fat depot volume is related to the reduced fat cell
      size and impaired differentiation of preadipocytes into fat cells. Adipose
      derived stem cells (ASCs) are a population of postnatal stem cells residing in
      the fat tissue, capable of differentiating into preadipocytes and subsequently
      into mature fat cells throughout the lifespan. As preadipocytes are a substantial
      component of fat tissue and can greatly influence the fat composition and
      function, we speculate that orbital adipose-derived stem cells can be used as an
      excellent model to determine effects of aging on orbital fat. By evaluating the
      age-related changes in preadipocyte number, replication, and differentiation, we
      can reveal alterations in orbital fat cellularity and function with age, and
      investigate the relationship between orbital fat volume and the of baggy lower
      eyelid formation.

PMID- 28571818
TI  - Association between oxidative status and the composition of intestinal microbiota
      along the gastrointestinal tract.
AB  - Studies have shown that the microbiota along the gastrointestinal tract (GIT)
      plays an important role when it comes to the maintenance of its proper functions.
      Many studies exist that have analyzed the composition of the bacterial community
      in the different regions of the GIT of humans and model animals. Microbial
      imbalance leads to several systemic disorders, including cardiovascular and renal
      disease. The imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      and their elimination by antioxidants leads to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress
      plays an important role in a variety of physiological processes, as well as
      disease. The continuous formation of ROS in the GIT is the result of the
      interaction between intestinal mucosa, symbiotic bacteria and dietary factors. It
      has also been proven that ROS play a role in the pathogenesis of several GI
      disorders, including IBD. We hypothesized that the levels of advanced glycation
      end products (AGEs) would be the highest in the ileum, caecum or colon, where the
      microbiota mostly consist of butyrate producing bacteria, Bacterioides,
      Clostridium, Ruminococcus or Bifidobacterium, which derive energy through
      carbohydrate fermentation. We also assumed that advanced oxidation protein
      products (AOPP) mostly act in the segments, where bacteria reside and which are
      responsible for the amino acid fermentation, such as caecum or colon. Lipid
      hydroxyperoxides are generated during digestion in the stomach, which contains
      absorbed oxygen and has a low pH. According to this we hypothesized that the
      highest concentration of thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) could be
      in the stomach, which, however, has not been confirmed. Because Lactobacilli are
      able to produce catalase, an endogenous antioxidant, and are abundant in the
      small intestine, we hypothesized that antioxidant capacity (measured by ferric
      reducing ability) would be the highest here. The highest levels of AGEs were
      found in the caecum. The highest level of TBARS was found in the jejunum of the
      rats. The assessment of our hypothesis also revealed high levels of AOPP in the
      caecum. It has been shown that AOPP contributes to the progression of IBD. The
      ferric reducing ability of tissue was the lowest in the colon of the experimental
      animals, which is in accordance with previous studies that show that rat colon
      has a lower total antioxidant capacity than the small bowel. In summary, we offer
      some insight into the differences between the oxidative status along the GIT of
      rats and some advice concerning supportive antioxidant therapy of
      gastrointestinal diseases.

PMID- 28571819
TI  - Chronic eczematous dermatitis in patients with neurodegenerative diseases may be
      an early marker of bullous pemphigoid.
AB  - The number of elderly patients with chronic pruritus has been gradually
      increasing in aging countries. Bullous pemphigoid, a common autoimmune blister
      disease in the elderly, is always heralded by pruritic eczematous dermatitis and
      is often associated with neurodegenerative diseases. We hypothesized that chronic
      eczematous dermatitis in patients with neurodegenerative diseases may be an early
      marker of bullous pemphigoid. By conducting retrospective chart review, we found
      neurodegenerative diseases are more prevalent in elderly patients with chronic
      eczematous dermatitis. The mean time delay between the diagnosis of
      neurodegenerative diseases and onset of skin lesions is 4.17years. In all 6
      patients who received skin biopsy, eosinophils in the upper dermis or at the
      dermo-epidermal junction were obvious, which are remnant of the pathological
      finding of bullous pemphigoid. Together with the well-known association between
      bullous pemphigoid and neurodegenerative diseases, the results suggested that
      unlocalized eczematous dermatitis in the elderly may be an early manifestation of
      bullous pemphigoid. Inter-discipline communication among neurology, dermatology
      and geriatrics/gerontology is required to tailor specific managements for elderly
      patients with pruritus and neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28571820
TI  - Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: A disorder of the HPA axis and sympathetic
      nervous system?
AB  - Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a variant of cyclic vomiting syndrome, is
      an enigmatic and challenging clinical disorder. As cannabis legalization, use,
      and potency has increased worldwide over the past decade, so has the prevalence
      of CHS. These patients often require acute care and inpatient treatment for
      refractory emesis, electrolyte derangement, dehydration, acute renal failure, and
      injury to the upper gastrointestinal tract. Routinely-prescribed antiemetics are
      frequently associated with treatment failure in CHS, necessitating use of
      sedating agents such as benzodiazepines and antipsychotics. Hydrotherapy with hot
      water provides short-term symptomatic relief from acute episodes of CHS. The
      reasons for this may be from chronic and/or excessive cannabis use leading to
      abnormal stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and
      sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in CHS patients. Overuse of cannabis may also
      lead to dysfunction of the endocannabinoid system, which is essential for
      allostasis of the autonomic nervous system after stress.

PMID- 28571821
TI  - Rhinitis and sleep disorders: The trigeminocardiac reflex link?
AB  - Rhinitis, allergic or non-allergic, is an inflammatory condition of the nose. It
      is associated with a wide range of sleep disorders that are generally attributed
      to nasal congestion and presence of inflammatory mediators like cytokines and
      interleukins. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms behind these sleep
      disorders remain unclear. On the other hand, the trigeminocardiac reflex (TCR)
      has recently been linked to various sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea,
      sleep bruxism and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep apnea. TCR can be incited by
      stimulation of the trigeminal nerve or the area innervated by its branches
      including the nasal mucosa. Trigeminal nasal afferents can be activated on
      exposure to noxious stimuli (mechanical or chemical) like ammonia vapors, carbon
      dioxide, nicotine, hypertonic saline, air-puffs and smoke. In rhinitis, there is
      associated neuronal hyper-responsiveness of sensory nasal afferents due to
      inflammation (which can be suppressed by steroids). This may further lead to
      increased occurrence of TCR in rhinitis. Moreover, there is involvement of
      autonomic nervous system both in rhinitis and TCR. In TCR, parasympathetic over
      activity and sympathetic inhibition leads to sudden onset bradycardia,
      hypotension, apnea and gastric motility. Also, the autonomic imbalance reportedly
      plays a significant role in the pathophysiology of rhinitis. Thus, considering
      these facts we hypothesize that the TCR could be the link between rhinitis and
      sleep disorders and we believe that further research in this direction may yield
      significant development in our understanding of sleep disorders in rhinitis.

PMID- 28571822
TI  - Minor phenolics from Angelica keiskei and their proliferative effects on Hep3B
      cells.
AB  - A new coumarin, (-)-cis-(3'R,4'R)-4'-O-angeloylkhellactone-3'-O-beta-d
      glucopyranoside (1) and two new chalcones, 3'-[(2E)-5-carboxy-3-methyl-2
      pentenyl]-4,2',4'-trihydroxychalcone (4) and (+/-)-4,2',4'-trihydroxy-3'-{2
      hydroxy-2-[tetrahydro-2-methyl-5-(1-methylethenyl)-2-furanyl]ethyl}chalcone (5)
      were isolated from the aerial parts of Angelica keiskei (Umbelliferae), together
      with six known compounds: (R)-O-isobutyroyllomatin (2), 3'-O-methylvaginol (3), (
      )-jejuchalcone F (6), isoliquiritigenin (7), davidigenin (8), and (+/-)
      liquiritigenin (9). The structures of the new compounds were determined by
      interpretation of their spectroscopic data including 1D and 2D NMR data. All
      known compounds (2, 3, and 6-9) were isolated as constituents of A. keiskei for
      the first time. To identify novel hepatocyte proliferation inducer for liver
      regeneration, 1-9 were evaluated for their cell proliferative effects using a
      Hep3B human hepatoma cell line. All isolates exhibited cell proliferative effects
      compared to untreated control (DMSO). Cytoprotective effects against oxidative
      stress induced by glucose oxidase were also examined on Hep3B cells and mouse
      fibroblast NIH3T3 cells and all compounds showed significant dose-dependent
      protection against oxidative stress.

PMID- 28571823
TI  - Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of three novel radiotracers for imaging of
      metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2 in rat brain.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop three new radiotracers, 1
      (cyclopropylmethyl)-4-([11C/18F]substituted-phenyl)piperidin-1-yl-2-oxo-1,2
      dihydropyridine-3-carbonitrile ([11C]1, [11C]2, and [18F]4), and to examine their
      specific bindings with metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2 (mGluR2) in rat
      brain sections by using in vitro autoradiography. These compounds were found to
      possess potent in vitro binding affinities (Ki: 8.0-34.1nM) for mGluR2 in rat
      brain homogenate. [11C]1, [11C]2, and [18F]4 were synthesized by
      [11C/18F]alkylation of the corresponding phenol precursors with [11C]methyl
      iodide or [18F]fluoroethyl bromide with >98% radiochemical purity and 80
      130GBq/MUmol specific activity at the end of synthesis. In vitro autoradiography
      indicated that these radiotracers showed heterogeneous specific bindings in
      mGluR2-rich brain regions, such as the cerebral cortex, striatum, hippocampus,
      and granular layer of the cerebellum.

PMID- 28571824
TI  - Design, synthesis and SAR of new-di-substituted pyridopyrimidines as ATP
      competitive dual PI3Kalpha/mTOR inhibitors.
AB  - PI3Kalpha/mTOR ATP-competitive inhibitors are considered as one of the promising
      molecularly targeted cancer therapeutics. Based on lead compound A from the
      literature, two similar series of 2-substituted-4-morpholino-pyrido[3,2
      d]pyrimidine and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine analogs were designed and synthesized as
      PI3Kalpha/mTOR dual inhibitors. Interestingly, most of the series gave excellent
      inhibition for both enzymes with IC50 values ranging from single to double digit
      nM. Unlike many PI3Kalpha/mTOR dual inhibitors, our compounds displayed
      selectivity for PI3Kalpha. Based on its potent enzyme inhibitory activity,
      selectivity for PI3Kalpha and good therapeutic index in 2D cell culture viability
      assays, compound 4h was chosen to be evaluated in 3D culture for its IC50 against
      MCF7 breast cancer cells as well as for docking studies with both enzymes.

PMID- 28571825
TI  - Evaluation of the antiprotozoan properties of 5'-norcarbocyclic pyrimidine
      nucleosides.
AB  - Carbocyclic nucleoside analogues have a distinguished history as anti-infectious
      agents, including key antiviral agents. Toxicity was initially a concern but this
      was reduced by the introduction of 5'-nor variants. Here, we report the result of
      our preliminary screening of a series of 5'-norcarbocyclic uridine analogues
      against protozoan parasites, specifically the major pathogens Leishmania mexicana
      and Trypanosoma brucei. The series displayed antiparasite activity in the low to
      mid-micromolar range and establishes a preliminary structure-activity
      relationship, with the 4',N3-di-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)-substituted analogues
      showing the most prominent activity. Utilizing an array of specially adapted cell
      lines, it was established that this series of analogues likely act through a
      common target. Moreover, the strong correlation between the trypanocidal and anti
      leishmanial activities indicates that this mechanism is likely shared between the
      two species. EC50 values were unaffected by the disabling of pyrimidine
      biosynthesis in T. brucei, showing that these uridine analogues do not act
      directly on the enzymes of pyrimidine nucleotide metabolism. The lack of cross
      resistance with 5-fluorouracil, also establishes that the carbocyclic analogues
      are not imported through the known uracil transporters, thus offering forth new
      insights for this class of nucleosides. The lack of cross-resistance with current
      trypanocides makes this compound class interesting for further exploration.

PMID- 28571826
TI  - Mucinous Signet-Ring Urachal Carcinoma of the Bladder: Case Report and Review of
      the Literature.

PMID- 28571828
TI  - Offline: Dear Tedros....

PMID- 28571829
TI  - Corrigendum to "A clinical, randomized, controlled study on the use of
      desensitizing agents during tooth bleaching" [J. Dent. 43 (9) (2015) 1099-1105].

PMID- 28571827
TI  - Effect on Overall Survival of Locoregional Treatment in a Cohort of De Novo
      Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients: A Single Institution Retrospective Analysis
      From the Royal Marsden Hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The optimal management of the primary tumor in metastatic at
      diagnosis (M1) prostate cancer (PCa) patients is not yet established. We
      retrospectively evaluated the effect of locoregional treatment (LRT) on overall
      survival (OS) hypothesizing that this could improve outcome through better local
      disease control and the induction of an antitumor immune response (abscopal
      effect). PATIENTS AND METHODS: M1 at diagnosis PCa patients referred to the
      Prostate Targeted Therapy Group at the Royal Marsden between June 2003 and
      December 2013 were identified. LRT was defined as either surgery, radiotherapy
      (RT) or transurethral prostatectomy (TURP) administered to the primary tumor at
      any time point from diagnosis to death. Kaplan-Meier analyses generated OS data.
      The association between LRT and OS was evaluated in univariate (UV) and
      multivariate (MV) Cox regression models. RESULTS: Overall 300 patients were
      identified; 192 patients (64%) experienced local symptoms at some point during
      their disease course; 72 patients received LRT (56.9% TURP, 52.7% RT). None of
      the patients were treated with prostatectomy. LRT was more frequently performed
      in patients with low volume disease (35.4% vs. 16.2%; P < .001), lower prostate
      specific antigen (PSA) level at diagnosis (median PSA: 75 vs. 184 ng/mL; P =
      .005) and local symptoms (34.2% vs. 4.8%; P < .001). LRT was associated in UV and
      MV analysis with longer OS (62.1 vs. 55.8 months; hazard ratio [HR], 0.74; P =
      .044), which remained significant for RT (69.4 vs. 55.1 months; HR, 0.54; P =
      .002) but not for TURP. RT was associated with better OS independent of disease
      volume at diagnosis. CONCLUSION: These data support the conduct of randomized
      phase III trials to evaluate the benefit of local control in patients with M1
      disease at diagnosis.

PMID- 28571830
TI  - Effect of bulk-fill base material on fracture strength of root-filled teeth
      restored with laminate resin composite restorations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of using a bulk-fill flowable base material on
      fracture strength and fracture patterns of root-filled maxillary premolars with
      MOD preparations restored with laminate restorations. METHODS: Fifty extracted
      maxillary premolars were selected for the study. Standardized MOD cavities with
      endodontic treatment were prepared for all teeth, except for intact control. The
      teeth were divided randomly into five groups (n=10); (Group 1) sound teeth,
      (Group 2) unrestored teeth; (Group 3) MOD cavities with Vitrebond base and resin
      based composite (Ceram. X One Universal); (Group 4) MOD cavities with 2mm GIC
      base (Fuji IX GP) and resin-based composite (Ceram. X One Universal) open
      laminate, (Group 5) MOD cavities were restored with 4mm of bulk-fill flowable
      base material (SDR) and resin-based composite (Ceram. X One Universal). All teeth
      were thermocycled and subjected to a 45 degrees  ramped oblique load in a
      universal testing machine. Fracture load and fracture patterns were recorded.
      Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Dunnett's T3 test. RESULTS:
      Restoration in general increased the fracture strength compared to unrestored
      teeth. The fracture strength of group 5 (bulk-fill) was significantly higher than
      the fracture strength of the GIC laminate groups and not significantly different
      from the intact teeth (355+/-112N, P=0.118). The type of failure was unfavorable
      for most of the groups, with the majority being mixed failures. CONCLUSIONS: The
      use of a bulk-fill flowable base material significantly increased the fracture
      strength of extracted root-filled teeth with MOD cavities; however it did not
      improve fracture patterns to more favorable ones. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
      Investigating restorative techniques that may improve the longevity of root
      filled premolar teeth restored with direct resin restorations.

PMID- 28571831
TI  - Sustainable waste-to-value biogas plants for developing countries.

PMID- 28571833
TI  - Review of Prenatal Maternal Mental Health and the Development of Infant
      Temperament.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To present a systematic review of literature and evaluate effects of
      prenatal maternal depression and anxiety on the development of infant
      temperament. DATA SOURCES: A literature search for studies published between
      January 1981 and January 2017 was undertaken using the electronic databases
      PsycINFO and PubMed, as well as reference lists from select resources. Search
      terms included variations on infant temperament, prenatal/pregnancy, depression,
      mood, and anxiety. STUDY SELECTION: Studies were included if researchers measured
      psychological distress during pregnancy as indicated by maternal depression,
      anxiety, pregnancy-specific anxiety, or a combination of these factors in
      relation to the development of infant temperament (i.e., parent report or
      laboratory observations of temperament from 1 to 12 months). In total, 34
      articles met inclusion criteria. DATA EXTRACTION: Authors, year of publication,
      country of origin, sample information, methods, timing, and applicable results
      were summarized and compared across studies. DATA SYNTHESIS: No standardized data
      analysis was conducted because of methodologic differences across the identified
      studies. Of the 34 identified studies, 22 included an indicator of depression (11
      with significant results), 26 included an indicator of anxiety (14 with
      significant results), and 9 included an indicator of pregnancy-specific anxiety
      (7 with significant results). CONCLUSION: Overall research outcomes were
      equivocal. Across studies on symptoms of depression and anxiety, findings related
      to the potential effect on infant temperament were mixed. Nonetheless, support
      for the role of prenatal psychological factors in the development of infant
      temperament emerged in a subset of population-based studies, including research
      to target the effects of pregnancy-specific anxiety. Future research is needed
      with greater consistency across studies with respect to methods (e.g., timing and
      assessment tools). Specific recommendations for nurses and providers include more
      routine screening and psychoeducation for expectant mothers about prenatal
      symptoms of depression and anxiety and about pregnancy-specific anxiety in
      particular.

PMID- 28571832
TI  - De Novo Gene Expression Reconstruction in Space.
AB  - The biological function of a gene often depends on spatial context, and an atlas
      of transcriptional regulation could be instrumental in defining functional
      elements across the genome. Despite recent advances in single-cell RNA sequencing
      and in situ RNA imaging, fundamental barriers limit the speed, genome-wide
      coverage, and resolution of de novo transcriptome assembly in space. Here, I
      discuss potential next-generation approaches for the de novo assembly of the
      transcriptome in space, and propose more efficient methods of detecting long
      range spatial variations in gene expression. Finally, I discuss future in situ
      sequencing chemistries for visualizing biological pathways and processes in
      tissues so that genomics technologies might be more easily applied to conditions
      of human health and disease.

PMID- 28571834
TI  - Self-powered therapeutic release from conducting polymer/graphene oxide films on
      magnesium.
AB  - Magnesium's complete in vivo degradation is appealing for medical implant
      applications. Rapid corrosion and hydrogen bubble generation along with
      inflammatory host tissue response have limited its clinical use. Here we
      electropolymerized a poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and graphene oxide
      (GO) film directly on Mg surface. GO acted as nano-drug carrier to carry anti
      inflammatory drug dexamethasone (Dex). PEDOT/GO/Dex coatings improved Mg
      corrosion resistance and decreased the rate of hydrogen production. Dex could be
      released driven by the electrical current generated from Mg corrosion. The anti
      inflammatory activity of the released Dex was confirmed in microglia cultures.
      This PEDOT/GO/Dex film displayed the ability to both control Mg corrosion and act
      as an on demand release coating that delivers Dex at the corrosion site to
      minimize detrimental effects of corrosion byproducts. Such multi-functional smart
      coating will improve the clinical use of Mg implants. Furthermore, the
      PEDOT/GO/Drug/Mg system may be developed into self-powered implantable drug
      delivery devices.

PMID- 28571836
TI  - [Congenital anterior Staphyloma: Case report].

PMID- 28571835
TI  - [Cataract surgery among 50 Alzheimer's patient (55 eyes)].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cataract surgery for 50 Alzheimer patients (55 eyes). METHODS:
      Cinquante Alzheimer's patients with 0<=MMS<=25, with bilateral disabling
      cataracts were included for surgery. The surgical technique is analyzed. RESULTS
      AND CONCLUSION: The preoperative examination of Alzheimer's patients is time
      consuming and requires experience in this area, which is important to integrate
      into the practice of ophthalmology. The type of cataract is unusual, with a
      predilection for pseudoexfoliation syndrome and zonular fragility that has to be
      managed during surgery. The procedure may be performed under local anesthesia.
      Three months after surgery, Alzheimer's patients demonstrated improved visual
      acuity (P<0.001) with no worsening of their dementia.

PMID- 28571837
TI  - [Prevalence and causes of pain after cataract surgery: Comparison of 1st and 2nd
      eyes].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In our practice, patients undergoing bilateral cataract surgery
      complain of more significant pain after the 2nd eye surgery. The goal of this
      study was to compare postoperative pain between the 1st and 2nd eyes with
      cataract surgery under topical anesthesia and to identify the causes of this
      pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study
      between May and September 2015. We included 69 consecutive adults scheduled for
      bilateral cataract surgery under topical anesthesia within 2 months by the same
      surgeon. A self-assessment questionnaire of anxiety (the Amsterdam Preoperative
      Anxiety and Information Scale [APAIS]) was completed before each procedure.
      Postoperative pain was assessed by the visual analogue scale (VAS) in the
      recovery room. RESULTS: Among the 69 included patients (mean age: 70+/-1.3
      years), 13 (19%) experienced more pain after the 2nd eye procedure. The median
      VAS was 0 (EI: 0-1) after the first eye versus 0 (EI: 0-2) after the second eye
      (P=0.836). The patients with the most pain after the second eye surgery had a
      median anxiety score of 5 (EI: 4 to 9.5), which was comparable to those without
      pain (P=0.589). On bivariate analysis, women had more pain after second eye
      surgery (27%) than men (4%) (P=0.026). However, this association lost its
      significance when the analysis was adjusted for the level of anxiety (adjusted OR
      7.7, 95% CI [0.91; 64.6]). In fact, women were more anxious [median anxiety score
      of 6 (EI: 4 to 8.5)] before 2nd eye surgery than men [median score: 4 (EI: 4-6);
      P=0.013]. DISCUSSION: Pain levels appeared to be very moderate on both sides when
      measured postoperatively, as opposed to statements often made in the immediate
      postoperative period. There is a discrepancy with the literature data. However,
      each study had small sample sizes. CONCLUSION: We did not find any significant
      difference in pain between 1st and 2nd eye cataract surgery under topical local
      anesthesia. While postoperative pain appeared greater among women, we have noted
      the possible influence of anxiety, which could justify specific preoperative
      support.

PMID- 28571838
TI  - [Spasm of iris dilator muscle or tadpole-shaped pupil].

PMID- 28571839
TI  - [Perception of glaucoma and therapeutic adherence: A multicenter observational
      study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to evaluate medication adherence of
      glaucoma patients through the "Glaucoma treatment compliance assessment tool
      (GTCAT)" questionnaire and to correlate the results with clinical parameters.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This multicenter prospective observational study was
      performed in the Departement hospitalo-universitaire (DHU) Sight Restore, Paris,
      France. All patients had been followed for chronic open angle glaucoma (COAG) for
      at least 3 years. A French version of the GTCAT questionnaire was administered to
      patients. The results were correlated with clinical parameters of glaucoma, such
      as duration of disease, medications used, intraocular pressure (IOP) and mean
      deviation (MD) of the most recent visual field. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients
      were included in our study, with 60.9% declaring that they fully adhered to the
      treatment. There was a correlation between the amount of days missing treatment
      and difficulties using the eye drops. The main cause of missing the drops was
      forgetfulness (75%), followed by unavailability of the drop when it was time to
      take it (37.5%). The impact of glaucoma on quality of life was correlated to the
      amount of adverse effects of topical medications. The patient's perception of the
      importance of preserving vision was correlated to the level of confidence in the
      physician concerning the diagnosis of glaucoma. CONCLUSION: In glaucoma patients,
      the use of the GTCAT questionnaire confirmed the complex relationship between the
      patient, the disease and its treatment, and even his or her relationship with the
      ophthalmologist. These results emphasized the importance of therapeutic education
      but also the negative role of side effects of the eye drops on treatment
      adherence in glaucoma patients.

PMID- 28571840
TI  - Staphylococcus aureus delta-toxin in aqueous solution: Behavior in monomeric and
      multimeric states.
AB  - delta-Toxin is a 26 amino acid peptide capable of lysing several mammalian cell
      types and subcellular structures. Structurally, delta-toxin predominantly
      exhibits a alpha-helical secondary structure in membranes but, in aqueous
      solution, it adopts varying helical content. As no atomic-level data is available
      for this peptide in aqueous solutions and for the water-to-membrane transition,
      this work aims to characterize delta-toxin behavior in these conditions through
      molecular dynamics simulations in triplicates employing four different parameter
      sets. Our results, validated on previous experimental data, suggest that the
      peptide has from 4 to 16 residues folded as alpha-helix in aqueous solution, and
      a water-to-membrane foldamer comprising residues 14-18. Considering a previously
      proposed stable tetramer form in aqueous solutions, protein-protein docking and
      molecular dynamics studies were performed, suggesting that delta-toxin increases
      its alpha-helical content in such organization. The obtained results are expected
      to contribute in future studies on delta-toxin aggregation and interaction to
      biomembranes.

PMID- 28571841
TI  - Are article's social media mentions associated to citation counts? An analysis in
      highly influential medical journals.

PMID- 28571842
TI  - [Evaluation of multidisciplinary team meeting; the example of gynecological
      mammary cancers in a tertiary referral center in Morocco].
AB  - The multidisciplinary team meeting has become a standard medical practice in
      oncology. However, no evaluation of this activity was carried out in Morocco. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the multidisciplinary team meeting of
      gynecological mammary cancers in a National Tertiary Referral Center. The study
      was carried out by retrospective analysis of 207 cases of patients randomly
      selected among the 1190 cases recruited during the year 2015. Completeness and
      quality criteria were evaluated. The global completeness rate of passage in
      multidisciplinary team meeting is 38%. According to the therapeutic specialities,
      the completeness of passage in multidisciplinary team meeting is 68% of surgery,
      35% of medical oncology and 19% of radiotherapy. As far as localizations are
      concerned, the completeness of passage in multidisciplinary team meeting is 43%
      for the breast and only 19% for the cervix. A quorum was met 100% of the cases.
      In 96% of cases the treatment performed is in accordance with the decision of the
      multidisciplinary team meeting. Eighty-four percent of cases performed
      multidisciplinary team meeting within less than one month. This analysis shows
      that the completeness of the transition to multidisciplinary team meeting has not
      reached the 100% planned by our institution. However, the requirements for
      conducting the multidisciplinary team meeting were generally met. This study
      shows an organizational evolution of our structure based on collective and
      multidisciplinary medical decision. The national obligation measure of
      multidisciplinary team meeting is necessary.

PMID- 28571843
TI  - Size distribution, directional source contributions and pollution status of PM
      from Chengdu, China during a long-term sampling campaign.
AB  - Long-term and synchronous monitoring of PM10 and PM2.5 was conducted in Chengdu
      in China from 2007 to 2013. The levels, variations, compositions and size
      distributions were investigated. The sources were quantified by two-way and three
      way receptor models (PMF2, ME2-2way and ME2-3way). Consistent results were found:
      the primary source categories contributed 63.4% (PMF2), 64.8% (ME2-2way) and
      66.8% (ME2-3way) to PM10, and contributed 60.9% (PMF2), 65.5% (ME2-2way) and
      61.0% (ME2-3way) to PM2.5. Secondary sources contributed 31.8% (PMF2), 32.9% (ME2
      2way) and 31.7% (ME2-3way) to PM10, and 35.0% (PMF2), 33.8% (ME2-2way) and 36.0%
      (ME2-3way) to PM2.5. The size distribution of source categories was estimated
      better by the ME2-3way method. The three-way model can simultaneously consider
      chemical species, temporal variability and PM sizes, while a two-way model
      independently computes datasets of different sizes. A method called source
      directional apportionment (SDA) was employed to quantify the contributions from
      various directions for each source category. Crustal dust from east-north-east
      (ENE) contributed the highest to both PM10 (12.7%) and PM2.5 (9.7%) in Chengdu,
      followed by the crustal dust from south-east (SE) for PM10 (9.8%) and secondary
      nitrate & secondary organic carbon from ENE for PM2.5 (9.6%). Source
      contributions from different directions are associated with meteorological
      conditions, source locations and emission patterns during the sampling period.
      These findings and methods provide useful tools to better understand PM pollution
      status and to develop effective pollution control strategies.

PMID- 28571844
TI  - An economic assessment of the health effects and crop yield losses caused by air
      pollution in mainland China.
AB  - Air pollution is severe in China, and pollutants such as PM2.5 and surface O3 may
      cause major damage to human health and crops, respectively. Few studies have
      considered the health effects of PM2.5 or the loss of crop yields due to surface
      O3 using model-simulated air pollution data in China. We used gridded outputs
      from the WRF-Chem model, high resolution population data, and crop yield data to
      evaluate the effects on human health and crop yield in mainland China. Our
      results showed that outdoor PM2.5 pollution was responsible for 1.70-1.99 million
      cases of all-cause mortality in 2006. The economic costs of these health effects
      were estimated to be 151.1-176.9 billion USD, of which 90% were attributed to
      mortality. The estimated crop yield losses for wheat, rice, maize, and soybean
      were approximately 9, 4.6, 0.44, and 0.34 million tons, respectively, resulting
      in economic losses of 3.4 billion USD. The total economic losses due to ambient
      air pollution were estimated to be 154.5-180.3 billion USD, accounting for
      approximately 5.7%-6.6% of the total GDP of China in 2006. Our results show that
      both population health and staple crop yields in China have been significantly
      affected by exposure to air pollution. Measures should be taken to reduce
      emissions, improve air quality, and mitigate the economic loss.

PMID- 28571845
TI  - Mitigation of atrazine, S-metolachlor, and diazinon using common emergent aquatic
      vegetation.
AB  - By the year 2050, the population of the United States is expected to reach over
      418 million, while the global population will reach 9.6 billion. To provide safe
      food and fiber, agriculture must balance pesticide usage against impacts on
      natural resources. Challenges arise when storms cause runoff to be transported to
      aquatic receiving systems. Vegetated systems such as drainage ditches and
      constructed wetlands have been proposed as management practices to alleviate
      pesticide runoff. Twelve experimental mesocosms (1.3*0.71*0.61m) were filled with
      sediment and planted with a monoculture of one of three wetland plant species
      (Typha latifolia, Leersia oryzoides, and Sparganium americanum). Three mesocosms
      remained unvegetated to serve as controls. All mesocosms were amended with 9.2+/
      0.8MUg/L, 12+/-0.4MUg/L, and 3.1+/-0.2MUg/L of atrazine, metolachlor, and
      diazinon, respectively, over a 4hr hydraulic retention time to simulate storm
      runoff. Following the 4hr amendment, non-amended water was flushed through
      mesocosms for an additional 4hr. Outflow water samples were taken hourly from pre
      amendment through 8hr, and again at 12, 24, 48, 72, and 168hr post-amendment. L.
      oryzoides and T. latifolia had mean atrazine, metolachlor, and diazinon
      retentions from 51%-55% for the first 4hr of the experiment. Aside from S.
      americanum and atrazine (25% retention), unvegetated controls had the lowest
      pesticide retention (17%-28%) of all compared mesocosms. While native aquatic
      vegetation shows promise for mitigation of pesticide runoff, further studies
      increasing the hydraulic retention time for improved efficiency should be
      examined.

PMID- 28571847
TI  - Impact of microbial communities from tropical soils on the mobilization of trace
      metals during dissolution of cinnabar ore.
AB  - Biodissolution experiments on cinnabar ore (mercury sulphide and other sulphide
      minerals, such as pyrite) were performed with microorganisms extracted directly
      from soil. These experiments were carried out in closed systems under aerobic and
      anaerobic conditions with 2 different soils sampled in French Guyana. The two
      main objectives of this study were (1) to quantify the ability of microorganisms
      to mobilize metals (Fe, Al, Hg) during the dissolution of cinnabar ore, and (2)
      to identify the links between the type and chemical properties of soils,
      environmental parameters such as season and the strategies developed by
      indigenous microorganisms extracted from tropical natural soils to mobilize
      metals. Results indicate that microbial communities extracted directly from
      various soils are able to (1) survive in the presence of cinnabar ore, as
      indicated by consumption of carbon sources and, (2) leach Hg from cinnabar in
      oxic and anoxic dissolution experiments via the acidification of the medium and
      the production of low molecular mass organic acids (LMMOAs). The dissolution rate
      of cinnabar in aerobic conditions with microbial communities ranged from 4.8*10-4
      to 2.6*10-3MUmol/m2/day and was independent of the metabolites released by the
      microorganisms. In addition, these results suggest an indirect action by the
      microorganisms in the cinnabar dissolution. Additionally, because iron is a key
      element in the dynamics of Hg, microbes were stimulated by the presence of this
      metal, and microbes released LMMOAs that leached iron from iron-bearing minerals,
      such as pyrite and oxy-hydroxide of iron, in the mixed cinnabar ore.

PMID- 28571846
TI  - Removal of Cs+ from water and soil by ammonium-pillared montmorillonite/Fe3O4
      composite.
AB  - To remove cesium ions from water and soil, a novel adsorbent was synthesized by
      following a one-step co-precipitation method and using non-toxic raw materials.
      By combining ammonium-pillared montmorillonite (MMT) and magnetic nanoparticles
      (Fe3O4), an MMT/Fe3O4 composite was prepared and characterized. The adsorbent
      exhibited high selectivity of Cs+ and could be rapidly separated from the mixed
      solution under an external magnetic field. Above all, the adsorbent had high
      removal efficiency in cesium-contaminated samples (water and soil) and also
      showed good recycling performance, indicating that the MMT/Fe3O4 composite could
      be widely applied to the remediation of cesium-contaminated environments. It was
      observed that the pH, solid/liquid ratio and initial concentration affected
      adsorption capacity. In the presence of coexisting ions, the adsorption capacity
      decreased in the order of Ca2+>Mg2+>K+>Na+, which is consistent with our
      theoretical prediction. The adsorption behavior of this new adsorbent could be
      expressed by the pseudo-second-order model and Freundlich isotherm. In addition,
      the adsorption mechanism of Cs+ was NH4+ ion exchange and surface hydroxyl group
      coordination, with the former being more predominant.

PMID- 28571848
TI  - Catalytic removal of phenol from gas streams by perovskite-type catalysts.
AB  - Three perovskite-type catalysts prepared by citric acid method are applied to
      remove phenol from gas streams with the total flow rate of 300mL/min,
      corresponding to a GHSV of 10,000/hr. LaMnO3 catalyst is first prepared and
      further partially substituted with Sr and Cu to prepare La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 and
      La0.8Sr0.2Mn0.8Cu0.2O3, and catalytic activities and fundamental characteristics
      of these three catalysts are compared. The results show that phenol removal
      efficiency achieved with La0.8Sr0.2Mn0.8Cu0.2O3 reaches 100% with the operating
      temperature of 200 degrees C and the rate of mineralization at 300 degrees C is
      up to 100%, while the phenol removal efficiencies achieved with La0.8Sr0.2MnO3
      and LaMnO3 are up to 100% with the operating temperature of 300 degrees C and 400
      degrees C, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis shows
      that the addition of Sr and Cu increases the lattice oxygen of
      La0.8Sr0.2Mn0.8Cu0.2O3, and further increases mobility or availability of lattice
      oxygen. The results indicate that La0.8Sr0.2Mn0.8Cu0.2O3 has the best activity
      for phenol removal among three catalysts prepared and the catalytic activity of
      phenol oxidation is enhanced by the introduction of Sr and Cu into LaMnO3.
      Apparent activation energy of 48kJ/mol is calculated by Mars-Van Krevelen Model
      for phenol oxidation with La0.8Sr0.2Mn0.8Cu0.2O3 as catalyst.

PMID- 28571849
TI  - Assessment of the maximum allowed acid deposition load at current stage in China.
AB  - Soil acidification caused by acid deposition has been significant in some forests
      in southern China. We present an approach for assessing the current stage maximum
      allowed load (SML) of acid deposition for terrestrial system in the country. The
      main idea was that soil base cation exchange as a finite buffer to acidity was
      included in the soil acidity mass balance calculation at current acidification
      stage. We calculated the SML for five forests in southern China. The usual
      critical loads for the same forests were also calculated by the steady state mass
      balance model for comparison. The results showed that the SML is a more tolerant
      limit than the critical load for the forests with soils not acidified seriously
      at current stage. However, the SML become a more stringent limit to acid
      deposition when the forest soils have acidified seriously to very low base cation
      saturation. In this case the SML assessment is beneficial for the soils
      recovering from a serious acidified state. Based on a national scale database,
      the SML mapping for non-agricultural soil system in China was carried out.

PMID- 28571850
TI  - Activated carbon adsorption of quinolone antibiotics in water: Performance,
      mechanism, and modeling.
AB  - The extensive use of antibiotics has led to their presence in the aquatic
      environment, and introduces potential impacts on human and ecological health. The
      capability of powdered activated carbon (PAC) to remove six frequently used
      quinolone (QN) antibiotics during water treatment was evaluated to improve
      drinking water safety. The kinetics of QN adsorption by PAC was best described by
      a pseudo second-order equation, and the adsorption capacity was well described by
      the Freundlich isotherm equation. Isotherms measured at different pH showed that
      hydrophobic interaction, electrostatic interaction, and pi-pi dispersion force
      were the main mechanisms for adsorption of QNs by PAC. A pH-dependent isotherm
      model based on the Freundlich equation was developed to predict the adsorption
      capacity of QNs by PAC at different pH values. This model had excellent
      prediction capabilities under different laboratory scenarios. Small relative
      standard derivations (RSDs), i.e., 0.59%-0.92% for ciprofloxacin and 0.09%-3.89%
      for enrofloxacin, were observed for equilibrium concentrations above the 0.3mg/L
      level. The RSDs increased to 11.9% for ciprofloxacin and 32.1% for enrofloxacin
      at MUg/L equilibrium levels, which is still acceptable. This model could be
      applied to predict the adsorption of other chemicals having different ionized
      forms.

PMID- 28571851
TI  - Drinking water treatment using a submerged internal-circulation membrane
      coagulation reactor coupled with permanganate oxidation.
AB  - A submerged internal circulating membrane coagulation reactor (MCR) was used to
      treat surface water to produce drinking water. Polyaluminum chloride (PACl) was
      used as coagulant, and a hydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) submerged
      hollow fiber microfiltration membrane was employed. The influences of trans
      membrane pressure (TMP), zeta potential (ZP) of the suspended particles in raw
      water, and KMnO4 dosing on water flux and the removal of turbidity and organic
      matter were systematically investigated. Continuous bench-scale experiments
      showed that the permeate quality of the MCR satisfied the requirement for a
      centralized water supply, according to the Standards for Drinking Water Quality
      of China (GB 5749-2006), as evaluated by turbidity (<1 NTU) and total organic
      carbon (TOC) (<5mg/L) measurements. Besides water flux, the removal of turbidity,
      TOC and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the raw water also increased with
      increasing TMP in the range of 0.01-0.05MPa. High ZP induced by PACl, such as 5
      9mV, led to an increase in the number of fine and total particles in the MCR, and
      consequently caused serious membrane fouling and high permeate turbidity.
      However, the removal of TOC and DOC increased with increasing ZP. A slightly
      positive ZP, such as 1-2mV, corresponding to charge neutralization coagulation,
      was favorable for membrane fouling control. Moreover, dosing with KMnO4 could
      further improve the removal of turbidity and DOC, thereby mitigating membrane
      fouling. The results are helpful for the application of the MCR in producing
      drinking water and also beneficial to the research and application of other
      coagulation and membrane separation hybrid processes.

PMID- 28571852
TI  - Structure and activity of thermophilic methanogenic microbial communities exposed
      to quaternary ammonium sanitizer.
AB  - Food processing facilities often use antimicrobial quaternary ammonium compound
      (QAC) sanitizers to maintain cleanliness. These QACs can end up in wastewaters
      used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The aim of this study was to measure
      the effect of QAC contamination on biogas production and structure of microbial
      communities in thermophilic digester sludge. Methane production and biogas
      quality data were analyzed in batch anaerobic digesters containing QAC at 0, 15,
      50, 100 and 150mg/L. Increasing sanitizer concentration in the bioreactors
      negatively impacted methane production rate and biogas quality. Microbial
      community composition data was obtained through 16S rRNA gene sequencing from the
      QAC-contaminated sludges. Sequencing data showed no significant restructuring of
      the bacterial communities. However, significant restructuring was observed within
      the archaeal communities as QAC concentration increased. Further studies to
      confirm these effects on a larger scale and with a longer retention time are
      necessary.

PMID- 28571853
TI  - Effect of MoO3 on vanadium based catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction
      of NOx with NH3 at low temperature.
AB  - The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) activities of the MoO3 doped V/WTi
      catalysts prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation method at low
      temperature were investigated. The results showed that the addition of MoO3 could
      enhance the NOx conversion at low temperature and the best SCR activity was
      obtained when the dosage of MoO3 reached 5wt.%. The NH3-TPD and DRIFTS
      experiments indicated that the addition of MoO3 changed the type and number of
      acid sites on the surface of catalysts and reaction activities of acid sites were
      altered at the same time. The redox capacity and amount of active oxygen species
      got improved for V3Mo5/WTi catalyst, which could be confirmed by the H2-TPR and
      transient response experiments. Water vapor inhibited the NOx conversion at low
      temperature. Deposition of ammonium sulfate or bisulfate might be main reason for
      the loss of catalytic activity in the presence of SO2 at low temperature.
      Choosing the suitable NH3/NO ratio and elevation of reaction temperature both
      could weaken the influence of SO2 on the SCR activity of the V3Mo5/WTi catalyst.
      Thermal treatment of the deactivated catalyst at 350 degrees C could get the low
      temperature activity recovered. The decrease of GHSV improved the deNOx
      efficiency at low temperature and we speculated that the rational technological
      process and operation parameters could contribute to the application of this kind
      of catalysts in real industrial environment.

PMID- 28571854
TI  - Effects of aging process on adsorption-desorption and bioavailability of
      fomesafen in an agricultural soil amended with rice hull biochar.
AB  - Biochar has been introduced as an acceptable soil amendment due to its
      environmental benefits such as sequestering soil contaminants. However, the aging
      process in biochar amended soil probably decreases the adsorption capacity of
      biochar through changing its physico-chemical properties. Adsorption, leaching
      and bioavailability of fomesafen to corn in a Chinese soil amended by rice hull
      biochar after 0, 30, 90 and 180days were investigated. Results showed that the
      addition of 0.5%-2% fresh biochar significantly increases the adsorption of
      fomesafen 4-26 times compare to unamended soil due to higher SSA of biochar.
      Biochar amendment also decreases fomesafen concentration in soil pore water by 5%
      23% resulting lower risk of the herbicide for cultivated plants. However, the
      aging process decreased the adsorption capacity of biochar since the adsorption
      coefficient values which was 1.9-12.4 in 0.5%-2% fresh biochar amended soil,
      declined to 1.36-4.16, 1.13-2.78 and 0.95-2.31 in 1, 3 and 6-month aged
      treatments, respectively. Consequently, higher desorption, leaching and
      bioavailable fraction of fomesafen belonged to 6-month aged treatment.
      Nevertheless, rice hull biochar was effective for sequestering fomesafen as the
      adsorption capacity of biochar amended soil after 6months of aging was still 2.5
      5 times higher compared to that of unamended soil.

PMID- 28571855
TI  - Effects and mechanism of freeze-thawing cycles on the soil N2O fluxes in the
      temperate semi-arid steppe.
AB  - High nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions during freeze-thawing period (FTP) have been
      observed in many different ecosystems. However, the knowledge about the dynamic
      of soil N2O emissions and its main driving mechanism during the freeze-thawing
      processes in grassland ecosystem is still limited. An in-situ experiment was
      conducted during the FTP on the sites with 0 and 15% surplus of the average
      rainfall and two levels of N addition (0,10gN/(m2.year)) during growing season
      (marked as W0N0, W15N0, W0N10, W15N10, respectively) to explore the effects of
      water and N background on soil N2O emissions during FTPs and the relationship
      between soil N2O emissions and environmental factors. The results indicated that
      water and N treatments conducted during growing season did not show significant
      effect on the N2O effluxes of FTP, but the soil mineral N contents of W0N10
      treatment were significantly higher than those of W0N0, W15N0, W15N10 treatments
      (p<0.05). The soil PLFA concentrations of microbial groups monitored during 2015
      spring freeze-thawing period (2015S-FTP) were lower than those during winter
      freeze-thawing period of 2014 (2014W-FTP), while cumulative soil N2O emissions of
      2015S-FTP were higher than those of 2014W-FTP. The correlations between soil N2O
      effluxes and most of the measured environmental factors were insignificant,
      multiple stepwise regression analysis indicated that the soil temperature, soil
      NH4+-N content and air temperature were the major environmental factors which
      significantly influenced the N2O effluxes during 2014W-FTP, and air temperature
      and soil water content were the significant influencing factors during 2015S-FTP.

PMID- 28571856
TI  - Ag-AgBr/TiO2/RGO nanocomposite: Synthesis, characterization, photocatalytic
      activity and aggregation evaluation.
AB  - Ag-AgBr/TiO2 supported on reduced graphene oxide (Ag-AgBr/TiO2/RGO) with
      different mass ratios of grapheme oxide (GO) to TiO2 were synthesized via a
      facile solvothermal-photo reduction method. Compared to the single-, two- and
      three-component nanocomposites, the four-component nanocomposite, Ag
      AgBr/TiO2/RGO-1 with mass ratio of GO to TiO2 at 1%, exhibited a much higher
      photocatalytic activity for the degradation of penicillin G (PG) under white
      light-emitting diode (LED-W) irradiation. The PG degradation efficiency increased
      with the increase of mass ratio of GO to TiO2 from 0.2% to 1%, then it decreased
      with the increase of mass ratio of GO to TiO2 from 1% to 5%. The zeta potentials
      of RGO-nanocomposites became more negative with the presence of humic acid (HA)
      due to the negatively charged HA adsorption, resulting in the shift of points of
      zero charge to lower values of pH. The aggregations of nanocomposites were more
      significant due to the bridging effect of HA. Furthermore, the aggregated
      particle sizes were larger for RGO-nanocomposites compared to other
      nanoparticles, due to the bindings of the carboxylic and phenolic functional
      groups in HA with the oxygen-containing functional groups in the RGO
      nanocomposites. The microfiltration (MF) membrane was effective for the
      nanocomposites separation. In the continuous flow through submerged membrane
      photoreactor (sMPR) system, backwashing operation could efficiently reduce
      membrane fouling and recover TiO2, and thus indirectly facilitate the PG removal.

PMID- 28571857
TI  - Identification of long-range transport pathways and potential sources of PM2.5
      and PM10 in Beijing from 2014 to 2015.
AB  - Trajectory clustering, potential source contribution function (PSCF) and
      concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) methods were applied to investigate the
      transport pathways and identify potential sources of PM2.5 and PM10 in different
      seasons from June 2014 to May 2015 in Beijing. The cluster analyses showed that
      Beijing was affected by trajectories from the south and southeast in summer and
      autumn. In winter and spring, Beijing was not only affected by the trajectories
      from the south and southeast, but was also affected by trajectories from the
      north and northwest. In addition, the analyses of the pressure profile of
      backward trajectories showed that backward trajectories, which have important
      influence on Beijing, were mainly distributed above 970hPa in summer and autumn
      and below 950hPa in spring and winter. This indicates that PM2.5 and PM10 were
      strongly affected by the near surface air masses in summer and autumn and by high
      altitude air masses in winter and spring. Results of PSCF and CWT analyses showed
      that the largest potential source areas were identified in spring, followed by
      winter and autumn, then summer. In addition, potential source regions of PM10
      were similar to those of PM2.5. There were a clear seasonal and spatial variation
      of the potential source areas of Beijing and the airflow in the horizontal and
      vertical directions. Therefore, more effective regional emission reduction
      measures in Beijing's surrounding provinces should be implemented to reduce
      emissions of regional sources in different seasons.

PMID- 28571859
TI  - Development of a method for comprehensive water quality forecasting and its
      application in Miyun reservoir of Beijing, China.
AB  - Water quality forecasting is an essential part of water resource management.
      Spatiotemporal variations of water quality and their inherent constraints make it
      very complex. This study explored a data-based method for short-term water
      quality forecasting. Prediction of water quality indicators including dissolved
      oxygen, chemical oxygen demand by KMnO4 and ammonia nitrogen using support vector
      machine was taken as inputs of the particle swarm algorithm based optimal wavelet
      neural network to forecast the whole status index of water quality. Gubeikou
      monitoring section of Miyun reservoir in Beijing, China was taken as the study
      case to examine effectiveness of this approach. The experiment results also
      revealed that the proposed model has advantages of stability and time reduction
      in comparison with other data-driven models including traditional BP neural
      network model, wavelet neural network model and Gradient Boosting Decision Tree
      model. It can be used as an effective approach to perform short-term
      comprehensive water quality prediction.

PMID- 28571858
TI  - Effects of silver adsorbed on fumed silica, silver phosphate glass, bentonite
      organomodified with silver and titanium dioxide in aquatic indicator organisms.
AB  - In order to reduce the level of transmission of diseases caused by bacteria and
      fungi, the development of antimicrobial additives for use in personal care,
      hygiene products, clothing and others has increased. Many of these additives are
      based on metals such as silver and titanium. The disposal of these products in
      the environment has raised concerns pertaining to their potential harmfulness for
      beneficial organisms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence
      of the shape, surface chemistry, size and carrier of three additives containing
      silver and one with titanium dioxide (TiO2) on microcrustacean survival. Daphnia
      magna was used as a bioindicator for acute exposure test in suspensions from
      0.0001 to 10,000ppm. Ceriodaphnia dubia was used for chronic test in TiO2
      suspensions from 0.001 to 100ppm. D. magna populations presented high
      susceptibility to all silver based additives, with 100% mortality after 24hr of
      exposure. A different result was found in the acute experiments containing TiO2
      suspensions, with mortality rates only after 48hr of incubation. Even on acute
      and chronic tests, TiO2 did not reach a linear concentration-response versus
      mortality, with 1ppm being more toxic than 10,000ppm on acute test and 0.001 more
      toxic than 0.01ppm on chronic assay. Silver based material toxicity was
      attributed to silver itself, and had no relation to either form (nano or ion) or
      carrier (silica, phosphate glass or bentonite). TiO2 demonstrated to have a low
      acute toxicity against D. magna.

PMID- 28571860
TI  - Pollution characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in common used
      mineral oils and their transformation during oil regeneration.
AB  - The pollution characteristic of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in common
      used mineral oils, semi-refined oils, refined oils and solid wastes produced
      during the used mineral oil regeneration process was analyzed. The results showed
      that total PAHs content in six common used mineral oils was as follows: used
      engine oil>used quenching oil>used casting oil>used hydraulic oil>used antirust
      oil>used industrial lubricating oil. Furthermore, this order was dependent on the
      source of PAHs and oil working temperatures. Additionally, total PAHs content in
      regenerated oils was as follows: semi-refined oil>refined oil>crude oil, which
      was related to the catalytic cracking process of crude oil and adsorption
      refining process of semi-refined oil. The ranking of total PAHs content in
      regenerated wastes varied depending on the regeneration technology used as
      follows: waste adsorption sand>acid sludge>waste clay>precipitation
      sludge>cracked residue. In all types of used mineral oils and regenerated wastes,
      the maximum and minimum proportions of the total PAHs content were composed of 2
      3 ring-PAHs and 5-6 ring-PAHs, respectively. The majority of PAHs in the used
      mineral oils entered into regenerated wastes during regeneration process, while a
      small number remained in the regenerated oil.

PMID- 28571861
TI  - High-throughput metagenomic analysis of petroleum-contaminated soil microbiome
      reveals the versatility in xenobiotic aromatics metabolism.
AB  - The soil with petroleum contamination is one of the most studied soil ecosystems
      due to its rich microorganisms for hydrocarbon degradation and broad applications
      in bioremediation. However, our understanding of the genomic properties and
      functional traits of the soil microbiome is limited. In this study, we used high
      throughput metagenomic sequencing to comprehensively study the microbial
      community from petroleum-contaminated soils near Tianjin Dagang oilfield in
      eastern China. The analysis reveals that the soil metagenome is characterized by
      high level of community diversity and metabolic versatility. The metageome
      community is predominated by gamma-Proteobacteria and alpha-Proteobacteria, which
      are key players for petroleum hydrocarbon degradation. The functional study
      demonstrates over-represented enzyme groups and pathways involved in degradation
      of a broad set of xenobiotic aromatic compounds, including toluene, xylene,
      chlorobenzoate, aminobenzoate, DDT, methylnaphthalene, and bisphenol. A composite
      metabolic network is proposed for the identified pathways, thus consolidating our
      identification of the pathways. The overall data demonstrated the great potential
      of the studied soil microbiome in the xenobiotic aromatics degradation. The
      results not only establish a rich reservoir for novel enzyme discovery but also
      provide putative applications in bioremediation.

PMID- 28571862
TI  - Zeolite A synthesized from alkaline assisted pre-activated halloysite for
      efficient heavy metal removal in polluted river water and industrial wastewater.
AB  - High quality zeolite A was synthesized through a hydrothermal process using
      alkaline-assisted pre-activated halloysite mineral as the alumina and silica
      source. The synthesis conditions employed in this study were finely tuned by
      varying the activating temperature, sodium hydroxide content, water content and
      Si/Al ratio. The obtained zeolite A showed excellent adsorption properties for
      both single metal cation solutions and mixed cation solutions when the
      concentrations of the mixed cations were comparable with those in polluted
      natural river water and industrial wastewater. High adsorptive capacities for Ag+
      (123.05mg/g) and Pb2+ (227.70mg/g) were achieved using the synthesized zeolite A.
      This observation indicates that the zeolite A synthesized from alkaline-assisted
      pre-activated halloysite can be used as a low-cost and relatively effective
      adsorbent to purify heavy metal cation polluted natural river water and
      industrial wastewater.

PMID- 28571863
TI  - An insight into the removal of fluoroquinolones in activated sludge process:
      Sorption and biodegradation characteristics.
AB  - The detailed sorption steps and biodegradation characteristics of
      fluoroquinolones (FQs) including ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, lomefloxacin,
      norfloxacin, and ofloxacin were investigated through batch experiments. The
      results indicate that FQs at a total concentration of 500MUg/L caused little
      inhibition of sludge bioactivity. Sorption was the primary removal pathway of FQs
      in the activated sludge process, followed by biodegradation, while hydrolysis and
      volatilization were negligible. FQ sorption on activated sludge was a reversible
      process governed by surface reaction. Henry and Freundlich models could describe
      the FQ sorption isotherms well in the concentration range of 100-300MUg/L.
      Thermodynamic parameters revealed that FQ sorption on activated sludge is
      spontaneous, exothermic, and enthalpy-driven. Hydrophobicity-independent
      mechanisms determined the FQ sorption affinity with activated sludge. The
      zwitterion of FQs had the strongest sorption affinity, followed by cation and
      anion, and aerobic condition facilitated FQ sorption. FQs were slowly
      biodegradable, with long half-lives (>100hr). FQ biodegradation was enhanced with
      increasing temperature and under aerobic condition, and thus was possibly
      achieved through co-metabolism during nitrification. This study provides an
      insight into the removal kinetics and mechanism of FQs in the activated sludge
      process, but also helps assess the environmental risks of FQs resulting from
      sludge disposal.

PMID- 28571864
TI  - Inhibition effects of perfluoroalkyl acids on progesterone production in mLTC-1.
AB  - Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of fluorine substituted carboxylic
      acid, sulfonic acid and alcohol, structurally similar to their corresponding
      parent compounds. Previous study demonstrated the potential endocrine disruption
      and reproductive toxicity of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic
      acid, two dominant PFASs in animals and humans. We explored the relationship
      between eleven perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) with different carbon chain length
      and their ability to inhibit progesterone production in mouse Leydig tumor cells
      (mLTC-1). We found an obvious dose-response relationship between progesterone
      inhibition rate and PFAA exposure concentration in mLTC-1. The relative
      inhibition rate of progesterone by PFAAs was linearly related to the carbon chain
      length and molar refractivity of PFAAs. Mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP)
      decreased after PFAA exposure at the half-maximal inhibitory effect concentration
      (IC50) of progesterone production in mLTC-1, while the reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) content increased significantly. These results imply that the inhibition
      effect of PFAAs on progesterone production might be due, in part, to ROS damage
      and the decrease in MMP in mLTC-1.

PMID- 28571865
TI  - Mobilization of arsenic from contaminated sediment by anionic and nonionic
      surfactants.
AB  - The increasing manufacture of surfactants and their wide application in industry,
      agriculture and household detergents have resulted in large amounts of surfactant
      residuals being discharged into water and distributed into sediment. Surfactants
      have the potential to enhance arsenic mobility, leading to risks to the
      environment and even human beings. In this study, batch and column experiments
      were conducted to investigate arsenic mobilization from contaminated sediment by
      the commercial anionic surfactants sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), sodium
      dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sodium laureth sulfate (AES) and nonionic surfactants
      phenyl-polyethylene glycol (Triton X-100) and polyethylene glycol sorbitan
      monooleate (Tween-80). The ability of surfactants to mobilize arsenic followed
      the order AES>SDBS>SDS~Triton X-100>Tween 80. Arsenic mobilization by AES and
      Triton X-100 increased greatly with the increase of surfactant concentration and
      pH, while arsenic release by SDBS, SDS and Tween-80 slightly increased. The
      divalent ion Ca2+ caused greater reduction of arsenic mobilization than Na+.
      Sequential extraction experiments showed that the main fraction of arsenic
      mobilized was the specifically adsorbed fraction. Solid phase extraction showed
      that arsenate (As(V)) was the main species mobilized by surfactants, accounting
      for 65.05%-77.68% of the total mobilized arsenic. The mobilization of arsenic was
      positively correlated with the mobilization of iron species. The main fraction of
      mobilized arsenic was the dissolved fraction, accounting for 70% of total
      mobilized arsenic.

PMID- 28571866
TI  - The influence of environmental factors on the carbon dioxide flux across the
      water-air interface of reservoirs in south-eastern Poland.
AB  - Studies concerning the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) were carried out in 2009
      2012 for six reservoirs located in four provinces of south-eastern Poland. The
      CO2 flux across the water-air interface was measured using the "static chamber"
      method. The measured fluxes of CO2 (FCO2) ranged from -30.64 to
      183.78mmol/m2/day, and the average values varied in the range from -3.52 to
      82.11mmol/m2/day. In most of the cases, emission of CO2 to the atmosphere was
      observed. The obtained values of CO2 fluxes were comparable to values typical for
      other temperate reservoirs. Analysis of the influence of selected environmental
      factors on the FCO2 showed that it depends on parameters characterizing both the
      sediments and surface water. The CO2 flux at the water-air interface was
      positively correlated with parameters of bottom sediments such as porosity,
      content of organic carbon and total nitrogen; and negatively with pH value and
      delta13C of organic carbon. In the case of the parameters characterizing surface
      water, positive dependences on the concentrations of nitrate and total nitrogen,
      and negative relationships with water temperature and chlorophyll a
      concentrations, were found.

PMID- 28571867
TI  - Arsenic speciation in fish from Greek coastal areas.
AB  - Arsenic speciation analysis was conducted on fish samples (sardine and anchovy)
      collected from six areas along the Greek coastline, i.e. Artemisium Straits,
      Thermaikos Gulf, Amvrakikos Gulf, Strymonian Gulf, Thracian Sea, and Elefsina
      Gulf. Total arsenic levels ranging from 11.8 to 62.6mg As/kg dry weight were
      determined. Arsenobetaine, a non-toxic form of arsenic, was found to be the main
      arsenic species, present at 8.6 to 58.8mg As/kg dry weight, accounting for 67-95%
      of the total arsenic. Also detected in all fish samples was dimethylarsinic acid,
      although at considerably lower concentrations, ranging from 0.072-0.956mg As/kg
      dry weight. Monomethylarsonic acid was detected at low levels in all anchovy
      samples, and only in sardines from one area. Finally, inorganic arsenic in the
      form of arsenate was detected only in fish at one area, indicating the possible
      effect of an environmental parameter on its presence at detectable amounts.
      Statistical analysis revealed the environmental variables, such as salinity,
      total organic carbon and nitrogen, ammonium, phosphate, total phosphorus,
      dissolved oxygen and pressure index, are potentially correlated to As species
      concentrations. Furthermore, based on factor analysis, the biological parameters,
      such as fish weight, lipids, protein and ash content, that are correlated to As
      species concentrations of fish were also identified. The interrelationship of
      arsenobetaine and dimethylarsinic acid concentrations within each fish species
      was evaluated.

PMID- 28571868
TI  - Genotoxicity of drinking water treated with different disinfectants and effects
      of disinfection conditions detected by umu-test.
AB  - The genotoxicity of drinking water treated with 6 disinfection methods and the
      effects of disinfection conditions were investigated using the umu-test. The
      pretreatment procedure of samples for the umu-test was optimized for drinking
      water analysis. The results of the umu-test were in good correlation with those
      of the Ames-test. The genotoxicity and production of haloacetic acids (HAAs) were
      the highest for chlorinated samples. UV+chloramination is the safest disinfection
      method from the aspects of genotoxicity, HAA production and inactivation effects.
      For chloramination, the effects of the mass ratio of Cl2 to N of chloramine on
      genotoxicity were also studied. The changes of genotoxicity were different from
      those of HAA production, which implied that HAA production cannot represent the
      genotoxic potential of water. The genotoxicity per chlorine decay of chlorination
      and chloramination had similar trends, indicating that the reaction of organic
      matters and chlorine made a great contribution to the genotoxicity. The results
      of this study are of engineering significance for optimizing the operation of
      waterworks.

PMID- 28571869
TI  - Simulated reaction of formaldehyde and ambient atmospheric particulate matter
      using a chamber.
AB  - The reaction of HCHO with Beijing winter's real ambient particulate matter (PM)
      inside a 3.3m3 Teflon Chamber was conducted in this study. NO2, O3 and H2O gases
      were removed from the ambient aerosol before entering into the chamber. The
      decays of HCHO were monitored (acetylacetone spectrophotometry method) during the
      reactions at different PM number concentrations (Na) and relative humidities
      (RHs), and the formed particulate formate was detected by IC and XPS techniques.
      The results showed that when RH was 10%-15%, the decay rate of HCHO in the
      chamber was higher with the existence of PM from relatively clean days (with
      number concentration (Na)<200,000particle/L, 0.35-22.5MUm) compared to dirty days
      (Na>200,000particle/L, 0.35-22.5MUm). When RH increased to 30%-45%, PM can hardly
      have significant influences on the decay of HCHO. The formations of formate on
      the reacted PM were consistent with the HCHO decay rates at different ambient PM
      Na and RH conditions. This is a first study related to the "real" ambient PM
      reacted with HCHO and suggested that in the clean and low RH days, PM could be an
      effective medium for the conversion of HCHO to formate.

PMID- 28571870
TI  - Numerical simulation study on air quality in aircraft cabins.
AB  - Air pollution is one of the main factors that affect the air quality in aircraft
      cabins, and the use of different air supply modes could influence the
      distribution of air pollutants in cabins. Based on the traditional ceiling air
      supply mode used on the B737NG, this study investigated another 3 different kinds
      of air supply modes for comparison: luggage rack air supply mode, joint mode
      combining ceiling and luggage rack air supply, and joint mode combining ceiling
      and individual air supply. Under the above 4 air supply modes, the air velocity,
      temperature and distribution of air pollutants in a cabin full of passengers were
      studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and carbon dioxide (CO2) and
      formaldehyde were selected as 2 kinds of representative air pollutants. The
      simulation results show that the joint mode combining ceiling and individual air
      supply can create a more uniform distribution of air velocity and temperature,
      has a better effect on the removal of CO2 and formaldehyde, and can provide
      better air quality in cabins than the other 3 modes.

PMID- 28571871
TI  - Case study of dust event sources from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts: An
      investigation of the horizontal evolution and topographical effect using
      numerical modeling and remote sensing.
AB  - A severe dust event occurred from April 23 to April 27, 2014, in East Asia. A
      state-of-the-art online atmospheric chemistry model, WRF/Chem, was combined with
      a dust model, GOCART, to better understand the entire process of this event. The
      natural color images and aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the dust source region
      are derived from datasets of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer
      (MODIS) loaded on a NASA Aqua satellite to trace the dust variation and to verify
      the model results. Several meteorological conditions, such as pressure,
      temperature, wind vectors and relative humidity, are used to analyze
      meteorological dynamic. The results suggest that the dust emission occurred only
      on April 23 and 24, although this event lasted for 5days. The Gobi Desert was the
      main source for this event, and the Taklamakan Desert played no important role.
      This study also suggested that the landform of the source region could remarkably
      interfere with a dust event. The Tarim Basin has a topographical effect as a
      "dust reservoir" and can store unsettled dust, which can be released again as a
      second source, making a dust event longer and heavier.

PMID- 28571872
TI  - Achieving partial nitrification by inhibiting the activity of Nitrospira-like
      bacteria under high-DO conditions in an intermittent aeration reactor.
AB  - It is generally accepted that a low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is more
      beneficial for achieving partial nitrification than high-DO. In this study,
      partial nitrification was not established under low-DO conditions in an
      intermittent aeration reactor for treating domestic wastewater. During the
      operational period of low-DO conditions (DO: 0.3+/-0.14mg/L), stable complete
      nitrification was observed. The abundance of Nitrospira-like bacteria, which were
      the major nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, increased from 1.03*106 to
      2.64*106cells/mL. At the end of the low-DO period, the batch tests showed that
      high-DO concentration (1.5, 2.0mg/L) could inhibit nitrite oxidation, and enhance
      ammonia oxidation. After switching to the high-DO period (1.8+/-0.32mg/L),
      partial nitrification was gradually achieved. Nitrospira decreased from 2.64*106
      to 8.85*105cells/mL. It was found that suddenly switching to a high-DO condition
      could inhibit the activity and abundance of Nitrospira-like bacteria, resulting
      in partial nitrification.

PMID- 28571873
TI  - Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles by Trichoderma sp. WL-Go for azo dyes
      decolorization.
AB  - Developing an eco-friendly approach for metallic nanoparticles synthesis is
      important in current nanotechnology research. In this study, green synthesis of
      gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was carried out by a newly isolated strain Trichoderma
      sp. WL-Go. UV-vis spectra of AuNPs showed a surface plasmon resonance peak at
      550nm, and transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the AuNPs were
      of varied shape with well dispersibility. The optimal conditions for AuNPs
      synthesis were HAuCl4 1.0mmol/L, biomass 0.5g and pH7-11. Moreover, the bio-AuNPs
      could efficiently catalyze the decolorization of various azo dyes. This research
      provided a new microbial resource candidate for green synthesis of AuNPs and
      demonstrated the potential application of bio-AuNPs for azo dye decolorization.

PMID- 28571874
TI  - Organic ligand-induced dissolution kinetics of antimony trioxide.
AB  - The influence of low-molecular-weight dissolved organic matter (LMWDOM) on the
      dissolution rate of Sb2O3 was investigated. Some representative LMWDOMs with
      carboxyl, hydroxyl, hydrosulfuryl and amidogen groups occurring naturally in the
      solution were chosen, namely oxalic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, EDTA,
      salicylic acid, phthalandione, glycine, thiolactic acid, xylitol, glucose and
      catechol. These LMWDOMs were dissolved in inert buffers at pH=3.7, 6.6 and 8.6
      and added to powdered Sb2O3 in a stirred, thermostatted reactor (25 degrees C).
      The addition of EDTA, tartaric acid, thiolactic acid, citric acid and oxalic acid
      solutions at pH3.7 and catechol at pH8.6 increased the rate of release of
      antimony. In the 10mmol/L thiolactic acid solution, up to 97% by mass of the
      antimony was released after 120min reaction. There was no effect on the
      dissolution of Sb2O3 for the other ligands. A weak correlation between
      dissolution rate with the dissociation constant of ligands and the stability of
      the dissolved complex was also found. All the results showed that the extent of
      the promoting effect of ligands on the dissolution of Sb2O3 was not determined by
      the stability of the dissolved complex, but by the dissociation constant of
      ligands and detachment rate of surface chelates from the mineral surface. This
      study can not only help in further understanding the effect of individual low
      molecular-weight organic ligands, but also provides a reference to deduce the
      effect of natural organic matters with oxygen-bearing functional groups on the
      dissolution of antimony oxide minerals.

PMID- 28571875
TI  - Structure and flow calculation of cake layer on microfiltration membranes.
AB  - Submerged membrane bioreactors (SMBR) are widely used in wastewater treatment.
      The permeability of a membrane declines rapidly because of the formation of a
      cake layer on the membrane surface. In this paper, a multiple staining protocol
      was conducted to probe the four major foulants in the cake layer formed on a
      filtration membrane. Fluorescent images of the foulants were obtained using a
      confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). The three dimensional structure of the
      cake layer was reconstructed, and the internal flow was calculated using
      computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Simulation results agreed well with the
      experimental data on the permeability of the cake layer during filtration and
      showed better accuracy than the calculation by Kozeny-Carman method. beta-d
      Glucopyranose polysaccharides and proteins are the two main foulants with
      relatively large volume fractions, while alpha-d-glucopyranose polysaccharides
      and nucleic acids have relatively large specific surface areas. The fast growth
      of beta-d-glucopyranose polysaccharides in the volume fraction is mainly
      responsible for the increase in cake volume fraction and the decrease in
      permeability. The specific area, or the aggregation/dispersion of foulants, is
      less important to its permeability compared to its volume fraction.

PMID- 28571876
TI  - Experience-induced transgenerational (re-)programming of neuronal structure and
      functions: Impact of stress prior and during pregnancy.
AB  - This review focuses on the inter- and transgenerational effects of stress
      experience prior to and during gestation. We provide an overview of findings from
      studies in humans as well as in animal models on brain structural and
      physiological functions and on the development of cognitive and executive
      functions. We also discuss the concept of stress-induced (re-)programming in more
      detail by highlighting epigenetic mechanisms and particularly those affecting the
      development of monoaminergic transmitter systems, which constitute the brains
      reward system. As the majority of studies have focused on male individuals we
      will emphasize sex-specific differences in stress vulnerability and resilience.
      Finally, we offer some perspectives on the development of protective and
      therapeutic interventions in cognitive and emotional disturbances resulting from
      pre-conception and prenatal stress.

PMID- 28571878
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor: Prevalence of vestibular and balance disorders
      in children and adolescents according to age category: A multi-center study in
      Korea.

PMID- 28571879
TI  - Letter to the Editor, regarding the article: "Prevalence of vestibular and
      balance disorders in children and adolescents according to age: A multi-centre
      study" (2017; 94: 36-39).

PMID- 28571877
TI  - Shaping vulnerability to addiction - the contribution of behavior, neural
      circuits and molecular mechanisms.
AB  - Substance use disorders continue to impose increasing medical, financial and
      emotional burdens on society in the form of morbidity and overdose, family
      disintegration, loss of employment and crime, while advances in prevention and
      treatment options remain limited. Importantly, not all individuals exposed to
      abused substances effectively develop the disease. Genetic factors play a
      significant role in determining addiction vulnerability and interactions between
      innate predisposition, environmental factors and personal experiences are also
      critical. Thus, understanding individual differences that contribute to the
      initiation of substance use as well as on long-term maladaptations driving
      compulsive drug use and relapse propensity is of critical importance to reduce
      this devastating disorder. In this paper, we discuss current topics in the field
      of addiction regarding individual vulnerability related to behavioral
      endophenotypes, neural circuits, as well as genetics and epigenetic mechanisms.
      Expanded knowledge of these factors is of importance to improve and personalize
      prevention and treatment interventions in the future.

PMID- 28571880
TI  - alpha-Tocopherol, especially alpha-tocopherol phosphate, exerts antiapoptotic and
      angiogenic effects on rat bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells under
      high-glucose and hypoxia conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Considering the poor efficacy of local intramuscular injections with
      endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for critical limb ischemia in patients with
      diabetes, the study aimed to investigate the effect of alpha-tocopherol (alpha-T)
      and alpha-tocopherol phosphate (alpha-TP) on apoptosis and angiogenesis in a rat
      model under oxidative stress conditions. METHODS: Primary EPCs from Sprague
      Dawley rats were harvested and treated with alpha-T and alpha-TP for 24 hours.
      Gene transcription and protein expression were evaluated by real-time polymerase
      chain reaction and Western blot, respectively. Cell apoptosis, migration, and
      tube formation ability were detected by flow cytometry, Transwell assay (Chemicon
      International, Temecula, Calif), and Matrigel-based angiogenesis assay (Corning
      Inc, Corning, NY). The in vivo experiments were carried out using 30 single hind
      limb ischemic models of diabetic rats that were treated with allogeneic EPCs.
      Capillary density was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: alpha-T and
      alpha-TP attenuated high glucose/hypoxia-induced cell apoptosis by promoting Bcl
      2 and Akt and inhibiting nuclear factor kappaB p65, JNK, Notch-1, and p38MAPK
      genes. Furthermore, alpha-T and alpha-TP promoted the transcription and
      expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 and decreased the
      transcription and expression of Tie-2 and Notch-1 in EPCs under high
      glucose/hypoxic conditions. Moreover, alpha-T and especially alpha-TP enhanced
      the migratory activity of EPCs under high-glucose/hypoxic conditions. Capillary
      density of ischemic hind limbs was increased on day 14 after administration of
      EPCs pretreated with alpha-T and alpha-TP. CONCLUSIONS: alpha-T, especially alpha
      TP, possesses therapeutic potential in the inhibition of apoptosis and increases
      the migratory capacity of EPCs under high-glucose/hypoxic conditions. It promotes
      angiogenesis by upregulating Bcl-2, Akt, and vascular endothelial growth factor
      receptor 2 and decreasing nuclear factor kappaB p65, p38MAPK, Notch-1, JNK, and
      Tie-2.

PMID- 28571881
TI  - Radial artery access for peripheral endovascular procedures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The radial artery is often used for coronary angiography, with a
      demonstrated decrease in local complications and an increase in postoperative
      mobility of the patient. Data on radial artery access for peripheral endovascular
      procedures, however, are limited. We describe our experience with radial artery
      access for diagnostic and endovascular interventions. METHODS: Between February
      2012 and March 2015, there were 95 endovascular procedures performed using radial
      artery access in 80 unique patients. Demographic and clinical data were recorded.
      Perioperative, postoperative, and 30-day follow-up data were evaluated
      retrospectively for major and minor complications. Major adverse events included
      any immediate hospitalization admission, stroke, hand amputation, bleeding
      requiring transfusion, hematoma requiring surgery, and death. Minor complications
      included superficial bleeding and hematoma. RESULTS: The patients (52.6% male,
      47.4% female) had a mean age of 72.1 +/- 9.4 years. Radial artery access was used
      for diagnostic purposes in 15.8% of all procedures and for therapeutic
      intervention, including angioplasty and stenting, in 84.2%. The radial artery was
      the only access point in 80% of patients and was accessed in conjunction with
      other sites in 20%. Percutaneous access was achieved in 100% of patients with a
      100% technical success rate. Hemostasis after catheterization was achieved by
      manual compression (22.1%) and TR band (Terumo Medical, Tokyo, Japan; 77.9%).
      Major adverse events occurred in three cases (3.2%) and were unrelated to radial
      artery access. Radial artery access site-related complications occurred in three
      cases (3.2%), all of which were minor hematomas that required no treatment. The
      risk of radial artery complication was not associated with procedure type,
      vessels treated, or use of heparin. The incidence of stroke, hand ischemia, and
      upper extremity limb or finger loss was 0%. CONCLUSIONS: Radial artery access for
      peripheral endovascular procedures appears to be safe and effective and should be
      considered more often. Complication rates are lower than those reported for
      femoral artery access.

PMID- 28571882
TI  - Re: Sungmin Woo, Chong Hyun Suh, Sang Youn Kim, Jeong Yeon Cho, Seung Hyup Kim.
      Diagnostic Performance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for the Detection of Bone
      Metastasis in Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Eur Urol.
      In press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2017.03.042.

PMID- 28571883
TI  - Reply from Authors re: Girish S. Kulkarni, Zachary Klaassen. Trimodal Therapy is
      Inferior to Radical Cystectomy for Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer using
      Population-level Data: Is There Evidence in the (Lack of) Details? Eur Urol
      2017;72:488-9: Using the National Cancer Data Base to Compare Treatment
      Modalities for Localized Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.

PMID- 28571884
TI  - Prediction is "Still" Difficult when it is About the Past.

PMID- 28571885
TI  - Value of Prostate Cancer Care: New Information on New Therapies Suggest Less is
      More.

PMID- 28571886
TI  - Re: Thomas Powles, Robert A. Huddart, Tony Elliott, et al. Phase III, Double
      blind, Randomized Trial that Compared Maintenance Lapatinib versus Placebo after
      First-line Chemotherapy in Patients with Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor
      1/2-positive Metastatic Bladder Cancer. J Clin Oncol 2017;35:48-55: Knowing HER2
      Status is Not Enough: A Molecular Subtype Approach to Bladder Cancer is Also
      Needed.

PMID- 28571888
TI  - Management of the airway through cervical faringostoma by radionecrosis.

PMID- 28571889
TI  - The interrelatedness between infants' communicative gestures and lexicon size: A
      longitudinal study.
AB  - Research has shown a close relationship between gestures and language
      development. In this study, we investigate the cross-lagged relationships between
      different types of gestures and two lexicon dimensions: number of words produced
      and comprehended. Information about gestures and lexical development was
      collected from 48 typically developing infants when these were aged 0;9, 1;0 and
      1;3. The European Portuguese version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative
      Development Inventory: Words and Gestures (PT CDI:WG) was used. The results
      indicated that the total number of actions and gestures and the number of early
      gestures produced at 0;9 and at 1;0 year predicted the number of words
      comprehended three months later. Actions and gestures' predictive power of the
      number of words produced was limited to the 0;9-1;0 year interval. The opposite
      relationship was not found: word comprehension and production did not predict
      action and gestures three months later. These results highlight the importance of
      non-verbal communicative behavior in language development.

PMID- 28571887
TI  - An evaluation of motion mitigation techniques for pancreatic SBRT.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ablative radiation therapy can be beneficial for
      pancreatic cancer, and motion mitigation helps to reduce dose to nearby organs-at
      risk. Here, we compared two competing methods of motion mitigation-abdominal
      compression and respiratory gating. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CBCT scans of 19
      pancreatic cancer patients receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy were
      acquired with and without abdominal compression, and 3D target motion was
      reconstructed from CBCT projection images. Daily target motion without mitigation
      was compared against motion with compression and with simulated respiratory
      gating. Gating was free-breathing and based on an external surrogate. Target
      coverage was also evaluated for each scenario by simulating reduced target
      margins. RESULTS: Without mitigation, average daily target motion in LR/AP/SI
      directions was 5.3, 7.3, and 13.9mm, respectively. With abdominal compression,
      these values were 5.2, 5.3, and 8.5mm, and with respiratory gating they were 3.2,
      3.9, and 5.5mm, respectively. Reductions with compression were significant in
      AP/SI directions, while reductions with gating were significant in all
      directions. Respiratory gating also demonstrated better coverage in the reduced
      margins scenario. CONCLUSION: Respiratory gating is the most effective strategy
      for reducing motion in pancreatic SBRT, and may allow for dose escalation through
      a reduction in target margin.

PMID- 28571890
TI  - A clinical method for quantification of tissue microvascular blood perfusion in
      absolute terms [blood-volume/(time.tissue-area)].
AB  - Fluorescence-mediated photoplethysmography (FM-PPG) was developed to facilitate
      determination of tissue microvascular (capillary) blood perfusion, requiring
      intra-venous injection of a small bolus (~0.33mL) of dye (25mg/mL ICG) and
      acquisition of high-speed angiogram images (>15images/s). The methodology is
      applicable to microvascular capillary beds of tissues that can be optically
      imaged, directly or laparoscopically. Proof of concept of the methodology and
      feasibility of its implementation are demonstrated in human forearm skin and in
      the choroid of a monkey eye, determined to have blood perfusion rates on the
      order of 1e-5mL/(s.mm2) and 10e-5mL/(s.mm2), respectively. Ability to obtain
      absolute quantified tissue perfusion data ultimately can provide the means by
      which to characterize blood flow information at the nutritive capillary-vessel
      level in an objective and universally understood manner, in much the same sense
      that body temperature or blood pressure are.

PMID- 28571892
TI  - LPE-1, an orally active pyrimidine derivative, inhibits growth and mobility of
      human esophageal cancers by targeting LSD1.
AB  - Histone lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) plays an important role in
      epigenetic modifications, and aberrant expression of LSD1 predicts tumor
      progression and poor prognosis in human esophageal cancers. In this study, a
      series of LSD1 inhibitors were synthesized and proved to be highly potent against
      human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Our data showed that these LSD1
      inhibitors selectively suppressed the viability of esophageal cancer cell line
      (EC-109) bearing overexpressed LSD1. Among these, compound LPE-1 (LSD1
      IC50=0.336+/-0.003MUM) significantly suppressed proliferation, induced apoptosis,
      arrested cell cycle of EC109 cells at G2/M phase, and caused changes of the
      associated protein markers correspondingly. We also found that compound LPE-1
      potently inhibited the migration and invasion of EC-109 cells. Docking studies
      showed that the cyano group formed hydrogen bonds with Val811 and Thr810.
      Additionally, the thiophene moiety formed arene-H interaction with Trp761
      residue. In vivo studies showed that compound LPE-1 inhibited tumor growth of
      xenograft models bearing EC-109 without obvious toxicity. Collectively, our
      findings indicate that LSD1 may be a potential therapeutic target in ESCC, and
      compound LPE-1 could serve as a lead compound for further development for anti
      ESCC drug discovery.

PMID- 28571893
TI  - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Cataract Risk: A Case-Control
      Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been
      associated with an increased cataract risk. We aimed to assess cataract risk
      after exposure to SSRI or to other antidepressant drugs in a large electronic
      primary care database. DESIGN: Case-control study. PARTICIPANTS: The study
      population was derived from the UK-based Clinical Practice Research Datalink
      (CPRD). We included patients with first-time cataract aged >=40 years between
      1995 and 2015 and an equal number of cataract-free controls matched on age, sex,
      general practice, date of cataract recording (i.e., index date), and years of
      history in the CPRD before the index date. METHODS: We conducted conditional
      logistic regression analyses adjusted for body mass index, smoking, hypertension,
      diabetes, and systemic steroid use. Exposure of interest was the number of SSRI
      prescriptions and prescriptions for other antidepressant drugs. We further
      explored mutually exclusive use of single SSRI substances. In sensitivity
      analyses, we shifted the index date backwards by 2 years, and we restricted our
      analyses to cases and controls without a prior glaucoma diagnosis. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Relative risk estimates as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs). RESULTS: We identified 206 931 cataract cases and the same
      number of matched controls. Current long-term use of SSRI (>=20 prescriptions)
      was not associated with an increased cataract risk (adjusted OR, 0.99; 95% CI,
      0.94-1.03). However, in a subset of patients aged 40 to 64 years, we found a
      slightly increased risk of cataract for long-term SSRI users (adjusted OR, 1.24;
      95% CI, 1.15-1.34) compared with nonusers. CONCLUSIONS: In these data, use of
      SSRI was not associated with an increased risk of cataract. The slightly
      increased OR for individuals younger than 65 years of age in association with
      long-term SSRI use needs to be investigated in further studies.

PMID- 28571894
TI  - ZIKA virus: A new threat to the eyes.

PMID- 28571895
TI  - Timing of syncope during blood sampling - The Maastricht Study.

PMID- 28571896
TI  - [Short-term relevance of lower respiratory viral coinfection in inpatients under
      2 years of age].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Advances in molecular diagnosis have made it possible to detect
      previously unknown viral agents as causative agents of lower respiratory tract
      infections (LRTI). The frequency and relevance of viral coinfections is still
      debatable. OBJECTIVE: compare clinical presentation and severity between single
      virus infection and viral coinfection in children admitted for LRTI. METHODS: A 3
      year period observational study (2012-2015) included children younger than two
      years admitted for LRTI. Viral identification was performed using PCR technique
      for 16 viruses. Clinical data and use of health resources was gathered during
      hospital stay using a standard collection form and we compared single virus
      infection and viral coinfections. RESULTS: The study included 524 samples (451
      patients); 448 (85,5%) had at least one virus identified. Viral coinfections were
      found in 159 (35,5%). RSV and HRV were the most commonly identified virus;
      bronchiolitis and pneumonia the most frequent diagnosis. Patients with viral
      coinfections were older, attended day-care centers, had previous recurrent
      wheezing more frequently and were more symptomatic at admission. These patients
      did not have more complementary exams performed but were prescribed medications
      more often. Viral coinfection group did not show longer length of hospital stay
      and oxygen need, more need for ICU nor ventilatory support. DISCUSSION: Our study
      showed a significant proportion of viral coinfections in young infants admitted
      with LRTI and confirmed previous data showing that prescription was more frequent
      in inpatients with viral coinfections, without an association with worst clinical
      outcome.

PMID- 28571897
TI  - [Implication of a national outbreak of Serratia marcescens associated with a
      contaminated solution of chlorhexidine in a paediatric hospital].

PMID- 28571891
TI  - Renin angiotensin aldosterone inhibition in the treatment of cardiovascular
      disease.
AB  - A collective century of discoveries establishes the importance of the renin
      angiotensin aldosterone system in maintaining blood pressure, fluid volume and
      electrolyte homeostasis via autocrine, paracrine and endocrine signaling. While
      research continues to yield new functions of angiotensin II and angiotensin-(1
      7), the gap between basic research and clinical application of these new findings
      is widening. As data accumulates on the efficacy of angiotensin converting enzyme
      inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers as drugs of fundamental
      importance in the treatment of cardiovascular and renal disorders, it is becoming
      apparent that the achieved clinical benefits is suboptimal and surprisingly no
      different than what can be achieved with other therapeutic interventions. We
      discuss this issue and summarize new pathways and mechanisms effecting the
      synthesis and actions of angiotensin II. The presence of renin-independent non
      canonical pathways for angiotensin II production are largely unaffected by agents
      inhibiting renin angiotensin system activity. Hence, new efforts should be
      directed to develop drugs that can effectively block the synthesis and/or action
      of intracellular angiotensin II. Improved drug penetration into cardiac or renal
      sites of disease, inhibiting chymase the primary angiotensin II forming enzyme in
      the human heart, and/or inhibiting angiotensinogen synthesis would all be more
      effective strategies to inhibit the system. Additionally, given the role of
      angiotensin II in the maintenance of renal homeostatic mechanisms, any new
      inhibitor should possess greater selectivity of targeting pathogenic angiotensin
      II signaling processes and thereby limit inappropriate inhibition.

PMID- 28571898
TI  - [Recommendations for respiratory support in the newborn (IV). High frequency
      ventilation, ex-utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT), extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation (ECMO)].
AB  - The recommendations included in this document will be part a series of updated
      reviews of the literature on respiratory support in the newborn infant. These
      recommendations are structured into 12 modules, and in this work module 8 is
      presented. Each module is the result of a consensus process amongst all members
      of the Surfactant and Respiratory Group of the Spanish Society of Neonatology.
      They represent a summary of the published papers on each specific topic, as well
      as the clinical experience of each one of the members of the group.

PMID- 28571901
TI  - How can we identify patients with delirium in the emergency department?: A review
      of available screening and diagnostic tools.
AB  - Delirium is a widespread and serious but under-recognized problem. Increasing
      evidence argues that emergency health care providers need to assess the mental
      status of the patient as the "sixth vital sign". A simple, sensitive, time
      efficient, and cost-effective tool is needed to identify delirium in patients in
      the emergency department (ED); however, a stand-alone measurement has not yet
      been established despite previous studies partly because the differential
      diagnosis of dementia and delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) is too
      difficult to achieve using a single indicator. To fill up the gap, multiple
      aspects of a case should be assessed including inattention and arousal. For
      instance, we proposed the 100 countdown test as an effective means of detecting
      inattention. Further dedicated studies are warranted to shed light on the
      pathophysiology and better management of dementia, delirium and/or "altered
      mental status". We reviewed herein the clinical questions and controversies
      concerning delirium in an ED setting.

PMID- 28571899
TI  - Genetic strategies to analyze primary TRP channel-expressing cells in mice.
AB  - Transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels regulate fundamental biological
      processes throughout the body. TRP channel dysfunction has been causally linked
      to a number of disease states and thus establishes these channels as promising
      therapeutic targets. In order to dissect the physiological role of individual TRP
      channels in specific tissues, a detailed understanding of the expression pattern
      of the different TRP channels throughout the organism is essential. We provide an
      overview of recent efforts to generate novel TRP channel reporter mouse strains
      for all 28 TRP channels encoded in the mouse genome to understand expression of
      these channels with a single-cell resolution in an organism-wide manner. The
      reporter mice will enable both the visualization and manipulation of all primary
      TRP channel-expressing cells allowing an unprecedented wealth in variety to
      investigate TRP channel function in vivo. As proof of principle, we provide
      preliminary results documenting TRPM5 expression throughout the entire body of
      juvenile and adult mice.

PMID- 28571902
TI  - Purtscher-like retinopathy associated with dermatomyositis and hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis.
AB  - CASE REPORT: An 11 year-old girl with progressive muscle weakness due to
      dermatomyositis and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in which multiple cotton
      exudates, venous tortuosity and flame haemorrhages are detected in the
      funduscopic examination, leading to the diagnosis of Purtscher-like retinopathy.
      DISCUSSION: Purstcher's retinopathy is a microvascular disorder with clinical
      signs of probable thrombotic origin. Its treatment is controversial, with
      systemic corticosteroids being the most widespread choice.

PMID- 28571903
TI  - Next generation sequencing in the diagnosis of Stargardt's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stargardt's disease is the most frequent form of inherited macular
      dystrophy in children and adults. It is a genetic eye disorder caused by
      mutations in ABCA4 gene with an autosomal recessive inheritance. ABCA4 is a very
      polymorphic and large gene containing 50 exons. The development of next
      generation sequencing (NGS) can be used for the genetic diagnosis of this
      disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A report is presented on two patients with a
      clinical diagnosis of Stargardt's disease whose genetic confirmation was
      performed by a NGS panel of 298 genes. RESULTS: Clinically, the patients showed
      bull's eye maculopathy and absence of flecks, and genetically they shared the
      Gly1961Glu mutation that could explain their common phenotype, together with
      c.C3056T:p.T1019M for case 1, and c.287del:p.Asn96Thrfs*19 for case 2.
      CONCLUSIONS: NGS is particularly useful in the diagnosis of Stargardt's disease
      as ABCA4 is a large gene with a high allelic heterogeneity that causes a wide
      range of clinical manifestations.

PMID- 28571900
TI  - Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The
      role of acute and chronic discrimination.
AB  - Racial disparities in health tend to be more pronounced at the upper ends of the
      socioeconomic (SES) spectrum. Despite having access to above average social and
      economic resources, nonpoor African Americans and Latinos report significantly
      worse health compared to nonpoor Whites. We combine data from the parents and
      children of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to address
      two specific research aims. First, we generate longitudinal SES trajectories over
      a 33-year period to estimate the extent to which socioeconomic mobility is
      associated with exposure to discrimination (acute and chronic) across different
      racial/ethnic groups (nonHispanic Whites, nonHispanic Blacks, and Hispanics).
      Then we determine if the disparate relationship between SES and self-rated health
      across these groups can be accounted for by more frequent exposure to unfair
      treatment. For Whites, moderate income gains over time result in significantly
      less exposure to both acute and chronic discrimination. Upwardly mobile African
      Americans and Hispanics, however, were significantly more likely to experience
      acute and chronic discrimination, respectively, than their socioeconomically
      stable counterparts. We also find that differential exposure to unfair treatment
      explains a substantial proportion of the Black/White, but not the Hispanic/White,
      gap in self-rated health among this nationally representative sample of upwardly
      mobile young adults. The current study adds to the debate that the shape of the
      SES/health gradient differs, in important ways, across race and provides
      empirical support for the diminishing health returns hypothesis for racial/ethnic
      minorities.

PMID- 28571904
TI  - Co-delivery of evodiamine and rutaecarpine in a microemulsion-based hyaluronic
      acid hydrogel for enhanced analgesic effects on mouse pain models.
AB  - The aim of this study was to improve the analgesic effect of evodiamine and
      rutaecarpine, using a microemulsion-based hydrogel (ME-Gel) as the transdermal co
      delivery vehicle, and to assess hyaluronic acid as a hydrogel matrix for
      microemulsion entrapment. A microemulsion was formulated with ethyl oleate as the
      oil core to improve the solubility of the alkaloids and was loaded into a
      hyaluronic acid-structured hydrogel. Permeation-enhancing effects of the
      microemulsion enabled evodiamine and rutaecarpine in ME-Gel to achieve 2.60- and
      2.59-fold higher transdermal fluxes compared with hydrogel control (p<0.01). The
      hyaluronic acid hydrogel-containing microemulsion exhibited good skin
      biocompatibility, whereas effective ME-Gel co-delivery of evodiamine and
      rutaecarpine through the skin enhanced the analgesic effect in mouse pain models
      compared with hydrogel. Notably, evodiamine and rutaecarpine administered using
      ME-Gel effectively down-regulated serum levels of prostaglandin E2, interleukin
      6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha in formaldehyde-induced mouse pain models,
      possibly reflecting the improved transdermal permeability of ME-Gel co-delivered
      evodiamine and rutaecarpine, particularly with hyaluronic acid as the hydrogel
      matrix.

PMID- 28571905
TI  - Extremely small-sized globular poly(ethylene glycol)-cyclic RGD conjugates
      targeting integrin alphavbeta3 in tumor cells.
AB  - In this study, we report an extremely small-sized globular poly(ethylene glycol)
      (gPEG) conjugated with cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (cRGD) peptide and
      chlorin e6 (Ce6). This nanoparticle design takes advantage of the biocompatible
      functional gPEG (3-4nm in diameter) as an extremely small-sized drug carrier, the
      tumor targeting ability of cRGD, and the photodynamic tumor ablation ability of
      Ce6. We found that gPEG conjugated with cRGD and Ce6 (cRGD-gPEG-Ce6) exhibited
      much higher phototoxicity in SKOV-3 tumor cells (which have a very high density
      of integrin alphavbeta3 receptors) than in KB cells (which have a very low
      density of integrin alphavbeta3 receptors). Accordingly, cRGD-gPEG-Ce6 treatment
      resulted in a significant regression of in vivo SKOV-3 tumors, highlighting the
      potential of an extremely small-sized drug carrier platform for site-specific
      receptor-mediated tumor therapy.

PMID- 28571906
TI  - Limited Utility of Pulmonary Nodule Risk Calculators for Managing Large Nodules.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The optimal management of large pulmonary nodules, at
      higher risk for lung cancer, has not been determined, and it remains unclear as
      to which patients should undergo follow-up imaging vs invasive tissue diagnosis
      via biopsy or surgical resection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Through search of
      radiology reports, 86 nodules from our institution were identified using the
      inclusion criterion of solid nodules measuring greater than 8mm. We evaluated
      these nodules with a number of risk prediction calculators, including the Brock
      University model, and compared these against the proven diagnosis. RESULTS: Of 86
      nodules, 59 (69%) nodules were malignant. The most accurate predictive model, the
      Brock University calculator, underestimated the risk for this group at 33%. At
      its optimal threshold, this model had a positive predictive value of 81% and
      negative predictive value of 53%. Notwithstanding the low negative predictive
      value, the positive predictive value was no better than patients clinically
      selected for biopsy (86% of biopsies were malignant). CONCLUSION: Existing nodule
      risk prediction calculators are of limited usage in guiding the management of
      large pulmonary nodules. At present, the accuracy of these models in this setting
      is inferior to expert clinical judgment, and future work is needed to develop
      management algorithms for higher-risk nodules.

PMID- 28571907
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation of Urothelial Cell Carcinoma:
      Histopathological Correlation, Staging, and Treatment Planning.

PMID- 28571908
TI  - The sFlt-1/PlGF ratio as a predictor for poor pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase receptor-1 (sFlt-1)/placental growth
      factor (PlGF) ratio has been studied extensively as a predictive marker for pre
      eclampsia. However, its usefulness for predicting neonatal outcomes remains
      unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the association of sFlt-1/PlGF ratio with
      pregnancy outcomes, neonatal morbidities and short-term postnatal growth patterns
      in pregnant women and their babies. METHODS: sFlt-1 and PlGF were measured in
      women with fetal intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) or pre-eclampsia during
      gestational age (GA) of 16-36 weeks. These women were classified into high- and
      low-ratio groups with a sFlt-1/PlGF cut-off ratio of 85. The maternal and
      neonatal outcomes were retrospectively reviewed and compared between the two
      groups. RESULTS: A total of 25 pregnant women were recruited. Thirteen of them
      had a sFlt-1/PlGF ratio over 85 and twelve had a ratio of less than 85. The
      median duration from elevation of sFlt-1/PlGF to delivery was 4.5 weeks. Women in
      the high SFlt-1/PlGF ratio group had higher rates of intrauterine fetal demise
      (2/13 vs. 0/12) and early termination (1/13 vs. 0/12). The surviving offspring in
      this group had a higher incidence of preterm birth (GA: 31.4 +/- 2.9 weeks vs.
      37.3 +/- 1.3 weeks, p < 0.001), lower birth weight (1142 +/- 472 g vs. 2311 +/-
      236 g, p < 0.001), higher incidence of respiratory distress syndrome (6/10 vs.
      0/12, p = 0.002) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (4/10 vs. 0/12, p = 0.01).
      However, the percentile of body weight, height and head circumference at 28 days
      of age, 56 days of age and the corrected age of 6 months were comparable between
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: High sFlt-1/PlGF ratio in pregnant women is associated with
      poor pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. Therefore, the monitoring of sFlt-1/PlGF
      ratio in pregnant women with fetal IUGR and timely management for placenta
      associated diseases are recommended.

PMID- 28571909
TI  - The presence of contaminations in sewage sludge - The current situation.
AB  - Sewage sludge/biosolids are by-wastes of municipal and industrial wastewater
      treatment. As sources of nutrients (C, N, P) they are widely used in intensive
      farming where large supplementation of organic matter to maintain fertility and
      enhance crop yields is needed. However, according to the report of European
      Commission published in 2010, only 39% of produced sewage sludge is recycled into
      agriculture in the European Union. This situation occurs mainly due to the fact,
      that the sewage sludge may contain a dangerous volume of different contaminants.
      For over decades, a great deal of attention has been focused on total
      concentration of few heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria Salmonella and
      Escherichia coli. The Sewage Sludge Directive (86/278/EEC) regulates the
      allowable limits of Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr and Hg and pathogens and allows for
      recovery of sludge on land under defined sanitary and environmentally sound
      conditions. In this paper, a review on quality of sewage sludge based on the
      publications after 2010 has been presented. Nowadays there are several papers
      focusing on new serious threats to human health and ecosystem occurring in sewage
      sludge - both chemicals (such as toxic trace elements - Se, Ag, Ti;
      nanoparticles; polyaromatic hydrocarbons; polychlorinated biphenyl;
      perfluorinated surfactants, polycyclic musks, siloxanes, pesticides, phenols,
      sweeteners, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, benzotriazoles) and
      biological traits (Legionella, Yersinia, Escherichia coli O157:H7).

PMID- 28571911
TI  - A spotlight on intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring of the lower
      brainstem.

PMID- 28571910
TI  - Alzheimer's disease disrupts alpha and beta-band resting-state oscillatory
      network connectivity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neuroimaging studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) yield conflicting
      results due to selective investigation. We conducted a comprehensive
      magnetoencephalography study of connectivity changes in AD and healthy ageing in
      the resting-state. METHODS: We performed a whole-brain, source-space assessment
      of oscillatory neural signalling in multiple frequencies comparing AD patients,
      elderly and young controls. We compared eyes-open and closed group oscillatory
      envelope activity in networks obtained through temporal independent component
      analysis, and calculated whole-brain node-based amplitude and phase connectivity.
      RESULTS: In bilateral parietotemporal areas, oscillatory envelope amplitude
      increased with healthy ageing, whereas both local amplitude and node-to-global
      connectivity decreased with AD. AD-related decreases were spatially specific and
      restricted to the alpha and beta bands. A significant proportion of the variance
      in areas of peak group difference was explained by cognitive integrity, in
      addition to group. None of the groups differed in phase connectivity. Results
      were highly similar for eyes-open and closed resting-state. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results support the disconnection syndrome hypothesis and suggest that AD shows
      distinct and unique patterns of disrupted neural functioning, rather than
      accelerated healthy ageing. SIGNIFICANCE: Whole-brain assessments show that
      disrupted regional oscillatory envelope amplitude and connectivity in the alpha
      and beta bands play a key role in AD.

PMID- 28571912
TI  - "Influence of possible predictor variables on the outcome of primary oral
      squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study of 392 consecutive cases at a
      single centre"- methodological issues.

PMID- 28571913
TI  - Multidisciplinary design and analytic approaches to advance prospective research
      on the multilevel determinants of child health.
AB  - PURPOSE: Characterizing the determinants of child health and development over
      time, and identifying the mechanisms by which these determinants operate, is a
      research priority. The growth of precision medicine has increased awareness and
      refinement of conceptual frameworks, data management systems, and analytic
      methods for multilevel data. This article reviews key methodological challenges
      in cohort studies designed to investigate multilevel influences on child health
      and strategies to address them. METHODS: We review and summarize methodological
      challenges that could undermine prospective studies of the multilevel
      determinants of child health and ways to address them, borrowing approaches from
      the social and behavioral sciences. RESULTS: Nested data, variation in intervals
      of data collection and assessment, missing data, construct measurement across
      development and reporters, and unobserved population heterogeneity pose
      challenges in prospective multilevel cohort studies with children. We discuss
      innovations in missing data, innovations in person-oriented analyses, and
      innovations in multilevel modeling to address these challenges. CONCLUSIONS:
      Study design and analytic approaches that facilitate the integration across
      multiple levels, and that account for changes in people and the multiple,
      dynamic, nested systems in which they participate over time, are crucial to fully
      realize the promise of precision medicine for children and adolescents.

PMID- 28571915
TI  - 3D-spheroids: What can they tell us about pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell
      phenotype?
AB  - We aimed at analyzing the effect of the 3D-arrangement on the expression of some
      genes and proteins which play a key role in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC)
      progression in HPAF-II, HPAC and PL45 PDAC cells cultured in either 2D-monolayers
      or 3D-spheroids. Cytokeratins 7, 8, 18, 19 were differently expressed in 3D
      spheroids compared to 2D-monolayers. Syndecan 1 was upregulated in HPAF-II and
      PL45 3D-spheroids, and downregulated in HPAC. Heparanase mRNA levels were almost
      unchanged in HPAF-II, and increased in HPAC and PL45 3D-spheroids. Hyaluronan
      synthase (HAS) 2 and 3 mRNA increased in all 3D-spheroids compared to 2D
      monolayers. CD44 and CD44s were expressed to a lower extent in HPAF-II and HPAC
      3D-spheroids. By contrast, the CD44s/v3 and the CD44s/v6 ratio increased in HPAC
      and PL45 3D-spheroids, compared to 2D-monolayers. The expression of MMP-7 was
      strongly upregulated in 3D-spheroids. STAT3 was similarly expressed 3D-spheroids
      or 2D-monolayers, while pSTAT3 was almost undetectable in 2D-monolayers and
      strongly upregulated in 3D-spheroids. These results suggest that 3D-spheroids
      represent a cell culture model that allows the characterization of PDAC cell
      phenotype, adding new information that contributes to a better understanding of
      the biology and behavior of PDAC cells.

PMID- 28571914
TI  - Individual- and neighborhood-level contextual factors are associated with
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission: genotypic clustering of cases in
      Michigan, 2004-2012.
AB  - PURPOSE: Using genotyping data of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from new
      cases reported to the tuberculosis (TB) surveillance program, we evaluated risk
      factors for recent TB transmission at both the individual- and neighborhood-
      levels among U.S.-born and foreign-born populations. METHODS: TB cases (N = 1236)
      reported in Michigan during 2004 to 2012 were analyzed using multivariable
      Poisson regression models to examine risk factors for recent transmission cross
      sectionally for U.S.-born and foreign-born populations separately. Recent
      transmission was defined based on spoligotype and 12-locus-mycobacterial
      interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat typing matches of
      bacteria from cases that were diagnosed within 1 year of each other. Four classes
      of predictor variables were examined: demographic factors, known TB risk factors,
      clinical characteristics, and neighborhood-level factors. RESULTS: Overall, 22%
      of the foreign-born cases resulted from recent transmission. Among the foreign
      born, race and being a contact of an infectious TB case were significant
      predictors of recent transmission. More than half (52%) of U.S.-born cases
      resulted from recent transmission. Among the U.S.-born, recent transmission was
      predicted by both individual- and neighborhood-level sociodemographic
      characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions aimed at reducing TB incidence among
      foreign-born should focus on reducing reactivation of latent infection. However,
      reducing TB incidence among the U.S.-born will require decreasing transmission
      among socially disadvantaged groups at the individual- and neighborhood- levels.
      This report fills an important knowledge gap regarding the contemporary social
      context of TB in the United States, thereby providing a foundation for future
      studies of public health policies that can lead to the development of more
      targeted, effective TB control.

PMID- 28571916
TI  - A general ionic liquid pH-zone-refining countercurrent chromatography method for
      separation of alkaloids from Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.
AB  - The alkaloids from lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn) are effective in lowering
      hyperlipemia and level of cholesterol. However, there is not a general method for
      their separation. In this work, a general ionic liquid pH-zone-refining
      countercurrent chromatography method for isolation and purification of six
      alkaloids from the whole lotus plant was successfully established by using ionic
      liquids as the modifier of the two-phase solvent system. The conditions of ionic
      liquid pH-zone-refining countercurrent chromatography, involving solvent systems,
      concentration of retainer and eluter, types of ionic liquids, the content of
      ionic liquids as well as ionic liquids posttreatment, were optimized to improve
      extraction efficiency. Finally, the separation of these six alkaloids was
      performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate
      methanol-water-[C4mim][PF6] at a volume ratio of 5:2:2:8:0.1, where 10mM TEA was
      added to the organic stationary phase as a retainer and 3mM HCl was added to the
      aqueous mobile phase as an eluter. As a result, six alkaloids including N
      nornuciferine, liensinine, nuciferine, isoliensinine, roemerine and neferine were
      successfully separated with the purities of 97.0%, 90.2%, 94.7%, 92.8%, 90.4% and
      95.9%, respectively. The established general method has been respectively applied
      to the crude samples of lotus leaves and lotus plumules. A total of 37.3mg of
      liensinine, 57.7mg of isoliensinine and 179.9mg of neferine were successfully
      purified in one run from 1.00g crude extract of lotus plumule with the purities
      of 93.2%, 96.5% and 98.8%, respectively. Amount of 45.6mg N-nornuciferine, 21.6mg
      nuciferine and 11.7mg roemerine was obtained in one step separation from 1.05g
      crude extract of lotus leaves with the purity of 96.9%, 95.6% and 91.33%,
      respectively.

PMID- 28571918
TI  - Colonic polypoid mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma.

PMID- 28571919
TI  - Conventional esophageal manometry in clinical practice: Current impact of its use
      on patient management.

PMID- 28571917
TI  - Targeting miR-21 with Sophocarpine Inhibits Tumor Progression and Reverses
      Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Head and Neck Cancer.
AB  - A major challenge for cancer chemotherapy is the development of safe and
      clinically effective chemotherapeutic agents. With its low toxicity profile,
      sophocarpine (SC), a naturally occurring tetracyclic quinolizidine alkaloid
      derived from Sophora alopecuroides L, has shown promising therapeutic properties,
      including anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive, and antivirus activities. However,
      the antitumor efficacy of SC and its underlying mechanisms have not been
      completely delineated. In the present study, the inhibitory effect of SC on head
      and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) progression and possible mechanisms for
      this effect involving microRNA-21 (miR-21) regulation were investigated. By cell
      viability, Transwell, and wound healing assays, we show that SC effectively
      inhibited proliferation, invasion, and migration of HNSCC cells. Moreover, SC
      exerted its growth-inhibitory effect via the downregulation of miR-21 expression
      by blocking Dicer-mediated miR-21 maturation. Furthermore, SC treatment led to
      the increased expression of PTEN and p38MAPK phosphorylation as well as the
      reversal of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which was rescued by ectopic
      expression of miR-21 in cells. Notably, SC dramatically repressed tumor growth
      without observable tissue cytotoxicity in a mouse xenograft model of HNSCC. Our
      findings offer a preclinical proof of concept for SC as a leading natural agent
      for HNSCC cancer therapy.

PMID- 28571920
TI  - Mobile bearing medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in patients whose
      lifestyles involve high degrees of knee flexion: A 10-14year follow-up study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because Asian populations have different lifestyles, such as
      squatting and sitting on the floor, from those of Western populations, it is
      possible that the clinical results and survival rate of unicompartmental knee
      arthroplasty (UKA) for Asian patients may be different. This study described
      outcomes of mobile bearing medial UKA for Korean patients. METHODS: A total of
      the 164 knees treated with mobile bearing UKAs in 147 patients (14 males and 133
      females) were reviewed. The mean follow-up period was 12.1years (range 10.1-14).
      RESULTS: The clinical outcomes, such as the Hospital for Special Surgery Knee
      score, the Oxford Knee Score and the Knee Society rating system, showed
      statistically significant improvement from pre-operative to final follow-up
      (P<0.05). A total of 26 UKAs (15.8%) required revision; the most common reason
      was bearing dislocation. The 95% confidence interval of survival rate at 12years
      was 84.1%, with revision for any reason as the end point. CONCLUSIONS: Minimally
      invasive mobile bearing UKA in Asian patients who required high degrees of knee
      flexion showed rapid recovery and good clinical outcome. However, they also
      showed relatively high rates of bearing dislocation and aseptic loosening.
      Therefore, mobile bearing UKA should only be performed in patients whose
      lifestyle involves high flexions after carefully considering these risks and
      benefits.

PMID- 28571923
TI  - Talar head fracture in a professional baseball player: A case report.

PMID- 28571922
TI  - A decrease in glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody levels with sitagliptin
      use in patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.

PMID- 28571921
TI  - Variability in static alignment and kinematics for kinematically aligned TKA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) significantly improves pain and
      restores a considerable degree of function. However, improvements are needed to
      increase patient satisfaction and restore kinematics to allow more physically
      demanding activities that active patients consider important. The aim of our
      study was to compare the alignment and motion of kinematically and mechanically
      aligned TKAs. METHODS: A patient specific musculoskeletal computer simulation was
      used to compare the tibio-femoral and patello-femoral kinematics between
      mechanically aligned and kinematically aligned TKA in 20 patients. RESULTS: When
      kinematically aligned, femoral components on average resulted in more valgus
      alignment to the mechanical axis and internally rotated to surgical
      transepicondylar axis whereas tibia component on average resulted in more varus
      alignment to the mechanical axis and internally rotated to tibial AP rotational
      axis. With kinematic alignment, tibio-femoral motion displayed greater tibial
      external rotation and lateral femoral flexion facet centre (FFC) translation with
      knee flexion than mechanical aligned TKA. At the patellofemoral joint, patella
      lateral shift of kinematically aligned TKA plateaued after 20 to 30 degrees 
      flexion while in mechanically aligned TKA it decreased continuously through the
      whole range of motion. CONCLUSIONS: Kinematic alignment resulted in greater
      variation than mechanical alignment for all tibio-femoral and patello-femoral
      motion. Kinematic alignment places TKA components patient specific alignment
      which depends on the preoperative state of the knee resulting in greater
      variation in kinematics. The use of computational models has the potential to
      predict which alignment based on native alignment, kinematic or mechanical, could
      improve knee function for patient's undergoing TKA.

PMID- 28571924
TI  - Long-term preservation of Tetraselmis indica (Chlorodendrophyceae, Chlorophyta)
      for flow cytometric analysis: Influence of fixative and storage temperature.
AB  - Immediate enumeration of phytoplankton is seldom possible. Therefore, fixation
      and subsequent storage are required for delayed analysis. This study investigated
      the influence of glutaraldehyde (GA) concentrations (0.25%, 0.5%, and 1%) and
      storage temperatures (-80 degrees CLN2, -80 degrees C, -20 degrees C, and 5
      degrees C) on Tetraselmis indica for flow cytometric analysis. Cell recovery,
      granularity, and membrane permeability were independent of GA concentration
      whereas cell size and chlorophyll autofluorescence were concentration dependent.
      After an initial cell loss (16-19%), no cell loss was observed when samples were
      stored at 5 degrees C. Cell recovery was not influenced by storage temperature
      until 4months but later samples preserved at -80 degrees CLN2, -80 degrees C, and
      -20 degrees C resulted in ~41% cell loss. Although maximum cell recovery with
      minimal effect on cell integrity was obtained at 5 degrees C, autofluorescence
      was retained better at -80 degrees CLN2 and -80 degrees C. This suggests that in
      addition to fixative, the choice of storage temperature is equally important.
      Thus for long-term preservation, especially to retain autofluorescence, the use
      of lower concentration (0.25%) of GA when stored at a lower temperature (-80
      degrees CLN2 and -80 degrees C) while a higher concentration (1%) of GA when
      stored at a higher temperature (5 degrees C) is recommended.

PMID- 28571925
TI  - Reprint of: Contribution of enrichments and resampling for sulfate reducing
      bacteria diversity assessment by high-throughput cultivation.
AB  - The development of new high-throughput cultivation methods aims to increase the
      isolation efficiency as compared to standard techniques that often require
      enrichment procedures to compensate the low microbial recovery. In the current
      study, estuarine sulfate-reducing bacteria were isolated using an anaerobic
      isolation procedure in 384-well microplates. Ninety-nine strains were recovered
      from initial sediments. Isolates were identified according to their partial 16S
      rRNA sequences and clustered into 13 phylotypes. Besides, the increase in species
      richness obtained through enrichments or resampling was investigated. Forty-four
      enrichment procedures were conducted and shifts in sulfate-reducing bacterial
      communities were investigated through dsrAB gene fingerprinting. Despite efforts
      in conducting numerous enrichment conditions only few of them were statistically
      different from initial sample. The cultural diversity obtained from 3 of the most
      divergent enrichments, as well as from resampled sediments equally contributed to
      raise the sulfate-reducing diversity up to 22 phylotypes. Enrichments (selection
      of metabolism) or resampling (transient populations and micro-heterogeneity) may
      still be helpful to assess new microbial phylotypes. Nevertheless, all the newly
      cultivated strains were all representatives of minor Operational Taxonomic Units
      and could eventually be recovered by maintaining high-throughput isolation effort
      from the initial sediments.

PMID- 28571926
TI  - Urinary sodium excretion after gastric bypass surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gut-kidney signaling is implicated in sodium homeostasis and thus
      blood pressure regulation. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery for morbid
      obesity confers a pronounced and long-lasting blood pressure lowering effect in
      addition to significant weight loss. OBJECTIVES: We set out to establish whether
      RYGB is associated with an intrinsic change in urinary sodium excretion that may
      contribute to the reported blood pressure lowering effects of the procedure.
      SETTING: University hospital METHODS: Five female patients (age range: 28-50 yr)
      without metabolic or hypertensive co-morbidities were included in a study
      involving four 24-hour residential visits: once before surgery and 10 days, 3
      months, and 20 months after surgery. Creatinine and sodium were measured in
      fasting plasma samples and 24-hour urine samples and creatinine clearance,
      estimated glomerular filtration rate, and indices of urinary sodium excretion
      were calculated. Fasting and 60-minute postprandial blood samples from each study
      day were assayed for pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). RESULTS:
      Increases in weight-normalized urinary sodium excretion of up to 2.3-fold in
      magnitude occurred at 20 months after surgery. Median fractional excretion of
      sodium at 20 months was double that seen before surgery. Fasting NT-proBNP levels
      were stable or increased (1.5- to 5-fold). Moreover, a small postprandial
      increase in NT-proBNP was observed after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Renal fractional
      excretion of sodium is increased after RYGB. A shift toward increased
      postoperative basal and meal associated levels of NT-proBNP coincides with
      increased urinary sodium excretion. The data support a working hypothesis that an
      enhanced natriuretic gut-kidney signal after RYGB may be of mechanistic
      importance in the blood pressure lowering effects of this procedure.

PMID- 28571927
TI  - Comment on: Long-term success and failure with sleeve gastrectomy is predictable
      by 3 months: a multivariate model using simple office markers.

PMID- 28571929
TI  - Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery for a Ewing's sarcoma of tongue in a pediatric
      patient: a case report.

PMID- 28571928
TI  - Free tissue flaps in head and neck reconstruction: clinical application and
      analysis of 93 patients of a single institution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Reconstruction with a free flap is routine in head and neck surgery
      because of better functional outcomes, improved esthetics, and generally higher
      success rates. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical outcomes in patients
      undergoing different microvascular free flap reconstructions. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective study of 93 patients undergoing reconstructions with free flaps
      from 2007 to 2015. Four types of free flap were performed: anterolateral thigh
      (76.3%), radial forearm (16.1%), fibula (4.3%) and jejunum (3.3%). Patients'
      demographic data were collected, and the outcomes measured included flap survival
      and complications. Postoperative functional and oncological outcome were also
      analyzed. RESULTS: The patients included 73 men and 20 women, with a mean age of
      56.1 years. The most common tumor location was the tongue. Squamous cell
      carcinoma represented the vast majority of the diagnosed tumors (89.2%). The most
      common recipient vessels were the superior thyroid artery (77.4%) and the
      internal jugular vein (91.4%). Nine patients required emergency surgical re
      exploration and the overall flap success rate was 90.3%. Venous thrombosis was
      the most common cause for re-exploration. Other complications included wound
      infection (5.4%), wound dehiscence (1.1%), partial flap necrosis (9.7%), fistula
      formation (10.8%), and 1 bleeding (1.1%). The majority of patients had
      satisfactory cosmetic and functional results of both donor site and recipient
      site after 46.7 months of mean follow-up. CONCLUSION: Microsurgical free flap is
      shown to be a valuable and reliable method in head and neck surgery. It can be
      used safely and effectively with minimal morbidity in selected patients. The
      reconstruction can be performed by appropriately skilled surgeons with acceptable
      outcomes. Success rate appears to increase as clinical experience is gained.

PMID- 28571930
TI  - HOKF: High Order Kalman Filter for Epilepsy Forecasting Modeling.
AB  - Epilepsy forecasting has been extensively studied using high-order time series
      obtained from scalp-recorded electroencephalography (EEG). An accurate seizure
      prediction system would not only help significantly improve patients' quality of
      life, but would also facilitate new therapeutic strategies to manage epilepsy.
      This paper thus proposes an improved Kalman Filter (KF) algorithm to mine seizure
      forecasts from neural activity by modeling three properties in the high-order EEG
      time series: noise, temporal smoothness, and tensor structure. The proposed High
      Order Kalman Filter (HOKF) is an extension of the standard Kalman filter, for
      which higher-order modeling is limited. The efficient dynamic of HOKF system
      preserves the tensor structure of the observations and latent states. As such,
      the proposed method offers two main advantages: (i) effectiveness with HOKF
      results in hidden variables that capture major evolving trends suitable to
      predict neural activity, even in the presence of missing values; and (ii)
      scalability in that the wall clock time of the HOKF is linear with respect to the
      number of time-slices of the sequence. The HOKF algorithm is examined in terms of
      its effectiveness and scalability by conducting forecasting and scalability
      experiments with a real epilepsy EEG dataset. The results of the simulation
      demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the original Kalman
      Filter and other existing methods.

PMID- 28571931
TI  - An ABO blood grouping discrepancy: Probable B(A) phenotype.
AB  - In B(A) phenotype, an autosomal dominant phenotype, there is a weak A expression
      on group B RBCs. We herein report a case of a probable B(A) phenotype in a first
      time 20-year old male donor. The cell and serum grouping were done using tube
      technique and also with blood grouping gel card (Diaclone, ABD cards for donors,
      BioRad, Switzerland). The antisera used were commercial monoclonal IgM type. To
      check for the weak subgroup of A, cold adsorption and heat elution was performed.
      The cell grouping was AweakB RhD positive while the serum grouping was B. There
      was no agglutination with O cells and the autologous control was also negative.
      It was a group II ABO discrepancy with or without group IV discrepancy. Results
      for both the eluate and last wash were negative. Hence, the possibility of weak
      subgroup of A was unlikely. Blood grouping gel card also showed a negative
      reaction in the anti-A column. One lot of anti-A was showing 'weak +'
      agglutination while the other lot was showing 'negative' reaction with the donor
      RBCs by tube technique. There was no agglutination observed with anti-A1 lectin.
      Our case highlights the serological characteristics of a B(A) phenotype. This
      case emphasizes the vital role of cell and serum grouping in detecting such
      discrepancies especially in donors which can lead to mislabeling of the blood
      unit and may be a potential risk for the transfusion recipient if not resolved
      appropriately.

PMID- 28571932
TI  - Detection of the relatively slow-growing Propionibacterium acnes in seven
      matrices of blood components and advanced therapeutical medicinal products.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relatively slow-growing bacteria like Propionibacterium acnes
      represent a challenge for quality control investigations in sterility release
      testing of blood components and advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs).
      METHODS: A convenient validation with 7 matrices was performed using buffy coat,
      stem cells, islet cells, natural killer cells, red blood cells, platelets and
      plasma in the microbial detection system Bact/Alert(r)3D incubator. All matrix
      samples were spiked twofold with Propionibacterium acnes with approximately 50
      colony forming units (CFUs) per bottle in iAST and iNST culture bottles for
      14days using a multishot bioball. Additionally, the stem cell preparations were
      also incubated in iFAplus and iFNplus culture bottles, which include neutralizing
      polymers. RESULTS: The Bact/Alert(r)3D-System detected Propionibacterium acnes in
      anaerobic culture bottles in buffy coat [3.3 d (=positive signal day to detection
      as mean value)], red blood cells [3.2 d], platelets [3.3], plasma [3.7 d],
      natural killer cells [3.3 d] and islet cells [4.9 d], resp. No growth of
      Propionibacterium was found in autologous stem cells using iAST and iNST culture
      bottles. However, Propionibacterium was safely detected in the iFNplus culture
      bottle with polymers in the stem cell matrix. A successful validation of media
      was performed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that Bact/Alert(r)3D-System safely
      detects the relatively slow-growing bacterium Propionibacterium acnes in
      different matrices in a practical way except stem cells. Using the iFNplus
      culture bottle for stem cell products positive signals were observed.

PMID- 28571934
TI  - Intensive glycemic control in younger and older U.S. adults with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the extent to which older vs. younger adults with diabetes
      intensively control glycemia. METHODS: Participants were age>=40years who self
      reported a physician diagnosis of diabetes in the 2009-2014 National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Surveys (N=1554). Intensive glycemic control was defined as
      A1c<7.0% and taking insulin, sulfonylureas, or >=2 glycemic medications. Logistic
      regression was used to determine the adjusted odds of intensive control in older
      (>=65years) vs. younger adults (age 40-64years). RESULTS: The prevalence of
      intensive control was greater for older (33.4%) vs. younger (21.3%) adults
      (p<0.001). In logistic regression, intensive control was significantly higher in
      older vs. younger adults after fully adjusting for sociodemographics, diabetes
      duration, comorbidities, disability, use of multiple medications, and depression
      (OR=1.72, 1.09-2.69). The multivariable adjusted prevalence of intensive control
      was 40% higher in adults >=75years (35.6%) compared to adults 40-49years (21.7%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Older adults are being treated more aggressively than younger adults
      to achieve A1c<7.0% despite the presence of comorbidities, duration of diabetes,
      disability, and depression. Glycemic guidelines for individualized therapy are
      not being widely followed.

PMID- 28571933
TI  - Predicting readmission risk of patients with diabetes hospitalized for
      cardiovascular disease: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a tool that predicts 30d readmission risk of
      patients with diabetes hospitalized for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the
      Diabetes Early Readmission Risk Indicator-CVD (DERRI-CVDTM). METHODS: A cohort of
      8189 discharges was retrospectively selected from electronic records of adult
      patients with diabetes hospitalized for CVD. Discharges of 60% of the patients
      (n=4950) were randomly selected as a training sample and the remaining 40%
      (n=3219) were the validation sample. RESULTS: Statistically significant
      predictors of all-cause 30d readmission risk were identified by multivariable
      logistic regression modeling: education level, employment status, living within
      5miles of the hospital, pre-admission diabetes therapy, macrovascular
      complications, admission serum creatinine and albumin levels, having a hospital
      discharge within 90days pre-admission, and a psychiatric diagnosis. Model
      discrimination and calibration were good (C-statistic 0.71). Performance in the
      validation sample was comparable. Predicted 30d readmission risk was similar in
      the training and validation samples (38.6% and 35.1% in the highest quintiles).
      CONCLUSIONS: The DERRI-CVDTM may be a valid tool to predict all-cause 30d
      readmission risk of patients with diabetes hospitalized for CVD. Identifying high
      risk patients may encourage the use of interventions targeting those at greatest
      risk, potentially leading to better outcomes and lower healthcare costs.

PMID- 28571935
TI  - Dissociation of local and global skeletal muscle oxygen transport metrics in type
      2 diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: Exercise capacity is impaired in type 2 diabetes, and this impairment
      predicts excess morbidity and mortality. This defect appears to involve excess
      skeletal muscle deoxygenation, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We
      hypothesized that reduced blood flow, reduced local recruitment of blood
      volume/hematocrit, or both contribute to excess skeletal muscle deoxygenation in
      type 2 diabetes. METHODS: In patients with (n=23) and without (n=18) type 2
      diabetes, we recorded maximal reactive hyperemic leg blood flow, peak oxygen
      utilization during cycling ergometer exercise (VO2peak), and near-infrared
      spectroscopy-derived measures of exercise-induced changes in skeletal muscle
      oxygenation and blood volume/hematocrit. RESULTS: We observed a significant
      increase (p<0.05) in skeletal muscle deoxygenation in type 2 diabetes despite
      similar blood flow and recruitment of local blood volume/hematocrit. Within the
      control group skeletal muscle deoxygenation, local recruitment of microvascular
      blood volume/hematocrit, blood flow, and VO2peak are all mutually correlated.
      None of these correlations were preserved in type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that in type 2 diabetes 1) skeletal muscle oxygenation is
      impaired, 2) this impairment may occur independently of bulk blood flow or local
      recruitment of blood volume/hematocrit, and 3) local and global metrics of oxygen
      transport are dissociated.

PMID- 28571938
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28571936
TI  - Sex differences in the drinking response to angiotensin II (AngII): Effect of
      body weight.
AB  - Sex differences in fluid intake stimulated by angiotensin II (AngII) have been
      reported, but the direction of the differences is inconsistent. To resolve these
      discrepancies, we measured water intake by male and female rats given AngII.
      Males drank more than females, but when intake was normalized to body weight, the
      sex difference was reversed. Weight-matched males and females, however, had no
      difference in intake. Using a linear mixed model analysis, we found that intake
      was influenced by weight, sex, and AngII dose. We used linear regression to
      disentangle these effects further. Comparison of regression coefficients revealed
      sex and weight differences at high doses of AngII. Specifically, after 100ng
      AngII, weight was a predictor of intake in males, but not in females. Next, we
      tested for differences in AngII-induced intake in male and females allowed to
      drink both water and saline. Again, males drank more water than females, but
      females showed a stronger preference for saline. Drinking microstructure analysis
      suggested that these differences were mediated by postingestive signals and more
      bottle switches by the females. Finally, we probed for differences in the
      expression of components of the renin-angiotensin system in the brains of males
      and females and found sex differences in several genes in discrete brain regions.
      These results provide new information to help understand key sex differences in
      ingestive behaviors, and highlight the need for additional research to understand
      baseline sex differences, particularly in light of the new NIH initiative to
      balance sex in biomedical research.

PMID- 28571937
TI  - Thermal modulation of anthropogenic estrogen exposure on a freshwater fish at two
      life stages.
AB  - Human-mediated environmental change can induce changes in the expression of
      complex behaviors within individuals and alter the outcomes of interactions
      between individuals. Although the independent effects of numerous stressors on
      aquatic biota are well documented (e.g., exposure to environmental contaminants),
      fewer studies have examined how natural variation in the ambient environment
      modulates these effects. In this study, we exposed reproductively mature and
      larval fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) to three environmentally relevant
      concentrations (14, 22, and 65ng/L) of a common environmental estrogen, estrone
      (E1), at four water temperatures (15, 18, 21, and 24 degrees C) reflecting
      natural spring and summer variation. We then conducted a series of behavioral
      experiments to assess the independent and interactive effects of temperature and
      estrogen exposure on intra- and interspecific interactions in three contexts with
      important fitness consequences; reproduction, foraging, and predator evasion. Our
      data demonstrated significant independent effects of temperature and/or estrogen
      exposure on the physiology, survival, and behavior of larval and adult fish. We
      also found evidence suggesting that thermal regime can modulate the effects of
      exposure on larval survival and predator-prey interactions, even within a
      relatively narrow range of seasonally fluctuating temperatures. These findings
      improve our understanding of the outcomes of interactions between anthropogenic
      stressors and natural abiotic environmental factors, and suggest that such
      interactions can have ecological and evolutionary implications for freshwater
      populations and communities.

PMID- 28571939
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28571940
TI  - Image Analysis in Plant Sciences: Publish Then Perish.
AB  - Image analysis has become a powerful technique for most plant scientists. In
      recent years dozens of image analysis tools have been published in plant science
      journals. These tools cover the full spectrum of plant scales, from single cells
      to organs and canopies. However, the field of plant image analysis remains in its
      infancy. It still has to overcome important challenges, such as the lack of
      robust validation practices or the absence of long-term support. In this Opinion
      article, I: (i) present the current state of the field, based on data from the
      plant-image-analysis.org database; (ii) identify the challenges faced by its
      community; and (iii) propose workable ways of improvement.

PMID- 28571941
TI  - Clinical Predictors of Isolated Tubal Torsion: A Case Series.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: A rare cause of adolescent abdominal pain includes isolated
      tubal torsion (ITT). Presentation is nonspecific and few studies have
      investigated ITT in adolescents. Our study objective was to describe the
      presentation and management of ITT in a large case series. DESIGN: Retrospective
      observational case series. SETTING: Tertiary care children's hospital.
      PARTICIPANTS: Participants were female and aged 3-21 years, presenting to
      Children's Hospital Colorado and diagnosed with ITT between January 2004 and
      August 2015. INTERVENTIONS AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical presentation,
      physical exam, laboratory findings, surgical diagnosis, and treatment provided.
      RESULTS: A total of 19 cases were included. Average age was 13.3 (range, 11-18)
      years. In patients with unilateral abdominal pain (n = 16), there was 100%
      correlation with side of adnexal pathology. Ultrasound examination in 14 of 18
      cases (78%) noted abnormal findings ipsilateral to the ITT. Most cases were
      managed with laparoscopy (84%; n = 16 of 19) and detorsion with or without
      cystectomy (74%; n = 14 of 19). Salpingectomy was more common with prolonged pain
      greater than 24 hours (relative risk 5.6, 95% confidence interval, 0.7-39.0). The
      most common intraoperative finding was a paratubal cyst (74%; n = 14 of 19). When
      Doppler flow was performed, it was present in 88% (n = 16 of 18) of the affected
      adnexa. ITT was more common on the left side (68%; n = 13 of 19). CONCLUSION: The
      high occurrence of paratubal cysts might suggest pathologic predisposition for
      ITT. Providers should maintain a high index of suspicion for ITT, particularly if
      associated with a paratubal cyst. Classic examination findings of surgical
      abdomen, leukocytosis, fever, and absence of Doppler flow are infrequently
      present. Laparoscopy and detorsion are appropriate treatments for managing ITT.

PMID- 28571942
TI  - Corrigendum to "interaction of casein kinase 1 delta (CK1<delta>) with the light
      chain LC2 of microtubule associated protein 1A (MAP1A)" [Biochim. Biophys. Acta
      1745/2 (2005) 196-2006].

PMID- 28571943
TI  - Hematological alterations and splenic T lymphocyte polarization at the crest of
      snake venom induced acute kidney injury in adult male mice.
AB  - Snake venom induced acute kidney injury (SAKI) is of great clinical relevance in
      tropical countries. Involvement of T cell, a key mediator of AKI and its
      remission, is least explored in SAKI. In the present study the in vivo
      hematological alterations and associated splenic T cell polarization is probed in
      order to investigate the immune response at the crest of Russell's viper venom
      (RVV) induced AKI in experimental murine model. Based on a dose and time kinetic
      study intra muscular injection dose of 20 MUg RVV/100 gm body weight of mice and
      incubation period of 60 h was selected for induction of SAKI. Renal involvement
      in SAKI group was confirmed from oliguria, significantly elevated urinary
      microprotein (p < 0.001), decreased urinary creatinine (p = 0.003) and creatinine
      clearance (p < 0.001) compared to control. Hematological analyses revealed a
      significant neutrophilic leukocytosis (p < 0.001) associated with a reduced
      lymphocyte percentage (p < 0.001) favoring a state of acute inflammation in SAKI
      group. Immunophenotyping study of splenocytes showed a significant decrease in
      CD4+/CD8+ ratio (p < 0.001) with a significant increase in regulatory
      (CD25+FoxP3+) helper and cytotoxic subset of T cell (p < 0.001). Significant
      increase in IL-10+ regulatory helper and cytotoxic T cell (p < 0.001) further
      confirmed the internal milieu favoring immunosuppression. Apart from these the
      CD25-FoxP3+ reservoir regulatory T cells were also found to be significantly
      elevated in SAKI group compared to that of control (p < 0.001). Taken together,
      the results of the present study clearly indicated a state of acute inflammation
      and splenic T cell polarization towards regulatory subset at the crest of SAKI.

PMID- 28571945
TI  - Applying the Lists of Risk Drugs for Thai Elderly (LRDTE) as a mechanism to
      account for patient age and medicine severity in assessing potentially
      inappropriate medication use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Potential inappropriate medication (PIM) prescribing is a medication
      that puts patients at risk rather than having benefits. PIM use has been
      associated with hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality resulting from ADRs in
      elderly patients. The Lists of Risk Drugs for Thai Elderly (LRDTE) was developed
      as the new screening tool to identify PIMs use. The prevalence of PIM use using
      the LRDTE has not been determined in Thailand. PURPOSE: The main purpose of this
      study was to examine the prevalence of PIM use based on the LRDTE. In addition,
      this aimed to address the PIM problem by identifying factors that influenced PIM
      use among elderly patients in Thailand. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional
      descriptive study was conducted using the computerized database at four community
      hospitals in Thailand during fiscal year 2014. The LRDTE criteria were used as a
      screening tool for identifying the medicine items of PIM use. Descriptive
      statistics and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify common and
      Thai region-specific predictors of PIM use. RESULTS: Of a total of 13274 elderly
      patients, 79% were prescribed at least one PIM, as indicated by the LRDTE
      criteria. Amlodipine (32%), omeprazole (30%), and tramadol (18%) were the most
      commonly prescribed PIMs in elderly patients aged 60 years and older. Hospital
      and physician characteristics were identified as independent predictors after
      adjustment for patient and utilization factors. CONCLUSION: PIM use in Thai
      elderly patients was highly prevalent in community hospitals because the LRDTE
      criteria reflected clinical practice in Thailand. Hospital and physician factors
      were identified as region-specific factors that were highly associated with PIM
      use. Revision of hospital formularies and educational programs for physicians are
      needed to improve prescribing and avoid PIM use.

PMID- 28571944
TI  - Indocyanine Green versus Radiotracer with or without Blue Dye for Sentinel Lymph
      Node Mapping in Stage >IB1 Cervical Cancer (>2 cm).
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping in women with
      cervical cancer stage >IB1 (tumor size >2 cm) using indocyanine green (ICG)
      versus the standard technique using radioisotope technetium 99m radiocolloid
      (Tc99m) radiotracer with or without blue dye. DESIGN: European multicenter,
      retrospective observational study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).
      SETTING: Four academic medical centers. PATIENTS: Ninety-five women with stage
      IB1 cervical cancer (>2 cm) who underwent SLN mapping with Tc99m with or without
      blue dye or ICG and radical hysterectomy. INTERVENTION: The detection rate and
      bilateral mapping rate were compared between ICG and standard Tc99m radiotracer
      with or without blue dye. Lymphadenectomy was performed, and the false-negative
      rate was assessed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Forty-seven patients underwent
      SLN mapping with Tc99m with or without blue dye, and 48 did so with ICG. All
      patients underwent radical hysterectomy with or without bilateral salpingo
      oophorectomy between 2008 and 2016. The overall detection rate of SLN mapping was
      91.5% for Tc99m with or without blue dye and 100% for ICG. A 91.7% rate of
      bilateral migration was achieved for ICG, significantly higher than the 66%
      obtained with Tc99m with or without blue dye (p = .025). Nine of the 23 SLN
      positive patients (39.1%) were diagnosed exclusively as a result of the
      ultrastaging used to identify micrometastases or isolated tumor cells only.
      CONCLUSIONS: In advanced cervical cancer (stage IB1 >2 cm), the detection rate
      and bilateral migration rate on real-time fluorescent SLN mapping were higher
      with ICG than with Tc99m radiotracer with or without blue dye. SLN mapping and
      ultrastaging can provide additional information for nodal staging in advanced
      cervical cancer. In this setting, ICG is a promising tool for mapping, appearing
      less affected by higher disease stage compared with traditional methods.

PMID- 28571946
TI  - Gangliosides and hearing.
AB  - Severe auditory impairment observed in GM3 synthase-deficient mice and humans
      indicates that glycosphingolipids, especially sialic-acid containing
      gangliosides, are indispensable for hearing. Gangliosides associate with
      glycoproteins to form membrane microdomains, the composition of which plays a
      special role in maintaining the structural and functional integrity of hair
      cells. These microdomains, also called lipid rafts, connect with intracellular
      signaling and cytoskeletal systems to link cellular responses to environmental
      cues. During development, ganglioside species are expressed in distinctive
      spatial and temporal patterns throughout the cochlea. In both mice and humans,
      blocking particular steps of ganglioside metabolism produces distinctive
      neurological and auditory phenotypes. Thus each ganglioside species may have
      specific, non-overlapping functions within the cochlea, central auditory network,
      and brain.

PMID- 28571948
TI  - Intermittent Projectile Urethraggia: An Unusual Sequela of a Skateboarding
      Accident in an Adolescent Male.
AB  - Our patient suffered a perineal straddle injury, resulting in right cavernosal
      artery pseudoaneurysm in combination with a cavernosal-urethral fistula. The
      urethra failed to heal after several weeks, and the patient presented with severe
      intermittent urethral bleeding. The pseudoaneurysm was successfully treated by
      coil embolization, with resolution of the bleeding. The patient recovered
      completely, with normal erectile and voiding function. This type of injury is
      very rare in the literature: traumatic cavernosal arterial pseudoaneurysm is
      known to cause high flow priapism, but in this case additional cavernosal
      urethral fistula resulted in a severe urethraggia. This is the only case, to our
      knowledge, of delayed urethral bleeding from cavernosal artery pseudoaneursym in
      combination with a cavernosal-urethral fistula.

PMID- 28571947
TI  - Boron nitride nanotubes for gene silencing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-viral gene delivery is increasingly investigated as an
      alternative to viral vectors due to low toxicity and immunogenicity, easy
      preparation, tissue specificity, and ability to transfer larger sizes of genes.
      METHODS: In this study, boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are functionalized with
      oligonucleotides (oligo-BNNTs). The morpholinos complementary to the
      oligonucleotides attached to the BNNTs (morpholino/oligo-BNNTs) are hybridized to
      silence the luciferase gene. The morpholino/oligo-BNNTs conjugates are
      administered to luciferase-expressing cells (MDA-MB-231-luc2) and the luciferase
      activity is monitored. RESULTS: The luciferase activity is decreased when MDA-MB
      231-luc2 cells were treated with morpholino/oligo-BNNTs. CONCLUSIONS: The study
      suggests that BNNTs can be used as a potential vector to transfect cells. GENERAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: BNNTs are potential new nanocarriers for gene delivery
      applications.

PMID- 28571949
TI  - Low-energy Shock Wave Therapy-A Novel Treatment Option for Erectile Dysfunction
      in Men With Cardiovascular Disease.
AB  - Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) are prone to developing erectile
      dysfunction (ED) owing to the common risk factors and pathogenesis underlying ED
      and CVD. As a result, ED affects nearly 80% of male patients with CVD. The
      efficacy of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, vacuum erection devices, or
      intracavernosal injection of vasodilating agents is well established in the
      treatment of ED; however, their use is limited. Low-energy shock wave therapy is
      a novel modality that may become a causative treatment for ED. This review aims
      to assess the efficacy and safety of low-energy shock wave therapy in the
      treatment of ED in men with CVD.

PMID- 28571950
TI  - Under-reporting of tuberculosis disease.

PMID- 28571951
TI  - Update in mild traumatic brain injury.
AB  - There has been concern for many years regarding the identification of patients
      with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) at high risk of developing an intracranial
      lesion (IL) that would require neurosurgical intervention. The small percentage
      of patients with these characteristics and the exceptional mortality associated
      with mild TBI with IL have led to the high use of resources such as computerised
      tomography (CT) being reconsidered. The various protocols developed for the
      management of mild TBI are based on the identification of risk factors for IL,
      which ultimately allows more selective indication or discarding both the CT
      application and the hospital stay for neurological monitoring. Finally, progress
      in the study of brain injury biomarkers with prognostic utility in different
      clinical categories of TBI has recently been incorporated by several clinical
      practice guidelines, which has allowed, together with clinical assessment, a more
      accurate prognostic approach for these patients to be established.

PMID- 28571952
TI  - Anemia induced by linezolid.

PMID- 28571953
TI  - AA amyloidosis associated with recurrent infections in the hyperimmunoglobulin E
      syndrome.

PMID- 28571954
TI  - Optimization of genetic diagnosis of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy and its
      application in the analysis of a family pedigree from La Palma Island (Canary
      Islands, Spain).

PMID- 28571956
TI  - Clinical characteristics of acute respiratory infections caused by
      parainfluenzavirus 1-4 in adults.

PMID- 28571955
TI  - Interaction between levofloxacin and phenytoin: report of two cases.

PMID- 28571957
TI  - Maternal microbiota and the major obstetric syndromes: When the enemy becomes an
      ally.

PMID- 28571958
TI  - A decade of a quick diagnosis unit.

PMID- 28571959
TI  - Strategic infarcts of the thalamus: an uncommon cause of vascular dementia.

PMID- 28571960
TI  - Osmotic demyelination syndrome in a patient with uncontrolled hyperglycemia.

PMID- 28571961
TI  - Kayser-Fleischer rings.

PMID- 28571962
TI  - Aggression against health workers: Substantial changes in the crime of attack
      against authorities and public servants after 2015.

PMID- 28571963
TI  - Number needed to treat for direct oral anticoagulants over warfarin in atrial
      fibrillation.

PMID- 28571964
TI  - Pulmonary fibrosis idiopathic: Diagnostic study with 10 clinical actions.

PMID- 28571965
TI  - Bone health in Down syndrome.
AB  - Patients with Down syndrome have a number of risk factors that theoretically
      could predispose them to osteoporosis, such as early aging, development
      disorders, reduced physical activity, limited sun exposure, frequent
      comorbidities and use of drug therapies which could affect bone metabolism. In
      addition, the bone mass of these people may be affected by their anthropometric
      and body composition peculiarities. In general terms, studies in adults with Down
      syndrome reported that these people have lower areal bone mineral density (g/cm2)
      than the general population. However, most of them have not taken the smaller
      bone size of people with Down syndrome into account. In fact, when body mineral
      density is adjusted by bone size and we obtain volumetric body mineral density
      (g/cm3), the difference between both populations disappears. On the other hand,
      although people with Down syndrome have risk factor of hypovitaminosis D, the
      results of studies regarding 25(OH)D in this population are not clear. Likewise,
      the studies about biochemical bone markers or the prevalence of fractures are not
      conclusive.

PMID- 28571966
TI  - Carcinomatous myositis secondary to gastric cancer.

PMID- 28571967
TI  - Diagnostic errors in emergency departments.
AB  - Diagnostic errors have to be recognised as a possible adverse event inherent to
      clinical activity and incorporate them as another quality indicator. Different
      sources of information report their frequency, although they may still be
      underestimated. Contrary to what one could expect, in most cases, it does not
      occur in infrequent diseases. Causes can be complex and multifactorial, with
      individual cognitive aspects, as well as the health system. These errors can have
      an important clinical and socioeconomic impact. It is necessary to learn from
      diagnostic errors in order to develop an accurate and reliable system with a high
      standard of quality.

PMID- 28571968
TI  - Determination of the protein expression profiles of Propsilocerus akamusi
      (Tokunaga) Malpighian tubules response to cadmium stress by iTRAQ coupled LC
      MS/MS.
AB  - : Propsilocerus akamusi (Tokunaga) is an important prey species for fish and
      aquatic birds, which represent an important link in the aquatic food chain as
      other species of Chironomidae. Malpighian tubules (MT) play an important role in
      metabolism and detoxification of harmful compounds and metal accumulation. Our
      previous studies have reported that P. akamusi have an extraordinary resistance
      to Cd. In this paper, iTRAQ-based proteomics technology was first used to study
      the differential proteomics of MT of Propsilocerus akamusi under sublethal Cd
      stress for different time courses. 118 differential expressed proteins (DEPs)
      were identified through LC-MS/MS and further classified into 26 GO functional
      groups. Our results showed that metabolic process was the main biological
      functional categories. Cluster of orthologous groups of proteins (COG) analysis
      was also performed based on the number of unique proteins identified in each
      functional category, 21 metabolism-related DEPs were identified. P. akamusi
      adapted to Cd stress mainly by inducing the processes of lipid metabolism of MT
      and lipid may play a possible protection role in cadmium resistance in MT. The
      results provide important information for research on molecular mechanisms of Cd
      stress adaption in Malpighian tubules of P. akamusi. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
      Propsilocerus akamusi (old species name: Tokunagayusurika akamusi) is an
      important prey species for fish and aquatic birds, which represent an important
      link in the aquatic food web as other species of Chironomidae. Malpighian tubules
      constitute a versatile organ which is able to exert excretory of chemical
      compounds, acting in the insect metabolism and detoxification of harmful
      compounds and metal accumulation. Our previous studies have reported that P.
      akamusi have an extraordinary resistance to Cd. However, up to now, there has
      been a lack of research on the molecular mechanisms of adaption to Cd stress in
      the Malpighian tubules of this species. Study on the adaptive mechanisms to Cd
      stress in Malpighian tubules of Propsilocerus akamusi through comparative
      proteome analysis is one important way to solve this problem. The aim of the
      present study was to understand the molecular mechanisms of adaption of the
      Malpighian tubules of P. akamusi exposed to Cd stress and assess the high
      expression of proteins involved in cellular adaptation to Cd stress. This will
      provide information about how this organ is responding to disturbances of
      contaminated ecosystems.

PMID- 28571969
TI  - Proteomic fingerprinting of mistletoe (Viscum album L.) via combinatorial peptide
      ligand libraries and mass spectrometry analysis.
AB  - : Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries (CPLLs), coupled to mass spectrometry
      (MS) analysis, have been used to investigate in depth the proteome of Viscum
      album L. (VA), commonly named European mistletoe, in order to provide a first
      proteomic fingerprinting. For this purpose, the proteins were captured via CPLLs
      at two different pH values (acidic and neutral). A total of 648 non-redundant
      proteins were identified by using two different databases. The two pH values,
      chosen for bead incubations, have contributed to increment the capture ability:
      56% and 31% of CPLLs species were respectively recognized at pH7.2 and at pH2.2.
      Finally the biological function of identified proteins was evaluated in order to
      understand their role on human health and the potential benefits of mistletoe
      extracts in medicine. SIGNIFICANCE: Viscum album L. (VA) extracts are recently
      used as supporting medicine for cancer therapy, improving patients' survival and
      increasing their quality of life in medicine. These anticancer effects are
      investigated and they are probably due to mistletoe's capability to favor tumor
      cell's death and to modulate the immune system. Although the increasing interest
      in VA medical benefits, the role of its components in human health remains
      unclear. In order to exploit this aspect, it is important to comprehensively
      study proteins present in Viscum album L. (VA) extracts. Nevertheless, since
      plant proteomics analysis is in most cases handicapped by the presence of high
      abundance proteins masking the detection of the low-abundance ones, it is
      important to overcome this challenge. In this sense, combinatorial peptide ligand
      libraries (CPLLs) have been used to reduce the dynamic protein concentration
      range to enable the identification of a higher amount of proteins than employing
      conventional methods. In this work, a total of 648 non-redundant proteins were
      identified: 56% and 31% of CPLLs species were respectively recognized at pH7.2
      and at pH2.2. This deep proteome identification was useful to investigate the
      biological functions of proteins in order to evaluate their potential role in
      human health.

PMID- 28571970
TI  - Oxidative imbalance in low/intermediate-1-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients:
      The influence of iron overload.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the
      involvement of the main antioxidant pathways in low/intermediate-1-risk
      myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with iron overload (IOL). METHODS: We examined
      the levels of superoxide anion (O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), antioxidants
      (glutathione, GSH; superoxide dismutase, SOD; catalase, CAT; and glutathione
      peroxidase, GPx), mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsim), and by-products
      of oxidative damage (8-isoprostanes and 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine, 8
      oxo-dG) in 42 MDS patients (28 without IOL at diagnosis, and 14 who developed
      IOL) and 20 healthy subjects. RESULTS: Patients with IOL showed higher O2- levels
      (39.4 MFI) than normal controls (22.7 MFI, p=0.0356) and patients at diagnosis
      (19.4 MFI, p=0.0049). Antioxidant systems, except SOD activity, exhibited
      significant changes in IOL patients with respect to controls (CAT: 7.1 vs
      2.7nmol/ml/min, p=0.0023; GPx: 50.9 vs 76.4nmol/ml/min, p=0.0291; GSH: 50.2 vs
      24.1 MFI, p=0.0060). Furthermore, mitochondrial dysfunction was only detected in
      IOL cases compared to controls (DeltaPsim: 3.6 vs 6.4 MFI, p=0.0225). Finally,
      increased levels of 8-oxo-dG were detected in both groups of patients.
      CONCLUSION: Oxidative stress is an important but non-static phenomenon in MDS
      disease, whose status is influenced by, among other factors, the presence of
      injurious iron.

PMID- 28571971
TI  - Biological reproducibility of circulating P-Selectin, Thrombopoietin, GPIIb/IIIa
      and Thrombomodulin over one year.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enhanced platelet activation has been implicated in several
      pathophysiological processes. Here, we evaluated the biological reproducibility
      of circulating P-Selectin, Thrombomodulin (TM), Thrombopoietin (TPO), and
      Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa) to assess whether these analytes can be used
      as reliable biomarkers of platelet activation in epidemiological studies.
      METHODS: We measured circulating P-Selectin, TM, TPO and GPIIb/IIIa by
      immunoassays in two blood samples of 78 participants of the EPIC Heidelberg study
      (47-80years, 50% female) that were collected one year apart. Biological
      reproducibility of biomarker levels over time and associations with routine
      biochemistry parameters were assessed by Spearman's correlation coefficients.
      RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed good reproducibility over one year for two
      of the analyzed markers, with Spearman coefficients of rho=0.80 (P-Selectin) and
      rho=0.73 (TPO) and reasonable reproducibility for TM (rho=0.63) and GPIIb/IIIa
      (rho=0.51). Levels of P-Selectin, TM, TPO and GPIIb/IIIa were not significantly
      associated with routine biochemistry parameters, such as glucose, HbA1c, LDL,
      HDL, Triglycerides and CRP. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a single
      assessment of P-Selectin, TM, TPO and GPIIb/IIIa at baseline in prospective
      epidemiological studies is appropriate to investigate associations between
      platelet activation and risks of chronic diseases.

PMID- 28571972
TI  - Discovery of Novel and Potent Stearoyl Coenzyme A Desaturase 1 (SCD1) Inhibitors
      as Anticancer Agents.
AB  - A lead compound A was identified previously as an stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase
      (SCD) inhibitor during research on potential treatments for obesity. This
      compound showed high SCD1 binding affinity, but a poor pharmacokinetic (PK)
      profile and limited chemical accessibility, making it suboptimal for use in
      anticancer research. To identify potent SCD1 inhibitors with more promising PK
      profiles, we newly designed a series of 'non-spiro' 4, 4-disubstituted piperidine
      derivatives based on molecular modeling studies. As a result, we discovered
      compound 1a, which retained moderate SCD1 binding affinity. Optimization around
      1a was accelerated by analyzing Hansch-Fujita and Hammett constants to obtain 4
      phenyl-4-(trifluoromethyl)piperidine derivative 1n. Fine-tuning of the azole
      moiety of 1n led to compound 1o (T-3764518), which retained nanomolar affinity
      and exhibited an excellent PK profile. Reflecting the good potency and PK
      profile, orally administrated compound 1o showed significant pharmacodynamic (PD)
      marker reduction (at 0.3mg/kg, bid) in HCT116 mouse xenograft model and tumor
      growth suppression (at 1mg/kg, bid) in 786-O mouse xenograft model. In
      conclusion, we identified a new series of SCD1 inhibitors, represented by
      compound 1o, which represents a promising new chemical tool suitable for the
      study of SCD1 biology as well as the potential development of novel anticancer
      therapies.

PMID- 28571973
TI  - Development of novel N-3-bromoisoxazolin-5-yl substituted 2,3-benzodiazepines as
      noncompetitive AMPAR antagonists.
AB  - In this work, we designed and synthesized novel N-3-bromoisoxazolin-5-yl
      substituted 2,3-benzodiazepines as noncompetitive AMPAR antagonists, with the aim
      that this heterocycle could establish favourable interactions with a putative
      binding pocket of the receptor, like the thiadiazole nucleus of GYKI 47409 does.
      Within this investigation, we identified some active molecules and, among these
      2,3-benzodiazepines, 4c showed a much improved inhibitory potency as compared
      with unsubstituted 2,3-benzodiazepines.

PMID- 28571974
TI  - Effect of the 3-halo substitution of the 2'-deoxy aminopyridinyl-pseudocytidine
      derivatives on the selectivity and stability of antiparallel triplex DNA with a
      CG inversion site.
AB  - Triplex formation against a target duplex DNA has the potential to become a tool
      for the genome research. However, there is an intrinsic restriction on the duplex
      DNA sequences capable of forming the triplex DNA. Recently, we demonstrated the
      selective formation of the stable antiparallel triplexes containing the CG
      inversion sites using the 2'-deoxy-1-methylpseudocytidine derivative (PsidC),
      whose amino group was conjugated with the 2-aminopyridine at its 5-position as an
      additional hydrogen bonding unit (AP-PsidC). The 1-N of 2-aminopyridine was
      supposed to be protonated to form the hydrogen bond with the guanine of the CG
      inversion site. In this study, to test the effect of the 3-substitution of the 2
      aminopyridine unit of AP-PsidC on the triplex stability, we synthesized the 3
      halogenated 2-aminopyridine derivatives of AP-PsidC. The pKa values 1-N of the 2
      aminopyridine unit of AP-PsidC as the monomer nucleoside were determined to be
      6.3 for 3-CH3 (MeAP-PsidC), 6.1 for 3-H (AP-PsidC), 4.3 for 3-Cl (ClAP-PsidC),
      4.4 for 3-Br (BrAP-PsidC), and 4.7 for 3-I (IAP-PsidC), suggesting that all the
      halogenated AP-PsidCs are not protonated under neutral conditions. Interestingly,
      although the recognition selectivity depends on the sequence context, the TFO
      having the sequence of the 3'-G-(IAP-PsidC)-A-5' context showed the selective
      triplex formation with the CG inversion site. These results suggest that the
      protonation at the 1-N position plays an important role in the stable and
      selective triplex formation of AP-PsidC derivatives in any sequences.

PMID- 28571975
TI  - Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and biological evaluation of
      unsymmetrical aminosquarylium cyanine dyes.
AB  - New unsymmetrical aminosquarylium cyanine dyes were synthesized and their
      potential as photosensitizers evaluated. New dyes, derived from benzothiazole and
      quinoline, were prepared by nucleophilic substitution of the corresponding O
      methylated, the key intermediate that was obtained by methylation with CF3SO3CH3
      of the related zwitterionic unsymmetrical dye, with ammonia and methylamine,
      respectively. All three news dyes herein described displayed intense and narrow
      bands in the Vis/NIR region (693-714nm) and their singlet oxygen formation
      quantum yields ranged from 0.03 to 0.05. In vitro toxicity, in Caco-2 and HepG2
      cells, indicated that dark toxicity was absent for concentrations up to 5uM (for
      the less active dye) or up to 1uM (for the two more active dyes). The three dyes
      present potential as photosensitizers, differing in irradiation conditions and
      period of incubation in the presence of irradiated dye. The less active dye needs
      a longer irradiation period to exhibit phototoxicity which is only evident after
      longer period of contact with cells (24h). However, the remaining two more active
      dyes produce higher phototoxicity, even at shorter incubation periods (1h), with
      shorter irradiation time (7min). Although in different extents, these dyes show
      promising in vitro results as photosensitizers.

PMID- 28571977
TI  - The systematic review of TCE cardiac defects (Makris et al., 2016).

PMID- 28571976
TI  - Reliability of the diaphragmatic compound muscle action potential evoked by
      cervical magnetic stimulation and recorded via chest wall surface EMG.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stimulation of the phrenic nerve via cervical magnetic stimulation
      (CMS) elicits a compound muscle action potential (CMAP) that allows for
      assessment of diaphragm activation. The reliability of CMS to evoke the CMAP
      recorded by chest wall surface EMG has yet to be comprehensively examined.
      METHODS: CMS was performed on healthy young males (n=10) and females (n=10).
      Surface EMG electrodes were placed on the right and left hemi-diaphragm between
      the 6-8th intercostal spaces. CMAPs were analysed for: latency, duration, peak-to
      peak amplitude, and area. Reliability within and between experimental sessions
      was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Bilateral (right
      left) and sex-based (male-female) comparisons were also made (independent samples
      t-test). RESULTS: All CMAP characteristics demonstrated high reproducibility
      within (ICCs>0.96) and between (ICCs>0.89) experimental sessions. No
      statistically significant bilateral or sex-based differences were found (p>0.05).
      DISCUSSION: CMS is a reliable and non-invasive method to evaluate phrenic nerve
      conduction.

PMID- 28571978
TI  - Functional effects of diphosphomimetic mutations at cAbl-mediated phosphorylation
      sites on Rad51 recombinase activity.
AB  - Homologous Recombination enables faithful repair of the deleterious double strand
      breaks of DNA. This pathway relies on Rad51 to catalyze homologous DNA strand
      exchange. Rad51 is known to be phosphorylated in a sequential manner on Y315 and
      then on Y54, but the effect of such phosphorylation on Rad51 function remains
      poorly understood. We have developed a phosphomimetic model in order to study all
      the phosphorylation states. With the purified phosphomimetic proteins we
      performed in vitro assays to determine the activity of Rad51. Here we demonstrate
      the inhibitory effect of the double phosphomimetic mutant and suggest that it may
      be due to a defect in nucleofilament formation.

PMID- 28571979
TI  - Impact of high-fat diet on the intestinal microbiota and small intestinal
      physiology before and after the onset of obesity.
AB  - The modulation of the intestinal microbiota by high-fat diet (HFD) has a major
      impact on both immunological and metabolic functions of the host. Taking this
      into consideration, the aim of this contribution is to review the impact of HFD
      on microbiota profile and small intestinal physiology before and after the onset
      of obesity and its metabolic complications. Evidence from animal studies suggest
      that before the onset of obesity and its metabolic complications, HFD induces
      intestinal dysbiosis - encompassing changes in composition balance and massive
      redistribution with bacteria occupying intervillous spaces and crypts -
      associated with early physiopathological changes, predominantly in the ileum,
      such as low-grade inflammation, decreased antimicrobial peptides expression,
      impaired mucus production, secretion and layer's thickness, and decreased
      expression of tight junction proteins. With time, major inflammatory signals
      (e.g. toll-like receptor-4 dependent) become activated, thereby stimulating
      proinflammatory cytokines secretion in the small intestine. This inflammatory
      state might subsequently exacerbate disruption of the mucus layer barrier and
      increase epithelial permeability of the small intestine, thereby creating an
      environment that facilitates the passage of bacterial components (e.g.
      lipopolysaccharide, peptidoglycan and flagellin) and metabolites from the
      intestinal lumen (e.g. secondary bile acids) to the circulation and peripheral
      tissues (i.e. leaky gut), eventually promoting the development of systemic
      inflammation, obesity, adiposity, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance
      preceding hyperglycemia. Although the mechanisms are still not completely
      understood, prebiotics, probiotics, polyphenols, peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma agonists (such as rosiglitazone) and exercise have been
      shown to reverse HFD-induced intestinal phenotype and to attenuate the severity
      of obesity and its associated metabolic complications.

PMID- 28571980
TI  - Effectiveness of cleaning-disinfection wipes and sprays against multidrug
      resistant outbreak strains.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital rooms play an important role in the transmission of several
      health care-associated pathogens. During the last few years, a number of
      innovative cleaning-disinfecting products have been brought to market. In this
      study, commercially available products combining cleaning and disinfection were
      compared, using 2 different application methods. The aim was to determine which
      product was most effective in simultaneous cleaning and disinfection of surfaces.
      METHODS: Seven cleaning-disinfecting wipes and sprays based on different active
      ingredients were tested for their efficacy in removal of microbial burden and
      proteins. Efficacy was tested with known Dutch outbreak strains: vancomycin
      resistant enterococci (VRE), Klebsiella pneumoniae OXA-48, or Acinetobacter
      baumannii. RESULTS: For all bacteria, ready-to-use cleaning-disinfecting products
      reduced the microbial count with a log10 reduction >5 with a 5-minute exposure
      time, with the exception of a spray based on hydrogen peroxide. Omitting the
      aforementioned hydrogen peroxide spray, there were no significant differences
      between use of a wipe or spray in bacterial load reduction. Using adenosine
      triphosphate (ATP) measurements, a significant difference in log10 relative light
      units (RLU) reduction between various bacteria (P <= .001) was observed.
      CONCLUSIONS: In general, a >5 log10 reduction of colony forming units (CFU) for
      tested wipes and sprays was obtained for all tested bacteria strains, with
      exception of hydrogen peroxide spray and VRE. Although ATP may show a difference
      between pre- and postcleaning, RLU reduction does not correlate with actual CFU
      reductions.

PMID- 28571981
TI  - Outbreak of CTX-M-15-producing Enterobacter cloacae associated with therapeutic
      beds and syphons in an intensive care unit.
AB  - An outbreak of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacter cloacae
      (ESBL-ECL) occurred in our intensive care unit (ICU) and involved 18 patients (8
      infected and 10 colonized). The mean age of patients was 69 years, and all
      infected patients had underlying medical conditions. Within hours' recognition of
      the spread of ESBL-ECL, the infection control team requested for staff education,
      reinforcement of infection control measures, and environmental screening. New
      transmissions were observed in the institution after weeks of enhanced infection
      control measures. Microbial swabbing revealed bacterial contamination of some
      mattresses and syphons with epidemiologic links between environmental, screening,
      and clinical isolates. This outbreak resulted in the temporary closure of the ICU
      for complete biocleaning.

PMID- 28571982
TI  - Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae at a low prevalence tertiary care center:
      Patient-level risk factors and implications for an infection prevention strategy.
AB  - Limited treatment options and a growing global threat from carbapenem-resistant
      Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections illustrate the importance of understanding
      the epidemiology of CRE. Using a retrospective chart review and point prevalence
      testing demonstrated specific patient risk factors for CRE-positive clinical
      cultures in a tertiary medical center with a low CRE prevalence.

PMID- 28571983
TI  - Trained-user opinion about Welfare Quality measures and integrated scoring of
      dairy cattle welfare.
AB  - The Welfare Quality (WQ) protocol for on-farm dairy cattle welfare assessment
      describes 27 measures and a stepwise method for integrating values for these
      measures into 11 criteria scores, grouped further into 4 principle scores and
      finally into an overall welfare categorization with 4 levels. We conducted an
      online survey to examine whether trained users' opinions of the WQ protocol for
      dairy cattle correspond with the integrated scores (criteria, principles, and
      overall categorization) calculated according to the WQ protocol. First, the
      trained users' scores (n = 8-15) for reliability and validity and their ranking
      of the importance of all measures for herd welfare were compared with the degree
      of actual effect of these measures on the WQ integrated scores. Logistic
      regression was applied to identify the measures that affected the WQ overall
      welfare categorization into the "not classified" or "enhanced" categories for a
      database of 491 European herds. The smallest multivariate model maintaining the
      highest percentage of both sensitivity and specificity for the "enhanced"
      category contained 6 measures, whereas the model for "not classified" contained 4
      measures. Some of the measures that were ranked as least important by trained
      users (e.g., measures relating to drinkers) had the highest influence on the WQ
      overall welfare categorization. Conversely, measures rated as most important by
      the trained users (e.g., lameness and mortality) had a lower effect on the WQ
      overall category. In addition, trained users were asked to allocate criterion and
      overall welfare scores to 7 focal herds selected from the database (n = 491
      herds). Data on all WQ measures for these focal herds relative to all other herds
      in the database were provided. The degree to which expert scores corresponded to
      each other, the systematic difference, and the correspondence between median
      trained-user opinion and the WQ criterion scores were then tested. The level of
      correspondence between expert scoring and WQ scoring for 6 of the 12 criteria and
      for the overall welfare score was low. The WQ scores of the protocol for dairy
      cattle thus lacked correspondence with trained users on the importance of several
      welfare measures.

PMID- 28571984
TI  - Processing characteristics of dairy cow milk are moderately heritable.
AB  - Milk processing attributes represent a group of milk quality traits that are
      important to the dairy industry to inform product portfolio. However, because of
      the resources required to routinely measure such quality traits, precise genetic
      parameter estimates from a large population of animals are lacking for these
      traits. Milk processing characteristics considered in the present study-rennet
      coagulation time, curd-firming time, curd firmness at 30 and 60 min after rennet
      addition, heat coagulation time, casein micelle size, and milk pH-were all
      estimated using mid-infrared spectroscopy prediction equations. Variance
      components for these traits were estimated using 136,807 test-day records from 5
      to 305 d in milk (DIM) from 9,824 cows using random regressions to model the
      additive genetic and within-lactation permanent environmental variances.
      Heritability estimates ranged from 0.18 +/- 0.01 (26 DIM) to 0.38 +/- 0.02 (180
      DIM) for rennet coagulation time; from 0.26 +/- 0.02 (5 DIM) to 0.57 +/- 0.02
      (174 DIM) for curd-firming time; from 0.16 +/- 0.01 (30 DIM) to 0.56 +/- 0.02
      (271 DIM) for curd firmness at 30 min; from 0.13 +/- 0.01 (30 DIM) to 0.48 +/-
      0.02 (271 DIM) for curd firmness at 60 min; from 0.08 +/- 0.01 (17 DIM) to 0.24
      +/- 0.01 (180 DIM) for heat coagulation time; from 0.23 +/- 0.02 (30 DIM) to 0.43
      +/- 0.02 (261 DIM) for casein micelle size; and from 0.20 +/- 0.01 (30 DIM) to
      0.36 +/- 0.02 (151 DIM) for milk pH. Within-trait genetic correlations across DIM
      weakened as the number of days between compared intervals increased but were
      mostly >0.4 except between the peripheries of the lactation. Eigenvalues and
      associated eigenfunctions of the additive genetic covariance matrix for all
      traits revealed that at least the 80% of the genetic variation among animals in
      lactation profiles was associated with the height of the lactation profile. Curd
      firming time and curd firmness at 30 min were weakly to moderately genetically
      correlated with milk yield (from 0.33 +/- 0.05 to 0.59 +/- 0.05 for curd-firming
      time, and from -0.62 +/- 0.03 to -0.21 +/- 0.06 for curd firmness at 30 min).
      Milk protein concentration was strongly genetically correlated with curd firmness
      at 30 min (0.84 +/- 0.02 to 0.94 +/- 0.01) but only weakly genetically correlated
      with milk heat coagulation time (-0.27 +/- 0.07 to 0.19 +/- 0.06). Results from
      the present study indicate the existence of exploitable genetic variation for
      milk processing characteristics. Because of possible indirect deterioration in
      milk processing characteristics due to selection for greater milk yield, emphasis
      on milk processing characteristics is advised.

PMID- 28571985
TI  - Host-pathogen interactions in bovine mammary epithelial cells and HeLa cells by
      Staphylococcus aureus isolated from subclinical bovine mastitis.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen that causes subclinical bovine
      mastitis due to several virulence factors. In this study, we analyzed S. aureus
      isolates collected from the milk of cows with subclinical mastitis that had 8
      possible combinations of bap, icaA, and icaD genes, to determine their capacity
      to produce biofilm on biotic (bovine primary mammary epithelial cells and HeLa
      cells) and abiotic (polystyrene microplates) surfaces, and their ability to
      adhere to and invade these cells. We also characterized isolates for microbial
      surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMM) and agr genes,
      and for their susceptibility to cefquinome sulfate in the presence of biofilm.
      All isolates adhered to and invaded both cell types, but invasion indexes were
      higher in bovine primary mammary epithelial cells. Using tryptic soy broth + 1%
      glucose on abiotic surfaces, 5 out of 8 isolates were biofilm producers, but only
      the bap+icaA+icaD+ isolate was positive in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium.
      The production of biofilm on biotic surfaces occurred only with this isolate and
      only on HeLa cells, because the invasion index for bovine primary mammary
      epithelial cells was too high, making it impossible to use these cells in this
      assay. Of the 5 biofilm producers in tryptic soy broth + 1% glucose, 4 presented
      with the bap/fnbA/clfA/clfB/eno/fib/ebpS combination, and all were protected from
      cefquinome sulfate. We found no predominance of any agr group. The high invasive
      potential of S. aureus made it impossible to observe biofilm in bovine primary
      mammary epithelial cells, and we concluded that cells with lower invasion rates,
      such as HeLa cells, were more appropriate for this assay.

PMID- 28571986
TI  - Characterization of the variability and repeatability of gonadotropin-releasing
      hormone-induced luteinizing hormone responses in dairy cows within a synchronized
      ovulation protocol.
AB  - The primary objective was to determine the variability and repeatability of GnRH
      induced LH responses. The secondary objective was to evaluate the associations
      among plasma LH, FSH, estradiol (E2), and progesterone (P4) concentrations. One
      hundred lactating Holstein cows (35 primiparous, 65 multiparous) were initially
      subjected to a presynchronization protocol (d 0, PGF2alpha; d 3, GnRH) followed 7
      d later by Ovsynch (d 10, GnRH; d 17, PGF2alpha; 56 h later, GnRH) and timed
      artificial insemination 16 h after the last GnRH. Blood samples were collected
      immediately before the GnRH injection of presynchronization and the second GnRH
      of Ovsynch to determine plasma concentrations of LH, FSH, and P4. A second blood
      sample was collected 2 h after each of the above GnRH injections to determine
      GnRH-induced LH and FSH concentrations. Plasma concentrations of E2 were also
      determined in samples collected immediately before the second GnRH of Ovsynch.
      Cows that (1) had higher LH concentrations at 0 h than at 2 h after GnRH, (2)
      showed an ongoing spontaneous LH surge, (3) did not respond to GnRH, and (4) had
      P4 >= 0.5 ng/mL at GnRH of presynchronization and the second GnRH of Ovsynch were
      excluded from the analysis. The variability (coefficient of variation) and
      repeatability [between animal variance/(within animal variance + between animal
      variance)] of GnRH-induced LH response were determined from samples collected 2 h
      after the GnRH of presynchronization and the second GnRH of Ovsynch. The
      associations among plasma LH, FSH, E2, and P4 were determined at the second GnRH
      of Ovsynch. Mean (+/-SEM) LH concentrations before GnRH were 0.5 +/- 0.04 and 0.6
      +/- 0.03 ng/mL, whereas mean LH concentrations 2 h after GnRH were 9.8 +/- 1.0
      and 12.1 +/- 0.8 ng/mL at GnRH of presynchronization and the second GnRH of
      Ovsynch, respectively. The variability of GnRH-induced LH was 76.1 and 52.1% at
      GnRH of presynchronization and the second GnRH of Ovsynch, respectively. The
      repeatability estimate for GnRH-induced LH concentration between GnRH of
      presynchronization and Ovsynch assessments was 0.10. Plasma concentrations of LH
      were positively associated with FSH and E2 (r = 0.61 and 0.30, respectively) and
      negatively associated with P4 (r = -0.46) at the second GnRH of Ovsynch. In
      summary, GnRH-induced LH responses were highly variable and unrepeatable, and LH
      concentrations were positively associated with FSH and E2 and negatively
      associated with P4.

PMID- 28571987
TI  - A survey of dairy calf management practices among farms using manual and
      automated milk feeding systems in Canada.
AB  - Dairy calves in North America traditionally are housed individually and fed by
      manual milk feeding (MMF) systems with buckets or bottles. Automated milk feeders
      (AMF) allow for more natural milk feeding frequencies and volumes, and calves are
      usually housed in groups. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the
      prevalence of various milk-fed calf management and feeding practices and (2)
      compare these practices between dairy farms using MMF and AMF systems. A national
      online survey was performed from January to May 2015 to quantify management
      practices for the care of milk-fed dairy calves in Canada. A total of 670
      responses were received (6% of all dairy farms in Canada). Among respondents, 16%
      used AMF and 84% used MMF. Seventy percent of the farms using AMF had freestall
      barns compared with only 48% of those using MMF. A greater proportion of AMF
      farms (30%) also had automatic milking systems (AMS) compared with MMF farms
      (8%). Among tiestall farms, a herd size of >80 milking cows was associated with
      having an AMF [odds ratio (OR) = 3.8; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.6-11.4].
      For freestall or bedded-pack farms, a herd size of >80 milking cows (OR = 3.5;
      CI: 1.8-6.6), having an AMS (OR = 3.1; CI: 1.6-5.7), and use of cow brushes (OR =
      3.1; CI: 1.3-6.9) were associated with having an AMF. Calves fed with AMS
      typically were housed in groups of 10 to 15, whereas almost 76% of the farms with
      MMF housed calves individually. Although both AMF and MMF farms fed similar
      amounts of milk in the first week of life (median = 6 L/d), the cumulative volume
      fed in the first 4 wk differed significantly, with a median of 231 versus 182 L
      for AMF and MMF, respectively. Median peak milk allowance was higher for AMF than
      for MMF (10 vs. 8 L/d, respectively). In summary, farms using AMF were larger,
      provided more milk to calves, and used more automation in general (i.e., in other
      areas of their operation). These data provide insights into calf-rearing
      practices across Canada and into how the use of AMF is affecting calf feeding and
      management on dairy farms.

PMID- 28571989
TI  - An attempt at predicting blood beta-hydroxybutyrate from Fourier-transform mid
      infrared spectra of milk using multivariate mixed models in Polish dairy cattle.
AB  - Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectra of milk are commonly used for
      phenotyping of traits of interest through links developed between the traits and
      milk FT-MIR spectra. Predicted traits are then used in genetic analysis for
      ultimate phenotypic prediction using a single-trait mixed model that account for
      cows' circumstances at a given test day. Here, this approach is referred to as
      indirect prediction (IP). Alternatively, FT-MIR spectral variable can be kept
      multivariate in the form of factor scores in REML and BLUP analyses. These BLUP
      predictions, including phenotype (predicted factor scores), were converted to
      single-trait through calibration outputs; this method is referred to as direct
      prediction (DP). The main aim of this study was to verify whether mixed modeling
      of milk spectra in the form of factors scores (DP) gives better prediction of
      blood beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) than the univariate approach (IP). Models to
      predict blood BHB from milk spectra were also developed. Two data sets that
      contained milk FT-MIR spectra and other information on Polish dairy cattle were
      used in this study. Data set 1 (n = 826) also contained BHB measured in blood
      samples, whereas data set 2 (n = 158,028) did not contain measured blood values.
      Part of data set 1 was used to calibrate a prediction model (n = 496) and the
      remaining part of data set 1 (n = 330) was used to validate the calibration
      models, as well as to evaluate the DP and IP approaches. Dimensions of FT-MIR
      spectra in data set 2 were reduced either into 5 or 10 factor scores (DP) or into
      a single trait (IP) with calibration outputs. The REML estimates for these factor
      scores were found using WOMBAT. The BLUP values and predicted BHB for
      observations in the validation set were computed using the REML estimates. Blood
      BHB predicted from milk FT-MIR spectra by both approaches were regressed on
      reference blood BHB that had not been used in the model development. Coefficients
      of determination in cross-validation for untransformed blood BHB were from 0.21
      to 0.32, whereas that for the log-transformed BHB were from 0.31 to 0.38. The
      corresponding estimates in validation were from 0.29 to 0.37 and 0.21 to 0.43,
      respectively, for untransformed and logarithmic BHB. Contrary to expectation,
      slightly better predictions of BHB were found when univariate variance structure
      was used (IP) than when multivariate covariance structures were used (DP).
      Conclusive remarks on the importance of keeping spectral data in multivariate
      form for prediction of phenotypes may be found in data sets where the trait of
      interest has strong relationships with spectral variables.

PMID- 28571988
TI  - Seasonal and regional occurrence of heat-resistant spore-forming bacteria in the
      course of ultra-high temperature milk production in Tunisia.
AB  - Spore-forming bacteria, principally Bacillus species, are important contaminants
      of milk. Because of their high heat resistance, Bacillus species spores are
      capable of surviving the heat treatment process of milk and lead to spoilage of
      the final product. To determine the factors influencing the contamination of
      milk, spore-forming bacteria occurrence throughout the UHT milk production line
      during winter, spring, and summer was studied. The obtained results confirm that
      the total viable rate decreases rapidly throughout the production line of UHT
      milk showing the efficiency of thermal treatments used. However, the persistent
      high rate of spore-forming bacteria indicates their high heat resistance,
      especially in spring and summer. In addition, a significant variation of the
      quality of raw milk according to the location of the collecting centers was
      revealed. The molecular identification showed a high degree of diversity of heat
      resistant Bacillus species, which are isolated from different milk samples. The
      distribution of Bacillus species in raw milk, stored milk, bactofuged milk,
      pasteurized milk, and UHT milk were 28, 10, 16, 13, and 33%, respectively. Six
      Bacillus spp. including Bacillus licheniformis (52.38%), Bacillus pumilus
      (9.52%), Bacillus sp. (4.76%), Bacillus sporothermodurans (4.76%), Terribacillus
      aidingensis (4.76%), and Paenibacillus sp. (4.76%) were identified in different
      milk samples.

PMID- 28571990
TI  - Optimal ratios of essential amino acids stimulate beta-casein synthesis via
      activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway in MAC-T cells
      and bovine mammary tissue explants.
AB  - Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and serve as key molecular
      components upstream of the signaling pathways that regulate protein synthesis.
      The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the effect of
      essential AA ratios on milk protein synthesis in vitro and to elucidate some of
      the underlying mechanisms. Triplicate cultures of MAC-T cells and bovine mammary
      tissue explants (MTE) were incubated with the optimal AA ratio (OPAA; Lys:Met,
      2.9:1; Thr:Phe, 1.05:1; Lys:Thr, 1.8:1; Lys:His, 2.38:1; and Lys:Val, 1.23:1) in
      the presence of rapamycin (control), OPAA, a Lys:Thr ratio of 2.1:1, a Lys:Thr
      ratio of 1.3:1, a Lys:His ratio of 3.05:1, or a Lys:Val ratio of 1.62:1 for 12 h;
      the other AA concentrations were equal to OPAA. In some experiments, the cells
      were cultured with OPAA with or without rapamycin (100 ng/mL) or with mammalian
      target of rapamycin (mTOR) small interference RNA, and the MTE were exposed to
      OPAA with rapamycin for beta-casein expression. Among the treatments, the
      expression of beta-casein was greatest in the MTE cultured with OPAA. In MAC-T
      cells, the OPAA upregulated the mRNA expression of SLC1A5 and SLC7A5 but
      downregulated the expression of IRS1, AKT3, EEF1A1, and EEF2 compared with the
      control. The OPAA had no effect on the mTOR phosphorylation status but increased
      the phosphorylation of S6K1 and RPS6. When the MTE were treated with rapamycin in
      the presence of OPAA, the expression of beta-casein was markedly decreased. The
      phosphorylation of RPS6 and 4EBP1 also was reduced in MAC-T cells. A similar
      negative effect on the expression of RPS6KB1 and EIF4EBP1 was detected when the
      cells were cultured with either rapamycin or mTOR small interference RNA. The
      optimal AA ratio stimulated beta-casein expression partly by enhancing the
      transport of AA into the cells, cross-talk with insulin signaling and a
      subsequent enhancement of mTOR signaling, or translation elongation in both MAC-T
      cells and bovine MTE.

PMID- 28571991
TI  - Short communication: Use of fecal starch concentration as an indicator of dry
      feed digestion in preweaned dairy calves.
AB  - Fecal starch (FS) has been used as a tool to evaluate starch and diet
      digestibility in lactating dairy cows and feedlot steers. Some on-farm advisors
      also use FS to evaluate calf starter digestibility in preweaned dairy calves. Our
      objective was to evaluate the influence of starter intake (SI), starch and
      organic matter digestibility, milk replacer (MR) feeding rate, and age on FS
      concentrations in preweaned dairy calves. Male Holstein calves (43 +/- 2.9 kg of
      body weight; n = 35) from a single farm were fed different amounts of MR ranging
      from 0.44 to 1.10 kg of dry matter (DM) daily (27% crude protein, 17% fat) and
      weaned by 7 wk of age. Starter ingredient composition was 37% whole corn, 20%
      whole oats, 35% protein pellet, and 3% molasses and contained 43 +/- 1.9% starch.
      Fecal grab samples were taken at 3 (n = 20), 6 (n = 20), and 8 wk (n = 35) of
      age. Twelve fecal samples per calf were taken via rectal palpation over a 5-d
      period each week, frozen daily, combined on an equal wet-weight basis, and
      subsampled for analysis. Chromic oxide was used as an external digestibility
      marker at 3 and 6 wk (included in MR), whereas acid-insoluble ash was used as an
      internal marker at 8 wk. Milk replacer and starter intakes (offered and refused)
      were recorded daily during collection periods. Multiple and linear regression of
      organic matter digestibility (% of DM), total-tract starch digestibility (TTSD; %
      of DM), MR intake (kg/d), SI (kg/d), and age (week) versus FS (% of fecal DM)
      were determined using PROC REG of SAS (version 9.2, SAS Institute Inc., Cary,
      NC). Prior to weaning, SI, age, and MR rate explained 89% of the variation in
      TTSD, where TTSD = [19.7 * SI (+/-4.25)] + [3.8 * age (+/-0.79)] - [24.8 * MR (+/
      3.19)] + 56.2 (+/-3.39). At 3 wk of age, TTSD increased (coefficient of
      determination = 0.53) and SI decreased (coefficient of determination = 0.20) with
      increasing FS. At 6 wk of age, TTSD and SI were unrelated to FS. In 8-wk-old
      calves (with 2 trials), SI, MR rate, FS, and trial explained 92% of the variation
      in TTSD, where TTSD = -[2.6 * SI (+/-0.67)] - [2.4 * MR (+/-0.56)] - [0.6 * FS
      (+/-0.04)] + [1.1 * trial (+/-0.33)] + 100.4 (+/-1.02). Postweaning, TTSD
      decreased linearly as FS increased (coefficient of determination = 0.86), whereas
      FS and SI were unrelated, a relationship in contrast to the previously observed
      result in calves still consuming milk replacer. In the current study, FS was not
      a good estimate of TTSD or dry feed intake in the preweaned calf, but has
      potential for evaluating TTSD in calves after weaning.

PMID- 28571992
TI  - Rapid consumer-based sensory characterization of requeijao cremoso, a spreadable
      processed cheese: Performance of new statistical approaches to evaluate check-all
      that-apply data.
AB  - We investigated the performance of multidimensional alignment analysis and
      multidimensional scaling on phi coefficient values to evaluate check-all-that
      apply questionnaire data. We evaluated 6 dairy foods belonging to the category of
      requeijao cremoso processed cheese (traditional, with starch, or with starch and
      vegetable fat). We obtained sensory descriptors using trained assessors in
      descriptive analysis for comparison. A check-all-that-apply questionnaire used
      with 121 consumers (77 women and 44 men; 18 to 57 yr old) proved to be a suitable
      alternative for sensory profiling, providing descriptions similar to descriptive
      analysis and discriminating between products. Multidimensional alignment analysis
      and multidimensional scaling were efficient and logical approaches for obtaining
      a deeper understanding of the data, allowing us to clarify the relationships
      between sensory descriptors and products and contribute to optimizing the
      different formulations of requeijao cremoso.

PMID- 28571993
TI  - Genetic parameters of blood beta-hydroxybutyrate predicted from milk infrared
      spectra and clinical ketosis, and their associations with milk production traits
      in Norwegian Red cows.
AB  - The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for blood beta
      hydroxybutyrate (BHB) predicted from milk spectra and for clinical ketosis (KET),
      and to examine genetic association of blood BHB with KET and milk production
      traits (milk, fat, protein, and lactose yields, and milk fat, protein, and
      lactose contents). Data on milk traits, KET, and milk spectra were obtained from
      the Norwegian Dairy Herd Recording System with legal permission from TINE SA (As,
      Norway), the Norwegian Dairy Association that manages the central database. Data
      recorded up to 120 d after calving were considered. Blood BHB was predicted from
      milk spectra using a calibration model developed based on milk spectra and blood
      BHB measured in Polish dairy cows. The predicted blood BHB was grouped based on
      days in milk into 4 groups and each group was considered as a trait. The milk
      components for test-day milk samples were obtained by Fourier transform mid
      infrared spectrometer with previously developed calibration equations from Foss
      (Hillerod, Denmark). Veterinarian-recorded KET data within 15 d before calving to
      120 d after calving were used. Data were analyzed using univariate or bivariate
      linear animal models. Heritability estimates for predicted blood BHB at different
      stages of lactation were moderate, ranging from 0.250 to 0.365. Heritability
      estimate for KET from univariate analysis was 0.078, and the corresponding
      average estimate from bivariate analysis with BHB or milk production traits was
      0.002. Genetic correlations between BHB traits were higher for adjacent lactation
      intervals and decreased as intervals were further apart. Predicted blood BHB at
      first test day was moderately genetically correlated with KET (0.469) and milk
      traits (ranged from -0.367 with protein content to 0.277 with milk yield), except
      for milk fat content from across lactation stages that had near zero genetic
      correlation with BHB (0.033). These genetic correlations indicate that a lower
      BHB is genetically associated with higher milk protein and lactose contents, but
      with lower yields of milk, fat, protein, and lactose, and with lower frequency of
      KET. Estimates of genetic correlation of KET with milk production traits were
      from -0.333 (with protein content) to 0.178 (with milk yield). Blood BHB can
      routinely be predicted from milk spectra analyzed from test-day milk samples, and
      thereby provides a practical alternative for selecting cows with lower
      susceptibility to ketosis, even though the correlations are moderate.

PMID- 28571995
TI  - Is peritoneal dialysis feasible after laparotomy in children? A case-control
      series to compare outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the modality of choice for children with
      end-stage renal disease (ESRD) awaiting renal transplant; however, this option is
      sometimes avoided for those with previous laparotomy. The goal of this study was
      to compare the outcomes of PD in patients with and without previous laparotomy.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-four patients who had been started on peritoneal
      dialysis were retrospectively analysed. Group LAP consisted of six patients with
      previous laparotomy, and Group NO-LAP of 18 controls with either retroperitoneal
      or no abdominal surgery. The percentage of theoretical maximum volume of
      infusion, time to reach it, complications (infection and drainage difficulties),
      and number of catheters needed to finish therapy were analysed. RESULTS: The
      characteristics of patients and technique of insertion are presented in Table.
      The percentage of maximum theoretical volume of infusion was similar in both
      groups. Median of catheter survival was similar in both groups. Complications
      were divided into malfunction (slow drainage, obstruction or leak) and infection.
      Incidence of complications per catheter and per month of dialysis was ten times
      lower in Group NO-LAP. Peritoneal dialysis failed in one patient with recurrent
      intraperitoneal adhesions after adhesiolysis in Group LAP. CONCLUSION: Despite a
      higher incidence of complications (malfunction and infections), PD remains an
      acceptable option after laparotomy. In this series, it was sufficient in
      achieving adequate filtration in five patients.

PMID- 28571994
TI  - Acquisition of a second multi-drug resistance-encoding element by IncM1 plasmid
      pACM130 abolished conjugative transfer.
AB  - Within the IncM plasmid family there is a lineage that has a transposon Tn1721
      based multiple-resistance island inserted in the backbone gene mucB. So far, this
      group includes R1215, p202c, pIGT15, pARM26, and pACM1, from Europe and the USA.
      A new member of this group, pACM130, was isolated at the same American hospital
      as pACM1 and has a similar resistance island, but also carries a copy of Tn1331
      that interrupts the traY gene in the conjugation operon. The conjugative
      phenotype of this plasmid has been abolished, though pACM130 could be mobilized
      by an intact traY cloned into a laboratory vector and transformed into the same
      donor bacterium.

PMID- 28571996
TI  - The effect of the use of a TNF-alpha inhibitor in hypothermic machine perfusion
      on kidney function after transplantation.
AB  - One of the most important problems in transplantation medicine is the
      ischemia/reperfusion injury of the organs to be transplanted. The aim of the
      present study was to assess the effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)
      inhibitor etanercept on the machine perfusion hypothermia of renal allograft
      kidney function and organ perfusion. No statistically significant differences
      were found in the impact of the applied intervention on kidney machine perfusion
      during which the average flow and vascular resistance were evaluated. There were
      no statistically significant differences in the occurrence of delayed graft
      function (DGF). Fewer events in patients who received a kidney from the
      etanercept treated Group A compared to the patients who received a kidney from
      the control Group B were observed when comparing the functional DGF and
      occurrence of acute rejection episodes, however, there was no statistically
      significant difference. In summary, no effect of treatment with etanercept an
      inhibitor of TNF-alpha in a hypothermic machine perfusion on renal allograft
      renal survival and its perfusion were detected in this study. However, treatment
      of the isolated organ may be important for the future of transplantation
      medicine.

PMID- 28571997
TI  - Rationale and design of the ENhancing outcomes through Goal Assessment and
      Generating Engagement in Diabetes Mellitus (ENGAGE-DM) pragmatic trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Poor glycemic control among patients with diabetes may stem from poor
      medication and lifestyle adherence or a failure to appropriately intensify
      therapy. A patient-centered approach could discern the most likely possibility
      and would then, as appropriate, address patient barriers to non-adherence (using
      behavioral interviewing methods such as motivational interviewing) or help
      facilitate choices among treatment augmentation options (using methods such as
      shared decision-making). OBJECTIVE: To test the impact of a novel telephone-based
      patient-centered intervention on glycemic control for patients with poorly
      controlled diabetes. METHODS/DESIGN: ENGAGE-DM (ENhancing outcomes through Goal
      Assessment and Generating Engagement in Diabetes Mellitus) is a pragmatic trial
      of patients with poorly-controlled diabetes receiving treatment with an oral
      hypoglycemic agent. We randomized 1400 patients in a large health insurer to
      intervention or usual care. The intervention is delivered over the telephone by a
      pharmacist and consists of a 2-step process that integrates brief negotiated
      interviewing and shared decision-making to identify patient-concordant goals and
      options for enhancing patients' diabetes management. The trial's primary outcome
      is disease control, assessed using glycosylated hemoglobin values. Secondary
      outcomes include medication adherence measures, assessed using pharmacy claims
      data. CONCLUSIONS: This trial will determine whether a novel highly-scalable
      patient engagement strategy improves disease control and adherence to medications
      among individuals with poorly-controlled diabetes.

PMID- 28571998
TI  - [Henri Hartmann (1860-1952): Great master of 20th century colorectal surgery].

PMID- 28571999
TI  - Sex steroids and neurogenesis.
AB  - The brain has long been known as a dimorphic organ and as a target of sex
      steroids. It is also a site for their synthesis. Sex steroids in numerous ways
      can modify cerebral physiology, and along with many processes adult neurogenesis
      is also modulated by sex steroids. This review will focus on the effects of the
      main steroids, estrogens, androgens and progestogens, and unveil some aspects of
      their partly disclosed mechanisms of actions. Gonadal steroids act on different
      steps of neurogenesis: cell proliferation seems to be increased by estrogens
      only, while androgens and progestogens favor neuronal renewal by increasing cell
      survival; differentiation is a common target. Aging is characterized by a
      cognitive deficiency, paralleled by a decrease in the rate of neuronal renewal
      and in the levels of circulating gonadal hormones. Therefore, the effects of
      gonadal hormones on the aging brain are important to consider. The review will
      also be expanded to related molecules which are agonists to the nuclear
      receptors. Sex steroids can modify adult neuronal renewal and the extensive
      knowledge of their actions on neurogenesis is essential, as it can be a leading
      pathway to therapeutic perspectives.

PMID- 28572000
TI  - C-type lectin interacting with beta-integrin enhances hemocytic encapsulation in
      the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.
AB  - The encapsulation reaction in invertebrates is analogous to granuloma formation
      in vertebrates, and this reaction is severely compromised when ecdysone signaling
      is blocked. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the encapsulation
      reaction and its regulation by ecdysone remains obscure. In our previous study,
      we found that the C-type lectin HaCTL3, from the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa
      armigera, is involved in anti-bacterial immune response, acting as a pattern
      recognition receptor (PRR). In the current study, we demonstrate that HaCTL3 is
      involved in defense against parasites and directly binds to the surface of
      nematodes. Our in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that HaCTL3 enhances
      hemocytic encapsulation and melanization, whereas H. armigera beta-integrin
      (Habeta-integrin), located on the surface of hemocytes, participates in
      encapsulation. Additionally, co-immunoprecipitation experiments reveal HaCTL3
      interacts with Habeta-integrin, and knockdown of Habeta-integrin leads to reduced
      encapsulation of HaCTL3-coated beads. These results indicate that Habeta-integrin
      serves as a hemocytic receptor of HaCTL3 during the encapsulation reaction.
      Furthermore, we demonstrate that 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) treatment dramatically
      induces the expression of HaCTL3, and knockdown of the 20E receptor
      (EcR)/ultraspiracle (USP), abrogates this response. Overall, this study provides
      the first evidence of the presence of a hemocytic receptor (Habeta-integrin),
      that interacts with the PRR HaCTL3 to facilitate encapsulation reaction in
      insects and demonstrates the regulation of this process by the steroid hormone
      ecdysone.

PMID- 28572001
TI  - Quantitative FLAIR MRI in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      hyperintensity assessed visually in the corticospinal tract (CST) lacks
      sensitivity for a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We sought to
      explore a quantitative approach to fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR)
      MRI intensity across a range of ALS phenotypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty
      three classical ALS patients, 10 with a flail arm presentation, and six with
      primary lateral sclerosis underwent MRI at 3 Tesla. Comparisons of quantitative
      FLAIR intensity in the CST and corpus callosum were made between 21 healthy
      controls and within patient phenotypic subgroups, some of whom were studied
      longitudinally. RESULTS: Mean FLAIR intensity was greater in patient groups. The
      cerebral peduncle intensity provided the strongest subgroup classification. FLAIR
      intensity increased longitudinally. The rate of change of FLAIR within CST
      correlated with rate of decline in executive function and ALS functional rating
      score. CONCLUSIONS: FLAIR MRI encodes quantifiable information of potential
      diagnostic, stratification, and monitoring value.

PMID- 28572003
TI  - Radial access in cardiac catheterization: Can we do even better?

PMID- 28572004
TI  - alpha-Dystroglycan hypoglycosylation affects cell migration by influencing beta
      dystroglycan membrane clustering and filopodia length: A multiscale confocal
      microscopy analysis.
AB  - Dystroglycan (DG) serves as an adhesion complex linking the actin cytoskeleton to
      the extracellular matrix. DG is encoded by a single gene as a precursor, which is
      constitutively cleaved to form the alpha- and beta-DG subunits. alpha-DG is a
      peripheral protein characterized by an extensive glycosylation that is essential
      to bind laminin and other extracellular matrix proteins, while beta-DG binds the
      cytoskeleton proteins. The functional properties of DG depend on the correct
      glycosylation of alpha-DG and on the cross-talk between the two subunits. A
      reduction of alpha-DG glycosylation has been observed in muscular dystrophy and
      cancer while the inhibition of the interaction between alpha- and beta-DG is
      associated to aberrant post-translational processing of the complex. Here we used
      confocal microscopy based techniques to get insights into the influence of alpha
      DG glycosylation on the functional properties of the beta-DG, and its effects on
      cell migration. We used epithelial cells transfected with wild-type and with a
      mutated DG harboring the mutation T190M that has been recently associated to
      dystroglycanopathy. We found that alpha-DG hypoglycosylation, together with an
      increased protein instability, reduces the membrane dynamics of the beta-subunit
      and its clustering within the actin-rich domains, influencing cell migration and
      spontaneous cell movement. These results contribute to give novel insights into
      the involvement of aberrant glycosylation of DG in the developing of muscular
      dystrophy and tumor metastasis.

PMID- 28572002
TI  - Toward an international consensus-Integrating lipoprotein apheresis and new lipid
      lowering drugs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite advances in pharmacotherapy of lipid disorders, many
      dyslipidemic patients do not attain sufficient lipid lowering to mitigate risk of
      atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Several classes of novel lipid-lowering
      agents are being evaluated to reduce atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk.
      Lipoprotein apheresis (LA) is effective in acutely lowering the plasma
      concentrations of atherogenic lipoproteins including low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol and lipoprotein(a), and novel lipid-lowering drugs may dampen the
      lipid rebound effect of LA, with the possibility that LA frequency may be
      decreased, in some cases even be discontinued. SOURCES OF MATERIAL: This document
      builds on current American Society for Apheresis guidelines and, for the first
      time, makes recommendations from summarized data of the emerging lipid-lowering
      drug classes (inhibitors of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 or
      microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, high-density lipoprotein mimetic),
      including the available evidence on combination therapy with LA with respect to
      the management of patients with dyslipidemia. ABSTRACT OF FINDINGS:
      Recommendations for different indications are given based on the latest evidence.
      However, except for lomitapide in homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and
      alirocumab/evolocumab in heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia subjects,
      limited data are available on the effectiveness and safety of combination
      therapy. More studies on combining LA with novel lipid-lowering drugs are needed.
      CONCLUSION: Novel lipid-lowering agents have potential to improve the performance
      of LA, but more evidence is needed. The Multidisciplinary International Group for
      Hemapheresis TherapY and Metabolic DIsturbances Contrast scientific society aims
      to establish an international registry of clinical experience on LA combination
      therapy to expand the evidence on this treatment in individuals at high
      cardiovascular disease risk.

PMID- 28572005
TI  - Reelin protects from colon pathology by maintaining the intestinal barrier
      integrity and repressing tumorigenic genes.
AB  - We previously reported that reelin, an extracellular matrix protein first known
      for its key role in neuronal migration, reduces the susceptibility to dextran
      sulphate sodium (DSS)-colitis. The aim of the current study was to determine
      whether reelin protects from colorectal cancer and how reelin defends from colon
      pathology. In the colon of wild-type and of mice lacking reelin (reeler mice) we
      have analysed the: i) epithelium cell renewal processes, ii) morphology, iii)
      Sox9, Cdx2, Smad5, Cyclin D1, IL-6 and IFNgamma mRNA abundance in DSS-treated and
      untreated mice, and iv) development of azoxymethane/DSS-induced colorectal
      cancer, using histological and real time-PCR methodologies. The reeler mutation
      increases colitis-associated tumorigenesis, with increased tumours number and
      size. It also impairs the intestinal barrier because it reduces cell
      proliferation, migration, differentiation and apoptosis; decreases the number and
      maturation of goblet cells, and expands the intercellular space of the
      desmosomes. The intestinal barrier impairment might explain the increased
      susceptibility to colon pathology exhibited by the reeler mice and is at least
      mediated by the down-regulation of Sox9 and Cdx2. In response to DSS-colitis, the
      reeler colon increases the mRNA abundance of IL-6, Smad5 and Cyclin D1 and
      decreases that of IFNgamma, conditions that might result in the increased colitis
      associated tumorigenesis found in the reeler mice. In conclusion, the results
      highlight a role for reelin in maintaining intestinal epithelial cell homeostasis
      and providing resistance against colon pathology.

PMID- 28572006
TI  - Electroencephalographic and biochemical long-lasting abnormalities in animal
      model of febrile seizure.
AB  - Febrile seizures (FS) are convulsions associated with high body temperature. It
      has a high incidence in children from the age of 6months to 5years and may have
      adverse consequences in adulthood. The experimental model of FS could be induced
      in animals via hyperthermia. The present study was designed to investigate
      persistent electroencephalographic (EEG), neurochemical and behavioral
      alterations in adult animals that had experienced complex FS at their immature
      age. EEG signals were obtained from the cortex of both FS and control
      normothermic groups of animals. A spectrophotometric assay was carried out to
      determine oxidative stress parameters (malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, reduced
      glutathione) and acetylcholinesterase activity in the cortex and hippocampus of
      FS and control animals. Behavioral assessment of seizure threshold and severity
      were investigated via a sub-convulsive dose of nicotine in adult animals.
      Alterations in the oxidant/antioxidant system and AChE activity were obtained in
      the cortex and hippocampus of FS animals in comparison to control animals. EEG
      spectral analysis displayed significant changes in all EEG frequency bands. A
      decrease in seizure latency and an increase in seizure severity were also
      observed. The present study provides evidence for long-lasting abnormalities in
      the cortex and hippocampus of adult animals subjected to complex FS at their
      developmental age, which may be correlated to the underlying mechanism of
      epileptogenesis and its related co-morbidities.

PMID- 28572008
TI  - Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Type Symptoms Are Associated With Psychological
      Comorbidity, Reduced Quality of Life, and Health Care Use in Patients With
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28572007
TI  - Reading the mind in the touch: Neurophysiological specificity in the
      communication of emotions by touch.
AB  - Touch is central to interpersonal interactions. Touch conveys specific emotions
      about the touch provider, but it is not clear whether this is a purely socially
      learned function or whether it has neurophysiological specificity. In two
      experiments with healthy participants (N = 76 and 61) and one neuropsychological
      single case study, we investigated whether a type of touch characterised by
      peripheral and central neurophysiological specificity, namely the C tactile (CT)
      system, can communicate specific emotions and mental states. We examined the
      specificity of emotions elicited by touch delivered at CT-optimal (3cm/s) and CT
      suboptimal (18cm/s) velocities (Experiment 1) at different body sites which
      contain (forearm) vs. do not contain (palm of the hand) CT fibres (Experiment 2).
      Blindfolded participants were touched without any contextual cues, and were asked
      to identify the touch provider's emotion and intention. Overall, CT-optimal touch
      (slow, gentle touch on the forearm) was significantly more likely than other
      types of touch to convey arousal, lust or desire. Affiliative emotions such as
      love and related intentions such as social support were instead reliably elicited
      by gentle touch, irrespective of CT-optimality, suggesting that other top-down
      factors contribute to these aspects of tactile social communication. To explore
      the neural basis of this communication, we also tested this paradigm in a stroke
      patient with right perisylvian damage, including the posterior insular cortex,
      which is considered as the primary cortical target of CT afferents, but excluding
      temporal cortex involvement that has been linked to more affiliative aspects of
      CT-optimal touch. His performance suggested an impairment in 'reading' emotions
      based on CT-optimal touch. Taken together, our results suggest that the CT system
      can add specificity to emotional and social communication, particularly with
      regards to feelings of desire and arousal. On the basis of these findings, we
      speculate that its primary functional role may be to enhance the 'sensual
      salience' of tactile interactions.

PMID- 28572009
TI  - How to Gain Expertise in Translational Research During Training.

PMID- 28572010
TI  - Making Cancer Quiescent: SPDEF De-Cycles Beta-Catenin.

PMID- 28572011
TI  - Sno(RNA)wing and Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis.

PMID- 28572012
TI  - Defeating Cancer by Boosting the Adenoma Detection Rate: The Circle of Life.

PMID- 28572014
TI  - Recovery From Heavy Vocal Loading in Women With Different Degrees of Functional
      Voice Problems.
AB  - TYPE OF STUDY: This is a longitudinal, case-control clinical trial. OBJECTIVES:
      This study aims to track recovery time following a vocal loading task (VLT)
      imposing vocal fatigue and to explore if patients with functional dysphonia (FD)
      are worse affected by vocal loading, and if these patients take longer than
      others to recover. METHODS: Fifty (n = 50) female participants in four vocal
      subgroups on a spectrum of everyday vocal loading and functional voice
      complaints, including n = 20 patients with FD, took part in a clinical VLT,
      inflicting vocal fatigue through loud speech in ambient noise. Short-term
      recovery was explored through self-assessment of unspecified voice problems every
      15 minutes for 2 hours following loading. Long-term recovery was tracked through
      self-assessments of specific voice symptoms during 3 days following vocal
      loading. Effects of heavy vocal loading were evaluated through voice recordings,
      long-time-average spectrum, perceptual assessments, and assessments of digital
      imaging performed pre- and post vocal loading. RESULTS: Patients with FD did not
      return to baseline for unspecified voice problems within 2 hours of vocal loading
      and were worse affected by vocal loading than other groups. Women with high
      everyday vocal loading with no voice complaints identified vocal loading more
      evidently than other groups. Long-term recovery took 7-20 hours for all groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Short-term recovery is slower for patients with FD and these
      patients are worse affected by a VLT than others.

PMID- 28572013
TI  - Comparison of in vitro toxicological effects of biomass smoke from different
      sources of animal dung.
AB  - Worldwide, over 4 million premature deaths each year are attributed to the
      burning of biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Epidemiological studies
      associate household air pollution with lung diseases, including chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and respiratory infections. Animal
      dung, a biomass fuel used by economically vulnerable populations, generates more
      toxic compounds per mass burned than other biomass fuels. The type of animal dung
      used varies widely depending on local agro-geography. There are currently neither
      standardized experimental systems for dung biomass smoke research nor studies
      assessing the health impacts of different types of dung smoke. Here, we used a
      novel reproducible exposure system to assess outcomes related to inflammation and
      respiratory infections in human airway cells exposed to six different types of
      dung biomass smoke. We report that dung biomass smoke, regardless of species, is
      pro-inflammatory and activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and JNK
      transcription factors; however, dung smoke also suppresses interferon responses
      after a challenge with a viral mimetic. These effects are consistent with
      epidemiological data, and suggest a mechanism by which the combustion of animal
      dung can directly cause lung diseases, promote increased susceptibility to
      infection, and contribute to the global health problem of household air
      pollution.

PMID- 28572015
TI  - Validation of the Lithuanian Version of the Speech Handicap Index.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective is to study the cultural adaptation and validation of
      the Speech Handicap Index (SHI) questionnaire to the Lithuanian language.
      METHODS: Cultural adaptation and validation of the translated Lithuanian version
      of the SHI (SHI-LT) was performed as described by the Scientific Advisory
      Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust. The SHI-LT was completed by 46 patients
      after total laryngectomy and by 60 healthy subjects of the control group.
      Validity and reliability of the SHI-LT were evaluated. RESULTS: The SHI-LT showed
      a statistically significant high internal consistency and test-retest reliability
      (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96-0.98). Good validity of SHI-LT was reflected by
      statistically significant (P < 0.001) difference between the mean scores of the
      patients and control groups (74.7 +/- 26.9 and 5.5 +/- 6.5, respectively). No age
      or gender dependence of SHI-LT was found (P > 0.05). Receiver operating
      characteristic test indicated that SHI-LT scores exceeding 17.0 points (cutoff
      value) distinguish patients from healthy controls, with a sensitivity of 97.8%
      and specificity of 95.0%. CONCLUSION: SHI-LT is considered to be a valid and
      reliable speech assessment tool for Lithuanian-speaking patients after
      laryngectomy.

PMID- 28572016
TI  - The Exploration of an Objective Model for Roughness With Several Acoustic
      Markers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In voice assessment, the evaluation of voice quality is a major
      component in which roughness has received wide acceptance as a major subtype of
      abnormal voice quality. The aim of the present study was to develop a new
      multivariate acoustic model for the evaluation of roughness. METHOD: In total,
      970 participants with dysphonia and 88 participants with normal voice were
      included. Concatenated voice samples of continuous speech and sustained vowel
      [a:] were perceptually judged on roughness severity. Acoustic analyses were
      conducted on the voiced segments of the continuous speech sample plus sustained
      vowel as well. A stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was applied to
      construct an acoustic model of the best acoustic predictors. Concurrent validity,
      diagnostic accuracy, and cross-validation were verified on the basis of Spearman
      correlation coefficient (rs), several estimates of the receiver operating
      characteristics plus the likelihood ratio, and iterated internal cross
      correlations. RESULTS: Six experts were included for perceptual analysis based on
      acceptable rater reliability. Stepwise multiple regression analysis yielded a 12
      variable acoustic model. A marked correlation was identified between the model
      and the perceptual judgment (rs = 0.731, P = 0.000). The cross-correlations
      confirmed a high comparable degree of association. However, the receiver
      operating characteristics and likelihood ratio results showed the best diagnostic
      outcome at a threshold of 2.92, with a sensitivity of 51.9% and a specificity of
      94.9%. CONCLUSIONS: Currently, the newly developed roughness model is not
      recommended for clinical practice. Further research is needed to detect the
      acoustic complexity of roughness (eg, multiplophonia, irregularity, chaotic
      structure, glottal fry, etc).

PMID- 28572017
TI  - Age at introduction of ultra-processed food among preschool children attending
      day-care centers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the age of introduction of ultra-processed food and its
      associated factors among preschool children. METHODS: Cross-sectional study
      carried out from March to June 2014 with 359 preschool children aged 17 to 63
      months attending day-care centers. Time until ultra-processed food introduction
      (outcome variable) was described by the Kaplan-Meier analysis, and the log-rank
      test was used to compare the survival functions of independent variables. Factors
      associated with ultra-processed food introduction were investigated using the
      multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. The results were shown as hazard
      ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: The median time
      until ultra-processed food introduction was six months. Between the 3rd and 6th
      months, there is a significant increase in the probability of introducing ultra
      processed food in the children's diet; and while the probability in the 3rd month
      varies from 0.15 to 0.25, at six months the variation ranges from 0.6 to 1.0. The
      final Cox proportional hazards model showed that unplanned pregnancy (1.32 [1.05
      1.65]), absence of prenatal care (2.50 [1.02-6.16]), and income >2 minimum wages
      (1, 50 [1.09-2.06]) were independent risk factors for the introduction of ultra
      processed food. CONCLUSION: Up to the 6th month of life, approximately 75% of
      preschool children had received one or more ultra-processed food in their diet.
      In addition, it was observed that the poorest families, as well as unfavorable
      prenatal factors, were associated with early introduction of ultra-processed
      food.

PMID- 28572018
TI  - Performance of different diagnostic criteria of overweight and obesity as
      predictors of metabolic syndrome in adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the performance of three different diagnostic criteria of
      overweight and obesity (WHO, IOTF and Conde and Monteiro) using body mass index
      (BMI) as predictors of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a representative sample of
      adolescents. METHODS: A sample of 1035 adolescents aged 12-20 years (565 girls
      and 470 boys) was used in the study. BMI was calculated through the quotient of
      weight (kg)/height squared (m)2, and MetS was defined according to the criteria
      of the International Diabetes Federation. Sensitivity, specificity, and overall
      accuracy (area under the curve) were estimated using the receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curves method and used to describe the predictive
      performance. RESULTS: The three diagnostic criteria showed higher absolute values
      of sensitivity and specificity for predicting MetS in boys and older adolescents.
      The highest sensitivity to identify MetS was found using the IOTF criterion (60
      85%), while specificity values >= 90% were found for the three criteria. The
      Conde and Monteiro diagnostic criterion pointed to a significantly lower overall
      accuracy (0.52-0.64) than that of the WHO (0.70-0.84) and IOTF (0.75-0.89)
      diagnostic criterion. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obesity using BMI showed a
      moderate association with MetS, regardless of the diagnostic criteria used.
      However, the IOTF criterion showed better predictive capacity for the presence of
      MetS than the WHO and the Conde and Monteiro criteria.

PMID- 28572019
TI  - Socioeconomic inequality in preterm birth in four Brazilian birth cohort studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze economic inequality (absolute and relative) due to family
      income in relation to the occurrence of preterm births in Southern Brazil.
      METHODS: Four birth cohort studies were conducted in the years 1982, 1993, 2004,
      and 2011. The main exposure was monthly family income and the primary outcome was
      preterm birth. The inequalities were calculated using the slope index of
      inequality and the relative index of inequality, adjusted for maternal skin
      color, education, age, and marital status. RESULTS: The prevalence of preterm
      births increased from 5.8% to approximately 14% (p-trend<0.001). Late preterm
      births comprised the highest proportion among the preterm births in all studies,
      although their rates decreased over the years. The analysis on the slope index of
      inequality demonstrated that income inequality arose in the 1993, 2004, and 2011
      studies. After adjustment, only the 2004 study maintained the difference between
      the poorest and the richest subjects, which was 6.3 percentage points. The
      relative index of inequality showed that, in all studies, the poorest mothers
      were more likely to have preterm newborns than the richest. After adjustment for
      confounding factors, it was observed that the poorest mothers only had a greater
      chance of this outcome in 2004. CONCLUSION: In a final model, economic
      inequalities resulting from income were found in relation to preterm births only
      in 2004, although a higher prevalence of prematurity continued to be observed in
      the poorest population, in all the studies.

PMID- 28572020
TI  - Factor structure of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment items in a sample with
      early Parkinson's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a frequently utilized
      cognitive screening tool that has attractive clinical attributes when utilized in
      individuals with Parkinson's disease. However, the construct validity of this
      instrument has not been well-characterized in Parkinson's samples. The purpose of
      this study is to explore the underlying factor structure of the MoCA in
      individuals with early stage Parkinson's disease. METHOD: Item responses from the
      MoCA in 357 individuals with Parkinson's disease from the Parkinson's Progression
      Markers Initiative were analyzed first for frequency of errors and polychoric
      inter item correlations. This correlation matrix was then analyzed with
      exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS: Omitting items with ceiling effects, three
      factors emerged which explained the majority of the variance. These factors were
      reflective of executive dysfunction, memory, and verbal attention. Scores on the
      MoCA and all of its subscales were significantly different between individuals
      with Parkinson's disease-no cognitive impairment and those who met criteria for
      mild cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: In keeping with prior studies in
      Parkinson's disease, executive dysfunction seems to underpin performance of many
      items of the MoCA. Implications of this finding both in terms of optimizing the
      MoCA for use in this population and further steps to validate the constructs
      behind the MoCA are discussed.

PMID- 28572021
TI  - Death certificate data and causes of death in patients with parkinsonism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Assessment of variables related to mortality in Parkinson disease
      (PD) and other parkinsonian syndromes relies, among other sources, on accurate
      death certificate (DC) documentation. We assessed the documentation of the
      degenerative disorder on DCs and evaluated comorbidities and causes of death
      among parkinsonian patients. METHODS: Demographic and clinical data were
      systematically and prospectively collected on deceased patients followed at a
      tertiary movement disorder clinic. DCs data included the documentation of
      parkinsonism, causes, and place of death. RESULTS: Among 138 cases, 84 (60.9%)
      male, mean age 77.9 years, mean age of onset 66.7, and mean disease duration 10.9
      years. Clinical diagnoses included PD (73.9%), progressive supranuclear palsy
      (10.9%), multiple system atrophy (7.2%), Lewy body dementia (7.2%) and
      corticobasal degeneration (0.7%). Psychosis occurred in 60.1% cases, dementia in
      48.5%. Most PD patients died due to heterogeneous causes before reaching advanced
      stages. Non-PD parkinsonian patients died earlier due to causes linked to the
      advanced neurodegenerative process. PD was documented in 38.4% of DCs with
      different forms of inconsistencies. That improved, but remained significant when
      it was signed by a specialist. CONCLUSIONS: More than half of PD cases died while
      still ambulatory and independent, after a longer disease course and due to causes
      commonly seen in that age group. Deaths among advanced PD patients occurred due
      to causes similar to what we found in non-PD cases. These findings can be useful
      for clinical, prognostic and counseling purposes. Underlying parkinsonian
      disorders are poorly documented in DCs, undermining its' use as sources of data
      collection.

PMID- 28572022
TI  - [Long term radiological outcomes of unstable thoraco-lumbar fractures without
      neurological deficit].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse the radiological outcomes in the long term of unstable
      thoraco-lumbar fractures. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective review of 100
      patients with unstable thoracolumbar fractures treated with posterolateral fusion
      and short screw fixation for compression and flexion-distraction type fractures,
      and long segment posterior fixation for fractures-dislocations or more than one
      vertebra fractured, between 2000 and 2010 at three different hospital centers.
      Six radiological parameters were measured annually during a 4-year period:
      Fracture angle, kyphotic deformity, sagittal index, percentage of compression,
      degree of displacement and deformation angle. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients
      were included with a median age of 36,4 years and a median follow-up period of
      7.2 years. Fracture angle rose from 11,6 degrees  to 14,5 degrees  (increase of
      25%), kyphotic deformity from 14,5 degrees  to 16,7 degrees  (increase of
      15,17%), sagittal index from 8,7 to 10,8 (increase of 24,13%), percentage of
      compression from 31,8% to 36,5% (increase of 6,88%), degree of displacement from
      2,8mm to 4,6mm (increase of 14,77%) and deformation angle from 19.7 degrees  to
      21.4 degrees  (increase of 8,62%). DISCUSSION: All the radiological parameters
      studied lost correction throughout the 48 months of follow-up, being the fracture
      angle the most affected one. Nevertheless, the greatest loss of correction occurs
      in the first postoperative year, stabilizing the parameters afterwards over the 4
      years of follow up. We routinely recommend the measurement of all previous
      parameters for the follow up of unstable thoracolumbar fractures.

PMID- 28572024
TI  - Maternal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209) during lactation
      affects germ cell survival with altered testicular glucose homeostasis and
      oxidative status through down-regulation of Cx43 and p27Kip1 in prepubertal mice
      offspring.
AB  - BDE-209, a congener of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), is mainly used as
      flame retardant and accounts for over 82% of total PBDE usage. PBDEs have
      recently been detected in human milk and cord blood. BDE-209 possesses weak
      estrogenic/anti-estrogenic properties and evokes hyperglycemia through impaired
      glucose homeostasis in rat liver. However, little is known of the effect of
      lactational exposure to BDE-209 on germ cell survival in relation to testicular
      glucose homeostasis, estradiol and oxidative status during prepubertal period.
      The present study, therefore, evaluated the effect of maternal exposure to BDE
      209 during lactation on above-mentioned parameters with reference to Cx43 and
      p27Kip1 in prepubertal Parkes (P) mice offspring. Lactating female P mice were
      orally gavaged with 500, and 700mg/kg body weight of BDE-209 in corn oil from
      postnatal day (PND) 0 to PND 28; male pups were euthanized at PND 21 and 28.
      Maternal exposure to BDE-209 during lactation increased germ cell apoptosis with
      altered expressions of various cell survival and apoptotic markers along with
      decreased expression of Cx43 and p27Kip1 in prepubertal mice offspring.
      Testicular glucose and lactate concentrations were markedly reduced in these pups
      with down-regulation in GLUT3 and GLUT8 expressions and decreased LDH activity.
      Rise in oxidative stress in testes with increased estrogen level in these pups
      was also noted. In conclusion, our results suggest that maternal BDE-209 exposure
      during lactation affects germ cell survival with altered testicular glucose
      homeostasis and oxidative status through down-regulation of Cx43 and p27Kip1 in
      prepubertal mice offspring.

PMID- 28572023
TI  - Bisphenol A impairs the memory function and glutamatergic homeostasis in a sex
      dependent manner in mice: Beneficial effects of diphenyl diselenide.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA) is a compound integrated in commodities, which consequently
      increases the human exposure to this toxicant. The deleterious effects of BPA
      exposure during periods of brain development have been documented mainly
      concerning the impairment in memory functions. Diphenyl diselenide (PhSe)2, an
      organoselenium compound, shows protective/restorative effects against memory
      deficits in experimental models. Thus, this study investigated the effects of
      (PhSe)2 on the memory impairments induced by BPA exposure to male and female mice
      and the possible involvement of glutamatergic system in these effects. Three-week
      old male and female Swiss mice received BPA (5mg/kg), intragastrically, from 21st
      to 60th postnatal day. After, the animals were intragastrically treated with
      (PhSe)2 (1mg/kg) during seven days. The mice performed the behavioral memory
      tests and the [3H] glutamate uptake and NMDA receptor subunits (2A and 2B)
      analyses were carried out in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of mice. The
      results demonstrated that the BPA exposure induced impairment of object
      recognition memory in both sexes. However, it caused impairments in spatial
      memory in female and in the passive avoidance memory in male mice. Besides, BPA
      caused a decrease in the [3H] glutamate uptake and NMDA receptor subunit levels
      in the cortical and hippocampal regions depending on the sex. Treatment with
      (PhSe)2 reversed in a sex-independent manner the behavioral impairments and
      molecular alterations. In conclusion, BPA had a negative effect in different
      memory types as well as in the glutamatergic parameters in a sex-dependent manner
      and (PhSe)2 treatment was effective against these alterations.

PMID- 28572026
TI  - Resistin and interleukin 6 as predictive factors for recurrence and long-term
      prognosis in renal cell cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to investigate prognostic factors
      for long-term outcome of renal cell cancer (RCC) in a cohort of patients treated
      before new antiangiogenic therapy modalities were introduced. Our specific aim
      was to explore resistin and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels to find out cytokines
      potential to predict recurrence and survival in patients with RCC. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Our prospective study population consisted of 91 patients who underwent
      radical nephrectomy or partial resection for RCC at Tampere University Hospital
      between 1994 and 2001. At the time of surgery, 25 patients were diagnosed to have
      an advanced tumor and 66 patients a local tumor; 34 patients in the latter group
      developed a recurrence during the follow-up period of 15 years. Serum samples
      were collected preoperatively and at 3, 9, and 15 months and at 2, 3, 4, and 5
      years postoperatively. IL-6 and resistin levels in serum were measured by
      immunoassay. RESULTS: Preoperative values of IL-6 (P = 0.006) and resistin
      (P<0.001) were higher in patients with advanced RCC when compared to patients
      with local tumors. Patients with local RCC who developed a recurrence during the
      follow-up period had higher preoperative IL-6 values (P = 0.003) than patients
      without a recurrence. Based on trajectory analysis of IL-6 and resistin levels,
      the patients were divided into 3 trajectory groups. According to multivariate
      analysis, the patients in the trajectory class of the increasing resistin values
      during the follow-up period had a statistically significantly higher risk for RCC
      progression (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.73, 95% CI: 1.52-9.13) and for poor survival
      (HR = 4.93, 95% CI: 1.79-13.6) than the patients in the lowest trajectory class.
      Furthermore, the patients in the trajectory class of the highest IL-6 values
      showed a significantly elevated risk for RCC progression (HR = 7.03, 95% CI: 3.00
      16.5) and for RCC-related poor survival (HR = 6.09, 95% CI: 2.53-14.7), when
      compared to the patients in the trajectory class of the lowest IL-6 values.
      CONCLUSION: In patients with RCC, the elevated preoperative resistin levels
      associated strongly with an advanced disease. Based on Cox regression models and
      trajectory analysis, resistin values were associated with disease progression and
      a poor survival.

PMID- 28572025
TI  - Cobalt toxicity in humans-A review of the potential sources and systemic health
      effects.
AB  - Cobalt (Co) and its compounds are widely distributed in nature and are part of
      numerous anthropogenic activities. Although cobalt has a biologically necessary
      role as metal constituent of vitamin B12, excessive exposure has been shown to
      induce various adverse health effects. This review provides an extended overview
      of the possible Co sources and related intake routes, the detection and
      quantification methods for Co intake and the interpretation thereof, and the
      reported health effects. The Co sources were allocated to four exposure settings:
      occupational, environmental, dietary and medical exposure. Oral intake of Co
      supplements and internal exposure through metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implants
      deliver the highest systemic Co concentrations. The systemic health effects are
      characterized by a complex clinical syndrome, mainly including neurological (e.g.
      hearing and visual impairment), cardiovascular and endocrine deficits. Recently,
      a biokinetic model has been proposed to characterize the dose-response
      relationship and effects of chronic exposure. According to the model, health
      effects are unlikely to occur at blood Co concentrations under 300MUg/l (100MUg/l
      respecting a safety factor of 3) in healthy individuals, hematological and
      endocrine dysfunctions are the primary health endpoints, and chronic exposure to
      acceptable doses is not expected to pose considerable health hazards. However,
      toxic reactions at lower doses have been described in several cases of
      malfunctioning MoM hip implants, which may be explained by certain underlying
      pathologies that increase the individual susceptibility for Co-induced systemic
      toxicity. This may be associated with a decrease in Co bound to serum proteins
      and an increase in free ionic Co2+. As the latter is believed to be the primary
      toxic form, monitoring of the free fraction of Co2+ might be advisable for future
      risk assessment. Furthermore, future research should focus on longitudinal
      studies in the clinical setting of MoM hip implant patients to further elucidate
      the dose-response discrepancies.

PMID- 28572028
TI  - Isolated Peripheral Nerve Palsies in Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
AB  - Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) poses a difficult diagnostic entity with varied
      etiology and clinical presentation. We present a 35-year-old gentleman with
      unilateral long thoracic nerve palsy and contralateral subscapular paralysis
      caused by aberrant scalenus medius anatomy. TOS ought to be considered in
      patients presenting with isolated nerve palsies.

PMID- 28572027
TI  - Clinical outcome of patients who reduced sunitinib or pazopanib during first-line
      treatment for advanced kidney cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the different outcomes in patients with metastatic
      renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) who receive a reduced first-line dose of sunitinib or
      pazopanib compared to those who continue at the standard dose. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: All the patients treated in 11 oncological centers in Italy for mRCC who
      started first-line treatment with sunitinib or pazopanib at the standard dose.
      Descriptive statistical tests were used to highlight differences among groups.
      Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared across the groups
      using log-rank tests, the Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for
      statistically significant variables was also done. RESULTS: A total of 591
      patients were included in the study. Of these, 45.7% received a reduced dose of
      sunitinib or pazopanib after a median treatment time of 3.6 months at the
      standard dose. The median overall survival in the patients who continued to
      receive the standard dose was 24.0 months compared to 49.4 months for those who
      received a reduced dose (hazard ratio = 1.80; 95% CI: 1.42-2.29; P<0.001). Only
      45% of the patients received second-line therapy: 42.5% had an mTOR and 54.1% a
      tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Second-line overall survival was 19.8 and 11.8 months,
      respectively, in the patients who received, or did not, a reduced dose during
      first-line therapy (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Toxicity-related dose reduction is a
      common event in mRCC patients who have started first-line therapy with either
      sunitinib or pazopanib. This is positively related to the outcomes of both first-
      and second-line therapy.

PMID- 28572029
TI  - Risk Factor Modification Behaviors of Practicing Vascular Surgeons.
AB  - BACKGROUND: National smoking rates have declined; however, it remains the primary
      modifiable risk factor for nearly all vascular disease. While vascular surgeons
      have the availability to treat patients via medical or surgical/endovascular
      means, involvement in risk factor modification may be lacking. This study seeks
      to understand vascular surgeons' involvement in tobacco cessation and risk factor
      modification and to determine if practice variables had any effect on provision
      of these services to vascular surgery patients. METHODS: Anonymous electronic
      surveys examining tobacco cessation and risk factor modification were sent to the
      Vascular & Endovascular Surgery Society members (n = 633). Influence of time from
      training, practice type (dichotomized into academic and nonacademic vascular
      surgeons), hospital size, region, and workload was assessed, and data were
      analyzed by univariate contingency tables. RESULTS: A total of 149 (24%) surveys
      were completed. While the majority of respondents ask patient's smoking status
      (97%), assess willingness to quit (84%), and advise patients to quit (95%), only
      34% prescribe medications to assist in cessation, 7% see patients in tobacco
      cessation follow-up, and 3% verify cessation with cotinine levels or carbon
      monoxide monitoring. Surgeons who prescribed medications for cessation are more
      likely to assess patient's willingness to quit, prescribe/advise nicotine
      replacement, or prescribe initial statin or other lipid-lowering medications.
      There was no difference in perceived education received during training in risk
      factor modification, but only 26% of respondents thought they were well trained.
      Comparing academic to private practice vascular surgeons, there was no difference
      in cessation techniques used; however, academic surgeons were less likely to
      perform endovascular procedures for claudication in patients who continued to
      smoke (29% vs. 46%, P = 0.03) and more likely to prescribe an initial
      antihyperlipid medication (65% vs. 39%, P = 0.0018). CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco
      dependence remains a critical issue for vascular surgery patients; however, there
      is wide variation in cessation techniques used. The majority of vascular surgeons
      are not well versed in cessation techniques and risk factor modification, and
      thus, efforts should be made to provide this education in vascular surgery
      training programs.

PMID- 28572031
TI  - Review: Environmental impact on ocular surface disorders: Possible epigenetic
      mechanism modulation and potential biomarkers.
AB  - Throughout life, external and the internal environments interact in normal
      development and tissue homeostasis as well as in onset of disease. Epigenetic
      modifications occur in response to environmental changes and play a fundamental
      role in controlling gene expression without modification of the DNA base
      sequence. Aging, inflammation, drugs, infections and ultraviolet exposure may
      have profound effects on epigenetic modifications and trigger susceptibility to
      diseases. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that epigenetic mechanisms play a
      key role in regulating the physiopathology of the ocular surface. The evaluation
      of epigenetic factors in ocular disease would lead to further investigation
      regarding the potential use of therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers.
      This review examines specific epigenetic and biochemical mechanisms that may
      occur in the ocular surface microenvironment. Potential correlation between
      epigenetic factors and targets should be considered in future approaches to
      prevention and/or treatment of specific ocular surface disorders.

PMID- 28572032
TI  - Suppressed neural complexity during ketamine- and propofol-induced
      unconsciousness.
AB  - Ketamine and propofol have distinctively different molecular mechanisms of action
      and neurophysiological features, although both induce loss of consciousness.
      Therefore, identifying a common feature of ketamine- and propofol-induced
      unconsciousness would provide insight into the underlying mechanism of losing
      consciousness. In this study we search for a common feature by applying the
      concept of type-II complexity, and argue that neural complexity is essential for
      a brain to maintain consciousness. To test this hypothesis, we show that
      complexity is suppressed during loss of consciousness induced by ketamine or
      propofol. We analyzed the randomness (type-I complexity) and complexity (type-II
      complexity) of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals before and after bolus
      injection of ketamine or propofol. For the analysis, we use Mean Information Gain
      (MIG) and Fluctuation Complexity (FC), which are information-theory-based
      measures that quantify disorder and complexity of dynamics respectively. Both
      ketamine and propofol reduced the complexity of the EEG signal, but ketamine
      increased the randomness of the signal and propofol decreased it. The finding
      supports our claim and suggests EEG complexity as a candidate for a consciousness
      indicator.

PMID- 28572030
TI  - Streamlined duplex live-dead microplate assay for cultured cells.
AB  - A duplex fluorescence assay to assess the viability of cells cultured in multi
      well plates is described, which can be carried out in the original culture plate
      using a plate reader, without exchanges of culture or assay medium, or transfer
      of cells or cell supernatant. The method uses freshly prepared reagents and does
      not rely on a proprietary, commercially supplied kit. Following experimental
      treatment, calcein acetoxymethyl ester (CaAM) is added to each well of cultured
      cells; after 30 min, the fluorescence intensity (emission lambdamax ~ 530 nm) is
      measured. The signal is due to formation of calcein, which is produced from CaAM
      by action of esterase activity found in intact live cells. Since live cells may
      express plasma membrane multidrug transport proteins, especially of the ABC
      transporter family, the CaAM incubation is carried out in the presence of an
      inhibitor of this efflux process, thereby improving the dynamic range of the
      assay. Next, SYTOX(r) Orange (SO) is added to the culture wells, and, after a 30
      min incubation, fluorescence intensity (emission lambdamax ~ 590 nm) is measured
      again. SO is excluded from cells that have an intact plasma membrane, but
      penetrates dead/dying cells and can diffuse into the nucleus, where it binds to
      and forms a fluorescent complex with DNA. The CaAM already added to the wells
      causes no interference with the latter fluorescent signal. At the conclusion of
      the duplex assay, both live and dead cells remain in the culture wells and can be
      documented by digital imaging to demonstrate correlation of cellular morphology
      with the assay output. Two examples of the application of this method are
      provided, using cytotoxic compounds having different mechanisms of action.

PMID- 28572034
TI  - Decreased middle temporal gyrus connectivity in the language network in
      schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations.
AB  - As the most common symptoms of schizophrenia, the long-term persistence of
      obstinate auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) brings about great mental pain to
      patients. Neuroimaging studies of schizophrenia have indicated that AVHs were
      associated with altered functional and structural connectivity within the
      language network. However, effective connectivity that could reflect directed
      information flow within this network and is of great importance to understand the
      neural mechanisms of the disorder remains largely unknown. In this study, we
      utilized stochastic dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to investigate directed
      connections within the language network in schizophrenia patients with and
      without AVHs. Thirty-six patients with schizophrenia (18 with AVHs and 18 without
      AVHs), and 37 healthy controls participated in the current resting-state
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The results showed that the
      connection from the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) to left middle temporal
      gyrus (LMTG) was significantly decreased in patients with AVHs compared to those
      without AVHs. Meanwhile, the effective connection from the left inferior parietal
      lobule (LIPL) to LMTG was significantly decreased compared to the healthy
      controls. Our findings suggest aberrant pattern of causal interactions within the
      language network in patients with AVHs, indicating that the hypoconnectivity or
      disrupted connection from frontal to temporal speech areas might be critical for
      the pathological basis of AVHs.

PMID- 28572035
TI  - Reduction in the prevalence of AmpC beta-lactamase CMY-2 in Salmonella from
      chicken meat following cessation of the use of ceftiofur in Japan.

PMID- 28572033
TI  - Blood-brain barrier disruption in diabetic mice is linked to Nrf2 signaling
      deficits: Role of ABCB10?
AB  - Blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage is a critical neurovascular complication of
      diabetes mellitus that adversely affects the CNS health and function. Previously,
      we showed the protective role of NF-E2 related factor-2 (Nrf2), a redox sensitive
      transcription factor, in regulation of BBB integrity. Given the pathogenic role
      of mitochondrial oxidative stress in diabetes-related microvascular
      complications, we focused on assessing: 1) the impact of diabetes on brain Nrf2
      in correlation with BBB permeability and 2) Nrf2-dependent regulation of the
      mitochondrial transporter ABCB10, an essential player in mitochondrial function
      and redox balance at BBB endothelium. Using live animal fluorescence imaging, we
      demonstrated a strong increase in BBB permeability to 70kDa dextran in db/db
      diabetic mice that correlated with significant down-regulation of brain Nrf2
      protein. Further, Nrf2 gene silencing in human BBB endothelial cells markedly
      suppressed ABCB10 protein, while Nrf2 activation by sulforaphane up-regulated
      ABCB10 expression. Interestingly, ABCB10 knockdown resulted in a strong-induction
      of Nrf2 driven anti-oxidant responses as evidenced by increased expression of
      Nrf2 and its downstream targets. Nrf2 or ABCB10 silencing elevated endothelial
      monocyte adhesion suggesting an activated inflammatory cascade. Thus, our results
      demonstrate a novel mechanism of ABCB10 regulation driven by Nrf2. In summary,
      Nrf2 dysregulation and ABCB10 suppression could likely mediate endothelial
      oxidative/inflammatory stress and BBB disruption in diabetic subjects.

PMID- 28572036
TI  - Draft genome sequence of a multidrug-resistant OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter
      baumannii ST191 clinical isolate from China.
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged worldwide as a dominant pathogen in
      nosocomial infections. In this study, we report the draft genome sequence of a
      clinical multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii ST191 (CC92) strain. Whole-genome
      sequencing of the isolate was performed using an Illumina HiSeqTM 2500 system,
      and bioinformatics analysis was also performed. The draft genome length was
      4,259,210bp, harbouring 14 gene sequences relevant to antibiotic resistance.
      Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that the isolate was resistant to
      all of the tested antibiotics except for tigecycline and colistin. These data
      will facilitate further understanding of the genomic and resistance features of
      MDR A. baumannii.

PMID- 28572037
TI  - Persistence of blaCMY-2-producing Proteus mirabilis in two gull colonies at a 1
      year interval in Southern France.

PMID- 28572038
TI  - Detection of the optrA gene in a clinical ST16 Enterococcus faecalis isolate in
      Denmark.

PMID- 28572039
TI  - AST to Platelet Ratio Index and fibrosis 4 calculator scores for non-invasive
      assessment of hepatic fibrosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Liver fibrosis is the single most important prognostic factor
      in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The predictive value
      of the AST to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI) score, originally developed for
      fibrosis assessment in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients, is much less known in
      the context of NAFLD patients. METHODS: We retrospectively compared the
      performance of APRI and fibrosis 4 calculator (FIB-4) scores in NAFLD patients
      with documented liver biopsies, to their performance in chronic HCV patients.
      RESULTS: 153 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 297 patients with biopsy
      proven chronic HCV infection were included. The APRI score was a good predictor
      for advanced fibrosis in NAFLD patients (area under the ROC curve 0.8307)
      although it was modestly inferior as compared to the well-validated FIB-4 score
      (area under the ROC curve 0.8959). The predictive value of APRI score in NALFD
      patients was inferior as compared to its predictive value in HCV patients (area
      under the ROC curve of 0.8307 versus 0.9965). In contrast to FIB-4, APRI score
      was not a good discriminator between intermediate stages of fibrosis in NAFLD
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: APRI and Fib-4 scores are reasonable tools to allocate
      NAFLD patients with advanced fibrosis. FIB-4 may better discriminate between
      intermediate fibrosis stages.

PMID- 28572040
TI  - Measuring influenza RNA quantity after prolonged storage or multiple freeze/thaw
      cycles.
AB  - In this study, we aim to determine what effects prolonged storage and repeated
      freeze/thaw cycles have on the stability of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 (influenza
      A/H1N1)RNA. Cloned influenza A/H1N1 RNA transcripts were serially diluted from
      8.0-1.0 log10 copies/MUl. RT-qPCR was used to measure RNA loss in transcripts
      stored at -80 degrees C, -20 degrees C, 4 degrees C and 25 degrees C for up to
      84days or transcripts undergoing a total of 10 freeze/thaw cycles. Viral load was
      measured in clinical specimens stored at-80 degrees C for three years (n=89
      influenza A RNA extracts; n=35 primary specimens) and in 10 clinical specimens
      from the 2015/2016 influenza season that underwent 7 freeze/thaw cycles. RNA
      stored at -80 degrees C, -20 degrees C, 4 degrees C and 25 degrees C is stable
      for up to 56, 56, 21, and 7days respectively or up to 9 freeze/thaw cycles when
      stored at -80 degrees C. There is no difference in viral load in clinical
      specimens that have been stored for up to three years at -80 degrees C if they
      are re-extracted. Similarly, clinical specimens undergoing up to 7 freeze/thaw
      cycles are stable if they are re-extracted between cycles. Influenza specimens
      can be stored for up to three years at -80 degrees C or undergo up to 7
      freeze/thaw cycles without loss of RNA quantity if re-extracted.

PMID- 28572041
TI  - Real-time quantitative PCR assay for the quantification of virus and satellites
      causing leaf curl disease in cotton in Pakistan.
AB  - Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is the major biotic constraint to cotton
      production in Pakistan and northwestern India. The disease is caused by
      monopartite begomoviruses in association with a specific DNA satellite, Cotton
      leaf curl Multan betasatellite. The virus-betasatellite complex is also
      frequently associated with another DNA satellite-like molecule; an
      alphasatellite. A quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assay to detect all three
      components of the monopartite begomovirus/betasatellite/alphasatellite complex
      which causes CLCuD was established. This was used to investigate the relationship
      between symptoms and virus/satellite titre. Not surprisingly the analysis showed
      that, overall, there was a reasonable correlation between symptom severity and
      virus/satellite titre - more severe symptoms usually being associated with more
      virus/satellite. However, cotton plants were identified with no or very mild
      symptoms with relatively high virus/satellite titres and plants with severe
      symptoms but relatively low virus/satellite titres. This may be attributed to the
      resistance/susceptibility of the cotton variety - tolerant plants being able to
      sustain a relatively high virus/satellite titre whilst exhibiting mild symptoms.
      The usefulness of this qPCR procedure in the screening for resistance in cotton
      against CLCuD is discussed.

PMID- 28572043
TI  - Prelaminated extended temporoparietal fascia flap without tissue expansion for
      hemifacial reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disfigurement of the face caused by postburn scars, resected
      congenital nevi and vascular malformations has both functional and psychological
      consequences. Ideal reconstruction of the facial components requires producing
      not only function but also the better appearance of the face. The skin of the
      neck, supraclavicular or cervicothoracic regions are the most commonly used and
      the most likely source of skin for facial reconstruction in those techniques
      which prefabrications with tissue expansion are used. This retrospective cohort
      study describes the two staged prelaminated temporoparietal fascia flap which
      eliminates the usage of tissue expansion by using skin graft harvested from the
      neck and occipital region and the application of this flap for the lower three
      fourths of the face. METHOD: 5 patients received prelaminated temporoparietal
      fascia flap without tissue expansion for facial resurfacing. The mean age at
      surgery was 39, 2 years (range, 17-60 years). The average follow up was 21.6
      months (range, 10-48 months). RESULT: The size of the raised prelaminated
      temporoparietal fascia flaps ranged from 9 * 8 cm to 14 * 10 cm. All flaps
      survived after second stage. Varied degrees of venous congestion were observed
      after flap insets in all cases but none required any further treatment for the
      congestion. The entire lesion could not be resected due to the large size of the
      lesion in all patients. CONCLUSION: Two stage prelaminated temporoparietal fascia
      flap with skin graft is an effective technique for the reconstruction of partial
      facial defects in selected patients. It is simple, quick, safe and reliable, and
      requires no expansion of skin or no microsurgery.

PMID- 28572042
TI  - An analysis of the operative experience of plastic surgery trainees in the United
      Kingdom using eLogbook.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We performed a comprehensive analysis of the operative experience
      of UK Plastic Surgery Trainees using the web-based eLogbook. METHODS: An analysis
      of data recorded prospectively by Plastic Surgery Registrars 2010-2014 in
      eLogbook. RESULTS: The eLogbook data of 336 Specialty Registrars entered from
      2010 to 2014 was analysed. Over the six-year training programme, trainees
      participated in a mean of 2117 procedures and performed a mean of 1571 procedures
      with or without supervision. We also determined the mean number of procedures for
      14 indicative operative domains performed during training and compared these to
      current (2012) indicative numbers required prior to the award of a Certificate of
      Completion of Training (CCT). CONCLUSION: The eLogbook contains valuable data to
      determine the operative experience of UK Plastic Surgery trainees. This new data
      will be reflected in the updated indicative numbers required for CCT. Both
      trainees and trainers may use the data to monitor the acquisition of operative
      experience over time and target training where necessary.

PMID- 28572044
TI  - Cost analysis of percutaneous fixation of hand fractures in the main operating
      room versus the ambulatory setting.
AB  - PURPOSE: To date, there have been no studies identifying the cost differential
      for performing closed reduction internal fixation (CRIF) of hand fractures in the
      operating room (OR) versus an ambulatory setting. Our goal was to analyse the
      cost and efficiency of performing CRIF in these two settings and to investigate
      current practice trends in Canada. METHODS: A detailed analysis of the costs
      involved both directly and indirectly in the CRIF of a hand fracture was
      conducted. Hospital records were used to calculate efficiency. A survey was
      distributed to practicing plastic surgeons across Canada regarding their current
      practice of managing hand fractures. RESULTS: In an eight-hour surgical block we
      are able to perform five CRIF in the OR versus eight in an ambulatory setting.
      The costs of performing a CRIF in the OR under local anaesthetic, not including
      surgeon compensation, is $461.27 Canadian (CAD) compared to $115.59 CAD in the
      ambulatory setting, a 299% increase. The use of a regional block increases the
      cost to $665.49 CAD, a 476% increase. The main barrier to performing CRIFs in an
      outpatient setting is the absence of equipment necessary to perform these cases
      effectively, based on survey results. CONCLUSION: The use of the OR for CRIF of
      hand fractures is associated with a significant increase in cost and hospital
      resources with decreased efficiency. For appropriately selected hand fractures,
      CRIF in an ambulatory setting is less costly and more efficient compared to the
      OR and resources should be allocated to facilitate CRIF in this setting.

PMID- 28572045
TI  - The integration of multiple signaling pathways provides for bidirectional control
      of CRHR1 gene transcription in rat pituitary cell during hypoxia.
AB  - Hypoxia upregulates hypothalamic corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and its
      receptor type-1 (CRHR1) expression and activates the HPA axis and induces hypoxic
      sickness and behavioral change. The transcriptional mechanism by which hypoxia
      differently regulates CRHR1 expression remains unclear. Here we report hypoxia
      time-dependently induced biphasic expression of CRHR1mRNA in rat pituitary during
      different physiological status. Short exposure of gestational dams to hypoxia
      reduced CRHR1mRNA in the pituitary of P1-P14 male rat offspring. A short- and
      prolonged-hypoxia evoked biphasic response of CRHR1mRNA characterized initially
      by decreases and subsequently by persistent increases, mediated by a rapid
      negative feedback via CRHR1 signaling and positive transcriptional control via NF
      kappaB, respectively. Further analysis of CRHR1 promoter in cultured primary
      anterior pituitary and AtT20 cells showed that c-Jun/AP-1 delivered negative
      while HIF-1alpha and NF-kappaB delivered positive control of transcription at
      CRHR1 promoter. The negative and positive inputs are integrated by hypoxic
      initiation and duration in CRHR1 transcription.

PMID- 28572047
TI  - ER stress and cancer: The FOXO forkhead transcription factor link.
AB  - The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a cellular organelle with central roles in
      maintaining proteostasis due to its involvement in protein synthesis, folding,
      quality control, distribution and degradation. The accumulation of misfolded
      proteins in the ER lumen causes 'ER stress' and threatens overall cellular
      proteostasis. To restore ER homeostasis, cells evoke an evolutionarily conserved
      adaptive signalling and gene expression network collectively called the 'unfolded
      protein response (UPR)', a complex biological process which aims to restore
      proteostasis. When ER stress is overwhelming and beyond rectification, the
      normally pro-survival UPR can shift to induce cell termination. Emerging evidence
      from mammalian, fly and nematode worm systems reveals that the FOXO Forkhead
      proteins integrate upstream ER stress and UPR signals with the transcriptional
      machinery to decrease translation, promote cell survival/termination and increase
      the levels of ER-resident chaperones and of ER-associated degradation (ERAD)
      components to restore ER homeostasis. The high rates of protein
      synthesis/translation associated with cancer cell proliferation and metabolism,
      as well as mutations resulting in aberrant proteins, also induce ER stress and
      the UPR. While the pro-survival side of the UPR underlies its ability to sustain
      and promote cancers, its apoptotic functions can be exploited for cancer
      therapies by offering the chance to 'flick the proteostatic switch'. To this end,
      further studies are required to fully reevaluate the roles and regulation of
      these UPR signalling molecules, including FOXO proteins and their targets, in
      cancer initiation and progression as well as the effects on inhibiting their
      functions in cancer cells. This information will help to establish these UPR
      signalling molecules as possible therapeutic targets and putative biomarkers in
      cancers.

PMID- 28572046
TI  - Understanding the molecular functions of the second extracellular loop (ECL2) of
      the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor using a comprehensive
      mutagenesis approach.
AB  - The extracellular loop 2 (ECL2) region is the most conserved of the three ECL
      domains in family B G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and has a fundamental
      role in ligand binding and activation across the receptor super-family. ECL2 is
      fundamental for ligand-induced activation of the calcitonin gene related peptide
      (CGRP) receptor, a family B GPCR implicated in migraine and heart disease. In
      this study we apply a comprehensive targeted non-alanine substitution analysis
      method and molecular modelling to the functionally important residues of ECL2 to
      reveal key molecular interactions. We identified an interaction network between
      R274/Y278/D280/W283. These amino acids had the biggest reduction in signalling
      following alanine substitution analysis and comprise a group of basic, acidic and
      aromatic residues conserved in the wider calcitonin family of class B GPCRs. This
      study identifies key and varied constraints at each locus, including diverse
      biochemical requirements for neighbouring tyrosine residues and a W283H
      substitution that recovered wild-type (WT) signalling, despite the strictly
      conserved nature of the central ECL2 tryptophan and the catastrophic effects on
      signalling of W283A substitution. In contrast, while the distal end of ECL2
      requires strict conservation of hydrophobicity or polarity in each position,
      mutation of these residues never has a large effect. This approach has revealed
      linked networks of amino acids, consistent with structural models of ECL2 and
      likely to represent a shared structural framework at an important ligand-receptor
      interface that is present across the family B GPCRs.

PMID- 28572048
TI  - The role of endothelial cells in the vasculopathy of systemic sclerosis: A
      systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune connective tissue
      disorder characterized by fibroproliferative vasculopathy, immunological
      abnormalities and progressive fibrosis of multiple organs including the skin. In
      this study, all English speaking articles concerning the role of endothelial
      cells (ECs) in SSc vasculopathy and representing biomarkers are systematically
      reviewed and categorized according to endothelial cell (EC) (dys)function in SSc.
      METHODS: A sensitive search on behalf of the EULAR study group on
      microcirculation in Rheumatic Diseases was developed in Pubmed, The Cochrane
      Library and Web of Science to identify articles on SSc vasculopathy and the role
      of ECs using the following Mesh terms: (systemic sclerosis OR scleroderma) AND
      pathogenesis AND (endothelial cells OR marker). All selected papers were read and
      discussed by two independent reviewers. The selection process was based on title,
      abstract and full text level. Additionally, both reviewers further searched the
      reference lists of the articles selected for reading on full text level for
      supplementary papers. These additional articles went through the same selection
      process. RESULTS: In total 193 resulting articles were selected and the
      identified biomarkers were categorized according to description of EC
      (dys)function in SSc. The most representing and reliable biomarkers described by
      the selected articles were adhesion molecules for EC activation, anti-endothelial
      cell antibodies for EC apoptosis, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its
      receptor VEGFR-2 and endostatin for disturbed angiogenesis, endothelial
      progenitors cells for defective vasculogenesis, endothelin-1 for disturbed
      vascular tone control, Von Willebrand factor for coagulopathy and interleukin
      (IL)-33 for EC-immune system communication. Emerging, relatively new discovered
      biomarkers described in the selected articles, are VEGF165b, IL-17A and the
      adipocytokines. Finally, myofibroblasts involved in tissue fibrosis in SSc can
      derive from ECs or epithelial cells through a process known as endothelial-to
      mesenchymal transition. CONCLUSION: This systematic review emphasizes the growing
      evidence that SSc is primarily a vascular disease where EC dysfunction is present
      and prominent in different aspects of cell survival (activation and apoptosis),
      angiogenesis and vasculogenesis and where disturbed interactions between ECs and
      various other cells contribute to SSc vasculopathy.

PMID- 28572049
TI  - Autophagy in neuroinflammatory diseases.
AB  - Autophagy is a metabolically-central process that is crucial in diverse areas of
      cell physiology. It ensures a fair balance between life and death molecular and
      cellular flows, and any disruption in this vital intracellular pathway can have
      consequences leading to major diseases such as cancer, metabolic and
      neurodegenerative disorders, and cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Recent
      pharmacological studies have shown evidence that small molecules and peptides
      able to activate or inhibit autophagy might be valuable therapeutic agents by
      down- or up-regulating excessive or defective autophagy, or to modulate normal
      autophagy to allow other drugs to repair some cell alteration or destroy some
      cell subsets (e.g. in the case of cancer concurrent treatments). Here, we provide
      an overview of neuronal autophagy and of its potential implication in some
      inflammatory diseases of central and peripheral nervous systems. Based on our own
      studies centred on a peptide called P140 that targets autophagy, we highlight the
      validity of autophagy processes, and in particular of chaperone-mediated
      autophagy, as a particularly pertinent pathway for developing novel selective
      therapeutic approaches for treating some neuronal diseases. Our findings with the
      P140 peptide support a direct cross-talk between autophagy and certain central
      and peripheral neuronal diseases. They also illustrate the fact that autophagy
      alterations are not evenly distributed across all organs and tissues of the same
      individual, and can evolve in different stages along the disease course.

PMID- 28572050
TI  - Myocarditis in auto-immune or auto-inflammatory diseases.
AB  - Myocarditis is a major cause of heart disease in young patients and a common
      precursor of heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy. Some auto-immune and/or
      auto-inflammatory diseases may be accompanied by myocarditis, such as
      sarcoidosis, Behcet's disease, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis,
      myositis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. However, data concerning myocarditis
      in such auto-immune and/or auto-inflammatory diseases are sparse. New therapeutic
      strategies should better target the modulation of the immune system, depending on
      the phase of the disease and the type of underlying auto-immune and/or auto
      inflammatory disease.

PMID- 28572051
TI  - Late-onset Rasmussen Encephalitis: A literature appraisal.
AB  - Rasmussen Encephalitis (RE) is classically described as a childhood
      encephalopathy due to a unilateral inflammation of the cerebral cortex with a
      presumed immune-mediated pathophysiological basis. Unusual variant forms,
      including adolescent and adult-onset RE have been described but there is still a
      doubt whether these atypical cases correspond to classical RE patients. To review
      evidence, a systematic PubMed search was conducted to retrieve papers addressing
      late onset RE to assess (i) the positivity rate of classical childhood-onset
      diagnostic criteria for RE in late-onset RE, (ii) the specific clinical and
      radiological features that could help earlier diagnosis and therapeutic
      interventions, (iii) the arguments for an autoimmune pathophysiology including
      (iiia) the association with autoimmune markers or diseases and (iiib) the effects
      of immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive treatments. A total of 50 papers were
      considered. We identified 102 late-onset RE patients with a sex ratio of 8 women
      for 2 men. 67% fulfilled the consensus diagnostic criteria for RE. As compared to
      classical RE, the late-onset RE patients exhibited: i) more frequent focal
      complex partial seizures, ii) less frequent epilepsia partialis continua
      throughout evolution, iii) a slower evolution with a delayed occurrence of
      cortical deficit, iv) less cognitive deterioration and v) a better outcome. A
      specific association with autoimmune markers or diseases was not found.
      Immunomodulatory therapies, even performed in a late stage, improved late-onset
      RE patients in 61% of cases. This review proves that late-onset RE is a reality
      with specific clinical and radiological features. The good response to
      immunomodulatory treatments brings further arguments for an immune-regulated
      process.

PMID- 28572052
TI  - Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in autoimmune disorders: From immune
      regulatory processes to clinical implications.
AB  - Autoimmune diseases are characterized by the development of autoreactive T- and B
      cells targeting self-antigens, which eventually can result in chronic and
      persistent organ damage. The autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (AHSCT) opened new avenues in the treatment of patients with severe, treatment
      resistant autoimmune diseases. This paper reviews the immune-regulatory
      mechanisms behind AHSCT, and also summarizes the experiences of clinical practice
      related to the therapy in organ-specific and systemic autoimmune diseases. It
      seems that the intricate interplay of various immune competent cells with
      regulatory capacity control in a synergistic manner the repopulated immune system
      after AHSCT, which potentially leads to a significant clinical improvement in
      certain autoimmune diseases. However, the widespread use of AHSCT was
      intrinsically limited, due to the serious side-effects of conditioning treatment
      and relatively high treatment-related mortality; moreover, the development of new
      effective and safe therapeutic approaches and the dawn of biological agents
      further limited its indications in the last decade. Nevertheless, with an
      appropriate patient selection and increased experience of transplant centres, the
      risks can be minimized, and AHSCT remained still a reasonable choice in multiple
      sclerosis and systemic sclerosis when the conventional therapy failed and further
      progression of disease is inevitable.

PMID- 28572053
TI  - Auto-antibodies and cancer in systemic sclerosis.

PMID- 28572055
TI  - Estrogen regulates spatially distinct cardiac mitochondrial subpopulations.
AB  - Increased susceptibility to permeability transition pore (mPTP) is a significant
      concern to decreased cardiac performance in postmenopausal females. The goal of
      this study was to assess the effects of estrogen deficiency on the two spatially
      distinct mitochondrial subpopulations from left ventricle: subsarcolemmal
      mitochondria (SSM) and intermyofibrillar mitochondria (IFM) based on: morphology,
      membrane potential, oxidative phosphorylation, mPTP and reactive oxygen species
      production. Female rats (8weeks old) that underwent bilateral ovariectomy were
      randomly assigned to receive daily treatment with placebo (OVX), estrogen
      replacement (OVX+E2) and Sham for 60days. The yield for IFM was found higher in
      the OVX group and lower in the SSM. SSM internal complexity and size were higher
      in the OVX group, although membrane potential was not different. The maximal rate
      of mitochondrial respiration, states 3 and 4, using glutamate+malate as
      substrate, were higher in IFM and SSM from the OVX group. The respiratory control
      ratio (RCR - state3/state 4), was not different in both SSM and IFM with
      glutamate+malate. The ADP:O ratio was found lower in IFM and SSM from OVX
      compared to Sham. When pyruvate was used, state 3 was found unchanged in both IFM
      and SSM, state 4 was greater in IFM from OVX rats compared to Sham and the ADP/O
      ratio was decreased. The RCR was unchanged in both subpopulations. The IFM from
      OVX rats presented a lower Ca2+retention capacity compared to Sham, however, the
      SSM remained unchanged. Hydrogen peroxide formation was found increased in the
      IFM from OVX animals with glutamate+malate and rotenone+succinate as substrates.
      The SSM showed increased ROS production only with rotenone+succinate. Western
      blot analyzes showed decreased levels of PGC-1alpha and NRF-1 in the OVX group.
      Estrogen replacement was able to restore most of the alterations induced by
      ovariectomy. In conclusion, our data shows that estrogen deficiency has distinct
      effects on the two spatially distinct mitochondrial subpopulations in oxidative
      phosphorylation, morphology, calcium retention capacity and ROS production.

PMID- 28572057
TI  - Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve naming ability in post
      stroke aphasia: A critical review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive
      neuromodulation tool that can be used to influence cortical brain activity to
      induce measurable behavioral changes. Although there is growing evidence that
      tDCS combined with behavioural language therapy could boost language recovery in
      patients with post-stroke aphasia, there is great variability in patient
      characteristics, treatment protocols, and outcome measures in these studies that
      poses challenges for analyzing the evidence. The purpose of this study is to
      critically analyze the methodological rigor of the evidence regarding the use of
      tDCS for post-stroke anomia. METHOD: This critical review was conducted by
      searching four databases (MEDLINE, EMBase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL). Nineteen
      studies fully met the inclusion criteria. Three critical appraisal tools and
      Robey and Schultz's (1998) five- phase model for conducting clinical outcome
      research were adopted to evaluate and analyze the current level of evidence.
      Methodological issues of the studies were also identified. RESULTS: The current
      level of evidence for using tDCS for anomia is at the pre-efficacy level with
      emerging evidence at the efficacy level. Lack of proper evaluation of carry-over
      effects in cross-over studies, lack of or unclear randomization, allocation
      concealment, and incomplete data handling were the main methodological issues
      that could threaten the validity of the tDCS for anomia studies. CONCLUSIONS:
      Several methodological issues have been identified in pre-efficacy studies that
      pose challenges in determining whether tDCS is a beneficial adjunct to behavioral
      aphasia therapy. Future studies need to improve the quality of the methods used
      to investigate the effect of tDCS for anomia.

PMID- 28572056
TI  - Effects of exercise on depressive behavior and striatal levels of norepinephrine,
      serotonin and their metabolites in sleep-deprived mice.
AB  - Exercise is a promising adjunctive therapy for depressive behavior, sleep/wake
      abnormalities, cognition and motor dysfunction. Conversely, sleep deprivation
      impairs mood, cognition and functional performance. The objective of this study
      is to evaluate the effects of exercise on anxiety and depressive behavior and
      striatal levels of norepinephrine (NE), serotonin and its metabolites in mice
      submitted to 6h of total sleep deprivation (6h-TSD) and 72h of Rapid Eye Movement
      (REM) sleep deprivation (72h-REMSD). Experimental groups were: (1) mice submitted
      to 6h-TSD by gentle handling; (2) mice submitted to 72h-REMSD by the flower pot
      method; (3) exercise (treadmill for 8 weeks); (4) exercise followed by 6h-TSD;
      (5) exercise followed by 72h-REMSD; (6) control (home cage). Behavioral tests
      included the Elevated Plus Maze and tail-suspension. NE, serotonin and its
      metabolites were determined in the striatum using high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC). Sleep deprivation increased depressive behavior (time of
      immobilization in the tail-suspension test) and previous exercise hindered it.
      Sleep deprivation increased striatal NE and previous exercise reduced it.
      Exercise only was associated with higher levels of serotonin. Furthermore,
      exercise reduced serotonin turnover associated with sleep deprivation. In brief,
      previous exercise prevented depressive behavior and reduced striatal high NE
      levels and serotonin turnover. The present findings confirm the effects of
      exercise on behavior and neurochemical alterations associated with sleep
      deprivation. These findings provide new avenues for understanding the mechanisms
      of exercise.

PMID- 28572054
TI  - Targeting the programmed cell death-1 pathway in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Since the introduction of TNF-alpha inhibitors and other biologic agents, the
      clinical outcome for many treated rheumatoid arthritis patients has significantly
      improved. However, there are still a substantial proportion of patients that are
      intolerant, or have inadequate responses, with current agents that have become
      the standards of care. While the majority of these agents are designed to affect
      the inflammatory features of the disease, there are also agents in the clinic
      that instead target lymphocyte subsets (e.g., rituximab) or interfere with
      lymphocyte co-receptor signaling pathways (e.g., abatacept). Due in part to their
      ability to orchestrate downstream inflammatory responses that lead to joint
      damage and disease progression, pathogenic expansions of T and B lymphocytes are
      appreciated to play key roles in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. New
      insights into immune regulation have suggested novel approaches for the
      pharmacotherapeutic targeting of lymphocytes. In this review, we discuss
      deepening insights into human genetics and our understanding of the interface
      with rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis providing a strong rationale for
      exploiting the co-inhibitory receptor programmed cell death-1 signaling pathway
      as a better approach for the treatment of this chronic, often progressive
      destructive joint disease.

PMID- 28572058
TI  - Behavioral, inflammatory and neurochemical disturbances in LPS and UCMS-induced
      mouse models of depression.
AB  - The immuno-inflammatory activation triggered by various stresses play an
      important role in pathophysiology of depression. The immune responses display
      differential pathological characters in different stresses. However, comparative
      data and analysis on behavioural, inflammatory and neurochemical changes in
      different stress-induced depression is limited. To imitate different stressful
      situations, in this study, mice were subjected to a single injection of LPS (0.5
      mg/kg, i.p.) and UCMS (4 week period), respectively. LPS-stressed mice showed
      more immobility time in FST and TST, as well as more time in periphery in OFT
      than UCMS-stressed mice. Further, LPS-stressed mice showed robuster expression
      and release of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6 in serum and depression-related brain
      areas (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum) as compared to UCMS-stressed
      mice. The ELISA results showed that IDO expression was significantly increased
      following LPS and UCMS stresses, but more increased IDO expression was observed
      in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of LPS-stressed mice. The decrease of 5-HT
      and BDNF was detected only in hippocampus of LPS-stressed mice, but in overall
      all the brain areas assessed in UCMS-stressed mice as compared to control. The
      data indicate that LPS induced more severe depressive-like behaviours and
      robuster immune activation than UCMS. Our study strongly imply that hippocampus
      is relatively more vulnerable to acute inflammatory challenge in depression,
      while chronic psychological stress is more likely to cause the multidimensional
      symptoms of clinical depression. Our findings provide more insight into
      pathophysiology in various stress-induced depression and also implicate a
      potential suitability of different stress models.

PMID- 28572060
TI  - Multifocal tDCS targeting the resting state motor network increases cortical
      excitability beyond traditional tDCS targeting unilateral motor cortex.
AB  - Scientists and clinicians have traditionally targeted single brain regions with
      stimulation to modulate brain function and disease. However, brain regions do not
      operate in isolation, but interact with other regions through networks. As such,
      stimulation of one region may impact and be impacted by other regions in its
      network. Here we test whether the effects of brain stimulation can be enhanced by
      simultaneously targeting a region and its network, identified with resting state
      functional connectivity MRI. Fifteen healthy participants received two types of
      transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): a traditional two-electrode
      montage targeting a single brain region (left primary motor cortex [M1]) and a
      novel eight-electrode montage targeting this region and its associated resting
      state network. As a control, 8 participants also received multifocal tDCS
      mismatched to this network. Network-targeted tDCS more than doubled the increase
      in left M1 excitability over time compared to traditional tDCS and the multifocal
      control. Modeling studies suggest these results are unlikely to be due to tDCS
      effects on left M1 itself, however it is impossible to completely exclude this
      possibility. It also remains unclear whether multifocal tDCS targeting a network
      selectively modulates this network and which regions within the network are most
      responsible for observed effects. Despite these limitations, network-targeted
      tDCS appears to be a promising approach for enhancing tDCS effects beyond
      traditional stimulation targeting a single brain region. Future work is needed to
      test whether these results extend to other resting state networks and enhance
      behavioral or therapeutic effects.

PMID- 28572061
TI  - Functional organization of the face-sensitive areas in human occipital-temporal
      cortex.
AB  - Human occipital-temporal cortex features several areas sensitive to faces,
      presumably forming the biological substrate for face perception. To date, there
      are piecemeal insights regarding the functional organization of these regions.
      They have come, however, from studies that are far from homogeneous with regard
      to the regions involved, the experimental design, and the data analysis approach.
      In order to provide an overall view of the functional organization of the face
      sensitive areas, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive study that taps into
      the pivotal functional properties of all the face-sensitive areas, within the
      context of the same experimental design, and uses multiple data analysis
      approaches. In this study, we identified the most robustly activated face
      sensitive areas in bilateral occipital-temporal cortices (i.e., AFP, aFFA, pFFA,
      OFA, pcSTS, pSTS) and systemically compared their regionally averaged activation
      and multivoxel activation patterns to 96 images from 16 object categories,
      including faces and non-faces. This condition-rich and single-image analysis
      approach critically samples the functional properties of a brain region, allowing
      us to test how two basic functional properties, namely face-category selectivity
      and face-exemplar sensitivity are distributed among these regions. Moreover, by
      examining the correlational structure of neural responses to the 96 images, we
      characterize their interactions in the greater face-processing network. We found
      that (1) r-pFFA showed the highest face-category selectivity, followed by l-pFFA,
      bilateral aFFA and OFA, and then bilateral pcSTS. In contrast, bilateral AFP and
      pSTS showed low face-category selectivity; (2) l-aFFA, l-pcSTS and bilateral AFP
      showed evidence of face-exemplar sensitivity; (3) r-OFA showed high overall
      response similarities with bilateral LOC and r-pFFA, suggesting it might be a
      transitional stage between general and face-selective information processing; (4)
      r-aFFA showed high face-selective response similarity with r-pFFA and r-OFA,
      indicating it was specifically involved in processing face information. Results
      also reveal two properties of these face sensitive regions across the two
      hemispheres: (1) the averaged left intra-hemispheric response similarity for the
      images was lower than the averaged right intra-hemispheric and the inter
      hemispheric response similarity, implying convergence of face processing towards
      the right hemisphere, and (2) the response similarities between homologous
      regions in the two hemispheres decreased as information processing proceeded from
      the early, more posterior, processing stage (OFA), indicating an increasing
      degree of hemispheric specialization and right hemisphere bias for face
      information processing. This study contributes to an emerging picture of how
      faces are processed within the occipital and temporal cortex.

PMID- 28572059
TI  - Linking dopaminergic reward signals to the development of attentional bias: A
      positron emission tomographic study.
AB  - The attention system is shaped by reward history, such that learned reward cues
      involuntarily draw attention. Recent research has begun to uncover the neural
      mechanisms by which learned reward cues compete for attention, implicating
      dopamine (DA) signaling within the dorsal striatum. How these elevated priority
      signals develop in the brain during the course of learning is less well
      understood, as is the relationship between value-based attention and the
      experience of reward during learning. We hypothesized that the magnitude of the
      striatal DA response to reward during learning contributes to the development of
      a learned attentional bias towards the cue that predicted it, and examined this
      hypothesis using positron emission tomography with [11C]raclopride. We measured
      changes in dopamine release for rewarded versus unrewarded visual search for
      color-defined targets as indicated by the density and distribution of the
      available D2/D3 receptors. We then tested for correlations of individual
      differences in this measure of reward-related DA release to individual
      differences in the degree to which previously reward-associated but currently
      task-irrelevant stimuli impair performance in an attention task (i.e., value
      driven attentional bias), revealing a significant relationship in the right
      anterior caudate. The degree to which reward-related DA release was right
      hemisphere lateralized was also predictive of later attentional bias. Our
      findings provide support for the hypothesis that value-driven attentional bias
      can be predicted from reward-related DA release during learning.

PMID- 28572064
TI  - Taking Stock.

PMID- 28572062
TI  - The United Kingdom Diabetic Retinopathy Electronic Medical Record Users Group:
      Report 3: Baseline Retinopathy and Clinical Features Predict Progression of
      Diabetic Retinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the time and risk factors for developing proliferative
      diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and vitreous hemorrhage (VH). DESIGN: Multicenter,
      national cohort study. METHODS: Anonymized data of 50 254 patient eyes with
      diabetes mellitus at 19 UK hospital eye services were extracted at the initial
      and follow-up visits between 2007 and 2014. Time to progression of PDR and VH
      were calculated with Cox regression after stratifying by baseline diabetic
      retinopathy (DR) severity and adjusting for age, sex, race, and starting visual
      acuity. RESULTS: Progression to PDR in 5 years differed by baseline DR: no DR
      (2.2%), mild (13.0%), moderate (27.2%), severe nonproliferative diabetic
      retinopathy (NPDR) (45.5%). Similarly, 5-year progression to VH varied by
      baseline DR: no DR (1.1%), mild (2.9%), moderate (7.3%), severe NPDR (9.8%).
      Compared with no DR, the patient eyes that presented with mild, moderate, and
      severe NPDR were 6.71, 14.80, and 28.19 times more likely to develop PDR,
      respectively. In comparison to no DR, the eyes with mild, moderate, and severe
      NPDR were 2.56, 5.60, and 7.29 times more likely to develop VH, respectively. In
      severe NPDR, the eyes with intraretinal microvascular abnormalities (IRMA) had a
      significantly increased hazard ratio (HR) of developing PDR (HR 1.77, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.25-2.49, P = .0013) compared with those with venous
      beading, whereas those with 4-quadrant dot-blot hemorrhages (4Q DBH) had 3.84
      higher HR of developing VH (95% CI 1.39-10.62, P = .0095). CONCLUSIONS: Baseline
      severities and features of initial DR are prognostic for PDR development. IRMA
      increases risk of PDR whereas 4Q DBH increases risk of VH.

PMID- 28572063
TI  - Pattern of Local Recurrence After I-125 Episcleral Brachytherapy for Uveal
      Melanoma in a Spanish Referral Ocular Oncology Unit.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the time, frequency, and clinical characteristics of
      treatment failure after I-125 brachytherapy in patients with uveal melanoma
      treated and followed in a Spanish referral ocular oncology unit. DESIGN:
      Prospective, consecutive, interventional case series. METHODS: Patients diagnosed
      with uveal melanoma from 1995 to 2016 and treated with episcleral brachytherapy
      were included. Demographic data collection, ophthalmic evaluation, ultrasound
      scan, and systemic studies were performed at baseline, every 6 months thereafter
      for 5 years, and subsequently at annual intervals. Recurrence was defined as
      presence of tumor growth after treatment. Baseline analysis was performed by
      descriptive methods and survival by Kaplan-Meier curves. RESULTS: From 732
      patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma, 311 were treated with brachytherapy. In
      the follow-up (mean 79 months, standard deviation = 55), 16 local tumor
      recurrences (5.1%) were detected. All relapsing patients had choroidal tumors and
      15 presented with visual symptoms. All patients were treated with I-125
      brachytherapy, and 2 received associated transpupillary thermotherapy. All the
      eyes were enucleated after recurrence. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a mean time
      of recurrence of 3.7 years (standard deviation = 2.94 years, ranging from 1 to 12
      years). Three patients had metastasis in the follow-up. Kaplan-Meier analysis
      showed worse survival for patients with recurrence. CONCLUSION: Local treatment
      failure was a relatively infrequent event after I-125 brachytherapy in our
      series. Recurrences appear not only early but also late in the follow-up. They do
      not have a distinctive clinical pattern and are associated with poorer survival.

PMID- 28572065
TI  - Optimal Eligibility Criteria for Trials in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection
      Fraction.

PMID- 28572067
TI  - Texture-dependent effects of pseudo-chewing sound on perceived food texture and
      evoked feelings in response to nursing care foods.
AB  - Because chewing sounds influence perceived food textures, unpleasant textures of
      texture-modified diets might be improved by chewing sound modulation.
      Additionally, since inhomogeneous food properties increase perceived sensory
      intensity, the effects of chewing sound modulation might depend on inhomogeneity.
      This study examined the influences of texture inhomogeneity on the effects of
      chewing sound modulation. Three kinds of nursing care foods in two food process
      types (minced-/pureed-like foods for inhomogeneous/homogeneous texture
      respectively) were used as sample foods. A pseudo-chewing sound presentation
      system, using electromyogram signals, was used to modulate chewing sounds. Thirty
      healthy elderly participants participated in the experiment. In two conditions
      with and without the pseudo-chewing sound, participants rated the taste, texture,
      and evoked feelings in response to sample foods. The results showed that
      inhomogeneity strongly influenced the perception of food texture. Regarding the
      effects of the pseudo-chewing sound, taste was less influenced, the perceived
      food texture tended to change in the minced-like foods, and evoked feelings
      changed in both food process types. Though there were some food-dependent
      differences in the effects of the pseudo-chewing sound, the presentation of the
      pseudo-chewing sounds was more effective in foods with an inhomogeneous texture.
      In addition, it was shown that the pseudo-chewing sound might have positively
      influenced feelings.

PMID- 28572066
TI  - Validation of prospective portion size and latency to eat as measures of
      reactivity to snack foods.
AB  - In experimental studies that investigate reactivity to the sight and smell of
      highly palatable snack foods, ad libitum food intake is commonly used as a
      behavioural outcome measure. However, this measure has several drawbacks. The
      current study investigated two intake-related measures not yet validated for food
      cue exposure research involving common snack foods: prospective portion size and
      latency to eat. We aimed to validate these measures by assessing prospective
      portion size and eating latencies in female undergraduate students who either
      underwent snack food exposure or a control exposure. Furthermore, we correlated
      prospective portion size and latency to eat with commonly used measures of food
      cue reactivity, i.e., self-reported desire to eat, salivation, and ad libitum
      food intake. Results showed increases in prospective portion size after food cue
      exposure but not after control exposure. Latency to eat did not differ between
      the two conditions. Prospective portion size correlated positively with desire to
      eat and food intake, and negatively with latency to eat. Latency to eat was also
      negatively correlated with desire to eat and food intake. It is concluded that
      the current study provides initial evidence for the prospective portion size task
      as a valid measure of reactivity to snack foods in a Dutch female and mostly
      healthy weight student population.

PMID- 28572068
TI  - Seeing is doing. The implicit effect of TV cooking shows on children's use of
      ingredients.
AB  - Prior research has established that TV viewing and food marketing influence
      children's eating behavior. However, the potential impact of popular TV cooking
      shows has received far less attention. TV cooking shows may equally affect
      children's food selection and consumption by distributing both food cues and
      portion-size cues. In an experimental study, elementary school children were
      randomly exposed to a cooking show, that either did or did not display a portion
      size cue, or a non-food TV show. Results showed that children used significantly
      more sugar on their pancakes, and consumed significantly more of the pancakes
      after watching a TV cooking show compared to a non-food TV show. However,
      observing a portion-size cue in a TV cooking show only influenced sugar selection
      in older children (5th grade), but not in younger children (1st grade). The
      findings suggest that food cues in TV cooking shows stimulate consumption by
      inducing food cravings in children. Actual portion-size cues only appeared to
      affect older children's food selection.

PMID- 28572069
TI  - Consumption of dark chocolate attenuates subsequent food intake compared with
      milk and white chocolate in postmenopausal women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chocolate has a reputation for contributing to weight gain due to its
      high fat, sugar and calorie content. However, the effect of varying
      concentrations of cocoa in chocolate on energy intake and appetite is not clear.
      OBJECTIVE: To compare the acute effect of consuming an isocaloric dose of dark,
      milk and white chocolate on subsequent energy intake, appetite and mood in
      postmenopausal women. METHODS: Fourteen healthy postmenopausal women (57.6 +/-
      4.8yr) attended an introductory session followed by three experimental trials
      performed in a counterbalanced order at a standardised time of day, each
      separated by one week. Ad libitum energy intake, perceived appetite, mood and
      appetite-related peptides were assessed in response to consumption of 80% cocoa
      [dark chocolate], 35% cocoa [milk chocolate] and cocoa butter [white chocolate]
      (2099 kJ), prepared from a single-origin cacao bean. RESULTS: Ad libitum energy
      intake was significantly lower following dark (1355 +/- 750 kJ) compared with
      both milk (1693 +/- 969 kJ; P = 0.008) and white (1842 +/- 756 kJ; P = 0.001)
      chocolate consumption. Blood glucose and insulin concentrations were transiently
      elevated in response to white and milk chocolate consumption compared with the
      dark chocolate (P < 0.05), while pancreatic polypeptide was elevated in response
      to higher cocoa content chocolate (dark and milk) compared with white chocolate
      (P < 0.05). No differences in active ghrelin or leptin were observed between
      conditions, nor was mood altered between conditions (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Dark
      chocolate attenuates subsequent food intake in postmenopausal women, compared to
      the impact of milk and white chocolate consumption.

PMID- 28572070
TI  - Class and eating: Family meals in Britain.
AB  - This paper examines social differentiation in eating patterns in Britain. It
      focuses on family meals among individuals with under-age children. Eating with
      family members has been associated with improvement in wellbeing, nutritional
      status, and school performance of the children. Modern lifestyles may pose a
      challenge to commensal eating for all groups, but the scale of the impact varies
      between social classes, with some groups at higher risk of shortening or skipping
      family meal time. Eating patterns are differentiated by individual's social
      class; they have also been associated with educational attainment, work
      schedules, and household composition. The objective of this study is to
      disaggregate the effect of these variables. Using data from the 2014/2015 UK Time
      Use Survey I analyse the net effect of social class, education, income, work and
      family characteristics on the frequency and duration of family meals. Individuals
      in the highest occupational class dedicate more time overall to family meals.
      However, class effect becomes insignificant when other variables, such as
      education or income, are controlled for. This study finds that higher educated
      individuals have more frequent family meals, and more affluent individuals spend
      more time at the table with their household members. Work characteristics are
      associated with frequency of meals, but not with their duration. Finally,
      household composition matters for how people eat. Parents of younger children eat
      with their family members more frequently than parents of teenagers. Single
      parents, a notoriously time-poor category, spend the least amount of time eating
      with their families and have fewer commensal meals.

PMID- 28572071
TI  - Social approval bias in self-reported fruit and vegetable intake after
      presentation of a normative message in college students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of self-reported data regarding Fruit and
      Vegetable (FV) intake in college students at Utah State University after being
      presented with a descriptive normative message. INTERVENTION: Participants (N =
      167) were recruited from general education courses and asked to complete a
      baseline survey containing a FV screener from the National Cancer Institute. They
      were then randomized to receive one of four messages one week after the initial
      survey and asked to immediately complete the same FV screener. The Control group
      received no FV message. The Recommendation group received a message that the
      recommendation for FV is 4-5 cups per day. The two normative groups received a
      message that either 80% of students ate more (Low) or less (High) FV than they
      did, regardless of actual intake, in addition to the recommended intake.
      ANALYSIS: Repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess differences in reported FV
      intake and perceived FV intake of peers between the first and second assessment.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Those receiving the message that they were in the lowest
      20th percentile of intake reported a half-cup increase in self-reported FV intake
      and a one-cup increase in perception of peers' intake (p = 0.037 and p=<0.001,
      respectively). No significant differences were observed in other groups. These
      results indicate that normative messaging may influence self-reported FV intake
      and perception of peer intake of college students when this message indicates
      that the participant is in the lowest percentile of their peers.

PMID- 28572073
TI  - Tigecycline treatment in an infant with extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter
      baumannii bacteremia.
AB  - The successful use of tigecycline in a 12-month old liver transplant recipient
      with extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bacteremia is presented.
      Tigecycline serum concentrations were monitored to help improve antibiotic
      efficacy and minimize side effects. A literature review identified 11 additional
      pediatric cases of A. baumannii infection treated with tigecycline since 2011.
      Tigecycline treatment should be considered in children with extensively drug
      resistant bacterial infections.

PMID- 28572072
TI  - The critical role of cognitive-based trait differences in transcranial direct
      current stimulation (tDCS) suppression of food craving and eating in frank
      obesity.
AB  - Obesity remains a major public health concern and novel treatments are needed.
      Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique
      shown to reduce food craving and consumption, especially when targeting the
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) with a right anode/left cathode electrode
      montage. Despite the implications to treat frank (non-bingeeating) obesity, no
      study has tested the right anode/left cathode montage in this population.
      Additionally, most tDCS appetite studies have not controlled for differences in
      traits under DLPFC control that may influence how well one responds to tDCS.
      Hence, N = 18 (10F/8M) adults with frank obesity completed the Dutch Eating
      Behavior Questionnaire-Restraint and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and received 20
      min of 2 mA active tDCS and control tDCS session. Craving and eating was assessed
      at both sessions with a food photo "wanting" test and in-lab measures of total,
      preferred, and less-preferred kilocalories consumed of three highly palatable
      snack foods. While main effects of tDCS vs. control were not found, significant
      differences emerged when trait scores were controlled. tDCS reduced food craving
      in females with lower attention-type impulsiveness (p = 0.047), reduced preferred
      food consumption in males with lower intent to restrict calories (p = 0.024), and
      reduced total food consumption in males with higher non-planning-type
      impulsiveness (p = 0.009) compared to control tDCS. This is the first study to
      find significant reductions in food craving and consumption in a sample with
      frank obesity using the most popular tDCS montage in appetite studies. The
      results also highlight the cognitive-based heterogeneity of individuals with
      obesity and the importance of considering these differences when evaluating the
      efficacy of DLPFC-targeted tDCS in future studies aimed at treating obesity.

PMID- 28572074
TI  - Characterization of Variability in Toxicokinetics and Toxicodynamics of
      Tetrachloroethylene Using the Collaborative Cross Mouse Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluation of interindividual variability is a challenging step in
      risk assessment. For most environmental pollutants, including perchloroethylene
      (PERC), experimental data are lacking, resulting in default assumptions being
      used to account for variability in toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics. OBJECTIVE:
      We quantitatively examined the relationship between PERC toxicokinetics and
      toxicodynamics at the population level to test whether individuals with increased
      oxidative metabolism are be more sensitive to hepatotoxicity following PERC
      exposure. METHODS: Male mice from 45 strains of the Collaborative Cross (CC) were
      orally administered a single dose of PERC (1,000 mg/kg) or vehicle (Alkamuls
      EL620) and euthanized at various time points (n = 1/strain/time). Concentration
      time profiles were generated for PERC and its primary oxidative metabolite
      trichloroacetate (TCA) in multiple tissues. Toxicodynamic phenotyping was also
      performed. RESULTS: Significant variability among strains was observed in
      toxicokinetics of PERC and TCA in every tissue examined. Based on area under the
      curve (AUC), the range of liver TCA levels spanned nearly an order of magnitude
      (~8-fold). Expression of liver cytochrome P4502E1 did not correlate with TCA
      levels. Toxicodynamic phenotyping revealed an effect of PERC on bodyweight loss,
      induction of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-alpha (PPARalpha)
      regulated genes, and dysregulation of hepatic lipid homeostasis. Clustering was
      observed among a) liver levels of PERC, TCA, and triglycerides; b) TCA levels in
      liver and kidney; and c) TCA levels in serum, brain, fat, and lung. CONCLUSIONS:
      Using the CC mouse population model, we have demonstrated a complex and highly
      variable relationship between PERC and TCA toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics at
      the population level. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP788.

PMID- 28572076
TI  - Puffy hand syndrome.

PMID- 28572075
TI  - Estimating Inorganic Arsenic Exposure from U.S. Rice and Total Water Intakes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among nonoccupationally exposed U.S. residents, drinking water and
      diet are considered primary exposure pathways for inorganic arsenic (iAs). In
      drinking water, iAs is the primary form of arsenic (As), while dietary As
      speciation techniques are used to differentiate iAs from less toxic arsenicals in
      food matrices. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to estimate the distribution of iAs
      exposure rates from drinking water intakes and rice consumption in the U.S.
      population and ethnic- and age-based subpopulations. METHODS: The distribution of
      iAs in drinking water was estimated by population, weighting the iAs
      concentrations for each drinking water utility in the Second Six-Year Review data
      set. To estimate the distribution of iAs concentrations in rice ingested by U.S.
      consumers, 54 grain-specific, production-weighted composites of rice obtained
      from U.S. mills were extracted and speciated using both a quantitative dilute
      nitric acid extraction and speciation (DNAS) and an in vitro gastrointestinal
      assay to provide an upper bound and bioaccessible estimates, respectively. Daily
      drinking water intake and rice consumption rate distributions were developed
      using data from the What We Eat in America (WWEIA) study. RESULTS: Using these
      data sets, the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation (SHEDS) model
      estimated mean iAs exposures from drinking water and rice were 4.2 MUg/day and
      1.4 MUg/day, respectively, for the entire U.S. population. The Tribal, Asian, and
      Pacific population exhibited the highest mean daily exposure of iAs from cooked
      rice (2.8 MUg/day); the mean exposure rate for children between ages 1 and 2
      years in this population is 0.104 MUg/kg body weight (BW)/day. CONCLUSIONS: An
      average consumer drinking 1.5 L of water daily that contains between 2 and 3 ng
      iAs/mL is exposed to approximately the same amount of iAs as a mean Tribal,
      Asian, and Pacific consumer is exposed to from rice.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP418. BACKGROUND: Among nonoccupationally exposed U.S.
      residents, drinking water and diet are considered primary exposure pathways for
      inorganic arsenic (iAs). In drinking water, iAs is the primary form of arsenic
      (As), while dietary As speciation techniques are used to differentiate iAs from
      less toxic arsenicals in food matrices. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to estimate the
      distribution of iAs exposure rates from drinking water intakes and rice
      consumption in the U.S. population and ethnic- and age-based subpopulations.
      METHODS: The distribution of iAs in drinking water was estimated by population,
      weighting the iAs concentrations for each drinking water utility in the Second
      Six-Year Review data set. To estimate the distribution of iAs concentrations in
      rice ingested by U.S. consumers, 54 grain-specific, production-weighted
      composites of rice obtained from U.S. mills were extracted and speciated using
      both a quantitative dilute nitric acid extraction and speciation (DNAS) and an in
      vitro gastrointestinal assay to provide an upper bound and bioaccessible
      estimates, respectively. Daily drinking water intake and rice consumption rate
      distributions were developed using data from the What We Eat in America (WWEIA)
      study. RESULTS: Using these data sets, the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose
      Simulation (SHEDS) model estimated mean iAs exposures from drinking water and
      rice were [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively, for the
      entire U.S. population. The Tribal, Asian, and Pacific population exhibited the
      highest mean daily exposure of iAs from cooked rice ([Formula: see text]); the
      mean exposure rate for children between ages 1 and 2 years in this population is
      [Formula: see text] body weight (BW)/day. CONCLUSIONS: An average consumer
      drinking 1.5 L of water daily that contains between 2 and [Formula: see text] is
      exposed to approximately the same amount of iAs as a mean Tribal, Asian, and
      Pacific consumer is exposed to from rice. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP418.

PMID- 28572077
TI  - Assessment of adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis in a French Navy frigate
      deployed in Southeast Asia.
AB  - During a 2-month mission in Southeast Asia, including numerous stopovers in
      coastal cities, the crew of a frigate of the French Navy received doxycycline for
      antimalarial prophylaxis. Adherence to this chemoprophylaxis was evaluated with
      an anonymous questionnaire distributed at the end of the malaria exposure period.
      The response rate was 74 % (72 crew members). Among them, 67 sailors felt they
      had received clear information about the risks of malaria. Overall, 19 (27 %)
      respondents reported adherence (one forgotten pill, by no more than 15 days), 18
      (25 %) irregular adherence (one or more pills forgotten weekly or stopped during
      the mission), and 35 recognized that they had not taken the treatment. These
      results, in the light of recent international recommendations, suggest that
      strategies for the prevention of malaria without systematic use of
      chemoprophylaxis (personal vector protection measures, an "Army posture"
      strategy), would be more suitable for medicalized ships cruising in this area.

PMID- 28572078
TI  - The Effect of Core Stabilization Exercise on the Kinematics and Joint
      Coordination of the Lumbar Spine and Hip During Sit-to-Stand and Stand-to-Sit in
      Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain (COSCIOUS): Study Protocol for a
      Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNLBP) is among the most prevalent
      health problems. Lumbar spine and hips kinematics and coordination can be
      affected in CNLBP. The effects of exercises on the kinematics and coordination of
      lumbar spine and hips during sit-to-stand (STS) and its reverse have not been
      evaluated. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of core
      stabilization exercise on the kinematics and joint coordination of the lumbar
      spine and hip during STS and its reverse in CNLBP patients. METHODS: COSCIOUS is
      a parallel randomized double-blind controlled trial. A total of 30 CNLBP patients
      and 15 asymptomatic participants will be included. The kinematics and joint
      coordination of the lumbar spine and hips will be evaluated during STS and its
      reverse using a motion capture system. The participants will be asked to sit in
      their usual posture on a stool. Reflective markers will be placed over the T12,
      S2, anterior and posterior superior iliac spines, greater trochanters, and
      lateral femoral epicondyles of both legs. The participants will be instructed to
      stand up at natural speed, remain in the erect posture for 3 seconds, and then
      sit down. Kinematic variables of the lumbar spine and hip will be computed.
      Afterward, the CNLBP participants will be allocated at random to receive one of 2
      interventions: core stabilization or general exercise. Treatment sessions will be
      held 3 times per week for 16 sessions. After intervention, CNLBP participants
      will be assessed again. RESULTS: Funding for the study was provided in 2016 by
      Iran University of Medical Sciences. The study is expected to last approximately
      12 months, depending on recruitment. Findings on the study's primary outcomes are
      expected to be finalized by December 2017. The results of the study will be
      published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation will
      evaluate the effects of core stabilization exercise on the kinematics and joint
      coordination of the lumbar spine and hip during STS and its reverse in patients
      with CNLBP. In addition, the effects of CNLBP on STS and its reverse will be
      investigated in COSCIOUS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials
      IRCT2016080812953N2; http://en.search.irct.ir/view/32003?format=xml (Archived by
      WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qjTWd4Az).

PMID- 28572080
TI  - George Lewith.

PMID- 28572079
TI  - Mobile Text Messaging to Improve Medication Adherence and Viral Load in a
      Vulnerable Canadian Population Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A
      Repeated Measures Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) as treatment for human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is effective and available, but poor
      medication adherence limits benefits, particularly in vulnerable populations. In
      a Kenyan randomized controlled trial, a weekly text-messaging intervention
      (WelTel) improved cART adherence and HIV viral load (VL). Despite growing
      evidence for short message service (SMS) text-message interventions in HIV care,
      there is a paucity of data utilizing these interventions in marginalized or
      female cohorts. OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to assess whether the
      standardized WelTel SMS text-message intervention applied to a vulnerable,
      predominantly female, population improved cART adherence and VL. METHODS: We
      conducted a repeated measures study of the WelTel intervention in high-risk HIV
      positive persons by measuring change in VL, CD4 count, and self-reported
      adherence 12 months before and 12 months after the WelTel intervention was
      introduced. Inclusion criteria included VL >=200 copies/mL, indication for
      treatment, and meeting vulnerability criteria. Participants were given a mobile
      phone with unlimited texting (where required), and weekly check-in text messages
      were sent for one year from the WelTel computer platform. Clinical data were
      collected for control and intervention years. Participants were followed by a
      multidisciplinary team in a clinical setting. Outcomes were assessed using
      Wilcoxon signed ranks tests for change in CD4 and VL from control year to study
      end and mixed-effects logistic regressions for change in cART adherence and
      appointment attendance. A secondary analysis was conducted to assess the effect
      of response rate on the outcome by modeling final log10 VL by number of responses
      while controlling for mean log10 VL in the control year. RESULTS: Eighty-five
      participants enrolled in the study, but 5 withdrew (final N=80). Participants
      were predominantly female (90%, 72/80) with a variety of vulnerabilities. Mean VL
      decreased from 1098 copies/mL in the control year to 439 copies/mL at study end
      (P=.004). Adherence to cART significantly improved (OR 1.14, IQR 1.10-1.18;
      P<.001), whereas appointment attendance decreased slightly with the intervention
      (OR 0.81, IQR 0.67-0.99; P=.03). A response was received for 46.57% (1753/3764)
      of messages sent and 9.62% (362/3764) of text messages sent were replied to with
      a problem. An outcome analysis examining relationship between reply rate and VL
      did not meet statistical significance (P=.07), but may be worthy of investigating
      further in a larger study. CONCLUSIONS: WelTel may be an effective tool for
      improving cART adherence and reducing VLs among high-risk, vulnerable HIV
      positive persons. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02603536;
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02603536 (Archived by WebCite at
      http://www.webcitation.org/6qK57zCwv).

PMID- 28572081
TI  - Revisiting the diet-heart hypothesis: critical appraisal of the Minnesota
      Coronary Experiment.

PMID- 28572082
TI  - Rogue surgeon Paterson is sentenced to 15 years after performing unnecessary
      operations.

PMID- 28572083
TI  - Oatmeal particle size alters glycemic index but not as a function of gastric
      emptying rate.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which oat particle size in a
      porridge could alter glucose absorption, gastric emptying, gastrointestinal
      hormone response, and subjective feelings of appetite and satiety. Porridge was
      prepared from either oat flakes or oat flour with the same protein, fat,
      carbohydrate, and mass. These were fed to eight volunteers on separate days in a
      crossover study, and subjective appetite ratings, gastric contents, and plasma
      glucose, insulin, and gastrointestinal hormones were determined over a period of
      3 h. The flake porridge gave a lower glucose response than the flour porridge,
      and there were apparent differences in gastric emptying in both the early and
      late postprandial phases. The appetite ratings showed similar differences between
      early- and late-phase behavior. The structure of the oat flakes remained
      sufficiently intact to delay their gastric emptying, leading to a lower glycemic
      response, even though initial gastric emptying rates were similar for the flake
      and flour porridge. This highlights the need to take food structure into account
      when considering relatively simple physiological measures and offering
      nutritional guidance.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The impact of food structure on glycemic
      response even in simple foods such as porridge is dependent on both timing of
      gastric emptying and the composition of what is emptied as well as duodenal
      starch digestion. Thus structure should be accounted for when considering
      relatively simple physiological measures and offering nutritional guidance.

PMID- 28572084
TI  - Ductular and proliferative response of esophageal submucosal glands in a porcine
      model of esophageal injury and repair.
AB  - Esophageal injury is a risk factor for diseases such as Barrett's esophagus (BE)
      and esophageal adenocarcinoma. To improve understanding of signaling pathways
      associated with both normal and abnormal repair, animal models are needed.
      Traditional rodent models of esophageal repair are limited by the absence of
      esophageal submucosal glands (ESMGs), which are present in the human esophagus.
      Previously, we identified acinar ductal metaplasia in human ESMGs in association
      with both esophageal injury and cancer. In addition, the SOX9 transcription
      factor has been associated with generation of columnar epithelium and the
      pathogenesis of BE and is present in ESMGs. To test our hypothesis that ESMGs
      activate after esophageal injury with an increase in proliferation, generation of
      a ductal phenotype, and expression of SOX9, we developed a porcine model of
      esophageal injury and repair using radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The porcine
      esophagus contains ESMGs, and RFA produces a consistent and reproducible mucosal
      injury in the esophagus. Here we present a temporal assessment of this model of
      esophageal repair. Porcine esophagus was evaluated at 0, 6, 18, 24, 48, and 72 h
      and 5 and 7 days following RFA and compared with control uninjured esophagus.
      Following RFA, ESMGs demonstrated an increase in ductal phenotype, echoing our
      prior studies in humans. Proliferation increased in both squamous epithelium and
      ESMGs postinjury with a prominent population of SOX9-positive cells in ESMGs
      postinjury. This model promises to be useful in future experiments evaluating
      mechanisms of esophageal repair.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A novel porcine model of injury
      and repair using radiofrequency ablation has been developed, allowing for
      reproducible injury to the esophagus to study repair in an animal model with
      esophageal submucosal glands, a key anatomical feature and missing in rodent
      models but possibly harboring progenitor cells. There is a strong translational
      component to this porcine model given the anatomical and physiological
      similarities between pigs and humans.

PMID- 28572085
TI  - CDX2 upregulates SLC26A3 gene expression in intestinal epithelial cells.
AB  - SLC26A3 [downregulated in adenoma (DRA)] plays a key role in mammalian intestinal
      NaCl absorption, in that it mediates apical membrane Cl-/[Formula: see text]
      exchange. DRA function and expression are significantly decreased in diarrhea
      associated with inflammatory bowel disease. DRA is also considered to be a marker
      of cellular differentiation and is predominantly expressed in differentiated
      epithelial cells. Caudal-type homeobox protein-2 (CDX2) is known to regulate
      genes involved in intestinal epithelial differentiation and proliferation.
      Reduced expression of both DRA and CDX2 in intestinal inflammation prompted us to
      study whether the DRA gene is directly regulated by CDX2. Our initial studies
      utilizing CDX2 knockout (CDX2fV/fV;Cre+) mice showed a marked reduction in DRA
      mRNA and protein levels in proximal and distal colon. In silico analysis of the
      DRA promoter showed two consensus sites for CDX2 binding. Therefore, we utilized
      Caco-2 cells as an in vitro model to examine if DRA is a direct target of CDX2
      regulation. siRNA-mediated silencing of CDX2 in Caco-2 cells resulted in a marked
      (~50%) decrease in DRA mRNA and protein levels, whereas ectopic overexpression of
      CDX2 upregulated DRA expression and also stimulated DRA promoter activity,
      suggesting transcriptional regulation. Electrophoretic mobility shift and
      chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated direct binding of CDX2 to one
      of the two putative CDX2 binding sites in the DRA promoter (+645/+663). In
      summary, our studies, for the first time, demonstrate transcriptional regulation
      of DRA expression by CDX2, implying that reduced expression of DRA in
      inflammatory bowel disease-associated diarrhea may, in part, be due to
      downregulation of CDX2 in the inflamed mucosa.NEW & NOTEWORTHY SLC26A3
      [downregulated in adenoma (DRA)] mediates intestinal luminal NaCl absorption and
      is downregulated in inflammatory bowel disease-associated diarrhea. Since both
      DRA and caudal-type homeobox protein-2 (CDX2) are reduced in intestinal
      inflammation and the DRA promoter harbors CDX2 binding sites, we examined whether
      the DRA gene is regulated by CDX2. Our studies, for the first time, demonstrate
      transcriptional regulation of DRA expression by CDX2 via direct binding to the
      DRA promoter, suggesting that reduced expression of DRA in inflammatory bowel
      disease-associated diarrhea could, in part, be attributed to downregulation of
      CDX2.

PMID- 28572087
TI  - Philip Michael John Tombleson.

PMID- 28572088
TI  - MicroRNA dysregulation in cancer: diagnostics, monitoring and therapeutics. A
      comprehensive review.

PMID- 28572086
TI  - Functional morphology of the lower esophageal sphincter and crural diaphragm
      determined by three-dimensional high-resolution esophago-gastric junction
      pressure profile and CT imaging.
AB  - The smooth muscles of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and skeletal muscles
      of the crural diaphragm (CD) provide a closure/antireflux barrier mechanism at
      the esophago-gastric junction (EGJ). A number of questions in regard to the
      pressure profile of the LES and CD remain unclear, e.g., 1) Why is the LES
      pressure profile circumferentially asymmetric, 2) Is the crural diaphragm (CD)
      contraction also circumferentially asymmetric, and 3) Where is the LES and CD
      pressure profile located in the anatomy of the esophagus and stomach? The three
      dimensional (3-D) high-resolution esophageal manometry (HRM) catheter can record
      a detailed profile of the EGJ pressure; however, it does not allow the
      determination of the circumferential orientation of individual pressure
      transducers in vivo. We used computed tomography (CT) scan imaging in combination
      with 3-D EGJ pressure recordings to determine the functional morphology of the
      LES and CD and its relationship to the EGJ anatomy. A 3-D-HRM catheter with 96
      transducers (12 rings, 7.5 mm apart, located over 9-cm length of the catheter,
      with eight transducers in each ring, 45 degrees  apart (Medtronics), was used to
      record the EGJ pressure in 10 healthy subjects. A 0.5-mm diameter metal ball (BB)
      was taped to the catheter, adjacent to transducer 1 of the catheter. The EGJ was
      recorded under the following conditions: 1) end-expiration (LES pressure) before
      swallow, after swallow, and after edrophonium hydrochloride; and 2) peak
      inspiration (crural diaphragm contraction) for tidal inspiration and forced
      maximal inspiration. A CT scan was performed to localize the circumferential
      orientation of the BB. The CT scan imaging allowed the determination of the
      circumferential orientation of the LES and CD pressure profiles. The LES pressure
      under the three end-expiration conditions were different; however, the shape of
      the pressure profile was unique with the LES length longer toward the lesser
      curvature of the stomach as compared with the greater curvature. The pressure
      profile revealed circular and axial pressure asymmetry, with greatest pressure
      and shortest cranio-caudal length on the left (close to the angle of His). The CD
      contraction with tidal and forced inspiration increases pressure in the cranial
      half of the LES pressure profile, and it was placed horizontally across the
      recording. The CD, esophagus, and stomach were outlined in the CT scan images to
      construct a 3-D anatomy of the region; it revealed that the hiatus (CD) is placed
      obliquely across the esophagus; however, because of the bend of the esophagus to
      the left at the upper edge of the hiatus, the two were placed at right angle to
      each other, which resulted in a horizontal pressure profile of the CD on the LES.
      Our observations suggest a unique shape of the LES, CD, and the anatomical
      relationship between the two, which provides a possible explanation as to why the
      LES pressure shows circumferential and axial asymmetry. Our findings have
      implication for the length and circumferential orientation of myotomy incision
      required for the ablation of LES pressure in achalasia esophagus.NEW & NOTEWORTHY
      We used computed tomography scan imaging with three-dimensional esophago-gastric
      junction (EGJ) pressure recordings to determine functional morphology of the
      lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and crural diaphragm and its relationship to EGJ
      anatomy. The LES pressure profile was unique with the LES length longer and
      pressures lower toward the lesser curvature of the stomach, as compared with the
      greater curvature. Our findings have implications for the length and
      circumferential orientation of myotomy incision required for the ablation of LES
      pressure in the achalasia esophagus.

PMID- 28572089
TI  - What happens when targets for waiting times change?

PMID- 28572090
TI  - GDF15 is a heart-derived hormone that regulates body growth.
AB  - The endocrine system is crucial for maintaining whole-body homeostasis. Little is
      known regarding endocrine hormones secreted by the heart other than atrial/brain
      natriuretic peptides discovered over 30 years ago. Here, we identify growth
      differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) as a heart-derived hormone that regulates body
      growth. We show that pediatric heart disease induces GDF15 synthesis and
      secretion by cardiomyocytes. Circulating GDF15 in turn acts on the liver to
      inhibit growth hormone (GH) signaling and body growth. We demonstrate that
      blocking cardiomyocyte production of GDF15 normalizes circulating GDF15 level and
      restores liver GH signaling, establishing GDF15 as a bona fide heart-derived
      hormone that regulates pediatric body growth. Importantly, plasma GDF15 is
      further increased in children with concomitant heart disease and failure to
      thrive (FTT). Together these studies reveal a new endocrine mechanism by which
      the heart coordinates cardiac function and body growth. Our results also provide
      a potential mechanism for the well-established clinical observation that children
      with heart diseases often develop FTT.

PMID- 28572093
TI  - Heart rhythm conundrum.

PMID- 28572091
TI  - The Ser/Thr Protein Kinase Protein-Protein Interaction Map of M. tuberculosis.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis, the
      leading cause of death among all infectious diseases. There are 11 eukaryotic
      like serine/threonine protein kinases (STPKs) in Mtb, which are thought to play
      pivotal roles in cell growth, signal transduction and pathogenesis. However,
      their underlying mechanisms of action remain largely uncharacterized. In this
      study, using a Mtb proteome microarray, we have globally identified the binding
      proteins in Mtb for all of the STPKs, and constructed the first STPK protein
      interaction (KPI) map that includes 492 binding proteins and 1,027 interactions.
      Bioinformatics analysis showed that the interacting proteins reflect diverse
      functions, including roles in two-component system, transcription, protein
      degradation, and cell wall integrity. Functional investigations confirmed that
      PknG regulates cell wall integrity through key components of peptidoglycan (PG)
      biosynthesis, e.g. MurC. The global STPK-KPIs network constructed here is
      expected to serve as a rich resource for understanding the key signaling pathways
      in Mtb, thus facilitating drug development and effective control of Mtb.

PMID- 28572095
TI  - Vitamin D: Way More Important in Critical Care Than We May Have Recognized.

PMID- 28572097
TI  - Corrections.

PMID- 28572096
TI  - Corrections.

PMID- 28572092
TI  - Cylindromatosis Tumor Suppressor Protein (CYLD) Deubiquitinase is Necessary for
      Proper Ubiquitination and Degradation of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor.
AB  - Cylindromatosis tumor suppressor protein (CYLD) is a deubiquitinase, best known
      as an essential negative regulator of the NFkB pathway. Previous studies have
      suggested an involvement of CYLD in epidermal growth factor (EGF)-dependent
      signal transduction as well, as it was found enriched within the tyrosine
      phosphorylated complexes in cells stimulated with the growth factor. EGF receptor
      (EGFR) signaling participates in central cellular processes and its tight
      regulation, partly through ubiquitination cascades, is decisive for a balanced
      cellular homeostasis. Here, using a combination of mass spectrometry-based
      quantitative proteomic approaches with biochemical and immunofluorescence
      strategies, we demonstrate the involvement of CYLD in the regulation of the
      ubiquitination events triggered by EGF. Our data show that CYLD regulates the
      magnitude of ubiquitination of several major effectors of the EGFR pathway by
      assisting the recruitment of the ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b to the activated EGFR
      complex. Notably, CYLD facilitates the interaction of EGFR with Cbl-b through its
      Tyr15 phosphorylation in response to EGF, which leads to fine-tuning of the
      receptor's ubiquitination and subsequent degradation. This represents a
      previously uncharacterized strategy exerted by this deubiquitinase and tumors
      suppressor for the negative regulation of a tumorigenic signaling pathway.

PMID- 28572098
TI  - Prophylactic Acid-Suppressive Therapy in Hospitalized Adults: Indications,
      Benefits, and Infectious Complications.
AB  - Acid-suppressive therapy for prophylaxis of stress ulcer bleeding is commonly
      prescribed for hospitalized patients. Although its use in select, at-risk
      patients may reduce clinically significant gastrointestinal bleeding, the
      alteration in gastric pH and composition may place these patients at a higher
      risk of infection. Although any pharmacologic alteration of the gastric pH and
      composition is associated with an increased risk of infection, the risk appears
      to be highest with proton pump inhibitors, perhaps owing to the potency of this
      class of drugs in increasing the gastric pH. With the increased risk of
      infection, universal provision of pharmacologic acid suppression to all
      hospitalized patients, even all critically ill patients, is inappropriate and
      should be confined to patients meeting specific criteria. Nurses providing care
      in critical care areas may be instrumental in screening for appropriate use of
      acid-suppressive therapy and ensuring the drugs are discontinued upon transfer
      out of intensive care or when risk factors are no longer present.

PMID- 28572099
TI  - Nurse-Directed Blood Glucose Management in a Medical Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insulin-delivery algorithms for achieving glycemic control in the
      intensive care unit require frequent checks of blood glucose level and thus
      increase nursing workload. Hypoglycemia is a serious complication associated with
      intensive insulin therapy. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a nurse-directed protocol for
      blood glucose management that allows individualized insulin delivery within a
      predefined blood glucose corridor, intended to avoid hypoglycemia while
      maintaining adequate control of blood glucose level without increasing nursing
      workload. METHODS: A nurse-directed protocol for blood glucose management was
      developed by an interprofessional team, and the protocol's performance was
      investigated in 175 patients compared with 384 historical controls. RESULTS: With
      the nurse-directed protocol, hypoglycemia incidents declined significantly (31%
      vs 12%, P < .001), and minimum blood glucose levels increased significantly (80
      mg/dL vs 93 mg/dL, P < .001). Mean and maximum blood glucose levels, the
      proportion of glucose readings within the target range (31% vs 26%, P = .06), and
      the number of blood glucose checks (59 vs 58, P = .85) remained unchanged with
      use of the protocol. CONCLUSION: Implementation of the nurse-directed protocol
      for blood glucose management did not increase nursing workload but reduced
      hypoglycemia incidents significantly while maintaining adequate glycemic control.

PMID- 28572100
TI  - Decreasing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in the Neurological
      Intensive Care Unit: One Unit's Success.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are preventable adverse
      outcomes that increase hospital morbidity, mortality, and costs. These infections
      are particularly prevalent in intensive care units. OBJECTIVES: To describe the
      success of an 18-bed neurological intensive care unit in using several nurse
      implemented strategies that reduced the number of catheter-associated urinary
      tract infections. METHODS: A prospective, interventional design with application
      of evidence-based practices to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract
      infections was used. RESULTS: Before implementation of the strategies, 40
      catheter-associated urinary tract infections were reported for 2012 and 38 for
      2013. The standardized infection ratio was 2.04 for 2012 (95% CI, 1.456-2.775)
      and 2.34 (95% CI, 1.522-3.312) for 2013. After implementation of the strategies,
      significantly fewer catheter-associated urinary tract infections were reported.
      In 2014, a total of 15 infections were reported, and the standardized infection
      ratio was less than 1.0 (95% CI, 0.685-1.900). CONCLUSIONS: Application of
      current evidence-based practices resulted in a substantial decrease in the number
      of catheter-associated urinary tract infections and a lower standardized
      infection ratio. These findings support current recommendations for "bundling" to
      maximize outcomes.

PMID- 28572101
TI  - Effect of pH Test-Strip Characteristics on Accuracy of Readings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about characteristics of colorimetric pH test strips
      that are most likely to be associated with accurate interpretations in clinical
      situations. OBJECTIVES: To compare the accuracy of 4 pH test strips with varying
      characteristics (ie, multiple vs single colorimetric squares per calibration, and
      differing calibration units [1.0 vs 0.5]). METHODS: A convenience sample of 100
      upper-level nursing students with normal color vision was recruited to evaluate
      the accuracy of the test strips. Six buffer solutions (pH range, 3.0 to 6.0) were
      used during the testing procedure. Each of the 100 participants performed 20 pH
      tests in random order, providing a total of 2000 readings. The sensitivity and
      specificity of each test strip was computed. In addition, the degree to which the
      test strips under- or overestimated the pH values was analyzed using descriptive
      statistics. RESULTS: Our criterion for correct readings was an exact match with
      the pH buffer solution being evaluated. Although none of the test strips
      evaluated in our study was 100% accurate at all of the measured pH values, those
      with multiple squares per pH calibration were clearly superior overall to those
      with a single test square. CONCLUSIONS: Test strips with multiple squares per
      calibration were associated with greater overall accuracy than test strips with a
      single square per calibration. However, because variable degrees of error were
      observed in all of the test strips, use of a pH meter is recommended when precise
      readings are crucial.

PMID- 28572102
TI  - Complementary Health Practitioners in the Acute and Critical Care Setting:
      Nursing Considerations.
AB  - In response to the rising demand by patients and their families for complementary
      health approaches, hospitals are increasingly integrating complementary health
      approaches with their conventional medical practices to create healing
      environments. Results of the 2010 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Survey
      of Hospitals indicated that the top 6 inpatient modalities included pet therapy,
      massage therapy, music or art therapy, guided imagery, relaxation therapy, and
      Reiki and therapeutic touch. Whether complementary health approaches are provided
      by complementary health practitioners through hospital-based integrative medicine
      programs, volunteer practitioners, or bedside nurses, the regulatory, legal,
      ethical, and safety concerns remain constant. Previous articles in this column of
      Critical Care Nurse provided an overview of complementary health approaches that
      nurses may encounter in their practices, with specific attention to implications
      for acute and critical care nurses, as well as important legal, ethical, safety,
      quality, and financial implications that acute and critical care nurses should
      consider when integrating complementary health approaches with conventional care.
      This column provides the acute and critical care nurse with key information about
      validation of credentials, experience, and competence of nurses and volunteers
      providing complementary health approaches, as well as about institutional
      policies and scope of practice.

PMID- 28572103
TI  - Interprofessional Team's Perception of Care Delivery After Implementation of a
      Pediatric Pain and Sedation Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pain and agitation are common experiences of patients in pediatric
      cardiac intensive care units. Variability in assessments by health care
      providers, communication, and treatment of pain and agitation creates challenges
      in management of pain and sedation. OBJECTIVES: To develop guidelines for
      assessment and treatment of pain, agitation, and delirium in the pediatric
      cardiac intensive unit in an academic children's hospital and to document the
      effects of implementation of the guidelines on the interprofessional team's
      perception of care delivery and team function. METHODS: Before and after
      implementation of the guidelines, interprofessional team members were surveyed
      about the members' perception of analgesia, sedation, and delirium management
      RESULTS: Members of the interprofessional team felt more comfortable with pain
      and sedation management after implementation of the guidelines. Team members
      reported improvements in team communication on patients' comfort. Members thought
      that important information was less likely to be lost during transfer of care.
      They also noted that the team carried out comfort management plans and used
      pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies better after implementation of
      the guidelines than they did before implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Guidelines for
      pain and sedation management were associated with perceived improvements in team
      function and patient care by members of the interprofessional team.

PMID- 28572104
TI  - Being Visible.

PMID- 28572105
TI  - Evidence-Based Practice: Percussion and Vibration Therapy.

PMID- 28572110
TI  - Prevention of Aspiration in Adults.

PMID- 28572112
TI  - Delirium in Children: Identification, Prevention, and Management.
AB  - Delirium in children is an often underrecognized but serious complication of
      hospitalization. Delirium in this age group has been described as behaviors such
      as refractory agitation and restlessness, visual or auditory hallucinations,
      children being "not themselves," and a lethargic state. Often, children with
      delirium are at risk for harming themselves by dislodging tubes, falling, or
      refusing care. Pediatric nurses must recognize and intervene to prevent and treat
      delirium in hospitalized children because the delirium may be an indicator of
      worsening clinical status and is associated with high mortality and morbidity in
      children of all ages and with posttraumatic stress disorder. Pediatric nurses are
      uniquely positioned to design care interventions to both reduce risk for delirium
      and treat active delirium. Many treatment recommendations are nonpharmacological
      and are part of excellent nursing care.

PMID- 28572111
TI  - Patients' Hand Washing and Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene is important to prevent hospital-acquired infections.
      Patients' hand hygiene is just as important as hospital workers' hand hygiene.
      Hospital-acquired infection rates remain a concern across health centers.
      OBJECTIVES: To improve patients' hand hygiene through the promotion and use of
      hand washing with soap and water, hand sanitizer, or both and improve patients'
      education to reduce hospital-acquired infections. METHODS: In August 2013,
      patients in a cardiothoracic postsurgical step-down unit were provided with
      individual bottles of hand sanitizer. Nurses and nursing technicians provided
      hand hygiene education to each patient. Patients completed a 6-question survey
      before the intervention, at hospital discharge and 1, 2, and 3 months after the
      intervention. Hospital-acquired infection data were tracked monthly by infection
      prevention staff. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between hand
      hygiene and rates of infection with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (P = .003)
      and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (P = .01) after the intervention.
      After the implementation of hand hygiene interventions, rates of both infections
      declined significantly and patients reported more staff offering opportunities
      for and encouraging hand hygiene. CONCLUSION: This quality improvement project
      demonstrates that increased hand hygiene compliance by patients can influence
      infection rates in an adult cardiothoracic step-down unit. The decreased
      infection rates and increased compliance with hand hygiene among the patients may
      be attributed to the implementation of patient education and the increased
      accessibility and use of hand sanitizer.

PMID- 28572113
TI  - Oral Care for Acutely and Critically Ill Patients.

PMID- 28572114
TI  - Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Adults.

PMID- 28572116
TI  - KDM5A demethylase: Erasing histone modifications to promote repair of DNA breaks.
AB  - Repairing DNA breaks within the complexity of the cell chromatin is challenging.
      In this issue, Gong et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol.
      https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201611135) identify the histone demethylase KDM5A as
      a critical editor of the cells' "histone code" that is required to recruit DNA
      repair complexes to DNA breaks.

PMID- 28572115
TI  - Histone demethylase KDM5A regulates the ZMYND8-NuRD chromatin remodeler to
      promote DNA repair.
AB  - Upon DNA damage, histone modifications are dynamically reshaped to accommodate
      DNA damage signaling and repair within chromatin. In this study, we report the
      identification of the histone demethylase KDM5A as a key regulator of the
      bromodomain protein ZMYND8 and NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and histone
      deacetylation) complex in the DNA damage response. We observe KDM5A-dependent
      H3K4me3 demethylation within chromatin near DNA double-strand break (DSB) sites.
      Mechanistically, demethylation of H3K4me3 is required for ZMYND8-NuRD binding to
      chromatin and recruitment to DNA damage. Functionally, KDM5A deficiency results
      in impaired transcriptional silencing and repair of DSBs by homologous
      recombination. Thus, this study identifies a crucial function for KDM5A in
      demethylating H3K4 to allow ZMYND8-NuRD to operate within damaged chromatin to
      repair DSBs.

PMID- 28572117
TI  - Dynein is regulated by the stability of its microtubule track.
AB  - How dynein motors accurately move cargoes is an important question. In budding
      yeast, dynein moves the mitotic spindle to the predetermined site of cytokinesis
      by pulling on astral microtubules. In this study, using high-resolution imaging
      in living cells, we discover that spindle movement is regulated by changes in
      microtubule plus-end dynamics that occur when dynein generates force. Mutants
      that increase plus-end stability increase the frequency and duration of spindle
      movements, causing positioning errors. We find that dynein plays a primary role
      in regulating microtubule dynamics by destabilizing microtubules. In contrast,
      the dynactin complex counteracts dynein and stabilizes microtubules through a
      mechanism involving the shoulder subcomplex and the cytoskeletal-associated
      protein glycine-rich domain of Nip100/p150glued Our results support a model in
      which dynein destabilizes its microtubule substrate by using its motility to
      deplete dynactin from the plus end. We propose that interplay among dynein,
      dynactin, and the stability of the microtubule substrate creates a mechanism that
      regulates accurate spindle positioning.

PMID- 28572119
TI  - Right ventricular dyssynchrony and exercise capacity in idiopathic pulmonary
      arterial hypertension.
AB  - Survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is determined by
      right ventricular (RV) function adaptation to afterload. How altered RV function
      impacts on exercise capacity in PAH is not exactly known.104 idiopathic PAH
      (IPAH) patients aged 52+/-14 years underwent a diagnostic right heart
      catheterisation, a comprehensive echocardiography including two-dimensional
      speckle tracking for RV dyssynchrony evaluation and a cardiopulmonary exercise
      test. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of
      peak oxygen uptake (peak V'O2 ).A first multivariate analysis of only resting
      haemodynamic variables identified cardiac index, right atrial (RA) pressure and
      pulmonary arterial compliance as independent predictors, with low predictive
      capacity (r2=0.31; p<0.001). A second multivariate analysis model which
      considered only echocardiographic parameters but without RV dyssynchrony,
      identified RV fractional area change (FAC) and RA area as independent predictors
      with still low predictivity (r2=0.35; p<0.001). Adding RV dyssynchrony to the
      second model increased its predictivity (r2=0.48; p<0.001). Repetition of the
      three multivariate analyses in patients with preserved RVFAC confirmed that
      inclusion of RV dyssynchrony results in the highest predictive capability of peak
      V'O2 (r2=0.53; p=0.001).A comprehensive echocardiography with speckle tracking
      derived assessment of the heterogeneity of RV contraction improves the prediction
      of aerobic exercise capacity in IPAH.

PMID- 28572118
TI  - Obstructive sleep apnoea is not a risk factor for incident hospitalised
      depression: a historical cohort study.
AB  - We evaluated whether obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) was related to the incidence
      of hospitalisation for depression, a robust end-point that is unlikely to result
      from misdiagnosis.All adults referred with suspected OSA who underwent a
      diagnostic sleep study at a large urban academic hospital between 1994 and 2010
      and were linked to provincial health administrative data between 1991 and 2015
      were included. Cox regression analysis was used to investigate the association
      between OSA symptoms and severity and incident hospitalised depression, the
      primary outcome.Over a median follow-up of 9.7 years, 136 (1.3%) out of 10 149
      participants were hospitalised for depression. A significant crude effect of OSA
      symptoms (waking unrefreshed and impact on memory and concentration) on
      hospitalised depression became nonsignificant after controlling for confounders.
      Apnoea-hypopnoea index was not significantly associated with the outcome:
      adjusted hazard ratio (33 versus 6 events.h-1) 1.13 (95% CI 0.91-1.40). Factors
      associated with hospitalised depression were female sex, younger age, use of
      hypnotics, alcoholism and unemployment.In a large clinical cohort with suspected
      OSA, controlling for confounders, OSA symptoms and severity were not related to
      the risk of hospitalisation for depression, suggesting that previously reported
      links between OSA and depression may be due to overlapping diagnostic criteria.
      However, our findings cannot exclude a potential link between OSA and milder
      depression.

PMID- 28572120
TI  - Burden of disease and change in practice in critically ill infants with
      bronchiolitis.
AB  - Bronchiolitis represents the most common cause of non-elective admission to
      paediatric intensive care units (ICUs).We assessed changes in admission rate,
      respiratory support, and outcomes of infants <24 months with bronchiolitis
      admitted to ICU between 2002 and 2014 in Australia and New Zealand.During the
      study period, bronchiolitis was responsible for 9628 (27.6%) of 34 829 non
      elective ICU admissions. The estimated population-based ICU admission rate due to
      bronchiolitis increased by 11.76 per 100 000 each year (95% CI 8.11-15.41). The
      proportion of bronchiolitis patients requiring intubation decreased from 36.8% in
      2002, to 10.8% in 2014 (adjusted OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.27-0.46), whilst a dramatic
      increase in high-flow nasal cannula therapy use to 72.6% was observed (p<0.001).
      We observed considerable variability in practice between units, with six-fold
      differences in risk-adjusted intubation rates that were not explained by ICU
      type, size, or major patient factors. Annual direct hospitalisation costs due to
      severe bronchiolitis increased to over USD30 million in 2014.We observed an
      increasing healthcare burden due to severe bronchiolitis, with a major change in
      practice in the management from invasive to non-invasive support that suggests
      thresholds to admittance of bronchiolitis patients to ICU have changed. Future
      studies should assess strategies for management of bronchiolitis outside ICUs.

PMID- 28572121
TI  - Individualised risk in patients undergoing lung volume reduction surgery: the
      Glenfield BFG score.
AB  - Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) has been shown to be beneficial in patients
      with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but there is low uptake, partly due
      to perceived concerns of high operative mortality. We aimed to develop an
      individualised risk score following LVRS.This was a cohort study of patients
      undergoing LVRS. Factors independently predicting 90-day mortality and a risk
      prediction score were identified. Reliability of the score was tested using area
      under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).237 LVRS procedures
      were performed. The multivariate analysis factors associated independently with
      death were: body mass index (BMI)<18.5 kg.m-2 (OR 2.83, p=0.059), forced
      expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)<0.71 L (OR 5.47, p=0.011) and transfer factor of
      the lung for carbon monoxide (TLCO) <20% (OR 5.56, p=0.031). A risk score was
      calculated and total score assigned. AUROC for the risk score was 0.80 and a
      better predictor than individual components (p<0.01). The score was stratified
      into three risk groups. Of the total patients, 46% were classified as low risk.
      Similar improvements in lung function and health status were seen in all groups.
      The score was introduced and tested in a further 71 patients. AUROC for 90-day
      mortality in this cohort was 0.84.It is possible to provide an individualised
      predictive risk score for LVRS, which may aid decision making for both clinicians
      and patients.

PMID- 28572123
TI  - Cellular analysis in bronchoalveolar lavage: inherent limitations of current
      standard procedure.

PMID- 28572122
TI  - Chemotherapy for pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas: does the regimen
      matter?
AB  - Pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is rare. Chemotherapy for
      metastatic LCNEC ranges from small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) regimens to
      nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) chemotherapy regimens. We analysed outcomes
      of chemotherapy treatments for LCNEC.The Netherlands Cancer Registry and
      Netherlands Pathology Registry (PALGA) were searched for patients with stage IV
      chemotherapy-treated LCNEC (2003-2012). For 207 patients, histology slides were
      available for pathology panel review. First-line platinum-based combined
      chemotherapy was clustered as "NSCLC-t", comprising gemcitabine, docetaxel,
      paclitaxel or vinorelbine; "NSCLC-pt", with pemetrexed treatment only; and "SCLC
      t", consisting of etoposide chemotherapy.A panel review diagnosis of LCNEC was
      established in 128 out of 207 patients. NSCLC-t chemotherapy was administered in
      46% (n=60), NSCLC-pt in 16% (n=20) and SCLC-t in 38% (n=48) of the patients. The
      median (95% CI) overall survival for NSCLC-t chemotherapy was 8.5 (7.0-9.9)
      months, significantly longer than patients treated with NSCLC-pt, with a median
      survival of 5.9 (5.0-6.9) months (hazard ratio 2.51, 95% CI 1.39-4.52; p=0.002)
      and patients treated with SCLC-t chemotherapy, with a median survival of 6.7 (5.0
      8.5) months (hazard ratio 1.66, 95% CI 1.08-2.56; p=0.020).In patients with
      LCNEC, NSCLC-t chemotherapy results in longer overall survival compared to NSCLC
      pt and SCLC-t chemotherapy.

PMID- 28572125
TI  - The effect of 100% oxygen on tidal breathing parameters in preschool children.

PMID- 28572124
TI  - The association between chronic airflow obstruction and poverty in 12 sites of
      the multinational BOLD study.
AB  - Poverty is strongly associated with mortality from COPD, but little is known of
      its relation to airflow obstruction.In a cross-sectional study of adults aged
      >=40 years from 12 sites (N=9255), participating in the Burden of Obstructive
      Lung Disease (BOLD) study, poverty was evaluated using a wealth score (0-10)
      based on household assets. Obstruction, measured as forced expiratory volume in 1
      s (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) (%) after administration of 200 MUg
      salbutamol, and prevalence of FEV1/FVC<lower limit of normal were tested for
      association with poverty for each site, and the results were combined by meta
      analysis.Mean wealth scores ranged from 4 in Blantyre (Malawi) and Kashmir
      (India) to 10 in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and the prevalence of obstruction, from
      16% in Kashmir to 3% in Riyadh and Penang (Malaysia). Following adjustments for
      age and sex, FEV1/FVC increased by 0.36% (absolute change) (95%CI: 0.22, 0.49;
      p<0.001) per unit increase in wealth score. Adjustments for other confounders
      reduced this effect to 0.23% (0.11, 0.34), but even this value remained highly
      significant (p<0.001). Results were consistent across sites (I2=1%; phet=0.44).
      Mean wealth scores explained 38% of the variation in mean FEV1/FVC between sites
      (r2=0.385, p=0.031).Airflow obstruction is consistently associated with poverty
      at individual and community levels across several countries.

PMID- 28572126
TI  - Shortened multidrug-resistant tuberculosis regimens overcome low-level
      fluoroquinolone resistance.

PMID- 28572127
TI  - Shorter regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis should also be applicable
      in Europe.

PMID- 28572128
TI  - Shorter regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis should also be applicable
      in Europe.

PMID- 28572129
TI  - Standard operating procedures for tuberculosis care.

PMID- 28572130
TI  - Poverty cannot be inhaled and it is not a genetic condition. How can it be
      associated with chronic airflow obstruction?

PMID- 28572131
TI  - Obstructive sleep apnoea and depression: is there an association?

PMID- 28572132
TI  - Which are the best conservative interventions for lymphoedema after breast cancer
      surgery?

PMID- 28572133
TI  - Heart Rate and Rhythm Disorders.

PMID- 28572134
TI  - Group B Streptococcal Infections.

PMID- 28572136
TI  - Correction and Clarification.

PMID- 28572135
TI  - Environmental Risks to Children: Prioritizing Health Messages in Pediatric
      Practice.

PMID- 28572137
TI  - Case 1: Mysteriously Rising Salicylate Levels in a 15-year-old Girl.

PMID- 28572138
TI  - Case 2: Neck Pain, Neck Swelling, and Chest Pain in a 17-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28572139
TI  - Case 3: Fever and Lymphadenopathy in a 16-month-old Boy.

PMID- 28572140
TI  - Case 4: Leg Pain and Refusal to Walk in a 4-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28572141
TI  - Case 5: Acute Vomiting and Hallucinations in a 5-year-old Vegan Girl.

PMID- 28572142
TI  - Case 6: Painful Nodules on Feet of an 11-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28572144
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28572143
TI  - Neonatal Lethargy, Seizures, and Asphyxiation.

PMID- 28572145
TI  - Visual Diagnosis: A Baby with a Scalp Lesion, Rash, and Left-Foot Deformity.

PMID- 28572146
TI  - Investigating Parent Needs, Participation, and Psychological Distress in the
      Children's Hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Greater parent participation in a child's hospital
      care is associated with better child outcomes in the hospital and after
      discharge. This study examined the relationships between perceived need
      fulfillment for parents, parent participation in hospital care, and parent
      psychological distress. We hypothesized that greater perceived need fulfillment
      would be associated with greater participation in hospital care and decreased
      psychological distress. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, 166 parents
      completed questionnaires on a pediatric (nonintensive care) floor. Eligible
      parents were fluent in English and had a child who was hospitalized >=2 nights.
      Previously validated questionnaires were used to assess parent participation in
      hospital care and psychological distress (defined here as symptoms of
      anxiety/depression). A modified version of the Bereaved Parent Needs Assessment
      was used to assess perceived need fulfillment. The association between perceived
      need fulfillment and each outcome variable was examined using multiple linear
      regression analyses. RESULTS: Of 186 eligible parents, 166 were enrolled (1
      declined, 19 missed/not present). In multivariable analyses, greater perceived
      need fulfillment was associated with greater participation in hospital care and
      fewer symptoms of depression, even after controlling for relevant covariates.
      Exploratory analyses identified needs that were differentially important within
      groups of parents at risk for distress. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that
      assessing and supporting parent needs during a child's hospitalization may
      improve parent and child outcomes by increasing parents' ability to participate
      in hospital care and decreasing psychological distress. Future research is needed
      to investigate the impact of interventions targeting specific parent needs.

PMID- 28572147
TI  - Head-to-Head Visual Comparison between Brain Perfusion SPECT and Arterial Spin
      Labeling MRI with Different Postlabeling Delays in Alzheimer Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Arterial spin-labeling MR imaging has been recently
      developed as a noninvasive technique with magnetically labeled arterial blood
      water as an endogenous contrast medium for the evaluation of CBF. Our aim was to
      compare arterial spin-labeling MR imaging and SPECT in the visual assessment of
      CBF in patients with Alzheimer disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 33 patients
      with Alzheimer disease or mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer disease, CBF
      images were obtained by using both arterial spin-labeling-MR imaging with a
      postlabeling delay of 1.5 seconds and 2.5 seconds (PLD1.5 and PLD2.5,
      respectively) and brain perfusion SPECT. Twenty-two brain regions were visually
      assessed, and the diagnostic confidence of Alzheimer disease was recorded.
      RESULTS: Among all arterial spin-labeling images, 84.9% of PLD1.5 and 9% of
      PLD2.5 images showed the typical pattern of advanced Alzheimer disease (ie,
      decreased CBF in the bilateral parietal, temporal, and frontal lobes). PLD1.5,
      PLD2.5, and SPECT imaging resulted in obviously different visual assessments.
      PLD1.5 showed a broad decrease in CBF, which could have been due to an early
      perfusion. In contrast, PLD2.5 did not appear to be influenced by an early
      perfusion but showed fewer pathologic findings than SPECT. CONCLUSIONS: The
      distinctions observed by us should be carefully considered in the visual
      assessments of Alzheimer disease. Further studies are required to define the
      patterns of change in arterial spin-labeling-MR imaging associated with Alzheimer
      disease.

PMID- 28572148
TI  - High-Resolution Hybrid Imaging Could Improve Cordotomy Lesions and Outcomes.

PMID- 28572149
TI  - Spinal Cord, Spinal Root, and Brain MRI Abnormalities in Congenital Zika
      Syndrome.

PMID- 28572151
TI  - Is an Intact Posterior Vertebral Body Cortex Protective for Percutaneous
      Ablation?

PMID- 28572150
TI  - Percutaneous Spinal Ablation in a Sheep Model: Protective Capacity of an Intact
      Cortex, Correlation of Ablation Parameters with Ablation Zone Size, and
      Correlation of Postablation MRI and Pathologic Findings.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Despite the growing use of percutaneous ablation therapy
      for the treatment of metastatic spine disease, several issues have yet to be
      fully addressed. Our aims were to determine whether the vertebral body cortex
      protects against ablation-induced spinal cord injury; correlate radiofrequency,
      cryo-, and microwave ablation parameters with resulting spinal ablation zone
      dimensions and describe normal spinal marrow postablation changes on MR imaging.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten thoracolumbar vertebrae in 3 sheep were treated with
      radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, or microwave ablation under fluoroscopic
      guidance. Technique parameters were chosen to produce ablation zones that
      exceeded the volume of the vertebral bodies in sheep 1 and were confined to the
      vertebrae in sheep 2 and 3. Expected ablation zone dimensions were based on data
      provided by the device manufacturers. Postablation MR imaging was performed at 48
      hours (sheep 1) or 7 days (sheep 2 and 3). RESULTS: In sheep 1, cryoablation and
      microwave ablations extended into the spinal canal and caused histologically
      confirmed neurologic injury, but radiofrequency ablation did not. The mean
      difference between the lengths of the radiofrequency ablation zone dimensions
      measured on gross pathology compared with those expected was 9.6 +/- 4.1 mm. The
      gross pathologic cryo- and microwave ablation zone dimensions were within 1 mm of
      those expected. All modalities produced a nonenhancing ablation zone with a rim
      of enhancement, corresponding histologically to marrow necrosis and hemorrhagic
      congestion. CONCLUSIONS: An intact cortex appears to protect against
      radiofrequency ablation-induced spinal cord injury, but not against non-impedance
      based modalities. Ablation dimensions produced by microwave and cryoablation are
      similar to those expected, while radiofrequency ablation dimensions are smaller.
      Ablation of normal marrow produces a rim of enhancement at the margin of the
      ablation zone on MR imaging.

PMID- 28572152
TI  - Temporal Evolution of Disc in Young Patients with Low Back Pain and Stress
      Reaction in Lumbar Vertebrae.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although stress-induced bony changes often resolve with
      conservative treatment, the long-term effects of such mechanical stresses on
      intervertebral discs have not been studied. We aimed to assess the differences in
      the temporal evolution of disc in segments of the lumbar spine with and without
      signs of increased mechanical stresses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using MR imaging
      performed >6 months apart, 2 radiologists evaluated lumbar intervertebral discs
      for degenerative changes affecting the annulus fibrosus, the nucleus pulposus,
      and the endplates in 42 patients (22 male, 20 female; mean age, 16.0 +/- 3.7
      years [range, 7-25 years]) with low back pain and imaging evidence of stress
      reaction/fracture in the lumbar spine. Data were analyzed for differences in the
      presence and progression of disc degeneration in stressed versus nonstressed
      segments. RESULTS: At baseline, stressed discs had a higher burden of annular
      fissures, radial fissures, herniation, and nuclear degeneration. Endplate defect
      burden was comparable in stressed and control discs. At follow-up, the burden of
      new annular fissures and endplate defects was comparable for stressed and control
      discs. However, a higher proportion of stressed discs showed worsening nuclear
      signal intensity grade (14.3% versus 0% control discs; P = .008) and worsening
      nuclear degeneration grade (11.9% versus 0% control discs; P = .02). An increased
      risk of progressive nuclear degeneration of stressed discs was observed
      irrespective of the outcome of bony changes. CONCLUSIONS: Stressed discs exhibit
      a higher burden of nuclear and annular degeneration at baseline. These discs have
      a higher risk of progressive nuclear degeneration irrespective of improvement or
      worsening of stress-related bony changes.

PMID- 28572153
TI  - Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging of the Corticospinal Tract in Multiple Sclerosis:
      Association with Neurologic Disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder resulting in
      progressive neurologic disability. Our aim was to evaluate the associations
      between diffusional kurtosis imaging-derived metrics for the corticospinal tract
      and disability in multiple sclerosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with
      MS underwent brain MR imaging including diffusional kurtosis imaging. After we
      masked out T2 hyperintense lesions, the fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity,
      radial diffusivity, axial diffusivity, mean kurtosis, radial kurtosis, and axial
      kurtosis were estimated for the corticospinal tract. Disability was quantified by
      using the Expanded Disability Status Scale at the time of MR imaging and 12
      months post-MR imaging. The Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression
      analyses were conducted to evaluate the associations between diffusion metrics
      and disability. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between the Expanded
      Disability Status Scale scores during the baseline visit and age (r = 0.47), T2
      lesion volume (r = 0.38), corticospinal tract mean diffusivity (r = 0.41), radial
      diffusivity (r = 0.41), axial diffusivity (r = 0.34), fractional anisotropy (r = 
      0.36), and radial kurtosis (r = -0.42). Significant correlations were also found
      between the Expanded Disability Status Scale scores at 12-month follow-up and age
      (r = 0.38), mean diffusivity (r = 0.45), radial diffusivity (r = 0.41), axial
      diffusivity (r = 0.45), mean kurtosis (r = -0.42), radial kurtosis (r = -0.56),
      and axial kurtosis (r = -0.36). Linear regression analyses demonstrated
      significant associations among radial kurtosis, age, and Expanded Disability
      Status Scale score during the baseline visit, while radial kurtosis was the only
      variable associated with Expanded Disability Status Scale score for the 12-month
      follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Radial kurtosis of the corticospinal tract may have an
      association with neurologic disability in MS.

PMID- 28572154
TI  - Novel role of NPY in neuroimmune interaction and lung growth after intrauterine
      growth restriction.
AB  - Individuals with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at risk for chronic
      lung disease. Using a rat model, we showed in our previous studies that altered
      lung structure is related to IL-6/STAT3 signaling. As neuropeptide Y (NPY), a
      coneurotransmitter of the sympathetic nervous system, regulates proliferation and
      immune response, we hypothesized that dysregulated NPY after IUGR is linked to IL
      6, impaired myofibroblast function, and alveolar growth. IUGR was induced in rats
      by isocaloric low-protein diet; lungs were analyzed on embryonic day (E) 21,
      postnatal day (P) 3, P12, and P23. Finally, primary neonatal lung myofibroblasts
      (pnF) and murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) were used to assess proliferation,
      apoptosis, migration, and IL-6 expression. At E21, NPY and IL-6 expression was
      decreased, and AKT/PKC and STAT3/AMPKalpha signaling was reduced. Early reduction
      of NPY/IL-6 was associated with increased chord length in lungs after IUGR at P3,
      indicating reduced alveolar formation. At P23, however, IUGR rats exhibited a
      catch-up of body weight and alveolar growth coupled with more proliferating
      myofibroblasts. These structural findings after IUGR were linked to activated
      NPY/PKC, IL-6/AMPKalpha signaling. Complementary, IUGR-pnF showed increased
      survival, impaired migration, and reduced IL-6 compared with control-pnF (Co
      pnF). In contrast, NPY induced proliferation, migration, and increased IL-6
      synthesis in fibroblasts. Additionally, NPY-/- mice showed reduced IL-6 signaling
      and less proliferation of lung fibroblasts. Our study presents a novel role of
      NPY during alveolarization: NPY regulates 1) IL-6 and lung STAT3/AMPKalpha
      signaling, and 2) proliferation and migration of myofibroblasts. These new
      insights in pulmonary neuroimmune interaction offer potential strategies to
      enable lung growth.

PMID- 28572155
TI  - Elastin receptor (S-gal) occupancy by elastin peptides modulates T-cell response
      during murine emphysema.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema are associated with increased
      elastin peptides (EP) production because of excessive breakdown of lung
      connective tissue. We recently reported that exposure of mice to EP elicited
      hallmark features of emphysema. EP effects are largely mediated through a
      receptor complex that includes the elastin-binding protein spliced-galactosidase
      (S-gal). In previous studies, we established a correlation between cytokine
      production and S-gal protein expression in EP-treated immune cells. In this
      study, we investigated the S-gal-dependent EP effects on T-helper (Th) and T
      cytotoxic (Tc) responses during murine EP-triggered pulmonary inflammation.
      C57BL/6J mice were endotracheally instilled with the valine-glycine-valine
      alanine-proline-glycine (VGVAPG) elastin peptide, and, 21 days after treatment,
      local and systemic T-lymphocyte phenotypes were analyzed at cytokine and
      transcription factor expression levels by multicolor flow cytometry. Exposure of
      mice to the VGVAPG peptide resulted in a significant increase in the proportion
      of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells expressing the cytokines IFN-gamma or IL-17a and the
      transcription factors T-box expressed in T cells or retinoic acid-related orphan
      receptor-gammat (RORgammat) without effects on IL-4 and Gata-binding protein 3 to
      DNA sequence [A/T]GATA[A/G] expression. These effects were maximized when each T
      cell subpopulation was challenged ex vivo with EP, and they were inhibited in
      vivo when an analogous peptide antagonizing the EP/S-gal interactions was
      instilled together with the VGVAPG peptide. This study demonstrates that, during
      murine emphysema, EP-S-gal interactions contribute to a Th-1 and Th-17
      proinflammatory T-cell response combined with a Tc-1 response. Our study also
      highlights the S-gal receptor as a putative pharmacological target to modulate
      such an immune response.

PMID- 28572156
TI  - G-protein-coupled receptor kinase-2 is a critical regulator of TNFalpha signaling
      in colon epithelial cells.
AB  - G-protein-coupled receptor kinase-2 (GRK2) belongs to the GRK family of
      serine/threonine protein kinases critical in the regulation of G-protein-coupled
      receptors. Apart from this canonical role, GRK2 is also involved in several
      signaling pathways via distinct intracellular interactomes. In the present study,
      we examined the role of GRK2 in TNFalpha signaling in colon epithelial cell
      biological processes including wound healing, proliferation, apoptosis, and gene
      expression. Knockdown of GRK2 in the SW480 human colonic cells significantly
      enhanced TNFalpha-induced epithelial cell wound healing without any effect on
      apoptosis/proliferation. Consistent with wound-healing effects, GRK2 knockdown
      augmented TNFalpha-induced matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 7 and 9, as well as
      urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA; factors involved in cell migration and
      wound healing). To assess the mechanism by which GRK2 affects these physiological
      processes, we examined the role of GRK2 in TNFalpha-induced MAPK and NF-kappaB
      pathways. Our results demonstrate that while GRK2 knockdown inhibited TNFalpha
      induced IkappaBalpha phosphorylation, activation of ERK was significantly
      enhanced in GRK2 knockdown cells. Our results further demonstrate that GRK2
      inhibits TNFalpha-induced ERK activation by inhibiting generation of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS). Together, these data suggest that GRK2 plays a critical
      role in TNFalpha-induced wound healing by modulating MMP7 and 9 and uPA levels
      via the ROS-ERK pathway. Consistent with in vitro findings, GRK2 heterozygous
      mice exhibited enhanced intestinal wound healing. Together, our results identify
      a novel role for GRK2 in TNFalpha signaling in intestinal epithelial cells.

PMID- 28572157
TI  - Characterization of the oligomeric states of the CK2 alpha2beta2 holoenzyme in
      solution.
AB  - The regulatory mechanism of protein kinase CK2 has still to be fully clarified.
      The prevailing hypothesis is that CK2 is controlled by a self-polymerisation
      mechanism leading to inactive supramolecular assemblies that, when needed, can be
      disassembled into the alpha2beta2 monomer, the active form of the holoenzyme. In
      vitro, monomeric alpha2beta2 seems present only at high ionic strengths,
      typically 0.35-0.50 M NaCl, while at lower salt concentrations oligomers are
      formed. In the present study, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), dynamic light
      scattering (DLS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and mutagenesis have been
      employed for the characterization of the oligomeric states of CK2 in solution.
      SAXS measurements at 0.35 M NaCl show for the first time the shape of the
      alpha2beta2 active monomer in solution. At 0.25 M salt, despite single average
      properties indicating an aggregated holoenzyme, deconvolution analysis of SAXS
      data reveals an equilibrium involving not only circular trimeric and linear
      oligomeric (3-4 units) forms of alpha2beta2, but also considerable amounts of the
      monomer. Together SAXS and mutagenesis confirm the presence in solution of the
      oligomers deduced by crystal structures. The lack of intermediate species such as
      alphabeta2, alpha or beta2 indicates that the holoenzyme is a strong complex that
      does not spontaneously dissociate, challenging what was recently proposed on the
      basis of mass spectrometry data. A significant novel finding is that a
      considerable amount of monomer, the active form of CK2, is present also at low
      salt. The solution properties of CK2 shown in the present study complement the
      model of regulation by polymerization.

PMID- 28572158
TI  - Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Is a Marker and a Mediator of Senescence.
AB  - PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) is a member of the evolutionarily
      conserved serine protease inhibitor family and a potent and rapid-acting
      inhibitor of both of the mammalian plasminogen activators. Organismal homeostasis
      requires physiological levels of endogenous PAI-1, and increased PAI-1 production
      guides the onset and progression of numerous human diseases and contributes to
      the multimorbidity of aging. Both chronological and stress-induced accelerated
      aging are associated with cellular senescence and accompanied by marked increases
      in PAI-1 expression in tissues. Recent studies suggest that PAI-1 is not only a
      marker but also a key mediator of cellular senescence and organismal aging. Here,
      we review the significance of PAI-1 as a bonafide marker, as well as a critical
      mediator, of cellular senescence associated with aging and aging-related
      pathologies.

PMID- 28572159
TI  - APOL1 Risk Variants and Cardiovascular Disease: Results From the AASK (African
      American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Among African Americans, the apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) risk variants
      have been associated with various types of kidney disease and chronic kidney
      disease progression. We aimed to determine whether these same risk variants also
      confer an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. APPROACH AND RESULTS: In a
      cohort of African Americans with hypertension-attributed chronic kidney disease
      followed for up to 12 years, we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate
      the relative hazard of a composite cardiovascular disease outcome (cardiovascular
      death or hospitalization for myocardial infarction, cardiac revascularization
      procedure, heart failure, or stroke) for the APOL1 high- (2 risk variants) versus
      low-risk (0-1 risk variant) genotypes. We adjusted for age, sex, ancestry,
      smoking, heart disease history, body mass index, cholesterol, randomized
      treatment groups, and baseline and longitudinal estimated glomerular filtration
      rate, systolic blood pressure, and proteinuria. Among 693 participants with APOL1
      genotyping available (23% high risk), the high-risk group had lower mean
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (44.7 versus 50.1 mL/min per 1.73 m2) and
      greater proteinuria (median 0.19 versus 0.06) compared with the low-risk group at
      baseline. There was no significant association between APOL1 genotypes and the
      composite cardiovascular disease outcome in both unadjusted (hazard ratio=1.23;
      95% confidence interval: 0.83-1.81) and fully adjusted (hazard ratio=1.16; 95%
      confidence interval: 0.77-1.76) models; however, in using an additive model,
      APOL1 high-risk variants were associated with increased cardiovascular mortality.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among African Americans with hypertension-attributed chronic kidney
      disease, APOL1 risk variants were not associated with an overall risk for
      cardiovascular disease although some signals for cardiovascular mortality were
      noted.

PMID- 28572160
TI  - Oxidized Phospholipids and Risk of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease: The Copenhagen
      General Population Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Lipoprotein(a) is causally associated with calcific aortic valve
      disease (CAVD). Lipoprotein(a) carries proinflammatory and procalcific oxidized
      phospholipids (OxPL). We tested whether the CAVD risk is mediated by the content
      of OxPL on lipoprotein(a). APPROACH AND RESULTS: A case-control study was
      performed within the Copenhagen General Population Study (n=87 980), including
      725 CAVD cases (1977-2013) and 1413 controls free of cardiovascular disease. OxPL
      carried by apoB (apolipoprotein B-100; OxPL-apoB) or apolipoprotein(a) (OxPL
      apo(a)) containing lipoproteins, lipoprotein(a) levels, LPA kringle IV type 2
      repeat, and rs10455872 genetic variants were measured. OxPL-apoB and OxPL-apo(a)
      levels correlated with lipoprotein(a) levels among cases (r=0.75 and r=0.95; both
      P<0.001) and controls (r=0.65 and r=0.93; both P<0.001). OxPL-apoB levels
      associated with risk of CAVD with odds ratios of 1.2 (95% confidence interval
      [CI]:1.0-1.6) for 34th to 66th percentile levels, 1.6 (95% CI, 1.2-2.1) for 67th
      to 90th percentile levels, 2.0 (95% CI, 1.3-3.0) for 91st to 95th percentile
      levels, and 3.4 (95% CI, 2.1-5.5) for levels >95th percentile, versus levels
      <34th percentile (trend, P<0.001). Corresponding odds ratios for OxPL-apo(a) were
      1.2 (95% CI, 1.0-1.5), 1.2(95% CI, 0.9-1.6), 2.1(95% CI, 1.4-3.1), and 2.9(95%
      CI, 1.9-4.5; trend, P<0.001) and were similar for lipoprotein(a). LPA genotypes
      associated with OxPL-apoB, OxPL-apo(a), and lipoprotein(a) levels and explained
      34%, 46%, and 39%, respectively, of the total variation in levels. LPA genotypes
      associated with risk of CAVD; a doubling in genetically determined OxPL-apoB,
      OxPL-apo(a), and lipoprotein(a) levels associated with odds ratio of CAVD of 1.18
      (95% CI, 1.10-1.27), 1.09 (95% CI, 1.05-1.13), and 1.09 (95% CI, 1.05-1.14),
      respectively, comparable to the corresponding observational estimates of 1.27
      (95% CI, 1.16-1.39), 1.13 (95% CI, 1.08-1.18), and 1.11 (95% CI, 1.06-1.17).
      CONCLUSIONS: OxPL-apoB and OxPL-apo(a) are novel genetic and potentially causal
      risk factors for CAVD and may explain the association of lipoprotein(a) with
      CAVD.

PMID- 28572161
TI  - Ultrasensitive detection of acute myeloid leukemia minimal residual disease using
      single molecule molecular inversion probes.
AB  - The identification of minimal residual disease is the primary diagnostic finding
      which predicts relapse in patients treated for acute myeloid leukemia.
      Ultrasensitive detection of minimal residual disease would enable better patient
      risk stratification and could open opportunities for early therapeutic
      intervention. Herein we apply single molecule molecular inversion probe capture,
      a technology combining multiplexed targeted sequencing with error correction
      schemes based on molecular barcoding, in order to detect mutations identifying
      minimal residual disease with ultrasensitive and quantitative precision. We
      designed a single molecule molecular inversion probe capture panel spanning >50
      kb and targeting 32 factors relevant to acute myeloid leukemia pathogenesis. We
      demonstrate linearity and quantitative precision over 100-fold relative abundance
      of mutant cells (1 in 100 to 1 in 1,500), with estimated error rates approaching
      1 in 1,200 base pairs sequenced and maximum theoretical limits of detection
      exceeding 1 in 60,000 mutant alleles. In 3 of 4 longitudinally collected
      specimens from patients with acute myeloid leukemia, we find that single molecule
      molecular inversion probe capture detects somatic mutations identifying minimal
      residual disease at substantially earlier time points and with greater
      sensitivity than clinical diagnostic approaches used as current standard of care
      (flow cytometry and conventional molecular diagnosis), and identifies persisting
      neoplastic cells during clinical remission. In 2 patients, single molecule
      molecular inversion probe capture detected heterogeneous, subclonal acute myeloid
      leukemia populations carrying distinct mutational signatures. Single molecule
      molecular inversion probe technology uniquely couples scalable target enrichment
      with sequence read error correction, providing an integrated, ultrasensitive
      approach for detecting minimal residual disease identifying mutations.

PMID- 28572162
TI  - CRISPR-Cas9-induced t(11;19)/MLL-ENL translocations initiate leukemia in human
      hematopoietic progenitor cells in vivo.
AB  - Chromosomal translocations that generate oncogenic fusion proteins are causative
      for most pediatric leukemias and frequently affect the MLL/KMT2A gene. In vivo
      modeling of bona fide chromosomal translocations in human hematopoietic stem and
      progenitor cells is challenging but essential to determine their actual
      leukemogenic potential. We therefore developed an advanced lentiviral CRISPR-Cas9
      vector that efficiently transduced human CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor
      cells and induced the t(11;19)/MLL-ENL translocation. Leveraging this system, we
      could demonstrate that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells harboring the
      translocation showed only a transient clonal growth advantage in vitro In
      contrast, t(11;19)/MLL-ENL-harboring CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor
      cells not only showed long-term engraftment in primary immunodeficient
      recipients, but t(11;19)/MLL-ENL also served as a first hit to initiate a
      monocytic leukemia-like disease. Interestingly, secondary recipients developed
      acute lymphoblastic leukemia with incomplete penetrance. These findings indicate
      that environmental cues not only contribute to the disease phenotype, but also to
      t(11;19)/MLL-ENL-mediated oncogenic transformation itself. Thus, by investigating
      the true chromosomal t(11;19) rearrangement in its natural genomic context, our
      study emphasizes the importance of environmental cues for the pathogenesis of
      pediatric leukemias, opening an avenue for novel treatment options.

PMID- 28572163
TI  - Incidence of second primary malignancies and related mortality in patients with
      imatinib-treated chronic myeloid leukemia.
AB  - The majority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia are successfully managed
      with life-long treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In patients in chronic
      phase, other malignancies are among the most common causes of death, raising
      concerns on the relationship between these deaths and the off-target effects of
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors. We analyzed the incidence of second primary
      malignancies, and related mortality, in 514 chronic myeloid leukemia patients
      enrolled in clinical trials in which imatinib was given as first-line treatment.
      We then compared the observed incidence and mortality with those expected in the
      age- and sex-matched Italian general population, calculating standardized
      incidence and standardized mortality ratios. After a median follow-up of 74
      months, 5.8% patients developed second primary malignancies. The median time from
      chronic myeloid leukemia to diagnosis of the second primary malignancies was 34
      months. We did not find a higher incidence of second primary malignancies
      compared to that in the age- and sex-matched Italian general population, with
      standardized incidence ratios of 1.06 (95% CI: 0.57-1.54) and 1.61 (95% CI: 0.92
      2.31) in males and females, respectively. Overall, 3.1% patients died of second
      primary malignancies. The death rate in patients with second primary malignancies
      was 53% (median overall survival: 18 months). Among females, the observed cancer
      related mortality was superior to that expected in the age- and sex-matched
      Italian population, with a standardized mortality ratio of 2.41 (95% CI: 1.26 -
      3.56). In conclusion, our analysis of patients with imatinib-treated chronic
      myeloid leukemia did not reveal a higher incidence of second primary
      malignancies; however, the outcome of second primary malignancies in such
      patients was worse than expected. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00514488, NCT00510926.

PMID- 28572164
TI  - Risk of cardiovascular events and pulmonary hypertension following splenectomy -
      a Danish population-based cohort study from 1996-2012.
AB  - Splenectomized patients are at increased risk of cardiovascular events, but it
      remains unclear whether this is due to lack of the spleen or due to the
      underlying disease leading to splenectomy. We aimed to assess the risk of
      myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension, and stroke following splenectomy.
      We identified patients splenectomized in Denmark between 1996 and 2012. We
      constructed two comparison cohorts: an age- and sex-matched general population
      cohort and a disease-matched cohort based on the splenectomy-related underlying
      disease. We computed 5-year cumulative incidences and adjusted hazard ratios of
      myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension, and stroke for the three cohorts.
      The study included 5,306 splenectomized patients, 53,060 members of the general
      population, and 11,651 disease-matched patients. During the 5-year follow-up,
      1.3% of splenectomized patients had a myocardial infarction versus 1.8% of the
      population cohort. The adjusted hazard ratio for myocardial infarction in
      splenectomized patients versus the population cohort was 1.24 (95% confidence
      interval: 1.01-1.52). The 5-year cumulative incidence of pulmonary hypertension
      was 0.4% among splenectomized subjects and 0.2% in the population cohort
      [adjusted hazard ratio 3.25 (95% confidence interval: 1.93-5.45)], while that of
      stroke was 3.3% among splenectomized patients versus 2.6% in the population
      cohort [adjusted hazard ratio 2.04 (95% confidence interval: 1.78-2.35)]. When
      comparing splenectomized subjects with the disease-matched cohort, only stroke
      risk was elevated, with 5-year risks of 3.0% and 2.3%, respectively [adjusted
      hazard ratio 1.56 (95% confidence interval: 1.26-1.92)]. In conclusion,
      splenectomized patients were at increased risk of stroke. Additionally, we found
      that underlying splenectomy-related diseases explained the increased risk of
      myocardial infarction and pulmonary hypertension following splenectomy.

PMID- 28572166
TI  - Modifications to vancomycin raise hope for combating antibiotic resistance.

PMID- 28572165
TI  - Long-term impact of joint bleeds in von Willebrand disease: a nested case-control
      study.
AB  - Patients with severe von Willebrand disease (VWD) may develop arthropathy after
      joint bleeds. Information on its prevalence and severity is limited. We aimed to
      assess the occurrence and severity of arthropathy in VWD and its impact on daily
      life. VWD patients with and without verified joint bleeds were matched for age,
      sex and Factor VIII level or von Willebrand Factor activity in a nested case
      control study within the Willebrand in the Netherlands study. Assessments
      included the Hemophilia Joint Health Score (0-124), Pettersson score (0-13 per
      joint X-ray), Hemophilia Activity List score (0-100), joint pain (Visual Analog
      Scale 0-10), and the Impact on Participation and Autonomy questionnaire (0-20).
      Arthropathy was defined as a Hemophilia Joint Health Score of 10 or higher, or a
      Pettersson score over 3 of at least one joint. We included 48 patients with
      verified joint bleeds (cases) and 48 controls: 60% males, mean age 46 years
      (range 18-80), median von Willebrand Factor activity 5 versus 8 IU/dL and Factor
      VIII 24 versus 36 IU/dL. Arthropathy occurred in 40% of the cases versus 10% of
      the controls (P<0.01). The cases reported more functional limitations compared to
      the controls (median Hemophilia Activity List score: 88 vs. 100, P<0.01).
      Arthropathy was related to joint pain and less social participation (Visual
      Analog Scale>3: 13 of 19 vs. 3 of 28, P<0.01, and median score on the
      participation questionnaire 6.1 vs. 0.9, P<0.01). In conclusion, arthropathy
      occurs in 40% of VWD patients after joint bleeds and is associated with pain,
      radiological abnormalities, functional limitations, and less social participation
      (Dutch trial register: NTR4548).

PMID- 28572167
TI  - Colony-Stimulating Factor 1 Receptor Blockade Inhibits Tumor Growth by Altering
      the Polarization of Tumor-Associated Macrophages in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) and its receptor, CSF-1R, regulate the
      differentiation and function of macrophages and play an important role in
      macrophage infiltration in the context of hepatocellular carcinoma. The
      therapeutic effects of CSF-1R blockade in hepatocellular carcinoma remain
      unclear. In this study, we found that CSF-1R blockade by PLX3397, a competitive
      inhibitor with high specificity for CSF-1R tyrosine kinase, significantly delayed
      tumor growth in mouse models. PLX3397 inhibited the proliferation of macrophages
      in vitro, but intratumoral macrophage infiltration was not decreased by PLX3397
      in vivo Gene expression profiling of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) showed
      that TAMs from the PLX3397-treated tumors were polarized toward an M1-like
      phenotype compared with those from vehicle-treated tumors. In addition, PLX3397
      treatment increased CD8+ T-cell infiltration, whereas CD4+ T-cell infiltration
      was decreased. Further study revealed that tumor cell-derived CSF-2 protected
      TAMs from being depleted by PLX3397. In conclusion, CSF-1R blockade delayed tumor
      growth by shifting the polarization rather than the depletion of TAMs. CSF-1R
      blockade warrants further investigation in the treatment of hepatocellular
      carcinoma. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8); 1544-54. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28572168
TI  - Preclinical Efficacy and Molecular Mechanism of Targeting CDK7-Dependent
      Transcriptional Addiction in Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - Ovarian cancer remains a significant cause of gynecologic cancer mortality, and
      novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed in clinic as new treatment
      options. We previously showed that BET bromodomain inhibitors displayed promising
      efficacy for the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer by downregulating pivot
      transcription factors. However, the potential antitumor activities and molecular
      mechanisms of other epigenetic or transcriptional therapies have not been
      systematically determined. Here, by performing an unbiased high-throughput drug
      screen to identify candidate compounds with antineoplastic effects, we identified
      THZ1, a recently developed covalent CDK7 inhibitor, as a new transcription
      targeting compound that exerted broad cytotoxicity against ovarian tumors.
      Mechanistically, CDK7 represented a previously unappreciated actionable
      vulnerability in ovarian cancer, and CDK7 inhibition led to a pronounced
      dysregulation of gene transcription, with a preferential repression of E2F
      regulated genes and transcripts associated with super-enhancers. Our findings
      revealed the molecular underpinnings of THZ1 potency and established
      pharmaceutically targeting transcriptional addiction as a promising therapeutic
      strategy in aggressive ovarian cancer. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(9); 1739-50. (c)2017
      AACR.

PMID- 28572170
TI  - New developments in crystallography: exploring its technology, methods and scope
      in the molecular biosciences.
AB  - Since the Protein Data Bank (PDB) was founded in 1971, there are now over 120,000
      depositions, the majority of which are from X-ray crystallography and 90% of
      those made use of synchrotron beamlines. At the Cambridge Structure Database
      (CSD), founded in 1965, there are more than 800,000 'small molecule' crystal
      structure depositions and a very large number of those are relevant in the
      biosciences as ligands or cofactors. The technology for crystal structure
      analysis is still developing rapidly both at synchrotrons and in home labs.
      Determination of the details of the hydrogen atoms in biological macromolecules
      is well served using neutrons as probe. Large multi-macromolecular complexes
      cause major challenges to crystallization; electrons as probes offer unique
      advantages here. Methods developments naturally accompany technology change,
      mainly incremental but some, such as the tuneability, intensity and collimation
      of synchrotron radiation, have effected radical changes in capability of
      biological crystallography. In the past few years, the X-ray laser has taken X
      ray crystallography measurement times into the femtosecond range. In terms of
      applications many new discoveries have been made in the molecular biosciences.
      The scope of crystallographic techniques is indeed very wide. As examples, new
      insights into chemical catalysis of enzymes and relating ligand bound structures
      to thermodynamics have been gained but predictive power is seen as not yet
      achieved. Metal complexes are also an emerging theme for biomedicine
      applications. Our studies of coloration of live and cooked lobsters proved to be
      an unexpected favourite with the public and schoolchildren. More generally,
      public understanding of the biosciences and crystallography's role within the
      field have been greatly enhanced by the United Nations International Year of
      Crystallography coordinated by the International Union of Crystallography. This
      topical review describes each of these areas along with illustrative results to
      document the scope of each methodology.

PMID- 28572169
TI  - Tumor-targeted Nanoparticle Delivery of HuR siRNA Inhibits Lung Tumor Growth In
      Vitro and In Vivo By Disrupting the Oncogenic Activity of the RNA-binding Protein
      HuR.
AB  - Selective downregulation of the human antigen R (HuR) protein by siRNA may
      provide a powerful approach for treating lung cancer. To this end, we
      investigated the efficacy of transferrin receptor-targeted liposomal nanoparticle
      based HuR siRNA (HuR-TfNP) therapy and compared with control siRNA (C)-TfNP
      therapy both, in vitro and in vivo using lung cancer models. In vitro studies
      showed HuR-TfNP, but not C-TfNP, efficiently downregulated HuR and HuR-regulated
      proteins in A549, and HCC827 lung cancer cells, resulting in reduced cell
      viability, inhibition of cell migration and invasion, and induction of G1 cell
      cycle arrest culminating in apoptosis. However, HuR-TfNP activity in normal MRC-9
      lung fibroblasts was negligible. In vivo biodistribution study demonstrated that
      fluorescently labeled HuR-siRNA or ICG dye-loaded TfNP localized in tumor
      tissues. Efficacy studies showed intratumoral or intravenous administration of
      HuR-TfNP significantly inhibited A549 (>55% inhibition) and HCC827 (>45%
      inhibition) subcutaneous tumor growth compared with C-TfNP. Furthermore, HuR-TfNP
      treatment reduced HuR, Ki67, and CD31 expression and increased caspase-9 and PARP
      cleavage and TUNEL-positive staining indicative of apoptotic cell death in tumor
      tissues compared with C-TfNP treatment. The antitumor activity of HuR-TfNP was
      also observed in an A549-luc lung metastatic model, as significantly fewer tumor
      nodules (9.5 +/- 3.1; P < 0.001; 88% inhibition) were observed in HuR-TfNP
      treated group compared with the C-TfNP-treated group (77.7 +/- 20.1). Significant
      reduction in HuR, Ki67, and CD31 expression was also observed in the tumor
      tissues of HuR-TfNP-treatment compared with C-TfNP treatment. Our findings
      highlight HuR-TfNP as a promising nanotherapeutic system for lung cancer
      treatment. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(8); 1470-86. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28572171
TI  - The comparison of the performance of four whole genome amplification kits on ion
      proton platform in copy number variation detection.
AB  - With the development and clinical application of genomics, more and more concern
      is focused on single-cell sequencing. In the process of single-cell sequencing,
      whole genome amplification is a key step to enrich sample DNA. Previous studies
      have compared the performance of different whole genome amplification (WGA)
      strategies on Illumina sequencing platforms, but there is no related research
      aimed at Ion Proton platform, which is also a popular next-generation sequencing
      platform. Here by amplifying cells from six cell lines with different karyotypes,
      we estimated the data features of four common commercial WGA kits (PicoPLEX WGA
      Kit, GenomePlex Single Cell Whole Genome Amplification Kit, MALBAC Single Cell
      Whole Genome Amplification Kit, and REPLI-g Single Cell Kit), including median
      absolute pairwise difference, uniformity, reproducibility, and fidelity, and
      examined their performance of copy number variation detection. The results showed
      that both MALBAC and PicoPLEX could yield high-quality data and had high
      reproducibility and fidelity; and as for uniformity, PicoPLEX was slightly
      superior to MALBAC.

PMID- 28572172
TI  - Hacking the stem cell niche.

PMID- 28572173
TI  - A glimmer of hope for a devastating complication.

PMID- 28572174
TI  - Go with the flow: perforin and CD107a in HLH.

PMID- 28572175
TI  - Genomic biomarker in sickle cell disease.

PMID- 28572176
TI  - Giant granule and platelets...

PMID- 28572177
TI  - Development and Validation of the Homeostasis Concept Inventory.
AB  - We present the Homeostasis Concept Inventory (HCI), a 20-item multiple-choice
      instrument that assesses how well undergraduates understand this critical
      physiological concept. We used an iterative process to develop a set of questions
      based on elements in the Homeostasis Concept Framework. This process involved
      faculty experts and undergraduate students from associate's colleges, primarily
      undergraduate institutions, regional and research-intensive universities, and
      professional schools. Statistical results provided strong evidence for the
      validity and reliability of the HCI. We found that graduate students performed
      better than undergraduates, biology majors performed better than nonmajors, and
      students performed better after receiving instruction about homeostasis. We used
      differential item analysis to assess whether students from different genders,
      races/ethnicities, and English language status performed differently on
      individual items of the HCI. We found no evidence of differential item
      functioning, suggesting that the items do not incorporate cultural or gender
      biases that would impact students' performance on the test. Instructors can use
      the HCI to guide their teaching and student learning of homeostasis, a core
      concept of physiology.

PMID- 28572178
TI  - Evaluating Psychosocial Mechanisms Underlying STEM Persistence in Undergraduates:
      Evidence of Impact from a Six-Day Pre-College Engagement STEM Academy Program.
AB  - The persistence of undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering,
      and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a national issue based on STEM workforce
      projections. We implemented a weeklong pre-college engagement STEM Academy (SA)
      program aimed at addressing several areas related to STEM retention. We validated
      an instrument that was developed based on existing, validated measures and
      examined several psychosocial constructs related to STEM (science identity, self
      efficacy, sense of belonging to the university and to STEM, career expectancies,
      and intention to leave STEM majors) before and after the program. We also
      compared students in the SA program with a matched comparison group of first-year
      students. Results show that SA students significantly increased in science
      identity and sense of belonging to STEM and to the university, all predictive of
      increased STEM retention and a primary aim of the program. Relative to the
      matched comparison group, SA students began their first semester with higher STEM
      self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and science identity, positive career
      expectancies, and lower intention to leave STEM. The SA cohort showed 98% first
      year retention and 92% STEM major retention. The SA program serves as a model of
      a scalable, first-level, cocurricular engagement experience to enhance
      psychosocial factors that impact undergraduate persistence in STEM.

PMID- 28572179
TI  - Examining Summer Laboratory Research Apprenticeships for High School Students as
      a Factor in Entry to MD/PhD Programs at Matriculation.
AB  - Do summer laboratory research apprenticeships during high school have an impact
      on entry into MD/PhD programs? Apart from the nearly decade-long span of time
      between high school and matriculation into an MD/PhD program, young people have
      many life-shaping experiences that presumably impact their education and career
      trajectories. This quantitative study (n = 236,432) examines the connection
      between early laboratory research apprenticeship experiences at the high school
      level and matriculation into one of the more rigorous educational programs for
      scientific research training. The span of time covered by this analysis reaches
      across more than a decade, examining the potential importance of research
      experiences during the precollege years in the educational trajectory of young
      people. Intertwined with this question on research experiences is a second major
      concern regarding diversity in the life sciences research corps. Diversity in
      this wide-ranging discipline refers specifically to the underrepresentation of
      Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latino/as, and American Indians/Alaska
      Natives among the ranks of research scientists. Thus, this study includes
      analyses that specifically focus on research apprenticeships of Blacks/African
      Americans and Hispanics/Latino/as and their entrance into MD/PhD programs.

PMID- 28572180
TI  - University Students' Conceptual Knowledge of Randomness and Probability in the
      Contexts of Evolution and Mathematics.
AB  - Students of all ages face severe conceptual difficulties regarding key aspects of
      evolution-the central, unifying, and overarching theme in biology. Aspects
      strongly related to abstract "threshold" concepts like randomness and probability
      appear to pose particular difficulties. A further problem is the lack of an
      appropriate instrument for assessing students' conceptual knowledge of randomness
      and probability in the context of evolution. To address this problem, we have
      developed two instruments, Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of
      Evolution (RaProEvo) and Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of
      Mathematics (RaProMath), that include both multiple-choice and free-response
      items. The instruments were administered to 140 university students in Germany,
      then the Rasch partial-credit model was applied to assess them. The results
      indicate that the instruments generate reliable and valid inferences about
      students' conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the two contexts
      (which are separable competencies). Furthermore, RaProEvo detected significant
      differences in knowledge of randomness and probability, as well as evolutionary
      theory, between biology majors and preservice biology teachers.

PMID- 28572181
TI  - How Do You Like Your Science, Wet or Dry? How Two Lab Experiences Influence
      Student Understanding of Science Concepts and Perceptions of Authentic Scientific
      Practice.
AB  - This study examines how two kinds of authentic research experiences related to
      smoking behavior-genotyping human DNA (wet lab) and using a database to test
      hypotheses about factors that affect smoking behavior (dry lab)-influence
      students' perceptions and understanding of scientific research and related
      science concepts. The study used pre and post surveys and a focus group protocol
      to compare students who conducted the research experiences in one of two
      sequences: genotyping before database and database before genotyping. Students
      rated the genotyping experiment to be more like real science than the database
      experiment, in spite of the fact that they associated more scientific tasks with
      the database experience than genotyping. Independent of the order of completing
      the labs, students showed gains in their understanding of science concepts after
      completion of the two experiences. There was little change in students' attitudes
      toward science pre to post, as measured by the Scientific Attitude Inventory II.
      However, on the basis of their responses during focus groups, students developed
      more sophisticated views about the practices and nature of science after they had
      completed both research experiences, independent of the order in which they
      experienced them.

PMID- 28572182
TI  - Checking Equity: Why Differential Item Functioning Analysis Should Be a Routine
      Part of Developing Conceptual Assessments.
AB  - We provide a tutorial on differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, an
      analytic method useful for identifying potentially biased items in assessments.
      After explaining a number of methodological approaches, we test for gender bias
      in two scenarios that demonstrate why DIF analysis is crucial for developing
      assessments, particularly because simply comparing two groups' total scores can
      lead to incorrect conclusions about test fairness. First, a significant
      difference between groups on total scores can exist even when items are not
      biased, as we illustrate with data collected during the validation of the
      Homeostasis Concept Inventory. Second, item bias can exist even when the two
      groups have exactly the same distribution of total scores, as we illustrate with
      a simulated data set. We also present a brief overview of how DIF analysis has
      been used in the biology education literature to illustrate the way DIF items
      need to be reevaluated by content experts to determine whether they should be
      revised or removed from the assessment. Finally, we conclude by arguing that DIF
      analysis should be used routinely to evaluate items in developing conceptual
      assessments. These steps will ensure more equitable-and therefore more valid
      scores from conceptual assessments.

PMID- 28572183
TI  - Genetic Dissection of Heritable Traits in Yeast Using Bulk Segregant Analysis.
AB  - Bulk segregant analysis (BSA) is commonly used to determine the genetic basis of
      complex traits in yeast. This technique involves phenotyping progeny from a cross
      and then selectively genotyping pooled subsets of offspring with extreme
      phenotypes. Analysis of these genotype data can identify loci that show skewed
      allele frequencies in a group of phenotypically extreme individuals and that are
      likely to contribute to a trait. BSA can be applied to diverse strain crosses,
      including ones involving nonreference isolates. Further, given the high
      throughput of next-generation sequencing, it is possible to conduct many BSA
      experiments in parallel. Here, we present a BSA protocol for the generation of
      recombinant cross progeny. We then describe general BSA strategies for conducting
      phenotyping, causal loci detection, and candidate gene identification in a
      statistically powerful manner.

PMID- 28572184
TI  - Construction, Growth, and Harvesting of Fission Yeast Stable Isotope Labeling by
      Amino Acids in Cell Culture (SILAC) Strains.
AB  - Stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) enables the
      relative quantification of protein amounts and posttranslational modifications in
      complex biological samples through the use of stable heavy isotope-labeled amino
      acids. Here we describe methods for the application of SILAC to fission yeast
      Schizosaccharomyces pombe using either labeled lysine or a combination of labeled
      lysine and labeled arginine. The latter approach is more complicated than the use
      of labeled lysine alone but may yield a more comprehensive (phospho)proteomic
      analysis. The protocol includes methods for construction of SILAC-compatible
      strains, growth of cultures in labeled medium, cell harvesting, and protein
      extraction.

PMID- 28572185
TI  - Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino Acids in Cell Culture (SILAC)-Based Quantitative
      Proteomics and Phosphoproteomics in Fission Yeast.
AB  - Modern mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches are capable of identifying and
      quantifying thousands of proteins and phosphorylation events in a single
      biological experiment. Here we present a (phospho)proteomic workflow based on in
      solution proteome digestion of samples labeled by stable isotope labeling by
      amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and phosphopeptide enrichment using strong
      cation exchange (SCX) and TiO2 chromatographies. These procedures are followed by
      high-accuracy MS measurement on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer and subsequent
      bioinformatic processing using MaxQuant software.

PMID- 28572186
TI  - Concentrating Nucleic Acids by Extraction with Butanol.
AB  - During extraction of aqueous solutions with solvents such as secondary butyl
      alcohol (isobutanol) or n-butyl alcohol (n-butanol), a proportion of the water
      molecules is partitioned into the organic phase. Nucleic acids remain in the
      aqueous phase. By performing several sequential cycles of extraction, the volume
      of a nucleic acid solution can be reduced significantly. This method of
      concentration can be used to reduce the volume of dilute solutions to the point
      where the nucleic acid can be recovered easily by precipitation with ethanol.

PMID- 28572187
TI  - Immunometric Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay.
AB  - The antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the most
      commonly used assay for rapid and accurate detection of antigens. It displays
      greater sensitivity compared with the indirect ELISA and can be used to determine
      absolute antigen concentrations in unknown samples provided purified antigen
      standards are available, although it requires the use of two different
      antibodies. Briefly, wells are coated with antigen-specific capture antibody then
      incubated with samples containing unknown antigen. Washing removes unbound
      antigen and exogenous sample protein before incubation with a second antigen
      specific detection antibody, washing, and reincubation with a reporter-labeled
      tertiary antibody. After tertiary antibody is washed off, substrate is added and
      hydrolysis is measured spectrophotometrically. The signal intensity is directly
      proportional to the concentration of the antigen in the test sample.

PMID- 28572188
TI  - Immunometric Double-Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay.
AB  - The double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is
      preferentially used to determine the concentration of unknown antibody in a
      sample. Pure antigen is not required in this assay; however, the use of a
      reporter-labeled detection antibody is essential. The double-antibody sandwich
      ELISA is suitable for epitope mapping of different monoclonal antibodies that
      have been generated against a single antigen. First, plates are coated with a
      capture antibody specific for immunoglobulins generated by immunization of a host
      species. Next, the test antibody solution (e.g., serum) is incubated with the
      capture antibody to facilitate binding. The plates are washed to remove unbound
      antibody, and then antigen is added. The plates are washed again followed by the
      addition of an antigen-specific reporter-labeled antibody. Following incubation,
      unbound reporter antibody is washed off, and reporter-specific substrate is
      added. Reporter-mediated substrate hydrolysis is visualized and measured. The
      signal is proportional to the number of test antibodies present in the serum.

PMID- 28572189
TI  - Cutting Thick Sections Using a Vibratome.
AB  - Sectioning with a vibrating microtome (vibratome) is a valuable procedure for
      generating thick sections that can be used for immunohistochemistry and in situ
      hybridization. It is particularly useful for revealing histological and 3D detail
      in tissues and embryos that have been subjected to various whole-mount
      histological procedures such as beta-galactosidase and alkaline phosphatase
      staining, and fluorescent and DAB (diaminobenzidine) immunostaining. Vibratome
      sectioning does not involve any harsh organic solvents and is therefore suited
      for processing specimens stained with fluorescent antibodies or dyes. In
      addition, live tissue can be sectioned for subsequent culture, manipulation, and
      live imaging. Very few materials are required for vibratome sectioning, and it is
      a relatively straightforward procedure that is quickly mastered. This protocol
      describes basic vibratome sectioning that can be used for any staining procedure
      typically used in histology.

PMID- 28572190
TI  - Mounting Mouse Embryos for Microscopic Observation and Imaging.
AB  - This protocol is used to create a convenient chamber for mouse embryos for
      microscopic observation and imaging.

PMID- 28572191
TI  - Differentiating Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells into Embryoid Bodies in AggreWell
      Plates.
AB  - Embryonic stem (ES) cells can develop into many types of differentiated tissues
      if they are placed into a differentiating environment. This can occur in vivo
      when the ES cells are injected into or aggregated with an embryo, or in vitro if
      their culture conditions are modified to induce differentiation. Many times ES
      cell differentiation proceeds through an intermediate stage called the embryoid
      body (EB). EBs are round structures composed of ES cells that have undergone some
      of the initial stages of differentiation. EBs can then be manipulated further to
      generate more specific cell types. The method described here makes use of
      commercially available AggreWell 400 plates with prefabricated indentations that
      cradle each EB. Although these plates are relatively expensive, they may be
      suitable for some high-throughput experiments. This protocol describes the
      preparation of embryoid bodies of defined size and shape in a large-scale format
      (approximately 1200 embryoid bodies per preparation).

PMID- 28572192
TI  - Examining Cholinergic Synaptic Signaling in the Thalamic Reticular Nucleus.
AB  - This protocol describes how to obtain monosynaptic cholinergic responses in
      neurons of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) by making use of extracellular
      stimulation techniques. These methods are easy to implement and allow for the
      study of various forms of cholinergic synaptic plasticity and modulation. For
      many synapses throughout the mammalian brain, short-term plasticity is mediated
      by endocannabinoids released from postsynaptic neurons that activate presynaptic
      type I cannabinoid receptors (CB1Rs), resulting in the inhibition of presynaptic
      Ca2+ channels and a reduction of release probability. Neurons in the TRN are
      known to liberate endocannabinoids that can control transmitter release at
      GABAergic terminals. However, expression of CB1Rs on cholinergic terminals
      contacting the TRN has not been demonstrated. Here we outline strategies aimed to
      record stable postsynaptic responses and to quantify changes in cholinergic
      synaptic strength, using presynaptic modulation of acetylcholine (ACh) release by
      a CB1R agonist as an illustrative example.

PMID- 28572193
TI  - Yeast Nitrogen Base Agar Plates.

PMID- 28572194
TI  - Yeast Sporulation Medium.

PMID- 28572195
TI  - Alkylation Buffer (with IAA).

PMID- 28572196
TI  - Denaturation Buffer.

PMID- 28572197
TI  - Elution Solution.

PMID- 28572198
TI  - HPLC Loading Solvent.

PMID- 28572199
TI  - HPLC Solvent A.

PMID- 28572200
TI  - HPLC Solvent B.

PMID- 28572201
TI  - Reduction Buffer (with DTT).

PMID- 28572202
TI  - SCX Solvent A.

PMID- 28572203
TI  - SCX Solvent B.

PMID- 28572204
TI  - SILAC Amino Acids.

PMID- 28572205
TI  - TiO2 Loading Solution.

PMID- 28572206
TI  - Washing Solution for TiO2 Beads.

PMID- 28572207
TI  - EMM2-LowAmm.

PMID- 28572208
TI  - PBT for Whole-Mount Embryos.

PMID- 28572209
TI  - Artificial Cerebrospinal Fluid (ACSF) with Antagonists for Glutamatergic and
      GABAergic Receptors.

PMID- 28572210
TI  - Genetic Analysis of Complex Traits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - Defining the relationship between genotype and phenotype is a central challenge
      in biology. A powerful approach to this problem is to determine the genetic
      architecture and molecular basis of phenotypic differences among genetically
      diverse individuals. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important model system for
      such work. Current genetic mapping approaches for this species exploit high
      throughput phenotyping and sequencing to facilitate the detection of a large
      fraction of the genomic loci that underlie trait variation among isolates. Once
      identified, several methods exist to determine the specific genes and genetic
      variants that underlie these loci and cause phenotypic variations. In this
      introduction, we provide a brief overview of research on complex traits in yeast
      and discuss different genetic mapping approaches applied to yeast studies.

PMID- 28572211
TI  - Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino Acids in Cell Culture (SILAC) Technology in
      Fission Yeast.
AB  - Shotgun proteomics combined with stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell
      culture (SILAC) is a powerful approach to quantify proteins and posttranslational
      modifications across the entire proteome. SILAC technology in Schizosaccharomyces
      pombe must cope with the "arginine conversion problem," in which isotope-labeled
      arginine is converted to other amino acids. This can be circumvented by either
      using stable isotope-marked lysine only (as opposed to the more standard
      lysine/arginine double labeling) or using yeast genetics to create strains that
      only very inefficiently convert arginine. Both strategies have been used
      successfully in large-scale (phospho)proteomics projects in S. pombe Here we
      introduce methods for performing a typical SILAC-based experiment in fission
      yeast, including generation of SILAC-compatible strains, sample preparation, and
      measurement by mass spectrometry.

PMID- 28572212
TI  - Fast Cholinergic Synaptic Transmission in the Mammalian Central Nervous System.
AB  - Release of acetylcholine (ACh) in the brain controls several cognitive processes,
      and a number of disorders including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases are
      associated with a loss of cholinergic function. Despite the importance of ACh
      signaling in modulating information processing in thalamocortical circuits,
      understanding the dynamics of cholinergic function has long been limited by a
      lack of in vitro model systems. Recent studies employing both electrical as well
      as optogenetic stimulation techniques have overcome this challenge, resulting in
      the identification of multiple forms of fast cholinergic signaling throughout the
      mammalian brain. Here we highlight a simple strategy making use of extracellular
      electrical stimulation techniques that allows for the study of cholinergic
      synaptic inputs onto neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN).

PMID- 28572213
TI  - Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Reclassification of Risk for Incidence of Heart
      Failure: The Veterans Exercise Testing Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is well established that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is
      inversely associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. However, little
      is known regarding the association between CRF and incidence of heart failure
      (HF). METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 1987 and 2014, we assessed CRF in 21 080 HF
      free subjects (58.3+/-11 years) at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in
      Washington, DC, and Palo Alto, CA. Subjects were classified by age-specific
      quintiles of CRF. Multivariable Cox models were used to determine the association
      between HF incidence and clinical and exercise test variables. Reclassification
      characteristics of fitness relative to standard clinical risk factors were
      determined using the category-free net reclassification improvement and
      integrated discrimination improvement indices. During the follow-up (mean 12.3+/
      7.4 years), 1902 subjects developed HF (9.0%; average annual incidence rate, 7.4
      events per 1000 person-years). When CRF was considered as a binary variable
      (unfit/fit), low fitness was the strongest predictor of risk for HF among
      clinical and exercise test variables (hazard ratio, 1.91; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.74-2.09; P<0.001). In a fully adjusted model with the least-fit group
      as the reference, there was a graded and progressive reduction in risk for HF as
      fitness level was higher. Risks for developing HF were 36%, 41%, 67%, and 76%
      lower among increasing quintiles of fitness compared with the least-fit subjects
      (P<0.001). Adding CRF to standard risk factors resulted in a net reclassification
      improvement of 0.37 (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: CRF is strongly, inversely, and
      independently associated with the incidence of HF in veterans referred for
      exercise testing.

PMID- 28572214
TI  - Impact of Preeclampsia on Clinical and Functional Outcomes in Women With
      Peripartum Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is a risk factor for the development of peripartum
      cardiomyopathy (PPCM), but it is unknown whether preeclampsia impacts clinical or
      left ventricular (LV) functional outcomes. This study sought to assess clinical
      and functional outcomes in women with PPCM complicated by preeclampsia. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: This retrospective cohort study included women diagnosed with PPCM
      delivering at Barnes-Jewish Hospital between 2004 to 2014. The primary outcome
      was one-year event-free survival rate for the combined end point of death and
      hospital readmission. The secondary outcome was recovery of LV ejection fraction.
      Seventeen of 39 women (44%) with PPCM had preeclampsia. The groups had similar
      mean LV ejection fraction at diagnosis (29.6 with versus 27.3 without
      preeclampsia; P=0.5). Women with preeclampsia had smaller mean LV end-diastolic
      diameters (5.2 versus 6.0 cm; P=0.001), greater relative wall thickness (0.41
      versus 0.35 mm Hg; P=0.009), and lower incidence of eccentric remodeling (12%
      versus 48%; P=0.03). Clinical follow-up was available for 32 women; 5 died of
      cardiovascular complications within 1 year of diagnosis (4/15 with versus 1/17
      without preeclampsia; P=0.16). In time to event analysis, patients with
      preeclampsia had worse event-free survival during 1-year follow-up (P=0.047).
      Echocardiographic follow-up was available in 10 survivors with and 16 without
      preeclampsia. LV ejection fraction recovered in 80% of survivors with versus 25%
      without preeclampsia (P=0.014). CONCLUSIONS: PPCM with concomitant preeclampsia
      is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and different patterns of LV
      remodeling and recovery of LV function when compared with patients with PPCM that
      is not complicated by preeclampsia.

PMID- 28572215
TI  - Correction: Early onset combined immunodeficiency and autoimmunity in patients
      with loss-of-function mutation in LAT.

PMID- 28572217
TI  - Targeting limited NHS resources to affect optimal care.

PMID- 28572218
TI  - Regulation needs new legislation to get lighter.

PMID- 28572219
TI  - Is replacement modality choice knowledge important in the non-renal
      multidisciplinary team? Experience from a single UK centre.
AB  - Dialysis remains the mainstay treatment for patients with end stage renal
      disease. In the UK, there has been a significant decline in home dialysis despite
      its benefits and cost effectiveness. Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      are often known to other specialties who they may continue to consult when
      approaching dialysis. We wished to assess the knowledge of the non-renal
      multidisciplinary team (MDT) regarding home dialysis and establish whether
      further education was warranted. This was assessed using an online survey sent to
      specialties likely to deal with CKD patients. In total, 364 questionnaires were
      sent out with a 26.4% response rate. According to the survey responses, 81.5% of
      non-renal MDTs lack confidence in discussing home dialysis options with patients
      and 74.55% feel that they need further education about home dialysis. Targeted
      education may increase home dialysis uptake by multimorbid CKD patients who have
      a consistent message delivered by all relevant healthcare teams about the
      benefits of home dialysis.

PMID- 28572220
TI  - mSOAR: an effective bedside stroke prognosis tool.
AB  - The modified-SOAR (mSOAR) score is composed of the stroke subtype, Oxfordshire
      Community Stroke Project classification, age, pre-stroke modified Rankin score
      (mRS) and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score. It has previously
      been shown to be a reliable predictor of mortality and length of -hospital stay.
      This study sought to identify whether the mSOAR can also be used to predict
      patient disability on discharge. A post-hoc calculation of mSOAR using Sentinel
      Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) data and electronic discharge -summaries
      was performed on all stroke admissions to Bridgend Hospital over an 11-month
      period. This study included 230 patients, of which 88% had suffered infarcts and
      23% had experienced a previous cerebrovascular episode or transient ischaemic
      attack; 52% were female. The mortality rate was 13% and 57% had slight disability
      or less (mRS<=2) on discharge. Each increase in mSOAR score was associated with
      significantly worse discharge disability (p<0.05). We conclude that the mSOAR
      score is an excellent tool for predicting both discharge disability and
      mortality. As such, it's useful for admission prognosis discussions with
      patients, their relatives and the multidisciplinary team and for early supported
      discharge decision making.

PMID- 28572216
TI  - Genetic subclone architecture of tumor clone-initiating cells in colorectal
      cancer.
AB  - A hierarchically organized cell compartment drives colorectal cancer (CRC)
      progression. Genetic barcoding allows monitoring of the clonal output of
      tumorigenic cells without prospective isolation. In this study, we asked whether
      tumor clone-initiating cells (TcICs) were genetically heterogeneous and whether
      differences in self-renewal and activation reflected differential kinetics among
      individual subclones or functional hierarchies within subclones. Monitoring
      genomic subclone kinetics in three patient tumors and corresponding serial
      xenografts and spheroids by high-coverage whole-genome sequencing, clustering of
      genetic aberrations, subclone combinatorics, and mutational signature analysis
      revealed at least two to four genetic subclones per sample. Long-term growth in
      serial xenografts and spheroids was driven by multiple genomic subclones with
      profoundly differing growth dynamics and hence different quantitative
      contributions over time. Strikingly, genetic barcoding demonstrated stable
      functional heterogeneity of CRC TcICs during serial xenografting despite near
      complete changes in genomic subclone contribution. This demonstrates that
      functional heterogeneity is, at least frequently, present within genomic
      subclones and independent of mutational subclone differences.

PMID- 28572221
TI  - The 2016 update to NICE CG95 guideline for the -investigation of new onset stable
      chest pain: more -innovation, but at a cost?
AB  - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an update
      on its guideline on chest pain of recent onset in 2016. The new guideline makes
      three key changes to the 2010 version. NICE recommend that the previously
      proposed pre-test probability risk score should no longer be used. They also
      recommend that a calcium score of zero should no longer be used to rule out
      coronary artery disease in patients with low pre-test probability. However, the
      most radical change is that NICE now recommend that all patients with new onset
      chest pain should be investigated with a computerised tomography coronary
      angiogram as a first-ine investigation. We discuss the recent trial evidence that
      has informed the NICE update and consider the impact of the new guidelines.

PMID- 28572222
TI  - Portal vein thrombosis - a primer for the general physician.
AB  - Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is thrombosis of the portal -circulation, which may
      present with varied symptoms. However, increased use of abdominal imaging has
      noted a large number of incidental PVT. At the same time, PVT may be overlooked
      in the absence of the characteristic symptoms. More recently, a JAK2 mutation has
      been recognised as a cause of PVT. Anticoagulation is the mainstay of treatment,
      but can pose a dilemma because of the associated coagulopathy, the presence of
      varices and thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28572223
TI  - Developments in therapy with monoclonal antibodies and related proteins.
AB  - Monoclonal antibody therapeutics have been approved for over 30 targets and
      diseases, most commonly cancer. Antibodies have become the new backbone of the
      pharmaceutical industry, which previously relied on small molecules. Compared
      with small molecules, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have exquisite target
      selectivity and hence less toxicity as a result of binding other targets. The
      clinical value of both mAbs and ligand traps has been proven. New applications of
      mAbs are being tested and mAbs have now been designed to target two (bi-specific,
      eg TNF-alpha and IL-17) or more targets simultaneously, augmenting their
      therapeutic potential. Because of space limitations and the wide ranging scope of
      this review there are regrettably, but inevitably, omissions and missing
      citations. We have chosen to highlight the first successes in inflammatory
      diseases and cancer, but a broader overview of approved mAbs and related
      molecules can be found in Table 1.

PMID- 28572224
TI  - Drug therapy in anticoagulation: which drug for which patient?
AB  - Four non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are now licensed and available in
      the UK, offering unprecedented choices in anticoagulant therapy for clinicians
      and patients. NOACs have many clear benefits over warfarin, the most striking
      being the reduction in intracranial haemorrhage. However, a number of
      uncertainties remain: their efficacy in certain situations, utility of drug
      assays, significance of drug interactions and management of bleeding. In the
      absence of any direct comparative trials, it is not clear that any of the NOACs
      is significantly better than the others in any of the licensed indications. The
      differential activities, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, excretion and side effects
      of the agents should be considered when selecting the most appropriate
      anticoagulant. In this article, we discuss how, with careful selection for the
      relevant indication, NOACs can simplify therapy while improving outcomes. We aim
      to provide clinicians with the information needed to select the most suitable
      anticoagulant drug for an individual patient in a given situation.

PMID- 28572225
TI  - An unusual case of orthopnea.
AB  - Bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis is a known cause of respiratory failure.
      Diagnosis can be difficult, particularly in the acute setting. We present the
      case of a gentleman diagnosed with bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis secondary to
      phrenic neuropathy in the setting of cervical spondylosis.

PMID- 28572226
TI  - A clinical enigma of ongoing constrictive pericarditis.
AB  - A 59-year-old lady presented with a 1-week history of orthopnoea, paroxysmal
      nocturnal dyspnoea, night sweats and a productive cough. She had no recent
      history of travel. Transthoracic echocardiogram revealed preserved left
      ventricular systolic function with abnormal pericardial thickening and
      restrictive left ventricular filling consistent with pericardial constriction.
      Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging confirmed a globally thickened pericardium and
      showed evidence of pericardial inflammation and constrictive physiology. She did
      not respond to diuresis, pulsed intravenous steroids or broad spectrum
      antibiotics and multiple investigations were negative, including autoimmune
      screen and tuberculosis cultures. Eventually a serum sample was found to be
      positive for Strongyloides stercoralis and it emerged that this lady had
      travelled to Egypt 8 years previously, where it is thought that she contracted S
      stercoralis leading to her developing constrictive pericarditis. This case report
      summarises the presentation and progression of this case and rare diagnosis.

PMID- 28572227
TI  - Medical problems in pregnancy.
AB  - The prevalence of medical problems in pregnancy is increasing because of a
      complex interplay between demographic and lifestyle factors, and developments in
      modern medicine. Maternal mortality and morbidity resulting from treatable
      medical conditions, such as venous thromboembolism, epilepsy and autoimmune
      disease, have not decreased in recent years. This is despite a marked decrease in
      overall maternal mortality. It is vital that all physicians acquire a basic
      knowledge and understanding of medical problems in pregnancy. This includes
      prepregnancy measures such as counselling and optimisation of medical therapy, as
      well as multidisciplinary management throughout pregnancy and the postpartum
      period. Prompt recognition and treatment of acute and chronic illness is of clear
      benefit, and most drugs and many radiological investigations may be used in
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28572228
TI  - Adrenal insufficiency - recognition and management.
AB  - Adrenal insufficiency is characterised by inadequate -glucocorticoid production
      owing to destruction of the adrenal cortex or lack of adrenocorticotropic hormone
      stimulation. In primary adrenal insufficiency, lack of mineralocorticoids is also
      a feature. Patients can present with an insidious onset of symptoms, or acutely
      in adrenal crisis, which requires prompt recognition and treatment. Chronic
      glucocorticoid therapy is the most common cause of adrenal insufficiency. The 
      diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency is made by -demonstrating low basal and/or
      stimulated serum cortisol and should be -followed by appropriate investigations
      to establish the -underlying aetiology. Maintenance glucocorticoid -replacement
      is usually given as a twice or thrice daily hydrocortisone preparation. Patients
      with primary adrenal insufficiency also require mineralocorticoid. Regular
      monitoring for features of under- and over- replacement is essential during
      follow-up. Patient education is a key feature of management of this condition.

PMID- 28572229
TI  - Hyponatraemia - presentations and management.
AB  - Hyponatraemia is the most common electrolyte disturbance encountered in clinical
      practice. It is associated with -significant morbidity and mortality, thus
      appropriate investigation and treatment is essential. Hyponatraemia presents with
      a spectrum of clinical presentations ranging from no symptoms to life-threatening
      neurological sequelae. Hyponatraemia has multiple aetiologies and distinguishing
      the underlying aetiology facilitates appropriate treatment. This review provides
      an overview of the presentations and approaches to management of this common
      clinical condition.

PMID- 28572230
TI  - Hypercalcaemia - presentation and management .
AB  - Hypercalcaemia is a common disorder normally caused by primary
      hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) or malignancy. A proportion of cases present as an
      emergency, which carries a significant mortality. Emergency management of
      hypercalcaemia is based on intravenous rehydration with normal saline but when
      this is inadequate, bisphosphonate therapy is used; more recently the novel anti
      resorbtive agent denosumab has been shown to have a useful role in treatment. It
      is estimated that up to 10% of all cases of PHPT presenting under the age of 45
      years have an underlying genetic predisposition; nine potentially causative genes
      are now recognised and may be screened in routine clinical practice. Although
      parathyroidectomy is the only curative treatment for PHPT, this is indicated in a
      minority of cases. Many cases can be adequately managed conservatively and
      guidance from the 4th international workshop on the management of asymptomatic
      PHPT has recently been updated in a consensus statement.

PMID- 28572231
TI  - Thyrotoxicosis - investigation and management .
AB  - Graves' disease (GD) and toxic nodular (TN) goitre account for most cases of
      thyrotoxicosis associated with hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is confirmed with
      measurement of a suppressed serum thyrotropin concentration (TSH) and elevated
      free thyroid hormones. The three therapeutic options are antithyroid drugs,
      radioactive iodine and surgery. Thionamides achieve long-term remission in 35% of
      cases. Many centres administer fixed doses of iodine-131; larger doses result in
      improved rates of cure at the cost of hypothyroidism. Surgery is usually
      considered for patients who have a large goitre, compressive symptoms or
      significant ophthalmopathy.

PMID- 28572232
TI  - CME Endocrinology (108461): self-assessment questionnaire.

PMID- 28572233
TI  - Lesson of the month 1: Septic arthritis with normal acute phase reactants and
      white cell count in a patient receiving tocilizumab.
AB  - Septic arthritis represents 8-27% of cases of monoarthritis presenting to the
      emergency department. Tocilizumab is an interleukin-6 blocking monoclonal
      antibody with the mechanistic potential to interfere with the body's normal
      inflammatory response to an infectious insult. We present a case of septic
      arthritis with a normal white cell count, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte
      sedimentation rate and fibrinogen in a patient treated with tocilizumab.

PMID- 28572234
TI  - Lesson of the month 2: Contusion confusion.
AB  - This lesson of the month highlights that certain radiology terminology may be
      used to report bleeding on head computerised tomography (CT) reports. On-call
      junior doctors should not be expected to interpret CT head images, so often their
      decisions will be based on the written report. The wording used can change the
      clinical decision and therefore the treatment given by a junior doctor. Clinical
      teams and junior doctors should be educated on terminology in relation to
      bleeding on CT head reports.

PMID- 28572235
TI  - Image of the month: Gallstone ileus.

PMID- 28572236
TI  - Meeting the clinical needs of patients with progressive multiple sclerosis.

PMID- 28572237
TI  - Central lines and the general medical register - time for a change in the
      curriculum?

PMID- 28572238
TI  - Lead or be led: an update on leadless cardiac devices for general physicians.

PMID- 28572240
TI  - Healthcare professionals need more training about human trafficking and the safe
      use of interpreters.

PMID- 28572242
TI  - Response by Boulouis et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Primary Angiitis of the
      Central Nervous System: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Spectrum of Parenchymal,
      Meningeal, and Vascular Lesions at Baseline".

PMID- 28572243
TI  - Letter by Stanley et al Regarding Article, "Primary Angiitis of the Central
      Nervous System Magnetic Resonance Imaging Spectrum of Parenchymal, Meningeal, and
      Vascular Lesions at Baseline".

PMID- 28572241
TI  - PKC/Nedd4-2 Signaling Pathway Regulates the Cell Surface Expression of Drug
      Transporter hOAT1.
AB  - Human organic anion transporter-1 (hOAT1) regulates the absorption, distribution,
      and excretion of a wide range of clinically important drugs. Our previous work
      demonstrated that hOAT1 is a dynamic membrane transporter, constitutively
      internalizing from and recycling back to the cell plasma membrane. Short-term
      activation (<30 minutes) of protein kinase C (PKC) promotes the attachment of a
      lysine 48-linked polyubiquitin chain to hOAT1, a process catalyzed by ubiquitin
      ligase neural precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated 4-2 (Nedd4
      2). The ubiquitination of hOAT1 then triggers an accelerated endocytosis of the
      transporter from plasma membrane, which results in reduced hOAT1 expression at
      the cell surface and decreased hOAT1 transport activity. In the present study, we
      investigated the long-term effect of PKC on hOAT1. We showed that long-term
      activation (>2 hours) of PKC significantly enhanced hOAT1 degradation, and such
      action was partially blocked by ubiquitin mutant Ub-K48R, which has its lysine
      (K) 48 mutated to arginine (R) and is incapable of forming a K48-linked
      polyubiquitin chain. The ubiquitin ligase Nedd4-2 was also found to augment hOAT1
      degradation. These results suggest that PKC-regulated and Nedd4-2-catalyzed
      attachment of a lysine 48-linked polyubiquitin chain to hOAT1 is important for
      hOAT1 stability. We further showed through coimmunoprecipitation experiments that
      there was a direct association between hOAT1 and Nedd4-2, and such interaction
      was weakened when the WW3 and WW4 domains of the ligase were mutated. Mutating
      WW3 and WW4 domains of the ligase also impaired its ability to ubiquitinate
      hOAT1. Therefore, WW3 and WW4 domains of Nedd4-2 are critical for its association
      with and modulation of the transporter.

PMID- 28572244
TI  - Richard Paul Hyde Dunnill.

PMID- 28572245
TI  - More ways to successfully supplement vitamin D.

PMID- 28572246
TI  - Reply to JP van Wouwe and CI Lanting.

PMID- 28572247
TI  - Dietary fat restrictions in young children and the later risk of obesity.

PMID- 28572248
TI  - Meta-analysis of red meat intake and cardiovascular risk factors: methodologic
      limitations.

PMID- 28572249
TI  - Reply to MF Rolland-Cachera et al.

PMID- 28572254
TI  - Base Pairs to Populations.

PMID- 28572250
TI  - Reply to A Satija et al.

PMID- 28572255
TI  - Unmet Needs in Clinical Research in Breast Cancer: Where Do We Need to Go?
AB  - This CCR Focus highlights areas in breast cancer research with the greatest
      potential for clinical and therapeutic application. The articles in this CCR
      Focus address the state of the science in a broad range of areas with a focus on
      "hot" although sometimes controversial topics, unanswered questions, and unmet
      need. From mutational signatures, the cancer genomic revolution, and new inroads
      in immunotherapy for breast cancer to unique concerns of vulnerable populations
      as well as national and global health disparities, these works represent much of
      the promise of breast cancer research as well as the challenges in the coming
      years. Each review focuses not only on recent discoveries but also on putting the
      topic in context, including limitations to overcome. This overview is designed to
      further contextualize the highlighted issues within the broader research
      landscape. We also present new information from a poll of ALLIANCE for Clinical
      Trials in Oncology Breast Committee members regarding the most needed and viable
      potential future National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported clinical trials in
      breast cancer. The great challenge is to translate the potential benefits of
      greater scientific knowledge reflected in this CCR Focus section into
      improvements in outcomes for individuals and populations with breast cancer. A
      unifying theme across the six articles contained in this CCR Focus is the
      increasingly recognized value and necessity of collaboration across disciplines
      from bench to bedside to populations. Only continued and iteratively amplified
      scientific, clinical, and governmental commitment to creating, testing, and
      implementing new knowledge will reduce the global morbidity and mortality of
      breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2611-6. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in
      this CCR Focus section, "Breast Cancer Research: From Base Pairs to Populations."

PMID- 28572257
TI  - Translational Genomics: Practical Applications of the Genomic Revolution in
      Breast Cancer.
AB  - The genomic revolution has fundamentally changed our perception of breast cancer.
      It is now apparent from DNA-based massively parallel sequencing data that at the
      genomic level, every breast cancer is unique and shaped by the mutational
      processes to which it was exposed during its lifetime. More than 90 breast cancer
      driver genes have been identified as recurrently mutated, and many occur at low
      frequency across the breast cancer population. Certain cancer genes are
      associated with traditionally defined histologic subtypes, but genomic
      intertumoral heterogeneity exists even between cancers that appear the same under
      the microscope. Most breast cancers contain subclonal populations, many of which
      harbor driver alterations, and subclonal structure is typically remodeled over
      time, across metastasis and as a consequence of treatment interventions. Genomics
      is deepening our understanding of breast cancer biology, contributing to an
      accelerated phase of targeted drug development and providing insights into
      resistance mechanisms. Genomics is also providing tools necessary to deliver
      personalized cancer medicine, but a number of challenges must still be addressed.
      Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2630-9. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in this CCR Focus
      section, "Breast Cancer Research: From Base Pairs to Populations."

PMID- 28572256
TI  - Mutational Signatures in Breast Cancer: The Problem at the DNA Level.
AB  - A breast cancer genome is a record of the historic mutagenic activity that has
      occurred throughout the development of the tumor. Indeed, every mutation may be
      informative. Although driver mutations were the main focus of cancer research for
      a long time, passenger mutational signatures, the imprints of DNA damage and DNA
      repair processes that have been operative during tumorigenesis, are also
      biologically illuminating. This review is a chronicle of how the concept of
      mutational signatures arose and brings the reader up-to-date on this field,
      particularly in breast cancer. Mutational signatures have now been advanced to
      include mutational processes that involve rearrangements, and novel cancer
      biological insights have been gained through studying these in great detail.
      Furthermore, there are efforts to take this field into the clinical sphere. If
      validated, mutational signatures could thus form an additional weapon in the
      arsenal of cancer precision diagnostics and therapeutic stratification in the
      modern war against cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2617-29. (c)2017 AACRSee all
      articles in this CCR Focus section, "Breast Cancer Research: From Base Pairs to
      Populations."

PMID- 28572259
TI  - Emerging Data and Current Challenges for Young, Old, Obese, or Male Patients with
      Breast Cancer.
AB  - There are distinct subgroups of patients who have historically been
      underrepresented in most prospective clinical trials in breast cancer, including
      the youngest and oldest patients, male patients, and those struggling with
      obesity. Herein, we review current and future directions in research for each of
      these special populations with breast cancer, highlighting significant knowledge
      gaps and priorities in tumor biology and heterogeneity, therapeutic decision
      making promotion of adherence, supportive care, and psychosocial and functional
      well-being. In younger women, future study should focus on the biological
      underpinnings of aggressive disease and optimizing adherence and treatment
      decision making while addressing their unique survivorship needs. The latter
      includes generating a scientific basis for interruption of therapy for pregnancy.
      Among older patients, interventions should focus on increasing clinical trial
      accrual, predicting and mitigating toxicity so that functional status can be
      optimized, tailoring needs for dose modification, and anticipating life
      expectancy in the context of competing causes of death. For men with breast
      cancer, we need worldwide collaboration to answer even basic questions on optimal
      treatment, supportive care, and survivorship strategies. Finally, for those
      struggling with obesity, we need to better understand the biological associations
      with cancer incidence, prognosis and outcome, and how we can best intervene to
      assure weight loss at the "right time." It is only through highly collaborative,
      far-reaching, prospective, multidisciplinary, patient-centered, and patient
      engaged efforts that we can optimize the physical and psychologic outcomes for
      all patients with breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2647-54. (c)2017
      AACRSee all articles in this CCR Focus section, "Breast Cancer Research: From
      Base Pairs to Populations."

PMID- 28572258
TI  - Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer: What Are We Missing?
AB  - The recent demonstration of modest single-agent activity of programmed death
      ligand 1 (PD-L1) and programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) antibodies in patients
      with breast cancer has generated hope that breast cancer can be made amenable to
      immunotherapy. Depending on the subtype of breast cancer, it is now clear in both
      primary and metastatic disease that the extent of tumor-infiltrating T cells is
      not only prognostic for survival but predictive of response to nonimmune,
      standard therapies. Despite these findings, immune cytolytic activity in
      spontaneous breast tumors, the burden of nonsynonymous tumor mutations, and the
      predicted load of neoepitopes-factors linked to response to checkpoint blockade
      in other malignancies-are all relatively modest in breast cancer compared with
      melanoma or lung cancer. Thus, in breast cancer, combinations of immune agents
      with nonredundant mechanisms of action are high-priority strategies. For most
      breast cancers that exhibit relatively modest T-cell infiltration, major
      challenges include immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment as well as
      failed or suboptimal T-cell priming. Agents that trigger de novo T-cell responses
      may be critical for the successful development of cancer immunotherapy and immune
      prevention in breast cancer. Success may also require reaching beyond
      nonsynonymous mutations as the T-cell epitopes to target, especially as numerous
      unmutated proteins were validated as breast cancer-associated antigens in the pre
      checkpoint era. A deeper understanding of the immunobiology of breast cancer will
      be critical for immunotherapy to become broadly relevant in this disease. Clin
      Cancer Res; 23(11); 2640-6. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in this CCR Focus
      section, "Breast Cancer Research: From Base Pairs to Populations."

PMID- 28572261
TI  - Pediatric Cancer Predisposition and Surveillance: An Overview, and a Tribute to
      Alfred G. Knudson Jr.
AB  - The prevalence of childhood cancer attributable to genetic predisposition was
      generally considered very low. However, recent reports suggest that at least 10%
      of pediatric cancer patients harbor a germline mutation in a cancer
      predisposition gene. Although some of these children will have a family history
      suggestive of a cancer predisposition syndrome, many others will not. Evidence
      from recent pediatric studies suggests that surveillance and early detection of
      cancer in individuals carrying a germline cancer predisposing mutation may result
      in improved outcomes. However, there is a lack of consistency in the design of
      cancer surveillance regimens across centers both nationally and internationally.
      To standardize approaches, the Pediatric Cancer Working Group of the American
      Association for Cancer Research (AACR) convened a workshop, during which
      consensus screening recommendations for children with the most common cancer
      predisposition syndromes were developed. In general, we considered a 5% or
      greater chance of developing a childhood cancer to be a reasonable threshold to
      recommend screening. Conditions for which the cancer risk was between 1% to 5%
      were addressed individually. In a series of manuscripts accompanying this
      article, we provide recommendations for surveillance, focusing on when to
      initiate and/or discontinue specific screening measures, which modalities to use,
      and the frequency of screening. Points of controversy are also reviewed. We
      present the outcome of our deliberations on consensus screening recommendations
      for specific disorders in 18 position articles as Open Access publications, which
      are freely available on an AACR-managed website. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); e1-e5.
      (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series.

PMID- 28572262
TI  - Pediatric Cancer Predisposition Imaging: Focus on Whole-Body MRI.
AB  - The American Association for Cancer Research convened a meeting of international
      pediatric oncologists, geneticists, genetic counselors, and radiologists expert
      in childhood cancer predisposition syndromes (CPS) in October 2016 to propose
      consensus surveillance guidelines. Imaging plays a central role in surveillance
      for most, though not all, syndromes discussed. While encompassing the full gamut
      of modalities, there is increasing emphasis on use of nonionizing radiation
      imaging options such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in children and
      adolescents, especially in the pediatric CPS population. In view of rapid
      evolution and widespread adoption of whole-body MRI (WBMRI), the purpose of our
      review is to address WBMRI in detail. We discuss its place in the surveillance of
      a range of pediatric CPS, the technical and logistical aspects of acquiring and
      interpreting these studies, and the inherent limitations of WBMRI. We also
      address issues associated with sedation and use of gadolinium-based contrast
      agents in MRI in children. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); e6-e13. (c)2017 AACRSee all
      articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series.

PMID- 28572260
TI  - Breast Cancer Disparities at Home and Abroad: A Review of the Challenges and
      Opportunities for System-Level Change.
AB  - Sizeable disparities exist in breast cancer outcomes, both between Black and
      White patients in the United States, and between patients in the United States
      and other high-income countries compared with low- and middle-income countries
      (LMIC). In both settings, health system factors are key drivers of disparities.
      In the United States, Black women are more likely to die of breast cancer than
      Whites and have poorer outcomes, even among patients with similar stage and tumor
      subtype. Over-representation of higher risk "triple-negative" breast cancers
      contributes to breast cancer mortality in Black women; however, the greatest
      survival disparities occur within the good-prognosis hormone receptor-positive
      (HR+) subtypes. Disparities in access to treatment within the complex U.S. health
      system may be responsible for a substantial portion of these differences in
      survival. In LMICs, breast cancer mortality rates are substantially higher than
      in the United States, whereas incidence continues to rise. This mortality burden
      is largely attributable to health system factors, including late-stage
      presentation at diagnosis and lack of availability of systemic therapy. This
      article will review the existing evidence for how health system factors in the
      United States contribute to breast cancer disparities, discuss methods for
      studying the relationship of health system factors to racial disparities, and
      provide examples of health system interventions that show promise for mitigating
      breast cancer disparities. We will then review evidence of global breast cancer
      disparities in LMICs, the treatment factors that contribute to these disparities,
      and actions being taken to combat breast cancer disparities around the world.
      Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); 2655-64. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in this CCR Focus
      section, "Breast Cancer Research: From Base Pairs to Populations."

PMID- 28572263
TI  - Recommendations for Surveillance for Children with Leukemia-Predisposing
      Conditions.
AB  - Leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, has long been recognized to
      occasionally run in families. The first clues about the genetic mechanisms
      underlying familial leukemia emerged in 1990 when Li-Fraumeni syndrome was linked
      to TP53 mutations. Since this discovery, many other genes associated with
      hereditary predisposition to leukemia have been identified. Although several of
      these disorders also predispose individuals to solid tumors, certain conditions
      exist in which individuals are specifically at increased risk to develop
      myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and/or acute leukemia. The increasing
      identification of affected individuals and families has raised questions around
      the efficacy, timing, and optimal methods of surveillance. As part of the AACR
      Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop, an expert panel met to review the
      spectrum of leukemia-predisposing conditions, with the aim to develop consensus
      recommendations for surveillance for pediatric patients. The panel recognized
      that for several conditions, routine monitoring with complete blood counts and
      bone marrow evaluations is essential to identify disease evolution and enable
      early intervention with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
      However, for others, less intensive surveillance may be considered. Because few
      reports describing the efficacy of surveillance exist, the recommendations
      derived by this panel are based on opinion, and local experience and will need to
      be revised over time. The development of registries and clinical trials is
      urgently needed to enhance understanding of the natural history of the leukemia
      predisposing conditions, such that these surveillance recommendations can be
      optimized to further enhance long-term outcomes. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); e14
      e22. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology
      Series.

PMID- 28572265
TI  - Clinical Management and Tumor Surveillance Recommendations of Inherited Mismatch
      Repair Deficiency in Childhood.
AB  - Replication proofreading is crucial to avoid mutation accumulation in dividing
      cells. In humans, proofreading and replication repair is maintained by the
      exonuclease domains of DNA polymerases and the mismatch repair system.
      Individuals harboring germline mutations in genes involved in this process are at
      increased risk of early cancers from multiple organs. Biallelic mutations in any
      of the four mismatch repair genes MSH2, MSH6, MLH1, and PMS2 result in one of the
      most aggressive childhood cancer predisposition syndromes, termed constitutional
      mismatch repair deficiency or constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome
      (CMMRD). Data gathered in the last decade allow us to better define the clinical
      manifestations, tumor spectrum, and diagnostic algorithms for CMMRD. In this
      article, we summarize this information and present a comprehensive consensus
      surveillance protocol for these individuals. Ongoing research will allow for
      further definition of replication repair-deficient cancer syndromes, assessing
      the cost-effectiveness of such surveillance protocols and potential therapeutic
      interventions for these children and families. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11); e32-e37.
      (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series.

PMID- 28572264
TI  - Recommendations for Childhood Cancer Screening and Surveillance in DNA Repair
      Disorders.
AB  - DNA repair syndromes are heterogeneous disorders caused by pathogenic variants in
      genes encoding proteins key in DNA replication and/or the cellular response to
      DNA damage. The majority of these syndromes are inherited in an autosomal
      recessive manner, but autosomal-dominant and X-linked recessive disorders also
      exist. The clinical features of patients with DNA repair syndromes are highly
      varied and dependent on the underlying genetic cause. Notably, all patients have
      elevated risks of syndrome-associated cancers, and many of these cancers present
      in childhood. Although it is clear that the risk of cancer is increased, there
      are limited data defining the true incidence of cancer and almost no evidence
      based approaches to cancer surveillance in patients with DNA repair disorders.
      This article is the product of the October 2016 AACR Childhood Cancer
      Predisposition Workshop, which brought together experts from around the world to
      discuss and develop cancer surveillance guidelines for children with cancer-prone
      disorders. Herein, we focus on the more common of the rare DNA repair disorders:
      ataxia telangiectasia, Bloom syndrome, Fanconi anemia, dyskeratosis congenita,
      Nijmegen breakage syndrome, Rothmund-Thomson syndrome, and Xeroderma pigmentosum.
      Dedicated syndrome registries and a combination of basic science and clinical
      research have led to important insights into the underlying biology of these
      disorders. Given the rarity of these disorders, it is recommended that
      centralized centers of excellence be involved directly or through consultation in
      caring for patients with heritable DNA repair syndromes. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11);
      e23-e31. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology
      Series.

PMID- 28572268
TI  - Oral fluid testing for marijuana intoxication: enhancing objectivity for roadside
      DUI testing.
AB  - Reducing marijuana-impaired driving is an important part of any strategy to
      prevent motor vehicle traffic injuries. In Colorado, the first of eight US states
      and the District of Columbia to legalise marijuana for recreational use, drivers
      with positive tests for the presence of marijuana accounted for a larger
      proportion of fatal MVCs after marijuana commercialisation. The use of blood
      tests to screen for marijuana intoxication, in Colorado and elsewhere in the USA,
      poses a number of challenges. Many high-income countries use oral fluid drug
      testing (OF) to provide roadside evidence of marijuana intoxication. A 2009
      Belgium policy implementing OF roadside testing increased true positives and
      decreased false positives of suspected marijuana-related driving under the
      influence (DUI) arrests. US policy-makers should consider using roadside OF to
      increase objectivity and reliability for tests used in marijuana-related DUI
      arrests.

PMID- 28572266
TI  - Cancer Screening Recommendations for Individuals with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.
AB  - Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is an autosomal dominantly inherited condition caused
      by germline mutations of the TP53 tumor suppressor gene encoding p53, a
      transcription factor triggered as a protective cellular mechanism against
      different stressors. Loss of p53 function renders affected individuals highly
      susceptible to a broad range of solid and hematologic cancers. It has recently
      become evident that children and adults with LFS benefit from intensive
      surveillance aimed at early tumor detection. In October 2016, the American
      Association for Cancer Research held a meeting of international LFS experts to
      evaluate the current knowledge on LFS and propose consensus surveillance
      recommendations. Herein, we briefly summarize clinical and genetic aspects of
      this aggressive cancer predisposition syndrome. In addition, the expert panel
      concludes that there are sufficient existing data to recommend that all patients
      with LFS be offered cancer surveillance as soon as the clinical or molecular LFS
      diagnosis is established. Specifically, the panel recommends adoption of a
      modified version of the "Toronto protocol" that includes a combination of
      physical exams, blood tests, and imaging. The panel also recommends that further
      research be promoted to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of these risk
      adapted surveillance and cancer prevention strategies while addressing the
      psychosocial needs of individuals and families with LFS. Clin Cancer Res; 23(11);
      e38-e45. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology
      Series.

PMID- 28572269
TI  - Estimated total costs from non-fatal and fatal bicycle crashes in the USA: 1997
      2013.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Emergency department visits and hospital admissions resulting from
      adult bicycle trauma have increased dramatically. Annual medical costs and work
      losses of these incidents last were estimated for 2005 and quality-of-life losses
      for 2000. METHODS: We estimated costs associated with adult bicycle injuries in
      the USA using 1997-2013 non-fatal incidence data from the National Electronic
      Injury Surveillance System with cost estimates from the Consumer Product Safety
      Commission's Injury Cost Model, and 1999-2013 fatal incidence data from the
      National Vital Statistics System costed by similar methods. RESULTS:
      Approximately 3.8 million non-fatal adult bicycle injuries were reported during
      the study period and 9839 deaths. In 2010 dollars, estimated adult bicycle injury
      costs totalled $24.4 billion in 2013. Estimated injury costs per mile bicycled
      fell from $2.85 in 2001 to $2.35 in 2009. From 1999 to 2013, total estimated
      costs were $209 billion due to non-fatal bicycle injuries and $28 billion due to
      fatal injuries. Inflation-free annual costs in the study period increased by 137%
      for non-fatal injuries and 23% for fatal injuries. The share of non-fatal costs
      associated with injuries to riders age 45 and older increased by 1.6% (95% CI
      1.4% to 1.9%) annually. The proportion of costs due to incidents that occurred on
      a street or highway steadily increased by 0.8% (95% CI 0.4% to 1.3%) annually.
      CONCLUSIONS: Inflation-free costs per case associated with non-fatal bicycle
      injuries are increasing. The growth in costs is especially associated with rising
      ridership, riders 45 and older, and street/highway crashes.

PMID- 28572270
TI  - Editorial: Modulation of HMGB1 holds promise for managing sepsis immune
      paralysis.

PMID- 28572271
TI  - Editorial: IL-27 expression following TLR activation in bone: sounding the alarm
      for repair.

PMID- 28572272
TI  - A novel prion protein variant in a patient with semantic dementia.

PMID- 28572273
TI  - Laughter, crying and sadness in ALS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is prevalent in amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis (ALS), but there is limited information on its associations and course.
      OBJECTIVES: Explore prevalence, associations, course and manifestations of PBA in
      outpatient cohort of patients with ALS and examine its relationship to
      depression. METHODS: Self-reported measures of PBA and depression (Center for
      Neurologic Study-Lability Scale (CNS-LS) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ
      9), respectively) were obtained from consecutive patients with ALS using tablet
      devices in waiting rooms (Knowledge Program). RESULTS: PBA (CNS-LS >=13) was seen
      in 209/735 patients (28.4%). PBA was associated with bulbar onset and
      dysfunction, upper motor neuron dysfunction, cognitive impairment, depression and
      lower quality of life. A multivariable model that included lower bulbar and gross
      motor subscores, female gender, younger age and shorter duration of disease
      predicted PBA with 74% accuracy. CNS-LS scores increased only slowly with time.
      Women with PBA reported more crying than men. Crying (but not laughter)
      correlated with depression, and crying was associated with poorer quality of
      life. Exploratory factor analysis of pooled questions of CNS-LS and PHQ-9
      identified three underlying factors (laughter, crying and depression) loaded on
      appropriate questions of the respective instruments. CONCLUSION: This study
      identifies associations of PBA and additionally finds PBA (especially crying
      predominant PBA) more prevalent in women with ALS. Although the two self-report
      instruments (CNS-LS and PHQ-9) discriminate well between PBA and depression,
      there is significant overlap between depression and crying in PBA. Studies of PBA
      should stratify for gender, examine crying and laughter as separate outcomes and
      adjust for depression.

PMID- 28572274
TI  - CASPR2 autoantibodies are raised during pregnancy in mothers of children with
      mental retardation and disorders of psychological development but not autism.
AB  - BACKGROUND, METHODS AND OBJECTIVES: Maternal autoantibodies to neuronal proteins
      may be one cause of neurodevelopmental disorders. This exploratory study used the
      Danish archived midgestational sera and their nationwide registers to search for
      antibodies to the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) and contactin-associated
      protein-like 2 (CASPR2) in maternal sera, and to relate them to subsequent
      psychiatric diagnoses in the woman or her child. RESULTS: In a sample of 192
      women, there was no association between antibody status and subsequent psychosis
      in the mothers. However, NMDAR antibodies (n=4) or CASPR2 antibodies (n=1) were
      identified in 5/11 (45.5%) women whose children were given a diagnosis of mild or
      unspecified mental retardation or disorders of psychological and motor
      development (collectively abbreviated as mental retardation and/or disorders of
      psychological development (MR/DPD)) compared with 9/176 (5.1%) of the remaining
      mother (p<0.001). These findings were followed up in a specifically selected
      cohort, in which CASPR2 antibodies were detected in 7/171 (4.1%) mothers of
      MR/DPD progeny, compared with only 1/171 (0.6%) control mother (p=0.067). The
      combined sample showed a significantly higher frequency of CASPR2 antibodies in
      mothers of MD/DPD children (p=0.01). These autoantibodies were not increased in
      mothers of children with autistic spectrum disorder. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      complement the known roles of CASPR2 in brain development, and warrant further
      epidemiological and experimental studies to clarify the role of CASPR2 and
      possibly other antibodies in neurodevelopmental disorders.

PMID- 28572276
TI  - Sir Henry Head FRS (1861-1940): a life in science and society.

PMID- 28572275
TI  - Truncating mutations in SPAST patients are associated with a high rate of
      psychiatric comorbidities in hereditary spastic paraplegia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a rare and
      heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders that are clinically
      characterised by progressive lower limb spasticity. They are classified as either
      'pure' or 'complex' where spastic paraplegia is complicated with additional
      neurological features. Mutations in the spastin gene (SPAST) are the most common
      cause of HSP and typically present with a pure form. METHODS: We assessed in
      detail the phenotypic and genetic spectrum of SPAST-related HSP focused on 118
      patients carrying SPAST mutations. RESULTS: This study, one of the largest
      cohorts of genetically confirmed spastin patients to date, contributes with the
      discovery of a significant number of novel SPAST mutations. Our data reveal a
      high rate of complex cases (25%), with psychiatric disorders among the most
      common comorbidity (10% of all SPASTpatients). Further, we identify a genotype
      phenotype correlation between patients carrying loss-of-function mutations in
      SPAST and the presence of psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28572278
TI  - Epilepsy treatment priorities: answering the questions that matter.

PMID- 28572279
TI  - A painful lesion on the abdomen.

PMID- 28572277
TI  - Immunotherapies in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder: efficacy and
      predictors of response.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse predictors for relapses and number of attacks under
      different immunotherapies in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder
      (NMOSD). DESIGN: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted in neurology
      departments at 21 regional and university hospitals in Germany. Eligible
      participants were patients with aquaporin-4-antibody-positive or aquaporin-4
      antibody-negative NMOSD. Main outcome measures were HRs from Cox proportional
      hazard regression models adjusted for centre effects, important prognostic
      factors and repeated treatment episodes. RESULTS: 265 treatment episodes with a
      mean duration of 442 days (total of 321 treatment years) in 144 patients (mean
      age at first attack: 40.9 years, 82.6% female, 86.1% aquaporin-4-antibody
      positive) were analysed. 191 attacks occurred during any of the treatments
      (annual relapse rate=0.60). The most common treatments were rituximab (n=77, 111
      patient-years), azathioprine (n=52, 68 patient-years), interferon-beta (n=32, 61
      patient-years), mitoxantrone (n=34, 32.1 patient-years) and glatiramer acetate
      (n=17, 10 patient-years). Azathioprine (HR=0.4, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.7, p=0.001) and
      rituximab (HR=0.6, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.0, p=0.034) reduced the attack risk compared
      with interferon-beta, whereas mitoxantrone and glatiramer acetate did not.
      Patients who were aquaporin-4-antibody-positive had a higher risk of attacks
      (HR=2.5, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.1, p=0.009). Every decade of age was associated with a
      lower risk for attacks (HR=0.8, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.0, p=0.039). A previous attack
      under the same treatment tended to be predictive for further attacks (HR=1.5, 95%
      CI 1.0 to 2.4, p=0.065). CONCLUSIONS: Age, antibody status and possibly previous
      attacks predict further attacks in patients treated for NMOSD. Azathioprine and
      rituximab are superior to interferon-beta.

PMID- 28572284
TI  - BAX inhibitor-1 regulates autophagy by controlling the IRE1alpha branch of the
      unfolded protein response.

PMID- 28572283
TI  - Impact of Mean Transaortic Pressure Gradient on Long-Term Outcome in Patients
      With Severe Aortic Stenosis and Preserved Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mean transaortic pressure gradient (MTPG) has never been validated as
      a predictor of mortality in patients with severe aortic stenosis. We sought to
      determine the value of MTPG to predict mortality in a large prospective cohort of
      severe aortic stenosis patients with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction
      and to investigate the cutoff of 60 mm Hg, proposed in American guidelines.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 1143 patients with severe aortic stenosis defined
      by aortic valve area <=1 cm2 and MTPG >=40 mm Hg were included. The population
      was divided into 3 groups according to MTPG: between 40 and 49 mm Hg, between 50
      and 59 mm Hg, and >=60 mm Hg. The end point was all-cause mortality. MTPG was
      >=60 mm Hg in 392 patients. Patients with MTPG >=60 mm Hg had a significantly
      increase risk of mortality compared with patients with MTPG <60 mm Hg (hazard
      ratio [HR]=1.62 [1.27-2.05] P<0.001), even for the subgroup of asymptomatic or
      minimally symptomatic patients (HR=1.56 [1.04-2.34] P=0.032). After adjustment
      for established outcome predictors, patients with MTPG >=60 mm Hg had a
      significantly higher risk of mortality than patients with MTPG <60 mm Hg (HR=1.71
      [1.33-2.20] P<0.001), even after adjusting for surgery as a time-dependent
      variable (HR=1.71 [1.43-2.11] P<0.001). Similar results were observed for the
      subgroup of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients (HR=1.70 [1.10-2.32]
      P=0.018 and HR=1.68 [1.20-2.36] P=0.003, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      shows the negative prognostic impact of high MTPG (>=60 mm Hg), on long-term
      outcome of patients with severe aortic stenosis with preserved left ventricular
      ejection fraction, irrespective of symptoms.

PMID- 28572280
TI  - Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption, Vascular Impairment, and Ischemia/Reperfusion
      Damage in Diabetic Stroke.

PMID- 28572282
TI  - CM352 Reduces Brain Damage and Improves Functional Recovery in a Rat Model of
      Intracerebral Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is an acute neurological disorder with
      high mortality and no effective treatment. In addition to the initial bleeding
      event, rebleeding and hematoma expansion are associated with poor outcome in
      these patients. We studied the effectiveness of the new antifibrinolytic agent
      CM352, a short-half-life matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor, for achieving early
      hemostasis and improving functional recovery in a rat model of collagenase
      induced ICH. METHODS AND RESULTS: ICH was induced by striatal injection of
      collagenase, and 1 hour later, rats received an intravenous injection of saline
      (n=6) or CM352 (1 mg/kg, n=6). Hematoma (basal and after 3 and 24 hours) and
      lesion (14 days) volumes were quantified on T2-weighted (T2) magnetic resonance
      images. Neurological and functional recovery was evaluated by using Bederson
      score and a cylinder test (basal, 24 hours, and 14 days). Early treatment (1
      hour) with CM352 was efficient reducing hematoma expansion at 3 hours (P<0.01)
      and, more markedly, at 24 hours (P<0.01). Decreased bleeding after
      antifibrinolytic treatment was accompanied by reduced interleukin-6 levels at 3
      hours (P<0.05) and smaller lesion volume at 14 days (P<0.01). CM352 drastically
      reduced sensorimotor impairment (cylinder test) after ICH in rats at 24 hours
      (P<0.01) and 14 days (P<0.01). Similarly, it also attenuated neurological deficit
      (Bederson scale) at 24 hours (P<0.01) and 14 days (P<0.01). Interestingly, late
      (3 hours) CM352 administration also resulted in reduced lesion size and better
      functional outcome. CONCLUSIONS: CM352, a new antifibrinolytic agent and matrix
      metalloproteinase inhibitor, effectively prevented hematoma growth and reduced
      lesion size in ICH in association with improved functional and neurological
      recovery.

PMID- 28572285
TI  - Plant virus-mediated induction of miR168 is associated with repression of
      ARGONAUTE1 accumulation.

PMID- 28572281
TI  - Recurrent Stroke in Minor Ischemic Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack With
      Metabolic Syndrome and/or Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the risk conferred by metabolic syndrome (METS)
      and diabetes mellitus (DM) to recurrent stroke in patients with minor ischemic
      stroke or transient ischemic attack from the CHANCE (Clopidogrel in High-risk
      patients with Acute Non-disabling Cerebrovascular Events) trial. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: In total, 3044 patients were included. Patients were stratified into 4
      groups: neither, METS only, DM only, or both. METS was defined using the Chinese
      Diabetes Society (CDS) and International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) definitions.
      The primary outcome was new stroke (including ischemic and hemorrhagic) at 90
      days. A multivariable Cox regression model was used to assess the relationship of
      METS and DM status to the risk of recurrent stroke adjusted for potential
      covariates. Using the CDS criteria of METS, 53.2%, 17.2%, 19.8%, and 9.8% of
      patients were diagnosed as neither, METS only, DM only, and both, respectively.
      After 90 days of follow-up, there were 299 new strokes (293 ischemic, 6
      hemorrhagic). Patients with DM only (16.1% versus 6.8%; adjusted hazard ratio
      2.50, 95% CI 1.89-3.39) and both (17.1% versus 6.8%; adjusted hazard ratio 2.76,
      95% CI 1.98-3.86) had significantly increased rates of recurrent stroke. No
      interaction effect of antiplatelet therapy by different METS or DM status for the
      risk of recurrent stroke (P=0.82 for interaction in the fully adjusted model of
      CDS) was observed. Using the METS (IDF) criteria demonstrated similar results.
      CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent METS and DM was associated with an increased risk of
      recurrent stroke in patients with minor stroke and transient ischemic attack.

PMID- 28572286
TI  - Gut microbiota regulate hepatic von Willebrand factor synthesis and arterial
      thrombus formation via Toll-like receptor-2.
AB  - The symbiotic gut microbiota play pivotal roles in host physiology and the
      development of cardiovascular diseases, but the microbiota-triggered pattern
      recognition signaling mechanisms that impact thrombosis are poorly defined. In
      this article, we show that germ-free (GF) and Toll-like receptor-2 (Tlr2)
      deficient mice have reduced thrombus growth after carotid artery injury relative
      to conventionally raised controls. GF Tlr2-/- and wild-type (WT) mice were
      indistinguishable, but colonization with microbiota restored a significant
      difference in thrombus growth between the genotypes. We identify reduced plasma
      levels of von Willebrand factor (VWF) and reduced VWF synthesis, specifically in
      hepatic endothelial cells, as a critical factor that is regulated by gut
      microbiota and determines thrombus growth in Tlr2-/- mice. Static platelet
      aggregate formation on extracellular matrix was similarly reduced in GF WT, Tlr2
      /- , and heterozygous Vwf+/- mice that are all characterized by a modest
      reduction in plasma VWF levels. Defective platelet matrix interaction can be
      restored by exposure to WT plasma or to purified VWF depending on the VWF
      integrin binding site. Moreover, administration of VWF rescues defective thrombus
      growth in Tlr2-/- mice in vivo. These experiments delineate an unexpected pathway
      in which microbiota-triggered TLR2 signaling alters the synthesis of proadhesive
      VWF by the liver endothelium and favors platelet integrin-dependent thrombus
      growth.

PMID- 28572287
TI  - How I treat chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.
AB  - Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a clonal hematopoietic malignancy that
      may deserve specific management. Defined by a persistent peripheral blood
      monocytosis >=1 * 109/L and monocytes accounting for >=10% of the white blood
      cells, this aging-associated disease combines cell proliferation as a consequence
      of myeloid progenitor hypersensitivity to granulocyte-macrophage colony
      stimulating factor with myeloid cell dysplasia and ineffective hematopoiesis. The
      only curative option for CMML remains allogeneic stem cell transplantation. When
      transplantation is excluded, CMML is stratified into myelodysplastic (white blood
      cell count <13 * 109/L) and proliferative (white blood cell count >=13 * 109/L)
      CMML. In the absence of poor prognostic factors, the management of
      myelodysplastic CMML is largely inspired from myelodysplastic syndromes, relying
      on erythropoiesis-stimulating agents to cope with anemia, and careful monitoring
      and supportive care, whereas the management of proliferative CMML usually relies
      on cytoreductive agents such as hydroxyurea, although ongoing studies will help
      delineate the role of hypomethylating agents in this patient population. In the
      presence of excessive blasts and other poor prognostic factors, hypomethylating
      agents are the preferred option, even though their impact on leukemic
      transformation and survival has not been proved. The therapeutic choice is
      illustrated by 4 clinical situations among the most commonly seen. Although
      current therapeutic options can improve patient's quality of life, they barely
      modify disease evolution. Improved understanding of CMML pathophysiology will
      hopefully lead to the exploration of novel targets that potentially would be
      curative.

PMID- 28572288
TI  - Prospective Evaluation of Changes in Tumor Size and Tumor Metabolism in Patients
      with Advanced Gastric Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy: Association and Clinical
      Implication.
AB  - A change in tumor size is a well-validated and commonly used value for evaluating
      response to chemotherapy in cancer. Metabolic changes induced by chemotherapy are
      related to prognosis in several tumor types. However, the clinical implication of
      metabolic changes in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) undergoing
      chemotherapy remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate response of tumor size and
      metabolism in AGC during chemotherapy and to reveal the relationship between them
      in view of their impact on patient survival. Methods: We prospectively enrolled
      patients with AGC before the initiation of first-line palliative chemotherapy.
      Using baseline and follow-up contrast-enhanced CT and 18F-FDG PET, we assessed
      the tumor diameter, SUVmax, and total lesion glycolysis in each lesion and their
      changes during chemotherapy at the same time. We included all lesions with the
      maximal longest diameters over 1 cm on CT, and each lesion was evaluated by
      matched 18F-FDG PET. We analyzed the association between changes in tumor
      metabolism and tumor size and performed outcome analysis on overall survival (OS)
      and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: Seventy-four patients were
      enrolled, and the number of all lesions included in this study was 620. Compared
      with adenocarcinomas, poorly cohesive carcinomas demonstrated lower SUVmax
      irrespective of tumor size (P < 0.001). Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2
      (HER2)-positive tumors showed higher SUVmax than HER2-negative tumors (P =
      0.002). The changes in SUVmax due to chemotherapy had a linear correlation with
      the changes in tumor size of each lesion, and a 30% tumor size reduction was
      associated with a 50% SUVmax reduction (P < 0.001). Total lesion glycolysis
      changes also correlated with tumor size changes (P < 0.001). Better OS and PFS
      were obtained in patients with both tumor size and SUVmax reduction than in
      patients with either size or SUVmax reduction only (OS, P = 0.003; PFS, P =
      0.038). Conclusion: Changes in tumor metabolism induced by chemotherapy
      correlated with changes in tumor size in AGC. Considering both changes in
      metabolism and size could help predict a more accurate prognosis for AGC patients
      undergoing chemotherapy.

PMID- 28572291
TI  - Online Social Media Practices in Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging: A
      Concept to Incentivize Creation of Digital and Web-Based Content.

PMID- 28572289
TI  - Parametric Method Performance for Dynamic 3'-Deoxy-3'-18F-Fluorothymidine PET/CT
      in Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma
      Patients Before and During Therapy.
AB  - The objective of this study was to validate several parametric methods for
      quantification of 3'-deoxy-3'-18F-fluorothymidine (18F-FLT) PET in advanced-stage
      non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients with an activating epidermal
      growth factor receptor mutation who were treated with gefitinib or erlotinib.
      Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of noise on accuracy and precision of the
      parametric analyses of dynamic 18F-FLT PET/CT to assess the robustness of these
      methods. Methods: Ten NSCLC patients underwent dynamic 18F-FLT PET/CT at baseline
      and 7 and 28 d after the start of treatment. Parametric images were generated
      using plasma input Logan graphic analysis and 2 basis functions-based methods: a
      2-tissue-compartment basis function model (BFM) and spectral analysis (SA). Whole
      tumor-averaged parametric pharmacokinetic parameters were compared with those
      obtained by nonlinear regression of the tumor time-activity curve using a
      reversible 2-tissue-compartment model with blood volume fraction. In addition, 2
      statistically equivalent datasets were generated by countwise splitting the
      original list-mode data, each containing 50% of the total counts. Both new
      datasets were reconstructed, and parametric pharmacokinetic parameters were
      compared between the 2 replicates and the original data. Results: After the
      settings of each parametric method were optimized, distribution volumes (VT)
      obtained with Logan graphic analysis, BFM, and SA all correlated well with those
      derived using nonlinear regression at baseline and during therapy (R2 >= 0.94;
      intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.97). SA-based VT images were most robust
      to increased noise on a voxel-level (repeatability coefficient, 16% vs. >26%).
      Yet BFM generated the most accurate K1 values (R2 = 0.94; intraclass correlation
      coefficient, 0.96). Parametric K1 data showed a larger variability in general;
      however, no differences were found in robustness between methods (repeatability
      coefficient, 80%-84%). Conclusion: Both BFM and SA can generate quantitatively
      accurate parametric 18F-FLT VT images in NSCLC patients before and during
      therapy. SA was more robust to noise, yet BFM provided more accurate parametric
      K1 data. We therefore recommend BFM as the preferred parametric method for
      analysis of dynamic 18F-FLT PET/CT studies; however, SA can also be used.

PMID- 28572290
TI  - The Variability of Translocator Protein Signal in Brain and Blood of Genotyped
      Healthy Humans Using In Vivo 123I-CLINDE SPECT Imaging: A Test-Retest Study.
AB  - 123I-CLINDE is a radiotracer developed for SPECT and targets the 18-kDa
      translocator protein (TSPO). TSPO is upregulated in glial cells and used as a
      measure of neuroinflammation in a variety of central nervous system diseases. The
      aim of this study was to examine the test-retest variability of 123I-CLINDE
      binding in healthy subjects. Methods: SPECT scans were acquired over 90 min in 16
      healthy controls (9 women, 8 mixed-affinity binders [MABs] and 8 high-affinity
      binders [HABs] twice with an interval of 35 +/- 15 d). Arterial input functions
      were based on individual blood measurements in 8 subjects and a population-based
      approach in combination with individual whole-blood time-activity curves in the
      other 8 subjects. Seven brain volumes of interest were extracted and quantified
      by SUVs and by 2-tissue-compartment modeling for calculation of distribution
      volumes (VT). Test-retest variability was measured by percentage difference (PD),
      the absolute PD, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and coefficient of
      variation. Results: The absolute PD of brain SUV and the VT had similar values.
      The ICC values were higher for VTs than for brain SUVs, which were both moderate
      to high; however, lower ICC values were observed when calculated separately for
      HABs and MABs. Test-retest reproducibility was higher in subjects with immediate
      centrifugation of blood samples. The population-based method efficiently
      recovered data with delayed centrifugation. The VT of a 49-y-old male HAB was 7.5
      +/- 1.4 mL/cm3 compared with 4.6 +/- 1.4 mL/cm3 of a sex- and age-matched MAB.
      The SUVs of a 49-y-old male HAB and MAB were 1.03 +/- 0.14 and 0.88 +/- 0.15
      g/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The test-retest reproducibility of 123I-CLINDE is
      comparable or better than that reported for commonly used PET TSPO tracers.
      Because of the binding of 123I-CLINDE to blood cells and peripheral tissues, SUV
      is not a sufficient surrogate of VT from 2-tissue-compartment modeling. The
      population-adjusted method has the potential to reduce the complexity of blood
      analyses of TSPO tracers.

PMID- 28572296
TI  - MURR Files for NRC Isotope Production Approval.

PMID- 28572294
TI  - From the ABNM: Making MOC Simpler.

PMID- 28572299
TI  - This Month in JNM.

PMID- 28572297
TI  - SNMMI Leadership Update: An Exciting Time for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular
      Imaging.

PMID- 28572300
TI  - Appropriate Use Criteria for Hepatobiliary Scintigraphy in Abdominal Pain:
      Summary and Excerpts.

PMID- 28572302
TI  - Future Earth--linking research on health and environmental sustainability.

PMID- 28572304
TI  - Complete Genomic Sequence of Dengue virus 1, Isolated from Plasma Collected from
      a Haitian Child in 2014.
AB  - An outbreak of dengue fever followed a chikungunya fever outbreak in Haiti in
      2014. We detected Dengue virus 1 (DENV-1) in plasma samples collected between May
      2014 and February 2015. A representative isolate was fully sequenced, and
      phylogenetic analyses indicate that it groups within the genotype V South
      American and Caribbean DENV-1 clades.

PMID- 28572305
TI  - Genome Sequence of Escherichia coli E28, a Multidrug-Resistant Strain Isolated
      from a Chicken Carcass, and Its Spontaneously Inducible Prophage.
AB  - In this study, we sequenced the complete genome of the multidrug-resistant
      Escherichia coli strain E28, which was used as an indicator strain for phage
      therapy in vivo We used a combination of single-molecule real-time and Illumina
      sequencing technology to reveal the presence of a spontaneously inducible
      prophage.

PMID- 28572303
TI  - Maternal Exercise Improves Glucose Tolerance in Female Offspring.
AB  - Poor maternal diet can lead to metabolic disease in offspring, whereas maternal
      exercise may have beneficial effects on offspring health. In this study, we
      determined ifmaternal exercise could reverse the detrimental effects of maternal
      high-fat feeding on offspring metabolism of female mice. C57BL/6 female mice were
      fed a chow (21%) or high-fat (60%) diet and further divided by housing in static
      cages or cages with running wheels for 2 weeks prior to breeding and throughout
      gestation. Females were bred with chow-fed sedentary C57BL/6 males. High fat-fed
      sedentary dams produced female offspring with impaired glucose tolerance compared
      with offspring of chow-fed dams throughout their first year of life, an effect
      not present in the offspring from high fat-fed dams that had trained. Offspring
      from high fat-fed trained dams had normalized glucose tolerance, decreased
      fasting insulin, and decreased adiposity. Liver metabolic function, measured by
      hepatic glucose production in isolated hepatocytes, hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic
      clamps, liver triglyceride content, and liver enzyme expression, was enhanced in
      offspring from trained dams. In conclusion, maternal exercise negates the
      detrimental effects of a maternal high-fat diet on glucose tolerance and
      hepatocyte glucose metabolism in female offspring. The ability of maternal
      exercise to improve the metabolic health of female offspring is important, as
      this intervention could combat the transmission of obesity and diabetes to
      subsequent generations.

PMID- 28572306
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of Listeria monocytogenes, Isolated from Fresh Leaf
      Vegetables in Owerri City, Nigeria.
AB  - Here, we report the draft genome sequences of three Listeria monocytogenes
      isolates from fresh leaves collected in Nigeria, belonging to sequence types ST5
      and ST155 (sublineages SL5 and SL155, respectively).

PMID- 28572307
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Veillonella atypica OK5, the First Transformable
      Strain in the Species.
AB  - The Veillonella atypica strain OK5 was isolated from a human saliva sample and
      was the first strain shown to be genetically transformable in the Veillonella
      genus. Genetic studies using this strain have helped us gain much insight into
      the ecology of human oral biofilms. Here, we report the complete genome sequence
      of V. atypica OK5.

PMID- 28572308
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O Strain YNTBa
      from Yunnan Province of China.
AB  - YNTBa is a rabbit-passaged attenuated strain of foot-and-mouth disease virus
      (FMDV) serotype O. Here, we announce the complete genome sequence of YNTBa, which
      provides data for further studies on replication, virulence, its determinants,
      and cell and host tropism of YNTBa.

PMID- 28572309
TI  - Genome Sequence of Roseovarius mucosus Strain SMR3, Isolated from a Culture of
      the Diatom Skeletonema marinoi.
AB  - We present the genome of Roseovarius mucosus strain SMR3, a marine bacterium
      isolated from the diatom Skeletonema marinoi strain RO5AC sampled from top layer
      sediments at 14 m depth. Its 4,381,426 bp genome consists of a circular
      chromosome and two circular plasmids and contains 4,178 coding sequences (CDSs).

PMID- 28572310
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of Thermophiles Isolated from Yates Shaft, a Deep
      Subsurface Environment.
AB  - The whole-genome sequences of seven thermophiles that could grow at >55 degrees
      C, but not at 37 degrees C, were generated. These thermophilic bacteria will play
      a useful role as model microorganisms, and analyzing their genomes will help to
      understand the observed production of novel bioactive compounds, including
      thermozymes and macromolecules.

PMID- 28572312
TI  - Four Complete Paenibacillus larvae Genome Sequences.
AB  - Four complete genome sequences of genetically distinct Paenibacillus larvae
      strains have been determined. Pacific BioSciences single-molecule real-time
      (SMRT) sequencing technology was used as the sole method of sequence
      determination and assembly. The chromosomes exhibited a G+C content of 44.1 to
      44.2% and a molecular size range of 4.29 to 4.67 Mbp.

PMID- 28572311
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of Mycobacterium kansasii Clinical Strains.
AB  - Mycobacterium kansasii is a nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pathogen,
      frequently isolated from clinical samples and responsible for a large part of NTM
      infections in the human population. Here, we report the draft genome sequences of
      12 M. kansasii strains isolated from clinical and host-associated sources from
      the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland.

PMID- 28572313
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Blood Disease Bacterium A2 HR-MARDI, a Pathogen Causing
      Banana Bacterial Wilt.
AB  - Blood disease bacterium A2 HR-MARDI was isolated from banana plants infected with
      banana blood disease and which were planted in Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia. Here, we
      report a draft genome sequence of blood disease bacterium A2 HR-MARDI, which
      could provide important information on the virulence mechanism of this pathogen.

PMID- 28572315
TI  - Deeper Insight in Beehives: Metagenomes of Royal Jelly, Pollen, and Honey from
      Lavender, Chestnut, and Fir Honeydew and Epiphytic and Endophytic Microbiota of
      Lavender and Rose Flowers.
AB  - Microbiota of beehive products are very little known. We report here for the
      first time six metagenomes of royal jelly, pollen, and different types of honey
      from wild and cultivated lavender, chestnut, and fir honeydew. Four metagenomes
      of epiphytic and endophytic microbiota of lavender and rose flowers are also
      reported.

PMID- 28572314
TI  - First Insights into the Genome of the Cr(VI)-Reducing Bacterium Clostridium
      chromiireducens DSM 23318.
AB  - Clostridium chromiireducens is an obligate, anaerobic, Gram-positive, rod-shaped,
      and spore-forming bacterium that is able to reduce Cr(VI). The draft genome
      consists of one chromosome (5,448 Mb) and contains 4,773 predicted protein
      encoding genes.

PMID- 28572317
TI  - Complete Genome Assembly of Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii DC283, a Corn
      Pathogen.
AB  - The phytopathogen Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii DC283 causes Stewart's wilt
      disease in corn after transmission from the corn flea beetle insect vector. Here,
      we report that the complete annotated genome of P. stewartii DC283 has been fully
      assembled into one circular chromosome, 10 circular plasmids, and one linear
      phage.

PMID- 28572316
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Rice Orange Leaf Phytoplasma from Guangdong, China.
AB  - The genome of rice orange leaf phytoplasma strain LD1 from Luoding City,
      Guangdong, China, was sequenced. The draft LD1 genome is 599,264 bp, with a G+C
      content of 28.2%, 647 predicted open reading frames, and 33 RNA genes.

PMID- 28572318
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Two Geographically Distinct Legionella micdadei
      Clinical Isolates.
AB  - Legionella is a highly diverse genus of intracellular bacterial pathogens that
      cause Legionnaire's disease (LD), an often severe form of pneumonia. Two L.
      micdadei sp. clinical isolates, obtained from patients hospitalized with LD from
      geographically distinct areas, were sequenced using PacBio SMRT cell technology,
      identifying incomplete phage regions, which may impact virulence.

PMID- 28572319
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Escherichia coli BLR(DE3), a recA-Deficient
      Derivative of E. coli BL21(DE3).
AB  - Escherichia coli BLR(DE3) is a commercially available recA-deficient derivative
      of BL21(DE3), one of the most widely used strains for recombinant protein
      expression. Here, we present the full-genome sequence of BLR(DE3) and highlight
      additional differences with its parent strain BL21(DE3) which were previously
      unreported but may affect its physiology.

PMID- 28572320
TI  - Complete Genome Sequencing of Streptomyces sp. Strain MOE7, Which Produces an
      Extracellular Polysaccharide with Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities.
AB  - Streptomyces sp. strain MOE7 is a Gram-positive filamentous bacterium isolated
      from agricultural soil in Columbia, Missouri, USA. Strain MOE7 produces an
      extracellular polysaccharide with antioxidant and antitumor activities. Through
      PacBio RSII sequencing, the MOE7 genome was found to be a linear chromosome of
      8,399,509 bp with 6,782 protein-coding sequences.

PMID- 28572321
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. B9173, a Producer of Indole
      Diketopiperazine Maremycins.
AB  - Streptomyces sp. B9173 is a producer of maremycins, a group of naturally
      occurring 2,5-diketopiperazines. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of
      Streptomyces sp. B9173, which comprises ~8.77 Mb, with a G+C content of 71.8%.

PMID- 28572322
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Escherichia coli Strain M8, Isolated from ob/ob Mice.
AB  - Escherichia coli is one of the common inhabitants of the mammalian
      gastrointestinal track. We isolated a strain from an ob/ob mouse and performed
      whole-genome sequencing, which yielded a chromosome of ~5.1 Mb and three plasmids
      of ~160 kb, ~6 kb, and ~4 kb.

PMID- 28572324
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Vancomycin-Resistant Clinical Isolate Staphylococcus
      aureus VRS3b.
AB  - We report here the draft genome sequence of the vancomycin-resistant strain
      Staphylococcus aureus VRS3b. The 2.8-Mb genome, assembled into 46 contigs,
      harbored 2,915 putative coding sequences. The G+C content of the genome was
      32.7%.

PMID- 28572325
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of a Porcine Commensal, Rothia nasimurium, Encoding a
      Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase Predicted To Produce the Ionophore Antibiotic
      Valinomycin.
AB  - We report the draft whole-genome sequence of Rothia nasimurium isolated from a
      porcine tonsil. The genome encodes a nonribosomal peptide synthetase predicted to
      produce valinomycin, a cyclic dodecadepsipeptide ionophore. Previously,
      valinomycin was known to be produced only by Streptomyces species and isolates
      belonging to the Bacillus pumilus group.

PMID- 28572323
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Staphylococcus epidermidis 1457.
AB  - Staphylococcus epidermidis 1457 is a frequently utilized strain that is amenable
      to genetic manipulation and has been widely used for biofilm-related research. We
      report here the whole-genome sequence of this strain, which encodes 2,277 protein
      coding genes and 81 RNAs within its 2.4-Mb genome and plasmid.

PMID- 28572326
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of a Recombinant Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory
      Syndrome Virus Strain from Two Genotype 1 Modified Live Virus Vaccine Strains.
AB  - This paper provides information on the complete genome sequence of a porcine
      reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strain isolated on a French
      pig farm which was identified as a recombinant strain from two commercial
      modified live virus vaccine strains of genotype 1 (VP-046BIS and DV strains).

PMID- 28572327
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Three Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica Serovar
      Saintpaul Isolates Associated with a 2013 Multistate Outbreak in the United
      States.
AB  - In 2013, a multistate outbreak of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar
      Saintpaul from cucumber caused 84 cases of salmonellosis in the United States. In
      this announcement, we report the complete genome sequences of three clinical
      Salmonella Saintpaul isolates associated with the 2013 outbreak.

PMID- 28572328
TI  - Complete Genome of a Panresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strain, Isolated from a
      Patient with Respiratory Failure in a Canadian Community Hospital.
AB  - We report here the complete genome sequence of a panresistant Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa strain, isolated from a patient with respiratory failure in Canada. No
      carbapenemase genes were identified. Carbapenem resistance is attributable to a
      frameshift in the oprD gene; the basis for colistin resistance remains
      undetermined.

PMID- 28572330
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Clover (Trifolium repens L.) Root Endophyte
      Paraburkholderia sp. Strain A27.
AB  - Paraburkholderia sp. strain A27, isolated from the root material of white clover,
      has plant growth-promoting activity on a range of agriculturally important
      plants. The draft genome of this bacterium is 7,393,089 bp and harbors a range of
      genes putatively involved in host colonization.

PMID- 28572329
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of a Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus Hypervirulent Strain, USA300-C2406, Isolated from a Patient
      with a Lethal Case of Necrotizing Pneumonia.
AB  - USA300 is a predominant community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus strain causing significant morbidity and mortality. We present here the
      full annotated genome of a USA300 hypervirulent clinical strain, USA300-C2406,
      isolated from a patient with a lethal case of necrotizing pneumonia, to gain a
      better understanding of USA300 hypervirulence.

PMID- 28572331
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Bacillus subtilis GQJK2, a Plant Growth-Promoting
      Rhizobacterium with Antifungal Activity.
AB  - Bacillus subtilis GQJK2 is a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium with
      antifungal activity which was isolated from Lycium barbarum L. rhizosphere. Here,
      we report the complete genome sequence of B. subtilis GQJK2. Ten gene clusters
      involved in the biosynthesis of antagonistic compounds were predicted.

PMID- 28572332
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Four Avian Paramyxoviruses of Serotype 10 Isolated
      from Rockhopper Penguins on the Falkland Islands.
AB  - The first complete genome sequences of four avian paramyxovirus serotype 10 (APMV
      10) isolates are described here. The viruses were isolated from rockhopper
      penguins on the Falkland Islands, sampled in 2007. All four genomes are 15,456
      nucleotides in length, and phylogenetic analyses show them to be closely related.

PMID- 28572333
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of a Strain of Bacillus intestinalis sp. nov., a New Member
      of Sporobiota Isolated from the Small Intestine of a Single Patient with
      Intestinal Cancer.
AB  - We report here the draft genome sequence of Bacillus intestinalis strain 1731, a
      novel spore-forming bacterium isolated from the small intestine of a patient with
      intestinal cancer. The genome comprised 4,047,276 bp, with 43.9% G+C content.
      There were 3,913 predicted protein-coding genes, including those associated with
      antibiotic resistance and virulence.

PMID- 28572334
TI  - Dropping in to "drop-in" sexual health clinics is not easy.

PMID- 28572337
TI  - Erratum for the Research Article "Cassini finds molecular hydrogen in the
      Enceladus plume: Evidence for hydrothermal processes" by J. H. Waite, C. R.
      Glein, R. S. Perryman, B. D. Teolis, B. A. Magee, G. Miller, J. Grimes, M. E.
      Perry, K. E. Miller, A. Bouquet, J. I. Lunine, T. Brockwell, S. J. Bolton.

PMID- 28572338
TI  - Erratum for the Letter "Brazil's public universities in crisis" by C. C. Siqueira
      and C. F. D. Rocha.

PMID- 28572335
TI  - A genetic signature of the evolution of loss of flight in the Galapagos
      cormorant.
AB  - We have a limited understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of
      evolutionary changes in the size and proportion of limbs. We studied wing and
      pectoral skeleton reduction leading to flightlessness in the Galapagos cormorant
      (Phalacrocorax harrisi). We sequenced and de novo assembled the genomes of four
      cormorant species and applied a predictive and comparative genomics approach to
      find candidate variants that may have contributed to the evolution of
      flightlessness. These analyses and cross-species experiments in Caenorhabditis
      elegans and in chondrogenic cell lines implicated variants in genes necessary for
      transcriptional regulation and function of the primary cilium. Cilia are
      essential for Hedgehog signaling, and humans affected by skeletal ciliopathies
      suffer from premature bone growth arrest, mirroring skeletal features associated
      with loss of flight.

PMID- 28572336
TI  - Redox stratification of an ancient lake in Gale crater, Mars.
AB  - In 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars to assess its potential as a
      habitat for past life and investigate the paleoclimate record preserved by
      sedimentary rocks inside the ~150-kilometer-diameter Gale impact crater.
      Geological reconstructions from Curiosity rover data have revealed an ancient,
      habitable lake environment fed by rivers draining into the crater. We synthesize
      geochemical and mineralogical data from lake-bed mudstones collected during the
      first 1300 martian solar days of rover operations in Gale. We present evidence
      for lake redox stratification, established by depth-dependent variations in
      atmospheric oxidant and dissolved-solute concentrations. Paleoclimate proxy data
      indicate that a transition from colder to warmer climate conditions is preserved
      in the stratigraphy. Finally, a late phase of geochemical modification by saline
      fluids is recognized.

PMID- 28572339
TI  - Shortsighted priorities.

PMID- 28572340
TI  - News at a glance.

PMID- 28572341
TI  - Deep in a mine, earthquake gold awaits.

PMID- 28572342
TI  - Mysterious unchanging DNA finds a purpose in life.

PMID- 28572343
TI  - NIH overhead plan draws fire.

PMID- 28572345
TI  - Space ripples may untangle black hole tango.

PMID- 28572344
TI  - Egyptian mummy DNA, at last.

PMID- 28572346
TI  - Siberia yields earliest evidence for dog breeding.

PMID- 28572347
TI  - The post-op brain.

PMID- 28572348
TI  - Bat patrol.

PMID- 28572349
TI  - Decoding the evolution of species.

PMID- 28572350
TI  - Gearing up molecular rotary motors.

PMID- 28572351
TI  - A microbiome variable in the HIV-prevention equation.

PMID- 28572352
TI  - Applying plasmonics to a sustainable future.

PMID- 28572353
TI  - Is ice sheet collapse in West Antarctica unstoppable?

PMID- 28572355
TI  - Making the rounds.

PMID- 28572356
TI  - Idiosyncratic desires.

PMID- 28572354
TI  - Committing to socially responsible seafood.

PMID- 28572357
TI  - The pet trade's role in defaunation.

PMID- 28572358
TI  - Sex matters: Report experimenter gender.

PMID- 28572359
TI  - NextGen VOICES: Submit now!

PMID- 28572360
TI  - Chemical safety must extend to ecosystems.

PMID- 28572361
TI  - Building coral skeletons.

PMID- 28572362
TI  - A step on the path to a Lassa vaccine.

PMID- 28572363
TI  - Coupled motion in a light-activated rotor.

PMID- 28572364
TI  - Entangle, swap, purify, repeat.

PMID- 28572365
TI  - Methane takes the quick way out.

PMID- 28572366
TI  - Local specificity of growth signals.

PMID- 28572367
TI  - Vaginal microbiome influences HIV acquisition.

PMID- 28572369
TI  - No escape for KRAS mutant tumors.

PMID- 28572368
TI  - Human impacts on rainfall distribution.

PMID- 28572370
TI  - Loss of flight in the Galapagos cormorant.

PMID- 28572371
TI  - The depths of an ancient lake on Mars.

PMID- 28572372
TI  - Detecting unusual oscillations.

PMID- 28572374
TI  - Probing the structure of the magnetopause.

PMID- 28572375
TI  - A versatile synthesis of pleuromutilin.

PMID- 28572373
TI  - Localizing light at the nanometer scale.

PMID- 28572376
TI  - Will ice sheets collapse in West Antarctica?

PMID- 28572377
TI  - Differentiating myeloid cells.

PMID- 28572378
TI  - Flexible geckos.

PMID- 28572380
TI  - Greening the Antarctic.

PMID- 28572379
TI  - Arabidopsis out of Africa.

PMID- 28572381
TI  - Orchestrating pathogen defenses in the skin.

PMID- 28572382
TI  - Milky Way satellites going in circles.

PMID- 28572383
TI  - A quantum-well magnetic tunnel junction.

PMID- 28572384
TI  - Less oxygen in a warmer ocean.

PMID- 28572386
TI  - Entanglement distillation between solid-state quantum network nodes.
AB  - The impact of future quantum networks hinges on high-quality quantum entanglement
      shared between network nodes. Unavoidable imperfections necessitate a means to
      improve remote entanglement by local quantum operations. We realize entanglement
      distillation on a quantum network primitive of distant electron-nuclear two-qubit
      nodes. The heralded generation of two copies of a remote entangled state is
      demonstrated through single-photon-mediated entangling of the electrons and
      robust storage in the nuclear spins. After applying local two-qubit gates, single
      shot measurements herald the distillation of an entangled state with increased
      fidelity that is available for further use. The key combination of generating,
      storing, and processing entangled states should enable the exploration of
      multiparticle entanglement on an extended quantum network.

PMID- 28572385
TI  - Structural basis for antibody-mediated neutralization of Lassa virus.
AB  - The arenavirus Lassa causes severe hemorrhagic fever and a significant disease
      burden in West Africa every year. The glycoprotein, GPC, is the sole antigen
      expressed on the viral surface and the critical target for antibody-mediated
      neutralization. Here we present the crystal structure of the trimeric, prefusion
      ectodomain of Lassa GP bound to a neutralizing antibody from a human survivor at
      3.2-angstrom resolution. The antibody extensively anchors two monomers together
      at the base of the trimer, and biochemical analysis suggests that it neutralizes
      by inhibiting conformational changes required for entry. This work illuminates pH
      driven conformational changes in both receptor-binding and fusion subunits of
      Lassa virus, illustrates the unique assembly of the arenavirus glycoprotein
      spike, and provides a much-needed template for vaccine design against these
      threats to global health.

PMID- 28572387
TI  - Biological control of aragonite formation in stony corals.
AB  - Little is known about how stony corals build their calcareous skeletons. There
      are two prevailing hypotheses: that it is a physicochemically dominated process
      and that it is a biologically mediated one. Using a combination of ultrahigh
      resolution three-dimensional imaging and two-dimensional solid-state nuclear
      magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we show that mineral deposition is
      biologically driven. Randomly arranged, amorphous nanoparticles are initially
      deposited in microenvironments enriched in organic material; they then aggregate
      and form ordered aragonitic structures through crystal growth by particle
      attachment. Our NMR results are consistent with heterogeneous nucleation of the
      solid mineral phase driven by coral acid-rich proteins. Such a mechanism suggests
      that stony corals may be able to sustain calcification even under lower pH
      conditions that do not favor the inorganic precipitation of aragonite.

PMID- 28572389
TI  - Bloch oscillations in the absence of a lattice.
AB  - The interplay of strong quantum correlations and far-from-equilibrium conditions
      can give rise to striking dynamical phenomena. We experimentally investigated the
      quantum motion of an impurity atom immersed in a strongly interacting one
      dimensional Bose liquid and subject to an external force. We found that the
      momentum distribution of the impurity exhibits characteristic Bragg reflections
      at the edge of an emergent Brillouin zone. Although Bragg reflections are
      typically associated with lattice structures, in our strongly correlated quantum
      liquid they result from the interplay of short-range crystalline order and
      kinematic constraints on the many-body scattering processes in the one
      dimensional system. As a consequence, the impurity exhibits periodic dynamics,
      reminiscent of Bloch oscillations, although the quantum liquid is translationally
      invariant. Our observations are supported by large-scale numerical simulations.

PMID- 28572388
TI  - Vaginal bacteria modify HIV tenofovir microbicide efficacy in African women.
AB  - Antiretroviral-based strategies for HIV prevention have shown inconsistent
      results in women. We investigated whether vaginal microbiota modulated tenofovir
      gel microbicide efficacy in the CAPRISA (Centre for the AIDS Program of Research
      in South Africa) 004 trial. Two major vaginal bacterial community types-one
      dominated by Lactobacillus (59.2%) and the other where Gardnerella vaginalis
      predominated with other anaerobic bacteria (40.8%)-were identified in 688 women
      profiled. Tenofovir reduced HIV incidence by 61% (P = 0.013) in Lactobacillus
      dominant women but only 18% (P = 0.644) in women with non-Lactobacillus bacteria,
      a threefold difference in efficacy. Detectible mucosal tenofovir was lower in non
      Lactobacillus women, negatively correlating with G. vaginalis and other anaerobic
      bacteria, which depleted tenofovir by metabolism more rapidly than target cells
      convert to pharmacologically active drug. This study provides evidence linking
      vaginal bacteria to microbicide efficacy through tenofovir depletion via
      bacterial metabolism.

PMID- 28572390
TI  - Massive blow-out craters formed by hydrate-controlled methane expulsion from the
      Arctic seafloor.
AB  - Widespread methane release from thawing Arctic gas hydrates is a major concern,
      yet the processes, sources, and fluxes involved remain unconstrained. We present
      geophysical data documenting a cluster of kilometer-wide craters and mounds from
      the Barents Sea floor associated with large-scale methane expulsion. Combined
      with ice sheet/gas hydrate modeling, our results indicate that during glaciation,
      natural gas migrated from underlying hydrocarbon reservoirs and was sequestered
      extensively as subglacial gas hydrates. Upon ice sheet retreat, methane from this
      hydrate reservoir concentrated in massive mounds before being abruptly released
      to form craters. We propose that these processes were likely widespread across
      past glaciated petroleum provinces and that they also provide an analog for the
      potential future destabilization of subglacial gas hydrate reservoirs beneath
      contemporary ice sheets.

PMID- 28572391
TI  - Observation of Anderson localization in disordered nanophotonic structures.
AB  - Anderson localization is an interference effect crucial to the understanding of
      waves in disordered media. However, localization is expected to become negligible
      when the features of the disordered structure are much smaller than the
      wavelength. Here we experimentally demonstrate the localization of light in a
      disordered dielectric multilayer with an average layer thickness of 15
      nanometers, deep into the subwavelength regime. We observe strong disorder
      induced reflections that show that the interplay of localization and evanescence
      can lead to a substantial decrease in transmission, or the opposite feature of
      enhanced transmission. This deep-subwavelength Anderson localization exhibits
      extreme sensitivity: Varying the thickness of a single layer by 2 nanometers
      changes the reflection appreciably. This sensitivity, approaching the atomic
      scale, holds the promise of extreme subwavelength sensing.

PMID- 28572392
TI  - A modular and enantioselective synthesis of the pleuromutilin antibiotics.
AB  - The tricyclic diterpene fungal metabolite (+)-pleuromutilin has served as a
      starting point for antibiotic development. Semisynthetic modification of its
      glycolic acid subunit at C14 provided the first analogs fit for human use, and
      derivatization at C12 led to 12-epi-pleuromutilins with extended-spectrum
      antibacterial activity, including activity against Gram-negative pathogens. Given
      the inherent limitations of semisynthesis, however, accessing derivatives of (+)
      pleuromutilin with full control over their structure presents an opportunity to
      develop derivatives with improved antibacterial activities. Here we disclose a
      modular synthesis of pleuromutilins by the convergent union of an enimide with a
      bifunctional iodoether. We illustrate our approach through synthesis of (+)-12
      epi-mutilin, (+)-11,12-di-epi-mutilin, (+)-12-epi-pleuromutilin, (+)-11,12-di-epi
      pleuromutilin, and (+)-pleuromutilin itself in 17 to 20 steps.

PMID- 28572393
TI  - Structure, force balance, and topology of Earth's magnetopause.
AB  - The magnetopause deflects the solar wind plasma and confines Earth's magnetic
      field. We combine measurements made by the four spacecraft of the Magnetospheric
      Multiscale mission to demonstrate how the plasma and magnetic forces at the
      boundary affect the interaction between the shocked solar wind and Earth's
      magnetosphere. We compare these forces with the plasma pressure and examine the
      electron distribution function. We find that the magnetopause has sublayers with
      thickness comparable to the ion scale. Small pockets of low magnetic field
      strength, small radius of curvature, and high electric current mark the electron
      diffusion region. The flow of electrons, parallel and antiparallel to the
      magnetic field, reveals a complex topology with the creation of magnetic ropes at
      the boundary.

PMID- 28572394
TI  - Locked synchronous rotor motion in a molecular motor.
AB  - Biological molecular motors translate their local directional motion into ordered
      movement of other parts of the system to empower controlled mechanical functions.
      The design of analogous geared systems that couple motion in a directional
      manner, which is pivotal for molecular machinery operating at the nanoscale,
      remains highly challenging. Here, we report a molecular rotary motor that
      translates light-driven unidirectional rotary motion to controlled movement of a
      connected biaryl rotor. Achieving coupled motion of the distinct parts of this
      multicomponent mechanical system required precise control of multiple kinetic
      barriers for isomerization and synchronous motion, resulting in sliding and
      rotation during a full rotary cycle, with the motor always facing the same face
      of the rotor.

PMID- 28572395
TI  - mTORC1 activity repression by late endosomal phosphatidylinositol 3,4
      bisphosphate.
AB  - Nutrient sensing by mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) on
      lysosomes and late endosomes (LyLEs) regulates cell growth. Many factors
      stimulate mTORC1 activity, including the production of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5
      trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P3] by class I phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) at
      the plasma membrane. We investigated mechanisms that repress mTORC1 under
      conditions of growth factor deprivation. We identified phosphatidylinositol 3,4
      bisphosphate [PI(3,4)P2], synthesized by class II PI3K beta (PI3KC2beta) at
      LyLEs, as a negative regulator of mTORC1, whereas loss of PI3KC2beta
      hyperactivated mTORC1. Growth factor deprivation induced the association of
      PI3KC2beta with the Raptor subunit of mTORC1. Local PI(3,4)P2 synthesis triggered
      repression of mTORC1 activity through association of Raptor with inhibitory 14-3
      3 proteins. These results unravel an unexpected function for local PI(3,4)P2
      production in shutting off mTORC1.

PMID- 28572397
TI  - Let's talk about language barriers.

PMID- 28572399
TI  - The treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in UK primary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF)
      are less likely to be treated with anticoagulants than patients with
      persistent/permanent AF and to investigate trends in treatment between 2000 and
      2015. UK and European guidelines recommend that anticoagulants are offered to all
      patients with AF at increased risk of stroke, irrespective of AF type. METHODS:
      Sixteen sequential cross-sectional analyses from 2000 to 2015 were carried out
      with index dates on 1st of May each year. The data source was primary care data
      from 648 practices across the UK contributing to The Health Improvement Network
      database. All patients with a diagnosis of AF aged >=35 years and registered for
      at least 1 year were included. The main outcome measure was prescription of
      anticoagulant medication. RESULTS: The proportion of patients with AF with a
      diagnosis of paroxysmal AF increased from 7.4% (95% CI 7.0 to 7.8) in 2000 to
      14.0% (95% CI 13.7 to 14.3) in 2015. Among patients with a CHADS2 score of >=1,
      between 2000 and 2015 the proportion prescribed anticoagulants increased from
      18.8% (95% CI 16.4 to 21.4) to 56.2% (95% CI 55.0 to 57.3) and from 34.2% (95% CI
      33.3 to 35.0) to 69.4% (95% CI 68.9 to 69.8) in patients with paroxysmal and
      other (persistent/permanent) AF, respectively; RR for treatment of patients with
      paroxysmal AF compared with patients with other AF increased from 0.48 (95% CI
      0.42 to 0.55) to 0.76 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.77). Adjusting for age, sex, Townsend
      score and presence or absence of contraindications had little effect on the
      results. CONCLUSIONS: In 2000, eligible patients with paroxysmal AF were half as
      likely to be treated with anticoagulants as patients with other AF; this has
      improved over time, but in 2015, eligible patients with paroxysmal AF were still
      around 20% less likely to be prescribed anticoagulant medication.

PMID- 28572402
TI  - Deficiency in outer dense fiber 1 is a marker and potential driver of idiopathic
      male infertility.

PMID- 28572401
TI  - ABCB1 gene polymorphism associated with clinical factors can predict drug
      resistant tuberculosis.
AB  - Polymorphism in the ABCB1 gene encoding P-glycoprotein, a transmembrane drug
      efflux pump, contributes to drug resistance and has been widely studied. However,
      their association with rifampicin and ethambutol resistance in tuberculosis (TB)
      patients is still unclear. Genotype/allele/haplotype frequencies in c.1236C > T
      (rs1128503), c.2677G > T/A (rs2032582), and c.3435C > T (rs1045642) were obtained
      from 218 patients. Of these, 80 patients with rifampicin and/or ethambutol
      resistance were selected as the case group and 138 patients were selected for the
      control group through the results of their culture and drug-sensitive tests.
      Patients aged <18 years and HIV-positive serologic tests were excluded. ABCB1
      polymorphisms were determined using a PCR direct-sequencing approach, and
      restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). A nomogram was constructed to
      simulate a combined prediction of the probability of anti-TB drug resistance,
      with factors including genotype c.1236C > T (rs1128503) (P=0.02), clinical form
      (P=0.03), previous treatment (P=0.01), and skin color (P=0.03), contributing up
      to 90% chance of developing anti-TB drug resistance. Considering genotype
      analyses, CT (rs1128503) demonstrated an increased chance of anti-TB drug
      resistance (odds ratio (OR): 2.34, P=0.02), while the analyses for ethambutol
      resistance revealed an association with a rare A allele (rs2032582) (OR: 12.91,
      P=0.01), the haplotype TTC (OR: 5.83, P=0.05), and any haplotype containing the
      rare A allele (OR: 7.17, P=0.04). ABCB1 gene polymorphisms in association with
      others risk factors contribute to anti-TB drug resistance, mainly ethambutol. The
      use of the nomogram described in the present study could contribute to clinical
      decision-making prior to starting TB treatment.

PMID- 28572400
TI  - Hepatocyte growth factor demonstrates racial heterogeneity as a biomarker for
      coronary heart disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a promising biomarker
      of coronary heart disease (CHD) given its release into circulation in response to
      endothelial damage, is associated with subclinical and clinical CHD in a
      racial/ethnic diverse population. METHODS: HGF was measured in 6738 participants
      of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Highest mean HGF values
      (pg/mL) were observed in Hispanic, followed by African, non-Hispanic white, then
      Chinese Americans. RESULTS: In all races/ethnicities, HGF levels were associated
      with older age, higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) and body mass index, lower
      high-density lipoprotein, diabetes and current smoking. In fully adjusted models,
      each SD higher HGF was associated with an average increase in coronary artery
      calcium (CAC) of 55 Agatston units for non-Hispanic whites (p<0.001) and 51
      Agatston units for African-Americans (p=0.007) but was not in the other
      race/ethnic groups (interaction p=0.02). There were 529 incident CHD events, and
      CHD risk was 41% higher in African (p<0.001), 17% in non-Hispanic white (p=0.026)
      and Chinese (p=0.36), and 6% in Hispanic Americans (p=0.56) per SD increase in
      HGF. CONCLUSION: In a large and diverse population-based cohort, we report that
      HGF is associated with subclinical and incident CHD. We demonstrate evidence of
      racial/ethnic heterogeneity within these associations, as the results are most
      compelling in African-Americans and non-Hispanic white Americans. We provide
      evidence that HGF is a biomarker of atherosclerotic disease that is independent
      of traditional risk factors.

PMID- 28572403
TI  - Erratum for Yu et al. Increases in plasma tryptophan are inversely associated
      with incident cardiovascular disease in the Prevencion con Dieta Mediterranea
      (PREDIMED) Study. J Nutr 2017;147:314-22.

PMID- 28572405
TI  - Profile of King-Wai Yau.

PMID- 28572408
TI  - Aligning Scope of Practice with Periodontology Education.

PMID- 28572409
TI  - Change Is Here: ADEA CCI 2.0-A Learning Community for the Advancement of Dental
      Education.
AB  - On May 12, 2005, the inaugural meeting of the American Dental Education
      Association Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI)
      was convened. Comprised of thought leaders representative of dental education and
      practice, the ADEA CCI published groundbreaking white papers that effectively
      helped bring dental education across the threshold of the 21st century. Twelve
      years later, a new ADEA CCI has been convened-ADEA CCI 2.0. The ADEA CCI 2.0 is a
      broad-ranging, strategically interconnected, flexible, and multifarious community
      of stakeholders situated within and across all facets of oral health education
      and practice. Whereas the first iteration of the ADEA CCI made the case for
      change regarding revisions of the dental curriculum and learning environment, the
      ADEA CCI 2.0 will focus on external domains that are having a global impact on
      the content and delivery of health care and health professions education and,
      ultimately, how health care benefits people. The principal work of the ADEA CCI
      2.0 will be to create educational and implementation resources and opportunities
      for dental educators to contemplate, investigate, and ultimately define the
      future needs of their academic dental institutions in this constantly changing
      world.

PMID- 28572407
TI  - Simultaneous analysis of the LFP and spiking activity reveals essential
      components of a visuomotor transformation in the frontal eye field.
AB  - The frontal eye field (FEF) is a key brain region to study visuomotor
      transformations because the primary input to FEF is visual in nature, whereas its
      output reflects the planning of behaviorally relevant saccadic eye movements. In
      this study, we used a memory-guided saccade task to temporally dissociate the
      visual epoch from the saccadic epoch through a delay epoch, and used the local
      field potential (LFP) along with simultaneously recorded spike data to study the
      visuomotor transformation process. We showed that visual latency of the LFP
      preceded spiking activity in the visual epoch, whereas spiking activity preceded
      LFP activity in the saccade epoch. We also found a spatially tuned elevation in
      gamma band activity (30-70 Hz), but not in the corresponding spiking activity,
      only during the delay epoch, whose activity predicted saccade reaction times and
      the cells' saccade tuning. In contrast, beta band activity (13-30 Hz) showed a
      nonspatially selective suppression during the saccade epoch. Taken together,
      these results suggest that motor plans leading to saccades may be generated
      internally within the FEF from local activity represented by gamma activity.

PMID- 28572406
TI  - How an alloreactive T-cell receptor achieves peptide and MHC specificity.
AB  - T-cell receptor (TCR) allorecognition is often presumed to be relatively
      nonspecific, attributable to either a TCR focus on exposed major
      histocompatibility complex (MHC) polymorphisms or the degenerate recognition of
      allopeptides. However, paradoxically, alloreactivity can proceed with high
      peptide and MHC specificity. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear,
      the existence of highly specific alloreactive TCRs has led to their use as
      immunotherapeutics that can circumvent central tolerance and limit graft-versus
      host disease. Here, we show how an alloreactive TCR achieves peptide and MHC
      specificity. The HCV1406 TCR was cloned from T cells that expanded when a
      hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected HLA-A2- individual received an HLA-A2+ liver
      allograft. HCV1406 was subsequently shown to recognize the HCV nonstructural
      protein 3 (NS3):1406-1415 epitope with high specificity when presented by HLA-A2.
      We show that NS3/HLA-A2 recognition by the HCV1406 TCR is critically dependent on
      features unique to both the allo-MHC and the NS3 epitope. We also find
      cooperativity between structural mimicry and a crucial peptide "hot spot" and
      demonstrate its role, along with the MHC, in directing the specificity of
      allorecognition. Our results help explain the paradox of specificity in
      alloreactive TCRs and have implications for their use in immunotherapy and
      related efforts to manipulate TCR recognition, as well as alloreactivity in
      general.

PMID- 28572410
TI  - An Innovative, Comprehensive Faculty Recruitment and Development Program at One
      U.S. Dental School: Early Results.
AB  - Dental faculty recruitment and development are critical to replenish and
      cultivate sufficient and adequately prepared educators to educate future
      generations of dentists. At Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, the From Practice
      to Preceptor (FP2P) program, now in the last of its five years of funding from
      the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has an overall aim
      of recruiting, training, and retaining a diverse and well-prepared dental faculty
      workforce. The FP2P program introduced novel methods for recruiting and preparing
      new faculty members since its goal is to help participants transition from being
      practicing dentists to becoming part- or full-time faculty members. The
      recruitment and selection process has emphasized reaching community practitioners
      in general or pediatric dentistry, individuals from underrepresented groups, and
      those with a passion for teaching. The two-year program with weekly meetings was
      designed to develop participants' skills to meet the teaching, clinical, and
      administrative roles of dental faculty. The aims of this study were to determine
      if the program recruitment methods used would result in participants who were
      more ethnically and racially diverse than the school's current faculty and to
      determine if, after training, participants perceived they had increased
      knowledge, skills, and abilities in specified areas as compared to before
      training. Participants completed pre- and post-program surveys assessing their
      perceived level of preparedness in critical competencies for dental faculty.
      Surveys were completed by 94% of participants in cohorts one through four; 75%
      (n=15) of cohorts two and three completed both the pre- and post-program surveys,
      which were used for this analysis. Over 30% of the 35 participants to date were
      from an underrepresented group. Survey results suggest the participants increased
      their perceived preparedness in administrative, clinical, and educational
      competencies. Follow-up is needed to ascertain how many go on to become dental
      educators and whether they are better prepared to succeed as new faculty compared
      to nonparticipants.

PMID- 28572411
TI  - New Clinical Faculty Training Program: Transforming Practicing Dentists into Part
      Time Dental Faculty Members.
AB  - At Indiana University School of Dentistry, a New Clinical Faculty Training (NCFT)
      program was created with the primary goals of informing new part-time faculty
      members of clinical policies and assessment guidelines and thus developing
      qualified and satisfied faculty members. The aim of this study was to determine
      if participation in the training program improved the participants' satisfaction
      and competence in comparison to their colleagues who did not participate in the
      program. Two cohorts were compared: a control group of part-time faculty members
      who did not receive formal training when they were hired (n=21; response rate
      58.3%); and the intervention group, who had participated in the NCFT program
      (n=12; response rate 80%). A survey of faculty members in the control group
      gathered information on their experiences when initially hired, and a pretest was
      administered to measure their knowledge of clinical policies. After the control
      group was given an overview of the program, their feedback was collected through
      post surveys, and a posttest identical to the pretest was given that found
      statistically significant increases on questions one (p=0.003) and four
      (p=0.025). In February 2014, 15 new faculty members participated in the pilot
      implementation of the NCFT program. Of those 15, 12 (the intervention group)
      completed follow-up surveys identical to the pre survey used with the control
      group. Statistically significant differences were found for the factors clinical
      teaching (p=0.005) and assessment training (p=0.008) with better responses for
      the NCFT group. These results suggest that participation in the program was
      associated with improved clinical teaching knowledge and job satisfaction.

PMID- 28572412
TI  - The Effect of Calibration on Caries Risk Assessment Performance by Students and
      Clinical Faculty.
AB  - Caries management requires a complete oral examination and an accurate caries
      risk assessment (CRA). Performing Caries Management by Risk Assessment (CAMBRA)
      is inefficient when the caries risk level assignment is incorrect. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the ability of faculty members and students at one
      U.S. dental school to correctly assign caries risk levels for 22 CRA cases,
      followed by calibration with guidelines on how to use the CRA form and a post
      calibration test two months after calibration. Inter-examiner reliability to a
      gold standard (consensus of three experts) was assessed as poor, fair, moderate,
      good, and very good. Of the 162 students and 125 faculty members invited to
      participate, 13 students and 20 faculty members returned pre-calibration tests,
      for response rates of 8% and 16%, respectively. On the post-calibration test,
      eight students and 13 faculty members participated for response rates of 5% and
      10%, respectively. Without guidelines and calibration, both faculty members and
      students when evaluated as one group performed only poor to fair in assigning
      correct caries risk levels. After calibration, levels improved to good and very
      good agreements with the gold standard. When faculty and students were evaluated
      separately, in the pre-calibration test they correctly assigned the caries risk
      level on average in only one-quarter of the cases (students 24.1%+/-13.3%;
      faculty 23.6%+/-17.5%). After calibration, both groups significantly improved
      their correct assignment rate. Faculty members (73.8% correct assignments) showed
      even significantly higher correct assignment rates than students (47.7% correct
      assignments). These findings suggest that calibration with a specific set of
      guidelines improved CRA outcomes for both the faculty members and students.
      Improved guidelines on how to use a CRA form should lead to improved caries risk
      assessment and proper treatment strategy for patients.

PMID- 28572413
TI  - Impact of Faculty Development Workshops in Student-Centered Teaching
      Methodologies on Faculty Members' Teaching and Their Students' Perceptions.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess, after one year, the impact of faculty
      development in teaching and learning skills focused on a learner-centered
      approach on faculty members' perceptions of and approaches to teaching and on
      their students' learning experiences and approaches. Before training (2014), all
      176 faculty members at a dental school in Chile were invited to complete the
      Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) to assess their teaching approaches
      (student- vs. teacher-focused). In 2015, all 496 students were invited to
      complete the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to assess their learning
      approaches (deep or surface) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) to
      measure their teaching quality perceptions. Subsequently, faculty development
      workshops on student-centered teaching methodologies were delivered, followed by
      peer observation. In March 2016, all 176 faculty members and 491 students were
      invited to complete a second ATI (faculty) and R-SPQ-2 and CEQ (students). Before
      (2014) and after (2016) the training, 114 (65%) and 116 (66%) faculty members
      completed the ATI, respectively, and 89 (49%) of the then-181 faculty members
      completed the perceptions of skills development questionnaire in September 2016.
      In 2015, 373 students (75%) completed the R-SPQ-2F and CEQ; 412 (83%) completed
      both questionnaires in 2016. In 2014, the faculty results showed that student
      focused teaching was significantly higher in preclinical and clinical courses
      than in the basic sciences. In 2016, teacher-focused teaching fell significantly;
      basic science teaching improved the most. Students in both the 2015 and 2016
      cohorts had lower mean scores for deep learning approaches from year 1 on, while
      they increased their scores for surface learning. The students' perceptions of
      faculty members' good teaching, appropriate assessment, clear goals, and e
      learning improved significantly, but perception of appropriate workload did not.
      Teaching and learning skills development produced significant gains in student
      centered teaching for these faculty members and in some students' perceptions of
      teaching quality. However, student workload needs to be considered to support
      deep learning.

PMID- 28572414
TI  - Is the Advanced Dental Admission Test (ADAT) the Metric Needed to Assist with
      Postgraduate Admissions? Two Viewpoints: Viewpoint 1: The ADAT Provides a Viable
      Solution to Help Postgraduate Programs Differentiate Applicants and Viewpoint 2:
      The ADAT Has Questionable Utility and Value for Postgraduate Admissions.
AB  - In 2012, when the National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) was changed from a
      numerical scoring system to pass/fail, advanced dental education programs lost a
      metric widely used for differentiating applicants to those programs. The American
      Dental Association (ADA) has developed the Advanced Dental Admission Test (ADAT)
      to address this issue. Implementation of the ADAT began in 2016 with a pilot
      program, which has not yet been widely accepted in the overall admissions
      process. This Point/Counterpoint explores the benefits and challenges of using
      the ADAT for postgraduate admissions. Viewpoint 1 supports use of the ADAT,
      arguing that the test provides a viable, long-term solution to this immediate
      need. In contrast, Viewpoint 2 questions the need for and appropriateness of this
      additional academic measure for postgraduate admissions.

PMID- 28572415
TI  - Factors Influencing Dental Students' Interest in Advanced Periodontal Education:
      Perspectives of Department Chairs.
AB  - The number of graduates of U.S. dental schools enrolled in U.S. postdoctoral
      programs in periodontics has been decreasing. The aims of this study were to
      determine the perspectives of periodontics department chairs regarding 1)
      features of a school's predoctoral curriculum that promote student interest in
      advanced periodontal education and 2) characteristics of a periodontal residency
      program that make it more attractive to dental students over other specialty
      programs. In 2015, a 14-question survey was designed and sent to chairs of
      periodontics departments at all 65 U.S. dental schools at the time. Questions
      addressed number of instructional hours; specialty clinic rotations; elective
      courses; number of applicants to periodontal residency; existence of a residency
      program; length of the residency program; and externships, fellowships, and
      financial stipends offered. The survey response rate was 73.8%. The results
      showed that departments offering more than seven clinical credit hours in
      periodontics to predoctoral students had the greatest number of residency
      applicants. Most of the applicants were from institutions that offered specialty
      clinic rotations, elective courses, and residency programs in periodontics. The
      number of applicants did not change significantly if a stipend or fellowship was
      offered. However, the availability of an externship was significantly associated
      with a greater number of applicants (p=0.042). These results suggest that
      offering periodontal clinical rotations, elective courses, and especially
      externships in periodontics during predoctoral education may encourage more
      graduating students to pursue postdoctoral periodontal education.

PMID- 28572417
TI  - Going Global: Toward Competency-Based Best Practices for Global Health in Dental
      Education.
AB  - The Global Oral Health Interest Group of the Consortium of Universities for
      Global Health (GOHIG-CUGH) published recommended competencies to support
      development of competency-based global health education in dental schools.
      However, there has been no comprehensive, systematically derived, or broadly
      accepted framework for creating and delivering competency-based global health
      education to dental students. This article describes the results of a
      collaborative workshop held at the 2016 American Dental Education Association
      (ADEA) Annual Session & Exhibition designed to build on the GOHIG-CUGH
      competencies and start to develop systematic approaches for their practical
      application. Workshop organizers developed a preliminary theoretical framework
      for guiding the development of global health in dental education, grounded in
      published research. Collectively, workshop participants developed detailed
      outcomes for the theoretical framework with a focus on three educational
      practices: didactic, experiential, and research learning and how each can meet
      the competencies. Participants discussed learning objectives, keys to
      implementation, ethical considerations, challenges, and examples of success.
      Outcomes demonstrated that no educational practice on its own meets all 33
      recommended competencies for dental students; however, the three educational
      practices combined may potentially cover all 33. Participants emphasized the
      significance of sustainable approaches to student learning for both students and
      communities, with identified partners in the communities to collaborate on the
      development, implementation, evaluation, and long-term maintenance of any student
      global health activity. These findings may represent early steps toward
      professional consensus and best practices for global health in dental education
      in the United States.

PMID- 28572416
TI  - Graduate Periodontics Programs' Integration of Implant Provisionalization in Core
      Curricula: Implementation of CODA Standard 4-10.2.d.
AB  - The aim of this descriptive study was to provide an overview of the status of
      implementation of Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) Standard 4-10.2.d
      (Provisionalization of Dental Implants) by U.S. graduate periodontics programs
      since its introduction in 2013. Surveys were sent in May 2015 to 56 accredited
      postdoctoral periodontics program directors to ascertain program director
      characteristics; status of planning, implementation, and curriculum resulting
      from adoption of Standard 4-10.2.d; preferred clinical protocols for implant
      provisionalization; interdisciplinary educational collaborators; and competency
      assessment mechanisms. The survey response rate was 52% (N=29); the majority were
      male, aged 55 or older, and had held their position for less than ten years.
      Among the responding programs, 93% had formal educational curricula established
      in implant provisionalization. Graduate periodontics (96%) and prosthodontics
      (63%) faculty members were predominantly involved with curriculum planning. Of
      these programs, 96% used immediate implant provisionalization, with direct
      (chairside) provisionalization protocols (86%) being preferred over indirect
      protocols (14%) and polyethylethylketone provisional abutments (75%) being
      preferred to titanium (25%) provisional abutments. Straight and concave
      transmucosal emergence profile designs (46% each) were preferred in teaching,
      with only 8% of programs favoring convex transmucosal profiles. A majority of
      responding programs (67%) lacked protocols for communicating to the restorative
      referral a mechanism to duplicate the mature peri-implant mucosal architecture.
      Regional location did not play a significant role in any educational component
      related to implant provisionalization for these graduate periodontal programs.
      Overall, this study found that a clear majority of graduate periodontics programs
      had established formal curricula related to implant provisionalization, with
      substantial clinical and philosophical consensus within the specialty.

PMID- 28572418
TI  - Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an Oral Health e-Curriculum for Secondary
      Prevention of Eating Disorders.
AB  - Preventing oral-systemic health issues relies on evidence-based interventions
      across various system-level target groups. Although the use of theory- and
      evidence-based approaches has been encouraged in developing oral health behavior
      change programs, the translation of theoretical constructs and principles to
      behavior change interventions has not been well described. Based on a series of
      six systematic steps, Intervention Mapping provides a framework for effective
      decision making with regard to developing, implementing, and evaluating theory-
      and evidence-informed, system-based behavior change programs. This article
      describes the application of the Intervention Mapping framework to develop the
      EAT (evaluating, assessing, and treating) evidence-based intervention with the
      goal of increasing the capacity of oral health providers to engage in secondary
      prevention of oral-systemic issues associated with disordered eating behaviors.
      Examples of data and deliverables for each step are described. In addition,
      results from evaluation of the intervention via randomized control trial are
      described, with statistically significant differences observed in behavioral
      outcomes in the intervention group with effect sizes ranging from r=0.62 to 0.83.
      These results suggest that intervention mapping, via the six systematic steps,
      can be useful as a framework for continued development of preventive
      interventions.

PMID- 28572419
TI  - Using Assessments of Dental Students' Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy to Aid
      Practice Management Education.
AB  - In the past, the typical practice management curriculum in U.S. dental schools
      was found to place a heavy emphasis on customer service, whereas areas typically
      stressed in business entrepreneurship and management courses (e.g., long-range
      planning, competing strategies, and supplier relationship) received less
      attention. However, future dentists will likely have many points in their careers
      at which they must decide whether to begin a new business or to associate with a
      practice, and entrepreneurial and management training can help them make and
      implement those decisions. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate
      the impact of one dental school's practice management education on students'
      entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), a construct examined for the first time in
      dental education. ESE is an individual's belief that he or she is personally
      capable of planning for, operating, and managing a successful business. In
      December 2014, all students in all four classes were asked to complete a survey
      measuring their ESE. The response rates for each class were D1 94%, D2 91%, D3
      87%, and D4 79%. The results showed that the mean scores of the fourth-year class
      were higher on all five examined dimensions than those of the other three
      classes. The same was true for the mean for each class with the exception of the
      competency regarding an individual's perception of his or her abilities to deploy
      and manage human resources, in which the first-year class had a higher score than
      the fourth-year class (149.07>146.06). The fourth-year class had statistically
      significant higher scores than the third-year class, consistent with the
      implementation of practice management courses in the curriculum.

PMID- 28572420
TI  - Partial Ceramic Crowns Prepared by Dental Students: Clinical Performance Up to
      Five Years.
AB  - Partial ceramic crowns (PCCs) are an accepted treatment option for the
      restoration of posterior teeth with deficient tooth substance. Data on the
      survival of PCCs fabricated by dental students are scarce. The aim of this
      retrospective clinical study was to investigate the clinical performance and
      longevity of PCCs placed by dental students in the last year of their training
      program at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Eighty-eight patients who had
      received at least one PCC (n=108) in the program were considered for clinical
      assessment; their records were analyzed to detect previous complications or
      failures; and they were contacted by telephone. Criteria regarding aesthetic,
      functional, and biological aspects were rated with a scoring system from
      1=clinically excellent to 5=clinically poor. The response rate was 66.3% (55 of
      83 included patients), and 72.2% (n=78) of the PCCs were included in the
      analysis. Five PCCs had been lost within ten to 78 months after treatment. Six
      PCCs were recorded as failures (score 5), and ten received clinically
      unsatisfactory gradings (score 4). The risk of a clinically poor outcome was 14%
      after five years (86% survival), while the overall success rate was 63.5%. These
      results suggest that the clinical procedure of PCCs was successfully implemented
      by these students with satisfactory clinical survival.

PMID- 28572421
TI  - Do Dental Students' Personality Types and Group Dynamics Affect Their Performance
      in Problem-Based Learning?
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine whether the personality types of dental
      students and their group dynamics were linked to their problem-based learning
      (PBL) performance. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument was used
      with 263 dental students enrolled in Seoul National University School of
      Dentistry from 2011 to 2013; the students had participated in PBL in their first
      year. A four-session PBL setting was designed to analyze how individual
      personality types and the diversity of their small groups were associated with
      PBL performance. Overall, the results showed that the personality type of PBL
      performance that was the most prominent was Judging. As a group became more
      diverse with its different constituent personality characteristics, there was a
      tendency for the group to be higher ranked in terms of PBL performance. In
      particular, the overperforming group was clustered around three major profiles:
      Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Judging (ENTJ), Introverted Sensing Thinking
      Judging (ISTJ), and Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging (ESTJ). Personality
      analysis would be beneficial for dental faculty members in order for them to
      understand the extent to which cooperative learning would work smoothly,
      especially when considering group personalities.

PMID- 28572424
TI  - Expression of Concern: Chromosomal breaks during mitotic catastrophe trigger
      gammaH2AX-ATM-p53-mediated apoptosis. Gabriela Imreh, Helin Vakifahmetoglu
      Norberg, Stefan Imreh, Boris Zhivotovsky. J. Cell Sci. doi: 10.1242/jcs.081612.

PMID- 28572422
TI  - Teaching Dental Students to Understand the Temporomandibular Joint Using MRI:
      Comparison of Conventional and Digital Learning Methods.
AB  - The aims of this study were to evaluate and compare the performance of dental
      students in interpreting the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) with magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) scans using two learning methods (conventional and
      digital interactive learning) and to examine the usability of the digital
      learning object (DLO). The DLO consisted of tutorials about MRI and anatomic and
      functional aspects of the TMJ. In 2014, dental students in their final year of
      study who were enrolled in the elective "MRI Interpretation of the TMJ" course
      comprised the study sample. After exclusions for nonattendance and other reasons,
      29 of the initial 37 students participated in the study, for a participation rate
      of 78%. The participants were divided into two groups: a digital interactive
      learning group (n=14) and a conventional learning group (n=15). Both methods were
      assessed by an objective test applied before and after training and classes.
      Aspects such as support and training requirements, complexity, and consistency of
      the DLO were also evaluated using the System Usability Scale (SUS). A significant
      between-group difference in the posttest results was found, with the conventional
      learning group scoring better than the DLO group, indicated by mean scores of
      9.20 and 8.11, respectively, out of 10. However, when the pretest and posttest
      results were compared, both groups showed significantly improved performance. The
      SUS score was 89, which represented a high acceptance of the DLO by the users.
      The students who used the conventional method of learning showed superior
      performance in interpreting the TMJ using MRI compared to the group that used
      digital interactive learning.

PMID- 28572429
TI  - An architect for mental health: an appreciation of Michele Tansella.
AB  - Michele Tansella, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Verona, died in
      2015. This editorial pays tribute to his contributions to scholarship in the
      field of psychiatric epidemiology and health service research, and to his highly
      effective efforts to improve mental healthcare, locally, nationally and
      internationally.

PMID- 28572430
TI  - Suicide is a complex problem that requires a range of prevention initiatives and
      methods of evaluation.
AB  - A range of factors can contribute to suicide, which means that a multifactorial
      approach to suicide prevention is necessary. Whereas randomised controlled trials
      may be suitable for evaluation of some interventions, others require different
      approaches for assessment of their impact. Also, suicide itself will not always
      be the most feasible outcome measure.

PMID- 28572432
TI  - Predictive properties of risk assessment instruments following self-harm.
AB  - This month's BJPsych publishes two important studies concerned with the use of
      risk assessment scales after self-harm, one a systematic review and the other a
      multicentre cohort study. We agree with the authors: that each study adds weight
      to the existing evidence that points towards avoiding the use of such scales in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28572435
TI  - Poor uptake of depression care in cardiology.

PMID- 28572436
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28572438
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28572437
TI  - Communication skills training for psychiatrists.

PMID- 28572444
TI  - Protein malnutrition blunts the increment of taurine transporter expression by a
      high-fat diet and impairs taurine reestablishment of insulin secretion.
AB  - Taurine (Tau) restores beta-cell function in obesity; however, its action is lost
      in malnourished obese rodents. Here, we investigated the mechanisms involved in
      the lack of effects of Tau in this model. C57BL/6 mice were fed a control diet
      (CD) (14% protein) or a protein-restricted diet (RD) (6% protein) for 6 wk.
      Afterward, mice received a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 wk [CD + HFD (CH) and RD +
      HFD (RH)] with or without 5% Tau supplementation after weaning on their drinking
      water [CH + Tau (CHT) and RH + Tau (RHT)]. The HFD increased insulin secretion
      through mitochondrial metabolism in CH and RH. Tau prevented all those
      alterations in CHT only. The expression of the taurine transporter (Tau-T), as
      well as Tau content in pancreatic islets, was increased in CH but had no effect
      on RH. Protein malnutrition programs beta cells and impairs Tau-induced
      restoration of mitochondrial metabolism and biogenesis. This may be associated
      with modulation of the expression of Tau-T in pancreatic islets, which may be
      responsible for the absence of effect of Tau in protein-malnourished obese mice.
      Branco, R. C. S., Camargo, R. L., Batista, T. M., Vettorazzi, J. F., Borck, P.
      C., dos Santos-Silva, J. C. R., Boschero, A. C., Zoppi, C. C., Carneiro, E. M.
      Protein malnutrition blunts the increment of taurine transporter expression by a
      high-fat diet and impairs taurine reestablishment of insulin secretion.

PMID- 28572443
TI  - Prostaglandin E receptor-4 receptor mediates endothelial barrier-enhancing and
      anti-inflammatory effects of oxidized phospholipids.
AB  - Unlike other agonists that cause transient endothelial cell (EC) response, the
      products of 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (PAPC)
      oxidation that contain cyclopenthenone groups, which recapitulate prostaglandin
      like structure, cause sustained enhancement of the pulmonary EC barrier. The
      mechanisms that drive the sustained effects by oxidized PAPC (OxPAPC) remain
      unexplored. On the basis of the structural similarity of isoprostanoid moieties
      that are present in full-length oxygenated PAPC species, we used an inhibitory
      approach to perform the screening of prostanoid receptors as potential candidates
      that mediate OxPAPC effects. Results show that only prostaglandin E receptor-4
      (EP4) was involved and mediated the sustained phase of the barrier-enhancing
      effects of OxPAPC that are associated with the activation of Rac GTPase and its
      cytoskeletal targets. EC incubation with OxPAPC also induced EP4 mRNA expression
      in pulmonary ECs and lung tissue. EP4 knockdown using gene-specific small
      interfering RNA did not affect the rapid phase of OxPAPC-induced EC barrier
      enhancement or the protective effects against thrombin-induced EC permeability,
      but abolished the advanced barrier enhancement phase and suppressed the
      protective effects of OxPAPC against more sustained EC barrier dysfunction and
      cell inflammatory response caused by TNF-alpha. Endothelial-specific knockout of
      the EP4 receptor in mice attenuated the protective effect of intravenous OxPAPC
      administration in the model of acute lung injury caused by intratracheal
      injection of LPS. Taken together, these results demonstrate a novel role for
      prostaglandin receptor EP4 in the mediation of barrier-enhancing and anti
      inflammatory effects caused by oxidized phospholipids.-Oskolkova, O., Gawlak, G.,
      Tian, Y., Ke, Y., Sarich, N., Son, S., Andreasson, K., Bochkov, V. N., Birukova,
      A. A., Birukov, K. G. Prostaglandin E receptor-4 receptor mediates endothelial
      barrier-enhancing and anti-inflammatory effects of oxidized phospholipids.

PMID- 28572445
TI  - Complement-induced activation of MAPKs and Akt during sepsis: role in cardiac
      dysfunction.
AB  - Polymicrobial sepsis in mice causes myocardial dysfunction after generation of
      the complement anaphylatoxin, complement component 5a (C5a). C5a interacts with
      its receptors on cardiomyocytes (CMs), resulting in redox imbalance and cardiac
      dysfunction that can be functionally measured and quantitated using Doppler
      echocardiography. In this report we have evaluated activation of MAPKs and Akt in
      CMs exposed to C5a in vitro and after cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) in vivo
      In both cases, C5a in vitro caused activation (phosphorylation) of MAPKs and Akt
      in CMs, which required availability of both C5a receptors. Using
      immunofluorescence technology, activation of MAPKs and Akt occurred in left
      ventricular (LV) CMs, requiring both C5a receptors, C5aR1 and -2. Use of a water
      soluble p38 inhibitor curtailed activation in vivo of MAPKs and Akt in LV CMs as
      well as the appearance of cytokines and histones in plasma from CLP mice. When
      mouse macrophages were exposed in vitro to LPS, activation of MAPKs and Akt also
      occurred. The copresence of the p38 inhibitor blocked these activation responses.
      Finally, the presence of the p38 inhibitor in CLP mice reduced the development of
      cardiac dysfunction. These data suggest that polymicrobial sepsis causes cardiac
      dysfunction that appears to be linked to activation of MAPKs and Akt in heart.
      Fattahi, F., Kalbitz, M., Malan, E. A., Abe, E., Jajou, L., Huber-Lang, M. S.,
      Bosmann, M., Russell, M. W., Zetoune, F. S., Ward, P. A. Complement-induced
      activation of MAPKs and Akt during sepsis: role in cardiac dysfunction.

PMID- 28572447
TI  - Eleanor Joan Carmichael.

PMID- 28572446
TI  - Histone deacetylase 1 activates PU.1 gene transcription through regulating TAF9
      deacetylation and transcription factor IID assembly.
AB  - Histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important
      epigenetic coregulators. It has been thought that HDACs associate with
      corepressor complexes and repress gene transcription; however, in this study, we
      have found that PU.1-a key master regulator for hematopoietic self-renewal and
      lineage specification-requires HDAC activity for gene activation. Deregulated
      PU.1 gene expression is linked to dysregulated hematopoiesis and the development
      of leukemia. In this study, we used erythroid differentiation as a model to
      analyze how the PU.1 gene is regulated. We found that active HDAC1 is directly
      recruited to active PU.1 promoter in progenitor cells, whereas acetylated HDAC1,
      which is inactive, is on the silenced PU.1 promoter in differentiated erythroid
      cells. We then studied the mechanism of HDAC1-mediated activation. We discovered
      that HDAC1 activates PU.1 gene transcription via deacetylation of TATA-binding
      protein-associated factor 9 (TAF9), a component in the transcription factor IID
      (TFIID) complex. Treatment with HDAC inhibitor results in an increase in TAF9
      acetylation. Acetylated TAF9 does not bind to the PU.1 gene promoter and
      subsequently leads to the disassociation of the TFIID complex and transcription
      repression. Thus, these results demonstrate a key role for HDAC1 in PU.1 gene
      transcription and, more importantly, uncover a novel mechanism of TFIID
      recruitment and gene activation.-Jian, W., Yan, B., Huang, S., Qiu, Y. Histone
      deacetylase 1 activates PU.1 gene transcription through regulating TAF9
      deacetylation and transcription factor IID assembly.

PMID- 28572449
TI  - The future is in our hands.

PMID- 28572450
TI  - An Unrestricted Restriction Endeavor.

PMID- 28572448
TI  - Structural and functional dissection of the interplay between lipid and Notch
      binding by human Notch ligands.
AB  - Recent data have expanded our understanding of Notch signalling by identifying a
      C2 domain at the N-terminus of Notch ligands, which has both lipid- and receptor
      binding properties. We present novel structures of human ligands Jagged2 and
      Delta-like4 and human Notch2, together with functional assays, which suggest that
      ligand-mediated coupling of membrane recognition and Notch binding is likely to
      be critical in establishing the optimal context for Notch signalling. Comparisons
      between the Jagged and Delta family show a huge diversity in the structures of
      the loops at the apex of the C2 domain implicated in membrane recognition and
      Jagged1 missense mutations, which affect these loops and are associated with
      extrahepatic biliary atresia, lead to a loss of membrane recognition, but do not
      alter Notch binding. Taken together, these data suggest that C2 domain binding to
      membranes is an important element in tuning ligand-dependent Notch signalling in
      different physiological contexts.

PMID- 28572452
TI  - Turning the tide of high-dose inhaled corticosteroids.

PMID- 28572453
TI  - Nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance with chemical resolution.
AB  - Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a key analytical technique in
      chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, conventional NMR spectroscopy requires
      an at least nanoliter-sized sample volume to achieve sufficient signal. We
      combined the use of a quantum memory and high magnetic fields with a dedicated
      quantum sensor based on nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond to achieve chemical
      shift resolution in 1H and 19F NMR spectroscopy of 20-zeptoliter sample volumes.
      We demonstrate the application of NMR pulse sequences to achieve homonuclear
      decoupling and spin diffusion measurements. The best measured NMR linewidth of a
      liquid sample was ~1 part per million, mainly limited by molecular diffusion. To
      mitigate the influence of diffusion, we performed high-resolution solid-state NMR
      by applying homonuclear decoupling and achieved a 20-fold narrowing of the NMR
      linewidth.

PMID- 28572455
TI  - miR-183 cluster scales mechanical pain sensitivity by regulating basal and
      neuropathic pain genes.
AB  - Nociception is protective and prevents tissue damage but can also facilitate
      chronic pain. Whether a general principle governs these two types of pain is
      unknown. Here, we show that both basal mechanical and neuropathic pain are
      controlled by the microRNA-183 (miR-183) cluster in mice. This single cluster
      controls more than 80% of neuropathic pain-regulated genes and scales basal
      mechanical sensitivity and mechanical allodynia by regulating auxiliary voltage
      gated calcium channel subunits alpha2delta-1 and alpha2delta-2. Basal sensitivity
      is controlled in nociceptors, and allodynia involves TrkB+ light-touch
      mechanoreceptors. These light-touch-sensitive neurons, which normally do not
      elicit pain, produce pain during neuropathy that is reversed by gabapentin. Thus,
      a single microRNA cluster continuously scales acute noxious mechanical
      sensitivity in nociceptive neurons and suppresses neuropathic pain transduction
      in a specific, light-touch-sensitive neuronal type recruited during mechanical
      allodynia.

PMID- 28572456
TI  - Intracellular Motility of Intermediate Filaments.
AB  - SUMMARYThe establishment and continuous cell type-specific adaptation of
      cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) networks are linked to various types of IF
      motility. Motor protein-driven active transport, linkage to other cellular
      structures, diffusion of small soluble subunits, and intrinsic network elasticity
      all contribute to the motile behavior of IFs. These processes are subject to
      regulation by multiple signaling pathways. IF motility is thereby connected to
      and involved in many basic cellular processes guarding the maintenance of cell
      and tissue integrity. Disturbances of IF motility are linked to diseases that are
      characterized by cytoplasmic aggregates containing IF proteins together with
      other cellular components.

PMID- 28572454
TI  - Neurodevelopmental protein Musashi-1 interacts with the Zika genome and promotes
      viral replication.
AB  - A recent outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil has led to a simultaneous increase in
      reports of neonatal microcephaly. Zika targets cerebral neural precursors, a cell
      population essential for cortical development, but the cause of this neurotropism
      remains obscure. Here we report that the neural RNA-binding protein Musashi-1
      (MSI1) interacts with the Zika genome and enables viral replication. Zika
      infection disrupts the binding of MSI1 to its endogenous targets, thereby
      deregulating expression of factors implicated in neural stem cell function. We
      further show that MSI1 is highly expressed in neural progenitors of the human
      embryonic brain and is mutated in individuals with autosomal recessive primary
      microcephaly. Selective MSI1 expression in neural precursors could therefore
      explain the exceptional vulnerability of these cells to Zika infection.

PMID- 28572457
TI  - A Central Role for Triacylglycerol in Membrane Lipid Breakdown, Fatty Acid beta
      Oxidation, and Plant Survival under Extended Darkness.
AB  - Neutral lipid metabolism is a key aspect of intracellular homeostasis and energy
      balance and plays a vital role in cell survival under adverse conditions,
      including nutrient deprivation in yeast and mammals, but the role of
      triacylglycerol (TAG) metabolism in plant stress response remains largely
      unknown. By thoroughly characterizing mutants defective in SUGAR-DEPENDENT1
      (SDP1) triacylglycerol lipase or PEROXISOMAL ABC TRANSPORTER 1 (PXA1), here we
      show that TAG is a key intermediate in the mobilization of fatty acids from
      membrane lipids for peroxisomal beta-oxidation under prolonged dark treatment.
      Disruption of SDP1 increased TAG accumulation in cytosolic lipid droplets and
      markedly enhanced plant tolerance to extended darkness. We demonstrate that
      blocking TAG hydrolysis enhances plant tolerance to dark treatment via two
      distinct mechanisms. In pxa1 mutants, in which free fatty acids accumulated
      rapidly under extended darkness, SDP1 disruption resulted in a marked decrease in
      levels of cytotoxic lipid intermediates such as free fatty acids and phosphatidic
      acid, suggesting a buffer function of TAG accumulation against lipotoxicity under
      fatty acid overload. In the wild type, in which free fatty acids remained low and
      unchanged under dark treatment, disruption of SDP1 caused a decrease in reactive
      oxygen species production and hence the level of lipid peroxidation, indicating a
      role of TAG in protection against oxidative damage. Overall, our findings reveal
      a crucial role for TAG metabolism in membrane lipid breakdown, fatty acid
      turnover, and plant survival under extended darkness.

PMID- 28572460
TI  - Capecitabine Extends Survival for Biliary Tract Cancer.
AB  - Based on results of the phase III BILCAP study, adjuvant capecitabine should
      become standard treatment for patients with biliary tract cancer. Among 430
      patients who were treated according to the study protocol, capecitabine was
      associated with a 25% lower risk of death than observation.

PMID- 28572458
TI  - The DnaJ-Like Zinc-Finger Protein HCF222 Is Required for Thylakoid Membrane
      Biogenesis in Plants.
AB  - To understand the biogenesis of the thylakoid membrane in higher plants and to
      identify auxiliary proteins required to build up this highly complex membrane
      system, we have characterized the allelic nuclear mutants high chlorophyll
      fluorescence222-1 (hcf222-1) and hcf222-2 and isolated the causal gene by map
      based cloning. In the ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutant hcf222-1, the
      accumulation of the cytochrome b6f (Cytb6f) complex was reduced to 30% compared
      with the wild type. Other thylakoid membrane complexes accumulated to normal
      levels. The T-DNA knockout mutant hcf222-2 showed a more severe defect with
      respect to thylakoid membrane proteins and accumulated only 10% of the Cytb6f
      complex, accompanied by a reduction in photosystem II, the photosystem II light
      harvesting complex, and photosystem I. HCF222 encodes a protein of 99 amino acids
      in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) that has similarities to the cysteine-rich
      zinc-binding domain of DnaJ chaperones. The insulin precipitation assay
      demonstrated that HCF222 has disulfide reductase activity in vitro. The protein
      is conserved in higher plants and bryophytes but absent in algae and
      cyanobacteria. Confocal fluorescence microscopy showed that a fraction of HCF222
      green fluorescent protein was detectable in the endoplasmic reticulum but that it
      also could be recognized in chloroplasts. A fusion construct of HCF222 containing
      a plastid transit peptide targets the protein into chloroplasts and was able to
      complement the mutational defect. These findings indicate that the chloroplast
      targeted HCF222 is indispensable for the maturation and/or assembly of the Cytb6f
      complex and is very likely involved in thiol-disulfide biochemistry at the
      thylakoid membrane.

PMID- 28572461
TI  - The Effects of 5-year Etanercept Therapy on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in
      Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of etanercept (ETN) on lipid metabolism and
      other known cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in patients with psoriatic
      arthritis (PsA). METHODS: In an observational cohort of 118 consecutive patients
      with PsA, CVD risk factors were assessed over 5 years. Mixed-model analyses were
      performed to investigate the effects of ETN therapy on CVD risk factors over
      time. RESULTS: Disease Activity Score in 28 joints, C-reactive protein (CRP), and
      erythrocyte sedimentation rate decreased during therapy with ETN. There was an
      increase in total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc),
      and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The TC/HDLc ratio remained unaltered.
      The apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A-I (apoB/apoA-I) ratio decreased
      significantly. An increase in CRP was associated with an increase in the
      apoB/apoA-1 ratio. CONCLUSION: Serum lipid concentrations showed small changes
      over a 5-year period of ETN therapy and were inversely associated with
      inflammatory markers. Other CVD risk factors remained stable. The apoB/apoA-1
      ratio decreased over time and an increase in disease activity was associated with
      an increase in this ratio. However, this modest lipid modulation cannot explain
      the observed beneficial CV effects of ETN, and ETN likely exerts those effects
      through inflammation-related mechanisms.

PMID- 28572459
TI  - AACR Project GENIE: Powering Precision Medicine through an International
      Consortium.
AB  - The AACR Project GENIE is an international data-sharing consortium focused on
      generating an evidence base for precision cancer medicine by integrating clinical
      grade cancer genomic data with clinical outcome data for tens of thousands of
      cancer patients treated at multiple institutions worldwide. In conjunction with
      the first public data release from approximately 19,000 samples, we describe the
      goals, structure, and data standards of the consortium and report conclusions
      from high-level analysis of the initial phase of genomic data. We also provide
      examples of the clinical utility of GENIE data, such as an estimate of clinical
      actionability across multiple cancer types (>30%) and prediction of accrual rates
      to the NCI-MATCH trial that accurately reflect recently reported actual match
      rates. The GENIE database is expected to grow to >100,000 samples within 5 years
      and should serve as a powerful tool for precision cancer medicine.Significance:
      The AACR Project GENIE aims to catalyze sharing of integrated genomic and
      clinical datasets across multiple institutions worldwide, and thereby enable
      precision cancer medicine research, including the identification of novel
      therapeutic targets, design of biomarker-driven clinical trials, and
      identification of genomic determinants of response to therapy. Cancer Discov;
      7(8); 818-31. (c)2017 AACR.See related commentary by Litchfield et al., p.
      796This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 783.

PMID- 28572463
TI  - Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Disease Characteristics Are Consistently
      Associated with Arterial Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Arterial properties influence cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We
      identified potential determinants of arterial function in patients with
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Relationships of traditional cardiovascular
      risk factors and RA characteristics with arterial stiffness (pulse wave
      velocity), wave reflection (augmentation index, reflected wave pressure, and
      reflection magnitude), and pressure pulsatility (central systolic and pulse
      pressure, peripheral pulse pressure, pulse pressure amplification, and forward
      wave pressure) were identified in multivariable backward regression models among
      177 patients without established CVD (118 white, 32 Asian, 22 black, 5 mixed
      ancestry). RESULTS: Recorded characteristics explained 37% (pulse wave velocity)
      to 71% (reflected wave pressure) of the variability in arterial function. These
      factors were particularly associated with wave reflection and pressure
      pulsatility: RA duration (p = 0.04), rheumatoid factor status (p = 0.01 to 0.03),
      leukocyte counts (p = 0.02 to 0.05), and total cholesterol (p < 0.01 to 0.03).
      Body mass index (p < 0.01 to 0.02) and insulin resistance (p < 0.01 to 0.01) were
      related to reduced wave reflection and peripheral pulse pressure. Exercise (p =
      0.02) and alcohol consumption (p < 0.01) were associated with increased pulse
      pressure amplification and decreased peripheral pulse pressure, respectively.
      Tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibition (p < 0.01) was related to reduced pulse
      wave velocity, and tetracycline use (p = 0.02) to decreased peripheral pulse
      pressure. CONCLUSION: Traditional cardiovascular risk factors and disease
      characteristics are consistently associated with vascular hemodynamic alterations
      in RA. The relative effect of arterial stiffness, wave reflection, and pressure
      pulsatility on CVD risk in RA needs further study.

PMID- 28572462
TI  - Development and Reliability of a Preliminary Foot Osteoarthritis Magnetic
      Resonance Imaging Score.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Foot osteoarthritis (OA) is very common but underinvestigated
      musculoskeletal condition and there is little consensus as to common magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) features. The aim of this study was to develop a
      preliminary foot OA MRI score (FOAMRIS) and evaluate its reliability. METHODS:
      This preliminary semiquantitative score included the hindfoot, midfoot, and
      metatarsophalangeal joints. Joints were scored for joint space narrowing (JSN; 0
      3), osteophytes (0-3), joint effusion/synovitis, and bone cysts (present/absent).
      Erosions and bone marrow lesions (BML) were scored (0-3) and BML were evaluated
      adjacent to entheses and at sub-tendon sites (present/absent). Additionally,
      tenosynovitis (0-3) and midfoot ligament pathology (present/absent) were scored.
      Reliability was evaluated in 15 people with foot pain and MRI-detected OA using
      3.0T MRI multi-sequence protocols, and assessed using ICC as an overall score and
      per anatomical site. RESULTS: Intrareader agreement (ICC) was generally good to
      excellent across the foot in joint features (JSN 0.90, osteophytes 0.90,
      effusion/synovitis 0.46, cysts 0.87), bone features (BML 0.83, erosion 0.66, BML
      entheses 0.66, BML sub-tendon 0.60) and soft tissue features (tenosynovitis 0.83,
      ligaments 0.77). Interreader agreement was lower for joint features (JSN 0.43,
      osteophytes 0.27, effusion/synovitis 0.02, cysts 0.48), bone features (BML 0.68,
      erosion 0.00, BML entheses 0.34, BML sub-tendon 0.13), and soft tissue features
      (tenosynovitis 0.35, ligaments 0.33). CONCLUSION: This preliminary FOAMRIS
      demonstrated good intrareader reliability and fair interreader reliability when
      assessing the total feature scores. Further development is required in cohorts
      with a range of pathologies and to assess the psychometric measurement
      properties.

PMID- 28572464
TI  - A Comparative Evaluation of the 2011 and 2016 Criteria for Fibromyalgia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In 2016, a revised version of the 2010 American College of
      Rheumatology fibromyalgia (FM) criteria and the 2011 self-report (survey) FM
      criteria were published. The 2016 criteria preserved the distinction between
      physician and patient criteria, but made the individual criteria items identical,
      added a "generalized pain" criterion, and changed ascertainment and scoring
      methods, among other changes. In this study, we evaluated diagnostic differences
      relating to 2016 changes. METHODS: We used the National Data Bank for Rheumatic
      Diseases and evaluated 16,987 participants with painful rheumatic disorders using
      the 2011 and 2016 methodologies. RESULTS: There were 4731 patients (27.9%) who
      satisfied the 2011 criteria and 4077 (24.0%) the 2016 revision. This resulted in
      agreement in 96.2% of cases and disagreement in 3.9%. All disagreements occurred
      in the 4731 2011-positive cases who failed to meet the 2016 criteria. This result
      came about because 654 (13.8%) of the 2011-positive cases failed to meet the new
      generalized pain requirement. When using the approximate polysymptomatic distress
      diagnostic method, diagnostic misclassification ranged between 7% and 13%.
      CONCLUSION: The 2016 FM criteria further refined and increased the usefulness of
      symptom-based diagnosis of FM by excluding patients with regional pain syndromes.
      However, these changes, useful as they are, underscore the social construction of
      symptom-based diagnosis and the inherent limitations in reliability and validity
      associated with FM criteria.

PMID- 28572465
TI  - Relationship Between Polymorphisms in Methotrexate Pathway Genes and Outcome of
      Methotrexate Treatment in a Cohort of 119 Patients with Juvenile Idiopathic
      Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify clinical and pharmacogenetic determinants of efficacy and
      toxicity of methotrexate (MTX) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) over time.
      METHODS: A cohort of 119 consecutive patients with JIA treated with MTX was
      reviewed. The Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score including 71 joints was
      used to measure disease activity. Nonresponders were patients who did not reach a
      minimum of 30% improvement after 6 months of treatment or were switched to
      biologic drugs in the first 6 months because of inefficacy. All adverse events
      (AE) were noted. Genotyping of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the genes
      coding for MTX transporters, folate pathway, and adenosine pathway was performed
      using real-time PCR methods. Univariate and multivariable penalized logistic and
      Cox regression were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Thirty patients (25.8%) were
      defined as nonresponders and 55 (47.2%) were switched to biologics during the
      followup. Sixty-five patients (54.5%) reported AE in a total of 405 patient
      years, and 10 patients (8.4%) discontinued MTX because of AE. AMPD1 rs17602729
      and MTHFD1 rs2236225 were associated with gastrointestinal AE while the latter
      together with MTRR rs1801394 also demonstrated associations with developing
      hepatoxicity. MTHFR rs1801131, ABCG2 rs2231137, wild-type of MTR rs1805087, and
      wild-type of ABCC2 rs2273697 were identified as potential markers for
      discontinuing MTX treatment because of AE. MTHFR rs1801133, MTRR rs1801394, and
      ABCC2 rs2273697 were associated with switching to biologics. CONCLUSION: SNP in
      different MTX metabolic pathways influence treatment with MTX. Genetic
      variability is a better marker for toxicity than efficacy.

PMID- 28572467
TI  - Comparison of Composite Indices Tailored for Psoriatic Arthritis Treated with
      csDMARD and bDMARD: A Cross-sectional Analysis of a Longitudinal Cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In a complex disease such as psoriatic arthritis (PsA), several
      methods are available to define remission or low disease activity (LDA),
      including the assessment of different clinical features. The aim of this study
      was to compare the composite indices tailored for PsA in patients treated with
      conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD) and
      biological DMARD (bDMARD). METHODS: Patients with PsA classified with the
      ClASsification criteria for Psoriatic ARthritis criteria and with > 6 months
      followup treated with first csDMARD and bDMARD were consecutively enrolled. To
      assess disease activity, composite indices tailored for PsA were used, such as
      the Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA), clinical DAPSA
      (cDAPSA), Psoriatic Arthritis Disease Activity Score (PASDAS), minimal disease
      activity (MDA) 5/7, and MDA 7/7. DAPSA and cDAPSA score <= 4, MDA 7/7, and PASDAS
      <= 1.9 identified remission. MDA 5/7, DAPSA score <= 14, cDAPSA score <= 13, and
      PASDAS < 3.2 identified the MDA and LDA criteria. RESULTS: One hundred nine
      patients with PsA were enrolled: 79 patients were receiving stable treatment with
      bDMARD and 30 with csDMARD. Overall, 28 (25.6%), 23 (21.1%), 19 (17.4%), and 13
      patients (11.9%) were in cDAPSA remission, DAPSA remission, MDA 7/7, and PASDAS
      <= 1.9, respectively. Moreover, 54 (49.5%), 80 (73.3%), 79 (72.3%), and 38
      patients (34.8%) were in MDA 5/7, DAPSA LDA, cDAPSA LDA, and PASDAS LDA. Patients
      treated with bDMARD had significantly lower median DAPSA, cDAPSA, and PASDAS
      score than patients treated with csDMARD. CONCLUSION: Patients with PsA receiving
      bDMARD are more likely to achieve a status of MDA and remission when compared
      with csDMARD. PASDAS <= 1.9 and MDA 7/7 seem to be stringent remission criteria.

PMID- 28572468
TI  - Longterm Prognosis of 121 Patients with Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with
      Polyangiitis in Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the risk factors for relapse or prognosis of
      eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) in Japanese patients
      presenting to our hospital. METHODS: From June 1999 through March 2015, we
      retrospectively recruited 121 patients with EGPA according to the American
      College of Rheumatology criteria. Frequent relapse was defined as disease
      occurrence at least once every 2 years after a period of initial remission. The
      study endpoint was the last examination performed. We used multiple logistic
      regression to analyze risk factors for relapse or survival in EGPA. RESULTS:
      Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement with both abnormalities on endoscopy and biopsy
      (p < 0.01) and symptoms; myocardial involvement with both abnormalities on 1 or
      more cardiac investigations and symptoms (p < 0.01); and treatment at initial or
      maintenance with immunosuppressants (p < 0.01) or administration of intravenous
      immunoglobulin (IVIG; p < 0.01) were associated significantly more often with
      frequent relapse than with infrequent. Overall 5-, 10-, and 20-year survival
      rates were 91.1%, 83.7%, and 68.6%, respectively. Survival in EGPA was associated
      with age of onset < 65 years. Age at onset of EGPA was the only significant
      predictor of survival (p < 0.01). Myocardial or GI tract involvement did not
      affect mortality risk. CONCLUSION: Patients with myocardial or GI tract
      involvement had frequent relapses, but these conditions were not reflected in
      increased mortality. Treatment with immunosuppressants or IVIG in addition to
      corticosteroids might have improved the prognosis in Japanese patients with EGPA.

PMID- 28572466
TI  - Longterm Outcome of Patients with Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome: A
      Retrospective Multicenter Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the longterm frequency of thrombotic recurrences,
      obstetrical complications, organ damage, severe comorbidities, and evolution
      toward connective tissue disease (CTD) in primary antiphospholipid syndrome
      (PAPS). METHODS: Medical records of patients with PAPS followed in 6 centers for
      >= 15 years were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: One hundred fifteen patients
      were studied: 88% women, followed between 1983 and 2014 with a mean (+/- SD) age
      at diagnosis of 33 (+/- 10) years. During a median followup of 18 years (range 15
      30), 50 patients (44%) had at least a thrombotic event for a total of 75 events
      and an annual incidence of 3.5%. Thromboses were more frequent in patients with
      previous thrombotic history (p = 0.002). A catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome
      occurred in 6 patients (5%). The use of oral anticoagulants in patients with
      thrombotic onset did not appear to be protective against recurrences (p = 0.26).
      Fifty-two women had 87 pregnancies, successful in 78%. Twenty-nine percent of
      patients accrued functional damage. Damage was significantly associated with a
      thrombotic history (p = 0.004) and with arterial events (p < 0.001), especially
      stroke, but not with demographics, serology, or treatment. Twenty-four major
      bleeding episodes were recorded in 18 patients, all receiving anticoagulants.
      Severe infections affected 6 patients (5%), with 1 fatality. A solid cancer was
      diagnosed in 8 patients (7%). Altogether, 16 patients (14%) developed an
      autoimmune disease and 13 (11%) a full-blown picture of CTD. CONCLUSION: Despite
      therapy, a high proportion of patients experienced new thrombotic events and
      organ damage, while evolution toward CTD was infrequent.

PMID- 28572469
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the Knee as an Outcome Measure in Juvenile
      Idiopathic Arthritis: An OMERACT Reliability Study on MRI Scales.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is increasing evidence that early therapeutic intervention
      improves longterm joint outcome in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Given the
      existence of highly effective treatments, there is an urgent need for reliable
      and accurate measures of disease activity and joint damage in JIA. Our objective
      was to assess the reliability of 2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scoring
      methods: the Juvenile Arthritis MRI Scoring (JAMRIS) system and the International
      Prophylaxis Study Group (IPSG) consensus score, for evaluating disease status of
      the knee in patients with JIA. METHODS: Four international readers independently
      scored an MRI dataset of 25 JIA patients with clinical knee involvement. Synovial
      thickening, joint effusion, bone marrow changes, cartilage lesions, bone
      erosions, and subchondral cysts were scored using the JAMRIS and IPSG systems.
      Further, synovial enhancement, infrapatellar fat pad heterogeneity, tendinopathy,
      and enthesopathy were scored. Interreader reliability was analyzed by using the
      generalized kappa, ICC, and the smallest detectable difference (SDD). RESULTS:
      ICC regarding interreader reliability ranged from 0.33 (95% CI 0.12-0.52, SDD =
      0.29) for enthesopathy up to 0.95 (95% CI 0.92-0.97, SDD = 3.19) for synovial
      thickening. Good interreader reliability was found concerning joint effusion (ICC
      0.93, 95% CI 0.89-0.95, SDD = 0.51), synovial enhancement (ICC 0.90, 95% CI 0.85
      0.94, SDD = 9.85), and bone marrow changes (ICC 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.92, SDD =
      10.94). Moderate to substantial reliability was found concerning cartilage
      lesions and bone erosions (ICC 0.55-0.72, SDD 1.41-13.65). CONCLUSION: The
      preliminary results are promising for most of the scored JAMRIS and IPSG items.
      However, further refinement of the scoring system is warranted for
      unsatisfactorily reliable items such as bone erosions, cartilage lesions, and
      enthesopathy.

PMID- 28572471
TI  - Fish Oil and Inflammation - A Fresh Look.

PMID- 28572470
TI  - Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis Over 24 Months in Individuals Who Decrease Walking
      Speed During a 12-Month Period: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between change in walking speed over a 12
      month period and risk of developing radiographic knee osteoarthritis (rKOA) over
      a 24-month period. METHODS: We included participants without rKOA from the
      Osteoarthritis Initiative. Change in walking speed was determined from a 20-m
      walk assessment, calculated using walking speed at 12-month followup minus
      baseline speed and/or 24-month followup walking speed minus 12-month speed.
      Incident rKOA was defined as progressing to Kellgren-Lawrence arthritis grading
      scale >= 2 within 24 months (i.e., incidence between 12 and 36 mos or 24 and 48
      mos). Self-reported significant knee injury during the exposure period, age, body
      mass index (BMI), and Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) score were
      adjusted for analytically. RESULTS: We included 2638 observations among 1460
      unique participants (58% women; aged 59 +/- 9 yrs, range 45-79). The mean change
      in walking speed over 12 months was 0.001 +/- 0.13 m/s (range -0.6271 to 1.4968).
      About 5% of the sample (n = 122) developed rKOA over a 24-month period. After
      controlling for significant knee injury, age, BMI, and PASE score, we found an 8%
      relative increase in risk of developing rKOA for every 0.1 m/s decrease in
      walking speed over a 12-month period (risk ratio 1.08, 95% CI 1.00-1.15, p =
      0.05). CONCLUSION: Evaluating change in speed over a 12-month period using a 20-m
      walk test may be useful in identifying individuals at increased risk of
      developing rKOA over the subsequent 24 months. Identification of patients at high
      risk for developing rKOA would allow medical providers to implement early
      interventions to maximize joint health.

PMID- 28572472
TI  - The Economic Value of Genetic Testing for Tolerance of Allopurinol in Gout.

PMID- 28572473
TI  - Nurse-led Care and Patients as Partners Are Essential Aspects of the Future of
      Rheumatology Care.

PMID- 28572474
TI  - Antimelanoma Differentiation-associated Gene 5 Dermatomyositis.

PMID- 28572475
TI  - Symptomatic Narcolepsy in Sjogren Syndrome.

PMID- 28572476
TI  - Reliability of Radiographic Assessment of Sacroiliac Joints in Patients with
      Suspected Early Spondyloarthritis: Methodological Issue.

PMID- 28572477
TI  - Back to Basics: Clinical versus Radiologic Recognition of Spondyloarthropathy.

PMID- 28572478
TI  - Dr. Christiansen, et al, reply.

PMID- 28572479
TI  - Pediatric Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder and Sjogren Syndrome: More
      Common Than Previously Thought?

PMID- 28572480
TI  - Herpes Zoster Vaccination Compliance: The Role of Specialist Rheumatology Nurses.

PMID- 28572481
TI  - Dr. Janow, et al reply.

PMID- 28572482
TI  - Drs. Sheth and Aggarwal reply.

PMID- 28572483
TI  - Slow Advances in Supply of Canadian Rheumatologists.

PMID- 28572484
TI  - High Accuracy and Significant Savings Using Tag-SNP Genotyping to Determine HLA
      B*27 Status.

PMID- 28572485
TI  - Dr. Barber replies.

PMID- 28572487
TI  - Biodistribution and Radiation Dosimetry of 18F-FTC-146 in Humans.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess safety, biodistribution, and radiation
      dosimetry in humans for the highly selective sigma-1 receptor PET agent 18F-6-(3
      fluoropropyl)-3-(2-(azepan-1-yl)ethyl)benzo[d]thiazol-2(3H)-one (18F-FTC-146).
      Methods: Ten healthy volunteers (5 women, 5 men; age +/- SD, 34.3 +/- 6.5 y) were
      recruited, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
      Series of whole-body PET/MRI examinations were acquired for up to 3 h after
      injection (357.2 +/- 48.8 MBq). Blood samples were collected, and standard vital
      signs (heart rate, pulse oximetry, and body temperature) were monitored at
      regular intervals. Regions of interest were delineated, time-activity curves were
      calculated, and organ uptake and dosimetry were estimated. Results: All subjects
      tolerated the PET/MRI examination well, and no adverse reactions to 18F-FTC-146
      were reported. High accumulation of 18F-FTC-146 was observed in sigma-1 receptor
      dense organs such as the pancreas and spleen, moderate uptake in the brain and
      myocardium, and low uptake in bone and muscle. High uptake was also observed in
      the kidneys and bladder, indicating renal tracer clearance. The effective dose of
      18F-FTC-146 was 0.0259 +/- 0.0034 mSv/MBq (range, 0.0215-0.0301 mSv/MBq).
      Conclusion: First-in-human studies with clinical-grade 18F-FTC-146 were
      successful. Injection of 18F-FTC-146 is safe, and absorbed doses are acceptable.
      The potential of 18F-FTC-146 as an imaging agent for a variety of
      neuroinflammatory diseases is currently under investigation.

PMID- 28572488
TI  - Detection of Synchronous Primary Malignancies with 68Ga-Labeled Prostate-Specific
      Membrane Antigen PET/CT in Patients with Prostate Cancer: Frequency in 764
      Patients.
AB  - We evaluated the incidence of synchronous primary malignancies in patients
      undergoing 68Ga-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen PET/CT for prostate
      cancer (PC). Methods: Reports for 764 PC patients were reviewed. Incidental
      lesions atypical for PC metastases and suggestive of a synchronous primary
      malignancy were identified. Follow-up was obtained to confirm etiology. Results:
      Lesions atypical for PC metastases were found in 49 (6.4%) of 764 patients, and a
      synchronous primary malignancy was confirmed in 5 patients (0.7%; 2 lung, 1
      lymphoma, 1 thyroid, and 1 base of tongue). In 8 patients (1.0%), lesions were
      proven to be atypical metastases from PC. In 24 patients (3.1%), lesions had a
      benign etiology. Follow-up was not available in 12 patients (1.6%). Conclusion:
      Synchronous 68Ga-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen-avid malignancies
      were rare (0.7%) in PC patients; atypical lesions were more commonly unusual PC
      metastases (1.0%) or benign (3.1%).

PMID- 28572489
TI  - Head-to-Head Comparison of Chest X-Ray/Head and Neck MRI, Chest CT/Head and Neck
      MRI, and 18F-FDG PET/CT for Detection of Distant Metastases and Synchronous
      Cancer in Oral, Pharyngeal, and Laryngeal Cancer.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the detection rate of distant
      metastasis and synchronous cancer, comparing clinically used imaging strategies
      based on chest x-ray + head and neck MRI (CXR/MRI) and chest CT + head and neck
      MRI (CHCT/MRI) with 18F-FDG PET/CT upfront in the diagnostic workup of patients
      with oral, pharyngeal, or laryngeal cancer. Methods: This was a prospective
      cohort study based on paired data. Consecutive patients with histologically
      verified primary head and squamous cell carcinoma at Odense University Hospital
      from September 2013 to March 2016 were considered for the study. Included
      patients underwent CXR/MRI and CHCT/MRI as well as PET/CT on the same day and
      before biopsy. Scans were read masked by separate teams of experienced nuclear
      physicians or radiologists. The true detection rate of distant metastasis and
      synchronous cancer was assessed for CXR/MRI, CHCT/MRI, and PET/CT. Results: A
      total of 307 patients were included. CXR/MRI correctly detected 3 (1%) patients
      with distant metastasis, CHCT/MRI detected 11 (4%) patients, and PET/CT detected
      18 (6%) patients. The absolute differences of 5% and 2%, respectively, were
      statistically significant in favor of PET/CT. Also, PET/CT correctly detected 25
      (8%) synchronous cancers, which was significantly more than CXR/MRI (3 patients,
      1%) and CHCT/MRI (6 patients, 2%). The true detection rate of distant metastasis
      or synchronous cancer with PET/CT was 13% (40 patients), which was significantly
      higher than 2% (6 patients) for CXR/MRI and 6% (17 patients) for CHCT/MRI.
      Conclusion: A clinical imaging strategy based on PET/CT demonstrated a
      significantly higher detection rate of distant metastasis or synchronous cancer
      than strategies in current clinical imaging guidelines, of which European ones
      primarily recommend CXR/MRI, whereas U.S. guidelines preferably point to CHCT/MRI
      in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28572490
TI  - A Modular Dual-Labeling Scaffold That Retains Agonistic Properties for
      Somatostatin Receptor Targeting.
AB  - Fluorescence-guided surgery is an emerging imaging technique that can enhance the
      ability of surgeons to detect tumors when compared with visual observation. To
      facilitate characterization, fluorescently labeled probes have been dual-labeled
      with a radionuclide to enable cross-validation with nuclear imaging. In this
      study, we selected the somatostatin receptor imaging agent DOTATOC as the
      foundation for developing a dual-labeled analog. We hypothesized that a
      customized dual-labeling approach with a multimodality chelation (MMC) scaffold
      would minimize steric effects of dye conjugation and retain agonist properties.
      Methods: An MMC conjugate (MMC-TOC) was synthesized on solid-phase and compared
      with an analog prepared using conventional methods (DA-TOC). Both analogs were
      conjugated to IRDye 800 using copper-free click chemistry. The resulting
      compounds, MMC(IR800)-TOC and DA(IR800)-TOC, were labeled with Cu and 64Cu and
      tested in vitro in somatostatin receptor subtype 2-overexpressing HEK-293 cells
      to assess agonist properties, and in AR42J rat pancreatic cancer cells to
      determine receptor binding characteristics. Multimodality imaging was performed
      in AR42J xenografts. Results: Cu-MMC(IR800)-TOC demonstrated higher potency for
      cyclic adenosine monophosphate inhibition (half maximal effective concentration
      [EC50]: 0.21 +/- 0.18 vs. 1.38 +/- 0.54 nM) and receptor internalization (EC50:
      41.9 +/- 29.8 vs. 455 +/- 299 nM) than Cu-DA(IR800)-TOC. Radioactive uptake
      studies showed that blocking with octreotide caused a dose-dependent reduction in
      64Cu-MMC(IR800)-TOC uptake whereas 64Cu-DA(IR800)-TOC was not affected. In vivo
      studies revealed higher tumor uptake for 64Cu-MMC(IR800)-TOC than 64Cu-DA(IR800)
      TOC (5.2 +/- 0.2 vs. 3.6 +/- 0.4 percentage injected dose per gram). In vivo
      blocking studies with octreotide reduced tumor uptake of 64Cu-MMC(IR800)-TOC by
      66%. Excretion of 64Cu-MMC(IR800)-TOC was primarily through the liver and spleen
      whereas 64Cu-DA(IR800)-TOC was cleared through the kidneys. Ex vivo analysis at
      24 h confirmed PET/CT data by showing near-infrared fluorescence signal in tumors
      and a tumor-to-muscle ratio of 5.3 +/- 0.8 as determined by gamma-counting.
      Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that drug design affected receptor
      pharmacology and suggest that the MMC scaffold is a useful tool for the
      development of dual-labeled imaging agents.

PMID- 28572491
TI  - New Fetal Radiation Doses for 18F-FDG Based on Human Data.
AB  - Current standard values of fetal dosimetry deriving from 18F-FDG injection in
      pregnant women are estimated from animal data. The present communication offers a
      revision of fetal dosimetry values calculated from recently published human data,
      in which fetal 18F-FDG uptake was directly observed in vivo. The final doses were
      obtained from the observed time-integrated activity coefficients and a new
      generation of anthropomorphic voxel-based pregnancy phantoms.

PMID- 28572493
TI  - Regulation of blood volume in lowlanders exposed to high altitude.
AB  - Humans ascending to high altitude (HA) experience a reduction in arterial
      oxyhemoglobin saturation and, as a result, arterial O2 content ([Formula: see
      text]). As HA exposure extends, this reduction in [Formula: see text] is
      counteracted by an increase in arterial hemoglobin concentration. Initially,
      hemoconcentration is exclusively related to a reduction in plasma volume (PV),
      whereas after several weeks a progressive expansion in total red blood cell
      volume (RCV) contributes, although often to a modest extent. Since the decrease
      in PV is more rapid and usually more pronounced than the expansion in RCV, at
      least during the first weeks of exposure, a reduction in circulating blood volume
      is common at HA. Although the regulation of hematological responses to HA has
      been investigated for decades, it remains incompletely understood. This is not
      only related to the large number of mechanisms that could be involved and the
      complexity of their interplay but also to the difficulty of conducting
      comprehensive experiments in the often secluded HA environment. In this review,
      we present our understanding of the kinetics, the mechanisms and the
      physiological relevance of the HA-induced reduction in PV and expansion in RCV.

PMID- 28572492
TI  - Beta-1 vs. beta-2 adrenergic control of coronary blood flow during isometric
      handgrip exercise in humans.
AB  - During exercise, beta-adrenergic receptors are activated throughout the body. In
      healthy humans, the net effect of beta-adrenergic stimulation is an increase in
      coronary blood flow. However, the role of vascular beta1 vs. beta2 receptors in
      coronary exercise hyperemia is not clear. In this study, we simultaneously
      measured noninvasive indexes of myocardial oxygen supply (i.e., blood velocity in
      the left anterior descending coronary artery; Doppler echocardiography) and
      demand [i.e., rate pressure product (RPP) = heart rate * systolic blood pressure)
      and tested the hypothesis that beta1 blockade with esmolol improves coronary
      exercise hyperemia compared with nonselective beta-blockade with propranolol.
      Eight healthy young men received intravenous infusions of esmolol, propranolol,
      and saline on three separate days in a single-blind, randomized, crossover
      design. During each infusion, subjects performed isometric handgrip exercise
      until fatigue. Blood pressure, heart rate, and coronary blood velocity (CBV) were
      measured continuously, and RPP was calculated. Changes in parameters from
      baseline were compared with paired t-tests. Esmolol (Delta = 3296 +/- 1204) and
      propranolol (Delta = 2997 +/- 699) caused similar reductions in peak RPP compared
      with saline (Delta = 5384 +/- 1865). In support of our hypothesis, DeltaCBV with
      esmolol was significantly greater than with propranolol (7.3 +/- 2.4 vs. 4.5 +/-
      1.6 cm/s; P = 0.002). This effect was also evident when normalizing DeltaCBV to
      DeltaRPP. In summary, not only does selective beta1 blockade reduce myocardial
      oxygen demand during exercise, but it also unveils beta2-receptor-mediated
      coronary exercise hyperemia.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In this study, we evaluated the role
      of vascular beta1 vs. beta2 receptors in coronary exercise hyperemia in a single
      blind, randomized, crossover study in healthy men. In response to isometric
      handgrip exercise, blood flow velocity in the left anterior descending coronary
      artery was significantly greater with esmolol compared with propranolol. These
      findings increase our understanding of the individual and combined roles of
      coronary beta1 and beta2 adrenergic receptors in humans.

PMID- 28572494
TI  - Erythrocyte purinergic signaling components underlie hypoxia adaptation.
AB  - Erythrocytes are vital to human adaptation under hypoxic conditions because of
      their abundance in number and irreplaceable function of delivering oxygen (O2).
      However, although multiple large-scale altitude studies investigating the overall
      coordination of the human body for hypoxia adaptation have been conducted,
      detailed research with a focus on erythrocytes was missing due to lack of proper
      techniques. The recently maturing metabolomics profiling technology appears to be
      the answer to this limitation. Metabolomics profiling provides unbiased high
      throughput screening data that reveal the overall metabolic status of
      erythrocytes. Recent studies have exploited this new technology and provided
      novel insight into erythrocyte physiology and pathology. In particular, a series
      of studies focusing on erythrocyte purinergic signaling have reported that
      adenosine signaling, coupled with 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the
      production of erythrocyte-enriched bioactive signaling lipid sphingosine 1
      phosphate, regulate erythrocyte glucose metabolism for more O2 delivery.
      Moreover, an adenosine-dependent "erythrocyte hypoxic memory" was discovered that
      provides an explanation for fast acclimation upon re-ascent. These findings not
      only shed new light on our understanding of erythrocyte function and hypoxia
      adaptation, but also offer a myriad of novel therapeutic possibilities to
      counteract various hypoxic conditions.

PMID- 28572495
TI  - Comparison of the vasodilatory effects of sodium nitroprusside vs. nitroglycerin.
AB  - The vasodilatory mechanism of Nntroglycerin (NTG) is similar to sodium
      nitroprusside (SNP) in regard to action on guanosine 3'5'-monophosphate (cyclic
      GMP) via nitric oxide. However, it is unknown whether NTG can achieve the same
      magnitude of vasodilation in the forearm as SNP. Therefore, the purpose of the
      study was to evaluate the differences in forearm blood flow (FBF) and forearm
      vascular conductance (FVC) during escalating infusions of NTG vs. SNP at similar
      concentration doses and rates. We measured FBF using venous occlusion
      plethysmography (VOP) and Doppler ultrasound in eight young, healthy participants
      (mean age = 28 +/- 2 yr) during four forearm volume (FAV)-specific doses (0.25,
      0.5, 1, and 2 ug.100 ml FAV-1.min-1) of SNP and NTG infused via a brachial artery
      catheter. There was a significant difference in FVC of SNP vs. NTG only at the
      higher doses, as measured by VOP (14.9 +/- 1.4 and 18.3 +/- 1.5 vs. 11.6 +/- 1.2
      and 12.5 +/- 1.2 ml/dl FAV-1.min-1.100 mmHg-1). FVC as measured by Doppler
      ultrasound unadjusted for FAV was significantly different at the lowest and the
      higher two doses of SNP compared with NTG (202.1 +/- 25.8, 329.4 +/- 46.7, and
      408 +/- 63.5 vs. 142.9 +/- 22.4, 217.2 +/- 18.8, and 247.5 +/- 18.2 ml.min-1.100
      mmHg-1). SNP induces significantly higher vasodilatory actions compared with NTG.
      However, NTG is comparable in eliciting equivalent vasodilator effects to SNP
      during low concentration doses when measured by VOP. Importantly, for forearm
      pharmacology studies, NTG can elicit marked endothelium-independent forearm
      vasodilation.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We compared the vasodilatory capacities of NTG vs.
      SNP at similar concentration doses and rates into the forearm. Based on the
      results of the study, it may be feasible to use intra-arterial NTG as a measure
      of endothelial-independent vasodilator in research studies. However, NTG dosing
      may need to be higher if used as an endothelial-independent vasodilator due to
      significant differences in the vasodilatory effects during higher doses of SNP
      compared with NTG.

PMID- 28572496
TI  - Effect of age, diet, and tissue type on PCr response to creatine supplementation.
AB  - Creatine/phosphorylcreatine (PCr) responses to creatine supplementation may be
      modulated by age, diet, and tissue, but studies assessing this possibility are
      lacking. Therefore we aimed to determine whether PCr responses vary as a function
      of age, diet, and tissue. Fifteen children, 17 omnivorous and 14 vegetarian
      adults, and 18 elderly individuals ("elderly") participated in this study.
      Participants were given placebo and subsequently creatine (0.3 g.kg-1.day-1) for
      7 days in a single-blind fashion. PCr was measured through phosphorus magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) in muscle and brain. Creatine supplementation
      increased muscle PCr in children (P < 0.0003) and elderly (P < 0.001), whereas
      the increase in omnivores did not reach statistically significant difference (P =
      0.3348). Elderly had greater PCr increases than children and omnivores (P <
      0.0001 for both), whereas children experienced greater PCr increases than
      omnivores (P = 0.0022). In relation to diet, vegetarians (P < 0.0001), but not
      omnivores, had significant increases in muscle PCr content. Brain PCr content was
      not affected by creatine supplementation in any group, and delta changes in brain
      PCr (-0.7 to +3.9%) were inferior to those in muscle PCr content (+10.3 to
      +27.6%; P < 0.0001 for all comparisons). PCr responses to a standardized creatine
      protocol (0.3 g.kg-1.day-1 for 7 days) may be affected by age, diet, and tissue.
      Whereas creatine supplementation was able to increase muscle PCr in all groups,
      although to different extents, brain PCr was shown to be unresponsive overall.
      These findings demonstrate the need to tailor creatine protocols to optimize
      creatine/PCr accumulation both in muscle and in brain, enabling a better
      appreciation of the pleiotropic properties of creatine.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A
      standardized creatine supplementation protocol (0.3 g.kg-1.day-1 for 7 days)
      effectively increased muscle, but not brain, phosphorylcreatine. Older
      participants responded better than younger participants whereas vegetarians
      responded better than omnivores. Responses to supplementation are thus dependent
      on age, tissue, and diet. This suggests that a single "universal" protocol,
      originally designed for increasing muscle creatine in young individuals, may lead
      to heterogeneous muscle responses in different populations or even no responses
      in tissues other than skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28572497
TI  - UBC-Nepal expedition: markedly lower cerebral blood flow in high-altitude Sherpa
      children compared with children residing at sea level.
AB  - Developmental cerebral hemodynamic adaptations to chronic high-altitude exposure,
      such as in the Sherpa population, are largely unknown. To examine hemodynamic
      adaptations in the developing human brain, we assessed common carotid (CCA),
      internal carotid (ICA), and vertebral artery (VA) flow and middle cerebral artery
      (MCA) velocity in 25 (9.6 +/- 1.0 yr old, 129 +/- 9 cm, 27 +/- 8 kg, 14 girls)
      Sherpa children (3,800 m, Nepal) and 25 (9.9 +/- 0.7 yr old, 143 +/- 7 cm, 34 +/-
      6 kg, 14 girls) age-matched sea level children (344 m, Canada) during supine
      rest. Resting gas exchange, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and heart rate were
      assessed. Despite comparable age, height and weight were lower (both P < 0.01) in
      Sherpa compared with sea level children. Mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and
      ventilation were similar, whereas oxygen saturation (95 +/- 2 vs. 99 +/- 1%, P <
      0.01) and end-tidal Pco2 (24 +/- 3 vs. 36 +/- 3 Torr, P < 0.01) were lower in
      Sherpa children. Global cerebral blood flow was ~30% lower in Sherpa compared
      with sea level children. This was reflected in a lower ICA flow (283 +/- 108 vs.
      333 +/- 56 ml/min, P = 0.05), VA flow (78 +/- 26 vs. 118 +/- 35 ml/min, P <
      0.05), and MCA velocity (72 +/- 14 vs. 88 +/- 14 cm/s, P < 0.01). CCA flow was
      similar between Sherpa and sea level children (425 +/- 92 vs. 441 +/- 81 ml/min,
      P = 0.52). Scaling flow and oxygen uptake for differences in vessel diameter and
      body size, respectively, led to the same findings. A lower cerebral blood flow in
      Sherpa children may reflect specific cerebral hemodynamic adaptations to chronic
      hypoxia.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Cerebral blood flow is lower in Sherpa children compared
      with children residing at sea level; this may reflect a cerebral hemodynamic
      pattern, potentially due to adaptation to a hypoxic environment.

PMID- 28572500
TI  - Neuromuscular electrical stimulation improves skeletal muscle regeneration
      through satellite cell fusion with myofibers in healthy elderly subjects.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine whether neuromuscular electrical
      stimulation (NMES) affects skeletal muscle regeneration through a reduction of
      oxidative status in satellite cells of healthy elderly subjects. Satellite cells
      from the vastus lateralis skeletal muscle of 12 healthy elderly subjects before
      and after 8 wk of NMES were allowed to proliferate to provide myogenic
      populations of adult stem cells [myogenic precursor cells (MPCs)]. These MPCs
      were then investigated in terms of their proliferation, their basal cytoplasmic
      free Ca2+ concentrations, and their expression of myogenic regulatory factors
      (PAX3, PAX7, MYF5, MYOD, and MYOG) and micro-RNAs (miR-1, miR-133a/b, and miR
      206). The oxidative status of these MPCs was evaluated through superoxide anion
      production and superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities. On
      dissected single skeletal myofibers, the nuclei were counted to determine the
      myonuclear density, the fiber phenotype, cross-sectional area, and tension
      developed. The MPCs obtained after NMES showed increased proliferation rates
      along with increased cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentrations and gene expression of
      MYOD and MYOG on MPCs. Muscle-specific miR-1, miR-133a/b, and miR-206 were
      upregulated. This NMES significantly reduced superoxide anion production, along
      with a trend to reduction of superoxide dismutase activity. The NMES-dependent
      stimulation of muscle regeneration enhanced satellite cell fusion with mature
      skeletal fibers. NMES improved the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle in
      elderly subjects. Accordingly, the skeletal muscle strength and mobility of NMES
      stimulated elderly subjects significantly improved. NMES may thus be further
      considered for clinical or ageing populations.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The neuromuscular
      electrical stimulation (NMES) effect on skeletal muscle regeneration was assessed
      in healthy elderly subjects for the first time. NMES improved the regenerative
      capacity of skeletal muscle through increased myogenic precursor cell
      proliferation and fusion with mature myofibers. The increased cytoplasmic free
      Ca2+ concentration along with MYOD, MYOG, and micro-RNA upregulation could be
      related to reduced O2.- production, which, in turn, favors myogenic regeneration.
      Accordingly, the skeletal muscle strength of NMES-stimulated lower limbs of
      healthy elderly subjects improved along with their mobility.

PMID- 28572499
TI  - Effect of calf-raise training on rapid force production and balance ability in
      elderly men.
AB  - This study examined whether home-based, high-speed calf-raise training changes
      the rate of torque development (RTD) during plantar flexion contractions and
      balance performance in elderly men. Thirty-four healthy elderly men (73 +/- 5 yr)
      were randomly assigned to a training or control group (n = 17 in each group). The
      subjects in the training group completed 8 wk (3 times/wk) of home-based
      bilateral calf-raise training using body mass. Before and after the intervention,
      RTD during plantar flexion contractions and center-of-pressure (COP) displacement
      during single-leg standing were measured. Surface electromyographic amplitude of
      the triceps surae and tibialis anterior during the strength and single-leg
      standing was measured. Clinical magnitude-based inferences were used to interpret
      the training effect, with the smallest worthwhile effect assumed to be 0.2 of the
      baseline SD. The peak RTD increased 21% (90% confidence limits, +/-19%) relative
      to the control group, which was accompanied by corresponding changes of the
      medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus (SOL) activations. The effect on COP
      displacement was possibly trivial (0%, +/-13%), whereas substantial reduction in
      the MG (-19%, +/-15%) and SOL (-25%, +/-13%) activations during standing was
      observed. Our findings indicate that calf-raise training at home, performed
      without special equipment or venue, induces a substantial increase in the plantar
      flexors' rapid force-generating capability and triceps surae activations.
      Although the training effect on standing balance performance was not substantial,
      observed changes in the triceps surae activations during standing are expected to
      contribute to future balance performance improvement.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Calf-raise
      training with the intent to move rapidly, without special equipment or venue,
      induces an improvement of explosive plantar flexion force, which is attributable
      to neuromuscular rather than musculotendinous adaptations. Although the training
      effect on balance performance was trivial, we found a sign of improvement (i.e.,
      neuromuscular adaptations during standing). In conclusion, functional
      neuromuscular capacity can be enhanced by home-based calf-raise exercise in
      elderly men, which may protect against mobility loss with aging.

PMID- 28572501
TI  - Reflex cardiorespiratory events from esophageal origin are heightened by preterm
      birth.
AB  - The involvement of gastroesophageal refluxes in cardiorespiratory events of
      preterm infants remains controversial. While a few studies in full-term newborn
      animals have shown that stimulation of esophageal receptors leads to
      cardiorespiratory reflexes, the latter remain largely unknown, especially after
      premature birth. The present study aimed to 1) characterize the cardiorespiratory
      reflexes originating from esophageal receptors in newborn lambs and 2) test the
      hypotheses that preterm birth enhances reflex cardiorespiratory inhibition and
      that C-fibers are involved in these reflexes. Eight full-term lambs and 10 lambs
      born 14 days prematurely were studied. Following surgical instrumentation, a 6-h
      polysomnography was performed without sedation to record electrocardiogram,
      respiratory movements, arterial pressure, laryngeal constrictor muscle activity,
      state of alertness, and hemoglobin oxygen saturation. Five esophageal
      stimulations of the upper and/or lower esophagus, including rapid balloon
      inflation and/or HCl injection, were performed in random order. A second
      recording was performed in full-term lambs 24 h later, after C-fiber blockade by
      capsaicin. Results confirmed that esophageal stimulations induced inhibitory
      cardiorespiratory reflexes combined with protective mechanisms, including
      laryngeal closure, swallowing, coughing, increased arterial pressure, and
      arousal. Preterm birth heightened cardiorespiratory inhibition. The strongest
      cardiorespiratory inhibition was observed following simultaneous stimulation of
      the lower and upper esophagus. Finally, cardiorespiratory inhibition was
      decreased after C-fiber blockade. In conclusion, esophageal stimulation induces
      inhibitory cardiorespiratory reflexes, which are partly mediated by C-fibers and
      more pronounced in preterm lambs. Clinical relevance of these findings requires
      further studies, especially in conditions associated with increased
      cardiorespiratory events, e.g., neonatal infection.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Preterm birth
      heightens the cardiorespiratory events triggered by esophageal stimulation. The
      most extensive cardiorespiratory events are induced by simultaneous stimulation
      of the proximal and distal esophagus.

PMID- 28572502
TI  - Experimental intermittent ischemia augments exercise-induced inflammatory
      cytokine production.
AB  - Acute exercise-induced inflammation is implicated in mediating the beneficial
      adaptations to regular exercise. Evidence suggests that reduced oxygen and/or
      blood flow to contracting muscle alters cytokine appearance. However, the acute
      inflammatory responses to hypoxic/ischemic exercise have been documented with
      inconsistent results and may not accurately reflect the ischemia produced during
      exercise in patients with ischemic cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we
      determined the extent to which local inflammation is involved in the response to
      ischemic exercise. Fourteen healthy males performed unilateral isometric forearm
      contractions for 30 min with and without experimental ischemia. Blood was drawn
      at baseline, 5 and 10 min into exercise, at the end of exercise, and 30, 60, and
      120 min after exercise. Oxygen saturation levels, as measured by near-infrared
      spectroscopy, were reduced by 10% and 41% during nonischemic and ischemic
      exercise, respectively. Nonischemic exercise did not affect cytokine values.
      Ischemia enhanced concentrations of basic fibroblast growth factor, interleukin
      (IL)-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and vascular endothelial growth
      factor during exercise, but IL-8 was not influenced by ischemic exercise. In
      conclusion, the present study demonstrates that ischemic, small-muscle endurance
      exercise elicits local inflammatory cytokine production compared with nonischemic
      exercise.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We demonstrate that ischemic, small-muscle endurance
      exercise elicits local inflammatory cytokine production compared with nonischemic
      exercise. The present study advances our knowledge of the inflammatory response
      to exercise in a partial ischemic state, which may be relevant for understanding
      the therapeutic effects of exercise training for people with ischemic
      cardiovascular disease-associated comorbidities.

PMID- 28572505
TI  - Correction: Germline BAP1 Mutational Landscape of Asbestos-Exposed Malignant
      Mesothelioma Patients with Family History of Cancer.

PMID- 28572498
TI  - Exercise: Teaching myocytes new tricks.
AB  - Endurance exercise training promotes numerous cellular adaptations in both
      cardiac myocytes and skeletal muscle fibers. For example, exercise training
      fosters changes in mitochondrial function due to increased mitochondrial protein
      expression and accelerated mitochondrial turnover. Additionally, endurance
      exercise training alters the abundance of numerous cytosolic and mitochondrial
      proteins in both cardiac and skeletal muscle myocytes, resulting in a protective
      phenotype in the active fibers; this exercise-induced protection of cardiac and
      skeletal muscle fibers is often referred to as "exercise preconditioning." As few
      as 3-5 consecutive days of endurance exercise training result in a preconditioned
      cardiac phenotype that is sheltered against ischemia-reperfusion-induced injury.
      Similarly, endurance exercise training results in preconditioned skeletal muscle
      fibers that are resistant to a variety of stresses (e.g., heat stress, exercise
      induced oxidative stress, and inactivity-induced atrophy). Many studies have
      probed the mechanisms responsible for exercise-induced preconditioning of cardiac
      and skeletal muscle fibers; these studies are important, because they provide an
      improved understanding of the biochemical mechanisms responsible for exercise
      induced preconditioning, which has the potential to lead to innovative
      pharmacological therapies aimed at minimizing stress-induced injury to cardiac
      and skeletal muscle. This review summarizes the development of exercise-induced
      protection of cardiac myocytes and skeletal muscle fibers and highlights the
      putative mechanisms responsible for exercise-induced protection in the heart and
      skeletal muscles.

PMID- 28572506
TI  - Correction: Chromosome Instability Modulated by BMI1-AURKA Signaling Drives
      Progression in Head and Neck Cancer.

PMID- 28572507
TI  - Correction: Connective Tissue Growth Factor Activates Pluripotency Genes and
      Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition in Head and Neck Cancer Cells.

PMID- 28572504
TI  - A PET Imaging Strategy to Visualize Activated T Cells in Acute Graft-versus-Host
      Disease Elicited by Allogenic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant.
AB  - A major barrier to successful use of allogeneic hematopoietic cell
      transplantation is acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), a devastating
      condition that arises when donor T cells attack host tissues. With current
      technologies, aGVHD diagnosis is typically made after end-organ injury and often
      requires invasive tests and tissue biopsies. This affects patient prognosis as
      treatments are dramatically less effective at late disease stages. Here, we show
      that a novel PET radiotracer, 2'-deoxy-2'-[18F]fluoro-9-beta-D
      arabinofuranosylguanine ([18F]F-AraG), targeted toward two salvage kinase
      pathways preferentially accumulates in activated primary T cells. [18F]F-AraG PET
      imaging of a murine aGVHD model enabled visualization of secondary lymphoid
      organs harboring activated donor T cells prior to clinical symptoms. Tracer
      biodistribution in healthy humans showed favorable kinetics. This new PET
      strategy has great potential for early aGVHD diagnosis, enabling timely
      treatments and improved patient outcomes. [18F]F-AraG may be useful for imaging
      activated T cells in various biomedical applications. Cancer Res; 77(11); 2893
      902. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28572508
TI  - Cardioprotective Role of Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-Associated Factor 2 by
      Suppressing Apoptosis and Necroptosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Programmed cell death, including apoptosis, mitochondria-mediated
      necrosis, and necroptosis, is critically involved in ischemic cardiac injury,
      pathological cardiac remodeling, and heart failure progression. Whereas apoptosis
      and mitochondria-mediated necrosis signaling is well established, the regulatory
      mechanisms of necroptosis and its significance in the pathogenesis of heart
      failure remain elusive. METHODS: We examined the role of tumor necrosis factor
      receptor-associated factor 2 (Traf2) in regulating myocardial necroptosis and
      remodeling using genetic mouse models. We also performed molecular and cellular
      biology studies to elucidate the mechanisms by which Traf2 regulates necroptosis
      signaling. RESULTS: We identified a critical role for Traf2 in myocardial
      survival and homeostasis by suppressing necroptosis. Cardiac-specific deletion of
      Traf2 in mice triggered necroptotic cardiac cell death, pathological remodeling,
      and heart failure. Plasma tumor necrosis factor alpha level was significantly
      elevated in Traf2-deficient mice, and genetic ablation of TNFR1 largely abrogated
      pathological cardiac remodeling and dysfunction associated with Traf2 deletion.
      Mechanistically, Traf2 critically regulates receptor-interacting proteins 1 and 3
      and mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein necroptotic signaling with the
      adaptor protein tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated protein with death
      domain as an upstream regulator and transforming growth factor beta-activated
      kinase 1 as a downstream effector. It is important to note that genetic deletion
      of RIP3 largely rescued the cardiac phenotype triggered by Traf2 deletion,
      validating a critical role of necroptosis in regulating pathological remodeling
      and heart failure propensity. CONCLUSIONS: These results identify an important
      Traf2-mediated, NFkappaB-independent, prosurvival pathway in the heart by
      suppressing necroptotic signaling, which may serve as a new therapeutic target
      for pathological remodeling and heart failure.

PMID- 28572509
TI  - Dynamic distinctions in the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger adopting the inward- and outward
      facing conformational states.
AB  - Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) proteins operate through the alternating access
      mechanism, where the ion-binding pocket is exposed in succession either to the
      extracellular or the intracellular face of the membrane. The archaeal NCX_Mj
      (Methanococcus jannaschii NCX) system was used to resolve the backbone dynamics
      in the inward-facing (IF) and outward-facing (OF) states by analyzing purified
      preparations of apo- and ion-bound forms of NCX_Mj-WT and its mutant, NCX_Mj-5L6
      8. First, the exposure of extracellular and cytosolic vestibules to the bulk
      phase was evaluated as the reactivity of single cysteine mutants to a fluorescent
      probe, verifying that NCX_Mj-WT and NCX_Mj-5L6-8 preferentially adopt the OF and
      IF states, respectively. Next, hydrogen-deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry (HDX
      MS) was employed to analyze the backbone dynamics profiles in proteins,
      preferentially adopting the OF (WT) and IF (5L6-8) states either in the presence
      or absence of ions. Characteristic differences in the backbone dynamics were
      identified between apo NCX_Mj-WT and NCX_Mj-5L6-8, thereby underscoring specific
      conformational patterns owned by the OF and IF states. Saturating concentrations
      of Na+ or Ca2+ specifically modify HDX patterns, revealing that the ion
      bound/occluded states are much more stable (rigid) in the OF than in the IF
      state. Conformational differences observed in the ion-occluded OF and IF states
      can account for diversifying the ion-release dynamics and apparent affinity (Km )
      at opposite sides of the membrane, where specific structure-dynamic elements can
      effectively match the rates of bidirectional ion movements at physiological ion
      concentrations.

PMID- 28572510
TI  - The BMP4-Smad signaling pathway regulates hyperandrogenism development in a
      female mouse model.
AB  - Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common endocrine disorder and a major cause of
      anovulatory sterility in women at reproductive age. Most patients with polycystic
      ovary syndrome have hyperandrogenism, caused by excess androgen synthesis. Bone
      morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) is an essential regulator of embryonic development
      and organ formation, and recent studies have also shown that BMP4 may be involved
      in female steroidogenesis process. However, the effect of BMP4 on
      hyperandrogenism remains unknown. Here, using a female mouse model of
      hyperandrogenism, we found that ovarian BMP4 levels were significantly decreased
      in hyperandrogenism. Elevated androgens inhibited BMP4 expression via activation
      of androgen receptors. Moreover, BMP4 treatment suppressed androgen synthesis in
      theca cells and promoted estrogen production in granulosa cells by regulating the
      expression of steroidogenic enzymes, including CYP11A, HSD3B2, CYP17A1, and
      CYP19A1 Consistently, knockdown of BMP4 augmented androgen levels and inhibited
      estrogen levels. Mechanistically, Smad signaling rather than the p38 MAPK pathway
      regulated androgen and estrogen formation, thereby mediating the effect of BMP4.
      Of note, BMP4-transgenic mice were protected against hyperandrogenism. Our
      observations clarify a vital role of BMP4 in controlling sex hormone levels and
      offer new insights into intervention for managing hyperandrogenism by targeting
      the BMP4-Smad signaling pathway.

PMID- 28572511
TI  - Clinical or ATPase domain mutations in ABCD4 disrupt the interaction between the
      vitamin B12-trafficking proteins ABCD4 and LMBD1.
AB  - Vitamin B12 (cobalamin (Cbl)), in the cofactor forms methyl-Cbl and adenosyl-Cbl,
      is required for the function of the essential enzymes methionine synthase and
      methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, respectively. Cbl enters mammalian cells by receptor
      mediated endocytosis of protein-bound Cbl followed by lysosomal export of free
      Cbl to the cytosol and further processing to these cofactor forms. The integral
      membrane proteins LMBD1 and ABCD4 are required for lysosomal release of Cbl, and
      mutations in the genes LMBRD1 and ABCD4 result in the cobalamin metabolism
      disorders cblF and cblJ. We report a new (fifth) patient with the cblJ disorder
      who presented at 7 days of age with poor feeding, hypotonia, methylmalonic
      aciduria, and elevated plasma homocysteine and harbored the mutations
      c.1667_1668delAG [p.Glu556Glyfs*27] and c.1295G>A [p.Arg432Gln] in the ABCD4
      gene. Cbl cofactor forms are decreased in fibroblasts from this patient but could
      be rescued by overexpression of either ABCD4 or, unexpectedly, LMBD1. Using a
      sensitive live-cell FRET assay, we demonstrated selective interaction between
      ABCD4 and LMBD1 and decreased interaction when ABCD4 harbored the patient
      mutations p.Arg432Gln or p.Asn141Lys or when artificial mutations disrupted the
      ATPase domain. Finally, we showed that ABCD4 lysosomal targeting depends on co
      expression of, and interaction with, LMBD1. These data broaden the patient and
      mutation spectrum of cblJ deficiency, establish a sensitive live-cell assay to
      detect the LMBD1-ABCD4 interaction, and confirm the importance of this
      interaction for proper intracellular targeting of ABCD4 and cobalamin cofactor
      synthesis.

PMID- 28572513
TI  - Domain alternation and active site remodeling are conserved structural features
      of ubiquitin E1.
AB  - E1 enzymes for ubiquitin (Ub) and Ub-like modifiers (Ubls) harbor two catalytic
      activities that are required for Ub/Ubl activation: adenylation and thioester
      bond formation. Structural studies of the E1 for the Ubl small ubiquitin-like
      modifier (SUMO) revealed a single active site that is transformed by a
      conformational switch that toggles its competency for catalysis of these two
      distinct chemical reactions. Although the mechanisms of adenylation and thioester
      bond formation revealed by SUMO E1 structures are thought to be conserved in Ub
      E1, there is currently a lack of structural data supporting this hypothesis.
      Here, we present a structure of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Uba1 in which the
      second catalytic cysteine half-domain (SCCH domain) harboring the catalytic
      cysteine has undergone a 106 degrees  rotation that results in a completely
      different network of intramolecular interactions between the SCCH and adenylation
      domains and translocation of the catalytic cysteine 12 A closer to the Ub C
      terminus compared with previous Uba1 structures. SCCH domain alternation is
      accompanied by conformational changes within the Uba1 adenylation domains that
      effectively disassemble the adenylation active site. Importantly, the structural
      and biochemical data suggest that domain alternation and remodeling of the
      adenylation active site are interconnected and are intrinsic structural features
      of Uba1 and that the overall structural basis for adenylation and thioester bond
      formation exhibited by SUMO E1 is indeed conserved in Ub E1. Finally, the
      mechanistic insights provided by the novel conformational snapshot of Uba1
      presented in this study may guide efforts to develop small molecule inhibitors of
      this critically important enzyme that is an active target for anticancer
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28572512
TI  - Deletion of interleukin 1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (Irak1) improves glucose
      tolerance primarily by increasing insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle.
AB  - Chronic inflammation may contribute to insulin resistance via molecular cross
      talk between pathways for pro-inflammatory and insulin signaling. Interleukin 1
      receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK-1) mediates pro-inflammatory signaling via IL
      1 receptor/Toll-like receptors, which may contribute to insulin resistance, but
      this hypothesis is untested. Here, we used male Irak1 null (k/o) mice to
      investigate the metabolic role of IRAK-1. C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and k/o mice had
      comparable body weights on low-fat and high-fat diets (LFD and HFD,
      respectively). After 12 weeks on LFD (but not HFD), k/o mice (versus WT) had
      substantially improved glucose tolerance (assessed by the intraperitoneal glucose
      tolerance test (IPGTT)). As assessed with the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic glucose
      clamp technique, insulin sensitivity was 30% higher in the Irak1 k/o mice on chow
      diet, but the Irak1 deletion did not affect IPGTT outcomes in mice on HFD,
      suggesting that the deletion did not overcome the impact of obesity on glucose
      tolerance. Moreover, insulin-stimulated glucose-disposal rates were higher in the
      k/o mice, but we detected no significant difference in hepatic glucose production
      rates (+/- insulin infusion). Positron emission/computed tomography scans
      indicated higher insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in muscle, but not liver, in
      Irak1 k/o mice in vivo Moreover, insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt was
      higher in muscle, but not in liver, from Irak1 k/o mice ex vivo In conclusion,
      Irak1 deletion improved muscle insulin sensitivity, with the effect being most
      apparent in LFD mice.

PMID- 28572518
TI  - Challenges in the diagnosis and management of dementia in Hong Kong.

PMID- 28572514
TI  - Cell-surface copper transporters and superoxide dismutase 1 are essential for
      outgrowth during fungal spore germination.
AB  - During fungal spore germination, a resting spore returns to a conventional mode
      of cell division and resumes vegetative growth, but the requirements for spore
      germination are incompletely understood. Here, we show that copper is essential
      for spore germination in Schizosaccharomyces pombe Germinating spores develop a
      single germ tube that emerges from the outer spore wall in a process called
      outgrowth. Under low-copper conditions, the copper transporters Ctr4 and Ctr5 are
      maximally expressed at the onset of outgrowth. In the case of Ctr6, its
      expression is broader, taking place before and during outgrowth. Spores lacking
      Ctr4, Ctr5, and the copper sensor Cuf1 exhibit complete germination arrest at
      outgrowth. In contrast, ctr6 deletion only partially interferes with formation of
      outgrowing spores. At outgrowth, Ctr4-GFP and Ctr5-Cherry first co-localize at
      the spore contour, followed by re-location to a middle peripheral spore region.
      Subsequently, they move away from the spore body to occupy the periphery of the
      nascent cell. After breaking of spore dormancy, Ctr6 localizes to the vacuole
      membranes that are enriched in the spore body relative to the germ tube. Using a
      copper-binding tracker, results showed that labile copper is preferentially
      localized to the spore body. Further analysis showed that Ctr4 and Ctr6 are
      required for copper-dependent activation of the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)
      during spore germination. This activation is critical because the loss of SOD1
      activity blocked spore germination at outgrowth. Taken together, these results
      indicate that cell-surface copper transporters and SOD1 are required for
      completion of the spore germination program.

PMID- 28572515
TI  - An allene oxide and 12-oxophytodienoic acid are key intermediates in jasmonic
      acid biosynthesis by Fusarium oxysporum.
AB  - Fungi can produce jasmonic acid (JA) and its isoleucine conjugate in large
      quantities, but little is known about the biosynthesis. Plants form JA from 18:3n
      3 by 13S-lipoxygenase (LOX), allene oxide synthase, and allene oxide cyclase.
      Shaking cultures of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. tulipae released over 200 mg of
      jasmonates per liter. Nitrogen powder of the mycelia expressed 10R-dioxygenase
      epoxy alcohol synthase activities, which was confirmed by comparison with the
      recombinant enzyme. The 13S-LOX of F. oxysporum could not be detected in the cell
      free preparations. Incubation of mycelia in phosphate buffer with [17,17,18,18,18
      2H5]18:3n-3 led to biosynthesis of a [2H5]12-oxo-13-hydroxy-9Z,15Z
      octadecadienoic acid (alpha-ketol), [2H5]12-oxo-10,15Z-phytodienoic acid (12
      OPDA), and [2H5]13-keto- and [2H5]13S-hydroxyoctadecatrienoic acids. The alpha
      ketol consisted of 90% of the 13R stereoisomer, suggesting its formation by
      nonenzymatic hydrolysis of an allene oxide with 13S configuration. Labeled and
      unlabeled 12-OPDA were observed following incubation with 0.1 mM [2H5]18:3n-3 in
      a ratio from 0.4:1 up to 47:1 by mycelia of liquid cultures of different ages,
      whereas 10 times higher concentration of [2H5]13S-hydroperoxyoctadecatrienoic
      acid was required to detect biosynthesis of [2H5]12-OPDA. The allene oxide is
      likely formed by a cytochrome P450 or catalase-related hydroperoxidase. We
      conclude that F. oxysporum, like plants, forms jasmonates with an allene oxide
      and 12-OPDA as intermediates.

PMID- 28572517
TI  - Development of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Hong Kong: current
      challenges and future development.

PMID- 28572516
TI  - Jaspine B induces nonapoptotic cell death in gastric cancer cells independently
      of its inhibition of ceramide synthase.
AB  - Sphingolipids (SLs) have been extensively investigated in biomedical research due
      to their role as bioactive molecules in cells. Here, we describe the effect of a
      SL analog, jaspine B (JB), a cyclic anhydrophytosphingosine found in marine
      sponges, on the gastric cancer cell line, HGC-27. JB induced alterations in the
      sphingolipidome, mainly the accumulation of dihydrosphingosine, sphingosine, and
      their phosphorylated forms due to inhibition of ceramide synthases. Moreover, JB
      provoked atypical cell death in HGC-27 cells, characterized by the formation of
      cytoplasmic vacuoles in a time and dose-dependent manner. Vacuoles appeared to
      originate from macropinocytosis and triggered cytoplasmic disruption. The pan
      caspase inhibitor, z-VAD, did not alter either cytotoxicity or vacuole formation,
      suggesting that JB activates a caspase-independent cell death mechanism. The
      autophagy inhibitor, wortmannin, did not decrease JB-stimulated LC3-II
      accumulation. In addition, cell vacuolation induced by JB was characterized by
      single-membrane vacuoles, which are different from double-membrane
      autophagosomes. These findings suggest that JB-induced cell vacuolation is not
      related to autophagy and it is also independent of its action on SL metabolism.

PMID- 28572519
TI  - The Hong Kong Reference Frameworks-for our doctors and our community.

PMID- 28572520
TI  - Clinical management of sepsis.
AB  - Sepsis is a common cause of hospital admission worldwide and contributes
      significantly to morbidity and mortality. The definition of sepsis has evolved
      from the 1991 American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care
      Medicine definition based on the criteria of systemic inflammatory response
      syndrome, to the 2016 Sepsis-3 definition that incorporates the Sequential Organ
      Failure Assessment score. The landmark trial on protocolised early goal-directed
      therapy was published in 2001, but three subsequent multicentre randomised
      controlled trials (ProCESS, ARISE, and ProMISe) in 2014-2015 did not confirm a
      survival benefit with protocolised care. Over the years, there has been
      considerable improvement in sepsis outcome and management that hinges on early
      detection; timely source control; prompt, appropriate, and correctly dosed
      antibiotics; aggressive fluid resuscitation; and shock reversal. These are all
      directed by repeated bedside assessment. This article summarises recent
      developments and landmark trials that should guide current sepsis management.

PMID- 28572521
TI  - The feeding paradox in advanced dementia: a local perspective.
AB  - Feeding problems are common in older people with advanced dementia. When eating
      difficulties arise tube feeding is often initiated, unless there is a valid
      advance directive that refuses enteral feeding. Tube feeding has many pitfalls
      and complications. To date, no benefits in terms of survival, nutrition, or
      prevention of aspiration pneumonia have been demonstrated. Careful hand feeding
      is an alternative to tube feeding with advanced dementia. In Hong Kong, the
      Hospital Authority has established clear ethical guidelines for careful hand
      feeding. Notwithstanding, there are many practical issues locally if tube feeding
      is not used in older patients with advanced dementia. Training of doctors,
      nurses, and other members of the health care team is vital to the promulgation of
      careful hand feeding. Support from the government and Hospital Authority policy,
      health care staff training, public education, and promotion of advance care
      planning and advance directive are essential to reduce the reliance on tube
      feeding in advanced dementia.

PMID- 28572522
TI  - Mondor's disease: sclerosing thrombophlebitis of subcutaneous veins in a patient
      with occult carcinoma of the breast.

PMID- 28572523
TI  - Self-inflicted transorbital brain injury by chopsticks in a patient with acute
      psychosis.

PMID- 28572524
TI  - Adjuvant S-1 chemotherapy after curative resection of gastric cancer.

PMID- 28572525
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28572526
TI  - Re: Screening for retinopathy of prematurity and treatment outcome in a tertiary
      hospital in Hong Kong.

PMID- 28572530
TI  - Assessment of GSK1904529A as a promising anti-osteosarcoma agent.
AB  - The insulin growth factor-I receptor (IGF1R) signaling is a key mechanism for
      osteosarcoma (OS) cell proliferation. GSK1904529A is a novel small molecule IGF1R
      kinase inhibitor. Its activity against OS cells was tested. In both established
      OS cell lines (Saos-2 and MG-63) and primary human OS cells, treatment with
      GSK1904529A (at nM concentrations) significantly inhibited cell proliferation. At
      the molecular level, GSK1904529A almost completely blocked IGF1R activation in OS
      cells, and inhibited downstream AKT-ERK activation. IGF1R silence by targeted
      shRNA also inhibited AKT-ERK activation and Saos-2 cell proliferation.
      Significantly, GSK1904529A was unable to further inhibit proliferation of IGF1R
      silenced Saos-2 cells. In vivo, GSK1904529A administration orally inhibited Saos
      2 tumor growth in nude mice. Together, these results suggest that targeting IGF1R
      by GSK1904529A inhibits OS cell growth in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28572531
TI  - EGFR G796D mutation mediates resistance to osimertinib.
AB  - Osimertinib is an effective third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved in multiple countries and regions
      for patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC). Despite impressive initial tumor responses, development of drug
      resistance ultimately limits the benefit of this compound. Mechanisms of
      resistance to osimertinib are just beginning to emerge, such as EGFR C797S and
      L718Q mutations, BRAF V600E and PIK3CA E545K mutations, as well as ERBB2 and MET
      amplification. However, a comprehensive view is still missing. In this study, we
      presented the first case of Chinese NSCLC patient who developed resistance to
      osimertinib, and discovered de novo EGFR G796D mutation as a potential mechanism.
      Our findings provided insights into mechanisms of resistance to osimertinib and
      highlighted tumor heterogeneity and clonal evolution during the development of
      drug resistance.

PMID- 28572533
TI  - HAF mediates the evasive resistance of anti-angiogenesis TKI through disrupting
      HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha balance in renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - Anti-angiogenesis has emerged as a standard of care for metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma. However, long-lasting efficacy is seldom reached, and evasive
      resistance eventually occurs under anti-angiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      (TKI) therapy. To establish new therapeutic strategies, investigating the
      molecular mechanism of resistance is critically important. In our study, human
      umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated with TKI treatment
      in conditioned medium derived from renal cancer cells (RCCs) to demonstrate cell
      viability. Quantitative real time PCR or Western blotting analysis detected the
      fluctuation of transcriptional factors HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha in RCCs under
      TKI treatment. We demonstrated the alteration of a specific cytokine produced
      from RCCs under normoxia or hypoxia incubation by utilizing a cytokine RT-PCR
      primer array. We found that the anti-angiogenic TKI sunitinib disrupted the
      balance between HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha in RCCs and led to a protective effect
      on HUVECs against sunitinib treatment when cultured with conditioned medium.
      Mechanistically, RCCs treated with sunitinib resulted in down-regulation of HIF
      1alpha, but not HIF-2alpha, through reduction of both mRNA and protein levels.
      The down-regulation of HIF-1alpha by sunitinib occurred via hypoxia associated
      factor (HAF), which also enhanced HIF-2alpha transactivation activity to increase
      the production of pro-angiogenic factors and cytokines and promote HUVEC
      proliferation. This phenomenon was observed in ACHN and A498 cells, which express
      both HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha, but was not observed in 786-O cells, which
      express only HIF-2alpha. Our results illustrated that targeting both angiogenesis
      and hypoxia pathways might provide a resolution to dealing with the devastating
      effects of anti-angiogenesis resistance.

PMID- 28572534
TI  - Contrast media enhancement reduction predicts tumor response to presurgical
      molecular-targeting therapy in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A quantitative tumor response evaluation to molecular
      targeting agents in advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is debatable. We aimed to
      evaluate the relationship between radiologic tumor response and pathological
      response in patients with advanced RCC who underwent presurgical therapy.
      RESULTS: Of 34 patients, 31 underwent scheduled radical nephrectomy. Presurgical
      therapy agents included axitinib (n = 26), everolimus (n = 3), sunitinib (n = 1),
      and axitinib followed by temsirolimus (n = 1). The major presurgical treatment
      related adverse event was grade 2 or 3 hypertension (44%). The median radiologic
      tumor response by RECIST, Choi, and CMER were -19%, -24%, and -49%, respectively.
      Among the radiologic tumor response tests, CMER showed a higher association with
      tumor necrosis in surgical specimens than others. Ki67/MIB1 status was
      significantly decreased in surgical specimens than in biopsy specimens. The
      magnitude of the slope of the regression line associated with the tumor necrosis
      percentage was greater in CMER than in Choi and RECIST. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Between March 2012 and December 2016, we prospectively enrolled 34 locally
      advanced and/or metastatic RCC who underwent presurgical molecular-targeting
      therapy followed by radical nephrectomy. Primary endpoint was comparison of
      radiologic tumor response among Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors
      (RECIST), Choi, and contrast media enhancement reduction (CMER). Secondary
      endpoint included pathological downstaging, treatment related adverse events,
      postoperative complications, Ki67/MIB1 status, and tumor necrosis. CONCLUSIONS:
      CMER may predict tumor response after presurgical molecular-targeting therapy.
      Larger prospective studies are needed to develop an optimal tumor response
      evaluation for molecular-targeting therapy.

PMID- 28572536
TI  - The detection and significance of EGFR and BRAF in cell-free DNA of peripheral
      blood in NSCLC.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although driver mutation status is crucial to targeted therapy
      decision-making in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), due to unavailable or
      inadequate biopsies, there are still many patients with unknown mutation status.
      A promising way to solve this problem is liquid biopsy, such as cell-free DNA
      (cfDNA) in peripheral blood. Additionally, due to the little amount of cfDNA,
      detecting methods with high sensitivity, specificity and economy are required in
      clinical practice. Here, we explored the feasibility of Competitive Allele
      Specific TaqMan(r) PCR (CastPCR) detecting driver mutations in cfDNA from plasma
      in lung adenocarcinoma patients. RESULTS: Sensitivity, specificity, concordance,
      PPV and NPV of CastPCR detecting EGFR mutations in cfDNA was 56.4% (31/55), 94.2%
      (49/52), 74.8% (80/107), 91.2% (31/34) and 67.1% (49/73), respectively. Notably,
      specificity and PPV for p.T790M both reached 100.0%. For BRAF detection, it was
      28.6% (2/7), 93.0% (93/100), 88.8% (95/107), 22.2% (2/9) and 94.9% (93/98),
      respectively. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plasma specimens of 107 lung adenocarcinoma
      patients and their matched tumor formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples
      were analyzed. CastPCR was used to detect EGFR (c.2235_2249del, c.2236_2250del,
      c.2369C>T p.T790M, c.2573T>G p.L858R) and BRAF (c.1406G>C p.G469A, c.1799T>A
      p.V600E, c.1781A>G p.D594G) mutations. Mutation results of tumor tissue was set
      as gold standard, and the sensitivity, specificity, concordance, positive
      predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for
      each mutation. CONCLUSIONS: For patients whose tumor tissue is unavailable or
      inadequate, EGFR mutation detection in cfDNA with CastPCR could be first choice.
      Mutation positive results may provide reference for further clinical medication.
      While negative results indicate that detection in tissue should be considered as
      the following step. In this way, tumor tissue could be economized to the maximum
      extent and the risk of repeated percutaneous transthoracic lung biopsy could also
      be lowered to the maximum extent. For BRAF detection in cfDNA, CastPCR is a
      specific method while the sensitivity needs further exploration.

PMID- 28572542
TI  - Is there a future for topological analysis in experimental charge-density
      research?
AB  - Topological analysis using Bader and co-worker's Atoms in Molecules theory has
      seen many applications in theoretical chemistry and experimental charge-density
      research. A brief overview of successful early developments, establishing
      topological analysis as a research tool for characterizing intramolecular
      chemical bonding, is provided. A lack of vision in many 'descriptive but not
      predictive' subsequent studies is discussed. Limitations of topology for
      providing accurate energetic estimates of intermolecular interaction energies are
      put into perspective. It is recommended that topological analyses of well
      understood bonding situations are phased out and are only reported for unusual
      bonding. Descriptive studies of intermolecular interactions should have a clear
      research focus.

PMID- 28572543
TI  - The future of topological analysis in experimental charge-density research.
AB  - In a recent paper, Dittrich (2017) critically discussed the benefits of analysing
      experimental electron density within the framework of the quantum theory of atoms
      in molecules, often called simply the topological analysis of the charge density.
      The point he raised is important because it challenges the scientific production
      of a very active community. The question whether this kind of investigation is
      still sensible is intriguing and it fosters a multifaceted answer. Granted that
      none can predict the future of any field of science, but an alternative point of
      view emerges after answering three questions: Why should we investigate the
      electron charge (and spin) density? Is the interpretative scheme proposed by the
      quantum theory of atoms in molecules useful? Is an experimental charge density
      necessary?

PMID- 28572537
TI  - Down-regulation of UBC9 increases the sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma to
      doxorubicin.
AB  - UBC9 is an E2-conjugating enzyme that is required for SUMOylation and has been
      implicated in regulating several critical cellular pathways. UBC9 is
      overexpressed in certain tumors, such as lung adenocarcinoma, ovarian carcinoma
      and melanoma, which implies that it has special clinical significance. However,
      the role of UBC9 in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) drug responsiveness is not
      clear. In this study, we investigated the clinicopathological significance of
      UBC9 in HCC and investigated the mechanism of UBC9-mediated chemosensitivity to
      doxorubicin (DOX) in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. We found that relative to
      adjacent normal tissues, UBC9 was markedly overexpressed in HCC, which closely
      correlated with tumor size, tumor microsatellite formation, and tumor
      encapsulation. Our results also showed that down-regulation of UBC9 by shRNA
      reduced the expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl and increased the expression of
      cleaved-Caspase3, which is a proapoptotic protein. These changes were associated
      with reduced apoptosis in response to DOX. Furthermore, we observed a mechanism
      involving modulation of the P38 and ERK1/2 signaling pathways. Together, our
      results indicate that down-regulation of UBC9 sensitizes cells to anticancer
      drugs, is possibly associated with the regulation of ERK1/2 and P38 activation
      and interacts with the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Thus, knockdown of UBC9 may
      have a tumor suppressor effect and UBC9 could be a potential target for the
      treatment of HCC cancer.

PMID- 28572544
TI  - Temperature-induced reversible structural phase transition and X-ray diffuse
      scattering in 2-amino-3-nitropyridinium hydrogen sulfate.
AB  - The novel polar material 2-amino-3-nitropyridinium hydrogen sulfate,
      C5H6N3O2(HSO4) (abbreviated as 2A3NP-HS), was obtained and structurally
      characterized by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. At room temperature,
      2A3NP-HS crystallizes as a non-centrosymmetric disordered phase (I) in the
      orthorhombic Pna21 space group. On cooling below 298 K, 2A3NP-HS undergoes a
      reversible phase transition to phase (II) with the monoclinic non-centrosymmetric
      P21 space group. This transition might be classified as an 'order-disorder' type.
      The structural details in both phases are analysed. Additionally, for phase (I),
      in the 304-365 K temperature range, diffuse scattering was found to be present in
      the form of elongated streaks parallel to the a* direction. This can be
      unravelled when implementing a short-range order affecting anionic cationic
      ribbons occurring in the structure, with correlations acting both in the a
      direction and in the bc-plane. The results of Monte Carlo simulations, adapting a
      two-dimensional Ising-type model, reveal the formation of domains, which are b
      elongated and thin along a. Locally, the stacking of the ribbons in the domains
      reflects the ordered arrangement observed in the low-temperature monoclinic phase
      (II).

PMID- 28572546
TI  - Identification of a deleterious phase in photocatalyst based on Cd1 -
      xZnxS/Zn(OH)2 by simulated XRD patterns.
AB  - The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of a deleterious phase in the photocatalyst
      based on Cd1 - xZnxS/Zn(OH)2 contains two relatively intense asymmetric peaks
      with d-spacings of 2.72 and 1.56 A. Very small diffraction peaks with interplanar
      distances of (d) ? 8.01, 5.40, 4.09, 3.15, 2.49 and 1.35 A are characteristic of
      this phase but not always observed. To identify this phase, the XRD patterns for
      sheet-like hydroxide beta-Zn(OH)2 and sheet-like hydrozincite Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 as
      well as for turbostratic hydrozincite were simulated. It is shown that the XRD
      pattern calculated on the basis of the last model gives the best correspondence
      with experimental data. Distances between layers in the turbostratically
      disordered hydrozincite fluctuate around d ? 8.01 A. This average layer-to-layer
      distance is significantly higher than the interlayer distance 6.77 A in the
      ordered Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 probably due to a deficiency of CO32- anions, excess OH-
      and the presence of water molecules in the interlayers. It is shown by variable
      temperature XRD and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) that the nanocrystalline
      turbostratic nonstoichiometric hydrozincite-like phase is quite thermostable. It
      decomposes into ZnO in air above 473 K.

PMID- 28572545
TI  - Growth, crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface, optical, piezoelectric, dielectric
      and mechanical properties of bis(L-asparaginium hydrogensquarate) single crystal.
AB  - Molecular organic single crystals of bis(L-asparaginium hydrogensquarate)
      monohydrate [BASQ; (C8H10N2O7)2.H2O] have been grown by solution technique.
      Crystallographic information was investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction
      (SCXRD) analysis. Hirshfeld surface and fingerprint plot studies were performed
      to understand the intermolecular interactions of the BASQ crystal in graphical
      representation. Functional group identification was studied with FT-IR (Fourier
      transform-IR) spectroscopy. The positions of proton and carbon atoms in the BASQ
      compound were analyzed using NMR spectroscopy. High transparency and a wide band
      gap of 3.49 eV were observed in the linear optical study by UV-vis-NIR
      spectroscopy. Intense and broad photoluminescence emissions at room temperature
      were observed in blue and blue-green regions. The frontier molecular orbitals of
      the BASQ molecule were obtained by the DFT/B3LYP method employing 6-311G** as the
      basis set. The dielectric study was carried out with temperature at various
      frequency ranges. The piezoelectric charge coefficient (d33) value of BASQ
      crystal was found to be 2 pC/N, which leads to its application in energy
      harvesting, mechanical sensors and actuators applications. In the non-linear
      optical study, the BASQ crystal showed promising SHG conversion efficiency.
      Mechanical properties of the BASQ crystal were studied experimentally by Vicker's
      microhardness technique, which revealed that the grown crystal belonged to the
      softer category. BASQ crystal void estimation reveals the mechanical strength and
      porosity of the material.

PMID- 28572547
TI  - Could incommensurability in sulfosalts be more common than thought? The case of
      meneghinite, CuPb13Sb7S24.
AB  - The structure of meneghinite (CuPb13Sb7S24), from the Bottino mine in the Apuan
      Alps (Italy), has been solved and refined as an incommensurate structure in four
      dimensional superspace. The structure is orthorhombic, superspace group
      Pnma(0beta0)00s, cell parameters a = 24.0549 (3), b = 4.1291 (6), c = 11.3361
      (16) A, modulation vector q = 0.5433 (4)b*. The structure was refined from 6604
      reflections to a final R = 0.0479. The model includes modulation of both atomic
      positions and displacement parameters, as well as occupational waves. The driving
      forces stabilizing the modulated structure of meneghinite are linked to the
      occupation modulation of Cu and some of the Pb atoms. As a consequence of the
      Cu/[] and Pb/Sb modulations, three- to sevenfold coordinations of the M cations
      (Pb/Sb) occur in different parts of the structure. The almost bimodal
      distribution of the occupation of Cu/[] and Pb/Sb at M5 conforms with the coupled
      substitution Sb3+ + [] -> Pb2+ + Cu+, thus corroborating the hypothesis deduced
      previously for the incorporation of copper in the meneghinite structure. The very
      small departure (~0.54 versus 0.50) from the commensurate value of the modulation
      raises the question of whether other sulfosalts considered superstructures have
      been properly described, and, in this light, if incommensurate modulation in
      sulfosalts could be much more common than thought.

PMID- 28572548
TI  - Ordered vacancy distribution in 2/1 mullite: a superspace model.
AB  - A mullite single crystal with composition Al4.84Si1.16O9.58 (2) exhibiting sharp
      satellite reflections was investigated by means of X-ray diffraction. For the
      refinement of a superspace model in the superspace group Pbam(alpha01/2)0ss
      different scale factors for main and satellite reflections were used in order to
      describe an ordered mullite structure embedded in a disordered polymorph. The
      ordered fraction of the mullite sample exhibits a completely ordered vacancy
      distribution and can be described as a block structure of vacancy blocks (VBs)
      that alternate with vacancy-free blocks (VFBs) along a and c. The incommensurate
      nature of mullite originates from a modulation of the block size, which depends
      on the composition. The displacive modulation is analyzed with respect to the
      vacancy distribution and a possible Al/Si ordering scheme is derived, although
      the measurement itself is not sensitive to the Al/Si distribution. An idealized,
      commensurate approximation for 2/1 mullite is also presented. Comparison of the
      ordered superspace model with different preceding models reconciles many key
      investigations of the last decades with partly contradicting conclusions, where
      mullite was usually treated as either ordered or disordered instead of
      considering simultaneously different states of order.

PMID- 28572549
TI  - The impact of anion ordering on octahedra distortion and phase transitions in
      SrTaO2N and BaTaO2N.
AB  - In this work we synthesized BaTaO2N and SrTaO2N using a two-step high-temperature
      solid-state reaction method and analysed the structural distortions, relative to
      the ideal cubic perovskite structure, according to group theory. From a complete
      distortion analysis/refinement using high-resolution neutron diffraction data in
      the temperature range 8 to 613 K, we identified tetragonal structures for BaTaO2N
      [P4/mmm (No. 123)] and SrTaO2N [I4/mcm (No. 140)]. In contrast to an anion
      disordered cubic perovskite (Pm ?overline{3}m No. 221) with Ta at the cell
      center, both systems show a site preference for oxygen anions in the two opposite
      corners (along the c axis) of the Ta-O/N octahedra rather than the four square
      corners in the ab plane (Gamma3+ occupancy distortion), which induces a
      tetragonal elongation of the unit cell with the c axis being longer than the a
      axis. A further Ta-O/N octahedra displacement [R5-(a,0,0), rotation about the c
      axis] distortion was observed in SrTaO2N. This distortion mode is accompanied by
      an increased unit-cell distortion that decreases as the temperature increases.
      Ultimately a second-order phase transition caused by the loss of the R5-(a,0,0)
      mode was observed at 400-450 K.

PMID- 28572550
TI  - Synthesis, crystallization, X-ray structural characterization and solid-state
      assembly of a cyclic hexapeptoid with propargyl and methoxyethyl side chains.
AB  - The synthesis and the structural characterization of a cyclic hexapeptoid with
      four methoxyethyl and two propargyl side chains have disclosed the presence of a
      hydrate crystal form [form (I)] and an anhydrous crystal form [form (II)]. The
      relative amounts of form (I) and form (II) in the as-purified product were
      determined by Rietveld refinement and depend on the purification procedures. In
      crystal form (I), peptoid molecules assemble in a columnar arrangement by means
      of side-chain-to-backbone C=CH...OC hydrogen bonds. In the anhydrous crystal form
      (II), cyclopeptoid molecules form ribbons by means of backbone-to-backbone
      CH2...OC hydrogen bonds, thus mimicking beta-sheet secondary structures in
      proteins. In both crystal forms side chains act as joints among the columns or
      the ribbons and contribute to the stability of the whole solid-state assembly.
      Water molecules in the hydrate crystal form (I) bridge columns of cyclic peptoid
      molecules, providing a more efficient packing.

PMID- 28572551
TI  - An ordering phase transition, short hydrogen bonds and high Z' in the structure
      of Ni(Hpydc)2.3H2O.
AB  - The structure of Ni(Hpydc)2.3H2O (H2pydc = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid, also
      known as dipicolinic acid) has been reinvestigated at variable temperatures. At
      room temperature, it matches the known structure in the space group P21/c, but at
      180 K it undergoes a phase transformation to a twinned structure in Cc. By 120 K,
      the structure is ordered and twinned with Z' = 4, and shows interesting short
      hydrogen-bonding interactions that include the formation of hydroxonium species.

PMID- 28572552
TI  - Structural and Raman spectroscopic characterization of pyroxene-type compounds in
      the CaCu1-xZnxGe2O6 solid-solution series.
AB  - Pyroxene-type germanate compounds with the composition CaCuGe2O6-CaZnGe2O6 have
      been synthesized via a solid-state ceramic sintering route. Phase-pure
      polycrystalline and small single-crystal material was obtained all over the
      series, representing a complete solid-solution series. Differential thermal
      analysis, single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were used to
      characterize phase stability, phase changes and structural alterations induced by
      the substitution of Cu2+ with Zn2+. Whereas pure CaCuGe2O6 exhibits P21/c
      symmetry with a strong distortion of the M1 octahedra and two different Ge sites,
      one of them with an unusual fivefold coordination, the replacement of Cu2+ by
      Zn2+ induces a chemically driven phase change to the C2/c symmetry. The phase
      change takes place around Zn2+ contents of 0.12 formula units and is associated
      with large changes in the unit-cell parameters. Here, the increase of c by as
      much as 3.2% is remarkable and it is mainly controlled by an expansion of the
      tetrahedral chains. Further differences between the P21/c and C2/c structures are
      a more regular chain of edge-sharing M1 octahedra as a consequence of more and
      more reduced Jahn-Teller distortion and a less kinked, symmetry-equivalent
      tetrahedral chain. The coordination of the Ca site increases from sevenfold to
      eightfold with large changes in the Ca-O bond lengths during the phase change.
      Raman spectroscopy was mainly used to monitor the P21/c to C2/c phase change as a
      function of composition, but also as a function of temperature and to follow
      changes in specific Raman modes throughout the solid-solution series.

PMID- 28572553
TI  - Formation and distortion of iodidoantimonates(III): the first isolated [SbI6]3-
      octahedron.
AB  - The ability to intentionally construct, through different types of interactions,
      inorganic-organic hybrid materials with desired properties is the main goal of
      inorganic crystal engineering. The primary deformation, related to intrinsic
      interactions within inorganic substructure, and the secondary deformation, mainly
      caused by the hydrogen bond interactions, are both responsible for polyhedral
      distortions of halogenidoantimonates(III) with organic cations. The evolution of
      structural parameters, in particular the Sb-I secondary- and O/N/C-H...I hydrogen
      bonds, as a function of temperature assists in understanding the contribution of
      those two distortion factors to the irregularity of [SbI6]3- polyhedra. In
      tris(piperazine-1,4-diium) bis[hexaiodidoantimonate(III)] pentahydrate,
      (C4H12N2)3[SbI6]2.5H2O (TPBHP), where the isolated [SbI6]3- units were found,
      distortion is governed only by O/N/C-H...I hydrogen bonds, whereas in piperazine
      1,4-diium bis[tetraiodidoantimonate(III)] tetrahydrate, (C4H12N2)[SbI4]2.4H2O
      (PBTT), both primary and O-H...I secondary factors cause the deformation of one
      dimensional [{SbI4}n]n- chains. The larger in spatial dimensions piperazine-1,4
      diium cations, in contrast to the smaller water of crystallization molecules, do
      not significantly contribute to the octahedral distortion, especially in PBTT.
      The formation of isolated [SbI6]3- ions in TPBHP is the result of specific second
      coordination sphere hydrogen bond interactions that stabilize the hybrid
      structure and simultaneously effectively separate and prevent [SbI6]3- units from
      mutual interactions. The temperature-induced changes, further supported by the
      analysis of data retrieved from the Cambridge Structural Database, illustrate the
      significance of both primary and secondary distortion factors on the deformation
      of octahedra. Also, a comparison of packing features in the studied hybrids with
      those in the non-metal containing piperazine-1,4-diium diiodide diiodine
      (C4H12N2)I2.I2 (PDD) confirms the importance and hierarchy of different types of
      interactions.

PMID- 28572554
TI  - [Die Symmetrie von Spiralketten].
AB  - In crystals, polymeric chain molecules often adopt helical structures. Neglecting
      small distortions possibly caused by an anisotropic environment within the
      crystal, the symmetry of the single helix can be described by a rod group, which
      has translational symmetry in one dimension. The rod groups have Hermann-Mauguin
      symbols similar to space groups, beginning with a script style ?scr p followed by
      a screw-axis symbol; the order of the screw axis can adopt any value. In a
      crystal, the rod-site symmetry, the so-called penetration rod group, must be a
      common crystallographic rod subgroup of the molecular rod group and the space
      group. Instructions are given for the derivation of the rod subgroups in question
      for a molecular helical rod group of any order. In polymer chemistry, a helix is
      designated by a (chemical) symbol like 7/2, which means 7 repeating units in 2
      coil turns of covalent bonds per translational period. The corresponding Hermann
      Mauguin screw-axis symbol is easily derived with a simple formula from this
      chemical symbol; for a 7/2 helix it is 73 or 74, depending on chirality. However,
      it is not possible to deduce the chemical symbol from the Hermann-Mauguin symbol,
      because it depends on where the covalent bonds are assumed to exist. Covalent
      bonds are irrelevant for symmetry considerations; a symmetry symbol does not
      depend on them. A chemically right-handed helix can have a left-handed screw
      axis. The derivation of the Hermann-Mauguin symbol of a multiple helix is not
      that easy, as it depends on the mutual position of the interlocked helices;
      conversion formulae for simpler cases are presented. Instead of covalent bonds,
      other kinds of linking can serve to define the chemical helix, for example, edge-
      or face-sharing coordination polyhedra.

PMID- 28572555
TI  - Searching for stereoisomerism in crystallographic databases: algorithm, analysis
      and chiral curiosities.
AB  - The automated identification of chiral centres in molecular residues is a non
      trivial task. Current tools that allow the user to analyze crystallographic data
      entries do not identify chiral centres in some of the more complex ring
      structures, or lack the possibility to determine and compare the chirality of
      multiple structures. This article presents an approach to identify asymmetric C
      atoms, which is based on the atomic walk count algorithm presented by Rucker &
      Rucker [(1993), J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 33, 683-695]. The algorithm, which we
      implemented in a computer program named ChiChi, is able to compare isomeric
      residues based on the chiral centres that were identified. This allows for
      discrimination between enantiomers, diastereomers and constitutional isomers that
      are present in crystallographic databases. ChiChi was used to process 254 354
      organic entries from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). A thorough analysis
      of stereoisomerism in the CSD is presented accompanied by a collection of chiral
      curiosities that illustrate the strength and versatility of this approach.

PMID- 28572556
TI  - Sr1/2Ce5/14?1/7WO4: a new modulated ternary scheelite compound.
AB  - For the first time, a ternary tetragonal scheelite structure tungstate with
      strontium and cerium cations, (Sr,Ce)WO4, was synthesized. As much as 35% Ce
      could be inserted into the structure, leaving 1?over 7 of the (Sr,Ce) cation
      sites vacant. Partial ordering of Sr and Ce, with atomic displacements, were
      shown by high-resolution electron microscopy. Two-dimensional incommensurate
      modulations occur in this material, in small domains 20 nm in size. The band gap
      of this compound is significantly lower than the band gap of SrWO4 and this was
      related to the distortions of WO4 and (Sr,Ce)O8 polyhedra. The band gap value of
      3.2 eV makes Sr1/2Ce5/14?1/7WO4 a promising candidate for violet luminescence.

PMID- 28572557
TI  - The hydrogen bond between N-H or O-H and organic fluorine: favourable yes,
      competitive no.
AB  - A study was made of X-H...F-C interactions (X = N or O) in small-molecule crystal
      structures. It was primarily based on 6728 structures containing X-H and C-F and
      no atom heavier than chlorine. Of the 28 451 C-F moieties in these structures,
      1051 interact with X-H groups. However, over three-quarters of these interactions
      are either the weaker components of bifurcated hydrogen bonds (so likely to be
      incidental contacts) or occur in structures where there is a clear insufficiency
      of good hydrogen-bond acceptors such as oxygen, nitrogen or halide. In structures
      where good acceptors are entirely absent, there is about a 2 in 3 chance that a
      given X-H group will donate to fluorine. Viable alternatives are X-H...pi
      hydrogen bonds (especially to electron-rich aromatics) and dihydrogen bonds. The
      average H...F distances of X-H...F-C interactions are significantly shorter for
      CR3F (R = C or H) and Csp2-F acceptors than for CRF3. The X-H...F angle
      distribution is consistent with a weak energetic preference for linearity, but
      that of H...F-C suggests a flat energy profile in the range 100-180 degrees . X
      H...F-C interactions are more likely when the acceptor is Csp2-F or CR3F, and
      when the donor is C-NH2. They also occur significantly more often in structures
      containing tertiary alcohols or solvent molecules, or with Z' > 1, i.e. when
      there may be unusual packing problems. It is extremely rare to find X-H...F-C
      interactions in structures where there are several unused good acceptors. When it
      does happen, there is often a clear reason, e.g. awkwardly shaped molecules whose
      packing isolates a donor group from the good acceptors.

PMID- 28572558
TI  - Synthesis and crystal structure of pyrroloquinoline quinol (PQQH2) and
      pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ).
AB  - Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is a water-soluble quinone compound first
      identified as a cofactor of alcohol- and glucose-dehydrogenases (ADH and GDH) in
      bacteria. For example, in the process of ADH reaction, alcohol is oxidized to the
      corresponding aldehyde, and inversely PQQ is reduced to pyrroloquinoline quinol
      (PQQH2). PQQ and PQQH2 molecules play an important role as a cofactor in ADH and
      GDH reactions. However, crystal structure analysis has not been performed for PQQ
      and PQQH2. In the present study, the synthesis of PQQH2 powder crystals was
      performed under air, by utilizing vitamin C as a reducing agent. By reacting a
      trihydrate of disodium salt of PQQ (PQQNa2.3H2O) with excess vitamin C in H2O at
      293 and 343 K, yellowish brown and black powder crystals of PQQH2 having
      different properties were obtained in high yield, respectively. The former was
      PQQH2 trihydrate (PQQH2.3H2O) and the latter was PQQH2 anhydrate (PQQH2).
      Furthermore, sodium-free red PQQ powder crystal (a monohydrate of PQQ, PQQ.H2O)
      was prepared by the reaction of PQQNa2.3H2O with HCl in H2O. Single crystals of
      PQQH2 and PQQ were prepared from Me2SO/CH3CN mixed solvent, and we have succeeded
      in the crystal structure analyses of PQQH2 and PQQ for the first time.

PMID- 28572559
TI  - Crystallographic and optical study of LiNb1 - xTaxO3.
AB  - Powders of lithium niobate-tantalate across the full compositional range have
      been made and crystals grown using a lithium vanadate flux growth technique. The
      Li-content of a lithium tantalate crystal has been determined using the zero
      birefringence temperature and Curie measurements, confirming the Li content is
      between that of congruent and stoichiometric crystals. X-ray diffraction
      measurements show the Nb/Ta displacement and octahedral tilt both decrease as the
      Ta content is increased. This also results in a decrease in the lattice
      parameters from lithium niobate to lithium tantalate. Birefringence measurements
      on the crystals as a function of temperature have been used to determine the
      point that the crystals become zero-birefringent, and by comparison with the
      structural studies have confirmed that it is not related to a phase transition
      and the structures remain polar through the zero-birefringence points.

PMID- 28572560
TI  - Chiral and achiral crystals, charge-assisted hydrogen-bond patterns and self
      organization of selected solid diaminium thiosulfates.
AB  - A series of diaminium thiosulfates, derivatives of diamines: NH2CH2CH(CH3)NH2 (1)
      and NH2(CH2)nNH2, n = 3-6 [(2)-(5)] and thiosulfuric acid were prepared and their
      structures determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds
      (1), (2) and (4) turned out to be hydrates. The crystal structure of 1,2
      propylenediaminium thiosulfate is chiral and exhibits spontaneous resolution.
      Crystals for both enantiomers [(1a) and (1b)] were obtained with high
      enantiometric excess and examined. An extended network of strong, charge-assisted
      hydrogen bonding of the +N-H...O- type (also O-H...O and O-H...S for hydrates) is
      most likely the main factor defining crystal packing and the variable
      conformation of the cations. The formation of chiral hydrogen-bond motifs -
      distorted cubans - seems to induce the formation of chiral solid-state structure
      from achiral components in the case of (4). Diaminium thiosulfates with an odd
      number of C atoms in the alkyl chain [compounds (1), (2) and (4)] form three
      dimensional supramolecular networks, while in the case of diaminium salts with an
      even number of C atoms [(3) and (5)], two-dimensional layers of hydrogen-bond
      domains are observed. The aminium thiosulfates were also characterized by
      elemental analysis, NMR and Fourier transform (FT)-IR spectroscopy. The
      conformations of alpha,omega-alkyldiaminium cations in the solid state are
      discussed and rationalized by DFT calculations.

PMID- 28572561
TI  - Follicular B Cell Lymphoma with Accompanying Ischemic Gastritis Completely
      Resolved by Rituximab.
AB  - BACKGROUND Follicular B cell lymphomas account for a significant portion of all
      newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. While involvement can be varied, the
      most common extranodal presentation is within the gastrointestinal tract beyond
      the stomach. In addition, the stomach has a diffuse multivessel vascular supply,
      which decreases the likelihood of developing ischemic gastritis. CASE REPORT An
      89-year-old woman with history of diabetes, deep venous thromboembolism, and
      hypertension was referred due to a newly diagnosed retroperitoneal mass. Biopsy
      of a left para-aortic node was consistent with low-grade follicular B cell
      lymphoma. Following mainstream treatment guidelines, rituximab was administered.
      Approximately 12 hours later, the patient presented to the Emergency Department
      with intractable vomiting and nausea. After admission, an
      esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) revealed extensive ischemic gastritis. Due to
      recurrent ascites requiring frequent paracenteses, and the clinical
      aggressiveness of the patient's underlying lymphoma, a second dose of rituximab
      was administered with concurrent initiation of total parenteral nutrition.
      Approximately 1 week later, the patient underwent a repeat EGD for quality of
      life planning while in hospice. The repeat EGD revealed resolved ischemic
      gastritis. Her diet was advanced and she was subsequently discharged home.
      CONCLUSIONS Rituximab alone shows promise in treating extensive follicular B cell
      lymphoma complicated by ischemic gastritis, which has not been previously
      reported in the literature.

PMID- 28572562
TI  - Resolvin D1 Attenuates Mpp+-Induced Parkinson Disease via Inhibiting Inflammation
      in PC12 Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND We investigated the influence of Resolvin D1 (RvD1) on the
      inflammatory response in PC12 cells (a cell model of Parkinson disease, PD).
      MATERIAL AND METHODS 4 mmol/L 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion (Mpp+) was used in
      PC12 cells for an in vitro PD model. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2
      H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to explore PC12 cell viability.
      Western blot (WB) experiments were used to identify nuclear factor-kappaB (NF
      kappaB), phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK)/p-Jun N
      terminal kinase (JNK)/p-P38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and interleukin (IL)-6 protein levels. Transcription
      levels of inflammatory factors, for instance, TNF-alpha and IL-6, were explored
      by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR). Lactic
      dehydrogenase (LDH) level was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA).
      Cell apoptosis was assessed by Annexin-V Fluorescein (FITC) kit. RESULTS RvD1
      dose-dependently inhibited MPP+ induced upregulation of PC12 cell
      apoptosis/cellular damage/TNF-alpha and p-P38/p-ERK/NF-kappaB as well as
      downregulation of PC12 cell viability. CONCLUSIONS We can draw the conclusion
      that RvD1 attenuates PD via inhibiting Mpp+-induced inflammation in PC12 cells.

PMID- 28572563
TI  - Effect of Recipient Age at Liver Transplantation on Prevalence of Post-Transplant
      Donor-Specific HLA Antibody.
AB  - BACKGROUND Post-transplant donor-specific HLA antibodies (DSA) may have a
      detrimental effect on long-term outcomes of organ transplantation. The aim of
      this study was to specifically evaluate the effect of recipient age on the
      prevalence of DSA over a long-term follow-up after living donor liver
      transplantation (LDLT). MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of DSA
      evaluations was performed in 50 pediatric patients with HLA data available.
      Patients were divided into 2 groups based on their age at the time of LDLT:
      younger (Y) group, age <3 years; older (O) group, age >=3 years. DSA evaluation
      was performed using Luminex single-antigen bead assays, with a mean fluorescence
      intensity >=1000 used as a cut-off for positive results. RESULTS There were no
      between-group differences in terms of sex, ABO incompatibility or acute
      rejection. Only one of our 50 patients tested positive for class I DSA.
      Significantly more patients tested positive for HLA-DR DSA in group Y (40.6%)
      than in group O (11.1%; p=0.02). Recipients <3 years of age at the time of LDLT
      may be at a higher risk of testing positive for class II DSA. CONCLUSIONS These
      findings can inform the implementation of cost-effective screening of post
      transplant DSA in pediatric LDLT recipients.

PMID- 28572565
TI  - Thickness-dependent Crack Propagation in Uniaxially Strained Conducting Graphene
      Oxide Films on Flexible Substrates.
AB  - We demonstrate that crack propagation in uniaxially strained reduced graphene
      oxide (rGO) films is substantially dependent on the film thickness, for films in
      the sub-micron regime. rGO film on flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate
      develop quasi-periodic cracks upon application of strain. The crack density and
      crack width follow contrasting trends as film thickness is increased and the
      results are described in terms of a sequential cracking model. Further, these
      cracks also have a tendency to relax when the strain is released. These features
      are also reflected in the strain-dependent electrical dc and ac conductivity
      studies. For an optimal thickness (3-coat), the films behave as strain-resistant,
      while for all other values it becomes strain-responsive, attributed to a
      favorable combination of crack density and width. This study of the film
      thickness dependent response and the crack propagation mechanism under strain is
      a significant step for rationalizing the application of layered graphene-like
      systems for flexible optoelectronic and strain sensing applications. When the
      thickness is tuned for enhanced extent of crack propagation, strain-sensors with
      gauge factor up to ~470 are realized with the same material. When thickness is
      chosen to suppress the crack propagation, strain-resistive flexible TiO2- rGO UV
      photoconductor is realized.

PMID- 28572564
TI  - Plasmacytoid dendritic cells appear inactive during sub-microscopic Plasmodium
      falciparum blood-stage infection, yet retain their ability to respond to TLR
      stimulation.
AB  - Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) are activators of innate and adaptive immune
      responses that express HLA-DR, toll-like receptor (TLR) 7, TLR9 and produce type
      I interferons. The role of human pDC in malaria remains poorly characterised. pDC
      activation and cytokine production were assessed in 59 malaria-naive volunteers
      during experimental infection with 150 or 1,800 P. falciparum-parasitized red
      blood cells. Using RNA sequencing, longitudinal changes in pDC gene expression
      were examined in five adults before and at peak-infection. pDC responsiveness to
      TLR7 and TLR9 stimulation was assessed in-vitro. Circulating pDC remained
      transcriptionally stable with gene expression altered for 8 genes (FDR < 0.07).
      There was no upregulation of co-stimulatory molecules CD86, CD80, CD40, and
      reduced surface expression of HLA-DR and CD123 (IL-3R-alpha). pDC loss from the
      circulation was associated with active caspase-3, suggesting pDC apoptosis during
      primary infection. pDC remained responsive to TLR stimulation, producing IFN
      alpha and upregulating HLA-DR, CD86, CD123 at peak-infection. In clinical
      malaria, pDC retained HLA-DR but reduced CD123 expression compared to
      convalescence. These data demonstrate pDC retain function during a first blood
      stage P. falciparum exposure despite sub-microscopic parasitaemia downregulating
      HLA-DR. The lack of evident pDC activation in both early infection and malaria
      suggests little response of circulating pDC to infection.

PMID- 28572566
TI  - Genome-Wide Comparative Analysis of Miniature Inverted Repeat Transposable
      Elements in 19 Arabidopsis thaliana Ecotype Accessions.
AB  - Miniature inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are prevalent in
      eukaryotic genomes. They are known to critically influence the process of genome
      evolution and play a role in gene regulation. As the first study concentrated in
      the transposition activities of MITEs among different ecotype accessions within a
      species, we conducted a genome-wide comparative analysis by characterizing and
      comparing MITEs in 19 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. A total of 343485 MITE
      putative sequences, including canonical, diverse and partial ones, were
      delineated from all 19 accessions. Within the entire population of MITEs
      sequences, 80.7% of them were previously unclassified MITEs, demonstrating a
      different genomic distribution and functionality compared to the classified
      MITEs. The interactions between MITEs and homologous genes across 19 accessions
      provided a fine source for analyzing MITE transposition activities and their
      impacts on genome evolution. Moreover, a significant proportion of MITEs were
      found located in the last exon of genes besides the ordinary intron locality,
      thus potentially modifying the end of genes. Finally, analysis of the impact of
      MITEs on gene expression suggests that migrations of MITEs have no detectable
      effect on the expression level for host genes across accessions.

PMID- 28572567
TI  - Ultrasensitive Multi-Functional Flexible Sensors Based on Organic Field-Effect
      Transistors with Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Sensing Layers.
AB  - Ultrasensitive flexible sensors with multi-sensing functions are required for
      various applications in flexible electronics era. Here we demonstrate flexible
      polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC)-integrated-organic field-effect
      transistors (OFETs) (PDLC-i-OFETs), which sensitively respond to various
      stimulations including weak gas (air) flow, direct physical touch, light, and
      heat. The flexible PDLC-i-OFETs were fabricated by spin-coating the poly(methyl
      methacrylate) (PMMA)-dispersed 4,4'-pentyl-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) layers on the
      poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) channel layers of OFETs with 200 MUm-thick
      poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) substrates. The flexible PDLC-i-OFET devices
      could sense very weak nitrogen gas flow (0.3 sccm), which cannot be felt by human
      skins, and stably responded to direct physical touches (0.6~4.8 g load). In
      addition, the present devices showed very sensitive photoresponses to a visible
      light and exhibited excellent heat-sensing characteristics at a temperature of
      25~70  degrees C. In particular, the present flexible PDLC-i-OFET devices could
      sense two different stimulations at the same time, indicative of promising multi
      sensing capabilities.

PMID- 28572568
TI  - Hydrologic Evaluation of TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis for Nanliu
      River Basin in Humid Southwestern China.
AB  - The accuracy of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) multi-satellite
      precipitation analysis (TMPA) daily accumulated precipitation products (3B42RTV7
      and 3B42V7) was evaluated for a small basin (the Nanliu river basin). A direct
      comparison was performed against gauge observations from a period of 9 years
      (2000-2009) at temporal and spatial scales. The results show that the temporal
      spatial precipitation characteristics of the Nanliu river basin are highly
      consistent with 3B42V7 relative to 3B42RTV7, with higher correlation coefficient
      (CC) approximately 0.9 at all temporal scales except for the daily scale and a
      lower relative bias percentage. 3B42V7 slightly overestimates precipitation at
      all temporal scales except the yearly scale; it slightly underestimates the
      precipitation at the daily spatial scale. The results also reveal that the
      precision of TMPA products increases with longer time-aggregated data, and the
      detection capability of daily TMPA precipitation products are enhanced by
      augmentation with daily precipitation rates. In addition, daily TMPA products
      were input into the Xin'anjiang hydrologic model; the results show that 3B42V7
      based simulated outputs were well in line with actual stream flow observations,
      with a high CC (0.90) and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE, 0.79), and
      the results adequately captured the pattern of the observed flow curve.

PMID- 28572569
TI  - Young children display an increase in prosocial donating in response to an
      upwards shift in generosity by a same-aged peer.
AB  - Adult humans frequently engage in the reciprocal exchange of resources with other
      individuals. However, despite the important role that reciprocity plays in
      maintaining co-operative exchange we know relatively little of when, and how,
      reciprocity develops. We first asked whether pairs of young children (M = 74
      months) would engage in direct reciprocity in a 'prosocial choice test' where a
      donor could select either a higher, or a lower, value reward (1v 2) for a partner
      at no cost to themselves (1v 1). In a subsequent retest we asked, for the first
      time, whether young children increase their level of prosocial donating in
      response to an upwards shift in generosity from an initially selfish partner. In
      order to determine whether interacting with another child was fundamental to the
      development of reciprocity we included a novel yoked non-agent condition. The
      results suggest that the children were engaging in a calculated form of
      reciprocity where the prior behavior of their child partner influenced their
      subsequent level of donation days after the initial exchange. Crucially we show
      that the children were not influenced by the value of the rewards received per
      se, rather selection by a human agent was key to reciprocity.

PMID- 28572570
TI  - A molecular roadmap for induced multi-lineage trans-differentiation of
      fibroblasts by chemical combinations.

PMID- 28572571
TI  - A molecular roadmap for induced multi-lineage trans-differentiation of
      fibroblasts by chemical combinations.

PMID- 28572572
TI  - Inverse Tunnel Magnetocapacitance in Fe/Al-oxide/Fe3O4.
AB  - Magnetocapacitance (MC) effect, observed in a wide range of materials and
      devices, such as multiferroic materials and spintronic devices, has received
      considerable attention due to its interesting physical properties and practical
      applications. A normal MC effect exhibits a higher capacitance when spins in the
      electrodes are parallel to each other and a lower capacitance when spins are
      antiparallel. Here we report an inverse tunnel magnetocapacitance (TMC) effect
      for the first time in Fe/AlOx/Fe3O4 magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The inverse
      TMC reaches up to 11.4% at room temperature and the robustness of spin
      polarization is revealed in the bias dependence of the inverse TMC. Excellent
      agreement between theory and experiment is achieved for the entire applied
      frequency range and the wide bipolar bias regions using Debye-Frohlich model
      (combined with the Zhang formula and parabolic barrier approximation) and spin
      dependent drift-diffusion model. Furthermore, our theoretical calculations
      predict that the inverse TMC effect could potentially reach 150% in MTJs with a
      positive and negative spin polarization of 65% and -42%, respectively. These
      theoretical and experimental findings provide a new insight into both static and
      dynamic spin-dependent transports. They will open up broader opportunities for
      device applications, such as magnetic logic circuits and multi-valued memory
      devices.

PMID- 28572573
TI  - Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B is a mediator of cyclic ADP ribose-induced Ca2+
      signaling in ventricular myocytes.
AB  - Cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) releases Ca2+ from ryanodine receptor (RyR)-sensitive
      calcium pools in various cell types. In cardiac myocytes, the physiological
      levels of cADPR transiently increase the amplitude and frequency of Ca2+ (that
      is, a rapid increase and decrease of calcium within one second) during the
      cardiac action potential. In this study, we demonstrated that cADPR levels higher
      than physiological levels induce a slow and gradual increase in the resting
      intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) level over 10 min by inhibiting the sarcoendoplasmic
      reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA). Higher cADPR levels mediate the tyrosine
      dephosphorylation of alpha-actin by protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B)
      present in the endoplasmic reticulum. The tyrosine dephosphorylation of alpha
      actin dissociates phospholamban, the key regulator of SERCA, from alpha-actin and
      results in SERCA inhibition. The disruption of the integrity of alpha-actin by
      cytochalasin B and the inhibition of alpha-actin tyrosine dephosphorylation by a
      PTP1B inhibitor block cADPR-mediated Ca2+ increase. Our results suggest that
      levels of cADPR that are relatively higher than normal physiological levels
      modify calcium homeostasis through the dephosphorylation of alpha-actin by PTB1B
      and the subsequent inhibition of SERCA in cardiac myocytes.

PMID- 28572574
TI  - Survive or thrive: tradeoff strategy for cellular senescence.
AB  - Aging-dependent cellular behaviors toward extrinsic stress are characterized by
      the confined localization of certain molecules to either nuclear or perinuclear
      regions. Although most growth factors can activate downstream signaling in aging
      cells, they do not in fact have any impact on the cells because the signals
      cannot reach their genetic targets in the nucleus. For the same reason, varying
      apoptotic stress factors cannot stimulate the apoptotic pathway in senescent
      cells. Thus, the operation of a functional nuclear barrier in an aging-dependent
      manner has been investigated. To elucidate the mechanism for this process, the
      housekeeping transcription factor Sp1 was identified as a general regulator of
      nucleocytoplasmic trafficking (NCT) genes, including various nucleoporins,
      importins, exportins and Ran GTPase cycle-related genes. Interestingly, the
      posttranslational modification of Sp1 is readily influenced by extrinsic stress,
      including oxidative and metabolic stress. The decrease in SP1 O-GlcNAcylation
      under oxidative stress or during replicative senescence makes it susceptible to
      proteosomal degradation, resulting in defective NCT functions and leading to
      nuclear barrier formation. The operation of the nuclear barrier in aging provides
      a fundamental mechanism for cellular protection against stress and promotes
      survival at the expense of growth via stress-sensitive transcriptional control.

PMID- 28572576
TI  - EMBuilder: A Template Matching-based Automatic Model-building Program for High
      resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Maps.
AB  - The resolution of electron-potential maps in single-particle cryo-electron
      microscopy (cryoEM) is approaching atomic or near- atomic resolution. However, no
      program currently exists for de novo cryoEM model building at resolutions
      exceeding beyond 3.5 A. Here, we present a program, EMBuilder, based on template
      matching, to generate cryoEM models at high resolution. The program identifies
      features in both secondary-structure and Calpha stages. In the secondary
      structure stage, helices and strands are identified with pre-computed templates,
      and the voxel size of the entire map is then refined to account for microscopic
      magnification errors. The identified secondary structures are then extended from
      both ends in the Calpha stage via a log-likelihood (LLK) target function, and if
      possible, the side chains are also assigned. This program can build models of
      large proteins (~1 MDa) in a reasonable amount of time (~1 day) and thus has the
      potential to greatly decrease the manual workload required for model building of
      high-resolution cryoEM maps.

PMID- 28572575
TI  - The Argi system: one-step purification of proteins tagged with arginine-rich cell
      penetrating peptides.
AB  - The discovery of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) opened new perspectives for the
      delivery of proteins into human cells. It is considered that in the future CPP
      mediated transport of therapeutic proteins may find applications in the treatment
      of human diseases. Despite this fact a fast and simple method for the
      purification of CPP-tagged proteins, free of additional tags, was not available
      to date. To fill this gap we developed the Argi system for one-step purification
      of proteins tagged with arginine rich CPPs.

PMID- 28572577
TI  - Three-Dimensional Geometry of Collagenous Tissues by Second Harmonic Polarimetry.
AB  - Collagen is a biological macromolecule capable of second harmonic generation,
      allowing label-free detection in tissues; in addition, molecular orientation can
      be determined from the polarization dependence of the second harmonic signal.
      Previously we reported that in-plane orientation of collagen fibrils could be
      determined by modulating the polarization angle of the laser during scanning. We
      have now extended this method so that out-of-plane orientation angles can be
      determined at the same time, allowing visualization of the 3-dimensional
      structure of collagenous tissues. This approach offers advantages compared with
      other methods for determining out-of-plane orientation. First, the orientation
      angles are directly calculated from the polarimetry data obtained in a single
      scan, while other reported methods require data from multiple scans, use of
      iterative optimization methods, application of fitting algorithms, or extensive
      post-optical processing. Second, our method does not require highly specialized
      instrumentation, and thus can be adapted for use in almost any nonlinear optical
      microscopy setup. It is suitable for both basic and clinical applications. We
      present three-dimensional images of structurally complex collagenous tissues that
      illustrate the power of such 3-dimensional analyses to reveal the architecture of
      biological structures.

PMID- 28572578
TI  - Integrated fiber optical receiver reducing the gap to the quantum limit.
AB  - Experimental results of a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) based optical
      fiber receiver integrated in 0.35 um PIN-photodiode CMOS technology are
      presented. To cope with the parasitic effects of SPADs an array of four receivers
      is implemented. The SPADs consist of a multiplication zone and a separate thick
      absorption zone to achieve a high photon detection probability (PDP). In addition
      cascoded quenchers allow to use a quenching voltage of twice the usual supply
      voltage, i.e. 6.6 V instead of 3.3 V, in order to increase the PDP further.
      Measurements result in sensitivities of -55.7 dBm at a data rate of 50 Mbit/s and
      -51.6 dBm at 100 Mbit/s for a wavelength of 635 nm and a bit-error ratio of 2 *
      10-3, which is sufficient to perform error correction. These sensitivities are
      better than those of linear-mode APD receivers integrated in the same CMOS
      technology. These results are a major advance towards direct detection optical
      receivers working close to the quantum limit.

PMID- 28572579
TI  - Trichogenic-selenium nanoparticles enhance disease suppressive ability of
      Trichoderma against downy mildew disease caused by Sclerospora graminicola in
      pearl millet.
AB  - Trichoderma spp. are well known biocontrol agents used against phytopathogens. In
      the present work Trichoderma-mediated Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were
      synthesized and extent of downy mildew (DM) disease control in pearl millet (PM)
      was studied. Six species of Trichoderma namely, T. asperellum, T. harzianum, T.
      atroviride, T. virens, T. longibrachiatum and T. brevicompactum were evaluated in
      the form of culture filtrate (CF), cell lysate (CL) and crude cell wall (CW) to
      synthesize SeNPs. All these components produced SeNPs, but CF was significant
      than CL and CW. The size of SeNPs ranged from 49.5 to 312.5 nm with zeta
      potential of +3.3 mv to -200 mv. The nanoparticles suppressed the growth,
      sporulation and zoospore viability of Sclerospora graminicola and these
      biological activities were inversely proportional to the size of SeNPs. Under
      greenhouse conditions, application of SeNPs and T. asperellum together enhanced
      the early plant growth and suppressed DM incidence as compared to their
      individual application. This study demonstrated the ability of Trichogenic-SeNPs
      to suppress growth and proliferation of S. graminicola, the incitant of DM of PM
      and their activity is inversely proportional to size of nanoparticles.

PMID- 28572580
TI  - UROPA: a tool for Universal RObust Peak Annotation.
AB  - The annotation of genomic ranges of interest represents a recurring task for
      bioinformatics analyses. These ranges can originate from various sources,
      including peaks called for transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) or histone
      modification ChIP-seq experiments, chromatin structure and accessibility
      experiments (such as ATAC-seq), but also from other types of predictions that
      result in genomic ranges. While peak annotation primarily driven by ChiP-seq was
      extensively explored, many approaches remain simplistic ("most closely located
      TSS"), rely on fixed pre-built references, or require complex scripting tasks on
      behalf of the user. An adaptable, fast, and universal tool, capable to annotate
      genomic ranges in the respective biological context is critically missing. UROPA
      (Universal RObust Peak Annotator) is a command line based tool, intended for
      universal genomic range annotation. Based on a configuration file, different
      target features can be prioritized with multiple integrated queries. These can be
      sensitive for feature type, distance, strand specificity, feature attributes
      (e.g. protein_coding) or anchor position relative to the feature. UROPA can
      incorporate reference annotation files (GTF) from different sources (Gencode,
      Ensembl, RefSeq), as well as custom reference annotation files. Statistics and
      plots transparently summarize the annotation process. UROPA is implemented in
      Python and R.

PMID- 28572581
TI  - Role of interfaces on the stability and electrical properties of Ge2Sb2Te5
      crystalline structures.
AB  - GeSbTe-based materials exhibit multiple crystalline phases, from disordered
      rocksalt, to rocksalt with ordered vacancy layers, and to the stable trigonal
      phase. In this paper we investigate the role of the interfaces on the structural
      and electrical properties of Ge2Sb2Te5. We find that the site of nucleation of
      the metastable rocksalt phase is crucial in determining the evolution towards
      vacancy ordering and the stable phase. By properly choosing the substrate and the
      capping layers, nucleation sites engineering can be obtained, thus promoting or
      preventing the vacancy ordering in the rocksalt structure or the conversion into
      the trigonal phase. The vacancy ordering occurs at lower annealing temperatures
      (170  degrees C) for films deposited in the amorphous phase on silicon (111),
      compared to the case of SiO2 substrate (200  degrees C), or in presence of a
      capping layer (330  degrees C). The mechanisms governing the nucleation have been
      explained in terms of interfacial energies. Resistance variations of about one
      order of magnitude have been measured upon transition from the disordered to the
      ordered rocksalt structure and then to the trigonal phase. The possibility to
      control the formation of the crystalline phases characterized by marked
      resistivity contrast is of fundamental relevance for the development of
      multilevel phase change data storage.

PMID- 28572582
TI  - Coordination Between the Sexes Constrains the Optimization of Reproductive Timing
      in Honey Bee Colonies.
AB  - Honeybees are an excellent model system for examining how trade-offs shape
      reproductive timing in organisms with seasonal environments. Honeybee colonies
      reproduce two ways: producing swarms comprising a queen and thousands of workers
      or producing males (drones). There is an energetic trade-off between producing
      workers, which contribute to colony growth, and drones, which contribute only to
      reproduction. The timing of drone production therefore determines both the
      drones' likelihood of mating and when colonies reach sufficient size to swarm.
      Using a linear programming model, we ask when a colony should produce drones and
      swarms to maximize reproductive success. We find the optimal behavior for each
      colony is to produce all drones prior to swarming, an impossible solution on a
      population scale because queens and drones would never co-occur. Reproductive
      timing is therefore not solely determined by energetic trade-offs but by the game
      theoretic problem of coordinating the production of reproductives among colonies.

PMID- 28572583
TI  - Perioperative and anesthesia-related cardiac arrests in geriatric patients: a
      systematic review using meta-regression analysis.
AB  - The worldwide population is aging, and the number of surgeries performed in
      geriatric patients is increasing. This systematic review evaluated anesthetic
      procedures to assess global data on perioperative and anesthesia-related cardiac
      arrest (CA) rates in geriatric surgical patients. Available data on perioperative
      and anesthesia-related CA rates over time and by the country's Human Development
      Index (HDI) were evaluated by meta-regression, and a pooled analysis of
      proportions was used to compare perioperative and anesthesia-related CA rates by
      HDI and time period. The meta-regression showed that perioperative CA rates did
      not change significantly over time or by HDI, whereas anesthesia-related CA rates
      decreased over time (P = 0.04) and in high-HDI (P = 0.015). Perioperative and
      anesthesia-related CA rates per 10,000 anesthetic procedures declined in high
      HDI, from 38.6 before the 1990s to 7.7 from 1990-2017 (P < 0.001) and from 9.2
      before the 1990s to 1.3 from 1990-2017 (P < 0.001), respectively. The
      perioperative CA rate from 1990-2017 was higher in low-HDI than in high-HDI
      countries (P < 0.001). Hence, a reduction in anesthesia-related CA rates over
      time was observed. Both perioperative and anesthesia-related CA rates only
      decreased with a high-HDI between time periods, and perioperative CA rates during
      1990-2017 were 4-fold higher with low- compared to high-HDI in geriatric
      patients.

PMID- 28572584
TI  - Comparative de novo transcriptome profiles in Asparagus officinalis and A.
      kiusianus during the early stage of Phomopsis asparagi infection.
AB  - Asparagus kiusianus, an important wild relative of cultivated asparagus (A.
      officinalis), exhibits resistance to stem blight disease caused by Phomopsis
      asparagi. However, the mechanisms underlying this resistance are not understood
      and no transcriptomic or genetic resources are available for this species. De
      novo transcriptome sequencing of A. officinalis and A. kiusianus stems was
      performed 24 h after inoculation with P. asparagi. In total, 35,259 and 36,321
      transcripts were annotated in A. officinalis and A. kiusianus, respectively.
      1,027 up-regulated and 752 down-regulated transcripts were differentially
      expressed in the two Asparagus species. RNA sequencing data were validated using
      quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR. Several defense-related genes
      including peroxidase 4, cationic peroxidase SPC4-like, pathogenesis-related
      protein-1-like, and jasmonic acid biosynthesis and signaling-related genes
      including phospholipase D alpha 1, 12-oxophytodienoate reductase and jasmonate
      induced protein 23 KD were up-regulated in A. kiusianus relative to A.
      officinalis. In addition, infected A. kiusianuns exhibited a substantial increase
      in jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate relative to A. officinalis. Peroxidase
      activity was significantly elevated in infected A. kiusianus compared with
      infected A. officinalis. Our transcriptomic database provides a resource for
      identifying novel genes and molecular markers-associated with Phomopsis disease
      resistance and will facilitate breeding and improvement of cultivated asparagus
      varieties.

PMID- 28572585
TI  - Gene-body CG methylation and divergent expression of duplicate genes in rice.
AB  - Gene and genome duplication fosters genetic novelty, but redundant gene copies
      would undergo mutational decay unless preserved via selective or neutral forces.
      Molecular mechanisms mediating duplicate preservation remain incompletely
      understood. Several recent studies showed an association between DNA methylation
      and expression divergence of duplicated genes and suggested a role of epigenetic
      mechanism in duplicate retention. Here, we compare genome-wide gene-body CG
      methylation (BCGM) and duplicate gene expression between a rice mutant null for
      OsMet1-2(a major CG methytransferase in rice) and its isogenic wild-type. We
      demonstrate a causal link between BCGM divergence and expression difference of
      duplicate copies. Interestingly, the higher- and lower-expressing copies of
      duplicates as separate groups show broadly different responses with respect to
      direction of expression alteration upon loss of BCGM. A role for BCGM in
      conditioning expression divergence between copies of duplicates generally holds
      for duplicates generated by whole genome duplication (WGD) or by small-scale
      duplication processes. However, differences are evident among these categories,
      including a higher proportion of WGD duplicates manifesting expression
      alteration, and differential propensities to lose BCGM by the higher- and lower
      expression copies in the mutant. Together, our results support the notion that
      differential epigenetic marking may facilitate long-term retention of duplicate
      genes.

PMID- 28572586
TI  - Neck circumference associated with arterial blood pressures and hypertension: A
      cross-sectional community-based study in northern Han Chinese.
AB  - Although several studies have investigated the associations of neck circumference
      (NC) with arterial blood pressures (BPs) and hypertension, no such studies have
      been conducted among Northern Chinese population. Between April and June 2015, a
      total of 2631 subjects aged >=35 years old were recruited from Northeastern
      China. NC and arterial BPs were measured by trained personnel. Generalized linear
      and logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the associations of NC
      with arterial BPs and hypertension risk. The optimal cut-off points of NC for
      predicting hypertension were assessed by the receiver operating characteristic
      analysis. We found that NC was significantly associated with arterial BPs and
      hypertension risk in the Northeastern Chinese adults, even after adjusting for
      many covariates including body mass index, waist circumference or waist-to-hip
      ratio. The optimal cut-off values for NC to predict hypertension differed with
      sex, age, and body mass index. Our study suggests that NC may play an independent
      role in predicting hypertension beyond the classical anthropometric indices, and
      that it could be used as a valuable anthropometric measurement for routine
      assessment in primary care clinics and future epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28572587
TI  - Electrically driven deep ultraviolet MgZnO lasers at room temperature.
AB  - Semiconductor lasers in the deep ultraviolet (UV) range have numerous potential
      applications ranging from water purification and medical diagnosis to high
      density data storage and flexible displays. Nevertheless, very little success was
      achieved in the realization of electrically driven deep UV semiconductor lasers
      to date. In this paper, we report the fabrication and characterization of deep UV
      MgZnO semiconductor lasers. These lasers are operated with continuous current
      mode at room temperature and the shortest wavelength reaches 284 nm. The wide
      bandgap MgZnO thin films with various Mg mole fractions were grown on c-sapphire
      substrate using radio-frequency plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Metal
      semiconductor-metal (MSM) random laser devices were fabricated using lithography
      and metallization processes. Besides the demonstration of scalable emission
      wavelength, very low threshold current densities of 29~33 A/cm2 are achieved.
      Numerical modeling reveals that impact ionization process is responsible for the
      generation of hole carriers in the MgZnO MSM devices. The interaction of
      electrons and holes leads to radiative excitonic recombination and subsequent
      coherent random lasing.

PMID- 28572588
TI  - Hippocampal atrophy and altered brain responses to pleasant tastes among obese
      compared with healthy weight children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The hippocampus is a key structure implicated in food motivation and
      intake. Research has shown that the hippocampus is vulnerable to the consumption
      of a western diet (i.e., high saturated fat and simple carbohydrates). Studies of
      patients with obesity (OB), compared with healthy weight (HW), show changes in
      hippocampal volume and response to food cues. Moreover, evidence suggests that OB
      children, relative to HW, have greater hippocampal response to taste. However, no
      study has examined the association of hippocampal volume with taste functioning
      in children. We hypothesized that OB children, relative to HW, would show a
      significant reduction in hippocampal volume and that decreased volume would be
      significantly associated with greater activation to taste. Finally, we explored
      whether hippocampal activation would be associated with measures on eating and
      eating habits. SUBJECTS: Twenty-five 8-12-year-old children (i.e., 13 HW, 12 OB)
      completed a magnetic resonance imaging scan while participating in a taste
      paradigm (i.e., 1 ml of 10% sucrose or ionic water delivered pseudorandomly every
      20 s). RESULTS: Children with OB, relative to HW, showed reduced left hippocampal
      volume (t=1.994, P=0.03, 95% confidence interval (CI)=-40.23,  755.42), and
      greater response to taste in three clusters within the left hippocampus (z=3.3,
      P=0.001, 95% CI=-0.241, -0.041; z=3.3, P=0.001, 95% CI=-0.2711, -0.0469; z=2.7,
      P=0.007, 95% CI=-0.6032, -0.0268). Activation within the hippocampus was
      associated with eating in the absence of hunger (EAH%; t=2.408, P=0.025, 95% CI=
      1.751708, 23.94109) and two subscales on a measure of eating behaviors (Food
      responsiveness, t=2.572, P=0.017, 95% CI= 0.9565195, 9.043440; Food enjoyment,
      t=2.298, P=0.032, 95% CI=0.2256749, 4.531298). CONCLUSION: As hypothesized, OB
      children, relative to HW, had significantly reduced hippocampal volume, and
      greater hippocampal activation to taste. Moreover, hippocampal activation was
      associated with measures of eating. These results contribute to research on the
      relationship between OB, overeating and cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28572589
TI  - Oncopig Soft-Tissue Sarcomas Recapitulate Key Transcriptional Features of Human
      Sarcomas.
AB  - Human soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare mesenchymal tumors with a 5-year
      survival rate of 50%, highlighting the need for further STS research. Research
      has been hampered by limited human sarcoma cell line availability and the large
      number of STS subtypes, making development of STS cell lines and animal models
      representative of the diverse human STS subtypes critical. Pigs represent ideal
      human disease models due to their similar size, anatomy, metabolism, and genetics
      compared to humans. The Oncopig encodes inducible KRAS G12D and TP53 R167H
      transgenes, allowing for STS modeling in a spatial and temporal manner. This
      study utilized Oncopig STS cell line (fibroblast) and tumor (leiomyosarcoma) RNA
      seq data to compare Oncopig and human STS expression profiles. Altered expression
      of 3,360 and 7,652 genes was identified in Oncopig STS cell lines and
      leiomyosarcomas, respectively. Transcriptional hallmarks of human STS were
      observed in Oncopig STS, including altered TP53 signaling, Wnt signaling
      activation, and evidence of epigenetic reprogramming. Furthermore, master
      regulators of Oncopig STS expression were identified, including FOSL1, which was
      previously identified as a potential human STS therapeutic target. These results
      demonstrate the Oncopig STS model's ability to mimic human STS transcriptional
      profiles, providing a valuable resource for sarcoma research and cell line
      development.

PMID- 28572590
TI  - Bi-specific molecule against EGFR and death receptors simultaneously targets
      proliferation and death pathways in tumors.
AB  - Developing therapeutics that target multiple receptor signaling pathways in
      tumors is critical as therapies targeting single specific biomarker/pathway have
      shown limited efficacy in patients with cancer. In this study, we extensively
      characterized a bi-functional molecule comprising of epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) targeted nanobody (ENb) and death receptor (DR) targeted ligand
      TRAIL (ENb-TRAIL). We show that ENb-TRAIL has therapeutic efficacy in tumor cells
      from different cancer types which do not respond to either EGFR antagonist or DR
      agonist monotherapies. Utilizing pharmacological inhibition, genetic loss of
      function and FRET studies, we show that ENb-TRAIL blocks EGFR signalling via the
      binding of ENb to EGFR which in turn induces DR5 clustering at the plasma
      membrane and thereby primes tumor cells to caspase-mediated apoptosis. In vivo,
      using a clinically relevant orthotopic resection model of primary glioblastoma
      and engineered stem cells (SC) expressing ENb-TRAIL, we show that the treatment
      with synthetic extracellular matrix (sECM) encapsulated SC-ENb-TRAIL alleviates
      tumor burden and significantly increases survival. This study is the first to
      report novel mechanistic insights into simultaneous targeting of receptor
      mediated proliferation and cell death signaling pathways in different tumor types
      and presents a promising approach for translation into the clinical setting.

PMID- 28572591
TI  - Morphologic and biometric evaluation of chick embryo eyes in ovo using 7 Tesla
      MRI.
AB  - The purposes of this study were (1) to characterize embryonic eye development
      during incubation in ovo and (2) to analyze the putative influence of repetitive
      ultrahigh-field MRI (UHF-MRI) measurements on this development. A population of
      38 fertilized chicken eggs was divided into two sub-groups: two eggs (Group A)
      were examined repeatedly during the developmental period from embryonic day 1
      (E1) to embryonic day 20 (E20) to evaluate the influence of daily MRI scanning. A
      second larger group of 36 eggs was examined pairwise on one day only, from E3 to
      E20, and the embryos were sacrificed immediately after MR imaging (Group B). Fast
      T2-weighted MR sequences provided biometric data on the eye with an in-plane
      resolution of 74 MUm. The data show rapid growth of the eye with a steep increase
      in intraocular dimensions in all axis directions and in eyeball volume during
      initial development up to E10, followed by a phase of reduced growth rate in
      later developmental stages. Comparison of the two groups revealed no differences
      in ocular development.

PMID- 28572592
TI  - Shoulder kinetics and ultrasonography changes after performing a high-intensity
      task in spinal cord injury subjects and healthy controls.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sc.2015.140.

PMID- 28572594
TI  - Socio-economic inequalities in C-reactive protein and fibrinogen across the adult
      age span: Findings from Understanding Society.
AB  - Systemic inflammation has been proposed as a physiological process linking socio
      economic position (SEP) to health. We examined how SEP inequalities in
      inflammation -assessed using C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen- varied
      across the adult age span. Current (household income) and distal (education)
      markers of SEP were used. Data from 7,943 participants (aged 25+) of
      Understanding Society (wave 2, 1/2010-3/2012) were employed. We found that SEP
      inequalities in inflammation followed heterogeneous patterns by age, which
      differed by the inflammatory marker examined rather than by SEP measures. SEP
      inequalities in CRP emerged in 30s, increased up to mid-50s or early 60 s when
      they peaked and then decreased with age. SEP inequalities in fibrinogen decreased
      with age. Body mass index (BMI), smoking, physical activity and healthy diet
      explained part, but not all, of the SEP inequalities in inflammation; in general,
      BMI exerted the largest attenuation. Cumulative advantage theories and those
      considering age as a leveler for the accumulation of health and economic
      advantages across the life-span should be dynamically integrated to better
      understand the observed heterogeneity in SEP differences in health across the
      lifespan. The attenuating roles of health-related lifestyle indicators suggest
      that targeting health promotion policies may help reduce SEP inequalities in
      health.

PMID- 28572595
TI  - Microwave-activated Ni/carbon catalysts for highly selective hydrogenation of
      nitrobenzene to cyclohexylamine.
AB  - Biocarbon supported Ni catalysts have been prepared by facile impregnation of Ni
      species by microwave-heating and used for selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene
      to cyclohexylamine. These catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction,
      Raman spectra, N2 sorption measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,
      temperature programmed reduction of H2 and H2 temperature-programmed desorption.
      The morphology and particle size of catalysts were imaged by scanning electron
      microscope and transmission electron microscope. For the hydrogenation of
      nitrobenzene to cyclohexylamine, 10%Ni/CSC-II(b) exhibits the best catalytic
      activity to achieve 100 mol% conversion of nitrobenzene and 96.7% selectivity of
      cyclohexylamine under reaction conditions of 2.0 MPa H2 and 200  degrees C,
      ascribed to high dispersion of Ni species and formation of nanosized Ni particles
      on the support aided by microwave-heating. Thus-prepared Ni/CSC catalyst is
      greatly activated, in which the addition of precious metal like Rh is totally
      avoided.

PMID- 28572596
TI  - Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity,
      biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality.
AB  - Altered nutrient cycles and consumer populations are among the top anthropogenic
      influences on ecosystems. However, studies on the simultaneous impacts of human
      driven environmental alterations on ecosystem functions, and the overall change
      in system multifunctionality are scarce. We used estuarine tidal flats to study
      the effects of changes in herbivore density and nutrient availability on benthic
      microalgae (diversity, abundance and biomass) and ecosystem functions (N2
      fixation, denitrification, extracellular polymeric substances -EPS- as a proxy
      for sediment cohesiveness, sediment water content as a proxy of water retention
      capacity and sediment organic matter). We found consistent strong impacts of
      modified herbivory and weak effects of increased nutrient availability on the
      abundance, biomass and diversity of benthic microalgae. However, the effects on
      specific ecosystem functions were disparate. Some functions were independently
      affected by nutrient addition (N2-fixation), modified herbivory (sediment organic
      matter and water content), or their interaction (denitrification), while others
      were not affected (EPS). Overall system multifunction remained invariant despite
      changes in specific functions. This study reveals that anthropogenic pressures
      can induce decoupled effects between community structure and specific ecosystem
      functions. Our results highlight the need to address several ecosystem functions
      simultaneously for better ecosystem characterization and management.

PMID- 28572597
TI  - Visual Detection of Denatured Glutathione Peptides: A Facile Method to Visibly
      Detect Heat Stressed Biomolecules.
AB  - Every year pharmaceutical companies use significant resources to mitigate
      aggregation of pharmaceutical drug products. Specifically, peptides and proteins
      that have been denatured or degraded can lead to adverse patient reactions such
      as undesired immune responses. Current methods to detect aggregation of
      biological molecules are limited to costly and time consuming processes such as
      high pressure liquid chromatography, ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography and
      SDS-PAGE gels. Aggregation of pharmaceutical drug products can occur during
      manufacturing, processing, packaging, shipment and storage. Therefore, a facile
      in solution detection method was evaluated to visually detect denatured
      glutathione peptides, utilizing gold nanoparticle aggregation via 3
      Aminopropyltreithoxysilane. Glutathione was denatured using a 70  degrees C water
      bath to create an accelerated heat stressed environment. The peptide, gold
      nanoparticle and aminosilane solution was then characterized via, UV-Vis
      spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and scanning electron
      microscopy. Captured images and resulting absorbance spectra of the gold
      nanoparticle, glutathione, and aminosilane complex demonstrated visual color
      changes detectable with the human eye as a function of the denaturation time.
      This work serves as an extended proof of concept for fast in solution detection
      methods for glutathione peptides that have experienced heat stress.

PMID- 28572598
TI  - Metallization and Electrical Transport Behaviors of GaSb under High-Pressure.
AB  - The high-pressure metallization and electrical transport behaviors of GaSb were
      systematically investigated using in situ temperature-dependent electrical
      resistivity measurements, Hall effect measurements, transmission electron
      microscopy analysis, and first-principles calculations. The temperature-dependent
      resistivity measurements revealed pressure-induced metallization of GaSb at
      approximately 7.0 GPa, which corresponds to a structural phase transition from F
      43m to Imma. In addition, the activation energies for the conductivity and Hall
      effect measurements indicated that GaSb undergoes a carrier-type inversion (p
      type to n-type) at approximately 4.5 GPa before metallization. The first
      principles calculations also revealed that GaSb undergoes a phase transition from
      F-43m to Imma at 7.0 GPa and explained the carrier-type inversion at
      approximately 4.5 GPa. Finally, transmission electron microscopy analysis
      revealed the effect of the interface on the electrical transport behavior of a
      small-resistance GaSb sample and explained the discontinuous change of
      resistivity after metallization. Under high pressure, GaSb undergoes grain
      refinement, the number of interfaces increases, and carrier transport becomes
      more difficult, increasing the electrical resistivity.

PMID- 28572599
TI  - Comparisons of microvascular and macrovascular changes in aldosteronism-related
      hypertension and essential hypertension.
AB  - Case-control observational study to evaluate the microvascular and macrovascular
      changes in patients with hypertension secondary to primary aldosteronism (PA),
      essential hypertension (EH) and healthy subjects. Measurements of arterial
      stiffness including augmentation index (AIx) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were
      assessed using a TensioClinic arteriograph system. Retinal microcirculation was
      imaged by a Retinal Vessel Analyzer (RVA) and a non-midriatic camera (Topcon-TRC
      NV2000). IMEDOS software analyzed the retinal artery diameter (RAD), retinal vein
      diameters (RVD) and arteriole-to-venule ratio (AVR) of the vessels coming off the
      optic disc. Thirty, 39 and 35 patients were included in the PA, EH and control
      group, respectively. The PA group showed higher PWV values compared only with the
      control group. The mean brachial and aortic AIx values did not show significant
      difference between groups. In the PA group, the mean RVD and AVR values were
      significantly lower than in the EH and control groups, whereas the parameters did
      not differ between the EH and control groups. In conclusion, AVR appears
      significantly modified in the PA group compared with the EH group and could
      represent an early and more reliable indicator of microvascular remodeling.

PMID- 28572600
TI  - A nucleotide-controlled conformational switch modulates the activity of
      eukaryotic IMP dehydrogenases.
AB  - Inosine-5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is an essential enzyme for
      nucleotide metabolism and cell proliferation. Despite IMPDH is the target of
      drugs with antiviral, immunosuppressive and antitumor activities, its
      physiological mechanisms of regulation remain largely unknown. Using the enzyme
      from the industrial fungus Ashbya gossypii, we demonstrate that the binding of
      adenine and guanine nucleotides to the canonical nucleotide binding sites of the
      regulatory Bateman domain induces different enzyme conformations with
      significantly distinct catalytic activities. Thereby, the comparison of their
      high-resolution structures defines the mechanistic and structural details of a
      nucleotide-controlled conformational switch that allosterically modulates the
      catalytic activity of eukaryotic IMPDHs. Remarkably, retinopathy-associated
      mutations lie within the mechanical hinges of the conformational change,
      highlighting its physiological relevance. Our results expand the mechanistic
      repertoire of Bateman domains and pave the road to new approaches targeting
      IMPDHs.

PMID- 28572601
TI  - Dysregulation of angiogenesis-specific signalling in adult testis results in
      xenograft degeneration.
AB  - Ectopic xenografting of testis is a feasible option for preservation of male
      fertility and angiogenesis plays a pivotal role in xenograft survival and
      functionality. When compared to immature testis, the adult testis is unable to
      establish functional xenografts due to potentially lower efficiency to induce
      angiogenesis. The precise molecular mechanism, however, remains elusive. In the
      present study, we compared adult and immature testis xenografts for survival,
      maturation and germ cell differentiation. Further, we evaluated differential
      expression of angiogenesis signalling-specific proteins in adult and immature
      testis and their xenografts. Results showed that adult testis xenografts
      degenerated whereas immature testis xenografts survived and established
      spermatogenesis with the production of haploid germ cells. Protein expression
      analysis demonstrated that immature testis xenografts were able to establish
      angiogenesis either through eNOS activation via VEGF and PI3K/AKT or through EGFR
      mediated STAT3 pathway. The role of ERK/MAPK pathway in xenograft angiogenesis
      was ruled out. The absence or reduced expression of angiogenesis-specific
      proteins in adult testis and its xenografts possibly resulted in poor
      angiogenesis and in their subsequent degeneration. This study provides insight
      into angiogenesis mechanism that can be utilized to augment testis xenografting
      efficiency.

PMID- 28572602
TI  - In vivo imaging of uterine cervix with a Mueller polarimetric colposcope.
AB  - Mueller polarimetric imaging enables the detection and quantification of
      modifications of the collagen fibers in the uterine cervix due to the development
      of a precancerous lesion. This information is not accessible through the use of
      the classic colposcope, a low magnification microscope used in current practice
      for cervical cancer screening. However, the in vivo application of Mueller
      polarimetric imaging poses an instrumental challenge: the device should be
      sufficiently compact, while still being able to perform fast and accurate
      acquisition of Mueller matrices in real-world conditions. In this study, the
      first wide field Mueller Polarimetric Colposcope (MPC) for the in vivo analysis
      of uterine cervix is presented. The MPC has been fabricated by grafting a
      miniaturized Mueller polarimetric imager on a classic colposcope. This new
      imaging tool performs the fast acquisition of Mueller polarimetric images, thus
      eliminating any blurring effects due to patient movements. It can be easily used
      by a practitioner with little change to their existing practice. Finally, the MPC
      was tested in vivo on a number of patients in the field.

PMID- 28572605
TI  - Experimental evidence for anisotropic double exchange interaction driven
      anisotropic transport in manganite heterostructures.
AB  - An anisotropic double exchange interaction driven giant transport anisotropy is
      demonstrated in a canonic double exchange system of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 ultrathin
      films epitaxially grown on NdGaO3 (110) substrates. The oxygen octahedral
      coupling at the La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/NdGaO3 interface induces a planar anisotropic Mn-O
      Mn bond bending, which causes a significant anisotropic overlap of neighboring Mn
      orbitals. Due to the anisotropic double exchange interaction, it is found that
      the conductivity of the La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 film is enhanced when current is applied
      along the in-plane short crystalline axis. However, the anisotropic behavior is
      absent in the high temperature paramagnetic phase. Our results demonstrate
      anisotropic transport in the clean limit where phase separation is absent and the
      role of anisotropic phase percolation can be excluded.

PMID- 28572604
TI  - Enhanced thermal conductivity of epoxy composites filled with silicon carbide
      nanowires.
AB  - In this study, we report a facile approach to fabricate epoxy composite
      incorporated with silicon carbide nanowires (SiC NWs). The thermal conductivity
      of epoxy/SiC NWs composites was thoroughly investigated. The thermal conductivity
      of epoxy/SiC NWs composites with 3.0 wt% filler reached 0.449 Wm-1 K-1,
      approximately a 106% enhancement as compared to neat epoxy. In contrast, the same
      mass fraction of silicon carbide micron particles (SiC MPs) incorporated into
      epoxy matrix showed less improvement on thermal conduction properties. This is
      attributed to the formation of effective heat conduction pathways among SiC NWs
      as well as a strong interaction between the nanowires and epoxy matrix. In
      addition, the thermal properties of epoxy/SiC NWs composites were also improved.
      These results demonstrate that we developed a novel approach to enhance the
      thermal conductivity of the polymer composites which meet the requirement for the
      rapid development of the electronic devices.

PMID- 28572603
TI  - Release of Cytochrome C from Bax Pores at the Mitochondrial Membrane.
AB  - How cytochrome C is released from the mitochondria to the cytosol via Bax
      oligomeric pores, a process which is required for apoptosis, is still a mystery.
      Based on experimentally measured residue-residue distances, we recently solved
      the first atomic model for Bax oligomeric pores at the membranes using
      computational approaches. Here, we investigate the mechanism at the microsecond
      time- and nanometer space- scale using MD simulations. Our free energy landscape
      depicts a low barrier for the permeation of cytochrome C into the Bax C-terminal
      mouth, with the pathway proceeding to the inner cavity and exiting via the N
      terminal mouth. Release is guided by organized charged/hydrophilic surfaces. The
      hydrophilicity and negative charge of the pore surface gradually increase along
      the release pathway from the pore entry to the exit opening. Rather than inert
      passing of the cytochrome C through a rigid pore, the flexible pore may
      selectively aid the cytochrome C passage. Once the Bax pore is formed in the
      membrane, with a low energy barrier, the release of cytochrome C may be readily
      achieved through energy fluctuations. Collectively, our work provides mechanistic
      insight in atomic detail into the release of cytochrome C through Bax oligomeric
      pores.

PMID- 28572606
TI  - Automated screening for Fragile X premutation carriers based on linguistic and
      cognitive computational phenotypes.
AB  - Millions of people globally are at high risk for neurodegenerative disorders,
      infertility or having children with a disability as a result of the Fragile X
      (FX) premutation, a genetic abnormality in FMR1 that is underdiagnosed. Despite
      the high prevalence of the FX premutation and its effect on public health and
      family planning, most FX premutation carriers are unaware of their condition.
      Since genetic testing for the premutation is resource intensive, it is not
      practical to screen individuals for FX premutation status using genetic testing.
      In a novel approach to phenotyping, we have utilized audio recordings and
      cognitive profiling assessed via self-administered questionnaires on 200 females.
      Machine-learning methods were developed to discriminate FX premutation carriers
      from mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders, the comparison group. By
      using a random forest classifier, FX premutation carriers could be identified in
      an automated fashion with high precision and recall (0.81 F1 score). Linguistic
      and cognitive phenotypes that were highly associated with FX premutation carriers
      were high language dysfluency, poor ability to organize material, and low self
      monitoring. Our framework sets the foundation for computational phenotyping
      strategies to pre-screen large populations for this genetic variant with nominal
      costs.

PMID- 28572607
TI  - Human papilloma virus E7 oncoprotein abrogates the p53-p21-DREAM pathway.
AB  - High risk human papilloma viruses cause several types of cancer. The HPV
      oncoproteins E6 and E7 are essential for oncogenic cell transformation. E6
      mediates the degradation of the tumor suppressor p53, and E7 can form complexes
      with the retinoblastoma pRB tumor suppressor. Recently, it has been shown that
      HPV E7 can also interfere with the function of the DREAM transcriptional
      repressor complex. Disruption of DREAM-dependent transcriptional repression leads
      to untimely early expression of central cell cycle regulators. The p53-p21-DREAM
      pathway represents one important means of cell cycle checkpoint activation by
      p53. By activating this pathway, p53 can downregulate transcription of genes
      controlled by DREAM. Here, we present a genome-wide ranked list of genes
      deregulated by HPV E7 expression and relate it to datasets of cell cycle genes
      and DREAM targets. We find that DREAM targets are generally deregulated after E7
      expression. Furthermore, our analysis shows that p53-dependent downregulation of
      DREAM targets is abrogated when HPV E7 is expressed. Thus, p53 checkpoint control
      is impaired by HPV E7 independently of E6. In summary, our analysis reveals that
      disruption of DREAM through the HPV E7 oncoprotein upregulates most, if not all,
      cell cycle genes and impairs p53's control of cell cycle checkpoints.

PMID- 28572608
TI  - Genetic insights into juvenile idiopathic arthritis derived from deep whole
      genome sequencing.
AB  - Deep whole genome sequencing (WGS) allows for the comprehensive study of genetic
      landscapes at finer resolution than array based methods. We conducted deep WGS on
      children with the polyarticular form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA),
      using 2 independent cohorts to ascertain the sequencing fidelity. Genome wide SNP
      density analysis identified 18 SNP hotspots with comparison to the 1000 Genome
      Projects (1KGP) data. A subset of the genes adjacent to SNP hotspots showed
      statistically significant enrichment in immunological processes. Genes adjacent
      to indel hotspots were functionally related to G-protein coupled signaling
      pathways. Further analyses elucidated significantly more JIA SNPs with regulatory
      potential compared to 1KGP data. Furthermore, SNPs located within linkage
      disequibilium (LD) blocks containing previously identified JIA-associated SNPs
      demonstrated higher regulation potential compared to SNPs outside LD blocks. We
      also demonstrated enrichment of novel JIA variants in histone modification peaks
      and DNase hypersensitivity sites in B cells. This study greatly expands the
      number of genetic variants that may contribute to JIA and give us some clues into
      what may trigger this disease. To date, this study is the first deep WGS effort
      on children with JIA and provides useful genetic resources for research
      communities particularly in understanding JIA etiology.

PMID- 28572609
TI  - The Toxic Effects of Tetrachlorobisphenol A in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cells via
      Metabolic Interference.
AB  - Tetrachlorobisphenol A (TCBPA) is a common flame retardant detected in different
      environments. However, its toxic effects on animals and humans are not fully
      understood. Here, the differential intracellular metabolites and associated gene
      expression were used to clarify the metabolic interference of TCBPA in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a simple eukaryotic model organism. The results
      indicated that TCBPA treatment promoted the glycolysis pathway but inhibited the
      tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, energy metabolism and the hexose monophosphate
      pathway (HMP) pathway. Thus, the HMP pathway produced less reducing power,
      leading to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and aggravation of
      oxidative damage. Accordingly, the carbon flux was channelled into the
      accumulation of fatty acids, amino acids and glycerol instead of biomass
      production and energy metabolism. The accumulation of these metabolites might
      serve a protective function against TCBPA stress by maintaining the cell membrane
      integrity or providing a stable intracellular environment in S. cerevisiae. These
      results enhance our knowledge of the toxic effects of TCBPA on S. cerevisiae via
      metabolic interference and pave the way for clarification of the mechanisms
      underlying TCBPA toxicity in animals and humans.

PMID- 28572610
TI  - GLP-1 receptor signalling promotes beta-cell glucose metabolism via mTOR
      dependent HIF-1alpha activation.
AB  - Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) promotes insulin secretion from pancreatic beta
      cells in a glucose dependent manner. Several pathways mediate this action by
      rapid, kinase phosphorylation-dependent, but gene expression-independent
      mechanisms. Since GLP-1-induced insulin secretion requires glucose metabolism, we
      aimed to address the hypothesis that GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) signalling can
      modulate glucose uptake and utilization in beta-cells. We have assessed various
      metabolic parameters after short and long exposure of clonal BRIN-BD11 beta-cells
      and rodent islets to the GLP-1R agonist Exendin-4 (50 nM). Here we report for the
      first time that prolonged stimulation of the GLP-1R for 18 hours promotes
      metabolic reprogramming of beta-cells. This is evidenced by up-regulation of
      glycolytic enzyme expression, increased rates of glucose uptake and consumption,
      as well as augmented ATP content, insulin secretion and glycolytic flux after
      removal of Exendin-4. In our model, depletion of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 alpha
      (HIF-1alpha) impaired the effects of Exendin-4 on glucose metabolism, while
      pharmacological inhibition of Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) or mTOR completely
      abolished such effects. Considering the central role of glucose catabolism for
      stimulus-secretion coupling in beta-cells, our findings suggest that chronic GLP
      1 actions on insulin secretion include elevated beta-cell glucose metabolism.
      Moreover, our data reveal novel aspects of GLP-1 stimulated insulin secretion
      involving de novo gene expression.

PMID- 28572611
TI  - Transcriptome responses of Lactobacillus acetotolerans F28 to a short and long
      term ethanol stress.
AB  - Lactobacillus acetotolerans is a major microbe contributing to the Chinese liquor
      fermentation with unknown function. It can be grown well in a high concentration
      of ethanol. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on L. acetotolerans F28
      growing in 12% ethanol to determine important genetic mechanisms for both a short
      and long term adaption to this environment. A genome-wide transcriptional
      analysis revealed that the most important genetic elements for L. acetotolerans
      F28 grown in ethanol are related to high levels of stress response and fatty acid
      biosynthesis, and a reduction of amino acid transport and metabolism after both a
      short and long time stress. The fatty acid methyl ester analyses showed that most
      fatty acids were increased in L. acetotolerans F28 after exposure to ethanol
      while the unsaturated fatty acid octadecenoic acid (C18:1) was significantly
      increased. The increasing unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in L. acetotolerans
      F28 might enhance cell membrane fluidity and protect the cells against high
      concentration of ethanol. Overall, the transcriptome and functional analysis
      indicated that the elevated stress response and fatty acid biosynthesis, and the
      decrease of amino acid transport and metabolism might play important roles for L.
      acetotolerans F28 to adapt to environmental ethanol.

PMID- 28572612
TI  - One-month spaceflight compromises the bone microstructure, tissue-level
      mechanical properties, osteocyte survival and lacunae volume in mature mice
      skeletons.
AB  - The weightless environment during spaceflight induces site-specific bone loss.
      The 30-day Bion-M1 mission offered a unique opportunity to characterize the
      skeletal changes after spaceflight and an 8-day recovery period in mature male
      C57/BL6 mice. In the femur metaphysis, spaceflight decreased the trabecular bone
      volume (-64% vs. Habitat Control), dramatically increased the bone resorption
      (+140% vs. Habitat Control) and induced marrow adiposity invasion. At the
      diaphysis, cortical thinning associated with periosteal resorption was observed.
      In the Flight animal group, the osteocyte lacunae displayed a reduced volume and
      a more spherical shape (synchrotron radiation analyses), and empty lacunae were
      highly increased (+344% vs. Habitat Control). Tissue-level mechanical cortical
      properties (i.e., hardness and modulus) were locally decreased by spaceflight,
      whereas the mineral characteristics and collagen maturity were unaffected. In the
      vertebrae, spaceflight decreased the overall bone volume and altered the modulus
      in the periphery of the trabecular struts. Despite normalized osteoclastic
      activity and an increased osteoblast number, bone recovery was not observed 8
      days after landing. In conclusion, spaceflight induces osteocyte death, which may
      trigger bone resorption and result in bone mass and microstructural
      deterioration. Moreover, osteocyte cell death, lacunae mineralization and fatty
      marrow, which are hallmarks of ageing, may impede tissue maintenance and repair.

PMID- 28572613
TI  - Mesenchymal stem cells correct haemodynamic dysfunction associated with liver
      injury after extended resection in a pig model.
AB  - In patients, acute kidney injury (AKI) is often due to haemodynamic impairment
      associated with hepatic decompensation following extended liver surgery.
      Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) supported tissue protection in a variety of acute
      and chronic diseases, and might hence ameliorate AKI induced by extended liver
      resection. Here, 70% liver resection was performed in male pigs. MSCs were
      infused through a central venous catheter and haemodynamic parameters as well as
      markers of acute kidney damage were monitored under intensive care conditions for
      24 h post-surgery. Cytokine profiles were established to anticipate the MSCs'
      potential mode of action. After extended liver resection, hyperdynamic
      circulation, associated with hyponatraemia, hyperkalaemia, an increase in serum
      aldosterone and low urine production developed. These signs of hepatorenal
      dysfunction and haemodynamic impairment were corrected by MSC treatment. MSCs
      elevated PDGF levels in the serum, possibly contributing to circulatory
      homeostasis. Another 14 cytokines were increased in the kidney, most of which are
      known to support tissue regeneration. In conclusion, MSCs supported kidney and
      liver function after extended liver resection. They probably acted through
      paracrine mechanisms improving haemodynamics and tissue homeostasis. They might
      thus provide a promising strategy to prevent acute kidney injury in the context
      of post-surgery acute liver failure.

PMID- 28572614
TI  - Early Detection and Serial Monitoring of Anthracycline-Induced Cardiotoxicity
      Using T1-mapping Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: An Animal Study.
AB  - A reliable, non-invasive diagnostic method is needed for early detection and
      serial monitoring of cardiotoxicity, a well-known side effect of chemotherapy.
      This study aimed to assess the feasibility of T1-mapping cardiac magnetic
      resonance imaging (CMR) for evaluating subclinical myocardial changes in a
      doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity rabbit model. Adult male New Zealand White
      rabbits were injected twice-weekly with doxorubicin and subjected to CMR on a
      clinical 3T MR system before and every 2-4 weeks post-drug administration. Native
      T1 and extracellular volume (ECV) values were measured at six mid-left ventricle
      (LV) and specific LV lesions. Histological assessments evaluated myocardial
      injury and fibrosis. Three pre-model and 11 post-model animals were included.
      Myocardial injury was observed from 3 weeks. Mean LV myocardium ECV values
      increased significantly from week 3 before LV ejection fraction decreases (week
      6), and ECVs of the RV upper/lower insertion sites and papillary muscle exceeded
      those of the LV. The mean native T1 value in the mid-LV increased significantly
      increased from week 6, and LV myocardium ECV correlated strongly with the degree
      of fibrosis (r = 0.979, p < 0.001). Myocardial T1 mapping, particularly ECV
      values, reliably and non-invasively detected early cardiotoxicity, allowing
      serial monitoring of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity.

PMID- 28572615
TI  - Characterization of pertussis-like toxin from Salmonella spp. that catalyzes ADP
      ribosylation of G proteins.
AB  - Salmonella Typhimurium definitive phage type (DT) 104 produces a pertussis-like
      toxin (ArtAB-DT104), which catalyzes ADP-ribosylation of pertussis toxin
      sensitive G proteins. However, the prevalence of ArtAB and its toxicity have not
      been established. We report here that, in addition to DT104, S. Worthington, and
      S. bongori, produce ArtAB homologs, designated ArtAB-SW and ArtAB-Sb,
      respectively. We purified and characterized these ArtAB toxins, which comprise a
      27-kDa A subunit (ArtA) and 13.8-kDa pentameric B subunits (ArtB). While the
      sequence of the A subunit, which is ADP-ribosyltransferase, is similar to the A
      subunit sequences of other ArtABs, the B subunit of ArtAB-Sb is divergent
      compared to the B subunit sequences of other ArtABs. Intraperitoneal injection of
      purified ArtABs was fatal in mice; the 50% lethal doses of ArtAB-DT104 and ArtAB
      SW were lower than that of ArtAB-Sb, suggesting that ArtB plays an influential
      role in the toxicity of ArtABs. ArtABs catalyzed ADP-ribosylation of G proteins
      in RAW 264.7 murine macrophage-like cells, and increased intracellular cyclic AMP
      levels. ArtAB-DT104 and ArtAB-SW, but not ArtAB-Sb, stimulated insulin secretion
      in mice; however, unlike Ptx, ArtABs did not induce leukocytosis. This disparity
      in biological activity may be explained by differences in ADP-ribosylation of
      target G proteins.

PMID- 28572616
TI  - Comparison of non-invasive biomarkers faecal BAFF, calprotectin and FOBT in
      discriminating IBS from IBD and evaluation of intestinal inflammation.
AB  - Faecal calprotectin and faecal occult blood test (FOBT) were widely used in the
      diagnosis and assessment of intestinal inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease
      (IBD). Recently we identified an excellent new biomarker B cell-activating factor
      (BAFF) for IBD. Here in this study we compared the efficacy of faecal BAFF,
      calprotectin and FOBT to find the "best non-invasive marker". Results showed that
      for discriminating IBD from IBS, BAFF >=227.3 pg/ml yield 84% sensitivity, 100%
      specificity, 100% positive predictive value (PPV) and 64% negative predictive
      value (NPV) while calprotectin >=50 ug/g yield 76% sensitivity, 93% specificity,
      97% PPV and 53% NPV. FOBT yield 65% sensitivity, 93% specificity, 97% PPV and 43%
      NPV. Combining BAFF with calprotectin tests yield 94% sensitivity, 93%
      specificity, 98% PPV, 81% NPV. Faecal BAFF level showed the stronger correlation
      with endoscopic inflammatory score as compared to calprotectin not only in UC
      (correlation coefficient [r] = 0.69, p < 0.0001 vs. r = 0.58, p < 0.0001), but
      also in CD (r = 0.58, p < 0.0001 vs. r = 0.52, p = 0.0003). Our results
      indicating that faecal BAFF is a promising non-invasive biomarker in IBD
      differential diagnosis and monitoring of intestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28572618
TI  - Uncovering and Predicting the Dynamic Process of Collective Attention with
      Survival Theory.
AB  - The subject of collective attention is in the center of this era of information
      explosion. It is thus of great interest to understand the fundamental mechanism
      underlying attention in large populations within a complex evolving system.
      Moreover, an ability to predict the dynamic process of collective attention for
      individual items has important implications in an array of areas. In this report,
      we propose a generative probabilistic model using a self-excited Hawkes process
      with survival theory to model and predict the process through which individual
      items gain their attentions. This model explicitly captures three key
      ingredients: the intrinsic attractiveness of an item, characterizing its inherent
      competitiveness against other items; a reinforcement mechanism based on sum of
      each previous attention triggers; and a power-law temporal relaxation function,
      corresponding to the aging in the ability to attract new attentions. Experiments
      on two population-scale datasets demonstrate that this model consistently
      outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28572617
TI  - Independent and cumulative effects of resting heart rate and pulse pressure with
      type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese rural population.
AB  - The purpose was to explore the effects of resting heart rate (RHR) and pulse
      pressure (PP) independently as well as their cumulative effects on the risk of
      type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through cross-sectional study plus meta-analysis.
      A total of 8276 subjects aged 35-74 years from the Rural Diabetes, Obesity and
      Lifestyle (RuralDiab) study were included in the study. Meanwhile, two meta
      analyses were conducted to validate the results of the epidemiological research.
      The results showed that RHR and PP were associated with higher risk of T2DM, and
      the corresponding adjusted OR(95%CI) for each quartiles were 1.00, 0.99(0.68
      1.42), 1.58(1.13-2.20), 2.93(2.15-3.98) and 1.00, 1.06(0.75-1.48), 1.11(0.79
      1.56), 1.45(1.03-2.03), respectively. The cumulative effect analysis indicated
      that the adjusted OR(95%CI) in the fast RHR-high PP were 3.36(2.26-4.99),
      2.60(1.47-4.59), and 3.60(2.09-6.20) compared with the slow RHR-low PP for total
      population, male and female, respectively. Meta-analysis showed that the pooled
      effect values for RHR and PP were 1.94(1.64-2.31) and 1.25(1.04-1.51),
      respectively. This study demonstrated that elevated RHR and PP are independently
      associated with the risk of T2DM as well as the influences of conventional
      confounders, and fast RHR with high PP might cumulatively increase the risk of
      T2DM. However, the potential clinical application remains to be determined.

PMID- 28572620
TI  - Generation of a planar direct-current glow discharge in atmospheric pressure air
      using rod array electrode.
AB  - Scaling up atmospheric pressure glow discharge to large volume is desirable for
      low-temperature plasma applications. In this paper, an approach to generate a
      glow discharge in a planar shape with a fairly large volume is proposed in
      atmospheric pressure air through utilizing a direct-current excited rod array
      electrode. The planar discharge with a wide gap originates from three discrete
      discharges with a narrow gap. Based on electrical method and optical emission
      spectroscopy, it is found that gap voltage increases, while discharge current
      remains constant with increasing the gap width. Temperature and electron density
      of the discharge decrease with increasing the gap width.

PMID- 28572619
TI  - Fatty Acid Binding Protein 3 And Transzonal Projections Are Involved In Lipid
      Accumulation During In Vitro Maturation Of Bovine Oocytes.
AB  - Oocytes that undergo in vitro maturation (IVM) are metabolically abnormal and
      accumulate excess lipid content. However, the mechanism of lipid accumulation and
      the role of cumulus cells in this process are unclear. Recently, it was shown
      that fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) performed intra- and extracellular fatty
      acid transport. We postulated that FABP3 might be responsible for fatty acid
      transport from cumulus cells to the oocytes via transzonal projections (TZPs)
      during IVM. Transcript and protein levels of FABP3 were analyzed in both in vivo-
      and in vitro-matured cumulus-oocyte-complexes and were increased in IVM samples.
      Further analysis showed increased lipid content in oocytes and cumulus cells in
      IVM samples compared to in vivo-derived. We therefore speculated that altered
      traffic of fatty acids via FABP3 during IVM was the mechanism leading to the
      excess of lipids accumulated within IVM oocytes. Furthermore, we demonstrated an
      increase in FABP3 levels and lipid content during the first 9 h of IVM, further
      strengthening the possibility of fatty acid transport via FABP3 and TZPs.
      Additionally, disruptions of TZPs during IVM decreased lipid accumulation in
      oocytes. Our results shed light on a possible mechanism involving FABP3 and TZPs
      that causes excess lipid accumulation in oocytes during IVM.

PMID- 28572621
TI  - Expression and integrated network analyses revealed functional divergence of NHX
      type Na+/H+ exchanger genes in poplar.
AB  - The Na+/H+ antiporters (NHXs) are secondary ion transporters to exchange H+ and
      transfer the Na+ or K+ across membrane, they play crucial roles during plant
      development and stress responses. To gain insight into the functional divergence
      of NHX genes in poplar, eight PtNHX were identified from Populus trichocarpa
      genome. PtNHXs containing 10 transmembrane helices (TMH) and a hydrophilic C
      terminal domain, the TMH compose a hollow cylinder to provide the channel for Na+
      and H+ transport. The expression patterns and cis-acting elements showed that all
      the PtNHXs were response to single or multiple stresses including drought, heat,
      cold, salinity, MV, and ABA. Both the co-expression network and protein-protein
      interaction network of PtNHXs implying their functional divergence.
      Interestingly, although PtNHX7 and PtNHX8 were generated by whole genome
      duplication event, they showed significant differences in expression pattern,
      protein structure, co-expressed genes, and interacted proteins. Only PtNHX7
      interact with CBL and CIPK, indicating PtNHX7 is the primary NHX involved in CBL
      CIPK pathway during salt stress responses. Natural variation analysis based on
      549 P. trichocarpa individuals indicated the frequency of SNPs in PtNHX7 was
      significantly higher than other PtNHXs. Our findings provide new insights into
      the functional divergence of NHX genes in poplar.

PMID- 28572622
TI  - Probing the action of a novel anti-leukaemic drug therapy at the single cell
      level using modern vibrational spectroscopy techniques.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a life threatening cancer for which there is an
      urgent clinical need for novel therapeutic approaches. A redeployed drug
      combination of bezafibrate and medroxyprogesterone acetate (BaP) has shown anti
      leukaemic activity in vitro and in vivo. Elucidation of the BaP mechanism of
      action is required in order to understand how to maximise the clinical benefit.
      Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy,
      Synchrotron radiation FTIR (S-FTIR) and Raman microspectroscopy are powerful
      complementary techniques which were employed to probe the biochemical composition
      of two AML cell lines in the presence and absence of BaP. Analysis was performed
      on single living cells along with dehydrated and fixed cells to provide a large
      and detailed data set. A consideration of the main spectral differences in
      conjunction with multivariate statistical analysis reveals a significant change
      to the cellular lipid composition with drug treatment; furthermore, this response
      is not caused by cell apoptosis. No change to the DNA of either cell line was
      observed suggesting this combination therapy primarily targets lipid biosynthesis
      or effects bioactive lipids that activate specific signalling pathways.

PMID- 28572623
TI  - Voluntary Vaccination through Self-organizing Behaviors on Locally-mixed Social
      Networks.
AB  - Voluntary vaccination reflects how individuals weigh the risk of infection and
      the cost of vaccination against the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such
      as smallpox and measles. In a homogeneously mixing population, the infection risk
      of an individual depends largely on the proportion of vaccinated individuals due
      to the effects of herd immunity. While in a structured population, the infection
      risk can also be affected by the structure of individuals' social network. In
      this paper, we focus on studying individuals' self-organizing behaviors under the
      circumstance of voluntary vaccination in different types of social networks.
      Specifically, we assume that each individual together with his/her neighbors
      forms a local well-mixed environment, where individuals meet equally often as
      long as they have a common neighbor. We carry out simulations on four types of
      locally-mixed social networks to investigate the network effects on voluntary
      vaccination. Furthermore, we also evaluate individuals' vaccinating decisions
      through interacting with their "neighbors of neighbors". The results and findings
      of this paper provide a new perspective for vaccination policy-making by taking
      into consideration human responses in complex social networks.

PMID- 28572625
TI  - Node Attribute-enhanced Community Detection in Complex Networks.
AB  - Community detection involves grouping the nodes of a network such that nodes in
      the same community are more densely connected to each other than to the rest of
      the network. Previous studies have focused mainly on identifying communities in
      networks using node connectivity. However, each node in a network may be
      associated with many attributes. Identifying communities in networks combining
      node attributes has become increasingly popular in recent years. Most existing
      methods operate on networks with attributes of binary, categorical, or numerical
      type only. In this study, we introduce kNN-enhance, a simple and flexible
      community detection approach that uses node attribute enhancement. This approach
      adds the k Nearest Neighbor (kNN) graph of node attributes to alleviate the
      sparsity and the noise effect of an original network, thereby strengthening the
      community structure in the network. We use two testing algorithms, kNN-nearest
      and kNN-Kmeans, to partition the newly generated, attribute-enhanced graph. Our
      analyses of synthetic and real world networks have shown that the proposed
      algorithms achieve better performance compared to existing state-of-the-art
      algorithms. Further, the algorithms are able to deal with networks containing
      different combinations of binary, categorical, or numerical attributes and could
      be easily extended to the analysis of massive networks.

PMID- 28572624
TI  - Diacylglycerol Kinase alpha is Involved in the Vitamin E-Induced Amelioration of
      Diabetic Nephropathy in Mice.
AB  - Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of vascular complications of diabetes and is
      caused by abnormal protein kinase C activation as a result of increased
      diacylglycerol (DG) production in diabetic hyperglycaemia. Diacylglycerol kinase
      (DGK) converts DG into phosphatidic acid. Therefore, it is expected that the
      activation of DGK would ameliorate DN. Indeed, it has been reported that vitamin
      E (VtE) ameliorates DN in rat by activating DGK, and we recently reported that
      VtE specifically activates DGKalpha isoform in vitro. However, whether DGKalpha
      is involved in the VtE-induced amelioration of DN in vivo remains unknown.
      Therefore, we investigated the VtE-induced amelioration of DN in wild-type
      (DGKalpha+/+) and DGKalpha-deficient (DGKalpha-/-) mice in which diabetes was
      induced by streptozocin. Several symptoms of DN were ameliorated by VtE treatment
      in the DGKalpha+/+ mice but not in the DGKalpha-/- mice. Moreover, transmission
      electron microscopy of glomeruli and immunofluorescent staining of glomerular
      epithelial cells (podocytes) indicated that VtE ameliorates podocyte pathology
      and prevents podocyte loss in the DGKalpha+/+ mice but not in the DGKalpha-/-
      mice. We showed that VtE can ameliorate DN in mice and that DGKalpha is involved
      in the VtE-induced amelioration of DN in vivo, suggesting that DGKalpha is an
      attractive therapeutic target for DN.

PMID- 28572626
TI  - A randomised cross-over study assessing the "blue pyjama syndrome" in major
      depressive episode.
AB  - This paper introduces a "blue pyjama syndrome" (whereby wearing hospital pyjamas
      results in an exaggerated impression of severity). We performed a 5-day,
      prospective, randomized, cross-over study in a French mood disorder unit for
      inpatients. At Day 1 (D1) and Day 5 (D5), two 5-minute video interviews were
      recorded with patients in pyjamas or in day clothes (the sequence was randomly
      allocated). Psychiatrists unaware of the study objective assessed the videos and
      scored their clinical global impressions (CGI, with scores ranging from 1 to 7).
      Of 30 participants with major depressive episode selected for inclusion, 26
      participants (69% women) provided useable data for an evaluation by 10
      psychiatrists. Pyjamas significantly increased the psychiatrists' CGI ratings of
      disease severity by 0.65 [0.27; 1.02] points. The psychiatrists' global
      impressions also rated patients as significantly less severe at D5 in comparison
      with D1 by -0.66 [-1.03; -0.29] points. The "blue pyjama syndrome" is in the same
      order of magnitude as the difference observed after a week of hospitalisation.
      This potentially calls into question the reliability and validity of observer
      ratings of depression.

PMID- 28572629
TI  - Novel approach for accurate tissue-based protein colocalization and proximity
      microscopy.
AB  - Fluorescence colocalization microscopy is frequently used to assess potential
      links between distinct molecules; however, this method can lead to striking false
      positive results and erroneous conclusions. Here we developed a novel approach
      with more sophisticated mathematical colocalization analyses together with
      visualization of physical proximity using fluorescence resonance energy transfer
      (FRET). To verify our results we used the proximity ligation assay (PLA). With
      these methods we could demonstrate that distinct neurodegeneration-related
      proteins either not or only rarely interact in human brain tissue.

PMID- 28572627
TI  - MicroRNA-150 modulates intracellular Ca 2+ levels in naive CD8+ T cells by
      targeting TMEM20.
AB  - Regulation of intracellular Ca2+ signaling is a major determinant of CD8+ T cell
      responsiveness, but the mechanisms underlying this regulation of Ca2+ levels,
      especially in naive CD8+ T cells, are not fully defined. Here, we showed that
      microRNA-150 (miR-150) controls intracellular Ca2+ levels in naive CD8+ T cells
      required for activation by suppressing TMEM20, a negative regulator of Ca2+
      extrusion. miR-150 deficiency increased TMEM20 expression, which resulted in
      increased intracellular Ca2+ levels in naive CD8+ T cells. The subsequent
      increase in Ca2+ levels induced expression of anergy-inducing genes, such as Cbl
      b, Egr2, and p27, through activation of NFAT1, as well as reduced cell
      proliferation, cytokine production, and the antitumor activity of CD8+ T cells
      upon antigenic stimulation. The anergy-promoting molecular milieu and function
      induced by miR-150 deficiency were rescued by reinstatement of miR-150.
      Additionally, knockdown of TMEM20 in miR-150-deficient naive CD8+ T cells reduced
      intracellular Ca2+ levels. Our findings revealed that miR-150 play essential
      roles in controlling intracellular Ca2+ level and activation in naive CD8+ T
      cells, which suggest a mechanism to overcome anergy induction by the regulation
      of intracellular Ca2+ levels.

PMID- 28572630
TI  - Environmentally driven sexual segregation in a marine top predator.
AB  - Sexual segregation in foraging occurs in many animal species, resulting in the
      partitioning of resources and reduction of competition between males and females,
      yet the patterns and drivers of such segregation are still poorly understood. We
      studied the foraging movements (GPS-tracking), habitat use (habitat modelling)
      and trophic ecology (stable isotope analysis) of female and male Cory's
      shearwaters Calonectris borealis during the mid chick-rearing period of six
      consecutive breeding seasons (2010-2015). We found a clear sexual segregation in
      foraging in years of greater environmental stochasticity, likely years of lower
      food availability. When food became scarce, females undertook much longer
      foraging trips, exploited more homogeneous water masses, had a larger isotopic
      niche, fed on lower trophic level prey and exhibited a lower body condition, when
      compared to males. Sexual competition for trophic resources may be stronger when
      environmental conditions are poor. A greater foraging success of one sex may
      result in differential body condition of pair mates when enduring parental
      effort, and ultimately, in an increased probability of breeding failure.

PMID- 28572628
TI  - Adipose tissue dysfunction as a central mechanism leading to dysmetabolic obesity
      triggered by chronic exposure to p,p'-DDE.
AB  - Endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene
      (p,p'-DDE), are bioaccumulated in the adipose tissue (AT) and have been
      implicated in the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Thus, it is hypothesized that
      p,p'-DDE exposure could aggravate the harm of an obesogenic context. We explored
      the effects of 12 weeks exposure in male Wistar rats' metabolism and AT biology,
      assessing a range of metabolic, biochemical and histological parameters. p,p'-DDE
      -treatment exacerbated several of the metabolic syndrome-accompanying features
      induced by high-fat diet (HF), such as dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance and
      hypertension. A transcriptome analysis comparing mesenteric visceral AT (vAT) of
      HF and HF/DDE groups revealed a decrease in expression of nervous system and
      tissue development-related genes, with special relevance for the neuropeptide
      galanin that also revealed DNA methylation changes at its promoter region.
      Additionally, we observed an increase in transcription of dipeptidylpeptidase 4,
      as well as a plasmatic increase of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1beta. Our
      results suggest that p,p'-DDE impairs vAT normal function and effectively
      decreases the dynamic response to energy surplus. We conclude that p,p'-DDE does
      not merely accumulate in fat, but may contribute significantly to the development
      of metabolic dysfunction and inflammation. Our findings reinforce their
      recognition as metabolism disrupting chemicals, even in non-obesogenic contexts.

PMID- 28572631
TI  - Understanding the mechanisms of dormancy in an invasive alien Sycamore lace bug,
      Corythucha ciliata through transcript and metabolite profiling.
AB  - The sycamore lace bug, Corythucha ciliata, is a pest of sycamore trees. In China,
      it is found in the most northern border where it has been known to become dormant
      during harsh winters. But the molecular and metabolic basis for dormancy in this
      insect is still unknown. In this study, we analyzed the transcript and metabolite
      profiles of this bug to identify key genes and metabolites that are significantly
      regulated during dormancy in adult females and males. In total, 149
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly up-regulated and 337
      DEGs were significantly down-regulated in dormant adults (both females and
      males). We found major differences in heat shock protein (HSPs), immunity
      responsive genes, NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) and genes involved
      in the spliceosome pathway that is known to regulate stress. Among the 62
      metabolites identified by GC-MS, 12 metabolites including glycerol, trehalose,
      and alanine were significantly increased during C. ciliata dormancy. By
      integrating the transcriptome and metabolite datasets, we found that the
      metabolites in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and citrate cycle (TCA) were
      significantly reduced. This study is the first to report both transcript and
      metabolite profiles of the overwintering responses of C. ciliata to cold stress
      at the molecular level.

PMID- 28572632
TI  - Label-Free Fluorescence Spectroscopy for Detecting Key Biomolecules in Brain
      Tissue from a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - In this study, label-free fluorescence spectroscopy was used for the first time
      to determine spectral profiles of tryptophan, reduced nicotinamide adenine
      dinucleotide (NADH), and flavin denine dinucleotide (FAD) in fresh brain samples
      of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our results showed that the
      emission spectral profile levels of tryptophan and NADH were higher in AD samples
      than normal samples. The intensity ratio of tryptophan to NADH and the change
      rate of fluorescence intensity with respect to wavelength also increased in AD
      brain. These results yield an optical method for detecting early stage of AD by
      comparing spectral profiles of biomolecules.

PMID- 28572633
TI  - Cognitive ability and physical health: a Mendelian randomization study.
AB  - Causes of the association between cognitive ability and health remain unknown,
      but may reflect a shared genetic aetiology. This study examines the causal
      genetic associations between cognitive ability and physical health. We carried
      out two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses using the inverse-variance
      weighted method to test for causality between later life cognitive ability,
      educational attainment (as a proxy for cognitive ability in youth), BMI, height,
      systolic blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and type 2 diabetes using data
      from six independent GWAS consortia and the UK Biobank sample (N = 112 151). BMI,
      systolic blood pressure, coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes showed
      negative associations with cognitive ability; height was positively associated
      with cognitive ability. The analyses provided no evidence for casual associations
      from health to cognitive ability. In the other direction, higher educational
      attainment predicted lower BMI, systolic blood pressure, coronary artery disease,
      type 2 diabetes, and taller stature. The analyses indicated no causal association
      from educational attainment to physical health. The lack of evidence for causal
      associations between cognitive ability, educational attainment, and physical
      health could be explained by weak instrumental variables, poorly measured
      outcomes, or the small number of disease cases.

PMID- 28572634
TI  - Analysis of Parasitic Protozoa at the Single-cell Level using Microfluidic
      Impedance Cytometry.
AB  - At present, there are few technologies which enable the detection, identification
      and viability analysis of protozoan pathogens including Cryptosporidium and/or
      Giardia at the single (oo)cyst level. We report the use of Microfluidic Impedance
      Cytometry (MIC) to characterise the AC electrical (impedance) properties of
      single parasites and demonstrate rapid discrimination based on viability and
      species. Specifically, MIC was used to identify live and inactive C. parvum
      oocysts with over 90% certainty, whilst also detecting damaged and/or excysted
      oocysts. Furthermore, discrimination of Cryptosporidium parvum, Cryptosporidium
      muris and Giardia lamblia, with over 92% certainty was achieved. Enumeration and
      identification of (oo)cysts can be achieved in a few minutes, which offers a
      reduction in identification time and labour demands when compared to existing
      detection methods.

PMID- 28572635
TI  - Structures and thermodynamics of water encapsulated by graphene.
AB  - Understanding phase behaviors of nanoconfined water has driven notable research
      interests recently. In this work, we examine water encapsulated under a graphene
      cover that offers an ideal testbed to explore its molecular structures and
      thermodynamics. We find layered water structures for up to ~1000 trapped water
      molecules, which is stabilized by the spatial confinement and pressure induced by
      interfacial adhesion. For monolayer encapsulations, we identify representative
      two-dimensional crystalline lattices as well as defects therein. Free energy
      analysis shows that the structural orders with low entropy are compensated by
      high formation energies due to the pressurized confinement. There exists an order
      to-disorder transition for this condensed phase at ~480-490 K, with a sharp
      reduction in the number of hydrogen bonds and increase in the entropy. Fast
      diffusion of the encapsulated water demonstrates anomalous temperature
      dependence, indicating the solid-to-fluid nature of this structural transition.
      These findings offer fundamental understandings of the encapsulated water that
      can be used as a pressurized cell with trapped molecular species, and provide
      guidance for practical applications with its presence, for example, in the design
      of nanodevices and nanoconfined reactive cells.

PMID- 28572636
TI  - Nicotine delivery from the refill liquid to the aerosol via high-power e
      cigarette device.
AB  - To offer an enhanced and well-controlled nicotine delivery from the refill liquid
      to the aerosol is a key point to adequately satisfy nicotine cravings using
      electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). A recent high-power ENDS, exhibiting
      higher aerosol nicotine delivery than older technologies, was used. The particle
      size distribution was measured using a cascade impactor. The effects of the
      refill liquid composition on the nicotine content of each size-fraction in the
      submicron range were investigated. Nicotine was quantified by liquid
      chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Particle size distribution
      of the airborne refill liquid and the aerosol nicotine demonstrated that the
      nicotine is equally distributed in droplets regardless of their size. Results
      also proved that the nicotine concentration in aerosol was significantly lower
      compared to un-puffed refill liquid. A part of the nicotine may be left in the
      ENDS upon depletion, and consequently a portion of the nicotine may not be
      transferred to the user. Thus, new generation high-power ENDS associated with
      propylene glycol/vegetable glycerin (PG/VG) based solvent were very efficient to
      generate carrier-droplets containing nicotine molecules with a constant
      concentration. Findings highlighted that a portion of the nicotine in the refill
      liquid may not be transferred to the user.

PMID- 28572637
TI  - Transgenic hepatitis B: a new model of HBV infection.
AB  - Chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV) is major cause of morbidity and mortality
      throughout the world. Currently there is limited understanding on the cellular
      proteins and related molecules involved in the critical steps of viral entry into
      the cytoplasm and persistent viral replication in cell culture. In order to
      address these fundamental questions, we designed and implemented a new model of
      hepatitis B: infectious transgenic hepatitis B virus composed of a complete virus
      plus a foreign gene. The foreign gene allows identification of cells that are
      infected by the transgenic virus. The transgenic virus was used in a functional
      assay to identify cellular proteins necessary for viral replication. This assay
      repeatedly identified the protein UQCR10. After restoring UQCR10 levels in HepG2
      and Huh7 cells, they can be infected by intact virions of transgenic hepatitis B.
      These results demonstrate the usefulness of this new transgenic hepatitis B
      model.

PMID- 28572639
TI  - Construction of novel repeat proteins with rigid and predictable structures using
      a shared helix method.
AB  - Generating artificial protein assemblies with complex shapes requires a method
      for connecting protein components with stable and predictable structures.
      Currently available methods for creating rigid protein assemblies rely on either
      complicated calculations or extensive trial and error. We describe a simple and
      efficient method for connecting two proteins via a fused alpha helix that is
      formed by joining two preexisting helices into a single extended helix. Because
      the end-to-end ligation of helices does not guarantee the formation of a
      continuous helix, we superimposed 1-2 turns of pairs of connecting helices by
      using a molecular graphics program. Then, we chose amino acids from the two
      natural sequences that would stabilize the connecting helix. This "shared helix
      method" is highly efficient. All the designed proteins that could be produced in
      Escherichia coli were readily crystallized and had the expected fusion
      structures. To prove the usefulness of this method, we produced two novel repeat
      proteins by assembling several copies of natural or artificial proteins with
      alpha helices at both termini. Their crystal structures demonstrated the
      successful assembly of the repeating units with the intended curved shapes. We
      propose that this method could dramatically expand the available repertoire of
      natural repeat proteins.

PMID- 28572638
TI  - Mitochondrial targeting by dichloroacetate improves outcome following hemorrhagic
      shock.
AB  - Hemorrhagic shock is a leading cause of death in people under the age of 45 and
      accounts for almost half of trauma-related deaths. In order to develop a
      treatment strategy based on potentiating mitochondrial function, we investigated
      the effect of the orphan drug dichloroacetate (DCA) on survival in an animal
      model of hemorrhagic shock in the absence of fluid resuscitation. Hemorrhagic
      shock was induced in rats by withdrawing 60% of the blood volume and maintaining
      a hypotensive state. The studies demonstrated prolonged survival of rats
      subjected to hemorrhagic injury (HI) when treated with DCA. In separate
      experiments, using a fluid resuscitation model we studied mitochondrial
      functional alterations and changes in metabolic networks connected to
      mitochondria following HI and treatment with DCA. DCA treatment restored cardiac
      mitochondrial membrane potential and tissue ATP in the rats following HI.
      Treatment with DCA resulted in normalization of several metabolic and molecular
      parameters including plasma lactate and p-AMPK/AMPK, as well as Ach-mediated
      vascular relaxation. In conclusion we demonstrate that DCA can be successfully
      used in the treatment of hemorrhagic shock in the absence of fluid resuscitation;
      therefore DCA may be a good candidate in prolonged field care following severe
      blood loss.

PMID- 28572640
TI  - Density-controlled quantum Hall ferromagnetic transition in a two-dimensional
      hole system.
AB  - Quantum Hall ferromagnetic transitions are typically achieved by increasing the
      Zeeman energy through in-situ sample rotation, while transitions in systems with
      pseudo-spin indices can be induced by gate control. We report here a gate
      controlled quantum Hall ferromagnetic transition between two real spin states in
      a conventional two-dimensional system without any in-plane magnetic field. We
      show that the ratio of the Zeeman splitting to the cyclotron gap in a Ge two
      dimensional hole system increases with decreasing density owing to inter-carrier
      interactions. Below a critical density of ~2.4 * 1010 cm-2, this ratio grows
      greater than 1, resulting in a ferromagnetic ground state at filling factor nu =
      2. At the critical density, a resistance peak due to the formation of microscopic
      domains of opposite spin orientations is observed. Such gate-controlled spin
      polarizations in the quantum Hall regime opens the door to realizing Majorana
      modes using two-dimensional systems in conventional, low-spin-orbit-coupling
      semiconductors.

PMID- 28572642
TI  - Continuing Medical Education Questions: June 2017.

PMID- 28572643
TI  - Continuing Medical Education Questions: June 2017.

PMID- 28572641
TI  - Application of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in food adulteration
      determination: the example of Sudan dye I in paprika powder.
AB  - Carcinogenic Sudan I has been added illegally into spices for an apparent
      freshness. 1H solution and solid-state (SS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
      spectroscopies were applied and compared for determination of Sudan I in paprika
      powders (PPs). For solution NMR, PPs spiked with Sudan I were extracted with
      acetonitrile, centrifuged, rotor-evaporated, and re-dissolved in DMSO-d6 for
      spectral collection. For SSNMR, Sudan I contaminated PPs were mixed with DMSO-d6
      solution and used for spectral collection. Linear regression models constructed
      for quantitative analyses resulted in the average accuracies for unknown samples
      as 98% and 105%, respectively. Limits of detection for the solution NMR and SSNMR
      spectrometers were 6.7 and 128.6 mg kg-1, while the limits of quantification were
      22.5 and 313.7 mg kg-1. The overall analysis time required by both methods was
      similar (35 and 32 min). Both NMR techniques are feasible for rapid and accurate
      determination of Sudan I adulteration in PPs.

PMID- 28572644
TI  - Recurrent Gastrointestinal Bleeding due to Multiple Pyogenic Granulomas in the
      Stomach.

PMID- 28572646
TI  - A Risky Relationship: The Splenic Artery and Walled-Off Pancreatic Necrosis.

PMID- 28572645
TI  - Editorial: Making Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Easier to Swallow: Freeze
      Dried Preparation for Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infections.
AB  - Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has emerged as an effective and increasingly
      popular therapy for recurrent Clostridium difficile infections in patients that
      have failed standard antimicrobial treatment. Patient access to FMT is hampered
      by the logistics of manufacturing, storing, and delivering the inocula. An
      observational study describes the development and clinical efficacy of freeze
      dried FMT capsules for oral administration. While awaiting the emergence of
      defined bacterial therapeutics for Clostridium difficile infections, this
      refinement of FMT is an encouraging step toward simplifying FMT treatment.
      Randomized controlled trials are required to further establish the efficacy and
      safety of lyophilized FMT.

PMID- 28572647
TI  - Wild Mushrooms: An Exclusive Delicacy or Last Meal.

PMID- 28572648
TI  - Successful and Safe Endoscopic Removal of a Dental Prosthesis from the Colon
      Using an Adapted Capuchon Hood.

PMID- 28572649
TI  - Response to Toyoda et al.

PMID- 28572650
TI  - A Case of Type II Enteropathy-Associated T-Cell Lymphoma in a Patient With
      Ulcerative Colitis.

PMID- 28572652
TI  - Pancreatic Carcinoma Diagnosed by Peroral Pancreatoscopy Using the SpyGlass
      System.

PMID- 28572651
TI  - Editorial: Clinical Implications of Diagnosing Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Do All
      Roads Need to Lead to Rome?
AB  - Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common diagnoses made by
      healthcare providers. Yet the majority of patients with IBS are undiagnosed. The
      study by Sayuk et al. allows insight into the characteristics of different
      patient groups, e.g., with and without a formal diagnosis of diarrhea predominant
      IBS (IBS-D). We discuss the questions raised by this study regarding the
      importance of making a confident diagnosis, conveying it to patients and their
      implications for clinical practice.

PMID- 28572653
TI  - Continuing Medical Education: June 2017.

PMID- 28572655
TI  - When to Stop Testing.

PMID- 28572654
TI  - Editorial: Functional Dyspepsia Treatment: Trials and Tribulations of Targeted
      Strategies.
AB  - While functional dyspepsia (FD) is an exceedingly common disorder, the number of
      treatment options remains limited, and strategies for the individualized
      implementation of these therapies largely are lacking. In the current issue of
      American Journal of Gastroenterology, Saito and colleagues report on a secondary
      analysis of data from the Functional Dyspepsia Treatment Trial, specifically
      examining the role of two candidate genetic markers in predicting FD response to
      antidepressant treatments. Though the current study yielded a negative result, it
      nevertheless emphasizes the importance of our continued pursuit of therapeutic
      biomarkers in order to move beyond "one-size-fits-all" approaches to the
      treatment of FD and related disorders.

PMID- 28572656
TI  - Hepatitis B Core-Related Antigen: A Possible Indicator for the Termination of
      Prophylactic Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Therapy in Patients After Immunosuppressive
      Therapy.

PMID- 28572657
TI  - The Impact on Endoscopic Resource Utilization After A Targeted Intervention for
      Cost-Minimization of EGD and Colonoscopy.

PMID- 28572658
TI  - Response to Kane et al.

PMID- 28572659
TI  - IgG4-Related Sclerosing Mesenteritis.

PMID- 28572660
TI  - Continuing Medical Education: June 2017.

PMID- 28572662
TI  - Discovery of a polystyrene binding peptide isolated from phage display library
      and its application in peptide immobilization.
AB  - Phage peptide display is a powerful technique for discovery of various target
      specific ligands. However, target-unrelated peptides can often be obtained and
      cause ambiguous results. Peptide PB-TUP has been isolated repeatedly in our
      laboratory on different targets and we conducted a research on PB-TUP phage to
      investigate their binding properties and rate of propagation. ELISA and phage
      recovery assay demonstrated that PB-TUP phage had a significant superior affinity
      to polystyrene solid surface compared with control phage clones. In this study,
      some incidental bindings are excluded like blocking agents and non-specific
      binding of secondary antibodies. Propagation rate assays of the selected phage
      clones showed that the growth rate of PB-TUP phage was not superior to the
      control phages. Furthermore, the binding of PB-TUB to polystyrene was
      concentration dependent and varied with solution pH. Molecular modeling revealed
      that stable structures of alpha-helix and beta-turn may contribute to the binding
      of PB-TUP to polystyrene plate. The PB-TUP sequence was fused to the N-terminus
      of peptide P2 and the fusion peptide significantly increased the binding affinity
      to polystyrene. The fusion peptide also enhanced the cell adhesion ability of
      peptide P2 with human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC). The addition of
      the polystyrene binding peptide provided a convenient method for peptide
      immobilization.

PMID- 28572664
TI  - Mapping Refrigerant Gases in the New York City Skyline.
AB  - Cities are now home to more than 50% of the world's population and emit large
      quantities of pollutants from sources such as fossil fuel combustion and the
      leakage of refrigerants. We demonstrate the utility of persistent synoptic
      longwave hyperspectral imaging to study the ongoing leakage of refrigerant gases
      in New York City, compounds that either deplete the stratosphere ozone or have
      significant global warming potential. In contrast to current monitoring programs
      that are based on country-level reporting or aggregate measures of emissions, we
      present the identification of gaseous plumes with high spatial and temporal
      granularity in real-time over the skyline of Manhattan. The reported data
      highlights the emission of chemicals scheduled for phase-out. Our goal is to
      contribute to better understanding of the composition, sources, concentration,
      prevalence and patterns of emissions for the purposes of both research and
      policy.

PMID- 28572663
TI  - Time-order-errors and duration ranges in the Episodic Temporal Generalization
      task.
AB  - The current model of the Episodic Temporal Generalization task, where subjects
      have to judge whether pairs of auditory stimuli are equal in duration, predicts
      that results are scale-free and unaffected by the presentation order of the
      stimuli. To test these predictions, we conducted three experiments assessing sub-
      and supra-second standards and taking presentation order into account.
      Proportions were spaced linearly in Experiments 1 and 2 and logarithmically in
      Experiment 3. Critically, we found effects of duration range and presentation
      order with both spacing schemes. Our results constitute the first report of
      presentation order effects in the Episodic Temporal Generalization task and
      demonstrate that future studies should always consider duration range, number of
      trials and presentation order as crucial factors modulating performance.

PMID- 28572665
TI  - Microscopic description of insulator-metal transition in high-pressure oxygen.
AB  - Unusual metallic states involving breakdown of the standard Fermi-liquid picture
      of long-lived quasiparticles in well-defined band states emerge at low
      temperatures near correlation-driven Mott transitions. Prominent examples are ill
      understood metallic states in d- and f-band compounds near Mott-like transitions.
      Finding of superconductivity in solid O2 on the border of an insulator-metal
      transition at high pressures close to 96 GPa is thus truly remarkable. Neither
      the insulator-metal transition nor superconductivity are understood
      satisfactorily. Here, we undertake a first step in this direction by focussing on
      the pressure-driven insulator-metal transition using a combination of first
      principles density-functional and many-body calculations. We report a striking
      result: the finding of an orbital-selective Mott transition in a pure p-band
      elemental system. We apply our theory to understand extant structural and
      transport data across the transition, and make a specific two-fluid prediction
      that is open to future test. Based thereupon, we propose a novel scenario where
      soft multiband modes built from microscopically coexisting itinerant and
      localized electronic states are natural candidates for the pairing glue in
      pressurized O2.

PMID- 28572666
TI  - Strategies for reducing the fertilizer application rate in the ridge and furrow
      rainfall harvesting system in semiarid regions.
AB  - The ridge and furrow rainwater harvesting (RFRH) system is a promising water
      saving planting technique for dryland farming, but we lack a full understanding
      of the effects of different fertilizer rates (N:P) on plant nutrient uptake and
      nutrient use efficiency (NuUE) in foxtail millet using this planting method, as
      well as the available nutrient residues in the soil. We conducted field studies
      (Loess Plateau, China) comparing RFRH planting (R) and traditional flat planting
      (T) at four different fertilizer rates to determine suitable fertilizer
      application rates for R during 2013-2015. Compared with T, R improved the soil
      moisture and the utilization of rainwater and fertilizer, thereby enhancing the
      grain yield, water use efficiency (WUE), grain nutrient uptake, and NUE in a dry
      year, but with no improvements in a rainy year. The grain yield and WUE exhibited
      parabolic increasing trends as the fertilizer application rate increased over
      three years, but no significant increase was found when the fertilizer rate
      exceeded 189:96 kg N:P ha-1 under R, which significantly reduced the NuUE and
      might waste nutrients. Therefore, we recommend R combined with 189:96 kg N:P ha-1
      as a promising planting strategy for foxtail millet in semiarid areas.

PMID- 28572667
TI  - Erratum: Genomic variants in mouse model induced by azoxymethane and dextran
      sodium sulfate improperly mimic human colorectal cancer.
AB  - A correction has been published and is appended to both the HTML and PDF versions
      of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

PMID- 28572668
TI  - Cathelicidin-trypsin inhibitor loop conjugate represents a promising antibiotic
      candidate with protease stability.
AB  - Cathelicidins are regarded as promising antibiotics due to their capability
      against antibiotic-resistant bacteria without cytotoxicity. However, some
      concerns about the balance of cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity, weak
      stability and enzymatic susceptibility sually restrict their therapeutic use.
      Here, we designed a series of shortened variants, Hc1~15, based on our previously
      characterized Hc-CATH. Hc3, the one with the best activity, after point mutation
      was engineered with a trypsin inhibitor loop, ORB-C, to obtain four hybrid
      peptides: H3TI, TIH3, H3TIF and TIH3F. All four except TIH3 were found possessing
      an appreciable profile of proteases inhibitory and antimicrobial characteristics
      without increase in cytotoxicity. Among them, TIH3F exhibited the most potent and
      broad-spectrum antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. Fluorescence
      spectroscopy has demonstrated a quick induction of bacterial membrane
      permeability by TIH3F leading to the cell death, which also accounts for its fast
      anti-biofilm activity. Such mode of antimicrobial action was mainly attributed to
      peptides' amphiphilic and helical structures determined by CD and homology
      modeling. Besides, TIH3F exhibited good tolerance to salt, serum, pH, and
      temperature, indicating a much better physiological stability in vitro than Hc3,
      Most importantly, in the case of resistance against proteases hydrolysis, current
      hybrid peptides displayed a remarkable enhancement than their original templates.

PMID- 28572669
TI  - Smooth anti-reflective three-dimensional textures for liquid phase crystallized
      silicon thin-film solar cells on glass.
AB  - Recently, liquid phase crystallization of thin silicon films has emerged as a
      candidate for thin-film photovoltaics. On 10 MUm thin absorbers, wafer-equivalent
      morphologies and open-circuit voltages were reached, leading to 13.2% record
      efficiency. However, short-circuit current densities are still limited, mainly
      due to optical losses at the glass-silicon interface. While nano-structures at
      this interface have been shown to efficiently reduce reflection, up to now these
      textures caused a deterioration of electronic silicon material quality.
      Therefore, optical gains were mitigated due to recombination losses. Here, the
      SMooth Anti-Reflective Three-dimensional (SMART) texture is introduced to
      overcome this trade-off. By smoothing nanoimprinted SiO x nano-pillar arrays with
      spin-coated TiO x layers, light in-coupling into laser-crystallized silicon solar
      cells is significantly improved as successfully demonstrated in three-dimensional
      simulations and in experiment. At the same time, electronic silicon material
      quality is equivalent to that of planar references, allowing to reach V oc values
      above 630 mV. Furthermore, the short-circuit current density could be increased
      from 21.0 mA cm-2 for planar reference cells to 24.5 mA cm-2 on SMART textures, a
      relative increase of 18%. External quantum efficiency measurements yield an
      increase for wavelengths up to 700 nm compared to a state-of-the-art solar cell
      with 11.9% efficiency, corresponding to a j sc, EQE gain of 2.8 mA cm-2.

PMID- 28572670
TI  - Functional analysis of the role of hydrogen sulfide in the regulation of dark
      induced leaf senescence in Arabidopsis.
AB  - There is growing evidence that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is involved in many
      physiological processes in plants, but the role of H2S in dark-induced leaf
      senescence remains unknown. In this work, we found that H2S not only inhibited
      chlorophyll degradation but also caused the accumulation of photoreactive pheide
      a in detached leaves under extended darkness. Despite this, transcript levels of
      senescence-associated genes (SAGs) were less affected in H2S-treated detached
      leaves compared with those in H2S-untreated detached leaves. Furthermore, cell
      death/rapid bleaching occurred in both H2S-treated detached and attached leaves
      after transfer from extended darkness to light. Unlike the lack of effect of H2S
      on SAG transcripts in darkened detached leaves, exogenous H2S induced higher SAG
      transcript levels in attached leaves than untreated attached leaves. Genetic
      evidence further underlined the positive correlation between SAG expression in
      attached leaves and H2S. In addition, effects of H2S on SAG expression in
      attached leaves were compromised in the S-nitrosoglutathione reductase-deficient
      mutant, gsnor1. Taken together, our results suggest that H2S suppresses
      chlorophyll degradation of detached leaves by regulating a dark-dependent
      reaction, and that this gas positively modulates SAG expression in attached
      leaves under prolonged darkness in a GSNOR1-dependent manner.

PMID- 28572672
TI  - Control of light absorbance using plasmonic grating based perfect absorber at
      visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
AB  - Conventional metamaterial absorbers have multilayer designs, where the dielectric
      interlayer is sandwiched between a top patterned metallic structure and bottom
      metallic film. Here, we demonstrate that a highly polarization-sensitive perfect
      absorber canbe realized by replacing the bottom metallic film with a plasmonic
      grating. Designs for broadband and narrowband of wavelength are proposed and
      numerically investigated. The designed absorbers perform high light absorption,
      which is above 90% over the wavelength range of 0.4-1.4 um for the broadband
      absorber and 98% for the absorption peak in case of the narrowband design, with a
      specific polarization of incident light. We find that the absorption is tunable
      by changing the polarization. Such absorbers offer new approach for active
      control of light absorbance with strong impacts for solar energy harvesting,
      light emitting and sensing.

PMID- 28572671
TI  - Interaction studies of carbon nanomaterials and plasma activated carbon
      nanomaterials solution with telomere binding protein.
AB  - Most cancer cells have telomerase activity because they can express the human
      telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene. Therefore, the inhibition of the
      hTERT expression can play an important role in controlling cancer cell
      proliferation. Our current study aims to inhibit hTERT expression. For this, we
      synthesized graphene oxide (GO) and a functionalized multiwall carbon nanotube (f
      MWCNT), latter treated them with cold atmospheric pressure plasma for further
      analysis of the hTERT expression. The inhibition of hTERT expression by GO, f
      MWCNT, plasma activated GO solution (PGOS), and plasma activated f-MWCNT solution
      (PCNTS), was studied using two lung cancer cell lines, A549 and H460. The hTERT
      experimental results revealed that GO and PGOS sufficiently decreased the hTERT
      concentration, while f-MWCNT and PCNTS were unable to inhibit the hTERT
      concentration. Therefore, to understand the inhibition mechanism of hTERT, we
      studied the binding properties of GO and PGOS with telomere binding protein
      (AtTRB2). The interaction studies were carried out using circular dichroism,
      fluorescence, 1H-15N NMR spectroscopy, and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC)
      binding assay. We also used docking simulation to have an better understanding of
      the interactions between GO nanosheets and AtTRB2 protein. Our results may
      provide new insights that can benefit in biomedical treatments.

PMID- 28572673
TI  - Simple, rapid and efficient transformation of genotype Nisqually-1: a basic tool
      for the first sequenced model tree.
AB  - Genotype Nisqually-1 is the first model woody plant with an available well
      annotated genome. Nevertheless, a simple and rapid transformation of Nisqually-1
      remains to be established. Here, we developed a novel shoot regeneration method
      for Nisqually-1 using leaf petiole and stem segment explants. Numerous shoots
      formed in the incision of explants within two weeks. The optimized shoot
      regeneration medium (SRM) contained 0.03 mg l-1 6-benzylaminopurine, 0.02 mg l-1
      indole-3-butyric acid and 0.0008 mg l-1 thidiazuron. Based on this, Agrobacterium
      mediated genetic transformation of stem explants was examined using the vector
      pBI121 that contains the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) as a reporter gene.
      Consequently, factors affecting transformation frequency of GUS-positive shoots
      were optimized as follows: Agrobacteria cell suspension with an OD600 of 0.4, 20
      min infection time, 2 days of co-cultivation duration and the addition of 80 uM
      acetosyringone into Agrobacteria infective suspension and co-cultivation SRM.
      Using this optimized method, transgenic plantlets of Nisqually-1 - with an
      average transformation frequency of 26.7% - were obtained with 2 months. Southern
      blot and GUS activity staining confirmed the integration of the foreign GUS gene
      into Nisqually-1. This novel transformation system for Nisqually-1 was rapid,
      efficient, and simple to operate and will improve more genetic applications in
      this model tree.

PMID- 28572674
TI  - Cytokine profiling in the sub-silicone oil fluid after vitrectomy surgeries for
      refractory retinal diseases.
AB  - Silicone oil (SO) is an intraocular surgical adjuvant that reduces the surgical
      complications in refractory retinal diseases, although membrane and cellular
      proliferation is often seen even in SO-filled eyes. We hypothesised that the
      fluid in the space between the SO and the retina, named the "sub-silicone oil
      fluid (SOF)", enhances these biological responses. We proposed a safe method for
      SOF extraction. We also analysed inflammatory cytokine expressions and SOF
      osmotic pressures from eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD),
      proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR)
      and macular hole-associated retinal detachment (MHRD). Interleukin (IL)-10, IL
      12p40, IL-6, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, and vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) in the SOF with PVR were significantly higher than in those with
      RRD or MHRD. Fibroblast growth factor-2, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-8, VEGF, and
      transforming growth factor beta 1 levels in eyes with exacerbated PDR indicated a
      significantly higher expression than those with simple PDR. IL-6 and tumour
      necrosis factor alpha in eyes with exacerbated PVR demonstrated a significantly
      higher expression than in those with simple PVR. However, there was no difference
      in SOF osmotic pressure between group of each disease. These studies indicate
      that disease-specific SOF is a significant reflection of disease status.

PMID- 28572675
TI  - Predictive assessment in pharmacogenetics of Glutathione S-transferases genes on
      efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients.
AB  - The influences of glutathione s-transferase P1, M1, and T1 variants on the
      efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      patients were inconsistent in previous studies. Our meta-analysis enrolled 31
      publications including 5712 patients and provided more convincing and reliable
      conclusions. Results showed that GSTP1 IIe105Val IIe/Val and Val/Val Asian
      patients were more likely to have better response rates compared to IIe/IIe
      patients (odds ratio (OR) = 1.592, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), 1.087-2.332, P
      = 0.017). The Asian patients bearing the favorable GSTM1 null genotype were more
      likely to have better response rates to platinum-based chemotherapy compared to
      those patients with the unfavorable GSTM1 present genotype (OR = 1.493 (1.192
      1.870), P < 0.001). Caucasian lung cancer patients bearing GSTT1 null genotype
      might be more closely associated with shorter survival time and higher risks of
      death than the GSTT1 present patients (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.423, CI = 1.084
      1.869, P = 0.011). Our meta-analysis suggested that the GSTP1 IIe105Val, GSTM1
      and GSTT1 null variants might be predictive factors for the efficacy of platinum
      based chemotherapy to NSCLC patients. The use of GSTP1 IIe105Val, GSTM1 and GSTT1
      null polymorphisms as predictive factors of efficacy of personalized platinum
      based chemotherapy to NSCLC patients requires further verification with multi
      center, multi-ethnic and large-sample-size pharmacogenetic studies.

PMID- 28572676
TI  - Fiber-utilizing capacity varies in Prevotella- versus Bacteroides-dominated gut
      microbiota.
AB  - The gut microbiota of individuals are dominated by different fiber-utilizing
      bacteria, which ferment dietary fiber into short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) known
      to be important for human health. Here, we show that the dominance of Prevotella
      versus Bacteroides in fecal innocula, identified into two different enterotypes,
      differentially impacts in vitro fermentation profiles of SCFAs from fibers with
      different chemical structures. In a microbiome of the Prevotella enterotype,
      fructooligosaccharides, and sorghum and corn arabinoxylans significantly promoted
      one single Prevotella OTU with equally high production of total SCFAs with
      propionate as the major product. Conversely, in the Bacteroides-dominated
      microbiota, the three fibers enriched different OTUs leading to different levels
      and ratios of SCFAs. This is the first report showing how individual differences
      in two enterotypes cause distinctly different responses to dietary fiber.
      Microbiota dominated by different fiber-utilizing bacteria may impact host health
      by way of producing different amounts and profiles of SCFAs from the same
      carbohydrate substrates.

PMID- 28572678
TI  - Room-Temperature Superplasticity in an Ultrafine-Grained Magnesium Alloy.
AB  - Superplasticity, a phenomenon of high tensile elongation in polycrystalline
      materials, is highly effective in fabrication of complex parts by metal forming
      without any machining. Superplasticity typically occurs only at elevated
      homologous temperatures, where thermally-activated deformation mechanisms
      dominate. Here, we report the first observation of room-temperature
      superplasticity in a magnesium alloy, which challenges the commonly-held view of
      the poor room-temperature plasticity of magnesium alloys. An ultrafine-grained
      magnesium-lithium (Mg-8 wt.%Li) alloy produced by severe plastic deformation
      demonstrated 440% elongation at room temperature (0.35 T m) with a strain-rate
      sensitivity of 0.37. These unique properties were associated with enhanced grain
      boundary sliding, which was approximately 60% of the total elongation. This
      enhancement originates from fast grain-boundary diffusion caused by the Li
      segregation along the grain boundaries and the formation of Li-rich interphases.
      This discovery introduces a new approach for controlling the room-temperature
      superplasticity by engineering grain-boundary composition and diffusion, which is
      of importance in metal forming technology without heating.

PMID- 28572677
TI  - Intraspecific differences in molecular stress responses and coral pathobiome
      contribute to mortality under bacterial challenge in Acropora millepora.
AB  - Disease causes significant coral mortality worldwide; however, factors
      responsible for intraspecific variation in disease resistance remain unclear. We
      exposed fragments of eight Acropora millepora colonies (genotypes) to putatively
      pathogenic bacteria (Vibrio spp.). Genotypes varied from zero to >90% mortality,
      with bacterial challenge increasing average mortality rates 4-6 fold and shifting
      the microbiome in favor of stress-associated taxa. Constitutive immunity and
      subsequent immune and transcriptomic responses to the challenge were more
      prominent in high-mortality individuals, whereas low-mortality corals remained
      largely unaffected and maintained expression signatures of a healthier condition
      (i.e., did not launch a large stress response). Our results suggest that lesions
      appeared due to changes in the coral pathobiome (multiple bacterial species
      associated with disease) and general health deterioration after the biotic
      disturbance, rather than the direct activity of any specific pathogen. If
      diseases in nature arise because of weaknesses in holobiont physiology, instead
      of the virulence of any single etiological agent, environmental stressors
      compromising coral condition might play a larger role in disease outbreaks than
      is currently thought. To facilitate the diagnosis of compromised individuals, we
      developed and independently cross-validated a biomarker assay to predict
      mortality based on genes whose expression in asymptomatic individuals coincides
      with mortality rates.

PMID- 28572679
TI  - Ultra-large non-volatile modulation of magnetic moments in
      PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3/MgO/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructure at room temperature via
      interfacial polarization mediation.
AB  - Multiferroic hybrid structures PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (PZT)/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) and
      PZT/MgO/LSMO were epitaxially deposited on (001) Nb:SrTiO3 crystals.
      Crystallinity and ferroelectric domain structures were investigated for the
      PZT/LSMO heterostructure. Interestingly, relatively high non-volatile
      magnetoelectric coupling effects were observed in both heterostructures at room
      temperature. The change of chemical valence for Mn and Ti at the PZT/MgO/LSMO
      interface may play a dominant role rather than external strain or orbital
      reconstruction, which lead to a large modulation of the magnetization.
      Correspondingly, the transport behavior of the PZT/MgO/LSMO heterostructure is
      investigated to confirm the role of oxygen vacancies motion. Our result indicates
      that the PZT/MgO/LSMO heterostructure have a promising application for future
      high-density non-volatile memories.

PMID- 28572680
TI  - Using remote sensing environmental data to forecast malaria incidence at a rural
      district hospital in Western Kenya.
AB  - Malaria surveillance data provide opportunity to develop forecasting models.
      Seasonal variability in environmental factors correlate with malaria
      transmission, thus the identification of transmission patterns is useful in
      developing prediction models. However, with changing seasonal transmission
      patterns, either due to interventions or shifting weather seasons, traditional
      modelling approaches may not yield adequate predictive skill. Two statistical
      models,a general additive model (GAM) and GAMBOOST model with boosted regression
      were contrasted by assessing their predictive accuracy in forecasting malaria
      admissions at lead times of one to three months. Monthly admission data for
      children under five years with confirmed malaria at the Siaya district hospital
      in Western Kenya for the period 2003 to 2013 were used together with satellite
      derived data on rainfall, average temperature and evapotranspiration(ET). There
      was a total of 8,476 confirmed malaria admissions. The peak of malaria season
      changed and malaria admissions reduced overtime. The GAMBOOST model at 1-month
      lead time had the highest predictive skill during both the training and test
      periods and thus can be utilized in a malaria early warning system.

PMID- 28572681
TI  - Stopping power beyond the adiabatic approximation.
AB  - Energetic ions traveling in solids deposit energy in a variety of ways, being
      nuclear and electronic stopping the two avenues in which dissipation is usually
      treated. This separation between electrons and ions relies on the adiabatic
      approximation in which ions interact via forces derived from the instantaneous
      electronic ground state. In a more detailed view, in which non-adiabatic effects
      are explicitly considered, electronic excitations alter the atomic bonding, which
      translates into changes in the interatomic forces. In this work, we use time
      dependent density functional theory and forces derived from the equations of
      Ehrenfest dynamics that depend instantaneously on the time-dependent electronic
      density. With them we analyze how the inter-ionic forces are affected by
      electronic excitations in a model of a Ni projectile interacting with a Ni
      target, a metallic system with strong electronic stopping and shallow core level
      states. We find that the electronic excitations induce substantial modifications
      to the inter-ionic forces, which translate into nuclear stopping power well above
      the adiabatic prediction. In particular, we observe that most of the alteration
      of the adiabatic potential in early times comes from the ionization of the core
      levels of the target ions, not readily screened by the valence electrons.

PMID- 28572682
TI  - Seismic anisotropy evidence for dehydration embrittlement triggering intermediate
      depth earthquakes.
AB  - It has been proposed that dehydration embrittlement of hydrous materials can
      trigger intermediate-depth earthquakes and form a double seismic zone in a
      subducting slab. Seismic anisotropy may provide a possible insight into
      intermediate-depth intraslab seismicity, because anisotropic properties of
      minerals change with varying water distribution, temperature and pressure. Here
      we present a high-resolution model of P-wave radial anisotropy tomography of the
      Japan subduction zone down to ~400 km depth, which is obtained using a large
      number of arrival-time data of local earthquakes and teleseismic events. Our
      results reveal a close correlation between the pattern of intermediate-depth
      seismicity and anisotropic structures. The seismicity occurs in portions of the
      Pacific and Philippine Sea slabs where positive radial anisotropy (i.e.,
      horizontal velocity being faster than vertical one) dominates due to dehydration,
      whereas the inferred anhydrous parts of the slabs are found to be aseismic where
      negative radial anisotropy (i.e., vertical velocity being faster than horizontal
      one) dominates. Our anisotropic results suggest that intermediate-depth
      earthquakes in Japan could be triggered by dehydration embrittlement of hydrous
      minerals in the subducting slabs.

PMID- 28572683
TI  - Cell-free DNA from human plasma and serum differs in content of telomeric
      sequences and its ability to promote immune response.
AB  - Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) may be involved in immune response regulation.
      We studied the variations in abundance of telomeric sequences in plasma and serum
      in young healthy volunteers and the ability of cfDNA contained in these samples
      to co-activate the TNF-alpha m RNA expression in monocytes. We performed qPCR to
      determine relative telomere length (T/S ratios) in plasma, serum and whole blood
      of 36 volunteers. Using paired samples of plasma and serum and DNase treatment,
      we analysed the contribution of cfDNA to the co-activation of TNF-alpha mRNA
      expression in THP1 monocytic cell line. We found significant differences between
      paired plasma and serum samples in relative T/S ratios (median 1.38 +/- 1.1 vs.
      0.86 +/- 0.25, respectively) and in total amounts of cfDNA and in estimated total
      amounts of telomeres which were significantly higher in serum than in plasma. TNF
      alpha mRNA expression in THP1 cells increased significantly after DNase treatment
      of all samples used for stimulation. The highest TNF-alpha mRNA expressions were
      observed after stimulation with DNase treated serum samples. Our results suggest
      that the different content of telomeric sequences in plasma and serum may
      contribute to the tuning of immune response. Further studies of this interesting
      phenomenon are needed.

PMID- 28572685
TI  - VEGF-A Stimulates STAT3 Activity via Nitrosylation of Myocardin to Regulate the
      Expression of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation Markers.
AB  - Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) is a pivotal player in
      angiogenesis. It is capable of influencing such cellular processes as
      tubulogenesis and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation, yet very
      little is known about the actual signaling events that mediate VEGF-A induced
      VSMC phenotypic switch. In this report, we describe the identification of an
      intricate VEGF-A-induced signaling cascade that involves VEGFR2, STAT3, and
      Myocardin. We demonstrate that VEGF-A promotes VSMC proliferation via
      VEGFR2/STAT3-mediated upregulating the proliferation of markers like Cyclin D1
      and PCNA. Specifically, VEGF-A leads to nitrosylation of Myocardin, weakens its
      effect on promoting the expression of contractile markers and is unable to
      inhibit the activation of STAT3. These observations reinforce the importance of
      nitric oxide and S-nitrosylation in angiogenesis and provide a mechanistic
      pathway for VEGF-A-induced VSMC phenotypic switch. In addition, Myocardin, GSNOR
      and GSNO can create a negative feedback loop to regulate the VSMC phenotypic
      switch. Thus, the discovery of this interactive network of signaling pathways
      provides novel and unexpected therapeutic targets for angiogenesis-dependent
      diseases.

PMID- 28572684
TI  - phiBO1E, a newly discovered lytic bacteriophage targeting carbapenemase-producing
      Klebsiella pneumoniae of the pandemic Clonal Group 258 clade II lineage.
AB  - The pandemic dissemination of KPC carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae
      (KPC-KP) represents a major public health problem, given their extensive
      multidrug resistance profiles and primary role in causing healthcare-associated
      infections. This phenomenon has largely been contributed by strains of Clonal
      Group (CG) 258, mostly of clade II, which in some areas represent the majority of
      KPC-KP isolates. Here we have characterized a newly discovered lytic Podoviridae,
      named phiBO1E, targeting KPC-KP strains of clade II lineage of CG258. Genomic
      sequencing revealed that phiBO1E belongs to the Kp34virus genus (87% nucleotide
      identity to vB_KpnP_SU552A). PhiBO1E was stable over a broad pH and temperature
      range, exhibited strict specificity for K. pneumoniae strains of clade II of
      CG258, and was unable to establish lysogeny. In a Galleria mellonella infection
      model, phiBO1E was able to protect larvae from death following infection with KPC
      KP strains of clade II of CG258, including one colistin resistant strain
      characterized by a hypermucoviscous phenotype. To our best knowledge phiBO1E is
      the first characterized lytic phage targeting K. pneumoniae strains of this
      pandemic clonal lineage. As such, it could be of potential interest to develop
      new agents for treatment of KPC-KP infections and for decolonization of subjects
      chronically colonized by these resistant superbugs.

PMID- 28572687
TI  - Defining risk variables causing gas embolism in loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta
      caretta) caught in trawls and gillnets.
AB  - Incidental capture, or 'bycatch' in fishing gear is a major global threat to sea
      turtle populations. A recent study showed that underwater entrapment in fishing
      gear followed by rapid decompression may cause gas bubble formation within the
      blood stream (embolism) and tissues leading to organ injury, impairment, and even
      mortality in some bycaught individuals. We analyzed data from 128 capture events
      using logistic and ordinal regression to examine risk factors associated with gas
      embolism in sea turtles captured in trawls and gillnets. Likelihood of fatal
      decompression increases with increasing depth of gear deployment. A direct
      relationship was found between depth, risk and severity of embolism, which has
      not been previously demonstrated in any breath-hold diving species. For the trawl
      fishery in this study, an average trawl depth of 65 m was estimated to result in
      50% mortality in by-caught turtles throughout the year. This finding is critical
      for a more accurate estimation of sea turtle mortality rates resulting from
      different fisheries and for devising efforts to avoid or minimize the harmful
      effects of capture.

PMID- 28572686
TI  - Use of Patterned Collagen Coated Slides to Study Normal and Scleroderma Lung
      Fibroblast Migration.
AB  - Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a spreading fibrotic disease affecting the skin and
      internal organs. We aimed to model pathogenic fibroblast migration in SSc in
      order to identify enhancing factors, measure the effect of migrating cells on
      underlying extracellular matrix (ECM) and test possible therapeutic inhibitors.
      Novel patterned collagen substrates were used to investigate alignment and
      migration of skin and lung fibroblasts from SSc patients and healthy controls.
      Normal lung but not skin fibroblasts consistently elongated and aligned with
      underlying collagen and migrated dependent on PDGF or serum. SSc lung fibroblasts
      remained growth factor dependent, did not migrate more rapidly and were less
      restricted to alignment of the collagen. Multiple collagen proline and lysine
      modifying enzymes were identified in SSc but not control fibroblast extracellular
      matrix preparations, indicating differential levels of ECM modification by the
      diseased cells. Profiling of migrating cells revealed a possible SCF/c-Kit
      paracrine mechanism contributing to migration via a subpopulation of cells.
      Heparin, which binds ligands including PDGF and SCF, and imatininib which blocks
      downstream tyrosine kinase receptors, both inhibited lung fibroblast migration
      individually but showed synergy in SSc cells. Pathologic lung fibroblasts from
      SSc patients modify ECM during migration but remain growth factor dependent and
      sensitive to inhibitors.

PMID- 28572688
TI  - Isolated Congenital Anosmia and CNGA2 Mutation.
AB  - Isolated congenital anosmia (ICA) is a rare condition that is associated with
      life-long inability to smell. Here we report a genetic characterization of a
      large Iranian family segregating ICA. Whole exome sequencing in five affected
      family members and five healthy members revealed a stop gain mutation in CNGA2
      (OMIM 300338) (chrX:150,911,102; CNGA2. c.577C > T; p.Arg193*). The mutation
      segregates in an X-linked pattern, as all the affected family members are
      hemizygotes, whereas healthy family members are either heterozygote or homozygote
      for the reference allele. cnga2 knockout mice are congenitally anosmic and have
      abnormal olfactory system physiology, additionally Karstensen et al. recently
      reported two anosmic brothers sharing a CNGA2 truncating variant. Our study in
      concert with these findings provides strong support for role of CNGA2 gene with
      pathogenicity of ICA in humans. Together, these results indicate that mutations
      in key olfactory signaling pathway genes are responsible for human disease.

PMID- 28572689
TI  - A field deployable method for a rapid screening analysis of inorganic arsenic in
      seaweed.
AB  - Inorganic arsenic (iAs) in 13 store-bought edible seaweed samples and 34 dried
      kelp (Laminaria digitata) samples was determined by a newly developed, field
      deployable method (FDM) with the aid of a field test kit for arsenic in water.
      Results from the FDM were compared to results from speciation analysis achieved
      by using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to inductively coupled
      plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). The FDM consisted of a simple extraction
      method using diluted HNO3 to quantitatively extract iAs without decomposing the
      organoarsenicals to iAs followed by the selective volatilisation of iAs as arsine
      (AsH3) and subsequent chemo-trapping on a filter paper soaked in mercury bromide
      (HgBr2) solution. Method optimization with a sub-set of samples showed 80-94% iAs
      recovery with the FDM with no matrix effect from organo-arsenic species in the
      form of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) on the iAs concentration. The method displayed
      good reproducibility with an average error of +/-19% and validation by HPLC-ICP
      MS showed that the results from the FDM were comparable (slope = 1.03, R2 = 0.70)
      to those from speciation analysis with no bias. The FDM can be conducted within
      an hour and the observed limit of quantification was around 0.05 mg kg-1 (dry
      weight). This method is well suited for on-site monitoring of iAs in seaweed
      before it is harvested and can thus be recommended for use as a screening method
      for iAs in seaweed. Graphical abstractScreening seaweed for their inorganic
      arsenic concentration within one hour without bias has been made possible in the
      field by using a field deployable arsenic kit. Its accuracy and precision was
      compared to HPLC-ICPMS.

PMID- 28572691
TI  - Multiple extreme environmental conditions of intermittent soda pans in the
      Carpathian Basin (Central Europe).
AB  - Soda lakes and pans represent saline ecosystems with unique chemical composition,
      occurring on all continents. The purpose of this study was to identify and
      characterise the main environmental gradients and trophic state that prevail in
      the soda pans (n=84) of the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe. Underwater light
      conditions, dissolved organic matter, phosphorus and chlorophyll a were
      investigated in 84 pans during 2009-2010. Besides, water temperature was measured
      hourly with an automatic sensor throughout one year in a selected pan. The pans
      were very shallow (median depth: 15 cm), and their extremely high turbidity
      (Secchi depth median: 3 cm, min: 0.5 cm) was caused by high concentrations of
      inorganic suspended solids (median: 0.4 g L-1, max: 16 g L-1), which was the
      dominant (>50%) contributing factor to the vertical attenuation coefficient in 67
      pans (80%). All pans were polyhumic (median DOC: 47 mg L-1), and total phosphorus
      concentration was also extremely high (median: 2 mg L-1, max: 32 mg L-1). The
      daily water temperature maximum (44  degrees C) and fluctuation maximum (28 
      degrees C) were extremely high during summertime. The combination of
      environmental boundaries: shallowness, daily water temperature fluctuation,
      intermittent hydroperiod, high turbidity, polyhumic organic carbon concentration,
      high alkalinity and hypertrophy represent a unique extreme aquatic ecosystem.

PMID- 28572692
TI  - Joint coverage probability in a simulation study on Continuous-Time Markov Chain
      parameter estimation.
AB  - Parameter dependency within data sets in simulation studies is common, especially
      in models such as Continuous-Time Markov Chains (CTMC). Additionally, the
      literature lacks a comprehensive examination of estimation performance for the
      likelihood-based general multi-state CTMC. Among studies attempting to assess the
      estimation, none have accounted for dependency among parameter estimates. The
      purpose of this research is twofold: 1) to develop a multivariate approach for
      assessing accuracy and precision for simulation studies 2) to add to the
      literature a comprehensive examination of the estimation of a general 3-state
      CTMC model. Simulation studies are conducted to analyze longitudinal data with a
      trinomial outcome using a CTMC with and without covariates. Measures of
      performance including bias, component-wise coverage probabilities, and joint
      coverage probabilities are calculated. An application is presented using
      Alzheimer's disease caregiver stress levels. Comparisons of joint and component
      wise parameter estimates yield conflicting inferential results in simulations
      from models with and without covariates. In conclusion, caution should be taken
      when conducting simulation studies aiming to assess performance and choice of
      inference should properly reflect the purpose of the simulation.

PMID- 28572690
TI  - Simplification, Innateness, and the Absorption of Meaning from Context: How
      Novelty Arises from Gradual Network Evolution.
AB  - How does new genetic information arise? Traditional thinking holds that mutation
      happens by accident and then spreads in the population by either natural
      selection or random genetic drift. There have been at least two fundamental
      conceptual problems with imagining an alternative. First, it seemed that the only
      alternative is a mutation that responds "smartly" to the immediate environment;
      but in complex multicellulars, it is hard to imagine how this could be
      implemented. Second, if there were mechanisms of mutation that "knew" what
      genetic changes would be favored in a given environment, this would have only
      begged the question of how they acquired that particular knowledge to begin with.
      This paper offers an alternative that avoids these problems. It holds that
      mutational mechanisms act on information that is in the genome, based on
      considerations of simplicity, parsimony, elegance, etc. (which are different than
      fitness considerations). This simplification process, under the performance
      pressure exerted by selection, not only leads to the improvement of adaptations
      but also creates elements that have the capacity to serve in new contexts they
      were not originally selected for. Novelty, then, arises at the system level from
      emergent interactions between such elements. Thus, mechanistically driven
      mutation neither requires Lamarckian transmission nor closes the door on novelty,
      because the changes it implements interact with one another globally in
      surprising and beneficial ways. Finally, I argue, for example, that genes used
      together are fused together; that simplification leads to complexity; and that
      evolution and learning are conceptually linked.

PMID- 28572693
TI  - Fundamental limits of image registration performance: Effects of image noise and
      resolution in CT-guided interventions.
AB  - PURPOSE: In image-guided procedures, image acquisition is often performed
      primarily for the task of geometrically registering information from another
      image dataset, rather than detection / visualization of a particular feature.
      While the ability to detect a particular feature in an image has been studied
      extensively with respect to image quality characteristics (noise, resolution) and
      is an ongoing, active area of research, comparatively little has been
      accomplished to relate such image quality characteristics to registration
      performance. METHODS: To establish such a framework, we derived Cramer-Rao lower
      bounds (CRLB) for registration accuracy, revealing the underlying dependencies on
      image variance and gradient strength. The CRLB was analyzed as a function of
      image quality factors (in particular, dose) for various similarity metrics and
      compared to registration accuracy using CT images of an anthropomorphic head
      phantom at various simulated dose levels. Performance was evaluated in terms of
      root mean square error (RMSE) of the registration parameters. RESULTS: Analysis
      of the CRLB shows two primary dependencies: 1) noise variance (related to dose);
      and 2) sum of squared image gradients (related to spatial resolution and image
      content). Comparison of the measured RMSE to the CRLB showed that the best
      registration method, RMSE achieved the CRLB to within an efficiency factor of
      0.21, and optimal estimators followed the predicted inverse proportionality
      between registration performance and radiation dose. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the
      CRLB for image registration is an important step toward understanding and
      evaluating an intraoperative imaging system with respect to a registration task.
      While the CRLB is optimistic in absolute performance, it reveals a basis for
      relating the performance of registration estimators as a function of noise
      content and may be used to guide acquisition parameter selection (e.g., dose) for
      purposes of intraoperative registration.

PMID- 28572694
TI  - C-arm Positioning Using Virtual Fluoroscopy for Image-Guided Surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fluoroscopically guided procedures often involve repeated
      acquisitions for C-arm positioning at the cost of radiation exposure and time in
      the operating room. A virtual fluoroscopy system is reported with the potential
      of reducing dose and time spent in C-arm positioning, utilizing three key
      advances: robust 3D-2D registration to a preoperative CT; real-time forward
      projection on GPU; and a motorized mobile C-arm with encoder feedback on C-arm
      orientation. METHOD: Geometric calibration of the C-arm was performed offline in
      two rotational directions (orbit alpha, orbit beta). Patient registration was
      performed using image-based 3D-2D registration with an initially acquired
      radiograph of the patient. This approach for patient registration eliminated the
      requirement for external tracking devices inside the operating room, allowing
      virtual fluoroscopy using commonly available systems in fluoroscopically guided
      procedures within standard surgical workflow. Geometric accuracy was evaluated in
      terms of projection distance error (PDE) in anatomical fiducials. A pilot study
      was conducted to evaluate the utility of virtual fluoroscopy to aid C-arm
      positioning in image guided surgery, assessing potential improvements in time,
      dose, and agreement between the virtual and desired view. RESULTS: The overall
      geometric accuracy of DRRs in comparison to the actual radiographs at various C
      arm positions was PDE (mean +/- std) = 1.6 +/- 1.1 mm. The conventional approach
      required on average 8.0 +/- 4.5 radiographs spent "fluoro hunting" to obtain the
      desired view. Positioning accuracy improved from 2.6 degrees  +/- 2.3 degrees 
      (in alpha) and 4.1 degrees  +/- 5.1 degrees  (in beta) in the conventional
      approach to 1.5 degrees  +/- 1.3 degrees  and 1.8 degrees  +/- 1.7 degrees ,
      respectively, with the virtual fluoroscopy approach. CONCLUSION: Virtual
      fluoroscopy could improve accuracy of C-arm positioning and save time and
      radiation dose in the operating room. Such a system could be valuable to training
      of fluoroscopy technicians as well as intraoperative use in fluoroscopically
      guided procedures.

PMID- 28572695
TI  - Image Enhancement and Quality Measures for Dietary Assessment Using Mobile
      Devices.
AB  - Measuring accurate dietary intake is considered to be an open research problem in
      the nutrition and health fields. We are developing a system, known as the mobile
      device food record (mdFR), to automatically identify and quantify foods and
      beverages consumed based on analyzing meal images captured with a mobile device.
      The mdFR makes use of a fiducial marker and other contextual information to
      calibrate the imaging system so that accurate amounts of food can be estimated
      from the scene. Food identification is a difficult problem since foods can
      dramatically vary in appearance. Such variations may arise not only from non
      rigid deformations and intra-class variability in shape, texture, color and other
      visual properties, but also from changes in illumination and viewpoint. To
      address the color consistency problem, this paper describes illumination quality
      assessment methods implemented on a mobile device and three post color correction
      methods.

PMID- 28572697
TI  - Mobile Image Based Color Correction Using Deblurring.
AB  - Dietary intake, the process of determining what someone eats during the course of
      a day, provides valuable insights for mounting intervention programs for
      prevention of many chronic diseases such as obesity and cancer. The goals of the
      Technology Assisted Dietary Assessment (TADA) System, developed at Purdue
      University, is to automatically identify and quantify foods and beverages
      consumed by utilizing food images acquired with a mobile device. Color correction
      serves as a critical step to ensure accurate food identification and volume
      estimation. We make use of a specifically designed color checkerboard (i.e. a
      fiducial marker) to calibrate the imaging system so that the variations of food
      appearance under different lighting conditions can be determined. In this paper,
      we propose an image quality enhancement technique by combining image de-blurring
      and color correction. The contribution consists of introducing an automatic
      camera shake removal method using a saliency map and improving the polynomial
      color correction model using the LMS color space.

PMID- 28572696
TI  - A Mobile Phone User Interface for Image-Based Dietary Assessment.
AB  - Many chronic diseases, including obesity and cancer, are related to diet. Such
      diseases may be prevented and/or successfully treated by accurately monitoring
      and assessing food and beverage intakes. Existing dietary assessment methods such
      as the 24-hour dietary recall and the food frequency questionnaire, are
      burdensome and not generally accurate. In this paper, we present a user interface
      for a mobile telephone food record that relies on taking images, using the built
      in camera, as the primary method of recording. We describe the design and
      implementation of this user interface while stressing the solutions we devised to
      meet the requirements imposed by the image analysis process, yet keeping the user
      interface easy to use.

PMID- 28572698
TI  - Phosphorylation of Histone H2A.X in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells May Be a
      Useful Marker for Monitoring Cardiometabolic Risk in Nondiabetic Individuals.
AB  - Phosphorylation of H2A.X (serine 139) in the histone H2A family located in the
      downstream of the DNA damage kinase signaling cascade is an important indicator
      of DNA damage. Recently, phosphorylation of H2A.X was proposed as a sensitive
      biomarker of aging. This study investigated if phosphorylation of H2A.X in
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) is associated with cardiometabolic
      risk in nondiabetic individuals. Basic parameters and oxidative
      stress/inflammatory markers were measured in nondiabetic healthy Koreans (n =
      119). Phosphorylation of H2A.X was measured randomly among the study subjects
      using a flow cytometer. According to the number of metabolic syndrome risk factor
      (MetS-RF), the study subjects were subdivided into "super healthy" (MetS - RF =
      0, n = 71) and "MetS-risk" (MetS - RF >= 1, n = 48) groups. Phosphorylation of
      H2A.X in PBMCs (percentages and mean fluorescence intensity) was significantly
      higher in the MetS-risk group than in the super healthy group after adjusting for
      age, sex, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. Phosphorylated H2A.X was
      positively correlated with the number of MetS-RF as well as waist circumference,
      blood pressures, triglyceride, HbA1C, oxidized LDL, high sensitivity C-reactive
      protein, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and alanine aminotransferase after the
      adjustment. The present study suggested that phosphorylated H2A.X in circulating
      PBMCs measured by flow cytometer may be a useful marker for monitoring
      cardiometabolic risk in nondiabetic individuals.

PMID- 28572699
TI  - Associations between Interleukin-31 Gene Polymorphisms and Dilated Cardiomyopathy
      in a Chinese Population.
AB  - To explore the role of Interkeulin-31 (IL-31) in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), in
      our study, two SNPs of IL-31, rs4758680 (C/A) and rs7977932 (C/G), were analyzed
      in 331 DCM patients and 493 controls in a Chinese Han population. The frequencies
      of C allele and CC genotype of rs4758680 were significantly increased in DCM
      patients (P = 0.005, P = 0.001, resp.). Compared to CC genotype of rs4758680, the
      A carriers (CA/AA genotypes) were the protect factors in DCM susceptibility while
      the frequencies of CA/AA genotypes were decreased in the dominant model for DCM
      group (P < 0.001, OR = 0.56, 95%CI = 0.39-0.79). Moreover, IL-31 mRNA expression
      level of white blood cells was increased in DCM patients (0.072 (0.044-0.144)
      versus 0.036 (0.020-0.052), P < 0.001). In survival analysis of 159 DCM patients,
      Kaplan-Meier curve revealed the correlation between CC homozygote of rs4758680
      and worse prognosis for DCM group (P = 0.005). Compared to CC genotype, the CA/AA
      genotypes were the independent factors in both univariate (HR = 0.530, 95%CI =
      0.337-0.834, P = 0.006) and multivariate analyses after age, gender, left
      ventricular end-diastolic diameter, and left ventricular ejection fraction
      adjusted (HR = 0.548, 95%CI = 0.345-0.869, P = 0.011). Thus, we concluded that IL
      31 gene polymorphisms were tightly associated with DCM susceptibility and
      contributed to worse prognosis in DCM patients.

PMID- 28572700
TI  - Peritumoral EpCAM Is an Independent Prognostic Marker after Curative Resection of
      HBV-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Accumulating evidence suggests that the tumor microenvironment has a profound
      influence on tumor initiation and progression, opening a new avenue for studying
      tumor biology. Nonetheless, the prognostic values of the peritumoral expression
      of EpCAM and CD13 remain to be elucidated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      patients. In this study, the expression of EpCAM and CD13 was assessed by
      immunohistochemistry in peritumoral liver hepatocytes from 106 hepatitis B virus-
      (HBV-) related HCC patients who had undergone curative hepatectomy. The
      peritumoral EpCAM-positive group had a significantly worse overall survival (OS)
      (p = 0.003) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p = 0.022) compared to the
      negative group. Peritumoral CD13-positive patients were also associated with poor
      OS (p = 0.038), while not significantly associated with RFS. The adjusted
      multivariate COX proportional hazard regression analysis suggested that only the
      positive expression of peritumoral EpCAM precisely predicted poor OS. Being
      peritumoral EpCAM positive was also significantly associated with a larger tumor
      size, liver cirrhosis, and more frequent vascular invasion; however, no
      statistically significant association was observed between CD13 and any
      clinicopathological features. Taken together, peritumoral EpCAM and CD13
      expression was associated with a poor prognosis, but EpCAM may be a better
      prognostic marker than CD13 in HBV-related HCC patients. In the future,
      peritumoral EpCAM could be a good target for adjuvant therapy after curative
      hepatectomy.

PMID- 28572702
TI  - Changing the Dimensionality of Cesium Lead Bromide Nanocrystals by Reversible
      Postsynthesis Transformations with Amines.

PMID- 28572703
TI  - Efficient and Stable Luminescence from Mn2+ in Core and Core-Isocrystalline Shell
      CsPbCl3 Perovskite Nanocrystals.
AB  - There has been a growing interest in applying CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) nanocrystals
      (NCs) for optoelectronic application. However, research on doping of this new
      class of promising NCs with optically active and/or magnetic transition metal
      ions is still limited. Here we report a facile room temperature method for Mn2+
      doping into CsPbCl3 NCs. By addition of a small amount of concentrated HCl acid
      to a clear solution containing Mn2+, Cs+, and Pb2+ precursors, Mn2+-doped CsPbCl3
      NCs with strong orange luminescence of Mn2+ at ~600 nm are obtained. Mn2+-doped
      CsPbCl3 NCs show the characteristic cubic phase structure very similar to the
      undoped counterpart, indicating that the nucleation and growth mechanism are not
      significantly modified for the doping concentrations realized (0.1 at. % - 2.1
      at. %). To enhance the Mn2+ emission intensity and to improve the stability of
      the doped NCs, isocrystalline shell growth was applied. Growth of an undoped
      CsPbCl3 shell greatly enhanced the emission intensity of Mn2+ and resulted in
      lengthening the radiative lifetime of the Mn2+ emission to 1.4 ms. The core-shell
      NCs also show superior thermal stability and no thermal degradation up to at
      least 110  degrees C, which is important in applications.

PMID- 28572701
TI  - Protease-Sensitive Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapeutics and Imaging.
AB  - Many diseases can be characterized by the abnormal activity exhibited by various
      biomolecules, the targeting of which can provide therapeutic and diagnostic
      utility. Recent trends in medicine and nanotechnology have prompted the
      development of protease-sensitive nanomaterials systems for therapeutic,
      diagnostic, and theranostic applications. These systems can act specifically in
      response to the target enzyme and its associated disease conditions, thus
      enabling personalized treatment and improved prognosis. In this Review, we
      discuss recent advancements in the development of protease-responsive materials
      for imaging and drug delivery and analyze several representative systems to
      illustrate their key design principles.

PMID- 28572704
TI  - Multiporous Supramolecular Microspheres for Artificial Photosynthesis.
AB  - Artificial photosynthesis shows a promising potential for sustainable supply of
      nutritional ingredients. While most studies focus on the assembly of the light
      sensitive chromophores to 1-D architectures in an artificial photosynthesis
      system, other supramolecular morphologies, especially bioinspired ones, which may
      have more efficient light-harvesting properties, have been far less studied.
      Here, MCpP-FF, a bioinspired building block fabricated by conjugating porphyrin
      and diphenylalanine, was designed to self-assemble into nanofibers-based
      multiporous microspheres. The highly organized aromatic moieties result in
      extensive excitation red-shifts and notable electron transfer, thus leading to a
      remarkable attenuated fluorescence decay and broad-spectrum light sensitivity of
      the microspheres. Moreover, the enhanced photoelectron production and transfer
      capability of the microspheres are demonstrated, making them ideal candidates for
      sunlight-sensitive antennas in artificial photosynthesis. These properties induce
      a high turnover frequency of NADH, which can be used to produce bioproducts in
      biocatalytic reactions. In addition, the direct electron transfer makes external
      mediators unnecessary, and the insolubility of the microspheres in water allows
      their easy retrieval for sustainable applications. Our findings demonstrate an
      alternative to design new platforms for artificial photosynthesis, as well as a
      new type of bioinspired, supramolecular multiporous materials.

PMID- 28572705
TI  - Monodisperse Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by Thermal Decomposition: Elucidating
      Particle Formation by Second-Resolved in Situ Small-Angle X-ray Scattering.
AB  - The synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) by thermal decomposition of iron
      precursors using oleic acid as surfactant has evolved to a state-of-the-art
      method to produce monodisperse, spherical NPs. The principles behind such
      monodisperse syntheses are well-known: the key is a separation between burst
      nucleation and growth phase, whereas the size of the population is set by the
      precursor-to-surfactant ratio. Here we follow the thermal decomposition of iron
      pentacarbonyl in the presence of oleic acid via in situ X-ray scattering. This
      method allows reaction kinetics and precursor states to be followed with high
      time resolution and statistical significance. Our investigation demonstrates that
      the final particle size is directly related to a phase of inorganic cluster
      formation that takes place between precursor decomposition and particle
      nucleation. The size and concentration of clusters were shown to be dependent on
      precursor-to-surfactant ratio and heating rate, which in turn led to differences
      in the onset of nucleation and concentration of nuclei after the burst nucleation
      phase. This first direct observation of prenucleation formation of inorganic and
      micellar structures in iron oxide nanoparticle synthesis by thermal decomposition
      likely has implications for synthesis of other NPs by similar routes.

PMID- 28572706
TI  - Electroactive Nanoporous Metal Oxides and Chalcogenides by Chemical Design.
AB  - The archetypal silica- and aluminosilicate-based zeolite-type materials are
      renowned for wide-ranging applications in heterogeneous catalysis, gas-separation
      and ion-exchange. Their compositional space can be expanded to include nanoporous
      metal chalcogenides, exemplified by germanium and tin sulfides and selenides. By
      comparison with the properties of bulk metal dichalcogenides and their 2D
      derivatives, these open-framework analogues may be viewed as three-dimensional
      semiconductors filled with nanometer voids. Applications exist in a range of
      molecule size and shape discriminating devices. However, what is the electronic
      structure of nanoporous metal chalcogenides? Herein, materials modeling is used
      to describe the properties of a homologous series of nanoporous metal
      chalcogenides denoted np-MX2, where M = Si, Ge, Sn, Pb, and X = O, S, Se, Te,
      with Sodalite, LTA and aluminum chromium phosphate-1 structure types. Depending
      on the choice of metal and anion their properties can be tuned from insulators to
      semiconductors to metals with additional modification achieved through doping,
      solid solutions, and inclusion (with fullerene, quantum dots, and hole transport
      materials). These systems form the basis of a new branch of semiconductor
      nanochemistry in three dimensions.

PMID- 28572707
TI  - Thermostable phycocyanin from the red microalga Cyanidioschyzon merolae, a new
      natural blue food colorant.
AB  - The demand for natural food colorants is growing as consumers question the use of
      artificial colorants more and more. The phycobiliprotein C-phycocyanin of
      Arthospira platensis is used as a natural blue colorant in certain food products.
      The thermoacidophilic red microalga Cyanidioschyzon merolae might provide an
      alternative source of phycocyanin. Cyanidioschyzon merolae belongs to the order
      Cyanidiophyceae of the phylum Rhodophyta. Its natural habitat are sulfuric hot
      springs and geysers found near volcanic areas in, e.g., Yellowstone National Park
      in the USA and in Java, Indonesia. It grows optimally at a pH between 0.5 and 3.0
      and at temperatures up to 56  degrees C. The low pH at which C. merolae grows
      minimizes the risk of microbial contamination and could limit production loss. As
      C. merolae lacks a cell wall, phycocyanin with a high purity number of 9.9 could
      be extracted by an osmotic shock using a simple ultrapure water extraction
      followed by centrifugation. The denaturation midpoint at pH 5 was 83  degrees C,
      being considerably higher than the A. platensis phycocyanin (65  degrees C). The
      C. merolae phycocyanin was relatively stable at pH 4 and 5 up to 80  degrees C.
      The high thermostability at slightly acidic pH makes the C. merolae phycocyanin
      an interesting alternative to A. platensis phycocyanin as a natural blue food
      colorant.

PMID- 28572709
TI  - Determination of the toxicity of the freshwater cyanobacterium Woronichinia
      naegeliana (Unger) Elenkin.
AB  - Cyanobacterial blooms are undesirable for ecological and health reasons. While
      Woronichinia naegeliana is a cyanobacterial species that appears frequently in
      freshwater, information about it is limited. An evaluation of its toxicity was
      conducted via tests based on the crustaceans Thamnocephalus platyurus and Daphnia
      pulex. The greatest effect of the aqueous extract obtained from W. naegeliana
      cells was observed for T. platyurus. The denoted semi-lethal concentration (LC50)
      after 24 h of exposure was 0.99 mg of dry weight (d.w.) mL-1. A lower toxicity
      was displayed for D. pulex, although it grew with time. Among the 18 fractions
      separated from cyanobacterial extract, only one containing the microginin FR3 (MG
      FR3) displayed biological activeness against T. platyurus. The remaining products
      synthesized by W. naegeliana displayed an absence or a low level of toxicity
      making it impossible to determine the LC50 value. Detailed research revealed that
      MG-FR3 did not affect the activity of enzymes such as trypsin, chymotrypsin,
      elastase and thrombin, which indicates another mode of action. The results
      demonstrated that blooms of W. naegeliana showed toxic activity towards
      invertebrate zooplankton.

PMID- 28572710
TI  - Novel rapid method for the characterisation of polymeric sugars from macroalgae.
AB  - Laminarins are storage polysaccharides found only in brown seaweeds, specifically
      Laminarialaes and Fucales. Laminarin has been shown to have anti-apoptotic and
      anti-tumoural activities and is considered as a nutraceutical component that can
      positively influence human health. The structure is species dependent, generally
      composed of linear beta(1-3) glucans with intrachain beta(1-6) branching and
      varies according to harvest season and environmental factors. Current methods for
      analysis of molar mass and DP length are technically demanding and are not widely
      available. Here, we present a simple inexpensive method which enables rapid
      analysis of laminarins from macroalgal biomass using high-performance anion
      exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) without
      the need for hydrolysis or further processing. This is based on the linear
      relationship observed between log10 DP and retention time following separation of
      laminarins on a CarboPac PA-100 column (Dionex) using standard 1,3-beta-d-gluco
      oligosaccharides ranging in DP from 2 to 8. This method was applied to analyse
      laminarin oligomers in extracts from different species harvested from within the
      intertidal zone on Welsh rocky shores containing laminarin polymers with
      different ranges of DP. The degree of polymerisation and extrapolated molar mass
      agreed well with values estimated by LC-ESI/MS n analysis and those reported in
      the literature.

PMID- 28572708
TI  - Bioremediation efficacy-comparison of nutrient removal from an anaerobic digest
      waste-based medium by an algal consortium before and after cryopreservation.
AB  - An algal consortium was isolated from an integrated steelmaking site at TATA
      Steel Strip Products Ltd. in Port Talbot, UK, and its bioremediation capacity
      tested. Excellent "bioremediation" was observed when the mixed culture was
      "applied" to diluted effluent from an enhanced anaerobic digestion plant at Dwr
      Cymru Welsh Water at Port Talbot, UK. After 5 days of cultivation in a 600-L
      photobioreactor, 99% of the total nitrogen (initial level, 4500 MUmol L-1) and
      total phosphorus (initial level, 690.4 MUmol L-1) were removed from the waste
      stream. The consortium was deposited in the Culture Collection of Algae and
      Protozoa (CCAP), an international depository authority for microalgal patents, as
      CCAP 293/1. This material has been successfully cryopreserved using a two-step
      cryopreservation protocol with dimethyl sulphoxide (5% v/v) used as a
      cryoprotectant. On recovery of samples after 3 months storage at -196  degrees C,
      the specific bioremediation activity of the revived consortium was tested. The
      capacity of the revived culture to bioremediate effluent was not significantly
      different (p < 0.05) from a non-cryopreserved control, with 99% of total nitrogen
      and phosphorus remediated by day 4. Although non-axenic algal cultures have
      previously been cryopreserved, this is the first report of the successful
      cryopreservation of mixed algal consortium, with validation of its ability to
      bioremediate after thawing comparing non-cryopreserved cultures with a revived
      post-thaw algal consortium. The study also highlights the need to ensure the long
      term security and the requirement to validate the functionality of conserved
      inocula with biotechnological/bioremediation potential.

PMID- 28572712
TI  - Methylprednisolone Administration Following Spinal Cord Injury Reduces Aquaporin
      4 Expression and Exacerbates Edema.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an incapacitating condition that affects motor,
      sensory, and autonomic functions. Since 1990, the only treatment administered in
      the acute phase of SCI has been methylprednisolone (MP), a synthetic
      corticosteroid that has anti-inflammatory effects; however, its efficacy remains
      controversial. Although MP has been thought to help in the resolution of edema,
      there are no scientific grounds to support this assertion. Aquaporin 4 (AQP4),
      the most abundant component of water channels in the CNS, participates in the
      formation and elimination of edema, but it is not clear whether the modulation of
      AQP4 expression by MP plays any role in the physiopathology of SCI. We studied
      the functional expression of AQP4 modulated by MP following SCI in an
      experimental model in rats along with the associated changes in the permeability
      of the blood-spinal cord barrier. We analyzed these effects in male and female
      rats and found that SCI increased AQP4 expression in the spinal cord white matter
      and that MP diminished such increase to baseline levels. Moreover, MP increased
      the extravasation of plasma components after SCI and enhanced tissue swelling and
      edema. Our results lend scientific support to the increasing motion to avoid MP
      treatment after SCI.

PMID- 28572714
TI  - Computational Aberration Correction for Human Retinal Imaging.

PMID- 28572711
TI  - Buprenorphine Alters Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Molecular Markers in
      Arthritis.
AB  - Buprenorphine is recommended for use as an analgesic in animal models including
      in murine models of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). However, the effect of
      buprenorphine on the expression of disease-associated biomarkers is not well
      defined. We examined the effect of buprenorphine administration on disease
      progression and the expression of inflammatory and oxidative stress markers, in a
      murine model of CIA. Buprenorphine administration altered the expression of
      cytokines, IFN-gamma, IL-6, and MMP-3, and oxidative markers, for example, iNOS,
      superoxide dismutase (SOD1), and catalase (CAT), in the CIA mice. As
      buprenorphine is an analgesic, we further monitored the association of expression
      of these biomarkers with pain scores in a human cohort of early rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). Serum MMP-3 levels and blood mRNA expression of antioxidants sod1
      and cat correlated with pain scores in the RA cohort. We have demonstrated that
      administration of buprenorphine alters the expression of inflammatory and
      oxidative stress-related molecular markers in a murine model of CIA. This caveat
      needs to be considered in animal experiments using buprenorphine as an analgesic,
      as it can be a confounding factor in murine studies used for prediction of
      response to therapy. Furthermore, the antioxidant enzymes that showed an
      association with pain scores in the human cohort may be explored as biomarkers
      for pain in future studies.

PMID- 28572713
TI  - Specific Gene- and MicroRNA-Expression Pattern Contributes to the Epithelial to
      Mesenchymal Transition in a Rat Model of Experimental Colitis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the gene- and microRNA-expression profile
      contributing to epithelial to mesenchymal transition in a rat model of
      experimental colitis. For this, inflammation was induced by injecting 2,4,6
      trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid to the colon of male Wistar rats. Samples were
      taken from both inflamed and uninflamed regions of the same colon, total RNA was
      isolated, and the mRNA and microRNA expressions were monitored. We have
      determined that the expression of genes responsible for inducing mesenchymal
      phenotype, such as Egr1, Fgf2, Fgf7, Jak2, Notch2, Hif1alpha, Zeb2, Mmp9, Lox,
      and Vim, was all significantly induced in the inflamed regions of the affected
      colons while the epithelial marker E-cadherin (Cdh1) was downregulated. In
      contrast, the expression of microRNAs miR-192, miR-143, miR-375, miR-30a, miR
      107, and miR-200b responsible for the regulation of the above mentioned genes was
      significantly downregulated in inflamed colon. Importantly, we detected moderate
      induction in the expression of five out of six tested microRNAs in the uninflamed
      regions. In summary, we identified numerous interacting genes and microRNAs with
      mutually exclusive expression pattern in inflamed regions of colitis-induced
      rats. These findings suggest that-among others-an important step in the
      epithelial to mesenchymal transition in experimental colitis is the dysregulated
      microRNA expression.

PMID- 28572715
TI  - Emotion Regulation Among Preschoolers on a Continuum of Risk: The Role of
      Maternal Emotion Coaching.
AB  - Parental emotion coaching involves acknowledging and validating children's
      feelings, as well as guiding them on how to manage intense or negative feelings.
      Although parental emotion coaching has been identified as a potentially important
      factor for children's emotional development, research into this topic is scant.
      The present study examined whether maternal emotion coaching can play a
      mediational role between family risk (i.e. economic disadvantage, family stress,
      and maltreatment) and emotion regulation in preschoolers. Seventy-four
      preschoolers, aged 46-58 months, and their maternal caregivers participated in an
      observational laboratory study, including a narrative task in which mothers and
      children reminisced about a mildly upsetting event. We coded these conversations
      for maternal emotion coaching behaviors with the Family Emotional Communication
      Scoring System. A family risk score was obtained via the Family Events Checklist
      and demographic data. We measured children's emotion regulation with the Emotion
      Regulation Checklist. Increased family risk was associated with both reduced
      child emotion regulation and reduced maternal emotion coaching. Maternal emotion
      coaching partially mediated the relation between family risk and child emotion
      regulation, in particular child emotional lability. The findings support further
      research into the possibilities of training mothers in high risk families in
      emotion coaching skills in order to foster their children's emotional
      development.

PMID- 28572716
TI  - On the Link between Perceived Parental Rearing Behaviors and Self-conscious
      Emotions in Adolescents.
AB  - This study examined relationships between the self-conscious emotions of guilt
      and shame in both clinical (N = 104) and non-clinical (N = 477) (young)
      adolescents aged 11-18 years, who completed a questionnaire to assess perceived
      parental rearing behaviors (EMBU-C) and a scenario-based instrument to measure
      proneness to guilt and shame (SCEMAS). Results indicated that parental rearing
      dimensions were positively related to self-conscious emotions. Regarding the non
      clinical sample, both favourable (emotional warmth) and unfavourable (rejection)
      paternal and maternal rearing dimensions were significant correlates of guilt-
      and shame-proneness. The results for the clinical sample were less conclusive:
      only maternal emotional warmth and rejection were found to be significantly
      associated with guilt and shame. Interestingly, no associations between any of
      the paternal rearing dimensions and self-conscious emotions emerged. Taken
      together, these results are in keeping with the notion that parental rearing
      factors are involved in the development of both adaptive and maladaptive self
      conscious emotions in adolescents.

PMID- 28572717
TI  - Parental Attributions of Control for Child Behaviour and Their Relation to
      Discipline Practices in Parents of Children with and Without Developmental
      Delays.
AB  - Children with developmental delays (DD) are at risk for developing behavior
      problems. Research suggests that parents' causal attributions for child behavior
      are related to parenting. This study investigated this association in parents of
      children with DD compared to parents of typically developing (TD) children. It
      specifically focused on attributions of child control by separating these from
      attributions of responsibility, blame and intent, and from attributions of parent
      control and responsibility. Fifty-one parents of children with DD and 69 parents
      of TD children completed two questionnaires. The Written Analogue Questionnaire
      measured causal attributions. The Parenting Scale measured dysfunctional
      discipline practices. Parents of children with DD viewed the child's role in
      problematic behavior more positively while also viewing misbehavior as more fixed
      than parents of TD children. Parents of TD children who viewed their child as
      more in control over misbehavior used less dysfunctional discipline, but this
      association was not found for parents of children with DD. The results advance
      understanding of how parents perceive behavior problems in children with DD and
      the important role these perceptions play in parental behavior management
      strategies. More importantly, these perceptions relate to discipline practices
      differently for parents of children with DD compared to parents of TD children,
      highlighting that parent interventions should be adapted to the specific needs of
      parents of children with DD.

PMID- 28572718
TI  - Longitudinal Associations Between Parental Bonding, Parenting Stress, and
      Executive Functioning in Toddlerhood.
AB  - Early executive functioning is an important predictor for future development of
      children's cognitive skills and behavioral outcomes. Parenting behavior has
      proven to be a key environmental determinant of child executive functioning.
      However, the association of parental affect and cognitions directed to the child
      with child executive functioning has been understudied. Therefore, in the present
      study we examine the associations between parental bonding (i.e., the affective
      tie from parent to child), parenting stress, and child executive functioning. At
      26 weeks of pregnancy, and at 6 months and 24 months postpartum the quality of
      the maternal (N = 335) and paternal (N = 261) bond with the infant was assessed.
      At 24 months, postnatal parenting stress and child executive functioning were
      measured by means of parent-report questionnaires. Results indicated that for
      both mothers and fathers feelings of bonding negatively predicted experienced
      parenting stress over time. In addition, for both parents a negative indirect
      effect of bonding on child executive functioning problems was found via
      experienced parenting stress. These findings indicate the importance of
      monitoring parents who experience a low level and quality of early parent-child
      bonding, as this makes them vulnerable to parenting stress, consequently putting
      their children at risk for developing executive functioning problems.

PMID- 28572719
TI  - Multi-GPU Acceleration of Branchless Distance Driven Projection and
      Backprojection for Clinical Helical CT.
AB  - Model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) techniques have the potential to generate
      high quality images from noisy measurements and a small number of projections
      which can reduce the x-ray dose in patients. These MBIR techniques rely on
      projection and backprojection to refine an image estimate. One of the widely used
      projectors for these modern MBIR based technique is called branchless distance
      driven (DD) projection and backprojection. While this method produces superior
      quality images, the computational cost of iterative updates keeps it from being
      ubiquitous in clinical applications. In this paper, we provide several new
      parallelization ideas for concurrent execution of the DD projectors in multi-GPU
      systems using CUDA programming tools. We have introduced some novel schemes for
      dividing the projection data and image voxels over multiple GPUs to avoid runtime
      overhead and inter-device synchronization issues. We have also reduced the
      complexity of overlap calculation of the algorithm by eliminating the common
      projection plane and directly projecting the detector boundaries onto image voxel
      boundaries. To reduce the time required for calculating the overlap between the
      detector edges and image voxel boundaries, we have proposed a pre-accumulation
      technique to accumulate image intensities in perpendicular 2D image slabs (from a
      3D image) before projection and after backprojection to ensure our DD kernels run
      faster in parallel GPU threads. For the implementation of our iterative MBIR
      technique we use a parallel multi-GPU version of the alternating minimization
      (AM) algorithm with penalized likelihood update. The time performance using our
      proposed reconstruction method with Siemens Sensation 16 patient scan data shows
      an average of 24 times speedup using a single TITAN X GPU and 74 times speedup
      using 3 TITAN X GPUs in parallel for combined projection and backprojection.

PMID- 28572720
TI  - An in silico high-throughput screen identifies potential selective inhibitors for
      the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Pyk2.
AB  - The non-receptor tyrosine kinase proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) is a
      critical mediator of signaling from cell surface growth factor and adhesion
      receptors to cell migration, proliferation, and survival. Emerging evidence
      indicates that signaling by Pyk2 regulates hematopoietic cell response, bone
      density, neuronal degeneration, angiogenesis, and cancer. These physiological and
      pathological roles of Pyk2 warrant it as a valuable therapeutic target for
      invasive cancers, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, and inflammatory cellular
      response. Despite its potential as a therapeutic target, no potent and selective
      inhibitor of Pyk2 is available at present. As a first step toward discovering
      specific potential inhibitors of Pyk2, we used an in silico high-throughput
      screening approach. A virtual library of six million lead-like compounds was
      docked against four different high-resolution Pyk2 kinase domain crystal
      structures and further selected for predicted potency and ligand efficiency.
      Ligand selectivity for Pyk2 over focal adhesion kinase (FAK) was evaluated by
      comparative docking of ligands and measurement of binding free energy so as to
      obtain 40 potential candidates. Finally, the structural flexibility of a subset
      of the docking complexes was evaluated by molecular dynamics simulation, followed
      by intermolecular interaction analysis. These compounds may be considered as
      promising leads for further development of highly selective Pyk2 inhibitors.

PMID- 28572721
TI  - Outcome of stroke patients receiving different doses of recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
      (tPA) at a dose of 0.9 mg/kg body weight is associated with a high hemorrhagic
      transformation (HT) rate. Low-dose tPA (0.6 mg/kg) may have a lower hemorrhage
      rate but the mortality and disability rates at 90 days cannot be confirmed as non
      inferior to standard-dose tPA. Whether the doses 0.7 and 0.8 mg/kg have better
      efficacy and safety needs further investigation. Therefore, this study is to
      compare the efficacy and safety of each dose of tPA (0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9 mg/kg
      body weight) and to investigate the factors affecting early neurological
      improvement (ENI) and early neurological deterioration (END). METHODS: For this
      observational study, data were obtained from 274 patients who received tPA
      thrombolytic therapy in Chia-Yi Christian Hospital stroke unit. The tPA dose was
      given at the discretion of each physician. The definition of ENI was a >8 point
      improvement (compared with baseline) at 24 h following thrombolytic therapy or an
      improvement in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Score (NIHSS) to 0 or 1
      toward the end of tPA infusion. The definition of END was a >4 point increase in
      NIHSS (compared with baseline) within 24 h of tPA infusion. The primary objective
      was to investigate whether 0.7 and 0.8 mg/kg of tPA have higher ENI rate, lower
      END rate, and better outcome at 6 months. Poor outcome was defined as having a
      modified Rankin Scale of 3 to 6 (range, 0 [no symptoms] to 6 [death]). The
      secondary objective was to investigate whether low-dose tPA has a lower risk of
      intracerebral HT than that with standard-dose tPA. We also investigated the
      factors affecting ENI, END, HT, and 6-month outcome. RESULTS: A total of 274
      patients were included during the study period, of whom 260 were followed up for
      >6 months. There was a trend for the HT rate to increase as the dose increased
      (P=0.02). The symptomatic HT rate was not significantly different among the low
      dose and standard-dose groups. The ENI and END (P=0.52) were not significantly
      different among the four dosage groups. The clinical functional outcome at 6
      months after stroke onset was poorer in the standard-dose group (P=0.02). Stroke
      severity (P<0.01), stroke type (P=0.03), and diabetes mellitus (P=0.04) affected
      the functional outcome at 6 months. CONCLUSION: Among the 274 patients receiving
      tPA thrombolytic therapy, the HT rate increased as dose increased. The
      symptomatic HT, ENI and END rates were not significantly different among the low
      dose (0.6, 0.7, and 0.8 mg/kg) and standard-dose groups. Stroke severity (NIHSS
      >12), stroke type (cardioembolism and large artery atherosclerosis) and diabetes
      mellitus were associated with poor outcome at 6 months.

PMID- 28572722
TI  - Shared decision-making for biologic treatment of autoimmune disease: influence on
      adherence, persistence, satisfaction, and health care costs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shared decision-making (SDM), a process whereby physicians and
      patients collaborate to select interventions, is not well understood for biologic
      treatment of autoimmune conditions. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey of
      adults initiating treatment for Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis
      (inflammatory bowel disease, IBD) or psoriatic arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA/PA). Survey data were linked to administrative claims for 6 months before
      (baseline) and after (follow-up) therapy initiation. Measures included the Shared
      Decision Making Questionnaire, Patient Activation Measure (PAM), Morisky
      Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS), general health, and treatment satisfaction.
      Claims-based Quan-Charlson comorbidity scores, persistence, medication possession
      ratio (MPR), and health care costs were examined. Patients were compared by
      participation (SDM) and nonparticipation (non-SDM) in SDM. RESULTS: Among 453
      respondents, 357 were eligible, and 306 patients (204 RA/PA and 102 IBD) were
      included in all analyses. Overall (n=357), SDM participants (n=120) were more
      often females (75.0% vs 62.5%, P=0.018), had lower health status (48.0 vs 55.4,
      P=0.005), and higher Quan-Charlson scores (1.0 vs 0.7, P=0.035) than non-SDM
      (n=237) participants. Lower MMAS scores (SDM 0.17 vs non-SDM 0.41; P<0.05)
      indicated greater likelihood of adherence; SDM participants also reported higher
      satisfaction with medication and had greater activation (PAM: SDM vs non-SDM:
      66.9 vs 61.6; P<0.001). Mean MPR did not differ, but persistence was longer among
      SDM participants (111.2 days vs 102.2 days for non-SDM; P=0.029). Costs did not
      differ by SDM status overall, or among patients with RA/PA. The patients with
      IBD, however, experienced lower (P=0.003) total costs ($9,404 for SDM vs $25,071
      for non-SDM) during follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study showed greater likelihood
      of adherence and satisfaction for patients who engaged in SDM and reduced health
      care costs among patients with IBD who engaged in SDM. This study provides a
      basis for defining SDM participation and detecting differences by SDM
      participation for biologic treatment selection for autoimmune conditions.

PMID- 28572723
TI  - The impact of a pharmacist-led educational interview on medication adherence of
      Saudi patients with epilepsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a pharmacist-led educational interview
      in terms of adherence to antiepileptic drug administration among adult patients
      with epilepsy. METHOD: Sixty adult patients with epilepsy who fulfilled the
      inclusion criteria were recruited. A pharmacist-led educational interview was
      conducted with the intervention group (n=30). Patients in the control group
      (n=30) were interviewed and contacted 6 weeks after the initial visit without
      receiving any intervention. Antiepileptic drug adherence was measured during
      clinic visits, and 6 weeks afterwards using the 8-item Morisky Medication
      Adherence Scale. This prospective interventional study was conducted between
      September and December 2013. RESULTS: Only 29 control patients and 27
      intervention patients completed the 6 weeks post-intervention adherence
      measurement. The adherence score average in the intervention group was 5.26+/
      0.98 at baseline and improved to 6.7+/-0.823 (P<0.0001) after intervention. In
      the control group, the adherence score average was 5.76+/-1.806 at baseline and
      5.83+/-1.627 at 6 weeks (P=0.792). While there was no statistically significant
      difference in adherence score between intervention and control groups at
      baseline, the post-intervention difference was significant (P=0.024). CONCLUSION:
      Our study suggests that pharmacist-led educational interviews had a positive
      impact on medication adherence in patients with epilepsy.

PMID- 28572724
TI  - Surface-functionalized cockle shell-based calcium carbonate aragonite polymorph
      as a drug nanocarrier.
AB  - Calcium carbonate aragonite polymorph nanoparticles derived from cockle shells
      were prepared using surface functionalization method followed by purification
      steps. Size, morphology, and surface properties of the nanoparticles were
      characterized using transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning
      electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, zetasizer, X-ray powder
      diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry techniques. The
      potential of surface-functionalized calcium carbonate aragonite polymorph
      nanoparticle as a drug-delivery agent were assessed through in vitro drug-loading
      test and drug-release test. Transmission electron microscopy, field emission
      scanning electron microscopy, and particle size distribution analyses revealed
      that size, morphology, and surface characterization had been improved after
      surface functionalization process. Zeta potential of the nanoparticles was found
      to be increased, thereby demonstrating better dispersion among the nanoparticles.
      Purification techniques showed a further improvement in the overall distribution
      of nanoparticles toward more refined size ranges <100 nm, which specifically
      favored drug-delivery applications. The purity of the aragonite phase and their
      chemical analyses were verified by X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform
      infrared spectrometry studies. In vitro biological response of hFOB 1.19
      osteoblast cells showed that surface functionalization could improve the
      cytotoxicity of cockle shell-based calcium carbonate aragonite nanocarrier. The
      sample was also sensitive to pH changes and demonstrated good abilities to load
      and sustain in vitro drug. This study thus indicates that calcium carbonate
      aragonite polymorph nanoparticles derived from cockle shells, a natural
      biomaterial, with modified surface characteristics are promising and can be
      applied as efficient carriers for drug delivery.

PMID- 28572725
TI  - Synthesis, characterization, and in vitro activity against Candida spp. of
      fluconazole encapsulated on cationic and conventional nanoparticles of
      poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid).
AB  - In this study, nanoparticles (NPs) of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) loaded
      with fluconazole (FLZ) and FLZ-NPs coated with the cationic polymer
      polyethylenimine (PEI) (FLZ-NP-PEI) were synthetized in order to improve
      antimycotic activity against four strains of Candida spp. of clinical relevance.
      FLZ-NPs and FLZ-NP-PEI were synthesized by double emulsion solvent-diffusion (DES
      D) and characterized. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC50) and minimum
      fungicide concentration (MFC) were determined in vitro by culturing Candida
      strains in the presence of these nanocompounds. FLZ-NPs were spherical in shape
      with hydrodynamic sizes of ~222 nm and surface charge of -11.6 mV. The surface
      charges of these NPs were successfully modified using PEI (FLZ-NP-PEI) with mean
      hydrodynamic sizes of 281 nm and surface charge of 23.5 mV. The efficiency of
      encapsulation (~53%) and a quick release of FLZ (>=90% after 3 h) were obtained.
      Cytotoxicity assay showed a good cell viability for FLZ-NPs (>=86%), and PEI
      modified NPs presented a decrease in cell viability (~38%). FLZ-NPs showed an
      increasing antifungal activity of FLZ for sensitive (Candida parapsilosis
      ATCC22019 and Candida albicans ATCC10231, MIC50 =0.5 and 0.1 ug/mL, respectively)
      and resistant strains (Candida glabrata EMLM14 and Candida krusei ATCC6258, MIC50
      =0.1 and 0.5 ug/mL, respectively). FLZ-NP-PEI showed fungicidal activity even
      against C. glabrata and C. krusei (MFC =4 and 8 ug/mL, respectively). MIC50
      values showed best results for FLZ-NPs and FLZ-NP-PEI. Nevertheless, only FLZ-NP
      PEI displayed fungicidal activity against the studied strains.

PMID- 28572726
TI  - Photoacoustic imaging of tumor targeting with riboflavin-functionalized
      theranostic nanocarriers.
AB  - Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging method in the molecular imaging field,
      providing high spatiotemporal resolution and sufficient imaging depths for many
      clinical applications. Therefore, the aim of this study was to use photoacoustic
      imaging as a tool to evaluate a riboflavin (RF)-based targeted nanoplatform. RF
      is internalized by the cells through a specific pathway, and its derivatives were
      recently shown as promising tumor-targeting vectors for the drug delivery
      systems. Here, the RF amphiphile synthesized from a PEGylated phospholipid was
      successfully inserted into a long-circulating liposome formulation labeled with
      the clinically approved photoacoustic contrast agent - indocyanine green (ICG).
      The obtained liposomes had a diameter of 124 nm (polydispersity index =0.17) and
      had a negative zeta potential of -26 mV. Studies in biological phantoms indicated
      a stable and concentration-dependent photoacoustic signal (Vevo(r) LAZR) of the
      ICG-containing RF-functionalized liposomes. In A431 cells, a high uptake of RF
      functionalized liposomes was found and could be blocked competitively. First,
      studies in mice revealed ~3 times higher photoacoustic signal in subcutaneous
      A431 tumor xenografts (P<0.05) after injection of RF-functionalized liposomes
      compared to control particles. In this context, the application of a spectral
      unmixing protocol confirmed the initial quantitative data and improved the
      localization of liposomes in the tumor. In conclusion, the synthesized RF
      amphiphile leads to efficient liposomal tumor targeting and can be favorably
      detected by photoacoustic imaging with a perspective of theranostic applications.

PMID- 28572727
TI  - Organic effects of associating paclitaxel with a lipid-based nanoparticle system
      on a nonhuman primate, Cebus apella.
AB  - Lipid-based nanoparticle systems have been used as vehicles for chemotherapeutic
      agents in experimental cancer treatments. Those systems have generally been
      credited with attenuating the severe toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. This
      study aimed to investigate the effects of associating paclitaxel (PTX) with a
      lipid-based nanoparticle system on a nonhuman primate, Cebus apella, documenting
      the toxicity as measured by serum biochemistry, which is a detailed analysis of
      blood and tissue. Eighteen C. apella were studied: three animals were treated
      with cholesterol-rich nanoemulsion (LDE) only, without PTX, administered
      intravenously every 3 weeks, during six treatment cycles; six animals were
      treated with PTX associated with LDE at the same administration scheme, three
      with lower (175 mg/m2) and three with higher (250 mg/m2) PTX doses; and six
      animals were treated with commercial PTX, three with the lower and three with the
      higher doses. In the LDE-PTX group, no clinical toxicity appeared, and the weight
      food consumption curve was similar to that of the controls. Two animals treated
      with commercial PTX presented weight loss, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, skin
      flaking, 70% loss of body hair, and decreased physical activity. The use of LDE
      as a carrier at both lower and higher doses reduced the toxicity of the drug in
      this species, which is closely related to human subjects. This was observed not
      only by clinical, biochemical, and hematological profiles but also by the
      histopathological analysis. The results of this study support the assumption that
      lipid-based nanoparticle systems used as drug carriers can serve as valuable
      tools to decrease the toxicity and increase the safety of chemotherapeutic
      agents.

PMID- 28572728
TI  - Analysis of the cytotoxicity of hierarchical nanoporous graphenic carbon against
      human glioblastoma grade IV cells.
AB  - A newly produced hierarchical, nanoporous carbon (HNC) material is studied for
      the first time in a biological model. The material consists of uniform particles
      and is characterized by a mean diameter <150 nm, a high specific surface area of
      1,000 m2/g, well-developed porosity, and high electrical conductivity. These
      unique properties and ability to transfer charge create a possibility of
      employing HNC as a moderator of tumor cell growth. As the charge of HNC may
      interfere with cell membranes by adhesion and by bonding with cell receptors, it
      may block the supply of nutrients. The interactions of HNC with the U87 cells can
      also lead to the excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
      activate apoptotic mechanisms in cancer cells. The investigation was performed
      using U87 human glioblastoma and PCS-201-010 normal fibroblast cell lines, where
      cell morphology and ultrastructure, viability, ROS production, type of cell
      death, mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and the expression of genes engaged
      in apoptosis pathways are studied. The results demonstrate that cytotoxicity of
      HNC particles increases with concentration from 5 to 100 ug/mL by activation of
      apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway, without inducing necrosis. Our
      research indicates the potential applicability of HNC in cancer therapy.

PMID- 28572729
TI  - Efficacy of radiosensitizing doped titania nanoparticles under hypoxia and
      preparation of an embolic microparticle.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a manufacturing protocol for large-scale
      production of doped titania radiosensitizing nanoparticles (NPs) to establish
      their activity under hypoxia and to produce a multimodal radiosensitizing embolic
      particle for cancer treatment. We have previously shown that radiosensitizing NPs
      can be synthesized from titania doped with rare earth elements, especially
      gadolinium. To translate this technology to the clinic, a crucial step is to find
      a suitable, scalable, high-throughput method. Herein, we have described the use
      of flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) to generate NPs from titanium and gadolinium
      precursors to produce titania NPs doped with 5 at% gadolinium. The NPs were fully
      characterized, and their capacity to act as radiosensitizers was confirmed by
      clonogenic assays. The integrity of the NPs in vitro was also ascertained due to
      the potentially adverse effects of free gadolinium in the body. The activity of
      the NPs was then studied under hypoxia since this is often a barrier to effective
      radiotherapy. In vitro radiosensitization experiments were performed with both
      the hypoxia mimetics deferoxamine and cobalt chloride and also under true hypoxia
      (oxygen concentration of 0.2%). It was shown that the radiosensitizing NPs were
      able to cause a significant increase in cell death even after irradiation under
      hypoxic conditions such as those found in tumors. Subsequently, the synthesized
      NPs were used to modify polystyrene embolization microparticles. The NPs were
      sintered to the surface of the microparticles by heating at 230 degrees C for 15
      minutes. This resulted in a good coverage of the surface and to generate
      embolization particles that were shown to be radiosensitizing. Such multimodal
      particles could therefore result in occlusion of the tumor blood vessels in
      conjunction with localized reactive oxygen species generation, even under hypoxic
      conditions such as those found in the center of tumors.

PMID- 28572730
TI  - Characteristics, burden of illness, and physical functioning of patients with
      relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: a cross
      sectional US survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although most patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
      (RRMS) will develop secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), little is
      known about the burden of multiple sclerosis by disease subtype. This study
      describes the burden of disease in terms of demographics, disease severity,
      symptoms, health care resource and disease-modifying therapy (DMT) utilization,
      work and activity impairment, and physical functioning of SPMS and RRMS patients.
      METHODS: SPMS and RRMS patient responses from the 2012 and 2013 waves of the US
      National Health and Wellness Survey were evaluated to detect differences in
      demographics, disease severity, symptoms, and health care resource and DMT
      utilization. In addition, data from the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment
      and Short Form-36 questionnaires were analyzed. RESULTS: SPMS patients were older
      than RRMS patients (mean age 55.7 vs 48.9 years; P<0.001); a lower proportion
      were female (56.2% with SPMS vs 71.6% with RRMS; P=0.002), and fewer SPMS than
      RRMS patients were employed (20.0% vs 39.7%; P<0.001). SPMS patients described
      their disease as more severe, reporting several neurological symptoms more
      frequently and higher hospitalization rates than RRMS patients. A lower
      percentage of SPMS than RRMS patients reported DMT use. SPMS patients had greater
      overall work and activity impairment than RRMS patients. After controlling for
      baseline characteristics, impairment in physical functioning was greater in SPMS
      patients. CONCLUSION: Overall, SPMS patients had a higher burden of illness than
      RRMS patients, underscoring the need to treat RRMS patients early to delay
      disability progressing using therapies that are effective in real-world settings.

PMID- 28572731
TI  - Understanding the associations between psychosocial factors and severity of crime
      in juvenile delinquency: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Juvenile delinquency is a serious and common problem. To date, several
      studies have focused on possible psychosocial risk factors for delinquency among
      youths and on the implications of childhood mental illness on child criminality.
      However, the literature on prevalence of psychopathology and predictors of crime
      severity among delinquent youths in Turkey is sparse. Therefore, the aim of this
      study was to show the associations between crime severity and psychosocial
      factors such as gender, age, criminal history, concomitant attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other comorbid psychiatric conditions, along
      with behavioral problem domains of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). PARTICIPANTS
      AND METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study sample consisted of 52
      individuals (30 females and 22 males) who were sent to a pilot detention facility
      in Istanbul, Turkey. The participants' age ranged from 8 to 18 years (M =13.4; SD
      =2.9). Self-rating scales were administered in an interview format, and the crime
      severity information was provided by participants' admission documents. RESULTS:
      No differences were found in terms of gender, age, children's past history of
      crime and substance abuse. However, family crime history was significantly higher
      in the high severity crime group (P=0.026). Having one or more comorbid
      psychiatric disorder was associated with high crime severity (P=0.018). The most
      common psychiatric disorders were found to be ADHD, oppositional defiant
      disorder, conduct disorder (CD) and anxiety disorder. CONCLUSION: Findings
      suggest that a family history of crime comes across as a very strong predictor of
      severity of crime. Among psychiatric factors, ADHD and CD were associated with
      commitment of more severe crimes in delinquent youths in our sample.
      Anxious/depressed traits as depicted by CBCL are found to be associated with less
      severe crimes.

PMID- 28572733
TI  - The Jordan Food and Drug Administration: Comparison of its Registration Process
      with Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study outlines the current regulatory review process and good
      review practices (GRevPs) at the Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) and
      compares them with those of regulatory agencies in Australia, Canada, Saudi
      Arabia and Singapore to gauge how well the JFDA is performing. We identify
      opportunities for further development of the JFDA as a key global reference
      agency. METHODS: Personnel within the JFDA completed a questionnaire comprising
      four sections: organisation, key milestones, review timelines, and GRevPs. The
      same questionnaire was used concurrently to gather information from Australia's
      Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Health Canada, the Saudi Food and Drug
      Authority (SFDA) and Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA). RESULTS: The
      JFDA conducts an abridged review for new active substances and requires a
      certificate of pharmaceutical product (CPP) at the time of submission and 6
      months of pharmacovigilance data at the time of the final review as well as full
      pharmaceutical, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) and clinical data at
      the time of submission. A written summary and tabulated data are required for non
      clinical data. The four comparator agencies conduct full assessments; the SFDA
      also requires a CPP, and the JFDA and SFDA both require pricing information at
      submission. All agencies have established target timelines, and the JFDA, SFDA,
      TGA and HSA currently exceed those targets. All agencies have also developed
      GRevPs as well as training and continuous-improvement processes. CONCLUSIONS: The
      JFDA has achieved significant success in its role as a regulatory agency by
      setting and implementing clear regulations in line with international guidance.
      It is recognised as a training centre in the region, with considerable
      achievements in the development of its activities by simplifying and improving
      requirements, procedures and actions. It also publishes information regarding
      guidance, procedures, drug application submissions and registration dates for all
      new chemical entities on its website. The relationship between the JFDA and the
      pharmaceutical sector in Jordan has resulted in balanced, practical,
      internationally compatible regulations and demonstrates a viable model of
      collaboration. To assist the JFDA in its efforts to become a key global reference
      agency, it is suggested that the agency explore a risk-stratification approach to
      the regulatory review; accept CPPs after dossier submission or use alternatives
      to the CPP; conduct pricing evaluations in parallel with scientific assessments;
      establish defined target times for review milestones and improve internal
      tracking systems to monitor these milestones; and make certain information
      transparent to all stakeholders by publishing a summary basis of approval.

PMID- 28572732
TI  - Totally laparoscopic aortobifemoral bypass surgery in the treatment of aortoiliac
      occlusive disease or abdominal aortic aneurysms - a systematic review and
      critical appraisal of literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: This systematic review aims to evaluate the published literature
      regarding totally laparoscopic aortobifemoral bypass (LABF) surgery in the
      treatment of aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD) or abdominal aortic aneurysms
      (AAA), compared with open aortobifemoral bypass surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      systematic review of the medical literature between 1990 and 2016 was performed,
      searching the medical databases Cochrane Library, OVID Medline, Embase and
      PubMed. Studies concerning totally LABF with or without control group and
      containing more than 10 patients were included in the analysis. Operative and
      aortic cross-clamping times, blood loss, rate of conversion to open surgery,
      mortality and morbidity within the first 30 postoperative days, hospital stay and
      primary and secondary patency of the graft were extracted and compared with open
      surgery when possible. RESULTS: Sixty-six studies were deemed eligible for
      inclusion in this review, 16 of them matched the inclusion criteria for
      quantitative synthesis. The patient material consisted of 588 patients undergoing
      totally LABF, 22 due to AAA, and the remaining 566 for AIOD. Five comparative
      studies regarding AIOD compared 211 totally LABF procedures with 246 open
      procedures. Only one study concerning AAA was eligible for inclusion, and this
      study did not provide a comparison against an open group. The operating and
      aortic cross-clamping times were shorter in the open group. Conversion rates
      ranged from 0% to 27%. There was no statistically significant difference in
      mortality between the two groups (p=0.64). Hospital stays ranged from 4.0 to 12.1
      and 5.0 to 12.8 days in the laparoscopic group and open group, respectively. Most
      of the studies provided low levels of evidence, mainly due to lack of blinding,
      randomization and correction of bias. CONCLUSION: Totally laparoscopic aortoiliac
      surgery seems to be a feasible technique with unaffected mortality and trend
      toward benefits in hospital stay and possibly also in complication rates. The
      literature published this far is sparse and with inconsistent results. More
      randomized controlled trials are required before this method can be widely
      implemented.

PMID- 28572734
TI  - FOLFOX regimen plus dendritic cells-cytokine-induced killer cells immunotherapy
      for the treatment of colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To systematically investigate the efficacy and safety of the combination
      of FOLFOX (oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and leucovorin) regimen and cocultured
      dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy for the
      treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Publications reporting the
      clinical trials' responses or safety of FOLFOX regimen combined with DC-CIK
      immunotherapy in treating CRC patients were searched in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane
      Library, China National Knowledge Internet, and Wanfang databases. Trials meeting
      the selection criteria were analyzed. The overall survival (OS), overall response
      rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), tumor markers, immune function, and
      adverse events were evaluated. RESULTS: Ten trials including 881 CRC patients
      were analyzed in this meta-analysis. The combined therapy showed advantages over
      FOLFOX treatment-alone in 2-year OS (odds ratio [OR] =2.77, confidence interval
      [CI] =1.58-4.86, P=0.0004), ORR (OR =1.85, CI =1.34-2.56, P=0.0002), and DCR (OR
      =2.54, CI =1.76-3.67, P<0.00001), with statistical significance. After
      immunotherapy, lymphocyte subset percentages of CD3+ (P=0.0006) and CD4+
      (P=0.01), CD4+/CD8+ ratio (P=0.0003), and levels of cytokines IFN-gamma (P=0.003)
      and IL-2 (P=0.01) were significantly increased, whereas analysis of CD8+, CD3
      CD56+, CD3+CD56+, CD4+CD25+, IL-6, and TNF-alpha did not show any significant
      difference (P>0.05). Moreover, the level of carcinoembryonic antigen was also
      decreased significantly upon immunotherapy (P<0.00001). CONCLUSION: The
      combination of FOLFOX regimen and DC-CIK immunotherapy was safe and effective for
      CRC patients.

PMID- 28572735
TI  - The novel long noncoding RNA RP11-357H14.17 acts as an oncogene by promoting cell
      proliferation and invasion in diffuse-type gastric cancer.
AB  - Current evidence indicates that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play pivotal roles
      in human cancers. The present study aims to assess differentially expressed
      lncRNAs related to diffuse-type gastric carcinoma (DGC). Next-generation RNA
      sequencing was carried out to detect aberrantly expressed lncRNAs in DGC. Real
      time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to evaluate RP11-357H14.17
      gene expression levels in DGC cell lines/tissues comparatively with normal
      gastric epithelial cell lines and adjacent normal tissues. The associations of
      RP11-357H14.17 expression levels with the clinicopathological features were also
      analyzed. The regulatory effects of RP11-357H14.17 on the biological behaviors of
      DGC cells were evaluated by MTT, colony formation assays, flow cytometry for
      apoptosis, wound healing assay, and transwell migration and invasion assays. RP11
      357H14.17 expression was remarkably increased in DGC tissues and cell lines
      compared with normal gastric epithelial cells and adjacent normal tissues. High
      levels of RP11-357H14.17 were associated with increased tumor size, deeper depth
      of invasion, lymphatic metastasis, and advanced pathological stage. Further
      experiments demonstrated that the DGC cells MGC-803 transfected with si-RP11
      357H14.17 showed reduced cell proliferation, migration, invasion, enhanced G1
      phase arrest and cell apoptosis. These findings suggest that the novel lncRNA
      RP11-357H14.17 is associated with poor prognosis, and may serve as a potential
      prognostic biomarker and target for new antineoplastic therapies in human DGC.

PMID- 28572736
TI  - Asthma-like airway inflammation and responses in a rat model of atopic dermatitis
      induced by neonatal capsaicin treatment.
AB  - Recent studies have shown that approximately 70% of patients with severe atopic
      dermatitis (AD) develop asthma. Development of AD in infancy and subsequent other
      atopic diseases such as asthma in childhood is referred to as atopic march.
      However, a causal link between the diseases of atopic march has remained largely
      unaddressed, possibly due to lack of a proper animal model. Recently, we
      developed an AD rat model showing chronically relapsing dermatitis and scratching
      behaviors induced by neonatal capsaicin treatment. Here, we investigated whether
      our model also showed asthmatic changes, with the aim of expanding our AD model
      into an atopic march model. First, we confirmed that capsaicin treatment (50
      mg/kg within 24 h after birth) induced dermatitis and scratching behaviors until
      6 weeks of age. After that, the mRNA expression of Th1 and Th2 cytokines, such as
      IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, and IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, respectively, was quantified
      with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in the skin and the lungs.
      The number of total cells and eosinophils was counted in bronchoalveolar lavage
      (BAL) fluid. The levels of IgE in the serum and BAL fluid were determined with
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Paraffin-embedded sections (4 MUm) were
      stained with hematoxylin/eosin to analyze the morphology of the lung and the
      airway. Airway responsiveness was measured in terms of airway resistance and
      compliance using the flexiVent system. In the capsaicin-treated rats, persistent
      dermatitis developed, and scratching behaviors increased over several weeks. The
      levels of IgE in the serum and BAL fluid as well as the mRNA expression of Th2
      cytokines, including IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, in both the skin and the lungs were
      elevated, and the number of eosinophils in the BAL fluid was also increased in
      the capsaicin-treated rats compared to control rats. Morphological analysis of
      the airway revealed smooth muscle hypertrophy and extensive mucus plug in the
      capsaicin-treated rats. Functional studies demonstrated an increment of the
      airway resistance and a decrement of lung compliance in the capsaicin-treated
      rats compared to control rats. Taken together, our findings suggested that
      neonatal capsaicin treatment induced asthma-like airway inflammation and
      responses in juvenile rats.

PMID- 28572737
TI  - Observational study to calculate addictive risk to opioids: a validation study of
      a predictive algorithm to evaluate opioid use disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid abuse in chronic pain patients is a major public health issue,
      with rapidly increasing addiction rates and deaths from unintentional overdose
      more than quadrupling since 1999. PURPOSE: This study seeks to determine the
      predictability of aberrant behavior to opioids using a comprehensive scoring
      algorithm incorporating phenotypic risk factors and neuroscience-associated
      single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Proove Opioid
      Risk (POR) algorithm determines the predictability of aberrant behavior to
      opioids using a comprehensive scoring algorithm incorporating phenotypic risk
      factors and neuroscience-associated SNPs. In a validation study with 258 subjects
      with diagnosed opioid use disorder (OUD) and 650 controls who reported using
      opioids, the POR successfully categorized patients at high and moderate risks of
      opioid misuse or abuse with 95.7% sensitivity. Regardless of changes in the
      prevalence of opioid misuse or abuse, the sensitivity of POR remained >95%.
      CONCLUSION: The POR correctly stratifies patients into low-, moderate-, and high
      risk categories to appropriately identify patients at need for additional
      guidance, monitoring, or treatment changes.

PMID- 28572739
TI  - Patient comfort from the technologist perspective: factors to consider in
      mammographic imaging.
AB  - A sample size of 280 certified mammography technologists were surveyed to
      understand what factors affect patient discomfort during breast imaging. Given
      mammography technologists' level of patient involvement, they are uniquely
      positioned to observe factors that affect patient comfort. The findings suggest
      that according to technologists, multiple factors, including patient ethnicity,
      breast density, previous biopsy and lumpectomy experience, as well as
      psychological factors, impact breast discomfort during mammography. Additionally,
      with respect to imaging protocols, technologists attributed 80% of moderate-to
      extreme discomfort to "length of compression time" (27%) and "compression force"
      (53%). Technologists also attributed "pinching at chest wall" and "hard edges of
      breast platform" to "very high" discomfort significantly more times (P<0.05) than
      "coolness and edges of paddle". These findings confirm some of what has been
      reported to date and challenge other findings. Given that recent decline in
      breast cancer mortality has been attributed to improvements in early detection
      and treatment, approaches to reduce discomfort should be considered in order to
      promote screening compliance. Although more research is needed, it is apparent
      that the patient experience of comfort and pain during mammography is an area
      warranting increased research and solutions.

PMID- 28572738
TI  - Sleep and somatic complaints in university students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep problems are common among university students. Poor sleep is
      associated with impaired daily functioning, increased risk of psychiatric
      symptoms, and somatic complaints such as pain. Previous results suggest that poor
      sleep exacerbates pain, which in turn negatively affects sleep. The purpose of
      the present study was to determine prevalence rates, comorbidity, and role of
      depression as a factor of moderating the relationship between sleep and physical
      complaints in German university students. SAMPLES AND METHODS: In total, 2443
      German university students (65% women) completed a web survey. Self-report
      measures included the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, three modules of the Patient
      Health Questionnaire, and a questionnaire on the functional somatic syndromes
      (FSSs). RESULTS: More than one-third (36.9%) reported poor sleep as assessed by
      the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Somatoform syndrome was identified in 23.5%,
      and the prevalence of any FSS was 12.8%. Self-reported sleep quality, sleep onset
      latency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medications, and daytime dysfunctioning
      were significant predictors of somatoform syndrome, whereas sleep efficiency and
      sleep duration influenced somatic complaints indirectly. Moderate correlations
      were found between stress, anxiety, somatoform syndrome, depression, and overall
      sleep quality. The effect of somatic complaints on sleep quality was associated
      with the severity of depression. Anxiety shows direct effects on somatization and
      depression but only indirect associations with sleep quality.

PMID- 28572740
TI  - An integrated epidemiological and neural net model of the warfarin effect in
      managed care patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Risk assessment tools are utilized to estimate the risk for stroke
      and need of anticoagulation therapy for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).
      These risk stratification scores are limited by the information inputted into
      them and a reliance on time-independent variables. The objective of this study
      was to develop a time-dependent neural net model to identify AF populations at
      high risk of poor clinical outcomes and evaluate the discriminatory ability of
      the model in a managed care population. METHODS: We performed a longitudinal,
      cohort study within a health-maintenance organization from 1997 to 2008.
      Participants were identified with incident AF irrespective of warfarin status and
      followed through their duration within the database. Three clinical outcome
      measures were evaluated including stroke, myocardial infarction, and hemorrhage.
      A neural net model was developed to identify patients at high risk of clinical
      events and defined to be an "enriched" patient. The model defines the enrichment
      based on the top 10 minimum mean square error output parameters that describe the
      three clinical outcomes. Cox proportional hazard models were utilized to evaluate
      the outcome measures. RESULTS: Among 285 patients, the mean age was 74+/-12 years
      with a mean follow-up of 4.3+/-2.6 years, and 154 (54%) were treated with
      warfarin. After propensity score adjustment, warfarin use was associated with a
      slightly increased risk of adverse outcomes (including stroke, myocardial
      infarction, and hemorrhage), though it did not attain statistical significance
      (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] =1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.75-1.97;
      p=0.42). Within the neural net model, subjects at high risk of adverse outcomes
      were identified and labeled as "enriched." Following propensity score adjustment,
      enriched subjects were associated with an 81% higher risk of adverse outcomes as
      compared to nonenriched subjects (aHR=1.81; 95% CI, 1.15-2.88; p=0.01).
      CONCLUSION: Enrichment methodology improves the statistical discrimination of
      meaningful endpoints when used in a health records-based analysis.

PMID- 28572741
TI  - Teng-Long-Bu-Zhong-Tang induces p21-dependent cell senescence in colorectal
      carcinoma LS174T cells via histone acetylation.
AB  - Teng-Long-Bu-Zhong-Tang (TLBZT) is a Chinese herbal formula for colorectal
      carcinoma treatment. TLBZT effectively induces cell senescence in colorectal
      carcinoma, accompanied by p21 upregulation. In this study, we further explored
      the role of p21 in TLBZT-induced cell senescence, as well as the mechanism by
      which TLBZT upregulates p21. Specific knockdown of p21 expression by small
      interfering RNA significantly attenuated TLBZT-induced cell senescence in human
      colorectal carcinoma LS174T cells. Silencing of p53 by small interfering RNA did
      not affect TLBZT-induced p21 upregulation. Meanwhile, TLBZT inhibited histone
      deacetylase activity. Furthermore, TLBZT increased acetylation levels of histone
      H3 and H4, enhancing their binding to the p21 promoter. These data suggested that
      TLBZT induces cell senescence in LS174T cells through a mechanism involving p21
      upregulation via histone H3 and H4 acetylation. This study provides new insights
      into the application of TLBZT for colorectal carcinoma treatment.

PMID- 28572742
TI  - Real-life effectiveness and safety of the inhalation suspension budesonide
      comparator vs the originator product for the treatment of patients with asthma: a
      historical cohort study using a US health claims database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether the effectiveness
      of budesonide comparator is non-inferior to budesonide reference in the
      prevention of asthma exacerbations. Asthma-related hospitalizations and safety
      were also examined. METHODS: This study used a matched, historic cohort design.
      Data were drawn from the ClinformaticsTM Data Mart US claims database and
      included a 1-year baseline, starting 1 year before the index prescription date,
      and a 1-year outcome period. Patients received budesonide comparator or reference
      treatment. The primary outcome was the rate of asthma exacerbations. Non
      inferiority for budesonide comparator vs budesonide reference was established if
      the 95% confidence interval (CI) upper limit of mean difference in proportions
      between treatments was <15%. Secondary outcomes examined rate of asthma-related
      hospitalizations and adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: The budesonide comparator and
      reference-matched cohorts each included 3109 patients. The adjusted upper 95% CI
      for the difference in proportions of patients experiencing asthma exacerbations
      was 0.035 (3.5%), demonstrating non-inferiority. Cohorts did not significantly
      differ in the rate of asthma exacerbations (adjusted rate ratio [RR]=1.04, 95%
      CI: 0.95-1.14) or rate of asthma-related hospitalizations (adjusted RR=1.10, 95%
      CI: 0.99-1.24) after adjusting for baseline confounders. No asthma exacerbations
      occurred during the outcome period in 72.9% of budesonide comparator patients and
      71.8% of budesonide reference patients. No asthma-related hospitalizations
      occurred in 77.9% of patients in the budesonide comparator cohort and 79.0% of
      patients in the budesonide reference cohort. The most frequent AEs were throat
      irritation (<=0.4% of patients) and hoarseness/dysphonia (0.02% of patients). AEs
      did not significantly differ between treatment cohorts. CONCLUSION: In this real
      life study, non-inferiority of the budesonide comparator vs reference was met for
      the primary end point of asthma exacerbation rates. Asthma-related
      hospitalization and AE rates did not differ between the two treatment cohorts.
      The budesonide comparator is an effective and safe treatment alternative for
      asthma exacerbations.

PMID- 28572743
TI  - Design and rationale of the high-sensitivity Troponin T Rules Out Acute Cardiac
      Insufficiency Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute heart failure (AHF) is a common presentation in the Emergency
      Department (ED), and most patients are admitted to the hospital. Identification
      of patients with AHF who have a low risk of adverse events and are suitable for
      discharge from the ED is difficult, and an objective tool would be useful.
      METHODS: The highly sensitive Troponin T Rules Out Acute Cardiac Insufficiency
      Trial (TACIT) will enroll ED patients being treated for AHF. Patients will
      undergo standard ED evaluation and treatment. High-sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT)
      will be drawn at the time of enrollment and 3 hours after the initial draw. The
      initial hsTnT draw will be no more than 3 hours after initiation of therapy for
      AHF (vasodilator, loop diuretic, noninvasive ventilation). Treating clinicians
      will be blinded to hsTnT results. We will assess whether hsTnT, as a single
      measurement or in series, can accurately predict patients at low risk of short
      term adverse events. CONCLUSION: TACIT will explore the value of hsTnT
      measurements in isolation, or in combination with other markers of disease
      severity, for the identification of ED patients with AHF who are at low risk of
      short-term adverse events.

PMID- 28572744
TI  - Berberine regulates the protein expression of multiple tumorigenesis-related
      genes in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the seventh most common malignancy
      and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide with an extremely
      grim prognosis. Berberine (BBR) has been found to inhibit proliferation of human
      HCC cells, although the underlying mechanism(s) are unclear. METHODS: Protein
      expression was detected by Western blots. Cell viability was determined by using
      the CellTiter Assay kit. RESULTS: We confirm that BBR treatment inhibits HepG2,
      Hep3B, and SNU-182 cell viability, and suggest that it regulates this
      proliferation via the modulation of multiple tumorigenesis-related genes protein
      expression. BBR treatment up-regulated protein expression of tumor suppressor
      genes, including Kruppel-like factor 6 (KLF6), activating transcription factor 3
      (ATF3) and p21, while down-regulating the expression of selected oncogenes,
      including E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) and pituitary tumor transforming gene
      1 (PTTG1). The specific extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2)
      inhibitor, PD98059, partially inhibited BBR effects including reduction of cell
      viability, and up-regulation of KLF6 and ATF3 expressions; although, PD98059 did
      not alter the down-regulation of E2F1 and PTTG1 expression by BBR. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our results suggest that BBR inhibits HCC cell viability by modulating multiple
      tumorigenesis-related genes, and that up-regulation of tumor suppressor genes by
      BBR is in part the result of ERK1/2 action. The results of this study augment our
      understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effect of BBR on hepatocellular
      cancers and provide further evidence as to the biological plausibility of this
      agent's role in the treatment of these malignancies.

PMID- 28572745
TI  - The effect of microbial challenge on the intestinal proteome of broiler chickens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In poultry production intestinal health and function is paramount to
      achieving efficient feed utilisation and growth. Uncovering the localised
      molecular mechanisms that occur during the early and important periods of growth
      that allow birds to grow optimally is important for this species. The exposure of
      young chicks to used litter from older flocks, containing mixed microbial
      populations, is a widely utilised model in poultry research. It rarely causes
      mortality but effects an immunogenic stimulation sufficient enough to cause
      reduced and uneven growth that is reflective of a challenging growing
      environment. METHODS: A mixed microbial challenge was delivered as used litter
      containing Campylobacter jejuni and coccidial oocysts to 120 male Ross 308
      broiler chicks, randomly divided into two groups: control and challenged. On day
      12, 15, 18 and 22 (pre- and 3, 6 and 10 days post-addition of the used litter)
      the proximal jejunum was recovered from 6 replicates per group and differentially
      abundant proteins identified between groups and over time using 2D DiGE. RESULTS:
      The abundance of cytoskeletal proteins of the chicken small intestinal proteome,
      particularly actin and actin associated proteins, increased over time in both
      challenged and control birds. Villin-1, an actin associated anti-apoptotic
      protein, was reduced in abundance in the challenged birds indicating that many of
      the changes in cytoskeletal protein abundance in the challenged birds were as a
      result of an increased rate of apoptosis. A number of heat shock proteins
      decreased in abundance over time in the intestine and this was more pronounced in
      the challenged birds. CONCLUSIONS: The small intestinal proteome sampled from 12
      to 22 days of age showed considerable developmental change, comparable to other
      species indicating that many of the changes in protein abundance in the small
      intestine are conserved among vertebrates. Identifying and distinguishing the
      changes in proteins abundance and molecular pathways that occur as a result of
      normal growth from those that occur as a result of a challenging microbial
      environment is important in this major food producing animal.

PMID- 28572746
TI  - MODEL-BASED FOOD VOLUME ESTIMATION USING 3D POSE.
AB  - We are developing a dietary assessment system to automatically identify and
      quantify foods and beverages consumed by analyzing meal images captured with a
      mobile device. After food items are segmented and identified, accurately
      estimating the volume of the food in the image is important for determining the
      nutrient content of the food. In this paper, we proposed a novel food portion
      size estimation method for rigid food items using a single image. First, we
      create a 3D graphical model during the training step using 3D reconstruction from
      multiple views. Then, for each food image, we determine the translation and
      elevation parameters of each of the food items, which are relative to the camera
      coordinate through camera calibration. Using these geometric parameters we
      project the pre-built 3D model of each food item back to the image plane.
      Subsequently, the remaining degrees-of-freedom (DOF) for the final pose is
      estimated by image similarity measure. The experimental results of our volume
      estimation method for four food categories validate the accuracy and reliability
      of our model-based approach.

PMID- 28572747
TI  - CONTEXT BASED FOOD IMAGE ANALYSIS.
AB  - We are developing a dietary assessment system that records daily food intake
      through the use of food images. Recognizing food in an image is difficult due to
      large visual variance with respect to eating or preparation conditions. This task
      becomes even more challenging when different foods have similar visual
      appearance. In this paper we propose to incorporate two types of contextual
      dietary information, food co-occurrence patterns and personalized learning
      models, in food image analysis to reduce ambiguity in food visual appearance and
      improve food recognition accuracy. We evaluate our model on 1453 food images
      acquired by 45 participants in natural eating conditions. The result shows that
      incorporating contextual dietary information improves the food categorization
      accuracy by about 10%.

PMID- 28572748
TI  - ANALYSIS OF FOOD IMAGES: FEATURES AND CLASSIFICATION.
AB  - In this paper we investigate features and their combinations for food image
      analysis and a classification approach based on k-nearest neighbors and
      vocabulary trees. The system is evaluated on a food image dataset consisting of
      1453 images of eating occasions in 42 food categories which were acquired by 45
      participants in natural eating conditions. The same image dataset is used to test
      the classification system proposed in the previously reported work [1].
      Experimental results indicate that using our combination of features and
      vocabulary trees for classification improves the food classification performance
      about 22% for the Top 1 classification accuracy and 10% for the Top 4
      classification accuracy.

PMID- 28572750
TI  - Effects of a genetically modified potato on a non-target aphid are outweighed by
      cultivar differences.
AB  - Insect-plant interactions may be unintentionally affected when introducing
      genetically modified (GM) crops into an agro-ecosystem. Our aim was to test the
      non-target effects of a late blight-resistant GM potato on Myzus persicae in
      greenhouse and climate room experiments and understand how position and number of
      R gene insertions can affect non-targets in GM events. We also aimed to compare
      results to baseline differences among three conventional potato varieties varying
      in resistance to late blight. Aphid development and survival were affected by
      some GM events in the first generation, though effects disappeared in the second
      generation. Effects were not dependent on the presence of a marker gene or the
      insertion of a second resistance gene. Positional effects of gene insertion
      influenced aphid performance on certain GM events. However, aphid fitness varied
      considerably more between conventional potato varieties than between Desiree and
      the GM events. Comparing different GM events to the non-transformed variety is
      relevant, since unintended effects of insertion can occur. Our protocols can be
      recommended for in planta risk assessments with aphids. Ecological perspective is
      gained by selecting several measured endpoints and by comparing the results with
      a baseline of conventional cultivars.

PMID- 28572751
TI  - Effect of probiotic supplementation on total lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and
      short chain fatty acids in 2-5-year-old children.
AB  - Background: Consumption of Lactobacillus paracasei Lpc-37 or Bifidobacterium
      lactis HN019 by 2-5-year-old children was found to reduce risk for diarrhoea and
      fever during the rainy season. Objective: Can changes in faecal short chain fatty
      acids (SCFAs) or branched chain fatty acids (BCFAs) explain the observed positive
      influence of probiotics and their role on nutritional status and diarrhoea risk?
      Design: Faecal samples were analysed for SCFAs and BCFAs and correlated to
      Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus levels; both at the start and after nine
      months' consumption of either of the two probiotic strains, or placebo. Results:
      No differences in SCFAs, BCFAs, Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium levels were
      found between boys and girls. Severely underweight children were observed to have
      the highest Lactobacillus levels. Probiotic intervention was found to be
      associated with higher levels of selected SCFAs and BCFAs in subjects who had
      experienced diarrhoea. Treatment with either of the probiotics led to changes in
      SCFAs and BCFAs. SCFAs, acetate, propionate and butyrate, were found to correlate
      with each other. Likewise, BCFAs isobutyrate, 2-methylbutyrate and isovalerate
      correlated with each other. After the intervention, L. paracasei Lpc-37
      correlated positively with total Bifidobacterium counts and isovalerate levels.
      B. lactis HN019 counts were found to correlate positively with total bacterial
      counts and negatively with propionate levels. Conclusions: Nutritional status was
      associated with higher levels of faecal lactobacilli; the meaning of this
      requires further investigation. The intervention with the two probiotics was
      observed to influence the levels of faecal SCFAs and BCFAs and there is a
      differential response in those who developed diarrhoea and those who did not. It
      is, however, not clear to what extent this is a mechanism that explains the
      earlier observed effect the strains had on diarrhoea risk.

PMID- 28572749
TI  - The effect of acute pomegranate extract supplementation on oxygen uptake in
      highly-trained cyclists during high-intensity exercise in a high altitude
      environment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research has indicated that pomegranate extract (POMx) may
      improve performance during aerobic exercise by enhancing the matching of vascular
      oxygen (O2) provision to muscular requirements. POMx is rich in ellagitannin
      polyphenols and nitrates (NO3-), which are both associated with improvements in
      blood flow and O2 delivery. Primarily, this study aimed to determine whether POMx
      improves performance in a cycling time trial to exhaustion at 100%VO2max
      (TTE100%) in highly-trained cyclists. In addition, we investigated if the O2 cost
      (VO2) of submaximal exercise was lower with POMx, and whether any changes were
      greater at high altitude where O2 delivery is impaired. METHODS: Eight cyclists
      exercised at three submaximal intensities before completing a TTE100% at sea
      level (SEA) and at 1657 m of altitude (ALT), with pre-exercise consumption of
      1000 mg of POMx or a placebo (PLAC) in a randomized, double-blind, crossover
      design. Data were analysed using a three way (treatment x altitude x intensity)
      or two-way (treatment x altitude) repeated measures ANOVA with a Fisher's LSD
      post-hoc analysis. Significance was set at p <= 0.05. The effect size of
      significant interactions was calculated using Cohen's d. RESULTS: TTE100%
      performance was reduced in ALT but was not influenced by POMx (p > 0.05). Plasma
      NO3- were 10.3 MUmol greater with POMx vs. PLAC (95% CI, 0.8, 19.7,F1,7 = 7.83, p
      < 0.04). VO2 measured at five minutes into the TTE100% was significantly
      increased in ALTPOMx vs. ALTPLAC (+3.8 ml.min-1kg-1, 95% CI, -5.7, 9.5, F1,7 =
      29.2, p = 0.001, ES = 0.6) but unchanged in SEAPOMx vs. SEAPLAC (p > 0.05).
      Submaximal VO2 values were not affected by POMx (p >= 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The
      restoration of SEA VO2 values at ALT is likely driven by the high polyphenol
      content of POMx, which is proposed to improve nitric oxide bioavailability.
      Despite an increase in VO2, no change in exercise performance occurred and
      therefore this study does not support the use of POMx as an ergogenic supplement.

PMID- 28572752
TI  - Chronic alcohol overconsumption may alter gut microbial metabolism: a
      retrospective study of 719 13C-D-xylose breath test results.
AB  - Objective: Alterations of gut microbiota composition or function may participate
      in the pathophysiology of several diseases. We aimed to explore the effect of
      chronic alcohol overconsumption on gut microbial metabolism, as assessed by
      evaluating 13C-D-xylose breath test results. Materials and methods: We
      investigated all 13C-D-xylose breath tests performed at Lovisenberg Diaconal
      Hospital during the years 2005 to 2011, using patient files for diagnosing the
      patients into one of three patient categories: alcohol overconsumption, coeliac
      disease and functional bowel disorder. In addition, a group of healthy controls
      was included. The time curves of 13CO2 excretion in breath samples were divided
      into two phases, evaluating small intestinal absorption (0-60 min) and colonic
      microbial metabolism (90-240 min), respectively. Results: A total of 719 patients
      underwent 13C-D-xylose breath testing during the inclusion period. Thirty-five
      had a history of alcohol overconsumption, 66 had coeliac disease, and 216 had a
      functional bowel disorder, while 44 healthy controls were included for
      comparison. The alcohol overconsumption group had similar small intestinal phase
      results as the group of patients with untreated coeliac disease. During the
      colonic phase, the group of patients with alcohol overconsumption differed from
      all the other groups in terms of 13C-xylose recovery, with significantly less
      13CO2 excretion compared to the other groups. Conclusion: The results suggest
      that patients with a history of alcohol overconsumption suffer from both small
      intestinal malabsorption and impaired colonic microbial metabolism. The role of
      gut microbiota in chronic alcohol overconsumption should be investigated further.

PMID- 28572753
TI  - Changes in vaginal community state types reflect major shifts in the microbiome.
AB  - Background: Recent studies of various human microbiome habitats have revealed
      thousands of bacterial species and the existence of large variation in
      communities of microorganisms in the same habitats across individual human
      subjects. Previous efforts to summarize this diversity, notably in the human gut
      and vagina, have categorized microbiome profiles by clustering them into
      community state types (CSTs). The functional relevance of specific CSTs has not
      been established. Objective: We investigate whether CSTs can be used to assess
      dynamics in the microbiome. Design: We conduct a re-analysis of five sequencing
      based microbiome surveys derived from vaginal samples with repeated measures.
      Results: We observe that detection of a CST transition is largely insensitive to
      choices in methods for normalization or clustering. We find that healthy subjects
      persist in a CST for two to three weeks or more on average, while those with
      evidence of dysbiosis tend to change more often. Changes in CST can be gradual or
      occur over less than one day. Upcoming CST changes and switches to high-risk CSTs
      can be predicted with high accuracy in certain scenarios. Finally, we observe
      that presence of Gardnerella vaginalis is a strong predictor of an upcoming CST
      change. Conclusion: Overall, our results show that the CST concept is useful for
      studying microbiome dynamics.

PMID- 28572754
TI  - Functional amplification and preservation of human gut microbiota.
AB  - Background: The availability of fresh stool samples is a prerequisite in most gut
      microbiota functional studies. Objective: Strategies for amplification and long
      term gut microbiota preservation from fecal samples would favor sample sharing,
      help comparisons and reproducibility over time and between laboratories, and
      improve the safety and ethical issues surrounding fecal microbiota
      transplantations. Design: Taking advantage of in vitro gut-simulating systems, we
      amplified the microbial repertoire of a fresh fecal sample and assessed the
      viability and resuscitation of microbes after preservation with some common
      intracellular and extracellular acting cryoprotective agents (CPAs), alone and in
      different combinations. Preservation efficiencies were determined after 3 and 6
      months and compared with the fresh initial microbiota diversity and metabolic
      activity, using the chemostat-based Environmental Control System for Intestinal
      Microbiota (ECSIM) in vitro model of the gut environment. Microbial populations
      were tested for fermentation gas, short-chain fatty acids, and composition of
      amplified and resuscitated microbiota, encompassing methanogenic archaea.
      Results: Amplification of the microbial repertoire from a fresh fecal sample was
      achieved with high fidelity. Dimethylsulfoxide, alone or mixed with other CPAs,
      showed the best efficiency for functional preservation, and the duration of
      preservation had little effect. Conclusions: The amplification and resuscitation
      of fecal microbiota can be performed using specialized in vitro gut models.
      Correct amplification of the initial microbes should ease the sharing of clinical
      samples and improve the safety of fecal microbiota transplantation.
      Abbreviations: CDI, Clostridium difficile infection; CPA, cryoprotective agent;
      D, DMSO, dimethylsulfoxide; FMT, fecal microbiota transplantation; G, glycerol;
      IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; P, PEG-4000, polyethylene glycol 4000 g.mol-1;
      SCFA, short-chain fatty acid; SNR, signal-to-noise ratio.

PMID- 28572756
TI  - Differences and Similarities for Spatial and Feature-Based Selective Attentional
      Orienting.
AB  - Using selective attention, we prioritize behaviorally relevant information out of
      all surrounding stimulation. Attention can be oriented intentionally to spatial
      and/or non-spatial properties (feature-based attention). When comparing spatial
      and feature-based attention, previous studies identified a common fronto-parietal
      network, although some reported specific activation for spatial attention and few
      found higher activation for feature-based attention. Most studies examining
      differences between attention types investigated the cueing epoch. We examined
      reorienting processing (after invalid cueing) and correctly focused attention
      (after valid cueing) for spatial and feature-based orienting using fMRI in two
      human samples with 40 participants overall and identical stimuli, stimulus
      probabilities, and timing for all conditions. A fronto-parietal network including
      parts of the ventral orienting network was activated for reorienting and focused
      attention for both attention types. Common activity over validities and attention
      types was located in bilateral IPL/SMG, bilateral IFG/insula, and the cerebellum.
      A network of mainly posterior areas showed higher activity for spatial compared
      to feature-based orienting. Conversely, no specialized areas for spatial focused
      attention or for feature-based attention (reorienting/focusing) was observed. The
      posterior clusters specialized for spatial reorienting showed overlapping
      activity with clusters involved in common spatial and feature-based reorienting
      as well as focused attention over attention types. Therefore, the results hint at
      a superordinate fronto-parietal network for both attention types during
      reorienting and focusing, with a spatial specialization of posterior sub-regions.

PMID- 28572755
TI  - Graded Hypercapnia-Calibrated BOLD: Beyond the Iso-metabolic Hypercapnic
      Assumption.
AB  - Calibrated BOLD is a promising technique that overcomes the sensitivity of
      conventional fMRI to the cerebrovascular state; measuring either the basal level,
      or the task-induced response of cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption
      (CMRO2). The calibrated BOLD method is susceptible to errors in the measurement
      of the calibration parameter M, the theoretical BOLD signal change that would
      occur if all deoxygenated hemoglobin were removed. The original and most popular
      method for measuring M uses hypercapnia (an increase in arterial CO2), making the
      assumption that it does not affect CMRO2. This assumption has since been
      challenged and recent studies have used a corrective term, based on literature
      values of a reduction in basal CMRO2 with hypercapnia. This is not ideal, as this
      value may vary across subjects and regions of the brain, and will depend on the
      level of hypercapnia achieved. Here we propose a new approach, using a graded
      hypercapnia design and the assumption that CMRO2 changes linearly with
      hypercapnia level, such that we can measure M without assuming prior knowledge of
      the scale of CMRO2 change. Through use of a graded hypercapnia gas challenge, we
      are able to remove the bias caused by a reduction in basal CMRO2 during
      hypercapnia, whilst simultaneously calculating the dose-wise CMRO2 change with
      hypercapnia. When compared with assuming no change in CMRO2, this approach
      resulted in significantly lower M-values in both visual and motor cortices,
      arising from significant dose-dependent hypercapnia reductions in basal CMRO2 of
      1.5 +/- 0.6%/mmHg (visual) and 1.8 +/- 0.7%/mmHg (motor), where mmHg is the unit
      change in end-tidal CO2 level. Variability in the basal CMRO2 response to
      hypercapnia, due to experimental differences and inter-subject variability, is
      accounted for in this approach, unlike previous correction approaches, which use
      literature values. By incorporating measurement of, and correction for, the
      reduction in basal CMRO2 during hypercapnia in the measurement of M-values,
      application of our approach will correct for an overestimation in both CMRO2 task
      response values and absolute CMRO2.

PMID- 28572757
TI  - Muscle Contraction Regulates BDNF/TrkB Signaling to Modulate Synaptic Function
      through Presynaptic cPKCalpha and cPKCbetaI.
AB  - The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) acts via tropomyosin
      related kinase B receptor (TrkB) to regulate synapse maintenance and function in
      the neuromuscular system. The potentiation of acetylcholine (ACh) release by BDNF
      requires TrkB phosphorylation and Protein Kinase C (PKC) activation. BDNF is
      secreted in an activity-dependent manner but it is not known if pre- and/or
      postsynaptic activities enhance BDNF expression in vivo at the neuromuscular
      junction (NMJ). Here, we investigated whether nerve and muscle cell activities
      regulate presynaptic conventional PKC (cPKCalpha and betaI) via BDNF/TrkB
      signaling to modulate synaptic strength at the NMJ. To differentiate the effects
      of presynaptic activity from that of muscle contraction, we stimulated the
      phrenic nerve of rat diaphragms (1 Hz, 30 min) with or without contraction
      (abolished by MU-conotoxin GIIIB). Then, we performed ELISA, Western blotting,
      qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence and electrophysiological techniques. We found that
      nerve-induced muscle contraction: (1) increases the levels of mature BDNF protein
      without affecting pro-BDNF protein or BDNF mRNA levels; (2) downregulates TrkB.T1
      without affecting TrkB.FL or p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75) levels; (3)
      increases presynaptic cPKCalpha and cPKCbetaI protein level through TrkB
      signaling; and (4) enhances phosphorylation of cPKCalpha and cPKCbetaI.
      Furthermore, we demonstrate that cPKCbetaI, which is exclusively located in the
      motor nerve terminals, increases activity-induced acetylcholine release.
      Together, these results show that nerve-induced muscle contraction is a key
      regulator of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway, retrogradely activating presynaptic
      cPKC isoforms (in particular cPKCbetaI) to modulate synaptic function. These
      results indicate that a decrease in neuromuscular activity, as occurs in several
      neuromuscular disorders, could affect the BDNF/TrkB/PKC pathway that links pre-
      and postsynaptic activity to maintain neuromuscular function.

PMID- 28572758
TI  - Activation of CHK1 in Supporting Cells Indirectly Promotes Hair Cell Survival.
AB  - The sensory hair cells of the inner ear are exquisitely sensitive to ototoxic
      insults. Loss of hair cells after exposure to ototoxic agents causes hearing
      loss. Chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin causes hair cell loss. Cisplatin
      forms DNA mono-adducts as well as intra- and inter-strand DNA crosslinks. DNA
      cisplatin adducts are repaired through the DNA damage response. The decision
      between cell survival and cell death following DNA damage rests on factors that
      are involved in determining damage tolerance, cell survival and apoptosis.
      Cisplatin damage on hair cells has been the main focus of many ototoxic studies,
      yet the effect of cisplatin on supporting cells has been largely ignored. In this
      study, the effects of DNA damage response in cochlear supporting cells were
      interrogated. Supporting cells play a major role in the development, maintenance
      and oto-protection of hair cells. Loss of supporting cells may indirectly affect
      hair cell survival or maintenance. Activation of the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase
      (PI3K) signaling was previously shown to promote hair cell survival. To test
      whether activating PI3K signaling promotes supporting cell survival after
      cisplatin damage, cochlear explants from the neural subset (NS) Cre Pten
      conditional knockout mice were employed. Deletion of Phosphatase and Tensin
      Homolog (PTEN) activates PI3K signaling in multiple cell types within the
      cochlea. Supporting cells lacking PTEN showed increased cell survival after
      cisplatin damage. Supporting cells lacking PTEN also showed increased
      phosphorylation of Checkpoint Kinase 1 (CHK1) levels after cisplatin damage.
      Nearest neighbor analysis showed increased numbers of supporting cells with
      activated PI3K signaling in close proximity to surviving hair cells in cisplatin
      damaged cochleae. We propose that increased PI3K signaling promotes supporting
      cell survival through phosphorylation of CHK1 and increased survival of
      supporting cells indirectly increases hair cell survival after cisplatin damage.

PMID- 28572759
TI  - Dendritic Actin Cytoskeleton: Structure, Functions, and Regulations.
AB  - Actin is a versatile and ubiquitous cytoskeletal protein that plays a major role
      in both the establishment and the maintenance of neuronal polarity. For a long
      time, the most prominent roles that were attributed to actin in neurons were the
      movement of growth cones, polarized cargo sorting at the axon initial segment,
      and the dynamic plasticity of dendritic spines, since those compartments contain
      large accumulations of actin filaments (F-actin) that can be readily visualized
      using electron- and fluorescence microscopy. With the development of super
      resolution microscopy in the past few years, previously unknown structures of the
      actin cytoskeleton have been uncovered: a periodic lattice consisting of actin
      and spectrin seems to pervade not only the whole axon, but also dendrites and
      even the necks of dendritic spines. Apart from that striking feature, patches of
      F-actin and deep actin filament bundles have been described along the lengths of
      neurites. So far, research has been focused on the specific roles of actin in the
      axon, while it is becoming more and more apparent that in the dendrite, actin is
      not only confined to dendritic spines, but serves many additional and important
      functions. In this review, we focus on recent developments regarding the role of
      actin in dendrite morphology, the regulation of actin dynamics by internal and
      external factors, and the role of F-actin in dendritic protein trafficking.

PMID- 28572760
TI  - A Quantitative Electroencephalography Study on Cochlear Implant-Induced Cortical
      Changes in Single-Sided Deafness with Tinnitus.
AB  - The mechanism of tinnitus suppression after cochlear implantation (CI) in single
      sided deafness (SSD) is not fully understood. In this regard, by comparing pre-
      and post-CI quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), we explored cortical
      changes relevant to tinnitus improvement. In SSD patients who underwent CI, qEEG
      data were collected: (1) before CI, (2) 6 months post-operatively with CI-on, and
      (3) 30 min after CI-off and source-localized cortical activity/functional
      connectivity analyses were performed. Compared to the pre-operative baseline, the
      CI-on condition demonstrated significantly decreased activity in the right
      auditory- and orbitofrontal cortices (OFC) for the delta frequency band as well
      as decreased connectivity between the auditory cortex/posterior cingulate cortex
      for the delta/beta2 bands. Meanwhile, compared to the CI-off condition, the CI-on
      condition displayed decreased activity in the right auditory cortices/OFC for the
      delta band, and in bilateral auditory cortices, left inferior frontal cortex/OFC
      for the gamma band. However, qEEG analyses showed no significant differences
      between the CI-off and baseline conditions. CI induced overall decreased cortical
      activity and functional connectivity. However, judging from no differences
      between the CI-off and baseline conditions, CI-induced cortical activity and
      functional connectivity changes are not by cortical plastic changes, but by
      dynamic peripheral reafferentation.

PMID- 28572761
TI  - Ten Minutes of alpha-tACS and Ambient Illumination Independently Modulate EEG
      alpha-Power.
AB  - Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) sees increased use in
      neurosciences as a tool for the exploration of brain oscillations. It has been
      shown that tACS stimulation in specific frequency bands can result in
      aftereffects of modulated oscillatory brain activity that persist after the
      stimulation has ended. The general relationship between persistency of the effect
      and duration of stimulation is sparsely investigated but previous research has
      shown that the occurrence of tACS aftereffects depends on the brain state before
      and during stimulation. Early alpha neurofeedback research suggests that
      particularly in the alpha band the responsiveness to a manipulation depends on
      the ambient illumination during measurement. Therefore, in the present study we
      assessed the brain's susceptibility to tACS at the individual alpha frequency
      during darkness compared to ambient illumination. We measured alpha power after
      10 min of stimulation in 30 participants while they continuously performed a
      visual vigilance task. Our results show that immediately after stimulation, the
      alpha power in the illumination condition for both the stimulated and sham group
      has increased by only about 7%, compared to about 20% in both groups in the
      'dark' condition. For the group that did not receive stimulation, the power in
      darkness remained stable after stimulation, whereas the power in light increased
      by an additional 10% during the next 30 min. For the group that did receive
      stimulation, alpha power during these 30 min increased by another 11% in light
      and 22% in darkness. Since alpha power already increased by about 10% without
      stimulation, the effect of illumination does not seem to have interacted with the
      effect of stimulation. Instead, both effects seem to have added up linearly.
      Although our findings do not show that illumination-induced differences in
      oscillatory activity influence the susceptibility toward tACS, they stress the
      importance of controlling for factors like ambient light that might add an
      independent increase or decrease to the power of brain oscillations during
      periods, where possible persistent effects of stimulation are explored.

PMID- 28572762
TI  - Evaluating and Improving Automatic Sleep Spindle Detection by Using Multi
      Objective Evolutionary Algorithms.
AB  - Sleep spindles are brief bursts of brain activity in the sigma frequency range
      (11-16 Hz) measured by electroencephalography (EEG) mostly during non-rapid eye
      movement (NREM) stage 2 sleep. These oscillations are of great biological and
      clinical interests because they potentially play an important role in identifying
      and characterizing the processes of various neurological disorders.
      Conventionally, sleep spindles are identified by expert sleep clinicians via
      visual inspection of EEG signals. The process is laborious and the results are
      inconsistent among different experts. To resolve the problem, numerous
      computerized methods have been developed to automate the process of sleep spindle
      identification. Still, the performance of these automated sleep spindle detection
      methods varies inconsistently from study to study. There are two reasons: (1) the
      lack of common benchmark databases, and (2) the lack of commonly accepted
      evaluation metrics. In this study, we focus on tackling the second problem by
      proposing to evaluate the performance of a spindle detector in a multi-objective
      optimization context and hypothesize that using the resultant Pareto fronts for
      deriving evaluation metrics will improve automatic sleep spindle detection. We
      use a popular multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA), the Strength Pareto
      Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2), to optimize six existing frequency-based sleep
      spindle detection algorithms. They include three Fourier, one continuous wavelet
      transform (CWT), and two Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) based algorithms. We also
      explore three hybrid approaches. Trained and tested on open-access DREAMS and
      MASS databases, two new hybrid methods of combining Fourier with HHT algorithms
      show significant performance improvement with F1-scores of 0.726-0.737.

PMID- 28572763
TI  - A Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between Harmonic Surprise and
      Preference in Popular Music.
AB  - Studies have shown that some musical pieces may preferentially activate reward
      centers in the brain. Less is known, however, about the structural aspects of
      music that are associated with this activation. Based on the music cognition
      literature, we propose two hypotheses for why some musical pieces are preferred
      over others. The first, the Absolute-Surprise Hypothesis, states that unexpected
      events in music directly lead to pleasure. The second, the Contrastive-Surprise
      Hypothesis, proposes that the juxtaposition of unexpected events and subsequent
      expected events leads to an overall rewarding response. We tested these
      hypotheses within the framework of information theory, using the measure of
      "surprise." This information-theoretic variable mathematically describes how
      improbable an event is given a known distribution. We performed a statistical
      investigation of surprise in the harmonic structure of songs within a
      representative corpus of Western popular music, namely, the McGill Billboard
      Project corpus. We found that chords of songs in the top quartile of the
      Billboard chart showed greater average surprise than those in the bottom
      quartile. We also found that the different sections within top-quartile songs
      varied more in their average surprise than the sections within bottom-quartile
      songs. The results of this study are consistent with both the Absolute- and
      Contrastive-Surprise Hypotheses. Although these hypotheses seem contradictory to
      one another, we cannot yet discard the possibility that both absolute and
      contrastive types of surprise play roles in the enjoyment of popular music. We
      call this possibility the Hybrid-Surprise Hypothesis. The results of this
      statistical investigation have implications for both music cognition and the
      human neural mechanisms of esthetic judgments.

PMID- 28572764
TI  - The Effects of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Acute Subcortical
      Cerebral Infarction.
AB  - Background: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) promotes upper extremity
      recovery post stroke, however, it is difficult to implement clinically due to its
      high resource demand and safety of the restraint. Therefore, we propose that
      modified CIMT (mCIMT) be used to treat individuals with acute subcortical
      infarction. Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of mCIMT in patients
      with acute subcortical infarction, and investigate the possible mechanisms
      underlying the effect. Methods: The role of mCIMT was investigated in 26
      individuals experiencing subcortical infarction in the preceding 14 days.
      Patients were randomly assigned to either mCIMT or standard therapy. mCIMT group
      was treated daily for 3 h over 10 consecutive working days, using a mitt on the
      unaffected arm for up to 30% of waking hours. The control group was treated with
      an equal dose of occupational therapy and physical therapy. During the 3-month
      follow-up, the motor functions of the affected limb were assessed by the Wolf
      Motor Function Test (WMFT) and Motor Activity Log (MAL). Altered cortical
      excitability was assessed via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Results:
      Treatment significantly improved the movement in the mCIMT group compared with
      the control group. The mean WMF score was significantly higher in the mCIMT group
      compared with the control group. Further, the appearance of motor-evoked
      potentials (MEPs) were significantly higher in the mCIMT group compared with the
      baseline data. A significant change in ipsilesional silent period (SP) occurred
      in the mCIMT group compared with the control group. However, we found no
      difference between two groups in motor function or electrophysiological
      parameters after 3 months of follow-up. Conclusions: mCIMT resulted in
      significant functional changes in timed movement immediately following treatment
      in patients with acute subcortical infarction. Further, early mCIMT improved
      ipsilesional cortical excitability. However, no long-term effects were seen.

PMID- 28572765
TI  - White Matter Structural Connectivity Is Not Correlated to Cortical Resting-State
      Functional Connectivity over the Healthy Adult Lifespan.
AB  - Structural connectivity (SC) of white matter (WM) and functional connectivity
      (FC) of cortical regions undergo changes in normal aging. As WM tracts form the
      underlying anatomical architecture that connects regions within resting state
      networks (RSNs), it is intuitive to expect that SC and FC changes with age are
      correlated. Studies that investigated the relationship between SC and FC in
      normal aging are rare, and have mainly compared between groups of elderly and
      younger subjects. The objectives of this work were to investigate linear SC and
      FC changes across the healthy adult lifespan, and to define relationships between
      SC and FC measures within seven whole-brain large scale RSNs. Diffusion tensor
      imaging (DTI) and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data were acquired from
      177 healthy participants (male/female = 69/108; aged 18-87 years). Forty cortical
      regions across both hemispheres belonging to seven template-defined RSNs were
      considered. Mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean tract length,
      and number of streamlines derived from DTI data were used as SC measures,
      delineated using deterministic tractography, within each RSN. Pearson correlation
      coefficients of rs-fMRI-obtained BOLD signal time courses between cortical
      regions were used as FC measure. SC demonstrated significant age-related changes
      in all RSNs (decreased FA, mean tract length, number of streamlines; and
      increased MD), and significant FC decrease was observed in five out of seven
      networks. Among the networks that showed both significant age related changes in
      SC and FC, however, SC was not in general significantly correlated with FC,
      whether controlling for age or not. The lack of observed relationship between SC
      and FC suggests that measures derived from DTI data that are commonly used to
      infer the integrity of WM microstructure are not related to the corresponding
      changes in FC within RSNs. The possible temporal lag between SC and FC will need
      to be addressed in future longitudinal studies to better elucidate the links
      between SC and FC changes in normal aging.

PMID- 28572768
TI  - Gait Change Is Associated with Cognitive Outcome after an Acute Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - Background: Cognition and gait have often been studied separately after stroke
      whereas it has been suggested that these two domains could interact through a
      cognitive-motor interference. Objective: To evaluate the influence of gait
      changes on cognitive outcome after an ischemic stroke (IS). Methods: We conducted
      a prospective and monocentric study including patients admitted for an acute
      supratentorial IS with a National Institute of Health Stroke Score <= 15.
      Cognition, gait and motor disability were evaluated at baseline, 3 months and 1
      year post-stroke, using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the 10-m
      walking test (10-MWT) and the Fugl-Meyer motor assessment (FMMA). The effect of
      changes in 10-MWT over the year of follow-up on MoCA changes was estimated using
      a generalized linear mixed model with FMMA, age and gender as covariates.
      Results: Two hundred and Twelve patients were included (71% male, age 64 +/- 13
      years old). 10-MWT improved from baseline to 1 year (p < 0.001), as did MoCA (p <
      0.001) and FMMA (p < 0.001) scores. Ninety-nine patients (47%) had a MoCA <26 at
      1 year. Changes in 10-MWT were independently associated with changes in MoCA
      (beta = -0.2, 95% CI -0.24 to -0.07, Bonferroni-corrected p-value = 0.002).
      Analyses of MoCA sub-scores suggested that changes in gait performance was
      associated with changes in executive functions and recall. Conclusion: Gait
      performance is associated with cognitive outcome after a mild to moderate IS,
      suggesting that they should be managed together to improve post-stroke
      independence.

PMID- 28572770
TI  - In Vivo Cannabidiol Treatment Improves Endothelium-Dependent Vasorelaxation in
      Mesenteric Arteries of Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats.
AB  - Background and purpose: We have shown that in vitro treatment with cannabidiol
      (CBD, 2 h) enhances endothelial function in arteries from Zucker diabetic fatty
      (ZDF) rats, partly due to a cyclooxygenase (COX)-mediated mechanism. The aim of
      the present study was to determine whether treatment with CBD in vivo would also
      enhance endothelial function. Experimental approach: Male ZDF rats, or ZDF Lean
      rats, were treated for 7 days (daily i.p. injection) with either 10mg/kg CBD or
      vehicle (n = 6 per group). Sections of mesenteric resistance arteries, femoral
      arteries and thoracic aortae were mounted on a wire myograph, and cumulative
      concentration-response curves to endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine, ACh, 1 nM
      100 MUM) or endothelium-independent (sodium nitroprusside, SNP, 1 nM-100 MUM)
      agents were constructed. Multiplex analysis was used to measure serum metabolic
      and cardiovascular biomarkers. Key results: Vasorelaxation to ACh was
      significantly enhanced in mesenteric arteries from CBD-treated ZDF rats, but not
      ZDF Lean rats. The enhanced vasorelaxation in ZDF mesenteric arteries was no
      longer observed after COX inhibition using indomethacin or nitric oxide (NO)
      inhibition using L-NAME. Increased levels of serum c-peptide, insulin and
      intracellular adhesion molecule-1 observed in the ZDF compared to ZDF Lean rats
      were no longer significant after 7 days CBD treatment. Conclusion and
      implications: Short-term in vivo treatment with CBD improves ex vivo endothelium
      dependent vasorelaxation in mesenteric arteries from ZDF rats due to COX- or NO
      mediated mechanisms, and leads to improvements in serum biomarkers.

PMID- 28572767
TI  - Glia Maturation Factor and Mitochondrial Uncoupling Proteins 2 and 4 Expression
      in the Temporal Cortex of Alzheimer's Disease Brain.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of neuropathological
      lesions containing amyloid plaques (APs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). AD
      is associated with mitochondrial dysfunctions, neuroinflammation and
      neurodegeneration in the brain. We have previously demonstrated enhanced
      expression of the proinflammatory protein glia maturation factor (GMF) in glial
      cells near APs and NFTs in the AD brains. Parahippocampal gyrus consisting of
      entorhinal and perirhinal subdivisions of temporal cortex is the first brain
      region affected during AD pathogenesis. Current paradigm implicates oxidative
      stress-mediated neuronal damage contributing to the early pathology in AD with
      mitochondrial membrane potential regulating reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      production. The inner mitochondrial membrane anion transporters called the
      uncoupling proteins (UCPs), function as regulators of cellular homeostasis by
      mitigating oxidative stress. In the present study, we have analyzed the
      expression of GMF and mitochondrial UCP2 and UCP4 in the parahippocampal gyrus of
      AD and non-AD brains by immunostaining techniques. APs were detected by
      thioflavin-S fluorescence staining or immunohistochemistry (IHC) with 6E10
      antibody. Our current results suggest that upregulation of GMF expression is
      associated with down-regulation of UCP2 as well as UCP4 in the parahippocampal
      gyrus of AD brains as compared to non-AD brains. Further, GMF expression is
      associated with up-regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), the
      enzyme that induces the production of nitric oxide (NO), as well as nuclear
      factor kB p65 (NF-kappaB p65) expression. Also, GMF appeared to localize to the
      mitochondria in AD brains. Based on our current observations, we propose that
      enhanced expression of GMF down-regulates mitochondrial UCP2 and UCP4 thereby
      exacerbating AD pathophysiology and this effect is potentially mediated by iNOS
      and NF-kappaB. Thus, GMF functions as an activator protein that interferes with
      the cytoprotective mechanisms in AD brains.

PMID- 28572769
TI  - Corrigendum: Melatonin and Nitrones As Potential Therapeutic Agents for Stroke.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 281 in vol. 8, PMID: 27932976.].

PMID- 28572773
TI  - Measuring Ventilatory Activity with Structured Light Plethysmography (SLP)
      Reduces Instrumental Observer Effect and Preserves Tidal Breathing Variability in
      Healthy and COPD.
AB  - The use of a mouthpiece to measure ventilatory flow with a pneumotachograph (PNT)
      introduces a major perturbation to breathing ("instrumental/observer effect") and
      suffices to modify the respiratory behavior. Structured light plethysmography
      (SLP) is a non-contact method of assessment of breathing pattern during tidal
      breathing. Firstly, we validated the SLP measurements by comparing timing
      components of the ventilatory pattern obtained by SLP vs. PNT under the same
      condition; secondly, we compared SLP to SLP+PNT measurements of breathing pattern
      to evaluate the disruption of breathing pattern and breathing variability in
      healthy and COPD subjects. Measurements were taken during tidal breathing with
      SLP alone and SLP+PNT recording in 30 COPD and healthy subjects. Measurements
      included: respiratory frequency (Rf), inspiratory, expiratory, and total breath
      time/duration (Ti, Te, and Tt). Passing-Bablok regression analysis was used to
      evaluate the interchangeability of timing components of the ventilatory pattern
      (Rf, Ti, Te, and Tt) between measurements performed under the following
      experimental conditions: SLP vs. PNT, SLP+PNT vs. SLP, and SLP+PNT vs. PNT. The
      variability of different ventilatory variables was assessed through their
      coefficients of variation (CVs). In healthy: according to Passing-Bablok
      regression, Rf, TI, TE and TT were interchangeable between measurements obtained
      under the three experimental conditions (SLP vs. PNT, SLP+PNT vs. SLP, and
      SLP+PNT vs. PNT). All the CVs describing "traditional" ventilatory variables (Rf,
      Ti, Te, Ti/Te, and Ti/Tt) were significantly smaller in SLP+PNT condition. This
      was not the case for more "specific" SLP-derived variables. In COPD: according to
      Passing-Bablok regression, Rf, TI, TE, and TT were interchangeable between
      measurements obtained under SLP vs. PNT and SLP+PNT vs. PNT, whereas only Rf, TE,
      and TT were interchangeable between measurements obtained under SLP+PNT vs. SLP.
      However, most discrete variables were significantly different between the SLP and
      SLP+PNT conditions and CVs were significantly lower when COPD patients were
      assessed in the SLP+PNT condition. Measuring ventilatory activity with SLP
      preserves resting tidal breathing variability, reduces instrumental observer
      effect and avoids any disruptions in breathing pattern induced by the use of PNT
      mouthpiece-nose-clip combination.

PMID- 28572772
TI  - Moderate Treadmill Exercise Training Improves Cardiovascular and Nitrergic
      Response and Resistance to Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in Mice.
AB  - There is evidence suggesting that exercise training (ET) acts as a factor toward
      resistance to Trypanosoma cruzi infection. However, the effects of mean arterial
      pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and nitric oxide (NO) during the acute phase of
      infection has not been elucidated yet. Swiss mice were randomly assigned into
      four groups: sedentary control (SC, n = 30), trained control (TC, n = 30),
      sedentary infected (SI, n = 30), and trained infected (TI, n = 30). ET was
      performed on the treadmill for 9 weeks. After training, the mice were infected
      with 5 * 103 trypomastigotes of T. cruzi (Y strain) or PBS. We observed resting
      bradycardia and improved performance in trained animals compared with sedentary
      ones. On the 20th day post-infection (DPI), we found a decrease in HR in SI
      animals compared to TI animals (699.73 +/- 42.37 vs. 742.11 +/- 25.35 bpm,
      respectively, P < 0.05). We also observed increased production of NO in cardiac
      tissue on the 20th DPI in the SI group, normalized in TI group (20.73 +/- 2.74
      vs. 6.51 +/- 1.19 MUM, respectively). Plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-12,
      TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma,) and MCP-1 were increased in SI animals, but decreased in
      TI animals. The increase in parasitemia on the 15th and 17th DPI in the SI group
      was attenuated in the TI group. Our results suggest that previous ET plays a
      preventive role in resistance to T. cruzi infection, modulating cardiovascular
      aspects, inflammatory reaction, and NO levels of infected mice.

PMID- 28572775
TI  - Perceptions of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Predict the Attainment of Mastery
      Achievement Goals Six Months Later: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study among F. A.
      Premier League Academy Soccer Players.
AB  - All football teams that compete within the F. A. Premier League possess an
      academy, whose objective is to produce more and better home-grown players that
      are capable of playing professionally. These young players spend a large amount
      of time with their coach, but little is known about player's perception of the
      coach-athlete relationship within F. A. Premier League Academies. The objectives
      of this study were to examine whether perceptions of the coach-athlete
      relationship changed over six months and if the coach-athlete relationship
      predicted self-reported goal achievement among F. A. Premier League academy
      players. This study included cross-sectional (n = 104) and longitudinal (n = 52)
      assessments, in which academy soccer players completed a measure of the coach
      athlete relationship and goal achievement across either one or two time periods.
      The cross-sectional data were subjected to bivariate correlations, whereas the
      longitudinal data were analyzed using multiple regressions. Perceptions of the
      coach-athlete relationship remained stable over time. The coach-athlete
      relationship predicted the achievement of mastery goals six months later.
      Enhancing the quality of the coach-athlete relationship among elite adolescent
      athletes appears to be a suitable way of maximizing mastery achievement goals,
      particularly among developmental athletes who participate in team sports.

PMID- 28572771
TI  - Measures of Heart Rate Variability in 24-h ECGs Depend on Age but Not Gender of
      Healthy Children.
AB  - Many methods computing heart rate variability (HRV) have been applied in studies
      in children. Not all of these methods have a comprehensive physiological
      interpretation, and not all of studies are in agreement with the Task Force
      Standards on HRV from 1996, and the New Joint Position Statement on the advances
      of HRV from 2015. The study aim was to analyse HRV in the 24-h ECGs of healthy
      children by the Poincare plots and Lomb-Scargle periodograms, and to follow
      proper HRV recommendations. Additionally, we investigated the associations
      between age, children's sex and measured HRV indices. One hundred healthy
      children, aged 3-18 underwent 24-h ECG Holter monitoring. HRV was analyzed by the
      Poincare plots and spectral by Lomb-Scargle periodograms of RR intervals. The
      Mann-Whitney test was used to compare sex differences in HRV, the van Elteren's
      test was used to correct for the age-gender interaction, and non-parametric
      Spearman correlation was applied to analyse the association between age and HRV
      indices. None of the HRV measures differed significantly between boys and girls.
      None of the HRV indices was modified by the age-gender interaction. There were
      statistically significant associations of age with measures of ultra-low (rho =
      0.42; p < 0.0001), very low (rho = 0.35; p = 00004) and low (rho = 0.30; p =
      0.0028) frequency powers, the ratio of the low to high frequency power (rho =
      0.38; p = 0.0001), indices of long-term (SD2; rho = 0.37; p = 0.0002) and total
      (SDNN; rho = 0.33; p = 0.0008) HRV, and the contribution of the long-term HRV to
      total HRV (CL; rho = 0.32; p = 0.0012). In general, HRV parameters derived from
      the analyses of Poincare plots and Lomb-Scargle periodograms appear not to be
      affected by gender, however, most of them increase with age in the 24-h ECG
      recordings in healthy children.

PMID- 28572774
TI  - An Under-the-Table Leg-Movement Apparatus and Changes in Energy Expenditure.
AB  - Introduction: Deskwork contributes substantially to sedentariness. Here, we
      evaluated an under-the-table apparatus that was designed to promote leg movement
      (fidgeting) while seated. Our hypothesis was that the under-the-table apparatus
      would increase energy expenditure. Methods: We measured energy expenditure and
      heart rate in 26 people while they sat and worked using a standard chair, walked
      on a treadmill, and sat and worked using an under-the-desk apparatus that
      encouraged leg movement. Results: Energy expenditure increased significantly
      while using the under-the-table apparatus when compared to the standard office
      chair (standard chair, 81 +/- 18 kcal/h; under-the-table apparatus, 96 +/- 23
      kcal/h) (P < 0.001); representing an 18 +/- 16% increase. The changes in energy
      expenditure were not as great as walking (1 mph, 168 +/- 46 kcal/h, P < 0.001; 2
      mph, 205 +/- 51 kcal/, P < 0.001), representing 107 +/- 37% and 155 +/- 48%
      increases over baseline, respectively. Conclusions: An under-the-table apparatus
      that promotes leg movement can increase energy expenditure by approximately 20%.
      Dynamic sitting is promoted by this apparatus and may be among a lexicon of
      options to help people move more while seated at work.

PMID- 28572776
TI  - 'Talkin' 'Bout My Generation': Using a Mixed-Methods Approach to Explore Changes
      in Adolescent Well-Being across Several European Countries.
AB  - The promotion of positive mental health is a becoming priority worldwide. Despite
      all the efforts invested in preventive and curative work, it is estimated that
      one in four persons will experience a mental health condition at some point in
      their lives. Even more worrying is the fact that up to a half of all mental
      health problems have their onset before the age of 14. Recent statistics
      (national and international surveys, meta-analyses, international reports) point
      out to the fact that child and adolescent mental health problems are on the rise.
      The present study will try to corroborate these results and further explore their
      meaning, by employing a sequential mixed methods research design (quantitative
      qualitative). The quantitative part will analyze time trends using Health
      Behaviors in School-aged Children data (four survey cycles: 2002, 2006, 2010,
      2014) on mental well-being from four European countries (the Czechia, Germany,
      Italy, and United Kingdom). The qualitative part will rely on focus groups to
      explore the perspectives of 13- and 15-year-old boys and girls on gender
      differences and on the changes in adolescent mental well-being over time, as well
      as measures through which these issues could be addressed. Thematic analysis will
      be employed to analyze qualitative data. The results of this study could make a
      major contribution to our understanding of the current trends in adolescent
      mental well-being, as well as the ways in which existing data could be linked to
      international and national health policies.

PMID- 28572778
TI  - Models of Disability in Children's Pretend Play: Measurement of Cognitive
      Representations and Affective Expression Using the Affect in Play Scale.
AB  - Play is a natural mode of children's expression and constitutes a fundamental
      aspect of their life. Cognitive, affective, and social aspects can be assessed
      through play, considered as a "window" to observe a child's functioning.
      According to Russ's model, cognitive and affective components and their
      reciprocal connections can be assessed through the Affect in Play Scale (APS).
      The aim of the present study was to investigate children's representations of the
      three main models of disability (medical, social, and biopsychosocial) and how
      these models affected cognitive and affective components of children's play.
      Sixty-three children, aged 6-10 years, were assessed by means of the APS.
      Participants were randomly assigned to one of two APS task orders: the standard
      APS task followed by the modified APS task (including a wheelchair toy), or vice
      versa. The standard and modified APS sessions were coded according to the APS
      system. The modified APS sessions were also coded for the model of disability
      expressed by children. A one-way ANOVA conducted on the APS affective and
      cognitive indexes revealed an effect of condition on the affective components of
      play and no effect on cognitive components and variety of affect as assessed by
      the APS. In addition, when children are involved in pretend play from which
      concepts of disability emerge, these concepts are almost exclusively related to
      the medical model of disability. Results suggested implications for intervention
      with children in educational contexts that aim to teach children about
      disability.

PMID- 28572777
TI  - Attractiveness Is Multimodal: Beauty Is Also in the Nose and Ear of the Beholder.
AB  - Attractiveness plays a central role in human non-verbal communication and has
      been broadly examined in diverse subfields of contemporary psychology.
      Researchers have garnered compelling evidence in support of the evolutionary
      functions of physical attractiveness and its role in our daily lives, while at
      the same time, having largely ignored the significant contribution of non-visual
      modalities and the relationships among them. Acoustic and olfactory cues can,
      separately or in combination, strongly influence the perceived attractiveness of
      an individual and therefore attitudes and actions toward that person. Here, we
      discuss the relative importance of visual, auditory and olfactory traits in
      judgments of attractiveness, and review neural and behavioral studies that
      support the highly complex and multimodal nature of person perception. Further,
      we discuss three alternative evolutionary hypotheses aimed at explaining the
      function of multiple indices of attractiveness. In this review, we provide
      several lines of evidence supporting the importance of the voice, body odor, and
      facial and body appearance in the perception of attractiveness and mate
      preferences, and therefore the critical need to incorporate cross-modal
      perception and multisensory integration into future research on human physical
      attractiveness.

PMID- 28572779
TI  - Differences in Cortisol Response to Trauma Activation in Individuals with and
      without Comorbid PTSD and Depression.
AB  - Background: Although depression symptoms are often experienced by individuals who
      develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma exposure, little is
      know about the biological correlates associated with PTSD and depression co
      morbidity vs. those associated with PTSD symptoms alone. Methods: Here we
      examined salivary cortisol responses to trauma activation in a sample of 60
      survivors of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Participants
      recalled the escape from the attacks 7 months post 9/11. Salivary cortisol levels
      were measured before and after their recollection of the trauma. PTSD,
      depression, and somatic symptoms were also assessed. From the behavioral
      assessment scales, the participants were grouped into three conditions: those
      with comorbid PTSD and depressive symptoms, PTSD alone symptoms, or no-pathology.
      Results: Baseline and cortisol response levels differed between the comorbid,
      PTSD alone, and no-pathology groups. Individuals endorsing co-morbid symptoms had
      higher PTSD and somatic symptom severity and their cortisol response decreased
      following their trauma reminder while a trend of an elevated response to the
      trauma was found in the PTSD alone group. Our findings show distinct
      psychological and biological correlates related to the endorsement of PTSD with
      and without depression comorbidity. Conclusions: The findings suggest that
      comorbidity symptoms manifestation entails a separate trauma induced condition
      from PTSD. Future research on biological correlates of comorbid PTSD and
      depression is warranted.

PMID- 28572781
TI  - Integration of the Forced-Choice Questionnaire and the Likert Scale: A Simulation
      Study.
AB  - The Thurstonian item response theory (IRT) model allows estimating the latent
      trait scores of respondents directly through their responses in forced-choice
      questionnaires. It solves a part of problems brought by the traditional scoring
      methods of this kind of questionnaires. However, the forced-choice designs may
      still have their own limitations: The model may encounter underidentification and
      non-convergence and the test may show low test reliability in simple test designs
      (e.g., test designs with only a small number of traits measured or short length).
      To overcome these weaknesses, the present study applied the Thurstonian IRT model
      and the Graded Response Model to a different test format that comprises both
      forced-choice blocks and Likert-type items. And the Likert items should have low
      social desirability. A Monte Carlo simulation study is used to investigate how
      the mixed response format performs under various conditions. Four factors are
      considered: the number of traits, test length, the percentage of Likert items,
      and the proportion of pairs composed of items keyed in opposite directions.
      Results reveal that the mixed response format can be superior to the forced
      choice format, especially in simple designs where the latter performs poorly.
      Besides the number of Likert items needed is small. One point to note is that
      researchers need to choose Likert items cautiously as Likert items may bring
      other response biases to the test. Discussion and suggestions are given to
      construct personality tests that can resist faking as much as possible and have
      acceptable reliability.

PMID- 28572780
TI  - Modeling Psychological Attributes in Psychology - An Epistemological Discussion:
      Network Analysis vs. Latent Variables.
AB  - Network Analysis is considered as a new method that challenges Latent Variable
      models in inferring psychological attributes. With Network Analysis,
      psychological attributes are derived from a complex system of components without
      the need to call on any latent variables. But the ontological status of
      psychological attributes is not adequately defined with Network Analysis, because
      a psychological attribute is both a complex system and a property emerging from
      this complex system. The aim of this article is to reappraise the legitimacy of
      latent variable models by engaging in an ontological and epistemological
      discussion on psychological attributes. Psychological attributes relate to the
      mental equilibrium of individuals embedded in their social interactions, as
      robust attractors within complex dynamic processes with emergent properties,
      distinct from physical entities located in precise areas of the brain. Latent
      variables thus possess legitimacy, because the emergent properties can be
      conceptualized and analyzed on the sole basis of their manifestations, without
      exploring the upstream complex system. However, in opposition with the usual
      Latent Variable models, this article is in favor of the integration of a dynamic
      system of manifestations. Latent Variables models and Network Analysis thus
      appear as complementary approaches. New approaches combining Latent Network
      Models and Network Residuals are certainly a promising new way to infer
      psychological attributes, placing psychological attributes in an inter-subjective
      dynamic approach. Pragmatism-realism appears as the epistemological framework
      required if we are to use latent variables as representations of psychological
      attributes.

PMID- 28572782
TI  - Timing of Gun Fire Influences Sprinters' Multiple Joint Reaction Times of Whole
      Body in Block Start.
AB  - Experienced sprinters are specifically adapted to pre-planning an advanced motor
      program. Herein, sprinters are able to immediately accelerate their center of
      mass forward with a whole-body coordinated motion, following a steady state
      crouched position. We examined the effect of variable timing of reaction signals
      on multiple joint reaction times (RT) and whole-body RT for specialist sprinters.
      Twenty well-experienced male sprinters performed five start-dashes from a block
      start under five variable foreperiod (FP) length conditions (1.465, 1.622, 1.780,
      1.938, and 2.096 s), with trials randomly timed between a warning and an
      imperative tone. Participants' sprinting motion and ground reaction forces of
      their four limbs during the block start were measured simultaneously. Whole-body
      RT was significantly shorter when FP length was longer; the values of whole-body
      RT were 117 +/- 5 ms, 129 +/- 5 ms, 125 +/- 4 ms, 133 +/- 6 ms, and 156 +/- 8 ms
      in the 2.096, 1.938, 1.780, 1.622, and 1.465-s FP-length conditions,
      respectively. A repeated-measures analysis of variance found a significant joint
      by-FP length interaction in joint-moment RT. These findings suggest that FP
      length affects coordinated motion in four limbs and whole-body RT. This
      information will be able to lead to new methods for start signals in sprint
      running events and advance our understanding of the association between FP length
      and dynamic coordinated motion.

PMID- 28572783
TI  - A structural Model of Self-efficacy in Handball Referees.
AB  - The study aimed to identify factors predicting self-efficacy in a sample of 248
      Italian handball referees. The main hypothesis was that perception of teamwork
      efficacy would be a significant predictor of self-efficacy in handball referees.
      Participants completed an online questionnaire including Referee Self-Efficacy
      Scale (alpha = 0.85), Self-Determination Scale (alpha = 0.78), and an adaptation
      for Referees of the Sport Commitment Model (alpha = 0.80). Two hierarchical
      regression analyses have identified: (1) Enjoyment (beta = 0.226), Couple
      Efficacy (beta = 0.233), and Personal Awareness (beta = 0.243), as predictors of
      Self-Efficacy; (2) Span of Co-Refereeing (beta = 0.253), Perceived Quality of the
      Relationship (beta = 0.239), and Mutual Agreement (beta = 0.274), as predictors
      of Couple Self-Efficacy. A further SEM analysis confirmed the fit of a structural
      model of Self-efficacy considering the reciprocal influence of Couple Efficacy,
      Enjoyment and Awareness (chi2: 5.67; RMSEA: 0.000; SRMR: 0.019). The study
      underlines the importance of teamwork (or co-refereeing) as it relates to
      enjoyment and awareness in officiating and how it enhances the psychological well
      being of handball referees. Future studies should investigate the relationship
      between factors influencing perceived teamwork efficacy and officiating
      performance outcome.

PMID- 28572784
TI  - Inertial Sensors to Assess Gait Quality in Patients with Neurological Disorders:
      A Systematic Review of Technical and Analytical Challenges.
AB  - Gait disorders are major causes of falls in patients with neurological diseases.
      Understanding these disorders allows prevention and better insights into
      underlying diseases. InertiaLocoGraphy (ILG) -the quantification of gait by using
      inertial measurement units (IMUs) -shows great potential to address this public
      health challenge, but protocols vary widely and normative values of gait
      parameters are still unavailable. This systematic review critically compares ILG
      protocols, questions features extracted from inertial signals and proposes a
      semeiological analysis of clinimetric characteristics for use in neurological
      clinical routine. For this systematic review, PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE were
      searched for articles assessing gait quality by using IMUs that were published
      from January 1, 2014 to August 31, 2016. ILG was used to assess gait in a wide
      range of neurological disorders - including Parkinson disease, mild cognitive
      impairment, Alzheimer disease, cerebral palsy, and cerebellar atrophy - as well
      as in the faller or frail older population and in people presenting
      rheumatological pathologies. However, results have not yet been driving changes
      in clinical practice. One reason could be that studies mainly aimed at comparing
      pathological gait to healthy gait, but there is stronger need for semiological
      descriptions of gait perturbation, severity or prognostic assessment.
      Furthermore, protocols used to assess gait using IMUs are too many. Likely,
      outcomes are highly heterogeneous and difficult to compare across large panels of
      studies. Therefore, homogenization is needed to foster the use of ILG to assess
      gait quality in neurological routine practice. The pros and cons of each protocol
      are emphasized so that a compromise can be reached. As well, analysis of seven
      complementary clinical criteria (springiness, sturdiness, smoothness, steadiness,
      stability, symmetry, synchronization) is advocated.

PMID- 28572785
TI  - Age of Acquisition Effects on Word Processing for Chinese Native Learners'
      English: ERP Evidence for the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis.
AB  - The present study aimed at distinguishing processing of early learned L2 words
      from late ones for Chinese natives who learn English as a foreign language.
      Specifically, we examined whether the age of acquisition (AoA) effect arose
      during the arbitrary mapping from conceptual knowledge onto linguistic units. The
      behavior and ERP data were collected when 28 Chinese-English bilinguals were
      asked to perform semantic relatedness judgment on word pairs, which represented
      three stages of word learning (i.e., primary school, junior and senior high
      schools). A 3 (AoA: early vs. intermediate vs. late) * 2 (regularity: regular vs.
      irregular) * 2 (semantic relatedness: related vs. unrelated) * 2 (hemisphere:
      left vs. right) * 3 (brain area: anterior vs. central vs. posterior) within
      subjects design was adopted. Results from the analysis of N100 and N400
      amplitudes showed that early learned words had an advantage in processing
      accuracy and speed; there is a tendency that the AoA effect was more pronounced
      for irregular word pairs and in the semantic related condition. More important,
      ERP results showed early acquired words induced larger N100 amplitudes for early
      AoA words in the parietal area and more negative-going N400 than late acquire
      words in the frontal and central regions. The results indicate the locus of the
      AoA effect might derive from the arbitrary mapping between word forms and
      semantic concepts, and early acquired words have more semantic interconnections
      than late acquired words.

PMID- 28572786
TI  - Editorial: Novel Approaches to Teaching Scientific Thinking: Psychological
      Perspectives.

PMID- 28572787
TI  - Childhood Depression: Relation to Adaptive, Clinical and Predictor Variables.
AB  - The study had two goals: (1) to explore the relations between self-assessed
      childhood depression and other adaptive and clinical variables (2) to identify
      predictor variables of childhood depression. Participants were 420 students aged
      7-10 years old (53.3% boys, 46.7% girls). Results revealed: (1) positive
      correlations between depression and clinical maladjustment, school maladjustment,
      emotional symptoms, internalizing and externalizing problems, problem behaviors,
      emotional reactivity, and childhood stress; and (2) negative correlations between
      depression and personal adaptation, global self-concept, social skills, and
      resilience (sense of competence and affiliation). Linear regression analysis
      including the global dimensions revealed 4 predictors of childhood depression
      that explained 50.6% of the variance: high clinical maladjustment, low global
      self-concept, high level of stress, and poor social skills. However, upon
      introducing the sub-dimensions, 9 predictor variables emerged that explained
      56.4% of the variance: many internalizing problems, low family self-concept, high
      anxiety, low responsibility, low personal self-assessment, high social stress,
      few aggressive behaviors toward peers, many health/psychosomatic problems, and
      external locus of control. The discussion addresses the importance of
      implementing prevention programs for childhood depression at early ages.

PMID- 28572788
TI  - Corrigendum: What the Heck Is Salience? How Predictive Language Processing
      Contributes to Sociolinguistic Perception.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 1115 in vol. 7, PMID: 27536257.].

PMID- 28572789
TI  - Impaired Baroreflex Sensitivity after Bilateral Convulsive Seizures in Patients
      with Focal Epilepsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is probably due to an
      autonomic failure in the early postictal phase after bilateral convulsive
      seizures (BCS) in the majority of cases. The baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) is an
      established and reliable biomarker of autonomic function and sudden cardiac
      death. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether postictal BRS depends on seizure type.
      METHODS: Beat-to-beat systemic blood pressure and heart rate were continuously
      and non-invasively recorded with the ccNexfin(r) device in patients with focal
      epilepsy undergoing video-EEG monitoring. BRS was calculated using the sequence
      as well as the spectral method. A random mixed linear model was applied to
      analyze the influence of seizure type on BRS during three different time periods
      of 15-min length each (interictal, preictal, and postictal). In addition, the
      possible effects of other factors (hypertension, hemispheric lateralization of
      ictal activity, epilepsy type, body position, vigilance state) were explored.
      Data are given as median with interquartile range. RESULTS: A total of 26
      seizures of 26 patients were analyzed. In BCS (n = 7), BRS significantly dropped
      from a preictal value of 15.0 ms/mm Hg (13.0-19.4) and an interictal value of
      15.6 ms/mm Hg (12.0-20.4) to 3.1 ms/mm Hg (2.7-10.5) during the postictal period
      (p < 0.0001) according to the sequence method. This finding was replicated with
      the spectral method. In contrast, focal seizures (n = 19) did not lead to
      significant alterations of BRS in the postictal phase. CONCLUSION: Postictal BRS
      depends on the seizure type and is markedly impaired after BCS. The present study
      provides further evidence for a disturbed autonomic function following BCS. These
      findings might be related to cardiovascular failure in the context of SUDEP.

PMID- 28572790
TI  - Photolysis of Caged-GABA Rapidly Terminates Seizures In Vivo: Concentration and
      Light Intensity Dependence.
AB  - The therapy of focal epilepsy remains unsatisfactory for as many as 25% of
      patients. The photolysis of caged-gamma-aminobutyric acid (caged-GABA) represents
      a novel and alternative option for the treatment of intractable epilepsy. Our
      previous experimental results have demonstrated that the use of blue light
      produced by light-emitting diode to uncage ruthenium-bipyridine
      triphenylphosphine-c-GABA (RuBi-GABA) can rapidly terminate paroxysmal seizure
      activity both in vitro and in vivo. However, the optimal concentration of RuBi
      GABA, and the intensity of illumination to abort seizures, remains unknown. The
      aim of this study was to explore the optimal anti-seizure effects of RuBi-GABA by
      using implantable fibers to introduce blue light into the neocortex of a 4
      aminopyridine-induced acute seizure model in rats. We then investigated the
      effects of different combinations of RuBi-GABA concentrations and light intensity
      upon seizure. Our results show that the anti-seizure effect of RuBi-GABA has
      obvious concentration and light intensity dependence. This is the first example
      of using an implantable device for the photolysis of RuBi-GABA in the therapy of
      neocortical seizure, and an optimal combination of RuBi-GABA concentration and
      light intensity was explored. These results provide important experimental data
      for future clinical translational studies.

PMID- 28572791
TI  - Hunger and Satiety Gauge Reward Sensitivity.
AB  - Many of the neurocircuits and hormones known to underlie the sensations of hunger
      and satiety also substantially alter the activity of the dopaminergic reward
      system. Much interest lies in the ways that hunger, satiety, and reward tie
      together, as the epidemic of obesity seems tied to the recent development and
      mass availability of highly palatable foods. In this review, we will first
      discuss the basic neurocircuitry of the midbrain and basal forebrain reward
      system. We will elaborate how several important mediators of hunger-the agouti
      related protein neurons of the arcuate nucleus, the lateral hypothalamic nucleus,
      and ghrelin-enhance the sensitivity of the dopaminergic reward system. Then, we
      will elaborate how mediators of satiety-the nucleus tractus solitarius, pro
      opiomelanocortin neurons of the arcuate nucleus, and its peripheral hormonal
      influences such as leptin-reduce the reward system sensitivity. We hope to
      provide a template by which future research may identify the ways in which highly
      rewarding foods bypass this balanced system to produce excessive food
      consumption.

PMID- 28572792
TI  - Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria with Potential to Design Natural
      Biofunctional Health-Promoting Dairy Foods.
AB  - Consumer interest in healthy lifestyle and health-promoting natural products is a
      major driving force for the increasing global demand of biofunctional dairy
      foods. A number of commercial sources sell synthetic formulations of bioactive
      substances for use as dietary supplements. However, the bioactive-enrichment of
      health-oriented foods by naturally occurring microorganisms during dairy
      fermentation is in increased demand. While participating in milk fermentation,
      lactic acid bacteria can be exploited in situ as microbial sources for naturally
      enriching dairy products with a broad range of bioactive components that may
      cover different health aspects. Several of these bioactive metabolites are
      industrially and economically important, as they are claimed to exert diverse
      health-promoting activities on the consumer, such as anti-hypertensive, anti
      inflammatory, and anti-diabetic, anti-oxidative, immune-modulatory, anti
      cholesterolemic, or microbiome modulation. This review aims at discussing the
      potential of these health-supporting bacteria as starter or adjunct cultures for
      the elaboration of dairy foods with a broad spectrum of new functional properties
      and added value.

PMID- 28572793
TI  - Bacteriocin-Producing Enterococcus faecium LCW 44: A High Potential Probiotic
      Candidate from Raw Camel Milk.
AB  - Bacterial isolates from raw camel milk were screened for antibacterial activity
      using the agar diffusion assay. Ten isolates selected for their inhibition of
      Gram-positive bacteria were identified by 16S sequencing as Enterococcus faecium
      or durans. An isolate named E. faecium LCW 44 exhibited the broadest
      antibacterial spectrum with an inhibitory activity against several Gram-positive
      strains belonging to the genera Clostridium, Listeria, Staphylococcus, and
      Lactobacillus. E. faecium LCW 44 was shown to produce N-formylated enterocins
      L50A and L50B, as revealed by mass spectrometry and PCR analyses. This isolate
      did not harbor any of the virulence factors tested and was shown to be sensitive
      to all tested antibiotics. It showed high resistance to gastric and intestinal
      conditions (78 +/- 4% survival). Its adhesion index was evaluated at 176 +/- 86
      and 24 +/- 86 on Caco-2 cells and HT-29 cells, respectively, and it significantly
      reduced adhesion of Listeria monocytogenes by 65 and 49%, respectively. In
      Macfarlane broth (simulating the nutrient content of the colon), counts of L.
      monocytogenes were reduced by 2 log10 cycles after 24 h in co-culture with E.
      faecium LCW 44, compared to the increase of 4 log10 cycles when cultured alone.
      Comparison with a bacteriocin-non-producing mutant of E. faecium LCW 44 strongly
      suggests that inhibition of L. monocytogenes was due to bacteriocin production.
      Altogether, E. faecium LCW 44 thus has potential for use as a probiotic for
      humans and veterinary medicine.

PMID- 28572795
TI  - Cephalosporin-Glycopeptide Combinations for Use against Clinical Methicillin
      Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates: Enhanced In vitro Antibacterial
      Activity.
AB  - The empirical combination of both a beta-lactam and glycopeptide to counter
      potential staphylococcal pathogens may improve the clinical outcomes for cases of
      Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. We reported comparative in vitro studies of
      combination effects of different cephalosporins (i.e., cefazolin, cefmetazole,
      cefotaxime, and cefepime) combined with glycopeptides for 34 randomly selected
      methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates by three methods, including the
      checkerboard, time-killing, and combination MIC measurement methods. Thirteen
      SCCmec type III isolates with a cefazolin MIC of >= 128 MUg/mL were classified as
      the high-cefazolin MIC (HCM) group, whereas 13 SCCmec type IV and 8 SCCmec type V
      isolates were classified as the low-cefazolin MIC (LCM) group. With the
      checkerboard method, synergism was present for vancomycin-based combinations at
      30.8-69.2 and 13.6-66.7%, as well as teicoplanin-based combinations of 38.5-84.6
      and 0-47.6%, of the HCM and LCM isolates, respectively. No antagonism was noted.
      The in vitro inhibitory activity was evident even at a low concentration of
      1/512x MIC of cephalosporin combined with sub-inhibitory concentrations (1/2x
      MIC) of a glycopeptide. With time-killing assays, synergism was noted at 1/2x or
      1x susceptible breakpoint concentrations (SBCs) of a cephalosporin combined with
      1/4 or 1/2 MIC of a glycopeptide. In the presence of 1/2 SBC of a cephalosporin,
      vancomycin or teicoplanin MICs decreased an average of 2.0- to 6.6- or 1.6- to
      5.5-fold, respectively. With 8 MUg/mL cephalosporin, the decline of glycopeptide
      MICs was most obvious in the presence of cefmetazole. In conclusion,
      cephalosporin-glycopeptide combinations at clinically achievable concentrations
      can exhibit in vitro synergistic antibacterial activity against clinical MRSA
      isolates. Such combinations require more clinical data to support their
      application for use in human MRSA infections.

PMID- 28572794
TI  - New Genotypes of Enterocytozoon bieneusi Isolated from Sika Deer and Red Deer in
      China.
AB  - To examine the occurrence and genotype distribution of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in
      cervids, 615 fecal samples were collected from red deer (Cervus elaphus) and sika
      deer (Cervus nippon) on 10 different farms in Henan and Jilin Province.
      Enterocytozoon bieneusi was identified and genotyped with a nested PCR analysis
      of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA genes, showing an
      average infection rate of 35.9% (221/615). In this study, 25 ITS genotypes were
      identified including seven known genotypes (BEB6, EbpC, EbpA, D, HLJDI, HLJD-IV,
      and COS-I) and 18 novel genotypes (designated JLD-I to JLD-XIV, HND-I to HND-IV).
      Among these, BEB6 (131/221, 59.3%) was the predominant genotype (P < 0.01),
      followed by HLJDI (18/221, 8.1%) and JLD-VIII (16/221, 7.2%). BEB6 has recently
      been detected in humans and nonhuman primates in China. The phylogenetic analysis
      showed that BEB6, HLJDI, HLJD-IV, COS-I, and 10 novel genotypes (JLD-VII to JLD
      XIV, HND-III to HND-IV) clustered in group 2. Genotype D, EbpC, and EbpA, known
      to cause human microsporidiosis worldwide, clustered in group 1, the members of
      which have zoonotic potential, together with eight novel genotypes (JLD-I to JLD
      VI, HND-I to HND-II). Therefore, deer may play a role in the transmission of E.
      bieneusi to humans.

PMID- 28572797
TI  - Electrochemical Potential Influences Phenazine Production, Electron Transfer and
      Consequently Electric Current Generation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa has gained interest as a redox mediator (phenazines)
      producer in bioelectrochemical systems. Several biotic and abiotic factors
      influence the production of phenazines in synergy with the central virulence
      factors production regulation. It is, however, not clear how the electrochemical
      environment may influence the production and usage of phenazines by P.
      aeruginosa. We here determined the influence of the electrochemical potential on
      phenazine production and phenazine electron transfer capacity at selected applied
      potentials from -0.4 to +0.4 V (vs. Ag/AgClsat) using P. aeruginosa strain PA14.
      Our study reveals a profound influence of the electrochemical potential on the
      amount of phenazine-1-carboxylate production, whereby applied potentials that
      were more positive than the formal potential of this dominating phenazine (E
      degrees  'PCA = -0.24 V vs. Ag/AgClsat) stimulated more PCA production (94, 84,
      128, and 140 MUg mL-1 for -0.1, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 V, respectively) compared to
      more reduced potentials (38, 75, and 7 MUg mL-1 for -0.4, -0.3, and -0.24 V,
      respectively). Interestingly, P. aeruginosa seems to produce an additional redox
      mediator (with E degrees  ' ~ 0.052 V) at applied potentials below 0 V, which is
      most likely adsorbed to the electrode or present on the cells forming the biofilm
      around electrodes. At fairly negative applied electrode potentials, both PCA and
      the unknown redox compound mediate cathodic current generation. This study
      provides important insights applicable in optimizing the BES conditions and
      cultures for effective production and utilization of P. aeruginosa phenazines. It
      further stimulates investigations into the physiological impacts of the
      electrochemical environment, which might be decisive in the application of
      phenazines for electron transfer with P. aeruginosa pure- or microbial mixed
      cultures.

PMID- 28572798
TI  - Phylogenetic Diversity of T4-Type Phages in Sediments from the Subtropical Pearl
      River Estuary.
AB  - Viruses are an abundant and active component of marine sediments and play a
      significant role in microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycling at local and
      global scales. To obtain a better understanding of the ecological characteristics
      of the viriobenthos, the abundance and morphology of viruses and the diversity
      and community structure of T4-type phages were systematically investigated in the
      surface sediments of the subtropical Pearl River Estuary (PRE). Viral abundances
      ranged from 4.49 * 108 to 11.7 * 108 viruses/g and prokaryotic abundances ranged
      from 2.63 * 108 to 9.55 * 108 cells/g, and both decreased from freshwater to
      saltwater. Diverse viral morphotypes, including tailed, spherical, filamentous,
      and rod-shaped viruses, were observed using transmission electron microscopy.
      Analysis of the major capsid gene (g23) indicated that the sediment T4-type
      phages were highly diverse and, similar to the trend in viral abundances, their
      diversity decreased as the salinity increased. Phylogenetic analysis suggested
      that most of the g23 operational taxonomic units were affiliated with marine,
      paddy soil, and lake groups. The T4-type phage communities in freshwater and
      saltwater sediments showed obvious differences, which were related to changes in
      the Pearl River discharge. The results of this study demonstrated both
      allochthonous and autochthonous sources of the viral community in the PRE
      sediments and the movement of certain T4-type viral groups between the freshwater
      and saline water biomes.

PMID- 28572796
TI  - Host-Parasite Interactions in Human Malaria: Clinical Implications of Basic
      Research.
AB  - The malaria parasite, Plasmodium, is one of the oldest parasites documented to
      infect humans and has proven particularly hard to eradicate. One of the major
      hurdles in designing an effective subunit vaccine against the malaria parasite is
      the insufficient understanding of host-parasite interactions within the human
      host during infections. The success of the parasite lies in its ability to evade
      the human immune system and recruit host responses as physiological cues to
      regulate its life cycle, leading to rapid acclimatization of the parasite to its
      immediate host environment. Hence understanding the environmental niche of the
      parasite is crucial in developing strategies to combat this deadly infectious
      disease. It has been increasingly recognized that interactions between parasite
      proteins and host factors are essential to establishing infection and virulence
      at every stage of the parasite life cycle. This review reassesses all of these
      interactions and discusses their clinical importance in designing therapeutic
      approaches such as design of novel vaccines. The interactions have been followed
      from the initial stages of introduction of the parasite under the human dermis
      until asexual and sexual blood stages which are essential for transmission of
      malaria. We further classify the interactions as "direct" or "indirect" depending
      upon their demonstrated ability to mediate direct physical interactions of the
      parasite with host factors or their indirect manipulation of the host immune
      system since both forms of interactions are known to have a crucial role during
      infections. We also discuss the many ways in which this understanding has been
      taken to the field and the success of these strategies in controlling human
      malaria.

PMID- 28572799
TI  - An Endophytic Bacterial Strain Isolated from Eucommia ulmoides Inhibits Southern
      Corn Leaf Blight.
AB  - Bacillus subtilis DZSY21 isolated from the leaves of Eucommia ulmoides oliv. was
      labeled by antibiotic marker and found to effectively colonize the leaves of
      maize plant. Agar diffusion assays and biocontrol effect experiments showed that
      strain DZSY21 and its lipopeptides had antagonistic activity against Bipolaris
      maydis, as well as high biocontrol effects on southern corn leaf blight caused by
      B. maydis. Using MALDI-TOF-MS analysis, we detected the presence of antimicrobial
      surfactin A, surfactin B, and fengycin in the strain DZSY21. Signaling pathways
      mediated by DZSY21 were analyzed by testing the expression of key plant genes
      involved in regulation of salicylic acid (SA) or JA/ET pathways, the defense
      related genes PR1 and LOX were concurrently expressed in the leaves of DZSY21
      treated plants; this corresponded to slight increase in the expression level of
      PDF1.2 and decreases in ERF gene transcription levels. The results indicated an
      induced systemic response that is dependent on the SA and jasmonic acid (JA)
      pathways. Thus, we hypothesized that the strain DZSY21 inhibits B. maydis by
      producing antifungal lipopeptides and activating an induced systemic response
      through SA- and JA-dependent signaling pathways. This work describes a mechanism
      behind reduced disease severity in plants inoculated with the endophytic bacteria
      DZSY21.

PMID- 28572800
TI  - Profiling of Campylobacter jejuni Proteome in Exponential and Stationary Phase of
      Growth.
AB  - Campylobacter jejuni has been reported as a major cause of bacterial food-borne
      enteritides in developed countries during the last decade. Despite its fastidious
      growth requirements, including low level of oxygen and high level of CO2, this
      pathogen is able to persist in the environment without permanent loss of its
      viability and virulence. As C. jejuni is not able to multiply outside a host, the
      cells spend significant amount of time in stationary phase of growth. The entry
      into the stationary phase is often correlated to resistance to various stresses
      in bacteria. The switching between exponential and stationary phases is
      frequently mediated by the regulator sigma S (RpoS). However, this factor is
      absent in C. jejuni and molecular mechanisms responsible for transition of cells
      to the stationary phase remain elusive. In this work, proteomic profiles of cells
      from exponential and stationary phases were compared using 2-D electrophoresis
      (2DE) fingerprinting combined with mass spectrometry analysis and qRT-PCR. The
      identified proteins, whose expression differed between the two phases, are mostly
      involved in protein biosynthesis, carbon metabolism, stress response and
      motility. Altered expression was observed also in the pleiotropic regulator CosR
      that was over-expressed during stationary phase. A shift between transcript and
      protein level evolution of CosR throughout the growth of C. jejuni was observed
      using qRT-PCR and (2DE). From these data, we hypothesized that CosR could undergo
      a negative autoregulation in stationary phase. A consensus sequence resulting
      from promoter sequence alignment of genes potentially regulated by CosR,
      including its own upstream region, among C. jejuni strains is proposed. To verify
      experimentally the potential autoregulation of CosR at the DNA level,
      electrophoretic mobility shift assay was performed with DNA fragments of CosR
      promoter region and rCosR. Different migration pattern of the promoter fragments
      indicates the binding capacity of CosR, suggesting its auto-regulation potential.

PMID- 28572801
TI  - Elevated Levels of Proinflammatory Cytokines in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Multiple
      Sclerosis Patients.
AB  - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease characterized
      by chronic brain inflammation. Leukocyte infiltration of brain tissue causes
      inflammation, demyelination, and the subsequent formation of sclerotic plaques,
      which are a hallmark of MS. Activation of proinflammatory cytokines is essential
      for regulation of lymphocyte migration across the blood-brain barrier. We
      demonstrate increased levels of many cytokines, including IL-2RA, CCL5, CCL11,
      MIF, CXCL1, CXCL10, IFNgamma, SCF, and TRAIL, were upregulated in cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF), whereas IL-17, CCL2, CCL3, CCL4, and IL-12(p40) were activated in MS
      serum. Interaction analysis of cytokines in CSF demonstrated a connection between
      IFNgamma and CCL5 as well as MIF. Many cells can contribute to production of
      these cytokines including CD8 and Th1 lymphocytes and astrocytes. Therefore, we
      suggest that IFNgamma released by Th1 lymphocytes can activate astrocytes, which
      then produce chemoattractants, including CCL5 and MIF. These chemokines promote
      an inflammatory milieu and interact with multiple chemokines including CCL27 and
      CXCL1. Of special note, upregulation of CCL27 was found in CSF of MS cases. This
      observation is the first to demonstrate CCL27 as a potential contributor of brain
      pathology in MS. Our data suggest that CCL27 may be involved in activation and
      migration of autoreactive encephalitogenic immune effectors in the brain.
      Further, our data support the role of Th1 lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of
      brain inflammation in MS, with several cytokines playing a central role.

PMID- 28572803
TI  - Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 6 in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Possible
      Novel Chemotactic Factor?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Immune cell migration from the bloodstream to target tissues is a
      hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis. The role of chemoattractants,
      mainly chemokines, and their possible targeting for therapeutic purposes have
      been under intense investigation over the last few years but the results were not
      as satisfactory as expected. The insulin-like growth factor binding protein 6
      (IGFBP6), a direct inhibitor of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-II, also exerts
      IGF-independent effects including tumor cell migration in vitro. We aimed to
      assess the expression of this protein in serum, synovial fluid, and synovial
      tissue (ST) of RA patients and to identify its possible chemotactic role in this
      disorder. METHODS: IGFBP6 was measured in RA patients and healthy donors (HD)
      sera by Luminex xMAP(r) technology and in ST of RA patients and osteoarthritis
      (OA) controls by immunofluorescence. The identification of circulating IGFBP6+
      cells was evaluated by flow cytometry and an in vitro migration assay was
      arranged. RESULTS: We demonstrated that IGFBP6 is able to induce greater in vitro
      migration of RA as compared to HD and OA T lymphocytes and is overexpressed in
      serum and ST of RA patients. This in vitro chemotactic activity can be partially
      inhibited by dexamethasone. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a pathogenic role of
      IGFBP6 in RA and support its possible targeting for therapeutic purposes.

PMID- 28572802
TI  - Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Engineered NK-92 Cells: An Off-the-Shelf Cellular
      Therapeutic for Targeted Elimination of Cancer Cells and Induction of Protective
      Antitumor Immunity.
AB  - Significant progress has been made in recent years toward realizing the potential
      of natural killer (NK) cells for cancer immunotherapy. NK cells can respond
      rapidly to transformed and stressed cells and have the intrinsic potential to
      extravasate and reach their targets in almost all body tissues. In addition to
      donor-derived primary NK cells, also the established NK cell line NK-92 is being
      developed for adoptive immunotherapy, and general safety of infusion of
      irradiated NK-92 cells has been established in phase I clinical trials with
      clinical responses observed in some of the cancer patients treated. To enhance
      their therapeutic utility, NK-92 cells have been modified to express chimeric
      antigen receptors (CARs) composed of a tumor-specific single chain fragment
      variable antibody fragment fused via hinge and transmembrane regions to
      intracellular signaling moieties such as CD3zeta or composite signaling domains
      containing a costimulatory protein together with CD3zeta. CAR-mediated activation
      of NK cells then bypasses inhibitory signals and overcomes NK resistance of tumor
      cells. In contrast to primary NK cells, CAR-engineered NK-92 cell lines suitable
      for clinical development can be established from molecularly and functionally
      well-characterized single cell clones following good manufacturing practice
      compliant procedures. In preclinical in vitro and in vivo models, potent
      antitumor activity of NK-92 variants targeted to differentiation antigens
      expressed by hematologic malignancies, and overexpressed or mutated self-antigens
      associated with solid tumors has been found, encouraging further development of
      CAR-engineered NK-92 cells. Importantly, in syngeneic mouse tumor models,
      induction of endogenous antitumor immunity after treatment with CAR-expressing NK
      92 cells has been demonstrated, resulting in cures and long-lasting immunological
      memory protecting against tumor rechallenge at distant sites. Here, we summarize
      the current status and future prospects of CAR-engineered NK-92 cells as off-the
      shelf cellular therapeutics, with special emphasis on ErbB2 (HER2)-specific NK-92
      cells that are approaching clinical application.

PMID- 28572804
TI  - Serum Cytokine Profiles Differentiating Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome and
      Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome.
AB  - Hantavirus infection is an acute zoonosis that clinically manifests in two
      primary forms, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus
      pulmonary syndrome (HPS). HFRS is endemic in Europe and Russia, where the mild
      form of the disease is prevalent in the Tatarstan region. HPS is endemic in
      Argentina, as well as other countries of North and South American. HFRS and HPS
      are usually acquired via the upper respiratory tract by inhalation of virus
      contaminated aerosol. Although the pathogenesis of HFRS and HPS remains largely
      unknown, postmortem tissue studies have identified endothelial cells as the
      primary target of infection. Importantly, cell damage due to virus replication,
      or subsequent tissue repair, has not been documented. Since no single factor has
      been identified that explains the complexity of HFRS or HPS pathogenesis, it has
      been suggested that a cytokine storm may play a crucial role in the manifestation
      of both diseases. In order to identify potential serological markers that
      distinguish HFRS and HPS, serum samples collected during early and late phases of
      the disease were analyzed for 48 analytes using multiplex magnetic bead-based
      assays. Overall, serum cytokine profiles associated with HPS revealed a more pro
      inflammatory milieu as compared to HFRS. Furthermore, HPS was strictly
      characterized by the upregulation of cytokine levels, in contrast to HFRS where
      cases were distinguished by a dichotomy in serum cytokine levels. The severe form
      of hantavirus zoonosis, HPS, was characterized by the upregulation of a higher
      number of cytokines than HFRS (40 vs 21). In general, our analysis indicates
      that, although HPS and HFRS share many characteristic features, there are
      distinct cytokine profiles for these diseases. These profiles suggest a strong
      activation of an innate immune and inflammatory responses are associated with
      HPS, relative to HFRS, as well as a robust activation of Th1-type immune
      responses. Finally, the results of our analysis suggest that serum cytokines
      profiles of HPS and HFRS cases are consistent with the presence of extracellular
      matrix degradation, increased mononuclear leukocyte proliferation, and
      transendothelial migration.

PMID- 28572806
TI  - Impaired Autophagy and Defective T Cell Homeostasis in Mice with T Cell-Specific
      Deletion of Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1.
AB  - Autophagy plays a central role in maintaining T cell homeostasis. Our previous
      study has shown that hepatocyte-specific deficiency of receptor for activated C
      kinase 1 (RACK1) leads to lipid accumulation in the liver, accompanied by
      impaired autophagy, but its in vivo role in T cells remains unclear. Here, we
      report that mice with T cell-specific deletion of RACK1 exhibit normal
      intrathymic development of conventional T cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells but
      reduced numbers of peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Such defects are cell
      intrinsic with impaired mitochondrial clearance, increased sensitivity to cell
      death, and decreased proliferation that could be explained by impaired autophagy.
      Furthermore, RACK1 is essential for invariant natural T cell development. In
      vivo, T cell-specific loss of RACK1 dampens concanavalin A-induced acute liver
      injury. Our data suggest that RACK1 is a key regulator of T cell homeostasis.

PMID- 28572805
TI  - Factor H Family Proteins in Complement Evasion of Microorganisms.
AB  - Human-pathogenic microbes possess various means to avoid destruction by our
      immune system. These include interactions with the host complement system that
      may facilitate pathogen entry into cells and tissues, expression of molecules
      that defuse the effector complement components and complexes, and acquisition of
      host complement inhibitors to downregulate complement activity on the surface of
      the pathogen. A growing number of pathogenic microorganisms have acquired the
      ability to bind the complement inhibitor factor H (FH) from body fluids and thus
      hijack its host protecting function. In addition to FH, binding of FH-related
      (FHR) proteins was also demonstrated for several microbes. Initial studies
      assumed that these proteins are complement inhibitors similar to FH. However,
      recent evidence suggests that FHR proteins may rather enhance complement
      activation both directly and also by competing with the inhibitor FH for binding
      to certain ligands and surfaces. This mini review focuses on the role of the main
      alternative pathway regulator FH in host-pathogen interactions, as well as on the
      emerging role of the FHR proteins as enhancers of complement activation.

PMID- 28572807
TI  - A New Adjuvant MTOM Mediates Mycobacterium tuberculosis Subunit Vaccine to
      Enhance Th1-Type T Cell Immune Responses and IL-2+ T Cells.
AB  - The only licensed vaccine Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)
      cannot prevent the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), which remains a major public
      health problem worldwide. A more effective TB vaccine than BCG is urgently
      needed. Subunit vaccine is a promising strategy, and suitable adjuvants will
      benefit the development of effective TB subunit vaccines. MTO, consisting of
      monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), trehalose-6,6'-dibehenate (TDB), and MF59, was
      developed as an adjuvant of TB vaccine because of its ability to evoke the Th1
      type T cell responses, while it is insufficient to induce single and
      multifunctional IL-2+ T cells and has a limited ability to confer protection
      against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Heat-killed Mycobacterium vaccae
      (Mv), which can evoke cytotoxic CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses and has
      adjuvanticity, was, in this study, combined with MTO to produce a new adjuvant,
      called MTOM. The TB fusion protein Rv3407-PhoY2-Ag85A-Rv2626c-RpfB (WH121) was
      mixed with MTO, Mv, and MTOM to produce three subunit vaccines, and the
      protective efficacy and immune responses were compared in C57BL/6 mice.
      WH121/MTOM provided better protection against TB than the other two vaccines,
      matching the performance of BCG vaccine. MTOM showed stronger ability to increase
      single and multifunctional IL-2+ T cells and induce Th1-type responses than MTO
      or Mv. Therefore, MTOM might be a promising adjuvant that could contribute to the
      development of TB subunit vaccines.

PMID- 28572808
TI  - Transcriptome-Wide Analysis of Botrytis elliptica Responsive microRNAs and Their
      Targets in Lilium Regale Wilson by High-Throughput Sequencing and Degradome
      Analysis.
AB  - MicroRNAs, as master regulators of gene expression, have been widely identified
      and play crucial roles in plant-pathogen interactions. A fatal pathogen, Botrytis
      elliptica, causes the serious folia disease of lily, which reduces production
      because of the high susceptibility of most cultivated species. However, the
      miRNAs related to Botrytis infection of lily, and the miRNA-mediated gene
      regulatory networks providing resistance to B. elliptica in lily remain largely
      unexplored. To systematically dissect B. elliptica-responsive miRNAs and their
      target genes, three small RNA libraries were constructed from the leaves of
      Lilium regale, a promising Chinese wild Lilium species, which had been subjected
      to mock B. elliptica treatment or B. elliptica infection for 6 and 24 h. By high
      throughput sequencing, 71 known miRNAs belonging to 47 conserved families and 24
      novel miRNA were identified, of which 18 miRNAs were downreguleted and 13 were
      upregulated in response to B. elliptica. Moreover, based on the lily mRNA
      transcriptome, 22 targets for 9 known and 1 novel miRNAs were identified by the
      degradome sequencing approach. Most target genes for elliptica-responsive miRNAs
      were involved in metabolic processes, few encoding different transcription
      factors, including ELONGATION FACTOR 1 ALPHA (EF1a) and TEOSINTE
      BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PROLIFERATING CELL FACTOR 2 (TCP2). Furthermore, the
      expression patterns of a set of elliptica-responsive miRNAs and their targets
      were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. This study represents the first
      transcriptome-based analysis of miRNAs responsive to B. elliptica and their
      targets in lily. The results reveal the possible regulatory roles of miRNAs and
      their targets in B. elliptica interaction, which will extend our understanding of
      the mechanisms of this disease in lily.

PMID- 28572809
TI  - Hybrid Performance of an Immortalized F2 Rapeseed Population Is Driven by
      Additive, Dominance, and Epistatic Effects.
AB  - Genomics-based prediction of hybrid performance promises to boost selection gain.
      The main goal of our study was to investigate the relevance of additive,
      dominance, and epistatic effects for determining hybrid seed yield in a
      biparental rapeseed population. We re-analyzed 60,000 SNP array and seed yield
      data points from an immortalized F2 population comprised of 318 hybrids and 180
      parental lines by performing genome-wide QTL mapping and predictions in
      combination with five-fold cross-validation. Moreover, an additional set of 37
      hybrids were genotyped and phenotyped in an independent environment. The
      decomposition of the phenotypic variance components and the cross-validated
      results of the QTL mapping and genome-wide predictions revealed that the hybrid
      performance in rapeseed was driven by a mix of additive, dominance, and epistatic
      effects. Interestingly, the genome-wide prediction accuracy in the additional 37
      hybrids remained high when modeling exclusively additive effects but was severely
      reduced when dominance or epistatic effects were also included. This loss in
      accuracy was most likely caused by more pronounced interactions of environments
      with dominance and epistatic effects than with additive effects. Consequently,
      the development of robust hybrid prediction models, including dominance and
      epistatic effects, required much deeper phenotyping in multi-environmental
      trials.

PMID- 28572811
TI  - Direct and Pollinator-Mediated Effects of Herbivory on Strawberry and the
      Potential for Improved Resistance.
AB  - The global decline in pollinators has partly been blamed on pesticides, leading
      some to propose pesticide-free farming as an option to improve pollination.
      However, herbivores are likely to be more prevalent in pesticide-free
      environments, requiring knowledge of their effects on pollinators, and
      alternative crop protection strategies to mitigate any potential pollination
      reduction. Strawberry leaf beetles (SLB) Galerucella spp. are important
      strawberry pests in Northern Europe and Russia. Given that SLB attack both leaf
      and flower tissue, we hypothesized pollinators would discriminate against SLB
      damaged strawberry plants (Fragaria vesca, cultivar 'Rugen'), leading to lower
      pollination success and yield. In addition we screened the most common commercial
      cultivar 'Rugen' and wild Swedish F. vesca genotypes for SLB resistance to assess
      the potential for inverse breeding to restore high SLB resistance in cultivated
      strawberry. Behavioral observations in a controlled experiment revealed that the
      local pollinator fauna avoided strawberry flowers with SLB-damaged petals. Low
      pollination, in turn, resulted in smaller more deformed fruits. Furthermore, SLB
      damaged flowers produced smaller fruits even when they were hand pollinated,
      showing herbivore damage also had direct effects on yield, independent of
      indirect effects on pollination. We found variable resistance in wild woodland
      strawberry to SLB and more resistant plant genotypes than the cultivar 'Rugen'
      were identified. Efficient integrated pest management strategies should be
      employed to mitigate both direct and indirect effects of herbivory for cultivated
      strawberry, including high intrinsic plant resistance.

PMID- 28572810
TI  - Roles, Regulation, and Agricultural Application of Plant Phosphate Transporters.
AB  - Phosphorus (P) is an essential mineral nutrient for plant growth and development.
      Low availability of inorganic phosphate (orthophosphate; Pi) in soil seriously
      restricts the crop production, while excessive fertilization has caused
      environmental pollution. Pi acquisition and homeostasis depend on transport
      processes controlled Pi transporters, which are grouped into five families so
      far: PHT1, PHT2, PHT3, PHT4, and PHT5. This review summarizes the current
      understanding on plant PHT families, including phylogenetic analysis, function,
      and regulation. The potential application of Pi transporters and the related
      regulatory factors for developing genetically modified crops with high phosphorus
      use efficiency (PUE) are also discussed in this review. At last, we provide some
      potential strategies for developing high PUE crops under salt or drought stress
      conditions, which can be valuable for improving crop yields challenged by global
      scarcity of water resources and increasing soil salinization.

PMID- 28572812
TI  - Halophytes: Potential Resources for Salt Stress Tolerance Genes and Promoters.
AB  - Halophytes have demonstrated their capability to thrive under extremely saline
      conditions and thus considered as one of the best germplasm for saline
      agriculture. Salinity is a worldwide problem, and the salt-affected areas are
      increasing day-by-day because of scanty rainfall, poor irrigation system, salt
      ingression, water contamination, and other environmental factors. The salinity
      stress tolerance mechanism is a very complex phenomenon, and some pathways are
      coordinately linked for imparting salinity tolerance. Though a number of salt
      responsive genes have been reported from the halophytes, there is always a quest
      for promising stress-responsive genes that can modulate plant physiology
      according to the salt stress. Halophytes such as Aeluropus, Mesembryanthemum,
      Suaeda, Atriplex, Thellungiella, Cakile, and Salicornia serve as a potential
      candidate for the salt-responsive genes and promoters. Several known genes like
      antiporters (NHX, SOS, HKT, VTPase), ion channels (Cl-, Ca2+, aquaporins),
      antioxidant encoding genes (APX, CAT, GST, BADH, SOD) and some novel genes such
      as USP, SDR1, SRP etc. were isolated from halophytes and explored for developing
      stress tolerance in the crop plants (glycophytes). It is evidenced that stress
      triggers salt sensors that lead to the activation of stress tolerance mechanisms
      which involve multiple signaling proteins, up- or down-regulation of several
      genes, and finally the distinctive or collective effects of stress-responsive
      genes. In this review, halophytes are discussed as an excellent platform for salt
      responsive genes which can be utilized for developing salinity tolerance in crop
      plants through genetic engineering.

PMID- 28572813
TI  - Cytosolic and Nuclear Co-localization of Betalain Biosynthetic Enzymes in Tobacco
      Suggests that Betalains Are Synthesized in the Cytoplasm and/or Nucleus of
      Betalainic Plant Cells.
AB  - Betalains replace anthocyanins as color pigments in most families of
      Caryophyllales. Unlike anthocyanins, betalains are derived from tyrosine via
      three enzymatic steps: hydroxylation of L-tyrosine to L-3,4
      dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA; step 1), and conversion of L-DOPA to betalamic
      acid (step 2), and to cyclo-DOPA (cDOPA; step 3). The principal enzymes
      responsible for these reactions have been elucidated at the molecular level, but
      their subcellular localizations have not been explored; hence, the intracellular
      compartments wherein betalains are biosynthesized remain unknown. Here, we report
      on the subcellular localization of these principal enzymes. Bioinformatic
      predictors and N- and C-terminal GFP tagging in transgenic tobacco, showed that
      Beta vulgaris CYP76AD1 which mediates both steps 1 and 3, DODA1 that catalyzes
      step 2, and CYP76AD6 which also mediates step 1, were similarly localized to the
      cytoplasm and nucleus (although the P450s were also weakly present in the
      endoplasmic reticulum). These two compartments were also the principal locations
      of Mirabilis jalapa cDOPA5GT. The cytoplasmic and nuclear co-localization of
      these key enzymes in tobacco suggests that betalains are biosynthesized in the
      cytoplasm and/or nucleus of betalain-containing plant cells. Elucidation of the
      subcellular compartmentation of betalain biosynthesis will facilitate the
      bioengineering of the betalain biosynthetic pathway in non-betalain-containing
      plants.

PMID- 28572815
TI  - Corrigendum: Transcriptome Analysis of the Melon-Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.
      melonis Race 1.2 Pathosystem in Susceptible and Resistant Plants.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 362 in vol. 8, PMID: 28367157.].

PMID- 28572814
TI  - Use of Blue-Green Fluorescence and Thermal Imaging in the Early Detection of
      Sunflower Infection by the Root Parasitic Weed Orobanche cumana Wallr.
AB  - Although the impact of Orobanche cumana Wallr. on sunflower (Helianthus annuus
      L.) becomes evident with emergence of broomrape shoots aboveground, infection
      occurs early after sowing, the host physiology being altered during underground
      parasite stages. Genetic resistance is the most effective control method and one
      of the main goals of sunflower breeding programmes. Blue-green fluorescence (BGF)
      and thermal imaging allow non-destructive monitoring of plant diseases, since
      they are sensitive to physiological disorders in plants. We analyzed the BGF
      emission by leaves of healthy sunflower plantlets, and we implemented BGF and
      thermal imaging in the detection of the infection by O. cumana during underground
      parasite development. Increases in BGF emission were observed in leaf pairs of
      healthy sunflowers during their development. Lower BGF was consistently detected
      in parasitized plants throughout leaf expansion and low pigment concentration was
      detected at final time, supporting the interpretation of a decrease in secondary
      metabolites upon infection. Parasite-induced stomatal closure and transpiration
      reduction were suggested by warmer leaves of inoculated sunflowers throughout the
      experiment. BGF imaging and thermography could be implemented for fast screening
      of sunflower breeding material. Both techniques are valuable approaches to assess
      the processes by which O. cumana alters physiology (secondary metabolism and
      photosynthesis) of sunflower.

PMID- 28572817
TI  - Development of a Novel Motor Imagery Control Technique and Application in a
      Gaming Environment.
AB  - We present a methodology for a hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with
      the recognition of motor imagery (MI) based on EEG and blink EOG signals. We
      tested the BCI system in a 3D Tetris and an analogous 2D game playing
      environment. To enhance player's BCI control ability, the study focused on
      feature extraction from EEG and control strategy supporting Game-BCI system
      operation. We compared the numerical differences between spatial features
      extracted with common spatial pattern (CSP) and the proposed multifeature
      extraction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of 3D game environment at enhancing
      player's event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization
      (ERS) production ability, we set the 2D Screen Game as the comparison experiment.
      According to a series of statistical results, the group performing MI in the 3D
      Tetris environment showed more significant improvements in generating MI
      associated ERD/ERS. Analysis results of game-score indicated that the players'
      scores presented an obvious uptrend in 3D Tetris environment but did not show an
      obvious downward trend in 2D Screen Game. It suggested that the immersive and
      rich-control environment for MI would improve the associated mental imagery and
      enhance MI-based BCI skills.

PMID- 28572816
TI  - Ergosterol isolated from the basidiomycete Pleurotus salmoneostramineus affects
      Trypanosoma cruzi plasma membrane and mitochondria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major drawbacks of the available treatment against Chagas disease
      (American trypanosomiasis) include its toxicity and therapeutic inefficiency in
      the chronic phase of the infection, which makes it a concern among neglected
      diseases. Therefore, the discovery of alternative drugs for treating chronic
      Chagas disease requires immediate action. In this work, we evaluated the mushroom
      Pleurotus salmoneostramineus in the search for potential antiparasitic compounds.
      METHODS: Fruit bodies of the basidiomycete Pleurotus salmoneostramineus were
      triturated and submitted to organic solvent extraction. After liquid-liquid
      partition of the crude extract, three fractions were obtained and the bioguided
      fractionation study was conducted to isolate the active metabolites. The
      elucidation of the chemical structure was performed using GC-MS and NMR
      techniques. The biological assays for antiparasitic activity were carried out
      using trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi and murine macrophages for mammalian
      cytotoxicity. The mechanism of action of the isolated compound used different
      fluorescent probes to evaluate the plasma membrane permeability, the potential of
      the mitochondrial membrane and the intracellular levels of reactive oxygen
      species (ROS). RESULTS: The most abundant fraction showing the antiparasitic
      activity was isolated and chemically elucidated, confirming the presence of
      ergosterol. It showed anti-Trypanosoma cruzi activity against trypomastigotes,
      with an IC50 value of 51.3 MUg/mL. The compound demonstrated no cytotoxicity
      against mammalian cells to the maximal tested concentration of 200 MUg/mL. The
      mechanism of action of ergosterol in Trypanosoma cruzi trypomastigotes resulted
      in permeabilization of the plasma membrane, as well as depolarization of
      mitochondrial membrane potential, leading to parasite death. Nevertheless, no
      increase in ROS levels could be observed, suggesting damages to plasma membrane
      rather than an induction of oxidative stress in the parasite. CONCLUSIONS: The
      selection of naturally antiparasitic secondary metabolites in basidiomycetes,
      such as ergosterol, may provide potential scaffolds for drug design studies
      against neglected diseases.

PMID- 28572818
TI  - Serum Alanine Aminotransferase Levels within Normal Range Have Different
      Associations with Augmentation Index and Other Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in
      Nondrinkers and Drinkers: A Chinese Community-Based Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate whether serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels
      within normal range were associated with augmentation index (AIx) and
      cardiometabolic risk factors in nondrinkers and drinkers in Chinese community
      dwelling population. METHODS: There were 4165 participants with serum ALT levels
      within normal range. RESULTS: Alcohol drinking was observed in 1173 participants
      (28.2%). In multivariate analysis, serum ALT levels of nondrinkers were
      independently associated with age, sex, body mass index (BMI), hypertension,
      diabetes mellitus, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride, low-density
      lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), and AIx, while serum ALT levels of drinkers were
      independently associated with age, sex, BMI, triglyceride, and LDL-c (p < 0.05
      for all). CONCLUSIONS: Associations of serum ALT levels within normal range with
      age, sex, body height and weight, and blood lipid were simultaneously present in
      participants with and without alcohol drinking, while associations of serum ALT
      levels within normal range with AIx, blood pressure, and glucose were seen in
      nondrinkers rather than in drinkers. These findings not only provide the evidence
      that serum ALT levels, even within the normal range, have different associations
      with arteriosclerosis and cardiometabolic risk factors in nondrinkers and
      drinkers but also are helpful in understanding the underlying pathophysiologic
      mechanisms linking the hepatic function to arteriosclerosis and cardiometabolic
      risk factors.

PMID- 28572819
TI  - The Validity and Reliability between Automated Oscillometric Measurement of Ankle
      Brachial Index and Standard Measurement by Eco-Doppler in Diabetic Patients with
      or without Diabetic Foot.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the concordance between oscillometric ABI and standard
      Doppler ABI in diabetic Chinese patients with or without diabetic foot. METHODS:
      230 consecutive diabetic patients (n = 459 limbs) were included. The right and
      left ABIs were determined with both devices by the same investigator. The
      concordance and agreement were assessed by kappa index and the Bland-Altman
      method. RESULTS: The average Doppler ABI was 1.003 +/- 0.286 on the right and
      0.990 +/- 0.287 on the left, while oscillometric ABI was 1.002 +/- 0.332 and
      0.993 +/- 0.319, which had no significance. The average time for oscillometric
      ABI was 8.600 versus 16.980 minutes for Doppler ABI (p < 0.001). There was good
      agreement between the two measurements, with a kappa value of 0.869 on the right
      and 0.919 on the left. Regarding the Doppler ABI as the gold standard, the
      accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, +LR, and -LR of oscillometric ABI reached
      95.22%, 94.34%, 95.48%, 20.873%, and 0.059% on the right. For the left, it was
      96.94%, 96.43%, 97.11%, 33.364%, and 0.036%. CONCLUSIONS: The oscillometric
      measurement is a reliable, convenient, and less time-consuming alternative to
      standard Doppler ABI in patients. It should be widely used for PAD detection.

PMID- 28572820
TI  - TSH Variability of Patients Affected by Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Treated
      with Levothyroxine Liquid Solution or Tablet Form.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent guidelines from the American Thyroid Association (ATA)
      indicate that, in many patients affected by differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC),
      the serum TSH should be maintained between 0.1 and 0.5 mU/L. The purpose of this
      study was to evaluate the TSH variability of patients affected by DTC treated
      with liquid L-T4 formulation or in tablet form. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients
      were eligible if (a) they were submitted to a total thyroidectomy and 131I
      remnant ablation for DTC in our institution and (b) they were classified low-risk
      patients according to ATA guidelines 2009. Patients were randomized (1 : 1) to
      receive treatment of hypothyroidism with liquid L-T4 or tablet form. The first
      check-up evaluation was made from 8 to 12 months after 131I remnant ablation. TSH
      values were established again after further 12 months. RESULTS: A significant
      increase in TSH values (median) was observed in patients taking tablets [TSH (min
      max): 0.28 (0.1-0.45) versus 0.34 (0.01-0.78) mIU/L, p = 0.041] as compared to
      those taking liquid formulation [TSH (min-max): 0.28 (0.1-0.47) versus 0.30 (0.1
      0.55) mIU/L, p = 0.345]. CONCLUSIONS: The use of L-T4 liquid formulation, as
      compared to that of tablets, resulted in a significantly higher number of DTC
      patients maintaining TSH values in range for the ATA risk score, reducing TSH
      variability over the time.

PMID- 28572822
TI  - Correlation of Salivary Statherin and Calcium Levels with Dental Calculus
      Formation: A Preliminary Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salivary constituents have a wide range of functions including oral
      calcium homeostasis. Salivary proteins such as statherin inhibit crystal growth
      of calcium phosphate in supersaturated solutions and interact with several oral
      bacteria to adsorb on hydroxyapatite. Concurrently, saliva, which is
      supersaturated with respect to calcium phosphates, is the driving force for
      plaque mineralization and formation of calculus. Thus, the aim of the present
      study was to estimate and correlate salivary statherin and calcium concentration
      to the dental calculus formation. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted
      to assess the relationship between salivary statherin, calcium, and dental
      calculus among 70 subjects, aged 20-55 years. Subjects were divided into 3 groups
      based on the calculus scores as interpreted by Calculus Index which was followed
      by collection of whole saliva using Super*SALTM. Salivary calcium levels were
      assessed by calorimetric method using Calcium Assay kit (Cayman Chemical,
      Michigan, USA) and statherin levels by using ELISA Kit (Cusabio Biotech).
      RESULTS: Statherin levels showed a weak negative correlation with the calcium
      levels and with calculus formation. The mean salivary statherin and calcium
      concentration were found to be 0.96 MUg/ml and 3.87 mg/ml, respectively. Salivary
      statherin levels differed significantly among the three groups (p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary data indicates that statherin could possibly play a
      role in the formation of dental calculus.

PMID- 28572821
TI  - Association of Baseline Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio with Clinicopathological
      Characteristics of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential association of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte
      ratio (NLR), a surrogate systemic inflammatory biomarker, with clinical and
      pathological characteristics of papillary thyroid cancers. METHODS: 205 patients
      with papillary carcinoma were identified from the institutional thyroid cancer
      database between 2006 and 2015 (55 males, 150 females, mean age 51.2 +/- 14.7
      years). NLR was calculated as the absolute neutrophil count divided by the
      absolute lymphocyte count, based on the preoperative complete blood cell counts.
      RESULTS: NLR was significantly higher in carcinomas with extrathyroidal invasion
      (2.74 +/- 01.24 versus 2.39 +/- 0.96, p = 0.04) and bilateral (2.67 +/- 1.15
      versus 2.35 +/- 0.96, p = 0.03) and multifocal tumours (2.65 +/- 1.08 versus 2.29
      +/- 0.96, p = 0.01), as well as lymph node-positive tumours (3.12 +/- 1.07 versus
      2.41 +/- 1.02, p = 0.03). On the other hand, NLR values were not associated with
      gender, age, tumour size, histologic subtype, the presence of thyroiditis, and
      TNM staging. CONCLUSIONS: As an index of inflammation, NLR is inexpensive,
      readily available, and easy to extract from routine blood tests. We found
      increased NLR values in papillary carcinomas with poorer histopathological
      profile and more aggressive clinical behaviour. Whether this systemic
      inflammatory response, as expressed by the NLR, represents the inflammatory
      microenvironment leading to tumourigenesis, or is a tumour-associated phenomenon,
      remains to be elucidated and warrants further study.

PMID- 28572823
TI  - Stabilisation of Collagen Sponges by Glutaraldehyde Vapour Crosslinking.
AB  - Glutaraldehyde is a well-recognised reagent for crosslinking and stabilising
      collagens and other protein-based materials, including gelatine. In some cases,
      however, the use of solutions can disrupt the structure of the material, for
      example, by causing rapid dispersion or distortions from surface interactions. An
      alternative approach that has been explored in a number of individual cases is
      the use of glutaraldehyde vapour. In this study, the effectiveness of a range of
      different glutaraldehyde concentrations in the reservoir providing vapour, from
      5% to 25% (w/v), has been explored at incubation times from 5 h to 48 h at room
      temperature. These data show the effectiveness of the glutaraldehyde vapour
      approach for crosslinking collagen and show that materials with defined,
      intermediate stability could be obtained, for example, to control resorption
      rates in vivo.

PMID- 28572825
TI  - Antidiabetic Compounds in Syzygium cumini Decoction and Ready to Serve Herbal
      Drink.
AB  - Herbal beverages with desirable sensory attributes are an ideal way to offer
      consumers with phytochemicals having specific health promoting functionalities.
      Syzygium cumini bark decoction is used in treating diabetes mellitus in Ayurveda
      medicine. This work attempted to prove the presence of antidiabetic compounds in
      the S. cumini decoction and the ready to serve (RTS) herbal drink developed using
      the decoction. Activity guided fractionation of the decoction of the S. cumini
      was carried out by sequential extraction with organic solvents of different
      polarities. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) with authentic compounds and HPLC
      were performed for identification and confirmation of the compounds in the
      decoction and the RTS herbal drink. Presence of gallic and ellagic acids in the
      decoction and RTS herbal drink was proven and confirmed with HPLC. The LC UV-VIS
      spectra of the two compounds were identical with the corresponding spectra of the
      library. Further, gallic acid and umbelliferone were determined as the active
      compounds in the decoction by TLC and were confirmed by cochromatography with
      authentic compounds. The present investigation confirmed the presence of gallic
      acid, ellagic acid, and umbelliferone which are proven to have antidiabetic
      activities in the decoction and the RTS herbal drink prepared with the decoction.

PMID- 28572826
TI  - Medical Benefits of Honeybee Products.

PMID- 28572824
TI  - Cytokine, Chemokine, and Growth Factor Profile Characterization of
      Undifferentiated and Osteoinduced Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.
AB  - Bone is the second most manipulated tissue after blood. Adipose-derived stem
      cells (ASCs) may become a convenient source of MSC for bone regenerative
      protocols. Surprisingly, little is known about the most significant biomolecules
      these cells produce and release after being osteoinduced. Therefore, the present
      study aimed at dosing 13 candidates chosen among the most representative
      cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors within the conditioned media of
      osteodifferentiated and undifferentiated ASCs. Two acknowledged osteoblastic cell
      models, that is, MG-63 and SaOs-2 cells, were compared. Notably, IL-6, IL-8, MCP
      1, and VEGF were highly produced and detectable in ASCs. In addition, while IL-6
      and IL-8 seemed to be significantly induced by the osteogenic medium, no such
      effect was seen for MCP-1 and VEGF. Overall SaOS-2 had a poor expression profile,
      which may be consistent with the more differentiated phenotype of SaOs-2 compared
      to ASCs and MG-63. Instead, in maintaining medium, MG-63 displayed a very rich
      production of IL-12, MCP-1, IP-10, and VEGF, which were significantly reduced in
      osteogenic conditions, with the only exception of MCP-1. The high expression of
      MCP-1 and VEGF, even after the osteogenic commitment, may support the usage of
      ASCs in bone regenerative protocols by recruiting both osteoblasts and
      osteoclasts of the host.

PMID- 28572827
TI  - Protective Effect of 18beta-Glycyrrhetinic Acid against Triptolide-Induced
      Hepatotoxicity in Rats.
AB  - Triptolide (TP) is the major active component of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F
      (TWHF) and possesses multiple pharmacological effects. However, hepatotoxicity of
      TP which is one of the toxic properties slows its progression in clinical
      application. 18beta-Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) is the main bioactive ingredient of
      Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), a herbal medicine famous for its
      detoxification. This study aims to investigate whether GA possesses protective
      effect against TP-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. TP interference markedly
      elevated serum levels of ALT, AST, and ALP, caused evident liver
      histopathological changes, and elevated hepatic TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-1beta, and
      IFN-gamma as well as nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB. TP also significantly
      elevated liver MDA and declined hepatic activities of SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px. Assay
      of TUNEL and apoptosis proteins (Bax, Bcl-2, and active caspase-3) showed that TP
      induced severe hepatocellular apoptosis. In contrast, low-dose GA (50 mg/kg)
      significantly reversed TP-induced changes above. However, high-dose GA (100
      mg/kg) had no such effect. Overall, these findings indicated that low-dose GA but
      not high-dose GA exhibited a protective effect against TP-induced hepatotoxicity
      in rats by anti-inflammation, antioxidation, and antiapoptosis, which suggests
      that the doses of GA/Licorice should be carefully considered when used together
      with TWHF or TWHF preparations.

PMID- 28572828
TI  - Apigenin Inhibits Human SW620 Cell Growth by Targeting Polyamine Catabolism.
AB  - Apigenin is a nonmutagenic flavonoid that has antitumor properties. Polyamines
      are ubiquitous cellular polycations, which play an important role in the
      proliferation and differentiation of cancer cells. Highly regulated pathways
      control the biosynthesis and degradation of polyamines. Ornithine decarboxylase
      (ODC) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the metabolism, and spermidine/spermine-N1
      Acetyl transferase (SSAT) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the catabolism of
      polyamines. In the current study, the effect of increasing concentrations of
      apigenin on polyamine levels, ODC and SSAT protein expression, mRNA expression,
      cell proliferation and apoptosis, and the production of reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) was investigated in SW620 colon cancer cells. The results showed that
      apigenin significantly reduced cell proliferation, decreased the levels of
      spermidine and spermine, and increased previously downregulated putrescine
      contents. Apigenin also enhanced SSAT protein and mRNA levels and the production
      of reactive oxygen species in SW620 cells, though it had no significant effect on
      the levels of ODC protein or mRNA. Apigenin appears to decrease the proliferation
      rate of human SW620 cells by facilitating SSAT expression to induce polyamine
      catabolism and increasing ROS levels to induce cell apoptosis.

PMID- 28572829
TI  - Investigating Potential Modes of Actions of Mimusops kummel Fruit Extract and
      Solvent Fractions for Their Antidiarrheal Activities in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fruits of Mimusops kummel A. DC. (Sapotaceae) are traditionally used
      for the treatment of diarrhea. The present study aimed at investigating modes of
      actions of this fruits for antidiarrheal action to guide future drug development
      process. METHODS: Fractions of chloroform, n-butanol, and water were obtained
      from 80% methanol extract, which was prepared by maceration. Antidiarrheal
      activities and the modes of actions were investigated in mice. RESULTS: In castor
      oil induced diarrheal model, the extract delayed onset of diarrhea and reduced
      number and weight of feces at all tested doses significantly. In this model all
      fractions significantly delayed onset of diarrhea at all tested doses. Charcoal
      meal test showed that the extract and all the fractions produced a significant
      antimotility effect at all tested doses. Enteropooling test showed that the
      extract as well as n-butanol and aqueous fractions at all tested doses produced a
      significant decline in volume and weight of intestinal contents, whereas
      chloroform fraction had substantial effect only at high dose. CONCLUSION: This
      study demonstrated that the extract and solvent fractions produced antidiarrheal
      activities due to dual inhibitory effect, intestinal motility, and fluid
      secretion, with the aqueous fraction being the most active among fractions in
      three models.

PMID- 28572830
TI  - Astragalus Extract Mixture HT042 Improves Bone Growth, Mass, and
      Microarchitecture in Prepubertal Female Rats: A Microcomputed Tomographic Study.
AB  - Astragalus extract mixture HT042 is a standardized multiherbal mixture comprising
      Astragalus membranaceus, Eleutherococcus senticosus, and Phlomis umbrosa, which
      has proven to promote children's height growth. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the effects of HT042 on longitudinal bone growth, bone mass, and bone
      microstructure in growing rats using a high-resolution microcomputed tomography
      system. Four-week-old female rats were fed an HT042-containing diet for 2 weeks.
      Tibial length was measured at baseline and weekly in vivo. At the end of the
      study, volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and microarchitectural parameters
      were estimated in the trabecular and cortical bone of the tibia. Tibial length
      gain was significantly increased by HT042 compared to that reported with the
      control diet. In the proximal tibial metaphysis, HT042-treated rats had
      significantly higher trabecular vBMD, bone volume fraction, and trabecular number
      and lower trabecular separation, trabecular pattern factor, and structure model
      index values than control rats did. Total cross-sectional area and bone area of
      the cortical bone in the tibial diaphysis also increased. These findings suggest
      that HT042 increases longitudinal bone growth rate, improves trabecular bone
      mass, and enhances the microarchitecture of trabecular and cortical bone during
      growth.

PMID- 28572831
TI  - The Effect of Pudilan Anti-Inflammatory Oral Liquid on the Treatment of Mild
      Recurrent Aphthous Ulcers.
AB  - Recurrent aphthous ulcers are the most common recurrent oral mucosal lesions
      characterized by recurrence and pain. The aim of this research is to evaluate the
      short-term curative effect of the traditional Chinese medicine "Pudilan anti
      inflammatory oral liquid" on mild recurrent aphthous ulcers. A total of 234
      patients were divided into a treatment group and a control group. Both groups
      used vitamin B2 as the basis of treatment. The treatment group took a Pudilan
      anti-inflammatory oral solution for 8 days while the control group was given a
      liquid placebo. The ulcer size, pseudomembrane, peripheral congestion, and pain
      scores of the treatment group were lower than before treatment. The curative
      effect on the Pudilan group was statistically significant compared with the
      control group. The final therapeutic effect on the treatment group was better
      than that on the control group. The healing time of mild recurrent aphthous
      ulcers can be shortened by Pudilan anti-inflammatory oral liquid, and pain is
      relieved without adverse reactions. Pudilan provides a new reference drug for the
      treatment of mild recurrent oral ulcers.

PMID- 28572832
TI  - A case report of Lhermitte-Duclos disease revealed by psychiatric disturbances.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lhermitte-Duclos disease (LDD) is a rare cerebellar lesion
      characterized by a hamartomatous lesion in the posterior fossa. Mainly diagnosed
      by MRI, the clinical presentation is usually made of neurological symptoms. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We present here a rare case of a woman who developed depressive
      symptoms that inaugurated the clinical presentation of LDD. CONCLUSION:
      Psychiatric symptoms may occur in all brain lesions, delaying the diagnosis and
      causing therapeutic escalation. More attention should be given by practitioners
      to psychiatric aspects of LDD.

PMID- 28572833
TI  - Development of high-throughput methods to screen disease caused by Rhizoctonia
      solani AG 2-1 in oilseed rape.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn) is a soil-borne, necrotrophic fungus
      causing damping off, root rot and stem canker in many cultivated plants
      worldwide. Oilseed rape (OSR, Brassica napus) is the primary host for anastomosis
      group (AG) 2-1 of R. solani causing pre- and post-emergence damping-off resulting
      in death of seedlings and impaired crop establishment. Presently, there are no
      known resistant OSR genotypes and the main methods for disease control are
      fungicide seed treatments and cultural practices. The identification of sources
      of resistance for crop breeding is essential for sustainable management of the
      disease. However, a high-throughput, reliable screening method for resistance
      traits is required. The aim of this work was to develop a low cost, rapid
      screening method for disease phenotyping and identification of resistance traits.
      RESULTS: Four growth systems were developed and tested: (1) nutrient media
      plates, (2) compost trays, (3) light expanded clay aggregate (LECA) trays, and
      (4) a hydroponic pouch and wick system. Seedlings were inoculated with virulent
      AG 2-1 to cause damping-off disease and grown for a period of 4-10 days. Visual
      disease assessments were carried out or disease was estimated through image
      analysis using ImageJ. CONCLUSION: Inoculation of LECA was the most suitable
      method for phenotyping disease caused by R. solani AG 2-1 as it enabled the
      detection of differences in disease severity among OSR genotypes within a short
      time period whilst allowing measurements to be conducted on whole plants. This
      system is expected to facilitate identification of resistant germplasm.

PMID- 28572834
TI  - StreAM-[Formula: see text]: algorithms for analyzing coarse grained RNA dynamics
      based on Markov models of connectivity-graphs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this work, we present a new coarse grained representation of RNA
      dynamics. It is based on adjacency matrices and their interactions patterns
      obtained from molecular dynamics simulations. RNA molecules are well-suited for
      this representation due to their composition which is mainly modular and
      assessable by the secondary structure alone. These interactions can be
      represented as adjacency matrices of k nucleotides. Based on those, we define
      transitions between states as changes in the adjacency matrices which form
      Markovian dynamics. The intense computational demand for deriving the transition
      probability matrices prompted us to develop StreAM-[Formula: see text], a stream
      based algorithm for generating such Markov models of k-vertex adjacency matrices
      representing the RNA. RESULTS: We benchmark StreAM-[Formula: see text] (a) for
      random and RNA unit sphere dynamic graphs (b) for the robustness of our method
      against different parameters. Moreover, we address a riboswitch design problem by
      applying StreAM-[Formula: see text] on six long term molecular dynamics
      simulation of a synthetic tetracycline dependent riboswitch (500 ns) in
      combination with five different antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed algorithm
      performs well on large simulated as well as real world dynamic graphs.
      Additionally, StreAM-[Formula: see text] provides insights into nucleotide based
      RNA dynamics in comparison to conventional metrics like the root-mean square
      fluctuation. In the light of experimental data our results show important design
      opportunities for the riboswitch.

PMID- 28572835
TI  - Symmetry-controlled time structure of high-harmonic carrier fields from a solid.
AB  - High-harmonic (HH) generation in crystalline solids1-6 marks an exciting
      development, with potential applications in high-efficiency attosecond sources7,
      all-optical bandstructure reconstruction8,9, and quasiparticle collisions10,11.
      Although the spectral1-4 and temporal shape5 of the HH intensity has been
      described microscopically1-6,12, the properties of the underlying HH carrier wave
      have remained elusive. Here we analyse the train of HH waveforms generated in a
      crystalline solid by consecutive half cycles of the same driving pulse. Extending
      the concept of frequency combs13-15 to optical clock rates, we show how the
      polarization and carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of HH pulses can be controlled by
      crystal symmetry. For some crystal directions, we can separate two orthogonally
      polarized HH combs mutually offset by the driving frequency to form a comb of
      even and odd harmonic orders. The corresponding CEP of successive pulses is
      constant or offset by pi, depending on the polarization. In the context of a
      quantum description of solids, we identify novel capabilities for polarization-
      and phase-shaping of HH waveforms that cannot be accessed with gaseous sources.

PMID- 28572837
TI  - Serum EBV antibodies and LMP-1 in Polish patients with oropharyngeal and
      laryngeal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the development
      of head and neck cancer was reported by many researchers. The aim of the present
      study was to detect EBV DNA and EBV antibodies in 110 Polish patients with
      oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancer compared to 40 healthy individuals. METHODS:
      Frozen tumor tissue fragments were tested using nested PCR assay for EBV DNA
      detection. Sera from all individuals were investigated using ELISA tests to
      detect the presence of VCA IgM and IgG, EBNA IgG, EA IgG. RESULTS: EBV DNA was
      detected in 52.7% of the patients (25% in controls). EBVCA were detected in
      94.5%, EBNA in 96.4% and EA in 94.5% of patients. The significantly higher level
      of EA in the patients suggests EBV reactivation. The majority of patients (83%)
      were infected with wild-type EBV. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that this variant
      seems to be associated with oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancer in the Polish
      population.

PMID- 28572836
TI  - LPS promotes resistance to TRAIL-induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Though TRAIL has been hailed as a promising drug for tumour
      treatment, it has been observed that many tumour cells have developed escape
      mechanisms against TRAIL-induced apoptosis. As a receptor of LPS, TLR 4, which is
      expressed on a variety of cancer cells, can be associated with TRAIL-resistance
      of tumour cells and tumour progression as well as with the generation of an anti
      tumour immune response. METHODS: In this study, the sensitivity to TRAIL-induced
      apoptosis as well as the influence of LPS-co-stimulation on the cell viability of
      the pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1, BxPC-3 and COLO 357 was examined by FACS
      analyses and a cell viability assay. Subsequently, the expression of TRAIL
      receptors was detected via FACS analyses. Levels of osteoprotegerin (OPG) were
      also determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: PANC-1 cells
      were shown to be resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. This was accompanied by
      significantly increased osteoprotegerin levels and a significantly decreased
      expression of DR4. In contrast, TRAIL significantly induced apoptosis in COLO 357
      cells and to a lesser degree in BxPC-3 cells. Co-stimulation of COLO 357 as well
      as BxPC-3 cells combining TRAIL and LPS resulted in a significant decrease in
      TRAIL-induced apoptosis. In COLO 357 cells TRAIL-stimulation decreased the levels
      of OPG thereby not altering the expression of the TRAIL-receptors 1-4 resulting
      in a high susceptibility to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Co-stimulation with LPS and
      TRAIL completely reversed the effect of TRAIL on OPG levels reaching a 2-fold
      increase beyond the level of non-stimulated cells resulting in a lower
      susceptibility to apoptosis. In BxPC-3, TRAIL stimulation decreased the
      expression of DR4 and significantly increased the decoy receptors TRAIL-R3 and
      TRAIL-R4 leading to a decrease in TRAIL-induced apoptosis. OPG levels remained
      unchanged. Co-stimulation with TRAIL and LPS further enhanced the changes in
      TRAIL-receptor-expression promoting apoptosis resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Here it
      has been shown that TRAIL-resistance in pancreatic cancer cells can be mediated
      by the inflammatory molecule LPS as well as by different expression patterns of
      functional and non-functional TRAIL-receptors.

PMID- 28572839
TI  - Non-pulmonary cancer risk following tuberculosis: a nationwide retrospective
      cohort study in Lithuania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lithuania remains one of the highest tuberculosis burden countries in
      Europe. Epidemiological studies have long pointed to infections as important
      factors of cancer aetiology, but the association between tuberculosis and the
      risk of non-pulmonary cancers has rarely been tested and results have been
      inconsistent. The aim of this population-based cohort study was to examine the
      risk of cancer among patients diagnosed with tuberculosis using data from
      Lithuanian Tuberculosis, Cancer and Resident's Registries. METHODS: The study
      cohort included 21,986 tuberculosis patients yielding 1583 cancers diagnosed
      during follow-up (1998-2012). Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to compare the incidence of cancer
      among cohort participants with the general population for overall, non-pulmonary,
      site-specific cancers, as well as for subgroups of smoking-related, alcohol
      related, hormone-related and haematological cancers. RESULTS: The SIRs of all
      cancers combined were 1.89, 95% CI: 1.79-2.00 in men and 1.34, 95% CI: 1.19-1.50
      in women. Risk was increased 3-fold within the first year following diagnosis; it
      decreased during later years, although remained significantly elevated for >=5
      years. Elevated long-term increased risks persisted for non-pulmonary cancers
      overall, and for cancers of mouth and pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, larynx,
      cervix uteri and leukaemias. Tuberculosis was associated with a decreased risk of
      melanoma. Increased risks were observed for smoking-related cancers in men (SIR
      1.95, 95% CI: 1.79-2.13) and women (SIR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.22-1.73), alcohol-related
      cancers in men (SIR 2.40; 95% CI: 2.14-2.68) and haematological cancers in men
      (SIR 1.73, 95% CI: 1.33-2.23). The risk of hormone-related cancers was 18% lower
      (SIR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.66-0.997) among women, the inverse association was weaker
      among men (SIR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.84-1.07). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of total and
      several non-pulmonary cancers was elevated in a cohort of tuberculosis patients.
      The recommendation for the awareness of this association among physicians is
      warranted. Analysis suggests a reduction in risk of hormone-related cancers and
      melanoma.

PMID- 28572838
TI  - Seroprevalence of antibodies against Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus
      among HIV-negative people in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little information on the prevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma associated
      herpesvirus (KSHV) among HIV-negative individuals is available from Asia.
      METHODS: In the present study, we report findings from a new survey of KSHV in
      983 HIV-negative male migrants from Shanghai and their combination with previous
      similar surveys of 600 female migrants, 600 female sex-workers (FSW), 1336
      sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic male patients, 439 intravenous drug
      users (IVDU), and 226 men having sex with men (MSM) from China. KSHV-specific
      antibodies against latent and lytic antigens were assessed using Sf9 and BC3
      monoclonal immunofluorescence assay. Age-adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and 95%
      confidence interval (95% CI) for KSHV-positivity were estimated using Poisson
      regression. RESULTS: In total, 4184 HIV-negative participants were included. KSHV
      prevalence ranged from 9.8% (95% CI: 7.9%-11.7%) in male migrants to 32.3% (95%
      CI: 24.1%-34.1%) in MSM. IVDU show intermediate level (17.5%, 95%CI: 14.1%
      21.4%). KSHV was associated with syphilis (PR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.38-2.98) in MSM
      but not in other groups. An association with human herpes virus 2 was also found
      among MSM (PR = 1. 83, 95%: 1.22-2.75) but not in migrant workers or FSW.
      CONCLUSIONS: KSHV prevalence in HIV-negative heterosexuals, FSW, and STI male
      patients from China is approximately 10%, but 2- and 3-fold higher in IVDU and
      MSM, respectively. Associations of KSHV with STIs among MSM only suggest that
      sexual transmission of the virus is important in MSM but not in heterosexuals.

PMID- 28572840
TI  - Low levels of viral suppression among refugees and host nationals accessing
      antiretroviral therapy in a Kenyan refugee camp.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Refugees and host nationals who accessed antiretroviral therapy (ART)
      in a remote refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya (2011-2013) were compared on outcome
      measures that included viral suppression and adherence to ART. METHODS: This
      study used a repeated cross-sectional design (Round One and Round Two). All
      adults (>=18 years) receiving care from the refugee camp clinic and taking
      antiretroviral therapy (ART) for >=30 days were invited to participate. Adherence
      was measured by self-report and monthly pharmacy refills. Whole blood was
      measured on dried blood spots. HIV-1 RNA was quantified and treatment failures
      were submitted for drug resistance testing. A remedial intervention was
      implemented in response to baseline testing. The primary outcome was viral load
      <5000 copies/mL. The two study rounds took place in 2011-2013. RESULTS: Among
      eligible adults, 86% (73/85) of refugees and 84% (86/102) of Kenyan host
      nationals participated in the Round One survey; 60% (44/73) and 58% (50/86) of
      Round One participants were recruited for Round Two follow-up viral load testing.
      In Round One, refugees were older than host nationals (median age 36 years,
      interquartile range, IQR 31, 41 vs 32 years, IQR 27, 38); the groups had similar
      time on ART (median 147 weeks, IQR 38, 64 vs 139 weeks, IQR 39, 225). There was
      weak evidence for a difference between proportions of refugees and host nationals
      who were virologically suppressed (<5000 copies/mL) after 25 weeks on ART (58% vs
      43%, p = 0.10) and no difference in the proportions suppressed at Round Two (74%
      vs 70%, p = 0.66). Mean adherence within each group in Round One was similar.
      Refugee status was not associated with viral suppression in multivariable
      analysis (adjusted odds ratio: 1.69, 95% CI 0.79, 3.57; p = 0.17). Among those
      not suppressed at either timepoint, 69% (9/13) exhibited resistance mutations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Virologic outcomes among refugees and host nationals were similar
      but unacceptably low. Slight improvements were observed after a remedial
      intervention. Virologic monitoring was important for identifying an
      underperforming ART program in a remote facility that serves refugees alongside
      host nationals. This work highlights the importance of careful laboratory
      monitoring of vulnerable populations accessing ART in remote settings.

PMID- 28572842
TI  - Grid-based stochastic search for hierarchical gene-gene interactions in
      population-based genetic studies of common human diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Large-scale genetic studies of common human diseases have focused
      almost exclusively on the independent main effects of single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) on disease susceptibility. These studies have had some
      success, but much of the genetic architecture of common disease remains
      unexplained. Attention is now turning to detecting SNPs that impact disease
      susceptibility in the context of other genetic factors and environmental
      exposures. These context-dependent genetic effects can manifest themselves as non
      additive interactions, which are more challenging to model using parametric
      statistical approaches. The dimensionality that results from a multitude of
      genotype combinations, which results from considering many SNPs simultaneously,
      renders these approaches underpowered. We previously developed the multifactor
      dimensionality reduction (MDR) approach as a nonparametric and genetic model-free
      machine learning alternative. Approaches such as MDR can improve the power to
      detect gene-gene interactions but are limited in their ability to exhaustively
      consider SNP combinations in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), due to the
      combinatorial explosion of the search space. We introduce here a stochastic
      search algorithm called Crush for the application of MDR to modeling high-order
      gene-gene interactions in genome-wide data. The Crush-MDR approach uses expert
      knowledge to guide probabilistic searches within a framework that capitalizes on
      the use of biological knowledge to filter gene sets prior to analysis. Here we
      evaluated the ability of Crush-MDR to detect hierarchical sets of interacting
      SNPs using a biology-based simulation strategy that assumes non-additive
      interactions within genes and additivity in genetic effects between sets of genes
      within a biochemical pathway. RESULTS: We show that Crush-MDR is able to identify
      genetic effects at the gene or pathway level significantly better than a baseline
      random search with the same number of model evaluations. We then applied the same
      methodology to a GWAS for Alzheimer's disease and showed base level validation
      that Crush-MDR was able to identify a set of interacting genes with biological
      ties to Alzheimer's disease. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the role of stochastic
      search and cloud computing for detecting complex genetic effects in genome-wide
      data.

PMID- 28572844
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28572843
TI  - Malignant Struma ovarii in a 30-year old nulliparous patient.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Struma ovarii is a rare monodermal germ cell tumor where the ovary is
      comprised of at least half thyroid tissue. This phenomenon may indicate an
      embryological origin. CASE PRESENTATION: A 30-year old nulliparous woman
      presented with acute right lower quadrant pain and underwent laparoscopic right
      salpingo-oophorectomy. The excised ovarian mass showed evidence of struma-derived
      papillary thyroid carcinoma. Ultrasound of the thyroid showed mild enlargement
      with two solid nodules. A fine needle aspirate of a thyroid nodule was positive
      for malignancy and a total thyroidectomy was performed. Microscopic features of
      the thyroid were consistent with papillary thyroid carcinoma. The two tumours
      were considered as synchronous independent primaries based on their histological
      presentation. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that aggressive surgical management
      followed by radioiodine therapy is best to reduce recurrence risk and optimize
      survival. The broad scope of interventions needed to treat malignant struma
      ovarii require a strong interdisciplinary team.

PMID- 28572841
TI  - De novo assembly, functional annotation, and analysis of the giant reed (Arundo
      donax L.) leaf transcriptome provide tools for the development of a biofuel
      feedstock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arundo donax has attracted renewed interest as a potential candidate
      energy crop for use in biomass-to-liquid fuel conversion processes and
      biorefineries. This is due to its high productivity, adaptability to marginal
      land conditions, and suitability for biofuel and biomaterial production. Despite
      its importance, the genomic resources currently available for supporting the
      improvement of this species are still limited. RESULTS: We used RNA sequencing
      (RNA-Seq) to de novo assemble and characterize the A. donax leaf transcriptome.
      The sequencing generated 1249 million clean reads that were assembled using
      single-k-mer and multi-k-mer approaches into 62,596 unique sequences
      (unitranscripts) with an N50 of 1134 bp. TransDecoder and Trinotate software
      suites were used to obtain putative coding sequences and annotate them by mapping
      to UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot and UniRef90 databases, searching for known transcripts,
      proteins, protein domains, and signal peptides. Furthermore, the unitranscripts
      were annotated by mapping them to the NCBI non-redundant, GO and KEGG pathway
      databases using Blast2GO. The transcriptome was also characterized by BLAST
      searches to investigate homologous transcripts of key genes involved in important
      metabolic pathways, such as lignin, cellulose, purine, and thiamine biosynthesis
      and carbon fixation. Moreover, a set of homologous transcripts of key genes
      involved in stomatal development and of genes coding for stress-associated
      proteins (SAPs) were identified. Additionally, 8364 simple sequence repeat (SSR)
      markers were identified and surveyed. SSRs appeared more abundant in non-coding
      regions (63.18%) than in coding regions (36.82%). This SSR dataset represents the
      first marker catalogue of A. donax. 53 SSRs (PolySSRs) were then predicted to be
      polymorphic between ecotype-specific assemblies, suggesting genetic variability
      in the studied ecotypes. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first publicly
      available leaf transcriptome for the A. donax bioenergy crop. The functional
      annotation and characterization of the transcriptome will be highly useful for
      providing insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying its extreme
      adaptability. The identification of homologous transcripts involved in key
      metabolic pathways offers a platform for directing future efforts in genetic
      improvement of this species. Finally, the identified SSRs will facilitate the
      harnessing of untapped genetic diversity. This transcriptome should be of value
      to ongoing functional genomics and genetic studies in this crop of paramount
      economic importance.

PMID- 28572845
TI  - The Foundation of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (BESS).

PMID- 28572846
TI  - Legal and psychological considerations for obtaining informed consent for reverse
      total shoulder arthroplasty.
AB  - This paper seeks to outline recent legal developments and requirements pertinent
      to obtaining informed consent. We argue that this is of particular relevance to
      patients considering a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, due to the high
      complication rate associated with this procedure. By examining the cognitive
      processes involved in decision-making, and other clinician-related factors such
      as delivery of information, gender bias and conflict of interest, we explore some
      of the barriers that can undermine the processes of shared decision-making and
      obtaining genuine informed consent. We argue that these issues highlight the
      importance for surgeons in understanding the cognitive processes and other
      influential factors involved in patients' comprehension and decision-making. We
      recommend, based on strong evidence, that decision aids could prove useful in
      overcoming such challenges and could provide one way of mitigating the ethical,
      professional and legal consequences of failing to obtain proper informed consent.
      They are not widely used in orthopaedics at present, although it would be in the
      interests of both the surgeon and patient for such measures to be explored.

PMID- 28572847
TI  - Outcome of partial repair of massive rotator cuff tears with and without human
      tissue allograft bridging repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The surgical management of massive rotator cuff tears remains a
      challenge. It is suggested that, even in a massive tear that appears irreparable,
      attempting to repair it as much as possible can be helpful in improving
      functional outcomes. However the results can be short term and variable. The
      purpose of our study was to determine if human tissue allograft bridged repair of
      massive irreparable rotator cuff tears to achieve a complete repair produces
      similar outcomes compared to partial repair alone. METHODS: We prospectively
      reviewed outcome scores in 13 patients who underwent partial repair alone for
      massive irreparable rotator cuff tears and compared them to 13 patients who had
      partial repairs bridged with allograft. Oxford and Constant scores were compared
      pre-operatively and at a minimum follow-up of 2 years (range 2 years to 5 years).
      RESULTS: The mean improvement in the Constant score at final follow-up compared
      to pre-operative scores was 27.7 points in the partial repair group and 42.8
      points in the allograft group (p < 0.01). The Oxford Shoulder Score improved mean
      of 19.3 points in the partial repair group and 29 points in the allograft group
      (p < 0.02) at 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Human tissue matrix allograft provides a
      better outcome for open bridging of irreparable rotator cuff tears than partial
      repair alone.

PMID- 28572849
TI  - Ulnohumeral dislocation despite intact radiocapitellar joint: a rare Monteggia
      variant.
AB  - We treated one patient with a mid-diaphyseal radius fracture and concomitant
      anteromedial facet fracture of the coronoid. The ulnohumeral joint was severely
      unstable by complete ligament detachment and interosseous membrane rupture.
      Despite this gross instability, the radiocapitellar was congruent and stable. The
      possible mechanism of radiocapitellar stability is discussed and the concept of
      concavity-compression stability across the radiocapitellar joint is emphasized.

PMID- 28572848
TI  - Shoulder impingement syndrome: a systematic review of clinical trial participant
      selection criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS) is a common diagnosis for
      patients with pain and dysfunction of the shoulder. Variations in the signs and
      symptoms might lead to uncertainty regarding the definition of SIS. The aim of
      this review is to explore the participant selection criteria used in the
      literature when investigating SIS and to assess differences in criteria among
      treating professions. METHODS: This is a PRISMA systematic review of publications
      from 2009 to 2014 from MEDLINE, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus and
      CINAHL. RESULTS: Ninety-seven articles met inclusion criteria for this review.
      Twenty-five different surgical and nonsurgical treatments were investigated.
      Impingement-specific index tests were used in all studies. Exclusion index tests
      were used in 62% of studies. Twenty index tests were identified. Radiological
      investigations were reported in 53% of all studies, of which a further 53%
      reported using two or more radiological investigations. CONCLUSIONS: This
      systematic review has illustrated that studies investigating SIS test for various
      signs and symptoms, which is in keeping with describing the condition as a
      'syndrome'. However, there are inconsistencies in participant selection criteria
      between health disciplines, highlighting a need for harmonization of the
      selection criteria in the form of an international editorial consensus.

PMID- 28572850
TI  - The treatment of multidirectional instability of the shoulder with a
      rehabilitation programme: Part 2.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most commonly recommended initial treatment for multidirectional
      instability is a rehabilitation program. Although there is evidence to support
      the effect of conservative management on this condition, the published literature
      provides little information on the exercise parameters of such programs. METHODS:
      This paper is the second part of a two-part series that outlines a six-stage
      rehabilitation program for multidirectional instability with a focus on scapula
      control and exercise drills into functional positions. This paper outlines stages
      3 to 6 of this rehabilitation program. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: This clinical
      protocol is currently being tested for efficacy as part of a randomized
      controlled trial (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
      #ACTRN12613001240730). The information in this paper and additional online
      supplementary files will provide therapists with adequate detail to replicate the
      rehabilitation program in the clinical setting.

PMID- 28572851
TI  - The validity and reliability of ultrasound on identifying supraspinatus tears
      during passive external rotation from 0 degrees  to 30 degrees : a pilot project.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Controversy exists regarding how much external rotation should be
      allowed following rotator cuff repair. Clinicians may use ultrasound imaging
      (USI) to visualize the supraspinatus (SSp) tendon during passive external
      rotation. However, the validity and reliability of USI used to assess
      supraspinatus tendon gap formation during external rotation needs to be
      established prior to using this technique in patient cohorts. METHODS: Ten
      subjects with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmation of full-thickness SSp
      tears were matched to 10 control subjects. Images of the SSp were obtained at 0
      degrees , 10 degrees , 20 degrees  and 30 degrees  of external rotation by a
      blinded tester on two occasions to establish both validity and reliability of the
      measure. RESULTS: Validity was established as 70% agreement between the USI and
      MRI confirmed SSp tear group; reliability was established at greater than 0.90 at
      all positions of external rotation measured. CONCLUSIONS: USI may be used to
      detect SSp tears with 70% validity, and the technique is reliable in all
      positions of external rotation.

PMID- 28572853
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1177/1758573216652086.].

PMID- 28572854
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1177/1758573216666705.].

PMID- 28572852
TI  - Primary elbow arthroplasty: problems and solutions.
AB  - Prosthetic replacement of the elbow joint has continued to improve over time.
      Widespread implantation of certain designs has led to identification a few
      successful elements of elbow arthroplasty, as well as several opportunities for
      improvement. Current hot topics in elbow arthroplasty include triceps-preserving
      exposures, implantation of components with better-expected wear performance,
      management of the ulnar nerve, prevention of infection, and the development of
      successful cementless components. Total elbow arthroplasty has the potential to
      improve pain, function and quality of life for many patients with articular
      destruction secondary to inflammatory arthropathy or as a consequence of trauma.
      Continued advances in this field are key to make this operation as reliable and
      lasting as hip or knee arthroplasty.

PMID- 28572855
TI  - Skin autofluorescence, a non-invasive biomarker for advanced glycation end
      products, is associated with the metabolic syndrome and its individual
      components.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) comprises several cardiometabolic risk
      factors associated with increased risk for both type 2 diabetes and
      cardiovascular disease. Skin autofluorescence (SAF), a non-invasive biomarker of
      advanced glycation end products accumulation, is associated with cardiovascular
      complications in subjects with diabetes. The aim of the present study was to
      examine the association between SAF and the presence of MetS as well as its
      individual components in a general population. METHODS: For this cross-sectional
      analysis, we included 78,671 non-diabetic subjects between 18 and 80 years of age
      who participated in the LifeLines Cohort Study and had SAF measurement obtained
      non-invasively using the AGE Reader. MetS was defined according to the revised
      NCEP ATP III criteria. Students unpaired t test was used to test differences
      between groups. Both logistic and linear regression analyses were performed in
      order to test associations between the individual MetS components and SAF.
      RESULTS: Subjects with MetS had higher SAF (2.07 +/- 0.45 arbitrary units, AU)
      compared to individuals without MetS (1.89 +/- 0.42 AU) (p < 0.001). There was a
      positive association between the number of MetS components and higher SAF Z
      scores (p < 0.001). Individuals in the highest SAF tertile had a higher presence
      of MetS (OR 2.61; 95% CI 2.48-2.75) and some of the individual components
      compared to subjects in the lowest SAF tertile. After correction for age, gender,
      creatinine clearance, HbA1c and smoking status, only elevated blood pressure and
      low HDL cholesterol remained significantly associated with higher SAF (p = 0.002
      and p = 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSION: Skin autofluorescence was associated
      with the presence of MetS and some of its individual components. In addition,
      increasing SAF Z-scores were observed with a higher number of MetS components.
      Prospective studies are needed to establish whether SAF can be used as an
      (additional) screening tool to predict both cardiovascular disease and type 2
      diabetes in high-risk populations.

PMID- 28572857
TI  - Changes in health-related quality of life in elderly men after 12 weeks of
      strength training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Muscular strength is associated with functional ability in elderly,
      and older adults are recommended to perform muscle-strengthening exercise.
      Understanding how improved muscle strength and -mass influence general and
      specific domains of quality of life is important when planning health promotion
      efforts targeting older adults. The aims of the present study were to describe
      changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older men participating in
      12 weeks of systematic strength training, and to investigate whether improvements
      in muscle strength and muscle mass are associated with enhancements in HRQOL.
      METHODS: We recruited 49 men aged 60-81 years to participate in an intervention
      study with pre-post assessment. The participants completed a 12-week strength
      training program consisting of three sessions per week. Tests and measurements
      aimed at assessing change in HRQOL, and changes in physical performance (maximal
      strength) and physiological characteristics. HRQOL was measured using the 12-item
      short-form survey (SF-12). Muscle mass was assessed based on changes in lean mass
      (leg, trunk, arm, and total), and strength was measured as one-repetition maximum
      in leg extension, leg press, and biceps curl. RESULTS: Two of the eight HRQOL SF
      12 scores, role physical and general health, and the physical component summary
      scores, increased significantly during the intervention period. Small significant
      positive correlations were identified between improvements in muscle strength,
      and better physical and social function. Moreover, a significant increase in
      total muscle mass was seen during the intervention period. CONCLUSIONS: The
      positive, findings from this study would suggest that systematic strength
      training seems to be a beneficial intervention to improve HRQOL, muscle strength
      and muscle mass in older men.

PMID- 28572856
TI  - Unacylated ghrelin modulates circulating angiogenic cell number in insulin
      resistant states.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with reduced numbers and impaired
      function of circulating angiogenic cells (CAC) which contributes to the
      progression of atherosclerosis and microvascular disease. Previous studies
      suggest that short-term infusion of unacylated ghrelin (UAG) normalizes CAC
      number in patients with T2D. To determine dose-dependent effects of short-term
      infusion of UAG in T2D patients using a cross-over model, and of long-term
      infusion of UAG in obese mice, on differentiation of monocyte progenitors into
      CAC. METHODS: Eight overweight T2D patients were infused overnight with 3 and 10
      ug/kg/h of UAG in a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over study. To assess
      the effects of long-term UAG treatment, obese mice were infused with UAG for 4
      weeks. Monocyte progenitors were assessed for their ability to differentiate into
      CAC in vitro. RESULTS: In T2D patients, UAG treatment caused a reduction in
      differentiation of CAC, dependent on UAG dose and differentiation method.
      However, mice treated with UAG showed a significant increase in differentiation
      of bone marrow progenitors into CAC. CONCLUSION: UAG causes a minor suppressive
      effect on CAC development after short-term treatment in humans, but experiments
      in mice suggest that long-term treatment has beneficial effects on CAC formation.
      The Netherlands Trial Register: TC=2487.

PMID- 28572858
TI  - Determinants of Bullying at School Depending on the Type of Community: Ecological
      Analysis of Secondary Schools in Poland.
AB  - Ecological studies, when the school is the unit of analysis, may help to design
      and evaluate school intervention programs. The paper discusses selected
      contextual determinants of bullying, using data collected in Poland in 2015 and
      aggregated to school level (4085 students; 70 junior high schools). The main
      hypothesis is related to the neighborhood social capital as protective factor and
      the type of community as a modifier. The main dependent variable was the combined
      index of bullying which included three perspectives (victim, perpetrator,
      bystander). Student delinquent behavior was taken into account as potential
      determinant, along with selected characteristics of the school and neighborhood.
      The analyses were adjusted for the percentage of the surveyed boys. The overall
      bullying index ranged, depending on the school, from 0.88 to 4.07 points (out of
      12 possible); intraclass coefficient ICC = 2.8%. In the entire sample, the main
      predictors of bullying were student delinquent behaviors as a risk factor and the
      school social climate as a protective factor (R2 = 56.3%). The stratification of
      schools due to their location influences the inference regarding those main
      determinants. The dominating influence of delinquent behavior is visible only in
      big cities where bullying index showed the highest dispersion. In smaller towns
      and rural areas, the neighborhood social capital becomes an important protective
      factor; highly correlated with the school climate. We can conclude that strong
      social bonds in the community are supportive for school climate and can reduce
      the level of bullying at schools.

PMID- 28572859
TI  - Mental Health and School Functioning for Girls in the Child Welfare System: the
      Mediating Role of Future Orientation and School Engagement.
AB  - This study investigated the association between mental health problems and
      academic and behavioral school functioning for adolescent girls in the child
      welfare system and determined whether school engagement and future orientation
      meditated the relationship. Participants were 231 girls aged between 12 and 19
      who had been involved with the child welfare system. Results indicated that 39%
      of girls reported depressive symptoms in the clinical range and 54% reported
      posttraumatic symptoms in the clinical range. The most common school functioning
      problems reported were failing a class (41%) and physical fights with other
      students (35%). Participants reported a mean number of 1.7 school functioning
      problems. Higher levels of depression and PTSD were significantly associated with
      more school functioning problems. School engagement fully mediated the
      relationship between depression and school functioning and between PTSD and
      school functioning, both models controlling for age, race, and placement
      stability. Future orientation was not significantly associated with school
      functioning problems at the bivariate level. Findings suggest that school
      engagement is a potentially modifiable target for interventions aiming to
      ameliorate the negative influence of mental health problems on school functioning
      for adolescent girls with histories of abuse or neglect.

PMID- 28572860
TI  - Pulmonary microRNA profiling: implications in upper lobe predominant lung
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous pulmonary diseases manifest with upper lobe predominance
      including cystic fibrosis, smoking-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
      and tuberculosis. Zonal hypoxia, characteristic of these pulmonary maladies, and
      oxygen stress in general is known to exert profound effects on various important
      aspects of cell biology. Lung macrophages are major participants in the pulmonary
      innate immune response and regional differences in macrophage responsiveness to
      hypoxia may contribute in the development of lung disease. MicroRNAs are
      ubiquitous regulators of human biology and emerging evidence indicates altered
      microRNA expression modulates respiratory disease processes. The objective of
      this study is to gain insight into the epigenetic and cellular mechanisms
      influencing regional differences in lung disease by investigating effect of
      hypoxia on regional microRNA expression in the lung. All studies were performed
      using primary alveolar macrophages (n = 10) or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (n =
      16) isolated from human subjects. MicroRNA was assayed via the NanoString
      nCounter microRNA assay. RESULTS: Divergent molecular patterns of microRNA
      expression were observed in alternate lung lobes, specifically noted was
      disparate expression of miR-93 and miR-4454 in alveolar macrophages along with
      altered expression of miR-451a and miR-663a in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Gene
      ontology was used to identify potential downstream targets of divergent
      microRNAs. Targets include cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases, molecules
      that could have a significant impact on pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show variant regional microRNA expression associated
      with hypoxia in alveolar macrophages and BAL fluid in the lung-upper vs lower
      lobe. Future studies should address whether these specific microRNAs may act
      intracellularly, in a paracrine/endocrine manner to direct the innate immune
      response or may ultimately be involved in pulmonary host-to-pathogen trans
      kingdom cross-talk.

PMID- 28572862
TI  - Prognostic significance of LINE-1 hypomethylation in oropharyngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inclusion of new biomarkers to improve a personalized treatment
      approach for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is urgently needed.
      Hypomethylation of the Long interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) repetitive
      elements, a widely accepted surrogate of overall genomic DNA methylation content,
      was found to be associated with a poor prognosis in several cancers. At present,
      no studies have investigated the influence of LINE-1 methylation levels on OPSCC
      relapse. The main goal of this study was the evaluation of the prognostic value
      of LINE-1 methylation status in predicting early tumor relapse in locally
      advanced OPSCC. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed a cohort of 77 patients with
      stage III-IVB OPSCC. Methylation of LINE-1 repetitive sequences was evaluated by
      real-time quantitative methylation-specific PCR in formalin-fixed paraffin
      embedded tissues. The prognostic relevance of LINE-1 methylation was assessed by
      comparing patients who relapsed within 2 years from the end of treatment (cases)
      with those who did not (controls). Results were validated in an independent
      cohort of 33 patients with OPSCC. RESULTS: With respect to early OPSCC relapse,
      the mean LINE-1 methylation level was significantly lower in relapsed cases than
      in control group (p < 0.01). Interestingly, LINE-1 methylation was lower in
      relapsed cases than in controls in both HPV16-negative and HPV16-positive OPSCC
      patients, even if statistical significance was reached only for the former group
      (p = 0.01). LINE-1 methylation levels were also significantly reduced in relapsed
      cases with respect to the controls in OPSCC current smokers (p = 0.02).
      Consistently, in HPV16-negative current smokers, OPSCC relapse was significantly
      associated with decreased levels of LINE-1 methylation (p = 0.02). Using logistic
      regression model, we found that patients with hypomethylated LINE-1 were
      associated with a 3.5 higher risk of early relapse than hypermethylated ones (OR
      = 3.51; 95% CI 1.03-12.00). Adjustment for potential confounders did not
      substantially change the risk magnitude. Results from the validation cohort
      confirmed the lower LINE-1 methylation in patients who early relapsed compared to
      relapse-free patients. CONCLUSIONS: LINE-1 hypomethylation is associated with
      higher risk of early relapse in stage III-IVB OPSCC. Further validation in a
      prospective study is needed for its application in daily clinical practice.

PMID- 28572861
TI  - Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling integrated with gene expression profiling
      identifies PAX9 as a novel prognostic marker in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), epigenomic and genomic studies
      have expanded the existing knowledge about the disease biology and led to the
      identification of potential biomarkers relevant for implementation of
      personalized medicine. In this study, an attempt has been made to examine and
      integrate the global DNA methylation changes with gene expression profile and
      their impact on clinical outcome in early stage CLL patients. RESULTS: The
      integration of DNA methylation profile (n = 14) with the gene expression profile
      (n = 21) revealed 142 genes as hypermethylated-downregulated and; 62 genes as
      hypomethylated-upregulated in early stage CLL patients compared to CD19+ B-cells
      from healthy individuals. The mRNA expression levels of 17 genes identified to be
      differentially methylated and/or differentially expressed was further examined in
      early stage CLL patients (n = 93) by quantitative real time PCR (RQ-PCR).
      Significant differences were observed in the mRNA expression of MEIS1, PMEPA1,
      SOX7, SPRY1, CDK6, TBX2, and SPRY2 genes in CLL cells as compared to B-cells from
      healthy individuals. The analysis in the IGHV mutation based categories
      (Unmutated = 39, Mutated = 54) revealed significantly higher mRNA expression of
      CRY1 and PAX9 genes in the IGHV unmutated subgroup (p < 0.001). The relative risk
      of treatment initiation was significantly higher among patients with high
      expression of CRY1 (RR = 1.91, p = 0.005) or PAX9 (RR = 1.87, p = 0.001). High
      expression of CRY1 (HR: 3.53, p < 0.001) or PAX9 (HR: 3.14, p < 0.001) gene was
      significantly associated with shorter time to first treatment. The high
      expression of PAX9 gene (HR: 3.29, 95% CI 1.172-9.272, p = 0.016) was also
      predictive of shorter overall survival in CLL. CONCLUSIONS: The DNA methylation
      changes associated with mRNA expression of CRY1 and PAX9 genes allow risk
      stratification of early stage CLL patients. This comprehensive analysis supports
      the concept that the epigenetic changes along with the altered expression of
      genes have the potential to predict clinical outcome in early stage CLL patients.

PMID- 28572864
TI  - Time-to-Boundary Function to Study the Development of Upright Stance Control in
      Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The development of postural control across the primary school time
      horizon is a complex process, which entails biomechanics modifications, the
      maturation of cognitive ability and sensorimotor organization, and the emergence
      of anticipatory behaviour. Postural stability in upright stance has been thus
      object of a multiplicity of studies to better characterize postural control in
      this age span, with a variety of methodological approaches. The analysis of the
      Time-to-Boundary function (TtB), which specifies the spatiotemporal proximity of
      the Centre of Pressure (CoP) to the stability boundaries in the regulation of
      posture in upright stance, is among the techniques used to better characterize
      postural stability in adults, but, as of now, it has not yet been introduced in
      developmental studies. The aim of this study was thus to apply this technique to
      evaluate the development of postural control in a sample population of primary
      school children. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, upright stance trials
      under eyes open and eyes closed were administered to 107 healthy children,
      divided into three age groups (41 for Seven Years' Group, Y7; 38 for Nine Years'
      Group, Y9; 28 for Eleven Years' Group, Y11). CoP data were recorded to calculate
      the Time-to-Boundary function (TtB), from which four spatio-temporal parameters
      were extracted: the mean value and the standard deviation of TtB minima (Mmin,
      Stdmin), and the mean value and the standard deviation of the temporal distance
      between two successive minima (Mdist, Stddist). RESULTS: With eyes closed, Mmin
      and Stdmin significantly decreased and Mdist and Stddist increased for the Y7
      group, at Y9 Mmin significantly decreased and Stddist increased, while no effect
      of vision resulted for Y11. Regarding age groups, Mmin was significantly higher
      for Y9 than Y7, and Stdmin for Y9 was higher than both Y7 and Y11; Mdist and
      Stddist resulted higher for Y11 than for Y9. CONCLUSION: From the combined
      results from the spatio-temporal TtB parameters, it is suggested that, at 9
      years, children look more efficient in terms of exploring their limits of
      stability than at 7, and at 11 the observed TtB behaviour hints at the
      possibility that, at that age, they have almost completed the maturation of
      postural control in upright stance, also in terms of integration of the spatio
      temporal information.

PMID- 28572865
TI  - Electrocardiographic Changes After Suicidal Digoxin Intoxication in a Healthy
      Woman.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Suicidal digoxin intoxication is a rare clinical entity. Clinical
      suspicious remains of paramount importance as adequate interpretation of the
      electrocardiographic changes enable to readily initiate treatment. METHOD: We
      describe a case of suicidal attempt after massive digoxin intake that was
      satisfactory managed with conservative management strategy that involved a close
      clinical surveillance of the evolving electrocardiographic changes and digoxin
      serum levels.

PMID- 28572863
TI  - Epi-drugs in combination with immunotherapy: a new avenue to improve anticancer
      efficacy.
AB  - Immune checkpoint factors, such as programmed cell death protein-1/2 (PD-1, PD-2)
      or cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) receptors, are targets
      for monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) developed for cancer immunotherapy. Indeed,
      modulating immune inhibitory pathways has been considered an important
      breakthrough in cancer treatment. Although immune checkpoint blockade therapy
      used to treat malignant diseases has provided promising results, both solid and
      haematological malignancies develop mechanisms that enable themselves to evade
      the host immune system. To overcome some major limitations and ensure safety in
      patients, recent strategies have shown that combining epigenetic modulators, such
      as inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACi) or DNA methyltransferases (DNMTi),
      with immunotherapeutics can be useful. Preclinical data generated using mouse
      models strongly support the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed
      approaches. Indeed, co-treatment with pan- or class I-selective HDACi or DNMTi
      improved beneficial outcomes in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Based on the
      evidence of a pivotal role for HDACi and DNMTi in modulating various components
      belonging to the immune system, recent clinical trials have shown that both HDACi
      and DNMTi strongly augmented response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in different
      tumour types. This review describes the current strategies to increase
      immunotherapy responses, the effects of HDACi and DNMTi on immune modulation, and
      the advantages of combinatorial therapy over single-drug treatment.

PMID- 28572867
TI  - Prolaris Cell Cycle Progression Test for Localized Prostate Cancer: A Health
      Technology Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is very common and many localized tumours are non
      aggressive. Determining which cancers are aggressive is important for choosing
      the most appropriate treatment (e.g., surgery, radiation, active surveillance).
      Current clinical risk stratification is reliable in forecasting the prognosis of
      groups of men with similar clinical and pathologic characteristics, but there is
      residual uncertainty at the individual level. The Prolaris cell cycle progression
      (CCP) test, a genomic test that estimates how fast tumour cells are
      proliferating, could potentially be used to improve the accuracy of individual
      risk assessment. This health technology assessment sought to determine the
      clinical utility, economic impact, and patients' perceptions of the value of the
      CCP test in low- and intermediate-risk localized prostate cancer. METHODS: We
      conducted a systematic review of the clinical and economic evidence of the CCP
      test in low-and intermediate-risk, localized prostate cancer. Medical and health
      economic databases were searched from 2010 to June or July 2016. The critical
      appraisal of the clinical evidence included risk of bias and the Grading of
      Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group
      criteria. We also analyzed the potential budget impact of adding the CCP test
      into current practice, from the perspective the Ontario Ministry of Health and
      Long-Term Care. Finally, we conducted qualitative interviews with men with
      prostate cancer, on the factors that influenced their treatment decision-making.
      RESULTS: For the review of clinical effectiveness, we screened 3,021 citations,
      and two before-after studies met our inclusion criteria. In one study, the
      results of the CCP test appeared to change the treatment plan (from initial to
      final plan) in 64.9% of cases overall (GRADE rating of the quality of evidence:
      Very low). In the other study, the CCP test changed the treatment received in
      nearly half of cases overall, compared with the initial plan (GRADE: Very low).
      No evidence was available on clinical outcomes of patients whose treatment was
      informed by CCP results. For the review of cost-effectiveness, 100 citations were
      identified and screened. No studies met the inclusion criteria. In our economic
      evaluation, we estimated that publicly funding the CCP test would result in a
      total net budget impact of $41.3 million in the first 5 years, mostly due to the
      cost of the CCP test. In our model, the relatively small cost savings ($7.3
      million) due to treatment change (increased use of active surveillance and
      decreased use of interventional treatment) was not large enough to offset the
      high cost of the test. Patients viewed the test as potentially helpful but, due
      to the complexity of treatment decision-making, were unsure the test would
      ultimately change their treatment choices. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence to
      demonstrate the impact of the Prolaris CCP test on patient-important clinical
      outcomes. The limited evidence available shows that the test appears to provide
      information that, when considered in addition to clinical risk stratification,
      may change the treatment plan or actual treatment for some low- and intermediate
      risk prostate cancer patients. As a result, there is insufficient data to inform
      the cost-effectiveness of the CCP test. Publicly funding the CCP test would
      result in a large incremental cost to the provincial budget.

PMID- 28572866
TI  - Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Health
      Technology Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: About 15% to 25% of people with diabetes will develop a foot ulcer.
      These wounds are often resistant to healing; therefore, people with diabetes
      experience lower limb amputation at about 20 times the rate of people without
      diabetes. If an ulcer does not heal with standard wound care, other therapeutic
      interventions are offered, one of which is hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
      However, the effectiveness of this therapy is not clearly known. The objectives
      of this health technology assessment were to assess the safety, clinical
      effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of standard wound care plus HBOT versus
      standard wound care alone for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. We also
      investigated the preferences and perspectives of people with diabetic foot ulcers
      through lived experience. METHODS: We performed a review of the clinical and
      economic literature for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of hyperbaric
      oxygen therapy, as well as the budget impact of HBOT from the perspective of the
      Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. We assessed the quality of the body of
      clinical evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development,
      and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group criteria. To better understand the
      preferences, perspectives, and values of patients with diabetic foot ulcers and
      their experience with HBOT, we conducted interviews and administered an online
      survey. RESULTS: Seven randomized controlled trials and one nonrandomized
      controlled trial met the inclusion criteria. Comparing standard wound care plus
      HBOT with standard wound care alone, we found mixed results for major amputation
      rates (GRADE quality of evidence: low), a significant difference in favour of
      standard wound care plus HBOT on ulcers healed (GRADE quality of evidence: low),
      and no difference in terms of adverse events (GRADE quality of evidence:
      moderate). There is a large degree of uncertainty associated with the evaluation
      of the cost-effectiveness of standard wound care plus HBOT. However, results
      appear to suggest that this treatment results in lower costs and better outcomes
      than standard wound care alone. Funding HBOT will result in a budget impact of $4
      million per year in immediate treatment costs for the Ontario Ministry of Health
      and Long-Term Care. This cost decreases to $0.5 million per year when downstream
      costs are considered. There is a substantial daily burden of care and emotional
      weight associated with living with diabetic foot ulcers, both of which are
      compounded by concern regarding possible amputation. Patients feel that HBOT is
      an effective treatment and reported that they were satisfied with how their
      ulcers healed and that this improved their quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The
      evidence makes it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions on the clinical
      and cost effectiveness of standard wound care plus HBOT versus standard wound
      care alone for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.

PMID- 28572869
TI  - COVARIATE-ADAPTIVE CLUSTERING OF EXPOSURES FOR AIR POLLUTION EPIDEMIOLOGY
      COHORTS.
AB  - Cohort studies in air pollution epidemiology aim to establish associations
      between health outcomes and air pollution exposures. Statistical analysis of such
      associations is complicated by the multivariate nature of the pollutant exposure
      data as well as the spatial misalignment that arises from the fact that exposure
      data are collected at regulatory monitoring network locations distinct from
      cohort locations. We present a novel clustering approach for addressing this
      challenge. Specifically, we present a method that uses geographic covariate
      information to cluster multi-pollutant observations and predict cluster
      membership at cohort locations. Our predictive k-means procedure identifies
      centers using a mixture model and is followed by multi-class spatial prediction.
      In simulations, we demonstrate that predictive k-means can reduce
      misclassification error by over 50% compared to ordinary k-means, with minimal
      loss in cluster representativeness. The improved prediction accuracy results in
      large gains of 30% or more in power for detecting effect modification by cluster
      in a simulated health analysis. In an analysis of the NIEHS Sister Study cohort
      using predictive k-means, we find that the association between systolic blood
      pressure (SBP) and long-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure varies
      significantly between different clusters of PM2.5 component profiles. Our cluster
      based analysis shows that for subjects assigned to a cluster located in the
      Midwestern U.S., a 10 MUg/m3 difference in exposure is associated with 4.37 mmHg
      (95% CI, 2.38, 6.35) higher SBP.

PMID- 28572868
TI  - Prostate Cancer Patient Perspectives on the Use of Information in Treatment
      Decision-Making: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Meta-synthesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Men with low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer are typically
      asked to choose from a variety of treatment options, including active
      surveillance, radical prostatectomy, or brachytherapy. The Prolaris cell cycle
      progression test is intended to provide additional information on personal risk
      status to assist men with prostate cancer in their choice of treatment. To assist
      with assessing that new technology, this report synthesizes qualitative research
      on how men with prostate cancer use information to make decisions about treatment
      options. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis
      to retrieve and synthesize findings across primary qualitative studies that
      report on patient perspectives during prostate cancer treatment decision-making.
      RESULTS: Of 8,610 titles and abstracts reviewed, 29 studies are included in this
      report. Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer express that their information
      seeking pathway extends beyond the medical information received from their health
      care provider. They access other social resources to attain additional medical
      information, lived-experience information, and medical administrative information
      to help support their final treatment decision. Men value privacy, trust,
      honesty, control, power, organization, and open communication during interactions
      with their health care providers. They also emphasize the importance of gaining
      comfort with their treatment choice, having a chance to confirm their health care
      provider's recommendations (validation of treatment plan), and exercising their
      preferred level of independence in the treatment decision-making process.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although each prostate cancer patient is unique, studies suggest
      that most patients seek extensive information to help inform their treatment
      decisions. This may happen before, during, and after the treatment choice is
      made. Given the amount of information patients may access, it is important that
      they also establish the trustworthiness of the various types and sources of
      information. When information conflicts, patients may be unsure about how to
      proceed. Open collaboration between patients and their health care providers can
      help patients manage and navigate their concerns so that their values and
      perspectives are captured in their treatment choices.

PMID- 28572870
TI  - Positively and Negatively Charged Cesium and (C60) m Cs n Cluster Ions.
AB  - We report on the formation and ionization of cesium and C60Cs clusters in
      superfluid helium nanodroplets. Size distributions of positively and negatively
      charged (C60) m Cs n+/- ions have been measured for m <= 7, n <= 12. Reproducible
      intensity anomalies are observed in high-resolution mass spectra. For both charge
      states, (C60) m Cs3+/- and (C60) m Cs5+/- are particularly abundant, with little
      dependence on the value of m. Distributions of bare cesium cluster ions also
      indicate enhanced stability of Cs3+/- and Cs5+/-, in agreement with theoretical
      predictions. These findings contrast with earlier reports on highly Cs-doped
      cationic fullerene aggregates which showed enhanced stability of C60Cs6 building
      blocks attributed to charge transfer. The dependence of the (C60) m Cs3- anion
      yield on electron energy shows a resonance that, surprisingly, oscillates in
      strength as m increases from 1 to 6.

PMID- 28572871
TI  - Comparison of Body Composition Measurements Using a New Caliper, Two Established
      Calipers, Hydrostatic Weighing, and BodPod.
AB  - PURPOSES: (1) To compare the Lafayette Instruments (LI) skinfold caliper to the
      Lange (L) and Harpenden (H) calipers using a diverse subject population. (2) To
      determine the validity of the LI caliper in a subset of subjects by comparing
      body compositions from skinfold thicknesses to those measured by hydrostatic
      weighing (HW) and air displacement plethysmography (ADP). (3) To compare
      measurements obtained by experienced (EX) and inexperienced (IX) technicians
      using all three calipers. METHODS: Skinfold measurements were performed by both
      EX and IX technicians using three different calipers on 21 younger (21.2 +/- 1.5
      yrs) and 20 older (59.2 +/- 4 yrs) subjects. Body compositions were calculated
      using the Jackson-Pollock seven-site and three-site formulas. HW and ADP tests
      were performed on a subset of subjects (10 younger, 10 older). RESULTS: No
      significant differences existed between LI and L or H when measurements were made
      by EX. Further, the LI-EX measurements were highly correlated to both H-EX and L
      EX. No significant differences existed in the subgroup between LI-EX and HW or
      ADP. Skinfold determinations made by EX and IX were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Similar
      body compositions determined using LI, H, and L suggest that LI determines body
      composition as effectively as H and L. High correlations between the three
      calipers support this notion. Similar results between LI and HW/ADP subgroup
      suggest that the LI caliper may be a valid method of measuring body composition.
      Overall, performance by IX was similar to EX and suggests similar ease of use for
      all three calipers.

PMID- 28572873
TI  - FOOD IMAGE ANALYSIS: SEGMENTATION, IDENTIFICATION AND WEIGHT ESTIMATION.
AB  - We are developing a dietary assessment system that records daily food intake
      through the use of food images taken at a meal. The food images are then analyzed
      to extract the nutrient content in the food. In this paper, we describe the image
      analysis tools to determine the regions where a particular food is located (image
      segmentation), identify the food type (feature classification) and estimate the
      weight of the food item (weight estimation). An image segmentation and
      classification system is proposed to improve the food segmentation and
      identification accuracy. We then estimate the weight of food to extract the
      nutrient content from a single image using a shape template for foods with
      regular shapes and area-based weight estimation for foods with irregular shapes.

PMID- 28572874
TI  - Association of trainee participation with adenoma and polyp detection rates.
AB  - AIM: To investigate whether adenoma and polyp detection rates (ADR and PDR,
      respectively) in screening colonoscopies performed in the presence of fellows
      differ from those performed by attending physicians alone. METHODS: We performed
      a retrospective review of all patients who underwent a screening colonoscopy at
      Grady Memorial Hospital between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2015. Patients with a
      history of colon polyps or cancer and those with poor colon preparation or failed
      cecal intubation were excluded from the analysis. Associations of fellowship
      training level with the ADR and PDR relative to attendings alone were assessed
      using unconditional multivariable logistic regression. Models were adjusted for
      sex, age, race, and colon preparation quality. RESULTS: A total of 7503
      colonoscopies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The
      mean age of the study patients was 58.2 years; 63.1% were women and 88.2% were
      African American. The ADR was higher in the fellow participation group overall
      compared to that in the attending group: 34.5% vs 30.7% (P = 0.001), and for
      third year fellows it was 35.4% vs 30.7% (aOR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.09-1.39). The
      higher ADR in the fellow participation group was evident for both the right and
      left side of the colon. For the PDR the corresponding figures were 44.5% vs 40.1%
      (P = 0.0003) and 45.7% vs 40.1% (aOR = 1.25, 95%CI: 1.12-1.41). The ADR and PDR
      increased with increasing fellow training level (P for trend < 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      There is a stepwise increase in ADR and PDR across the years of gastroenterology
      training. Fellow participation is associated with higher adenoma and polyp
      detection.

PMID- 28572872
TI  - Small Dense Low-Density Lipoprotein as Biomarker for Atherosclerotic Diseases.
AB  - Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) plays a key role in the development and progression
      of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. LDL consists of several subclasses
      of particles with different sizes and densities, including large buoyant (lb) and
      intermediate and small dense (sd) LDLs. It has been well documented that sdLDL
      has a greater atherogenic potential than that of other LDL subfractions and that
      sdLDL cholesterol (sdLDL-C) proportion is a better marker for prediction of
      cardiovascular disease than that of total LDL-C. Circulating sdLDL readily
      undergoes multiple atherogenic modifications in blood plasma, such as
      desialylation, glycation, and oxidation, that further increase its
      atherogenicity. Modified sdLDL is a potent inductor of inflammatory processes
      associated with cardiovascular disease. Several laboratory methods have been
      developed for separation of LDL subclasses, and the results obtained by different
      methods can not be directly compared in most cases. Recently, the development of
      homogeneous assays facilitated the LDL subfraction analysis making possible large
      clinical studies evaluating the significance of sdLDL in the development of
      cardiovascular disease. Further studies are needed to establish guidelines for
      sdLDL evaluation and correction in clinical practice.

PMID- 28572875
TI  - Nerve preserving vs standard laparoscopic sacropexy: Postoperative bowel
      function.
AB  - AIM: To compare our developed nerve preserving technique with the non-nerve
      preserving one in terms of de novo bowel symptoms. METHODS: Patients affected by
      symptomatic apical prolapse, admitted to our department and treated by nerve
      preserving laparoscopic sacropexy (LSP) between October, 2010 and April, 2013
      (Group A or "interventional group") were compared to those treated with the
      standard LSP, between September, 2007 and December, 2009 (Group B or "control
      group"). Functional and anatomical data were recorded prospectively at the first
      clinical review, at 1, 6 mo, and every postsurgical year. Questionnaires were
      filled in by the patients at each follow-up clinical evaluation. RESULTS: Forty
      three women were enrolled, 25/43 were treated by our nerve preserving technique
      and 18/43 by the standard one. The data from the interventional group were
      collected at a similar follow-up (> 18 mo) as those collected for the control
      group. No cases of de novo bowel dysfunction were observed in group A against 4
      cases in group B (P = 0.02). Obstructed defecation syndrome (ODS) was highlighted
      by an increase in specific questionnaires scores and documented by the anorectal
      manometry. There were no cases of de novo constipation in the two groups. No
      major intraoperative complications were reported for our technique and it took no
      longer than the standard procedure. Apical recurrence and late complications were
      comparable in the two groups. CONCLUSION: Our nerve preserving technique seems
      superior in terms of prevention of de novo bowel dysfunction compared to the
      standard one and had no major intraoperative complications.

PMID- 28572876
TI  - Adult intussusception: A case series and review.
AB  - AIM: To identify factors differentiating pathologic adult intussusception (AI)
      from benign causes and the need for an operative intervention. Current evidence
      available from the literature is discussed. METHODS: This is a case series of
      eleven patients over the age of 18 and a surgical consultation for
      "Intussusception" at a single veteran's hospital over a five-year period (2011
      2016). AI was diagnosed on computed tomography (CT) scan and or flexible
      endoscopy (colonoscopy). Surgical referrals were from the emergency room,
      endoscopy suites and the radiologists. RESULTS: A total of 11 cases, 9 males and
      2 females were diagnosed with AI. Median age was 58 years. Abdominal pain and
      change in bowel habits were most common symptoms. CT scan and or colonoscopy
      diagnosed AI, in ten/eleven (90%) patients. There were 6 small bowel-small bowel,
      4 ileocecal, and 1 sigmoid-rectal AI. 8 patients (72%) needed an operation. Bowel
      resection was required and definitive pathology was diagnosed in 7 patients
      (63%). Five patients had malignant and 2 patients had benign etiology. Small
      bowel enteroscopy excluded pathology in 4 cases (37%) with AI. Younger patients
      tend to have a benign diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Majority of AI have malignant
      etiology however idiopathic intussusception is being seen more frequently.
      Operative intervention remains the mainstay however, certain small bowel
      intussusception especially in younger patients may be a benign, physiological,
      transient phenomenon and laparoscopy with reduction or watchful waiting may be an
      acceptable strategy. These patients should undergo endoscopic or capsule
      endoscopy to exclude intrinsic luminal lesions.

PMID- 28572877
TI  - Does music reduce anxiety and discomfort during flexible sigmoidoscopy? A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the role of music in reducing anxiety and discomfort during
      flexible sigmoidoscopy. METHODS: A systematic review of all comparative studies
      up to November 2016, without language restriction that were identified from
      MEDLINE and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (1960-2016), and EMBASE (1991
      2016). Further searches were performed using the bibliographies of articles and
      abstracts from major conferences such as the ESCP, NCRI, ASGBI and ASCRS. MeSH
      and text word terms used included "sigmoidoscopy", "music" and "endoscopy" and
      "anxiety". All comparative studies reporting on the effect of music on anxiety or
      pain during flexible sigmoidoscopy, in adults, were included. Outcome data was
      extracted by 2 authors independently using outcome measures defined a priori.
      Quality assessment was performed. RESULTS: A total of 4 articles published
      between 1994 and 2010, fulfilled the selection criteria. Data were extracted and
      analysed using OpenMetaAnalyst. Patients who listened to music during their
      flexible sigmoidoscopy had less anxiety compared to control groups [Random
      effects; SMD: 0.851 (0.467, 1.235), S.E = 0.196, P < 0.001]. There was no
      statistically significant heterogeneity (Q = 0.085, df = 1, P = 0.77, I2 = 0).
      Patients who listened to music during their flexible sigmoidoscopy had less pain
      compared to those who did not, but this difference did not reach statistical
      significance [Random effects; SMD: 0.345 (-0.014, 0.705), S.E = 0.183, P = 0.06].
      Patients who listened to music during their flexible sigmoidoscopy felt it was a
      useful intervention, compared to those who did not (P < 0.001). There was no
      statistically significant heterogeneity (P = 0.528, I2 = 0). CONCLUSION: Music
      appeared to benefit patients undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopies in relation to
      anxiety and was deemed a helpful intervention. Pain may also be reduced however
      further investigation is required to ascertain this.

PMID- 28572878
TI  - Successful endoscopic treatment of an intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile
      duct.
AB  - We present a case of a 76-year-old man with right upper quadrant abdominal pain
      and weight loss, who was found to have an intraductal papillary neoplasm of the
      bile duct (IPNB) of the pancreaticobiliary subtype, deemed curatively resectable.
      The patient declined surgery and opted for endoscopic therapy. He underwent two
      sessions of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)-guided
      radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Ten months later, no evidence of recurrence was
      identified on repeat ERCP. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of
      successful use of RFA as a primary treatment modality for resectable IPNB.

PMID- 28572879
TI  - Effects of glycaemic management on diabetic kidney disease.
AB  - Hyperglycaemia contributes to the onset and progression of diabetic kidney
      disease (DKD). Observational studies have not consistently demonstrated a glucose
      threshold, in terms of HbA1c levels, for the onset of DKD. Tight glucose control
      has clearly been shown to reduce the incidence of micro- or macroalbuminuria.
      However, evidence is now also emerging to suggest that intensive glucose control
      can slow glomerular filtration rate loss and possibly progression to end stage
      kidney disease. Achieving tight glucose control needs to be balanced against the
      increasing appreciation that glucose targets for the prevention of diabetes
      related complications need be individualised for each patient. Recently,
      empagliflozin which is an oral glucose lowering agent of the sodium glucose
      cotransporter-2 inhibitor class has been shown to have renal protective effects.
      However, the magnitude of empagliflozin's reno-protective properties are over and
      above that expected from its glucose lowering effects and most likely largely
      result from mechanisms involving alterations in intra-renal haemodynamics.
      Liraglutide and semaglutide, both injectable glucose lowering agents which are
      analogues of human glucagon like peptide-1 have also been shown to reduce
      progression to macroalbuminuria through mechanisms that remain to be fully
      elucidated. Here we review the evidence from observational and interventional
      studies that link good glucose control with improved renal outcomes. We also
      briefly review the potential reno-protective effects of newer glucose lowering
      agents.

PMID- 28572880
TI  - Effect of medicinal mushrooms on blood cells under conditions of diabetes
      mellitus.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the third most common non-infectious disease leading to
      early disability and high mortality. Moreover, the number of patients is growing
      every year. The main symptom of DM is hyperglycemia. Increased levels of blood
      glucose activate polyol, hexosamine, and protein kinase metabolic pathways cause
      the intensification of non-enzymatic glycosylation and nitration of
      macromolecules. This, in turn, leads to the development of oxidative and
      nitrative stresses and secondary complications, such as different kinds of micro-
      and macroangiopathies. Metabolic disorders caused by insulin deficiency in
      diabetes significantly impede the functioning of a homeostasis system, which
      change the physical, biochemical, morphological, and functional properties of
      blood cells. As a result, the oxygen-transport function of red blood cells
      (RBCs), rheological properties of the blood, and functions of immunocompetent
      cells as well as the process of apoptosis are primarily affected. Modern
      pharmacotherapy focuses on the search for new preparations that aim to decrease
      blood glucose levels. Undesirable side effects and adverse reactions caused by
      synthetic medicines led to the search and investigation of new preparations of
      natural origin. Medicinal mushrooms play an important role among such new
      preparations. They are a source of a large number of high- and low-molecular
      compounds with pronounced biological effects. Our investigations show pronounced
      hypoglycemic and anti-anemic action of submerged cultivated mycelium powder of
      medicinal mushrooms Agaricus brasiliensis (A. brasiliensis) and Ganoderma lucidum
      (G. lucidum) on streptozotocin-induced DM in rats. Also, we showed that mycelium
      powders have membrane protective properties as evidenced by the redistribution of
      RBC populations towards the growth of full functional cell numbers. Normalization
      of parameters of leukocyte formula and suppression of apoptosis of white blood
      cells in diabetic rats treated with A. brasiliensis and G. lucidum mycelia
      indicates pronounced positive effects of these strains of mushrooms. Thus, the
      use of medicinal mushrooms for treatment of DM and in prevention development of
      its secondary complications might be a new effective approach of this disease's
      cure. This article is aimed at summarizing and analyzing the literature data and
      basic achievements concerning DM type 1 treatment using medicinal mushrooms and
      showing the results obtained in our research.

PMID- 28572881
TI  - Association between dairy intake, lipids and vascular structure and function in
      diabetes.
AB  - AIM: To determine lipid species that change in response to a change in dairy
      consumption. In addition, to investigate whether dairy associated lipid species
      are correlated with changes in measures of vascular structure and function.
      METHODS: A 12-mo randomised controlled trial was conducted to determine the
      effect of increased consumption of fruit, vegetables and dairy, compared to usual
      diet, on measures of vascular structure and function in adults with type 1 and
      type 2 diabetes (n = 108). This paper comprises post-hoc analyses investigating
      the relationship between dairy intake, serum lipid species and vascular health.
      Central and peripheral blood pressure, carotid femoral pulse wave velocity,
      augmentation index, serum lipid species and dietary intake were measured at
      baseline and 3-mo. Common carotid artery intima media thickness was measured at
      baseline and 12-mo. RESULTS: Serum lipid species [lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC)
      14:0, LPC 15:0, LPC 16:1, phosphatidylcholine (PC) 29:0 PC 30:0, PC 31:0 and
      cholesterol ester (CE) 14:0] were associated with the change in full fat dairy
      consumption (rho 0.19-0.25; P < 0.05). The 3-mo change in some lipids was
      positively associated with the 3-mo change in central systolic [LPC 14:0 (rho
      0.30; P = 0.007), PC 30:0 (rho 0.28; P = 0.010)] and diastolic blood pressure
      [LPC 14:0 (rho 0.32; P = 0.004), LPC 15:0 (rho 0.23; P = 0.04), LPC 16:1 (rho
      0.23; P = 0.035), PC 29:0 (rho 0.28; P = 0.01), PC 30:0 (rho 0.36; P = 0.001), PC
      31:0 (rho 0.30; P = 0.007)] and 12-mo change in common carotid artery intimal
      medial thickness [CE 14:0 (rho 0.22; P = 0.02)]. Pulse wave velocity and
      augmentation index were unrelated to dairy and lipid species. CONCLUSION: An
      increase in dairy associated lipids appears to be associated with an increase in
      blood pressure and common carotid intimal medial thickness.

PMID- 28572882
TI  - Nonsurgical periodontal-therapy improves glycosylated hemoglobin levels in pre
      diabetic patients with chronic periodontitis.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the effect of nonsurgical periodontal therapy on glycosylated
      haemoglobin levels in pre-diabetic patients with chronic periodontitis (CHP).
      METHODS: Sixty pre-diabetic patients with CHP were selected and equally allocated
      to case and control group. All subjects were evaluated at base line for
      periodontal parameters (plaque index, oral hygiene index, modified gingival
      index, probing pocket depth, clinical attachment level) and systemic parameters
      [glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting lipid profile, and fasting blood
      glucose]. The case group received non-surgical periodontal therapy. Subjects were
      re-evaluated for periodontal and systemic parameters after three months. RESULTS:
      Both groups were comparable at baseline. Three months after non surgical
      periodontal therapy (NSPT), there was significant improvement in periodontal
      parameters in case group. The mean difference in systemic parameters like HbA1c
      and fasting plasma glucose from baseline to fourth month for case group was 0.22
      +/- 0.11 and 3.90 +/- 8.48 respectively and control group was -0.056 +/- 0.10 and
      -1.66 +/- 6.04 respectively, which was significant between case and control group
      (P < 0.05). In the case group there was a significant decrease in HbA1c from
      baseline to three months following NSPT (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study showed
      that periodontal inflammation could affect the glycemic control in otherwise
      systemically healthy individuals. Periodontal therapy improved periodontal health
      status and decreased glycosylated haemoglobin levels, thus reducing the
      probability of occurrence of inflammation induced prediabetes in patients with
      CHP.

PMID- 28572883
TI  - Impact of creatinine methodology on glomerular filtration rate estimation in
      diabetes.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the influence of creatinine methodology on the performance of
      chronic kidney disease (CKD)-Epidemiology Collaboration Group-calculated
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (CKD-EPI-eGFR) for CKD diagnosis/staging in
      a large cohort of diabetic patients. METHODS: Fasting blood samples were taken
      from diabetic patients attending our clinic for their regular annual examination,
      including laboratory measurement of serum creatinine and eGFR. RESULTS: Our
      results indicated an overall excellent agreement in CKD staging (kappa = 0.918)
      between the Jaffe serum creatinine- and enzymatic serum creatinine-based CKD-EPI
      eGFR, with 9% of discordant cases. As compared to the enzymatic creatinine, the
      majority of discordances (8%) were positive, i.e., associated with the more
      advanced CKD stage re-classification, whereas only 1% of cases were negatively
      discordant if Jaffe creatinine was used for eGFR calculation. A minor proportion
      of the discordant cases (3.5%) were re-classified into clinically relevant CKD
      stage indicating mildly to moderately decreased kidney function (< 60 mL/min per
      1.73 m2). Significant acute and chronic hyperglycaemia, assessed as plasma
      glucose and HbA1c levels far above the recommended glycaemic goals, was
      associated with positively discordant cases. Due to a very low frequency,
      positive discordance is not likely to present a great burden for the health-care
      providers, while intensified medical care may actually be beneficial for the
      small number of discordant patients. On the other hand, a very low proportion of
      negatively discordant cases (1%) at the 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 eGFR level indicate
      a negligible possibility to miss the CKD diagnosis, which could be the most
      prominent clinical problem affecting patient care, considering high risk of CKD
      for adverse patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study indicate that compensated
      Jaffe creatinine procedure, in spite of the glucose-dependent bias, is not
      inferior to enzymatic creatinine in CKD diagnosis/staging and therefore may
      provide a reliable and cost-effective tool for the renal function assessment in
      diabetic patients.

PMID- 28572884
TI  - Second Primary Cancer Screening: Role of the Primary Care Physician.

PMID- 28572886
TI  - Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Behavior in Female Cancer Survivors: The
      Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare breast and cervical cancer
      screening rates between female cancer survivors and a population without cancer
      to identify factors related to cervical and breast cancer screening in cancer
      survivors. METHODS: We included 17,765 adults (738 cancer survivors and 17,027
      individuals without cancer) in this study, all of whom who were 30 years of age
      or older and participated in the Fourth and Fifth Korean National Health and
      Nutritional Examination Surveys from 2007-2012. Multiple logistic regression
      analysis was performed to identify factors related to cervical and breast cancer
      screening uptake in female cancer survivors. RESULTS: The screening rate for
      breast cancer was 56.6%, which was higher than that in the non-cancer control
      group (P=0.001). The screening rate for cervical cancer was 51.4%, which was not
      different from that of the non-cancer control group. In terms of breast cancer
      screening, cancer survivors showed no significant difference in the rate of
      screening 5 years after their cancer diagnosis. However, cervical cancer
      survivors were less likely to have cervical cancer screening 10 years after their
      cancer diagnosis. There was no significant association between cancer screening
      and sociodemographic factors. CONCLUSION: Breast and cervical cancer screening
      rates in Korean female cancer survivors are low. Secondary primary cancer
      screening of female cancer survivors needs to be planned in a comprehensive
      manner, with the consideration of influences beyond sociodemographic factors.

PMID- 28572885
TI  - Physical Inactivity, Sedentary Behavior and Chronic Diseases.
AB  - New research into physical activity suggests that it is no longer sufficient just
      to meet minimum levels recommended by health guidelines in order to reduce
      cardiovascular risk. Both physical inactivity and sedentary behavior have their
      own health hazards and need to be addressed separately, in order to explore their
      different deleterious mechanisms. The aim of this review was to define and to
      characterize both concepts, and their relationship with major non-communicable
      chronic diseases. A PubMed database search was undertaken, using the following
      key words: physical activity, physical inactivity, sedentarism, sedentary
      behavior, and non-communicable chronic disease. This literature review provides
      an updated view on physical inactivity and sedentary behavior, and reevaluates
      their prevalence and association with major non-communicable chronic disease.

PMID- 28572887
TI  - Association between Weight Changes after Smoking Cessation and Cardiovascular
      Disease among the Korean Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD)
      and has both beneficial and harmful effects in CVD. We hypothesized that weight
      gain following smoking cessation does not attenuate the CVD mortality of smoking
      cessation in the general Korean population. METHODS: Study subjects comprised
      2.2% randomly selected patients from the Korean National Health Insurance
      Corporation, between 2002 and 2013. We identified 61,055 subjects who were
      classified as current smokers in 2003-2004. After excluding 21,956 subjects for
      missing data, we studied 30,004 subjects. We divided the 9,095 ex-smokers into
      two groups: those who gained over 2 kg (2,714), and those who did not gain over 2
      kg (6,381, including weight loss), after smoking cessation. Cox proportional
      hazards regression models were used to estimate the association between weight
      gain following smoking cessation and CVD mortality. RESULTS: In the primary
      analysis, the hazard ratios of all-cause deaths and CVD deaths were assessed in
      the three groups. The CVD risk factors and Charlson comorbidity index adjusted
      hazard ratios (aHRs) for CVD deaths were 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.37
      to 1.75) for ex-smokers with weight gain and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.50 to 1.27) for ex
      smokers with no weight gain, compared to one for sustained smokers. The
      associations were stronger for events other than mortality. The aHRs for CVD
      events were 0.69 (95% CI, 0.54 to 0.88) and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70 to 0.94) for the
      ex-smokers with and without weight gain, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although
      smoking cessation leads to weight gain, it does not increase the risk of CVD
      death.

PMID- 28572888
TI  - Association between the Eating Family Meal and the Prevalence of Metabolic
      Syndrome Using Data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
      (2007-2012).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have shown that family meals promote a well-balanced
      and healthier diet and weight status. Metabolic syndrome is related to eating
      behavior. This study investigated the association between eating family meals and
      the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. METHODS: This cross-sectional study
      included 4,529 subjects who participated in the Korea National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Survey IV and V (2007-2012). A self-reported questionnaire
      was used to assess dietary status. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to
      the guidelines of the modified version of the National Cholesterol Education
      Program Adult Treatment Panel III. We compared the overall quality of dietary
      intake in family meal. RESULTS: Nutritional adequacy ratios for energy, protein,
      calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin C, niacin, and potassium, and
      the mean adequacy ratio were significantly higher in the family meal group
      (P<0.05). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was lower in the family meal group
      (P<0.05). However, we observed no significant association between eating family
      meals and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSION: This study
      demonstrated that eating family meals appeared to be associated with nutrient
      adequacy. However, we observed no significant differences in prevalence of
      metabolic syndrome between the 2 groups.

PMID- 28572889
TI  - Decomposing Socioeconomic Inequality Determinants in Suicide Deaths in Iran: A
      Concentration Index Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is recognized that socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant
      impact on health and wellbeing; however, the effect of SES on suicide is
      contested. This study explored the effect of SES in suicide deaths and decomposed
      inequality into its determinants to calculate relative contributions. METHODS:
      Through a cross-sectional study, 546 suicide deaths and 6,818 suicide attempts
      from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2014 in Ilam Province, Western Iran were
      explored. Inequality was measured by the absolute concentration index (ACI) and
      decomposed contributions were identified. All analyses were performed using STATA
      ver. 11.2 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA). RESULTS: The overall ACI for
      suicide deaths was -0.352 (95% confidence interval, -0.389 to -0.301). According
      to the results, 9.8% of socioeconomic inequality in suicide deaths was due to
      addiction in attempters. ACI ranged from -0.34 to -0.03 in 2010-2014, showing
      that inequality in suicide deaths declined over time. CONCLUSION: Findings showed
      suicide deaths were distributed among the study population unequally, and our
      results confirmed a gap between advantaged and disadvantaged attempters in terms
      of death. Socioeconomic inequalities in suicide deaths tended to diminish over
      time, as suicide attempts progressed in Ilam Province.

PMID- 28572890
TI  - Association of Coffee Consumption with Sarcopenia in Korean Elderly Men: Analysis
      Using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2008-2011.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is an age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. Coffee
      has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that have been shown to be
      inversely related to the mechanism of sarcopenia. While there have been some
      studies on the effect of coffee on sarcopenia in animals, studies on the topic in
      humans are rare. Therefore, we investigated this relationship in elderly Korean
      men. METHODS: The cross-sectional data were derived from the 2008-2011 Korea
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. After applying the exclusion
      criteria, the study sample consisted of 1,781 men who were at least 60 years of
      age. Study participants were identified as having sarcopenia if their
      appendicular skeletal muscle mass divided by height squared was less than two
      standard deviations below the gender-specific mean of this value for young
      adults. Daily coffee consumption amounts were categorized as <1 cup, 1 cup, 2
      cups, and >=3 cups. RESULTS: Compared to the group of individuals who drank less
      than one cup of coffee a day, people who consumed at least 3 cups (adjusted odds
      ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.94) showed significantly
      decreased sarcopenia; however, the decrease was not significant when the daily
      coffee consumption was 1 or 2 cups. In multivariate logistic regression models,
      significant associations were observed between sarcopenia and coffee consumption
      (P for trend=0.039). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that consuming
      at least 3 cups of coffee per day was associated with a lower prevalence of
      sarcopenia in elderly Korean elderly men.

PMID- 28572891
TI  - Factors Positively Influencing Health Are Associated with a Lower Risk of
      Development of Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Men: The 2007-2009 Korean National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) has risen rapidly
      worldwide, including in South Korea. Factors related to lifestyle are closely
      associated with the development of MetS. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the association between MetS and a number of factors positively influencing
      health, namely non-smoking, low-risk drinking, sufficient sleep, regular
      exercise, and the habit of reading food labels, among Korean men. METHODS: This
      cross-sectional study included 3,869 men from the 2007-2009 Korean National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Information on five factors positively
      influencing their health was obtained using a self-reported questionnaire. We
      categorized subjects into four groups, depending on the number of positive
      factors reported (group I, 0-1 factor; group II, 2 factors; group III, 3 factors;
      group IV, 4-5 factors). RESULTS: Men who reported a greater number of positive
      health factors had better laboratory and anthropometric values than men who
      reported fewer positive health factors. The prevalence of MetS was 29.1, 27.2,
      20.7, and 14.6% in groups I to IV, respectively. Compared to group I, odds ratios
      (95% confidence intervals) for MetS were 0.96 (0.78-1.19) in group II, 0.67 (0.52
      0.87) in group III, and 0.52 (0.35-0.76) in group IV, after adjusting for
      confounding factors. Odds ratios for abdominal obesity, glucose intolerance, and
      hypertriglyceridemia were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: A greater number
      of positive lifestyle factors influencing health were associated with a lower
      risk of developing MetS, in a nationally representative sample of Korean men.

PMID- 28572892
TI  - Relationship between Chronic Kidney Disease and Depression in Elderly Koreans
      Using the 2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      and continues to increase in elderly adults. Therefore, the aim of our study was
      to examine the relationship between CKD and depression in older patients.
      METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study based on 2013 Korea National Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey data. In total, data of 973 subjects aged >=65
      years were analyzed, and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was
      calculated using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of depression in older adults was 4.1% in men and 8.8% in
      women (P=0.004). The prevalence of depression did not differ according to CKD
      stage in women (normal eGFR and CKD stages 1 and 2 women, 41/474 [8.6%]) vs. CKD
      stages 3-5 women, 6/63 [9.5%]); however, the prevalence of depression in men with
      CKD stages 3-5 (8/83 [9.6%]) was significantly higher than in men with normal
      eGFR and CKD stage 1 and 2 (10/353 [2.8%], P=0.010). Multivariate logistic
      regression analysis showed that the odds ratio for depression in men with CKD
      stages 3-5 was 3.822 (95% confidence interval, 1.229 to 11.879) after adjusting
      for social status and chronic diseases (P=0.021). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of
      depression was higher in elderly women than in men, while the prevalence of
      depression increased in elderly men with CKD stages 3-5 and was almost equal to
      that of women. Therefore, elderly men with progressive renal function impairment
      should be counseled and monitored for psychological problems.

PMID- 28572893
TI  - Intravesical Migration of an Intrauterine Contraceptive Device with Secondary
      Calculus Formation.
AB  - Intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCDs) are a common form of reversible
      contraception owing to fewer systemic side effects and low cost, especially in a
      developing country like India. However, IUCDs are not without complications.
      Migration of a device into adjacent organs is the most morbid of all the
      documented complications. A patient who presents with a history that suggests
      loss or disappearance of an IUCD thread associated with urinary symptoms should
      raise suspicions that a device may have migrated into the bladder. Physicians
      should also be aware of possible secondary vesical calculus formation. Further
      radiological investigations and appropriate management are warranted. We present
      a case report describing the migration of an IUCD into the bladder with secondary
      calculus formation.

PMID- 28572894
TI  - Superior Vena Cava Syndrome Due to Mediastinal Tuberculous Lymphadenitis.
AB  - Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome refers to a medical emergency resulting from
      compression of the SVC. It requires early diagnosis and treatment, and is usually
      caused by malignant tumors; rarely, mediastinal tuberculous lymphadenitis can
      cause SVC syndrome. Here, we present a case study of an immunocompetent 61-year
      old woman who presented with acute onset SVC syndrome and was diagnosed with
      tuberculous lymphadenitis on thoracotomy; the symptoms resolved with anti
      tuberculosis therapy. This unusual case highlights the importance of the
      differential diagnosis in patients presenting with acute onset SVC syndrome; a
      timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment lead to complete recovery.

PMID- 28572895
TI  - Link between Short Sleep Duration and Hypertension.

PMID- 28572896
TI  - How molecular motors work - insights from the molecular machinist's toolbox: the
      Nobel prize in Chemistry 2016.
AB  - The Nobel prize in Chemistry for 2016 was awarded to Jean Pierre Sauvage, Sir
      James Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard (Ben) Feringa for their contributions to the
      design and synthesis of molecular machines. While this field is still in its
      infancy, and at present there are no commercial applications, many observers have
      stressed the tremendous potential of molecular machines to revolutionize
      technology. However, perhaps the most important result so far accruing from the
      synthesis of molecular machines is the insight provided into the fundamental
      mechanisms by which molecular motors, including biological motors such as
      kinesin, myosin, FoF1 ATPase, and the flagellar motor, function. The ability to
      "tinker" with separate components of molecular motors allows asking, and
      answering, specific questions about mechanism, particularly with regard to light
      driven vs. chemistry driven molecular motors.

PMID- 28572898
TI  - Harnessing non-covalent interactions to exert control over regioselectivity and
      site-selectivity in catalytic reactions.
AB  - Asymmetric catalysis has been revolutionised by the realisation that attractive
      non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds and ion pairs can act as
      powerful controllers of enantioselectivity when incorporated into appropriate
      small molecule chiral scaffolds. Given these tremendous advances it is surprising
      that there are still a relatively limited number of examples of non-covalent
      interactions being harnessed for control of regioselectivity or site-selectivity
      in catalysis, two other fundamental selectivity aspects facing the synthetic
      chemist. This perspective examines the progress that has been made in this area
      thus far using non-covalent interactions in conjunction with transition metal
      catalysis as well as in the context of purely organic catalysts. We hope this
      will highlight the great potential in this approach for designing selective
      catalytic reactions.

PMID- 28572899
TI  - Luminescent chemosensors by using cyclometalated iridium(iii) complexes and their
      applications.
AB  - Luminescent metal complexes have found increasing use in multiple areas of
      science and technology, including in chemosensing, light-emitting devices and
      photochemistry. In particular, the use of cyclometalated iridium(iii) complexes
      as chemosensors has received increasing attention in the recent literature.
      Phosphorescent metal complexes enjoy a number of advantages (e.g., long-lived
      phosphorescence, high quantum efficiency and modular syntheses) that render them
      as suitable alternatives to organic dyes for sensing a variety of analytes. This
      review describes recent examples of cyclometalated iridium(iii) complexes that
      act as luminescent chemosensors for cations, anions or small molecules.

PMID- 28572897
TI  - Recent developments in and perspectives on three-coordinate boron materials: a
      bright future.
AB  - The empty p z -orbital of a three-coordinate organoboron compound leads to its
      electron-deficient properties, which make it an excellent pi-acceptor in
      conjugated organic chromophores. The empty p-orbital in such Lewis acids can be
      attacked by nucleophiles, so bulky groups are often employed to provide air
      stable materials. However, many of these can still bind fluoride and cyanide
      anions leading to applications as anion-selective sensors. One electron reduction
      generates radical anions. The pi-acceptor strength can be easily tuned by varying
      the organic substituents. Many of these compounds show strong two-photon
      absorption (TPA) and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) behaviour, which can
      be applied for e.g. biological imaging. Furthermore, these chromophores can be
      used as emitters and electron transporters in OLEDs, and examples have recently
      been found to exhibit efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF).
      The three-coordinate organoboron unit can also be incorporated into polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons. Such boron-doped compounds exhibit very interesting
      properties, distinct from their all-carbon analogues. Significant developments
      have been made in all of these areas in recent years and new applications are
      rapidly emerging for this class of boron compounds.

PMID- 28572900
TI  - Bioinspired integrated nanosystems based on solid-state nanopores: "iontronic"
      transduction of biological, chemical and physical stimuli.
AB  - The ability of living systems to respond to stimuli and process information has
      encouraged scientists to develop integrated nanosystems displaying similar
      functions and capabilities. In this regard, biological pores have been a source
      of inspiration due to their exquisite control over the transport of ions within
      cells, a feature that ultimately plays a major role in multiple physiological
      processes, e.g. transduction of physical stimuli into nervous signals. Developing
      abiotic nanopores, which respond to certain chemical, biological or physical
      inputs producing "iontronic" signals, is now a reality thanks to the combination
      of "soft" surface science with nanofabrication techniques. The interplay between
      the functional richness of predesigned molecular components and the remarkable
      physical characteristics of nanopores plays a critical role in the rational
      integration of molecular functions into nanopore environments, permitting us to
      envisage nanopore-based biomimetic integrated nanosystems that respond to a
      variety of external stimuli such as pH, redox potential, molecule concentration,
      temperature, or light. Transduction of these stimuli into a predefined
      "iontronic" response can be amplified by exploiting nanoconfinement and physico
      chemical effects such as charge distribution, steric constraints, equilibria
      displacement, or local changes in ionic concentration, to name but a few
      examples. While in past decades the focus has been mostly on their fundamental
      aspects and the in-depth study of their interesting transport properties, for
      several years now nanopore research has started to shift towards specific
      practical applications. This work is dedicated to bringing together the latest
      developments in the use of nanopores as "iontronic" transducing elements. Our aim
      is to show the wide potential of abiotic nanopores in sensing and signal
      transduction and also to promote the potential of this technology among doctoral
      students, postdocs, and researchers. We believe that even a casual reader of this
      perspective will not fail to be impressed by the wealth of opportunities that
      solid-state nanopores can offer to the transduction of biological, physical and
      chemical stimuli.

PMID- 28572902
TI  - Bioinspired M-13 bacteriophage-based photonic nose for differential cell
      recognition.
AB  - A bioinspired M-13 bacteriophage-based photonic nose was developed for
      differential cell recognition. The M-13 bacteriophage-based photonic nose
      exhibits characteristic color patterns when phage bundle nanostructures, which
      were genetically modified to selectively capture vapor phase molecules, are
      structurally deformed. We characterized the color patterns of the phage bundle
      nanostructure in response to cell proliferation via several biomarkers
      differentially produced by cells, including hydrazine, o-xylene, ethylbenzene,
      ethanol and toluene. A specific color enables the successful identification of
      different types of molecular and cellular species. Our sensing technique utilized
      the versatile M-13 bacteriophage as a building block for fabricating bioinspired
      photonic crystals, which enables ease of fabrication and tunable selectivity
      through genetic engineering. Our simple and versatile bioinspired photonic nose
      could have possible applications in sensors for human health and national
      security, food discrimination, environmental monitoring, and portable and
      wearable sensors.

PMID- 28572903
TI  - pH controlled assembly of a self-complementary halogen-bonded dimer.
AB  - Phenols and their corresponding phenoxide anions can form halogen bonds with
      neutral iodotriazoles. The strength of these interactions depends critically on
      the protonation state of the oxygen atom - the interaction of the phenoxide anion
      is more than an order of magnitude stronger than the corresponding phenol. The
      assembly of a molecule bearing both an iodotriazole and a phenoxide anion into a
      self-complementary dimer, stabilised by two halogen bonds between the phenoxide
      anions and the neutral iodotriazoles has been demonstrated. The corresponding
      phenol shows no halogen bond mediated assembly either in the solid or in the
      solution state. This assembly process can be actuated simply by a change in
      protonation state - treatment of the phenol with one equivalent of base results
      in deprotonation and assembly of the dimer. The structure of the homodimer formed
      by the phenoxide-bearing iodotriazole has been determined in the solid state and
      19F NMR spectroscopy demonstrates that the assembled dimer persists in solution
      and that it has significant stability. 19F NMR spectroscopy has also been used to
      demonstrate that the assembly process is completely reversible.

PMID- 28572904
TI  - Au(iii)-aryl intermediates in oxidant-free C-N and C-O cross-coupling catalysis.
AB  - Au(iii)-aryl species have been unequivocally identified as reactive intermediates
      in oxidant-free C-O and C-N cross coupling catalysis. The crystal structures of
      cyclometalated neutral and cationic Au(iii) species are described and their key
      role in 2 electron-redox Au(i)/Au(iii) catalysis in C-O and C-N cross couplings
      is shown. Nucleophiles compatible with Au-catalyzed cross couplings include
      aromatic and aliphatic alcohols and amines, as well as water and amides.

PMID- 28572901
TI  - Allosteric DNA nanoswitches for controlled release of a molecular cargo triggered
      by biological inputs.
AB  - Here we demonstrate the rational design of a new class of DNA-based nanoswitches
      which are allosterically regulated by specific biological targets, antibodies and
      transcription factors, and are able to load and release a molecular cargo (i.e.
      doxorubicin) in a controlled fashion. In our first model system we rationally
      designed a stem-loop DNA-nanoswitch that adopts two mutually exclusive
      conformations: a "Load" conformation containing a doxorubicin-intercalating
      domain and a "Release" conformation containing a duplex portion recognized by a
      specific transcription-factor (here Tata Binding Protein). The binding of the
      transcription factor pushes this conformational equilibrium towards the "Release"
      state thus leading to doxorubicin release from the nanoswitch. In our second
      model system we designed a similar stem-loop DNA-nanoswitch for which
      conformational change and subsequent doxorubicin release can be triggered by a
      specific antibody. Our approach augments the current tool kit of smart drug
      release mechanisms regulated by different biological inputs.

PMID- 28572905
TI  - Reactivity of the copper(iii)-hydroxide unit with phenols.
AB  - Kinetic studies of the reactions of two previously characterized copper(iii)
      hydroxide complexes (LCuOH and NO2 LCuOH, where L = N,N'-bis(2,6
      diisopropylphenyl)-2,6-pyridine-dicarboxamide and NO2 L = N,N'-bis(2,6
      diisopropyl-4-nitrophenyl)pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide) with a series of para
      substituted phenols (XArOH where X = NMe2, OMe, Me, H, Cl, NO2, or CF3) were
      performed using low temperature stopped-flow UV-vis spectroscopy. Second-order
      rate constants (k) were determined from pseudo first-order and stoichiometric
      experiments, and follow the trends CF3 < NO2 < Cl < H < Me < OMe < NMe2 and LCuOH
      < NO2 LCuOH. The data support a concerted proton-electron transfer (CPET)
      mechanism for all but the most acidic phenols (X = NO2 and CF3), for which a more
      complicated mechanism is proposed. For the case of the reactions between NO2 ArOH
      and LCuOH in particular, competition between a CPET pathway and one involving
      initial proton transfer followed by electron transfer (PT/ET) is supported by
      multiwavelength global analysis of the kinetic data, formation of the phenoxide
      NO2 ArO- as a reaction product, observation of an intermediate [LCu(OH2)]+
      species derived from proton transfer from NO2 ArOH to LCuOH, and thermodynamic
      arguments indicating that initial PT should be competitive with CPET.

PMID- 28572906
TI  - Identification of monodentate oxazoline as a ligand for copper-promoted ortho-C-H
      hydroxylation and amination.
AB  - The use of a weakly coordinating monodentate directing group for copper mediated
      ortho-hydroxylation and amination reactions allows for the identification of an
      external oxazoline ligand as a promoter.

PMID- 28572908
TI  - The IPEA dilemma in CASPT2.
AB  - Multi-configurational second order perturbation theory (CASPT2) has become a very
      popular method for describing excited-state properties since its development in
      1990. To account for systematic errors found in the calculation of dissociation
      energies, an empirical correction applied to the zeroth-order Hamiltonian, called
      the IPEA shift, was introduced in 2004. The errors were attributed to an
      unbalanced description of open-shell versus closed-shell electronic states and is
      believed to also lead to an underestimation of excitation energies. Here we show
      that the use of the IPEA shift is not justified and the IPEA should not be used
      to calculate excited states, at least for organic chromophores. This conclusion
      is the result of three extensive analyses. Firstly, we survey the literature for
      excitation energies of organic molecules that have been calculated with the
      unmodified CASPT2 method. We find that the excitation energies of 356 reference
      values are negligibly underestimated by 0.02 eV. This value is an order of
      magnitude smaller than the expected error based on the calculation of
      dissociation energies. Secondly, we perform benchmark full configuration
      interaction calculations on 137 states of 13 di- and triatomic molecules and
      compare the results with CASPT2. Also in this case, the excited states are
      underestimated by only 0.05 eV. Finally, we perform CASPT2 calculations with
      different IPEA shift values on 309 excited states of 28 organic small and medium
      sized organic chromophores. We demonstrate that the size of the IPEA correction
      scales with the amount of dynamical correlation energy (and thus with the size of
      the system), and gets immoderate already for the molecules considered here,
      leading to an overestimation of the excitation energies. It is also found that
      the IPEA correction strongly depends on the size of the basis set. The dependency
      on both the size of the system and of the basis set, contradicts the idea of a
      universal IPEA shift which is able to compensate for systematic CASPT2 errors in
      the calculation of excited states.

PMID- 28572907
TI  - Linker-free incorporation of carbohydrates into in vitro displayed macrocyclic
      peptides.
AB  - We report a strategy for efficient post-translational modification of a library
      of ribosomally-translated peptides by activation and elimination of cysteine to
      dehydroalanine then conjugate addition of a range of exogenous thiols, with an
      emphasis on carbohydrates. These reactions are selective for cysteine, and do not
      interfere with amplification of the nucleic acid component of an mRNA-displayed
      peptide. Furthermore, these reactions are shown to be compatible with two
      different macrocyclisation chemistries, and when applied to a peptide containing
      an N-terminal cysteine give a ketone that can be functionalised in an orthogonal
      manner. This new strategy can overcome a limitation of ribosomal translation,
      providing a means to incorporate untranslatable groups such as carbohydrates in
      amino acid side chains, and will allow for the ribosomal generation of
      glycopeptides, requiring only the introduction of a free thiol in the molecule to
      be incorporated. In combination with in vitro selection techniques, this strategy
      is envisaged to allow the discovery of biologically-active glycopeptides with a
      near-natural, but hydrolytically stable, thioglycosidic bond.

PMID- 28572909
TI  - Green- to far-red-emitting fluorogenic tetrazine probes - synthetic access and no
      wash protein imaging inside living cells.
AB  - Fluorogenic probes for bioorthogonal labeling chemistry are highly beneficial to
      reduce background signal in fluorescence microscopy imaging. 1,2,4,5-Tetrazines
      are known substrates for the bioorthogonal inverse electron demand Diels-Alder
      reaction (DAinv) and tetrazine substituted fluorophores can exhibit fluorogenic
      properties. Herein, we report the synthesis of a palette of novel fluorogenic
      tetrazine dyes derived from widely-used fluorophores that cover the entire
      emission range from green to far-red. We demonstrate the power of the new
      fluorogenic probes in fixed and live cell labeling experiments and present the
      first example of intracellular live cell protein imaging using tetrazine-based
      probes under no-wash conditions.

PMID- 28572911
TI  - Cycloelatanene A and B: absolute configuration determination and structural
      revision by the crystalline sponge method.
AB  - Cycloelatanene A and B are marine natural products first reported a few years
      ago. Their relative structures had been elucidated by an extensive NMR study and
      found to be epimers. However, their absolute configurations had not been
      established because they were isolated in only minute quantities as oily
      compounds. In this study, the complete structures of cycloelatanene A and B,
      including absolute configurations, were determined by the crystalline sponge
      method. The structure analysis confirmed the unique tricyclic structure involving
      a spiro[5.5]undecene skeleton. One stereogenic centre at C4 was revised as a
      result of this analysis. Since it only took 1-2 weeks to complete the experiments
      using the crystalline sponge method (guest-soaking followed by crystallographic
      analysis), this method is now highly recommended as a first port of call to
      achieve complete natural product structure elucidation.

PMID- 28572910
TI  - A supramolecular Troger's base derived coordination zinc polymer for fluorescent
      sensing of phenolic-nitroaromatic explosives in water.
AB  - A V-Shaped 4-amino-1,8-napthalimide derived tetracarboxylic acid linker (L; bis
      [N-(1,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid)]-9,18-methano-1,8-naphthalimide
      [b,f][1,5]diazocine) comprising the Troger's base (TB) structural motif was
      rationally designed and synthesised to access a nitrogen-rich fluorescent
      supramolecular coordination polymer. By adopting the straight forward
      precipitation method, a new luminescent nanoscale Zn(ii) coordination polymer (TB
      Zn-CP) was synthesized in quantitative yield using Zn(OAc)2.2H2O and tetraacid
      linker L (1 : 0.5) in DMF at room temperature. The phase-purity of as-synthesised
      TB-Zn-CP was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction analysis, infra-red
      spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis suggests that TB
      Zn-CP is thermally stable up to 330  degrees C and the morphological features of
      TB-Zn-CP was analysed by SEM and AFM techniques. The N2 adsorption isotherm of
      thermally activated TB-Zn-CP at 77 K revealed a type-II reversible adsorption
      isotherm and the calculated Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area was found
      to be 72 m2 g-1. Furthermore, TB-Zn-CP displayed an excellent CO2 uptake capacity
      of 76 mg g-1 at 273 K and good adsorption selectivity for CO2 over N2 and H2. The
      aqueous suspension of as-synthesized TB-Zn-CP showed strong green fluorescence
      (lambdamax = 520 nm) characteristics due to the internal-charge transfer (ICT)
      transition and was used as a fluorescent sensor for the discriminative sensing of
      nitroaromatic explosives. The aqueous suspension of TB-Zn-CP showed the largest
      quenching responses with high selectivity for phenolic-nitroaromatics (4-NP, 2,4
      DNP and PA) even in the concurrent presence of other potentially competing
      nitroaromatic analytes. The fluorescence titration studies also provide evidence
      that TB-Zn-CP detects picric acid as low as the parts per billion (26.3 ppb)
      range. Furthermore, the observed fluorescence quenching responses of TB-Zn-CP
      towards picric acid were highly reversible. The highly selective fluorescence
      quenching responses including the reversible detection efficiency make the
      nanoscale coordination polymer TB-Zn-CP a potential material for the
      discriminative fluorescent sensing of nitroaromatic explosives.

PMID- 28572912
TI  - Chemoselective oxidation of aryl organoboron systems enabled by boronic acid
      selective phase transfer.
AB  - We report the direct chemoselective Brown-type oxidation of aryl organoboron
      systems containing two oxidizable boron groups. Basic biphasic reaction
      conditions enable selective formation and phase transfer of a boronic acid
      trihydroxyboronate in the presence of boronic acid pinacol (BPin) esters, while
      avoiding speciation equilibria. Spectroscopic investigations validate a base
      promoted phase-selective discrimination of organoboron species. This phenomenon
      is general across a broad range of organoboron compounds and can also be used to
      invert conventional protecting group strategies, enabling chemoselective
      oxidation of BMIDA species over normally more reactive BPin substrates. We also
      demonstrate the selective oxidation of diboronic acid systems with
      chemoselectivity predictable a priori. The utility of this method is exemplified
      through the development of a chemoselective oxidative nucleophile coupling.

PMID- 28572913
TI  - HDAC9 is an epigenetic repressor of kidney angiotensinogen establishing a sex
      difference.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexual difference has been shown in the pathogenesis of chronic
      kidney disease induced by hypertension. Females are protected from hypertension
      and related end-organ damage. Augmentation of renal proximal tubular
      angiotensinogen (AGT) expression can promote intrarenal angiotensin formation and
      the development of associated hypertension and kidney injury. Female rodents
      exhibit lower intrarenal AGT levels than males under normal conditions,
      suggesting that the suppressed intrarenal AGT production by programmed mechanisms
      in females may provide protection from these diseases. This study was performed
      to examine whether epigenetic mechanisms serve as repressors of AGT. METHODS:
      Male and female Sprague Dawley rats were used to investigate sex differences of
      systemic, hepatic, and intrarenal AGT levels. All histone deacetylase (HDAC) mRNA
      levels in the kidneys were determined using a PCR array. HDAC9 protein expression
      in the kidneys and cultured renal proximal tubular cells (PTC) was analyzed by
      Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. The effects of HDAC9 on AGT
      expression were evaluated by using an inhibitor and siRNA. ChIP assay was
      performed to investigate the interaction between the AGT promoter and HDAC9.
      RESULTS: Plasma and liver AGT levels did not show differences between male and
      female Sprague-Dawley rats. In contrast, females exhibited lower AGT levels than
      males in the renal cortex and urine. In the absence of supplemented sex hormones,
      primary cultured renal cortical cells isolated from female rats sustained lower
      AGT levels than those from males, suggesting that the kidneys have a unique
      mechanism of AGT regulation controlled by epigenetic factors rather than sex
      hormones. HDAC9 mRNA and protein levels were higher in the renal cortex of female
      rats versus male rats (7.09 +/- 0.88, ratio to male) while other HDACs did not
      exhibit a sex difference. HDAC9 expression was localized in PTC which are the
      primary source of intrarenal AGT. Importantly, HDAC9 knockdown augmented AGT mRNA
      (1.92 +/- 0.35-fold) and protein (2.25 +/- 0.50-fold) levels, similar to an HDAC9
      inhibitor. Furthermore, an interaction between HDAC9 and a distal 5' flanking
      region of AGT via a histone complex containing H3 and H4 was demonstrated.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that HDAC9 is a novel suppressing factor
      involved in AGT regulation in PTC, leading to low levels of intrarenal AGT in
      females. These findings will help to delineate mechanisms underlying sex
      differences in the development of hypertension and renin-angiotensin system (RAS)
      associated kidney injury.

PMID- 28572916
TI  - iPSCs are safe!
AB  - Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promises in cell therapy.
      However, the potential safety issues have dampened the enthusiasm of their
      clinical development. One of the biggest concerns came from the observations that
      genomic alterations exist in iPSCs. Using next generation sequencing of clonal
      skin fibroblasts and the iPSC clones derived from the same skin fibroblasts, Dr.
      Liu and his colleagues in the National Human Genome Research Institute, National
      Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, in collaboration with Dr. Dunbar's group in the
      National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, USA, have now elegantly
      demonstrated that most of the observed genomic alterations in iPSCs were
      inherited rare alterations from the parental cells. Their findings suggest that
      reprogramming process does not appear to be more mutagenic than simple subcloning
      of cultured cells and that iPSCs are safe for cell therapy.

PMID- 28572915
TI  - APOBEC3B, a molecular driver of mutagenesis in human cancers.
AB  - Human cancers results in large part from the accumulation of multiple mutations.
      The progression of premalignant cells is an evolutionary process in which
      mutations provide the fundamental driving force for genetic diversity. The
      increased mutation rate in premalignant cells allows selection for increased
      proliferation and survival and ultimately leads to invasion, metastasis,
      recurrence, and therapeutic resistance. Therefore, it is important to understand
      the molecular determinants of the mutational processes. Recent genome-wide
      sequencing data showed that apolipoprotein B mRNA editing catalytic polypeptide
      like 3B (APOBEC3B) is a key molecular driver inducing mutations in multiple human
      cancers. APOBEC3B, a DNA cytosine deaminase, is overexpressed in a wide spectrum
      of human cancers. Its overexpression and aberrant activation lead to unexpected
      clusters of mutations in the majority of cancers. This phenomenon of clustered
      mutations, termed kataegis (from the Greek word for showers), forms unique
      mutation signatures. In this review, we will discuss the biological function of
      APOBEC3B, its tumorigenic role in promoting mutational processes in cancer
      development and the clinical potential to develop novel therapeutics by targeting
      APOBEC3B.

PMID- 28572914
TI  - Sex differences in the development of vascular and renal lesions in mice with a
      simultaneous deficiency of Apoe and the integrin chain Itga8.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Apoe-deficient (Apoe-/-) mice develop progressive atherosclerotic
      lesions with age but no severe renal pathology in the absence of additional
      challenges. We recently described accelerated atherosclerosis as well as marked
      renal injury in Apoe-/- mice deficient in the mesenchymal integrin chain Itga8
      (Itga8-/-). Here, we used this Apoe-/-, Itga8-/- mouse model to investigate the
      sex differences in the development of atherosclerosis and concomitant renal
      injury. We hypothesized that aging female mice are protected from vascular and
      renal damage in this mouse model. METHODS: Apoe-/- mice were backcrossed with
      Itga8-/- mice. Mice were kept on a normal diet. At the age of 12 months, the
      aortae and kidneys of male and female Apoe-/-Itga8+/+ mice or Apoe-/-Itga8-/-
      mice were studied. En face preparations of the aorta were stained with Sudan IV
      (lipid deposition) or von Kossa (calcification). In kidney tissue, immunostaining
      for collagen IV, CD3, F4/80, and PCNA and real-time PCR analyses for Il6, Vegfa,
      Col1a1 (collagen I), and Ssp1 (secreted phosphoprotein 1, synonym osteopontin) as
      well as ER stress markers were performed. RESULTS: When compared to male mice,
      Apoe-/-Itga8+/+ female mice had a lower body weight, equal serum cholesterol
      levels, and lower triglyceride levels. However, female mice had increased aortic
      lipid deposition and more aortic calcifications than males. Male Apoe-/- mice
      with the additional deficiency of Itga8 developed increased serum urea,
      glomerulosclerosis, renal immune cell infiltration, and reduced glomerular cell
      proliferation. In females of the same genotype, these renal changes were less
      pronounced and were accompanied by lower expression of interleukin-6 and collagen
      I, while osteopontin expression was higher and markers of ER stress were not
      different. CONCLUSIONS: In this model of atherosclerosis, the female sex is a
      risk factor to develop more severe atherosclerotic lesions, even though serum fat
      levels are higher in males. In contrast, female mice are protected from renal
      damage, which is accompanied by attenuated inflammation and matrix deposition.
      Thus, sex affects vascular and renal injury in a differential manner.

PMID- 28572917
TI  - Mobilizing for a war on the home front against sugar-related morbidity and
      mortality.
AB  - In Israel today, there are 420,200 Israelis diagnosed with diabetes, and every
      year, Israelis sustain thousands of diabetes-related deaths and tens of thousands
      of diabetes-related amputations. As such, in Israel, as in much of the world,
      there is a silent and deadly public health war against obesity and diabetes
      taking place on the home front -- one in which clinicians, patients, and families
      fight thousands of life- and limb-threatening battles daily, involving
      preventable heart disease, diabetes, strokes and amputations. Yet the global
      clinical and scientific communities, indeed society at large, have barely begun
      to mobilize. Fighting this war requires confronting and altering "obesogenic" and
      "diabetogenic" economic and social factors, including food and beverage marketing
      and pricing that push diets engorged with processed sugars. Ginsberg, in a study
      recently published in IJHPR, contributes to our understanding of the combined
      sugar-related health burdens in Israel, producing an epidemiology and health
      economics study that estimates the health burdens of obesity, overweight, and
      dental caries in Israel today. He projects the reductions resulting from that
      portion of disease burden and associated costs if sugar consumption declined to
      10 or 5% of daily caloric consumption as a result of multifaceted public health
      interventions. Projected over 70 years, these reductions in sugar consumption
      would prevent 16,590 and 34,580 deaths, respectively. These numbers of Israeli
      deaths averted are similar to, or exceed, the total resulting from armed conflict
      or terrorism over the past 70 years. While overconsumption of sugar is only one
      of many factors that drive cardio-metabolic disease, the study by Ginsberg
      suggests a path through which we can overcome the numerous internal and external
      obstacles that societies face in making a public policy commitment to fight the
      warm on the home front: promoting health by reducing added sugar exposure.

PMID- 28572919
TI  - Proximate and biochemical characterization of burrito (Bachydeuterus auritus) and
      flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans).
AB  - With limited protein resources and depleting commercial fish species there is the
      need to improve utilization of some of the lesser known species which are
      underutilized, for example, big eye grunt (burrito), Bachydeuterus auritus, and
      the flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans), (other names Cephalocanthus volitans
      (local) Pampansre). This study was to characterize some of the proximate and
      biochemical properties of burrito and the flying gurnard so as to evaluate their
      potential for use in human nutrition and other value-added products. Proximate
      and chemical analysis were determined by the methods of AOAC. Fatty acid profiles
      were determined following the method of Saaed and Howell (1999). Amino acid
      profiles for the species were determined according to Bidlingmeyer et al. (1987).
      The protein content of both the water soluble and salt soluble protein extracts
      of the fish species were determined by the Bradford Protein Assay method
      (Bradford 1976). Rancidity of the fish species was assessed by thiobarbituric
      acid reactive substances (TBARS) and Peroxide value (PV) as described by Saeed
      and Howell (1999). Burrito contained 18% protein, whereas the flying gurnard
      contained 22.3%. Calcium content was 296 mg/100 g for burrito and 185 mg/100 g
      for flying gurnard, whereas iron content was 4.1 mg/100 g and 1.0 mg/100 g for
      burrito and the flying gurnard, respectively. Palmitic acid (C16) was 27% and
      14.3% for the flying gurnard and burrito, respectively. C17: 1omega8 was 3% in
      the flying gurnard and 0.2% in burrito. Oleic (C18:1omega9) was 17% in the flying
      gurnard and 6% in burrito. C20:4omega6 was 1.6% in the flying gurnard and 3% in
      burrito. Docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6omega3) was 4.9% in the flying gurnard and
      4.0% in burrito. Both burrito and the flying gurnard are of high nutritional
      quality as they had a high protein content, good general amino acid profile and
      abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

PMID- 28572920
TI  - Nutrient content of fish powder from low value fish and fish byproducts.
AB  - Consuming small-sized fish species whole, and bones of large fish could
      contribute significantly to reducing the level of micronutrient and protein
      malnutrition. These fish products are more affordable and could therefore meet
      the needs of poor, vulnerable groups, particularly in rural and urban areas where
      limited economic resources prevent dietary diversity. The objectives of the study
      were to produce fish powder from dried edible byproducts from fish processing
      factories, an underutilized fish species, burrito and to determine the physical,
      micromineral, macronutrient and microbiological quality of the dried fish powder.
      Edible fish processing byproducts and an underutilized fish, burrito
      (Brachydeuterus auritus) were cleaned thoroughly and dried with a Council for
      Scientific and Industrial Research-Food Research Institute (CSIR-FRI) gas-fuelled
      oven at 55 degrees C for 8 h or until dried. The dried products were milled into
      powder, and packaged into polythene bags. Proximate analysis of the fish powder
      was done Official Methods of Analysis (AOAC) methods. Minerals and heavy metals
      in the fish powder were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS).
      Microbiological quality was determined by Nordic Committee on Food Analysis
      Method (NMLK) methods. Tuna trimmings contained 80.71 g/100 g protein, whereas
      burrito contained 70.40 g/100 g protein. Concentrations of cadmium, arsenic, and
      mercury varied from <1.00 to 1 mg/kg. Lead was found at 0.04 mg/100 g in tuna
      frames and gills only. All fish byproducts contained high levels of iron, for
      example, trimmings contained 16.58 mg/100 g, whereas tuna frames and gills also
      contained 16.82 and 19.54 mg/100 g, respectively. Burrito contained 8.92 mg/100
      g. Zinc levels also ranged from 0.41 mg/100 g in tuna trimmings to 1.88 mg/100 g
      in tuna gills. The powdered samples according to the standards set by Ghana
      Standard Authority, were acceptable. Consuming small- sized fish species whole,
      and bones of large fish could contribute significantly to reducing the level of
      micronutrient and protein malnutrition. These are more affordable and could
      therefore meet the needs of poor, vulnerable groups.

PMID- 28572922
TI  - Migration of nonylphenol and plasticizers from polyvinyl chloride stretch film
      into food simulants, rapeseed oil, and foods.
AB  - Nonylphenol (NP) has been suspected as an endocrine-disrupting chemical. Japanese
      polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stretch films contained 0.5-3.3 mg/g of NP and 100-400
      mg/g of plasticizers such as diisononyl adipate (DINA), di-n-alkyl adipate (DAA),
      and diacetyllauroyl glycerol (DALG). Migration of NP and plasticizers from PVC
      stretch films into food simulants (water; 4% acetic acid; 20%, 50%, and 95%
      ethanol; and heptane), rapeseed oil, and foods was investigated. Plasticizers
      migrated only in small amounts into aqueous simulants and foods, although they
      migrated at much higher levels into 50% and 95% ethanol, heptane, rapeseed oil,
      and fatty foods, whereas NP more easily migrated into aqueous simulants and
      foods. At 5 degrees C for 24 hr, migration of NP into vegetable and fruit was
      2.9%-6.4% of their contents, and that of DINA and DAA was 0.1%-0.3%. The
      migration ratios of NP into aqueous foods were much higher than those of DINA and
      DAA. The migration ratio of NP into fatty foods, such as minced tuna and pork,
      was 33% and 24%, which was almost similar to that of DINA and DAA. The estimated
      daily intakes of NP and DINA for Japanese individuals of those days were 35 and
      1,050 MUg, respectively, and should not be associated with any safety concerns.

PMID- 28572923
TI  - The rehydration behavior of microwave-dried amaranth (Amaranthus dubius) leaves.
AB  - The effect of temperature (35, 50, and 60 degrees C) on the rehydration behavior
      of microwave-dried amaranth (Amaranthus dubius) leaves was investigated. Leaves
      were dried at 700 W power level before rehydrating in water. The higher the
      rehydration temperature, the higher the equilibrium moisture content of the
      leaves, although the effect was not statistically significant. The increase in
      rehydration ratio was significant only as temperature increased from 50 to 60
      degrees C. The process was adequately described by the Peleg sorption model, with
      the Peleg rate constant (K1) and the Peleg capacity constant (K2), both
      decreasing as rehydration temperature increased. While the color difference
      (DeltaE) between fresh leaves and leaves rehydrated at 35 degrees C was
      significantly higher than for the leaves rehydrated at 50 and 60 degrees C, this
      difference was not visible. Cooking of leaves occurred beyond 120 min at the
      higher rehydration temperatures . Based on the results, rehydration of microwave
      dried leaves was successfully carried out at 35 degrees C, however, rehydrated
      leaves were darker than the fresh leaves. Increasing the temperature to 50
      degrees C improved the rehydration capacity and the color of the leaves, however,
      cooking of leaves occurred by the second hour of the process.

PMID- 28572921
TI  - Hydroxycinnamic acids in cooked potato tubers from Solanum tuberosum group
      Phureja.
AB  - Hydroxycinnamic acids are phenolic compounds and are considered to have health
      promotion properties due to their antioxidant activity. Potato tubers of 113
      genotypes of Solanum tuberosum group Phureja belonging to the Colombian Central
      Collection, landraces of potatoes, and commercial cultivars were evaluated for
      their hydroxycinnamic acids content. The composition of these compounds was
      analyzed using cooked tubers in two different agro-climatic conditions. The
      genotypes were analyzed for chlorogenic acid, neo-chlorogenic acid, crypto
      chlorogenic acid, and caffeic acid by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography
      (UHPLC). Chlorogenic acid was the major representative and varied between 0.77 to
      7.98 g kg-1 DW (dry weight) followed by crypto-chlorogenic acid (from 0.09 to
      1.50 g kg-1 DW). Under moorland agro-climatic conditions even though the
      chlorogenic acid levels increased with respect to flatland agro-climatic
      conditions, the related isomer neo-chlorogenic acid decreased as compared to
      flatland conditions. The correlation between chlorogenic acid with the isomers,
      and with caffeic acid was positive. This study demonstrated that there is a wide
      variation in hydroxycinnamic acids contents in the germplasm studied, which can
      be exploited in breeding programs to contribute to human health.

PMID- 28572918
TI  - Multi-morbidities of allergic rhinitis in adults: European Academy of Allergy and
      Clinical Immunology Task Force Report.
AB  - This report has been prepared by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical
      Immunology Task Force on Allergic Rhinitis (AR) comorbidities. The aim of this
      multidisciplinary European consensus document is to highlight the role of
      multimorbidities in the definition, classification, mechanisms, recommendations
      for diagnosis and treatment of AR, and to define the needs in this neglected area
      by a literature review. AR is a systemic allergic disease and is generally
      associated with numerous multi-morbid disorders, including asthma, eczema, food
      allergies, eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE), conjunctivitis, chronic middle ear
      effusions, rhinosinusitis, adenoid hypertrophy, olfaction disorders, obstructive
      sleep apnea, disordered sleep and consequent behavioural and educational effects.
      This report provides up-to-date usable information to: (1) improve the knowledge
      and skills of allergists, so as to ultimately improve the overall quality of
      patient care; (2) to increase interest in this area; and (3) to present a unique
      contribution to the field of upper inflammatory disease.

PMID- 28572925
TI  - Origins, production, and utilization of cassava in Burkina Faso, a contribution
      of a neglected crop to household food security.
AB  - Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a food plant introduced in Africa from
      America by the Portuguese in 1558. The objective of this study is to establish
      cassava origins, production, and utilization in Burkina Faso. The investigation
      was carried out in the regions of Center West, Cascades, Boucle du Mouhoun, Hauts
      Bassins, South West, and Center East of Burkina Faso. Eighteen cassava processing
      units and 226 farmers in 57 communities from the selected regions have been
      involved in the survey. The investigation showed that cassava was introduced to
      Burkina Faso, former Upper Volta from the costal countries, Gold Coast (now
      Ghana), by both local traders and the Roman Catholic White missionaries. This
      happened between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the
      20th century. The main variety introduced was Banfti. Some improved varieties
      like V5 (94/0270), Banke (V2), 68.61, 30572, KTMA developed by research are now
      available and used by farmers along with the traditional varieties like manchien,
      santidougou, tchinda yaar, leo. The cases of intoxication evoked by some farmers
      are evidence that some of those varieties may have a high level of cyanohydric
      acid content. Cassava is available all the year throughout the country. But the
      top of cassava production is reached in July. Most of the small-scale farmers
      (98%) grow cassava both for household use and as income generator. About 83.92%
      of cassava farmers have less than 10 tons as annual production and only 1.72% of
      them can produce more than 100 tons. The main food products based on cassava
      found in communities are raw roots, boiled roots, roasted roots, to, attieke,
      tapioca, ragout, beignets, boiled leaves, soup (with leaves), cassava juice, etc.
      And the main cassava-processed products in the processing units are attieke,
      gari, tapioca, and flour. Cassava contributes greatly to household food security
      during food shortage period. It sustains families for weeks as food and is also
      exchanged with other foods or sold to buy food or meet household needs.

PMID- 28572924
TI  - Physicochemical, functional, and nutritional characteristics of stabilized rice
      bran form tarom cultivar.
AB  - Extrusion is a multistep thermal process which has been utilized in a wide
      spectrum of food preparations. The effect of extrusion processing on the
      physicochemical, nutritional, and functional properties of Tarom cultivar rice
      bran was studied. However, the color of rice bran was improved by extrusion
      processing, but the protein content was reduced in the stabilized rice bran,
      which can be related to the denaturation of protein. Extrusion had also a
      reduction significant effect on the phytic acid as well as vitamin E in rice
      bran. However, the content of niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and folic
      acid remained unchanged, but the dietary fiber was enhanced which has beneficial
      health effect on human consumption. In comparison with unstabilized rice bran,
      water holding capacity was enhanced, but the oil absorption capacity was reduced.
      Foaming capacity and foaming stability of extruded rice bran was more than that
      of untreated rice bran, although they were less than that of rice bran protein
      concentrate/isolate. In general, the extrusion process improves some functional
      and nutritional properties of rice bran which are valuable to industrial
      applications and have potential as ingredient in food to improve consumer health.

PMID- 28572927
TI  - A sensory assessment of color and textural quality of refrigerated tomatoes
      preserved with different concentrations of potassium permanganate.
AB  - Freshly harvested mature tomato fruits were treated with different concentrations
      of potassium permanganate to evaluate their effect on color and texture of the
      fruits. This was to determine the degree of acceptability and shelf life of the
      tomatoes. Fifty grams of mature unripe tomato fruits was washed and weighed into
      a transparent plastic container containing different concentrations of potassium
      permanganate (control, 2.5 ppm, 5.0 ppm, 7.5 ppm. 10.0 ppm, 12.5 ppm, and 15.0
      ppm). The experiment was carried out in a complete randomized design and
      replicated four times. All the treatments were refrigerated at a temperature
      range 14-18 degrees C and a sensory assessment of color and textural changes was
      carried out through a team of selected panelists using the hedonic scale ranking
      to determine the degree of acceptability. Results obtained were analyzed using
      analysis of variance DMRT at 5% level of probability and least significant
      difference (LSD). Results obtained indicated that 7.5 ppm of potassium
      permanganate had a preservative effect on color and texture of refrigerated
      tomatoes. Therefore, the tomatoes were of acceptable color and texture for a
      period of 21 days as revealed in the result. Color quality had a mean score of
      1.64 and texture ranking was 1.73 after 3 weeks of storage.

PMID- 28572926
TI  - Evidence for decreased interaction and improved carotenoid bioavailability by
      sequential delivery of a supplement.
AB  - Despite the notable health benefits of carotenoids for human health, the majority
      of human diets worldwide are repeatedly shown to be inadequate in intake of
      carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables, according to current health
      recommendations. To address this deficit, strategies designed to increase dietary
      intakes and subsequent plasma levels of carotenoids are warranted. When mixed
      carotenoids are delivered into the intestinal tract simultaneously, competition
      occurs for micelle formation and absorption, affecting carotenoid
      bioavailability. Previously, we tested the in vitro viability of a carotenoid mix
      designed to deliver individual carotenoids sequentially spaced from one another
      over the 6 hr transit time of the human upper gastrointestinal system. We
      hypothesized that temporally and spatially separating the individual carotenoids
      would reduce competition for micelle formation, improve uptake, and maximize
      efficacy. Here, we test this hypothesis in a double-blind, repeated-measure,
      cross-over human study with 12 subjects by comparing the change of plasma
      carotenoid levels for 8 hr after oral doses of a sequentially spaced carotenoid
      mix, to a matched mix without sequential spacing. We find the carotenoid change
      from baseline, measured as area under the curve, is increased following
      consumption of the sequentially spaced mix compared to concomitant carotenoids
      delivery. These results demonstrate reduced interaction and regulation between
      the sequentially spaced carotenoids, suggesting improved bioavailability from a
      novel sequentially spaced carotenoid mix.

PMID- 28572928
TI  - Effect of soy flour on nutritional, physicochemical, and sensory characteristics
      of gluten-free bread.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the effect of soy flour on nutritional,
      physicochemical, and sensory characteristics of gluten-free (GF) bread. In this
      study, corn flour was replaced with soy flour at different levels 5%, 10%, and
      15% to produce a more nutritionally balanced GF bread. Physical and chemical
      properties, sensory evaluation and crust and crumb color were measured in bread
      samples. The results of evaluations showed that protein content of soy flour
      supplemented GF bread significantly increased from 9.8% to 12.9% as compared to
      control along with an increased in fat (3.3%-4.1%), fiber (0.29%- 0.38%), and ash
      (1.7%-2.2%) content. Moisture (27.9%-26.5%) and carbohydrate (58.3-52.3) content
      decreased with the incremental addition of soybean flour. The highest total score
      of sensory evaluation was for the bread sample containing 15% soybean flour. The
      evaluation of crust and crumb showed that bread samples with 15% soy flour were
      significantly darker than the other bread samples. In conclusion, adding higher
      levels of soybean flour into GF bread can improve bread quality, sensory
      characteristics, and nutritional properties of bread. Nutritional status in
      patients with celiac disease (CD) can be improved through the produce GF bread in
      this way.

PMID- 28572929
TI  - Development and standardization of the "Let's Shop" questionnaire: an assessment
      of shopping habits and executive functions in people with obesity.
AB  - Overweight and obesity are epidemic in Western countries and the literature
      suggests a relationship between overweight and executive functions (EF). Shopping
      is a regular, everyday activity that is strongly related to executive
      functioning. To date, no assessment tool has been developed to evaluate EF in
      adults with overweight and obesity, with a focus on the activity of shopping. To
      determine the factorial validity of the newly developed "Let's Shop"
      questionnaire. A convenience sample which included three groups of 93 men and
      women aged 35-60 were included in the study. Thirty three overweight participants
      and 30 obese participants who sought a clinical dietitian constituted the two
      research groups, and 30 normal weight participants recruited from a physician's
      waiting room constituted the control group and were matched to the two research
      groups by age, gender, education, and socioeconomic status. The "Let's Shop"
      questionnaire was administered to all participants. An exploratory principal
      factor extraction with oblimin rotation was conducted for the "Let's Shop"
      questionnaire. Twenty-one items were entered into the equation; the analysis
      revealed four distinct factors comprised of 17 items. The cumulative percentage
      of variance accounted for by the four factors was 44.74%. The four factors were
      as follows: "planning in action" alpha = 0.63; "planning ahead" alpha = 0.71;
      "impulsivity" alpha = 0.67; and "habits" alpha = 0.63. The "Let's Shop"
      questionnaire was reduced to 17 items. This brief questionnaire will enable rapid
      administration by researchers and practitioners and determine a potential
      association between EF in the supermarket arena and weight status.

PMID- 28572930
TI  - Bacterial contaminants from frozen puff pastry production process and their
      growth inhibition by antimicrobial substances from lactic acid bacteria.
AB  - Seventy-five bacterial contaminants which still persisted to cleaning system from
      three puff pastry production lines (dough forming, layer and filling forming, and
      shock freezing) were identified using 16S rDNA as seven genera of Bacillus,
      Corynebacterium, Dermacoccus, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, and
      Staphylococcus with detection frequencies of 24.00, 2.66, 1.33, 37.33, 1.33,
      2.66, and 30.66, respectively. Seventeen species were discovered while only 11
      species Bacillus cereus, B. subtilis, B. pumilus, Corynebacterium striatum,
      Dermacoccus barathri, Enterobacter asburiae, Staphylococcus kloosii, S.
      haemolyticus, S. hominis, S. warneri, and S. aureus were detected at the end of
      production. Based on their abundance, the highest abundance of E. asburiae could
      be used as a biomarker for product quality. While a low abundance of the
      mesophile pathogen C. striatum, which causes respiratory and nervous infection
      and appeared only at the shock freezing step was firstly reported for its
      detection in bakery product. Six antimicrobial substances (AMSs) from lactic acid
      bacteria, FF1-4, FF1-7, PFUR-242, PFUR-255, PP-174, and nisin A were tested for
      their inhibition activities against the contaminants. The three most effective
      were FF1-7, PP-174, and nisin A exhibiting wide inhibition spectra of 88.00%,
      85.33%, and 86.66%, respectively. The potential of a disinfectant solution
      containing 800 AU/ml of PP-174 and nisin A against the most resistant strains of
      Enterobacter, Staphylococcus, Bacillus and Klebsiella was determined on
      artificially contaminated conveyor belt coupons at 0, 4, 8, 12, and 16 hr. The
      survival levels of the test strains were below 1 log CFU/coupon at 0 hr. The
      results suggested that a combined solution of PP-174 and nisin A may be
      beneficial as a sanitizer to inhibit bacterial contaminants in the frozen puff
      pastry industry.

PMID- 28572931
TI  - Modeling of drying kiwi slices and its sensory evaluation.
AB  - In this study, monolayer drying of kiwi slices was simulated by a laboratory
      scale hot-air dryer. The drying process was carried out at three different
      temperatures of 50, 60, and 70 degrees C. After the end of drying process,
      initially, the experimental drying data were fitted to the 11 well-known drying
      models. The results indicated that Two-term model gave better performance
      compared with other models to monitor the moisture ratio (with average R2 value
      equal .998). Also, this study used artificial neural network (ANN) in order to
      feasibly predict dried kiwi slices moisture ratio (y), based on the time and
      temperature drying inputs (x1, x2). In order to do this research, two main
      activation functions called logsig and tanh, widely used in engineering
      calculations, were applied. The results revealed that, logsig activation function
      base on 13 neurons in first and second hidden layers were selected as the best
      configuration to predict the moisture ratio. This network was able to predict
      moisture ratio with R2 value .997. Furthermore, kiwi slice favorite is evaluated
      by sensory evaluation. In this test, sense qualities as color, aroma, flavor,
      appearance, and chew ability (tissue brittleness) are considered.

PMID- 28572932
TI  - Comparison of phenolic content and antioxidant activities of millet varieties
      grown in different locations in Sri Lanka.
AB  - Soluble and bound phenolic compounds were extracted from different varieties of
      millet types namely, finger millet, foxtail, and proso millet cultivated at dry
      and intermediate climatic zones in Sri Lanka. The extracts were examined for
      their total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and
      proanthocyanidin content (PC). The antioxidant activities were meassured by
      reducing power (RP), trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), 2,2-diphenyl
      1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, ferrous ion chelating
      ability (FICA), and using a beta carotene linoleate model system. The ferulic
      acid content of extracts were determined using high-performance liquid
      chromatoghraphy (HPLC). Finger millet showed the highest phenolic content and
      antioxidant activities compared to proso and foxtail millets. The phenolic
      content as well as antioxidant activites of soluble and bound phenolic extracts
      of millets were affected by variety and cultivated location. The highest phenolic
      content and antioxidant activites were reported for millet samples cultivated in
      areas belonging to the dry zone in Sri Lanka.

PMID- 28572934
TI  - Evaluation of different solvents to extract antibacterial compounds from jalapeno
      peppers.
AB  - Chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) may possess antibacterial properties and have
      potential to be used in foods as antimicrobial. The complete chili pepper extract
      should be evaluated to determine which compounds are responsible for the
      antimicrobial activity. Extraction of compounds from the pepper is completed
      using a solvent. The type of solvent used for extraction influences which
      compounds are isolated, therefore the best extraction method needs to be
      determined. The purpose of this study was to identify which solvent is most
      successful at extracting unknown antibacterial compounds from jalapeno peppers.
      Fresh jalapeno peppers were chopped, weighed, and blended with a solvent
      (sterilized hot water, 70% methanol, 95% methanol, 70% ethanol, or 95% ethanol)
      at a 1:1 ratio (g/g) until the mixture was homogenized, followed by shaking for
      15 min. The slurry was centrifuged; supernatant was removed and used for
      antibacterial testing against Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7,
      and Salmonella enterica. The diameter of growth inhibition was measured and
      statistically evaluated using ANOVA to determine the extract with the greatest
      antimicrobial activity. Solvents were tested alone as a control. There was
      greater bacterial inhibition from extracts created with methanol and ethanol than
      hot water. Listeria monocytogenes was significantly more susceptible to the
      extracts than E. coli or Salmonella isolates. Each solvent extract was then
      analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fractions (A-G)
      were collected and used for subsequent disk diffusion analysis against L.
      monocytogenes. Fractions E and F (eluded between 20 and 30 min) exhibited the
      most antibacterial activity. There were no differences between solvents used (p =
      .05). Further investigation into specific compounds within these extracts will be
      completed in the future.

PMID- 28572935
TI  - Waffle production: influence of batter ingredients on sticking of fresh egg
      waffles at baking plates-Part I: effect of starch and sugar components.
AB  - Fresh egg waffles are a sweet convenience product typically baked from eggs,
      water, sugar, flour, fat, leavening agents, emulsifiers, preservatives, and
      flavors. In industrial production, waffles are baked continuously in high amounts
      of up to 200 kg raw material per hour. Therefore, it is important that the
      waffles do not stick onto the baking plates, which can cause significant product
      loss and increased costs due to interruption of the baking process, required
      cleaning procedures, and restarting of the energy-consuming start-up phase.
      Sticking of waffles is greatly influenced not only by baking plate material,
      release agent, baking temperature, and time, but also by the batter ingredients.
      In this study, effects of different starches and sugar components were
      investigated. Within the selected starches, potato starch demonstrated the
      highest effects on increasing waffle stability and releasing properties compared
      to wheat and lupine flour (less than 7% sticking waffles). Rice flour performed
      worst, with almost 50% of sticking waffles. Most of these waffles were broken
      during take-off, due to their crumbly texture. Within the sugar components,
      glycerine was better suitable than sorbitol and crystal sugar was superior
      compared to powdered sugar. They required less take-off force. It could be
      demonstrated that waffles with increased stability and texture were those that
      showed the least number of sticking waffles, thus the main aim of batter
      ingredients was to improve waffle quality. Waffle quality was influenced by
      batter parameters, significant correlations could be found, for example, a
      positive correlation between pH- and L-value, negative correlations between pH-
      and a-value, or density and aw-value. This resulted in significant correlations
      with take-off-force, which was correlated with L*- and b*-value (negative) and
      positive to a*-value. Sticking behavior was strongly associated with b*-value
      (positive) and to a*-value (negative).

PMID- 28572933
TI  - Anti-inflammatory and anti-insulin resistance activities of aqueous extract from
      Anoectochilus burmannicus.
AB  - This study investigated biological activities including antioxidative stress,
      anti-inflammation, and anti-insulin resistance of Anoectochilus burmannicus
      aqueous extract (ABE). The results showed abilities of ABE to scavenging DPPH and
      ABTS free radicals in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, ABE significantly reduced
      nitric oxide (NO) production in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW 264.7
      via inhibition of mRNA and protein expressions of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS).
      The LPS-induced mRNA expressions of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and interleukin
      1beta (IL-1beta) were suppressed by ABE. Moreover, ABE exerted anti-insulin
      resistance activity as it significantly improved the glucose uptake in tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha treated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In addition, ABE at the
      concentration of up to 200 MUg/mL was not toxic to human peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and did not induce mutations. Finally, the results of
      our study suggest the potential use of A. burmannicus as anti-inflammatory, anti
      insulin resistance agents, or food supplement for prevention of chronic diseases.

PMID- 28572936
TI  - Waffle production: influence of batter ingredients on sticking of waffles at
      baking plates-Part II: effect of fat, leavening agent, and water.
AB  - Fresh egg waffles are continuously baked in tunnel baking ovens in industrial
      scale. Waffles that partly or fully stick to the baking plates cause significant
      product loss and increased costs. The aim of this study was, therefore, to
      investigate the effect of different recipe ingredients on the sticking behavior
      of waffles. In this second part, ingredients investigated were different
      leavening agents (sodium acid pyrophosphate, ammonium bicarbonate, magnesium
      hydroxide carbonate, or monocalcium phosphate), different fat sources (rapeseed
      oil, cocos fat, butter, or margarine), and different water sources (tap water 12
      degrees dH and distilled water). Within the different types of fats, solid fats
      with high amount of short-chain fatty acids (cocos fat or butter) decreased the
      number of sticking waffles compared to liquid oils (rapeseed oil). Regarding
      leavening agents, magnesium hydroxide carbonate and ammonium bicarbonate were
      superior to sodium acid pyrophosphate or monocalcium phosphate. Between the two
      water sources, effects were small.

PMID- 28572937
TI  - Heat penetration attributes of milkfish (Chanos chanos) thermal processed in
      flexible pouches: a comparative study between steam application and water
      immersion.
AB  - The difference in the heating penetration characteristics of product processed in
      retort by steam-air application and water immersion was studied. Fresh milkfish
      (Chanos chanos) packed in dry pack and in oil medium, both in flexible pouches,
      was thermal processed to minimum F0 value of 7.77 at 121.1 degrees C. Heat
      penetration values were recorded for each minute of processing with the aid Ellab
      (TM 9608, Denmark) temperature recorder. Retort come up time to achieve 121.1
      degrees C was observed to be less in steam-air which invariably led to a lower
      Ball's process time (B) and the total process time (T) observed in steam-air as
      compared to water immersion. Obtained data were plotted on a semi-logarithmic
      paper with temperature deficit on x-axis against time on the y-axis.

PMID- 28572938
TI  - The effect of proteolytic activity of starter cultures on technologically
      important properties of yogurt.
AB  - In this study, the effects of proteolytic activity of yogurt starter bacteria on
      physicochemical and technological properties of yogurt were investigated.
      Moreover, impact of proteolytic activity and production of exopolysaccharide
      (EPS) on the performance of each strain were screened. In order to compare the
      textural properties of yogurt samples, four parameters were evaluated: syneresis,
      water-holding capacity, cohesiveness, and hardness. Results showed that strains
      with high proteolytic activity had lower acidifying activity during fermentation
      and storage. Samples containing EPS-producing starter cultures had low
      proteolytic activity except samples K, L, and M. These differences related to
      nature and characteristics of each strain. Counts of starter cultures in samples
      produced using strains with high proteolytic activity were higher than other
      samples. Textural analysis data showed significant differences (p < .05) among
      strains in the four tested parameters. Strains with high proteolytic activity
      showed lower texture properties than other samples. Evaluation of sensory
      characteristics also showed samples prepared using strains with low or medium
      proteolytic activity and produced with EPS-producing strains have higher overall
      acceptability than other samples. Accordingly, microbial, physicochemical, and
      sensory properties of produced yogurts confirm that proteolytic activity is one
      of the most effective factors in quality of product and performance of each
      strain.

PMID- 28572766
TI  - Conversion Discriminative Analysis on Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Multiple
      Cortical Features from MR Images.
AB  - Neuroimaging measurements derived from magnetic resonance imaging provide
      important information required for detecting changes related to the progression
      of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cortical features and changes play a crucial
      role in revealing unique anatomical patterns of brain regions, and further
      differentiate MCI patients from normal states. Four cortical features, namely,
      gray matter volume, cortical thickness, surface area, and mean curvature, were
      explored for discriminative analysis among three groups including the stable MCI
      (sMCI), the converted MCI (cMCI), and the normal control (NC) groups. In this
      study, 158 subjects (72 NC, 46 sMCI, and 40 cMCI) were selected from the
      Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. A sparse-constrained regression
      model based on the l2-1-norm was introduced to reduce the feature dimensionality
      and retrieve essential features for the discrimination of the three groups by
      using a support vector machine (SVM). An optimized strategy of feature addition
      based on the weight of each feature was adopted for the SVM classifier in order
      to achieve the best classification performance. The baseline cortical features
      combined with the longitudinal measurements for 2 years of follow-up data yielded
      prominent classification results. In particular, the cortical thickness produced
      a classification with 98.84% accuracy, 97.5% sensitivity, and 100% specificity
      for the sMCI-cMCI comparison; 92.37% accuracy, 84.78% sensitivity, and 97.22%
      specificity for the cMCI-NC comparison; and 93.75% accuracy, 92.5% sensitivity,
      and 94.44% specificity for the sMCI-NC comparison. The best performances obtained
      by the SVM classifier using the essential features were 5-40% more than those
      using all of the retained features. The feasibility of the cortical features for
      the recognition of anatomical patterns was certified; thus, the proposed method
      has the potential to improve the clinical diagnosis of sub-types of MCI and
      predict the risk of its conversion to Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28572939
TI  - Effect of cooking and preservation on nutritional and phytochemical composition
      of the mushroom Amanita zambiana.
AB  - The effect of different cooking and preservation methods on the nutritional and
      phytochemical composition of the mushroom, Amanita zambiana, was investigated.
      Fresh mushrooms were boiled in water, fried, or microwaved. In addition, fresh
      mushrooms were either air-dried for 7 days or frozen at -20 degrees C for 14
      days. The protein, lipid, carbohydrate, and phenolic content of the treated
      mushrooms were measured and compared to the fresh mushroom contents. Frying
      increased the protein (2.01% +/- 0.2% [fresh mushroom] to 2.23% +/- 0.09%), lipid
      (14.68% +/- 0.9% to 15.56% +/- 0.34%), and carbohydrate (0.89% +/- 0.01% to 2.69%
      +/- 0.03%) content, while microwaving increased the protein (2.01% +/- 0.2% to
      3.64% +/- 0.08%) and carbohydrate content (0.89% +/- 0.01% to 2.26% +/- 0.09%).
      Boiling only increased the carbohydrate content (0.89% +/- 0.01% to 1.71% +/-
      0.05%) of the mushroom and significantly decreased (p < .05) the phenolic content
      (8.77 +/- 0.1 to 1.46 +/- 0.2 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g mushroom). Drying
      resulted in significant increase (p < .05) in protein (2.01 +/- 0.2% to 24.36 +/-
      0.09%), carbohydrate (0.89% +/- 0.01% to 58.67% +/- 3.29%), and phenolic contents
      (8.77 +/- 0.1 to 119.8 +/- 0.7 mg GAE/g mushroom), while freezing only increased
      the carbohydrate content (0.89% +/- 0.01% to 1.77% +/- 0.03%). From the three
      cooking methods studied, frying is recommended as the most effective cooking
      procedure in retaining or enhancing the mushroom nutrients, while drying is a
      better preservation method than freezing.

PMID- 28572941
TI  - Effect of psyllium and gum Arabic biopolymers on the survival rate and storage
      stability in yogurt of Enterococcus duransIW3 encapsulated in alginate.
AB  - Different herbal biopolymers were used to encapsulate Enterococcus durans IW3 to
      enhance its storage stability in yogurt and subsequently its endurance in
      gastrointestinal condition. Nine formulations of encapsulation were performed
      using alginate (ALG), ALG-psyllium (PSY), and ALG-gum Arabic (GA) blends. The
      encapsulation efficiency of all formulations, tolerance of encapsulated E. durans
      IW3 against low pH/high bile salt concentration, storage lifetime, and release
      profile of cells in natural condition of yogurt were evaluated. Result revealed
      98.6% encapsulation efficiency and 76% survival rate for all formulation compared
      with the unencapsulated formulation cells (43%). The ALG-PSY and ALG-GA
      formulations have slightly higher survival rates at low pH and bile salt
      condition (i.e., 76-93% and 81-95%, respectively) compared with the ALG
      formulation. All encapsulated E. durans IW3 was released from the prepared beads
      of ALG after 90 min, whereas both probiotics encapsulated in ALG-GA and ALG-PSY
      were released after 60 min. Enterococcus durans IW3 was successfully encapsulated
      in ALG, ALG-GA, and ALG-PSY beads prepared by extrusion method. ALG-GA and ALG
      PSY beads are suitable delivery carriers for the oral administration of bioactive
      compounds like probiotics. The GA and PSY gels exhibited better potential for
      encapsulation of probiotic bacteria cells because of the amendment of ALG
      difficulties and utilization of therapeutic and prebiotic potentials of these
      herbal biopolymers.

PMID- 28572940
TI  - Influence of storage temperature and low-temperature conditioning on the levels
      of health-promoting compounds in Rio Red grapefruit.
AB  - Commercial operations use low-temperature conditioning of citrus fruits to reduce
      the incidence of chilling injury (CI) during cold storage and quarantine
      treatments. Rio Red grapefruits (Citrus paradisi Macf) were stored for 12 weeks
      at 11 degrees C or 5 degrees C; an additional set was temperature conditioned at
      16 degrees C for 7 days before storing at 5 degrees C (CD). Every 3 weeks,
      samples were assessed for chilling injury (CI) and health-promoting compounds
      such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, limonoids, flavonoids, and furocoumarins. Low
      temperature conditioning significantly reduced CI but did not affect the total
      soluble solids, acidity, and ripening ratio. After 12 weeks of storage,
      grapefruits showed no significant differences in lycopene, narirutin, poncirin,
      furocoumarins, and radical scavenging activity in all the three treatments.
      Limonin was significantly higher (p < .05) in CD fruits, nomilin was
      significantly higher in fruits stored at 11 degrees C, whereas fruits stored at 5
      degrees C had lower levels of naringin, neohesperidin, and didymin after 12 weeks
      of storage. Low-temperature conditioning treatment helped fruits to retain
      similar or higher levels of most of the health-promoting compounds by the end of
      storage period while maintaining better quality than the nonconditioned fruits.

PMID- 28572942
TI  - Sensory optimization of crackers developed from high-quality cassava flour,
      starch, and prawn powder.
AB  - Crackers produced from high-quality cassava flour (HQCF), cassava starch, and
      prawn powder were optimized based on sensory preference testing. Ten different
      formulations of crackers were produced using mixture design. These were subjected
      to sensory evaluation using attributes such as taste, crispiness, puffiness, and
      acceptability on a 7-point hedonic scale. A mean score of 4.7, 5.6, 5.2, and 5.2
      was obtained correspondingly for taste, crispiness, puffiness, and acceptability.
      Scores for these attributes indicated that the crackers were acceptable. Mixture
      regression models were used to generate contour plots for the sensory attributes
      and these were superimposed to obtain an optimal region, from where an optimum
      formulation was chosen. Verification of the optimal formulation with
      acceptability studies confirmed that the newly developed snack had a likeness
      score of 6.3 and was highly acceptable to consumers. The study demonstrates the
      suitability of HQCF in processing value added snack products.

PMID- 28572945
TI  - Packaging methods and storage duration affect essential oil content and
      composition of lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora Kunth.).
AB  - Changes in essential oils (EOs) content and composition of lemon verbena leave at
      different packaging methods (packaged with air, nitrogen, or under vacuum) and
      during storage period (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 months) were determined. All the samples
      were hydrodistilled every 2 months during storage for EO content evaluation. EO
      composition was determined by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry. The results showed that by extending the storage period in all
      packaging methods, EO content was significantly decreased. Parallel to the
      increase in the storage duration in all packaging methods, citral content was
      decreased, whereas the amounts of limonene and 1,8-cineole were increased.
      Packaging of lemon verbena leaves with nitrogen preserved the highest EO content
      during 8 months of storage and achieved the desired amounts of citral, limonene,
      and 1,8-cineole. This investigation also showed camphene may be a useful marker
      for the indication of storage duration of lemon verbena.

PMID- 28572944
TI  - A potential bioactive hard-stock fat replacer comprised of a molecular gel.
AB  - Short-chain ceramides, such as N-acetoyl-d-erythro-sphingosine (C2), have a
      remarkable ability to structure edible oils, such as canola oil, into self
      standing organogels without any added saturated or trans fats. These short-chain
      ceramides are ubiquitously found in foods ranging from eggs to soybeans. As the
      ceramide fatty acid chain length increases, there is an increase in the melting
      temperature of the organogel and a decrease in the elastic modulus. Gelation
      ability is lost at 2 wt% when the fatty acid chain length increases to six
      carbons; however, organogels form at 5 wt% up to 18 carbons. Short-chain
      ceramides, C2, decrease cell viability of colon, prostate, ovarian, and leukemia
      cell lines, while ceramides with long-chain fatty acids, C18, do not affect the
      viability of these cancer cell lines. This suggests that a bioactive spreadable
      fat, with no trans or added saturated fat, with the potential to alter the
      viability of cancer cell growth, is possible.

PMID- 28572948
TI  - Application of starter cultures in the production of Enturire - a traditional
      sorghum-based alcoholic beverage.
AB  - Enturire is an alcoholic sorghum- and honey-based beverage traditionally produced
      by spontaneous fermentation. Its fermentation process is lengthy (5-7 days), does
      not guarantee product quality and safety and thus necessitates use of pure
      starter cultures. This study compared a modified production process of Enturire,
      with honey added at the start to the traditional one (honey added 3 days into the
      fermentation). The study also evaluated two starter culture combinations (L.
      plantarum MNC 21 +  S. cerevisiae MNC 21 Y) and (L. plantarum MNC 21 +  W.
      confusa MNC 20 +  S. cerevisiae MNC 21Y). Microbial counts, pH, alcohol content,
      titratable acidity, (TA) and consumer acceptability of the Enturire were
      determined. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast counts increased from 4-6 log
      cfu/ml to 8-9 log cfu/ml and 3-4 log cfu/ml to 5-8 log cfu/ml, respectively.
      Acidification of Enturire to pH <4.5 was significantly (p < .05) faster (12 hr)
      with starter fermentations than in the modified (18 hr) and the traditional
      processes (31 hr). More alcohol (9.2%-9.4%) was produced by the starters than the
      spontaneous fermentations (3.24%-4.38%). The modified process without starters
      produced a more acceptable (p < .05) product than the traditional process. The
      starters produced acceptable Enturire within 12 hr with pH, acidity, and alcohol
      content of about 3.8, 0.7%, and 2.5%-3.5%. Both starter combinations can thus be
      used to produce safe and acceptable Enturire in a short time.

PMID- 28572949
TI  - Consumer knowledge, preference, and perceived quality of dried tomato products in
      Ghana.
AB  - Postharvest losses (PHL) are incurred in the tomato value chain in Ghana and
      solar drying of tomato is a promising technology for reducing the loss. However,
      there are concerns on the usage, functionality and sensory appeal of the dried
      products to consumers, compounded with the lack of information and research on
      dried tomato processing in Ghana. A survey was carried out by administering
      semistructured questionnaires to 395 randomly selected and willing respondents in
      the Accra Metropolis. Information was obtained on the socioeconomic profile,
      consumption pattern, knowledge, and acceptance of tomato processing technologies
      and assessment of quality attributes important to consumers. Most consumers (74%)
      preferred tomato powder that is conveniently packaged to retain the
      characteristic intense taste and the flavor using Friedman's rank mean procedure.
      The study indicated that consumers were more concerned about good manufacturing
      practices during the production of solar-dried tomato (48.8%) rather than the
      quality attributes (8.6%). These findings indicate the need for safe solar drying
      procedures in order to increase consumer acceptability of solar-dried tomato
      products in Ghana.

PMID- 28572943
TI  - Influence of low dose of gamma radiation and storage on some vitamins and mineral
      elements of dried oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus).
AB  - Mushrooms contain some of the most potent natural medicines on the planet.
      Vitamins A, C, D, Mineral elements, contents, as well as total soluble solids
      (Brixo) of dried composition of Pleurotus ostreatus were investigated after
      exposing to gamma radiation doses of 0 (control), 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 kGy at a
      dose rate of 1.7 kGy per hour in air from a Cobalt 60 source (SLL 515, Hungary)
      batch irradiator prior to storage (0 month) and after storage (12 months) at room
      temperature (28 +/- 2 degrees C). Results obtained showed some significant (p <
      .05) differences due to irradiation and storage. Before storage, vitamins A, C,
      and D contents of dried and irradiated mushrooms ranged 0.003 +/- 0.08-0.014 +/-
      0.08, 0.042 +/- 1.06-0.132 +/- 1.06, and 0.040 +/- 0.76-0.057 +/- 0.76 mg/g,
      respectively. After 12 months, vitamin contents decreased and ranged 0.0029 +/-
      0.08-0.010 +/- 0.08, 0.038 +/- 1.06-0.125 +/- 1.06, and 0.031 +/- 0.76-0.05 +/-
      0.76 mg/g for vitamins A, C, and D, respectively. Total soluble solids recorded
      1.5 Brixo, however, showed no significant difference (p > .05) and did not change
      in 12 months after gamma irradiation up to 2 kGy. Sodium ranged from 14.00 +/-
      0.7 to 14.90 +/- 0.8 mg/100 g. Potassium content varied from 30.20 +/- 0.5 to
      33.10 +/- 0.6 mg/100 g. Magnesium content ranged 1.27 +/- 0.15-3.53 +/- 0.04
      mg/100 g. Calcium ranged 11.00 +/- 0.4-12.53 +/- 0.4 +/- 0.03 mg/100 g.
      Phosphorus content ranged 6.11 +/- 0.30-6.41 +/- 0.35 mg/100 g, whereas Nitrogen
      content was found to be 3.00 +/- 0.03-3.60 +/- 0.25 mg/100 g. Microelements or
      heavy metals included Copper; detected ranged 0.00 +/- 0.00-0.02 +/- 0.001 mg/100
      g, Zinc content ranged 0.01 +/- 0.002-0.03 +/- 0.001 mg/100 g. Iron content was
      found to be in the range 0.29 +/- 0.01-0.37 +/- 0.1 mg/100 g. Manganese content
      was found to be in the range 0.03 +/- 0.001-0.04 +/- 0.01 mg/100 g. Lead content
      was found to be 0.00 +/- 0.00-0.03 +/- 0.001 mg/100 g. Food processing and
      storage has the potential to slightly alter the stability of vitamins in foods.
      Pleurotus ostreatus showed appreciable levels of mineral elemental composition,
      essential vitamins A, C, and D, and can be endorsed as a natural medicinal food
      product in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The heavy metals detected were
      with also below the upper limits permissible by the WHO standards and is thus
      safe for human consumption.

PMID- 28572946
TI  - Experimental and modeling investigation of mass transfer during combined infrared
      vacuum drying of Hayward kiwifruits.
AB  - In this work, we tried to evaluate mass transfer during a combined infrared
      vacuum drying of kiwifruits. Infrared radiation power (200-300 W) and system
      pressure (5-15 kPa), as drying parameters, are evaluated on drying
      characteristics of kiwifruits. Both the infrared lamp power and vacuum pressure
      affected the drying time of kiwifruit slices. Nine different mathematical models
      were evaluated for moisture ratios using nonlinear regression analysis. The
      results of regression analysis indicated that the quadratic model is the best to
      describe the drying behavior with the lowest SE values and highest R value. Also,
      an increase in the power led to increase in the effective moisture diffusivity
      between 1.04 and 2.29 * 10-9 m2/s. A negative effect was observed on the DeltaE
      with increasing in infrared power and with rising in infrared radiation power it
      was increased. Chroma values decreased during drying.

PMID- 28572947
TI  - Development of a fermented quinoa-based beverage.
AB  - Quinoa is a crop that originated from the Andes. It has high nutritional value,
      outstanding agro-ecological adaptability, and low water requirements. Quinoa is
      an excellent crop alternative to help overcome food shortages, and it can also
      have a role in the prevention of developed world lifestyle diseases, such as type
      2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, inflammatory and autoimmune
      diseases, etc. In order to expand the traditional uses of quinoa and to provide
      new, healthier and more nutritious food products, a fermented quinoa-based
      beverage was developed. Two quinoa varieties (Rosada de Huancayo and Pasankalla)
      were studied. The fermentation process, viscosity, acidity, and metabolic
      activity during the preparation and storage of the drink were monitored, as well
      as the preliminary organoleptic acceptability of the product. The drink had
      viable and stable microbiota during the storage time and the fermentation proved
      to be mostly homolactic. Both quinoa varieties were suitable as base for
      fermented products; Pasankalla, however, has the advantage due to higher protein
      content, lower saponin concentration, and lower loss of viscosity during the
      fermentation process. These results suggest that the differences between quinoa
      varieties may have substantial effects on food processes and on the properties of
      final products. This is a factor that should be taken into account when planning
      novel products based on this grain.

PMID- 28572954
TI  - Effect of drying methods and blending ratios on dough rheological properties,
      physical and sensory properties of wheat-taro flour composite bread.
AB  - The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of taro drying methods and
      blending ratios on the physical quality attributes and sensory quality of wheat
      taro bread and rheological properties of the blend dough. Farinographic
      properties like water absorption capacity, dough development time, dough
      stability time, time to break down, mixing tolerance index, and farinographic
      quality number were significantly (p < .05) affected by drying methods and
      blending ratio and their interaction. Increased taro flour (10-20 g) per 100 g of
      wheat flour resulted in an increased water absorption capacity (57.38%-58.23%)
      and mixing tolerance index (67.33-70.21 FU). The sensory analysis had revealed
      that as taro flour blending ratio increased the acceptability of blended breads
      were reduced. With respect to physical and sensory properties, the control bread
      had better acceptability than that of 10, 15, and 20 g taro flour-mixed bread.
      The study revealed that there is possibility of incorporating taro flour up to 15
      g per 100 g of wheat flour with acceptable sensory attributes of the composite
      bread.

PMID- 28572951
TI  - Value-added probiotic development by high-solid fermentation of sweet potato with
      Saccharomyces boulardii.
AB  - Controlled fermentation of Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) var. Beauregard by
      yeast, Saccharomyces boulardii (MAY 796) to enhance the nutritional value of
      sweet potato was investigated. An average 8.00 * 1010 Colony Forming Units
      (CFU)/g of viable cells were obtained over 5-day high-solid fermentation. Yeast
      cell viability did not change significantly over time at 4 degrees C whereas the
      number of viable yeast cells reduced significantly at room temperature (25
      degrees C), which was approximately 40% in 12 months. Overall, the controlled
      fermentation of sweet potato by MAY 796 enhanced protein, crude fiber, neutral
      detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, amino acid, and fatty acid levels.
      Development of value-added sweet potato has a great potential in animal feed and
      human nutrition. S. boulardii- fermented sweet potato has great potential as
      probiotic-enriched animal feed and/or functional food for human nutrition.

PMID- 28572950
TI  - Relative validation of a short questionnaire to assess the dietary habits of
      pregnant American Indian women.
AB  - The objective of this study was to compare a short dietary screener developed to
      assess diet quality with interviewer-administered telephone 24-hour dietary
      recalls in a population of pregnant Northern Plains (NP) American Indian women.
      Participants were recruited from NP clinical sites of the Prenatal Alcohol and
      SIDS and Stillbirth (PASS) Network, as part of a large, prospective,
      multidisciplinary study. Prenatal PASS participants who enrolled prior to 24
      weeks gestation were eligible to participate. Repeated 24-hour dietary recalls
      were collected using the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR) software and a
      short dietary screener was administered intended to capture usual dietary intake
      during pregnancy. The available recalls were averaged across days for analysis.
      Items were grouped from the recalls to match the food group data estimates for
      the screener (e.g., total vegetables, total fruit, total dairy, total and whole
      grains). Deattenuated Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between
      the two data sources after correcting for the within-person variation in the 24
      hour recall data. A total of 164 eligible women completed the screener and at
      least two 24-hour dietary recalls and were included in the analyses. Pearson
      deattenuated correlation coefficients between the diet screener and the dietary
      recalls for the majority of food groups were 0.40 or higher. This short diet
      screener to assess usual diet appears to be a valid instrument for use in
      evaluating diet quality among pregnant American Indian women.

PMID- 28572952
TI  - Comparison of antioxidant activities among four kinds of Japanese traditional
      fermented tea.
AB  - Antioxidant activities of four kinds of Japanese traditional fermented tea, Gishi
      cha, Ishizuchi-kurocha, Awa-bancha, and Batabatacha, were compared. Antioxidant
      activity was evaluated by three parameters: copper ion reduction ability, radical
      trapping ability, and oxygen consumption rate. Processes of fermentation of these
      fermented teas are different. Goichi-cha and Ishizuchi-kurocha are produced by a
      two-stage fermentation process, aerobic fermentation and subsequent anaerobic
      fermentation. Awa-bancha is produced by anaerobic fermentation. And batabata-cha
      is produced by aerobic fermentation. Additionally, unfermented green tea was also
      employed as control. These tea leaves were extracted by boiling water and
      measured antioxidant activities. And concentrations of caffeine and catechins
      were measured in green tea and in the four kinds of fermented tea: Ishizuchi
      kurocha, Goishi-cha, Awa-Bancha, and Batabata-cha. Concentrations of caffeine and
      catechins were lower in the fermented teas than in green tea. Among the fermented
      teas, epigallocatechin content was the highest in Ishizuchi-kurocha, whereas
      Batabata-cha hardly contained any epigallocatechin. Goichi-cha, Ishizuchi
      kurocha, and Awa-bancha showed antioxidative activity regardless of measurement
      method. Batabatacha had hardly any antioxidative activity. Among the fermented
      teas, Ishizuchi-kurocha had the strongest antioxidant activity. The antioxidative
      activities of green tea and the four kinds of fermented tea were significantly
      different among each other (p < .01). Implication of this study is as follows:
      although contents of catechins were lower than that of green tea, three kinds of
      fermented tea showed antioxidative activity comparable to green tea. The results
      suggest that anaerobic fermentation process is beneficial at least for
      antioxidative activity.

PMID- 28572953
TI  - Investigation of the profile of phenolic compounds in the leaves and stems of
      Pandiaka heudelotii using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization
      detector.
AB  - The profile of phenolic compounds in the leaves and stems of Pandiaka heudelotii
      was investigated using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector.
      The leaves and stems had high flavonoids and benzoic acid derivatives content,
      and moderate levels of lignans and hydroxycinnamates. Twenty-eight known
      flavonoids were detected, which consisted mainly of kaempferol (41.93% in leaves
      and 47.97% in stems), (+)-catechin (17.12% in leaves and 16.11% in stems),
      quercetin (13.83% in leaves and 9.39% in stems), luteolin (7.34% in leaves and
      7.71% in stems), and artemetin (6.53% in leaves and 4.83% in stems). Of the six
      known hydroxycinnamates detected, chlorogenic acid (80.79% in leaves and 87.56%
      in stems) and caffeic acid (18.98% in leaves and 12.30% in stems) were the most
      abundant, while arctigenin (77.81% in leaves and 83.40% in stems) and retusin
      (13.82% in leaves and 10.59% in stems) were the most abundant of the nine known
      lignans detected. Twelve known benzoic acid derivatives were detected, consisting
      mainly of ellagic acid (65.44% in leaves and 72.89% in stems), p-hydroxybenzoic
      acid (25.10% in leaves and 18.95% in stems), and vanillic acid (8.80% in leaves
      and 7.30% in stems). The rich phytochemical profile of the leaves and stems is an
      indication of their ability to serve as sources of nutraceuticals.

PMID- 28572955
TI  - Retention of iron and zinc in yam flour and boiled yam processed from white yam
      (D. rotundata) varieties.
AB  - This study investigated the impact of processing on retention of iron and zinc in
      D. rotundata. Fresh tubers were processed into boiled yam and yam flour and
      analyzed for zinc, iron, and physicochemical properties. Percent true retention
      (%TR) was assessed using paired samples and a formula that compensated for loss
      or gain of moisture and soluble solids. The retention of iron ranged from 55.5%
      to 98.7% in boiled yam and 25.2% to 54.9% in yam flour; retention of zinc ranged
      from 49.3% to 97.5% in boiled yam and 18. 9% to 43.1% in yam flour. The amount of
      iron retained in boiled yam correlated with the amount in the fresh samples (r =
      .79), likewise in yam flour (r = .82). A similar trend was observed for zinc.
      From our study, we conclude that retention of iron and zinc is dependent on the
      variety and processing method used. The information from this study can be used
      by food scientists and nutritionists in choosing the appropriate processing to
      increase the retention of high levels of micronutrient in yams and by the yam
      breeders to adjust their germplasm breeding activities.

PMID- 28572956
TI  - Effect of Persian and almond gums as fat replacers on the physicochemical,
      rheological, and microstructural attributes of low-fat Iranian White cheese.
AB  - The effect of Persian and almond gums (0, 0.1 and 0.2% (w/w)) as fat replacers
      and milk fat (0.4, 0.9, and 1.4% (w/w)) on physicochemical and rheological
      characteristics and microstructure of low-fat Iranian White cheese was studied.
      Persian and almond gums both effectively increased moisture-to-protein (M:P)
      ratio of low-fat cheese samples which in turn led to a significant reduction in
      the hardness parameters fracture stress and Young's and storage (G') moduli (p <
      .05); however, the effect of Persian gum was more pronounced (p < .01). Gum
      addition promoted cheese yield and proteolysis rate (p < .05). Response surface
      optimization described that supplementation of cheese milk containing 0.9% fat
      with 0.2% Persian gum and 0.12% almond gum would result in a low-fat cheese with
      textural properties similar to its full-fat counterpart. Scanning electron
      microscopy revealed that the fat replacers produced full-fat-like structure in
      the low-fat Iranian White cheese, when incorporated at the optimum levels.

PMID- 28572957
TI  - Effect of spices formulations on the physicochemical and sensory properties of
      Nnam gon, a Cameroonian dish prepared with cucurbitaceae seeds.
AB  - Nnam gon, a cake made by steam cooking a mixture of Cucurbitaceae seeds paste and
      others ingredients specially spices, is a highly prized dish in Central African
      region. A preliminary investigation conducted as part of this study highlighted
      that formulations used in the processing of Nnam gon vary according to the spices
      used. This study was carried out to determine the best formulation for the
      preparation of this dish. For this purpose, Nnam gon samples were produced from
      four formulations which differ according to the number of spices used: F0 (no
      spices); F1 (0.91 g of Allium cepa paste); F2 (0.88 g of A. cepa paste, 0.35 g of
      Allium sativum paste, 0.41 g of fresh Officinale zingiber paste, 0.41 g of fresh
      Petroselinum crispum paste, 0.33 g of Monodora myristica, 0.48 g of fresh Celery
      graveolens paste, 1.19 g of fresh Allium porrum paste, 0.13 g of Allium
      lepidophyllus powder, and 0.13 g of Piper nigrum), and F3 (0.90 g of A. cepa
      paste, 0.35 g of A. sativum paste, and 0.42 g of fresh O. zingiber paste). The
      samples were evaluated for their physicochemical characteristics and sensory
      profile (Quantitative Descriptive Analysis). The results revealed that proteins
      (16.56-17.38%), carbohydrates (4.71-5.10%), lipids (23.14-24.25%), ash (4.03
      5.92%), and fibers (2.17-2.68%) increased significantly (p < .05) with spices
      adding. The increase in polyphenols (310.55-592.80 mg/100 g FM) and phytates
      (2.23-12.49 mg/100 g FM) contents was positively correlated with antioxidant
      properties of Nnam gon which also increased with spices adding. Significant
      differences were observed between the samples for all attributes generated
      (appearance, odor, taste, flavor, texture, and oral texture). Spices adding
      induced a decrease in hardness, cohesivity, elasticity, and granulous of cake but
      enhanced oily. Nnam gon produced with spicy formulation (F2 and F3) had higher
      mean score for general acceptance which was highly correlated (p < .05) with
      spice odor (r = .99), spice taste (r = .92), and color (r = .84). From this
      study, it is suggested that spicy Cucurbitaceae paste could improve nutritional
      value, antioxidant properties, and general acceptance of Nnam gon.

PMID- 28572958
TI  - Optimization of durum wheat bread enriched with bran.
AB  - An attempt is made in this study to balance the nutritional and sensory quality
      of bread. In particular, the formulation of a functional durum wheat bread
      enriched with bran at high concentration has been developed. Organogel
      concentration and bran particle size have been used as process variables for
      bread optimization. Bran concentration was increased at value as high as 15%,
      thus increasing the nutritional content, even though the sensory quality
      decreased. Bread was scored barely acceptable at 15% bran concentration.
      Therefore, the organogel concentration and bran particle size have been optimized
      to enhance bread sensory quality. Results show that it is possible to prepare
      bread with a significant bran enrichment without compromising its acceptability
      by adding proper concentration of organogel and using bran in appropriate
      particles size.

PMID- 28572959
TI  - Bioactive phytochemicals in an aqueous extract of the leaves of Talinum
      triangulare.
AB  - An aqueous leaf extract of Talinum triangulare was screened for the presence of
      bioactive molecules, using gas chromatography coupled with pulse and flame
      ionization detectors. It had high carotenoids; moderate benzoic acid derivatives,
      hydroxycinnamates and flavonoids; and low terpenes, alkaloids, phytosterols,
      allicins, glycosides, saponins, and lignans contents. Ten known carotenoids
      (mainly 50.42% carotene and 33.30% lycopene), nine benzoic acid derivatives
      (mainly 84.63% ferulic acid and 11.92% vanillic acid), and six hydroxycinnamates
      (55.44% p-coumaric acid and 44.46% caffeic acid) were detected. Also detected
      were eight lignans (88.02% retusin) and thirty flavonoids (50.35% quercetin and
      39.36% kaempferol). The medicinal properties of the major components of these
      phytochemical families that were detected in the aqueous extract of the leaves
      were discussed herein and proposed to be explored for their potential health
      benefits. The great number of potentially active biomolecules and their
      multifunctional properties make Talinum triangulare a ready source of health
      promoting substances.

PMID- 28572960
TI  - Production of organic flavor compounds by dominant lactic acid bacteria and
      yeasts from Obushera, a traditional sorghum malt fermented beverage.
AB  - Single and mixed starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria (LAB): Weissella
      confusa MNC20, Lactobacillus plantarum MNC21, Lactococcus lactis MNC24 and
      Lactobacillus fermentum MNC34 and yeasts: Issatchenkia orientalis MNC20Y and
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae MNC21Y were used to produce Obushera, a fermented
      sorghum beverage. Microbial counts, pH, sugars, organic acids, and volatile
      compounds in starter culture and spontaneous fermentations were monitored during
      48 hrs. Maximum counts of LAB (8.4-9.4 log cfu g-1) and yeasts (7.5 +/- 0.1 cfu g
      1) starter cultures were attained in 6-48 hrs. Weissella confusa, Lc. lactis, and
      Lb. fermentum showed possible acid sensitivity while I. orientalis produced
      surface films. LAB starter cultures and their combinations with S. cerevisiae
      lowered pH from 5.83 to <4.5 (3.50-4.13) in a shorter time (12 hrs) than
      spontaneous fermentations (24 hrs). Lactococcus lactis and W. confusa metabolized
      glucose the fastest (p < .05) during the first 6 hrs. Lactobacillus fermentum,
      Lb. plantarum, and S. cerevisiae utilized glucose and maltose concurrently.
      Lactobacillus plantarum and S. cerevisiae additionally utilized fructose. S.
      cerevisiae metabolized sugars the fastest (p < .05) during the first 12-24 hrs.
      Lactobacillus plantarum and W. confusa produced the highest (p < .05) amounts of
      lactate (5.43 g kg-1) and diacetyl (9.5 mg kg-1), respectively. LAB also produced
      acetate, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetone, and acetoin. Coculturing LAB with S.
      cerevisiae reduced (p < .05) lactate and diacetyl yield. Yeasts produced high
      amounts of acetaldehyde and methyl alcohols. Issatchenkia orientalis produced
      higher (p < .05) amounts of 2-methy-1-propanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol than S.
      cerevisiae. Combinations of LAB with S. cerevisiae produced a profile flavor
      compounds close to that of spontaneously fermented Obushera. These combinations
      can be adopted for controlled fermentation of Obushera and related fermented
      cereal products.

PMID- 28572962
TI  - Amino acid profile and protein quality in tuber and leaf of Coccnia abyssinica
      (Lam.) (Cogn.) accessions of Ethiopia.
AB  - The protein content and amino acid profile of Anchote (Coccinia abyssinica)
      leaves and tubers were determined from ten different accessions taken from Debre
      Zeit Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. Crude protein content was determined
      by Kjeldahl method and amino acid profile was analyzed using performic acid
      oxidation and acid hydrolysis by ninhydrin-derivatized analysis with amino acid
      analyzer. Crude protein content of Anchote tuber ranged from 10.70% +/- 0.26% to
      13.72% +/- 0.10%, whereas the crude protein content in leaves were ranged between
      30.38 +/- 0.01% ("240407-1") and 35.42 +/- 0.05% ("223109-1"). Total amino acid
      content ranged from 45.12 to 62.89 and 67.31 to 75.69 g/100 g protein for tuber
      and leaf samples, respectively. The mean values of essential, conditionally
      essential and nonessential amino acids were 37.22 & 36.79%; 28.62 & 24.10%; and
      34.16 & 39.11% for tubers and leaves, respectively. Arginine in tubers and
      glutamic acid in leaves ranked the highest of all amino acids; while the least
      dominant essential amino acid was methionine in both parts. Among the essential
      amino acids, leucine was dominant in all accessions tested with values ranged
      from 3.12 to 5.32 g/100 g protein in tubers and from 5.15 to 5.65 g/100 g protein
      in leaves. In general, the average amino acid content was higher in the leaves
      (71.08 g/100 g protein) compared to the tubers (51.11 g/100 g protein). The
      nutritional quality of Coccinia abyssinica leaves and tubers range as follows:
      total essential amino acids (TEAA)/ total amino acids (TAA) (37.57 & 36.82%),
      TEAA/total non-essential amino acids (TNEAA) ratio (0.60 & 0.58), The predicted
      protein efficiency ratio (P-PER) (1.22 & 1.80), Essential amino acid index (EAAI)
      (35.28 & 53.93%), Predicted biological value (P-BV) (26.76 & 47.09%), Nutritional
      index (4.11 & 17.71%), and Amino acid score (73 & 108) for tuber and leaf sample,
      respectively. A significant variability was observed in protein and amino acid
      profile among accessions and plant parts, and the leaf part were found to be
      richer in protein content and associated nutritional quality.

PMID- 28572961
TI  - Development and evaluation of floating alginate microspheres for oral delivery of
      anthocyanins - A preliminary investigation.
AB  - The goal of this study was to develop floating microspheres that could be used as
      gastroretentive systems for the delivery of anthocyanins (ACNs). These compounds
      are absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, and insufficient residence time
      in these organs could result in limited absorption and contribute to degradation.
      The microparticles containing freeze-dried haskap berry extract (321.96 +/- 8.35
      mg cyanidin 3-glucoside equivalents per g) were prepared by ionotropic gelation
      of alginate (9%, w/w) with calcium ions (CaCl2 at 2%, w/v) in the gelation bath,
      with calcium carbonate as the gas-generating compound (added at different ratios
      in the alginate/extract mixture). The effect of acetic acid concentration (2 and
      10%, v/v) in the gelation medium was investigated. Increasing the carbonate :
      alginate weigh ratio from 0 to 3:4 resulted in different degrees of floatability,
      larger particles, higher encapsulation efficiency, and lower amount of ACN
      released. The power law equation fitted the experimental data well, indicating
      that release occurred mainly by diffusion. This is the first time floating
      microspheres are proposed as gastroretentive platforms for the delivery of ACNs.

PMID- 28572964
TI  - Sensory evaluation of selected formulated milk barberry drinks using the fuzzy
      approach.
AB  - Amid rigid competition in marketing to accomplish customers' needs, the cost of
      disappointment is too high. In an effort to escape market disappointment, one of
      the options to be considered is probing for customer satisfaction through sensory
      evaluation. This study aims to rank the six selected milk-barberry drink formulae
      out of 24 (code numbers S3, S4, S15, S16, S17 and S18) each having different
      milk:barberry:pectin amount (7: 3: 0.2; 6: 4: 0.2; 7: 3: 0.4, 6: 4: 0.4, 5: 5:
      0.4 and 6: 4: 0.4), respectively, and to determine the best of quality attribute
      through sensory evaluation, using the fuzzy decision-making model. The selection
      was based on pH, total solid content, and degree of serum separation and
      rheological properties of the drinks. The results showed that the S4 had the
      highest acceptability, rated under the "very good" category, whereas the lowest
      acceptability was reported for the S3 which was classified under the
      "satisfactory" category. In summary, the ranking of the milk-barberry drinks was
      S4 >  S17 >  S16 >  S15 >  S18 >  S3. Furthermore, quality attributes were ranked
      as taste > mouth feel > aroma > color. Results suggest that the fuzzy approach
      could be appropriately used to evaluate this type of sensory data.

PMID- 28572963
TI  - Antibacterial activity of jalapeno pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum) extract
      fractions against select foodborne pathogens.
AB  - Capsicum annuum fruits have been investigated for antimicrobial activity in a
      number of studies. Capsaicin or other cinnamic acid pathway intermediates are
      often suggested to be the antimicrobial component, however there are conflicting
      results. No research has specifically fractionated jalapeno pepper (Capsicum
      annuum var. annuum) extract to isolate and identify compound(s) responsible for
      inhibition. In this study, fractions were collected from jalapeno pepper extracts
      using reverse-phase HPLC and tested for antibacterial activity using the disk
      diffusion method. Following initial fractionation, two fractions (E and F)
      displayed antibacterial activity against all three pathogens (p > .05).
      Commercial standards were screened to determine when they elude and it was found
      that capsaicin elutes at the same time as fraction E. Fractions E and F were
      subject to further HPLC fractionation and antibacterial analysis using two
      methods. The only fraction to display clear inhibition using both was fraction
      E1, inhibiting the growth of L. monocytogenes. Fraction E1 was analyzed using
      HPLC-MS. The resulting mass spectra revealed fraction E1 contained compounds
      belonging to a group of C. annuum-specific compounds known as capsianosides.
      Limited research is available on antibacterial activity of capsianosides, and a
      pure commercial standard is not available. In order to confirm the potential
      antimicrobial activity of the compound(s) isolated, methods need to be developed
      to isolate and purify capsianosides specifically from jalapeno peppers.

PMID- 28572965
TI  - Nutrient composition, functional, and pasting properties of unripe cooking
      banana, pigeon pea, and sweetpotato flour blends.
AB  - This study investigated some quality attributes of unripe cooking banana (UBF),
      pigeon pea (PPF), and sweetpotato (SPF) flour blends. Simplex centroid mixture
      design was used to obtain 17 blends from the flours. The nutrient composition,
      color, and functional properties of the blends were evaluated using standard
      methods. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were
      compared using Duncan's multiple range test at 5% probability level. There were
      significant (p < .05) differences in the nutrient composition, and functional and
      pasting properties of the blends. The crude protein, crude fiber, ash, foaming
      capacity, emulsion capacity, and least gelation capacity of the blends increased
      as the PPF level increased. The blends had Na/K ratio of <1.0. The
      dispersibility, bulk density, water, and oil absorption capacities of the blends
      increased as SPF and UBF increased. The peak, setback, and final viscosities
      increased as UBF and SPF inclusion increased,whereas pasting temperature and time
      increased as the PPF level increased. The L*, a*, and b* values of the flour
      blends which were significantly (p < .05) different ranged from 79.58 to 102.71, 
      0.15 to 2.79, and 13.82 to 23.69, respectively. Cooking banana-pigeon pea
      sweetpotato flour blends are desirable for alleviating malnutrition in Nigeria
      and developing new food formulations.

PMID- 28572966
TI  - Effects of starch concentration on calcium-enhanced black bullhead catfish
      protein gels.
AB  - Calcium-enhanced protein recovered from black bullhead catfish was used to
      develop gels containing increasing amounts of potato starch (0-20 g/kg protein
      paste) and the effects of starch on functional, textural, and color properties
      were tested. Energy required to unfold protein groups was greater with the
      addition of 5 g starch/kg protein paste. Gels containing starch were harder,
      chewier, and less springy (p < .05) than gels without starch. For most
      measurements, regression analysis showed that increasing the starch concentration
      beyond 5 g/kg did not contribute to further significant textural changes.
      Torsional shear stress and strain along with Kramer shear force increased as the
      concentration of starch increased (R2  = .79, .79, and .53, respectively). The
      addition of >=10 g starch/kg protein paste resulted in darker gels and gels got
      darker as more starch was added (R2  = .71). Results showed no benefit to
      increasing starch concentration in gels beyond 5 g starch/kg protein paste.

PMID- 28572967
TI  - Which product characteristics are preferred by Chinese consumers when choosing
      pork? A conjoint analysis on perceived quality of selected pork attributes.
AB  - Due to the economic growth achieved by China over the past 20 years, Chinese
      consumers have changed their purchasing behavior regarding meat. Instead of
      buying locally produced pork, they are increasingly willing to purchase imported
      pork. A conjoint analysis investigated how intrinsic pork attributes (fat content
      and processing) and extrinsic pork attributes (origin, price, and packaging)
      relate to the perceived quality of pork and the choices made by Chinese
      consumers. A questionnaire distributed among a sample of Chinese consumers (n =
      81) revealed that processing (fresh/frozen) is the most important determinant of
      pork choice (36%), followed by fat content (27%), origin (18%), price (12%), and
      packaging (6.6%). Estimates of utility showed that Chinese consumers value fresh
      pork highly (0.147), followed by lean pork (0.111) and pork imported from
      countries other than China (0.073). The findings indicate that Chinese consumer's
      value both intrinsic and extrinsic attributes, and these results may help the
      meat industry improve China's competitive meat market by developing new and more
      products that are tailored to the needs of the consumer.

PMID- 28572968
TI  - Fresh preservation of alfalfa sprouts and mushroom slices by soaking with thymol
      and resveratrol solutions.
AB  - The preservation of fresh produce served as salads through soaking with solutions
      containing naturally occurring phenolic ingredients is of merit. For a primary
      assay, thymol and resveratrol at 0-500 ppm were prepared and used to inhibit
      growth and survival of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Thymol and
      resveratrol exhibited potent inhibitory activities against the growth of both
      bacteria. For S. aureus, cells treated with thymol at 250 ppm or resveratrol at
      500 ppm, the durations to achieve 3 log reduction (3LR) were 40 and 20 min,
      respectively. When the cells were treated with thymol combined with resveratrol,
      both at 250 ppm, the 3LR value was achieved in under 5 min. Synergistic
      antibacterial activity between thymol and resveratrol was apparent. The
      antibacterial and known health-enhancing activities of resveratrol are of
      interest.

PMID- 28572969
TI  - Optimization of the extraction of the p-menthadienol isomers and aristolone
      contained in the essential oil from Elyonurus hensii using a 23 full factorial
      design.
AB  - The aim of this study was to optimize the extraction of p-menthadienol isomers
      and aristolone from the essential oil of Elyonurus hensii by hydrodistillation.
      The study of the seasonal variation in the chemical composition has shown that
      the plant material has been subject to a natural selection regarding the
      biosynthesis of the p-menthadienol isomers: during periods of water stress, the
      extracts are rich in cis and trans-p-mentha-1(7),8-dien-2-ol and poor in cis and
      trans-p-mentha-2,8-dien-1-ol. Regarding the modeling, eight experiments were
      carried out by considering three easily interpretable factors (the extraction
      duration, the residual water content and the state of the division of the plant
      material). The average yield was 1.33% for the aerial part and 0.74% for the
      roots. The residual water content is the most important factor, which
      significantly influences the average yield of the essential oil and the content
      of the major constituents. Regarding the aerial part, a low residual water
      content of the plant material varies the essential oil yield (from 0.40% to
      2.11%) and the content of cis and trans-p-mentha-2.8-dien-1-ol (from 15.87% to
      23.24%). At the root level, the samples that have a very low residual water
      content provide extracts richer in aristolone. The combined effects of the
      extraction duration, the state of division, and the residual water content
      influence greatly the extraction of aristolone (from 36.68% to 54.55%). However,
      these interactions are more complex and difficult to assess.

PMID- 28572971
TI  - Nutritional and sensory properties: Snack food made from high-quality cassava
      flour and legume blend.
AB  - The nutritional benefits of grain legumes such as cowpea and soybean in sub
      Saharan Africa have not been fully utilized to alleviate problem of protein
      malnutrition in this region. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the
      nutritional properties and sensory evaluation of snack food made from high
      quality cassava flour (HQCF) and soybeans (50:50), and HQCF and cowpea (50:50).
      Sensory evaluation was conducted among panellists in Nigeria and DR Congo.
      Results showed that the soy variant of the snack contained significantly higher
      protein than the cowpea variant. There was cross-cultural difference in snack
      preference between panellists in Nigeria and DR Congo. Panellists in DR Congo
      preferred the aroma of the unboiled soy variant, whereas panellists in Nigeria
      preferred the boiled soy variant more. This study showed the potential of legumes
      and cassava in the snack food sector not only as a partial substitute for wheat
      flour but as a major ingredient and also form basis for the new product
      development in the snacks food industry. The developed product could be possibly
      used to alleviate the protein-malnutrition among the vulnerable groups of most
      developing countries.

PMID- 28572970
TI  - Home-based preparation approaches altered the availability of health beneficial
      components from carrot and blueberry.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of different home food preparation methods on
      availability of total phenolic contents (TPC) and radical scavenging components,
      as well as the selected health beneficial compounds from fresh blueberry and
      carrot. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis revealed that
      ground carrots using blenders released significantly greater amount of beta
      carotene than their chopped counterpart, and blueberry samples prepared with
      different commercial blenders/grinders released different levels of cyaniding-3-O
      glucoside and malvidin-3-O-glucoside. Furthermore, microwaving was able to
      significantly alter the releasable amounts of cyaniding-3-O-glucoside and
      malvidin-3-O-glucoside from blueberries. In addition, carrots and blueberries
      processed using different blenders and chopping with or without microwaving
      differed in their available levels of TPC, and radical scavenging components
      against DPPH *, oxygen radicals and HO *, as well as their potential anti
      inflammatory activities. Taking together, these results indicated that home food
      preparation approaches may alter the availability of health components from
      carrots and blueberries. The results also suggested that the influence may depend
      on the fruit and vegetable type, but not the price of blenders/grinders.

PMID- 28572972
TI  - Effect of precooking and polyphosphate treatment on the quality of microwave
      cooked catfish fillets.
AB  - In the U.S. market place, there are many examples of precooked poultry products
      designed to be reheated in a microwave oven and, to a lesser extent, fish
      products such as tilapia. However, few U.S. catfish products are designed to be
      microwave cooked or reheated. The first objective of this study was to examine
      the properties of microwave cooked raw frozen catfish fillets and oven precooked
      (to 62.8 degrees C) frozen fillets and then reheated by microwave cooking. The
      second objective was to evaluate changes in properties as a consequence of
      treatment with a commercial polyphosphate blend (Individually Quick Frozen
      [IQF]). The sample analysis included weight loss, proximate content, color (CIE
      L*a*b*), pH, mechanical texture (hardness), and lipid peroxidation (TBARS)
      measurements. Frozen fillets which contained polyphosphate showed <4% moisture
      loss after microwave cooking, relative to a 12% moisture loss for fillets without
      polyphosphate. A large cooking loss of ~40% was observed for precooked fillets
      after microwave cooking, correlated with a higher percent moisture loss (11% and
      13% for fillets with and without polyphosphate, respectively) to comparable
      samples that were not precooked. For both types of fillets, an increased amount
      of yellow color was observed for precooked fillets after microwave cooking,
      relative to comparable fillets that were not precooked. Fillet hardness
      determined by peak force revealed an overall harder texture (~1.1-1.8 times) for
      fillets without polyphosphate than fillets with polyphosphate. This study will be
      used to develop precooked catfish products that can be reheated in a microwave
      oven.

PMID- 28572973
TI  - Spray drying of pomegranate juice using maltodextrin/cyclodextrin blends as the
      wall material.
AB  - Microencapsulation protects sensitive nutrients, masks flavors, or enhances
      delivery. Ratios of maltodextrin and gamma-cyclodextrin (20:0, 19:1, and 17:3%
      w/w) were dissolved in water and mixed with pomegranate juice for spray drying
      with inlet temperatures of 120, 140, and 160 degrees C. The effects on physical
      properties (water activity, % water content, color, pH, soluble solids (Brix),
      and methyl cellulose precipitable tannin assay (MCPTA) were examined. Based on
      the principle component analysis, formulation influenced color parameters and pH
      accounted for 46.8% of the variation in the data. Temperature influenced Chroma
      and water-holding capacity with 31.8% of the variation. The pH of the
      reconstituted spray-dried powder significantly influenced color. Blending of
      gamma-cyclodextrins to maltodextrins slightly increased the water-holding
      capacity, increased pH, slightly affected color, and preserved the color over
      time, slightly better. Increased inlet temperature affected color, decreased
      water-holding capacity, and decreased astringency index. Small additions of gamma
      cyclodextrin affect spray-dried powders.

PMID- 28572974
TI  - Nutritional advantages of sous-vide cooking compared to boiling on cereals and
      legumes: Determination of ashes and metals content in ready-to-eat products.
AB  - In order to guarantee the highest quality of ready-to-eat cereals and legumes,
      two different cooking methods have been applied: traditional cooking and sous
      vide. Ashes and metals content (magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, and copper) has
      been determined and compared in 50 samples of red lentils, peas, Borlotti beans,
      pearl barley, and cereals soup. All the samples cooked with sous-vide showed a
      significant increase in the content of minerals with the exception of potassium
      in cereal soup, iron in Borlotti beans, and magnesium in pearl barley. Ash
      content increased in legumes and in cereal soup cooked with sous-vide method. The
      higher different ashes concentration between total samples cooked with
      traditional cooking and with sous-vide was registered in zinc (+862 mg), iron
      (+314 mg), potassium (+109 mg), and copper (+95 mg). Sous-vide is preferred as it
      provides products with a higher concentration of metals compared to the ones
      cooked with traditional cooking.

PMID- 28572975
TI  - The community structure of Methanomassiliicoccales in the rumen of Chinese goats
      and its response to a high-grain diet.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The newly proposed methanogenic order 'Methanomassiliicoccales' is
      the second largest archaeal population in the rumen, second only to the
      Methanobrevibacter population. However, information is limited regarding the
      community of this new order in the rumen. METHODS: This study used real-time PCR
      and 454 pyrosequencing to explore the abundance and community composition of
      Methanomassiliicoccales in the rumen of Chinese goats fed a hay (0% grain, n = 5)
      or a high grain (65% grain, n = 5) diet. RESULTS: Real-time PCR analysis showed
      that the relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccales (% of total archaea) in
      the goat rumen was significantly lower in the high-grain-diet group (0.5% +/-
      0.2%) than that in the hay-diet group (8.2% +/- 1.1%, P < 0.05). The
      pyrosequencing results showed that a total of 208 operational taxonomic units
      (OTUs) were formed from ten samples at 99% sequence identity. All the sequences
      were identified as Methanomassiliicoccaceae at the family level, and most of the
      sequences (96.82% +/- 1.64%) were further classified as Group 8, 9, and 10 at the
      Methanomassiliicoccales genus level in each sample based on the RIM-DB database.
      No significant differences were observed in the number of OTUs or Chao1's,
      Shannon's or Pielou's evenness indexes between the hay- and high-grain-diet
      groups (P >= 0.05). PCoA analysis showed that diet altered the community of
      Methanomassiliicoccales. At the genus level, the relative abundances of Group 10
      (67.25 +/- 12.76 vs. 38.13 +/- 15.66, P = 0.012) and Group 4 (2.07 +/- 1.30 vs.
      0.27 +/- 0.30, P = 0.035) were significantly higher in the high-grain-diet group,
      while the relative abundance of Group 9 was significantly higher in the hay-diet
      group (18.82 +/- 6.20 vs. 47.14 +/- 17.72, P = 0.020). At the species level, the
      relative abundance of Group 10 sp. (67.25 +/- 12.76 vs. 38.13 +/- 15.66, P =
      0.012) and Group 4 sp. MpT1 (2.07 +/- 1.30 vs. 0.27 +/- 0.30, P = 0.035) were
      significantly higher in the high-grain-diet group, while the relative abundance
      of Group 9 sp. ISO4-G1 was significantly higher in the hay-diet group (12.83 +/-
      3.87 vs. 42.44 +/- 18.47, P = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Only a few highly abundant
      phylogenetic groups dominated within the Methanomassiliicoccales community in the
      rumens of Chinese goats, and these were easily depressed by high-grain-diet
      feeding. The relatively low abundance suggests a small contribution on the part
      of Methanomassiliicoccales to the rumen methanogenesis of Chinese goats.

PMID- 28572976
TI  - Processing of ingredients and diets and effects on nutritional value for pigs.
AB  - A conventional diet based on corn and soybean meal fed to pigs is usually
      provided in a mash form and in most cases, processing other than grinding and
      mixing is not used. However, due to the high cost of energy in pig diets, use of
      high fiber ingredients such as soybean hulls, distillers dried grains with
      solubles, and wheat middlings has increased. High fiber concentrations in the
      diet usually results in reduced energy and nutrient digestibility due to the low
      capacity of pigs to digest fiber, which negatively impacts growth performance and
      carcass composition of the pigs. Feed processing technologies such as changes in
      grinding procedures, expansion, extrusion, pelleting, use of enzymes or chemical
      treatments may, however, be used to solubilize some of the cellulose and
      hemicellulose fractions that form the cell wall of plants in the ingredients, and
      therefore, increase nutrient availability. This may have a positive effect on
      energy digestibility, and therefore, also on pig growth performance and carcass
      composition, but effects of different feed technologies on the nutritional value
      of feed ingredients and diets fed to pigs are not fully understood. It has
      however, been demonstrated that reduced particle size of cereal grains usually
      results in increased digestibility of energy, primarily due to increased
      digestibility of starch. Extrusion or expansion of ingredients or diets may also
      increase energy digestibility and it appears that the increase is greater in high
      fiber diets than in diets with lower concentrations of fiber. Chemical treatments
      have not consistently improved energy or nutrient digestibility, but a number of
      different enzymes may be used to increase the digestibility of phosphorus,
      calcium, or energy. Thus, there are several opportunities for using feed
      technology to improve the nutritional value of diets fed to pigs.

PMID- 28572977
TI  - Acoustic and thermal characterization of agar based phantoms used for evaluating
      focused ultrasound exposures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study describes a series of experimental work completed towards
      characterizing candidate materials for fabricating brain and muscle tissue
      mimicking phantoms. METHODS: The acoustic speed, attenuation, impedance, thermal
      diffusivity, specific heat and thermal conductivity were measured. RESULTS: The
      resulting brain (2% w/v agar-1.2% w/v Silica Dioxide-25%v/v evaporated milk) and
      muscle tissue recipe (2% w/v agar-2% w/v Silica Dioxide-40%v/v evaporated milk)
      introduced a total attenuation coefficient of 0.59 dB/cm-MHz and 0.99 dB/cm-MHz
      respectively. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) possessed an attenuation
      coefficient of 16 dB/cm at 1 MHz which was found within the very wide range of
      attenuation coefficient values of human bones in literature. The thermal
      conductivity of the brain tissue phantom was estimated at 0.52 W/m degrees C and
      at 0.57 W/m. degrees Cfor the muscle. These values demonstrated that the proposed
      recipes conducted heat similar to the majority of most soft tissues found from
      bibliography. The soft tissue phantoms were also evaluated for their thermal
      repeatability after treating them repeatedly at different locations with the same
      sonication protocol and configuration. The average coefficient of variation of
      the maximum temperature at focus between the different locations was 2.6% for the
      brain phantom and 2.8% for the muscle phantom. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed phantom
      closely matched the acoustic and thermal properties of tissues. Experiments using
      MR thermometry demonstrated the usefulness of this phantom to evaluate ultrasonic
      exposures.

PMID- 28572978
TI  - Erratum to: Differential intratumoral distributions of CD8 and CD163 immune cells
      as prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40425-017-0240-7.].

PMID- 28572979
TI  - Complex effects of high-flow nasal cannula therapy on hemodynamics in the
      pediatric patient after cardiac surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) system has been widely used for
      children in various clinical settings. However, the physiological and clinical
      impact of HFNC therapy on the pediatric patient with respiratory distress after
      cardiac surgery has not been thoroughly investigated. MAIN BODY OF THE ABSTRACT:
      It seems logical to use HFNC as a primary therapy for post-extubation respiratory
      failure after congenital heart surgery, in which low cardiac output syndrome and
      upper airway obstruction are commonly encountered; the HFNC therapy alleviates
      the work of breathing and large negative swings of intrathoracic pressure, which
      in turn helps to decrease the systemic ventricular afterload. When applying HFNC
      to patients after congenital heart surgery, however, consideration must be given
      to its diverse effects on hemodynamics because of the complex respiratory and
      cardiac pathophysiology in these patients. The positive pressure generated by
      HFNC can exert different effects on pulmonary vascular resistance depending on
      the lung condition, while its impact on cardiac output may also differ depending
      on the cardiac physiology. The hemodynamic effects of HFNC may become even more
      complex in a patient with a single ventricle. To better assess its physiologic
      effects in patients after cardiac surgery, future studies could utilize various
      modalities including esophageal balloon catheters, electrical impedance
      tomography, and near-infrared spectroscopy. At the same time, studies should
      focus on specific types of cardiac pathophysiology or surgery when evaluating the
      effects of HFNC, since it may exert various effects, depending on the cardiac
      physiology or preoperative pulmonary hemodynamics. Lastly, the optimal flow rate
      at which the benefit of HFNC is maximized through favorable cardiopulmonary
      interactions should be determined in future studies. SHORT CONCLUSION: Further
      studies are needed to better understand the effect of HFNC in different cardiac
      and respiratory physiologies, given their complexity in pediatric patients after
      cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28572980
TI  - The role of contact system in septic shock: the next target? An overview of the
      current evidence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Septic shock remains challenging to intensive care units worldwide,
      despite recent documented improvement in mortality over the years. Multiple new
      therapies have been attempted without success in large clinical trials. Evidence
      concerning the role of the contact system and bradykinin on septic shock
      physiological manifestations is shown by this article. OBJECTIVES: The objective
      of the study is to review the current evidence linking contact system activation
      and septic shock, as well as efficacy of available therapies targeting this
      pathophysiological pathway and to evaluate the potential of further researching
      the matter. RESULTS: Multiple animal studies are already available and suggestive
      of a meaningful role of contact system activation on septic shock. However, human
      trials are still scarce, and the ones available are not enough to establish such
      a strong connection. Furthermore, attempted therapies have been successful across
      multiple species, but not as much in humans. Therefore, contact system and septic
      shock relationship remains plentiful in questions to be answered in the coming
      years or decades. CONCLUSIONS: Whether the contact system is not as relevant in
      humans as it is in animals or there is only lack of evidence remains to be
      explained. The subject is an attractive open field for further research aiming to
      aid in tackling such a burdensome condition.

PMID- 28572981
TI  - The application of anticoagulant therapy to sepsis.
AB  - Since the withdrawal of recombinant-activated protein C, the anticoagulant
      therapy for sepsis was taken no notice. For instance, the international sepsis
      guidelines did not share a space for this therapy. However, we can see the signs
      of change recently. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines 2016 introduced the
      development of recombinant thrombomodulin, and the European Society of Intensive
      Care Medicine released comments on this subject. However, since small but
      important discrepancy was recognized between the standpoints of Japan (more
      aggressive) and other countries (rather conservative), we intend to discuss on
      this point.

PMID- 28572982
TI  - Overweight and obesity prevalence among public servants in Nadowli district,
      Ghana, and associated risk factors: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally, overweight and obesity are becoming a mounting concern,
      impacting negatively on the health of populations especially in low-income
      settings. However, there is paucity of epidemiological information available in
      Ghana to support intervention activities. We conducted a study among public
      servants to estimate overweight/obesity, hypertension and diabetes prevalence and
      associated risk factors. METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional survey involving
      271 purposively sampled public servants aged 20 to 59 years was conducted. We
      used a structured questionnaire to collect data on eating patterns, risk factors
      for overweight and obesity, as well as data on socio-demographics and physical
      activity. Anthropometric measurements were carried out and body mass index (BMI)
      calculated. Information on blood pressure and diabetes was also gathered. We used
      descriptive statistical and logistic regression analyses to, respectively,
      estimate overweight/obesity prevalence, and examine associations between
      behavioral factors and overweight/obesity and hypertension/diabetes. RESULTS: The
      overall hypertension/diabetes, overweight and obesity prevalence were 20, 29.9
      and 4.8% respectively. The study found that marital status (p < 0.001), leisure
      time with physical activity and level of physical activity during work (p <
      0.035) as well as morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension (p < 0.012) were
      significantly associated with BMI. Findings showed no significant relationship
      between mealtime, eating habits, education, age and body mass index. Even though
      prevalence of overweight/obesity was higher among respondents who travelled to
      work by car compared to respondents who used motor bikes or walked, the
      association between weight status and means of transport was not statistically
      significant. Both smoking (p = 0.730) and alcohol consumption (p = 0.109) were
      not linked to weight status. CONCLUSION: Population-based interventions are
      needed to promote nutritious food selection and consumption, physical activity
      and healthy life styles. We also recommend that age and gender-specific
      interventions should be designed and implemented by relevant authorities to
      promote and support healthy living and healthy-lifestyles at home and in
      workplaces.

PMID- 28572983
TI  - Childhood overweight, obesity and associated factors among primary school
      children in dire dawa, eastern Ethiopia; a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity in children is increasing worldwide. Malnutrition has become
      a double burden challenge of public health concern in developing countries.
      Childhood obesity increases the risk of chronic disease in childhood as well as
      adulthood. However, information is very scarce about childhood obesity in
      developing countries specifically in Ethiopia. Therefore, we aimed to assess
      childhood overweight, obesity and associated factors among primary school
      children at Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: A school based cross-sectional
      study was conducted in Dire Dawa from 1st to 30th March, 2016. Study participants
      were selected using multistage sampling method. Pre-tested self-administered
      questionnaire, face to face interview technique and anthropometric measurements
      were used to collect data by eight well trained data collectors. Data were coded,
      cleaned and entered into EpiData software version 3.5.1, and exported into SPSS
      (version 21.0) statistical software, for data analysis. Bivariate and
      multivariate logistic regression were carried out to identify associated factors
      with childhood overweight and obesity. Statistical significance was declared
      using Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) at 95% CI and p-value less than 0.05. RESULTS:
      The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 14.7% (95% CI: 11.7, 18.0) and 5.8%
      (95% CI: 3.6, 8.0), respectively. Children who were from private school (AOR =
      3.4, 95% CI: 1.4, 8.5), from families belonged to high socioeconomic class (AOR =
      16.9, 95% CI: 6.5, 23.9), preferred sweetened foods (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1,
      5.1), had not engaged in regular physical exercise (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI: 1.5, 9.8),
      had experienced sedentary life style like spent their free time watching TV (AOR
      = 3.6, 95% CI: 1.6, 7.9), play computer game (AOR = 4.6, 95% CI:1.4,15.4), and
      were not having close friends (AOR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.4, 6.2) were significantly
      associated with overweight/obesity risk. CONCLUSION: Overweight/obesity in
      children is on alarming stage in the study area. Therefore, more attention should
      be given to creating awareness about healthy diet and improving life style
      through school and public media in collaboration with concerned bodies.

PMID- 28572984
TI  - Nature of the optical band shapes in polymethine dyes and H-aggregates: dozy
      chaos and excitons. Comparison with dimers, H*- and J-aggregates.
AB  - Results on the theoretical explanation of the shape of optical bands in
      polymethine dyes, their dimers and aggregates are summarized. The theoretical
      dependence of the shape of optical bands for the dye monomers in the vinylogous
      series in line with a change in the solvent polarity is considered. A simple
      physical (analytical) model of the shape of optical absorption bands in H
      aggregates of polymethine dyes is developed based on taking the dozy-chaos
      dynamics of the transient state and the Frenkel exciton effect in the theory of
      molecular quantum transitions into account. As an example, the details of the
      experimental shape of one of the known H-bands are well reproduced by this
      analytical model under the assumption that the main optical chromophore of H
      aggregates is a tetramer resulting from the two most probable processes of
      inelastic binary collisions in sequence: first, monomers between themselves, and
      then, between the resulting dimers. The obtained results indicate that in
      contrast with the compact structure of J-aggregates (brickwork structure), the
      structure of H-aggregates is not the compact pack-of-cards structure, as stated
      in the literature, but a loose alternate structure. Based on this theoretical
      model, a simple general (analytical) method for treating the more complex shapes
      of optical bands in polymethine dyes in comparison with the H-band under
      consideration is proposed. This method mirrors the physical process of molecular
      aggregates forming in liquid solutions: aggregates are generated in the most
      probable processes of inelastic multiple binary collisions between polymethine
      species generally differing in complexity. The results obtained are given against
      a background of the theoretical results on the shape of optical bands in
      polymethine dyes and their aggregates (dimers, H*- and J-aggregates) previously
      obtained by V.V.E.

PMID- 28572985
TI  - Dopamine disruption increases cleanerfish cooperative investment in novel client
      partners.
AB  - Social familiarization is a process of gaining knowledge that results from direct
      or indirect participation in social events. Cooperative exchanges are thought to
      be conditional upon familiarity with others. Indeed, individuals seem to prefer
      to engage with those that have previously interacted with them, which are more
      accurate predictors of reward than novel partners. On the other hand, highly
      social animals do seek novelty. Truth is that the physiological bases underlying
      how familiarity and novelty may affect cooperative decision-making are still
      rather obscure. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence that the level
      of the dopaminergic influence in cooperative exchanges is constrained to
      mechanisms of social familiarization and novelty in a cleanerfish, Labroides
      dimidiatus. Cleaners were tested against familiar and novel Ctenochaetus striatus
      surgeonfish (a common client species) in laboratorial conditions, and were found
      to spend more time providing physical contact (also referred to as tactile
      stimulation) to familiar fish clients. Cleaners use tactile stimulation as a way
      to reduce the risk of a non-rewarding outcome, a behavioural response that is
      even more pronounced when blocking dopamine (DA) D1 receptors. We discovered that
      the influence of DA disruption on cleaners' provision of physical contact was
      dependent on the level of familiarity with its partner, being highly exacerbated
      whenever the client is novel, and unnoticed when dealing with a familiar one. Our
      findings demonstrate that DA mediation influences the valuation of partner
      stimuli and the enhancing investment in novel partners, mechanisms that are
      similar to other vertebrates, including humans.

PMID- 28572986
TI  - Social associations between California sea lions influence the use of a novel
      foraging ground.
AB  - Social relationships define an individual's position in its social network, which
      can influence the acquisition and spread of information and behavioural variants
      through the population. Thus, when nuisance behaviours spread through wildlife
      populations, identifying central individuals may provide valuable insights for
      problem-species management. We studied the effects of network position on
      California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) discovery and foraging success at a
      novel foraging ground-the salmonids that aggregate at the Bonneville Dam tail
      race, 235 km up the Columbia River. We found that an individual's centrality in
      their social network influenced discovery of the Bonneville Dam and whether they
      returned the next year. Foraging success once at the dam was independent of
      network position. Extensive lethal and non-lethal removal efforts have been
      implemented at Bonneville Dam and focused on reducing the number of individual
      sea lions at the dam. Since social relationships forged at the opening of the
      Columbia River influence both the discovery and return to the Bonneville Dam,
      efforts to increase salmon recovery may be enhanced by breaking apart social
      networks at the opening of the river.

PMID- 28572988
TI  - Efficient quantum circuits for dense circulant and circulant like operators.
AB  - Circulant matrices are an important family of operators, which have a wide range
      of applications in science and engineering-related fields. They are, in general,
      non-sparse and non-unitary. In this paper, we present efficient quantum circuits
      to implement circulant operators using fewer resources and with lower complexity
      than existing methods. Moreover, our quantum circuits can be readily extended to
      the implementation of Toeplitz, Hankel and block circulant matrices. Efficient
      quantum algorithms to implement the inverses and products of circulant operators
      are also provided, and an example application in solving the equation of motion
      for cyclic systems is discussed.

PMID- 28572987
TI  - State anxiety and emotional face recognition in healthy volunteers.
AB  - High trait anxiety has been associated with detriments in emotional face
      processing. By contrast, relatively little is known about the effects of state
      anxiety on emotional face processing. We investigated the effects of state
      anxiety on recognition of emotional expressions (anger, sadness, surprise,
      disgust, fear and happiness) experimentally, using the 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO2)
      model to induce state anxiety, and in a large observational study. The
      experimental studies indicated reduced global (rather than emotion-specific)
      emotion recognition accuracy and increased interpretation bias (a tendency to
      perceive anger over happiness) when state anxiety was heightened. The
      observational study confirmed that higher state anxiety is associated with poorer
      emotion recognition, and indicated that negative effects of trait anxiety are
      negated when controlling for state anxiety, suggesting a mediating effect of
      state anxiety. These findings may have implications for anxiety disorders, which
      are characterized by increased frequency, intensity or duration of state anxious
      episodes.

PMID- 28572989
TI  - Negative effects of restricted sleep on facial appearance and social appeal.
AB  - The importance of assessing evolutionarily relevant social cues suggests that
      humans should be sensitive to others' sleep history, as this may indicate
      something about their health as well as their capacity for social interaction.
      Recent findings show that acute sleep deprivation and looking tired are related
      to decreased attractiveness and health, as perceived by others. This suggests
      that one might also avoid contact with sleep-deprived, or sleepy-looking,
      individuals, as a strategy to reduce health risk and poor interactions. In this
      study, 25 participants (14 females, age range 18-47 years) were photographed
      after 2 days of sleep restriction and after normal sleep, in a balanced design.
      The photographs were rated by 122 raters (65 females, age range 18-65 years) on
      how much they would like to socialize with the participants. They also rated
      participants' attractiveness, health, sleepiness and trustworthiness. The results
      show that raters were less inclined to socialize with individuals who had gotten
      insufficient sleep. Furthermore, when sleep-restricted, participants were
      perceived as less attractive, less healthy and more sleepy. There was no
      difference in perceived trustworthiness. These findings suggest that naturalistic
      sleep loss can be detected in a face and that people are less inclined to
      interact with a sleep-deprived individual.

PMID- 28572990
TI  - Assessing the use of mobile phone data to describe recurrent mobility patterns in
      spatial epidemic models.
AB  - The recent availability of large-scale call detail record data has substantially
      improved our ability of quantifying human travel patterns with broad applications
      in epidemiology. Notwithstanding a number of successful case studies, previous
      works have shown that using different mobility data sources, such as mobile phone
      data or census surveys, to parametrize infectious disease models can generate
      divergent outcomes. Thus, it remains unclear to what extent epidemic modelling
      results may vary when using different proxies for human movements. Here, we
      systematically compare 658 000 simulated outbreaks generated with a spatially
      structured epidemic model based on two different human mobility networks: a
      commuting network of France extracted from mobile phone data and another
      extracted from a census survey. We compare epidemic patterns originating from all
      the 329 possible outbreak seed locations and identify the structural network
      properties of the seeding nodes that best predict spatial and temporal epidemic
      patterns to be alike. We find that similarity of simulated epidemics is
      significantly correlated to connectivity, traffic and population size of the
      seeding nodes, suggesting that the adequacy of mobile phone data for infectious
      disease models becomes higher when epidemics spread between highly connected and
      heavily populated locations, such as large urban areas.

PMID- 28572991
TI  - Sex-specific but not sexually explicit: pupillary responses to dressed and naked
      adults.
AB  - Dilation of the pupils is an indicator of an observer's sexual interest in other
      people, but it remains unresolved whether this response is strengthened or
      diminished by sexually explicit material. To address this question, this study
      compared pupillary responses of heterosexual men and women to naked and dressed
      portraits of male and female adult film actors. Pupillary responses corresponded
      with observers' self-reported sexual orientation, such that dilation occurred
      during the viewing of opposite-sex people, but were comparable for naked and
      dressed targets. These findings indicate that pupillary responses provide a sex
      specific measure, but are not sensitive to sexually explicit content.

PMID- 28572992
TI  - Putting the waste out: a proposed mechanism for transmission of the mycoparasite
      Escovopsis between leafcutter ant colonies.
AB  - The attine ant system is a remarkable example of symbiosis. An antagonistic
      partner within this system is the fungal parasite Escovopsis, a genus specific to
      the fungal gardens of the Attini. Escovopsis parasitizes the Leucoagaricus
      symbiont that leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex, Atta) have been farming over the
      past 8-12 Myr. However, it has been a puzzle how Escovopsis reaches its host.
      During a seasonal survey of nests of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus in
      Atlantic rainforest in Brazil, Escovopsis was detected in all the sampled fungal
      garden waste tips or middens (n = 111). Middens were built strategically; always
      below the nest entrances. Here, we report the first evidence of a putative
      mechanism for horizontal transmission of Escovopsis between attine colonies. It
      is posited that leaf-cutting ants pick up the spores from soil and litter during
      foraging and vector the mycoparasite between attine colonies. Field and
      laboratory experiments, using At. laevigata and Ac. subterraneus subterraneus,
      confirm that Escovopsis spores are phoretic, and have an inbuilt dormancy, broken
      by the presence of their Leucoagaricus host. However, in the coevolutionary arms
      race, Atta ants may lose out-despite most species in the genus investing in a
      more advanced waste disposal system-due to the insanitary habits of their
      Acromyrmex neighbours.

PMID- 28572993
TI  - Emergence of leadership in a robotic fish group under diverging individual
      personality traits.
AB  - Variations of individual's personality traits have been identified before as one
      of the possible mechanisms for the emergence of leadership in an interactive
      collective, which may lead to benefits for the group as a whole. Complementing
      the large number of existing literatures on using simulation models to study
      leadership, we use biomimetic robotic fish to gain insight into how the fish's
      behaviours evolve under the influence of the physical hydrodynamics. In
      particular, we focus in this paper on understanding how robotic fish's
      personality traits affect the emergence of an effective leading fish in repeated
      robotic foraging tasks when the robotic fish's strategies, to push or not to push
      the obstacle in its foraging path, are updated over time following an
      evolutionary game set-up. We further show that the robotic fish's personality
      traits diverge when the group carries out difficult foraging tasks in our
      experiments, and self-organization takes place to help the group to adapt to the
      level of difficulties of the tasks without inter-individual communication.

PMID- 28572994
TI  - Experimental priming of independent and interdependent activity does not affect
      culturally variable psychological processes.
AB  - Cultural psychologists have shown that people from Western countries exhibit more
      independent self-construal and analytic (rule-based) cognition than people from
      East Asia, who exhibit more interdependent self-construal and holistic
      (relationship-based) cognition. One explanation for this cross-cultural variation
      is the ecocultural hypothesis, which links contemporary psychological differences
      to ancestral differences in subsistence and societal cohesion: Western thinking
      formed in response to solitary herding, which fostered independence, while East
      Asian thinking emerged in response to communal rice farming, which fostered
      interdependence. Here, we report two experiments that tested the ecocultural
      hypothesis in the laboratory. In both, participants played one of two tasks
      designed to recreate the key factors of working alone and working together.
      Before and after each task, participants completed psychological measures of
      independent-interdependent self-construal and analytic-holistic cognition. We
      found no convincing evidence that either solitary or collective tasks affected
      any of the measures in the predicted directions. This fails to support the
      ecocultural hypothesis. However, it may also be that our priming tasks are
      inappropriate or inadequate for simulating subsistence-related behavioural
      practices, or that these measures are fixed early in development and therefore
      not experimentally primable, despite many previous studies that have purported to
      find such priming effects.

PMID- 28572995
TI  - Assessing the anti-fungal efficiency of filters coated with zinc oxide
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Air filters support fungal growth, leading to generation of conidia and volatile
      organic compounds, causing allergies, infections and food spoilage. Filters that
      inhibit fungi are therefore necessary. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have anti
      fungal properties and therefore are good candidates for inhibiting growth. Two
      concentrations (0.012 M and 0.12 M) were used to coat two types of filters (melt
      blown and needle-punched) for three different periods (0.5, 5 and 50 min).
      Rhizopus stolonifer and Penicillium expansum isolated from spoiled pears were
      used as test organisms. Conidial suspensions of 105 to 103 spores ml-1 were
      prepared in Sabouraud dextrose agar at 50 degrees C, and a modified slide-culture
      technique was used to test the anti-fungal properties of the filters. Penicillium
      expansum was the more sensitive organism, with inhibition at 0.012 M at only 0.5
      min coating time on the needle-punched filter. The longer the coating time, the
      more effective inhibition was for both organisms. Furthermore, it was also
      determined that the coating process had only a slight effect on the Young's
      Moduli of the needle-punched filters, while the Young's Moduli of the melt-blown
      filters is more susceptible to the coating method. This work contributes to the
      assessment of the efficacy of filter coating with ZnO nanopaticles aimed at
      inhibiting fungal growth.

PMID- 28572996
TI  - Green synthesis of carbon quantum dots embedded onto titanium dioxide nanowires
      for enhancing photocurrent.
AB  - The green synthesis of nanowired photocatalyst composed of carbon quantum dots
      titanium hybrid-semiconductors, CQDs/TiO2, are reported. Where graphite-based
      CQDs with a size less than 5 nm are directly synthesized in pure water
      electrolyte by a one-step electrochemistry approach and subsequently
      electrodeposited onto as-prepared TiO2 nanowires through a voltage-driven
      reduction process. Electron paramagnetic resonance studies show that the CQDs can
      generate singlet oxygen and/or oxygen radicals to decompose the kinetic H2O2
      intermediate species upon UV light illumination. With the effect of peroxidase
      like CQDs, photocurrent density of CQDs/TiO2 is remarkably enhanced by a 6.4
      factor when compared with that of as-prepared TiO2.

PMID- 28572997
TI  - A superlinear iteration method for calculation of finite length journal bearing's
      static equilibrium position.
AB  - Solving the static equilibrium position is one of the most important parts of
      dynamic coefficients calculation and further coupled calculation of rotor system.
      The main contribution of this study is testing the superlinear iteration
      convergence method-twofold secant method, for the determination of the static
      equilibrium position of journal bearing with finite length. Essentially, the
      Reynolds equation for stable motion is solved by the finite difference method and
      the inner pressure is obtained by the successive over-relaxation iterative method
      reinforced by the compound Simpson quadrature formula. The accuracy and
      efficiency of the twofold secant method are higher in comparison with the secant
      method and dichotomy. The total number of iterative steps required for the
      twofold secant method are about one-third of the secant method and less than one
      eighth of dichotomy for the same equilibrium position. The calculations for
      equilibrium position and pressure distribution for different bearing length,
      clearance and rotating speed were done. In the results, the eccentricity presents
      linear inverse proportional relationship to the attitude angle. The influence of
      the bearing length, clearance and bearing radius on the load-carrying capacity
      was also investigated. The results illustrate that larger bearing length, larger
      radius and smaller clearance are good for the load-carrying capacity of journal
      bearing. The application of the twofold secant method can greatly reduce the
      computational time for calculation of the dynamic coefficients and dynamic
      characteristics of rotor-bearing system with a journal bearing of finite length.

PMID- 28572998
TI  - Mobulid rays feed on euphausiids in the Bohol Sea.
AB  - Mobulid rays have a conservative life history and are caught in direct fisheries
      and as by-catch. Their subsequent vulnerability to overexploitation has recently
      been recognized, but fisheries management can be ineffective if it ignores
      habitat and prey preferences and other trophic interactions of the target
      species. Here, we assessed the feeding ecology of four mobulids (Manta birostris,
      Mobula tarapacana, M. japanica, M. thurstoni) in the Bohol Sea, Philippines,
      using stomach contents analysis of fisheries specimens landed between November
      and May in 2013-2015. We show that the mobulids feed heavily on euphausiid krill
      while they are in the area for approximately six months of the year. We found
      almost no trophic separation among the mobulid species, with Euphausia diomedeae
      as the major prey item for all species, recorded in 81 of 89 total stomachs
      (91%). Mobula japanica and M. thurstoni almost exclusively had this krill in
      their stomach, while M. tarapacana had a squid and fish, and Ma. birostris had
      myctophid fishes and copepods in their stomachs in addition to E. diomedeae. This
      krill was larger than prey for other planktivorous elasmobranchs elsewhere and
      contributed a mean of 61 364 kcal per stomach (+/-105 032 kcal s.e., range = 0
      631 167 kcal). Our results show that vertically migrating mesopelagic species can
      be an important food resource for large filter feeders living in tropical seas
      with oligotrophic surface waters. Given the conservative life history of mobulid
      rays, the identification of common foraging grounds that overlap with fishing
      activity could be used to inform future fishing effort.

PMID- 28572999
TI  - Ageing and agency: age-related changes in susceptibility to illusory experiences
      of control.
AB  - Sense of agency (SoAg) is the feeling of control over one's actions and their
      effects. It can be augmented or attenuated by internal signals and by external
      cues. Research has shown a reduction in the SoAg in older adulthood, but the
      reasons behind this change remain unclear. We investigated agency processing
      differences that may underpin age-related changes in SoAg. Using a modified
      version of a vicarious agency paradigm, we tested the modulation of SoAg by
      manipulating external situational agency cues in younger and older adults. Our
      results show that the illusion of vicarious agency was less pronounced in older
      adults. These results were replicated in a second experiment which also showed
      that older adults performed significantly better in interoception and
      proprioception tasks. We suggest that increased reliance on internal cues may
      explain differences in agency processing in older adulthood.

PMID- 28573001
TI  - Early social environment influences the behaviour of a family-living lizard.
AB  - Early social environment can play a significant role in shaping behavioural
      development. For instance, in many social mammals and birds, isolation rearing
      results in individuals that are less exploratory, shyer, less social and more
      aggressive than individuals raised in groups. Moreover, dynamic aspects of social
      environments, such as the nature of relationships between individuals, can also
      impact the trajectory of development. We tested if being raised alone or socially
      affects behavioural development in the family-living tree skink, Egernia
      striolata. Juveniles were raised in two treatments: alone or in a pair. We
      assayed exploration, boldness, sociability and aggression repeatedly throughout
      each juvenile's first year of life, and also assessed social interactions between
      pairs to determine if juveniles formed dominant-subordinate relationships. We
      found that male and/or the larger skinks within social pairs were dominant.
      Developing within this social environment reduced skink growth, and subordinate
      skinks were more prone to tail loss. Thus, living with a conspecific was costly
      for E. striolata. The predicted negative effects of isolation failed to
      materialize. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in behavioural
      traits depending on the social environment (isolated, dominant or subordinate
      member of a pair). Isolated skinks were more social than subordinate skinks.
      Subordinate skinks also became more aggressive over time, whereas isolated and
      dominant skinks showed invariable aggression. Dominant skinks became bolder over
      time, whereas isolated and subordinate skinks were relatively stable in their
      boldness. In summary, our study is evidence that isolation rearing does not
      consistently affect behaviour across all social taxa. Our study also demonstrates
      that the social environment plays an important role in behavioural development of
      a family-living lizard.

PMID- 28573002
TI  - Image-based modelling of lateral magma flow: the Basement Sill, Antarctica.
AB  - The McMurdo Dry Valleys magmatic system, Antarctica, provides a world-class
      example of pervasive lateral magma flow on a continental scale. The lowermost
      intrusion (Basement Sill) offers detailed sections through the now frozen
      particle microstructure of a congested magma slurry. We simulated the flow regime
      in two and three dimensions using numerical models built on a finite-element mesh
      derived from field data. The model captures the flow behaviour of the Basement
      Sill magma over a viscosity range of 1-104 Pa s where the higher end (greater
      than or equal to 102 Pa s) corresponds to a magmatic slurry with crystal
      fractions varying between 30 and 70%. A novel feature of the model is the
      discovery of transient, low viscosity (less than or equal to 50 Pa s) high
      Reynolds number eddies formed along undulating contacts at the floor and roof of
      the intrusion. Numerical tracing of particle orbits implies crystals trapped in
      eddies segregate according to their mass density. Recovered shear strain rates
      (10-3-10-5 s-1) at viscosities equating to high particle concentrations (around
      more than 40%) in the Sill interior point to shear-thinning as an explanation for
      some types of magmatic layering there. Model transport rates for the Sill magmas
      imply a maximum emplacement time of ca 105 years, consistent with geochemical
      evidence for long-range lateral flow. It is a theoretically possibility that fast
      flowing magma on a continental scale will be susceptible to planetary-scale
      rotational forces.

PMID- 28573000
TI  - Sex-specific association patterns in bonobos and chimpanzees reflect species
      differences in cooperation.
AB  - In several group-living species, individuals' social preferences are thought to
      be influenced by cooperation. For some societies with fission-fusion dynamics,
      sex-specific association patterns reflect sex differences in cooperation in
      within- and between-group contexts. In our study, we investigated this hypothesis
      further by comparing sex-specific association patterns in two closely related
      species, chimpanzees and bonobos, which differ in the level of between-group
      competition and in the degree to which sex and kinship influence dyadic
      cooperation. Here, we used long-term party composition data collected on five
      chimpanzee and two bonobo communities and assessed, for each individual of 10
      years and older, the sex of its top associate and of all conspecifics with whom
      it associated more frequently than expected by chance. We found clear species
      differences in association patterns. While in all chimpanzee communities males
      and females associated more with same-sex partners, in bonobos males and females
      tended to associate preferentially with females, but the female association
      preference for other females is lower than in chimpanzees. Our results also show
      that, for bonobos (but not for chimpanzees), association patterns were
      predominantly driven by mother-offspring relationships. These species differences
      in association patterns reflect the high levels of male-male cooperation in
      chimpanzees and of mother-son cooperation in bonobos. Finally, female chimpanzees
      showed intense association with a few other females, and male chimpanzees showed
      more uniform association across males. In bonobos, the most differentiated
      associations were from males towards females. Chimpanzee male association
      patterns mirror fundamental human male social traits and, as in humans, may have
      evolved as a response to strong between-group competition. The lack of such a
      pattern in a closely related species with a lower degree of between-group
      competition further supports this notion.

PMID- 28573003
TI  - Development of cyclic shedding teeth from semi-shedding teeth: the inner dental
      arcade of the stem osteichthyan Lophosteus.
AB  - The numerous cushion-shaped tooth-bearing plates attributed to the stem group
      osteichthyan Lophosteus superbus, which are argued here to represent an early
      form of the osteichthyan inner dental arcade, display a previously unknown and
      presumably primitive mode of tooth shedding by basal hard tissue resorption. They
      carry regularly spaced, recumbent, gently recurved teeth arranged in transverse
      tooth files that diverge towards the lingual margin of the cushion. Three
      dimensional reconstruction from propagation phase-contrast synchrotron
      microtomography (PPC-SRuCT) reveals remnants of the first-generation teeth
      embedded in the basal plate, a feature never previously observed in any taxon.
      These teeth were shed by semi-basal resorption with the periphery of their bases
      retained as dentine rings. The rings are highly overlapped, which evidences tooth
      shedding prior to adding the next first-generation tooth at the growing edge of
      the plate. The first generation of teeth is thus diachronous. Successor teeth at
      the same sites underwent cyclical replacing and shedding through basal
      resorption, producing stacks of buried resorption surfaces separated by bone of
      attachment. The number and spatial arrangement of resorption surfaces elucidates
      that basal resorption of replacement teeth had taken place at the older tooth
      sites before the addition of the youngest first-generation teeth at the lingual
      margin. Thus, the replacement tooth buds cannot have been generated by a single
      permanent dental lamina at the lingual edge of the tooth cushion, but must have
      arisen either from successional dental laminae associated with the individual
      predecessor teeth, or directly from the dental epithelium of these teeth. The
      virtual histological dissection of these Late Silurian microfossils broadens our
      understanding of the development of the gnathostome dental systems and the
      acquisition of the osteichthyan-type of tooth replacement.

PMID- 28573004
TI  - A new ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Montana, USA,
      based on an exceptional skeleton with soft tissue preservation.
AB  - The terrestrial Judith River Formation of northern Montana was deposited over an
      approximately 4 Myr interval during the Campanian (Late Cretaceous). Despite
      having been prospected and collected continuously by palaeontologists for over a
      century, few relatively complete dinosaur skeletons have been recovered from this
      unit to date. Here we describe a new genus and species of ankylosaurine dinosaur,
      Zuul crurivastator, from the Coal Ridge Member of the Judith River Formation,
      based on an exceptionally complete and well-preserved skeleton (ROM 75860). This
      is the first ankylosaurin skeleton known with a complete skull and tail club, and
      it is the most complete ankylosaurid ever found in North America. The presence of
      abundant soft tissue preservation across the skeleton, including in situ
      osteoderms, skin impressions and dark films that probably represent preserved
      keratin, make this exceptional skeleton an important reference for understanding
      the evolution of dermal and epidermal structures in this clade. Phylogenetic
      analysis recovers Zuul as an ankylosaurin ankylosaurid within a clade of
      Dyoplosaurus and Scolosaurus, with Euoplocephalus being more distantly related
      within Ankylosaurini. The occurrence of Z. crurivastator from the upper Judith
      River Formation fills a gap in the ankylosaurine stratigraphic and geographical
      record in North America, and further highlights that Campanian ankylosaurines
      were undergoing rapid evolution and stratigraphic succession of taxa as observed
      for Laramidian ceratopsids, hadrosaurids, pachycephalosaurids and tyrannosaurids.

PMID- 28573005
TI  - Drug delivery in a tumour cord model: a computational simulation.
AB  - The tumour vasculature and microenvironment is complex and heterogeneous,
      contributing to reduced delivery of cancer drugs to the tumour. We have developed
      an in silico model of drug transport in a tumour cord to explore the effect of
      different drug regimes over a 72 h period and how changes in pharmacokinetic
      parameters affect tumour exposure to the cytotoxic drug doxorubicin. We used the
      model to describe the radial and axial distribution of drug in the tumour cord as
      a function of changes in the transport rate across the cell membrane, blood
      vessel and intercellular permeability, flow rate, and the binding and unbinding
      ratio of drug within the cancer cells. We explored how changes in these
      parameters may affect cellular exposure to drug. The model demonstrates the
      extent to which distance from the supplying vessel influences drug levels and the
      effect of dosing schedule in relation to saturation of drug-binding sites. It
      also shows the likely impact on drug distribution of the aberrant vasculature
      seen within tumours. The model can be adapted for other drugs and extended to
      include other parameters. The analysis confirms that computational models can
      play a role in understanding novel cancer therapies to optimize drug
      administration and delivery.

PMID- 28573006
TI  - A new fossil dolphin Dilophodelphis fordycei provides insight into the evolution
      of supraorbital crests in Platanistoidea (Mammalia, Cetacea).
AB  - Many odontocete groups have developed enlarged facial crests, although these
      crests differ in topography, composition and function. The most elaborate crests
      occur in the South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica), in which they rise
      dorsally as delicate, pneumatized wings anterior of the facial bones. Their
      position wrapping around the melon suggests their involvement in sound
      propagation for echolocation. To better understand the origin of crests in this
      lineage, we examined facial crests among fossil and living Platanistoidea,
      including a new taxon, Dilophodelphis fordycei, nov. gen. and sp., described
      herein, from the Early Miocene Astoria Formation of Oregon, USA. We measured the
      physical extent and thickness of platanistoid crests, categorized their relative
      position and used computed tomography scans to examine their internal morphology
      and relative bone density. Integrating these traits in a phylogenetic context, we
      determined that the onset of crest elaboration or enlargement and the evolution
      of crest pneumatization among the platanistoids were separate events, with crest
      enlargement beginning in the Oligocene. However, we find no evidence for
      pneumatization until possibly the Early Miocene, although certainly by the Middle
      Miocene. Such an evolutionary context, including data from the fossil record,
      should inform modelling efforts that seek to understand the diversity of sound
      generation morphology in Odontoceti.

PMID- 28573007
TI  - Depth-dependent effects of culling-do mesophotic lionfish populations undermine
      current management?
AB  - Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) have spread widely across the
      western Atlantic and are recognized as a major threat to native marine
      biodiversity. Although lionfish inhabit both shallow reefs and mesophotic coral
      ecosystems (MCEs; reefs from 30 to 150 m depth), the primary management response
      implemented by many countries has been diver-led culling limited to reefs less
      than 30 m. However, many reef fish undergo ontogenetic migrations, with the
      largest and therefore most fecund individuals found at greatest depths. Here, we
      study lionfish density, body size, maturity and dietary patterns across the depth
      gradient from the surface down to 85 m on heavily culled reefs around Utila,
      Honduras. We found lionfish at increased densities, body size and weight on MCEs
      compared with shallow reefs, with MCEs also containing the greatest proportion of
      actively spawning females, while shallow reefs contained the greatest proportion
      of immature lionfish. We then compared lionfish behaviour in response to divers
      on shallow culled and mesophotic unculled Utilan reefs, and on shallow unculled
      reefs in Tela Bay, on the Honduran mainland. We found that mesophotic lionfish
      exhibited high alert distances, consistent with individuals previously exposed to
      culling despite being below the depth limits of removal. In addition, when
      examining stomach content, we found that fish were the major component of
      lionfish diets across the depth gradient. Importantly, our results suggest that
      despite adjacent shallow culling, MCEs retain substantial lionfish populations
      that may be disproportionately contributing towards continued lionfish
      recruitment onto the shallow reefs of Utila, potentially undermining current
      culling-based management.

PMID- 28573008
TI  - Common reef-building coral in the Northern Red Sea resistant to elevated
      temperature and acidification.
AB  - Coral reefs are currently experiencing substantial ecological impoverishment as a
      result of anthropogenic stressors, and the majority of reefs are facing immediate
      risk. Increasing ocean surface temperatures induce frequent coral mass bleaching
      events-the breakdown of the nutritional photo-symbiosis with intracellular algae
      (genus: Symbiodinium). Here, we report that Stylophora pistillata from a highly
      diverse reef in the Gulf of Aqaba showed no signs of bleaching despite spending
      1.5 months at 1-2 degrees C above their long-term summer maximum (amounting to 11
      degree heating weeks) and a seawater pH of 7.8. Instead, their symbiotic
      dinoflagellates exhibited improved photochemistry, higher pigmentation and a
      doubling in net oxygen production, leading to a 51% increase in primary
      productivity. Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging revealed subtle
      cellular-level shifts in carbon and nitrogen metabolism under elevated
      temperatures, but overall host and symbiont biomass proxies were not
      significantly affected. Now living well below their thermal threshold in the Gulf
      of Aqaba, these corals have been evolutionarily selected for heat tolerance
      during their migration through the warm Southern Red Sea after the last ice age.
      This may allow them to withstand future warming for a longer period of time,
      provided that successful environmental conservation measures are enacted across
      national boundaries in the region.

PMID- 28573009
TI  - Characterizing and quantifying human movement patterns using GPS data loggers in
      an area approaching malaria elimination in rural southern Zambia.
AB  - In areas approaching malaria elimination, human mobility patterns are important
      in determining the proportion of malaria cases that are imported or the result of
      low-level, endemic transmission. A convenience sample of participants enrolled in
      a longitudinal cohort study in the catchment area of Macha Hospital in Choma
      District, Southern Province, Zambia, was selected to carry a GPS data logger for
      one month from October 2013 to August 2014. Density maps and activity space plots
      were created to evaluate seasonal movement patterns. Time spent outside the
      household compound during anopheline biting times, and time spent in malaria high
      and low-risk areas, were calculated. There was evidence of seasonal movement
      patterns, with increased long-distance movement during the dry season. A median
      of 10.6% (interquartile range (IQR): 5.8-23.8) of time was spent away from the
      household, which decreased during anopheline biting times to 5.6% (IQR: 1.7
      14.9). The per cent of time spent in malaria high-risk areas for participants
      residing in high-risk areas ranged from 83.2% to 100%, but ranged from only 0.0%
      to 36.7% for participants residing in low-risk areas. Interventions targeted at
      the household may be more effective because of restricted movement during the
      rainy season, with limited movement between high- and low-risk areas.

PMID- 28573010
TI  - Contradicting habitat type-extinction risk relationships between living and
      fossil amphibians.
AB  - Trait analysis has become a crucial tool for assessing the extinction risk of
      species. While some extinction risk-trait relationships have been often identical
      between different living taxa, a temporal comparison of fossil taxa with related
      current taxa was rarely considered. However, we argue that it is important to
      know if extinction risk-trait relations are constant or changing over time.
      Herein we investigated the influence of habitat type on the persistence length of
      amphibian species. Living amphibians are regarded as the most threatened group of
      terrestrial vertebrates and thus of high interest to conservationists. Species
      from different habitat types show differences in extinction risk, i.e. species
      depending on flowing waters being more threatened than those breeding in stagnant
      sites. After assessing the quality of the available amphibian fossil data, we
      show that today's habitat type-extinction risk relationship is reversed compared
      to fossil amphibians, former taxa persisting longer when living in rivers and
      streams, thus suggesting a change of effect direction of this trait. Neither
      differences between amphibian orders nor environmentally caused preservation
      effects could explain this pattern. We argue this change to be most likely a
      result of anthropogenic influence, which turned a once favourable strategy into a
      disadvantage.

PMID- 28573011
TI  - Behaviour of free ranging wild boar towards their dead fellows: potential
      implications for the transmission of African swine fever.
AB  - The behaviour of free ranging wild boar (Sus scrofa) towards carcasses of their
      conspecifics potentially infected with African swine fever (ASF) may
      significantly influence the course of an ASF epidemic. This study aims to better
      understand the behaviour of wild boar towards their dead fellows. Thirty-two wild
      boar carcasses on nine study sites in northeast Germany were monitored under
      field conditions by photo-trapping from October 2015 until October 2016. During
      this period, a total of 122 160 pictures were taken, thereof 16 111 pictures of
      wild boar. In both winter and summer, wild boar seemed to be particularly
      interested in the soil next to and underneath the carcasses. About one third of
      the visits of wild boar led to direct contact with dead conspecifics. The
      contacts consisted mostly in sniffing and poking on the carcass. Under the given
      ecological and climatic conditions, there was no evidence for intra-species
      scavenging. However, piglets were observed several times chewing bare bones once
      skeletonization of the carcasses was complete. It must be assumed that all these
      types of contact may represent a risk of transmission. Both the high tenacity of
      ASF virus and the long time wild boar carcasses can remain in the environment,
      allow the persistence of the virus for several months or even years. We therefore
      consider the rapid detection and removal (or destruction on the spot) of
      contaminated carcasses as an important control measure against ASF in wild boar.

PMID- 28573012
TI  - Effects of ligand distribution on receptor-diffusion-mediated cellular uptake of
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Biophysical-factor-dependent cellular uptake of nanoparticles (NPs) through
      receptor-diffusion-mediated endocytosis bears significance in pathology, cellular
      immunity and drug-delivery systems. Advanced nanotechnology of NP synthesis
      provides methods for modifying NP surface with different ligand distributions.
      However, no report discusses effects of ligand distribution on NP surface on
      receptor-diffusion-mediated cellular uptake. In this article, we used a
      statistical dynamics model of receptor-diffusion-mediated endocytosis to examine
      ligand-distribution-dependent cellular uptake dynamics by considering that ligand
      receptor complexes drive engulfing to overcome resistance to membrane deformation
      and changes in configuration entropy of receptors. Results showed that cellular
      internalization of NPs strongly depended on ligand distribution and that cellular
      uptake efficiency of NPs was high when ligand distribution was within a range
      around uniform distribution. This feature of endocytosis ensures robust infection
      ability of viruses to enter host cells. Interestingly, results also indicated
      that optimal ligand distribution associated with highest cellular-uptake
      efficiency slightly depends on distribution pattern of ligands and density of
      receptors, and the optimal distribution becomes uniform when receptor density is
      sufficiently large. Position of initial contact point is also a factor affecting
      dynamic wrapping. This study explains why most enveloped viruses present almost
      homogeneous ligand distribution and is useful in designing controlled-release
      drug-delivery systems.

PMID- 28573013
TI  - Thin Al1-x Ga x As0.56Sb0.44 diodes with extremely weak temperature dependence of
      avalanche breakdown.
AB  - When using avalanche photodiodes (APDs) in applications, temperature dependence
      of avalanche breakdown voltage is one of the performance parameters to be
      considered. Hence, novel materials developed for APDs require dedicated
      experimental studies. We have carried out such a study on thin Al1-x Ga x
      As0.56Sb0.44 p-i-n diode wafers (Ga composition from 0 to 0.15), plus
      measurements of avalanche gain and dark current. Based on data obtained from 77
      to 297 K, the alloys Al1-x Ga x As0.56Sb0.44 exhibited weak temperature
      dependence of avalanche gain and breakdown voltage, with temperature coefficient
      approximately 0.86-1.08 mV K-1, among the lowest values reported for a number of
      semiconductor materials. Considering no significant tunnelling current was
      observed at room temperature at typical operating conditions, the alloys Al1-x Ga
      x As0.56Sb0.44 (Ga from 0 to 0.15) are suitable for InP substrates-based APDs
      that require excellent temperature stability without high tunnelling current.

PMID- 28573014
TI  - The contact process on scale-free networks evolving by vertex updating.
AB  - We study the contact process on a class of evolving scale-free networks, where
      each node updates its connections at independent random times. We give a rigorous
      mathematical proof that there is a transition between a phase where for all
      infection rates the infection survives for a long time, at least exponential in
      the network size, and a phase where for sufficiently small infection rates
      extinction occurs quickly, at most polynomially in the network size. The phase
      transition occurs when the power-law exponent crosses the value four. This
      behaviour is in contrast with that of the contact process on the corresponding
      static model, where there is no phase transition, as well as that of a classical
      mean-field approximation, which has a phase transition at power-law exponent
      three. The new observation behind our result is that temporal variability of
      networks can simultaneously increase the rate at which the infection spreads in
      the network, and decrease the time at which the infection spends in metastable
      states.

PMID- 28573015
TI  - Density-dependent coral recruitment displays divergent responses during distinct
      early life-history stages.
AB  - Population growth involves demographic bottlenecks that regulate recruitment
      success during various early life-history stages. The success of each early life
      history stage can vary in response to population density, interacting with
      intrinsic (e.g. behavioural) and environmental (e.g. competition, predation)
      factors. Here, we used the common reef-building coral Acropora millepora to
      investigate how density-dependence influences larval survival and settlement in
      laboratory experiments that isolated intrinsic effects, and post-settlement
      survival in a field experiment that examined interactions with environmental
      factors. Larval survival was exceptionally high (greater than 80%) and density
      independent from 2.5 to 12 days following spawning. By contrast, there was a weak
      positive effect of larval density on settlement, driven by gregarious behaviour
      at the highest density. When larval supply was saturated, settlement was three
      times higher in crevices compared with exposed microhabitats, but a negative
      relationship between settler density and post-settlement survival in crevices and
      density-independent survival on exposed surfaces resulted in similar recruit
      densities just one month following settlement. Moreover, a negative relationship
      was found between turf algae and settler survival in crevices, whereas gregarious
      settlement improved settler survival on exposed surfaces. Overall, our findings
      reveal divergent responses by coral larvae and newly settled recruits to density
      dependent regulation, mediated by intrinsic and environmental interactions.

PMID- 28573016
TI  - Social media enhances languages differentiation: a mathematical description.
AB  - Understanding and predicting the evolution of competing languages is a topic of
      high interest in a world with more than 6000 languages competing in a highly
      connected environment. We consider a reasonable mathematical model describing a
      situation of competition between two languages and analyse the effect of the
      speakers' connectivity (i.e. social networks). Surprisingly, instead of
      homogenizing the system, a high degree of connectivity helps to introduce
      differentiation for the appropriate parameters.

PMID- 28573017
TI  - A CRISPR Cas9 high-throughput genome editing toolkit for kinetoplastids.
AB  - Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), CRISPR
      associated gene 9 (Cas9) genome editing is set to revolutionize genetic
      manipulation of pathogens, including kinetoplastids. CRISPR technology provides
      the opportunity to develop scalable methods for high-throughput production of
      mutant phenotypes. Here, we report development of a CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit that
      allows rapid tagging and gene knockout in diverse kinetoplastid species without
      requiring the user to perform any DNA cloning. We developed a new protocol for
      single-guide RNA (sgRNA) delivery using PCR-generated DNA templates which are
      transcribed in vivo by T7 RNA polymerase and an online resource (LeishGEdit.net)
      for automated primer design. We produced a set of plasmids that allows easy and
      scalable generation of DNA constructs for transfections in just a few hours. We
      show how these tools allow knock-in of fluorescent protein tags, modified biotin
      ligase BirA*, luciferase, HaloTag and small epitope tags, which can be fused to
      proteins at the N- or C-terminus, for functional studies of proteins and
      localization screening. These tools enabled generation of null mutants in a
      single round of transfection in promastigote form Leishmania major, Leishmania
      mexicana and bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei; deleted genes were undetectable
      in non-clonal populations, enabling for the first time rapid and large-scale
      knockout screens.

PMID- 28573018
TI  - Yolk vitamin E prevents oxidative damage in gull hatchlings.
AB  - Oxidative stress experienced during early development can negatively affect
      diverse life-history traits, and organisms have evolved complex defence systems
      against its detrimental effects. Bird eggs contain maternally derived exogenous
      antioxidants that play a major role in embryo protection from oxidative damage,
      including the negative effects on telomere dynamics. In this study on the yellow
      legged gull (Larus michahellis), we manipulated the concentration of vitamin E
      (VE) in the egg yolk and analysed the consequences on oxidative status markers
      and telomere length in the hatchlings. This study provides the first experimental
      evidence that, contrary to the expectation, a physiological increase in yolk VE
      concentration boosted total antioxidant capacity and reduced the concentration of
      pro-oxidant molecules in the plasma, but did not reduce telomere attrition or
      ameliorate oxidative damage to proteins and lipids in the early postnatal period.

PMID- 28573019
TI  - Sensitivity of commercial pumpkin yield to potential decline among different
      groups of pollinating bees.
AB  - The yield of animal-pollinated crops is threatened by bee declines, but its
      precise sensitivity is poorly known. We therefore determined the yield dependence
      of Hokkaido pumpkin in Germany on insect pollination by quantifying: (i) the
      relationship between pollen receipt and fruit set and (ii) the cumulative pollen
      deposition of each pollinator group. We found that approximately 2500 pollen
      grains per flower were needed to maximize fruit set. At the measured rates of
      flower visitation, we estimated that bumblebees (21 visits/flower lifetime, 864
      grains/visit) or honeybees (123 visits, 260 grains) could individually achieve
      maximum crop yield, whereas halictid bees are ineffective (11 visits, 16 grains).
      The pollinator fauna was capable of delivering 20 times the necessary amount of
      pollen. We therefore estimate that pumpkin yield was not pollination-limited in
      our study region and that it is currently fairly resilient to single declines of
      honeybees or wild bumblebees.

PMID- 28573020
TI  - A single migrant enhances the genetic diversity of an inbred puma population.
AB  - Migration is essential for maintaining genetic diversity among populations, and
      pumas (Puma concolor) provide an excellent model for studying the genetic impacts
      of migrants on populations isolated by increasing human development. In densely
      populated southern California, USA, puma populations on the east and west side of
      interstate highway 15 (I-15) have become fragmented into a small inbred
      population on the west side (Santa Ana Mountains) and a relatively larger, more
      diverse population on the east side (Eastern Peninsular Range). From 146 sampled
      pumas, genetic analyses indicate seven pumas crossed I-15 over the last 15 years,
      including four males from west to east, and three males from east to west.
      However, only a single migrant (named M86) was detected to have produced
      offspring and contribute to gene flow across the I-15 barrier. Prior to the M86
      migration, the Santa Ana population exhibited inbreeding and had significantly
      lower genetic diversity than the Eastern Peninsular Range population. After M86
      emigrated, he sired 11 offspring with Santa Ana females, decreasing inbreeding
      measures and raising heterozygosity to levels similar to pumas in the Eastern
      Peninsular Range. The emigration of M86 also introduced new alleles into the
      Santa Ana population, although allelic richness still remained significantly
      lower than the Eastern Peninsular population. Our results clearly show the
      benefit of a single migrant to the genetics of a small, isolated population.
      However, ongoing development and habitat loss on both sides of I-15 will
      increasingly strengthen the barrier to successful migration. Further monitoring,
      and potential human intervention, including minimizing development effects on
      connectivity, adding or improving freeway crossing structures, or animal
      translocation, may be needed to ensure adequate gene flow and long-term
      persistence of the Santa Ana puma population.

PMID- 28573021
TI  - Dog growls express various contextual and affective content for human listeners.
AB  - Vocal expressions of emotions follow simple rules to encode the inner state of
      the caller into acoustic parameters, not just within species, but also in cross
      species communication. Humans use these structural rules to attribute emotions to
      dog vocalizations, especially to barks, which match with their contexts. In
      contrast, humans were found to be unable to differentiate between playful and
      threatening growls, probably because single growls' aggression level was assessed
      based on acoustic size cues. To resolve this contradiction, we played back
      natural growl bouts from three social contexts (food guarding, threatening and
      playing) to humans, who had to rate the emotional load and guess the context of
      the playbacks. Listeners attributed emotions to growls according to their social
      contexts. Within threatening and playful contexts, bouts with shorter, slower
      pulsing growls and showing smaller apparent body size were rated to be less
      aggressive and fearful, but more playful and happy. Participants associated the
      correct contexts with the growls above chance. Moreover, women and participants
      experienced with dogs scored higher in this task. Our results indicate that dogs
      may communicate honestly their size and inner state in a serious contest
      situation, while manipulatively in more uncertain defensive and playful contexts.

PMID- 28573022
TI  - Ocean acidification impacts spine integrity but not regenerative capacity of
      spines and tube feet in adult sea urchins.
AB  - Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has resulted in a change in seawater
      chemistry and lowering of pH, referred to as ocean acidification. Understanding
      how different organisms and processes respond to ocean acidification is vital to
      predict how marine ecosystems will be altered under future scenarios of continued
      environmental change. Regenerative processes involving biomineralization in
      marine calcifiers such as sea urchins are predicted to be especially vulnerable.
      In this study, the effect of ocean acidification on regeneration of external
      appendages (spines and tube feet) was investigated in the sea urchin Lytechinus
      variegatus exposed to ambient (546 uatm), intermediate (1027 uatm) and high (1841
      uatm) partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) for eight weeks. The rate of regeneration
      was maintained in spines and tube feet throughout two periods of amputation and
      regrowth under conditions of elevated pCO2. Increased expression of several
      biomineralization-related genes indicated molecular compensatory mechanisms;
      however, the structural integrity of both regenerating and homeostatic spines was
      compromised in high pCO2 conditions. Indicators of physiological fitness
      (righting response, growth rate, coelomocyte concentration and composition) were
      not affected by increasing pCO2, but compromised spine integrity is likely to
      have negative consequences for defence capabilities and therefore survival of
      these ecologically and economically important organisms.

PMID- 28573023
TI  - Big city Bombus: using natural history and land-use history to find significant
      environmental drivers in bumble-bee declines in urban development.
AB  - Native bee populations are critical sources of pollination. Unfortunately, native
      bees are declining in abundance and diversity. Much of this decline comes from
      human land-use change. While the effects of large-scale agriculture on native
      bees are relatively well understood, the effects of urban development are less
      clear. Understanding urbanity's effect on native bees requires consideration of
      specific characteristics of both particular bee species and their urban
      landscape. We surveyed bumble-bee (Bombus spp.) abundance and diversity in
      gardens across multiple urban centres in southeastern Michigan. There are
      significant declines in Bombus abundance and diversity associated with urban
      development when measured on scales in-line with Bombus flight ability. These
      declines are entirely driven by declines in females; males showed no response to
      urbanization. We hypothesize that this is owing to differing foraging strategies
      between the sexes, and it suggests reduced Bombus colony density in more urban
      areas. While urbanity reduced Bombus prevalence, results in Detroit imply that
      'shrinking cities' potentially offer unique urban paradigms that must be
      considered when studying wild bee ecology. Results show previously unidentified
      differences in the effects of urbanity on female and male bumble-bee populations
      and suggest that urban landscapes can be managed to support native bee
      conservation.

PMID- 28573024
TI  - Does behaviour affect the dispersal of flatback post-hatchlings in the Great
      Barrier Reef?
AB  - The ability of individuals to actively control their movements, especially during
      the early life stages, can significantly influence the distribution of their
      population. Most marine turtle species develop oceanic foraging habitats during
      different life stages. However, flatback turtles (Natator depressus) are endemic
      to Australia and are the only marine turtle species with an exclusive neritic
      development. To explain the lack of oceanic dispersal of this species, we
      predicted the dispersal of post-hatchlings in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR),
      Australia, using oceanographic advection-dispersal models. We included
      directional swimming in our models and calibrated them against the observed
      distribution of post-hatchling and adult turtles. We simulated the dispersal of
      green and loggerhead turtles since they also breed in the same region. Our study
      suggests that the neritic distribution of flatback post-hatchlings is favoured by
      the inshore distribution of nesting beaches, the local water circulation and
      directional swimming during their early dispersal. This combination of factors is
      important because, under the conditions tested, if flatback post-hatchlings were
      entirely passively transported, they would be advected into oceanic habitats
      after 40 days. Our results reinforce the importance of oceanography and
      directional swimming in the early life stages and their influence on the
      distribution of a marine turtle species.

PMID- 28573025
TI  - Chimpanzee intellect: personality, performance and motivation with touchscreen
      tasks.
AB  - Human intellect is characterized by intercorrelated psychological domains,
      including intelligence, academic performance and personality. Higher openness is
      associated with higher intelligence and better academic performance, yet high
      performance among individuals is itself attributable to intelligence, not
      openness. High conscientiousness individuals, although not necessarily more
      intelligent, are better performers. Work with other species is not as extensive,
      yet animals display similar relationships between exploration- and persistence
      related personality traits and performance on cognitive tasks. However, previous
      studies linking cognition and personality have not tracked learning, performance
      and dropout over time-three crucial elements of cognitive performance. We
      conducted three participatory experiments with touchscreen cognitive tasks among
      19 zoo-housed chimpanzees, whose personalities were assessed 3 years prior to the
      study. Performance and participation were recorded across experiments. High
      conscientiousness chimpanzees participated more, dropped out less and performed
      better, but their performance could be explained by their experience with the
      task. High openness chimpanzees tended to be more interested, perform better and
      continue to participate when not rewarded with food. Our results demonstrate that
      chimpanzees, like humans, possess broad intellectual capacities that are affected
      by their personalities.

PMID- 28573026
TI  - Non-invasive biophysical measurement of travelling waves in the insect inner ear.
AB  - Frequency analysis in the mammalian cochlea depends on the propagation of
      frequency information in the form of a travelling wave (TW) across tonotopically
      arranged auditory sensilla. TWs have been directly observed in the basilar
      papilla of birds and the ears of bush-crickets (Insecta: Orthoptera) and have
      also been indirectly inferred in the hearing organs of some reptiles and frogs.
      Existing experimental approaches to measure TW function in tetrapods and bush
      crickets are inherently invasive, compromising the fine-scale mechanics of each
      system. Located in the forelegs, the bush-cricket ear exhibits outer, middle and
      inner components; the inner ear containing tonotopically arranged auditory
      sensilla within a fluid-filled cavity, and externally protected by the leg
      cuticle. Here, we report bush-crickets with transparent ear cuticles as potential
      model species for direct, non-invasive measuring of TWs and tonotopy. Using laser
      Doppler vibrometry and spectroscopy, we show that increased transmittance of
      light through the ear cuticle allows for effective non-invasive measurements of
      TWs and frequency mapping. More transparent cuticles allow several properties of
      TWs to be precisely recovered and measured in vivo from intact specimens. Our
      approach provides an innovative, non-invasive alternative to measure the natural
      motion of the sensilla-bearing surface embedded in the intact inner ear fluid.

PMID- 28573027
TI  - Operating length and velocity of human M. vastus lateralis fascicles during
      vertical jumping.
AB  - Humans achieve greater jump height during a counter-movement jump (CMJ) than in a
      squat jump (SJ). However, the crucial difference is the mean mechanical power
      output during the propulsion phase, which could be determined by intrinsic neuro
      muscular mechanisms for power production. We measured M. vastus lateralis (VL)
      fascicle length changes and activation patterns and assessed the force-length,
      force-velocity and power-velocity potentials during the jumps. Compared with the
      SJ, the VL fascicles operated on a more favourable portion of the force-length
      curve (7% greater force potential, i.e. fraction of VL maximum force according to
      the force-length relationship) and more disadvantageous portion of the force
      velocity curve (11% lower force potential, i.e. fraction of VL maximum force
      according to the force-velocity relationship) in the CMJ, indicating a reciprocal
      effect of force-length and force-velocity potentials for force generation. The
      higher muscle activation (15%) could therefore explain the moderately greater
      jump height (5%) in the CMJ. The mean fascicle-shortening velocity in the CMJ was
      closer to the plateau of the power-velocity curve, which resulted in a greater
      (15%) power-velocity potential (i.e. fraction of VL maximum power according to
      the power-velocity relationship). Our findings provide evidence for a cumulative
      effect of three different mechanisms-i.e. greater force-length potential, greater
      power-velocity potential and greater muscle activity-for an advantaged power
      production in the CMJ contributing to the marked difference in mean mechanical
      power (56%) compared with SJ.

PMID- 28573028
TI  - Detection and perception of generic host volatiles by mosquitoes: responses to
      CO2 constrains host-seeking behaviour.
AB  - Natural selection has favoured specialization in anthropophilic mosquito host
      choice, yet in the absence of human hosts, females feed on a selected range of
      vertebrates. For host recognition, we hypothesize that mosquitoes primarily rely
      on generic host volatiles. Detection and perception of such compounds would
      provide the mosquito with a flexible, yet constrained, odour coding system that
      could delineate host preference. In this study, we show that the quintessential
      generic volatile for host-seeking, carbon dioxide, activates and attracts the
      malaria mosquito, Anopheles coluzzii, and the arbovirus vectors, Aedes aegypti
      and Culex quinquefasciatus, within boundaries set by the dynamic range and coding
      capacity of the CO2-sensitive olfactory receptor neurons. These boundaries are
      sufficiently broad to elicit behavioural responses to various hosts within their
      preferred host range. This study highlights the significance of the sensitivity
      of the carbon dioxide detection system and its regulation of host seeking and
      recognition.

PMID- 28573029
TI  - First empirical evidence of naturally occurring androgenesis in vertebrates.
AB  - Androgenesis among vertebrates is considered a rare phenomenon, with some cases
      reported so far, but linked to experiments involving gamete manipulation
      (artificial androgenesis). Herein, we report the first empirical evidence of the
      natural occurrence of spontaneous androgenesis in a vertebrate, the Squalius
      alburnoides allopolyploid complex. A genetically screened random sample of a
      natural population was allowed to reproduce in an isolated pond without any human
      interference, and the viable offspring obtained was later analysed for paternity.
      Both nuclear and mitochondrial markers showed that the only allodiploid fish
      found among all the allotriploid offspring was androgenetically produced by an
      allodiploid male. This specimen had no female nuclear genomic input, and the
      sequence of the mitochondrial fragment examined differed from that of the male
      progenitor, matching one of the parental females available in the pond, probably
      the mother. The possible role of androgenesis in the reproductive dynamics of
      this highly successful vertebrate complex is discussed.

PMID- 28573030
TI  - Graphic kinematics, visual virtual work and elastographics.
AB  - In this paper, recent progress in graphic statics is combined with Williot
      displacement diagrams to create a graphical description of both statics and
      kinematics for two- and three-dimensional pin-jointed trusses. We begin with
      reciprocal form and force diagrams. The force diagram is dissected into its
      component cells which are then translated relative to each other. This defines a
      displacement diagram which is topologically equivalent to the form diagram (the
      structure). The various contributions to the overall Virtual Work appear as
      parallelograms (for two-dimensional trusses) or parallelopipeds (for three
      dimensional trusses) that separate the force and the displacement pieces.
      Structural mechanisms can be identified by translating the force cells such that
      their shared faces slide across each other without separating. Elastic solutions
      can be obtained by choosing parallelograms or parallelopipeds of the appropriate
      aspect ratio. Finally, a new type of 'elastographic' diagram-termed a deformed
      Maxwell-Williot diagram (two-dimensional) or a deformed Rankine-Williot diagram
      (three-dimensional)-is presented which combines the deflected structure with the
      forces carried by its members.

PMID- 28573031
TI  - Trajectory energy minimization for cell growth tracking and genealogy analysis.
AB  - Cell growth experiments with a microfluidic device produce large-scale time-lapse
      image data, which contain important information on cell growth and patterns in
      their genealogy. To extract such information, we propose a scheme to segment and
      track bacterial cells automatically. In contrast with most published approaches,
      which often split segmentation and tracking into two independent procedures, we
      focus on designing an algorithm that describes cell properties evolving between
      consecutive frames by feeding segmentation and tracking results from one frame to
      the next one. The cell boundaries are extracted by minimizing the distance
      regularized level set evolution (DRLSE) model. Each individual cell was
      identified and tracked by identifying cell septum and membrane as well as
      developing a trajectory energy minimization function along time-lapse series.
      Experiments show that by applying this scheme, cell growth and division can be
      measured automatically. The results show the efficiency of the approach when
      testing on different datasets while comparing with other existing algorithms. The
      proposed approach demonstrates great potential for large-scale bacterial cell
      growth analysis.

PMID- 28573032
TI  - The evolution of an ancient technology.
AB  - We investigate pattern and process in the transmission of traditional weaving
      cultures in East and Southeast Asia. Our investigation covers a range of scales,
      from the experiences of individual weavers ('micro') to the broad-scale patterns
      of loom technologies across the region ('macro'). Using published sources, we
      build an empirical model of cultural transmission (encompassing individual
      weavers, the household and the community), focussing on where cultural
      information resides and how it is replicated and how transmission errors are
      detected and eliminated. We compare this model with macro-level outcomes in the
      form of a new dataset of weaving loom technologies across a broad area of East
      and Southeast Asia. The lineages of technologies that we have uncovered display
      evidence for branching, hybridization (reticulation), stasis in some lineages,
      rapid change in others and the coexistence of both simple and complex forms.
      There are some striking parallels with biological evolution and information
      theory. There is sufficient detail and resolution in our findings to enable us to
      begin to critique theoretical models and assumptions that have been produced
      during the last few decades to describe the evolution of culture.

PMID- 28573033
TI  - Inducible versus constitutive social immunity: examining effects of colony
      infection on glucose oxidase and defensin-1 production in honeybees.
AB  - Honeybees use a variety of defence mechanisms to reduce disease infection and
      spread throughout the colony. Many of these defences rely on the collective
      action of multiple individuals to prevent, reduce or eradicate pathogens-often
      referred to as 'social immunity'. Glucose oxidase (GOX) and some antimicrobial
      peptides (e.g. defensin-1 or Def1) are secreted by the hypopharyngeal gland of
      adult bees on larval food for their antiseptic properties. Because workers
      secrete these compounds to protect larvae, they have been used as 'biomarkers'
      for social immunity. The aim of this study was to investigate if GOX and Def1 are
      induced after pathogen exposure to determine whether its production by workers is
      the result of a collective effort to protect the brood and colony in response to
      a pathogen challenge. Specifically, we quantified GOX and Def1 in honeybee adults
      before and after colony-level bacterial infection by American foulbrood ((AFB),
      Paenibacillus larvae). Overall, our results indicate that levels of GOX and Def1
      are not induced in response to pathogenic infections. We therefore conclude that
      GOX and Def1 are highly constitutive and co-opted as mechanisms of social
      immunity, and these factors should be considered when investigating immunity at
      the individual and colony level in social insects.

PMID- 28573034
TI  - A technical note on variable inter-frame interval as a cause of non-physiological
      experimental artefacts in ultrasound.
AB  - Ultrasound (US) imaging is a well-recognized technique for the study of static
      tissues but its suitability for studying tissue dynamics depends upon accurate
      frame time information, which may not always be available to users. Here we
      present methods to quantify the inter-frame interval (IFI) variability, and
      evaluate different procedures for collecting temporal information from two US
      imaging devices. The devices tested exhibited variable IFIs that could only be
      confirmed by direct measures of timing signals, available by means of electrical
      signals (triggers) and/or temporal information contained in the software used for
      the US data collection. Interpolating frame-by-frame measures of dynamic changes
      within image sequences using individual IFI values provided improved
      synchronization between measures of skeletal muscle movement and activation;
      validating US as a valuable technique for the study of musculoskeletal tissue
      dynamics, when correctly implemented.

PMID- 28573035
TI  - Expression of a symbiosis-specific gene in Symbiodinium type A1 associated with
      coral, nudibranch and giant clam larvae.
AB  - Symbiodinium are responsible for the majority of primary production in coral
      reefs and found in a mutualistic symbiosis with multiple animal phyla. However,
      little is known about the molecular signals involved in the establishment of this
      symbiosis and whether it initiates during host larval development. To address
      this question, we monitored the expression of a putative symbiosis-specific gene
      (H+-ATPase) in Symbiodinium A1 ex hospite and in association with larvae of a
      scleractinian coral (Mussismilia hispida), a nudibranch (Berghia stephanieae) and
      a giant clam (Tridacna crocea). We acquired broodstock for each host, induced
      spawning and cultured the larvae. Symbiodinium cells were offered and larval
      samples taken for each host during the first 72 h after symbiont addition. In
      addition, control samples including free-living Symbiodinium and broodstock
      tissue containing symbionts for each host were collected. RNA extraction and RT
      PCR were performed and amplified products cloned and sequenced. Our results show
      that H+-ATPase was expressed in Symbiodinium associated with coral and giant clam
      larvae, but not with nudibranch larvae, which digested the symbionts. Broodstock
      tissue for coral and giant clam also expressed H+-ATPase, but not the nudibranch
      tissue sample. Our results of the expression of H+-ATPase as a marker gene
      suggest that symbiosis between Symbiodinium and M. hispida and T. crocea is
      established during host larval development. Conversely, in the case of B.
      stephanieae larvae, evidence does not support a mutualistic relationship. Our
      study supports the utilization of H+-ATPase expression as a marker for assessing
      Symbiodinium-invertebrate relationships with applications for the differentiation
      of symbiotic and non-symbiotic associations. At the same time, insights from a
      single marker gene approach are limited and future studies should direct the
      identification of additional symbiosis-specific genes, ideally from both symbiont
      and host.

PMID- 28573037
TI  - Reviewers in 2016.

PMID- 28573036
TI  - Oilbirds produce echolocation signals beyond their best hearing range and adjust
      signal design to natural light conditions.
AB  - Oilbirds are active at night, foraging for fruits using keen olfaction and
      extremely light-sensitive eyes, and echolocate as they leave and return to their
      cavernous roosts. We recorded the echolocation behaviour of wild oilbirds using a
      multi-microphone array as they entered and exited their roosts under different
      natural light conditions. During echolocation, the birds produced click bursts
      (CBs) lasting less than 10 ms and consisting of a variable number (2-8) of clicks
      at 2-3 ms intervals. The CBs have a bandwidth of 7-23 kHz at -6 dB from signal
      peak frequency. We report on two unique characteristics of this avian
      echolocation system. First, oilbirds reduce both the energy and number of clicks
      in their CBs under conditions of clear, moonlit skies, compared with dark,
      moonless nights. Second, we document a frequency mismatch between the reported
      best frequency of oilbird hearing (approx. 2 kHz) and the bandwidth of their
      echolocation CBs. This unusual signal-to-sensory system mismatch probably
      reflects avian constraints on high-frequency hearing but may still allow oilbirds
      fine-scale, close-range detail resolution at the upper extreme (approx. 10 kHz)
      of their presumed hearing range. Alternatively, oilbirds, by an as-yet unknown
      mechanism, are able to hear frequencies higher than currently appreciated.

PMID- 28573038
TI  - Oldest skeleton of a plesiadapiform provides additional evidence for an
      exclusively arboreal radiation of stem primates in the Palaeocene.
AB  - Palaechthonid plesiadapiforms from the Palaeocene of western North America have
      long been recognized as among the oldest and most primitive euarchontan mammals,
      a group that includes extant primates, colugos and treeshrews. Despite their
      relatively sparse fossil record, palaechthonids have played an important role in
      discussions surrounding adaptive scenarios for primate origins for nearly a half
      century. Likewise, palaechthonids have been considered important for
      understanding relationships among plesiadapiforms, with members of the group
      proposed as plausible ancestors of Paromomyidae and Microsyopidae. Here, we
      describe a dentally associated partial skeleton of Torrejonia wilsoni from the
      early Palaeocene (approx. 62 Ma) of New Mexico, which is the oldest known
      plesiadapiform skeleton and the first postcranial elements recovered for a
      palaechthonid. Results from a cladistic analysis that includes new data from this
      skeleton suggest that palaechthonids are a paraphyletic group of stem primates,
      and that T. wilsoni is most closely related to paromomyids. New evidence from the
      appendicular skeleton of T. wilsoni fails to support an influential hypothesis
      based on inferences from craniodental morphology that palaechthonids were
      terrestrial. Instead, the postcranium of T. wilsoni indicates that it was similar
      to that of all other plesiadapiforms for which skeletons have been recovered in
      having distinct specializations consistent with arboreality.

PMID- 28573039
TI  - Correction to 'Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard
      their relative shares: evidence from USA and India'.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160605.].

PMID- 28573040
TI  - Correction to 'The geometry of structural equilibrium'.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160759.].

PMID- 28573042
TI  - Correction to 'The mountains of giants: an anthropometric survey of male youths
      in Bosnia and Herzegovina'.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.161054.].

PMID- 28573041
TI  - Isotocin neuronal phenotypes differ among social systems in cichlid fishes.
AB  - Social living has evolved numerous times across a diverse array of animal taxa.
      An open question is how the transition to a social lifestyle has shaped, and been
      shaped by, the underlying neurohormonal machinery of social behaviour. The
      nonapeptide neurohormones, implicated in the regulation of social behaviours, are
      prime candidates for the neuroendocrine substrates of social evolution. Here, we
      examined the brains of eight cichlid fish species with divergent social systems,
      comparing the number and size of preoptic neurons that express the nonapeptides
      isotocin and vasotocin. While controlling for the influence of phylogeny and body
      size, we found that the highly social cooperatively breeding species (n = 4) had
      fewer parvocellular isotocin neurons than the less social independently breeding
      species (n = 4), suggesting that the evolutionary transition to group living and
      cooperative breeding was associated with a reduction in the number of these
      neurons. In a complementary analysis, we found that the size and number of
      isotocin neurons significantly differentiated the cooperatively breeding from the
      independently breeding species. Our results suggest that isotocin is related to
      sociality in cichlids and may provide a mechanistic substrate for the evolution
      of sociality.

PMID- 28573045
TI  - Danish translation of a physical function item bank from the Patient-Reported
      Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS)
      is an assessment system that aims to provide more valid, reliable, responsive,
      and precise patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures than has been previously
      available. This paper documents the translation of the Physical Function item
      bank into Danish. METHODS: We followed the PROMIS standard procedure, including:
      1) two independent translations, 2) back translation, 3) independent reviews of
      translation quality, and 4) cognitive interviews with a representative sample of
      the adult population from the municipality of Copenhagen. After each phase, the
      new information was reviewed and the Danish version of the PROMIS Physical
      Function items was revised, if warranted. RESULTS: Relatively few problems were
      related to translation in itself and such problems could be fixed by changes in
      item wordings to fit the Danish context. Cognitive testing revealed problem of a
      general issue: annoyance in case of mismatch between respondents' functional
      level and question difficulty, problems imagining performance on activities that
      the respondents did not usually do, and uncertainty whether mobility aids (e.g.,
      canes and walkers) should be considered when performing an activity. Solutions to
      the more general issues would require revisions to the original items.
      CONCLUSIONS: The standard translation methodology was successful in eliminating
      problems in translation, and pointed to problems of a general issue in some of
      the original questions, producing translated Danish versions of the PROMIS
      Physical Functioning items. Translation and validation studies provide a valuable
      source when revising and improving PROs in a clinical setting or for research.
      The present paper exemplifies this with experiences from Denmark. The study
      describes how the use of PROs when measuring physical functioning in a Danish
      context can be improved-hence improving the items used for research, future
      trials and in clinical settings.

PMID- 28573043
TI  - A safety evaluation of profound hypothermia-induced suspended animation for
      delayed resuscitation at 90 or 120 min.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The successful treatment of military combat casualties with
      penetrating injuries is significantly dependent on the time needed to get the
      patient to an adequate treatment facility. Profound hypothermia-induced suspended
      animation for delayed resuscitation (SADR) is a novel approach for inducing
      cardiac arrest and buying additional time for such injuries. However, the time
      used to safely administer circulatory arrest (CA) is controversial. The goal of
      this study was to evaluate the safety of hypothermia-induced SADR over 90 and 120
      min time intervals. METHODS: Sixteen male BAMA minipigs were randomized into two
      groups: CA90 group (90 min, n = 8) and CA120 group (120 min, n = 8). Cannulation
      of the right common carotid arteries and internal jugular veins was performed to
      establish cardiopulmonary bypass for each animal. Through the perfusion of cold
      organ preservation solution (OPS), cardioplegia and profound hypothermia (15 
      degrees C) were induced. After CA, cardiopumonary bypass (CPB) was restarted, and
      the animals were gradually re-warmed and resuscitated. The animals were assisted
      with ventilators until spontaneous breathing was achieved. The index of
      hemodynamic perioperative serum chemistry values [alanine transaminase (ALT),
      aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatinine (CR), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and
      troponin T (TnT)] and survival were observed from pre-operation to 7 days post
      operation. RESULTS: Fifteen animals were enrolled in the experiment, while 1
      animal in CA120 group died from surgical error. All 8 animals in CA90 group
      recovered, with only 1 animal displaying mild disability. However, in CA120
      group, only 2 animals survived with severe disability, and the other 5 animals
      died after 2 days post-operation. In CA90 group, the perioperative serum
      chemistry values increased at 1 day post-operation (ALT 84.43 +/- 18.65 U/L; AST
      88.99 +/- 23.19 U/L; Cr 87.90 +/- 24.49 MUmol/L; LDH 1894.13 +/- 322.26 U/L; TnT
      0.849 +/- 0.135 ng/ml) but decreased to normal or almost normal levels at 7 days
      post-operation (ALT 52.48 +/- 9.04 U/L; AST 75.23 +/- 21.46 U/L; Cr 82.69 +/-
      18.41 MUmol/L; LDH 944.67 +/- 834.32 U/L; TnT 0.336 +/- 0.076 ng/ml).
      CONCLUSIONS: Profound hypothermia-induced SADR is an effective method for
      inducing cardiac arrest. Our results indicate that inducing CA for 90 min (at 15 
      degrees C) is safer than doing so for 120 min. Our results indicate that 120 min
      of CA at 15  degrees C is dangerous and can result in high mortality and severe
      neurological complications. Further experimentation is needed to determine
      whether 120 min of CA at temperatures lower than 15  degrees C can lead to safe
      recovery.

PMID- 28573046
TI  - A Comparative Study: The Use of Collagen Implant versus Mitomycin-C in Combined
      Trabeculotomy and Trabeculectomy for Treatment of Primary Congenital Glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare Ologen implant versus mitomycin-C (MMC) in combined
      trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy as a treatment of primary congenital glaucoma.
      SETTING: Sohag University Hospital, Egypt. DESIGN: A prospective comparative
      study. METHODS: Thirty-four eyes of twenty-one patients with primary congenital
      glaucoma were included in this study. All patients were subjected to preoperative
      evaluation including complete anterior segment examination under general
      anesthesia. The patients were divided into two groups: patients of the first
      group (group A) underwent combined trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy with Ologen
      implantation while those of the second group (group B) underwent combined
      trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy with MMC application. RESULTS: Postoperatively,
      the IOP in group A was as follows: 8 eyes developed IOP levels less than 14 mmHg
      (complete success), 3 eyes had levels between 14 and 16 mmHg (accepted result), 2
      eyes had levels between 16 and 20 mmHg (guarded result), and only 2 eyes showed
      levels exceeding 20 mmHg (failed procedure), while in group B, 7 eyes showed
      complete success, 3 eyes had accepted result, 3 eyes had guarded result, and 2
      eyes had failed procedure. CONCLUSION: Ologen is a safe and effective adjuvant in
      combined trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy for treatment of primary congenital
      glaucoma.

PMID- 28573044
TI  - The impacts of different embolization techniques on splenic artery embolization
      for blunt splenic injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Splenic artery embolization (SAE) has been an effective adjunct to
      the Non-operative management (NOM) for blunt splenic injury (BSI). However, the
      optimal embolization techniques are still inconclusive. To further understand the
      roles of different embolization locations and embolic materials in SAE, we
      conducted this system review and meta-analyses. METHODS: Clinical studies related
      to SAE for adult patients were researched in electronic databases, included
      PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar Search (between October 1991 and
      March 2013), and relevant information was extracted. To eliminate the
      heterogeneity, a sensitivity analysis was conducted on two reduced study sets.
      Then, the pooled outcomes were compared and the quality assessments were
      performed using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The SAE success rate, incidences of
      life-threatening complications of different embolization techniques were compared
      by chi2 test in 1st study set. Associations between different embolization
      techniques and clinical outcomes were evaluated by fixed-effects model in 2nd
      study set. RESULTS: Twenty-three studies were included in 1st study set. And
      then, 13 of them were excluded, because lack of the necessary details of SAE. The
      remaining 10 studies comprised 2nd study set, and quality assessments were
      performed using NOS. In 1st set, the primary success rate is 90.1% and the
      incidence of life-threatening complications is 20.4%, though the cases which
      required surgical intervention are very few (6.4%). For different embolization
      locations, there was no obvious association between primary success rate and
      embolization location in both 1st and 2nd study sets (P > 0.05). But in 2nd study
      set, it indicated that proximal embolization reduced severe complications and
      complications needed surgical management. As for the embolic materials, the
      success rate between coil and gelfoam is not significant. However, coil is
      associated with a lower risk of life-threatening complications, as well as less
      complications requiring surgical management. CONCLUSIONS: Different embolization
      techniques affect the clinical outcomes of SAE. The proximal embolization is the
      best option due to the less life-threatening complications. For commonly embolic
      material, coil is superior to gelfoam for fewer severe complications and less
      further surgery management.

PMID- 28573047
TI  - Simultaneous Fluorescein Angiography and Spectral Domain Optical Coherence
      Tomography Correlate Retinal Thickness Changes to Vascular Abnormalities in an In
      Vivo Mouse Model of Retinopathy of Prematurity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a condition of abnormal retinal
      vascular development (RVD) in premature infants. Fluorescein angiography (FA) has
      depicted phases (early, mid, late, and mature) of RVD in oxygen-induced
      retinopathy (OIR) mice. We sought to establish the relationship between retinal
      structural and vascular changes using simultaneous FA and spectral domain optical
      coherence tomography (SD-OCT). METHOD: 63 mice were exposed to 77% oxygen at
      postnatal day 7 (P7) for 5 days, while 63 mice remained in room air (RA). Total
      retinal thickness (TRT), inner retinal thickness (IRT), and outer retinal
      thickness (ORT) were calculated at early (P19), mid (P24), late (P32), and mature
      (P47) phases of RVD. RESULTS: TRT was reduced in OIR (162.66 +/- 17.75 MUm, n =
      13) compared to RA mice at P19 (197.57 +/- 3.49 MUm, n = 14), P24, P32, and P49
      (P < 0.0001). ORT was similar in RA and OIR mice at all ages (P > 0.05). IRT was
      reduced in OIR (71.60 +/- 17.14 MUm) compared to RA (103.07 +/- 3.47 MUm) mice at
      P19 and all ages (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: We have shown the spatial and temporal
      relationship between retinal structure and vascular development in OIR.
      Significant inner retinal thinning in OIR mice persisted despite
      revascularization of the capillary network; further studies will elucidate its
      functional implications in ROP.

PMID- 28573048
TI  - Brain Oscillations Elicited by the Cold Pressor Test: A Putative Index of
      Untreated Essential Hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Essential hypertension is associated with reduced pain sensitivity of
      unclear aetiology. This study explores this issue using the Cold Pressor Test
      (CPT), a reliable pain/stress model, comparing CPT-related EEG activity in first
      episode hypertensives and controls. METHOD: 22 untreated hypertensives and 18
      matched normotensives underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
      (ABPM). EEG recordings were taken before, during, and after CPT exposure.
      RESULTS: Significant group differences in CPT-induced EEG oscillations were
      covaried with the most robust cardiovascular differentiators by means of a
      Canonical Analysis. Positive correlations were noted between ABPM variables and
      Delta (1-4 Hz) oscillations during the tolerance phase; in high-alpha (10-12 Hz)
      oscillations during the stress unit and posttest phase; and in low-alpha (8-10
      Hz) oscillations during CPT phases overall. Negative correlations were found
      between ABPM variables and Beta2 oscillations (16.5-20 Hz) during the posttest
      phase and Gamma (28.5-45 Hz) oscillations during the CPT phases overall. These
      relationships were localised at several sites across the cerebral hemispheres
      with predominance in the right hemisphere and left frontal lobe. CONCLUSIONS:
      These findings provide a starting point for increasing our understanding of the
      complex relationships between cerebral activation and cardiovascular functioning
      involved in regulating blood pressure changes.

PMID- 28573051
TI  - Sensory Eye Dominance in Treated Anisometropic Amblyopia.
AB  - Amblyopia results from inadequate visual experience during the critical period of
      visual development. Abnormal binocular interactions are believed to play a
      critical role in amblyopia. These binocular deficits can often be resolved, owing
      to the residual visual plasticity in amblyopes. In this study, we quantitatively
      measured the sensory eye dominance in treated anisometropic amblyopes to
      determine whether they had fully recovered. Fourteen treated anisometropic
      amblyopes with normal or corrected to normal visual acuity participated, and
      their sensory eye dominance was assessed by using a binocular phase combination
      paradigm. We found that the two eyes were unequal in binocular combination in
      most (11 out of 14) of our treated anisometropic amblyopes, but none of the
      controls. We concluded that the treated anisometropic amblyopes, even those with
      a normal range of visual acuity, exhibited abnormal binocular processing. Our
      results thus suggest that there is potential for improvement in treated
      anisometropic amblyopes that may further enhance their binocular visual
      functioning.

PMID- 28573052
TI  - Decoronation: An Alternative Treatment for Replacement Root Resorption.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ankylosis and disrupted or altered root development are frequent
      complications associated with intrusive luxation and tooth avulsion lesions.
      Various forms of treatment have been described according to the severity of the
      trauma and root development. The literature shows that decoronation is an ideal
      treatment in cases where replacement resorption occurs. METHODS: Two clinical
      cases are presented: involving intrusive luxation [15-year-old female patient
      with an affected maxillary left lateral incisor (2.2)] and a replanted avulsed
      tooth [8-year-old male patient with avulsion of the right maxillary central
      incisor (1.1)]; both cases presented advanced root resorption so that
      decoronation with a prosthetic tooth replacement was decided as the final
      treatment option. RESULTS: In the short-term follow-up, patients were
      asymptomatic and had no functional problems. Radiographs showed that crestal bone
      height had been preserved. CONCLUSIONS: Preserving the decoronated root in the
      alveolar process not only helps to maintain bone volume but also enables vertical
      bone growth and facilitates the future insertion of an implant.

PMID- 28573050
TI  - Right Hemisphere Grey Matter Volume and Language Functions in Stroke Aphasia.
AB  - The role of the right hemisphere (RH) in recovery from aphasia is incompletely
      understood. The present study quantified RH grey matter (GM) volume in
      individuals with chronic stroke-induced aphasia and cognitively healthy people
      using voxel-based morphometry. We compared group differences in GM volume in the
      entire RH and in RH regions-of-interest. Given that lesion site is a critical
      source of heterogeneity associated with poststroke language ability, we used
      voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) to examine the relation between lesion
      site and language performance in the aphasic participants. Finally, using results
      derived from the VLSM as a covariate, we evaluated the relation between GM volume
      in the RH and language ability across domains, including comprehension and
      production processes both at the word and sentence levels and across spoken and
      written modalities. Between-subject comparisons showed that GM volume in the RH
      SMA was reduced in the aphasic group compared to the healthy controls. We also
      found that, for the aphasic group, increased RH volume in the MTG and the SMA was
      associated with better language comprehension and production scores,
      respectively. These data suggest that the RH may support functions previously
      performed by LH regions and have important implications for understanding
      poststroke reorganization.

PMID- 28573053
TI  - Humoral Hypercalcemia of Malignancy with a Parathyroid Hormone-Related Peptide
      Secreting Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Accompanied by a Gastric Cancer.
AB  - Humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM) is caused by the oversecretion of
      parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) from malignant tumors. Although any
      tumor may cause HHM, that induced by intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) or
      gastric cancer (GC) is rare. We report here a 74-year-old male who displayed HHM
      with both ICC and GC and showed an elevated serum PTHrP level. Treatment of the
      hypercalcemia with saline, furosemide, elcatonin, and zoledronic acid corrected
      his serum calcium level and improved symptoms. Because treatment of ICC should
      precede that of GC, we chose chemotherapy with cisplatin (CDDP) and gemcitabine
      (GEM). Chemotherapy reduced the size of the ICC and decreased the serum PTHrP
      level. One year after diagnosis, the patient was alive in the face of a poor
      prognosis for an ICC that produced PTHrP. Immunohistochemical staining for PTHrP
      was positive for the ICC and negative for the GC, leading us to believe that the
      cause of the HHM was a PTHrP-secreting ICC. In conclusion, immunohistochemical
      staining for PTHrP may be useful in discovering the cause of HHM in the case of
      two cancers accompanied by an elevated serum PHTrP level. Chemotherapy with CDDP
      and GEM may be the most appropriate treatment for a PTHrP-secreting ICC.

PMID- 28573049
TI  - Biphalin, a Dimeric Enkephalin, Alleviates LPS-Induced Activation in Rat Primary
      Microglial Cultures in Opioid Receptor-Dependent and Receptor-Independent
      Manners.
AB  - Neuropathic pain is relatively less responsive to opioids than other types of
      pain, which is possibly due to a disrupted opioid system partially caused by the
      profound microglial cell activation that underlines neuroinflammation. We
      demonstrated that intrathecally injected biphalin, a dimeric enkephalin analog,
      diminished symptoms of neuropathy in a preclinical model of neuropathic pain in
      rats (CCI, chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve) at day 12
      postinjury. Using primary microglial cell cultures, we revealed that biphalin did
      not influence cell viability but diminished NO production and expression of Iba1
      in LPS-stimulated cells. Biphalin also diminished MOP receptor level, as well as
      pronociceptive mediators (iNOS, IL-1beta, and IL-18) in an opioid receptor
      dependent manner, and it was correlated with diminished p-NF-kappaB, p-IkappaB, p
      p38MAPK, and TRIF levels. Biphalin reduced IL-6, IL-10, TNFalpha, p-STAT3, and p
      ERK1/2 and upregulated SOCS3, TLR4, and MyD88; however, this effect was not
      reversed by naloxone pretreatment. Our study provides evidence that biphalin
      diminishes neuropathy symptoms, which might be partially related to reduced
      pronociceptive mediators released by activated microglia. Biphalin may be a
      putative drug for future pain therapy, especially for the treatment of
      neuropathic pain, when the lower analgesic effects of morphine are correlated
      with profound microglial cell activation.

PMID- 28573054
TI  - Locally Advanced Thyroglossal Duct Cyst Carcinoma Presenting as a Neck Mass.
AB  - Thyroglossal duct cyst carcinoma is rare and occurs in just 1% of cases with
      thyroglossal duct cysts. It is not always possible to distinguish a thyroglossal
      cyst harboring malignancy from its benign counterparts unless biopsied, thus
      posing the dilemma. Currently there is no clear consensus on the optimal
      management of thyroglossal duct cyst carcinoma. Here we present the case of a 69
      year-old female who presented with a midline neck mass and dysphagia and was
      found to have papillary thyroid cancer in the biopsy specimen of the neck mass.
      She underwent excision of the mass and the thyroglossal duct cyst along with
      total thyroidectomy; however, the thyroidectomy specimen showed no malignancy.
      Her lymph node mapping was negative and she is awaiting radioactive iodine
      treatment.

PMID- 28573056
TI  - Antiglomerular Basement Membrane Disease in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report
      and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Goodpasture's syndrome (GPS) remains a very rare disease entity in the pediatric
      population characterized by the presence of pulmonary hemorrhage and rapidly
      evolving glomerulonephritis. We hereby describe the case of a 2-year-old girl who
      presented with renal failure and was diagnosed with GPS. A brief review of the
      literature in regard to data on demographics, pathogenesis, clinical features,
      diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for renal recovery is also provided.

PMID- 28573057
TI  - Cisplatin-Induced Renal Salt Wasting Requiring over 12 Liters of 3% Saline
      Replacement.
AB  - Cisplatin is known to induce Fanconi syndrome and renal salt wasting (RSW). RSW
      typically only requires transient normal saline (NS) support. We report a severe
      RSW case that required 12 liters of 3% saline. A 57-year-old woman with limited
      stage small cell cancer was admitted for cisplatin (80 mg/m2) and etoposide (100
      mg/m2) therapy. Patient's serum sodium (SNa) decreased from 138 to 133 and 125
      mEq/L within 24 and 48 hours of cisplatin therapy, respectively. A diagnosis of
      syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) was initially
      made. Despite free water restriction, patient's SNa continued to decrease in
      association with acute onset of headaches, nausea, and dizziness. Three percent
      saline (3%S) infusion with rates up to 1400 mL/day was required to correct and
      maintain SNa at 135 mEq/L. Studies to evaluate Fanconi syndrome revealed
      hypophosphatemia and glucosuria in the absence of serum hyperglycemia. The
      natriuresis slowed down by 2.5 weeks, but 3%S support was continued for a total
      volume of 12 liters over 3.5 weeks. Attempts of questionable benefits to slow
      down glomerular filtration included the administration of ibuprofen and
      benazepril. To our knowledge, this is the most severe case of RSW ever reported
      with cisplatin.

PMID- 28573055
TI  - Gastric Schwannoma: A Tumor Must Be Included in Differential Diagnoses of Gastric
      Submucosal Tumors.
AB  - Gastric schwannoma (GS) is a rare neoplasm of the stomach. It accounts for 0.2%
      of all gastric tumors and is mostly benign, slow-growing, and asymptomatic. Due
      to its rarity, GS is not widely recognized by clinicians, and the precise
      differential diagnosis between GS and other gastric submucosal tumors remains
      difficult preoperatively. The present study reports a case of GS misdiagnosed as
      gastrointestinal stromal tumor and reviews the clinical, imaging, and
      pathological features, treatment, and follow-up of 221 patients with GS
      previously reported in the English literature. Although GS is rare, the case
      reported in the current study highlights the importance of including GS in
      differential diagnoses of gastric submucosal tumors. Furthermore, the findings of
      the review suggest that although many cases are asymptomatic, the most common
      symptoms are abdominal pain or discomfort, not gastrointestinal bleeding, and
      malignant GSs present with clinical symptoms more commonly. Although large-sample
      multicenter studies on the efficacy, safety, and oncological outcomes of
      minimally invasive techniques are required, the findings presented herein may be
      helpful for clinicians when diagnosing or treating GS.

PMID- 28573058
TI  - Uncommon Etiology for Seizure: Cerebral Hyperperfusion Syndrome.
AB  - Cerebral hyperperfusion syndrome (CHS) is a rare life-threatening complication of
      carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS) for carotid artery
      stenosis. The incidence varies between 0 and 3%, depending on the severity of the
      stenosis, perioperative hypertension, and contralateral carotid stenosis. This
      case report reports a 53-year-old female patient presenting with decreased
      alertness and multiple tonic-clonic seizures, in the background of bilateral CEA.
      She was found to have bilateral carotid stenosis. Her left CEA was performed
      three months prior and right CEA was four days prior to her current presentation
      with seizures. After bilateral CEA, the imaging showed extensive pathologic
      process involving primarily the subcortical white matter and overlying cortex,
      more on the right cerebral hemisphere. On follow-up six weeks later, she reported
      no recurrent seizures and imaging showed decrease in abnormal signal intensity of
      the grey and white matter. This was indicative of near complete resolution of
      hyperperfusion damage. CHS is a rare complication due to the loss of
      autoregulation of the cerebrovascular system and increased blood flow status
      after bilateral CEA. This case is reported because of a rare and unique
      presentation of seizures in the background of bilateral CEA.

PMID- 28573059
TI  - Denosumab Therapy for Giant Cell Tumor of Bone Pulmonary Metastasis.
AB  - CASE: A 68-year-old female was diagnosed with giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB)
      metastatic to her lungs. The patient was treated with IV denosumab for the course
      of 4.5 years for these metastases. The metastatic tumor burden decreased
      significantly after only 3 months of therapy. The size of the metastases has been
      stable for over 4 years. CONCLUSION: Denosumab therapy has promise in the
      treatment of GCTB, including pulmonary metastasis. However, the long-term role of
      denosumab for pulmonary metastases is yet to be determined.

PMID- 28573060
TI  - Temporary Frontal Paralysis Secondary to Blunt Trauma Frontal Sinus Fracture.
AB  - Frontal sinus fractures (FSF) are relatively uncommon and can be challenging for
      trauma surgeons to manage. Patients with FSF typically present with facial
      swelling, pain, and nasofrontal ecchymosis. Here we present a rare case of a
      patient with FSF and anterior table fracture where the main presenting symptom
      was bilateral frontal paralysis. We outline our management strategy and review
      the current literature in regard to management of FSF.

PMID- 28573061
TI  - Pseudologia Fantastica in the Emergency Department: A Case Report and Review of
      the Literature.
AB  - Psychiatrists commonly encounter deception in the emergency department. This
      article presents the case of a patient who presents to the emergency department
      with an unusual and elaborate web of deceptions along multiple themes including
      feigning medical illness, multiple losses, and grandiose academic and athletic
      achievements. We review the clinical characteristics of pseudologia fantastica
      and discuss how this patient's constellation of malingering, factitious disorder,
      and personality disorder suggests this diagnosis.

PMID- 28573062
TI  - Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease
      Measured with Arterial Spin Labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) depicts dynamic changes in regional brain function from
      early stages of the disease. Arterial spin labeling- (ASL-) based MRI methods
      have been applied for detecting regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) perfusion
      changes in patients with AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Nevertheless,
      the results obtained from ASL studies in AD and MCI are still controversial,
      since rCBF maps may show both hypoperfusion or hyperperfusion areas in brain
      structures involved in different cognitive functions. The goal of this review is
      to provide the current state of the art regarding the role of ASL for detecting
      distinctive perfusion patterns in subjects with MCI and/or AD. The ability to
      obtain this information using a noninvasive and widely available modality such as
      ASL should greatly enhance the knowledge into the broad range of hemodynamically
      related changes taking place during the cognitive decline process in AD.

PMID- 28573068
TI  - Rectification of oxygen transfer through the rat colonic epithelium.
AB  - AIM: To assess whether higher sensitivity of colonic epithelium to hypoxia at the
      serosal side is associated with oxygen transfer asymmetry. METHODS: Rats were fed
      either with normal chow or a low-sodium diet. Tissues were mounted as flat sheets
      in a modified, airtight Ussing chamber with oxygen meters in each hemichamber.
      Mucosal samples from normal diet animals were studied under control conditions,
      in low-chloride solution and after adding chloride secretion inhibitors and
      chloride secretagogues. Samples from sodium-deprived rats were studied before and
      after ouabain addition. In separate experiments, the correlation between short
      circuit current and oxygen consumption was analyzed. Finally, hypoxia was induced
      in one hemichamber to assess the relationship between its oxygen content and the
      oxygen pressure difference between both hemichambers. RESULTS: In all studied
      conditions, oxygen consumption was larger in the serosal hemichamber than in the
      mucosal one (P = 0.0025 to P < 0.0001). Short-circuit current showed significant
      correlation with both total oxygen consumption (r = 0.765; P = 0.009) in normoxia
      and oxygen consumption in the serosal hemichamber (r = 0.754; P = 0.011) during
      mucosal hypoxia, but not with oxygen consumption in the mucosal hemichamber. When
      hypoxia was induced in the mucosal hemichamber, an oxygen pressure difference of
      13 kPa with the serosal hemichamber was enough to keep its oxygen content
      constant. However, when hypoxia was induced in the serosal hemichamber, the
      oxygen pressure difference with the mucosal hemichamber necessary to keep its
      oxygen content constant was 40 kPa (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Serosal oxygen
      supply is more readily available to support short-circuit current. This may be
      partly due to a rectifying behavior of transepithelial oxygen transfer.

PMID- 28573067
TI  - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular risk.
AB  - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease associated
      with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. The spectrum of disease ranges
      from simple steatosis to steatohepatitis and progression to cirrhosis. Compelling
      evidence over the past several years has substantiated a significant link between
      NAFLD and cardiovascular disease ranging from coronary artery disease to
      subclinical carotid atherosclerosis. Close follow up, treatment of risk factors
      for NAFLD, and cardiovascular risk stratification are necessary to predict
      morbidity and mortality in this subset of patients.

PMID- 28573066
TI  - Embrionary way to create a fatty liver in portal hypertension.
AB  - Portal hypertension in the rat by triple partial portal vein ligation produces an
      array of splanchnic and systemic disorders, including hepatic steatosis. In the
      current review these alterations are considered components of a systemic
      inflammatory response that would develop through three overlapping phenotypes:
      The neurogenic, the immune and the endocrine. These three inflammatory phenotypes
      could resemble the functions expressed during embryonic development of mammals.
      In turn, the inflammatory phenotypes would be represented in the embryo by two
      functional axes, that is, a coelomic-amniotic axis and a trophoblastic yolk-sac
      or vitelline axis. In this sense, the inflammatory response developed after
      triple partial portal vein ligation in the rat would integrate both functional
      embryonic axes on the liver interstitial space of Disse. If so, this fact would
      favor the successive development of steatosis, steatohepatitis and fibrosis.
      Firstly, these recapitulated embryonic functions would produce the evolution of
      liver steatosis. In this way, this fat liver could represent a yolk-sac-like in
      portal hypertensive rats. After that, the systemic recapitulation of these
      embryonic functions in experimental prehepatic portal hypertension would
      consequently induce a gastrulation-like response in which a hepatic wound healing
      reaction or fibrosis occur. In conclusion, studying the mechanisms involved in
      embryonic development could provide key results for a better understanding of the
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease etiopathogeny.

PMID- 28573069
TI  - Combination curcumin and vitamin E treatment attenuates diet-induced steatosis in
      Hfe-/- mice.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the synergistic hepato-protective properties of curcumin and
      vitamin E in an Hfe-/- high calorie diet model of steatohepatitis. METHODS: Hfe-/
      C57BL/6J mice were fed either a high calorie diet or a high calorie diet with 1
      mg/g curcumin; 1.5 mg/g vitamin E; or combination of 1 mg/g curcumin + 1.5 mg/g
      vitamin E for 20 wk. Serum and liver tissue were collected at the completion of
      the experiment. Liver histology was graded by a pathologist for steatosis,
      inflammation and fibrosis. RNA and protein was extracted from liver tissue to
      examine gene and protein expression associated with fatty acid oxidation,
      mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative stress pathways. RESULTS: Hfe-/- mice fed
      the high calorie diet developed steatohepatitis and pericentral fibrosis.
      Combination treatment with curcumin and vitamin E resulted in a greater reduction
      of percent steatosis than either vitamin E or curcumin therapy alone. Serum
      alanine aminotransferase and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) activity
      score were decreased following combination therapy with curcumin and vitamin E
      compared with high calorie diet alone. No changes were observed in inflammatory
      or fibrosis markers following treatment. Epididymal fat pad weights were
      significantly reduced following combination therapy, however total body weight
      and liver weight were unchanged. Combination therapy increased the mRNA
      expression of AdipoR2, Ppar-alpha, Cpt1a, Nrf-1 and Tfb2m suggesting enhanced
      fatty acid oxidation and mitochondrial biogenesis. In addition, combination
      treatment resulted in increased catalase activity in Hfe-/- mice. CONCLUSION:
      Combination curcumin and vitamin E treatment decreases liver injury in this
      steatohepatitis model, indicating that combination therapy may be of value in
      NAFLD.

PMID- 28573063
TI  - Alleviating Promotion of Inflammation and Cancer Induced by Nonsteroidal Anti
      Inflammatory Drugs.
AB  - CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) including
      aspirin are of intensive use nowadays. These drugs exert their activity via the
      metabolism of arachidonic acid (AA) by cyclooxygenase inhibition. Though
      beneficial for health in some instances, both unspecific and specific
      cyclooxygenase inhibitor activity interfere with AA metabolism producing also
      proinflammatory lipids that may promote cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      review is based on available literature on clinical uses, biochemical
      investigations, molecular medicine, pharmacology, toxicity, and epidemiology
      clinical studies on NSAIDs and other drugs that may be used accordingly, which
      was collected from electronic (SciFinder, Medline, Science Direct, and ACS among
      others) and library searches of books and journals. RESULTS: Relevant literature
      supports the notion that NDSAID use may also promote proinflammatory biochemical
      events that are also related to precancerous predisposition. Several agents are
      proposed that may be employed in immediate future to supplement and optimize
      treatment with NSAIDs. In this way serious side effects arising from promotion of
      inflammation and cancer, especially in chronic NSAID users and high risk groups
      of patients, could be avoided.

PMID- 28573064
TI  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Diagnostic biomarkers.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a common medical condition worldwide and its
      prevalence has increased notably in the past few years due to the increases in
      prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome. However, diagnosis of this disease
      is still a matter of debate because of disease variations and pathophysiologic
      alterations. Specific single markers have gained considerable attention recently,
      among them markers related to hepatic pathophysiology, inflammation,
      adipocytokines and so forth. But, it seems that no single marker is sufficient
      for diagnosis and staging of the disease, and applying a panel including
      different types of tests may be more useful.

PMID- 28573070
TI  - Endoscopic therapy for biliary strictures complicating living donor liver
      transplantation: Factors predicting better outcome.
AB  - AIM: To identify factors predicting outcome of endoscopic therapy in bile duct
      strictures (BDS) post living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). METHODS:
      Patients referred with BDS post LDLT, were retrospectively studied. Patient
      demographics, symptoms (Pruritus, Jaundice, cholangitis), intra-op variables
      (cold ischemia time, blood transfusions, number of ducts used, etc.), peri-op
      complications [hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT), bile leak, infections], stricture
      morphology (length, donor and recipient duct diameters) and relevant laboratory
      data both pre- and post-endotherapy were studied. Favourable response to
      endotherapy was defined as symptomatic relief with > 80% reduction in total
      bilirubin/serum gamma glutamyl transferase. Statistical analysis was performed
      using SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: Forty-one patients were included (age: 8-63 years). All
      had right lobe LDLT with duct-to-duct anastomosis. Twenty patients (48.7%) had
      favourable response to endotherapy. Patients with single duct anastomosis,
      aggressive stent therapy (multiple endoscopic retrograde cholagiography, upsizing
      of stents, dilatation and longer duration of stents) and an initial favourable
      response to endotherapy were independent predictors of good outcome (P < 0.05).
      Older donor age, HAT, multiple ductal anastomosis and persistent bile leak (> 4
      wk post LT) were found to be significant predictors of poor response on
      multivariate analysis (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Endoscopic therapy with aggressive
      stent therapy especially in patients with single duct-to-duct anastomosis was
      associated with a better outcome. Multiple ductal anastomosis, older donor age,
      shorter duration of stent therapy, early bile leak and HAT were predictors of
      poor outcome with endotherapy in these patients.

PMID- 28573065
TI  - Celiac disease: From pathophysiology to treatment.
AB  - Celiac disease, also known as "celiac sprue", is a chronic inflammatory disorder
      of the small intestine, produced by the ingestion of dietary gluten products in
      susceptible people. It is a multifactorial disease, including genetic and
      environmental factors. Environmental trigger is represented by gluten while the
      genetic predisposition has been identified in the major histocompatibility
      complex region. Celiac disease is not a rare disorder like previously thought,
      with a global prevalence around 1%. The reason of its under-recognition is mainly
      referable to the fact that about half of affected people do not have the classic
      gastrointestinal symptoms, but they present nonspecific manifestations of
      nutritional deficiency or have no symptoms at all. Here we review the most recent
      data concerning epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, available
      diagnostic tests and therapeutic management of celiac disease.

PMID- 28573071
TI  - Differential diagnosis in ulcerative colitis in an adolescent: Chronic
      granulomatous disease needs extra attention.
AB  - Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a primary immune deficiency that is
      commonly diagnosed under the age of 5 years (95%) and is rarely seen in
      adulthood. CGD may manifest as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood.
      Without proper diagnosis, these patients may be monitored for years as IBD; some
      may even be regarded as steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis (UC) and end up
      having a colectomy. In this case report, we described a patient who had been
      followed-up for years as UC and subsequently underwent colectomy, but was finally
      diagnosed in adulthood as primary immune deficiency.

PMID- 28573072
TI  - Duodenal localization of plasmablastic myeloma.
AB  - Gastrointestinal involvement in plasma cell neoplasms, either as primary
      localizations (extramedullary plasmacytomas) or as secondary involvement in
      systemic multiple myeloma, is a well-known event. Accurate histological
      examination is crucial in defining the diagnosis. In this report, an uncommon
      case of duodenal localization of myeloma with plasmablastic features is
      described, with emphasis on the role of clinical data and findings from ancillary
      immunostaining techniques to avoid misdiagnosis.

PMID- 28573073
TI  - Late onset pulmonary metastasis more than 10 years after primary sigmoid
      carcinoma.
AB  - According to current guidelines, follow-up of patients with colorectal cancer is
      ended after five years. Also, chest X-ray is not part of standard investigation
      during follow-up. We describe a case of a 74-year-old patient, more than ten
      years after a sigmoid resection because of carcinoma of the sigmoid. No
      recurrence was detected during intensive follow-up. However, ten years after
      resection of the sigmoid adenocarcinoma, complaints of coughing induced further
      examination with as result the detection of a solitary metastasis in the left
      lung of the patient. Within half-a-year after metastasectomy of the lung
      metastasis, she presented herself with thoracic pain and dyspnea resulting in
      discovering diffuse metastasis on pulmonary, pleural, costal and muscular level.
      Five year follow-up of colorectal carcinoma without chest X-ray can be questioned
      to be efficient. The growing knowledge of tumor biology might in future adjust
      the duration and frequency of diagnostic follow-up to prevent (late) recurrence
      in patients with colorectal carcinoma.

PMID- 28573074
TI  - Living with Ultra-Low Vision: An Inventory of Self-Reported Visually Guided
      Activities by Individuals with Profound Visual Impairment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To understand how individuals with profound visual impairment (ultra-low
      vision, ULV) use their remaining vision. METHODS: Forty-six participants with ULV
      (visual acuity <= 200/500 in the better seeing eye) were divided into nine focus
      groups (4-6 individuals per group) and met either in person (n = 2) or over the
      phone (n = 7). Discussions were guided by the Massof Activity Inventory. Audio
      recordings were transcribed and analyzed for visual activities that were then
      classified along two visual categorizations - functional domains and visual
      aspects. The latter was based on a Grounded Theory classification of
      participants' descriptions. RESULTS: Seven hundred sixty activities were
      reported. By functional domain they were classified as reading/shape recognition
      (10%), mobility (17%), visual motor (24%), and visual information gathering
      (49%). By visual aspects, they were classified as contrast (43%), luminance
      (17%), environmental lighting (9%), familiarity (3%), motion perception (5%),
      distance (7%), size (9%), eccentricity (5%), depth perception (1%), and
      other/miscellaneous (1%). More than one visual aspect may be critical for an
      activity: participants reported that contrast plays a role in 68% of visual
      activities, followed by luminance (27%), environmental lighting (14%), and size
      (14%). CONCLUSIONS: Visual aspects, primarily contrast, were found to be critical
      factors enabling ULV individuals to perform visual activities. TRANSLATIONAL
      RELEVANCE: This inventory, part of the Prosthetic Low Vision Rehabilitation
      (PLoVR) curriculum development study, provides a unique perspective into the
      visual world of the nearly blind, and can be used in the development of a Visual
      Functioning Questionnaire (VFQ) and visual performance measures suited for ULV
      populations.

PMID- 28573075
TI  - Development of the Ultra-Low Vision Visual Functioning Questionnaire (ULV-VFQ).
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop and psychometrically evaluate a visual functioning
      questionnaire (VFQ) in an ultra-low vision (ULV) population. METHODS:
      Questionnaire items, based on visual activities self-reported by a ULV
      population, were categorized by functional visual domain (e.g., mobility) and
      visual aspect (e.g., contrast) to ensure a representative distribution. In Round
      1, an initial set of 149 items was generated and administered to 90 participants
      with ULV (visual acuity [VA] <= 20/500; mean [SD] age 61 [15] years), including
      six patients with a retinal implant. Psychometric properties were evaluated
      through Rasch analysis and a revised set (150 items) was administered to 80
      participants in Round 2. RESULTS: In Round 1, the person measure distribution
      (range, 8.6 logits) was centered at -1.50 logits relative to the item measures.
      In Round 2, the person measure distribution (range, 9.5 logits) was centered at 
      0.86 relative to the item mean. The reliability index in both rounds was 0.97 for
      Items and 0.99 for Persons. Infit analysis showed four underfit items in Round 1,
      five underfit items in Round 2 with a z-score greater than 4 cutoff. Principal
      component analysis on the residuals found 69.9% explained variance; the largest
      component in the unexplained variance was less than 3%. CONCLUSIONS: The ULV-VFQ,
      developed with content generated from a ULV population, showed excellent
      psychometric properties as well as superior measurement validity in a ULV
      population. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The ULV-VFQ, part of the Prosthetic Low
      Vision Rehabilitation (PLoVR) development program, is a new VFQ developed for
      assessment of functional vision in ULV populations.

PMID- 28573076
TI  - Optimizing the ULV-VFQ for Clinical Use Through Item Set Reduction: Psychometric
      Properties and Trade-Offs.
AB  - PURPOSE: We examine the dimensionality of the 150-item visual functioning
      questionnaire for individuals with ultralow vision (ULV-VFQ) and develop
      representative abbreviated versions, facilitating clinical use, while retaining
      compatibility with a 17-item performance assessment. METHODS: Subsets with 50 and
      23 items covering the full difficulty range were selected, with evenly spaced
      item measures (IMs) and good representation of visual aspects and functional
      domains. Person measures (PMs) for the anchored subsets were derived through
      Rasch analysis of data from 80 respondents. RESULTS: Fit statistics for the
      reduced item sets were similar to those for the full set, with reliabilities at
      or above 95%. Mean PMs in the reduced sets were within 0.8 standard errors (SEs)
      of those in the full set. SEs of the PMs increased from the SE for 150 items,
      roughly in inverse proportion with the square root of the set size. Unexplained
      variance levels (24%-27%) and variance of the first unexplained factor (3.3%
      3.9%) were close to those (30% and 2.6%) for 150 items. Differential item
      functions for omitted items were negligible. Aspects and domains are adequately
      represented in the reduced sets. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported visual ability can be
      measured accurately using appropriately chosen anchored subsets of the ULV-VFQ.
      Functional ability of individuals with ULV is characterized adequately by a
      single dimension. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The ULV-VFQ50 and ULV-VFQ23, using
      anchored IMs from the 150-item ULV-VFQ, provide an efficient and reliable self
      report assessment of visual ability in individuals whose visual impairment is too
      severe for assessment with VFQs currently in use.

PMID- 28573079
TI  - A Special Issue for The 13th Annual Conference of the Taiwan Society for Mass
      Spectrometry.

PMID- 28573078
TI  - Petroleum Carcinogenicity and Aerodigestive Tract: In Context of Developing
      Nations.
AB  - Head and neck cancers from a diverse group of neoplasms, the occurrence of which
      can be attributed to habitual tobacco use, race, alcohol consumption, ultraviolet
      (UV) exposure, occupational exposure, viruses, and diet. The surging incidence
      rates reflect the prevalence of risk factors such as tobacco use (smoked and
      smokeless), betel nut chewing, urbanization and issues relating to urban air
      quality. Urbanization and development have catalyzed a multifold rise in levels
      of pollution in metropolitan cities. Ever-increasing consumption of fuels to meet
      demands of the growing population coupled with industrial activity has adversely
      affected the air quality, especially in developing countries. The cause most
      neglected in risk assessment of aerodigestive tract cancer research is that from
      petroleum exposure. The global issue of petroleum carcinogenicity has assumed
      high proportions. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals are essential
      constituents of total petroleum hydrocarbons which infiltrate into the
      environment and are recognized worldwide as priority pollutants because of their
      toxicity and carcinogenicity. High levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide,
      ozone, carbon monoxide, ammonia and particulate matter PM10  has skyrocketed
      aerodigestive tract diseases especially carcinomas. The identification of
      specific biomarkers and role of metal ions in aerodigestive tract cancers will
      indicate the molecular basis of disease to provide quality care for patients
      confronting new threats from climate-sensitive pathologies. There is an urgent
      need to evaluate existing public health infrastructure so as to take ameliorative
      and adaptive measures.

PMID- 28573077
TI  - CRISPR-Cas Genome Surgery in Ophthalmology.
AB  - Genetic disease affecting vision can significantly impact patient quality of
      life. Gene therapy seeks to slow the progression of these diseases by treating
      the underlying etiology at the level of the genome. Clustered regularly
      interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated systems
      (Cas) represent powerful tools for studying diseases through the creation of
      model organisms generated by targeted modification and by the correction of
      disease mutations for therapeutic purposes. CRISPR-Cas systems have been applied
      successfully to the visual sciences and study of ophthalmic disease - from the
      modification of zebrafish and mammalian models of eye development and disease, to
      the correction of pathogenic mutations in patient-derived stem cells. Recent
      advances in CRISPR-Cas delivery and optimization boast improved functionality
      that continues to enhance genome-engineering applications in the eye. This review
      provides a synopsis of the recent implementations of CRISPR-Cas tools in the
      field of ophthalmology.

PMID- 28573080
TI  - Rapid Identification of Psychoactive Drugs in Drained Gastric Lavage Fluid and
      Whole Blood Specimens of Drug Overdose Patients Using Ambient Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Psychoactive drug overdoses are life-threatening and require prompt and proper
      treatment in the emergency room to minimize morbidity and mortality. Prompt
      identification of the ingested psychoactive drugs is challenging, since witness
      recall is unreliable and patients' symptoms do not necessarily explain their loss
      of consciousness. Gas and liquid chromatography mass spectrometric analyses have
      been the traditionally employed methods to detect and identify abused substances;
      however, these techniques are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this study,
      thermal desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, an ambient mass
      spectrometric technique, was applied to rapidly characterize flunitrazepam,
      lysergic acid diethylamide, and 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine in drained
      gastric lavage fluid, and ketamine, cocaine, amphetamine and norketamine in whole
      blood samples. No pretreatment of the gastric lavage fluid specimens was required
      and the entire analytical process took less than 30 s per specimen. Liquid-liquid
      extraction, followed by centrifugation, was performed on the whole blood samples.
      The corresponding compounds were identified through matching the obtained mass
      spectrometric data with those provided by commercial databases. The limits-of
      detection of the tested drugs in both drained gastric lavage fluid and whole
      blood samples are at sub ppm levels. This is sensitive enough for emergency
      medical application, since the quantities of medications ingested by overdosed
      abusers are much higher than the amounts that were tested.

PMID- 28573081
TI  - Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Rat Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid after Exposure
      to Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles.
AB  - Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are one of the most widely used nanomaterials
      in consumer products and industrial applications. As a result of all these uses,
      this has raised concerns regarding their potential toxicity. We previously found
      that candidate markers of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer were
      significantly up-regulated in rat bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) following
      exposure to ZnO NPs by using a liquid chromatography (LC)-based proteomic
      approach. To achieve comprehensive protein identification analysis, we conducted
      the two-dimensional gel electrophosis (2-DE)-based proteomic workflow to analyze
      the differences in BALF proteins from rats that had been exposed to a high dose
      of 35 nm ZnO NPs. A total of 31 differentially expressed protein spots were
      excised from the gels and analyzed by nanoLC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS).
      Gene ontology (GO) annotation of these proteins showed that most of the
      differentially expressed proteins were involved in response to stimulus and
      inflammatory response processes. Moreover, pulmonary surfactant-associated
      protein D and gelsolin, biomarkers of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, were
      significantly up-regulated in rat BALF after ZnO NPs exposure (2.42- and 2.84
      fold, respectively). The results obtained from this present study could provide a
      complementary consequence with our previous study and contribute to a better
      understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in ZnO NP-induced lung
      disorders.

PMID- 28573082
TI  - Electrospray Modifications for Advancing Mass Spectrometric Analysis.
AB  - Generation of analyte ions in gas phase is a primary requirement for mass
      spectrometric analysis. One of the ionization techniques that can be used to
      generate gas phase ions is electrospray ionization (ESI). ESI is a soft
      ionization method that can be used to analyze analytes ranging from small
      organics to large biomolecules. Numerous ionization techniques derived from ESI
      have been reported in the past two decades. These ion sources are aimed to
      achieve simplicity and ease of operation. Many of these ionization methods allow
      the flexibility for elimination or minimization of sample preparation steps prior
      to mass spectrometric analysis. Such ion sources have opened up new possibilities
      for taking scientific challenges, which might be limited by the conventional ESI
      technique. Thus, the number of ESI variants continues to increase. This review
      provides an overview of ionization techniques based on the use of electrospray
      reported in recent years. Also, a brief discussion on the instrumentation,
      underlying processes, and selected applications is also presented.

PMID- 28573084
TI  - Desorption Flame-Induced Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Mass
      Spectrometry for Rapid Real-World Sample Analysis.
AB  - Flame-induced atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (FAPCI) is a solvent and
      high voltage-free APCI technique. It uses a flame to produce charged species that
      reacts with analytes for ionization, and generates intact molecular ions from
      organic compounds with minimal fragmentation. In this study, desorption FAPCI/MS
      was developed to rapidly characterize thermally stable organic compounds in
      liquid, cream, and solid states. Liquid samples were introduced into the ion
      source through a heated nebulizer, and the analytes formed in the heated
      nebulizer reacted with charged species in the source. For cream and solid sample
      analysis, the samples were positioned near the flame of the FAPCI source for
      thermal desorption and ionization. This approach provided a useful method to
      directly characterize samples with minimal pretreatment. Standards and real-world
      samples, such as drug tablets, ointment, and toy were analyzed to demonstrate the
      capability of desorption FAPCI/MS for rapid organic compound analysis.

PMID- 28573083
TI  - Exposure Marker Discovery of Phthalates Using Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Phthalates are chemicals widely used in industry and the consequences on human
      health caused by exposure to these agents are of significant interest currently.
      The urinary metabolites of phthalates can be measured and used as exposure
      markers for the assessment of the actual internal contamination of phthalates
      coming from different sources and absorbed by various ways. The purpose of this
      paper is to review the markers for exposure and risk assessment of phthalates
      such as di-methyl phthalate (DMP), di-ethyl phthalate (DEP), di-butyl phthalate
      (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BBP), di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), di-(2
      propylheptyl)phthalate (DPHP), di-iso-nonyl phthalate (DINP), di-n-octyl
      phthalate (DnOP) and di-iso-decyl phthalate (DIDP), and introduction of the
      analytical approach of three metabolomics data processing approaches that can be
      used for chemical exposure marker discovery in urine with high-resolution mass
      spectrometry (HRMS) data.

PMID- 28573085
TI  - Development and validation of the Pachinko/Pachi-Slot Playing Ambivalence Scale.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A scale aimed at measuring ambivalence among people with
      pachinko/pachi-slot playing disorder, the Pachinko/Pachi-Slot Playing Ambivalence
      Scale (PPAS), was developed and its reliability and validity ascertained.
      METHODS: A total of 522 participants (average year: 48.0) who were residing in
      Tokyo Metropolitan Area, and had played pachinko within the previous year
      completed questions relating to demographics, four gambling-related scales
      (including South Oaks Gambling Screen) and two general ambivalence scales
      (including Ambivalence over Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire). RESULTS:
      Internal consistency (alpha = 0.87) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.66) were
      confirmed. The PPAS's score was associated with each related scale's score (r =
      0.37-0.62). CONCLUSIONS: The PPAS was shown to be consistent with previous scales
      and useful in clinical settings.

PMID- 28573086
TI  - FOOD TEXTURE DESCRIPTORS BASED ON FRACTAL AND LOCAL GRADIENT INFORMATION.
AB  - This work is motivated by the desire to use image analysis methods to identify
      and characterize images of food items to aid in dietary assessment. This paper
      introduces three texture descriptors for texture classification that can be used
      to classify images of food. Two are based on the multifractal analysis, namely,
      entropy-based categorization and fractal dimension estimation (EFD), and a Gabor
      based image decomposition and fractal dimension estimation (GFD). Our third
      texture descriptor is based on the spatial relationship of gradient orientations
      (GOSDM), by obtaining the occurrence rate of pairs of gradient orientations at
      different neighborhood scales. The proposed methods are evaluated in texture
      classification and food categorization tasks using the entire Brodatz database
      and a customized food dataset with a wide variety of textures. Results show that
      for food categorization our methods consistently outperform several widely used
      techniques for both texture and object categorization.

PMID- 28573087
TI  - Structural and nucleic acid binding properties of hepatitis delta virus small
      antigen.
AB  - AIM: To further characterize the structure and nucleic acid binding properties of
      the 195 amino acid small delta antigen, S-HDAg, a study was made of a truncated
      form of S-HDAg, comprising amino acids 61-195 (?60HDAg), thus lacking the domain
      considered necessary for dimerization and higher order multimerization. METHODS:
      Circular dichroism, and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments were used to
      assess the structure of ?60HDAg. Nucleic acid binding properties were
      investigated by gel retardation assays. RESULTS: Results showed that the
      truncated ?60HDAg protein is intrinsically disordered but compact, whereas the
      RNA binding domain, comprising residues 94-146, adopts a dynamic helical
      conformation. We also found that ?60HDAg fails to multimerize but still contains
      nucleic acid binding activity, indicating that multimerization is not essential
      for nucleic acid binding. Moreover, in agreement with what has been previously
      reported for full-length protein, no apparent specificity was found for the
      truncated protein regarding nucleic acid binding. CONCLUSION: Taken together
      these results allowed concluding that ?60HDAg is intrinsically disordered but
      compact; ?60HDAg is not a multimer but is still capable of nucleic acid binding
      albeit without apparent specificity.

PMID- 28573088
TI  - Matrix metalloproteases and their tissue inhibitors in non-alcoholic liver
      fibrosis of human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the relationships among diverse metalloproteases (MMPs) and
      their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) and non-alcoholic liver fibrosis in human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. METHODS: Single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in MMPs, TNF-alpha and CCR5 genes, and serum levels of MMPs
      and TIMPs were determined in HIV-infected individuals with/out hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) coinfection. A total of 158 patients were included, 57 of whom were HCV
      coinfected. All patients drank < 50 g ethanol/day. Diverse SNPs (MMP-1 -1607
      1G/2G, MMP-8 -799C/T, MMP-9 -1562 C/T, MMP-13 -77A/G, TNF-alpha -308 G/A, CCR5
      ?32), and serum levels of MMPs (2, 3, 8, 9 and 10) and TIMPs (1, 2 and 4) were
      assessed. Liver fibrosis was determined by transient elastometry, although other
      non-invasive markers of fibrosis were also considered. Significant liver fibrosis
      (F >= 2) was defined by a transient elastometry value >= 7.1 kPa. RESULTS: A
      total of 34 patients (21.5%) had liver fibrosis >= F2. MMP-2 and TIMP-2 serum
      levels were higher in patients with liver fibrosis >= F2 (P = 0.02 and P = 0.03,
      respectively) and correlated positively with transient elastometry values (P =
      0.02 and P = 0.0009, respectively), whereas MMP-9 values were negatively
      correlated with transient elastometry measurements (P = 0.01). Multivariate
      analyses showed that high levels of MMP-2 (OR = 2.397; 95%CI: 1.191-4.827, P =
      0.014) were independently associated with liver fibrosis >= F2 in the patients as
      a whole. MMP-2 (OR = 7.179; 95%CI: 1.210-42.581, P = 0.03) and male gender (OR =
      10.040; 95%CI: 1.621-62.11, P = 0.013) were also independent predictors of
      fibrosis >= F2 in the HCV-infected subgroup. Likewise, MMP-2, TIMP-2 and MMP-9
      were independently associated with transient elastometry values and other non
      invasive markers of liver fibrosis. None of the six SNPs evaluated had any
      significant association with liver fibrosis >= F2. CONCLUSION: Certain MMPs and
      TIMPs, particularly MMP-2, seems to be associated with non-alcoholic liver
      fibrosis in HIV-infected patients with/without HCV coinfection.

PMID- 28573089
TI  - Pakistan needs to speed up its human immunodeficiency virus control strategy to
      achieve targets in fast-track acquired immune deficiency syndrome response.
AB  - In last fifteen years remarkable success in the fight against human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is achieved globally. The number of HIV infections
      has decreased and the number of people on antiretroviral therapy is increased.
      This all is possible by strong political commitments and heavy investments in the
      fight against HIV. Pakistan is among few Asian countries in which HIV cases are
      increasing year by year since 1990. There are 94000 cases of HIV in Pakistan and
      only 14000 are registered with government. The main source of HIV infection in
      Pakistan is the use of contaminated injection equipment among people who inject
      drugs (PWID). The overall prevalence of HIV among PWID in Pakistan is 27.2%.
      There are five cities in Pakistan in which HIV prevalence is above 40% in PWIDs.
      In June 2016, United Nations political declaration on acquired immune deficiency
      syndrome (AIDS) provided a global mandate to fast-track the AIDS response over
      the next five years to achieve the targets in Sustainable Development Goals. To
      achieve the targets in fast-track AIDS response, the global leaders showed strong
      commitments to invest $ 26 billion per year by 2020. Pakistan needs to speed up
      its HIV control program. There is a dire need to locate all HIV positive people
      and enroll them in the treatment program. Pakistan also needs to calculate exact
      number of people living with HIV, increase HIV treatment centers and increase HIV
      awareness. Recently, Global Fund invested handsome money in the fight against
      HIV. Let's hope the country will have effective HIV control strategy to achieve
      the HIV elimination target by 2030.

PMID- 28573090
TI  - Peer Review Processes and Desirable Attitudes for Peer Reviewers.

PMID- 28573091
TI  - Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Plastic Surgery: A Review.
AB  - Recently, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have received
      increasing attention, with the development of VR/AR devices such as head-mounted
      displays, haptic devices, and AR glasses. Medicine is considered to be one of the
      most effective applications of VR/AR. In this article, we describe a systematic
      literature review conducted to investigate the state-of-the-art VR/AR technology
      relevant to plastic surgery. The 35 studies that were ultimately selected were
      categorized into 3 representative topics: VR/AR-based preoperative planning,
      navigation, and training. In addition, future trends of VR/AR technology
      associated with plastic surgery and related fields are discussed.

PMID- 28573093
TI  - Hydrogel and Platelet-Rich Plasma Combined Treatment to Accelerate Wound Healing
      in a Nude Mouse Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) contains high concentrations of growth
      factors involved in wound healing. Hydrogel is a 3-dimensional, hydrophilic, high
      molecular, reticular substance generally used as a dressing formulation to
      accelerate wound healing, and also used as a bio-applicable scaffold or vehicle.
      This study aimed to investigate the effects of PRP and hydrogel on wound healing,
      in combination and separately, in an animal wound model. METHODS: A total of 64
      wounds, with 2 wounds on the back of each nude mouse, were classified into 4
      groups: a control group, a hydrogel-only group, a PRP-only group, and a combined
      treatment group. All mice were assessed for changes in wound size and
      photographed on scheduled dates. The number of blood vessels was measured in all
      specimens. Immunohistochemical staining was used for the analysis of vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. RESULTS: Differences in the decrease
      and change in wound size in the combined-treatment group were more significant
      than those in the single-treatment groups on days 3, 5, 7, and 10. Analysis of
      the number of blood vessels through histological examination showed a pattern of
      increase over time that occurred in all groups, but the combined-treatment group
      exhibited the greatest increase on days 7 and 14. Immunohistochemical staining
      showed that VEGF expression in the combined-treatment group exhibited its highest
      value on day 7. CONCLUSIONS: This experiment demonstrated improved wound healing
      using a PRP-hydrogel combined treatment compared to either treatment
      individually, resulting in a decrease in wound size and a shortening of the
      healing period.

PMID- 28573092
TI  - Current Methods for the Treatment of Alveolar Cleft.
AB  - Alveolar cleft is a tornado-shaped bone defect in the maxillary arch. The
      treatment goals for alveolar cleft are stabilization and provision of bone
      continuity to the maxillary arch, permitting support for tooth eruption,
      eliminating oronasal fistulas, providing an improved esthetic result, and
      improving speech. Treatment protocols vary in terms of the operative time,
      surgical techniques, and graft materials. Early approaches including boneless
      bone grafting (gingivoperiosteoplasty) and primary bone graft fell into disfavor
      because they impaired facial growth, and they remain controversial. Secondary
      bone graft (SBG) is not the most perfect method, but long-term follow-up has
      shown that the graft is absorbed to a lesser extent, does not impede facial
      growth, and supports other teeth. Accordingly, SBG in the mixed dentition phase
      (6-11 years) has become the preferred method of treatment. The most commonly used
      graft material is cancellous bone from the iliac crest. Recently, many
      researchers have investigated the use of allogeneic bone, artificial bone, and
      recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein, along with growth factors because
      of their ability to decrease donor-site morbidity. Further investigations of bone
      substitutes and additives will continue to be needed to increase their
      effectiveness and to reduce complications.

PMID- 28573094
TI  - Long-Term Follow-Up Study of Young Adults Treated for Unilateral Complete Cleft
      Lip, Alveolus, and Palate by a Treatment Protocol Including Two-Stage
      Palatoplasty: Speech Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No consensus exists on the optimal treatment protocol for orofacial
      clefts or the optimal timing of cleft palate closure. This study investigated
      factors influencing speech outcomes after two-stage palate repair in adults with
      a non-syndromal complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). METHODS: This
      was a retrospective analysis of adult patients with a UCLP who underwent two
      stage palate closure and were treated at our tertiary cleft centre. Patients >=17
      years of age were invited for a final speech assessment. Their medical history
      was obtained from their medical files, and speech outcomes were assessed by a
      speech pathologist during the follow-up consultation. RESULTS: Forty-eight
      patients were included in the analysis, with a mean age of 21 years (standard
      deviation, 3.4 years). Their mean age at the time of hard and soft palate closure
      was 3 years and 8.0 months, respectively. In 40% of the patients, a
      pharyngoplasty was performed. On a 5-point intelligibility scale, 84.4% received
      a score of 1 or 2; meaning that their speech was intelligible. We observed a
      significant correlation between intelligibility scores and the incidence of
      articulation errors (P<0.001). In total, 36% showed mild to moderate
      hypernasality during the speech assessment, and 11%-17% of the patients exhibited
      increased nasalance scores, assessed through nasometry. CONCLUSIONS: The present
      study describes long-term speech outcomes after two-stage palatoplasty with hard
      palate closure at a mean age of 3 years old. We observed moderate long-term
      intelligibility scores, a relatively high incidence of persistent hypernasality,
      and a high pharyngoplasty incidence.

PMID- 28573095
TI  - Correction of Minor-Form and Microform Cleft Lip Using Modified Muscle
      Overlapping with a Minimal Skin Incision.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In treating minor-form or microform cleft lip, obtaining an optimal
      result is a challenge because of the visible scarring caused by traditional
      surgery. We present a refined method using muscle overlapping with a minimal skin
      incision in patients younger than 3 years, a group characterized by thin muscle.
      METHODS: The surgical technique involves restoration of the notched vermillion
      using Z-plasty, formation of the philtral column using overlapping of an
      orbicularis oris muscle flap through an intraoral incision, and correction of the
      cleft lip nasal deformity using a reverse-U incision and V-Y plasty. A single
      radiologist evaluated ultrasonographic images of the upper lip. RESULTS: Sixty
      patients were treated between September 2008 and June 2014. The age at the time
      of operation ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean, 26 months). The follow-up period
      ranged from 8 to 38 months (mean, 20 months) in minor-form cases and from 14 to
      64 months (mean, 37 months) in microform cases. A notched cupid's bow was
      corrected in 10 minor-form cases and 50 microform cases. Ultrasonographic images
      were obtained from 3 patients with minor-form cleft lip and 9 patients with
      microform cleft lip 12 months after surgery. The average muscle thickness was 4.5
      mm on the affected side and 4.1 mm on the unaffected side. CONCLUSIONS: The
      advantages of the proposed procedure include the creation of an anatomically
      natural philtrum with minimal scarring. This method also preserves the continuity
      and function of the muscle and provides sufficient augmentation of the philtral
      column and nostril sill.

PMID- 28573097
TI  - Validation of a Cognitive Task Simulation and Rehearsal Tool for Open Carpal
      Tunnel Release.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carpal tunnel release is one of the most common surgical procedures
      performed by hand surgeons. The authors created a surgical simulation of open
      carpal tunnel release utilizing a mobile and rehearsal platform app. This study
      was performed in order to validate the simulator as an effective training
      platform for carpal tunnel release. METHODS: The simulator was evaluated using a
      number of metrics: construct validity (the ability to identify variability in
      skill levels), face validity (the perceived ability of the simulator to teach the
      intended material), content validity (that the simulator was an accurate
      representation of the intended operation), and acceptability validity
      (willingness of the desired user group to adopt this method of training). Novices
      and experts were recruited. Each group was tested, and all participants were
      assigned an objective score, which served as construct validation. A Likert-scale
      questionnaire was administered to gauge face, content, and acceptability
      validity. RESULTS: Twenty novices and 10 experts were recruited for this study.
      The objective performance scores from the expert group were significantly higher
      than those of the novice group, with surgeons scoring a median of 74% and medical
      students scoring a median of 45%. The questionnaire responses indicated face,
      content, and acceptability validation. CONCLUSIONS: This mobile-based surgical
      simulation platform provides step-by-step instruction for a variety of surgical
      procedures. The findings of this study help to demonstrate its utility as a
      learning tool, as we confirmed construct, face, content, and acceptability
      validity for carpal tunnel release. This easy-to-use educational tool may help
      bring surgical education to a new-and highly mobile-level.

PMID- 28573096
TI  - Mucoperiosteal Flap Necrosis after Primary Palatoplasty in Patients with Cleft
      Palate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of flap necrosis after palatoplasty in patients with
      cleft palate. The prevalence of mucoperiosteal flap necrosis after palatoplasty
      remains unknown, and this complication is rare. This event is highly undesirable
      for both the patient and the surgeon. We present here a new scale to evaluate the
      degree of hypoplasia of the palate and identify patients with cleft palate at
      high risk for the development of this complication. METHODS: In this case series,
      a 20-year retrospective analysis (1994-2014) identified patients from our records
      (medical records and screening day registries) with nonsyndromic cleft palate who
      underwent operations at 3 centers. All of these patients underwent operations
      using 2-flap palatoplasty and also underwent a physical examination with
      photographs and documentation of the presence of palatal flap necrosis after
      primary palatoplasty. RESULTS: Palatal flap necrosis was observed in 4 cases out
      of 1,174 palatoplasties performed at these centers. The observed prevalence of
      palatal flap necrosis in these groups was 0.34%. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      flap necrosis can be reduced by careful preoperative planning, and prevention is
      possible. The scale proposed here may help to prevent this complication; however,
      further studies are necessary to validate its utility.

PMID- 28573098
TI  - Axillary Reconstruction for Hidradenitis Suppurativa with an Inner-Arm
      Transposition Flap Creating a Brachioplasty Effect.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin condition that can
      affect any area with apocrine sweat glands and has the potential to involve
      multiple sites concurrently. Commonly affected sites include the axilla, groin,
      perineum and perianal areas. In this study we performed a literature review on
      the surgical methods for HS and describe an innovative technique for
      reconstructing axilla HS using an inner-arm transposition flap. METHODS: We
      reviewed all cases (5 cases from 4 patients) of transposition flap reconstruction
      performed by the senior author at a single London tertiary hospital from 2008
      2013. Patient related outcome measures were collected using the Derriford
      appearance scale (DAS 24) and a study specific questionnaire. RESULTS: All
      patients were satisfied with their final result. One out of five cases had a
      complication but did not result in flap failure. There is no disease recurrence
      to date. DAS 24 scores collected demonstrated acceptable postoperative distress
      that did not deviate far from the norm tables while study specific questionnaire
      reveal desirable outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: We have managed to achieve our aim
      through the use of the innovative inner-arm transposition flap. Our study hopes
      to provide an additional technique for axillary reconstruction. This technique
      offers the effective concealment of scars with the benefit of tightening of the
      arm tissue producing 'brachioplasty like' effects. All things considered it would
      be reasonable to conclude the innovative flap technique is a reliable, effective,
      and simple method that results in multiple benefits.

PMID- 28573099
TI  - Acellular Dermal Matrices and Paraffinoma: A Modern Tool for a Nearly Obsolete
      Disease.
AB  - Paraffinoma is a destructive complication of paraffin oil injection, usually
      associated with massive tissue destruction, thus requiring radical surgery and
      subsequent complex reconstruction. Although breast and penile paraffinomas have
      been widely described and their management is quite standardized, paraffinomas of
      the knee are still rare and only few case reports or small case series are
      available in the current literature. We describe the case of a 77-year-old man
      with a large paraffinoma of the right knee that occurred after self-injection of
      paraffin oil, 58 years before. He underwent wide surgical resection of the soft
      tissues overlying the knee and subsequent two-stage reconstruction by using
      acellular dermal matrix and, after 20 days, split-thickness skin grafts. Follow
      up after 16 months showed no signs of skin ulcerations or inflammation, with an
      overall improvement in function. Even though conventional flap reconstructions
      may be still useful, the authors believe that acellular dermal matrices represent
      a safe, reliable, and less invasive alternative for challenging soft tissue
      reconstructions even in elderly patients with multiple medical problems.

PMID- 28573100
TI  - Vascular Augmentation in Renal Transplantation: Supercharging and Turbocharging.
AB  - The most common anatomic variant seen in donor kidneys for renal transplantation
      is the presence of multiple renal arteries, which can cause an increased risk of
      complications. Accessory renal arteries should be anastomosed to the proper
      source arteries to improve renal perfusion via the appropriate vascular
      reconstruction techniques. In microsurgery, 2 kinds of vascular augmentation
      methods, known as 'supercharging' and 'turbocharging,' have been introduced to
      ensure vascular perfusion in the transferred flap. Supercharging uses a distant
      source of the vessels, while turbocharging uses vascular sources within the same
      flap territory. These technical concepts can also be applied in renal
      transplantation, and in this report, we describe 2 patients who underwent
      procedures using supercharging and turbocharging. In one case, the ipsilateral
      deep inferior epigastric artery was transposed to the accessory renal artery
      (supercharging), and in the other case, the accessory renal artery was
      anastomosed to the corresponding main renal artery with a vascular graft
      (turbocharging). The transplanted kidneys showed good perfusion and proper
      function. No cases of renal failure, hypertension, rejection, or urologic
      complications were observed. These microsurgical techniques can be safely
      utilized for renal transplantation with donor kidneys that have multiple arteries
      with a lower complication rate and better outcome.

PMID- 28573101
TI  - Using a Thermal Imaging Camera to Locate Perforators on the Lower Limb.
AB  - Reconstruction of the lower limb presents a complex problem after skin cancer
      surgery, as proximity of skin and bone present vascular and technical challenges.
      Studies on vascular anatomy have confirmed that the vascular plane on the lower
      limb lies deep to the deep fascia. Yet, many flaps are routinely raised
      superficial to this plane and therefore flap failure rates in the lower limb are
      high. Fascio-cutaneous flaps based on perforators offer a better cosmetic
      alternative to skin grafts. In this paper, we detail use of a thermal imaging
      camera to identify perforator 'compartments' that can help in designing such
      flaps.

PMID- 28573102
TI  - Late-Onset Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection after Facial
      Poly-L-Lactic Acid Injection.

PMID- 28573103
TI  - Spontaneous Pseudoaneurysm of the Proximal Occipital Artery Presenting as a Neck
      Mass.

PMID- 28573104
TI  - Faces of the Face.

PMID- 28573105
TI  - Atypical Presentation: Metastatic Uveal Melanoma in a Young Patient without
      Visual Complaints.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uveal melanoma is a rare and aggressive subtype of melanoma, with
      singular characteristics that separate it from the most famous cutaneous
      melanoma. This uncommon condition becomes even rarer if we look at young
      population. Common chemotherapy regimens does not work with this aggressive
      disease in its metastatic scenario, and the new armament like targeted and
      immunotherapies are still looking for more robust evidence. CASE PRESENTATION: We
      report a rare case of uveal melanoma in a patient younger than 20 years, with
      abdominal pain as his initial complaint. He did not present the typical visual
      symptoms of the primary site because of an auto accident suffered 4 months before
      the presentation, letting him blind of the eye affected by the tumor development.
      CONCLUSION: There is always a possibility of the diagnosis of uveal melanoma in
      cases with associated isolated hepatic metastases, even in a young population,
      where this hypothesis is often rejected by the epidemiological frequency of other
      tumors. This rare case is a useful example.

PMID- 28573106
TI  - No Functional Role for microRNA-342 in a Mouse Model of Pancreatic Acinar
      Carcinoma.
AB  - The intronic microRNA (miR)-342 has been proposed as a potent tumor-suppressor
      gene. miR-342 is found to be downregulated or epigenetically silenced in multiple
      different tumor sites, and this loss of expression permits the upregulation of
      several key oncogenic pathways. In several different cell lines, lower miR-342
      expression results in enhanced proliferation and metastasis potential, both in
      vitro and in xenogenic transplant conditions. Here, we sought to determine the
      function of miR-342 in an in vivo spontaneous cancer model, using the Ela1-TAg
      transgenic model of pancreatic acinar carcinoma. Through longitudinal magnetic
      resonance imaging monitoring of Ela1-TAg transgenic mice, either wild-type or
      knockout for miR-342, we found no role for miR-342 in the development, growth
      rate, or pathogenicity of pancreatic acinar carcinoma. These results indicate the
      importance of assessing miR function in the complex physiology of in vivo model
      systems and indicate that further functional testing of miR-342 is required
      before concluding it is a bona fide tumor-suppressor-miR.

PMID- 28573108
TI  - Spreading of Pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 and Its Serovariants: A Re
      analysis of Strains Isolated from Multiple Studies.
AB  - In China, V. parahaemolyticus has been a leading cause of foodborne outbreaks and
      bacterial infectious diarrhea since the 1990s, and most infections have been
      associated with the pandemic V. parahaemolyticus O3:K6 and its serovariants.
      However, a comprehensive overview of the sero-prevalence and genetic diversity of
      the pandemic V. parahaemolyticus clone in China is lacking. To compensate for
      this deficiency, pandemic isolates in both clinical and environmental Chinese
      samples collected from multiple studies were analyzed in this study.
      Surprisingly, as many as 27 clinical pandemic serovariants were identified and
      were widely distributed across nine coastal provinces and two inland provinces
      (Beijing and Sichuan). O3:K6, O4:K68, and O1:KUT represented the predominant
      clinical serovars. Only four environmental pandemic serovariants had previously
      been reported, and they were spread throughout Shanghai (O1:KUT, O3:K6), Jiangsu
      (O3:K6, O4:K48), Zhejiang (O3:K6), and Guangdong (O4:K9). Notably, 24 pandemic
      serovariants were detected within a short time frame (from 2006 to 2012). The
      pandemic isolates were divided into 15 sequence types (STs), 10 of which fell
      within clonal complex (CC) 3. Only three STs (ST3, ST192, and ST305) were
      identified in environmental isolates. Substantial serotypic diversity was mainly
      observed among isolates within pandemic ST3, which comprised 21 combinations of
      O/K antigens. The pandemic O3:K6 serotype showed a high level of sequence
      diversity, which was shared by eight different STs (ST3, ST227, ST431, ST435,
      ST487, ST489, ST526, and ST672). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed
      that most isolates shared similar antibiotic susceptibility profiles. They were
      resistant to ampicillin but sensitive to most other drugs that were tested. In
      conclusion, the high levels of serotypic and genetic diversity of the pandemic
      clone suggest that the involved regions are becoming important reservoirs for the
      emergence of novel pandemic strains. We underscore the need for routine
      monitoring to prevent pandemic V. parahaemolyticus infection, which includes
      monitoring antimicrobial responses to avoid excessive misuse of antibiotics.
      Further investigations are also needed to delineate the specific mechanisms
      underlying the possible seroconversion of pandemic isolates.

PMID- 28573107
TI  - RegA Plays a Key Role in Oxygen-Dependent Establishment of Persistence and in
      Isocitrate Lyase Activity, a Critical Determinant of In vivo Brucella suis
      Pathogenicity.
AB  - For aerobic human pathogens, adaptation to hypoxia is a critical factor for the
      establishment of persistent infections, as oxygen availability is low inside the
      host. The two-component system RegB/A of Brucella suis plays a central role in
      the control of respiratory systems adapted to oxygen deficiency, and in
      persistence in vivo. Using an original "in vitro model of persistence" consisting
      in gradual oxygen depletion, we compared transcriptomes and proteomes of wild
      type and DeltaregA strains to identify the RegA-regulon potentially involved in
      the set-up of persistence. Consecutive to oxygen consumption resulting in growth
      arrest, 12% of the genes in B. suis were potentially controlled directly or
      indirectly by RegA, among which numerous transcriptional regulators were up
      regulated. In contrast, genes or proteins involved in envelope biogenesis and in
      cellular division were repressed, suggesting a possible role for RegA in the set
      up of a non-proliferative persistence state. Importantly, the greatest number of
      the RegA-repressed genes and proteins, including aceA encoding the functional
      IsoCitrate Lyase (ICL), were involved in energy production. A potential
      consequence of this RegA impact may be the slowing-down of the central metabolism
      as B. suis progressively enters into persistence. Moreover, ICL is an essential
      determinant of pathogenesis and long-term interactions with the host, as
      demonstrated by the strict dependence of B. suis on ICL activity for
      multiplication and persistence during in vivo infection. RegA regulates gene or
      protein expression of all functional groups, which is why RegA is a key regulator
      of B. suis in adaptation to oxygen depletion. This function may contribute to the
      constraint of bacterial growth, typical of chronic infection. Oxygen-dependent
      activation of two-component systems that control persistence regulons, shared by
      several aerobic human pathogens, has not been studied in Brucella sp. before.
      This work therefore contributes significantly to the unraveling of persistence
      mechanisms in this important zoonotic pathogen.

PMID- 28573111
TI  - Minimally invasive autopsies: a promise to revive the procedure.

PMID- 28573109
TI  - Persistence of Innate Immune Pathways in Late Stage Human Bacterial and Fungal
      Keratitis: Results from a Comparative Transcriptome Analysis.
AB  - Microbial keratitis (MK) is a major cause of blindness worldwide. Despite
      adequate antimicrobial treatment, tissue damage can ensue. We compared the human
      corneal transcriptional profile in late stage MK to normal corneal tissue to
      identify pathways involved in pathogenesis. Total RNA from MK tissue and normal
      cadaver corneas was used to determine transcriptome profiles with Illumina
      HumanHT-12 v4 beadchips. We performed differential expression and network
      analysis of genes in bacterial keratitis (BK) and fungal keratitis (FK) compared
      with control (C) samples. Results were validated by RTqPCR for 45 genes in an
      independent series of 183 MK patients. For the microarray transcriptome analysis,
      27 samples were used: 12 controls, 7 BK culture positive for Streptococcus
      pneumoniae (n = 6), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 1), and 8 FK, culture positive
      for Fusarium sp. (n = 5), Aspergillus sp. (n = 2), or Lasiodiplodia sp. (n = 1).
      There were 185 unique differentially expressed genes in BK, 50 in FK, and 339
      common to both [i.e., genes with fold-change (FC) < -4 or >=4 and false discovery
      rate (FDR) adjusted P < 0.05]. MMP9 had the highest FC in BK (91 FC, adj p = 3.64
      E-12) and FK (FC 64, adj. p = 6.10 E-11), along with other MMPs (MMP1, MMP7,
      MMP10, MMP12), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL1B, TNF), and PRRs (TLR2, TLR4).
      HIF1A and its induced genes were upregulated uniquely in BK. Immune/defense
      response and extracellular matrix terms were the most enriched Gene Ontology
      terms in both BK and FK. In the network analysis, chemokines were prominent for
      FK, and actin filament reorganization for BK. Microarray and RTqPCR results were
      highly correlated for the same samples tested with both assays, and with the
      larger RTqPCR series. In conclusion, we found a great deal of overlap in the gene
      expression profile of late stage BK and FK, however genes unique to fungal
      infection highlighted a corneal epithelial wound healing response and for
      bacterial infection the prominence of HIF1A-induced genes. These sets of genes
      may provide new targets for future research into therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28573112
TI  - Sister Mary Joseph nodule: it does not bode well.

PMID- 28573113
TI  - The post-mortem diagnosis of vasocclusive crisis in sickle cell disease.

PMID- 28573110
TI  - Nocardia cyriacigeogica from Bovine Mastitis Induced In vitro Apoptosis of Bovine
      Mammary Epithelial Cells via Activation of Mitochondrial-Caspase Pathway.
AB  - Nocardia is one of the causing agents of bovine mastitis and increasing
      prevalence of nocardial mastitis in shape of serious outbreaks has been reported
      from many countries. However, the mechanisms by which this pathogen damages the
      bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs) is not yet studied. Therefore, this study
      was designed with the aim to evaluate the apoptotic effects elicited by Nocardia
      and to investigate the pathway by which the Nocardia induce apoptosis in bMECs.
      Clinical Nocardia cyriacigeorgica strain from bovine mastitis was used to infect
      the bMECs for different time intervals, viz. 1, 3, 6, 12, and 18 h, and then the
      induced effects on bMECs were studied using adhesion and invasion assays, release
      of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), apoptosis analysis by annexin V and propidium
      iodide (PI) double staining, morphological, and ultrastructural observations
      under scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope
      (TEM), mitochondrial transmembrane potential (DeltaPsim) assay using flow
      cytometry, and the protein quantification of mitochondrial cytochrome c and
      caspase-9 and caspase-3 by western blotting. The results of this study showed
      that N. cyriacigeorgica possessed the abilities of adhesion and invasion to
      bMECs. N. cyriacigeorgica was found to collapse mitochondrial transmembrane
      potential, significantly (p < 0.05) release mitochondrial cytochrome c and
      ultimately induce cell apoptosis. Additionally, it promoted casepase-9 (p < 0.01)
      and casepase-3 (p < 0.05) levels, significantly (p < 0.01) increased the release
      of LDH and promoted DNA fragmentation which further confirmed the apoptosis.
      Furthermore, N. cyriacigeorgica induced apoptosis/necrosis manifested specific
      ultrastructure features under TEM, such as swollen endoplasmic reticulum, cristae
      degeneration, and swelling of mitochondria, vesicle formation on the cell
      surface, rupturing of cell membrane and nuclear membrane, clumping,
      fragmentation, and margination of chromatin. The present study is the first
      comprehensive insight into patho-morphological ultrastructural features of
      apoptosis/necrosis induced by N. cyriacigeorgica, which concluded that the
      clinical N. cyriacigeorgica induced apoptotic changes in the bMECs through
      mitochondrial-caspase dependent apoptotic pathway.

PMID- 28573114
TI  - Otomastoiditis caused by Sphingomonas paucimobilis: case report and literature
      review.
AB  - Sphingomonas paucimobilis is an aerobic Gram-negative bacillus that, although
      rare in humans, most commonly infects immunocompromised and hospitalized
      patients. Among the 59 pediatric cases of S. paucimobilis infection reported in
      the literature, the most common diagnosis involves isolated bacteremia. These
      cases are related to sporadic or epidemic infections. Death related to this
      infection occurred in only one case. The authors report a case of an 11-year-old
      boy with the diagnosis of Sphingomonas paucimobilis otomastoiditis and a thorough
      review of the literature on this infection in pediatrics. The patient presented a
      20-day history of fever, otalgia, otorrhea, and progressive retroauricular
      swelling with protrusion of the left ear; despite 15 days of amoxicillin regimen.
      His past medical history included chronic bilateral otitis media, but no cause of
      immunosuppression was found. A brain computed tomography scan showed left
      otomastoiditis associated with a large circumscribed fluid collection with deep
      involvement of the soft tissues of the temporal region, including the
      subperiosteal space. Blood tests showed neutrophilia and elevated C-reactive
      protein. Surgical manipulation of the cited collection drained a large amount of
      a fetid purulent secretion. Ceftazidime and clindamycin were empirically
      initiated. The outcome was favorable, with fever defervescence and resolution of
      the scalp deformation. Culture of the drained secretion was positive for S.
      paucimobilis. Ciprofloxacin was scheduled for a further 10 days after discharge.
      The follow-up showed complete recovery. As far as we know, this is the first case
      of S. paucimobilis otomastoiditis, complicated with subperiosteal abscess in an
      immunocompetent child. The authors call attention to the increasing number of
      reports on S. paucimobilis infection over the years, and therefore to the
      importance of this pathogen, which was previously underestimated.

PMID- 28573115
TI  - Classic form of hypoplastic left heart syndrome diagnosed post-natally: an
      autopsy report.
AB  - Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital heart disease, which,
      despite the current improved knowledge about its management and surgical
      treatment, is still associated with high mortality, especially in the early
      neonatal period and before the second stage of reconstruction surgery. The low
      rate of prenatal diagnosis and delayed diagnostic suspicion results in
      unsuccessful therapeutic intervention, even though the real impact of early
      diagnosis and intervention on mortality and quality of life of patients is still
      uncertain. Fortunately, this syndrome of challenging treatment is not that
      frequent. It involves a spectrum of obstructions to the blood flow within the
      left heart and is characterized by an inappropriate size of the left ventricle
      associated with a wide variety of valvular dysfunctions. Treatment ranges from
      heart transplantation to palliative surgical procedures. The authors describe a
      case of a newborn with HLHS, whose diagnosis was made after birth because of
      early respiratory failure. Despite the use of prostaglandin the newborn died. An
      autopsy was performed and the anatomical findings were described.

PMID- 28573116
TI  - Community-acquired Pseudomonas aeruginosa-pneumonia in a previously healthy man
      occupationally exposed to metalworking fluids.
AB  - Although the Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is well known and frequently found
      in hospitals and nursing care facilities, many cases are also reported outside
      these boundaries. In general, this pathogen infects debilitated patients either
      by comorbidities or by any form of immunodeficiency. In cases of respiratory
      infection, tobacco abuse seems to play an important role as a risk factor. In
      previously healthy patients, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with P.
      aeruginosa as the etiological agent is extremely rare, and unlike the cases
      involving immunocompromised or hospitalized patients, the outcome is severe, and
      is fatal in up to 61.1% of cases. Aerosolized contaminated water or solutions are
      closely linked to the development of respiratory tract infection. In this
      setting, metalworking fluids used in factories may be implicated in CAP involving
      previously healthy people. The authors report the case of a middle-aged man who
      worked in a metalworking factory and presented a right upper lobar pneumonia with
      a rapid fatal outcome. P. aeruginosa was cultured from blood and tracheal
      aspirates. The autopsy findings confirmed a hemorrhagic necrotizing pneumonia
      with bacteria-invading vasculitis and thrombosis. A culture of the metalworking
      fluid of the factory was also positive for P. aeruginosa. The pulsed-field gel
      electrophoresis showed that both strains (blood culture and metalworking fluid)
      were genetically indistinguishable. The authors highlight the occupational risk
      for the development of this P.aeruginosa-infection in healthy people.

PMID- 28573118
TI  - Advanced small-cell ovarian carcinoma, hypercalcemic type: a challenging
      therapeutic entity.
AB  - Small-cell ovarian carcinoma (SCOC) is a rare and aggressive neoplasia,
      predominantly affecting young women who are frequently first diagnosed with
      advanced stage disease. Platinum-based chemotherapy (ChT) can provide high
      response rates and rapidly ameliorate symptoms in this scenario. However,
      progression after chemotherapy usually occurs quickly, leading to high mortality
      rates. In addition, ChT complications, such as tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) can
      also occur, jeopardizing the patient's outcome. We present a case of metastatic
      SCOC in a 47-year-old patient who achieved tumor response after platinum-based
      chemotherapy and developed TLS, from which she recovered with supportive
      treatment. After the second ChT cycle, she developed febrile neutropenia and died
      8 weeks after the diagnosis of SCOC. Although SCOC is a chemo-sensitive tumor,
      short-lived responses and frequent chemotherapy complications lead to a dismal
      prognosis.

PMID- 28573117
TI  - Septic pelvic thrombophlebitis of unknown origin: an ever threatening entity.
AB  - Septic pelvic thrombophlebitis (SPT) is a rare and severe entity, which may occur
      after abortion, delivery, gynecological diseases, or surgeries. Diagnosis is
      challenging when no risk factor is clearly present, since clinically, symptoms
      are non-specific. Nowadays, with the aid of imaging methods, diagnosis has become
      more achievable, but the treatment still bears some uncertainties. The authors
      present a fatal case of SPT in a young woman who sought medical care already
      presenting signs of septic shock, referring fever and non-characteristic
      abdominal pain. The patient evolved rapidly to multiple organ failure and
      respiratory distress, which was also due to septic pulmonary embolism. The
      autopsy confirmed the computed tomographic findings of a right ovarian vein
      septic thrombophlebitis and multiple septic pulmonary embolization foci. The
      patient did not present any of the recognized risk factors; neither did she
      present signs of pelvic inflammatory disease on admission or at autopsy. However,
      an intrauterine device was present. The authors call attention to this entity in
      the differential diagnosis of a woman with fever and abdominal pain, as well as
      for an empiric broad-spectrum antibiotic regimen in these cases.

PMID- 28573119
TI  - Cardiac angiosarcoma: an unexpected diagnosis.
AB  - Cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare entity. The incidence through autopsy findings
      ranges between 0.001% and 0.03%. The disease usually presents with non-specific
      symptoms, although asymptomatic cases are frequent; therefore, diagnosis is
      unexpected and consequently delayed. The authors report the case of a middle-aged
      man with a recent onset cough and dyspnea. He sought medical care several times
      without receiving a definite diagnosis until a plain chest radiography was taken
      showing a mediastinal enlargement, which was the reason why he was hospitalized
      for clinical investigation. During the diagnostic workup, an
      echodopplercardiogram and a thoracic computed tomography were performed, showing
      a heterogeneous soft-tissue mass infiltrating the pericardium and the anterior
      atrial wall. Multiple and scattered pulmonary nodules were also present. A
      pulmonary nodule was biopsied, which revealed an angiosarcoma. The clinical
      features added to the radiological and histological findings permitted the
      diagnosis of right atrial angiosarcoma. The authors highlight the unexpected
      pattern in the presentation of cardiac tumors.

PMID- 28573120
TI  - Microperforated hymen: a case of delayed diagnosis.
AB  - Although the incidence of microperforated hymen (MH) is unclear, this hymenal
      subocclusive anomaly is considered a rare entity. Differently from imperforated
      hymen, MH may be asymptomatic until puberty when the women's quality of life is
      jeopardized. Depending on the size of the microperforation, MH's clinical
      features me be very similar to those found in imperforated hymen cases. However,
      MH may present infectious complications since the accumulated secretion retained
      in the vaginal canal has contact with the external environment and therefore
      represents a source of entry for infectious agents. The authors report a case of
      a 28-year-old woman who sought the gynecologist complaining of inability to have
      vaginal intercourse. She referred normal menses, but in fact, although regular,
      bleeding was filiform and was exteriorized only through the right side of the
      vagina. Physical examination and imaging disclosed a microperforation of the
      hymenal membrane at 10 o'clock position. Hymenotomy under general anesthesia was
      undertaken. Outcome was favorable and the patient could thenceforth have a normal
      life. We conclude that this anomaly may be overlooked, interfering on its
      incidence determination. The delayed onset of symptoms and psychological
      embarrassing aspects, which postpone gynecological consultation, may contribute
      for misdiagnoses. We call attention to a mandatory detailed anamnesis and
      thorough physical examination to diagnose this anomaly before the puberty, when
      complications are less frequent and treatment is advisable.

PMID- 28573122
TI  - Paediatric pathology: a work in progress.

PMID- 28573123
TI  - Focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver.

PMID- 28573121
TI  - Rectal tuberculosis in an HIV-infected patient: case report.
AB  - The gastrointestinal (GI) tract has been increasingly affected by tuberculosis,
      especially in immunocompromised patients. Although strict rectal involvement is
      rare, the GI site mostly affected is the ileocecal region. Thus, tuberculosis
      should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of perianal and rectal
      lesions, and more so in patients infected by the HIV virus. The authors report
      the case of a 32-year-old man presenting a long-term history of fever, night
      sweats, weight loss, bloody diarrhea, fecal incontinence, tenesmus, and rectal
      pain. HIV serology was positive. The patient underwent anoscopy and biopsy, which
      disclosed the diagnosis of rectal tuberculosis. Thus the patient was referred to
      an outpatient clinic to follow the standard treatment.

PMID- 28573124
TI  - Cardiac amyloidosis: a challenging diagnosis.
AB  - Cardiovascular involvement of amyloidosis is present in 90% of cases, which is
      frequently associated with the primary form of the disease (AL amyloidosis).
      Clinical manifestations are represented by heart failure due to restrictive
      myocardiopathy and electrical impulse conduction abnormalities, which are
      clinically remarkable in up to 50% of the cases. The prognosis of patients with
      systemic amyloidosis is directly associated with the presence of cardiac
      involvement, such that survival does not usually exceed 4 months after the onset
      of heart failure signs and symptoms. The authors report a case of primary
      systemic amyloidosis, diagnosed only at autopsy, with severe cardiac involvement.

PMID- 28573125
TI  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis associated with hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma:
      case report.
AB  - Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL) is a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma, marked by
      liver, spleen, and bone marrow sinusoidal infiltration, with an aggressive
      clinical course, which represents a difficult diagnostic task for clinicians and
      pathologists. Another equally severe and challenging condition is the
      hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (also called hemophagocytic syndrome [HS]),
      which is often associated with hematologic malignancies and infectious diseases.
      The authors report the case of a 56-year-old woman diagnosed with HSTCL based on
      bone marrow aspirate flow cytometry and skin biopsy. The patient underwent a
      cycle of chemotherapy but the outcome was unfavorable with multiple organ
      failure. The laboratory analysis was consistent with HS. The autopsy confirmed
      both the remaining lymphoma in the pulmonary vessels and the hemophagocytic cells
      in the spleen and bone marrow.

PMID- 28573126
TI  - Nodal Epstein-Barr virus-positive T-cell/NK-cell lymphoma associated with
      immunodeficiency: a rare condition looking for recognition.
AB  - The authors describe a peculiar form of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated T
      cell lymphoma in an HIV-positive patient presenting an aggressive clinical
      course. Unlike most other EBV-positive T-cell/natural-killer (NK)-cell lymphomas,
      the disease was characterized by predominant nodal involvement at presentation. T
      cell lineage was confirmed by T-cell receptor-rearrangement, and neoplastic cells
      exhibited strong and diffuse CD56 expression. A marked intravascular component
      was detected in the skin, the liver, and the lung parenchyma. This entity was not
      predicted in the WHO 2008 classification, but has been recently identified in
      immunocompromised patients. This case report refers to a middle-aged man with
      AIDS, who presented a 4-month history of weight loss, fever, hepatosplenomegaly,
      peripheral and deep-chain lymphadenopathy. A blood smear showed lymphocytosis
      with a marked presence of atypia. The outcome was unfavorable and the patient
      could not be treated. The autopsy revealed multivisceral involvement, including
      lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, liver, lungs, skin, and kidneys.

PMID- 28573127
TI  - Prune-belly syndrome: an autopsy case report.
AB  - Prune-belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by a
      spectrum of mild-to-severe presentations of urinary tract malformations,
      deficient abdominal wall musculature, and cryptorchidism in male newborns or
      genital abnormalities in the female newborns. Currently, antenatal diagnosis is
      feasible with ultrasound examination, and treatment is based on case report
      experience. More recently, intrauterine management has been undertaken with
      encouraging results. The authors report a case of PBS diagnosed at the
      seventeenth gestation week, when ultrasonographic examination revealed the
      presence of ascites, distended bladder, thickened bladder wall and posterior
      urethral valve. The fetus was submitted to an intrauterine intervention at the
      nineteenth gestational week. Delivery occurred at 34 weeks of gestation and the
      newborn examination was consistent with PBS. On the second day of life, the
      newborn was submitted to abdominoplasty, colostomy, and orchiopexy. However, the
      outcome was unfavorable with respiratory failure and death on the fifteenth day
      of life. The autopsy confirmed the diagnosis of PBS, but the immediate cause of
      death was attributed to aspiration pneumonia.

PMID- 28573128
TI  - Effectiveness of surgical decompression in the treatment of a calcifying cystic
      odontogenic tumor.
AB  - The calcifying odontogenic cystic tumor (CCOT) is a benign lesion of odontogenic
      origin characterized by an ameloblastoma-like epithelium with ghost cells that
      may calcify. Despite broadly considered as a cyst, some investigators prefer to
      classify it as a neoplasm. Clinically, it occurs predominantly during the third
      decade of life. No difference in gender prevalence has been observed nor
      predilection of the lesion between maxilla and mandible. The most affected region
      extends from the incisor tooth to bicuspids. The classic treatment of the lesion
      is full excision, although a different approach may be determined by the possible
      association with another odontogenic tumor. Depending on the tumor size and the
      vicinity with important structures, decompression may be undertaken before its
      complete removal. The present report describes a case of CCOT with large
      proportions, located at the right maxilla and extending to the maxillary sinus,
      nasal cavity, and orbital floor. The treatment option was surgical decompression
      as the initial procedure, with satisfactory outcome. After partial remission, the
      lesion was fully removed, and the post-operative follow-up was uneventful.

PMID- 28573129
TI  - Placental mesenchymal dysplasia: case report with gross and histological
      findings.
AB  - Placental mesenchymal dysplasia (PMD) is a rare placental disorder characterized
      by placental enlargement and areas of abnormal, enlarged, grape-like villi. This
      condition may resemble a partial hydatidiform mole and may occur associated with
      Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) or in phenotypically normal fetuses. There were
      110 cases reported so far. We describe one case with typical gross and
      microscopic placental lesions.

PMID- 28573130
TI  - Plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma: a case of histological variant of urinary
      bladder cancer with aggressive behavior.
AB  - Plasmocytoid variant urothelial carcinoma (PVUC) of the urinary bladder is a rare
      histological variant of transitional cell carcinoma. Data regarding PVUC shows
      that this neoplasia presents a distinctive clinical outcome represented by
      aggressive behavior and poor survival rate. The authors report a case of a 57
      year-old male patient with a 3-month history of hematuria and pelvic pain.
      Radical cystectomy with lymphadenectomy was performed and pathological
      examination showed a pT3pN0 PVUC of the bladder. The patient remained free of
      recurrence for 8 months, but the disease recurred involving the abdominal wall
      and subcutaneous tissue. Chemotherapy provided a positive clinical response and
      relief of symptoms. The authors call attention to the aggressiveness of this rare
      variant of bladder cancer and recommend radical surgery and multidisciplinary
      management of this neoplasm.

PMID- 28573131
TI  - Severe cognitive dysfunction and shrinking lung syndrome in systemic lupus
      erythematous.
AB  - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can affect any
      organ or system. Neuropsychiatric and pulmonary involvement can occur in 40 and
      50% of patients respectively, and may occur in several different clinical forms.
      While the main neuropsychiatric manifestations are represented by cognitive
      impairment, organic cerebral syndromes, delirium, psychosis, seizures, and
      peripheral neuropathies, the main forms of pulmonary involvement are pleurisy
      with or without pleural effusion, pneumonitis, interstitial disease, pulmonary
      hypertension, and alveolar hemorrhage. The authors report the case of a 49-year
      old woman whose first manifestation of SLE was represented by two rare
      manifestations: rapidly progressive cognitive impairment, which was associated
      with respiratory failure caused by the shrinking lung syndrome. The authors call
      attention to the under-diagnosis of lupus pulmonary complications and its
      association with severe cognitive impairment that often necessitates aggressive
      treatment.

PMID- 28573133
TI  - Regulation of Osteoclast Growth and Fusion by mTOR/raptor and mTOR/rictor/Akt.
AB  - Osteoclasts are giant bone cells formed by fusion from monocytes and uniquely
      capable of a complete destruction of mineralized tissues. Previously, we have
      demonstrated that in energy-rich environment not only osteoclast fusion index
      (the number of nuclei each osteoclast contains), but also cytoplasm volume per
      single nucleus was increased. The goal of this study was to investigate the
      regulation of metabolic sensor mTOR during osteoclast differentiation in energy
      rich environment simulated by addition of pyruvate. We have found that in the
      presence of pyruvate, the proportion of mTOR associated with raptor increased,
      while mTOR-rictor-mediated Akt phosphorylation decreased. Inhibition of mTOR with
      rapamycin (10 nM) significantly interfered with all aspects of
      osteoclastogenesis. However, rapamycin at 1 nM, which preferentially targets mTOR
      raptor complex, was only effective in control cultures, while in the presence of
      pyruvate osteoclast fusion index was successfully increased. Inhibition of Akt
      drastically reduced osteoclast fusion, however in energy-rich environment,
      osteoclasts of comparable size were formed through increased cytoplasm growth.
      These data suggest that mTOR-rictor mediated Akt signaling regulates osteoclast
      fusion, while mTOR-raptor regulation of protein translation contributes to fusion
      independent cytoplasm growth. We demonstrate that depending on the bioenergetics
      microenvironment osteoclastogenesis can adjust to occur through preferential
      multinucleation or through cell growth, implying that attaining large cell size
      is part of the osteoclast differentiation program.

PMID- 28573132
TI  - Prebiotics: A Novel Approach to Treat Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the fatal malignancies and is considered as
      the third leading cause of death. Mutations, genetic modifications, dietary
      aflatoxins, or impairments in the regulation of oncogenic pathways may bring
      about liver cancer. An effective barrier against hepatotoxins is offered by gut
      liver axis as a change in gut permeability and expanded translocation of
      lipopolysaccharides triggers the activation of Toll-like receptors which
      stimulate the process of hepatocarcinogenesis. Prebiotics, nondigestible
      oligosaccharides, have a pivotal role to play when it comes to inducing an
      antitumor effect. A healthy gut flora balance is imperative to downregulation of
      inflammatory cytokines and reducing lipopolysaccharides induced endotoxemia, thus
      inducing the antitumor effect.

PMID- 28573134
TI  - High-Fat and Fat-Enriched Diets Impair the Benefits of Moderate Physical Training
      in the Aorta and the Heart in Rats.
AB  - AIM: Millions of people die each year due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). A
      Western lifestyle not only fuses a significant intake of fat with physical
      inactivity and obesity but also promotes CVD. Recent evidence suggests that
      dietary fat intake impairs the benefits of physical training. We investigated
      whether aerobic training could reverse the adverse effects of a high-fat diet
      (HFD) on the aorta. Then, we explored whether this type of exercise could reverse
      the damage to the heart that is imposed by fat-enriched diet (FED). METHODS: Rats
      were randomly assigned to two experiments, which lasted 8 weeks each. First, rats
      swam for 60 min and were fed either a regular diet [standard diet (STD)] or an
      HFD. After aortic samples had been collected, the rats underwent a
      histopathological analysis for different biomarkers. Another experiment subjected
      rats that were fed either an STD or an FED to swimming for 20 or 90 min. RESULTS:
      The first experiment revealed that rats that were subjected to an HFD-endured
      increased oxidative damage in the aorta that exercises could not counteract.
      Together with increased cyclooxygenase 2 expression, an HFD in combination with
      physical training increased the number of macrophages. A reduction in collagen
      fibers with an increased number of positive alpha-actin cells and expression of
      matrix metalloproteinase-2 occurred concomitantly. Upon analyzing the second
      experiment, we found that physically training rats that were given an FED for 90
      min/day decreased the cardiac adipose tissue density, although it did not protect
      the heart from fat-induced oxidative damage. Even though the physical training
      lowered cholesterol levels that were promoted by the FED, the levels were still
      higher than those in the animals that were given an STD. Feeding rats an FED
      impaired the swimming protocol's effects on lowering triglyceride concentration.
      Additionally, exercise was unable to reverse the fat-induced deregulation in
      hepatic antioxidant and lipid peroxidation activities. CONCLUSION: Our findings
      reveal that an increased intake of fat undermines the potential benefits of
      physical exercise on the heart and the aorta.

PMID- 28573135
TI  - Towards a Better Understanding of Sickness Absence in Adolescence: A Qualitative
      Study among Dutch Intermediate Vocational Education Students.
AB  - An adequate approach to sickness absence can reduce school dropout which is a
      major problem in Intermediate Vocational Education (IVE). This practice-based
      study explores the sickness absence reasons and factors influencing reporting the
      sickness, from a student's perspective. Semistructured interviews were held until
      saturation. Data were collected and analysed by a multidisciplinary research team
      including youth health care physicians working with IVE students. The results
      show that, according to the students, reasons for sickness reporting were health
      related or related to problems at home or in school. Students view their sickness
      absence as necessity, as asking for understanding, or as pardonable. Their views
      depended on (1) the perception of medical legitimacy, (2) feeling able to take
      their own responsibility, (3) feeling being taken seriously at school, and (4)
      the perception that the sickness reporting procedure at school is anonymous and
      easy. In conclusion, reporting sickness seems more a reaction to a necessity or
      opportunity than the result of a conscious decision-making process. Personalizing
      the sickness reporting procedures and demonstrating interest rather than control
      while discussing the sickness absence with the individual IVE student might very
      well affect their sickness absence levels.

PMID- 28573136
TI  - Effects of Wenxin Keli on Cardiac Hypertrophy and Arrhythmia via Regulation of
      the Calcium/Calmodulin Dependent Kinase II Signaling Pathway.
AB  - We investigated the effects of Wenxin Keli (WXKL) on the Calcium/Calmodulin
      dependent kinase II (CaMK II) signal transduction pathway with transverse aortic
      constriction (TAC) rats. Echocardiographic measurements were obtained 3 and 9
      weeks after the surgery. Meanwhile, the action potentials (APDs) were recorded
      using the whole-cell patch clamp technique, and western blotting was used to
      assess components of the CaMK II signal transduction pathway. At both 3 and 9
      weeks after treatment, the fractional shortening (FS%) increased in the WXKL
      group compared with the TAC group. The APD90 of the TAC group was longer than
      that of the Sham group and was markedly shortened by WXKL treatment. Western
      blotting results showed that the protein expressions of CaMK II, phospholamban
      (PLB), and ryanodine receptor 2 (RYR2) were not statistically significant among
      the different groups at both treatment time points. However, WXKL treatment
      decreased the protein level and phosphorylation of CaMK II (Thr-286) and
      increased the protein level and phosphorylation of PLB (Thr-17) and the
      phosphorylation of RYR2 (Ser-2814). WXKL also decreased the accumulation of type
      III collagen fibers. In conclusion, WXKL may improve cardiac function and inhibit
      the arrhythmia by regulating the CaMK II signal transduction pathway.

PMID- 28573137
TI  - Rituximab for Treatment of Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis and C3
      Glomerulopathies.
AB  - Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is a histological pattern of
      injury resulting from predominantly subendothelial and mesangial deposition of
      immunoglobulins or complement factors with subsequent inflammation and
      proliferation particularly of the glomerular basement membrane. Recent
      classification of MPGN is based on pathogenesis dividing MPGN into immunoglobulin
      associated MPGN and complement-mediated C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN) and dense
      deposit disease (DDD). Current guidelines suggest treatment with steroids,
      cytotoxic agents with or without plasmapheresis only for subjects with
      progressive disease, that is, nephrotic range proteinuria and decline of renal
      function. Rituximab, a chimeric B-cell depleting anti-CD20 antibody, has emerged
      in the last decade as a treatment option for patients with primary glomerular
      diseases such as minimal change disease, focal-segmental glomerulosclerosis, or
      idiopathic membranous nephropathy. However, data on the use of rituximab in MPGN,
      C3GN, and DDD are limited to case reports and retrospective case series. Patients
      with immunoglobulin-associated and idiopathic MPGN who were treated with
      rituximab showed partial and complete responses in the majorities of cases.
      However, rituximab was not effective in few cases of C3GN and DDD. Despite
      promising results in immunoglobulin-associated and idiopathic MPGN, current
      evidence on this treatment remains weak, and controlled and prospective data are
      urgently needed.

PMID- 28573138
TI  - Lurasidone in the Treatment of Bipolar Depression: Systematic Review of
      Systematic Reviews.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A burgeoning number of systematic reviews considering lurasidone in
      the treatment of bipolar depression have occurred since its Food and Drug
      Administration extended approval in 2013. While a paucity of available
      quantitative evidence still precludes preliminary meta-analysis on the matter,
      the present quality assessment of systematic review of systematic reviews,
      nonetheless, aims at highlighting current essential information on the topic.
      METHODS: Both published and unpublished systematic reviews about lurasidone mono-
      or adjunctive therapy in the treatment of bipolar depression were searched by two
      independent authors inquiring PubMed/Cochrane/Embase/Scopus from inception until
      October 2016. RESULTS: Twelve included systematic reviews were of moderate-to
      high quality and consistent in covering the handful of RCTs available to date,
      suggesting the promising efficacy, safety, and tolerability profile of
      lurasidone. Concordance on the drug profile seems to be corroborated by a
      steadily increasing number of convergent qualitative reports on the matter.
      LIMITATIONS: Publication, sponsorship, language, citation, and measurement
      biases. CONCLUSIONS: Despite being preliminary in nature, this overview
      stipulates the effectiveness of lurasidone in the acute treatment of Type I
      bipolar depression overall. As outlined by most of the reviewed evidence,
      recommendations for future research should include further controlled trials of
      extended duration.

PMID- 28573139
TI  - Analysis of Differentially Expressed Proteins in Mycobacterium avium-Infected
      Macrophages Comparing with Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Infected Macrophages.
AB  - Mycobacterium avium (MA) belongs to the intracellular parasitic bacteria. To
      better understand how MA survives within macrophages and the different pathogenic
      mechanisms of MA and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), tandem mass tag (TMT) and
      liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis have been used
      to determine the proteins which are differentially expressed in MA-infected and
      MTB-infected macrophages. 369 proteins were found to be differentially expressed
      in MA-infected cells but not in MTB-infected cells. By using certain
      bioinformatics methods, we found the 369 proteins were involved in molecular
      function, biological process, and cellular component including binding, catalytic
      activity, metabolic process, cellular process, and cell part. In addition, some
      identified proteins were involved in multiple signaling pathways. These results
      suggest that MA probably survive within macrophages by affecting the expression
      of some crucial proteins.

PMID- 28573141
TI  - c-Kit-Positive Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Promote the Growth
      and Angiogenesis of Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) improve the
      regenerative ability and retention of fat grafts for breast reconstruction in
      cancer patients following mastectomy. However, ASCs have also been shown to
      promote breast cancer cell growth and metastasis. For the safety of ASC
      application, we aimed to identify specific markers for the subpopulation of ASCs
      that enhance the growth of breast cancer. METHODS: ASCs and bone marrow-derived
      vascular endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were isolated from Balb/c mice. c
      Kit-positive (c-Kit+) or c-Kit-negative (c-Kit-) ASCs were cocultured with 4T1
      breast cancer cells. Orthotropic murine models of 4T1, EPCs + 4T1, and c-Kit+/
      ASCs + 4T1/EPCs were established in Balb/c mice. RESULTS: In coculture, c-Kit+
      ASCs enhanced the viability and proliferation of 4T1 cells and stimulated c-Kit
      expression and interleukin-3 (IL-3) release. In mouse models, c-Kit+ASCs +
      4T1/EPCs coinjection increased the tumor volume and vessel formation. Moreover,
      IL-3, stromal cell-derived factor-1, and vascular endothelial growth factor A in
      the c-Kit+ASCs + 4T1/EPCs coinjection group were higher than those in the 4T1,
      EPCs + 4T1, and c-Kit-ASCs + 4T1/EPCs groups. CONCLUSIONS: c-Kit+ ASCs may
      promote breast cancer growth and angiogenesis by a synergistic effect of c-Kit
      and IL-3. Our findings suggest that c-Kit+ subpopulations of ASCs should be
      eliminated in fat grafts for breast reconstruction of cancer patients following
      mastectomy.

PMID- 28573142
TI  - Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury in Cirrhosis
      Patients.
AB  - Liver cirrhosis is a common progressive and chronic clinical liver disease. Due
      to the strong compensation ability of the liver, no obvious symptoms develop in
      the early stage. However, multiple systems are involved in decompensation of the
      liver. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most serious complications,
      characterized by a sharp drop in the glomerular filtration rate (GFR); a rapid
      increase in Scr and BUN, as well as sodium and water storage; and a disturbance
      of acid-base balance. The mortality rate is high, and the prognosis is very poor.
      Thus, it is important to make a definite diagnosis and initiate treatment in the
      early stage to decrease mortality and improve the prognosis. Although diagnosing
      liver cirrhosis with serum creatinine has many shortcomings, a dynamic change in
      this marker is still the main diagnostic criterion for AKI. Identifying new
      markers of kidney injury with clinical value has also become an increasing focus
      of research. In this text, we review recent changes regarding categorization of
      AKI diagnostic criteria as well as new markers of AKI and treatments for
      cirrhosis-related AKI.

PMID- 28573143
TI  - Combination of Neuroprotective and Regenerative Agents for AGE-Induced Retinal
      Degeneration: In Vitro Study.
AB  - To determine the most effective combination of neuroprotective and regenerative
      agents for cultured retinal neurons from advanced glycation end products- (AGEs-)
      induced degeneration, retinal explants of 7 adult Sprague-Dawley rats were three
      dimensionally cultured in collagen gel and incubated in serum-free media and in 7
      media; namely, AGEs, AGEs + 100 MUM citicoline, AGEs + 10 ng/mL NT-4, AGEs + 100
      MUM TUDCA, AGEs + 100 MUM citicoline + TUDCA (doublet), and AGEs + 100 MUM
      citicoline + TUDCA + 10 ng/mL NT-4 (triplet) were examined. The number of
      regenerating neurites was counted after 7 days of culture, followed by performing
      TUNEL and DAPI staining. The ratio of TUNEL-positive cells to the number of DAPI
      stained nuclei was calculated. Immunohistochemical examinations for the active
      form of caspase-9 and JNK were performed. All of the neuroprotectants increased
      the number of neurites and decreased the number of TUNEL-positive cells. However,
      the number of neurites was significantly higher, and the number of TUNEL-positive
      cells and caspase-9- and JNK-immunopositive cells was fewer in the retinas
      incubated with the combined three agents. Combination solutions containing
      citicoline, TUDCA, and NT-4 should be considered for neuroprotective and
      regenerative therapy for AGE-related retinal degeneration.

PMID- 28573144
TI  - Prevalence of Laboratory Critical Results in Eye Patients from an Eye Hospital in
      Southern China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of laboratory critical results (CRs)
      and associated risk factors in patients with eye diseases in a tertiary eye
      hospital. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from both inpatients and
      outpatients at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Guangzhou, China, from June 1, 2012,
      to May 31, 2014, and samples were sent to the hospital's clinical laboratory for
      blood routine, biochemistry, and blood coagulation tests. Laboratory CRs for
      blood glucose, sodium, potassium, white blood cell count, platelet count,
      prothrombin time, fibrinogen, international normalized ratio, and activated
      partial thromboplastin time were included in the current analysis. RESULTS: A
      total of 60403 subjects were enrolled in the current analysis. CRs were
      identified in 339 tests from 336 patients with a prevalence of 5.70/00. Age was
      positively associated with the presence of CRs. Compared to patients with lens
      diseases, patients with strabismus, oculoplastics, and ocular trauma were less
      likely to have CRs (P < 0.05), while patients with tumors were more likely to
      have CRs (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of CRs in eye patients is low
      but calls for medication attention. It is important for medical personnel,
      especially ophthalmologists, to increase awareness of the importance, as well as
      the prevalence and risk factors of CRs.

PMID- 28573145
TI  - Cardio-Ankle Vascular Index and Indices of Diabetic Polyneuropathy in Patients
      with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is used to test vascular function and is
      an arterial stiffness marker and potential predictor of cardiovascular events.
      This study aimed to analyze the relation between objective indices of diabetic
      polyneuropathy (DPN) and the CAVI. One hundred sixty-six patients with type 2
      diabetes mellitus were included in this study. We used nerve conduction studies
      (NCSs) and the coefficient of variation of the R-R interval to evaluate DPN. We
      estimated arteriosclerosis by the CAVI. Simple and multiple linear regression
      analyses were performed between neuropathy indices and the CAVI. In univariate
      analysis, the CAVI showed significant associations with sural sensory nerve
      conduction velocity and median F-wave conduction velocity. Multiple linear
      regression analysis for the CAVI showed that sural nerve conduction velocity and
      median F-wave conduction velocity were significant explanatory variables second
      only to age. In multiple linear regression analysis for sural nerve conduction
      velocity among neuropathy indices, the CAVI remained the most significant
      explanatory variable. In multiple linear regression analysis for median nerve F
      wave conduction velocity among neuropathy indices, the CAVI remained the second
      most significant explanatory variable following HbA1c. These results suggest a
      close relationship between macroangiopathy and DPN.

PMID- 28573146
TI  - Prevalence of Positive Diabetes-Associated Autoantibodies among Type 2 Diabetes
      and Related Metabolic and Inflammatory Differences in a Sample of the Bulgarian
      Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of unrecognized cases with
      positive autoantibodies among type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a sample of the Bulgarian
      population and to compare some metabolic and inflammatory markers to those of
      patients having negative autoantibodies and subjects with latent autoimmune
      diabetes (LADA). METHODS: Patients with T2D, patients with LADA, and control
      participants were enrolled. Antiglutamic acid decarboxylase, anti-insulinoma
      associated 2, and antizinc transporter 8 autoantibodies were assayed through
      ELISA. C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor
      alpha were assessed. RESULTS: Ten percent of patients with T2D had positive
      autoantibodies. They had lower body mass index (p = 0.014), worse glycemic
      control (HbA1c, p = 0.033), and better HDL cholesterol (p = 0.026) than those in
      negative autoantibodies cases. Compared to LADA, glycemia and anthropometric data
      did not differ significantly but metabolic syndrome was more prevalent among
      newly found cases with positive autoantibodies (p = 0.046). Their level of
      inflammatory markers was similar to that of patients having negative
      autoantibodies (p > 0.05), but IL-6 was higher when compared to LADA (p = 0.002).
      CONCLUSION: Prevalence of patients having positive autoantibodies within T2D in
      the analyzed sample of the Bulgarian population was 10%. They shared common
      metabolic features with subjects with LADA, but inflammatory phenotype was closer
      to that of T2D.

PMID- 28573148
TI  - A promising tool for surgical lipotransfer: a constant pressure and quantity
      injection device in facial fat grafting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to preliminarily assess a constant
      pressure and quantity fat granule injection device for minimal invasive
      properties in clinic. METHODS: A retrospective controlled study was carried out,
      from October 2013 to January 2015, on 76 female healthy patients aged between 26
      and 53 years at the General Hospital of Lanzhou Military Command, China. To
      achieve small volume, high thrust, and precision requirements of facial fat
      grafting, an integrated handheld controller and motor design was adopted,
      reducing the volume and weight of the fat transplantation injection device. The
      76 patients underwent 90 procedures each side of the face; each patient was
      treated with the aforementioned device on the face's left side, while a
      conventional hand-push injection device was used on the right side as control.
      The outcome was assessed on pre- and postoperative images, with 6-24 months
      follow-up. RESULTS: The current device consistently allowed deposition of fat
      threads at about 55 MUL/cm after cannula withdrawal; the volume of fat injected
      could be precisely adjusted to 0.04 mL/s. This device had the advantages of small
      volume injection and convenient operation. The patients exhibited a good, stable
      shape and a smooth contour line in both sides. The long term satisfaction was
      higher for the left side than for the right one. Nodules and unevenness occurred
      only on the right side. Ecchymosis occurred significantly less frequent on the
      left side than the right one. Intraoperative pain was significantly lower for the
      left side than the right one. CONCLUSIONS: This device offered superior control
      compared with the conventional one and constitutes a promising tool for surgeons
      practicing lipotransfer.

PMID- 28573147
TI  - The progress of Chinese burn medicine from the Third Military Medical University
      in memory of its pioneer, Professor Li Ao.
AB  - Professor Li Ao was one of the founders of Chinese burn medicine and one of the
      most renowned doctors and researchers of burns in China. He established one of
      the Chinese earliest special departments for burns at Third Military Medical
      University (TMMU) in 1958. To memorialize Professor Li Ao on his 100th birthday
      in 2017 and introduce our extensive experience, it is our honor to briefly review
      the development and achievement of the Chinese burn medicine from TMMU. The
      epidemiology and outcomes of admitted burn patients since 1958 were reviewed.
      Furthermore, main achievements of basic and clinical research for the past
      roughly 60 years were presented. These achievements mainly included the Chinese
      Rule of Nine, fluid resuscitation protocol, experience in inhalation injury,
      wound treatment strategies, prevention and treatment of burn infections,
      nutrition therapy, organ support therapies, and rehabilitation. The progress
      shaped and enriched modern Chinese burn medicine and promoted the development of
      world burn medicine.

PMID- 28573149
TI  - Stem cells and stroke-how glowing neurons illuminate new paths.
AB  - A reliable method of cell tracing is essential in evaluating potential
      therapeutic procedures based on stem cell transplantation. Here we present data
      collected using neural stem cells isolated from a transgenic mouse line Thy1-YFP.
      When transplanted into a stroke affected brain these cells give rise to neurons
      that express a fluorescent signal which can be used for their detection and
      tracing. Observed processes were compared with those taking place during normal
      embryonic neurogenesis as well as during in vitro differentiation. Since the same
      neurogenic patterns were observed, we confirm that neural stem cell
      transplantation fits well into the paradigm of neuronal birth and
      differentiation.

PMID- 28573150
TI  - Notch/Hes signaling and miR-9 engage in complex feedback interactions controlling
      neural progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation.
AB  - Canonical Notch signaling has diverse functions during nervous system development
      and is critical for neural progenitor self-renewal, timing of differentiation and
      specification of various cell fates. A key feature of Notch-mediated self-renewal
      is its fluctuating activity within the neural progenitor cell population and the
      oscillatory expression pattern of the Notch effector Hes1 and its target genes. A
      negative feedback loop between Hes1 and neurogenic microRNA miR-9 was found to be
      part of this oscillatory clock. In a recent study we discovered that miR-9
      expression is further modulated by direct binding of the Notch intracellular
      domain/RBPj transcriptional complex to the miR-9_2 promoter. In turn, miR-9 not
      only targets Hes1 but also Notch2 to attenuate Notch signaling and promote
      neuronal differentiation. Here, we discuss how the two interwoven feedback loops
      may provide an additional fail-save mechanism to control proliferation and
      differentiation within the neural progenitor cell population. Furthermore, we
      explore potential implications of miR-9-mediated regulation of Notch/Hes1
      signaling with regard to neural progenitor homeostasis, patterning, timing of
      differentiation and tumor formation.

PMID- 28573151
TI  - Nervous system development relies on endosomal trafficking.
AB  - Accumulating findings have begun to unveil the important role of the endosomal
      machinery in the nervous system development. Endosomes have been linked to the
      differential segregation of cell fate determining molecules in asymmetrically
      dividing progenitors during neurogenesis. Additionally, the precise removal and
      reinsertion of membrane components through endocytic trafficking regulates the
      spatial and temporal distribution of signaling receptors and adhesion molecules,
      which determine the morphology and motility of migrating neurons. Emerging
      evidence suggests that the role of the endosomal sorting adaptors is dependent
      upon cell type and developmental stage. The repertoire of the signaling receptors
      and/or adhesion molecules sorted by the endosome during these processes remains
      to be explored. In this commentary, we will briefly address the progress in this
      research field.

PMID- 28573140
TI  - Colorectal Cancer: From the Genetic Model to Posttranscriptional Regulation by
      Noncoding RNAs.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer in developed countries
      and, despite the improvements achieved in its treatment options, remains as one
      of the main causes of cancer-related death. In this review, we first focus on
      colorectal carcinogenesis and on the genetic and epigenetic alterations involved.
      In addition, noncoding RNAs have been shown to be important regulators of gene
      expression. We present a general overview of what is known about these molecules
      and their role and dysregulation in cancer, with a special focus on the
      biogenesis, characteristics, and function of microRNAs. These molecules are
      important regulators of carcinogenesis, progression, invasion, angiogenesis, and
      metastases in cancer, including colorectal cancer. For this reason, miRNAs can be
      used as potential biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and efficacy of
      chemotherapeutic treatments, or even as therapeutic agents, or as targets by
      themselves. Thus, this review highlights the importance of miRNAs in the
      development, progression, diagnosis, and therapy of colorectal cancer and
      summarizes current therapeutic approaches for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28573152
TI  - Cell Therapy in Myology: Dynamics of Muscle Precursor Cell Death after
      Intramuscular Administration in Non-human Primates.
AB  - Cell therapy could be useful for the treatment of myopathies. A problem observed
      in mice, with different results and interpretations, is a significant death among
      the transplanted cells. We analyzed this problem in non-human primates, the
      animal model more similar to humans. Autologous or allogeneic myoblasts (with or
      without a reporter gene) were proliferated in vitro, labeled with [14C]thymidine,
      and intramuscularly injected in macaques. Some monkeys were immunosuppressed for
      long-term follow-up. Cell-grafted regions were biopsied at different intervals
      and analyzed by radiolabel quantification and histology. Most radiolabel was lost
      during the first week after injection, regardless of whether the cells were
      allogeneic or autologous, the culture conditions, and the use or not of
      immunosuppression. There was no significant difference between 1 hr and 1 day
      post-transplantation, a significant decrease between days 1 and 3 (45% to 83%), a
      significant decrease between days 3 and 7 (80% to 92%), and no significant
      differences between 7 days and 3 weeks. Our results confirmed in non-human
      primates a progressive and significant death of the grafted myoblasts during the
      first week after administration, relatively similar to some observations in mice
      but with different kinetics.

PMID- 28573153
TI  - Optical imaging of the rat brain suggests a previously missing link between top
      down and bottom-up nervous system function.
AB  - Optical imaging with voltage-sensitive dyes enables the visualization of
      extensive yet highly transient coalitions of neurons (assemblies) operating
      throughout the brain on a subsecond time scale. We suggest that operating at the
      mesoscale level of brain organization, neuronal assemblies may provide a
      functional link between "bottom-up" cellular mechanisms and "top-down" cognitive
      ones within anatomically defined regions. We demonstrate in ex vivo rat brain
      slices how varying spatiotemporal dynamics of assemblies reveal differences not
      previously appreciated between: different stages of development in cortical
      versus subcortical brain areas, different sensory modalities (hearing versus
      vision), different classes of psychoactive drugs (anesthetics versus analgesics),
      different effects of anesthesia linked to hyperbaric conditions and, in vivo,
      depths of anesthesia. The strategy of voltage-sensitive dye imaging is therefore
      as powerful as it is versatile and as such can now be applied to the evaluation
      of neurochemical signaling systems and the screening of related new drugs, as
      well as to mathematical modeling and, eventually, even theories of consciousness.

PMID- 28573154
TI  - Improving voltage-sensitive dye imaging: with a little help from computational
      approaches.
AB  - Voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) is a key neurophysiological recording tool
      because it reaches brain scales that remain inaccessible to other techniques. The
      development of this technique from in vitro to the behaving nonhuman primate has
      only been made possible thanks to the long-lasting, visionary work of Amiram
      Grinvald. This work has opened new scientific perspectives to the great benefit
      to the neuroscience community. However, this unprecedented technique remains
      largely under-utilized, and many future possibilities await for VSDI to reveal
      new functional operations. One reason why this tool has not been used extensively
      is the inherent complexity of the signal. For instance, the signal reflects
      mainly the subthreshold neuronal population response and is not linked to spiking
      activity in a straightforward manner. Second, VSDI gives access to intracortical
      recurrent dynamics that are intrinsically complex and therefore nontrivial to
      process. Computational approaches are thus necessary to promote our understanding
      and optimal use of this powerful technique. Here, we review such approaches, from
      computational models to dissect the mechanisms and origin of the recorded signal,
      to advanced signal processing methods to unravel new neuronal interactions at
      mesoscopic scale. Only a stronger development of interdisciplinary approaches can
      bridge micro- to macroscales.

PMID- 28573155
TI  - Integration of color, orientation, and size functional domains in the ventral
      pathway.
AB  - Functional specialization within the extrastriate areas of the ventral pathway
      associated with visual form analysis is poorly understood. Studies comparing the
      functional selectivities of neurons within the early visual areas have found that
      there are more similar than different between the areas. We simultaneously imaged
      visually evoked activation over regions of V2 and V4 and parametrically varied
      three visual attributes for which selectivity exists in both areas: color,
      orientation, and size. We found that color selective regions were observed in
      both areas and were of similar size and spatial distribution. However, two major
      areal distinctions were observed: V4 contained a greater number and diversity of
      color-specific regions than V2 and exhibited a higher degree of overlap between
      domains for different functional attributes. In V2, size and color regions were
      largely segregated from orientation domains, whereas in V4 both color and size
      regions overlapped considerably with orientation regions. Our results suggest
      that higher-order composite selectivities in the extrastriate cortex may arise
      organically from the interactions afforded by an overlap of functional domains
      for lower order selectivities.

PMID- 28573157
TI  - Specular Highlight Removal For Image-Based Dietary Assessment.
AB  - Traditional dietary assessment methods, consisting of written and orally reported
      methods, are not widely acceptable or feasible for everyday monitoring. The
      development of builtin cameras for mobile devices provides a new way of
      collecting dietary information by acquiring images of foods and beverages. The
      ability of image analysis techniques to automatically segment and identify food
      items from food images becomes imperative. Food images, usually consisting of
      plates, bowls and glasses, are often affected by lighting and specular highlights
      which present difficulties for image analysis. In this paper, we propose a novel
      single-image specular highlight removal method to detect and remove specular
      highlights in food images. We use independent components analysis (ICA) to
      separate the specular and diffuse components from the original image using only
      one image. This paper describes the details of the proposed model and also
      presents experimental results on food images to demonstrate the effectiveness of
      our approach.

PMID- 28573158
TI  - Mouse Embryonic Fibroblast Cell Culture and Stimulation.
AB  - Culture of mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells represents a powerful system to
      test gene function due to their easy accessibility, rapid growth rates, and the
      possibility of a large number of experiments. Fibroblasts are a group of
      heterogeneous resident cells of mesenchymal origin that have various locations,
      diverse appearances and distinctive activities. Because of their ubiquitous
      distribution as tissue cells, these cells are poised to respond to factors
      released by newly activated innate immune cells, thus becoming a useful tool to
      study inflammation and immunity. Here, we describe procedures for mouse embryonic
      fibroblast cell isolation, primary culture, and stimulation. Specifically, we
      have optimized a step of serum starvation prior to stimulation. This step is
      necessary to maintain the quiescent status of these cells before they are exposed
      to pro-inflammatory stimuli for optimal responses. As shown in our previous
      studies, these mouse fibroblasts do not express Tnf, Csf2, or Il2 mRNAs at levels
      readily detectable by routine northern blotting techniques (Lai WS et al., 2006).

PMID- 28573156
TI  - Study of single and multidigit activation in monkey somatosensory cortex using
      voltage-sensitive dye imaging.
AB  - Toward the goal of understanding cutaneous sensory integration during manual
      behavior, we used voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging to study the organization
      and dynamics of anesthetized monkey primary somatosensory cortex (SI) in response
      to single and multidigit tactile stimulation. We find that in both macaque and
      squirrel monkey SI, VSD reveals clear focal digit topography consistent with
      previous electrophysiological and intrinsic signal imaging studies. VSD also
      reveals interactions in SI in response to multidigit stimulation. With a tactile
      funneling paradigm in areas 3b and 1 in squirrel monkeys, VSD reveals two-digit
      induction of subthreshhold influences, consistent with lateral intracortical
      inhibition. In response to tactile apparent motion stimuli, VSD reveals
      preferential response to motion stimuli over static tactile stimuli in both areas
      1 and 3b. Comparison of the response at different digit locations to "toward
      digit" stimuli suggests the presence of direction-selective response in area 1;
      however, further study is needed. These exciting results indicate that VSD
      constitutes a powerful tool for studying somatosensory cortical processing in
      nonhuman primates and should be further developed for future somatosensory
      studies in awake behaving monkeys.

PMID- 28573159
TI  - High Fat Diet-induced Breast Cancer Model in Rat.
AB  - Obesity has been linked to breast cancer progression but the underlying
      mechanisms remain obscure. Being overweight or obese for a woman at the time she
      is diagnosed with breast cancer is linked to a high risk of recurrence regardless
      of treatment factors. In rodents, high body weight is also associated with
      increased incidence of spontaneous and chemically induced tumors. To study the
      complex interaction between the mammary epithelia and the microenvironment, with
      a focus on the mechanism underlying the role obesity plays in the regulation of
      the cancer stem cell traits and the development of mammary cancer in vivo, we
      have established a diet-induced obesity (DIO) rat model of breast cancer (Chang
      et al., 2015).

PMID- 28573160
TI  - Quantification of 2-Hydroxyglutarate Enantiomers by Liquid Chromatography-mass
      Spectrometry.
AB  - Two enantiomers of 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), L (L2HG) and D (D2HG), are
      metabolites of unknown function in mammalian cells that were initially associated
      with separate and rare inborn errors of metabolism resulting in increased urinary
      excretion of 2HG linked to neurological deficits in children (Chalmers et al.,
      1980; Duran et al., 1980; Kranendijk et al., 2012). More recently, investigators
      have shown that D2HG is produced by mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase enzymes
      associated with a variety of human malignancies, such as acute myeloid leukemia,
      glioblastoma multiforme, and cholangiocarcinoma (Cairns and Mak, 2013; Dang et
      al., 2009; Ward et al., 2010). By contrast, we and others have shown that L2HG
      accumulates in response to cellular reductive stressors like hypoxia, activation
      of hypoxia inducible factors, and mitochondrial electron transport chain defects
      (Oldham et al., 2015; Reinecke et al., 2011; Intlekofer et al., 2015; Mullen et
      al., 2015). Each enantiomer is produced and metabolized in independent
      biochemical pathways in reactions catalyzed by separate enzymes and utilizing
      different cofactors with presumably different consequences for cellular
      metabolism (Kranendijk et al., 2012). Therefore, as research into the roles of
      D2HG and L2HG in human metabolism continues, it becomes increasingly important
      for investigators to consider each enantiomer independently (Struys, 2013).
      Several methods for quantification of biochemically relevant enantiomers in
      general have been developed and typically include enzymatic assays using enzymes
      specific for one enantiomeric species or the other, the use of chiral
      chromatography medium to facilitate chromatographic separation of enantiomers
      prior to spectroscopy, or the use of chiral derivatization reagents to convert a
      mixture of enantiomers to diastereomers with differing physical and chemical
      properties facilitating their chromatographic separation. In this protocol, we
      report the adaptation of a previously published derivatization method using
      diacetyl-l-tartaric anhydride (DATAN) for the quantification of 2HG enantiomers
      (Figure 1) (Oldham et al., 2015; Struys et al., 2004).

PMID- 28573161
TI  - BODIPY 493/503 Staining of Neutral Lipid Droplets for Microscopy and
      Quantification by Flow Cytometry.
AB  - Lipid droplets (LDs) are ubiquitous, dynamic organelles and function as a storage
      depot for neutral lipids, including triglycerides and cholesterol esters (Walther
      and Farese, 2012). The movement of lipid species into and out of LDs impacts a
      variety of cellular processes, such as energy homeostasis, lipid-based signaling,
      and membrane homeostasis (Greenberg et al., 2011). For example, neutral lipid
      storage is enhanced upon increased synthesis or uptake of lipid species. On the
      other hand, extracellular signals can enhance the release of lipid species
      packaged within neutral LDs. Thus, the investigation of topics involving lipid
      metabolism may require the assessment of cellular neutral lipid content. In this
      protocol, we describe the use of the fluorescent neutral lipid dye 4,4-difluoro
      1,3,5,7,8-pentamethyl-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY 493/503) to
      facilitate quantification of neutral lipid content by flow cytometry and
      observation of LDs by microscopy.

PMID- 28573162
TI  - Measurement of Transferrin- and Non-transferrin-bound Iron Uptake by Mouse
      Tissues.
AB  - Iron in blood plasma is bound to its transport protein transferrin, which
      delivers iron to most tissues. In iron overload and certain pathological
      conditions, the carrying capacity of transferrin can become exceeded, giving rise
      to non-transferrin-bound iron, which is taken up preferentially by the liver,
      kidney, pancreas, and heart. The measurement of tissue transferrin- and non
      transferrin-bound iron (TBI and NTBI, respectively) uptake in vivo can be
      achieved via intravenous administration of 59Fe-labeled TBI or NTBI followed by
      gamma counting of various organs. Here we describe a detailed protocol for the
      measurement of TBI and NTBI uptake by mouse tissues.

PMID- 28573163
TI  - Non-radioactive in vitro PINK1 Kinase Assays Using Ubiquitin or Parkin as
      Substrate.
AB  - This protocol describes the in vitro phosphorylation of ubiquitin and Parkin by
      the kinase PINK1 using recombinant proteins. Both substrates, ubiquitin and
      Parkin, are phosphorylated at the conserved serine 65 residue (pS65-ubiquitin and
      pS65-Parkin). The protocol also includes the use of monomeric and K48- and K63
      linked poly-ubiquitin chains as alternative substrates. Although there are
      commercially available antibodies, we have not tested their performance in this
      assay since, but used validated antibodies from our laboratory. An alternative
      antibody-independent method, the use of phostag gels to detect pS65-ubiquitin and
      pS65-Parkin, is described in addition.

PMID- 28573164
TI  - Sulforhodamine B (SRB) Assay in Cell Culture to Investigate Cell Proliferation.
AB  - The SRB assay has been used since its development in 1990 (Skehan et al., 1990)
      to inexpensively conduct various screening assays to investigate cytotoxicity in
      cell based studies (Vichai and Kirtikara, 2006). This method relies on the
      property of SRB, which binds stoichiometrically to proteins under mild acidic
      conditions and then can be extracted using basic conditions; thus, the amount of
      bound dye can be used as a proxy for cell mass, which can then be extrapolated to
      measure cell proliferation. The protocol can be divided into four main steps:
      preparation of treatment, incubation of cells with treatment of choice, cell
      fixation and SRB staining, and absorbance measurement. This assay is limited to
      manual or semiautomatic screening, and can be used in an efficient and sensitive
      manner to test chemotherapeutic drugs or small molecules in adherent cells. It
      also has applications in evaluating the effects of gene expression modulation
      (knockdown, gene expression upregulation), as well as to study the effects of
      miRNA replacement on cell proliferation (Kasinski et al., 2015).

PMID- 28573165
TI  - Apparatus and General Methods for Exposing Rats to Audiogenic Stress.
AB  - Most organisms react innately to the sudden onset of environmental stimulation.
      Audiogenic or loud noise in rodents provides an effective threatening signal to
      study the central nervous circuits responsible for the elaboration of various
      responses typically elicited by threatening/stressful environmental stimulation.
      Audiogenic stress offers many advantages over other environmental stimulation,
      including exquisite control over timing, intensity, and frequency, using off-the
      shelf components that produce easily reproducible results. This protocol provides
      blueprints for the construction of sound attenuation chambers, the associated
      sound generation, amplification, and delivery equipment, and general procedures
      sufficient to elicit multimodal responses to loud noises in rodents.

PMID- 28573166
TI  - Halo Assay for Toxic Peptides and Other Compounds in Microorganisms.
AB  - : We describe an assay for determination of toxicity in S. cerevisiae involving
      spotting of a toxic peptide on a lawn of yeast cells. This assay may be
      generalized to determine toxicity of a variety of compounds by substituting a
      putative toxic compound in place of the peptide. The general protocol may also be
      used to determine toxicity of any small compound toward another microorganism by
      replacing S. cerevisiae with the target microbe and modifying growth conditions
      accordingly. BACKGROUND: Di-/tripeptides are one of the major sources of
      nitrogen, carbon, and amino acids for all organisms. Synthetic peptides
      containing a toxic amino acid residue provide an experimental approach to measure
      peptide transport and/or utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hydrolysis of
      internalized peptides by intracellular peptidases or proteases releases the toxic
      residue leading to an easily detectable zone (halo) of growth arrest on a lawn of
      cells plated in a Petri plate. For example, upon intracellular hydrolysis the
      toxic peptide Ala-Eth releases ethionine (Eth), a methionine antagonist which
      interferes with the incorporation of amino acids into proteins and with the
      normal methylation of DNA and other methylation pathways, thereby leading to cell
      death. When spotted onto a lawn of yeast cells, the transported dipeptide Ala-Eth
      will inhibit growth, and a clear 'halo' will form in the lawn of cells around the
      region where the Eth-containing toxic peptide is spotted (Figure 1A). The assay
      described here for determination of peptide toxicity in S. cerevisiae may be
      generalized as follows: (1) it may be modified to determine toxicity of any
      substrate by simply using a putative toxic compound in place of a peptide
      containing a toxic amino acid, or (2) it may be modified to determine toxicity of
      a substrate toward any microorganism by replacing S. cerevisiae in the assay with
      the target organism. It is a simple, inexpensive and relatively rapid method for
      determining substrate toxicities as modified for the specific organism and toxic
      moiety assayed.

PMID- 28573167
TI  - Preparation of Purified Gram-positive Bacterial Cell Wall and Detection in
      Placenta and Fetal Tissues.
AB  - Cell wall is a complex biopolymer on the surface of all Gram-positive bacteria.
      During infection, cell wall is recognized by the innate immune receptor Toll-like
      receptor 2 causing intense inflammation and tissue damage. In animal models, cell
      wall traffics from the blood stream to many organs in the body, including brain,
      heart, placenta and fetus. This protocol describes how to prepare purified cell
      wall from Streptococcus pneumoniae, detect its distribution in animal tissues,
      and study the tissue response using the placenta and fetal brain as examples.

PMID- 28573168
TI  - Analysis of in vivo Interaction between RNA Binding Proteins and Their RNA
      Targets by UV Cross-linking and Immunoprecipitation (CLIP) Method.
AB  - RNA metabolism is tightly controlled across different tissues and developmental
      stages, and its dysregulation is one of the molecular hallmarks of cancer.
      Through direct binding to specific sequence element(s), RNA binding proteins
      (RBPs) play a pivotal role in co- and post-transcriptional RNA regulatory events.
      We have recently demonstrated that, in pancreatic cancer cells, acquisition of a
      drug resistant (DR)-phenotype relied on upregulation of the polypyrimidine tract
      binding protein (PTBP1), which in turn is recruited to the pyruvate kinase pre
      mRNA and favors splicing of the oncogenic PKM2 variant. Herein, we describe a
      step-by-step protocol of the ultraviolet (UV) light cross-linking and
      immunoprecipitation (CLIP) method to determine the direct binding of a RBP to
      specific regions of its target RNAs in adherent human cell lines.

PMID- 28573169
TI  - Surface Inoculation and Quantification of Pseudomonas syringae Population in the
      Arabidopsis Leaf Apoplast.
AB  - Bacterial pathogens must enter the plant tissue in order to cause a successful
      infection. Foliar bacterial pathogens that are not able to directly penetrate the
      plant epidermis rely on wounds or natural openings to internalize leaves. This
      protocol describes a procedure to estimate the population size of Pseudomonas
      syringae in the leaf apoplast after surface inoculation of Arabidopsis rosettes.

PMID- 28573171
TI  - Topical lidocaine inhibits spasm during colonoscopy: a double-blind, randomized
      controlled trial (with video).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Topical peppermint oil prevents intestinal spasm, but
      can cause rebound spasm. Lidocaine hydrochloride, a local anesthetic, may work as
      an antispasmodic by blocking Na + channels. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the effect of topical lidocaine on the inhibition of colonic spasm
      during colonoscopy, compared with peppermint oil. PATIENTS AND METHODS:  A
      randomized, controlled double-blind trial was conducted in an academic endoscopy
      unit. Patients requiring endoscopic resection were randomly allocated to
      colonoscopy with topical administration of lidocaine (n = 30) or peppermint oil
      (n = 30). Similar vials containing different solutions were randomly numbered.
      Allocation was made based on the vial number. The solution used and the vial
      number were not revealed during the study. Two endoscopists performed all
      procedures using midazolam, without anticholinergic agents. When a pre-selected
      lesion was identified, the solution in the assigned vial was dispersed and the
      bowel observed for 5 minutes. The primary endpoint was the duration of spasm
      inhibition, and a secondary endpoint was the occurrence of rebound spasm stronger
      than before dispersion. RESULTS:  There were no significant differences in
      patient demographics. Spasm was inhibited in almost all patients in both groups,
      with a similar median duration (lidocaine 227 sec vs. peppermint 212.5 sec, P  =
      0.508). In contrast, rebound spasm occurred less frequently in the lidocaine
      group (lidocaine 7 % vs. peppermint 47 %, P  = 0.001). There were no adverse
      events or symptoms associated with administration of the solutions. CONCLUSIONS: 
      The inhibitory effect of lidocaine is not superior to peppermint oil. However,
      lidocaine significantly decreases the frequency of rebound spasms.

PMID- 28573172
TI  - Topical antispasmodics during colonoscopy: do they have a role?

PMID- 28573170
TI  - Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in the Elderly: An Experience at a Tertiary Care
      Hospital in Western Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of gallstone increases with increasing age. No studies
      have been reported in the elderly population with laparoscopic cholecystectomy
      from developing nations. The aim of this study was to compare perioperative
      outcomes of laparoscopic cholecystectomy between the elderly (>=60 years old) and
      the young (<60 years old). METHODS: From July 2015 to June 2016, a retrospective
      review of medical records of 78 elderly patients (>=60 years old) and 164 young
      patients (<60 years old) who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy was done. The
      patients' demographics and perioperative outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: Median
      ages were 65 years (range: 60-80) and 45 years (range: 21-59) for the elderly
      group and the young group. The majority of patients were female (62.8 and 72%).
      There were no significant differences in the conversion rate (9 and 7.9%, P =
      0.78), postoperative complications (17.9 and 14.6%, P = 0.50), and length of stay
      in the hospital (4 days for both groups, P = 0.35) between the two groups. There
      was no mortality in either of the groups. CONCLUSION: Our results of laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy in elderly patients are comparable with those in young patients.
      Therefore, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe even in the elderly population.

PMID- 28573173
TI  - Ex vivo experimental study on the Thulium laser system: new horizons for
      interventional endoscopy (with videos).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  The Thulium laser system (TLS) is an emerging
      interventional tool adopted in many surgical specialties. Its 2.0-MUm wavelength
      allows precise coagulation (0.2 - 0.4 mm in depth) and cutting, limiting the
      possibilities of collateral injuries. We tested the impact of the TLS for gastric
      endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) ex
      vivo in pigs. MATERIALS AND METHODS:   Ex vivo porcine stomach and esophagus
      models underwent 2 POEMs, and 3 ESDs (mean diameter 3.5 cm) with TLS using a 272
      um and a 365-um thick optical fibers. Both continuous and pulsed laser emission
      were evaluated. Subsequent histopathological analysis was performed by an expert
      GI pathologist on the whole porcine models. RESULTS:  Complete POEMs and gastric
      ESDs were successfully performed in all cases in 30 to 70 and 15 to 20 minutes.
      Both optical fibers were equally effective and precise. The best power output for
      mucosal incision was 25 to 30 W during ESD and 25 W for POEM using continuous
      laser emission. During submucosal dissection and tunneling the favorite power
      output was 20 W and 15 to 20 W, respectively, operating in continuous mode. No
      transmural perforation occurred throughout the operations and histopathology
      confirmed the absence of accidental muscular layer damage. CONCLUSIONS:  The TLS
      stands out as a precise and manageable instrument in ex vivo models. This
      technique appears to be a promising tool for advanced interventional endoscopy.

PMID- 28573174
TI  - Optimal intake of clear liquids during preparation for afternoon colonoscopy with
      low-volume polyethylene glycol plus ascorbic acid.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS : The standard colonoscopy preparation regimen in Japan
      for afternoon procedures is sequential intake of 1 L of polyethylene glycol
      electrolyte lavage solution containing ascorbic acid (PEG-ASC), 0.5 L of clear
      liquid, 0.5 L of PEG-ASC, and finally 0.25 L of clear fluids (all at a rate of
      0.25 L every 15 min). However, this regimen seems poorly tolerated and
      complicated for many patients compared to previous regimen of polyethylene glycol
      electrolyte lavage solution. The aim of this study was to evaluate an alternate
      regimen of 0.5 L of PEG-ASC followed by 0.25 L clear liquids, repeated 3 times.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS : This was a single-blinded, non-inferiority, randomized
      controlled study. Subjects were randomized to the standard regimen or the
      alternate regimen using a web-based registry system. All patients were instructed
      to eat a pre-packaged, low residue diet and to take sodium picosulfate hydrate
      the day before colonoscopy. The Boston Bowel Preparation Scale was used to
      evaluate bowel cleansing, and a 3-point scale was used to assess mucosal
      visibility. The primary endpoint was successful bowel cleansing. The
      acceptability, tolerability, safety, and endoscopic findings of these two
      regimens were secondary endpoints. RESULTS:  A total of 409 patients were
      randomized to either the standard regimen (n = 204, males 54.0 %, mean age 65.5
      years) or the alternate regimen (n = 205, 54.6 %, 65.0 years). The rates of
      successful bowel cleansing were 71.1 % (64.3 - 77.2 %) with the standard regimen
      vs. 75.1 % (68.6 - 80.9 %) with the alternate regimen (95 % lower confidence
      limit, for the difference = - 4.6, non-inferiority P  < 0.05). No significant
      differences were found in tolerability, safety, and endoscopic findings.
      CONCLUSION:  The alternate regimen and standard regimen are clinically equivalent
      with respect to cleansing efficacy and acceptability, tolerability, safety, and
      endoscopic findings. These results are good news for patients with difficulty
      drinking the first liter of PEG-ASC.

PMID- 28573175
TI  - Lubiprostone improves visualization of small bowel for capsule endoscopy: a
      double-blind, placebo-controlled 2-way crossover study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Lubiprostone has been reported to be an anti
      constipation drug. The aim of the study was to investigate the usefulness of
      lubiprostone both for bowel preparation and as a propulsive agent in small bowel
      endoscopy. PATIENTS AND METHODS:  This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2
      way crossover study of subjects who volunteered to undergo capsule endoscopy
      (CE). A total of 20 subjects (16 male and 4 female volunteers) were randomly
      assigned to receive a 24-MUg tablet of lubiprostone 120 minutes prior to capsule
      ingestion for CE (L regimen), or a placebo tablet 120 minutes prior to capsule
      ingestion for CE (P regimen). Main outcome was gastric transit time (GTT) and
      small-bowel transit time (SBTT). Secondary outcome was adequacy of small-bowel
      cleansing and the fluid score in the small bowel. The quality of the capsule
      endoscopic images and fluid in the small bowel were assessed on 5-point scale.
      RESULTS:  The capsule passed into the small bowel in all cases. Median GTT was
      57.3 (3 - 221) minutes for the P regimen and 61.3 (10 - 218) minutes for the L
      regimen ( P  = 0.836). Median SBTT was 245.0 (164 - 353) minutes for the P
      regimen and 228.05 (116 - 502) minutes for the L regimen ( P  = 0.501). The image
      quality score in the small bowel was 3.05 +/- 1.08 for the P regimen and 3.80 +/-
      0.49 for the L regimen ( P  < 0.001). The fluid score in the small bowel was 2.04
      +/- 1.58 for the P regimen and 2.72 +/- 1.43 for the L regimen ( P  < 0.001).
      There was a significant difference between the 2 regimens with regard to image
      quality. The fluid score was more plentiful for the L regimen than for the P
      regimen. There were no cases of capsule retention or serious adverse events in
      this study. CONCLUSION:  Our study showed that use of lubiprostone prior to CE
      significantly improved visualization of the small bowel during CE as a result of
      inducing fluid secretion into the small bowel.

PMID- 28573177
TI  - Efficacy and safety of a combination of hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and
      poloxamer 407 as a submucosal injection solution for endoscopic resection: pilot
      study on a swine model.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS:  Endoscopic resection techniques require use of submucosal
      injection. The aim of this study was to assess a new solution that combines
      hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and poloxamer 407 for submucosal injection.
      METHODS:  A total of 48 gastric submucosal cushions were created in fresh porcine
      stomachs using gelafundin (n = 16) or the new solution diluted at 50 % (n = 16),
      or 80 % (n = 16). The duration of mucosal elevation was measured. In an in vivo
      model, 10 gastric submucosal cushions were created by injecting 2 mL of the new
      solution at 80 % and the animal was euthanized 30 minutes after the last
      injection. RESULTS:  Submucosal cushions with the new solution at 80 % and 50 %
      concentration lasted longer than with gelafundin (23.13 +/- 15.57, 13.1 +/- 6.6,
      3.94 +/- 1.53 minutes, respectively; P  = 0.000). In the in vivo study, no damage
      or necrosis was observed in the mucosa or muscularis propria. CONCLUSION:  The
      combination of hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and poloxamer 407 produces a
      long-lasting submucosal cushion and does not seem to induce acute damage in the
      tissue making it suitable for submucosal injection.

PMID- 28573176
TI  - Recurrence of intestinal metaplasia and early neoplasia after endoscopic
      eradication therapy for Barrett's esophagus: a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  Conflicting data exist with regard to recurrence rates of intestinal
      metaplasia (IM) and dysplasia after achieving complete eradication of intestinal
      metaplasia (CE-IM) in Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients. AIM:  (i) To determine
      the incidence of recurrent IM and dysplasia achieving CE-IM and (ii) to compare
      recurrence rates between treatment modalities [radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with
      or without endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) vs stepwise complete EMR (SRER)].
      METHODS:  A systematic search was performed for studies reporting on outcomes and
      estimates of recurrence rates after achieving CE-IM. Pooled incidence [per 100
      patient-years (PY)] and risk ratios with 95 %CI were obtained. Heterogeneity was
      measured using the I2 statistic. Subgroup analyses, decided a priori, were
      performed to explore heterogeneity in results. RESULTS:  A total of 39 studies
      were identified (25-RFA, 13-SRER, and 2 combined). The pooled incidence of any
      recurrence was 7.5 (95 %CI 6.1 - 9.0)/100 PY with a pooled incidence of IM
      recurrence rate of 4.8 (95 %CI 3.8 - 5.9)/100 PY, and dysplasia recurrence rate
      of 2.0 (95 %CI 1.5 - 2.5)/100 PY. Compared to the SRER group, the RFA group had
      significantly higher overall [8.6 (6.7 - 10.5)/100 PY vs. 5.1 (3.1 - 7)/100 PY, P
      = 0.01] and IM recurrence rates [5.8 (4.3 - 7.3)/100 PY vs. 3.1 (1.7 - 4)/100
      PY, P  < 0.01] with no difference in recurrence rates of dysplasia. Significant
      heterogeneity between studies was identified. The majority of recurrences were
      amenable to repeat endoscopic eradication therapy (EET). CONCLUSION:  The results
      of this study demonstrate that the incidence rates of overall, IM, and dysplasia
      recurrence rates post-EET are not inconsiderable and reinforce the importance of
      close surveillance after achieving CE-IM.

PMID- 28573178
TI  - Endoscopic esophagogastric anastomosis with luminal apposition Axios stent (LAS)
      approach: a new concept for hybrid "Lewis Santy".
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Esophagogastric anastomosis (EGA) has a high risk of
      leakage. Based upon our experience in endoscopic gastrojejunal anastomosis using
      LAS, the aim of this study was to verify the technical feasibility and the safety
      of performing an EGA using a hybrid approach (endoscopic and surgical). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS:  A pilot prospective study was performed on 8 survival pigs. The
      procedure was carried out in 2 stages: (i) surgical step consisting of an
      esogastrectomy by laparotomy with separated suture of the esophagus and stomach;
      (ii) endoscopic esophagogastric anastomosis using the LAS. The first 2 pigs
      allowed for the setting of the 2 steps procedure, and 6 were included in the
      study for assessing the efficacy and safety of the procedure with a 3-week
      survival course. The primary endpoint was morbidity and mortality. RESULTS:  All
      procedures were successfull. The mean operative time was 98 minutes, with a mean
      endoscopic time of 46 minutes. Three early deaths occurred within the first
      weeks, unrelated to the LAS anastomosis. At 3 weeks, endoscopic assessment
      followed by necropsy demonstrated the right position and the endoscopic
      removability of the stent with good patency of the esophagogastric anastomosis,
      without leakage of the endoscopic suture. Pathological examination confirmed the
      patency of the anastomosis with fusion of mucosal and muscle layers. CONCLUSION: 
      Endoscopic esophagogastric anastomosis with LAS is feasible and reproducible,
      without anastomotic leakage. It could be a new alternative to perform safe
      anastomoses, as part of a hybrid approach (surgical and endoscopic).

PMID- 28573180
TI  - Retrospective analysis of large bowel obstruction or perforation caused by oral
      preparation for colonoscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Patients undergoing bowel preparation for colonoscopy
      are at risk of potentially severe adverse events such as large-bowel obstruction
      (LBO) and perforation. These patients usually need emergency surgery and the
      consequences may be fatal. Little is known about the risk factors for LBO and
      perforation in these circumstances. We sought to establish the natural history of
      LBO and perforation caused by oral preparation for colonoscopy. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS:  We retrospectively analyzed data from 20 patients with LBO or
      perforation associated with oral preparation for colonoscopy. All patients were
      treated at the Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital (SUNYH) between April
      2001 and December 2015. Drugs used for bowel preparation, age, sex, indication
      for colonoscopy, pathogenesis and treatment were recorded. RESULTS:  Eighteen of
      the patients had LBO and 2 had perforation. Fourteen events occurred at SUNYH,
      which accounted for 0.016 % of patients who underwent bowel preparation during
      this period. Seventeen patients were symptomatic when the decision to undertake
      colonoscopy was made (including 7 who complained of constipation and 4 who
      complained of abdominal pain; 3e were asymptomatic). Nineteen patients ultimately
      required surgery, 13 within 3 days of presentation. Eleven patients ultimately
      required colostomy. There was no perioperative mortality in our cases.
      CONCLUSION:  Large bowel obstruction and perforation are rare events associated
      with oral preparation for colonoscopy, but frequently require surgery.
      Exacerbation of constipation might be a risk factor for LBO or perforation.
      Potentially catastrophic situations can be avoided by early detection and
      treatment.

PMID- 28573179
TI  - Small bowel malignancy in patients undergoing capsule endoscopy at a tertiary
      care academic center: Case series and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS : Small bowel cancer is rare, accounting for < 5 % of
      all gastrointestinal neoplasms. Capsule endoscopy has become the procedure of
      choice for non-invasive diagnosis of small bowel diseases. Data on capsule
      endoscopy diagnosis of small bowel cancer are limited. The objective of the study
      was to determine the frequency, indications and diagnostic work-up of patients
      with small bowel malignancy found by capsule endoscopy at a Scottish tertiary
      center. PATIENTS AND METHODS : In this retrospective study, records all patients
      who underwent small bowel capsule endoscopy at our center over a 10-year period
      were reviewed for possible malignancy. Further data were gathered on preceding
      and subsequent investigations, management and outcome of these patients. RESULTS
      : From 1949 studies, small bowel malignancies were diagnosed in only 7 patients
      (0.36 %; 2F/5M; median age 50, range 34 - 67). The main indication was iron
      deficiency anemia (n = 5). Prior to capsule endoscopy, 6 of 7 patients had
      bidirectional endoscopies and one had gastroscopy. All prior investigations were
      normal or nondiagnostic. Two of 7 experienced capsule retention. Five of 7
      underwent surgery. Four patients died, giving a 5-year survival rate of 42.9 %.
      CONCLUSION:  Small bowel malignancies diagnosed by capsule endoscopy are rare,
      and the median age of 50 indicates they are more common in relatively younger
      patients. Capsule endoscopy is effective at diagnosing a rare malignancy when
      other imaging modalities have failed.

PMID- 28573181
TI  - Rings in the esophagus are not always eosinophilic esophagitis: Case series of
      ring forming lymphocytic esophagitis and review of the literature.
AB  - Background and study aims  Lymphocytic esophagitis (LyE) is a form of chronic
      esophagitis characterized by edema and lymphocytic infiltration of the epithelial
      peripapillary fields, without eosinophils. Its significance is unclear, as it was
      previously thought to have little clinical impact. More recent literature,
      however, describes a paradigm shift suggesting a distinct entity. We report on 3
      patients with dysphagia who were found to have esophageal rings on endoscopy.
      Histology was consistent with LyE. Additional features reported in this cohort
      included an esophageal web, esophageal pseudodiverticula and esophageal erythema.
      We also report a current literature review of the topic. The literature review
      reported here includes another 37 patients with LyE and rings, for a total of 40
      patients. Patients with LyE may present with esophageal rings and other findings.
      LyE should be considered in the differential diagnosis of esophageal rings.

PMID- 28573182
TI  - Cecum intubation rate as quality indicator in clinical versus screening
      colonoscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS : Some guidelines recommend a minimum standard of 90 %
      cecal intubation rate (CIR) in routine clinics and 95 % in screening colonoscopy,
      while others have not made this distinction - both with limited evidence to
      support either view. This study questions the rationale for making such
      differentiation. PATIENTS AND METHODS:  We assessed cecum intubation rates
      amongst colonoscopies recorded in the Norwegian national quality register
      Gastronet by 35 endoscopists performing both clinical and screening
      colonoscopies. Colonoscopies were categorized into primary screening colonoscopy,
      work-up colonoscopy of screen-positives and clinical colonoscopy or surveillance.
      Cases with insufficient bowel preparation or mechanical obstruction were
      excluded. Endoscopists were categorized into "junior" and "senior" endoscopists
      depending on training and experience. Univariable and multivariable logistic
      regression analyses were applied. RESULTS : During a 2-year period, 10,267
      colonoscopies were included (primary screening colonoscopy: 746; work-up
      colonoscopy of screen-positives: 2,604; clinical colonoscopy or surveillance:
      6917). The crude CIR in clinical routine colonoscopy, primary screening
      colonoscopy and work-up colonoscopy was 97.1 %, 97.1 % and 98.6 %, respectively.
      In a multiple logistic regression analysis, there were no differences in CIR
      between the 3 groups. Poor bowel cleansing and female sex were independent
      predictors for intubation failure. CONCLUSION : Cecal intubation rate in clinical
      colonoscopies and colonoscopy screening are similar. There is no reason to
      differentiate between screening and clinical colonoscopy with regard to CIR.

PMID- 28573183
TI  - Fiducial markers coupled with 3D PET/CT offer more accurate radiation treatment
      delivery for locally advanced esophageal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS:  The role of three-dimensional positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography (3 D PET/CT) in esophageal tumors that move with
      respiration and have potential for significant mucosal inflammation is unclear.
      The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between gross tumor
      volumes derived from 3 D PET/CT and endoscopically placed fiducial markers.
      METHODS:  This was a retrospective, IRB approved analysis of 40 patients with
      esophageal cancer with fiducials implanted and PET/CT. The centroid of each
      fiducial was identified on PET/CT images. Distance between tumor volume and
      fiducials was measured using axial slices. Image features were extracted and
      tested for pathologic response predictability. RESULTS:  The median adaptively
      calculated threshold value of the standardized uptake value (SUV) to define the
      metabolic tumor volume (MTV) border was 2.50, which corresponded to a median 23 %
      of the maximum SUV. The median distance between the inferior fiducial centroid
      and MTV was - 0.60 cm (- 3.9 to 2.7 cm). The median distance between the superior
      fiducial centroid and MTV was 1.25 cm (- 4.2 to 6.9 cm). There was no correlation
      between MTV-to-fiducial distances greater than 2 cm and the gastroenterologist
      who performed the fiducial implantation. Eccentricity demonstrated statistically
      significant correlations with pathologic response. CONCLUSIONS:  There was a
      stronger correlation between inferior fiducial location and MTV border compared
      to the superior extent. The etiology of the discordance superiorly is unclear,
      potentially representing benign secondary esophagitis, presence of malignant
      nodes, inflammation caused by technical aspects of the fiducial placement itself,
      or potential submucosal disease. Given the concordance inferiorly and the ability
      to more precisely set up the patient with daily image guidance matching to
      fiducials, it may be possible to minimize the planning tumor volume (PTV) margin
      in select patients, thereby, limiting dose to normal structures.

PMID- 28573184
TI  - A Comparative Study of Replication-Incompetent and -Competent Adenoviral Therapy
      Mediated Immune Response in a Murine Glioma Model.
AB  - Oncolytic virotherapy is a treatment approach with increasing clinical relevance,
      as indicated by the marked survival benefit seen in animal models and its current
      exploration in human patients with cancer. The use of an adenovirus vector for
      this therapeutic modality is common, has significant clinical benefit in animals,
      and its efficacy has recently been linked to an anti-tumor immune response that
      occurs following tumor antigen presentation. Here, we analyzed the adaptive
      immune system's response following viral infection by comparing replication
      incompetent and replication-competent adenoviral vectors. Our findings suggest
      that cell death caused by replication-competent adenoviral vectors is required to
      induce a significant anti-tumor immune response and survival benefits in
      immunocompetent mice bearing intracranial glioma. We observed significant changes
      in the repertoire of immune cells in the brain and draining lymph nodes and
      significant recruitment of CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs) in response to oncolytic
      adenoviral therapy, suggesting the active role of the immune system in anti-tumor
      response. Our data suggest that the response to oncolytic virotherapy is
      accompanied by local and systemic immune responses and should be taken in
      consideration in the future design of the clinical studies evaluating oncolytic
      virotherapy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

PMID- 28573185
TI  - HCV T Cell Receptor Chain Modifications to Enhance Expression, Pairing, and
      Antigen Recognition in T Cells for Adoptive Transfer.
AB  - T cell receptor (TCR)-gene-modified T cells for adoptive cell transfer can
      mediate objective clinical responses in melanoma and other malignancies. When
      introducing a second TCR, mispairing between the endogenous and introduced alpha
      and beta TCR chains limits expression of the introduced TCR, which can result in
      impaired efficacy or off-target reactivity and autoimmunity. One approach to
      promote proper TCR chain pairing involves modifications of the introduced TCR
      genes: introducing a disulfide bridge, substituting murine for human constant
      regions, codon optimization, TCR chain leucine zipper fusions, and a single-chain
      TCR. We have introduced these modifications into our hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      reactive TCR and utilize a marker gene, CD34t, which allows us to directly
      compare transduction efficiency with TCR expression and T cell function. Our
      results reveal that of the TCRs tested, T cells expressing the murine Cbeta2 TCR
      or leucine zipper TCR have the highest levels of expression and the highest
      percentage of lytic and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-producing T cells. Our
      studies give us a better understanding of how TCR modifications impact TCR
      expression and T cell function that may allow for optimization of TCR-modified T
      cells for adoptive cell transfer to treat patients with malignancies.

PMID- 28573186
TI  - Lifelong Prophylaxis With Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole for Prevention of
      Outbreak of Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Kidney Transplant Recipients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outbreaks of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) in kidney
      transplant recipients are frequently reported worldwide. However, the general
      guidelines propose only short-term prophylaxis with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole
      after kidney transplantation. We experienced 3 PCP outbreaks in the last 10 years
      despite providing the recommended prophylaxis. The purpose of this study was to
      find a prophylaxis regimen that could successfully prevent future PCP outbreaks
      in immunosuppressed kidney transplant recipients. METHODS: Occurrence of PCP at
      our hospital since 2004 was reviewed. A total of 48 cases were diagnosed from
      July 2004 through December 2014. Genotypes of P. jirovecii were determined in
      these cases. RESULTS: Three PCP outbreaks by 3 different genotypes of P.
      jirovecii in each outbreak occurred with 2-year intervals in last 10 years.
      Molecular analysis showed that each intraoutbreak was caused by identical P.
      jirovecii, whereas interoutbreaks were caused by different genotypes. Although
      short-term prophylaxis was provided to all kidney recipients after each outbreak
      after identification of a single PCP case, additional outbreaks were not
      prevented because the universal prophylaxis had already been completed when new
      case of PCP emerged. CONCLUSIONS: The contagious nature of P. jirovecii allows
      easy development of outbreaks of PCP in immunosuppressed kidney transplant
      recipients. Although the universal short-term prophylaxis is effective in
      controlling ongoing outbreak, lifelong prophylaxis of kidney transplant
      recipients should be considered to prevent new outbreaks.

PMID- 28573187
TI  - The Risk of Transplant Failure With HLA Mismatch in First Adult Kidney Allografts
      2: Living Donors, Summary, Guide.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allografts from living donors survive longer than those from deceased
      donors but the role of HLA mismatching in living kidney donation is still in
      question. We examined the effect of HLA compatibility on kidney allograft
      survival from living donors by studying all first adult kidney transplants
      performed in the United States over 25 years. METHODS: Using the United Network
      for Organ Sharing data, we identified first kidney transplants between October 1,
      1987, and December 31, 2013. Recipients were classified by their number of HLA
      mismatches and stratified by donor origin. Cox multivariate regression analyses
      adjusting for recipient and donor transplant characteristics were performed to
      determine impact of HLA compatibility on kidney allograft survival for all living
      donors and for living related and living unrelated subsets. RESULTS: There were
      66 596 first adult transplants from living donors with 348 960 years of follow
      up. We found a linear relationship between HLA mismatch and allograft survival.
      In adjusted analyses, among all living donors, 1 mismatch conferred a 44% higher
      risk, whereas 6 mismatches conferred a twofold higher risk of allograft failure.
      When using 0-mismatched full siblings as a reference, living-donor kidneys reduce
      the hazard of failure by approximately 34% when compared with deceased donors.
      Twenty-five years of transplant experience, stratified by donor source, was
      summarized and presented as a guide for allocation. CONCLUSIONS: These data
      reinforce the importance of optimizing HLA matching to further improve survival
      in first adult kidney allografts in the future, especially in living unrelated
      donations, when possible.

PMID- 28573188
TI  - A Hyper-Crosslinked Carbohydrate Polymer Scaffold Facilitates Lineage Commitment
      and Maintains a Reserve Pool of Proliferating Cardiovascular Progenitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular progenitor cells (CPCs) have been cultured on various
      scaffolds to resolve the challenge of cell retention after transplantation and to
      improve functional outcome after cell-based cardiac therapy. Previous studies
      have reported successful culture of fully differentiated cardiomyocytes on
      scaffolds of various types, and ongoing efforts are focused on optimizing the mix
      of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells as well as on the identification of a
      source of progenitors capable of reversing cardiovascular damage. A scaffold
      culture that fosters cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes and endothelial
      cells while maintaining a progenitor reserve would benefit allogeneic cell
      transplantation. METHODS: Isl-1 + c-Kit + CPCs were isolated as clonal
      populations from human and sheep heart tissue. After hyper-crosslinked
      carbohydrate polymer scaffold culture, cells were assessed for differentiation,
      intracellular signaling, cell cycling, and growth factor/chemokine expression
      using real time polymerase chain reaction, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry,
      and calcium staining. RESULTS: Insulin-like growth factor 1, hepatocyte growth
      factor, and stromal cell derived factor 1alpha paracrine factors were induced,
      protein kinase B signaling was activated, extracellular signal-regulated kinase
      phosphorylation was reduced and differentiation into both cardiomyocytes and
      endothelial cells was induced by scaffold-based cell culture. Interestingly,
      movement of CPCs out of the G1 phase of the cell cycle and increased expression
      of pluripotency genes PLOU5F1 (Oct4) and T (Brachyury) within a portion of the
      cultured population occurred, which suggests the maintenance of a progenitor
      population. Two-color immunostaining and 3-color fluorescence-activated cell
      sorting analysis confirmed the presence of both Isl-1 expressing undifferentiated
      cells and differentiated cells identified by troponin T and von Willebrand factor
      expression. Ki-67 labeling verified the presence of proliferating cells that
      remained in situ alongside the differentiated functional derivatives.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cloned Isl-1 + c-kit + CPCs maintained on a hyper-cross linked
      polymer scaffold retain dual potential for proliferation and differentiation,
      providing a scaffold-based stem cell source for transplantation of committed and
      proliferating cardiovascular progenitors for functional testing in preclinical
      models of cell-based repair.

PMID- 28573189
TI  - Outcome in Pancreas Grafts After BK Virus Viremia in Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney
      Transplants: A Single-Center Case Report.

PMID- 28573190
TI  - Randomized Trial of Machine Perfusion Versus Cold Storage in Recipients of
      Deceased Donor Kidney Transplants With High Incidence of Delayed Graft Function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compared the use of static cold storage versus continuous
      hypothermic machine perfusion in a cohort of kidney transplant recipients at high
      risk for delayed graft function (DGF). METHODS: In this national, multicenter,
      and controlled trial, 80 pairs of kidneys recovered from brain-dead deceased
      donors were randomized to cold storage or machine perfusion, transplanted, and
      followed up for 12 months. The primary endpoint was the incidence of DGF.
      Secondary endpoints included the duration of DGF, hospital stay, primary
      nonfunction, estimated glomerular filtration rate, acute rejection, and allograft
      and patient survivals. RESULTS: Mean cold ischemia time was high but not
      different between the 2 groups (25.6 +/- 6.6 hours vs 25.05 +/- 6.3 hours,
      0.937). The incidence of DGF was lower in the machine perfusion compared with
      cold storage group (61% vs. 45%, P = 0.031). Machine perfusion was independently
      associated with a reduced risk of DGF (odds ratio, 0.49; 95% confidence interval,
      0.26-0.95). Mean estimated glomerular filtration rate tended to be higher at day
      28 (40.6 +/- 19.9 mL/min per 1.73 m2 vs 49.0 +/- 26.9 mL/min per 1.73 m2; P =
      0.262) and 1 year (48.3 +/- 19.8 mL/min per 1.73 m2 vs 54.4 +/- 28.6 mL/min per
      1.73 m2; P = 0.201) in the machine perfusion group. No differences in the
      incidence of acute rejection, primary nonfunction (0% vs 2.5%), graft loss (7.5%
      vs 10%), or death (8.8% vs 6.3%) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of
      recipients of deceased donor kidneys with high mean cold ischemia time and high
      incidence of DGF, the use of continuous machine perfusion was associated with a
      reduced risk of DGF compared with the traditional cold storage preservation
      method.

PMID- 28573193
TI  - Miraculous Chemistry on the Han River.

PMID- 28573192
TI  - Modeling the Effect of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor on Transplant Immunity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to pollutants through inhalation is a risk factor for lung
      diseases including cancer, asthma, and lung transplant rejection, but knowledge
      of the effects of inhaled pollutants on pathologies outside of the lung is
      limited. METHODS: Using the minor-mismatched model of male C57BL/6J (B6) to
      female B6 skin grafts, recipient mice were treated with an inhaled urban dust
      particle sample every 3 days before and after grafting. Graft survival time was
      determined, and analysis of the resulting immune response was performed at time
      before rejection. RESULTS: Significant prolongation of male skin grafts occurred
      in recipient female mice treated with urban dust particles compared with controls
      and was found to be dependent on aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) expression in
      the recipient mouse. T cell responses to the male histocompatibility antigen (H
      Y) Dby were not altered by exposure to pollutants. A reduction in the frequency
      of IFNgamma-producing CD4 T cells infiltrating the graft on day 7 posttransplant
      was observed. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that AHR expression is upregulated
      in IFNgamma-producing CD4 T cells during immune responses in vitro and in vivo.
      CONCLUSIONS: Surprisingly, inhalation of a pollutant standard was found to
      prolong graft survival in a minor-mismatched skin graft model in an AHR-dependent
      manner. One possible mechanism may be an effect on IFNgamma-producing CD4 T cells
      responding to donor antigen. The increased expression of AHR in this CD4 T cell
      subset suggests that AHR ligands within the particulate matter may be directly
      affecting the type 1 T helper cell response in this model.

PMID- 28573191
TI  - Invasive Candida Infections in Liver Transplant Recipients: Clinical Features and
      Risk Factors for Mortality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Invasive fungal infections remain a leading cause of morbidity and
      mortality among liver transplant recipients (LTRs). In this patient population,
      invasive Candida infections (ICIs) account for the large majority of cases. To
      date, only small studies and case-series analysing clinical presentation and risk
      factors for mortality in LTRs with ICIs are available. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective multicenter multinational study in 10 centers in Europe and Brazil.
      All consecutive LTRs developing ICIs during the period January 2011 to December
      2013 were included in the study. RESULTS: A total of 42 LTRs were included.
      Median age was 52.5 years, and 78.6% of patients were men. Viral hepatitis was
      the most common cause for liver transplantation (42.9%). Candidemia represented
      the majority of cases (24, 57.1%), followed by intra-abdominal candidiasis (18,
      42.9%). Overall 30-day mortality was 23.8%, with higher mortality in patients
      with candidemia compared with intra-abdominal candidiasis (37.5% vs 5.6%, P =
      0.02). Multivariate analysis showed candidemia to be a risk factor associated
      with mortality among LTRs presenting ICIs (odds ratio, 11.86; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.5-280; P = 0.01). Candida albicans represented the most common
      isolate (59.5%). High rates of antifungal resistances were found, with 16.7% and
      4.8% of isolates displaying resistance to azoles and caspofungin, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirms the occurrence of high mortality rates in LTRs
      developing ICIs. Mortality rates varied according to the type of infection, with
      candidemia representing a risk factor for mortality. The high rates of antifungal
      resistance should be considered in the choice of the empiric antifungal regimen.

PMID- 28573194
TI  - A Conversation with Peter Hore.

PMID- 28573195
TI  - Tiny Temperature Sensors.

PMID- 28573196
TI  - Enhancing the Catalytic Activity in the Solid State: Metal-Organic Frameworks to
      the Rescue.

PMID- 28573197
TI  - An Electric Field Induced Breath for Metal-Organic Frameworks.

PMID- 28573198
TI  - Concerted One-Electron Two-Proton Transfer Processes in Models Inspired by the
      Tyr-His Couple of Photosystem II.
AB  - Nature employs a TyrZ-His pair as a redox relay that couples proton transfer to
      the redox process between P680 and the water oxidizing catalyst in photosystem
      II. Artificial redox relays composed of different benzimidazole-phenol dyads
      (benzimidazole models His and phenol models Tyr) with substituents designed to
      simulate the hydrogen bond network surrounding the TyrZ-His pair have been
      prepared. When the benzimidazole substituents are strong proton acceptors such as
      primary or tertiary amines, theory predicts that a concerted two proton transfer
      process associated with the electrochemical oxidation of the phenol will take
      place. Also, theory predicts a decrease in the redox potential of the phenol by
      ~300 mV and a small kinetic isotope effect (KIE). Indeed, electrochemical,
      spectroelectrochemical, and KIE experimental data are consistent with these
      predictions. Notably, these results were obtained by using theory to guide the
      rational design of artificial systems and have implications for managing proton
      activity to optimize efficiency at energy conversion sites involving water
      oxidation and reduction.

PMID- 28573199
TI  - Combinatorial Discovery of Defined Substrates That Promote a Stem Cell State in
      Malignant Melanoma.
AB  - The tumor microenvironment is implicated in orchestrating cancer cell
      transformation and metastasis. However, specific cell-ligand interactions between
      cancer cells and the extracellular matrix are difficult to decipher due to a
      dynamic and multivariate presentation of many signaling molecules. Here we report
      a versatile peptide microarray platform that is capable of screening for cancer
      cell phenotypic changes in response to ligand-receptor interactions. Using a
      screen of 78 peptide combinations derived from proteins present in the melanoma
      microenvironment, we identify a proteoglycan binding and bone morphogenic protein
      7 (BMP7) derived sequence that selectively promotes the expression of several
      putative melanoma initiating cell markers. We characterize signaling associated
      with each of these peptides in the activation of melanoma pro-tumorigenic
      signaling and reveal a role for proteoglycan mediated adhesion and signaling
      through Smad 2/3. A defined substratum that controls the state of malignant
      melanoma may prove useful in spatially normalizing a heterogeneous population of
      tumor cells for discovery of therapeutics that target a specific state and for
      identifying new drug targets and reagents for intervention.

PMID- 28573200
TI  - Electrically Induced Breathing of the MIL-53(Cr) Metal-Organic Framework.
AB  - The breathing behavior of the MIL-53(Cr) metal-organic framework (MOF) has been
      explored previously upon guest-adsorption and thermal and mechanical stimuli.
      Here, advanced molecular simulations based on the use of an accurate force field
      to describe the flexibility of this porous framework demonstrate that the
      application of an electrical field induces the structural switching of this MOF
      leading to a first-order transition and a volume change of more than 40%. This
      motivated us to electrically tune the pore size of MIL-53(Cr) with the idea to
      propose a new concept to selectively capture CO2 over CH4 via a molecular sieving
      that paves the way toward the optimization of current separation-based processes.

PMID- 28573201
TI  - Materials Genomics Screens for Adaptive Ion Transport Behavior by Redox
      Switchable Microporous Polymer Membranes in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
AB  - Selective ion transport across membranes is critical to the performance of many
      electrochemical energy storage devices. While design strategies enabling ion
      selective transport are well-established, enhancements in membrane selectivity
      are made at the expense of ionic conductivity. To design membranes with both high
      selectivity and high ionic conductivity, there are cues to follow from biological
      systems, where regulated transport of ions across membranes is achieved by
      transmembrane proteins. The transport functions of these proteins are sensitive
      to their environment: physical or chemical perturbations to that environment are
      met with an adaptive response. Here we advance an analogous strategy for
      achieving adaptive ion transport in microporous polymer membranes. Along the
      polymer backbone are placed redox-active switches that are activated in situ, at
      a prescribed electrochemical potential, by the device's active materials when
      they enter the membrane's pore. This transformation has little influence on the
      membrane's ionic conductivity; however, the active-material blocking ability of
      the membrane is enhanced. We show that when used in lithium-sulfur batteries,
      these membranes offer markedly improved capacity, efficiency, and cycle-life by
      sequestering polysulfides in the cathode. The origins and implications of this
      behavior are explored in detail and point to new opportunities for responsive
      membranes in battery technology development.

PMID- 28573202
TI  - Rich Dynamics Underlying Solution Reactions Revealed by Sampling and Data Mining
      of Reactive Trajectories.
AB  - Efficient sampling in both configuration and trajectory spaces, combined with
      mechanism analyses via data mining, allows a systematic investigation of the
      thermodynamics, kinetics, and molecular-detailed dynamics of chemical reactions
      in solution. Through a Bayesian learning algorithm, the reaction coordinate(s) of
      a (retro-)Claisen rearrangement in bulk water was variationally optimized. The
      bond formation/breakage was found to couple with intramolecular charge separation
      and dipole change, and significant dynamic solvent effects manifest, leading to
      the "in-water" acceleration of Claisen rearrangement. In addition, the
      vibrational modes of the reactant and the solvation states are significantly
      coupled to the reaction dynamics, leading to heterogeneous and oscillatory
      reaction paths. The calculated reaction rate is well interpreted by the Kramers'
      theory with a diffusion term accounting for solvent-solute interactions. These
      findings demonstrated that the reaction mechanisms can be complicated in
      homogeneous solutions since the solvent-solute interactions can profoundly
      influence the reaction dynamics and the energy transfer process.

PMID- 28573203
TI  - Influence of Vapor Deposition on Structural and Charge Transport Properties of
      Ethylbenzene Films.
AB  - Organic glass films formed by physical vapor deposition exhibit enhanced
      stability relative to those formed by conventional liquid cooling and aging
      techniques. Recently, experimental and computational evidence has emerged
      indicating that the average molecular orientation can be tuned by controlling the
      substrate temperature at which these "stable glasses" are grown. In this work, we
      present a comprehensive all-atom simulation study of ethylbenzene, a canonical
      stable-glass former, using a computational film formation procedure that closely
      mimics the vapor deposition process. Atomistic studies of experimentally formed
      vapor-deposited glasses have not been performed before, and this study therefore
      begins by verifying that the model and method utilized here reproduces key
      structural features observed experimentally. Having established agreement between
      several simulated and experimental macroscopic observables, simulations are used
      to examine the substrate temperature dependence of molecular orientation. The
      results indicate that ethylbenzene glasses are anisotropic, depending upon
      substrate temperature, and that this dependence can be understood from the
      orientation present at the surface of the equilibrium liquid. By treating
      ethylbenzene as a simple model for molecular semiconducting materials, a quantum
      chemical analysis is then used to show that the vapor-deposited glasses exhibit
      decreased energetic disorder and increased magnitude of the mean-squared transfer
      integral relative to isotropic, liquid-cooled films, an effect that is attributed
      to the anisotropic ordering of the molecular film. These results suggest a novel
      structure-function simulation strategy capable of tuning the electronic
      properties of organic semiconducting glasses prior to experimental deposition,
      which could have considerable potential for organic electronic materials design.

PMID- 28573205
TI  - Prediction of Organic Reaction Outcomes Using Machine Learning.
AB  - Computer assistance in synthesis design has existed for over 40 years, yet
      retrosynthesis planning software has struggled to achieve widespread adoption.
      One critical challenge in developing high-quality pathway suggestions is that
      proposed reaction steps often fail when attempted in the laboratory, despite
      initially seeming viable. The true measure of success for any synthesis program
      is whether the predicted outcome matches what is observed experimentally. We
      report a model framework for anticipating reaction outcomes that combines the
      traditional use of reaction templates with the flexibility in pattern recognition
      afforded by neural networks. Using 15 000 experimental reaction records from
      granted United States patents, a model is trained to select the major (recorded)
      product by ranking a self-generated list of candidates where one candidate is
      known to be the major product. Candidate reactions are represented using a unique
      edit-based representation that emphasizes the fundamental transformation from
      reactants to products, rather than the constituent molecules' overall structures.
      In a 5-fold cross-validation, the trained model assigns the major product rank 1
      in 71.8% of cases, rank <=3 in 86.7% of cases, and rank <=5 in 90.8% of cases.

PMID- 28573204
TI  - A Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization Method To Quantify mRNA Translation by
      Visualizing Ribosome-mRNA Interactions in Single Cells.
AB  - Single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) is a simple and
      widely used method to measure mRNA transcript abundance and localization in
      single cells. A comparable single-molecule in situ method to measure mRNA
      translation would enable a more complete understanding of gene regulation. Here
      we describe a fluorescence assay to detect ribosome interactions with mRNA
      (FLARIM). The method adapts smFISH to visualize and characterize translation of
      single molecules of mRNA in fixed cells. To visualize ribosome-mRNA interactions,
      we use pairs of oligonucleotide probes that bind separately to ribosomes (via
      rRNA) and to the mRNA of interest, and that produce strong fluorescence signals
      via the hybridization chain reaction (HCR) when the probes are in close
      proximity. FLARIM does not require genetic manipulation, is applicable to
      practically any endogenous mRNA transcript, and provides both spatial and
      temporal information. We demonstrate that FLARIM is sensitive to changes in
      ribosome association with mRNA upon inhibition of global translation with
      puromycin. We also show that FLARIM detects changes in ribosome association with
      an mRNA whose translation is upregulated in response to increased concentrations
      of iron.

PMID- 28573206
TI  - Heterogeneous Epoxide Carbonylation by Cooperative Ion-Pair Catalysis in Co(CO)4-
      Incorporated Cr-MIL-101.
AB  - Despite the commercial desirability of epoxide carbonylation to beta-lactones,
      the reliance of this process on homogeneous catalysts makes its industrial
      application challenging. Here we report the preparation and use of a Co(CO)4-
      incorporated Cr-MIL-101 (Co(CO)4?Cr-MIL-101, Cr-MIL-101 = Cr3O(BDC)3F, H2BDC =
      1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid) heterogeneous catalyst for the ring-expansion
      carbonylation of epoxides, whose activity, selectivity, and substrate scope are
      on par with those of the reported homogeneous catalysts. We ascribe the observed
      performance to the unique cooperativity between the postsynthetically introduced
      Co(CO)4- and the site-isolated Lewis acidic Cr(III) centers in the metal-organic
      framework (MOF). The heterogeneous nature of Co(CO)4?Cr-MIL-101 allows the first
      demonstration of gas-phase continuous-flow production of beta-lactones from
      epoxides, attesting to the potential applicability of the heterogeneous epoxide
      carbonylation strategy.

PMID- 28573207
TI  - Epidithiodiketopiperazines: Strain-Promoted Thiol-Mediated Cellular Uptake at the
      Highest Tension.
AB  - The disulfide dihedral angle in epidithiodiketopiperazines (ETPs) is near 0
      degrees . Application of this highest possible ring tension to strain-promoted
      thiol-mediated uptake results in efficient delivery to the cytosol and nucleus.
      Compared to the previous best asparagusic acid (AspA), ring-opening disulfide
      exchange with ETPs occurs more efficiently even with nonactivated thiols, and the
      resulting thiols exchange rapidly with nonactivated disulfides. ETP-mediated
      cellular uptake is more than 20 times more efficient compared to AspA, occurs
      without endosomal capture, depends on temperature, and is "unstoppable" by
      inhibitors of endocytosis and conventional thiol-mediated uptake, including siRNA
      against the transferrin receptor. These results suggest that ETP-mediated uptake
      not only maximizes delivery to the cytosol and nucleus but also opens the door to
      a new multitarget hopping mode of action.

PMID- 28573208
TI  - Compaction of Duplex Nucleic Acids upon Native Electrospray Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - We report on the fate of nucleic acids conformation in the gas phase as sampled
      using native mass spectrometry coupled to ion mobility spectrometry. On the basis
      of several successful reports for proteins and their complexes, the technique has
      become popular in structural biology, and the conformation survival becomes more
      and more taken for granted. Surprisingly, we found that DNA and RNA duplexes, at
      the electrospray charge states naturally obtained from native solution conditions
      (>=100 mM aqueous NH4OAc), are significantly more compact in the gas phase
      compared to the canonical solution structures. The compaction is observed for all
      duplex sizes (gas-phase structures are more compact than canonical B-helices by
      ~20% for 12-bp, and by up to ~30% for 36-bp duplexes), and for DNA and RNA alike.
      Molecular modeling (density functional calculations on small helices,
      semiempirical calculations on up to 12-bp, and molecular dynamics on up to 36-bp
      duplexes) demonstrates that the compaction is due to phosphate group self
      solvation prevailing over Coulomb repulsion. Molecular dynamics simulations
      starting from solution structures do not reproduce the experimental compaction.
      To be experimentally relevant, molecular dynamics sampling should reflect the
      progressive structural rearrangements occurring during desolvation. For nucleic
      acid duplexes, the compaction observed for low charge states results from novel
      phosphate-phosphate hydrogen bonds formed across both grooves at the very late
      stages of electrospray.

PMID- 28573209
TI  - Noncanonical Function of a Small-Molecular Virulence Factor Coronatine against
      Plant Immunity: An In Vivo Raman Imaging Approach.
AB  - Coronatine (1), a small-molecular virulence factor produced by plant-pathogenic
      bacteria, promotes bacterial infection by inducing the opening of stomatal pores,
      the major route of bacterial entry into the plant, via the jasmonate-mediated
      COI1-JAZ signaling pathway. However, this pathway is also important for multiple
      plant functions, including defense against wounding by herbivorous insects. Thus,
      suppression of the COI1-JAZ signaling pathway to block bacterial infection would
      concomitantly impair plant defense against herbivorous wounding. Here, we report
      additional, COI1-JAZ-independent, action of 1 in Arabidopsis thaliana guard
      cells. First, we found that a stereoisomer of 1 regulates the movement of
      Arabidopsis guard cells without affecting COI1-JAZ signaling. Second, we found
      using alkyne-tagged Raman imaging (ATRI) that 1 is localized to the endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) of living guard cells of Arabidopsis. The use of arc6 mutant
      lacking chloroplast formation was pivotal to circumvent the issue of
      autofluorescence during ATRI. These findings indicate that 1 has an ER-related
      action on Arabidopsis stomata that bypasses the COI1-JAZ signaling module. It may
      be possible to suppress the action of 1 on stomata without impairing plant
      defense responses against herbivores.

PMID- 28573210
TI  - Topology Engineering of Proteins in Vivo Using Genetically Encoded, Mechanically
      Interlocking SpyX Modules for Enhanced Stability.
AB  - Recombinant proteins are traditionally limited to linear configuration. Herein,
      we report in vivo protein topology engineering using highly efficient,
      mechanically interlocking SpyX modules named AXB and BXA. SpyX modules are
      protein domains composed of p53dim (X), SpyTag (A), and SpyCatcher (B). The
      p53dim guides the intertwining of the two nascent protein chains followed by
      autocatalytic isopeptide bond formation between SpyTag and SpyCatcher to fulfill
      the interlocking, leading to a variety of backbone topologies. Direct expression
      of AXB or BXA produces protein catenanes with distinct ring sizes. Recombinant
      proteins containing SpyX modules are obtained either as mechanically interlocked
      obligate dimers if the protein of interest is fused to the N- or C-terminus of
      SpyX modules, or as star proteins if the protein is fused to both N- and C
      termini. As examples, cellular syntheses of dimers of (GB1)2 (where GB1 stands
      for immunoglobulin-binding domain B1 of streptococcal protein G) and of four-arm
      elastin-like star proteins were demonstrated. Comparison of the catenation
      efficiencies in different constructs reveals that BXA is generally much more
      effective than AXB, which is rationalized by the arrangement of three domains in
      space. Mechanical interlocking induces considerable stability enhancement. Both
      AXB and BXA have a melting point ~20  degrees C higher than the linear controls
      and the BXA catenane has a melting point ~2  degrees C higher than the cyclic
      control BX'A. Notably, four-arm elastin-like star proteins demonstrate remarkable
      tolerance against trypsin digestion. The SpyX modules provide a convenient and
      versatile approach to construct unconventional protein topologies via the
      "assembly-reaction" synergy, which opens a new horizon in protein science for
      stability enhancement and function reinforcement via topology engineering.

PMID- 28573211
TI  - A Comparison of Photocatalytic Activities of Gold Nanoparticles Following
      Plasmonic and Interband Excitation and a Strategy for Harnessing Interband Hot
      Carriers for Solution Phase Photocatalysis.
AB  - Light driven excitation of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) has emerged as a potential
      strategy to generate hot carriers for photocatalysis through excitation of
      localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). In contrast, carrier generation
      through excitation of interband transitions remains a less explored and
      underestimated pathway for photocatalytic activity. Photoinduced oxidative
      etching of GNPs with FeCl3 was investigated as a model reaction in order to
      elucidate the effects of both types of transitions. The quantitative results show
      that interband transitions more efficiently generate hot carriers and that those
      carriers exhibit higher reactivity as compared to those generated solely by LSPR.
      Further, leveraging the strong pi-acidic character of the resulting
      photogenerated Au+ hole, an interband transition induced cyclization reaction of
      alkynylphenols was developed. Notably, alkyne coordination to the Au+ hole
      intercepts the classic oxidation event and leads to the formation of the
      catalytically active gold clusters on subnanometer scale.

PMID- 28573212
TI  - Bio-Orthogonal Mediated Nucleic Acid Transfection of Cells via Cell Surface
      Engineering.
AB  - The efficient delivery of foreign nucleic acids (transfection) into cells is a
      critical tool for fundamental biomedical research and a pillar of several
      biotechnology industries. There are currently three main strategies for
      transfection including reagent, instrument, and viral based methods. Each
      technology has significantly advanced cell transfection; however, reagent based
      methods have captured the majority of the transfection market due to their
      relatively low cost and ease of use. This general method relies on the efficient
      packaging of a reagent with nucleic acids to form a stable complex that is
      subsequently associated and delivered to cells via nonspecific electrostatic
      targeting. Reagent transfection methods generally use various polyamine cationic
      type molecules to condense with negatively charged nucleic acids into a highly
      positively charged complex, which is subsequently delivered to negatively charged
      cells in culture for association, internalization, release, and expression.
      Although this appears to be a straightforward procedure, there are several major
      issues including toxicity, low efficiency, sorting of viable transfected from
      nontransfected cells, and limited scope of transfectable cell types. Herein, we
      report a new strategy (SnapFect) for nucleic acid transfection to cells that does
      not rely on electrostatic interactions but instead uses an integrated approach
      combining bio-orthogonal liposome fusion, click chemistry, and cell surface
      engineering. We show that a target cell population is rapidly and efficiently
      engineered to present a bio-orthogonal functional group on its cell surface
      through nanoparticle liposome delivery and fusion. A complementary bio-orthogonal
      nucleic acid complex is then formed and delivered to which chemoselective click
      chemistry induced transfection occurs to the primed cell. This new strategy
      requires minimal time, steps, and reagents and leads to superior transfection
      results for a broad range of cell types. Moreover the transfection is efficient
      with high cell viability and does not require a postsorting step to separate
      transfected from nontransfected cells in the cell population. We also show for
      the first time a precision transfection strategy where a single cell type in a
      coculture is target transfected via bio-orthogonal click chemistry.

PMID- 28573214
TI  - SegAuth: A Segment-based Approach to Behavioral Biometric Authentication.
AB  - Many studies have been conducted to apply behavioral biometric authentication
      on/with mobile devices and they have shown promising results. However, the
      concern about the verification accuracy of behavioral biometrics is still common
      given the dynamic nature of behavioral biometrics. In this paper, we address the
      accuracy concern from a new perspective-behavior segments, that is, segments of a
      gesture instead of the whole gesture as the basic building block for behavioral
      biometric authentication. With this unique perspective, we propose a new
      behavioral biometric authentication method called SegAuth, which can be applied
      to various gesture or motion based authentication scenarios. SegAuth can achieve
      high accuracy by focusing on each user's distinctive gesture segments that
      frequently appear across his or her gestures. In SegAuth, a time series derived
      from a gesture/motion is first partitioned into segments and then transformed
      into a set of string tokens in which the tokens representing distinctive,
      repetitive segments are associated with higher genuine probabilities than those
      tokens that are common across users. An overall genuine score calculated from all
      the tokens derived from a gesture is used to determine the user's authenticity.
      We have assessed the effectiveness of SegAuth using 4 different datasets. Our
      experimental results demonstrate that SegAuth can achieve higher accuracy
      consistently than existing popular methods on the evaluation datasets.

PMID- 28573213
TI  - Chemoproteomic Profiling of Bile Acid Interacting Proteins.
AB  - Bile acids (BAs) are a family of endogenous metabolites synthesized from
      cholesterol in liver and modified by microbiota in gut. Being amphipathic
      molecules, the major function of BAs is to help with dietary lipid digestion. In
      addition, they also act as signaling molecules to regulate lipid and glucose
      metabolism as well as gut microbiota composition in the host. Remarkably, recent
      discoveries of the dedicated receptors for BAs such as FXR and TGR5 have
      uncovered a number of novel actions of BAs as signaling hormones which play
      significant roles in both physiological and pathological conditions. Disorders in
      BAs' metabolism are closely related to metabolic syndrome and intestinal and
      neurodegenerative diseases. Though BA-based therapies have been clinically
      implemented for decades, the regulatory mechanism of BA is still poorly
      understood and a comprehensive characterization of BA-interacting proteins in
      proteome remains elusive. We herein describe a chemoproteomic strategy that uses
      a number of structurally diverse, clickable, and photoreactive BA-based probes in
      combination with quantitative mass spectrometry to globally profile BA
      interacting proteins in mammalian cells. Over 600 BA-interacting protein targets
      were identified, including known endogenous receptors and transporters of BA.
      Analysis of these novel BA-interacting proteins revealed that they are mainly
      enriched in functional pathways such as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress
      response and lipid metabolism, and are predicted with strong implications with
      Alzheimer's disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and diarrhea. Our
      findings will significantly improve the current understanding of BAs' regulatory
      roles in human physiology and diseases.

PMID- 28573215
TI  - Molecular, Histologic, and Radiologic Findings of High-Grade Invasive
      Adenocarcinoma Arising in Oncocytic Subtype of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous
      Neoplasm: A Case Report and Review of Literature.
AB  - Background: We present a case of adenocarcinoma arising in the oncocytic subtype
      of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (O-IPMN), with emphasis on the
      molecular findings in the adenocarcinoma component. Tissue microdissection and
      next-generation sequencing were performed using a 26 gene panel (AKT1, ALK, APC,
      BRAF, CDH1, CTNNB1, EGFR, ERBB2, FBXW7, FGFR2, FOXL2, GNAQ, GNAS, KIT, KRAS,
      MAP2K1, MET, MSH6, NRAS, PDGFRA, PIK3CA, PTEN, SMAD4, SRC, STK11, TP53) of cancer
      related genes. Case Presentation: A 69-year-old Caucasian female presented with
      chest pain and was found to have findings consistent with acute pancreatitis.
      During her work-up, computed tomography scan revealed a large cystic and solid
      mass in the tail of the pancreas. She recovered from her acute pancreatitis and
      was discharged home. She later returned for resection of her mass. Results:
      Evaluation of three microdissected regions of tumor demonstrated no identifiable
      nonsynonymous alterations in any of the three regions, within the targeted genes.
      Conclusion: This case demonstrates that the O-IPMN is a molecularly distinct
      subtype, and we conclude that adenocarcinoma arising in these neoplasms shows
      molecularly distinct tumorigenesis from traditional pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma. These differences may help explain the improved survival with
      invasive adenocarcinoma arising from these lesions compared with traditional
      ductal adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28573216
TI  - ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY AND A-AMYLASE INHIBITORY POTENTIAL OF ROSA CANINA L.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common endocrinal disorders and
      medicinal plants continue to play an important role in the management of this
      disease. In this study, Rosa canina was investigated for the antioxidant and
      alpha-amylase inhibition activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Methanolic extract of
      Rosa canina was investigated for its potential antioxidant activity. The
      extracts' total phenolic and flavonoid contents and scavenging capacity for free
      radicals were evaluated. The alpha-amylase inhibition assay was also carried.
      RESULTS: Rosa canina extract exhibits a total Phenolic and flavonoid levels
      respectively (21.918 mg GAE/g and 2.647mg ER/g). The free radical scavenging
      activity was found to be prominent against DPPH with an IC50 of 0.668 mg/ml and
      against ABTS with an IC50 of 0.467 mg/ml. Extract showed a significant ferric ion
      reducing activities with an IC50 of4.962 mg/ml. CONCLUSION: Rosa canina exerted a
      higher inhibitory activity against alpha-amylase. The obtained results support
      the antidiabetic use of rosa canina.

PMID- 28573218
TI  - EFFECT OF THAI SARAPHI FLOWER EXTRACTS ON WT1 AND BCR/ABL PROTEIN EXPRESSION IN
      LEUKEMIC CELL LINES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Saraphi (Mammea siamensis) is a Thai traditional herb. In this study,
      the cytotoxic effects of crude ethanolic and fractional extracts including
      hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol fractions from M. siamensis flowers were
      investigated in order to determine their effect on WT1 expression in Molt4 and
      K562 cells and Bcr/Abl expression in K562 cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      flowers of M. siamensis were extracted using ethanol. The ethanol flower extract
      was further fractionated with hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol. Cytotoxic
      effects were measured by the MTT assay. Bcr/Abl and WT1 protein levels after
      treatments were determined by Western blotting. The total cell number was
      determined via the typan blue exclusion method. RESULTS: The hexane fraction
      showed the strongest cytotoxic activity on Molt4 and K562 cells, with IC50 values
      of 2.6 and 77.6 MUg/ml, respectively. The hexane extract decreased Bcr/Abl
      protein expression in K562 cells by 74.6% and WT1 protein expressions in Molt4
      and K562 cells by 68.4 and 72.1%, respectively. Total cell numbers were decreased
      by 66.2 and 48.7% in Molt4 and K562 cells, respectively. Mammea E/BB (main active
      compound) significantly decreased both Bcr/Abl and WTlprotein expressions by 75
      and 49.5%, respectively when compared to vehicle control. CONCLUSION: The hexane
      fraction from M. siamensis flowers inhibited cell proliferation via the
      suppression of WT1 expression in Molt4 and K562 cells and Bcr/Abl expression in
      K562 cells. The active compound may be mammea E/BB. Extracts from M. siamensis
      flowers show promise as naturally occurring anti-cancer drugs.

PMID- 28573217
TI  - ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF STEM BARK EXTRACT OF BOMBAX CEIBA
      COLLECTED LOCALLY FROM SOUTH PUNJAB AREA OF PAKISTAN.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ethnic medication systems have been used extensively by humans since
      their origin. Now a day, in the developing countries these systems are being used
      due to their effectiveness and affordability. Especially inhabitants of rural
      areas still rely on these systems as first line of treatment against diseased
      conditions. Till now, majority of medicines is derived from the natural origin
      particularly plants owing to their little side effects and cost effectiveness.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present work, we evaluated antibacterial and
      antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of Bombax ceiba stem bark. Total
      phenolic and flavonoid contents were also assessed in the extract. The
      antioxidant capacity was determined by DPPH, Nitric Oxide scavenging and reducing
      power activity. For antibacterial activity, Gram-negative (Escherichia coli,
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi) and Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus
      subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) were used. RESULTS: Phenolic content was
      133.21+/-1.56 MUg GAE/mg of extract while Flavonoid content was 997.93+/-2.14 MUg
      QE/mg. Plant extract demonstrated strong antiradical activity with EC50 18.78 +/-
      0.69 and 23.62 +/- 1.99fg/ml for Nitric Oxide and DPPH assay respectively while
      EC50 in case of reducing power activity was 139.4 +/- 0.98MUg/ml. Plant extract
      displayed inhibitory effect against microbial growth with S. typhi as the most
      resistant strain and Staphylococcus aureus the most sensitive one. CONCLUSION:
      This study revealed that Bombax ceiba of local origin has broad spectrum
      antibacterial activity and it can also provide defense against oxidative stress.

PMID- 28573219
TI  - PROTECTIVE ROLE OF CARNITINE SYNERGIZED WITH VITAMIN E AGAINST ISOPROTERENOL
      INDUCED CARDIAC INFARCTION IN RATS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current study aimed to evaluate the role of carnitine in
      combination with vitamin E in protection against myocardial infarction induced by
      isoproterenol (ISO) in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were grouped into 5
      (each 10 rats): Group I. Control fed a standard diet. Group III: Rats were
      injected with vitamin E (100 IU/kg bw, i.p) daily. Group IV: Rats were given
      carnitine (20 mg/kg bw, i.p) daily. Group V: Rats were injected with both vitamin
      E (100 IU/kg bw, i.p) and carnitine (20 mg/kg bw, i.p) daily. On 7th, 8th, and
      9th day, rats in groups (II-V) were injection i.p with ISO (55mg/kg b.w for
      successive three days). The treatment with carnitine and vitamin E were
      continuous for 21 days. RESULTS: Canirine combined with vitamin E significantly
      increased coronary flow (CF) (P<0.001) in rats injected with ISO. The recovery of
      rate pressure product (RPP) and left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) were
      significantly improved in treated rats in comparison to untreated. The rats
      administrated with ISO resulted in a significant elevation of serum enzymes (CK
      MB and LDH) compared with control group (p<0.001). However, it returned to about
      normal. ISO administration resulted in a significant elevation in the levels of
      malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) as compared with control (p<0.001)
      and a significant reduction in the activities of GSPxase and GSRase (p<0.001)
      compared with control group. The levels of cardiac inflammatory markers
      interleukine-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) were markedly
      elevated in rats injected with ISO compared with control group. Vitamin E
      combined with carnitine reversed these effects. However, pretreatment with
      vitamin E or carnitine or combined together showed a significant reduction in MDA
      and NO (p<0.001) and a significant elevation in the activities of GSPxase and
      GSRase (p<0.001) as compared to ISO injected group. The combined effect was more
      significant than individual ones. CONCLUSION: Vitamin E combined with carnitine
      exerts potential protective effect against MI through suppression of inflammatory
      mediators and enhancement of antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28573221
TI  - EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF BAN HUANG ORAL LIQUID FOR TREATING BOVINE RESPIRATORY
      DISEASES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ban Huang oral liquid was developed as a veterinary compound
      preparation by the Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of
      the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). The purpose of this study
      was to determine whether the oral liquid preparation of traditional Chinese
      medicine, Ban Huang, is safe and effective for treating respiratory diseases in
      cattle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Acute oral toxicity experiments were conducted in
      Wistar rats and Kunming mice via oral administration. The minimum inhibitory
      concentration of the drug against Mycoplasma bovis in vitro with the double
      dilution method was 500 mg/mL, indicating good sensitivity. The results of
      laboratory pathogen testing, analysis of clinical symptoms, and analysis of
      pathological anatomy were combined to diagnose bovine respiratory diseases in 147
      Simmental cattle caused by mixed infections of M. bovis, bovine respiratory
      syncytial virus, bovine parainfluenza virus type 3, and Mannheimia haemolytica.
      These cattle were randomly divided into three groups: drug treatment group 1
      (treated via Tilmicosin injection), drug treatment group 2 (treated with Shuang
      Huang Lian oral liquid combined with Tilmicosin injection), and drug treatment
      group 3 (treated with Ban Huang oral liquid combined with Tilmicosin injection).
      Treatment effects were observed within 7 days. RESULTS: The results showed no
      toxicity and a maximum tolerated dose greater than 20 g/kg BW. For the 87 cattle
      in drug-treatment group, the cure rate was 90.80%, whereas the response rate was
      94.25%. The cure rate of drug treatment group was increased by 14.13% in
      comparison with that of drug control group 1 and by 7.47% in comparison with that
      of drug control group 2 (both P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that
      Ban Huang oral liquid is a safe and effective treatment for bovine respiratory
      diseases, especially for mixed infection caused by M. bovis, bacteria, and
      viruses.

PMID- 28573220
TI  - JIEYUANSHEN DECOCTION EXERTS ANTIDEPRESSANT EFFECTS ON DEPRESSIVE RAT MODEL VIA
      REGULATING HPA AXIS AND THE LEVEL OF AMINO ACIDS NEUROTRANSMITTER.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Jieyuanshen decoction (JYAS-D) - a traditional Chinese medicine was
      invented by Professor Nie based on classic formulas, chaihu jia longgu muli
      decoction has been proved as having favorable curative effects on depression in
      clinical practices. The aim of this study was to investigate the antidepressant
      effects and its molecular mechanism of JYAS-D. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The model
      of depression was established by Chronic Unpredictable Stress. Different doses
      (8.2 g/kg, 16.3 g/kg, 32.7 g/kg) of JYAS-D was orally administered; Fluoxetine
      was orally administered with 10mg/kg. All treatments lasted for 28 days. Sucrose
      preference and open-field tests were adopted to observe the behavior of rats. OPA
      (ortho-phthalaldehyde) derivatization method was used to detect the contents of
      amino acid neurotransmitter. RIA (Radiation immunity analysis) method was used to
      measure the serum concentrations of CORT (Corticosterone), ACTH
      (Adrenocorticotropic hormone) and CRH (Corticotropin-releasing hormone). ELISA
      (Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) method was adopted to examine the contents of
      Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in hippocampus.
      RESULTS: Compared with the model group, sucrose preference was increased in all
      treatment groups. The concentration of serum CORT was reduced in the middle dose
      of JYAS-D and control groups; the concentration of serum ACTH was reduced in the
      low and high-dose of JYAS-D; the concentration of serum CRH was reduced in the
      middle and high-dose of JYAS-D. The content of hippocampus GR was increased in
      the middle and high-dose of JYAS-D; the content of hippocampus Glu (Glutamic
      acid) was reduced among the low, middle and high-dose of JYAS-D and fluoxetine
      group, the ratio of Glu/gamma-GABA (y-aminobutyric acid was reduced in the low
      and high-dose of JYAS-D. CONCLUSION: JYAS-D had a significant antidepressant-like
      effect on rat model through regulating serum concentration of CORT, ACTH and CRH,
      increasing the content of hippocampus GR and regulating the equilibrium of amino
      acids neurotransmitter.

PMID- 28573222
TI  - THE BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF MOLTKIA AUREA BOISS., AN ENDEMIC SPECIES TO TURKEY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is the direct reason of mastitis. Mastitis is a
      disease characterized by pathological changes in mammary glands as well as
      physical, chemical, bacteriological changes in milk. This disease causes loses in
      milk yield and quality. In recent years, it is reported that mastitis pathogens
      have developed a resistance to antibiotics as a natural consequence of widespread
      use of it. Today's researches are focused on discovering and using new
      antibiotics against bacteria. The aim of this paper is to examine the
      antibacterial properties of Moltkia aurea Boiss.][o] (an endemic species to
      Turkey), and its other biological activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All of the
      extracts were tested by disc diffusion assay in order to screen antibacterial
      activity. MIC values were evaluated as antibacterial activities of plant
      extracts. The non-enzymatic antioxidative activities including DPPH radical
      scavenging effects were studied in vitro. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results shown
      that the extracts had strong antibacterial effects on three bacteria (S. aureus-
      17, S. aureus-18 and CNS-37) and the range of inhibition zone was 4-6mm. This
      three bacteria screened the lowest sensitivity to 65000 MUg /mL concentration.
      Besides, the extracts were tested for non-enzymatic antioxidant activities. As a
      result, the methanol extract of the flower displayed a strong antioxidant
      activity. The various extracts of Moltkia aurea have different antibacterial and
      antioxidant properties.

PMID- 28573224
TI  - ANTITUMOR AND APOPTOTIC EFFECTS OF CUCURBITACIN A IN A-549 LUNG CARCINOMA CELLS
      IS MEDIATED VIA G2/M CELL CYCLE ARREST AND M-TOR/PI3K/AKT SIGNALLING PATHWAY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The main aim of this study was to demonstrate the antitumor potential
      of cucurbitacin A on A-549 NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer cells). The effects
      of Cucurbitacin A on apoptotic induction, cell physic, cell cycle failure and m
      TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway were also investigated in the present study.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: MTT assay and clonogenic assay were carried out to study
      effects of this compound on cell cytotoxicity and colony forming tendency in A
      549 cells. Moreover, phase and fluorescence microscopic techniques were used to
      examine the effects on cell morphology and induction of apoptosis. The effects on
      cell cycle phase distribution were investigated by flow cytometry and effects on
      m-TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling proteins were assessed by western blot analysis.
      RESULTS: Results showed that cucurbitacin A induced dose-dependent cytotoxic
      effects along with suppressing the colony forming tendency in these cells.
      Cucurbitacin A also induced morphological changes in these cells featuring
      chromatin condensation, cell shrinkage and apoptotic body formation. G2/M phase
      cell cycle collapse was also induced by Cucurbitacin A along with inhibition of
      expression levels of m-TOR/PI3K/Akt proteins. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion,
      cucurbitacin A inhibits cancer growth in A-549 NSCLC cells by inducing apoptosis,
      targeting m-TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway and G2/M cell cycle.

PMID- 28573223
TI  - CARDIOPROTECTIVE ROLES OF THE CHINESE MEDICINAL FORMULA BAO-XIN-TANG ON ACUTE
      MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION IN RATS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bao-Xin-Tang (BXT) is a traditional Chinese medicinal formula used
      for the treatment of coronary heart disease and known to have favorable
      therapeutic benefits. The current study was designed to determine whether BXT has
      a cardioprotective role for acute myocardial infarction. The underlying
      mechanisms were also explored. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Sprague-Dawley rat
      model of acute myocardial infarction was established by occluding the left
      anterior descending branch of the coronary artery. After a 3-h ischemic period,
      we determined the myocardial infarction size, inflammatory components, and
      antioxidant activities. RESULTS: The data showed that BXT could reduce the
      infarction size and lower the levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and
      myeloperoxidase, and increase the activities of superoxide dismutase and the anti
      inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-10. These results indicate that administration
      of BXT, following acute myocardial infarction, could reduce infarct size.
      CONCLUSION: The effects of BXT may be related to its anti-inflammatory and anti
      oxidative properties.

PMID- 28573226
TI  - EVALUATION OF THE CHELATING EFFECT OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CORIANDRUM SATIVUM
      AND ITS FRACTIONS ON WISTAR RATS POISONED WITH LEAD ACETATE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rate of lead poisoning has decreased in recent years due to
      increased health control in industries that use this metal. However, it is still
      a public health problem worldwide. The use of various plants with chelating
      properties has been a topic of research today. In traditional medicine, it is
      said that Coriandrum sativum has chelating properties, but there is no scientific
      evidence to support this fact. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the
      chelating effect of methanol extract of coriander and its fractions on Wistar
      rats intoxicated with lead. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this research, male Wistar
      rats were poisoned with 50 mg/kg of lead acetate and treated with 50 mg/kg of
      methanol extract and its fractions. The extract and its fractions were
      administered to four treatment groups. Positive and negative controls were
      established. Hemoglobin, hematocrit and lead concentrations were analyzed; liver
      was evaluated histologically in control and treatment groups. RESULTS: The
      methanol extract of coriander presented a LD50 >1000 mg/dL. The group
      administered with the methanol extract showed significant difference in the
      levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit compared to the negative control group. Lead
      concentration in treatment groups showed a decrease compared to the positive
      control. Histological evaluation of tissue showed less damage in groups
      administered with methanolic extract and its fractions compared to the positive
      control which presented structural alterations. CONCLUSION: Coriander extracts
      protect liver and lower lead concentration in rats intoxicated with lead in
      contrast to the positive control group.

PMID- 28573225
TI  - EMODIN DOWNREGULATES CELL PROLIFERATION MARKERS DURING DMBA INDUCED ORAL
      CARCINOGENESIS IN GOLDEN SYRIAN HAMSTERS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cell-cycle disruption is the major characteristic features of
      neoplastic transformation and the status of cell-cycle regulators can thus be
      utilized to assess the prognostic significance in patients with cancer. The PCNA,
      cyclin D1, CDK4, CDK6 and survivin expression in the buccal mucosa was utilized
      to evaluate the Emodin efficacy on abnormal cell proliferation during 7,12
      dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) induced oral carcinogenesis in golden Syrian
      hamsters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Topical application of DMBA, three times a week
      for 14 weeks, on the hamsters' buccal pouches developed well differentiated
      squamous cell carcinoma. RESULTS: Cyclin D1 and PCNA over-expression and up
      regulation of CDK4, CDK6 and survivin were noticed in the buccal mucosa of
      hamsters treated with DMBA alone. Emodin administration (50mg/kg b.w) orally to
      hamsters treated with DMBA down-regulated the expression of cell proliferation
      markers in the buccal mucosa. CONCLUSIONS: The anti-cell proliferative role of
      Emodin is owing to its modulating efficacy on cell-cycle markers towards the
      tumor suppression during DMBA induced oral carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28573228
TI  - MOXIBUSTION HAS A POSITIVE EFFECT ON PULMONARY FIBROSIS: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An increasing number of people suffered idiopathic fibrosis (IPF) and
      the current treatment was far from clinical satisfaction. Moxibustion, another
      effective and safe unconventional therapy, had been introduced to treat this
      refractory disease. The study aimed to investigate the effect of moxibustion on a
      bleomycin A5-induced pulmonary fibrosis model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sprague
      dawley (SD) rats were randomly allocated to the blank group, model group,
      moxibustion group, and prednisone group, for which they received no treatment,
      modeling, moxibustion treatment and prednisone treatment. After four-week
      treatment, the rats were euthanized for Hematoxylin and Eosin (H.E.) staining,
      and TGF-beta1 and IFN-gamma protein and mRNA detection in lungs. RESULTS: In the
      model group, TGF-beta1 was significantly increased and IFN-gamma was
      significantly decreased at both protein and mRNA levels in comparison to the
      blank group. In the moxibustion and prednisone group, however, TGF-beta1 was
      decreased and IFN-gamma was increased at both protein and mRNA levels in
      comparison to the model groups. Compared with prednisone, moxibustion showed
      comparable effect in lowing TGF-beta1 (P>0.05) and better effect in up-regulating
      IFN-gamma (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The study concludes moxibustion protected
      pulmonary fibrosis by downregulating TGF-beta1 and upregulating IFN-gamma
      cytokines at both mRNA and protein levels, and the effect was comparable to
      prednisone. Moxibustion could be used as a therapeutic alternative treatment for
      pulmonary fibrosis.

PMID- 28573227
TI  - EFFECTS OF SALVIA MILTIORRHIZAE ON THE KIDNEY OF RATS WITH SEVERE ACUTE
      PANCREATITIS AND OBSTRUTIVE JAUNDICE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and obstructive jaundice (OJ) are
      frequent recurring diseases that bring about huge threat to human health. Some
      reports have demonstrated that Salviae miltiorrhizae can protect multiple organs
      of SAP and OJ model animals or patients, but their related mechanisms were not
      clear. In this study, we observed the effects of Salvia miltiorrhizae injection
      on apoptosis and NF-kappaB expression in kidney and explored the protective
      effect and mechanism of Salvia miltiorrhizae on the kidney of SAP or OJ rats. The
      results obtained will provide a theoretical basis for clinical application of
      Salvia miltiorrhizae. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 288 rats were used for SAP
      -and OJ-associated experiments. The mortality rates of rats, the contents of
      serum BUN and CREA, the expression levels of Bax, NF-kappaB proteins and the
      apoptosis index were observed, respectively. RESULTS: The pathological changes in
      the kidney of SAP or OJ rats in treated group were mitigated to varying degrees.
      At 6 and 12 hours after operation in SAP rats or on 21 and 28 days after
      operation in OJ rats, the contents of serum CREA in treated group were
      significantly lower than those in model control group; At 3 and 6 hours after
      operation, the staining intensity of Bax protein of kidney in treated group was
      significantly lower than that in model control group; on 14 days after operation,
      the apoptosis index in the kidney of OJ rats in treated group was significantly
      lower than that in model control group. CONCLUSION: Salvia miltiorrhizae can
      exert protective effects on the kidney of SAP and OJ rats.

PMID- 28573229
TI  - ANALYSIS OF PHENOLIC AND FLAVONOIDS OF WILD EPHEDRA ALATA PLANT EXTRACTS BY
      LC/PDA AND LC/MS AND THEIR ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ephedra is among Palestinian medicinal plants that are traditionally
      used in folkloric medicine for treating many diseases. Ephedra is known to have
      antibacterial and antioxidant effects. The goal of this study is to evaluate the
      antioxidant activity of different extracts from the Ephedra alata plant growing
      wild in Palestine, and to analyze their phenolic and flavonoid constituents by
      HPLC/PDA and HPLC/MS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples of the Ephedra alata plant
      grown wild in Palestine were extracted with three different solvents namely, 100%
      water, 80% ethanol, and 100% ethanol. The extracts were analyzed for their total
      phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), antioxidant activity (AA),
      as well as phenolic and flavonoids content by HPLC/PDA/MS. RESULTS: The results
      revealed that the polarity of the extraction solvent affects the TPC, TFC, and AA
      of extracts. It was found that both TPC and AA are highest for plant extracted
      with 80% ethanol, followed by 100% ethanol, and finally with 100% water. TFC
      however was highest in the following order: 100% ethanol > 80% ethanol > water.
      Pearson correlation indicated that there is a significant correlation between AA
      and TPC, but there is no correlation between AA and TFC. Simultaneous HPLC-PDA
      and UHPLC-MS analysis of the ethanolic plant extracts revealed the presence of
      Luteolin-7-O-glucuronide flavone, Myricetin 3-rhamnoside and some other major
      polyphenolic compounds that share myricetin skeleton. CONCLUSION: Ephedra alata
      extract is rich in potent falvonoid glycosidic compounds as revealed by their
      similar overlaid UV-Vis spectra and UHPLC-MS results. On the basis of these
      findings, it is concluded that Ephedra alata constitutes a natural source of
      potent antioxidants that may prevent many diseases and could be potentially used
      in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products.

PMID- 28573230
TI  - ANTI-CANCER ACTIVITY OF ASTER TATARICUS ON SCC-9 HUMAN ORAL SQUAMOUS CARCINOMA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral squamous carcinoma is a head and neck cancer, which is one of
      the types of malignant cancers. Present study evaluates the anticancer activity
      of Aster tataricus (AT) on SCC-9 human oral squamous carcinoma. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Ethanol extract of AT was prepared by a standard procedure of
      maceration. AT extract was used in different concentrations like 10, 20, 40, 80,
      160, 320 and 640 MUg/ml for the evaluation of its anticancer activity. Effect of
      AT extract on SCC9 cells were observed by microscope and cytotoxicity by 3-(4, 5
      Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay. Moreover,
      clonogenic assay was used for the estimation of effect of AT extract on colony
      forming ability of SCC9 cells. RESULT: Result of the study suggested that
      treatment with AT extract causes cytotoxicity to SCC9 cancerous cells. In
      addition, AT extract treatment reduces clonogenic potential of SCC9 cell and it
      also inhibits the proliferation of cell significantly (p<0.001) in G2/M phase.
      CONCLUSION: Thus, given study concludes that AT extract effectively attenuates
      the growth of SCC-9 cancerous cells by the virtue of its cytotoxic and anti
      clonogenic activity.

PMID- 28573231
TI  - MOXIBUSTION ALLEVIATES GASTRIC PRECANCEROUS LESIONS IN RATS BY PROMOTING CELL
      APOPTOSIS AND INHIBITING PROLIFERATION-RELATED ONCOGENES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is well known that gastric mucosa dysplasia and intestinal
      metaplasia are gastric precancerous lesions (GPL). Moxibustion treatment of
      Liangmen (ST21) and Zusanli (ST36) alleviated the inflammatory response and
      dysplasia of gastric mucosa in our previous study. The purpose of this study was
      to further examine the underlying mechanism of moxibustion treatment of ST21 and
      ST36 on GPL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty SD rats were divided into five groups
      and rats with GPL were treated with either moxibustion (ST), moxibustion (Sham),
      or vitacoenzyme. B-cell lymphoma 2 (bcl-2), tumor protein p53 (P53) and cellular
      Myc (C-MYC), which are related to cell apoptosis, proliferating cell nuclear
      antigen (PCNA), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), argyrophilic nucleolar
      organizer region proteins (Ag-NORs), which are associated with cell
      proliferation, and cell signaling proteins, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB),
      epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and phosphorylated extracellular signal
      regulated kinase (p-ERK), were measured after moxibustion treatment. RESULTS:
      Compared with Control group, gastric mucosa in GPL group showed abnormal mucosal
      proliferation and pathological mitotic figure, the mRNA expression of bcl-2, P53
      and C-MYC increased significantly (P < 0.01), the protein expression of PCNA,
      VEGF, Ag-NORs and the activity of NF-kappabeta as well as EGFR/ERK signaling
      proteins also increased significantly (P < 0.01). Moxibustion treatment decreased
      gastric mucosal proliferation and pathological mitotic figure, down-regulated the
      mRNA expression of bcl-2, P53, C-MYC (P < 0.01), decreased the protein expression
      of PCNA, VEGF, Ag-NORs and the activity of NF-kappabeta as well as EGFR/ERK
      signaling proteins significantly (P < 0.01). But moxibustion treatment of Sham
      didn't show the same effect on GPL. CONCLUSION: Moxibustion treatment inhibited
      cell apoptosis and reduced gastric mucosa dysplasia by inhibiting the expression
      of bcl-2, P53, C-MYC and decreased the activity of NF-kappabeta as well as
      EGFR/ERK signaling proteins.

PMID- 28573232
TI  - ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES OF SOME SAUDI ARABIAN HERBAL PLANTS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several edible plants are used in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since early
      time to control microbial infections. In the present study, twenty-four Saudi
      Arabian medicinal plants d according to traditionally used were select and
      investigated for the antimicrobial activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study
      was designed at evaluating the antimicrobial activities of the methanol extracts
      of twenty-four species of sixteen plant families used in the traditional medicine
      by Saudi Arabian people for the treatment of numerous ailments of the microbial
      and non-microbial origin against four Gram-positive, four Gram-negative bacteria
      and four fungi and yeast using the agar well diffusion method. RESULTS: Of most
      of the plants tested were found to be active against two to eight organisms. Five
      plants were active against eight organisms. The data appeared that extracts of
      Echium arabicum (SY-176), Rhantarium epapposum (SY-Rumex vesicarus (SY-181),
      Ziziphus nummularia (SY-188), Caylusea hexagyna (SY-197) and Artemisia monosperma
      (SY-198) have anti-microbial activity against the most of tested bacteria, fungi
      and yeast. Whereas (SY-, the extracts of Teucrium oliverianum (SY-175), Zilla
      spinosa (SY-187), and Rhazya stricta (SY-195) have poor action against the tested
      bacteria, fungi and yeast. CONCLUSION: The antimicrobial activity of plant
      extracts against bacteria was more effective than against fungi.

PMID- 28573233
TI  - GENO PROTECTIVE AND ANTI-APOPTOTIC EFFECT OF GREEN TEA AGAINST PERINATAL
      LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE-EXPOSURE INDUCED LIVER TOXICITY IN RAT NEWBORNS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to examine the protective effect of green tea on the
      disturbances in oxidative stress and apoptosis related factors, mostly produced
      due to perinatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure, that subsequently induces
      liver cell damage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anti-free radical, Antioxidant,
      scavenging, geno-protective, and antiapoptotic activity of aqueous green tea
      extract (AGTE) were assessed against LPS-induced hepatic dysfunction in newborn
      rats. AGTE at doses of 100 & 200 mg/kg was orally administered daily to rat dams,
      during gestation and lactation. RESULTS: AGTE was observed to exhibit protective
      effects by significantly attenuating LPS-induced alterations in serum AST, ALT,
      bilirubin, and albumin levels. Significant increase in the total antioxidant
      capacity (TAC), DNA contents, and reduction in nitric oxide (NO) levels were
      observed in AGTE treated rats comparing LPS-toxicated ones. Additionally, AGTE
      treatment significantly down-regulated apoptotic markers and this effect was
      directly correlated to the degree of hepatic fibrosis. The possible mechanisms of
      the potential therapeutic-liver protective effect of AGTE could be due to free
      radical scavenging potential and antiapoptotic properties caused by the presence
      of antioxidant polyphenolic components in AGTE. CONCLUSION: We thereby propose,
      based on our findings, that the anti-free radical and anti-apoptotic inducing
      properties of AGTE active constituents attribute to its functional efficacy as
      anti-fibrotic agent.

PMID- 28573234
TI  - EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTITUMOR, ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES AND PHENOLIC
      CONSTITUENTS OF FIELD-GROWN AND IN VITRO-GROWN LYSIMACHIA VULGARIS L.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lysimachia vulgaris L. (Yellow loosestrife) is a medicinal plant in
      the family Myrsinaceae. It has been used in the treatment of fever, ulcer,
      diarrhea and wounds in folk medicine. It has also analgesic, expectorant,
      astringent and anti-inflammatory activities. Two different sources of the plant
      (field-grown and in vitro-grown) were used to evaluate the biological activities
      (antibacterial, antitumor and antioxidant) of L. vulgaris. In vitro-grown plant
      materials were collected from L. vulgaris plants that were previously regenerated
      in our laboratory. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plant materials were extracted with
      water, ethanol and acetone. For antibacterial test, disc diffusion method and 10
      different pathogenic bacteria were used. Antioxidant activity was indicated by
      using DPPH method. The total phenol amount by using Folin-Ciocaltaeu method and
      the total flavonoid amount by using aluminum chloride (AlCl3) colorimetric method
      were determined. RESULTS: Generally, yellow loosestrife extracts demonstrated
      antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, S.
      epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes). Strong antitumor activity of yellow
      loosestrife was observed via potato disc diffusion bioassay. Nine different
      phenolics were also determined and compared by using High-Performance Liquid
      Chromatography (HPLC). CONCLUSION: Future investigations should be focused on
      fractionation of the extracts to identify active components for biological
      activity.

PMID- 28573235
TI  - IN VIVO AND IN VITRO ANTILEISHMANIAL EFFECTS OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT FROM BARK OF
      BURSERA APTERA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis lacks effective and well-tolerated
      treatments. The current therapies mainly rely on antimonial drugs that are
      inadequate because of their poor efficacy. Traditional medicine offers a
      complementary alternative for the treatment of various diseases. Additionally,
      several plants have shown success as anti-leishmanial agents. Therefore, we
      sought to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo activity of MEBA against Leishmania
      mexicana. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Methanolic extract of B. aptera was obtained by
      macetration, after we determined in vitro anti-leishmanial activity of MEBA by
      MTT assay and the induced apoptosis in promastigotes by flow cytometry. To
      analyze the in vivo anti-leishmanial activity, we used infected mice that were
      treated and not treated with MEBA and we determined the levels of cytokines using
      ELISA. The phytochemical properties were determined by CG-MS and DPPH assay.
      RESULTS: We determined of LC50 of 0.408 mg/mL of MEBA for in vitro anti
      leishmanial activity. MEBA induced apoptosis in promastigotes (15.3% +/- 0.86).
      Treated mice exhibited smaller lesions and contained significantly fewer
      parasites than did untreated mice; in addition, we found that IFN-gamma and TNF
      alpha increased in the sera of MEBA-treated mice. GC-MS analysis showed that
      podophyllotoxin was the most abundant compound. Evaluation of the activity by
      DPPH assay demonstrated an SC50 of 11.72 MUg/mL. CONCLUSION: Based on the above
      data, it was concluded that MEBA is a good candidate in the search for new anti
      leishmanial agents.

PMID- 28573236
TI  - QUANTIFICATION OF GLYCYRRHIZIN BIOMARKER IN GLYCYRRHIZA GLABRA RHIZOME AND BABY
      HERBAL FORMULATIONS BY VALIDATED RP-HPTLC METHODS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A simple and sensitive thin-layer chromatographic method has been
      established for quantification of glycyrrhizin in Glycyrrhiza glabra rhizome and
      baby herbal formulations by validated Reverse Phase HPTLC method. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: RP-HPTLC Method was carried out using glass coated with RP-18 silica gel
      60 F254S HPTLC plates using methanol-water (7: 3 v/v) as mobile phase. RESULTS:
      The developed plate was scanned and quantified densitometrically at 256 nm.
      Glycyrrhizin peaks from Glycyrrhiza glabra rhizome and baby herbal formulations
      were identified by comparing their single spot at Rf = 0.63 +/- 0.01. Linear
      regression analysis revealed a good linear relationship between peak area and
      amount of glycyrrhizin in the range of 2000-7000 ng/band. CONCLUSION: The method
      was validated, in accordance with ICH guidelines for precision, accuracy, and
      robustness. The proposed method will be useful to enumerate the therapeutic dose
      of glycyrrhizin in herbal formulations as well as in bulk drug.

PMID- 28573237
TI  - PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF MORINGA PEREGRINA LEAVES EXTRACT ON ACETAMINOPHEN -INDUCED
      LIVER TOXICITY IN ALBINO RATS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acetaminophen is a common antipyretic drug but at overdose can cause
      severe hepatotoxicity that may further develop into liver failure and hepatic
      centrilobular necrosis in experimental animals and humans. This study was
      undertaken to assess the ameliorative role of Moringa peregrina leaves extract
      against acetaminophen toxicity in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Induction of
      hepatotoxicity was done by chronic oral administration of acetaminophen (750
      mg/kg bwt) for 4 weeks. To study the possible hepatoprotective effect, Moringa
      peregrina leaves extract (200 mg/kg bwt) or Silymarin (50 mg/kg bwt) was
      administered orally, for 4 weeks, along with acetaminophen. RESULTS:
      acetaminophen significantly increased serum liver enzymes and caused oxidative
      stress, evidenced by significantly increased tissue malondialdehyde, glutathione
      peroxidase, hepatic DNA fragmentation, and significant decrease of glutathione
      and antioxidant enzymes in liver, blood and brain. On the other hand,
      administration of Moringa peregrina leaves extract reversed acetaminophen-related
      toxic effects through: powerful malondialdehyde suppression, glutathione
      peroxidase normalization and stimulation of the cellular antioxidants synthesis
      represented by significant increase of glutathione, catalase and superoxide
      dismutase in liver, blood and brain, besides, DNA fragmentation was significantly
      decreased in the liver tissue. CONCLUSION: acetaminophen induced oxidative damage
      can be improved by Moringa peregrina leaves extract-treatment, due to its
      antioxidant potential.

PMID- 28573238
TI  - KIRKIA ACUMINATA OLIV.: A REVIEW OF ITS ETHNOBOTANY AND PHARMACOLOGY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Local communities in sub-Saharan Africa have a long history of
      medicinal plant usage. Like in other parts of the developing world, rural and
      urban communities are still dependent on herbal medicines for primary health
      care, and the use of herbal medicines is still an integral part of their daily
      life and socio-cultural life style. The objective of this paper is to summarise
      information on the ethnobotany and pharmacology of Kirkia acuminata Oliv.
      throughout its distributional range. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The information
      documented in this article is derived from books, theses, scientific journals and
      reports obtained from library collections, Scopus, Pubmed, MEDLINE, ISI Web of
      Science, Google Scholar and Science Direct. RESULTS: Kirkia acuminata is the most
      known and widely distributed Kirkia species in the genus and is one of the most
      popular and promising plant resources due to its several beneficial uses. Kirkia
      acuminata is used to treat abdominal pains, backache, cholera, constipation,
      cough, diarrhea, dysentery, snake bites, toothache and wounds. Other applications
      include its use as charcoal; hedge, ornamental or shade; stock feed, timber and
      source of water during drought periods. Preliminary phytochemical assessment of
      roots and stem bark of K. acuminata showed presence of lignans, neo-lignans, nor
      carotinoids and other compounds. The extracts of K. acuminata exhibited
      antibacterial and antimycobacterial activities. These phytochemical compounds may
      be responsible for the medicinal uses and biological activities demonstrated by
      K. acuminata. CONCLUSION: Detailed research is required aimed at exploring mode
      of action of bioactive compounds of Kirkia acuminata that are responsible for the
      documented pharmacological effects. Kirkia acuminata is an important plant
      species that has potential to contribute to the primary health care and
      livelihood improvement of local communities in the geographical areas where it is
      indigenous and found in abundance.

PMID- 28573239
TI  - THERAPEUTIC POTENTIALS OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF LEAVES OF HOLARRHENA FLORIBUNDA
      (G. DON) DUR. AND SCHINZ (APOCYNACEAE).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Holarrhena floribunda is a plant of wide usage in the Togolese folk
      medicine. A previous ethnobotanical survey on the latex plants of the Maritime
      region of the country revealed that this plant was included in several recipes
      curing malaria and microbial infections. Therefore, this study aimed to seek for
      the effectiveness of the ethanolic extract of the plant in the treatment of these
      diseases. METHODS: The antimicrobial test was performed using the agar well
      diffusion and the NCCLS broth microdilution methods, while the in vivo
      antimalarial activity was evaluated following the four-day suppressive test of
      Peters. The acute toxic effects of the extract were monitored after a single oral
      dose (5,000 mg/kg body weight) administration in NMRI mice. RESULTS: The results
      indicated that the ethanolic extract of leaves of H. floribunda was active on
      Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus,
      Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae with MICs ranging from 0.62 to 1.25
      mg/mL. The extract also showed significant parasitaemia suppression in a dose
      dependent manner. In the acute toxicity assay, the oral administration of the
      extract to the mice did not affect the relative weight of vital organs, and there
      were no signs of toxicity or death during the study period. The LD50 of the
      tested extract was found to be greater than 5,000 mg/kg, indicating its safety.
      CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the antibacterial and antimalarial activities
      of leaves of H. floribunda and then, supports its medicinal use in the treatment
      of microbial infections.

PMID- 28573240
TI  - SIGNALING PATHWAYS REGULATED BY BRASSICACEAE EXTRACT INHIBIT THE FORMATION OF
      ADVANCED GLYCATED END PRODUCTS IN RAT BRAIN.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was identification signaling molecules
      mediated the formation of AGEs in brain of rats injected with CdCl2 and the role
      of camel whey proteins and Brassicaceae extract on formation of AGEs in brain.
      METHODS: Ninety male rats were randomly grouped into five groups; Normal control
      (GpI) and the other rats (groups II-V) were received a single dose of cadmium
      chloride i.p (5 MUg/kg/b.w) for induction of neurodegeneration. Rats in groups
      III-V were treated daily with whey protein (1g/kg b.w) or Brassicaceae extract
      (1mg/kg b.w) or combined respectively for 12 weeks. RESULTS: It was found that
      whey protein combined with Brassicaceae extract prevented the formation of AGEs
      and enhance the antioxidant activity compared with untreated group (p <0.001).
      Serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and interleukine (IL-6) levels were
      significantly decreased (p<0.01) in rats treated with whey protein and
      Brassicaceae extract formation compared with untreated. The combined treatment
      showed a better impact than individual ones (p<0.001). The level of cAMP but not
      cGMP were lowered in combined treatment than individual (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: It
      can be postulated that Whey protein + Brassicaceae extract formation could have
      potential benefits in the prevention of the onset and progression of neuropathy
      in patients.

PMID- 28573241
TI  - MECHANISMS UNDERLYING ACTION OF XINMAILONG INJECTION, A TRADITIONAL CHINESE
      MEDICINE IN CARDIAC FUNCTION IMPROVEMENT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As a bioactive composite extracted from American cockroach,
      Xinmailong injection (XML) is used for the treatment of congestive heart failure
      (CHF) in China. Clinical data has provided evidence that XML has positive
      inotropic properties. The objective of this study was to assess the mechanisms
      involved in the therapeutical effect of XML on CHF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      effects of XML on the cardiac function in isolated rat heart were measured. A
      Ca2+ imaging technology was used in rat cardiomyocytes (H9c2 cells) to reveal the
      role of XML on Ca2+ channels. Meanwhile, the effects of XML on the activities of
      Na+/K+ ATPase and sodium/calcium exchanger were measured. In addition, the level
      of reactive oxygen species and the protein expressions for the superoxide
      dismutase and hemeoxygenase were determined in the cardiomyocytes. RESULTS: The
      results showed that XML increased the electrical impulse-induced [Ca2+]i in H9c2
      cells, which was dependant on extracellular Ca2+ and was abolished by ML218-HCl
      (a T-type Ca2+channels antagonist) but not nimodipine (a L-type Ca2+channels
      antagonist). Ouabain, a Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitor, increased the electrical impulse
      induced [Ca2+]i, which was significantly inhibited by XML. Moreover, XML markedly
      inhibited the Na+/K+ ATPase activity in H9c2 cells. In addition, XML notably
      reduced the production of reactive oxygen species and enhanced the protein
      expressions of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase 1, superoxide
      dismutase 2 and hemeoxygenase 1 in H9c2 cell. CONCLUSION: Our findings pave the
      ways to the better understandings of the therapeutic effects of XML on
      cardiovascular system.

PMID- 28573242
TI  - NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE PRESENCE OF BILIRUBIN IN A PLANT SPECIES STRELITZIA NICOLAI
      (STRELITZIACEAE).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The fortuitous discovery of an animal pigment bilirubin found in the
      plant Strelitzia nicolai has opened an enormous number of questions regarding
      bilirubin's formation and its ultimate function in the human body. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A methodical review of bilirubin in humans and animals was carried out,
      information was gathered using published scientific journals, books and
      conference proceedings. Articles based on case studies of elevated levels of
      bilirubin were analysed thoroughly. RESULTS: Even though for numerous years
      bilirubin was assumed to be merely a desecrate product of the heme catabolic
      pathway by greatest, and a likely lethal compound at worst; statistics from the
      last few decades clearly shows that placidly high serum bilirubin levels are
      robustly related to have abundant beneficial effects on the human body.
      CONCLUSION: This study reveals new insights into the presence of the only animal
      pigment found in Strelitzia nicolai arils, the potential advantages of bilirubin
      found in a plant and its therapeutic value indications. This review hopes to
      resuscitate researchers' credence regarding bilirubin as a toxic compound.

PMID- 28573243
TI  - IN VITRO EFFICACY OF EXTRACTS FROM PLANTS USED BY SMALL-HOLDER FARMERS IN THE
      TREATMENT OF DERMATOPHILOSIS IN CATTLE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bovine dermatophilosis, an important skin disease of cattle caused by
      Dermatophilus congolensis, negatively impacts the livelihoods of small-holder
      farmers in Zimbabwe. This impact is through, morbidity, loss of draught animal
      power, costs incurred to manage the disease, losses associated with devalued
      damaged hides and the resultant culling of some of the affected cattle. Due to
      the inaccessibility of conventional drugs to manage bovine dermatophilosis,
      farmers have been reported to use local medicinal plants to manage the disease.
      The aim of the study was to evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial activities of
      three plants that small-holder farmers in Zimbabwe used to manage bovine
      dermatophilosis. METHODS: Dried plant materials were ground into powder and
      extracted individually using, water, 80 % acetone and 80 % methanol. The
      antimicrobial properties of the plants were evaluated against two Gram-negative
      (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and one Gram-positive
      (Staphylococcus aureus) reference bacterial strains. They were further evaluated
      against a field isolate of Dermatophilus congolensis. The assays used were the
      disc diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum
      bactericidal concentration (MBC). RESULTS: Acetone and methanol extracts had
      superior inhibitory activities than did those of water. Pterocarpus angolensis DC
      extracts had better inhibitory properties with absolute MIC values of 0.156 - 5
      mg/ml, Cissus Quadrangularis L had MIC values in the range 0.156 - 5 mg/ml while
      that of Catunaregam spinosa Thunb, Terveng was 0.156 - 10 mg/ml. Dermatophilus
      congolensis was more sensitive to Pterocarpus angolensis DC average MIC = 0.63
      mg/ml than to Cissus quadrangularis L average MIC = 1.25 mg/ml and Catunaregam.
      spinosa Thunb, Terveng average MIC = 2.08 mg/ml. CONCLUSION: These results
      suggest the potential antibacterial activities of extracts of the three plants
      and hence farmers are, in a way, justified in using the plants. Better results
      (lower MIC) could be obtained by extracting and evaluating pure active compounds
      of the plants.

PMID- 28573244
TI  - INVESTIGATION OF ANTIHEMOLYTIC, XANTHINE OXIDASE INHIBITION, ANTIOXIDANT AND
      ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF SALVIA VERBENACA L. AERIAL PART EXTRACTS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, Salvia verbenaca L. aerial part extracts (SVEs): were
      screened for their antihemolytic, xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibition, antioxidant
      and antimicrobial activities. MATERIAL AND METHODS: To investigate SVEs
      antihemolytic activity, the 2,2,-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH)
      was used to induce erythrocyte oxidative hemolysis. In XO inhibition test,
      xanthine was used as substrate and cytochrome c for generating superoxide anions.
      The antioxidant activity of SVEs was examined by means of reducing power, DPPH
      free radical scavenging and iron chelating assays. In addition, SVEs were tested
      for their antimicrobial effects by evaluating antibacterial and antifungal
      activities. RESULTS: Ethyl acetate extract (EAE) contains the highest amount of
      total polyphenols and flavonoids (661.78 +/- 4.00 mg GAE / g E) and (28.81 +/-
      0.38 mg QE / g E) respectively. In antihemolytic test EAE was the most active
      extract with an HT50 value of 165 min. SVEs gave significant inhibitory effects
      on XO, especially the chloroform extract (ChE) with IC50 value of 0.0088 +/-
      0.000 mg/ml. EAE was the most active extract in reducing power essay (EC50:
      0.0047 +/- 0.000 mg/ml) and in DPPH radical scavenging essay (IC50: 0.0086 +/-
      0.000 mg/ml). Finally, the EAE has inhibited the growth of nine bacterial strains
      with inhibition zone diameters of (12 to 16 mm), but no activities have found
      against fungal strains. CONCLUSION: S. verbenaca could be considered as a
      potential source of natural antihemolytic, enzyme modulator, antioxidant and
      antibacterial agents.

PMID- 28573245
TI  - ANTIPROLIFERATIVE EFFECT ON BREAST CANCER (MCF7) OF MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED
      EXTRACTS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Moringa oleifera belongs to plant family, Moringaceae and popularly
      called "wonderful tree", for it is used traditionally to cure many diseases
      including cancer in Africa and Asia, however, there is limited knowledge on
      cytotoxic activity of Moringa oleifera seeds on MCF7 breast cancer cell. The
      present study evaluated antiproliferative effect on MCF7 of the seed. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Seeds of Moringa oleifera were grinded to powder and its
      phytochemicals were extracted using water and 80% ethanol solvents, part of the
      ethanolic extract were sequentially partitioned to fractions with four solvents
      (hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform, and n-butanol). Antiproliferative effects
      on MCF7 of the samples were determined. Finally, potent samples that
      significantly inhibited MCF7 growth were tested on MCF 10A. RESULTS: Crude water
      extract, hexane and dichloromethane fractions of the seeds inhibited the
      proliferation of MCF7 with the following IC50 values 280 MUg/ml, 130 MUg/ml and
      26 MUg/ml respectively, however, of the 3 samples, only hexane fraction had
      minimal cytotoxic effect on MCF 10A (IC50 > 400MUg/ml). CONCLUSION: Moringa
      oleifera seed has antiproliferative effect on MCF7.

PMID- 28573246
TI  - THE EFFECT OF BODY AWARENESS THERAPY AND AEROBIC EXERCISES ON PAIN AND QUALITY OF
      LIFE IN THE PATIENTS WITH TENSION TYPE HEADACHE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study is to investigate the effect of Body Awareness Therapy
      (BAT) and Aerobic Exercises on pain and quality of life in patients with Tension
      Type Headache (TTH). MATERIALS AND METHOD: Sixty individuals with TTH diagnosis
      who referred Neurologist were incorporated into study. The individuals were
      randomly grouped into 3 as BAT (n=20), aerobic exercise (n=20) and control group
      (n=20). Pain severity of the individuals was evaluated by Visual Analog Scale
      (VAS) and pain diary, disability with ache; by Pain Disability Index (PDI) and
      Headache Impact Tests (HIT) and quality of life was evaluated by SF-36.
      Subsequent to first assessments, 3 sessions of 60 minutes per week throughout 6
      weeks totally. RESULTS: When the groups were compared at the end of the study, a
      significant decrease was observed in VAS, PDI and HIT values in the individuals
      in the BAT and aerobic exercise groups. With the individuals in group BAT and
      aerobic exercise all parameters of quality of life were observed to be increased
      significantly. CONCLUSION: BAT and aerobic exercise programs to be applied on TTH
      patients were concluded to be important in decreasing the pain, in increasing the
      quality of life and in reducing pain-related daily constraints of the
      individuals.

PMID- 28573247
TI  - IN VITRO STUDY OF CONCENTRATION-EFFECT AND TIME-COURSE PATTERN OF WHITE ALUM ON
      ESCHERICHIA COLI O157:H7 GROWTH.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nowadays, the demand for antibacterial fabrics has increased. White
      alum is used for oral aphthous ulcers treatment in traditional medicine of Sistan
      city, Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Iran, and also as a flocculent for water
      purification. This study is aimed to evaluate the effect of concentration and
      time on antibacterial activity of white alum on Escherichia coli O157:H7.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2% concentrations of white alum were
      added to 108 CFU of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Optical Density was recorded for 4
      hours. Data obtained were analyzed using Repeated Measure and One-way ANOVA by
      SPSS. RESULTS: Results revealed the effectiveness of white alum in the growth of
      the tested bacterium. The white alum was found to be potent against Escherichia
      coli O157:H7 at a concentration above 1% (p<0.05). Also, its effect is dose and
      time dependent, as well as other disinfectants. CONCLUSION: A wide variety of
      natural products has been under scrutiny for their clinical potential, both in
      terms of prevention and treatment. Strong antibacterial activity of white alum
      compared with control was shown against tested bacterium. In conclusion, white
      alum can be used as an inhibitor of bacterial growth, especially for Escherichia
      coli O157:H7.

PMID- 28573248
TI  - WITHAFERIN A INDUCES APOPTOSIS IN RAT C6 GLIOMA CELLS THROUGH REGULATING NF-KB
      NUCLEAR TRANSLOCATION AND ACTIVATION OF CASPASE CASCADE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The demand for the chemopreventive drug from the plant source is
      increasing in recent times, owing to its various biological activities without
      any adverse effect. The intention of this current study was to examine the anti
      glioma effect of Withaferin A (WFA) on C6 glioma cell line model. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: C6 glioma cells were administrated with different concentration of WFA
      (50, 100, 200 and 500 MUg/mL) and DMSO (control) group to examine its anti
      proliferative, anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic activities. RESULTS: Treatment
      with WFA showed a significant decline in the glioma cell count in a dose
      dependent manner and thus proving its anti-proliferative effect. Similarly,
      inflammatory markers were also substantially lowered upon treatment with
      different concentration of WFA. However, DNA fragmentation and apoptotic markers
      like Caspase-3 and 9 were concomitantly enhanced after co-cultured with different
      concentration of WFA and thus exhibiting its cytotoxicity efficacy. Furthermore,
      the protein expression of Bcl2 and Bax were markedly downregulated and
      upregulated respectively; upon treatment with WFA on C6 glioma cells. CONCLUSION:
      The outcome of this study evidently demonstrates that C6 glioma cells co-cultured
      with increased concentration of WFA, showed an anti-proliferative, anti
      inflammatory and pro-apoptotic effect in a dose-dependent fashion.

PMID- 28573249
TI  - HERBAL PRODUCT USE BY THE CANCER PATIENTS IN BOTH THE PRE AND POST SURGERY
      PERIODS AND DURING CHEMOTHERAPY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate of the use of herbal products
      in patients in both pre- and post- surgery periods and during chemotherapy, and
      to determine the factors behind it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was
      conducted as a descriptive study with 281 patients in 4 centers. The data of the
      study were collected by using a survey form prepared by the researcher, depending
      on literature and interview with the participants face-to-face. RESULTS: While
      the average age of the patients involved in the study is 49.1+/-12.8, 51.6% of
      them were females, 34.6% graduate of elementary school, and 34.5% were
      housewives. While the prevelance of the use of herbal product prior to surgical
      treatment is 38.9%, it was observed that this rate increased to 54.1% during
      chemotherapy. It was observed that the most frequently used product was garlic
      prior to surgical treatment (19.2%), that it was urtica dioica (13.8%) during
      chemotherapy. Before the surgical treatment, 94.3% of the patients, and during
      chemotherapy treatment, 81.7% of the patients, stated that the use of herbal
      product had not been questioned by the physician or nurse. CONCLUSION: Analysis
      of the results indicates that health professionals need to obtain information
      regarding the use of herbal products by cancer patients during both pre- and post
      surgery periods, as well as during chemotherapy. Patients should be provided
      with information and guidance about the advantages and disadvantages of using
      herbal products.

PMID- 28573250
TI  - THE USE OF RHEUM PALMATUM L. IN THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS
      SYNDROME: A META-ANALYSIS OF RANDOMIZED, CONTROLLED TRIALS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chinese medicine theory shows that "lung being connected with large
      intestine", and the modern western medicine also shows that the lung and
      intestinal tract affect each other in physiological and pathological conditions.
      If the lung ventilation dysfunction is caused by inflammatory exudate or
      secretions obstruction of the small airway ventilation, blood gas partial
      pressure is increased and intestinal gas absorption difficulty may lead to
      intestinal inflation and dysfunction (Wang N et al., 2011). Rheum palmatum L. can
      play the roles of anti-coagulation and anti-thrombosis, and improve
      microcirculation through lowering the endotoxin-induced permeability of
      microvascular tissue, reducing tissue oedema, decreasing inflammatory exudation
      and necrosis, and enhancing cyto-protection mechanism (Yang TZ et al., 2014).
      Therefore, systemic evaluation of the evidence pertaining to the usage of Rheum
      palmatum L. in treating acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome
      (ARDS) has significant clinical significance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Various
      Electronic Databases CBM, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed and Cochrane Library were
      searched until December 2015. Numerous randomized-controlled trials (RCTs)
      evaluating the efficacy of Rheum palmatum L. for the treatment of acute lung
      injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome were collected. The quality of the
      included studies was evaluated and a meta-analysis was performed using the
      RevMan5.0 software. RESULTS: Eight RCTs involving 489 patients were selected for
      this review. The results of the Meta-analysis revealed that Rheum palmatum L.
      therapy, combined with routine comprehensive treatment, was significantly
      superior to that of routine comprehensive treatment alone, in the areas of
      decreasing mortality, the mechanical ventilation time, the level of interleukin
      6,8 and the untoward effect, and also in improving arterial blood gas (PaO2/FiO2,
      PaO2) (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Compared with treatment with routine comprehensive
      alone, Rheum palmatum L. treatment combined with routine comprehensive, has been
      shown to effectively decrease the mortality, mechanical ventilation time and
      ameliorate the arterial blood gas, the cytokine levels, and the untoward effect.
      However, the evidence appears not to be very compelling due to the poor quality
      of the original studies.

PMID- 28573251
TI  - MORIN MITIGATES OXIDATIVE STRESS, APOPTOSIS AND INFLAMMATION IN CEREBRAL ISCHEMIC
      RATS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Morin is a flavanoid which exhibits potent antioxidant activity in
      various oxidative stress related diseases. The current study was attempted to
      scrutinize the preclinical bio-efficacy of morin on focal ischemia. METHODS: The
      animal model of focal cerebral ischemic injury was done by midbrain carotid
      artery occlusion (MCAO) method, followed by Morin (30mg/kg) administration for
      seven days. RESULTS: The outcome of the study showed that treatment with morin
      displayed positive effects in reducing the focal cerebral ischemia. This effect
      was evident with the improvements in neurological deficits, reduction in MDA
      content and elevation of antioxidant levels (SOD, GSH and Gpx). Furthermore,
      protein expression of Bax and caspase-3 were effectively down-regulated, whilst
      the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly elevated. On the other hand, the mRNA
      expression of proinflammatory cytokines was significantly reduced in focal
      cerebral ischemic rats upon morin intervention. CONCLUSION: Thus, the beneficial
      effects of morin on cerebral ischemia assault may result from the reduction of
      oxidative stress, inhibition of apoptosis and inflammation. The neuroprotective
      effects of morin supplement may serve as potent adjuvant in the amelioration of
      ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28573252
TI  - INDUCTION OF CELL CYCLE ARREST AND APOPTOSIS BY ORMENIS ERIOLEPIS A MORROCAN
      ENDEMIC PLANT IN VARIOUS HUMAN CANCER CELL LINES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ormenis eriolepis Coss (Asteraceae) is an endemic Moroccan
      subspecies, traditionally named "Hellala" or "Fergoga". It's usually used for its
      hypoglycemic effect as well as for the treatment of stomacal pain. As far as we
      know, there is no scientific exploration of anti tumoral activity of Ormenis
      eriolepis extracts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this regard, we performed a
      screening of organic extracts and fractions in a panel of both hematological and
      solid cancer cell lines, to evaluate the potential in vitro anti tumoral activity
      and to elucidate the respective mechanisms that may be responsible for growth
      arrest and cell death induction. The plant was extracted using organic solvents,
      and four different extracts were screened on Jurkat, Jeko-1, TK-6, LN229, SW620,
      U2OS, PC-3 and NIH3T3 cells. RESULTS: Cell viability assays revealed that, the
      IC50 values were (11,63+/-5,37MUg/ml) for Jurkat, (13,33+/-1,67MUg/ml) for Jeko
      1, (41,67+/-1,98MUg/ml) for LN229 and (19,31+/-4,88MUg/ml) for PC-3 cells upon
      treatment with Oe-DF and Oe-HE respectively. Both the fraction and extract
      exhibited no effects on TK6 and NIH3T3. Cytometry analysis accompanied by DNA
      damage signaling protein levels monitoring (p-H2A.X), showed that both the
      Dichloromethane Fraction and Hexanic extract induce DNA double stranded breaks
      (DSBs) accompanied by cell cycle arrest in G1 (Jurkat, Jeko -1 and LN22) and G2/M
      (PC-3) phases which is agreed with the caspase activity observed. Additional
      experiments with selective inhibitors of stress and survival pathways (JNK, MAPK,
      Rho, p53, and JAK3) indicated that none of these pathways was significantly
      involved in apoptosis induction. The bioactive compound analysis by CG/MS
      indicated that the major compounds in Oe-DF were: Linoleic Acid (15,89%),
      Podophyllotoxin (17,89%) and Quercetin (22,95%). For Oe-HE the major molecules
      were: Linoleic Acid (9,76%), alpha-curcumene (7,07%), alpha-bisabolol (5,49%),
      Campesterol (4,41%), Stigmasterol (14,08%) and beta-sitosterol (7,49%).
      CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that bioactive compounds present in Ormenis
      eriolepis show significant anti proliferative activity inducing cell cycle arrest
      and cell death operating through apoptosis pathway.

PMID- 28573255
TI  - Image-Based Food Volume Estimation.
AB  - In this paper, we propose an extension to our previous work on food portion size
      estimation using a single image and a multi-view volume estimation method. The
      single-view technique estimates food volume by using prior information
      (segmentation and food labels) generated from food identification methods we
      described earlier. For multi-view volume estimation, we use"Shape from
      Silhouettes"to estimate the food portion size. The experimental results of our
      volume estimation methods demonstrate our results with respect to accuracy and
      reliability.

PMID- 28573253
TI  - IN VIVO CARBON TETRACHLORIDE-INDUCED HEPATOPROTECTIVE AND IN VITRO CYTOTOXIC
      ACTIVITIES OF GARCINIA HOMBRONIANA (SEASHORE MANGOSTEEN).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Garcinia hombroniana, known as "manggis hutan" (jungle mangosteen) in
      Malaysia, is distributed in tropical Asia, Borneo, Thailand, Andaman, Nicobar
      Islands, Vietnam and India. In Malaysia, its ripened crimson sour fruit rind is
      used as a seasoning agent in curries and culinary dishes. Its roots and leaves
      decoction is used against skin infections and after child birth. This study aimed
      to evaluate in vivo hepatoprotective and in vitro cytotoxic activities of 20%
      methanolic ethyl acetate (MEA) G. hombroniana bark extract. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In hepatoprotective activity, liver damage was induced by treating rats
      with 1.0 mL carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)/kg and MEA extract was administered at a
      dose of 50, 250 and 500 mg/kg 24 h before intoxication with CCl4. Cytotoxicity
      study was performed on MCF-7 (human breast cancer), DBTRG (human glioblastoma),
      PC-3 (human prostate cancer) and U2OS (human osteosarcoma) cell lines. 1H, 13C
      NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), and IR (infrared) spectral analyses were also
      conducted for MEA extract. RESULTS: In hepatoprotective activity evaluation, MEA
      extract at a higher dose level of 500 mg/kg showed significant (p<0.05) potency.
      In cytotoxicity study, MEA extract was more toxic towards MCF-7 and DBTRG cell
      lines causing 78.7% and 64.3% cell death, respectively. MEA extract in 1H, 13C
      NMR, and IR spectra exhibited bands, signals and J (coupling constant) values
      representing aromatic/phenolic constituents. CONCLUSIONS: From the results, it
      could be concluded that MEA extract has potency to inhibit hepatotoxicity and MCF
      7 and DBTRG cancer cell lines which might be due to the phenolic compounds
      depicted from NMR and IR spectra.

PMID- 28573256
TI  - Low Complexity Image Quality Measures for Dietary Assessment Using Mobile
      Devices.
AB  - Many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, can be
      related to diet. Hence, the need to accurately measure diet becomes imperative.
      We are developing image analysis tools for the identification and quantification
      of foods consumed at a meal. Our system relies on a single meal image from the
      user for doing food identification and quantity estimation. Therefore, it is very
      important to assist the user in acquiring a good quality image by providing
      immediate feedback about the image quality. This paper presents low complexity
      image quality measures which are deployed on handheld mobile devices.

PMID- 28573254
TI  - STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ANTIHYPERTENSIVE EFFECTS OF ANGIOTENSIN-I
      CONVERTING ENZYME INHIBITORY PEPTIDES IN THE RENIN-ANGIOTENSIN AND KALLIKREIN
      KININ SYSTEMS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The commercially available synthetic angiotensin-I-converting enzyme
      (ACE) inhibitors are known to exert negative side effects which have driven many
      research groups globally to discover the novel ACE inhibitors. METHOD: Literature
      search was performed within the PubMed, ScienceDirect.com and Google Scholar.
      RESULTS: The presence of proline at the C-terminal tripeptide of ACE inhibitor
      can competitively inhibit the ACE activity. The effects of other amino acids are
      less studied leading to difficulties in predicting potent peptide sequences. The
      broad specificity of the enzyme may be due to the dual active sites observed on
      the somatic ACE. The inhibitors may not necessarily competitively inhibit the
      enzyme which explains why some reported inhibitors do not have the common ACE
      inhibitor characteristics. Finally, the in vivo assay has to be carried out
      before the peptides as the antihypertensive agents can be claimed. The peptides
      must be absorbed into circulation without being degraded, which will affect their
      bioavailability and potency. Thus, peptides with strong in vitro IC50 values do
      not necessarily have the same effect in vivo and vice versa. CONCLUSION: The
      relationship between peptide amino acid sequence and inhibitory activity, in vivo
      studies of the active peptides and bioavailability must be studied before the
      peptides as antihypertensive agents can be claimed.

PMID- 28573257
TI  - Image Segmentation for Image-Based Dietary Assessment: A Comparative Study.
AB  - There is a health crisis in the US related to diet that is further exacerbated by
      our aging population and sedentary lifestyles. Six of the ten leading causes of
      death in the United States can be directly linked to diet. Dietary assessment,
      the process of determining what someone eats during the course of a day, is
      essential for understanding the link between diet and health. We are developing
      imaging based tools to automatically obtain accurate estimates of what foods a
      user consumes. Accurate food segmentation is essential for identifying food items
      and estimating food portion sizes. In this paper, we present a quantitative
      evaluation of automatic image segmentation methods for food image analysis used
      for dietary assessment. The experiments indicate that local variation is more
      suitable for food image segmentation in general dietary assessment studies where
      the food images acquired have complex background.

PMID- 28573259
TI  - A Printer Indexing System for Color Calibration with Applications in Dietary
      Assessment.
AB  - In image based dietary assessment, color is a very important feature in food
      identification. One issue with using color in image analysis in the calibration
      of the color imaging capture system. In this paper we propose an indexing system
      for color camera calibration using printed color checkerboards also known as
      fiducial markers (FMs). To use the FM for color calibration one must know which
      printer was used to print the FM so that the correct color calibration matrix can
      be used for calibration. We have designed a printer indexing scheme that allows
      one to determine which printer was used to print the FM based on a unique
      arrangement of color squares and binarized marks (used for error control) printed
      on the FM. Using normalized cross correlation and pattern detection, the index
      corresponding to the printer for a particular FM can be determined. Our
      experimental results show this scheme is robust against most types of lighting
      conditions.

PMID- 28573258
TI  - The Use of Temporal Information in Food Image Analysis.
AB  - We have developed a dietary assessment system that uses food images captured by a
      mobile device. Food identification is a crucial component of our system.
      Achieving a high classification rates is challenging due to the large number of
      food categories and variability in food appearance. In this paper, we propose to
      improve food classification by incorporating temporal information. We employ
      recursive Bayesian estimation to incrementally learn from a person's eating
      history. We show an improvement of food classification accuracy by 11% can be
      achieved.

PMID- 28573260
TI  - Trend Analysis of Betel Nut-associated Oral Cancer ?and Health Burden in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To forecast the future trend of betel nut-associated oral cancer and
      the resulting burden on health based on historical oral cancer patient data in
      Hunan province, China. METHODS: Oral cancer patient data in five hospitals in
      Changsha (the capital city of Hunan province) were collected for the past 12
      years. Three methods were used to analyse the data; Microsoft Excel Forecast
      Sheet, Excel Trendline, and the Logistic growth model. A combination of these
      three methods was used to forecast the future trend of betel nut-associated oral
      cancer and the resulting burden on health. RESULTS: Betel nut-associated oral
      cancer cases have been increasing rapidly in the past 12  years in Changsha. As
      of 2016, betel nuts had caused 8,222 cases of oral cancer in Changsha and close
      to 25,000 cases in Hunan, resulting in about Y5 billion in accumulated financial
      loss. The combined trend analysis predicts that by 2030, betel nuts will cause
      more than 100,000 cases of oral cancer in Changsha and more than 300,000 cases in
      Hunan, and more than Y64 billion in accumulated financial loss in medical
      expenses. CONCLUSION: The trend analysis of oral cancer patient data predicts
      that the growing betel nut industry in Hunan province will cause a humanitarian
      catastrophe with massive loss of human life and national resources. To prevent
      this catastrophe, China should ban betel nuts and provide early oral cancer
      screening for betel nut consumers as soon as possible.

PMID- 28573261
TI  - Development of Oral Health Impacts on Daily Living Questionnaire Items - a
      Qualitative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop an instrument to measure Oral Health-related Quality of
      Life (OHQoL) and the changes after dental treatment among older adults in Hong
      Kong, in order to understand their views on the influences of oral health
      problems and generate relevant items to design the instrument. METHODS: A
      qualitative study was conducted among adults aged 55 and over. Information on
      their perceived oral health impacts was collected during semi-structured
      interviews. A framework approach was used to identify the oral health impacts and
      to understand the meaning of those impacts on the perception of life
      satisfaction. RESULTS: A total of 39 participants (average age 72 years)
      underwent the semi-structured interviews; 20 were seeking dental treatment and 19
      had already received dental treatment for 1 to 3 months. In total, 308 statements
      on oral health impacts were drawn from the participants' descriptions. After four
      steps of item reduction and refinement, a list of 20 items was generated before
      being classified into eight domains: Cleansing, Eating, Speaking, Appearance,
      Social, Psychological, Awareness, and Health and Finance. CONCLUSION: Older
      adults in Hong Kong perceive that oral health impacts on different aspects of
      life. The face validity and content validity of the developed Oral Health Impact
      on Daily Living (OHIDL) was proved through qualitative study.

PMID- 28573262
TI  - Proposing a Novel, Three-level Definition of Periodontitis ?using Probing Depth,
      Clinical Attachment Loss and Bleeding on Probing: Analysis of a Rural Chinese
      Population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To propose a novel, three-level (severe, moderate, mild) case
      definition using probing depth (PD), clinical attachment loss (CAL) and bleeding
      on probing (BOP) for epidemiologic studies on periodontitis. METHODS: Case
      definitions (DEF) 1-30 with PD, CAL and BOP were made. Based on data from
      epidemiologic research in Chengde (Hebei Province, China) in 1992, prevalence of
      periodontitis by DEF1-30 was calculated and compared with a reference
      (definitions by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American Academy of
      Periodontology in 2012). Sensitivity, specificity, Youden Index, Cohen's kappa
      coefficient (CKC) and the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve
      (AUC) were calculated for the definitions selected. RESULTS: DEF1 and DEF18 for
      periodontitis, DEF2, DEF3, DEF19 for moderate and severe periodontitis, and DEF5,
      DEF13, DEF14, DEF21 and DEF25 for severe periodontitis, which were similar for
      estimation of periodontitis prevalence compared with the reference, were
      selected. DEF18 for periodontitis, DEF19 for moderate and severe periodontitis,
      and DEF5 for severe periodontitis were selected because they showed higher values
      for the Youden Index, CKC and AUC, and formed a three-level definition.
      CONCLUSION: A novel three-level case classification of periodontitis using three
      parameters of PD, CAL and BOP was proposed. The estimated periodontitis
      prevalence according to the novel proposed definition is close to the prevalence
      according to the CDC/AAP definition.

PMID- 28573263
TI  - Risk Factors associated with Early Childhood Caries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse factors associated with the susceptibility of early
      childhood caries (ECC), populations with a high risk of ECC were screened and
      guidance for ECC prevention was proposed. METHODS: A total of 392 children aged
      24 to 71 months were selected for oral examination in Qingdao. Parents or
      guardians of the participants completed the questionnaires and decayed missing
      filled surface (dmfs) were recorded. Differences in caries condition and oral
      health behaviour in different families were compared. Risk factors related to ECC
      were screened. The subjects were finally grouped based on the obtained dmfs into
      three groups: caries-free, ECC and S-ECC (severe ECC). Association of risk
      factors with the caries status was analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, the
      chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: There were significant
      differences among the caries-free, ECC and S-ECC groups in three parameters:
      eating too many sweets each day, brushing before and after sleeping, and whether
      parents helped to brush (P < 0.01). Combined factors such as the parents' level
      of education, oral health knowledge, attitudes, the family's annual income, the
      age of children when they start to brush and not brushing regularly were also
      significantly related to ECC (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed
      among the three groups for these factors, including birth condition and nursing
      state, physical condition of the mother during pregnancy, feeding situation, if a
      pacifier was used during sleep, duration of brushing, frequency of mouth rinsing
      after meals each day and brushing with fluoride toothpaste (P  > 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Eating a lot of sweets, an incorrect brushing method, starting
      brushing at a later stage and not brushing regularly are susceptible factors for
      ECC. Emphasising oral health knowledge to parents and guardians, conducting
      proper brushing methods, limiting the frequency of sweets being eaten and
      avoiding an inappropriate habit of eating sweets are very important factors in
      the prevention of ECC.

PMID- 28573264
TI  - Effects of Combining Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 and Platelet-derived Growth
      Factor on Osteogenesis around ?Dental Implants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of the combination of insulin-like growth
      factor 1 (IGF-1) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) on bone formation
      around dental implants. METHODS: A total of 24 adult rabbits were included in
      this experiment. Titanium machine-polished dental implants were placed in the
      iliac bones to simulate dental implants in the alveolar bone. The rabbits were
      randomly divided into four groups; a saline treated control group (NS), an IGF-1
      treated group, a PDGF-BB treated group, and a combination of IGF-1 and PDGF-BB
      treated group. The rabbits were sacrificed after 3, 7, and 10 days, and implants
      and soft tissues around implants were histologically evaluated. RESULTS: All of
      the rabbits began to recover their appetite, move freely and the operation area
      started detumescence until after the fourth day. H&E staining showed that the
      granulation tissue formation, multinucleated giant cells, a small amount of
      calcium salt deposition and bone tissue were observed in the IGF-1 group and the
      PDGF-BB group. In the IGF-1 + PDGF-BB group, the granulation tissue had turned
      into fibrous connective tissue, and calcium salt deposit had formed bone tissue.
      Masson's trichrome staining showed that the IGF-1 group and the PDGF-BB group had
      more collagen fibre compared with the NS group. In the ?IGF-1 + PDGF-BB group,
      collagen fibre hyperplasia and repairing fibres appeared earlier than in other
      groups. CONCLUSION: When applying IGF-1 or PDGF-BB alone, either has the effect
      of accelerating the wound healing in the short term; while in combination,
      earlier collagen fibre hyperplasia appeared.

PMID- 28573265
TI  - A Rare Case of Malignant Melanoma of the Mandible: ?CT and MRI Findings.
AB  - Malignant melanoma of the mandibular gingiva is extremely rare. It is a malignant
      tumour of melanocytes or their precursor cells, and often misinterpreted as a
      benign pigmented process. A few reports have described computed tomography (CT)
      and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of malignant melanoma in the oral
      cavity. We report a rare case of malignant melanoma of the mandible and the
      related CT and MRI findings. Soft tissue algorithm contrast-enhanced CT showed an
      expansile mass and irregular destruction of alveolar bone in the right side of
      the mandibular molar area. MR images showed an enhancing mass and the tumour had
      a low to intermediate signal intensity and a high-signal intensity. Soft tissue
      algorithm contrast-enhanced CT and MR images showed lymphadenopathy involving the
      submandibular lymph nodes. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis
      of malignant melanoma.

PMID- 28573266
TI  - The workings of ferritin: a crossroad of opinions.
AB  - Biochemistry of the essential element iron is complicated by radical chemistry
      associated with Fe(ii) ions and by the extremely low solubility of the Fe(iii)
      ion in near-neutral water. To mitigate these problems cells from all domains of
      life synthesize the protein ferritin to take up and oxidize Fe(ii) and to form a
      soluble storage of Fe(iii) from which iron can be made available for physiology.
      A long history of studies on ferritin has not yet resulted in a generally
      accepted mechanism of action of this enzyme. In fact strong disagreement exists
      between extant ideas on several key steps in the workings of ferritin. The scope
      of this review is to explain the experimental background of these controversies
      and to indicate directions towards their possible resolution.

PMID- 28573267
TI  - Correction: Iron isotopic composition of blood serum in anemia of chronic kidney
      disease.
AB  - Correction for 'Iron isotopic composition of blood serum in anemia of chronic
      kidney disease' by Yulia Anoshkina et al., Metallomics, 2017, DOI:
      10.1039/c7mt00021a.

PMID- 28573268
TI  - Atmospheric gas-to-particle conversion: why NPF events are observed in
      megacities?
AB  - In terms of the global aerosol particle number load, atmospheric new particle
      formation (NPF) dominates over primary emissions. The key for quantifying the
      importance of atmospheric NPF is to understand how gas-to-particle conversion
      (GTP) takes place at sizes below a few nanometers in particle diameter in
      different environments, and how this nano-GTP affects the survival of small
      clusters into larger sizes. The survival probability of growing clusters is tied
      closely to the competition between their growth and scavenging by pre-existing
      aerosol particles, and the key parameter in this respect is the ratio between the
      condensation sink (CS) and the cluster growth rate (GR). Here we define their
      ratio as a dimensionless survival parameter, P, as P = (CS/10-4 s-1)/(GR/nm h-1).
      Theoretical arguments and observations in clean and moderately-polluted
      conditions indicate that P needs to be smaller than about 50 for a notable NPF to
      take place. However, the existing literature shows that in China, NPF occurs
      frequently in megacities such as in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, and our
      analysis shows that the calculated values of P are even larger than 200 in these
      cases. By combining direct observations and conceptual modelling, we explore the
      variability of the survival parameter P in different environments and probe the
      reasons for NPF occurrence under highly-polluted conditions.

PMID- 28573269
TI  - Liquid crystal elastomers: emerging trends and applications.

PMID- 28573270
TI  - Hybrid colloidal microswimmers through sequential capillary assembly.
AB  - Active colloids, also known as artificial microswimmers, are self-propelled micro
      and nanoparticles that convert uniform sources of fuel (e.g. chemical) or
      uniform external driving fields (e.g. magnetic or electric) into directed motion
      by virtue of asymmetry in their shape or composition. These materials are
      currently attracting enormous scientific attention as models for out-of
      equilibrium systems and with the promise to be used as micro- and nanoscale
      devices. However, current fabrication of active colloids is limited in the choice
      of available materials, geometries, and modes of motion. Here, we use sequential
      capillarity-assisted particle assembly (sCAPA) to link microspheres of different
      materials into hybrid clusters of prescribed shapes ("colloidal molecules") that
      can actively translate, circulate and rotate powered by asymmetric electro
      hydrodynamic flows. We characterize the active motion of the clusters and
      highlight the range of parameters (composition and shape) that can be used to
      tune their trajectories. Further engineering provides active colloids that switch
      motion under external triggers or perform simple pick-up and transport tasks. By
      linking their design, realization and characterization, our findings enable and
      inspire both physicists and engineers to create customized active colloids to
      explore novel fundamental phenomena in active matter and to investigate materials
      and propulsion schemes that are compatible with future applications.

PMID- 28573271
TI  - A dielectric anomaly observed for doubly reduced mixed-valence polyoxometalate.
AB  - Benzimidazolium is revealed to form quasi-isostructural crystals of mixed-valence
      molecular metal oxides that consist of [PMoMoO40]5- and fully oxidized [BWO40]5-.
      The structure and dielectric behaviour were compared and a dielectric anomaly was
      evident due to the electric dipole relaxation in the mixed-valence system.

PMID- 28573272
TI  - Lipid rafts enhance the binding constant of membrane-anchored receptors and
      ligands.
AB  - Gaining insights into the binding of membrane-anchored receptors and ligands that
      mediate cell adhesion and signal transduction is of great significance for
      understanding numerous physiological processes driven by intercellular
      communication. Lipid rafts, microdomains in cell membranes enriched in
      cholesterol and saturated lipids such as sphingomyelin, are believed to serve as
      the essential platforms to recruit protein molecules for biological functions. An
      important question remains how the lipid rafts affect the binding constant of
      membrane-anchored receptors and ligands. We have investigated the adhesion of
      multicomponent membranes by using Monte Carlo simulations of a mesoscopic model
      with biologically relevant parameters. We find that the preferential partitioning
      of membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins in the lipid rafts
      significantly increases the binding constant of those proteins, in cooperation
      with the shape fluctuations of the membranes caused by thermal excitations. The
      binding constant can even be greater than that of the same receptors and ligands
      anchored to two apposing supported, planar membranes without shape fluctuations.
      The membrane shape fluctuations facilitate the binding of the anchored receptors
      and ligands, in contrast to the case of homogeneous membranes. Our results
      suggest that cells might regulate the binding of membrane-anchored receptor and
      ligand proteins by modulating the properties of lipid rafts such as area
      fraction, size and the affinity of rafts to the proteins.

PMID- 28573273
TI  - Quantitative isotopic measurements of gas-phase alcohol mixtures using a broadly
      tunable swept external cavity quantum cascade laser.
AB  - A swept-ECQCL is used for broadband IR spectroscopy of isotopic mixtures of
      CH3OH, CH3OD, CH3CH2OH, and CH3CH2OD in a static gas cell over a wavelength range
      of 9.5 to 10.4 MUm. A weighted least squares fitting approach with quantitative
      library spectra illustrates that significant spectral congestion does not
      negatively impact the ability for in situ quantification of large isotopic
      species in a mixture. The noise equivalent concentrations for CH3OH, CH3OD,
      CH3CH2OH, and CH3CH2OD are 19 ppbv m, 28 ppbv m, 450 ppbv m, and 350 ppbv m
      respectively for a 50 seconds integration time. Based on the observed NECs,
      isotopic precisions of 0.070/00 and 0.790/00 for a 50 s integration time are
      calculated for measurements of the [MeOD]/[MeOH] and [EtOD]/[EtOH] isotope
      ratios, respectively, for the species concentrations in the gas cell.

PMID- 28573274
TI  - Laser post-ionisation combined with a high resolving power orbitrap mass
      spectrometer for enhanced MALDI-MS imaging of lipids.
AB  - Coupling laser post-ionisation with a high resolving power MALDI Orbitrap mass
      spectrometer has realised an up to ~100-fold increase in the sensitivity and
      enhanced the chemical coverage for MALDI-MS imaging of lipids relative to
      conventional MALDI. This could constitute a major breakthrough for biomedical
      research.

PMID- 28573275
TI  - Hybridization chain reaction: a versatile molecular tool for biosensing,
      bioimaging, and biomedicine.
AB  - Developing powerful, simple and low-cost DNA amplification techniques is of great
      significance to bioanalysis and biomedical research. Thus far, many signal
      amplification strategies have been developed, such as polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR), rolling circle amplification (RCA), and DNA strand displacement
      amplification (SDA). In particular, hybridization chain reaction (HCR), a type of
      toehold-mediated strand displacement (TMSD) reaction, has attracted great
      interest because of its enzyme-free nature, isothermal conditions, simple
      protocols, and excellent amplification efficiency. In a typical HCR, an analyte
      initiates the cross-opening of two DNA hairpins, yielding nicked double helices
      that are analogous to alternating copolymers. As an efficient amplification
      platform, HCR has been utilized for the sensitive detection of a wide variety of
      analytes, including nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules, and cells. In
      recent years, more complicated sets of monomers have been designed to develop
      nonlinear HCR, such as branched HCR and even dendritic systems, achieving
      quadratic and exponential growth mechanisms. In addition, HCR has attracted
      enormous attention in the fields of bioimaging and biomedicine, including
      applications in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) imaging, live cell
      imaging, and targeted drug delivery. In this review, we introduce the
      fundamentals of HCR and examine the visualization and analysis techniques for HCR
      products in detail. The most recent HCR developments in biosensing, bioimaging,
      and biomedicine are subsequently discussed with selected examples. Finally, the
      review provides insight into the challenges and future perspectives of HCR.

PMID- 28573277
TI  - Synthesis of BaTaO2N oxynitride from Ba-rich oxide precursor for construction of
      visible-light-driven Z-scheme overall water splitting.
AB  - Barium tantalum oxynitride (BaTaO2N) with an absorption edge of ca. 660 nm is one
      of the most promising photocatalysts for solar water splitting, and is usually
      synthesized by nitriding a mixture of Ba and Ta-containing compounds with a Ba/Ta
      molar ratio of unity under ammonia flow at high temperature, usually causing a
      high density of defect sites. Herein, we introduce a novel synthesis method for
      BaTaO2N (BTON) by employing Ba-rich LiBa4Ta3O12, prepared by a flux method, as a
      precursor of nitridation. As a comparison, BaTaOx was prepared by conventional
      solid state reaction and used as the precursor. The as-nitrided samples were
      correspondingly denoted as BTON-Flux and BTON-SSR. It was found that well
      crystallized BTON oxynitride can be similarly obtained by both methods, but the
      BTON-Flux sample exhibits significantly decreased defect density and enhanced
      surface area relative to the BTON-SSR sample. As a result of their structural
      differences, the photocatalytic water splitting performance of the BTON-Flux
      sample, regardless of the H2-evolving half reaction in the presence of methanol
      or Z-scheme overall water splitting, is much better than that of BTON-SSR. This
      study may open up a novel strategy for preparing oxynitride photocatalyst with
      decreased defect density for the promotion of solar water splitting.

PMID- 28573278
TI  - A luminescent ratiometric pH sensor based on a nanoscale and biocompatible Eu/Tb
      mixed MOF.
AB  - The precise and real-time monitoring of localized pH changes is of great
      importance in many engineering and environmental fields, especially for
      monitoring small pH changes in biological environments and living cells. Metal
      organic frameworks (MOFs) with their nanoscale processability show very promising
      applications in bioimaging and biomonitoring, but the fabrication of nanoscale
      MOFs is still a challenge. In this study, we synthesized a nanoscale mixed
      lanthanide metal-organic framework by a microemulsion method. The morphology and
      size of the NMOF can be simply adjusted by the addition of different amounts of
      the CTAB surfactant. This NMOF exhibits significant pH-dependent luminescence
      emission, which can act as a self-referenced pH sensor based on two emissions of
      Tb3+ at 545 nm and Eu3+ at 618 nm in the pH range from 3.00 to 7.00. The MTT
      assay and optical microscopy assay demonstrate the low cytotoxicity and good
      biocompatibility of the nanosensor.

PMID- 28573276
TI  - Reaction mechanism of the metallohydrolase CpsB from Streptococcus pneumoniae, a
      promising target for novel antimicrobial agents.
AB  - CpsB is a metal ion-dependent hydrolase involved in the biosynthesis of capsular
      polysaccharides in bacterial organisms. The enzyme has been proposed as a
      promising target for novel chemotherapeutics to combat antibiotic resistance. The
      crystal structure of CpsB indicated the presence of as many as three closely
      spaced metal ions, modelled as Mn2+, in the active site. While the preferred
      metal ion composition in vivo is obscure Mn2+ and Co2+ have been demonstrated to
      be most effective in reconstituting activity. Using isothermal titration
      calorimetry (ITC) we have demonstrated that, in contrast to the crystal
      structure, only two Mn2+ or Co2+ ions bind to a monomer of CpsB. This observation
      is in agreement with magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and electron paramagnetic
      resonance (EPR) data that indicate the presence of two weakly ferromagnetically
      coupled Co2+ ions in the active site of catalytically active CpsB. While CpsB is
      known to be a phosphoesterase we have also been able to demonstrate that this
      enzyme is efficient in hydrolyzing the beta-lactam substrate nitrocefin. Steady
      state and stopped-flow kinetics measurements further indicated that phosphoesters
      and nitrocefin undergo catalysis in a conserved manner with a metal ion-bridging
      hydroxide acting as a nucleophile. Thus, the combined physicochemical studies
      demonstrate that CpsB is a novel member of the dinuclear metallohydrolase family.

PMID- 28573279
TI  - An automated and portable microfluidic chemiluminescence immunoassay for
      quantitative detection of biomarkers.
AB  - Microfluidic platforms capable of automated, rapid, sensitive, and quantitative
      detection of biomarkers from patient samples could make a major impact on
      clinical or point-of-care (POC) diagnosis. In this work, we realize an automated
      diagnostic platform composed of two main components: (1) a disposable, self
      contained, and integrated microfluidic chip and (2) a portable instrument that
      carries out completely automated operations. To demonstrate its potential for
      real-world application, we use injection molding for mass fabrication of the main
      components of disposable microfluidic chips. The assembled three-layered chip
      with on-chip mechanical valves for fluid control consists of (1) a top silicone
      fluidic layer with embedded zigzag microchannels, reagent reservoirs and a
      negative pressure port, (2) a middle tinfoil layer with patterned
      antibody/antigen stripes, and (3) a bottom silicone substrate layer with waste
      reservoirs. The versatility of the microfluidics-based system is demonstrated by
      implementation of a chemiluminescence immunoassay for quantitative detection of C
      reactive protein (CRP) and testosterone in real clinical samples. This lab-on-a
      chip platform with features of quantitation, portability and automation provides
      a promising strategy for POC diagnosis.

PMID- 28573280
TI  - Thermodynamic stability of driven open systems and control of phase separation by
      electro-autocatalysis.
AB  - Motivated by the possibility of electrochemical control of phase separation, a
      variational theory of thermodynamic stability is developed for driven reactive
      mixtures, based on a nonlinear generalization of the Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn
      equations. The Glansdorff-Prigogine stability criterion is extended for driving
      chemical work, based on variations of nonequilibrium Gibbs free energy. Linear
      stability is generally determined by the competition of chemical diffusion and
      driven autocatalysis. Novel features arise for electrochemical systems, related
      to controlled total current (galvanostatic operation), concentration-dependent
      exchange current (Butler-Volmer kinetics), and negative differential reaction
      resistance (Marcus kinetics). The theory shows how spinodal decomposition can be
      controlled by solo-autocatalytic charge transfer, with only a single faradaic
      reaction. Experimental evidence is presented for intercalation and
      electrodeposition in rechargeable batteries, and further applications are
      discussed in solid state ionics, electrovariable optics, electrochemical
      precipitation, and biological pattern formation.

PMID- 28573281
TI  - Three dimensional porous Hofmann clathrate [MIIPtII(CN)4]infinity (M = Co, Ni)
      synthesized by using postsynthetic reductive elimination.
AB  - We synthesized cyano-bridged three dimensional metal-organic frameworks
      [MII(H2O)2PtIV(CN)4Br2]infinity.n(H2O) (1: M = Co, 2: M = Ni) with an NbO type
      topology. Although 1 and 2 have no accessible pores, these MOFs were found to
      undergo reductive elimination of the axial bromides on the PtIV ions as well as
      removal of water molecules upon heating to form porous [MIIPtII(CN)4]infinity
      (1': M = Co, 2': M = Ni) with retention of their crystallinity.

PMID- 28573282
TI  - Structural transformation of selenidostannates from 1D to 0D and 2D via a
      stepwise amine-templated assembly strategy.
AB  - We investigated the amine-induced structure transformation of four
      selenidostannates, i.e. [Sn3Se7Fe(TEPA)]n (1), {[Sn2Se6].4(H+-PR)} (2),
      {[Sn2Se6].2[Fe(en)3]} (3), and {[Sn3Se7]n.2n(H+-DBN)} (4) (TEPA =
      tetraethylenepentamine, PR = piperidine, en = ethylenediamine, DBN = 1,5
      diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene), which were characterized by single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction and UV-vis spectroscopy. The TEPA-induced 1D chain structure of
      [Sn3Se7Fe(TEPA)]n in 1 can undergo cleavage of Se-Fe and Se-Sn bonds to form a 0D
      dimer unit of [Sn2Se6]2- observed in 2 and 3, induced by PR and en, respectively.
      More interestingly, under the induction of en and DBN templates, such a 1D chain
      can counterintuitively fuse into a 2D layered structure of [Sn3Se7]n2n- through
      the removal of [Fe(TEPA)] species and reformation of Sn-Se bonds. Moreover, these
      selenidostannates with different structural dimensionalities display photocurrent
      responses, which make them hold some promise as a potential semiconducting
      material applied in photoelectric devices.

PMID- 28573283
TI  - The effect of global transcriptional regulators on the anaerobic fermentative
      metabolism of Escherichia coli.
AB  - Global transcription factors are known to regulate the anaerobic growth of
      Escherichia coli on glucose. These transcription factors help the organism to
      sense oxygen and accordingly regulate the synthesis of mixed acid producing
      enzymes. Five global transcription factors, namely ArcA, Fnr, IhfA-B, Crp and
      Fis, are known to play an important role in the growth phenotype of the organism
      in the transition from anaerobic to aerobic conditions. The effect of deletion of
      most of these global transcription factors on the growth phenotype has not been
      characterized under strict anaerobic fermentation conditions. In order to
      enumerate the role of global transcription factors in central carbon metabolism,
      experiments were performed using single deletion mutants of the above mentioned
      global transcription regulators. The mutants demonstrated lower growth rates,
      ranging from 3-75% lower growth as compared to the wild-type strain along with
      varying glucose uptake rates. Global transcription regulators help in lowering
      formate and acetate synthesis, thereby effectively channeling the carbon towards
      redox balance (through ethanol formation) and biomass synthesis. Flux analysis of
      mutant strains indicated that deletion of a single transcription factor alone
      does not play a significant role in the normalized flux distribution of the
      central carbon metabolism.

PMID- 28573284
TI  - Is enzymatic hydrolysis a reliable analytical strategy to quantify glucuronidated
      and sulfated polyphenol metabolites in human fluids?
AB  - Phenolic compounds are present in human fluids (plasma and urine) mainly as
      glucuronidated and sulfated metabolites. Up to now, due to the unavailability of
      standards, enzymatic hydrolysis has been the method of choice in analytical
      chemistry to quantify these phase II phenolic metabolites. Enzymatic hydrolysis
      procedures vary in enzyme concentration, pH and temperature; however, there is a
      lack of knowledge about the stability of polyphenols in their free form during
      the process. In this study, we evaluated the stability of 7 phenolic acids, 2
      flavonoids and 3 prenylflavanoids in urine during enzymatic hydrolysis to assess
      the suitability of this analytical procedure, using three different
      concentrations of beta-glucuronidase/sulfatase enzymes from Helix pomatia. The
      results indicate that enzymatic hydrolysis negatively affected the recovery of
      the precursor and free-form polyphenols present in the sample. Thus, enzymatic
      hydrolysis does not seem an ideal analytical strategy to quantify glucuronidated
      and sulfated polyphenol metabolites.

PMID- 28573285
TI  - Stereospecific control of the helical orientation of indolocarbazole-pyridine
      hybrid foldamers by rational modification of terminal chiral appendages.
AB  - The helical handedness excess of an indolocarbazole-pyridine hybrid oligomer
      capable of folding into a stable helical structure was achieved up to 96% by
      rational modification of terminal chiral residues.

PMID- 28573292
TI  - Enantioselective incorporation of dicarboxylate guests by octacalcium phosphate.
AB  - Enantioselectivity by octacalcium phosphate (OCP) is revealed through the
      incorporation of (S)-(-)-methylsuccinic acid (MeSuc) into its crystal lattice,
      with hardly any (R)-(+)-MeSuc incorporated. This phenomenon clearly indicates
      that OCP recognizes the steric structures of guest molecules, extending chiral
      recognition in inorganic materials to three-dimensional crystal growth.

PMID- 28573291
TI  - Mechanisms of iron and copper-frataxin interactions.
AB  - Frataxin is a mitochondrial protein whose deficiency is the cause of Friedreich's
      ataxia, a hereditary neurodegenerative disease. This protein plays a role in iron
      sulfur cluster biosynthesis, protection against oxidative stress and iron
      metabolism. In an attempt to provide a better understanding of the role played by
      metals in its metabolic functions, the mechanisms of mitochondrial metal binding
      to frataxin in vitro have been investigated. A purified recombinant yeast
      frataxin homolog Yfh1 binds two Cu(ii) ions with a Kd1(CuII) of 1.3 * 10-7 M and
      a Kd2(CuII) of 3.1 * 10-4 M and a single Cu(i) ion with a higher affinity than
      for Cu(ii) (Kd(CuI) = 3.2 * 10-8 M). Mn(ii) forms two complexes with Yfh1
      (Kd1(MnII) = 4.0 * 10-8 M; Kd2(MnII) = 4.0 * 10-7 M). Cu and Mn bind Yfh1 with
      higher affinities than Fe(ii). It is established for the first time that the
      mechanisms of the interaction of iron and copper with frataxin are comparable and
      involve three kinetic steps. The first step occurs in the 50-500 ms range and
      corresponds to a first metal uptake. This is followed by two other kinetic
      processes that are related to a second metal uptake and/or to a change in the
      conformation leading to thermodynamic equilibrium. Frataxin deficient Deltayfh1
      yeast cells exhibited a marked growth defect in the presence of exogenous Cu or
      Mn. Mitochondria from Deltayfh1 strains also accumulated higher amounts of
      copper, suggesting a functional role of frataxin in vivo in copper homeostasis.

PMID- 28573293
TI  - Contractility in an extensile system.
AB  - Essentially all biology is active and dynamic. Biological entities autonomously
      sense, compute, and respond using energy-coupled ratchets that can produce force
      and do work. The cytoskeleton, along with its associated proteins and motors, is
      a canonical example of biological active matter, which is responsible for cargo
      transport, cell motility, division, and morphology. Prior work on cytoskeletal
      active matter systems showed either extensile or contractile dynamics. Here, we
      demonstrate a cytoskeletal system that can control the direction of the network
      dynamics to be either extensile, contractile, or static depending on the
      concentration of filaments or weak, transient crosslinkers through systematic
      variation of the crosslinker or microtubule concentrations. Based on these new
      observations and our previously published results, we created a simple one
      dimensional model of the interaction of filaments within a bundle. Despite its
      simplicity, our model recapitulates the observed activities of our experimental
      system, implying that the dynamics of our finite networks of bundles are driven
      by the local filament-filament interactions within the bundle. Finally, we show
      that contractile phases can result in autonomously motile networks that resemble
      cells. Our results reveal a fundamentally important aspect of cellular self
      organization: weak, transient interacting species can tune their interaction
      strength directly by tuning the local concentration to act like a rheostat. In
      this case, when the weak, transient proteins crosslink microtubules, they can
      tune the dynamics of the network to change from extensile to contractile to
      static. Our experiments and model allow us to gain a deeper understanding of
      cytoskeletal dynamics and provide an new understanding of the importance of weak,
      transient interactions to soft and biological systems.

PMID- 28573294
TI  - Transition from nematic to gyroid-type cubic soft self-assembly by side-chain
      engineering of pi-conjugated sticky rods.
AB  - A sequence of liquid crystalline phases, involving cybotactic nematics, a
      lamellar phase, bicontinuous cubics and triangular honeycombs, was observed for
      oligo(phenylene ethynylene) based X-shaped bolapolyphiles with two long lateral
      alkyl chains and sticky ends provided by glycerol groups. In the cubic phase with
      Ia3[combining macron]d lattice - which is tailored by alkyl chain engineering -
      the aromatic cores are organized on the gyroid minimal surface in 3D curved
      layers of almost parallel aligned pi-conjugated rods. It is shown that this type
      of cubic phase is a general mode of soft self-assembly of X-shaped bolapolyphiles
      at the cross-over from the (long or short range) lamellar to the triangular
      honeycomb-like organization. Cubic phase formation is found only in a narrow
      range with respect to temperature and chain-length for the non-fluorinated
      compounds and in much wider ranges for related core-fluorinated molecules.

PMID- 28573295
TI  - What shapes eukaryotic transcriptional bursting?
AB  - Isogenic cells in a common environment present a large degree of heterogeneity in
      gene expression. Part of this variability is attributed to transcriptional
      bursting: the stochastic activation and inactivation of promoters that leads to
      the discontinuous production of mRNA. The diversity in bursting patterns
      displayed by different genes suggests the existence of a connection between
      bursting and gene regulation. Experimental strategies such as single-molecule RNA
      FISH, MS2-GFP or short-lived protein reporters allow the quantification of
      transcriptional bursting and the comparison of bursting kinetics between
      conditions, allowing therefore the identification of molecular mechanisms
      modulating transcriptional bursting. In this review we recapitulate the impact on
      transcriptional bursting of different molecular aspects of transcription such as
      the chromatin environment, nucleosome occupancy, histone modifications, the
      number and affinity of regulatory elements, DNA looping and transcription factor
      availability. More specifically, we examine their role in tuning the burst size
      or the burst frequency. While some molecular mechanisms involved in transcription
      such as histone marks can affect every aspect of bursting, others predominantly
      influence the burst size (e.g. the number and affinity of cis-regulatory
      elements) or frequency (e.g. transcription factor availability).

PMID- 28573296
TI  - Facile routes to abnormal-NHC-cobalt(ii) complexes.
AB  - Deprotonation of [IPrPh]I (1) with Co{N(SiMe3)2}2 readily affords the abnormal N
      heterocyclic carbene (aNHC) complex (aIPrPh)2CoI2 (2) (aIPrPh = 1,3-bis(2,6
      iPr2C6H3)-2-phenyl-imidazol-4-ylidene). Treatment of 1 with NaHBEt3 yields
      (aIPrPh)BEt3 (3) that serves as an aNHC-transfer agent and yields
      (aIPrPh)Co{N(SiMe3)2}2 (4) on reaction with Co{N(SiMe3)2}2.

PMID- 28573302
TI  - Roughening up polymer microspheres and their diffusion in a liquid.
AB  - A simple, versatile approach for the roughening of polymer microparticles
      surfaces via a deformation technique in the presence of an inorganic matrix is
      presented here. The process consists of straightforward steps: (1) preparation of
      a bicomposite colloidal sol, that is polymer particles and inorganic particles,
      dispersed in a liquid, (2) drying of the mixture onto a suitable hard substrate,
      (3) heating the dried film above the glass transition temperature of the polymer,
      and (4) re-dispersion and chemical etching of the inorganic medium. The primary
      driver is capillary imbibition of the polymer melt into the inorganic colloidal
      template. In addition, 2D particle tracking experiments of dispersed rough
      particles in water were performed to probe the diffusional behaviour of the
      roughened objects in comparison with their smooth precursors. We show that,
      despite large scale roughness (up to 10% asperity size with respect to particle
      diameter), Stokes law is obeyed and the particle motion can be modelled simply
      with the Stokes-Einstein-Sutherland relation.

PMID- 28573303
TI  - Non-monotonic knotting probability and knot length of semiflexible rings: the
      competing roles of entropy and bending energy.
AB  - We consider self-avoiding rings of up to 1000 beads and study, by Monte Carlo
      techniques, how their equilibrium knotting properties depend on the bending
      rigidity. When the rings are taken from the rigid to fully-flexible limit, their
      average compactness increases, as expected. However, this progressive
      compactification is not parallelled by a steady increase of the abundance of
      knots. In fact the knotting probability, Pk, has a prominent maximum when the
      persistence length is a few times larger than the bead size. At similar bending
      rigidities, the knot length has, instead, a minimum. We show that the observed
      non-monotonicity of Pk arises from the competition between two effects. The first
      one is the entropic cost of introducing a knot. The second one is the gain in
      bending energy due to the presence of essential crossings. These, in fact,
      constrain the knotted region and keep it less bent than average. The two
      competing effects make knots maximally abundant when the persistence length is 5
      10 times larger than the bead size. At such intermediate bending rigidities,
      knots in the chains of 500 and 1000 beads are 40 times more likely than in the
      fully-flexible limit.

PMID- 28573304
TI  - Universal signal generator for dynamic cell stimulation.
AB  - Dynamic cell stimulation is a powerful technique for probing gene networks and
      for applications in stem cell differentiation, immunomodulation and signaling. We
      developed a robust and flexible method and associated microfluidic devices to
      generate a wide-range of precisely formulated dynamic chemical signals to
      stimulate live cells and measure their dynamic response. This signal generator is
      capable of digital to analog conversion (DAC) through combinatoric selection of
      discrete input concentrations, and outperforms existing methods by both
      achievable resolution, dynamic range and simplicity in design. It requires no
      calibration, has minimal space requirements and can be easily integrated into
      microfluidic cell culture devices. The signal generator hardware and software we
      developed allows to choose the waveform, period and amplitude of chemical input
      signals and features addition of well-defined chemical noise to study the role of
      stochasticity in cellular information processing.

PMID- 28573305
TI  - Uniform distribution of post-synthetic linker exchange in metal-organic
      frameworks revealed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry.
AB  - Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) has been used for the first time to
      study post-synthetic linker exchange (PSE) in metal-organic frameworks. RBS is a
      non-invasive method to quantify the amount of introduced linker, as well as
      providing a means for depth profiling in order to identify the preferred
      localization of the introduced linker. The exchange of benzenedicarboxylate (bdc)
      by similarly sized 2-iodobenzenedicarboxylate (I-bdc) proceeds considerably
      slower than migration of I-dbc through the UiO-66 crystal. Consequently, the I
      bdc is found evenly distributed throughout the UiO-66 samples, even at very short
      PSE exposure times.

PMID- 28573306
TI  - Two-photon imaging of formaldehyde in live cells and animals utilizing a lysosome
      targetable and acidic pH-activatable fluorescent probe.
AB  - Lyso-TPFP presents lysosomal targetability and an acidic pH-activatable response
      toward formaldehyde. Thus, it exclusively visualizes lysosomal formaldehyde and
      is immune against it in neutral cytosol and other organelles. In addition, two
      photon fluorescence imaging endows Lyso-TPFP with the capability of in situ
      tracking formaldehyde in live cells and animals.

PMID- 28573307
TI  - Evidence of field induced slow magnetic relaxation in cis-[Co(hfac)2(H2O)2]
      exhibiting tri-axial anisotropy with a negative axial component.
AB  - We report a combined experimental characterization and theoretical modeling of
      the hexa-coordinated high-spin Co(ii) complex cis-[Co(hfac)2(H2O)2] (I). The
      magnetic static field (DC) data and EPR spectra (measurements were carried out on
      the powder samples of diluted samples cis-[Co0.02Zn0.98 (hfac)2(H2O)2]) were
      analyzed with the aid of the parametric Griffith Hamiltonian for the high-spin
      Co(ii) supported by the ab initio calculations of the crystal field (CF)
      parameters, g-factors and superexchange parameters between H-bonded Co(ii) ions
      in the neighboring molecules in a 1D network. This analysis suggests the presence
      of the easy axis of magnetic anisotropy and also shows the existence of a
      significant rhombic component. The detected frequency dependent (AC)
      susceptibility signal shows that complex I exhibits slow paramagnetic relaxation
      in the applied DC field belonging thus to the class of non-uniaxial field induced
      single ion magnets with a negative axial component of anisotropy. It is
      demonstrated that the main contributions to the relaxation come from the direct
      one-phonon process dominating at low temperatures, while the contribution of the
      two-phonon Raman process becomes important with increasing temperature.

PMID- 28573308
TI  - Serial practice impairs motor skill consolidation.
AB  - Recent reports have revealed that motor skill learning is impaired if two skills
      are practiced one after the other, that is before the first skill has had the
      time to become consolidated. This suggests that motor skills should be practiced
      in isolation from one another to minimize interference. At the moment, little is
      known about the effect of practice schedules high in contextual interference on
      motor skill consolidation. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether a serial
      practice schedule impairs motor skill consolidation. Participants had to learn
      two distinct sequences of finger movements (A and B) under either a blocked
      practice schedule or a serial practice schedule before being retested the
      following day. A control group also practiced Sequence A only. Our results
      revealed that a blocked practice schedule led to no interference between the
      sequences, whereas a serial practice schedule impaired the consolidation of
      Sequence B. In Experiment 2, we investigated the origin of the interference
      caused by a serial practice schedule by replacing the physical practice of
      Sequence A with either the observation of a model performing Sequence A or by
      asking participants to produce random finger movements. Our results revealed that
      both tasks interfered with the consolidation of Sequence B. Thus, we suggest that
      a serial practice schedule impairs motor skill consolidation through a conflict
      in the brain networks involved in the acquisition of the cognitive representation
      of the sequence and its execution.

PMID- 28573309
TI  - Neurophysiological features of tactile versus visual guidance of ongoing
      movement.
AB  - Although studies have investigated tactile and visual processing for perception,
      sensory processing for ongoing action remains poorly understood. The purpose of
      this study was to explore modality-specific patterns of cortical activation and
      functional connectivity in a practiced trajectory tracking task. Participants
      traced irregular shapes with their index finger using either touch or vision for
      guidance. In 60 tactile-motor (TM) trials, movement was guided only by tactile
      feedback of semicircular bumps on a plastic tile. In 60 visuo-motor (VM) trials,
      movement was guided only by vision of dots on a screen seen through a small
      window at the finger tip. The order of TM and VM trials was counterbalanced
      across 16 participants. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to estimate
      cortical activation (task-related spectral power) and functional connectivity
      (task-related magnitude-squared coherence) in the alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30
      Hz) bands during the last 12 movement trials in each sensorimotor task. TM vs. VM
      tasks exhibited a larger drop in global beta cortical activation, and greater
      alpha coherence between central, parietal, and occipital regions. VM vs. TM tasks
      were characterized by low global alpha coherence. Trace time and cortical
      activation of the last 12 VM trials were reduced in the group performing the VM
      task after the TM task compared to those performing the VM task first. Beta
      connectivity initiated by the first task was maintained on the subsequent second
      task, regardless of the task order. Identification of modality- and order
      specific EEG characteristics provides insight into the sensory control of
      movement.

PMID- 28573310
TI  - Inhibition of neuropathic hyperalgesia by intrathecal bone marrow stromal cells
      is associated with alteration of multiple soluble factors in cerebrospinal fluid.
AB  - Injury-induced neuropathic pain remains a serious clinical problem. Recent
      studies indicate that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) effectively attenuate
      chronic neuropathic pain in animal models. Here, we examined the therapeutic
      effect of intrathecal administration of BMSCs isolated from young (1-month-old)
      rats on pain hypersensitivity induced by tibial nerve injury. Cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) was collected and analyzed to examine the effect of BMSC administration on
      the expression of 67 soluble factors in CSF. A sustained remission in injury
      induced mechanical hyperalgesia was observed in BMSC-treated rats but not in
      control animals. Engrafted BMSCs were observed in spinal cords and dorsal root
      ganglia at 5 weeks after cell injection. Injury significantly decreased the
      levels of six soluble factors in CSF: intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1),
      interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-10, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), Nope
      protein, and neurogenic locus notch homolog protein 1 (Notch-1). Intrathecal
      BMSCs significantly attenuated the injury-induced reduction of ICAM-1, IL-1beta,
      HGF, IL-10, and Nope. This study adds to evidence supporting the use of
      intrathecal BMSCs in pain control and shows that this effect is accompanied by
      the reversal of injury-induced reduction of multiple CSF soluble factors. Our
      findings suggest that these soluble factors may be potential targets for treating
      chronic pain.

PMID- 28573313
TI  - Low-dose nivolumab-induced responses in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia relapse
      after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

PMID- 28573311
TI  - Kinematics in the brain: unmasking motor control strategies?
AB  - In rhythmical movement performance, our brain has to sustain movement while
      correcting for biological noise-induced variability. Here, we explored the
      functional anatomy of brain networks during voluntary rhythmical elbow
      flexion/extension using kinematic movement regressors in fMRI analysis to verify
      the interest of method to address motor control in a neurological population. We
      found the expected systematic activation of the primary sensorimotor network that
      is suggested to generate the rhythmical movement. By adding the kinematic
      regressors to the model, we demonstrated the potential involvement of cerebellar
      frontal circuits as a function of the irregularity of the variability of the
      movement and the primary sensory cortex in relation to the trajectory length
      during task execution. We suggested that different functional brain networks were
      related to two different aspects of rhythmical performance: rhythmicity and error
      control. Concerning the latter, the partitioning between more automatic control
      involving cerebellar-frontal circuits versus less automatic control involving the
      sensory cortex seemed thereby crucial for optimal performance. Our results
      highlight the potential of using co-registered fine-grained kinematics and fMRI
      measures to interpret functional MRI activations and to potentially unmask the
      organisation of neural correlates during motor control.

PMID- 28573312
TI  - The alpha-lipoic acid derivative DHLHZn: a new therapeutic agent for acute lung
      injury in vivo.
AB  - OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: An animal experiment was performed to demonstrate the anti
      inflammatory effects of an alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) derivative, dihydrolipoyl
      histidinate zinc complex (DHLHZn) for acute lung injury (ALI) and to investigate
      the mechanism of action. MATERIAL: Rats were randomly divided into three
      experimental groups: control group (n = 17), DHLHZn(-) group (n = 11, ALI model
      rats), and DHLHZn(+) group (n = 12, ALI model rats treated by DHLHZn). TREATMENT:
      Lipopolysaccharides (LPS, 10 mg/kg) were administered intratracheally in the
      DHLHZn(-) group and the DHLHZn(+) group. For the DHLHZn(+) group, DHLHZn (100
      mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally 2 h prior to LPS administration.
      METHODS: Four hours after LPS administration, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF)
      and lung tissue were collected. The findings were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney
      U test. RESULTS: Total number of cells, number of neutrophils and lymphocytes,
      levels of various inflammatory cytokines, and NF-kB p65 concentration of BALF
      were significantly lower in the DHLHZn(+) group than in the DHLHZn(-) group (p <
      0.05). ALI pathology scores were significantly lower in the DHLHZn(+) group than
      in the DHLHZn(-) group (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Anti-inflammatory effects of
      DHLHZn for ALI were demonstrated by BALF and histopathological findings. The
      mechanism of action of DHLHZn was considered to be via inhibition of the NF-kB
      signaling pathway. DHLHZn is thus suggested to be a new prophylactic agent for
      ALI.

PMID- 28573314
TI  - Reduced toxicity, myeloablative HLA-haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide for sickle cell
      disease.
AB  - Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) offers the possibility
      of cure for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Unfortunately, the probability of
      finding an HLA-matched donor for SCD patients is low. HSCT from HLA
      haploidentical donors using reduced intensity conditioning, unmanipulated bone
      marrow and post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (ptCy) has resulted in
      negligible toxicity but high rates of graft rejection. We hypothesized that
      combining ptCy with a myeloablative reduced toxicity conditioning including
      serotherapy to increase immune ablation would allow for better engraftment. In a
      pilot approach, we treated three patients with SCD (5, 8, and 20 years old)
      lacking a matched donor. All patients had severe disease-related complications
      despite standard treatment. They received unmanipulated bone marrow from parental
      HLA-haploidentical donors. Conditioning consisted of alemtuzumab 0.2 mg/kg/day on
      days -9 and -8, fludarabine 30 mg/m2/day on days -7 to -3, treosulfan 14 g/m2/day
      on days -7 to -5, thiotepa 2 * 5 mg/kg/day on day -4, and cyclophosphamide 14.5
      mg/kg/day on days -3 and -2. GVHD prophylaxis was performed using
      cyclophosphamide 2 * 50 mg/kg on days +3 and +4 and mycophenolate mofetil,
      tacrolimus from day +5. After a follow-up of 11, 14, and 30 months, all three
      patients are alive and well, off immunosuppression, and without symptoms of SCD.
      One patient experienced mild skin GVHD grade I, none showed chronic GVHD.
      Asymptomatic CMV reactivation was seen in two patients. HLA-haploidentical HSCT
      can extend the donor pool for patients with SCD. Whether intensification of the
      conditioning regimen and intensive immunosuppression leads to improvement in
      engraftment rates while still allowing a favorable toxicity profile deserves
      further investigation.

PMID- 28573315
TI  - Pediatric renal transplant biopsy with ultrasound guidance: the 'core'
      essentials.
AB  - This review provides a comprehensive and practical approach to pediatric
      percutaneous renal transplant biopsies, highlighting techniques and strategies to
      optimize adequate sample yield and ensure patient safety. In children with end
      stage renal disease, transplantation is the preferred choice of therapy,
      providing for overall lower long-term morbidity and mortality compared with
      dialysis. In the ongoing management of renal transplant patients, core tissue
      sampling via a percutaneous renal biopsy remains the gold standard when
      transplant dysfunction is suspected. Indications for renal transplant biopsy and
      techniques/tools for adequate sample yield are discussed. Strategies for common
      challenges such as poor visualization and renal transplant mobility are
      addressed. We discuss the clinical signs, techniques and imaging findings for
      common complications including hematomas, arteriovenous fistulas and
      pseudoaneurysms. Although the percutaneous renal transplant biopsy procedure is
      generally safe with rare complications, care must be taken to ensure major
      complications are promptly recognized and treated. Adequate tissue samples
      obtained via renal biopsy are imperative to promptly identify transplant
      rejection to provide valuable information for patient diagnosis, treatment and
      outcomes. Radiologist and nephrologist attention to proper ultrasound techniques
      and optimal biopsy tools are critical to ensure tissue adequacy and minimize
      complications.

PMID- 28573316
TI  - [Sarcoidosis : Dermatological view of a rare multisystem disease].
AB  - Sarcoidosis is a rare multisystem inflammatory disease of largely unknown
      etiology. While pulmonary sarcoidosis is the most abundant organ manifestation,
      involvement of the skin that occurs in up to 30% of patients is the most common
      extrapulmonary presentation of the disease. Dermatologists therefore play an
      important role not only for establishing the diagnosis and delineating it from
      potential differential diagnoses but also for the interdisciplinary care of the
      patient. The clinical presentation of skin sarcoidosis is manifold, which
      occasionally aggravates making the final diagnosis. Specific skin lesions (with
      granulomas) and nonspecific skin manifestations (without granulomas) can be
      differentiated. Since a variety of organ systems can be affected,
      multidisciplinary cooperation is mandatory. Therapy of sarcoidosis is difficult;
      evidence-based studies and therapy guidelines are widely lacking. Our review
      intends to outline the characteristic clinical presentations of cutaneous
      sarcoidosis, describe the diagnostic approach and how to assure or exclude
      extracutaneous manifestations of sarcoidosis, and suggest a therapy algorithm for
      the treatment of skin sarcoidosis.

PMID- 28573317
TI  - Further optimization of peptide substrate enhanced assay performance for BoNT/A
      detection by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.
AB  - Rapid and sensitive detection of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), which cause
      botulism, is essential in a public health emergency or bioterrorism event. We
      have previously developed a mass spectrometry (MS)-based functional method,
      Endopep-MS assay, for the fast detection and differentiation of all BoNT
      serotypes by affinity enriching the toxin and detecting the serotype-specific
      cleavage products of peptide substrates derived from the in vivo targets. To
      improve the performance of the Endopep-MS assay, we report here the further
      optimization of the peptide substrate for the detection of serotype A botulinum
      neurotoxins. An increased substrate cleavage was achieved by extending the
      original peptide N-terminus with optimized amino acid sequence, increasing the
      detection sensitivity of the method. In addition, the resistance of the substrate
      to nonspecific hydrolysis was dramatically improved by selectively substituting
      amino acids at the scissile bond and various other positions of the extended
      peptide. Moreover, incorporating the N-terminal hydrophobic residues dramatically
      improved the relative intensity of the cleavage products in the mass spectra.
      This allowed easy detection of the cleavage products, further enhancing the
      performance of the assay. The limit of detection for spiked serum sample was
      enhanced from 0.5 to 0.1 mouseLD50 and from 0.5 to 0.2 mouseLD50 for spiked
      stool. Graphical abstract Mass spectra of optimized and old peptide substrates
      with BoNT/A.

PMID- 28573318
TI  - Simple and sensitive determination of trace nitrite in water by zero-crossing
      first-derivative synchronous fluorescence spectrometry using 6-amino-1,3-
      naphthalenedisulfonic acid as a new fluorescent probe.
AB  - A new fluorescent probe, 6-amino-1,3-naphthalenedisulfonic acid (ANDSA), has been
      developed for the determination of trace nitrite in different waters. This probe
      is based on the selective reaction of nitrite with ANDSA in hydrochloric acid
      solution to form the corresponding diazonium acid in sodium hydroxide solution at
      room temperature. The diazonium acid produced has high fluorescence intensity at
      488 nm (excitation at 367 nm), whereas ANDSA has high fluorescence intensity at
      465 nm (excitation at 354 nm). The synchronous fluorescence (Deltalambda = 121
      nm) spectrum and the first-derivative synchronous fluorescence spectrum of
      diazonium acid greatly overlapped with those of ANDSA. The zero-crossing method
      was used to measure the first-derivative value (dF/dlambda) of the first
      derivative spectra, in which physical separation of excess ANDSA was unnecessary.
      The zero-crossing point was located at 351.2 nm for ANDSA, at which dF/dlambda of
      diazonium acid was proportional to the nitrite concentration. Therefore,
      dF/dlambda at 351.2 nm was selected as the analytical signal. Under the optimized
      experimental conditions, the signal intensity was linear over a nitrite
      concentration range of 0.006-0.075 mg L-1, with a correlation coefficient better
      than 0.9994. The limit of detection was 2.1 MUg L-1 for the determination of
      nitrite by the proposed method. The relative standard deviation of the method for
      the determination of nitrite in real water samples was below 2.45%, and the
      corresponding recoveries were between 95.7% and 104.1%. The validity of the
      proposed method was further confirmed by comparison with the reference method
      with use of the t test. Graphical abstract ANDSA reacts with nitrite to form
      diazonium acid with higher fluorescence intensity. For ANDSA, dF/dlambda was zero
      at 351.2 nm, whereas dF/dlambda of diazonium acid at 351.2 nm was close to the
      maximum value.

PMID- 28573319
TI  - Rapid multiresidue determination of bisphenol analogues in soil with on-line
      derivatization.
AB  - Bisphenol analogues are compounds extensively used which have been potentially
      linked to adverse health effects. Nevertheless, few studies reported the analysis
      of compounds, other than bisphenol A, in environmental solid samples and none in
      soil samples. In this study, a rapid and sensitive analytical method is presented
      for the simultaneous determination of 13 bisphenols in soil samples. The method
      combines ultrasonic-assisted extraction of samples placed in small columns and GC
      MS/MS analysis. Manual and on-line derivatizations were compared and results
      showed that significant higher chromatographic responses were achieved with on
      line derivatization. Different parameters such as the quantity of derivatization
      agent, the extraction solvent, or the extraction time were assayed. The detection
      limits for all target bisphenols ranged from 0.04 to 0.27 ng g-1, for BPC and
      BPA, respectively. Analysis of spiked soil samples gave satisfactory recovery
      results, from 70 to 111%, for all the compounds. Finally, the validated method
      was applied to soil samples from several Spanish areas, and 3 of the 13 target
      bisphenols (BPAF, BPF, and BPA) were detected, although only BPF and BPA could be
      quantified with levels up to 127 ng g-1. Graphical abstract Schematic diagram of
      the developed method for the determination of bisphenol analogues.

PMID- 28573320
TI  - Automated chromatographic laccase-mediator-system activity assay.
AB  - To study the interaction of laccases, mediators, and substrates in laccase
      mediator systems (LMS), an on-line measurement was developed using high
      performance anion exchange chromatography equipped with a CarboPacTM PA 100
      column coupled to pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). The developed method
      was optimized for overall chromatographic run time (45 to 120 min) and automated
      sample drawing. As an example, the Trametes versicolor laccase induced oxidation
      of 1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1,3-dihydroxypropane (adlerol)
      using 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) as mediator was measured and analyzed on-line.
      Since the Au electrode of the PAD detects only hydroxyl group containing
      substances with a limit of detection being in the milligram/liter range, not all
      products are measureable. Therefore, this method was applied for the
      quantification of adlerol, and-based on adlerol conversion-for the quantification
      of the LMS activity at a specific T. versicolor laccase/HBT ratio. The automated
      chromatographic activity assay allowed for a defined reaction start of all
      laccase-mediator-system reactions mixtures, and the LMS reaction progress was
      automatically monitored for 48 h. The automatization enabled an integrated
      monitoring overnight and over-weekend and minimized all manual errors such as
      pipetting of solutions accordingly. The activity of the LMS based on adlerol
      consumption was determined to 0.47 U/mg protein for a laccase/mediator ratio of
      1.75 U laccase/g HBT. In the future, the automated method will allow for a fast
      screening of combinations of laccases, mediators, and substrates which are
      efficient for lignin modification. In particular, it allows for a fast and easy
      quantification of the oxidizing activity of an LMS on a lignin-related substrate
      which is not covered by typical colorimetric laccase assays. ?.

PMID- 28573322
TI  - Plasmonic gold nanoparticles for detection of fungi and human cutaneous fungal
      infections.
AB  - Fungi, which are common in the environment, can cause a multitude of diseases.
      Warm, humid conditions allow fungi to grow and infect humans via the respiratory,
      digestive and reproductive tracts, genital area and other bodily interfaces.
      Fungi can be detected directly by microscopy, using the potassium hydroxide test,
      which is the gold standard and most popular method for fungal screening. However,
      this test requires trained personnel operating specialist equipment, including a
      fluorescent microscope and culture facilities. As most acutely infected patients
      seek medical attention within the first few days of symptoms, the optimal
      diagnostic test would be rapid and self-diagnostic simplifying and improving the
      therapeutic outcome. In suspensions of gold nanoparticles, Aspergillus niger can
      cause a colour change from red to blue within 2 min, as a result of changes in
      nanoparticle shape. A similar colour change was observed in the supernatant of
      samples of human toenails dispersed in water. Scanning electron microscopy,
      UV/Vis and Raman spectroscopy were employed to monitor the changes in morphology
      and surface plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles. The correlation of colour
      change with the fungal infection was analysed using the absorbance ratio at 520
      nm/620 nm. We found a decrease in the ratio when the fungi concentration
      increased from 1 to 16 CFU/mL, with a detection limit of 10 CFU/mL. The test had
      an 80% sensitivity and a 95% specificity value for the diagnosis of athlete's
      foot in human patients. This plasmonic gold nanoparticle-based system for
      detection of fungal infections measures the change in shape of gold nanoparticles
      and generates coloured solutions with distinct tonality. Our application has the
      potential to contribute to self-diagnosis and hygiene control in
      laboratories/hospitals with fewer resources, just using the naked eye. Graphical
      abstract Colorimetric method for fungi detection with gold nano particles.

PMID- 28573321
TI  - An efficient direct competitive nano-ELISA for residual BSA determination in
      vaccines.
AB  - A simple, fast, and highly sensitive direct competitive enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on bovine serum albumin (BSA) antigen labeled
      amine-terminated silicon dioxide (SiO2-NH-BSA) nanoparticles was developed to
      determine residual BSA in vaccines. As nano-ELISA using nanomaterials with a very
      high surface-to-volume ratio has emerged as a promising strategy, SiO2-NH-BSA
      nanoparticles were prepared in this study by the coupling of BSA to SiO2
      nanoparticles modified with amidogen, followed by the quantification of BSA via a
      direct competitive binding of BSA-antigen-labeled SiO2 nanoparticles to anti-BSA
      antibody conjugated with horseradish peroxidase. The validation study showed that
      the linear range of this method was from 1 to 90 ng/mL (r = 0.998) and the limit
      of detection was 0.67 ng/mL. The intra-assay and interassay coefficients of
      variation were less than 10% at three concentrations (10, 40, and 70 ng/mL), and
      the recovery was 92.4%, indicating good specificity. As a proof of principle,
      this new method was applied in the analysis of residual BSA in five different
      vaccines. Bland-Altman plots revealed that there was no significant difference in
      the accuracy and precision between our new method and the most commonly used
      sandwich ELISA. From the results taken together, the new method developed in this
      study is more sensitive and facile with lower cost and thus demonstrated
      potential to be applied in the quality control of biological products. Graphical
      Abstract Illustration of the procedures of the direct competitive enzyme
      immunoassay.

PMID- 28573324
TI  - Development of a sensitive and robust online dual column liquid chromatography
      tandem mass spectrometry method for the analysis of natural and synthetic
      estrogens and their conjugates in river water and wastewater.
AB  - An online ultra-high-performance-liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem
      mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method for detection and quantification of
      natural and synthetic estrogens and their conjugates in aqueous matrices was
      developed. Target compounds include the natural estrogen estradiol (E2) and its
      main metabolites estrone (E1) and estriol (E3), the synthetic estrogens
      ethinylestradiol (EE2) and diethylstilbestrol (DES) and their conjugates estrone
      3-sulfate (E1-3S), estriol 3-sulfate (E3-3S), estradiol 17-glucuronide (E2-17G),
      estrone 3-glucuronide (E1-3G), and estriol 16-glucuronide (E3-16G). After pH
      adjustment, sample filtration and addition of internal standards (IS), water
      samples (5 mL) were preconcentrated on a Hypersil GOLD aQ column after which
      chromatographic separation was achieved on a Kinetex C18 column using methanol
      and water as a mobile phase. The experimental parameters, such as sample loading
      flow rate, elution time, the percentage of organic solvent in the aqueous-organic
      eluent mixture, pH, and volume of analyzed samples, were optimized in detail. The
      benefits of the method compared to previously published methods include minimum
      sample manipulation, lower detection limits, reduced total analysis time, and
      overall increased method accuracy and precision. Method detection limits (MDLs)
      are in subnanogram per liter, complying with the requirements of the EC Decision
      2015/495 (Watch list) for hormones listed therein. Applicability of the developed
      method was confirmed by analysis of river and raw wastewater samples taken
      directly from urban sewerage systems before being discharged into the river.
      Graphical abstract Sheme of online SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS system.

PMID- 28573323
TI  - Optical microalgal biosensors for aqueous contaminants using organically doped
      silica as cellular hosts.
AB  - Optical biosensors for the detection of toxic species in aqueous media were
      developed via the encapsulation of microalgae in sol-gel matrices. In a first
      step, the effect of cadmium(II), lead(II), and anthracene on the chlorophyll a
      fluorescence intensity of Anabaena flos-aquae, Chlorella vulgaris, and Euglena
      gracilis microalgae in suspension was studied. Complementary ATP-metry
      measurements demonstrated a direct relationship between optical response and
      pollutant toxicity, in a cell- and dose-dependent manner. In a second step,
      microalgae were successfully encapsulated in silicate-colloidal silica
      nanocomposite matrices. However, a complete loss of cell response to pollutant
      addition was observed, despite the preservation of cell viability. Introduction
      of a low amount (5 mol%) of amine- or ethyl-bearing silanes in the matrix
      formulation allowed the recovery of the sensing capacity of the immobilized
      microalgae, without impacting on the response time (30 s). Porosimetry and 29Si
      solid-state NMR spectroscopy showed that the organic moieties are fully
      integrated into the inorganic network, tuning the ability of the target pollutant
      to diffuse and reach the encapsulated algae. This versatile strategy could be
      useful for the easy and fast assessment of contamination levels in polluted
      waters. Graphical Abstract Microalgal biosensors for aqueous contaminants using
      organically doped silica as cellular hosts.

PMID- 28573325
TI  - Implications of the World Health Organization definition of atypia on surgically
      treated functional and non-functional pituitary adenomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines atypical pituitary
      adenomas as tumours with a MIB-1 labelling index >=3%, p53 positivity and
      increased mitotic activity. Although a few reports have described the clinical
      and radiological correlates of atypia in pituitary adenomas, its impact on
      postoperative outcomes is not clearly defined. METHOD: We reviewed preoperative
      and postoperative records of patients undergoing surgery for pituitary adenomas.
      Postoperative outcomes for functional adenomas (FPAs) were assessed according to
      contemporary definitions of remission and recurrence. For non-functional
      pituitary adenomas (NFPAs), extent of resection and disease progression were
      defined on the basis of postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: Of 394
      patients included for analysis, 29 cases (7.4%) fulfilled criteria for atypia.
      Patients with atypical tumours were significantly younger than those with typical
      adenomas. Remission was possible in 47.4% of FPAs, and was unrelated to the
      presence of atypia. In NFPAs, local invasiveness was negatively associated with
      extent of resection (OR, 0.255; 95% CI, 0.086-0.753; p < 0.001). In 93 NFPAs
      followed postoperatively with serial imaging over a mean duration of 37.5 months,
      disease progression/recurrence was significantly associated with the presence of
      atypia (OR, 5.058; 95% CI, 1.273-20.098; p = 0.021) on multivariate analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Patients with atypical non-functional pituitary adenomas are at risk
      for postoperative recurrence and disease progression, suggesting a need for
      adjuvant therapy. However, only a small fraction of pituitary tumours demonstrate
      atypia, as defined by the WHO, limiting its clinical utility.

PMID- 28573326
TI  - [Law and the phase of life old age].
AB  - In spite of the greatly increased role, which the law attributes to the design of
      individual life styles and living of elderly people, there is no special legal
      area known in the German legal system, such as "rights of the elderly", which is
      the case in the field of the youth law. Special legal regulations covering the
      concerns/issues of elderly people were always considered to be in danger, as they
      may have the potential to discrimination, either in a positive or negative way.
      Due to this fact, the rights of the elderly can be described as synthetic and are
      subject to constant changes, as can be observed within the pension act. The legal
      areas and legal regulations, which are of particular importance for the life
      style and living situations of elderly people are presented. The legal need for
      action regarding the special protection of vulnerable elderly people is discussed
      and in the further course utilized for a conception of "rights of the elderly".

PMID- 28573327
TI  - [Social Work with old people and Social Gerontology].
AB  - The current article outlines the development of Social Work with older people in
      the German social state and the role of gerontological discourses in this
      process. Some theories of Social work are introduced to show the mutual benefit
      that it has, when Social Work with older people and Gerontology continuously
      engage in common theoretical debates.

PMID- 28573328
TI  - Human CD200 suppresses macrophage-mediated xenogeneic cytotoxicity and
      phagocytosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Various strategies, such as the generation of alpha-1,3
      galactosyltransferase knocked-out pigs and CD55 transgenic pigs, have been
      investigated to inhibit pig to human xenogeneic rejection. Our aim is to develop
      strategies to overcome the hurdle of not only hyper acute rejection, but also
      that of cellular xenogeneic rejection (CXR). Although macrophages have been well
      known to play a critical role in CXR, monocyte/macrophage-mediated xenogeneic
      rejection has not been well studied. In this study, we evaluated the effect of
      CD200 in xenogeneic rejection by macrophages. METHODS: Naive swine endothelial
      cells (SEC) and SEC/CD200 were co-cultured with M0 macrophages and the
      cytotoxicity was measured by a WST-8 assay. The phagocytosis of SEC and SEC/CD200
      by macrophages was analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: While CD200 failed to
      suppress a significant amount of cytotoxicity against SEC by monocytes, M0
      macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly suppressed by human CD200. The
      phagocytosis by M0 macrophages was also tested. The phagocytosis assay revealed
      that human CD200 suppresses M0 macrophage-mediated phagocytosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings indicate that human CD200 suppresses the xenogeneic rejection by CD200R+
      macrophages and that the generation of hCD200 transgenic pigs for use in
      xenografts is very attractive for preventing the macrophage-mediated rejection.

PMID- 28573330
TI  - Diffuse 18F-FDG uptake throughout the spinal cord in the acute phase of
      Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum disorder.

PMID- 28573329
TI  - Therapy assessment in multiple myeloma with PET.
AB  - Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell dyscrasia producing bone lytic lesions. In
      recent years, a wide spectrum of therapeutic approaches are available to treat
      the disease: an accurate therapy assessment has, therefore, become of utmost
      importance. In this field, imaging is becoming a cornerstone, especially in
      association with clinical parameters. Among imaging procedures, FDG PET/CT is
      recognized to provide reliable information, achieved in a very safe and fast
      procedure.  The literature has produced very concordant results from different
      groups assessing the value of FDG PET/CT as a prognostic factor in general and in
      therapy assessment, but some issues remain regarding a standardization of image
      interpretation especially in borderline cases. So far, no data regarding nor
      other imaging compounds and the use of hybrid tomographs PET/MR are available to
      define therapy assessment in PET.

PMID- 28573331
TI  - FDG-PET/CT for systemic staging of patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer.

PMID- 28573332
TI  - A new comprehensive ecological risk index for risk assessment on Luanhe River,
      China.
AB  - With the enhancement of human activities which influence the physical and
      chemical integrity of ecosystem, it was bound to increase ecological risk to the
      ecosystem, and the risk assessment of small scale, single pollutant, or only on
      water quality have been not satisfied the demand of sustainable development of
      basin water environment. Based on the response relationship between environmental
      flow requirements guarantee ratio (GEF) and river ecological risk index (ERI),
      the Sediment Quality Guideline Quotient index (SQG-Q), and the Biotic Index (BI),
      we construct a new comprehensive ecological risk index (CERI) to evaluate the
      ecological risk of Luanhe River, China. According to the response relationship
      between GEF and ERI, upper and lower reaches of Luanhe River (Goutaizi to
      Hanjiaying) were at moderate risk level (0.41 < ERI < 0.56) in dry season, and
      all sites were at low risk level (ERI < 0.40) in wet season; considering the
      contribution of heavy metals contamination in the SQG-Q, the Luanhe River was the
      most influenced by higher levels of heavy metals in dry season and wet season;
      when this index was applied to the PAHs levels, only 30 and 20% of the sampling
      sites appeared to be moderately impacted (0.1 < SQG-Q PAHs < 0.5) by the PAHs in
      dry season and wet season, respectively. The results of BI showed that half of
      the sites appeared to be at moderately polluted level (50% of the sites, 0.25 <
      BI < 0.32) and heavily polluted level (Zhangbaiwan, BI = 0.36) in dry season, and
      40% of the sites appeared to be at moderately polluted level (0.26 < BI < 0.29)
      in wet season. The CERI showed that 70 and 30% of the sites were at moderate risk
      level in dry season (0.25 < CERI < 0.36) and wet season (0.26 < CERI < 0.29),
      respectively. The results could give insight into risk assessment of water
      environment and decision-making for water source security.

PMID- 28573333
TI  - Incorporating equity in economic evaluations: a multi-attribute equity state
      approach.
AB  - In publicly funded health care systems, decision makers must continually balance
      often conflicting priorities of efficiency and equity. Health economists have
      developed a set of highly sophisticated analytical methods for assessing
      efficiency, but less attention has been paid to formally incorporating equity
      considerations into analyses. As a result, where equity is considered is often
      informal, ad hoc and/or simplistic. This paper is a proposal for a mechanism for
      formally incorporating equity within the decision process. It begins with an
      overview of the current literature on equity weighting. It then considers the
      case of a single equity domain and illustrates how this is currently applied in
      practice by the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. It then
      proposes a more comprehensive method for considering the multi-attribute equity
      state, where a population exhibits more than one trait considered worthy of
      differential weighting. Finally, the paper proposes a mechanism by which this
      could be applied in practice, and concludes with a discussion of the challenges
      for applying multi-attribute equity weighting.

PMID- 28573334
TI  - Retrieval of Migrated Volume Coils Using Different Clot Retrievers in a Porcine
      Model.
AB  - PURPOSE: During endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms using coils,
      migration is a serious complication that increases neurological morbidity. The
      aim of this experimental study was to assess the effectiveness and complications
      of retrieving volume coils with different, currently available clot retrievers in
      a porcine model. METHODS: Volume coils of three-dimensional (3D) shape and
      different sizes were placed in the axillary artery of pigs. By means of 4
      different clot retrievers (Trevo ProVue; Solitaire FR; 3D-Separator; ERIC) a
      total of 40 retrieval maneuvers (10 per retriever) were performed by deploying
      the retrievers within the migrated coils and trying to trap parts of the coils by
      advancing the microcatheter. Retrieval rates, retrieval duration, retrieval
      attempts, and complications were assessed. RESULTS: Overall coil retrieval was
      successful in 31 of 40 cases (77.5%). Retrieval rates using the Trevo ProVue
      (9/10), Solitaire FR (8/10), and the 3D-Separator (9/10) were higher than when
      using the ERIC (5/10). Duration of retrieval and retrieval attempts were
      significantly higher using the ERIC (p < 0.05). Complications like inadvertent
      deployment were only observed in one case using the Solitaire FR. Additional
      entrapment of the coil-retriever complex at the intermediate catheter was seen in
      9 cases (22.5%). There was no case of vasospasm, perforation, or dissection.
      CONCLUSIONS: Retrieval of migrated volume coils using new-generation clot
      retrievers is a feasible and effective method. Retrieval rates and duration with
      the Trevo ProVue, Solitaire FR, and 3D-Separator are superior when compared to
      the ERIC.

PMID- 28573335
TI  - Combined effect of 24-epibrassinolide and salicylic acid mitigates lead (Pb)
      toxicity by modulating various metabolites in Brassica juncea L. seedlings.
AB  - The present study demonstrated the combined effect of 24-epibrassinolide and
      salicylic acid against lead (Pb, 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 mM) toxicity in Brassica
      juncea seedlings. Various parameters including water status, metal uptake, total
      water- and lipid-soluble antioxidants, metal chelator content (total thiols,
      protein-bound thiols, and non-protein-bound thiols), phenolic compounds
      (flavonoids, anthocyanins, and polyphenols), and organic acids were studied in 10
      day-old seedlings. Dry matter content and the heavy metal tolerance index were
      reduced by 42.24 and 52.3%, respectively, in response to Pb treatment. Metal
      uptake, metal-chelating compounds, phenolic compounds, and organic acids were
      increased in Pb-treated seedlings as compared to control plants. The treatment of
      Pb-stressed seedlings with combination of EBL and SA resulted in enhancement of
      heavy metal tolerance index by 40.07%, water content by 1.84%, and relative water
      content by 23.45%. The total water- and lipid-soluble antioxidants were enhanced
      by 21.01 and 2.21%, respectively. In contrast, a significant decline in dry
      weight, metal uptake, thiol, and polyphenol contents was observed following the
      application of 24-epibrassinolide and salicylic acid. These observations indicate
      that Pb treatment has an adverse effect on B. juncea seedlings. However, co
      application of 24-epibrassinolide and salicylic acid mitigates the negative
      effects of Pb, by lowering Pb metal uptake and enhancing the heavy metal
      tolerance index, water content, relative water content, antioxidative capacities,
      phenolic content, and organic acid levels.

PMID- 28573336
TI  - The influence of mitochondrial dynamics on mitochondrial genome stability.
AB  - Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that fuse and divide. These changes alter the
      number and distribution of mitochondrial structures throughout the cell in
      response to developmental and metabolic cues. We have demonstrated that
      mitochondrial fission is essential to the maintenance of mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) under changing metabolic conditions in wild-type Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae. While increased loss of mtDNA integrity has been demonstrated for
      dnm1-? fission mutants after growth in a non-fermentable carbon source, we
      demonstrate that growth of yeast in different carbon sources affects the
      frequency of mtDNA loss, even when the carbon sources are fermentable. In
      addition, we demonstrate that the impact of fission on mtDNA maintenance during
      growth in different carbon sources is neither mediated by retrograde signaling
      nor mitophagy. Instead, we demonstrate that mitochondrial distribution and mtDNA
      maintenance phenotypes conferred by loss of Dnm1p are suppressed by the loss of
      Sod2p, the mitochondrial matrix superoxide dismutase.

PMID- 28573338
TI  - Characterization of Inducible ccdB Gene as a Counterselectable Marker in
      Escherichia coli Recombineering.
AB  - Recombineering is a homologous-based DNA cloning and modification technique.
      Recombineering-mediated chromosomal gene knock-in usually involves a
      selectable/counterselectable cassette. Though a variety of
      selectable/counterselectable cassettes were developed; however, a specifically
      designed gene deletion strain or minimal medium is often required. Herein, we
      describe a novel selectable/counterselectable cassette Plac-ccdB-aacC1 in which
      aacC1 (gentamicin resistance gene) is used as the selectable marker for the
      homologous arm-flanked cassette knock-in, while the IPTG inducible ccdB gene is
      used as the counterselectable marker for chromosomal gene knock-in. The
      counterselection is achieved via supplementing 1 mM IPTG in the LB agar medium.
      An oligonucleotide designed to evade the mismatch repair system was utilized to
      engineer an Escherichia coli DH10B-derived gyrA462 strain that was used to as the
      host for the plasmid harboring the Plac-ccdB-aacC1 cassette. By using the Plac
      ccdB-aacC1 cassette, a linear-linear homologous recombination (LLHR) system was
      generated by knocking a 6.2 kb araC-PBAD-redgamma-recET-recA DNA fragment into
      the E. coli DH10B chromosome. The functional of the LLHR recombineering system
      was characterized by cloning of the target DNA from PCR product as well as from
      the genomic DNA mixture. The Plac-ccdB-aacC1 cassette will be a useful tool in E.
      coli recombineering.

PMID- 28573337
TI  - Immunological characterization of a rigid alpha-Tn mimetic on murine iNKT and
      human NK cells.
AB  - The ability of a rigid alpha-Tn mimetic (compound 1) to activate murine invariant
      natural killer T (iNKT) and human natural killer (NK) cells, two subsets of
      lymphocytes involved in cancer immunesurveillance, was investigated. For this
      purpose, the mimetic 1 was properly conjugated to a stearic acid containing
      glycerol-based phospholipid (compound 5) to be presented, in the context of the
      conserved non polymorphic major histocompatibility complex class I-like molecules
      (CD1d), to iNKT cells. On the contrary, the mimetic 1 was conjugated to a
      multivalent peptide-based scaffold (compound 6) to induce NK cell activation.

PMID- 28573339
TI  - Heterologous Expression of the Carrot Hsp17.7 gene Increased Growth, Cell
      Viability, and Protein Solubility in Transformed Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
      under Heat, Cold, Acid, and Osmotic Stress Conditions.
AB  - In industrial fermentation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), culture
      conditions are often modified from the optimal growth conditions of the cells to
      maintain large-scale cultures and/or to increase recombinant protein production.
      However, altered growth conditions can be stressful to yeast cells resulting in
      reduced cell growth and viability. In this study, a small heat shock protein gene
      from carrot (Daucus carota L.), Hsp17.7, was inserted into the yeast genome via
      homologous recombination to increase tolerance to stress conditions that can
      occur during industrial culture. A DNA construct, Translational elongation factor
      gene promoter-carrot Hsp17.7 gene-Phosphoribosyl-anthranilate isomerase gene (an
      auxotrophic marker), was generated by a series of PCRs and introduced into the
      chromosome IV of the yeast genome. Immunoblot analysis showed that carrot Hsp17.7
      accumulated in the transformed yeast cell lines. Growth rates and cell viability
      of these cell lines were higher than control cell lines under heat, cold, acid,
      and hyperosmotic stress conditions. Soluble protein levels were higher in the
      transgenic cell lines than control cell lines under heat and cold conditions,
      suggesting the molecular chaperone function of the recombinant Hsp17.7. This
      study showed that a recombinant DNA construct containing a HSP gene from carrot
      was successfully expressed in yeast by homologous recombination and increased
      tolerances to abiotic stress conditions.

PMID- 28573340
TI  - Photonic Potential of Haloarchaeal Pigment Bacteriorhodopsin for Future
      Electronics: A Review.
AB  - Haloarchaea are known for its adaptation in extreme saline environment.
      Halophilic archaea produces carotenoid pigments and proton pumps to protect them
      from extremes of salinity. Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a light-driven proton pump
      that resides in the membrane of haloarchaea Halobacterium salinarum. The
      photocycle of Bacteriorhodopsin passes through several states from K to O,
      finally liberating ATP for host's survival. Extensive studies on
      Bacteriorhodopsin photocycle has provided in depth knowledge on their sequential
      mechanism of converting solar energy into chemical energy inside the cell. This
      ability of Bacteriorhodopsin to harvest sunlight has now been experimented to
      exploit the unexplored and extensively available solar energy in various
      biotechnological applications. Currently, bacteriorhodopsin finds its importance
      in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), logic gates (integrated circuits, IC's),
      optical switching, optical memories, storage devices (random access memory, RAM),
      biosensors, electronic sensors and optical microcavities. This review deals with
      the optical and electrical applications of the purple pigment Bacteriorhodopsin.

PMID- 28573341
TI  - Identification of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Using
      Simultaneous Detection of mecA, nuc, and femB by Loop-Mediated Isothermal
      Amplification (LAMP).
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a rapid detection assay to identify
      methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by simultaneous testing for the mecA,
      nuc, and femB genes using the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP)
      method. LAMP primers were designed using online bio-software (
      http://primerexplorer.jp/e/ ), and amplification reactions were performed in an
      isothermal temperature bath. The products were then examined using 2% agarose gel
      electrophoresis. MecA, nuc, and femB were confirmed by triplex TaqMan real-time
      PCR. For better naked-eye inspection of the reaction result, hydroxy naphthol
      blue (HNB) was added to the amplification system. Within 60 min, LAMP
      successfully amplified the genes of interest under isothermal conditions at 63 
      degrees C. The results of 2% gel electrophoresis indicated that when the Mg2+
      concentration in the reaction system was 6 MUmol, the amplification of the mecA
      gene was relatively good, while the amplification of the nuc and femB genes was
      better at an Mg2+ concentration of 8 MUmol. Obvious color differences were
      observed by adding 1 MUL (3.75 mM) of HNB into 25 MUL reaction system. The LAMP
      assay was applied to 128 isolates cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus, which were separated from the daily specimens and identified by Vitek
      microbial identification instruments. The results were identical for both LAMP
      and PCR. LAMP offers an alternative detection assay for mecA, nuc, and femB and
      is faster than other methods.

PMID- 28573342
TI  - A gaping research gap regarding the climate change impact on health in poor
      countries.

PMID- 28573343
TI  - [Preoperative evaluation of adult patients before elective, noncardiothoracic
      surgery : Joint recommendation of the German Society of Anesthesiology and
      Intensive Care Medicine, the German Society of Surgery, and the German Society of
      Internal Medicine].
AB  - Evaluation of the patient's medical history and a physical examination are the
      cornerstones of risk assessment prior to elective surgery and may help to
      optimize the patient's preoperative medical condition and to guide perioperative
      management. Whether the performance of additional technical tests (e. g. blood
      chemistry, ECG, spirometry, chest x-ray) can contribute to a reduction of
      perioperative risk is often not very well known or is controversial. Similarly,
      there is considerable uncertainty among anesthesiologists, internists and
      surgeons with respect to the perioperative management of the patient's long-term
      medication. Therefore, the German Scientific Societies of Anesthesiology and
      Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI), Internal Medicine (DGIM) and Surgery (DGCH) have
      joined to elaborate recommendations on the preoperative evaluation of adult
      patients prior to elective, noncardiothoracic surgery, which were initially
      published in 2010. These recommendations have now been updated based on the
      current literature and existing international guidelines. In the first part the
      general principles of preoperative evaluation are described (part A). The current
      concepts for extended evaluation of patients with known or suspected major
      cardiovascular disease are presented in part B. Finally, the perioperative
      management of patients' long-term medication is discussed (part C). The concepts
      proposed in these interdisciplinary recommendations endorsed by the DGAI, DGIM
      and DGCH provide a common basis for a structured preoperative risk assessment and
      management. These recommendations aim to ensure that surgical patients undergo a
      rational preoperative assessment and at the same time to avoid unnecessary,
      costly and potentially dangerous testing. The joint recommendations reflect the
      current state-of-the-art knowledge as well as expert opinions because scientific
      based evidence is not always available. These recommendations will be subject to
      regular re-evaluation and updating when new validated evidence becomes available.

PMID- 28573345
TI  - Evaluation of retromolar canals on cone beam computerized tomography scans and
      digital panoramic radiographs.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to carry out morphologic and topographic
      analyses of retromolar canals on cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) scans,
      comparing findings to others obtained from the corresponding digital panoramic
      radiographs. METHODS: Sixty-one CBCT scans were analysed digitally, as well as
      their corresponding digital panoramic radiographs. The prevalence and
      distribution of these canals, foramen diameters, and intraosseous communications
      were also evaluated. RESULTS: On CBCT scans, we found that 24.6% of individuals
      had at least one retromolar canal. The mean foramen diameter was slightly higher
      than 1 mm and we could not determine the intraosseous anatomical connections in
      most cases. The morphology and topography of the retromolar canals were not
      affected by gender and antimere. In addition, only 22.2% of all tomographically
      identified canals could be confirmed on digital panoramic radiographs (26.7% of
      such patients). Regarding all sample, 6.6% of individuals showed retromolar
      canals on digital panoramic radiographs. CONCLUSION: We may consider that these
      structures are clinically relevant findings and, due to the low accuracy of the
      panoramic radiographs, high-quality tomographic exams should always be asked for
      presurgical treatment planning.

PMID- 28573344
TI  - [Residual neuromuscular blockade].
AB  - Even small degrees of residual neuromuscular blockade, i. e. a train-of-four
      (TOF) ratio >0.6, may lead to clinically relevant consequences for the patient.
      Especially upper airway integrity and the ability to swallow may still be
      markedly impaired. Moreover, increasing evidence suggests that residual
      neuromuscular blockade may affect postoperative outcome of patients. The
      incidence of these small degrees of residual blockade is relatively high and may
      persist for more than 90 min after a single intubating dose of an intermediately
      acting neuromuscular blocking agent, such as rocuronium and atracurium. Both
      neuromuscular monitoring and pharmacological reversal are key elements for the
      prevention of postoperative residual blockade.

PMID- 28573346
TI  - A critical assessment of finite element modeling approach for protein dynamics.
AB  - Finite element (FE) modeling approach has emerged as an efficient way of
      calculating the dynamic properties of supramolecular protein structures and their
      complexes. Its efficiency mainly stems from the fact that the complexity of three
      dimensional shape of a molecular surface dominates the computational cost rather
      than the molecular size or the number of atoms. However, no critical evaluation
      of the method has been made yet particularly for its sensitivity to the
      parameters used in model construction. Here, we make a close investigation on the
      effect of FE model parameters by analyzing 135 representative protein structures
      whose normal modes calculated using all-atom normal mode analysis are publicly
      accessible online. Results demonstrate that it is more beneficial to use a
      contour surface of electron densities as the molecular surface, in general,
      rather than to employ a solvent excluded surface, and that the solution accuracy
      is almost insensitive to the model parameters unless we avoid extreme values
      leading to an inaccurate depiction of the characteristic shapes.

PMID- 28573347
TI  - MolAlign: an algorithm for aligning multiple small molecules.
AB  - In small molecule drug discovery projects, the receptor structure is not always
      available. In such cases it is enormously useful to be able to align known
      ligands in the way they bind in the receptor. Here we shall present an algorithm
      for the alignment of multiple small molecule ligands. This algorithm takes pre
      generated conformers as input, and proposes aligned assemblies of the ligands.
      The algorithm consists of two stages: the first stage is to perform alignments
      for each pair of ligands, the second stage makes use of the results from the
      first stage to build up multiple ligand alignment assemblies using a novel
      iterative procedure. The scoring functions are improved versions of the one
      mentioned in our previous work. We have compared our results with some recent
      publications. While an exact comparison is impossible, it is clear that our
      algorithm is fast and produces very competitive results.

PMID- 28573348
TI  - Measurement of smaller colon polyp in CT colonography images using morphological
      image processing.
AB  - PURPOSE: Automated measurement of the size and shape of colon polyps is one of
      the challenges in Computed tomography colonography (CTC). The objective of this
      retrospective study was to improve the sensitivity and specificity of smaller
      polyp measurement in CTC using image processing techniques. METHODS: A domain
      knowledge-based method has been implemented with hybrid method of colon
      segmentation, morphological image processing operators for detecting the colonic
      structures, and the decision-making system for delineating the smaller polyp
      based on a priori knowledge. RESULTS: The method was applied on 45 CTC dataset.
      The key finding was that the smaller polyps were accurately measured. In addition
      to 6-9 mm range, polyps of even <5 mm were also detected. The results were
      validated qualitatively and quantitatively using both 2D MPR and 3D view.
      Implementation was done on a high-performance computer with parallel processing.
      It takes [Formula: see text] min for measuring the smaller polyp in a dataset of
      500 CTC images. With this method, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]
      were achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The domain-based approach with morphological image
      processing has given good results. The smaller polyps were measured accurately
      which helps in making right clinical decisions. Qualitatively and quantitatively
      the results were acceptable when compared to the ground truth at [Formula: see
      text].

PMID- 28573349
TI  - Motion-based signaling in sympatric species of Australian agamid lizards.
AB  - Signaling species occurring in sympatry are often exposed to similar
      environmental constraints, so similar adaptations to enhance signal efficacy are
      expected. However, potentially opposing selective pressures might be present to
      ensure species recognition. Here, we analyzed the movement-based signals of two
      pairs of sympatric lizard species to consider how reliable communication is
      maintained while avoiding misidentification. Our novel approach allows us to
      quantify signal contrast with plant motion noise at any site we measure,
      including those utilized by other species. Ctenophorus caudicinctus and Gowidon
      longirostris differed in display complexity and motor pattern use. They also
      differed in overall morphology, but their signal contrast scores are strikingly
      similar. These results demonstrate similar adaptations to their shared
      environment while maintaining species recognition cues. In contrast, Ctenophorus
      fordi and Ctenophorus pictus are much closer in appearance, but C. pictus
      produces considerably higher signal contrast scores, which we suggest is
      attributable to the absence of territoriality in C. fordi. Taken together, our
      data provide evidence for adaptation to the local environment in movement-based
      signals, while also meeting species recognition requirements, but the selective
      pressure to deal with local conditions is mediated by signal function.

PMID- 28573350
TI  - Regional and temporal variation in minor ions in groundwater of a part of a large
      river delta, southern India.
AB  - Impact of agricultural activities on groundwater can be determined from the
      concentration of nutrients present in groundwater. This study was carried out
      with the aim to assess the minor ions content of groundwater and to identify its
      sources, spatial, and seasonal variations in a part of the Cauvery River basin,
      southern India. Groundwater samples were collected from July 2007 to September
      2009 and were analyzed for minor ions. These ions were in the order of dominance
      of nitrate> phosphate> bromide> fluoride> ammonium= nitrite> lithium. The
      concentration of ions tends to increase towards the coast except for fluoride.
      Increased concentration of ions identified in shallow wells than in deep wells
      with an exception of few locations indicates the impact of human activities.
      Relatively high concentration of agriculture-sourced nitrate was identified which
      pose a threat to groundwater suitability for agriculture and domestic usage.
      Combined influence of use of agrochemicals, improper sewage disposal, aquaculture
      activities, seawater intrusion due to heavy pumping near the coast, and natural
      weathering of aquifer materials are the major sources. Also, fine grain sediments
      of this area aid in poor flushing of the ions towards the sea resulting in
      accumulation of higher concentration of ions. A sustainable management strategy
      is essential to control the concentration of these ions, especially nitrate.
      Reduced use of fertilizers, increasing the rainfall recharge for diluting the
      pollutants in groundwater and maintaining the river flow for sufficiently longer
      period to reduce dependence on groundwater for irrigation can help to improve the
      situation.

PMID- 28573352
TI  - Risk-based framework for optimizing residual chlorine in large water distribution
      systems.
AB  - Managing residual chlorine in large water distribution systems (WDS) to minimize
      human health risk is a daunting task. In this research, a novel risk-based
      framework is developed and implemented in a distribution network spanning over 64
      km2 for supplying water to the city of Al-Khobar (Saudi Arabia) through 473-km
      long water mains. The framework integrates the planning of linear assets (i.e.,
      pipes) and placement of booster stations to optimize residual chlorine in the
      WDS. Failure mode and effect analysis are integrated with the fuzzy set theory to
      perform risk analysis. A vulnerability regarding the probability of failure of
      pipes is estimated from historical records of water main breaks. The consequence
      regarding residual chlorine availability has been associated with the exposed
      population depending on the land use characteristics (i.e., defined through
      zoning). EPANET simulations have been conducted to predict residual chlorine at
      each node of the network. A water quality index is used to assess the
      effectiveness of chlorine practice. Scenario analysis is also performed to
      evaluate the impact of changing locations and number of booster stations, and
      rehabilitation and/or replacement of vulnerable water mains. The results revealed
      that the proposed methodology could facilitate the utility managers to optimize
      residual chlorine effectively in large WDS.

PMID- 28573353
TI  - Anything impossible with CRISPR/Cas9?

PMID- 28573351
TI  - Mitigating potential of Melissa officinale against As3+-induced cytotoxicity and
      transcriptional alterations of Hsp70 and Hsp27 in fish, Channa punctatus (Bloch).
AB  - The mitigating potential of Melissa officinale (MO) (Lamiaceae) against arsenite
      (As3+)-induced oxidative stress, cytogenotoxicity, and expression of stress genes
      in fish, Channa punctatus (Bloch), teleost, was explored. After confirming the
      composition of MO extract, caffeic acid (0.96%), hesperidin (1.73%), naringenin
      (7.70%), lutenolin (3.29%), kaempferol (11.46%) and hesperetin (6.24%), by HPLC
      PDA analysis, the experiment was set up in six groups (G1-G6), each containing 10
      specimens. Blood, muscle, gills and liver tissues of control and treated fishes
      were excised at an interval of 24 till 96 h. Ameliorative potential of MO was
      confirmed by satisfactory restoration of altered activities of malondialdehyde,
      hydrogen peroxide, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidise,
      glutathione reductase, reduced glutathione and ascorbate peroxidase in G4, G5 and
      G6, co-exposed with 96 h-LC50/10 As3+ with MO. A significant (p < 0.05) recovery
      in the frequencies of cytogenotoxic markers, micronuclei, disintegrated nucleus
      and echinocytes, which were expressed significantly (p < 0.05) in G3 exposed to
      sub-lethal concentration of ATO alone, was recorded in fish groups (G4, G5 and
      G6) together treated with 96 h-LC50/10 of ATO and 2, 4 and 8 ppm of MO,
      respectively. Moreover, the expression of Hsp70 gene was downregulated (2.29
      fold); whereas, Hsp27 gene was upregulated (1.16-fold) in G6, the group co
      exposed with 96 h-LC50/10 As3+ with 8 ppm of MO in comparison with G3 (3.11-fold
      for Hsp70; 0.51-fold for Hsp27) after 96 h of exposure period. Thus, it can be
      inferred that the MO at its tested concentration can be effectively used to
      mitigate As3+ generated toxicities in C. punctatus.

PMID- 28573355
TI  - A 6-year update of the health policy and advocacy priorities of the Society of
      Behavioral Medicine.
AB  - Government policy affects virtually every topic of interest to health behavior
      researchers, from research funding to reimbursement for clinical services to
      application of evidence to impact health outcomes. This paper provides a 6-year
      update on the expansion of Society of Behavioral Medicine's (SBM) public policy
      and advocacy agenda and proposed future directions. SBM's Health Policy Council
      is responsible for ensuring coordination of the policy-related activities of the
      Health Policy Committee (HPC), the Civic and Public Engagement Committee (CPEC),
      and the Scientific and Professional Liaison Council (SPLC). These committees and
      councils have written letters to Congress, signed onto advocacy letters with
      hundreds of organizations, and developed and disseminated 15 health policy
      briefs, the majority of which have been presented to legislative staffers on
      Capitol Hill. With the assistance of the SPLC, SBM has collaborated on policy
      efforts with like-minded organizations to increase the impact of the Society's
      policy work. Moving forward, SBM plans to continue to increase efforts to
      disseminate policy work more broadly and develop long-term relationships with
      Congressional staffers. SBM leadership realizes that to remain relevant,
      demonstrate impact, and advance the role of behavioral medicine, we must advance
      a policy agenda that reflects our mission of better health through behavior
      change.

PMID- 28573354
TI  - Optimal feedback control to describe multiple representations of primary motor
      cortex neurons.
AB  - Primary motor cortex (M1) neurons are tuned in response to several parameters
      related to motor control, and it was recently reported that M1 is important in
      feedback control. However, it remains unclear how M1 neurons encode information
      to control the musculoskeletal system. In this study, we examined the underlying
      computational mechanisms of M1 based on optimal feedback control (OFC) theory,
      which is a plausible hypothesis for neuromotor control. We modelled an isometric
      torque production task that required joint torque to be regulated and maintained
      at desired levels in a musculoskeletal system physically constrained by muscles,
      which act by pulling rather than pushing. Then, a feedback controller was
      computed using an optimisation approach under the constraint. In the presence of
      neuromotor noise, known as signal-dependent noise, the sensory feedback gain is
      tuned to an extrinsic motor output, such as the hand force, like a population
      response of M1 neurons. Moreover, a distribution of the preferred directions
      (PDs) of M1 neurons can be predicted via feedback gain. Therefore, we suggest
      that neural activity in M1 is optimised for the musculoskeletal system.
      Furthermore, if the feedback controller is represented in M1, OFC can describe
      multiple representations of M1, including not only the distribution of PDs but
      also the response of the neuronal population.

PMID- 28573356
TI  - Active involved community partnerships: co-creating implementation infrastructure
      for getting to and sustaining social impact.
AB  - Active involved community partnerships (AICPs) are essential to co-create
      implementation infrastructure and translate evidence into real-world practice.
      Across varied forms, AICPs cultivate community and tribal members as agents of
      change, blending research and organizational knowledge with relationships,
      context, culture, and local wisdom. Unlike selective engagement, AICPs enable
      active involvement of partners in the ongoing process of implementation and
      sustainability. This includes defining the problem, developing solutions,
      detecting practice changes, aligning organizational supports, and nurturing
      shared responsibility, accountability, and ownership for implementation. This
      paper builds on previously established active implementation and scaling
      functions by outlining key AICP functions to close the research-practice gap.
      Part of a federal initiative, California Partners for Permanency (CAPP)
      integrated AICP functions for implementation and system change to reduce
      disproportionality and disparities in long-term foster care. This paper outlines
      their experience defining and embedding five AICP functions: (1) relationship
      building; (2) addressing system barriers; (3) establishing culturally relevant
      supports and services; (4) meaningful involvement in implementation; and (5)
      ongoing communication and feedback for continuous improvement. Planning for
      social impact requires the integration of AICP with other active implementation
      and scaling functions. Through concrete examples, authors bring multilevel AICP
      roles to life and discuss implications for implementation research and practice.

PMID- 28573359
TI  - Proceedings of the RAMI Intern Section Meeting.

PMID- 28573358
TI  - Comparison of Perioperative Outcomes between Open, Laparoscopic, and Robotic
      Distal Pancreatectomy: an Analysis of 1815 Patients from the ACS-NSQIP Procedure
      Targeted Pancreatectomy Database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Robotic surgery is gaining acceptance for distal pancreatectomy (DP).
      Nevertheless, no multi-institutional data exist to demonstrate the ideal clinical
      circumstances for use and the efficacy of the robot compared to the open or
      laparoscopic techniques, in terms of perioperative outcomes. METHODS: The 2014
      ACS-NSQIP procedure-targeted pancreatectomy data for patients undergoing DP were
      analyzed. Demographics and clinicopathological and perioperative variables were
      compared between the three approaches. Univariate and multivariable analyses were
      used to evaluate outcomes. RESULTS: One thousand eight hundred fifteen DPs
      comprised 921 open distal pancreatectomies (ODPs), 694 laparoscopic distal
      pancreatectomies (LDPs), and 200 robotic distal pancreatectomies (RDPs). The
      three groups were comparable with respect to demographics, ASA score, relevant
      comorbidities, and malignant histology subtype. Compared to the ODP group,
      patients undergoing RDP had lower T-stages of disease (P = 0.0192), longer
      operations (P = 0.0030), shorter hospital stays (P < 0.0001), and lower
      postoperative 30-day morbidity (P = 0.0476). Compared to the LDP group, RDPs were
      longer operations (P < 0.0001) but required fewer concomitant vascular resections
      (P = 0.0487) and conversions to open surgery (P = 0.0068). On multivariable
      analysis, neoadjuvant therapy (P = 0.0236), malignant histology (P = 0.0124),
      pancreatic reconstruction (P = 0.0006), and vascular resection (P = 0.0008) were
      the strongest predictors of performing an ODP. CONCLUSIONS: The open,
      laparoscopic, and robotic approaches to distal pancreatectomy offer particular
      advantages for well-selected patients and specific clinicopathological contexts;
      therefore, clearly demonstrating the most suitable use and superiority of one
      technique over another remains challenging.

PMID- 28573357
TI  - Clinical significance of overexpression of NRG1 and its receptors, HER3 and HER4,
      in gastric cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neuregulin 1 (NRG1), a ligand for human epidermal growth factor (HER)
      3 and HER4, can activates cell signaling pathways to promote carcinogenesis and
      metastasis. METHODS: To investigate the clinicopathologic significance of NRG1
      and its receptors, immunohistochemistry was performed for NRG1, HER3, and HER4 in
      502 consecutive gastric cancers (GCs). Furthermore, HER2, microsatellite
      instability (MSI), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) status were investigated. NRG1
      gene copy number (GCN) was determined by dual-color fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH) in 388 available GCs. RESULTS: NRG1 overexpression was
      observed in 141 (28.1%) GCs and closely correlated with HER3 (P = 0.034) and HER4
      (P < 0.001) expression. NRG1 overexpression was significantly associated with
      aggressive features, including infiltrative tumor growth, lymphovascular, and
      neural invasion, high pathologic stage, and poor prognosis (all P < 0.05), but
      not associated with EBV, MSI, or HER2 status. Multivariate analysis identified
      NRG1 overexpression as an independent prognostic factor for survival (P = 0.040).
      HER3 and HER4 expressions were observed in 157 (31.3%) and 277 (55.2%),
      respectively. In contrast to NRG1, expression of these proteins was not
      associated with survival. NRG1 GCN gain (GCN >= 2.5) was detected in 14.7%
      patients, including two cases of amplification, and was moderately correlated
      with NRG1 overexpression (kappa, 0.459; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Although our
      results indicate a lack of prognostic significance of HER3 and HER4
      overexpression in GC, overexpression of their ligand, NRG1, was associated with
      aggressive clinical features and represented an independent unfavorable
      prognostic factor. Therefore, NRG1 is a potential prognostic and therapeutic
      biomarker in GC patients.

PMID- 28573360
TI  - Dual System for Enhancing Cognitive Abilities of Children with ADHD Using Leap
      Motion and eye-Tracking Technologies.
AB  - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder marked by an
      ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that affects with
      development or functioning. It affects 3-5% of all American and European
      children. The objective of this paper is to develop and test a dual system for
      the rehabilitation of cognitive functions in children with ADHD. A technological
      platform has been developed using the ". NET framework", which makes use of two
      physiological sensors, -an eye-tracker and a hand gesture recognition sensor- in
      order to provide children with the opportunity to develop their learning and
      attention skills. The two physiological sensors we utilized for the development
      are the Tobii X1 Light Eye Tracker and the Leap Motion. SUS and QUIS
      questionnaires have been carried out. 19 users tested the system and the average
      age was 10.88 years (SD = 3.14). The results obtained after tests were performed
      were quite positive and hopeful. The learning of the users caused by the system
      and the interfaces item got a high punctuation with a mean of 7.34 (SD = 1.06)
      for SUS questionnaire and 7.73 (SD = 0.6) for QUIS questionnaire. We didn't find
      differences between boys and girls. The developed multimodal rehabilitation
      system can help to children with attention deficit and learning issues. Moreover,
      the teachers may utilize this system to track the progression of their students
      and see their behavior.

PMID- 28573361
TI  - Exploring anesthesiologists' understanding of situational awareness: a
      qualitative study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study explored how anesthesiologists understand situational
      awareness (SA) and how they think SA is learned, taught, and assessed. METHODS:
      Semi-structured interviews were performed with practicing anesthesiologists
      involved in teaching. This qualitative study was conducted using constructivist
      grounded theory techniques (i.e., line-by-line coding, memoing, and constant
      comparison) in a thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Group meetings were
      held to develop and review themes emerging from the data. RESULTS: Eighteen
      anesthesiologists were interviewed. Respondents displayed an understanding of SA
      using a mixture of examples from clinical experience and everyday life. Despite
      agreeing on the importance of SA, formal definitions of SA were lacking, and the
      participants did not explicate the topic of SA in either their practice or their
      teaching activities. Situational awareness had been learned informally through
      increasing independence in the clinical context, role modelling, reflection on
      errors, and formally through simulation. Respondents taught SA through modelling
      and discussing scanning behaviour, checklists, verbalization of thought
      processes, and debriefings. Although trainees' understanding of SA was assessed
      as part of the decision-making process for granting clinical independence,
      respondents found it difficult to give meaningful feedback on SA to their
      trainees. CONCLUSION: Although SA is an essential concept in anesthesiology, its
      use remains rather tacit, primarily due to the lack of a common operational
      definition of the term. Faculty development is required to help anesthesiologists
      teach and assess SA more explicitly in the clinical environment.

PMID- 28573362
TI  - Resource Utilization in Emergency Department Patients with Known or Suspected
      Poisoning.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous work has shown poisoning-related emergency department (ED)
      visits are increasing, and these visits are resource-intensive. Little is known,
      however, about how resource utilization for patients with known or suspected
      poisoning differs from that of general ED patients. METHODS: We reviewed 4 years
      of operational data at a single ED. We identified visits due to known or
      suspected poisoning (index cases), and paired them with time-matched controls. In
      the primary analysis, we compared the groups with respect to a broad array of
      resource utilization characteristics. In a secondary analysis, we performed the
      same comparison after excluding patients ultimately transferred to a psychiatric
      facility. RESULTS: There were 405 index cases and 802 controls in the primary
      analysis, and 374 index cases and 741 controls in the secondary analysis. In the
      primary/secondary analyses, patients with known or suspected poisoning had longer
      ED lengths of stay in minutes (370 vs. 232/295 vs. 234), higher rates of
      laboratory results per patient (40.4 vs. 26.8/39.6 vs. 26.8), greater
      administration of intravenous medications and fluids per patient (2.0 vs. 1.6/2.1
      vs. 1.6), higher rates of transfer to a psychiatric facility (7.7 vs. 0.2%/not
      applicable), and higher rates of both admission (40.2 vs. 32.8/43.6 vs. 33.1%)
      and admission to an advanced care bed (21.5 vs. 7.6/23.3 vs. 7.8%). Patients with
      known or suspected poisoning had lower rates of imaging per patient, for both
      plain radiographs (0.4 vs. 0.5/0.4 vs. 0.5) and advanced imaging studies (0.3 vs.
      0.5/0.4 vs. 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: ED patients with known or suspected poisoning are
      more resource intensive than general ED patients. These results may have
      implications for both resource allocation (particularly for departments that
      might see a high volume of such patients) and ED operations management.

PMID- 28573363
TI  - [Risk genes in myopathies and mitochondrial diseases].
AB  - Myopathies and mitochondrial diseases pose a major challenge in diagnosis due to
      the multitude of different entities and - in the case of mitochondriopathies -
      the possible involvement of multiple organs. Furthermore, there is broad clinical
      variability within particular diseases; patients with hereditary myopathy, for
      example, can show great phenotypic variability despite identical genetic defects.
      In addition to environmental factors, gender-specific influences, and the degree
      of heteroplasmy in mitochondrial diseases, the existence of disease-modifying
      genes has long been assumed as an explanation. In recent years, risk genes, which
      can influence the course of disease, have been identified for some myopathies and
      mitochondrial diseases. The precise role of these disease-modifying genes in the
      pathogenesis of the diseases is largely unexplained and requires further
      research.

PMID- 28573364
TI  - [Genetic architecture of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal
      dementia : Overlap and differences].
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) overlap not
      only clinically, but also with respect to shared neuropathology and genes. A
      large number of novel genes has recently been identified which underlie both
      diseases, e. g., C9orf72, TARDBP, GRN, TBK1, UBQLN2, VCP, CHCHD10, or SQSTM1. In
      contrast, other genes are still largely associated with only one of the two
      diseases, e. g., SOD1 with ALS or MAPT with FTD. These genetic findings indicate
      a large number of shared mechanisms, yet along with still a certain cell-specific
      vulnerability. The recently identified genes are not only key to investigate the
      pathophysiology underlying ALS and FTD, but also the first step in the
      development of causal gene- or pathway-specific therapies. Mutations in these
      genes are also found in a substantial share of seemingly "sporadic" ALS and FTD
      patients. Given the large genetic heterogeneity with more than >25 genes having
      been identified for ALS and FTD, genetic diagnostics should - after exclusion of
      C9orf72 repeat expansions - no longer resort to single gene-diagnostics, but
      rather use next generation sequencing panels or whole exome sequencing.

PMID- 28573365
TI  - [Home treatment for people with acute mental illnesses].
AB  - Home treatment has been proposed as an alternative to acute psychiatric inpatient
      treatment. Health insurance systems in Germany and in Switzerland hinder the
      nationwide implementation of home treatment teams into mental health systems,
      although the German S3 guidelines for psychosocial treatments of severe mental
      illnesses recommend provision of acute care at home. Evidence for home treatment
      is positive, yet there are only few up-to-date studies from Europe and
      differential indication criteria are lacking. The aim of home treatment is to
      reduce inpatient bed-days by nonadmission or early discharge. Home treatment
      teams are mobile, interdisciplinary, and provide 24 h services. The average
      treatment length in home treatment should not exceed the duration of the
      inpatient treatment. The home treatment team usually takes the responsibility for
      the gatekeeping for inpatient treatment. Future research should focus on precise
      definitions of the structures and interventions of home treatment teams. Home
      treatment for severely mental ill patients should be distinguished from assertive
      community treatment and case management, which offer continuing rather than acute
      crises care.

PMID- 28573366
TI  - [Antibiotic Stewardship 2.0. Individualization of therapy].
AB  - Antibiotic resistance is a part of bacterial evolution and therefore unavoidable.
      In the context of missing novel treatment options, the restrictive use of
      available antibiotics in order to decelerate the spread of resistance is of high
      importance. This is the aim of Antibiotic Stewardship (ABS). ABS consists of two
      sides: a structural one and an individual one. The former deals with the
      formation of ABS teams, the analysis of antibiotic usage and resistance
      development, and the implementation of certain measures to improve antibiotic
      use; the latter is reflected by concrete bedside decisions: How can (broad)
      spectrum antibiotics be spared without harming the patient? This can be achieved,
      for example, by de-escalation, limiting duration of treatment, and avoiding
      nonindicated use. Typical nonindicated uses in both in- and outpatients are viral
      respiratory tract infections, asymptomatic bacteriuria and nonbacterial
      exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Furthermore, respiratory
      colonization in ventilated patients, ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis,
      "prolonged" perioperative prophylaxis, and contaminated blood cultures reflect
      situations where antibiotics should be avoided. In the future, ABS will benefit
      from accelerated pathogen and resistance detection because early adequate
      treatment not only lowers the usage of antibiotics but can also improve patient
      outcome.

PMID- 28573368
TI  - How common is depression in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica?
AB  - Depression is common in inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and
      systemic lupus erythematosus and negatively impacts on outcomes. Given the long
      term nature of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and its glucocorticoid treatment,
      these patients may be at an increased risk of depression, although few studies
      exist to date. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of, and factors
      associated with, depression in PMR patients. Prevalent PMR patients (with a first
      diagnostic code for PMR in the last 3 years) were mailed a postal questionnaire
      (n = 704) examining PMR symptoms, glucocorticoid use and patient reported
      comorbidities. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health
      Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), with a score of >=10 defined as current depressive
      symptoms. Logistic regression was used to examine association between
      demographics, comorbidity and current depressive symptoms. Five hundred fifty
      (78%) patients responded, of which 365 (66%) were female, with a mean (SD) age of
      74.1 years (8.4). The prevalence of current depressive symptoms was 15% (n = 81)
      and was significantly associated with female gender: OR 1.87 (95%CI 1.08-3.22),
      current PMR symptoms: OR 2.1 (1.11-3.97), self-reported acid reflux: OR 1.75
      (1.05-2.93) and diabetes: OR 2.86 (1.6-5.09). Older patients were less likely to
      report current depressive symptoms (OR 0.35 (0.13-0.9) for those >80 years versus
      those aged 50-59 years). Depressive symptoms are common in patients with PMR
      patients, especially younger patients and those with comorbidities. Clinicians
      should consider screening these patients for depressive symptoms and managing
      them appropriately, as untreated depression may negatively impact on health
      related outcomes and quality of life.

PMID- 28573367
TI  - 3D Microfabricated Scaffolds and Microfluidic Devices for Ocular Surface
      Replacement: a Review.
AB  - In recent years, there has been increased research interest in generating corneal
      substitutes, either for use in the clinic or as in vitro corneal models. The
      advancement of 3D microfabrication technologies has allowed the reconstruction of
      the native microarchitecture that controls epithelial cell adhesion, migration
      and differentiation. In addition, such technology has allowed the inclusion of a
      dynamic fluid flow that better mimics the physiology of the native cornea. We
      review the latest innovative products in development in this field, from 3D
      microfabricated hydrogels to microfluidic devices.

PMID- 28573370
TI  - Association of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (G-308A) genetic variant with matrix
      metalloproteinase-9 activity and joint destruction in early rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the key enzymes responsible for the joint
      destruction. Their activity is regulated by the level of proinflammatory
      cytokines. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of TNF-alpha G-308A
      polymorphism on MMP-9 levels in blood plasma (BP) and synovial fluid (SF) of
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their role in progression of joint
      destruction. One hundred thirty-four subjects were enrolled in this study. TNF
      alpha G-308A polymorphism was determined using PCR-RFLP method. ELISA assay was
      used for the detection of MMP-9 activity in BP and SF. Joint damage was estimated
      by hands and feet radiography. Larsen score and annual changes in LS were used
      for quantitative evaluation of joint destruction and radiographic progression of
      disease. MMP-9 activity in BP and SF was significantly higher in RA compared to
      controls, as well as in SF of patients with erosive compared to nonerosive RA.
      Faster radiographic progression and increased MMP-9 activity in BP and SF were
      detected in the group A (GA or AA genotype carriers) compared to the group G (GG
      genotype carriers). However, statistical significance was revealed only for MMP-9
      activity in SF (p < 0.05). MMP-9 activity in BP and SF is significantly higher in
      RA patients compared to patients with osteoarthritis. The presence of TNF-alpha
      308A allele is associated with increased MMP-9 activity in SF of patients with
      early RA and may be a predictor of rapid radiographic progression of disease.

PMID- 28573369
TI  - Systolic and pulse pressure associate with incident knee osteoarthritis: data
      from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
AB  - We evaluated the relationship of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood
      pressure, pulse pressure, and treatment with antihypertensives with knee
      osteoarthritis incidence in a US cohort. We performed a longitudinal study (2004
      2010) nested within the Osteoarthritis Initiative Study including only
      individuals without knee osteoarthritis at baseline. Systolic blood pressure,
      diastolic blood pressure, and pulse pressure were assessed at baseline, 12-, 24-,
      and 36-month visits. Knee radiographs at baseline, 12-, 24-, 36- and 48-month
      visits defined radiographic osteoarthritis, Kellgren and Lawrence grade >=2. We
      performed logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, NSAID
      use, number of antihypertensive medications, diabetic medications, and
      cholesterol medications. One thousand nine hundred and thirty people (6040
      observations) were included. Annual incidence rates of radiographic
      osteoarthritis by systolic blood pressure quartiles (lowest to highest) were 2.1,
      3.4, 3.7, and 3.7%. Fully adjusted odds ratios of incident radiographic
      osteoarthritis (OA) for the 2nd-4th quartiles were 1.6, 1.7, and 1.6 relative to
      the lowest quartile (p for trend = 0.03). Pulse pressure results were similar.
      There was no association with diastolic blood pressure. Compared to those not
      taking any antihypertensive medications, those taking >=3 had decreased odds
      (0.4, 0.1-1.0) of developing incident OA. In a US cohort, higher systolic blood
      pressure and pulse pressure are associated with increased incidence of
      radiographic knee osteoarthritis while treatment with >=3 antihypertensive
      medications was associated with reduced incidence. These findings suggest a new
      and promising avenue for research on disease modification in knee osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28573371
TI  - Frequency of familial Mediterranean fever (MEFV) gene mutations in patients with
      biopsy-proven primary glomerulonephritis.
AB  - Primary glomerulopathies are those disorders that affect glomerular structure,
      function, or both in the absence of a multisystem disorder. We aimed to evaluate
      the frequency of MEFV gene mutation to show possible coexistence of FMF in
      patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven primary glomerulonephritis (GN). A total of
      64 patients with biopsy-proven primary GN were included in the study. MEFV gene
      mutations examined retrospectively. The mean age of patients was 39.6 +/- 13.4
      (range 18-69), 35 of patients were female and 29 of patients were male. Of the 64
      patients, 17 were mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN), 15 were IgA
      nephropathy (IgAN), 12 were membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN), 11 were focal
      segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), three were membranous proliferative
      glomerulonephritis (MPGN), three were immune complex glomerulonephritis (ICGN),
      two were minimal change disease (MCD), and one was IgM nephropathy (IgMN). MEFV
      gene mutation was detected in 35.9% (23) of these patients. The most frequently
      detected mutations were E148Q and M694V. Twelve cases (18.75% of GN patients)
      with MEFV gene mutation were diagnosed as FMF phenotype I. The frequency of MEFV
      gene mutation was detected at a high rate of 35.9%. Further studies with larger
      populations are needed to clarify the importance of these mutations on clinical
      progression of glomerulonephritis.

PMID- 28573373
TI  - Erratum to: Exercise increases lactoferrin, but decreases lysozyme in salivary
      granulocytes.

PMID- 28573372
TI  - A survey of anatomical items relevant to the practice of rheumatology: pelvis,
      lower extremity, and gait.
AB  - This study aimed to generate a minimum list of structural and functional
      anatomical items about the pelvis/hip, knee, ankle/foot, gait, and lower limb
      innervation, which are most relevant to the practice of rheumatology. To
      determine their perceived relevance to clinical practice, seven members of the
      Mexican Clinical Anatomy Task Force compiled an initial list of 470 anatomical
      items. Ten local and international experts according to a 0-10 Likert scale
      ranked these items. Of the original list, 101 (21.48%) items were considered
      relevant (global rate >40). These included 36/137 (26.27%) pelvis and hip items,
      25/82 (30.48%) knee items, 22/168 (13.98%) ankle/foot items, 11/68 (16.17%)
      neurologic items, and 7/15 (46.66%) gait-related items. We propose that these 101
      anatomical items of the lower extremity, when added to the 115 anatomic items of
      the upper extremity and spine we previously reported, may represent an
      approximation to the minimal anatomical knowledge central to the competent
      practice of rheumatology. The meager representation of ankle and foot items may
      reflect a lesser emphasis in these anatomical regions during rheumatologic
      training. Attention to these and related items during rheumatologic training and
      beyond may sharpen the rheumatologist's ability in the differential diagnosis of
      regional pain syndromes as well as strengthen an endangered art: the
      rheumatologic physical examination.

PMID- 28573374
TI  - Effects of TRPV1 and TRPA1 activators on the cramp threshold frequency: a
      randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previous data indicate that a strong sensory input from orally
      administered TRPV1 and TRPA1 activators alleviates muscle cramps in foot muscles
      by reducing the alpha-motor neuron hyperexcitability. We investigated if TRP
      activators increase the cramp threshold frequency of the medial gastrocnemius.
      METHODS: We randomly assigned 22 healthy male participants to an intervention
      (IG) and a control group (CG). While participants of the IG ingested a mixture of
      TRPV1 and TRPA1 activators, the CG received a placebo. We tested the cramp
      threshold frequency (CTF), the cramp intensity (EMG activity), and the perceived
      pain of electrically induced muscle cramps before (pre), and 15 min, 4, 8, and 24
      h after either treatment. We further measured the maximal isometric force of knee
      extensors at pre, 4, and 24 h to assess potential side-effects on the force
      output. RESULTS: When we included all measurement time points, no group-by-time
      interaction was observed for the CTF. However, when only pre and 15 min values
      were incorporated, a significant interaction, with a slightly greater CTF
      increase in IG (3.1 +/- 1.5) compared to the CG (2.0 +/- 1.5), was observed. No
      significant group by time interaction was found for the cramp intensity, the
      perceived pain, and the maximal isometric force. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate
      that orally administered TRPV1 and TRPA1 activators exert a small short-term
      effect on the CTF, but not on the other parameters tested. Future studies need to
      investigate whether such small CTF increments are sufficient to prevent exercise
      associated muscle cramps.

PMID- 28573375
TI  - Chronic maxillary atelectasis and silent sinus syndrome: two faces of the same
      clinical entity.
AB  - Chronic maxillary atelectasis (CMA) and silent sinus syndrome (SSS) are rare
      clinical entities characterized by an implosion of the maxillary sinus that may
      or may not be associated with sinonasal symptoms, and are complicated by
      ipsilateral enophthalmos. The objective of this article is to discuss the
      definitions, physiopathology, clinical and radiographic characteristics, and
      surgical management of these entities. We retrospectively reviewed 18 patients (7
      women, 11 men, aged 12-70 years) diagnosed and treated in the ear, nose, and
      throat departments of four Belgian teaching hospitals between 2000 and 2015. Nine
      patients had a history of sinus disease. In all cases, a computed tomography scan
      showed downward displacement of the orbital floor, increased orbital volume, and
      maxillary sinus contraction. Five patients met the criteria for grade II CMA and
      13 for grade III CMA. Four patients met the criteria for SSS. All patients
      underwent wide endoscopic middle maxillary antrostomy. There were no orbital
      complications and all patients experienced resolution or a dramatic reduction of
      their symptomatology. Only one patient asked for an orbital floor reconstruction
      to correct a persisting cosmetic deformity. Although CMA and SSS are usually
      regarded as different entities in the literature, we believe that they lie on the
      same clinical spectrum. Treatment for both conditions is similar, i.e., middle
      meatal antrostomy to halt or even reverse the pathological evolution and
      reconstruction of the orbital floor in the event of persistent cosmetic
      deformity.

PMID- 28573376
TI  - Maximal clique method for the automated analysis of NMR TOCSY spectra of complex
      mixtures.
AB  - Characterization of the chemical components of complex mixtures in solution is
      important in many areas of biochemistry and chemical biology, including
      metabolomics. The use of 2D NMR total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY)
      experiments has proven very useful for the identification of known metabolites as
      well as for the characterization of metabolites that are unknown by taking
      advantage of the good resolution and high sensitivity of this homonuclear
      experiment. Due to the complexity of the resulting spectra, automation is
      critical to facilitate and speed-up their analysis and enable high-throughput
      applications. To better meet these emerging needs, an automated spin-system
      identification algorithm of TOCSY spectra is introduced that represents the cross
      peaks and their connectivities as a mathematical graph, for which all subgraphs
      are determined that are maximal cliques. Each maximal clique can be assigned to
      an individual spin system thereby providing a robust deconvolution of the
      original spectrum for the easy extraction of critical spin system information.
      The approach is demonstrated for a complex metabolite mixture consisting of 20
      compounds and for E. coli cell lysate.

PMID- 28573378
TI  - Quantifying the Harms and Benefits from Serosorting Among HIV-Negative Gay and
      Bisexual Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between
      serosorting and HIV infection among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM).
      Compared to no condomless anal sex (i.e., consistent condom use or no anal sex),
      serosorting was associated with increased HIV risk (RR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.37-1.96).
      Compared to condomless discordant anal sex, serosorting was associated with
      reduced HIV risk (RR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.33-0.65). Serosorting may be an important
      harm reduction strategy when condoms are not consistently used, but can be
      harmful if HIV-negative MSM who consistently use condoms shift to using
      serosorting as their primary prevention strategy. The protective effects of
      serosorting and ways in which MSM are operationalizing serosorting are becoming
      more complex as additional factors affecting risk are considered (e.g., durable
      viral load suppression, PrEP). Understanding the potential risk and benefit of
      serosorting continues to be important, particularly within the context of other
      prevention strategies.

PMID- 28573377
TI  - The effects of a patient activation intervention on smoking and excessive
      drinking cessations: results from the PAADRN randomized controlled trial.
AB  - : Patients may exhibit risky bone health behaviors. In a large pragmatic clinical
      trial, we tested whether a tailored patient activation DXA result letter
      accompanied by a bone health brochure led to smoking and excessive drinking
      cessations. The intervention did not, however, alter these risky bone health
      behaviors. INTRODUCTION: Besides dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) screening
      and pharmacotherapy when indicated, beneficial bone health behaviors including
      proper calcium and vitamin D intake and weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening
      exercise should be encouraged. Similarly, risky bone health behaviors like
      smoking and excessive drinking should be discouraged. We examined whether a
      direct-to-patient activation intervention led to smoking and excessive drinking
      cessations. METHODS: The Patient Activation after DXA Result Notification
      (PAADRN) pragmatic clinical trial enrolled 7749 patients between February 2012
      and August 2014. Interviews occurred at baseline and 12 and 52 weeks later.
      Intervention subjects were mailed an individually tailored DXA results letter
      accompanied by a bone health educational brochure 4 weeks post-DXA. Usual care
      subjects were not sent these materials. Smoking and excessive drinking were
      assessed by self-report at each interview. Intention-to-treat linear probability
      models were used. RESULTS: Mean age was 66.6 years, 83.8% were women, and 75.3%
      were Non-Hispanic-Whites. Smoking was reported at baseline by 7.6% of the
      intervention group vs. 7.7% of the usual care group (p = 0.873). Excessive
      drinking was reported at baseline by 6.5% of the intervention group vs. 6.5% of
      the usual care group (p = 0.968). Intention-to-treat analyses indicated no
      significant differences between the intervention vs. usual care groups at either
      12 or 52 weeks post-DXA (all p values >= 0.346). CONCLUSION: An individually
      tailored DXA result letter accompanied by an educational brochure did not lead to
      smoking or excessive drinking cessations in patients who received DXA. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT01507662.

PMID- 28573379
TI  - Timing of INR reversal using fresh-frozen plasma in warfarin-associated
      intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - Rapid reversal of coagulopathy is recommended in warfarin-associated
      intracerebral hemorrhage (WAICH). However, rapid correction of the INR has not
      yet been proven to improve clinical outcomes, and the rate of correction with
      fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) can be variable. We sought to determine whether faster
      INR reversal with FFP is associated with decreased hematoma expansion and
      improved outcome. We performed a retrospective analysis of a prospectively
      collected cohort of consecutive patients with WAICH presenting to an urban
      tertiary care hospital from 2000 to 2013. Patients with baseline INR > 1.4
      treated with FFP and vitamin K were included. The primary outcomes are occurrence
      of hematoma expansion, discharge modified Rankin Scale (mRS), and 30-day
      mortality. The association between timing of INR reversal, ICH expansion, and
      outcome was investigated with logistic regression analysis. 120 subjects met
      inclusion criteria (mean age 76.9, 57.5% males). Median presenting INR was 2.8
      (IQR 2.3-3.4). Hematoma expansion is not associated with slower INR reversal
      [median time to INR reversal 9 (IQR 5-14) h vs. 10 (IQR 7-16) h, p = 0.61].
      Patients with ultimately poor outcome received more rapid INR reversal than those
      with favorable outcome [9 (IQR 6-14) h vs. 12 (8-19) h, p = 0.064). We find no
      evidence of an association between faster INR reversal and either reduced
      hematoma expansion or better outcome.

PMID- 28573380
TI  - The contrasting effects of short-term climate change on the early recruitment of
      tree species.
AB  - Predictions of plant responses to climate change are frequently based on
      organisms' presence in warmer locations, which are then assumed to reflect future
      performance in cooler areas. However, as plant life stages may be affected
      differently by environmental changes, there is little empirical evidence that
      this approach provides reliable estimates of short-term responses to global
      warming. Under this premise, we analyzed 8 years of early recruitment data, seed
      production and seedling establishment and survival, collected for two tree
      species at two latitudes. We quantified recruitment to a wide range of
      environmental conditions, temperature, soil moisture and light, and simulated
      recruitment under two forecasted climatic scenarios. Annual demographic
      transitions were affected by the particular conditions taking place during their
      onset, but the effects of similar environmental shifts differed among the
      recruitment stages; seed production was higher in warmer years, while seedling
      establishment and survival peaked during cold years. Within a species, these
      effects also varied between latitudes; increasing temperatures at the southern
      location will have stronger detrimental effects on recruitment than similar
      changes at the northern locations. Our simulations illustrate that warmer
      temperatures may increase seed production, but they will have a negative effect
      on establishment and survival. When the three early recruitment processes were
      simultaneously considered, simulations showed little change in recruitment
      dynamics at the northern site and a slight decrease at the southern site. It is
      only when we considered these three stages that we were able to assess likely
      changes in early recruitment under the predicted conditions.

PMID- 28573381
TI  - Integrated population models reveal local weather conditions are the key drivers
      of population dynamics in an aerial insectivore.
AB  - Changes to weather patterns under a warming climate are complex: while warmer
      temperatures are expected virtually worldwide, decreased mean precipitation is
      expected at mid-latitudes. Migratory birds depend on broad-scale weather patterns
      to inform timing of movements, but may be more susceptible to local weather
      patterns during sedentary periods. We constructed Bayesian integrated population
      models (IPMs) to assess whether continental or local weather effects best
      explained population dynamics in an environmentally sensitive aerial
      insectivorous bird, the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), along a
      transcontinental gradient from British Columbia to Saskatchewan to New York, and
      tested whether population dynamics were synchronous among sites. Little
      consistency existed among sites in the demographic rates most affecting
      population growth rate or in correlations among rates. Juvenile apparent survival
      at all sites was stable over time and greatest in New York, whereas adult
      apparent survival was more variable among years and sites, and greatest in
      British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Fledging success was greatest in Saskatchewan.
      Local weather conditions explained significant variation in adult survival in
      Saskatchewan and fledging success in New York, corroborating the hypothesis that
      local more than continental weather drives the population dynamics of this
      species and, therefore, demographic synchrony measured at three sites was
      limited. Nonetheless, multi-population IPMs can be a powerful tool for
      identifying correlated population trajectories caused by synchronous demographic
      rates, and can pinpoint the scale at which environmental drivers are responsible
      for changes. We caution against applying uniform conservation actions for
      populations where synchrony does not occur or is not fully understood.

PMID- 28573385
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573382
TI  - A novel function of hepatocyte growth factor in the activation of checkpoint
      kinase 1 phosphorylation in colon cancer cells.
AB  - The ATR/checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) pathway plays an essential role in modulating
      the DNA damage response and homologous recombination. Particularly, Chk1
      phosphorylation is related to cancer prognosis and therapeutic resistance. Some
      receptor tyrosine kinases participate in the regulation of Chk1 phosphorylation;
      however, the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on Chk1 phosphorylation is
      unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that HGF moderately activated Chk1
      phosphorylation in colon cancer cells by upregulating TopBP1 and RAD51, and
      promoting TopBP1-ATR complex formation. Furthermore, AKT activity, which was
      promoted by HGF, served as an important mediator linking HGF/MET signaling and
      Chk1 phosphorylation. Depleting AKT activity attenuated basal expression of p
      Chk1 and HGF-induced Chk1 activation. Moreover, AKT activity directly regulated
      TopBP1 and RAD51 expression. AKT inhibition suppressed HGF-induced upregulation
      of TopBP1 and RAD51, and enhanced TopBP1/ATR complex formation. Our results show
      that HGF was involved in regulating Chk1 phosphorylation, and further demonstrate
      that AKT activity was responsible for this HGF-induced Chk1 phosphorylation.
      These findings might potentially result in management of prognosis and
      therapeutic sensitivity in cancer therapy.

PMID- 28573383
TI  - Increased expression of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) in
      osteoarthritis of human knee joint compared to hip joint.
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease characterized by the destruction of
      cartilage. The greatest risk factors for the development of OA include age and
      obesity. Recent studies suggest the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of
      OA. The two most common locations for OA to occur are in the knee and hip joints.
      The knee joint experiences more mechanical stress, cartilage degeneration, and
      inflammation than the hip joint. This could contribute to the increased incidence
      of OA in the knee joint. Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), including
      high-mobility group box-1, receptor for advanced glycation end products, and
      alarmins (S100A8 and S100A9), are released in the joint in response to stress
      mediated chondrocyte and cartilage damage. This facilitates increased cartilage
      degradation and inflammation in the joint. Studies have documented the role of
      DAMPs in the pathogenesis of OA; however, the comparison of DAMPs and its
      influence on OA has not been discussed. In this study, we compared the DAMPs
      between OA knee and hip joints and found a significant difference in the levels
      of DAMPs expressed in the knee joint compared to the hip joint. The increased
      levels of DAMPs suggest a difference in the underlying pathogenesis of OA in the
      knee and the hip and highlights DAMPs as potential therapeutic targets for OA in
      the future.

PMID- 28573384
TI  - A simple computational algorithm of model-based choice preference.
AB  - A broadly used computational framework posits that two learning systems operate
      in parallel during the learning of choice preferences-namely, the model-free and
      model-based reinforcement-learning systems. In this study, we examined another
      possibility, through which model-free learning is the basic system and model
      based information is its modulator. Accordingly, we proposed several modified
      versions of a temporal-difference learning model to explain the choice-learning
      process. Using the two-stage decision task developed by Daw, Gershman, Seymour,
      Dayan, and Dolan (2011), we compared their original computational model, which
      assumes a parallel learning process, and our proposed models, which assume a
      sequential learning process. Choice data from 23 participants showed a better fit
      with the proposed models. More specifically, the proposed eligibility adjustment
      model, which assumes that the environmental model can weight the degree of the
      eligibility trace, can explain choices better under both model-free and model
      based controls and has a simpler computational algorithm than the original model.
      In addition, the forgetting learning model and its variation, which assume
      changes in the values of unchosen actions, substantially improved the fits to the
      data. Overall, we show that a hybrid computational model best fits the data. The
      parameters used in this model succeed in capturing individual tendencies with
      respect to both model use in learning and exploration behavior. This
      computational model provides novel insights into learning with interacting model
      free and model-based components.

PMID- 28573386
TI  - Uremic Toxicity and Bone in CKD.
AB  - Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), especially those on dialysis
      treatment, are at high risk of bone fracture. In CKD-mineral and bone disorder
      (CKD-MBD), secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with advanced CKD induces
      bone abnormalities, and skeletal resistance to parathyroid hormone (PTH) starts
      in the early stages of kidney disease. Uremic toxins such as indoxyl sulfate and
      p-cresyl sulfate reduce the expression of PTH receptor as well as PTH-induced
      cyclic adenosine 3',5' monophosphate production in osteoblasts. CKD also impairs
      bone strength, especially quality. In a rat model, kidney damage reduces the bone
      storage modulus and changes the cortical bone chemical composition with or
      without hyperparathyroidism. The oral charcoal adsorbent AST-120 improves CKD
      induced bone abnormalities as blood levels of indoxyl sulfate decrease. Uremic
      osteoporosis, a new concept of CKD-related bone fragility, is a main cause of CKD
      induced bone abnormalities, particularly impaired bone quality. There is limited
      information about the effect and safety of anti-osteoporotic drugs for patients
      with CKD, especially those on dialysis, but the use of AST-120 and renin
      angiotensin system inhibitors may modulate bone quality and decrease the
      incidence of fracture. Thus, the management of CKD-MBD plus use of other
      therapeutic interventions for uremic osteoporosis is necessary to prevent bone
      fragility in patients with CKD.

PMID- 28573387
TI  - The impact of change of renal replacement therapy modality on sleep quality in
      patients with end-stage renal disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep disorders are common and multi-factorial in patients with
      advanced chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Sleep
      disorders and disturbance have a negative impact on wellbeing and quality of
      life. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of a change in renal replacement therapy
      (RRT) modality on sleep quality and sleep disturbance in patients with ESRD. DATA
      SOURCES: Multiple electronic databases were searched without publication
      type/period restrictions. The reference lists of all included articles were
      manually searched for additional citations. Non-published data was identified by
      hand searching key conference abstracts. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Participants
      of interest were adult patients with ESRD requiring RRT [conventional
      haemodialysis (HD), short daily HD, nocturnal HD, continuous ambulatory
      peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), continuous cycler-assisted peritoneal dialysis (CCPD)
      or transplantation]. The exposure or intervention of interest was switch of RRT
      modality. STUDY APPRAISAL: Two reviewers independently assessed all studies for
      inclusion and extracted relevant data. RESULTS: Sixteen studies with a combined
      total of 670 patients and 191 controls were included for review and described in
      detail. Looking specifically at restless leg syndrome, symptoms resolved in over
      60% of affected patients with a switch to increased intensity RRT (either
      intensive HD, CCPD or transplant). Meta-analysis of the nine studies that looked
      specifically at sleep apnoea parameters again favoured intensive RRT over
      standard/conventional RRT (conventional HD or CAPD) with statistical significance
      [Risk ratio 0.66 (95% CI 0.51-0.84)]. Meta-analysis of all studies favoured a
      switch to increased intensity RRT in terms of overall sleep quality, with
      statistical significance [Risk ratio 0.58 (95% CI 0.40-8.83)]. LIMITATIONS:
      Restriction to the English language may have introduced selection bias. Funnel
      plot analysis suggested there was also an element of publication bias. Studies
      were heterogeneous in terms of patient selection, means of sleep quality
      assessment and modality switch. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS:
      Sleep disturbance, sleep apnoea and restless legs syndrome all tend to improve
      when a switch is made to intensive dialysis or transplant. This is important
      information for patients struggling with disturbed sleep and marked fatigue. This
      hypothesis-generating review highlights the need for more high quality
      prospective research in the area.

PMID- 28573389
TI  - Effect of multiple cycles of freeze-thawing on the RNA quality of lung cancer
      tissues.
AB  - RNA degradation is a major problem in tissue banking. We explored the effect of
      thawing flash-frozen biospecimens on the quality and integrity of RNA for genetic
      testing as well as for other cancer research studies. The histological quality of
      the frozen tumor sections was evaluated by using hematoxylin and eosin staining.
      RNA extraction from 60 lung cancer tissue samples subjected to various
      freeze/thaw cycles was performed using the RNeasy Plus isolation kit. RNA
      integrity was assessed by using an Agilent bioanalyzer to obtain RNA integrity
      numbers (RIN). Furthermore, RNA from different groups was used for fluorescence
      Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of the
      echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 and anaplastic lymphoma kinase
      (EML4-ALK) fusion gene mutation to verify whether it can be used for research or
      clinical testing. Highly variable RIN values were observed among the samples,
      which showed no correlation with the number of freeze/thaw cycles conducted.
      However, after 3 freeze/thaw cycles (each thaw event lasted for 10 min), an
      increasing number of changes in peak intensity in RINs were observed. After 5
      freeze/thaw cycles, RNA integrity decreased to approximately 35%. After 3
      freeze/thaw cycles, the RNA could still be used for RT-PCR analysis of EML4-ALK
      fusion gene mutations; whereas those subjected to 5 freeze/thaw cycles could not.
      Limited (<3) freeze/thaw cycles did not adversely affect the quality of RNA
      extracted from tumor tissues and subsequent RT-PCR analysis. Our data could be
      utilized in the establishment of a standardized procedure for tissue biospecimen
      collection and storage.

PMID- 28573390
TI  - Comments on Morelli et al.: Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) in
      patients with acute respiratory failure.

PMID- 28573391
TI  - Driving airway pressure: should we use a static measure to describe a dynamic
      phenomenon?

PMID- 28573388
TI  - Medical Management of the Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patient.
AB  - Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is a major contributor to long-term
      disability and a leading cause of death worldwide. Medical management of the sTBI
      patient, beginning with prehospital triage, is aimed at preventing secondary
      brain injury. This review discusses prehospital and emergency department
      management of sTBI, as well as aspects of TBI management in the intensive care
      unit where advances have been made in the past decade. Areas of emphasis include
      intracranial pressure management, neuromonitoring, management of paroxysmal
      sympathetic hyperactivity, neuroprotective strategies, prognostication, and
      communication with families about goals of care. Where appropriate, differences
      between the third and fourth editions of the Brain Trauma Foundation guidelines
      for the management of severe traumatic brain injury are highlighted.

PMID- 28573392
TI  - Remembering Vivian Weil.

PMID- 28573395
TI  - A comparative study reveals the higher resolution of RAPD over ARDRA for
      analyzing diversity of Nostoc strains.
AB  - Nostoc is a diverse genus of filamentous cyanobacteria with tremendous potential
      for agricultural and industrial applications. Morphometric methods and routine
      16S rDNA-based identification undermines the genetic diversity and impedes strain
      level differentiation. A comparative study to deduce the discriminatory power of
      random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction
      analysis (ARDRA) for analyzing the genetic diversity of 20 Nostoc strains of
      diverse geographical origin was carried out. The RAPD primer used in the study
      generated 100% polymorphic profile. HIP TG primer produced the highest number of
      bands and fragments. Five primers, viz. OPA 08, OPA 11, HIP GC, OPAH 02 and OPF
      05 could produce unique bands for 11 strains. Cluster analysis using the RAPD
      profile showed 12.5-25% similarity among the strains. Following in silico
      restriction analysis, two restriction enzymes, viz. HaeIII and HinfI were
      selected for ARDRA. However, clustering based on the restriction pattern showed
      22.5-100% similarity. Results of the present study clearly indicate higher
      resolution of RAPD which can be reliably used for strain-level differentiation of
      Nostoc strains.

PMID- 28573393
TI  - Genetic risk scores in the prediction of plasma glucose, impaired insulin
      secretion, insulin resistance and incident type 2 diabetes in the METSIM study.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Many SNPs have been associated with glycaemic traits and type 2
      diabetes, but their joint effects on glycaemic traits and the underlying
      mechanisms leading to hyperglycaemia over time are largely unknown. We aimed to
      investigate the association of six genetic risk scores (GRSs) with changes in
      plasma glucose, insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion and incident type 2
      diabetes in the prospective METabolic Syndrome In Men (METSIM) study. METHODS: We
      generated weighted GRSs for fasting plasma glucose ([FPG] GRSFPG, 35 SNPs), 2 h
      plasma glucose ([2hPG] GRS2hPG, 9 SNPs), insulin secretion (GRSIS, 17 SNPs),
      insulin resistance (GRSIR, 9 SNPs) and BMI (GRSBMI, 95 SNPs) and a non-weighted
      GRS for type 2 diabetes (GRST2D, 76 SNPs) in up to 8749 non-diabetic Finnish men.
      Linear regression was used to test associations of the GRSs with changes in
      glycaemic traits over time. RESULTS: GRST2D, GRSFPG and GRSIS were associated
      with an increase in FPG, GRST2D with an increase in glucose AUC and a decrease in
      insulin secretion, and GRS2hPG with an increase in 2hPG during the follow-up (p <
      0.0017 for all models). GRST2D, GRSFPG and GRSIS were associated with incident
      type 2 diabetes (p < 0.008 for all models). GRSBMI and GRSIR were not
      significantly associated with any changes in glycaemic traits.
      CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In the METSIM follow-up study, GRST2D, GRSFPG and
      GRSIS were associated with the worsening of FPG and an increase in incident type
      2 diabetes. GRST2D was additionally associated with a decrease in insulin
      secretion, and GRS2hPG with an increase in 2hPG.

PMID- 28573394
TI  - Cancer risk among insulin users: comparing analogues with human insulin in the
      CARING five-country cohort study.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between
      use of certain insulins and risk for cancer, when addressing the limitations and
      biases involved in previous studies. METHODS: National Health Registries from
      Denmark (1996-2010), Finland (1996-2011), Norway (2005-2010) and Sweden (2007
      2012) and the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink database (1987-2013) were
      used to conduct a cohort study on new insulin users (N = 327,112). By using a
      common data model and semi-aggregate approach, we pooled individual-level records
      from five cohorts and applied Poisson regression models. For each of ten cancer
      sites studied, we estimated the rate ratios (RRs) by duration (<=0.5, 0.5-1, 1-2,
      2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6 and >6 years) of cumulative exposure to insulin glargine or
      insulin detemir relative to that of human insulin. RESULTS: A total of 21,390
      cancer cases occurred during a mean follow-up of 4.6 years. No trend with
      cumulative treatment time for insulin glargine relative to human insulin was
      observed in risk for any of the ten studied cancer types. Of the 136 associations
      tested in the main analysis, only a few increased and decreased risks were found:
      among women, a higher risk was observed for colorectal (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.06,
      2.25) and endometrial cancer (RR 1.78, 95% CI 1.07, 2.94) for <=0.5 years of
      treatment and for malignant melanoma for 2-3 years (RR 1.92, 95% CI 1.02, 3.61)
      and 4-5 years (RR 3.55, 95% CI 1.68, 7.47]); among men, a lower risk was observed
      for pancreatic cancer for 2-3 years (RR 0.34, 95% CI 0.17, 0.66) and for liver
      cancer for 3-4 years (RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.14, 0.94) and >6 years (RR 0.22, 95% CI
      0.05, 0.92). Comparisons of insulin detemir with human insulin also showed no
      consistent differences. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The present multi-country
      study found no evidence of consistent differences in risk for ten cancers for
      insulin glargine or insulin detemir use compared with human insulin, at follow-up
      exceeding 5 years.

PMID- 28573396
TI  - Toxicity assessment of magnetosomes in different models.
AB  - Magnetosomes are nanosized iron oxide particles surrounded by lipid membrane
      synthesized by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB). Magnetosomes have been exploited for
      a broad range of biomedical and biotechnological applications. Due to their
      enormous potential in the biomedical field, its safety assessment is necessary.
      Detailed research on the toxicity of the magnetosomes was not studied so far.
      This study focuses on the toxicity assessment of magnetosomes in various models
      such as Human RBC's, WBC's, mouse macrophage cell line (J774), Onion root tip and
      fish (Oreochromis mossambicus). The toxicity in RBC models revealed that the
      RBC's are unaltered up to a concentration of 150 ug/ml, and its morphology was
      not affected. The genotoxicity studies on WBC's showed that there were no
      detectable chromosomal aberrations up to a concentration of 100 ug/ml. Similarly,
      there were no detectable morphological changes observed on the magnetosome
      treated J774 cells, and the viability of the cells was above 90% at all the
      tested concentrations. Furthermore, the magnetosomes are not toxic to the fish
      (O. mossambicus), as no mortality or behavioural changes were observed in the
      magnetosome-treated groups. Histopathological analysis of the same reveals no
      damage in the muscle and gill sections. Overall, the results suggest that the
      magnetosomes are safe at lower concentration and does not pose any potential risk
      to the ecosystem.

PMID- 28573397
TI  - Statistical investigation of extraction parameters of keratin from chicken
      feather using Design-Expert.
AB  - Uncontrolled disposal of feathers from the poultry industry and slaughterhouses
      is environmentally undesirable. The feathers are composed of approximately 90% of
      keratin which is an important ingredient of cosmetics, shampoos and hair
      treatment creams. This study aimed to determine the optimum conditions for the
      extraction of keratin from chicken feathers. The extraction of keratin using
      various reducing agents was studied using statistical experimental design. In the
      extraction process, pH, temperature, ratio of reducing agents, mass of chicken
      feathers and incubation time were analyzed. The keratin in the total extracted
      protein was purified by size exclusion chromatography, sodium dodecyl sulfate
      polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and further characterized using
      amino acids profile analysis. The surface morphology and chemical composition
      were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Sodium sulfide (Na2S) yielded 84.5% of keratin as
      compared to sodium hydroxide (43.8), urea mixture (50.6), mixture of sodium
      dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium bisulfite (18.3) and a mixture of Na2S and
      sodium hydroxide (41.5%) under optimized conditions. The optimum yield of keratin
      was achieved at 80.9  degrees C in 9.5 h with 0.05 M sodium sulfide using
      response surface methodology (RSM). Among the five parameters screened, pH was
      found not to be significant because the p value was greater than 0.05.

PMID- 28573398
TI  - High-fidelity PCR enzyme with DNA-binding domain facilitates de novo gene
      synthesis.
AB  - Nowadays enzymatic synthesis of genes is the most powerful tool for fast
      resolution of the various tasks in the field of basic and applied biological
      research. PCR-based gene assembly from overlapping oligonucleotides has become a
      widely used strategy. However, all the methods described in the literature are
      not perfect and need an extra processing step. In this study we are verifying
      Phusion high-fidelity polymerase as a tool to reduce nucleotide mismatches in de
      novo gene synthesis, thus facilitating subsequent cloning. To test the efficiency
      of the polymerase, we selected Fel d 4 gene, which is a 581 bp DNA sequence
      encoding the lipocalin allergen protein, one of the major cat allergens. The
      approach described here, therefore, would be useful in DNA sequences creation.

PMID- 28573399
TI  - Development of PR genes panel for screening aphid-tolerant cultivars in Brassica
      juncea.
AB  - The exorbitant yield loss incurred by Indian farmers every year (10-90%) in
      rapeseed-mustard (Brassica juncea) is chiefly attributed to the progressive
      infestation of mustard fields by Lipaphis erysimi (Kalt.), a major insect pest
      belonging to the family of Homoptera. Currently there are no successful tolerant
      cultivars developed by conventional means in Brassica juncea with systemic plant
      responses in the form of direct or indirect defenses against aphid attack. Lack
      of specific methods for screening large numbers of genotypes required in breeding
      for selection of tolerant cultivars in mustard is one of the main causes of slow
      progress in developing resistant varieties of Brassica juncea. Traditional
      phenotype-based breeding has to be augmented with recent molecular approaches for
      potential genotype selection and cultivar development in Brassica juncea. In
      current study a pathogen-responsive gene panel was developed which could be used
      for expression-assisted breeding program in mustard for selection of tolerant
      types against aphid infestation, minimizing the huge crop losses suffered by
      farmers every year.

PMID- 28573400
TI  - Species specific PCR based detection of Escherichia coli from Indian foods.
AB  - Escherichia coli is a faecal indicator and certain virotypes are known as
      pathogens. Therefore, detection and prevention of E. coli in food is very
      important. The existing rapid methods concentrate on detecting the pathogenic E.
      coli instead of total E. coli population. Present study evaluates the use of two
      molecular markers (uidA and flanking region of uspA) specific for the E. coli in
      combination with microbiological method for confirmation. Majority of the
      isolates (77%) were positive for both the genes tested. However, 22% of the E.
      coli isolates were positive for any one of the two primer sets [uidA (9%) and
      flanking region of uspA (13%)]. High levels of E. coli incidences (92% samples)
      were observed in beef while low occurrence (19% samples) was found in sprouts.
      Low percentage (7.3%) of E. coli isolates was positive for virulence genes tested
      (lt, ipaH, aggR, eaeA, stx1 and stx2). Two isolates were positive for stx genes.
      However, none of the isolates including stx positive isolates were E. coli
      0157:H7. Maximum number of the E. coli (44%) isolates was characterized under
      phylogenetic group B2. This phylogenetic group comprises of extra intestinal and
      virulent E. coli strains.

PMID- 28573401
TI  - Effects of Supervised vs. Unsupervised Training Programs on Balance and Muscle
      Strength in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Balance and resistance training can improve healthy older adults'
      balance and muscle strength. Delivering such exercise programs at home without
      supervision may facilitate participation for older adults because they do not
      have to leave their homes. To date, no systematic literature analysis has been
      conducted to determine if supervision affects the effectiveness of these programs
      to improve healthy older adults' balance and muscle strength/power. OBJECTIVES:
      The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to quantify the
      effectiveness of supervised vs. unsupervised balance and/or resistance training
      programs on measures of balance and muscle strength/power in healthy older
      adults. In addition, the impact of supervision on training-induced adaptive
      processes was evaluated in the form of dose-response relationships by analyzing
      randomized controlled trials that compared supervised with unsupervised trials.
      DATA SOURCES: A computerized systematic literature search was performed in the
      electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, and SportDiscus to detect articles
      examining the role of supervision in balance and/or resistance training in older
      adults. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: The initially identified 6041 articles were
      systematically screened. Studies were included if they examined balance and/or
      resistance training in adults aged >=65 years with no relevant diseases and
      registered at least one behavioral balance (e.g., time during single leg stance)
      and/or muscle strength/power outcome (e.g., time for 5-Times-Chair-Rise-Test).
      Finally, 11 studies were eligible for inclusion in this meta-analysis. STUDY
      APPRAISAL: Weighted mean standardized mean differences between subjects (SMDbs)
      of supervised vs. unsupervised balance/resistance training studies were
      calculated. The included studies were coded for the following variables: number
      of participants, sex, age, number and type of interventions, type of
      balance/strength tests, and change (%) from pre- to post-intervention values.
      Additionally, we coded training according to the following modalities: period,
      frequency, volume, modalities of supervision (i.e., number of
      supervised/unsupervised sessions within the supervised or unsupervised training
      groups, respectively). Heterogeneity was computed using I 2 and chi 2 statistics.
      The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated using the
      Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. RESULTS: Our analyses revealed that in
      older adults, supervised balance/resistance training was superior compared with
      unsupervised balance/resistance training in improving measures of static steady
      state balance (mean SMDbs = 0.28, p = 0.39), dynamic steady-state balance (mean
      SMDbs = 0.35, p = 0.02), proactive balance (mean SMDbs = 0.24, p = 0.05), balance
      test batteries (mean SMDbs = 0.53, p = 0.02), and measures of muscle
      strength/power (mean SMDbs = 0.51, p = 0.04). Regarding the examined dose
      response relationships, our analyses showed that a number of 10-29 additional
      supervised sessions in the supervised training groups compared with the
      unsupervised training groups resulted in the largest effects for static steady
      state balance (mean SMDbs = 0.35), dynamic steady-state balance (mean SMDbs =
      0.37), and muscle strength/power (mean SMDbs = 1.12). Further, >=30 additional
      supervised sessions in the supervised training groups were needed to produce the
      largest effects on proactive balance (mean SMDbs = 0.30) and balance test
      batteries (mean SMDbs = 0.77). Effects in favor of supervised programs were
      larger for studies that did not include any supervised sessions in their
      unsupervised programs (mean SMDbs: 0.28-1.24) compared with studies that
      implemented a few supervised sessions in their unsupervised programs (e.g., three
      supervised sessions throughout the entire intervention program; SMDbs: -0.06 to
      0.41). LIMITATIONS: The present findings have to be interpreted with caution
      because of the low number of eligible studies and the moderate methodological
      quality of the included studies, which is indicated by a median Physiotherapy
      Evidence Database scale score of 5. Furthermore, we indirectly compared dose
      response relationships across studies and not from single controlled studies.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses suggest that supervised balance and/or resistance
      training improved measures of balance and muscle strength/power to a greater
      extent than unsupervised programs in older adults. Owing to the small number of
      available studies, we were unable to establish a clear dose-response relationship
      with regard to the impact of supervision. However, the positive effects of
      supervised training are particularly prominent when compared with completely
      unsupervised training programs. It is therefore recommended to include supervised
      sessions (i.e., two out of three sessions/week) in balance/resistance training
      programs to effectively improve balance and muscle strength/power in older
      adults.

PMID- 28573402
TI  - The Psychological Effects of Strength Exercises in People who are Overweight or
      Obese: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Overweightness and obesity represent a high burden on well-being and
      society. Strength training has positive effects on body composition and metabolic
      health for people who are overweight or obese. The evidence for psychological
      effects of strength exercises is unclear. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      assess the psychological effects of strength exercises for people who are
      overweight or obese. METHODS: Relevant literature was identified by use of the
      PubMed and PsycINFO databases. For each study, effect sizes and corresponding
      variance estimates were extracted or calculated for the main effects of strength
      exercises on psychological outcomes. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were included.
      There was almost no overlap among the various measures of psychological
      constructs. The constructs were ordered into eight broad categories. Meta
      analytical techniques revealed substantial heterogeneity in effect sizes, and
      combined with the low number of effect size estimates for each outcome measure,
      this precluded meta-analysis. Organization of the data showed that the evidence
      base so far does not show convincing effects of strength training on
      psychological outcome measures. Some weak effects emerged on self-efficacy, self
      esteem, inhibition, and psychological disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression).
      No additional or comparable effects to other interventions were found for mood,
      outcome expectations, quality of life, and stress. DISCUSSION: The main finding
      of this review is that despite a strong theoretical basis for expecting positive
      effects of strength training on psychological outcomes, the literature shows a
      large gap in this area. The existing research does not show a clear picture: some
      positive results might exist, but there is a strong need to accumulate more
      evidence before drawing conclusions.

PMID- 28573403
TI  - A Kinetic Model Describing Injury-Burden in Team Sports.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Injuries in team sports are normally characterised by the incidence,
      severity, and location and type of injuries sustained: these measures, however,
      do not provide an insight into the variable injury-burden experienced during a
      season. Injury burden varies according to the team's match and training loads,
      the rate at which injuries are sustained and the time taken for these injuries to
      resolve. At the present time, this time-based variation of injury burden has not
      been modelled. OBJECTIVES: To develop a kinetic model describing the time-based
      injury burden experienced by teams in elite team sports and to demonstrate the
      model's utility. METHODS: Rates of injury were quantified using a large eight
      season database of rugby injuries (5253) and exposure (60,085 player-match-hours)
      in English professional rugby. Rates of recovery from injury were quantified
      using time-to-recovery analysis of the injuries. RESULTS: The kinetic model
      proposed for predicting a team's time-based injury burden is based on a composite
      rate equation developed from the incidence of injury, a first-order rate of
      recovery from injury and the team's playing load. The utility of the model was
      demonstrated by examining common scenarios encountered in elite rugby.
      CONCLUSIONS: The kinetic model developed describes and predicts the variable
      injury-burden arising from match play during a season of rugby union based on the
      incidence of match injuries, the rate of recovery from injury and the playing
      load. The model is equally applicable to other team sports and other scenarios.

PMID- 28573404
TI  - Minors and euthanasia: a systematic review of argument-based ethics literature.
AB  - : Euthanasia was first legalised in the Netherlands in 2002, followed by similar
      legislation in Belgium the same year. Since the beginning, however, only the
      Netherlands included the possibility for minors older than 12 years to request
      euthanasia. In 2014, the Belgian Act legalising euthanasia was amended to include
      requests by minors who possess the capacity of discernment. This amendment
      sparked great debate, and raised difficult ethical questions about when and how a
      minor can be deemed competent. We conducted a systematic review of argument-based
      literature on euthanasia in minors. The search process followed PRISMA
      guidelines. Thirteen publications were included. The four-principle approach of
      medical ethics was used to organise the ethical arguments underlying this debate.
      The justification for allowing euthanasia in minors is buttressed mostly by the
      principles of beneficence and respect for autonomy. Somewhat paradoxically, both
      principles are also used in the literature to argue against the extension of
      legislation to minors. Opponents of euthanasia generally rely on the principle of
      non-maleficence. CONCLUSION: The present analysis reveals that the debate
      surrounding euthanasia in minors is at an early stage. In order to allow a more
      in-depth ethical discussion, we suggest enriching the four-principle approach by
      including a care-ethics approach. What is Known: * The Netherlands and Belgium
      are the only two countries in the world with euthanasia legislation making it
      possible for minors to receive euthanasia. * This legislation provoked great
      debate globally, with ethical arguments for and against this legislation. What is
      New: * A systematic description of the ethical concepts and arguments grounding
      the debate on euthanasia in minors, as reported in the argument-based ethics
      literature. * A need has been identified to enrich the debate with a care-ethics
      approach to avoid oversimplifying the ethical decision-making process.

PMID- 28573405
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of clinical dehydration scales in children.
AB  - : The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the Clinical
      Dehydration Scale (CDS), the World Health Organization (WHO) scale, and the
      Gorelick scale for dehydration assessment in children. A prospective,
      observational study was carried out between October 2014 and December 2016.
      Eligible participants were children aged 1 month to 5 years with acute diarrhea.
      After hospital admission, each patient's weight was recorded and the degree of
      dehydration based on three scales was assessed. The reference standard was the
      percentage weight change between the discharge and admission weights. The main
      outcomes were the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR), and
      negative LR. Of 128 children enrolled in the study, complete data were available
      from 118 patients for analysis. Most of children presented with no or mild
      dehydration. Only the CDS showed limited value in confirming a diagnosis of
      dehydration >=6% (positive LR 3.9, 95% CI 1.1 to 9.1), with no value in ruling it
      out (negative LR 0.6, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.99). CONCLUSION: In our cohort, the CDS was
      of limited diagnostic value in ruling in severe dehydration in children with
      acute gastroenteritis. The WHO and Gorelick scales were not helpful in the
      assessment of dehydration. What is Known : * Treatment of acute gastroenteritis
      (AGE) is based on assessing and correcting the degree of dehydration. * Several
      scales combining various signs and symptoms have been developed, including the
      Clinical Dehydration Scale (CDS), and the World Health Organization (WHO) scale,
      and the Gorelick scale. None of these scales is internationally accepted for best
      accuracy in diagnosing dehydration in children. What is New: * The CDS was of
      limited diagnostic value in ruling in severe dehydration in children with AGE. *
      The WHO and Gorelick scales were not helpful in the assessment of dehydration.

PMID- 28573406
TI  - Impact of surgery for endometriomas on pregnancy outcomes following in vitro
      fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Who should be the preferred
      laparoscopists: gynecologists or reproductive surgeons?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether laparoscopic excision of ovarian endometriomas
      pretreated with operation by gynecologists or reproductive surgeons exerts
      different effects on in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection
      results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective case control study. Relevant
      information was collected from the electronic records of women who underwent
      IVF/ICSI from 01/01/2013 to 30/12/2015 in our unit. The study group consisted of
      35 women who previously had laparoscopic endometrioma excision by reproductive
      surgeons in our unit; the control group included 36 patients who underwent
      surgery for endometriomas by gynecologists in our hospital. RESULT(S): There were
      slightly higher numbers of AFC and higher pregnancy rate in the study group,
      although differences did not reach statistical significance. For patients over 35
      years old, there were more oocyte retrieved, mature oocytes and two pronucei
      (2PN) in the study group than the control group although observed differences did
      not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION(S): Electrocautery is more
      deleterious on ovarian reserve than hemostatic suture. In procedure of patients
      who wish to conceive, surgeons should use hemostatic suturing technique
      preferentially.

PMID- 28573407
TI  - Presentation and management of vesicovaginal fistulae after delivery at a German
      women's hospital.
AB  - Vesicovaginal fistulae are rarely seen after childbirth in developed countries.
      This article deals with the causes, presentation, and management of obstetric
      vesicovaginal fistulae in patients treated at a German women's hospital.

PMID- 28573408
TI  - Practical Recommendations for Transitioning Patients with Type 2 Diabetes from
      Hospital to Home.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to provide practical evidence
      based recommendations for transitioning hospitalized patients with type 2
      diabetes (T2DM) to home. RECENT FINDINGS: Hospitalized patients who have newly
      diagnosed or poorly controlled T2DM require initiation or intensification of
      their outpatient diabetes regimen. Potential barriers to medication access and
      continuity of care should be identified early in the hospitalization. Throughout
      hospitalization, patients should receive diabetes education focused on basic
      survival skills and tailored to learning needs. Patients should leave the
      hospital with personalized discharge instructions that include a list of all
      medications and follow-up appointments with both the outpatient diabetes provider
      and a diabetes educator whenever possible. An approach to transitioning patients
      with T2DM from hospital to home that focuses on optimizing the patient's
      discharge diabetes regimen, anticipating patients' needs during the immediate
      post-discharge period, providing survival skills education, and ensuring
      continuation of diabetes care and education following hospital discharge has the
      potential to improve glycemic control and reduce emergency department visits and
      hospital readmissions.

PMID- 28573409
TI  - From iPSC towards cardiac tissue-a road under construction.
AB  - The possibility to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) opens the way
      to generate virtually all cell types of our human body. In combination with
      modern gene editing techniques like CRISPR/CAS, a new set of powerful tools
      becomes available for life science. Scientific fields like genotype and cell type
      specific pharmacology, disease modeling, stem cell biology, and developmental
      biology have been dramatically fostered and their faces have been changed.
      However, as golden as the age of iPSC-derived cells and their manipulation has
      started, the shine begins to tarnish. Researchers face more and more practical
      problems intrinsic to the system. These problems are related to the specific
      culturing conditions which are not yet sufficient to mimic the natural
      environment of native stem cells differentiating towards adult cells. However,
      researchers work hard to uncover these factors. Here, we review a common standard
      approach to generate iPSCs and transduce these to iPSC cardiomyocytes. Further,
      we review recent achievements and discuss their current limitations and future
      perspectives. We are on track, but the road is still under construction.

PMID- 28573412
TI  - [Topical corticosteroids for treating phimosis in boys].

PMID- 28573410
TI  - Depressed polymorphonuclear cell functions in periparturient cows that develop
      postpartum reproductive diseases.
AB  - The study was planned to see if there is any important and significant changes in
      the PMN function in cows suffering from postpartum reproductive diseases (PRD).
      Blood sampling was done from 41 pregnant cows on 15 days prepartum (-15d),
      calving day (0d), 15 days (15d) and 30 days (30d) postpartum and thorough
      gynaecological examination was performed on 0d, 15d, 30d and 45d for diagnosis of
      PRD like retained placenta (RP), clinical metritis (CM), clinical endometritis
      (CE) and delayed involution of uterus (DIU). The heparinised blood was used for
      isolation of PMN leukocytes for estimation of superoxide (SO), hydrogen peroxide
      (H2O2) and enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in each group of cows. The SO
      production (DeltaOD) was greater for normal (0.19 +/- 0.05) than cows suffering
      from RP (-0.12 +/- 0.09), CM (-0.15 +/- 0.13) and CE (-0.07 +/- 0.05) at -15d.
      The mean value was greater for normal cows (0.12) than the cows with PRD (0.05 to
      0.9) at 30d. The H2O2 production was greater for normal than cows with PRD at all
      sampling days and significantly greater than cows with RP and CE at 15d (p <
      0.01) and 30d (P < 0.05). The MPO activity (MUmol/1 * 107) was greater for normal
      (18.77 +/- 1.27) than for RP (12.52 +/- 2.57) and CM (11.31 +/- 3.30) cows on 0d.
      The depressed capability of the PMN from the cows with PRD to produce SO, H2O2
      and MPO during the periparturient period indicated their association with the
      development of RP, CM and CE.

PMID- 28573414
TI  - Primary cutaneous nocardiosis: a pitfall in the diagnosis of skin infection.

PMID- 28573413
TI  - [Molecular biomarkers and prognostic factors for prostate cancer].
AB  - In the era of personalized medicine and precision oncology, innovative genetic
      biomarkers are of emerging interest to close the diagnostic and prognostic gap
      that is left by current clinicopathologic risk classifiers. The current review
      article summarizes evidence regarding prognostic and predictive genetic
      biomarkers that are currently in widespread clinical use at initial diagnosis as
      well as following definitive treatment of prostate cancer. We give a brief
      summary about basic principles of biomarker research studies and present current
      data for the Progensa PC3 test, TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion, ConfirmMDx, Prolaris
      gene panel, OncotypeDX Genomic Prostate score, and Decipher classifier. Evidence
      regarding those genetic biomarkers has heavily increased recently. However, there
      is still a lack of large, multicentric and prospective clinical validation
      studies. Furthermore, comparative studies that investigate the prognostic value
      of various genetic biomarkers are needed.

PMID- 28573415
TI  - Published data do not support the notion that Borrelia valaisiana is human
      pathogenic.

PMID- 28573416
TI  - The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism: possible
      implications for gerontological studies.
AB  - Experimental gerontology is based on the fundamental assumption that the aging
      process has a universal character and that the mechanisms of aging are well
      conserved among living things. The consequence of this assumption is the use of
      various organisms, including unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as
      models in gerontology, and direct extrapolation of the conclusions drawn from the
      studies carried on these organisms to human beings. However, numerous arguments
      suggest that aging is not universal and its mechanisms are not conserved in a
      wide range of species. Instead, senescence can be treated as a side effect of the
      evolution of specific features for systematic group, unrelated to the passage of
      time. Hence, depending on the properties of the group, the senescence and
      proximal causes of death could have a diverse nature. We postulate that the
      selection of a model organism to explain the mechanism of human aging and human
      longevity should be preceded by the analysis of its potential to extrapolate the
      results to a wide group of organisms. Considering that gerontology is a human
      oriented discipline and that aging involves complex, systemic changes affecting
      the entire organism, the object of experimental studies should be animals which
      are closest relatives of human beings in evolutionary terms, rather than lower
      organisms, which do not have sufficient complexity in terms of tissues and organ
      structures.

PMID- 28573418
TI  - Rising atmospheric CO2 concentration may imply higher risk of Fusarium mycotoxin
      contamination of wheat grains.
AB  - Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration not only has a direct impact on plants
      but also affects plant-pathogen interactions. Due to economic and health-related
      problems, special concern was given thus in the present work to the effect of
      elevated CO2 (750 MUmol mol-1) level on the Fusarium culmorum infection and
      mycotoxin contamination of wheat. Despite the fact that disease severity was
      found to be not or little affected by elevated CO2 in most varieties, as the
      spread of Fusarium increased only in one variety, spike grain number and/or grain
      weight decreased significantly at elevated CO2 in all the varieties, indicating
      that Fusarium infection generally had a more dramatic impact on the grain yield
      at elevated CO2 than at the ambient level. Likewise, grain deoxynivalenol (DON)
      content was usually considerably higher at elevated CO2 than at the ambient level
      in the single-floret inoculation treatment, suggesting that the toxin content is
      not in direct relation to the level of Fusarium infection. In the whole-spike
      inoculation, DON production did not change, decreased or increased depending on
      the variety * experiment interaction. Cooler (18  degrees C) conditions delayed
      rachis penetration while 20  degrees C maximum temperature caused striking
      increases in the mycotoxin contents, resulting in extremely high DON values and
      also in a dramatic triggering of the grain zearalenone contamination at elevated
      CO2. The results indicate that future environmental conditions, such as rising
      CO2 levels, may increase the threat of grain mycotoxin contamination.

PMID- 28573417
TI  - Convergent adaptation of cellular machineries in the evolution of large body
      masses and long life spans.
AB  - In evolutionary terms, life on the planet has taken the form of independently
      living cells for the majority of time. In comparison, the mammalian radiation is
      a relatively recent event. The common mammalian ancestor was probably small and
      short-lived. The "recent" acquisition of an extended longevity and large body
      mass of some species of mammals present on the earth today suggests the
      possibility that similar cellular mechanisms have been influenced by the forces
      of natural selection to create a convergent evolution of longevity. Many cellular
      mechanisms are potentially relevant for extending longevity; in this assay, we
      review the literature focusing primarily on two cellular features: (1) the
      capacity for extensive cellular proliferation of differentiated cells, while
      maintaining genome stability; and (2) the capacity to detect DNA damage. We have
      observed that longevity and body mass are both positively linked to these
      cellular mechanisms and then used statistical tools to evaluate their relative
      importance. Our analysis suggest that the capacity for extensive cellular
      proliferation while maintaining sufficient genome stability, correlates to
      species body mass while the capacity to correctly identify the presence of DNA
      damage seems more an attribute of long-lived species. Finally, our data are in
      support of the idea that a slower development, allowing for better DNA damage
      detection and handling, should associate with longer life span.

PMID- 28573419
TI  - Quantifying Cartilage Biomechanical Properties Using a Linearized Frequency
      Domain Method.
AB  - Articular cartilage function relies on its unique mechanical behavior. Cartilage
      mechanics have been described by several analytic models, whose parameters are
      usually estimated by fitting their constitutive equations to stress-relaxation
      data. This procedure can be long and is prone to experimental and fitting errors.
      Tauhis study describes a novel methodology for estimating the biomechanical
      properties of cartilage samples based on their linearized frequency response,
      derived by applying a series of small-amplitude harmonic displacements
      superimposed to a bias strain. The proposed methodology, denoted as linearized
      frequency-domain method (LFM), was demonstrated by quantifying the effects of
      collagenase and hyaluronidase on cartilage, where it provided robust cartilage
      parameter estimates that overall agreed well with estimates obtained by stress
      relaxation analysis. LFM was also applied to unveil the strain-dependent nature
      of porcine cartilage biomechanical parameters. Results showed that increasing the
      bias strain from 5% to 15% caused a significant decrease in cartilage
      permeability but did not have significant effect on the compression modulus and
      the Poisson's ratio. Apart from cartilage, LFM can potentially quantify the
      strain-dependent nature of tissues and biomaterials, thereby enhance tissue-level
      understanding on organ physiology and pathology, lead to better computational
      tissue models, and guide tissue engineering research.

PMID- 28573420
TI  - Identifying independent risk factors for graft loss after primary liver
      transplantation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study is the identification of independent risk factors
      for re-transplantation after primary liver transplantation beyond the occurrence
      of hepatic artery thrombosis. METHODS: Eight hundred thirty-four adult patients
      undergoing primary liver transplantation were analyzed. A propensity score was
      developed using multivariable binary logistic regression with hepatic artery
      thrombosis as the dependent variable. The logit link function of the propensity
      score was included into multivariable Cox regression analysis for graft survival
      to adjust the study population. RESULTS: Graft loss was observed in 134 patients
      (16.1%). Independent significant risk factors for graft loss were recipient
      platelet count (p = 0.040; HR: 1.002; 95%-CI: 1.000-1.003), preoperative portal
      vein thrombosis (p = 0.032; HR: 1.797; 95%-CI: 1.054-2.925), donor age (p <
      0.001; HR: 1.026; 95%-CI: 1.012-1.040), percentage of macrovesicular steatosis of
      the graft (p = 0.011; HR: 1.037; 95%-CI: 1.009-1.061), early complications
      leading to revision surgery (p < 0.001; HR: 2.734; 95%-CI: 1.897-3.956), duration
      of the transplant procedure (p < 0.001; HR: 1.005; 95%-CI: 1.003-1.007) as well
      as transplantation of a split liver graft (p = 0.003; HR: 2.637; 95%-CI: 1.420
      4.728). The logit of the propensity score did not reach statistical significance
      in the final multivariable Cox regression model (p = 0.111) indicating good
      adjustment for the occurrence of hepatic artery thrombosis. CONCLUSION: Liver
      transplant programs might benefit from regular donor organ biopsies to assess the
      amount of macrovesicular steatosis. An elevated recipient platelet count can
      promote reperfusion injury leading to graft loss. A liver graft from an elderly
      donor should not be split or be transplanted in a recipient with detected portal
      vein thrombosis.

PMID- 28573421
TI  - Marijuana Liberalization, Research, and Policy: Contributions to Current
      Knowledge and Practice.

PMID- 28573423
TI  - First report of spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini (Acari, Argasidae), in Sweden.
AB  - A dog that had travelled to Sweden was inspected by a veterinarian. In one ear
      canal a tick was found. It was later identified as a spinose ear tick, Otobius
      megnini. In this case report we also review the previously known reports of O.
      megnini in Europe and the recent introduction and spread in Turkey.

PMID- 28573422
TI  - How to evaluate the potential occurrence of intraguild predation.
AB  - Intraguild predation is the combination of exploitative competition and predation
      among potential competitors that use similar resources. It has the potential to
      shape population dynamics and community structure. Although there is much
      empirical evidence for the occurrence of intraguild predation in natural
      ecosystems, the study of its effects is mainly limited to short-term microcosm
      experiments. There is, therefore, certain skepticism about its actual
      significance in nature. A relevant concern is that there is no consensus
      regarding criteria to evaluate the possible occurrence of intraguild predation in
      short-term experiments, and methodological differences may therefore underlie
      apparent inconsistencies among studies. Our purpose here was to evaluate existing
      criteria to offer guidance for the design of experiments to determine whether two
      species may potentially engage in intraguild predation. The criteria are based on
      the condition that intraguild predators need to experience immediate energetic
      gains when feeding on the intraguild prey. Thus, a relevant experimental design
      must quantify predation but also fitness benefits of feeding on the other
      species, i.e. increases in reproduction, somatic growth, or survival.

PMID- 28573424
TI  - Vitamin D inhibits the Staphylococcal enterotoxin B-induced expression of tumor
      necrosis factor in microglial cells.
AB  - Microglial cells play a crucial role in inflammatory responses in neural tissue.
      Vitamin D (VitD3) deficiency is associated with the pathogenesis of inflammation.
      Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is a superantigen and can initiate
      inflammation. This study tests a hypothesis that VitD3 deficiency upregulates the
      expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in microglial cells. Microglial cells
      were isolated from the mouse brain. The microglial cells were cultured in the
      presence or absence of VitD3 or/and SEB. The expression of TNF in the microglial
      cells was assessed by RT-qPCR and Western blotting. We observed that SEB
      increased the expression of TNF in microglial cells. The presence of calcitriol
      (an active form of VitD3) inhibited the SEB-induced TNF production by microglial
      cells in a dose-dependent manner. Exposure to SEB increased the binding of
      vitamin D receptor (VDR) to the TNF promoter, which was inhibited by the presence
      of calcitriol with the mechanism being the formation of a complex of VDR and
      LITAF (a transcription factor of TNF) in microglial cells; the complex prevented
      the binding of LITAF to the promoter of the TNF gene. Exposure to calcitriol also
      increased the expression of IL-10 in microglial cells; the inhibition of SEB
      induced TNF expression was partially due to the IL-10 induced by calcitriol
      (Heine G, Niesner U, Chang HD, teinmeyer A, Zugel U, Zuberbier T, et al. 1,25
      dihydroxyvitamin D(3) promotes IL-10 production in human B cells. Eur J Immunol.
      2008;38(8):2210-8). Hormonal vitamin D [calcitriol] can inhibit the SEB-induced
      TNF expression in microglial cells.

PMID- 28573426
TI  - Cultural Adaptations: Conceptual, Ethical, Contextual, and Methodological Issues
      for Working with Ethnocultural and Majority-World Populations.
AB  - Mayor advancements have been achieved in research on the cultural adaptation of
      prevention and treatment interventions that are conducted with diverse
      ethnocultural groups. This commentary addresses conceptual, ethical, contextual,
      and methodological issues related to cultural adaptations. The articles in this
      special issue represent a major contribution to the study of cultural adaptations
      in prevention science. We frame our analysis of fidelity to core intervention
      components using a conceptual approach that examines (a) the propositional model
      (theory of change), (b) the procedural model (theory of action, methods), and (c)
      the philosophical assumptions that undergird these models. Regarding ethics, we
      caution against imposing the norms, values, and world views of the Western
      dominant society onto vulnerable populations such as ethnocultural groups. Given
      that the assumption of universality in behavioral science has been questioned,
      and as randomized clinical trials (RCTs) seldom examine the ecological validity
      of evidence-based interventions and treatments (EBI/T), imposing such
      interventions onto ethnocultural groups is problematic since these interventions
      contain values, norms, beliefs, and worldviews that may be contrary to those held
      by many ethnocultural groups. Regarding methods, several innovative designs are
      discussed that serve as alternatives to the RCT and represent an important
      contribution to prevention science. Also, we discuss guidelines for conducting
      cultural adaptations. Finally, the articles in this special issue make a major
      contribution to the growing field of cultural adaptation of preventive
      interventions with ethnocultural groups and majority-world populations.

PMID- 28573425
TI  - Night eating syndrome and its association with weight status, physical activity,
      eating habits, smoking status, and sleep patterns among college students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Night eating syndrome (NES) is characterized by evening hyperphagia
      and/or nocturnal ingestion. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to
      assess the percentage of students complying with symptoms and behaviors
      consistent with the diagnostic criteria for NES, and explore its association with
      body mass index (BMI), dietary habits, physical activity, smoking status, and
      sleep patterns, among a sample of college students. METHODS: A cross-sectional
      survey was conducted among a sample of 413 undergraduate students, mean age of
      20.6 +/- 1.68 SD, at Central Michigan University. Students completed an online
      survey including demographic information and the Night Eating Diagnostic
      Questionnaire (NEDQ) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Questionnaire (PSQI).
      Participants were grouped based on self-reporting of the presence and frequency
      of night eating-related symptoms and behaviors related to the diagnostic criteria
      for NES as follows: normal, mild night eater, moderate night eater, and full
      syndrome night eater. Pearson's Chi-squared, Student's t test, and Wilcoxon rank
      sum test were used to test the association between students with and without any
      night eating behavior in relation to BMI, lifestyle variables, and sleep
      duration/quality. RESULTS: Results showed that the proportion of students
      complying with symptoms and behaviors consistent with full-syndrome of NES was
      1.2%. There were no significant differences between students complying with
      symptoms and behaviors consistent with any level of NES and those without any
      night eating behavior regarding BMI, eating habits, physical activity, and
      smoking status. NES was significantly related to sleep duration (P = 0.023).
      Students complying with symptoms consistent with any level of NES reported
      shorter sleep time and had higher total PSQI score (6.73 +/- 4.06) than students
      without the syndrome (5.61 +/- 2.61) (P = 0.007). CONCLUSION: Although the
      percentage of students complying with full-syndrome NES was relatively low in our
      student sample, those students had shorter sleep time and poorer sleep quality
      than the other groups. However, it is unclear whether evening hyperphagia is a
      response to a lack of sleep or vice versa, and further research is needed. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: Level III, case-control analytic study.

PMID- 28573427
TI  - Reliability of trauma management videos on YouTube and their compliance with
      ATLS(r) (9th edition) guideline.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, the reliability of trauma management scenario videos
      (in English) on YouTube and their compliance with Advanced Trauma Life Support
      (ATLS(r)) guidelines were investigated. METHODS: The search was conducted on
      February 15, 2016 by using the terms "assessment of trauma" and ''management of
      trauma''. All videos that were uploaded between January 2011 and June 2016 were
      viewed by two experienced emergency physicians. The data regarding the date of
      upload, the type of the uploader, duration of the video and view counts were
      recorded. The videos were categorized according to the video source and scores.
      RESULTS: The search results yielded 880 videos. Eight hundred and thirteen videos
      were excluded by the researchers. The distribution of videos by years was found
      to be balanced. The scores of videos uploaded by an institution were determined
      to be higher compared to other groups (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: The findings of
      this study display that trauma management videos on YouTube in the majority of
      cases are not reliable/compliant with ATLS-guidelines and can therefore not be
      recommended for educational purposes. These data may only be used in public
      education after making necessary arrangements.

PMID- 28573428
TI  - A retrospective evaluation of the Modified Alvarado Score for the diagnosis of
      acute appendicitis in HIV-infected patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic
      value of a Modified Alvarado Score (MAS) >=7 for acute appendicitis in both Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-negative (HIVneg) and positive (HIVpos)
      patientcohorts. METHODS: This retrospective study included all HIV-tested
      patients undergoing appendectomy at a regional hospital from March 2010 to March
      2011. The MAS was calculated for all patients, as well as for the HIVneg and
      HIVpos groups separately. Two subgroups were considered for each of these: MAS
      >=7 (high likelihood of appendicitis) and MAS <7 (low likelihood of
      appendicitis). These subgroups were then analysed against histopathological
      findings of the resected appendix. MAS specificities and sensitivities were
      determined by comparing Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves for the
      various scores. RESULTS: The study comprised 133 patients. Eighty-six (65%) were
      men and the median age was 20 years (range 4-64); 18 patients (14%) were HIVpos.
      Appendicitis was confirmed histologically in 113 patients, 100 in the HIVneg
      group and 13 in the HIVpos group. Specificity and sensitivity of a MAS >=7 for
      HIVneg patients was 73 and 85% respectively. Based on the ROC curves, HIVpos
      patients only showed similar sensitivities (69%) and specificities (80%) at a MAS
      >=8. CONCLUSION: A MAS >=7 is a reliable predictor of acute appendicitis in
      HIVneg patients. In HIVpos patients, the MAS threshold required to accurately
      predict appendicitis is 8. The use of a MAS >=7 in this group of patients will
      result in unnecessary surgical intervention.

PMID- 28573429
TI  - Predictors of outcome in 101 patients requiring emergent thoracotomy for
      penetrating pulmonary injuries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Operative interventions are uncommonly required for penetrating
      pulmonary injuries. Similarly, because their incidence is low, few series appear
      sporadically in the literature. Objectives of this study are to identify
      predictors of outcome for patients requiring emergent thoracotomy for penetrating
      pulmonary injuries and evaluate the use of tissue sparing versus resective
      techniques for their management. STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective 169-month
      study of all patients with penetrating pulmonary injuries requiring thoracotomy.
      The main outcome measures are: physiologic parameters, AAST-OIS injury grade,
      surgical procedures and mortality. Statistical analysis includes univariate and
      stepwise logistic regression. RESULTS: 101 patients required thoracotomy for
      penetrating pulmonary injuries. Mechanism of injury includes: gunshot wounds
      (GSW)-73 (72%), stab wounds (SW)-28 (33%). Mean systolic BP 97 +/- 47, mean HR 92
      +/- 47, and mean admission pH 7.22 +/- 0.17. Mean RTS 6.25 +/- 2.7, mean ISS 36
      +/- 22. The mean estimated blood loss (EBL) was 5277 +/- 4955 mls. Predictors of
      outcome are: admission pH (p = 0.0014), admission base deficit (p < 0.0001),
      packed red blood cells (PRBCs) transfused (p = 0.023), whole blood transfused (p
      < 0.01). A total of 143 procedures were required in 101 patients: tissue sparing
      114 (80%) versus resective procedures 29 (20%). Only pneumonectomy (p = 0.024)
      predicted outcome. Overall survival 64/101-64%. American Association for the
      Surgery of Trauma-Organ Injury Scale (AAST-OIS) injury grades I-III versus IV-VI
      predicts survival (p < 0.001). Stepwise logistic regression identified AAST-OIS
      injury grades IV-VI (p = 0.007; OR 6.38 [95% CI 1.64-24.78]), intraoperative
      dysrhythmias (p = 0.003; OR 17.38 [95% CI 2.59-116.49]) and associated cardiac
      injuries (p = 0.02; OR 8.74 [95% CI 1.37-55.79]) as independent predictors of
      outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Predictors of outcome for penetrating pulmonary injuries
      requiring thoracotomy are identified and must be taken into account in their
      operative management. Tissue sparing techniques-stapled pulmonary tractotomy is
      once again validated, and it remains effective as the mainstay for their
      management; however, only pneumonectomy predicts outcome. AAST-OIS injury grades
      IV-VI predict outcome with higher injury grades requiring resective procedures.

PMID- 28573430
TI  - Critical effects of epigenetic regulation in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is characterized by persistent pulmonary
      vasoconstriction and pulmonary vascular remodeling. The pathogenic mechanisms of
      PAH remain to be fully clarified and measures of effective prevention are
      lacking. Recent studies; however, have indicated that epigenetic processes may
      exert pivotal influences on PAH pathogenesis. In this review, we summarize the
      latest research findings regarding epigenetic regulation in PAH, focusing on the
      roles of non-coding RNAs, histone modifications, ATP-dependent chromatin
      remodeling and DNA methylation, and discuss the potential of epigenetic-based
      therapies for PAH.

PMID- 28573432
TI  - Comment on: Progression-Free Survival as a Surrogate for Overall Survival in
      Clinical Trials of Targeted Therapy in Advanced Solid Tumors.

PMID- 28573433
TI  - Authors' Reply to Schoenfeld: "Progression-Free Survival as a Surrogate for
      Overall Survival in Clinical Trials of Targeted Therapy in Advanced Solid
      Tumors".

PMID- 28573434
TI  - The Whole Price of Vancomycin: Toxicities, Troughs, and Time.
AB  - Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic that is active against Gram-positive
      bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Nephrotoxicity,
      which is usually reversible, is the most serious common adverse effect of
      vancomycin. Vancomycin-associated nephrotoxicity prolongs hospital stays, imposes
      a need for additional antibiotics and, in rare circumstances, dialysis treatment,
      and increases medical costs and mortality. Risk factors for nephrotoxicity
      include the dose and duration of vancomycin treatment, serum trough
      concentration, patient characteristics, and concomitant receipt of nephrotoxins.
      Contemporary guidelines recommend targeting vancomycin trough concentrations of
      >=10 mg/L to prevent resistance and trough concentrations of 15-20 mg/L to
      optimize outcomes. There is significant correlation between vancomycin trough
      serum concentrations and the incidence of vancomycin-associated nephrotoxicity;
      however, evidence of an association between trough concentrations and efficacy is
      less convincing. Routine monitoring of serum vancomycin concentrations consumes
      time and limited healthcare resources and may not be cost effective. The use of
      alternative antibacterial agents that do not require monitoring would free up
      pharmacy resources. This time could then be devoted to initiatives such as
      pharmacist-led antibiotic stewardship programs that are known to reduce
      antibiotic use and promote improved patient outcomes.

PMID- 28573431
TI  - Human heart disease: lessons from human pluripotent stem cell-derived
      cardiomyocytes.
AB  - Technical advances in generating and phenotyping cardiomyocytes from human
      pluripotent stem cells (hPSC-CMs) are now driving their wider acceptance as in
      vitro models to understand human heart disease and discover therapeutic targets
      that may lead to new compounds for clinical use. Current literature clearly shows
      that hPSC-CMs recapitulate many molecular, cellular, and functional aspects of
      human heart pathophysiology and their responses to cardioactive drugs. Here, we
      provide a comprehensive overview of hPSC-CMs models that have been described to
      date and highlight their most recent and remarkable contributions to research on
      cardiovascular diseases and disorders with cardiac traits. We conclude discussing
      immediate challenges, limitations, and emerging solutions.

PMID- 28573435
TI  - Napabucasin: An Update on the First-in-Class Cancer Stemness Inhibitor.
AB  - Napabucasin (BBI608) is an orally administered small molecule that blocks stem
      cell activity in cancer cells by targeting the signal transducer and activator of
      transcription 3 pathway. The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3
      pathway is over-activated in many types of cancer and has been shown to be an
      important pathway in cancer stem cell-mediated propagation of cancer. Cancer stem
      cells are a subpopulation of cancer cells considered to be the primary source of
      tumor growth, metastasis, and resistance to conventional therapies, and thus,
      responsible for cancer relapse. This review describes the clinical development
      program of this first-in-class cancer stemness inhibitor, including preclinical
      discovery, early clinical trials, current phase III clinical trial evaluation,
      and future therapeutic combinations. The therapeutic potential of napabucasin was
      first reported in a preclinical study that demonstrated the potent anti-tumor and
      anti-metastatic activity of napabucasin in several different cancer types, both
      in vitro and in vivo. In mouse models, napabucasin was effective both as a
      monotherapy and in combination with other agents; in particular, synergy was
      observed with paclitaxel in vivo. Napabucasin clinical trials have demonstrated
      encouraging anti-tumor activity as monotherapy and in combination with
      conventional therapeutics, with no significant pharmacokinetic interactions when
      used in combination therapies. Adverse events attributed to napabucasin have been
      predominantly mild, although some patients have experienced grade 3
      gastrointestinal adverse events. More severe adverse events required reduced or
      discontinued dosing of napabucasin or medication to reverse or manage symptoms.
      In conclusion, napabucasin may prove useful in targeting cancer stem cells, with
      the potential to suppress metastasis and prevent relapse in patients with varying
      cancer types.

PMID- 28573436
TI  - The Effects of Tamoxifen on Plasma Lipoprotein(a) Concentrations: Systematic
      Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor modulator widely used in
      the treatment of breast cancer. Tamoxifen therapy is associated with lower
      circulating low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and increased triglycerides, but
      its effects on other lipids are less well studied. AIMS: We aimed to investigate
      the effect of tamoxifen on circulating concentrations of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)]
      through a meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and
      observational studies. METHODS: This study was registered in the PROSPERO
      database (CRD42016036890). Scopus, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from
      inception until 22 March 2016 to identify studies investigating the effect of
      tamoxifen on Lp(a) values in humans. Meta-analysis was performed using an inverse
      variance-weighted, random-effects model with standardized mean difference (SMD)
      as the effect size estimate. RESULTS: Meta-analysis of five studies with 215
      participants suggested a statistically significant reduction of Lp(a) levels
      following tamoxifen treatment (SMD -0.41, 95% confidence interval -0.68 to -0.14,
      p = 0.003). This effect was robust in the sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Meta
      analysis suggested a statistically significant reduction of Lp(a) levels
      following tamoxifen treatment. Further well-designed trials are required to
      validate these results.

PMID- 28573437
TI  - Oblique incisions in hamstring tendon harvesting reduce iatrogenic injuries to
      the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve.
AB  - PURPOSE: Iatrogenic injury to the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve
      (IPBSN) is associated with many surgical interventions to the medial aspect of
      the knee, such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Different
      types of surgical incisions during hamstring tendon harvesting for ACL
      reconstruction are related to a variable risk of IPBSN injury. This study aimed
      to evaluate the risk of iatrogenic IPBSN injury during hamstring tendon
      harvesting for ACL reconstruction with different incision techniques over the pes
      anserinus. METHODS: This study was performed on 100 cadavers. Vertical,
      horizontal, or oblique incisions were simulated on each cadaveric limb to
      determine the incidence of iatrogenic IPBSN injury. RESULTS: The vertical
      incision caused the IPBSN injury during hamstring tendon harvesting in 101
      (64.7%), the horizontal incision in 78 (50.0%), and the oblique incision in 43
      (27.6%) examined lower limbs. The calculated odds ratios (OR) for risk of injury
      in vertical versus horizontal and horizontal versus oblique incisions were 2.4
      (95% CI 1.5-3.6) and 1.8 (95% 1.2-2.8), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The vertical
      incision technique over the pes anserinus should be avoided during hamstring
      tendon harvesting for ACL reconstruction. The adoption of an oblique incision,
      with the shortest possible length, will allow for the safest procedure possible,
      thus minimizing the risk of iatrogenic IPBSN injury, and improving patient
      outcomes and postoperative quality-of-life.

PMID- 28573438
TI  - The incidence and severity of errors in pharmacist-written discharge medication
      orders.
AB  - Background Errors in discharge prescriptions are problematic. When hospital
      pharmacists write discharge prescriptions improvements are seen in the quality
      and efficiency of discharge. There is limited information on the incidence of
      errors in pharmacists' medication orders. Objective To investigate the extent and
      clinical significance of errors in pharmacist-written discharge medication
      orders. Setting 1000-bed teaching hospital in London, UK. Method Pharmacists in
      this London hospital routinely write discharge medication orders as part of the
      clinical pharmacy service. Convenient days, based on researcher availability,
      between October 2013 and January 2014 were selected. Pre-registration pharmacists
      reviewed all discharge medication orders written by pharmacists on these days and
      identified discrepancies between the medication history, inpatient chart, patient
      records and discharge summary. A senior clinical pharmacist confirmed the
      presence of an error. Each error was assigned a potential clinical significance
      rating (based on the NCCMERP scale) by a physician and an independent senior
      clinical pharmacist, working separately. Main outcome measure Incidence of errors
      in pharmacist-written discharge medication orders. Results 509 prescriptions,
      written by 51 pharmacists, containing 4258 discharge medication orders were
      assessed (8.4 orders per prescription). Ten prescriptions (2%), contained a total
      of ten erroneous orders (order error rate-0.2%). The pharmacist considered that
      one error had the potential to cause temporary harm (0.02% of all orders). The
      physician did not rate any of the errors with the potential to cause harm.
      Conclusion The incidence of errors in pharmacists' discharge medication orders
      was low. The quality, safety and policy implications of pharmacists routinely
      writing discharge medication orders should be further explored.

PMID- 28573440
TI  - [Quality assurance of optical coherence tomography for diagnostics of the fundus
      : Positional statement of the BVA, DOG and RG].

PMID- 28573439
TI  - Using pharmacy management systems for research: survival outcomes for
      lenalidomide in multiple myeloma in the clinical setting.
AB  - Background Health records can be used to measure medicine use and health
      outcomes. The public subsidy of lenalidomide in Australia was based on two phase
      III trials showing improved survival. Objective To use hospital pharmacy
      information management systems to determine survival outcomes for lenalidomide as
      a second line treatment in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM)
      patients. Setting Five public hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Method We
      extracted data on medicine use and survival for RRMM patients planned to start
      lenalidomide from pharmacy management and pathology databases. Descriptive
      statistical analyses (Kaplan-Meier curves) were used to calculate overall
      survival. Main outcome measure Overall survival. Results There were 136 patients
      who received at least one lenalidomide dose and 2234 cycles were ordered. The
      median age was 69 years and 54% were male. Two lenalidomide containing protocols
      were considered: 90% of patients had lenalidomide plus dexamethasone; 18% had
      lenalidomide plus dexamethasone with cyclophosphamide. The median starting
      lenalidomide dose was 20 mg (range 4.3-25 mg) on days 1-21 of a 28-day cycle.
      Median time on treatment 9.4 months (range 0.5-71.7 months). Median overall
      survival was 45.4 months (range 12.0-70.5 months). Conclusion The median survival
      in our study compared favourably to clinical trials. Patients and clinicians can
      be reassured that outcomes in this clinical setting are as good as those observed
      in trials.

PMID- 28573441
TI  - Sociodemographic and Clinical Determinants of Quality of Life of Patients with
      Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a serious health problem. Identifying
      factors affecting quality of life (QoL) may help modify risk factors and improve
      survival. The study included 180 patients treated for NSCLC in the Lower Silesian
      Center of Lung Diseases between January and December 2015. QoL was assessed with
      QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13 scales. General physical functioning was measured with the
      ECOG Performance Status scale. The clinical and sociodemographic data were
      retrieved from medical records. The influence of clinical and sociodemographic
      factors on QoL was examined. NSCLC reduced the global QoL (47.1 +/- 23.4) and
      emotional functioning (57.8 +/- 28.8); cognitive functioning was affected in
      least (76.0 +/- 21.0). The patients reported fatigue (42.2 +/- 26.2), sleep
      problems (42.0 +/- 30.8), cough (49.8 +/- 24.0), and taking analgesics (50.3 +/-
      37.1) as the most limiting factors. The worsening of a health condition expressed
      by the length of malignant disease; the presence of comorbidities, metastases,
      the cluster of symptoms, worse spirometric indices, and living alone had a
      negative influence on QoL. In conclusion, patients with NSCLC experience reduced
      QoL and emotional functioning. Proper treatment of comorbidities and symptom
      management may improve QoL in these patients.

PMID- 28573442
TI  - Intensity of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Lung Cancer in Relation to
      Quality of Life.
AB  - Psychological factors, such as the anxiety and depression, which often occur in
      patients with lung cancer might negatively influence their quality of life. The
      aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of anxiety and depression in lung
      cancer patients on quality of life. The study included 180 lung patients of the
      mean age of 62.7 +/- 9.7 years. The following scales were employed in the study:
      Quality of Life Questionnaire QLQ-C30 and LC13 scale, and Hospital Anxiety and
      Depression scale (HADS). The overall score of quality of life measured by QLQ-C30
      was 47.1 +/- 23.4 points on a hundred-point scale. Anxiety was diagnosed in 67
      patients (37.2%) and depression in 75 patients (41.7%) by HADS. Quality of life
      was significantly worse in case of anxiety and depression (p < 0.05), which
      negatively influenced both functional and symptom intensity scales measured with
      QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13. We conclude that early identification of anxiety and
      depression may help in therapeutic decision-making and may be a useful predictive
      factor in lung cancer patients.

PMID- 28573443
TI  - Indoor Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds in Children: Health Risk Assessment
      in the Context of Physiological Development.
AB  - Indoor air quality is strongly affected by the contamination of ambient air and
      that related to building and finishing materials and to human activity. Poor
      ventilation of closed spaces facilitates retention of greater quantity of
      pollutants. Infants and children are at particular risk of exposure to indoor air
      pollutants as they undergo rapid physiological and biochemical changes and
      demonstrate activity patterns unlike those in adults. Health risk assessment in
      children should be carried out with regard to children-specific factors, since
      these factors may constitute a source of errors. In this article we weigh up two
      different: Scenario 1 in which risk assessment was carried out in five age-groups
      (0-1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-11, and 12-16 years of age) and Scenario 2 encompassing only
      two age-groups (0-6 and 7-16 years of age). The findings indicate that data on
      carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects obtained by applying the second
      scenario were overestimated or averaged; either giving much reduced information
      that may lead to a false judgment on actual risk. This kind of fallacy is avoided
      when applying the age stratification into a greater number of groups for the
      health risk assessment in children.

PMID- 28573444
TI  - Lung Lesions During Fever of Unknown Origin.
AB  - Fever of unknown origin (FUO) remains one of the most difficult diagnostic
      challenges. The causes of FUO can be various diseases located in different
      organs. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and nature of
      pulmonary lesions during FUO. One hundred and sixty one patients with FUO
      participated in this prospective study. We performed a detailed comprehensive
      history, physical examination, and a wide spectrum of tests. The most common
      causes of FUO were infections (39%), autoimmune conditions (28%), and neoplasms
      (17%). Lung lesions were found in 30% of patients. In this group 35% were
      infections, 30% autoimmune diseases, and 4% cancer. Among patients with
      respiratory infections, there were cases of tuberculosis, atypical pneumonia,
      lung abscess, and bronchiectases. Autoimmune pulmonary lesions were observed
      during vasculitis and systemic lupus. The causes of FUO in the group of patients
      with lung lesions were also pulmonary embolism, sarcoidosis, and pulmonary
      fibrosis. Chest CT played an important role in the diagnosis of the causes of FUO
      with pulmonary manifestations. Pulmonary lesions are a common cause of FUO. Most
      FUO with pulmonary lesions are recognized during infections and autoimmune
      diseases. An important part of diagnosing FUO is a detailed evaluation of the
      respiratory system.

PMID- 28573445
TI  - Cardiac Arrhythmias in Patients with Exacerbation of COPD.
AB  - Supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias are common among patients with
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Multiple factors can contribute to
      the development of arrhythmias in patients with exacerbation of the disease,
      including: respiratory or heart failure, hypertension, coronary disease and also
      medications. In the present study we seek to determine the prevalence of cardiac
      arrhythmias and risk factors among patients with exacerbation of COPD. The study
      was a retrospective evaluation of 2753 24-h Holter recordings of patients
      hospitalized in 2004-2016. Exacerbation of COPD was diagnosed in 152 patients and
      the prevalence of arrhythmias in this group of patients was 97%. The commonest
      arrhythmia was ventricular premature beats (VPB) - 88.8%, followed by
      supraventricular premature beats (SPB) - 56.5%. Permanent atrial fibrillation
      accounted for 30.3% and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) for 12.5%.
      Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) was noted in 34.2% patients and ventricular
      tachycardia in 25.6%. Respiratory failure increased the risk of SPB, while heart
      failure increased the risk of VPB. Treatment with theophylline was associated
      with a higher proportion of PAF and SVT. In conclusion, COPD exacerbation is
      associated with a high prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias. COPD treatment and
      comorbidities increase the risk of arrhythmias.

PMID- 28573446
TI  - Echocardiographic Assessment in Patients with Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis.
AB  - Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is one of the most common forms of
      systemic vasculitis, which usually involves the upper and lower respiratory
      tract, but it may affect also multiple organs. The aim of the study was an
      echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac involvement in GPA patients during
      remission. Eighty eight patients with GPA were evaluated in the study. The
      control group consisted of 40 age and sex-matched patients without a previous
      history of cardiovascular disease. We found that there were no differences
      between GPA and control groups regarding left atrial enlargement and
      interventricular septal hypertrophy. In one GPA patient, all heart chambers were
      enlarged. Left ventricle systolic function was decreased (LVEF <= 50%) in eight
      patients with GPA, and left ventricle wall motion abnormalities were observed in
      12 patients. Left ventricle relaxation dysfunction, mitral valve and tricuspid
      valve regurgitation were observed with the same frequency in both GPA and control
      groups. Aortic regurgitation was the single abnormality that occurred
      significantly more often in the GPA group than in controls (28% vs. 7.5%; p =
      0.03). Pericardial effusion was observed in three GPA patients and in none from
      the control group. We conclude that the most common echocardiographic
      manifestation in GPA patients in remission was aortic valve regurgitation.
      However, cardiac involvement in such patients is rather rare and in the majority
      of cases clinically insignificant.

PMID- 28573447
TI  - Identifying long-term survivors among metastatic breast cancer patients
      undergoing primary tumor surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The prognostic role of primary tumor surgery in women with metastatic
      breast cancer at diagnosis is contentious. A subset of patients who will benefit
      from aggressive local treatment is needed to be identified. Using a nationwide
      database, we developed and validated a predictive model to identify long-term
      survivors among patients who had undergone primary tumor surgery. METHODS: A
      total of 150,043 patients were enrolled in the Korean Breast Cancer Registry
      between January 1990 and December 2014. Of these, 2332 (1.6%) presented with
      distant metastasis at diagnosis. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we
      developed and validated a model that predicts survival in patients who undergo
      primary tumor surgery, based on the clinicopathological features of the primary
      tumor. RESULTS: A total of 2232 metastatic breast cancer patients were reviewed.
      Of these, 1541 (69.0%) patients had undergone primary tumor surgery. The 3-year
      survival rate was 62.6% in this subgroup. Among these patients, advanced T-stage,
      high-grade tumor, lymphovascular invasion, negative estrogen receptor status,
      high Ki-67 expression, and abnormal CA 15-3 and alkaline phosphatase levels were
      associated with poor survival. A prediction model was developed based on these
      factors, which successfully identified patients with remarkable survival (score 0
      3, 3-year survival rate 87.3%). The clinical significance of the model was also
      validated with an independent dataset. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a
      predictive model to identify long-term survivors among women who undergo primary
      tumor surgery. This model will provide guidance to patients and physicians when
      considering surgery as a treatment modality for metastatic breast cancer.

PMID- 28573448
TI  - Breast cancer oral anti-cancer medication adherence: a systematic review of
      psychosocial motivators and barriers.
AB  - PURPOSE: In the past decade, there has been an increase in the development and
      use of oral anti-cancer medications (OAMs), especially for breast cancer-the most
      prevalent cancer in women. However, adherence rates for OAMs are often
      suboptimal, leading to lower survival rate, increased risk of recurrence, and
      higher healthcare costs. Our goal was to identify potentially modifiable
      psychosocial facilitators and barriers that may be targeted to increase OAM
      adherence for breast cancer patients. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed
      for studies published in the U.S. by June 15, 2016 that addressed the following:
      (1) OAMs for breast cancer; (2) medication adherence; and (3) at least one
      psychosocial aspect of adherence. RESULTS: Of the 1752 papers screened, 21
      articles were included and analyzed. The most commonly reported motivators for
      adherence are patient-provider relationships (n = 11 studied, 82% reported
      significant association) and positive views and beliefs of medication (n = 9
      studied, 89% reported significant association). We also identified consistent
      evidence of the impact of depression and emotions, perception of illness, concern
      of side effects, self-efficacy in medication management and decision making,
      knowledge of medication, and social support on OAM adherence. CONCLUSIONS:
      Compared to traditional demographic, system, and clinical-related factors that
      have been well documented in the literature but are not easily changed, these
      cognitive, psychological, and interpersonal factors are more amendable via
      intervention and therefore could generate greater benefit in improving patient
      compliance and health outcomes. As OAMs shift treatment administration
      responsibility onto patients, continuous provider communication and education on
      illness and regimen are the keys to supporting patients' medication behavior.

PMID- 28573449
TI  - Medium Optimization for Improved Production of Dihydrolipohyl Dehydrogenase from
      Bacillus sphaericus PAD-91 in Escherichia coli.
AB  - Dihydrolipohyl dehydrogenase (DLD) is a FAD-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the
      reversible oxidation of dihydrolipoamide. Herein, we report medium optimization
      for the production of a recombinant DLD with NADH-dependent diaphorase activity
      from a strain of Bacillus sphaericus PAD-91. The DLD gene that consisted of 1413
      bp was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), and its enzymatic properties
      were studied. The composition of production medium was optimized using one
      variable-at-a-time method followed by response surface methodology (RSM). B.
      sphaericus DLD catalyzed the reduction of lipoamide by NAD+ and exhibited
      diaphorase activity. The molecular weight of enzyme was about 50 kDa and
      determined to be a monomeric protein. Recombinant diaphorase showed its optimal
      activity at temperature of 30  degrees C and pH 8.5. K m and V max values with
      NADH were estimated to be 0.025 mM and 275.8 U/mL, respectively. Recombinant
      enzyme was optimally produced in fermentation medium containing 10 g/L sucrose,
      25 g/L yeast extract, 5 g/L NaCl and 0.25 g/L MgSO4. At these concentrations, the
      actual diaphorase activity was calculated to be 345.0 +/- 4.1 U/mL. By scaling up
      fermentation from flask to bioreactor, enzyme activity was increased to 486.3 +/-
      5.5 U/mL. Briefly, a DLD with diaphorase activity from a newly isolated B.
      sphaericus PAD-91 was characterized and the production of recombinant enzyme was
      optimized using RSM technique.

PMID- 28573450
TI  - Cloning, Production and Characterization of a Glycoside Hydrolase Family 7 Enzyme
      from the Gut Microbiota of the Termite Coptotermes curvignathus.
AB  - Coptotermes curvignathus is a termite that, owing to its ability to digest living
      trees, serves as a gold mine for robust industrial enzymes. This unique
      characteristic reflects the presence of very efficient hydrolytic enzyme systems
      including cellulases. Transcriptomic analyses of the gut of C. curvignathus
      revealed that carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZy) were encoded by 3254 transcripts
      and that included 69 transcripts encoding glycoside hydrolase family 7 (GHF7)
      enzymes. Since GHF7 enzymes are useful to the biomass conversion industry, a gene
      encoding for a GHF7 enzyme (Gh1254) was synthesized, sub-cloned and expressed in
      the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. Expressed GH1254 had an apparent
      molecular mass of 42 kDa, but purification was hampered by its low expression
      levels in shaken flasks. To obtain more of the enzyme, GH1254 was produced in a
      bioreactor that resulted in a fourfold increase in crude enzyme levels. The
      purified enzyme was active towards soluble synthetic substrates such as 4
      methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-cellobioside, 4-nitrophenyl-beta-D-cellobioside and 4
      nitrophenyl-beta-D-lactoside but was non-hydrolytic towards Avicel or
      carboxymethyl cellulose. GH1254 catalyzed optimally at 35  degrees C and
      maintained 70% of its activity at 25  degrees C. This enzyme is thus potentially
      useful in food industries employing low-temperature conditions.

PMID- 28573451
TI  - [Quality of life in patients with vestibular schwannoma].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vestibular schwannoma (VS) is a disease which might affect health
      related quality of life (HR-QOL) in a negative manner. For many years, only
      generic quality of life instruments such as SF-36 were available to measure HR
      QOL. However, some years ago, the Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality Of Life (PANQOL)
      tool, a disease-specific instrument, was developed and validated. It is expected
      that the application of this instrument will be able to better assess relevant
      aspects of the HR-QOL of VS patients in the future. A validated German version of
      the instrument does not exist yet. The disease-specific symptoms most frequently
      named by patients are headache and dizziness. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The
      available literature shows that the therapeutic approaches affect HR-QOL
      differently. In particular, radiation therapy of small and medium-sized tumors
      has no pronounced negative effects on HR-QOL. However, restrictions after surgery
      become similar to those after radiotherapy over the course of several years. For
      large VS with a diameter >3 cm, no guiding data on this aspect are currently
      available. To clarify the outstanding issues, future prospective studies with
      long-term follow-up of 10 years and more are desirable.

PMID- 28573452
TI  - Sow efficiency and early piglet mortality in two local pig breeds on smallholder
      farms in northern Vietnam-a longitudinal study.
AB  - In the recent past, pig performance and sow management on smallholder farms in
      the Southeast Asian Massif have been extensively researched. But the objective of
      this study was to investigate the lifetime efficiency of breeding sows of the
      local Vietnamese Ban (n = 89) and Mong Cai (n = 131) breeds in a production
      system context. The impact of sow longevity was considered in particular. In
      addition, predictors of early pre-weaning mortality in piglets were investigated.
      In total, nine villages of Son La province, situated in the uplands of north
      western Vietnam, were selected, differing in access to markets, production
      intensity, and pig management level. Data was collected over a period of 10 years
      through an on-farm performance testing system. It was shown that sows of both
      breeds that achieved five or more parities farrowed and weaned significantly more
      piglets per life year compared to sows with only one or two parities. The
      conception rate (Spearman's rho = 0.374) and age at first farrowing (Spearman's
      rho = -0.424) were significantly correlated with the number of weaned piglets per
      life year of stayable (>=4 parities) Mong Cai sows. The risk of early pre-weaning
      death of piglets born to Mong Cai sows was affected more by litter size, while
      for piglets born to Ban sows, the risk was influenced more by the season.
      Therefore, interventions to improve the sow lifetime efficiency and piglet
      survivability must match the sow breed and management level.

PMID- 28573453
TI  - Diurnal thermoregulatory responses in pregnant Yankasa ewes to the dry season in
      a tropical Savannah.
AB  - The study investigated concomitant effect of gestation and high ambient
      temperature under a tropical environment on rectal temperature (RT), respiratory
      rate (RR) and heart rate (HR) responses in Yankasa ewes. Twenty Yankasa ewes,
      consisting of ten pregnant and ten non-pregnant ewes, were used for the study.
      Ewes were synchronised and bred, such that each gestation phase coincided with
      different periods of the dry-seasons, early-gestation (cold/harmattan), mid
      gestation (peak hot-dry) and late-gestation (late hot-dry). The RT, RR and HR
      were recorded thrice, 2 days apart at middle of each gestation period at 06:00,
      14:00 and 18:00 h, concurrently with dry- (DBT) and wet-bulb temperatures of the
      experimental pen. The DBT was positively correlated with RT, RR during the
      different gestation stages. The RT significantly (P < 0.001) increased with the
      hour of day, regardless of the physiological status of the ewes, with peak at
      14:00 h. Values of RT and RR were higher (P < 0.05) in pregnant than non-pregnant
      ewes at mid- and late-gestation, respectively. Mean RT was lower (P < 0.001) at
      06:00 h in pregnant than non-pregnant ewes at early-gestation (cold-dry). The HR
      was (P < 0.05) higher in pregnant than non-pregnant ewes during the different
      gestation phases. In conclusion, ambient temperature and gestation concomitantly
      modulate diurnal thermoregulatory responses of the ewes to hot-dry season.
      Adequate measures should be adopted to mitigate adverse impact of prolonged high
      RR on the dam and the foetus during the peak of ambient temperature prevailing in
      the tropical Savannah environment.

PMID- 28573454
TI  - Quality of life among adolescents living in residential youth care: do domain
      specific self-esteem and psychopathology contribute?
AB  - PURPOSE: Many adolescents living in residential youth care (RYC) institutions
      perceive their quality of life (QoL) to be low. Enhancing QoL is thus important,
      but little is known about the potential contributors to their QoL. Early
      interpersonal trauma and subsequent removal from home and repeated relocations to
      new placements are expected to affect mental health and self-esteem. We therefore
      investigated if domain-specific self-esteem contributed to QoL among adolescents
      living in RYC institutions over and beyond their levels of psychopathology.
      METHODS: All youth in Norwegian RYC institutions between the ages 12-23 years
      were invited to participate. Of a total of 98 RYC institutions, 86 participated,
      and 400 of 601 eligible youths were examined. The participants' primary contact
      completed the Child Behavior Checklist to assess psychopathology. The adolescents
      completed a revised version of the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents and
      the questionnaire for measuring health-related quality of life in children and
      adolescents (KINDL-R). RESULTS: After adjusting for psychopathology, age, and
      gender, self-esteem domains uniquely explained 42% of the variance in Qol, where
      social acceptance (beta = 0.57) and physical appearance (beta = 0.25) domains
      significantly predicted concurrent QoL. CONCLUSIONS: The self-esteem domains,
      social acceptance and physical appearance, add substantially to the explained
      variance in QoL among adolescents living in RYC institutions, over and beyond the
      levels of psychopathology. These self-esteem domains may be targets of
      intervention to improve QoL, in addition to treating their psychopathology.

PMID- 28573456
TI  - Backbone NMR assignments of tryparedoxin, the central protein in the
      hydroperoxide detoxification cascade of African trypanosomes, in the oxidized and
      reduced form.
AB  - Tryparedoxin (Tpx) is a pivotal protein in the redox-metabolism of trypanosomatid
      parasites. Tpx has previously been identified as a potential target for drug
      development in the fight against human African sleeping sickness caused by
      Trypanosoma brucei. Tpx belongs to the thioredoxin superfamily and acts as an
      oxidoreductase in the parasite's cytoplasm. It contains a WCPPC active site
      motif, which enables the protein to undergo thiol-disulfide exchange. To promote
      future protein-drug interaction analyses, we report the 1H, 13C and 15N backbone
      chemical shift assignments for both the oxidized and reduced states of Tpx. The
      redox state of the protein has a significant impact on the chemical shifts of the
      residues at the active site of the protein, especially on the two redox active
      site cysteines. The NMR assignments presented here will be a prerequisite for
      investigating drug binding to Tpx in molecular detail and to drive further drug
      optimization.

PMID- 28573457
TI  - Oxidative damage of mitochondrial respiratory chain in different organs of a rat
      model of diet-induced obesity.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mitochondrial dysfunction plays an important role in the development of
      obesity and obesity-associated metabolic diseases. METHODS: In this study, we
      dynamically observed the characteristics of mitochondrial damage in a rat model
      of diet-induced obesity (DIO). From the 2nd to the 10th week, animals were killed
      every 2 weeks and the heart, liver, kidney, and testicular tissues were
      harvested. Mitochondria were isolated and the activities of respiratory chain
      complexes I, II, III, and IV as well as the 8-Hydroxy-2-deoxy Guanosine content
      were determined. Reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde were measured.
      RESULTS: Mitochondrial damages were observed in the heart and liver of DIO and DR
      rats, and the damages occurred later in DR group than that in DIO group. The
      mitochondrial membrane potential of heart and liver decreased in DIO and DR
      groups. The activity of the heart mitochondria complexes I, III, and IV
      (composing NADH oxidative respiratory) was higher in the early stage of DIO and
      lower in the end of week 10. The higher activity of the liver complexes I, III,
      and IV was found until the end of week 10 in DIO and DR groups, accompanied with
      enhanced oxidative stress. Besides, mitochondrial DNA damages were observed in
      all tissues. CONCLUSION: In DIO rats, the heart mitochondrial dysfunction
      occurred first and the liver presented the strongest compensatory ability against
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28573455
TI  - Toxicology of silica nanoparticles: an update.
AB  - Large-scale production and use of amorphous silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) have
      increased the risk of human exposure to SiNPs, while their health effects remain
      unclear. In this review, scientific papers from 2010 to 2016 were systematically
      selected and sorted based on in vitro and in vivo studies: to provide an update
      on SiNPs toxicity and to address the knowledge gaps indicated in the review of
      Napierska (Part Fibre Toxicol 7:39, 2010). Toxicity of SiNPs in vitro is size,
      dose, and cell type dependent. SiNPs synthesized by wet route exhibited
      noticeably different biological effects compared to thermal route-based SiNPs.
      Amorphous SiNPs (particularly colloidal and stober) induced toxicity via
      mechanisms similar to crystalline silica. In vivo, route of administration and
      physico-chemical properties of SiNPs influences the toxicokinetics. Adverse
      effects were mainly observed in acutely exposed animals, while no significant
      signs of toxicity were noted in chronically dosed animals. The correlation
      between in vitro and in vivo toxicity remains less well established mainly due to
      improper-unrealistic-dosing both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion,
      notwithstanding the multiple studies published in recent years, unambiguous
      linking of physico-chemical properties of SiNPs types to toxicity,
      bioavailability, or human health effects is not yet possible.

PMID- 28573458
TI  - An in vivo whole-plant experimental system for the analysis of gene expression in
      extraradical mycorrhizal mycelium.
AB  - Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish beneficial mutualistic symbioses
      with land plants, receiving carbon in exchange for mineral nutrients absorbed by
      the extraradical mycelium (ERM). With the aim of obtaining in vivo produced ERM
      for gene expression analyses, a whole-plant bi-dimensional experimental system
      was devised and tested with three host plants and three fungal symbionts. In such
      a system, Funneliformis mosseae in symbiosis with Cichorium intybus var.
      foliosum, Lactuca sativa, and Medicago sativa produced ERM whose lengths ranged
      from 9.8 +/- 0.8 to 20.8 +/- 1.2 m per plant. Since ERM produced in symbiosis
      with C. intybus showed the highest values for the different structural parameters
      assessed, this host was used to test the whole-plant system with F. mosseae,
      Rhizoglomus irregulare, and Funneliformis coronatus. The whole-plant system
      yielded 1-7 mg of ERM fresh biomass per plant per harvest, and continued
      producing new ERM for 6 months. Variable amounts of high-quality and intact total
      RNA, ranging from 15 to 65 MUg RNA/mg ERM fresh weight, were extracted from the
      ERM of the three AMF isolates. Ammonium transporter gene expression was
      successfully determined in the cDNAs obtained from ERM of the three fungal
      symbionts by RT-qPCR using gene-specific primers designed on available (R.
      irregulare) and new (F. mosseae and F. coronatus) ammonium transporter gene
      sequences. The whole-plant experimental system represents a useful research tool
      for large production and easy collection of ERM for morphological, physiological,
      and biochemical analyses, suitable for a wide variety of AMF species, for a
      virtually limitless range of host plants and for studies involving diverse
      symbiotic interactions.

PMID- 28573459
TI  - Cytoskeleton-Associated Risk Modifiers Involved in Early and Rapid Progression of
      Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
AB  - A high priority in the prion field is to identify pre-symptomatic events and
      associated profile of molecular changes. In this study, we demonstrate the pre
      symptomatic dysregulation of cytoskeleton assembly and its associated cofilin-1
      pathway in strain and brain region-specific manners in MM1 and VV2 subtype
      specific Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease at clinical and pre-clinical stage. At
      physiological level, PrPC interaction with cofilin-1 and phosphorylated form of
      cofilin (p-cofilin(Ser3)) was investigated in primary cultures of mouse cortex
      neurons (PCNs) of PrPC wild-type and knockout mice (PrP-/-). Short-interfering
      RNA downregulation of active form of cofilin-1 resulted in the
      redistribution/downregulation of PrPC, increase of activated form of microglia,
      accumulation of dense form of F-actin, and upregulation of p-cofilin(Ser3). This
      upregulated p-cofilin(Ser3) showed redistribution of expression predominantly in
      the activated form of microglia in PCNs. At pathological level, cofilin-1
      expression was significantly altered in cortex and cerebellum in both humans and
      mice at pre-clinical stage and at early symptomatic clinical stage of the
      disease. Further, to better understand the possible mechanism of dysregulation of
      cofilin-1, we also demonstrated alterations in upstream regulators; LIM kinase
      isoform 1 (LIMK1), slingshot phosphatase isoform 1 (SSH1), RhoA-associated kinase
      (Rock2), and amyloid precursor protein (APP) in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob
      disease MM1 mice and in human MM1 and VV2 frontal cortex and cerebellum samples.
      In conclusion, our findings demonstrated for the first time a key pre-clinical
      response of cofilin-1 and the associated pathway in prion disease.

PMID- 28573461
TI  - Automatic frequency and phase alignment of in vivo J-difference-edited MR spectra
      by frequency domain correlation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: J-difference editing is often used to select resonances of compounds
      with coupled spins in 1H-MR spectra. Accurate phase and frequency alignment prior
      to subtracting J-difference-edited MR spectra is important to avoid artefactual
      contributions to the edited resonance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In-vivo J
      difference-edited MR spectra were aligned by maximizing the normalized scalar
      product between two spectra (i.e., the correlation over a spectral region). The
      performance of our correlation method was compared with alignment by spectral
      registration and by alignment of the highest point in two spectra. The
      correlation method was tested at different SNR levels and for a broad range of
      phase and frequency shifts. RESULTS: In-vivo application of the proposed
      correlation method showed reduced subtraction errors and increased fit
      reliability in difference spectra as compared with conventional peak alignment.
      The correlation method and the spectral registration method generally performed
      equally well. However, better alignment using the correlation method was obtained
      for spectra with a low SNR (down to ~2) and for relatively large frequency
      shifts. CONCLUSION: Our correlation method for simultaneously phase and frequency
      alignment is able to correct both small and large phase and frequency drifts and
      also performs well at low SNR levels.

PMID- 28573462
TI  - Mast cell activator compound 48/40 is not an effective adjuvant for UV-attenuated
      Toxoplasma gondii vaccine.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii, Tg) is a globally distributed parasitic protozoan
      causing different forms of toxoplasmosis in humans. Mast cells (MCs) play a role
      during T. gondii infection. Several studies suggest that MC activator compound
      48/80 (C48/80) may be an effective vaccine adjuvant resulting in a potent and
      protective antigen-specific immune response against bacteria or virus infections.
      The present study was performed to determine whether C48/80 had adjuvant activity
      for ultraviolet (UV)-attenuated T. gondii vaccine to induce protective immune
      responses against T. gondii in mouse model. Kunming mice were divided into the
      following groups: naive mice, naive mice administrated with C48/80
      intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection, mice infected by i.p. injection of 104 T.
      gondii RH strain alone (Tg group), mice infected with 104 RH tachyzoites plus
      C48/80 administration (Tg + C48/80), mice immunized with UV-Tg alone, and mice
      immunized with UV-Tg plus C48/80 administration (UV-Tg + C48/80). All the
      vaccinated mice were challenged with 104 tachyzoites of T. gondii RH strain at
      the same time as the primary infection. The survival rates, liver
      histopathologies, liver parasite burdens, and mRNA expression levels of Th1 and
      Th2 cytokines in the livers and spleens detected by quantitative real-time
      reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were compared among the
      aforementioned groups after primary infection or challenge infection. The results
      showed that, compared to the Tg group or Tg + C48/80 group, the UV-Tg + Tg group
      and UV-Tg + C48/80 + Tg group had significantly prolonged survival time, lower
      liver histopathological scores, decreased liver parasite burdens, and increased
      levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in the livers and spleens. There was no
      significant difference of survival time between the UV-Tg + Tg group and the UV
      Tg + C48/80 + Tg group; however, the UV-Tg + C48/80 + Tg group showed higher
      parasite burden, more severe liver histopathology, and decreased IL-4 level
      compared to the UV-Tg + Tg group. These results indicate that C48/80 had no
      adjuvant activity for the immunization induced by UV-attenuated T. gondii
      vaccine.

PMID- 28573464
TI  - Imaging features of mammary-type myofibroblastoma of soft tissue: a case series
      with literature review.
AB  - Mammary-type myofibroblastoma (MTM) is a rare, benign neoplasm that is
      histologically identical to myofibroblastoma of the breast, but occurring in an
      extramammary site. The masses have been reported in superficial and deep soft
      tissue sites and visceral locations with the inguinal area and lower extremities
      are the most common. Most previous reports of MTMs have concentrated on clinical
      and pathological findings, with very limited information regarding imaging
      characteristics. Here, we describe three cases of MTM diagnosed at our
      institution, with a focus on imaging findings. We compare our findings with
      previously reported cases. Although MTM is rare, radiologists should be aware of
      this benign diagnosis as imaging characteristics can mimic those of liposarcomas
      and atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma. Unlike those tumor
      types, MTM virtually never recurs post-resection, even when there are positive
      margins. Biopsy is necessary for proper diagnosis and recommended as an initial
      step to avoid overly aggressive treatment.

PMID- 28573465
TI  - From short-range repulsion to Hele-Shaw problem in a model of tumor growth.
AB  - We investigate the large time behavior of an agent based model describing tumor
      growth. The microscopic model combines short-range repulsion and cell division.
      As the number of cells increases exponentially in time, the microscopic model is
      challenging in terms of computational time. To overcome this problem, we aim at
      deriving the associated macroscopic dynamics leading here to a porous media type
      equation. As we are interested in the long time behavior of the dynamics, the
      macroscopic equation obtained through usual derivation method fails at providing
      the correct qualitative behavior (e.g. stationary states differ from the
      microscopic dynamics). We propose a modified version of the macroscopic equation
      introducing a density threshold for the repulsion. We numerically validate the
      new formulation by comparing the solutions of the micro- and macro- dynamics.
      Moreover, we study the asymptotic behavior of the dynamics as the repulsion
      between cells becomes singular (leading to non-overlapping constraints in the
      microscopic model). We manage to show formally that such asymptotic limit leads
      to a Hele-Shaw type problem for the macroscopic dynamics. We compare the micro-
      and macro- dynamics in this asymptotic limit using explicit solutions of the Hele
      Shaw problem (e.g. radially symmetric configuration). The numerical simulations
      reveal an excellent agreement between the two descriptions, validating the formal
      derivation of the macroscopic model. The macroscopic model derived in this paper
      therefore enables to overcome the problem of large computational time raised by
      the microscopic model, but stays closely linked to the microscopic dynamics.

PMID- 28573460
TI  - Brain GLP-1/IGF-1 Signaling and Autophagy Mediate Exendin-4 Protection Against
      Apoptosis in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a modern socioeconomic burden, mostly due to its long
      term complications affecting nearly all tissues. One of them is the brain, whose
      dysfunctional intracellular quality control mechanisms (namely autophagy) may
      upregulate apoptosis, leading to cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer disease
      (AD). Since impaired brain insulin signaling may constitute the crosslink between
      T2D and AD, its restoration may be potentially therapeutic herein. Accordingly,
      the insulinotropic anti-T2D drugs from glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) mimetics,
      namely, exendin-4 (Ex-4), could be a promising therapy. In line with this, we
      hypothesized that peripherally administered Ex-4 rescues brain intracellular
      signaling pathways, promoting autophagy and ultimately protecting against chronic
      T2D-induced apoptosis. Thus, we aimed to explore the effects of chronic,
      continuous, subcutaneous (s.c.) exposure to Ex-4 in brain cortical GLP
      1/insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling, and in autophagic and
      cell death mechanisms in middle-aged (8 months old), male T2D Goto-Kakizaki (GK)
      rats. We used brain cortical homogenates obtained from middle-aged (8 months old)
      male Wistar (control) and T2D GK rats. Ex-4 was continuously administered for 28
      days, via s.c. implanted micro-osmotic pumps (5 MUg/kg/day; infusion rate 2.5
      MUL/h). Peripheral characterization of the animal models was given by the
      standard biochemical analyses of blood or plasma, the intraperitoneal glucose
      tolerance test, and the heart rate. GLP-1, insulin, and IGF-1, their downstream
      signaling and autophagic markers were evaluated by specific ELISA kits and
      Western blotting. Caspase-like activities and other apoptotic markers were given
      by colorimetric methods and Western blotting. Chronic Ex-4 treatment attenuated
      peripheral features of T2D in GK rats, including hyperglycemia and insulin
      resistance. Furthermore, s.c. Ex-4 enhanced their brain cortical GLP-1 and IGF-1
      levels, and subsequent signaling pathways. Specifically, Ex-4 stimulated protein
      kinase A (PKA) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling, increasing
      cGMP and AMPK levels, and decreasing GSK3beta and JNK activation in T2D rat
      brains. Moreover, Ex-4 regulated several markers for autophagy in GK rat brains
      (as mTOR, PI3K class III, LC3 II, Atg7, p62, LAMP-1, and Parkin), ultimately
      protecting against apoptosis (by decreasing several caspase-like activities and
      mitochondrial cytochrome c, and increasing Bcl2 levels upon T2D). Altogether,
      this study demonstrates that peripheral Ex-4 administration may constitute a
      promising therapy against the chronic complications of T2D affecting the brain.

PMID- 28573463
TI  - Detection and identification of Leishmania spp.: application of two hsp70-based
      PCR-RFLP protocols to clinical samples from the New World.
AB  - Leishmaniasis is highly prevalent in New World countries, where several methods
      are available for detection and identification of Leishmania spp. Two hsp70-based
      PCR protocols (PCR-N and PCR-F) and their corresponding restriction fragment
      length polymorphisms (RFLP) were applied for detection and identification of
      Leishmania spp. in clinical samples recruited in Colombia, Guatemala, and
      Honduras. A total of 93 cases were studied. The samples were classified into
      positive or suspected of leishmaniasis according to parasitological criteria.
      Molecular amplification of two different hsp70 gene fragments and further RFLP
      analysis for identification of Leishmania species was done. The detection in
      parasitologically positive samples was higher using PCR-N than PCR-F. In the
      total of samples studied, the main species identified were Leishmania panamensis,
      Leishmania braziliensis, and Leishmania infantum (chagasi). Although RFLP-N was
      more efficient for the identification, RFLP-F is necessary for discrimination
      between L. panamensis and Leishmania guyanesis, of great importance in Colombia.
      Unexpectedly, one sample from this country revealed an RFLP pattern corresponding
      to Leishmania naiffi. Both molecular variants are applicable for the study of
      clinical samples originated in Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala. Choosing the
      better tool for each setting depends on the species circulating. More studies are
      needed to confirm the presence of L. naiffi in Colombian territory.

PMID- 28573466
TI  - Wolbachia spreading dynamics in mosquitoes with imperfect maternal transmission.
AB  - Mosquitoes are primary vectors of life-threatening diseases such as dengue,
      malaria, and Zika. A new control method involves releasing mosquitoes carrying
      bacterium Wolbachia into the natural areas to infect wild mosquitoes and block
      disease transmission. In this work, we use differential equations to describe
      Wolbachia spreading dynamics, focusing on the poorly understood effect of
      imperfect maternal transmission. We establish two useful identities and employ
      them to prove that the system exhibits monomorphic, bistable, and polymorphic
      dynamics, and give sufficient and necessary conditions for each case. The results
      suggest that the largest maternal transmission leakage rate supporting Wolbachia
      spreading does not necessarily increase with the fitness of infected mosquitoes.
      The bistable dynamics is defined by the existence of two stable equilibria, whose
      basins of attraction are divided by the separatrix of a saddle point. By
      exploring the analytical property of the separatrix with some sharp estimates, we
      find that Wolbachia in a completely infected population could be wiped out
      ultimately if the initial population size is small. Surprisingly, when the
      infection shortens the lifespan of infected females that would impede Wolbachia
      spreading, such a reversion phenomenon does not occur.

PMID- 28573467
TI  - Branching process approach for epidemics in dynamic partnership network.
AB  - We study the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other
      infectious diseases on a dynamic network by using a branching process approach.
      The nodes in the network represent the sexually active individuals, while
      connections represent sexual partnerships. This network is dynamic as
      partnerships are formed and broken over time and individuals enter and leave the
      sexually active population due to demography. We assume that individuals enter
      the sexually active network with a random number of partners, chosen according to
      a suitable distribution and that the maximal number of partners that an
      individual can have at a time is finite. We discuss two different branching
      process approximations for the initial stages of an outbreak of the STI. In the
      first approximation we ignore some dependencies between infected individuals. We
      compute the offspring mean of this approximating branching process and discuss
      its relation to the basic reproduction number [Formula: see text]. The second
      branching process approximation is asymptotically exact, but only defined if
      individuals can have at most one partner at a time. For this model we compute the
      probability of a minor outbreak of the epidemic starting with one or few initial
      cases. We illustrate complications caused by dependencies in the epidemic model
      by showing that if individuals have at most one partner at a time, the
      probabilities of extinction of the two approximating branching processes are
      different. This implies that ignoring dependencies in the epidemic model leads to
      a wrong prediction of the probability of a large outbreak. Finally, we analyse
      the first branching process approximation if the number of partners an individual
      can have at a given time is unbounded. In this model we show that the branching
      process approximation is asymptomatically exact as the population size goes to
      infinity.

PMID- 28573469
TI  - Geographic epidemiology of hepatocellular carcinoma, viral hepatitis, and
      socioeconomic position in New York City.
AB  - PURPOSE: Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)) incidence and mortality
      rates are increasing in the United States. New York City (NYC) has a high burden
      of liver cancer risk factors, including hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis B (HBV)
      infection, which disproportionately affect persons of low socioeconomic position.
      Identifying neighborhoods with HCC disparities is essential to effectively define
      targeted cancer control strategies. METHODS: New York State Cancer Registry data
      from 1 January 2001 through 31 December 2012 were matched with NYC HCV and HBV
      surveillance data. HCC data were aggregated to NYC Zip Code Tabulation Areas
      (ZCTAs). Moran's I cluster analysis, Poisson regression, and geographically
      weighted Poisson regression were used to identify hotspots in HCC incidence and
      to examine the spatial associations with viral hepatitis rates, poverty, and
      uninsured status. RESULTS: Among NYC residents, 8,827 HCC cases were diagnosed
      during 2001-2012. Significant clustering was detected in the HCC rates (Moran's I
      = 0.25) with the strongest clustering found in HCC patients with comorbid HCV
      infection (Moran's I = 0.47). Poverty and uninsured status were associated (p <
      0.05) with increased rates of HCC patients with HBV or HCV infection.
      Neighborhoods with high rates of HCC without viral hepatitis infection had lower
      rates of poverty and uninsured status. CONCLUSIONS: The geographic variation in
      HCC highlights the need for neighborhood-targeted interventions to address risk
      factors and barriers to care. The clusters of HCC by viral hepatitis status may
      serve as a basis for healthcare policymakers and practitioners to prioritize
      neighborhoods for cancer screening and control efforts.

PMID- 28573468
TI  - Time dependent pharmacokinetics of pembrolizumab in patients with solid tumor and
      its correlation with best overall response.
AB  - Pembrolizumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets the programmed death-1
      receptor to induce immune-mediated clearance (CL) of tumor cells. Originally
      approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2014 for treating patients
      with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, pembrolizumab is now also used to treat
      patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, classical Hodgkin lymphoma, head and
      neck cancer, and urothelial cancer. This paper describes the recently identified
      feature of pembrolizumab pharmacokinetics, the time-dependent or time-varying CL.
      Overall results indicate that CL decreases over the treatment period of a typical
      patient in a pattern well described by a sigmoidal function of time with three
      parameters: the maximum proportion change in CL from baseline (approximately Imax
      or exactly eImax - 1), the time to reach Imax/2 (TI50), and a Hill coefficient.
      Best overall response per response evaluation criteria in solid tumor category
      was found to be associated with the magnitude of Imax.

PMID- 28573470
TI  - External quality assessment for molecular typing of Salmonella 2013-2015:
      performance of the European national public health reference laboratories.
AB  - We report the results of three consecutive External Quality Assessments (EQAs)
      for molecular subtyping of Salmonella to assess the performance of the European
      national public health reference laboratories (NPHRLs). The EQA included the
      molecular typing methods used for European enhanced surveillance of human
      Salmonella infections: pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), including gel
      analysis by the use of the software BioNumerics, and 5-locus multiple locus
      variable number of tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) for serovar Typhimurium. The
      participation in the PFGE laboratory part was higher (27/35) than in the gel
      analysis (19/35) and MLVA (15/35), suggestive of the need for capacity building
      in methods requiring specialized equipment (MLVA) or software (gel analysis). The
      majority (25/27) of the participating NPHRLs produced inter-laboratory comparable
      PFGE gel(s). Two laboratories continued to produce low-quality gels and should
      have additional technical assistance in the future. In particular, two gel
      quality evaluation parameters, measuring "image acquisition and running
      conditions" and "bands", were identified to cause gel quality problems throughout
      the EQAs. Despite the high number of laboratories participating in the PFGE
      laboratory part, the participation in gel analysis was low, although increasing.
      In the MLVA part, the NPHRLs correctly assigned 96% (405/420) allelic profiles
      according to the nomenclature. In conclusion, the EQAs identified critical
      parameters for unsuccessful performance and helped to offer assistance to those
      laboratories that needed it most. The assessments supported the development of
      quality in molecular typing and promoted the harmonization of subtyping methods
      used for EU/EEA-wide surveillance of human Salmonella infections.

PMID- 28573471
TI  - Emergence of Clostridium difficile tcdC variant 078 in Marseille, France.
AB  - The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the epidemiology of
      hypervirulent Clostridium difficile ribotypes from January 2013 to February 2017
      in the Marseille area of southern France. By using the Xpert Clostridium
      difficile Epi polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and sequencing the tcdC gene,
      we characterised C. difficile isolates from symptomatic patients diagnosed with
      C. difficile infection (CDI) in Marseille university hospitals. We first tested
      retrospectively 278 C. difficile samples isolated from January 2013 to December
      2014 and observed a high prevalence of isolates with tcdC mutations and deletions
      previously described in both hypervirulent ribotypes RT027 and RT078 (16.4% and
      10.7%, respectively). We highlighted the co-circulation of these two
      hypervirulent C. difficile tcdC variants (tV) with distinct epidemiological
      characteristics. While an RT027 outbreak occurred mainly as healthcare-associated
      infection in the elderly, CDI caused by tV078 occurred mainly in a younger
      population as community-associated infection. From January 2016, a systematic
      survey of these two hypervirulent C. difficile ribotypes revealed the emergence
      of CDI caused by tV078, currently being more prevalent than RT027 in the
      Marseille area. The present study is the first report of the emergence of CDI
      caused by tV078 in southern France. We showed the simultaneous circulation and
      sequential spread of hypervirulent ribotypes, such as RT027 and tV078. This
      emphasises the need for an efficient surveillance system for CDI with ribotyping
      and an optimised management of CDI caused by hypervirulent strains.

PMID- 28573473
TI  - Synergistic roles of the E2 glycoprotein and 3' untranslated region in the
      increased genomic stability of chimeric classical swine fever virus with
      attenuated phenotypes.
AB  - The E2 glycoprotein and 3' untranslated region (UTR) of classical swine fever
      virus (CSFV) are virulence determinants. To investigate the synergistic roles of
      E2 and 3'UTR for pathogenicity and genomic stability, a series of chimeric CSFVs
      were constructed by replacing the E2 gene and/or 3'UTR of virulent CSFV strain
      Shimen with the corresponding sequence of the lapinized 'Chinese' strain (C
      strain) using a reverse genetic approach. The in vitro growth characterization
      and in vivo pathogenicity of the chimeric CSFVs were investigated. Our results
      demonstrated that the E2 glycoprotein mediates virus cell-to-cell spread and
      viral particle release and that the 3'UTR regulates viral RNA replication. The
      CSFV E2 and 3'UTR synergistically modulate infectious virus production, viral
      genomic stability in vitro, and attenuation in swine. This work contributes to
      our understanding of the structure and function of the CSFV genome and virus
      pathogenicity and will be useful for the development of a novel CSF vaccine.

PMID- 28573472
TI  - New nucleic acid testing devices to diagnose infectious diseases in resource
      limited settings.
AB  - Point-of-care diagnosis based on nucleic acid testing aims to incorporate all the
      analytical steps, from sample preparation to nucleic acid amplification and
      detection, in a single device. This device needs to provide a low-cost, robust,
      sensitive, specific, and easily readable analysis. Microfluidics has great
      potential for handling small volumes of fluids on a single platform. Microfluidic
      technology has recently been applied to paper, which is already used in low-cost
      lateral flow tests. Nucleic acid extraction from a biological specimen usually
      requires cell filtration and lysis on specific membranes, while affinity
      matrices, such as chitosan or polydiacetylene, are well suited to concentrating
      nucleic acids for subsequent amplification. Access to electricity is often
      difficult in resource-limited areas, so the amplification step needs to be
      equipment-free. Consequently, the reaction has to be isothermal to alleviate the
      need for a thermocycler. LAMP, NASBA, HDA, and RPA are examples of the
      technologies available. Nucleic acid detection techniques are currently based on
      fluorescence, colorimetry, or chemiluminescence. For point-of-care diagnostics,
      the results should be readable with the naked eye. Nowadays, interpretation and
      communication of results to health professionals could rely on a smartphone, used
      as a telemedicine device. The major challenge of creating an "all-in-one"
      diagnostic test involves the design of an optimal solution and a sequence for
      each analytical step, as well as combining the execution of all these steps on a
      single device. This review provides an overview of available materials and
      technologies which seem to be adapted to point-of-care nucleic acid-based
      diagnosis, in low-resource areas.

PMID- 28573474
TI  - Identification and Management of Eating Disorders in Integrated Primary Care:
      Recommendations for Psychologists in Integrated Care Settings.
AB  - Eating disorders are associated with deleterious health consequences, increased
      risk of mortality, and psychosocial impairment. Although individuals with eating
      disorders are likely to seek treatment in general medical settings such as
      primary care (PC), these conditions are often under-detected by PC providers.
      However, psychologists in integrated PC settings are likely to see patients with
      eating disorders because of the mental health comorbidities associated with these
      conditions. Further, due to their training in identifying risk factors associated
      with eating disorders (i.e., comorbid mental health and medical disorders) and
      opportunities for collaboration with PC providers, psychologists are well
      positioned to improve the detection and management of eating disorders in PC.
      This paper provides a brief overview of eating disorders and practical guidance
      for psychologists working in integrated PC settings to facilitate the
      identification and management of these conditions.

PMID- 28573475
TI  - Patient-reported symptoms during radiotherapy : Clinically relevant symptom
      burden in patients treated with palliative and curative intent.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The benefits of patient-reported symptom assessment combined with
      integrated palliative care are well documented. This study assessed the symptom
      burden of palliative and curative-intent radiation oncology patients. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Prior to first consultation and at the end of RT, all adult cancer
      patients planned to receive fractionated percutaneous radiotherapy (RT) were
      asked to answer the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; nine symptoms from 0
      = no symptoms to 10 = worst possible symptoms). Mean values were used for
      curative vs. palliative and pre-post comparisons, and the clinical relevance was
      evaluated (symptom values >= 4). RESULTS: Of 163 participating patients, 151
      patients (90.9%) completed both surveys (116 curative and 35 palliative
      patients). Before beginning RT, 88.6% of palliative and 72.3% of curative
      patients showed at least one clinically relevant symptom. Curative patients most
      frequently named decreased general wellbeing (38.6%), followed by tiredness
      (35.0%), anxiety (32.4%), depression (30.0%), pain (26.3%), lack of appetite
      (23.5%), dyspnea (17.8%), drowsiness (8.0%) and nausea (6.1%). Palliative
      patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (62.8%), followed by
      pain (62.8%), tiredness (60.0%), lack of appetite (40.0%), anxiety (38.0%),
      depression (33.3%), dyspnea (28.5%), drowsiness (25.7%) and nausea (14.2%). At
      the end of RT, the proportion of curative and palliative patients with a
      clinically relevant symptom had increased significantly to 79.8 and 91.4%,
      respectively; whereas the proportion of patients reporting clinically relevant
      pain had decreased significantly (42.8 vs. 62.8%, respectively). Palliative
      patients had significantly increased tiredness. Curative patients reported
      significant increases in pain, tiredness, nausea, drowsiness, lack of appetite
      and restrictions in general wellbeing. CONCLUSION: Assessment of patient-reported
      symptoms was successfully realized in radiation oncology routine. Overall, both
      groups showed a high symptom burden. The results prove the need of systematic
      symptom assessment and programs for early integrated supportive and palliative
      care in radiation oncology.

PMID- 28573477
TI  - Vulnerability of Forests in India: A National Scale Assessment.
AB  - Forests are subjected to stress from climatic and non-climatic sources. In this
      study, we have reported the results of inherent, as well as climate change driven
      vulnerability assessments for Indian forests. To assess inherent vulnerability of
      forests under current climate, we have used four indicators, namely biological
      richness, disturbance index, canopy cover, and slope. The assessment is presented
      as spatial profile of inherent vulnerability in low, medium, high and very high
      vulnerability classes. Fourty percent forest grid points in India show high or
      very high inherent vulnerability. Plantation forests show higher inherent
      vulnerability than natural forests. We assess the climate change driven
      vulnerability by combining the results of inherent vulnerability assessment with
      the climate change impact projections simulated by the Integrated Biosphere
      Simulator dynamic global vegetation model. While 46% forest grid points show
      high, very high, or extremely high vulnerability under future climate in the
      short term (2030s) under both representative concentration pathways 4.5 and 8.5,
      such grid points are 49 and 54%, respectively, in the long term (2080s).
      Generally, forests in the higher rainfall zones show lower vulnerability as
      compared to drier forests under future climate. Minimizing anthropogenic
      disturbance and conserving biodiversity can potentially reduce forest
      vulnerability under climate change. For disturbed forests and plantations,
      adaptive management aimed at forest restoration is necessary to build long-term
      resilience.

PMID- 28573476
TI  - Single vs. multiple fraction regimens for palliative radiotherapy treatment of
      multiple myeloma : A prospective randomised study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the impact of a single fraction (8 Gy * 1 fraction) and
      multifraction (3 Gy * 10 fractions) radiotherapy regimens on pain relief,
      recalcification and the quality of life (QoL) in patients with bone destructions
      due to multiple myeloma (MM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: In all, 101 patients were
      included in a randomised prospective clinical trial: 58 patients were included in
      the control arm (3 Gy * 10 fractions) and 43 patients into the experimental arm
      (8 Gy * 1 fraction). The response rate was defined according to the International
      Consensus on Palliative Radiotherapy criteria. Recalcification was evaluated with
      radiographs. QoL questionnaires were completed before and 4 weeks after
      treatment. RESULTS: Pain relief was obtained in 81/101 patients (80.2%): complete
      response in 56 (69%) and partial in 25 patients (30.9%). No significant
      differences were observed in analgesic response between the groups. Significant
      factors for pain relief were female gender, age under 65, IgG MM type, presence
      of recalcification at the irradiated site. Recalcification was found in 32/101
      patients (33.7%): complete in 17 (53.2%) and partial in 15 (46.2%). No
      significant differences were observed in recalcification between the groups.
      Significant factors for recalcification were Karnofsky index >= 60%, haemoglobin
      level <= 80 g/dl, MM stage II and analgesic response at the irradiated site. The
      QoL after radiotherapy was improved in the control group. CONCLUSION: The same
      analgesic and recalcification response was observed using two different
      radiotherapy regimens. Higher doses should be used to achieve a better QoL.

PMID- 28573479
TI  - Aspirin and the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: An Approach Based
      on Individualized, Integrated Estimation of Risk.
AB  - While the use of aspirin in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular (CVD) is
      well established, aspirin in primary prevention is not systematically recommended
      because the absolute CV event reduction is similar to the absolute excess in
      major bleedings. Recently, emerging evidence suggests the possibility that the
      assumption of aspirin, may also be effective in the prevention of cancer. By
      adding to the CV prevention benefits the potential beneficial effect of aspirin
      in reducing the incidence of mortality and cancer could tip the balance between
      risks and benefits of aspirin therapy in the primary prevention in favour of the
      latter and broaden the indication for treatment with in populations at average
      risk. While prospective and randomized study are currently investigating the
      effect of aspirin in prevention of both cancer and CVD, clinical efforts at the
      individual level to promote the use of aspirin in global (or total) primary
      prevention could be already based on a balanced evaluation of the benefit/risk
      ratio.

PMID- 28573478
TI  - Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Critical Review of Environmental Occurrence
      and Bioremediation.
AB  - The degree of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination of environmental
      matrices has increased over the last several years due to increase in industrial
      activities. Interest has surrounded the occurrence and distribution of polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons for many decades because they pose a serious threat to the
      health of humans and ecosystems. The importance of the need for sustainable
      abatement strategies to alleviate contamination therefore cannot be
      overemphasised, as daily human activities continue to create pollution from
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and impact the natural environment. Globally,
      attempts have been made to design treatment schemes for the remediation and
      restoration of contaminated sites. Several techniques and technologies have been
      proposed and tested over time, the majority of which have significant
      limitations. This has necessitated research into environmentally friendly and
      cost-effective clean-up techniques. Bioremediation is an appealing option that
      has been extensively researched and adopted as it has been proven to be
      relatively cost-effective, environmentally friendly and is publicly accepted. In
      this review, the physicochemical properties of some priority polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons, as well as the pathways and mechanisms through which they enter the
      soil, river systems, drinking water, groundwater and food are succinctly
      examined. Their effects on human health, other living organisms, the aquatic
      ecosystem, as well as soil microbiota are also elucidated. The persistence and
      bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are discussed as well, as
      they are important factors that influence the rate, efficiency and overall
      success of remediation. Bioremediation (aerobic and anaerobic), use of
      biosurfactants and bioreactors, as well as the roles of biofilms in the
      biological treatment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are also explored.

PMID- 28573480
TI  - Relationship of miRNA-146a to primary Sjogren's syndrome and to systemic lupus
      erythematosus: a meta-analysis.
AB  - Sjogren's syndrome (SjS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are common
      systemic autoimmune diseases, which impact not only patient health but also their
      quality of life. miRNA-146a is a microRNA that participates in the
      pathophysiology of SjS and SLE. In this investigation, we conducted a meta
      analysis to determine the relationship of miR-146a to primary SjS (PSS) and to
      SLE. The following databases were interrogated; Pubmed, Cochrane Central Register
      of Controlled Trials, WANFANG, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and
      WEIPU. Standard mean difference with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to
      study the relationship between miRNA-146a expression and thee diseases by random
      effects model. A total of six studies, with 158 cases and 124 controls were
      included for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis shows that miRNA-146a
      expression is associated with the risk of PSS (MD = 6.32, p = 0.005). No
      relationship between miR-146a expression and SLE was identified (MD = -0.86, p =
      0.26). SLE subgroup analysis (peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum)
      confirmed this result. The risk for PSS is related to miR-146a expression, while
      miRNA-146a expression is not related to SLE. As such, miRNA-146a may serve as a
      novel biomarker for the diagnosis of PSS, but not SLE.

PMID- 28573481
TI  - Copper pyrithione, a booster biocide, induces abnormal muscle and notochord
      architecture in zebrafish embryogenesis.
AB  - The metal pyrithiones, principally zinc (ZnPT) and copper (CuPT), are replacing
      tributyltin (TBT) as antifouling agents. Zebrafish embryos were exposed within
      the first hour after fertilization to 12 and 64 ug/L of CuPT for 24 h.
      Morphological abnormalities in notochord and muscle architecture were observed at
      96 h post fertilization (hpf). TEM revealed abnormal electron dense deposits in
      the notochord sheath and muscle fiber degeneration in animals treated with 12
      ug/L of CuPT. Embryos that were exposed to 64 ug/L of CuPT displayed severe
      muscle fiber degeneration including abnormal A and I band patterning and altered
      z disk arrangement. Abnormalities in the notochord sheath, swelling of the
      mitochondria and numerous lipid whorls were also noted. Total antioxidant
      capacity was significantly decreased in embryos exposed to 12 and 64 ug/L of
      CuPT. Acridine orange staining revealed an increase in apoptosis particularly in
      the brain, eye, heart and tail regions of both treatment groups. Apoptosis was
      confirmed with an increase in caspase 3/7 activity in both treatment groups.
      Severe alternations in primary motor neuron axon extensions, slow tonic muscle
      fibers and fast twitch fibers were observed in CuPT treated embryos. There was a
      significant upregulation in sonic hedgehog and myod1 expression at 24 hpf in the
      12 ug/L treatment group. Exposed zebrafish embryos showed ultra-structural
      hallmarks of peroxidative injury and cell death via apoptosis. These changes
      question the use of copper pyrithione as an antifouling agent.

PMID- 28573482
TI  - Glycomyces xinjiangensis sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from a
      hypersaline habitat.
AB  - A novel actinomycete strain, designated XHU 5301T, was isolated from a
      hypersaline habitat, China. The strain was aerobic, Gram-stain positive and the
      optimum NaCl concentration for growth was 7-9% (w/v). Phylogenetic analysis based
      on an almost-complete 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain XHU 5301T showed that the
      organism was most closely related to Glycomyces halotolerans TRM 40137T (96.0%).
      The whole-cell sugar pattern consisted of glucose and galactose. The predominant
      menaquinone was MK-10(H4), MK-10(H2), and MK-9(H4). The major fatty acids were
      anteiso-C15: 0, iso-C15: 0, iso-C16: 0, and methyl-C19: 0. The polar lipids
      consist of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and one unknown
      phospholipid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 72.5 mol %. The novel
      species Glycomyces xinjiangensis sp. nov. was proposed, with strain XHU 5301T
      (=CCTCC AA 2016043T =KCTC 39689T) as the type strain of Glycomyces xinjiangensis.

PMID- 28573483
TI  - The added value of combined visual and semi-quantitative assessment for 123I-FP
      CIT SPECT and reply to Ueda et al.

PMID- 28573484
TI  - Camptocormia as presenting in lower motor neuron disease with TARDBP mutation:
      case report.

PMID- 28573485
TI  - A lateral flow colloidal gold-based immunoassay for rapid detection of miroestrol
      in samples of White Kwao Krua, a phytoestrogen-rich plant.
AB  - White Kwao Krua (WKK)-derived products have been used worldwide as dietary
      supplements to relieve climacteric symptoms in menopausal women. Miroestrol is a
      unique chromene found in WKK tuberous roots that corresponds to the estrogenic
      activity of WKK. However, miroestrol naturally accumulates at low levels in WKK
      samples, which are difficult to detect. The development of a rapid and sensitive
      assay to detect miroestrol in numerous products derived from this plant would be
      a practical and useful method to guarantee the quality of raw materials. To allow
      rapid and easy qualitative detection of miroestrol, a lateral flow immunoassay
      (LFIA) using a colloidal gold-labeled monoclonal antibody (mAb) against
      miroestrol was developed. The qualitative LFIA was based on the competition of
      free miroestrol in the sample and immobilized miroestrol-conjugated proteins on
      the strip for a limited number of antibodies in the detection reagent. Anti
      miroestrol mAb was colored by colloidal gold labels and used as the detection
      reagent in LFIA. Anti-mouse immunoglobulin G was used to indicate the functioning
      of the LFIA system. The detection limit of the LFIA was 0.156 MUg of miroestrol.
      The LFIA was applied to determine the miroestrol content in WKK samples and
      products. The result was compared with the validated enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA) and demonstrated a correlative outcome. This study shows that the
      developed LFIA is practical and suitable for detecting small amounts of
      miroestrol in WKK samples. This qualitative assay is more rapid in screening
      miroestrol in WKK samples (within 10 min) than conventional methods (ELISA and
      HPLC).

PMID- 28573487
TI  - Low vascularization of the nephrogenic zone of the fetal kidney suggests a major
      role for hypoxia in human nephrogenesis.
AB  - CD31 reactivity is generally utilized as a marker of endothelial cells. CD31
      immunoreactivity in the developing human kidney revealed that fetal glomerular
      capillary endothelial cells change their immunohistochemical phenotype during
      maturation. The aim of this study was to analyze CD31 reactivity in the fetal
      human kidney in the different stages of intrauterine development: We observed
      different distribution of CD31-reactive vascular progenitors in the different
      areas of the developing kidney. In particular, the nephrogenic zone and the renal
      capsule were characterized by a scarcity of CD31-reactive cells at all
      gestational ages. These data suggest the hypothesis that nephrogenesis does not
      need high oxygen levels and confirms a major role of hypoxia in nephrogenesis.

PMID- 28573486
TI  - Feasibility of tongue strength measurements during (chemo)radiotherapy in head
      and neck cancer patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of tongue
      strength measures (TSMs) and the influence of bulb location, sex, and self
      perceived pain and mucositis in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients during
      chemoradiotherapy (CRT). METHODS: Twenty-six newly diagnosed HNC patients treated
      with CRT performed anterior and posterior maximal isometric tongue pressures by
      means of the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI). The Oral Mucositis Weekly
      Questionnaire (OMWQ) and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain during swallowing
      were completed weekly from baseline to 1 week post CRT. RESULTS: Feasibility of
      TSMs during CRT declines significantly from 96 to 100% at baseline to 46% after 6
      weeks of CRT. But post-hoc analyses reveal only significant differences in
      feasibility between baseline and measurements after 4 weeks of treatment. No
      effect of gender or bulb location was established, but feasibility is influenced
      by pain and mucositis. CONCLUSIONS: Feasibility of TSMs declines during CRT and
      is influenced by mucositis and pain. For the majority of subjects, TSMs were
      feasible within the first 4 weeks, which provides a window of scientific and
      clinical opportunities in this patient population.

PMID- 28573488
TI  - Peritoneal dialysis-related infections recommendations: 2016 update. What is new?
AB  - In 2016, the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD) published
      guidelines that focus on the importance of both prevention and treatment of
      peritonitis. For once more, the need for annual reporting of peritonitis rates
      and recording of peritonitis and exit-site infections, isolated microorganism and
      antimicrobial susceptibilities as a central component of a quality improvement
      program is highlighted. Data on new antibiotic regimens, techniques for
      microorganism isolation and peritoneal dialysis solutions are included. Training
      of both peritoneal dialysis nurses and patients seems to be crucial, while the
      modifiable risk factors for peritonitis seem to be of great interest. In this
      article, we record the changes in the last ISPD (2016) guidelines compared to the
      previous ones published in 2010.

PMID- 28573489
TI  - Ultrasonic evaluation of renal cortex arterial area enables differentiation
      between hypertensive and glomerulonephritis-related chronic kidney disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Identifying the primary etiology of cardio-renal syndrome in a timely
      manner remains an ongoing challenge in nephrology. We hypothesized that
      hypertensive kidney damage can be distinguished from chronic glomerulonephritis
      at an early stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD) using ultrasound (US) Doppler
      sonography. METHODS: Fifty-six males (age 54 +/- 15, BMI 28.3 +/- 3.5 kg/m2) with
      hypertension and stable CKD at stages 2-4 [38 with essential hypertension (HT
      CKD); 18 with glomerulonephritis (GN-CKD)] were studied. Blood tests, UACR,
      echocardiography, ABPM, carotid IMT, and an ultrasound dynamic tissue perfusion
      measurement (DTPM) of the renal cortex were performed. RESULTS: HT-CKD patients
      had reduced proximal renal cortex perfusion as well as reduced total and proximal
      renal cortex arterial area. Proximal renal cortex arterial area <=0.149 cm2
      identified hypertension-related CKD with a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity
      of 78% (AUC 0.753, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Evidence of diminished arterial
      vascularity or perfusion of renal proximal cortex, both derived from US Doppler,
      could be helpful in differentiating hypertensive nephropathy from
      glomerulonephritis-related CKD.

PMID- 28573490
TI  - Interactive association of serum uric acid and total bilirubin with renal
      dysfunction among community-dwelling subjects.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic kidney disease is a major public health concern. Serum uric acid
      (SUA) at high levels was oxidative stress agents, and total bilirubin (T-BiL) at
      mildly increased levels was potent antioxidants, but whether SUA and T-BiL
      produce an additive interaction for the risk of renal dysfunction remains
      unclear. METHODS: The subjects comprised 567 men aged 71 +/- 8 (mean +/- standard
      deviation) years and 853 women aged 70 +/- 8 years from a rural village. We
      examined the relationship between SUA and T-BiL, and renal function was evaluated
      by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the Modification of Diet in
      Renal Disease Study Group equation. RESULTS: Stepwise multiple regression
      analysis using eGFR as an objective variable, adjusted for risk factors as
      explanatory variables, showed that SUA (beta = -0.358, p < 0.001) as well as age
      (beta = -0.534, p < 0.001), drinking status (beta = 0.119, p < 0.001), and the
      presence of antihypertensive medication (beta = -0.058, p = 0.005) were
      significantly and independently associated with eGFR, but T-BiL was not
      associated with eGFR. While in the group with the highest tertile of SUA, T-BiL
      (beta = 0.081, p = 0.032) was significantly and independently associated with
      eGFR, and in the group with the lowest to middle tertile of SUA, T-BiL was not
      associated with eGFR. In addition, interaction between SUA and T-BiL (F = 8.512,
      p = 0.004) as well as age, drinking status, the presence of antihypertensive
      medication, SUA, and T-BiL was a significant and independent determinant for
      eGFR. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrated that low T-BiL could be important as a
      potential risk factor for renal dysfunction in those with high SUA.

PMID- 28573491
TI  - P2X7 receptor large pore signaling in avian Muller glial cells.
AB  - ATP is a pleiotropic molecule that promotes extra- and intracellular signaling to
      regulate numerous functions. This nucleotide activates purine and pyrimidine
      receptors at the plasma membrane, categorized as ionotropic P2X or G-protein
      coupled receptor (GPCR) P2Y receptors. P2X are ligand-gated ion channel
      receptors, expressed in both retinal neurons and Muller cells leading to neuron
      glia communication, calcium waves and neurovascular coupling. However, how P2X
      pore is formed upon ATP activation and how signaling pathways regulates the
      complex is still a matter of controversy. Here we studied the properties of the
      P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) using electrophysiology, single cell Ca2+ imaging, and dye
      uptake assay in purified avian Muller glia in culture. Our data show that ATP (or
      benzoyl-benzoyl ATP, BzATP) evoked large inward currents in patch-clamp studies
      while addition of P2X7R antagonist such as brilliant Blue G (BBG), abolished
      these currents. Ruthenium red (RU-2), a general transient receptor potential
      (TRP) inhibitor, reduced currents induced by ATP. Our data also point to the
      involvement of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), phosphoinositide 3-kinase
      (PI3K), Ca2+-calmodulin kinase II (CAMKII), microtubules or protein kinase C
      (PKC) modulating ATP-induced ionic current in Muller cells. We show that ATP
      induced Ca2+ influx, partially inhibited by P2X7R antagonists (oxidized ATP or
      BBG), and totally inhibited by blockers of other pores such as transient receptor
      potential (TRPs) or connexin hemichannel. Additionally, MAPK, PKC, PI3K or CAMKII
      inhibitors also are involved in the modulation of intracellular calcium
      signaling. Finally, ATP induced 80-90% of dye uptake in Muller glia cells, while
      oxidized ATP (oATP), BBG or A740003 inhibited this effect. We conclude that large
      conductance channel and other P2XRs are not involved in the ATP-induced dye
      uptake, but signaling pathways such as MAPK, PI3-K, microtubules or PKC are
      involved in pore formation.

PMID- 28573493
TI  - Organophosphate Flame Retardants in House Dust from South China and Related Human
      Exposure Risks.
AB  - House dust associated with organic pollutants is not only a potential source of
      pollutants to the outdoor environment, but also a source to human exposure. The
      present study investigated the occurrence and concentrations of organophosphate
      flame retardants (OPFRs) in house dust collected from South China dwellings (n =
      20). The results revealed a universal presence of most target OPFRs in house
      dust, with concentrations of SigmaOPFRs ranging from 2.06 to 19.95 MUg/g. The
      median concentration of SigmaOPFR (9.20 MUg/g) was one order of magnitude greater
      than that of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (0.80 MUg/g). The composition of OPFR
      chemicals in house dust was dominated by chlorinated OPFRs, such as tris(1,3
      dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP) and tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate
      (TCPP). This compositional pattern was different from what has been reported in
      indoor dust from many other countries, where tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBEP)
      was generally dominant. The daily intake of OPFRs by adults was estimated to be
      1.6 and 4.2 ng/kg body weight/day under average and high exposure scenarios,
      respectively, and 31.7 and 127 ng/kg body weight/day for toddlers.

PMID- 28573492
TI  - Bactericidal Activity and Synergy Studies of Peptide AP-CECT7121 Against Multi
      resistant Bacteria Isolated from Human and Animal Soft Tissue Infections.
AB  - AP-CECT7121 is an antimicrobial peptide, produced by Enterococcus faecalis
      CECT7121, with bactericidal activity against Gram-positive bacteria. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the bactericidal activity of AP-CECT7121, alone and
      with gentamicin, against multi-resistant bacteria isolated from human and animals
      with soft tissue infections. During the period 2014-2015, bacterial strains
      producing human and animal soft tissue infections were studied. Samples from
      patients attended at a general hospital and cattle from four dairies in the
      Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) were included. Twenty-two methicillin
      resistant Staphylococcus aureus (11, human blood samples; 11, cow milk) and five
      vancomycin-resistant Ent. faecium strains isolated from four mastitic dairy cows
      were tested. AP-CECT7121 (12 mg/L) potency was assessed by time-kill curves alone
      or with sub-inhibitory concentrations of gentamicin. All staphylococcal strains
      were susceptible to gentamicin; enterococci did not show high-level gentamicin
      resistance. Colony counts were carried out at 0, 2, 4, 8, and 24 h of incubation.
      AP-CECT7121 showed bactericidal activity against all the enterococcal strains. In
      addition, AP-CECT7121 had a bactericidal effect on most staphylococci (16/22).
      Early AP-CECT7121/gentamicin synergy (4-8 h) for all staphylococci was detected.
      At 24 h, synergy (19/22) and indifference (3/22) were observed. Synergy with
      gentamicin was detected for staphylococci. AP-CECT7121 constitutes an attractive
      candidate for its use as a natural therapeutic tool for the treatment of
      infections produced by multi-resistant Staph. aureus and vancomycin-resistant
      Ent. faecium isolated from humans and animals.

PMID- 28573494
TI  - A novel TP53 germline inframe deletion identified in a Spanish series of Li
      fraumeni syndrome suspected families.
AB  - Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is an autosomal dominant, inherited tumor
      predisposition syndrome associated with heterozygous germline mutations in the
      TP53 gene. The molecular diagnosis of LFS is important to develop strategies for
      early detection and access to the genetic counseling. Our study evaluated
      germline TP53 mutations in Spanish families with a history suggestive of LFS.
      Germline TP53 alterations in 22 families with a history suggestive of LFS were
      evaluated by Sanger sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe
      amplification. Loss of heterozygosity analysis and immunohistochemistry of the
      protein in the tumor were performed in order to evaluate the pathogenicity of a
      novel alteration detected. A total of seven TP53 mutations were detected, six
      point mutations (4 missense and 2 nonsense) and a novel inframe deletion. 93% of
      mutation carriers developed at least one malignancy (mainly breast cancer and
      sarcomas), with a mean age at diagnosis of the first tumor of 30.2 years. Two
      missense mutations acted as dominant-negative. The novel inframe mutation
      c.437_445del was located in the DNA-binding domain. This mutation segregated with
      cancer in the family, and both high expression of the protein and loss of the
      wild-type TP53 allele were detected in the tumor of the carrier. We have found a
      novel inframe deletion in TP53 that likely results in the loss of p53 function
      and acts in a non-dominant negative way, although further studies are necessary
      to clarify this issue. The identification of novel TP53 alterations is crucial
      for a personalized cancer-risk management of the Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

PMID- 28573495
TI  - RNF43 is mutated less frequently in Lynch Syndrome compared with sporadic
      microsatellite unstable colorectal cancers.
AB  - The WNT signaling pathway is commonly altered during colorectal cancer
      development. The E3 ubiquitin ligase, RNF43, negatively regulates the WNT signal
      through increased ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of the Frizzled
      receptor. RNF43 has recently been reported to harbor frequent truncating
      frameshift mutations in sporadic microsatellite unstable (MSI) colorectal
      cancers. This study assesses the relative frequency of RNF43 mutations in
      hereditary colorectal cancers arising in the setting of Lynch syndrome. The
      entire coding region of RNF43 was Sanger sequenced in 24 colorectal cancers from
      23 patients who either (i) carried a germline mutation in one of the DNA mismatch
      repair genes (MLH1, MSH6, MSH2, PMS2), or (ii) showed immunohistochemical loss of
      expression of one or more of the DNA mismatch repair proteins, was BRAF wild type
      at V600E, were under 60 years of age at diagnosis, and demonstrated no promoter
      region methylation for MLH1 in tumor DNA. A validation cohort of 44 colorectal
      cancers from mismatch repair germline mutation carriers from the Australasian
      Colorectal Cancer Family Registry (ACCFR) were sequenced for the most common
      truncating mutation hotspots (X117 and X659). RNF43 mutations were found in 9 of
      24 (37.5%) Lynch syndrome colorectal cancers. The majority of mutations were
      frameshift deletions in the G659 G7 repeat tract (29%); 2 cancers (2/24, 8%) from
      the one patient harbored frameshift mutations at codon R117 (C6 repeat tract)
      within exon 3. In the ACCFR validation cohort, RNF43 hotspot mutations were
      identified in 19/44 (43.2%) of samples, which was not significantly different to
      the initial series. The proportion of mutant RNF43 in Lynch syndrome related
      colorectal cancers is significantly lower than the previously reported mutation
      rate found in sporadic MSI colorectal cancers. These findings identify further
      genetic differences between sporadic and hereditary colorectal cancers. This may
      be because Lynch Syndrome cancers commonly arise in colorectal adenomas already
      bearing the APC mutation, whereas sporadic microsatellite unstable colorectal
      cancers arise from serrated polyps typically lacking APC mutation, decreasing the
      selection pressure on other WNT signaling related loci in Lynch syndrome.

PMID- 28573496
TI  - Patient and Caregiver Adjustment to Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: a
      Systematic Review of Dyad-Based Studies.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aims of this study were to identify and systematically
      evaluate studies published from 2005-2017 that took a dyadic approach to
      assessing or intervening upon hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients and
      their informal caregivers. RECENT FINDINGS: Our search yielded 20 studies.
      Regarding sample demographic characteristics, most participants were Caucasian
      and most caregivers were related to the patient by marriage. Regarding design
      characteristics, 18 studies were quantitative and two were qualitative; five were
      cross-sectional, ten were longitudinal, one was experimental, and four were
      interventional. Most outcomes were psychosocial and the interventions were
      largely psycho-educational in nature. Large variation in quality of the studies
      emerged (six were rated as low quality, seven as adequate, and seven as high
      quality). Understudied populations include racial/ethnic minorities and same-sex
      couples. More work is needed to understand functioning during survivorship and
      impacts on patient medical outcomes, and to truly leverage the dyad to optimize
      individual- and relationship-level adjustment.

PMID- 28573497
TI  - Therapeutic Options for Aggressive T-Cell Lymphomas.
AB  - T-cell lymphomas (TCL) are a rare, heterogeneous group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas
      associated with very poor prognosis with standard cytotoxic chemotherapy.
      Epigenetic-based therapy, such as with histone deacetylase inhibitors, was
      initially discovered to be efficacious in TCL. In recent years, our understanding
      of the mechanisms driving T-cell lymphomagenesis has validated the use of
      epigenetic-based drugs and has also led to the development of novel agents with
      promising efficacy in pre-clinical and early clinical trials. These new
      treatments play upon the prominent existence of epigenetic and immune dysfunction
      present in T-cell lymphomas. With these advances, novel therapeutic regimens
      combining traditional chemotherapy as well as epigenetic and/or immunotherapy
      serve as promising future treatment options for TCL. In this review, we discuss
      the traditional methods of treatment for TCL as well as novel agents and
      combinations that will likely change the treatment paradigms resulting in better
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28573500
TI  - Black Hairy Tongue.

PMID- 28573498
TI  - Single freeze strategy with the second- generation cryballoon for atrial
      fibrillation: a multicenter international retrospective analysis in a large
      cohort of patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The second-generation cryoballoon (CB-A, Arctic Front Advance,
      Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA) has proven to be highly effective in achieving
      freedom from atrial fibrillation; nonetheless, the ideal number and duration of
      freezing cycles is still a matter of debate. We investigated the acute success,
      procedural complications, and clinical outcome of a single freeze strategy using
      the CB-A in a large, retrospective, international multicenter study. METHODS:
      Between January 2013 and September 2015, 818 consecutive patients (58 +/- 12
      years, 68% males) with drug-resistant atrial fibrillation (AF) who underwent a CB
      A using a single freeze strategy were taken into consideration for our analysis.
      RESULTS: Paroxysmal AF was documented in 74.1% of the patients, while 25.9%
      presented with persistent AF. Additional freezes were needed in a mean 1.4 veins
      per patient. 0.2% of the patients experienced persistent PNP that was still
      documented at the last follow-up. After a median follow-up of 14 +/- 8 months,
      taking into consideration a blanking period (BP) of 3 months, 692 patients
      (84.6%) were free from arrhythmia recurrence. After a single procedure, AF
      recurrence during BP and persistent AF were identified as predictors of clinical
      recurrence after BP. CONCLUSIONS: Single freeze CB-A ablation is effective in
      treating drug-resistant AF and affords freedom from arrhythmia recurrences in
      84.6% of patients during a 14-month follow-up. Persistent AF and recurrence
      during BP are predictors of arrhythmia recurrences.

PMID- 28573499
TI  - Effectiveness of Lipid-Lowering Statin Therapy in Patients With and Without
      Psoriasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is associated with dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome, and
      has been linked to an increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to
      compare baseline characteristics and effects of statin therapy on lipid levels
      and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with and without psoriasis. METHODS: This
      post-hoc analysis assessed patients from one primary cardiovascular prevention
      statin trial (Collaborative AtoRvastatin Diabetes Study [CARDS]) and two
      secondary cardiovascular prevention statin trials (Treating to New Targets [TNT]
      and Incremental Decrease in End Points Through Aggressive Lipid Lowering
      [IDEAL]). Baseline characteristics, lipid changes from baseline, and
      cardiovascular event rates were analyzed. TNT and IDEAL data were pooled.
      RESULTS: Baseline characteristics and lipid profiles differed minimally in
      patients with and without psoriasis. In CARDS and TNT/IDEAL, similar
      apolipoprotein B, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
      reductions occurred with statin therapy in patients with or without psoriasis.
      High-dose atorvastatin significantly reduced cardiovascular events vs.
      standard/low-dose statins in patients without psoriasis in TNT/IDEAL; similar
      numeric differences in event rates were observed in patients with psoriasis.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this post-hoc analysis, statins improved lipid levels and
      cardiovascular outcomes in patients with and without psoriasis, supporting statin
      use in patients with psoriasis. Trial registration (ClinicalTrials.gov)
      NCT00327418, registered 16 May, 2006; NCT00327691, registered 16 May, 2006;
      NCT00159835, registered 8 September, 2005.

PMID- 28573501
TI  - Capsule commentary on Vijn et al., Involving medical students in providing
      patient education for real patients: a scoping review.

PMID- 28573502
TI  - Re-positioning faculty development as knowledge mobilization for health
      professions education.
AB  - Faculty development as knowledge mobilization offers a particularly fruitful and
      novel avenue for exploring the research-practice interface in health professions
      education. We use this 'eye opener' to build off this assertion to envision
      faculty development as an enterprise that provides a formal, recognized space for
      the sharing of research and practical knowledge among health professions
      educators. Faculty development's knowledge mobilizing strategies and outcomes,
      which draw upon varied sources of knowledge, make it a potentially effective
      knowledge mobilization vehicle.First, we explain our choice of the term knowledge
      mobilization over translation, in an attempt to resist the false dichotomy of
      'knowledge user' and 'knowledge creator'. Second, we leverage the documented
      strengths of faculty development against the documented critiques of knowledge
      mobilization in the hopes of avoiding some of the pitfalls that have befallen
      previous attempts at closing knowing-doing gaps.Through faculty development,
      faculty are indeed educated, in the traditional sense, to acquire new knowledge
      and skill, but they are also socialized to go on to form the systems and
      structures of their workplaces, as leaders and workers. Therefore, faculty
      development can not only mobilize knowledge, but also create knowledge
      mobilizers. Achieving this vision of faculty development as knowledge
      mobilization requires an acceptance of multiple sources of knowledge, including
      practice-based knowledge, and of multiple purposes for education and faculty
      development, including professional socialization.

PMID- 28573504
TI  - MicroRNA-30a functions as tumor suppressor and inhibits the proliferation and
      invasion of prostate cancer cells by down-regulation of SIX1.
AB  - Increasing reports have demonstrated that aberrant expression of microRNAs
      (miRNAs) is found in multiple human cancers. Many studies have shown that down
      regulated level of miR-30a is in a variety of cancers including prostate cancer
      (PCa). However, the precise mechanisms of miR-30a in PCa have not been well
      explored. In this study, we investigated the biological functions and molecular
      mechanism of miR-30a in PCa cell lines, discussing whether it could be a
      therapeutic biomarker of PCa in the future. We found that miR-30a is down
      regulated in PCa tissues and cell lines. Moreover, the low level of miR-30a was
      associated with increased expression of SIX1 in PCa tissues and cell lines. Up
      regulation of miR-30a significantly inhibited proliferation of PCa cells. In
      addition, invasion of PCa cells was suppressed by overexpression of miR-30a.
      However, down-regulation of miR-30a promoted cell growth and invasion of PCa
      cells. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that the SIX1 was a potential target
      gene of miR-30a. Next, luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-30a could
      directly target SIX1. Consistent with the effect of miR-30a, down-regulation of
      SIX1 by siRNA inhibited proliferation and invasion of PCa cells. Overexpression
      of SIX1 in PCa cells partially reversed the effect of miR-30a mimic. In
      conclusion, introduction of miR-30a dramatically inhibited proliferation and
      invasion of PCa cells by down-regulating SIX1 expression, and that down
      regulation of SIX1 was essential for inhibition of cell growth and invasion of
      PCa cells by overexpression of miR-30a.

PMID- 28573503
TI  - Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, NRF2 Signalling and Cardiovascular Diseases in a
      Nutshell.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This short review is intended primarily to summarize the
      understanding of the interrelated roles of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress,
      oxidative stress and inflammation in cardiovascular diseases. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Insults interfering with ER function lead to the accumulation of unfolded and
      misfolded proteins in the ER. An excess of proteins folding in the ER is known as
      ER stress. This condition initiates the unfolded protein response (UPR). When the
      UPR fails to control the level of unfolded and misfolded proteins, ER-initiated
      apoptotic signalling is induced. Moreover, the role of the protective nuclear
      erythroid-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant-related element (ARE) and the
      activation of the pro-inflammatory nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) are analysed.
      Authors summarize evidence that oxidative stress, inflammation and ER stress are
      closely entwined phenomena. They are involved in the pathogenesis of different
      cardiovascular diseases. Current literature data are presented, focusing on three
      topics of related pathologies: atherosclerotic plaque, coronary artery disease
      and diabetes. This review will provide a basic platform for study and application
      to several other conditions in which oxidative stress, ER stress and inflammation
      are key features. Future studies in this area may identify the most promising
      molecules to be investigated as common targets for cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28573505
TI  - Comparative Efficacy of Ibrutinib Versus Obinutuzumab + Chlorambucil in First
      Line Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: A Matching-Adjusted Indirect
      Comparison.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ibrutinib (ibr) monotherapy and the combination of obinutuzumab
      plus chlorambucil (obi) are approved for previously untreated chronic lymphocytic
      leukemia (CLL). No trials directly comparing their efficacy are available.
      Therefore a matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) was performed to provide
      insight into their relative efficacy in terms of progression-free survival (PFS)
      and overall survival (OS). MAIC attempts to adjust for between-trial differences
      in factors known or suspected to influence treatment effects, to minimize bias.
      METHODS: A MAIC within a Bayesian framework was conducted using individual
      patient data from the RESONATE-2 study of ibr versus chlorambucil and published
      data from the CLL11 study of obi versus chlorambucil. Both studies were conducted
      in patients ineligible for full-dose fludarabine-based therapy. After matching,
      the reweighted adjusted relative efficacy measure of ibr versus chlorambucil from
      RESONATE-2 [hazard ratio (HR), 95% credible interval (CrI)] was compared with
      that of obi versus chlorambucil from CLL11 for each endpoint, using a Bayesian
      indirect comparison. RESULTS: Our results suggest that in a population with
      similar average baseline characteristics to CLL11, ibr would improve PFS and OS
      outcomes compared to obi. Before matching, the HRs for ibr versus obi were 0.48
      [CrI = 0.22-1.02, p(HR <1) = 97%], 0.85 [CrI = 0.44-1.63, p(HR <1) = 69%], and
      0.40 [CrI = 0.10-1.54, p(HR <1) = 91%] for PFS by investigator assessment, PFS by
      independent review committee, and OS, respectively. After matching on all
      available characteristics the HRs decreased to 0.12 [CrI = 0.02-0.97, p(HR <1) =
      98%], 0.24 [CrI = 0.04-1.35, p(HR <1) = 95%], and 0.21 [CrI = <0.01-8.89, p(HR
      <1) = 79%], respectively. There was a large variance around the treatment effect
      for OS due to the low number of deaths. CONCLUSION: Our analysis suggests that
      ibrutinib is highly likely to provide greater PFS benefit than obinutuzumab plus
      chlorambucil in older or less fit patients with previously untreated CLL. There
      is also an indication of improvement in OS, albeit with a higher uncertainty due
      to the low number of events. FUNDING: Janssen-Cilag Ltd.

PMID- 28573506
TI  - Estradiol Has Differential Effects on Acute Colonic Inflammation in the Presence
      and Absence of Estrogen Receptor beta Expression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) increases the risk of developing
      colon cancer. This risk is higher in men compared to women, implicating a role
      for female hormones in the protection against this disease. Studies from our
      laboratory demonstrated that estradiol (E2) protects against inflammation
      associated colon tumor formation when administered following chemical carcinogen
      and induction of chronic colitis. AIM: This study seeks to better understand the
      effect of E2 on acute colitis in the presence and absence of estrogen receptor
      beta (ERbeta). METHODS: Inflammation was induced by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic
      acid in wild-type (WT) and ERbeta knockout (ERbetaKO) mice implanted with a
      control or E2-containing pellet and killed 5 days later. Inflammation and injury
      were scored by a pathologist. Apoptosis and proliferation were assessed by
      immunohistochemistry. Cytokines were measured by multiplex analysis. RESULTS: E2
      treatment reduced inflammation in the middle colon in WT mice and the distal
      colon in ERbetaKO mice compared to control mice. WT mice had reduced IL-6, IL-12,
      IL-17, GM-CSF, IFN-gamma, MCP-1, MIP-1alpha, and TNF-alpha, and ERbetaKO had
      reduced IL-6 and IFN-gamma expression in response to E2. Injury scores were lower
      in E2-treated ERbetaKO mice compared to control ERbetaKO mice. ERbetaKO mice had
      increased proliferation in the basal third of crypts in the distal colon and
      decreased apoptosis in the proximal colon. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that
      E2 has differential protective effects against acute colitis in the presence or
      absence of ERbeta and provide insight into how E2 may protect against IBD.

PMID- 28573507
TI  - High Center Volume Does Not Mitigate Risk Associated with Using High Donor Risk
      Organs in Liver Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High-risk donor allografts increase access to liver transplant, but
      potentially reduce patient and graft survival. AIMS: It is unclear whether the
      risk associated with using marginal donor livers is mitigated by increasing
      center experience. METHODS: The United Network for Organ Sharing registry was
      queried for adult first-time liver transplant recipients between 2/2002 and
      12/2015. High donor risk was defined as donor risk index >1.9, and 1-year patient
      and graft survival were compared according to donor risk index in small and large
      centers. Multivariable Cox regression estimated the hazard ratio (HR) associated
      with using high-risk donor organs, according to a continuous measure of annual
      center volume. RESULTS: The analysis included 51,770 patients. In 67 small and 67
      large centers, high donor risk index predicted increased mortality (p = 0.001).
      In multivariable analysis, high-donor risk index allografts predicted greater
      mortality hazard at centers performing 20 liver transplants per year (HR 1.35;
      95% CI 1.22, 1.49; p < 0.001) and, similarly, at centers performing 70 per year
      (HR 1.35; 95% CI 1.26, 1.43; p < 0.001). The interaction between high donor risk
      index and center volume was not statistically significant (p = 0.747), confirming
      that the risk associated with using marginal donor livers was comparable between
      smaller and larger centers. Results were consistent when examining graft loss.
      CONCLUSION: At both small and large centers, high-risk donor allografts were
      associated with reduced patient and graft survival after liver transplant.
      Specific strategies to mitigate the risk of liver transplant involving high-risk
      donors are needed, in addition to accumulation of center expertise.

PMID- 28573508
TI  - Crossover Subsets of CD4+ T Lymphocytes in the Intestinal Lamina Propria of
      Patients with Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hovhannisyan et al. first showed evidence of plasticity between Treg
      and Th17 in the inflamed intestine of Crohn's disease (CD) patients. Our previous
      report suggests that the inflammatory cytokine milieu generates IL-17+ Foxp3+
      CD4+ T lymphocytes which is a crossover population converting Treg subset to Th17
      in the peripheral blood of IBD patients. This is considered as an evidence of
      Treg/Th17 plasticity. AIM: The aim of this study was to characterize a variety of
      helper T cell crossover population, not limited to IL-17+ Foxp3+ CD4+ T
      lymphocytes, in the lamina propria (LP) of IBD patients. METHODS: Fresh
      colonoscopic biopsies were obtained from patients with CD (n = 50) and ulcerative
      colitis (UC, n = 32) and from healthy controls (HC, n = 25). LP mononuclear cells
      were assessed for intracellular cytokines and transcription factors such as
      IFNgamma, IL-13, IL-17, IL-22, T-bet, Gata-3, RORgammat, and Foxp3 using
      multicolor flow cytometry to detect subsets of LP CD4+ T lymphocytes. RESULTS:
      Patients with IBD demonstrated increased crossover populations in IL-17+ Foxp3+,
      T-bet+ Foxp3+, Gata3+ Foxp3+, RORgammat+ Foxp3+ populations compared to HC. There
      was an inverse correlation of Harvey-Bradshaw index with Gata3+ Foxp3+ population
      in CD patients, while IL-13+ Foxp3+ population was directly correlated with Mayo
      clinical scores in UC patients. Furthermore, total IL-22 expressing cells as well
      as Th22 and IL-22+ Th1 populations were decreased in UC compared to CD and HC.
      CONCLUSION: IBD patients exhibit the increased crossover populations in LP Treg
      cells toward Th2 and Th17 compared to HC. The prevalence of Treg/Th2 crossover
      populations is associated with clinical disease score of IBD.

PMID- 28573509
TI  - Temporal Changes in the Modes of Hepatitis C Virus Transmission in the USA and
      Northern China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Predominant modes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission vary
      between countries and over time. AIMS: To compare HCV transmission modes in the
      USA and northern China. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study enrolling two
      cohorts of chronic HCV patients in the USA, and in China at Beijing, and at Gu'an
      and Kuancheng counties in Hebei. Patients self-reported the most likely source
      and year of infection. RESULTS: A total of 1957 patients were studied (1000 USA;
      957 China-428 Beijing, 387 Gu'an, 142 Kuancheng). The predominant infection
      sources were transfusion (23.0%) and injection drug use (IDU) (32.1%) in the USA
      and transfusion (64.5%) in northern China. Within China, transfusion was the most
      common source in Beijing (62.1%) and Gu'an (88.1%), and medical procedures
      (35.9%) and IDU (12.0%) in Kuancheng. Infection via transfusion decreased
      significantly in the USA (35.1-4.6%) and Beijing (84.2-14.3%) but remained
      frequent in Gu'an (90.5-72.5%) over time. Infection via IDU decreased from 32.4%
      in those >=61 years to 25.0% in those 41-50 years but increased to 46.5% in those
      <=40 years in US patients and decreased over time from 38.7 to 1.9% in Kuancheng.
      Infection via medical procedures increased over time in Beijing (7.0-33.3%) and
      remained frequent in Kuancheng (45.2-31.1%). CONCLUSIONS: There are major
      differences in presumed HCV infection source between the USA and northern China.
      Favorable as well as worrisome changes in the modes of HCV transmission in both
      countries were observed.

PMID- 28573510
TI  - B-cell lymphomas with discordance between pathological features and clinical
      behavior.
AB  - B-cell lymphomas encompass a large number of disease entities clinically ranging
      from indolent to aggressive. The defining pathological features usually predict
      clinical course, with small and large B-cell lymphomas correlating to low-grade
      vs high-grade features, but discordant situations may be encountered. Two
      sessions of the workshop of the XVIII meeting of the European Association for
      Haematopathology (EAHP) held in Basel in 2016 addressed this topic. One session
      illustrated various facets of "aggressiveness" in indolent lymphomas, either
      peculiar clinical manifestations, cytological variants, or unusual genetic
      features, as well as several examples of progression or transformation to a more
      aggressive disease. Another session exemplified large B-cell lymphomas with
      unexpected indolent behavior including cases arising in well-defined body
      compartments or in sanctuary sites. This paper describes the features of the
      cases presented in both groups, highlights the most salient points of discussion
      raised by the submitters and the panel, and summarizes current knowledge and
      recommendations relevant to diagnostic pathology practice.

PMID- 28573511
TI  - Early detection: the impact of genomics.
AB  - The field of genomics has shifted our view on disease development by providing
      insights in the molecular and functional processes encoded in the genome. In the
      case of cancer, many alterations in the DNA accumulate that enable tumor growth
      or even metastatic dissemination. Identification of molecular signatures that
      define different stages of progression towards cancer can enable early tumor
      detection. In this review, the impact of genomics will be addressed using early
      detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) as an example. Increased understanding of
      the adenoma-to-carcinoma progression has led to the discovery of several
      diagnostic biomarkers. This combined with technical advancements, has facilitated
      the development of molecular tests for non-invasive early CRC detection in stool
      and blood samples. Even though several tests have already made it to clinical
      practice, sensitivity and specificity for the detection of precancerous lesions
      still need improvement. Besides the diagnostic qualities, also the accuracy of
      the intermediate endpoint is an important issue on how the effectiveness of a
      novel test is perceived. Here, progression biomarkers may provide a more precise
      measure than the currently used morphologically based features. Similar
      developments in biomarker use for early detection have taken place in other
      cancer types.

PMID- 28573512
TI  - Prognostic impact of HER-2 Subclonal Amplification in breast cancer.
AB  - The presence of a limited number of cells with HER-2 amplification (Subclonal
      Amplification) in breast carcinomas is occasionally encountered, but its
      prognostic impact is poorly known. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the
      prognostic impact of HER-2 Subclonal Amplification in a retrospective series of
      breast cancers. Accordingly, 81 consecutive breast carcinomas showing HER-2
      Subclonal Amplification were obtained from the histology files (case series).
      These cases were subdivided into two groups: (a) those cases in which the HER-2
      Subclonal Amplification was consonant to the accepted criteria for amplification,
      showing clusters of amplified cells, and (b) those cases with rare HER-2
      Subclonal Amplification that did not reflect the accepted criteria for
      amplification, showing scattered amplified cells only. The incidence of
      metastases and late recurrences of the case series was compared with a series
      composed of 109 consecutive cases, being HER-2 homogeneous (comprising 14
      Amplified and 95 Non-Amplified cases), matched for grade and stage (control
      series). It appeared that cases showing Subclonal Amplification had an incidence
      of metastases intermediate between the cases Amplified and Non-Amplified.
      Specifically, Subclonal Amplification with clustered cells had a lower incidence
      of metastases than Amplified cases (12.9 versus 21.4%). On the contrary,
      Subclonal Amplification with scattered cells showed an incidence of metastases
      higher than Non-Amplified cases (14 versus 9.47%). In addition, patients
      Subclonal Amplification with clustered cells, who were treated with the specific
      monoclonal antibody, had a lower incidence of metastases than patients showing
      Subclonal Amplification with scattered cells, who did not receive target therapy.
      These data, together with those recently published, indicate that Subclonal
      Amplification has an impact on prognosis and should be taken into consideration
      to correctly plan the treatment of breast cancer patients.

PMID- 28573513
TI  - Knee joint preservation surgery in osteosarcoma using tumour-bearing bone treated
      with liquid nitrogen.
AB  - PURPOSE: To preserve the joint structure in order to maintain good limb function
      in patients with osteosarcoma, we perform epiphyseal or metaphyseal osteotomy and
      reconstruction using frozen autografts that contain a tumour treated with liquid
      nitrogen. There are two methods of using liquid nitrogen-treated autografts: the
      free-freezing method and the pedicle-freezing method. The purpose of this study
      was to evaluate the results of intentional joint-preserving reconstruction using
      the free-freezing method and the pedicle-freezing method in patients with
      osteosarcoma. METHODS: Between 2006 and 2014, we performed joint-preserving
      surgery (12 with the free-freezing method and six with the pedicle freezing
      method) to treat 18 cases of osteosarcoma (12 distal femurs and six proximal
      tibias) in patients who had achieved a good response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
      RESULTS: Among the 18 patients (nine boys and nine girls) who had a mean age of
      11.6 years, 13 remained continuously disease-free, three showed no evidence of
      disease, one was alive with the disease, and one died from the disease.
      Functional outcomes were assessed as excellent in 15 patients and poor in three,
      with a mean follow-up period of 46.1 months. The mean Musculoskeletal Tumour
      Society (MSTS) score was 90.2%. Except for one patient who underwent amputation,
      all patients could bend their knee through >90 degrees  flexion, and nine
      achieved full ROM. All but two patients could walk without aid, and 11 were able
      to run normally throughout the follow-up period. No intraoperative complications
      were observed, such as surrounding soft-tissue damage, neurovascular injury, or
      recurrence from frozen bone. CONCLUSIONS: Joint-preserving reconstruction using
      frozen autografts yielded excellent function in patients with osteosarcoma.

PMID- 28573514
TI  - Clinical and radiological outcomes after reverse shoulder arthroplasty in
      patients with failed deltoid or latissimus dorsi transfers. A review of ten
      cases.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to report clinical and radiological
      results of reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) after failure of either a deltoid
      and/or a latissimus dorsi transfer. METHODS: Between 2001 and 2011, ten patients
      (average age, 61 years) underwent primary RSA after a failed tendon transfer for
      irreparable postero-superior rotator cuff tear (five deltoid muscle transfers,
      four latissimus dorsi transfers and one both). Average follow-up was 48 months.
      Outcome measures included pain, range of motion and postoperative Constant-Murley
      score. RESULTS: Pain score improved significantly from a mean 8.3 to a mean 0.3.
      Mean shoulder elevation improved from 66 to 134 degrees , and absolute Constant
      Murley scores increased from 25.8 to 62.8 The mean improvement in external
      rotation was limited to 7.5 degrees . Subjectively, six patients rated the result
      as much better and three rated it as better than before surgery. CONCLUSIONS:
      Failure of the tendon transfer with deterioration of the functional outcomes can
      be salvaged with a RSA with no impact on the expected outcome.

PMID- 28573515
TI  - Reproducibility of a new method for measuring lowering and medialisation of the
      humerus after reverse shoulder arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) requires lowering the humerus and
      medialisation of the centre of rotation. Several techniques based on standard X
      rays are available in the literature. The aim of this study was to expose and
      validate a new technique for measuring these parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Radiographic data of 20 patients were included. Three observers examined each X
      rays three times to establish the inter- and intra-reproducibility of each
      technique (Jobin, Renaud and our method). RESULTS: Intra-observer reproducibility
      was between 0.10 and 0.94. The best intra-observer intraclass correlation
      coefficient (ICC) was obtained using Renaud's and our techniques. The inter
      observer reproducibility was between 0.37 and 0.74. The best inter-observer ICC
      was obtained with our technique. DISCUSSION: We describe a reliable and
      reproducible method to evaluate lowering and medialisation of the humerus after
      RSA. This technique may allow determine the optimal threshold of lengthening
      after RSA.

PMID- 28573516
TI  - [Persistent organic contaminants in food : Exposure, hazard potential, and health
      assessment].
AB  - Environmental emissions of organic contaminants are caused by man-made and
      natural combustion processes, industrial production facilities, and the release
      from products. Food represents the main source of human exposure for some of
      these compounds. This is the case for three groups of persistent organic
      contaminants: (1) per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), (2) polychlorinated
      dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated
      biphenyls (PCBs), and for (3) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The issues
      regarding PCDD/F emissions were already recognized as a problem in the 1970s and
      have since then been effectively regulated; the impact of PFAS as global
      anthropogenic environmental contaminants was identified much later.A system of
      toxicity equivalency factors (TEF system) was established for the assessment of
      the toxic potency of a mixed exposure to PCDD/F and certain PCBs. For the health
      assessment and regulation of PAHs and PFAS, no such system has been implemented
      so far. For PFAS, a re-evaluation of the present tolerable daily intake values
      (TDI values) is currently being discussed, as new insights into toxicology and
      epidemiology have been gained.The persistence in the environment of the compound
      groups discussed here leads to entry into the food chain over long periods of
      time, even if access into the environment is minimized. This requires a long-term
      continuation of the monitoring of food stuffs and forward-looking risk assessment
      approaches and regulatory measures.

PMID- 28573517
TI  - Video Education on Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) for Physicians: an
      Interventional Study.
AB  - The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines are the gold standard
      in hereditary cancer risk assessment, screening, and treatment. A minority of
      physicians follow NCCN guidelines for BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. This study
      assesses the impact of an interventional educational program on HBOC in terms of
      knowledge. Physicians were sent an invite to join either an intervention survey
      (web-training offered prior to the knowledge survey) or control survey (web
      training offered after the knowledge survey). Sixty-nine physicians in the
      intervention arm and 67 physicians in the control arm completed the survey. The
      interventional group regularly answered items correctly at a higher frequency
      than the control group. For example, 64.71% (n = 44) of physicians in the
      intervention group knew that multi-gene testing does not have to include only
      highly penetrant genes compared to 32.84% (n = 22) of the control group (p <
      0.01). Similar results were seen with other specific survey items. The current
      study is important in that it shows web-based education to be a feasible and
      effective modality for training on hereditary breast cancer. This type of
      education may be incorporated into CME programs and can be used as a foundation
      for further studies as well.

PMID- 28573518
TI  - The Importance of Family History in Breast Cancer Patients in Primary Care
      Setting: a Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - Screening recommendations of physicians are important for women to raise
      awareness about their risk factors and to promote appropriate screening
      behaviors. However, it seems challenging for primary care physicians (PCPs) to
      balance disease prevention and diagnosis, treatment. The objective of this study
      was to describe physicians' breast cancer consultancy practice including family
      history, cancer prevention issues for the women they care. This cross-sectional
      study included 577 women aged above 45 years, free of breast cancer, during their
      visits to their PCPs. Nearly half of the women reported their visit to PCPs for
      an annual examination during the year. Among them, 36.1% had first-degree
      relatives with cancer and 7.3% with breast cancer. But they reported to be asked
      about family history of cancer and informed about cancer prevention issues 35.1
      and 26.4%, respectively. Cancer still seems to be a hard issue to be discussed,
      even with women visiting PCPs for annual examination. Asking first-degree
      relative with breast cancer can give PCPs the chance of determining women with
      increased risk and support women's appropriate understanding of their own risk in
      relation to their family history. This routine can make shared-decision making
      for developing person-centered approach for breast cancer screening possible.
      Further studies are needed for better understanding of loss of consultancy
      leadership of physicians for breast cancer.

PMID- 28573519
TI  - Patterns of Care Related to Post-Operative Radiotherapy for Patients with
      Prostate Cancer among Canadian Radiation Oncologists and Urologists.
AB  - The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and American Urological
      Association (AUA) developed post-prostatectomy radiotherapy (RT) guidelines to
      aid patient counseling on adjuvant (ART) and salvage radiotherapy (SRT). Our
      study compared how aware and compliant Canadian radiation oncologists and
      urologists are to these guidelines. Our online survey was distributed through the
      Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) and Canadian Urology
      Association (CUA) to radiation oncologists and urologists that treat prostate
      cancer. We used Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Chi-square test to compare radiation
      oncologists and urologists. P values for significant findings are reported. A
      total of 128 participants responded the survey, 52 radiation oncologists, and 76
      urologists. The majority (82%) of radiation oncologists had read these
      guidelines, compared to only 49% of urologists (p < 0.001). Radiation oncologists
      were more likely to recommend ART >50% for adverse pathological findings post
      radical prostatectomy compared to urologists (76 vs. 51%, p = 0.011). Urologists
      were more likely to monitor their patient's PSA level post-prostatectomy compared
      to radiation oncologists (93 vs. 77%, p = 0.016). Post-thematic analysis of open
      ended questions revealed that urologists rarely refer patients to radiation
      oncologists for ART, with radiation oncologists confirming that they rarely
      receive referrals. This study demonstrates the low compliance to ASTRO/AUA
      guidelines. While radiation oncologists were more aware and compliant to
      guidelines, urologists were significantly more likely to monitor their patient's
      PSA. This study highlighted the need for better communication between urologists
      and radiation oncologists, especially in referrals for ART, to facilitate
      treatment delivery that is concordant with ASTRO/AUA guidelines.

PMID- 28573520
TI  - Glycotriazole-peptides derived from the peptide HSP1: synergistic effect of
      triazole and saccharide rings on the antifungal activity.
AB  - This work proposes a strategy that uses solid-phase peptide synthesis associated
      with copper(I)-catalyzed azide alkyne cycloaddition reaction to promote the
      glycosylation of an antimicrobial peptide (HSP1) containing a carboxyamidated C
      terminus (HSP1-NH2). Two glycotriazole-peptides, namely [p-Glc-trz-G1]HSP1-NH2
      and [p-GlcNAc-trz-G1]HSP1-NH2, were prepared using per-O-acetylated azide
      derivatives of glucose and N-acetylglucosamine in the presence of copper(II)
      sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4.5H2O) and sodium ascorbate as a reducing agent. In
      order to investigate the synergistic action of the carbohydrate motif linked to
      the triazole-peptide structure, a triazole derivative [trz-G1]HSP1-NH2 was also
      prepared. A set of biophysical approaches such as DLS, Zeta Potential, SPR and
      carboxyfluorescein leakage from phospholipid vesicles confirmed higher membrane
      disruption and lytic activities as well as stronger peptide-LUVs interactions for
      the glycotriazole-peptides when compared to HSP1-NH2 and to its triazole
      derivative, which is in accordance with the performed biological assays: whereas
      HSP1-NH2 presents relatively low and [trz-G1]HSP1-NH2 just moderate fungicidal
      activity, the glycotriazole-peptides are significantly more effective antifungal
      agents. In addition, the glycotriazole-peptides and the triazole derivative
      present strong inhibition effects on ergosterol biosynthesis in Candida albicans,
      when compared to HSP1-NH2 alone. In conclusion, the increased fungicidal activity
      of the glycotriazole-peptides seems to be the result of (A) more pronounced
      membrane-disruptive properties, which is related to the presence of a saccharide
      ring, together with (B) the inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis, which seems to
      be related to the presence of both the monosaccharide and the triazole rings.

PMID- 28573521
TI  - Is centrally induced alveolar bone loss in a large animal model preventable by
      peripheral hormone substitution?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Alveolar bone structures are mostly investigated in small animal
      models. The majority of these studies examined local influences on the alveolar
      bone, but only a few examined systemic influencing factors. The hypothalamic
      pituitary axis is known to be essential for a vital bone balance. The aim of this
      study was to analyse the effects that selective hormone treatments have on
      alveolar bone structure and quality in a sheep model for alveolar bone loss,
      induced by hypothalamic-pituitary disconnection (HPD). METHODS: Thirty sheep were
      randomly selected into six groups of five each: control (C), ovariectomy-OVX (O),
      O + HPD (OH), OH with oestrogen treatment (OHE), OH with thyroxine (T4) treatment
      (OHT), and OH with a combined treatment of oestrogen and thyroxine (OHTE). After
      OVX and HPD procedures and an additional 9-month observation/treatment period,
      structural bone analyses of the mandible were performed by contact radiography,
      micro-CT, and static histomorphometry. RESULTS: The HPD procedure caused
      structural alveolar bone parameters to decrease significantly compared to
      controls (C). Treatment with oestrogen (OHE) was protective and bone structure
      was maintained at baseline levels. Thyroxine treatment (OHT) promoted significant
      bone loss, but the combined treatment (OHTE) improved bone structure and volume
      parameters even above baseline levels. CONCLUSIONS: Alveolar bone homeostasis
      significantly underlies systemic regulatory systems. Centrally induced (HPD) bone
      loss can be prevented by combined peripheral treatment with oestrogen and
      thyroxine. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: These results demonstrate the significance of a
      balanced hormonal regulatory system for steady bone remodelling and maintenance
      of healthy alveolar bone.

PMID- 28573522
TI  - Embryo development after mitochondrial supplementation from induced pluripotent
      stem cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of mitochondrial
      supplementation (MS) on early embryonic development and to assess the safety of
      MS treatments using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as the mitochondrial
      donor. METHODS: In this study, we evaluated the effect of MS on early embryonic
      development using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as the donor. Mouse
      zygotes were injected with either mitochondria from iPSCs or a vehicle solution.
      Several parameters were evaluated, including the rates of blastocyst formation
      and implantation, the weight of E13.5 embryos and placentas, the distribution of
      the donor mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and the pattern of methylation in the
      differentially methylated regions (DMRs) of the H19 and Snrpn genes. RESULTS: We
      found that neither the rates of blastocyst formation and implantation nor the
      weights of E13.5 embryos and placentas were significantly different between the
      MS and control groups. Additionally, the mtDNA from the iPSC donors could be
      detected in the muscle tissue of four fetuses and all placentas in the MS group.
      Finally, the methylation patterns of H19 and Snrpn DMRs remained unchanged by MS.
      CONCLUSIONS: iPSC-derived mtDNA was directly involved in the process of embryonic
      development after MS. No adverse effects were seen when using iPSCs as a
      mitochondrial donor, but it remains to be seen whether this method can improve
      embryonic development, especially in older mice.

PMID- 28573523
TI  - Selection of human blastocysts with a high implantation potential based on timely
      compaction.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recently, we established a noninvasive system for selecting human
      blastocysts with a high pre-transfer implantation potential based on first and
      second division patterns. The present study was carried out to improve the
      selection system. METHODS: Embryos that completed first and second divisions
      within 25.90 and 37.88 h after culture, respectively, were selected using a time
      lapse incubator. We examined the effects of compaction and blastocyst formation
      times on pregnancy rates after transferring these embryos at the blastocyst
      stage. RESULTS: The completion of compaction and blastocyst formation times
      (79.93 and 97.47 h after culture, respectively) of embryos resulting in
      pregnancies after transfer were significantly (P < 0.01) shorter than those
      (86.46 and 100.34 h after culture, respectively) of embryos that failed to induce
      pregnancies. Embryo selection based on completion of compaction time improved
      pregnancy rates (40.9 vs. 74.6%, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Of the embryos that
      formed two cells during the first division within 25.90 h after culture and four
      cells during the second division within 37.88 h after culture, those that
      completed compaction within 79.93 h after culture before reaching the blastocyst
      stage had a high implantation potential.

PMID- 28573524
TI  - Use of various gonadotropin and biosimilar formulations for in vitro
      fertilization cycles: results of a worldwide Web-based survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify trends in gonadotropin therapy
      in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment worldwide. METHODS:
      Retrospective evaluation utilizing the results of a Web-based survey, IVF
      Worldwide ( www.IVF-worldwide.com ) was performed. RESULTS: Three hundred
      fourteen centers performing a total of 218,300 annual IVF cycles were evaluated.
      Respondents representing 62.2% of cycles (n = 135,800) did not believe there was
      a difference between urinary and recombinant gonadotropins in terms of efficacy
      and live birth rate. Of the respondents, 67.3% (n = 146,800) reported no
      difference between recombinant and urinary formulations in terms of short-term
      safety and risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. In terms of long-term
      safety using human urinary gonadotropins, 50.6% (n = 110,400) of respondents
      believe there are potential long-term risks including prion disease. For 95.3% of
      units (n = 208,000), the clinician was the decision maker determining which
      specific gonadotropins are used for IVF. Of the units, 62.6% (n = 136,700)
      identified efficacy as the most important factor in deciding which gonadotropin
      to prescribe. While most (67.3%, n = 146,800) were aware of new biosimilar
      recombinant FSH products entering the market, 92% (n = 201,000) reported they
      would like more information. A fraction of respondents (25.6%, n = 55,900)
      reported having experience with these new products, and of these, 80.3% (n =
      46,200) reported that they were similar in efficacy as previously used
      gonadotropins in a similar patient group. CONCLUSIONS: Respondents representing
      the majority of centers do not believe a difference exists between urinary and
      recombinant gonadotropins with respect to efficacy and live birth rates. While
      many are aware of new biosimilar recombinant FSH products entering the market,
      over 90% desire more information on these products.

PMID- 28573525
TI  - Male chromosomal polymorphisms reduce cumulative live birth rate for IVF couples.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chromosomal polymorphisms are associated with infertility, but their
      effects on assisted reproductive outcomes are still quite conflicting, especially
      after IVF treatment. This study evaluated the role of chromosomal polymorphisms
      of different genders in IVF pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: Four hundred and twenty
      five infertile couples undergoing IVF treatment were divided into three groups:
      214 couples with normal chromosomes (group A, control group), 86 couples with
      female polymorphisms (group B), and 125 couples with male polymorphisms (group
      C). The pregnancy outcomes after the first and cumulative transfer cycles were
      analyzed, and the main outcome measures were live birth rate (LBR) after the
      first transfer cycle and cumulative LBR after a complete IVF cycle. RESULTS:
      Comparison of pregnancy outcomes after the first transfer cycle within group A,
      group B, and group C demonstrated a similar LBR as well as other rates of
      implantation, clinical pregnancy, early miscarriage, and ongoing pregnancy (P >
      0.05). However, the analysis of cumulative pregnancy outcomes indicated that
      compared with group A, group C had a significantly lower LBR per cycle (80.4 vs
      68.00%), for a rate ratio of 1.182 (95% CI 1.030 to 1.356, P = 0.01) and a
      significantly higher cumulative early miscarriage rate (EMR) among clinical
      pregnancies (7.2 vs 14.7%), for a rate ratio of 0.489 (95% CI 0.248 to 0.963, P =
      0.035). CONCLUSION: Couples with chromosomal polymorphisms in only male partners
      have poor pregnancy outcomes after IVF treatment manifesting as high cumulative
      EMR and low LBR after a complete cycle.

PMID- 28573526
TI  - Selecting embryos with the highest implantation potential using data mining and
      decision tree based on classical embryo morphology and morphokinetics.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this work was to determine which embryonic
      morphokinetic parameters up to D3 of in vitro development have predictive value
      for implantation for the selection of embryos for transfer in clinical practice
      based upon information generated from embryo transfers with known implantation
      data (KID). METHODS: A total of 800 KID embryos (100% implantation rate (IR) per
      transfer and 0% IR per transfer) cultured in an incubator with Time-Lapse system
      were retrospectively analysed. Of them, 140 embryos implanted, whereas 660 did
      not. RESULTS: The analysis of morphokinetic parameters, together with the embryo
      morphology assessment on D3, enabled us to develop a hierarchical model that
      places the classical morphological score, the t4 and t8 morphokinetic values, as
      the variables with the best prognosis of implantation. CONCLUSION: In our
      decision tree, the classical morphological score is the most predictive
      parameter. Among embryos with better morphological scores, morphokinetics permits
      deselection of embryos with the lowest implantation potential.

PMID- 28573527
TI  - Transporting cumulus complexes using novel meiotic arresting conditions  permits
      maintenance of oocyte developmental competence.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of a novel bovine
      cumulus oocyte complex (COC) shipping media designed to arrest meiotic resumption
      during transport on meiotic arrest, as well as meiotic resumption, subsequent
      embryonic development, and embryo quality. METHODS: Bovine cumulus oocyte
      complexes were transported overnight from the collection facility to the
      laboratory. COCs were placed in control in vitro maturation (IVM) or in shipping
      arrest medium (SAM) containing multiple meiotic inhibitors, and then shipped to
      our laboratory. Upon arrival, meiotic status was assessed, control COCs were
      inseminated, and arrested COCs were matured and inseminated the next day.
      Embryonic development and quality were analyzed. RESULTS: When bovine COC arrived
      at the laboratory after overnight shipment (21 h) in SAM, the majority of oocytes
      remained at the GV stage (75.6 +/- 2.9% GV). Arrested oocytes successfully
      resumed and completed meiosis during IVM after removal from SAM (96.8 +/- 0.5%
      metaphase II compared to control 88.3 +/- 5.0%). Moreover, the development of
      blastocysts per COC was not different from control (22.3 +/- 2.4% for control and
      18.7 +/- 2.1% for SAM), nor was any difference detected in blastocyst quality as
      determined by cell number and allocation. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates
      that a physiological system incorporating cyclic adenosine monophosphate and
      cyclic guanosine monophosphate modulators can be used to maintain meiotic arrest
      followed by successful nuclear maturation and pre-implantation embryo development
      equal to control IVM-derived embryos. Our results offer promising insights for
      the development of pre-IVM media that may improve oocyte developmental competence
      in vitro.

PMID- 28573528
TI  - Inpatient hospitalizations in women with and without assisted reproductive
      technology live birth.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate frequency of hospitalization
      before, during, and after assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment by
      cycle outcome. METHODS: Six thousand and one hundred thirty women residing in
      Massachusetts undergoing 17,135 cycles of ART reported to the Society for
      Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcome Reporting System (SARTCORS) from
      2004 to 2011 were linked to hospital discharges and vital records. Women were
      grouped according to ART treatment cycle outcome as: no pregnancy (n = 1840), one
      or more pregnancies but no live birth (n = 968), or one or more singleton live
      births (n = 3322). Hospital delivery discharges during 1998-2011 were categorized
      as occurring before, during, or after the ART treatment. The most prevalent ICD-9
      codes for non-delivery hospital discharges were compared. Groups were compared
      using chi square test using SAS 9.3 software. RESULTS: The proportion of any
      hospitalization was 57.0, 58.3, and 91.3% for women with no pregnancy, no live
      birth, and ART singleton live birth, respectively; the proportion of non-delivery
      hospitalizations was 30.4, 31.0, and 28.3%, respectively. The non-ART delivery
      proportion after ART treatment did not differ by group (33.4, 36.2, and 36.9%,
      respectively, p = 0.17). Most frequent non-delivery diagnoses (including
      fibroids, obesity, ectopic pregnancy, depression, and endometriosis) also did not
      differ by group. A secondary analysis limited to only women with no delivery
      discharges before the first ART cycle showed similar results. CONCLUSIONS: All
      groups had live birth deliveries during the study period, suggesting an important
      contribution of non-ART treatment or treatment-independent conception to overall
      delivery and live births. Hospitalizations not associated with delivery suggested
      similarity in morbidity for all ART patients regardless of success with ART
      treatment.

PMID- 28573529
TI  - Temperature adaptation of lipids in diapausing Ostrinia nubilalis: an
      experimental study to distinguish environmental versus endogenous controls.
AB  - Larvae of the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hubn.) were cold acclimated
      during different phases of diapause to determine if changes in the fatty acid
      composition lipids occur as part of a programmed diapause strategy, or as a
      response to low temperatures during winter. Cold acclimation of fifth instar
      larvae of O. nubilalis during diapause had modest effects further on the
      readjustments in fatty acid composition of triacylglycerols and phospholipids.
      Overall, FA unsaturation (UFAs/SFAs ratio) was stable, with the exception of the
      triacylglycerols fraction after exposure to -3 and -10  degrees C in mid-diapause
      (MD) when it significantly increased. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was
      used to examine phase transitions of total body lipid of cold-acclimated larvae
      in diapause. Thermal analysis indicated that changes in the melt transition
      temperatures of whole body total lipids were subtle, but consistent with the
      modest changes in the level of FA unsaturation observed. We conclude that lipid
      rearrangements are a function of the endogenous "diapause program" rather than a
      direct effect of low temperatures, which proved to have limited impact on lipid
      changes in diapausing larvae of O. nubilalis.

PMID- 28573531
TI  - [Gemcitabine and capecitabine as new standard of care for adjuvant therapy in
      pancreatic cancer].

PMID- 28573530
TI  - MeCP2 Regulates PTCH1 Expression Through DNA Methylation in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease, in which
      pathogenesis is not clear. Many research demonstrated that fibroblast-like
      synoviocytes (FLSs) play a key role in RA pathogenesis, join in the cartilage
      injury and hyperplasia of the synovium, and contribute to the release of
      inflammatory cytokines. We used adjuvant arthritis (AA) rats as RA animal models.
      The methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) enables the suppressed chromatin
      structure to be selectively detected in AA FLSs. Overexpression of this protein
      leads to an increase of integral methylation levels. Some research has confirmed
      the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays an important role in RA pathogenesis;
      furthermore, patched 1 (PTCH1) is a negative fraction of Hh signaling pathway. We
      used 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-azadc) as DNA methylation inhibitor. In our
      research, we found MeCP2 reduced PTCH1 expression in AA FLSs; 5-azadc obstructed
      the loss of PTCH1 expression. 5-Azadc, treatment of AA FLSs, also blocks the
      release of inflammatory cytokines. In order to probe the potential molecular
      mechanism, we assumed the epigenetic participation in the regulation of PTCH1.
      Results demonstrated that PTCH1 hypermethylation is related to the persistent FLS
      activation and inflammation in AA rats. Knockdown of MeCP2 using small
      interfering RNA technique added PTCH1 expression in AA FLSs. Our results indicate
      that DNA methylation may offer molecule mechanisms, and the reduced PTCH1
      methylation level could regulate inflammation through knockdown of MeCP2.
      Graphical Abstract PTCH1 is an inhibitory protein of the Hedgehog signaling
      pathway. Increased expression of PTCH1 can inhibit the expression of Gli1 and
      Shh, thereby inhibiting the activation of Hedgehog signaling pathway. Inactivated
      Hedgehog signaling pathway inhibits the secretion of IL-6 and TNF-alpha. MeCP2
      mediates hypermethylation of PTCH1 gene and decreases the expression of PTCH1
      protein, thus activating Hedgehog signaling pathway and increasing secretion of
      IL-6 and TNF-alpha.

PMID- 28573532
TI  - [Surgical strategy to save ileoanal pouch reconstruction].
AB  - Restorative proctocolectomy under formation of an ileoanal/ileorectal J-pouch has
      become the procedure of choice in the therapy of ulcerative colitis. Although
      patients experience a dramatic improvement of their quality of life, surgery is
      not successful in about 5-10% of all treated patients. The reasons for failure
      are chronic pouchitis, incontinence, delayed diagnosis of Crohn's disease,
      fistula, surgical complications, too long remnant rectal stump, chronic abscess,
      and surgical technical errors. Some of the reasons do not always prevent the loss
      of a well-functioning ileoanal pouch. In many cases, correction, closure of
      fistulas or even a complete reconstruction of the ileoanal pouch are possible.
      Based on a review of the literature and our own experience, we show in 887
      patients a success rate of 75% with acceptable pouch function. Indications,
      technics, and results are presented.

PMID- 28573533
TI  - [Neoadjuvant therapy vs. upfront resection for resectable pancreatic cancer].

PMID- 28573534
TI  - The clinical characteristics and prognosis of acute zonal occult outer
      retinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: This prospective observational case series study aimed to observe the
      clinical characteristics of acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR) and its
      prognosis in Chinese Han patients. METHODS: Six eyes of 5 female patients
      diagnosed with AZOOR were followed up for 4 months to observe the natural disease
      course. All enrolled subjects underwent a series of ocular examinations at the
      onset and each return visit, including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), split
      lamp microscopy, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT),
      perimetry, multifocal electroretinogram and fundus fluorescein angiography.
      RESULTS: Over the follow-up, all enrolled patients recovered on BCVA, perimetry
      and OCT in different degrees. Among them, one patient recovered completely since
      the ocular examination results returned to normal. CONCLUSION: AZOOR is a rare
      ocular disorder in Chinese population. Our results demonstrated that visual
      functions of enrolled patients significantly improved spontaneously, indicating
      that Chinese female Han patients with AZOOR have good visual outcomes during the
      follow-up period without any specific managements.

PMID- 28573535
TI  - Long-Term Outcome of Bariatric Surgery in Morbidly Obese Adolescents: a
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 950 Patients with a Minimum of 3 years
      Follow-Up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity in pediatric and adolescent population has reached a
      universal pandemic. This study aimed to summarize the literature on the longest
      available outcome of bariatric surgery in morbidly obese adolescents. METHODS: A
      systematic review was conducted to pool available data on the longest available
      (>3 years) weight loss and comorbidity resolution outcome in adolescent bariatric
      surgery. RESULTS: A total of 14 studies reporting the result of bariatric surgery
      after 3 years in 950 morbidly obese adolescents were included. Preoperative age
      and BMI ranged from 12 to 19 years and from 26 to 91 kg/m2, respectively. Females
      were the predominant gender (72.8%). Laparoscopic roux-en-Y gastric bypass (n =
      453) and adjustable gastric banding (n = 265) were the most common bariatric
      procedure performed. The number of patients at the latest follow-up was 677
      (range from 2 to 23 years). On average, patients lost 13.3 kg/m2 of their BMI.
      Among comorbidities, only diabetes mellitus resolved or improved dramatically. Of
      108 readmissions, 91 led to reoperation. There was a weight regain < 5 kg/m2
      between 5 and 6 years of follow-up. Removal, exchange, or conversion of the
      previous band constituted the majority of the revisional procedures. Three deaths
      were reported. No long-term data was obtainable on nutritional deficiency or
      growth status of adolescents who underwent a bariatric procedure. CONCLUSION:
      Although bariatric surgery is a safe and effective procedure in the treatment of
      adolescent morbid obesity, long-term data is scarce regarding its nutritional and
      developmental complication in this growing population of patients.

PMID- 28573537
TI  - Derivation of new equations to estimate glomerular filtration rate in pediatric
      oncology patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Monitoring renal function is critical in treating
      pediatric patients, especially when dosing nephrotoxic agents. We evaluated the
      validity of the bedside Schwartz and Brandt equations in pediatric oncology
      patients and developed new equations for estimated glomerular filtration rate
      (eGFR) in these patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted
      comparing eGFR using the bedside Schwartz and Brandt equations to measured GFR
      (mGFR) from technetium-99m diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA)
      between January 2007 and August 2013. An improved equation to estimate GFR was
      developed, simplified, and externally validated in a cohort of patients studied
      from September 2013 to June 2015. Carboplatin doses calculated from 99mTc-DTPA
      were compared with doses calculated by GFR-estimating equations. RESULTS:
      Overall, the bedside Schwartz and Brandt equations did not precisely or
      accurately predict measured GFR (mGFR). Using a data subset, we developed a five
      covariate equation, which included height, serum creatinine, age, blood urea
      nitrogen (BUN), and gender, and a simplified version (two-covariates), which
      contained height and serum creatinine. These equations were used to estimate GFR
      in 2036 studies, resulting in precise and accurate predictors of mGFR values.
      Equations were validated in an external cohort of 570 studies; both new equations
      were more accurate in calculating carboplatin doses than either the bedside
      Schwartz or Brandt equation. CONCLUSIONS: Two new equations were developed to
      estimate GFR in pediatric oncology patients, both of which did a better job at
      estimating mGFR than published equations.

PMID- 28573536
TI  - Exploring the heat-responsive chaperones and microsatellite markers associated
      with terminal heat stress tolerance in developing wheat.
AB  - Global warming is a major threat for agriculture and food security, and in many
      cases the negative impacts are already apparent. Wheat is one of the most
      important staple food crops and is highly sensitive to the heat stress (HS)
      during reproductive and grain-filling stages. Here, whole transcriptome analysis
      of thermotolerant wheat cv. HD2985 was carried out at the post-anthesis stage
      under control (22 +/- 3  degrees C) and HS-treated (42  degrees C, 2 h)
      conditions using Illumina Hiseq and Roche GS-FLX 454 platforms. We assembled ~24
      million (control) and ~23 million (HS-treated) high-quality trimmed reads using
      different assemblers with optimal parameters. De novo assembly yielded 52,567
      (control) and 59,658 (HS-treated) unigenes. We observed 785 transcripts to be
      upregulated and 431 transcripts to be downregulated under HS; 78 transcripts
      showed >10-fold upregulation such as HSPs, metabolic pathway-related genes, etc.
      Maximum number of upregulated genes was observed to be associated with processes
      such as HS-response, protein-folding, oxidation-reduction and photosynthesis. We
      identified 2008 and 2483 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers from control and
      HS-treated samples; 243 SSRs were observed to be overlying on stress-associated
      genes. Polymorphic study validated four SSRs to be heat-responsive in nature.
      Expression analysis of identified differentially expressed transcripts (DETs)
      showed very high fold increase in the expression of catalytic chaperones (HSP26,
      HSP17, and Rca) in contrasting wheat cvs. HD2985 and HD2329 under HS. We observed
      positive correlation between RNA-seq and qRT-PCR expression data. The present
      study culminated in greater understanding of the heat-response of tolerant
      genotype and has provided good candidate genes for the marker development and
      screening of wheat germplasm for thermotolerance.

PMID- 28573538
TI  - Nutritional screening based on the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score
      at the time of admission is useful for long-term prognostic prediction in
      patients with heart failure requiring hospitalization.
AB  - The objective of the study was to clarify whether controlling nutritional status
      (CONUT) is useful for predicting the long-term prognosis of patients hospitalized
      with heart failure (HF). A total of 482 (57.5%) HF patients from the Ibaraki
      Cardiovascular Assessment Study-HF (N = 838) were enrolled (298 men, 71.7 +/-
      13.6 years). At admission, blood samples were collected and nutritional status
      assessed using CONUT. CONUT scores were defined as follows: 0-1, normal; 2-4,
      light; 5-8, moderate; and 9-12, severe undernutrition. Accordingly, 352 (73%)
      patients had light-to-severe nutritional disturbances. In the follow-up period
      [median 541.5 (range 354-786) days], 109 deaths were observed. A Kaplan-Meier
      analysis revealed that all-cause deaths occurred more frequently in HF patients
      with nutritional disturbances [n = 93 (26.4%)] than in those with normal
      nutrition [n = 16 (12.3%); log-rank p < 0.001]. The Cox proportional hazard
      analyses revealed that a per point increase in the CONUT score was associated
      with an increased risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio 1.142; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.044-1.249) after controlling simultaneously for age, sex, previous
      history of HF hospitalization, log brain natriuretic peptide, and use of
      therapeutic agents at admission (tolvaptan and aldosterone antagonists). This
      study suggests that nutritional screening using CONUT scores is helpful in
      predicting the long-term prognosis of patients hospitalized with HF in a
      multicenter registry setting.

PMID- 28573539
TI  - Enhancement of crystallinity of cellulose produced by Escherichia coli through
      heterologous expression of bcsD gene from Gluconacetobacter xylinus.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the crystallinity index of the cellulose produced by
      Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 after heterologous expression of the cellulose
      synthase subunit D (bcsD) gene of Gluconacetobacter xylinus BPR2001. RESULTS: The
      bcsD gene of G. xylinus BPR2001 was expressed in E. coli and its protein product
      was visualized using SDS-PAGE. FTIR analysis showed that the crystallinity index
      of the cellulose produced by the recombinants was 0.84, which is 17% more than
      that of the wild type strain. The increased crystallinity index was also
      confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The cellulose content was not changed
      significantly after over-expressing the bcsD. CONCLUSION: The bcsD gene can
      improve the crystalline structure of the bacterial cellulose but there is not any
      significant difference between the amounts of cellulose produced by the
      recombinant and wild type E. coli Nissle 1917.

PMID- 28573540
TI  - Hydrolytic potential of five fungal supernatants to enhance a commercial enzyme
      cocktail.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the potential of enzyme cocktails produced by five
      filamentous fungi to supplement the industrial cellulase cocktail, Celluclast
      1.5L, in order to improve the efficiency of saccharification. RESULTS: The fungi
      were cultivated on wheat bran and the resulting supernatants were combined with
      Celluclast in enzymatic hydrolysis experiments to test their ability to hydrolyze
      wheat bran and five cellulose-rich substrates. The supernatant showing the best
      performance was that from an Aspergillus niger cellulase mutant. The addition of
      beta-glucosidase only to the Celluclast cocktail was not as beneficial.
      CONCLUSION: Supplementing commercial cocktails with enzymes from carefully
      selected fungi may result in significantly more efficient saccharification of
      lignocellulosic materials. Furthermore, such an approach could lead to the
      identification of novel enzyme activities crucial for saccharification.

PMID- 28573541
TI  - miR-215 functions as an oncogene in high-grade glioma by regulating
      retinoblastoma 1.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the roles of miR-215 in high-grade glioma and to
      clarify the regulation of retinoblastoma 1 (RB1) by miR-215. RESULTS: miR-215 is
      frequently up-regulated in high-grade glioma tissues. Increased miR-215
      expression is significantly associated with World Health Organization grade (P <
      0.01) tumor size (P < 0.05) and poor prognosis (P < 0.01). Over-expression of miR
      215 promoted cell proliferation and knockdown of miR-215 inhibited cell
      proliferation in vitro. RB1 was identified as a direct and functional target of
      miR-215. RB1 is generally down-regulated in glioma tissues and its expression
      inversely correlated with miR-215, which is up-regulated in high-grade glioma
      tissues, and its expression was negatively correlated with miR-215. CONCLUSIONS:
      The new miR-215/RB1 axis provides new insights into the molecular mechanism and
      treatment for glioma.

PMID- 28573542
TI  - Erratum to: Adrenalectomy: indications and options for treatment.

PMID- 28573543
TI  - Transoral thyroidectomy: limitations, patients' safety, and own experiences.
AB  - For patients undergoing thyroidectomy, the minimally invasive aspect and the
      cosmetic advantage of the procedure seem to be important factors in surgery.
      Studies in cadaver and animals have shown that different endoscopic techniques
      can be performed in a safe and successful way. In the evolution of thyroid
      surgery, for many endocrine surgeons, the transoral approach seems to be the next
      step. Even if such procedures are more and more frequently applied in patients,
      these procedures are far from being generally implemented in routine surgery. In
      this study, we report on our own experience and considerations in the process of
      finding a sublingual endoscopic transoral way to the endoscopic transoral
      thyroidectomy. We describe our failures, risk assessment and compare that with
      the available literature on transoral sublingual and vestibular thyroid surgery.
      The access itself needs to be further refined, and even more suitable and better
      adapted instruments need to be developed, so that optimal and safe results that
      meet all requirements on endocrine surgery can be achieved. A learning curve at
      the risk of patients' lives should be avoided. Furthermore, a combination of
      transoral endoscopic non-transoral techniques might be a useful safer, but more
      traumatising alternative for implementation. The sublingual access seems to be
      less invasive than the vestibular access. For a sublingual single-access routine
      surgery, better instruments are needed. Only in highly specialized centres for
      endocrine and endoscopic surgery, transoral thyroidectomy should be performed.

PMID- 28573544
TI  - Lipocalin 2 enhances mesenchymal stem cell-based cell therapy in acute kidney
      injury rat model.
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most common health-threatening diseases
      in the world. There is still no effective medical treatment for AKI. Recently,
      Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has been proposed for treatment of AKI.
      However, the microenvironment of damaged kidney tissue is not favorable for
      survival of MSCs which would be used for therapeutic intervention. In this study,
      we genetically manipulated MSCs to up-regulate lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) and
      investigated whether the engineered MSCs (MSC-Lcn2) could improve cisplatin
      induced AKI in a rat model. Our results revealed that up-regulation of Lcn2 in
      MSCs efficiently enhanced renal function. MSC Lcn2 up-regulates expression of
      HGF, IGF, FGF and VEGF growth factors. In addition, they reduced molecular
      biomarkers of kidney injury such as KIM-1 and Cystatin C, while increased the
      markers of proximal tubular epithelium such as AQP-1 and CK18 following cisplatin
      induced AKI. Overall, here we over-expressed Lcn2, a well-known cytoprotective
      factor against acute ischemic renal injury, in MSCs. This not only potentiated
      beneficial roles of MSCs for cell therapy purposes but also suggested a new
      modality for treatment of AKI.

PMID- 28573545
TI  - A software framework for real-time multi-modal detection of microsleeps.
AB  - A software framework is described which was designed to process EEG, video of one
      eye, and head movement in real time, towards achieving early detection of
      microsleeps for prevention of fatal accidents, particularly in transport sectors.
      The framework is based around a pipeline structure with user-replaceable signal
      processing modules. This structure can encapsulate a wide variety of feature
      extraction and classification techniques and can be applied to detecting a
      variety of aspects of cognitive state. Users of the framework can implement
      signal processing plugins in C++ or Python. The framework also provides a
      graphical user interface and the ability to save and load data to and from
      arbitrary file formats. Two small studies are reported which demonstrate the
      capabilities of the framework in typical applications: monitoring eye closure and
      detecting simulated microsleeps. While specifically designed for microsleep
      detection/prediction, the software framework can be just as appropriately applied
      to (i) other measures of cognitive state and (ii) development of biomedical
      instruments for multi-modal real-time physiological monitoring and event
      detection in intensive care, anaesthesiology, cardiology, neurosurgery, etc. The
      software framework has been made freely available for researchers to use and
      modify under an open source licence.

PMID- 28573546
TI  - Skoulekia erythrini n. sp. (Digenea: Aporocotylidae): a parasite of Pagellus
      erythrinus (L.) (Perciformes: Sparidae) from the western Mediterranean with an
      amendment of the generic diagnosis.
AB  - A new aporocotylid, Skoulekia erythrini n. sp., is described from the heart,
      cephalic kidney and gill blood vessels of the common pandora Pagellus erythrinus
      (L.) collected from several localities of the western Mediterranean off Spain.
      The new species differs from the type- and only species of the genus, S.
      meningialis Alama-Bermejo, Montero, Raga & Holzer, 2011 in possessing a
      symmetrical body (vs laterally curved), short tegumental spines (3-4 vs 7-10 um)
      without hooked ends, diffuse (vs conspicuous) oesophageal gland-cells, a
      relatively longer oesophagus, a testis that is shorter in relation to body length
      and a much smaller seminal vesicle (17-34 * 10-26 vs 33-101 * 27-97 MUm).
      Elongated ellipsoidal eggs of S. erythrini n. sp. were found trapped in gill
      vessels in histological sections. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial 28S rDNA
      and ITS2 sequences supported the placement of the new species within Skoulekia
      and the close relationships of this genus with Psettarium Goto & Ozaki, 1929 and
      Pearsonellum Overstreet & Koie, 1986. Skoulekia meningialis is described from a
      new sparid host, Diplodus puntazzo (Walbaum), collected off Santa Pola, Spain.
      The new morphological data for the two Skoulekia spp. and a re-examination of
      three paratypes of S. meningialis pinpointed features amending both the
      description of S. meningialis and the generic diagnosis of Skoulekia.

PMID- 28573547
TI  - Barracudia australiensis n. g., n. sp. (Nematoda: Philometridae) from the obtuse
      barracuda Sphyraena obtusata Cuvier (Perciformes: Sphyraenidae) off eastern
      Australia.
AB  - Based on light and scanning electron microscopical studies, a new nematode
      parasite, Barracudia australiensis n. sp. (Philometridae), is described from the
      gall-bladder of the marine fish (obtuse barracuda) Sphyraena obtusata Cuvier
      (Sphyraenidae, Perciformes) from off the eastern Pacific coast of Australia, for
      which a new genus Barracudia n. g. is established. This new genus is mainly
      characterised by features found in the male: sickle-shaped, ventrally curved
      spicules, a gubernacum with a broad, dorsally bent distal portion and a markedly
      dorsoventrally elongated cloacal aperture. Based on these features, Barracudia
      spp. conspicuously differ from representatives of all other philometrid genera
      with known males. Philometra philippinensis Quiazon & Yoshinaga, 2013 is
      transferred to Barracudia as B. philippinensis (Quiazon & Yoshinaga, 2013) n.
      comb. Barracudia australiensis is the third nominal species of philometrids
      described from the Sphyraenidae and the 19th species of the Philometridae
      recorded from fishes in Australian waters.

PMID- 28573548
TI  - Redescription of Tripaphylus musteli (van Beneden, 1851) (Copepoda: Sphyriidae)
      and the relegation of Paeon Wilson, 1919 to synonymy with Tripaphylus Richiardi
      in Anonymous, 1878.
AB  - Tripaphylus musteli (van Beneden, 1851) (Copepoda, Siphonostomatoida, Sphyriidae)
      is redescribed from an adult female collected from the branchial chamber of a
      starry smooth-hound, Mustelus asterias Cloquet (Carcharhiniformes, Triakidae),
      captured in the English Channel off Portland, UK. The new account of T. musteli
      is the first based on a complete adult female and highlighted the lack of a
      robust distinction separating Tripaphylus Richiardi, in Anonymous, 1878 and Paeon
      Wilson, 1919 prompting us to relegate Paeon to a junior subjective synonym of
      Tripaphylus. In the light of this synonymy the eight former species of Paeon are
      transferred to Tripaphylus as follows: T. ferox (Wilson, 1919) new combination,
      T. elongatus (Wilson, 1932) new combination, T. vassierei (Delamare Deboutteville
      & Nunes-Ruivo, 1954) new combination, T. lobatus (Kirtisinghe, 1964) new
      combination, T. asymboli (Turner, Kyne & Bennett, 2003) new combination, T.
      versicolor (Wilson, 1919) new combination, T. australis (Kabata, 1993) new
      combination, and T. triakis (Castro Romero, 2001) new combination. Comparisons
      between terminology used in this report and that in the literature indicate that
      all transformed adult females of Tripaphylus probably possess a full complement
      of cephalic appendages and maxillipeds. All limbs, with the exception of the
      maxillae share a general morphological similarity to the corresponding appendages
      of conspecific males. The maxilla of the transformed adult female of Tripaphylus
      is a small digitiform protuberance associated with a swelling in some species.

PMID- 28573550
TI  - Optimal injection method for long-range computed tomography angiography.
AB  - We aimed to obtain high-stable computed tomography (CT) values for CT angiography
      (CTA). We verified the optimal use of the new protocol for long-range scanning
      using a contrast material flow phantom (Ichikawa, CT imaging theory. Igaku syoin
      Publishing, Tokyo, 8; Awai et al., Am J Roentgenol 186(2):379-385, 1) to obtain
      high-stable CT values (Fig. 2). We have developed a novel contrast injection
      method called the stable line imaging protocol (SLIP). This method involved a
      gradual reduction in the rate of administration of the contrast medium, which was
      accompanied by simultaneous administration of saline to compensate for the
      resultant decrease in the rate of administration. A saline flush was further
      added after the contrast medium injection. The rate of administration of the
      saline flush was the same as that of the initial contrast medium. We injected a
      contrast medium from the injector into the flow phantom. The time-enhancement
      curve (TEC) data were obtained five times by changing the injection method, and
      the average CT values were determined. The maximum simulation of the aortic peak
      enhancement of TEC was defined as pTEC. The time required to keep the CT value
      more than 80% of the pTEC was defined as the time period of contrast enhancement
      (p80). The pTEC of a single injection was 295.7 +/- 5.3 HU, while that of SLIP
      was 296.5 +/- 2.3 HU; the two values did not differ significantly. The p80 of a
      single injection was 19.1 +/- 0.2 s, while that of SLIP was 23.2 +/- 0.4 s; p80
      of SLIP was 18% longer than that of the single injection.

PMID- 28573549
TI  - Periprosthetic Joint Infection Is the Main Cause of Failure for Modern Knee
      Arthroplasty: An Analysis of 11,134 Knees.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although large series from national joint registries may accurately
      reflect indications for revision TKAs, they may lack the granularity to detect
      the true incidence and relative importance of such indications, especially
      periprosthetic joint infections (PJI). QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: Using a combination of
      individual chart review supplemented with New Zealand Joint Registry data, we
      asked: (1) What is the cumulative incidence of revision TKA? (2) What are the
      common indications for revising a contemporary primary TKA? (3) Do revision TKA
      indications differ at various followup times after primary TKA? METHODS: We
      identified 11,134 primary TKAs performed between 2000 and 2015 in three tertiary
      referral hospitals. The New Zealand Joint Registry and individual patient chart
      review were used to identify 357 patients undergoing subsequent revision surgery
      or any reoperation for PJI. All clinical records, radiographs, and laboratory
      results were reviewed to identify the primary revision reason. The cumulative
      incidence of each revision reason was calculated using a competing risk
      estimator. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence for revision TKA at 15 years
      followup was 6.1% (95% CI, 5.1%-7.1%). The two most-common revision reasons at 15
      years followup were PJI followed by aseptic loosening. The risk of revision or
      reoperation for PJI was 2.0% (95% CI, 1.7%-2.3%) and aseptic loosening was 1.2%
      (95% CI, 0.7%-1.6%). Approximately half of the revision TKAs secondary to PJI
      occurred within 2 years of the index TKA (95% CI, 0.8%-1.2%), whereas half of the
      revision TKAs secondary to aseptic loosening occurred 8 years after the index TKA
      (95% CI, 0.4%-0.7%). CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort of patients with
      comprehensive followup of revision procedures, PJI was the dominant reason for
      failure during the first 15 years after primary TKA. Aseptic loosening became
      more important with longer followup. Efforts to improve outcome after primary TKA
      should focus on these areas, particularly prevention of PJI. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Level III, therapeutic study.

PMID- 28573551
TI  - Two-dimensional breast dosimetry improved using three-dimensional breast image
      data.
AB  - Conventional mammographic dosimetry has been developed over the past 40 years.
      Prior to the availability of high-resolution three-dimensional breast images,
      certain assumptions about breast anatomy were required. These assumptions were
      based on the information evident on two-dimensional mammograms; they included
      assumptions of thick skin, a uniform mixture of glandular and adipose tissue, and
      a median breast density of 50%. Recently, the availability of high-resolution
      breast CT studies has provided more accurate data about breast anatomy, and this,
      in turn, has provided the opportunity to update mammographic dosimetry. Based on
      hundreds of data sets on breast CT volume, a number of studies were performed and
      reported which have shed light on the basic breast anatomy specific to dosimetry
      in mammography. It was shown that the average skin thickness of the breast was
      approximately 1.5 mm, instead of the 4 or 5 mm in the past. In another study, 3-D
      breast CT data sets were used for validation of the 2-D algorithm developed at
      the University of Toronto, leading to data suggesting that the overall average
      breast density is of the order of 16-20%, rather than the previously assumed 50%.
      Both of these assumptions led to normalized glandular dose (DgN) coefficients
      which are higher than those of the past. However, a comprehensive study on
      hundreds of breast CT data sets confirmed the findings of other investigators
      that there is a more centralized average location of glandular tissue within the
      breast. Combined with Monte Carlo studies for dosimetry, when accurate models of
      the distribution of glandular tissue were used, a 30% reduction in the radiation
      dose (as determined by the DgN coefficient) was found as an average across
      typical molybdenum and tungsten spectra used clinically. The 30% average
      reduction was found even when the thinner skin and the lower average breast
      density were considered. The article reviews three specific anatomic observations
      made possible based on high-resolution breast CT data by several different
      research groups. It is noted that, periodically, previous assumptions pertaining
      to dosimetry can be updated when new information becomes available, so that more
      accurate dosimetry is achieved. Dogmatic practices typically change slowly, but
      it is hoped that the medical physics community will continue to evaluate changes
      in DgN coefficients such that they become more accurate.

PMID- 28573552
TI  - Autogenous bone grafts in oral implantology-is it still a "gold standard"? A
      consecutive review of 279 patients with 456 clinical procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study assessed the clinical outcomes of graft success rate and
      early implant survival rate after preprosthetic alveolar ridge reconstruction
      with autologous bone grafts. METHODS: A consecutive retrospective study was
      conducted on all patients who were treated at the military outpatient clinic of
      the Department of Oral and Plastic Maxillofacial Surgery at the military hospital
      in Ulm (Germany) in the years of 2009 until 2011 with autologous bone
      transplantation prior to secondary implant insertion. Intraoral donor sites
      (crista zygomatico-alveolaris, ramus mandible, symphysis mandible, and anterior
      sinus wall) and extraoral donor site (iliac crest) were used. A total of 279
      patients underwent after a healing period of 3-5 months routinely computer
      tomography scans followed by virtual implant planning. The implants were inserted
      using guided oral implantation as described by Naziri et al. All records of all
      the consecutive patients were reviewed according to patient age, history of
      periodontitis, smoking status, jaw area and dental situation, augmentation
      method, intra- and postoperative surgical complications, and surgeon's
      qualifications. Evaluated was the augmentation surgical outcome regarding bone
      graft loss and early implant loss postoperatively at the time of prosthodontic
      restauration as well a follow-up period of 2 years after loading. RESULTS: A
      total of 279 patients underwent 456 autologous augmentation procedures in 546
      edentulous areas. One hundred thirteen crista zygomatico-alveolaris grafts, 104
      ramus mandible grafts, 11 symphysis grafts, 116 grafts from the anterior superior
      iliac crest, and 112 sinus lift augmentations with bone scrapes from the anterior
      facial wall had been performed. There was no drop out or loss of follow-up of any
      case that had been treated in our clinical center in this 3-year period. Four
      hundred thirty-six (95.6%) of the bone grafts healed successfully, and 20 grafts
      (4.4%) in 20 patients had been lost. Fourteen out of 20 patients with total graft
      failure were secondarily re-augmented, and six patients wished no further
      harvesting procedure. In the six patients, a partial graft resorption was
      detected at the time of implantation and additional simultaneous augmentation
      during implant insertion was necessary. No long-term nerve injury occurred. Five
      hundred twenty-five out of 546 initially planned implants in 259 patients could
      be inserted into successfully augmented areas, whereas 21 implants in 20 patients
      due to graft loss could not be inserted. A final rehabilitation as preplanned
      with dental implants was possible in 273 of the 279 patients. The early implant
      failure rate was 0.38% concerning two out of the 525 inserted implants which had
      to be removed before the prosthodontic restoration. Two implants after iliac
      crest augmentation were lost within a period of 2 years after loading, concerning
      a total implant survival rate after 2 years of occlusal loading rate of 99.6%
      after autologous bone augmentation prior to implant insertion. CONCLUSIONS: This
      review demonstrates the predictability of autologous bone material in alveolar
      ridge reconstructions prior to implant insertion, independent from donor and
      recipient site including even autologous bone chips for sinus elevation. Due to
      the low harvesting morbidity of autologous bone grafts, the clinical results of
      our study indicate that autologous bone grafts still remain the "gold standard"
      in alveolar ridge augmentation prior to oral implantation.

PMID- 28573553
TI  - Medication Use and Fall-Related Hospital Admissions from Long-Term Care
      Facilities: A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Falls are a leading cause of preventable hospitalizations from long
      term care facilities (LTCFs). Polypharmacy and falls-risk medications are
      potentially modifiable risk factors for falling. OBJECTIVE: This study
      investigated whether polypharmacy and falls-risk medications are associated with
      fall-related hospital admissions from LTCFs compared with hospital admissions for
      other causes. METHODS: This was a hospital-based, case-control study of patients
      aged >=65 years hospitalized from LTCFs. Cases were patients with falls and fall
      related injuries, and controls were patients admitted for infections. Conditional
      logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between polypharmacy (defined as
      the use of nine or more regular pre-admission medications) and falls-risk
      medications (categorized as psychotropic medications and those that can cause
      orthostatic hypotension) with fall-related hospital admissions. RESULTS: There
      was no association between polypharmacy and fall-related hospital admissions
      (adjusted OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.63-1.48); however, the adjusted odds of fall-related
      hospital admissions increased by 16% (95% CI 3-30%) for each additional falls
      risk medication. Medications that can cause orthostatic hypotension (adjusted OR
      1.25, 95% CI 1.06-1.46), but not psychotropic falls-risk medications (adjusted OR
      1.02, 95% CI 0.88-1.18) were associated with fall-related hospital admissions.
      The association between medications that can cause orthostatic hypotension and
      fall-related hospital admissions was strongest among residents with polypharmacy
      (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.08-1.92). CONCLUSION: Polypharmacy was not an
      independent risk factor for fall-related hospital admissions; however,
      medications that can cause orthostatic hypotension were associated with fall
      related hospital admissions, particularly among residents with polypharmacy.
      Falls-risk should be considered when prescribing medications that can cause
      orthostatic hypotension.

PMID- 28573555
TI  - [Antibiotic strategies in trauma surgery : Treatment of implant-associated
      infections].
AB  - Implant-associated infections represent a serious complication following fracture
      management. Due to biofilm formation, an optimized treatment strategy is required
      to treat these infections. Interdisciplinary cooperation between trauma surgeon,
      infectious diseases specialist and microbiologist enables the deployment of a
      concerted surgical and antibiotic treatment concept, which significantly
      influences treatment success. Fracture healing and chronic osteomyelitis
      prevention are the primary treatment goals. In general, the eradication of
      infection is possible with surgical debridement, change or removal of the implant
      and adequate antibiotic therapy. In some cases, suppressive therapy until
      consolidation of fracture and later removal of the implant is an option.

PMID- 28573554
TI  - [Prevention of postoperative infections : Risk factors and the current WHO
      guidelines in musculoskeletal surgery].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the many scientific and technological advances postoperative
      infection continues to be a large problem for trauma and orthopedic surgeons.
      Based on a review of the current literature, this study provides a comprehensive
      overview of the risk factors (RF) and possible preventive measures to control
      surgical site infections. METHODS: Medline search and analysis from 1968-2017 (as
      of 01 March 2017). Selection of trauma and orthopedic relevant RFs and comparison
      with WHO recommendations (global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site
      infection, Nov. 2016). RESULTS: Identification of 858 relevant articles from the
      last 50 years (1968-2017). Pooled postoperative rate of infection is 0.3% (hand
      surgery) and 19% (3rd degree open fractures). For open fractures, there is no
      clear tendency towards lower infection rates during the past five decades.
      Identification of 115 RF from three areas (patient-dependent RF, organizational
      and procedural RF, trauma- and surgery-dependent RF). The five most important RFs
      are body mass index over 35 kg/m2, increased duration of surgery, diabetes
      mellitus, increased blood glucose levels in the perioperative period also in the
      case of nondiabetic patients, and errors in the perioperative antibiotic
      prophylaxis. DISCUSSION: Inconsistent definition of "infection", interaction of
      the RF and the different follow-up duration limit the meaningfulness of the
      study. CONCLUSION: In the future, considerable efforts must be made in order to
      achieve a noticeable reduction in the rate of infection, especially in the case
      of high-risk patients.

PMID- 28573556
TI  - The influence of bone loss on the three adult age markers of the innominate.
AB  - To evaluate the influence of bone loss on the three adult age markers of the
      innominate, 30 males and 30 females aged between 16 and 80 years coming from the
      British Coventry collection were analyzed. The pubic symphysis, auricular
      surface, and acetabulum age variables were evaluated following the descriptions
      of Schmitt, Buckberry-Chamberlain, and Rissech, respectively. The second
      metacarpal cortical index was used to evaluate bone loss. Possible sexual
      differences in metrical variables were explored by a Student t-test taking into
      account the entire sample. The possible relationships between the cortical index
      and the three age methods' stages were assessed by the Kruskall-Wallis test and
      Spearman's correlation coefficient. There were no sexual differences in the
      cortical index. In general, we observed no significant differences between the
      cortical index in the different stages of the pubic symphysis, auricular surface,
      or acetabulum variables in men and women. Most correlation coefficients are
      negatives, and their absolute values are between 0.001 and 0.44, indicating an
      extremely low influence of bone loss on the analyzed variables. Our findings
      suggest little influence of bone loss in the three ageing methods. However,
      further research on this topic is necessary. This is the first study to analyze
      the influence of bone loss in the ageing changes undergone by the variables of
      the three adult age indicators of the innominate taking into account both sexes.

PMID- 28573557
TI  - Synthesis of the DDT metabolite 2,4-dichloro-1-[2-chloro-1-(4
      chlorophenyl)ethenyl]benzene (o-Cl-DDMU) and its detection in abiotic and biotic
      samples.
AB  - Technical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) has been used worldwide as a
      pesticide since the beginning of the 1940s. Due to its persistence, DDT residues
      are still ubiquitously distributed in the environment. Photochemical UV
      degradation has been shown to be a potent degradation path for DDT and most of
      the resulting photoproducts have been identified up to now. Nevertheless, in
      2012, a new DDT metabolite, most likely formed photochemically from DDE, was
      detected in ray liver samples from Brazil, an area which is highly contaminated
      with DDT. This study includes photochemical generation, chemical synthesis and
      isolation of this compound which was verified to consist of both cis- and trans
      2,4-dichloro-1-[2-chloro-1-(4-chlorophenyl)ethenyl]benzene. Both stereoisomers
      were resolved by gas chromatography on a polar capillary column and detected in
      more than 60 biotic (e.g. marine mammals, birds, human milk) and abiotic samples
      (fat deposits in kitchen hoods) from different areas all over the world. The
      stereoisomer distribution and concentrations (0.3-3.9% relative to corresponding
      1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl) ethane (p,p'-DDE) levels) were determined by
      means of the synthesized analytical standard, indicating the widespread
      occurrence of this compound as an additional minor metabolite of DDT.

PMID- 28573558
TI  - Short-term biochar application induced variations in C and N mineralization in a
      compost-amended tropical soil.
AB  - To mitigate food shortage due to global warming, developing sustainable
      management practices to stabilize soil organic matter (SOM) and sequester more
      carbon (C) in the cultivated soils is necessary, particularly in subtropical and
      tropical areas. A short-term (56 days) incubation experiment was conducted to
      evaluate the influences of rice husk biochar (RHB) and manure compost (MC)
      application on C mineralization and nitrogen (N) immobilization in a sandy loam
      soil. The RHB was separately incorporated into the soil at application rates of 2
      and 4% (w/w) either with or without 1% (w/w) compost. Our results displayed that
      macroaggregates (>=2 mm) were obviously increased by 11% in soil amended with RHB
      + MC at the end of incubation. In addition, the experimental results presented
      that the C mineralization of the soil rapidly increased during the first week of
      incubation. However, the co-application of compost with biochar (RHB + MC)
      revealed that CO2 emission was significantly decreased by 13-20% compared to the
      soil with only MC. In addition, the mineralized N in the soil was lower in RHB +
      MC-amended soil simultaneously than only MC-amended soil, indicating that biochar
      addition induced N immobilization. The physical protection of compost by its
      occlusion into aggregates or adsorption on surface of RHB as proved by the
      micromorphological observation was the main reason for lower C and N
      mineralization in soil amended with RHB + MC. Overall results revealed that RHB +
      MC treatment can decrease the decomposition of compost and sequester more C in
      the tropical agricultural soils.

PMID- 28573559
TI  - Impact of green supply chain management practices on firms' performance: an
      empirical study from the perspective of Pakistan.
AB  - This article investigates the impact of five determinants of the green supply
      chain practices on organizational performance in the context of Pakistan
      manufacturing firms. A sample of 218 firms was collected from the manufacturing
      industry. The green supply chain practices were measured through five independent
      variables including green manufacturing, green purchasing, green information
      systems, cooperation with customers, and eco-design. By using exploratory factor
      and simultaneous regression analysis, the results indicate that except green
      purchasing, rests of the four independent variables have been found statistically
      significant to predict organizational performance. However, the eco-design of
      green practices followed by green information systems has revealed the greatest
      impact on organizational performance. Therefore, the managers of the
      manufacturing firms should not only implement eco-design in their supply chain
      but also concentrate on proper monitoring and implementation of green information
      systems to increase their firms' performance. A main contribution of this
      research from theoretical side is that it is possible to notice a negative effect
      of "green purchasing" towards organizational performance particularly in the
      scenario of Pakistan manufacturing industry. Another valuable result is that
      green purchasing is an important antecedent of firms economic performance in the
      US manufacturing firms (Green et al. 2012), although not significantly related to
      organizational performance in our study. In addition, we also discussed research
      limitations, areas for future research, and implications for practitioners.

PMID- 28573560
TI  - Phyto-management of Cr-contaminated soils by sunflower hybrids: physiological and
      biochemical response and metal extractability under Cr stress.
AB  - Chromium (Cr) is a biologically non-essential, carcinogenic and toxic heavy
      metal. The cultivation of Cr-tolerant genotypes seems the most favorable and
      environment friendly strategy for rehabilitation and remediation of Cr
      contaminated soils. To prove this hypothesis and identify the Cr tolerance, the
      present study was performed to assess the physiological and biochemical response
      of sunflower genotypes to Cr stress. The seeds of six sunflower hybrids, namely
      FH-425, FH-600, FH-612, FH-614, FH-619, and FH-620, were grown in spiked soil for
      12 weeks under increasing concentrations of Cr (0, 5, 10, and 20 mg kg-1). A seed
      germination test was also run under different concentrations of Cr (0, 5, 10, 200
      mM) in petri dishes. Plants were harvested after 12 weeks of germination.
      Different plant attributes such as growth; biomass; photosynthesis; gas exchange;
      activity of antioxidant enzymes, i.e., superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol
      peroxidase (POD), ascorbate (APX), and catalases (CAT); reactive oxygen species
      (ROS); lipid peroxidation; electrolyte leakage; and Cr concentration as well as
      accumulations in all plant parts were studied for the selection of the most Cr
      tolerant genotype. Increasing concentration of Cr in soil triggered the reduction
      of all plant parameters in sunflower. Cr stress increased electrolyte leakage and
      production of reactive oxygen species which stimulated the activities of
      antioxidant enzymes and gas exchange attributes of sunflower. Chromium
      accumulation in the root and shoot increased gradually with increasing Cr
      treatments and caused reduction in overall plant growth. The accumulation of Cr
      was recorded in the order of FH-614 > FH-620 > FH-600 > FH-619 > FH-612 > FH-425.
      The differential uptake and accumulation of Cr by sunflower hybrids may be useful
      in selection and breeding for Cr-tolerant genotypes.

PMID- 28573561
TI  - Farm-level economics of innovative tillage technologies: the case of no-till in
      the Altai Krai in Russian Siberia.
AB  - In the agricultural Altai Krai in Russian Siberia, soil degradation problems are
      prevalent. Agronomists recommend "reduced tillage systems," especially no-till,
      as a sustainable way to cultivate land that is threatened by soil degradation. In
      the Altai Krai, less is known about the technologies in practice. In this paper,
      we provide information on plant cultivation technologies used in the Altai Krai
      and on selected factors preventing farm managers in this region from adopting no
      till technology based on our own quantitative survey conducted across 107 farms
      in 2015 and 2016. The results of the quantitative survey show that farm managers
      have high uncertainty regarding the use of no-till technology including its
      economics. To close this gap, we provide systematic analysis of factors
      influencing the economy of the plant production systems by using a farm
      optimization model (linear programming) for a real farm, together with expert
      estimations. The farm-specific results of the optimization model show that under
      optimal management and climatic conditions, the expert Modern Canadian no-till
      technology outperforms the farm min-till technology, but this is not the case for
      suboptimal conditions with lower yields.

PMID- 28573562
TI  - Hospital admissions in Iran for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
      attributed to the Middle Eastern Dust storms.
AB  - The main objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of airborne
      particulate matter less than 10 MUm in diameter (PM10) from the Middle Eastern
      Dust (MED) events on human health in Khorramabad (Iran) in terms of estimated
      hospital admissions (morbidity) for cardiovascular diseases (HACD) and for
      respiratory diseases (HARD) during the period of 2015 to 2016. The AirQ program
      developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) was used to estimate the
      potential health impacts to daily PM10 exposures. The numbers of excess cases for
      cardiovascular/respiratory morbidity were 20/51, 72/185, and 20/53 on normal,
      dusty, and MED event days, respectively. The highest number of hospital
      admissions was estimated for PM10 concentrations in the range of 40 to 49 MUg/m3,
      i.e, lower than the daily (50 MUg/m3) limit value established by WHO. The results
      also showed that 4.7% (95% CI 3.2-6.7%) and 4.2% (95% CI 2.6-5.8%) of HARD and
      HACD, respectively, were attributed to PM10 concentrations above 10 MUg/m3. The
      study demonstrates a significant impact of air pollution on people, which is
      manifested primarily as respiratory and cardiovascular problems. To reduce these
      effects, several immediate actions should be taken by the local authorities to
      control the impacts of dust storms on residents' health, e.g., developing a green
      beltway along the Iran-Iraq border and management of water such as irrigation of
      dry areas that would be effective as mitigation strategies.

PMID- 28573563
TI  - Bioregeneration of spent mercury bearing sulfur-impregnated activated carbon
      adsorbent.
AB  - Among various adsorbents studied, sulfur-impregnated activated carbon is one of
      the most promising adsorbents for mercury removal from flue gas. However, a large
      amount of spent activated carbons containing high content of mercury are
      generated after adsorption. To make the adsorption a more viable option, the
      regeneration and reuse of the spent activated carbon should be considered. The
      purpose of this study is to develop a novel technique for bioregeneration of
      sulfur-impregnated activated carbons after adsorption of mercury from flue gases
      by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. The optimal operating parameters for this
      bioregeneration process were studied using central composite design (CCD) and
      response surface methodology (RSM). Results showed that the sulfur oxidation rate
      was increased with increasing activated carbon dosage. Furthermore, the increase
      of inoculum size only caused a slight increase of sulfur oxidation rate in the
      bioregeneration. The maximum mercury removal efficiency of more than 50% was
      obtained at 10% (w/v) activated carbon dosage and 20% (v/v) inoculum size. After
      the bioregeneration process, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and
      micropore volume of spent activated carbon increased due to the bio-oxidation of
      mercury bearing sulfur on the surface of activated carbons.

PMID- 28573564
TI  - Effect of solid waste landfill organic pollutants on groundwater in three areas
      of Sicily (Italy) characterized by different vulnerability.
AB  - The aim of this study was to obtain information on the presence and levels of
      hazardous organic pollutants in groundwater located close to solid waste
      landfills. Eighty-two environmental contaminants, including 16 polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 20 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 29
      polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 7 dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins,
      PCDDs) and 10 furans (polychlorinated dibenzofurans, PCDFs) were monitored in
      areas characterised by different geological environments surrounding three
      municipal solid waste landfills (Palermo, Siculiana and Ragusa) in Sicily (Italy)
      in three sampling campaigns. The total concentrations of the 16 PAHs were always
      below the legal threshold. Overall, the Fl/Fl + Py diagnostic ratio revealed that
      PAHs had a petrogenic origin. VOC levels, except for two notable exceptions near
      Palermo landfill, were always below the legal limit. As concerns PCB levels,
      several samples were found positive with levels exceeding the legal limits. It is
      worth noting that the % PCB distribution differs from that of commercial
      compositions. In parallel, some samples of groundwater containing PCDDs and PCDFs
      exceeding the legal threshold were also found. Among the 17 congeners monitored,
      the most abundant were the highest molecular weight ones.

PMID- 28573565
TI  - Concentration estimation of heavy metal in soils from typical sewage irrigation
      area of Shandong Province, China using reflectance spectroscopy.
AB  - Since sewage irrigation can markedly disturb the status of heavy metals in soils,
      a convenient and accurate technique for heavy metal concentration estimation is
      of utmost importance in the cropland using wastewater for irrigation. This study
      therefore assessed the feasibility of visible and near infrared reflectance
      (VINR) spectroscopy for predicting heavy metal contents including Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb,
      Zn, As, Cd, and Hg in the north plain of Longkou city, Shandong Province, China.
      A total of 70 topsoil samples were taken for in situ spectra measurement and
      chemical analysis. Stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) and principal
      component regression (PCR) algorithms were applied to establish the associations
      between heavy metals and reflectance spectral data pretreated by different
      transformation methods. Based on the criteria that minimal root mean square error
      (RMSE), maximal coefficient of determination (R 2) for calibration, and greater
      ratio of standard error of performance to standard deviation (RPD) is related to
      the optimal model, SMLR model using first deviation data (RD1) provided the best
      prediction for the contents of Ni, Pb, As, Cd, and Hg, calibration using SNV data
      for Cr and continuum removal spectra for Zn, while PCR equation employed RD1
      values was fit for prediction of the contents of Cu. The determination
      coefficients of all the reasonable models were beyond 0.6, and RPD indicated a
      fair or good result. In general, first deviation preprocessing tool outperformed
      other methods in this study, while raw spectra reflectance performed
      unsatisfactory in all models. Overall, VINR reflectance spectroscopy technique
      could be applicable to the rapid concentration assessment of heavy metals in
      soils of the study area.

PMID- 28573566
TI  - Determination of carbamazepine and 12 degradation products in various
      compartments of an outdoor aquatic mesocosm by reliable analytical methods based
      on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - The aims of this work are to develop suitable analytical methods to determine the
      widely used anticonvulsant carbamazepine and 12 of its degradation/transformation
      products in water, sediment, fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and mollusc (Dreissena
      polymorpha). Protocols based on solid phase extraction for water, pressurized
      liquid extraction for sediments and QuEChERS (quick easy cheap efficient rugged
      and safe) extraction for both organisms followed by liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) are developed, validated and finally applied to
      samples collected during a 6-month experiment in outdoor mesocosms. Very low
      detection limits are reached, allowing environmentally realistic doses (namely,
      0.05, 0.5 and 5 MUg/L nominal concentrations) to be employed. The results
      indicate several metabolites and/or transformation products in each compartment
      investigated, with concentrations sometimes being greater than that of the parent
      carbamazepine. Biotic degradation of carbamazepine is demonstrated in water,
      leading to 10,11-dihydrocarbamazepine and 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine. In sediment,
      the degradation results in the formation of acridine, and 2- and 3
      hydroxycarbamazepine. Finally, in both organisms, a moderate bioaccumulation is
      observed together with a metabolization leading to 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine in
      fish and 2-hydroxycarbamazepine in mollusc. Acridone is also present in fish.
      This study provides new and interesting data, helping to elucidate how chronic
      exposure to carbamazepine at relevant concentrations may affect impact freshwater
      ecosystems.

PMID- 28573567
TI  - Expression and Purification of Recombinant Proteins in Escherichia coli with a
      His6 or Dual His6-MBP Tag.
AB  - Rapid advances in bioengineering and biotechnology over the past three decades
      have greatly facilitated the production of recombinant proteins in Escherichia
      coli. Affinity-based methods that employ protein or peptide based tags for
      protein purification have been instrumental in this progress. Yet insolubility of
      recombinant proteins in E. coli remains a persistent problem. One way around this
      problem is to fuse an aggregation-prone protein to a highly soluble partner. E.
      coli maltose-binding protein (MBP) is widely acknowledged as a highly effective
      solubilizing agent. In this chapter, we describe how to construct either a His6-
      or a dual His6-MBP tagged fusion protein by Gateway(r) recombinational cloning
      and how to evaluate their yield and solubility. We also describe a simple and
      rapid procedure to test the solubility of proteins after removing their N
      terminal fusion tags by tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease digestion. The choice
      of whether to use a His6 tag or a His6-MBP tag can be made on the basis of this
      solubility test.

PMID- 28573568
TI  - Protein Crystallization.
AB  - Protein crystallization was discovered by chance nearly 200 years ago and was
      developed in the late nineteenth century as a powerful purification tool, and a
      demonstration of chemical purity. The crystallization of proteins, nucleic acids,
      and large biological complexes, such as viruses, depends on the creation of a
      solution that is supersaturated in the macromolecule, but exhibits conditions
      that do not significantly perturb its natural state. Supersaturation is produced
      through the addition of mild precipitating agents such as neutral salts or
      polymers, and by manipulation of various parameters that include temperature,
      ionic strength, and pH. Also important in the crystallization process are factors
      that can affect the structural state of the macromolecule, such as metal ions,
      inhibitors, cofactors, or other conventional small molecules. A variety of
      approaches have been developed that combine the spectrum of factors that effect
      and promote crystallization, and among the most widely used are vapor diffusion,
      dialysis, batch, and liquid-liquid diffusion. Successes in macromolecular
      crystallization have multiplied rapidly in recent years due to the advent of
      practical, easy-to-use screening kits, and the application of laboratory
      robotics.

PMID- 28573569
TI  - Advanced Methods of Protein Crystallization.
AB  - This chapter provides a review of different advanced methods that help to
      increase the success rate of a crystallization project, by producing larger and
      higher quality single crystals for determination of macromolecular structures by
      crystallographic methods. For this purpose, the chapter is divided into three
      parts. The first part deals with the fundamentals for understanding the
      crystallization process through different strategies based on physical and
      chemical approaches. The second part presents new approaches involved in more
      sophisticated methods not only for growing protein crystals but also for
      controlling the size and orientation of crystals through utilization of
      electromagnetic fields and other advanced techniques. The last section deals with
      three different aspects: the importance of microgravity, the use of ligands to
      stabilize proteins, and the use of microfluidics to obtain protein crystals. All
      these advanced methods will allow the readers to obtain suitable crystalline
      samples for high-resolution X-ray and neutron crystallography.

PMID- 28573571
TI  - Crystallization of Membrane Proteins: An Overview.
AB  - Membrane proteins are crucial components of cellular membranes and are
      responsible for a variety of physiological functions. The advent of new tools and
      technologies for structural biology of membrane proteins has led to a significant
      increase in the number of structures deposited to the Protein Data Bank during
      the past decade. This new knowledge has expanded our fundamental understanding of
      their mechanism of function and contributed to the drug-design efforts. In this
      chapter we discuss current approaches for membrane protein expression,
      solubilization, crystallization, and data collection. Additionally, we describe
      the protein quality-control assays that are often instrumental as a guideline for
      a shorter path toward the structure.

PMID- 28573572
TI  - Locating and Visualizing Crystals for X-Ray Diffraction Experiments.
AB  - Macromolecular crystallography has advanced from using macroscopic crystals,
      which might be >1 mm on a side, to crystals that are essentially invisible to the
      naked eye, or even under a standard laboratory microscope. As crystallography
      requires recognizing crystals when they are produced, and then placing them in an
      X-ray, electron, or neutron beam, this provides challenges, particularly in the
      case of advanced X-ray sources, where beams have very small cross sections and
      crystals may be vanishingly small. Methods for visualizing crystals are reviewed
      here, and examples of different types of cases are presented, including: standard
      crystals, crystals grown in mesophase, in situ crystallography, and crystals
      grown for X-ray Free Electron Laser or Micro Electron Diffraction experiments. As
      most techniques have limitations, it is desirable to have a range of
      complementary techniques available to identify and locate crystals. Ideally, a
      given technique should not cause sample damage, but sometimes it is necessary to
      use techniques where damage can only be minimized. For extreme circumstances, the
      act of probing location may be coincident with collecting X-ray diffraction data.
      Future challenges and directions are also discussed.

PMID- 28573570
TI  - The "Sticky Patch" Model of Crystallization and Modification of Proteins for
      Enhanced Crystallizability.
AB  - Crystallization of macromolecules has long been perceived as a stochastic
      process, which cannot be predicted or controlled. This is consistent with another
      popular notion that the interactions of molecules within the crystal, i.e.,
      crystal contacts, are essentially random and devoid of specific physicochemical
      features. In contrast, functionally relevant surfaces, such as oligomerization
      interfaces and specific protein-protein interaction sites, are under evolutionary
      pressures so their amino acid composition, structure, and topology are distinct.
      However, current theoretical and experimental studies are significantly changing
      our understanding of the nature of crystallization. The increasingly popular
      "sticky patch" model, derived from soft matter physics, describes crystallization
      as a process driven by interactions between select, specific surface patches,
      with properties thermodynamically favorable for cohesive interactions.
      Independent support for this model comes from various sources including
      structural studies and bioinformatics. Proteins that are recalcitrant to
      crystallization can be modified for enhanced crystallizability through chemical
      or mutational modification of their surface to effectively engineer "sticky
      patches" which would drive crystallization. Here, we discuss the current state of
      knowledge of the relationship between the microscopic properties of the target
      macromolecule and its crystallizability, focusing on the "sticky patch" model. We
      discuss state-of-the-art in silico methods that evaluate the propensity of a
      given target protein to form crystals based on these relationships, with the
      objective to design variants with modified molecular surface properties and
      enhanced crystallization propensity. We illustrate this discussion with specific
      cases where these approaches allowed to generate crystals suitable for structural
      analysis.

PMID- 28573573
TI  - Collection of X-Ray Diffraction Data from Macromolecular Crystals.
AB  - Diffraction data acquisition is the final experimental stage of the crystal
      structure analysis. All subsequent steps involve mainly computer calculations.
      Optimally measured and accurate data make the structure solution and refinement
      easier and lead to more faithful interpretation of the final models. Here, the
      important factors in data collection from macromolecular crystals are discussed
      and strategies appropriate for various applications, such as molecular
      replacement, anomalous phasing, and atomic-resolution refinement are presented.
      Criteria useful for judging the diffraction data quality are also discussed.

PMID- 28573574
TI  - Identifying and Overcoming Crystal Pathologies: Disorder and Twinning.
AB  - Macromolecular crystals are prone to a number of pathologies that result from
      aberrant molecular packing. Two common pathologies encountered in macromolecular
      crystals are rigid-body disorder and twinning. When a crystal displays one of
      these pathologies, its diffraction pattern is altered in a way that generally
      complicates structure determination. The severity of the underlying abnormalities
      varies from case to case, and sometimes the resulting alterations to the
      diffraction pattern are immediately obvious, while at other times they may go
      entirely unnoticed. Structure determination from a crystal that suffers from
      disorder or twinning may or may not be possible, depending on the specific nature
      of the pathology, and on how the data are handled. This chapter provides an
      introduction to these pathologies, with an emphasis on providing guidelines for
      identifying and overcoming them when they pose a threat to successful structure
      determination.

PMID- 28573575
TI  - Applications of X-Ray Micro-Beam for Data Collection.
AB  - Micro-diffraction tools for macromolecular crystallography, first developed at
      the end of 1990s and now an integral part of many synchrotron beamlines, enable
      some of the experiments which were not feasible just a decade or so ago. These
      include data collection from very small samples, just a few micrometers in size;
      from larger, but severely inhomogeneous samples; and from samples which are
      optically invisible. Improved micro-diffraction tools led to improved signal-to
      noise ratio, to mitigation of radiation damage in some cases, and to better
      designed diffraction experiments. Small, micron-scale beams can be attained in
      different ways and knowing the details of the implementation is important in
      order to design the diffraction experiment properly. Similarly, precision,
      reproducibility and stability of the goniometry, and caveats of detection systems
      need to be taken into account. Lastly, to make micro-diffraction widely
      applicable, the sophistication, robustness, and user-friendliness of these tools
      are just as important as the technical capabilities.

PMID- 28573576
TI  - Serial Synchrotron X-Ray Crystallography (SSX).
AB  - Prompted by methodological advances in measurements with X-ray free electron
      lasers, it was realized in the last two years that traditional (or conventional)
      methods for data collection from crystals of macromolecular specimens can be
      complemented by synchrotron measurements on microcrystals that would individually
      not suffice for a complete data set. Measuring, processing, and merging many
      partial data sets of this kind requires new techniques which have since been
      implemented at several third-generation synchrotron facilities, and are described
      here. Among these, we particularly focus on the possibility of in situ
      measurements combined with in meso crystal preparations and data analysis with
      the XDS package and auxiliary programs.

PMID- 28573577
TI  - Time-Resolved Macromolecular Crystallography at Modern X-Ray Sources.
AB  - Time-resolved macromolecular crystallography unifies protein structure
      determination with chemical kinetics. With the advent of fourth generation X-ray
      sources the time-resolution can be on the order of 10-40 fs, which opens the
      ultrafast time scale to structure determination. Fundamental motions and
      transitions associated with chemical reactions in proteins can now be observed.
      Moreover, new experimental approaches at synchrotrons allow for the
      straightforward investigation of all kind of reactions in biological
      macromolecules. Here, recent developments in the field are reviewed.

PMID- 28573578
TI  - Structure Determination Using X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Pulses.
AB  - The intense X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers, of only femtoseconds
      duration, outrun most of the processes that lead to structural degradation in X
      ray exposures of macromolecules. Using these sources it is therefore possible to
      increase the dose to macromolecular crystals by several orders of magnitude
      higher than usually tolerable in conventional measurements, allowing crystal size
      to be decreased dramatically in diffraction measurements and without the need to
      cool the sample. Such pulses lead to the eventual vaporization of the sample,
      which has required a measurement approach, called serial crystallography, of
      consolidating snapshot diffraction patterns of many individual crystals. This in
      turn has further separated the connection between dose and obtainable diffraction
      information, with the only requirement from a single pattern being that to give
      enough information to place it, in three-dimensional reciprocal space, in
      relation to other patterns. Millions of extremely weak patterns can be collected
      and combined in this way, requiring methods to rapidly replenish the sample into
      the beam while generating the lowest possible background . The method is suited
      to time-resolved measurements over timescales below 1 ps to several seconds, and
      opens new opportunities for phasing. Some straightforward considerations of
      achievable signal levels are discussed and compared with a wide variety of recent
      experiments carried out at XFEL, synchrotron, and even laboratory sources, to
      discuss the capabilities of these new approaches and give some perspectives on
      their further development.

PMID- 28573579
TI  - Processing of XFEL Data.
AB  - The introduction of the X-ray laser to crystallography, and its impact on the
      types of crystallographic experiments being performed as described in the
      previous chapter, has meant that new data processing strategies had to be found.
      While some XFEL crystallography experiments approach the conventional methods
      quite closely, even those are not without special considerations relating to data
      processing. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) introduces several
      additional problems, many of which have been solved recently, and there has been
      great progress towards resolving the remaining ones. Recent developments into the
      use of continuous scattering between the Bragg peaks will need even greater
      changes to the conventional data processing methods. This chapter describes the
      special characteristics of XFEL data and introduces the range of processing
      methods which are currently under development.

PMID- 28573580
TI  - Many Ways to Derivatize Macromolecules and Their Crystals for Phasing.
AB  - Due to the availability of many macromolecular models in the Protein Data Bank,
      the majority of crystal structures are currently solved by molecular replacement.
      However, truly novel structures can only be solved by one of the versions of the
      special-atom method. The special atoms such as sulfur, phosphorus or metals could
      be naturally present in the macromolecules, or could be intentionally introduced
      in a derivatization process. The isomorphous and/or anomalous scattering of X
      rays by these special atoms is then utilized for phasing. There are many ways to
      obtain potentially useful derivatives, ranging from the introduction of special
      atoms to proteins or nucleic acids by genetic engineering or by chemical
      synthesis, to soaking native crystals in solutions of appropriate compounds with
      heavy and/or anomalously scattering atoms. No approach guarantees the ultimate
      success and derivatization remains largely a trial-and-error process. In
      practice, however, there is a very good chance that one of a wide variety of the
      available procedures will lead to successful structure solution.

PMID- 28573581
TI  - Experimental Phasing: Substructure Solution and Density Modification as
      Implemented in SHELX.
AB  - This chapter describes experimental phasing methods as implemented in SHELX.
      After introducing fundamental concepts underlying all experimental phasing
      approaches, the methods used by SHELXC/D/E are described in greater detail, such
      as dual-space direct methods, Patterson seeding and density modification with the
      sphere of influence algorithm. Intensity differences from data for experimental
      phasing can also be used for the generation and usage of difference maps with
      ANODE for validation and phasing purposes. A short section describes how
      molecular replacement can be combined with experimental phasing methods. The
      second half covers practical challenges, such as prerequisites for successful
      experimental phasing, evaluation of potential solutions, and what to do if
      substructure search or density modification fails. It is also shown how auto
      tracing in SHELXE can improve automation and how it ties in with automatic model
      building after phasing.

PMID- 28573583
TI  - Long-Wavelength X-Ray Diffraction and Its Applications in Macromolecular
      Crystallography.
AB  - For many years, diffraction experiments in macromolecular crystallography at X
      ray wavelengths longer than that of Cu-K alpha (1.54 A) have been largely
      underappreciated. Effects caused by increased X-ray absorption result in the fact
      that these experiments are more difficult than the standard diffraction
      experiments at short wavelengths. However, due to the also increased anomalous
      scattering of many biologically relevant atoms, important additional structural
      information can be obtained. This information, in turn, can be used for phase
      determination, for substructure identification, in molecular replacement
      approaches, as well as in structure refinement. This chapter reviews the
      possibilities and the difficulties associated with such experiments, and it
      provides a short description of two macromolecular crystallography synchrotron
      beam lines dedicated to long-wavelength X-ray diffraction experiments.

PMID- 28573584
TI  - Acknowledging Errors: Advanced Molecular Replacement with Phaser.
AB  - Molecular replacement is a method for solving the crystallographic phase problem
      using an atomic model for the target structure. State-of-the-art methods have
      moved the field significantly from when it was first envisaged as a method for
      solving cases of high homology and completeness between a model and target
      structure. Improvements brought about by application of maximum likelihood
      statistics mean that various errors in the model and pathologies in the data can
      be accounted for, so that cases hitherto thought to be intractable are standardly
      solvable. As a result, molecular replacement phasing now accounts for the lion's
      share of structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank. However, there will
      always be cases at the fringes of solvability. I discuss here the approaches that
      will help tackle challenging molecular replacement cases.

PMID- 28573582
TI  - Contemporary Use of Anomalous Diffraction in Biomolecular Structure Analysis.
AB  - The normal elastic X-ray scattering that depends only on electron density can be
      modulated by an "anomalous" component due to resonance between X-rays and
      electronic orbitals. Anomalous scattering thereby precisely identifies atomic
      species, since orbitals distinguish atomic elements, which enables the multi- and
      single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD and SAD) methods. SAD now
      predominates in de novo structure determination of biological macromolecules, and
      we focus here on the prevailing SAD method. We describe the anomalous phasing
      theory and the periodic table of phasing elements that are available for SAD
      experiments, differentiating between those readily accessible for at-resonance
      experiments and those that can be effective away from an edge. We describe
      procedures for present-day SAD phasing experiments and we discuss optimization of
      anomalous signals for challenging applications. We also describe methods for
      using anomalous signals as molecular markers for tracing and element
      identification. Emerging developments and perspectives are discussed in brief.

PMID- 28573585
TI  - Rosetta Structure Prediction as a Tool for Solving Difficult Molecular
      Replacement Problems.
AB  - Molecular replacement (MR), a method for solving the crystallographic phase
      problem using phases derived from a model of the target structure, has proven
      extremely valuable, accounting for the vast majority of structures solved by X
      ray crystallography. However, when the resolution of data is low, or the starting
      model is very dissimilar to the target protein, solving structures via molecular
      replacement may be very challenging. In recent years, protein structure
      prediction methodology has emerged as a powerful tool in model building and model
      refinement for difficult molecular replacement problems. This chapter describes
      some of the tools available in Rosetta for model building and model refinement
      specifically geared toward difficult molecular replacement cases.

PMID- 28573586
TI  - Radiation Damage in Macromolecular Crystallography.
AB  - Radiation damage inflicted on macromolecular crystals during X-ray diffraction
      experiments remains a limiting factor for structure solution, even when samples
      are cooled to cryotemperatures (~100 K). Efforts to establish mitigation
      strategies are ongoing and various approaches, summarized below, have been
      investigated over the last 15 years, resulting in a deeper understanding of the
      physical and chemical factors affecting damage rates. The recent advent of X-ray
      free electron lasers permits "diffraction-before-destruction" by providing highly
      brilliant and short (a few tens of fs) X-ray pulses. New fourth generation
      synchrotron sources now coming on line with higher X-ray flux densities than
      those available from third generation synchrotrons will bring the issue of
      radiation damage once more to the fore for structural biologists.

PMID- 28573587
TI  - Boxes of Model Building and Visualization.
AB  - Macromolecular crystallography and electron microscopy (single-particle and in
      situ tomography) are merging into a single approach used by the two coalescing
      scientific communities. The merger is a consequence of technical developments
      that enabled determination of atomic structures of macromolecules by electron
      microscopy. Technological progress in experimental methods of macromolecular
      structure determination, computer hardware, and software changed and continues to
      change the nature of model building and visualization of molecular structures.
      However, the increase in automation and availability of structure validation are
      reducing interactive manual model building to fiddling with details. On the other
      hand, interactive modeling tools increasingly rely on search and complex energy
      calculation procedures, which make manually driven changes in geometry
      increasingly powerful and at the same time less demanding. Thus, the need for
      accurate manual positioning of a model is decreasing. The user's push only needs
      to be sufficient to bring the model within the increasing convergence radius of
      the computing tools. It seems that we can now better than ever determine an
      average single structure. The tools work better, requirements for engagement of
      human brain are lowered, and the frontier of intellectual and scientific
      challenges has moved on. The quest for resolution of new challenges requires out
      of-the-box thinking. A few issues such as model bias and correctness of
      structure, ongoing developments in parameters defining geometric restraints,
      limitations of the ideal average single structure, and limitations of Bragg spot
      data are discussed here, together with the challenges that lie ahead.

PMID- 28573588
TI  - Structure Refinement at Atomic Resolution.
AB  - X-Ray diffraction data at atomic resolution, i.e., beyond 1.2 A, provide the most
      detailed and reliable information we have about the structure of macromolecules,
      which is especially important for validating new discoveries and resolving subtle
      issues of molecular mechanisms. Refinement at atomic resolution allows reliable
      interpretation of static disorder and solvent structure, as well as modeling of
      anisotropic atomic vibrations and even of H atoms. Stereochemical restraints can
      be relaxed or removed, providing unbiased information about macromolecular
      stereochemistry, which in turn can be used to define improved conformation
      dependent libraries, and the surplus of data allows estimation of least-squares
      uncertainties in the derived parameters. At ultrahigh resolution it is possible
      to study charge density distribution by multipolar refinement of electrons in non
      spherical orbitals.

PMID- 28573589
TI  - Low Resolution Refinement of Atomic Models Against Crystallographic Data.
AB  - This review describes some of the problems encountered during low-resolution
      refinement and map calculation. Refinement is considered as an application of
      Bayes' theorem, allowing combination of information from various sources
      including crystallographic experimental data and prior chemical and structural
      knowledge. The sources of prior knowledge relevant to macromolecules include
      basic chemical information such as bonds and angles, structural information from
      reference models of known homologs, knowledge about secondary structures,
      hydrogen bonding patterns, and similarity of non-crystallographically related
      copies of a molecule. Additionally, prior information encapsulating local
      conformational conservation is exploited, keeping local interatomic distances
      similar to those in the starting atomic model. The importance of designing an
      accurate likelihood function-the only link between model parameters and observed
      data-is emphasized. The review also reemphasizes the importance of phases, and
      describes how the use of raw observed amplitudes could give a better correlation
      between the calculated and "true" maps. It is shown that very noisy or absent
      observations can be replaced by calculated structure factors, weighted according
      to the accuracy of the atomic model. This approach helps to smoothen the map.
      However, such replacement should be used sparingly, as the bias toward errors in
      the model could be too much to avoid. It is in general recommended that, whenever
      a new map is calculated, map quality should be judged by inspection of the parts
      of the map where there is no atomic model. It is also noted that it is advisable
      to work with multiple blurred and sharpened maps, as different parts of a crystal
      may exhibit different degrees of mobility. Doing so can allow accurate building
      of atomic models, accounting for overall shape as well as finer structural
      details. Some of the results described in this review have been implemented in
      the programs REFMAC5, ProSMART and LORESTR, which are available as part of the
      CCP4 software suite.

PMID- 28573590
TI  - Stereochemistry and Validation of Macromolecular Structures.
AB  - Macromolecular structure is governed by the strict rules of stereochemistry.
      Several approaches to the validation of the correctness of the interpretation of
      crystallographic and NMR data that underlie the models deposited in the PDB are
      utilized in practice. The stereochemical rules applicable to macromolecular
      structures are discussed in this chapter. Practical, computer-based methods and
      tools of verification of how well the models adhere to those established
      structural principles to assure their quality are summarized.

PMID- 28573591
TI  - Validation of Protein-Ligand Crystal Structure Models: Small Molecule and Peptide
      Ligands.
AB  - Models of target proteins in complex with small molecule ligands or peptide
      ligands are of significant interest to the biomedical research community.
      Structure-guided lead discovery and structure-based drug design make extensive
      use of such models. The bound ligands comprise only a small fraction of the total
      X-ray scattering mass, and therefore particular care must be taken to properly
      validate the atomic model of the ligand as experimental data can often be scarce.
      The ligand model must be validated against both the primary experimental data and
      the local environment, specifically: (1) the primary evidence in the form of the
      electron density, (2) examined for reasonable stereochemistry, and (3) the
      chemical plausibility of the binding interactions must be inspected. Tools that
      assist the researcher in the validation process are presented.

PMID- 28573592
TI  - Protein Data Bank (PDB): The Single Global Macromolecular Structure Archive.
AB  - The Protein Data Bank (PDB)--the single global repository of experimentally
      determined 3D structures of biological macromolecules and their complexes--was
      established in 1971, becoming the first open-access digital resource in the
      biological sciences. The PDB archive currently houses ~130,000 entries (May
      2017). It is managed by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank organization (wwPDB;
      wwpdb.org), which includes the RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB; rcsb.org), the
      Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj; pdbj.org), the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe;
      pdbe.org), and BioMagResBank (BMRB; www.bmrb.wisc.edu). The four wwPDB partners
      operate a unified global software system that enforces community-agreed data
      standards and supports data Deposition, Biocuration, and Validation of ~11,000
      new PDB entries annually (deposit.wwpdb.org). The RCSB PDB currently acts as the
      archive keeper, ensuring disaster recovery of PDB data and coordinating weekly
      updates. wwPDB partners disseminate the same archival data from multiple FTP
      sites, while operating complementary websites that provide their own views of PDB
      data with selected value-added information and links to related data resources.
      At present, the PDB archives experimental data, associated metadata, and 3D
      atomic level structural models derived from three well-established methods:
      crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and electron
      microscopy (3DEM). wwPDB partners are working closely with experts in related
      experimental areas (small-angle scattering, chemical cross-linking/mass
      spectrometry, Forster energy resonance transfer or FRET, etc.) to establish a
      federation of data resources that will support sustainable archiving and
      validation of 3D structural models and experimental data derived from integrative
      or hybrid methods.

PMID- 28573593
TI  - Databases, Repositories, and Other Data Resources in Structural Biology.
AB  - Structural biology, like many other areas of modern science, produces an enormous
      amount of primary, derived, and "meta" data with a high demand on data storage
      and manipulations. Primary data come from various steps of sample preparation,
      diffraction experiments, and functional studies. These data are not only used to
      obtain tangible results, like macromolecular structural models, but also to
      enrich and guide our analysis and interpretation of various biomedical problems.
      Herein we define several categories of data resources, (a) Archives, (b)
      Repositories, (c) Databases, and (d) Advanced Information Systems, that can
      accommodate primary, derived, or reference data. Data resources may be used
      either as web portals or internally by structural biology software. To be useful,
      each resource must be maintained, curated, as well as integrated with other
      resources. Ideally, the system of interconnected resources should evolve toward
      comprehensive "hubs", or Advanced Information Systems. Such systems, encompassing
      the PDB and UniProt, are indispensable not only for structural biology, but for
      many related fields of science. The categories of data resources described herein
      are applicable well beyond our usual scientific endeavors.

PMID- 28573594
TI  - Transmural cellular heterogeneity in myocardial electromechanics.
AB  - Myocardial heterogeneity is an attribute of the normal heart. We have developed
      integrative models of cardiomyocytes from the subendocardial (ENDO) and
      subepicardial (EPI) ventricular regions that take into account experimental data
      on specific regional features of intracellular electromechanical coupling in the
      guinea pig heart. The models adequately simulate experimental data on the
      differences in the action potential and contraction between the ENDO and EPI
      cells. The modeling results predict that heterogeneity in the parameters of
      calcium handling and myofilament mechanics in isolated ENDO and EPI
      cardiomyocytes are essential to produce the differences in Ca2+ transients and
      contraction profiles via cooperative mechanisms of mechano-calcium-electric
      feedback and may further slightly modulate transmural differences in the
      electrical properties between the cells. Simulation results predict that ENDO
      cells have greater sensitivity to changes in the mechanical load than EPI cells.
      These data are important for understanding the behavior of cardiomyocytes in the
      intact heart.

PMID- 28573595
TI  - Developing and Evaluating an Innovative Structural Competency Curriculum for Pre
      Health Students.
AB  - The inclusion of structural competency training in pre-health undergraduate
      programs may offer significant benefits to future healthcare professionals. This
      paper presents the results of a comparative study of an interdisciplinary pre
      health curriculum based in structural competency with a traditional premedical
      curriculum. The authors describe a new evaluation tool, the Structural
      Foundations of Health Survey (c) (2016), developed to evaluate structural skills
      and sensibilities. The authors use the survey to evaluate two groups of
      graduating seniors at Vanderbilt University-majors in an interdisciplinary pre
      health curriculum titled Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS), and premed science
      majors-with particular attention to understanding how political, cultural,
      economic, and social factors shape health. Results suggest that MHS majors
      identified and analyzed relationships between structural factors and health
      outcomes at higher rates and in deeper ways than did premed science majors. MHS
      students also demonstrated higher understanding of structural and cultural
      competency in their approaches to race, intersectionality, and racial health
      disparities. The skills that MHS students exhibited represent proficiencies
      increasingly emphasized by the MCAT, the AAMC, and other educational bodies that,
      in an era of epigenetics and social determinants, emphasize how contextual
      factors shape expressions of health and illness.

PMID- 28573596
TI  - Advancing Pre-Health Humanities as Intensive Research Practice: Principles and
      Recommendations from a Cross-Divisional Baccalaureate Setting.
AB  - This essay argues that pre-health humanities programs should focus on intensive
      research practice for baccalaureate students and provides three guiding
      principles for implementing it. Although the interdisciplinary nature of health
      humanities permits baccalaureate students to use research methods from the
      natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, pre-health humanities
      coursework tends to force students to adopt only one of many disciplinary
      identities. Alternatively, an intensive research approach invites students to
      critically select and combine methods from multiple (and seemingly opposing)
      disciplines to ask and answer questions about health problems more innovatively.
      Using the authors' experiences with implementing health humanities baccalaureate
      research initiatives at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the
      authors contend that pre-health humanities programs should teach and study
      multiple disciplinary research methods and their values; examine how health
      humanities research might transfer across disciplines; and focus on mentoring
      opportunities for funding, presenting, and publishing research. These
      recommendations have the potential to create unprecedented research experiences
      for baccalaureate students as they prepare to enter careers within and beyond the
      allied health professions.

PMID- 28573597
TI  - Effect of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback on Sport Performance, a Systematic
      Review.
AB  - Aim is to determine if the training with heart rate variability biofeedback
      allows to improve performance in athletes of different disciplines. Methods such
      as database search on Web of Science, SpringerLink, EBSCO Academic Search
      Complete, SPORTDiscus, Pubmed/Medline, and PROQUEST Academic Research Library, as
      well as manual reference registration. The eligibility criteria were: (a)
      published scientific articles; (b) experimental studies, quasi-experimental, or
      case reports; (c) use of HRV BFB as main treatment; (d) sport performance as
      dependent variable; (e) studies published until October 2016; (f) studies
      published in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. The guidelines of the PRISMA
      statement were followed. Out of the 451 records found, seven items were included.
      All studies had a small sample size (range from 1 to 30 participants). In 85.71%
      of the studies (n = 6) the athletes enhanced psychophysiological variables that
      allowed them to improve their sport performance thanks to training with heart
      rate variability biofeedback. Despite the limited amount of experimental studies
      in the field to date, the findings suggest that heart rate variability
      biofeedback is an effective, safe, and easy-to-learn and apply method for both
      athletes and coaches in order to improve sport performance.

PMID- 28573598
TI  - Ecological dissimilarity among land-use/land-cover types improves a heterogeneity
      index for predicting biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
AB  - Land-use/land-cover heterogeneity is among the most important factors influencing
      biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and is the key to the conservation of
      multi-habitat dwellers that use both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
      Heterogeneity indices based on land-use/land-cover maps typically do not
      integrate ecological dissimilarity between land-use/land-cover types. Here, we
      applied the concept of functional diversity to an existing land-use/land-cover
      diversity index (Satoyama index) to incorporate ecological dissimilarity and
      proposed a new index called the dissimilarity-based Satoyama index (DSI). Using
      Japan as a case study, we calculated the DSI for three land-use/land-cover maps
      with different spatial resolutions and derived similarity information from
      normalized difference vegetation index values. The DSI showed better performance
      in the prediction of Japanese damselfly species richness than that of the
      existing index, and a higher correlation between the index and species richness
      was obtained for higher resolution maps. Thus, our approach to improve the land
      use/land-cover diversity index holds promise for future development and can be
      effective for conservation and monitoring efforts.

PMID- 28573599
TI  - Mapping policies for surface water protection zones on forest land in the Nordic
      Baltic region: Large differences in prescriptiveness and zone width.
AB  - The forest landscape across the Nordic and Baltic regions hosts numerous lakes
      and watercourses, which must be included in forest management. In this study,
      national policy designs regarding protection zones for surface waters on forest
      land were reviewed and compared for the Nordic countries, Estonia and Latvia. The
      focus was how each country regulates protection zones, whether they are voluntary
      or mandatory, and the rationale behind adopting a low or high degree of
      prescriptiveness. Iceland and Denmark had a low degree of policy
      prescriptiveness, whereas Norway, Estonia and Latvia had a high degree of
      prescriptiveness. Sweden and Finland relied to a large extent on voluntary
      commitments. The prescribed zone widths within the region ranged from 1 m to 5
      km. The results indicated that land-use distribution, forest ownership structure
      and historical and political legacies have influenced the varying degrees of
      prescriptiveness in the region.

PMID- 28573600
TI  - Vulnerability and impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater wetland
      ecosystems in Nepal: A review.
AB  - Climate change (CC) threatens ecosystems in both developed and developing
      countries. As the impacts of CC are pervasive, global, and mostly irreversible,
      it is gaining worldwide attention. Here we review vulnerability and impacts of CC
      on forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems. We particularly look at
      investigations undertaken at different geographic regions in order to identify
      existing knowledge gaps and possible implications from such vulnerability in the
      context of Nepal along with available adaptation programs and national-level
      policy supports. Different categories of impacts which are attributed to
      disrupting structure, function, and habitat of both forest and wetland ecosystems
      are identified and discussed. We show that though still unaccounted, many facets
      of forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems of Nepal are vulnerable and likely to
      be impacted by CC in the near future. Provisioning ecosystem services and
      landscape-level ecosystem conservation are anticipated to be highly threatened
      with future CC. Finally, the need for prioritizing CC research in Nepal is
      highlighted to close the existing knowledge gap along with the implementation of
      adaptation measures based on existing location specific traditional socio
      ecological system.

PMID- 28573601
TI  - Gallic acid and p-coumaric acid attenuate type 2 diabetes-induced
      neurodegeneration in rats.
AB  - The brain of diabetics revealed deterioration in many regions, especially the
      hippocampus. Hence, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of gallic
      acid and p-coumaric acid against the hippocampal neurodegeneration in type 2
      diabetic rats. Adult male albino rats were randomly allocated into four groups:
      Group 1 served as control ones and others were induced with diabetes. Group 2
      considered as diabetic, and groups 3 and 4 were further orally treated with
      gallic acid (20 mg/kg b.wt./day) and p-coumaric acid (40 mg/kg b.wt./day) for six
      weeks. Diabetic rats revealed significant elevation in the levels of serum
      glucose, blood glycosylated hemoglobin and serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha,
      while the level of serum insulin was significantly declined. Furthermore, the
      brain of diabetic rats showed a marked increase in oxidative stress and a
      decrease of antioxidant parameters as well as upregulation the protein expression
      of Bax and downregulation the protein expression of Bcl-2 in the hippocampus.
      Treatment of diabetic rats with gallic acid and p-coumaric acid significantly
      ameliorated glucose tolerance, diminished the brain oxidative stress and improved
      antioxidant status, declined inflammation and inhibited apoptosis in the
      hippocampus. The overall results suggested that gallic acid and p-coumaric acid
      may inhibit hippocampal neurodegeneration via their potent antioxidant, anti
      inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties. Therefore, both compounds can be
      recommended as hopeful adjuvant agents against brain neurodegeneration in
      diabetics.

PMID- 28573602
TI  - Cognitive reserve is a resilience factor for cognitive dysfunction in hepatic
      encephalopathy.
AB  - Cognitive Reserve (CR) modulates symptoms of brain disease. The aim of this study
      was: to evaluate the effect of CR on cognition in cirrhosis and on the mismatch
      between cognitive and neurophysiologic assessment of hepatic encephalopathy (HE).
      Eighty-two outpatient patients with cirrhosis without overt HE were studied [73%
      males; age: 62 (54-68) (median, interq. range) yrs.; education: 8 (6-13) yrs.].
      The Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) was used as cognitive
      measure of HE. The spectral analysis of the electroencephalogram (EEG) was used
      as neurophysiologic measure of HE. The CR was assessed by the CR Index (CRI),
      which was measured by the CRI questionnaire (CRIq) ( http://cri.psy.unipd.it ).
      The PHES was altered in 28% of patients and the EEG in 41%. Altered PHES was
      related to the severity of cirrhosis as assessed by Child-Pugh classification (R
      = 0.31, p < 0.005). Patients with maintained PHES had higher CRI than those with
      altered PHES (CRI = 100 +/- 20 vs. 88 +/- 12 vs., p < 0.01), but not the ones
      with normal EEG compared to those with abnormal EEG (CRI = 96 +/- 17 vs. 98 +/-
      17 vs. p: n.s.).The PHES, but not the EEG, was found to be related to the CRI (r
      = 0.35, p < 0.01). The mismatch between cognitive and neurophysiologic evaluation
      of non-overt HE (the ratio between PHES and the mean dominant frequency -MDF- of
      the EEG i.e., cognitive performance normalized by EEG speed) was found to be
      correlated to the CRI (r = 0.36, p < 0.005). CR is a resilience factor for
      cognitive dysfunction in cirrhosis, and is easily measurable by CRIq.

PMID- 28573603
TI  - Influence of Culture Medium Composition and Light Conditions on the Accumulation
      of Bioactive Compounds in Shoot Cultures of Scutellaria lateriflora L. (American
      Skullcap) Grown In Vitro.
AB  - Methanolic extracts from in vitro grown Scutellaria lateriflora shoots cultured
      on five Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium variants supplemented with different
      combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and alpha-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA)
      under different light conditions (monochromatic light, white light and no light)
      were analysed by HPLC for three groups of metabolites: flavonoids (26 compounds),
      phenolic acids and their precursors (19+2) and phenylethanoid glycosides (2). The
      analyses revealed the presence of baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, wogonoside, 3,4
      dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and verbascoside. There was clear evidence of the
      influence of plant growth regulators and light conditions on the accumulation of
      the analysed groups of secondary metabolites. The amounts of the compounds
      changed within a wide range-for the total flavonoid content, 30.2-fold (max.
      1204.3 mg.100 g-1 dry weight (DW)); for 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, 5.5-fold
      (max. 33.56 mg.100 g-1 DW); and for verbascoside, 1.5-fold (169.15 max. mg.100 g
      1 DW). The best medium for the production of most of the compounds was the
      Murashige and Skoog variant with 1 mg l-1 BAP and 1 mg l-1 NAA. For verbascoside,
      the best 'productive' medium was the MS variant supplemented with 0.5 mg l-1 BAP
      and 2 mg l-1 NAA. The accumulation of the metabolites was stimulated to the
      greatest extent by blue light, under which the extracts were found to contain the
      highest total amount of flavonoids and the highest amounts of flavonoid
      glucuronides, baicalin and wogonoside, as well as of verbascoside. Their amounts
      were, respectively, 1.54-, 1.49-, 2.05- and 1.86-fold higher than under the
      control white light.

PMID- 28573604
TI  - Dextran Utilization During Its Synthesis by Weissella cibaria RBA12 Can Be
      Overcome by Fed-Batch Fermentation in a Bioreactor.
AB  - Weissella cibaria RBA12 produced a maximum of 9 mg/ml dextran (with 90%
      efficiency) using shake flask culture under the optimized concentration of medium
      components viz. 2% (w/v) of each sucrose, yeast extract, and K2HPO4 after
      incubation at optimized conditions of 20  degrees C and 180 rpm for 24 h. The
      optimized medium and conditions were used for scale-up of dextran production from
      Weissella cibaria RBA12 in 2.5-l working volume under batch fermentation in a
      bioreactor that yielded a maximum of 9.3 mg/ml dextran (with 93% efficiency) at
      14 h. After 14 h, dextran produced was utilized by the bacterium till 18 h in its
      stationary phase under sucrose depleted conditions. Dextran utilization was
      further studied by fed-batch fermentation using sucrose feed. Dextran on
      production under fed-batch fermentation in bioreactor gave 35.8 mg/ml after 32 h.
      In fed-batch mode, there was no decrease in dextran concentration as observed in
      the batch mode. This showed that the utilization of dextran by Weissella cibaria
      RBA12 is initiated when there is sucrose depletion and therefore the presence of
      sucrose can possibly overcome the dextran hydrolysis. This is the first report of
      utilization of dextran, post-sucrose depletion by Weissella sp. studied in
      bioreactor.

PMID- 28573605
TI  - Inhibitory Effect of Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles from Extract of
      Nitzschia palea Against Curli-Mediated Biofilm of Escherichia coli.
AB  - Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) are emerging beta-lactamases in Gram
      negative pathogens, causing serious problems in hospitalized patients worldwide.
      Biofilm mode of virulence has decreased the efficiency of antibiotics used for
      treatment against ESBL pathogens. Therefore, there is an urgent need for
      alternative agents such as nanoparticles that can prevent and inhibit the biofilm
      formation. The aim of the present study was to inhibit the biofilm formed by ESBL
      producing Escherichia coli using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized with
      fresh water diatom (Nitzschia palea). AgNPs were characterized using UV-Vis
      spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission
      scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX),
      and XRD. AgNPs at their biofilm inhibitory concentration (BIC) of 300 ng ml-1
      significantly reduced the biofilm formed by E. coli. Interestingly, Congo red
      assay revealed the reduction of curli, essential for biofilm formation in the
      presence of AgNPs. Light and CLSM examination of the biofilm images also
      validated that in the presence of AgNPs, the biofilm architecture was
      disintegrated and the thickness was significantly reduced. Overall, the present
      study exemplifies the use of AgNPs as a plausible alternative for conventional
      coating agents on implant devices to prevent and control biofilm-associated
      urinary tract infections.

PMID- 28573607
TI  - Marburg- and Ebolaviruses: A Look Back and Lessons for the Future.
AB  - Since the discovery of Marburg virus 50 years ago, filoviruses have reemerged in
      the human population more than 40 times. Already the first episode was as
      dramatic as most of the subsequent ones, but none of them was as devastating as
      the West-African Ebola virus outbreak in 2013-2015. Although progress toward a
      better understanding of the viruses is impressive, there is clearly a need to
      improve and strengthen the measures to detect and control these deadly
      infections.

PMID- 28573608
TI  - Forty Years of Ebolavirus Molecular Biology: Understanding a Novel Disease Agent
      Through the Development and Application of New Technologies.
AB  - Molecular biology is a broad discipline that seeks to understand biological
      phenomena at a molecular level, and achieves this through the study of DNA, RNA,
      proteins, and/or other macromolecules (e.g., those involved in the modification
      of these substrates). Consequently, it relies on the availability of a wide
      variety of methods that deal with the collection, preservation, inactivation,
      separation, manipulation, imaging, and analysis of these molecules. As such the
      state of the art in the field of ebolavirus molecular biology research (and that
      of all other viruses) is largely intertwined with, if not driven by, advancements
      in the technical methodologies available for these kinds of studies. Here we
      review of the current state of our knowledge regarding ebolavirus biology and
      emphasize the associated methods that made these discoveries possible.

PMID- 28573606
TI  - A Phase I Study of Combination Therapy with Sorafenib and 5-Fluorouracil in
      Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Sorafenib is the first molecular targeted drug approved for
      the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is a potent small
      molecule inhibitor of multiple kinases. Combination therapy with sorafenib and
      other cytotoxic agents for HCC may result in additive anticancer activity. The
      purpose of this phase I study was to investigate the safety and tolerability of
      combination therapy with sorafenib and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and to determine the
      optimum dose of 5-FU for a phase II trial. METHODS: This phase I study used a
      conventional 3 + 3 dose-escalation design. The primary endpoint was to determine
      the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of 5-FU in combination with sorafenib and to
      determine the recommended dosage (RD) for phase II. The secondary endpoints
      evaluated were toxicity and the tumor response rate. All patients received 800 mg
      of sorafenib daily and three different dosages of 5-FU (250, 350, and 450
      mg/m2/day) for 20 days by intravenous infusion in 1 month as one cycle. RESULTS:
      Twelve patients with advanced HCC were evaluated. The MTD of 5-FU in combination
      with sorafenib was 450 mg/m2/day, and 350 mg/m2/day was selected as the RD for a
      phase II study. Thrombocytopenia, stomatitis, and hand-foot skin reaction were
      observed as grade 3 adverse events. Nine patients achieved stable disease (75%),
      and three patients (25%) were judged to have progressive disease. The disease
      control rate was 75%. CONCLUSIONS: Combination therapy with sorafenib and 5-FU
      appears to be well tolerated and may have the potential to be an option for
      advanced HCC.

PMID- 28573609
TI  - Ebolavirus: An Overview of Molecular and Clinical Pathogenesis.
AB  - Ebolaviruses cause severe, often fatal hemorrhagic fever in Central, East, and
      West Africa. Until recently, they have been viewed as rare but highly pathogenic
      infections with regional, but limited, global public health impact. This view has
      changed with the emergence of the first epidemic of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in
      West Africa. In this chapter we provide an introduction of the pathogenesis of
      ebolaviruses as well as a description of clinical disease features. We also
      describe the current animal models used in ebolavirus research, detailing each
      model's unique strengths and weaknesses. We focus on Ebola virus representing the
      type species Zaire ebolavirus of the genus Ebolavirus, as most work relates to
      this pathogen.

PMID- 28573610
TI  - Production of Filovirus Glycoprotein-Pseudotyped Vesicular Stomatitis Virus for
      Study of Filovirus Entry Mechanisms.
AB  - Members of the family Filoviridae are filamentous, enveloped, and nonsegmented
      negative-stranded RNA viruses that can cause severe hemorrhagic disease in humans
      and nonhuman primates with high mortality rates. Current efforts to analyze the
      structure and biology of these viruses as well as the development of antivirals
      have been hindered by the necessity of biosafety level 4 containment (BSL4).
      Here, we outline how to produce and work with Ebola virus glycoprotein bearing
      vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) pseudovirions. These pseudovirions can be safely
      used to evaluate early steps of the filovirus life cycle without need for BSL4
      containment. Virus gene expression in the transduced cells is easy to assess
      since the pseudovirions encode a reporter gene in place of the VSV G glycoprotein
      gene. Adoption of VSV for use as a pseudovirion system for filovirus GP has
      significantly expanded access for researchers to study specific aspects of the
      viral life cycle outside of BSL4 containment and has allowed substantial growth
      of filovirus research.

PMID- 28573611
TI  - Lentiviral Vectors Pseudotyped with Filoviral Glycoproteins.
AB  - Pseudotyping lentivirus-based vectors is a strategy used to study conferred
      vector tropism and mechanisms of envelope glycoprotein function. Lentiviruses and
      filoviruses both assemble at the plasma membrane and have homotrimeric structural
      envelope glycoproteins that mediate both receptor binding and fusion. Such
      similarities help foster efficient pseudotyping. Importantly, filovirus
      glycoprotein pseudotyping of lentiviral vectors allows investigators to study
      virus entry at substantially less restrictive levels of biosafety containment
      than that required for wild-type filovirus work (biosafety level-2 vs. biosafety
      level-4, respectively). Standard lentiviral vector production involves transient
      transfection of viral component expression plasmids into producer cells,
      supernatant collection, and centrifuge concentration. Because the envelope
      glycoprotein expression plasmid is provided in trans, wild type or variant
      filoviral glycoproteins from marburgvirus or ebolavirus species may be used for
      pseudotyping and compared side-by-side. In this chapter we discuss the
      manufacture of pseudotyped lentiviral vector with an emphasis on small-scale
      laboratory grade production.

PMID- 28573612
TI  - Modeling Ebola Virus Genome Replication and Transcription with Minigenome
      Systems.
AB  - In this chapter, we describe the minigenome system for Ebola virus (EBOV), which
      reconstitutes EBOV polymerase activity in cells and can be used to model viral
      genome replication and transcription. This protocol comprises all steps including
      cell culture, plasmid preparation, transfection, and luciferase reporter assay
      readout.

PMID- 28573613
TI  - Quantification of RNA Content in Reconstituted Ebola Virus Nucleocapsids by
      Immunoprecipitation.
AB  - Immunoprecipitations are commonly used to isolate proteins or protein complexes
      and assess protein-protein interactions; however, they can also be used to assess
      protein-RNA complexes. Here we describe an adapted RNA immunoprecipitation
      technique that permits the quantification of RNA content in Ebola virus
      nucleocapsids that have been reconstituted in vitro by transient transfection.

PMID- 28573614
TI  - Modeling Ebolavirus Budding with Virus Like Particles.
AB  - About 15 years ago, several groups initially described the release of virus like
      particles (VLPs) upon expression of Ebola virus VP40 in mammalian cells. Further
      development of the protocol later allowed for the dissection of the Ebola virus
      budding mechanism and for the identification of critical VP40 residues involved
      in this process. VLPs are now produced routinely in several laboratories as a
      tool to study virus entry or egress and have even been proposed as vaccine
      candidates against Ebola virus disease. Here we described protocols for the
      production and the analysis of Ebola virus VLP release.

PMID- 28573615
TI  - Modeling the Ebolavirus Life Cycle with Transcription and Replication-Competent
      Viruslike Particle Assays.
AB  - Ebolaviruses are the causative agent of a severe hemorrhagic fever with high case
      fatality rates, for which no approved specific therapy is available. As biosafety
      level 4 (BSL4) agents, work with live ebolaviruses is restricted to maximum
      containment laboratories. Transcription and replication-competent viruslike
      particle (trVLP) systems are reverse genetics-based life cycle modeling systems
      that allow researchers to model virtually the entire ebolavirus life cycle
      outside of a maximum containment laboratory. These systems can be used to dissect
      the virus life cycle, and thus increase our understanding of virus biology, as
      well as for more applied uses such as the screening and development of novel
      antivirals, and thus represent powerful tools for work on ebolaviruses.

PMID- 28573616
TI  - Assays to Measure Suppression of Type I Interferon Responses by Filovirus VP35
      Proteins.
AB  - Innate immunity is the first line of defense against virus infections and is
      marked by production of type I interferons (IFN), a family of cytokines that
      includes IFN-beta and several IFN-alphas. For the filoviruses and many other RNA
      viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm, the RIG-I-like pattern recognition
      receptors (RLRs) are potential triggers of IFN production. To counteract such
      innate antiviral responses, many viruses encode proteins that antagonize RLR
      signaling. Ebola virus (EBOV) and other filoviruses produce VP35 proteins that
      block IFN induction via RLR signaling. We describe here cell-based reporter gene
      assays that quantify the IFN-antagonist function of filovirus VP35 proteins by
      assessing activation of the IFN-beta promoter.

PMID- 28573617
TI  - Nonradioactive Northern Blot Analysis to Detect Ebola Virus Minigenomic mRNA.
AB  - In this chapter, we describe the detection of Ebola virus minigenomic mRNA using
      a nonradioactive Northern hybridization. This protocol comprises all steps
      beginning with the synthesis of a digoxigenin-labeled riboprobe, harvest of
      transcribed mRNA from cells transfected with the Ebola virus minigenome system,
      separation of mRNA species by denaturing RNA gel electrophoresis, transfer of the
      mRNA to nylon membranes by vacuum blotting, and finally the detection of
      minigenome-specific mRNA through hybridization with a labeled riboprobe directed
      against the reporter gene.This method allows the direct study of cis-acting
      regulatory regions as well as trans-acting factors involved in Ebola virus
      minigenome transcription compared to the indirect measurement of reporter protein
      activity that additionally reflects translational effects (see Chapter 6 in this
      book for details).

PMID- 28573618
TI  - A Semi-automated High-Throughput Microtitration Assay for Filoviruses.
AB  - The 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) endpoint dilution assay is one of
      the gold standard methods for measuring filovirus infectivity. We have increased
      virology microtitration assay throughput at biosafety level (BSL)-4 by
      implementing automated liquid handling and semi-automated assay endpoint readout.
      Utilization of automated liquid handling for cell plating and virus dilution
      along with optimization of the assay endpoint readout, using a luminescent-based
      cell viability assay and an automated plate reader, has improved workflow
      efficiency, reduced operator burden and assay time, decreased assay variability,
      and increased data return.

PMID- 28573619
TI  - Generation of Recombinant Ebola Viruses Using Reverse Genetics.
AB  - Reverse genetics systems encompass a wide array of tools aimed at recapitulating
      some or all of the virus life cycle. In their most complete form, full-length
      clone systems allow us to use plasmid-encoded versions of the ribonucleoprotein
      (RNP) components to initiate the transcription and replication of a plasmid
      encoded version of the complete viral genome, thereby initiating the complete
      virus life cycle and resulting in infectious virus. As such this approach is
      ideal for the generation of tailor-made recombinant filoviruses, which can be
      used to study virus biology. In addition, the generation of tagged and
      particularly fluorescent or luminescent viruses can be applied as tools for both
      diagnostic applications and for screening to identify novel countermeasures. Here
      we describe the generation and basic characterization of recombinant Ebola
      viruses rescued from cloned cDNA using a T7-driven system.

PMID- 28573620
TI  - Luciferase-Expressing Ebolaviruses as Tools for Screening of Antivirals.
AB  - Ebolaviruses cause severe hemorrhagic fever with high case fatality rates.
      Despite recent progress, there is a continued need for the development of
      antivirals against these viruses. Reporter-expressing ebolaviruses, which can be
      generated using reverse genetics systems, are powerful tools for antiviral
      screening. While viruses expressing fluorescent reporters are amenable for this
      purpose and can be used for high-content imaging-type screens, as an alternative,
      luciferase-expressing reporter viruses have recently been developed and have the
      advantages of being extremely easy to use and having short assay times. Here we
      provide a detailed protocol for the use of such a luciferase-expressing reporter
      virus for antiviral screening in a 96-well format, with parallel assessment of
      cytotoxicity of the screened compounds.

PMID- 28573621
TI  - Live-Cell Imaging of Filoviruses.
AB  - Observation of molecular processes inside living cells is fundamental to a deeper
      understanding of virus-host interactions in filoviral-infected cells. These
      observations can provide spatiotemporal insights into protein synthesis, protein
      protein interaction dynamics, and transport processes of these highly pathogenic
      viruses. Thus, live-cell imaging provides the possibility for antiviral screening
      in real time and gives mechanistic insights into understanding filovirus assembly
      steps that are dependent on cellular factors, which then represent potential
      targets against this highly fatal disease. Here we describe analysis of living
      filovirus-infected cells under maximum biosafety (i.e., BSL4) conditions using
      plasmid-driven expression of fluorescently labeled viral and cellular proteins
      and/or viral genome-encoded expression of fluorescently labeled proteins. Such
      multiple-color and multidimensional time-lapse live-cell imaging analyses are a
      powerful method to gain a better understanding of the filovirus infection cycle.

PMID- 28573622
TI  - Assessment of Inhibition of Ebola Virus Progeny Production by Antiviral
      Compounds.
AB  - Assessment of small molecule compounds against filoviruses, such as Ebola virus,
      has identified numerous compounds that appear to have antiviral activity and
      should presumably be further investigated in animal efficacy trials. However,
      despite the many compounds that are purported to have good antiviral activity in
      in vitro studies, there are few instances where any efficacy has been reported in
      nonhuman primate models. Many of the high-throughput screening assays use
      reporter systems that only recapitulate a portion of the virus life cycle, while
      other assays only assess antiviral activity at relatively early time points.
      Moreover, many assays do not assess virus progeny production. A more in-depth
      evaluation of small numbers of test compounds is useful to economize resources
      and to generate higher quality antiviral hits. Assessing virus progeny production
      as late as 5 days post-infection allows for the elimination of compounds that
      have initial antiviral effects that are not sustained or where the virus rapidly
      develops resistance. While this eliminates many potential lead compounds that may
      be worthy of further structure-activity relationship (SAR) development, it also
      quickly excludes compounds that in their current form are unlikely to be
      effective in animal models. In addition, the inclusion of multiple assays that
      assess both cell viability and cell cytotoxicity, via different mechanisms,
      provides a more thorough assessment to exclude compounds that are not direct
      acting antivirals.

PMID- 28573623
TI  - Analysis of the Cellular Stress Response During Ebola Virus Infection by
      Immunofluorescence.
AB  - In this chapter, the use of immunofluorescence analysis as a tool to examine
      stress granule (SG) formation in Ebola virus (EBOV)-infected cells is described.
      The following protocol focuses on the process of inducing and analyzing the
      cellular stress response, including treatment of cells with inducers and
      inhibitors of the SG formation, and also describes EBOV infection, DNA
      transfection, and the usage of different cell lines.

PMID- 28573624
TI  - Analyzing Apoptosis Induction and Evasion in Ebola Virus-Infected Cells.
AB  - In this chapter, we describe a Western blot assay for the successful detection of
      apoptosis in Ebola virus (EBOV)-infected cells. The protocol includes all steps
      from cell culture, infection of cells, generation of lysates, and analysis using
      Western blot to detect caspase cleavage as marker of apoptosis.

PMID- 28573625
TI  - Electron Microscopy of Ebola Virus-Infected Cells.
AB  - Ebola virus (EBOV) replicates in host cells, where both viral and cellular
      components show morphological changes during the process of viral replication
      from entry to budding. These steps in the replication cycle can be studied using
      electron microscopy (EM), including transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which is one of the most useful methods for
      visualizing EBOV particles and EBOV-infected cells at the ultrastructural level.
      This chapter describes conventional methods for EM sample preparation of cultured
      cells infected with EBOV.

PMID- 28573626
TI  - Validating the Inactivation Effectiveness of Chemicals on Ebola Virus.
AB  - While viruses such as Ebola virus must be handled in high-containment
      laboratories, there remains the need to process virus-infected samples for
      downstream research testing. This processing often includes removal to lower
      containment areas and therefore requires assurance of complete viral inactivation
      within the sample before removal from high-containment. Here we describe methods
      for the removal of chemical reagents used in inactivation procedures, allowing
      for validation of the effectiveness of various inactivation protocols.

PMID- 28573627
TI  - Visualizing Ebolavirus Particles Using Single-Particle Interferometric
      Reflectance Imaging Sensor (SP-IRIS).
AB  - This chapter describes an approach for the label-free imaging and quantification
      of intact Ebola virus (EBOV) and EBOV viruslike particles (VLPs) using a light
      microscopy technique. In this technique, individual virus particles are captured
      onto a silicon chip that has been printed with spots of virus-specific capture
      antibodies. These captured virions are then detected using an optical approach
      called interference reflectance imaging. This approach allows for the detection
      of each virus particle that is captured on an antibody spot and can resolve the
      filamentous structure of EBOV VLPs without the need for electron microscopy.
      Capture of VLPs and virions can be done from a variety of sample types ranging
      from tissue culture medium to blood. The technique also allows automated
      quantitative analysis of the number of virions captured. This can be used to
      identify the virus concentration in an unknown sample. In addition, this
      technique offers the opportunity to easily image virions captured from native
      solutions without the need for additional labeling approaches while offering a
      means of assessing the range of particle sizes and morphologies in a quantitative
      manner.

PMID- 28573628
TI  - Assessing Antiviral Countermeasures Using Mouse Models of Ebolavirus Infection.
AB  - Mouse models of Ebola virus (EBOV) have demonstrated their utility as important
      tools for screening the efficacy of candidate therapeutics and vaccines. In this
      chapter we explain the various mouse models that utilize either wild-type or
      mouse-adapted EBOV variants.

PMID- 28573629
TI  - Evaluation of Ebola Virus Countermeasures in Guinea Pigs.
AB  - Ebola virus (EBOV) pathology in humans remains incompletely understood;
      therefore, a number of rodent and nonhuman primate (NHP) models have been
      established to study the disease caused by this virus. While the macaque model
      most accurately recapitulates human disease, rodent models, which display only
      certain aspects of human disease but are more cost-effective, are widely used for
      initial screens during EBOV countermeasure development. In particular, mice and
      guinea pigs were among the first species used for the efficacy testing of EBOV
      vaccines and therapeutics. While mice have low predictive value, guinea pigs have
      proven to be a more reliable predictor for the evaluation of countermeasures in
      NHPs. In addition, guinea pigs are larger in size compared to mice, allowing for
      more frequent collection of blood samples at larger volumes. However, guinea pigs
      have the disadvantage that there is only a limited pool of immunological tools
      available to characterize host responses to vaccination, treatment and infection.
      In this chapter, the efficacy testing of an EBOV vaccine and a therapeutic in the
      guinea pig model are described.

PMID- 28573630
TI  - Evaluation of Medical Countermeasures Against Ebolaviruses in Nonhuman Primate
      Models.
AB  - Several ebolavirus species, with varying lethality rates, have caused sporadic
      outbreaks in Africa resulting in human disease. Ebolaviruses also have the
      potential for use as biological weapons. Currently, there are no licensed
      vaccines or therapeutics to respond to outbreaks or deliberate misuse of
      ebolaviruses. Vaccine or therapeutic efficacy testing of medical countermeasures
      against ebolaviruses requires an animal model of disease; in vitro testing in
      cell culture cannot reproduce the complicated balance between host-pathogen
      interactions required for the ultimate licensure of a countermeasure. Depending
      on the target of the countermeasure, demonstration of efficacy in the nonhuman
      primate ebolavirus disease models will most likely be required before licensure.
      Here, we describe the selection and use of nonhuman primates for vaccine and
      therapeutic studies against ebolaviruses.

PMID- 28573631
TI  - Quantification of Filovirus Glycoprotein-Specific Antibodies.
AB  - Serological methods such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and
      virus neutralization test are fundamental tools used in diagnosis,
      seroepidemiological studies of filovirus transmission/prevalence, and the
      evaluation of vaccine immunogenicity and potential therapeutic antibodies.
      Filoviruses have a single transmembrane glycoprotein (GP), which is the only
      known target of neutralizing antibodies. Here we describe serological methods to
      quantify filovirus GP-specific antibodies.

PMID- 28573632
TI  - Monitoring Innate Immune Gene Responses in the Hamster Model of Ebola Virus
      Disease by RT-PCR.
AB  - Ebola virus (EBOV) disease is a severe, acute human syndrome associated with high
      case fatality rates. Immune responses to EBOV are thought to be at least
      partially responsible for disease pathogenesis and must therefore be investigated
      to get a better understanding of underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis. Syrian
      hamsters are susceptible to EBOV infection and develop a disease more consistent
      with human EBOV disease than other rodent disease models. Quantitative RT-PCR
      (qRT-PCR) is ideal for monitoring immune responses during EBOV infection in low-
      to medium-throughput applications. A relatively straightforward protocol for
      monitoring immune responses, based on information gleaned from experimental EBOV
      infection of hamsters, is presented.

PMID- 28573633
TI  - Real-Time and End-Point PCR Diagnostics for Ebola Virus.
AB  - Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based techniques allow
      for highly sensitive and specific detection of RNA viruses. Detection of the
      amplification products can be achieved using several methods. The following are
      descriptions of the detection of ebolavirus RNA using end-point RT-PCR (agarose
      gel visualization of amplification products) and quantitative RT-PCR (Q-RT-PCR),
      with fluorescent detection using an intercalating dye or detection with the use
      of 5' hydrolysis probe assays. All of these techniques can be used to accurately
      detect the presence of ebolavirus in samples.

PMID- 28573634
TI  - Production of Antigens for ELISA.
AB  - Immunologic assays such as ELISA allow detection of either virus antigens or the
      host's immune response to antigens associated with prior infections and offer a
      powerful means to approach understanding the epidemiology and epizootiology of
      these agents. However, the success of these assays is highly dependent on the
      production of high-quality materials both to establish the assays (i.e., antigen
      target for antibody) and to serve as controls for establishing assay parameters
      and sensitivity. Here we describe methods for preparing ebolavirus antigens
      suitable for use as either reagents or controls in a variety of ELISA formats.
      Considering work with filoviruses is typically restricted to maximum containment
      laboratories; thus, we also provide methods for inactivating and safety testing
      of these antigens for safe use in properly established field laboratories.

PMID- 28573635
TI  - ELISA Methods for the Detection of Ebolavirus Infection.
AB  - Ebola viruses are high-priority pathogens first discovered in rural Africa
      associated with sporadic outbreaks of severe hemorrhagic disease in humans and
      nonhuman primates. Little is known about the disease ecology or the prevalence of
      past exposure of human populations to any of the five species of the genus
      Ebolavirus. The use of immunologic means of detection for either virus antigens
      or the host's immune response to antigen associated with prior infections offers
      a powerful approach at understanding the epidemiology and epizootiology of these
      agents. Here we describe methods for preparing antigen detection sandwich enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) as well as IgG and IgM ELISAs for the
      detection of ebolavirus antigens or antibodies in biological samples.

PMID- 28573636
TI  - Ebola Virus Field Sample Collection.
AB  - Sampling wildlife for ebolaviruses presents the researcher with a multitude of
      challenges, foremost of which is safety. Throughout the methods described in this
      chapter, personal safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) will be
      reiterated for each methodology. The methods described here are those used to
      successfully detect and isolate marburgviruses from their natural reservoir,
      Rousettus aegyptiacus, and therefore should be applicable for diagnostic testing
      for ebolaviruses via RT-PCR, ELISA, and IHC techniques.Although an ebolavirus
      natural reservoir has yet to be identified, the majority of disease ecologists
      believe the reservoir to belong to the order Chiroptera (bats). The methods
      presented in this chapter are presented with bats as an example, but all of these
      methods would be applicable to other species of wildlife with few or no
      modifications.

PMID- 28573638
TI  - Peribiliary liver metastases MR findings.
AB  - We described magnetic resonance (MR) features of peribiliary metastasis and of
      periductal infiltrative cholangiocarcinoma. We assessed 35 patients, with
      peribiliary lesions, using MR 4-point confidence scale. T1-weighted (T1-W), T2
      weighted (T2-W) and diffusion-weighted images (DWI) signal intensity, enhancement
      pattern during arterial, portal, equilibrium and hepatobiliary phase were
      assessed. We identified 24 patients with periductal-infiltrating
      cholangiocellular carcinoma. The lesions in 34 patients appeared as a single
      tissue, while in a single patient, the lesions appeared as multiple individual
      lesions. According to the confidence scale, the median value was 4 for T2-W, 4
      for DWI, 3.6 for T1-W in phase, 3.6 for T1-W out phase, 3 for MRI arterial phase,
      3.2 for MRI portal phase, 3.2 for MRI equilibrium phase and 3.6 for MRI
      hepatobiliary phase. According to Bismuth classification, all lesions were type
      IV. In total, 19 (54.3%) lesions were periductal, 15 (42.9%) lesions were
      intraperiductal, and 1 (2.8%) lesion was periductal intrahepatic. All lesions
      showed hypointense signal in T1-W and in ADC maps and hyperintense signal in T2-W
      and DWI. All lesions showed a progressive contrast enhancement. There was no
      significant difference in signal intensity and contrast enhancement among all
      metastases and among all metastases with respect to CCCs, for all imaging
      acquisitions (p value >0.05). MRI is the method of choice for biliary tract
      tumors thanks to the possibility to obtain morphological and functional
      evaluations. T2-W and DW sequences have highest diagnostic performance. MRI does
      not allow a correct differential diagnosis among different histological types of
      metastasis and between metastases and CCC.

PMID- 28573637
TI  - Clinical significance of androgen secretion disorders in men with a malignancy.
AB  - Cancer and its treatment can lead in men to testosterone deficiency, accompanied
      by somatic and mental symptoms. Germ cell tumours and their treatment may disturb
      the pituitary-gonadal axis, hence leading to significant clinical abnormalities.
      In some prostate cancer patients, castration, temporary or permanent, is a
      desired therapeutic condition. Yet, it is burdened with various side effects of
      complex intensity and significance. Last but not least, patients in the terminal
      stage of a malignancy present with low testosterone concentrations as a part of
      anorexia-cachexia syndrome. Oncological management of such patients disturbs
      their homeostasis, androgen metabolism included, which results in numerous
      complications and worsens their quality of life. In the present paper, we
      analysed the frequency and sequelae of testosterone deficiency in some clinical
      scenarios, on the basis of original papers, meta-analyses and reviews available
      in PubMed. Androgen secretion disorders in male cancer patients depend on a
      cancer type, stage and methods of treatment. Number of testicular cancer
      survivors is increasing, and as a consequence, more patients cope with late
      complications, testosterone deficiency included. Hormone therapy in prostate
      cancer patients significantly prolongs survival, and then numerous men experience
      long-term adverse effects of androgen deficiency. Those, in turn, particularly
      the metabolic syndrome, may contribute to increased mortality. Androgen
      deficiency is a part of cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. The role of androgen
      deficiency in cancer patients is still under debate, and further studies are
      urgently needed to establish appropriate clinical guidelines.

PMID- 28573639
TI  - Minimally invasive pancreatic cancer surgery: What is the current evidence?
AB  - Surgery remains the only option to cure pancreatic cancer. Although the use of
      laparoscopy in oncology is rapidly growing worldwide, its efficacy in pancreatic
      surgery remains controversial. A number of studies have compared outcomes of
      minimally invasive and open pancreatic resections. However, they are mostly non
      randomized trials including relatively small groups of patients. In addition,
      most of these studies were conducted in high-volume pancreatic centres. It seems
      that despite longer operative time, laparoscopy may be beneficial in terms of
      morbidity, blood loss and hospital stay. Thus far, very little is known about the
      long-term outcomes of laparoscopic surgery for pancreatic cancer. Our aim was to
      review current evidence for the use of minimally invasive techniques in patients
      with pancreatic malignancy.

PMID- 28573640
TI  - Expanding the search for significant EGFR mutations in NSCLC outside of the
      tyrosine kinase domain with next-generation sequencing.
AB  - While conventional organization of EGFR mutations in non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC) includes classic lesions sensitive to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI)
      and variants localized to the tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) in exons 18-21, next
      generation sequencing (NGS) raises the prospect of identifying clinically
      relevant variants in extra-TKD regulatory regions. NSCLC patients at our
      institution who received tumor profiling with NGS from 2013 to 2015 were
      identified. EGFR mutations were arranged based upon their distribution relative
      to the TKD. In silico analysis was performed to predict non-synonymous single
      nucleotide polymorphism (nsSNP) pathogenicity. Of 247 patients, 43 EGFR variants
      were seen in 39 patients (16%). While 32 had TKD lesions demonstrable through
      standard testing, 7 had extra-TKD nsSNPs (7/43), of which 5 were extracellular
      domain (ECD), 1 juxtamembrane (JM) and 1 carboxy-terminal (CT). Aside from known
      pathogenic ECD mutation G598V, 5/6 extra-TKD nsSNPs were predicted damaging with
      in silico analysis. Seven of 7 extra-TKD nsSNP+ patients smoked and were stage
      IV; 5/7 were adenocarcinoma. An adenocarcinoma patient with JM R675Q had
      erlotinib, 150 mg daily, added following progression of disease on carboplatin
      and paclitaxel and had a partial response for 4 months. No other extra-TKD nsSNP+
      patient received EGFR-directed therapy. >2% NSCLC cases in our cohort had EGFR
      nsSNPs located outside of the TKD, representing >16% of all EGFR mutations. Extra
      TKD variants should be characterized collaboratively to determine TKI sensitivity
      and additional therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28573641
TI  - Downregulation of TRPM7 suppressed migration and invasion by regulating
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition in prostate cancer cells.
AB  - Metastasis is a leading cause of death in patients with prostate cancer (PCa).
      Transient receptor potential channel 7 (TRPM7) functions as a Mg2+/Ca2+-permeable
      channel as well as a protein kinase that regulate various cellular processes
      including cell adhesion, migration and survival. However, the function of TRPM7
      in metastasis of PCa remains largely unknown. Microarray analysis suggested that
      calcium signaling pathway was significantly altered in metastatic PCa tissues,
      compared with benign prostatic hyperplasia tissues. Bioinformatics analysis using
      microarray data and database for annotation, visualization and integrated
      discovery database revealed altered genes involved in calcium signaling pathway
      were significantly upregulated in TRPM7 deficiency PCa cells, which was also
      confirmed by experimental verification. Therefore, we aim to investigate the role
      of TRPM7 in human PCa cell migration and invasion as well as the underlying
      mechanisms. We observed that TRPM7 was upregulated in PCa cells and tissues
      compared with prostate hyperplasia cells and tissues. Further investigations
      suggested that TRPM7 deficiency suppressed migration and invasion of distinct PCa
      cell lines while overexpression of TRPM7 increased migration of PCa cells. In
      addition, knockdown of TRPM7 in PCa cells reversed the epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) status, accompanied by downregulation of MMPs and upregulation
      of E-cadherin. Taken together, our study indicated that downregulation of TRPM7
      could inhibit migration and invasion via reversing EMT status in PCa cells.

PMID- 28573642
TI  - Aberrant gene promoter methylation of E-cadherin, p16 INK4a , p14 ARF , and MGMT
      in Epstein-Barr virus-associated oral squamous cell carcinomas.
AB  - The etiology of oral carcinogenesis appears to be multifactorial. There is
      emerging evidence of the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in epithelial oral
      squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but an association of EBV with oral
      carcinogenesis has not yet been established. Although epigenetic alterations,
      such as aberrant DNA methylation, are known to contribute to the pathogenesis of
      oral cancer, the relationship of such alterations with EBV infection is little
      known. This study aimed to investigate the association between EBV infection and
      promoter methylation patterns of tumor-associated genes in OSCC tissues. A total
      of 165 of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded OSCC tissues were studied (68 of EBV
      positive and 97 of EBV negative). The promoter methylation patterns were
      investigated for four tumor-associated genes, E-cadherin, p16 INK4a , p14 ARF ,
      and MGMT, by using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP). The
      frequencies of gene promoter hypermethylation in all cases were 47.3% for E
      cadherin, 92.7% for p16 INK4a , 74.5% for p14 ARF , and 35.8% for MGMT.
      Interestingly, most of the analyzed gene promoters were more frequently
      hypermethylated in EBV-positive than EBV-negative cases, in particular the E
      cadherin (56/22) and MGMT (38/21) gene promoters (p < 0.05). Concomitantly,
      hypermethylation of multiple gene promoters (>=3) was encountered more frequently
      in EBV-positive samples. Hypermethylation of the E-cadherin promoter associated
      with EBV was more frequently observed in moderately and poorly differentiated
      OSCC tissues. These results indicate that epigenetic changes frequently occur in
      OSCCs and may partly be induced by EBV infection, therefore, EBV may involve in
      development and progression of the OSCCs.

PMID- 28573643
TI  - Neighborhood Disadvantage, Residential Segregation, and Beyond-Lessons for
      Studying Structural Racism and Health.
AB  - A recent surge of interest in identifying the health effects of structural racism
      has coincided with the ongoing attention to neighborhood effects in both
      epidemiology and sociology. Mindful of these currents in the literature, it makes
      sense that we are seeing an emergent tendency in health disparities research to
      operationalize structural racism as either neighborhood disadvantage or racial
      residential segregation. This review essay synthesizes findings on the relevance
      of neighborhood disadvantage and residential segregation to the study of
      structural racism and health. It then draws on recent literature to propose four
      lessons for moving beyond traditional neighborhood effects approaches in the
      study of structural racism and health. These lessons are (1) to shift the focus
      of research from census tracts to theoretically meaningful units of analysis, (2)
      to leverage historic and geographic variation in race relations, (3) to combine
      data from multiple sources, and (4) to challenge normative framing that aims to
      explain away racial health disparities without discussing racism or racial
      hierarchy. The author concludes that research on the health effects of structural
      racism should go beyond traditional neighborhood effects approaches if it is to
      guide intervention to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

PMID- 28573644
TI  - Improving access to otolaryngology-head and neck surgery expert advice through
      eConsultations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Prolonged wait times have become common. Electronic
      consultations (eConsults) have been shown in previous studies to reduce
      unnecessary face-to-face consultations to specialists, but no prior study has
      investigated the feasibility or efficacy of eConsults in an otolaryngology-head
      and neck surgery (OTO-HNS) practice. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational
      study. METHODS: The Champlain BASE eConsult system is a secure web portal
      allowing primary care physicians (PCPs) to communicate asynchronously with
      specialists about a patient, without requiring a formal face-to-face consult. The
      data from all eConsults sent through this portal to OTO-HNS practices between
      July 2011 and January 2015 were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Response time
      was rapid; over 40% of eConsults received a response within 24 hours, and nearly
      all eConsults were answered within 7 calendar days. The median response time was
      nearly 29 times faster than traditional face-to-face consultation. Unnecessary
      face-to-face referrals were avoided in 33.4% of all eConsults, and in nearly 50%
      of cases where the PCP initially planned a formal referral. PCPs reported
      adopting a new or additional course of action over 50% of the time following an
      eConsult. Eighty-eight percent of PCPs reported the service to be valuable for
      their patients, and 92% found it valuable for themselves. eConsults require only
      a limited time commitment from specialists, with over 75% taking less than 10
      minutes to complete. CONCLUSIONS: eConsultation is a cost-effective system that
      can lead to decreased wait times, improved communication between PCPs and
      otolaryngologists, and help guide the development of targeted continuing
      professional development modules for PCPs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope,
      128:350-355, 2018.

PMID- 28573645
TI  - Effects of social identity salience on motivational orientation and conflict
      strategies in intergenerational conflict.
AB  - With the upsurge of older adults still working, the labour force is becoming
      increasingly diverse in age. Age diversity in an organisation can increase the
      likelihood of intergenerational conflict. The present study aims to integrate the
      dual concern model and social identity theory to explain the underlying
      mechanisms of intergenerational conflict by examining the effects of social
      identity salience on motivational orientation and conflict strategies. A 2
      (subgroup identity salience: low vs. high younger/older group membership) * 2
      (superordinate identity salience: low vs. high organisational group membership)
      factorial design with a structured questionnaire on motivational orientation and
      conflict strategies in relation to a hypothetical work conflict scenario was
      implemented among 220 postgraduate university students in Hong Kong. Results
      revealed that subgroup and superordinate identities had a combined influence on
      conflict strategies but not in motivational orientation. Subgroup and
      superordinate identification promoted integrating and compromising strategies,
      superordinate identification promoted obliging strategy, subgroup identification
      promoted dominating strategy and no identification promoted avoiding strategy.
      Age did not moderate these relationships. This study contributes to the
      development of the integrated model of conflict.

PMID- 28573646
TI  - Does endoscopic sinus surgery improve olfaction in nasal polyposis?

PMID- 28573647
TI  - Brazilian Capsicum peppers: capsaicinoid content and antioxidant activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Capsicum peppers are known as a source of capsaicinoids, phenolic
      compounds and antioxidants. Brazilian Capsicum peppers are important spices used
      in foods worldwide. However, little information is available on the chemical
      composition and antioxidant activity of these peppers. RESULTS: Capsaicin,
      dihydrocapsaicin, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity were
      investigated in extracts of three Brazilian peppers: Capsicum frutescens, C.
      chinense and C. baccatum var. pendulum, in two different harvest years and at two
      ripening stages. The bioactive compound content was dependent on harvest year,
      and changes in the concentration profiles were found for capsaicin. Mature fruits
      of C. chinense harvested in the first year had the highest capsaicin
      concentration (2.04 mg g-1 fresh pepper), and mature fruits of C. frutescens
      harvested in the same first year had the highest dihydrocapsaicin content (0.95
      mg g-1 fresh pepper). Mature fruits of C. frutescens harvested in the first year
      showed the major total phenolic compound content (2.46 mg g-1 fresh pepper). The
      total phenolic compound content was directly related to antioxidant activity.
      CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that phenolic compounds significantly contribute
      to the antioxidant activity of the investigated peppers. Also, these data add
      valued novel information that enhances current knowledge of Brazilian pepper
      fruits. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573648
TI  - Current challenges and future prospects in oral anticoagulant therapy.
AB  - The choice for oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy was previously limited to the
      vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). The advent of the direct oral anticoagulants
      (DOACs) brought with it the expectation that oral anticoagulation would become
      simpler (with the elimination of routine monitoring and introduction of a fixed
      dose anticoagulant), and that the use of VKAs would be slowly phased out.
      Although DOACs have made anticoagulation more convenient and accessible, we are
      now faced with what can be described as a tyranny of choice, together with many
      unanswered questions relating to DOAC use. These include optimal DOAC selection
      and dosing, use in complex 'real-world' patients, the role for monitoring and
      issues surrounding adherence. Warfarin remains the anticoagulant of choice in
      certain scenarios (e.g. metallic heart valves). The future holds much excitement:
      clinical studies are underway to expand the indications for DOACs and experience
      continues to grow outside the trials setting.

PMID- 28573649
TI  - Intra-individual metameric variation expressed at the enamel-dentine junction of
      lower post-canine dentition of South African fossil hominins and modern humans.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to compare the degree and patterning of
      inter- and intra-individual metameric variation in South African australopiths,
      early Homo and modern humans. Metameric variation likely reflects developmental
      and taxonomical issues, and could also be used to infer ecological and functional
      adaptations. However, its patterning along the early hominin postcanine
      dentition, particularly among South African fossil hominins, remains unexplored.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using microfocus X-ray computed tomography (uXCT) and
      geometric morphometric tools, we studied the enamel-dentine junction (EDJ)
      morphology and we investigated the intra- and inter-individual EDJ metameric
      variation among eight australopiths and two early Homo specimens from South
      Africa, as well as 32 modern humans. RESULTS: Along post-canine dentition, shape
      changes between metameres represented by relative positions and height of dentine
      horns, outlines of the EDJ occlusal table are reported in modern and fossil taxa.
      Comparisons of EDJ mean shapes and multivariate analyses reveal substantial
      variation in the direction and magnitude of metameric shape changes among taxa,
      but some common trends can be found. In modern humans, both the direction and
      magnitude of metameric shape change show increased variability in M2 -M3 compared
      to M1 -M2 . Fossil specimens are clustered together showing similar magnitudes of
      shape change. Along M2 -M3 , the lengths of their metameric vectors are not as
      variable as those of modern humans, but they display considerable variability in
      the direction of shape change. CONCLUSION: The distalward increase of metameric
      variation along the modern human molar row is consistent with the odontogenetic
      models of molar row structure (inhibitory cascade model). Though much remains to
      be tested, the variable trends and magnitudes in metamerism in fossil hominins
      reported here, together with differences in the scale of shape change between
      modern humans and fossil hominins may provide valuable information regarding
      functional morphology and developmental processes in fossil species.

PMID- 28573650
TI  - Complete versus incomplete revascularization with drug-eluting stents for multi
      vessel disease in stable, unstable angina or non-ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction: A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether drug-eluting stent (DES) coronary complete
      revascularization (CR) confers clinical benefit over incomplete revascularization
      (IR) in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (MVD). BACKGROUND:
      Clinical benefit of CR over IR in patients with MVD with angina (both stable and
      unstable) and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in DES has
      not been well studied. METHODS: We conducted a systematic online literature
      search of PUBMED and EMBASE. Literatures that compared the clinical outcomes
      between CR and IR with exclusively or majority (>80%) using DES in patients
      without or included only small portion (<20%) of ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction or single-vessel coronary artery disease were included. Hazards ratio
      (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated with random-effects model.
      RESULTS: No randomized clinical trials were identified. A total of 14
      observational studies with total of 41 687 patients (CR 39.6% and IR 60.4%) were
      included in this meta-analysis. CR was associated with lower incident of all
      cause mortality (HR 0.71, P = 0.001), major adverse events (HR 0.75, P < 0.001),
      cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.39, P < 0.001). Meta-regression analysis showed
      that CR significantly reduced the risk of all-cause mortality in advanced age,
      triple vessel disease and male sub-groups. CONCLUSIONS: CR with DES conferred
      favorable outcomes compared to IR in MVD patients with stable, unstable angina or
      NTEMI. Further research to achieve higher CR in MVD patients may lead to
      improvement in prognosis in these cohorts.

PMID- 28573651
TI  - Periprostatic innervation: New issues based on segmental analysis of 10 human
      cadaver pelvic blocs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The exact paths of periprostatic nerves have been under debate over
      the last decades. In the present study, the topographic distribution of nerves
      around the prostate and their relative distances from the prostatic capsule were
      analyzed in male cadaver visceral blocs. METHODS: The pelvic organs from ten
      fresh male cadavers were removed and serial sectioned en bloc for histological
      investigation. The macroslices was divided into four sectors. Each sector was
      centrally covered with a raster dividing each sector in three subsectors numbered
      clockwise. The prostatic capsule was identified, and distances of 2.5 and 5 mm
      from the prostate were demarked with lines. We quantified the number of nerve
      fibers present in each subsector of each slide and recorded their position
      relative to the prostatic capsule. RESULTS: In general, the topographic analysis
      revealed that the majority of nerves were identified in sectors 4 through 9,
      corresponding to the posterolateral and posterior surfaces of the prostate gland.
      At the prostate base, the majority of nerves were found at the posterolateral and
      posterior surfaces of the gland. Within the mid-region of the prostate, the same
      topographic distribution pattern was observed, but the nerve fibers were closer
      to the prostatic capsule. At the apical region, the percentage of nerve fibers
      identified in the anterior region was higher, despite their major concetration in
      the posterior surface. The nerves identified at the apex were mainly located up
      to 2.5 mm from the prostate. This proximity to the prostate was specifically
      observed in the anterolateral and anterior sectors. In the craniocaudal sense,
      the percentage of nerves identified between 2.5 and 5 mm from the prostatic
      capsule remained constant. CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of nerve fibers were
      present in the anterior and anterolateral positions, especially at the apex. The
      anterior nerves were closer to the prostate. This proximity suggests that the
      anterior nerves may participate in local physiology and that the cavernous nerves
      are probably formed by the posterior nerve fibers. It is likely that the safe
      distance of 2.5 mm from all surfaces of the prostate may be related to cavernous
      fiber preservation.

PMID- 28573652
TI  - Systematic review with meta-analysis: the impact of a depressive state on disease
      course in adult inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite a higher prevalence of psychosocial morbidity in Inflammatory
      Bowel Disease (IBD), the association between depressive state and disease course
      in IBD is poorly understood. AIM: To investigate the impact of depressive state
      on disease course in IBD. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review in MEDLINE,
      EMBASE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and PsychINFO for prospective
      studies evaluating the impact of baseline depressive state on subsequent disease
      course in adult IBD. RESULTS: Eleven studies matched our entry criteria,
      representing 3194 patients with IBD. Three reported on patients with ulcerative
      colitis (UC), four included patients with Crohn's disease (CD) exclusively, and
      four studies included both UC and CD. Five studies reported an association
      between depressive state and disease course. None of the UC-specific studies
      found any association. In three of four CD-specific studies, a relationship
      between depressive state and worsening disease course was found. In four of five
      studies including patients in remission at baseline, no association between
      depressive state and disease course was found. Pooled analysis of IBD studies
      with patients in clinical remission at baseline identified no association between
      depressive state and disease course (HR 1.04, 95%CI: 0.97-1.12). CONCLUSION:
      There is limited evidence to support an association between depressive state and
      subsequent deterioration in disease course in IBD, but what data that exist are
      more supportive of an association with CD than UC. Baseline disease activity may
      be an important factor in this relationship. Further studies are needed to
      understand the relationship between mental health and outcomes in IBD.

PMID- 28573653
TI  - Trace elements in patients on continuous renal replacement therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Intensive care patients with acute kidney injury (AKI), treated with
      continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) are at great risk for disturbances in
      plasma levels of trace elements due to the underlying illness, AKI, and dialysis.
      This study was performed to increase our knowledge regarding eight different
      trace elements during CRRT. METHODS: Thirty one stable patients with AKI, treated
      with CRRT, were included in the study. Blood, plasma and effluent samples were
      taken at the start of the study and 36 +/- 12 h later. A group of 48 healthy
      volunteers were included as controls and exposed to one fasting blood sample.
      Samples were analysed for trace elements (Cr, Cu, Mn, Co, Zn, Rb, Mo, Se) and
      standard blood chemistry. RESULTS: Blood and plasma levels of selenium and
      rubidium were significantly reduced while the levels of chromium, cobalt, and
      molybdenum were significantly increased in the study group vs. healthy
      volunteers. There was an uptake of chromium, manganese, and zinc. Molybdenum mass
      balance was around zero. For selenium, copper, and rubidium there were a marked
      loss. CONCLUSIONS: The low levels of selenium and rubidium in blood and plasma
      from CRRT patients, together with the loss via CRRT effluent, raises the
      possibility of the need for selenium supplementation in this group of patients,
      despite the unchanged levels during the short study period. Further
      investigations on the effect of additional administration of trace elements to
      CRRT patients would be of interest.

PMID- 28573654
TI  - Changing practices of fluid therapy.

PMID- 28573655
TI  - Testosterone effects on pain and brain activation patterns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated whether pain and pain-related unpleasantness
      ratings were altered by blood testosterone levels. We also investigated whether
      activation of brain regions that represent pain intensity [primary somatosensory
      cortex (S1)] and pain-related unpleasantness [perigenual ACC (pACC) and
      orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)] were affected by blood testosterone levels. METHODS:
      Twenty-six healthy men were recruited. Blood testosterone levels were measured
      before fMRI scanning. The participants were classified into two groups (high vs.
      low testosterone) according to their blood testosterone level (each group n =
      13). The middle finger was immersed in a 50 degrees C water bath (50 degrees C,
      30 s, five times) to induce identical noxious stimulation in all participants.
      RESULTS: The low testosterone group showed statistically significantly higher
      pain (P = 0.047), unpleasantness (P = 0.047), anxiety (P = 0.015), and fear
      ratings (P = 0.01) than the high testosterone group. Fear rating increased as
      pain rating rose and as testosterone level decreased (P < 0.001). When
      participants received noxious stimulation, the pACC and OFC were more highly
      activated in the low testosterone group compared to the high testosterone group.
      Activation of S1, a region related to pain intensity, did not differ between both
      groups. CONCLUSION: Compared to the high testosterone group, the low testosterone
      group had significant activation in the pACC and OFC, regions that represent pain
      related unpleasantness, but not in S1 that represents pain intensity, leading to
      higher pain ratings. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the
      effects of testosterone levels when treating patients.

PMID- 28573656
TI  - Objective neuromuscular monitoring of neuromuscular blockade in Denmark: an
      online-based survey of current practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neuromuscular blocking agents are commonly used during general
      anaesthesia but can lead to postoperative residual neuromuscular blockade and
      associated morbidity. With appropriate objective neuromuscular monitoring
      (objNMM) residual blockade can be avoided. In this survey, we investigated the
      use of objNMM in Denmark. METHODS: We conducted an anonymous Internet-based
      survey distributed through e-mails to Danish public anaesthesia departments. The
      survey consisted of 15-17 short questions regarding the use of objNMM. RESULTS: A
      total of 653 (27%) anaesthetists from 90% of the hospitals answered the
      questionnaire. ObjNMM was always used by 58% of the anaesthetists and 86% used
      objNMM at least 75% of the times. Despite the frequent use, 75% of the
      anaesthetists experienced difficulties with objNMM in at least 25% of the cases.
      The likelihood of using objNMM was higher among nurse anaesthetists vs.
      anaesthesiologists (odds ratio (OR) 2.24 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.62
      3.08]), if the department had an employee with special interest in objNMM (OR
      1.66 [95% CI: 1.12-2.47]), if the anaesthetist had < 5 years of experience (OR
      1.88 [95% CI: 1.29-2.73]), or if experiencing difficulties with objNMM < 25% of
      the cases (OR 1.60 [95% CI: 1.00-2.57]). CONCLUSION: In this survey, Danish
      anaesthetists frequently, in an international perspective, use objNMM, but the
      use is often associated with technical difficulties.

PMID- 28573657
TI  - Safety assessment and global regulatory requirements for genetic toxicity
      evaluations of medical devices.
AB  - Medical devices have the potential to leach substances which, depending on the
      contact category of the device, can directly contact the human body. Hence,
      appropriate evaluation for genetic toxicity as part of the biocompatibility risk
      assessment is critical. The biocompatibility risk assessment of medical devices
      is guided by the ISO 10993 series of standards. The recently revised ISO 10993-3
      (2014) provides guidance on evaluating the genotoxicity, carcinogenicity and
      reproductive toxicity potential of medical devices. The revised standard includes
      the use of risk assessments and chemical characterization in addition to
      traditional genetic toxicity tests. The ISO 10993-3 standard provides guidance on
      the selection and preparation of test samples, and the selection of tests to
      evaluate genetic toxicity. Although conformance to ISO 10993-3 is required by
      various national regulatory agencies for specific medical device categories,
      there are still differences in the interpretation of the requirements within the
      standard which may require additional testing. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:375-379,
      2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28573658
TI  - An approach to understanding sleep and depressed mood in adolescents: person
      centred sleep classification.
AB  - Depressive mood in youth has been associated with distinct sleep dimensions, such
      as timing, duration and quality. To identify discrete sleep phenotypes, we
      applied person-centred analysis (latent class mixture models) based on self
      reported sleep patterns and quality, and examined associations between phenotypes
      and mood in high-school seniors. Students (n = 1451; mean age = 18.4 +/- 0.3
      years; 648 M) completed a survey near the end of high-school. Indicators used for
      classification included school night bed- and rise-times, differences between non
      school night and school night bed- and rise-times, sleep-onset latency, number of
      awakenings, naps, and sleep quality and disturbance. Mood was measured using the
      total score on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale. One-way
      anova tested differences between phenotype for mood. Fit indexes were split
      between 3-, 4- and 5-phenotype solutions. For all solutions, between phenotype
      differences were shown for all indicators: bedtime showed the largest difference;
      thus, classes were labelled from earliest to latest bedtime as 'A' (n = 751), 'B'
      (n = 428) and 'C' (n = 272) in the 3-class solution. Class B showed the lowest
      sleep disturbances and remained stable, whereas classes C and A each split in the
      4- and 5-class solutions, respectively. Associations with mood were consistent,
      albeit small, with class B showing the lowest scores. Person-centred analysis
      identified sleep phenotypes that differed in mood, such that those with the
      fewest depressive symptoms had moderate sleep timing, shorter sleep-onset
      latencies and fewer arousals. Sleep characteristics in these groups may add to
      our understanding of how sleep and depressed mood associate in teens.

PMID- 28573660
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid cytotoxicity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and sample
      size.

PMID- 28573659
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid cytotoxicity does not affect survival in amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis; Methodological issues.

PMID- 28573661
TI  - Characterization of a PRISTANE-induced lupus-associated model in the non-human
      primate cynomolgus monkey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lupus is an autoimmune disease with complex syndrome. Rodent models
      have limitations for recapitulating the spectrum of the disease. A more powerful
      translational model is desirable. METHOD: Lupus-associated model in cynomolgus
      monkeys was induced by two intraperitoneal injections of 2, 6, 10, 14
      tetramethylpentadecane (PRISTANE). Lupus-specific biomarkers and manifestations
      over a 246-day period were observed at multilevel. To visualize and quantify
      kidney function in real time, contrast-enhanced ultrasound was used. RESULTS: The
      indicative biomarkers and manifestations fulfilled major diagnosis criteria
      according to the "Criteria of Lupus" of the American College of Rheumatology.
      Significant changes in time-intensity curve parameters were observed, indicating
      impaired renal function and the method as a feasible, non-invasive diagnostic
      method in primate model. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully induced lupus-associated
      model with systemic lupus syndrome. This primate model can be a valuable
      translational model for further pathogenesis and symptomology studies and for
      exploring therapeutic candidates.

PMID- 28573662
TI  - Offenders with intellectual disabilities in prison: what happens when they leave?
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disabilities, if convicted of offences, may
      be sentenced to prison, but little is known about their life when they are
      released. METHOD: This study followed up men with intellectual disabilities who
      were leaving prisons in England. RESULTS: The men were hard to contact, but 38
      men were interviewed, on average 10 weeks after leaving prison. The men were
      living in a variety of situations and often were very under-occupied, with
      limited social networks. A total of 70% were above the clinical cut-off for
      anxiety, and 59.5% were above the clinical cut-off for depression. The men were
      receiving little support in the community, and many had been reinterviewed by
      police. CONCLUSIONS: Community teams need to provide better support to this very
      vulnerable group.

PMID- 28573663
TI  - Suppression of the Charge Density Wave State in Two-Dimensional 1T-TiSe2 by
      Atmospheric Oxidation.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) metallic transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), such as
      1T-TiSe2 , have recently emerged as unique platforms for exploring their exciting
      properties of superconductivity and the charge density wave (CDW). 2D 1T-TiSe2
      undergoes rapid oxidation under ambient conditions, significantly affecting its
      CDW phase-transition behavior. We comprehensively investigate the oxidation
      process of 2D TiSe2 by tracking the evolution of the chemical composition and
      atomic structure with various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques and reveal
      its unique selenium-assisting oxidation mechanism. Our findings facilitate a
      better understanding of the chemistry of ultrathin TMDCs crystals, introduce an
      effective method to passivate their surfaces with capping layers, and thus open a
      way to further explore the functionality of these materials toward devices.

PMID- 28573664
TI  - Relationship between comorbidities at diagnosis, survival and ultimate cause of
      death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL): a prospective cohort
      study.

PMID- 28573665
TI  - Oligomeric larvae of the pycnogonids revisited.
AB  - Organization and ultrastructure of the protonymphon larva were never adequately
      described, despite it being the common larval type of the enigmatic sea spiders
      and the only example of oligosegmented life stage among recent chelicerates. We
      have made a comprehensive examination of the newly hatched free-living
      protonymphons of Nymphon brevirostre using SEM, TEM, light, and confocal
      microscopy. Although fairly typical in their broad characters, protonymphon
      larvae have a number of unique and unexpected traits. Body cavity, already
      present at this stage, is lined with extracellular matrix and thus is
      conclusively identified as primary body cavity. Central nervous system includes
      four postocular neuromeres arranged in three ganglia: supraesophageal,
      subesophageal, and the first ganglion of the ventral nerve cord. Examination of
      the sensory organs revealed unusually organized eyes, mechanoreceptors, and
      chemoreceptors. We have uncovered a mixed sensory-secretory nature of chelar
      glands and proposed possible modalities of its receptory part. We gave first
      descriptions of the complex ultrastructure of three secretory organs (spinning
      glands, slit-like organs, proboscis glands) and hypothesized on their mode of
      functioning. Comparisons with another oligomeric larva, for example, nauplius,
      revealed discrepancies in the segmentation of these animals. Although both larvae
      are externally unsegmented and bear three pairs of homologous appendages, the
      protonymphon body includes a fourth segment of the prospective walking legs which
      is absent in nauplius.

PMID- 28573666
TI  - Detection of desmoplastic melanoma with dermoscopy and reflectance confocal
      microscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Desmoplastic melanoma (DM) is frequently misdiagnosed clinically and
      often associated with melanoma in situ (MIS). OBJECTIVE: To improve the detection
      of DM using dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). METHODS: A
      descriptive analysis of DM dermoscopy features and a case-control study within a
      melanoma population for RCM feature evaluation was performed blindly, using data
      obtained between 2005 and 2015. After retrospectively identifying all DM cases
      with RCM data over the study period (n = 16), a control group of non-DM melanoma
      patients with RCM data, in a ratio of at least 3 : 1, was selected. The control
      group was matched by age and primary tumour site location, divided into non-DM
      invasive melanomas (n = 27) and MIS (n = 27). Invasive melanomas were selected
      according to the melanoma subtypes associated with the DM cases. The main
      outcomes were the frequency of melanoma-specific features on dermoscopy for DM;
      and the odds ratios of RCM features to distinguish DM from MIS and/or other
      invasive melanomas; or MIS from the combined invasive melanoma group. RESULTS: At
      least one of the 14 melanoma-specific features evaluated on dermoscopy was found
      in 100% of DMs (n = 15 DM with dermoscopy). Known RCM melanoma predictors were
      commonly found in the DMs, such as pagetoid cells (100%) and cell atypia (100%).
      The RCM feature of spindle cells in the superficial dermis was more common in DM
      compared with the entire melanoma control group (OR 3.82, 95% CI 1.01-14.90), and
      particularly compared to MIS (OR 5.48, 95% CI 1.11-32.36). Nucleated cells in the
      dermis and the RCM correlate of dermal inflammation were also significant RCM
      features favouring DM over MIS, as well as invasive melanoma over MIS.
      CONCLUSION: Dermoscopy and RCM may be useful tools for the identification of DM.
      Certain RCM features may help distinguish DM from MIS and other invasive
      melanomas. Larger studies are warranted.

PMID- 28573667
TI  - Low-Dimensional Organic Tin Bromide Perovskites and Their Photoinduced Structural
      Transformation.
AB  - Hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites possess exceptional structural
      tunability, with three- (3D), two- (2D), one- (1D), and zero-dimensional (0D)
      structures on the molecular level all possible. While remarkable progress has
      been realized in perovskite research in recent years, the focus has been mainly
      on 3D and 2D structures, with 1D and 0D structures significantly underexplored.
      The synthesis and characterization of a series of low-dimensional organic tin
      bromide perovskites with 1D and 0D structures is reported. Using the same organic
      and inorganic components, but at different ratios and reaction conditions, both
      1D (C4 N2 H14 )SnBr4 and 0D (C4 N2 H14 Br)4 SnBr6 can be prepared in high yields.
      Moreover, photoinduced structural transformation from 1D to 0D was investigated
      experimentally and theoretically in which photodissociation of 1D metal halide
      chains followed by structural reorganization leads to the formation of a more
      thermodynamically stable 0D structure.

PMID- 28573668
TI  - Establishing a chemical genetic link between Bruton tyrosine kinase activity in
      malignant B cells and cell functions involved in the micro-environmental
      dialogue.
AB  - To elucidate their mechanism of action, inhibitors of Bruton tyrosine kinase
      (BTK) and resistant BTK mutants were employed to dissect target-dependent
      cellular functions. BTK-C481S and -T474I, expressed in Ramos and NALM-6 cells,
      maintained BTK auto-phosphorylation under treatment with ibrutinib or dasatinib,
      respectively, which showed only modest cytotoxicity. Retained activity of BTK
      T474 partially rescued cell migration from inhibition by dasatinib. Importantly,
      resistant BTK mutants reconstituted B cell receptor-triggered chemokine secretion
      in the presence of corresponding inhibitors, demonstrating that BTK activity is
      connected with cell-intrinsic functions of malignant B cells with importance for
      their dialogue with the micro-environment.

PMID- 28573669
TI  - Association between consistent weight gain tracking and gestational weight gain:
      Secondary analysis of a randomized trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The effective components of interventions for reducing excessive
      gestational weight gain (GWG) remain to be identified. This study investigated
      the sociodemographic, physical, psychosocial, and environmental correlates of
      online GWG tracking and its independent association with GWG outcomes. METHODS:
      Eight hundred ninety-eight women in the intervention arms of a randomized trial
      assessing the effectiveness of an integrated online and mobile phone behavioral
      intervention to decrease the prevalence of excessive GWG were included in this
      secondary analysis. Data were analyzed using chi2 analysis and modified Poisson
      and linear regression approaches. RESULTS: Only 16.5% of low-income (Medicaid
      eligible) women consistently tracked GWG, as did 34.2% of not-low-income women.
      More highly educated, older, and white women were more likely to be consistent
      GWG trackers. Among not-low-income women, consistent GWG tracking was associated
      with 2.35 kg less GWG (95% CI: -3.23 to -1.46 kg; P < 0.0001) and a reduced risk
      of excessive GWG (RR 0.73; 95% CI: 0.59 to 0.89; P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS:
      Electronic tracking of GWG is an effective component of electronic and mobile
      health interventions aiming to decrease the prevalence of excessive GWG in not
      low-income women. Income group-specific motivators are needed to increase the
      prevalence of GWG tracking.

PMID- 28573670
TI  - Successful treatment with IVIg therapy of diabetes-associated scleredema severe
      progressive case and review of the literature.
AB  - Scleredema is a deposition disorder which presents as diffuse, symmetric, non
      pitting skin induration from dermal deposits of glycosaminoglycans ("mucins"). It
      classically affects the upper back and posterior neck, often causing skin
      tightness and decreased range of motion. In most patients the clinical course is
      chronic and treatment options are limited. We report a case of a patient
      diagnosed with scleredema associated with longstanding insulin dependent diabetes
      who was treated successfully with IVIg. Additionally, we have reviewed the
      literature reporting other patients with scleredema treated with IVIg.

PMID- 28573671
TI  - Validation of reference genes for quantitative gene expression analysis in
      experimental epilepsy.
AB  - To grasp the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiology underlying epilepsy
      development (epileptogenesis) and epilepsy itself, it is important to understand
      the gene expression changes that occur during these phases. Quantitative real
      time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a technique that rapidly and accurately
      determines gene expression changes. It is crucial, however, that stable reference
      genes are selected for each experimental condition to ensure that accurate values
      are obtained for genes of interest. If reference genes are unstably expressed,
      this can lead to inaccurate data and erroneous conclusions. To date, epilepsy
      studies have used mostly single, nonvalidated reference genes. This is the first
      study to systematically evaluate reference genes in male Sprague-Dawley rat
      models of epilepsy. We assessed 15 potential reference genes in hippocampal
      tissue obtained from 2 different models during epileptogenesis, 1 model during
      chronic epilepsy, and a model of noninjurious seizures. Reference gene ranking
      varied between models and also differed between epileptogenesis and chronic
      epilepsy time points. There was also some variance between the four mathematical
      models used to rank reference genes. Notably, we found novel reference genes to
      be more stably expressed than those most often used in experimental epilepsy
      studies. The consequence of these findings is that reference genes suitable for
      one epilepsy model may not be appropriate for others and that reference genes can
      change over time. It is, therefore, critically important to validate potential
      reference genes before using them as normalizing factors in expression analysis
      in order to ensure accurate, valid results.

PMID- 28573673
TI  - [n]Cyclo-3,6-phenanthrenylenes: Synthesis, Structure, and Fluorescence.
AB  - Five congeners of [n]cyclo-3,6-phenanthrenylene with 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 panels
      were obtained from one-pot macrocyclization of dibromophenanthrene, and their
      crystal structures with diverse molecular shapes were revealed by X-ray
      crystallography. The compounds, except the four-panel congener, were highly
      fluorescent in solution, with quantum yields up to 85 %. The least fluorescent
      four-panel congener showed the smallest change in its absorption spectrum from
      that of monomeric phenanthrene, which provided an interesting structure-activity
      relationship for fluorescent macrocycles to guide future studies.

PMID- 28573672
TI  - MEMO: an mHealth intervention to prevent the onset of depression in adolescents:
      a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression often starts in adolescence making it an ideal time to
      intervene. We developed a universal cognitive behavioural therapy-based programme
      (MEMO CBT) to be delivered via multimedia mobile phone messages for teens.
      METHODS: We conducted a prospective multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled
      superiority trial in 15 high schools in Auckland, New Zealand, comparing MEMO CBT
      with a control programme [MEMO control] matched for intensity and type of message
      but with alternative content not targeting depression. The primary outcome was
      the change in score on the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised from
      baseline to 12 months. Secondary outcomes included the change in scores in the
      self-reported Reynold's Adolescent Depression Rating Scale-Second Edition, the
      Moods and Feelings Questionnaire, suicidal ideation using selected items from the
      Youth Risk Behaviour Survey, the Pediatric Quality of Life questionnaire, 12
      month period prevalence of the diagnosis of depressive disorder using the Kiddie
      Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, and students' ratings of
      their satisfaction with the programme. RESULTS: Eight hundred and fifty-five
      students (13-17 years old, mean 14.3 years) were randomly assigned to MEMO CBT
      (426) or to MEMO Control (429). Participants (68% female) had a mean CDRS-R at
      baseline of 21.5 (SD: 5). Overall 394 (93%) from the intervention group and 392
      (91%) from the control group were followed up at 12 months. At the end of the
      intervention (approximately 9 weeks) the mean CDRS-R scores were 20.8 in the
      intervention group versus 20.4 in the control group, and at 12 months they were
      22.4 versus 22.4 (p value for difference in change from baseline = 0.3). There
      was no obvious association between the amount of the intervention viewed by
      participants and outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: There was no evidence of benefit from the
      mobile phone CBT intervention compared with a control programme. Universal
      depression prevention remains a challenge.

PMID- 28573674
TI  - Overexpression of alpha-synuclein in an astrocyte cell line promotes autophagy
      inhibition and apoptosis.
AB  - alpha-Synuclein is the major component of neuronal cytoplasmic aggregates called
      Lewy bodies, the main pathological hallmark of Parkinson disease. Although
      neurons are the predominant cells expressing alpha-synuclein in the brain, recent
      studies have demonstrated that primary astrocytes in culture also express alpha
      synuclein and regulate alpha-synuclein trafficking. Astrocytes have a
      neuroprotective role in several detrimental brain conditions; we therefore
      analyzed the effects of the overexpression of wild-type alpha-synuclein and its
      A30P and A53T mutants on autophagy and apoptosis. We observed that in
      immortalized astrocyte cell lines, overexpression of alpha-synuclein proteins
      promotes the decrease of LC3-II and the increase of p62 protein levels,
      suggesting the inhibition of autophagy. When these cells were treated with
      rotenone, there was a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, especially in
      cells expressing mutant alpha-synuclein. The level of this decrease was related
      to the toxicity of the mutants because they show a more intense and sustained
      effect. The decrease in autophagy and the mitochondrial changes in conjunction
      with parkin expression levels may sensitize astrocytes to apoptosis.

PMID- 28573675
TI  - Fasciocutaneous free flaps for reconstruction of hypopharyngeal defects.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Different reconstructive options are available for defects
      following total laryngectomy (TL) and circumferential (CH) or partial
      hypopharyngectomy (PH). We evaluated the flap success, pharyngocutaneous fistula,
      and pharyngoesophageal stenosis rates in two groups of patients treated by
      different policies. STUDY DESIGN: Comparison between two cohorts of patients
      treated by TL with PH/CH +/- cervical esophagectomy and reconstructed according
      to different strategies. METHODS: Group A (historical) was composed of 89
      patients reconstructed by pectoralis major myocutaneous (PMMC), radial forearm
      (RF), and anterolateral thigh (ALT) flaps. A salivary bypass stent (SBPS) was not
      routinely applied and left in place for a maximum of 14 days. Forty-four (49%)
      patients received preoperative radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy (RT/CRT). Group B
      (prospective) included 105 patients reconstructed by RF or ALT with long-lasting
      SBPS left in place for a maximum of 45 days. Sixty-one (59%) received
      preoperative RT/CRT. RESULTS: In group A, flap failure occurred in four (4%)
      cases, and all were managed by PMMC. We encountered 22 (26%) fistulas and 14
      (16%) stenoses. In group B, flap failure occurred in six (6%) cases and was
      managed by PMMC. We encountered seven (7%) fistulas and three (3%) stenoses.
      Comparing complications among the two groups, we encountered a statistically
      significant difference in favor of group B for both fistula (P < .001) and
      stenosis (P = .001). We did not evidence any significant difference in terms of
      flap success rate. CONCLUSIONS: First-line application of RF and ALT free flaps
      with long-lasting SBPS in reconstruction after PH/CH allows obtaining reduced
      incidences of both fistula and stenosis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope,
      127:2731-2737, 2017.

PMID- 28573676
TI  - Combined cerebral and peripheral treatments for pain: A commentary on Hazime et
      al.

PMID- 28573677
TI  - Physical properties of the chromosomes and implications for development.
AB  - Remarkable progress has been made in understanding chromosome structures inside
      the cell nucleus. Recent advances in Hi-C technologies enable the detection of
      genome-wide chromatin interactions, providing insight into three-dimensional (3D)
      genome organization. Advancements in the spatial and temporal resolutions of
      imaging as well as in molecular biological techniques allow the tracking of
      specific chromosomal loci, improving our understanding of chromosome movements.
      From these data, we are beginning to understand how the intra-nuclear locations
      of chromatin loci and the 3D genome structure change during development and
      differentiation. This emerging field of genome structure and dynamics research
      requires an interdisciplinary approach including efficient collaborations between
      experimental biologists and physicists, informaticians, or engineers.
      Quantitative and mathematical analyses based on polymer physics are becoming
      increasingly important for processing and interpreting experimental data on 3D
      chromosome structures and dynamics. In this review, we aim to provide an overview
      of recent research on the physical aspects of chromosome structure and dynamics
      oriented for biologists. These studies have mainly focused on chromosomes at the
      cellular level, using unicellular organisms and cultured cells. However, physical
      parameters that change during development, such as nuclear size, may impact
      genome structure and dynamics. Here, we discuss how chromatin dynamics and genome
      structures in early embryos change during development, which we expect will be a
      hot topic in the field of chromatin dynamics in the near future. We hope this
      review helps developmental biologists to quantitatively investigate the physical
      natures of chromosomes in developmental biology research.

PMID- 28573678
TI  - Cardiac involvements in hypereosinophilia-associated syndrome: Case reports and a
      little review of the literature.
AB  - Hypereosinophilia-associated syndrome is a rare group of systemic diseases
      without certain underlying causes. Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) and
      eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), formerly known as Churg
      Strauss syndrome (CSS), are initial considerations, when underlying causes
      remains unexplained despite of complete evaluation of hypereosinophilia. In this
      study, we report two rare cases, one case of HES with Loeffler endocarditis, and
      the other one of EGPA with restrictive cardiomyopathy mimicking myocardial
      infarction, to further address differential chief cardiac manifestations between
      HES and EGPA. Key roles of echocardiography played in detection of cardiac
      involvements, diagnosis, and prognosis prediction are also highlighted.

PMID- 28573679
TI  - Bidirectional electric communication between the inferior occipital gyrus and the
      amygdala during face processing.
AB  - Faces contain multifaceted information that is important for human communication.
      Neuroimaging studies have revealed face-specific activation in multiple brain
      regions, including the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and amygdala; it is often
      assumed that these regions constitute the neural network responsible for the
      processing of faces. However, it remains unknown whether and how these brain
      regions transmit information during face processing. This study investigated
      these questions by applying dynamic causal modeling of induced responses to human
      intracranial electroencephalography data recorded from the IOG and amygdala
      during the observation of faces, mosaics, and houses in upright and inverted
      orientations. Model comparisons assessing the experimental effects of upright
      faces versus upright houses and upright faces versus upright mosaics consistently
      indicated that the model having face-specific bidirectional modulatory effects
      between the IOG and amygdala was the most probable. The experimental effect
      between upright versus inverted faces also favored the model with bidirectional
      modulatory effects between the IOG and amygdala. The spectral profiles of
      modulatory effects revealed both same-frequency (e.g., gamma-gamma) and cross
      frequency (e.g., theta-gamma) couplings. These results suggest that the IOG and
      amygdala communicate rapidly with each other using various types of oscillations
      for the efficient processing of faces. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4511-4524, 2017. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28573680
TI  - The effect of age on microsurgical free flap outcomes: An analysis of 5,951
      cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The growing elderly population necessitates a greater number of aging
      patients requiring complex reconstructive surgery involving free tissue transfer.
      The purpose of this study was to assess the safety, efficacy, and outcomes of
      microsurgical free tissue transfer in elderly patients using a national multi
      institutional database. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of the
      American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS
      NSQIP) database to identify patients undergoing free tissue transfer. We
      stratified cohorts based on ages 18-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80+ years and
      analyzed primary outcomes of surgical complications, medical complications,
      mortality, and flap failure. RESULTS: A total of 5,951 patients were identified
      for inclusion in the analysis. Univariate analysis demonstrated progressively
      increasing surgical (P = .001) and medical (P < .001) complication rates with
      increasing age. After controlling for confounding variables, age was not
      significantly associated with rates of surgical (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.99-1.01, P =
      .737) or medical (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.99-1.03, P = .209) complications, flap
      failure (OR 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.02, P = .689), or reoperation (OR 1.01, 95% CI
      1.00-1.03, P = 0.165). Factors associated with surgical complications included
      BMI (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00-1.05, P = .031), prolonged operative time (OR 1.001,
      95% CI 1.000-1.002, P = .002), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)
      classification of 3 or greater (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.17-2.23, P = .003), and
      prolonged hospitalization (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.04, P < .001). ASA
      classification of 3 or greater (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.48-4.45, P = .001), renal
      history (OR 10.13, 95% CI 1.57-65.55, P = .015), and prolonged hospitalization
      (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.04-1.08, P < .001) were associated with medical complications.
      Age was associated with increased mortality (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.13, P =
      .048). CONCLUSION: Age alone should not be used as an absolute or even relative
      contraindication in patient assessment. Rather, preoperative assessment should
      focus on comorbidities and assessment of physiologic age instead of chronologic
      age. Optimization of these comorbidities is key to sustaining favorable outcomes
      in microsurgical free flap reconstruction in the elderly population.

PMID- 28573681
TI  - Projected long-term outcomes in patients with type 1 diabetes treated with fast
      acting insulin aspart vs conventional insulin aspart in the UK setting.
AB  - AIM: To assess the impact of faster aspart vs insulin aspart on long-term
      clinical outcomes and costs for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in
      the UK setting. METHODS: The QuintilesIMS CORE Diabetes Model was used to project
      clinical outcomes and costs over patient lifetimes in a cohort with data on
      baseline characteristics from the "onset 1" trial. Treatment effects were taken
      from the 26-week main phase of the onset 1 trial, with costs and utilities based
      on literature review. Future costs and clinical benefits were discounted at 3.5%
      annually. RESULTS: Projections indicated that faster aspart was associated with
      improved discounted quality-adjusted life expectancy (by 0.13 quality-adjusted
      life-years) vs insulin aspart. Improved clinical outcomes resulted from fewer
      diabetes-related complications and a delayed time to their onset with faster
      aspart. Faster aspart was found to be associated with reduced costs vs insulin
      aspart (cost savings of L1715), resulting from diabetes-related complications
      avoided and reduced treatment costs. CONCLUSIONS: Faster aspart was associated
      with improved clinical outcomes and cost savings vs insulin aspart for patients
      with T1DM in the UK setting.

PMID- 28573682
TI  - Evaluation of the extent of initial Maillard reaction during cooking some
      vegetables by direct measurement of the Amadori compounds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During vegetable cooking, one of the most notable and common chemical
      reactions is the Maillard reaction, which occurs as a result of thermal treatment
      and dehydration. Amadori compound determination provides a very sensitive
      indicator for early detection of quality changes caused by the Maillard reaction,
      as well as to retrospectively assess the heat treatment or storage conditions to
      which the product has been subjected. In this paper, a hydrophilic interaction
      liquid chromatographic-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometric method
      was developed for the analysis of eight Amadori compounds, and the initial steps
      of the Maillard reaction during cooking (steaming, frying and baking) bell
      pepper, red pepper, yellow onion, purple onion, tomato and carrot were also
      assessed by quantitative determination of these Amadori compounds. RESULTS: These
      culinary treatments reduced moisture and increased the total content of Amadori
      compounds, which was not dependent on the type of vegetable or cooking method.
      Moreover, the effect of steaming on Amadori compound content and water loss was
      less than that by baking and frying vegetables. Further studies showed that the
      combination of high temperature and short time may lead to lower formation of
      Amadori compounds when baking vegetables. CONCLUSION: Culinary methods
      differently affected the extent of initial Maillard reaction when vegetables were
      made into home-cooked products. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573683
TI  - Omalizumab substantially improves dermatology-related quality of life in patients
      with chronic spontaneous urticaria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic spontaneous/idiopathic urticaria (CSU/CIU) has substantial
      detrimental effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with an effect
      comparable to or worse than many other skin diseases. OBJECTIVE: To assess the
      effect of omalizumab on CSU patients' HRQoL, measured by the Dermatology Life
      Quality Index (DLQI) in three phase III studies ASTERIA I, ASTERIA II and
      GLACIAL. METHODS: A post hoc analysis examined changes in DLQI scores,
      distribution of patients across DLQI bands and the proportion reaching minimal
      clinically important difference (MCID) following omalizumab vs. placebo. RESULTS:
      Omalizumab 300 mg significantly improved total DLQI scores vs. placebo, with a
      mean decrease from baseline to week 12 of -10.3 vs. -6.1 (P < 0.0001) in ASTERIA
      I, -10.2 vs. -6.1 (P = 0.0004) in ASTERIA II and -9.7 vs. -5.1 (P < 0.0001) in
      GLACIAL. A significant shift from high disease impact on life at baseline towards
      less impact at week 12 was seen with omalizumab 300 mg vs. placebo (P < 0.001;
      all studies). The proportion of patients where change in mean total DLQI score
      from baseline to week 12 reached an MCID of >=4 was 74.1%, 76.0% and 77.2% in
      ASTERIA I, II and GLACIAL, respectively (P < 0.01; all studies). LIMITATIONS:
      Maximum duration of omalizumab treatment was 24 weeks. CONCLUSION: This
      additional analysis assessed the impact of CSU and benefit of treatment with
      omalizumab by exploring different facets of DLQI data by treatment arm at
      multiple assessment points. The original aspects of analysis included applying
      the concept of the recently validated score for the MCID of the DLQI, changes in
      DLQI domain scores and in the distribution of subjects based on validated total
      DLQI score bands. It showed consistently that omalizumab provides significant and
      clinically relevant improvements in many aspects of HRQoL that are important to
      patients with CSU. These results contribute to a better understanding of the
      impact of CSU and its treatment on patients and can support clinical decision
      making in routine medical practice.

PMID- 28573684
TI  - LC3-association with the parasitophorous vacuole membrane of Plasmodium berghei
      liver stages follows a noncanonical autophagy pathway.
AB  - Eukaryotic cells can employ autophagy to defend themselves against invading
      pathogens. Upon infection by Plasmodium berghei sporozoites, the host hepatocyte
      targets the invader by labelling the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM) with
      the autophagy marker protein LC3. Until now, it has not been clear whether LC3
      recruitment to the PVM is mediated by fusion of autophagosomes or by direct
      incorporation. To distinguish between these possibilities, we knocked out genes
      that are essential for autophagosome formation and for direct LC3 incorporation
      into membranes. The CRISPR/Cas9 system was employed to generate host cell lines
      deficient for either FIP200, a member of the initiation complex for autophagosome
      formation, or ATG5, responsible for LC3 lipidation and incorporation of LC3 into
      membranes. Infection of these knockout cell lines with P. berghei sporozoites
      revealed that LC3 recruitment to the PVM indeed depends on functional ATG5 and
      the elongation machinery, but not on FIP200 and the initiation complex,
      suggesting a direct incorporation of LC3 into the PVM. Importantly, in P. berghei
      infected ATG5-/- host cells, lysosomes still accumulated at the PVM, indicating
      that the recruitment of lysosomes follows an LC3-independent pathway.

PMID- 28573685
TI  - Epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes of infections in patients undergoing
      liver transplantation for hilar cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - The epidemiology of infection after liver transplantation for hilar
      cholangiocarcinoma has not been systematically investigated. In this study of 124
      patients, 255 infections occurred in 105 patients during the median follow-up of
      4.2 years. The median time to first infection was 15.1 weeks (IQR 1.6-62.6). The
      most common sites were the abdomen, bloodstream, and musculoskeletal system. Risk
      factors for any post-transplant infection were pre-transplant VRE colonization
      (Hazard Ratio [HR] 1.9, P=.002), living donor transplantation (HR 6.6, P<.001),
      longer cold ischemia time (HR 1.05 per 10 minutes, P<.001), donor CMV
      seropositivity (HR 2.2, P<.001), hepatic artery thrombosis (HR 2.6, P=.005),
      biliary stricture (HR 3.8, P=.002), intra-abdominal fluid collection (HR 4.2,
      P<.001), and re-operations within 1 month after transplantation (HR 1.7, P=.020).
      Abdominal infections were independently associated with hemodialysis requirement
      within 1 month after transplantation (HR 5.6, P=.006), hepatic artery thrombosis
      (HR 3.3, P=.007), biliary stricture (HR 5.2, P<.001), and abdominal fluid
      collection (HR 3.7, P=.0002). Bloodstream infections were independently
      associated with allograft ischemia (HR 17.8, P<.001), biliary stricture (HR 6.5,
      P=.005), and recipient VRE colonization (HR 4, P<.001). Abdominal infections (HR
      2.3, P=.02) and Clostridium difficile infections (HR 4.6, P=.01) were
      independently associated with increased mortality.

PMID- 28573686
TI  - Pruritus in epithelial tumours of the face.

PMID- 28573687
TI  - Computational insights into the S3 transfer reaction: A special case of double
      group transfer reaction featuring bicyclically delocalized aromatic transition
      state geometries.
AB  - An unusual pericyclic process that involves the intermolecular transfer of
      thiozone (S3 ) is computationally described. The process can be considered as a
      special case of double group transfer reaction whereby the two migrating groups
      are connected to the same substituent, taking place in a concerted manner via
      transition states featuring two five-membered C2 S3 rings fused together.
      Analysis of the aromaticity at the TS geometries by computing NICS values at the
      (3,+1) RCPS as well as ACID calculations confirms the aromatic character of each
      C2 S3 ring, thus resulting in bicyclically delocalized aromatic structures. The
      free energy barriers for the transfer of S3 are relatively similar (40-50 kcal
      mol-1 ) to those computed for typical double H group transfer reactions. The
      similarities and differences between these processes have been further analysed
      by applying ASM-EDA and NBO approaches to the model reactions between ethene and
      ethane, and ethene and 1,2,3-trithiolane. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28573690
TI  - Every vaginal delivery must count.

PMID- 28573688
TI  - Autoantibodies against voltage-gated potassium channel and glutamic acid
      decarboxylase in psychosis: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and case series.
AB  - Antibodies to the voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC) complex and glutamic
      acid decarboxylase (GAD) have been reported in some cases of psychosis. We
      conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate their
      prevalence in people with psychosis and report a case series of VGKC-complex
      antibodies in refractory psychosis. Only five studies presenting prevalence rates
      of VGKC seropositivity in psychosis were identified, in addition to our case
      series, with an overall prevalence of 1.5% (25/1720) compared to 0.7% in healthy
      controls (12/1753). Meta-analysis established that the pooled prevalence of GAD65
      autoantibodies was 5.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.0-15.6%; I2  = 91%; nine
      studies) in psychotic disorders, with a prevalence of 4.6% (95%CI: 1.2-15.9%;
      nine studies; I2  = 89%) and 6.2% (95%CI: 1.2-27.0%; two studies; I2  = 69%) in
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, respectively. People with psychosis were more
      likely to have GAD65 antibodies than controls (odds ratio [OR], 2.24; 95%CI: 1.28
      3.92%; P = 0.005; eight studies; I2  = 0%). Among 21 participants with treatment
      resistant psychosis, none had VGKC antibodies. The prevalence of VGKC antibodies
      is low in psychosis. Our preliminary meta-analysis suggests that GAD
      autoantibodies are more common in people with psychosis than in controls,
      although few studies accounted for the possibility of co-existing type 1 diabetes
      mellitus and the clinical significance of reported GAD titers remains unclear.
      The paucity of studies reporting thresholds for defining GAD abnormality and
      rates of comorbid type 1 diabetes mellitus precludes interpretations regarding
      the influence of GAD antibodies on the development of psychotic disorders and may
      have led to an overestimate of the prevalence of GAD. Our case series fails to
      support the hypothesis that VGKC antibodies are linked to treatment resistance in
      psychosis, but the literature to date is remarkably sparse.

PMID- 28573691
TI  - Medical abortion is fundamental to women's health care.

PMID- 28573692
TI  - Response to Natural childbirth ideology is endangering women and babies/Every CS
      must count.

PMID- 28573693
TI  - Term breech delivery: Is recommending vaginal birth a breach of best practice?

PMID- 28573694
TI  - Response to Natural childbirth ideology is endangering women and babies/Every CS
      must count.

PMID- 28573695
TI  - Natural childbirth ideology is endangering women and babies/Every CS must count.

PMID- 28573696
TI  - There is a place in current obstetric practice for planned vaginal breech birth.

PMID- 28573697
TI  - Reply to Neonatal head circumference and computed tomography pelvimetry could be
      useful counselling tools after caesarean section for failure to progress.

PMID- 28573698
TI  - Neonatal head circumference and computed tomography pelvimetry could be useful
      counselling tools after caesarean section for failure to progress.

PMID- 28573699
TI  - Painful swelling after a noxious event and the development of complex regional
      pain syndrome 1: A one-year prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The timing of diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) 1
      remains a challenge due to the large heterogeneity of clinical presentations. We
      describe the distribution and differences in outcomes and clinical manifestations
      between time points and patient groups with and without CRPS 1 following an
      initiating event. METHODS: Prospective cohort study with a consecutive
      registration of patients presenting with painful swelling of the affected
      extremity after an initiating event and follow-up visits after 3, 6 and 12
      months. RESULTS: Forty-two patients were enrolled (37 females, mean age 55.1
      years). At baseline, 35 participants (83%, females n = 30) fulfilled the
      diagnostic criteria for CRPS 1. At 3 months, 19 out of the initial 35 CRPS 1
      patients (54%) did not meet the diagnostic criteria anymore. Besides our
      inclusion criteria of a painful swelling, early manifestations indicating a CRPS
      1 primarily include an impaired quality of life (SF-35, EQ5-D), more pain (NRS,
      MPQ) and restricted range of motion. CONCLUSIONS: CRPS 1 develops within 8 weeks
      following a noxious event. Although many CRPS 1 patients reach partial remission
      within the first 3 months, signs and symptoms do not improve significantly at 1
      year. In order to identify prognostic risk factors large prospective cohort
      studies are needed. SIGNIFICANCE: This prospective cohort study follows patients
      with complaints most suspected for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) 1. CRPS
      1 develops within 8 weeks following a noxious event. Although many CRPS 1
      patients reach partial remission within the 3 months, symptoms do not improve
      significantly at 1 year.

PMID- 28573700
TI  - Long-term follow-up of Fontan completion in adults and adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Fontan procedure is rarely performed in adults and adolescents in
      the present era. We review our results with the Fontan procedure in adolescents
      and young adults. METHODS: Between 1974 and 2010, 79 consecutive patients
      underwent the Fontan procedure at an age >= 15 years (mean age at Fontan
      operation, 20.3 years +/- 4.5 years). Forty-five patients underwent
      atriopulmonary connection, 11 underwent the Bjork procedure, and 23 underwent
      total cavopulmonary connection. RESULTS: Ten hospital deaths (HDs) and/or early
      Fontan takedowns (TDs) occurred. The median follow-up period was 18.2 years
      (range, 0.6-37.6 years). The estimated freedom from death or TD rates was 79.7%
      at 5 years, 77.0% at 10 years, 73.9% at 15 years, and 63.9% at 20 years. Age was
      not a predictor of HD and/or TD. Freedom from death or TD after 1998 was 69.1% at
      5 years, 69.1% at 10 years, and 69.1% at 15 years, and before 1997 was 82.3% at 5
      years, 79.0% at 10 years, 75.5% at 15 years, and 65.1% at 20 years; there were no
      significant differences between the two groups. In 19 late-death patients, nine
      (47.4%) experienced sudden death. Among these patients, five had known
      arrhythmias before sudden death. CONCLUSIONS: In patients who were >=15 years
      old, the surgical results of the Fontan operation were acceptable. Approximately
      half of the late deaths were sudden deaths, mainly occurring 10-20 years
      postoperatively.

PMID- 28573701
TI  - Molecular and clinical delineation of 2p15p16.1 microdeletion syndrome.
AB  - Interstitial 2p15p16.1 microdeletion is a rare chromosomal syndrome previously
      reported in 33 patients. It is characterized by intellectual disability,
      developmental delay, autism spectrum disorders, microcephaly, short stature,
      dysmorphic features, and multiple congenital organ defects. It is defined as a
      contiguous gene syndrome and two critical regions have been proposed at 2p15 and
      2p16.1 loci. Nevertheless, patients with deletion of both critical regions shared
      similar features of the phenotype and the correlation genotype-phenotype is still
      unclear. We review all published cases and describe three additional patients, to
      define the phenotype-genotype correlation more precisely. We reported on two
      patients including the first prenatal case described so far, carrying a 2p15
      deletion affecting two genes: XPO1 and part of USP34. Both patients shared
      similar features including facial dysmorphism and cerebral abnormalities. We
      considered the genes involved in the deleted segment to further understand the
      abnormal phenotype. The third case we described here was a 4-year-old boy with a
      heterozygous de novo 427 kb deletion encompassing BCL11A and PAPOLG at 2p16.1. He
      displayed speech delay, autistic traits, and motor stereotypies associated with
      brain structure abnormalities. We discuss the contribution of the genes included
      in the deletion to the abnormal phenotype. Our three new patients compared to
      previous cases, highlighted that despite two critical regions, both distal
      deletion at 2p16.1 and proximal deletion at 2p15 are associated with phenotypes
      that are very close to each other. Finally, we also discuss the genetic
      counseling of this microdeletion syndrome particularly in the course of prenatal
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28573702
TI  - Examining coping style and the relationship between stress and subjective well
      being in Australia's 'sandwich generation'.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The sandwich generation represents adults, often in midlife, who care
      for both children and ageing parents/relatives. While the stress they experience
      has received some attention, little research has investigated the subjective well
      being (SWB) of this population. This study examined the relationship between
      perceived stress and SWB and the moderating effect of coping style. METHODS:
      Ninety-three participants (80 women), aged 23-63 years, completed an online
      survey measuring perceived stress, coping strategies, life satisfaction and
      positive and negative affect. RESULTS: Stress was negatively associated with SWB.
      While emotion- and problem-focused coping were directly associated with SWB
      outcomes, the only moderating effect found was for avoidance-focused coping
      (AFC). Specifically, AFC was associated with higher positive affect for those
      reporting lower stress. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the need to recognise
      the distinct circumstances that exist for the sandwich generation. Limitations
      and suggestions for future research are discussed.

PMID- 28573703
TI  - TNFRSF13C (BAFFR) positive blasts persist after early treatment and at relapse in
      childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

PMID- 28573704
TI  - RCT of a Video-based Intervention Program for Caregivers of Patients with an
      Eating Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the results of a randomized controlled trial
      measuring the efficacy of a video-based skills training to decrease burden and
      psychological distress in caregivers of inpatients treated for an eating disorder
      in specialized hospital units. METHOD: Two hundred eighty-five caregivers were
      randomized to either the video intervention (N = 147) or the control group (N =
      138). Caregivers' primary outcomes were assessed via Eating Disorder Symptom
      Impact Scale, Accommodation and Enabling Scale and General Health Questionnaire
      12 at baseline and three-months follow-up. RESULTS: Acceptability of the
      intervention was high. Receiving additional external professional help like
      psychotherapy or clinical counselling was identified as a moderator contributing
      to the efficacy of the intervention. Caregivers' burden (Eating Disorder Symptom
      Impact Scale) and psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire-12) were
      reduced by the intervention but not caregivers' accommodating behaviours
      (Accommodation and Enabling Scale). CONCLUSION: The video training is a promising
      approach and effective supplement for caregivers of patients with an eating
      disorder. Additional professional help to caregivers increases the effectiveness
      of the intervention. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating
      Disorders Association.

PMID- 28573705
TI  - Evidence for Cognitive Remediation Therapy in Young People with Anorexia Nervosa:
      Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Literature.
AB  - Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) for eating disorders has demonstrated
      promising findings in adult age groups, with randomised treatment trials and
      systematic reviews demonstrating medium to large effect sizes in improved
      cognitive performance. In recent years, several case series have been conducted
      for young people with anorexia nervosa, but these findings have not been
      synthesised in the form of a systematic review. This systematic review aimed to
      evaluate the evidence for the efficacy of CRT in child and adolescent age groups.
      Nine studies were identified, with a subsequent meta-analysis suggesting
      improvements in cognitive performance with small effect sizes. Patient feedback
      was positive, with low dropout rates. These findings suggest that CRT has
      potential as a supplementary treatment for young people with anorexia nervosa,
      warranting further investigation using randomised treatment trials. Copyright (c)
      2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

PMID- 28573707
TI  - Teaching Tradition: Diverse Perspectives on the Pilot Urban American Indian
      Traditional Spirituality Program.
AB  - Many urban American Indian community members lack access to knowledgeable
      participation in indigenous spiritual practices. And yet, these sacred
      traditional activities remain vitally important to their reservation-based kin.
      In response, our research team partnered with an urban American Indian health
      center in Detroit for purposes of developing a structured program to facilitate
      more ready access to participation in indigenous spiritual knowledge and
      practices centered on the sweat lodge ceremony. Following years of preparation
      and consultation, we implemented a pilot version of the Urban American Indian
      Traditional Spirituality Program in the spring of 2016 for 10 urban AI community
      participants. Drawing on six first-person accounts about this program, we reflect
      on its success as a function of participant meaningfulness, staff support,
      mitigated sensitivities, and program structure. We believe that these
      observations will enable other community psychologists to undertake similar
      program development in service to innovative and beneficial impacts on behalf of
      their community partners.

PMID- 28573706
TI  - Diagnosis and monitoring for light chain only and oligosecretory myeloma using
      serum free light chain tests.
AB  - This study aims to guide the integration of serum free light chain (sFLC) tests
      into clinical practice, including a new rapid test (Seralite(r) ). Blood and
      urine analysis from 5573 newly diagnosed myeloma patients identified 576 light
      chain only (LCO) and 60 non-secretory (NS) cases. Serum was tested by Freelite(r)
      and Seralite(r) at diagnosis, maximum response and relapse. 20% of LCO patients
      had urine FLC levels below that recommended for measuring response but >97% of
      these had adequate sFLC levels (oligosecretory). The recommended Freelite(r) sFLC
      >=100 mg/l for measuring response was confirmed and the equivalent Seralite(r)
      FLC difference (dFLC) >20 mg/l identified. By both methods, >=38% of NS patients
      had measurable disease (oligosecretory). Higher sFLC levels were observed on
      Freelite(r) at all time points. However, good clinical concordance was observed
      at diagnosis and in response to therapy. Achieving at least a very good partial
      response according to either sFLC method was associated with better patient
      survival. Relapse was identified using a Freelite(r) sFLC increase >200 mg/l and
      found 100% concordance with a corresponding Seralite(r) dFLC increase >30 mg/l.
      Both Freelite(r) and Seralite(r) sensitively diagnose and monitor
      LCO/oligosecretory myeloma. Rapid testing by Seralite(r) could fast-track FLC
      screening and monitoring. Response by sFLC assessment was prognostic for survival
      and demonstrates the clinical value of routine sFLC testing.

PMID- 28573709
TI  - Cardiac cachexia causing extensive serous degeneration of bone marrow.

PMID- 28573708
TI  - Variability in and predictors of glycaemic responses after 24 weeks of treatment
      with exenatide twice daily and exenatide once weekly.
AB  - The range of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) responses and characteristics
      associated with above-average response to exenatide twice daily and once weekly
      were examined. Data were pooled from 8 exenatide-twice-daily and 5 exenatide-once
      weekly studies. A baseline HbA1c-corrected measure of change in HbA1c after 24
      weeks identified high, average and low responses. Multiple linear regression and
      multivariate generalized estimating equation models identified factors associated
      with high response. Among 2355 participants (exenatide twice daily, n = 1414;
      exenatide once weekly, n = 941), baseline HbA1c correlated with change in HbA1c
      (P < .0001). Across baseline HbA1c levels, the 25th to 75th percentile of HbA1c
      change ranged from -0.3% to -3.2% with exenatide twice daily and from -0.5% to 
      3.6% with exenatide once weekly. Asian ethnicity and older age were significantly
      associated with high response to exenatide twice daily; no factors were
      significantly associated with response to exenatide once weekly. These data
      provide clinically useful information for estimating the likelihood that,
      depending on baseline HbA1c, an individual can achieve HbA1c goals. The
      association between Asian ethnicity, age and high response to exenatide twice
      daily may relate to the specific effects of exenatide twice daily on postprandial
      glucose.

PMID- 28573711
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28573710
TI  - Margins Matter: current radiation therapy practice and future directions.
AB  - Commentary is provided in the context of current practices for calculating
      radiation therapy margins and future directions that will impact on this.

PMID- 28573712
TI  - Cutaneous T pseudolymphoma on the red pigmented areas of a tattoo.

PMID- 28573713
TI  - How do reinforcers affect choice? Preference pulses after responses and
      reinforcers.
AB  - In concurrent schedules, reinforcers are often followed by a brief period of
      heightened preference for the just-productive alternative. Such 'preference
      pulses' may reflect local effects of reinforcers on choice. However, similar
      pulses may occur after nonreinforced responses, suggesting that pulses after
      reinforcers are partly unrelated to reinforcer effects. McLean, Grace, Pitts, and
      Hughes (2014) recommended subtracting preference pulses after responses from
      preference pulses after reinforcers, to construct residual pulses that represent
      only reinforcer effects. Thus, a reanalysis of existing choice data is necessary
      to determine whether changes in choice after reinforcers in previous experiments
      were actually related to reinforcers. In the present paper, we reanalyzed data
      from choice experiments in which reinforcers served different functions. We
      compared local choice, mean visit length, and visit-length distributions after
      reinforcers and after nonreinforced responses. Our reanalysis demonstrated the
      utility of McLean et al.'s preference-pulse correction for determining the
      effects of reinforcers on choice. However, visit analyses revealed that residual
      pulses may not accurately represent reinforcer effects, and reinforcer effects
      were clearer in visit analyses than in local-choice analyses. The best way to
      determine the effects of reinforcers on choice may be to conduct visit analyses
      in addition to local-choice analyses.

PMID- 28573714
TI  - Wide local excision vs. Mohs Tubingen technique in the treatment of
      dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans: a two-centre retrospective study and literature
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare, low-grade
      mesenchymal skin tumour, characterized by slow infiltrative growth and common
      local recurrence, with infrequent distant metastases. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      study is to better clarify clinicopathological characteristics of this tumour and
      to evaluate the cure rates of Mohs Tubingen technique (MTT) and wide local
      excision (WLE). Eventually, we perform a literature review to compare our
      experience with published data. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted on
      135 patients diagnosed, treated and followed up between 1997 and 2014 at two
      different institutions. Sixty-two patients underwent to WLE and 73 to MTT. The
      primary end-points were the following: percentage of recurrences, time to
      progression and recurrence annual risk rate. Then, the PubMed database was
      searched for DFSP case series treated with standard surgical resection (SSR),
      WLE, Mohs' micrographic surgery (MMS) and MTT. The annual risk rate of recurrence
      calculated and reported for the four separate procedures was pooled to compare
      them. RESULTS: Five of the 62 patients with WLE (8.1%) experienced recurrences
      after a mean follow-up of 4.7 years; the percentage of recurred patients 9 years
      after MTT was 5.5%, and the annual recurrence risk rate of 0.6%. Pooling these
      data with those from literature, the recurrence rate varies from 26% to 60% for
      SSR, from 0% and 41% for WLE, from 0% and 8.3% for MMS and from 0% to 5.5% for
      MTT. The lowest annual recurrence risk rate was found for MTT. CONCLUSION:
      Significantly lower recurrence rates were recorded in patients treated with
      classic or Tubingen Mohs' technique. To the best of our knowledge, our case
      series is the widest treated with MTT ever described in the literature; these
      data may be useful to guide clinicians in the choice of the gold standard
      treatment for Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

PMID- 28573715
TI  - Blood prime for patients with single-needle access requiring extracorporeal
      photopheresis: How to do and why it may be useful.

PMID- 28573716
TI  - Painful decisions: How classifying sensations can change the experience of pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Categorizing perceptual stimuli is a mechanism for facilitating the
      processing of sensory input from our environment. This facilitation of perception
      is achieved through generalization (assimilation) of stimulus characteristics
      within categories and accentuation between categories. These categorization
      processes have been demonstrated in visual, auditory, tactile and social
      perception, but never in pain perception. METHOD: We presented participants with
      six thermal noxious stimuli, increasing in steps of 0.5  degrees C. In an
      experimental group, stimuli were assigned to two categories labelled A and B
      containing the three lower (A1, A2, A3) and three higher (B1, B2, B3) stimuli. A
      control group did not receive such category information (stimuli were labelled S1
      S6). In a first part of the experiment, participants simply rated pain intensity
      and unpleasantness for all stimuli. In a second part, we presented stimuli
      without labels and participants had to identify the label of each stimulus.
      RESULTS: We found evidence for categorization effects in both pain ratings and
      stimulus identification data. In particular, unpleasantness ratings within
      categories were more similar to each other, and ratings between categories less
      similar, in the experimental compared to control group. Participants in the
      experimental group also confused stimuli more often within than between
      categories, and were more confident about category membership of stimuli at the
      category border, compared to participants in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Mere
      category information, using abstract category labels, significantly changes pain
      perception. Implications for our understanding of cognitive pain modulation
      mechanisms, as well as clinical implications of categorization effects are
      discussed. SIGNIFICANCE: Categorization effects in pain perception are
      demonstrated. Classifying and labelling painful events can modulate early
      perceptual processes, lead to under- or overestimation of pain symptoms and
      affect decision-making behaviour related to pain.

PMID- 28573717
TI  - Cytotoxic-mediated spontaneous regression of eruptive tufted angioma in a teenage
      girl.

PMID- 28573718
TI  - Automatic detection of end-diastolic and end-systolic frames in 2D
      echocardiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Correctly selecting the end-diastolic and end-systolic frames on a 2D
      echocardiogram is important and challenging, for both human experts and automated
      algorithms. Manual selection is time-consuming and subject to uncertainty, and
      may affect the results obtained, especially for advanced measurements such as
      myocardial strain. METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed and evaluated algorithms
      which can automatically extract global and regional cardiac velocity, and
      identify end-diastolic and end-systolic frames. We acquired apical four-chamber
      2D echocardiographic video recordings, each at least 10 heartbeats long, acquired
      twice at frame rates of 52 and 79 frames/s from 19 patients, yielding 38
      recordings. Five experienced echocardiographers independently marked end-systolic
      and end-diastolic frames for the first 10 heartbeats of each recording. The
      automated algorithm also did this. Using the average of time points identified by
      five human operators as the reference gold standard, the individual operators had
      a root mean square difference from that gold standard of 46.5 ms. The algorithm
      had a root mean square difference from the human gold standard of 40.5 ms
      (P<.0001). Put another way, the algorithm-identified time point was an outlier in
      122/564 heartbeats (21.6%), whereas the average human operator was an outlier in
      254/564 heartbeats (45%). CONCLUSION: An automated algorithm can identify the end
      systolic and end-diastolic frames with performance indistinguishable from that of
      human experts. This saves staff time, which could therefore be invested in
      assessing more beats, and reduces uncertainty about the reliability of the choice
      of frame.

PMID- 28573719
TI  - N-nitrosamines induced infertility and hepatotoxicity in male rabbits.
AB  - N-nitrosamines are widely spread environmental pollutants of well-known toxicity
      and carcinogenicity in various animal species. These compounds are metabolically
      activated by cytochrome P450 system predominantly in the liver and in other
      tissues into more active metabolites leading to generation of both alkylating
      agents that alkylate DNA and reactive oxygen species. In the current study, we
      investigated the influence of four types of N-nitrosamines that are commonly
      present in the environment [methyethylnitrosamine, (MEN), diethylnitrosamine
      (DEN), diphenylnitroasamine (DPN) and dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)] on both livers
      and testes of male rabbits through assessment of 17 beta-hydroxysteroid
      dehydrogenase (17 beta-HSD) activity. The protein expression of the three
      cytochrome P450s (CYP11A1, CYP19A1, and CYP21A2) is involved in the
      steroidogenesis. The levels of testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) were also
      determined in the plasma of N-nitrosamines-treated rabbits after one, four-,
      eight- and twelve weeks of treatment of male New Zealand rabbits with an oral
      dose of 0.5 mg/kg B.W/day of each compound. In addition, activities of
      glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and levels
      of free radicals measured as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and
      reduced glutathione (GSH) level were quantified in both livers and testes. The
      present study showed that levels of free radicals (TBARS) were markedly
      increased, whereas GSH levels were depleted in the tissues of both livers and
      testes after treatment of rabbits with any of N-nitrosamines. In addition, all
      tested N-nitrosamines inhibited the activities of antioxidant enzyme activities
      (GR, GST, SOD, and CAT) in hepatic and testicular tissues of rabbits after 12
      weeks of treatment. Histopathological examination showed that N-nitrosamines
      caused lymphocytic infiltration with vascular degeneration and necrosis,
      congestion of central vein with RBCs hemolysis, dilated sinusoids, as well as
      fibrosis around portal areas were seen in hepatic tissues. In the testes,
      histopathological examination displayed disorganized seminiferous tubules with
      degeneration of germinal epithelium and Sertoli cells. Also, spermatogenic cells
      had pyknotic nuclei and others were detached from basement membranes of
      seminiferous tubules, edema was seen between seminiferous tubules. Moreover, the
      present data showed that MEN and DEN down-regulated the protein expression of
      both CYP19A1 and 21A2 in both livers and testes of male rabbits. In addition,
      both MEN and DEN decreased levels of testosterone and estradiol in plasma of
      treated rabbits. On the one hand, DMN and DPN markedly up-regulated the protein
      expression of CYP19A1 in both hepatic and testicular tissues of treated rabbits.
      These compounds potentially increased estradiol and decreased testosterone
      levels. On the other hand, no correlation was found between the expression of
      CYP11A1 and levels of both testosterone and estradiol. It is concluded that most
      of tested N-nitrosamines induce different changes, which could be a new mechanism
      of infertility due to exposure to N-nitrosamines from different environmental
      sources.

PMID- 28573720
TI  - Assessment of deep dynamic mechanical sensitivity in individuals with tension
      type headache: The dynamic pressure algometry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To explore the validity of dynamic pressure algometry for evaluating
      deep dynamic mechanical sensitivity by assessing its association with headache
      features and widespread pressure sensitivity in tension-type headache (TTH).
      METHODS: One hundred and eighty-eight subjects with TTH (70% women) participated.
      Deep dynamic sensitivity was assessed with a dynamic pressure algometry set
      (Aalborg University, Denmark(c) ) consisting of 11 different rollers including
      fixed levels from 500 g to 5300 g. Each roller was moved at a speed of 0.5 cm/s
      over a 60-mm horizontal line covering the temporalis muscle. Dynamic pain
      threshold (DPT-level of the first painful roller) was determined and pain
      intensity during DPT was rated on a numerical pain rate scale (NPRS, 0-10).
      Headache clinical features were collected on a headache diary. As gold standard,
      static pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were assessed over temporalis, C5/C6 joint,
      second metacarpal, and tibialis anterior muscle. RESULTS: Side-to-side
      consistency between DPT (r = 0.843, p < 0.001) and pain evoked (r = 0.712; p <
      0.001) by dynamic algometer was observed. DPT was moderately associated with
      widespread PPTs (0.526 > r > 0.656, all p < 0.001). Furthermore, pain during DPT
      was negatively associated with widespread PPTs (-0.370 < r < -0.162, all p <
      0.05). DISCUSSION: Dynamic pressure algometry was a valid tool for assessing deep
      dynamic mechanical sensitivity in TTH. DPT was associated with widespread
      pressure sensitivity independently of the frequency of headaches supporting that
      deep dynamic pressure sensitivity within the trigeminal area is consistent with
      widespread pressure sensitivity. Assessing deep static and dynamic somatic tissue
      pain sensitivity may provide new opportunities for differentiated diagnostics and
      possibly a new tool for assessing treatment effects. SIGNIFICANCE: The current
      study found that dynamic pressure algometry in the temporalis muscle was
      associated with widespread pressure pain sensitivity in individuals with tension
      type headache. The association was independent of the frequency of headaches.
      Assessing deep static and dynamic somatic tissue pain sensitivity may provide new
      opportunities for differentiated diagnostics and possibly a tool for assessing
      treatment effects.

PMID- 28573721
TI  - GPS-identified, low-level nocturnal activity of vervets (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)
      and olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Laikipia, Kenya.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Except for owl monkeys (Aotus spp.), all anthropoid primates are
      considered strictly diurnal. Recent studies leveraging new technologies have
      shown, however, that some diurnal anthropoids also engage in nocturnal activity.
      Here we examine the extent to which vervets (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) and olive
      baboons (Papio anubis) are active at night. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We deployed
      GPS collars with tri-axial accelerometer data loggers on 18 free-ranging adult
      females: 12 vervets spread among 5 social groups, and 6 olive baboons spread
      among 4 groups. Their locations were recorded every 15 min, and their activity
      levels, for 3 s/min over 7.5 months. We also used camera traps that were
      triggered by heat and movement at seven sleeping sites. RESULTS: Travel was
      detected on 0.4% of 2,029 vervet-nights involving 3 vervets and 1.1% of 1,109
      baboon-nights involving 5 baboons. Travel was mainly arboreal for vervets but
      mainly terrestrial for baboons. During the night, vervets and baboons were active
      13% and 15% of the time, respectively. Activity varied little throughout the
      night and appeared unaffected by moon phase. DISCUSSION: Our results confirm the
      low nocturnality of vervets and olive baboons, which we suggest is related to
      living near the equator with consistent 12-hr days, in contrast to other
      anthropoids that are more active at night. Since anthropoid primates are thought
      to have evolved in northern latitudes, with later dispersal to tropical
      latitudes, our results may have implications for understanding the evolution of
      anthropoid diurnality.

PMID- 28573722
TI  - Combined effect of pH and heating conditions on the physical properties of Alaska
      pollock surimi gels.
AB  - : Physical properties of Alaska pollock surimi paste were investigated as
      affected by pH (4.0 and 6.0-10.0) and heating conditions (slow and fast). The
      highest values of gel strength and deformability, as shown by breaking force and
      penetration distance, were obtained at pH 7.5-8.0, while the lowest values were
      at pH 10.0 followed by pH 6.0 and pH 6.5, respectively. Two-step slow heating
      process increased the breaking strength value nearly two times higher than one
      step fast heating. The effect of pH was strikingly high at pH 7.5 when gels were
      prepared using 2-step heating, indicating the pH dependence of endogenous
      transglutaminase. However, the highest gel strength was obtained at pH 8.0 when
      gels were prepared in fast heating. Whiteness value (L - 3b*) increased
      significantly (p < .05) as pH increased from 6.0 to 6.5, but thereafter decreased
      significantly (p < .05) as pH increased. L* value (lightness) and b* value
      (yellowness) continuously decreased as the pH is shifted from 6.0 to 10. Fast
      heated gels showed the lowest yellowness, resulting in whiter appearance,
      probably due to the effect of reduced browning reaction. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS:
      The uniqueness of this study was to measure the combined effect of pH and heating
      conditions on the gel texture and color. There were various studies dealing with
      pH or heating conditions independently. As the primary character for surimi
      seafood is gel texture and color. The highest values of gel strength and
      deformability, as shown by breaking force and penetration distance, were obtained
      at pH 7.5-8.0, while the lowest values were at pH 10.0 followed by pH 6.0 and pH
      6.5, respectively. Two-step slow heating process increased the breaking strength
      value nearly two times higher than one-step fast heating. Whiteness value (L -
      3b*) increased significantly as pH increased from 6.0 to 6.5, but thereafter
      decreased significantly as pH increased. L* value (lightness) and b* value
      (yellowness) continuously decreased as the pH is shifted from 6.0 to 10. Fast
      heated gels showed the lowest yellowness, resulting in whiter appearance.

PMID- 28573723
TI  - Extruded snacks from whole wheat supplemented with textured soy flour: Effect on
      instrumental and sensory textural characteristics.
AB  - : The quality of extruded snacks can be affected not only by processing
      conditions, but also by some factors like the concentration and type of
      ingredients incorporated in their formulation and the working conditions used.
      Although the process conditions have been established with measurable textural
      properties, sensory qualities have not been correlated with these responses in
      expanded extruded snacks made with added functional ingredients. Therefore, in
      this study the effect of adding textured soy flour (TSF) and whole wheat flour
      (WWF) to refined wheat flour in the production of extruded snacks and expanded
      with hot air was evaluated. A response surface design using two levels with five
      central points was applied to obtain the best combinations of functional
      ingredients added, holding the parameters of the extrusion process and moisture
      of treatments. Some texture characteristics and sensory analysis were used as
      response variables, such as, hardness, fracturability, toughness, crispness,
      granularity, and chewiness. Likewise, the rate of expansion was evaluated. The
      results showed that the level of substitution of WWF, especially levels of 15%,
      had a significant effect on the hardness perceived by the panelist during sensory
      evaluation. The TSF at concentrations of >=15%, favored the fracturability and
      crispness of the samples. It was found that the best expansion index was with the
      combination of 5% TSF and 15% WWF. Although a correlation between instrumental
      and sensory tests carried out on the extruded snacks expanded was not found.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The physical characteristics of the extruded snacks such
      as expansion, hardness, and density are important parameters in terms of consumer
      acceptability of the final product as well as their functional properties. In
      other words, the appearance and texture are two of the most important attributes
      that can be seen in snack foods. In particular, the texture can be measured by
      intrinsic tests: objective (instrumental) and subjective (sensory). That is
      because the instrumental analysis provides parameters such as firmness,
      brittleness, consistency, chewiness, among others, when subjected to different
      stress, strain, and strain rates at the snacks. Similarly, sensory analysis,
      allows us to see features that include mechanical attributes (concerning the
      reaction to the applied force), geometric attributes (concerning the shape, size,
      and orientation of the particles within the food), and attributes related to the
      perception of moisture or fat content.

PMID- 28573724
TI  - Human roughness perception and possible factors effecting roughness sensation.
AB  - : Surface texture sensation is significant for business success, in particular
      for solid surfaces for most of the materials; including foods. Mechanisms of
      roughness perception are still unknown, especially under different conditions
      such as lubricants with varying viscosities, different temperatures, or under
      different force loads during the observation of the surface. This work aims to
      determine the effect of those unknown factors, with applied sensory tests on 62
      healthy participants. Roughness sensation of fingertip was tested under different
      lubricants including water and diluted syrup solutions at room temperature (25C)
      and body temperature (37C) by using simple pair-wise comparison to observe the
      just noticeable difference threshold and perception levels. Additionally, in this
      research applied force load during roughness observation was tested with pair
      wise ranking method to illustrate its possible effect on human sensation.
      Obtained results showed that human's capability of roughness discrimination
      reduces with increased viscosity of the lubricant, where the influence of the
      temperature was not found to be significant. Moreover, the increase in the
      applied force load showed an increase in the sensitivity of roughness
      discrimination. Observed effects of the applied factors were also used for
      estimating the oral sensation of texture during eating. These findings are
      significant for our fundamental understanding to texture perception, and for the
      development of new food products with controlled textural features. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: Texture discrimination ability, more specifically roughness
      discrimination capability, is a significant factor for preference and
      appreciation for a wide range of materials, including food, furniture, or fabric.
      To explore the mechanism of sensation capability through tactile senses, it is
      necessary to identify the relevant factors and define characteristics that
      dominate the process involved. The results that will be obtained under these
      principles will be helpful for the industry in the development and optimization
      of new products, especially for the individuals' with special needs. With this
      exploratory study, we illustrate differential thresholds of tactile senses under
      changing conditions of surface lubrication and applied force load. Also, the
      tests were carried out under different temperatures to understand the oral
      sensation capability. The results and correlations may provide useful information
      about texture sensitivity and also methodologies could be applied to general
      sensory studies.

PMID- 28573726
TI  - Effect of curry leaf and clove bud essential oils on textural and oxidative
      stability of chill stored sutchi catfish fillets.
AB  - : Effect of coating with curry leaf and clove essential oils (EO) on oxidative
      and textural stability of sutchi catfish fillets were evaluated during chilled
      storage. The changes in parameters associated with textural and lipid degradation
      was also evaluated to ascertain the interactive effect of polyphenols with muscle
      proteins. Further, the results were compared against vacuum and conventional
      polyethylene packaging practices. Prior to coating, the properties of
      antioxidants were evaluated in vitro based on total phenolic and flavonoid
      contents, 2, 2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity, inhibition
      of linoleic acid peroxidation, iron reducing power, and metal chelating ability.
      Coating with clove bud EO was found to be more effective in protecting the
      textural quality and retarding lipid oxidation of the fillets during chilled
      storage. Curry leaf EO was found to have only moderate effect. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: In addition to the well-studied antibacterial and antioxidant
      properties, plant polyphenols have become an intense focus of research for their
      ability to cross-link proteins that widens their applications for textural and
      functional modification of food and beverages. Currently, a number of
      carcinogenic chemicals such as ammonia and formalin are hazardously used to
      prevent texture deterioration in chilled fish associated with post-rigor changes
      and microbial reactions. This study evaluates the efficacy of polyphenols present
      in culinary herbs such as clove bud and curry leaf EO, in stabilising the texture
      of fish meat during chilled storage. From the results, it could be inferred that
      both the EO at 0.25% level mediated protein cross-linking/complexation and
      maintained textural integrity during chilled storage apart from exhibiting
      antioxidant activities.

PMID- 28573725
TI  - Effects of cellulose derivative hydrocolloids on pasting, viscoelastic, and
      morphological characteristics of rice starch gel.
AB  - : Effects of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and hydroxypropyl methyl
      cellulose (HPMC) on the pasting, viscoelastic, and morphological properties of
      rice starch gel were studied. The addition of CMC increased the peak and trough
      viscosities, while decreased the final and setback viscosities of rice starch.
      The peak and trough viscosities of rice starch gel were only little affected by
      the addition of HPMC. The dynamic viscoelastic result showed that the addition of
      CMC significantly increased the values of storage modulus (G') and loss modulus
      (G"), while reduced the value of tandelta as compared to the control sample. Only
      a small increase in values of G' and G" was observed in the case of HPMC. The
      rice starch gel with CMC addition exhibited higher resistances to the stress and
      produced a stronger gel network. The creep recovery data were well fitted by a
      four-element Burger's model. Furthermore, the morphological characteristics were
      in agreement with the finding of rheological results. It was concluded that the
      addition of CMC and HPMC modified the rheology of rice starch gel in different
      ways and interacted under different models based on their molecular structures.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Gluten-free foods such as rice cake are essential for
      people who suffer from celiac disease which is a digestive disorder caused by the
      consumption of grains containing gluten. The use of CMC and HPMC represents the
      most widespread approach used to mimic gluten in the manufacture of gluten-free
      breads based on rice starch, due to their structure-building and water-binding
      properties. Therefore, it is necessary and crucial to investigate the physical
      chemical properties such as pasting and rheological properties of the rice starch
      with these hydrocolloids. In addition, a better understanding of the interactions
      of CMC and HPMC on the rice starch could provide additional tools for selection
      of gluten free recipes with improved rheological and textural properties.

PMID- 28573727
TI  - Characterization and bake stability of dry fruit fillings in dehydrated chiku
      (Manilkara zapota L. P. Royen) incorporated biscuits.
AB  - : Expanding the range of bakery products in terms of producing supplemented or
      dietetic products has been an increasingly important trend in contemporary
      baking. Value added products, especially products rich in fiber and
      phytochemicals are getting popular. Among the dry fruits used for filling, Figs
      were rich in ash and protein and Dates were rich in dietary fiber. Gallic acid
      was the dominant free phenolic acid in Fig whereas chlorogenic acid and
      procatechuic acid were dominant in Dates in the bound form. Farinograph water
      absorption, dough development time, maximum pressure (P), and extensibility (L)
      decreased on increase in the replacement of wheat flour with chiku powder from 0
      to 30%. The dry fruit fillings in the pH range of 3.3-3.5 with 75-80 degrees Bx
      showed better bake stability with respect to spreadability and breaking strength.
      Biscuits topped with higher  degrees Bx fillings had higher breaking strength
      values even during storage. Among the gelling agents used, addition of sodium
      alginate stabilized and further improved the bake stability of the fillings. The
      chiku incorporated biscuits sandwiched with fruit filling were rich in dietary
      fiber. Also significant amounts of gallic acid and chlorogenic acid in free and
      bound form were present in the biscuit. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Bakery products
      can act as a vehicle for supplementation of vitamins, minerals, protein, dietary
      fiber, and so on, to prevent nutritive deficiencies. Among the bakery products,
      biscuits are shelf stable and have better consumer acceptability by all age
      groups. To incorporate fruits which are rich in many bioactive principles, and to
      add on to variety, fruit sandwiched biscuits with fruit powder in the casing too.
      Fillings mainly from dry fruits were prepared at varying degree brix and with
      different gelling agents. Biscuit sheets containing chiku powder in the
      formulation was topped with the fillings and looked for the bake stability with
      respect to texture and spreadability. Addition of fruit powder in the shells and
      fruit filling in between helped to increase the nutritional characteristics of
      the product.

PMID- 28573728
TI  - Substitution of modified starch with hydrogen peroxide-modified rice bran in
      salad dressing formulation: physicochemical, texture, rheological and sensory
      properties.
AB  - : Rice bran samples were treated under different conditions including hydrogen
      peroxide content (1, 4, and 7 wt%) and media pH (10.5, 11.5, and 12.5). Water
      holding capacity and color measurement results showed acceptable improvements
      compared with the untreated native bran confirmed by Fourier transform infrared
      analysis. Optimization of modification conditions upon characterization results
      suggested the introduction of 7% hydrogen peroxide at pH = 12.5. Accordingly, 1,
      2 and 3 wt% of the rice bran treated under the optimized conditions, was used in
      salad dressing formulation; as for .3 wt% of modified starch in the formulation
      of blank sample, 1 wt% of treated rice bran dietary fiber was substituted.
      Biopolymer swelling and formation of a stable viscous gel network promoted by the
      chemical treatment of lignocellulosic rice bran restrict the mobility of oil
      droplets dispersed in the continuous phase which would consequently retard the
      emulsion instability phenomena. This effect was also confirmed by flow behavior
      and viscoelastic characterization results. Salad dressing samples containing 1
      and 2 wt% treated rice bran showed acceptable physicochemical, rheological and
      organoleptic properties besides superior nutritional characteristics compared
      with the commercial modified starch traditionally used in salad dressing
      formulations. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Despite recommended consumption of dietary
      fibers, addition of unprocessed lignocellulosic materials to food products
      usually raise negative effects in sensory, color, and texture quality. This study
      investigates the modification of rice bran, the byproduct of brown rice milling,
      to substitute modified starch traditionally used in salad dressing formulations
      to achieve optimum properties desirable for the final product. Optimization of
      modification conditions upon characterization of the formulated samples in this
      study would suggest new improved formulation for the commercial product.

PMID- 28573729
TI  - Development of protein, dietary fiber, and micronutrient enriched extruded corn
      snacks.
AB  - : The study was aimed to develop protein, dietary fiber, and micronutrient
      enriched corn snacks through extrusion processing. Corn snacks supplemented with
      chickpea, defatted soy flour (20-40/100 g) and guar gum (7/100 g) were prepared
      through extrusion processing. Micronutrients (iron, zinc, iodine, and vitamins A,
      C, and folic acid) at recommended daily values were added in all formulations.
      Extruded corn snacks were analyzed for physical, textural, and sensory
      attributes. Results showed that piece density (0.34-0.44 g/cm3 ), moisture (3.40
      5.25%), water activity (0.203-0.361), hardness (64.4-133.2 N), and cohesiveness
      (0.25-0.44) was increased Whereas, expansion ratio (3.72-2.64), springiness (0.82
      0.69), chewiness (1.63-0.42), and resilience (1.37-0.14) was decreased as
      supplementation with soy and chickpea flour increased from 20 to 40/100 g.
      Overall corn snack supplemented with 15/100 g of soy and 15/100 g of chickpea
      flour got the highest acceptance from the sensory panelists. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: The article focuses on physical, textural, and sensory attributes
      of extruded corn snacks enriched with protein, dietary fiber, and micronutrients
      Awareness about the importance of healthy snacks has grown among the consumers
      during the last decade. Extruded snacks developed using nutrient rich ingredients
      with good textural and sensory properties has always remained a challenge for the
      snack industry. Texture of the extruded snacks varies a lot with high levels of
      protein and dietary fiber. This study is helpful for the development of healthy
      snacks especially in developing countries lacking storage infrastructure or
      tropical environment. Nutrient rich extruded snacks can also be used to alleviate
      malnutrition by incorporating in school lunch programs.

PMID- 28573730
TI  - Development of a simple and objective evaluation method for thickened liquids
      using funnels.
AB  - : Some patients with dysphagia are prone to aspiration of low-viscosity liquids.
      Thickened liquids are often used in attempts to prevent aspiration. The patients
      should be given thickened liquids with suitable thickness, and the thickness
      should be constant at all time. While rotational and cone-and-plate viscometers
      are used for the evaluation of thickened liquids, they are high-precision and
      expensive equipment. To control the thickness of liquids, a simple and objective
      evaluation method is thus necessary. We developed a method to evaluate thickened
      liquids using funnels, and verified the appropriateness of this method. We
      measured the outflow times of five thickened liquids through funnels. One of the
      thickened liquids was a commercially available nutritional supplement, another
      was made with a thickening agent that contained guar gum, and all others were
      made with a thickening agent that contained xanthan gum. Four funnels with
      different stem sizes were tested. We found that the outflow time of thickened
      liquids through a funnel depended on their viscosities at a shear rate between 10
      and 50 s-1 , when the average inner diameter of the stem was in the range of 5.3
      9.0 mm, and the volume of the liquid poured into the funnel was 30 mL. The
      correlation coefficient between the value of the sensory evaluation and the
      outflow time of the funnel with an average stem ID of 5.3 mm was 0.946.
      Therefore, this method may be useful in hospital and nursing home kitchens for
      evaluating thickened liquids. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The findings of this study
      will help develop a new method for the evaluation of thickened liquids. Funnels
      made from polypropylene, which are inexpensive and light, were used in this
      method. The process for measuring the outflow time of thickened liquids through a
      funnel is simple, and we can obtain quantitative data that are objective. Even
      though line spread test (LST) is well known as a simple measurement method,
      nutritional supplements and liquids thickened using a thickening agent containing
      guar gum have not been evaluated accurately. The funnel method was found to have
      a stronger correlation with sensory evaluation compared to LST. This method is
      useful in hospital and nursing home kitchens for evaluating thickened liquids.

PMID- 28573731
TI  - Application of Peleg's equation to describe creep responses of potatoes under
      constant and variable storage conditions.
AB  - : The application of Peleg's equation to characterize creep behavior of potatoes
      during storage was investigated. Potatoes were stored at 25, 15, 5C, and variable
      (fluctuating) temperature for 16 or 26 weeks. The Peleg equation adequately
      described the creep response of potatoes during storage at all storage conditions
      (R2  = .97to .99). Peleg constant k1 exhibited a significant (p < .05) decreasing
      trend with storage time (ts ) for samples stored under the experimental
      conditions whereas the constant k2 appeared to be unaffected much by ts except
      for samples stored at 25C. Under constant temperature storage, k1 was found to be
      a linear function of ts (R2  = .87 to .97). Also, the rate of change of k1
      appeared to be temperature dependent described by a linear relationship between
      the degradation rate constant for k1 (alpha) and storage temperature (T). For the
      variable storage condition, a bulk mean temperature (Tbm ) was calculated to
      account for a series combination of storage time and temperature which the
      potatoes were subjected to. It was possible to describe the changes in k1 due to
      variable storage temperature in terms of Tbm and ts using stepwise multiple
      regression (R2  = . 94). PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Precise description of the
      changes in the rheological properties of raw potatoes during storage could help
      predict the associated effect on the texture of cooked potatoes. Easy and simple
      methods of describing creep responses during storage or processing will be
      potentially helpful to better understand the phenomenon. The model parameters
      from such model could be used to relate rheological properties of raw and cooked
      potatoes. Moreover, the model parameters could be used to establish relationship
      between instrumental and sensory attributes which will help in the prediction of
      sensory attributes from instrumental data.

PMID- 28573732
TI  - Error in geometric morphometric data collection: Combining data from multiple
      sources.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study compares two- and three-dimensional morphometric data to
      determine the extent to which intra- and interobserver and intermethod error
      influence the outcomes of statistical analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were
      collected five times for each method and observer on 14 anthropoid crania using
      calipers, a MicroScribe, and 3D models created from NextEngine and microCT scans.
      ANOVA models were used to examine variance in the linear data at the level of
      genus, species, specimen, observer, method, and trial. Three-dimensional data
      were analyzed using geometric morphometric methods; principal components analysis
      was employed to examine how trials of all specimens were distributed in
      morphospace and Procrustes distances among trials were calculated and used to
      generate UPGMA trees to explore whether all trials of the same individual grouped
      together regardless of observer or method. RESULTS: Most variance in the linear
      data was at the genus level, with greater variance at the observer than method
      levels. In the 3D data, interobserver and intermethod error were similar to
      intraspecific distances among Callicebus cupreus individuals, with interobserver
      error being higher than intermethod error. Generally, taxa separate well in
      morphospace, with different trials of the same specimen typically grouping
      together. However, trials of individuals in the same species overlapped
      substantially with one another. CONCLUSION: Researchers should be cautious when
      compiling data from multiple methods and/or observers, especially if analyses are
      focused on intraspecific variation or closely related species, as in these cases,
      patterns among individuals may be obscured by interobserver and intermethod
      error. Conducting interobserver and intermethod reliability assessments prior to
      the collection of data is recommended.

PMID- 28573733
TI  - Low fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with low knowledge of the
      details of the 5-a-day fruit and vegetable message in the UK: findings from two
      cross-sectional questionnaire studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This project aimed to understand the details of the 5-a-day fruit and
      vegetable (FV) message (which foods are included, portion sizes, the need for
      variety, reasons for consumption) least known by UK consumers, and most
      associated with low FV consumption. METHODS: Study 1 assessed FV consumption,
      knowledge of the details of the message, and relationships between these, using a
      short questionnaire administered face-to-face to an opportunity sample of one
      large UK city. Study 2 assessed the same variables using a comprehensive postal
      questionnaire administered across the UK to a representative population sample.
      RESULTS: Five hundred and seven respondents completed Study 1 and 247 respondents
      completed Study 2. The majority of individuals in both studies were aware of the
      5-a-day message and could recount this correctly. In both studies, however,
      knowledge of the details of the message was low, and lower knowledge was
      associated with lower FV consumption. Respondents had lowest knowledge of the
      details of the message related to portion sizes and the need for variety.
      However, FV consumption was not independently associated with knowledge of any
      one aspect of the message. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, although
      most of the UK population sampled were aware of the 5-a-day FV message and could
      recount this correctly, details of the 5-a-day FV message were not well known,
      and that FV consumption was related to this knowledge. These findings suggest
      that strategies to increase FV consumption will benefit from increasing UK
      consumers' knowledge of the details of the 5-a-day FV message.

PMID- 28573734
TI  - IL-17A blockade or deficiency does not affect progressive renal fibrosis
      following renal ischaemia reperfusion injury in mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: IL-17A contributes to acute kidney injury and fibrosis. Therefore, we
      asked whether IL-17A deficiency or treatment with a IL-17A blocking antibody
      impacts severe renal ischaemia reperfusion injury (IRI) and the progression to
      chronic kidney disease (CKD). METHODS: IL-17A-deficient and wild-type (WT) mice
      underwent transient unilateral renal pedicle clamping for 45 min to induce IRI
      and subsequent renal fibrosis. Furthermore, a neutralizing anti-IL-17A antibody
      (mAb) was injected into WT mice before induction of renal IRI intravenously. On
      days 1, 7 and 21, inflammation, fibrosis, leukocyte infiltration and pro
      inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cytokine expression were assessed in kidneys using
      histology, qPCR and flow cytometry. KEY FINDINGS: IL-17A was significantly
      increased after renal IRI in WT kidneys. Levels of pro-inflammatory (MCP-1)
      cytokine and pro-fibrotic (collagen 1alpha1, fibronectin) transcripts were
      similar in the experimental groups studied. IL-17A deficiency had no effect on
      renal T-cell influx or the number, inflammatory phenotype, or spatial
      distribution of macrophages. Similarly, administration of an IL-17A blocking
      antibody did not attenuate inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the effects of IL
      17 in other inflammation models, neither genetic IL-17A deficiency nor treatment
      with an IL-17A blocking antibody attenuated IRI and progression to CKD. We
      conclude that in severe renal IRI IL-17A is not crucially involved in disease
      progression.

PMID- 28573735
TI  - Contraction and elongation: Mechanics underlying cell boundary deformations in
      epithelial tissue.
AB  - The cell-cell boundaries of epithelial cells form cellular frameworks at the
      apical side of tissues. Deformations in these boundaries, for example, boundary
      contraction and elongation, and the associated forces form the mechanical basis
      of epithelial tissue morphogenesis. In this review, using data from recent
      Drosophila studies on cell boundary contraction and elongation, I provide an
      overview of the mechanism underlying the bi-directional deformations in the
      epithelial cell boundary, that are sustained by biased accumulations of
      junctional and apico-medial non-muscle myosin II. Moreover, how the junctional
      tensions exist on cell boundaries in different boundary dynamics and morphologies
      are discussed. Finally, some future perspectives on how recent knowledge about
      single cell boundary-level mechanics will contribute to our understanding of
      epithelial tissue morphogenesis are discussed.

PMID- 28573736
TI  - Epilepsy as a systemic condition: Link with somatic comorbidities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with epilepsy have more concomitant medical conditions than
      the general population; these comorbidities play an important role in premature
      mortality. We sought to generate explanatory hypotheses about the co-occurrence
      of somatic comorbidities and epilepsy, avoiding causal and treatment-resultant
      biases. METHODS: We collected clinical, demographic and somatic comorbidity data
      for 2016 consecutive adults with epilepsy undergoing assessment at a tertiary
      centre and in 1278 people with epilepsy in the community. Underlying causes of
      epilepsy were not classed as comorbidities. RESULTS: Somatic comorbidities were
      more frequent in the referral centre (49%) where people more frequently had
      active epilepsy than in the community (36%). Consistent risk factors for
      comorbidities were found in both cohorts. Using multivariable ordinal regression
      adjusted for age, longer epilepsy duration and an underlying brain lesion were
      independently associated with a smaller burden of somatic conditions. The
      treatment burden, measured by the number of drugs to which people were exposed,
      was not an independent predictor. Shorter epilepsy duration was a predictor for
      conditions that conceivably harbour significant mortality risks. CONCLUSIONS:
      Somatic comorbidities do not occur randomly in relation to epilepsy; having more
      severe epilepsy seems to be a risk factor. Independently from age, the early
      period after epilepsy onset appears to be at particular risk, although it is not
      clear whether this relates to an early mortality or to a later decrease in the
      burden of comorbidities. These results suggest that, for some people, epilepsy
      should be considered a systemic condition not limited to the CNS.

PMID- 28573737
TI  - Applying a Social Justice Lens to Youth Mentoring: A Review of the Literature and
      Recommendations for Practice.
AB  - Youth mentoring interventions are often designed with the intention of promoting
      improved outcomes among marginalized youth. Despite their promise to reduce
      inequality through the provision of novel opportunities and increased social
      capital to marginalized youth, youth mentoring interventions hold the potential
      to reproduce rather than reduce inequality. In the current review, we explore
      literature on youth mentoring that has incorporated a social justice lens. We
      conclude that there is a need for greater attention to principles of social
      justice in the design, implementation, and evaluation of youth mentoring
      interventions. After reviewing the literature, we make recommendations for
      research and practice based on a social justice perspective and explore
      alternatives to traditional youth mentoring that may allow for better alignment
      with social justice principles.

PMID- 28573738
TI  - Mucosal bacterial dissemination in a rhesus macaque model of experimental
      brucellosis.
AB  - Animals were experimentally infected with Brucella melitensis via aerosol. B.
      melitensis was cultured from the saliva and vaginal vault of infected animals,
      corresponding to bacterial dissemination in other target tissues. This is the
      first report of bacterial dissemination to these mucosal surfaces in a non-human
      primate model of brucellosis.

PMID- 28573739
TI  - Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with left ventricular apical aneurysm:
      Importance of multi-modality imaging.
AB  - Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an uncommon variant of HCM
      characterized by apical hypertrophy without the septal predominance seen in the
      majority of HCM cases. In 2% of patients, a concomitant left ventricular apical
      aneurysm is observed, which increases the risk of sudden death and adverse HCM
      related events. Multimodality imaging is helpful for appropriate identification
      of this particular morphologic pattern. Herein, we present a case of apical HCM
      with a left ventricular apical aneurysm, exemplifying the utility of a
      multimodality approach from resting electrocardiogram, transthoracic
      echocardiogram, left ventriculography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging,
      for proper risk stratification and treatment planning.

PMID- 28573740
TI  - A comparison of the phenolic profile and antioxidant activity of different
      Cichorium spinosum L. ecotypes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wild greens are considered a rich source of phenolic compounds and
      antioxidants and an essential part of the so-called Mediterranean diet. In the
      present study, Cichorium spinosum L. ecotypes, cultivated or collected in situ
      from wild plants from the eastern Mediterranean, were evaluated regarding their
      phenolic composition and antioxidant activity. RESULTS: Significant differences
      were observed among the various studied ecotypes regarding their phenolic
      compound content and profile, especially between wild and cultivated ecotypes, as
      well as the phenolic acid content between commercial products and cultivated
      plants. The antioxidant activity also varied among the various studied ecotypes
      and growing conditions, with commercial products having the highest antioxidant
      activity, whereas wild ecotypes showed lower antioxidant activity. CONCLUSION:
      Cichorium spinosum leaves are a rich source of chicoric and 5-O-caffeoylquinic
      acid, while significant differences in total phenolic acids, flavonoids and
      phenolic compound content and in antioxidant activity were observed among the
      studied ecotypes, as well as between the tested growing conditions. According to
      the results of the present study, further valorization of C. spinosum species has
      great potential, since it could be used as a new alternative species in the food
      industry. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573741
TI  - Patterns of morphological integration between parietal and temporal areas in the
      human skull.
AB  - Modern humans have evolved bulging parietal areas and large, projecting temporal
      lobes. Both changes, largely due to a longitudinal expansion of these cranial and
      cerebral elements, were hypothesized to be the result of brain evolution and
      cognitive variations. Nonetheless, the independence of these two morphological
      characters has not been evaluated. Because of structural and functional
      integration among cranial elements, changes in the position of the temporal poles
      can be a secondary consequence of parietal bulging and reorientation of the head
      axis. In this study, we use geometric morphometrics to test the correlation
      between parietal shape and the morphology of the endocranial base in a sample of
      adult modern humans. Our results suggest that parietal proportions show no
      correlation with the relative position of the temporal poles within the spatial
      organization of the endocranial base. The vault and endocranial base are likely
      to be involved in distinct morphogenetic processes, with scarce or no integration
      between these two districts. Therefore, the current evidence rejects the
      hypothesis of reciprocal morphological influences between parietal and temporal
      morphology, suggesting that evolutionary spatial changes in these two areas may
      have been independent. However, parietal bulging exerts a visible effect on the
      rotation of the cranial base, influencing head position and orientation. This
      change can have had a major relevance in the reorganization of the head
      functional axis.

PMID- 28573742
TI  - Reductive Coupling of CO2 , Primary Amine, and Aldehyde at Room Temperature: A
      Versatile Approach to Unsymmetrically N,N-Disubstituted Formamides.
AB  - We present a simple, metal-free, and versatile route to synthesize
      unsymmetrically N,N-disubstituted formamides (NNFAs) from CO2 , primary amine,
      and aldehyde promoted by an ionic liquid (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride)
      at room temperature. This approach features wide scopes of amines and aldehydes,
      and various unsymmetrical NNFAs could be obtained in good to excellent yields.
      The ionic liquid can be reused for at least five runs without obvious activity
      loss.

PMID- 28573743
TI  - Impact of ixekizumab treatment on skin-related personal relationship difficulties
      in moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients: 12-week results from two Phase 3
      trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psoriasis symptoms may decrease quality of life for patients. Skin
      related personal relationship difficulties in psoriasis patients are common,
      under-reported and poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of
      ixekizumab (IXE) treatment on skin-related personal relationship difficulties in
      patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. METHODS: Pooled data (N = 2570) on
      skin-related relationship problems were obtained from two large phase 3 trials
      (UNCOVER-2 and UNCOVER-3) in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis
      randomized to subcutaneous placebo (PBO, N = 361), etanercept (ETN; 50 mg twice
      weekly, N = 740), or 80 mg IXE as one injection every 4 (IXEQ4W, N = 733) or 2
      weeks (IXEQ2W, N = 736) for 12 weeks, following a 160-mg initial dose. The
      Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) Personal Relationships Domain (PRD) (Items
      8 and 9) was used to assess how much the skin caused any personal relationship
      difficulties at weeks 0, 2, 4 and 12. Improvement was compared for IXE vs PBO and
      ETN using logistic models. Factors associated with improvement were assessed
      using multiple linear regressions. DLQI Item 9, assessing sexual difficulties,
      was also analysed separately. RESULTS: PRD scores (mean +/- standard deviation)
      at baseline were similar across all treatment groups (PBO: 1.8 +/- 1.9; ETN: 1.7
      +/- 1.8; IXEQ4W: 1.6 +/- 1.8; IXEQ2W: 1.7 +/- 1.8). Treatment with IXE rapidly
      and significantly improved the mean PRD score compared to PBO and ETN (P < 0.001
      at all time points). Baseline PRD score was the strongest negative predictor of
      improvement. IXE enabled significantly more patients with moderate-to-severe
      plaque psoriasis to reduce their skin-related sexual difficulties at Week 12
      compared to PBO (P < 0.001) or ETN (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Ixekizumab improves
      patient-reported skin-related PRD difficulties in patients with moderate-to
      severe psoriasis.

PMID- 28573744
TI  - Metabolomic analyses to evaluate the effect of drought stress on selected African
      Eggplant accessions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drought stress is one of the main abiotic stresses that affect crops.
      It leads to biochemical changes that can have adverse effects on plant growth,
      development and productivity. African eggplants are important vegetable and fruit
      crops reported to adapt and thrive well under drought stress. The diversified
      metabolites arising due to stress have not been well defined. A gas
      chromatographic-mass spectrometric metabolomic approach was applied to
      characterize the effect of drought stress on metabolites at different stages of
      growth. Nineteen accessions were selected for analysis and drought was imposed by
      withholding water until soil moisture reached 60% field capacity. Fresh leaf
      tissues were sampled before stress, 2 and 4 weeks after stress and metabolite
      profiling done. RESULTS: Significant changes in metabolite content were observed,
      and potentially important metabolites with respect to stress responses were
      characterized. Proline, glutamate, sucrose, fructose and tricarboxylic acid cycle
      metabolites were shown to be positively correlated with stress. Principal
      component analysis showed a clear discrimination between the different
      accessions, growth stages and stress/control conditions. CONCLUSION: The results
      illustrate that drought stress has a significant impact on the concentrations of
      some metabolites, such as amino acids, sugars and organic acids, which may
      contribute to drought stress effects and tolerance. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28573745
TI  - Prevalence of sun-protective behaviour and intentional sun tanning in German
      adolescents and adults: results of a nationwide telephone survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence rate of melanoma in the Caucasian population is rising
      worldwide. One of the major environmental risk factors for melanoma is the
      exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. To prevent skin damage caused by UV
      exposure, several organizations recommend wearing protective clothing, staying in
      the shade, avoiding the outdoors during midday and using sunscreen. OBJECTIVE: To
      provide representative data on factors associated with sun-protective behaviours
      and intentional sun exposure during summertime in the German population. METHODS:
      A population-based sample of 3000 German residents aged 14-45 years (response:
      32.1%) was interviewed via telephone from October to December 2015. Survey
      participants provided data on the use of recommended sun-protective measures on a
      sunny summer day and their intentional sun exposure during summertime. Data were
      weighted by age, sex, educational level and federal state to ensure the national
      representativeness of the sample. RESULTS: Wearing long-sleeved clothes was the
      most frequently reported protective measure (53.9%), while wearing headgear was
      the least common (17.9%). Significantly lower frequencies of almost all
      recommended sun-protective measures were identified for males, participants
      between 14 and 25 years, those with an immigrant background and those with low
      levels of education. Using sun protection was positively associated with female
      gender (OR = 1.62), higher levels of education (ORhigh = 1.27), sunburn during
      childhood (OR = 1.33) and paying attention to healthy nutrition (OR = 1.64; all P
      < 0.05). Sun tanning behaviour was associated with female gender (OR = 1.42),
      younger age, lower level of education, sunbed use (OR = 5.24) and smoking status
      (OR = 1.50; all P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: As individual sun-protective measures are
      easy to implement and provide effective protection against high-risk UV exposure,
      campaigns on skin cancer prevention in Germany should put a stronger focus on
      young adults, men, less educated individuals and those with immigration
      background.

PMID- 28573746
TI  - Beneficial effects of Rifaximin in post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome mouse
      model beyond gut microbiota.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Rifaximin is a minimally absorbed antibiotic, which has
      shown efficacy in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. However, the mechanism
      on how it effects in IBS is still incompletely defined. In this study,
      Trichinella spiralis-infected post-infectious (PI) IBS mouse model was used, to
      assess the action of rifaximin on visceral hypersensitivity, barrier function,
      gut inflammation, and microbiota. METHODS: Post-infectious IBS model was
      established by T. spiralis infection in mice. Rifaximin were administered to PI
      IBS mice for seven consecutive days. The abdominal withdrawal reflex and
      threshold of colorectal distention were employed to evaluate visceral
      sensitivity. Smooth muscle contractile response was recorded in the organ bath.
      Intestinal permeability was measured by Ussing chamber. Expression of tight
      junction protein and cytokines were measured by Western blotting. Ilumina miseq
      platform was used to analyze bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA. RESULTS: Post
      infectious IBS mice treated with rifaximin exhibited decreased abdominal
      withdrawal reflex score, increased threshold, reduced contractile response, and
      intestinal permeability. Rifaximin also suppressed the expression of interleukin
      12 and interleukin-17 and promoted the expression of the major tight junction
      protein occludin. Furthermore, rifaximin did not change the composition and
      diversity, and the study reavealed that rifaximin had a tiny effect on the
      relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in this PI-IBS model.
      CONCLUSIONS: Rifaximin alleviated visceral hypersensitivity, recovered intestinal
      barrier function, and inhibited low-grade inflammation in colon and ileum of PI
      IBS mouse model. Moreover, rifaximin exerts anti-inflammatory effects with only a
      minimal effect on the overall composition and diversity of the gut microbiota in
      this model.

PMID- 28573747
TI  - Triploidy - variability of sonographic phenotypes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To analyze sonographic abnormalities in triploid pregnancies and
      assess the usefulness of the classification proposed by McFadden and Kalousek for
      prenatal sonographic assessment of triploid fetuses. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective analysis of the sonographic features in a series of 67 triploid
      fetuses evaluated between 11 and 30 weeks of gestation in a single referral
      center between 1997 and 2015. RESULTS: Non-specific structural fetal defects were
      visualized in the majority of fetuses (61.2%) regardless of the parental origin
      of the triploidy. A 'diandric phenotype' was identified in eight relatively well
      grown fetuses (11.9%) that presented with cystic placentas. A 'digynic phenotype'
      was identified in 47 asymmetrically growth-restricted fetuses with non-cystic
      placentas (70.2%). In 12 cases (17.9%), features of both phenotypes were present.
      CONCLUSIONS: Nearly 40% of triploid fetuses do not have any apparent structural
      abnormalities, and only careful assessment of fetal growth and placenta may lead
      to the suspicion of the diagnosis. As diandric triploidy carry a high risk for
      maternal complications, identification of these cases is vital for prenatal
      counseling. In nearly 20% of triploid pregnancies, parental origin cannot be
      established based on sonographic assessment. (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28573748
TI  - Conditioned pain modulation dampens the thermal grill illusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The thermal grill illusion (TGI) refers to the perception of burning
      heat and often pain that arises from simultaneous cutaneous application of
      innocuous warm and cool stimuli. This study utilized conditioned pain modulation
      (CPM) to help elucidate the TGI's underlying neural mechanisms, including the
      debated role of ascending nociceptive signals in generating the illusion.
      METHODS: To trigger CPM, subjects placed the left hand in noxious cold (6 
      degrees C) water before placing the right volar forearm onto a thermal grill.
      Lower pain and unpleasantness ratings of the grill in this CPM run compared to
      those in a control run (i.e. 33  degrees C water) were taken as evidence of CPM.
      To determine whether CPM reduces noxious heat pain and illusory heat pain
      equally, an experimental group of subjects rated pain and unpleasantness of a
      grill consisting of innocuous alternating warm (42  degrees C) and cool (18 
      degrees C) bars, while a control group rated a grill with all bars controlled to
      a noxious temperature (45  degrees C). RESULTS: CPM produced significant and
      comparable reductions in pain, unpleasantness and perceived heat of both noxious
      heat and the TGI. CONCLUSIONS: This result suggests that the TGI results from
      signals in nociceptive dorsal horn convergent neurons, since CPM involves
      descending inhibition with high selectivity for this neuronal population. More
      broadly, CPM's ability to produce a shift in perceived thermal sensation of both
      noxious heat and the TGI from 'hot' to 'warm' implies that nociceptive signals
      generated by a cutaneous stimulus can contribute to its perceived thermal
      intensity. SIGNIFICANCE: Conditioned pain modulation reduces the perceived
      painfulness, unpleasantness and heat of the thermal grill illusion and noxious
      heat similarly. The results have important theoretical implications for both
      types of pain.

PMID- 28573749
TI  - Obesity impedes functional improvement in youth with chronic pain: An initial
      investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Youth with chronic pain are at higher risk for obesity than the
      general population. In youth with chronic pain, obesity exacerbates pain-specific
      activity limitations, and in adults with chronic pain, obesity perpetuates a
      cycle of disability. The current study examined whether weight status predicts
      functional disability outcomes over time in youth with chronic pain. METHODS:
      Data were obtained from a retrospective chart review of patients who consented to
      participate in a longitudinal outcomes study. The Child Activity Limitations
      Questionnaire was used to assess functional disability at intake, 1-, and 3-month
      follow-up. Height and weight were measured at intake. A linear mixed model was
      used to test whether weight status and time predicted functional disability.
      Trend analysis with polynomial contrasts was used to test whether improvements in
      functional disability showed a linear trend over time. RESULTS: The linear mixed
      model analysis showed a main effect of weight, suggesting that youth with higher
      BMI demonstrated less improvement in functional disability over time. The trend
      analysis suggested that improvements in functional disability were consistent
      with a linear trend for both healthy weight and overweight participants, but not
      for obese participants. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that obesity
      impedes improvement in functioning for youth with chronic pain. Despite
      multidisciplinary pain treatment, youth with comorbid chronic pain and obesity
      demonstrate greater functional disability at follow-up and little improvement
      over time. These results support the need for interventions specifically tailored
      to the unique challenges faced by youth with comorbid chronic pain and obesity.
      SIGNIFICANCE: This study shows that obesity impedes improvement in functioning
      for youth with chronic pain. On the basis of these findings, interventions should
      be tailored to the unique challenges of this population.

PMID- 28573750
TI  - Chondrification and Character Identification in the Skull Exemplified for the
      Basicranial Anatomy of Early Squamate Embryos.
AB  - The neurocranium of vertebrates is mainly derived from early cartilaginous
      anlagen, the so-called chondrocranium, the base of the future skull. Two initial
      bar-shaped and paired chondrifications flank the notochord, the rostral trabecles
      and the caudal parachordals. In most reptiles, there is an additional component,
      the transverse acrochordal, which is placed between trabecles and parachordals.
      All these elements compose the base of the future chondrocranium. There are
      several drastically different hypotheses concerning the development and
      interrelationship of these elements. We reexamined the basicranial development in
      four squamates and found that all species show very similar conditions of early
      chondrocranial development. The anterior part of the notochord is not embedded
      into the basal plate as it was previously reported. It remains free. The medial
      edges of the parachordals form the lateral walls of the basicranial fenestra.
      Only the posterior portions of the parachordals fuse and form the basal plate.
      The space in-between the parachordals is filled with a thin layer of cells, which
      never chondrify. The anterior tips of the parachordals later fuse with the
      posterior edge of the acrochordal, which ultimately delimitates, as crista
      sellaris, the basicranial fenestra anteriorly. We consider the observed processes
      a common development at least in lizards and review a variety of methodological
      approaches and differences in data interpretation as reasons for the anatomical
      differences reported in the literature. Moreover, based on our data we argue that
      the acrochordal is of mesodermal origin, which coincides with results of fate map
      experimental studies.

PMID- 28573752
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28573753
TI  - Simulation of intra-ciliary diffusion suggests a novel role of primary cilia as a
      cell-signaling enhancer.
AB  - Besides the role to generate a fluid flow in the surrounding medium, eukaryotic
      cilia have a crucial function in sensing external signals such as chemical or
      mechanical stimuli. A large body of work has shown that cilia are frequently
      found in various types of sensory cells and are closely related to many
      regulatory mechanisms in differentiation and development. However, we do not yet
      have a definitive answer to the fundamental question, "why cilia?" It has been a
      long-standing mystery why cells use cilia for sensing external signals. To shed
      light on this, we sought to describe the kinetics of signaling with theoretical
      approaches. Based on the results, here we propose a new role of cilia as a cell
      signaling enhancer. The enhancing effect comes from restricted volume for the
      free intra-ciliary diffusion of molecules due to the cylindrical shape of cilia,
      which can facilitate quick accumulation of intracellular signaling molecules. Our
      simulations demonstrate that both the rate and amplitude of response in signal
      transduction depend on where the membrane receptors or channels are located along
      the ciliary shaft. In addition, the calculated transfer function of cilia
      regarded as a transmitter of external signals also suggests the properties of
      cilia as a signal enhancer. Since such unique composition of receptors and
      channels in cilia is found in various types of eukaryotic cells, signal enhancing
      is presumably one of the most essential and conserved roles of cilia.

PMID- 28573751
TI  - Early weaning stress induces chronic functional diarrhea, intestinal barrier
      defects, and increased mast cell activity in a porcine model of early life
      adversity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early life adversity (ELA) is a risk factor for development of
      gastrointestinal disorders later in life. The underlying mechanisms through which
      ELA and sex interact to influence disease susceptibility remains poorly
      understood. METHODS: Utilizing a porcine early weaning stress (EWS) model to
      mimic ELA, we investigated the long-term effects of EWS on functional diarrhea,
      ileal permeability, mast cell activity and mast cell relationship with enteric
      ganglia. KEY RESULTS: Juvenile and adult EWS pigs exhibited chronic, functional
      diarrhea (EWS 43.6% vs late wean control(LWC) 4.8%, P<.0001), increased
      intestinal permeability (2 fold increase EWS vs LWC, P<.0001), and mast cell
      numbers (at 7 weeks and 20 weeks ~1.6 fold increase EWS vs LWC, P<.05). Compared
      with EWS male castrates (Male-C), females EWS pigs exhibited more frequent
      diarrhea (58.8% vs 29.9%, P=.0016), and increased intestinal permeability (1-2
      fold higher in EWS females, P<.001). Increased mast cell numbers and their
      enhanced co-localization with neuronal ganglia were observed in both Male-C and
      female EWS pigs; however, female pigs exhibited greater release of mast cell
      tryptase upon activation with c48/80 (~1.5 fold increase, P<.05), compared with
      Male-C pigs. CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES: These data demonstrate that pigs exposed
      to ELA exhibit increased vulnerability to functional diarrhea, intestinal
      permeability and mast cell activity. Further, these studies also showed that EWS
      female and Male-C pigs exhibited dimorphic responses to EWS with female piglets
      exhibited greater susceptibility and severity of diarrhea, intestinal
      permeability and mast cell tryptase release. Together, these findings mimic some
      of the key pathophysiologic findings in human functional GI disorders functional
      gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) suggesting that the EWS porcine model could be
      a valuable preclinical translational model for FGID research associated with ELA.

PMID- 28573754
TI  - Mitral Regurgitation Severity and Left Ventricular Systolic Dimension Predict
      Survival in Young Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Development and progression of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD)
      in dogs are difficult to predict. Identification at a young age of dogs at high
      risk of adverse outcome in the future is desirable. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To
      study the predictive value of selected clinical and echocardiographic
      characteristics associated with MMVD obtained at a young age for prediction of
      long-term cardiac and all-cause mortality in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels
      (CKCS). ANIMALS: 1125 privately owned CKCS. METHODS: A retrospective study
      including CKCS examined at the age of 1-3 years. Long-term outcome was assessed
      by telephone interview with owners. The value of variables for predicting
      mortality was investigated by Cox proportional hazard and Kaplan-Meier analyses.
      RESULTS: Presence of moderate to severe mitral regurgitation (MR) (hazard ratio
      (HR) = 3.03, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.48-6.23, P = 0.0025) even
      intermittent moderate to severe MR (HR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.48-6.23, P = 0.039) on
      color flow Doppler echocardiography was significantly associated with increased
      hazard of cardiac death. An interaction between MR and sex was significant for
      all-cause mortality (P = 0.035), showing that males with moderate to severe MR
      had a higher all-cause mortality compared to males with no MR (HR = 2.38, 95% CI
      = 1.27-4.49, P = 0.0071), whereas no difference was found between female MR
      groups. The risk of cardiac (HR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.14-1.63, P < 0.001) and all
      cause (HR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.02-1.24, P = 0.016) mortality increased with
      increasing left ventricular end-systolic internal dimension normalized for body
      weight (LVIDSN ). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Moderate to severe MR,
      even if intermittent, and increased LVIDSN in dogs <3 years of age were
      associated with cardiac death later in life in CKCS.

PMID- 28573755
TI  - Whitening dentifrice and tooth surface discoloration-a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effect of a
      whitening dentifrice (WDF) relative to a regular dentifrice (RDF) on the
      reduction of natural extrinsic tooth surface discoloration (ETD). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The MEDLINE-PubMed, Cochrane-CENTRAL and EBSCO-Dentistry and Oral
      Sciences databases were searched, up to April 2017. The inclusion criteria were
      as follows:(randomized)controlled clinical trials, healthy subjects >=18 years of
      age, studies comparing WDF with RDF, a follow-up period of at least 6 weeks and
      studies scoring ETD as the stain area/extent, stain intensity or a composite
      score. Studies using an induced staining model were excluded. RESULTS:
      Independent screening of 851 unique papers resulted in 21 eligible publications,
      which included 32 comparisons. The descriptive analysis illustrated that the
      majority of comparisons showed a significant effect on ETD, in favour of WDF over
      RDF. The meta-analysis substantiated this observation and revealed that the
      difference of means (diffM) comparing WDF and RDF was a reduction for stain area
      of -0.44 [(95% CI: -0.55; -0.339) (P<.00001)] according to the original Lobene
      Stain Index; this result is in favour of the WDF. For the modified Lobene Stain
      Index, the diffM was -0.41 [(95% CI: -0.71; -0.10) (P=.009)]. For overall stain
      intensity, the diffM was -0.35 [(95% CI: -0.44; -0.25) (P<.00001)], and the
      composite score was -0.39 [(95% CI: -0.57; -0.21) (P<.0001)] and -0.54 [(95% CI: 
      0.66; -0.43) (P<.00001)]. Subgroup analysis differentiating between products that
      contained added chemical antidiscoloration agents showed a similar pattern.
      CONCLUSION: In this review, nearly all dentifrices that are specifically
      formulated for tooth whitening were shown to have a beneficial effect in reducing
      ETD, irrespective of whether or not a chemical discoloration agent was added.

PMID- 28573756
TI  - Improving quality of an innovative pea puree by high hydrostatic pressure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The food industry is continuously innovating to fulfill consumer
      demand for new, healthy, ready-to-eat products. Pea purees could satisfy this
      trend by increasing the intake of legumes, which are an important source of
      nutrients. Moreover, sensorial properties like viscosity could be improved by
      high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). In this study the effect of a boiling treatment
      (10 min) followed by HHP at 550 kPa (0, 5 or 10 min) on the rheological
      properties, associated with enzymatic activity and particle size, as well as on
      the microbial and sensory quality of a pea-based puree stored for 36 days at 5 
      degrees C, has been assessed. RESULTS: The particle size of pea puree decreased
      after all processing treatments, but increased during storage in HHP-treated
      samples. Conversely, boiling treatment showed an increase in polygalacturonase
      activity at the end of the storage period, with a decrease in particle size,
      viscosity and stability. However, 5 min of 550 kPa HHP showed the highest mean
      particle size, mean surface diameter and viscosity regarding the remaining
      treatments. The microbial load remained low during storage. CONCLUSIONS: HHP
      treatment can be used by the food industry to improve the rheological properties,
      viscosity and stability of pea purees. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573757
TI  - Circuit class therapy for improving mobility after stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Circuit class therapy (CCT) offers a supervised group forum for
      people after stroke to practise tasks, enabling increased practice time without
      increasing staffing. This is an update of the original review published in 2010.
      OBJECTIVES: To examine the effectiveness and safety of CCT on mobility in adults
      with stroke. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials
      Register (last searched January 2017), CENTRAL (the Cochrane Library, Issue 12,
      2016), MEDLINE (1950 to January 2017), Embase (1980 to January 2017), CINAHL
      (1982 to January 2017), and 14 other electronic databases (to January 2017). We
      also searched proceedings from relevant conferences, reference lists, and
      unpublished theses; contacted authors of published trials and other experts in
      the field; and searched relevant clinical trials and research registers.
      SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) including people over 18
      years old, diagnosed with stroke of any severity, at any stage, or in any
      setting, receiving CCT. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Review authors
      independently selected trials for inclusion, assessed risk of bias in all
      included studies, and extracted data. MAIN RESULTS: We included 17 RCTs involving
      1297 participants. Participants were stroke survivors living in the community or
      receiving inpatient rehabilitation. Most could walk 10 metres without assistance.
      Ten studies (835 participants) measured walking capacity (measuring how far the
      participant could walk in six minutes) demonstrating that CCT was superior to the
      comparison intervention (Six-Minute Walk Test: mean difference (MD), fixed
      effect, 60.86 m, 95% confidence interval (CI) 44.55 to 77.17, GRADE: moderate).
      Eight studies (744 participants) measured gait speed, again finding in favour of
      CCT compared with other interventions (MD 0.15 m/s, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.19, GRADE:
      moderate). Both of these effects are considered clinically meaningful. We were
      able to pool other measures to demonstrate the superior effects of CCT for
      aspects of walking and balance (Timed Up and Go: five studies, 488 participants,
      MD -3.62 seconds, 95% CI -6.09 to -1.16; Activities of Balance Confidence scale:
      two studies, 103 participants, MD 7.76, 95% CI 0.66 to 14.87). Two other pooled
      balance measures failed to demonstrate superior effects (Berg Blance Scale and
      Step Test). Independent mobility, as measured by the Stroke Impact Scale,
      Functional Ambulation Classification and the Rivermead Mobility Index, also
      improved more in CCT interventions compared with others. Length of stay showed a
      non-significant effect in favour of CCT (two trials, 217 participants, MD -16.35,
      95% CI -37.69 to 4.99). Eight trials (815 participants) measured adverse events
      (falls during therapy): there was a non-significant effect of greater risk of
      falls in the CCT groups (RD 0.03, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.08, GRADE: very low). Time
      after stroke did not make a difference to the positive outcomes, nor did the
      quality or size of the trials. Heterogeneity was generally low; risk of bias was
      variable across the studies with poor reporting of study conduct in several of
      the trials. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is moderate evidence that CCT is
      effective in improving mobility for people after stroke - they may be able to
      walk further, faster, with more independence and confidence in their balance. The
      effects may be greater later after the stroke, and are of clinical significance.
      Further high-quality research is required, investigating quality of life,
      participation and cost-benefits, that compares CCT with standard care and that
      also investigates the influence of factors such as stroke severity and age. The
      potential risk of increased falls during CCT needs to be monitored.

PMID- 28573758
TI  - Orthodontic Treatment: Real Risk for Dental Age Estimation in Adults?
AB  - Dental age estimation becomes a challenge once the root formation is concluded.
      In living adults, one dental age indicator is the formation of secondary dentine,
      also associated with orthodontic treatment as well as root shortening. The aim of
      this study was to establish whether these secondary effects of orthodontic
      treatment could generate a statistically significant difference in dental age
      estimations when using Kvaal's method. The study sample included 34 pairs of pre-
      and postorthodontic panoramic radiographs, from different individuals with
      exactly the same age and sex distribution. Females 65%, median age 17.5 years,
      and males 35%, median age 22.5 years, were included. After data collection,
      dental age was estimated per tooth using formulae previously published. The risk
      of obtaining over-estimation of age was calculated. (RR = 1.007). The changes
      caused by orthodontic treatment do not have any significant effect on age
      estimation when Kvaal et al.'s method is applied on panoramic radiographs.

PMID- 28573759
TI  - Persistence of plant hormone levels in rice shoots grown under microgravity
      conditions in space: its relationship to maintenance of shoot growth.
AB  - We investigated the effects of microgravity environment on growth and plant
      hormone levels in dark-grown rice shoots cultivated in artificial 1 g and
      microgravity conditions on the International Space Station (ISS). Growth of
      microgravity-grown shoots was comparable to that of 1 g-grown shoots. Endogenous
      levels of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in shoots remained constant, while those of
      abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), cytokinins (CKs) and gibberellins (GAs)
      decreased during the cultivation period under both conditions. The levels of
      auxin, ABA, JA, CKs and GAs in rice shoots grown under microgravity conditions
      were comparable to those under 1 g conditions. These results suggest microgravity
      environment in space had minimal impact on levels of these plant hormones in rice
      shoots, which may be the cause of the persistence of normal growth of shoots
      under microgravity conditions. Concerning ethylene, the expression level of a
      gene for 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase, the key enzyme in
      ethylene biosynthesis, was reduced under microgravity conditions, suggesting that
      microgravity may affect the ethylene production. Therefore, ethylene production
      may be responsive to alterations of the gravitational force.

PMID- 28573760
TI  - Oral glucose tolerance test performance in olanzapine-treated schizophrenia
      spectrum patients is predicted by BMI and triglycerides but not olanzapine dose
      or duration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Olanzapine, an atypical antipsychotic, is associated with
      glucoregulatory abnormalities, but the nature of this link is not fully
      elucidated. This is the first olanzapine oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) study
      to consider treatment dose and duration, and to compare complementary indices
      respectively assessing insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index) and resistance
      (homeostasis model assessment). METHODS: Body mass index (BMI), body composition,
      plasma lipids, and oGTT were measured in olanzapine-treated nondiabetic patients
      with DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n = 35).
      RESULTS: While only one previously undiagnosed participant met diabetes criteria
      based on fasting plasma glucose alone (>=126 mg/dL), seven were diagnosed with
      oGTT (2-hr plasma glucose >=200 mg/dL). Multiple regression analyses revealed
      that the Matsuda index correlated with BMI (p < 0.0001) and plasma triglycerides
      (p = 0.01), but not with age, olanzapine dose, olanzapine treatment duration, or
      plasma cholesterol. Homeostasis model assessment and fasting plasma glucose
      correlated with triglycerides only (p < 0.0001 for both). CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggest that BMI and triglycerides may be implicated in olanzapine-related
      glucoregulatory abnormalities. The lack of correlation between glucoregulatory
      abnormalities and olanzapine dose or treatment duration suggests preexisting
      metabolic disturbances and/or disturbances arising early in the course of
      treatment. Clinicians prescribing antipsychotics should consider oGTT, especially
      in patients with obesity and/or hypertriglyceridemia.

PMID- 28573761
TI  - Sex differences in the associations between vagal reactivity and oppositional
      defiant disorder symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vagal reactivity to stress in children has been associated with
      future psychiatric outcomes. However, results have been mixed possibly because
      these effects are in opposite direction in boys and girls. These sex differences
      are relevant in the context of development of psychopathology, whereby the rates
      of psychiatric disorders differ by sex. In this study, we aimed to examine the
      association between vagal reactivity, assessed as a reduction in respiratory
      sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in response to a challenge, and the development of future
      oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in boys and girls. In addition, we
      examine the specific associations with ODD symptom dimensions, named irritability
      and headstrong. We hypothesized that increased vagal reactivity was associated
      with increased ODD symptoms in girls and a reduction in ODD symptoms in boys.
      METHODS: Participants were members of the Wirral Child Health and Development
      Study, a prospective epidemiological longitudinal study of 1,233 first-time
      mothers recruited at 20 weeks' gestation. RSA during four nonstressful and one
      stressful (still-face) procedures was assessed when children were aged 29 weeks
      in a sample stratified by adversity (n = 270). Maternal reports of ODD symptoms
      were collected when children were 2.5 years old (n = 253), 3.5 years old (n =
      826), and 5 years old (n = 770). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed
      to test our hypotheses. RESULTS: There was a significant sex difference in the
      prediction of ODD symptoms due to the opposite directionality in which increasing
      vagal reactivity was associated with an increase in ODD symptoms in girls and a
      reduction of ODD symptoms in boys. This Sex by Vagal reactivity interaction was
      common for both ODD dimensions, with no sex by dimension-specific associations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Physiological reactivity to a stressful situation predicts
      differently ODD symptoms in boys and girls very early in life, with no difference
      across irritability and headstrong components. Findings are discussed in the
      context of the several mechanisms involved on the later development of distinct
      psychiatric disorders in boys and girls.

PMID- 28573762
TI  - In vivo measurement of vocal fold surface resistance.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: A custom-designed probe was developed to measure vocal
      fold surface resistance in vivo. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate
      proof of concept of using vocal fold surface resistance as a proxy of functional
      tissue integrity after acute phonotrauma using an animal model. STUDY DESIGN:
      Prospective animal study. METHODS: New Zealand White breeder rabbits received 120
      minutes of airflow without vocal fold approximation (control) or 120 minutes of
      raised intensity phonation (experimental). The probe was inserted via
      laryngoscope and placed on the left vocal fold under endoscopic visualization.
      Vocal fold surface resistance of the middle one-third of the vocal fold was
      measured after 0 (baseline), 60, and 120 minutes of phonation. After the
      phonation procedure, the larynx was harvested and prepared for transmission
      electron microscopy. RESULTS: In the control group, vocal fold surface resistance
      values remained stable across time points. In the experimental group, surface
      resistance (X% +/- Y% relative to baseline) was significantly decreased after 120
      minutes of raised intensity phonation. This was associated with structural
      changes using transmission electron microscopy, which revealed damage to the
      vocal fold epithelium after phonotrauma, including disruption of the epithelium
      and basement membrane, dilated paracellular spaces, and alterations to epithelial
      microprojections. In contrast, control vocal fold specimens showed well-preserved
      stratified squamous epithelia. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate the
      feasibility of measuring vocal fold surface resistance in vivo as a means of
      evaluating functional vocal fold epithelial barrier integrity. Device prototypes
      are in development for additional testing, validation, and for clinical
      applications in laryngology. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 127:E364-E370,
      2017.

PMID- 28573763
TI  - Characterizing the relationship between systemic inflammatory response syndrome
      and early cardiac dysfunction in traumatic brain injury.
AB  - Systolic dysfunction was recently described following traumatic brain injury
      (TBI), and systemic inflammation may be a contributing mechanism. Our aims were
      to 1) examine the association between the early systemic inflammatory response
      syndrome (SIRS) and systolic cardiac dysfunction following TBI, and 2) describe
      the longitudinal change in SIRS criteria, cardiac function, and hemodynamic
      parameters during the first week of hospitalization. We used a secondary analysis
      of a prospective cohort study examining cardiac function (with transthoracic
      echocardiography on the first day and serially over the first week of
      hospitalization) in 32 moderate-severe isolated TBI patients, and quantified the
      admission and daily SIRS response to injury. We determined the association of
      admission SIRS and systolic dysfunction following TBI. Admission SIRS was present
      in 7 (21%) patients and was associated with systolic dysfunction on multivariable
      analysis (relative risk 4.01; 95% 1.16-13.79, p = .028). Both SIRS criteria and
      systolic cardiac function improved over the first week of hospitalization. In
      conclusion, early SIRS is common among patients with moderate-severe TBI, and the
      presence of SIRS criteria on admission is associated with systolic cardiac
      dysfunction following TBI.

PMID- 28573764
TI  - Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the lip: A population-based analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The role of cumulative ultraviolet (UV) radiation in
      cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the lip (CSCCL) is well understood. This
      study seeks to evaluate overall survival as well as incidence and demographics
      across geographic regions, given differences in UV exposure across the United
      States. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective population-based analysis. METHODS: A total
      of 14,901 CSCCL cases were identified as being from the West, Midwest, South, or
      Northeast, utilizing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry
      from 1973 to 2013. Demographics, stage of disease, and treatment modalities were
      compared among regions. RESULTS: Of the CSCCL cases reported, 58.3%, 24.5%,
      10.8%, and 6.4% originated from the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast,
      respectively. Patients most commonly presented with T1 tumors (81.3%), and nodal
      and distant metastasis was rare for patients from all regions (3.1% and 0.3%,
      respectively). Patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage II and
      higher were most likely from the Northeast or South. Overall, most patients were
      treated with surgery monotherapy (89.5%); however, surgical monotherapy was least
      commonly utilized in patients in the Northeast and South. Overall 5-year disease
      specific survival was measured at 94.7%. CONCLUSION: Although areas of high UV
      index are implicated in increased morbidity and mortality due to CSCCL, this
      study indicates that a variety of factors play a role in CSCCL incidence and
      outcomes in the United States. The elderly and non-white populations were
      identified as poor prognostic demographic factors. Investigation detailing
      differences in CSCCL detection and treatment may aid in the identification of
      higher-risk populations. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:84-90, 2018.

PMID- 28573766
TI  - Tropical Medicine & International Health.

PMID- 28573767
TI  - Measuring contact area in a sliding human finger-pad contact.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The work outlined in this paper was aimed at achieving
      further understanding of skin frictional behaviour by investigating the contact
      area between human finger-pads and flat surfaces. METHODS: Both the static and
      the dynamic contact areas (in macro- and micro-scales) were measured using
      various techniques, including ink printing, optical coherence tomography (OCT)
      and Digital Image Correlation (DIC). RESULTS: In the studies of the static
      measurements using ink printing, the experimental results showed that the
      apparent and the real contact area increased with load following a piecewise
      linear correlation function for a finger-pad in contact with paper sheets.
      Comparisons indicated that the OCT method is a reliable and effective method to
      investigate the real contact area of a finger-pad and allow micro-scale analysis.
      The apparent contact area (from the DIC measurements) was found to reduce with
      time in the transition from the static phase to the dynamic phase while the real
      area of contact (from OCT) increased. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study
      enable the interaction between finger-pads and contact object surface to be
      better analysed, and hence improve the understanding of skin friction.

PMID- 28573765
TI  - Design and baseline characteristics of participants in the Researching
      cardiovascular Events with a Weekly INcretin in Diabetes (REWIND) trial on the
      cardiovascular effects of dulaglutide.
AB  - The aim was to determine the effects of dulaglutide, a synthetic once-weekly,
      injectable human glucagon-like peptide 1 analogue that lowers blood glucose, body
      weight, appetite and blood pressure, on cardiovascular outcomes. People with type
      2 diabetes, aged >=50 years, with glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) <=9.5%, and either
      a previous cardiovascular event, evidence of cardiovascular disease or >=2
      cardiovascular risk factors were randomly allocated to a weekly subcutaneous
      injection of either dulaglutide (1.5 mg) or placebo and followed within the
      ongoing Researching cardiovascular Events with a Weekly INcretin in Diabetes
      (REWIND) trial every 3 to 6 months. The primary cardiovascular outcome is the
      first occurrence of the composite of cardiovascular death or non-fatal myocardial
      infarction or non-fatal stroke. Secondary outcomes include each component of the
      primary composite cardiovascular outcome, a composite clinical microvascular
      outcome comprising retinal or renal disease, hospitalization for unstable angina,
      heart failure requiring hospitalization or an urgent heart failure visit, and all
      cause mortality. Follow-up will continue until the accrual of 1200 confirmed
      primary outcomes. Recruitment of 9901 participants (mean age 66 years, 46% women)
      occurred in 370 sites located in 24 countries over a period of 2 years. The mean
      duration of diabetes was 10 years, mean baseline HbA1c was 7.3%, and 31% had
      prior cardiovascular disease. The REWIND trial's international scope, high
      proportion of women, high proportion of people without prior cardiovascular
      disease and inclusion of participants whose mean baseline HbA1c was 7.3% suggests
      that its cardiovascular and safety findings will be directly relevant to the
      typical middle-aged patient seen in general practice throughout the world.

PMID- 28573768
TI  - Nodes of Ranvier in skin biopsies of patients with diabetes mellitus.
AB  - Paranodal demyelination has been discussed as a potential mechanism of nerve
      fiber damage in diabetic neuropathy (DNP). Studies on human tissue are limited,
      as nerve biopsies are invasive and only rarely performed in patients with
      confirmed DNP. Skin biopsy has recently been suggested as a tool to analyze
      paranodal and nodal changes of myelinated fibers. We analyzed the myelinated
      fibers of skin biopsies of 35 patients with DNP, 17 patients with diabetes
      mellitus (DM) without neuropathy, and 30 normal controls. Immunofluorescence of
      skin sections with antibodies against Caspr, neurofascin, sodium channels, and
      myelin basic protein was performed to assess paranodal/nodal architecture,
      segmental demyelination, and myelinated nerve fibers. Staining with antibodies
      against protein gene product 9.5 was used to quantify unmyelinated nerve fibers.
      There was an increase of elongated Ranvier nodes and a dispersion of neurofascin
      at the distal leg in patients with DM with and without neuropathy and at the
      finger in patients with DNP. An increased dispersion of Caspr was only found in
      biopsies of the finger in patients with DNP. Skin biopsy may be an appropriate
      tool to analyze nodes of Ranvier in patients with DM. Structural nodal changes
      are detectable in DNP and even in diabetic patients without neuropathy.

PMID- 28573769
TI  - Re: How to monitor pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction and
      delivery before 32 weeks: post-hoc analysis of TRUFFLE study. W. Ganzevoort, N.
      Mensing Van Charante, B. Thilaganathan, F. Prefumo, B. Arabin, C. M. Bilardo, et
      al., on behalf of the TRUFFLE Group. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2017; 49: 769-777.

PMID- 28573770
TI  - Re: Sonographic evaluation of immobility of normal and endometriotic ovary in
      detection of deep endometriosis. B. Gerges, C. Lu, S. Reid, D. Chou, T. Chang and
      G. Condous. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2017; 49: 793-798.

PMID- 28573771
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28573772
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28573773
TI  - Re: Right ventricular outflow tract obstruction in complicated monochorionic twin
      pregnancy. S. J. Eschbach, L. S. T. M. Boons, E. Van Zwet, J. M. Middeldorp, F.
      J. C. M. Klumper, E. Lopriore, A. K. K. Teunissen, M. E. Rijlaarsdam, D. Oepkes,
      A. D. J. Ten Harkel, M. C. Haak. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2017; 49: 737-743.

PMID- 28573774
TI  - Percutaneous laser ablation of the feeding vessel in pulmonary sequestration or
      hybrid lesions.

PMID- 28573775
TI  - ISUOG updated consensus statement on the impact of cfDNA aneuploidy testing on
      screening policies and prenatal ultrasound practice.

PMID- 28573776
TI  - Ascertaining fetal Zika virus infection based on IgM antibody test in endemic
      settings.

PMID- 28573778
TI  - Application of Enhanced Point Estimators to a Sample of In Vivo CT-derived Facial
      Soft Tissue Thicknesses.
AB  - Facial approximations based on facial soft tissue depth measurement tables often
      utilize the arithmetic mean as a central tendency estimator. Stephan et al. (J
      Forensic Sci 2013;58:1439) suggest that the shorth and 75-shormax statistics are
      better suited to describe the central tendency of non-normal soft tissue depth
      data, while also accommodating normal distributions. The shorth, 75-shormax,
      arithmetic mean, and other central tendency estimators were evaluated using a CT
      derived facial soft tissue depth dataset. Differences between arithmetic mean and
      shorth mean for the tissue depths examined ranged from 0 mm to +2.3 mm (average
      0.6 mm). Differences between the arithmetic mean plus one standard deviation (to
      approximate the same data points covered by the 75-shormax) and 75-shormax values
      ranged from -0.8 mm to +0.7 mm (average 0.2 mm). The results of this research
      suggest that few practical differences exist across the central tendency point
      estimators for the evaluated soft tissue depth dataset.

PMID- 28573777
TI  - Once-weekly administration of a long-acting fibroblast growth factor 21 analogue
      modulates lipids, bone turnover markers, blood pressure and body weight
      differently in obese people with hypertriglyceridaemia and in non-human primates.
AB  - AIMS: To assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
      of PF-05231023, a long-acting fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) analogue, in
      obese people with hypertriglyceridaemia on atorvastatin, with or without type 2
      diabetes. METHODS: Participants received PF-05231023 or placebo intravenously
      once weekly for 4 weeks. Safety (12-lead ECGs, vital signs, adverse events [AEs],
      laboratory tests) and longitudinal weight assessments were performed. Blood
      samples were collected for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses.
      Cardiovascular safety studies were also conducted in telemetered rats and
      monkeys. Blood pressure (BP; mean, systolic and diastolic) and ECGs were
      monitored. RESULTS: A total of 107 people were randomized. PF-05231023
      significantly decreased mean placebo-adjusted fasting triglycerides (day 25, 33%
      43%) and increased HDL cholesterol (day 25, 15.7%-28.6%) and adiponectin (day 25,
      1574 to 3272 ng/mL) across all doses, without significant changes in body weight
      (day 25, -0.45% to -1.21%). Modest decreases from baseline were observed for N
      terminal propeptides of type 1 collagen (P1NP) on day 25, although C-telopeptide
      cross-linking of type 1 collagen (CTX-1) increased minimally. Systolic, diastolic
      BP, and pulse rate increased in a dose- and time-related manner. There were 5
      serious AEs (one treatment-related) and no deaths. Three participants
      discontinued because of AEs. The majority of AEs were gastrointestinal. PF
      05231023 increased BP and heart rate in rats, but not in monkeys. CONCLUSIONS:
      Once-weekly PF-05231023 lowered triglycerides markedly in the absence of weight
      loss, with modest changes in markers of bone homeostasis. This is the first
      report showing increases in BP and pulse rate in humans and rats after
      pharmacological administration of a long-acting FGF21 molecule.

PMID- 28573779
TI  - A skincare combined with combination of adapalene and benzoyl peroxide provides a
      significant adjunctive efficacy and local tolerance benefit in adult women with
      mild acne.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acne in adult women is an increasing reason for dermatological
      consultations. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess in adult women with
      mild acne the efficacy and tolerance of a daily adjunctive application of a
      skincare (Normaderm(r) , Laboratoires Vichy, France) to a fixed combination of
      adapalene/benzoyl peroxide daily or every other evening and a standard emollient.
      METHODS: Subjects were randomized to receive the fixed combination applied either
      every evening or every other evening and a daily application of the standard
      emollient and the test care or a once daily application of the fixed combination
      and the standard emollient alone. Clinical evaluations at Day 0, Day 45 and Day
      90 included the count of acne lesions, assessment of clinical improvement and
      local tolerance. The quantitative lipid profile of the stratum corneum of the
      forehead was also determined. RESULTS: After 90 days of application, acne had
      improved in all 299 subjects with a statistically significant difference in
      favour of the test care regimens (P < 0.05). Moreover, skin quality, subject
      satisfaction, skin discomfort and sebum composition were in favour of these
      regimens. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the tested skincare combined with a fixed
      adapalene and benzoyl peroxide combination provides a significant adjunctive
      efficacy and local tolerance benefit in adult women with mild acne.

PMID- 28573780
TI  - Mathematical approach to nonlocal interactions using a reaction-diffusion system.
AB  - In recent years, spatial long range interactions during developmental processes
      have been introduced as a result of the integration of microscopic information,
      such as molecular events and signaling networks. They are often called nonlocal
      interactions. If the profile of a nonlocal interaction is determined by
      experiments, we can easily investigate how patterns generate by numerical
      simulations without detailed microscopic events. Thus, nonlocal interactions are
      useful tools to understand complex biosystems. However, nonlocal interactions are
      often inconvenient for observing specific mechanisms because of the integration
      of information. Accordingly, we proposed a new method that could convert nonlocal
      interactions into a reaction-diffusion system with auxiliary unknown variables.
      In this review, by introducing biological and mathematical studies related to
      nonlocal interactions, we will present the heuristic understanding of nonlocal
      interactions using a reaction-diffusion system.

PMID- 28573781
TI  - Outpatient thyroidectomy is safe in the elderly and super-elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: 1) Determine the safety of outpatient thyroidectomy in the geriatric
      patient population. 2) Analyze the risk of postoperative complications from
      thyroid surgery in patients aged over 65 years (elderly) and aged over 80 years
      (super-elderly) undergoing ambulatory thyroidectomy compared to patients aged 21
      through 40 years. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of consecutive patients
      undergoing thyroidectomy between January 2008 and July 2015 at a tertiary
      academic institution. METHOD: Patients were stratified by age, and three subsets
      within this population were considered and analyzed further: youthful/control
      (aged 21-40 years), elderly (aged 65-79 years), and super-elderly (>= 80 years).
      Patient demographics, surgical and pathological data, admission status,
      complication, and readmission rates were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 1,429
      thyroidectomies were accomplished; of these, 1,207 (84.5%) were outpatient
      operations. Among the outpatients, 85.2% were female, 14.1% were male, and the
      mean age was 50.3 +/- 15.2 years. The control (youthful) group was comprised of
      328 patients with a mean age of 33.3 years; the elderly group of 201 patients had
      a mean age of 70.3 years; and 16 patients in the super-elderly group had a mean
      age 82.7 years. The complication rates (5.2%, 5.0%, and 6.3%, respectively; P =
      0.98) and re-admission rates (1.5%, 1.5%, and 0.0%, respectively; P = 0.89) were
      not different among these groups. CONCLUSION: Outpatient thyroid surgery is as
      safe in appropriately selected elderly and super-elderly patients as it is in a
      control group of youthful patients. Therefore, age should not be a
      contraindication to conducting thyroidectomy on an ambulatory basis. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:290-294, 2018.

PMID- 28573782
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28573783
TI  - Towards a science and practice of resilience in the face of pain.
AB  - : The primary objective of this paper is to discuss how a resilience approach to
      (chronic) pain may advance our current understanding of (mal)adaptation to pain.
      Different resilience perspectives are described, and future challenges for
      research, prevention and treatment of (chronic) pain are discussed. Literature
      searches were performed in Web of Science and PubMed to identify relevant
      literature on risk and resilience in the context of pain. Resilience can be best
      defined as the ability to restore and sustain living a fulfilling life in the
      presence of pain. The Psychological Flexibility Model, the Broaden-and-Build
      Theory, and Self-Determination Theory are described as theories that may provide
      insight into resilience within the context of (chronic) pain. We describe how a
      resilience paradigm shifts the outcomes to pursue in pain research and
      intervention and argue the need for including positive outcomes in addition to
      negative outcomes. Psychological flexibility, positive affect and basic
      psychological needs satisfaction are described as potentially important
      resilience mechanisms with the potential to target both sustainability and
      recovery from pain. A resilience approach to chronic pain may have important
      implications for the prevention and treatment of chronic pain problems, as it may
      give specific indications on how to empower patients to continue living a
      fulfilling life (in the presence of pain). SIGNIFICANCE: The resilience approach
      put forward in this review spotlights sustainability of positive outcomes (e.g.
      engagement in meaningful activities) in the presence of pain as an outcome to
      pursue beyond recovery of negative outcomes. We illuminate the evidence-base and
      practical application of promising resilience mechanisms (positive emotions,
      psychological flexibility, needs satisfaction). For this article, a commentary is
      available at the Wiley Online Library.

PMID- 28573784
TI  - Stratification and weighting via the propensity score in estimation of causal
      treatment effects: a comparative study.

PMID- 28573785
TI  - Biomarker release after percutaneous coronary intervention in patients without
      established myocardial infarction as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance with
      late gadolinium enhancement.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the amount and pattern of cardiac
      biomarker release after elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in
      patients without evidence of a new myocardial infarction (MI) after the procedure
      as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) with late gadolinium enhancement
      (LGE). BACKGROUND: The release of myocardial necrosis biomarkers after PCI
      frequently occurs. However, the correlation between biomarker release and the
      diagnosis of procedure-related MI type 4a has been controversial. METHODS:
      Patients with normal baseline cardiac biomarkers who were referred for elective
      PCI were prospectively included. CMR with LGE was performed in all of the
      patients before and after the intervention. Measurements of troponin I (TnI) and
      creatine kinase MB fraction (CK-MB) were systematically performed before and
      after the procedure. Patients with a new LGE on the post-procedure CMR were
      excluded. RESULTS: Of the 56 patients with no evidence of a procedure-related MI
      as assessed by CMR after the PCI, 48 (85.1%) exhibited an elevation of TnI above
      the 99th percentile. In 32 patients (57.1%), the peak was greater than five times
      this limit. Additionally, 17 patients (30.4%) had a CK-MB peak above the 99th
      percentile limit, but this peak was greater than five times the 99th percentile
      in only two patients (3.6%). The median peak release of TnI was 0.290 (0.061
      1.09) ng/mL, which was 7.25-fold higher than the 99th percentile. CONCLUSIONS: In
      contrast to CK-MB, an abnormal release of TnI often occurs after an elective PCI
      procedure, despite the absence of a new LGE on CMR.

PMID- 28573786
TI  - Real-life patterns of use, safety and effectiveness of sunitinib in first-line
      therapy of metastatic renal cell carcinoma: the SANTORIN cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate sunitinib in the real-life first-line treatment of
      metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). METHODS: SANTORIN is a French
      observational multicentre cohort. Patients initiating sunitinib in first-line
      mRCC therapy were included (January 2008 to April 2010) and followed for 24
      months. Data were collected from medical files. The outcomes were 24-month
      overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), response and safety.
      RESULTS: Three hundred two patients were included: median age, 64.8 years; male,
      73.2%; clear cell mRCC, 83.1%; prior nephrectomy, 85.4%; >1 metastatic sites,
      64.2%; brain metastases, 6.3%; ECOG-PS >= 2, 9.9%. Median duration of first-line
      therapy with sunitinib was 10.7 months. Initial sunitinib dose was 50 mg/day for
      83.4% of patients; dose reduction occurred in 65.2%. Sunitinib was discontinued
      in 73.2% of the patients: for progression (61.1%), death (31.2%) or adverse
      events (6.8%). More than half (58.3%) had grade >=3 adverse events, mainly
      hypertension (12.6%) and hand-foot syndrome (12.3%). The 24-month OS and PFS
      rates [95%CI] were 49.5% [43.7;55.0] and 16.4% [12.5;20.9], respectively. Median
      OS was 23.6 months [20.2;-] and median PFS 8.4 months [7.6;9.9]. Overall best
      response rate was 31.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this large observational study
      suggest that effectiveness of sunitinib in first-line mRCC as predicted by
      clinical trials is maintained in real-life clinical practice. The expected
      benefit in poor-prognosis patients that were not evaluated in the pivotal
      clinical trial remains; however, questionable and long-term safety monitoring is
      still warranted. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28573787
TI  - Understanding the experience of women admitted to a psychiatric hospital in
      Sydney with psychosis or mania following childbirth after World War II (1945
      1955).
AB  - In the present study, we investigated a unique set of historical health-care
      records of women admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Sydney, Australia with a
      diagnosis of psychosis or mania after childbirth in the post-World War II (WWII)
      period, from 1945 to 1955. This research is part of a larger project examining
      how the descriptions of these women documented in the health-care records from
      1885 to 1975 affected their treatment and the outcome of their admission. In the
      present paper, we report on the findings from an intensive examination of the
      post WWII documents. Eighteen health-care records from a psychiatric facility
      (Gladesville Hospital) were identified from admission registers housed in the
      State Records Office of New South Wales in 2014. Although seven records had been
      destroyed, 11 were transcribed verbatim. The records contain demographic
      information; descriptions of the women's signs and symptoms on admission; and
      information about the women before, during, and after their admission found in
      letters from relatives or medical staff. A content analysis of admission
      information showed how the women were described by health-care professionals, but
      a textual analysis of the records revealed that there were other factors that
      could have contributed to the women's condition, which might not have been taken
      into consideration when treatment and care were devised. The present study
      demonstrates the value of investigating historical health-care records to
      understand how prevailing attitudes and practices might affect diagnosis and
      treatment.

PMID- 28573789
TI  - Translation-dependent mRNA cleavage by YhaV in Escherichia coli.
AB  - Many bacteria have toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, where toxin gene expression
      inhibits their own cell growth. mRNA is one of the well-known targets of the
      toxins in the type II toxin-antitoxin systems. Here, we examined the ribosome
      dependency of the endoribonuclease activity of YhaV, one of the toxins in type II
      TA systems, on mRNA in vitro and in vivo. A polysome profiling assay revealed
      that YhaV is bound to the 70S ribosomes and 50S ribosomal subunits. Moreover, we
      found that while YhaV cleaves ompF and lpp mRNAs in a translation-dependent
      manner, they did not cleave the 5' untranslated region in primer extension
      experiments. From these results, we conclude that YhaV is a ribosome-dependent
      toxin that cleaves mRNA in a translation-dependent manner.

PMID- 28573788
TI  - In vitro additive antitumor effects of dimethoxycurcumin and 5-fluorouracil in
      colon cancer cells.
AB  - Dimethoxycurcumin (DMC) is a lipophilic analog of curcumin, an effective
      treatment for colon cancer, which has greater chemical and metabolic stability.
      Chemotherapy treatments, such as 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), play a key role in the
      current management of colon cancer. In this study, we investigated the antitumor
      efficacy of DMC in combination with 5-Fu in SW480 and SW620 colon cancer cells.
      CCK-8 assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory effect of DMC and 5-Fu on cancer
      cells proliferation, and the combination index was calculated. The influence of
      DMC and 5-Fu on cell cycle, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production,
      and mitochondrial membrane potential in SW480 and SW620 cells was determined
      using flow cytometry, and the related signaling pathways were detected by western
      blot. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe endoplasmic reticulum
      expansion. DMC- and/or 5-Fu-induced apoptosis, stimulated G0/G1 phase arrest,
      increased ROS levels, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and enhanced
      endoplasmic reticulum expansion. The induction of apoptosis is involved in the
      increasing of Bax and cytochrome c and decreasing of Bcl2 expressions. Increased
      production of ROS was accompanied by upregulation of CHOP and Noxa. Combination
      therapy of DMC and 5-Fu had increased efficacy on the above pathways compared
      with either drug alone. Based on the calculated IC50 , combination treatment with
      DMC and 5-Fu had an additive antitumor effect in both cell lines. Combined
      treatment with DMC and 5-Fu led to an additive antitumor effect in colon cancer
      cells that was related to apoptosis induction, G0/G1 phase arrest, increased ROS
      production, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and enhanced endoplasmic
      reticulum expansion.

PMID- 28573790
TI  - A comparison of programmable and nonprogrammable compression devices for
      treatment of lymphoedema using an administrative health outcomes dataset.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with lymphoedema experience lifelong swelling and recurrent
      cellulitis despite use of complete decongestive therapy. Pneumatic compression
      devices (PCDs), including nonprogrammable and programmable devices that meet
      individual patient needs, support long-term self-care in the home. OBJECTIVES:
      Patients with either a nonprogrammable device (NP-PCD) or a dynamic pressure
      programmable device [P-PCD; Flexitouch(r) (Tactile Medical, Minneapolis, MN,
      U.S.A.)] were evaluated to compare associated clinical and health utilization
      outcomes pre-/postdevice acquisition. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of
      deidentified administrative claims from 2007 through 2013 of a large U.S.
      insurer. Outcome variables included rates of lymphoedema-related cellulitis,
      manual therapy use, outpatient services and inpatient hospitalizations.
      Multivariate regression analysis was performed to (i) compare outcomes for the 12
      months pre- and postdevice acquisition and (ii) compare these two device types
      for their treatment-associated benefits. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 1013 NP
      PCD and 718 P-PCD recipients. Compared with the NP-PCD group, P-PCD patients'
      baseline cellulitis rate was higher, whereas their postdevice cellulitis rate was
      lower. In the cancer cohort, the NP-PCD group had a 53% reduction in episodes of
      cellulitis (from 17.9% to 8.5%), compared with a greater 79% reduction in the P
      PCD group (from 23.7% to 5.0%) (P < 0.001). In the noncancer cohort, the P-PCD
      group also experienced a larger 76% decline (from 31.0% to 7.4%) vs. 54% decline
      (from 22.9% to 10.6%) in cellulitis rates (P = 0.003). Outpatient service use
      reduced in both device groups, with greater reductions observed in the P-PCD
      group. Both device groups experienced reductions in manual therapy use. Inpatient
      hospitalizations were largely stable with reductions observed only in the
      noncancer cohort of the P-PCD group. CONCLUSIONS: P-PCD receipt was associated
      with superior lymphoedema-related health outcomes and reductions in cellulitis.

PMID- 28573791
TI  - Early Experiences of Contact Laser Vaporization of the Prostate using the 980 nm
      High Power Diode Laser for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We report early experiences of contact laser vaporization of the
      prostate for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). METHODS: A total of
      80 patients recruited at four institutions in Japan from April 2013 through
      September 2014 underwent contact laser vaporization of the prostate using 980 nm
      high power diode laser with an end-firing fiber in the contact mode. Patients
      were followed prospectively at 1 day, 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 weeks, postoperatively
      per protocol, and at 1 and 2 years post-protocol. RESULTS: Of 76 eligible
      patients, 64 (84.2%) achieved more than 50% decrease in International Prostate
      Symptom Score at 24 weeks (95% confidence interval: 74.0-91.6%), clearing the pre
      fixed non-inferiority efficacy level to transurethral resection of the prostate
      (65%). Symptom scores, maximum flow rate, post-void residual urine, and prostate
      volume showed significant improvements at 12 and 24 weeks after the surgery.
      Perioperative complications included transient urinary retention (n = 20),
      retrograde ejaculation (5), bladder neck contracture (4), urethral stricture (3),
      stone in prostatic bed (3), bladder stone (2), bladder perforation (1), bladder
      deformity (1), and transient urgency incontinence (1). Urinary retention and
      bladder neck contracture occurred almost exclusively at one institution. Improved
      symptom scores, maximum flow rate, and post-void residual urine observed at 24
      weeks remained virtually unchanged at 1 and 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Early
      experience of contact laser vaporization in Japan showed efficacy comparable to
      transurethral resection of the prostate as a surgical procedure for BPH at 24
      weeks. Long-term efficacy of the procedure remains uncertain.

PMID- 28573793
TI  - Traceability of Opuntia ficus-indica L. Miller by ICP-MS multi-element profile
      and chemometric approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opuntia ficus-indica L. Miller fruits, particularly 'Ficodindia
      dell'Etna' of Biancavilla (POD), 'Fico d'india tradizionale di Roccapalumba' with
      protected brand and samples from an experimental field in Pezzolo (Sicily) were
      analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in order to determine
      the multi-element profile. A multivariate chemometric approach, specifically
      principal component analysis (PCA), was applied to individuate how mineral
      elements may represent a marker of geographic origin, which would be useful for
      traceability. RESULTS: PCA has allowed us to verify that the geographical origin
      of prickly pear fruits is significantly influenced by trace element content, and
      the results found in Biancavilla PDO samples were linked to the geological
      composition of this volcanic areas. It was observed that two principal components
      accounted for 72.03% of the total variance in the data and, in more detail, PC1
      explains 45.51% and PC2 26.52%, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated
      that PCA is an integrated tool for the traceability of food products and, at the
      same time, a useful method of authentication of typical local fruits such as
      prickly pear. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573794
TI  - Possible Involvement of the CACNA1E Gene in Migraine: A Search for Single
      Nucleotide Polymorphism in Different Clinical Phenotypes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To search for differences in prevalence of a CACNA1E variant between
      migraine without aura, various phenotypes of migraine with aura, and healthy
      controls. BACKGROUND: Familial hemiplegic migraine type 1 (FHM1) is associated
      with mutations in the CACNA1A gene coding for the alpha 1A (Cav 2.1) pore-forming
      subunit of P/Q voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels. These mutations are not found in
      the common forms of migraine with or without aura. The alpha 1E subunit (Cav 2.3)
      is the counterpart of Cav 2.1 in R-type Ca2+ channels, has different functional
      properties, and is encoded by the CACNA1E gene. METHODS: First, we performed a
      total exon sequencing of the CACNA1E gene in three probands selected because they
      had no abnormalities in the three FHM genes. In a patient suffering from basilar
      type migraine, we identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in exon 20 of
      the CACNA1E gene (Asp859Glu - rs35737760; Minor Allele Frequency 0.2241) hitherto
      not studied in migraine. In a second step, we determined its occurrence in four
      groups by direct sequencing on blood genomic DNA: migraine patients without aura
      (N = 24), with typical aura (N = 55), complex neurological auras (N = 19;
      hemiplegic aura: N = 15; brain stem aura: N = 4), and healthy controls (N = 102).
      RESULTS: The Asp859Glu - rs35737760 SNP of the CACNA1E gene was present in 12.7%
      of control subjects and in 20.4% of the total migraine group. In the migraine
      group it was significantly over-represented in patients with complex neurological
      auras (42.1%), OR 4.98 (95% CI: 1.69-14.67, uncorrected P = .005, Bonferroni P =
      .030, 2-tailed Fisher's exact test). There was no significant difference between
      migraine with typical aura (10.9%) and controls. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a
      polymorphism in exon 20 of the CACNA1E gene (Asp859Glu - rs35737760) that is more
      prevalent in hemiplegic and brain stem aura migraine. This missense variant
      causes a change from aspartate to glutamate at position 859 of the Cav 2.3
      protein and might modulate the function of R-type Ca2+ channels. It could thus be
      relevant for migraine with complex neurological aura, although this remains to be
      proven.

PMID- 28573795
TI  - Digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS) and protein digestibility
      corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) in oat protein concentrate measured in 20- to
      30-kilogram pigs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oat protein concentrate is often used in human food, but the quality
      of this protein has not been characterized. Therefore, the objectives of this
      experiment were to determine the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of crude
      protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in oat protein concentrate and to determine
      differences in protein quality estimates between the protein digestibility
      corrected AA score (PDCAAS) and the digestible indispensable AA score (DIAAS)
      when using growing pigs for both measurements. RESULTS: For infants, the most
      limiting AA in oat protein concentrate was the aromatic AA (Phe + Tyr), for which
      the DIAAS value was 41 and the PDCAAS was 43. For children (6 months to 3 years)
      and children older than 3 years, the most limiting AA in oat protein concentrate
      was Lys, for which the DIAAS was 56 and 67 and the PDCAAS was 58 and 69,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The DIAAS value for oat protein concentrate was close
      to the calculated value for PDCAAS, but below the recommended intake for protein.
      Therefore, to satisfy the daily human AA requirement, oat protein needs to be
      complemented by other proteins of higher quality and specifically with greater
      lysine concentrations. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28573796
TI  - Massive left atrial myxoma induced congestive heart failure.

PMID- 28573797
TI  - Is salivary IgA level a potential biomarker for immunosuppression in HIV-positive
      children? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - The aim of this systematic review was to determine whether or not assessment of
      salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels could be a potential biomarker
      for immunosuppression in HIV-positive children. The Patient, Exposure,
      Comparative, Outcome question was "Is sIgA level a potential biomarker for
      immunosuppression in HIV-positive children?" Electronic and manual literature
      searches were conducted in indexed databases (MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE,
      ScienceDirect, and SCOPUS databases) up to and including June 2017. The primary
      outcome was total mean salivary levels of IgA among HIV seropositive and
      seronegative children (controls). The weighted mean differences (WMD) of outcomes
      and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for total mean salivary IgA levels were
      calculated using a random effect model. Six studies were included. Three studies
      showed significantly lower salivary IgA levels in HIV-infected children compared
      with controls. Two studies showed comparable IgA levels in HIV infected and
      controls. One study showed significantly higher levels of salivary IgA in HIV
      infected children as compared to controls. Considering the total mean salivary
      IgA levels among HIV seropositive and seronegative children, a high degree of
      heterogeneity (Q value = 254.09, P < .0001, I2  = 98.82%) was noticed among both
      groups. The overall WMD was not significant (WMD = -1.18, 95% CI, -1.91 to -0.44,
      P = .39). Whether salivary IgA level is a potential biomarker for
      immunosuppression in HIV-positive children remains debatable because of limited
      information available in the current literature. Further, high-quality case
      control studies with larger sample size and more solid methodological aspects are
      required.

PMID- 28573798
TI  - Pelvic osteomyelitis: Three unusual cases with predominantly abdominal symptoms.

PMID- 28573799
TI  - Group A streptococcal primary peritonitis in a healthy girl.

PMID- 28573800
TI  - No compromise on female genital mutilation.

PMID- 28573802
TI  - Recurrent episodes of peripheral facial nerve palsy and fissured tongue.

PMID- 28573803
TI  - Effect of socio-economic status on sleep.
AB  - AIM: Sufficient sleep is an important factor in physical and mental health. Sleep
      duration can be affected by socio-economic status (SES). This study aimed to
      examine the association between sleep duration and SES in Korean adolescents.
      METHODS: This study was conducted with 1608 adolescents aged 12-18 years, based
      on data from the 2010 to 2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey (KNHANES). Sleep duration was self-reported in hours and three SES
      indicators were used: household income, basic livelihood security programmes and
      type of health insurance. Confounding factors in this study were age, mental
      health and physical activity. RESULTS: Participants' average age was 15.6 +/-
      0.05 years and average sleep duration was 7.04 +/- 0.05 h. There was a strong
      association between sleep duration and household income (P < 0.05) rather than
      other socio-economic indicators. In addition, it showed that sleep duration was
      significantly associated with age, body mass index (P < 0.05) and low mood is
      associated with short sleep and long sleep (>9 h/night). We found similar results
      in both genders, that is, that the highest income group had shorter sleep
      duration than the lowest income group. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the
      SES, particularly household income, is an important factor in short sleep
      duration in Korean adolescents. Our findings suggest that, in future
      investigations of the adolescent's sleep problem, attention should be paid to
      household income.

PMID- 28573804
TI  - Deep jaundice in a child with sickle cell disease.

PMID- 28573805
TI  - Recurrent episodes of peripheral facial nerve palsy and fissured tongue.

PMID- 28573806
TI  - Deep jaundice in a child with sickle cell disease.

PMID- 28573807
TI  - Jemma's diagnosis.

PMID- 28573808
TI  - Aboriginal staff leading partnership in remote Australia.

PMID- 28573809
TI  - Female genital mutilation and the role of health-care practitioners.

PMID- 28573810
TI  - Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Who knows? Who cares?

PMID- 28573812
TI  - Oropharyngeal carriage rates of Kingella kingae in young children in New Zealand
      and Australia.

PMID- 28573813
TI  - Vitamin D in newborns. A randomised controlled trial comparing daily and single
      oral bolus vitamin D in infants.

PMID- 28573814
TI  - Retrospective review of consecutive cases of paediatric complex pain in a New
      South Wales tertiary children's hospital.
AB  - AIM: Prior to July 2013, a solo medical specialist provided a pain management
      service 1.5-2 days/week to children and young people aged 0-19 years, and their
      families at John Hunter Children's Hospital, Newcastle, NSW. A new
      multidisciplinary children's complex pain team now continues that service. This
      study aimed to identify the demographic and clinical characteristics of children,
      young people and their families referred to a paediatric pain specialist in the
      5.5 years prior to the establishment of a multidisciplinary service and to
      quantify anecdotal observations, determine service priorities and identify
      clinical improvement opportunities. METHODS: A retrospective review of the
      medical records of all new patients seen between January 2008 and June 2013 was
      conducted. Data sets for patient demographics, clinical characteristics, service
      outputs and disposition at discharge were determined prior to data extraction.
      RESULTS: A total of 114 children and young people aged between 7 days and 18
      years (mean +/- SD = 12.54 +/- 3.6 years) were consecutively referred to the
      service. Many demographics are consistent with those previously reported;
      however, the number of children who identified as being of Aboriginal origin
      (11%), with rare diseases (28%), new diagnoses made (47%), child protection
      reports submitted (14%) and psychological morbidity in children (58%) and
      caregivers (38%) are new findings in the context of pain management and serve as
      indicators of the complex service needs of these patients and their families.
      CONCLUSION: The complexities encountered in this small cohort provide an
      indication of the time investment needed to understand and manage complex
      paediatric pain, especially in the contexts of complex families, time-poor
      general practitioners and under-resourced communities.

PMID- 28573815
TI  - Tape Lift Sampling of Chemical Threat Agents.
AB  - Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) materials were evaluated as surface samplers for
      the Department of Homeland Security Chemical Forensics Program. The program helps
      evidence collectors identify trace chemical residues at incident scenes. COTS
      items are widely available, produced in large lots, and with strict controls.
      Chemical attribution signatures were collected from common surfaces. Eight tape
      lift candidates were considered, five were chosen based on performance and tested
      for analytical interferences and extraction efficiencies with 14 chemicals. Three
      products (duct tape, print lifters, command strips) were evaluated for uptake
      from common interior surfaces (glass, tile, ABS plastic). Duct tape provided
      highest recoveries across all surfaces. Even the most volatile analytes were
      detected in the ABS plastic samples (nondetections in others), regardless of tape
      lift material used. The porous plastic substrate provides better target retention
      than glass and tile surfaces. Forensic field operators should sample surfaces
      made of ABS plastic (keyboards, remotes, phones, etc.) whenever possible.

PMID- 28573816
TI  - Lipid Internal Dynamics Probed in Nanodiscs.
AB  - Nanodiscs offer a very promising tool to incorporate membrane proteins into
      native-like lipid bilayers and an alternative to liposomes to maintain protein
      functions and protein-lipid interactions in a soluble nanoscale object. The
      activity of the incorporated membrane protein appears to be correlated to its
      dynamics in the lipid bilayer and by protein-lipid interactions. These two
      parameters depend on the lipid internal dynamics surrounded by the lipid
      encircling discoidal scaffold protein that might differ from more unrestricted
      lipid bilayers observed in vesicles or cellular extracts. A solid-state NMR
      spectroscopy investigation of lipid internal dynamics and thermotropism in
      nanodiscs is reported. The gel-to-fluid phase transition is almost abolished for
      nanodiscs, which maintain lipid fluid properties for a large temperature range.
      The addition of cholesterol allows fine-tuning of the internal bilayer dynamics
      by increasing chain ordering. Increased site-specific order parameters along the
      acyl chain reflect a higher internal ordering in nanodiscs compared with
      liposomes at room temperature; this is induced by the scaffold protein, which
      restricts lipid diffusion in the nanodisc area.

PMID- 28573817
TI  - Imaging of labyrinthine fistula after repair with bone pate.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To demonstrate imaging of labyrinthine fistula due to
      cholesteatoma and illustrate outcome following repair with bone pate. STUDY
      DESIGN: Retrospective review. METHODS: Patients with labyrinthine fistula due to
      cholesteatoma were identified, and pre- and postoperative imaging was assessed.
      Method of repair was recorded. The fistula site was examined for patency and bone
      density after repair. RESULTS: Twenty-nine fistulae were seen in a cohort of 375
      cholesteatoma cases (8%). Preoperative computed tomography (CT) imaging for
      fistula detection showed sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 90%. The lateral
      semicircular canal was the most common site of dehiscence occurring in all cases.
      Facial nerve dehiscence is observed in 91% of fistula cases and stapes erosion in
      69%. Severe hearing loss was present preoperatively in four (14%) cases. Bone
      pate was used to repair the fistula with CT-documented restoration of the otic
      capsule in 11/13 cases with postoperative imaging. When bone pate was not used,
      the otic capsule defect persisted. CONCLUSIONS: Spontaneous repair of the otic
      capsule following treatment of cholesteatoma is expected to be an uncommon
      occurrence. Repair of the fistula with bone can result in long-lasting
      restoration of the otic capsule. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:1643
      1648, 2018.

PMID- 28573818
TI  - The journey between brain and gut: A systematic review of psychological
      mechanisms of treatment effect in irritable bowel syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal (GI)
      disorder characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. It is
      estimated to affect 10-22% of the UK population. The use of psychological
      interventions in IBS is increasingly empirically supported, but little is known
      about the mechanism of psychological treatment approaches. The present systematic
      review aimed to investigate the mechanisms of psychological treatment approaches
      applied to IBS. METHODS: The systematic review included studies conducting
      mediation analysis in the context of psychological interventions for IBS,
      focusing on the outcomes of symptom severity and/or quality of life (QoL).
      RESULTS: Nine studies in total were included in the review. Eight of the studies
      assessed mediation in the context of cognitive behavioural-based interventions,
      and one study assessed mediation in a mindfulness-based stress reduction
      intervention. Results indicate that change in illness-specific cognitions is a
      key process by which psychological treatments may have an effect on the outcomes
      of symptom severity and QoL. Furthermore, results suggest that whilst GI-specific
      anxiety may also be a key mechanism of treatment effect, it would appear that
      general or state anxiety is not. Although less commonly included in mediation
      analysis, illness-specific behaviours may also have a mediating role.
      CONCLUSIONS: A mediational model amalgamating the results of studies is proposed
      to illustrate the findings of the review. The model depicts the process by which
      psychotherapy changes illness-specific cognitions, behaviours, and anxiety to
      achieve reduction in symptom severity. Statement of contribution What is already
      known on this subject? Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the predominant
      psychological treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), although there is
      some research supporting other treatments such as mindfulness and hypnotherapy.
      Mediation analysis in the context of psychological treatments for IBS has just
      begun to explore possible mechanisms of treatment effect especially within CBT
      studies. Some studies include anxiety in a basic mediation analysis, whilst
      others include cognitions with inconsistent results for each. What does this
      study add? Reviews mediators included in mediation analysis and the methods used
      for mediation analysis Proposes a mediation model informed by the results of the
      review for future studies to investigate Provides clinical implications for the
      targeting of cognitions and behaviours rather than general anxiety.

PMID- 28573820
TI  - Aromatherapy massage versus reflexology on female elderly with acute coronary
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fatigue and abnormalities in cardiovascular parameters are recognized
      as major problems for patients with acute coronary syndrome. Non-pharmacological
      nursing interventions are useful for controlling this fatigue and reducing
      patients' suffering during hospitalization. AIM: The present study compared the
      effects of aromatherapy massage and reflexology on fatigue and cardiovascular
      parameters in older female patients with acute coronary syndrome. DESIGN: This
      study was a randomized clinical trial. METHODS: The study was conducted with 135
      older female patients with acute coronary syndrome who were hospitalized in a
      cardiac care unit in 2014. They were invited to participate in the study and then
      were randomly divided into three groups: 'aromatherapy massage', 'reflexology'
      and 'control'. The fatigue severity and cardiovascular parameters were assessed
      using the Rhoten fatigue scale and a checklist. Measurements in the groups were
      performed before and immediately after the intervention. Data analysis was
      performed using descriptive and analytical statistics via the SPSS software.
      RESULTS: Aromatherapy massage significantly decreased fatigue, systolic blood
      pressure, mean arterial pressure and O2 saturation more than the reflexology
      intervention. However, reflexology reduced patients' heart rates more than an
      aromatherapy massage (P < 0.05). Moreover, no significant changes were observed
      in patients' diastolic blood pressures when compared to the control group (P =
      0.37). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of both aromatherapy massage and reflexology
      has positive effects on the fatigue and cardiovascular parameters of patients
      with acute coronary syndrome. However, aromatherapy massage can be more
      beneficial to use as a supportive approach in coronary diseases. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: The need for reducing fatigue in acute coronary syndrome (ACS)
      patients in a cardiac care unit is evident. The implementation of aromatherapy
      massage and reflexology had positive effects on patients' fatigue as related to
      both physical and mental health.

PMID- 28573819
TI  - Use of eltrombopag for secondary immune thrombocytopenia in clinical practice.
AB  - Eltrombopag is a second-line treatment in primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).
      However, its role in secondary ITP is unknown. We evaluated the efficacy and
      safety of eltrombopag in secondary ITP in daily clinical practice. Eighty-seven
      secondary ITP patients (46 with ITP secondary to autoimmune syndromes, 23 with
      ITP secondary to a neoplastic disease subtype: lymphoproliferative disorders
      [LPDs] and 18 with ITP secondary to viral infections) who had been treated with
      eltrombopag were retrospectively evaluated. Forty-four patients (38%) had a
      platelet response, including 40 (35%) with complete responses. Median time to
      platelet response was 15 days (95% confidence interval, 7-28 days), and was
      longer in the LPD-ITP group. Platelet response rate was significantly lower in
      the LPD-ITP than in other groups. However, having achieved response, there were
      no significant differences between the durable response of the groups. Forty
      three patients (49.4%) experienced adverse events (mainly grade 1-2), the
      commonest being hepatobiliary laboratory abnormalities. There were 10 deaths in
      this case series, all of which were related to pre-existing medical conditions.
      In routine clinical practice, eltrombopag is effective and well-tolerated in
      unselected patients with ITP secondary to both immune and infectious disorders.
      However, the response rate in LPD-ITP is low.

PMID- 28573822
TI  - The interview, revisited.

PMID- 28573821
TI  - Overexpression of the human antigen R suppresses the immediate paradoxical
      proliferation of melanoma cell subpopulations in response to suboptimal BRAF
      inhibition.
AB  - Tumor plasticity and the heterogeneous response of melanoma cells to targeted
      therapies are major limits for the long-term efficacy of this line of therapy.
      Targeting tumor plasticity is theoretically possible through the modulation of
      the expression of RNA-binding proteins which can affect many different
      compensatory mechanisms of the adaptive response of malignant cells to targeted
      therapies. Human antigen R (HuR) is a modulator of gene expression and a
      transacting factor in the mRNA-processing machinery used in the cell stress
      response, and is a potential target for reducing tumor plasticity. In this
      experiment, we exploit the inherent heterogeneous response of the A375 melanoma
      line to suboptimal BRAF inhibition as a model of immediate adaptive response. We
      first observe that HuR overexpression can prevent the heterogeneous response and
      thus the immediate paradoxical proliferation induced by low-doses vemurafenib
      treatment. We then use single-cell mass cytometry to characterize subpopulations,
      including those that paradoxically proliferate, based on their proliferation rate
      and the expression patterns of markers involved in the reversible adaptive
      resistance to BRAF inhibition and/or recognized as HuR targets involved in cell
      cycle regulation. Under suboptimal BRAF inhibition, HuR overexpression affects
      these subpopulations and their expression pattern with contrasting responses
      depending on their proliferation rate: faster-proliferating vemurafenib-sensitive
      or -resistant subpopulations showed higher death tendency and reduced size, and
      slower-proliferating subpopulations showed an attenuated resistant expression
      response and their paradoxical proliferation was inhibited. These observations
      pave the way to new therapeutic strategies for preventing the heterogeneous
      response of tumors to targeted therapies.

PMID- 28573823
TI  - The effect of smartphone addiction on hand joints in psoriatic patients: an
      ultrasound-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distal interphalangeal (DIP) arthritis is a frequent form of
      psoriatic arthritis being often linked to nail psoriasis. Modern society is
      characterized by overuse of smartphones. Indeed, literature has recently
      focalized on research into smartphone addiction and health-related problems.
      OBJECTIVES: As smartphone addiction is able to determine overuse and repeated
      movements of DIP joints and nails, the aim of this study was to evaluate the
      impact of smartphone use on hand joints of young psoriatic patients. METHODS: An
      observational study involving four different groups such as non-smartphone
      addicted (SA) psoriatic patients, SA psoriatic patients, non-SA controls and SA
      controls was performed. Each subject underwent an ultrasound examination of both
      hands by three independent and blinded to group assignment radiologists. A
      specific score was used to evaluate the inflammatory state of the analysed
      joints. RESULTS: The total ultrasound score was statistically significantly
      higher in SA controls respect to non-SA controls (3.4 vs. 1.4; P < 0.05) as well
      as in SA psoriasis patients compared to non-SA psoriatic subjects (15.2 vs. 6.7;
      P < 0.01). Higher mean of ultrasound score was found for left hand in controls
      (both SA or not) and for right hand in psoriatic subjects (both SA or not),
      however without reaching statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone
      overuse was found to be linked with higher signs of inflammation of
      musculoskeletal structures of hands joints in both psoriasis and controls through
      ultrasound examination. Therefore, smartphone overuse may be a factor which
      facilitate or speed up the possible development of psoriatic arthritis.

PMID- 28573824
TI  - Bone cement cardiac and pulmonary embolism.
AB  - This case describes a complication of bone cement use. A 65-year-old male patient
      with back spine trauma caused by a fall, underwent a percutaneous vertebroplasty.
      Five years later, he consulted for palpitations, and the electrocardiogram showed
      supraventricular arrhythmia. A transthoracic two-dimensional echocardiography
      showed a hyperechogenic linear structure of 7 cm length, running from the lateral
      wall of the right ventricle to the right atrium through the tricuspid valve. This
      foreign body, which was suspicious for bone cement embolism, appeared rigid and
      was attached at the lateral wall of the right ventricle, with its proximal end
      free in the right atrium. The tip of the cement embolus was inside the myocardium
      of the lateral wall of the right ventricle, with risk of cardiac perforation. A
      fluoroscopy was performed, which confirmed the presence of cement within the
      right heart, with great mobility in each cardiac cycle. Chest computed tomography
      (CT) and multidetector CT three-dimensional reconstruction confirmed the presence
      of cement within the right heart. Chest CT showed two pulmonary embolisms, one in
      the right upper lobe and one in the left lower pulmonary lobe. This case
      emphasizes the risk of late clinical manifestations of cardiac and pulmonary
      embolism of methylmethacrylate after percutaneous vertebroplasty, suggesting that
      the risk of such embolism might be underestimated. We propose routine chest
      radiography, two-dimensional echocardiography, and chest CT after every
      percutaneous vertebroplasty, to detect asymptomatic cardiac and pulmonary
      embolism and thereby prevent serious delayed cardiopulmonary failures.

PMID- 28573826
TI  - Relationship between parental hypertension and cardiometabolic risk factors in
      adolescents: Methodological issues.

PMID- 28573827
TI  - Does serious consequential masking exist? An update.

PMID- 28573825
TI  - Clinimetric properties of the Nociception Coma Scale (-Revised): A systematic
      review.
AB  - : The Nociception Coma Scale is a nociception behaviour observation tool,
      developed specifically for patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) due to
      (acquired) brain injury. Over the years, the clinimetric properties of the NCS
      and its revised version (NCS-R) have been assessed, but no formal summary of
      these properties has been made. Therefore, we performed a systematic review on
      the clinimetric properties (i.e. reliability, validity, responsiveness and
      interpretability) of the NCS(-R). We systematically searched CENTRAL, CINAHL,
      Embase, PsycInfo and Web of Science until August 2015. Two reviewers
      independently selected the clinimetric studies and extracted data with a
      structured form. Included studies were appraised on quality with the COSMIN
      checklist. Eight studies were found eligible and were appraised with the COSMIN
      checklist. Although nearly all studies lacked sample size calculation, and were
      executed by the same group of authors, the methodological quality ranged from
      fair to excellent. Important aspects of reliability, construct validity and
      responsiveness have been studied in depth and with sufficient methodological
      quality. The overview of clinimetric properties in this study shows that the NCS
      and NCS-R are both valid and useful instruments to assess nociceptive behaviour
      in DOC patients. The studies provide guidance for the choice in NCS-R cut-off
      value for possible pain treatment and cautions awareness of interprofessional
      differences in NCS-R measurements. SIGNIFICANCE: This systematic review provides
      a structured overview of the clinimetric properties of the Nociception Coma Scale
      (-Revised) and provides insights for a solid evidence-based nociception behaviour
      assessment and treatment plan.

PMID- 28573828
TI  - Social support in chat sessions for adolescents and young adults living with a
      family member with mental illness.
AB  - Children from families with a mental illness are at risk of developing negative
      health outcomes. Online interventions are a new way to offer support to these
      children. The present study utilized a website that had been developed to support
      Dutch youth who had a family member with a mental illness. The objective was to
      analyse monitored and unmonitored chatroom conversations among these young
      people, and specifically to compare supportive messages and self-disclosures of
      experiences. We electronically imported session transcripts of 34 chatroom
      conversations into the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti. A content analysis
      was performed on 4252 messages from 22 female participants. A correlational
      analysis was then conducted to identify significant associations between sent and
      received supportive statements and disclosing statements. We found supporting
      comments in approximately 34% of the conversations and disclosures of problems in
      the home in approximately 15-18% of the messages. Participants made approximately
      twice as many disclosing statements and approximately half as many supportive
      statements in the monitored sessions compared to the unmonitored sessions. The
      number of disclosures that were sent was positively correlated with the amount of
      social support that was received. The number of disclosures sent was negatively
      correlated with the amount of social support that was sent, but only in the
      unmonitored sessions. Considering the greater reach of Internet interventions,
      online chatroom sessions might be provided as complementary to, or as an
      alternative to, face-to-face groups for supporting youth with a family member who
      has a mental illness.

PMID- 28573830
TI  - Psychophysiological effects of oxytocin on parent-child interactions: A
      literature review on oxytocin and parent-child interactions.
AB  - Oxytocin (OT), often called the 'hormone of love' or 'hormone of attachment,'
      plays a fundamental role in the establishment and quality of parent-infant
      bonding. However, emerging evidence indicates that OT can also produce antisocial
      behavior. To clarify these effects, we review studies examining the role of
      endogenous and exogenous OT on several determinants of attachment: parental
      sensitivity, and bonding or synchrony in parent-child dyads. Contextual and
      individual factors moderating the effect of intranasal OT and its peripheral
      levels are also reviewed. Finally, potential therapeutic applications for OT and
      current limitations in human OT research are examined. This systematic literature
      review was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta
      Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, with two electronic databases and other
      bibliographic sources. We identified a total of 47 relevant studies for inclusion
      in our review. Most of the findings are in accordance with recent ideas that OT
      administration may increase parent-child prosocial interaction, showing that OT
      exerts beneficial effects on processes thought to promote bonding, sensitivity,
      and synchrony. However, we found that OT can induce antisocial behavior (e.g.,
      anxiety) or adverse effects (modulation of maternal care recollections) that are
      moderated by different contextual (e.g., maltreatment level, presence of
      unfamiliar people) and individual (attachment style) factors. This review
      reinforces the importance of context- and individual-dependent factors, which
      must be taken into account when analyzing the psychophysiological effects of OT.

PMID- 28573829
TI  - Comparative proteomic profiling of the serum differentiates pancreatic cancer
      from chronic pancreatitis.
AB  - Finland ranks sixth among the countries having highest incidence rate of
      pancreatic cancer with mortality roughly equaling incidence. The average age of
      diagnosis for pancreatic cancer is 69 years in Nordic males, whereas the average
      age of diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis is 40-50 years, however, many cases
      overlap in age. By radiology, the evaluation of a pancreatic mass, that is, the
      differential diagnosis between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer is
      often difficult. Preoperative needle biopsies are difficult to obtain and are
      demanding to interpret. New blood based biomarkers are needed. The accuracy of
      the only established biomarker for pancreatic cancer, CA 19-9 is rather poor in
      differentiating between benign and malignant mass of the pancreas. In this study,
      we have performed mass spectrometry analysis (High Definition MSE ) of serum
      samples from patients with chronic pancreatitis (13) and pancreatic cancer (22).
      We have quantified 291 proteins and performed detailed statistical analysis such
      as principal component analysis, orthogonal partial least square discriminant
      analysis and receiver operating curve analysis. The proteomic signature of
      chronic pancreatitis versus pancreatic cancer samples was able to separate the
      two groups by multiple statistical techniques. Some of the enriched pathways in
      the proteomic dataset were LXR/RXR activation, complement and coagulation systems
      and inflammatory response. We propose that multiple high-confidence biomarker
      candidates in our pilot study including Inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain
      H2 (Area under the curve, AUC: 0.947), protein AMBP (AUC: 0.951) and prothrombin
      (AUC: 0.917), which should be further evaluated in larger patient series as
      potential new biomarkers for differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28573832
TI  - Effect of Preoperative Low Maximal Flow Rate on Postoperative Voiding Trials
      after the Midurethral Sling Procedure in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of preoperative low maximal flow rate (Qmax)
      on voiding trials after the midurethral sling (MUS) procedure in women with
      stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: One hundred and sixty-eight women who
      underwent MUS procedure were enrolled. Preoperative free uroflowmetry was
      performed and patients were divided by Qmax. Low Qmax was defined as a Qmax under
      15 mL/sec with voided volume at least 150 mL. Surgical results, failure of
      voiding trial, and postoperative uroflowmetry parameters were compared between
      the groups. Failure of voiding trial was defined by a PVR more than 100 mL on
      postoperative uroflowmetry. RESULTS: At the discharge day, there were 42 cases
      showing failure of voiding trial and 33 cases requiring CIC, but only one patient
      showed failure of voiding trial at 12 months postoperatively. Overall, 48
      patients had preoperative low Qmax. Low Qmax group showed lower Qmax in all of
      postoperative uroflowmetry, but there were no significant differences in the rate
      of postoperative voiding trial failure or CIC. The low Qmax group was then
      divided into two groups according to the preoperative detrusor pressure at Qmax
      over and under 20 cmH2 O in pressure flow study. Comparing the two groups, no
      significant differences were observed in the cure rate, voiding trial failure or
      CIC. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that women with preoperative low Qmax
      experienced no definite unfavorable voiding problem from the MUS procedure
      compared to those with normal voiding function. MUS procedure may be regarded as
      a safe and successful procedure in SUI women with low Qmax.

PMID- 28573831
TI  - Auditory and otologic profile of Alstrom syndrome: Comprehensive single center
      data on 38 patients.
AB  - Alstrom syndrome (AS) is a rare autosomal recessive ciliopathy caused by
      mutations in the ALMS1 gene. Hallmark characteristics include childhood onset of
      severe retinal degeneration, sensorineural hearing loss, obesity, insulin
      resistant diabetes, and cardiomyopathy. Here we comprehensively characterize the
      auditory and otologic manifestations in a prospective case series of 38
      individuals, aged 1.7-37.9 years, with genetically confirmed AS. Hearing loss was
      preceded by retinal dystrophy in all cases, and had an average age of detection
      of 7.45 years (range 1.5-15). Audiometric assessments showed mean pure tone
      averages (0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz) of 48.6 and 47.5 dB HL in the right and left ears,
      respectively. Hearing was within normal limits for only 8/74 ears (11%). For the
      66 ears with hearing loss, the degree was mild (12%), moderate (54%), or severe
      (8%). Type of hearing loss was predominantly sensorineural (77%), while three
      ears had mixed loss, no ears had conductive loss, and type of hearing loss was
      indeterminate for the remaining 12 ears. Serial audiograms available for 33
      patients showed hearing loss progression of approximately 10-15 dB/decade. Our
      data show that hearing loss associated with AS begins in childhood and is a
      predominantly symmetric, sensory hearing loss that may progress to a severe
      degree. Absent otoacoustic emissions, intact speech discrimination, and
      disproportionately normal auditory brainstem responses suggest an outer hair cell
      site of lesion. These findings indicate that individuals with AS would benefit
      from sound amplification and if necessary, cochlear implantation.

PMID- 28573833
TI  - Factors affecting dental fluorosis in low socioeconomic status children in
      Mexico.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between dental fluorosis and maternal
      education in schoolchildren of medium and low socioeconomic status in a low
      income region of Mexico. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTINGS: Public schools
      in the south-central region of Oaxaca, Mexico where the mean fluoride water
      concentration was 1.01 mg/L (SD 0.21; range 0.71-1.40). Fluoridated salt
      (200mgF/kg) was available in the region. PARTICIPANTS: 794 schoolchildren.
      METHODS: To identify the socioeconomic status of the participants, the Bronfman
      index was used. Dental fluorosis was assessed applying the Thysltrup-Fejerskov
      Index, (TF). RESULTS: The children's mean age was 10.4 (SD1.2) years. The
      prevalence of dental fluorosis (TF?0) was high 95.7% and 45.2% of the children
      showed dental fluorosis of TF>=4. The percentage of children showing TF>=4 was
      48.8% where their mothers' education was ?6 years of schooling compared to 36.7%
      among other children (p?0.001). The multinomial logistic regression model using
      as base outcome category TF<=2 showed that severe forms of fluorosis (TF>=4) were
      associated with the consumption of boiled water, (OR= 1.65, p=0.039) of
      fluoridated salt (OR= 2.61 p=0.001), high brushing frequency (OR=3.12, p=0.001)
      and lower maternal education (OR=1.71, p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence
      of dental fluorosis was observed in the study region. An unequal burden of
      fluorosis in aesthetically objectionable categories was found in children exposed
      to several sources of fluoride and whose mother had lower educational level.

PMID- 28573834
TI  - Use of Jamaican Sign language in the provision of dental health care.
AB  - The United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Jamaica 2012-2016
      identifies as an outcome increased access to improved quality health and
      education services for socially excluded and at risk populations. The Deaf
      Jamaican population can be categorised as a socially excluded population. The
      communication barrier resulting from their deafness often leads to difficulties
      in accessing healthcare. The Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the
      West Indies, Mona Campus, implemented a programme aimed at overcoming this
      communication barrier and improving direct communication between Deaf patients
      and health professionals treating them. Competence in Jamaican Sign Language is
      integrated into the curricula of programmes offered by the faculty and mandated
      in the dentistry programme, and extends to the clinical training at the dental
      polyclinic where Deaf patients are seen by student dentists who can communicate
      with them in Jamaican sign language. This paper outlines the policies and systems
      employed worldwide for interacting with and treating Deaf patients at dental
      health care facilities, and focuses on the policies and practices governing the
      dental care of Deaf patients at the Mona Dental Polyclinic with a view to
      providing a model for government facilities locally and regionally. Public health
      competencies: Communication, management.

PMID- 28573835
TI  - Communities in action: developing a dental ambassador training programme for
      adults with learning disability.
AB  - Adults with learning disabilities may be at higher risk of poor oral health. The
      community outreach programme attached to Plymouth University Peninsula Dental
      School used established links with local agencies for this group to try out an
      intervention using service users as dental ambassadors. A programme was developed
      to meet the needs of the group and training in oral health key messages was
      provided along with support in presentation skills. Early evaluation shows
      promise in terms of feasibility, interest and improved self-care. Public health
      competencies being illustrated: Strategic leadership, communication, teaching and
      training, and collaborative working for health and oral health improvement.

PMID- 28573836
TI  - Improving Care for Bariatric Dental Patients in North Wales.
AB  - This paper presents the experiences of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board,
      North Wales, UK in improving facilities, access and quality of care for bariatric
      dental patients. It includes the multi-stakeholder audit of existing practice
      which informed those improvements. Public health competencies illustrated: needs
      assessment; development and implementation of oral health strategies; oral health
      improvement; development of clinical pathways; improving patient safety; clinical
      and public engagement; addressing inequalities.

PMID- 28573837
TI  - Public health intervention over four decades for the children in the Australian
      Capital Territory: Have we reached the point of diminishing returns?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most of the developed world has seen some substantial improvements in
      the dental health of children over the past four decades owing to advances in
      service access, fluoride exposure, socio-economic development and improved diets,
      with the DMFT score of 12 year-olds dropping from well over 10 down to around
      one. AIM: To examine the question of advancing dental health for children even
      further using the same set of tools as we have to date by asking the question:
      Have we come to a point of diminishing returns? The study examines the long-term,
      near optimum settings of the known public dental health variables in the
      Australian Capital Territory. RESULTS: Despite having the most ideal and
      persistent dental health optimised situation, there remains underlying dental
      caries at a severity level of just below 1 DMFT (12 year olds), and over the last
      decade the rate of diminishing incidence and prevalence of decay has slowed and
      arguably stopped. CONCLUSION: This suggests that rather than toiling to eliminate
      dental decay completely, the focus might usefully be reoriented towards those
      small known pockets of society with persistent higher levels of disease and
      looking for new ways to address these difficult clusters, while simultaneously
      advancing the understanding that a small residual level of decay will always
      exist in society.

PMID- 28573838
TI  - Relationship between mental health risk factors and oral symptoms in adolescents:
      Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, 2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between mental health risk factors and
      Korean adolescents' oral health. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: Cross-sectional study was
      based on the 9th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2013). PARTICIPANTS:
      Data were selected for 66,951 adolescents (33,777 males and 33,174 females; aged
      13-18 years) out of 72,435 participants were analysed, after excluding cases with
      missing values. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Oral health (experience of one or more of
      six oral symptoms), demographic characteristics (seven factors), and mental
      health risk (five factors). METHOD: Logistic regression analysis determined the
      effects of mental health risk factors on subjects' oral symptoms after adjustment
      for general characteristics. RESULTS: The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was 1.52
      (95%CI 1.50,1.54) for sleep satisfaction self-described as "not sufficient at
      all" and AOR 2.64 (95%CI 2.59,2.69) for those reporting very high stress levels.
      The AOR was 1.26 times (95%CI 1.24,1.27) higher for those using the internet on
      weekends for non-study purposes for ?6 hours than those using it for one hour.
      The AOR for experiencing oral symptoms was 1.44 times (95%CI 1.41,1.47) higher
      for those who had experienced school violence than for those who had not.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mental health risk factors were associated with oral symptoms. These
      results should inform the development of school health policies and comprehensive
      adolescent health promotion programs in Korea.

PMID- 28573839
TI  - What proportion of caries into dentine at age 5 is present at age 3?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the proportion of decay at age 5 in Wales presenting by and
      after age 3 years from geographical and deprivation perspectives. BASIC RESEARCH
      DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of data from independent cross-sectional studies
      of 3-year-olds in early 2013 and 5-year-olds in school year 2014/5. This includes
      novel graphical presentation of caries at age 3 and estimated 3-5 caries
      increment at age 5. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: NHS oral health surveillance
      programme in Wales examining children in nurseries at age 3 and in schools two
      years later. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: %d3mft?0 at ages 3 and 5 years, plus
      estimated 3-5 caries increments for these two indices. Data are analysed using
      index of deprivation and Health Board population density (as a proxy for
      rurality). RESULTS: In most Health Boards and all deprivation quintiles there is
      a larger proportion of caries into dentine presenting between ages 3-5 than by
      age 3. In rural Health Boards the proportion of caries present by age 3 is much
      smaller. In one Health Board more caries presents by age 3 than after. In rural
      Health Boards the current prevention activity has potential to push reported
      caries prevalence at age 5 below 10%. In urban Health Boards action by age 5 will
      be required to push caries prevalence significantly below 20%. CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings from this analysis suggest need for earlier prevention activity in some
      Health Boards in Wales.

PMID- 28573840
TI  - PeP-SCOT a health coaching intervention for people in prisons: the development of
      the intervention protocol.
AB  - There is a need for an alternative approach for health promotion prisons since
      previous work has indicated that health education, while improving health
      knowledge, does not result in behaviour change. Evidence has suggested that a
      health coaching assists in this regard. However, the question remained whether
      this approach would be appropriate and possible in prisons? This paper presents
      the public health strategies used to work in partnership with prison management
      to address challenges and accept opportunities as a health coaching intervention
      protocol was developed for oral health and wellbeing in the prison setting.

PMID- 28573841
TI  - Productive efficiency and its determinants in the Community Dental Service in the
      north-west of England.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficiency of service provision in the Community Dental
      Services and its determinants in the North-West of England. SETTING AND SAMPLE:
      40 Community Dental Services sites operating across the North-West of England.
      BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: A data envelopment analysis was undertaken of inputs
      (number of surgeries, hours worked by dental officers, therapists, hygienists and
      others) and outputs (treatments delivered, number of courses of treatment and
      patients seen) of the Community Dental Services to produce relative efficiency
      ratings by health authority. These were further analyzed in order to identify
      which inputs (determined within the Community Dental Services) or external
      factors outside the control of the Community Dental Services are associated with
      efficiency. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Relative efficiency rankings in Community
      Dental Services production of dental healthcare. RESULTS: Using the quantity of
      treatments delivered as the measure of output, on average the Community Dental
      Services in England is operating at a relative efficiency of 85% (95% confidence
      interval 77%- 99%) compared to the best performing services. Average efficiency
      is lower when courses of treatment and unique patients seen are used as output
      measures, 82% and 68% respectively. Neither the input mix nor the patient case
      mix explained variations in the efficiency across Community Dental Services.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although large variations in performance exist across Community
      Dental Services, the data available was not able to explain these variations. A
      useful next step would be to undertake detailed case studies of several best and
      under-performing services to explore the factors that influence relative
      performance levels.

PMID- 28573842
TI  - Caries prevalence and treatment needs in young people in Portugal: the third
      national study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate caries prevalence and dental treatment needs in Portuguese
      children and teenagers, as well as fluorosis prevalence in 12-year-old children,
      in order to address public oral health program strategies. PARTICIPANTS: A
      representative stratified random cluster sample of 3,710 participants of 6, 12,
      and 18 years old was selected. A questionnaire was applied to determine
      sociodemographic data and some oral health determinants. The clinical examination
      was based on the ICDAS criteria, then adapted to DMFS index, and Dean's index for
      fluorosis. RESULTS: Caries prevalence at 6, 12, and 18 years old was 45.2%,
      47.0%, and 67.6%, respectively. D5MFT scores were 1.18 (SD 0.06) and 2.51 (SD
      0.10), respectively. Treatment needs at 12 and 18 years old were associated with
      0.37 (SD 0.03) and 0.75 (SD 0.06) values in the "decayed" (D5) variable. SiC
      index at 12 years old was 2.68 (SD 1.68). Sealants were identified in 55% of 12
      year-old children and the mean of sealants per individual was 3.61; also,
      moderate (2.2%) and severe (0.2%) levels of fluorosis were detected. CONCLUSIONS:
      The oral health situation in Portugal is favorable for young people, resulting in
      low treatment needs. The National Oral Health Promotion Program should be
      extended to include 18-year-olds.

PMID- 28573843
TI  - Socio-demographic and area-related factors associated with the prevalence of
      caries among preschool children in Greece.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess dental caries experience in 4-6 year old children of the
      Athens Metropolitan Area attending public kindergartens and investigate the
      association of area deprivation and immigration status on dmft. BASIC RESEARCH
      DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of a large area-stratified sample of 683
      kindergarten children was conducted during the academic years 2009-2011. Dental
      caries experience and oral hygiene level were assessed using dmft and the
      Simplified Debris index (DI-s). Area deprivation was defined using a pre
      established Geo-demographic System for Attica. Zero-inflated Poisson regression
      models were used to test associations between the dmft index and related factors;
      gender, age, immigrant background and area deprivation. Differences were reported
      in terms of predicted probabilities. RESULTS: Caries prevalence was 20.8% (95%
      CI17.8,24.0%). The mean dmft and DI-s scores were 0.67 (95% CI0.61,0.74) and 0.16
      (95% CI0.14,0.18) respectively. The mean predicted probability of having no
      detectable caries experience was 79% (95% CI75, 83%), while the probability of
      having dmft=1 or 2 was 6% (95% CI5,8%) and 2% (95% CI1,3%) respectively. The
      predicted probability of having no caries experience was substantially lower for
      males, those from the least affluent areas and non-Greeks by 5%, 18% and 31%
      respectively. Regarding dmft scores, deprived children were more likely to have 1
      or 2 teeth with caries experience by 9% (95% CI4,13%) and 6% (95% CI2,10%)
      respectively, while the corresponding differences for non-Greeks were 10% (95%
      CI7,14%) and 12% (95% CI7,15%). CONCLUSIONS: Socio-demographic and area-related
      variations in oral health exist among kindergarten children in Athens.

PMID- 28573844
TI  - Dental caries experience, rather than toothbrushing, influences the incidence of
      dental caries in young Japanese adults.
AB  - : A dose-response relationship between toothbrushing frequency and the incidence
      of dental caries has not been confirmed. Furthermore, no longitudinal study about
      this relationship has considered dental caries experience at baseline, which is
      an important factor influencing the frequency of future caries. OBJECTIVE: To
      elucidate the association between the incidence of dental caries and
      toothbrushing frequency after adjusting for dental caries experience at baseline
      in a Japanese population. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: The 92 recruits of the Japan
      Maritime Self-Defense Force in Kure, Japan, in 2011 were followed up for 3 years.
      They underwent oral examination at the annual checkups and answered questions
      about toothbrushing frequency. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The multiple logistic
      regression analysis was used to analyze the incidence of dental caries and to
      identify independent effects of toothbrushing frequency and dental caries
      experience at baseline. Furthermore, the relative importance of the incidence of
      dental caries was investigated among other independent variables using the
      partial adjusted R2 score. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis showed that
      toothbrushing frequency alone did not influence the increment in decayed,
      missing, and filled teeth (DMFT). However, DMFT at baseline alone was associated
      with the increment in DMFT (crude odds ratio, OR, 1.20, 95% confidence interval,
      CI, 1.08,1.33). In the fully adjusted model, only DMFT at baseline was associated
      with the increment in DMFT (adjusted OR 1.23, 95%CI 1.09,1.38). CONCLUSION: After
      three years, the incidence of dental caries in young adult Japanese males was
      influenced by DMFT at baseline, rather than toothbrushing frequency.

PMID- 28573846
TI  - Simultaneous Fluorescence and Chemiluminescence Turned on by Aggregation-Induced
      Emission for Real-Time Monitoring of Endogenous Superoxide Anion in Live Cells.
AB  - Biological sensors with simultaneous turn-on signals of fluorescence (FL) and
      chemiluminescence (CL) triggered by one single species are supposed to integrate
      spatiotemporally resolved FL imaging with dynamic CL sensing into one luminescent
      assay. Efficiently increased accuracy can be expected based on complementary
      information simultaneously obtained from two independent modes, which is crucial
      in disease detection and diagnosis. However, very few examples can be found to
      date because of the key challenges in the rational design of sensing structures.
      Herein, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) was employed to develop a novel
      organic platform TPE-CLA with simultaneous turn-on FL/CL signals specifically
      modulated by O2*- in cells, which can be attributed to the activation of AIE
      resulted from the decreasing solubility after recognition. Using
      imidazopyrazinone (CLA) as the reactive motif and tetraphenylethene (TPE) as
      FL/CL enhancing skeleton, TPE-CLA is sensitive enough to image native O2*- in
      Raw264.7 cells and lipopolysaccharide stimulated O2*- in mice. Endogenous O2*- in
      HL-7702 cells induced by acetaminophen (APAP) was uninterruptedly monitored for
      7200 s with CL and the results were further confirmed by FL imaging. Accordingly,
      TPE-CLA turns out to be a reliable candidate for real-time and continuous
      monitoring of endogenous O2*- in live cells. The strategy utilizing AIE to
      accomplish the FL/CL dual detection is expected to extend the application of AIE
      as reaction-activated biosensors.

PMID- 28573845
TI  - Ethnic Disparities in Oral Health Related Quality of Life among Adults in London,
      England.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore ethnic disparities in oral health related quality of life
      (OHQoL) among adults, and the role that socioeconomic factors play in that
      association. RESEARCH DESIGN: Data from 705 adults from a socially deprived,
      ethnically diverse metropolitan area of London (England) were analysed for this
      study. Ethnicity was self-assigned based on the 2001 UK Census categories. OHQoL
      was measured using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), which provides
      information on the prevalence, extent and intensity of oral impacts on quality of
      life in the previous 12 months. Ethnic disparities were assessed in logistic
      regression models for prevalence of oral impacts and negative binomial regression
      models for extent and intensity of oral impacts. RESULTS: The prevalence of oral
      impacts was 12.7% (95% CI: 10.2-15.1) and the mean OHIP-14 extent and severity
      scores were 0.27 (95% CI: 0.20-0.34) and 4.19 (95% CI: 3.74-4.64), respectively.
      Black adults showed greater and Asian adults lower prevalence, extent and
      severity of oral impacts than White adults. However, significant differences were
      only found for the extent of oral impacts; Black adults reporting more and Asian
      adults fewer OHIP-14 items affected than their White counterparts. After
      adjustments for socioeconomic factors, Asian adults had significantly fewer OHIP
      14 items affected than White adults (rate ratio: 0.28; 95%CI: 0.08-0.94).
      CONCLUSION: This study found disparities in OHQoL between the three main ethnic
      groups in South East London. Asian adults had better and Black adults had similar
      OHQoL than White adults after accounting for demographic and social factors.

PMID- 28573847
TI  - Nickel Sequestration by the Host-Defense Protein Human Calprotectin.
AB  - The human innate immune protein calprotectin (CP, S100A8/S100A9 oligomer,
      calgranulin A/calgranulin B oligomer, MRP-8/MRP-14 oligomer) chelates a number of
      first-row transition metals, including Mn(II), Fe(II), and Zn(II), and can
      withhold these essential nutrients from microbes. Here we elucidate the Ni(II)
      coordination chemistry of human CP. We present a 2.6-A crystal structure of
      Ni(II)- and Ca(II)-bound CP, which reveals that CP binds Ni(II) ions at both its
      transition-metal-binding sites: the His3Asp motif (site 1) and the His6 motif
      (site 2). Further biochemical studies establish that coordination of Ni(II) at
      the hexahistidine site is thermodynamically preferred over Zn(II). We also
      demonstrate that CP can sequester Ni(II) from two human pathogens, Staphylococcus
      aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, that utilize this metal nutrient during
      infection, and inhibit the activity of the Ni(II)-dependent enzyme urease in
      bacterial cultures. In total, our findings expand the biological coordination
      chemistry of Ni(II)-chelating proteins in nature and provide a foundation for
      evaluating putative roles of CP in Ni(II) homeostasis at the host-microbe
      interface and beyond.

PMID- 28573849
TI  - Mass-Producible 2D-MoS2-Impregnated Screen-Printed Electrodes That Demonstrate
      Efficient Electrocatalysis toward the Oxygen Reduction Reaction.
AB  - Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (2D-MoS2) screen-printed electrodes (2D-MoS2
      SPEs) have been designed, fabricated, and evaluated toward the electrochemical
      oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) within acidic aqueous media. A screen-printable
      ink has been developed that allows for the tailoring of the 2D-MoS2 content/mass
      used in the fabrication of the 2D-MoS2-SPEs, which critically affects the
      observed ORR performance. In comparison to the graphite SPEs (G-SPEs), the 2D
      MoS2-SPEs are shown to exhibit an electrocatalytic behavior toward the ORR which
      is found, critically, to be reliant upon the percentage mass incorporation of 2D
      MoS2 in the 2D-MoS2-SPEs; a greater percentage mass of 2D-MoS2 incorporated into
      the 2D-MoS2-SPEs results in a significantly less electronegative ORR onset
      potential and a greater signal output (current density). Using optimally
      fabricated 2D-MoS2-SPEs, an ORR onset and a peak current of approximately +0.16 V
      [vs saturated calomel electrode (SCE)] and -1.62 mA cm-2, respectively, are
      observed, which exceeds the -0.53 V (vs SCE) and -635 MUA cm-2 performance of
      unmodified G-SPEs, indicating an electrocatalytic response toward the ORR
      utilizing the 2D-MoS2-SPEs. An investigation of the underlying electrochemical
      reaction mechanism of the ORR within acidic aqueous solutions reveals that the
      reaction proceeds via a direct four-electron process for all of the 2D-MoS2-SPE
      variants studied herein, where oxygen is electrochemically favorably reduced to
      water. The fabricated 2D-MoS2-SPEs are found to exhibit no degradation in the
      observed achievable current over the course of 1000 repeat scans. The production
      of such inks and the resultant mass-producible 2D-MoS2-SPEs mitigates the need to
      modify post hoc an electrode via the drop-casting technique that has been
      previously shown to result in a loss of achievable current over the course of
      1000 repeat scans. The 2D-MoS2-SPEs designed, fabricated, and tested herein could
      have commercial viability as electrocatalytic fuel cell electrodes because of
      being economical as a result of their scales of economy and inherent
      tailorability. The technique utilized herein to produce the 2D-MoS2-SPEs could be
      adapted for the incorporation of different 2D nanomaterials, resulting in SPEs
      with the inherent advantages identified above.

PMID- 28573848
TI  - Polyphenols from Lonicera caerulea L. Berry Inhibit LPS-Induced Inflammation
      through Dual Modulation of Inflammatory and Antioxidant Mediators.
AB  - Lonicera caerulea L. berry polyphenols (LCBP) are considered as major components
      for bioactivity. This study aimed to clarify the molecular mechanisms by
      monitoring inflammatory and antioxidant mediator actions in lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS)-induced mouse paw edema and macrophage cell model. LCBP significantly
      attenuated LPS-induced paw edema (3.0 +/- 0.1 to 2.8 +/- 0.1 mm, P < 0.05) and
      reduced (P < 0.05) serum levels of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1, 100.9
      +/- 2.3 to 58.3 +/- 14.5 ng/mL), interleukin (IL)-10 (1596.1 +/- 424.3 to 709.7
      +/- 65.7 pg/mL), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1alpha (1761.9 +/- 208.3
      to 1369.1 +/- 56.4 pg/mL), IL-6 (1262.8 +/- 71.7 to 499.0 +/- 67.1 pg/mL), IL-4
      (93.3 +/- 25.7 to 50.7 +/- 12.5 pg/mL), IL-12(p-70) (580.4 +/- 132.0 to 315.2 +/-
      35.1 pg/mL), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha, 2045.5 +/- 264.9 to
      1270.7 +/- 158.6 pg/mL). Cell signaling analysis revealed that LCBP inhibited
      transforming growth factor beta activated kinase-1 (TAK1)-mediated mitogen
      activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) pathways,
      and enhanced the expression of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2)
      and manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) in earlier response.
      Moreover, cyanidin 3-glucoside (C3G) and (-)-epicatechin (EC), two major
      components of LCBP, directly bound to TAK1. These data demonstrated that LCBP
      might inhibit LPS-induced inflammation by modulating both inflammatory and
      antioxidant mediators.

PMID- 28573850
TI  - Toward an Understanding of Thin-Film Transistor Performance in Solution-Processed
      Amorphous Zinc Tin Oxide (ZTO) Thin Films.
AB  - Amorphous zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin films are accessible by a molecular precursor
      approach using mononuclear zinc(II) and tin(II) compounds with
      methoxyiminopropionic acid ligands. Solution processing of two precursor
      solutions containing a mixture of zinc and tin(II)-methoxyiminopropinato
      complexes results in the formation of smooth homogeneous thin films, which upon
      calcination are converted into the desired semiconducting amorphous ZTO thin
      films. ZTO films integrated within a field-effect transistor (FET) device exhibit
      an active semiconducting behavior in the temperature range between 250 and 400 
      degrees C, giving an increased performance, with mobility values between MU =
      0.03 and 5.5 cm2/V s, with on/off ratios increasing from 105 to 108 when going
      from 250 to 400  degrees C. Herein, our main emphasis, however, was on an
      improved understanding of the material transformation pathway from weak to high
      performance of the semiconductor in a solution-processed FET as a function of the
      processing temperature. We have correlated this with the chemical composition and
      defects states within the microstructure of the obtained ZTO thin film via
      photoelectron spectroscopy (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet
      photoelectron spectroscopy), Auger electron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic
      resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and photoluminescence
      investigations. The critical factor observed for the improved performance within
      this ZTO material could be attributed to a higher tin concentration, wherein the
      contributions of point defects arising from the tin oxide within the final
      amorphous ZTO material play the dominant role in governing the transistor
      performance.

PMID- 28573851
TI  - Screening of Lipases with Unusual High Activity in the sn-2 Esterification of 1,3
      Dicaprin under Mild Operating Conditions.
AB  - In this work, the synthesis of acylglycerides with high nutritional value was
      carried out by enzymatic esterification at sn-2 position of 1,3-dicaprin with
      palmitic acid. A comparative study of the performance of several biocatalysts
      according to the obtained products was carried out. The results obtained with
      several of the biocatalysts evaluated are very interesting, and it would be
      possible to use them to obtain a mixture of acylglycerides to act as a fat
      substitute. The final product was composed of about 90% of nutritionally
      attractive glycerides. These glycerides were medium-chain length triglycerides,
      medium-long chain triglycerides (mainly triglycerides with medium chain fatty
      acids at sn-1 and sn-3 positions and long chain fatty acid at sn-2 position), and
      1,3-diglycerides. Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase and Burkholderia cepacia lipase
      immobilized on chitosan demonstrated unusual high activity in the sn-2
      esterification of 1,3-dicaprin with palmitic acid at 45  degrees C and 12 h with
      33% yield to 1,3-dicaproyl-2-palmitoyl glycerol. Burkholderia cepacia lipase has
      the advantage of being immobilized; however, BCL/chitosan has the advantages of
      being immobilized and therefore its easy recovery from the reaction media.

PMID- 28573852
TI  - Improving the Catalytic Performance of a Talaromyces leycettanus alpha-Amylase by
      Changing the Linker Length.
AB  - A novel alpha-amylase, Amy13A, that consists of these domains was identified in
      Talaromyces leycettanus JCM12802: catalytic TIM-barrel fold, domain B, domain C,
      Thr/Ser-rich linker region, and C-terminal CBM20 domain. The wild type and three
      mutant enzymes were then expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 to identify the roles
      of linker length (Amy13A21 and Amy13A33) and CBM20 (Amy13A-CBM) in catalysis. All
      enzymes had similar enzymatic properties, exhibiting optimal activities at pH 4.5
      5.0 and 55-60  degrees C, but varied in catalytic performance. When using soluble
      starch as the substrate, Amy13A21 and Amy13A33 showed specific activities (926.3
      and 537.8 units/mg, respectively, vs 252.1 units/mg) and catalytic efficiencies
      (kcat/Km, 25.7 and 22.0 mL s-1 mg-1, respectively, vs 15.4 mL s-1 mg-1) higher
      than those of the wild type, while Amy13A-CBM performed worse during catalysis.
      This study reveals the key roles of the CBM and linker length in the catalysis of
      GH13 alpha-amylase.

PMID- 28573853
TI  - Carbon Nanoparticle Hybrid Aerogels: 3D Double-Interconnected Network Porous
      Microstructure, Thermoelectric, and Solvent-Removal Functions.
AB  - We report reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)
      hybrid aerogels with enhanced thermoelectric (TE) performance and removal of
      organic solvents by designing 3D double-interconnected network porous
      microstructures. A convenient, cost-effective, and scalable preparation procedure
      is proposed compared with conventional high-temperature pyrolysis and
      supercritical drying techniques. The obtained hybrid aerogels are systematically
      characterized by apparent density, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray
      photoemission spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and porosity. An enhanced TE
      performance of ZT ~ ~8.03 * 10-3 has been achieved due to the 3D double
      interconnected network porous microstructure, the energy-filtering effect, and
      the phonon scattering at the abundant interfaces and joints. In addition, upon a
      large axial compression deformation, a high degree of retention of the Seebeck
      coefficient and a simultaneously significant enhancement of the electrical
      conductivity are observed. Finally, the hybrid aerogels display high capability
      for the removal of diverse organic solvents and good recyclability. These
      findings open a new avenue for exploiting aerogels with multifunctions and
      widening the applications of TE materials by judicious microstructure design.

PMID- 28573854
TI  - Size-Dependent Immunochromatographic Assay with Quantum Dot Nanobeads for
      Sensitive and Quantitative Detection of Ochratoxin A in Corn.
AB  - Fluorescent microspheres are a novel luminescent nanomaterial proposed as an
      alternative probe to improve the detection sensitivity of competitive
      immunochromatographic assay (ICA). Quantum dot nanobeads (QBs) possess strong
      luminescence and resistance to matrix interference. Theoretically, large-sized
      QBs exhibit stronger luminescent intensity than small-sized QBs and are
      beneficial to ICA sensitivity. However, oversized QBs may reduce the sensitivity
      of competitive ICA. Thus, the relationship between the size and luminescent
      intensity of QBs and the competitive ICA sensitivity must be elucidated. In this
      study, QBs of different sizes (58, 124, 255, 365, and 598 nm) were synthesized.
      Ochratoxin A (OTA) was selected as the model analyte for competitive ICA. The
      effects of QB size on the detection performance of competitive ICA were then
      evaluated. The cutoff limit of QB-ICA for naked eye detection was used for
      qualitative analysis, and the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) and
      LOD were employed for quantitative analysis. Results indicated that 124 nm QBs
      used as labeling probes for competitive ICA showed the optimal detection
      performance and the lowest cutoff value of 5 ng/mL for qualitative detection and
      IC50 (0.39 ng/mL) for quantitative detection. Similar to commercial ELISA, QB124
      ICA displayed good accuracy, specificity, reproducibility, and practicability. In
      summary, 124 nm QBs can be used as a new labeling probe for competitive ICA.

PMID- 28573855
TI  - Nucleic Acid Amplification-Free Bioluminescent Detection of MicroRNAs with High
      Sensitivity and Accuracy Based on Controlled Target Degradation.
AB  - Accurate and sensitive detection of microRNAs is crucial to clinical diagnosis
      and therapy. Most of microRNA assays require target conversion in combination
      with nucleic acid amplification to improve the detection sensitivity, which may
      compromise the assay accuracy and specificity. Herein we report a sensitive
      bioluminescent method for microRNA assay on the basis of controlled target
      degradation without target conversion and nucleic acid amplification. In this
      assay, the target microRNA can be specifically degraded by exonuclease III after
      hybridization to its complementary probe, releasing adenosine monophosphate (AMP)
      from microRNA itself. The AMP then triggers an efficient bioluminescence
      generation system to produce a strong bioluminescence signal. This assay is
      highly sensitive with zero-background signal and a detection limit of 7.6 fM even
      without target amplification, and it can discriminate the single-nucleotide
      difference among microRNA family members with extremely high discrimination
      ratio. With the assistance of magnetic separation to eliminate the interference
      of endogenous ATP, ADP, and AMP in sample matrix, this assay can be further
      applied to absolute quantification of microRNAs in cancer cells and tissues from
      lung cancer patients, holding great potential in biomedical research and clinical
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28573856
TI  - Characterization of Aroma-Active Compounds in Italian Tomatoes with Emphasis on
      New Odorants.
AB  - An aroma distillate was prepared by solvent extraction and subsequent SAFE
      distillation from Italian vine-ripe tomatoes eliciting an intense overall aroma.
      Application of gc/olfactometry and the aroma extract dilution analysis revealed
      44 odor-active compounds, 42 of which could be identified. The highest odor
      activity value of 2048 was established for the green, grassy (Z)-3-hexenal, the
      metallic smelling trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, the potato-like 3
      (methylthio)propanal, and the caramel-like 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone.
      Of the further odorants, 13 compounds have previously not been reported as tomato
      odorants. Although most of these showed lower FD-factors, in particular, the
      coconut/dill-like smelling wine lactone ((3S,3aS,7aR)-3a,4,5,7a-tetrahydro-3,6
      dimethylbenzofuran-2(3H)-one) appeared with a quite high FD factor. In addition,
      a fruity, almond-like odorant (6) with an FD factor of 1024 was detected. By
      application of high resolution mass spectrometry and polarity considerations, the
      structure of a methyl-2-ethoxytetrahydropyran isomer was suggested for 6. Four of
      the five possible isomers, the 3-methyl-, 4-methyl-, 5-methyl-, and 6-methyl-2
      ethoxytetrahydropyran were synthesized and showed similar mass spectrometric
      patterns. However, these were excluded by their different retention indices.
      Although the synthesis of the remaining 2-methyl-2-ethoxytetrahydropyran resulted
      in only small yields, which were not sufficient for NMR measurements, this
      structure is very likely for 6. This compound was never reported as a food
      constituent before. Finally, quantitation of 23 odorants by stable isotope
      dilution assays allowed for the preparation of an aroma recombinate resembling
      the overall aroma of the tomatoes.

PMID- 28573857
TI  - Correction to "Asymmetric Total Synthesis and Revised Structure of Cephalezomine
      H".

PMID- 28573858
TI  - proBAMconvert: A Conversion Tool for proBAM/proBed.
AB  - The introduction of new standard formats, proBAM and proBed, improves the
      integration of genomics and proteomics information, thus aiding proteogenomics
      applications. These novel formats enable peptide spectrum matches (PSM) to be
      stored, inspected, and analyzed within the context of the genome. However, an
      easy-to-use and transparent tool to convert mass spectrometry identification
      files to these new formats is indispensable. proBAMconvert enables the conversion
      of common identification file formats (mzIdentML, mzTab, and pepXML) to
      proBAM/proBed using an intuitive interface. Furthermore, ProBAMconvert enables
      information to be output both at the PSM and peptide levels and has a command
      line interface next to the graphical user interface. Detailed documentation and a
      completely worked-out tutorial is available at http://probam.biobix.be .

PMID- 28573860
TI  - Enantioselective Iridium-Catalyzed Allylic Cyclizations.
AB  - A method for the enantioselective synthesis of carbo- and heterocyclic ring
      systems enabled through the combination of Lewis acid activation and iridium
      catalyzed allylic substitution is described. The reaction proceeds with branched,
      allylic alcohols and carbon nucleophiles as well as heteronucleophiles to give a
      diverse set of ring systems in good yields and with high enantioselectivities.
      The utility of the method is highlighted by the asymmetric syntheses of
      erythrococcamides A and B.

PMID- 28573859
TI  - Simple and Reliable Lift-Off Patterning Approach for Graphene and Graphene-Ag
      Nanowire Hybrid Films.
AB  - We present a simple, ultrasonic vibration-assisted lift-off-based patterning
      approach for graphene and graphene-Ag nanowire (NW) hybrid films. A 20 MUm width
      pattern with uniform and smooth pattern edges was neatly defined on various rigid
      and flexible substrates. The patterned graphene-Ag NW electrodes showed a low
      sheet resistance of 19 Omega/sq with a high transmittance of 93% at 550 nm, a
      robust stability against oxidation, and a high reliability under a bending test.
      The electrodes also exhibited markedly higher performance than that of commercial
      fluorine-doped tin oxide electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells. Given its low
      cost, high throughput, and nondamaging effect, this simple and reliable
      patterning approach stimulates the practical applications of graphene-based
      flexible transparent electrodes in soft electronic and optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28573861
TI  - Safety Assessment of Food and Feed from GM Crops in Europe: Evaluating EFSA's
      Alternative Framework for the Rat 90-day Feeding Study.
AB  - Regulatory-compliant rodent subchronic feeding studies are compulsory regardless
      of a hypothesis to test, according to recent EU legislation for the safety
      assessment of whole food/feed produced from genetically modified (GM) crops
      containing a single genetic transformation event (European Union Commission
      Implementing Regulation No. 503/2013). The Implementing Regulation refers to
      guidelines set forth by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the design,
      conduct, and analysis of rodent subchronic feeding studies. The set of EFSA
      recommendations was rigorously applied to a 90-day feeding study in Sprague
      Dawley rats. After study completion, the appropriateness and applicability of
      these recommendations were assessed using a battery of statistical analysis
      approaches including both retrospective and prospective statistical power
      analyses as well as variance-covariance decomposition. In the interest of animal
      welfare considerations, alternative experimental designs were investigated and
      evaluated in the context of informing the health risk assessment of food/feed
      from GM crops.

PMID- 28573864
TI  - Spiroannulation of Oxindoles via Aryne and Alkyne Incorporation: Substituent
      Diverted, Transition-Metal-Free, One-Pot Access to Spirooxindoles.
AB  - A "product control via substrate design" strategy has been conceptualized and
      implemented to harness the potential of aryne and activated alkyne insertions
      into oxindoles to readily and efficiently furnish pharmacophoric indano- and
      cyclopentannulated spirooxindole scaffolds in an operationally straightforward,
      one-pot, transition-metal-free protocol.

PMID- 28573862
TI  - Fluorinated Amine Stereotriads via Allene Amination.
AB  - The incorporation of fluorine into organic scaffolds often improves the
      bioactivity of pharmaceutically relevant compounds. C-F/C-N/C-O stereotriad
      motifs are prevalent in antivirals, neuraminidase inhibitors, and modulators of
      androgen receptors, but are challenging to install. An oxidative allene amination
      strategy using Selectfluor rapidly delivers triply functionalized triads of the
      form C-F/C-N/C-O, exhibiting good scope and diastereoselectivity for all syn
      products. The resulting stereotriads are readily transformed into fluorinated
      pyrrolidines and protected alpha-, beta-, and gamma-amino acids.

PMID- 28573865
TI  - Intrinsic Bond Energies from a Bonds-in-Molecules Neural Network.
AB  - Neural networks are being used to make new types of empirical chemical models as
      inexpensive as force fields, but with accuracy similar to the ab initio methods
      used to build them. In this work, we present a neural network that predicts the
      energies of molecules as a sum of intrinsic bond energies. The network learns the
      total energies of the popular GDB9 database to a competitive MAE of 0.94 kcal/mol
      on molecules outside of its training set, is naturally linearly scaling, and
      applicable to molecules consisting of thousands of bonds. More importantly, it
      gives chemical insight into the relative strengths of bonds as a function of
      their molecular environment, despite only being trained on total energy
      information. We show that the network makes predictions of relative bond
      strengths in good agreement with measured trends and human predictions. A Bonds
      in-Molecules Neural Network (BIM-NN) learns heuristic relative bond strengths
      like expert synthetic chemists, and compares well with ab initio bond order
      measures such as NBO analysis.

PMID- 28573863
TI  - CD38 as a PET Imaging Target in Lung Cancer.
AB  - Daratumumab (Darzalex, Janssen Biotech) is a clinically approved antibody
      targeting CD38 for the treatment of multiple myeloma. However, CD38 is also
      expressed by other cancer cell types, including lung cancer, where its expression
      or absence may offer prognostic value. We therefore developed a PET tracer based
      upon daratumumab for tracking CD38 expression, utilizing murine models of non
      small cell lung cancer to verify its specificity. Daratumumab was prepared for
      radiolabeling with 89Zr (t1/2 = 78.4 h) through conjugation with desferrioxamine
      (Df). Western blot, flow cytometry, and saturation binding assays were utilized
      to characterize CD38 expression and binding of daratumumab to three non-small
      cell lung cancer cell lines: A549, H460, and H358. Murine xenograft models of the
      cell lines were also generated for further in vivo studies. Longitudinal PET
      imaging was performed following injection of 89Zr-Df-daratumumab out to 120 h
      postinjection, and nonspecific uptake was also evaluated through the injection of
      a radiolabeled control IgG antibody in A549 mice, 89Zr-Df-IgG. Ex vivo
      biodistribution and histological analyses were also performed after the terminal
      imaging time point at 120 h postinjection. Through cellular studies, A549 cells
      were found to express higher levels of CD38 than the H460 or H358 cell lines. PET
      imaging and ex vivo biodistribution studies verified in vitro trends, with A549
      tumor uptake peaking at 8.1 +/- 1.2%ID/g at 120 h postinjection according to PET
      analysis, and H460 and H358 at lower levels at the same time point (6.7 +/-
      0.7%ID/g and 5.1 +/- 0.4%ID/g, respectively; n = 3 or 4). Injection of a
      nonspecific radiolabeled IgG into A549 tumor-bearing mice also demonstrated lower
      tracer uptake of 4.4 +/- 1.3%ID/g at 120 h. Immunofluorescent staining of tumor
      tissues showed higher staining levels present in A549 tissues over H460 and H358.
      Thus, 89Zr-Df-daratumumab is able to image CD38-expressing tissues in vivo using
      PET, as verified through the exploration of non-small cell lung cancer models in
      this study. This agent therefore holds potential to image CD38 in other
      malignancies and aid in patient stratification and elucidation of the
      biodistribution of CD38.

PMID- 28573866
TI  - Mid-infrared Laser-Induced Fluorescence with Nanosecond Time Resolution Using a
      Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector: New Technology for Molecular
      Science.
AB  - In contrast to UV photomultiplier tubes that are widely used in physical
      chemistry, mid-infrared detectors are notorious for poor sensitivity and slow
      time response. This helps explain why, despite the importance of infrared
      spectroscopy in molecular science, mid-infrared fluorescence is not more widely
      used. In recent years, several new technologies have been developed that open new
      experimental possibilities for research in the mid-infrared. In this Account, we
      present one of the more promising technologies, superconducting nanowire single
      photon detectors (SNSPDs) by sharing our experience with its use in a typical
      experiment carried out by physical chemists (laser-induced fluorescence) and
      comparing the SNSPD to a detector commonly used by physical chemists (InSb at LN
      Temperature). SNSPDs are fabricated from a thin film of superconducting metal,
      patterned into a meandering nanowire. The nanowire is cooled below its
      superconducting temperature, Tc, and held in a constant current circuit below the
      critical current necessary to destroy superconductivity, Ic. Upon absorption of a
      photon, the resulting heat is sufficient to destroy superconductivity across the
      entire width of the nanowire, an event that can be detected as a voltage pulse.
      In contrast to semiconductor-based detectors, which have a long wavelength cutoff
      determined by the band gap, the SNSPD exhibits single-photon sensitivity across
      the entire mid-IR spectrum. As these devices have not been used extensively
      outside the field of light detection technology research, one important goal of
      this Account is to provide practical details for the implementation of these
      devices in a physical chemistry laboratory. We provide extensive Supporting
      Information describing what is needed. This includes information on a liquid
      nitrogen cooled monochromator, the optical collection system including mid
      infrared fibers, as well as a closed-cycle cryogenic cooler that reaches 0.3 K.
      We demonstrate the advantages of these detectors in a time-resolved laser-induced
      infrared fluorescence experiment on the energy pooling in crystalline CO
      overlayers formed on a NaCl(100) surface. We present dispersed fluorescence
      spectra recorded from 1.9 to 7.0 MUm obtained by single-photon counting. We also
      estimate the sensitivity of this WSi-based detection system at 3 MUm; the
      system's noise equivalent power (NEP) value is ~10-3 of a conventional InSb
      photovoltaic device. Straightforward modifications are expected to provide
      another 100 000-fold improvement. We demonstrate that the temporal resolution of
      the experiment is limited only by the pulse duration of the laser used in this
      work (fwhm = 3.7 ns). The use of SNSPDs enables dramatically improved
      observations of energy pooling in cryogenic molecular crystals.

PMID- 28573867
TI  - DNA-Carbon Nanotube Complexation Affinity and Photoluminescence Modulation Are
      Independent.
AB  - Short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) has emerged as the natural polymer of choice
      for noncovalently functionalizing photoluminescent single-walled carbon
      nanotubes. In addition, specific empirically identified DNA sequences can be used
      to separate single species (chiralities) of nanotubes, with an exceptionally high
      purity. Currently, only limited general principles exist for designing DNA
      nanotube hybrids amenable to separation processes, due in part to an incomplete
      understanding of the fundamental interactions between a DNA sequence and a
      specific nanotube structure, whereas even less is known in the design of nanotube
      based sensors with determined optical properties. We therefore developed a
      combined experimental and analysis platform on the basis of time-resolved near
      infrared fluorescence spectroscopy to extract the complete set of
      photoluminescence parameters that characterizes DNA-nanotube hybrids. Here, we
      systematically investigated the affinity of the d(GT)n oligonucleotide family for
      structurally defined carbon nanotubes by measuring photoluminescence response of
      the nanotube upon oligonucleotide displacement. We found, surprisingly, that the
      rate of displacement of the oligonucleotides is independent of the coverage on
      the nanotube, as inferred through the intrinsic optical properties of the hybrid.
      The kinetics of intensity modulation is essentially a single-exponential, and the
      time constants, which quantify the stability of DNA binding, span an order of
      magnitude. Surprisingly, these time constants do not depend on the intrinsic
      optical parameters within the hybrids, suggesting that the DNA-nanotube stability
      is not due to increased nanotube surface coverage by DNA. Further, a principal
      component analysis of the excitation and emission shifts along with intensity
      enhancement at equilibrium accurately identified the (8,6) nanotube as the
      partner chirality to (GT)6 ssDNA. When combined, the chirality-resolved
      equilibrium and kinetics data can guide the development of the DNA-nanotube
      pairs, with tunable stability and optical modulation. Additionally, this high
      throughput optical platform could function as a primary screen for mapping the
      DNA-chirality recognition phase space.

PMID- 28573868
TI  - Interdisciplinary Approach to Increasing Skin-to-Skin Contact Across Delivery
      Methods.

PMID- 28573869
TI  - Obiltoxaximab: Adding to the Treatment Arsenal for Bacillus anthracis Infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the safety and efficacy of obiltoxaximab, a monoclonal
      antibody indicated for the treatment of Bacillus anthracis inhalational anthrax
      in adult and pediatric patients. DATA SOURCES: A MEDLINE (1946 to May, week 1,
      2017) and EMBASE (1980 to 2017, week 19) search was performed using the search
      terms obiltoxaximab OR ETI-204 OR Anthim AND anthrax. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA
      EXTRACTION: All English-language clinical studies in both animal and human models
      assessing the safety and efficacy of obiltoxaximab were included. DATA SYNTHESIS:
      A total of 5 articles have been published on clinical studies examining safety
      and efficacy of obiltoxaximab. Efficacy studies in 2 animal models, New Zealand
      White rabbits and cynomolgus macaques, showed higher rates of survival post
      anthrax exposure when obiltoxaximab was administered. Safety studies in healthy
      human volunteers showed that it was tolerated, with a relatively low incidence of
      adverse events. CONCLUSION: Based on these clinical studies and the
      implausibility of conducting a trial in infected individuals, obiltoxaximab is a
      safe and efficacious addition to the anthrax antitoxin armamentarium to protect
      against and treat inhalational anthrax.

PMID- 28573871
TI  - The Importance of Inclusion for Cardiovascular Health Promotion Programs in
      Delaware.
AB  - Individuals with disabilities experience greater rates of cardiovascular disease
      than individuals without disabilities. This increase can be attributed to
      decreased levels of physical activity, poor eating habits, and increased levels
      of diabetes, smoking, and obesity. Individuals with disabilities are often
      excluded from surveillance, treatment, and prevention efforts. Consequently,
      there is little known about their participation rates in health promotion and
      disease prevention programs. The aims of this investigation are (1) to examine
      time trends in cardiovascular disease and risk factors over a 10-year period by
      disability status and (2) to assess the inclusiveness of health promotion
      programs in Delaware. The percentage of individuals with disabilities increased
      from 18% in 2001 to 28% in 2011. Individuals with disabilities had higher rates
      of cardiovascular disease (t = 80.45; degrees of freedom [df] = 198; p < .0001)
      and obesity (body mass index > 30 kg/m2) than individuals without disabilities (t
      = 33.0; df = 198; p < .0001). They also reported less physical activity (t =
      44.21; df = 198; p < .0001) and worse diet quality (t = 4.70; df = 198; p <
      .0001). There was a consistent lack of information about inclusion and
      participation of individuals with disabilities in health promotion programs.
      Making adaptations within cardiovascular disease prevention programs in Delaware
      is imperative to improving the health of individuals with disabilities. Ensuring
      cardiovascular disease programs are accessible and provide disability-specific
      trained staff will reduce barriers to participation so that all individuals can
      benefit.

PMID- 28573870
TI  - Sleep and physical activity: a survey of people with inflammatory arthritis and
      their engagement by health professionals in rheumatology in Ireland.
AB  - PURPOSE: Sleep is important in maintaining the body's circadian rhythm and in
      maintaining health. Aim was to investigate sleep and physical activity among
      people who have inflammatory arthritis and their engagement with Health
      Professionals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Members from a national charitable
      organisation for patients with arthritis and a national rheumatology health
      professionals society were invited to participate in separate cross-sectional
      surveys hosted on SurveyMonkey(R)TM. RESULTS: Ninety people responded and report
      an average of 5.7 (SD 1.46) hours sleep per night. A majority (61%) report their
      sleep quality as bad, with 31% taking medications at least once a week to help
      sleep. There was a statistically significant association between longer years
      with symptoms, taking medication at least once a week and limited in their
      activities, when rating their sleep quality as bad. Twenty eight (65%) health
      professional's responded with 53% discussing sleep with their patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: People with inflammatory arthritis report low sleep with those
      having symptoms longer, taking medications regularly and having limitations with
      their activities, reporting poorer sleep quality. Only half of health
      professionals discuss sleep. More research is needed in investigating poor sleep
      quality, disturbances, and physical activity in order to promote health and well
      being in this population. Implications for Rehabilitation People with
      inflammatory arthritis fall far below the National Sleep Foundations' "sleep
      needs spectrum", which is concerning as those who have reduced levels of sleep
      have been associated with decreased quality of life and physical function. Due to
      the importance of receiving sufficient sleep, there is a need to develop
      education and training for health professionals in the importance of engaging
      their patients in their sleep quality and disturbances. The effects of physical
      activity interventions on poor sleep need to be examined to show if it is a
      positive non-pharmacological treatment approach for the management of poor sleep
      in patients with inflammatory arthritis.

PMID- 28573872
TI  - Achieving Professionalism in Health Care Organizations.

PMID- 28573873
TI  - Impact of Diabetes Care by Pharmacists as Part of Health Care Team in Ambulatory
      Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analyses
      examining the impact of pharmacist interventions as part of health care teams on
      diabetes therapeutic outcomes in ambulatory care settings. DATA SOURCES:
      PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts,
      Web of Science, Scopus, WHO's Global Health Library, ClinicalTrials.gov , and
      Google Scholar were searched (1995 to February 2017). Search terms included
      pharmacist, team, and diabetes. STUDY SELECTION: Full-text articles published in
      English with comparative designs, including randomized controlled trials,
      nonrandomized controlled trials, and pretest-posttest studies evaluating
      hemoglobin A1C (A1C), were assessed. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers
      independently screened for study inclusion and extracted data. Quality of the
      studies was assessed using tools developed based on the framework of the Cochrane
      Collaboration's recommendations. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 1908 studies were
      identified from the literature and reference searches; 42 studies were included
      in the systematic review (n = 10 860) and 35 in the meta-analyses (n = 7417).
      Mean age ranged from 42 to 73 years, and 8% to 100% were male. The overall
      standardized mean difference (SMD) for A1C for pharmacist care versus comparison
      was 0.57 ( P < 0.01), a moderate effect representing a mean difference of 1.1%
      (95% CI = 0.88-1.27). The effects for systolic blood pressure and low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol were between small and moderate (SMD = 0.31 and 0.32; P <
      0.01). The heterogeneity was high for all outcomes (>83%), indicating functional
      differences among the studies. No publication bias was detected. CONCLUSION:
      Pharmacists' interventions as part of the patient's health care team improved
      diabetes therapeutic outcomes, substantiating the important role of pharmacists
      in team-based diabetes management.

PMID- 28573874
TI  - Role of mast cells in the induction of dry skin in a mouse model of rheumatoid
      arthritis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is known to induce dry skin as an extra
      articular symptom. However, the mechanisms behind the induction are unclear. In
      this study, we utilized an arthritis mouse model to simulate RA to reveal the
      relationship between arthritis and dry skin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DBA/1JJmsSlc
      control mice (n = 5) and DBA/1JJmsSlc collagen-induced arthritis mouse model
      (arthritis mice; n = 5) were used. We measured transepidermal water loss (TEWL)
      and capacitance to reveal the effect of arthritis on skin barrier function. In
      addition, we measured the expression of biomarkers of skin barrier function.
      RESULTS: We found that the hind limb volume of the arthritis mice was higher than
      that of the control mice. Our results showed that the arthritis mice had higher
      TEWL and lower capacitance when compared to the control mice. When compared to
      that of the control mice, the skin of the arthritis mice was thicker with more
      leukocyte infiltration. In the skin of arthritis mice, we observed lower
      expression of type I and IV collagens, but higher expression of matrix
      metalloproteinases (MMP)-1 and -9 when compared to that of the control mice. The
      levels of mast cells, histamine, substance P, and tryptase were higher in the
      arthritis mice than in the control mice. This study showed that the arthritis
      mice exhibited a disruption of skin barrier function (i.e. dry skin), which was
      improved following treatment with a mast cell inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      on mast cells suggested that an improvement of dry skin is important for RA
      management.

PMID- 28573875
TI  - Modulatory effects of l-carnitine plus l-acetyl-carnitine on neuroendocrine
      control of hypothalamic functions in functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA).
AB  - Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) is a relatively frequent disease due to
      the combination of metabolic, physical, or psychological stressors. It is
      characterized by the low endogenous GnRH-induced gonadotropin secretion, thus
      triggering the ovarian blockade and a hypoestrogenic condition. Up to now various
      therapeutical strategies have been proposed, both using hormonal treatment as
      well as neuroactive compounds. Since carnitine, namely l-acetyl-carnitine (LAC),
      has been demonstrated to be effective in the modulation of the central
      hypothalamic control of GnRH secretion, we aimed to evaluate whether a combined
      integrative treatment for 12 weeks of LAC (250 mg/die) and l-carnitine (500
      mg/die) was effective in improving the endocrine and metabolic pathways in a
      group of patients (n = 27) with FHA. After the treatment, interval mean LH plasma
      levels increased while those of cortisol and amylase decreased significantly.
      When patients were subdivided according to baseline LH levels, only hypo-LH
      patients showed the significant increase of LH plasma levels and the significant
      decrease of both cortisol and amylase plasma levels. The increased 17OHP/cortisol
      ratio, as index of the adrenal activity, demonstrated the reduced stress-induced
      adrenal activity. In conclusion, our data sustain the hypothesis that the
      integrative administration of LAC plus l-carnitine reduced both the metabolic and
      the neuroendocrine impairment of patients with FHA.

PMID- 28573876
TI  - A safety assessment of biological therapies targeting the IL-23/IL-17 axis in
      inflammatory bowel diseases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Many different compounds targeting the interleukin 23/17 axis have
      been developed and successfully studied in several autoimmune diseases, including
      inflammatory bowel diseases. Nevertheless, interfering with key immunological
      pathways raises potential safety concerns. This review focuses on the safety
      profile of these novel biological therapies. Areas covered: A literature search
      until March 2017 was performed to collect safety data on different compounds
      targeting this pathway, with emphasis on ustekinumab and secukinumab. Firstly,
      the authors discuss briefly how genetics can inform about potential safety
      issues. Secondly, they extensively describe safety issues (common adverse events,
      infections, malignancies...), immunogenicity, exposure to ustekinumab in specific
      populations and provide advice for vaccination. Finally, they address safety
      profiles of secukinumab and other biological targeting the IL-23/17 axis in IBD.
      Expert opinion: Current evidence suggests that ustekinumab therapy overweigh the
      potential drug-related risks. Additional safety data beyond randomized-controlled
      trials, derived from statistically powered, large prospective studies with long
      term follow-up are urgently needed to assess the real-life ustekinumab-related
      risks and to establish the correct position of these novel class of biologicals
      in IBD treatment. Combining immunomodulators with ustekinumab seems to be safe,
      though prospective data specifically addressing this topic are currently missing.
      Similarly, the combination of different biological therapies still has to be
      studied.

PMID- 28573877
TI  - Activity restriction and risk of preterm delivery.
AB  - PURPOSE: We sought to determine whether activity restriction (AR) in a cohort of
      women at high risk for preterm delivery is associated with the risk of preterm
      delivery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of the Maternal
      Fetal Medicine Units MFMU's Preterm Prediction Study; a multicenter prospective
      cohort study designed to identify risk factors of preterm birth (PTB). The study
      group consisted of women with a singleton gestation that at their first study
      visit (23-24 weeks) had at least one of the following criteria: patient reported
      contractions, severe back pain, a cervical length <15 mm, spotting, protruding
      membranes, or positive fetal fibronectin. Women were assessed for AR at a 27- to
      29-week study visit. Associations between AR and preterm delivery (<37 weeks)
      were examined through logistic regression models before and after adjustment for
      confounders. RESULTS: Of the 1086 women that met the inclusion criteria, 16.5% (n
      = 179) delivered preterm. In this cohort, 9.7% (n = 105) of women were
      recommended AR, with 37.1% (n = 39) having a PTB. In the group not recommended AR
      (n = 981), 14.3% (n = 140) delivered preterm. CONCLUSION: In this cohort of women
      at high risk for PTB, activity restriction was associated with an increased risk
      of PTB. The use of AR in this population should be discouraged.

PMID- 28573878
TI  - The effect of resistant starches on fat oxidation in healthy adults as measured
      by a 13CO2-breath test.
AB  - A resistant starch (RS) mixture (MIX) consisting of fibre of potatoes (FP) and
      wrinkled pea starch (WPS), and high amylose maize starch (HAMS) were supplemented
      in adults to evaluate their effects on fat oxidation by means of a 13CO2-breath
      test. Sixteen subjects received a regular diet either without or with the
      supplementation of MIX and HAMS in randomised order. After administration of a [U
      13C]algal lipid mixture, exhaled air was collected over 14 h in 0.5- and 1-h
      intervals. The 13C abundances were measured by nondispersive infrared
      spectroscopy. In comparison to the dry run (DR), supplementation with MIX and
      with HAMS increased the cumulative percentage dose recovery: (DR: 16.7 %, MIX:
      16.9 %, HAMS: 18.0 %), but without statistical significance. The colonic
      degradation of MIX and HAMS to short-chain fatty acids tends to lower the
      formation of carbohydrate-derived acetyl-CoA and contributes to a postprandial
      lipid oxidation increase by using fat-derived acetyl-CoA as a compensatory fuel
      source.

PMID- 28573879
TI  - Does Cardiovascular Comorbidity Influence the Prescribing of Bronchodilators in
      Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most prevalent comorbidity for
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Potential adverse cardiovascular
      events of bronchodilators warrant their cautionary use in the comorbid COPD-CVD
      population, yet little is known about the prescribing of bronchodilators in this
      high-risk patient group. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether comorbid CVD is
      associated with reduced bronchodilator prescribing in patients with COPD. In
      addition, we explored how the association was modified by gender, concurrent
      asthma, and concomitant beta-blocker (BB) use. METHODS: A cross-sectional study
      was conducted using the 2010 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. All visits
      among diagnosed COPD patients 40 years and older were examined. Logistic
      regression on survey-weighted data was used to predict treatment with
      bronchodilators and determine the influence of gender, asthma, and BBs on
      bronchodilator prescribing. RESULTS: Among 11 627 061 ambulatory COPD visits, we
      found a significantly lower bronchodilator treatment rate among patients with
      comorbid CVD (32.3%) than among patients without CVD (57.6%). The observed effect
      was modified by gender, asthma, and BBs. Deprescribing was more pronounced for
      females than males, for nonusers of BBs than users of BBs, and for asthma
      patients than nonasthma patients. CVD did not affect bronchodilator prescribing
      in either asthmatic or nonasthmatic males taking BBs. CONCLUSIONS: Most COPD
      patients with concurrent CVD were less likely to be prescribed bronchodilators,
      with the exception of males who were also prescribed BBs. Thus, this study
      highlights a specific patient subgroup for whom the guidelines are less likely to
      be observed.

PMID- 28573880
TI  - Long-term outcomes of twins based on the intended mode of delivery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent studies have shown that for twin pregnancies with a cephalic
      presenting first twin, planned vaginal delivery is not associated with adverse
      short-term neonatal outcomes, as compared to planned cesarean delivery. Our
      objective was to compare long-term outcomes in twins, based on planned mode of
      delivery. STUDY DESIGN: This was a prospective, observational cohort of twin
      pregnancies delivered by a single MFM practice. All the patients with a twin
      pregnancy >34 weeks delivered from 2005-2014 were surveyed regarding pediatric
      outcomes at or after 2 years of life. The survey was mail-based, with phone
      follow-up for nonresponses or for clarification of answers. Using chi-square,
      Student's t-tests, and regression analysis we compared outcomes between women who
      planned a vaginal (with active management of the second stage) versus cesarean
      delivery. The main outcome measures were: (1) a composite of major adverse
      outcomes (death, cerebral palsy, necrotizing enterocolitis, chronic renal, heart,
      or lung disease); (2) a composite of minor adverse outcomes (learning disability,
      speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy). RESULTS: Five hundred
      and thirty-two women met inclusion criteria and 354 (66.5%) responded. 178
      (50.3%) women planned to have a cesarean delivery (100% of whom had a cesarean
      delivery) and 176 (49.7%) women planned to have a vaginal delivery (83% of whom
      had a vaginal delivery). The average age of the children at the time of the
      survey was 5.9 years. There were no differences in any pediatric outcomes between
      the two groups. After controlling for maternal age, IVF, obesity, and
      preeclampsia, the planned mode of delivery was not associated with a composite of
      major adverse outcomes (aOR 0.673, 95% CI 0.228, 1.985), nor a composite of minor
      adverse outcomes (aOR 0.767, 95% CI 0.496, 1.188). CONCLUSIONS: Planned vaginal
      delivery with active management of the second stage of labor in twin pregnancies
      >34 weeks is not associated with adverse childhood outcomes.

PMID- 28573881
TI  - In silico estimation of basic activity-relevant parameters for a set of drug
      absorption promoters.
AB  - Finding a balance between a desired drug's potency and its physicochemical
      properties that are important for its molecule pharmacokinetic or
      pharmacodynamics profile is still a challenging issue in rational drug discovery.
      Quantitative assessment of the lipophilic characteristics of potential drug
      molecules is indispensable for efficient development of Absorption, Distribution,
      Metabolism, Excretion, Toxicity-tailored structure-activity models; therefore
      reliable procedures for deriving log P from molecular structure are desirable. In
      the current work a range of various software log P predictors for estimation of
      the numerical lipophilic values for a set of cholic acid derivatives were
      employed and subsequently cross-compared with the experimental parameters. Thus,
      the empirical lipophilicity (RM) was compared with the corresponding log P
      characteristics calculated using alternative methods for deducing the lipophilic
      features. The mean values of the selected molecular descriptors that were
      averaged over the chosen calculation methods (consensus clog P) were subsequently
      correlated with the RM parameter. As an additional experiment, the iterative
      variable elimination partial least squares (IVE-PLS) methodology for an ensemble
      of descriptors retrieved from Dragon 6.0 software was applied for a set of drug
      transporters. To investigate the variations within the ensemble of cholic acid
      derivatives principal component analysis (PCA) and self-organizing neural network
      (SOM) procedures were used to visualize the major differences in the performance
      of drug promoters with respect to their lipophilic profile.

PMID- 28573882
TI  - Variation in the definition of intrauterine growth restriction in routine
      antenatal care: a physician survey among gynecologists in Northwest Germany.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess how intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is defined by
      gynecologists in routine practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We surveyed primary
      care gynecologists in Bremen and Lower Saxony, Northwest Germany, between January
      and July 2014. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data; consensus
      was considered as 90% agreement among the respondents. Multiple logistic
      regression models were performed for the associations between respondents'
      background characteristics and choice of the small for gestational age (SGA)
      cutoff values. RESULTS: Overall, 185 primary care gynecologists participated in
      the survey. Consensus was only observed in two items: (1) an accurate
      determination of gestational age (91%) and (2) repeated measurement of the
      abdominal circumference (91%). Umbilical artery Doppler (76%) and repeated
      ultrasonography (76%) were the most frequently used methods to confirm suspected
      IUGR diagnoses, but different responses prevailed. Notably, only 46% of the
      respondents opted for the 10th percentile of estimated fetal weight as a cutoff
      for SGA classification, which is the internationally recommended value.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this survey indicate considerable practice variation
      regarding detection and management of IUGR pregnancies. There is a need for
      better agreement in terminology and definition of core aspects of IUGR in
      antenatal care.

PMID- 28573883
TI  - Longitudinal falls data in Parkinson's disease: feasibility of fall diaries and
      effect of attrition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying causes of falls for people with Parkinson's disease has
      met with limited success. Prospective falls measurement using the "gold standard"
      approach is challenging. This paper examines the process and outcomes associated
      with longitudinal falls reporting in this population. METHODS: Participants were
      recruited from ICICLE-GAIT (a collaborative study with ICICLE-PD; an incident
      cohort study). Monthly falls diaries were examined over 48 months for accuracy of
      data and rate of attrition. To further inform analysis, characteristics of
      participants with 36-month completed diaries were compared with those who did not
      complete diaries. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-one participants were included
      at baseline. By 12 months, falls diary data had reduced to 107 participants; to
      81 participants by 36 months; and to 59 participants by 48 months. Key reasons
      for diary attrition were withdrawal from ICICLE-gait (n = 16) (13.2%), and
      noncompliance (n = 11) (9.1%). The only significant difference between the
      completed and non-completed diary groups was age at 36 months, with older
      participants being more likely to send in diaries. CONCLUSIONS: Prospective falls
      data is feasible to collect over the long term. Attrition rates are high;
      however, participants retained in the study are overall representative of the
      total falls diary cohort. Implications for Rehabilitation Understanding falls
      evolution in Parkinson's disease through consistent, personalized monitoring of
      falls events is critical to inform effective management. Our study shows that it
      is feasible to collect longitudinal falls data using "gold standard" methodology,
      although significant resources are required for implementation. We anticipate
      that our study methodology is broadly applicable to any at-risk falls cohort
      including older adults and diverse neurological conditions. Researchers and
      clinicians collating prospective falls data must ensure that participants
      understand what constitutes a fall, as per the World Health Organization
      definition. A second key point is to ensure prompt recording of any fall event.

PMID- 28573884
TI  - Content and psychometric evaluations of questionnaires for assessing physical
      function in people with neck disorders: a systematic review of the literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose was to investigate how physical function is assessed in
      people with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in the neck. Specifically, we aimed
      to determine: (1) Which questionnaires are used to assess physical function in
      people with MSD in the neck? (2) What do those questionnaires measure? (3) What
      are the measurement properties of the questionnaires? MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      systematic review was performed to identify questionnaires and psychometric
      evaluations. The content of the questionnaires was categorized according to the
      International Classification of Function, Disability and Health, and the
      psychometric properties were quality-rated using the COnsensus-based Standards
      for the selection of health Measurement INstruments checklist. RESULTS: Ten
      questionnaires and 32 articles evaluating measurement properties were analyzed.
      Most questionnaires covered only the components body functions and activity and
      participation, more often activity participation than body function. Internal
      consistency was adequate in most questionnaires, whereas responsiveness was
      generally low. Neck Disability Index was most evaluated, but the evaluations of
      all questionnaires tended to cover most properties in the checklist. CONCLUSIONS:
      The questionnaires differed substantially in items and extent to which their
      psychometric properties had been evaluated. Focus of measurement was on
      activities in daily life rather than physical function as such. Implications for
      Rehabilitation To provide early diagnostics and effective treatment for patients
      with neck disorders, valid and reliable instruments that measure relevant aspects
      of the disorders are needed. This paper presents an overview of content and
      quality of questionnaires used to assess physical function in neck disorders,
      which may facilitate informed decisions about which measurement instruments to
      use when evaluating the course of neck disorders. Most of the questionnaires need
      more testing to judge the quality, however the NDI was the most frequently tested
      questionnaire. The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health
      Measurement INstruments checklist is a useful tool in relation to psychometric
      testing of questionnaires, but clear definitions of interpretation of the quality
      criteria in each study would enhance comparability of results.

PMID- 28573885
TI  - Linking youths' mental, psychosocial, and emotional functioning to ICF-CY:
      lessons learned.
AB  - PURPOSE: Linking ready-made questionnaires to codes within the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version
      with the intention of using the information statistically for studying mental
      health problems can pose several challenges. Many of the constructs measured are
      latent, and therefore, difficult to describe in single codes. The aim of this
      study was to describe and discuss challenges encountered in this coding process.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire from a Swedish research programme was
      linked to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health,
      Children and Youth Version and the agreement was assessed. RESULTS: Including the
      original aim of the questionnaire into the coding process was found to be very
      important for managing the coding of the latent constructs of the items. Items
      from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health,
      Children and Youth Version chapters with narrow definitions for example mental
      functions, were more easily translated to meaningful concepts to code, while
      broadly defined chapters, such as interactions and relationships, were more
      difficult. CONCLUSION: This study stresses the importance of a clear, predefined
      coding scheme as well as the importance of not relying too heavily on common
      linking rules, especially in cases when it is not possible to use multiple codes
      for a single item. Implications for rehabilitation The International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version,
      is a useful tool for merging assessment data from several sources when
      documenting adolescents' mental functioning in different life domains. Measures
      of mental health are often based on latent constructs, often revealed in the
      description of the rationale/aim of a measure. The latent construct should be the
      primary focus in linking information. By mapping latent constructs to the
      International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and
      Youth Version, users of the classification can capture a broad range of areas
      relevant to everyday functioning in adolescents with mental health problems. The
      subjective experience of participation, i.e., the level of subjective
      involvement, is not possible to code into the International Classification of
      Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version. However, when
      linking mental health constructs to the International Classification of
      Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version codes, the two
      dimensions of participation (the being there, and the level of involvement) need
      to be separated in the linking process. This can be performed by assigning codes
      focusing on being there as separate from items focusing on the subjective
      experience of involvement while being there.

PMID- 28573886
TI  - Effect of two high dose vitamin D by parenteral route in treating vitamin D
      deficiency a prospective interventional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is recognized as a global public health problem.
      Despite ample sunshine, vitamin D deficiency is very common in the Middle East
      (15 degrees -36 degrees N) and African (35 degrees S-37 degrees N) countries; and
      in South Asian countries. AIM: To find a simple, affordable and practical plan to
      treat vitamin-d deficiency. TYPE OF STUDY: This was a prospective interventional
      study. OUTCOME VARIABLE: The primary outcome was typed as vitamin-D level more
      than 50 nanograms/ml as 'yes' and poor response or 'no' when it was less than 50
      ng/ml. PARTICIPANTS: 80 Women participated in study. Laboratory tests: Vitamin D
      [25-OHD]-estimations were performed with LCMSMS-liquid chromatography tandem mass
      spectrometry. Corrective vitamin-D doses: All participants received TWO doses of
      Vitamin-D injections one ml at a time [600K IU/ml or 600,000 IU/ml]. All
      participants received their first dose; after collecting blood samples for
      Vitamin-D estimations. Second dose was given about a month after the first one
      [range 30-37 days]. These doses were given to correct the deficiency. RESULTS:
      Even with this high dose treatment 60% woman had unsatisfactory Vitamin-D levels.

PMID- 28573888
TI  - Interrole conflict and self-efficacy to manage work and family demands mediate
      the relationships of job and family demands with stress in the job and family
      domains.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study derives from Work-Home Resources model (ten
      Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work
      home interface: The work-home resources model. American Psychologist, 67(7), 545
      556. doi: 10.1037/a0027974 ) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, A. (1986).
      Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood
      Cliffs, NJ, US: Prentice-Hall, Inc.) to investigate mechanisms responsible for
      the effect of job and family demands on work- and family-related perceived
      stress. We hypothesized that interrole conflict and self-efficacy to manage work
      and family demands operate either independently or sequentially transmitting the
      effects of demands on perceived stress. DESIGN: A sample of 100 employees of
      various occupations participated in the study conducted online in two waves: Time
      1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) with a three-month interval. METHOD: Regression analysis
      with bootstrapping was applied. RESULTS: Interrole conflict (T1) did not mediate
      the relationships between demands (T1) and perceived stress (T2), whereas self
      efficacy (T1) mediated only those between family demands (T1) and stress (T2).
      However, data supported the sequential mediation hypotheses: Demands (T1) were
      associated with increased interrole conflict (T1) which in turn decreased self
      efficacy (T1) and ultimately resulted in the elevated perceived stress at work
      and in the family (T2). CONCLUSIONS: Demands originating in one domain can impact
      stress both in the same and other life areas through the sequence of interrole
      conflict and context-specific self-efficacy.

PMID- 28573887
TI  - Relations between plasma oxytocin, depressive symptoms and coping strategies in
      response to a stressor: the impact of social support.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Social support can serve as a protective factor against the negative
      impacts of stressors and may thereby promote well-being. As well, exogenous
      administration of oxytocin has been tied to diminished stress responses and might
      also enhance the effects of social support. METHODS/RESULTS: In the current
      study, conducted among female undergraduate students (N = 67), higher depressive
      symptoms were related to lower endorsements of problem-focused coping in response
      to a psychosocial stressor comprising the Trier Social Stress test (TSST).
      However, the relation between depressive symptoms and problem-focused coping was
      absent among participants who had a close female friend present serving as social
      support prior to the stressor experience. Additionally, endogenous plasma
      oxytocin levels were related to certain coping strategies being favored (e.g.,
      problem-solving, humor, cognitive distraction, self-blame and support seeking) in
      response to the psychosocial stressor. However, the strength of these relations
      varied as a function of whether individuals had social support present or not.
      CONCLUSION: These findings confirm the positive impact of social support in
      attenuating the relation between depressive symptoms and specific coping methods.
      The results of this study are consistent with view that oxytocin levels are
      accompanied by particular stress responses, possibly through the promotion of
      coping methods endorsed.

PMID- 28573889
TI  - The Subchondral Bone Is Affected by Bone Marrow Stimulation: A Systematic Review
      of Preclinical Animal Studies.
AB  - Objective Despite the mechanical and biological roles of subchondral bone (SCB)
      in articular cartilage health, there remains no consensus on the postoperative
      morphological status of SCB following bone marrow stimulation (BMS). The purpose
      of this systematic review was to clarify the morphology of SCB following BMS in
      preclinical, translational animal models. Design The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases
      were systematically reviewed using specific search terms on April 19, 2016 based
      on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
      guidelines. The morphology of the SCB was assessed using of microcomputed
      tomography (bone density) and histology (microscopic architecture). Results
      Seventeen animal studies with 520 chondral lesions were included. The morphology
      of SCB did not recover following BMS. Compared with untreated chondral defects,
      BMS resulted in superior morphology of superficial SCB and cartilage but inferior
      morphology (specifically bone density, P < 0.05) of the deep SCB. Overall, the
      use of biological adjuvants during BMS resulted in the superior postoperative
      morphology of SCB. Conclusions Alterations in the SCB following BMS were
      confirmed. Biologics adjuvants may improve the postoperative morphology of both
      SCB and articular cartilage. Refinements of BMS techniques should incorporate
      consideration of SCB damage and restoration. Investigations to optimize BMS
      techniques incorporating both minimally invasive approaches and biologically
      augmented platforms are further warranted.

PMID- 28573890
TI  - Resorcinol-, catechol- and saligenin-based bronchodilating beta2-agonists as
      inhibitors of human cholinesterase activity.
AB  - We investigated the influence of bronchodilating beta2-agonists on the activity
      of human acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and usual, atypical and fluoride-resistant
      butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). We determined the inhibition potency of racemate
      and enantiomers of fenoterol as a resorcinol derivative, isoetharine and
      epinephrine as catechol derivatives and salbutamol and salmeterol as saligenin
      derivatives. All of the tested compounds reversibly inhibited cholinesterases
      with Ki constants ranging from 9.4 MUM to 6.4 mM and had the highest inhibition
      potency towards usual BChE, but generally none of the cholinesterases displayed
      any stereoselectivity. Kinetic and docking results revealed that the inhibition
      potency of the studied compounds could be related to the size of the
      hydroxyaminoethyl chain on the benzene ring. The additional pi-pi interaction of
      salmeterol's benzene ring and Trp286 and hydrogen bond with His447 probably
      enhanced inhibition by salmeterol which was singled out as the most potent
      inhibitor of all the cholinesterases.

PMID- 28573891
TI  - Short-term outcome of brainstem auditory function in term infants after discharge
      from the neonatal intensive care unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine short-term outcome of brainstem auditory function in term
      infants after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS:
      Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) was recorded and analysed at various
      click rates at 2-4 months of age in 43 term NICU graduates. The data were
      compared with those in age-matched normal controls. RESULTS: The threshold of
      BAER in the NICU graduates was marginally elevated. The graduates also showed an
      increase in wave III latency at 91/s and wave V latency at all 21-91/s. The I-V
      interval was increased at 51 and 91/s, whereas the I-III and III-V intervals were
      slightly increased, with no significant differences from normal controls at any
      click rates. The amplitudes of waves I and V in the NICU graduates were
      moderately reduced at all click rates. Wave III amplitudes were reduced at 51 and
      91/s. None of the slopes of BAER variables-rate functions in the NICU graduates
      differed significantly from normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: The BAER was moderately
      abnormal in the NICU graduates, suggesting that brainstem auditory function is
      moderately impaired at 2-4 months of age after discharge. There is a need to
      monitor postnatal auditory and neural development for NICU graduates.

PMID- 28573892
TI  - Acute myeloid leukemia in the elderly: therapeutic options and choice.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) therapies are rapidly evolving with novel targeted
      therapies showing high-level responses in a notoriously difficult to treat group
      of patients - the elderly and unfit. This review will examine the outcomes of
      older AML patients (>60 years old) with conventional induction strategies, and
      published literature on risks of pursuit of induction. Low-intensity combination
      therapy response rates appear to be approaching that of induction regimens, and
      with lower toxicity, low-intensity therapy likely represents the future standard
      approach in this age group. Lastly, allogeneic transplant appears to have a role
      in increasing durable remissions regardless of age and should be considered in
      patients with limited comorbidities.

PMID- 28573893
TI  - Identification of a novel KMT2A-SEPT14 fusion in acute myeloid leukemia.

PMID- 28573894
TI  - Interpersonal social responsibility model of service learning: A longitudinal
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Service-learning (SL) is commonly used in Occupational Therapy (OT)
      programs worldwide as a community placement educational strategy. However, most
      SL models are not clearly defined in terms of both methodology and learning
      outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This longitudinal study explores a structured model of
      Service-Learning (Interpersonal Social Responsibility-Service Learning: ISR-SL)
      aimed towards the development of professional identity among OT students. Based
      on OT students experiences from the end of the course through later stages as
      mature students and professionals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A qualitative research
      design was used to explore the perceptions and experiences of 150 first, second,
      and third-year OT students and graduates who have participated in ISR-SL during
      their first academic year. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that the structured,
      long-term relationship with a person with a disability in the natural
      environment, which is the core of the ISR-SL, allowed students to develop a
      professional identity based on seeing the person as a whole and recognizing
      his/her centrality in the therapeutic relationship. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE:
      This study suggests ISR-SL as future direction or next step for implementing SL
      in OT and other healthcare disciplines programs.

PMID- 28573896
TI  - Expression of a truncated B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein-1 isoform is
      associated with an incomplete plasmacytic differentiation program in chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia.

PMID- 28573895
TI  - Impacts of therapeutic hypothermia on cardiovascular hemodynamics in newborns
      with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy: a case control study using
      echocardiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The effects of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) on hemodynamics in newborns
      with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Thirty-two neonates (gestational age, 39.4 +/- 1.3 weeks) who had TH for HIE and
      echocardiographic hemodynamic assessments during TH and post-TH period were
      studied. Gestational-age-matched 34 healthy neonates were enrolled for
      comparison. RESULTS: During TH, patients had significantly decreased left
      ventricular cardiac output (LVCO), descending aorta blood flow (DABF), and
      DABF/LVCO ratio, and increased resistive index of DA compared to controls. Upper
      body blood flow (UBBF) remained unchanged but UBBF/LVCO ratio significantly
      increased during TH. Urine output decreased significantly during TH and increased
      after rewarming, and showed significant positive correlation with DABF/LVCO
      ratio. Sixteen patients (50%) showed hypoxic-ischemic (HI) lesions on brain
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and had significantly increased UBBF/LVCO ratio
      during TH compared to patients without HI lesions. Patients with UBBF/LVCO ratio
      >55% had significantly higher risk of having HI lesions on brain MRI (odds ratio
      13.0; 95% CI, 2.4-70.2). CONCLUSIONS: Decrease in cardiac output and descending
      aorta blood flow, and preferential cerebral redistribution of cardiac output
      along with an increase in systemic peripheral vascular resistance may affect
      systemic organ perfusion and cerebral metabolism.

PMID- 28573897
TI  - Molecular mechanisms, current management and next generation therapy in myeloma
      bone disease.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) bone disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in
      MM patients and persists even in patients in remission. This bone disease is
      caused by an uncoupling of bone remodeling, with increased osteoclast and
      decreased osteoblast activity and formation, culminating in lytic bone
      destruction. Bisphosphonates are the current standard of care but new therapies
      are needed. As the molecular mechanisms controlling MM bone disease are
      increasingly well understood, new therapeutic targets are extensively explored in
      the preclinical setting and initial clinical trials with novel compounds now show
      promising results. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview of
      the biology of MM bone disease, summarize its current clinical management and
      discuss preclinical and clinical data on next generation therapies.

PMID- 28573898
TI  - Effect of initial body mass index on survival outcome of patients with
      myelodysplastic syndrome: a single-center retrospective study.
AB  - Multiple studies have associated elevated body mass index (BMI) and increased
      incidence of hematologic malignancies, including myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
      The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the association between BMI at
      diagnosis and overall survival (OS) in a retrospective cohort of 92 patients with
      MDS. The median age at diagnosis was 63 (14-84) years. The median BMI was 22.75
      (15.94-34.26) kg/m2. Eleven (12.0%) patients were underweight, 64 (69.6%) were
      normal weight, 17 (18.5%) were overweight or obese. Three-year OS rates differed
      significantly when the three BMI groups were compared (p = .0449). Multivariate
      Cox regression analysis indicated that normal weight (versus underweight) had a
      marginally significant effect on OS (hazard ratio = 0.456, p = .127), and
      overweight/obese (versus underweight) had a significant effect on OS (hazard
      ratio = 0.171, p = .015). Further investigations are required to elucidate the
      mechanisms responsible for this association.

PMID- 28573899
TI  - Exploring the Feasibility of Incorporating Sexual Education Into Routine
      Adolescent Office Visits.

PMID- 28573900
TI  - Initial therapy for acute myeloid leukemia in older patients: principles of care.
AB  - Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) frequently have significant
      comorbidities, geriatric syndromes, and high-risk leukemia that make them
      susceptible to high early mortality, chemotherapy-related toxicities, and poor
      long-term survival. The receipt of chemotherapy or hematopoietic cell
      transplantation is low, and the choices between intensive or low-intensity
      chemotherapy is often not clear. Geriatric and multidisciplinary interventions
      targeted to optimize functional status and improve management of comorbidities
      may enhance chemotherapy tolerance. Comprehensive geriatric assessment, and other
      integrated risk assessment models have been developed to predict the risk of
      chemotherapy-related toxicities and survival, and may guide therapy assignment.
      Development of low intensity but effective therapy is a major need. Deeper
      understanding of the molecular biology of AML has allowed several novel therapies
      to enter clinical trials in recent years. Continuation of successful
      collaboration between several stakeholders will be necessary to build upon the
      clinical and research improvements made thus far.

PMID- 28573901
TI  - A Case Report of Parvovirus B19 Infection in a Renal Allograft.
AB  - Parvovirus B19 infection is undiagnosed in recipients undergoing solid organ
      transplantation. It is usually responsible for unexplained acute and chronic red
      blood cell aplasia that does not respond to erythropoietin therapy. Cases of
      parvovirus B19 infection associated with pancytopenia, solid organ dysfunction,
      and allograft rejection have been described in the literature. The deterioration
      of the immune system as a result of severe immunotherapy favors the reactivation
      of a previous infection or the acquisition of a new one. We present a case of a
      32-year-old woman with a 1-year history of renal allograft transplant and
      previous cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection who presented with chest pain,
      polyarthritis, pancytopenia, and renal dysfunction. A serum sample using
      polymerase chain reaction showed a parvovirus titer of 13.8 trillion IU/mL and a
      CMV titer of 800 IU/mL. The renal biopsy revealed nucleomegaly with focal viral
      inclusions, along with changes associated with immunotherapy toxicity. Electron
      microscopy demonstrated capillary and tubular epithelial cells with "viral
      factories," thereby confirming the diagnosis. Thus, screening for parvovirus B19
      is advised in high-risk patients who present with refractory anemia to avoid the
      complications of a chronic infection associated with the fatal rejection of the
      transplanted organ.

PMID- 28573902
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of on-demand plerixafor added to chemotherapy and granulocyte
      colony stimulating factor for peripheral blood stem cell mobilization in multiple
      myeloma.
AB  - We here report final results of a phase II/III prospective study that evaluated
      in Multiple Myeloma the use of on-demand plerixafor (PLX) added to mobilizing
      chemotherapy for patients showing predictive signs of mobilization failure. A
      total of 111 patients with MM were registered, all received cyclophosphamide 4
      g/m2 and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Overall, a successful
      CD34+ cell mobilization was achieved in 97.2% (108/111) of patients. Minimum
      harvest (>=2.0 * 106 CD34+ cells/kg) was achieved in 97.2% (108/111) and optimal
      harvest success (>=4.0 * 106 CD34+ cells/kg) was achieved in 84.6% (94/111).
      Multivariate analysis showed that patients who received on-demand PLX treatment
      had significantly higher likelihoods of successfully achieving both the minimal
      (p = .006) and optimal harvest (p = .05) in respect to a historical control group
      mobilized without any PLX. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, for each 1%
      increase in probability of achieving a successful minimal harvest, was ?40.6 per
      patient.

PMID- 28573903
TI  - A fast-growing lesion of the lower limb after medically assisted procreation.

PMID- 28573904
TI  - Dichloroacetonitrile induces cytotoxicity through oxidative stress-mediated and
      p53-dependent apoptosis pathway in LO2 cells.
AB  - Dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), one of the disinfection byproducts of water
      chlorination, induces cell proliferation and apoptosis; however, the detailed
      mechanism remains unclear. Oxidative stress participates in various biological
      processes, including DNA damage and cytotoxicity. To explore whether oxidative
      stress mediated DCAN-induced cell proliferation and apoptosis, we assessed the
      effect of redox imbalance and apoptosis in LO2 cells. We observed increase of
      reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde and increased apoptosis by 13.6% in
      500 MUM DCAN compared with the control group. We also observed a decrease of
      antioxidant ability damage including glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and total
      antioxidant capacity depletion. Furthermore, DCAN might activate oxidative stress
      mediated apoptosis pathway via up-regulation of p53 expression and caspase-3
      activity. Therefore, we conclude that DCAN may activate apoptotic signals via p53
      up-regulation and oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis in LO2 cells.

PMID- 28573905
TI  - Regulatory T-cells drive immune dysfunction in CLL.

PMID- 28573906
TI  - Loss of CD3 and TCRgammadelta expression in a relapsed hepatosplenic T-cell
      lymphoma.

PMID- 28573907
TI  - Cart before the horse: use of Aspergillus PCR to increase the diagnostic yield
      from BAL in hematological patients at risk of invasive aspergillosis.

PMID- 28573908
TI  - The eIF4E inhibitor ribavirin as a potential antilymphoma therapeutic: early
      clinical data<sup/>.

PMID- 28573909
TI  - Mobile gait analysis via eSHOEs instrumented shoe insoles: a pilot study for
      validation against the gold standard GAITRite(r).
AB  - Clinical gait analysis contributes massively to rehabilitation support and
      improvement of in-patient care. The research project eSHOE aspires to be a useful
      addition to the rich variety of gait analysis systems. It was designed to fill
      the gap of affordable, reasonably accurate and highly mobile measurement devices.
      With the overall goal of enabling individual home-based monitoring and training
      for people suffering from chronic diseases, affecting the locomotor system.
      Motion and pressure sensors gather movement data directly on the (users) feet,
      store them locally and/or transmit them wirelessly to a PC. A combination of
      pattern recognition and feature extraction algorithms translates the motion data
      into standard gait parameters. Accuracy of eSHOE were evaluated against the
      reference system GAITRite in a clinical pilot study. Eleven hip fracture patients
      (78.4 +/- 7.7 years) and twelve healthy subjects (40.8 +/- 9.1 years) were
      included in these trials. All subjects performed three measurements at a
      comfortable walking speed over 8 m, including the 6-m long GAITRite mat. Six
      standard gait parameters were extracted from a total of 347 gait cycles.
      Agreement was analysed via scatterplots, histograms and Bland-Altman plots. In
      the patient group, the average differences between eSHOE and GAITRite range from 
      0.046 to 0.045 s and in the healthy group from -0.029 to 0.029 s. Therefore, it
      can be concluded that eSHOE delivers adequately accurate results. Especially with
      the prospect as an at home supplement or follow-up to clinical gait analysis and
      compared to other state of the art wearable motion analysis systems.

PMID- 28573911
TI  - Framing the transit: expeditionary culture and identities in Lieutenant E.J.W.
      Noble's caricatures of the 1874 transit of Venus expedition to Honolulu.
AB  - Making use of a source previously unknown to historians, this article sheds new
      light on the British expedition to the Sandwich Islands to observe the 1874
      transit of Venus. This source, a series of caricature drawings that follow the
      expedition from departure to return, gives insight into expeditionary culture and
      the experience of a previously unremarked member of this astronomical expedition,
      Evelyn J.W. Noble, a career officer of the Royal Marine Artillery. It also
      reveals overlapping military, scientific and masculine identities, developed in
      dialogue with, and often deliberately subverting, more public accounts. The
      article explores this unique source as a product of naval, imperial and
      expeditionary cultures; as a contribution to the wide textual and visual culture
      that surrounded the transit expeditions; and as a series of drawings that united
      the expedition members through the use of humour and irony, by differentiating
      the group from others they encountered, and by reflecting or rejecting ideas
      about the nature of scientific work and personae. The artist represented himself
      not as a serving officer but as part of a (mostly) united group, dedicated to but
      humorously self-deprecating about their contribution to the scientific effort.

PMID- 28573910
TI  - Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for adult patients with
      Epstein-Barr virus-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.
AB  - To assess the efficacy of haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (HSCT) in adult patients with Epstein-Barr virus-associated hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis (EBV-HLH), we retrospectively analyzed 30 cases that
      presented at our institution. At the time of HSCT, 20 patients (66.7%) had
      achieved a response after receiving HLH-94 or salvage therapies. All patients
      underwent myeloablative conditioning followed by peripheral blood HSCT from their
      related, haploidentical donors. Twenty-six patients (86.7%) achieved donor cell
      engraftment. Of these, 23 (88.5%) achieved complete chimerism and three (11.5%)
      demonstrated mixed chimerism. Reactivated EBV infection was found in 25 (96.2%).
      Acute graft-versus-host disease occurred in 18 (69.2%), with grade I-II in 11
      patients and grade III-IV in seven. Chronic graft-versus-host disease occurred in
      six (23.1%). Nineteen patients survived until the end of follow-up. The three
      year overall survival rate was 63.3%. Our results indicate that haploidentical
      HSCT is an effective treatment for adult patients with EBV-HLH.

PMID- 28573912
TI  - Dissecting and customising the Childhood Obesity Prevention Advisory Council
      (COPAC): the development and application of a community engagement framework to
      improve childhood obesity prevention among migrant populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Migrant communities in Australia bear a disproportionate childhood
      obesity burden. They also show poor engagement in obesity prevention initiatives
      which may contribute to widening obesity disparities. Community engagement has
      been shown to be effective in reducing health disparities by improving migrant
      communities' participation in prevention programmes. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed
      to develop a community engagement framework to improve childhood obesity
      prevention among migrants. DESIGN: Based on the African Review Panel model and
      the Community-Based Participatory Research conceptual logic model, the Childhood
      Obesity Prevention Advisory Council (COPAC) framework was developed and
      established in four disadvantaged areas in Victoria, Australia. The COPAC
      included service providers and migrant community members from the same project's
      site. RESULTS: COPAC demonstrated several benefits including cross-organisational
      and multidisciplinary collaborations; understanding of the cultural barriers in
      childhood obesity prevention; enthusiasm from the COPAC members in addressing
      childhood obesity in their multicultural communities; equitable involvement,
      motivation, and empowerment of COPAC members in research development; and
      establishing organisational affiliations to foster long-term community
      involvement. This study also documented several challenges in community
      engagement including lack of prioritisation of migration-related childhood
      obesity disparities by the policymakers; staffing constraints among service
      providers leading to frequent disruptions in COPAC members' contributions; and
      lack of adequate training and skill-building of bicultural workers. CONCLUSIONS:
      The COPAC model adopted a flexible and dynamic community engagement process to
      suit the ongoing needs of the migrant community which incorporated the existing
      talents and resources within the community. For effective community engagement of
      migrant communities, it is important for policymakers to develop the knowledge,
      capacity and skills of the bicultural migrant workforce. Integrating both service
      providers and migrant community members in the COPAC has demonstrated that a
      multifaceted community-led approach has the potential to reduce childhood obesity
      related disparities in Australia.

PMID- 28573913
TI  - The immunogenicity and safety of GSK's recombinant hepatitis B vaccine in adults:
      a systematic review of 30 years of experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Engerix B (GSK HepB, GSK, Belgium) was the first recombinant
      hepatitis B virus vaccine to be licensed, and marked its 30th anniversary in
      2016. Vaccination of adult populations against HBV is usually implemented on a
      risk-based approach with varying degrees of success. Confirmation of ongoing
      vaccine effectiveness requires monitoring the performance of HBV immunization as
      reported in individual studies, using systematic methods. Areas covered: We
      conducted a systematic review of the literature to summarize 30 years of
      immunogenicity and safety data for GSK HepB in adult populations. Expert
      commentary: Primary 3-dose vaccination of healthy individuals is generally
      associated with seroprotection rates of 90% or more, although seroprotection
      decreases with older age. Accelerated 0, 1, 2-month or 0, 7 and 21-day schedules
      require the recommended booster dose to achieve similar rates of seroprotection.
      Lower rates of seroprotection were also observed in adults with underlying
      chronic disease and with a weakened immune system. GSK HepB had a clinically
      acceptable safety profile in all of the populations studied, including
      individuals with underlying co-morbidities and immunosuppression. GSK HepB will
      continue to contribute to global HBV control for the foreseeable future. Further
      investigation is needed into how to optimize seroprotection in less immune
      competent groups.

PMID- 28573915
TI  - Are Latinos Who Commit Sexual Offenses Different? A Closer Examination of
      Characteristics and Offense Patterns.
AB  - Research examining ethnic and cultural differences among individuals who commit
      sex offenses remains limited. Specifically, literature focusing on sex offenses
      committed by Latinos is scarce. Using archival data from a large sample of
      individuals who committed sex offenses, this study explored differences between
      Latino, White, and African American individuals related to their characteristics,
      the offenses, and the victims. Latinos in the sample were more likely to have a
      lower educational level, and to be living with the victim, than either their
      White or African American counterparts. To further understand the influence of
      cultural background, the study also examined differences within the Latino group
      based on their country of origin. Within the Latino sample, differences emerged
      in their educational level, criminal background, and psychiatric history. These
      findings are discussed as they pertain to future research and current practices
      related to the management and treatment of Latinos who commit sexual offenses.

PMID- 28573916
TI  - Peripheral T-cell lymphomas: very little good, mainly the bad and the ugly.

PMID- 28573917
TI  - Transplantation of allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in a
      cerebral palsy patient (Retracted).
AB  - This article was retracted on 25/08/2017.

PMID- 28573914
TI  - Treatment strategies for DNA repair-deficient prostate cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Common recurrent genetic alterations have been identified in
      prostate cancer through comprehensive sequencing efforts, and the prevalence of
      mutations in DNA repair pathway genes in patients with advanced and metastatic
      disease approaches 20-25%. Identification of these underlying DNA repair defects
      may present unique treatment opportunities for patients, both in terms of
      standard-of-care treatments and selected investigational agents. Areas covered:
      We review our current understanding of the genomic landscape of prostate cancer,
      with special attention to alterations in DNA repair pathway genes in metastatic
      castration-resistant disease. For patients with tumors deficient in homologous
      recombination repair, potential opportunities for treatment include platinum
      chemotherapy, poly(ADP) ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, bipolar androgen
      therapy, and maybe immune checkpoint blockade therapy. In addition, tumors with
      mismatch repair defects (i.e. microsatellite instability) may be particularly
      susceptible to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy. Expert commentary: We
      anticipate that genomic profiling of tumors will become necessary to guide
      treatment of advanced prostate cancer in the coming years. Work is needed to
      define the optimal tissue to test, and to define the natural history of tumors
      with specific genetic defects. The prognostic and therapeutic importance of
      germline vs somatic DNA repair alterations, and mono-allelic vs bi-allelic
      inactivation, also remains unclear. Finally, optimal strategies to sequence or
      combine targeted agents for these patients with 'actionable' mutations are now
      needed.

PMID- 28573918
TI  - From the Editor.

PMID- 28573919
TI  - Propensity score analysis with partially observed covariates: How should multiple
      imputation be used?
AB  - Inverse probability of treatment weighting is a popular propensity score-based
      approach to estimate marginal treatment effects in observational studies at risk
      of confounding bias. A major issue when estimating the propensity score is the
      presence of partially observed covariates. Multiple imputation is a natural
      approach to handle missing data on covariates: covariates are imputed and a
      propensity score analysis is performed in each imputed dataset to estimate the
      treatment effect. The treatment effect estimates from each imputed dataset are
      then combined to obtain an overall estimate. We call this method MIte. However,
      an alternative approach has been proposed, in which the propensity scores are
      combined across the imputed datasets (MIps). Therefore, there are remaining
      uncertainties about how to implement multiple imputation for propensity score
      analysis: (a) should we apply Rubin's rules to the inverse probability of
      treatment weighting treatment effect estimates or to the propensity score
      estimates themselves? (b) does the outcome have to be included in the imputation
      model? (c) how should we estimate the variance of the inverse probability of
      treatment weighting estimator after multiple imputation? We studied the
      consistency and balancing properties of the MIte and MIps estimators and
      performed a simulation study to empirically assess their performance for the
      analysis of a binary outcome. We also compared the performance of these methods
      to complete case analysis and the missingness pattern approach, which uses a
      different propensity score model for each pattern of missingness, and a third
      multiple imputation approach in which the propensity score parameters are
      combined rather than the propensity scores themselves (MIpar). Under a missing at
      random mechanism, complete case and missingness pattern analyses were biased in
      most cases for estimating the marginal treatment effect, whereas multiple
      imputation approaches were approximately unbiased as long as the outcome was
      included in the imputation model. Only MIte was unbiased in all the studied
      scenarios and Rubin's rules provided good variance estimates for MIte. The
      propensity score estimated in the MIte approach showed good balancing properties.
      In conclusion, when using multiple imputation in the inverse probability of
      treatment weighting context, MIte with the outcome included in the imputation
      model is the preferred approach.

PMID- 28573921
TI  - Sex Offender Mobility: An Application of Crime Pattern Theory Among Child Sex
      Offenders.
AB  - Sex offenders are a heterogeneous group and exhibit various offense patterns.
      Often the location where the offender committed the offense is different from
      where the offender encountered their victim. Applying crime pattern theory, this
      study sought to understand if the type of location, victim, and situational
      characteristics could predict whether an offender would commit the sexual offense
      in a different and more secluded location than where he first encountered the
      victim. Among a sample of 114 incarcerated sex offenders, the results showed that
      offenders who contacted their victims in locations where children are known to
      congregate were more than 4 times more likely to travel to a more secluded
      location to complete the sexual offense. Those who used noncoercive strategies
      (e.g., bribes, seduction) during the offense process were approximately 7 times
      more likely to travel to a more secluded location that those who did not. Policy
      implications of the findings are discussed.

PMID- 28573922
TI  - Determining the binding site and binding affinity of estradiol to human serum
      albumin and holo-transferrin: fluorescence spectroscopic, isothermal titration
      calorimetry and molecular modeling approaches.
AB  - The interactions between estradiol and two carrier proteins, i.e. human serum
      albumin (HSA) and holo-transferrin (HTF) in aqueous solution at pH = 7.4 were
      studied by three-dimensional fluorescence emission spectroscopy, isothermal
      titration calorimetry (ITC), zeta-potential, resonance light-scattering and
      molecular modeling. Extensive fluorescence quenching was observed throughout the
      interaction between the drug and both proteins. Moreover, conformational changes
      were determined by observing the rearrangement of Trp residues during binding of
      estradiol with HSA and HTF at different concentrations. ITC experiments revealed
      that, in the presence of estradiol, both van der Waals forces and hydrogen
      bonding became predominant. In addition, other binding parameters such as
      enthalpy and entropy changes were determined by the zeta potential method.
      Molecular modeling suggested that estradiol was situated within sub-domain IB
      sited in the hydrophobic cluster in Site I, whereas the drug was located in the N
      terminal of HTF where it was hydrogen bonded with Ala 670.

PMID- 28573923
TI  - Combined photothermal and photodynamic therapy by hyaluronic acid-decorated
      polypyrrole nanoparticles.
AB  - AIM: To develop a nanoparticle-based platform using polypyrrole and IR-780 for
      effective combined photothermal and photodynamic therapy. MATERIALS & METHODS: IR
      780 was loaded in a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) core, decorated with
      polypyrrole shells and hyaluronic acid (IPPH). Physicochemical properties and in
      vitro and in vivo anticancer effects of these nanoparticles were evaluated.
      RESULTS: The resulting IPPHs were spherical, small and negatively charged. Under
      near-infrared laser irradiation, the IPPHs generated reactive oxygen species and
      heat and synergistically improved therapeutic efficacy. The antitumor effects
      were confirmed by in vitro cellular reactive oxygen species detection and
      cytotoxicity assays, and in vivo in a xenograft tumor model, with no damage to
      body organs. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate the potential of applying IPPH in
      oncology nanomedicine.

PMID- 28573924
TI  - The lack of association between vascular endothelial growth factor and
      retinopathy of prematurity in an observational study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between
      prematurity, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), VEGFR-1 (soluble fms
      like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFLT-1)) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). METHODS: A
      cohort of 53 neonates (gestation <28 weeks) was recruited into this study and
      peripheral venous samples for VEGF and sFLT-1 measurement were obtained between
      gestational ages 320-326 weeks. RESULTS: The mean birth weight for the preterm
      neonates was 850 (178) g and the median gestational age was 26.4 [24.7-27.4]
      weeks. The median VEGF-A level was 1348 [608-2216] pg/mL and the median sFLT-1
      level was 178 [103-244] pg/mL. Thirty-three neonates (33/53) developed various
      stages of ROP during their stay in the neonatal unit but only five neonates
      developed severe (stage 3) ROP needing treatment. The neonates with ROP were
      smaller (birth weight 801 (111) vs. 990 (175) g; p < .0001), more preterm
      (gestation 25.4 [24.2-26.0] vs. 27.1 [26.8-27.9] weeks; p < .0001) and received
      supplemental oxygen for a longer duration (1140 [218-1813] vs. 04 [40-434] hours;
      p= .012). There was no statistically significant difference in the VEGF-A level
      or sFLT-1 levels between those who developed ROP and those who did not. There was
      a positive correlation between VEGF and both birth weight and gestation,
      respectively. There was no correlation between sFLT1 and birth weight or
      gestation. VEGF-A/sFLT-1 ratio in babies treated for ROP was significantly lower
      compared to those not treated (2.8 [1.0-5.7] vs. 9.9 [5.6-13.7]; p = .04). A
      logistic regression model identified gestational age to be a statistically
      significant predictor of ROP (odds ratio 0.03 (0.001-0.550); p = .019).
      CONCLUSIONS: There is no direct correlation between systemic VEGF-A or sFLT-1
      plasma levels and severity of ROP in extremely preterm neonates. The link between
      VEGF and ROP remains to be fully understood.

PMID- 28573925
TI  - Radiation-induced esophageal strictures treated with fluoroscopic balloon
      dilation: clinical outcomes and factors influencing recurrence in 62 patients.
AB  - Background Balloon dilation is safe and effective for the treatment of radiation
      induced esophageal stricture (RIES), with favorable short-term and mid-term
      outcomes; however, few reports of long-term outcomes exist. Few studies have
      evaluated factors associated with recurrence after balloon dilation. Purpose To
      evaluate the long-term outcome of balloon dilation in patients with RIES and to
      identify factors associated with stricture recurrence. Material and Methods The
      medical records of 62 consecutive patients who had undergone fluoroscopic balloon
      dilation for RIES at our institution between December 1998 and June 2016 were
      reviewed. Results One hundred and twenty balloon dilation sessions were performed
      in 62 patients (mean = 1.9 sessions per patient). Clinical success was achieved
      in 53 (86%) patients after single (n = 37) or multiple (n = 16) dilation
      sessions. Complications occurred in 27% of the dilation sessions. The primary
      patency rates at one, two, three, and five years were 60%, 56%, 52%, and 52%,
      respectively. Secondary patency rates at one, two, three, and five years were
      87%, 85%, 85%, and 80%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis
      identified an interval from radiation therapy (RT) to stricture of >=6 months
      (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.205; P < 0.001), strictures located at the cervical
      esophagus (HR = 5.846; P < 0.001), and stricture length of >=2 cm (HR = 2.923; P
      = 0.006) as significant predictors of recurrence. Conclusion Despite the high
      incidence of ruptures and recurrences, fluoroscopic balloon dilation is valuable
      as an initial therapeutic option for patients with RIES.

PMID- 28573926
TI  - Curcumin-loaded chitosan-cholesterol micelles: evaluation in monolayers and 3D
      cancer spheroid model.
AB  - AIM: To improve the bioavailability and anticancer potential of curcumin by using
      a cholesterol-conjugated chitosan micelle. Methods & methods: Cholesterol was
      conjugated to chitosan (15 kDa) to form self-assembled micelles, which loaded
      curcumin. Physicochemical characterization and formulation optimization of the
      drug-loaded micelles (curcumin-loaded chitosan-cholesterol micelles [C-CCM]) were
      performed. In vitro cellular uptake and viability of C-CCM were investigated in
      melanoma and breast cancer cell lines. The antitumor efficacy was evaluated in 3D
      lung cancer spheroid model. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: The optimized C-CCM had size of
      approximately 162 nm with loading efficiency of approximately 36%. C-CCM was
      taken up efficiently by the cells, and it reduced cancer cell viability
      significantly compared with free curcumin. C-CCM enhanced the antitumor efficacy
      in spheroids, suggesting that C-CCM could be used as an effective chemotherapy in
      cancer.

PMID- 28573927
TI  - Psychometric evaluation of the Moral Distress Risk Scale: A methodological study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Moral distress is a kind of suffering that nurses may experience when
      they act in ways that are considered inconsistent with moral values, leading to a
      perceived compromise of moral integrity. Consequences are mostly negative and
      include physical and psychological symptoms, in addition to organizational
      implications. OBJECTIVE: To psychometrically test the Moral Distress Risk Scale.
      RESEARCH DESIGN: A methodological study was realized. Data were submitted to
      exploratory factorial analysis through the SPSS statistical program. Participants
      and research context: In total, 268 nurses from hospitals and primary healthcare
      settings participated in this research during the period of March to June of
      2016. Ethical considerations: This research has ethics committee approval.
      FINDINGS: The Moral Distress Risk Scale is composed of 7 factors and 30 items; it
      shows evidence of acceptable reliability and validity with a Cronbach's alpha =
      0.913, a total variance explained of 59%, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.896, and a
      significant Bartlett <0.001. DISCUSSION: Concerns about moral distress should be
      beyond acute care settings, and a tool to help clarify critical points in other
      healthcare contexts may add value to moral distress speech. CONCLUSION:
      Psychometric results reveal that the Moral Distress Risk Scale can be applied in
      different healthcare contexts.

PMID- 28573928
TI  - Diversity of mitochondrial plastid DNAs (MTPTs) in seed plants.
AB  - Mitochondrial plastid DNAs (MTPTs) refer to plastid-derived DNA fragments in
      mitochondrial genomes. While the MTPTs have been described for numerous species,
      its overall patterns have not been examined in details. Here, we carried out a
      systematic analysis of MTPTs among 73 plant species, including 28 algae, 1
      liverwort, 2 moss, 1 lycophyte, 1 gymnosperm, 1 magnoliid, 12 monocots, 26
      eudicots and 1 relic angiosperm Amborella trichopoda. A total of 300 MTPT gene
      clusters were found in 39 seed plants, which represented 144 MTPT gene cluster
      types. The detected MTPT gene clusters were evaluated in seven aspects, and they
      were found to be enriched particularly in monocots and asterids of eudicots. Some
      MTPT gene clusters were found to be shared by closely related species. All
      chloroplast genes were found in MTPTs, suggesting that there is no functional
      relevancy for genes that were transferred. However, after calculation of the
      frequency of the 115 chloroplast genes, five hot spots and three cold spots were
      discovered in chloroplast genome. In summary, this study demonstrated the high
      degree of diversity in MTPTs. The discovered MTPTs would facilitate the accurate
      assembly of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes as well as the understanding of
      organelle genome evolution.

PMID- 28573930
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28573929
TI  - Potential for Interfraction Motion to Increase Esophageal Toxicity in Lung SBRT.
AB  - PURPOSE: To characterize the effect of the relative motion of esophagus and tumor
      on radiation doses to the esophagus in patients treated with stereotactic body
      radiation therapy for central lung tumors. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Fifty fractions
      of stereotactic body radiation therapy in 10 patients with lung tumors within 2.5
      cm of the esophagus were reviewed. The esophagus was delineated on each
      treatment's cone-beam computed tomography scan and compared to its position on
      the planning scan. Dose-volume histograms were calculated using the original
      treatment beams to determine the actual dose delivered to the esophagus for each
      fraction of stereotactic body radiation therapy. RESULTS: Median interfraction
      right-left shift of the esophagus was 0.9 mm (range, -5.4 to 3.3 mm) toward the
      left. Median interfraction anteroposterior shift was 0.7 mm (range, -3.7 to 11.5
      mm) posteriorly. The median percentage increase in dose to 1 cm3, dose to 3.5
      cm3, and dose to 5 cm3 was 1.7%, 5.6%, and 6.6%, respectively. Two cases of
      significant late esophageal toxicity were observed, with change in esophageal
      position relative to the planning target volume resulting in significantly higher
      D5cc values than anticipated. CONCLUSION: Interfraction shifts between the
      internal target volume and esophagus can lead to unanticipated increases in the
      volume of esophagus receiving high doses when treating central lung tumors with
      stereotactic body radiation therapy. Certain practical steps, such as considering
      deep breath hold for internal target volume reduction, using a planning risk
      volume for esophagus, and carefully visualizing and considering esophageal
      position at the time of stereotactic body radiation therapy, can be taken to
      minimize unanticipated dose increases that could cause unexpected esophageal
      toxicity.

PMID- 28573931
TI  - Third trimester growth restriction patterns: individualized assessment using a
      fetal growth pathology score.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To qualitatively and quantitatively characterize third trimester
      growth patterns in fetuses/neonates with growth restriction using Individualized
      Growth Assessment. METHODS: Serial fetal size measurements from 73 fetuses with
      proven growth restriction were evaluated using a novel composite parameter, the
      Fetal Growth Pathology Score (FGPS1). Third trimester FGPS1 measurements plotted
      against fetal age were examined for patterns. Identified patterns were
      characterized using the four components of the FGP1 [head circumference (HC),
      abdominal circumference (AC), femur diaphysis length (FDL), estimated weight
      (EWT)]. A secondary characterization using age of onset, duration and magnitude
      of the growth abnormality process was also performed. Frequencies and magnitudes
      of abnormal values in different FGPS1 patterns were compared. RESULTS: Five
      growth restriction patterns were found in 70/73 (95.9%) of the cases, with
      progressive worsening [Pattern 1 (37.0%)] and abnormal growth identified only at
      last scan [Pattern 2 (27.4%)] being the most common. These two patterns were
      usually statistically different from each other and the other three with respect
      to size parameter abnormalities and abnormal growth process characteristics
      (MANOVA). Growth abnormalities in all parameters of the FGPS1 contributed to the
      five abnormality patterns although AC and EWT were most important. The age of
      onset, duration and magnitude were similar between patterns except for Pattern 2,
      which had a late onset and a short duration (GLM + contrasts). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study represents the first detailed evaluation of third trimester growth
      restriction using methods that consider the growth potential of each fetus. Five
      distinctive and repetitive patterns were found, suggesting that fetal growth
      restriction evolves in different ways. Further research is needed to determine
      the relationships of these patterns to physiological/biochemical changes and
      adverse outcomes associated with growth restriction.

PMID- 28573933
TI  - Improving the Effectiveness of the Process of Postdischarge Communication Between
      Hospitalists and Referring Providers.

PMID- 28573932
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of Uninterrupted Low-Intensity Warfarin for Radiofrequency
      Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation in the Elderly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No previous studies exist investigating the optimal intensity of
      uninterrupted anticoagulation with warfarin during radiofrequency catheter
      ablation (RFCA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) in the elderly. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate
      the efficacy and safety of continuous low-intensity warfarin therapy throughout
      the periprocedural period of RFCA for AF in the elderly. METHODS: This is a
      prospective randomized study. We enrolled AF patients (age >= 70 years) who
      underwent first-time RFCA for AF. Enrolled patients were randomized to group A
      and group B. The international normalized ratios before ablation were maintained
      at 1.5 to 2.0 and 2.0 to 2.5 in group A and B, respectively. Primary end points
      were periprocedural thromboembolic complications and major bleeding. Secondary
      end points included periprocedural asymptomatic cerebral emboli (ACE) and minor
      bleeding. RESULTS: A total of 101 patients were enrolled in our study (group A:
      52; group B: 49). Baseline characteristics were well balanced between the 2
      groups. Only 1 patient suffered from stroke in group B. No major bleeding events
      occurred in either group. The incidence of new ACE lesions was comparable between
      the 2 groups (11.5% vs 8.2%, P = 0.82). Minor bleeding occurred in 1 of 52 (1.9%)
      patients in group A and in 5 of 49 (10.2%) patients in group B ( P = 0.10).
      CONCLUSIONS: Uninterrupted low-intensity warfarin for RFCA of AF might be as
      effective as standard-intensity warfarin in preventing periprocedural
      thromboembolic complications and might be associated with fewer bleeding events
      in the elderly.

PMID- 28573934
TI  - Testicular Fibrous Hypoplasia in Cynomolgus Monkeys ( Macaca fascicularis): An
      Incidental, Congenital Lesion.
AB  - Testicular fibrous hypoplasia is an incidental lesion characterized by
      replacement of the testicular parenchyma by mature collagen. A retrospective
      survey of hematoxylin and eosin-stained testicular sections from 722 purpose-bred
      Asian and 90 Mauritian cynomolgus monkeys from 56 safety assessment studies
      conducted between 1999 and 2011 was performed. The incidence of the lesion
      increased markedly over time. No cases occurred between 1999 and 2004. Between
      2005 and 2009, the incidence ranged between 8.1% and 11.0% of the monkeys
      examined and then rose to 26.1% in 2010 and 30.9% in 2011. Overall, the lesion
      was identified in 10.94% of Asian monkeys with the highest incidence in animals
      originating from China and Vietnam; severity ranged from minimal to severe and it
      occurred unilaterally (38.5%) and bilaterally (61.5%). In Mauritian monkeys, the
      lesion was predominantly minimal in severity, bilateral in distribution, and
      affected 6.6% of the animals examined. The lesion occurred regardless of sexual
      maturation status but when present in mature monkeys was often associated with
      cystic tubular atrophy of the seminiferous epithelium. Based on the morphological
      characteristics of the lesion and the unilateral/bilateral distribution, the
      lesion is considered to be a congenital or developmental abnormality.

PMID- 28573935
TI  - The NADPH Oxidase Inhibitor Apocynin Suppresses Preneoplastic Liver Foci of Rats.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been revealed to be important factors for
      carcinogenesis and tumor progression. Therefore, we focused on an ROS-generating
      protein, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase, and evaluated
      whether its inhibitor, apocynin, could suppress hepatocarcinogenesis in a medium
      term rat liver bioassay. The number and size of glutathione S-transferase
      placental form (GST-P)-positive foci were significantly reduced by apocynin in a
      dose-dependent manner. The reduction of ROS generation by apocynin was confirmed
      by dihydroethidium staining. Apocynin treatment also significantly reduced Ki-67
      positivity, downregulated cyclooxygenase 2, and suppressed the activation of the
      c-Myc pathway. Meanwhile, ROS generation was not different between GST-P-positive
      foci and surrounding GST-P-negative areas of the liver. In conclusion, the
      present data suggest that apocynin possesses a potential antihepatocarcinogenic
      property.

PMID- 28573936
TI  - Exploring Variation in Certified Nursing Assistant Assignments From the
      Perspective of Nursing Home Residents: A Comparison of Adopters and Nonadopters
      of Consistent Assignment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe and compare certified nursing assistant (CNA) staffing
      between adopter and nonadopters of consistent assignment. DATA SOURCES: One month
      of preexisting CNA assignment and scheduling sheets from a purposive sample of 30
      homes. STUDY DESIGN: A descriptive comparative study was conducted to calculate
      and compare numbers of CNAs assigned per resident across homes. DATA EXTRACTION:
      Resident names and CNA assignments were abstracted from assignment records and
      entered into the Advancing Excellence consistent assignment tool to calculate
      numbers of CNAs assigned per resident. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Both variation and
      overlap existed in the number of CNAs per resident within and between homes.
      Adopters assigned significantly fewer CNAs per resident. CONCLUSION: Research is
      needed to determine how assignment variations affect resident perceptions of
      quality.

PMID- 28573938
TI  - Long-term gait pattern assessment using a tri-axial accelerometer.
AB  - In this article, we present a pervasive solution for gait pattern classification
      that uses accelerometer data retrieved from a waist-mounted inertial sensor. The
      proposed algorithm has been conceived to operate continuously for long-term
      applications. With respect to traditional approaches that use a large number of
      features and sophisticated classifiers, our solution is able to assess four
      different gait patterns (standing, level walking, stair ascending and descending)
      by using three features and a decision tree. We assess the algorithm detection
      performances using data that we retrieved from a validation group composed by
      nine young and healthy volunteers, for a total number of 36 tests and 12.5 h of
      recorded acceleration data. Experimental results show that in continuous
      applications the proposed algorithm is able to effectively discriminate between
      standing (100%), level walking (~99%), stair ascending (~84%), and descending
      (~85%), with an average classification accuracy for the four patterns that
      exceeds 92% in continuous, long-lasting applications.

PMID- 28573937
TI  - Using the COMMVAC taxonomy to map vaccination communication interventions in
      Mozambique.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improved communication about childhood vaccination is fundamental to
      increasing vaccine uptake in low-income countries. Mozambique, with 64% of
      children fully vaccinated, uses a range of communication interventions to promote
      uptake of childhood immunisation. OBJECTIVES: Using a taxonomy developed by the
      'Communicate to Vaccinate' (COMMVAC) project, the study aims to identify and
      classify the existing communication interventions for vaccination in Mozambique
      and to find the gaps. METHODS: We used a qualitative research approach to
      identify the range of communication interventions used in Mozambique. In-depth
      semi-structured interviews were carried out with key purposively selected
      personnel at national level and relevant documents were collected and analysed.
      These data were complemented with observations of communication during routine
      vaccination and campaigns in Nampula province. We used the COMMVAC taxonomy,
      which organises vaccination communication intervention according to its intended
      purpose and the population targeted, to map both routine and campaign
      interventions. RESULTS: We identified interventions used in campaign and routine
      vaccination, or in both, fitting five of the seven taxonomy purposes, with
      informing or educating community members predominating. We did not identify any
      interventions that aimed to provide support or facilitate decision-making. There
      were interventions for all main target groups, although fewer for health
      providers. Overlap occurred: for example, interventions often targeted both
      parents and community members. CONCLUSIONS: We consider that the predominant
      focus on informing and educating community members is appropriate in the
      Mozambican context, where there is a high level of illiteracy and poor knowledge
      of the reasons for vaccination. We recommend increasing interventions for health
      providers, in particular training them in better communication for vaccination.
      The taxonomy was useful for identifying gaps, but needs to be more user-friendly
      if it is to be employed as a tool by health service managers.

PMID- 28573939
TI  - Is centre-based provision of hearing aids better than community-based provision?
      A cluster-randomized trial among adolescents in Bangladesh.
AB  - PURPOSE: In response to the need for hearing aids in low-income countries, an
      approach to provide hearing aids through trained community workers was developed.
      This study compares the effectiveness of the community-based approach with that
      of a centre-based approach. METHODS: One hundred and forty adolescents (56%
      girls; 12-18 years; mean: 15 years) from eleven sub-districts participated in a
      cluster-randomized trial comparing a community-based service (n = 75) with a
      centre-based service (n = 65) in Bangladesh. The International Outcome Inventory
      for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) was administered to the participants six weeks after
      fitting of a hearing aid, and its scores were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U-tests
      and an ordinal regression model. RESULTS: The community-based approach performed
      as well as the centre-based approach on five out of seven outcome measures. The
      latter approach performed statistically significantly better on Residual
      participation restrictions (p = .007) and Impact on others (p = .012), but the
      effect sizes were small. Controlling for sex, age, hearing loss, place of living
      and proxy responses did not change the results. CONCLUSIONS: The community-based
      approach is a viable and effective option for hearing aid delivery in low
      resourced settings. The approach needs to be adapted to particular contexts, and
      possible down-sides may need to be counteracted by special interventions.
      Implications for Rehabilitation Hearing aid use can contribute to improved
      activity, participation and quality of life among adolescents in low-income
      countries. Community-based approaches to delivering hearing aids can be viable
      and effective options to centre-based services.

PMID- 28573940
TI  - Successful treatment of intrauterine cytomegalovirus infection with an
      intraventricular cyst in a dichorionic diamniotic twin gestation using
      cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin.
AB  - Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the leading cause of severe
      congenital abnormalities. CMV immunoglobulin (CMVIG) may lower risk for
      symptomatic disease in congenital CMV infection. In a twin pregnancy, only one
      fetus shows CMV infection, raising a dilemma about intervention since the
      uninfected fetus would be exposed to treatment unnecessarily. CMVIG (2 * 200
      U/kg) was given due to high viral load and development of an intraventricular
      cyst. The cyst growth plateaued, no other brain damage developed, and at 8
      months, the infant was symptom-free. CMVIG appears appropriate to treat
      intrauterine CMV infection in this setting.

PMID- 28573941
TI  - Neonatal outcomes following a trial of labor after Caesarean delivery: a
      population-based study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the neonatal effects of trial of labor after Caesarean
      (TOLAC) births. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort
      study using the CDC's Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Public Use File (2011
      2013) on women with a live singleton pregnancy and prior Caesarean delivery.
      Multivariate logistic regression compared neonatal outcomes between women who
      underwent a TOLAC with women who did not. Secondary analysis compared outcomes of
      birth with uterine rupture to those without. RESULTS: A total of 1,036,554 births
      met inclusion criteria, of which 17.5% underwent TOLAC. Women who had a TOLAC
      were more likely to deliver infants requiring neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
      admission (odds ratios (OR) 1.12, 95%CI 1.09-1.16) and assisted ventilation (OR
      1.07, 95%CI 1.03-1.12). Among women with TOLAC, 0.18% of births were in context
      of a uterine rupture and those neonates had an increased risk of NICU admissions
      (OR 5.95, 95%CI 4.56-7.76), assisted ventilation (OR 8.89, 95%CI 6.73-11.75),
      seizures (OR 91.66, 95%CI 42.23-198.93), and death (OR 16.28, 95%CI 5.09-52.08).
      CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal morbidity appears slightly increased among women with a
      TOLAC. However, morbidity and mortality are considerably increased in cases of
      uterine rupture. Appropriate selection and counseling of women for TOLAC should
      be undertaken as to minimize uterine rupture risk.

PMID- 28573942
TI  - Parents' experiences of conducting a goal-directed intervention based on
      children's self-identified goals, a qualitative study.
AB  - AIM/OBJECTIVE: To explore and describe parents' perceptions and experiences of
      conducting a goal-directed intervention focused on children's self-identified
      goals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Individual semi-structured interviews were performed
      with nine parents (8 mothers, 1 father). All the parents had participated
      actively in conducting a goal-directed intervention addressing their children's
      self-identified goals. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content
      analysis. RESULTS: From a parental perspective, working on children's self
      identified goals was a positive experience. The findings revealed three
      categories: Goals challenged the parents describes the parents' experiences of
      the complexity of goal setting. The intervention demanded an intensive and
      flexible parental engagement; here the parents expressed the importance of active
      parental engagement, which for some parents could be challenging. The child's
      personal goals gave more than anticipated describes the parents' experiences of
      how the children's personal goals positively influenced the children's self
      esteem, increased the children's motivation for practice, and helped the children
      develop more than the parents had anticipated. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: In
      the parents' experience, goal-directed intervention comprehensively relies on
      their engagement. Follow up's from the occupational therapist motivated the
      parents and their own child's personal goals gave them more than they could have
      expected. This indicates the importance of supporting parents and letting
      children actively participate in the goal setting process.

PMID- 28573943
TI  - Applying the Integrated Behavior Change Model to Understanding Physical Activity
      Among Older Adults: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - We explored older adults' experiences of physical activity (PA) and related
      decision-making processes underlying PA. Twenty Australians (Mage = 73.8 years)
      participated in semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic
      analysis, and identified themes were matched deductively within motivational,
      volitional, and implicit processes of the integrated behavior change model for
      PA. Motivational influences such as participants' time orientation toward health
      and perceptions of what PA should be like were frequently featured in
      participants' narratives. Volitional processes were also identified, with
      participants reporting different ways of coping with competing priorities.
      Physical surroundings and habitual PA were the identified themes within implicit
      processes. Together, these findings contribute to a better understanding of
      subjective experiences of older adults regarding PA. They also add to a more
      contextual understanding of multiple decision-making processes underpinning older
      adults' PA engagement. Identified concepts may be used in future research and PA
      interventions targeting older adults.

PMID- 28573944
TI  - Stress through the mind of the beholder: preliminary differences in child and
      maternal perceptions of child stress in relation to child cortisol and
      cardiovascular activity.
AB  - The present study examined associations among parent and child reports of youth's
      stressful life events (SLEs), perceived stress, and biological measures of stress
      activity (i.e. cortisol and cardiovascular activity). Examining these aspects of
      youth stress presents several challenges. Unlike adult studies of individual
      differences in which information regarding SLEs, perceptions of events, and
      biological activity are gathered from one individual, assessment of individual
      differences among children usually involves other informants (e.g. parent).
      However, parent and child reports of SLEs and the child's psychological response
      to such events are often discordant. Moreover, examinations of youth perception
      of stress are hampered by limitations of child cognitive processes, as well as
      parents' limited knowledge of their child's perception of stress. In a
      preliminary effort to unscramble the complex effects of youth SLEs and perceived
      stress in relation to biological response to acute stressors, this study examined
      51 boys and girls aged 7-16, with no history of psychopathology or medical
      concerns. Contrary to hypotheses, findings revealed that compared to actual
      experiences of stress, perceived stress has greater associations with both
      cortisol and cardiovascular activity. That is, perceived stress is more
      biologically salient relative to actual stress. Results also suggest that
      informant differences may explain some previous inconsistent findings in studies
      of youth's stress reactivity. The current findings mirror the adult studies that
      show appraisal and perception of traumatic and stressful events may be more
      predictive of negative health and mental health outcomes than the severity of the
      events. Further studies are needed to understand the impact of youth's
      perceptions of stress on their biological stress reactions and later health
      outcomes such as clinical disorders.

PMID- 28573945
TI  - Resuscitation practices of low and normal birth weight infants in Nepal: an
      observational study using video camera recordings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The global burden of stillbirth and neonatal deaths remains a
      challenge in low-income countries. Training in neonatal resuscitation can reduce
      intrapartum stillbirth and early neonatal mortality. Previous results demonstrate
      that infants who previously would have been registered as stillbirths are
      successfully resuscitated after such training, suggesting that there is a process
      of selection for resuscitation that needs to be explored. OBJECTIVE: To compare
      neonatal resuscitation of low birth weight and normal birth weight infants born
      at a facility in a low-income setting. METHODS: Motion-triggered video cameras
      were installed above the resuscitation tables at a maternity health facility
      during an intervention study (ISRCTN97846009) employing the Helping Babies
      Breathe resuscitation protocol in Kathmandu, Nepal. Recordings were analysed,
      noting crying, stimulation, ventilation, suctioning and oxygen administration
      during resuscitation. Birth weight, Apgar scores and sex of the infant were
      retrieved from matched hospital registers. The results were analysed by chi
      square and logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 2253 resuscitation cases were
      recorded. Low birth weight infants in need of resuscitation had higher odds of
      receiving ventilation (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.24-2.42) and lower odds of receiving
      suctioning (aOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.34-0.82) after adjustment for the Helping Babies
      Breathe intervention, sex of the infant and place of resuscitation within the
      facility. The rates of stimulation and administration of oxygen were the same in
      both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Low birth weight was associated with more ventilation
      and less suctioning during neonatal resuscitation in a low-income setting. As
      ventilation is the most important intervention when the infant does not initiate
      breathing after birth, low birth weight was not a predictor for the decision to
      withhold resuscitation. Frequent routine use of suctioning of the lower airways
      continues to be a problem in the studied context, even after the introduction of
      the Helping Babies Breathe protocol.

PMID- 28573947
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573946
TI  - Influence of cytarabine metabolic pathway polymorphisms in acute myeloid leukemia
      induction treatment.
AB  - Cytarabine is considered the most effective chemotherapeutic option in acute
      myeloid leukemia (AML). The impact of 10 polymorphisms in cytarabine metabolic
      pathway genes were evaluated in 225 adult de novo AML patients. Variant alleles
      of DCK rs2306744 and CDA rs602950 showed higher complete remission (p = .024, p =
      .045), with lower survival rates for variant alleles of CDA rs2072671 (p = .015,
      p = .045, p = .032), rs3215400 (p = .033) and wild-type genotype of rs602950 (p =
      .039, .014). Induction death (p = .033) and lower survival rates (p = .021, p =
      .047) were correlated to RRM1 rs9937 variant allele. In addition, variant alleles
      of CDA rs532545 and rs602950 were related to skin toxicity (p = .031, p = .049)
      and mucositis to DCK rs2306744 minor allele (p = .046). Other toxicities
      associated to variant alleles were hepatotoxicity to NT5C2 rs11598702 (p = .032),
      lung toxicity (p = .031) and thrombocytopenia to DCK rs4694362 (p = .046). This
      study supports the interest of cytarabine pathway polymorphisms regarding
      efficacy and toxicity of AML therapy in a coherent integrated manner.

PMID- 28573948
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573950
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573949
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573951
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573952
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573953
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573954
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573955
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573957
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573956
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573959
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573958
TI  - ?

PMID- 28573960
TI  - Sensitive detection of rare antigen-specific T cells directed against Wilms'
      tumor 1 by FluoroSpot assay.

PMID- 28573961
TI  - Revising Working Models Across Time: Relationship Situations That Enhance
      Attachment Security.
AB  - We propose the Attachment Security Enhancement Model (ASEM) to suggest how
      romantic relationships can promote chronic attachment security. One part of the
      ASEM examines partner responses that protect relationships from the erosive
      effects of immediate insecurity, but such responses may not necessarily address
      underlying insecurities in a person's mental models. Therefore, a second part of
      the ASEM examines relationship situations that foster more secure mental models.
      Both parts may work in tandem. We posit that attachment anxiety should decline
      most in situations that foster greater personal confidence and more secure mental
      models of the self. In contrast, attachment avoidance should decline most in
      situations that involve positive dependence and foster more secure models of
      close others. The ASEM integrates research and theory, suggests novel directions
      for future research, and has practical implications, all of which center on the
      idea that adult attachment orientations are an emergent property of close
      relationships.

PMID- 28573963
TI  - Contested evidence: a Dutch reimbursement decision taken to court - CORRIGENDUM.

PMID- 28573962
TI  - Anatomical integration and rich-club connectivity in euthymic bipolar disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although repeatedly associated with white matter microstructural
      alterations, bipolar disorder (BD) has been relatively unexplored using complex
      network analysis. This method combines structural and diffusion magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) to model the brain as a network and evaluate its
      topological properties. A group of highly interconnected high-density structures,
      termed the 'rich-club', represents an important network for integration of brain
      functioning. This study aimed to assess structural and rich-club connectivity
      properties in BD through graph theory analyses. METHOD: We obtained structural
      and diffusion MRI scans from 42 euthymic patients with BD type I and 43 age- and
      gender-matched healthy volunteers. Weighted fractional anisotropy connections
      mapped between cortical and subcortical structures defined the neuroanatomical
      networks. Next, we examined between-group differences in features of graph
      properties and sub-networks. RESULTS: Patients exhibited significantly reduced
      clustering coefficient and global efficiency, compared with controls globally and
      regionally in frontal and occipital regions. Additionally, patients displayed
      weaker sub-network connectivity in distributed regions. Rich-club analysis
      revealed subtly reduced density in patients, which did not withstand multiple
      comparison correction. However, hub identification in most participants indicated
      differentially affected rich-club membership in the BD group, with two hubs
      absent when compared with controls, namely the superior frontal gyrus and
      thalamus. CONCLUSIONS: This graph theory analysis presents a thorough
      investigation of topological features of connectivity in euthymic BD.
      Abnormalities of global and local measures and network components provide further
      neuroanatomically specific evidence for distributed dysconnectivity as a trait
      feature of BD.

PMID- 28573964
TI  - A place in the sun? Healthcare rights of retired UK citizens in Spain post
      Brexit.
AB  - At least 100,000 retired UK citizens currently live in Spain. Under EU law, they
      are entitled to access the Spanish National Health Service (NHS) with minimum
      administrative difficulty. What will their legal position be under a 'no-deal
      Brexit'? This is a question of Spanish law. The worst case scenario is that they
      will have to reapply for their residence permits under the Spanish legislation
      applicable to non-EU/European Economic Area citizens, with all the administrative
      inconvenience and cost entailed. If they successfully reapply, their personal
      health care costs will be considerably higher than at present, should they choose
      to remain in Spain. Very obvious questions of capacity planning arise. The
      Spanish system will potentially need to gear up for a significant administrative
      effort. Given the distinct possibility of a 'no-deal Brexit', the UK NHS should
      prepare to welcome significant numbers of pensioners home.

PMID- 28573965
TI  - Characterization of Croatian Rape (Brassica sp.) Honey by Pollen Spectrum,
      Physicochemical Characteristics, and Multielement analysis by ICP-OES.
AB  - Rape (Brassica sp.) unifloral honey from Croatia was characterized by certain
      physicochemical parameters, micro- and macroelement content, and pollen spectrum,
      as determined in 21 honey samples. The Brassica sp. pollen type was predominant
      in the analyzed samples and ranged between 60 and 98%, with Trifolium spp.,
      Robinia pseudoacacia, Rosaceae, Helianthus annuus, Salix spp., and Taraxacum
      officinale as the main accompanying pollen types. The electrical conductivity
      mean value was 0.22 +/- 0.05 mS/cm and the glucose/fructose ratio mean value was
      1.1 +/- 0.07, whereas sucrose was absent in the samples. The most abundant
      macroelement was potassium (K) (268.49 mg/kg), followed by phosphorus (P) (60.23
      mg/kg), calcium (Ca) (54.02 mg/kg), sodium (Na) (22.52 mg/kg), sulfur (S) (15.79
      mg/kg), and magnesium (Mg) (12.58 mg/kg). Toxic elements were mainly bellow the
      LODs; only arsenic (As) concentration was detectable in higher amount (0.233
      mg/kg), which may be related to the high arsenic concentration in the soil and
      groundwater of eastern Croatia. The differences between the two harvesting
      seasons observed in a large number of elements could be related to climatic and
      soil conditions and different nectar yields originating from the associated plant
      species.

PMID- 28573966
TI  - Learning navigation - Learning with navigation. A review.
AB  - The goal of this review paper is to retrieve from the existing literature
      relevant information (1) about the learning curve of the currently existing
      navigation systems and (2) about the use of navigation system for teaching
      orthopaedic procedures. All studies reporting on the learning curve of navigation
      systems support the hypothesis that computer-navigated total knee arthroplasty
      (TKA) involves only a short learning curve and that beginners can obtain good
      results from the beginning of their experience, as navigation provides continuous
      feedback during all phases of the knee replacement surgery and allows for
      correcting any bone cut errors. Interestingly, there is no comparable research on
      the learning curve of TKA with standard, manual instrumentation. One might
      postulate that this learning curve might be longer than with navigation, with
      potentially a higher rate of outliers. The current literature does support that
      navigation may be an efficient teaching tool for both experienced orthopaedic
      surgeons and trainees. Experienced surgeons may improve their skills with
      conventional techniques and learn new techniques more efficiently and more
      quickly. Trainees may have a better understanding of the procedure and learn
      standard techniques with a shorter learning curve. This is probably due to the
      immediate feedback of navigation systems. A shorter learning curve may be
      associated with improved clinical and functional results for the patient during
      this critical period. However, there is no evidence that training with navigation
      excludes trainees from the need to work in academic environments with experienced
      teachers. Future techniques in training may include the development of laboratory
      simulation procedures using navigated feedback.

PMID- 28573967
TI  - Dual mobility total hip arthroplasty in hemiplegic patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The rate of cerebrovascular insults is increasing, currently
      leaving many patients with difficulties to maintain their balance due to muscular
      weakness and/or poor central control. Those patients are at risk of dislocation
      when total hip arthroplasty (THA) is planned. Instability remains the most
      significant issue after primary THA especially in such groups of patients. The
      risk is more pronounced when other factors are added such as, older age, femoral
      neck fractures, avascular necrosis and/or hip osteoarthritis. Dual mobility cup
      (DMC) is considered as a prosthesis with higher inherent stability that may help
      in such situation. In this patient series, we aimed to evaluate stability,
      clinical and radiological results of dual mobility THA done on the weak limb of
      hemiplegic patients. METHODS: Twenty-four consecutive hemiplegic patients have
      undergone DMC with a mean age of 68 years. The indication for surgery was hip
      osteoarthritis in one third of the patients and femoral neck fractures in the
      remaining patients. Those patients were capable of walking prior to hospital
      admission despite weakness. Those patients were observed postoperatively for at
      least one year. Clinical results and complications were recorded. RESULTS: After
      a minimum of one year, 91.6% of the patients have satisfactory results. No cases
      of hip or intraprosthetic dislocation were observed. DISCUSSION: Dual mobility
      THA in the hemiplegic patients provides both efficacy and stability with good
      functional results.

PMID- 28573968
TI  - Arthroscopic-assisted retrograde mosaicplasty for an osteochondral defect of the
      femoral head without performing surgical hip dislocation.
AB  - Osteochondral autograft transplantation (mosaicplasty) for the osteochondral
      defects of the femoral head is generally performed with safe dislocation of the
      hip joint. Here, we present a 27-year-old male patient who had a symptomatic
      osteochondral defect of the femoral head and underwent mosaicplasty applied by
      hip arthroscopy without surgical hip dislocation. The preoperative radiological
      evaluation showed a focal osteochondral defect on the weight-bearing surface of
      the femoral head. With the assistance of hip arthroscopy, the defect area was
      reconstructed with osteochondral plug, which was taken from the ipsilateral knee,
      inserted in a retrograde fashion, and positioned with the spherical surface of
      the femoral head cartilage under fluoroscopic and arthroscopic control. At the
      final follow-up (26 months postoperatively), he had full range of motion (ROM)
      without pain and radiographic evaluation showed near complete incorporation of
      the graft with preservation of the native joint space. Mosaicplasty can be
      applied in a retrograde fashion with the assistance of hip arthroscopy without
      using surgical hip dislocation and may be an alternative treatment option for the
      osteochondral defects of the femoral head in young patients.

PMID- 28573969
TI  - Human spiruridiasis due to Physaloptera spp. (Nematoda: Physalopteridae) in a
      grave of the Shahr-e Sukhteh archeological site of the Bronze Age (2800-2500 BC)
      in Iran.
AB  - Evidence of rare human helminthiasis in paleoparasitological records is scarce.
      we report here the finding of Physaloptera spp. eggs in a soil sample collected
      in the pelvic and sacrum bones area of a skeleton excavated from a grave of Shahr
      e Sukhteh archeological site dating back to the Bronze Age. The site is located
      in southeastern Iran and has attracted the attention of numerous archeological
      teams owing to its vast expanse and diverse archeological findings since 1997.
      The spirurid nematodes Physaloptera spp. are rarely the cause of human
      helminthiasis nowadays, but this infection might not have been so rare in ancient
      populations such as those in the Shahr-e Sukhteh. Out of 320 skeletons analyzed
      in this study, only one parasitized individual was detected. This surprising
      result led us to suspect the role of nematophagous fungi and other taphonomic
      processes in possible false-negative results. This is the first
      paleoparasitological study on human remains in this archeological site and the
      first record of ancient human physalopterosis in the Middle East.

PMID- 28573970
TI  - Uncertainty quantification of wall shear stress in intracranial aneurysms using a
      data-driven statistical model of systemic blood flow variability.
AB  - Adverse wall shear stress (WSS) patterns are known to play a key role in the
      localisation, formation, and progression of intracranial aneurysms (IAs). Complex
      region-specific and time-varying aneurysmal WSS patterns depend both on vascular
      morphology as well as on variable systemic flow conditions. Computational fluid
      dynamics (CFD) has been proposed for characterising WSS patterns in IAs; however,
      CFD simulations often rely on deterministic boundary conditions that are not
      representative of the actual variations in blood flow. We develop a data-driven
      statistical model of internal carotid artery (ICA) flow, which is used to
      generate a virtual population of waveforms used as inlet boundary conditions in
      CFD simulations. This allows the statistics of the resulting aneurysmal WSS
      distributions to be computed. It is observed that ICA waveform variations have
      limited influence on the time-averaged WSS (TAWSS) on the IA surface. In
      contrast, in regions where the flow is locally highly multidirectional, WSS
      directionality and harmonic content are strongly affected by the ICA flow
      waveform. As a consequence, we argue that the effect of blood flow variability
      should be explicitly considered in CFD-based IA rupture assessment to prevent
      confounding the conclusions.

PMID- 28573971
TI  - Relationship between increased in vivo meniscal loads and abnormal tibiofemoral
      surface alignment in ACL deficient sheep is varied.
AB  - The aim of this study was to quantify how abnormal dynamic tibiofemoral surface
      alignment affects the load bearing function of menisci in vivo. Using a sheep
      model of ACL deficiency, we tested the hypothesis that increased in vivo meniscal
      loads correlate with greater tibiofemoral surface alignment abnormality. Stifle
      kinematics were recorded using a bone-mounted instrumented spatial linkage in
      four sheep before, and at four and twenty weeks (w) after ACL transection. A
      parallel robotic manipulator was used to quantify stifle kinetics by reproducing
      each animal's in vivo kinematics and measuring tissue loads during gait. Meniscal
      resultant loads were estimated from the change in joint reaction force after
      sequentially removing load-bearing tissues. Tibiofemoral subchondral surfaces
      were then traced and modeled using thin plate splines. Proximity disturbance is a
      surface interaction measure used to quantify dynamic tibiofemoral surface
      alignment abnormality. ACL transection increased meniscal loads by 30-145% at 20w
      post-ACL transection, whereas the degree of dynamic tibiofemoral subchondral
      surface alignment varied between sheep. Positive and significant correlations
      between increased meniscal loads and proximity disturbance values >10mm were
      observed (R2=0.04-0.57; p<=0.05). Our results suggest that the proximity
      disturbance measure reflects abnormal meniscal loads following ACL injury;
      however given the range of R2 values, perturbations in dynamic tibiofemoral
      subchondral surface alignment do not explain abnormal joint kinetics entirely,
      and point to the presence of other dynamic compensatory mechanisms that may have
      a significant bearing on in vivo joint function and long-term joint health.

PMID- 28573972
TI  - The effect of in vivo rotator cuff muscle contraction on glenohumeral joint
      translation: An ultrasonographic and electromyographic study.
AB  - The proposed stabilizing mechanism of rotator cuff muscles is to limit excessive
      humeral head translation. However, an accurate measurement of glenohumeral joint
      translation in vivo has been challenging. We aimed to measure the effect of
      rotator cuff muscle contraction on glenohumeral joint translation using real time
      ultrasound (RTUS) and electromyography. Twenty healthy adults with no history of
      shoulder pathology were recruited. Six intramuscular electrodes were inserted in
      the rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, upper and lower infraspinatus, teres
      minor, upper and lower subscapularis). Anterior and posterior glenohumeral
      translations were measured in testing conditions (with and without translation
      force, with and without isometric internal and external rotation), in two
      positions (shoulder neutral, abduction) and views (anterior, posterior). There
      was reduced glenohumeral translation with rotator cuff muscle contraction in the
      neutral anterior (F2,38=17.8, p<0.01), neutral posterior (F1.6,31.0=44.3, p<0.01)
      and abducted posterior (F1.5,28.8=5.2, p<0.02) positions. There were also
      differences between the amount of translation limited by anterior and posterior
      rotator cuff muscles in response to anterior and posterior translation forces
      (p<0.05), indicating that their activity was, to a certain extent, direction
      specific. For example, in both neutral and abducted positions, contraction of the
      posterior rotator cuff muscles, infraspinatus and teres minor, appeared to tether
      anterior translation of the humeral head. Our results confirm that the rotator
      cuff functions as a stabilizer of the glenohumeral joint by limiting humeral head
      translation and this is likely to be in a direction-specific manner.

PMID- 28573973
TI  - Knee flexion with quadriceps cocontraction: A new therapeutic exercise for the
      early stage of ACL rehabilitation.
AB  - Quadriceps strengthening exercises designed for the early phase of anterior
      cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation should limit the anterior tibial
      translation developed by quadriceps contraction near full knee extension, in
      order to avoid excessive strain on the healing tissue. We hypothesize that knee
      flexion exercises with simultaneous voluntary contraction of quadriceps
      (voluntary quadriceps cocontraction) can yield considerable levels of quadriceps
      activation while preventing the tibia from translating forward relative to the
      femur. Electromyographic activity in quadriceps and hamstring muscles was
      measured in 20 healthy males during isometric knee-flexion exercises executed
      near full knee extension with maximal voluntary effort of quadriceps
      cocontraction and external resistance (R) ranging from 0% to 60% of the 1
      repetition maximum (1RM). Biomechanical modeling was applied to derive the shear
      (anterior/posterior) tibiofemoral force developed in each exercise condition.
      Isometric knee-flexion exercises with small external resistance (R=10% 1RM) and
      maximal voluntary effort of quadriceps cocontraction yielded a net posterior (ACL
      unloading) tibial pull (P=0.005) and levels of activation of 32%, 50%, and 45% of
      maximum voluntary isometric contraction, for the rectus femoris, vastus medialis,
      and vastus lateralis, respectively. This exercise might potentially rank as one
      of the most appropriate quadriceps strengthening interventions in the early phase
      of ACL rehabilitation.

PMID- 28573975
TI  - Benign infantile seizures followed by autistic regression in a boy with 16p11.2
      deletion.
AB  - Benign infantile seizures (BIS) are usually a self-limiting condition, which may
      be associated with heterozygous mutations in the PRRT2 gene at chromosome
      16p11.2. Here, we report a boy with a deletion in 16p11.2, presenting with BIS
      and typical neurodevelopment in the first year of life, unexpectedly followed by
      severe autistic regression. 16p11.2 deletions are typically associated with
      intellectual disability, autism, and language disorders, and only rarely with
      BIS. This clinical report shows that the neurodevelopmental prognosis in BIS
      patients may not always be benign, and suggests that array CGH screening should
      be considered for affected infants in order to rule out deletions at 16p11.2 and
      long-term clinical follow-up.

PMID- 28573974
TI  - Lower limb estimation from sparse landmarks using an articulated shape model.
AB  - Rapid generation of lower limb musculoskeletal models is essential for clinically
      applicable patient-specific gait modeling. Estimation of muscle and joint contact
      forces requires accurate representation of bone geometry and pose, as well as
      their muscle attachment sites, which define muscle moment arms. Motion-capture is
      a routine part of gait assessment but contains relatively sparse geometric
      information. Standard methods for creating customized models from motion-capture
      data scale a reference model without considering natural shape variations. We
      present an articulated statistical shape model of the left lower limb with
      embedded anatomical landmarks and muscle attachment regions. This model is used
      in an automatic workflow, implemented in an easy-to-use software application,
      that robustly and accurately estimates realistic lower limb bone geometry, pose,
      and muscle attachment regions from seven commonly used motion-capture landmarks.
      Estimated bone models were validated on noise-free marker positions to have a
      lower (p=0.001) surface-to-surface root-mean-squared error of 4.28mm, compared to
      5.22mm using standard isotropic scaling. Errors at a variety of anatomical
      landmarks were also lower (8.6mm versus 10.8mm, p=0.001). We improve upon
      standard lower limb model scaling methods with shape model-constrained realistic
      bone geometries, regional muscle attachment sites, and higher accuracy.

PMID- 28573976
TI  - Multiband superconductivity in BiS2-based layered compounds.
AB  - A mean-field treatment is presented of a square lattice two-orbital-model for
      [Formula: see text] taking into account intra- and inter-orbital
      superconductivity. A rich phase diagram involving both types of superconductivity
      is presented as a function of the ratio between the couplings of electrons in the
      same and different orbitals ([Formula: see text]) and electron doping x. With the
      help of a quantity we call orbital-mixing ratio, denoted as [Formula: see text],
      the phase diagram is analyzed using a simple and intuitive picture based on how
      [Formula: see text] varies as electron doping increases. The predictive power of
      [Formula: see text] suggests that it could be a useful tool in qualitatively (or
      even semi-quantitatively) analyzing multiband superconductivity in BCS-like
      superconductors.

PMID- 28573977
TI  - Bioactive-glass ceramic with two crystalline phases (BioS-2P) for bone tissue
      engineering.
AB  - We aimed to evaluate the in vitro osteogenic and osteoinductive potentials of
      BioS-2P and its ability to promote in vivo bone repair. To investigate osteogenic
      potential, UMR-106 osteoblastic cells were cultured on BioS-2P and Bioglass 45S5
      discs in osteogenic medium. The osteoinductive potential was evaluated using
      mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultured on BioS-2P, Bioglass 45S5 and polystyrene
      in non-osteogenic medium. Rat bone calvarial defects were implanted with BioS-2P
      scaffolds alone or seeded with MSCs. UMR-106 proliferation was similar for both
      materials, while alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and mineralization were
      higher for BioS-2P. Bone sialoprotein (BSP), RUNX2 and osteopontin (OPN) gene
      expression and BSP, OPN, ALP and RUNX2 protein expression were higher on BioS-2P.
      For MSCs, ALP activity was higher on Bioglass 45S5 than on BioS-2P and was lower
      on polystyrene. All genes were highly expressed on bioactive glasses compared to
      polystyrene. BioS-2P scaffolds promoted in vivo bone formation without
      differences in the morphometric parameters at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. After 8 weeks,
      the combination of BioS-2P with MSCs did not increase the quantity of new bone
      compared to the BioS-2P alone. To stimulate osteoblast activity, drive MSC
      differentiation and promote bone formation, BioS-2P is a good choice as a
      scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28573978
TI  - Automatic contour propagation using deformable image registration to determine
      delivered dose to spinal cord in head-and-neck cancer radiotherapy.
AB  - To determine delivered dose to the spinal cord, a technique has been developed to
      propagate manual contours from kilovoltage computed-tomography (kVCT) scans for
      treatment planning to megavoltage computed-tomography (MVCT) guidance scans. The
      technique uses the Elastix software to perform intensity-based deformable image
      registration of each kVCT scan to the associated MVCT scans. The registration
      transform is then applied to contours of the spinal cord drawn manually on the
      kVCT scan, to obtain contour positions on the MVCT scans. Different registration
      strategies have been investigated, with performance evaluated by comparing the
      resulting auto-contours with manual contours, drawn by oncologists. The
      comparison metrics include the conformity index (CI), and the distance between
      centres (DBC). With optimised registration, auto-contours generally agree well
      with manual contours. Considering all 30 MVCT scans for each of three patients,
      the median CI is [Formula: see text], and the median DBC is ([Formula: see text])
      mm. An intra-observer comparison for the same scans gives a median CI of
      [Formula: see text] and a DBC of ([Formula: see text]) mm. Good levels of
      conformity are also obtained when auto-contours are compared with manual contours
      from one observer for a single MVCT scan for each of 30 patients, and when they
      are compared with manual contours from six observers for two MVCT scans for each
      of three patients. Using the auto-contours to estimate organ position at
      treatment time, a preliminary study of 33 patients who underwent radiotherapy for
      head-and-neck cancers indicates good agreement between planned and delivered dose
      to the spinal cord.

PMID- 28573979
TI  - Growth factor-functionalized silk membranes support wound healing in vitro.
AB  - Chronic wounds represent a serious problem in daily medical routine requiring
      improved wound care. Silk of the domesticated silkworm (Bombyx mori) has been
      used to form a variety of biomaterials for medical applications. We genetically
      engineered B. mori to produce silk functionalized with growth factors to promote
      wound healing in vitro. In this study FGF-, EGF-, KGF-, PDGF- or VEGF
      functionalized silk membranes were compared to native B. mori silk membranes
      without growth factors for their ability to support wound healing in vitro. All
      silk membranes were cytocompatible and supported macrophage secretion of
      neutrophil recruiting factor CXCL1 and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP
      1). VEGF-functionalized silk significantly outperformed other growth factor
      functionalized silk membranes, but not native silk in angiogenesis assays. In
      addition, EGF- and VEGF-functionalized silk membranes slightly enhanced
      macrophage adhesion compared to silk without growth factors. In wound healing
      assays in vitro (reduction of wound lesion), dermal equivalents showed a higher
      wound healing capacity when covered with EGF-, FGF- or VEGF-functionalized silk
      membranes compared to native, KGF- or PDGF-functionalized silk membranes.
      Keratinocyte migration and growth is overstimulated by KGF- and VEGF
      functionalized silk membranes. In conclusion, growth factor-functionalized silk
      membranes prepared from genetically engineered silk worm glands are promising
      wound dressings for future wound healing therapies.

PMID- 28573980
TI  - 3D porous collagen scaffolds reinforced by glycation with ribose for tissue
      engineering application.
AB  - In this study, ribose was proposed as a promising, non-toxic, low-cost
      crosslinker to enhance the structural integrity and stiffness of type I collagen
      matrices. The main objective was to determine the optimal conditions of glycation
      by ribose to fabricate 3D porous collagen scaffolds and to verify their
      effectiveness for use as scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering, by
      physicochemical and biological characterization. Two different crosslinking
      strategies were investigated including variation in the amount of ribose and the
      time of reaction: pre-crosslinking (PRE) and post-crosslinking (POST). All ribose
      glycated collagen scaffolds demonstrated good swelling properties and
      interconnected porous microstructure suitable for cell growth and colonization.
      The POST samples were superior to PRE, in terms of porosity, degree of
      crosslinking, fluid uptake ability, and resistance to enzymatic digestion.
      Moreover, the mechanical properties of the scaffolds were significantly improved
      upon glycation when compared to non-crosslinked collagen, manifesting the best
      performance for POST matrices crosslinked for 5 d and in the highest amount of
      sugar. In vitro studies analyzing cell-material interactions revealed scaffold
      cytocompatibility with higher cell viability and cell proliferation as well as
      higher glycosaminoglycan secretion for POST scaffolds with respect to PRE. This
      report demonstrated the feasibility of developing 3D collagen scaffolds by ribose
      glycation and highlighted the POST-crosslinking strategy as being more favorable
      than the PRE-crosslinking to achieve scaffolds suitable for cartilage
      regeneration.

PMID- 28573981
TI  - At what data length do cerebral autoregulation measures stabilise?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cerebral autoregulation is commonly assessed through mathematical
      models that use non-invasive measurements of arterial blood pressure and cerebral
      blood flow velocity. There is no agreement in the literature as to what is the
      minimum length of data needed for the cerebral autoregulation coefficients to
      stabilise. APPROACH: We introduce a simple empirical tool for studying the
      minimum length of time series needed to parameterise three popular cerebral
      autoregulation coefficients ARI, Mx and Phase (in the low frequency range [0.07
      0.2] Hz), which can be easily applied in a more general context. We use our
      recently collected data, from which we select high quality (absence of non
      physiological artefacts), baseline ABP-CBFV time series (16 min each). The data
      were beat-to-beat averaged and downsampled at 10 Hz. MAIN RESULT: On average, ARI
      exhibits greater variability than Mx and Phase, when calculated for short
      intervals; however, it stabilises fastest. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that
      values of ARI, Mx and Phase calculated on intervals shorter than 3 min (1800
      samples), 6 min (3600 samples) and 5 min (3000 samples), respectively, may be
      very sensitive to changes in the length of data interval.

PMID- 28573982
TI  - A silicon carbide array for electrocorticography and peripheral nerve recording.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Current neural probes have a limited device lifetime of a few years.
      Their common failure mode is the degradation of insulating films and/or the
      delamination of the conductor-insulator interfaces. We sought to develop a
      technology that does not suffer from such limitations and would be suitable for
      chronic applications with very long device lifetimes. APPROACH: We developed a
      fabrication method that integrates polycrystalline conductive silicon carbide
      with insulating silicon carbide. The technology employs amorphous silicon carbide
      as the insulator and conductive silicon carbide at the recording sites, resulting
      in a seamless transition between doped and amorphous regions of the same
      material, eliminating heterogeneous interfaces prone to delamination. Silicon
      carbide has outstanding chemical stability, is biocompatible, is an excellent
      molecular barrier and is compatible with standard microfabrication processes.
      MAIN RESULTS: We have fabricated silicon carbide electrode arrays using our novel
      fabrication method. We conducted in vivo experiments in which
      electrocorticography recordings from the primary visual cortex of a rat were
      obtained and were of similar quality to those of polymer based
      electrocorticography arrays. The silicon carbide electrode arrays were also used
      as a cuff electrode wrapped around the sciatic nerve of a rat to record the nerve
      response to electrical stimulation. Finally, we demonstrated the outstanding long
      term stability of our insulating silicon carbide films through accelerated aging
      tests. SIGNIFICANCE: Clinical translation in neural engineering has been slowed
      in part due to the poor long term performance of current probes. Silicon carbide
      devices are a promising technology that may accelerate this transition by
      enabling truly chronic applications.

PMID- 28573983
TI  - Neuromorphic neural interfaces: from neurophysiological inspiration to biohybrid
      coupling with nervous systems.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Computation in nervous systems operates with different computational
      primitives, and on different hardware, than traditional digital computation and
      is thus subjected to different constraints from its digital counterpart regarding
      the use of physical resources such as time, space and energy. In an effort to
      better understand neural computation on a physical medium with similar
      spatiotemporal and energetic constraints, the field of neuromorphic engineering
      aims to design and implement electronic systems that emulate in very large-scale
      integration (VLSI) hardware the organization and functions of neural systems at
      multiple levels of biological organization, from individual neurons up to large
      circuits and networks. Mixed analog/digital neuromorphic VLSI systems are
      compact, consume little power and operate in real time independently of the size
      and complexity of the model. APPROACH: This article highlights the current
      efforts to interface neuromorphic systems with neural systems at multiple levels
      of biological organization, from the synaptic to the system level, and discusses
      the prospects for future biohybrid systems with neuromorphic circuits of greater
      complexity. MAIN RESULTS: Single silicon neurons have been interfaced
      successfully with invertebrate and vertebrate neural networks. This approach
      allowed the investigation of neural properties that are inaccessible with
      traditional techniques while providing a realistic biological context not
      achievable with traditional numerical modeling methods. At the network level,
      populations of neurons are envisioned to communicate bidirectionally with
      neuromorphic processors of hundreds or thousands of silicon neurons. Recent work
      on brain-machine interfaces suggests that this is feasible with current
      neuromorphic technology. SIGNIFICANCE: Biohybrid interfaces between biological
      neurons and VLSI neuromorphic systems of varying complexity have started to
      emerge in the literature. Primarily intended as a computational tool for
      investigating fundamental questions related to neural dynamics, the
      sophistication of current neuromorphic systems now allows direct interfaces with
      large neuronal networks and circuits, resulting in potentially interesting
      clinical applications for neuroengineering systems, neuroprosthetics and
      neurorehabilitation.

PMID- 28573985
TI  - Indian Journal of Ophthalmology - New beginning, new aspirations, new trajectory.

PMID- 28573984
TI  - A Gaussian mixture model based adaptive classifier for fNIRS brain-computer
      interfaces and its testing via simulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a promising brain
      imaging technology for brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Future clinical uses of
      fNIRS will likely require operation over long time spans, during which neural
      activation patterns may change. However, current decoders for fNIRS signals are
      not designed to handle changing activation patterns. The objective of this study
      is to test via simulations a new adaptive decoder for fNIRS signals, the Gaussian
      mixture model adaptive classifier (GMMAC). APPROACH: GMMAC can simultaneously
      classify and track activation pattern changes without the need for ground-truth
      labels. This adaptive classifier uses computationally efficient variational
      Bayesian inference to label new data points and update mixture model parameters,
      using the previous model parameters as priors. We test GMMAC in simulations in
      which neural activation patterns change over time and compare to static decoders
      and unsupervised adaptive linear discriminant analysis classifiers. MAIN RESULTS:
      Our simulation experiments show GMMAC can accurately decode under time-varying
      activation patterns: shifts of activation region, expansions of activation
      region, and combined contractions and shifts of activation region. Furthermore,
      the experiments show the proposed method can track the changing shape of the
      activation region. Compared to prior work, GMMAC performed significantly better
      than the other unsupervised adaptive classifiers on a difficult activation
      pattern change simulation: 99% versus  <54% in two-choice classification
      accuracy. SIGNIFICANCE: We believe GMMAC will be useful for clinical fNIRS-based
      brain-computer interfaces, including neurofeedback training systems, where
      operation over long time spans is required.

PMID- 28573986
TI  - Ophthalmology and opportunities.

PMID- 28573987
TI  - Evaluating ocular blood flow.
AB  - Studies have shown that vascular impairment plays an important role in the
      etiology and pathogenesis of various ocular diseases including glaucoma, age
      related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal venous occlusive
      disease. Thus, qualitative and quantitative assessment of ocular blood flow (BF)
      is a topic of interest for early disease detection, diagnosis, and management.
      Owing to the rapid improvement in technology, there are several invasive and
      noninvasive techniques available for evaluating ocular BF, with each of these
      techniques having their own limitations and advantages. This article reviews
      these important techniques, with a particular focus on Doppler Fourier domain
      optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT-angiography.

PMID- 28573988
TI  - Updates in ophthalmic pathology.
AB  - Ophthalmic pathology has a long history and rich heritage in the field of
      ophthalmology. This review article highlights updates in ophthalmic pathology
      that have developed significantly through the years because of the efforts of
      committed individuals and the confluence of technology such as molecular biology
      and digital pathology. This is an exciting period in the history of ocular
      pathology, with cutting-edge techniques paving the way for new developments in
      diagnostics, therapeutics, and research. Collaborations between ocular
      oncologists and pathologists allow for improved and comprehensive patient care.
      Ophthalmic pathology continues to be a relevant specialty that is important in
      the understanding and clinical management of ocular disease, education of eye
      care providers, and overall advancement of the field.

PMID- 28573989
TI  - Evaluation of Kayser-Fleischer ring in Wilson disease by anterior segment optical
      coherence tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to present anterior segment optical
      coherence tomography (AS-OCT) as an alternative method of evaluating Kayser
      Fleischer (KF) ring in Wilson disease (WD) not only by ophthalmologists but also
      by other clinicians dealing with WD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a
      retrospective case series of six WD patients with KF ring. Evaluation of KF ring
      was done by naked eye examination using torch light, slit lamp biomicroscopy
      (SL), and AS-OCT. SL examination was done using a narrow slit of the superior
      cornea. AS-OCT was done using the Optovue RTvue PremierTM device (Fremont, CA,
      USA). RESULTS: AS-OCT revealed KF ring as an intense hyperreflective band at the
      level of Descemet membrane (DM). Color scale of AS-OCT showed KF ring as
      greenish/greenish yellow/orange yellow/yellowish/red band. Validation of AS-OCT
      findings was done by second ophthalmologist, medical gastroenterologist, surgical
      gastroenterologist, and neurophysician. After seeing the first observation, they
      could identify the AS-OCT features in all pictures with ease. CONCLUSIONS: This
      is the first observation of KF ring in WD on AS-OCT. On AS-OCT, KF ring is
      visualized as intense hyperreflectivity at the level of DM in the peripheral
      cornea. Further, studies are needed to evaluate the usefulness of AS-OCT in WD
      management.

PMID- 28573990
TI  - Immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery: A 5-year retrospective analysis
      of 2470 eyes from a tertiary care eye center in South India.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and benefits of
      immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective data analysis of patients who underwent immediate sequential
      bilateral phacoemulsification with foldable intraocular lens (IOL) implantation
      under topical anesthesia from January 2011 to September 2016 was performed.
      Patients with visually significant bilateral cataract within the axial length
      range of 21.0-26.5 mm were included in the study. Intraoperative and
      postoperative complications were evaluated. RESULTS: Two thousand four hundred
      and seventy eyes from 1235 patients with a mean age of 68.34 years (range: 4-90
      years) were analyzed. Best-corrected visual acuity improved from 0.40 +/- 0.17 to
      0.08 +/- 0.10 (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution). Nearly 92.05% eyes
      achieved a target postoperative refraction of +/- 0.5 D spherical equivalent.
      Main complications observed were prolonged postoperative inflammation in 25% (n =
      31), posterior capsular tears in 0.45% (n = 11), and unilateral cystoid macular
      edema in 0.08% (n = 2) eyes. No sight-threatening complications such as
      endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, corneal decompensation and intraocular
      hemorrhage occurred in any of the eyes. Out of the 288 (23.2%) patients who
      underwent bilateral multifocal IOL implantation, 23 patients (46 eyes) had
      femtolaser-assisted cataract surgery procedure. Two pediatric and one Downs
      syndrome patient underwent bilateral cataract surgery under general anesthesia
      and intravenous sedation, respectively. CONCLUSION: IBSCS may be considered as a
      preferred practice in eligible cases considering significant patient benefits
      such as early visual rehabilitation, time and cost-effectiveness, and better
      compliance with postoperative medications. In debilitated patients and special
      situations, such as pediatric cataract and Downs syndrome requiring general
      anesthesia it may be the ideal procedure.

PMID- 28573991
TI  - Surgical refixation of posteriorly dislocated intraocular lens with scleral-tuck
      technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the outcomes of surgical refixation of posteriorly dislocated
      intraocular lens (IOL) using scleral-tuck method, and to compare the "scleral
      groove" and the "scleral flap" techniques used. STUDY DESIGN: Single-center,
      retrospective, interventional, comparative study. METHODS: Medical records of
      patients undergoing closed globe scleral refixation of posteriorly dislocated
      posterior chamber IOL (PCIOLs) by scleral-tuck method using two different
      techniques ("scleral groove" vs. "scleral flap" technique) were reviewed. This
      approach involved retrieving the dislocated PCIOL, externalizing the haptics
      through 2 sclerotomies created in paralimbal lamellar scleral grooves, or under
      lamellar scleral flaps and tucking the haptics into limbus-parallel scleral
      tunnels. No specific haptic architecture, haptic suturing, or large incisions
      were needed. Main outcome measures included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA),
      final mean refractive error, and intra- and post-operative complications.
      RESULTS: Thirteen eyes of 13 patients (scleral groove, n = 6; scleral flap, n = 7
      eyes) with a mean follow-up of 20.6 months were included. BCVA in all eyes was
      maintained or improved postoperatively, with three eyes (23%) showing >=2 line
      improvement. Median astigmatic error at 6-week follow-up was -1.25 D cylinder
      (range: -0.5 D--2.0 D) which remained stable till final follow-up. All IOLs
      remained stable and well centered. None of the eyes had a recurrent dislocation,
      retinal detachment, endophthalmitis, or glaucoma. Both techniques were comparable
      in terms of postoperative BCVA, and refraction. CONCLUSION: Intrascleral haptic
      fixation by scleral-tuck method is reliable and effective for secure IOL
      refixation of posteriorly dislocated IOLs, providing good IOL centration and
      stability with minimal surgically-induced astigmatism. Both techniques (scleral
      groove and scleral flap) appear to have similar outcomes in the short term.

PMID- 28573992
TI  - Nocardia infection following intraocular surgery: Report of seven cases from a
      tertiary eye hospital.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the outcome of ocular nocardiosis following intraocular
      surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records of all
      postoperative cases of culture proven Nocardia infection over a period of 3
      years, from October 2010 to September 2013, was performed. Microbiological
      analysis was performed for all cases and included smears and cultures. Fortified
      2% amikacin eye drops were the mainstay of treatment. Surgical intervention was
      performed in case of nonresponse to medical therapy or suspected endophthalmitis.
      RESULTS: Seven cases of culture proven Nocardia infection were seen. All cases
      had been operated in a hospital surgical facility. Six followed
      phacoemulsification, and one followed a secondary intraocular lens implantation.
      Four patients were part of a cluster infection. The mean duration between the
      primary surgical procedure and presentation was 16.14 +/- 9.82 days. Five
      patients had infiltrates at the site of the surgical incision. One each had
      endophthalmitis and panophthalmitis. Six eyes required surgical intervention.
      Infection was seen to resolve in four eyes. Two eyes went into phthisis, and one
      was eviscerated. Only two of the six eyes, where in surgical intervention was
      performed early, obtained a final visual acuity of 20/60. CONCLUSION: Early
      surgical intervention, before the involvement of the anterior chamber, may help
      preserve the anatomic and functional integrity of the eye.

PMID- 28573993
TI  - Delayed follow-up in patients with diabetic retinopathy in South India: Social
      factors and impact on disease progression.
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify social factors associated with delayed follow-up in South
      Indian patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and to study DR progression during
      the delayed follow-up period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional
      study, 500 consecutive patients with DR returning after greater than twice the
      advised follow-up period were identified from a tertiary referral center in South
      India. A previously validated 19-item questionnaire was administered to study
      patients to assess causes for the follow-up delay. Patient demographics, DR
      status, and treatment plan were recorded at the study visit and the visit
      immediately before the delay. The eye with the most severe disease was included
      in the analysis. RESULTS: Complete data were available for 491 (98.2%) patients.
      Among these, 248 (50.5%) cited "my eyes were okay at the time," 201 (41.0%) cited
      "no attender to accompany me," and 190 (38.6%) cited "financial cost" as causes
      of the follow-up delay. Those with vision-threatening DR (VTDR, n = 233)
      predominantly reported "financial cost" (47% vs. 32%, P= 0.001), whereas those
      with non-VTDR more frequently reported "my eyes were okay at the time" (58% vs.
      42%, P= 0.001). Evidence of disease progression from non-VTDR to VTDR was seen in
      67 (26%) patients. Almost 1/3rd (29%) of patients who were previously advised
      regular examination required additional intervention. CONCLUSION: Many patient
      level factors affect poor compliance with follow-up in DR, and these factors vary
      by disease severity. Targeting these barriers to care through patient education
      and clinic procedures may promote timely follow-up and better outcomes in these
      patients.

PMID- 28573994
TI  - Microperimetric evaluation in patients with adult-onset foveomacular vitelliform
      dystrophy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To compare mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), retinal
      sensitivity (RS), and bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA) in patients with
      adult-onset foveomacular vitelliform dystrophy (AOFVD) and healthy subjects
      (HSs), reporting also functional disease-related changes in the different stages
      of the AOFVD disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this observational cross
      sectional study, a total of 19 patients (30 eyes; 12 female and 7 male) with
      AOFVD were enrolled, and 30 patients (30 eyes; 16 female and 14 male) were
      recruited as age-matched control group (74.36 +/- 9.17 years vs. 71.83 +/- 6.99
      years respectively, P= 0.11). All patients underwent a complete ophthalmologic
      examination, fundus autofluorescence and fluorescein angiography, spectral-domain
      optical coherence tomography and microperimetry (MP)-1 analysis. The data
      collection included mean BCVA, mean RS measured by means of MP-1, BCEA, and
      central retinal thickness. RESULTS: All the functional parameters (BCVA, RS, and
      BCEA) were significantly worse in AOFVD group than HS. Subgroup analysis showed
      that the most significant functional changes, quantified by mean BCVA, RS, and
      BCEA, were in the atrophic stage (P = 0.03, P= 0.01, and P= 0.001, respectively).
      All the functional parameters were well correlated in the different stages.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study further confirms the good visual prognosis in the AOFVD
      eyes. Fixation stability measurement using BCEA demonstrates good evaluation of
      visual performance integrating traditional functional parameters. It may also
      serve for further rehabilitative purposes in atrophic eyes.

PMID- 28573995
TI  - Impact of expansion of telemedicine screening for retinopathy of prematurity in
      India.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to estimate the unknown burden of
      retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) blindness from nine states of India using
      demographic, incidence and treatment data from an ongoing statewide ROP program
      in Karnataka called the Karnataka Internet Assisted Diagnosis of ROP (KIDROP) and
      to calculate the fiscal quantum of preventable blindness in these states.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The KIDROP model is an ongoing tele-ROP service providing
      screening and treatment for ROP in Karnataka since 2008. Using this index
      strategy, an impact assessment in nine other states was constructed, the number
      of potential blind babies enumerated, the fiscal quantum of blindness prevented
      in blind person-years (BPYs), and the increase in burden with improving survival
      and institutional deliveries calculated. RESULTS: The total population in the ten
      study states is 681.5 million. The eligible babies for ROP screening annually are
      467,664. The number of babies admitted to neonatal units is 188,561 of which
      160,277 are likely to survive and require screening. Based on KIDROP data, ROP
      would develop in 35,886 of these infants, and 1281 babies would require treatment
      annually. The fiscal quantum of BPY saved in these ten states is USD 108.4
      million annually, with a further increase of USD 106.8 million with improving
      infant survival and higher admission rates for delivery. CONCLUSION: A KIDROP
      like model can provide ROP screening in low-resource settings, remote centers,
      and regions with few ROP specialists. Expanding the model to other states with
      similar demographics can prevent over USD 100 million of blindness burden
      annually.

PMID- 28573996
TI  - Ridge at the medial rectus muscle insertion: A new anatomical landmark.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Rectus muscle insertions are usually linear or slight curved
      with the anterior convexity. While operating squint surgeries, we found a
      presence of ridge-like structure at the medial rectus insertion. None of the
      other rectus muscle insertions had such structure. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Patients undergoing squint surgery were included in the study. All the patients
      had negative forced duction test for all the gazes and had comitant strabismus.
      The patients underwent surgery through the fornix route. All the squint surgeries
      were primary. None of the patients undergoing resurgery were included in the
      study. The ridge seen is actually an elevated curved structure and shows
      discontinuation of the actual medial rectus insertion. The measurements were
      taken from the superior and inferior end of the medial rectus muscle insertion.
      RESULTS: In a total of 76 medial rectus surgery (for recession or resection), we
      found the ridge was present in 68 (89.5%) of cases. The ridge was located at an
      average distance of 6.33 +/- 1.5 mm inferior and 3.82 +/- 0.9 mm superior to the
      superior and inferior point of medial rectus insertion, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      We describe the presence, morphology, and measurements of a ridge as an
      anatomical landmark at medial rectus insertion.

PMID- 28573997
TI  - Allergen-specific exposure associated with high immunoglobulin E and eye rubbing
      predisposes to progression of keratoconus.
AB  - We report two male children with persistent allergic eye disease (AED) and
      keratoconus (KC). Both presented with symptoms of vernal keratoconjunctivitis and
      decreased vision. In view of unrelenting AED, serum immunoglobulin E (IgE)
      quantification and identification of specific allergens were advised. Increased
      serum IgE levels were observed in both cases. Sunflower and sheep wool were
      identified as specific allergens for the first and second patient respectively by
      skin patch test. There was complete resolution of symptoms of AED in both
      patients following avoidance of causative allergens. However, the progression of
      KC in both eyes of the first patient and one eye of the second patient was
      observed. They were advised collagen cross-linking. Elevated serum IgE indicates
      the presence of systemic allergy. Avoiding implicated allergens help alleviate
      ocular symptoms. Using serum IgE and identifying specific allergen can guide in
      the treatment of AED and thus prevent progressive KC due to eye rubbing and
      resulting inflammation.

PMID- 28573998
TI  - Corneal ulcer due to a rare pleosporalean member of the genus Bipolaris following
      cow tail injury to the eye: A case report and review of literature.
AB  - Aspergillus and Fusarium are the most common fungi causing mycotic keratitis.
      Injury to the eye with vegetable matter, cow tail injury, long-term use of
      topical steroids are some of the risk factors for mycotic keratitis. There are
      few case reports of keratitis caused by Bipolaris. The human pathogenic species
      in the genus are Bipolaris spicifera, Bipolaris hawaiiensis, Bipolaris
      papendorfii, and Bipolaris australiensis. Most commonly reported keratitis is
      caused by B. hawaiiensis, followed by B. spicifera. Literature review showed only
      one case report of keratitis due to B. australiensis reported from Australia. We
      present a first case report of keratitis due to B. australiensis (currently
      Curvularia australienis) from India.

PMID- 28573999
TI  - Conjunctival leiomyosarcoma: A case report and review of literature.
AB  - Leiomyosarcoma is a malignant mesenchymal tumor that is very uncommon in the
      conjunctiva. Nevertheless, we describe here the clinical manifestations,
      management, and prognosis of a rare case of leiomyosarcoma in this location. An
      81-year-old male presented at a tertiary hospital with a rapidly growing mass.
      After performing biopsy, histopathological examination revealed the existence of
      a conjunctival leiomyosarcoma. On this diagnosis, a thorough metastatic screening
      was performed showing no enlarged lymph nodes or metastatic deposits anywhere in
      the body. To treat the condition, we performed an evisceration with clear margins
      and subsequent radiotherapy.

PMID- 28574000
TI  - An unusual cause of recurrent bloody tear.
AB  - We describe a female patient who presented with watering followed by swelling in
      the left infraorbital area of 5 years duration. She had previously been
      prescribed topical antibiotics on several occasions with no improvement. On
      pressure over the swelling, there was blood-tinged discharge from the left eye
      and nostril. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an enhancing, well-defined mass
      lesion in the inferomedial aspect of the left orbit, likely of nasolacrimal
      origin. Computed tomography dacryocystogram with three-dimensional reconstruction
      showed a well-circumscribed mass with an irregular surface, originating from the
      lacrimal sac. Gram staining and potassium hydroxide mount from the regurgitant
      fluid revealed thick-walled cysts with sporangia suggestive of Rhinosporidium
      seeberi infection. Excision biopsy of the lesion confirmed R. seeberi as the
      causative agent. The patient has been put on long-term dapsone therapy to prevent
      a recurrence and has been asked to follow-up 6 months later.

PMID- 28574001
TI  - Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease in a patient of chronic myeloid leukemia.
AB  - This case report describes the concurrent development of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada
      (VKH) disease in a 39 year old male patient of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
      The patient being reported was a known case of CML in remission with history of
      painless sudden loss of vision in both eyes. Cases of leukemia can present with
      visual loss due to multiple ocular manifestations of leukemia itself or side
      effects of modern drugs used for its treatment. Clinical examination and
      multimodal imaging of our patient were suggestive of concurrent development of
      VKH. The patient was started on oral steroids, to which he showed a good
      response. Thus, the cases of CML may rarely develop concurrent ocular disorders
      not related to leukemia. These associated ocular disorders need to be
      distinguished from the ocular manifestations of leukemia itself. Our case
      highlights the concurrent development of VKH as the etiology of visual loss in a
      case of CML.

PMID- 28574002
TI  - Management of a rare presentation of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease in human
      immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome patient.
AB  - Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH), a multisystem autoimmune bilateral panuveitis with
      systemic manifestations, is uncommon in immunocompromised patients such as human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome (AIDS).
      We report a rare presentation of VKH in a 45-year-old HIV-positive female on
      highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) who presented with a history of
      recurrent panuveitis. A diagnosis of probable VKH was made based on ocular and
      systemic signs and symptoms. She was treated with topical and systemic steroids
      with close monitoring of CD4 counts and viral loads. After inflammation control,
      complicated cataract was managed surgically under perioperative steroid cover.
      VKH in HIV/AIDS has not been reported earlier. This case shows that significant
      inflammation can be seen even in HIV/AIDS patients on HAART with VKH in spite of
      moderate CD4 counts. Management is a challenge considering the systemic risks
      with long-term use of steroids.

PMID- 28574003
TI  - Antiretinal antibody- proven autoimmune retinopathy.
AB  - A young female presented with bilateral subacute onset of progressive decrease in
      night vision and reduced peripheral field of vision. The short duration and rapid
      progression of symptoms along with the lack of family history of night blindness
      prompted a diagnosis of autoimmune retinopathy (AIR). Fundus fluorescein
      angiography, optical coherence tomography, visual fields, and electroretinogram
      were suggestive of AIR. A differential diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) was
      also made. Antiretinal autoantibodies were detected in the blood sample.
      Treatment was with oral steroids and subsequently oral immunosuppressive agents.
      Visual acuity was maintained, fundus examination reverted to normal, and
      investigations repeated at every visit were stable with improvement in visual
      fields. Our case suggests that AIR, if diagnosed early and treated appropriately,
      may have a good outcome and should be considered in patients with an atypical
      presentation of RP.

PMID- 28574004
TI  - Surgical management of optic disc pit maculopathy with a fovea sparing internal
      limiting membrane flap.
AB  - Optic disc pit (ODP) is rare congenital cavitary anomaly of the optic disc.
      Serous detachment of macula is the most common complication of ODP and occurs in
      25%-75% of these cases. Although various surgical techniques have been used for
      the treatment of ODP maculopathy; consensus still eludes as far as the optimal
      surgical approach is concerned. We herein report a case of ODP maculopathy in a
      young female treated successfully with vitrectomy, fovea sparing internal
      limiting membrane flap, and C3F8 tamponade.

PMID- 28574005
TI  - Congenital inverse Duane's retraction syndrome: A rare presentation.
AB  - A 12-year-old girl presented with esotropia and face turn since birth. Ocular
      motility examination showed restricted abduction associated with down shoot and
      retraction on attempted abduction characteristic of inverse Duane's retraction
      syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the very few reported
      cases of congenital inverse Duane's retraction syndrome.

PMID- 28574006
TI  - Head injury, varicella vasculopathy: Differential diagnosis for pediatric retinal
      arterial occlusion.

PMID- 28574007
TI  - Interpreting data in policy & control: The case of leprosy.

PMID- 28574008
TI  - Celiac disease & type 1 diabetes mellitus: Connections & implications.

PMID- 28574009
TI  - Potential biomarkers for bipolar disorder: Where do we stand?
AB  - Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe, recurrent mood disorder, associated with a
      significant morbidity and mortality, with high rates of suicides and medical
      comorbidities. There is a high risk of mood disorders among the first-degree
      relatives of patients with BD. In the current clinical practice, the diagnosis of
      BD is made by history taking, interview and behavioural observations, thereby
      lacking an objective, biological validation. This approach may result in
      underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis and eventually poorer outcomes. Due to the
      heterogeneity of BD, the possibility of developing a single, specific biomarker
      is still remote; however, there is a set of promising biomarkers which may serve
      as predictive, prognostic or treatment markers in the future. The review presents
      a critical appraisal and update on some of the most promising candidates for
      biomarkers, namely, neuroimaging markers, peripheral biomarkers and genetic
      markers, including a brief discussion on cognitive endophenotypes as indicative
      of genetic risk. The lessons learnt from other fields and specialties in medicine
      need to be applied to psychiatry to translate the knowledge from 'bench to
      bedside' by means of clinically useful biomarkers. Overall, the biomarkers may
      help in pushing the shift towards personalized medicine for psychiatric patients.

PMID- 28574011
TI  - Coexistence of celiac disease & type 1 diabetes mellitus in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and celiac disease (CD)
      tend to co-exist due to similar underlying genetic predisposition. Failure to
      recognize CD in patients with T1DM predisposes them to complications. The present
      study was aimed to assess children with T1DM for the presence of CD. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective analysis of the records of children with T1DM attending
      paediatric endocrinology clinic at a tertiary care hospital in north India from
      January 2006 to May 2014. All children were screened for CD at the time of
      diagnosis of T1DM using IgA anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) levels in
      serum. Seropositive children were subjected to upper gastrointestinal endoscopy
      and duodenal biopsy for histopathological confirmation. The children also
      underwent thyroid function testing (TFT); those with deranged TFT were evaluated
      for thyroid-specific antibodies. RESULTS: Positive serology for CD was present in
      43 of 126 children with T1DM whose records were reviewed [34.1%; 95% confidence
      interval (CI): 25.9-43.1]. Confirmed CD was diagnosed in 17 (13.5%; CI: 8.1-20.7)
      of the children screened and 17 of 40 (42.5%; CI: 27.1-59.1) seropositive
      participants. Four out of 17 children with coexisting CD and T1DM also had
      autoimmune thyroiditis with overt hypothyroidism. The children with confirmed CD
      were more likely to have short stature [odds ratios (OR)-3.16; 95% CI: 1.09-9.20,
      P<0.05] and hypothyroidism (OR-6.4; 95% CI: 1.52-26.90, P<0.05). INTERPRETATION &
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed a higher proportion of CD in children with T1DM as
      compared to that reported in general population. Regular screening of children
      with T1DM for CD is needed to improve metabolic control and prevent long-term
      complications.

PMID- 28574010
TI  - Rare cancers: Challenges & issues.
AB  - Rare cancers account for about 22 per cent of all cancers diagnosed worldwide,
      disproportionately affecting some demographic groups, with an occurrence of less
      than 6 per 100,000 individuals annually. Many rare cancers in adults, adolescents
      and children are not curable, and patients and care providers have little option
      to take therapeutic decisions. The epidemiology of rare cancers is a challenging
      area of study but is inadequately addressed. Despite efforts mainly in some
      European nations, a few improvements have been observed in the management of rare
      cancers. Reasons for this obvious stagnation are multifactorial and are mainly
      inherent to logistical difficulties in carrying out clinical trials in very small
      patient populations, hesitation of the pharmaceutical industry to spend in small
      markets and complexity in creating adequate information for the development of
      cost-effective drugs. Rare cancers also face specific challenges that include
      late and incorrect diagnosis, lack of clinical expertise and lack of research
      interest and development of new therapies. The utilization of nationally
      representative study findings for the patients' evaluation may possibly offer
      chances to find out pathogenesis and prevalence, and this will eventually lead to
      control and prevention. Currently, advancing targeted therapies offer a great
      opportunity for the better management of rare cancers. Conducting clinical trials
      with small patient population, innovative clinical trial approach, prevailing
      controlling obstacles for international cooperation and financial support for
      research are the present challenges for rare cancers. The International Rare
      Cancers Initiative functions as a main platform for achieving new international
      clinical trials in rare tumours. This review delineates the current challenges
      and issues in the interpretation, management and research scenarios of rare
      cancers.

PMID- 28574013
TI  - Identifying the risk of producing aneuploids using meiotic recombination genes as
      biomarkers: A copy number variation approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Aneuploids are the most common chromosomal abnormality
      in liveborns and are usually the result of non-disjunction (NDJ) in meiosis. Copy
      number variations (CNVs) are large structural variations affecting the human
      genome. CNVs influence critical genes involved in causing NDJ by altering their
      copy number which affects the clinical outcome. In this study influence of CNVs
      on critical meiotic recombination was examined using new computational
      technologies to assess their role in causing aneuploidy. METHODS: This
      investigation was based on the analysis of 12 random normal populations
      consisting of 1714 individuals for aneuploid causing genes under CNV effect. To
      examine the effect of CNVs on genes causing aneuploidy, meiotic recombination
      genes were analyzed using EnrichR, WebGestalt and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis
      (IPA). RESULTS: Forty three NDJ genes were found under CNV burden; IPA (Ingenuity
      Pathway Analysis) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway
      analysis of CNV in meiotic recombination genes revealed a significant role of
      breast cancer gene 1, amyloid protein precursor, mitogen-activated protein kinase
      and nerve growth factor as key molecular players involved in causing aneuploidy.
      Interaction between these genes with other CNV-overlapping genes involved in cell
      cycle, recombination and meiosis might lead to increased incidences of
      aneuploidy. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study implied that
      the effect of CNVs on normal genome contributed in amplifying the occurrences of
      chromosomal aneuploidies. The normal individuals consisting of variations in the
      susceptible genes causing aneuploids in the population remain undetected until
      the disorder genes express in the succeeding generations.

PMID- 28574012
TI  - Association of ankyrin repeats & kinase domain containing 1 (ANKK1) gene
      polymorphism with co-morbid alcohol & nicotine dependence: A pilot study from a
      tertiary care treatment centre in north India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The frequently encountered co-morbidity of alcohol
      dependence (AD) with nicotine dependence (ND) increases the risk for various
      diseases. Ankyrin repeats and kinase domain containing 1 (ANKK1) gene
      polymorphism is reported to be associated with both ND and AD. This study was
      undertaken to investigate the possible association of alcohol and tobacco use
      variables with ANKK1 polymorphism in co-morbid alcohol- and nicotine-dependent
      treatment seekers visiting a tertiary care centre in north India. METHODS:
      Seventy nine male participants (18-65 yr old) fulfilling diagnostic criteria for
      ND and AD were included in the study. The socio-demographic data, along with
      alcohol and tobacco use profile, was recorded and ANKK1 profiling was carried
      out. Both the allele groups, A1 and A2, were compared with respect to demographic
      and substance dependence profile. Univariate binary logistic regression analysis
      was performed to determine the risk of high nicotine and alcohol consumption with
      genotype. RESULTS: The A1 carrier group (n=33) reported a significantly higher
      amount of alcohol and tobacco consumed per day. The scores on parameters of ND
      were found to be significantly higher in this group. The logistic regression
      analysis revealed that participants with A1 genotype were 2.5 times more likely
      to report higher amount of alcohol and nicotine consumption than A2 carriers.
      INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The study provides an indication for the
      association of ANKK1 polymorphism in the form of higher substance consumption
      among alcohol dependent smokers, who are A1 carriers and thus may require higher
      attention of the treatment provider.

PMID- 28574014
TI  - Community based kangaroo mother care for low birth weight babies: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Kangaroo mother care (KMC - early continuous skin-to
      skin contact between mother and infants) has been recommended as an alternative
      care for low birth weight infants. There is limited evidence in our country on
      KMC initiated at home. The present study was undertaken to study acceptability of
      KMC in different community settings. METHODS: A community-based pilot study was
      carried out at three sites in the States of Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra
      covering rural, urban and rural tribal population, respectively. Trained health
      workers provided IEC (information, education and communication) on KMC during
      antenatal period along with essential newborn care messages. These messages were
      reinforced during the postnatal period. Outcome measures were the proportion of
      women accepting KMC, duration of KMC/day and total number of days continuing KMC.
      Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were also carried out. RESULTS:
      KMC was provided to 101 infants weighing 1500-2000 g; 57.4 per cent were preterm.
      Overall, 80.2 per cent mothers received health education on KMC during antenatal
      period, family members (68.3%) also attended KMC sessions along with pregnant
      women and 55.4 per cent of the women initiated KMC within 72 h of birth. KMC was
      provided on an average for five hours per day. Qualitative survey data indicated
      that the method was acceptable to mothers and family members; living in nuclear
      family, household work, twin pregnancy, hot weather, etc., were cited as reasons
      for not being able to practice KMC for a longer duration. INTERPRETATION &
      CONCLUSIONS: It was feasible to provide KMC using existing infrastructure, and
      the method was acceptable to most mothers of low birth infants.

PMID- 28574015
TI  - Clinical profile & complications of neurotoxic snake bite & comparison of two
      regimens of polyvalent anti-snake venom in its treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The optimal anti-snake venom (ASV) dose required to
      treat neurotoxic snake envenomation is not known. Low-dose ASV (national
      protocol: maximum dose 200 ml) may be as efficacious as the conventional regimen
      (100 ml six hourly till all symptoms disappear), but a direct comparison of the
      regimens is not available. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of low
      dose ASV regimen against the conventional high-dose regimen. METHODS: The
      clinical profile of 51 patients with neurotoxic snake envenomation was studied.
      Patients were treated with either the national protocol or the conventional
      protocol for ASV administration. The time to complete recovery of symptoms,
      duration of mechanical ventilation and total dose of ASV were compared. RESULTS:
      More patients were females (28 vs. 23) bitten in the early morning hours (2400
      0600 h). Thirty nine of 51 (76.4%) patients required mechanical ventilation. In
      terms of progression of neuroparalysis, time to complete resolution of ptosis and
      occurrence of VAP and ASV reactions, there was no difference. Duration of
      mechanical ventilation was less with the national protocol (24 vs. 43.5 h).
      Significantly less amount of ASV was used with the national protocol (224 vs. 982
      ml) per patient. There were no mortality or permanent neurological sequelae with
      either regimen. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: In this preliminary study, it was
      found that the national ASV protocol was as effective as the conventional regimen
      for neurotoxic snake bites. However, the findings need to be tested in a larger
      randomized controlled trial for definitive conclusions.

PMID- 28574016
TI  - Coverage & missed opportunity for Japanese encephalitis vaccine, Gorakhpur
      division, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2015: Implications for Japanese encephalitis
      control.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an important aetiology of
      acute encephalitis syndrome in Gorakhpur division, Uttar Pradesh, India. Two
      doses of JE vaccine ( first during 9-12 months and second during 16-24 months of
      age) are administered under the Universal Immunization Programme. We conducted
      surveys to estimate the coverage of JE vaccine and magnitude of missed
      opportunity for vaccination (MoV) for JE in Gorakhpur division. METHODS: To
      estimate the JE vaccine coverage, cluster surveys were conducted in four
      districts of Gorakhpur division by selecting 30 clusters by probability
      proportional to size method in each district, seven children aged 25-36 months
      were selected from each cluster and their mothers were interviewed about JE
      vaccination. To estimate the magnitude of MoV, exit surveys were conducted in
      vaccination clinics in selected health facilities, mothers were interviewed about
      the vaccination status of their children and vaccines administered to the child
      on the day of interview. RESULTS: A total of 840 children were surveyed, 210 from
      each district. The coverages of one and two doses of JE vaccine in Gorakhpur
      division were 75 per cent [95% confidence interval (CI): 71.0-78.9] and 42.3 per
      cent (95% CI: 37.8-46.8), respectively. Facility-based exit survey indicated that
      32.7 per cent of the eligible children missed JE vaccine. INTERPRETATION &
      CONCLUSIONS: The survey results showed that three of the four children aged 25-36
      months in Gorakhpur division had received at least one dose of JE vaccine. The
      coverage of second dose of JE vaccine, however, was low. Failure to administer
      vaccination simultaneously was the most common reason for MoV for JE vaccine.
      Training vaccinators about correct vaccination schedule and removing their
      misconception about administering vaccines simultaneously would substantially
      improve JE vaccine coverage in Gorakhpur.

PMID- 28574017
TI  - Line probe assay for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex: An
      experience from Central India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex may sometimes not be
      detected in sputum samples of suspected multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)
      patients by line probe assay (LPA) even though they are smear positive for acid
      fast bacilli (AFB). This retrospective analysis was attempted to understand and
      document our experience with LPA for detection of M. tuberculosis complex and
      diagnosis of MDR-TB under programmatic conditions. METHODS: One thousand two
      hundred and ninety four sputum samples of MDR-TB suspects that were smear
      positive for AFB, and received from February to November 2013, were tested by LPA
      for the presence of M. tuberculosis complex and resistance to isoniazid (INH) and
      rifampicin as per the diagnostic mandate of an accredited reference laboratory.
      As per the mandate, those samples that were negative for M. tuberculosis complex
      were cultured, and the growth again tested by LPA. A retrospective analysis of
      the results was carried out. RESULTS: M. tuberculosis complex could be detected
      in 1217 (94.04%) but not in 77 (5.9%) of smear-positive sputum samples. Of the
      1217 positive samples, 232 (19.1%) were MDR, 130 (10.6%) were rifampicin
      monoresistant and 101 (8.3%) were INH monoresistant. Seven hundred and fifty four
      (61.9%) strains were found to be pansensitive. Overall, 5.1 per cent of the
      sputum samples were negative for M. tuberculosis complex by LPA and culture. In
      at least 10 (0.77%) sputum samples smear positive for AFB, M. tuberculosis
      complex could not be identified by LPA though M. tuberculosis was present, as
      evidenced by culture positivity. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: LPA is a robust
      technique for diagnosis of drug-resistant TB that has provided the basis for
      rapid and effective control of drug-resistant TB in India. While the reasons for
      concomitantly negative LPA and culture results of smear-positive sputum samples
      from MDR-TB suspects may be many, the possible presence of non-tubercular
      mycobacteria in these samples and the likelihood of inappropriate therapy in
      these patients cannot be ruled out. Addition of culture to the diagnostic
      algorithm may enhance the diagnostic yield.

PMID- 28574018
TI  - Genetic diversity & drug sensitivity profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      isolates from two slums of Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Slums are considered as hotspots of tuberculosis (TB).
      The study of genetic diversity and drug susceptibility profile of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis (MTB) will help understand the transmission dynamics and can be used
      for better prevention and control of the disease. The aim of this study was to
      determine the drug susceptibility profiles and genetic diversity using the random
      amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units
      variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU VNTR) of MTB isolates from sputum samples
      of pulmonary TB patients residing in the two slums of Jaipur city in Rajasthan,
      India. METHODS: Sputum samples collected from pulmonary TB patients, their
      contacts and suspects during 2010-2012 were processed for microscopy and
      mycobacterial culture. Drug susceptibility testing was done by one per cent
      indirect proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen medium for first-line anti-TB
      drugs rifampicin, isoniazid, ethambutol and streptomycin. MTB DNA was extracted
      by physicochemical method, and DNA fingerprinting was done by RAPD and MIRU VNTR
      analysis. RESULTS: Among 175 sputum samples collected, 75 were positive (43.8%)
      for acid-fast bacilli, 83 for MTB culture and four were contaminated. Fifty two
      isolates (62.7%) were fully sensitive to four drugs, and five (6%) were multidrug
      resistant (MDR). RAPD analysis of 81 isolates revealed six clusters containing 23
      (28.4%) isolates, and 58 (71.6%) were unique. MIRU VNTR analysis clustered 20
      (24.7%) isolates, and 61 (75.3%) were unique. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: About
      62.7 per cent isolates from the sputum samples from slum areas were sensitive to
      four drugs; six per cent of isolates were MDR. Poly-resistance other than MDR was
      high (16%). About one-fourth isolates were clustered by either method. RAPD was
      rapid, less expensive but had low reproducibility. MIRU VNTR analysis could
      identify to greater extent the epidemiological link in the population studied.

PMID- 28574019
TI  - K time & maximum amplitude of thromboelastogram predict post-central venous
      cannulation bleeding in patients with cirrhosis: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Coagulation and haemostasis are dynamic processes. The
      haemostatic changes in liver disease affect all aspects of coagulation. The
      prothrombin time (PT)/ international normalized ratio (INR) was developed to
      monitor oral anticoagulant therapy and the activated partial thromboplastin time
      to investigate inheritable single factor deficiencies. Viscoelastic tests such as
      thromboelastogram (TEG) give information about dynamics of clot formation
      (coagulation factor and anticoagulant activity), clot strength (platelets and
      fibrinogen) and clot stability (finbrinolysis and factor XIII). Administration of
      blood products before invasive procedures is still guided by INR and platelet
      count in patients of liver disease. This study was aimed to evaluate the validity
      of TEG to predict post-procedural bleed after central venous cannulation in
      patients with cirrhosis. METHODS: Ninety patients aged 20-70 yr diagnosed with
      liver cirrhosis requiring elective central venous catheter (CVC) insertion were
      studied. Platelet count, INR, serum creatinine, TEG and Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP)
      score were recorded before the procedure. Right-sided internal jugular vein was
      cannulated. On the basis of presence or absence of post-procedural bleed,
      patients were divided into bleeding and non-bleeding groups. The CTP score,
      component of TEG (R - reaction time, K - coagulation time, MA - maximum amplitude
      and alpha - angle) and laboratory parameters of both the groups were compared.
      RESULTS: Bleeding was seen more when CTP scores were >=10 (P=0.05). The K time of
      3.05 min or more on thromboelastograph was a significant predictor of bleeding
      [area under the curve (AUC) 0.694, P=0.047]. MA of 48.8 mm or more was a
      significant predictor of non-bleeding. INR >=2.6 was a significant predictor of
      bleeding (AUC 0.765, P=0.005). K time had a low-positive predictive value of 20
      per cent and the positive and negative likelihood ratios of 1.87 and 0.48,
      respectively. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the cut-off
      value for INR >=2.6 and K time >=3.05 min predict bleeding and MA >=48.8 mm
      predicts non-bleeding in patients with cirrhosis undergoing central venous
      pressure catheter cannulation.

PMID- 28574020
TI  - Development of polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostic tests for detection of
      Malsoor virus & adenovirus isolated from Rousettus species of bats in
      Maharashtra, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Bats are recognized as important reservoirs for emerging
      infectious disease and some unknown viral diseases. Two novel viruses, Malsoor
      virus (family Bunyaviridae, genus, Phlebovirus) and a novel adenovirus (AdV)
      (family, Adenoviridae genus, Mastadenovirus), were identified from Rousettus bats
      in the Maharashtra State of India. This study was done to develop and optimize
      real time reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays for
      Malsoor virus and real time and nested PCR for adenovirus from Rousettus bats.
      METHODS: For rapid and accurate screening of Malsoor virus and adenovirus a
      nested polymerase chain reaction and TaqMan-based real-time PCR were developed.
      Highly conserved region of nucleoprotein gene of phleboviruses and polymerase
      gene sequence from the Indian bat AdV isolate polyprotein gene were selected
      respectively for diagnostic assay development of Malsoor virus and AdV.
      Sensitivity and specificity of assays were calculated and optimized assays were
      used to screen bat samples. RESULTS: Molecular diagnostic assays were developed
      for screening of Malsoor virus and AdV and those were found to be specific. Based
      on the experiments performed with different parameters, nested PCR was found to
      be more sensitive than real-time PCR; however, for rapid screening, real-time PCR
      can be used and further nested PCR can be used for final confirmation or in those
      laboratories where real-time facility/expertise is not existing. INTERPRETATION &
      CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the development and optimization of nested RT-PCR
      and a TaqMan-based real-time PCR for Malsoor virus and AdV. The diagnostic assays
      can be used for rapid detection of these novel viruses to understand their
      prevalence among bat population.

PMID- 28574021
TI  - Isolation of bacteria from diabetic foot ulcers with special reference to
      anaerobe isolation by simple two-step combustion technique in candle jar.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Although polymicrobial infections involving both aerobic
      and anaerobic bacteria are very common in diabetic foot ulcers, in many centres
      of developing countries, anaerobes are rarely isolated due to technical
      difficulties. This can be overcome by using a new simple, innovative technique of
      a combination of candle combustion and use of acidified copper-coated steel wool,
      as reported here. METHODS: In-house developed method was used in a prospective
      clinico-microbiological study for anaerobes from randomly selected 43 patients
      with diabetic foot ulcers along with conventional method of anaerobic culture in
      GasPak system and aerobic culture by standard laboratory procedures. For primary
      isolation of anaerobes, Brucella blood agar supplemented with hemin (5 MUg/ml)
      and menadione (1 MUg/ml) was used. Antibiotic sensitivity tests were performed by
      the standard disc diffusion method for aerobes and E-test method for anaerobes.
      RESULTS: All the 43 samples were culture positive, of which aerobic Gram-negative
      bacteria (GNB) predominated, followed by Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus and
      diphtheroids. Anaerobes isolated from 21 samples were Peptostreptococcus,
      Bacteroides, Porphyromonas, Veillonella spp. and Clostridium perfringens by both
      GasPak and in-house developed and modified candle jar techniques. Imipenem and
      metronidazole were most sensitive while clindamycin, penicillin and cefoxitin
      were least sensitive drugs for anaerobes. Aerobic GNB were found to be multidrug
      resistant, especially to penicillin and cephalosporins. The most sensitive drug
      was piperacillin-tazobactam. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: For isolation of
      anaerobes from clinical specimens such as diabetic foot ulcers, modified candle
      jar technique was found to be as reliable as GasPak system. This modified
      technique needs to be tested for many other clinical materials which are not yet
      evaluated.

PMID- 28574022
TI  - Multilocus sequence typing of Cryptosporidium hominis from northern India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Human cryptosporidiosis is endemic worldwide, and at
      least eight species have been reported in humans; the most common being
      Cryptosporidium hominis and C. parvum. Detailed understanding of the epidemiology
      of Cryptosporidium is increasingly facilitated using standardized universal
      technique for species differentiation and subtyping. In this study micro- and
      minisatellite targets in chromosome 6 were used to assess genetic diversity of C.
      hominis by sequence length polymorphisms along with single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs). METHODS: A total of 84 Cryptosporidium positive stool
      specimens were subjected to speciation and genotyping using small subunit (SSU)
      ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as the target gene. Genetic heterogeneity amongst C. hominis
      isolates was assessed by sequencing minisatellites, microsatellites and
      polymorphic markers including genes encoding the 60 kDa glycoprotein (GP60), a 47
      kDa protein (CP47), a mucin-like protein (Mucin-1), a serine repeat antigen (MSC6
      7) and a 56 kDa transmembrane protein (CP56). RESULTS: Of the 84 Cryptosporidium
      positive stool specimens, 77 (92%) were positive by SSU rRNA gene polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) assay. Of these 77 isolates, 54 were identified as C.
      hominis and 23 as C. parvum. Of all the loci studied by multilocus sequence
      typing (MLST), GP60 gene could reveal the highest genetic diversity. Population
      substructure analysis of C. hominis performed by combined sequence length and
      nucleotide polymorphism showed nine multilocus subtypes, all of which were
      distinct groups in the study population. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: MLST, a
      powerful discriminatory test, demonstrated both variations and distribution
      pattern of Cryptosporidium species and its subtypes.

PMID- 28574023
TI  - Comparison of injectable doxorubicin & its nanodrug complex chemotherapy for the
      treatment of 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide induced oral squamous cell carcinoma in
      rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Combination treatments of chemotherapy and nanoparticle
      drug delivery have shown significant promise in cancer treatment. The aim of the
      present study was to compare the efficacy of a nanodrug complex with its free
      form in the treatment of tongue squamous cell carcinoma induced by 4
      nitroquinoline-1-oxide in rats. METHODS: In this study, 75 male Sprague-Dawley
      rats were divided into five groups. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) was
      induced by using 4- nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO) as a carcinogen. Newly
      formulated doxorubicin (DOX)-methotrexate (MTX)-loaded nanoparticles, and free
      DOX-MTX were administrated intravenously to rats. During the study, the animals
      were weighed once a week. At the end of the treatment, rats' tongues were
      evaluated histopathologically. RESULTS: There was significant difference between
      the mean weight of rats in groups A and B (P=0.001) and also groups A and K
      (P<0.001). No significant association was found between the mortality rate of
      groups. The difference between the severity of dysplasia of treated and untreated
      groups was significant (P<0.001). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed
      that DOX-MTX nanoparticle complex was more effective than free DOX-MTX in
      chemotherapy treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma in rat models. Further
      investigations are necessary to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of the
      nanoparticle complex and its potential therapeutic application for different
      types of cancer.

PMID- 28574024
TI  - N-acetyltransferase gene polymorphisms & plasma isoniazid concentrations in
      patients with tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Variations in the N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) gene among
      different populations could affect the metabolism and disposition of isoniazid
      (INH). This study was performed to genotype NAT2 gene polymorphisms in
      tuberculosis (TB) patients from Chennai, India, and compare plasma INH
      concentrations among the different genotypes. METHODS: Adult patients with TB
      treated in the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) in Chennai, Tamil
      Nadu, were genotyped for NAT2 gene polymorphism, and two-hour post-dosing INH
      concentrations were compared between the different genotypes. Plasma INH was
      determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. Genotyping of the NAT2 gene
      polymorphism was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction method.
      RESULTS: Among the 326 patients genotyped, there were 189 (58%), 114 (35%) and 23
      (7%) slow, intermediate and fast acetylators, respectively. The median two-hour
      INH concentrations in slow, intermediate and fast acetylators were 10.2, 8.1 and
      4.1 MUg/ml, respectively. The differences in INH concentrations among the three
      genotypes were significant (P<0.001). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Genotyping of
      TB patients from south India for NAT2 gene polymorphism revealed that 58 per cent
      of the study population comprised slow acetylators. Two-hour INH concentrations
      differed significantly among the three genotypes.

PMID- 28574025
TI  - Patterns in antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonellae isolated at a tertiary
      care hospital in northern India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Multidrug-resistant Salmonellae have emerged worldwide
      as also in India. The aim of this study was to study the antimicrobial
      susceptibility pattern of Salmonella enterica serovars isolated at a tertiary
      care hospital in northern India. METHODS: A total of 106 S. enterica serovars
      isolated from various clinical samples from January 2011 to June 2012 were tested
      for antimicrobial susceptibility by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. The
      minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol and
      ceftriaxone was determined both by agar dilution method and E-test for all the
      isolates. RESULTS: Salmonella Typhi (73.6%) was the predominant isolate followed
      by S. Paratyphi A (15.1%), S. Typhimurium (9.4%) and S. Enteritidis (1.9%). Of
      these, 34 (32.1%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin (MIC >=1 MUg/ml by agar
      dilution) with MIC90 of ciprofloxacin for S. Typhi, S. Paratyphi A and S.
      Typhimurium being 32, 4 and 1 MUg/ml, respectively. All the isolates were
      sensitive to chloramphenicol (MIC <=8 MUg/ml) and ceftriaxone (MIC <=1 MUg/ml).
      Disk diffusion method showed high susceptibility rates to cefotaxime (100%),
      azithromycin (93.4%) and co-trimoxazole (97.2%). Nalidixic acid resistance was
      seen in 105 (99.1%) isolates. Of the nalidixic acid-resistant strains, only 34
      (32.3%) were found to be resistant to ciprofloxacin (MIC >=1 MUg/ml).
      INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: This study showed an alarming increase in MIC to
      quinolones and re-emergence of susceptibility to conventional antibiotics among
      Salmonellae.

PMID- 28574026
TI  - Effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on glycosylated haemoglobin among
      elderly patients with type 2 diabetes & peripheral neuropathy.
AB  - Aerobic exercise has been known to improve glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c)
      levels and insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
      The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of eight week moderate
      intensity aerobic (heart rate reserve 40-60%) exercise on glycaemic control in
      elderly patients with T2DM and diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). The
      participants (n=87) were randomly assigned to an eight-week programme by a
      computer-generated random number table to the study or control group,
      respectively. There were 47 participants in the control group and 40 participants
      in the study group after randomization. There was a significant difference in the
      mean values of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) at baseline and 8th week between the
      two groups. Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise of eight weeks duration helped in
      achieving enhanced glycaemic control in the T2DM patients with DPN.

PMID- 28574027
TI  - Utility of p57 immunohistochemistry in differentiating between complete mole,
      partial mole & non-molar or hydropic abortus.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: There is considerable inter-observer variability in the
      diagnosis of molar pregnancies by histomorphological examination of products of
      conception (POC). The p57KIP2 gene is paternally imprinted and expressed from the
      maternal allele. On immunohistochemistry (IHC) with p57, complete mole (CM) shows
      absent staining whereas hydropic abortus (HA) and partial mole (PM) show positive
      staining. This study was undertaken to evaluate the role of p57 IHC along with
      histomorphology in differentiating between CM, PM and non-molar or HA. METHODS:
      This was a cross-sectional study over a period of three and a half years on
      archival material. Detailed histomorphological review along with p57 IHC was
      carried out in 28 diagnosed cases (23 CM, 4 PM and 1 molar pregnancy not
      categorized) and 25 controls of four normal placentas and 21 POC (8 non-hydropic
      and 13 HA). RESULTS: In 14.8 per cent (4/27) cases, there was discordance in
      accurate subtyping of molar pregnancy. One case of CM showed inconsistent IHC
      pattern. In 15.4 per cent (2/13) HA, molar pregnancy was final diagnosis. After
      final review, there were 25 CM, five PM, 22 non-molar controls including 10 HA
      and one not assigned (PM/HA). IHC with p57 was negative in 96 per cent CM and
      positive in 100 and 95 per cent PM and non-molar controls, respectively.
      INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that negative p57KIP2
      immunostaining reliably identified CM and could be used in association with the
      histological findings to distinguish CM from its mimics.

PMID- 28574028
TI  - Bacterial aetiology of neonatal meningitis: A study from north-east India.

PMID- 28574030
TI  - Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome.

PMID- 28574029
TI  - Opportunistic cervical cancer screening of women visitors at a trade fair in
      India.

PMID- 28574031
TI  - An unusual vesical stone.

PMID- 28574032
TI  - [Calcification of atherosclerotic plaques and assessment of their stability].
AB  - Presented herein is a review of the literature concerning mechanisms of
      calcification of atherosclerotic plaques (ASP), showing molecular mechanisms of
      interaction of processes of calcification with the factors inducing instability
      of ASPs (anti-inflammatory cytokines, neoangiogenesis, increased level of matrix
      metalloproteinases, etc.), also describing the effect of the value of volume of
      scope of calcification on stability of ASPs, followed by discussing the problems
      related to the role of biominerals (hydroxyapatite calcium phosphate) and Mn2+ in
      calcification of ASPs and their impact upon stability of the plaque.

PMID- 28574033
TI  - [The phenomenon of ischaemic postconditioning of the heart. Analysis of clinical
      data].
AB  - Data concerning the effectiveness of ischaemic postconditioning (IPost) in
      treatment of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are
      controversial. The authors of the majority of studies have reported an anti
      apoptotic and infarct reducing effect of IPost. There is evidence that IPost
      reduces the microvascular obstruction zone, increases coronary flow reserve, and
      improves the pumping functions of the heart. At the same time, there are
      publications reporting that IPost does not influence the course of acute STEMI.
      It was established that IPost protects the heart from reperfusion injury
      occurring after cold cardioplegia in patients with tetralogy of Fallot.

PMID- 28574034
TI  - [Effect of actovegin and solcoseryl on microcirculation in experimental critical
      lower limb ischaemia].
AB  - The authors examined the effect of actovegin and solcoseryl on microcirculation
      parameters in treatment of experimental critical lower limb ischaemia. The study
      included a total of 130 male Wistar albino rats divided into four groups: intact,
      control, first and second study groups. The intact group consisted of 10 animals
      used for assessment of the normal indices of microcirculation, with the remaining
      three groups comprising 40 rats each. All animals, except the intact ones, were
      subjected to modelled critical ischaemia of a hind limb. The control group
      animals received no treatment, with the rats of the first and second study groups
      given intraperitoneal actovegin and solcoseryl, respectively, at a dose of 50
      MUg/kg first injected 3 hours after the operation and then once daily for five
      days. The level of microcirculation in the murine crural muscles was assessed by
      means of laser Doppler flowmetry on postoperative days 5, 10, 21 and 28. At the
      same time intervals, we performed histological examination of the ischaemized
      muscles, determining the level of microcirculation, the level of arteriovenular
      shunting, the area of necrosis and capillary network density. It was determined
      that actovegin and solcoseryl exerted a positive effect on formation of new
      capillaries in the ischaemized muscles, increasing density of the capillary
      network, decreasing arteriovenular shunting, increasing the level of
      microcirculation, decreasing the specific area of muscular tissue necrosis. The
      obtained findings showed advantages of actovegin over solcoseryl by the dynamics
      of the parameters of microcirculation, arteriovenular shunting, and capillary
      network density.

PMID- 28574035
TI  - [Vascular pathology in the aspect of sudden death in young adults and connective
      tissue dysplasia: anatomical, physiological, and morphological parallels].
AB  - Vascular pathology in young adults has during the last 10 years been diagnosed
      more often during forensic medical examination of sudden death. Major
      morphological alterations are revealed in cerebral vessels, coronary vessels, and
      at the level of the ascending portion of the aorta. Generally, in the young age
      there is no stenosing atherosclerosis inducing vascular lesions and the
      development of complications. It was determined that connective tissue dysplasia
      is pathology wherein weakness of the vascular wall is genetically preconditioned,
      thus promoting formation of vascular aneurysms and rupture of the latter under
      conditions of provoking factors such as going in for sports, physical loads, and
      psychoemotional stress.

PMID- 28574036
TI  - [Stimulation of angiogenesis by bone marrow cells in experimental ischaemia of
      lower limb].
AB  - The objective of the study was to experimentally substantiate a possibility of
      treating lower limb chronic ischaemia by means of administration of bone marrow
      cells. The study was performed on 100 laboratory 'Wistar' rats subdivided into
      four groups: intact, control, first and second study groups. The intact group
      consisted of 10 animals, with the remaining three containing 30 rats each. All
      animals, except the intact ones, were subjected to modelled critical ischaemia of
      a hind limb by means of excision of major vessels of the extremity. The rats from
      the first study group were given 'Myelopid' (calf bone marrow extract) at a dose
      of 50 MUg/kg injected into the femoral muscles 3 hours after the operation, then
      after 1, 2 and 3 days. The second study group rats underwent cellular therapy
      with the mononuclear fraction of bone marrow autologous cells. Bone marrow was
      procured from the femoral bone of the contralateral limb. The exfusate was
      subjected to double centrifugation followed by isolation of the mononuclear
      fraction of the bone marrow according to the Boyum technique. The obtained
      mononuclear fraction of autologous cells of the bone marrow amounting to 4*106
      cells in a volume of 200 MUl was injected into the ischaemized limb of the
      animal. The control group received no treatment at all. In the first study group,
      the level of microcirculation as compared with the control group on day 10
      increased by 48.3%, on day 21 by 50.6%, and on day 28 by 105.9%. In the second
      study group, the level of microcirculation as compared with the control group on
      day 10 increased by 67.4%, on day 21 by 85.7%, and on day 28 by 97% (the
      differences between the two study groups were statistically insignificant).
      Neither had the area of muscular necrosis statistically significant differences
      between the study groups, decreasing on day 10 averagely by 14.75%, on day 21 by
      6.5% as compared with the control group animals, to become completely reduced on
      day 28. A conclusion was drawn that 'Myelopid' and the mononuclear fraction of
      autologous cells of bone marrow exerted a positive effect on the level of
      microcirculation, the scope of necrotic lesion of muscular tissue in the
      ischaemized extremity of laboratory animals and may potentially be used for
      treatment of patients suffering from obliterating diseases of lower-limb
      arteries.

PMID- 28574037
TI  - [Diagnostic significance of the color duplex scanning in estimation of the
      arteries state at different stages of infrainguinal reconstructions].
AB  - AIM: The study was aimed at assessing diagnostic possibilities of duplex scanning
      (DS) of lower limb arteries, used as 'ultrasonographic angiography' in patients
      presenting with critical ischaemia for appropriately planning complicated
      infrainguinal reconstructions at stages of surgical management, including dynamic
      follow up in the postoperative period. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We examined a total
      of 30 patients. Of these, 14 patients composed the control group and 16 patients
      with critical ischaemia of lower limb arteries who underwent 8 external iliac
      tibial and 8 femorotibial bypass graftings with a relieving arteriovenous fistula
      and application of a venous cuff according to the type of 'St. Mary's boot'. All
      the 16 patients preoperatively underwent DS of lower limb arteries and CT
      angiography, as well as postoperative DS of the vessels of the zone of the
      operative intervention. We compared the possibilities of DS and CT angiography in
      the assessment of the state of various segments of lower limb arteries. The
      obtained findings were compared with the data of the 'golden standard' - X-ray
      contrast enhanced angiography or intraoperative revision. RESULTS: In assessing
      the state of the aortoiliac segment, sensitivity and specificity of the both
      methods amounted to 100%. In assessing patency of the femoropopliteal segment,
      sensitivity and specificity of DS amounted to 93.7 and 100%, with those for CT
      angiography equalling 87.5 and 100%. Assessing patency of arteries of the crus,
      sensitivity and specificity of the both methods amounted to 87.5 and 93.7%,
      respectively. In the postoperative period it was revealed that a prognostically
      favourable factor for shunt functioning is the value of the volumetric velocity
      of blood flow in the shunt at the level of the middle third of the femur,
      equalling the sum of volumetric velocities of blood flow in the donor artery
      distal to and in the relieving vein proximal to the anastomosis. Important
      prognostic parameters of shunt functioning were also the values of linear
      velocity of blood flow both in the shunt and donor artery. CONCLUSION: Strict
      compliance with the methodology and protocol of DS makes it possible to evaluate
      the condition of outflow pathways while planning the intervention, to assess
      functioning of the shunt in the postoperative period and to work out criteria for
      favourable functioning of the infrainguinal shunt for regular dynamic control
      over the state of the revascularized limb.

PMID- 28574038
TI  - [Prediction of ischaemic lesions of the brain in reconstructive operations on
      internal carotid arteries].
AB  - The present study was undertaken to examine the relationship between the level of
      the intensity of the ultrasonic signal reflected from atherosclerotic plaques
      (ATP) of carotid arteries and the risk for formation of an ischaemic lesion in
      the brain matter, detected during diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging
      (DW-MRI) performed 24 hours after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or carotid
      angioplasty and stenting (CAS). Our prospective study included a total of 78
      patients presenting with stenosis of the sinus of the interior carotid artery. Of
      these, 42 patients were subjected to CEA and 36 subjects endured CAS. All
      patients in the preoperative period underwent ultrasonographic examination with
      determination of the degree of heterogeneity of ATPs and registration of the
      values of the intensity of acoustic characteristics of the signal. The condition
      of the brain matter before and 24 hours after the intervention was assesses by
      the findings of DW-MRI. None of the patients after the reconstructive
      intervention during the postoperative period demonstrated any evidence of acute
      cerebral circulation disorders. DW-MRI carried out 24 hours after the operation
      revealed acute ischaemia foci (AIF) in 9 (21.4%) patients after CEA and in 18
      (50%) patients after CAS (p=0.05). It was revealed that the postoperative
      occurrence of AIF was related to the intensity of the ultrasonographic signal
      prior to the operation: in the CEA group patients the postoperative ischaemic
      foci were associated with high-intensity ultrasonographic signals (more than 25
      dB), whereas in the CAS group patients, vice versa - with low-intensity signals
      (less than 25dB). For CEA, sensitivity and specificity of the preoperative
      ultrasonographic method of predicting postoperative embolic lesions of the brain
      appeared to be similar, amounting to 100% each (with the cut-off point of high-
      and low-intensity signals equaling 25 dB), and for CAS, sensitivity of the method
      turned out to be 75% and specificity - 100% (with the same cut-off point of 25
      dB). A conclusion was drawn that quantitative characteristics of the intensity of
      an ultrasonographic signal from fragments of atherosclerotic plaques of the sinus
      of the internal carotid artery made it possible with high probability to predict
      the risk for the development of AIF in the brain matter after both CEA and CAS
      and may therefore serve as a reliable criterion for appropriate therapeutic
      decision-making with the lowest risk of inflicting lesions in a particular case.
      The threshold cut-off points of high- and low-intensity ultrasonographic signals,
      as well as their clinical significance are yet to be specified and verified with
      the growing number of cases.

PMID- 28574039
TI  - [Peripheral perfusion in CAD patients with various-stage chronic heart failure
      undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting].
AB  - Using the orthostatic test, we examined peripheral perfusion by means of laser
      Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and transcutaneous oximetry in a total of 104 patients
      presenting with coronary artery disease and functional class II-IV chronic heart
      failure (CHF) prior to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and in the remote
      terms thereafter. Volumetric velocity of the microcirculatory blood flow (MCB) of
      the lower limbs was measured by means of LDF in perfusion units; partial oxygen
      pressure (TcPO2, mmHg) was registered by means of transcutaneous oximetry. The
      patients with CAD were subdivided into two groups as follows: Group One comprised
      patients with FC II CHF and Group Two included those with FC III-IV CHF. Prior to
      CABG according to the findings of LDF, the lowest level of MCB of the lower limbs
      was revealed in Group Two, being by 57.9% (42.5-61.3) less as compared with Group
      One (p=0.008). In Group Two patients as compared with Group One there was a
      larger proportion of patients with impaired reactivity of the peripheral
      microcirculatory bed during the orthostatic test in the form of: 1) a paradoxical
      reaction of the MCB both before CABG (60.6 versus 13.9%, p=0.00001) and in the
      remote terms after the operation (64.3 versus 16.2%, p=0.00001); 2) lack of the
      reaction of the MCB prior to the operation (19.7 versus 4.7%, p=0.02) and in the
      remote period after CABG (16.7 versus 2.7%, p=0.04). Group Two patients both
      before and after CABG were found to have a decrease (compared with the norm) in
      the TcPO2 parameters at rest, as well as lower reactivity of tissue metabolism of
      peripheral tissues during the orthostatic test. An initial decrease in the left
      ventricular output fraction of < 42% increases the chances of preserving the post
      CABG decreased values of TcPO2 of less than 24 mm Hg (OR=3.1; 95% CI 1.1-6.8;
      p=0.003). Lack of the reaction of the MCB during the orthostatic test prior to
      CABG increases the chances for the development of surgically significant
      atherosclerotic lesions of lower-limb arteries after myocardial revascularization
      (OR=4.2; 95% CI 1.3-2.3; p=0.01). Hence, the most pronounced impairments of the
      mechanisms of adaptation of the MCB in the orthostatic test prior to and in the
      remote terms after CABG were detected in CAD patients with FC III-IV CHF. A
      decrease in the microvascular tonicity during the test and, consequently,
      inhibition of the nutritive component in this cohort of patients were accompanied
      by low metabolic reactivity of peripheral tissues.

PMID- 28574040
TI  - [Use of a filtering protective device during angioplasty and stenting of the
      brachiocephalic trunk].
AB  - The authors carried out a pilot study aimed at assessing the possibility and
      efficacy of using filtering systems for protection of cerebral arteries from
      distal embolism during angioplasty and stenting of the brachiocephalic trunk. A
      total of five patients presenting with lesions of the brachiocephalic trunk
      underwent 5 roentgenoendovascular interventions with the use of the filtering
      protective device Spider FX. Angiographic and clinical success was achieved in
      100% of cases. Particles of debris were obtained from the protective device in
      all cases. All the five patients were found to have symptoms of vertebrobasilar
      insufficiency. During follow-up in the medium-term period at check examinations
      the implanted stents were patent, with neither major nor minor neurological
      complications observed. The patients turned out to be free from cerebrovascular
      insufficiency relapses. Presented herein are clinical case reports describing
      technical peculiarities of using the protective device in different variants of
      the anatomy and vascular lesion.

PMID- 28574041
TI  - [Significance of the level of implantation of the 'E-vita open plus' hybrid stent
      graft into the descending aorta in the development of spinal ischaemic
      complications].
AB  - Spinal ischaemia in patients after reconstruction of the thoracic aorta is
      referred to the category of the most severe postoperative complications,
      especially in hybrid interventions. The present study was aimed at assessing the
      risks for the development of spinal ischaemia in patients after implantation of
      the 'E-vita open plus' stent graft into the descending portion of the thoracic
      aorta during hybrid reconstruction. The 'E-vita open plus' hybrid stent graft
      (Jotec, Germany) was implanted to 18 patients presenting with various pathology
      of the thoracic aorta (dissection, aneurysms). All operations were carried out in
      the conditions of moderate hypothermia, circulatory arrest and antegrade
      perfusion of the brain through the brachiocephalic trunk. It was determined that
      the distal end of the stent graft was located at the level of Th7-Th12. In 12
      (66.7%) cases the 'lower' edge of the stent graft was located at the level of
      thoracic vertebrae Th8-Th9. Before the operation the number of open pairs of
      intercostal arteries amounted to 10 [9, 11]. After the operation, the number of
      the open pairs of the segmental arteries amounted to 3 [1; 4], they were all in
      the lower thoracic portion; the above-located intercostal arteries were shut by
      the stent graft. In 17 (94.5%) cases in the early postoperative period there were
      no signs of spinal ischaemia. Only one (5.5%) patient was clinically diagnosed to
      have developed transient spinal ischaemia noted to disappear spontaneously within
      the first 24 hours. A conclusion was made that using the 'E-vita open plus' stent
      graft in the course of hybrid reconstruction of the thoracic aorta was
      accompanied by the minimal risk for spinal ischaemic complications. The level of
      the location of the distal edge of the stent graft is not the determining factor
      in the risks of spinal complications in of such similar operations.

PMID- 28574042
TI  - [First experience with intravascular ultrasonographic examination in diagnosis of
      post-traumatic obstruction of deep veins].
AB  - Intravascular ultrasonography (IVUS) is a highly effective method of diagnosis of
      post-thrombotic obstructions. Its possibilities by determining the degree and
      extension of obstructions of deep veins are superior to those of not only non
      invasive methods of examination (ultrasonography, CT and MRI) but of phlebography
      whose results until recently were considered fundamental in diagnosis of the
      disease concerned. Limited possibilities of phlebography often lead to diagnostic
      errors when determining the degree and extension of post-thrombotic obstructions.
      Intravascular ultrasonography makes it possible to obtain a maximally objective
      picture of the degree of intravascular alterations in post-thrombotic diseases,
      as well as to determine the indications for performing balloon dilatation and
      stenting of deep veins. First experience in using intravascular ultrasonography
      in the Clinic of the Institute of Experimental Medicine confirmed these
      provisions. A total of 15 patients diagnosed with post-thrombotic disease while
      examination were subjected to antegrade transfemoral phlebography in the direct
      and lateral projections and IVUS. Significant post-thrombotic obstruction was
      revealed by phlebography in 3 (20%) of the 15 patients and confirmed by the
      findings of IVUS. In 12 (80%) patients only carrying out IVUS made it possible to
      detect pronounced obstruction of veins (more than 50% of its diameter) remaining
      undiagnosed by phlebography. Unnoticed in phlebography turned out to be May
      Thurner syndrome in a female patient. Compression of the left common iliac vein
      by the right common iliac artery exceeding during systole 70% of the initial
      diameter of the vein was also revealed while performing IVUS. At the same time
      phlebography remains an indispensable method of examination while assessing
      collateral blood flow, thus making it possible to recommend its performing in
      combination with IVUS for obtaining the most complete notion on post-thrombotic
      alterations in deep veins of the inferior vena cava system.

PMID- 28574044
TI  - [Autotransplantation of the internal carotid artery in patients with high
      localization of an atherosclerotic plaque].
AB  - Acute and chronic cerebral circulatory impairment is a very commonly encountered
      type of neurological diseases, annually affecting more than six million people
      worldwide. The absolute majority of all cases are associated with atherosclerosis
      of cerebral arteries. Surgical intervention in a stenotic lesion of the internal
      carotid artery (ICA) is a method of preventive treatment with confirmed efficacy.
      Eversion carotid endarterectomy (ECEA) is currently the most commonly used 'open'
      operation for this cohort of patients. It is connected with relative technical
      simplicity of the operative procedure, no foreign material in the wound, low risk
      of haemodynamic disorders in the zone of reconstruction owing to no considerable
      alteration in the ICA diameter, as well as favourable remote results. A
      disadvantage of ECEA is lack of visual control above the distal portion of the
      ICA and, as a consequence, limited application of the technique in cases of a
      highly located atherosclerotic plaque (by more than 2 cm above the bifurcation).
      Specialists of the Federal Centre of Cardiovascular Surgery in the city of Penza
      worked out a modification of the operative technique making it possible to widen
      the indications for using ECEA. Its essence consists in total resection of the
      stenosed portion of the ICA, performing eversion endarterectomy outside the
      wound, followed by reimplantation thereof with the help of two 'end-to-end'
      anastomoses, as during prosthetic repair. This technique was called
      autotransplantation of the ICA. Advantages of this technique are considered to
      include precision of removing the plaque and intimal ruptured fragments, which is
      easier and more convenient to achieve outside the wound; reliable fixation of the
      intima and non-stenosing residuals of the plaque by a distal anastomosis, as well
      as a possibility of using this technique in cases of high location of the plaque.
      The purpose of this study was to compare the immediate results_outcomes of ECEA
      and autotransplantation of the ICA in two groups comprising 108 and 72 patients,
      respectively. The measures assessed included the mean time of ICA cross-clamping
      during surgery, frequency of the development of perioperative strokes,
      haemorrhage, lesions of craniocerebral nerves, wound complications.

PMID- 28574043
TI  - [Von Korff questionnaire in assessment of social disadaptation and therapeutic
      results in women with pelvic varicose veins].
AB  - AIM: The present study was conducted to examine the possibilities of the Von
      Korff questionnaire in assessing the impact of pelvic pain on social activity and
      working ability of women with pelvic varicose veins (PVV) and evaluating the
      results of treatment of the pathology involved. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Von
      Korff questionnaire was administered in a total of 80 women presenting with PVV
      in order to assess the results of conservative and surgical treatment of PVV.
      RESULTS: Using the Von Korff questionnaire made it possible to objectively
      evaluate the psychosocial impact of chronic pelvic pain (CPP). It was determined
      that in 56 patients the presence of PVV and CPP was accompanied by a low level of
      social disadaptation and formation of grade I disability. 24 women were found to
      have moderate and high levels of social disadaptation and grade II-IV disability.
      Studying the outcomes of conservative and surgical treatment of PPV as assessed
      by means of the Von Korff questionnaire demonstrated high efficacy of the
      therapeutic techniques used. In patients subjected to surgical interventions, the
      CPP degree decreased from 7.6+/-0.9 to 1.6+/-0.9 points, the level of social
      disadaptation fell from 2.8+/-0.6 to 0.5+/-0.3 points, and the grade of
      disability decreased from 2.9+/-0.4 to 0.8+/-0.4, which may be regarded as
      complete restoration of social activity. DISCUSSION: The Von Korff questionnaire
      used in our study made it possible to objectively evaluate the impact of CPP
      related to pelvic varicose veins on formation of social disadaptation in women
      and a decrease in their working ability. In the general structure of the disease,
      75% of women appeared to have a low level of social disadaptation and grade I
      disability, with a third having grade II, III and IV disability and a moderate-to
      high level of social disadaptation. In 25% of women, the determined degree of
      disability averagely amounted to 2.9+/-0.4, thus suggesting their significant
      social disadaptation. CONCLUSION: The carried out study showed that the Von Korff
      questionnaire is an objective and demonstrative tool of clinical determination of
      the severity of pelvic varicose veins, as well as the effect of CPP on both
      everyday and social activity of women suffering from the pathology concerned.

PMID- 28574045
TI  - [Surgical treatment of patients with haemodynamically significant stenosis of the
      internal carotid artery and contralateral occlusion].
AB  - Presented herein is a review of the literature dedicated to the problem regarding
      surgical management of patients with haemodynamically significant stenosis of the
      internal carotid artery and collateral occlusion. Special consideration is given
      to the studies comparing perioperative and early postoperative outcomes of
      carotid endarterectomy in patients with the nosology concerned. The literature
      was retrieved by means of the following databases Scopus, Web of Science,
      Medline, and the Russian Science Citation Index.

PMID- 28574046
TI  - [Efficacy and safety of temporary bypass grafting in carotid endarterectomy].
AB  - The authors analysed interrelationship between the use of temporary bypass
      grafting during operations of carotid endarterectomy and the frequency of the
      development of ischaemic complications (stroke and transitory ischaemic attacks
      in the early postoperative period). It was shown that in the group wherein a
      temporary bypass graft was established only by the criterion of decreasing
      retrograde pressure ischaemic complications were encountered in ten (4.4%)
      patients and in the group wherein temporary shunts were established by the
      criterion of a simultaneous decrease in cerebral oxygenation and retrograde
      pressure - in two (0.9%) patients (OR 5.28; 95% CI 1.22-24.38; p=0.03). It was
      demonstrated that using temporary bypass grafting in cases of isolated assessment
      of the parameters of cerebral oxygenation and retrograde pressure increased the
      frequency of the development of shunt-related ischaemic complications as compared
      with the patients in whom shunts were not used due to lack of a synchronous
      decrease in these parameters (13.5 vs 1.5%, respectively; OR 10.0; 95% CI 1.1
      82.2; p=0.039). The findings of the carried out retrospective analysis suggested
      that the main predictor of the development of the outcome 'stroke + transitory
      ischaemic attack' was the use of a temporary internal shunt during the main stage
      of the operation (p<0.00001).

PMID- 28574047
TI  - Risk of development of neurological complications in prosthetic repair of the
      aortic ascending portion and arch.
AB  - The study comprised a total of 68 patients (presenting) with chronic dissection
      of the aortic ascending portion and arch, undergoing surgery and subjected to
      measuring at various stages of the operation the level of cerebral oxygenation
      (rSO2) of the right and left hemispheres by means of bilateral transcranial
      spectroscopy. The aim of the study was to examine the risk for the development of
      neurological complications in patients with chronic dissection of the aortic
      ascending portion and arch in various methods of cerebral protection during
      aortic prosthetic reconstruction. Group One consisted of thirty-one 40-to-61-year
      old (mean age 51 years) patients who during circulatory arrest (CA) were as
      cerebral protection subjected to antegrade cerebral perfusion (ACP) on the
      background of moderate hypothermia (23-24 degrees C). Group Two included thirty
      seven 40-to-58-year-old (mean age 48 years) patients who during CA were subjected
      to cerebral protection consisting in craniocerebral hypothermia on the background
      of total deep hypothermia (18 degrees C). Prior to surgery and in the immediate
      period thereafter, all patients underwent clinical and instrumental examination
      of the neurological status. During CA while aortic arch repair in Group One
      patients at the expense of maintaining cerebral perfusion a decrease in rSO2
      registered in the right and left hemispheres amounted to only 11.8 and 8.7%,
      respectively, compared with the baseline values. In Group Two patients during CA
      a decrease in rSO2 along the right and left hemispheres amounted to 29.6 and
      30.9% compared with the initial values, which was statistically significantly
      more than in Group One (p=0.002 and p=0.003). Thus, in Group Two patients during
      CA cerebral hypoperfusion resulted in a considerable decrease in oxygen supply of
      the brain, in spite of systemic deep hypothermia and craniocerebral hypothermia,
      promoting reduction of cerebral metabolism. Using ACP during CA in Group One
      patients maintained the oxygen status of the brain at an optimal level. In Group
      One patients, in the early postoperative period neurological complications were
      registered in 12.9% of cases. In Group Two, neurological complications were noted
      in 35.1% of cases. The univariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that
      the risk for the development of any neurological complications depended on the
      degree of a decrease in rSO2 during CA while prosthetic repair of the aortic arch
      relative to the previous values - OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.11-1.65; p=0.02. Hence, deep
      hypothermia and craniocerebral hypothermia used as cerebral protection during CA
      turned out to be less effective compared with ACP, because despite reduction of
      metabolic requirements of the brain, cerebral hypoperfusion substantially of
      neurological status impairments in the early postoperative period.

PMID- 28574048
TI  - [Assessment of severity of lesions of arterial basins in patients with multifocal
      atherosclerosis].
AB  - The present study was aimed at working out a methodology combining clinical,
      haemodynamic, and functional parameters of lesions of arterial basins in patients
      presenting with concomitant lesions of the aortic arch branches and arteries of
      lower extremities. The authors retrospectively investigated the results of
      examining a total of 181 patients operated on for concomitant atherosclerotic
      lesions of the aortic arch branches, terminal portion of the abdominal aorta, and
      lower limb arteries. In patients subjected as the first stage to interventions on
      the aortic arch branches (Group 1), the index of severity of the lesion of the
      aortic arch branches (Cs) was higher than in those from Groups 2 and 3. In Group
      2 patients who as the first stage underwent reconstruction of the terminal
      portion of the abdominal aorta and lower-limb arteries, the index of severity of
      lesions of lower limb arteries (Ls) turned out to be higher as compared with
      patients from Groups 1 and 3. The mean value of the Ls/Cs ratio for Group 1
      patients amounted to 1.07, for Group 2 patients to 2.7, and for Group 3 subjects
      to 1.96. The proposed methodology makes it possible to determine the degree of
      the lesion of arterial basins in patients suffering from multifocal
      atherosclerosis and may objectively reflect severity of the lesion thereof. The
      comparative retrospective analysis has demonstrated that with the Ls/Cs ratio
      equaling 1.0, the first stage consisted in carrying out an intervention on the
      aortic arch branches, in the Ls/Cs ratio varying from 2.5 to 3.0, the first stage
      performed was reconstruction of the terminal portion of the abdominal aorta and
      arteries of the lower limbs, and cases associated with the Ls/Cs ratio equaling 2
      involved simultaneous interventions. A possibility of wide application of the
      method warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28574049
TI  - [30th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (Copenhagen,
      Denmark, september 28-30, 2016)].
AB  - The article is a brief review of the proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of
      the European Society for Vascular Surgeons, held on September 28-30, 2016 in
      Copenhagen, Denmark. The papers presented reported the results of managing
      patients with pathology of carotid arteries, aortic aneurysms, pathology of
      peripheral arteries, also discussing current achievements and prospects of
      methods of treatment of arterial and venous diseases.

PMID- 28574050
TI  - [Haemangioma of the left atrium].
AB  - Presented herein is a clinical case report concerning successful surgical
      management of a rare variety of a primary tumour of the heart, i. e., a capillary
      haemangioma of the left atrium, simulating by the contours and localization a
      myxoma. The final diagnosis was verified only by histological examination. The
      authors describe difficulties of diagnosis of the disease involved, underlying
      the necessity of plastic correction for restoration of the normal anatomical
      configuration of the heart. This is followed by a review of the literature,
      reflecting a possible course of the disease, problems of diagnosis, and
      therapeutic policy.

PMID- 28574051
TI  - [Stagewise hybrid method of treating a patient with connective tissue dysplasia,
      aortic aneurysm, and distal dissection].
AB  - Presented herein is a clinical case report concerning the use of a hybrid
      technique in stagewise surgical management of a patient with distal dissection
      and an aneurysm of the thoracoabdominal portion of the aorta. The patient at high
      risk with the connective tissue dysplasia syndrome had a past medical history of
      prosthetic repair of the descending thoracic aorta with type-1 haemodynamic
      correction. Three years later, the findings of computed tomography demonstrated
      fenestration in the area of the distal anastomosis, a patent false channel, and
      an increase in the diameter of the unoperated thoracoabdominal portion of the
      aorta. The first stage consisted in performing prosthetic repair of the
      infrarenal portion of the aorta by means of the multibranched Coselli
      thoracoabdominal graft, followed by 'switching' the visceral branches into the
      formed prosthesis. 14 days later, the second stage included stenting of the
      dilated suprarenal portion of the aorta. The patient was discharged on day 9
      after the second stage of the operation. This clinical case report demonstrates
      that a hybrid method of treatment may by an alternative to an open operation in
      high risk surgical patients presenting with severe concomitant somatic pathology.

PMID- 28574052
TI  - [Aneurysm of the gastroduodenal artery in a female patient with the
      postcholecystectomy syndrome (a clinical case report)].
AB  - Aneurysms of visceral arteries appear to belong to rare and potentially lethal
      vascular diseases. The most important role in the aetiology of aneurysms of the
      gastroduodenal artery is plaid by either acute or chronic pancreatitis. The
      article deals with a clinical case report concerning a saccular partially
      thrombosed aneurysm having developed in a 77-year-old woman presenting with the
      postcholecystectomic syndrome and detected on ultrasonographic examination of the
      abdominal-cavity vessels. Timely radiodiagnosis (SCT angiography of abdominal
      cavity vessels), adequate and timely performed endovascular occlusion of the
      cavity of the aneurysm with metal spirals performed in a timely manner made it
      possible to attain a favourable outcome. Little is known regarding the
      understanding of the aetiology and lack of full clarity in therapeutic approaches
      to aneurysms of visceral arteries predetermine the necessity to continue
      collecting clinical case reports concerning this rarely encountered vascular
      pathology in order to generalize and work out an appropriate therapeutic-and
      diagnostic algorithm.

PMID- 28574053
TI  - [Treatment of resistant arterial hypertension in the remote period after carotid
      endarterectomy].
AB  - The aim of the study was to determine peculiarities of the course of resistant
      arterial hypertension (AH) in the remote period after performing the operation of
      carotid endarterectomy in patients presenting with haemodynamically significant
      (more than 70%) stenosis of the carotid bifurcation. The study included a total
      of 105 patients. The course of AH was evaluated in the immediate (2-7 days) and
      remote (3-7 years) periods after the operation of carotid endarterectomy. Ninety
      two (87.6%) patients presenting prior to the operation with resistant AH were
      postoperatively found to have persistent stabilization of arterial pressure and
      its milder course. A good clinical effect (possibility of reaching the target
      arterial pressure) in the remote period was noted to preserve in 65.7% of
      patients. The proportion of patients with grade III AH decreased from 43.8%
      (prior to operation) to 5.8% in the remote postoperative period (p<0.001). It was
      also determined that the degree of the antihypertensive effect after the
      performed operation of carotid endarterectomy depended upon the duration of a
      previous medical history of arterial hypertension before surgery: the sooner the
      operation is performed the more pronounced its antihypertensive effect is.

PMID- 28574054
TI  - [First experience with total laparoscopic reconstructive operations in occlusive
      lesion of the aortoiliac arterial segment].
AB  - According to the TASC II and the Russian National Guidelines on management of
      patients with lower limb arterial diseases, in patients with type C and D lesions
      of the arterial bed performing aortofemoral bifurcation bypass grafting is
      preferable. Laparoscopic technique makes it possible to combine advantages of
      minimally invasive surgery with well-known remote results of open reconstructive
      operations on the aortoiliac segment. The study included a total of 54 patients
      undergoing treatment at the Cardiosurgical Department of Clinic No 1 of the
      Volgograd State Medical University over the period from January 2012 to September
      2015. The examined patients were subdivided into two groups. Group One was
      composed of the initial 26 patients operated on during the period from January
      2012 to April 2014. Group Two comprised the remaining 28 patients operated on
      during the period from April 2014 to September 2015. Safety of performing the
      intervention was determined by prediction of the postoperative lethality and
      complications rates by means of the V-POSSUM scale. The predicted lethality and
      complications rates for both groups amounted to 2.3 and 23.5%, respectively. We
      carried out a comparative analysis of intraoperative data such as duration of the
      operative intervention, duration of mobilization of the aortoiliac segment, time
      of aortic cross-clamping, volume of intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative
      complications rate, conversion in the open access. In the early postoperative
      period we analysed the level of lethality, complications rate and indices of
      postoperative rehabilitation of the patient. For demonstrativeness of the
      dynamics of alterations of intraoperative indices, as well as for plotting the
      'learning curve' the moving average method was used. Analysing the obtained
      findings revealed that implementation of total laparoscopic aortofemoral
      reconstructive operations was not accompanied by either high lethality or great
      number of complications, not exceeding the predicted indices by the V-POSSUM
      scale. The average duration of the operation in Group I amounted to 346+/-18.3
      min, and in Group II to 316+/-13.3 min, with the time of aortic cross-clamping
      averaging 80+/-10.3 and 61+/-4.2 min and the volume of blood loss 898+/-23.5 ml,
      respectively. As experience was gained in performing laparoscopic reconstructive
      operations in Group Two patients the 'learning curve' demonstrated a
      statistically significant decrease of these intraoperative values, as well as a
      decrease in the complication rate and parameters of the patient's state in the
      postoperative period. Due to absence of extensive laparotomic or retroperitoneal
      accesses, the early postoperative period was characterised by rapid restoration
      of the passage along the intestine, early activation of patients, short length of
      stay in the intensive care unit and hospital stay.

PMID- 28574056
TI  - The DUB blade goes snicker-snack: Novel ubiquitin cleavage by a Legionella
      effector protein.
AB  - Recently, a Legionella pneumophila effector protein was shown to have an
      unprecedented ATP-independent ubiquitin ligase activity that couples
      phosphoribosylated ubiquitin (PR-Ub) to serine residues of host proteins. A new
      study published in Cell Research by Qiu et al. reveals that another Legionella
      effector protein, SidJ, catalyzes deubiquitination of PR-Ub by cleavage of the
      substrate-linked phosphodiester bond.

PMID- 28574055
TI  - Alternate binding modes of anti-CRISPR viral suppressors AcrF1/2 to Csy
      surveillance complex revealed by cryo-EM structures.
AB  - Bacteriophages encode anti-CRISPR suppressors to counteract the CRISPR/Cas
      immunity of their bacterial hosts, thus facilitating their survival and
      replication. Previous studies have shown that two phage-encoded anti-CRISPR
      proteins, AcrF1 and AcrF2, suppress the type I-F CRISPR/Cas system of Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa by preventing target DNA recognition by the Csy surveillance complex,
      but the precise underlying mechanism was unknown. Here we present the structure
      of AcrF1/2 bound to the Csy complex determined by cryo-EM single-particle
      reconstruction. By structural analysis, we found that AcrF1 inhibits target DNA
      recognition of the Csy complex by interfering with base pairing between the DNA
      target strand and crRNA spacer. In addition, multiple copies of AcrF1 bind to the
      Csy complex with different modes when working individually or cooperating with
      AcrF2, which might exclude target DNA binding through different mechanisms.
      Together with previous reports, we provide a comprehensive working scenario for
      the two anti-CRISPR suppressors, AcrF1 and AcrF2, which silence CRISPR/Cas
      immunity by targeting the Csy surveillance complex.

PMID- 28574058
TI  - Gut microbiota: Trust your gut - metformin and diabetes.

PMID- 28574059
TI  - Adipose tissue: FSH antibody prevents obesity and loss of bone.

PMID- 28574060
TI  - Neurodevelopmental disorders: Metformin - a therapeutic option for fragile X
      syndrome?

PMID- 28574061
TI  - Stroke: Long-term outcome of endovascular therapy for ischaemic stroke.

PMID- 28574057
TI  - New methods in the diagnosis of cancer and gene therapy of cancer based on
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Cancer is one of the leading cause of death in the world with the prevalence of
      >10 million mortalities annually. Current cancer treatments include surgical
      intervention, radiation, and taking chemotherapeutic drugs, which often kill the
      healthy cells and result in toxicity in patients. Therefore, researchers are
      looking for ways to be able to eliminate just cancerous cells. Intra-tumor
      heterogeneity of cancerous cells is the main obstacle on the way of an effective
      cancer treatment. However, better comprehension of molecular basis of tumor and
      the advent of new diagnostic technologies can help to improve the treatment of
      various cancers. Therefore, study of epigenetic changes, gene expression of
      cancerous cells and employing methods that enable us to correct or minimize these
      changes is critically important. In this paper, we will review the recent
      advanced strategies being used in the field of cancer research.

PMID- 28574062
TI  - Erratum to: Chikungunya: a reemerging infection spreading during 2010 dengue
      fever outbreak in National Capital Region of India.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s13337-016-0314-z.].

PMID- 28574064
TI  - Efficiency enhancement in dye-sensitized solar cells using the shape/size
      dependent plasmonic nanocomposite photoanodes incorporating silver nanoplates.
AB  - In this work, we describe the efficiency enhancement in dye-sensitized solar
      cells (DSSCs) by using TiO2/silver nanoplate plasmonic nanocomposite photoanodes.
      The nanocomposite photoanodes with tunable plasmonic properties assembled from
      shape/size-selected silver (Ag) nanoplates were applied to enhance the light
      absorption for high-performance DSSCs. It was found that the localized surface
      plasmon resonance can be tuned over a range from 500 to 1000 nm, which is
      strongly dependent on the shape and size of Ag nanoplates and the refractive
      index of the surrounding dielectric. The effects of the size and shape of Ag
      nanoplates on the surface plasmonic resonance and the efficiency of DSSCs were
      evaluated experimentally. Furthermore, a three-dimensional finite element method
      was employed to investigate the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for
      the shape and size effect of Ag nanoplates.

PMID- 28574065
TI  - Enhanced electrical conductivity and piezoresistive sensing in multi-wall carbon
      nanotubes/polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites via the construction of a self
      segregated structure.
AB  - Formation of highly conductive networks is essential for achieving flexible
      conductive polymer composites (CPCs) with high force sensitivity and high
      electrical conductivity. In this study, self-segregated structures were
      constructed in polydimethylsiloxane/multi-wall carbon nanotube (PDMS/MWCNT)
      nanocomposites, which then exhibited high piezoresistive sensitivity and low
      percolation threshold without sacrificing their mechanical properties. First,
      PDMS was cured and pulverized into 40-60 mesh-sized particles (with the size
      range of 250-425 MUm) as an optimum self-segregated phase to improve the
      subsequent electrical conductivity. Then, the uncured PDMS/MWCNT base together
      with the curing agent was mixed with the abovementioned PDMS particles, serving
      as the segregated phase. Finally, the mixture was cured again to form the
      PDMS/MWCNT nanocomposites with self-segregated structures. The morphological
      evaluation indicated that MWCNTs were located in the second cured three
      dimensional (3D) continuous PDMS phase, resulting in an ultralow percolation
      threshold of 0.003 vol% MWCNTs. The nanocomposites with self-segregated
      structures with 0.2 vol% MWCNTs achieved a high electrical conductivity of 0.003
      S m-1, whereas only 4.87 * 10-10 S m-1 was achieved for the conventional samples
      with 0.2 vol% MWCNTs. The gauge factor GF of the self-segregated samples was 7.4
      fold that of the conventional samples at 30% compression strain. Furthermore, the
      self-segregated samples also showed higher compression modulus and strength as
      compared to the conventional samples. These enhanced properties were attributed
      to the construction of 3D self-segregated structures, concentrated distribution
      of MWCNTs, and strong interfacial interaction between the segregated phase and
      the continuous phase with chemical bonds formed during the second curing process.
      These self-segregated structures provide a new insight into the fabrication of
      elastomers with high electrical conductivity and piezoresistive sensitivity for
      flexible force-sensitive materials.

PMID- 28574066
TI  - Chirality-dependent growth of single-wall carbon nanotubes as revealed inside
      nano-test tubes.
AB  - Growth dynamics of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been studied with
      nickelocene as a precursor encapsulated in the interior of template SWCNTs. By
      means of multi-laser Raman spectroscopy, growth curves of nine different SWCNTs,
      (8,8), (12,3), (13,1), (9,6), (10,4), (11,2), (11,1), (9,3) and (9,2), have been
      determined upon in situ annealing at various temperatures. The data reveal that
      the nanotubes grow through fast and slow reaction pathways with high and low
      activation energies, respectively. While the activation energy of the slow growth
      is independent of the nanotube's chiral vector, that of the fast growth exhibits
      a monotonic increase as the tube diameter reduces from ~1.1 down to 0.8 nm and no
      dependency on the chiral angle, which can be attributed to the size-dependent
      properties of catalyst clusters. The chirality dependent catalytic growth
      properties exploited in this study provide the basis for a large-scale synthesis
      of single-chiral vector SWCNTs.

PMID- 28574063
TI  - Preschool children without 7-repeat DRD4 gene more likely to develop disorganized
      attachment style.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current paper aimed to explore the effects of birth weight and
      the 7-repeat allele in Exon III of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene on the
      development of disorganized attachment, a potential endophenotype of depression.
      Infants born with low birth weight have been shown to be at higher risk for later
      neurological impairments, psychological disorders or behavioural problems. The
      DRD4 gene is critical for the cognitive and emotional processes that are sub
      served by neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex. This paper examined the main
      effect of birth weight and DRD4 on the development of disorganized attachment.
      METHODS: Data was used from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and
      Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) project. The sample consisted of 251 mother-child dyads
      with complete data. Attachment style was assessed using the modified separation
      reunion procedure. RESULTS: There was no main effect for birth weight on
      disorganized attachment, (b = -0.001, p = 0.998). There was, however, a main
      effect for the DRD4 7-repeat polymorphism on disorganized attachment (b = -1.120,
      p = 0.004). LIMITATIONS: Compared to studies of similar design, the sample size
      in this study was relatively small. Additionally, a significant number of
      subjects did not have complete data. CONCLUSIONS: Children without the DRD4 7
      repeat allele were more likely to have disorganized attachment than children with
      the DRD4 7-repeat allele. This indicates that the 7-repeate allele of the DRD4
      gene may actually serve as a protective factor against disorganized attachment.

PMID- 28574068
TI  - Self-assembled Co-BaZrO3 nanocomposite thin films with ultra-fine vertically
      aligned Co nanopillars.
AB  - A simple one-step pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method has been applied to grow
      self-assembled metal-oxide nanocomposite thin films. The as-deposited Co-BaZrO3
      films show high epitaxial quality with ultra-fine vertically aligned Co
      nanopillars (diameter <5 nm) embedded in a BZO matrix. The diameter of the
      nanopillars can be further tuned by varying the deposition frequency. The metal
      and oxide phases grow separately without inter-diffusion or mixing. Taking
      advantage of this unique structure, a high saturation magnetization of ~1375 emu
      cm-3 in the Co-BaZrO3 nanocomposites has been achieved and further confirmed by
      Lorentz microscopy imaging in TEM. Furthermore, the coercivity values of this
      nanocomposite thin films range from 600 Oe (20 Hz) to 1020 Oe (2 Hz), which makes
      the nanocomposite an ideal candidate for high-density perpendicular recording
      media.

PMID- 28574069
TI  - Surface-enhanced hyper Raman hyperspectral imaging and probing in animal cells.
AB  - Hyper Raman scattering, that is, spontaneous, two-photon excited Raman
      scattering, of organic molecules becomes strong when it occurs as surface
      enhanced hyper Raman scattering (SEHRS), in the proximity of plasmonic
      nanostructures. Its advantages over one-photon excited surface-enhanced Raman
      scattering (SERS) include complementary vibrational information resulting from
      different selection rules, probing of very small focal volumes, and beneficial
      excitation with long wavelengths. Here, imaging of macrophage cells by SEHRS is
      demonstrated, using SEHRS labels consisting of silver nanoparticles and two
      different molecules, 2-naphthalenethiol and para-mercaptobenzoic acid, that are
      excited off-resonance. The vibrational signatures of the molecules are
      discriminated using hyperspectral analysis and provide information about the
      subcellular localization of the SEHRS probes. The SEHRS based hyperspectral
      imaging approach presented here uses principal component analysis (PCA) to
      localize the reporter molecules inside the cells and is augmented by hierarchical
      cluster analysis (HCA). The high sensitivity of SEHRS spectra with respect to
      small environmental changes can be utilized for mapping of physiological
      parameters in the endosomal system of the cells. This is illustrated by
      discussing the spatial distribution of endosomes of varying pH inside the
      cytosol.

PMID- 28574070
TI  - Oxalic acid as the in situ carbon monoxide generator in palladium-catalyzed
      hydroxycarbonylation of arylhalides.
AB  - An efficient palladium-catalyzed hydroxycarbonylation reaction of arylhalides
      using oxalic acid as a CO source has been developed. The reaction features high
      safety, low catalyst loading, and a broad substrate scope, and provides a safe
      and tractable approach to access a variety of aromatic carboxylic acid compounds.
      Mechanistic studies revealed the decomposition pattern of oxalic acid.

PMID- 28574067
TI  - Multi-responsive polypeptide hydrogels derived from N-carboxyanhydride
      terpolymerizations for delivery of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
AB  - A polypeptide-based hydrogel system, when prepared from a diblock polymer with a
      ternary copolypeptide as one block, exhibited thermo-, mechano- and enzyme
      responsive properties, which enabled the encapsulation of naproxen (Npx) during
      the sol-gel transition and its release in the gel state. Statistical
      terpolymerizations of l-alanine (Ala), glycine (Gly) and l-isoleucine (Ile) NCAs
      at a 1 : 1 : 1 feed ratio initiated by monomethoxy monoamino-terminated
      poly(ethylene glycol) afforded a series of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-block
      poly(l-alanine-co-glycine-co-l-isoleucine) (mPEG-b-P(A-G-I)) block polymers. beta
      Sheets were the dominant secondary structures within the polypeptide segments,
      which facilitated a heat-induced sol-to-gel transition, resulting from the
      supramolecular assembly of beta-sheets into nanofibrils. Deconstruction of the
      three-dimensional networks by mechanical force (sonication) triggered the reverse
      gel-to-sol transition. Certain enzymes could accelerate the breakdown of the
      hydrogel, as determined by in vitro gel weight loss profiles. The hydrogels were
      able to encapsulate and release Npx over 6 days, demonstrating the potential
      application of these polypeptide hydrogels as an injectable local delivery system
      for small molecule drugs.

PMID- 28574071
TI  - New selenosteroids as antiproliferative agents.
AB  - Starting from natural steroids (diosgenin, hecogenin, smilagenin, estrone), we
      have prepared a wide panel of selenoderivatives, including benzoselenazolones,
      selenosemicarbazones, isoselenocyanates, selenoureas, selenocyanates and
      diselenides, with the aim of developing new families of potential
      chemotherapeutic agents. The modification of the organoselenium moieties, and
      their position on the steroid provided valuable information concerning the
      antiproliferative activities. Among all the families accessed herein, the best
      profile was achieved for selenoureas on the A ring of estrone, which exhibited
      GI50 values in the range 2.0-4.1 MUM for all the tested tumor cell lines, with
      increased potency compared with commonly used chemotherapeutic agents, like 5
      fluorouracil and cisplatin. Cell cycle analysis revealed that selenoureas induced
      accumulation of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle in the breast cancer cell
      lines HBL-100 and T-47D; therefore, a different mechanism than cisplatin, that
      induces cell cycle accumulation in the S phase as a result of DNA damage, must be
      involved. In the rest of the tumor cells, a slight increase of the S compartment
      was observed. Moreover, selenosteoids turned out to be excellent glutathione
      peroxidase (GPx) mimics for the catalytic removal of deleterious H2O2 (t1/2 8.0
      22.5 min) and alkyl peroxides (t1/2 23.0-38.9 min) when used in substoichiometric
      amounts (1% molar ratio), thus providing a valuable tool for reducing the
      intrinsic oxidative stress in tumor progression.

PMID- 28574072
TI  - Dealloying assisted high-yield growth of surfactant-free <110> highly active Cu
      doped CeO2 nanowires for low-temperature CO oxidation.
AB  - CeO2 is widely used as a commercial CO oxidation catalyst, but it suffers from
      high-temperature (>200  degrees C) complete conversion. Despite enormous efforts
      made to promote its low-temperature activity by interfacing CuO and CeO2, it is
      still a long-standing challenge to balance the desired catalytic activity with
      high-yield preparation. Creating intimate synergistic interfaces between Cu and
      Ce species and exploring surfactant-free large-scale methods are both critical
      and challenging. To address these concerns, we synthesized highly active Cu doped
      CeO2 nanowires for low-temperature CO oxidation, relying on intentionally
      maneuvering precursor alloy compositions and a high-yield dealloying method. The
      favorable one-dimensional doping structure inherited from the nanowire bundles of
      the as-dealloyed precursors, clean surfaces and intimate synergistic effects
      between Cu and Ce contribute to excellent CO oxidation performances, with 5% room
      temperature conversion triggered at 35  degrees C and 100% conversion at 100 
      degrees C. 96% of O2 selectivity at 88  degrees C in CO preferential oxidation
      was also obtained. The long-term durability for 24 hours at 100% CO conversion
      without any decay confirms the robust characteristics of the catalysts. Moreover,
      this work offers some insights into the reasonable design of alloy precursors to
      realize property-oriented alloys to nanowires batch transformation for the study
      of industrial catalysts.

PMID- 28574073
TI  - Self-assembled artificial viral capsids bearing coiled-coils at the surface.
AB  - In order to construct artificial viral capsids bearing complementary dimeric
      coiled-coils on the surface, a beta-annulus peptide bearing a coiled-coil forming
      sequence at the C-terminus (beta-annulus-coiled-coil-B) was synthesized by a
      native chemical ligation of a beta-annulus-SBn peptide with a Cys-containing
      coiled-coil-B peptide. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the beta-annulus
      coiled-coil-B peptide self-assembled into spherical structures of about 50 nm in
      10 mM Tris-HCl buffer. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra indicated the formation of
      the complementary coiled-coil structure on the spherical assemblies. Addition of
      0.25 equivalent of the complementary coiled-coil-A peptide to the beta-annulus
      coiled-coil-B peptide showed the formation of spherical assemblies of 46 +/- 14
      nm with grains of 5 nm at the surface, whereas addition of 1 equivalent of the
      complementary coiled-coil-A peptide generated fibrous assemblies.

PMID- 28574074
TI  - Atomic scale deposition of Pt around Au nanoparticles to achieve much enhanced
      electrocatalysis of Pt.
AB  - We report an electrochemical method to deposit atomic scale Pt on a 5 nm Au
      nanoparticle (NP) surface in N2-saturated 0.5 M H2SO4. Pt is provided by the Pt
      wire counter electrode via one-step Pt wire oxidation, dissolution, and
      deposition realized by controlled electrochemical scanning. Scanning from 0.6-1.0
      V (vs. RHE) for 10 000 cycles gives Au98.2Pt1.8, which serves as an excellent
      catalyst for the formic acid oxidation reaction, showing 41 times higher specific
      activity (20.19 mA cm-2) and 25 times higher mass activity (10.80 A mgPt-1) with
      much better CO-tolerance and stability than commercial Pt. Our work demonstrates
      a unique strategy to minimize the use of Pt as a catalyst for electrochemical
      reactions.

PMID- 28574075
TI  - Insight into the epitaxial encapsulation of Pd catalysts in an oriented
      metalloporphyrin network thin film for tandem catalysis.
AB  - A palladium catalyst (Pd-Cs) encapsulated metalloporphyrin network PIZA-1 thin
      film with bifunctional properties has been developed through a modified epitaxial
      layer-by-layer encapsulation approach. Combining the oxidation activity of Pd-Cs
      and the acetalization activity of the Lewis acidic sites in the PIZA-1 thin film,
      this bifunctional catalyst of the Pd-Cs@PIZA-1 thin film exhibits a good
      catalytic activity in a one-pot tandem oxidation-acetalization reaction.
      Furthermore, the surface components can be controlled by ending the top layer
      with different precursors in the thin film preparation procedures. The catalytic
      performances of these thin films with different surface composites were studied
      under the same conditions, which showed different reaction conversions. The
      result revealed that the surface component can influence the catalytic
      performance of the thin films. This epitaxial encapsulation offers a good
      understanding of the tandem catalysis for thin film materials and provides useful
      guidance to develop new thin film materials with catalytic properties.

PMID- 28574077
TI  - Enzymatically activated reduction-caged SERS reporters for versatile bioassays.
AB  - Here we report a facile strategy for activating reduction caged Raman reporters
      for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with peroxidases. After selecting
      suitable caged reporters, versatile bioassays were developed. First, the
      bioassays for bioactive small molecules were developed. Then, the immunoassay was
      developed for C reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28574076
TI  - Bushy sphere dendrites with husk-shaped branches axially spreading out from the
      core for photo-catalytic oxidation/remediation of toxins.
AB  - This work describes densely interlinked bushy "tree-like chains" characterized by
      neatly branched sphere dendrites (bushy sphere dendrites, BSD) with long fan
      like, husk-shaped branching paths that extend longitudinally from the core axis
      of the {110}-exposed plane. We confirmed that the hierarchical dendrite surfaces
      created bowls of swirled caves along the tree-tube in the mat-like branches.
      These surfaces had high-index catalytic site facets associated with the formation
      of ridges/defects on the dominant {110}-top-cover surface. These swirled caves
      along the branches were completely filled with 50-100 nm poly-CN nano-sphere
      fossils with orb-like appearance. Such structural features are key issues of the
      inherent surface reactivity of a powerful catalyst/trapper, enabling
      photocatalytic oxidation and trapping of extremely toxic arsenite (AsO33-)
      species and photo-induced recovery of arsenate (AsO43-) products from catalyst
      surfaces. The light-induced release of produced AsO43- from BSD indicates (i)
      highly controlled waste collection/management (i.e., recovery), (ii) low cost and
      ecofriendly photo-adsorbent, (iii) selective trapping of real sample water to
      produce water-free arsenite species; (iv) multiple reuse cycles of catalysts
      (i.e., reduced waste volume). Matrixed dendrites, covered with 3D microscopic
      sphere cores that capture solar-light, trap toxins, and are triggered by light,
      were designed. These dendrites can withstand indoor and outdoor recovery of
      toxins from water sources.

PMID- 28574079
TI  - Characterization and application studies of ProxyPhos, a chemosensor for the
      detection of proximally phosphorylated peptides and proteins in aqueous
      solutions.
AB  - Proximal phosphorylation on proteins appears to have functional significance and
      has been associated with several diseases, including Alzheimer's and cancer.
      While much remains to be learned about the role of proximal phosphorylation in
      biological systems, no simple and/or affordable technique is available for its
      detection. To this end, we have previously developed a ProxyPhos chemosensor,
      which detects proximally phosphorylated peptides and proteins over mono- and non
      phosphorylated motifs in aqueous solutions. In this follow-up work, we performed
      extensive characterization of peptide and protein ProxyPhos assay conditions to
      achieve enhanced detection, and further explored the selectivity of ProxyPhos,
      and its potential off-targets. As a result of characterization studies, selective
      sensing of proximally phosphorylated over mono-phosphorylated peptides and
      proteins was achieved. Moreover, studies demonstrated that ProxyPhos was
      compatible with the detection of all commonly phosphorylated residues (i.e.
      tyrosine, serine and threonine residues). Under optimized conditions, ProxyPhos
      efficiently discriminated between peptides derived from the activated (proximally
      phosphorylated, disease-relevant) and inactive (mono-phosphorylated) forms of
      JAK2, SYK and MAPK1 kinases. In addition, ProxyPhos can be used to probe
      phosphatase activity on peptides and proteins via detecting changes in proximal
      phosphorylation, demonstrating immediate utility of this chemosensing system.

PMID- 28574080
TI  - Electro-elastocapillary Rayleigh-plateau instability in dielectric elastomer
      films.
AB  - We demonstrate, using both finite element simulations and a linear stability
      analysis, the emergence of an electro-elastocapillary Rayleigh-plateau
      instability in dielectric elastomer (DE) films under 2D, plane strain conditions.
      When subject to an electric field, the DEs exhibit a buckling instability for
      small elastocapillary numbers. For larger elastocapillary numbers, the DEs
      instead exhibit the Rayleigh-plateau instability. The stability analysis
      demonstrates the critical effect of the electric field in causing the Rayleigh
      plateau instability, which cannot be induced solely by surface tension in DE
      films. Overall, this work demonstrates the effects of geometry, boundary
      conditions, and multi-physical coupling on a new example of Rayleigh-plateau
      instability in soft solids.

PMID- 28574078
TI  - Confining the spin between two metal atoms within the carbon cage: redox-active
      metal-metal bonds in dimetallofullerenes and their stable cation radicals.
AB  - Lanthanide-lanthanide bonds are exceptionally rare, and dimetallofullerenes
      provide a unique possibility to stabilize and study these unusual bonding
      patterns. The presence of metal-metal bonds and consequences thereof for the
      electronic properties of M2@C82 (M = Sc, Er, Lu) are addressed by
      electrochemistry, electron paramagnetic resonance, SQUID magnetometry and other
      spectroscopic techniques. A simplified non-chromatographic separation procedure
      is developed for the isolation of Er2@C82 (Cs(6) and C3v(8) cage isomers) and
      Sc2@C82 (C3v(8) isomer) from fullerene mixtures. Sulfide clusterfullerenes
      Er2S@C82 with Cs(6) and C3v(8) fullerene cages are synthesized for the first
      time. The metal-metal bonding orbital of the spd hybrid character in M2@C82 is
      shown to be the highest occupied molecular orbital, which undergoes reversible
      single-electron oxidation with a metal-dependent oxidation potential. Sulfide
      clusterfullerenes with a fullerene-based HOMO have more positive oxidation
      potentials. The metal-based oxidation of Sc2@C82-C3v is confirmed by the EPR
      spectrum of the cation radical [Sc2@C82-C3v]+ generated by chemical oxidation in
      solution. The spectrum exhibits an exceptionally large a(45Sc) hyperfine coupling
      constant of 199.2 G, indicating a substantial 4s contribution to the metal-metal
      bonding orbital. The cationic salt [Er2@C82-C3v]+SbCl6- is prepared, and its
      magnetization behavior is compared to that of pristine Er2@C82-C3v and Er2S@C82
      C3v. The formation of the single-electron Er-Er bond in the cation dramatically
      changes the coupling between magnetic moments of Er ions.

PMID- 28574081
TI  - Depth-profiling of Yb3+ sensitizer ions in NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles.
AB  - Enhancing the efficiency of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and therefore
      their brightness is the critical goal for this emerging material to meet growing
      demands in many potential applications including sensing, imaging, solar energy
      conversion and photonics. The distribution of the photon sensitizer and activator
      ions that form a network of energy transfer systems within each single UCNP is
      vital for understanding and optimizing their optical properties. Here we employ
      synchrotron-based X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize the
      depth distribution of Yb3+ sensitizer ions in host NaYF4 nanoparticles and
      systematically correlate the structure with the optical properties for a range of
      UCNPs with different sizes and doping concentrations. We find a radial gradient
      distribution of Yb3+ from the core to the surface of the NaYF4 nanoparticles,
      regardless of their size or the sensitizer's concentration. Energy dispersive X
      ray Spectroscopy (EDX) was also used to further confirm the distribution of the
      sensitizer ions in the host matrix. These results have profound implications for
      the upconversion optical property variations.

PMID- 28574082
TI  - Ultrafast photocarrier dynamics related to defect states of Si1-xGex nanowires
      measured by optical pump-THz probe spectroscopy.
AB  - Slightly tapered Si1-xGex nanowires (NWs) (x = 0.29-0.84) were synthesized via a
      vapor-liquid-solid procedure using Au as a catalyst. We measured the optically
      excited carrier dynamics of Si1-xGex NWs as a function of Ge content using
      optical pump-THz probe spectroscopy. The measured -DeltaT/T0 signals of Si1-xGex
      NWs were converted into conductivity in the THz region. We developed a fitting
      formula to apply to indirect semiconductors such as Si1-xGex, which explains the
      temporal population of photo-excited carriers in the band structure and the
      relationship between the trapping time and the defect states on an ultrafast time
      scale. From the fitting results, we extracted intra- and inter-valley transition
      times and trapping times of electrons and holes of Si1-xGex NWs as a function of
      Ge content. On the basis of theoretical reports, we suggest a physical model to
      interpret the trapping times related to the species of interface defect states
      located at the oxide/NW: substoichiometric oxide states of Si(Ge)0+,1+,2+, but
      not Si(Ge)3+, could function as defect states capturing photo-excited electrons
      or holes and could determine the different trapping times of electrons and holes
      depending on negatively or neutrally charged states.

PMID- 28574083
TI  - Sulfinyl isobutyramide as an auxiliary for palladium(ii)-catalyzed C-H arylation
      and iodination of benzylamine derivatives.
AB  - A novel readily available bidentate 2-methylsulfinyl isobutyramide directing
      group has been developed for benzylamine derivatives. It promoted ortho-C-H
      arylation and iodination of various substrates in good to excellent yields. The
      auxiliary is promising to be used in organic synthesis due to its versatility and
      convenient preparation from inexpensive materials.

PMID- 28574084
TI  - Diaryliodonium salts as hydrosilylation initiators for the surface
      functionalization of silicon nanomaterials and their collaborative effect as ring
      opening polymerization initiators.
AB  - Diaryliodonium salts were found to initiate hydrosilylation reactions on the
      surface of silicon nanosheets as well as silicon nanocrystals of different sizes.
      A variety of different functional substrates can be used to stabilize the surface
      of the photoluminescent materials. Additionally, the combination of hydride
      terminated silicon nanomaterials with diaryliodonium salts was found to initiate
      cationic ring opening polymerization, demonstrating the potential of silicon
      based nanomaterials as coinitiators and enabling a mild, straightforward reaction
      method.

PMID- 28574085
TI  - Morphological effects on the selectivity of intramolecular versus intermolecular
      catalytic reaction on Au nanoparticles.
AB  - It is hard for metal nanoparticle catalysts to control the selectivity of a
      catalytic reaction in a simple process. In this work, we obtain active Au
      nanoparticle catalysts with high selectivity for the hydrogenation reaction of
      aromatic nitro compounds, by simply employing spine-like Au nanoparticles. The
      density functional theory (DFT) calculations further elucidate that the
      morphological effect on thermal selectivity control is an internal key parameter
      to modulate the nitro hydrogenation process on the surface of Au spines. These
      results show that controlled morphological effects may play an important role in
      catalysis reactions of noble metal NPs with high selectivity.

PMID- 28574091
TI  - Macrocyclic peptide inhibitors for the protein-protein interaction of Zaire Ebola
      virus protein 24 and karyopherin alpha 5.
AB  - Ebola virus infection leads to severe hemorrhagic fever in human and non-human
      primates with an average case fatality rate of 50%. To date, numerous potential
      therapies are in development, but FDA-approved drugs or vaccines are yet
      unavailable. Ebola viral protein 24 (VP24) is a multifunctional protein that
      plays critical roles in the pathogenesis of Ebola virus infection, e.g. innate
      immune suppression by blocking the interaction between KPNA and PY-STAT1. Here we
      report macrocyclic peptide inhibitors of the VP24-KPNA5 protein-protein
      interaction (PPI) by means of the RaPID (Random non-standard Peptides Integrated
      Discovery) system. These macrocyclic peptides showed remarkably high affinity to
      recombinant Zaire Ebola virus VP24 (eVP24), with a dissociation constant in the
      single digit nanomolar range, and could also successfully disrupt the eVP24-KPNA
      interaction. This work provides for the first time a chemical probe capable of
      modulating this PPI interaction and is the starting point for the development of
      unique anti-viral drugs against the Ebola virus.

PMID- 28574092
TI  - A highly controllable protein self-assembly system with morphological versatility
      induced by reengineered host-guest interactions.
AB  - Manipulating proteins to self-assemble into highly ordered nanostructures not
      only provides insights into the natural protein assembly process but also allows
      access to advanced biomaterials. Host-guest interactions have been widely used in
      the construction of artificial protein assemblies in recent years. CB[8] can
      selectively associate with two tripeptide Phe-Gly-Gly (FGG) tags with an
      extraordinarily high binding affinity (Kter = 1.5 * 1011 M-2). However, the FGG
      tags utilized before are all fixed to the N-termini via genetic fusion; this
      spatial limitation greatly confined the availability of the CB[8]/FGG pair in the
      construction of more sophisticated protein nanostructures. Here we first designed
      and synthesized a maleimide-functionalized Phe-Gly-Gly tag as a versatile site
      specific protein modification tool; this designed tag can site-selectively
      introduce desired guest moieties onto protein surfaces for host-guest driven
      protein assembly. When regulating the self-assembly process of proteins and
      CB[8], the constructed protein nanosystem can exhibit distinctive morphological
      diversities ranging from nanorings, nanospirals, nanowires to superwires. This
      work developed a new strategy for site-specific protein modification of the CB[8]
      binding tag and provides a possible direction for the construction of 'smart',
      dynamic self-assembly systems.

PMID- 28574093
TI  - In vitro degradation of polydimethylsiloxanes in breast implant applications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The durability of breast implant material is associated with failure
      probability, increasing with time from implantation. The current study avoided
      the bias introduced by biological factors, to systematically investigate the
      degradation over time of shell materials. The same fundamental physical and
      chemical conditions were maintained (temperature and pH) throughout the study, to
      decouple biological aspects from the degradation process. METHODS: Six virgin
      implants of 2 brands were submitted to the in vitro degradation process,
      mechanical testing of shell materials, surface change analysis (via scanning
      electron microscopy [SEM]) and chemical composition analysis by Fourier transform
      infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. RESULTS: FTIR results showed that the principal
      chemical bonds of the material remained intact after 12 weeks of degradation.
      Apparently the implants' shell structures remained unchanged. Despite this
      observation, there were statistically significant differences between strain at
      failure at different time points for the shells of both brands, translated into a
      stiffening of the material over time. CONCLUSIONS: Material stiffening is
      reported as an indicator of material degradation. This altered mechanical
      behavior, added to the mechanical friction from tissue-tissue and tissue-implant
      contact and to the external mechanical loading (physical activity), may alter the
      material performance in women's bodies. Ultimately these changes may affect the
      implants' durability. Further work is needed to understand the biological aspects
      of the degradation process and their impact on implant durability.

PMID- 28574094
TI  - Effect of storage medium and aging duration on mechanical properties of self
      adhesive resin-based cements.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of storage
      medium and aging duration on Martens hardness (HM) and indentation modulus (EIT)
      of self-adhesive resin-based cements (SARCs). METHODS: A total of 416 discs were
      fabricated from 8 SARCs (n = 52 per SARC): (i) BeautyCem (BEA), (ii) Bifix SE
      (BIF), (iii) Clearfil SA Cement Automix (CLE), (iv) RelyX Unicem2 Automix (RXU),
      (v) SeT (SET), (vi) SmartCem 2 (SMC), (vii) SoloCem (SOC) and (viii) SpeedCEM
      (SPC). The specimens were ground and stored in (a) physiological saliva, (b)
      artificial saliva, (c) sodium chloride and (d) distilled water, at 37 degrees C
      for 1, 7, 14, 28, 90 and 180 days. Non-aged specimens (3 hours after photo
      initiation) of each SARC acted as control groups. HM and EIT were assessed using
      a universal hardness testing machine. Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov
      and Kruskal-Wallis tests and paired t-test, and 3-, 2- and 1-way ANOVA with post
      hoc Scheffe test (p<0.05). RESULTS: SARC materials exerted the highest influence
      on HM and EIT values (p<0.001, partial eta squared [etaP2] = 0.753 and 0.433,
      respectively), closely followed by aging duration (p<0.001, etaP2 = 0.516 and
      0.255) and storage medium (p<0.001, etaP2 = 0.043 and 0.033). The interaction
      effect of the combinations of the 3 independent parameters was also significant
      (p<0.001, etaP2 = 0.163 and 0.133). The lowest initial HM and EIT was presented
      by CLE, followed by SET and SPC; highest HM was for BIF, followed by RXU and SMC.
      SET gave a greater HM and EIT percentage decrease than SOC, SPC, BEA, SMC, RXU or
      CLE. CONCLUSIONS: Aging duration is a major factor affecting the micromechanical
      properties of SARCs, while storage medium was shown to have a significant but
      minor role.

PMID- 28574095
TI  - Characterization of an improved 1-3 piezoelectric composite by simulation and
      experiment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To increase electromechanical coupling factor of 1-3 piezoelectric
      composite and reduce its bending deformation under external stress, an improved 1
      3 piezoelectric composite is developed. In the improved structure, both epoxy
      resin and silicone rubber are used as polymer material. METHODS: The simulation
      model of the improved 1-3 piezoelectric composite was established using the
      finite element software ANSYS. The relationship of the performance of the
      improved composite to the volume percentage of silicone rubber was determined by
      harmonic response analysis and the bending deformation under external stress was
      simulated by static analysis. The improved composite samples were prepared by
      cutting and filling methods, and the performance was tested. RESULTS: The
      feasibility of the improved structure was verified by finite element simulation
      and experiment. The electromechanical coupling factor of the improved composite
      can reach 0.67 and meanwhile the characteristic impedance can decline to 13
      MRayl. The electromechanical coupling factor of the improved composite is higher
      than that of the composite with only epoxy resin as the polymer and the improved
      composite can reduce bending deformation. DISCUSSION: Comparison of simulation
      and experiment, the results of the experiment are in general agreement with those
      from the simulation. However, most experimental values were higher than the
      simulation results, and the abnormality of the test results was also more obvious
      than that of the simulation. These findings may be attributed to slight
      difference in the material parameters of simulation and experiment.

PMID- 28574096
TI  - Model reference adaptive control based on kp model for magnetically controlled
      shape memory alloy actuators.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Magnetically controlled shape memory alloy (MSMA) actuators take
      advantages of their large deformation and high controllability. However, the
      intricate hysteresis nonlinearity often results in low positioning accuracy and
      slow actuator response. METHODS: In this paper, a modified Krasnosel'skii
      Pokrovskii model was adopted to describe the complicated hysteresis phenomenon in
      the MSMA actuators. Adaptive recursive algorithm was employed to identify the
      density parameters of the adopted model. Subsequently, to further eliminate the
      hysteresis nonlinearity and improve the positioning accuracy, the model reference
      adaptive control method was proposed to optimize the model and inverse model
      compensation. RESULTS: The simulation experiments show that the model reference
      adaptive control adopted in the paper significantly improves the control
      precision of the actuators, with a maximum tracking error of 0.0072 mm.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results prove that the model reference adaptive control method
      is efficient to eliminate hysteresis nonlinearity and achieves a higher
      positioning accuracy of the MSMA actuators.

PMID- 28574097
TI  - Functionalized biomimetic calcium phosphates for bone tissue repair.
AB  - The design and development of novel materials for biomineralized tissues is an
      extremely attractive field of research where calcium phosphates (CaPs)-based
      materials for biomedical applications play a leading role. The biological
      performance of these compounds can be enhanced through functionalization with
      biologically active ions and molecules. This review reports on some important
      recent achievements in creating functionalized biomimetic CaP materials for
      applications in the musculoskeletal field. Particular attention is focused on the
      modifications of these inorganic compounds with bioactive ions, growth factors
      and drugs, as well as on recent trends in some important CaP applications as
      biomaterials - namely, as bone cements, coatings of metallic implants and
      scaffolds for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28574098
TI  - Physicochemical characterization of a dental eggshell powder abrasive material.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine the physicochemical characteristics of
      an eggshell-based dental abrasive material. METHODS: The eggshell powder abrasive
      material (EPAM) was synthesized by ball milling eggshell powder and surfactants.
      Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD),
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and a laser diffraction particle size
      analyzer (PSA) were used to characterize EPAM. In addition, the abrasive
      characteristics of EPAM were evaluated by comparison using poly(methyl
      methacrylate) (PMMA) resins. Surface roughness (Ra) was measured using a
      profilometer. RESULTS: The FTIR spectroscopy and XRD analysis confirmed that the
      carbonate product was primarily calcite (97.3%) with traces of graphite 2H (1.3%)
      and thenardite (1.4%). The TEM imagery revealed irregular particles in EPAM. The
      PSA analysis of the particle size distribution showed EPAM to be a superfine
      powder (0.3 um to 50 nm). In addition, the 50-nm EPAM (Ra = 0.04 um) measured the
      lowest Ra value when compared with pumice (Ra = 0.08 um). CONCLUSIONS: The
      salient features of this study indicate that EPAM can naturally replace calcite,
      which is generally mined and used as a dental abrasive material. In addition, and
      regarding the abrasive characteristics of EPAM in reducing the surface roughness
      of PMMA resin specimens, this study conclusively showed that EPAM effectively
      reduces the surface roughness below the threshold limit value of 0.2 um.
      Potentially, EPAM could reduce waste disposal problems while enabling an economic
      benefit from using eggshell waste material.

PMID- 28574099
TI  - Chemical modification of bagasse-based mesoporous carbons for chromium(III) ion
      adsorption.
AB  - AIMS: Modified bagasse-based mesoporous carbons were prepared for the efficient
      chromium(III) ion adsorption and removal from aqueous solutions. METHODS:
      Mesoporous carbons were prepared from bagasse with H3PO4 activation and
      subsequently oxidized with nitric acid and modified with ethylenediamine.
      RESULTS: The results showed that the modified carbon was rich in mesopores,
      oxygen and nitrogen-containing groups, and the Cr(III) adsorption capacity was
      greatly improved after modification, which was found to be higher than both
      pristine and oxidized carbons. The Cr(III) adsorption capacity on modified carbon
      was significantly influenced by the solution pH, and the optimum pH was 6 with
      the maximum Cr(III) adsorption capacity up to 24.61mg/g, which was almost 3 times
      higher than that for pristine carbon. Thermodynamic results manifested the
      adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic. Kinetic rates fitted the pseudo
      second-order model very well. XPS study indicated the amino group was a key
      factor of the high efficient adsorption.

PMID- 28574100
TI  - First-principles calculation of adsorption of shale gas on CaCO3 (100) surfaces.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To demonstrate the adsorption strength of shale gas to calcium
      carbonate in shale matrix, the adsorption of shale gas on CaCO3 (100) surfaces
      was studied using the first-principles method, which is based on the density
      functional theory (DFT). METHODS: The structures and electronic properties of
      CH4, C2H6, CO2 and N2 molecules were calculated by the generalized gradient
      approximation (GGA), for a coverage of 1 monolayer (ML). Under the same
      conditions, the density of states (DOS) of CaCO3 (100) surfaces before and after
      the adsorption of shale gas molecules at high-symmetry adsorption sites were
      compared. RESULTS: The results showed that the adsorption energies of CH4, C2H6,
      CO2 and N2 on CaCO3 (100) surfaces were between 0.2683 eV and -0.7388 eV. When a
      CH4 molecule was adsorbed at a hollow site and its 2 hydrogen atoms were parallel
      to the long diagonal (H3) on the CaCO3 (100) surface, it had the most stable
      adsorption, and the adsorption energy was only -0.4160 eV. The change of
      adsorption energy of CH4 was no more than 0.0535 eV. Compared with the DOS
      distribution of CH4 before adsorption, it shifted to the left overall after
      adsorption. At the same time, the partial density of states (PDOS) curves of
      CaCO3 (100) surfaces before and after adsorption basically overlapped.
      CONCLUSIONS: This work showed that the adsorption effect of shale gas on calcium
      carbonate is very weak, and the adsorption is physisorption at the molecular
      level.

PMID- 28574101
TI  - Bone response to porous alumina implants coated with bioactive materials,
      observed using different characterization techniques.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implants or implantable devices should integrate into the host tissue
      faster than fibrous capsule formation, in which the design of the interface is
      one of the biggest challenges. Generally, bioactive materials are not viable for
      load-bearing applications, so inert biomaterials are proposed. However, the
      surface must be modified through techniques such as coating with bioactive
      materials, roughness and sized pores. The aim of this research was to validate an
      approach for the evaluation of the tissue growth on implants of porous alumina
      coated with bioactive materials. METHODS: Porous alumina implants were coated
      with 45S5 Bioglass(r) (BG) and hydroxyapatite (HA) and implanted in rat tibiae
      for a period of 28 days. Ex vivo resections were performed to analyze
      osseointegration, along with histological analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy
      with Energy Dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) line scanning, radiography
      and biomechanical testing. RESULTS: Given that the process of implant integration
      needs with the bone tissue to be accelerated, it was then seen that BG acted to
      start the rapid integration, and HA acted to sustaining the process. CONCLUSIONS:
      Inert materials coated with bioglass and HA present a potential for application
      as bone substitutes, preferably with pores of diameters between 100 MUm and 400
      MUm and, restrict for smaller than 100 MUm, because it prevents pores without
      organized tissue formation or vacant. Designed as functional gradient material,
      stand out for applications in bone tissue under load, where, being the porous
      surface responsible for the osseointegration and the inner material to bear and
      to transmit the loads.

PMID- 28574102
TI  - A clinician's artificial organ? Instant messaging applications in medical care.
AB  - After the development of the first phone at the end of 19th century,
      communication technologies took a great leap forward in the 20th century. With
      the birth of the "smartphone" in the 21st century, communication technologies
      exponentially evolved and became an important part of our daily routine.
      Effective communications between clinicians is critical in medical care and
      miscommunications are a source of errors. Although telecommunication technologies
      have proliferated dramatically in the last decade, there is scarce evidence-based
      information on the use of this technology in medical care. For the purposes of
      medical communication, we can now consult each other about patients individually
      and within a group via instant messaging applications by using text messages,
      photos, audio messages and even videos. In this review, we examine the uses and
      drawbacks of instant messaging applications in medical communications.

PMID- 28574103
TI  - A microscopic view of gaseous microbubbles passing a filter screen.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the filtration efficacy of a 38
      um 1-layer screen filter based on Doppler registrations and video recordings of
      gaseous microbubbles (GME) observed in a microscope. METHODS: The relative
      filtration efficacy (RFE) was calculated from 20 (n = 20) sequential bursts of
      air introduced into the Plasmodex(r) primed test circuit. RESULTS: The main
      findings indicate that the RFE decreased (p = 0.00), with increasing flow rates
      (100-300 mL/min) through the filter screen. This reaction was most accentuated
      for GME below the size of 100 um, where counts of GME paradoxically increased
      after filtration, indicating GME fragmentation. For GME sized between 100-250 um,
      the RFE was constantly >60%, independently of the flow rate level. The video
      recording documenting the GME interactions with the screen filter confirmed the
      experimental findings. CONCLUSIONS: The 38-um 1-layer screen filter investigated
      in this experimental setup was unable to trap gaseous microbubbles effectively,
      especially for GME below 100 um in size and in conjunction with high flow rates.

PMID- 28574104
TI  - ECMO and cytokine removal for bridging to surgery in a patient with ischemic
      ventricular septal defect - a case report.
AB  - Even in the modern era of percutaneous coronary intervention, postinfarction
      ventricular septal defect (VSD) remains a serious and often lethal complication.
      Whether or not immediate surgical repair or delaying surgery a few days aided by
      intra-aortic counterpulsation provides the optimal strategy remains a matter of
      debate. An interdisciplinary approach of intensivists and cardiac surgeons in
      this setting is mandatory. We report the use of veno-arterial extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation and extracorporeal blood purification therapy (CytoSorb(r))
      as bridging to surgical closure in a patient with an ischemic VSD leading to
      protracted cardiogenic shock after posterior myocardial infarction.

PMID- 28574105
TI  - Development of a prolonged warm ex vivo perfusion model for kidneys donated after
      cardiac death.
AB  - PURPOSE: Ex vivo perfusion of marginal kidney grafts offers the chance to expand
      the donor pool, but there is no current clinical standard for the prolonged warm
      perfusion of renal grafts. This exploratory pilot study seeks to identify a
      stable ex vivo kidney perfusion model that can support low intravascular
      resistance and preserve histologic architecture in a porcine donation after
      cardiac death (DCD) model. METHODS: 15 kidneys were preserved in 1 of 3 settings:
      normothermic whole blood (NT-WB), normothermic Steen SolutionTM (XVIVO Perfusion)
      with whole blood (NT-Steen/WB), or subnormothermic Steen SolutionTM at 21 degrees
      C (SNT-Steen). Kidneys were primarily assessed using hemodynamic parameters and
      histologic analysis. RESULTS: NT-WB perfusion resulted in high vascular
      resistance and glomerular necrosis. NT-Steen/WB and SNT-Steen resistance ranged
      between 0.18-0.45 mmHg/mL per minute and 0.25-0.53 mmHg/mL per minute,
      respectively, enabling stable perfusion for up to 24 hours. NT-Steen/WB
      demonstrated tubular and glomerular necrosis, while the histologic architecture
      of SNT-Steen was preserved with the exception of numerous proteinaceous casts.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that ex vivo kidney perfusion with Steen
      SolutionTM at 21 degrees C supports low and stable vascular resistance and
      provides adequate histologic preservation during 24-hour perfusion.

PMID- 28574106
TI  - Biostable scaffolds of polyacrylate polymers implanted in the articular cartilage
      induce hyaline-like cartilage regeneration in rabbits.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the influence of scaffold properties on the organization of in
      vivo cartilage regeneration. Our hypothesis was that stress transmission to the
      cells seeded inside the pores of the scaffold or surrounding it, which is highly
      dependent on the scaffold properties, determines the differentiation of both
      mesenchymal cells and dedifferentiated autologous chondrocytes. METHODS: 4 series
      of porous scaffolds made of different polyacrylate polymers, previously seeded
      with cultured rabbit chondrocytes or without cells, were implanted in cartilage
      defects in rabbits. Subchondral bone was injured during the surgery to allow
      blood to reach the implantation site and fill the scaffold pores. RESULTS: At 3
      months after implantation, excellent tissue regeneration was obtained, with a
      well-organized layer of hyaline-like cartilage at the condylar surface in most
      cases of the hydrophobic or slightly hydrophilic series. The most hydrophilic
      material induced the poorest regeneration. However, no statistically significant
      difference was observed between preseeded and non-preseeded scaffolds. All of the
      materials used were biocompatible, biostable polymers, so, in contrast to some
      other studies, our results were not perturbed by possible effects attributable to
      material degradation products or to the loss of scaffold mechanical properties
      over time due to degradation. CONCLUSIONS: Cartilage regeneration depends mainly
      on the properties of the scaffold, such as stiffness and hydrophilicity, whereas
      little difference was observed between preseeded and non-preseeded scaffolds.

PMID- 28574108
TI  - Comparative in vivo analysis of the role of the adventitia and the endothelium on
      arterial mechanical function: relevance for aortic counterpulsation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The comparative effect of the intimal and adventitial layers on arterial
      biomechanics control, in basal and altered conditions, remains to be elucidated.
      This study aimed (1) to characterize the arterial conduit (CF) and buffering
      (distensibility) function of the iliac arteries in in vivo animals, in which the
      intimal and adventitial layers were removed; (2) to determine the effects of
      intra-aortic ballon pumping (IABP) on simultaneously de-adventitialized (DA) and
      de-endothelialized (DE) iliac arteries before and after induced heart failure.
      METHODS: Pressure and diameter signals were measured in the iliac arteries of
      sheep (n = 7) in which the adventitial and intima layer were removed. Intra
      aortic balloon pump (IABP) assistance was used in a control state and after heart
      failure induction. RESULTS: Both DE and DA determined significant changes in
      arterial diameter, distensibility and CF. Changes were higher after DA than after
      DE in terms of distensibility and CF (p<0.05). DA followed by DE (DA + DE) showed
      significant increases in arterial diameter and CF, accompanied by a decrease in
      distensibility (p<0.05) with respect to intact arteries. Heart failure induction
      caused significant hemodynamic changes without modifying the already impaired
      local biomechanical parameters. Nonsignificant improvements in the biomechanical
      parameters of DA + DE iliac arteries were observed during IABP before and after
      heart failure induction. CONCLUSIONS: Biomechanical changes caused by DA of iliac
      arteries were more important than those observed after DE. The DA + DE arteries
      showed significant differences with respect to intact arteries and with DA or DE
      arteries. IABP-related effects on arterial mechanics were absent in DA + DE
      arteries.

PMID- 28574107
TI  - Continuous renal replacement therapy: forty-year anniversary.
AB  - In 1977 Peter Kramer performed the first CAVH (continuous arteriovenous
      hemofiltration) treatment in Gottingen, Germany. CAVH soon became a reliable
      alternative to hemo- or peritoneal dialysis in critically ill patients. The
      limitations of CAVH spurred new research and the discovery of new treatments such
      as CVVH and CVVHD (continuous veno-venous hemofiltration and continuous veno
      venous hemodialysis). The alliance with industry led to development of new
      specialized equipment with improved accuracy and performance in delivering
      continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRTs). Machines and filters have
      progressively undergone a series of technological steps, reaching a high level of
      sophistication. The evolution of technology has continued, leading to the
      development and clinical application of new membranes, new techniques and new
      treatment modalities. With the progress of technology, the entire field of
      critical care nephrology moved forward, expanding the areas of application of
      extracorporeal therapies to cardiac, liver and pulmonary support. A great deal of
      research made extracorporeal therapies an interesting option for the treatment of
      sepsis and intoxication and the additional use of sorbents was explored. With the
      progress in understanding the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury (AKI), new
      guidelines were developed, driving indications, modalities of prescription,
      monitoring techniques and quality assurance programs. Information technology and
      precision medicine have recently contributed to further evolution of CRRT, with
      the possibility of collecting data in large databases and evaluating policies and
      practice patterns. This is likely to ultimately result in improved patient care.
      CRRTs are 40 years old today, but they are still young and full of potential for
      further evolution.

PMID- 28574109
TI  - A new approach combining venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and
      CRRT for adults: a retrospective study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess a new approach combining venoarterial (VA)
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and continuous renal replacement
      therapy (CRRT) in adults, while monitoring CRRT circuit pressures. METHODS: The
      inlet and outlet of the CRRT circuit were connected to preoxygenator port and
      postoxygenator port, respectively. Then, complications and CRRT circuit pressures
      were evaluated. RESULTS: 7 patients underwent combined VA-ECMO and CRRT; 16
      filters were used. CRRT blood flow ranged from 150 to 200 mL/min; the CRRT to
      ECMO blood flow ratio was <0.1. The CRRT pressures at treatment initiation were
      normal. No complications were reported. CONCLUSIONS: This approach combining VA
      ECMO and CRRT in adults did not compromise the accuracy of pressure monitoring
      systems for CRRT circuit function, and caused no complications. Hence, it may be
      a feasible method for performing combined VA-ECMO and CRRT in adults.

PMID- 28574110
TI  - Closed-loop helium circulation system for actuation of a continuously operating
      heart catheter pump.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently available, pneumatic-based medical devices are operated
      using closed-loop pulsatile or open continuous systems. Medical devices utilizing
      gases with a low atomic number in a continuous closed loop stream have not been
      documented to date. This work presents the construction of a portable helium
      circulation addressing the need for actuating a novel, pneumatically operated
      catheter pump. The design of its control system puts emphasis on the performance,
      safety and low running cost of the catheter pump. METHODS AND RESULTS: Static and
      dynamic characteristics of individual elements in the circulation are analyzed to
      ensure a proper operation of the system. The pneumatic circulation maximizes the
      working range of the drive unit inside the catheter pump while reducing the total
      size and noise production.Separate flow and pressure controllers position the
      turbine's working point into the stable region of the pressure creation element.
      A subsystem for rapid gas evacuation significantly decreases the duration of
      helium removal after a leak, reaching subatmospheric pressure in the
      intracorporeal catheter within several milliseconds. CONCLUSIONS: The system
      presented in the study offers an easy control of helium mass flow while ensuring
      stable behavior of its internal components.

PMID- 28574111
TI  - Isolation, characterization and cold storage of cells isolated from diseased
      explanted livers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Livers discarded after standard organ retrieval are commonly used
      as a cell source for hepatocyte transplantation. Due to the scarcity of organ
      donors, this leads to a shortage of suitable cells for transplantation. Here, the
      isolation of liver cells from diseased livers removed during liver
      transplantation is studied and compared to the isolation of cells from liver
      specimens obtained during partial liver resection. METHODS: Hepatocytes from 20
      diseased explanted livers (Ex-group) were isolated, cultured and stored at 4
      degrees C for up to 48 hours, and compared to hepatocytes isolated from the
      normal liver tissue of 14 liver lobe resections (Rx-group). The nonparenchymal
      cell fraction (NPC) was analyzed by flow cytometry to identify potential liver
      progenitor cells, and OptiPrepTM (Sigma-Aldrich) density gradient centrifugation
      was used to enrich the progenitor cells for immediate transplantation. RESULTS:
      There were no differences in viability, cell integrity and metabolic activity in
      cell culture and survival after cold storage when comparing the hepatocytes from
      the Rx-group and the Ex-group. In some cases, the latter group showed tendencies
      of increased resistance to isolation and storage procedures. The NPC of the Ex
      group livers contained considerably more EpCAM+ and significantly more CD90+
      cells than the Rx-group. Progenitor cell enrichment was not sufficient for
      clinical application. CONCLUSIONS: Hepatocytes isolated from diseased explanted
      livers showed the essential characteristics of being adequate for cell
      transplantation. Increased numbers of liver progenitor cells can be isolated from
      diseased explanted livers. These results support the feasibility of using
      diseased explanted livers as a cell source for liver cell transplantation.

PMID- 28574112
TI  - Evaluation of color changes of dental luting materials in food colorant
      solutions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the color stability and
      water absorption of 3 commercially available resin cements in vitro by storing
      them in 0.15% erythrosine, dark brown and sunset yellow for 30 days. METHODS: 2
      self-adhesive resin cements and 1 dual/light curing, resin-based dental luting
      material were evaluated (total 120 samples). The CIE L, a, b of 10 mm diameter
      2.0 mm height disk shaped samples was measured using a spectrophotometer for
      color stability on a white background, 10 mm diameter-1.0 mm height disk shaped
      samples were measured for water absorption before and after storage in food
      colorant solutions. RESULTS: The self-adhesive resin cement-sunset yellow group
      caused the most severe discoloration (27.89 +/- 3.64) that is clinically
      unacceptable. The lowest discoloration was seen in the self-adhesive resin cement
      control group (3.35 +/- 1.13). The highest water absorption was observed in the
      self-adhesive resin cement-dark brown group (2.41 +/- 0.60) and the lowest water
      absorption in the dental luting material-control group (0.65 +/- 0.17).
      CONCLUSIONS: Storage food colorant solutions affected the color stability and
      water absorption of different resin cement materials.

PMID- 28574113
TI  - Medium cut-off membranes - closer to the natural kidney removal function.

PMID- 28574115
TI  - A comparative study of cone-beam computed tomography and periapical radiographs
      in decision-making after endodontic instrument fractures.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the diagnostic efficacies of periapical
      radiographs (PRs) and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans on clinicians'
      decision-making in diagnosing and providing treatment of fractured instruments in
      root canals during glide path preparation. METHODS: 40 maxillary molar teeth were
      selected and randomly divided into 4 groups. In each experimental group (n = 10),
      Hedstroem stainless steel instruments were fractured in mesiobuccal (MB) or
      distobuccal (DB) root canals. In group 1 (#0.06), group 2 (#0.08), group 3
      (#0.10), and group 4 (#0.15), instruments were forced to fracture. PRs and CBCT
      scans were evaluated and compared. Observers were asked to use the following
      scoring system to decide whether to: 1. remove the fragment; 2. leave the
      fragment in situ; 3. bypass the fragment; or 4. use a surgical approach for
      removing the fragment. RESULTS: CBCT observers mostly decided on removing and
      bypassing the fractured fragment, while radiograph observers mostly decided to
      leave fragments in situ. However, there was no significant difference between
      these parameters when CBCT scans were compared to PRs for decision-making of the
      fractured instruments (p>=0.05) regarding different sizes of root canal
      instruments. CONCLUSIONS: In decision-making regarding fractured instruments
      during glide path preparation, clinicians should strategize treatment options
      based on variables using high-resolution images that reflect accurate scenarios
      through PRs or CBCT scans that also take into account low radiation dosage in
      situ PRs have precedence for a diagnostic approach.

PMID- 28574114
TI  - Venlafaxine intoxication with development of takotsubo cardiomyopathy: successful
      use of extracorporeal life support, intravenous lipid emulsion and CytoSorb(r).
AB  - We describe a young patient who ingested 18 g (240 times the daily therapeutic
      dose) of venlafaxine in a suicide attempt. She developed severe cardiomyopathy in
      a takotsubo distribution causing cardiogenic shock and multi-organ dysfunction
      syndrome (MODS). She was successfully treated with intravenous lipid emulsion
      (ILE), extracorporeal life support (ECLS) and CytoSorb(r). This is remarkable as,
      to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the highest amount of venlafaxine
      intake seen in the literature with a nonfatal outcome.

PMID- 28574116
TI  - The influence of acetabular morphology on prediction of proximal femur fractures
      types in an elderly population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The role of proximal femur morphology to the development of certain
      proximal femur fracture types both femoral neck and trochanteric fractures has
      been observed. However, the relavance of acetabular morphology to the development
      of proximal femur fractures is not extensively questioned. Therefore the aim of
      the study was to determine whether there is a correlation between acetabular
      morphology and pathogenesis of 2 different hip fracture types after low energy
      trauma. METHODS: This retrospective study includes 60 cases (41 women, 19 men)
      with a proximal femoral fracture after a low energy trauma between July 2012 and
      December 2014. Acetabular depth and acetabular index were measured on pelvic
      radiographs. Neck shaft angle, hip axis length and cortical index were measured
      on pelvic computed tomography scans. All measurements were performed on the
      contralateral hip. RESULTS: Mean age was 77.56 +/- 8.99 years (range 61-92
      years). No statistically significant difference was found with regard to neck
      shaft angle, acetabular depth or cortical index measurements between patients
      with femoral neck fracture and patients with trochanteric femoral fractures
      (p>0.05). Acetabular index measurement was higher (p = 0.001) and hip axis length
      measurement was lower (p = 0.001) in trochanteric fracture group as compared to
      femoral neck fracture. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of trochanteric femur fractures is
      higher in patients with high acetabular index, whereas the rate of femoral neck
      fractures is higher in patients with increased hip axis length.

PMID- 28574117
TI  - Combined anteversion technique in total hip arthroplasty for Crowe IV
      developmental dysplasia of the hip.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A high rate of postoperative dislocation in total hip arthroplasty
      (THA) for Crowe IV developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) has been reported, 1
      of the main reasons being higher true acetabular anteversion. If the cup is fixed
      with normal anteversion, the anterior rim will be excessively exposed, which
      reduces the contact areas of the cup and bone, affects prosthesis stability, and
      leads to iliopsoas tendinitis and persistent hip pain after THA. The aim of this
      study was to demonstrate that when cup anteversion is larger, adjusting femoral
      anteversion to bring the combined anteversion (CA) into the "safe zone" might
      prevent dislocation. METHODS: After having fixed the cup in the acetabulum
      according to the patients' native acetabular anteversion, we shortened and
      rotated the proximal femur to reduce femoral anteversion, adjusting the CA into
      the "safe zone". The Harris Hip Score (HHS) was used to evaluate hip joint
      function. Computerised tomography scanning was used to measure the anteversion
      angles. RESULTS: All patients were followed up without any dislocation.
      Preoperative and 12 months after surgery, the mean HHS were 43.3 +/- 2.6 (38-47)
      and 88.1 +/- 3.3 (78-92) respectively. Pre- and post-operation, the mean CA
      angles were 88.6 degrees  +/- 9.4 degrees  (80.3 degrees -119.4 degrees ) and
      49.2 degrees  +/- 2.6 degrees  (43.4 degrees -54.4 degrees ) respectively. The
      bone healing time of femoral osteotomy ranged from 4 to 14 months, with a mean
      time of 7.5 months. CONCLUSIONS: This CA technique in THA for Crowe IV DDH can
      effectively prevent postoperative dislocation and provide good hip function.

PMID- 28574118
TI  - Wear of XLPE liner against zirconium heads in cementless total hip arthroplasty
      for patients under 40 years of age.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) in the young is challenging. The
      purpose of this study was to retrospectively determine the clinical,
      radiographic, and polyethylene wear rate of relatively young patients. METHODS:
      We evaluated the outcome of consecutive patients receiving primary THA who were
      under 40 years of age with a minimum 10-year follow-up. Indications for THA in
      these patients were osteoarthritis due to developmental dysplasia of the hip
      joint (9 hips), osteonecrosis of the femoral head (7 hips), juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis (2 hips), and osteoarthritis due to Perthes disease (1 hip). All THA
      were performed with a cross-linked ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene
      (XLPE) liner against zirconium heads with cementless implants. RESULTS: The
      average Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip score significantly improved from 42
      to 93 points at the latest follow-up. The mean steady wear was 0.015 mm/year
      (maximum 0.033 mm/year), and the mean creep wear was 0.111 mm (maximum 0.4 mm).
      Osteolysis was observed around 1 acetabular component and 2 stems. 1 femoral
      component had subsidence over 5 mm. All of the femoral components achieved
      fixation with an optimal interface with spot welds at the latest follow-up.
      Stress shielding was observed in all hips. CONCLUSIONS: THA using an XLPE liner
      against zirconium heads appeared to have improved THA longevity. However, the
      imaging findings in some cases were suggestive of wear debris. A rigorous
      continual follow-up is required for relatively young patients undergoing THA.

PMID- 28574119
TI  - Imaging of impingement syndromes around the hip joint.
AB  - Impingement syndromes are increasingly recognised as significant causes of hip
      pain and dysfunction. A broad spectrum of intraarticular and extraarticular
      conditions has been implicated in their pathophysiology. Physical examination is
      often inconclusive as clinical findings may be unclear or misleading, often
      simulating other disorders. With current improvements in imaging techniques and
      better understanding of hip impingement related pathomechanisms, these entities
      can be accurately diagnosed. In addition, preoperative imaging has allowed for
      targeted treatment planning. This article provides an overview of the various
      types of hip impingement, including femoroacetabular impingement, ischiofemoral
      impingement, snapping hip syndrome, greater trochanteric-pelvic and subspine
      impingement. Current literature data regarding their pathogenesis, clinical
      manifestation and imaging work-up are discussed.

PMID- 28574121
TI  - Long-term results of total hip arthroplasty with the CementLess Spotorno (CLS)
      system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study presents the long-term results of the Cementless Spotorno
      (CLS) total hip arthroplasty system and an analysis of factors associated with
      clinical and radiographic outcome. METHODS: We studied a series of 120
      consecutive CLS arthroplasties in a young patient group (mean age at surgery:
      55.9 +/- 5.9 years). The Merle d'Aubigne-Postel score, polyethylene (PE) wear,
      and radiographic status were recorded during follow-up. Survival analyses,
      repeated-measures analysis of variance, and a nested case-control study were used
      for statistical evaluation. RESULTS: After a mean follow-up of 14.6 years (range
      0.1-24.2 years, including revisions and lost to follow-up), 24 revisions had been
      performed, 16 of which for aseptic cup loosening. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis
      showed a 24-year survival of 72.8% (95% CI, 63.0%-82.6%) with revision for any
      reason as endpoint, and 80.1% (95% CI, 70.9%-89.3%) for revision for aseptic cup
      loosening. Mean final Merle d'Aubigne-Postel score was 16.1 points (range 7-18).
      Mean PE wear at final follow-up was 2.3 mm (range 0.6-6.8 mm). A higher rate of
      PE wear was associated with better clinical scores but also with revision for cup
      loosening. Factors associated with more PE wear were: younger age at surgery; 32 
      mm head; longer follow-up; and steeper inclination angle. CONCLUSIONS: Beyond 10
      years, the CLS stem is reliable, but the high revision rate for aseptic cup
      loosening is concerning, specifically with better performing (cementless)
      alternatives available.

PMID- 28574120
TI  - MRI of the hip: current concepts on bone marrow oedema.
AB  - Bone marrow oedema (BME) is commonly found in hip MR imaging. BME is a
      nonspecific finding which can be related to a wide variety of diseases. However,
      there are cases where its existence or its pattern can narrow the differential or
      even point to a specific diagnosis. Therefore, deep understanding of its
      pathophysiology is of utmost importance for clinicians and radiologists in order
      to avoid diagnostic pitfalls. We hereby present currently established knowledge
      on BME related to adult hip pathology, aiming to raise physicians' suspicion and
      to highlight that it is mandatory to combine specific imaging patterns with the
      history, clinical and laboratory findings in order to achieve accurate diagnosis.

PMID- 28574122
TI  - A retained stitch in time saves 9 - but does it increase the risk of deep
      prosthetic infection?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: During the posterior approach to the hip, the short external
      rotators are detached and secured with stay sutures. At the time of definitive
      closure, some surgeons incorporate the initial sutures into their repair while
      others discard for fresh sutures, presumably as an infection prevention measure.
      We have conducted a pilot study to investigate whether the incorporation of the
      primary stay sutures may constitute an infection risk to the patient undergoing a
      total hip replacement through the posterior approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      pilot study was conducted between August 2014 and June 2015. A pair of suture
      specimens were sent from 25 patients to microbiology, 1 set of primary stay
      sutures and 1 set of control sutures. All operations were carried out by the
      senior author through a posterior approach. RESULTS: All specimens were analysed
      for bacterial and fungal growth, using extended cultures. 1 set of primary
      sutures had a positive growth, likely from skin contamination; 1 set of control
      sutures also had a positive growth, likely from environmental contamination.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study suggests that the practice of incorporating the
      primary stay sutures for definitive soft tissue repair of the short external
      rotators, rather than exchanging them for new sutures, can be deemed safe.

PMID- 28574123
TI  - Orthogonal plating of Vancouver B1 and C-type periprosthetic femur fracture
      nonunions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Periprosthetic femoral shaft fractures are a significant complication
      after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Plate osteosynthesis has been the mainstay of
      treatment around well-fixed stems. Nonunions are a rare and challenging
      complication of this fixation method. We report the outcomes of a novel
      orthogonal plating surgical technique for Vancouver B1 and C-type periprosthetic
      fractures that previously failed open reduction internal fixation (ORIF).
      METHODS: A retrospective review identified all patients with Vancouver B1/C THA
      periprosthetic femoral nonunions from 2010 to 2015. Exclusion criteria included
      open fractures and periprosthetic infections. The technique utilised a
      mechanobiologic strategy of atraumatic exposure, resection of necrotic tissue,
      bone grafting with adjuvant bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and revision open
      reduction internal fixation with orthogonal plate osteosynthesis. RESULTS: 6
      Vancouver B1/C periprosthetic femoral nonunions were treated. 5 patients were
      female with an average age of 80.3 years (range 72-91 years). The fractures
      occurred at a mean of 5.8 years (range 1-10 years) from their initial
      arthroplasty procedure. No patients underwent further revision surgery; there
      were no perioperative complications. All patients had a minimum of 11 months
      follow-up (mean 18.6, range 11-36 months). All fractures achieved osseous union,
      defined as solid bridging callus over at least 2 cortices and pain free,
      independent ambulation, at an average of 24.4 weeks (range 6.1-39.7 weeks).
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the 1st series describing orthogonal locked compression
      plating using modern implants for periprosthetic femoral nonunions. This
      technique should be considered in periprosthetic femur fracture nonunions around
      a well-fixed stem.

PMID- 28574124
TI  - Total hip arthroplasty in young patients with post-traumatic arthritis of the
      hip.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic arthritis of the hip is a degenerative condition that
      commonly affects young patients. In this study, we evaluate long-term implant
      survival and patient-reported outcomes after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      in patients aged 35 or younger with post-traumatic arthritis of the hip. METHODS:
      We conducted a retrospective study with follow-up. A chart review was performed
      to identify young patients with post-traumatic arthritis of the hip treated with
      primary THA. Follow-up surveys were conducted to determine implant survival and
      patient-reported outcomes. Implant survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier
      survival analysis, and patient outcomes were determined using the hip disability
      and osteoarthritis outcome score (HOOS). RESULTS: We studied 42 patients (44
      THAs) with a mean time to follow-up of 14 years. The 10-year implant survival
      rate was 87% and 20-year implant survival rate was 41%. Implant survival did not
      differ based on patient age, gender, implant type, bearing surface, or use of
      cement for implant fixation (p>0.05). The mean HOOS scores at follow-up were 87
      for pain, 85 for symptoms, 89 for ADLs, and 76 for sports. HOOS scores were
      significantly worse in patients that had undergone revision THA (p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Young patients with post-traumatic arthritis of the hip have good
      long-term outcomes after THA. However, revision THA is predictive of worse long
      term outcomes.

PMID- 28574125
TI  - Risk factors for mid-term revision surgery in patients with articular surface
      replacement total hip arthroplasty.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study assessed the associations between gender and implant
      survival, as well as adverse local tissue reaction (ALTR), in patients with
      articular surface replacement (ASR) XL total hip arthroplasty (THA). Secondly, we
      sought to report the differences between genders in metal ion levels and patient
      reported outcome measures (PROMs) in these patients. METHODS: 563 unilateral ASR
      XL THA patients were enrolled in a multicentre follow-up study at a mean of 6.4
      years after index surgery. All patients had blood metal ion levels and PROMs
      obtained annually, and a valid anteroposterior pelvis radiograph. A sub-set of
      patients from a single centre had annual MRI performed and were analysed for the
      presence of moderate-to-severe ALTR. RESULTS: 60 hips (11%) were revised during
      the study period. The only variables found to be associated with revision surgery
      in patients with unilateral THA were VAS pain (hazard ratio [HR], 1.35; p<0.001)
      and elevated cobalt metal ion levels (HR, 1.05; p<0.001). No variables assessed
      were found to be associated with prevalence of ALTR. Chromium concentrations were
      greater in female patients than males, while cobalt levels were similar between
      genders. Males reported higher HHS, EQ-5D and UCLA scores than females.
      CONCLUSIONS: Both males and females with metal-on-metal THA implants should be
      followed with equal vigilance as gender does not appear to be associated with
      poor outcomes, such as revision surgery and presence of ALTR.

PMID- 28574126
TI  - Radiographic outcomes of cable-plate versus cable-grip fixation in periprosthetic
      fractures of the proximal femur.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Newer generation cable-plate designs are commonly used for
      periprosthetic proximal femur fractures; however, comparisons relative to cable
      grips remain limited. The aim of this study was to compare radiographic healing
      rates of cable-plate versus cable-grip fixation for periprosthetic proximal femur
      fractures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Consecutive patients with an acute or chronic
      Vancouver A, B1, or B2 periprosthetic proximal femur fracture undergoing
      trochanteric fixation with a cable-plate (n = 46 cases) or cable-grip (n = 24
      cases) system were identified retrospectively from a single-centre hospital
      database (mean follow-up 28 months [range 6-89 months]). Demographics,
      radiographic fracture healing, and complications were compared between the 2
      groups. Radiographic union rates were not different between the cable-grip versus
      cable-plate group (67% vs. 76% respectively; p = 0.4). Healing rates of greater
      trochanteric fractures alone were not different between the cable-plate versus
      cable-grip groups (75% vs. 71% respectively; p = 0.38). The cable-plates were
      used for a more diverse range of fracture patterns relative to the cable-grips.
      RESULTS: An increased number of cables was associated with radiographic healing
      (odds ratio 14 [95% confidence interval 2-64]; p = 0.01), and body mass index had
      a negative correlation with radiographic healing (odds ratio -0.4 [95% confidence
      interval 0.5-0.9]. CONCLUSIONS: Similar rates of periprosthetic fracture healing
      were seen using a cable-grip versus cable-plate system; however, the cable-plate
      system could be used for a more diverse range of fracture patterns.

PMID- 28574127
TI  - Influence of cigarette smoking on osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH): a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current studies demonstrate controversy regarding the relationship
      between cigarette smoking and osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). METHODS:
      We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between smoking and
      ONFH. Relevant articles published before September 2016 were identified by a
      systematic search of EMBASE and MEDLINE via Ovid. Summary odds ratios (OR) were
      calculated using random effects models, and study quality was assessed using a
      modified Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: 102 citations were screened and 7 case
      control studies were identified and included in the review. When compared with
      nonsmokers, current smokers had a higher risk of developing ONFH (OR 2.53; 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.68-3.79), as did former smokers (OR 1.82; 95% CI, 1.10
      3.00). Within the group of current smokers, those classified as heavy smokers
      (with a daily number >20 cigarettes/day) demonstrated higher risks of ONFH (OR
      2.03; 95% CI, 1.29-3.19), and light smokers classified as smoking <20
      cigarettes/day, also demonstrated a higher risk of ONFH when compared with
      nonsmokers (OR 1.73; 95% CI, 1.06-2.83). When smoking was classified by pack
      years, heavy smokers (>20 pack-years) were at a higher risk of ONFH (OR 2.26; 95%
      CI, 1.24-4.13), but no significant difference in risk was identified in light
      smokers (<20 pack-years) (OR 1.81; 95% CI, 0.88-3.71) when compared with
      nonsmokers. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis showed that current smokers were at a
      higher risk of ONFH, this high risk can also be found in former smokers. And
      heavy cigarette smoking showed a higher risk of ONFH than light smoking.

PMID- 28574128
TI  - Does gender influence how patients rate their patient experience after total hip
      arthroplasty?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient satisfaction, as measured by Press Ganey (PG) surveys,
      partially determines reimbursement rates. Knowing what influences these scores
      can lead to higher reimbursement for total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgeons.
      Currently, it is unknown whether gender biases exist in satisfaction surveys post
      THA. Therefore, we asked: (i) which PG survey factors most influence hospital
      ratings among men and women after THA; and (ii) is there a difference in survey
      element responses and overall hospital ratings between men and women post-THA?
      METHODS: We queried the PG database for patients who underwent THA from November
      2009 to January 2015, which yielded 692 patients (277 men, 415 women). Weighted
      means were analysed for the scores of PG domains between men and women. A
      multiple regression analysis was performed for each gender, with overall hospital
      satisfaction as the dependent variable, in order to assess the influence (beta
      weight) of each PG domain. RESULTS: For men, pain management (beta = 0.317, p =
      0.021) most influenced overall hospital rating. For women, staff responsiveness
      (beta = 0.451, p<0.001) most influenced overall hospital rating. This was
      followed by communication with nurses (beta = 0.373, p<0.001), and doctors (beta
      = 0.236, p = 0.002). There were no significant differences in mean overall
      hospital rating between groups. CONCLUSIONS: It is advantageous for orthopaedic
      surgeons to focus on the PG domains most pertinent to each patient gender post
      THA. Focusing efforts based on gender may allow for better patient satisfaction,
      optimised reimbursements, and improved hospital ratings.

PMID- 28574129
TI  - Smoking in Italy in 2015-2016: prevalence, trends, roll-your-own cigarettes, and
      attitudes towards incoming regulations.
AB  - PURPOSE: In 2016, a series of selective tobacco regulations, which did not affect
      tobacco price, came into force in Italy. To understand how Italians accepted the
      new norms, we analyzed data from our 2 most recent surveys among those we
      annually conduct on tobacco. METHODS: In 2015 and 2016, we conducted 2
      representative cross-sectional studies focused on the new forthcoming tobacco
      legislation on a total sample of 6,046 Italians aged >=15 years. RESULTS:
      Overall, 21.4% of Italians (26.0% of men and 17.2% of women) were current
      smokers, showing a small but significant decrease in smoking prevalence since
      2007 (p for trend = 0.004). No change in smoking prevalence was observed over the
      last decade among the young (i.e., 15-24 years; 20.1% in 2015-2016). Roll-your
      own cigarettes were the most frequent tobacco product for 8.3% of adult smokers
      and 19.7% of young smokers. According to the attitudes of Italians towards the
      new regulations, 91.3% supported the smoking ban in cars in presence of minors,
      90.2% a more stringent enforcement of the tobacco sales-to-minors regulation,
      74.3% the introduction of shocking pictorial images on tobacco packs, and 63.2%
      the removal from the market of small cigarette packs, usually purchased by the
      young. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking prevalence only marginally decreased over the last
      decade among adults, but did not decrease among the young. Roll-your-own tobacco
      is increasingly used by adults and young people. Before the entrance of the new
      norms, Italians largely supported them, particularly those targeting children.

PMID- 28574131
TI  - Surprising complete response of intramedullary spinal cord metastasis from breast
      cancer: a case report and literature review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Intramedullary spinal cord metastases (ISCM) are considered rare but
      their incidence is rising. Most ISCM cases are recognized to occur in patients
      with stage IV lung cancer or breast cancer (BC). METHODS: We report a rare case
      of cervical BC-ISCM in 60-year-old woman, documented by magnetic resonance
      imaging and positron emission tomography-computed tomography and treated with
      volumetric modulated arc therapy with daily image-guided radiation therapy
      (VMAT/IGRT). RESULTS: An unexpected clinical and radiologic complete response in
      absence of neurologic side effects was recorded 4 months after VMAT/IGRT.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present case report shows the feasibility of advanced RT and its
      optimal response in a case of ISCM from BC. Despite the short follow-up, in
      comparison with available literature data concerning the management of BC-ISCM,
      we found an early complete response, in contrast with other reported experiences.

PMID- 28574130
TI  - HPV-related vulvar diseases and perspectives of p16INK4a immunochemistry: a
      review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Two different types of vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN), HPV
      related and HPV-unrelated, should be considered as two separate entities with
      different management options. The incidence of HPV-related VIN is increasing
      worldwide and is implicated in carcinogenesis. Our objective is to investigate
      the use of p16INK4a immunostaining or p16INK4a/p53 double staining for the
      detection of HPV-related disease to overcome the problem that histological
      criteria often have significant overlap. METHODS: A systematic literature search
      was carried out in the online databases PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library,
      Clincaltrials.gov and Scopus. The key search terms were HPV, VIN, p16INK4a
      immunochemistry and p53. RESULTS: We found that nuclear and cytoplasmic
      immunostaining for p16INK4a was intense and diffuse in HPV-associated lesions and
      weak and focal in normal vulvar epithelium, nondysplastic lesions, lichen
      sclerosus and keratinizing vulvar squamous cell carcinoma. p53 nuclear
      immunostaining was always negative in HPV-related disease. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings indicated that p16INK4a or p16INK4a/p53 immunoreactivity, along with
      histological diagnosis, could be a convenient means to adequately classify VIN
      and its connection to HPV infection. Therefore, the clear recognition of HPV
      associated VIN would lead to an appropriate strategy of treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28574132
TI  - miRNA-650 exerts anti-leukemia activity by inhibiting cell proliferation through
      Gfi1 targeting.
AB  - BACKGROUND:: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common malignancy of the
      bone marrow with a high mortality. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing
      have led to the identification of various miRNAs implicated in the pathogenesis
      of AML. We found in this study that miR-650, a miRNA that was traditionally
      considered to participate in the onset of hepatocellular carcinoma, might play a
      significant role in AML development and progression. METHODS:: qRT-PCR was used
      to detect the expression of miR-650 and Gfi1 in AML patients and healthy
      controls. Next, a luciferase assay was conducted to verify the target effect of
      miR-650 on Gfi1. Moreover, the CCK-8 assay was performed to evaluate the effect
      of miR-650 on the proliferation of AML cells in the presence and absence of Gfi1.
      RESULTS:: miR-650 was downregulated in AML whereas Gfi1 was upregulated. miR-650
      could negatively regulate Gfi1 via direct targeting of its 3'-UTR, which was
      confirmed by luciferase assay. In addition, overexpression of miR-650 reduced
      cell proliferation in K562 cells, whereas an increase in cell proliferation was
      observed when K562 cells were transfected with miR-650 inhibitor, which was
      compromised in response to the knockdown of Gfi1. CONCLUSIONS:: Our research
      demonstrated that miR-650 modulates cell proliferation in AML through affecting
      the expression of Gfi1, which occurs by direct target action.

PMID- 28574133
TI  - Technical feasibility of isolated Bowman layer graft preparation by femtosecond
      laser: a pilot study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the technical feasibility of isolated Bowman layer (BL)
      graft preparation by femtosecond laser (FSL) and to compare the ultrastructural
      morphology to manually dissected grafts. METHODS: Five whole globes were placed
      in custom-made eye holders and debrided of epithelium. After programming a
      dissection depth of 20 MUm, the FSL was docked into position and 5 isolated BL
      grafts were created. From 5 additional globes, corneoscleral buttons were
      procured, mounted in artificial anterior chambers, and stripped of BL via the
      previously described manual technique. Three specimens from both series were
      randomly selected and assigned to transmission electron microscopy for
      ultrastructural evaluation and thickness measurements. RESULTS: All dissections
      were uneventful and 10 total grafts were produced: 5 by FSL and 5 by manual
      dissection. Mean graft thickness was 37 (+/-8.6) MUm (n = 3) for the FSL group
      and 11.7 (+/-1.6) MUm (n = 3) for the manually dissected group. Transmission
      electron microscopy revealed a thick but relatively smooth posterior cut edge in
      the FSL group, versus a virtually isolated BL with irregular rests of dispersed
      stroma in the manually dissected group. CONCLUSIONS: Femtosecond laser may have
      potential for harvesting intact BL and with a smooth posterior surface, but
      accompanied by variable amounts of anterior stroma owing to technical
      limitations.

PMID- 28574134
TI  - Assessing visual function behind cataract: preoperative predictive value of the
      Heine Lambda 100 retinometer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the accuracy of the Lambda 100 (Heine) potential visual
      acuity (VA) measurements in subjects undergoing cataract surgery. METHODS: The
      medical records of all consecutive patients who underwent clear corneal incision
      phacoemulsification cataract surgery by a single surgeon between 2010 and 2012 at
      the Department of Ophthalmology, Hadassah Medical Center, a tertiary care
      hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, were reviewed. Subjects age 18 or older with a
      follow-up time of at least 30 days were included. Subjects with previous ocular
      comorbidities other than glaucoma were excluded. In addition, patients with
      intraoperative or perioperative complications that could affect final VA were
      excluded. Analyses were performed to analyze the accuracy of preoperative
      retinometer potential VA as a predictor of postoperative best-corrected VA.
      RESULTS: A total of 374 operated eyes were included. There was a moderate
      positive correlation between Lambda estimated VA potential and postoperative
      achieved best-corrected VA (BCVA) (beta coefficient 0.35, p<0.0001). Overall
      Lambda accurately (within 2 Snellen lines) estimated postoperative BCVA results
      in 60% of cases. The accuracy of prediction was significantly better in moderate
      cataracts when compared with advanced cataracts (p<0.01) with a twofold tendency
      towards underestimation in advanced cataracts. A Lambda >=0.5 decimal has a
      calculated positive predictive value of 82% and a negative predictive value of
      40% for predicting postoperative BCVA outcome >=0.5 decimal. CONCLUSIONS: Lambda
      may be used to relatively accurately predict postoperative BCVA in cataract
      patients, specifically in those with moderate cataracts.

PMID- 28574135
TI  - Patient-centered and visual quality outcomes of premium cataract surgery: a
      systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Over 8 million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States and
      the European Union annually, with many patients choosing to pay out of pocket for
      premium options including premium intraocular lens implants (IOLs) or laser
      assisted cataract surgery (LACS). This report provides a systematic review
      evaluating patient-centered and visual quality outcomes comparing standard
      monofocal IOLs to premium cataract surgery options. METHODS: PubMed and EMBASE
      were searched for publications published between January 1, 1980, and September
      18, 2016, on multifocal, accommodative, and toric IOLs, monovision, and LACS,
      which reported on 1) dysphotopsias, 2) contrast sensitivity, 3) spectacle
      independence, 4) vision-related quality of life or patient satisfaction, and 5)
      IOL exchange. RESULTS: Multifocal lenses achieved higher rates of spectacle
      independence compared to monofocal lenses but also had higher reported frequency
      of dysphotopsia and worse contrast sensitivity, especially with low light or
      glare. Accommodative lenses were not associated with reduced contrast sensitivity
      or more dysphotopsia but had only modest improvements in spectacle independence
      compared to monofocal lenses. Studies of monovision did not target a sufficiently
      myopic outcome in the near-vision eye to achieve the full potential for spectacle
      independence. Patients reported high levels of overall satisfaction regardless of
      implanted IOL. No studies correlated patient-reported outcomes with patient
      expectations. CONCLUSIONS: Studies are needed to thoroughly compare patient
      reported outcomes with concomitant patient expectations. In light of the
      substantial patient costs for premium options, patients and their surgeons will
      benefit from a better understanding of which surgical options best meet patients'
      expectations and how those expectations can be impacted by premium versus
      monofocal-including monovision-options.

PMID- 28574136
TI  - Total retinal detachment caused by a KIF11 mutation.
AB  - PURPOSE: This is a case report of bilateral retinal detachment associated with
      KIF11 mutation. METHODS: In our university hospital, an 8-week-old patient
      presented with a potential bilateral congenital cataract, iris atrophy, and
      iridocorneal contact in the left eye. An examination revealed microcephaly and
      edema of the dorsa of the feet. The eye examination showed a clear lens in both
      eyes with a dislodged anterior chamber in the left eye with vessels drawn from
      the iris to the lens. A retrolental white bilateral mass with vessels was also
      observed. The MRI and the ultrasound revealed a potential peritoneal hyperplastic
      glass body. Bilateral retinal detachment was diagnosed during surgery. RESULTS:
      Due to the external appearance of the eyes (microcephaly and edema) and the
      bilateral retinal detachments, a test for KIF11 mutations was requested, and the
      results were positive. CONCLUSIONS: There is a known association between KIF11
      mutation and chorioretinopathy. The bilateral retinal detachment in the present
      case study has not been previously reported in the literature.

PMID- 28574137
TI  - Iris reconstruction using artificial iris prosthesis for management of aniridia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To discuss the limitations and benefits of the BrightOcular prosthetic
      artificial iris device in management of aniridia associated with aphakia or
      cataract. METHODS: This is a retrospective study including 5 eyes of 4 patients
      who underwent implantation of the BrightOcular iris prosthesis (Stellar Devices)
      for total or partial aniridia. The cases included 2 eyes of 1 patient with
      congenital aniridia associated with congenital cataract and 3 eyes with traumatic
      aniridia: 1 with subluxated cataractous lens and 2 with aphakia. In all cases,
      the iris prosthesis was implanted after a 3-piece acrylic intraocular lens was
      implanted. We evaluated the clinical course with a minimum follow-up period of 6
      months, the intraoperative and postoperative complications, and the cosmetic
      satisfaction of patients. RESULTS: All patients had improved uncorrected distance
      visual acuity and best-corrected distance visual acuity. All patients had a
      transient corneal edema that resolved within the first postoperative week. Only
      the patient with congenital aniridia had a permanent increase in intraocular
      pressure and developed a band keratopathy throughout a 2-year follow-up period.
      The prosthesis was well-centered in all eyes except for one case that required
      scleral suture fixation after 3 months. All patients had a satisfactory cosmetic
      appearance. CONCLUSIONS: BrightOcular iris prosthesis is a safe and useful tool
      to correct aniridia associated with pseudophakia or aphakia. Being foldable, it
      is easy to be implanted through a small incision and placed in the ciliary sulcus
      without sutures when properly sized. Cosmetic results are satisfactory. Sizing
      methods should be improved.

PMID- 28574138
TI  - Detection of nonexudative choroidal neovascularization secondary to angioid
      streaks using optical coherence tomography angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To present a case of nonexudative choroidal neovascularization secondary
      to angioid streaks in a patient with pseudoxanthoma elasticum. The lesion was
      monitored over an 8-month period with the use of optical coherence tomography
      angiography. METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: The neovascular tissue area increased
      by 0.160 mm2 over a period of 8 months without any sign of exudation seen on
      optical coherence tomography or fluorescein angiography. CONCLUSIONS: To our
      knowledge, this is the first report of a nonexudative choroidal
      neovascularization secondary to angioid streaks. Given that once a patient with
      angioid streaks develops choroidal neovascularization in one eye there is a high
      risk of bilateral involvement within a short amount of time, optical coherence
      tomography angiography can prove a useful tool for monitoring such lesions over
      time.

PMID- 28574140
TI  - Hybrid 20/23-G pars plana vitrectomy in endophthalmitis and trauma: a strategic
      approach.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the safety and efficacy of hybrid vitreous surgery combining
      active 23-G ports with a sutured 20-G 6-mm infusion cannula for performing
      vitrectomy in endophthalmitis and trauma. METHODS: This is a retrospective
      analysis of 10 eyes with endophthalmitis and 10 eyes with trauma requiring
      vitreous surgery, having corneal clarity suitable for vitrectomy and best
      corrected visual acuity (BCVA) greater than or equal to light perception. All
      patients underwent hybrid 20/23-G vitrectomy. Intraoperative notes were analyzed
      for peroperative complications. The BCVA and retinal status at 3 months were
      analyzed. RESULTS: In the endophthalmitis group, patients ranged from 5 to 85
      years of age and showed varied etiologies. Retinal detachment was present in 5
      eyes, which received silicone oil tamponade. Mean preoperative logMAR visual
      acuity (VA) was 2.29 +/- 0.45, which improved to 1.10 +/- 0.72 at 3 months
      postoperatively (p<0.001). Trauma cases ranged from 21 to 75 years of age.
      Retinal detachment was present in 9 out of 10 eyes, all of which received
      silicone oil tamponade. Preoperative logMAR VA was 2.26 +/- 0.71, which improved
      to 1.33 +/- 0.50 postoperatively (p<0.001). At 3 months postsurgery, the retina
      was attached in all eyes in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The longer sutured 20-G
      cannula was easier to visualize through fibrin, exudates, and hemorrhage and did
      not slip out or enter the suprachoroidal space in any of our cases. The 23-G
      active ports and vitrectomy cutter enhanced safety and efficacy. Hybrid
      vitrectomy enabled safe surgery in these difficult cases.

PMID- 28574139
TI  - Visual outcomes following Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty
      for corneal endothelial dysfunction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess objective and subjective visual outcomes achieved by
      patients with corneal endothelial dysfunction who have undergone surgical
      treatment with Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK).
      METHODS: A total of 40 eyes of 36 patients with corneal endothelial dysfunction
      underwent DSAEK. All were followed up for 1 year. Visual acuity (VA; logMAR),
      mean endothelial cell density (MCD; via noncontact specular microscopy), and
      topography assessment were performed at baseline (preoperatively). Visual acuity
      and topography measurement were repeated at postoperative year 1. Subjective
      assessment of visual quality was evaluated using the National Eye Institute
      Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ). RESULTS: Preoperative best-corrected VA
      (BCVA) was 1.29 +/- 0.53 logMAR with mean optical correction of -0.33 +/- 1.74 D.
      Postoperative BCVA, assessed after a mean of 10.8 +/- 2.1 months, showed mean
      line gain of 7.11 +/- 4.8 logMAR, with optical correction of +1.17 +/- 1.54 D.
      Mean 6-month postoperative pachymetry was 598.2 +/- 72.3 um. Three patients
      experienced premature graft detachment, requiring repositioning via injection of
      a sterile air bubble. No other adverse events were observed. Significant
      improvement (p<.05 for all) in general, near, and far vision, ocular pain,
      difficulty in carrying out daily tasks, dependency, social life, and mental
      health were reflected by NEI-VFQ scores at 10.4 +/- 2.1 months postoperatively
      versus preoperatively. No significant correlation was noted between postoperative
      VA line gain and NEI-VFQ-25 questionnaire score (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Descemet
      stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty treatment may restore corneal
      clarity, improve VA, and increase vision-related quality of life in patients with
      advanced endothelial dysfunction. Further large-scale study is needed to
      corroborate these findings.

PMID- 28574141
TI  - Totally implantable venous access devices in children with medical complexity:
      preliminary data from a tertiary care hospital.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Children with special health-care needs are an emerging and
      consistent population. In a subset of children with medical complexity (CMC) a
      continuous access to the central vascular system is advisable to eliminate
      unnecessary pain and stress and to improve home management and palliative care.
      METHODS: The surgical registry of a tertiary hospital was checked in order to
      identify CMC who underwent totally implantable venous access device (VAD)
      placement. Medical records were reviewed. RESULTS: From October 2009 to August
      2014, a totally implantable VAD was placed in 10 children. Seven out of 10
      patients were affected by cerebral palsy while 3 presented a genetic syndrome.
      The median duration of the indwelling catheter was 31 months (range 5 to 77
      months). Six catheters are still in place since the first placement. Infectious
      complications were observed in two patients, respectively, a Candida albicans and
      a Staphylococcus aureus colonization; in both cases the VAD was removed. In
      another two cases, removal was planned for reservoir dislodgment within the
      subcutaneous tissue. No other major complications were observed during the
      procedure and the follow-up period. Emergency admissions decreased from a median
      value of 0.4/month (range 0-1.5/month) to 0.2/month (range 0-0.6/month) after the
      VAD placement. CONCLUSIONS: A totally implanted VAD in CMC is safe and
      manageable. As expected, infection seems to be the major complication with no
      infection-related death. Malnutrition and musculoskeletal deformities, which are
      frequent comorbidities in CMC, should be considered to reduce the risk of
      dislodgment/migration.

PMID- 28574142
TI  - Ultrasound Vector Flow Imaging - could be a new tool in evaluation of
      arteriovenous fistulas for hemodialysis?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We report the use of a new ultrasound technique to evaluate the
      axial and lateral components of a complex flow in the arteriovenous fistula
      (AVF). Vector Flow Imaging (VFI) allows to identify different components of the
      flow in every direction, even orthogonal to the flow streamline, represented by
      many single vectors. VFI could help to identify flow alterations in AVF, probably
      responsible for its malfunction. METHODS: From February to June 2016, 14
      consecutive patients with upper-limb AVF were examined with a Resona 7 (Mindray,
      Shenzhen, China) ultrasound scanner equipped with VFI. An analysis of mean
      velocity, angular direction and mean number of vectors impacting the vessel wall
      was carried out. We also identified main flow patterns present in the arterial
      side, into the venous aneurysm and in correspondence of significant stenosis.
      RESULTS: A disturbed flow with the presence of vectors directed against the
      vessel walls was found in 9/14 patients (64.28%): in correspondence of the iuxta
      anastomotic venous side (4/9; 44.4%), into the venous aneurysmal tracts (3/9;
      33.3%) and in concomitance of stenosis (2/9; 22.2%). The mean velocity of the
      vectors was around 20-25 cm/s, except in presence of stenosis, where the
      velocities were much higher (45-50 cm/s). The vectors directed against the vessel
      walls presented high angle attack (from 45 degrees  to 90 degrees , with a median
      angular deviation 65 degrees ). CONCLUSIONS: VFI was confirmed to be an
      innovative and intuitive imaging technology to study the flow complexity in the
      arteriovenous fistulas.

PMID- 28574143
TI  - Multicentre experience with ZSI 375 artificial urinary sphincter for the
      treatment of stress urinary incontinence in men.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the
      artificial urinary sphincter ZSI 375 device in male patients with stress urinary
      incontinence (SUI) at 10 centres. METHODS: This was a retrospective,
      nonrandomised, multicentre study. From January 2012 to December 2014, and follow
      up to February 2016, men with SUI were treated with the ZSI 375 device. The
      primary outcome was continence. The secondary outcome was complications rate.
      RESULTS: A total of 147 patients with moderate-to-severe stress incontinence and
      mean age of 70.67 (26-85) years underwent implantation of the ZSI 375 device at
      10 centres.The most common indication for placement was incontinence after
      radical prostatectomy (121 patients: 82.31%). The ZSI 375 device was considered
      successful in 86.40% of cases after 12 months follow-up, 83.52% after 24 months
      follow-up and 78.26% after 36 months follow-up. The infection rate was 6.12%,
      urethral erosion was 12.92% and mechanical failure was limited to 3.40% leading
      to ZSI 375 improvement. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed safety and efficacy of
      ZSI 375 device to treat moderate-to-severe SUI in men.

PMID- 28574145
TI  - Human epididymis: structural pattern, total length and inner surface area.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The organ epididymis is secured the name considering it functioned
      as an appendix to the testis; earlier testis was called as didymi. Regarding the
      length of human epididymis, several values are attributed by different authors.
      The present study was aimed to find out the pattern, total length and inner
      surface area of human epididymis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted
      by employing microsurgical procedures on five testes from unclaimed human dead
      bodies. RESULTS: Caput was formed by few tubes interconnecting at three levels.
      These tubes led to corpus, which in turn was having more number of tubes
      interconnecting at different levels. Tubules were many looking like a mesh.
      United tubes of corpus form the single tube to form cauda. Epididymis length was
      30.48 cm. Inner surface area was 818.16 mm2. CONCLUSIONS: Reported values of
      others seem to be a modified version from that of animals. Authors believe that
      organic revolutionary changes in man led to a reduction in the length of
      epididymis.

PMID- 28574144
TI  - Robot-assisted nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy using near-infrared
      fluorescence technology and indocyanine green: initial experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Indocyanine green (ICG) is a fluorescent molecule that provokes
      detectable photon emission. The use of ICG with near-infrared (NIR) imaging
      system (Akorn, Lake Forest, IL) has been described during robotic partial
      nephrectomy (RAPN) as an adjunctive means of identifying renal artery and
      parenchymal perfusion. We propose the use of the ICG with NIR fluorescence during
      laparoscopic robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), to identify the
      benchmark artery improving the preservation of neurovascular bundle and to
      improve the visualization of the vascularization and then the hemostasis.
      METHODS: From April 2015 to February 2016, 62 patients underwent to RARP in our
      Urology Unit. In 26 consecutive patients, in the attempt to have a better
      visualization of neurovascular bundles, we used to inject ICG during the
      procedure. We evaluated the percentage of identification of neurovascular bundles
      using NIR fluorescence. Then, we evaluated complications related to injection of
      ICG and operative time differences between RARP with and without ICG injection
      performed by the same surgeons. RESULTS: We identified prostatic arteries and
      neurovascular bundles using NIR fluorescence technology in all patients (100%).
      There was not any increase in the operative time compared with RARP without ICG
      injection performed by the same surgeons. Complications related to injection of
      ICG did not occurred. CONCLUSIONS: In our experience, even if on a limited number
      of patients, the application of ICG with NIR fluorescence during RARP is helpful
      to identify the benchmark artery of neurovascular bundle.

PMID- 28574146
TI  - Niemann-Pick type C as a cause of progressive intellectual and neurological
      deterioration in childhood.
AB  - AIM: To describe the cases of Niemann-Pick type C (NP-C) disease in a United
      Kingdom epidemiological study of progressive intellectual and neurological
      deterioration in childhood. METHOD: Paediatricians notified cases via the British
      Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 1997 and 2015. RESULTS: Fifty-three NP-C
      patients were identified: 29 females, 24 males. Fifteen cases had a systemic
      presentation (neonatal jaundice and/or hepatosplenomegaly). Thirty-eight had a
      neurological onset, the commonest presenting symptom being gait
      disturbance/ataxia (29 cases, 76%). Forty-nine cases eventually had neurological
      problems, the commonest were school/cognitive difficulties (40, 82%), seizures
      (33, 67%), dysphagia (20, 41%), dysarthria (18, 37%), cataplexy (17, 35%), and
      visual deterioration (8, 16%); their commonest abnormal physical signs were
      vertical supranuclear gaze palsy (35, 71%), hypotonia (19, 39%) and
      hepatosplenomegaly (19, 39%). The median diagnostic delay in the 38 neurological
      onset cases was 3 years (range 0.3-12.8). Confirmatory investigations included
      filipin staining of skin fibroblasts (42 cases), bone marrow examination in 30
      (the last in 2011), and increasingly DNA studies, mutations in NP-C1 being found
      in 20 cases. INTERPRETATION: NP-C should be considered in children with
      progressive neurological deterioration. Subtle neurological problems combined
      with a history of prolonged neonatal jaundice and/or hepatosplenomegaly may
      provide early evidence of the disease.

PMID- 28574149
TI  - Measurement of UV Emission from a Diffusing Optical Fiber Using Radiochromic
      Film.
AB  - Analysis of the emission pattern from optical diffuser tips is vital to their
      usage in biomedical applications, especially as they find growing functionality
      beyond established phototherapy techniques. The use of ultraviolet radiation with
      diffuser tips increases the need to accurately characterize these devices, both
      for effective application and to avoid potentially dangerous exposure conditions.
      This study presents a new method to capture the diffusion pattern at a high
      resolution through the use of radiochromic film. The film is positioned in a
      cylinder around the diffuser, light is emitted from the diffuser onto the film
      and the film expresses a color change relative to the exposure amount. The
      resulting emission map shows the distribution of power from the diffuser in all
      direction. This method, which is both quick and inexpensive, generates high
      resolution data much simpler than previously published works which required
      precise goniometric positioning.

PMID- 28574150
TI  - Reporting quality of case reports in international dermatology journals.

PMID- 28574148
TI  - How do leaf and ecosystem measures of water-use efficiency compare?
AB  - The terrestrial carbon and water cycles are intimately linked: the carbon cycle
      is driven by photosynthesis, while the water balance is dominated by
      transpiration, and both fluxes are controlled by plant stomatal conductance. The
      ratio between these fluxes, the plant water-use efficiency (WUE), is a useful
      indicator of vegetation function. WUE can be estimated using several techniques,
      including leaf gas exchange, stable isotope discrimination, and eddy covariance.
      Here we compare global compilations of data for each of these three techniques.
      We show that patterns of variation in WUE across plant functional types (PFTs)
      are not consistent among the three datasets. Key discrepancies include the
      following: leaf-scale data indicate differences between needleleaf and broadleaf
      forests, but ecosystem-scale data do not; leaf-scale data indicate differences
      between C3 and C4 species, whereas at ecosystem scale there is a difference
      between C3 and C4 crops but not grasslands; and isotope-based estimates of WUE
      are higher than estimates based on gas exchange for most PFTs. Our study
      quantifies the uncertainty associated with different methods of measuring WUE,
      indicates potential for bias when using WUE measures to parameterize or validate
      models, and indicates key research directions needed to reconcile alternative
      measures of WUE.

PMID- 28574151
TI  - Prey-driven control of predator assemblages: zooplankton abundance drives aquatic
      beetle colonization.
AB  - Trophic interactions are critical determinants of community structure and
      ecosystem function. In freshwater habitats, top predators are traditionally
      viewed as drivers of ecosystem structure, shaping populations of consumers and
      primary producers. The temporary nature of small water bodies makes them
      dependent on colonization by many organisms, particularly insects that form
      highly diverse predator assemblages. We conducted mesocosm experiments with
      naturally colonizing populations of aquatic beetles to assess how prey
      (zooplankton) abundances influenced colonization and assemblages of natural
      populations of aquatic beetles. We experimentally demonstrate that zooplankton
      populations can be proximate regulators of predator populations and assemblages
      via prey-density-dependent predator recruitment. Our results provide support for
      the importance of prey populations in structuring predator populations and the
      role of habitat selection in structuring communities. We indicate that
      traditional views of predators as drivers of ecosystem structure in many systems
      may not provide a comprehensive picture, particularly in the context of highly
      disturbed or ephemeral habitats.

PMID- 28574147
TI  - The p21-activated kinase 1 (Pak1) signalling pathway in cardiac disease: from
      mechanistic study to therapeutic exploration.
AB  - : p21-activated kinase 1 (Pak1) is a member of the highly conserved family of
      serine/threonine protein kinases regulated by Ras-related small G-proteins,
      Cdc42/Rac1. It has been previously demonstrated to be involved in cardiac
      protection. Based on recent studies, this review provides an overview of the role
      of Pak1 in cardiac diseases including disrupted Ca2+ homoeostasis-related cardiac
      arrhythmias, adrenergic stress- and pressure overload-induced hypertrophy, and
      ischaemia/reperfusion injury. These findings demonstrate the important role of
      Pak1 mediated through the phosphorylation and transcriptional modification of
      hypertrophy and/or arrhythmia-related genes. This review also discusses the anti
      arrhythmic and anti-hypertrophic, protective function of Pak1 and the beneficial
      effects of fingolimod (an FDA-approved sphingolipid drug), a Pak1 activator, and
      its ability to prevent arrhythmias and cardiac hypertrophy. These findings also
      highlight the therapeutic potential of Pak1 signalling in the treatment and
      prevention of cardiac diseases. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed
      section on Spotlight on Small Molecules in Cardiovascular Diseases. To view the
      other articles in this section visit
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v175.8/issuetoc.

PMID- 28574152
TI  - Serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels are associated with improved white
      matter recovery after traumatic brain injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common disabling condition with
      limited treatment options. Diffusion tensor imaging measures recovery of axonal
      injury in white matter (WM) tracts after TBI. Growth hormone deficiency (GHD)
      after TBI may impair axonal and neuropsychological recovery, and serum insulin
      like growth factor-I (IGF-I) may mediate this effect. We conducted a longitudinal
      study to determine the effects of baseline serum IGF-I concentrations on WM tract
      and neuropsychological recovery after TBI. METHODS: Thirty-nine adults after TBI
      (84.6% male, median age = 30.5 years, 87.2% moderate-severe, median time since
      TBI = 16.3 months, n = 4 with GHD) were scanned twice, 13.3 months (range = 12.1
      14.9) apart, and 35 healthy controls were scanned once. Symptom and quality of
      life questionnaires and cognitive assessments were completed at both visits (n =
      33). Our main outcome measure was fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of WM
      tract integrity, in a priori regions of interest: splenium of corpus callosum
      (SPCC) and posterior limb of internal capsule (PLIC). RESULTS: At baseline, FA
      was reduced in many WM tracts including SPCC and PLIC following TBI compared to
      controls, indicating axonal injury, with longitudinal increases indicating axonal
      recovery. There was a significantly greater increase in SPCC FA over time in
      patients with serum IGF-I above versus below the median for age. Only the higher
      IGF-I group had significant improvements in immediate verbal memory recall over
      time. INTERPRETATION: WM recovery and memory improvements after TBI were greater
      in patients with higher serum IGF-I at baseline. These findings suggest that the
      growth hormone/IGF-I system may be a potential therapeutic target following TBI.
      Ann Neurol 2017;82:30-43.

PMID- 28574153
TI  - Effects of dietary carbohydrate on 1,5-anhydroglucitol in a population without
      diabetes: results from the OmniCarb trial.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the effects of dietary changes in amount and type of
      carbohydrate on 1,5-anhydroglucitol levels. METHODS: We conducted an ancillary
      study to a completed, randomized clinical trial in overweight and obese adults
      without diabetes (N=159). Using a crossover design, participants were fed each
      one of four diets in turn for 5 weeks, with 2-week washout periods inbetween. The
      four diets were: high glycaemic index (>=65) with high proportion of carbohydrate
      (58% kcal) (GC); low glycaemic index (GI<=45) with low proportion of carbohydrate
      (40% kcal) (gc); low glycaemic index with high proportion of carbohydrate (gC);
      and high glycaemic index with low proportion of carbohydrate (Gc). Plasma 1,5
      anhydroglucitol levels were measured at baseline and after each feeding period.
      RESULTS: At baseline, participants had a mean age of 53 years (53% women, 52% non
      Hispanic black, 50% obese). Their mean fasting glucose and 1,5-anhydroglucitol
      levels were 97 mg/dl (5.4 mmol/l) and 18.6 MUg/mL (113.3 MUmol/l), respectively.
      Compared with baseline, each of the four diets reduced 1,5-anhydroglucitol by a
      range of -2.4 to -3.7 MUg/mL (-14.6 to -22.5 MUmol/l); all P <0.001). Reducing
      either glycaemic index or proportion of carbohydrate lowered 1,5-anhydroglucitol
      levels. These effects were additive, such that reducing both glycaemic index and
      proportion of carbohydrates decreased 1,5-anhydroglucitol by -1.31 MUg/mL [95%
      CI: -1.63, -0.99; P<0.001 or -8.0 (-9.9, -6.0) MUmol/l]. Furthermore, these
      effects were confirmed in a subgroup of participants with 12-h glucose monitoring
      and no documented hyperglycaemia (fasting glucose <160 mg/dl or 8.9 mmol/l).
      CONCLUSIONS: Both type and amount of dietary carbohydrate affect 1,5
      anhydroglucitol plasma concentrations in adults without diabetes. This finding
      contradicts the long-standing notion that 1,5-anhydroglucitol remains at constant
      concentrations in the blood in the absence of hyperglycaemic excursions.
      (Clinical trials registry number: NCT00051350).

PMID- 28574154
TI  - What role could community pharmacists in Malaysia play in diabetes self
      management education and support? The views of individuals with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study explored the experiences and views of individuals with
      type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) on their diabetes self-management and potential
      roles for community pharmacists in diabetes self-management education and support
      (DSME/S) in Malaysia. METHODS: A qualitative study, using semi-structured, face
      to-face interviews, was conducted with patients with T2D attending a primary care
      health clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The interviews were audio-recorded,
      transcribed verbatim and analysed inductively. KEY FINDINGS: Fourteen
      participants with T2D were interviewed. Data were coded into five main themes:
      experience and perception of diabetes self-management, constraints of the current
      healthcare system, perception of the community pharmacist and community
      pharmacies, perceived roles for community pharmacists in diabetes care, and
      challenges in utilising community pharmacies to provide DSME/S. There were
      misconceptions about diabetes management that may be attributed to a lack of
      knowledge. Although participants described potential roles for community
      pharmacists in education, medication review and continuity of care, these roles
      were mostly non-clinically oriented. Participants were not confident about
      community pharmacists making recommendations and changes to the prescribed
      treatment regimens. While participants recognised the advantages of convenience
      of a community pharmacy-based diabetes care service, they raised concerns over
      the retail nature and the community pharmacy environment for providing such
      services. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the need to improve the care
      provision for people with T2D. Participants with T2D identified potential, but
      limited roles for community pharmacists in diabetes care. Participants expressed
      concerns that need to be addressed if effective diabetes care is to be provided
      from community pharmacies in Malaysia.

PMID- 28574155
TI  - A systematic review of neuroimaging in delirium: predictors, correlates and
      consequences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neuroimaging advances our understanding of delirium pathophysiology
      and its consequences. A previous systematic review identified 12 studies (total
      participants N = 764, delirium cases N = 194; years 1989-2007) and found
      associations with white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and cerebral atrophy. Our
      objectives were to perform an updated systematic review of neuroimaging studies
      in delirium published since January 2006 and summarise the available literature
      on predictors, correlates or outcomes. METHODS: Studies were identified by
      keyword and MeSH-based electronic searches of EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO
      combining terms for neuroimaging, brain structure and delirium. We included
      neuroimaging studies of delirium in adults using validated delirium assessment
      methods. RESULTS: Thirty-two studies (total N = 3187, delirium N = 1086) met the
      inclusion criteria. Imaging included magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; N = 9),
      computed tomography (N = 4), diffusion tensor imaging (N = 3), transcranial
      Doppler (N = 5), near infrared spectroscopy (N = 5), functional-MRI (N = 2),
      single photon emission computed tomography (N = 1), proton MRI spectroscopy (N =
      1), arterial spin-labelling MRI (N = 1) and 2-13 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron
      emission tomography (N = 1). Despite heterogeneity in study design, delirium was
      associated with WMH, lower brain volume, atrophy, dysconnectivity, impaired
      cerebral autoregulation, reduced blood flow and cerebral oxygenation and glucose
      hypometabolism. There was evidence of long-term brain changes following intensive
      care unit delirium. CONCLUSIONS: Neuroimaging is now used more widely in delirium
      research due to advances in technology. However, imaging delirious patients
      presents challenges leading to methodological limitations and restricted
      generalisability. The findings that atrophy and WMH burden predict delirium
      replicates findings from the original review, while advanced techniques have
      identified other substrates and mechanisms that warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28574157
TI  - Diffuse myocardial fibrosis among healthy pediatric heart transplant recipients:
      Correlation of histology, cardiovascular magnetic resonance, and clinical
      phenotype.
AB  - Fibrosis is commonly described in heart allografts lost late after
      transplantation. CMR-derived ECV is a validated measure of DMF in native adult
      hearts that may predict heart failure and mortality. We explored associations of
      ECV with histologic myocardial fibrosis and clinical features after pediatric
      heart transplantation. Twenty-five recipients (7.0+/-6.3 years at transplant and
      10.7+/-6.5 years post-transplant) were prospectively recruited for CMR and BNP
      measurement at the time of surveillance biopsy. All had normal ejection fractions
      and lacked heart failure symptoms. Fibrosis was quantified on biopsy after
      picrosirius red staining as CVF. ECV was quantified using contemporaneous
      hematocrit on basal and mid-short-axis slices. ECV was moderately correlated with
      CVF (r=.47; P=.019). We found no associations of ECV with hemodynamics, ischemic
      time, time since transplantation, or number of prior biopsies or acute
      rejections. Compared to healthy non-transplant controls, there was no significant
      difference in ECV (25.1+/-3.0 vs 23.7+/-2.0%, P=.09). Log-transformed BNP was
      correlated with ECV (recipients: r=.46, P=.02; recipients and controls: r=.45,
      P=.006). These findings suggest ECV quantifies DMF and relates to biological
      indicators of cardiac function after pediatric heart transplantation.

PMID- 28574156
TI  - Prediction of lithium response in first-episode mania using the LITHium
      Intelligent Agent (LITHIA): Pilot data and proof-of-concept.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Individualized treatment for bipolar disorder based on neuroimaging
      treatment targets remains elusive. To address this shortcoming, we developed a
      linguistic machine learning system based on a cascading genetic fuzzy tree (GFT)
      design called the LITHium Intelligent Agent (LITHIA). Using multiple objectively
      defined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and proton magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) inputs, we tested whether LITHIA could
      accurately predict the lithium response in participants with first-episode
      bipolar mania. METHODS: We identified 20 subjects with first-episode bipolar
      mania who received an adequate trial of lithium over 8 weeks and both fMRI and 1
      H-MRS scans at baseline pre-treatment. We trained LITHIA using 18 1 H-MRS and 90
      fMRI inputs over four training runs to classify treatment response and predict
      symptom reductions. Each training run contained a randomly selected 80% of the
      total sample and was followed by a 20% validation run. Over a different randomly
      selected distribution of the sample, we then compared LITHIA to eight common
      classification methods. RESULTS: LITHIA demonstrated nearly perfect
      classification accuracy and was able to predict post-treatment symptom reductions
      at 8 weeks with at least 88% accuracy in training and 80% accuracy in validation.
      Moreover, LITHIA exceeded the predictive capacity of the eight comparator methods
      and showed little tendency towards overfitting. CONCLUSIONS: The results provided
      proof-of-concept that a novel GFT is capable of providing control to a
      multidimensional bioinformatics problem-namely, prediction of the lithium
      response-in a pilot data set. Future work on this, and similar machine learning
      systems, could help assign psychiatric treatments more efficiently, thereby
      optimizing outcomes and limiting unnecessary treatment.

PMID- 28574158
TI  - Efficacy and safety of a new microneedle patch for skin brightening: A
      Randomized, split-face, single-blind study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although microneedles are one of the best transdermal drug delivery
      systems for active compounds, few clinical trials have examined the safety and
      efficacy of brightening microneedle patches. AIMS: To determine the efficacy and
      safety of a newly developed whitening microneedle patch. PATIENTS/METHODS: A
      split-face study was designed for efficacy assessment with 34 Korean women
      applying the tested product (a whitening microneedle patch) on one cheek and a
      control whitening essence on the other. We objectively measured changes in
      melanin index values and skin brightness by mexameter and chromameter. Each
      participant also used global assessment to determine skin whitening. In addition,
      55 participants were selected for primary skin irritation tests and repeated
      insult patch tests for safety assessments. RESULTS: Mean skin brightness and
      melanin indexes improved (P<.05) 4 weeks and 8 weeks after product use in both
      the whitening patch and whitening essence groups. Significant differences (P<.05)
      were observed between the whitening patch and whitening essence groups 8 weeks
      after use. Global assessment by participants showed moderate cosmetic outcomes
      for both the whitening patch and whitening essence groups. No adverse effects
      were reported, and primary irritation and human repeated insult patch tests
      revealed no irritation from the test product. CONCLUSIONS: A newly developed
      microneedle patch was effective and safe for skin brightening and would be a
      promising functional cosmetic product.

PMID- 28574159
TI  - Bladder spasm following urogenital fistula repair.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the occurrence of bladder spasms following surgical repair
      of urogenital fistula. METHODS: The present retrospective study included data
      from patients who underwent surgical repair of urogenital fistula at the National
      Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, Nigeria, between June 1, 2015, and May 31,
      2016. Patients who underwent rectovaginal fistula repair and those who
      experienced persistent postoperative pain requiring high doses of analgesia were
      excluded. Bladder spasm was defined as the sudden onset of intermittent pain in
      the region of the bladder lasting for short periods of time in patients who were
      previously comfortable with routine postoperative analgesia. The incidence of
      bladder spasm was calculated and the presence of an association between repair
      outcome and bladder spasms was investigated. RESULTS: There were 133 patients
      included in the present study with a mean age of 36 +/- 11 years. Bladder spasms
      were experienced by 60 (45.1%) patients during the study period; of these
      patients, failed fistula repair was recorded for 13 (22%). Good surgical outcome
      (closed fistula) was associated with not experiencing postsurgical bladder spasms
      (P=0.044). CONCLUSION: The incidence of bladder spasm following surgical repair
      of urogenital fistula appeared high. The occurrence of bladder spasms could
      influence repair outcomes.

PMID- 28574160
TI  - Poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) vinyl acetate)s: A Versatile Class of
      Thermoresponsive and Biocompatible Polymers.
AB  - Polymers with a thermally triggered phase transition are important in the design
      of materials for biological applications, where their behavior can be used to
      trigger release or (dis)assembly events. Despite their advantages, a system with
      tunable thermal response, end-group reactive sites, low toxicity, and controlled
      main-chain degradability has not been realized, yet this would be a significant
      advance. The versatile new poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) vinyl acetate)s are
      presented with excellent control over their molecular properties obtained through
      RAFT/MADIX polymerization. Furthermore, we demonstrate structure-controlled
      thermal transitions, conjugation to human lysozyme through the retained end
      group, and moreover show that this class of polymers can uniquely be
      copolymerized with 2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane (MDO) to generate polymers in which
      the degradability and cloud point can be independently tuned to create materials
      that display the same cloud point but degrade differently.

PMID- 28574161
TI  - OsIDD2, a zinc finger and INDETERMINATE DOMAIN protein, regulates secondary cell
      wall formation.
AB  - Previously, we found 123 transcription factors (TFs) as candidate regulators of
      secondary cell wall (SCW) formation in rice by using phylogenetic and co
      expression network analyses. Among them, we examined in this work the role of
      OsIDD2, a zinc finger and indeterminate domain (IDD) family TF. Its
      overexpressors showed dwarfism, fragile leaves, and decreased lignin content,
      which are typical phenotypes of plants defective in SCW formation, whereas its
      knockout plants showed slightly increased lignin content. The RNA-seq and
      quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses confirmed
      that some lignin biosynthetic genes were downregulated in the OsIDD2
      overexpressing plants, and revealed the same case for other genes involved in
      cellulose synthesis and sucrose metabolism. The transient expression assay using
      rice protoplasts revealed that OsIDD2 negatively regulates the transcription of
      genes involved in lignin biosynthesis, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase 2 and 3
      (CAD2 and 3), and sucrose metabolism, sucrose synthase 5 (SUS5), whereas an
      AlphaScreen assay, which can detect the interaction between TFs and their target
      DNA sequences, directly confirmed the interaction between OsIDD2 and the target
      sequences located in the promoter regions of CAD2 and CAD3. Based on these
      observations, we conclude that OsIDD2 is negatively involved in SCW formation and
      other biological events by downregulating its target genes.

PMID- 28574162
TI  - Real-world resource use and costs of haemophilia A-related bleeding.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prophylaxis treatment is recommended for haemophilia patients, but
      associated real-world economic costs and potential cost-savings associated with
      improved disease management are not fully known. This study aimed to assess
      haemophilia A-related resource use and cost by treatment type (prophylaxis versus
      non-prophylaxis) and any associated cost-savings. METHODS: Truven MarketScan
      Commercial claims data (2004-2012) were used to identify haemophilia A-related
      healthcare utilization, healthcare costs and patterns of prophylaxis and non
      prophylaxis treatment among 6- to 64-year-old males. We estimated bleeding
      related resource utilization and costs in three age groups (6-18, 19-44, 45-64)
      by treatment types and assessed the extent to which early initiation of
      prophylactic treatment can mitigate them. T-tests and ordinary least squares
      regressions were used to compare unadjusted and demographics-adjusted cost
      estimates. RESULTS: Among children, overall haemophilia- and bleeding-related non
      pharmacy costs were substantially lower for patients receiving prophylaxis
      (haemophilia-related: $15,864 vs. $53,408; P < 0.001; bleeding-related: $696 vs.
      $2013, respectively; P = 0.04). Among younger adults (19-44), haemophilia-related
      non-pharmacy costs were lower for patients receiving prophylaxis ($22,028 vs.
      $56,311, respectively; P = 0.001). Among children, these savings fully offset the
      incremental pharmacy cost due to prophylaxis. Among younger adults, the savings
      offset approximately 34% of the incremental pharmacy cost. No differences were
      found for older adults (45-64). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that initiating
      prophylaxis earlier in life may reduce the healthcare costs of bleeding events
      and their long-term complications. Future studies should strive to collect more
      detailed information on disease severity and treatment protocols to improve
      estimates of disease burden.

PMID- 28574163
TI  - Heavy metal ATPase 3 (HMA3) confers cadmium hypertolerance on the cadmium/zinc
      hyperaccumulator Sedum plumbizincicola.
AB  - Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic to most organisms, but some rare plant species can
      hyperaccumulate Cd in aboveground tissues without suffering from toxicity. The
      mechanism underlying Cd detoxification by hyperaccumulators is interesting but
      unclear. Here, the heavy metal ATPase 3 (SpHMA3) gene responsible for Cd
      detoxification was isolated from the Cd/zinc (Zn) hyperaccumulator Sedum
      plumbizincicola. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated silencing and overexpression of
      SpHMA3 were induced to investigate its physiological functions in S.
      plumbizincicola and a nonhyperaccumulating ecotype of Sedum alfredii.
      Heterologous expression of SpHMA3 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae showed Cd-specific
      transport activity. SpHMA3 was highly expressed in the shoots and the protein was
      localized to the tonoplast. The SpHMA3-RNAi lines were hypersensitive to Cd but
      not to Zn, with the growth of shoots and young leaves being severely inhibited by
      Cd. Overexpressing SpHMA3 in the nonhyperaccumulating ecotype of S. alfredii
      greatly increased its tolerance to and accumulation of Cd, but not Zn. These
      results indicate that elevated expression of the tonoplast-localized SpHMA3 in
      the shoots plays an essential role in Cd detoxification, which contributes to the
      maintenance of the normal growth of young leaves of S. plumbizincicola in Cd
      contaminated soils.

PMID- 28574164
TI  - Limited and digestive proteolysis: crosstalk between evolutionary conserved
      pathways.
AB  - Contents 958 I. 958 II. 959 III. 960 IV. 962 V. 962 962 References 963 SUMMARY:
      Proteases can either digest target proteins or perform the so-called 'limited
      proteolysis' by cleaving polypeptide chains at specific site(s). Autophagy and
      the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) are two main mechanisms carrying out
      digestive proteolysis. While the net outcome of digestive proteolysis is the loss
      of function of protein substrates, limited proteolysis can additionally lead to
      gain or switch of function. Recent evidence of crosstalk between autophagy, UPS
      and limited proteolysis indicates that these pathways are parts of the same
      proteolytic nexus. Here, we focus on three emerging themes within this area:
      limited proteolysis as a mechanism modulating autophagy; interplay between
      autophagy and UPS, including autophagic degradation of proteasomes (proteophagy);
      and specificity of protein degradation during bulk autophagy.

PMID- 28574165
TI  - Synergistic chemo-enzymatic hydrolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) from
      textile waste.
AB  - Due to the rising global environment protection awareness, recycling strategies
      that comply with the circular economy principles are needed. Polyesters are among
      the most used materials in the textile industry; therefore, achieving a complete
      poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) hydrolysis in an environmentally friendly way
      is a current challenge. In this work, a chemo-enzymatic treatment was developed
      to recover the PET building blocks, namely terephthalic acid (TA) and ethylene
      glycol. To monitor the monomer and oligomer content in solid samples, a Fourier
      transformed Raman method was successfully developed. A shift of the free
      carboxylic groups (1632 cm-1 ) of TA into the deprotonated state (1604 and 1398
      cm-1 ) was observed and bands at 1728 and 1398 cm-1 were used to assess purity of
      TA after the chemo-enzymatic PET hydrolysis. The chemical treatment, performed
      under neutral conditions (T = 250  degrees C, P = 40 bar), led to conversion of
      PET into 85% TA and small oligomers. The latter were hydrolysed in a second step
      using the Humicola insolens cutinase (HiC) yielding 97% pure TA, therefore
      comparable with the commercial synthesis-grade TA (98%).

PMID- 28574166
TI  - Intra- and inter-day reproducibility of low-flow mediated constriction response
      in young adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: When assessing brachial endothelial function by reactive hyperaemia,
      stopping blood flow creates a period of low-flow-mediated constriction (L-FMC).
      As little is known about how this parameter influences flow-mediated vasodilation
      (FMD), the purpose of this study was to better understand this relationship and
      to determine the intra- and interday reproducibility of brachial L-FMC. METHODS:
      Brachial L-FMC and FMD were measured on 26 healthy, young adults (13 males, 13
      females; 24.6 +/- 2.7 years). Each participant had two assessments conducted on
      two separate visits, separated by a minimum of seven days. Brachial artery
      baseline diameter was imaged during rest. Continuous imaging of the artery was
      performed during the last 20 s of cuff-occlusion to 180 s postcuff release. An L
      FMC was considered present if the relative change from pre-occlusion baseline to
      L-FMC artery diameter was less than -0.1%. RESULTS: Overall, there was a strong,
      positive correlation between increased brachial L-FMC and blunted FMD (visit 1
      test 1: r = 0.758, P<0.001; visit 1 test 2: r = 0.706, P<0.001; visit 2 test 1: r
      = 0.836, P<0.001; visit 2 test 2: r = 0.857, P<0.001). The reproducibility of
      intra- and interday L-FMC diameter was intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC)
      = 0.627, coefficient of variation (CV) = 54.4% and ICC = 0.734, CV = 43.5%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Vasoconstriction to low-flow conditions influences the
      subsequent maximal dilation during reactive hyperaemia. However, L-FMC is
      variable as evidenced by the weak intra- and interday reproducibility of the
      measure. Further research should study brachial L-FMC reproducibility among
      varying populations and the implications L-FMC has on the interpretation of FMD
      results.

PMID- 28574167
TI  - Predicting the prevalence of cerebral palsy by severity level in children aged 3
      to 15 years across England and Wales by 2020.
AB  - AIM: To estimate the number of children living with cerebral palsy (CP) in
      England and Wales in 2013 by severity, and to extrapolate this figure to 2020.
      METHOD: Data from the North of England Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Survey for
      births during the period 1991 to 2000 were restricted to individuals aged at or
      above 3 years to estimate the prevalence of CP and to calculate 15-year survival
      by severity according to the number of severe impairments and lifestyle
      assessment score. The number of 3- to 15-year-olds with CP of different severity
      in England and Wales was estimated in 2013 and 2019 using actual and nationally
      projected births. RESULTS: Cumulative survival estimates up to the age of 16
      years in children with CP differ significantly by severity, ranging between 97
      per cent and 100 per cent for children with non-severe CP, and between 64 per
      cent and 67 per cent for those with the most severe CP. By the end of 2013, the
      estimated number of children aged 3 to 15 years living with CP in England and
      Wales will be about 20 500 rising to approximately 22 100 by 2020, a 7.5 per cent
      increase. INTERPRETATION: Owing to an increasing population, the number of
      children living with CP in England and Wales will increase by 2020. This will
      have significant implications for health and social care service planning.

PMID- 28574168
TI  - Mesoporous Silica Scaffolds as Precursor to Drive the Formation of Hierarchical
      SAPO-34 with Tunable Acid Properties.
AB  - Using a distinctive bottom-up approach, a hierarchical silicoaluminophosphate,
      SAPO-34, has been synthesized using cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)
      encapsulated within ordered mesoporous silica (MCM-41) that serves as both the
      silicon source and mesoporogen. The structural and textural properties of the
      hierarchical SAPO-34 were contrasted against its microporous analogue, and the
      nature, strength, and accessibility of the Bronsted acid sites were studied using
      a range of physicochemical characterization tools; notably probe-based FTIR and
      solid-state magic angle spinning (SS MAS) NMR spectroscopies. Whilst CO was used
      to study the acid properties of hierarchical SAPO-34, bulkier molecular probes
      (including pyridine, 2,4,6-trimethylpyridine and 2,6-di-tert-butylpyridine)
      allowed particular insight into the enhanced accessibility of the acid sites. The
      activity of the hierarchical SAPO-34 catalyst was evaluated in the industrially
      relevant, acid-catalyzed Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to epsilon
      caprolactam, under vapor-phase conditions. These catalytic investigations
      revealed a significant enhancement in the yield of epsilon-caprolactam using our
      hierarchical SAPO-34 catalyst compared to SAPO-34, MCM-41, or a mechanical
      mixture of these two phases. The results highlight the merits of our design
      strategy for facilitating enhanced mass transfer, whilst retaining favorable acid
      site characteristics.

PMID- 28574169
TI  - Dynamic Nuclear Polarization/Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy of Membrane
      Polypeptides: Free-Radical Optimization for Matrix-Free Lipid Bilayer Samples.
AB  - Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) boosts the sensitivity of NMR spectroscopy by
      orders of magnitude and makes investigations previously out of scope possible.
      For magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR spectroscopy studies, the samples
      are typically mixed with biradicals dissolved in a glass-forming solvent and are
      investigated at cryotemperatures. Herein, we present new biradical polarizing
      agents developed for matrix-free samples such as supported lipid bilayers, which
      are systems widely used for the investigation of membrane polypeptides of high
      biomedical importance. A series of 11 biradicals with different structures,
      geometries, and physicochemical properties were comprehensively tested for DNP
      performance in lipid bilayers, some of them developed specifically for DNP
      investigations of membranes. The membrane-anchored biradicals PyPol-C16, AMUPOL
      cholesterol, and bTurea-C16 were found to exhibit improved g-tensor alignment,
      inter-radical distance, and dispersion. Consequently, these biradicals show the
      highest signal enhancement factors so far obtained for matrix-free membranes or
      other matrix-free samples and may potentially shorten NMR acquisition times by
      three orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the optimal biradical-to-lipid ratio,
      sample deuteration, and membrane lipid composition were determined under static
      and MAS conditions. To rationalize biradical performance better, DNP enhancement
      was measured by using the 13 C and 15 N signals of lipids and a peptide as a
      function of the biradical concentration, DNP build-up time, resonance line width,
      quenching effect, microwave power, and MAS frequency.

PMID- 28574170
TI  - Rumination in breast and lung cancer patients: Preliminary data within an Italian
      sample.

PMID- 28574172
TI  - Prevention of hip displacement in children with cerebral palsy: a systematic
      review.
AB  - AIM: To conduct a systematic review and evaluate the quality of evidence for
      interventions to prevent hip displacement in children with cerebral palsy (CP).
      METHOD: A systematic review was performed using American Academy of Cerebral
      Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) and Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. Searches were
      completed in seven electronic databases. Studies were included if participants
      had CP and the effectiveness of the intervention was reported using a
      radiological measure. Results of orthopaedic surgical interventions were
      excluded. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria (4
      botulinum neurotoxin A; 2 botulinum neurotoxin A and bracing; 1 complementary and
      alternative medicine; 1 intrathecal baclofen; 1 obturator nerve block; 8
      positioning; 7 selective dorsal rhizotomy). There was significant variability in
      treatment dosages, participant characteristics, and duration of follow-up among
      the studies. Overall, the level of evidence was low. No intervention in this
      review demonstrated a large treatment effect on hip displacement. INTERPRETATION:
      The level and quality of evidence for all interventions aimed at slowing or
      preventing hip displacement is low. There is currently insufficient evidence to
      support or refute the use of the identified interventions to prevent hip
      displacement or dislocation in children and young people with CP. WHAT THIS PAPER
      ADDS: High-quality evidence on prevention of hip displacement is lacking. No
      recommendations can be made for preventing hip displacement in children with
      cerebral palsy because of poor-quality evidence. High-quality, prospective,
      longitudinal studies investigating the impact of interventions on hip
      displacement are required.

PMID- 28574173
TI  - Interaction between toothpaste abrasivity and toothbrush filament stiffness on
      the development of erosive/abrasive lesions in vitro.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the loss of enamel and dentin surface caused by the
      interaction between abrasives in toothpaste and toothbrush filament stiffness.
      METHODS: The study followed a 2 (high-level or low-level abrasive; silica) * 3
      (filament stiffness; soft, medium or hard) * 2 (cycling time; 3 or 5 days)
      factorial design. Polished bovine enamel and dentin specimens (n = 8 each per
      group) were subjected to 5 days of erosion/abrasion cycling: erosion (5 minutes,
      four times daily, 0.3% citric acid, pH 3.75); abrasion (15 seconds, twice daily,
      45 strokes each, 150 g load, automated brushing machine); and fluoride treatment
      [15 seconds with abrasion and 45 seconds without abrasion; 275 p.p.m. fluoride (F
      ) as sodium fluoride (NaF) in abrasive slurry]. Enamel and dentin specimens were
      exposed to artificial saliva between erosion and abrasion/F- treatment (1 hour)
      and at all other times (overnight). Non-contact profilometry was used to
      determine surface loss (SL) after 3 and 5 days of cycling. Data were analysed
      using three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (factors: abrasive/filament
      stiffness/time), with separate analyses conducted for enamel and dentin. RESULTS:
      For enamel, only 'cycling time' was found to affect SL, with 5 days of cycling
      resulting in a greater SL than 3 days of cycling. Overall, there was little SL
      for enamel (range: 0.76-1.85 MUm). For dentin (SL range: 1.87-5.91 MUm),
      significantly higher SL was found for 5 days of cycling versus 3 days of cycling,
      with particularly large differences for hard stiffness/high-level abrasive and
      medium stiffness/low-level abrasive. For high-level abrasive, after 5 days of
      cycling hard stiffness resulted in significantly higher SL than did medium
      stiffness, with no other significant differences according to stiffness. Overall,
      high-level abrasive resulted in significantly higher SL than did low-level
      abrasive, with strong effects for all combinations, except medium stiffness after
      5 days. CONCLUSION: The interplay between abrasivity and filament stiffness
      appears to be more relevant for dentin than for enamel.

PMID- 28574174
TI  - The evolution of vertebrate eye size across an environmental gradient: phenotype
      does not predict genotype in a Trinidadian killifish.
AB  - Vertebrates exhibit substantial variation in eye size. Eye size correlates
      positively with visual capacity and behaviors that enhance fitness, such as
      predator avoidance. This foreshadows a connection between predation and eye size
      evolution. Yet, the conditions that favor evolutionary shifts in eye size,
      besides the well-known role for light availability, are unclear. We tested the
      influence of predation on the evolution of eye size in Trinidadian killifish,
      Rivulus hartii. Rivulus are located across a series of communities where they
      coexist with visually oriented piscivores ("high predation" sites), and no
      predators ("Rivulus-only" sites). Wild-caught Rivulus from high predation sites
      generally exhibited a smaller relative eye size than communities that lack
      predators. Yet, such differences were inconsistent across rivers. Second
      generation common garden reared fish revealed repeatable decreases in eye size in
      Rivulus from high predation sites. We performed additional experiments that
      tested the importance of light and resources on eye size evolution. Sites that
      differ in light or resource availability did not differ in eye size. Our results
      argue that differences in predator-induced mortality underlie genetically-based
      shifts in vertebrate eye size. We discuss the drivers of eye size evolution in
      light of the nonparallel trends between the phenotypic and common garden results.

PMID- 28574171
TI  - Rationale for targeting the Wnt signalling modulator Dickkopf-1 for oncology.
AB  - : Wnt signalling is a fundamental pathway involved in embryonic development and
      adult tissue homeostasis. Mutations in the pathway frequently lead to
      developmental defects and cancer. As such, therapeutic intervention of this
      pathway has generated tremendous interest. Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) is a secreted
      inhibitor of beta-catenin-dependent Wnt signalling and was originally
      characterized as a tumour suppressor based on the prevailing view that Wnt
      signalling promotes cancer pathogenesis. However, DKK1 appears to increase tumour
      growth and metastasis in preclinical models and its elevated expression
      correlates with a poor prognosis in a range of cancers, indicating that DKK1 has
      more complex cellular and biological functions than originally appreciated. Here,
      we review current evidence for the cancer-promoting activity of DKK1 and recent
      insights into the effects of DKK1 on signalling pathways in both cancer and
      immune cells. We discuss the rationale and promise of targeting DKK1 for
      oncology. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on WNT
      Signalling: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities. To view the other articles
      in this section visit
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v174.24/issuetoc.

PMID- 28574176
TI  - A Photosensitizer Lanthanide Nanoparticle Formulation that Induces Singlet Oxygen
      with Direct Light Excitation, But Not By Photon or X-ray Energy Transfer.
AB  - We report the design and synthesis of europium-doped gadolinium oxysulfide
      nanoscintillators Gd2 O2 S:Eu3+ conjugated with two different photosensitizers
      (PSs): a zinc chlorin (ZnTPC) and a zinc phtalocyanine (ZnPc) by covalent bonding
      through a layer of N-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)diethylenetriamine (TPDA). These
      conjugates were designed to be activated under X-ray excitation to allow a
      photodynamic effect, although this desired outcome was not achieved in this
      study. The monodispersed nanoparticles of ~70 nm diameter were pegylated to be
      stabilized in aqueous suspension. It was shown that the PSs conserved their
      photophysical properties once conjugated to the nanoscintillator and efficient
      singlet oxygen was obtained upon photo-irradiation. However, no energy transfer
      was observed from the nanoscintillator to the photosensitizer neither under photo
      nor X-ray irradiation.

PMID- 28574175
TI  - Mitochondrially derived peptides as novel regulators of metabolism.
AB  - Mitochondrially derived peptides represent a new class of circulating signalling
      molecules. Humanin, the first member of this class, has been shown to have
      several metabolic effects such as reducing weight gain and visceral fat and
      increasing glucose-stimulated insulin release. The discovery of several other new
      members, such as MOTS-c and SHLP1-6, has further added to this group. These new
      peptides have also been found to affect metabolism with MOTS-c potently
      decreasing weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet. This review covers the basic
      biology of this class of peptides and discusses the relevance to organismal
      metabolism.

PMID- 28574178
TI  - Fungi: geoactive agents of metal and mineral transformations.

PMID- 28574177
TI  - Review of basal-plus insulin regimen options for simpler insulin intensification
      in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIMS: To identify simple insulin regimens for people with Type 2 diabetes
      mellitus that can be accepted and implemented earlier in primary and specialist
      care, taking into consideration each individual's needs and capabilities.
      METHODS: Using randomized clinical trials identified by a search of the PubMed
      database, as well as systematic reviews, meta-analyses and proof-of-concept
      studies, this review addresses topics of interest related to the progressive
      intensification of a basal insulin regimen to a basal-plus regimen (one basal
      insulin injection plus stepwise addition of one to three preprandial short-acting
      insulin injections/day) vs a basal-bolus regimen (basal insulin plus three short
      acting insulin injections per day) in people with Type 2 diabetes. The review
      explores approaches that can be used to define the meal for first prandial
      injection with basal-plus regimens, differences among insulin titration
      algorithms, and the importance of self-motivation and autonomy in achieving
      optimum glycaemic control. RESULTS: A basal-plus regimen can provide glycaemic
      control equivalent to that obtained with a full basal-bolus regimen, with fewer
      injections of prandial insulin. The first critical step is to optimize basal
      insulin dosing to reach a fasting glucose concentration of ~6.7 mmol/l; this
      allows ~40% of patients with baseline HbA1c >75 mmol/mol (9%) to be controlled
      with only one basal insulin injection per day. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with a basal
      bolus regimen, a basal-plus insulin regimen is as effective but more practical,
      and has the best chance of acceptance and success in the real world.

PMID- 28574179
TI  - Episodic replacement of clotting factor concentrates does not prevent bleeding or
      musculoskeletal damage - the MUSFIH study.
AB  - PATIENTS AND METHODS: A longitudinal study was carried out in 255 children from
      10 centres in nine developing countries over 5 years to assess the
      musculoskeletal outcome of children on episodic factor replacement. Outcome was
      documented by assessment of the annual joint bleeding rate (AJBR), WFH clinical
      and Pettersson radiological joint scores as well as the FISH score for
      activities. Of the 203 patients for whom data was available at the end of 5
      years, 164 who had received only episodic treatment are included in this report.
      RESULTS: The median age at the beginning of the study was 10 years (IQR 7-12).
      The median clotting factor concentrate (CFC) usage was 662 IU kg-1 year-1 (IQ
      range: 280-1437). The median AJBR was 10 (IQ range: 5-17). The median AJBR was
      higher in the older children with the median being 5 for the 5 year old child,
      while it was 9 for the 10 year old and 11 for children older than 15. Given the
      episodic nature of the replacement therapy, those with a higher AJBR used
      significantly greater annual CFC doses (P < 0.001); The median change in WFH
      clinical score and Pettersson radiological score over the 5 years was 0.4/year
      for each, while the FISH deteriorated at a rate of 0.2/year with poor correlation
      of these changes with CFC dose. WFH and FISH scores were significantly worse in
      those with an AJBR of >3 per year (P = 0.001). The change in the Pettersson score
      was significantly more in those with an AJBR of >5 per year (P = 0.020).
      Significant changes in FISH scores were only noted after 10 years of age.
      CONCLUSION: Episodic CFC replacement over a large range of doses does not alter
      the natural course of bleeding in haemophilia or the musculoskeletal
      deterioration and should not be recommended as a long term option for treatment.
      Prophylaxis is the only way to preserve musculoskeletal function in haemophilia.

PMID- 28574180
TI  - Topical equol preparation improves structural and molecular skin parameters.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Equol has been shown to improve skin health and regeneration, due to
      its antioxidative, phytoestrogenic and epigenetic characteristics. The effects of
      a topical intervention on skin structure, telomere length and epigenetic markers
      in skin cells were analysed. METHODS: Sixty-four participants were divided in
      four groups and three of them treated topically with the following: emulsion with
      Equol powder (Isoflavandiol-E-55-RS(r)); emulsion with microencapsulated Equol
      (Vesisorb(r) Isoflavandiol-E-55-RS(r)) and an emulsion with lecithin (Vesisorb(r)
      placebo). A control group of 6 volunteers did not receive any intervention. The
      active compound was a 0.5% equol-racemate. For 58 participants, all samples were
      collected. Structural analysis, molecular analysis and questionnaires were
      performed at the start of the study and after 8 weeks of intervention, twice a
      day. Structural skin parameters were analysed by Visioscan(r) VC 98 and
      Cutometer(r) dual MPA 580. Molecular analyses from epidermal cells collected by
      skin stripping of the forehead included telomere length and LINE-1 methylation,
      following DNA extraction, bisulfite conversion and qPCR as well as high
      resolution melting curve analysis. Effects of nutrition and lifestyle habits were
      evaluated with a standardized food and lifestyle questionnaire. RESULTS AND
      DISCUSSION: The surface analysis showed significant improvements in skin
      roughness, skin texture and skin smoothness after both interventions.
      Cutometer(r) dual MPA 580 measurement revealed improvement of skin firmness and
      elasticity parameters for both preparations. A decrease in mean LINE-1
      methylation (n.s.) and telomere length (sign. P < 0.05) was observed in the
      sample group with age. In the treated groups, significantly longer telomeres were
      observed after intervention. Whether changes in telomere length reflect changes
      in the regulation of telomerase, epigenetic interactions or turnover of
      keratinocytes needs further research. Stability and availability of preparations
      in skin seems to be high as not many significant differences in the activity of
      pure or encapsulated substances were seen. CONCLUSION: The results of this study
      indicate that equol has beneficial effects on structural as well as molecular
      skin parameters and encourages further investigations to decipher the epigenetic
      regulation of skin ageing and interactions of equol.

PMID- 28574181
TI  - Increased pericarp cell length underlies a major quantitative trait locus for
      grain weight in hexaploid wheat.
AB  - Crop yields must increase to address food insecurity. Grain weight, determined by
      grain length and width, is an important yield component, but our understanding of
      the underlying genes and mechanisms is limited. We used genetic mapping and near
      isogenic lines (NILs) to identify, validate and fine-map a major quantitative
      trait locus (QTL) on wheat chromosome 5A associated with grain weight. Detailed
      phenotypic characterisation of developing and mature grains from the NILs was
      performed. We identified a stable and robust QTL associated with a 6.9% increase
      in grain weight. The positive interval leads to 4.0% longer grains, with
      differences first visible 12 d after fertilization. This grain length effect was
      fine-mapped to a 4.3 cM interval. The locus also has a pleiotropic effect on
      grain width (1.5%) during late grain development that determines the relative
      magnitude of the grain weight increase. Positive NILs have increased maternal
      pericarp cell length, an effect which is independent of absolute grain length.
      These results provide direct genetic evidence that pericarp cell length affects
      final grain size and weight in polyploid wheat. We propose that combining genes
      that control distinct biological mechanisms, such as cell expansion and
      proliferation, will enhance crop yields.

PMID- 28574182
TI  - Optimizing the combination insulin bolus split for a high-fat, high-protein meal
      in children and adolescents using insulin pump therapy.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the optimum combination bolus split to maintain postprandial
      glycaemia with a high-fat and high-protein meal in young people with Type 1
      diabetes. METHODS: A total of 19 young people (mean age 12.9 +/- 6.7 years)
      participated in a randomized, repeated-measures trial comparing postprandial
      glycaemic control across six study conditions after a high-fat and high-protein
      meal. A standard bolus and five different combination boluses were delivered over
      2 h in the following splits: 70/30 = 70% standard /30% extended bolus; 60/40=60%
      standard/40% extended bolus; 50/50=50% standard/50% extended bolus; 40/60=40%
      standard/60% extended bolus; and 30/70=30% standard/70% extended bolus. Insulin
      dose was determined using the participant's optimized insulin:carbohydrate ratio.
      Continuous glucose monitoring was used to assess glucose excursions for 6 h after
      the test meal. RESULTS: Standard bolus and combination boluses 70/30 and 60/40
      controlled the glucose excursion up to 120 min. From 240 to 300 min after the
      meal, the glucose area under the curve was significantly lower for combination
      bolus 30/70 compared with standard bolus (P=0.004). CONCLUSIONS: High-fat and
      high-protein meals require a >=60% insulin:carbohydrate ratio as a standard bolus
      to control the initial postprandial rise. Additional insulin at an
      insulin:carbohydrate ratio of up to 70% is needed in the extended bolus for a
      high fat and protein meal to prevent delayed hyperglycaemia.

PMID- 28574183
TI  - Quantitative tools for implementing the new definition of significant portion of
      the range in the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
AB  - In 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries
      Service announced a new policy interpretation for the U.S. Endangered Species Act
      (ESA). According to the act, a species must be listed as threatened or endangered
      if it is determined to be threatened or endangered in a significant portion of
      its range (SPR). The 2014 policy seeks to provide consistency by establishing
      that a portion of the range should be considered significant if the associated
      individuals' "removal would cause the entire species to become endangered or
      threatened." We reviewed 20 quantitative techniques used to assess whether a
      portion of a species' range is significant according to the new guidance. Our
      assessments are based on the 3R criteria-redundancy (i.e., buffering from
      catastrophe), resiliency (i.e., ability to withstand stochasticity), and
      representation (i.e., ability to evolve)-that the FWS uses to determine if a
      species merits listing. We identified data needs for each quantitative technique
      and considered which methods could be implemented given the data limitations
      typical of rare species. We also identified proxies for the 3Rs that may be used
      with limited data. To assess potential data availability, we evaluated 7 example
      species by accessing data in their species status assessments, which document all
      the information used during a listing decision. In all species, an SPR could be
      evaluated with at least one metric for each of the 3Rs robustly or with
      substantial assumptions. Resiliency assessments appeared most constrained by
      limited data, and many species lacked information on connectivity between
      subpopulations, genetic variation, and spatial variability in vital rates. These
      data gaps will likely make SPR assessments for species with complex life
      histories or that cross national boundaries difficult. Although we reviewed
      techniques for the ESA, other countries require identification of significant
      areas and could benefit from this research.

PMID- 28574184
TI  - Land-use history as a guide for forest conservation and management.
AB  - Conservation efforts to protect forested landscapes are challenged by climate
      projections that suggest substantial restructuring of vegetation and disturbance
      regimes in the future. In this regard, paleoecological records that describe
      ecosystem responses to past variations in climate, fire, and human activity offer
      critical information for assessing present landscape conditions and future
      landscape vulnerability. We illustrate this point drawing on 8 sites in the
      northwestern United States, New Zealand, Patagonia, and central and southern
      Europe that have undergone different levels of climate and land-use change. These
      sites fall along a gradient of landscape conditions that range from nearly
      pristine (i.e., vegetation and disturbance shaped primarily by past climate and
      biophysical constraints) to highly altered (i.e., landscapes that have been
      intensely modified by past human activity). Position on this gradient has
      implications for understanding the role of natural and anthropogenic disturbance
      in shaping ecosystem dynamics and assessments of present biodiversity, including
      recognizing missing or overrepresented species. Dramatic vegetation
      reorganization occurred at all study sites as a result of postglacial climate
      variations. In nearly pristine landscapes, such as those in Yellowstone National
      Park, climate has remained the primary driver of ecosystem change up to the
      present day. In Europe, natural vegetation-climate-fire linkages were broken 6000
      8000 years ago with the onset of Neolithic farming, and in New Zealand, natural
      linkages were first lost about 700 years ago with arrival of the Maori people. In
      the U.S. Northwest and Patagonia, the greatest landscape alteration occurred in
      the last 150 years with Euro-American settlement. Paleoecology is sometimes the
      best and only tool for evaluating the degree of landscape alteration and the
      extent to which landscapes retain natural components. Information on landscape
      level history thus helps assess current ecological change, clarify management
      objectives, and define conservation strategies that seek to protect both natural
      and cultural elements.

PMID- 28574185
TI  - Potential of Nonfullerene Small Molecules with High Photovoltaic Performance.
AB  - Over the past decades, fullerene derivatives have become the most successful
      electron acceptors in organic solar cells (OSCs) and have achieved great
      progress, with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of over 11 %. However,
      fullerenes have some drawbacks, such as weak absorption, limited energy-level
      tunability, and morphological instability. In addition, fullerene-based OSCs
      usually suffer from large energy losses of over 0.7 eV, which limits further
      improvements in the PCE. Recently, nonfullerene small molecules have emerged as
      promising electron acceptors in OSCs. Their highly tunable absorption spectra and
      molecular energy levels have enabled fine optimization of the resulting devices,
      and the highest PCE has surpassed 12 %. Furthermore, several studies have shown
      that OSCs based on small-molecule acceptors (SMA) have very efficient charge
      generation and transport efficiency at relatively low energy losses of below 0.6
      eV, which suggests great potential for the further improvement of OSCs. In this
      focus review, we analyze the challenges and potential of SMA-based OSCs and
      discuss molecular design strategies for highly efficient SMAs.

PMID- 28574186
TI  - Oligosaccharide Sensing in Aqueous Media by Porphyrin-Curdlan Conjugates: A Pret
      a-Porter Rather Than Haute-Couture Approach.
AB  - Saccharide sensing in aqueous media is an intriguing but challenging goal in
      current chemistry. Herein we report the oligosaccharide-sensing behavior of newly
      synthesized porphyrin-curdlan conjugates, which are random coils in DMSO but
      become globules in aqueous solutions to induce circular dichroism (ICD) in the
      biologically accessible spectral region due to the conformational fixation of
      porphyrin reporters. The magnitude of ICD was significantly varied specifically
      in the presence of acarbose, a drug for type-2 diabetes, enabling us to detect
      the aminosaccharide at concentrations down to 200 MUm. This result demonstrates
      that the pret-a-porter approach, using less-defined reporter-curdlan conjugates,
      is more advantageous than the traditional haute-couture approach with highly
      sophisticated hosts in particular in oligosaccharide sensing.

PMID- 28574187
TI  - Menopause transition promotes distinct modulation of mRNAs and miRNAs expression
      in calvaria and bone marrow osteoblastic cells.
AB  - Investigation on functional genome research may contribute to the knowledge of
      functional roles of different mRNAs and miRNAs in bone cells of osteoporotic
      animals. Currently, few studies indicate the changes in gene modulation that
      osteoporosis causes in osteoblastic cells from different sites. Thus, the purpose
      of this investigation was to evaluate cell viability, alkaline phosphatase
      activity and modulation of mRNAs/miRNAs in osteoblastic cells from calvaria and
      bone marrow by means of microarray technology. Wistar female rats were divided in
      sham operated and ovariectomized groups. After 150 days of ovariectomy, cells
      were isolated from both sites to perform cell culture. Results showed that
      calvaria cells from ovariectomized rats had a decrease in viability when compared
      to control groups and to bone marrow cells from osteoporotic rats after 3 days.
      Alkaline phosphatase activity decreased in calvaria cells from ovariectomized
      rats whereas it was increased in bone marrow osteoblastic cells in the same
      group. Microarray data analysis showed 5447 differentially expressed mRNAs and 82
      differentially expressed miRNAs in calvaria cells. The same way, 4399 mRNAs and
      54 miRNAs were expressed in bone marrow cells. mRNAs associated with bone
      metabolism such as Anxa5, Sp7, Spp1, Notch1 were distinctively modulated in both
      sites, as well as miRNAs such as miR-350, miR-542-3p, miR-204-5p, and miR-30e-3p.
      The RNA species identified in this study could be further used as targets for
      treatment or prevention of osteoporosis.

PMID- 28574188
TI  - Hospital-acquired anemia due to diagnostic and therapy-related blood loss in
      inpatients with myasthenia gravis receiving therapeutic plasma exchange.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Daily laboratory testing (DLT) is an important cause of iatrogenic
      anemia. Therapeutic plasma exchanges (TPE) represent another source of blood
      loss. This study investigated the contributions of DLT and TPE to changes in
      hemoglobin of inpatients with myasthenia gravis (MG) exacerbation. STUDY DESIGN
      AND METHODS: All admissions for MG that included TPE between 2008 and 2012 were
      identified. The DLT- and TPE-related blood losses per patient were estimated
      based on the number of laboratory tests and TPE procedures. The primary endpoint
      was the difference between the discharge hemoglobin (Hgb) and the admission Hgb
      (DeltaHgb). Univariate and multivariable analyses were used to identify clinical
      predictors of DeltaHgb. RESULTS: A total of 46 patients (52% male, average age of
      58 years) had 90 hospitalizations and underwent 424 TPEs during the study-period.
      Their average length of stay (LOS) was 10.4 days, and total DLT and TPE-related
      blood losses were 107 and 94 mL, respectively. While 41% of patients were anemic
      on admission, 90% were anemic at discharge. The average DeltaHgb was -2.2 g/dL.
      The patient's blood volume, renal function, admission number, LOS, and combined
      blood losses correlated with DeltaHgb by linear regression, but only DLT was an
      independent predictor of DeltaHgb in the multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION:
      Approximately 50% of MG patients admitted for TPE developed hospital-acquired
      anemia, which was directly correlated with the volume of blood collected for
      laboratory tests. A variety of strategies to reduce DLT could circumvent this
      iatrogenic complication.

PMID- 28574189
TI  - Twenty-year progression of body mass index in a county-wide cohort of people with
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder identified at their first episode of
      psychosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is an increased prevalence of obesity in schizophrenia and
      bipolar disorder, leading to a disproportionate risk of adverse health
      conditions. Prospective, long-term weight gain data, however, are scarce.
      METHODS: We analyzed data from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project cohort of
      consecutive first admissions with psychosis recruited from September 1989 to
      December 1995 and subsequently followed for 20 years, focusing on people with
      schizophrenia (n=146) and bipolar disorder (n=87). The time course of weight gain
      was examined using a 2 (group)*5 (time) mixed-model repeated measures ANOVA, and
      body mass index (BMI) scores at the first (6 months) and second (2 years)
      assessments were compared to examine whether early overweight predicted later
      obesity. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant effect of time
      (F(1,210)=68.06, P<.001) and diagnosis (F(1,210)=29.18, P<.001) on BMI, but not
      the interaction of time*diagnosis (F(1,210)=0.88, P=.48). Most participants had
      normal BMIs at the first two assessments. Early overweight was a predictor of
      eventual obesity for both groups. At the 20-year follow-ups, approximately 50% of
      the bipolar and 62% of the schizophrenia sample were obese, with a greater
      prevalence of obesity in schizophrenia at each assessment (all P<.02), except for
      years 4 (P=.12) and 20 (P=.27). CONCLUSIONS: Nearly two-thirds of the
      participants with schizophrenia and over half of those with bipolar disorder were
      obese 20 years after first hospitalization for psychosis, considerably higher
      than the rate for adults in New York State (27%). Early intervention may be
      required to prevent long-term consequences of obesity-related morbidity and
      mortality.

PMID- 28574191
TI  - Point of care ultrasound in haemophilia: Building a strong foundation for
      clinical implementation.

PMID- 28574190
TI  - Flow-aligned, single-shot fiber diffraction using a femtosecond X-ray free
      electron laser.
AB  - A major goal for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) based science is to elucidate
      structures of biological molecules without the need for crystals. Filament
      systems may provide some of the first single macromolecular structures elucidated
      by XFEL radiation, since they contain one-dimensional translational symmetry and
      thereby occupy the diffraction intensity region between the extremes of crystals
      and single molecules. Here, we demonstrate flow alignment of as few as 100
      filaments (Escherichia coli pili, F-actin, and amyloid fibrils), which when
      intersected by femtosecond X-ray pulses result in diffraction patterns similar to
      those obtained from classical fiber diffraction studies. We also determine that F
      actin can be flow-aligned to a disorientation of approximately 5 degrees. Using
      this XFEL-based technique, we determine that gelsolin amyloids are comprised of
      stacked beta-strands running perpendicular to the filament axis, and that a range
      of order from fibrillar to crystalline is discernable for individual alpha
      synuclein amyloids.

PMID- 28574192
TI  - Feasibility study of ultrasound imaging for stereotactic body radiation therapy
      with active breathing coordinator in pancreatic cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) allows for high radiation
      doses to be delivered to the pancreatic tumors with limited toxicity.
      Nevertheless, the respiratory motion of the pancreas introduces major uncertainty
      during SBRT. Ultrasound imaging is a non-ionizing, non-invasive, and real-time
      technique for intrafraction monitoring. A configuration is not available to place
      the ultrasound probe during pancreas SBRT for monitoring. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      An arm-bridge system was designed and built. A CT scan of the bridge-held
      ultrasound probe was acquired and fused to ten previously treated pancreatic SBRT
      patient CTs as virtual simulation CTs. Both step-and-shoot intensity-modulated
      radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) planning
      were performed on virtual simulation CT. The accuracy of our tracking algorithm
      was evaluated by programmed motion phantom with simulated breath-hold 3D
      movement. An IRB-approved volunteer study was also performed to evaluate
      feasibility of system setup. Three healthy subjects underwent the same patient
      setup required for pancreas SBRT with active breath control (ABC). 4D ultrasound
      images were acquired for monitoring. Ten breath-hold cycles were monitored for
      both phantom and volunteers. For the phantom study, the target motion tracked by
      ultrasound was compared with motion tracked by the infrared camera. For the
      volunteer study, the reproducibility of ABC breath-hold was assessed. RESULTS:
      The volunteer study results showed that the arm-bridge system allows placement of
      an ultrasound probe. The ultrasound monitoring showed less than 2 mm
      reproducibility of ABC breath-hold in healthy volunteers. The phantom monitoring
      accuracy is 0.14 +/- 0.08 mm, 0.04 +/- 0.1 mm, and 0.25 +/- 0.09 mm in three
      directions. On dosimetry part, 100% of virtual simulation plans passed protocol
      criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Our ultrasound system can be potentially used for real
      time monitoring during pancreas SBRT without compromising planning quality. The
      phantom study showed high monitoring accuracy of the system, and the volunteer
      study showed feasibility of the clinical workflow.

PMID- 28574193
TI  - Emergency department visits for dental problems not associated with trauma in
      Alberta, Canada.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this report was to describe the frequency of
      emergency department (ED) visits for dental problems not associated with trauma
      (DPNAT) in Alberta, Canada, over a 5-year period. METHODS: In Alberta, ED visits
      for DPNAT between 1 January 2011 and 30 April 2016 were identified using the
      codes from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related
      Health Problems, 10th Revision, Canada (ICD-10-CA). The codes for DPNAT range
      from K00 to K14, described as diseases of the oral cavity, salivary glands and
      jaws. The data were gathered from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System
      (NACRS) database and from the Alberta Real Time Syndromic Surveillance Net
      (ARTSSN). The information gathered on ED visits for DPNAT was related to the
      primary diagnosis of the discharge disposition of the visits. RESULTS: During the
      study period, there were a total of 147,357 ED visits for DPNAT in Alberta. The
      visits were made by 111,362 individuals, representing 1.3 visits per person.
      Among all ED visits, a prevalence of 1.2% of ED visits for DPNAT was observed.
      The most prevalent primary diagnosis of ED visits for DPNAT was for diseases of
      pulp and periapical tissues (K04), such as periapical abscess, representing 45.0%
      of all visits, followed by disorders of teeth and supporting structures (K08),
      such as toothache, representing 18.8% of all visits. The majority of the visits
      were made by patients from 20 to 44 years of age (52.2%). North and Calgary
      Alberta Health Service (AHS) Zones were those with the highest occurrence of ED
      visits (31.9% and 24.5%, respectively). ED visits for dental problems were more
      common than visits for other general health conditions, such as diabetes and
      asthma. CONCLUSION: The frequency of ED visits for DPNAT suggests barriers faced
      by the population in accessing dental care resources, especially for urgent
      dental needs. Policy efforts and political will are needed to provide alternative
      options for seeking emergency dental care.

PMID- 28574194
TI  - The big and intricate dreams of little organelles: Embracing complexity in the
      study of membrane traffic.
AB  - Compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells into dynamic organelles that exchange
      material through regulated membrane traffic governs virtually every aspect of
      cellular physiology including signal transduction, metabolism and transcription.
      Much has been revealed about the molecular mechanisms that control organelle
      dynamics and membrane traffic and how these processes are regulated by metabolic,
      physical and chemical cues. From this emerges the understanding of the
      integration of specific organellar phenomena within complex, multiscale and
      nonlinear regulatory networks. In this review, we discuss systematic approaches
      that revealed remarkable insight into the complexity of these phenomena,
      including the use of proximity-based proteomics, high-throughput imaging,
      transcriptomics and computational modeling. We discuss how these methods offer
      insights to further understand molecular versatility and organelle heterogeneity,
      phenomena that allow a single organelle population to serve a range of
      physiological functions. We also detail on how transcriptional circuits drive
      organelle adaptation, such that organelles may shift their function to better
      serve distinct differentiation and stress conditions. Thus, organelle dynamics
      and membrane traffic are functionally heterogeneous and adaptable processes that
      coordinate with higher-order system behavior to optimize cell function under a
      range of contexts. Obtaining a comprehensive understanding of organellar
      phenomena will increasingly require combined use of reductionist and system-based
      approaches.

PMID- 28574195
TI  - Pharmacoepidemiology of tacrolimus in pediatric liver transplantation.
AB  - AEs during immunosuppressive treatment with tacrolimus are very common. We
      retrospectively evaluated FK safety and efficacy in a large pediatric liver
      transplant cohort in Latin America. During 2-year follow-up, we analyzed data
      from patients who underwent liver transplantation over the period 2010-2012 and
      recorded FK exposure, AEs, and AR episodes. AEs were classified according
      causality and severity. Tacrolimus exposure before and during AE was compared
      using Wilcoxon matched-pairs test. Kaplan-Meier curves were used for survival
      analysis. In total, 46 patients (out of 72 patients) experienced 69 AEs, such as
      hypomagnesemia (49%), PTLD (6%), hypertension (6%), and/or nephrotoxicity (22%).
      43% of AEs were classified as moderate or serious, and 89% were assigned as
      probable or definitive. Patients who had one or more AR episodes accounted for
      65%. The 12-month acute rejection-free survival was 41% (95% CI, 30.1%-53.1%). A
      significant difference was observed in FK trough concentrations before and during
      hypomagnesemia and nephrotoxicity (P<.05). This study is the first report of FK
      safety in a large group of pediatric liver transplant patients in Latin America.
      Children experience AEs, even in protocols with low FK doses. Therapeutic
      monitoring is an important tool to manage immunosuppressive schemes containing
      tacrolimus in vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28574196
TI  - Wet and Functional Adhesives from One-Step Aqueous Self-Assembly of Natural Amino
      Acids and Polyoxometalates.
AB  - Sessile organisms have undergone long-term evolution to develop the unique
      ability by positioning themselves on wet solid surface through secreting adhesive
      proteins. The present study reveals that natural amino acid monomers can also
      exhibit similar adhesion capacity. This kind of biomimetic adhesives were created
      by the one-step aqueous assembly of basic amino acids with assistance of anionic
      polyoxometalates. The polyoxometalates not only serve as multivalent scaffold to
      initiate the supramolecular cross-linking of amino acid molecules, but also
      function as a redox component, bestowing the wet adhesives with electrochromic
      features.

PMID- 28574197
TI  - Cross-sectional study of the microbiological safety profile of reusing hyaluronic
      acid fillers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Facial filling with hyaluronic acid (HA) is a dermatological
      procedure that has been emerging today. There are not many references regarding
      safety of reusing the remaining product for later touch-up in the same patient.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the microbiological safety of reusing hyaluronic acid
      that is remnant from syringes used for facial filling, stored at room temperature
      or cooled in a refrigerator at 4 degrees C. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In culture
      medium, small aliquots of leftovers from 31 hyaluronic acid fillers, previously
      used for facial filling, were inoculated. The fillers were stored in their
      original syringes at room temperature or cooled in a standard refrigerator at 4
      degrees C for a period ranging from 1 week to 12 months after initial use.
      LIMITATIONS: The small number of samples limits extrapolation of the results
      obtained. RESULTS: After 42 days of inoculation in culture medium, none of the
      samples showed any aerobic or anaerobic bacterial or fungal growth. CONCLUSION:
      Hyaluronic acid fillers did not show any fungal or bacterial contamination after
      being opened and stored at room temperature in nonaseptic conditions. The
      possibility of reusing the remaining portion of the material in the syringe can
      be safe and economically viable.

PMID- 28574198
TI  - Reversible Photothermal Isomerization of Carborane-Fused Azaborole to Borirane:
      Synthesis and Reactivity of Carbene-Stabilized Carborane-Fused Borirane.
AB  - A fully reversible photothermal isomerization between carborane-fused trigonal
      planar azaborole (dark-purple) and tetrahedral borirane (pale-yellow) has been
      observed, leading to the isolation and structural characterization of the first
      example of carborane-fused borirane. DFT calculations indicate that the azaborole
      is thermodynamically more stable than the borirane by 11.2 kcal mol-1 , and the
      energy barrier for the thermal conversion from azaborole to borirane is 35.5 kcal
      mol-1 . The reactivity studies show that the B-C(cage) bond in borirane can be
      broken in the reaction with CuCl, HCl, or elemental sulfur.

PMID- 28574199
TI  - Allocation of organs to cognitively impaired patients.

PMID- 28574201
TI  - Standardized high-sensitivity flow cytometry testing for paroxysmal nocturnal
      hemoglobinuria in children with acquired bone marrow failure disorders: A single
      center US study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare, acquired
      hematopoietic stem cell disorder that has not been well-documented in children,
      particularly those with acquired bone marrow failure disorders (ABMFD)-acquired
      aplastic anemia (AAA) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Therefore, we sought to
      determine the prevalence of PNH populations in children with ABMFD. METHODS: PNH
      testing was performed in children with an ABMFD diagnosis using high sensitivity
      (>=0.01%) fluorescent aerolysin (FLAER)-based assay according to 2010
      International Clinical Cytometry Society (ICCS) PNH Consensus Guidelines and 2012
      Practical PNH Guidelines. FLAER/CD64/CD15/CD24/CD14/CD45 and CD235a/CD59 panels
      were used for white blood cell and red blood cell testing, respectively. RESULTS:
      Thirty-seven patients with ABMFD (34 AAA, 3 MDS) were included (17M/20F, age 2-18
      years, median 9 years). PNH populations were identified in 17 of 37 (46%)
      patients. Of the 17 patients with PNH populations identified, 7 were PNH clones
      (>1% PNH population), and 10 had minor PNH population or rare cells with PNH
      phenotype (<=1% PNH population). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to use a
      standardized high-sensitivity FLAER-based flow cytometry assay and the
      recommended cutoff of 0.01% to identify cells with PNH phenotype in pediatric
      patients with ABMFD in the United States. The identification of a PNH population
      in 46% of ABMFD supports the recommendation for high sensitivity PNH testing in
      children with these disorders. As a less sensitive assay using a cutoff of >= 1%
      PNH population would have missed 10 (27%) patients with minor PNH population or
      rare cells with PNH phenotype. (c) 2017 International Clinical Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28574200
TI  - Conversion of cis-2-carboxycyclohexylacetyl-CoA in the downstream pathway of
      anaerobic naphthalene degradation.
AB  - The cyclohexane derivative cis-2-(carboxymethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylic acid
      [(1R,2R)-/(1S,2S)-2-(carboxymethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylic acid] has previously
      been identified as metabolite in the pathway of anaerobic degradation of
      naphthalene by sulfate-reducing bacteria. We tested the corresponding CoA esters
      of isomers and analogues of this compound for conversion in cell free extracts of
      the anaerobic naphthalene degraders Desulfobacterium strain N47 and
      Deltaproteobacterium strain NaphS2. Conversion was only observed for the cis
      isomer, verifying that this is a true intermediate and not a dead-end product.
      Mass-spectrometric analyses confirmed that conversion is performed by an acyl-CoA
      dehydrogenase and a subsequent hydratase yielding an intermediate with a tertiary
      hydroxyl-group. We propose that a novel kind of ring-opening lyase is involved in
      the further catabolic pathway proceeding via pimeloyl-CoA. In contrast to
      degradation pathways of monocyclic aromatic compounds where ring-cleavage is
      achieved via hydratases, this lyase might represent a new ring-opening strategy
      for the degradation of polycyclic compounds. Conversion of the potential
      downstream metabolites pimeloyl-CoA and glutaryl-CoA was proved in cell free
      extracts, yielding 2,3-dehydropimeloyl-CoA, 3-hydroxypimeloyl-CoA, 3-oxopimeloyl
      CoA, glutaconyl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and acetyl-CoA as
      observable intermediates. This indicates a link to central metabolism via beta
      oxidation, a non-decarboxylating glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase and a subsequent
      glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase.

PMID- 28574202
TI  - Adaptive power priors with empirical Bayes for clinical trials.
AB  - Incorporating historical information into the design and analysis of a new
      clinical trial has been the subject of much discussion as a way to increase the
      feasibility of trials in situations where patients are difficult to recruit. The
      best method to include this data is not yet clear, especially in the case when
      few historical studies are available. This paper looks at the power prior
      technique afresh in a binomial setting and examines some previously unexamined
      properties, such as Box P values, bias, and coverage. Additionally, it proposes
      an empirical Bayes-type approach to estimating the prior weight parameter by
      marginal likelihood. This estimate has advantages over previously criticised
      methods in that it varies commensurably with differences in the historical and
      current data and can choose weights near 1 when the data are similar enough.
      Fully Bayesian approaches are also considered. An analysis of the operating
      characteristics shows that the adaptive methods work well and that the various
      approaches have different strengths and weaknesses.

PMID- 28574203
TI  - Microbial network, phylogenetic diversity and community membership in the active
      layer across a permafrost thaw gradient.
AB  - Biogenic production and release of methane (CH4 ) from thawing permafrost has the
      potential to be a strong source of radiative forcing. We investigated changes in
      the active layer microbial community of three sites representative of distinct
      permafrost thaw stages at a palsa mire in northern Sweden. The palsa site (intact
      permafrost and low radiative forcing signature) had a phylogenetically clustered
      community dominated by Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria. The bog (thawing
      permafrost and low radiative forcing signature) had lower alpha diversity and
      midrange phylogenetic clustering, characteristic of ecosystem disturbance
      affecting habitat filtering. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens and Acidobacteria
      dominated the bog shifting from palsa-like to fen-like at the waterline. The fen
      (no underlying permafrost, high radiative forcing signature) had the highest
      alpha, beta and phylogenetic diversity, was dominated by Proteobacteria and
      Euryarchaeota and was significantly enriched in methanogens. The Mire microbial
      network was modular with module cores consisting of clusters of Acidobacteria,
      Euryarchaeota or Xanthomonodales. Loss of underlying permafrost with associated
      hydrological shifts correlated to changes in microbial composition, alpha, beta
      and phylogenetic diversity associated with a higher radiative forcing signature.
      These results support the complex role of microbial interactions in mediating
      carbon budget changes and climate feedback in response to climate forcing.

PMID- 28574204
TI  - Rational clinical evaluation of suspected acute coronary syndromes: The value of
      more information.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Many meta-analyses have provided synthesised likelihood ratio data to
      aid clinical decision-making. However, much less has been published on how to
      safely combine clinical information in practice. We aimed to explore the benefits
      and risks of pooling clinical information during the ED assessment of suspected
      acute coronary syndrome. METHODS: Clinical information on 1776 patients was
      collected within a randomised trial conducted across five South Australian EDs
      between July 2011 and March 2013. Bayes theorem was used to calculate patient
      specific post-test probabilities using age- and gender-specific pre-test
      probabilities and likelihood ratios corresponding to the presence or absence of
      18 clinical factors. Model performance was assessed as the presence of adverse
      cardiac outcomes among patients theoretically discharged at a post-test
      probability less than 1%. RESULTS: Bayes theorem-based models containing high
      sensitivity troponin T (hs-troponin) outperformed models excluding hs-troponin,
      as well as models utilising TIMI and GRACE scores. In models containing hs
      troponin, a plateau in improving discharge safety was observed after the
      inclusion of four clinical factors. Models with fewer clinical factors better
      approximated the true event rate, tended to be safer and resulted in a smaller
      standard deviation in post-test probability estimates. CONCLUSIONS: We showed
      that there is a definable point where additional information becomes
      uninformative and may actually lead to less certainty. This evidence supports the
      concept that clinical decision-making in the assessment of suspected acute
      coronary syndrome should be focused on obtaining the least amount of information
      that provides the highest benefit for informing the decisions of admission or
      discharge.

PMID- 28574206
TI  - Genome-wide-analyses of Listeria monocytogenes from food-processing plants reveal
      clonal diversity and date the emergence of persisting sequence types.
AB  - Whole genome sequencing is increasing used in epidemiology, e.g. for tracing
      outbreaks of food-borne diseases. This requires in-depth understanding of
      pathogen emergence, persistence and genomic diversity along the food production
      chain including in food processing plants. We sequenced the genomes of 80
      isolates of Listeria monocytogenes sampled from Danish food processing plants
      over a time-period of 20 years, and analysed the sequences together with 10
      public available reference genomes to advance our understanding of interplant and
      intraplant genomic diversity of L. monocytogenes. Except for three persisting
      sequence types (ST) based on Multi Locus Sequence Typing being ST7, ST8 and
      ST121, long-term persistence of clonal groups was limited, and new clones were
      introduced continuously, potentially from raw materials. No particular gene could
      be linked to the persistence phenotype. Using time-based phylogenetic analyses of
      the persistent STs, we estimate the L. monocytogenes evolutionary rate to be 0.18
      0.35 single nucleotide polymorphisms/year, suggesting that the persistent STs
      emerged approximately 100 years ago, which correlates with the onset of
      industrialization and globalization of the food market.

PMID- 28574205
TI  - First-line immune tolerance induction for children with severe haemophilia A: A
      protocol from the UK Haemophilia Centre Doctors' Organisation Inhibitor and
      Paediatric Working Parties.

PMID- 28574207
TI  - Human DNA helicase, RuvBL1 and its Chlamydomonas homologue, CrRuvBL1 plays an
      important role in ciliogenesis.
AB  - Several nuclear and nucleic acid-binding proteins were detected in the proteomic
      analyses of ciliary fractions from various organisms. Yet very little is known
      about the role of these proteins in ciliogenesis and ciliary signaling. In an
      attempt to characterize the role of these nuclear proteins, we identified a
      hypothetical protein from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, CrRuvBL1, which is
      homologous to human DNA helicase, HsRuvBL1. CrRuvBL1 localizes to flagella and
      nucleus in vegetative Chlamydomonas cells. It accumulates in the nucleus
      specifically during initial stages of flagellar assembly and cell division
      indicating its role in these processes. Mammalian counterpart of this protein,
      HsRuvBL1, was found to be present at the basal bodies and in the primary cilium
      of quiescent Retinal Pigment Epithelial (RPE1) cells. In interphase cells,
      HsRuvBL1 is present at centrioles while the protein localizes on spindle fibers,
      spindle poles and midbodies, which are important structures formed during
      different phases of cell division. Depletion of HsRuvBL1 by using siRNAs leads to
      complete loss of primary cilia in RPE1 cells. Together these results suggest that
      nuclear proteins play an important role in ciliogenesis.

PMID- 28574208
TI  - Acute concomitant esotropia in children.

PMID- 28574209
TI  - von Willebrand disease and extra-intestinal angiodysplasia.

PMID- 28574210
TI  - Using the regulation of accuracy to study performance when the correct answer is
      not known.
AB  - We examined memory performance in multiple-choice questions when correct answers
      were not always present. How do participants answer when they are aware that the
      correct alternative may not be present? To answer this question we allowed
      participants to decide on the number of alternatives in their final answer (the
      plurality option), and whether they wanted to report or withhold their answer
      (report option). We also studied the memory benefits when both the plurality and
      the report options were available. In two experiments participants watched a
      crime and then answered questions with five alternatives. Half of the questions
      were presented with the correct alternative and half were not. Participants
      selected one alternative and rated confidence, then selected three alternatives
      and again rated confidence, and finally indicated whether they preferred the
      answer with one or with three alternatives (plurality option). Lastly, they
      decided whether to report or withhold the answer (report option). Results showed
      that participants' confidence in their selections was higher, that they chose
      more single answers, and that they preferred to report more often when the
      correct alternative was presented. We also attempted to classify a posteriori
      questions as either presented with or without the correct alternative from
      participants' selection. Classification was better than chance, and encouraging,
      but the forensic application of the classification technique is still limited
      since there was a large percentage of responses that were incorrectly classified.
      Our results also showed that the memory benefits of both plurality and report
      options overlap.

PMID- 28574211
TI  - Comparison of the recommendations of the AAPM TG-51 and TG-51 addendum reference
      dosimetry protocols.
AB  - This work quantified differences between recommendations of the TG-51 and TG-51
      addendum reference dosimetry protocols. Reference dosimetry was performed for
      flattened photon beams with nominal energies of 6, 10, 15, and 23 MV, as well as
      flattening-filter free (FFF) beam energies of 6 and 10 MV, following the
      recommendations of both the TG-51 and TG-51 addendum protocols using both a
      Farmer(r) ionization chamber and a scanning ionization chamber with calibration
      coefficients traceable to absorbed dose-to-water (Dw ) standards. Differences in
      Dw determined by the two protocols were 0.1%-0.3% for beam energies with a
      flattening filter, and up to 0.2% and 0.8% for FFF beams measured with the
      scanning and Farmer(r) ionization chambers, respectively, due to kQ
      determination, volume-averaging correction, and collimator jaw setting. Combined
      uncertainty was between 0.91% and 1.2% (k = 1), varying by protocol and detector.

PMID- 28574212
TI  - Calculation algorithms alter the breath-by-breath gas exchange values when abrupt
      changes in ventilation occur.
AB  - The automatic metabolic units calculate breath-by-breath gas exchange from the
      expiratory data only, applying an algorithm ('expiration-only' algorithm) that
      neglects the changes in the lung gas stores. These last are theoretically taken
      into account by a recently proposed algorithm, based on an alternative view of
      the respiratory cycle ('alternative respiratory cycle' algorithm). The
      performance of the two algorithms was investigated where changes in the lung gas
      stores were induced by abrupt increases in ventilation above the physiological
      demand. Oxygen, carbon dioxide fractions and ventilatory flow were recorded at
      the mouth in 15 healthy subjects during quiet breathing and during 20-s
      hyperventilation manoeuvres performed at 5-min intervals in resting conditions.
      Oxygen uptakes and carbon dioxide exhalations were calculated throughout the
      acquisition periods by the two algorithms. Average ventilation amounted to 6.1 +/
      1.4 l min-1 during quiet breathing and increased to 41.8 +/- 27.2 l min-1 during
      the manoeuvres (P<0.01). During quiet breathing, the two algorithms provided
      overlapping gas exchange data and noise. Conversely, during hyperventilation, the
      'alternative respiratory cycle' algorithm provided significantly lower gas
      exchange data as compared to the values yielded by the 'expiration-only'
      algorithm. For the first breath of hyperventilation, the average values provided
      by the two algorithms amounted to 0.37 +/- 0.34 l min-1 versus 0.96 +/- 0.73 l
      min-1 for O2 uptake and 0.45 +/- 0.36 l min-1 versus 0.80 +/- 0.58 l min-1 for
      exhaled CO2 (P<0.001 for both). When abrupt increases in ventilation occurred,
      such as those arising from a deep breath, the 'alternative respiratory cycle'
      algorithm was able to halve the artefactual gas exchange values as compared to
      the 'expiration-only' approach.

PMID- 28574214
TI  - Exocrine secretion spelled with a capital K+ (BK).

PMID- 28574213
TI  - Comparison of cardiac output estimates by bioreactance and inert gas rebreathing
      methods during cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study assessed the agreement between cardiac output estimated by
      inert gas rebreathing and bioreactance methods at rest and during exercise.
      METHODS: Haemodynamic measurements were assessed in 20 healthy individuals (11
      females, nine males; aged 32 +/- 10 years) using inert gas rebreathing and
      bioreactance methods. Gas exchange and haemodynamic data were measured
      simultaneously under rest and different stages (i.e. 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180
      W) of progressive graded cardiopulmonary exercise stress testing using a bicycle
      ergometer. RESULTS: At rest, bioreactance produced significantly higher cardiac
      output values than inert gas rebreathing (7.8 +/- 1.4 versus 6.5 +/- 1.7 l min-1
      , P = 0.01). At low-to-moderate exercise intensities (i.e. 30-90 W), bioreactance
      produced significantly higher cardiac outputs compared with rebreathing method
      (P<0.05). At workloads of 120 W and above, there was no significant difference in
      cardiac outputs between the two methods (P = 0.10). There was a strong
      relationship between the two methods (r = 0.82, P = 0.01). Bland-Altman analysis
      including rest and exercise data showed that inert gas rebreathing reported 1.95
      l min-1 lower cardiac output than bioreactance, with lower and upper limits of
      agreement of -3.1-7.07 l min-1 . Analysis of peak exercise data showed a mean
      difference of 0.4 l min-1 (lower and upper limits of agreement of -4.9-5.7 l min
      1 ) between both devices. CONCLUSION: Bioreactance and inert gas rebreathing
      methods show acceptable levels of agreement for estimating cardiac output at
      higher levels of metabolic demand. However, they cannot be used interchangeably
      due to strong disparity in results at rest and low-to-moderate exercise
      intensity.

PMID- 28574215
TI  - Haemophilia care in Europe - A survey of 37 countries.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The European Haemophilia Consortium (EHC) is an international non
      profit organization representing 45 national patients' organizations in Europe.
      Every 3 years, the EHC circulates a survey to its national member organizations
      to assess the state of haemophilia care. AIM: The purpose of this exercise is to
      ascertain information about the organization of haemophilia care and treatment
      availability at national levels. Furthermore, the survey provides a basis from
      which the EHC are able to monitor the unmet need and stability of care/treatment
      access in the individual member countries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Surveys are
      distributed to EHC member organizations in English and Russian. Patient
      organizations are encouraged to share the survey with local clinicians to ensure
      accuracy of responses. The data collected are in part consistent to provide a
      longitudinal overview for treatment access, but topical items are included such
      as ageing. Subsequently, completed surveys are transposed into a database for
      analysis and reporting. RESULTS: Thirty-seven responses were received from the 45
      countries approached, representing an 82% response rate from members. Findings
      suggest increased access to treatment and some improvement in certain areas of
      care. However, access to treatment has declined or remained largely unchanged in
      some countries. CONCLUSION: The survey has been a successful exercise in enabling
      a greater understanding of the current Haemophilia care landscape across Europe.
      However, there remain unmet needs in various aspects of patient care, and
      specific examples include psychosocial care and general preparedness for an
      ageing haemophilia population.

PMID- 28574216
TI  - Imaging of haemophilic arthropathy in growing joints: pitfalls in ultrasound and
      MRI.
AB  - The purpose of this review was to summarize the current knowledge on the
      utilization of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound (US) for assessing
      arthropathy in children and adolescents with haemophilia and to recognize the
      limitations of each imaging modality and pitfalls in the diagnosis of soft tissue
      and osteochondral abnormalities. Awareness of MRI and US limitations and pitfalls
      in the assessment of joints in persons with haemophilia is essential for accurate
      diagnosis and optimal management of haemophilic arthropathy.

PMID- 28574217
TI  - Primary ridge augmentation with collagenated xenogenic block bone substitute in
      combination with collagen membrane and rhBMP-2: a pilot histological
      investigation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to test whether a porcine collagenated
      bone substitute block (PCBB) and collagen membrane (CM) loaded with bone
      morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) used for horizontal ridge augmentation differ
      from PCBB and CM without BMP-2 regarding the osseointegration of the grafting
      material and the maintenance of the ridge contour. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two semi
      saddle bone defects were created in each side of the mandible of six dogs. The
      defects were randomly allocated to receive one of the following treatments: bone
      augmentation using (1) PCBB, (2) PCBB loaded with BMP-2 (PCBB-BMP2), (3) PCBB +
      CM and (4) PCBB + CM loaded with BMP-2 (PCBB + CM-BMP2). After 12 weeks, one
      titanium implant was inserted into every site. After 8 weeks, one central
      histological section of each site was prepared. Histomorphometrical assessments
      were performed evaluating the augmented area (AA), the area of new bone (NB)
      (primary outcome), residual bone substitute (BS) and non-mineralized tissue (NMT)
      within AA in mm2 . In addition, the most coronal and the most buccal
      localizations of new bone and residual bone substitute, and the most coronal bone
      to-implant contact were measured in mm. RESULTS: Clinically, all PCBB were firmly
      integrated and permitted implant placement. All the implants osseointegrated and
      exhibited complete hard-tissue coverage of the buccal surface. Bone ingrowth
      always reached the central portions of PCBB. AA measured 10.4 +/- 4.2 mm2 for
      PCBB, 11.8 +/- 2.8 mm2 for PCBB-BMP2, 9.8 +/- 2.9 mm2 for PCBB + CM and 8.5 +/-
      2.2 mm2 for PCBB + CM-BMP2. Only the difference between PCBB-BMP2 and PCBB + CM
      BMP2 was statistically significant (P = 0.031). NB reached 2.3 +/- 1.3 mm2 for
      PCBB, 2 +/- 0.5 mm2 for PCBB-BMP2, 2.7 +/- 1.2 mm2 for PCBB + CM and 1.8 +/- 0.7
      mm2 for PCBB + CM-BMP2. There were no statistically significant differences
      regarding NB, the most coronal and the most buccal localizations of new bone,
      residual bone substitute and bone-to-implant contact (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The
      addition of BMP-2 to PCBB or CM used for horizontal ridge augmentation did not
      render a statistically significant improvement in the maintenance of the
      augmented ridge contour and the new bone formation. PCBB with and without CM
      showed pronounced bone ingrowth and capacity to maintain the augmented ridge
      contour. In all the regions previously augmented with PCBB, the implants
      successfully integrated and presented with complete hard-tissue coverage.

PMID- 28574218
TI  - A novel mutation in GMPPA in siblings with apparent intellectual disability,
      epilepsy, dysmorphism, and autonomic dysfunction.
AB  - GMPPA encodes the GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase A protein (GMPPA). The function
      of GMPPA is not well defined, however it is a homolog of GMPPB which catalyzes
      the reaction that converts mannose-1-phosphate and guanosine-5'-triphosphate to
      GDP-mannose. Previously, biallelic mutations in GMPPA were reported to cause a
      disorder characterized by achalasia, alacrima, neurological deficits, and
      intellectual disability. In this study, we report a female proband with
      achalasia, alacrima, hypohydrosis, apparent intellectual disability, seizures,
      microcephaly, esotropia, and craniofacial dysmorphism. Exome sequencing
      identified a previously unreported homozygous c.853+1G>A variant in GMPPA in the
      proband and her affected sister. Their unaffected parents were heterozygous, and
      unaffected brother homozygous wild type for this variant. Lymphoblast cells from
      the affected sisters showed complete loss of the GMPPA protein by Western
      blotting, and increased levels of GDP-mannose in lymphoblasts on high performance
      liquid chromatography. Based on our findings and the previous report describing
      patients with an overlapping phenotype, we conclude that this novel variant in
      GMPPA, identified by exome sequencing in the proband and her affected sister, is
      the genetic cause of their phenotype and may expand the known phenotype of this
      recently described glycosylation disorder.

PMID- 28574219
TI  - Optimization of the dosimetric leaf gap for use in planning VMAT treatments of
      spine SABR cases.
AB  - The dosimetric leaf gap (DLG) is a beam configuration parameter used in the
      Varian Eclipse treatment planning system, to model the effects of rounded MLC
      leaf ends. Measuring the DLG using the conventional sliding-slit technique has
      been shown to be produce questionable results for some volumetric modulated arc
      therapy (VMAT) treatments. This study therefore investigated the use of
      radiochromic film measurements to optimize the DLG specifically for the purpose
      of producing accurate VMAT plans using a flattening-filter-free (FFF) beam, for
      use in treating vertebral targets using a stereotactic (SABR, also known as SBRT)
      fractionation schedule. Four test treatments were planned using a VMAT technique,
      to deliver a prescription of 24 Gy in 3 fractions to four different spine SABR
      treatment sites. Measurements of the doses delivered by these treatments were
      acquired using an ionization chamber and radiographic film. These measurements
      were compared with the doses calculated by the treatment planning system using a
      range of DLG values, including a DLG identified using the conventional sliding
      slit method (1.1 mm). An optimal DLG value was identified, as the value that
      produced the closest agreement between the planned and measured doses (1.9 mm).
      The accuracy of the dose calculations produced using the optimized DLG value was
      verified using additional radiochromic film measurements in a heterogeneous
      phantom. This study provided a specific initial DLG (1.9 mm) as well as a film
      based optimization method, which may be used by radiotherapy centers when
      attempting to commission or improve an FFF VMAT-based SABR treatment programme.

PMID- 28574220
TI  - Functional Mechanically Interlocked Molecules: Asymmetric Organocatalysis with a
      Catenated Bifunctional Bronsted Acid.
AB  - Interlocked molecules, such as catenanes, rotaxanes, and molecular knots, have
      become interesting candidates for the development of sophisticated chemical
      catalysts. Herein, we report the first application of a catenane-based catalyst
      in asymmetric organocatalysis, revealing that the catenated catalyst shows
      dramatically increased stereoselectivities (up to 98 % ee) in comparison to its
      non-interlocked analogues. A mechanistic rationale for the observed differences
      was developed by DFT studies, suggesting that the involvement of two
      catalytically active groups in the stereodetermining reaction step is responsible
      for the superior selectivity of the interlocked catalyst.

PMID- 28574221
TI  - Validation of a method for in vivo 3D dose reconstruction in SBRT using a new
      transmission detector.
AB  - Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) involves the delivery of substantially
      larger doses over fewer fractions than conventional therapy. Therefore, SBRT
      treatments will strongly benefit patients using vivo patient dose verification,
      because the impact of the fraction is large. For in vivo measurements, a
      commercially available quality assurance (QA) system is the COMPASS system (IBA
      Dosimetry, Germany). For measurements, the system uses a new transmission
      detector (Dolphin, IBA Dosimetry). In this study, we evaluated the method for in
      vivo 3D dose reconstruction for SBRT using this new transmission detector. We
      confirmed the accuracy of COMPASS with Dolphin for SBRT using multi leaf
      collimator (MLC) test patterns and clinical SBRT cases. We compared the results
      between the COMPASS, the treatment planning system, the Kodak EDR2 film, and the
      Monte Carlo (MC) calculations. MLC test patterns were set up to investigate
      various aspects of dose reconstruction for SBRT: (a) simple open fields (2 * 2-10
      * 10 cm2 ), (b) a square wave chart pattern, and (c) the MLC position
      detectability test in which the MLCs were changed slightly. In clinical cases, we
      carried out 6 and 8 static IMRT beams for SBRT in the lung and liver. For MLC
      test patterns, the differences between COMPASS and MC were around 3%. The COMPASS
      with the dolphin system showed sufficient resolution in SBRT. For clinical cases,
      COMPASS can detect small changes for the dose profile and dose-volume histogram.
      COMPASS also showed good agreement with MC. We can confirm the feasibility of
      SBRT QA using the COMPASS system with Dolphin. This method was successfully
      operated using the new transmission detector and verified by measurements and MC.

PMID- 28574222
TI  - Transition boundaries for protistan species turnover in hypersaline waters of
      different biogeographic regions.
AB  - The identification of environmental barriers which govern species distribution is
      a fundamental concern in ecology. Even though salt was previously identified as a
      major transition boundary for micro- and macroorganisms alike, the salinities
      causing species turnover in protistan communities are unknown. We investigated
      4.5 million high-quality protistan metabarcodes (V4 region of the SSU rDNA)
      obtained from 24 shallow salt ponds (salinities 4%-44%) from South America and
      Europe. Statistical analyses of protistan community profiles identified four
      salinity classes, which strongly selected for different protistan communities: 4
      9%, 14-24%, 27-36% and 38-44%. The proportion of organisms unknown to science is
      highest in the 14-24% salinity class, showing that environments within this
      salinity range are an unappreciated reservoir of as yet undiscovered organisms.
      Distinct higher-rank taxon groups dominated in the four salinity classes in terms
      of diversity. As increasing salinities require different cellular responses to
      cope with salt, our results suggest that different evolutionary lineages of
      protists have evolved distinct haloadaptation strategies. Salinity appears to be
      a stronger selection factor for the structuring of protistan communities than
      geography. Yet, we find a higher degree of endemism in shallow salt ponds
      compared with less isolated ecosystems such as the open ocean. Thus, rules for
      biogeographic structuring of protistan communities are not universal, but depend
      on the ecosystem under consideration.

PMID- 28574223
TI  - Advantages of the modified double ring areolar incision over the traditional
      areolar incision in multicentric breast fibroadenoma surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate the clinical advantages of
      modified double ring areola incision (MDRAI) compared to ordinary areola incision
      (OAI) in multicentric breast fibroadenoma in women. METHODS: Sixty cases of
      multicentric benign breast tumor were recruited from the First Affiliated
      Hospital of Bengbu Medical College from January to December 2016. The cases were
      divided into two groups according to surgical approach: MDRAI (n = 20) and OAI (n
      = 40). The operation duration, intraoperative blood loss, drainage time, and
      postoperative recurrence rate in the first six months were compared. RESULTS: The
      mean age and tumor locations were not statistically different between the groups
      (P > 0.05). However, more lesions and larger tumor diameter were found in the
      MDRAI group than in the OAI group, with statistical difference (P < 0.05). The
      operation duration and drainage time of the two groups were not statistically
      different for unilateral or bilateral lesions (P > 0.05). However, the
      intraoperative blood loss was statistically different between the two groups (P <
      0.05). All 60 cases received six months of follow-up. Eight recurrent cases were
      found in the OAI group, but none in the MDRAI group. The recurrence rate was
      significantly different (chi2  = 4.62, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Compared with OAI,
      MDRAI offers greater advantages in the aspects of blood loss and recurrence for
      the treatment of breast benign tumor, especially for multicentric larger lesions.

PMID- 28574226
TI  - Is Moderate Mitral Regurgitation Enough for Surgery or Too Much to Follow Up?

PMID- 28574225
TI  - Three-Stream, Bicarbonate-Based Hemodialysis Solution Delivery System Revisited:
      With an Emphasis on Some Aspects of Acid-Base Principles.
AB  - Hemodialysis patients can acquire buffer base (i.e., bicarbonate and buffer base
      equivalents of certain organic anions) from the acid and base concentrates of a
      three-stream, dual-concentrate, bicarbonate-based, dialysis solution delivery
      machine. The differences between dialysis fluid concentrate systems containing
      acetic acid versus sodium diacetate in the amount of potential buffering power
      were reviewed. Any organic anion such as acetate, citrate, or lactate (unless
      when combined with hydrogen) delivered to the body has the potential of being
      converted to bicarbonate. The prescribing physician aware of the role that
      organic anions in the concentrates can play in providing buffering power to the
      final dialysis fluid, will have a better knowledge of the amount of bicarbonate
      and bicarbonate precursors delivered to the patient.

PMID- 28574227
TI  - Frank A. Gotch: 1926-2017.

PMID- 28574228
TI  - aPKC-iota/P-Sp1/Snail signaling induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition and
      immunosuppression in cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - : Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a highly malignant bile duct cancer that tends to
      invade and metastasize early. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has
      been implicated in cancer cell invasion and metastasis, as well as in cancer cell
      evasion of host immunity. In this study, we investigated the interaction between
      atypical protein kinase C-iota (aPKC-iota) and Snail in the regulation of EMT and
      its relationship to CCA immunosuppression. Our results demonstrated that aPKC
      iota, Snail, and infiltrated immunosuppressive cells were significantly up
      regulated in CCA tumor tissues and linked to poor prognosis. aPKC-iota induced
      EMT and immunosuppression by regulating Snail in vitro and in vivo, although aPKC
      iota did not directly interact with Snail in coimmunoprecipitation experiments.
      To further clarify the molecular interaction between aPKC-iota and Snail in
      relation to EMT, quantitative iTRAQ-based phosphoproteomic analysis and liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry were conducted to identify the substrates
      of aPKC-iota-dependent phosphorylation. Combined with coimmunoprecipitation, we
      showed that specificity protein 1 (Sp1) was directly phosphorylated by aPKC-iota
      on Ser59 (P-Sp1). Both Sp1 and P-Sp1 were up-regulated in CCA tumor tissues and
      associated with clinicopathological features and poor prognosis in CCA patients.
      Moreover, using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we found that P-Sp1
      regulated Snail expression by increasing Sp1 binding to the Snail promoter. P-Sp1
      also regulated aPKC-iota/Snail-induced EMT-like changes and immunosuppression in
      CCA cells. Our findings further indicated that CCA cells with EMT-like features
      appear to generate immunosuppressive natural T regulatory-like cluster of
      differentiation 4-positive (CD4+ )CD25- cells rather than to increase CD4+ CD25+
      natural T regulatory cells, in part by mediating T regulatory-inducible cytokines
      such as transforming growth factor beta1 and interleukin 2. CONCLUSION: These
      results demonstrate that aPKC-iota promotes EMT and induces immunosuppression
      through the aPKC-iota/P-Sp1/Snail signaling pathway and may be a potential
      therapeutic target for CCA. (Hepatology 2017;66:1165-1182).

PMID- 28574229
TI  - The effects of joint disease, inhibitors and other complications on health
      related quality of life among males with severe haemophilia A in the United
      States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is reduced among persons
      with haemophilia. Little is known about how HRQoL varies with complications of
      haemophilia such as inhibitors and joint disease. Estimates of preference-based
      HRQoL measures are needed to model the cost-effectiveness of prevention
      strategies. AIM: We examined the characteristics of a national sample of persons
      with severe haemophilia A for associations with two preference-based measures of
      HRQoL. METHODS: We analysed utility weights converted from EuroQol 5 Dimensions
      (EQ-5D) and the Short Form 6 Dimensions (SF-6D) scores from 1859 males aged >=14
      years with severe haemophilia A treated at 135 US haemophilia treatment centres
      in 2005-2011. Bivariate and regression analyses examined age-group-specific
      associations of HRQoL with inhibitor status, overweight/obesity, number of
      bleeds, viral infections, indicators of liver and joint disease, and severe
      bleeding at the time of the first HRQoL measurement. RESULTS: Overall mean HRQoL
      utility weight values were 0.71 using the SF-6D and 0.78 using the EQ-5D. All
      studied patient characteristics except for overweight/obesity were significantly
      associated with HRQoL in bivariate analyses. In a multivariate analysis, only
      joint disease was significantly associated with utility weights from both HRQoL
      measures and across all age groups. After adjustment for joint disease and other
      variables, the presence of an inhibitor was not significantly associated with
      HRQoL scores from either of the standardized assessment tools. CONCLUSION:
      Clinically significant complications of haemophilia, especially joint disease,
      are strongly associated with HRQoL and should be accounted for in studies of
      preference-based health utilities for people with haemophilia.

PMID- 28574230
TI  - Nicotine effects on exercise performance and physiological responses in nicotine
      naive individuals: a systematic review.
AB  - The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of smokeless
      forms of nicotine on physiological responses and exercise performance.
      Methodology and reporting were based on the PRISMA statement. The intervention
      was defined as any product containing nicotine that did not require smoking.
      Searches were conducted across two electronic databases with supplementary
      approaches utilized. Studies were selected following set inclusion and exclusion
      criteria and checked by two independent authors. A modified PEDro scale was
      utilized to rate study quality with studies averaging 9.3/13. Six studies
      assessed exercise performance with endurance-based parameters reported as
      significantly improved with nicotine in one study, while anaerobic parameters
      were unaffected or decreased compared to placebo except in one study which
      reported enhanced leg extensor torque but no effect on countermovement jump or
      Wingate anaerobic capacity. Sixteen of 28 studies investigating physiological
      responses reported that nicotine significantly increased heart rate compared to
      placebo or control. Blood pressure and blood flow were also reported as
      significantly increased in multiple studies. While there is strong evidence of
      nicotine-induced changes in physiological function that would benefit physical
      performance, beneficial effects have only been reported on leg extensor torque
      and endurance performance by one study each. Subsequently, there is need for more
      research with strong methodological quality to definitively evaluate nicotine's
      potential as an ergogenic aid.

PMID- 28574231
TI  - A new diagnosis of Williams-Beuren syndrome in a 49-year-old man with severe
      bullous emphysema.
AB  - Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a chromosomal microdeletion syndrome typically
      presenting with intellectual disability, a unique personality, a characteristic
      facial appearance, and cardiovascular disease. Several clinical features of WBS
      are thought to be due to haploinsufficiency of elastin (ELN), as the ELN locus is
      included within the WBS critical region at 7q11.23. Emphysema, a disease
      attributed to destruction of pulmonary elastic fibers, has been reported in
      patients without WBS who have pathogenic variants in ELN but only once (in one
      patient) in WBS. Here we report a second adult WBS patient with emphysema where
      the diagnosis of WBS was established subsequent to the discovery of severe
      bullous emphysema. Haploinsufficiency of ELN likely contributed to this pulmonary
      manifestation of WBS. This case emphasizes the contribution of rare genetic
      variation in cases of severe emphysema and provides further evidence that
      emphysema should be considered in patients with WBS who have respiratory
      symptoms, as it may be under-recognized in this patient population.

PMID- 28574232
TI  - A heritable microduplication encompassing TBL1XR1 causes a genomic sister
      disorder for the 3q26.32 microdeletion syndrome.
AB  - Recently, a new syndrome with intellectual disability (ID) and dysmorphic
      features due to deletions or point mutations within the TBL1XR1 gene located in
      the chromosomal band 3q26.32 has been described (MRD41, OMIM 616944). One
      recurrent point mutation in the TBL1XR1 gene has been identified as the cause of
      Pierpont syndrome (OMIM 602342), a distinct intellectual disability syndrome with
      plantar lipomatosis. In addition, different de novo point mutations in the
      TBL1XR1 gene have been found in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and
      intellectual disability. Here, we report four patients from two unrelated
      families in whom array-CGH analysis and real-time quantitative PCR of genomic DNA
      revealed a TBL1XR1-microduplication. Adjacent genes were not affected. The
      microduplication occurred as a de novo event in one patient, whereas the other
      three cases occurred in two generations of a second, unrelated family. We compare
      and contrast the clinical findings in TBL1XR1 microdeletion, point mutation, and
      microduplication cases and expand the TBL1XR1-associated phenotypic spectrum. ID,
      hearing loss, and ASD are common features of TBL1XR1-associated diseases. Our
      clinical observations add to the increasing evidence of the role of TBL1XR1 in
      brain development, and they simultaneously demonstrate that different genetic
      disease mechanisms affecting TBL1XR1 can lead to similar ID phenotypes. The
      TBL1XR1-microduplication syndrome is an intellectual disability/learning
      disability syndrome with associated incomplete penetrance ASD, hearing loss, and
      delay of puberty. Its phenotypic overlap indicates that it is a genomic sister
      disorder to the 3q26.32 microdeletion syndrome.

PMID- 28574233
TI  - The Impact of the ACA's Medicaid Expansion on Hospitals' Uncompensated Care
      Burden and the Potential Effects of Repeal.
AB  - ISSUE: By increasing health insurance coverage, the Affordable Care Act's
      Medicaid eligibility expansion was also expected to lessen the uncompensated care
      burden on hospitals. The expansion currently faces an uncertain future. GOAL: To
      compare the change in hospitals' uncompensated care burden in the 31 states (plus
      the District of Columbia) that chose to expand Medicaid to the changes in states
      that did not, and to estimate how these expenses would be affected by repeal or
      further expansion. METHODS: Analysis of uncompensated care data from Medicare
      Hospital Cost Reports from 2011 to 2015.FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Uncompensated
      care burdens fell sharply in expansion states between 2013 and 2015, from 3.9
      percent to 2.3 percent of operating costs. Estimated savings across all hospitals
      in Medicaid expansion states totaled $6.2 billion. The largest reductions in
      uncompensated care were found for hospitals in expansion states that care for the
      highest proportion of low-income and uninsured patients. Legislation that scales
      back or eliminates Medicaid expansion is likely to expose these safety-net
      hospitals to large cost increases. Conversely, if the 19 states that chose not to
      expand Medicaid were to adopt expansion, their uncompensated care costs also
      would decrease by an estimated$6.2 billion.

PMID- 28574234
TI  - Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access.
AB  - ISSUE: The Affordable Care Act's (ACA) coverage provisions have extended health
      insurance coverage to millions of Americans. While the effects of the Medicaid
      expansion and marketplace establishments on coverage have been well studied, the
      resulting effects of coverage on access to health care remain unclear. GOAL: To
      examine how the 2014 coverage expansions affected health care access following
      the first open enrollment period of October 2013 to March 2014. METHODS: Analysis
      of data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Behavioral Risk
      Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: We find that gaining
      insurance coverage through the expansions decreased the probability of not
      receiving medical care by between 20.9 percent and 25 percent. Gaining insurance
      coverage also increased the probability of having a usual place of care by
      between 47.1 percent and 86.5 percent. These findings suggest that not only has
      the ACA decreased the number of uninsured Americans, but has substantially
      improved access to care for those who gained coverage.

PMID- 28574235
TI  - How Arizona Medicaid Accelerated the Integration of Physical and Behavioral
      Health Services.
AB  - ISSUE: In most states, one agency has responsibility for Medicaid enrollees'
      physical health services and at least one other agency has responsibility for
      their behavioral health services. Apportioning responsibility for the physical
      and behavioral health of Medicaid beneficiaries into different agencies
      inevitably leads to different--and sometimes misaligned--policy goals, program
      priorities, and purchasing strategies, thereby impeding the delivery of
      integrated care. GOAL: To describe the rationale, process, and impact of
      Arizona's 2015 consolidation of its physical and behavioral health services
      agencies into its Medicaid agency. METHOD: The study is based on published
      research, Arizona Medicaid agency materials, and interviews with 34 individuals,
      including representatives from the current Medicaid agency and previous
      behavioral health services agency, health plans, primary care and behavioral
      health providers, consumers, the justice system, and the health information
      exchange. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Consolidation has led to increased attention
      to behavioral health services and behavioral and physical health integration,
      enabled more strategic purchasing and streamlined regulatory processes, and
      enhanced communication, collaboration, and mutual trust across sectors. Arizona's
      experience offers lessons to policymakers as they consider how best to integrate
      physical and behavioral health services and ensure that Medicaid is an efficient
      and effective purchaser of health care services.

PMID- 28574236
TI  - Improving Access to Care with School-Based Health Centers.

PMID- 28574237
TI  - Gastrointestinal nematodes and the deworming of mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) from
      Goleniowska Forest in West Pomerania province, Poland
AB  - Ruminants often live in environments where the natural balance has been disturbed
      by humans. As a result, there is a transfer of parasitosis to domestic animals
      and sometimes humans. The aim of the study was to determine the annual species
      composition and level of gastrointestinal nematode infection of mouflon (Ovis
      aries musimon) from the half-open breeding colonizing areas of the Goleniowska
      Forest, and to assess the effectiveness of deworming. The course of the parasitic
      infection of mouflon depends largely on geoclimatic and breeding factors. These
      diseases are caused by more than 17 species of nematodes with varying degrees of
      pathogenicity. Due to the high degree of parasitic infections in deer, both in
      Poland and abroad, it is necessary to develop specific preventive programs
      usingpreparations with a broad spectrum of action.

PMID- 28574238
TI  - An administrative right to be free from sexual violence? Title IX enforcement in
      historical and institutional perspective.
AB  - One of the most controversial administrative actions in recent years is the U.S.
      Department of Education's campaign against sexual assault on college campuses.
      Using its authority under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (mandating
      nondiscrimination on the basis of sex in all educational programs and activities
      receiving federal funds), the Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has
      launched an enforcement effort that critics denounce as aggressive, manipulative,
      and corrosive of individual liberties. Missing from the commentary is a
      historically informed understanding of why this administrative campaign unfolded
      as it did. This Article offers crucial context by reminding readers that freedom
      from sexual violence was once celebrated as a national civil right--upon the
      enactment of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994--but then lost that status in
      a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. OCR's recent campaign reflects a legal
      and political landscape in which at least some potential victims of sexual
      violence had come to feel rightfully connected to the institutions of the federal
      government, and then became righteously outraged by the endurance of such
      violence in their communities. OCR's campaign also reflects the unique role of
      federal administrative agencies in this landscape. Thanks to the power of the
      purse and the conditions thatCongress has attached to funding streams, agencies
      enjoy a powerful form of jurisdiction over particular spaces and institutions.
      Attempts to harness this jurisdiction in service of aspirational rights claims
      should not surprise us; indeed, we should expect such efforts to continue.
      Building on this insight, the Article concludes with a research agenda for other
      scholars seeking to understand and evaluate OCR's handiwork.

PMID- 28574239
TI  - 340B Drug Pricing Program Ceiling Price and Manufacturer Civil Monetary Penalties
      Regulation. Final rule; further delay of effective date.
AB  - The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) administers section 340B
      of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), referred to as the "340B Drug Pricing
      Program" or the "340B Program." HRSA published a final rule on January 5, 2017,
      that set forth the calculation of the ceiling price and application of civil
      monetary penalties. The final rule applied to all drug manufacturers that are
      required to make their drugs available to covered entities under the 340B
      Program. In accordance with a January 20, 2017, memorandum from the Assistant to
      the President and Chief of Staff, entitled "Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,"
      HRSA issued an interim final rule that delayed the effective date of the final
      rule published in the Federal Register (82 FR 1210, (January 5, 2017)) to May 22,
      2017. HHS invited commenters to provide their views on whether a longer delay of
      the effective date to October 1, 2017, would be more appropriate. After
      consideration of the comments received on the interim final rule, HHS is delaying
      the effective date of the January 5, 2017 final rule, to October 1, 2017.

PMID- 28574240
TI  - Medicare Program; Advancing Care Coordination Through Episode Payment Models
      (EPMs); Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model; and Changes to
      theComprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model (CJR); Delay of Effective Date.
      Final rule; delay of effective date.
AB  - This final rule finalizes May 20, 2017 as the effective date of the final rule
      titled "Advancing Care Coordination Through Episode Payment Models (EPMs);
      Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model; and Changes to the Comprehensive
      Care for Joint Replacement Model (CJR)" originally published in the January 3,
      2017 Federal Register. This final rule also finalizes a delay of the
      applicability date of the regulations at 42 CFR part 512 from July 1, 2017 to
      January 1, 2018 and delays the effective date of the specific CJR regulations
      listed in the DATES section from July 1, 2017 to January 1, 2018.

PMID- 28574241
TI  - A High Capacity, Good Safety and Low Cost Na2FeSiO4-Based Cathode for
      Rechargeable Sodium-Ion Battery.
AB  - Rechargeable sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are receiving intense interest because
      the resource abundance of sodium and its lithium-like chemistry make them low
      cost alternatives to the prevailing lithium-ion batteries in large-scale energy
      storage devices. Two typical classes of materials including transition metal
      oxides and polyanion compounds have been under intensive investigation as
      cathodes for SIBs; however, they are still limited to poor stability or low
      capacity of the state-of-art. Herein, we report a low cost carbon-coated
      Na2FeSiO4 with simultaneous high capacity and good stability, owing to the highly
      pure Na-rich triclinic phase and the carbon-incorporated three-dimensional
      network morphology. The present carbon-coated Na2FeSiO4 demonstrates the highest
      reversible capacity of 181.0 mAh g-1 to date with multielectron redox reaction
      that occurred among various polyanion-based SIBs cathodes, which achieves a close
      to-100% initial Coulombic efficiency and a stable cycling with 88% capacity
      retention up to 100 cycles. In addition, such an electrode shows excellent
      stability either charged at a high voltage of 4.5 V or heated up to 800  degrees
      C. The present work might open up the possibility for developing high capacity,
      good safety and low cost polyanion-based cathodes for rechargeable SIBs.

PMID- 28574242
TI  - Nanoengineered Stent Surface to Reduce In-Stent Restenosis in Vivo.
AB  - In-stent restenosis (ISR) is the leading cause of stent failure and is a direct
      result of a dysfunctional vascular endothelium and subsequent overgrowth of
      vascular smooth muscle tissue. TiO2 nanotubular (NT) arrays have been shown to
      affect vascular endothelial cells (VECs) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs)
      in vitro by accelerating VEC cell proliferation and migration while suppressing
      VSMCs. This study investigates for the first time the potentially beneficial
      effects of TiO2 NT arrays on vascular tissue in vivo. TiO2 NT arrays (NT
      diameter: 90 +/- 5 nm, height: 1800 +/- 300 nm) were grown on the surface of
      titanium stents and characterized in terms of surface morphology and stability.
      Stents were implanted into the iliofemoral artery using an overinflation model
      (rabbit). After 28 days, stenosis rates were determined. The data show a
      statistically significant reduction of stenosis by 30% compared to the control.
      Tissue in the presence of TiO2 NTs appears more mature, and less neointima is
      present between struts. In addition, the extra cellular matrix secreted by cells
      at the interface of the NT arrays shows complete integration into the
      nanostructured surface. These results document the accelerated restoration of a
      functional endothelium in the presence of TiO2 NT arrays and substantiate their
      beneficial impact on vascular tissue in vivo. Our findings suggest that TiO2 NT
      arrays can be used as a drug-free approach for keeping stents patent long-term
      and have the potential to address ISR.

PMID- 28574243
TI  - Facile Method to Reduce Surface Defects and Trap Densities in Perovskite
      Photovoltaics.
AB  - Owing to improvements in film morphology, crystallization process optimization,
      and compositional design, the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar
      cells has increased from 3.8 to 22.1% in a period of 5 years. Nearly defect-free
      crystalline films and slow recombination rates enable polycrystalline perovskite
      to boast efficiencies comparable to those of multicrystalline silicon solar
      cells. However, volatile low melting point components and antisolvent treatments
      essential for the processing of dense and smooth films often lead to surface
      defects that hamper charge extraction. In this study, we investigate
      methylammonium bromide (MABr) surface treatments on perovskite films to
      compensate for the loss of volatile cation during the annealing process for
      surface defect passivation, grain growth, and a bromide-rich top layer. This
      facile method did not change the phase or bandgap of perovskite films yet
      resulted in a significant increase in the open circuit voltages of devices. The
      devices with 10 mM MABr treatment show 2% improvement in absolute power
      conversion efficiency over the control sample.

PMID- 28574244
TI  - Achieving Low Contact Resistance by Engineering a Metal-Graphene Interface Simply
      with Optical Lithography.
AB  - High-performance graphene-based transistors crucially depend on the creation of
      the high-quality graphene-metal contacts. Here we report an approach for
      achieving ultralow contact resistance simply with optical lithography by
      engineering a metal-graphene interface. Note that a significant improvement with
      optical lithography for the contact-treated graphene device leads to a contact
      resistance as low as 150 Omega.MUm. The residue-free sacrificial film impedes the
      photoresist from further doping graphene, and all of the source and drain contact
      regions defined by optical lithography remain intact. This approach, being
      compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication
      processes regardless of the source of graphene, would hold promise for the large
      scale production of graphene-based transistors with optical lithography.

PMID- 28574245
TI  - Synthesis and Pharmacological Profiling of the Metabolites of Synthetic
      Cannabinoid Drugs APICA, STS-135, ADB-PINACA, and 5F-ADB-PINACA.
AB  - Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) containing a 1-pentyl-1-H substituted indole or
      indazole are abused around the world and are associated with an array of serious
      side effects. These compounds undergo extensive phase 1 metabolism after
      ingestion with little understanding whether these metabolites are contributing to
      the cannabimimetic activity of the drugs. This work presents the synthesis and
      pharmacological characterization of the major metabolites of two high concern
      SCs; APICA and ADB-PINACA. In a fluorometric assay of membrane potential, all
      metabolites that did not contain a carboxylic acid functionality retained potent
      activity at both the CB1 (EC50 = 14-787 nM) and CB2 (EC50 = 5.5-291 nM) receptors
      regardless of heterocyclic core or 3-carboxamide substituent. Of note were the 5
      hydroxypentyl and 4-pentanone metabolites which showed significant increases in
      CB2 functional selectivity. These results suggest that the metabolites of SCs
      potentially contribute to the overall pharmacological profile of these drugs.

PMID- 28574247
TI  - Fabrication of Conductive Copper Films on Flexible Polymer Substrates by Low
      Temperature Sintering of Composite Cu Ink in Air.
AB  - The development of a thermal sintering method for Cu-based inks under an air
      atmosphere could greatly expand their application for printed electronics.
      However, it is well-known that Cu-based inks cannot produce conductive Cu films
      when sintered at low temperatures in air because Cu readily oxidizes under such
      conditions. In this study, we have successfully demonstrated air atmosphere
      sintering at low temperatures (less than 150  degrees C) via a simple hot plate
      heat treatment for producing conductive Cu films on flexible polymer substrates,
      using a novel Cu-based composite ink with sub-10 nm Cu nanoparticles protected
      with 1-amino-2-propanol with micrometer-sized Cu particles and submicrometer
      sized Cu particles; oxalic acid was also added to prevent the oxidation of the Cu
      during sintering. The Cu films showed a minimum resistivity of 5.5 * 10-5
      Omega.cm when sintered in air at 150  degrees C for a very short period of 10 s.
      To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of sintering of Cu-based
      inks in air at less than 150  degrees C. Another novel property of the present Cu
      based composite ink is the lowest reported resistivity at 80  degrees C under N2
      flow (5.3 * 10-5 Omega.cm at 80  degrees C and 8.4 * 10-6 Omega.cm at 120 
      degrees C). This fast, efficient, and inexpensive technology for thermal
      sintering in ambient air using composite inks could be a commercially viable
      method for fabricating printed electronics on flexible substrates.

PMID- 28574246
TI  - Gel Electrolytes with Polyamidopyridine Dendron Modified Talc for Dye-Sensitized
      Solar Cells.
AB  - Organic-inorganic hybrid layered materials are proposed as additives in a quasi
      solid gel electrolyte for dye-sensitized solar cells. Talcs could provide a low
      cost and environmentally friendly, as well as abundant, option as gelators. Here,
      talcs were prepared by functionalizing an organotalc with three polyamidopyridine
      dendron generations, PAMPy-talc-Gn (n = 1, 2 and 3). PAMPy dendrons grow parallel
      to the lamellae plane and form an organized structure by intermolecular
      interactions. In addition, polyiodide-dendron charge-transfer complexes were
      prepared onto the organotalc by adsorption of iodine. In this work, the effect of
      the dendron generation of PAMPy-talc and the influence of polyiodide
      intercalation on solar cell performance and stability were investigated. The best
      results were reached with the use of lowest-generation PAMPy-talc (eta = 4.5 +/-
      0.3%, VOC = 710 +/- 19 mV, Jsc = 10.4 +/- 0.9 mA cm-2, and FF = 61 +/- 2%): 15%
      higher efficiency compared to similar liquid devices. While some previously
      studied talcs illustrate very strong absorption of the iodide from the
      electrolyte, in the case of PAMPy-talc such interfering effects were absent: In a
      1000 h light soaking test, the PAMPy-talc cells both with and without polyiodide
      intercalation demonstrated stable performances. Furthermore, the color analysis
      of the electrolyte indicated that the color of the electrolyte remained stable
      after an initial period of stabilization, which is a good indication of the
      compound being stable and not absorbing charge carriers from the electrolyte. The
      performance and stability results indicate that PAMPy-talc has potential as a
      gelling method for electrolytes for dye solar cells.

PMID- 28574248
TI  - Interfacial Reaction of Fulleropyrrolidines Affecting Organic Photovoltaic
      Performance.
AB  - : Fulleropyrrolidine derivatives are intrinsically basic owing to the amino group
      within the pyrrolidine structure. It can be predicted that the basicity of
      fulleropyrrolidine may affect the photovoltaic devices containing an acidic layer
      (e.g. , PEDOT: PSS). To clarify the effect of basic fulleropyrrolidine
      derivatives, we synthesized compounds with an N-benzyl substituent group and
      fabricated organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells using this N-benzyl
      fulleropyrrolidine. A device structure with the ITO/PEDOT:PSS/organic layer
      (PTB7:fulleropyrrolidine)/Ca/Al showed high series resistance, short-circuit
      current density (Jsc), and low fill factor (FF) values. However, OPV cells having
      an inverted structure, without the PEDOT:PSS layer, contributed good device
      performance. We were able to reproduce the high series resistance in a model
      experiment using aqueous ammonia vapor to treat the PEDOT:PSS layer. Our results
      indicated that the activity of the PEDOT:PSS layer was affected by the basicity
      of the fulleropyrrolidines. These results also explain why this phenomenon does
      not occur at the interface of OPV devices when conventional [6,6]-phenyl C61
      butyric acid methyl ester is used as an acceptor material. This finding would
      contribute to enhancing the OPV device performances from a chemical view point of
      designing a new compound.

PMID- 28574250
TI  - Antibody Conjugated, Raman Tagged Hollow Gold-Silver Nanospheres for Specific
      Targeting and Multimodal Dark-Field/SERS/Two Photon-FLIM Imaging of CD19(+) B
      Lymphoblasts.
AB  - In this Research Article, we propose a new class of contrast agents for the
      detection and multimodal imaging of CD19(+) cancer lymphoblasts. The agents are
      based on NIR responsive hollow gold-silver nanospheres conjugated with antiCD19
      monoclonal antibodies and marked with Nile Blue (NB) SERS active molecules (HNS
      NB-PEG-antiCD19). Proof of concept experiments on specificity of the complex for
      the investigated cells was achieved by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
      The microspectroscopic investigations via dark field (DF), surface-enhanced Raman
      spectroscopy (SERS), and two-photon excited fluorescence lifetime imaging
      microscopy (TPE-FLIM) corroborate with TEM and demonstrate successful and
      preferential internalization of the antibody-nanocomplex. The combination of the
      microspectroscopic techniques enables contrast and sensitivity that competes with
      more invasive and time demanding cell imaging modalities, while depth sectioning
      images provide real time localization of the nanoparticles in the whole cytoplasm
      at the entire depth of the cells. Our findings prove that HNS-NB-PEG-antiCD19
      represent a promising type of new contrast agents with great possibility of being
      detected by multiple, non invasive, rapid and accessible microspectroscopic
      techniques and real applicability for specific targeting of CD19(+) cancer cells.
      Such versatile nanocomplexes combine in one single platform the detection and
      imaging of cancer lymphoblasts by DF, SERS, and TPE-FLIM microspectroscopy.

PMID- 28574249
TI  - Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Acyl-Glycine Inhibitors of GlyT2.
AB  - It has been demonstrated previously that the endogenous compound N-arachidonyl
      glycine inhibits the glycine transporter GlyT2, stimulates glycinergic
      neurotransmission, and provides analgesia in animal models of neuropathic and
      inflammatory pain. However, it is a relatively weak inhibitor with an IC50 of 9
      MUM and is subject to oxidation via cyclooxygenase, limiting its therapeutic
      value. In this paper we describe the synthesis and testing of a novel series of
      monounsaturated C18 and C16 acyl-glycine molecules as inhibitors of the glycine
      transporter GlyT2. We demonstrate that they are up to 28 fold more potent that N
      arachidonyl-glycine with no activity at the closely related GlyT1 transporter at
      concentrations up to 30 MUM. This novel class of compounds show considerable
      promise as a first generation of GlyT2 transport inhibitors.

PMID- 28574252
TI  - Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of Allylic Azides via Asymmetric Dihydroxylation.
AB  - The catalytic enantioselective preparation of densely functionalized amines is a
      fundamental synthetic challenge. To address this challenge, we report for the
      first time that the Winstein rearrangement can be enlisted as the racemization
      pathway in a dynamic kinetic resolution of allylic azides. Alkene
      functionalization by Sharpless dihydroxylation affords tertiary azides in
      excellent enantioselectivity (up to 99:1 er). This approach establishes the
      chirality of the tertiary azide, obviates the need to directly forge either a
      congested C-N or C-C bond at the new nitrogenous stereocenter, and establishes
      additional functionality. Several examples demonstrate further elaboration of
      this functionality.

PMID- 28574251
TI  - Non-Native Metal Ion Reveals the Role of Electrostatics in Synaptotagmin 1
      Membrane Interactions.
AB  - C2 domains are independently folded modules that often target their host proteins
      to anionic membranes in a Ca2+-dependent manner. In these cases, membrane
      association is triggered by Ca2+ binding to the negatively charged loop region of
      the C2 domain. Here, we used a non-native metal ion, Cd2+, in lieu of Ca2+ to
      gain insight into the contributions made by long-range Coulombic interactions and
      direct metal ion-lipid bridging to membrane binding. Using X-ray crystallography,
      NMR, Forster resonance energy transfer, and vesicle cosedimentation assays, we
      demonstrate that, although Cd2+ binds to the loop region of C2A/B domains of
      synaptotagmin 1 with high affinity, long-range Coulombic interactions are too
      weak to support membrane binding of individual domains. We attribute this
      behavior to two factors: the stoichiometry of Cd2+ binding to the loop regions of
      the C2A and C2B domains and the impaired ability of Cd2+ to directly coordinate
      the lipids. In contrast, electron paramagnetic resonance experiments revealed
      that Cd2+ does support membrane binding of the C2 domains in full-length
      synaptotagmin 1, where the high local lipid concentrations that result from
      membrane tethering can partially compensate for lack of a full complement of
      divalent metal ions and specific lipid coordination in Cd2+-complexed C2A/B
      domains. Our data suggest that long-range Coulombic interactions alone can drive
      the initial association of C2A/B with anionic membranes and that Ca2+ further
      augments membrane binding by the formation of metal ion-lipid coordination bonds
      and additional Ca2+ ion binding to the C2 domain loop regions.

PMID- 28574253
TI  - Cationic, Neutral, and Anionic Hydrides of Iridium with PSiP Pincers.
AB  - This work describes synthetic routes from the known precursor [IrClH{kappaP,P,Si
      Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}] (1) to new hydride and polyhydride derivatives.
      Substituting the chloride ligand with triflate leads to the five-coordinate
      complex [IrH{kappaO-O3S(CF3)}{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}] (2), which can
      undergo reversible coordination of water (H2O) or dihydrogen (H2) to generate
      respectively the cationic derivative [IrH{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2
      PiPr2)2}(OH2)2](CF3SO3) (3) or the neutral trans-hydride-dihydrogen [IrH{kappaO
      O3S(CF3)}{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}(eta2-H2)] (6) in equilibrium. The
      use of acetonitrile or carbon monoxide (CO) excess instead of water produces
      stable analogues of 3 (complexes 4 or 5, respectively). The reaction between 1
      and NaBH4 affords the tetrahydroborate derivative [IrH{kappa2H-H2BH2}{kappaP,P,Si
      Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}] (7), which can be protonated with triflic acid to form 2
      or with HBF4 to give the dinuclear cationic derivative [(MU:kappa2H,kappa2H
      BH4)[IrH{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}]2](BF4) (8). The reactions of 7 with
      alcohols afford either the dihydride-carbonyl [IrH2{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2
      PiPr2)2}(CO)] (9) or the known tetrahydride [IrH4{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2
      PiPr2)2}] (10), depending on the ease of alcohol decarbonylation. NMR
      observations and density functional theory calculations on the fluxional behavior
      of 10 indicate that the spatial contour of the mer PSiP framework conditions
      hydride-ligand exchanges. Complex 10 reacts with NaH in tetrahydrofuran to form
      the anionic trihydride [IrH3{kappaP,P,Si-Si(Me)(C6H4-2-PiPr2)2}]Na (11), which
      exists as a mixture of fac and mer isomers in equilibrium.

PMID- 28574254
TI  - Direct Catalytic Desaturation of Lactams Enabled by Soft Enolization.
AB  - A direct catalytic method is described for the alpha,beta-desaturation of N
      protected lactams to their conjugated unsaturated counterparts under mildly
      acidic conditions. The reaction is consistently operated at room temperature and
      tolerates a wide range of functional groups, showing reactivity complementary to
      that of prior desaturation methods. Lactams with various ring sizes and
      substituents at different positions all reacted smoothly. The synthetic utility
      of this method is demonstrated in a concise synthesis of Rolipram. In addition,
      linear amides also prove to be competent substrates, and the phthaloyl-protected
      product serves as a convenient precursor to access various conjugated carboxylic
      acid derivatives. Strong bases are avoided in this desaturation approach, and the
      key is to merge soft enolization with a Pd-catalyzed oxidation process.

PMID- 28574257
TI  - Intramolecular Nitrofuran Diels-Alder Reactions: Extremely Substituent-Tolerant
      Cycloadditions via Asynchronous Transition States.
AB  - Nitrofurans undergo intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions with tethered electron
      poor dienophiles more rapidly and in higher yield than non-nitrated furans.
      Computational studies indicate that increased stabilization of a partial positive
      charge on the nitro-substituted carbon in both transition state and product is
      the driving force for these reactions. Frontier molecular orbital energy
      differences indicate a switch from normal to inverse electron demand upon
      nitration. There does not appear to be a contribution from any differences in
      aromatic stabilization energy between furans and nitrofurans. Calculations show
      that the nitrofuran reactions proceed via a highly asynchronous transition state
      allowing easier bond formation between two sterically hindered carbons.

PMID- 28574255
TI  - Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape Effects on Cellular Uptake and Intracellular
      Distribution of siRNA Nanoconstructs.
AB  - Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) show potential for transfecting target cells with
      small interfering RNA (siRNA), but the influence of key design parameters such as
      the size and shape of the particle core is incomplete. This paper describes a
      side-by-side comparison of the in vitro response of U87 glioblastoma cells to
      different formulations of siRNA-conjugated gold nanoconstructs targeting the
      expression of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) based on 13 nm spheres, 50 nm
      spheres, and 40 nm stars. 50 nm spheres and 40 nm stars showed much higher uptake
      efficiency compared to 13 nm spheres. Confocal fluorescence microscopy showed
      that all three formulations were localized in the endosomes at early incubation
      times (2 h), but after 24 h, 50 nm spheres and 40 nm stars were neither in
      endosomes nor in lysosomes while 13 nm spheres remained in endosomes.
      Transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the 13 nm spheres were
      enclosed and dispersed within endocytic vesicles while 50 nm spheres and 40 nm
      stars were aggregated, and some of these NPs were outside of endocytic vesicles.
      In our comparison of nanoconstructs with different sizes and shapes, while
      holding siRNA surface density and nanoparticle concentration constant, we found
      that larger particles (50 nm spheres and 40 nm stars) showed higher potential as
      carriers for the delivery of siRNA.

PMID- 28574258
TI  - Boosting the Signal Intensity of Nanoelectrospray Ionization by Using a Polarity
      Reversing High-Voltage Strategy.
AB  - Continuous efforts have been made to further improve the performance of nano-ESI.
      In this work, we made use of a polarity-reversing high-voltage strategy for the
      generation of nano-ESI (PR-nESI). Typically, a negative high voltage of -3.0 kV
      was first applied to the electrode and maintained for 6 s. Then the polarity was
      reversed, and a positive high voltage of +1.75 kV was applied for the generation
      of electrospray. Compared with conventional nano-ESI, PR-nESI significantly
      enhanced the signal intensity of protonated protein ions. The signal-to-noise
      ratio (S/N) of protonated protein ions was increased by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
      The increase of S/N was even more remarkable at lower concentrations.
      Furthermore, PR-nESI also had a desalting effect. Metal ion adducts of proteins
      were effectively removed. No metal ion adducts were identified from the spectra,
      even if the concentration of salt was increased to the millimolar level. The
      performance of PR-nESI was confirmed in the detection of different molecules
      including proteins, peptides, amino acids, and other small-molecule compounds.
      The intact folded structure of proteins was preserved during PR-nESI. No
      unfolding was observed in the spectra. PR-nESI was further applied to the
      analysis of noncovalent protein-ligand complexes and protein digest. At last,
      investigations into the mechanism of PR-nESI were carried out. The enhancement of
      signal intensity and desalting effect were related to the electromigration of the
      solutes in solution. With all the advantages above, PR-nESI would be a promising
      method in the future analytical and bioanalytical applications.

PMID- 28574259
TI  - Targeting Mycolic Acid Transport by Indole-2-carboxamides for the Treatment of
      Mycobacterium abscessus Infections.
AB  - Mycobacterium abscessus is a fast-growing, multidrug-resistant organism that has
      emerged as a clinically significant pathogen in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.
      The intrinsic resistance of M. abscessus to most commonly available antibiotics
      seriously restricts chemotherapeutic options. Herein, we report the potent
      activity of a series of indolecarboxamides against M. abscessus. The lead
      compounds, 6 and 12, exhibited strong activity in vitro against a wide panel of
      M. abscessus isolates and in infected macrophages. High resistance levels to the
      indolecarboxamides appear to be associated with an A309P mutation in the mycolic
      acid transporter MmpL3. Biochemical analyses demonstrated that while de novo
      mycolic acid synthesis remained unaffected, the indolecarboxamides strongly
      inhibited the transport of trehalose monomycolate, resulting in the loss of
      trehalose dimycolate production and abrogating mycolylation of arabinogalactan.
      Our data introduce a hereto unexploited chemical structure class active against
      M. abscessus infections with promising translational development possibilities
      for the treatment of CF patients.

PMID- 28574260
TI  - Mollecarbamates, Molleureas, and Molledihydroisoquinolone, o
      Carboxyphenethylamide Metabolites of the Ascidian Didemnum molle Collected in
      Madagascar.
AB  - The extract of a sample of the tunicate Didemnum molle (MAY13-117) collected in
      Mayotte afforded eight new metabolites, mollecarbamates A-D (1-4) and molleureas
      B-E (5-8), along with the two known natural products, N,N'-diphenylethyl urea
      (10) and molleurea A (11). Another sample of D. molle (MAD11-BA065) collected in
      Baie des Assassins, Madagascar, afforded molledihydroisoquinolone (9).
      Mollecarbamates 1-4 are a family of compounds that possess repeating o
      carboxyphenethylamide units and a carbamate moiety, while the molleureas 5-8
      contain tetra- and penta-repeating carboxyphenethylamide units and a urea bridge
      in different positions. Molledihydroisoquinolone (9) is a cyclic form of o
      carboxyphenethylamide. We propose that these unique natural products are most
      probably produced by an unprecedented biosynthetic pathway that contains a yet
      unknown chorismate mutase variant. The structures of the compounds were
      elucidated by interpretation of the data from 1D and 2D NMR, HRESIMS, and MS/MS
      analyses of the positive ESIMS experiments. Compounds 1-8 were tested against
      pathogenic bacteria and in a cytoprotective HIV cell based assay but did not show
      any significant effects in these assays.

PMID- 28574261
TI  - Pyreniporphyrins: Porphyrin Analogues That Incorporate a Polycyclic Aromatic
      Hydrocarbon Subunit within the Macrocyclic Framework.
AB  - The first examples of porphyrin analogues incorporating pyrene units are
      reported. Acid-catalyzed condensation of a pyrene dialdehyde with a tripyrrane,
      followed by oxidation with DDQ, afforded a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
      porphyrin hybrid in 38% yield. Pyreniporphyrin proved to be devoid of global
      aromatic character, but upon protonation aromatic mono- and dicationic species
      were generated. In the proton NMR spectrum for the dication, the internal CH was
      shifted upfield to approximately +3 ppm. NICS calculations and ACID plots
      confirmed the diatropic nature of these structures. Pyreniporphyrin reacted with
      palladium(II) acetate to give excellent yields of a palladium(II) complex that
      showed weakly diatropic properties. Treatment of the pyrene dialdehyde with
      phenylmagnesium bromide generated a dicarbinol that reacted with excess pyrrole
      in the presence of boron trifluoride etherate to give a tripyrrane analogue.
      Lewis acid catalyzed ring closure with a thiophene dialcohol in 2% ethanol
      dichloromethane afforded a tetraphenylthiapyreniporphyrin in 31% yield. This
      porphyrinoid was nonaromatic in the free-base form but showed significant
      diatropicity upon protonation. These results demonstrate that PAH-porphyrin
      hybrids are easily accessible, and this strategy may allow the incorporation of
      even larger aromatic subunits.

PMID- 28574262
TI  - Beyond Immunoprecipitation: Exploring New Interaction Spaces with Proximity
      Biotinylation.

PMID- 28574264
TI  - Synergetic Determination of Thermodynamic and Kinetic Signatures Using Isothermal
      Titration Calorimetry: A Full-Curve-Fitting Approach.
AB  - Thermodynamic and kinetic signatures are pivotal information for revealing the
      binding mechanisms of biomolecules, and they play an indispensable role in drug
      discovery and optimization. While noncalorimetric methods measure only a part of
      these signatures, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is considered to have
      the potential to acquire full signatures in an experiment. However, kinetic
      parameters are generally difficult to extract from ITC curves, as they are
      inevitably affected by the instrument-response function and the collateral heat
      of associated process during titrations. Thus, we herein report the development
      and validation of a full-curve-fitting method to resolve thermal power curves and
      to maximize the signal extraction using ITC. This method is then employed to
      quantify the dilution of an aqueous n-propanol solution and examine the
      inhibition of carbonic anhydrase by 4-carboxybenzenesulfonamide using a
      commercial instrument with a long apparent response time of ~13 s.

PMID- 28574263
TI  - Time-Resolved Investigations of Heterobimetallic Cofactor Assembly in R2lox
      Reveal Distinct Mn/Fe Intermediates.
AB  - The assembly mechanism of the Mn/Fe ligand-binding oxidases (R2lox), a family of
      proteins that are homologous to the nonheme diiron carboxylate enzymes, has been
      investigated using time-resolved techniques. Multiple heterobimetallic
      intermediates that exhibit unique spectral features, including visible absorption
      bands and exceptionally broad electron paramagnetic resonance signatures, are
      observed through optical and magnetic resonance spectroscopies. On the basis of
      comparison to known diiron species and model compounds, the spectra have been
      attributed to (MU-peroxo)-MnIII/FeIII and high-valent Mn/Fe species. Global
      spectral analysis coupled with isotopic substitution and kinetic modeling reveals
      elementary rate constants for the assembly of Mn/Fe R2lox under aerobic
      conditions. A complete reaction mechanism for cofactor maturation that is
      consistent with experimental data has been developed. These results suggest that
      the Mn/Fe cofactor can perform direct C-H bond abstraction, demonstrating the
      potential for potent chemical reactivity that remains unexplored.

PMID- 28574265
TI  - Influence of Side Chain Sizes on Dielectric and Electrorheological Responses of
      Poly(ionic liquid)s.
AB  - Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) show potential as new anhydrous polyelectrolyte-based
      smart electrorheological (ER) materials. Understanding the structure-property
      relationship on a molecular level is very important for guiding the design of PIL
      based ER materials. In this paper, a family of (p-vinylbenzyl)trialkylammonium
      hexafluorophosphate-based PIL particles containing different length of
      substituent alkyl chains attached to immobile ammonium charged site is
      synthesized for especially understanding the size effect of side chains on ER
      property. To exclude the particle shape effect, the PIL particles are controlled
      to be monodisperse sphere-like morphology with a similar size. The ER property of
      PIL particles when dispersed in insulating oil is investigated and compared by
      temperature-modulated rheological test under external electric fields. The
      dielectric spectroscopy is finally performed to study the mechanism behind the
      size effect of side chains on the ER property of PIL particles. We demonstrate
      that the size of side chains on the charged site has a significant impact on the
      ER effect of PIL particles and the PIL particles with shorter side chains have
      stronger ER property but degraded temperature dependence, and this is related to
      the fact that the variation of side chain size alters the transport dynamic of
      mobile counterions and ion motion-induced interfacial polarization.

PMID- 28574266
TI  - Correction to Brightly Luminescent and Color-Tunable Formamidinium Lead Halide
      Perovskite FAPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) Colloidal Nanocrystals.

PMID- 28574267
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed, Stereoselective Bis-trifluoromethylthiolation of Propiolic Acid
      Derivatives with AgSCF3.
AB  - A copper-catalyzed chemo- and stereoselective oxidative bis
      trifluoromethylthiolation of propiolic acid derivatives was achieved by using
      carboxylic acid as the activating group and formic acid as a cosolvent. The
      reaction of propiolic acid derivatives and AgSCF3 in the presence of (NH4)2S2O8
      and catalytic Cu(OAc)2 in MeCN/HCO2H afforded bis-trifluoromethylthiolated
      acrylic acids in moderate to excellent yields with E selectivity. Further
      derivatization of the resultant products gave a series of polysubstituted SCF3
      containing alkenes.

PMID- 28574268
TI  - Asymmetric Synthesis of Cyclopenta[3,4]pyrroloindolones via N-Heterocyclic
      Carbene-Catalyzed Michael/Aldol/Lactamization Cascade Reaction.
AB  - The N-heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed asymmetric Michael/aldol/lactamization
      cascade reaction of enals and indole-derived enones for the synthesis of
      functionalized cyclopenta[3,4]pyrroloindolones with four consecutive stereogenic
      centers has been achieved. The products were obtained in good yield with high
      diastereoselectivity and excellent enantioselectivity.

PMID- 28574269
TI  - Adsorption of Homotrifunctional 1,2,3-Benzenetriol on a Ge(100)-2 * 1 Surface.
AB  - The adsorption of the homotrifunctional 1,2,3-benzenetriol on Ge(100)-2 * 1 has
      been investigated by density functional theory calculations, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray-photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show
      that the adsorption can occur through OH dissociation of all three hydroxyl
      groups, and that all three reaction pathways are kinetically and
      thermodynamically favorable. A coverage-dependent analysis shows that at low
      coverage, the molecule reacts to form a mix of trifold and dually bound
      adsorbates. As the coverage increases, the reactions are limited to dissociative
      adsorption through single and dual attachments. Calculations on the three
      possible dually bound configurations further reveals that the dissociative
      adsorption of the third hydroxyl group is limited by geometrical constraints to
      only two reaction channels. Finally, the proximity between OH-groups in the
      molecule favors intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding, which stabilizes
      singly and dually bound adsorbate configurations and limits the reactivity of the
      functional groups.

PMID- 28574270
TI  - Fluoride Anions in Self-Assembled Chiral Cage for the Enantioselective
      Protonation of Silyl Enol Ethers.
AB  - The potential of Song's chiral oligoethylene glycols (oligoEGs) as catalysts was
      explored in the enantioselective protonation of trimethylsilyl enol ethers in
      combination with alkali metal fluoride (KF and CsF) and in the presence of a
      proton source. Highly enantioselective protonations of various silyl enol ethers
      of alpha-substituted tetralones were achieved, producing chiral alpha-substituted
      tetralones in full conversion and with up to 99% ee. The established protocol was
      successfully extended to the synthesis of biologically relevant chiral alpha
      substituted chromanone and thiochromanone derivatives.

PMID- 28574271
TI  - Monomeric Octahedral Ruthenium(II) Complex Enabled meta-C-H Nitration of Arenes
      with Removable Auxiliaries.
AB  - A removable oxime-assisted meta-C-H nitration of arenes is reported. Mechanistic
      investigations and DFT calculations reveal a new monomeric octahedral
      ruthenium(II) complex is responsible for the meta-selective nitration. Dioxygen
      as a cooxidant is crucial for achieving high conversion and good yields.
      Moreover, the utility of the present reaction protocol is further showcased by
      the late-stage modification of the clinical CNS drugs Diazepam and Fluvoxamine.

PMID- 28574272
TI  - Stimulus-Responsive Supramolecular Aggregate Assembly of Auramine O Templated by
      Sulfated Cyclodextrin.
AB  - Self-aggregation of organic molecules is rarely seen with macrocyclic hosts like
      beta-cyclodextrin, as they preferentially involve the formation of inclusion
      complexes with the guest molecule. In this contribution, we report the self
      aggregation of a guest molecule induced by negatively charged sulfated beta
      cyclodextrin (SCD) to yield highly emissive aggregates of a recently projected
      amyloid marker dye, Auramine O (AuO). The SCD templated AuO aggregates display
      very different photophysics when compared to its reported behavior in a wide
      range of various chemical and biological environment but show a remarkable
      similarity with the recently reported photophysical behavior of AuO in human
      insulin fibrillar media, thus providing important insights into the molecular
      form of AuO responsible for its amyloid sensing ability. The self-assembled AuO
      aggregates formed in the presence of SCD display a significantly long excited
      state lifetime, suggesting the retardation of the torsional relaxation of dye in
      the aggregated state, which otherwise leads to a very short excited-state
      lifetime for the monomeric form of the dye in the isolated form. Detailed time
      resolved emission spectra (TRES) measurements show a dynamic Stokes shift
      suggesting excitonic migration within the AuO aggregates. The supramolecular
      aggregate assembly displays remarkable sensitivity to important external stimuli
      like temperature or ionic strength of the medium, pitching for its possible
      application in designing stimuli-responsive sensing schemes for important
      analytes.

PMID- 28574273
TI  - Breathable Microgel Colloidosome: Gas-Switchable Microcapsules with O2 and CO2
      Tunable Shell Permeability for Hierarchical Size-Selective Control Release.
AB  - Microcapsules enabling precise delivery and controlled release are highly
      desirable. However, it is still challenging to control the release profile by
      regulating the microcapsule shell permeability. In this work, gas-switchable
      microgel colloidosome (MGC) with oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) dual gas
      tunable shell permeability has been developed and tested for control release of
      water-soluble cargo molecules, based on the size exclusion mechanism. The O2 and
      CO2 dual gas-switchable poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-co-2,3,4,5,6
      pentafluorostyrene), P(DEA-co-FS), microgels having surface modified with amino
      group (-NH2) were synthesized and used to stabilize oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering
      emulsions. The oil-soluble poly(propylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PPGDGE) was
      added as an intermicrogel cross-linker. The cross-linking between adjacent
      microgel particles at the water-oil interface was achieved through the amine
      epoxy reaction of PPGDGE with the amine groups at the particle surface.
      Fluorescent-labeled dextran model cargo molecules of 10 kDa (D1) and 2000 kDa
      (D2) were uploaded under CO2 treatment and locked inside the MGC with N2
      treatment. The O2 and CO2 dual-gas switchable properties offered the MGC with
      tunable shell permeability, which allowed the hierarchical release of D1 and D2
      based on size exclusive mechanism. This work provides a robust method for
      preparation of gas-switchable microcapsules with tunable permeability and size
      exclusive hierarchical release profile, promising for multiple ingredient
      controllable release, separation, and reaction.

PMID- 28574274
TI  - Practical considerations for cangrelor use in patients with acute coronary
      syndromes.
AB  - Cangrelor, the first and currently only available intravenous P2Y12 receptor
      antagonist, has been approved and is now being used in patients with coronary
      artery disease requiring percutaneous coronary intervention. The rationale for
      cangrelor use is most robust in patients requiring an immediate, profound, and
      predictable level of P2Y12 inhibition - especially in patients with acute
      coronary syndromes. Herein we summarize the drug development program and reflect
      on practical considerations for clinicians on cangrelor use in the acute setting
      surrounding percutaneous coronary intervention, including selection of patients,
      concomitant administration of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and transition
      strategies from intravenous to oral P2Y12 receptor antagonists.

PMID- 28574275
TI  - A Novel Drug-Eluting Indwelling Pleural Catheter for the Management of Malignant
      Effusions.

PMID- 28574277
TI  - Development of the Trauma-Related Anger Scale.
AB  - Anger is a pervasive problem following traumatic events. Previous research has
      demonstrated a moderate relationship between anger and posttraumatic stress
      disorder (PTSD), yet findings also highlight that anger has not been rigorously
      measured in the context of PTSD. Thus, this study concerns the development of a
      complimentary measure to assess anger in the context of PTSD. Participants were
      435 undergraduate students. The participants were given a battery including the
      proposed scale and measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, anger, depression, anxiety,
      and social desirability. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a hierarchical,
      four-factor model provided the best fit to the data. The scale appeared
      psychometrically sound, with excellent internal consistency, good evidence of
      validity, and good model fit. This scale may provide implications for clinical
      work, specifically for the assessment and tracking of anger symptoms connected to
      PTSD. Additionally, this scale may assist with research by predicting treatment
      outcomes, aggression, and PTSD.

PMID- 28574276
TI  - Intra-aortic balloon pump protects against hydrostatic pulmonary oedema during
      peripheral venoarterial-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased left ventricular afterload during peripheral venoarterial
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) support frequently causes
      hydrostatic pulmonary oedema. Because physiological studies demonstrated left
      ventricular afterload decrease during VA-ECMO assistance combined with the intra
      aortic balloon pump (IABP), we progressively changed our standard practice
      systematically to associate an IABP with VA-ECMO. This study aimed to evaluate
      IABP efficacy in preventing pulmonary oedema in VA-ECMO-assisted patients.
      METHODS: A retrospective single-centre study. RESULTS: Among 259 VA-ECMO patients
      included, 104 received IABP. Weinberg radiological score-assessed pulmonary
      oedema was significantly lower in IABP+ than IABP- patients at all times after
      ECMO implantation. This protection against pulmonary oedema persisted when death
      and switching to central ECMO were used as competing risks (subhazard ratio 0.49,
      95% confidence interval (CI) 0.33-0.75; P<0.001). Multivariable analysis retained
      IABP as being independently associated with a lower risk of radiological
      pulmonary oedema (odds ratio (OR) 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.7; P=0.001) and a trend
      towards lower mortality (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.29-1.01; P=0.06). Finally, the time on
      ECMO free from mechanical ventilation increased in IABP+ patients (2.2+/-4.3 vs.
      0.7+/-2.0 days; P=0.0003). Less frequent pulmonary oedema and more days off
      mechanical ventilation were also confirmed in 126 highly comparable IABP+ and
      IABP- patients, propensity score matched for receiving an IABP. CONCLUSIONS:
      Associating an IABP with peripheral VA-ECMO was independently associated with a
      lower frequency of hydrostatic pulmonary oedema and more days off mechanical
      ventilation under ECMO.

PMID- 28574278
TI  - Problems of Determining the Content of Cr(VI) in Raw Materials and Materials
      Containing Chromite Ore.
AB  - Materials made with chromite ore are widely applied in the industry metallurgy as
      well as in the foundry industry. The oxidation number of chromium in these
      materials is both (III) and (VI). Currently there are no procedures allowing
      proper determination of chrome in chromite ores and ore-containing materials. The
      analytical methods applied, which are dedicated to a very narrow range of
      materials, e.g., cement, and cannot be applied in the case of materials which,
      apart from trace amounts of Cr(VI), contain mainly compounds of Cr(III), Fe(III)
      as well as trace compounds of Cu(II), Ni(II) and V(V). In the work particular
      attention has been paid to the preparation of test samples and creating
      measurement conditions in which interferences from Cr(III) and Fe(III) spectral
      lines could be minimized. Two separate instrumental measurement techniques have
      been applied: Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP AES)
      and the spectrophotometric method using diphenylcarbazide.

PMID- 28574279
TI  - Update on Immunohistochemical Analysis in Breast Lesions.
AB  - CONTEXT: - The utility of immunohistochemistry (IHC) in breast lesions needs to
      be updated with exceptions among these lesions. Biomarker studies with IHC in
      triple-negative breast carcinoma may help develop targeted therapies for this
      aggressive breast cancer. The distinction of metastatic lung adenocarcinoma to
      the breast and invasive breast carcinoma has significant prognostic and
      therapeutic implications. The determination can be challenging because both
      primary tumors can express estrogen receptor and/or HER2 by IHC, creating a
      diagnostic dilemma. OBJECTIVES: - To provide a practical update on the use of IHC
      markers in differential diagnoses in breast lesions, including benign, atypical,
      precancerous, and malignant tumors; to highlight recently published research
      findings on novel IHC markers in triple-negative breast carcinoma cases; and to
      reinforce the importance of IHC use as an ancillary tool in distinguishing
      metastatic lung adenocarcinoma to the breast from primary breast carcinoma using
      real case examples. DATA SOURCES: - PubMed (US National Library of Medicine,
      Bethesda, Maryland) literature review and authors' research data and personal
      experiences were used in this review. CONCLUSIONS: - Immunohistochemistry has an
      important role in making differential diagnoses in breast lesions in
      morphologically equivocal settings; recognizing IHC expression status in the
      exceptions among these lesions will aid in the correct diagnosis of challenging
      breast cases. Studies suggest that androgen receptor, p16, p53, GATA3, and PELP1
      may have potential diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive value in triple
      negative breast carcinoma cases; these findings may provide insight and a greater
      understanding of the tumor biology in triple-negative breast carcinomas. In
      distinguishing metastatic estrogen receptor-positive or HER2+ lung adenocarcinoma
      to the breast from primary breast carcinoma, napsin A, TTF-1, and GATA3 comprise
      a useful IHC panel.

PMID- 28574280
TI  - Current Concepts in Diagnosis, Molecular Features, and Management of Lobular
      Carcinoma In Situ of the Breast With a Discussion of Morphologic Variants.
AB  - CONTEXT: - Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) refers to a neoplastic proliferation
      of cells that characteristically shows loss of E-cadherin expression and has long
      been regarded as a risk factor for invasive breast cancer. Long-term outcome
      studies and molecular data have also implicated LCIS as a nonobligate precursor
      to invasive carcinoma. In the past few decades, pleomorphic and florid LCIS have
      been recognized as morphologic variants of LCIS with more-aggressive
      histopathologic features, less-favorable biomarker profiles, and more-complex
      molecular features compared with classic LCIS. There is still a lack of consensus
      regarding certain aspects of managing patients with LCIS. OBJECTIVES: - To review
      recently published literature on LCIS and to provide an overview of the current
      morphologic classification of LCIS, recent molecular advances, and trends in
      patient management. DATA SOURCES: - Sources included peer-reviewed, published
      journal articles in PubMed (US National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland)
      and published guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (Fort
      Washington, Pennsylvania). CONCLUSIONS: - Lobular carcinoma in situ represents a
      marker for increased risk of breast cancer, as well as a nonobligate precursor to
      invasive carcinoma. Morphologic variants of LCIS-florid and pleomorphic LCIS-are
      genetically more-complex lesions and are more likely to be associated with
      invasive carcinoma. Further investigation into which molecular alterations in
      LCIS are associated with progression to invasive carcinoma is needed to help
      guide medical and surgical management.

PMID- 28574281
TI  - A Short-Wavelength Raman Optical Activity Spectrometer with Laser Source at 457
      nm for the Characterization of Chiral Molecules.
AB  - Developing a high-sensitivity Raman optical activity (ROA) spectrometer has been
      regarded as one of the great challenges in chiral science and technology. Herein,
      we report our recent progress on the development of a short-wavelength ROA (sw
      ROA) spectrometer with the excitation line at 457 nm, which shows obviously
      improved signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio compared with the currently available 532 nm
      ROA spectrometer. This could be ascribed to the fifth-power of frequency
      dependence for ROA intensity together with the potential advantage of avoiding
      fluorescence for most molecules. The required laser power at the sample for being
      able to obtain a reliable ROA spectrum is less than 150 milliwatts (mW) for most
      samples. In the case of neat S-alpha-pinene sample, the ROA signal can be
      acquired with the laser power at sample as low as 5 mW with the total exposure
      time of 5 min. The concentration of S-alpha-pinene sample can be reduced to 10%
      (v/v) by diluting with ethanol. These results demonstrate the great potential of
      sw-ROA (457 nm) working with decreased laser power, shortened acquisition time,
      and lower sample concentration. The applicability of sw-ROA (457 nm) has also
      been demonstrated by measuring representative chiral samples, including
      carbohydrates, amino acids, protein in aqueous solution, and chiral organic
      molecule in organic solvents.

PMID- 28574283
TI  - The ultimate diagnosis of unexplained dyspnoea on exertion: Stay tuned on
      invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing and beyond.

PMID- 28574282
TI  - Prevention of sudden death in adolescent athletes: Incremental diagnostic value
      and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic tests.
AB  - Introduction Pre-participation screening in athletes attempts to reduce the
      incidence of sudden death during sports by identifying susceptible individuals.
      The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic capacity of the
      different pre-participation screening points in adolescent athletes and the cost
      effectiveness of the programme. Methods Athletes were studied between 12-18 years
      old. Pre-participation screening included the American Heart Association
      questionnaire, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and stress test. The cost of
      test was established by the Catalan public health system. Results Of 1650
      athletes included, 57% were men and mean age was 15.09 +/- 1.82 years. Positive
      findings were identified as follows: in American Heart Association questionnaire
      5.09% of subjects, in electrocardiogram 3.78%, in echocardiogram 4.96%, and in
      exercise test 1.75%. Six athletes (0.36%) were disqualified from participation
      and 10 (0.60%) were referred for interventional treatment. Diagnostic capacity
      was assessed by the area under the curve for detection of diseases that motivated
      disqualification for sport practice (American Heart Association questionnaire,
      0.55; electrocardiogram, 0.72; echocardiogram, 0.88; stress test, 0.57). The cost
      for each athlete disqualified from the sport for a disease causing sudden death
      was ?45,578. Conclusion The electrocardiogram and echocardiogram were the most
      useful studies to detect athletes susceptible to sudden death, and the stress
      test best diagnosed arrhythmias with specific treatment. In our country, pre
      participatory screening was cost effective to detect athletes who might
      experience sudden death in sports.

PMID- 28574284
TI  - A critical review on hepatoprotective effects of bioactive food components.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bioactive food components are nonessential biomolecules, which help
      to give beneficial effects to human being against several diseases. Natural
      bioactive food components derived from plants and animals, such as phytosterols,
      carotenoids, polyphenols and fatty acids, have been proposed as valuable
      substitutions for anticipation and management of hepatotoxic effects and its
      chronic complications based on in vitro and in vivo studies. OBJECTIVES OF THE
      STUDY: To summarize drugs and chemical-induced hepatotoxicity and review how
      various bioactive food components attenuate the hepatotoxicity via cellular
      mechanisms. RESULTS: Remarkable studies demonstrated that the health promoting
      effects of bioactive components originated from plants have been frequently
      attributed to their antioxidant properties and facilitate to increase cellular
      antioxidant defense system and thereby scavenge free radicals, inhibit lipid
      peroxidation, augment anti-inflammatory potential, and further protect the liver
      from damage. CONCLUSION: In this critical review, we summarize current progress
      in clarifying the molecular mechanism in hepatotoxicity and curative potential of
      the bioactive food components and its successive clinical outcomes in the field
      of drug discovery and overcome the problems of medication and chemical-induced
      hepatotoxic effects.

PMID- 28574285
TI  - Environmental Vibrio cholerae non O1/ non O139 from the Gangetic delta: a
      diarrhoeal disease purview.
AB  - Diarrhoea still remains an unsolved enigma in developing countries, a major
      concern for the health planners. We targeted the abundance and toxicity of Vibrio
      cholerae non-O1/non-O139 (NOVC) in Gangetic riverine-estuarine ecosystem. A total
      of 74 V. cholerae were isolated from 120 water samples (68 NOVC, 6 V. cholerae
      O1) from two sampling sites off river Ganges. V. cholerae showed distinct
      seasonality, with steady increase from summer to monsoon, steep ascent in post
      monsoon and an abrupt decline in winter. Highest number of NOVC was isolated form
      Howrah, attributed to low salinity and high anthropogenic influence.
      Environmental NOVC harboured hlyA (94.0 %), rtxA (81.0 %) and toxR (28.0 %)
      genes. About 23.4 % of the hlyA harbouring NOVC showed haemolytic activity.
      Accessory toxin genes (tlcR, toxT, RJ and LJ and aldA), among 3-5 % of the NOVC
      carry significant health implications. Haemolytic activity and biofilm formation
      in NOVC, during unfavourable conditions, facilitates gene transfer and emphasises
      the role of environmental NOVC in diarrhoeal incidence in South Bengal, India.

PMID- 28574286
TI  - Changes of intima-media thickness in marathon runners: A mid-term follow-up.
AB  - Objective Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is used to assess cardiovascular
      risk and progression of atherosclerosis. It is known that regular physical
      activity of moderate intensity has beneficial effects on the vasculature.
      However, it is still discussed controversially whether prolonged exercise,
      including participation in exhaustive competitive sports such as long-distance
      races, has also beneficial effects or might even be harmful regarding the
      cardiovascular system. Patients and methods Thirty-eight male marathon runners
      (45.8 +/- 7.3 years) were investigated twice (2009 and 2013) for their carotid
      IMT (using ultrasound techniques), anthropometrics and clinical chemistry.
      Additionally, training volume (running kilometres per year) and competition
      participation (half marathon, marathon and ultramarathon) within this follow-up
      period were assessed. Results During 3.8 +/- 0.4 years of follow-up, runners
      performed 1587 (850-2500) training kilometres per year and participated in a
      total of 7 (4-12) long distance competitions. IMT increased in total by 0.05 +/-
      0.09 mm or annually by 0.013 +/- 0.023 mm, respectively. Higher increase in IMT
      over that period was associated with higher fasting blood glucose (beta = .355, p
      = .045) at baseline examination. Effects of training volume and number of
      competitions on the progression of IMT could not be demonstrated in our
      longitudinal analysis. Conclusions Higher blood glucose levels are associated
      with detrimental effects on vasculature in otherwise healthy male marathon
      runners. Regular marathon training, including competition participation over at
      least several years, was not associated with detrimental effects on IMT or, vice
      versa, seems not to provide beneficial effects on vasculature.

PMID- 28574287
TI  - Microbial interactions during sugar cane must fermentation for bioethanol
      production: does quorum sensing play a role?
AB  - Microbial interactions represent important modulatory role in the dynamics of
      biological processes. During bioethanol production from sugar cane must, the
      presence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and wild yeasts is inevitable as they
      originate from the raw material and industrial environment. Increasing the
      concentration of ethanol, organic acids, and other extracellular metabolites in
      the fermentation must are revealed as wise strategies for survival by certain
      microorganisms. Despite this, the co-existence of LAB and yeasts in the
      fermentation vat and production of compounds such as organic acids and other
      extracellular metabolites result in reduction in the final yield of the
      bioethanol production process. In addition to the competition for nutrients,
      reduction of cellular viability of yeast strain responsible for fermentation,
      flocculation, biofilm formation, and changes in cell morphology are listed as
      important factors for reductions in productivity. Although these consequences are
      scientifically well established, there is still a gap about the physiological and
      molecular mechanisms governing these interactions. This review aims to discuss
      the potential occurrence of quorum sensing mechanisms between bacteria (mainly
      LAB) and yeasts and to highlight how the understanding of such mechanisms can
      result in very relevant and useful tools to benefit the biofuels industry and
      other sectors of biotechnology in which bacteria and yeast may co-exist in
      fermentation processes.

PMID- 28574288
TI  - Chronotype and its relationship with sleep disorders in children with attention
      deficit hyperactivity disorder.
AB  - Chronotype can be classified as morningness types, people who prefer morning
      hours for their physical and mental activities; eveningness types, people who
      prefer the afternoon or evening hours; and intermediate types, those who show
      characteristics of both morningness and eveningness types. Attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been linked with disturbances in chronotype,
      particularly increased eveningness. Despite the possibility of an association
      between chronotypes, sleep disturbances and ADHD symptoms, there is little
      evidence of this association considering the child population. The purpose of
      this study was to examine chronotype preferences in children aged between 7 and
      12 years who were diagnosed as having ADHD in the context of sleep disturbances.
      The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children
      Present and Lifetime Version, Conner's Rating Scales, Children's Sleep Habit
      Questionnaire and Children's Chronotype Questionnaire were used for the
      evaluation of children with ADHD and healthy controls. The ADHD group was 73%
      combined-type, and the eveningness scores of the ADHD group (n = 52) were
      significantly higher than the control group (n = 52) (p < 0.01). There was a
      positive correlation between the higher scores of eveningness and total scores on
      resistance to sleep time (p < 0.09), respiratory problems during sleep and
      daytime sleepiness in the ADHD group. CSHQ total score was found to be a
      predictive factor for eveningness among children with ADHD (p < 0.01). These
      findings highlight possible reciprocal links between ADHD symptoms, sleep
      disturbances and chronotype in children aged 7-12 years, which might lead to
      individualized treatment options.

PMID- 28574289
TI  - MRI capture of intermittent ventriculomegaly in a patient with ventriculo
      peritoneal shunt.
AB  - Intermittent change in ventricular size in patients with ventriculo-peritoneal
      shunts is a recognised complication but definitive imaging evidence is rare. We
      report a 3 years old boy with a medullary astrocytoma and ventriculo-peritoneal
      shunt placement who demonstrated intermittent ventriculomegaly during a single
      MRI scan.

PMID- 28574290
TI  - Peat moss Sphagnum riparium follows a circatrigintan growth rhythm in situ: A
      case report.
AB  - In situ growth of Sphagnum riparium Angstr. shoots were monitored during the 2015
      and 2016 growing seasons in Karelia, Russia. It was established that shoot growth
      rates fluctuated with a period of around 30 days, that is, showed a
      circatrigintan rhythm. Such rhythms from mosses have not been previously
      reported. Correlation of growth rates with the percentage of the illuminated
      portion of the Moon was statistically significant (p<0.01) in both years. Shoot
      growth rates were reliably higher around the new Moon compared to the full Moon.
      This phenomenon may be due either to causality or to a pure coincidence of
      processes with similar rhythms.

PMID- 28574291
TI  - Temperature-sensitive heparin-modified poloxamer hydrogel with affinity to KGF
      facilitate the morphologic and functional recovery of the injured rat uterus.
AB  - Endometrial injury usually results in intrauterine adhesion (IUA), which is an
      important cause of infertility and recurrent miscarriage in reproductive women.
      There is still lack of an effective therapeutic strategy to prevent occurrence of
      IUA. Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is a potent repair factor for epithelial
      tissues. Here, a temperature-sensitive heparin-modified poloxamer (HP) hydrogel
      with affinity to KGF (KGF-HP) was used as a support matrix to prevent IUA and
      deliver KGF. The rheology of KGF-HP hydrogel was carefully characterized. The
      cold KGF-HP solution was rapidly transited to hydrogel with suitable storage
      modulus (G') and loss modulus (G") for the applications of uterus cavity at
      temperature of 33  degrees C. In vitro release demonstrated that KGF was released
      from HP hydrogels in sustained release manner for a long time. In vivo
      bioluminescence imaging showed that KGF-HP hydrogel was able to prolong the
      retention of the encapsulated KGF in injured uterus of rat model. Moreover, the
      morphology and function of the injured uterus were significantly recovered after
      administration of KGF-HP hydrogel, which were evaluated by two-dimensional
      ultrasound imaging and receptive fertility. Not only proliferation of endometrial
      glandular epithelial cells and luminal epithelial cells but also angiogenesis of
      injured uterus were observed by Ki67 and CD31 staining after 7 d of treatment
      with KGF-HP hydrogel. Finally, a close relatively relationship between autophagy
      and proliferation of endometrial epithelial cells (EEC) and angiogenesis was
      firstly confirmed by detecting expression of LC3-II and P62 after KGF treatment.
      Overall, KGF-HP may be used as a promising candidate for IUA treatment.

PMID- 28574292
TI  - The benefits of a local neurosurgery careers day.

PMID- 28574293
TI  - Evaluation of maternal serum hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha, progranulin and
      syndecan-1 levels in pregnancies with early- and late-onset preeclampsia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the serum levels of HIF-1 alpha, progranulin, and
      syndecan-1 in preeclampsia (PE) and normal pregnancy, and to compare whether
      these markers demonstrate any difference between early-onset PE (EO-PE) and late
      onset PE (LO-PE). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 27 women
      with EO-PE, 27 women with LO-PE, and 26 healthy normotensive pregnant controls
      matched for gestational age. Maternal levels of serum HIF-1 alpha, progranulin,
      and syndecan-1 were measured with the use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      kit. RESULTS: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between the
      control and the PE groups in progranulin (p < .001) and syndecan-1 (p <.001)
      levels. There were no significant differences in the serum HIF-1 alpha levels
      between these groups (p= .069). When PE patients were evaluated by considering
      subgroups; statistical analysis revealed significant inter-group differences in
      all biomarkers. Serum progranulin levels were significantly higher in LO-PE
      compared with the other two groups (EO-PE versus LO-PE and LO-PE versus controls
      p = .000). Control group presented significantly higher syndecan-1 levels, than
      EO and LO-PE (p < .001). HIF-1 alpha levels positively correlated with
      progranulin levels (r = .439, p= .000). CONCLUSIONS: Serum progranulin may have
      potential to be used as a biomarker for the differentiation of EO-PE and LO-PE.
      The co-operative action between HIF-1 alpha and progranulin might play a key role
      in the pathogenesis of LO-PE. The predominant feature of LO-PE seems to be an
      inflammatory process, whereas in EO-PE placentation problem seems to be the main
      pathology.

PMID- 28574296
TI  - Prediction of preeclampsia in type 1 diabetes in early pregnancy by clinical
      predictors: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and possible
      clinical predictors of preeclampsia present in early pregnancy among women with
      type 1 diabetes. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed was conducted in April
      2017. Inclusion criteria were largely unselected cohort, including at least 100
      women with type 1 diabetes, dealing with either the prevalence of preeclampsia or
      possible clinical predictors of preeclampsia identified in early pregnancy.
      RESULTS: Based on 11,518 pregnancies in 11 articles, the prevalence of
      preeclampsia in women with type 1 diabetes was 17%, five to six times more than
      in the background population. In early pregnancy, the following clinical
      predictors were associated with increased prevalence of preeclampsia: diabetic
      nephropathy (OR 3.7-23.5), microalbuminuria (OR 3.8-11.7), diabetic retinopathy
      (OR 1.9-2.9) and pre-existing hypertension (OR 3.8-17.1) as well as high blood
      pressure within the normotensive range. HbA1C, body mass index and nulliparity
      were positively associated with preeclampsia, but not consistently. CONCLUSION:
      The prevalence of preeclampsia in women with type 1 diabetes was 17%. In early
      pregnancy pre-existing hypertension and high blood pressure within the
      normotensive range as well as presence of microangiopathy were predictors of
      preeclampsia. Poor glycaemic control, obesity and nulliparity probably also
      contribute to the increased risk.

PMID- 28574295
TI  - Prevalence of hepatitis C and pre-testing awareness of hepatitis C status in 1500
      consecutive PWID participants at the Stockholm needle exchange program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People who inject drugs (PWID) are the driving force of the hepatitis
      C virus (HCV) epidemic. Still, treatment is scarcely offered and the awareness of
      HCV status in PWID is poor. Prevention includes clean needles, syringes and other
      paraphernalia. HCV awareness was investigated in 1500 PWID in a needle exchange
      program (NEP) in Stockholm, Sweden, together with HCV prevalence, and time to HCV
      infection after start of injection drug use. METHODS: 1500 PWID in the Stockholm
      NEP were consecutively enrolled. At baseline, awareness of the individual pre
      test HCV status was measured followed with tests for anti-HCV and HCV RNA if anti
      HCV was positive. RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 39 years and the mean
      time of injection drug use 18 (0-51) years. The overall anti-HCV prevalence was
      82% whereof 76% were HCV RNA positive. Within 4 years after start of injection
      drug use 50% of the participants were anti-HCV positive. Self-awareness of HCV
      status was low. Hence, 32% who believed that they never have encountered HCV were
      anti-HCV positive, and 24% were HCV RNA positive. For those who reported not
      being aware of their HCV status 62% were anti-HCV positive, and 47% were HCV RNA
      positive. CONCLUSION: The very high prevalence of chronic HCV in PWID in
      Stockholm indicates that both measures for prevention with increased awareness of
      HCV, and a higher antiviral treatment utilisation in combination need to be
      implemented in order to reduce the HCV prevalence and combat the HCV epidemic.

PMID- 28574297
TI  - Postpartum depression in adolescent mothers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression has been extensively studied in adults but is
      less understood in adolescent mothers, despite a prevalence that is double that
      observed in adult mothers. The purpose of this review was to describe the
      epidemiology, risk factors, treatment and prognosis for adolescents with
      postpartum depression. We also sought to identify limitations of the available
      literature and propose areas for future study targeting postpartum depression in
      this vulnerable population. METHODS: A Medline literature search was conducted
      for articles published between 1996 and 2015. We identified relevant studies by
      combining the indexed search terms 'pregnancy in adolescence or teenage
      pregnancy' and 'depression or postpartum depression'. Additional studies were
      identified from references of selected articles. We limited our search results to
      adolescents (18 years or younger) and English language publications. Case
      studies/series and editorials were excluded. RESULTS: The Medline database search
      identified 134 articles of which 57 met inclusion criteria. Ten additional
      articles were identified from reference lists yielding a total of n = 67 articles
      for review. Among the articles selected, 10 described epidemiology, 27 identified
      risk factors, nine measured long-term outcome and 21 proposed treatment
      strategies for postpartum depression in adolescent mothers. CONCLUSIONS: There is
      limited literature addressing adolescent postpartum depression, but there has
      been a significant growth of interest in recent years. There is a need for more
      randomized control trials to establish gold standards for assessing postpartum
      depression in adolescent mothers and standards for treatment in these patients.

PMID- 28574298
TI  - Valuable contribution of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in differentiation of
      brain abscess from glioma.

PMID- 28574299
TI  - Quality indicators for the diagnosis and antibiotic treatment of acute
      respiratory tract infections in general practice: a RAND Appropriateness Method.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop quality indicators for the diagnosis and antibiotic
      treatment of acute respiratory tract infections, tailored to the Danish general
      practice setting. DESIGN: A RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method was used. SETTING:
      General practice. SUBJECTS: A panel of nine experts, mainly general
      practitioners, was asked to rate the relevance of 64 quality indicators for the
      diagnosis and antibiotic treatment of acute respiratory tract infections based on
      guidelines. Subsequently, a face-to-face meeting was held to resolve
      misinterpretations and to achieve consensus. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The experts
      were asked to rate the indicators on a nine-point Likert scale. Consensus of
      appropriateness for a quality indicator was reached if the overall panel median
      rating was 7-9 with agreement. RESULTS: A total of 50 of the 64 proposed quality
      indicators attained consensus. Consensus was achieved for 12 indicators focusing
      on the diagnostic process and 19 indicators focusing on the decision about
      antibiotic treatment and choice of antibiotics, respectively. CONCLUSION: These
      newly developed quality indicators may be used to strengthen Danish general
      practitioners' focus on their management of patients with acute respiratory tract
      infections and to identify where there is a need for future quality improvements.

PMID- 28574300
TI  - Anti-CD123 antibody-modified niosomes for targeted delivery of daunorubicin
      against acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - A novel niosomal delivery system was designed and investigated for the targeted
      delivery of daunorubicin (DNR) against acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Anti-CD123
      antibodies conjugated to Mal-PEG2000-DSPE were incorporated into normal niosomes
      (NS) via a post insertion method to afford antibody-modified niosomes (CD123-NS).
      Next, NS was modified with varying densities of antibody (0.5 or 2%,
      antibody/Span 80, molar ratio), thus providing L-CD123-NS and H-CD123-NS. We
      studied the effect of antibody density on the uptake efficiency of niosomes in
      NB4 and THP-1 cells, on which CD123 express differently. Our results demonstrate
      CD123-NS showed significantly higher uptake efficiency than NS in AML cells, and
      the uptake efficiency of CD123-NS has been ligand density-dependent. Also, AML
      cells preincubated with anti-CD123 antibody showed significantly reduced cellular
      uptake of CD123-NS compared to control. Further study on the uptake mechanism
      confirmed a receptor-mediated endocytic process. Daunorubicin (DNR)-loaded H
      CD123-NS demonstrated a 2.45- and 3.22-fold higher cytotoxicity, compared to DNR
      loaded NS in NB4 and THP-1 cells, respectively. Prolonged survival time were
      observed in leukemic mice treated with DNR-H-CD123-NS. Collectively, these
      findings support that the CD123-NS represent a promising delivery system for the
      treatment of AML.

PMID- 28574301
TI  - Wellbeing: the challenge of 'operationalising' an holistic concept within a
      reductionist public health programme.
AB  - : Wellbeing is a concept that, while contested, recognises individual and wider
      social, economic, political and environmental contextual influences - and is of
      growing interest and relevance locally and globally. In this article, we report
      on one aspect of an evaluative research study conducted on a public health
      programme in North West England. AIMS: Within the context of a process evaluation
      that explored the delivery of a public health programme and sought to increase
      understanding of how and why different approaches worked well or not so well,
      this article focuses specifically on the concept of wellbeing, examining
      perceptions of multiple stakeholders. METHODS: Interviews and focus groups were
      undertaken with 52 stakeholders involved in managing and facilitating the
      programme and its composite projects and with 90 community members involved as
      project participants. Data were subjected to thematic analysis, cross-check and
      refining. RESULTS: Results highlight stakeholders' diverse understandings of
      wellbeing, the complex relationship between health and wellbeing, and the
      perceived dissonance between the holistic concept of wellbeing and the
      reductionist design of the programme. CONCLUSIONS: Wellbeing was understood to be
      'more than health' and 'more than happiness', concerned with effective
      functioning, sense of purpose and flourishing. Essentially holistic, wellbeing
      offers opportunities to transcend clinical/pathogenic conceptions of 'health' and
      resonate with individuals, communities and local authorities. This raises
      concerns about how wellbeing can be meaningfully realised without compromising
      the concept, particularly when programmes are structured in reductionist ways
      requiring monitoring against discrete outcomes. Implications for practice include
      the following: utilising wellbeing as a driver for cross-cutting public health in
      challenging economic and organisational contexts, acknowledging that wellbeing is
      essentially social as well as individual, appreciating that wellbeing is
      experienced in relation to contexts and surroundings, and recognising that
      wellbeing defined in terms of individual happiness risks compromising the future
      wellbeing of societies and the planet.

PMID- 28574302
TI  - Clinical characteristics, molecular profile and outcomes of myeloid sarcoma: a
      single institution experience over 13 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is characterized by extramedullary infiltration
      by immature myeloid cells. Owing to rarity of this disease, the clinical features
      and overall outcomes are yet to be clarified. OBJECTIVE: To define clinical
      characteristics, epidemiology, pathologic findings, treatment options and
      outcomes in MS. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of 23 patients
      diagnosed with MS at our institute over a period of 13 years (2002-2015).
      RESULTS: MS presented mostly as a manifestation of relapsed acute myeloid
      leukemia, seen in 39% of patients. Skin and subcutaneous soft tissues were the
      most common sites of anatomic involvement (69.5%). Ninety five percent (n = 19)
      were positive for classical myeloid markers with either cytochemical staining
      (chloracetate-esterase, MPO), flow-cytometry (CD33, CD34, CD13 and CD117), or
      immunohistochemistry (CD34, CD43, CD68 and lysozyme). Of these, 52% were positive
      for CD33 (n = 12), 35% for CD68 (n = 8), 30% for CD34 (n = 7), and 26% for
      lysozyme (n = 6). Cytogenetic abnormalities were seen in 63% (n = 12/19) patients
      on bone-marrow aspirate, with five patients displaying a complex (n = 3) or
      monosomal (n = 2) karyotype. Twenty seven percent patients with a normal
      karyotype had presence of deleterious mutations (FLT3, ASXL, STAG and JAK2) on
      further testing with myeloid mutation panel. The Median overall survival (OS) of
      the entire cohort was 15.9 months (95% CI, 7.4-24.4 months). The OS was
      significantly better for patients <65 years (24.6 vs. 3.4 months, p = 0.009) of
      age, and for those attaining a complete remission (CR) to induction therapy (25.7
      vs. 0.8 months, p < 0.001). All patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic
      stem cell transplant attained long-term remissions, with a median follow-up of 54
      (range 32-120) months. CONCLUSION: Failure to achieve CR with induction therapy,
      and age >65 years are associated with poor outcomes in MS. Allogeneic stem-cell
      transplant in first remission appears to be the most effective modality for
      achieving long-term remissions.

PMID- 28574303
TI  - Technological solutions for an effective health surveillance system for road
      traffic crashes in Burkina Faso.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the early 2000s, electronic surveillance systems began to be
      developed to collect and transmit data on infectious diseases in low-income
      countries (LICs) in real-time using mobile technologies. Such surveillance
      systems, however, are still very rare in Africa. Among the non-infectious
      epidemics to be surveilled are road traffic injuries, which constitute major
      health events and are the fifth leading cause of mortality in Africa. This
      situation also prevails in Burkina Faso, whose capital city, Ouagadougou, is much
      afflicted by this burden. There is no surveillance system, but there have been
      occasional surveys, and media reports of fatal crashes are numerous and
      increasing in frequency. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to present
      the methodology and implementation of, and quality of results produced by, a
      prototype of a road traffic crash and trauma surveillance system in the city of
      Ouagadougou. METHODS: A surveillance system was deployed in partnership with the
      National Police over a six-month period, from February to July 2015, across the
      entire city of Ouagadougou. Data were collected by all seven units of the city's
      National Police road crash intervention service. They were equipped with
      geotracers that geolocalized the crash sites and sent their positions by SMS
      (short message service) to a surveillance platform developed using the open
      source tool Ushahidi. Descriptive statistical analyses and spatial analyses
      (kernel density) were subsequently performed on the data collected. RESULTS: The
      process of data collection by police officers functioned well. Researchers were
      able to validate the data collection on road crashes by comparing the number of
      entries in the platform against the number of reports completed by the crash
      intervention teams. In total, 873 crash scenes were recorded over 3 months. The
      system was accessible on the Internet for open consultation of the map of crash
      sites. Crash-concentration analyses were produced that identified 'hot spots' in
      the city. Nearly 80% of crashes involved two-wheeled vehicles. Crashes were more
      numerous at night and during rush hours. They occurred primarily at intersections
      with traffic lights. With regard to health impacts, half of the injured were
      under the age of 29 years, and 6 persons were killed. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot
      study demonstrated the feasibility of developing simple surveillance systems,
      based on mHealth, in LICs.

PMID- 28574304
TI  - Quantitative Risk Assessment of Antimicrobial-Resistant Foodborne Infections in
      Humans Due to Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin Usage in Dairy Cows.
AB  - Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) is a production-enhancing technology that
      allows the dairy industry to produce milk more efficiently. Concern has been
      raised that cows supplemented with rbST are at an increased risk of developing
      clinical mastitis, which would potentially increase the use of antimicrobial
      agents and increase human illnesses associated with antimicrobial-resistant
      bacterial pathogens delivered through the dairy beef supply. The purpose of this
      study was to conduct a quantitative risk assessment to estimate the potential
      increased risk of human infection with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and
      subsequent adverse health outcomes as a result of rbST usage in dairy cattle. The
      quantitative risk assessment included the following steps: (i) release of
      antimicrobial-resistant organisms from the farm, (ii) exposure of humans via
      consumption of contaminated beef products, and (iii) consequence of the
      antimicrobial-resistant infection. The model focused on ceftiofur (parenteral and
      intramammary) and oxytetracycline (parenteral) treatment of clinical mastitis in
      dairy cattle and tracked the bacteria Campylobacter spp., Salmonella enterica
      subsp. enterica, and Escherichia coli in the gastrointestinal tract of the cow.
      Parameter estimates were developed to be maximum risk to overestimate the risk to
      humans. The excess number of cows in the U.S. dairy herd that were predicted to
      carry resistant bacteria at slaughter due to rbST administration was negligible.
      The total number of excess human illnesses caused by resistant bacteria due to
      rbST administration was also predicted to be negligible with all risks
      considerably less than one event per 1 billion people at risk per year for all
      bacteria. The results indicate a high probability that the use of rbST according
      to label instructions presents a negligible risk for increasing the number of
      human illnesses and subsequent adverse outcomes associated with antimicrobial
      resistant Campylobacter, Salmonella, or E. coli .

PMID- 28574305
TI  - Growth Modeling of Aspergillus niger Strains Isolated from Citrus Fruit as a
      Function of Temperature on a Synthetic Medium from Lime (Citrus latifolia T.)
      Pericarp.
AB  - : Molds are responsible for postharvest spoilage of citrus fruits. The objective
      of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature on growth rate and the
      time to visible growth of Aspergillus niger strains isolated from citrus fruits.
      The growth of these strains was studied on agar lime medium (AL) at different
      temperatures, and growth rate was estimated using the Baranyi and Roberts model
      (Int. J. Food Microbiol. 23:277-294, 1994). The Rosso et al. cardinal model with
      inflexion (L. Rosso, J. R. Lobry, S. Bajard, and J. P. Flandrois, J. Theor. Biol.
      162:447-463, 1993) was used as a secondary model to describe the effect of
      temperature on growth rate and the lag phase. We hypothesized that the same model
      could be used to calculate the time for the mycelium to become visible (tv) by
      substituting the lag phase (1/lambda and 1/lambdaopt) with the time to visible
      colony (1/tv-opt and 1/tv), respectively, in the Rosso et al. MODEL: High
      variability was observed at suboptimal conditions. Extremes of temperature of
      growth for A. niger seem to have a normal variability. For the growth rate and
      time tv, the model was satisfactorily compared with results of previous studies.
      An external validation was performed in lime fruits; the bias and accuracy
      factors were 1.3 and 1.5, respectively, for growth rate and 0.24 and 3.72,
      respectively, for the appearance time. The discrepancy may be due to the
      influence of external factors. A. niger grows significantly more slowly on lime
      fruit than in culture medium, probably because the nutrients are more easily
      available in medium than in fruits, where the peel consistency may be a physical
      barrier. These findings will help researchers understand the postharvest behavior
      of mold on lime fruits, host-pathogen interactions, and environmental conditions
      infecting fruit and also help them develop guidelines for future work in the
      field of predictive mycology to improve models for control of postharvest fungi.

PMID- 28574306
TI  - Impact of Mannanase-Producing Bacillus spp. on the Accuracy of the 3M Petrifilm
      Aerobic Count Method.
AB  - Consistent deviations of the 3M Petrifilm aerobic counts (AC) from the standard
      pour plate aerobic plate count (APC) were observed with dehydrated onion and
      garlic products. A large study was designed to determine the relationship of
      these two methods and the root cause for the deviations. A total of 3,800
      dehydrated onion and garlic samples were analyzed by both the Petrifilm AC and
      the standard pour plate APC method. Large spreader-like liquefied areas were
      observed on numerous Petrifilm plates. These liquefied areas made enumeration
      inaccurate. "Liquefier" microorganisms from Petrifilm plates were isolated and
      identified to species level by 16S rRNA and gyrB gene sequencing. Enzyme
      diffusion assay was performed to determine potential enzymatic degradation of
      guar gum, the gelling agent used in Petrifilm plates. The results indicated that
      the correlation between Petrifilm AC and standard APC is relatively low. Paired t
      test results suggested that the Petrifilm AC method produced significantly
      different results compared with standard APC. The discrepancies were attributable
      at least partly to a liquefier organism that hydrolyzed guar gum, leading to
      liquefaction. Liquefaction of Petrifilm plates seems to have two effects on
      accuracy: (i) liquefied areas may allow motile organisms to move and multiply in
      the liquefied area during the incubation period, yielding more than one colony
      from one cell and, as a result, leading to overestimation of the microbial load
      and (ii) the blurred areas obscure other colonies, leading to potential
      underestimation. The liquefier organism was identified as Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens , a potent mannanase producer and heat-resistant spore former.
      Enzyme diffusion assay confirmed that mannanase contained in the cell-free
      supernatant of B. amyloliquefaciens can hydrolyze the 1,4-beta-mannopyranosyl
      bond, the backbone of guar gum. This is the first report of the role of B.
      amyloliquefaciens in the liquefaction of Petrifilm plates and its negative impact
      on accuracy.

PMID- 28574307
TI  - Korsakoff syndrome from retrochiasmatic suprasellar lesions: rapid reversal after
      relief of cerebral compression in 4 cases.
AB  - Korsakoff syndrome is a chronic memory disorder caused by a severe deficiency of
      thiamine that is most commonly observed in alcoholics. However, some have
      proposed that focal structural lesions disrupting memory circuits-in particular,
      the mammillary bodies, the mammillothalamic tract, and the anterior thalamus-can
      give rise to this amnestic syndrome. Here, the authors present 4 patients with
      reversible Korsakoff syndromes caused by suprasellar retrochiasmatic lesions
      compressing the mammillary bodies and adjacent caudal hypothalamic structures.
      Three of the patients were found to have large pituitary macroadenomas in their
      workup for memory deficiency and cognitive decline with minimal visual symptoms.
      These tumors extended superiorly into the suprasellar region in a retrochiasmatic
      position and caused significant mass effect in the bilateral mammillary bodies in
      the base of the brain. These 3 patients had complete and rapid resolution of
      amnestic problems shortly after initiation of treatment, consisting of resection
      in 1 case of nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma or cabergoline therapy in 2 cases
      of prolactinoma. The fourth patient presented with bizarre and hostile behavior
      along with significant memory deficits and was found to have a large cystic
      craniopharyngioma filling the third ventricle and compressing the midline
      diencephalic structures. This patient underwent cyst fenestration and tumor
      debulking, with a rapid improvement in his mental status. The rapid and dramatic
      memory improvement observed in all of these cases is probably due to a reduction
      in the pressure imposed by the lesions on structures contiguous to the third
      ventricle, rather than a direct destructive effect of the tumor, and highlights
      the essential role of the caudal diencephalic structures-mainly the mammillary
      bodies-in memory function. In summary, large pituitary lesions with suprasellar
      retrochiasmatic extension and third ventricular craniopharyngiomas can cause
      severe Korsakoff-like amnestic syndromes, probably because of bilateral pressure
      on or damage to mammillary bodies, anterior thalamic nuclei, or their major
      connections. Neuropsychiatric symptoms may rapidly and completely reverse shortly
      after initiation of therapy via surgical decompression of tumors or
      pharmacological treatment of prolactinomas. Early identification of these lesions
      with timely treatment can lead to a favorable prognosis for this severe
      neuropsychiatric disorder.

PMID- 28574308
TI  - Clinical outcomes of an endoscopic transclival and transpetrosal approach for
      primary skull base malignancies involving the clivus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The endoscopic endonasal approach for treating primary skull base
      malignancies involving the clivus is a formidable task. The authors hypothesized
      that tumor involvement of nearby critical anatomical structures creates hurdles
      to endoscopic gross-total resection (GTR). The aim of this study was to
      retrospectively review the clinical outcomes of patients who underwent an
      endoscopic endonasal approach to treat primary malignancies involving the clivus
      and to analyze prognostic factors for GTR. METHODS Between January 2009 and
      November 2015, 42 patients underwent the endoscopic endonasal approach for
      resection of primary skull base malignancies involving the clivus at 2
      independent institutions. Clinical data; tumor locations within the clivus; and
      anatomical involvement of the cavernous or paraclival internal carotid artery,
      cisternal trigeminal nerve, hypoglossal canal, and dura mater were investigated
      to assess the extent of resection. Possible prognostic factors affecting GTR were
      also analyzed. RESULTS Of the 42 patients, 37 were diagnosed with chordomas and 5
      were diagnosed with chondrosarcomas. The mean (+/- SD) preoperative tumor volume
      was 25.2 +/- 30.5 cm3 (range 0.8-166.7 cm3). GTR was achieved in 28 patients
      (66.7%) and subtotal resection in 14 patients (33.3%). All tumors were classified
      as upper (n = 17), middle (n = 17), or lower (n = 8) clival tumors based on
      clival involvement, and as central (24 [57.1%]) or paramedian (18 [42.9%]) based
      on laterality of the tumor. Univariate analysis identified the tumor laterality
      (OR 6.25, 95% CI 1.51-25.86; p = 0.011) as significantly predictive of GTR. In
      addition, the laterality of the tumor was found to be a statistically significant
      predictor in multivariate analysis (OR 41.16, 95% CI 1.12-1512.65; p = 0.043).
      CONCLUSIONS An endoscopic endonasal approach can provide favorable clinical and
      surgical outcomes. However, the tumor laterality should be considered as a
      potential obstacle to total removal.

PMID- 28574309
TI  - Early low cerebral blood flow and high cerebral lactate: prediction of delayed
      cerebral ischemia in subarachnoid hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)
      is one of the major contributors to poor outcome. It is crucial to be able to
      detect early signs of DCI to prevent its occurrence. The objective of this study
      was to determine if low cerebral blood flow (CBF) measurements and pathological
      microdialysis parameters measured at the bedside can be observed early in
      patients with SAH who later developed DCI. METHODS The authors included 30
      patients with severe SAH. The CBF measurements were performed at Day 0-3 after
      disease onset, using bedside xenon-CT. Interstitial glucose, lactate, pyruvate,
      glycerol, and glutamate were measured using microdialysis. RESULTS Nine of 30
      patients developed DCI. Patients with DCI showed significantly lower global and
      regional CBF, and lactate was significantly increased in these patients. A high
      lactate/pyruvate ratio was also detected in patients with DCI. CONCLUSIONS Early
      low CBF measurements and a high lactate and lactate/pyruvate ratio may be early
      warning signs of the risk of developing DCI. The clinical value of these findings
      needs to be confirmed in larger studies.

PMID- 28574311
TI  - Erratum. Gamma Knife radiosurgery for recurrent or residual seizures after
      anterior temporal lobectomy in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients with
      hippocampal sclerosis: long-term follow-up results of more than 4 years.

PMID- 28574310
TI  - Exosomes as a biomarker platform for detecting epidermal growth factor receptor
      positive high-grade gliomas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE High-grade glial brain tumors are often characterized by an elevated
      expression of the tumorigenic epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (
      EGFRvIII). The authors sought to establish a clinically adaptive protocol as a
      noninvasive diagnostic tool for EGFRvIII detection through serum exosomes.
      METHODS Purity of serum exosome/RNA was confirmed by electron microscopy and flow
      cytometry and through an RNA bioanalyzer profile. EGFRvIII amplification was
      initially established by semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction in tumor
      tissues and exosomes. Diagnostic performance of EGFRvIII transcript in tissue
      versus exosome was determined using a 2 * 2 clinical table approach. Overall
      survival was determined using Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS The EGFRvIII
      transcript was detected in 39.5% of tumor tissue samples and in 44.7% of their
      paired serum exosome samples; 28.1% of biopsy tumors coexpressed wild-type EGFR
      and EGFRvIII. Tissue EGFRvIII amplification served as the reference-positive
      control for its paired serum expression. The overall clinical sensitivity and
      specificity of semiquantitative exosome EGFRvIII polymerase chain reaction
      detection assay in serum were 81.58% (95% CI 65.67%-92.26%) and 79.31% (95% CI
      66.65%-88.83%), respectively. Age, sex, tumor location, and side of the body on
      which the tumor was located had no effect on the detection rate of exosomal
      EGFRvIII transcript. EGFRvIII expression either in exosomes or tissue correlated
      with poor survival. CONCLUSIONS The authors established a serum-based method for
      detection of EGFRvIII in high-grade brain tumors that might serve as an optimal
      noninvasive method for diagnosing EGFRvIII-positive high-grade gliomas.

PMID- 28574313
TI  - Rationale for graft selection in patients with complex internal carotid artery
      aneurysms treated with extracranial to intracranial high-flow bypass and
      therapeutic internal carotid artery occlusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVE After internal carotid artery (ICA) sacrifice without revascularization
      for complex aneurysms, ischemic complications can occur. In addition, hemodynamic
      alterations in the circle of Willis create conditions conducive to the formation
      of de novo aneurysms or the enlargement of existing untreated aneurysms.
      Therefore, the revascularization technique remains indispensable. Because vessel
      sizes and the development of collateral circulation are different in each
      patient, the ideal graft size to prevent low flow-related ischemic complications
      (LRICs) in external carotid artery (ECA)-middle cerebral artery (MCA) bypass with
      therapeutic ICA occlusion (ICAO) has not been well established. Authors of this
      study hypothesized that the adequate graft size could be calculated from the size
      of the sacrificed ICA and the values of MCA pressure (MCAP) and undertook an
      investigation in patients with complex ICA aneurysms treated with ECA-graft-MCA
      bypass and therapeutic ICAO. METHODS In the period between July 2006 and January
      2016, 80 patients with complex ICA aneurysms were treated with ECA-MCA bypass and
      therapeutic ICAO. Preoperative balloon test occlusion (BTO) was performed, and
      the BTO pressure ratio was defined as the mean stump pressure/mean preocclusion
      pressure. Low flow-related ischemic complications were defined as new
      postoperative neurological deficits and ipsilateral cerebral blood flow
      reduction. Initial MCAP (iMCAP), MCAP after clamping the ICA (cMCAP), and MCAP
      after releasing the graft (gMCAP) were intraoperatively monitored. The MCAP ratio
      was defined as gMCAP/iMCAP. Based on the Hagen-Poiseuille law, the expected MCAP
      ratio ([expected gMCAP]/iMCAP) was hypothesized as follows: (1 -
      cMCAP/iMCAP)(graft radius/ICA radius)2 + (cMCAP/iMCAP). Correlations between the
      BTO pressure ratio and cMCAP/iMCAP, and between the actual and expected MCAP
      ratios, were evaluated. Risk factors for LRICs were also evaluated. RESULTS The
      mean BTO pressure ratio was significantly correlated with the mean cMCAP/iMCAP (r
      = 0.68, p < 0.0001). The actual MCAP ratio correlated with the expected MCAP
      ratio (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001). If the expected MCAP ratio was set up using the BTO
      pressure ratio instead of cMCAP/iMCAP (BTO-expected MCAP ratio), the mean BTO
      expected MCAP ratio significantly correlated with the expected MCAP ratio (r =
      0.95, p < 0.0001). During a median follow-up period of 26.1 months, LRICs were
      observed in 9 patients (11%). An actual MCAP ratio < 0.80 (p = 0.003), expected
      MCAP ratio < 0.80 (p = 0.001), and (M2 radius/graft radius)2 < 0.49 (p = 0.002)
      were related to LRICs according to the Cox proportional-hazards model.
      CONCLUSIONS Data in the present study indicated that it was important to use an
      adequate graft to achieve a sufficient MCAP ratio in order to avoid LRICs and
      that the adequate graft size could be evaluated based on a formula in patients
      with complex ICA aneurysms treated with ICAO.

PMID- 28574312
TI  - Elevated intracranial pressure and reversible eye-tracking changes detected while
      viewing a film clip.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The precise threshold differentiating normal and elevated intracranial
      pressure (ICP) is variable among individuals. In the context of several
      pathophysiological conditions, elevated ICP leads to abnormalities in global
      cerebral functioning and impacts the function of cranial nerves (CNs), either or
      both of which may contribute to ocular dysmotility. The purpose of this study was
      to assess the impact of elevated ICP on eye-tracking performed while patients
      were watching a short film clip. METHODS Awake patients requiring placement of an
      ICP monitor for clinical purposes underwent eye tracking while watching a 220
      second continuously playing video moving around the perimeter of a viewing
      monitor. Pupil position was recorded at 500 Hz and metrics associated with each
      eye individually and both eyes together were calculated. Linear regression with
      generalized estimating equations was performed to test the association of eye
      tracking metrics with changes in ICP. RESULTS Eye tracking was performed at ICP
      levels ranging from -3 to 30 mm Hg in 23 patients (12 women, 11 men, mean age
      46.8 years) on 55 separate occasions. Eye-tracking measures correlating with CN
      function linearly decreased with increasing ICP (p < 0.001). Measures for CN VI
      were most prominently affected. The area under the curve (AUC) for eye-tracking
      metrics to discriminate between ICP < 12 and >= 12 mm Hg was 0.798. To
      discriminate an ICP < 15 from >= 15 mm Hg the AUC was 0.833, and to discriminate
      ICP < 20 from >= 20 mm Hg the AUC was 0.889. CONCLUSIONS Increasingly elevated
      ICP was associated with increasingly abnormal eye tracking detected while
      patients were watching a short film clip. These results suggest that eye tracking
      may be used as a noninvasive, automatable means to quantitate the physiological
      impact of elevated ICP, which has clinical application for assessment of shunt
      malfunction, pseudotumor cerebri, concussion, and prevention of second-impact
      syndrome.

PMID- 28574314
TI  - A microcontroller-based simulation of dural venous sinus injury for neurosurgical
      training.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Surgical simulation has the potential to supplement and enhance
      traditional resident training. However, the high cost of equipment and limited
      number of available scenarios have inhibited wider integration of simulation in
      neurosurgical education. In this study the authors provide initial validation of
      a novel, low-cost simulation platform that recreates the stress of surgery using
      a combination of hands-on, model-based, and computer elements. Trainee skill was
      quantified using multiple time and performance measures. The simulation was
      initially validated using trainees at the start of their intern year. METHODS The
      simulation recreates intraoperative superior sagittal sinus injury complicated by
      air embolism. The simulator model consists of 2 components: a reusable base and a
      disposable craniotomy pack. The simulator software is flexible and modular to
      allow adjustments in difficulty or the creation of entirely new clinical
      scenarios. The reusable simulator base incorporates a powerful microcomputer and
      multiple sensors and actuators to provide continuous feedback to the software
      controller, which in turn adjusts both the screen output and physical elements of
      the model. The disposable craniotomy pack incorporates 3D-printed sections of
      model skull and brain, as well as artificial dura that incorporates a model
      sagittal sinus. RESULTS Twelve participants at the 2015 Western Region Society of
      Neurological Surgeons postgraduate year 1 resident course ("boot camp") provided
      informed consent and enrolled in a study testing the prototype device. Each
      trainee was required to successfully create a bilateral parasagittal craniotomy,
      repair a dural sinus tear, and recognize and correct an air embolus. Participant
      stress was measured using a heart rate wrist monitor. After participation, each
      resident completed a 13-question categorical survey. CONCLUSIONS All trainee
      participants experienced tachycardia during the simulation, although the point in
      the simulation at which they experienced tachycardia varied. Survey results
      indicated that participants agreed the simulation was realistic, created stress,
      and was a useful tool in training neurosurgical residents. This simulator
      represents a novel, low-cost approach for hands-on training that effectively
      teaches and tests residents without risk of patient injury.

PMID- 28574315
TI  - The effect of NACHRI children's hospital designation on outcome in pediatric
      malignant brain tumors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Although current pediatric neurosurgery guidelines encourage the
      treatment of pediatric malignant brain tumors at specialized centers such as
      pediatric hospitals, there are limited data in support of this recommendation.
      Previous studies suggest that children treated by higher-volume surgeons and
      higher-volume hospitals may have better outcomes, but the effect of treatment at
      dedicated children's hospitals has not been investigated. METHODS The authors
      analyzed the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids' Inpatient Database
      (KID) from 2000-2009 and included all patients undergoing a craniotomy for
      malignant pediatric brain tumors based on ICD-9-CM codes. They investigated the
      effects of patient demographics, tumor location, admission type, and hospital
      factors on rates of routine discharge and mortality. RESULTS From 2000 through
      2009, 83.6% of patients had routine discharges, and the in-hospital mortality
      rate was 1.3%. In multivariate analysis, compared with children treated at an
      institution designated as a pediatric hospital by NACHRI (National Association of
      Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions), children receiving treatment at a
      pediatric unit within an adult hospital (OR 0.5, p < 0.01) or a general hospital
      without a designated pediatric unit (OR 0.4, p < 0.01) were less likely to have
      routine discharges. Treatment at a large hospital (> 400 beds; OR 1.8, p = 0.02)
      and treatment at a teaching hospital (OR 1.7, p = 0.02) were independently
      associated with greater likelihood of routine discharge. However, patients
      transferred between facilities had a significantly decreased likelihood of
      routine discharge (OR 0.5, p < 0.01) and an increased likelihood of mortality (OR
      5.0, p < 0.01). Procedural volume was not associated with rate of routine
      discharge or mortality. CONCLUSIONS These findings may have implications for
      planning systems of care for pediatric patients with malignant brain tumors. The
      authors hope to motivate future research into the specific factors that may lead
      to improved outcomes at designated pediatric hospitals.

PMID- 28574316
TI  - Imaging of congenital torticollis in infants: a retrospective study of an
      institutional protocol.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The authors' objectives in this study were to evaluate their
      institutional protocol and create recommendations for radiographic imaging in
      infants with torticollis, with or without plagiocephaly, based on a retrospective
      clinical analysis and literature review. METHODS A retrospective analysis was
      conducted to identify infants with torticollis who were evaluated by the
      craniofacial team. The following patients were identified: those who underwent
      imaging in the form of radiography, CT scanning, or MRI; those who had a
      secondary diagnosis or additional clinical finding as the indication for imaging;
      and those with persistent torticollis despite completion of recommended
      repositioning techniques and physical therapy (PT). RESULTS A total of 683
      infants between the ages of 1 day and 335 days (mean age 141.6 days) were
      referred for management of torticollis. Initial imaging was performed in 48
      patients, of whom 44 were identified as having a diagnosis other than torticollis
      or a significant clinical finding as the indication for imaging. The remaining 4
      patients (0.6% of the torticollis population) underwent imaging and did not have
      an additional diagnosis or a significant clinical finding. There were no abnormal
      radiological findings in these patients. Of the 639 patients diagnosed with
      congenital torticollis who did not have a secondary diagnosis that required
      initial imaging, 99.2% (634 patients) achieved resolution of torticollis with
      recommended repositioning techniques and completion of PT and without
      radiography, CT, or MRI. CONCLUSIONS Within the limits of this retrospective
      study and supporting literature, the authors provide the following
      recommendations regarding radiographic imaging of infants with congenital
      torticollis. 1) Clinical examination is sufficient in the diagnosis of congenital
      torticollis in infants. Radiography, CT scanning, and MRI are not necessary. 2)
      In cases in which additional clinical or neurological findings are present,
      imaging may be recommended. 3) PT and repositioning techniques are the
      recommended treatment modalities for congenital torticollis. 4) Additional
      evaluations should be performed throughout the duration of PT to assess progress
      and response to therapy. 5) Imaging should be performed to rule out nonmuscular
      pathologies if torticollis persists after 1 year of treatment.

PMID- 28574317
TI  - Reoperation after failed resective epilepsy surgery in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Although epilepsy surgery is an effective treatment option, at least
      20%-40% of patients can continue to experience uncontrolled seizures resulting
      from incomplete resection of the lesion, epileptogenic zone, or secondary
      epileptogenesis. Reoperation could eliminate or improve seizures. Authors of this
      study evaluated outcomes following reoperation in a pediatric population. METHODS
      A retrospective single-center analysis of all patients who had undergone
      resective epilepsy surgery in the period from 2001 to 2013 was performed. After
      excluding children who had repeat hemispherotomy, there were 24 children who had
      undergone a second surgery and 2 children who had undergone a third surgery. All
      patients underwent MRI and video electroencephalography (VEEG) and 21 underwent
      magnetoencephalography (MEG) prior to reoperation. RESULTS The mean age at the
      first and second surgery was 7.66 (SD 4.11) and 10.67 (SD 4.02) years,
      respectively. The time between operations ranged from 0.03 to 9 years. At
      reoperation, 8 patients underwent extended cortical resection; 8, lobectomy; 5,
      lesionectomy; and 3, functional hemispherotomy. One year after reoperation, 58%
      of the children were completely seizure free (International League Against
      Epilepsy [ILAE] Class 1) and 75% had a reduction in seizures (ILAE Classes 1-4).
      Patients with MEG clustered dipoles were more likely to be seizure free than to
      have persistent seizures (71% vs 40%, p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS Reoperation in
      children with recurrent seizures after the first epilepsy surgery could result in
      favorable seizure outcomes. Those with residual lesion after the first surgery
      should undergo complete resection of the lesion to improve seizure outcome. In
      addition to MRI and VEEG, MEG should be considered as part of the reevaluation
      prior to reoperation.

PMID- 28574319
TI  - Developing a training package.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of a training
      package for service users and carers with an interest in NHS health and social
      care research. It demonstrates how the developers used their unique experience
      and expertise as service users and carers to inform their work.
      Design/methodology/approach Service users and carers, NHS Research and
      Development Forum working group members, supported by health professionals,
      identified a need for research training that was tailored to other service user
      and carer needs. After reviewing existing provision and drawing on their training
      and support experience, they developed a training package. Sessions from the
      training package were piloted, which evaluated positively. In trying to achieve
      programme accreditation and training roll-out beyond the pilots, the group
      encountered several challenges. Findings The training package development group
      formed good working relationships and a co-production model that proved
      sustainable. However, challenges were difficult to overcome owing to external
      factors and financial constraints. Practical implications Lessons learnt by the
      team are useful for other service users and carer groups working with health
      service professionals. Training for service users and carers should be designed
      to meet their needs; quality and consistency are also important. The
      relationships between service user and carer groups, and professionals are
      important to understanding joint working. Recognising and addressing challenges
      at the outset can help develop strategies to overcome challenges and ensure
      project success. Originality/value The training package was developed by service
      users and carers for other service users and carers. Their unique health research
      experience underpinned the group's values and training development.

PMID- 28574320
TI  - Using flow diagrams to improve tobacco cessation programs.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how the Wyoming Quit Tobacco
      Program (WQTP) is used by its subscribers and to better understand how WQTP might
      be connected to WQTP outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Provider intake and
      program use data corresponding to the May 2010 to March 2012 enrollment period (
      n=6,168) were used. All program flows were constructed using frequencies and
      crosstabs, based on an initial theoretical model prepared by the program
      provider. Data were adjusted based on analysis that explored all possible uses
      beyond those specified by the provider's theoretical model. Findings Although the
      authors could replicate the structure - the theoretical model constructed by the
      provider - the authors were not able to replicate all relationships between
      program components. The authors also found that most individuals signed up and
      used web-based services. Only a few individuals finished their treatment regimens
      in the way they were designed to be used by the program. Originality/value This
      is the first case study to use a program flow method to investigate an entire
      comprehensive tobacco cessation program structure and delivery.

PMID- 28574318
TI  - Pediatric abusive head trauma and stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Despite established risk factors, abusive head trauma (AHT) continues
      to plague our communities. Cerebrovascular accident (CVA), depicted as areas of
      hypodensity on CT scans or diffusion restriction on MR images, is a well-known
      consequence of AHT, but its etiology remains elusive. The authors hypothesize
      that a CVA, in isolation or in conjunction with other intracranial injuries,
      compounds the severity of a child's injury, which in turn leads to greater health
      care utilization, including surgical services, and an increased risk of death.
      METHODS The authors conducted a retrospective observational study to evaluate
      data obtained in all children with AHT who presented to Le Bonheur Children's
      Hospital (LBCH) from January 2009 through August 2016. Demographic, hospital
      course, radiological, cost, and readmission information was collected. Children
      with one or more CVA were compared with those without a CVA. RESULTS The authors
      identified 282 children with AHT, of whom 79 (28%) had one or more CVA. Compared
      with individuals without a CVA, children with a stroke were of similar overall
      age (6 months), sex (61% male), and race (56% African-American) and had similar
      insurance status (81% public). Just under half of all children with a stroke
      (38/79, 48%) were between 1-6 months of age. Thirty-five stroke patients (44%)
      had a Grade II injury, and 44 (56%) had a Grade III injury. The majority of
      stroke cases were bilateral (78%), multifocal (85%), associated with an overlying
      subdural hematoma (86%), and were watershed/hypoperfusion in morphology (73%).
      Thirty-six children (46%) had a hemispheric stroke. There were a total of 48
      neurosurgical procedures performed on 28 stroke patients. Overall median hospital
      length of stay (11 vs 3 days), total hospital charges ($13.8 vs $6.6 million),
      and mean charges per patient ($174,700 vs $32,500) were significantly higher in
      the stroke cohort as a whole, as well as by injury grade (II and III). Twenty
      children in the stroke cohort (25%) died as a direct result of their AHT, whereas
      only 2 children in the nonstroke cohort died (1%). There was a 30% readmission
      rate within the first 180-day postinjury period for patients in the stroke
      cohort, and of these, approximately 50% required additional neurosurgical
      intervention(s). CONCLUSIONS One or more strokes in a child with AHT indicate a
      particularly severe injury. These children have longer hospital stays, greater
      hospital charges, and a greater likelihood of needing a neurosurgical
      intervention (i.e., bedside procedure or surgery). Stroke is such an important
      predictor of health care utilization and outcome that it warrants a subcategory
      for both Grade II and Grade III injuries. It should be noted that the word
      "stroke" or "CVA" should not automatically imply arterial compromise in this
      population.

PMID- 28574321
TI  - Quality improvement in physiotherapy services.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a process change in
      physiotherapy services and to explore factors that may have influenced the
      outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This is a multiple case study and
      information was gathered from eight physiotherapy teams over 24 months. Findings
      The process change was successfully implemented in six teams. It had a clear,
      positive effect on service quality provided to patients in three teams. Whilst
      quality also improved in three other teams, other issues make changes difficult
      to assess. Factors that enabled process change to be effective are suggested.
      Research limitations/implications The findings are based on results achieved by
      only eight English teams. Practical implications This process change may be
      appropriate for other teams providing therapy services if attention is paid to
      potential enabling factors, and a learning approach is adopted to designing and
      introducing the change. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge,
      no other longitudinal process change study in therapy services has been
      published.

PMID- 28574322
TI  - Volume-outcome relationship for colorectal cancer in primary care: a prospective
      cohort study.
AB  - Purpose Higher caseloads are associated with better outcomes for many conditions
      treated in secondary and tertiary care settings, including colorectal cancer
      (CRC). There is little known whether such volume-outcome relationship exist in
      primary care settings. The purpose of this paper is to examine general
      practitioner (GP) CRC-specific caseload for possible associations with referral
      pathways, disease stage and CRC patients' overall survival.
      Design/methodology/approach The paper retrospectively analyses a prospectively
      maintained CRC database for 2009-2014 in a single district hospital providing
      bowel cancer screening and tertiary rectal cancer services. Findings Of 1,145 CRC
      patients, 937 (81.8 per cent) were diagnosed as symptomatic cancers. In total,
      210 GPs from 44 practices were stratified according to their CRC caseload over
      the study period into low volume (LV, 1-4); medium volume (MV, 5-7); and high
      volume (HV, 8-21 cases). Emergency presentation (LV: 49/287 (17.1 per cent); MV:
      75/264 (28.4 per cent); HV: 105/386 (27.2 per cent); p=0.007) and advanced
      disease at presentation (LV: 84/287 (29.3 per cent); MV: 94/264 (35.6 per cent);
      HV: 144/386 (37.3 per cent); p=0.034) was more common amongst HV GPs. Three-year
      mortality risk was significantly higher for HV GPs (MV: (hazard ratio) HR 1.185
      (confidence interval=0.897-1.566), p=0.231, and HV: HR 1.366 (CI=1.061-1.759),
      p=0.016), but adjustment for emergency presentation and advanced disease largely
      accounted for this difference. There was some evidence that HV GPs used elective
      cancer pathways less frequently (LV: 166/287 (57.8 per cent); MV: 130/264 (49.2
      per cent); HV: 182/386 (47.2 per cent); p=0.007) and more selectively
      (CRC/referrals: LV: 166/2,743 (6.1 per cent); MV: 130/2,321 (5.6 per cent); HV:
      182/2,508 (7.3 per cent); p=0.048). Originality/value Higher GP CRC caseload in
      primary care may be associated with advanced disease and poorer survival; more
      work is required to determine the reasons and to develop targeted intervention at
      local level to improve elective referral rates.

PMID- 28574323
TI  - Improving ICU risk management and patient safety.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a study which aimed to develop
      and validate an assessment method for the International Electrotechnical
      Commission (IEC) 80001-1 (IEC, 2010) standard (the Standard); raise awareness;
      improve medical IT-network project risk management processes; and improve
      intensive care unit patient safety. Design/methodology/approach An assessment
      method was developed and piloted. A healthcare IT-network project assessment was
      undertaken using a semi-structured group interview with risk management
      stakeholders. Participants provided feedback via a questionnaire. Descriptive
      statistics and thematic analysis was undertaken. Findings The assessment method
      was validated as fit for purpose. Participants agreed (63 per cent, n=7) that
      assessment questions were clear and easy to understand, and participants agreed
      (82 per cent, n=9) that the assessment method was appropriate. Participant's
      knowledge of the Standard increased and non-compliance was identified. Medical IT
      network project strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the risk
      management processes were identified. Practical implications The study raised
      awareness of the Standard and enhanced risk management processes that led to
      improved patient safety. Study participants confirmed they would use the
      assessment method in future projects. Originality/value Findings add to knowledge
      relating to IEC 80001-1 implementation.

PMID- 28574324
TI  - Continuous improvement projects: an authorship bibliometric analysis.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the current research on hospital
      continuous improvement projects (CIPs) from an author characteristics'
      perspective. This work addresses the following questions: who are the predominant
      research authors in hospital CIPs? To what extent are the research communities
      collaborating in distinct research groups? How internationalized has hospital
      CIPs research become with respect to author location? Design/methodology/approach
      A systematic literature review was conducted, identifying 302 academic
      publications related to hospital CIPs. Publications were analyzed using: author,
      quantity, diversity, collaboration, and impact. Findings Hospital CIPs are
      increasingly attracting new scholars each year. Based on the authors' analysis,
      authors publishing in this area can be described as a relatively new
      international community given the countries represented. Originality/value This
      paper describes the current hospital CIP research by assessing author
      characteristics. Future work should examine additional attributes to characterize
      maturity such as how new knowledge is being created and to what extent new
      knowledge is being disseminated to practitioners.

PMID- 28574325
TI  - Service quality, patient satisfaction and loyalty in the Bangladesh healthcare
      sector.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate service quality, patient
      satisfaction and loyalty in Bangladesh's healthcare sector. It identifies
      healthcare quality conformance, patient satisfaction and loyalty based on
      demographics such as gender, age and marital status. It examines the differences
      between public and private healthcare sectors regarding service quality, patient
      satisfaction and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach The authors distributed 450
      self-administered questionnaires to hospital patients resulting in 204 useful
      responses (45.3 per cent response rate). Data were analysed based on reliability
      analysis, exploratory factor analysis, independent samples t-tests, ANOVA and
      discriminant analysis using SPSS version 23. Findings Findings indicate that
      single patients perceive tangibles, reliability, empathy and loyalty higher
      compared to married patients. Young patients (?20 years) have a higher tangibles,
      empathy and loyalty scores compared to other age groups. The authors observed
      that private hospital patients perceive healthcare service quality performance
      higher compared to patients in public hospitals. Research
      limitations/implications The authors focussed solely on the Bangladesh health
      sector, so the results might not be applicable to other countries.
      Originality/value The findings provide guidelines for enhancing service quality,
      patient satisfaction and loyalty in the Bangladesh healthcare sector and other
      countries.

PMID- 28574326
TI  - Healthcare quality improvement work: a professional employee perspective.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze conditions that
      influence how employees engage in healthcare quality improvement (QI) work.
      Design/methodology/approach Qualitative case study based on interviews ( n=27)
      and observations ( n=10). Findings The main conditions that influence how
      employees engage in healthcare QI work are professions, work structures and
      working relationships. These conditions can both prevent and facilitate
      healthcare QI. Professions and work structures may cement existing institutional
      logics and thus prevent employees from engaging in healthcare QI work. However,
      attempts to align QI with professional logics, together with work structures that
      empower employees, can make these conditions increase employee engagement, which
      can be accomplished through positive working relationships that foster
      institutional work, which bridge different competing institutional logics, making
      it possible to overcome barriers that professions and work structures may
      constitute. Practical implications Understanding the conditions that influence
      how employees engage in healthcare QI work will make initiatives more likely to
      succeed. Originality/value Healthcare QI has mainly been studied from an
      implementer perspective, and employees have either been neglected or seen as
      passive resisters. Weak employee perspectives make healthcare QI research
      incomplete. In our research, healthcare QI work is studied closely at the actor
      level to understand healthcare QI from an employee perspective.

PMID- 28574327
TI  - Intrinsic LINE-1 Hypomethylation and Decreased Brca1 Expression are Associated
      with DNA Repair Delay in Irradiated Thyroid Cells.
AB  - Exposure to ionizing radiation greatly increases the risk of developing papillary
      thyroid carcinoma (PTC), especially during childhood, mainly due to gradual
      inactivation of DNA repair genes and DNA damages. Recent molecular
      characterization of PTC revealed DNA methylation deregulation of several
      promoters of DNA repair genes. Thus, epigenetic silencing might be a plausible
      mechanism for the activity loss of tumor suppressor genes in radiation-induced
      thyroid tumors. Herein, we investigated the impact of ionizing radiation on
      global methylation and CpG islands within promoter regions of homologous
      recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) genes, as well as its
      effects on gene expression, using two well-established normal differentiated
      thyroid cell lines (FRTL5 and PCCL3). Our data reveal that X-ray exposure
      promoted G2/M arrest in normal thyroid cell lines. The FRTL5 cells displayed a
      slower kinetics of double-strand breaks (DSB) repair and a lower long
      interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) methylation than the PCCL3 cells.
      Nevertheless, acute X-ray exposure does not alter the expression of genes
      involved in HR and NHEJ pathways, apart from the downregulation of Brca1 in
      thyroid cells. On the other hand, HR and NHEJ gene expressions were upregulated
      in radiation-induced senescent thyroid cells. Taken together, these data suggest
      that FRTL5 cells intrinsically have less efficient DNA DSB repair machinery than
      PCCL3 cells, as well as genomic instability, which could predispose the FRTL5
      cells to unrepaired DSB lesions and, therefore, gene mutations.

PMID- 28574328
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid outflow resistance as a diagnostic marker of spontaneous
      cerebrospinal fluid leakage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Spinal CSF leakage causes spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH).
      The aim of this study was to characterize CSF dynamics via lumbar infusion
      testing in patients with and without proven spinal CSF leakage in order to
      explore possible discriminators for the presence of an open CSF leak. METHODS
      This analysis included all patients with suspected SIH who were treated at the
      authors' institution between January 2012 and February 2015. The gold standard
      for "proven" CSF leakage is considered to be extrathecal contrast accumulation
      after intrathecal contrast injection. To characterize CSF dynamics, the authors
      performed computerized lumbar infusion testing to measure lumbar pressure at
      baseline (opening pressure) and at plateau, as well as pulse amplitude, CSF
      outflow resistance (RCSF), craniospinal elastance, and pressure-volume index.
      RESULTS Thirty-one patients underwent clinical imaging and lumbar infusion
      testing and were included in the final analysis. A comparison of the 14 patients
      with proven CSF leakage with the 17 patients without leakage showed a
      statistically significantly lower lumbar opening pressure (p < 0.001), plateau
      pressure (p < 0.001), and RCSF (p < 0.001) in the group with leakage.
      Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for an RCSF
      cutoff of <= 5 mm Hg/(ml/min) were 0.86, 1.0, 1.0, and 0.89 (area under the curve
      of 0.96), respectively. The median pressure-volume index was higher (p = 0.003),
      and baseline (p = 0.017) and plateau (p < 0.001) pulse amplitudes were lower in
      patients with a proven leak. CONCLUSIONS Lumbar infusion testing captures a
      distinct pattern of CSF dynamics associated with spinal CSF leakage. RCSF
      assessed by computerized lumbar infusion testing has an excellent diagnostic
      accuracy and is more accurate than evaluating the lumbar opening pressure. The
      authors suggest inclusion of RCSF in the diagnostic criteria for SIH.

PMID- 28574329
TI  - Spinal epidural hematomas: personal experience and literature review of more than
      1000 cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to identify factors that contribute to the
      formation of acute spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) by correlating etiology, age,
      site, clinical status, and treatment with immediate results and long-term
      outcomes. METHODS The authors reviewed their series of 15 patients who had been
      treated for SEH between 1996 and 2012. In addition, the authors reviewed the
      relevant international literature from 1869 (when SEH was first described) to
      2012, collecting a total of 1010 cases. Statistical analysis was performed in 959
      (95%) cases that were considered valid for assessing the incidence of age, sex,
      site, and clinical status at admission, correlating each of these parameters with
      the treatment results. Statistical analysis was also performed in 720 (71.3%)
      cases to study the incidence of etiological factors that favor SEH formation:
      coagulopathy, trauma, spinal puncture, pregnancy, and multifactorial disorders.
      The clinical status at admission and long-term outcome were studied for each
      group. Clinical status was assessed using the Neuro-Grade (NG) scale. RESULTS The
      mean patient age was 47.97 years (range 0-91 years), and a significant proportion
      of patients were male (60%, p < 0.001). A bimodal distribution has been reported
      for age at onset with peaks in the 2nd and 6th decades of life. The cause of the
      SEH was not reported in 42% of cases. The etiology concerned mainly iatrogenic
      factors (18%), such as coagulopathy or spinal puncture, rather than noniatrogenic
      factors (29%), such as genetic or metabolic coagulopathy, trauma, and pregnancy.
      The etiology was multifactorial in 11.1% of cases. The most common sites for SEH
      were C-6 (n = 293, 31%) and T-12 (n = 208, 22%), with maximum extension of 6
      vertebral bodies in 720 cases (75%). At admission, 806 (84%) cases had moderate
      neurological impairment (NG 2 or 3), and only lumbar hematoma was associated with
      a good initial clinical neurological status (NG 0 or 1). Surgery was performed in
      767 (80%) cases. Mortality was greater in patients older than 40 years of age
      (9%; p < 0.01). Sex did not influence any of these data (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS
      Factors that contribute to the formation of acute SEH are iatrogenic, not
      iatrogenic, or multifactorial. The treatment of choice is surgery, and the
      results of treatment are influenced by the patient's clinical and neurological
      status at admission, age, and the craniocaudal site.

PMID- 28574330
TI  - Role of intraoperative dynamic magnetic resonance myelogram in management of
      giant dorsolumbar spinal extradural arachnoid cyst: case report.
AB  - Giant dorsolumbar spinal arachnoid cysts are a complex, poorly understood, and
      difficult to manage clinical entity. Traditional CT myelography is technically
      difficult to use in these cases to detect the site of leakage preoperatively. The
      authors report a novel technique for detecting the site of the leak by using
      sequential, dynamic intraoperative MR myelography. To the authors' knowledge,
      there is no other similar report in the literature.

PMID- 28574331
TI  - Risk factors for 30-day reoperation and 3-month readmission: analysis from the
      Quality and Outcomes Database lumbar spine registry.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper was to use a prospective, longitudinal,
      multicenter outcome registry of patients undergoing surgery for lumbar
      degenerative disease in order to assess the incidence and factors associated with
      30-day reoperation and 90-day readmission. METHODS Prospectively collected data
      from 9853 patients from the Quality and Outcomes Database (QOD; formerly known as
      the N2QOD [National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database]) lumbar spine
      registry were retrospectively analyzed. Multivariate binomial regression analysis
      was performed to identify factors associated with 30-day reoperation and 90-day
      readmission after surgery for lumbar degenerative disease. A subgroup analysis of
      Medicare patients stratified by age (< 65 and >= 65 years old) was also
      performed. Continuous variables were compared using unpaired t-tests, and
      proportions were compared using Fisher's exact test. RESULTS There was a 2%
      reoperation rate within 30 days. Multivariate analysis revealed prolonged
      operative time during the index case as the only independent factor associated
      with 30-day reoperation. Other factors such as preoperative diagnosis, body mass
      index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class, diabetes, and use
      of spinal implants were not associated with reoperations within 30 days. Medicare
      patients < 65 years had a 30-day reoperation rate of 3.7%, whereas those >= 65
      years had a 30-day reoperation rate of 2.2% (p = 0.026). Medicare beneficiaries
      younger than 65 years undergoing reoperation within 30 days were more likely to
      be women (p = 0.009), have a higher BMI (p = 0.008), and have higher rates of
      depression (p < 0.0001). The 90-day readmission rate was 6.3%. Multivariate
      analysis demonstrated that higher ASA class (OR 1.46 per class, 95% CI 1.25-1.70)
      and history of depression (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.04-1.54) were factors associated
      with 90-day readmission. Medicare beneficiaries had a higher rate of 90-day
      readmissions compared with those who had private insurance (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.17
      1.76). Medicare patients < 65 years of age were more likely to be readmitted
      within 90 days after their index surgery compared with those >= 65 years (10.8%
      vs 7.7%, p = 0.017). Medicare patients < 65 years of age had a significantly
      higher BMI (p = 0.001) and higher rates of depression (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS
      In this analysis of a large prospective, multicenter registry of patients
      undergoing lumbar degenerative surgery, multivariate analysis revealed that
      prolonged operative time was associated with 30-day reoperation. The authors
      found that factors associated with 90-day readmission included higher ASA class
      and a history of depression. The 90-day readmission rates were higher for
      Medicare beneficiaries than for those who had private insurance. Medicare
      patients < 65 years of age were more likely to undergo reoperation within 30 days
      and to be readmitted within 90 days after their index surgery.

PMID- 28574332
TI  - Incidence and risk factors for preoperative deep venous thrombosis in 314
      consecutive patients undergoing surgery for spinal metastasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The authors of this study aimed to identify the incidence of and risk
      factors for preoperative deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in patients undergoing
      surgical treatment for spinal metastases. METHODS Univariate analysis of patient
      age, sex, ethnicity, laboratory values, comorbidities, preoperative ambulatory
      status, histopathological classification, spinal level, and surgical details was
      performed. Factors significantly associated with DVT univariately were entered
      into a multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS The authors identified 314
      patients, of whom 232 (73.9%) were screened preoperatively for a DVT. Of those
      screened, 22 (9.48%) were diagnosed with a DVT. The screened patients were older
      (median 62 vs 55 years, p = 0.0008), but otherwise similar in baseline
      characteristics. Nonambulatory status, previous history of DVT, lower partial
      thromboplastin time, and lower hemoglobin level were statistically significant
      and independent factors associated with positive results of screening for a DVT.
      Results of screening were positive in only 6.4% of ambulatory patients in
      contrast to 24.4% of nonambulatory patients, yielding an odds ratio of 4.73 (95%
      CI 1.88-11.90). All of the patients who had positive screening results underwent
      preoperative placement of an inferior vena cava filter. CONCLUSIONS Patients
      requiring surgery for spinal metastases represent a population with unique risks
      for venous thromboembolism. This study showed a 9.48% incidence of DVT in
      patients screened preoperatively. The highest rates of preoperative DVT were
      identified in nonambulatory patients, who were found to have a 4-fold increase in
      the likelihood of harboring a DVT. Understanding the preoperative thrombotic
      status may provide an opportunity for early intervention and risk stratification
      in this critically ill population.

PMID- 28574333
TI  - Depression as an independent predictor of postoperative delirium in spine
      deformity patients undergoing elective spine surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Depression is the most prevalent affective disorder in the US, and
      patients with spinal deformity are at increased risk. Postoperative delirium has
      been associated with inferior surgical outcomes, including morbidity and
      mortality. The relationship between depression and postoperative delirium in
      patients undergoing spine surgery is relatively unknown. The aim of this study
      was to determine if depression is an independent risk factor for the development
      of postoperative delirium in patients undergoing decompression and fusion for
      deformity. METHODS The medical records of 923 adult patients (age >= 18 years)
      undergoing elective spine surgery at a single major academic institution from
      2005 through 2015 were reviewed. Of these patients, 255 (27.6%) patients had been
      diagnosed with depression by a board-certified psychiatrist and constituted the
      Depression group; the remaining 668 patients constituted the No-Depression group.
      Patient demographics, comorbidities, and intra- and postoperative complication
      rates were collected for each patient and compared between groups. The primary
      outcome investigated in this study was rate of postoperative delirium, according
      to DSM-V criteria, during initial hospital stay after surgery. The association
      between depression and postoperative delirium rate was assessed via multivariate
      logistic regression analysis. RESULTS Patient demographics and comorbidities
      other than depression were similar in the 2 groups. In the Depression group,
      85.1% of the patients were taking an antidepressant prior to surgery. There were
      no significant between-group differences in intraoperative variables and rates of
      complications other than delirium. Postoperative complication rates were also
      similar between the cohorts, including rates of urinary tract infection, fever,
      deep and superficial surgical site infection, pulmonary embolism, deep vein
      thrombosis, urinary retention, and proportion of patients transferred to the
      intensive care unit. In total, 66 patients (7.15%) had an episode of
      postoperative delirium, with depressed patients experiencing approximately a 2
      fold higher rate of delirium (10.59% vs 5.84%). In a multivariate logistic
      regression analysis, depression was an independent predictor of postoperative
      delirium after spine surgery in spinal deformity patients (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS
      The results of this study suggest that depression is an independent risk factor
      for postoperative delirium after elective spine surgery. Further studies are
      necessary to understand the effects of affective disorders on postoperative
      delirium, in hopes to better identify patients at risk.

PMID- 28574334
TI  - Modified dorsal root entry zone lesioning for intractable pain relief in patients
      with root avulsion injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) lesioning has been the most effective
      surgical treatment for the relief of intractable pain due to root avulsion
      injury, but residual pain and a decrease in pain relief in the follow-up period
      have been reported in 23%-70% of patients. Based on pain topography in the most
      recent studies on neuropathic pain, the authors modified the conventional DREZ
      lesioning procedure to improve clinical outcomes. The presumed rationale for this
      procedure is to eliminate the spontaneous discharges of neurons in the
      superficial spinal dorsal horn as well as wide dynamic range neurons in the deep
      spinal dorsal horn. METHODS Ten patients with avulsion-related pain underwent
      surgery between 2011 and 2015. The surgical procedure was described and
      postoperative pain relief was assessed as follows: excellent (residual pain never
      exceeded 3 on the visual analog scale [VAS] without medication), good (residual
      pain never exceeded 5 on the VAS with medication), and poor (residual pain was
      greater than 5 with medication). Specific perioperative complications were
      assessed. RESULTS The aim of this surgical procedure was to destroy the deeper
      layers of the posterior horn of spinal gray matter, which was in contrast to the
      procedures of Nashold and Sindou, which were to destroy the superficial layers.
      All patients achieved excellent (n = 7, pain relief without medication) or good
      (n = 3, pain relief with medication) pain relief postoperatively, and the
      recurrence of pain was not reported in any patients (median 29 months after
      surgery, range 12-64 months). Nine patients (90%) achieved complete pain relief
      (a score of 0 or 1 on the VAS) with or without medication. No surgical site
      complications such as infection or CSF leakage were noted. No motor deficit was
      observed in any patient. A sensory deficit was observed in 2 patients and
      disappeared within 1 month in 1 patient. New pain at the adjacent level of DREZ
      lesioning was observed in 3 patients and disappeared within 1 month in 2
      patients. In the other patient, new pain persisted and required analgesics.
      CONCLUSIONS These preliminary results demonstrated that total and persistent
      global pain relief was achieved with the modified DREZ lesioning procedure in 90%
      of patients without major neurological deficits. The clinical improvements
      achieved by this modified surgical procedure support the hypothesis that not only
      the superficial layers, but also deeper layers of the spinal dorsal horn are
      associated with intractable pain due to root avulsion injury.

PMID- 28574335
TI  - Toxicity of orally inhaled drug formulations at the alveolar barrier: parameters
      for initial biological screening.
AB  - Oral delivery is the most common mode of systemic drug application. Inhalation is
      mainly used for local therapy of lung diseases but may also be a promising route
      for systemic delivery of drugs that have poor oral bioavailability. The thin
      alveolar barrier enables fast and efficient uptake of many molecules and could
      deliver small molecules and proteins, which are susceptible to degradation and
      show poor absorption by oral application. The low rate of biotransformation and
      proteolytic degradation increases bioavailability of drugs but accumulation of
      not absorbed material may impair normal lung function. This limitation is more
      relevant for compounds that should be systematically active because higher doses
      have to be applied to the lung. The review describes processes that determine
      absorption of orally inhaled formulations, namely dissolution in the lung lining
      fluid and uptake and degradation by alveolar epithelial cells and macrophages.
      Dissolution testing in simulated lung fluid, screening for cytotoxicity and pro
      inflammatory action in respiratory cells and study of macrophage morphology, and
      phagocytosis can help to identify adverse effects of pulmonary formulations.

PMID- 28574336
TI  - Early infant diagnosis of HIV in Myanmar: call for innovative interventions to
      improve uptake and reduce turnaround time.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In collaboration with the national AIDS program, early infant
      diagnosis (EID) is implemented by Integrated HIV Care (IHC) program through its
      anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centers across 10 cities in five states and regions
      of Myanmar. Blood samples from the ART centers are sent using public transport to
      a centralized PCR facility. OBJECTIVES: Among HIV-exposed babies <9 months at
      enrolment into IHC program (2013-15), to describe the EID cascade (enrolment,
      sample collection for PCR, result receipt by mother, HIV diagnosis and ART
      initiation) and factors associated with delayed (>8 weeks of age) or no blood
      sample collection for EID. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study involving record
      review. A predictive poisson regression model with robust variance estimates was
      fitted for risk factors of delayed or no sample collection. RESULTS: Of 1349
      babies, 523 (39%) of the babies' mothers were on ART before pregnancy. Timely
      uptake of EID (<8 weeks of age) was 47% (633/1349); sample collection was delayed
      in 27% (367/1349) and not done in 26% (349/1349) babies. Among samples collected
      (n = 1000), 667 results were received by the mother; 52 (5%) were HIV-infected;
      among them 42 (81%) were initiated on ART. Median (IQR) turnaround time from
      sample collection to result receipt by mother and time to initiate ART from
      result receipt by mother was 7 (4,12) and 8.5 (6,16) weeks, respectively. Mothers
      not on ART before pregnancy and distance of ART center from PCR facility (more
      than 128 km) were the risk factors of delayed or no sample collection.
      CONCLUSIONS: Improving provision of ART to mothers (through universal 'test and
      treat') is urgently required, which has the potential to improve the timely
      uptake of EID as well. Interventions to reduce turnaround times, like point of
      care EID testing and/or systematic use of mobile technology to communicate
      results, are needed.

PMID- 28574337
TI  - A gut response.
AB  - Unexpected findings from the immune system of sea urchin larvae potentially
      provide insights into immune signaling in ancestral animals.

PMID- 28574340
TI  - Robust Nonlinear Causality Analysis of Nonstationary Multivariate Physiological
      Time Series.
AB  - GOAL: An important research area in biomedical signal processing is that of
      quantifying the relationship between simultaneously observed time series and to
      reveal interactions between the signals. Since biomedical signals are potentially
      nonstationary and the measurements may contain outliers and artifacts, we
      introduce a robust time-varying generalized partial directed coherence (rTV-gPDC)
      function. METHODS: The proposed method, which is based on a robust estimator of
      the time-varying autoregressive (TVAR) parameters, is capable of revealing
      directed interactions between signals. By definition, the rTV-gPDC only displays
      the linear relationships between the signals. We therefore suggest to approximate
      the residuals of the TVAR process, which potentially carry information about the
      nonlinear causality by a piece-wise linear time-varying moving-average model.
      RESULTS: The performance of the proposed method is assessed via extensive
      simulations. To illustrate the method's applicability to real-world problems, it
      is applied to a neurophysiological study that involves intracranial pressure,
      arterial blood pressure, and brain tissue oxygenation level (PtiO2) measurements.
      CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE: The rTV-gPDC reveals causal patterns that are in
      accordance with expected cardiosudoral meachanisms and potentially provides new
      insights regarding traumatic brain injuries. The rTV-gPDC is not restricted to
      the above problem but can be useful in revealing interactions in a broad range of
      applications.

PMID- 28574338
TI  - Synchronized HIV assembly by tunable PIP2 changes reveals PIP2 requirement for
      stable Gag anchoring.
AB  - HIV-1 assembles at the plasma membrane (PM) of infected cells. PM association of
      the main structural protein Gag depends on its myristoylated MA domain and PM
      PI(4,5)P2. Using a novel chemical biology tool that allows rapidly tunable
      manipulation of PI(4,5)P2 levels in living cells, we show that depletion of
      PI(4,5)P2 completely prevents Gag PM targeting and assembly site formation.
      Unexpectedly, PI(4,5)P2 depletion also caused loss of pre-assembled Gag lattices
      from the PM. Subsequent restoration of PM PI(4,5)P2 reinduced assembly site
      formation even in the absence of new protein synthesis, indicating that the
      dissociated Gag molecules remained assembly competent. These results reveal an
      important role of PI(4,5)P2 for HIV-1 morphogenesis beyond Gag recruitment to the
      PM and suggest a dynamic equilibrium of Gag-lipid interactions. Furthermore, they
      establish an experimental system that permits synchronized induction of HIV-1
      assembly leading to induced production of infectious virions by targeted
      modulation of Gag PM targeting.

PMID- 28574341
TI  - Image Captioning and Visual Question Answering Based on Attributes and External
      Knowledge.
AB  - Much of the recent progress in Vision-to-Language problems has been achieved
      through a combination of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent
      Neural Networks (RNNs). This approach does not explicitly represent high-level
      semantic concepts, but rather seeks to progress directly from image features to
      text. In this paper we first propose a method of incorporating high-level
      concepts into the successful CNN-RNN approach, and show that it achieves a
      significant improvement on the state-of-the-art in both image captioning and
      visual question answering. We further show that the same mechanism can be used to
      incorporate external knowledge, which is critically important for answering high
      level visual questions. Specifically, we design a visual question answering model
      that combines an internal representation of the content of an image with
      information extracted from a general knowledge base to answer a broad range of
      image-based questions. It particularly allows questions to be asked where the
      image alone does not contain the information required to select the appropriate
      answer. Our final model achieves the best reported results for both image
      captioning and visual question answering on several of the major benchmark
      datasets.

PMID- 28574339
TI  - Diverse stimuli engage different neutrophil extracellular trap pathways.
AB  - Neutrophils release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) which ensnare pathogens
      and have pathogenic functions in diverse diseases. We examined the NETosis
      pathways induced by five stimuli; PMA, the calcium ionophore A23187, nigericin,
      Candida albicans and Group B Streptococcus. We studied NET production in
      neutrophils from healthy donors with inhibitors of molecules crucial to PMA
      induced NETs including protein kinase C, calcium, reactive oxygen species, the
      enzymes myeloperoxidase (MPO) and neutrophil elastase. Additionally, neutrophils
      from chronic granulomatous disease patients, carrying mutations in the NADPH
      oxidase complex or a MPO-deficient patient were examined. We show that PMA, C.
      albicans and GBS use a related pathway for NET induction, whereas ionophores
      require an alternative pathway but that NETs produced by all stimuli are
      proteolytically active, kill bacteria and composed mainly of chromosomal DNA.
      Thus, we demonstrate that NETosis occurs through several signalling mechanisms,
      suggesting that extrusion of NETs is important in host defence.

PMID- 28574342
TI  - Robust 3D Object Tracking from Monocular Images Using Stable Parts.
AB  - We present an algorithm for estimating the pose of a rigid object in real-time
      under challenging conditions. Our method effectively handles poorly textured
      objects in cluttered, changing environments, even when their appearance is
      corrupted by large occlusions, and it relies on grayscale images to handle
      metallic environments on which depth cameras would fail. As a result, our method
      is suitable for practical Augmented Reality applications including industrial
      environments. At the core of our approach is a novel representation for the 3D
      pose of object parts: We predict the 3D pose of each part in the form of the 2D
      projections of a few control points. The advantages of this representation is
      three-fold: We can predict the 3D pose of the object even when only one part is
      visible; when several parts are visible, we can easily combine them to compute a
      better pose of the object; the 3D pose we obtain is usually very accurate, even
      when only few parts are visible. We show how to use this representation in a
      robust 3D tracking framework. In addition to extensive comparisons with the state
      of-the-art, we demonstrate our method on a practical Augmented Reality
      application for maintenance assistance in the ATLAS particle detector at CERN.

PMID- 28574343
TI  - Exploring Context with Deep Structured Models for Semantic Segmentation.
AB  - We propose an approach for exploiting contextual information in semantic image
      segmentation, and particularly investigate the use of patch-patch context and
      patch-background context in deep CNNs. We formulate deep structured models by
      combining CNNs and Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) for learning the patch-patch
      context between image regions. Specifically, we formulate CNN-based pairwise
      potential functions to capture semantic correlations between neighboring patches.
      Efficient piecewise training of the proposed deep structured model is then
      applied in order to avoid repeated expensive CRF inference during the course of
      back propagation. For capturing the patch-background context, we show that a
      network design with traditional multi-scale image inputs and sliding pyramid
      pooling is very effective for improving performance. We perform comprehensive
      evaluation of the proposed method. We achieve new state-of-the-art performance on
      a number of challenging semantic segmentation datasets.

PMID- 28574344
TI  - A Framework for the Generation of Realistic Synthetic Cardiac Ultrasound and
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging Sequences From the Same Virtual Patients.
AB  - The use of synthetic sequences is one of the most promising tools for advanced in
      silico evaluation of the quantification of cardiac deformation and strain through
      3-D ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. In this paper, we
      propose the first simulation framework which allows the generation of realistic 3
      D synthetic cardiac US and MR (both cine and tagging) image sequences from the
      same virtual patient. A state-of-the-art electromechanical (E/M) model was
      exploited for simulating groundtruth cardiac motion fields ranging from healthy
      to various pathological cases, including both ventricular dyssynchrony and
      myocardial ischemia. The E/M groundtruth along with template MR/US images and
      physical simulators were combined in a unified framework for generating synthetic
      data. We efficiently merged several warping strategies to keep the full control
      of myocardial deformations while preserving realistic image texture. In total, we
      generated 18 virtual patients, each with synthetic 3-D US, cine MR, and tagged MR
      sequences. The simulated images were evaluated both qualitatively by showing
      realistic textures and quantitatively by observing myocardial intensity
      distributions similar to real data. In particular, the US simulation showed a
      smoother myocardium/background interface than the state-of-the-art. We also
      assessed the mechanical properties. The pathological subjects were discriminated
      from the healthy ones by both global indexes (ejection fraction and the global
      circumferential strain) and regional strain curves. The synthetic database is
      comprehensive in terms of both pathology and modality, and has a level of realism
      sufficient for validation purposes. All the 90 sequences are made publicly
      available to the research community via an open-access database.

PMID- 28574345
TI  - Noncontact 3-D Speckle Contrast Diffuse Correlation Tomography of Tissue Blood
      Flow Distribution.
AB  - Recent advancements in near-infrared diffuse correlation techniques and
      instrumentation have opened the path for versatile deep tissue microvasculature
      blood flow imaging systems. Despite this progress there remains a need for a
      completely noncontact, noninvasive device with high translatability from
      small/testing (animal) to large/target (human) subjects with trivial application
      on both. Accordingly, we discuss our newly developed setup which meets this
      demand, termed noncontact speckle contrast diffuse correlation tomography
      (nc_scDCT). The nc_scDCT provides fast, continuous, portable, noninvasive, and
      inexpensive acquisition of 3-D tomographic deep (up to 10 mm) tissue blood flow
      distributions with straightforward design and customization. The features
      presented include a finite-element-method implementation for incorporating
      complex tissue boundaries, fully noncontact hardware for avoiding tissue
      compression and interactions, rapid data collection with a diffuse speckle
      contrast method, reflectance-based design promoting experimental translation,
      extensibility to related techniques, and robust adjustable source and detector
      patterns and density for high resolution measurement with flexible regions of
      interest enabling unique application-specific setups. Validation is shown in the
      detection and characterization of both high and low contrasts in flow relative to
      the background using tissue phantoms with a pump-connected tube (high) and
      phantom spheres (low). Furthermore, in vivo validation of extracting
      spatiotemporal 3-D blood flow distributions and hyperemic response during forearm
      cuff occlusion is demonstrated. Finally, the success of instrument feasibility in
      clinical use is examined through the intraoperative imaging of mastectomy skin
      flap.

PMID- 28574346
TI  - Generative Adversarial Networks for Noise Reduction in Low-Dose CT.
AB  - Noise is inherent to low-dose CT acquisition. We propose to train a convolutional
      neural network (CNN) jointly with an adversarial CNN to estimate routine-dose CT
      images from low-dose CT images and hence reduce noise. A generator CNN was
      trained to transform low-dose CT images into routine-dose CT images using
      voxelwise loss minimization. An adversarial discriminator CNN was simultaneously
      trained to distinguish the output of the generator from routine-dose CT images.
      The performance of this discriminator was used as an adversarial loss for the
      generator. Experiments were performed using CT images of an anthropomorphic
      phantom containing calcium inserts, as well as patient non-contrast-enhanced
      cardiac CT images. The phantom and patients were scanned at 20% and 100% routine
      clinical dose. Three training strategies were compared: the first used only
      voxelwise loss, the second combined voxelwise loss and adversarial loss, and the
      third used only adversarial loss. The results showed that training with only
      voxelwise loss resulted in the highest peak signal-to-noise ratio with respect to
      reference routine-dose images. However, CNNs trained with adversarial loss
      captured image statistics of routine-dose images better. Noise reduction improved
      quantification of low-density calcified inserts in phantom CT images and allowed
      coronary calcium scoring in low-dose patient CT images with high noise levels.
      Testing took less than 10 s per CT volume. CNN-based low-dose CT noise reduction
      in the image domain is feasible. Training with an adversarial network improves
      the CNNs ability to generate images with an appearance similar to that of
      reference routine-dose CT images.

PMID- 28574347
TI  - Anisotropic Discrete Dual-Tree Wavelet Transform for Improved Classification of
      Trabecular Bone.
AB  - This paper deals with a new anisotropic discrete dual-tree wavelet transform
      (ADDTWT) to characterize the anisotropy of bone texture. More specifically, we
      propose to extend the conventional discrete dual-tree wavelet transform (DDTWT)
      by using the anisotropic basis functions associated with the hyperbolic wavelet
      transform instead of isotropic spectrum supports. A texture classification
      framework is adopted to assess the performance of the proposed transform. The
      generalized Gaussian distribution is used to model the distribution of the sub
      band coefficients. The estimated vector of parameters for each image is then used
      as input for the support vector machine classifier. Experiments were conducted on
      synthesized anisotropic fractional Brownian motion fields and on a real database
      composed of osteoporotic patients and control cases. Results show that the ADDTWT
      outperforms most of the competing anisotropic transforms with an area under curve
      rate of 93%.

PMID- 28574348
TI  - Direct Multitype Cardiac Indices Estimation via Joint Representation and
      Regression Learning.
AB  - Cardiac indices estimation is of great importance during identification and
      diagnosis of cardiac disease in clinical routine. However, estimation of
      multitype cardiac indices with consistently reliable and high accuracy is still a
      great challenge due to the high variability of cardiac structures and the
      complexity of temporal dynamics in cardiac MR sequences. While efforts have been
      devoted into cardiac volumes estimation through feature engineering followed by a
      independent regression model, these methods suffer from the vulnerable feature
      representation and incompatible regression model. In this paper, we propose a
      semi-automated method for multitype cardiac indices estimation. After the manual
      labeling of two landmarks for ROI cropping, an integrated deep neural network
      Indices-Net is designed to jointly learn the representation and regression
      models. It comprises two tightly-coupled networks, such as a deep convolution
      autoencoder for cardiac image representation, and a multiple output convolution
      neural network for indices regression. Joint learning of the two networks
      effectively enhances the expressiveness of image representation with respect to
      cardiac indices, and the compatibility between image representation and indices
      regression, thus leading to accurate and reliable estimations for all the cardiac
      indices. When applied with five-fold cross validation on MR images of 145
      subjects, Indices-Net achieves consistently low estimation error for LV wall
      thicknesses (1.44 +/- 0.71 mm) and areas of cavity and myocardium (204 +/- 133
      mm2). It outperforms, with significant error reductions, segmentation method
      (55.1% and 17.4%), and two-phase direct volume-only methods (12.7% and 14.6%) for
      wall thicknesses and areas, respectively. These advantages endow the proposed
      method a great potential in clinical cardiac function assessment.

PMID- 28574349
TI  - Specular Beamforming.
AB  - Acoustically hard objects, such as bones, needles, or catheters, are poorly
      visualized in conventional ultrasound images. These objects behave like acoustic
      mirrors and reflect sound in specific directions. Soft tissue and diffusive
      reflectors scatter sound in a broad range of directions. Conventional delay-and
      sum beamforming is based on the assumption of a purely scattering domain with
      relatively weak reflectivity. We present an adaptive beamforming technique that
      takes into account the physics of specular reflection. Patterns predicted by the
      law of reflection are detected across the pool of received data and used to
      enhance the visualization of specular energy. This technique can be applied to
      any synthetic imaging sequence. Here, it is applied to synthetic transmit
      aperture imaging. In vitro experiments show a clear improvement in target
      visibility and an increase of 30 to 60 dB in signal-to-noise ratio.

PMID- 28574350
TI  - Characterization of Kerfless Linear Arrays Based on PZT Thick Film.
AB  - Multielement transducers enabling novel cost-effective fabrication of imaging
      arrays for medical applications have been presented earlier. Due to the favorable
      low lateral coupling of the screen-printed PZT, the elements can be defined by
      the top electrode pattern only, leading to a kerfless design with low crosstalk
      between the elements. The thick-film-based linear arrays have proved to be
      compatible with a commercial ultrasonic scanner and to support linear array
      beamforming as well as phased array beamforming. The main objective of the
      presented work is to investigate the performance of the devices at the transducer
      level by extensive measurements of the test structures. The arrays have been
      characterized by several different measurement techniques. First, electrical
      impedance measurements on several elements in air and liquid have been conducted
      in order to support material parameter identification using the Krimholtz-Leedom
      Matthaei model. It has been found that electromechanical coupling is at the level
      of 35%. The arrays have also been characterized by a pulse-echo system. The
      measured sensitivity is around -60 dB, and the fractional bandwidth is close to
      60%, while the center frequency is about 12 MHz over the whole array. Finally,
      laser interferometry measurements have been conducted indicating very good
      displacement level as well as pressure. The in-depth characterization of the
      array structure has given insight into the performance parameters for the array
      based on PZT thick film, and the obtained information will be used to optimize
      the key parameters for the next generation of cost-effective arrays based on
      piezoelectric thick film.

PMID- 28574352
TI  - A Hierarchical Approach for Rain or Snow Removing in a Single Color Image.
AB  - In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm to remove rain or snow from a
      single color image. Our algorithm takes advantage of two popular techniques
      employed in image processing, namely, image decomposition and dictionary
      learning. At first, a combination of rain/snow detection and a guided filter is
      used to decompose the input image into a complementary pair: 1) the low-frequency
      part that is free of rain or snow almost completely and 2) the high-frequency
      part that contains not only the rain/snow component but also some or even many
      details of the image. Then, we focus on the extraction of image's details from
      the high-frequency part. To this end, we design a 3-layer hierarchical scheme. In
      the first layer, an overcomplete dictionary is trained and three classifications
      are carried out to classify the high-frequency part into rain/snow and non
      rain/snow components in which some common characteristics of rain/snow have been
      utilized. In the second layer, another combination of rain/snow detection and
      guided filtering is performed on the rain/snow component obtained in the first
      layer. In the third layer, the sensitivity of variance across color channels is
      computed to enhance the visual quality of rain/snow-removed image. The
      effectiveness of our algorithm is verified through both subjective (the visual
      quality) and objective (through rendering rain/snow on some ground-truth images)
      approaches, which shows a superiority over several state-of-the-art works.

PMID- 28574351
TI  - Fabrication and Characterization of a 20-MHz Microlinear Phased-Array Transducer
      for Intervention Guidance.
AB  - This paper describes the design and fabrication of a miniature ultrasonic phased
      array transducer used for intervention guidance. Currently, ultrasound probes are
      often placed at the body surface of the patients, leading to several drawbacks
      including the limitation of penetration and image quality. In order to improve
      the reliability of the guiding process, we propose a miniature phased-array
      transducer that can be placed adjacent to the intervention device during the
      interventional procedure. In this paper, we report the work that has been carried
      out on the development of this miniature phased-array transducer. It comprised 48
      elements housed in a 3-mm-diameter needle. A specially designed flexible circuit
      was used for accommodating the transducer array in the long, thin needle housing.
      The center frequency and the fractional bandwidth were approximately 20 MHz and
      42%, respectively, with an average crosstalk lower than -30 dB. The axial and
      azimuth resolutions were approximately 80 and [Formula: see text], respectively.
      The imaging capability of the transducer was further evaluated by acquiring the B
      mode images of a needle in a cow liver. The performance of the proposed phased
      array transducer demonstrates the feasibility of such an approach for
      interventional guidance.

PMID- 28574353
TI  - dipIQ: Blind Image Quality Assessment by Learning-to-Rank Discriminable Image
      Pairs.
AB  - Objective assessment of image quality is fundamentally important in many image
      processing tasks. In this paper, we focus on learning blind image quality
      assessment (BIQA) models, which predict the quality of a digital image with no
      access to its original pristine-quality counterpart as reference. One of the
      biggest challenges in learning BIQA models is the conflict between the gigantic
      image space (which is in the dimension of the number of image pixels) and the
      extremely limited reliable ground truth data for training. Such data are
      typically collected via subjective testing, which is cumbersome, slow, and
      expensive. Here, we first show that a vast amount of reliable training data in
      the form of quality-discriminable image pairs (DIPs) can be obtained
      automatically at low cost by exploiting large-scale databases with diverse image
      content. We then learn an opinion-unaware BIQA (OU-BIQA, meaning that no
      subjective opinions are used for training) model using RankNet, a pairwise
      learning-to-rank (L2R) algorithm, from millions of DIPs, each associated with a
      perceptual uncertainty level, leading to a DIP inferred quality (dipIQ) index.
      Extensive experiments on four benchmark IQA databases demonstrate that dipIQ
      outperforms the state-of-the-art OU-BIQA models. The robustness of dipIQ is also
      significantly improved as confirmed by the group MAximum Differentiation
      competition method. Furthermore, we extend the proposed framework by learning
      models with ListNet (a listwise L2R algorithm) on quality-discriminable image
      lists (DIL). The resulting DIL inferred quality index achieves an additional
      performance gain.

PMID- 28574354
TI  - SuperPatchMatch: An Algorithm for Robust Correspondences Using Superpixel
      Patches.
AB  - Superpixels have become very popular in many computer vision applications.
      Nevertheless, they remain under-exploited, since the superpixel decomposition may
      produce irregular and nonstable segmentation results due to the dependency to the
      image content. In this paper, we first introduce a novel structure, a superpixel
      based patch, called SuperPatch. The proposed structure, based on superpixel
      neighborhood, leads to a robust descriptor, since spatial information is
      naturally included. The generalization of the PatchMatch method to SuperPatches,
      named SuperPatchMatch, is introduced. Finally, we propose a framework to perform
      fast segmentation and labeling from an image database, and demonstrate the
      potential of our approach, since we outperform, in terms of computational cost
      and accuracy, the results of state-of-the-art methods on both face labeling and
      medical image segmentation.

PMID- 28574355
TI  - Feature Interaction Augmented Sparse Learning for Fast Kinect Motion Detection.
AB  - The Kinect sensing devices have been widely used in current Human-Computer
      Interaction entertainment. A fundamental issue involved is to detect users'
      motions accurately and quickly. In this paper, we tackle it by proposing a linear
      algorithm, which is augmented by feature interaction. The linear property
      guarantees its speed whereas feature interaction captures the higher order effect
      from the data to enhance its accuracy. The Schatten-p norm is leveraged to
      integrate the main linear effect and the higher order nonlinear effect by mining
      the correlation between them. The resulted classification model is a desirable
      combination of speed and accuracy. We propose a novel solution to solve our
      objective function. Experiments are performed on three public Kinect-based
      entertainment data sets related to fitness and gaming. The results show that our
      method has its advantage for motion detection in a real-time Kinect entertaining
      environment.

PMID- 28574356
TI  - Weakly Supervised Part Proposal Segmentation From Multiple Images.
AB  - Weakly supervised local part segmentation is challenging, due to the difficulty
      of modeling multiple local parts from image level prior. In this paper, we
      propose a new weakly supervised local part proposal segmentation method based on
      the observation that local parts will keep fixed along the object pose
      variations. Hence, the local part can be segmented by capturing object pose
      variations. Based on such observation, a new local part proposal segmentation
      model is proposed. Three aspects, such as shape similarity-based cosegmentation,
      shape matching-based part detection and segmentation, and graph matching-based
      part assignment are considered. A part segmentation energy function is first
      proposed. Four terms, such as MRF-based single image segmentation term, shape
      feature-based foreground consistency term, NCuts-based part segmentation term,
      and two-order graphs matching based part consistency term, are contained. Then, a
      three sub-minimization-based energy minimization method is proposed to accomplish
      approximation solution. Finally, we verify our method based on three image data
      sets (PASCAL VOC 2008 Part data set, UCB Bird data set, and Cat-Dog data set),
      and one video data set (UCF Sports) data set. The experimental results
      demonstrate a better segmentation performance compared with the existing object
      cosegmentation and part proposal generation methods.

PMID- 28574357
TI  - Single Image Rain Streak Decomposition Using Layer Priors.
AB  - Rain streaks impair visibility of an image and introduce undesirable interference
      that can severely affect the performance of computer vision and image analysis
      systems. Rain streak removal algorithms try to recover a rain streak free
      background scene. In this paper, we address the problem of rain streak removal
      from a single image by formulating it as a layer decomposition problem, with a
      rain streak layer superimposed on a background layer containing the true scene
      content. Existing decomposition methods that address this problem employ either
      sparse dictionary learning methods or impose a low rank structure on the
      appearance of the rain streaks. While these methods can improve the overall
      visibility, their performance can often be unsatisfactory, for they tend to
      either over-smooth the background images or generate -images that still contain
      noticeable rain streaks. To address the problems, we propose a method that
      imposes priors for both the background and rain streak layers. These priors are
      based on Gaussian mixture models learned on small patches that can accommodate a
      variety of background appearances as well as the appearance of the rain streaks.
      Moreover, we introduce a structure residue recovery step to further separate the
      background residues and improve the decomposition quality. Quantitative
      evaluation shows our method outperforms existing methods by a large margin. We
      overview our method and demonstrate its effectiveness over prior work on a number
      of examples.

PMID- 28574358
TI  - Beyond Group: Multiple Person Tracking via Minimal Topology-Energy-Variation.
AB  - Tracking multiple persons is a challenging task when persons move in groups and
      occlude each other. Existing group-based methods have extensively investigated
      how to make group division more accurately in a tracking-by-detection framework;
      however, few of them quantify the group dynamics from the perspective of targets'
      spatial topology or consider the group in a dynamic view. Inspired by the
      sociological properties of pedestrians, we propose a novel socio-topology model
      with a topology-energy function to factor the group dynamics of moving persons
      and groups. In this model, minimizing the topology-energy-variance in a two-level
      energy form is expected to produce smooth topology transitions, stable group
      tracking, and accurate target association. To search for the strong minimum in
      energy variation, we design the discrete group-tracklet jump moves embedded in
      the gradient descent method, which ensures that the moves reduce the energy
      variation of group and trajectory alternately in the varying topology dimension.
      Experimental results on both RGB and RGB-D data sets show the superiority of our
      proposed model for multiple person tracking in crowd scenes.

PMID- 28574359
TI  - Diversity-Aware Multi-Video Summarization.
AB  - Most video summarization approaches have focused on extracting a summary from a
      single video; we propose an unsupervised framework for summarizing a collection
      of videos. We observe that each video in the collection may contain some
      information that other videos do not have, and thus exploring the underlying
      complementarity could be beneficial in creating a diverse informative summary. We
      develop a novel diversity-aware sparse optimization method for multi-video
      summarization by exploring the complementarity within the videos. Our approach
      extracts a multi-video summary, which is both interesting and representative in
      describing the whole video collection. To efficiently solve our optimization
      problem, we develop an alternating minimization algorithm that minimizes the
      overall objective function with respect to one video at a time while fixing the
      other videos. Moreover, we introduce a new benchmark data set, Tour20, that
      contains 140 videos with multiple manually created summaries, which were acquired
      in a controlled experiment. Finally, by extensive experiments on the new Tour20
      data set and several other multi-view data sets, we show that the proposed
      approach clearly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on the two problems
      topic-oriented video summarization and multi-view video summarization in a camera
      network.

PMID- 28574360
TI  - Adaptive Collision Culling for Massive Simulations by a Parallel and Context
      Aware Sweep and Prune Algorithm.
AB  - We present an improved parallel Sweep and Prune algorithm that solves the dynamic
      box intersection problem in three dimensions. It scales up to very large
      datasets, which makes it suitable for broad phase collision detection in complex
      moving body simulations. Our algorithm gracefully handles high-density scenarios,
      including challenging clustering behavior, by using a double-axis sweeping
      approach and a cache-friendly succinct data structure. The algorithm is realized
      by three parallel stages for sorting, candidate generation, and object pairing.
      By the use of temporal coherence, our sorting stage runs with close to optimal
      load balancing. Furthermore, our approach is characterized by a work-division
      strategy that relies on adaptive partitioning, which leads to almost ideal
      scalability. In addition, for scenarios that involves intense clustering along
      several axes simultaneously, we propose an enhancement that increases the context
      awareness of the algorithm. By exploiting information gathered along three
      orthogonal axes, an efficient choice of what range query to perform can be made
      per object during run-time. Experimental results show high performance for up to
      millions of objects on modern multi-core CPUs.

PMID- 28574361
TI  - Electrical Impedance Myography for Evaluating Paretic Muscle Changes After
      Stroke.
AB  - Electrical impedance myography (EIM) was used to assess the paretic muscle
      intrinsic electrical properties post stroke. Twenty-seven subjects with chronic
      hemiparesis participated in this study. Muscle impedance was measured by applying
      high-frequency, low-intensity alternating current to biceps brachii muscles.
      Major EIM parameters, resistance ( ), reactance ( ), phase angle ( ), and
      electrical anisotropy ratios (AR) of the three parameters, were examined at 50
      kHz. Statistical analysis demonstrated significant reduction of reactance, phase
      angle, AR of resistance, and AR of reactance in the paretic muscle compared with
      the contralateral side (Paretic X: , contralateral X: , and p < 0.001; Paretic :
      , contralateral : 14.5 +/- 0.82 degrees , and p < 0.001; Paretic AR of R: 0.969
      +/- 0.013, contralateral AR of R: 1.008 +/- 0.011, and p < 0.02; and Paretic AR
      of X: 0.981 +/- 0.066, contralateral AR of X: 1.114 +/- 0.041, and p < 0.02).
      Correlation analysis, however, did not show any significant relationship between
      EIM parameters and clinical assessments. Findings of this paper indicated
      significant changes in the muscular intrinsic electrical properties after stroke,
      possibly related to structural modifications induced by loss of muscle fibers or
      fat infiltration as well as changes in the quality of cell membranes post stroke.

PMID- 28574362
TI  - Low-Cost Robotic Assessment of Visuo-Motor Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - A low-cost robotic interface was used to assess the visuo-motor performance of
      patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty AD patients and twenty age-matched
      controls participated in this work. The battery of tests included simple reaction
      times, position tracking, and stabilization tasks performed with both hands. The
      regularity, velocity, visual and haptic feedback were manipulated to vary
      movement complexity. Reaction times and movement tracking error were analyzed.
      Results show a marked group effect on a subset of conditions, in particular when
      the patients could not rely on the visual feedback of hand movement. The visuo
      motor performance correlated with the measures of global cognitive functioning
      and with different memory-related abilities. Our results support the hypothesis
      that the ability to recall and use visuo-spatial associations might underlie the
      impairment in complex motor behavior that has been reported in AD patients.
      Importantly, the patients had preserved learning effects across sessions, which
      might relate to visuo-motor deficits being less evident in every-day life and
      clinical assessments. This robotic assessment, lasting less than 1 h, provides
      detailed information about the integrity of visuo-motor abilities. The data can
      aid the understanding of the complex pattern of deficits that characterizes this
      pervasive disease.

PMID- 28574363
TI  - Analysis of the Genome Sequence and Prediction of B-Cell Epitopes of the Envelope
      Protein of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus.
AB  - The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in South
      Korea in April 2015 led to 186 infections and 37 deaths by the end of October
      2015. MERS-CoV was isolated from the imported patient in China. The envelope (E)
      protein, a small structural protein of MERS-CoV, plays an important role in host
      recognition and infection. To identify the conserved epitopes of the E protein,
      sequence analysis was performed by comparing the E proteins from 42 MERS-CoV
      strains that triggered severe pandemics and infected humans in the past. To
      predict the potential B cell epitopes of E protein, three most effective online
      epitope prediction programs, the ABCpred, Bepipred, and Protean programs from the
      LaserGene software were used. All the nucleotides and amino acids sequences were
      obtained from the NCBI Database. One potential epitope with a suitable length
      (amino acids 58-82) was confirmed and predicted to be highly antigenic. This
      epitope had scores of >0.80 in ABCpred and level 0.35 in Bepipred programs. Due
      to the lack of X-ray crystal structure of the E protein in the PDB database, the
      simulated 3D structure of the E protein were also predicted using PHYRE 2 and
      Pymol programs. In conclusion, using bioinformatics methods, we analyzed the
      genome sequence of MERS-CoV and identified a potential B-cell epitope of the E
      protein, which might significantly improve our current MERS vaccine development
      strategies.

PMID- 28574364
TI  - Genome Rearrangement with ILP.
AB  - The weighted Genome Sorting Problem (wGSP) is to find a minimum-weight sequence
      of rearrangement operations that transforms a given gene order into another given
      gene order using rearrangement operations that are associated with a predefined
      weight. This paper presents a polynomial sized Integer Linear Program -called
      GeRe-ILP- for solving the wGSP for the following three types of rearrangement
      operations: inversion , transposition, and inverse transposition. GeRe-ILP uses
      variables and constraints for gene orders of length . It is studied
      experimentally on simulated data how different weighting schemes influence the
      reconstructed scenarios. The influences of the length of the gene orders and of
      the size of the reconstructed scenarios on the runtime of GeRe-ILP are studied as
      well.

PMID- 28574365
TI  - Highly Accurate and Efficient Data-Driven Methods For Genotype Imputation.
AB  - High-throughput sequencing techniques have generated massive quantities of
      genotype data. Haplotype phasing has proven to be a useful and effective method
      for analyzing these data. However, the quality of phasing is undermined by the
      presence of missing information. Imputation provides an effective means of
      improving the underlying genotype information. For model organisms, imputation
      can rely on an available reference genotype panel and a physical or genetic map.
      For non-model organisms, which often do not have a genotype panel, it is
      important to design an imputation technique that does not rely on reference data.
      Here, we present ADDIT (Accurate Data-Driven Imputation Technique), which is
      composed of two data-driven algorithms capable of handling data generated from
      model and non-model organisms. The non-model variant of ADDIT (referred to as
      ADDIT-NM) employs statistical inference methods to impute missing genotypes,
      whereas the model variant (referred to as ADDIT-M) leverages a supervised
      learning-based approach for imputation. We demonstrate that both variants of
      ADDIT are more accurate, faster, and require less memory than leading state-of
      the-art imputation tools using model (human) and non-model (maize, apple, grape)
      genotype data. Software Availability: The source code of ADDIT and test data sets
      are available at https://github.com/NDBL/ADDIT.

PMID- 28574366
TI  - Wearable Microsystem for Minimally Invasive, Pseudo-Continuous Blood Glucose
      Monitoring: The e-Mosquito.
AB  - This paper presents a wearable microsystem for minimally invasive, autonomous,
      and pseudo-continuous blood glucose monitoring, addressing a growing demand for
      replacing tedious fingerpricking tests for diabetic patients. Unlike prevalent
      solutions which estimate blood glucose levels from interstitial fluids or tears,
      our design extracts a whole blood sample from a small lanced skin wound using a
      novel shape memory alloy (SMA)-based microactuator and directly measures the
      blood glucose level from the sample. In vitro characterization determined that
      the SMA microactuator produced penetration force of 225 gf, penetration depth of
      3.55 mm, and consumed approximately 5.56 mW.h for triggering. The microactuation
      mechanism was also evaluated by extracting blood samples from the wrist of four
      human volunteers. A total of 19 out of 23 actuations successfully reached
      capillary vessels below the wrists producing blood droplets on the surface of the
      skin. The integrated potentiostat-based glucose sensing circuit of our e-Mosquito
      device also showed a good linear correlation (R2 = 0.9733) with measurements
      using standard blood glucose monitoring technology. These proof-of-concept
      studies demonstrate the feasibility of the e-Mosquito microsystem for autonomous
      intermittent blood glucose monitoring.

PMID- 28574367
TI  - Efficient Sample Delay Calculation for 2-D and 3-D Ultrasound Imaging.
AB  - Ultrasound imaging is a reference medical diagnostic technique, thanks to its
      blend of versatility, effectiveness, and moderate cost. The core computation of
      all ultrasound imaging methods is based on simple formulae, except for those
      required to calculate acoustic propagation delays with high precision and
      throughput. Unfortunately, advanced three-dimensional (3-D) systems require the
      calculation or storage of billions of such delay values per frame, which is a
      challenge. In 2-D systems, this requirement can be four orders of magnitude
      lower, but efficient computation is still crucial in view of low-power
      implementations that can be battery-operated, enabling usage in numerous
      additional scenarios. In this paper, we explore two smart designs of the delay
      generation function. To quantify their hardware cost, we implement them on FPGA
      and study their footprint and performance. We evaluate how these architectures
      scale to different ultrasound applications, from a low-power 2-D system to a next
      generation 3-D machine. When using numerical approximations, we demonstrate the
      ability to generate delay values with sufficient throughput to support 10 000
      channel 3-D imaging at up to 30 fps while using 63% of a Virtex 7 FPGA, requiring
      24 MB of external memory accessed at about 32 GB/s bandwidth. Alternatively, with
      similar FPGA occupation, we show an exact calculation method that reaches 24 fps
      on 1225-channel 3-D imaging and does not require external memory at all. Both
      designs can be scaled to use a negligible amount of resources for 2-D imaging in
      low-power applications and for ultrafast 2-D imaging at hundreds of frames per
      second.

PMID- 28574368
TI  - Development of a Wearable Controller for Gesture-Recognition-Based Applications
      Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride.
AB  - This paper reports on a wearable gesture-based controller fabricated using the
      sensing capabilities of the flexible thin-film piezoelectric polymer
      polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) which is shown to repeatedly and accurately
      discern, in real time, between right and left hand gestures. The PVDF is affixed
      to a compression sleeve worn on the forearm to create a wearable device that is
      flexible, adaptable, and highly shape conforming. Forearm muscle movements, which
      drive hand motions, are detected by the PVDF which outputs its voltage signal to
      a developed microcontroller-based board and processed by an artificial neural
      network that was trained to recognize the generated voltage profile of right and
      left hand gestures. The PVDF has been spatially shaded (etched) in such a way as
      to increase sensitivity to expected deformations caused by the specific muscles
      employed in making the targeted right and left gestures. The device proves to be
      exceptionally accurate both when positioned as intended and when rotated and
      translated on the forearm.

PMID- 28574369
TI  - A Multi-Finger Interface with MR Actuators for Haptic Applications.
AB  - Haptic devices with multi-finger input are highly desirable in providing
      realistic and natural feelings when interacting with the remote or virtual
      environment. Compared with the conventional actuators, MR (Magneto-rheological)
      actuators are preferable options in haptics because of larger passive torque and
      torque-volume ratios. Among the existing haptic MR actuators, most of them are
      still bulky and heavy. If they were smaller and lighter, they would become more
      suitable for haptics. In this paper, a small-scale yet powerful MR actuator was
      designed to build a multi-finger interface for the 6 DOF haptic device. The
      compact structure was achieved by adopting the multi-disc configuration. Based on
      this configuration, the MR actuator can generate the maximum torque of 480 N.mm
      with dimensions of only 36 mm diameter and 18 mm height. Performance evaluation
      showed that it can exhibit a relatively high dynamic range and good response
      characteristics when compared with some other haptic MR actuators. The multi
      finger interface is equipped with three MR actuators and can provide up to 8 N
      passive force to the thumb, index and middle fingers, respectively. An
      application example was used to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of
      this new MR actuator based interface.

PMID- 28574370
TI  - Self-Powered Multiparameter Health Sensor.
AB  - Wearable health sensors are about to change our health system. While several
      technological improvements have been presented to enhance performance and energy
      efficiency, battery runtime is still a critical concern for practical use of
      wearable biomedical sensor systems. The runtime limitation is directly related to
      the battery size, which is another concern regarding practicality and customer
      acceptance. We introduced ULPSEK-Ultra-Low-Power Sensor Evaluation Kit-for
      evaluation of biomedical sensors and monitoring applications (http://ulpsek.com).
      ULPSEK includes a multiparameter sensor measuring and processing
      electrocardiogram, respiration, motion, body temperature, and
      photoplethysmography. Instead of a battery, ULPSEK is powered using an efficient
      body heat harvester. The harvester produced 171 W on average, which was
      sufficient to power the sensor below 25 C ambient temperature. We present design
      issues regarding the power supply and the power distribution network of the
      ULPSEK sensor platform. Due to the security aspect of self-powered health
      sensors, we suggest a hybrid solution consisting of a battery charged by a
      harvester.

PMID- 28574371
TI  - Tooth and Alveolar Bone Segmentation From Dental Computed Tomography Images.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) models of tooth-alveolar bone complex are needed in
      treatment planning and simulation for computer-aided orthodontics. Tooth and
      alveolar bone segmentation from computed tomography (CT) images is a fundamental
      step in reconstructing their models. Due to less application of alveolar bone in
      conventional orthodontic treatment which may cause undesired side effects, the
      previous studies mainly focused on tooth segmentation and reconstruction, and did
      not consider the alveolar bone. In this study, we proposed a method to implement
      both tooth and alveolar bone segmentation from dental CT images for
      reconstructing their 3D models. First, the proposed method extracted the
      connected region of tooth and alveolar bone from CT images using a global convex
      level set model. Then, individual tooth and alveolar bone are separated from the
      connected region based on Radon transform and a local level set model. The
      experimental results showed that the proposed method could successfully complete
      both the tooth and alveolar bone segmentation from CT images, and outperformed
      the state of the art tooth segmentation methods in terms of accuracy. This
      suggests that the proposed method can be used in reconstructing the 3D models of
      tooth-alveolar bone complex for precise treatment.

PMID- 28574372
TI  - Monitoring the Depth of Anesthesia Using a New Adaptive Neurofuzzy System.
AB  - Accurate and noninvasive monitoring of the depth of anesthesia (DoA) is highly
      desirable. Since the anesthetic drugs act mainly on the central nervous system,
      the analysis of brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) is very useful.
      This paper proposes a novel automated method for assessing the DoA using EEG.
      First, 11 features including spectral, fractal, and entropy are extracted from
      EEG signal and then, by applying an algorithm according to exhaustive search of
      all subsets of features, a combination of the best features (Beta-index, sample
      entropy, shannon permutation entropy, and detrended fluctuation analysis) is
      selected. Accordingly, we feed these extracted features to a new neurofuzzy
      classification algorithm, adaptive neurofuzzy inference system with linguistic
      hedges (ANFIS-LH). This structure can successfully model systems with nonlinear
      relationships between input and output, and also classify overlapped classes
      accurately. ANFIS-LH, which is based on modified classical fuzzy rules, reduces
      the effects of the insignificant features in input space, which causes
      overlapping and modifies the output layer structure. The presented method
      classifies EEG data into awake, light, general, and deep states during anesthesia
      with sevoflurane in 17 patients. Its accuracy is 92% compared to a commercial
      monitoring system (response entropy index) successfully. Moreover, this method
      reaches the classification accuracy of 93% to categorize EEG signal to awake and
      general anesthesia states by another database of propofol and volatile anesthesia
      in 50 patients. To sum up, this method is potentially applicable to a new real
      time monitoring system to help the anesthesiologist with continuous assessment of
      DoA quickly and accurately.

PMID- 28574373
TI  - RRV: A Spatiotemporal Descriptor for Rigid Body Motion Recognition.
AB  - The motion behaviors of a rigid body can be characterized by a six degrees of
      freedom motion trajectory, which contains the 3-D position vectors of a reference
      point on the rigid body and 3-D rotations of this rigid body over time. This
      paper devises a rotation and relative velocity (RRV) descriptor by exploring the
      local translational and rotational invariants of rigid body motion trajectories,
      which is insensitive to noise, invariant to rigid transformation and scale. The
      RRV descriptor is then applied to characterize motions of a human body skeleton
      modeled as articulated interconnections of multiple rigid bodies. To show the
      descriptive ability of our RRV descriptor, we explore its potentials and
      applications in different rigid body motion recognition tasks. The experimental
      results on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our RRV descriptor learning
      discriminative motion patterns can achieve superior results for various
      recognition tasks.

PMID- 28574374
TI  - Nitrophorins and nitrobindins: structure and function.
AB  - Classical all alpha-helical globins are present in all living organisms and are
      ordered in three lineages: (i) flavohemoglobins and single domain globins, (ii)
      protoglobins and globin coupled sensors and (iii) truncated hemoglobins,
      displaying the 3/3 or the 2/2 all alpha-helical fold. However, over the last two
      decades, all beta-barrel and mixed alpha-helical-beta-barrel heme-proteins
      displaying heme-based functional properties (e.g. ligand binding, transport and
      sensing) closely similar to those of all alpha-helical globins have been
      reported. Monomeric nitrophorins (NPs) and alpha1-microglobulin (alpha1-m),
      belonging to the lipocalin superfamily and nitrobindins (Nbs) represent
      prototypical heme-proteins displaying the all beta-barrel and mixed alpha-helical
      beta-barrel folds. NPs are confined to the Reduviidae and Cimicidae families of
      Heteroptera, whereas alpha1-m and Nbs constitute heme-protein families spanning
      bacteria to Homo sapiens. The structural organization and the reactivity of the
      stable ferric solvent-exposed heme-Fe atom suggest that NPs and Nbs are devoted
      to NO transport, storage and sensing, whereas Hs-alpha1-m participates in heme
      metabolism. Here, the structural and functional properties of NPs and Nbs are
      reviewed in parallel with those of sperm whale myoglobin, which is generally
      taken as the prototype of monomeric globins.

PMID- 28574375
TI  - One-carbon metabolism and ionizing radiation: a multifaceted interaction.
AB  - Ionizing radiation (IR) is a ubiquitous component of our environment and an
      important tool in research and medical treatment. At the same time, IR is a
      potent genotoxic and epigenotoxic stressor, exposure to which may lead to
      negative health outcomes. While the genotoxocity is well described and
      characterized, the epigenetic effects of exposure to IR and their mechanisms
      remain under-investigated. In this conceptual review, we propose the IR-induced
      changes to one-carbon metabolism as prerequisites to alterations in the cellular
      epigenome. We also provide evidence from both experimental and clinical studies
      describing the interactions between IR and one-carbon metabolism. We further
      discuss the potential for the manipulation of the one-carbon metabolism in
      clinical applications for the purpose of normal tissue protection and for
      increasing the radiosensitivity of cancerous cells.

PMID- 28574376
TI  - Recent advances in the mechanism of selenoamino acids toxicity in eukaryotic
      cells.
AB  - Selenium is an essential trace element due to its incorporation into
      selenoproteins with important biological functions. However, at high doses it is
      toxic. Selenium toxicity is generally attributed to the induction of oxidative
      stress. However, it has become apparent that the mode of action of seleno
      compounds varies, depending on its chemical form and speciation. Recent studies
      in various eukaryotic systems, in particular the model organism Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae, provide new insights on the cytotoxic mechanisms of selenomethionine
      and selenocysteine. This review first summarizes current knowledge on reactive
      oxygen species (ROS)-induced genotoxicity of inorganic selenium species. Then, we
      discuss recent advances on our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of
      selenocysteine and selenomethionine cytotoxicity. We present evidences indicating
      that both oxidative stress and ROS-independent mechanisms contribute to
      selenoamino acids cytotoxicity. These latter mechanisms include disruption of
      protein homeostasis by selenocysteine misincorporation in proteins and/or
      reaction of selenols with protein thiols.

PMID- 28574377
TI  - The chief complaint driven medical history: implications for medical education.

PMID- 28574379
TI  - [EFFICACY OF CYTOFLAVIN IN COMPLEX TREATMENT OF DIABETIC FOOT SYNDROME].
AB  - The study involved 97 patients with severe diabetic foot syndrome (DFS)
      subcompensated type 2 diabetes. All patients were available mediacalcification
      foot and lower leg arteries of different severity. Depending on the treatment,
      all patients were divided into 2 groups by stratified randomization. The I group
      received standard therapy, which is indicated for the DFS. A II group of patients
      additionally received basic therapy drug Cytoflavin 10 ml 0,9% NaCl 200 ml for 10
      days, followed by transfer to tablet form Cytoflavin 2 tablets 2 times per day
      orally for one month. We noted a positive trend of treatment of patients who, in
      addition to standard therapy received the drug Cytoflavin. Thus, the use of
      complex surgical treatment of patients with mixed form of DFS Cytoflavin reduces
      the severity of distal polyneuropathy, improves oxygenation of tissues and
      restores the enzyme activity of antioxidant system, that manifested
      neuroprotective, antioxidant and anti-hypoxic effects of drugs, which
      substantiates the indications for its use in the this pathology.

PMID- 28574378
TI  - [IMPACT OF ATORVASTATIN AND ROSUVASTATIN ON RESIDUAL ON-CLOPIDOGREL TREATMENT
      PLATELET REACTIVITY IN PATIENTS WITH ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE AND TYPE 2 DIABETES
      MELLITUS AFTER ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME].
AB  - In patients with ischemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus in 4-6 weeks
      after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) on stable dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT)
      with aspirin and clopidogrel co-adminstrated with rosuvastatin residual platelet
      reactivity on adenosine diphosphate was higher than in patients receiving
      atorvastatin. However, the rate of high residual on-clopidogrel treatment
      platelet reactivity (RCPR) in rosuvastatin-treated patients exceeded the rate of
      high RCPR in atorvastatin-treated patients insignificantly. In 6 months after ACS
      residual platelet reactivity did not differ between the groups. After 12 months
      of DAPT platelet reactivity increased as compared to baseline values both in
      patients receiving rosuvastatin and in patients receiving atorvastatin without
      switching. In patients, randomly switching from one statin type to another at 6
      month of treatment, platelet reactivity did not change significantly in
      comparison to baseline and the prevalence of high RCPR was lower than in patients
      receiving statins without switching. Thus, in patients with diabetes with ACS on
      DAPT with acetylsalicylic acid and clopidogrel statin treatment should be started
      with atorvastatin and in 6 months after ACS atorvastatin should be switched to
      rosuvastatin. This approach will provide lower RCPR within at least first 4-6
      weeks after ACS and prevent RCPR increase during 12 months of DATT use in this
      patients group.

PMID- 28574380
TI  - MTHFR GENE C677T POLYMORPHISM AND LEVELS OF DNA METHYLTRASFERASES IN SUBCLINICAL
      HYPOTHYROIDISM.
AB  - The aim of our study was to investigate the link between MTHFR gene C677T
      polymorphism and DNMTs levels in patients with Subclinical Hypothyroidism (SCH).
      In this study 19 adult patients with subclinical hypothyroidism and 19 healthy
      controls (mean age 31+/-5.5 and 33+/-5.1 years respectively) were recruited. All
      patients were diagnosed based on serum levels of TSH, FT4, anti-TG and anti-TPO
      antibodies. Written informed consents were obtained from all study subjects.
      Genomic DNA was extracted using Quick-DNA Universal Kit (Zymo Research, USA). The
      MTHFR C677T polymorphism was genotyped by PCR-RFLP method. Levels of DNMT1 and 3a
      were measured in nuclear extracts of PBMC using DNMTs assay kits (Abcam). Our
      data indicates that the frequency of genotypes and alleles were different among
      the patient and the control group. There is a significant increase in CC genotype
      distribution in the control group when compared to the SCH patient group, while
      the CT as well as TT genotype distribution were not increased significantly in
      SCH group versus control group. However the C allele is significantly prevalent
      in the control group compared to the SCH group, while T allele is prevalent in
      patients compared to the control group with a statically significant difference.
      In addition, individuals with TT and CT genotypes and hypothyroidism showed
      elevated amount of DNMT3a in nuclear extracts of PBMC compared with controls,
      while no significant difference in DNMT1 levels was observed. This study
      indicates the MTHFR C677T variant may contribute in alteration of epigenetic
      regulation such as DNA methylation mediated by DNA methyltransferases in patients
      with subclinical hypothyroidism and also, carriers of the T allele might have an
      increasing risk of developing SCH.

PMID- 28574381
TI  - [MEASUREMENT OF HISTONES AND CIRCULATING EXTRACELLULAR NUCLEIC ACIDS IN PATIENTS'
      WITH COMPLICATED FORMS OF PEPTIC ULCER].
AB  - We studied 135 people (24 people, apparently healthy, 39 uncomplicated peptic
      ulcer disease, 42 people with complex forms peptic ulcer, 30 and after the
      treatment of complicated forms of peptic ulcer disease, both sexes (18-45 y.). In
      all patients, the diagnosis was confirmed fibrogastroduodenoscopy (EGD).
      Determination of histones and acid soluble fraction (ASF), RNA, DNA, in blood was
      performed by the method of L. Markusheva. Studies have led to the conclusion that
      the change in the blood concentration of extracellular nucleic acids in patients
      with uncomplicated disease and complex shapes can be caused by oxidative stress
      products and can be a signal for elimination of nucleic acids from cells. We have
      registered various dynamics of the studied parameters histones in the blood of
      patients with various forms of peptic ulcer disease, which reflects the degree of
      metabolic abnormalities that occur in the body, associated with changes in the
      structure of the nucleus. According to the results of our research in the study
      of the role of extracellular nucleic acids, histones to assess the extent of
      violations of metabolic processes at a peptic ulcer, complicated and
      uncomplicated form, the obtained results can be used as predictors of
      complications of a stomach ulcer.

PMID- 28574382
TI  - DERMAL ADIPOSE TISSUE IN HAIR FOLLICLE CYCLING: POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS IN
      ALOPECIA?
AB  - Cross-talk between the hair follicles (HFs) in different stages of their cycling
      and adjacent adipose tissue is a new important topic which is of both theoretical
      and practical interest. Objective - to analyze available data on possible
      interrelationship of dermal adipose tissue and hair follicle cycling.
      Experimental results obtained in rodents clearly demonstrate that HFs cycling is
      connected to adjacent dermal adipose tissue. Recently uncovered adipocyte
      myofibroblast transition can be significantly involved in miniaturization of HFs
      and be an important pathophysiological step in androgenetic alopecia. Improvement
      of adipogenic environment of HFs can be important both in treatment of alopecia
      and in surgical hair restoration procedures.

PMID- 28574383
TI  - [CARDIOREABILITATION PECULIARITIES AND CORRECTION OF VIOLATIONS OF SISTOLIC,
      DIASOLIC FUNCTION AND HEART RATE VARIABILITY IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE CORONARY
      SYNDROME AND CORONARY ARTERY REVASCULARIZATION].
AB  - In patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who underwent coronary arteries
      revascularization, violations of hemodynamics, metabolism and heart rate
      variability often develop in the postoperative period, therefore, the goal of the
      study was to establish the features of disturbances and the effectiveness of
      correction of left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction and heart rate
      variability in stages of cardiorehabilitation in patients with acute coronary
      syndrome who underwent coronary arteries revascularization. The experimental
      group included 40 patients with ACS in the postoperative period who underwent
      balloon angioplasty and stenting of the coronary arteries (25 patients with ST
      segment elevation ACS and 15 patients without ST-segment elevation ACS). The age
      of examined patients was 37 to 74 years, an average of 52.6+/-6.7 years. The
      control group consisted of 20 patients, comparable in age and clinico-laboratory
      manifestations of ACS, who underwent drug treatment with direct anticoagulants,
      double antiplatelet therapy, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and statins. Clinical
      efficacy of cardiorespiratory process in patients of both groups was assessed by
      the dynamics of general clinical symptoms and parameters of natriuretic
      propeptide, systolic and diastolic function of the left ventricle and heart rate
      variability. In the initial state, clinical and laboratory-instrumental signs of
      myocardial ischemia disappear in patients with ACS undergoing surgical
      revascularization of the coronary arteries, but clinical and subclinical
      manifestations of heart failure were diagnosed. The use of the accelerated
      program of cardiac rehabilitation already during the first month of studies leads
      to a decreasement of the signs of systolic and diastolic dysfunction, the level
      of NT-proBNP and improve in the variability of the heart rhythm wich
      significantly improves the life quality of patients with ACS. To monitor the
      effectiveness and safety of cardiac rehabilitation in patients with ACS who
      underwent coronary arteries revascularization, in addition to the generally
      accepted methods (determination of heart rate, blood pressure, a 6-minute test),
      it is advisable to diagnose the subclinical stage of heart failure by determining
      the level of NT-proBNP, Doppler echocardiogram, parameters of the left
      ventricular systolic and diastolic function and heart rate variability.

PMID- 28574384
TI  - [EVALUATION OF QUALITY INDICATORS OF LIFE AS A CRITERION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF
      TREATMENT FOR LIQUIDATORS OF THE ACCIDENT AT CHERNOBYL AEROSPHORUS, PATIENTS WITH
      HYPERTENSION DISEASE COMORBID WITH GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE].
AB  - In order to assess the quality of life of liquidators of the accident at the
      Chernobyl nuclear power plant (CHPP) of patients with hypertensive comorbid
      disease with gastroesophageal reflux disease, 52 patients aged 46 to 71 years
      (mean age 57.5+/-0, 8 years old) who were on inpatient treatment in the
      therapeutic department of the Regional Clinical Specialized Dispensary for
      Radiation Protection of the Population of Kharkov from January 2016 to December
      2016. The men among the examined were 44 (84.6%), women - 8 (15.4 All patients
      were divided into 2 groups, Group I patients received standard therapy, Group II
      patients, in addition to standard therapy, respectively nosology, received
      additionally the drug Actovegin (r) Takeda Austria GmbH. All quality of life
      indicators were evaluated before the treatment and after In group I patients,
      after the standard treatment of GB comorbid with GERD, statistically
      significantly reduced the limitations on the scale of body pain (BP), therefore,
      in points, on the contrary, to 18.8+/-2.8 points increased, indicating a decrease
      in pain after treatment In patients. In patients with group II GB comorbid with
      GERD after standard treatment with additional use of Actovegin (r), the daily
      activity limitations associated with the disease on the scales of physical
      functioning (PF), role activity (RP), physical pain (BP), Vitality (VT),
      emotional state (RE).

PMID- 28574386
TI  - [IMMUNE RESPONSE IN CHRONIC BRONCHIOLITIS OBLITERANS IN CHILDREN].
AB  - The qaim of the research was to evaluate a condition of cellular and humoral
      immunity in 139 children with bronchiolitis obliterans in age from 2 years to 14
      years of life. There was a minor immunosuppression during exacerbation followed
      by normalization in remission. There was a slight decrease in the level of IgA,
      an increased concentration of IgM and high value of the circulating immune
      complexes during the exacerbation with normalization as acute inflammation
      subsided. An analysis of interleukin dynamics revealed a significant increase in
      the concentration of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the acute stage of
      the disease with a tendency to normalization in remission. Thus, there is no
      place marked immunosuppression. Analyzed changes are adequate and are a response
      to viral and bacterial infection.

PMID- 28574385
TI  - [CONNECTIVE TISSUE METABOLIC FEATURES IN CLIMACTERIC SYNDROME'S PATIENTS WITH
      VARIOUS TYPES OF MENOPAUSE].
AB  - The purpose of the study was investigation of the connective tissue metabolic
      features among women with menopausal syndrome (MS) and MS, in which the
      arthropathic syndrome is leading and comparative analysis of the connective
      tissue indicators exchange during menopause caused in a surgical and natural way.
      We examined 70 women in total, menopause duration they accounted for 1,95+/-1,1
      years, it came both as natural, and as a result of a surgery. The main group
      included 40 women with MS with leading arthropathic syndrome. The patients'
      modified menopausal index was calculated (MMI), the functional condition of the
      joints was assessed on a scale-questionnaire with the calculation of the clinical
      functional index of WOMAC; the quantitative content and qualitative composition
      of glycosaminoglycans in the serum, the urinary excretion of hydroxyproline and
      uronic acids were determined. To determine the degree of deviation from the
      control (standard) indicators was used non-parametric Mann-Whitney criterion and
      factor analysis (main components method). It was revealed that all patients have
      an increased content of glycosaminoglycans and glycoprotein in the blood, which
      corresponds to the general age-related rearrangement of connective tissue
      metabolism, but the patients of the main group have more expressed indictors,
      which corresponds to more severe dystrophic changes and the severity of clinical
      symptoms. Redistribution of the fractional composition of glycosaminoglycans
      towards the increase of chondroitin-6 sulfate in patients of the main group
      indicates the presence of pre-emptive destruction of cartilage. The arthropathic
      syndrome availability also confirms the significant reduction CI-6s / CI-4s ratio
      and an increased content of chondroitin sulfates. Patients with a natural type of
      menopause showed more pronounced changes in connective tissue metabolites, in
      contrast to patients with surgical menopause ehat indicates a longer and more
      invasive pathologic course of natural menopause.

PMID- 28574387
TI  - [CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF CYSTIC ECHINOCOCCOSIS IN
      CHILDREN].
AB  - The postoperative period of cystic echinococcosis was studied in 13 children.
      Demographic, epidemiological, clinical diagnosis, treatment, number location, and
      development of cysts and serologic data were analyzed. Age of children at
      diagnosis range 5 to 17 years. All patients with cystic echinococcosis had
      abdominal cysts. The liver was the main organ involved in ten patients (76,9%) -
      they had cysts located in the liver, two patients (15,4%) had lung cyst, one
      patient had concomitant lung and liver cysts. Twelve patients had single cysts
      and one had more than one abdominal cysts. Surgical treatment was performed in
      23,1% cases. Ultrasound studies (US) were performed during the monitoring period.
      Evaluation of cysts was assessed by monitoring US changes. Positive dynamics was
      revealed in all patients; relapse of the disease was not noticed. Proceeding from
      the fact that in all patients echoarchitectonics of the hepatic tissue was lumped
      with a non-uniform structure and uneven ultrasound distribution, it is assumed
      that these changes are indicative of the development of connective tissue in the
      liver.

PMID- 28574388
TI  - SPECIFICATIONS OF INTRACRANIAL SACCULAR ANEURYSMS, TREATED BY ENDOVASCULAR
      APPROACH USING DETACHABLE COILS.
AB  - The treatment of intracranial saccular aneurysms remains an actual problem due to
      this pathology prevalence among the human population (about 1-10%). For
      definition of efficiency and preventive importance of endovascular treatment, it
      is necessary to clear define which aneurysms are more suitable and operable for
      endovascular occlusion with minimal risk of complications and better final
      outcome. The aim of this study is to analyze anatomical features (location and
      structure) of intracranial saccular aneurysms and clinical data of patients who
      have been operated endovascular, with detachable coils in High Technology Medical
      Center University Clinic,Tbilisi, Georgia for the last 6 years. The study
      included 412 patients with 470 aneurysms who were operated from 2011 to 2016
      using detachable coils. The age of patients ranged from 8 to 78 years. The
      largest number of patients belonged to the age group - 32-55 years. The men were
      196 (47.6%), women - 216 (52.4%). In acute period 280 (68%) patients were
      operated, in the delayded period - 90 (21.8%), unruptured aneurysms - 42 (10.2%).
      Early results and outcomes (1-3 week) after endovascular treatment of SA were
      estimated with GOS. Full Recovery or Low disability was achieved in 313(76%)
      patient- GOS 5, Moderate disability in 48(11.7) patient- GOS 4 , Severe
      disability or Persistent vegetative state in 44(10.6%) patient- GOS 3-2 and GOS 1
      death in 7(1.7%) patient. According to the study it can be concluded that
      endovascular treatment is a reliable, low-impact and effective way to treat the
      Saccular brain aneurysm. Despite the variety of aneurysm these treatments are
      optimistic and affirm the importance of endovascular treatment of cerebral
      aneurysms.

PMID- 28574389
TI  - [RADICAL RECONSTRUCTIVE TORACOPLASTY - A NEW METHOD OF TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH
      CHOANOID DEFORMATION OF BREAST].
AB  - Objective - development of a new method of surgery correction of choanoid
      deformation of breast, leading to significant improvement of the treatment
      results of the patients with this pathotology. The new method is being developed
      based on the analysis of the own long experience of treatment of the patients
      with choanoid deformation of breast. In total, over than 70 patients have been
      surged, with the age ranging from 5 to 35. The surgeries have been implemented in
      Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute clinic as well as clinics in Georgia. In
      the course of formation of conception of the new surgery, all methods of surgery
      treatment of the patients having the indicated disease, applied up to now, have
      been critically analyzed. As a result, a new method of the surgery correction of
      the choanoid deformation of breast has been developed and tested which enables
      restoration of the natural architectonics of the deformed part of the patient's
      thoracic wall. Meanwhile, the strut consisting of the sterno-costal-cartilage
      fragments according to "stone arch" type stably and strongly fixes breast bone in
      the correct position, not requiring application of any artificial constructions
      for fixation of the breast bones. The basic and general principles of treatment
      of the patients with the bones trauma (repositions and immobilization of the bone
      fragments) have been observed within the developed method, possibility of
      occurrence of diastalsis or tangling the bones-cartilage fragments is excluded
      thus guaranteeing their fastest consolidation. Our results confirmed the
      correctness of new conceptual approach and technical realization of the developed
      method. Only 5% of the patients during the surgery have been observed to have
      insignificant damages of the parietal and visceral pleura. All patients have been
      released frpm the hospital on 3-5 day after the surgery. We have observed the
      patients during from 1 to 13 years after the surgery. No late post-surgery
      complications observed. The patients have been rehabilitated in psychological and
      emotional point of view, the quality of life has been significantly improved, and
      the ability to work has been completely recovered. Therefore, the method of
      surgery correction of the coanoid deformation of the breast, provided that the
      surgery technique is completely learnt and the surgeon is of proper
      qualification, enables reaching the guaranteed positive result of treatment even
      in those patients suffering from heavier form of the diseases as well as excluded
      the possibility of recidivism.

PMID- 28574390
TI  - CLINICAL PROTOCOLS: PREPARATION, IMPRESSION AND BONDING OF ALL-CERAMIC GLASS
      BASED DISILICATE LITHIUM CROWNS: REVIEW AND CASE REPORT.
AB  - Using contemporary materials and techniques, nowadays we can offer the patients
      much needed restorations while achieving the desired aesthetics. The maxillary
      incisors are supremely important in the appearance of a smile. By establishing
      proper size, contours, vitality, translucency and relationship with the
      surrounding teeth and soft tissue, we can help create the smile of their dream.
      In modern dentistry, there are two major recent developments - the dentine
      bonding and stronger all-ceramic crown systems. Use of glass-based disilicate
      lithium ceramic crowns in combination with resin cements provides more desirable
      aesthetic solution than traditional porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) crowns.
      However, use of these materials is extremely technique sensitive. They require
      additional marginal precision of tooth preparation and bonding with resin cement.
      Consequently, protocols of tooth preparation and bonding are essential for long
      term success. The presented article describes the preparation, impression and
      bonding guidelines aided by case presentation. According to the discussed
      protocols, dentists who take advantage of benefits of these contemporary
      materials and technologies will achieve more durable and reliable bonding with
      improved aesthetics.

PMID- 28574391
TI  - NON-STEROIDAL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS'S ANTINOCICEPTION MEDIATED BY THE OPIOID
      MECHANISM IN THE NUCLEUS RAPHE MAGNUS.
AB  - It has been established that the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) and
      rostral ventro-medial medulla (RVM) are involved in the descending pain control
      system. The latter involves the midline nucleus raphe magnus (NRM) and adjacent
      reticular formation. These brain structures are is one of important parts of CNS
      circuit that controls nociceptive transmission at the level of spinal cord. Here
      we report that microinjection of commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
      drugs (NSAIDs), diclofenac, ketorolac, metamizol, and xefocam into the NRM
      produces strong antinociception which is mediated by the opioid mechanism. The
      experiments were carried out on experimental and control (saline) white albino
      male rats. Animals were implanted with a guide cannula in the NRM and tested for
      antinociception following microinjection of NSAIDs into the NRM in the tail flick
      (TF) and hot plate (HP) tests. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc
      Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison tests were used for statistical evaluation. The
      obtained data show that microinjection of these NSAIDs into the NRM produced
      antinociception as revealed by a latency increase in the tail-flick (TF) and hot
      plate (HP) latencies compared to the saline control microinjected into the same
      nucleus. Furthermore, we definitely showed that pre-treatment with opioid
      antagonist naloxone in the NRM diminishes NSAID-induced antinociception
      expressing in significant decrease in TF and HP latencies (P<0.001). The present
      findings support the concept that antinociceptive effects of NSAIDs are mediated
      via an endogenous opioid system possibly involving the descending pain modulatory
      circuit.

PMID- 28574392
TI  - [STUDY OF HEPATOPROTECTIVE PROPERTIES OF RNA-CONTAINING DRUG "RN-13" ON THE MODEL
      OF ACUTE TETRAHLLORMETHANE INDUCED HEPATITIS IN RATS].
AB  - The aim of the study was to assess the hepatoprotective properties of the RNA
      containing drug RN-13 on the model of acute CLL4 induced hepatitis in rats. To
      evaluate hepatoprotective properties of the RNA-containing drug RN-13 42 female
      rats were used. RN-13 increases the survival rate of animals with acute
      tetrachloromethane hepatitis. The hepatoprotective properties of RN-13 were
      confirmed by biochemical and morphological data. RN-13 helps to reduce the
      activity of alanine aminotransferase, which indicates its ability to limit
      cytolysis syndrome. Morphological studies confirm the ability of RN-13 to prevent
      destruction of liver tissue, preserve the radial structure of the hepatic lobes,
      and limit the development of hydropic and fatty degeneration.

PMID- 28574393
TI  - [RATIONAL USE APRICOT GUM (GUMMI ARMENIACAE) IN REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA].
AB  - Till nowadays the sources of gums of Armenian flora are remaining unutilized
      because of absence of resoursological and phytochemical research as well as
      standards corresponding. Amongst the camed-bearing trees of the flora of Armenia
      (apricot, peach, plum, almond) and the other families representatives (eleagnus,
      tragakant) the apricot trees (Armeniaca vulgaris Lam.) became an object of our
      great interests, considering its being as the most important cultivating fruit
      bearing trees in Armenia and the fact, that they cover significant areas in the
      Ararat valley, Kotayk, Aragatsotn and the footings of the Vayk region. The goal
      of our investigation was the pharmacognostic (resoursological, commodity and
      analytical, phythochemical) complex evaluation encountering and the apricot tree
      camed's (gummi armeniacae) biological activity evaluation, as well as the natural
      resourses rational concepts elaboration. On the base of the investigation results
      got a concept of rational use of the apricot gums was developed, which assumes
      the local sources enlargement, as well as its wide application in medicine and in
      different aspects of industry.

PMID- 28574394
TI  - IMPACT OF SULPHUR DIOXIDE ON THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM OF TBILISI POPULATION.
AB  - The possible relationship between levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the air and
      the rate of respiratory diseases has been studied. Results of monitoring of main
      contaminants of outdoor air were analyzed and they are reflected in Environmental
      Report 2015. Information on morbidity by respiratory system diseases of Tbilisi
      population is has been taken from 2011-2015 reports of the National Center of
      Disease Control. Identified that there is no consistent correlation between
      sulphur dioxide concentration in the air and respiratory system disease rates in
      the population, including children. Obtained data demonstrated that during the
      study period maximum SO2 concentration was registered in 2015 - 0,14 mg/m3
      (exceeding almost 3 times maximum permissible concentration - 0,5 mg/m3) and in
      the same year high morbidity rates are registered (incidence -18106,08), though
      the lowest rates are registered in 2011 (0,09 mg/m3), when incidence of
      respiratory system diseases in this period (13103.2) exceeds the rates registered
      in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (12736.4, 11336.3, 13009.0 accordingly). There is no
      direct correlation between the morbidity rates of 0-15 year old children and SO2
      concentration. Maximum incidence rate is registered in 2015 (48487.0) and in the
      same year is also registered maximum concentration of SO2 (0,14 mg/m3), whereas
      the lowest rate is registered in 2013 (35538,70), when SO2 concentration in 2013
      is lower only by 0.02 mg/m3 compared to the concentration in 2015. Direct
      correlation between morbidity with asthma in children and concentration of SO2
      was not identified. Prevalence of asthma is minimal in 2014 (65,4), maximal in
      2012 (207,1), whereas SO2 concentration in 2014 (0,13 mg/m3) exceeds the
      concentration in 2012 (0,12 mg/m3). It has to be considered, that besides SO2
      there are many small intensity adverse factors, which are also risk factors for
      development of respiratory diseases. Isolated action of these factors with
      certain concentrations may not demonstrate any adverse effects on human health,
      but the combined effect of their action is stronger and obviously will affect
      general health and specifically - respiratory system. Implementation of urgent
      measures for further improvement of their ambient air quality has been
      recommended, which will be the basis for minimizing of many chronic diseases.

PMID- 28574395
TI  - [EVALUATION OF GENOMIC PARAMETERS IN DUCTAL BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AND THE
      ABILITY OF IT'S CORRECTION].
AB  - The level of DNA single strand breaks, chromosomal abnormalities and sister
      chromatid exchanges and the possibility of its normalization with oligopeptide
      bioregulator Livagen and cobalt ions in the lymphocyte culture from patients with
      breast cancer have been studied. The results show that the genome of ductal
      breast cancer patients is characterized by the high density of DNA single strand
      breaks, high frequency of chromosomal abnormalities and increased levels of
      chromatin condensation. The usage of Livagen and cobalt in the form of modifying
      agents has a protective effect by all studied parameters. The obtained results
      allow us to conclude that research of lymphocytes of ductal breast cancer
      patients using the analysis conducted by us, can be useful in assessing the
      therapeutic effect in the treatment of breast cancer patients.

PMID- 28574396
TI  - COMPLEX HEAVY METAL SALTS' EFFECT ON GANGLION NUCLEI NEURONS MORPHOLOGICAL
      FUNCTIONS IN ADULT MALE RATS' CEREBELLAR CORTEX.
AB  - In order to analyze the dynamics of morphological and morphometric nuclear
      rearrangements of cortical cerebellar Purkinje cells under prolonged exposure
      (for 90 days) on the body of copper sulfate, zinc and iron experiment was
      conducted on 48 white adult male rats weighing 200-250g, aged 5 -8 months. We
      used anatomic, morphometric, statistical and common methods of micro anatomical
      research method. It was found that the combined effect of copper sulfate, zinc
      and iron on the body has nuclear device ganglion neurons in the cerebellar cortex
      sufficiently expressive toxicity, which affects the state of neurons. The degree
      of morphological rearrangements in the nuclear unit is in direct proportion to
      the duration of the experiment. In the nuclei of ganglion neurons develop
      nonspecific changes of polymorphic nature, which is reversible in the early
      stages of experience and irreversible, mainly necrobiotic character
      (chromatolysis, pycnosis and reksis) in most of the neurons within a timeline.

PMID- 28574397
TI  - HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY IN GEORGIA: HIDDEN PAGES (DEDICATED TO OUR TEACHERS).
AB  - Psychiatry preserves a special place among the diverse medical specialties. It is
      noteworthy that in Europe and America the professional and scientific psychiatry
      gradually emerged during the second half in 1800s. Roots of psychiatry in Georgia
      go back to the distant past. However, the modern scientific psychiatry started
      developing in Georgia shortly after the foundation of the medical faculty at
      Tbilisi State University (1921) and is closely are associated with the name of
      Prof. M.Asatiani (1882-1938). This survey reflects data from all obtainable and
      basic psychiatric records of this period and provides brief description of
      significant achievements of psychiatrists, working in Georgia during 1920-1940
      (M. Asatiani, A. Gotsiridze, N. Veshapeli, O. Chitava, Sh. Kipiani, G.
      Shengelaia, I. Menteshahvili, A. Zurabashvili, I. Bzhalava, E. Nakashidze, E.
      Gobronidze, V. Gudiashvili, Sh. Kvitsaridze, A. Amirgarov, N. Shubladze, I.
      Tavdishvili, Hovakim, Nikolava, Sulava, Shiukashvili, I. Egizarov). Finally, we
      would like to emphasize that Georgian psychiatrists widely presented quantitative
      and qualitative studies on methodology and on treatment of main mental disorders,
      described their views on psychology, characterology, pathophysiology, physiology,
      morphology, psychotherapy, classification and etc.

PMID- 28574398
TI  - Controllable and scalable synthesis of ordered mesoporous silica nanosheets by
      using acidified g-C3N4 as a lamellar surfactant.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) mesoporous nanomaterials are required in catalysis,
      separation, adsorption, and energy storage fields due to their outstanding mass
      transfer performance. However, their fabrication via the 'bottom up' strategy has
      been rarely reported and is limited by the difficulties in obtaining a versatile
      and accessible structure-directing agent. Here, ultrathin mesoporous silica
      nanosheets (MSN) were successfully synthesized by employing acidified g-C3N4 as a
      structural directing agent owing to its natural layered structure, stoichiometric
      solubility, and amphiphilicity. The thickness of MSN is readily adjustable by
      tuning the dosage of acidified g-C3N4 during the fabrication process, and when
      the mass ratio of silica/acidified-g-CzN4 is 10, the thickness of the MSN is 6-9
      nm. TEM, SAXRD, and BET analysis demonstrated the mesoporous characteristics of
      MSN with a long-range ordered hexagonal arrangement symmetry, a uniform pore size
      distribution around 2.9 nm, and high BET surface areas of 1000-1150 m2 g-1. The
      superior mass-transfer performance of MSN in catalysis applications, which was
      derived from its special structure, was confirmed by the outstanding methane
      combustion activity of MSN supported Co3O4 catalysts. This work provides a
      controllable and scalable 'bottom up' fabrication method for 2D porous material,
      and also opens up an alternative application for g-C3N4.

PMID- 28574399
TI  - Strongly coupled CeO2/Co3O4/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanofibers with
      enhanced nanozyme activity for highly sensitive colorimetric detection.
AB  - In this work, we have prepared CeO2/Co3O4 composite nanofibers via an
      electrospinning technique followed by a calcination process. Then core-shell
      structured CeO2/Co3O4/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) composite
      nanofibers were fabricated through a redox reaction between the 3,4
      ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) monomer and Co3O4 on the surface of CeO2/Co3O4
      composite nanofibers. The morphology and composition of the two composite
      nanofibers were confirmed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy,
      transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectra measurements. Due to the
      synergistic effect between CeO2 and Co3O4, the catalytic activity was enhanced
      compared to that of independent oxide nanofibers. After the growth of PEDOT, the
      catalytic activity process was further improved, having achieved a secondary
      synergistic effect. Application of the two prepared composite nanofibers as
      peroxidase-like catalysts for the colorimetric detection of H2O2 was
      investigated. It is anticipated that this work can inspire researchers to develop
      various novel functional nanocomposites for applications in biosensing and
      environmental monitoring.

PMID- 28574400
TI  - Honeycomb-like NiCo2S4 nanosheets prepared by rapid electrodeposition as a
      counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells.
AB  - Honeycomb-like nickel cobalt sulfide (NiCo2S4) nanosheets were directly deposited
      on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate by a rapid voltammetric deposition method.
      The method was also controllable and feasible for preparing NiCo2S4 on flexible
      Ti foil without any heating processes. Compared with Pt, CoS and NiS, NiCo2S4
      exhibited low charge-transfer resistances and excellent electrocatalytic activity
      for [Formula: see text] reduction, acting as a counter electrode for a dye
      sensitized solar cell. The NiCo2S4-based solar cell showed higher power
      conversion efficiency (7.44%) than that of Pt-based solar cell (7.09%) under
      simulated illumination (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW cm-2). The device based on the flexible
      NiCo2S4/Ti foil achieved a power conversion efficiency of 5.28% under the above
      illumination conditions. This work can be extended to flexible and wearable
      technologies due to its facile technique.

PMID- 28574401
TI  - Modeling elastic anisotropy in strained heteroepitaxy.
AB  - Using a continuum evolution equation, we model the growth and evolution of
      quantum dots in the heteroepitaxial Ge on Si(0 0 1) system in a molecular beam
      epitaxy unit. We formulate our model in terms of evolution due to deposition, and
      due to surface diffusion which is governed by a free energy. This free energy has
      contributions from surface energy, curvature, wetting effects and elastic energy
      due to lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate. In addition to
      anisotropy due to surface energy which favors facet formation, we also
      incorporate elastic anisotropy due to an underlying crystal lattice. The
      complicated elastic problem of the film-substrate system subjected to boundary
      conditions at the free surface, interface and the bulk substrate is solved by
      perturbation analysis using a small slope approximation. This permits an analysis
      of effects at different orders in the slope and sheds new light on the observed
      behavior. Linear stability analysis shows the early evolution of the instability
      towards dot formation. The elastic anisotropy causes a change in the alignment of
      dots in the linear regime, whereas the surface energy anisotropy changes the dot
      shapes at the nonlinear regime. Numerical simulation of the full nonlinear
      equations shows the evolution of the surface morphology. In particular, we show,
      for parameters of the [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] on Si(0 0 1), the
      surface energy anisotropy dominates the shapes of the quantum dots, whereas their
      alignment is influenced by the elastic energy anisotropy. The anisotropy in
      elasticity causes a further elongation of the islands whose coarsening is
      interrupted due to [Formula: see text] facets on the surface.

PMID- 28574402
TI  - Thermal sublimation: a scalable and controllable thinning method for the
      fabrication of few-layer black phosphorus.
AB  - We report uniform layer-by-layer sublimation of black phosphorus under heating
      below 600 K. The uniformity and crystallinity of BP samples after thermal
      thinning were confirmed by Raman spectra and Raman mapping. The sublimation rate
      of BP was around 0.18 nm min-1 at 500 K and 1.15 nm min-1 at 550 K. Both room and
      high temperature Raman peak intensity ratio [Formula: see text] as functions of
      BP thickness were established for in situ thickness determination and control.
      Uniform and crystalline 2 to 4-layer BP flakes with areas from 10 to 1000 MUm2
      were prepared with this method. No micron scale defects were observed. The
      sublimation thinning method was shown to be a controllable and scalable approach
      to prepare high-quality few-layer black phosphorus.

PMID- 28574403
TI  - Fermi energy dependence of the optical emission in core/shell InAs nanowire
      homostructures.
AB  - InAs nanowires grown by vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method are investigated by
      photoluminescence. We observe that the Fermi energy of all samples is reduced by
      ~20 meV when the size of the Au nanoparticle used for catalysis is increased from
      5 to 20 nm. Additional capping with a thin InP shell enhances the optical
      emission and does not affect the Fermi energy. The unexpected behavior of the
      Fermi energy is attributed to the differences in the residual donor (likely
      carbon) incorporation in the axial (low) and lateral (high incorporation) growth
      in the VLS and vapor-solid (VS) methods, respectively. The different impurity
      incorporation rate in these two regions leads to a core/shell InAs homostructure.
      In this case, the minority carriers (holes) diffuse to the core due to the built
      in electric field created by the radial impurity distribution. As a result, the
      optical emission is dominated by the core region rather than by the more heavily
      doped InAs shell. Thus, the photoluminescence spectra and the Fermi energy become
      sensitive to the core diameter. These results are corroborated by a theoretical
      model using a self-consistent method to calculate the radial carrier distribution
      and Fermi energy for distinct diameters of Au nanoparticles.

PMID- 28574404
TI  - Ultrafast spin-polarized electron dynamics in the unoccupied topological surface
      state of Bi2Se3.
AB  - The three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 presents two cone-like
      dispersive topological surface states centered at the [Formula: see text] point.
      One of them is unoccupied in equilibrium conditions and located 1.8 eV above the
      other one lying close to the Fermi level. In this work we employ time- and angle
      resolved photoemission spectroscopy with circularly polarized pump photons to
      selectively track the spin dynamics of the empty topological states. We observe
      that spin-polarized electrons flow along the topological cone and recombine
      towards the unpolarized bulk states on a timescale of few tens of femtoseconds.
      This provides direct evidence of the capability to trigger a spin current with
      circularly polarized light.

PMID- 28574405
TI  - Multi-institutional MicroCT image comparison of image-guided small animal
      irradiators.
AB  - To recommend imaging protocols and establish tolerance levels for microCT image
      quality assurance (QA) performed on conformal image-guided small animal
      irradiators. A fully automated QA software SAPA (small animal phantom analyzer)
      for image analysis of the commercial Shelley micro-CT MCTP 610 phantom was
      developed, in which quantitative analyses of CT number linearity, signal-to-noise
      ratio (SNR), uniformity and noise, geometric accuracy, spatial resolution by
      means of modulation transfer function (MTF), and CT contrast were performed.
      Phantom microCT scans from eleven institutions acquired with four image-guided
      small animal irradiator units (including the commercial PXi X-RAD SmART and
      Xstrahl SARRP systems) with varying parameters used for routine small animal
      imaging were analyzed. Multi-institutional data sets were compared using SAPA,
      based on which tolerance levels for each QA test were established and imaging
      protocols for QA were recommended. By analyzing microCT data from 11
      institutions, we established image QA tolerance levels for all image quality
      tests. CT number linearity set to R 2  >  0.990 was acceptable in microCT data
      acquired at all but three institutions. Acceptable SNR  >  36 and noise levels 
      <55 HU were obtained at five of the eleven institutions, where failing scans were
      acquired with current-exposure time of less than 120 mAs. Acceptable spatial
      resolution (>1.5 lp mm-1 for MTF  =  0.2) was obtained at all but four
      institutions due to their large image voxel size used (>0.275 mm). Ten of the
      eleven institutions passed the set QA tolerance for geometric accuracy (<1.5%)
      and nine of the eleven institutions passed the QA tolerance for contrast (>2000
      HU for 30 mgI ml-1). We recommend performing imaging QA with 70 kVp, 1.5 mA, 120
      s imaging time, 0.20 mm voxel size, and a frame rate of 5 fps for the PXi X-RAD
      SmART. For the Xstrahl SARRP, we recommend using 60 kVp, 1.0 mA, 240 s imaging
      time, 0.20 mm voxel size, and 6 fps. These imaging protocols should result in
      high quality images that pass the set tolerance levels on all systems. Average
      SAPA computation time for complete QA analysis for a 0.20 mm voxel, 400 slice
      Shelley phantom microCT data set was less than 20 s. We present image quality
      assurance recommendations for image-guided small animal radiotherapy systems that
      can aid researchers in maintaining high image quality, allowing for spatially
      precise conformal dose delivery to small animals.

PMID- 28574406
TI  - Muscle abnormalities in osteogenesis imperfecta.
AB  - Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is mainly characterized by bone fragility but muscle
      abnormalities have been reported both in OI mouse models and in children with OI.
      Muscle mass is decreased in OI, even when short stature is taken into account.
      Dynamic muscle tests aiming at maximal eccentric force production reveal
      functional deficits that can not be explained by low muscle mass alone. However,
      it appears that diaphyseal bone mass is normally adapted to muscle force. At
      present the determinants of muscle mass and function in OI have not been clearly
      defined. Physiotherapy interventions and bisphosphonate treatment appear to have
      some effect on muscle function in OI. Interventions targeting muscle mass have
      shown encouraging results in OI animal models and are an interesting area for
      further research.

PMID- 28574407
TI  - Muscular response to the first three months of deflazacort treatment in boys with
      Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients are often treated with
      glucocorticoids; yet their precise molecular action remains unknown. METHODS: We
      investigated muscle biopsies from nine boys with DMD (aged: 7,6+/-2,8 yrs.)
      collected before and after three months of deflazacort treatment and compared
      them to eight healthy boys (aged: 5,3+/-2,4 yrs.). mRNA transcripts involved in
      activation of satellite cells, myogenesis, regeneration, adipogenesis, muscle
      growth and tissue inflammation were assessed. Serum creatine kinase (CK) levels
      and muscle protein expression by immunohistochemistry of selected targets were
      also analysed. RESULTS: Transcript levels for ADIPOQ, CD68, CDH15, FGF2, IGF1R,
      MYF5, MYF6, MYH8, MYOD, PAX7, and TNFalpha were significantly different in
      untreated patients vs. normal muscle (p?0.05). Linear tests for trend indicated
      that the expression levels of treated patients were approaching normal values
      (p?0.05) following treatment (towards an increase; CDH15, C-MET, DLK1, FGF2,
      IGF1R, MYF5, MYF6, MYOD, PAX7; towards a decrease: CD68, MYH8, TNFalpha).
      Treatment reduced CK levels (p?0.05), but we observed no effect on muscle protein
      expression. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the molecular actions
      of glucocorticoids in DMD at the mRNA level, and we show that multiple regulatory
      pathways are influenced. This information can be important in the development of
      new treatments.

PMID- 28574408
TI  - Effect of whole body vibration training on quadriceps strength, bone mineral
      density, and functional capacity in children with hemophilia: a randomized
      clinical trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective was to evaluate the effects of whole body vibration
      training on quadriceps strength, bone mineral density, and functional capacity in
      children with hemophilia. METHODS: Thirty children with hemophilia with age
      ranging from 9 to 13 years were selected and randomly assigned to either the
      study group that received whole body vibration training (30-40 Hz, 2-4 mm of peak
      to-peak vertical plate displacement for 15 minutes/day, 3 days/week/ 12 weeks)
      plus the conventional physical therapy program or the control group that
      performed a conventional physical therapy program only. Outcomes included
      quadriceps strength, bone mineral density, and the functional capacity. RESULTS:
      Children in the study group showed a significant improvement in all outcomes
      compared with the control group. The quadriceps peak torque after treatment was
      70.26 and 56.46 Nm for the study and control group, respectively (p?0.001). The
      lumbar spine bone mineral density after treatment was 0.85 and 0.72 g/cm2 for the
      study and control group, respectively (p?0.001). The functional capacity after
      treatment was 325 and 290 m for the study and control group, respectively
      (p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Whole body vibration training is an effective modality in
      increasing quadriceps strength, bone mineral density, and functional capacity in
      children with hemophilia.

PMID- 28574409
TI  - Muscle power in children, youth and young adults who acquired HIV perinatally.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare muscle power between youth who acquired HIV perinatally
      and HIV unexposed uninfected (HUU) youth. METHODS: We assessed muscle power
      (relative to body mass, Pmax/mass), muscle force normalized to body weight
      (Fmax/BW), force efficiency, jump height (Hmax) and velocity (Vmax) during a
      single two-legged jump with hands on waist on a force platform (Leonardo) in HIV+
      youth (n=35, 9-21 y). Thirty-three and 22 participants returned at 12- and 24
      months, respectively. We compared age- and sex-specific z-scores in the HIV+
      youth to those in HUU controls (n=716, 9-21 y) adjusting for height and muscle
      cross-sectional area (MCSA, by pQCT). RESULTS: At baseline, z-scores for
      Pmax/mass, Fmax/BW and Vmax were less than 1 standard deviation lower than HUU
      after adjusting for height and MCSA (p?0.05). Pmax/mass z-score was negatively
      associated with level of immunosuppression (p=0.013), but this relationship was
      not significant after adjusting for height and MCSA (p=0.07). Z-scores for all
      mechanography outcomes remained stable over time in HIV+ youth. CONCLUSION: Small
      deficits in muscle power were apparent in children and youth who acquired HIV
      perinatally, and the trajectory of muscle power did not change over two years.
      Further study is needed to identify effective strategies to improve dynamic
      muscle function in this population.

PMID- 28574410
TI  - Changes in muscle cross-sectional area, muscle force, and jump performance during
      6 weeks of progressive whole-body vibration combined with progressive, high
      intensity resistance training.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that progressive whole-body vibration (WBV)
      superimposed to progressive high intensity resistance training has greater
      effects on muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), muscle force of leg muscles, and
      jump performance than progressive high intensity resistance training alone.
      METHODS: Two groups of healthy male subjects performed either 6 weeks of
      Resistive Vibration Exercise (RVE, squats and heel raises with WBV, n=13) or
      Resistive Exercise (RE, squats and heel raises without WBV, n=13). Squats under
      RVE required indispensable weight loading on the forefoot to damp harmful
      vibrations to the head. Time, intervention, and interaction effects were
      analyzed. RESULTS: After 6 weeks of training, knee extensor CSA, isometric knee
      extension force, and counter movement jump height increased equally in both
      groups (time effect, P?0.001, P<=0.02, and P<=0.03, respectively), whereas only
      in RVE ankle plantar flexor CSA and isometric ankle plantar flexion force reached
      significance or a tendency, respectively, (time effect, P=0.015 and P=0.069,
      respectively; intervention effect also for the latter, P=0.006). Drop jump
      contact time did significantly more improve in RVE (interaction effect, P=0.042).
      CONCLUSIONS: RVE showed better training effects than RE only in plantar flexor
      muscles. RVE seems to be suitable in professional sports with a special focus on
      calf muscles.

PMID- 28574411
TI  - Relationship between muscle performance and DXA-derived bone parameters in
      community-dwelling older adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine association between muscle strength, jump test
      performance, muscle mass, bone mineral density (BMD), and bone strength in older
      adults. METHODS: Sixty individuals (55-75 years) participated. Leg press strength
      and bilateral hip abduction strength were evaluated by one repetition-maximum
      testing. Jump power (JPow) and jump height (JHt) were assessed by jump test
      performance. Relative skeletal muscle mass index (RSMI), total hip BMD, femoral
      neck BMD, lumbar spine BMD, section modulus (Z), cross-sectional moment of
      inertia (CSMI), and bone strength index (BSI) were determined by DXA. RESULTS:
      After adjusting for age and gender, leg press strength 1) positively correlated
      with the total hip BMD, femoral neck BMD, and Z (all P?0.05). Also, leg press
      strength predicted the total hip BMD (P=0.013) and femoral neck BMD (P=0.021),
      after adjusting for age, gender, and RSMI. No associations were found between
      jump test performance and bone density or strength. CONCLUSION: Leg press
      strength is positively associated with bone density and bone strength in older
      population. It might serve as an additional tool to identify at-risk individuals
      for osteoporosis.

PMID- 28574412
TI  - Precision of pQCT-measured total, trabecular and cortical bone area, content,
      density and estimated bone strength in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To define pQCT precision errors, least-significant-changes, and
      identify associated factors for bone outcomes at the radius and tibia in
      children. METHODS: We obtained duplicate radius and tibia pQCT scans from 35
      children (8-14yrs). We report root-mean-squared coefficient of variation (CV%RMS)
      and 95% limits-of-agreement to characterize repeatability across scan quality and
      least-significant-changes for bone outcomes at distal (total and trabecular area,
      content and density; and compressive bone strength) and shaft sites (total area
      and content; cortical area content, density and thickness; and torsional bone
      strength). We used Spearman's rho to identify associations between CV% and time
      between measurements, child's age or anthropometrics. RESULTS: After excluding
      unanalyzable scans (6-10% of scans per bone site), CV%RMS ranged from 4% (total
      density) to 19% (trabecular content) at the distal radius, 4% (cortical content)
      to 8% (cortical thickness) at the radius shaft, 2% (total density) to 14%
      (trabecular content) at the distal tibia and from 2% (cortical content) to 6%
      (bone strength) at the tibia shaft. Precision errors were within 95% limits-of
      agreement across scan quality. Age was associated (rho -0.4 to -0.5, p?0.05) with
      CV% at the tibia. CONCLUSION: Bone density outcomes and cortical bone properties
      appeared most precise (CV%RMS?5%) in children.

PMID- 28574415
TI  - A novel interpolation approach for the generation of 3D-geometric digital bone
      models from image stacks.
AB  - The authors propose a new 3D interpolation algorithm for the generation of
      digital geometric 3D-models of bones from existing image stacks obtained by
      peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging
      (MRI). The technique is based on the interpolation of radial gray value profiles
      of the pQCT cross sections. The method has been validated by using an ex-vivo
      human tibia and by comparing interpolated pQCT images with images from scans
      taken at the same position. A diversity index of ?0.4 (1 meaning maximal
      diversity) even for the structurally complex region of the epiphysis, along with
      the good agreement of mineral-density-weighted cross-sectional moment of inertia
      (CSMI), demonstrate the high quality of our interpolation approach. Thus the
      authors demonstrate that this interpolation scheme can substantially improve the
      generation of 3D models from sparse scan sets, not only with respect to the outer
      shape but also with respect to the internal gray-value derived material property
      distribution.

PMID- 28574413
TI  - Effect of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors on post-surgical complications and
      mortality following a hip fracture: a cohort study.
AB  - There is increasing evidence suggesting that the use of acetylcholinesterase
      inhibitors may have beneficial effects on bone. Data on the potential post
      surgical effects of these medications on orthopedic interventions are very
      limited. This study was designed to determine whether the use of
      acetylcholinesterase inhibitors is associated with a decrease in post-surgical
      mortality and complications in hip fracture patients with Alzheimer's disease. To
      accomplish this objective, a retrospective cohort study was performed using data
      from the Clinical Practice Research Database, UK. The study included 532
      Alzheimer's disease patients of age 65 years and older, who sustained a hip
      fracture between 1998 and 2012. During the follow-up period, 34% of the patients
      died (n=182), 22% sustained a second hip fracture (n=118) and 5% (n=29) required
      reintervention. The users of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors had a 56% reduction
      in all-cause mortality (HR= 0.44, 95% CI 0.30-0.63) and a 41% reduction in second
      hip fracture incidence during a year of post-surgical follow-up (HR= 0.59, 95% CI
      0.38-0.94) after adjusting for potential confounders. Our results show that
      acetylcholinesterase inhibitors may have the potential to reduce all-cause
      mortality and the risk of suffering a second hip fracture during the first year
      after surgery.

PMID- 28574414
TI  - Impaired fracture healing with high non-union rates remains irreversible after
      traumatic brain injury in leptin-deficient mice.
AB  - Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and long-bone fractures can show
      increased callus formation. This effect has already been reproduced in wild-type
      (wt) mice. However, the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Leptin is
      significantly increased following TBI, while its role in bone healing remains
      unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate fracture healing in leptin
      deficient ob/ob mice and to measure any possible impact of TBI on callus
      formation. 138 female, 12 weeks old, ob/ob mice were divided into four groups:
      Control, fracture, TBI and combined trauma. Osteotomies were stabilized with an
      external fixator; TBI was induced with Controlled Cortical Impact Injury. Callus
      bridging was weekly evaluated with in vivo micro-CT. Biomechanical testing was
      performed ex vivo. Micro-CT showed high non-union rates after three and four
      weeks in the fracture and combined trauma group. No differences were observed in
      callus volume, density and biomechanical properties at any time point. This study
      shows that bony bridging is impaired in the present leptin-deficient trauma
      model. Furthermore, the phenomenon of increased callus formation after TBI could
      not be reproduced in ob/ob mice, as in wt mice. Our findings suggest that the
      increased callus formation after TBI may be dependent on leptin signaling.

PMID- 28574416
TI  - Richly innervated soft tissues covering the superficial aspect of the extensor
      origin in patients with chronic painful tennis elbow - Implication for treatment?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tennis elbow is difficult to treat. The results of surgical
      treatments are not convincing. Treatment studies on Achilles and patellar
      tendinopathy targeting the richly innervated and vascularized soft tissues
      outside the tendon have shown promising outcomes. The innervation patterns in the
      fibrous/fatty tissues superficially to the elbow extensor origin have not been
      clarified. METHODS: Nine tissue specimens from the fibrous/fatty tissue covering
      the extensor origin was taken from seven patients (mean age: 45 years) undergoing
      surgical treatment for chronic painful tennis elbow. The specimens were stained
      for morphology (haematoxylin and eosin, H and E) and immunohistochemically for
      general nerve marker protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) and markers for
      sympathetic (tyrosine hydroxylase, TH) and sensory nerve fibres (calcitonin gene
      related peptide, CGRP). RESULTS: All specimens contained multiple blood vessels
      and nerve structures indicated by morphology and immunoreactions. There was a
      frequent occurrence of TH reactions, especially peri-vascularly, but also in
      nerve fascicles. Immunoreactions for CGRP were seen in nerve fascicles and
      isolated nerve fibres. CONCLUSION: The results provide new information on the
      innervation patterns of the superficial tissues of the extensor origin and their
      potential as source of tennis elbow pain. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

PMID- 28574417
TI  - Study on the expression of nerve growth associated protein-43 in rat model of
      intervertebral disc degeneration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In the present work we studied the expression of nerve growth
      associated protein (GAP-43) in a rat model of intervertebral disc degeneration.
      METHODS: 16 healthy adult SD rats, male or female, with an average weight 220g
      were selected. FluoroGold was injected in L5-L6 disc as the tracer. After 7 days,
      Freund's adjuvant was then injected to build model of intervertebral disc
      degeneration. After 1, 3, 7 and 14 days of modeling immune-histochemical method
      was used to detect the T13-L6 dorsal root ganglion and positive expression of GAP
      43, TNF-alpha and IL-1 in L5-L6 intervertebral disc; RT-PCR method was used to
      detect GAP-43 mRNA and Western blot method was utilized to detect the expression
      levels of protein. RESULTS: In the observation group, the dorsal root ganglion,
      positive expression rates of GAP-43, TNF-alpha and IL-1, expression levels of GAP
      43 mRNA and protein in the intervertebral disc at each time point were
      significantly higher than those in the control group, and the differences were
      statistically significant (P?0.05); the positive expression rates of GAP-43, TNF
      alpha and IL-1, expression levels of GAP-43 mRNA and protein of the observation
      group reached the peak at 3d, and dropped at 7d; dorsal root ganglion reached the
      peak at 7d and dropped at 14d. CONCLUSION: Degenerative changes might be mediated
      by the abnormal high expression of GAP-43 and intervertebral disc inflammation
      jointly.

PMID- 28574418
TI  - Clinical study on the arthroscopic refreshing treatment of anterior cruciate
      ligament injury combined with stable medial meniscus ramp injury.
AB  - This study sought to investigate the clinical efficacy of arthroscopic refreshing
      treatment of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury combined with stable medial
      meniscus ramp injury. Sixty-eight patients treated between January 2010 and
      January 2014 were included, and their clinical data were retrospectively
      analyzed. All patients, after being treated using ACL reconstruction, were
      divided into 2 groups according to meniscus injury treatment method. The
      observation group (31 cases) was treated by arthroscopic refreshing, which
      removed the tissue on both sides of the tear edge using a cutting knife, while
      the control group (37 cases) was treated using Fast-fix sutures. All patients
      were followed up for at least 24 months. Surgical duration, postoperative
      function recovery time, and hospital stay for patients in the observation group
      were significantly shorter than for those of the control group (P?0.05). Both
      groups showed significant post-operative improvement for Lysholm scores, IKDC
      scores, and average knee range of motion at 12 and 24 months post-operation
      (P?0.05), but no significant differences between groups were observed (P?0.05).
      Regarding the difference in movement range between the healthy and injured sides,
      both groups showed significant decrease post-operation (P?0.05). Ultimately,
      there was no significant difference in the recovery of ramp damage and objective
      symptoms between the two groups (P?0.05). Arthroscopic refreshing treatment of
      patients with anterior cruciate ligament injury combined with stable ramp lesion
      can achieve similar clinical curative effects as the Fast-fix suture, thereby
      providing a simple alternative for patient treatment worth popularizing.

PMID- 28574419
TI  - EFFECT OF INTRAVITREAL RANIBIZUMAB ON GANGLION CELL COMPLEX AND PERIPAPILLARY
      RETINAL NERVE FIBER LAYER IN NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION USING
      SPECTRAL DOMAIN OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the changes in ganglion cell complex and peripapillary
      retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, in central macular thickness and choroidal
      thickness on spectral domain optical coherence tomography in patients with
      neovascular age-related macular degeneration treated with intravitreal
      ranibizumab injections. METHODS: All consecutive patients with untreated
      neovascular age-related macular degeneration received loading phase of three
      monthly intravitreal ranibizumab, followed by retreatments on a pro re nata
      protocol for 12 months. PRIMARY OUTCOME: changes in ganglion cell complex and
      retinal nerve fiber layer at the end of follow-up. Secondary outcome: changes in
      best-corrected visual acuity, central macular thickness, and choroidal thickness
      at the end of follow-up. Choroidal thickness was measured at 500 MUm, 1000 MUm,
      and 1,500 MUm intervals nasally, temporally, superiorly, and inferiorly to the
      fovea, respectively, on horizontal and vertical line scans centered on the fovea.
      RESULTS: Twenty-four eyes were included. Ganglion cell complex and peripapillary
      retinal nerve fiber layer thickness did not show statistically significant
      changes through 12 months (55.6 +/- 18.5 and 81.9 +/- 9.9 MUm at baseline, 52.7
      +/- 19.3 and 84.6 +/- 15.5 MUm at month 12, P > 0.05). Central macular thickness
      showed progressive decrease from baseline to month 12, with maximum reduction at
      month 3 (P < 0.001). Statistically significant reduction in choroidal thickness
      was registered in the nasal 500, 1000, and 1,500 MUm from the fovea,
      corresponding to the papillomacular region (from 169.6 +/- 45.3 to 153.9 +/-
      46.9, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Intravitreal ranibizumab injections did not affect
      retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell complex thickness in 1-year follow
      up. Choroidal thickness in papillomacular area and central macular thickness was
      significantly reduced at the end of treatment. Further studies, with larger
      sample, longer follow-up, and greater number of injections, are warranted.

PMID- 28574421
TI  - Adaptable Optical Fiber Displacement-Curvature Sensor Based on a Modal Michelson
      Interferometer with a Tapered Single Mode Fiber.
AB  - A compact, highly sensitive optical fiber displacement and curvature radius
      sensor is presented. The device consists of an adiabatic bi-conical fused fiber
      taper spliced to a single-mode fiber (SMF) segment with a flat face end. The bi
      conical taper structure acts as a modal coupling device between core and cladding
      modes for the SMF segment. When the bi-conical taper is bent by an axial
      displacement, the symmetrical bi-conical shape of the tapered structure is
      stressed, causing a change in the refractive index profile which becomes
      asymmetric. As a result, the taper adiabaticity is lost, and interference between
      modes appears. As the bending increases, a small change in the fringe visibility
      and a wavelength shift on the periodical reflection spectrum of the in-fiber
      interferometer is produced. The displacement sensitivity and the spectral
      periodicity of the device can be adjusted by the proper selection of the SMF
      length. Sensitivities from around 1.93 to 3.4 nm/mm were obtained for SMF length
      between 7.5 and 12.5 cm. Both sensor interrogations, wavelength shift and
      visibility contrast, can be used to measure displacement and curvature radius
      magnitudes.

PMID- 28574420
TI  - Characterization and Temperature Dependence of Arctic Micromonas polaris Viruses.
AB  - Global climate change-induced warming of the Artic seas is predicted to shift the
      phytoplankton community towards dominance of smaller-sized species due to global
      warming. Yet, little is known about their viral mortality agents despite the
      ecological importance of viruses regulating phytoplankton host dynamics and
      diversity. Here we report the isolation and basic characterization of four
      prasinoviruses infectious to the common Arctic picophytoplankter Micromonas. We
      furthermore assessed how temperature influenced viral infectivity and production.
      Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the putative double-stranded DNA (dsDNA)
      Micromonas polaris viruses (MpoVs) are prasinoviruses (Phycodnaviridae) of
      approximately 120 nm in particle size. One MpoV showed intrinsic differences to
      the other three viruses, i.e., larger genome size (205 +/- 2 vs. 191 +/- 3 Kb),
      broader host range, and longer latent period (39 vs. 18 h). Temperature increase
      shortened the latent periods (up to 50%), increased the burst size (up to 40%),
      and affected viral infectivity. However, the variability in response to
      temperature was high for the different viruses and host strains assessed, likely
      affecting the Arctic picoeukaryote community structure both in the short term
      (seasonal cycles) and long term (global warming).

PMID- 28574422
TI  - Influence of Freeze Concentration Technique on Aromatic and Phenolic Compounds,
      Color Attributes, and Sensory Properties of Cabernet Sauvignon Wine.
AB  - Red wines produced in the Xinjiang region of China possess poor color density,
      and lack fruity notes and elegance. The freeze concentration technique, as a well
      established concentration method for liquid food systems, was applied to the
      Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis vinifera L.) wine-making process, aiming to investigate
      its effect on wine quality improvement. Results showed that the freeze
      concentration treatment did not significantly alter the physicochemical
      properties of the wine, except for an increase of glycerol and alcoholic content.
      This technique increased ester contents, as well as decreasing the amount of
      volatile acids. Higher alcohol contents were also increased, but within an
      acceptable content range. All taken into consideration, the freeze concentration
      treated wine showed better fragrance characters according to sensory evaluation.
      The non-anthocyanin composition was altered by this application, however, the
      difference disappeared after the aging process. Fortunately, sensory evaluation
      showed that the treated wine possessed better mouthfeel properties. Anthocyanin
      contents were enhanced, and effectively stabilized the fresh wine color
      attributes, resulting in an improvement in appearance of the treated wine. All
      results considered, it can be concluded that freeze concentration treatment could
      be a good choice to improve wine quality.

PMID- 28574423
TI  - Toward a Multifactorial Conception of the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome and
      Persistent Chronic Tic Disorder.
AB  - Despite recent giant leaps in understanding Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (now
      Tourette Disorder in the DSM 5), accurate multi-modal description, rigorous
      assessment procedures, and the improvement of evidence-based treatment currently
      pose a considerable challenge. In this context, the current special edition aims
      to elaborate three important dimensions in Tourette Disorder. Firstly, the
      effective characterization and etiological basis of the disorder are reviewed,
      since such characterization impacts accurate assessment. Secondly, subsequent
      articles cover the comprehensive evaluation and assessment of tic disorders,
      essential for treatment planning. Thirdly, the final group of articles propose
      novel and innovative treatment strategies for pharmacologically and behaviorally
      reducing tic frequency. In the current editorial address, two main issues seem
      crucial to the development of interventions for Tourette disorder. Primarily,
      integrating new technology in treatments, while supporting cognitive and
      behavioral recovery through learning self-controlled strategies. Additionally,
      the dissemination of study results to frontline resources, needs streamlining and
      empirically validated treatments for tic disorders should be the subject of
      knowledge translation to community organizations and be more widely available to
      the public.

PMID- 28574424
TI  - A Polish Study on the Influence of Food Neophobia in Children (10-12 Years Old)
      on the Intake of Vegetables and Fruits.
AB  - Adhering to the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables is an important habit
      that should be inculcated in children, whereas food neophobia is indicated as one
      of the most important factors creating food preferences that may interfere. The
      aim of the presented study was to analyze the association between the food
      neophobia level and the intake of fruits and vegetables in children aged 10-12
      years. The study was conducted among a group of 163 children (78 girls and 85
      boys). The assessment of the food neophobia level was based on the Food Neophobia
      Scale (FNS) questionnaire and the assessment of the fruit and vegetable intake
      was based on the food frequency questionnaire. A negative correlation between the
      food neophobia level and the vegetable intake was observed both for girls (p =
      0.032; R = -0.2432) and for boys (p = 0.004; R = -0.3071), whereas for girls
      differences in vegetable intake were observed also between various food neophobia
      categories (p = 0.0144). It may be concluded that children with higher food
      neophobia level are characterized by lower vegetable intake than children with
      lower food neophobia level. For fruits and juices of fruits and vegetables,
      associations with food neophobia level were not observed.

PMID- 28574426
TI  - Comparative Study of Neural Network Frameworks for the Next Generation of
      Adaptive Optics Systems.
AB  - Many of the next generation of adaptive optics systems on large and extremely
      large telescopes require tomographic techniques in order to correct for
      atmospheric turbulence over a large field of view. Multi-object adaptive optics
      is one such technique. In this paper, different implementations of a tomographic
      reconstructor based on a machine learning architecture named "CARMEN" are
      presented. Basic concepts of adaptive optics are introduced first, with a short
      explanation of three different control systems used on real telescopes and the
      sensors utilised. The operation of the reconstructor, along with the three neural
      network frameworks used, and the developed CUDA code are detailed. Changes to the
      size of the reconstructor influence the training and execution time of the neural
      network. The native CUDA code turns out to be the best choice for all the
      systems, although some of the other frameworks offer good performance under
      certain circumstances.

PMID- 28574425
TI  - Local Immune Responsiveness of Mice Bearing Premalignant Oral Lesions to PD-1
      Antibody Treatment.
AB  - A carcinogen-induced premalignant oral lesion model that progresses to oral
      cancer was used to examine the immunological impact of a 5-week treatment regimen
      to block programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1). PD-1 antibody treatment resulted
      in concurrent, but transient, increases in interleukin (IL)-2, IFN-gamma and IL
      17, and delayed increases in IL-6 and IL-10 within the lesion-bearing tongue
      epithelium. In contrast, cytokine secretion by lymph node cells of PD-1 antibody
      treated mice was lower than for mice treated with control antibodies, with the
      exception of interferon (IFN)-gamma, whose secretion increased late in the
      treatment period. This delayed secretion of IFN-gamma coincided with an increase
      in CD4+ lymph node cells expressing IFN-gamma. Lymph node cells of PD-1 antibody
      treated mice reacted to a challenge with lysates of lesions or cancer by early
      production of IFN-gamma, but this rapidly subsided. There also was increased
      production IL-17 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in response to the
      challenge, but the response was greatest by cells of control lesion-bearing mice.
      Clinical assessment showed an early but transient, stabilization of disease in
      mice treated with PD-1 antibody. These results show an early beneficial, but time
      limited, response to PD-1 antibody treatment, which then fails with continued
      lesion progression.

PMID- 28574427
TI  - A Novel Anti-Hepatitis C Virus and Antiproliferative Agent Alters Metabolic
      Networks in HepG2 and Hep3B Cells.
AB  - A series of novel diflunisal hydrazide-hydrazones has been reported together with
      their anti-hepatitis C virus and antiproliferative activities in a number of
      human hepatoma cell lines. However, the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of
      these agents remain unclear. It was chosen to investigate the lead diflunisal
      hydrazide-hydrazone, 2',4'-difluoro-4-hydroxy-N'- [(pyridin-2
      yl)methylidene]biphenyl-3-carbohydrazide (compound 3b), in two cultured human
      hepatoma cell lines-HepG2 and Hep3B-using a metabolomic protocol aimed at
      uncovering any effects of this agent on cellular metabolism. One sub-therapeutic
      concentration (2.5 MUM) and one close to the IC50 for antimitotic effect (10
      MUM), after 72 h in cell culture, were chosen for both compound 3b and its
      inactive parent compound diflusinal as a control. A GCMS-based metabolomic
      investigation was performed on cell lysates after culture for 24 h. The
      intracellular levels of a total of 42 metabolites were found to be statistically
      significantly altered in either HepG2 or Hep3B cells, only eight of which were
      affected in both cell lines. It was concluded that compound 3b affected the
      following pathways-purine and pyrimidine catabolism, the glutathione cycle, and
      energy metabolism through glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway. Although
      the metabolomic findings occurred after 24 h in culture, significant cytotoxicity
      of compound 3b to both HepG2 and Hep3B cells at 10 MUM were reported not to occur
      until 72 h in culture. These observations show that metabolomics can provide
      mechanistic insights into the efficacy of novel drug candidates prior to the
      appearance of their pharmacological effect.

PMID- 28574429
TI  - Validation of Acoustic Wave Induced Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study looked to validate the acoustic wave technology of the
      Storz-D-Actor that inflicted a consistent closed-head, traumatic brain injury
      (TBI) in rats. We studied a range of single pulse pressures administered to the
      rats and observed the resulting decline in motor skills and memory. Histology was
      observed to measure and confirm the injury insult. METHODS: Four different
      acoustic wave pressures were studied using a single pulse: 0, 3.4, 4.2 and 5.0
      bar (n = 10 rats per treatment group). The pulse was administered to the left
      frontal cortex. Rotarod tests were used to monitor the rats' motor skills while
      the water maze test was used to monitor memory deficits. The rats were then
      sacrificed ten days post-treatment for histological analysis of TBI infarct size.
      RESULTS: The behavioral tests showed that acoustic wave technology administered
      an effective insult causing significant decreases in motor abilities and memory.
      Histology showed dose-dependent damage to the cortex infarct areas only.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates that the Storz D-Actor effectively induces a
      repeatable TBI infarct, avoiding the invasive procedure of a craniotomy often
      used in TBI research.

PMID- 28574428
TI  - Reduced Dietary Selenium Impairs Vascular Function by Increasing Oxidative Stress
      in Sprague-Dawley Rat Aortas.
AB  - This study aimed to determine whether low dietary Se content affects the function
      and mechanisms mediating the vascular relaxation of rat aortas, and to test the
      role of oxidative stress in observed differences. Male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats
      were maintained for 10 weeks on low Se (low-Se group; N = 20) or normal Se
      content (norm-Se group; N = 20) rat chow. Dose responses to acetylcholine (ACh;
      10-9-10-5M) and the response to reduced pO2 were tested in noradrenaline
      precontracted aortic rings in the absence/presence of the nitric oxide synthase
      (NOS) inhibitor nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), the cyclooxygenase 1 and
      2 (COX-1, 2) inhibitor Indomethacin, and the antioxidative agent Tempol in tissue
      bath. mRNA expression of glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPx1), catalase (CAT), and
      Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) was measured in rat aortas. Oxidative stress
      (Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances; TBARS), antioxidative plasma capacity
      (ferric reducing ability of plasma assay; FRAP), and protein levels of GPx1 were
      measured in plasma and serum samples, respectively. Reduced ACh-induced
      relaxation (AChIR) (dominantly mediated by NO) in the low-Se group compared to
      the norm-Se group was restored by Tempol administration. Hypoxia-induced
      relaxation (HIR) (dominantly mediated by COX-1, 2), TBARS, and FRAP as well as
      GPx1 serum concentrations were similar between the groups. mRNA GPx1 expression
      in rat aortas was significantly decreased in the low-Se compared to the norm-Se
      group. These data suggest that low dietary Se content increases the local
      oxidative stress level, which subsequently affects the NO-mediated vascular
      response.

PMID- 28574431
TI  - Vitamin C Depletion and All-Cause Mortality in Renal Transplant Recipients.
AB  - Vitamin C may reduce inflammation and is inversely associated with mortality in
      the general population. We investigated the association of plasma vitamin C with
      all-cause mortality in renal transplant recipients (RTR); and whether this
      association would be mediated by inflammatory biomarkers. Vitamin C, high
      sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), soluble intercellular cell adhesion
      molecule 1 (sICAM-1), and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1)
      were measured in a cohort of 598 RTR. Cox regression analyses were used to
      analyze the association between vitamin C depletion (<=28 umol/L; 22% of RTR) and
      mortality. Mediation analyses were performed according to Preacher and Hayes's
      procedure. At a median follow-up of 7.0 (6.2-7.5) years, 131 (21%) patients died.
      Vitamin C depletion was univariately associated with almost two-fold higher risk
      of mortality (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.95; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) 1.35-2.81,
      p < 0.001). This association remained independent of potential confounders (HR
      1.74; 95%CI 1.18-2.57, p = 0.005). Hs-CRP, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 and a composite score
      of inflammatory biomarkers mediated 16, 17, 15, and 32% of the association,
      respectively. Vitamin C depletion is frequent and independently associated with
      almost two-fold higher risk of mortality in RTR. It may be hypothesized that the
      beneficial effect of vitamin C at least partly occurs through decreasing
      inflammation.

PMID- 28574432
TI  - Isolation, Amino Acid Sequences, and Plausible Functions of the Galacturonic Acid
      Binding Egg Lectin of the Sea Hare Aplysia kurodai.
AB  - Egg lectins occur in a variety of animals ranging from mollusks to vertebrates. A
      few examples of molluscan egg lectins have been reported, including that of the
      sea hare Aplysia kurodai; however, their biological functions in the egg remain
      unclarified. We report the isolation, determination of primary structure, and
      possible functions of A.kurodai lectin (AKL) from the egg mass of A. kurodai. We
      obtained AKL as an inseparable mixture of isoproteins with a relative molecular
      mass of approximately 32 kDa by affinity purification. The hemagglutinating
      activity of AKL against rabbit erythrocytes was inhibited most potently by
      galacturonic acid and moderately by xylose. Nucleotide sequencing of
      corresponding cDNA obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) allowed us
      to deduce complete amino acid sequences. The mature polypeptides consisted of 218
      or 219-amino acids with three repeated domains. The amino acid sequence had
      similarities to hypothetical proteins of Aplysia spp., or domain DUF3011 of
      uncharacterized bacterial proteins. AKL is the first member of the DUF3011 family
      whose function, carbohydrate recognition, was revealed. Treatment of the egg with
      galacturonic acid, an AKL sugar inhibitor, resulted in deformation of the veliger
      larvae, suggesting that AKL is involved in organogenesis in the developmental
      stage of A. kurodai.

PMID- 28574433
TI  - Aflatoxin B1 Tolerance and Accumulation in Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia
      illucens) and Yellow Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor).
AB  - Crops contaminated with fungal mycotoxins such as aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) are often
      downgraded or removed from the food chain. This study aimed to evaluate the
      tolerance and accumulation of AFB1 in two insect species to determine whether
      they could be used to retain condemned mycotoxin contaminated crops in the food
      chain. First, instar black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens, BSF) and yellow
      mealworm (Tenebrio molitor, YMW) were fed poultry feed spiked with AFB1 and
      formulated to contain levels of 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, and up to 0.5
      mg/kg dry feed. Poultry feed without any additions and feed with only the solvent
      added served as controls. The AFB1 in the feed did not affect survival and body
      weight in the BSF and YMW larvae (p > 0.10), indicating a high tolerance to
      aflatoxin B1 in both species. Furthermore, AFB1 and aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) were
      below the detection limit (0.10 ug/kg) in BSF larvae, whereas the YMW had AFB1
      levels that were approximately 10% of the European Union's legal limit for feed
      materials and excreted AFM1. It is concluded that both BSF larvae and YMW have a
      high AFB1 tolerance and do not accumulate AFB1.

PMID- 28574430
TI  - Extracellular Vesicles in Hematological Malignancies: From Biology to Therapy.
AB  - Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous group of particles, between 15
      nanometers and 10 microns in diameter, released by almost all cell types in
      physiological and pathological conditions, including tumors. EVs have recently
      emerged as particularly interesting informative vehicles, so that they could be
      considered a true "cell biopsy". Indeed, EV cargo, including proteins, lipids,
      and nucleic acids, generally reflects the nature and status of the origin cells.
      In some cases, EVs are enriched of peculiar molecular cargo, thus suggesting at
      least a degree of specific cellular packaging. EVs are identified as important
      and critical players in intercellular communications in short and long distance
      interplays. Here, we examine the physiological role of EVs and their activity in
      cross-talk between bone marrow microenvironment and neoplastic cells in
      hematological malignancies (HMs). In these diseases, HM EVs can modify tumor and
      bone marrow microenvironment, making the latter "stronger" in supporting
      malignancy, inducing drug resistance, and suppressing the immune system.
      Moreover, EVs are abundant in biologic fluids and protect their molecular cargo
      against degradation. For these and other "natural" characteristics, EVs could be
      potential biomarkers in a context of HM liquid biopsy and therapeutic tools.
      These aspects will be also analyzed in this review.

PMID- 28574435
TI  - Exploring the Role of Farm Animals in Providing Care at Care Farms.
AB  - We explore the role of farm animals in providing care to different types of
      participants at care farms (e.g., youngsters with behavioural problems, people
      with severe mental problems and people with dementia). Care farms provide
      alternative and promising settings where people can interact with animals
      compared to a therapeutic healthcare setting. We performed a literature review,
      conducted focus group meetings and carried out secondary data-analysis of
      qualitative studies involving care farmers and different types of participants.
      We found that farm animals are important to many participants and have a large
      number of potential benefits. They can (i) provide meaningful day occupation;
      (ii) generate valued relationships; (iii) help people master tasks; (iv) provide
      opportunities for reciprocity; (v) can distract people from them problems; (vi)
      provide relaxation; (vii) facilitate customized care; (viii) facilitate
      relationships with other people; (ix) stimulate healthy behavior; (x) contribute
      to a welcoming environment; (xi) make it possible to experience basic elements of
      life; and (xii) provide opportunities for reflection and feedback. This shows the
      multi-facetted importance of interacting with animals on care farms. In this
      study the types of activities with animals and their value to different types of
      participants varied. Farm animals are an important element of the care farm
      environment that can address the care needs of different types of participants.

PMID- 28574434
TI  - Addressing the Immunogenicity of the Cargo and of the Targeting Antibodies with a
      Focus on Demmunized Bacterial Toxins and on Antibody-Targeted Human Effector
      Proteins.
AB  - Third-generation immunotoxins are composed of a human, or humanized, targeting
      moiety, usually a monoclonal antibody or an antibody fragment, and a non-human
      effector molecule. Due to the non-human origin of the cytotoxic domain, these
      molecules stimulate potent anti-drug immune responses, which limit treatment
      options. Efforts are made to deimmunize such immunotoxins or to combine treatment
      with immunosuppression. An alternative approach is using the so-called "human
      cytotoxic fusion proteins", in which antibodies are used to target human effector
      proteins. Here, we present three relevant approaches for reducing the
      immunogenicity of antibody-targeted protein therapeutics: (1) reducing the
      immunogenicity of the bacterial toxin, (2) fusing human cytokines to antibodies
      to generate immunocytokines and (3) addressing the immunogenicity of the
      targeting antibodies.

PMID- 28574436
TI  - Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Vascular Changes in Diabetic Macular
      Edema after Dexamethasone Implant Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate retinal and choriocapillaris vessel
      changes in diabetic macular edema (DME) after the intravitreal dexamethasone
      implant (IDI) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Moreover, a
      comparison between morphological and functional parameters of DME and healthy
      patients was performed. Twenty-five eyes of 25 type 2 diabetic retinopathy
      patients complicated by macular edema (DME group) and 25 healthy subjects
      (control group) were enrolled. Superficial capillary plexus density (SCPD) and
      deep capillary plexus density (DCPD) in the foveal and parafoveal areas,
      choricapillary density (CCD) and optic disc vessel density (ODVD) were detected
      using OCTA at baseline and after 7, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days post injection. Best
      corrected visual acuity (BCVA), retinal sensitivity, and central retinal
      thickness (CMT) were also evaluated in both groups of patients. A statistically
      significant difference between the two groups (DME and controls) was found in
      terms of functional (MP, p < 0.001 and BCVA, p < 0.001) and morphological (CMT, p
      < 0.001; SCPD in the parafoveal area, p < 0.001; DCPD in the foveal area, p <
      0.05 and parafoveal area, p < 0.001; CCD, p < 0.001) parameters. After the
      treatment, SCPD and DCPD in the foveal and parafoveal areas did not modify
      significantly during the follow up.

PMID- 28574438
TI  - An Evaluation of the Binding Strength of Okra Gum and the Drug Release
      Characteristics of Tablets Prepared from It.
AB  - The aim of this study is to evaluate the adhesion ability of okra gum, which is
      gaining popularity as a tablet binder. For this purpose, gum was extracted from
      okra pods, and the binding strength of different concentrations (1%, 3%, and 5%)
      was determined quantitatively. Additionally, naproxen sodium tablets were
      prepared by using okra gum as a binder and were evaluated for their properties
      including hardness, friability, disintegration time, and dissolution rate. The
      binding strength values were compared with that of pre-gelatinized starch, a
      commonly used tablet binder. The results from universal testing machine indicate
      that the binding strengths of all dispersions of okra increase as the
      concentration increases from 1% to 5% and ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 N, which are
      almost twice a high as those of pre-gelatinized starch. The tablets prepared with
      okra gum have shown good mechanical strength with hardness values of 7-8.5 kg/cm2
      and a friability <1%, comparable to tablets prepared with starch. The
      disintegration time was longer (7.50 min with okra gum and 5.05 min with starch
      paste), and the drug release from these tablets was slower than the formulations
      with starch. The higher binding ability of okra gum probably linked with its
      chemical composition as it mainly contains galactose, rhamnose, and galacturonic
      acid. This study concludes that okra gum is a better binder than pre-gelatinized
      starch, it might be explored in future for introduction as a cost-effective
      binder in the pharmaceutical industry.

PMID- 28574437
TI  - The Influence of Quercetin on Maternal Immunity, Oxidative Stress, and
      Inflammation in Mice with Exposure of Fine Particulate Matter during Gestation.
AB  - The objective is to investigate the influence of PM2.5 exposure on peripheral
      blood lymphocyte subsets in pregnant mice and the antagonism of quercetin on
      adverse effects induced by PM2.5 exposure. Pregnant mice were randomly divided
      into control group, PM2.5 model group and 3 quercetin intervention groups. Dams
      in all groups except the control group were exposed to PM2.5 suspension by
      intratracheal instillation on gestational day (GD) 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15. Meanwhile,
      each dam was given 0.15% carboxymethylcellulose sodium (CMCS) (control group &
      PM2.5 model group) and different doses of quercetin (quercetin intervention
      groups) by gavage once a day from GD0 to GD17. The percentage of lymphocyte
      subsets, Biomarkers of systemic inflammation injuries (IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 & TNF
      alpha) and oxidative stress indicators (CAT, GSH & HO-1) in peripheral blood of
      the dams were analyzed. The number of T cells increased, accompanied by increased
      level of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and HO-1 due to PM2.5 exposure. Less CD4+ and CD8+ T
      cells were counted in 100 mg/kg quercetin intervention group, compared with PM2.5
      model group. Quercetin may inhibit cytokine production, especially in IL-6 and IL
      8 and may upgrade the level of HO-1. Our findings indicate that PM2.5 could
      significantly influence the distribution of T-lymphocyte subsets, activate
      inflammatory reaction and elevate oxidative stress level in peripheral blood of
      pregnant mice. Certain dose of quercetin administration during pregnancy may
      protect the dams against the adverse effects through various ways.

PMID- 28574439
TI  - The Evolving Interplay among Abundant Adipokines in Patients with Hepatitis C
      during Viral Clearance.
AB  - How hepatatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects the interplay among abundant
      adipokines in the host remains unclear. A prospective study was conducted with
      450 consecutive genotype 1 (G1) and G2 HCV patients who completed a course of
      anti-HCV therapy and underwent pre-therapy and 24-week post-therapy surveys to
      assess various profiles and levels of abundant adipokines, including leptin,
      adiponectin, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Before anti-HCV
      therapy, multivariate analyses showed gender to be associated with leptin and
      adiponectin levels, and BMI with leptin and PAI-1 levels. Among patients with a
      sustained virological response (SVR, n = 372), associations at 24 weeks post
      therapy were as follows: gender and BMI with all adipokine levels; hepatic
      steatosis and aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index with adiponectin
      levels; and HOMA-IR and HCV genotype with PAI-1 levels. Paired t-tests revealed
      increased post-therapeutic PAI-1 levels in G1 SVR patients and decreased
      adiponectin levels in all SVR patients compared to pre-therapeutic levels. HCV
      infection may obscure associations between abundant adipokines and
      metabolic/hepatic profiles. In SVR patients, a higher hierarchical status of PAI
      1 versus adiponectin in affecting glucose metabolism was noted at 24 weeks post
      therapy. Such genotype-non-specific adiponectin decreases and G1-specific PAI-1
      increases warrant careful follow-up of HCV patients after SVR according to viral
      genotype.

PMID- 28574442
TI  - Electrophysiological Indices of Audiovisual Speech Perception in the Broader
      Autism Phenotype.
AB  - When a speaker talks, the consequences of this can both be heard (audio) and seen
      (visual). A novel visual phonemic restoration task was used to assess behavioral
      discrimination and neural signatures (event-related potentials, or ERP) of
      audiovisual processing in typically developing children with a range of social
      and communicative skills assessed using the social responsiveness scale, a
      measure of traits associated with autism. An auditory oddball design presented
      two types of stimuli to the listener, a clear exemplar of an auditory consonant
      vowel syllable /ba/ (the more frequently occurring standard stimulus), and a
      syllable in which the auditory cues for the consonant were substantially
      weakened, creating a stimulus which is more like /a/ (the infrequently presented
      deviant stimulus). All speech tokens were paired with a face producing /ba/ or a
      face with a pixelated mouth containing motion but no visual speech. In this
      paradigm, the visual /ba/ should cause the auditory /a/ to be perceived as /ba/,
      creating an attenuated oddball response; in contrast, a pixelated video (without
      articulatory information) should not have this effect. Behaviorally, participants
      showed visual phonemic restoration (reduced accuracy in detecting deviant /a/) in
      the presence of a speaking face. In addition, ERPs were observed in both an early
      time window (N100) and a later time window (P300) that were sensitive to speech
      context (/ba/ or /a/) and modulated by face context (speaking face with visible
      articulation or with pixelated mouth). Specifically, the oddball responses for
      the N100 and P300 were attenuated in the presence of a face producing /ba/
      relative to a pixelated face, representing a possible neural correlate of the
      phonemic restoration effect. Notably, those individuals with more traits
      associated with autism (yet still in the non-clinical range) had smaller P300
      responses overall, regardless of face context, suggesting generally reduced
      phonemic discrimination.

PMID- 28574441
TI  - Gene Expression (mRNA) Markers for Differentiating between Malignant and Benign
      Follicular Thyroid Tumours.
AB  - Distinguishing between follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) and follicular thyroid
      adenoma (FTA) constitutes a long-standing diagnostic problem resulting in
      equivocal histopathological diagnoses. There is therefore a need for additional
      molecular markers. To identify molecular differences between FTC and FTA, we
      analyzed the gene expression microarray data of 52 follicular neoplasms. We also
      performed a meta-analysis involving 14 studies employing high throughput methods
      (365 follicular neoplasms analyzed). Based on these two analyses, we selected 18
      genes differentially expressed between FTA and FTC. We validated them by
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in an independent set
      of 71 follicular neoplasms from formaldehyde-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE)
      tissue material. We confirmed differential expression for 7 genes (CPQ, PLVAP,
      TFF3, ACVRL1, ZFYVE21, FAM189A2, and CLEC3B). Finally, we created a classifier
      that distinguished between FTC and FTA with an accuracy of 78%, sensitivity of
      76%, and specificity of 80%, based on the expression of 4 genes (CPQ, PLVAP,
      TFF3, ACVRL1). In our study, we have demonstrated that meta-analysis is a
      valuable method for selecting possible molecular markers. Based on our results,
      we conclude that there might exist a plausible limit of gene classifier accuracy
      of approximately 80%, when follicular tumors are discriminated based on formalin
      fixed postoperative material.

PMID- 28574440
TI  - Micro-RNAs as Potential Predictors of Response to Breast Cancer Systemic Therapy:
      Future Clinical Implications.
AB  - Despite advances in diagnosis and new treatments such as targeted therapies,
      breast cancer (BC) is still the most prevalent tumor in women worldwide and the
      leading cause of death. The principal obstacle for successful BC treatment is the
      acquired or de novo resistance of the tumors to the systemic therapy
      (chemotherapy, endocrine, and targeted therapies) that patients receive. In the
      era of personalized treatment, several studies have focused on the search for
      biomarkers capable of predicting the response to this therapy; microRNAs (miRNAs)
      stand out among these markers due to their broad spectrum or potential clinical
      applications. miRNAs are conserved small non-coding RNAs that act as negative
      regulators of gene expression playing an important role in several cellular
      processes, such as cell proliferation, autophagy, genomic stability, and
      apoptosis. We reviewed recent data that describe the role of miRNAs as potential
      predictors of response to systemic treatments in BC. Furthermore, upon analyzing
      the collected published information, we noticed that the overexpression of miR
      155, miR-222, miR-125b, and miR-21 predicts the resistance to the most common
      systemic treatments; nonetheless, the function of these particular miRNAs must be
      carefully studied and further analyses are still necessary to increase knowledge
      about their role and future potential clinical uses in BC.

PMID- 28574443
TI  - Seasonal Variation of Triacylglycerol Profile of Bovine Milk.
AB  - Milk contains 3-6% of fat, of which the dominant component is triacylglycerol
      (TAG). Over 100 TAG groups can be readily detected in any non-enriched milk
      sample by LC-MS; most TAG groups contain several isomers (TAG molecules with
      different fatty acid composition), which cannot be fully resolved
      chromatographically by any single stationary phase. TAG profile of mature milk
      from 19 cows was surveyed in this study for eight consecutive months using RP-LC
      Orbitrap MS. It was found that TAG profile of milk was not constant throughout
      the milking season and the seasonal pattern varied with TAG groups. The overall
      unsaturation level of TAG was stable from October 2013 to January 2014, decreased
      in February/March 2014 and then increased from April and peaked in May 2014. In
      addition to the seasonal fluctuation in TAG profile, the proportion of different
      isomeric species within a TAG group also changed substantially across seasons.
      However, the proportion of different positional isomers within a given TAG group
      does not seem to vary during the milking season. To our knowledge, this is the
      first report on the seasonal change of milk lipid at the TAG group and isomer
      level.

PMID- 28574445
TI  - Cu Nanoparticles in Hydrogels of Chitosan-PVA Affects the Characteristics of Post
      Harvest and Bioactive Compounds of Jalapeno Pepper.
AB  - Peppers are consumed all over the world due to the flavor, aroma, and color that
      they add to food. Additionally, they play a role in human health, as they contain
      a high concentration of bioactive compounds and antioxidants. The treatments used
      were an absolute control, Cs-PVA, and four treatments with 0.02, 0.2, 2, and 10
      mg (nCu) g-1 (Cs-PVA). The application of Cu nanoparticles in chitosan-PVA
      hydrogels increases the content of capsaicin by up to 51% compared to the
      control. This application also increases the content of antioxidants ABTS [2,2'
      azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazolin-6-sulfonic acid)] and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1
      picrylhydrazyl), total phenols and flavonoids (4%, 6.6%, 5.9%, and 12.7%,
      respectively) in jalapeno pepper fruits stored for 15 days at room temperature;
      under refrigeration, it increases DPPH antioxidants, total phenols, and
      flavonoids (23.9%, 1.54%, and 17.2%, respectively). The application of Cu
      nanoparticles in chitosan-PVA hydrogels, even when applied to the substrate, not
      only has an effect on the development of the jalapeno pepper crop, but also
      modifies the post-harvest characteristics of the jalapeno pepper fruits.

PMID- 28574444
TI  - Validation of the Performance of International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA)
      Methods in the Diagnosis of Early Stage Ovarian Cancer in a Non-Screening
      Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess and compare the performance of
      different ultrasound-based International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) strategies
      and subjective assessment for the diagnosis of early stage ovarian malignancy.
      METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a prospective multicenter cross
      sectional diagnostic accuracy study that included 1653 patients recruited at 18
      centers from 2009 to 2012. All patients underwent standardized transvaginal
      ultrasonography by experienced ultrasound investigators. We assessed test
      performance of the IOTA Simple Rules (SRs), Simple Rules Risk (SRR), the
      Assessment of Different NEoplasias in the adneXa (ADNEX) model and subjective
      assessment to discriminate between stage I-II ovarian cancer and benign disease.
      Reference standard was histology after surgery. RESULTS: 230 (13.9%) patients
      proved to have stage I-II primary invasive ovarian malignancy, and 1423 (86.1%)
      had benign disease. Sensitivity and specificity with respect to malignancy (95%
      confidence intervals) of the original SRs (classifying all inconclusive cases as
      malignant) were 94.3% (90.6% to 96.7%) and 73.4% (71.0% to 75.6%). Subjective
      assessment had a sensitivity and specificity of 90.0% (85.4% to 93.2%) and 86.7%
      (84.9% to 88.4%), respectively. The areas under the receiver operator
      characteristic curves of SRR and ADNEX were 0.917 (0.902 to 0.933) and 0.905
      (0.920 to 0.934), respectively. At a 1% risk cut-off, sensitivity and specificity
      for SRR were 100% (98.4% to 100%) and 38.0% (35.5% to 40.6%), and for ADNEX were
      100% (98.4% to 100%) and 19.4% (17.4% to 21.5%). At a 30% risk cut-off,
      sensitivity and specificity for SRR were 88.3% (83.5% to 91.8%) and 81.1% (79% to
      83%), and for ADNEX were 84.5% (80.5% to 89.6%) and 84.5% (82.6% to 86.3%).
      CONCLUSION: This study shows that all three IOTA strategies have good ability to
      discriminate between stage I-II ovarian malignancy and benign disease.

PMID- 28574447
TI  - Deciphering Structural Photophysics of Fluorescent Proteins by Kinetic
      Crystallography.
AB  - Because they enable labeling of biological samples in a genetically-encoded
      manner, Fluorescent Proteins (FPs) have revolutionized life sciences. Photo
      transformable fluorescent proteins (PTFPs), in particular, recently attracted
      wide interest, as their fluorescence state can be actively modulated by light, a
      property central to the emergence of super-resolution microscopy. PTFPs, however,
      exhibit highly complex photophysical behaviours that are still poorly understood,
      hampering the rational engineering of variants with improved performances. We
      show that kinetic crystallography combined with in crystallo optical
      spectroscopy, modeling approaches and single-molecule measurements constitutes a
      powerful tool to decipher processes such as photoactivation, photoconversion,
      photoswitching, photoblinking and photobleaching. Besides potential applications
      for the design of enhanced PTFPs, these investigations provide fundamental
      insight into photoactivated protein dynamics.

PMID- 28574449
TI  - Reemergence of Measles in the Americas: The Genotype B3 2011-2012 Outbreak in
      Ecuador.
AB  - This study characterizes a measles outbreak which occurred in Ecuador in 2011
      2012, analyzing data from 3700 suspected cases of measles reported to Ecuador's
      Ministry of Public Health. The study population had a large age range and
      included 333 confirmed cases of measles. The greatest number of cases were found
      in the <1 year (32.43%, n = 108) and 1-4 year (30.03%, n = 100) age-groups.
      Compared to Mestizos, indigenous people had the highest number of cases (68.2%, n
      = 227), as well as a higher risk of infection (OR 7.278 (CI 5.251-10.087)). The
      greatest protection from measles was observed in individuals who received two
      doses of the measles vaccine. Residents of Pastaza (OR 6.645 CI (3.183-13.873))
      and Tungurahua (OR 8.346 CI (5.570-12.507)) had a higher risk of infection than
      the other provinces. Of the 17 laboratory confirmed cases, all were identified as
      genotype B3. Age-group, ethnicity, measles vaccinations, and residence in
      Tungurahua and Pastaza were correlated with rates of measles infection in the
      outbreak. Tungurahua and Pastaza, where the outbreak originated, have large
      indigenous populations. Indigenous children <1 year of age showed the highest
      incidence. It is likely that indigenous women do not have immunity to the virus,
      and so are unable to confer measles resistance to their newborns.

PMID- 28574448
TI  - Simultaneous Quantification of Multiple Representative Components in the Xian
      Ling-Gu-Bao Capsule by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with
      Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Xian-Ling-Gu-Bao capsule (XLGB), a famous traditional Chinese medicine
      prescription, is extensively used for the treatment of osteoporosis in China.
      However, few studies on the holistic quality control of XLGB have been reported.
      In this study, a reliable method using 18 representative components in XLGB was
      successfully established and applied to evaluate 34 batches of XLGB samples by
      ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight
      mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS). The choice of quantitative markers mostly
      followed four principles, i.e., absorbed components in plasma, bioactive
      compounds with in vitro anti-osteoporosis activity, those derived from multiple
      individual medicinal herbs in XLGB with multiple representative structure types,
      and quantitative chemical markers in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The results
      showed chemical consistency was good except for individual batches. Multivariate
      statistical analysis indicated that asperosaponin VI from Radix Dipsaci, epimedin
      C, magnoflorine, and icariin from Herba Epimedii as well as timosaponin BII from
      Rhizoma Anemarrhenae varied significantly in multiple samples, which hinted an
      assay for these four components should be completed during all of the
      manufacturing processes. Taken together, this study provided a feasible method
      for holistic quality control of XLGB by multiple chemical markers, which could
      play a vital role in guaranteeing the safety, effectiveness, and controllability
      of administering the capsules as a medication in clinics.

PMID- 28574451
TI  - Effect of Montmorillonite Nanogel Composite Fillers on the Protection Performance
      of Epoxy Coatings on Steel Pipelines.
AB  - Montmorillonite (MMT) clay mineral is widely used as filler for several organic
      coatings. Its activity is increased by exfoliation via chemical modification to
      produce nanomaterials. In the present work, the modification of MMT to form
      nanogel composites is proposed to increase the dispersion of MMT into epoxy
      matrices used to fill cracks and holes produced by the curing exotherms of epoxy
      resins. The dispersion of MMT in epoxy improved both the mechanical and anti
      corrosion performance of epoxy coatings in aggressive marine environments. In
      this respect, the MMT surfaces were chemically modified with different types of 2
      acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) nanogels using a surfactant-free
      dispersion polymerization technique. The effect of the chemical structure,
      nanogel content and the interaction with MMT surfaces on the surface morphology,
      surface charges and dispersion in the epoxy matrix were investigated for use as
      nano-filler for epoxy coatings. The modified MMT nanogel epoxy composites showed
      excellent resistance to mechanical damage and salt spray resistance up to 1000 h.
      The interaction of MMT nanogel composites with the epoxy matrix and good response
      of AMPS nanogel to sea water improve their ability to act as self-healing
      materials for epoxy coatings for steel.

PMID- 28574450
TI  - Stable ABTS Immobilized in the MIL-100(Fe) Metal-Organic Framework as an
      Efficient Mediator for Laccase-Catalyzed Decolorization.
AB  - The successful encapsulation of 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic
      acid) (ABTS), a well-known laccase mediator, within a mesoporous metal-organic
      framework sample (i.e., MIL-100(Fe)) was achieved using a one-pot hydrothermal
      synthetic method. The as-prepared ABTS@MIL-100(Fe) was characterized by scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared
      (FT-IR) spectroscopy, nitrogen sorption, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Our
      ABTS@MIL-100(Fe)-based electrode exhibited an excellent electrochemical response,
      indicating that MIL-100(Fe) provides an appropriate microenvironment for the
      immobilization and electroactivity of ABTS molecules. ABTS@MIL-100(Fe) was then
      evaluated as an immobilized laccase mediator for dye removal using indigo carmine
      (IC) as a model dye. Through the application of laccase in combination with a
      free (ABTS) or immobilized (ABTS@MIL-100(Fe)) mediator, decolorization yields of
      95% and 94%, respectively, were obtained for IC after 50 min. In addition,
      following seven reuse cycles of ABTS@MIL-100(Fe) for dye treatment, a
      decolorization yield of 74% was obtained. Dye decolorization occurred through the
      breakdown of the chromophoric group by the Laccase/ABTS@MIL-100(Fe) system, and a
      catalytic mechanism was proposed. We therefore expect that the stability,
      reusability, and validity of ABTS@MIL-100(Fe) as a laccase mediator potentially
      render it a promising tool for dye removal, in addition to reducing the high
      running costs and potential toxicity associated with synthetic mediators.

PMID- 28574446
TI  - Activation of the EGF Receptor by Ligand Binding and Oncogenic Mutations: The
      "Rotation Model".
AB  - The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays vital roles in cellular
      processes including cell proliferation, survival, motility, and differentiation.
      The dysregulated activation of the receptor is often implicated in human cancers.
      EGFR is synthesized as a single-pass transmembrane protein, which consists of an
      extracellular ligand-binding domain and an intracellular kinase domain separated
      by a single transmembrane domain. The receptor is activated by a variety of
      polypeptide ligands such as epidermal growth factor and transforming growth
      factor alpha. It has long been thought that EGFR is activated by ligand-induced
      dimerization of the receptor monomer, which brings intracellular kinase domains
      into close proximity for trans-autophosphorylation. An increasing number of
      diverse studies, however, demonstrate that EGFR is present as a pre-formed, yet
      inactive, dimer prior to ligand binding. Furthermore, recent progress in
      structural studies has provided insight into conformational changes during the
      activation of a pre-formed EGFR dimer. Upon ligand binding to the extracellular
      domain of EGFR, its transmembrane domains rotate or twist parallel to the plane
      of the cell membrane, resulting in the reorientation of the intracellular kinase
      domain dimer from a symmetric inactive configuration to an asymmetric active form
      (the "rotation model"). This model is also able to explain how oncogenic
      mutations activate the receptor in the absence of the ligand, without assuming
      that the mutations induce receptor dimerization. In this review, we discuss the
      mechanisms underlying the ligand-induced activation of the preformed EGFR dimer,
      as well as how oncogenic mutations constitutively activate the receptor dimer,
      based on the rotation model.

PMID- 28574452
TI  - Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection.
AB  - Synechococcus is an abundant marine cyanobacterium that significantly contributes
      to primary production. Lytic phages are thought to have a major impact on
      cyanobacterial population dynamics and evolution. Previously, an investigation of
      the transcriptional response of three Synechococcus strains to infection by the
      T4-like cyanomyovirus, Syn9, revealed that while the transcript levels of the
      vast majority of host genes declined soon after infection, those for some genes
      increased or remained stable. In order to assess the role of two such host
      response genes during infection, we inactivated them in Synechococcus sp. strain
      WH8102. One gene, SYNW1659, encodes a domain of unknown function (DUF3387) that
      is associated with restriction enzymes. The second gene, SYNW1946, encodes a PIN
      PhoH protein, of which the PIN domain is common in bacterial toxin-antitoxin
      systems. Neither of the inactivation mutations impacted host growth or the length
      of the Syn9 lytic cycle. However, the DUF3387 mutant supported significantly
      lower phage DNA replication and yield of phage progeny than the wild-type,
      suggesting that the product of this host gene aids phage production. The PIN-PhoH
      mutant, on the other hand, allowed for significantly higher Syn9 genomic DNA
      replication and progeny production, suggesting that this host gene plays a role
      in restraining the infection process. Our findings indicate that host-response
      genes play a functional role during infection and suggest that some function in
      an attempt at defense against the phage, while others are exploited by the phage
      for improved infection.

PMID- 28574453
TI  - Randomized Controlled Trial of DHA Supplementation during Pregnancy: Child
      Adiposity Outcomes.
AB  - Investigating safe and effective interventions in pregnancy that lower offspring
      adiposity is important given the burden of obesity and subsequent metabolic
      derangements. Our objective was to determine if docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) given
      during pregnancy to obese mothers results in lower offspring adiposity. This
      study was a long-term follow-up of a randomized trial of mothers with gestational
      diabetes or obesity who were randomized to receive DHA supplementation at 800
      mg/day or placebo (corn/soy oil) starting at 25-29 weeks gestation.
      Anthropometric measures were collected at birth and maternal erythrocyte DHA and
      arachidonic (AA) levels were measured at 26 and 36 weeks gestation. At two- and
      four-year follow-up time points, offspring adiposity measures along with a diet
      recall were assessed. A significant increase in erythrocyte DHA levels was
      observed at 36 weeks gestation in the supplemented group (p < 0.001). While no
      significant differences by measures of adiposity were noted at birth, two or four
      years by randomization group, duration of breastfeeding (p < 0.001), and DHA
      level at 36 weeks (p = 0.002) were associated with body mass index z-score. Our
      data suggest that DHA supplementation during pregnancy in obese mothers may have
      long-lasting effects on offspring measures of adiposity.

PMID- 28574455
TI  - A Lifetime Maximization Relay Selection Scheme in Wireless Body Area Networks.
AB  - Network Lifetime is one of the most important metrics in Wireless Body Area
      Networks (WBANs). In this paper, a relay selection scheme is proposed under the
      topology constrains specified in the IEEE 802.15.6 standard to maximize the
      lifetime of WBANs through formulating and solving an optimization problem where
      relay selection of each node acts as optimization variable. Considering the
      diversity of the sensor nodes in WBANs, the optimization problem takes not only
      energy consumption rate but also energy difference among sensor nodes into
      account to improve the network lifetime performance. Since it is Non
      deterministic Polynomial-hard (NP-hard) and intractable, a heuristic solution is
      then designed to rapidly address the optimization. The simulation results
      indicate that the proposed relay selection scheme has better performance in
      network lifetime compared with existing algorithms and that the heuristic
      solution has low time complexity with only a negligible performance degradation
      gap from optimal value. Furthermore, we also conduct simulations based on a
      general WBAN model to comprehensively illustrate the advantages of the proposed
      algorithm. At the end of the evaluation, we validate the feasibility of our
      proposed scheme via an implementation discussion.

PMID- 28574456
TI  - New Pinane Derivatives Found in Essential Oils of Calocedrus decurrens.
AB  - The main objective of this study was to determine the chemical composition of
      essential oils (EOs) obtained from leaf, old branches, and young branches of a
      coniferous species Calocedrus decurrens acclimated to Corsica. The analytical
      investigation was conducted by GC(RI), GC-MS, pc-GC, and NMR. C. decurrens leaf,
      old branches, and young branches EOs contained alpha-pinene (11.2; 56.6; 22.3%),
      myrcene (13.4; 8.4; 9.7%), Delta-3-carene (31.3; 5.2; 11.1%), limonene (6.4; 5.1;
      5.5%), terpinolene (6.9; 1.5; 3.2%), and pin-2-en-8-ol (4.2; 4.5; 10.4%) as major
      components, respectively. Special attention was paid to purifying and identifying
      four unusual pinane derivatives: pin-2-en-8-ol, pin-2-en-8-yl Acetate, pin-2-en-8
      al, and methyl pin-2-en-8-oate. The last two are reported for the first time.

PMID- 28574458
TI  - Computationally Efficient Direction Finding for a Mixture of Circular and
      Strictly Noncircular Sources with Uniform Rectangular Arrays.
AB  - In this paper, a novel two-dimensional (2D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation
      algorithm for the mixed circular and strictly noncircular sources is proposed. A
      general array model with a mixture of signals is firstly built based on uniform
      rectangular arrays (URAs), and then, the approach, which uses the rank-reduction
      based ROOT-MUSIC, can solve 2D DOA estimation problem. Besides, the theoretical
      error of the proposed algorithm, a criterion of the performance for evaluation,
      is analyzed by the first-order Taylor expression using second-order statistics.
      As verified by the simulation results, a better DOA estimation performance and a
      lower computational complexity are achieved by the proposed algorithm than the
      existing methods resorting to the noncircularity of the incoming signals.

PMID- 28574459
TI  - Analysis and Validation of Contactless Time-Gated Interrogation Technique for
      Quartz Resonator Sensors.
AB  - A technique for contactless electromagnetic interrogation of AT-cut quartz
      piezoelectric resonator sensors is proposed based on a primary coil
      electromagnetically air-coupled to a secondary coil connected to the electrodes
      of the resonator. The interrogation technique periodically switches between
      interleaved excitation and detection phases. During the excitation phase, the
      resonator is set into vibration by a driving voltage applied to the primary coil,
      whereas in the detection phase, the excitation signal is turned off and the
      transient decaying response of the resonator is sensed without contact by
      measuring the voltage induced back across the primary coil. This approach ensures
      that the readout frequency of the sensor signal is to a first order approximation
      independent of the interrogation distance between the primary and secondary
      coils. A detailed theoretical analysis of the interrogation principle based on a
      lumped-element equivalent circuit is presented. The analysis has been
      experimentally validated on a 4.432 MHz AT-cut quartz crystal resonator,
      demonstrating the accurate readout of the series resonant frequency and quality
      factor over an interrogation distance of up to 2 cm. As an application, the
      technique has been applied to the measurement of liquid microdroplets deposited
      on a 4.8 MHz AT-cut quartz crystal. More generally, the proposed technique can be
      exploited for the measurement of any physical or chemical quantities affecting
      the resonant response of quartz resonator sensors.

PMID- 28574460
TI  - Towards Citizen Co-Created Public Service Apps.
AB  - WeLive project's main objective is about transforming the current e-government
      approach by providing a new paradigm based on a new open model oriented towards
      the design, production and deployment of public services and mobile apps based on
      the collaboration of different stakeholders. These stakeholders form the
      quadruple helix, i.e., citizens, private companies, research institutes and
      public administrations. Through the application of open innovation, open data and
      open services paradigms, the framework developed within the WeLive project
      enables the co-creation of urban apps. In this paper, we extend the description
      of the WeLive platform presented at , plus the preliminary results of the first
      pilot phase. The two-phase evaluation methodology designed and the evaluation
      results of first pilot sub-phase are also presented.

PMID- 28574454
TI  - Gene-Diet Interactions in Type 2 Diabetes: The Chicken and Egg Debate.
AB  - Consistent evidence from both experimental and human studies indicates that Type
      2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex disease resulting from the interaction of
      genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Nutrients and dietary
      patterns are important environmental factors to consider in the prevention,
      development and treatment of this disease. Nutritional genomics focuses on the
      interaction between bioactive food components and the genome and includes studies
      of nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics and epigenetic modifications caused by nutrients.
      There is evidence supporting the existence of nutrient-gene and T2DM interactions
      coming from animal studies and family-based intervention studies. Moreover, many
      case-control, cohort, cross-sectional cohort studies and clinical trials have
      identified relationships between individual genetic load, diet and T2DM. Some of
      these studies were on a large scale. In addition, studies with animal models and
      human observational studies, in different countries over periods of time, support
      a causative relationship between adverse nutritional conditions during in utero
      development, persistent epigenetic changes and T2DM. This review provides
      comprehensive information on the current state of nutrient-gene interactions and
      their role in T2DM pathogenesis, the relationship between individual genetic load
      and diet, and the importance of epigenetic factors in influencing gene expression
      and defining the individual risk of T2DM.

PMID- 28574461
TI  - Innovative High-Throughput SAXS Methodologies Based on Photonic Lab-on-a-Chip
      Sensors: Application to Macromolecular Studies.
AB  - The relevance of coupling droplet-based Photonic Lab-on-a-Chip (PhLoC) platforms
      and Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) technique is here highlighted for the
      performance of high throughput investigations, related to the study of protein
      macromolecular interactions. With this configuration, minute amounts of sample
      are required to obtain reliable statistical data. The PhLoC platforms presented
      in this work are designed to allow and control an effective mixing of precise
      amounts of proteins, crystallization reagents and buffer in nanoliter volumes,
      and the subsequent generation of nanodroplets by means of a two-phase flow.
      Spectrophotometric sensing permits a fine control on droplet generation frequency
      and stability as well as on concentration conditions, and finally the droplet
      flow is synchronized to perform synchrotron radiation SAXS measurements in
      individual droplets (each one acting as an isolated microreactor) to probe
      protein interactions. With this configuration, droplet physic-chemical conditions
      can be reproducibly and finely tuned, and monitored without cross-contamination,
      allowing for the screening of a substantial number of saturation conditions with
      a small amount of biological material. The setup was tested and validated using
      lysozyme as a model of study. By means of SAXS experiments, the proteins gyration
      radius and structure envelope were calculated as a function of protein
      concentration. The obtained values were found to be in good agreement with
      previously reported data, but with a dramatic reduction of sample volume
      requirements compared to studies reported in the literature.

PMID- 28574462
TI  - A Study of 11-[3H]-Tetrodotoxin Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and
      Excretion (ADME) in Adult Sprague-Dawley Rats.
AB  - Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a powerful sodium channel blocker that in low doses can
      safely relieve severe pain. Studying the absorption, distribution, metabolism and
      excretion (ADME) of TTX is challenging given the extremely low lethal dose. We
      conducted radiolabeled ADME studies in Sprague-Dawley rats. After a single dose
      of 6 MUg/(16 MUCi/kg) 11-[3H]TTX, pharmacokinetics of plasma total radioactivity
      were similar in male and female rats. Maximum radioactivity (5.56 ng Eq./mL) was
      reached in 10 min. [3H]TTX was below detection in plasma after 24 h. The area
      under the curve from 0 to 8 h was 5.89 h.ng Eq./mL; mean residence time was 1.62
      h and t1/2 was 2.31 h. Bile secretion accounted for 0.43% and approximately 51%
      of the dose was recovered in the urine, the predominant route of elimination.
      Approximately 69% was recovered, suggesting that hydrogen tritium exchange in
      rats produced tritiated water excreted in breath and saliva. Average total
      radioactivity in the stomach, lungs, kidney and intestines was higher than plasma
      concentrations. Metabolite analysis of plasma, urine and feces samples
      demonstrated oxidized TTX, the only identified metabolite. In conclusion, TTX was
      rapidly absorbed and excreted in rats, a standard preclinical model used to guide
      the design of clinical trials.

PMID- 28574457
TI  - Cyanobacterial Toxins of the Laurentian Great Lakes, Their Toxicological Effects,
      and Numerical Limits in Drinking Water.
AB  - Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous phototrophic bacteria that inhabit diverse
      environments across the planet. Seasonally, they dominate many eutrophic lakes
      impacted by excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) forming dense accumulations of
      biomass known as cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms or cyanoHABs. Their
      dominance in eutrophic lakes is attributed to a variety of unique adaptations
      including N and P concentrating mechanisms, N2 fixation, colony formation that
      inhibits predation, vertical movement via gas vesicles, and the production of
      toxic or otherwise bioactive molecules. While some of these molecules have been
      explored for their medicinal benefits, others are potent toxins harmful to
      humans, animals, and other wildlife known as cyanotoxins. In humans these
      cyanotoxins affect various tissues, including the liver, central and peripheral
      nervous system, kidneys, and reproductive organs among others. They induce acute
      effects at low doses in the parts-per-billion range and some are tumor promoters
      linked to chronic diseases such as liver and colorectal cancer. The occurrence of
      cyanoHABs and cyanotoxins in lakes presents challenges for maintaining safe
      recreational aquatic environments and the production of potable drinking water.
      CyanoHABs are a growing problem in the North American (Laurentian) Great Lakes
      basin. This review summarizes information on the occurrence of cyanoHABs in the
      Great Lakes, toxicological effects of cyanotoxins, and appropriate numerical
      limits on cyanotoxins in finished drinking water.

PMID- 28574463
TI  - Characterization of Aliphatic Polyesters Synthesized via Enzymatic Ring-Opening
      Polymerization in Ionic Liquids.
AB  - To evaluate the effects of ionic liquids (ILs) on the microstructural features of
      aliphatic polyesters for biomedical applications, a series of copolymers were
      synthesized by lipase ring opening polymerization of rac-lactide (rac-LA) and
      epsilon-caprolactone (CL). The chemical structures of resulting polymers were
      characterized by 1H- and 13C-NMR and the average molecular weight (Mn) and
      dispersity index were characterized by gel permeation chromatography. The
      structure of the copolymers confirms the presence of linear polymer chains with
      end-functional hydroxyl groups allowing covalent coupling of the therapeutic
      agents. Chain microstructure of copolymers indicates the presence of both random
      and block copolymers depending on the synthesis conditions. Moreover, it was
      found that CL is the most active co-monomer during copolymerization which
      enhances the polymerizability of rac-LA and allows to obtain higher Mn of the
      copolymers. The results demonstrate that ILs could be promising solvents in
      synthesis of aliphatic esters for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28574464
TI  - Interventions Aimed at the Prevention of Childhood Injuries in the Indigenous
      Populations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the Last 20 Years: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - Globally, Indigenous children are found to be at a significantly higher risk of
      injury compared to non-Indigenous children. It has been suggested that mainstream
      injury prevention strategies are ineffective within Indigenous communities. The
      aim of this review is to identify existing interventions aimed at preventing
      injury in Indigenous children in the hope that it guides future strategies. To
      the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior systematic reviews exist looking at
      interventions specifically aimed at preventing injury in Indigenous child
      populations in the three chosen countries. Electronic databases were
      systematically searched for relevant childhood interventions aimed at the
      prevention of injuries in Indigenous populations based in Canada, Australia and
      New Zealand from 1996 to 2016. A manual search of the reference lists of relevant
      articles and a manual search of relevant websites were also completed. After 191
      records were screened, six interventions were identified meeting the criteria for
      inclusion. Eligible papers underwent a quality appraisal using adapted assessment
      checklists and key information was extracted. Findings were then synthesized
      using a narrative approach. The interventions mainly promoted child safety
      through activities focusing on education and awareness. Only three of the six
      studies measured changes in injury hospitalization rates, all but one evaluation
      reporting a significant decrease. Studies which measured awareness all
      demonstrated positive changes. Results suggest that interventions delivered in a
      culturally appropriate manner acted as a main success factor. Barriers identified
      as hindering intervention success included lack of cohesion within the
      intervention due to staff turnover and lack of experienced staff with Indigenous
      knowledge. This review revealed a limited amount of evaluated interventions for
      the prevention of Indigenous childhood injuries. Conclusive evidence of the
      effectiveness of existing interventions is lacking due to the predominantly small
      scale evaluations of pilot interventions. Future research is needed to provide
      more rigorous evidence of the mechanisms driving the successful implementation,
      delivery and uptake of such strategies tailored to Indigenous children.

PMID- 28574465
TI  - Trap-Neuter-Return Activities in Urban Stray Cat Colonies in Australia.
AB  - Trap, neuter and return (TNR) describes a non-lethal approach to the control of
      urban stray cat populations. Currently, in Australia, lethal control is common,
      with over 85% of cats entering some municipal pounds euthanized. No research has
      been published describing TNR activities in Australia. Adults involved with TNR
      in Australia were invited to participate. Data from 53 respondents were collected
      via an anonymous online questionnaire. Most respondents were females 36 to 65
      years of age, and slightly more participated in TNR as individuals than as part
      of an organization. Respondents generally self-funded at least some of their TNR
      activities. The median number of colonies per respondent was 1.5 (range 1 to over
      100). Median colony size declined from 11.5 to 6.5 cats under TNR over a median
      of 2.2 years, and the median percent reduction was 31%; this was achieved by
      rehoming cats and kittens and reducing reproduction. A median of 69% of cats in
      each colony were desexed at the time of reporting. Most respondents fed cats once
      or twice daily, and at least 28% of respondents microchipped cats. Prophylactic
      healthcare was provided to adult cats and kittens, commonly for intestinal
      parasites (at least 49%), and fleas (at least 46%); vaccinations were less
      common. Time-consuming activities for respondents were feeding (median 4 h/week)
      and locating resources (median 1.1 h/week). These findings indicate that TNR,
      when involving high desexing rates within colonies, adoption of kittens and
      friendly adults, and ongoing oversight by volunteer caretakers, can reduce cat
      numbers over time, improve health and welfare of cats and kittens, and is largely
      funded by private individuals and organizations.

PMID- 28574466
TI  - A Robust 96.6-dB-SNDR 50-kHz-Bandwidth Switched-Capacitor Delta-Sigma Modulator
      for IR Imagers in Space Instrumentation.
AB  - Infrared imaging technology, used both to study deep-space bodies' radiation and
      environmental changes on Earth, experienced constant improvements in the last few
      years, pushing data converter designers to face new challenges in terms of speed,
      power consumption and robustness against extremely harsh operating conditions.
      This paper presents a 96.6-dB-SNDR (Signal-to-Noise-plus-Distortion Ratio) 50-kHz
      bandwidth fourth-order single-bit switched-capacitor delta-sigma modulator for
      ADC operating at 1.8 V and consuming 7.9 mW fit for space instrumentation. The
      circuit features novel Class-AB single-stage switched variable-mirror amplifiers
      (SVMAs) enabling low-power operation, as well as low sensitivity to both process
      and temperature deviations for the whole modulator. The physical implementation
      resulted in a 1.8-mm2 chip integrated in a standard 0.18-um 1-poly-6-metal (1P6M)
      CMOS technology, and it reaches a 164.6-dB Schreier figure of merit from
      experimental SNDR measurements without making use of any clock
      bootstrapping,analogcalibration,nordigitalcompensationtechnique.
      Whencoupledtoa2048*2048 IR imager, the current design allows more than 50 frames
      per minute with a resolution of 16 effective number of bits (ENOB) while
      consuming less than 300 mW.

PMID- 28574467
TI  - Research and Analysis on the Localization of a 3-D Single Source in Lossy Medium
      Using Uniform Circular Array.
AB  - In this paper, the methods and analysis for estimating the location of a three
      dimensional (3-D) single source buried in lossy medium are presented with uniform
      circular array (UCA). The mathematical model of the signal in the lossy medium is
      proposed. Using information in the covariance matrix obtained by the sensors'
      outputs, equations of the source location (azimuth angle, elevation angle, and
      range) are obtained. Then, the phase and amplitude of the covariance matrix
      function are used to process the source localization in the lossy medium. By
      analyzing the characteristics of the proposed methods and the multiple signal
      classification (MUSIC) method, the computational complexity and the valid scope
      of these methods are given. From the results, whether the loss is known or not,
      we can choose the best method for processing the issues (localization in lossless
      medium or lossy medium).

PMID- 28574468
TI  - Indoor Trajectory Tracking Scheme Based on Delaunay Triangulation and Heuristic
      Information in Wireless Sensor Networks.
AB  - Object tracking and detection is one of the most significant research areas for
      wireless sensor networks. Existing indoor trajectory tracking schemes in wireless
      sensor networks are based on continuous localization and moving object data
      mining. Indoor trajectory tracking based on the received signal strength
      indicator (RSSI) has received increased attention because it has low cost and
      requires no special infrastructure. However, RSSI tracking introduces uncertainty
      because of the inaccuracies of measurement instruments and the irregularities
      (unstable, multipath, diffraction) of wireless signal transmissions in indoor
      environments. Heuristic information includes some key factors for trajectory
      tracking procedures. This paper proposes a novel trajectory tracking scheme based
      on Delaunay triangulation and heuristic information (TTDH). In this scheme, the
      entire field is divided into a series of triangular regions. The common side of
      adjacent triangular regions is regarded as a regional boundary. Our scheme
      detects heuristic information related to a moving object's trajectory, including
      boundaries and triangular regions. Then, the trajectory is formed by means of a
      dynamic time-warping position-fingerprint-matching algorithm with heuristic
      information constraints. Field experiments show that the average error distance
      of our scheme is less than 1.5 m, and that error does not accumulate among the
      regions.

PMID- 28574469
TI  - Fluorometric Index for Sensing Oil in the Sea Environment.
AB  - Excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMS) was applied to determine the
      fluorometric index (FI) as a parameter indicating the presence of a source of oil
      pollution in a specific area of the sea. Seawater from the Polish coast (the
      Baltic Sea) and the same water combined with various amounts of crude oil
      extracted from the Baltic Sea shelf (Petrobaltic-type oil) were used in this
      study. The FI values were calculated for excitation and emission wavelengths
      found at the maximal peak, taking into account the natural seawater and the
      seawater artificially contaminated (for an oil-to-water ratio range of 0.5 * 10-6
      - 500 * 10-6). The wavelength configurations (Ex/Em) (225/355 and 225/340) for
      the FI index were applied. It was found that, independent of the amount of oil,
      the FI achieves a higher value for natural seawater than for seawater that has
      had contact with oil. These results provide the basis to design a sensor
      signaling the appearance of oil in a defined sea area.

PMID- 28574471
TI  - A Map/INS/Wi-Fi Integrated System for Indoor Location-Based Service Applications.
AB  - In this research, a new Map/INS/Wi-Fi integrated system for indoor location-based
      service (LBS) applications based on a cascaded Particle/Kalman filter framework
      structure is proposed. Two-dimension indoor map information, together with
      measurements from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and Received Signal Strength
      Indicator (RSSI) value, are integrated for estimating positioning information.
      The main challenge of this research is how to make effective use of various
      measurements that complement each other in order to obtain an accurate,
      continuous, and low-cost position solution without increasing the computational
      burden of the system. Therefore, to eliminate the cumulative drift caused by low
      cost IMU sensor errors, the ubiquitous Wi-Fi signal and non-holonomic constraints
      are rationally used to correct the IMU-derived navigation solution through the
      extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Moreover, the map-aiding method and map-matching
      method are innovatively combined to constrain the primary Wi-Fi/IMU-derived
      position through an Auxiliary Value Particle Filter (AVPF). Different sources of
      information are incorporated through a cascaded structure EKF/AVPF filter
      algorithm. Indoor tests show that the proposed method can effectively reduce the
      accumulation of positioning errors of a stand-alone Inertial Navigation System
      (INS), and provide a stable, continuous and reliable indoor location service.

PMID- 28574472
TI  - Investigation of Azimuth Multichannel Reconstruction for Moving Targets in High
      Resolution Wide Swath SAR.
AB  - The azimuth multichannel imaging scheme with the large receive antenna divided
      into multiple sub-apertures usually leads to azimuth non-uniform sampling, and
      echoes from all azimuth channels should be reconstructed based on the signal
      model before conventional SAR imaging. Unfortunately, the multichannel signal
      model of a moving target is different from that of a fixed target. This paper
      analyzes the multichannel signal model of the moving target and the effect of the
      target velocity on azimuth multichannel reconstruction. Based on the multichannel
      signal mode of the moving target, a new multichannel signal reconstruction
      algorithm is proposed. Furthermore, the slant range velocity is estimated by
      computing signal energy distribution. Simulation results on point targets
      validate the proposed approach.

PMID- 28574470
TI  - An Overview of Structurally Modified Glycyrrhetinic Acid Derivatives as Antitumor
      Agents.
AB  - Glycyrrhetinic Acid (GA), a triterpenoid aglycone component of the natural
      product glycyrrhizinic acid, was found to possess remarkable anti-proliferative
      and apoptosis-inducing activity in various cancer cell lines. Though GA was not
      as active as other triterpenes, such as betulinic acid and oleanolic acid, it
      could trigger apoptosis in tumor cells and it can be obtained easily and cheaply,
      which has stimulated scientific interest in using GA as a scaffold to synthesize
      new antitumor agents. The structural modifications of GA reported in recent
      decades can be divided into four groups, which include structural modifications
      on ring-A, ring-C, ring-E and multiple ring modifications. The lack of a
      comprehensive and recent review on this topic prompted us to gather more new
      information. This overview is dedicated to summarizing and updating the
      structural modification of GA to improve its antitumor activity published between
      2005 and 2016. We reviewed a total of 210 GA derivatives that we encountered and
      compiled the most active GA derivatives along with their activity profile in
      different series. Furthermore, the structure activity relationships of these
      derivatives are briefly discussed. The included information is expected to be of
      benefit to further studies of structural modifications of GA to enhance its
      antitumor activity.

PMID- 28574473
TI  - Phytochemical Quantification and the In Vitro Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory
      Activity of Phellodendron chinense and Its Components.
AB  - The dried bark of Phellodendron chinense has been used as a traditional herbal
      medicine to remove damp heat, relieve consumptive fever, and cure dysentery and
      diarrhea. In the present study, we performed quantitative analyses of the two
      components of P. chinense, phellodendrine and berberine, using high-performance
      liquid chromatography. A 70% ethanol extract of P. chinense was prepared and the
      two components were separated on a C-18 analytical column using a gradient
      solvent system of acetonitrile and 0.1% (v/v) aqueous trifluoroacetic acid. The
      ultraviolet wavelength used for detection was 200 nm for phellodendrine and 226
      nm for berberine. The analytical method established here showed high linearity
      (correlation coefficient, >=0.9991). The amount of phellodendrine and berberine
      used was 22.255 +/- 0.123 mg/g and 269.651 +/- 1.257 mg/g, respectively.
      Moreover, we performed an in vitro acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity assay and
      an amyloid-beta aggregation test to examine the biological properties of
      phellodendrine and berberine as therapeutic drugs for Alzheimer's disease.
      Phellodendrine and berberine inhibited AChE activity in a dose-dependent manner
      (IC50 = 36.51 and 0.44 MUM, respectively). In contrast, neither phellodendrine
      nor berberine had an effect on amyloid-beta aggregation. The P. chinense extract
      and phellodendrine, but not berberine, exhibited antioxidant activity by
      increasing radical scavenging activity. Moreover, P. chinense demonstrated a
      neuroprotective effect in hydrogen peroxide-treated HT22 hippocampal cells.
      Overall, our findings suggest that P. chinense has potential as an anti
      Alzheimer's agent via the suppression of the enzymatic activity of
      acetylcholinesterase and the stimulation of antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28574474
TI  - A LiDAR and IMU Integrated Indoor Navigation System for UAVs and Its Application
      in Real-Time Pipeline Classification.
AB  - Mapping the environment of a vehicle and localizing a vehicle within that unknown
      environment are complex issues. Although many approaches based on various types
      of sensory inputs and computational concepts have been successfully utilized for
      ground robot localization, there is difficulty in localizing an unmanned aerial
      vehicle (UAV) due to variation in altitude and motion dynamics. This paper
      proposes a robust and efficient indoor mapping and localization solution for a
      UAV integrated with low-cost Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Inertial
      Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors. Considering the advantage of the typical
      geometric structure of indoor environments, the planar position of UAVs can be
      efficiently calculated from a point-to-point scan matching algorithm using
      measurements from a horizontally scanning primary LiDAR. The altitude of the UAV
      with respect to the floor can be estimated accurately using a vertically scanning
      secondary LiDAR scanner, which is mounted orthogonally to the primary LiDAR.
      Furthermore, a Kalman filter is used to derive the 3D position by fusing primary
      and secondary LiDAR data. Additionally, this work presents a novel method for its
      application in the real-time classification of a pipeline in an indoor map by
      integrating the proposed navigation approach. Classification of the pipeline is
      based on the pipe radius estimation considering the region of interest (ROI) and
      the typical angle. The ROI is selected by finding the nearest neighbors of the
      selected seed point in the pipeline point cloud, and the typical angle is
      estimated with the directional histogram. Experimental results are provided to
      determine the feasibility of the proposed navigation system and its integration
      with real-time application in industrial plant engineering.

PMID- 28574476
TI  - Parameters for Fabricating Nano-Au Colloids through the Electric Spark Discharge
      Method with Micro-Electrical Discharge Machining.
AB  - In this study, the Electric Spark Discharge Method (ESDM) was employed with micro
      electrical discharge machining (m-EDM) to create an electric arc that melted two
      electrodes in deionized water (DW) and fabricated nano-Au colloids through pulse
      discharges with a controlled on-off duration (TON-TOFF) and a total fabrication
      time of 1 min. A total of six on-off settings were tested under normal
      experimental conditions and without the addition of any chemical substances.
      Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Zetasizer Nano measurements, and
      scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) analyses suggested
      that the nano-Au colloid fabricated at 10-10 us (10 us on, 10 us off) had higher
      concentration and suspension stability than products made at other TON-TOFF
      settings. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the colloid was 549 nm on the
      first day of fabrication and stabilized at 532 nm on the third day. As the TON
      TOFF period increased, the absorbance (i.e., concentration) of all nano-Au
      colloids decreased. Absorbance was highest at 10-10 us. The SPR peaks stabilized
      at 532 nm across all TON-TOFF periods. The Zeta potential at 10-10 us was -36.6
      mV, indicating that no nano-Au agglomeration occurred and that the particles had
      high suspension stability.

PMID- 28574475
TI  - Feeding a Mixture of Choline Forms to Lactating Dams Improves the Development of
      the Immune System in Sprague-Dawley Rat Offspring.
AB  - Dietary choline is essential during lactation, but few studies have examined the
      implications of feeding a mixture of choline forms on immune function. This study
      investigates the impact of feeding lactating dams different mixtures of choline
      forms, similar to those in human diets, on the development and later immune
      function of suckled offspring. Sprague-Dawley lactating dams (n = 6/diet) were
      randomized to consume one of three diets, containing 1 g/kg choline: Control
      (100% free choline (FC)), Mixed Choline (MC: 50% phosphatidylcholine (PC), 25%
      FC, 25% glycerophosphocholine (GPC)), or High GPC (HGPC: 75% GPC, 12.5% PC, 12.5%
      FC). At weaning, female pups (n = 2/dam) were fed the Control diet until 10
      weeks. At 3 weeks, MC and HGPC pups were heavier and their splenocytes had a
      higher proportion of helper T cells expressing CD25 and CD28 and produced less
      interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) and tumor-necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) after
      Concanavalin A stimulation vs. Control pups (p < 0.05). At 10 weeks, MC and HGPC
      offspring had a lower proportion of macrophages and dendritic cells and produced
      less interleukin (IL)-1beta but more IL-10 after lipopolysaccharide stimulation
      vs. Control pups (p < 0.05). In summary, feeding mixed choline diets during
      lactation improved T cell phenotype/function at the end of suckling and
      programmed a less inflammatory response later in life.

PMID- 28574478
TI  - Toxoplasma Gondii Moderates the Association between Multiple Folate-Cycle Factors
      and Cognitive Function in U.S. Adults.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a microscopic, apicomplexan parasite that can
      infect muscle or neural tissue, including the brain, in humans. While T. gondii
      infection has been associated with changes in mood, behavior, and cognition, the
      mechanism remains unclear. Recent evidence suggests that T. gondii may harvest
      folate from host neural cells. Reduced folate availability is associated with an
      increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and
      cognitive decline. We hypothesized that impairment in cognitive functioning in
      subjects seropositive for T. gondii might be associated with a reduction of
      folate availability in neural cells. We analyzed data from the third National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine the associations between T.
      gondii infection, multiple folate-cycle factors, and three tests of cognitive
      functioning in U.S. adults aged 20 to 59 years. In these analyses, T. gondii
      moderated the associations of folate, vitamin B-12, and homocysteine with
      performance on the Serial Digit Learning task, a measure of learning and memory,
      as well as the association of folate with reaction time. The results of this
      study suggest that T. gondii might affect brain levels of folate and/or vitamin B
      12 enough to affect cognitive functioning.

PMID- 28574479
TI  - R Loops in the Regulation of Antibody Gene Diversification.
AB  - For nearly three decades, R loops have been closely linked with class switch
      recombination (CSR), the process that generates antibody isotypes and that occurs
      via a complex cascade initiated by transcription-coupled mutagenesis in switch
      recombination sequences. R loops form during transcription of switch
      recombination sequences in vitro and in vivo, and there is solid evidence that R
      loops are required for efficient class switching. The classical model of R loops
      posits that they boost mutation rates by generating stable and long tracts of
      single-stranded DNA that serve as the substrate for activation induced deaminase
      (AID), the enzyme that initiates the CSR reaction cascade by co-transcriptionally
      mutating ssDNA in switch recombination sequences. Though logical and compelling,
      this model has not been supported by in vivo evidence. Indeed, several reports
      suggest that R loops may not be involved in recruiting AID activity to switch
      regions, meaning that R loops probably serve other unanticipated roles in CSR.
      Here, I review the key findings in this field to date and propose hypotheses that
      could help towards elucidating the precise function of R loops in CSR.

PMID- 28574480
TI  - Ethnic Groups Differences in Domestic Recovery after the Catastrophe: A Case
      Study of the 2008 Magnitude 7.9 Earthquake in China.
AB  - This research examined the ethnic differences in domestic recovery after the 2008
      Wenchuan Earthquake in China. In 2014, 866 valid questionnaires were collected.
      Han and Qiang & Zang households were analyzed using logistic regression to
      determine the factors influencing household recovery. It was found that the
      householder of the Qiang & Zang group played a more important role in household
      recovery. Different from the Han, females from Qiang & Zang households had
      negative attitudes on recovery, and Qiang & Zang households did not believe in
      the effectiveness of public donations for post-quake recovery. The study also
      showed that local workers in a household were more helpful for household recovery
      than were migrant workers in a household, regardless of ethnicity. Therefore, the
      government should create more local jobs in Han and Qiang & Zang households and
      pay more attention to women in Qiang households. Assistance should be established
      specifically for the psychological recovery of Qiang women and family recovery
      projects.

PMID- 28574477
TI  - Utilizing Zebrafish Visual Behaviors in Drug Screening for Retinal Degeneration.
AB  - Zebrafish are a popular vertebrate model in drug discovery. They produce a large
      number of small and rapidly-developing embryos. These embryos display rich visual
      behaviors that can be used to screen drugs for treating retinal degeneration
      (RD). RD comprises blinding diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa, which affects
      1 in 4000 people. This disease has no definitive cure, emphasizing an urgency to
      identify new drugs. In this review, we will discuss advantages, challenges, and
      research developments in using zebrafish behaviors to screen drugs in vivo. We
      will specifically discuss a visual-motor response that can potentially expedite
      discovery of new RD drugs.

PMID- 28574481
TI  - Leucine Supplementation Differently Modulates Branched-Chain Amino Acid
      Catabolism, Mitochondrial Function and Metabolic Profiles at the Different Stage
      of Insulin Resistance in Rats on High-Fat Diet.
AB  - The available findings concerning the association between branched-chain amino
      acids (BCAAs)-particularly leucine-and insulin resistance are conflicting. BCAAs
      have been proposed to elicit different or even opposite effects, depending on the
      prevalence of catabolic and anabolic states. We tested the hypothesis that
      leucine supplementation may exert different effects at different stages of
      insulin resistance, to provide mechanistic insights into the role of leucine in
      the progression of insulin resistance. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal
      chow diet, high-fat diet (HFD), HFD supplemented with 1.5% leucine, or HFD with a
      20% calorie restriction for 24 or 32 weeks. Leucine supplementation led to
      abnormal catabolism of BCAA and the incompletely oxidized lipid species that
      contributed to mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle in HFD-fed rats in
      the early stage of insulin resistance (24 weeks). However, leucine
      supplementation induced no remarkable alternations in BCAA catabolism, but did
      enhance mitochondrial biogenesis with a concomitant improvement in lipid
      oxidation and mitochondrial function during the hyperglycaemia stage (32 weeks).
      These findings suggest that leucine trigger different effects on metabolic
      signatures at different stages of insulin resistance, and the overall metabolic
      status of the organisms should be carefully considered to potentiate the benefits
      of leucine.

PMID- 28574483
TI  - Expression Profiling of Strawberry Allergen Fra a during Fruit Ripening
      Controlled by Exogenous Auxin.
AB  - Strawberry fruit contain the allergenic Fra a proteins, members of the
      pathogenesis-related 10 protein family that causes oral allergic syndrome
      symptoms. Fra a proteins are involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway,
      which might be important for color development in fruits. Auxin is an important
      plant hormone in strawberry fruit that controls fruit fleshiness and ripening. In
      this study, we treated strawberry fruits with exogenous auxin or auxin inhibitors
      at pre- and post-harvest stages, and analyzed Fra a transcriptional and
      translational expression levels during fruit development by real-time PCR and
      immunoblotting. Pre-harvest treatment with 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) alone
      did not affect Fra a expression, but applied in conjunction with achene removal
      NAA promoted fruit pigmentation and Fra a protein accumulation. The response was
      developmental stage-specific: Fra a 1 was highly expressed in immature fruit,
      whereas Fra a 2 was expressed in young to ripe fruit. In post-harvest treatments,
      auxin did not contribute to Fra a induction. Auxin inhibitors delayed fruit
      ripening; as a result, they seemed to influence Fra a 1 expression. Thus, Fra a
      expression was not directly regulated by auxin, but might be associated with the
      ripening process and/or external factors in a paralog-specific manner.

PMID- 28574482
TI  - Immunologic and Virologic Mechanisms for Partial Protection from Intravenous
      Challenge by an Integration-Defective SIV Vaccine.
AB  - The suppression of viral loads and identification of selection signatures in non
      human primates after challenge are indicators for effective human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) vaccines. To
      mimic the protective immunity elicited by attenuated SIV vaccines, we developed
      an integration-defective SIV (idSIV) vaccine by inactivating integrase, mutating
      sequence motifs critical for integration, and inserting the cytomegalovirus (CMV)
      promoter for more efficient expression in the SIVmac239 genome. Chinese rhesus
      macaques were immunized with idSIV DNA and idSIV particles, and the cellular and
      humoral immune responses were measured. After the intravenous SIVmac239
      challenge, viral loads were monitored and selection signatures in viral genomes
      from vaccinated monkeys were identified by single genome sequencing. T cell
      responses, heterologous neutralization against tier-1 viruses, and antibody
      dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) were detected in idSIV-vaccinated macaques
      post immunization. After challenge, the median peak viral load in the vaccine
      group was significantly lower than that in the control group. However, this
      initial viral control did not last as viral set-points were similar between
      vaccinated and control animals. Selection signatures were identified in Nef, Gag,
      and Env proteins in vaccinated and control macaques, but these signatures were
      different, suggesting selection pressure on viruses from vaccine-induced immunity
      in the vaccinated animals. Our results showed that the idSIV vaccine exerted some
      pressure on the virus population early during the infection but future
      modifications are needed in order to induce more potent immune responses.

PMID- 28574486
TI  - Magnetoelectric Current Sensors.
AB  - In this work a magnetoelectric (ME) current sensor design based on a
      magnetoelectric effect is presented and discussed. The resonant and non-resonant
      type of ME current sensors are considered. Theoretical calculations of the ME
      current sensors by the equivalent circuit method were conducted. The application
      of different sensors using the new effects, for example, the ME effect, is made
      possible with the development of new ME composites. A large number of studies
      conducted in the field of new composites, allowed us to obtain a high
      magnetostrictive-piezoelectric laminate sensitivity. An optimal ME structure
      composition was matched. The characterization of a non-resonant current sensor
      showed that in the operation range to 5 A, the sensor had a sensitivity of 0.34
      V/A, non-linearity less than 1% and for a resonant current sensor in the same
      operation range, the sensitivity was of 0.53 V/A, non-linearity less than 0.5%.

PMID- 28574485
TI  - Daucosterol Inhibits the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma Cells via Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related
      death worldwide. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of
      daucosterol on HCC by investigating Wnt/beta-catenin signaling. In this study,
      HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells were treated with varying concentrations of
      daucosterol, and the corresponding inhibitory effects on HCC cells were examined
      via CCK-8 assays. Cell migration and invasion abilities were detected via
      transwell assays. beta-Catenin and phospho (p)-beta-catenin levels were analyzed
      via western blotting. Our results showed that daucosterol reduced the
      proliferation, migration, and invasion capacities of HCC cells in a concentration
      dependent manner. In addition, daucosterol reduced the levels of beta-catenin and
      p-beta-catenin in HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells. Furthermore, the Wnt signaling
      pathway inhibitor SB-216763 was used to treat HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells with
      daucosterol. Our results showed that co-treatment with daucosterol and SB-216763
      abolished the effects of daucosterol on cell inhibition ratios, cell migration,
      and cell invasion. These findings indicated that daucosterol inhibited cell
      migration and invasion in HCC cells via the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.
      Therefore, our study highlights the use of daucosterol as a promising therapeutic
      strategy for HCC treatment.

PMID- 28574484
TI  - Seabuckthorn Leaves Extract and Flavonoid Glycosides Extract from Seabuckthorn
      Leaves Ameliorates Adiposity, Hepatic Steatosis, Insulin Resistance, and
      Inflammation in Diet-Induced Obesity.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to elucidate the effect of seabuckthorn leaves
      (SL) extract and flavonoid glycosides extract from seabuckthorn leaves (SLG) on
      diet-induced obesity and related metabolic disturbances, and additionally, to
      identify whether flavonoid glycosides and other components in SL can exert a
      possible interaction for the prevention of metabolic diseases by comparing the
      effect of SL and SLG. C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal diet (ND, AIN-93G purified
      diet), high-fat diet (HFD, 60 kcal% fat), HFD + 1.8% (w/w) SL (SL), and HFD +
      0.04% (w/w) SLG (SLG) for 12 weeks. In high fat-fed mice, SL and SLG decreased
      the adiposity by suppressing lipogenesis in adipose tissue, while increasing the
      energy expenditure. SL and SLG also improved hepatic steatosis by suppressing
      hepatic lipogenesis and lipid absorption, whilst also enhancing hepatic fatty
      acid oxidation, which may be linked to the improvement in dyslipidemia. Moreover,
      SL and SLG improved insulin sensitivity by suppressing the levels of plasma GIP
      that were modulated by secreted resistin and pro-inflammatory cytokine, and
      hepatic glucogenic enzyme activities. SL, especially its flavonoid glycosides
      (SLG), can protect against the deleterious effects of diet-induced obesity (DIO)
      and its metabolic complications such as adiposity, dyslipidemia, inflammation,
      hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance.

PMID- 28574487
TI  - CD123 target validation and preclinical evaluation of ADCC activity of anti-CD123
      antibody CSL362 in combination with NKs from AML patients in remission.
AB  - Despite the heterogeneity of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), overexpression of the
      interleukin-3 receptor-alpha (CD123) on both the more differentiated leukemic
      blast and leukemic stem cells (LSCs) provides a therapeutic target for antibody
      treatment. Here we present data on the potential clinical activity of the
      monoclonal antibody CSL362, which binds to CD123 with high affinity. We first
      validated the expression of CD123 by 100% (52/52) of patient samples and the
      correlation of NPM1 and FLT3-ITD mutations with the high frequency of CD123 in
      AML. In vitro studies demonstrated that CSL362 potently induced antibody
      dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) of AML blasts including CD34+CD38-CD123+ LSCs
      by natural killer cells (NKs). Importantly, compared with healthy donor (HD) NKs,
      NKs drawn from AML patients in remission had a comparable ADCC activity against
      leukemic cells; of note, during remission, immature NKs were five times higher in
      AML patients than that in HDs. Significantly, we report a case where leukemic
      cells were resistant to autologous ADCC; however, the blasts were effectively
      lysed by CSL362 together with donor-derived NKs after allogeneic hematopoietic
      stem cell transplantation. These studies highlight CSL362 as a promising
      therapeutic option following chemotherapy and transplant so as to improve the
      outcome of AML patients.

PMID- 28574489
TI  - Systematic comparison of donor chimerism in peripheral blood and bone marrow
      after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

PMID- 28574488
TI  - Maintenance therapy with alternating azacitidine and lenalidomide in elderly fit
      patients with poor prognosis acute myeloid leukemia: a phase II multicentre FILO
      trial.

PMID- 28574492
TI  - Functional and anatomical outcomes of punctoplasty with Kelly punch.

PMID- 28574493
TI  - Agreement in central corneal thickness measurements between optical and
      ultrasound pachymeters in patients with primary congenital glaucoma.

PMID- 28574491
TI  - Atrophy of retinal inner layers is associated with poor vision after
      endophthalmitis: a spectral domain optical coherence tomography study.
AB  - PurposeTo investigate the retinal structural changes in endophthalmitis and their
      association with visual outcome.Patients and methodsForty-five eyes of 45
      patients diagnosed with endophthalmitis were included. Spectral domain optical
      coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was performed after inflammation was controlled.
      The relationship between SD-OCT features and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA)
      at the last follow-up was analyzed.ResultsThe structural changes included inner
      segment ellipsoid (ISe) disruption (49%), atrophy of retinal inner layers (24%),
      epimacular membrane (24%), and macular edema (24%). BCVA was worse in patients
      with ISe disruption (P=0.005) and retinal inner layers' atrophy (P=0.004)
      compared with those without. There was no significant difference of BCVA between
      the patients with and without epimacular membrane, or intraretinal cysts.
      Multivariate regression showed that atrophy of retinal inner layers (b=0.41+/
      0.17, P=0.022) was the only independent factor associated with
      BCVA.ConclusionAtrophy of retinal inner layers is associated with visual
      impairment in endophthalmitis, despite successful management.

PMID- 28574490
TI  - Capturing the genetic makeup of the active microbiome in situ.
AB  - More than any other technology, nucleic acid sequencing has enabled microbial
      ecology studies to be complemented with the data volumes necessary to capture the
      extent of microbial diversity and dynamics in a wide range of environments. In
      order to truly understand and predict environmental processes, however, the
      distinction between active, inactive and dead microbial cells is critical. Also,
      experimental designs need to be sensitive toward varying population complexity
      and activity, and temporal as well as spatial scales of process rates. There are
      a number of approaches, including single-cell techniques, which were designed to
      study in situ microbial activity and that have been successively coupled to
      nucleic acid sequencing. The exciting new discoveries regarding in situ microbial
      activity provide evidence that future microbial ecology studies will
      indispensably rely on techniques that specifically capture members of the
      microbiome active in the environment. Herein, we review those currently used
      activity-based approaches that can be directly linked to shotgun nucleic acid
      sequencing, evaluate their relevance to ecology studies, and discuss future
      directions.

PMID- 28574494
TI  - Aqueous humor pentraxin-3 levels in patients with diabetes mellitus.
AB  - PurposeTo evaluate aqueous humor (AH) pentraxin-3 (PTX3) levels in diabetic
      patients with and without diabetic retinopathy (DR).MethodsIn this prospective
      study, patients undergoing cataract surgery were enrolled. The study group was
      composed of 26 type-2 diabetic patients without DR (group 1), 32 diabetic
      patients with DR (group 2) and 29 age-matched subjects without any systemic
      disease (group 3). Fifteen proliferative DR (PDR) and 17 non-proliferative DR
      (NPDR) patients were enrolled in Group 2. HbA1c levels and duration of diabetes
      were noted. AH samples were obtained from anterior chamber at the beginning of
      cataract surgery and PTX3 levels were analyzed with Elisa kit.ResultsBaseline
      demographic characteristics were similar between groups. The mean duration of
      diabetes was 11.9+/-7.9 years in group 1 and 15.8+/-7.8 years in group 2
      (P=0.11). The mean plasma HbA1c levels in group 1 was 9.1+/-2.6 and 8.2+/-2.4 in
      group 2 (P=0.36). PTX3 levels were 5.75+/-0.41 in group 1, 6.11+/-1.47 in group 2
      and 4.93+/-0.84 ng/ml in group 3 (P=0.01). PTX3 levels in group 2 were higher
      than in group 1 and 3 (P=0.06 and P=0.01, respectively). There was no correlation
      between HbA1c and PTX3 levels (P=0.06 r=0.57, P=0.19 r=0.3, respectively). The
      mean PTX3 was 6.6+/-0.3 in PDR group and 5.6+/-0.5 ng/ml in NPDR group
      (P=0.04).ConclusionsPTX3 is an important marker especially for vascular
      endothelial damage. Since diabetic vascular changes are dependent on endothelial
      cell damage, high levels of AH PTX3 of DR patients may indicate the importance of
      PTX3 protein in the pathogenesis of DR.

PMID- 28574495
TI  - Black patients sustain vision loss while White and South Asian patients gain
      vision following delamination or segmentation surgery for tractional
      complications associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - PurposeThis retrospective comparative case series aims to determine whether
      patient ethnicity (White versus South Asian versus Black) is related to the
      outcome of surgical treatment for traction complications of severe proliferative
      diabetic retinopathy (PDR).SettingMoorfields Eye Hospital London, UK.MethodsAll
      patients who underwent vitrectomy with, delamination and/or segmentation for PDR
      over a 5-year period (2009-2014) were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were
      divided into White, South Asian or Black groups, and their age, gender, HbA1C and
      type of diabetes were recorded. A total of 484 patients (253 White, 117 South
      Asian, 114 Black) were included. Twenty-one patients were excluded due to
      inadequate documentation.OutcomesLogMAR Visual acuity (converted from Snellen)
      (VA), was recorded pre-operatively and ~6 months post surgery (range 5-8 months).
      Surgical outcome was classified according to the type and duration of tamponade
      required post-operatively.ResultsPre-operative VA and HbA1C values were similar
      across all three ethnic groups (P=0.64 and 0.569, respectively). Change in VA
      (mean+/-SD) was 0.41+/-0.78, 0.14+/-0.76 and -0.26+/-0.57 in White, South Asian
      and Black patient groups respectively (P<0.001). Multiple regression analysis
      showed that post-op VA was significantly related to race and pre-op VA only (both
      P<0.001). The Black patient group were more likely to require silicone oil
      tamponade (P<0.001) and long-term retention of silicone oil (P<0.001) than the
      White and South Asian patient groups.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that
      Black patients on average lose vision following delamination surgery for traction
      complications of PDR while White and South Asian patients gain vision. The same
      group is also at higher risk of retaining silicone more than 6 months after
      surgery. This difference remains even when corrected for glycaemic control. The
      higher risk of visual loss and long-term retention of silicone oil in black
      patients requires further investigation. If these results are confirmed, surgeons
      should consider their patients' ethnicity before proceeding with surgical
      treatment of diabetic tractional detachment.

PMID- 28574497
TI  - Stepping into the virtual unknown: feasibility study of a virtual reality-based
      test of ocular misalignment.
AB  - IntroductionDissociated tests of strabismus provide valuable information for
      diagnosis and monitoring of ocular misalignment in patients with normal retinal
      correspondence. However, they are vulnerable to operator error and rely on a
      fixed head position. Virtual reality headsets obviate the need for head fixation,
      while providing other clear theoretical advantages, including complete control
      over the illumination and targets presented for the patient's
      interaction.PurposeWe compared the performance of a virtual reality-based test of
      ocular misalignment to that of the traditional Lees screen, to establish the
      feasibility of using virtual reality technology in ophthalmic settings in the
      future.MethodsThree patients underwent a traditional Lees screen test, and a
      virtual reality headset-based test of ocular motility. The virtual reality
      headset-based programme consisted of an initial test to measure horizontal and
      vertical deviation, followed by a test for torsion.ResultsThe pattern of
      deviation obtained using the virtual reality-based test showed agreement with
      that obtained from the Lees screen for patients with a fourth nerve palsy,
      comitant esotropia, and restrictive thyroid eye disease.ConclusionsThis study
      reports the first use of a virtual reality headset in assessing ocular
      misalignment, and demonstrates that it is a feasible dissociative test of
      strabismus.

PMID- 28574496
TI  - Optical clearing of the eye using the See Deep Brain technique.
AB  - PurposeTissue clearing has been used in anatomy for the first time in Germany
      over a century ago. Neuronal tissue, like cortex, was investigated in mice using
      a water-based optical clearing method termed See Deep Brain (SeeDB). However,
      although the eye belongs to the central nervous system, this histological
      technique was not applied in the eye up to date. We applied SeeDB for the
      visualization of intraocular structures.Patients and methodsFour eyes of cornea
      donors (two male, two female: 73-84 years) obtained from the Cornea Bank of the
      Department of Ophthalmology Erlangen, four chicken eyes and two mices' optic
      nerve were used. Bulbi were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in phosphate-buffered
      saline and treated with increasing concentrations of aqueous fructose solution
      with 0.5% alpha-thioglycerol. After SeeDB, transscleral macrophotographs of the
      choroid were performed.ResultsComplete transparency of the sclera was obtained in
      enucleated human and chicken eyes after SeeDB treatment. Macroscopical anatomy of
      the choroid (partially transparent due to the remaining retinal pigment
      epithelium and melanocytes) showing vessels and other related structures was
      possible without preparing slides. Mice optic nerves were also transparent after
      SeeDB treatment.ConclusionThe SeeDB method allows visualization of intraocular
      structures through a completely translucent sclera. This innovative processing
      technique could facilitate comprehensive qualitative and quantitative
      topographical anatomical studies of human and animal eyes, preserving their 3D
      architecture. Supra- and intrachoroidal ganglionic plexus could potentially be
      visualized transsclerally. Finally, clinical-pathological correlations of
      intraocular diseases-for example, retinal tumors-will be possible in non
      dissected eyes.

PMID- 28574498
TI  - Impact of socioeconomic status on vision-related quality of life in primary open
      angle glaucoma.
AB  - PurposeTo investigate the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on vision-related
      quality of life (VRQOL) in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma
      (POAG).Patients and methodsThis prospective cross-sectional study included
      consecutive patients with POAG at a tertiary hospital between March 2012 and
      January 2013. All patients had visual acuity no worse than 20/60 in the better
      eye and reliable visual field tests. VRQOL was assessed by the validated Taiwan
      version 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ
      25). Sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, and ocular parameters
      were recorded. SES was evaluated based on educational attainment and monthly
      income, both stratified into three levels. Analysis of variance and linear
      regression analysis were used to evaluate the relationship between SES, VRQOL,
      and clinical parameters.ResultsAmong the 186 patients recruited, intergroup
      differences were not observed among educational or monthly income levels for
      binocular vision or integrated visual field defects. Patients of lower
      educational and monthly income levels had lower self-reported general health
      ratings. After adjustment for visual function, treatment complexity, and general
      health in the multiple linear regression model, patients with a college degree or
      higher reported better NEI VFQ-25 scores for the composite score (P=0.041),
      mental health (P=0.035), and peripheral vision (P=0.05) than did those with
      education below junior high school. Monthly income levels did not affect the NEI
      VFQ-25 scores.ConclusionEducational attainment significantly affects VRQOL in
      patients with POAG. Additional counseling may be provided to patients with lower
      educational background to help them cope with the disease.

PMID- 28574499
TI  - Ultra-widefield fundus fluorescein angiography in the diagnosis and management of
      retinal vasculitis.
AB  - PurposeTo quantify the additional information provided by ultra-widefield
      fluorescein angiography, compared with 7-field standard imaging, in patients with
      retinal vasculitis (RV).Patients and methodsRetrospective case series of 106
      patients.ResultsRetinal vascular pathology was identified by UWF FFA, but not by
      standard ETDRS 7-field area, in 62 patients (58.5%) and in 79 eyes (43.4%). The
      pathology included active RV (47 eyes, 25.8% of eyes); retinal ischaemia, or
      infarction (53 eyes, 29.1%); and retinal neovascularization (7 eyes, 3.8%). A
      change to management was made in 36 patients (34%). Of these, 21 (20% of all
      patients undergoing angiography) were made after the identification of retinal
      vascular pathology, which was found only on UWF FFA, outside the ETDRS
      area.ConclusionUltra-widefield fluorescein angiography has clear advantages over
      standard multi-field imaging. It is currently the standard method of assessment
      for RV in this centre.

PMID- 28574500
TI  - Subconjunctival implantation of ologen Collagen Matrix to treat ocular hypotony
      after filtration glaucoma surgery.
AB  - PurposeTo report the results of subconjunctival ologen Collagen Matrix
      implantation to manage ocular hypotony after filtration glaucoma surgery.Patients
      and methodsThis retrospective observational case series included 12 consecutive
      implantations of ologen in nine eyes of nine Japanese subjects (five men, four
      women; mean age+/-SD, 72.1+/-12.7 years) who underwent subconjunctival
      implantation of the device to treat hypotony after glaucoma filtration surgery.
      Demographic data and surgical results were collected by chart review.ResultsThe
      subjects included six patients who underwent trabeculectomy and three who
      underwent an EX-PRESS shunt surgery. The duration between the last glaucoma
      surgery and the initial ologen implantation was longer than 2 years in seven
      (78%) eyes. Bleb leakage in five (56%) eyes preoperatively stopped in all cases
      by 8 days after the device implantation. After the initial implantation, three
      (33.3%) eyes required a second implantation of ologen because of insufficient
      efficacy. After a mean follow-up of 12.6+/-6.8 months, the mean preoperative
      intraocular pressure (IOP) of 3.8+/-2.7 mmHg increased significantly (P=0.0001)
      to 9.0+/-3.2 mmHg; no eye required glaucoma medication to control the IOP. No
      vision-threatening complications developed in association with the
      treatment.ConclusionWhen conservative management failed, subconjunctival
      implantation of ologen Collagen Matrix in combination with bleb revision can be a
      useful therapeutic option for ocular hypotony after glaucoma filtration surgery.

PMID- 28574502
TI  - Hepatitis B virus X protein promotes CREB-mediated activation of miR-3188 and
      Notch signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Familiar clustering of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) has been frequently reported. However, limited information is available
      about the underlying molecular mechanisms in HBV-related HCC patients with family
      history of HCC. In our previous study, Agilent miRNA Base 16.0 microarray showed
      miRNA profiles of the plasma of HBV-related HCC patients who had a family history
      of HCC. This study aims to explore the expression, function, and mechanisms of
      miR-3188 in HCC that might provide novel insights into the role of family history
      on the risk of HCC. The expression levels of miR-3188 were markedly overexpressed
      in HCC tissues, HBV transgenic mice, and HepG2.215 cells. We knocked out miR-3188
      in HCC cell lines using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, and demonstrated that miR-3188
      knockout (KO) suppressed cell growth, migration, and invasion, and inhibited
      xenografts tumor growth in nude mice. Next, we determined that miR-3188 KO exerts
      antitumor functions by directly repressing ZHX2. It has been reported that HBV X
      protein (HBx) plays a critical role in HBV-related HCC, promoting CREB-mediated
      activation of miR-3188 and activation of Notch signaling through repressing ZHX2.
      Finally, we verified that ZHX2 functions as a transcriptional repressor to Notch1
      via interaction with NF-YA. Our data demonstrate that the HBx-miR-3188-ZHX2
      Notch1 signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis and
      progression of HBV-related HCC with family history of HCC. These findings have
      important implications for identifying new therapeutic targets in HBV-related
      HCC.

PMID- 28574501
TI  - RIP1 kinase activity-dependent roles in embryonic development of Fadd-deficient
      mice.
AB  - RIP1 is an essential regulator of TNF-induced signaling complexes mediating NF
      kappaB activation, apoptosis and necroptosis. Loss of Rip1 rescues the embryonic
      lethality of Fadd or Caspase-8-deficient mice, even though the double knockout
      mice die shortly after birth like Rip1-deficient mice. Recent studies
      demonstrated that mice expressing RIP1 kinase-dead mutants developed normally and
      resisted necroptotic stimuli in vitro and in vivo. However, the impact of RIP1
      kinase activity on Fadd-/- embryonic development remains unknown. Here, we
      engineered two RIP1 kinase inactive mutant mouse lines, a Rip1K45A/K45A mouse
      line as previously reported and a novel Rip1Delta/Delta mouse line with an
      altered P-loop in the kinase domain. While RIP1K45A could not rescue the
      embryonic lethality of Fadd-deficient mice at E11.5, RIP1Delta rescued lethality
      of Fadd-/- mice at E11.5 and Fadd-/-Rip1Delta/Delta mice eventually died at E16.5
      due to excessive death of fetal liver cells and unregulated inflammation. Under
      necropotosis-inducing conditions, comparing to Rip1K45A/K45A cells,
      Rip1Delta/Deltacells displayed reduced phosphorylation and oligomerization of
      RIP3 and MLKL, which lead to increased cell viability. Thus, our study provides
      genetic evidence that different kinase inactive mutations have distinct impacts
      on the embryogenesis of Fadd-deficient mice, which might attribute to their
      extents of protection on necroptosis signaling.

PMID- 28574503
TI  - Pathogen-induced ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 bifunctionally shuts off NF-kappaB
      and caspase-8-dependent apoptotic cell death.
AB  - The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori infects more than half of the world's
      population and is a paradigm for persistent yet asymptomatic infection but
      increases the risk for chronic gastritis and gastric adenocarcinoma. For
      successful colonization, H. pylori needs to subvert the host cell death response,
      which serves to confine pathogen infection by killing infected cells and
      preventing malignant transformation. Infection of gastric epithelial cells by H.
      pylori provokes direct and fast activation of the proinflammatory and survival
      factor NF-kappaB, which regulates target genes, such as CXCL8, BIRC3 and TNFAIP3.
      However, it is not known how H. pylori exploits NF-kappaB activation and
      suppresses the inflammatory response and host apoptotic cell death, in order to
      avert the innate immune response and avoid cell loss, and thereby enhance
      colonization to establish long-term infection. Here we assign for the first time
      that H. pylori and also Campylobacter jejuni-induced ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20
      bifunctionally terminates NF-kappaB activity and negatively regulates apoptotic
      cell death. Mechanistically, we show that the deubiquitinylase activity of A20
      counteracts cullin3-mediated K63-linked ubiquitinylation of procaspase-8,
      therefore restricting the activity of caspase-8. Interestingly, another inducible
      NF-kappaB target gene, the scaffold protein p62, ameliorates the interaction of
      A20 with procaspase-8. In conclusion, pathogen-induced de novo synthesis of A20
      regulates the shut-off of the survival factor NF-kappaB but, on the other hand,
      also impedes caspase-8-dependent apoptotic cell death so as to promote the
      persistence of pathogens.

PMID- 28574504
TI  - NOX2-dependent ATM kinase activation dictates pro-inflammatory macrophage
      phenotype and improves effectiveness to radiation therapy.
AB  - Although tumor-associated macrophages have been extensively studied in the
      control of response to radiotherapy, the molecular mechanisms involved in the
      ionizing radiation-mediated activation of macrophages remain elusive. Here we
      show that ionizing radiation induces the expression of interferon regulatory
      factor 5 (IRF5) promoting thus macrophage activation toward a pro-inflammatory
      phenotype. We reveal that the activation of the ataxia telangiectasia mutated
      (ATM) kinase is required for ionizing radiation-elicited macrophage activation,
      but also for macrophage reprogramming after treatments with gamma-interferon,
      lipopolysaccharide or chemotherapeutic agent (such as cisplatin), underscoring
      the fact that the kinase ATM plays a central role during macrophage phenotypic
      switching toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype through the regulation of mRNA
      level and post-translational modifications of IRF5. We further demonstrate that
      NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2)-dependent ROS production is upstream to ATM activation and
      is essential during this process. We also report that the inhibition of any
      component of this signaling pathway (NOX2, ROS and ATM) impairs pro-inflammatory
      activation of macrophages and predicts a poor tumor response to preoperative
      radiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. Altogether, our results identify
      a novel signaling pathway involved in macrophage activation that may enhance the
      effectiveness of radiotherapy through the reprogramming of tumor-infiltrating
      macrophages.

PMID- 28574505
TI  - The small molecule that packs a punch: ubiquitin-mediated regulation of
      RIPK1/FADD/caspase-8 complexes.
AB  - The mechanisms that underpin the production of small molecules and cytokines that
      lead to inflammation or programmed cell death are intricately intertwined. So
      much so that some of the proteins that contribute to the transcriptional up
      regulation of cytokines can switch their role in the right circumstances to
      generate cell death-inducing complexes. This entwinement is reflected in the fact
      that inflammation helps an organism fight pathogens and that therefore pathogens
      are under an evolutionary pressure to interfere with this process. Cell death is
      therefore a defensive measure that may serve to deny pathogens a host cell,
      expose pathogens to the immune system and also provide additional inflammatory
      information to the host. Clearly such a system must be tightly regulated and
      ubiquitylation is a post-translational protein modification that is at the heart
      of this regulation. In this review, we discuss the regulatory ubiquitin events
      that dictate the formation and activation of death-inducing complexes containing
      RIPK1/FADD/caspase-8, and examine how these events collectively determine cell
      fate.

PMID- 28574506
TI  - Role of Atg5-dependent cell death in the embryonic development of Bax/Bak double
      knockout mice.
AB  - Programmed cell death, which is required for the development and homeostasis of
      metazoans, includes mechanisms such as apoptosis, autophagic cell death, and
      necrotic (or type III) death. Members of the Bcl2 family regulate apoptosis,
      among which Bax and Bak act as a mitochondrial gateway. Although embryonic
      fibroblasts from Bax/Bak double-knockout (DKO) mice are resistant to apoptosis,
      we previously demonstrated that these cells die through an autophagy-dependent
      mechanism in response to various types of cellular stressors. To determine the
      physiological role of autophagy-dependent cell death, we generated Atg5/Bax/Bak
      triple-knockout (TKO) mice, in which autophagy is greatly suppressed compared
      with DKO mice. Embryonic fibroblasts and thymocytes from TKO mice underwent
      autophagy much less frequently, and their viability was much higher than DKO
      cells in the presence of certain cellular stressors, providing genetic evidence
      that DKO cells undergo Atg5-dependent death. Compared with wild-type embryos, the
      loss of interdigital webs was significantly delayed in DKO embryos and was even
      further delayed in TKO embryos. Brain malformation is a distinct feature observed
      in DKO embryos on the 129 genetic background, but not in those on a B6
      background, whereas such malformations appeared in TKO embryos even on a B6
      background. Taken together, our data suggest that Atg5-dependent cell death
      contributes to the embryonic development of DKO mice, implying that autophagy
      compensates for the deficiency in apoptosis.

PMID- 28574507
TI  - Exploiting tumour addiction with a serine and glycine-free diet.

PMID- 28574509
TI  - MYCN amplified neuroblastoma requires the mRNA translation regulator eEF2 kinase
      to adapt to nutrient deprivation.
AB  - MYC family proteins are implicated in many human cancers, but their therapeutic
      targeting has proven challenging. MYCN amplification in childhood neuroblastoma
      (NB) is associated with aggressive disease and high mortality. Novel and
      effective therapeutic strategies are therefore urgently needed for these tumors.
      MYC-driven oncogenic transformation impairs cell survival under nutrient
      deprivation (ND), a characteristic stress condition within the tumor
      microenvironment. We recently identified eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase
      (eEF2K) as a pivotal mediator of the adaptive response of tumor cells to ND. We
      therefore hypothesized that eEF2K facilitates the adaptation of MYCN amplified NB
      to ND, and that inhibiting this pathway can impair MYCN-driven NB progression. To
      test our hypothesis, we first analyzed publicly available genomic databases and
      tissue microarrays for eEF2K expression in NB, and for links between eEF2K, MYCN,
      and clinical outcome in NB. Effects of eEF2K inhibition were evaluated on
      survival of MYCN amplified versus non-amplified NB cell lines under ND. Finally,
      NB xenograft mouse models were used to confirm in vitro observations. Our results
      indicate that high eEF2K expression and activity are strongly predictive of poor
      outcome in NB, and correlates significantly with MYCN amplification. Inhibition
      of eEF2K markedly decreases survival of MYCN amplified NB cell lines in vitro
      under ND. Growth of MYCN amplified NB xenografts is markedly impaired by eEF2K
      knockdown, particularly under caloric restriction. In summary, eEF2K protects
      MYCN overexpressing NB cells from ND in vitro and in vivo, highlighting this
      kinase as a critical mediator of the adaptive response of MYCN amplified NB cells
      to metabolic stress.

PMID- 28574510
TI  - RIP4 inhibits STAT3 signaling to sustain lung adenocarcinoma differentiation.
AB  - Loss of epithelial differentiation and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling are
      known to facilitate cancer progression and are associated with poor prognosis in
      patients with lung cancer. We have identified Receptor-interacting
      serine/threonine protein kinase 4 (RIP4) as a regulator of tumor differentiation
      in lung adenocarcinoma (AC). Bioinformatics analyses of human lung AC samples
      showed that poorly differentiated tumors express low levels of RIP4, whereas high
      levels are associated with better overall survival. In vitro, lung tumor cells
      expressing reduced RIP4 levels showed enhanced activation of STAT3 signaling and
      had a greater ability to invade through collagen. In contrast, overexpression of
      RIP4 inhibited STAT3 activation, which abrogated interleukin-6-dependent
      induction of lysyl oxidase, a collagen cross-linking enzyme. In an autochthonous
      mouse model of lung AC initiated by Kras(G12D) expression with loss of p53, Rip4
      knockdown tumors progressed to a poorly differentiated state marked by an
      increase in Hmga2, reduced Ttf1, and enrichment of genes regulating extracellular
      remodeling and Jak-Stat signaling. Tail vein injections of cells overexpressing
      Rip4 showed a reduced potential to invade and form tumors, which was restored by
      co-expression of Stat3. Altogether, our work has identified that loss of RIP4
      enhances STAT3 signaling in lung cancer cells, promoting the expression of ECM
      remodeling genes and cancer dedifferentiation.

PMID- 28574508
TI  - Caspase involvement in autophagy.
AB  - Caspases are a family of cysteine proteases widely known as the principal
      mediators of the apoptotic cell death response, but considerably less so as the
      contributors to the regulation of pathways outside cellular demise. In regards to
      autophagy, the modulatory roles of caspases have only recently begun to be
      adequately described. In contrast to apoptosis, autophagy promotes cell survival
      by providing energy and nutrients through the lysosomal degradation of
      cytoplasmic constituents. Under basal conditions autophagy and apoptosis cross
      regulate each other through an elaborate network of interconnections which also
      includes the interplay between autophagy-related proteins (ATGs) and caspases. In
      this review we focus on the effects of this crosstalk at the cellular level, as
      we aim to concentrate the main observations from research conducted so far on the
      fine-tuning of autophagy by caspases. Several members of this protease-family
      have been found to directly interact with key ATGs involved in different tiers
      across the autophagic cascade. Therefore, we firstly outline the core mechanism
      of macroautophagy in brief. In an effort to emphasize the importance of the
      intricate cross-regulation of ATGs and caspases, we also present examples of
      autophagy's contribution to apoptotic cell death during development.

PMID- 28574515
TI  - Erratum to: A Review of the Long-Term Oncologic Outcomes of Robotic Surgery
      Versus Laparoscopic Surgery for Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s12262-015-1375-8.].

PMID- 28574516
TI  - Erratum to: Further Manipulations in Response Effort or Magnitude of an Aversive
      Consequence to Increase Self-Feeding in Children with Feeding Disorders.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40617-016-0124-1.].

PMID- 28574513
TI  - Detection of clinically relevant copy-number variants by exome sequencing in a
      large cohort of genetic disorders.
AB  - PURPOSE: Copy-number variation is a common source of genomic variation and an
      important genetic cause of disease. Microarray-based analysis of copy-number
      variants (CNVs) has become a first-tier diagnostic test for patients with
      neurodevelopmental disorders, with a diagnostic yield of 10-20%. However, for
      most other genetic disorders, the role of CNVs is less clear and most diagnostic
      genetic studies are generally limited to the study of single-nucleotide variants
      (SNVs) and other small variants. With the introduction of exome and genome
      sequencing, it is now possible to detect both SNVs and CNVs using an exome- or
      genome-wide approach with a single test. METHODS: We performed exome-based read
      depth CNV screening on data from 2,603 patients affected by a range of genetic
      disorders for which exome sequencing was performed in a diagnostic setting.
      RESULTS: In total, 123 clinically relevant CNVs ranging in size from 727 bp to
      15.3 Mb were detected, which resulted in 51 conclusive diagnoses and an overall
      increase in diagnostic yield of ~2% (ranging from 0 to -5.8% per disorder).
      CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that CNVs play an important role in a broad range
      of genetic disorders and that detection via exome-based CNV profiling results in
      an increase in the diagnostic yield without additional testing, bringing us
      closer to single-test genomics.Genet Med advance online publication 27 October
      2016.

PMID- 28574511
TI  - Signalome-wide RNAi screen identifies GBA1 as a positive mediator of autophagic
      cell death.
AB  - Activating alternative cell death pathways, including autophagic cell death, is a
      promising direction to overcome the apoptosis resistance observed in various
      cancers. Yet, whether autophagy acts as a death mechanism by over consumption of
      intracellular components is still controversial and remains undefined at the
      ultrastructural and the mechanistic levels. Here we identified conditions under
      which resveratrol-treated A549 lung cancer cells die by a mechanism that fulfills
      the previous definition of autophagic cell death. The cells displayed a strong
      and sustained induction of autophagic flux, cell death was prevented by knocking
      down autophagic genes and death occurred in the absence of apoptotic or
      necroptotic pathway activation. Detailed ultrastructural characterization
      revealed additional critical events, including a continuous increase over time in
      the number of autophagic vacuoles, in particular autolysosomes, occupying most of
      the cytoplasm at terminal stages. This was followed by loss of organelles,
      disruption of intracellular membranes including the swelling of perinuclear space
      and, occasionally, a unique type of nuclear shedding. A signalome-wide shRNA
      based viability screen was applied to identify positive mediators of this type of
      autophagic cell death. One top hit was GBA1, the Gaucher disease-associated gene,
      which encodes glucocerebrosidase, an enzyme that metabolizes glucosylceramide to
      ceramide and glucose. Interestingly, glucocerebrosidase expression levels and
      activity were elevated, concomitantly with increased intracellular ceramide
      levels, both of which correlated in time with the appearance of the unique death
      characteristics. Transfection with siGBA1 attenuated the increase in
      glucocerebrosidase activity and the intracellular ceramide levels. Most
      importantly, GBA1 knockdown prevented the strong increase in LC3 lipidation, and
      many of the ultrastructural changes characteristic of this type of autophagic
      cell death, including a significant decrease in cytoplasmic area occupied by
      autophagic vacuoles. Together, these findings highlight the critical role of GBA1
      in mediating enhanced self-consumption of intracellular components and
      endomembranes, leading to autophagic cell death.

PMID- 28574517
TI  - Erratum to: Social Thinking(r): Science, Pseudoscience, or Antiscience?
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40617-016-0108-1.].

PMID- 28574518
TI  - The one thing that's missing from the health care debate.
AB  - If we control the cost of providing care, insurance premiums will follow suit.

PMID- 28574519
TI  - Stroke: A road map for subacute management.
AB  - Time is of the essence when a patient has signs and symptoms suggestive of a
      stroke or TIA. What should your initial approach and diagnostic work-up be?

PMID- 28574520
TI  - These 3 tools can help you streamline management of IBS.
AB  - A novel explanatory model, Rome IV diagnostic criteria,and evidence-based
      therapeutic guidelines are making it easier to care for patients with this
      complex disorder.

PMID- 28574522
TI  - Bipolar disorder: Making the Dx, selecting the right Rx.
AB  - A 23-year-old woman seeks medical attention at the request of her boyfriend
      because she's been "miserable" for 3 weeks. In the examination room, she slouches
      in the chair and says her mood is low, her grades have dropped, and she no longer
      enjoys social gatherings or her other usual activities. She has no thoughts of
      suicide, no weight loss, and no somatic symptoms.

PMID- 28574521
TI  - Post-bariatric surgery patients: Your role in their long-term care.
AB  - Nutritional deficiencies, decreased bone mineral density,and dumping syndrome are
      just some of the challenges these patients face. Here's how to optimize their
      care.

PMID- 28574523
TI  - Neuropathic pain treatment provides unexpected benefit.
AB  - A 57-year-old African American woman was being treated at our clinic for
      neurogenic urinary incontinence (UI). The UI, which occurred day and night, began
      2 years earlier following a laminectomy of vertebrae C3 to C6 with spinal fusion
      of C3 to C7 for cervical spinal stenosis. The UI persisted despite physical
      therapy and trials of oxybutynin and imipramine. Since the surgery, the patient
      had also been experiencing chronic (debilitating) neuropathic pain in both legs,
      and the sensation of incomplete bladder emptying. She denied bowel incontinence
      or saddle anesthesia. Her prescription medications included hydrocodone
      acetaminophen 7.5/325 mg every 6 hours as needed for pain and lisinopril 20 mg/d
      for essential hypertension. The patient's body mass index was 23.3.

PMID- 28574524
TI  - PURLs: Oral agent offers relief from generalized hyperhidrosis
AB  - An inexpensive and well-tolerated anticholinergic reduces sweating in those with
      localized--and generalized--hyperhidrosis.

PMID- 28574525
TI  - Severe right hip pain.
AB  - While this patient had osteoporosis, she hadn't experienced any recent trauma or
      falls that would explain her pain.

PMID- 28574526
TI  - Clinical Inquiry: Do oral decongestants have a clinically significant effect on
      BP in patients with hypertension?
AB  - It is unclear. Pseudoephedrine causes an average increase of 1.2 mm Hg in
      systolic blood pressure (BP) in patients with controlled hypertension. However,
      the studies are not adequately powered to provide evidence about whether this
      rise in systolic BP is linked to patient-oriented outcomes (strength of
      recommendation: C, multiple randomized controlled trials supporting disease
      oriented evidence). Significant variations in BP are defined differently among
      studies. In addition, we do not have data on chronic use of oral decongestants;
      the longest time on medication in these trials was 4 weeks.

PMID- 28574527
TI  - Prognostic Value of Braden Activity Subscale for Mobility Status in Hospitalized
      Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the predictive value of the Activity subscale of the
      Braden Scale for Predicting Pressure Sore Risk in assessing mobility impairment
      and recovery among hospitalized older adults. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.
      SETTING: UF Health Shands Hospital, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
      PATIENTS: 19,769 older adults (>=65 years) hospitalized between January 2009 and
      April 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Incident mobility impairment and recovery were assessed
      with the Braden Activity subscale (BAS) score that nurses use to grade patients
      at every shift change (~3 times/d). Posthospital mortality rate and discharge
      disposition were used to assess the prognostic value of the BAS. RESULTS: Of the
      10,717 study patients observed "walking frequently" at admission, 2218 (20.7%)
      developed incident mobility impairment. Of the other 9052 study patients, who
      were impaired at admission, 4734 (52.3%) recovered to a state of walking
      occasionally or frequently. Older adults who developed mobility impairment during
      hospitalization had an odds of death higher than that of those who remained
      mobile (odds ratio [OR], 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08- 1.39). This
      effect predominately occurred within the first 6 follow-up months. Older adults
      who recovered from mobility impairment had an odds of death lower than that of
      those who did not recover mobility in the hospital (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.49-0.59).
      This effect was slightly stronger within the first 6 months after
      hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses' BAS assessment of mobility status during
      hospitalization provides substantial prognostic value in hospitalized older
      adults. The BAS could be an efficient and valuable source of information about
      mobility status for targeting posthospital care of older adults. Journal of
      Hospital Medicine 2017;12:396-401.

PMID- 28574528
TI  - Does Provider Self-Reporting of Etiquette Behaviors Improve Patient Experience? A
      Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a glaring lack of published evidence-based strategies to
      improve the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems
      (HCAHPS) patient experience scores on the physician domain. Strategies that have
      been used are resource intensive and difficult to sustain. OBJECTIVE: We
      hypothesized that prompting providers to assess their own etiquette-based
      practices every 2 weeks over the course of 1 year would improve patient
      experience on the physician domain. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING:
      4 acute care hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalists. INTERVENTION: Hospitalists
      were randomized to the study or the control arm. The study arm was prompted every
      2 weeks for 12 months to report how frequently they engaged in 7 best-practice
      bedside etiquette behaviors. Control arm participants received similarly worded
      questions on quality improvement behaviors. MEASUREMENT: Provider experience
      scores were calculated from the physician HCAHPS and Press Ganey survey provider
      items. RESULTS: Physicians reported high rates of etiquette-based behavior at
      baseline, and this changed modestly over the study period. Self-reported
      etiquette behaviors were not associated with experience scores. The difference in
      difference analysis of the baseline and postintervention physician experience
      scores between the intervention arm and the control arm was not statistically
      significant (P = 0.71). CONCLUSION: In this 12-month study, biweekly reflection
      and reporting of best-practice bedside etiquette behaviors did not result in
      significant improvement on physician domain experience scores. It is likely that
      hospitalists' self-assessment of their bedside etiquette may not reflect patient
      perception of these behaviors. Furthermore, hospitalists may be resistant to
      improvement in this area since they rate themselves highly at baseline. Journal
      of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:402-406.

PMID- 28574529
TI  - Prospective Cohort Study of Hospitalized Adults With Advanced Cancer:
      Associations Between Complications, Comorbidity, and Utilization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inpatient hospital stays account for more than a third of direct
      medical cancer care costs. Evidence on factors driving these costs can inform
      planning of services, as well as consideration of equity in access. OBJECTIVE: To
      measure the association between hospital costs, and demographic, clinical, and
      system factors, for a cohort of adults with advanced cancer. DESIGN: Prospective
      multisite cohort study. SETTING: Four medical and cancer centers. PATIENTS:
      Adults with advanced cancer admitted to a participating hospital between 2007 and
      2011, excluding those with dementia. Final analytic sample included 1020
      patients. METHODS: With receipt of palliative care controlled for, the
      associations between hospital cost and patient factors were estimated. Factors
      covered the domains of demographics (age, sex, race), socioeconomics and systems
      (education, insurance, living will, proxy), clinical care (diagnoses,
      complications deemed to pose a threat to life or bodily functions, comorbidities,
      symptom burden, activities of daily living), and prior healthcare utilization
      (home help, analgesic prescribing). OUTCOME MEASURE: Direct hospital costs.
      RESULTS: A major (markedly abnormal) complication (+$8267; P < 0.01), a minor but
      not a major complication (+$5289; P < 0.01), and number of comorbidities (+$852;
      P < 0.01) were associated with higher cost, and admitting diagnosis of
      electrolyte disorders (-$4759; P = 0.01) and increased age (-$53; P = 0.03) were
      associated with lower cost. CONCLUSIONS: Complications and comorbidity burden
      drive inhospital utilization for adults with advanced cancer. There is little
      evidence of sociodemographic associations and no apparent impact of advance
      directives. Attempts to control growth of hospital cancer costs require
      consideration of how the most resource-intensive patients are identified promptly
      and prioritized for cost-effective care. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:407
      413.

PMID- 28574530
TI  - Quality of Care of Hospitalized Infective Endocarditis Patients: Report from a
      Tertiary Medical Center.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There have been no recent studies describing the management and
      outcomes of patients with infective endocarditis (IE). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients admitted to a tertiary
      medical center from 2007 to 2011 with a Duke criteria consistent discharge
      diagnosis of IE. We examined concordance with guideline recommendations. Outcomes
      included embolic events, inhospital and 1-year mortality, length of stay (LOS)
      and cardiac surgery. We used descriptive statistics to describe the cohort and
      Fisher exact and unpaired t tests to compare native valve endocarditis (NVE) with
      prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). RESULTS: Of 170 patients, definite IE was
      present in 135 (79.4%) and possible IE in 35 (20.6%); 74.7% had NVE, and 25.3%
      had PVE. Mean +/- standard deviation age was 60.0 +/- 17.9 years. Comparing PVE
      to NVE, patients with PVE were less likely to have embolic events (14.0% vs.
      32.3%; P = 0.03), had shorter LOS (median 12.0 days vs. 14.0 days; P = 0.047),
      but they did not show a statistically significant difference in inhospital
      mortality (20.9% vs. 12.6%; P = 0.21). Of 170, patients 27.6% (n = 47) underwent
      valve surgery. Most patients received timely blood cultures and antibiotics.
      Guideline-recommended consults were underused, with 86.5%, 54.1%, and 47.1% of
      patients receiving infectious disease, cardiac surgery, and cardiology
      consultation, respectively. As the number of consultations increased (from 0 to
      3), we observed a nonsignificant trend toward reduction in 6-month readmission
      and 12-month mortality. CONCLUSION: IE remains a disease with significant
      morbidity and mortality. There are gaps in the care of IE patients, most notably
      underuse of specialty consultation. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:414-420.

PMID- 28574531
TI  - Do HCAHPS Doctor Communication Scores Reflect the Communication Skills of the
      Attending on Record? A Cautionary Tale from a Tertiary-Care Medical Service.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems
      (HCAHPS) scores measure patient satisfaction with hospital care. It is not known
      if these reflect the communication skills of the attending physician on record.
      The Four Habits Coding Scheme (4HCS) is a validated instrument that measures
      bedside physician communication skills according to 4 habits, namely: investing
      in the beginning, eliciting the patient's perspective, demonstrating empathy, and
      investing in the end. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the 4HCS correlates with
      provider HCAHPS scores. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, consenting
      hospitalist physicians (n = 28), were observed on inpatient rounds during 3
      separate encounters. We compared hospitalists' 4HCS scores with their doctor
      communication HCAHPS scores to assess the degree to which these correlated with
      inpatient physician communication skills. We performed sensitivity analysis
      excluding scores returned by patients cared for by more than 1 hospitalist.
      RESULTS: A total of 1003 HCAHPS survey responses were available. Pearson
      correlation between 4HCS and doctor communication scores was not significant, at
      0.098 (-0.285, 0.455; P = 0.619). Also, no significant correlations were found
      between each habit and HCAHPS. When including only scores attributable to 1
      hospitalist, Pearson correlation between the empathy habit and the HCAHPS respect
      score was 0.515 (0.176, 0.745; P = 0.005). Between empathy and overall doctor
      communication, it was 0.442 (0.082, 0.7; P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: Attending-of
      record HCAHPS scores do not correlate with 4HCS. After excluding patients cared
      for by more than 1 hospitalist, demonstrating empathy did correlate with the
      doctor communication and respect HCAHPS scores. Journal of Hospital Medicine
      2017;12:421-427.

PMID- 28574532
TI  - Association Between Opioid and Benzodiazepine Use and Clinical Deterioration in
      Ward Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioids and benzodiazepines are frequently used in hospitals, but
      little is known about outcomes among ward patients receiving these medications.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between opioid and benzodiazepine
      administration and clinical deterioration. DESIGN: Observational cohort study.
      SETTING: 500-bed academic urban tertiary-care hospital. PATIENTS: All adults
      hospitalized on the wards from November 2008 to January 2016 were included.
      Patients who were "comfort care" status, had tracheostomies, sickle-cell disease,
      and patients at risk for alcohol withdrawal or seizures were excluded.
      MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was the composite of intensive care unit
      transfer or ward cardiac arrest. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to
      calculate the odds of this outcome during exposed time periods compared to
      unexposed time periods with respect to the medications of interest, with
      adjustment for patient demographics, comorbidities, severity of illness, and pain
      score. RESULTS: In total, 120,518 admissions from 67,097 patients were included,
      with 67% of admissions involving opioids, and 21% involving benzodiazepines.
      After adjustment, each equivalent of 15 mg oral morphine was associated with a
      1.9% increase in the odds of the primary outcome within 6 hours (odds ratio [OR],
      1.019; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.013-1.026; P < 0.001), and each 1 mg oral
      lorazepam equivalent was associated with a 29% increase in the odds of the
      composite outcome within 6 hours (OR, 1.29; CI, 1.16- 1.45; P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Among ward patients, opioids were associated with increased risk for
      clinical deterioration in the 6 hours after administration. Benzodiazepines were
      associated with even higher risk. These results have implications for ward
      monitoring strategies. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:428-434.

PMID- 28574533
TI  - Rates, Predictors and Variability of Interhospital Transfers: A National
      Evaluation.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Interhospital transfer (IHT) remains a largely unstudied process of
      care. OBJECTIVE: To determine the nationwide frequency of, patient and hospital
      level predictors of, and hospital variability in IHT. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      study. SETTING: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 2013 100% Master Beneficiary
      Summary and Inpatient claims files merged with 2013 American Hospital Association
      data. PATIENTS: Beneficiaries >=65 years and older enrolled in Medicare A and B,
      with an acute care hospitalization claim in 2013. EXPOSURES: Patient and hospital
      characteristics of transferred and nontransferred patients. MEASUREMENTS:
      Frequency of interhospital transfers (IHT); adjusted odds of transfer of each
      patient and each hospital characteristic; and variability in hospital transfer
      rates. RESULTS: Of 6.6 million eligible beneficiaries with an acute care
      hospitalization, 101,507 (1.5%) underwent IHT. Selected characteristics
      associated with greater adjusted odds of transfer included: patient age 74-85
      years (odds ratio [OR], 2.38 compared with 65-74 years; 95% confidence intervals
      [CI], 2.33-2.43); nonblack race (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.13-1.20); higher comorbidity
      (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.36-1.37); lower diagnosis-related group-weight (OR, 2.02;
      95% CI, 1.95-2.09); fewer recent hospitalizations (OR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.79-1.95);
      and hospitalization in the Northeast (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.27-1.55). Higher case
      mix index of the hospital was associated with a lower adjusted odds of transfer
      (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.30-0.45). Variability in hospital transfer rates remained
      significant after adjustment for patient and hospital characteristics (variance
      0.28, P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this nationally representative evaluation, we
      found that a sizable number of patients undergo IHT. We identified both expected
      and unexpected patient and hospital-level predictors of IHT, as well as
      unexplained variability in hospital transfer rates, suggesting lack of
      standardization of this complex care transition. Our study highlights further
      investigative avenues to help guide best practices in IHT. Journal of Hospital
      Medicine 2017;12:435-442.

PMID- 28574534
TI  - The Shifting Landscape in Utilization of Inpatient, Observation, and Emergency
      Department Services Across Payers.
AB  - Recent policies by public and private payers have increased incentives to reduce
      hospital admissions. Using data from four states from the Agency for Healthcare
      Research and Quality Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, this study compared
      the payer-specific population-based rates of adults using inpatient, observation,
      and emergency department (ED) services for 10 common medical conditions in 2009
      and in 2013. Patients had an expected primary payer of private insurance,
      Medicare, Medicaid, or no insurance. Across all four payer populations, inpatient
      admissions declined, and care shifted toward treat-and-release observation stays
      and ED visits. The percentage of hospitalizations that began with an observation
      stay increased. Implications for quality of care and costs to patients warrant
      further examination. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:443-446.

PMID- 28574535
TI  - Telemetry Monitor Watchers Reduce Bedside Nurses' Exposure to Alarms by
      Intercepting a High Number of Nonactionable Alarms.
AB  - Cardiac telemetry, designed to monitor hospitalized patients with active cardiac
      conditions, is highly utilized outside the intensive care unit but is also
      resource-intensive and produces many nonactionable alarms. In a hospital setting
      in which dedicated monitor watchers are set up to be the first responders to
      system-generated alerts, we conducted a retrospective study of the alerts
      produced over a continuous 2-month period to evaluate how many were intercepted
      before nurse notification for being nonactionable, and how many resulted in code
      team activations. Over the 2-month period, the system generated 20,775 alerts
      (5.1/patient-day, on average), of which 87% were intercepted by monitor watchers.
      None of the alerts for asystole, ventricular fibrillation, or ventricular
      tachycardia resulted in a code team activation. Our results highlight the high
      burden of alerts, the large majority of which are nonactionable, as well as the
      role of monitor watchers in decreasing the alarm burden on nurses. Measures are
      needed to decrease telemetry-related alerts in order to reduce alarm-related
      harms, such as alarm fatigue. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:447-449.

PMID- 28574536
TI  - Perceptions of Hospital-Dependent Patients on Their Needs for Hospitalization.
AB  - In the United States, older adults account for a significant proportion of
      hospitalizations, and a subset become hospital-dependent, for reasons that are
      unclear. We conducted a qualitative study to explore these individuals'
      perspectives on their need for hospitalizations. Twenty patients hospitalized at
      an academic medical center underwent semistructured qualitative interviews.
      Criteria for selection included age 65 and older, at least three hospitalizations
      over six months, admission to the medical service at the time of the study, did
      not meet criteria for chronic critical illness, was not comfort measures only,
      and did not have a conservator. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and
      inductively analyzed. The major themes derived were the necessity and
      inevitability of hospitalizations ("You have to bring me in here"), feeling safe
      in the hospital ("It makes me feel more secure"), patients hospitalized despite
      having outside medical and social support ("I have everything"), and inadequate
      goals-of-care discussions ("It just doesn't occur to me"). Results suggested that
      candid discussions about health trajectories are needed to ensure hospitalization
      is consistent with the patient's realistic health priorities. Journal of Hospital
      Medicine 2017;12:450-453.

PMID- 28574538
TI  - Empiric Listeria monocytogenes Antibiotic Coverage for Febrile Infants (Age, 0-90
      Days).

PMID- 28574537
TI  - Incidental Pulmonary Nodules Reported on CT Abdominal Imaging: Frequency and
      Factors Affecting Inclusion in the Hospital Discharge Summary.
AB  - Incidental imaging findings require an assessment of risk and clinical relevance,
      as well as consideration of further evaluation. Incidental findings are common on
      imaging obtained in the hospital, with pulmonary nodules being among the most
      frequent findings that may require additional evaluation. We conducted a
      retrospective study to determine the factors associated with documentation of
      incidental findings in the hospital discharge summary, using pulmonary nodules
      reported on abdominal computed tomography (CT) as an example of incidental
      findings with well-defined follow-up guidelines. Between January 1, 2012 and
      December 31, 2014, 7173 patients underwent in-patient abdominal CT without
      concurrent chest CT; of these patients, 62.2% were >=60 years old, 50.6% were
      men, and 45.5% were current or former smokers. Incidental pulmonary nodules were
      reported in 402 patients (5.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.1%-6.2%). Based
      on nodule size, reported size stability, and patients' smoking status, 208
      patients (2.9%; 95% CI, 2.5%-3.3%) required follow-up surveillance, per the 2005
      Fleischner Society guidelines. Of these 208 patients, 48 (23%) received discharge
      summaries that included documentation of the incidental findings, with 34
      summaries including a recommendation for nodule follow-up and 19 summaries
      including a time frame for repeat CT. Three factors were positively associated
      with the inclusion of the pulmonary nodule in the discharge summary: mention of
      the pulmonary nodule in the summary headings of the radiology report (P <=
      0.001), radiologist recommendations for further surveillance (P <= 0.001), and
      medical discharging service (P = 0.016). These findings highlight the need for a
      multidisciplinary systems-based approach to incidental pulmonary nodule
      documentation and surveillance. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:454-457.

PMID- 28574539
TI  - Hot in the Tropics.

PMID- 28574540
TI  - Postdischarge Clinics and Hospitalists: A Review of the Evidence and Existing
      Models.
AB  - Over the past 10 years, postdischarge clinics have been introduced in response to
      various health system pressures, including the focus on rehospitalizations and
      the challenges of primary care access. Often ignored in the discussion are
      questions of the effect of postdischarge physician visits on readmissions. In
      addition, little attention has been given to other clinical outcomes, such as
      reducing preventable harm and mortality. A review of dedicated, hospitalist-led
      postdischarge clinics, of the data supporting postdischarge physician visits, and
      of the role of hospitalists in these clinics may be instructive for hospitalists
      and health systems considering the postdischarge clinic environment. Journal of
      Hospital Medicine 2017;12:467-471.

PMID- 28574541
TI  - Forgotten but Not Gone: Update on Measles Infection for Hospitalists.
AB  - Measles (rubeola) continues to be endemic and epidemic in many regions of the
      world. Measles is primarily a disease of childhood, but it can also affect adult
      populations, and therefore it is important that both adult and pediatric
      hospitalist physicians be able to recognize it. Although the disease is rarely
      encountered in the United States, measles infection can spread rapidly across
      vulnerable populations. In addition, infected adults can develop complications
      that may require hospitalization for treatment. This review summarizes the
      typical clinical course and complications of measles infection, along with
      recommendations for diagnosis and management for both adult and pediatric
      hospitalists. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:472-476.

PMID- 28574542
TI  - Mobility Assessment in the Hospital: What Are the "Next Steps"?

PMID- 28574543
TI  - It's Time for a Strategic Approach to Observation Care.

PMID- 28574544
TI  - Monitor Watchers and Alarm Fatigue: Cautious Optimism.

PMID- 28574545
TI  - Ultrafast energy transfer within the photosystem II core complex.
AB  - We report 2D electronic spectroscopy on the photosystem II core complex (PSII CC)
      at 77 K under different polarization conditions. A global analysis of the high
      time-resolution 2D data shows rapid, sub-100 fs energy transfer within the PSII
      CC. It also reveals the 2D spectral signatures of slower energy equilibration
      processes occurring on several to hundreds of picosecond time scales that are
      consistent with previous work. Using a recent structure-based model of the PSII
      CC [Y. Shibata, S. Nishi, K. Kawakami, J. R. Shen and T. Renger, J. Am. Chem.
      Soc., 2013, 135, 6903], we simulate the energy transfer in the PSII CC by
      calculating auxiliary time-resolved fluorescence spectra. We obtain the observed
      sub-100 fs evolution, even though the calculated electronic energy shows almost
      no dynamics at early times. On the other hand, the electronic-vibrational
      interaction energy increases considerably over the same time period. We conclude
      that interactions with vibrational degrees of freedom not only induce population
      transfer between the excitonic states in the PSII CC, but also reshape the energy
      landscape of the system. We suggest that the experimentally observed ultrafast
      energy transfer is a signature of excitonic-polaron formation.

PMID- 28574546
TI  - Complexation of tetraalkyl diglycolamides with trivalent f-cations in a room
      temperature ionic liquid: extraction and spectroscopic investigations.
AB  - This paper reports the complexation of a series of tetraalkyl diglycolamides
      (TRDGA) with trivalent f-cations in a room temperature ionic liquid, viz., 3
      octyl-1-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([C8mim][Tf2N]). The
      stability constants of TRDGA/Nd3+ complexes (where R = n-pentyl, n-hexyl, n
      octyl, n-decyl and 2-ethylhexl) were determined by absorbance spectroscopy. All
      the DGA ligands formed a 1 : 3 (Nd3+/DGA) complex as the limiting species.
      Solvent extraction data on Am3+ and Eu3+ were obtained with the TRDGA ligands in
      [C8mim][Tf2N] to arrive at a correlation between their extraction behaviour and
      complexation constant. The nature of the complex formed in the single phase
      titration (in [C8mim][Tf2N]) and those extracted in the [C8mim][Tf2N] medium from
      the aqueous phase were found to be identical. Fluorescence lifetime data
      confirmed that, in both single phase titration and biphasic solvent extraction,
      the complexation proceeded via replacement of water molecules from the primary
      coordination sphere of the metal ion. The spectroscopic data confirmed the
      absence of NO3- and Tf2N- ions or H2O in the extracted complexes.

PMID- 28574547
TI  - A substituent effect of phenylacetic acid coligand perturbed structures and
      magnetic properties observed in two triple-bridged azido-Cu(ii) chain compounds
      with ferromagnetic ordering and slow magnetic relaxation.
AB  - Based on two fluoro-substituted phenylacetate isomers, o-fluorophenylacetic acid
      (o-Hfpa) and p-fluorophenylacetic acid (p-Hfpa), two new Cu(ii)-azido compounds,
      [Cu(o-fpa)(N3)(C2H5OH)]n (1) and [Cu(p-fpa)(N3)(C2H5OH)]n (2), have been
      prepared, and structurally and magnetically characterized. Single-crystal
      structure analyses indicate that compounds 1 and 2 consist of 1D chain-like
      coordination networks in which adjacent copper cations are linked by the
      alternating triple-bridges of MU-1,1-azido, syn,syn-carboxylate and MU2-ethanol.
      For the two title compounds, the diverse charge distributions on the carboxyl
      groups caused by distinct substituent effects of the two phenylacetate coligands
      lead to the different structural parameters of intrachain Cu-Cu distances (3.218
      A for 1 and 3.168 A for 2) and Cu-N-Cu angles (106.82 degrees  for 1 and 104.81
      degrees  for 2), further resulting in the disparity of magnetic behaviors. The
      dominant ferromagnetic couplings between neighbouring Cu(ii) ions in the two
      compounds (J = 87.08 cm-1 for 1, J = 66.05 cm-1 for 2) are due to the counter
      complementarity of the multiple superexchange pathways, contributing to the
      interesting plots of a ferromagnetic order (Tc = 11.0 K for 1, 9.5 K for 2) and
      slow magnetic relaxation that are rarely observed in most of the reported azido
      Cu(ii) architectures. Heat-capacity experiments further emphasize the
      characteristic long-range ferromagnetic ordering in compounds 1 and 2. Magneto
      structural relationships of 1 and 2 are investigated as well. Moreover, DFT
      calculations (using different methods and basis sets) have been performed on both
      compounds to provide a qualitative and quantitative theoretical explanation of
      their magnetic behavior.

PMID- 28574548
TI  - Metal-organic frameworks constructed from tib and carboxylate acid ligands:
      selective sensing of nitro explosives and magnetic properties.
AB  - Four metal-organic frameworks, namely [Cd2(tib)(btb)(H2O)2].NO3.2.5DMF (1),
      [Cd(tib)(H2dhbqdc)0.5(NO3)].6H2O (2), [Co(tib)(1,4-ndc)].2DMF (3), and
      [Cu3(tib)2(2,6-ndc)2(H2O)2].2NO3.2H2O (4), were synthesized based on 1,3,5-tris(1
      imidazolyl)benzene and diverse carboxylic acid ligands. They have been
      characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy (IR), powder X-ray
      diffraction (PXRD), thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and single crystal X-ray
      diffraction. Compound 1 is a 3D framework constructed from a binuclear Cd cluster
      with (3,3,6)-connected (63)2(69.86) topology. Compound 2 exhibits a 2D wavy
      layered structure with (3,4)-connected topology, and compound 3 displays a two
      fold interpenetrating network with (3,5)-connected topology. Compound 4 can be
      regarded as a three-fold interpenetrating framework. Moreover, compounds 1 and 2
      can be used as fluorescent sensors sensing small molecules with high selectivity.
      In this context, we selected the typical toxic explosives, TNP, namely 2,4,6
      trinitrophenol and NB, namely nitrobenzene, as examples to investigate the
      properties of sensing. Furthermore, the magnetic properties of compounds 3 and 4
      are investigated.

PMID- 28574549
TI  - Titanium(iv)-based helicates incorporating the ortho-phenylenediamine ligand: a
      structural and a computational investigation.
AB  - The multicomponent coordination chemistry involving Ti(OPri)4, the ortho
      phenylenediamine ligand (opda) and 2,2'-biphenol-based proligands (L2H4 and L3H6)
      is described. The proligands L2H4 and L3H6 incorporate two and three 2,2'
      biphenol units linked with p-phenylene bridges (p-PLB) respectively. We
      demonstrate that this selected set of components allows the spontaneous formation
      of neutral double-stranded helicates. In particular, we report the X-ray crystal
      structure of a multicomponent helicate formed with L2, named Ti2(L2)2(opda)2. The
      molecular structure of the helicate shows two inequivalent L2 ligands. 1H NMR
      analysis at variable temperature highlights an intramolecular fluxional
      phenomenon for this species. An insight into this dynamic behaviour is obtained
      via the energy profiles of Ti2(L2)2(opda)2 resulting from the full rotation of
      the p-PLB rings. Additionally, the thermodynamic parameters associated with the
      formation of the Ti2(L2)2(opda)2 complex are modelled and discussed related to
      the ones linked to the formation of a related monomeric complex.

PMID- 28574550
TI  - Ionic liquid promotes N2 coordination to titanocene(iii) monochloride.
AB  - Coordination of N2 to [(Cp2TiCl)2] in a non-coordinating ionic liquid, Pyr4FAP,
      was studied by UV-vis/NIR and EPR spectroscopies. [(Cp2TiCl)2] is in equilibrium
      between monomeric [Cp2TiCl] and dimeric species [(Cp2TiCl)2]. The frozen solution
      EPR spectrum revealed the coordination of N2 to [Cp2TiCl], suggesting that
      Pyr4FAP promotes N2 coordination to the Ti(iii) center.

PMID- 28574551
TI  - Upper tropospheric water vapour and its interaction with cirrus clouds as seen
      from IAGOS long-term routine in situ observations.
AB  - IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) performs long-term
      routine in situ observations of atmospheric chemical composition (O3, CO, NOx,
      NOy, CO2, CH4), water vapour, aerosols, clouds, and temperature on a global scale
      by operating compact instruments on board of passenger aircraft. The unique
      characteristics of the IAGOS data set originate from the global scale sampling on
      air traffic routes with similar instrumentation such that the observations are
      truly comparable and well suited for atmospheric research on a statistical basis.
      Here, we present the analysis of 15 months of simultaneous observations of
      relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice) and ice crystal number
      concentration in cirrus (Nice) from July 2014 to October 2015. The joint data set
      of 360 hours of RHice-Nice observations in the global upper troposphere and
      tropopause region is analysed with respect to the in-cloud distribution of RHice
      and related cirrus properties. The majority of the observed cirrus is thin with
      Nice < 0.1 cm-3. The respective fractions of all cloud observations range from
      90% over the mid-latitude North Atlantic Ocean and the Eurasian Continent to 67%
      over the subtropical and tropical Pacific Ocean. The in-cloud RHice distributions
      do not depend on the geographical region of sampling. Types of cirrus origin (in
      situ origin, liquid origin) are inferred for different Nice regimes and
      geographical regions. Most importantly, we found that in-cloud RHice shows a
      strong correlation to Nice with slightly supersaturated dynamic equilibrium RHice
      associated with higher Nice values in stronger updrafts.

PMID- 28574552
TI  - trans-cis C-Pd-C rearrangement in hemichelates.
AB  - Kinetically unstable heteroleptic trans-bispalladacycles were isolated by using
      hemichelation. Three structures of trans isomers and five of cis isomers were
      characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. The ready trans-to-cis isomerization
      of such hemichelates that was monitored by variable temperature NMR experiments
      is facilitated dynamically because the Pd(ii) center can preserve its square
      planar coordination in a rather low lying transition state, which was localized
      by methods of the density functional theory. This process is not achievable in
      the isomerization of conventional homoleptic trans-bispalladacycles since it
      involves the preliminary partial chelate decoordination and an unfavorable high
      lying planar trigonal coordinated - or Y-shaped-Pd(ii) transition state according
      to DFT investigations.

PMID- 28574553
TI  - Can boron antisites of BNNTs be an efficient metal-free catalyst for nitrogen
      fixation? - A DFT investigation.
AB  - Nitrogen fixation is a challenging reaction under ambient conditions. So far, a
      few metal-based catalysts have been reported; however, noticeable disadvantages
      including high cost, gas poisoning, and them being hazardous to the environment
      are still to be resolved. We have carried out density functional theory based
      calculations with the omegaB97X-D/6-31G* level of theory to investigate the
      activation of dinitrogen using boron nitride based metal-free catalysts for the
      first time as they are environmentally friendly and corrosion resistant. The
      boron antisite of a boron nitride nanotube is found to be an active site for
      nitrogen activation. The activated N2 is characterized by the increase in bond
      length and the red shift in the stretching frequency of the N[triple bond, length
      as m-dash]N bond. The subsequent reduction mechanisms of activated N2 into
      ammonia through six-proton and six-electron processes have also been elucidated.
      The selectivity of the nitrogen reduction reaction between distal and alternating
      associative pathways is also rationalized. The reaction energetics highlight the
      distal associative mechanism as a feasible pathway under ambient conditions. The
      catalytic performance of BAS is further unraveled with the help of variation in
      the charge density. This work provides a rational model for the metal-free
      catalytic conversion of N2 to ammonia via an eco-friendly pathway under ambient
      conditions.

PMID- 28574554
TI  - Mesoporous titanium and niobium nitrides as conductive and stable electrocatalyst
      supports in acid environments.
AB  - The stability of carbon-based catalyst supports represents one of the biggest
      challenges for the commercialisation of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells
      (PEMFCs). Metal nitrides are an attractive alternative to carbon-based supports,
      owing to their high bulk conductivity and acid stability. We report the
      electrochemical stability evaluation of high-surface-area metal nitrides in
      acidic electrolytes. Three-dimensional mesoporous titanium (TiN) and niobium
      nitride (NbN) thin films were prepared using block copolymer self-assembly and
      were evaluated without using any conductive carbon additives or a carbon-based
      substrate. Both TiN and NbN are stable and maintain conductivity in acidic
      electrolytes up to at least 0.85 V (NbN) and 1.4 V (TiN) vs. reversible hydrogen
      electrode (RHE) after 2000 cycles. We also deposited platinum on the TiN films
      and demonstrate the expected cyclic voltammogram features, indicating the
      nitride's utility as a catalyst support.

PMID- 28574555
TI  - Condensed-phase biogenic-anthropogenic interactions with implications for cold
      cloud formation.
AB  - Anthropogenic and biogenic gas emissions contribute to the formation of secondary
      organic aerosol (SOA). When present, soot particles from fossil fuel combustion
      can acquire a coating of SOA. We investigate SOA-soot biogenic-anthropogenic
      interactions and their impact on ice nucleation in relation to the particles'
      organic phase state. SOA particles were generated from the OH oxidation of
      naphthalene, alpha-pinene, longifolene, or isoprene, with or without the presence
      of sulfate or soot particles. Corresponding particle glass transition (Tg) and
      full deliquescence relative humidity (FDRH) were estimated using a numerical
      diffusion model. Longifolene SOA particles are solid-like and all biogenic SOA
      sulfate mixtures exhibit a core-shell configuration (i.e. a sulfate-rich core
      coated with SOA). Biogenic SOA with or without sulfate formed ice at conditions
      expected for homogeneous ice nucleation, in agreement with respective Tg and
      FDRH. alpha-pinene SOA coated soot particles nucleated ice above the homogeneous
      freezing temperature with soot acting as ice nuclei (IN). At lower temperatures
      the alpha-pinene SOA coating can be semisolid, inducing ice nucleation.
      Naphthalene SOA coated soot particles acted as ice nuclei above and below the
      homogeneous freezing limit, which can be explained by the presence of a highly
      viscous SOA phase. Our results suggest that biogenic SOA does not play a
      significant role in mixed-phase cloud formation and the presence of sulfate
      renders this even less likely. However, anthropogenic SOA may have an enhancing
      effect on cloud glaciation under mixed-phase and cirrus cloud conditions compared
      to biogenic SOA that dominate during pre-industrial times or in pristine areas.

PMID- 28574556
TI  - The influence of polydopamine coating on gold nanorods for laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric analysis.
AB  - This paper examines the effect of polydopamine (PD) coating of gold nanorods
      (GNRs) on their performance as a matrix material for laser desorption/ionization
      time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOF-MS) analysis. Bare GNRs and PD-coated
      GNRs (PD@GNRs) were utilized for LDI-TOF-MS analyses of small molecules and
      synthetic polymers, and the influences of PD-coating were mechanistically
      studied. Based on the results, we found that the PD-coating of GNRs suppressed
      the generation of undesired gold cluster ions, enhanced photothermal conversion
      and the LDI-TOF-MS efficiency, and expanded the working molecular weight range.

PMID- 28574557
TI  - Enabling iron catalyzed Doyle-Kirmse rearrangement reactions with in situ
      generated diazo compounds.
AB  - Slow addition of sodium nitrite allows the in situ preparation of highly
      explosive diazo compounds and enables their safe and scalable application in iron
      catalyzed rearrangement reactions of allylic and propargylic sulfides. With
      catalyst loadings as low as 0.1 mol% an effective entry into alpha-mercapto
      nitriles, alpha-mercapto-esters and alpha-trifluoromethyl-sulfides on a gram
      scale is achieved.

PMID- 28574558
TI  - A molecular self-assembled colourimetric chemosensor array for simultaneous
      detection of metal ions in water.
AB  - We propose a novel strategy for a high-throughput sensing of metal ions using a
      molecular self-assembled colourimetric chemosensor array. The proposed
      colourimetric assay has been achieved by only using the combination of
      commercially available materials. Importantly, the easy-to-prepare assay can be
      utilised to quantitatively detect metal ions under competitive conditions.

PMID- 28574559
TI  - Two unusual 3D honeycomb networks based on Wells-Dawson arsenomolybdates with d10
      transition-metal-pyrazole connectors.
AB  - Herein, two Wells -Dawson-type arsenomolybdates, formulated as
      [Cu(pyr)2]6[As2Mo18O62] (1) and [Ag(pyr)2]6[As2Mo18O62] (2) (pyr = pyrazole),
      were hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized via single-crystal
      X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, IR and UV-vis-NIR spectroscopies, XPS,
      XRD, and TG analysis. The structural analysis indicated that compounds 1 and 2
      were isomorphic. They are the first reported 3D honeycomb structures of Wells
      Dawson-type arsenomolybdates. The [M(pyr)2] (M = Cu and Ag) connected with
      [As2Mo18O62]6- polyoxoanions to form the {812.123}{8}3 topological structure. The
      contributions of organic ligands, pH value, reaction temperature, and transition
      metal (TM) to the construction of 3D networks were elucidated. Furthermore,
      compounds 1 and 2 exhibited fluorescence properties in the solid state at room
      temperature, highly efficient catalytic ability for the degradation of five
      organic dyes (MB, RhB, MO, AP, and CR) under UV irradiation, and obvious
      electrocatalytic activities for the reduction of H2O2. The mechanisms of
      photocatalysis and electrocatalysis have also been discussed in detail.

PMID- 28574560
TI  - Approximate quantum chemical methods for modelling carbohydrate conformation and
      aromatic interactions: beta-cyclodextrin and its adsorption on a single-layer
      graphene sheet.
AB  - Noncovalent functionalization of graphene by carbohydrates such as beta
      cyclodextrin (betaCD) has the potential to improve graphene dispersibility and
      its use in biomedical applications. Here we explore the ability of approximate
      quantum chemical methods to accurately model betaCD conformation and its
      interaction with graphene. We find that DFTB3, SCC-DFTB and PM3CARB-1 methods
      provide the best agreement with density functional theory (DFT) in calculation of
      relative energetics of gas-phase betaCD conformers; however, the remaining NDDO
      based approaches we considered underestimate the stability of the trans,gauche
      vicinal diol conformation. This diol orientation, corresponding to a clockwise
      hydrogen bonding arrangement in the glucosyl residue of betaCD, is present in the
      lowest energy betaCD conformer. Consequently, for adsorption on graphene of
      clockwise or counterclockwise hydrogen bonded forms of betaCD, calculated with
      respect to this unbound conformer, the DFTB3 method provides closer agreement
      with DFT values than PM7 and PM6-DH2 approaches. These findings suggest
      approximate quantum chemical methods as potentially useful tools to guide the
      design of carbohydrate-graphene interactions, but also highlights the specific
      challenge to NDDO-based methods in capturing the relative energetics of
      carbohydrate hydrogen bond networks.

PMID- 28574561
TI  - Influence of the physicochemical characteristics of reduced graphene oxides on
      the gas permeability of the barrier films for organic electronics.
AB  - The gas permeability of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) films is influenced by
      controlling the lateral size and void generation. Low gas permeability was
      achieved by the controlled synthesis of parent graphene oxide (GO). The organic
      device lifetime using rGO-coated barriers was prolonged by 65.9 times when
      compared to bare samples.

PMID- 28574562
TI  - One-pot preparation of a novel CO-releasing material based on a CO-releasing
      molecule@metal-organic framework system.
AB  - A novel CO releasing material has been prepared via a one-pot synthesis
      encapsulation strategy using the hierarchical metal organic framework [Zn2(dhtp)]
      (dhtp = 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalate) as a host of the photoactivable molybdenum
      tricarbonyl complex [Mo(CNCMe2CO2H)3(CO)3].

PMID- 28574563
TI  - Reactive oxygen species formed in aqueous mixtures of secondary organic aerosols
      and mineral dust influencing cloud chemistry and public health in the
      Anthropocene.
AB  - Mineral dust and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) account for a major fraction of
      atmospheric particulate matter, affecting climate, air quality and public health.
      How mineral dust interacts with SOA to influence cloud chemistry and public
      health, however, is not well understood. Here, we investigated the formation of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are key species of atmospheric and
      physiological chemistry, in aqueous mixtures of SOA and mineral dust by applying
      electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry in combination with a spin
      trapping technique, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS),
      and a kinetic model. We found that substantial amounts of ROS including OH,
      superoxide as well as carbon- and oxygen-centred organic radicals can be formed
      in aqueous mixtures of isoprene, alpha-pinene, naphthalene SOA and various kinds
      of mineral dust (ripidolite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, palygorskite, and
      Saharan dust). The molar yields of total radicals were ~0.02-0.5% at 295 K, which
      showed higher values at 310 K, upon 254 nm UV exposure, and under low pH (<3)
      conditions. ROS formation can be explained by the decomposition of organic
      hydroperoxides, which are a prominent fraction of SOA, through interactions with
      water and Fenton-like reactions with dissolved transition metal ions. Our
      findings imply that the chemical reactivity and aging of SOA particles can be
      enhanced upon interaction with mineral dust in deliquesced particles or cloud/fog
      droplets. SOA decomposition could be comparably important to the classical Fenton
      reaction of H2O2 with Fe2+ and that SOA can be the main source of OH radicals in
      aqueous droplets at low concentrations of H2O2 and Fe2+. In the human respiratory
      tract, the inhalation and deposition of SOA and mineral dust can also lead to the
      release of ROS, which may contribute to oxidative stress and play an important
      role in the adverse health effects of atmospheric aerosols in the Anthropocene.

PMID- 28574564
TI  - Critical Casimir interactions between colloids around the critical point of
      binary solvents.
AB  - Critical Casimir interactions between colloidal particles arise from the
      confinement of fluctuations of a near-critical solvent in the liquid gap between
      closely-spaced particles. So far, the comparison of theoretical predictions and
      experimental measurements of critical Casimir forces (CCFs) has focused on the
      critical solvent composition, while it has been lacking for off-critical
      compositions. We address this issue by investigating CCFs between spherical
      colloidal particles around the critical point of a binary solvent through a
      combination of experiments, previous Ising Monte Carlo simulation results and
      field-theoretical methods. By measuring the correlation length of the near
      critical solvent and the pair potentials of the particles in terms of radial
      distribution functions and by determining the second virial coefficient, we test
      in detail theoretical predictions. Our results indicate that the critical Casimir
      theory gives quantitative correct predictions for the interaction potential
      between particles in a near critical binary mixture if weak preferential
      adsorption of the particle surface is taken into account.

PMID- 28574565
TI  - Molecular dynamics of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate ionic liquid studied
      by 1H and 19F nuclear magnetic resonances.
AB  - The molecular dynamics of an ionic liquid (IL) composed of a 1-ethyl-3
      methylimidazolium cation and a triflate (trifluoromethanesulfonate) anion,
      abbreviated as [Emim][TfO], were studied by NMR spectroscopy. By measuring the
      temperature-dependent high-field 1H and 19F spin-lattice relaxation (SLR) rates,
      the frequency-dependent 1H and 19F SLR dispersion curves using fast-field-cycling
      relaxometry, and the temperature-dependent 1H and 19F diffusion constants, and by
      utilizing the fact that the primary NMR-active nucleus on the Emim cation is 1H,
      whereas on the TfO anion it is 19F, the cationic and anionic dynamics were
      studied separately. A single theoretical relaxation model successfully reproduced
      all the experimental data of both types of resonant nuclei by fitting all the
      data simultaneously with the same set of fit parameters. Upon cooling,
      [Emim][TfO] exhibited a supercooled liquid phase between TSL = 256 K and the
      crystallization temperature TCr ~ 227-222 K, as confirmed by differential
      scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments. Theoretical analysis revealed that within
      the liquid and the supercooled liquid states of [Emim][TfO], the 1H and 19F
      relaxation rates are affected by both the rotational and translational
      diffusional processes with no discontinuous change at TSL. While the rotational
      diffusion is well described as an Arrhenius thermally activated process, the
      translational diffusion undergoes strong freezing dynamics that are well
      described by the Vogel-Fulcher model assuming a freezing temperature of T0 = 157
      K. The existence of the supercooled liquid region in the [Emim][TfO] IL should be
      taken into account when using this IL for a specific application.

PMID- 28574566
TI  - Baseline toxicity and ion-trapping models to describe the pH-dependence of
      bacterial toxicity of pharmaceuticals.
AB  - In numerous studies on the toxicity of ionisable organic chemicals, it has been
      shown that the toxicity was typically higher, when larger fractions of the
      neutral species were present. This observation was explained in some cases by
      slower uptake of charged species. In other cases it was suggested that the
      neutral species has intrinsically higher toxicity than the charged species or is
      alone responsible for the toxicity. However, even permanently charged and organic
      chemicals with multiple acid and base functional groups and zwitterions are
      toxic. We set out to reconcile the divergent views and to compare the various
      existing models for describing the pH-dependence of toxicity with the goal to
      derive one model that is valid independent of the type and number of charges on
      the molecule. To achieve this goal we measured the cytotoxicity of 18 acidic, 15
      basic and 9 multiprotic/zwitterionic pharmaceuticals at pH 5.5 to pH 9 with the
      bioluminescence inhibition test using Aliivibrio fischeri (Microtox assay). This
      assay is useful for an evaluation of various models to describe pH-dependent
      toxicity because the majority of chemicals act as baseline toxicants in this 30
      min cytotoxicity assay. Therefore baseline toxicity with constant membrane
      concentrations of the sum of all chemical species of approximately 200 mmol kglip
      1 served for the validation of the suitability of the various tested models. We
      confirmed that most tested pharmaceuticals acted as baseline toxicants in this
      assay at all examined pH values, when toxicity was modeled with a mixture model
      of concentration addition between the neutral species and all charged species. An
      ion trapping model, that assumes that the membrane permeability of charged
      species is kinetically limited, improved model predictions for some
      pharmaceuticals and pH values. However, neither unhindered uptake nor no uptake
      of the charged species were ideal models; the reality lies presumably between the
      two limiting cases with a slower uptake of the charged species than the neutral
      species. For practical applications a previously developed QSAR model with the
      ionisation-corrected liposome-water distribution ratio as the sole
      physicochemical descriptor proved to be generally applicable for all ionisable
      organic chemicals including those with multiple charges and zwitterions.

PMID- 28574567
TI  - Using advanced mass spectrometry techniques to fully characterize atmospheric
      organic carbon: current capabilities and remaining gaps.
AB  - Organic compounds in the atmosphere vary widely in their molecular composition
      and chemical properties, so no single instrument can reasonably measure the
      entire range of ambient compounds. Over the past decade, a new generation of in
      situ, field-deployable mass spectrometers has dramatically improved our ability
      to detect, identify, and quantify these organic compounds, but no systematic
      approach has been developed to assess the extent to which currently available
      tools capture the entire space of chemical identity and properties that is
      expected in the atmosphere. Reduced-parameter frameworks that have been developed
      to describe atmospheric mixtures are exploited here to characterize the range of
      chemical properties accessed by a suite of instruments. Multiple chemical spaces
      (e.g. oxidation state of carbon vs. volatility, and oxygen number vs. carbon
      number) were populated with ions measured by several mass spectrometers, with gas
      and particle-phase alpha-pinene oxidation products serving as the test mixture
      of organic compounds. Few gaps are observed in the coverage of the parameter
      spaces by the instruments employed in this work, though the full extent to which
      comprehensive measurement was achieved is difficult to assess due to uncertainty
      in the composition of the mixture. Overlaps between individual ions and regions
      in parameter space were identified, both between gas- and particle-phase
      measurements, and within each phase. These overlaps were conservatively found to
      account for little (<10%) of the measured mass. However, challenges in
      identifying overlaps and in accurately converting molecular formulas into
      chemical properties (such as volatility or reactivity) highlight a continued need
      to incorporate structural information into atmospheric measurements.

PMID- 28574568
TI  - Aerosol climate change effects on land ecosystem services.
AB  - A coupled global aerosol-carbon-climate model is applied to assess the impacts of
      aerosol physical climate change on the land ecosystem services gross primary
      productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP) in the 1996-2005 period.
      Aerosol impacts are quantified on an annual mean basis relative to the
      hypothetical aerosol-free world in 1996-2005, the global climate state in the
      absence of the historical rise in aerosol pollution. We examine the separate and
      combined roles of fast feedbacks associated with the land and slow feedbacks
      associated with the ocean. We consider all fossil fuel, biofuel and biomass
      burning aerosol emission sources as anthropogenic. The effective radiative
      forcing for aerosol-radiation interactions is -0.44 W m-2 and aerosol-cloud
      interactions is -1.64 W m-2. Aerosols cool and dry the global climate system by 
      0.8  degrees C and -0.08 mm per day relative to the aerosol-free world. Without
      aerosol pollution, human-induced global warming since the preindustrial would
      have already exceeded the 1.5  degrees C aspirational limit set in the Paris
      Agreement by the 1996-2005 decade. Aerosol climate impacts on the global average
      land ecosystem services are small due to large opposite sign effects in the
      tropical and boreal biomes. Aerosol slow feedbacks associated with the ocean
      strongly dominate impacts in the Amazon and North American Boreal. Aerosol
      cooling of the Amazon by -1.2  degrees C drives NPP increases of 8% or +0.76 +/-
      0.61 PgC per year, a 5-10 times larger impact than estimates of diffuse radiation
      fertilization by biomass burning aerosol in this region. The North American
      Boreal suffers GPP and NPP decreases of 35% due to aerosol-induced cooling and
      drying (-1.6  degrees C, -0.14 mm per day). Aerosol-land feedbacks play a larger
      role in the eastern US and Central Africa. Our study identifies an eco-climate
      teleconnection in the polluted earth system: the rise of the northern hemisphere
      mid-latitude reflective aerosol pollution layer causes long range cooling that
      protects Amazon NPP by 8% and suppresses boreal NPP by 35%.

PMID- 28574569
TI  - Atmospheric protein chemistry influenced by anthropogenic air pollutants:
      nitration and oligomerization upon exposure to ozone and nitrogen dioxide.
AB  - The allergenic potential of airborne proteins may be enhanced via post
      translational modification induced by air pollutants like ozone (O3) and nitrogen
      dioxide (NO2). The molecular mechanisms and kinetics of the chemical
      modifications that enhance the allergenicity of proteins, however, are still not
      fully understood. Here, protein tyrosine nitration and oligomerization upon
      simultaneous exposure of O3 and NO2 were studied in coated-wall flow-tube and
      bulk solution experiments under varying atmospherically relevant conditions (5
      200 ppb O3, 5-200 ppb NO2, 45-96% RH), using bovine serum albumin as a model
      protein. Generally, more tyrosine residues were found to react via the nitration
      pathway than via the oligomerization pathway. Depending on reaction conditions,
      oligomer mass fractions and nitration degrees were in the ranges of 2.5-25% and
      0.5-7%, respectively. The experimental results were well reproduced by the
      kinetic multilayer model of aerosol surface and bulk chemistry (KM-SUB). The
      extent of nitration and oligomerization strongly depends on relative humidity
      (RH) due to moisture-induced phase transition of proteins, highlighting the
      importance of cloud processing conditions for accelerated protein chemistry.
      Dimeric and nitrated species were major products in the liquid phase, while
      protein oligomerization was observed to a greater extent for the solid and semi
      solid phase states of proteins. Our results show that the rate of both processes
      was sensitive towards ambient ozone concentration, but rather insensitive towards
      different NO2 levels. An increase of tropospheric ozone concentrations in the
      Anthropocene may thus promote pro-allergic protein modifications and contribute
      to the observed increase of allergies over the past decades.

PMID- 28574570
TI  - Accurate representations of the physicochemical properties of atmospheric
      aerosols: when are laboratory measurements of value?
AB  - Laboratory studies can provide important insights into the processes that occur
      at the scale of individual particles in ambient aerosol. We examine the
      accuracies of measurements of core physicochemical properties of aerosols that
      can be made in single particle studies and explore the impact of these properties
      on the microscopic processes that occur in ambient aerosol. Presenting new
      measurements, we examine here the refinements in our understanding of aerosol
      hygroscopicity, surface tension, viscosity and optical properties that can be
      gained from detailed laboratory measurements for complex mixtures through to
      surrogates for secondary organic atmospheric aerosols.

PMID- 28574572
TI  - Targeting the tumor microenvironment as a potential therapeutic approach in
      colorectal cancer: Rational and progress.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CC) is often diagnosed at a late stage when tumor metastasis
      may have already occurred. Current treatments are often ineffective in metastatic
      disease, and consequently late diagnosis is often associated with poor outcomes
      in CC. Alternative strategies are therefore urgently required. An interaction
      between epithelial cancer cells and their tissue microenvironment is a
      contributor to metastasis, and therefore recent studies are beginning to focus on
      the properties of the tumor microenvironment and the mechanism by which the
      metastatic cells exploit the tumor microenvironment for survival, immune evasion,
      and growth. We have reviewed the development of the combined therapeutic
      approaches that have focused on targeting the microenvironment of CC.

PMID- 28574573
TI  - Mass media interventions for preventing smoking in young people.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mass media interventions can be used as a way of delivering
      preventive health messages. They have the potential to reach and modify the
      knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of a large proportion of the community.
      OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of mass media interventions on preventing
      smoking in young people, and whether it can reduce smoking uptake among youth
      (under 25 years), improve smoking attitudes, intentions and knowledge, improve
      self-efficacy/self-esteem, and improve perceptions about smoking, including the
      choice to follow positive role models. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane
      Tobacco Addiction Group Specialized Register, with additional searches of MEDLINE
      and Embase in June 2016. This is an update of a review first published in 1998.
      SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized trials, controlled trials without randomization
      and interrupted time-series studies that assessed the effect of mass media
      campaigns (defined as channels of communication such as television, radio,
      newspapers, social media, billboards, posters, leaflets or booklets intended to
      reach large numbers of people and which are not dependent on person-to-person
      contact) in influencing the smoking behaviour (either objective or self-reported)
      of young people under the age of 25 years. We define smoking behaviour as the
      presence or absence of tobacco smoking or other tobacco use, or both, and the
      frequency of tobacco use. Eligible comparators included education or no
      intervention. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently
      extracted information relating to the characteristics and the content of media
      interventions, participants, outcomes, methods of the study and risks of bias. We
      combined studies using qualitative narrative synthesis. We assessed the risks of
      bias for each study using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' tool, alongside additional
      domains to account for the nature of the intervention. We assessed the quality of
      evidence contributing to outcomes using GRADE. MAIN RESULTS: We identified eight
      eligible studies reporting information about mass media smoking campaigns, one of
      which is new for this update. Seven of the studies used a controlled trial design
      and one an interrupted time-series analysis. Risks of bias were high across all
      included studies and there was considerable heterogeneity in study design,
      intervention and population being assessed.Three studies (n = 17,385), one of
      which compared a mass media intervention to no intervention and two of which
      evaluated mass media interventions as adjuncts to school-based interventions,
      found that the mass media interventions reduced the smoking behaviour of young
      people. The remaining five studies (n = 72,740) did not detect a significant
      effect on smoking behaviour. These included three studies comparing a mass media
      intervention to no intervention, one study evaluating a mass media intervention
      as an adjunct to a school-based intervention, and one interrupted time-series
      study of a social media intervention. The three campaigns which found a
      significant effect described their theoretical basis, used formative research in
      designing the campaign messages, and used message broadcast of reasonable
      intensity over extensive periods of time. However, some of the campaigns which
      did not detect an effect also exhibited these characteristics. Effective
      campaigns tended to last longer (minimum 3 years) and were more intense (more
      contact time) for both school-based lessons (minimum eight lessons per grade) and
      media spots (minimum four weeks' duration across multiple media channels with
      between 167 and 350 TV and radio spots). Implementation of combined school-based
      components (e.g. school posters) and the use of repetitive media messages
      delivered by multiple channels (e.g. newspapers, radio, television) appeared to
      contribute to successful campaigns. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Certainty about the
      effects of mass media campaigns on smoking behaviour in youth is very low, due to
      inconsistency between studies in both design and results, and due to
      methodological issues amongst the included studies. It would therefore be unwise
      to offer firm conclusions based on the evidence in this review. Methodologically
      rigorous studies investigating the effect of social media and novel forms of
      technology as part of tobacco prevention campaigns for youth are needed.

PMID- 28574571
TI  - Roles of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in cartilage tissue engineering.
AB  - To obtain stable outcomes in regenerative medicine, understanding and controlling
      immunological responses in transplanted tissues are of great importance. In our
      previous study, auricular chondrocytes in tissue-engineered cartilage
      transplanted in mice were shown to express immunological factors, including
      macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). Since MIF exerts pleiotropic
      functions, in this study, we examined the roles of MIF in cartilage regenerative
      medicine. We made tissue-engineered cartilage consisting of auricular
      chondrocytes of C57BL/6J mouse, atellocollagen gel and a PLLA scaffold, and
      transplanted the construct subcutaneously in a syngeneic manner. Localization of
      MIF was prominent in cartilage areas of tissue-engineered cartilage at 2 weeks
      after transplantation, though it became less apparent by 8 weeks. Co-culture with
      RAW264 significantly increased the expression of MIF in chondrocytes, suggesting
      that the transplanted chondrocytes in tissue-engineered cartilage could enhance
      the expression of MIF by stimulation of surrounding macrophages. When MIF was
      added in the culture of chondrocytes, the expression of type II collagen was
      increased, indicating that MIF could promote the maturation of chondrocytes.
      Meanwhile, toluidine blue staining of constructs containing wild type (Mif+/+)
      chondrocytes showed increased metachromasia compared to MIF-knockout (Mif-/-)
      constructs at 2 weeks. However, this tendency was reversed by 8 weeks, suggesting
      that the initial increase in cartilage maturation in Mif+/+ constructs
      deteriorated by 8 weeks. Since the Mif+/+ constructs included more iNOS-positive
      inflammatory macrophages at 2 weeks, MIF might induce an M1 macrophage-polarized
      environment, which may eventually worsen the maturation of tissue-engineered
      cartilage in the long term.

PMID- 28574574
TI  - Actions of quercetin, a flavonoid, on ion transporters: its physiological roles.
AB  - Flavonoids keep us healthy by controlling various body and cellular functions. It
      is well known that cations, such as Na+ , K+ , and Ca2+ , play important roles in
      the regulation of body and cellular functions, including generation of action
      potentials and the resting membrane potential of neural and muscle cells and
      signal transduction as intracellular second messengers. However, we have little
      information on the physiological roles of anions, particularly Cl- , in body and
      cellular functions. Quercetin, a flavonoid, stimulates Na+ -K+ -2Cl-
      cotransporter 1 (NKCC1), which is one of the most important ion transporters
      regulating the cytosolic Cl- concentration ([Cl- ]c ). Here, we introduce the
      molecular mechanism by which flavonoids, specifically quercetin, act through
      elevation of [Cl- ]c via activation of NKCC1 on important factors controlling
      various body and cellular functions, such as (1) antihypertensive actions
      controlling blood volume dependent on the amounts of renal Na+ reabsorption via
      expression of the epithelial Na+ channel, (2) neurite-elongating actions via
      polymerization of tubulin by inhibiting GTPase activity, and (3) antibacterial
      and antiviral infective actions through stimulation of epithelial Cl- secretion
      by increasing the driving force for epithelial Cl- secretion.

PMID- 28574575
TI  - Genomics of antibiotic-resistance prediction in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide health issue spreading quickly among human
      and animal pathogens, as well as environmental bacteria. Misuse of antibiotics
      has an impact on the selection of resistant bacteria, thus contributing to an
      increase in the occurrence of resistant genotypes that emerge via spontaneous
      mutation or are acquired by horizontal gene transfer. There is a specific and
      urgent need not only to detect antimicrobial resistance but also to predict
      antibiotic resistance in silico. We now have the capability to sequence hundreds
      of bacterial genomes per week, including assembly and annotation. Novel and
      forthcoming bioinformatics tools can predict the resistome and the mobilome with
      a level of sophistication not previously possible. Coupled with bacterial strain
      collections and databases containing strain metadata, prediction of antibiotic
      resistance and the potential for virulence are moving rapidly toward a novel
      approach in molecular epidemiology. Here, we present a model system in antibiotic
      resistance prediction, along with its promises and limitations. As it is commonly
      multidrug resistant, Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes infections that are often
      difficult to eradicate. We review novel approaches for genotype prediction of
      antibiotic resistance. We discuss the generation of microbial sequence data for
      real-time patient management and the prediction of antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28574577
TI  - PCSK9 and infection: A potentially useful or dangerous association?
AB  - Elevated plasma low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) concentration is the
      most important risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).
      Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a ubiquitously expressed
      serine proteinase which plays a key role in cholesterol metabolism, but has been
      found to be implicated in some other lipid-independent physiological processes.
      In this review, the role of PCSK9 was evaluated not only concerning lipid
      metabolism but also hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, bacterial
      infections/sepsis, and septic shock. Collected data from clinical trials revealed
      that treatment with PCSK9 inhibitors has beneficial effects in lowering LDL-C via
      inhibition of LDL-receptors (LDL-R), an antiviral effect on HCV infection via
      down-regulating the surface expression of LDL-R and CD81 on hepatic cells, and a
      positive association with increased inflammatory responses, as well as with
      septic shock by down-regulation of hepatocyte LDL-R. On the other hand, PCSK9
      inhibition by therapeutic fully humanized antibodies has positive effects in
      reducing elevated LDL-C. However, their safety and tolerability is an important
      issue which has to be taken into consideration.

PMID- 28574578
TI  - The Fam50a positively regulates ameloblast differentiation via interacting with
      Runx2.
AB  - Differentiated ameloblasts secret enamel matrix proteins such as amelogenin,
      ameloblastin, and enamelin. Expression levels of these proteins are regulated by
      various factors. To find a new regulatory factor for ameloblast differentiation,
      we performed 2D-PAGE analysis using mouse ameloblast lineage cell line (mALCs)
      cultured with mineralizing medium. Of identified proteins, family with sequence
      similarity 50 member A (Fam50a) was significantly increased during
      differentiation of mALCs. Fam50a protein was also highly expressed in secretory
      ameloblasts of mouse tooth germs. In mALCs cultures, forced expression of Fam50a
      up-regulated the expression of enamel matrix protein genes such as amelogenin,
      ameloblastin, and enamelin. In addition, up-regulation of Fam50a also increased
      ALP activity and mineralized nodule formation in a dose-dependent manner. In
      contrast, knockdown of Fam50a decreased expression levels of enamel matrix
      protein genes, ALP activity, and mineralized nodule formation. By fluorescence
      microscopy, endogenous Fam50a protein was found to be localized to the nucleus of
      ameloblasts. In addition, Fam50a synergistically increased Ambn transactivation
      by Runx2. Moreover, Fam50a increased binding affinity of Runx2 to Ambn promoter
      by physically interacting with Runx2. Taken together, these results suggest
      Fam50a might be a new positive regulator of ameloblast differentiation.

PMID- 28574576
TI  - VEGF-A165 b protects against proteinuria in a mouse model with progressive
      depletion of all endogenous VEGF-A splice isoforms from the kidney.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Progressive depletion of all vascular endothelial growth factor A
      (VEGF-A) splice isoforms from the kidney results in proteinuria and increased
      glomerular water permeability, which are both rescued by over-expression of VEGF
      A165 b only. VEGF-A165 b rescues the increase in glomerular basement membrane and
      podocyte slit width, as well as the decrease in sub-podocyte space coverage,
      produced by VEGF-A depletion. VEGF-A165 b restores the expression of platelet
      endothelial cell adhesion molecule in glomerular endothelial cells and glomerular
      capillary circumference. VEGF-A165 b has opposite effects to VEGF-A165 on the
      expression of genes involved in endothelial cell migration and proliferation.
      ABSTRACT: Chronic kidney disease is strongly associated with a decrease in the
      expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A). However, little is
      known about the contribution of VEGF-A splice isoforms to kidney physiology and
      pathology. Previous studies suggest that the splice isoform VEGF-A165 b
      (resulting from alternative usage of a 3' splice site in the terminal exon) is
      protective for kidney function. In the present study, we show, in a quad
      transgenic model, that over-expression of VEGF-A165 b alone is sufficient to
      rescue the increase in proteinuria, as well as glomerular water permeability, in
      the context of progressive depletion of all VEGF-A isoforms from the podocytes.
      Ultrastructural studies show that the glomerular basement membrane is thickened,
      podocyte slit width is increased and sub-podocyte space coverage is reduced when
      VEGF-A is depleted, all of which are rescued in VEGF-A165 b over-expressors. VEGF
      A165 b restores the expression of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1
      in glomerular endothelial cells and glomerular capillary circumference.
      Mechanistically, it increases VEGF receptor 2 expression both in vivo and in
      vitro and down-regulates genes involved in migration and proliferation of
      endothelial cells, otherwise up-regulated by the canonical isoform VEGF-A165 .
      The results of the present study indicate that manipulation of VEGF-A splice
      isoforms could be a novel therapeutic avenue in chronic glomerular disease.

PMID- 28574579
TI  - The effect of a maternal history of childhood abuse on adrenocortical attunement
      in mothers and their toddlers.
AB  - We investigated circadian mother-child adrenocortical attunement in the context
      of a maternal history of childhood abuse (HoA). Mothers were screened after birth
      using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Women reporting moderate or severe
      abuse formed the HoA group (n = 37; HoAG) and were compared with a non-maltreated
      comparison group (n = 45; CG). Three years later, cortisol awakening response
      (CAR) and diurnal slope (DSL) were assessed. Mother-child interaction was coded
      using the Emotional Availability Scales at 12 months of age. For the CAR, we
      found adrenocortical attunement only in the HoAG (2-way interaction: p = .004),
      particularly if mothers scored low on structuring (3-way interaction: p = .042)
      and children scored low on responsiveness (3-way interaction: p = .044). DSL
      attunement was dependent on maternal sensitivity (3-way interaction: p = .012)
      and child involvement (3-way interaction: p = .012). In the context of a maternal
      HoA, it seems possible for mother-child-dyads to show less optimal interactional
      quality but be stronger attuned to each other biologically.

PMID- 28574580
TI  - Echographic features and perinatal outcomes in fetuses with congenital absence of
      ductus venosus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to describe the echographic features
      and perinatal outcomes of fetuses with absence of ductus venosus. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Retrospective review of 10 cases with absence of ductus venosus
      diagnosed by prenatal ultrasonography between January 2014 and February 2016 at a
      single referral center. Prenatal findings, umbilical shunting type, perinatal
      outcomes, and autopsy reports were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 11 491 fetuses
      underwent a first- and second-trimester screening during the study period. Ten
      cases of absence of ductus venosus were diagnosed. All of the fetuses presented
      an extrahepatic shunt: three fetuses from the umbilical vein to the right atrium
      and the seven remaining fetuses from the umbilical vein to the inferior vena
      cava. Major structural defects and fetal effusions were detected in six fetuses.
      There were two cases of chromosomal abnormalities. Five patients underwent legal
      termination of pregnancy and five decided to carry to term. In two of these, the
      absence of ductus venosus anomaly was isolated and had a normal outcome. In the
      remaining three cases, a follow up of the children showed a variety of adverse
      outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of ductus venosus is associated with high
      rates of adverse perinatal outcomes. The prognosis for this group of anomalies
      depends on the additional findings with targeted ultrasound. This pathology
      should lead to a detailed anatomical study and affected fetuses should be closely
      monitored for signs of congestive heart failure.

PMID- 28574583
TI  - The significant role of the Golgi apparatus in cardiovascular diseases.
AB  - The Golgi apparatus (GA) is a ribbon-like system of stacks which consist of
      multiple closely apposed flattened cisternae and vesicles usually localized in
      the juxta-nuclear area. As for the biological functions, the GA plays a major
      role in protein biosynthesis, post-translational modification, and sorting
      protein from ER to plasma membrane and other destinations. Structural changes and
      functional disorder of the GA is associated with various diseases. Moreover,
      increasing evidence revealed that swelling, poor development, and other
      morphological alterations of the GA are linked to cardiovascular diseases such as
      heart failure (HF), arrhythmia, and dilated cardiomyopathy. Furthermore,
      dysfunction of the GA is also related to cardiovascular diseases since the GA is
      extremely responsible for transport, glycosylation, biosynthesis, and subcellular
      distribution of cardiovascular proteins. This review gives a brief overview of
      the intricate relationship between the GA and cardiovascular diseases. In
      addition, we provide a further prospective that the GA may provide diagnosis
      reference for cardiovascular diseases, and changes in the ultrastructure and
      morphology of the GA such as swelling, poor development, and fragmentation may
      serve as a reliable index for cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28574581
TI  - The beta3 -adrenoceptor agonist mirabegron increases human atrial force through
      beta1 -adrenoceptors: an indirect mechanism?
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Mirabegron has been classified as a beta3 -adrenoceptor
      agonist approved for overactive bladder syndrome. We investigated possible
      cardiac effects of mirabegron in the absence or presence of beta-adrenoceptor
      subtype antagonists. In view of its phenylethanolamine structure, we investigated
      whether mirabegron has indirect sympathomimetic activity by using neuronal uptake
      blockers. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Right atrial trabeculae, from non-failing
      hearts, were paced and contractile force measured at 37 degrees C. Single
      concentrations of mirabegron were added in the absence or presence of the
      phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), beta3 (L
      748,337), beta1 (CGP 20712A), beta2 (ICI 118,551) -adrenoceptor antagonists,
      neuronal uptake inhibitors desipramine or phenoxybenzamine. KEY RESULTS:
      Mirabegron significantly increased contractile force in human right atrium (1
      MUM, 7.6 +/- 2.6%, n = 7; 10 MUM, 10.2 +/- 1.5%, n = 22 compared with (-)
      isoprenaline P < 0.05). In the presence of IBMX, mirabegron (10 MUM) caused a
      greater contraction. L-748,337 (100 nM) had no effect on the increase in
      contractile force caused by mirabegron (10 MUM). In contrast, mirabegron (10 MUM)
      reduced contractile force in the presence of CGP 20712A, which was not affected
      by L-748,337 (100 nM) or ICI 118,551 (50 nM). Mirabegron (10 MUM) also reduced
      contractile force in the presence of desipramine or phenoxybenzamine. CONCLUSIONS
      AND IMPLICATIONS: Mirabegron increases human atrial force through beta1 - but not
      beta3 -adrenoceptors. Desipramine and phenoxybenzamine block neuronal uptake and
      conceivably prevent mirabegron from releasing noradrenaline. A non-specific
      cardiodepressant effect is not mediated through beta3 (or beta2 )-adrenoceptors,
      consistent with lack of beta3 -adrenoceptor function on human atrial
      contractility.

PMID- 28574584
TI  - Composite marginal quantile regression analysis for longitudinal adolescent body
      mass index data.
AB  - Childhood and adolescenthood overweight or obesity, which may be quantified
      through the body mass index (BMI), is strongly associated with adult obesity and
      other health problems. Motivated by the child and adolescent behaviors in long
      term evolution (CABLE) study, we are interested in individual, family, and school
      factors associated with marginal quantiles of longitudinal adolescent BMI values.
      We propose a new method for composite marginal quantile regression analysis for
      longitudinal outcome data, which performs marginal quantile regressions at
      multiple quantile levels simultaneously. The proposed method extends the quantile
      regression coefficient modeling method introduced by Frumento and Bottai
      (Biometrics 2016; 72:74-84) to longitudinal data accounting suitably for the
      correlation structure in longitudinal observations. A goodness-of-fit test for
      the proposed modeling is also developed. Simulation results show that the
      proposed method can be much more efficient than the analysis without taking
      correlation into account and the analysis performing separate quantile
      regressions at different quantile levels. The application to the longitudinal
      adolescent BMI data from the CABLE study demonstrates the practical utility of
      our proposal. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28574582
TI  - Production of G protein-coupled receptors in an insect-based cell-free system.
AB  - The biochemical analysis of human cell membrane proteins remains a challenging
      task due to the difficulties in producing sufficient quantities of functional
      protein. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent a main class of membrane
      proteins and drug targets, which are responsible for a huge number of signaling
      processes regulating various physiological functions in living cells. To
      circumvent the current bottlenecks in GPCR studies, we propose the synthesis of
      GPCRs in eukaryotic cell-free systems based on extracts generated from insect
      (Sf21) cells. Insect cell lysates harbor the fully active translational and
      translocational machinery allowing posttranslational modifications, such as
      glycosylation and phosphorylation of de novo synthesized proteins. Here, we
      demonstrate the production of several GPCRs in a eukaryotic cell-free system,
      performed within a short time and in a cost-effective manner. We were able to
      synthesize a variety of GPCRs ranging from 40 to 133 kDa in an insect-based cell
      free system. Moreover, we have chosen the MU opioid receptor (MOR) as a model
      protein to analyze the ligand binding affinities of cell-free synthesized MOR in
      comparison to MOR expressed in a human cell line by "one-point" radioligand
      binding experiments. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2328-2338. (c) 2017 The
      Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28574585
TI  - Sex-specific associations between self-reported sleep duration, depression,
      anxiety, fatigue and daytime sleepiness in an older community-dwelling
      population.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore whether associations between
      self-reported sleep duration, depressive symptoms, anxiety, fatigue and daytime
      sleepiness differed in older community-dwelling men and women. DESIGN: Cross
      sectional. METHODS: A community-dwelling sample of 675 older men and women (mean
      age 77.7 years, SD 3.8 years) was used. All participants underwent a clinical
      examination by a cardiologist. Validated questionnaires were used to investigate
      sleep duration, depressive symptoms, anxiety, fatigue and daytime sleepiness.
      Subjects were divided into short sleepers (<=6 hours), n = 231; normal sleepers
      (7-8 hours), n = 338; and long sleepers (>=9 hours), n = 61. ancovas were used to
      explore sex-specific effects. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were associated with
      short sleep in men, but not in women. Fatigue was associated with both short and
      long sleep duration in men. No sex-specific associations of sleep duration with
      daytime sleepiness or anxiety were found. CONCLUSION: Nurses investigating sleep
      duration and its correlates, or effects, in clinical practice need to take sex
      into account, as some associations may be sex specific. Depressive symptoms and
      fatigue can be used as indicators to identify older men with sleep complaints.

PMID- 28574587
TI  - Stress-responsive microRNAs are involved in re-programming of metabolic functions
      in hibernators.
AB  - Mammalian hibernation includes re-programing of metabolic capacities, partially,
      encouraged by microRNAs (miRNAs). Albeit much is known about the functions of
      miRNAs, we need learning on low temperature miRNAs target determination. As
      hibernators can withstand low body temperatures (TB) for a long time without
      anguish tissue damage, understanding the means and mechanisms that empower them
      to do as such are of restorative intrigue. Nonetheless, these mechanisms by which
      miRNAs and the hibernators react to stressful conditions are not much clear. It
      is evident from recent data that the gene expression and the translation of mRNA
      to protein are controlled by miRNAs. The miRNAs also influence regulation of
      major cellular processes. As the significance of miRNAs in stress conditions
      adaptation are getting clearer, this audit article abridges the key alterations
      in miRNA expression and the mechanism that facilitates stress survival.

PMID- 28574586
TI  - Clinical Importance of Monitoring Unbound Valproic Acid Concentration in Patients
      with Hypoalbuminemia.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Because the pharmacokinetic evaluation of valproic acid (VPA)
      based on total drug concentration may be misleading in patients with
      hypoalbuminemia as a result of saturable protein binding and saturable
      metabolism, we sought to investigate the usefulness of therapeutic drug
      monitoring of unbound VPA concentration in a real-world clinical context, with a
      focus on clinically significant neurologic adverse outcomes. DESIGN:
      Retrospective analysis. SETTING: Large academic tertiary care hospital in
      Montreal, Canada. PATIENTS: Forty-one adults, hospitalized or followed as
      outpatients, for whom unbound VPA concentration testing was performed between
      January 1, 2008, and April 30, 2015. Patients were retrospectively identified by
      using the hospital's central laboratory database. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
      In the multiple linear regression analysis, the two variables that significantly
      predicted unbound VPA concentration were total VPA concentration (p<0.001) and
      albumin concentration (p<0.001). The correlation between total VPA concentration
      and the number of neurologic adverse symptoms was 0.187 (p=0.241), whereas the
      correlation between unbound VPA concentration and the number of neurologic
      adverse symptoms was 0.384 (p=0.013). The performance of total and unbound VPA
      concentrations in predicting the presence of at least one neurologic adverse
      symptom, as determined by the receiver operating characteristic curve, was 0.642
      (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.449-0.836, p=0.167) and 0.776 (95% CI 0.629
      0.923, p=0.007), respectively. CONCLUSION: This study showed that in the presence
      of hypoalbuminemia, high unbound VPA concentrations can be observed despite
      normal or low total VPA concentrations. It also demonstrated that high unbound
      VPA concentrations are associated with clinically significant neurologic adverse
      symptoms. Clinicians should be aware that unbound VPA concentration monitoring
      may be required in the presence of hypoalbuminemia.

PMID- 28574590
TI  - Pregnancy outcomes after liver transplantation in Finland.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy after liver transplantation is possible but associated
      with increased risk of obstetrical complications. We report here for the first
      time the pregnancy outcomes after liver transplantation in Finland. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: All of the 25 pregnancies ending in deliveries after liver
      transplantation in Finland in 1998-2015 were analyzed. The data were collected
      from the mothers' medical records. The main outcome measures included pregnancy
      complications and the mode of delivery. Neonatal outcome measures were
      birthweight, 5-min Apgar score and umbilical artery pH. RESULTS: Twenty-six
      infants were born. Of all deliveries, 76% occurred at the >=37 weeks of gestation
      and the average birthweight was 3040 g. Apgar scores were >=7 in 25/26 (96%) of
      the infants and cases of birth asphyxia (umbilical artery pH <= 7.05) were not
      detected. Cesarean section rate was 32%. Preeclampsia occurred in 12% of the
      women and the preterm delivery rate was 24%. Co-morbidities (hypertension,
      intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, Hodgkin's disease, colitis ulcerosa,
      epileptic attacks, cholangitis, splenic artery rupture, renal insufficiency and
      graft rejection) complicated 52% of pregnancies. CONCLUSION: Pregnancies after
      liver transplantation in Finland result in good perinatal outcome with healthy,
      mostly full-term, normally grown offspring; however, serious maternal
      complications related to underlying liver pathology, transplant surgery and
      immunosuppressive medication occur frequently.

PMID- 28574588
TI  - Protective influence of healthful nutrition on mechanisms of environmental
      pollutant toxicity and disease risks.
AB  - Human exposures to environmental contaminants around the world contribute to the
      global burden of disease and thus require urgent attention. Exploring preventive
      measures against environmental exposure and disease risk is essential. While a
      sedentary lifestyle and/or poor dietary habits can exacerbate the deleterious
      effects resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals, much emerging evidence
      suggests that positive lifestyle changes (e.g., healthful nutrition) can modulate
      and/or reduce the toxicity of environmental pollutants. Our work has shown that
      diets high in anti-inflammatory bioactive food components (e.g., phytochemicals
      or polyphenols) are possible strategies for modulating and reducing the disease
      risks associated with exposure to toxic pollutants in the environment. Thus,
      consuming healthy diets rich in plant-derived bioactive nutrients may reduce the
      vulnerability to diseases linked to environmental toxic insults. This nutritional
      paradigm in environmental toxicology requires further study in order to improve
      our understanding of the relationships between nutrition and other lifestyle
      modifications and toxicant-induced diseases.

PMID- 28574589
TI  - Enterovirus genotypes among patients with severe acute respiratory illness,
      influenza-like illness, and asymptomatic individuals in South Africa, 2012-2014.
AB  - Enteroviruses can cause outbreaks of severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and
      EV-A, -B, -C, and -D species have different pathogenic profiles and circulation
      patterns. We aimed to characterize and determine the prevalence of enterovirus
      genotypes among South African patients with respiratory illness and controls
      during June 2012 to July 2014. Syndromic SARI and influenza-like illness (ILI)
      surveillance was performed at two sentinel sites. At each site
      nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens were collected from SARI and ILI patients
      as well as controls. Specimens were tested for enterovirus by real-time PCR.
      Positive specimens were further genotyped by sequencing a region of the VP1 gene.
      The prevalence of enterovirus was 5.8% (87/1494), 3.4% (103/3079), and 3.4%
      (46/1367) among SARI, ILI, and controls, respectively (SARI/controls, P = 0.002
      and ILI/control, P = 0.973). Among the 101/236 (42.8%) enterovirus-positive
      specimens that could be genotyped, we observed a high diversity of circulating
      enterovirus genotypes (a total of 33 genotypes) from all four human enterovirus
      species with high prevalence of Enterovirus-B (60.4%; 61/101) and Enterovirus-A
      (21.8%; 22/101) compared to Enterovirus-C (10.9%; 11/101) and Enterovirus-D
      (6.9%; 7/101) (P = 0.477). Of the enterovirus genotypes identified, Echovirus 30
      (9.9%, 10/101), Coxsackie virus B5 (7.9%, 8/101) and Enterovirus-D68 (6.9%,
      7/101) were most prevalent. There was no difference in disease severity (SARI or
      ILI compared to controls) between the different enterovirus species (P = 0.167).
      We observed a high number of enterovirus genotypes in patients with respiratory
      illness and in controls from South Africa with no disease association of EV
      species with disease severity.

PMID- 28574592
TI  - Non-ignorable missingness in logistic regression.
AB  - Nonresponses and missing data are common in observational studies. Ignoring or
      inadequately handling missing data may lead to biased parameter estimation,
      incorrect standard errors and, as a consequence, incorrect statistical inference
      and conclusions. We present a strategy for modelling non-ignorable missingness
      where the probability of nonresponse depends on the outcome. Using a simple case
      of logistic regression, we quantify the bias in regression estimates and show the
      observed likelihood is non-identifiable under non-ignorable missing data
      mechanism. We then adopt a selection model factorisation of the joint
      distribution as the basis for a sensitivity analysis to study changes in
      estimated parameters and the robustness of study conclusions against different
      assumptions. A Bayesian framework for model estimation is used as it provides a
      flexible approach for incorporating different missing data assumptions and
      conducting sensitivity analysis. Using simulated data, we explore the performance
      of the Bayesian selection model in correcting for bias in a logistic regression.
      We then implement our strategy using survey data from the 45 and Up Study to
      investigate factors associated with worsening health from the baseline to follow
      up survey. Our findings have practical implications for the use of the 45 and Up
      Study data to answer important research questions relating to health and quality
      of-life. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28574591
TI  - Bone marrow adipocytes support hematopoietic stem cell survival.
AB  - In bone marrow (BM), hematopoietic elements are mingled with adipocytes (BM-A),
      which are the most abundant stromal component in the niche. BM-A progressively
      increase with aging, eventually occupying up to 50% of BM cavities. In this work,
      the role played by BM-A was explored by studying primary human BM-A isolated from
      hip surgery patients at the molecular level, through microarray analysis, and at
      the functional level, by assessing their relationship with primary human
      hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) by the long-term culture initiating cell (LTC-IC)
      assay. Findings demonstrated that BM-A are capable of supporting HSC survival in
      the LTC-IC assay, since after 5 weeks of co-culture, HSC were still able to
      proliferate and differentiate. Furthermore, critical molecules such as C-X-C
      motif chemokine 12 (CXCL12), interleukin (IL)-8, colony-stimulating factor 3
      (CSF3), and leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), were expressed at similar levels
      in BM-A and in primary human BM mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSC), whereas IL-3
      was higher in BM-A. Interestingly, BM-A displayed a different gene expression
      profile compared with subcutaneous adipose tissue adipocytes (AT-A) collected
      from abdominal surgery patients, especially in terms of regulation of lipid
      metabolism, stemness genes, and white-to-brown differentiation pathways.
      Accordingly, analysis of the gene pathways involved in hematopoiesis regulation
      showed that BM-A are more closely related to BM-MSC than to AT-A. The present
      data suggest that BM-A play a supporting role in the hematopoietic niche and
      directly sustain HSC survival.

PMID- 28574593
TI  - Early versus delayed appendicectomy for appendiceal phlegmon or abscess.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Appendiceal phlegmon and abscess account for 2% to 10% of acute
      appendicitis. People with appendiceal phlegmon or abscess usually need an
      appendicectomy to relieve their symptoms and avoid complications. The timing of
      appendicectomy for appendiceal phlegmon or abscess is controversial. OBJECTIVES:
      To assess the effects of early versus delayed appendicectomy for appendiceal
      phlegmon or abscess, in terms of overall morbidity and mortality. SEARCH METHODS:
      We searched the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL; 2016, Issue 7), MEDLINE Ovid (1950 to
      23 August 2016), Embase Ovid (1974 to 23 August 2016), Science Citation Index
      Expanded (1900 to 23 August 2016), and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database
      (CBM) (1978 to 23 August 2016). We also searched the World Health Organization
      (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform search portal (23 August
      2016) and ClinicalTrials.gov (23 August 2016) for ongoing trials. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: We included all individual and cluster-randomised controlled trials,
      irrespective of language, publication status, or age of participants, comparing
      early versus delayed appendicectomy in people with appendiceal phlegmon or
      abscess. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently
      identified the trials for inclusion, collected the data, and assessed the risk of
      bias. We performed meta-analyses using Review Manager 5. We calculated the risk
      ratio (RR) for dichotomous outcomes and the mean difference (MD) for continuous
      outcomes with 95% confidence intervals (CI). MAIN RESULTS: We included two
      randomised controlled trials with a total of 80 participants in this review. 1.
      Early versus delayed open appendicectomy for appendiceal phlegmonForty
      participants (paediatric and adults) with appendiceal phlegmon were randomised
      either to early appendicectomy (appendicectomy as soon as appendiceal mass
      resolved within the same admission) (n = 20), or to delayed appendicectomy
      (initial conservative treatment followed by interval appendicectomy six weeks
      later) (n = 20). The trial was at high risk of bias. There was no mortality in
      either group. There is insufficient evidence to determine the effect of using
      either early or delayed open appendicectomy onoverall morbidity (RR 13.00; 95% CI
      0.78 to 216.39; very low-quality evidence), the proportion of participants who
      developed wound infection (RR 9.00; 95% CI 0.52 to 156.91; very low quality
      evidence) or faecal fistula (RR 3.00; 95% CI 0.13 to 69.52; very low quality
      evidence). The quality of evidence for increased length of hospital stay and time
      away from normal activities in the early appendicectomy group (MD 6.70 days; 95%
      CI 2.76 to 10.64, and MD 5.00 days; 95% CI 1.52 to 8.48, respectively) is very
      low quality evidence. The trial reported neither quality of life nor pain
      outcomes. 2. Early versus delayed laparoscopic appendicectomy for appendiceal
      abscessForty paediatric participants with appendiceal abscess were randomised
      either to early appendicectomy (emergent laparoscopic appendicectomy) (n = 20) or
      to delayed appendicectomy (initial conservative treatment followed by interval
      laparoscopic appendicectomy 10 weeks later) (n = 20). The trial was at high risk
      of bias. The trial did not report on overall morbidity or complications. There
      was no mortality in either group. We do not have sufficient evidence to determine
      the effects of using either early or delayed laparoscopic appendicectomy for
      outcomes relating to hospital stay between the groups (MD -0.20 days; 95% CI 
      3.54 to 3.14; very low quality of evidence). Health-related quality of life was
      measured with the Pediatric Quality of Life Scale-Version 4.0 questionnaire (a
      scale of 0 to 100 with higher values indicating a better quality of life). Health
      related quality of life score measured at 12 weeks after appendicectomy was
      higher in the early appendicectomy group than in the delayed appendicectomy group
      (MD 12.40 points; 95% CI 9.78 to 15.02) but the quality of evidence was very low.
      This trial reported neither the pain nor the time away from normal activities.
      AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: It is unclear whether early appendicectomy prevents
      complications compared to delayed appendicectomy for people with appendiceal
      phlegmon or abscess. The evidence indicating increased length of hospital stay
      and time away from normal activities in people with early open appendicectomy is
      of very low quality. The evidence for better health-related quality of life
      following early laparoscopic appendicectomy compared with delayed appendicectomy
      is based on very low quality evidence. For both comparisons addressed in this
      review, data are sparse, and we cannot rule out significant benefits or harms of
      early versus delayed appendicectomy.Further trials on this topic are urgently
      needed and should specify a set of criteria for use of antibiotics, percutaneous
      drainage of the appendiceal abscess prior to surgery and resolution of the
      appendiceal phlegmon or abscess. Future trials should include outcomes such as
      time away from normal activities, quality of life and the length of hospital
      stay.

PMID- 28574594
TI  - A novel protein-engineered hepatocyte growth factor analog released via a shear
      thinning injectable hydrogel enhances post-infarction ventricular function.
AB  - In the last decade, numerous growth factors and biomaterials have been explored
      for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI). While pre-clinical studies have
      demonstrated promising results, clinical trials have been disappointing and
      inconsistent, likely due to poor translatability. In the present study, we
      investigate a potential myocardial regenerative therapy consisting of a protein
      engineered dimeric fragment of hepatocyte growth factor (HGFdf) encapsulated in a
      shear-thinning, self-healing, bioengineered hydrogel (SHIELD). We hypothesized
      that SHIELD would facilitate targeted, sustained intramyocardial delivery of
      HGFdf thereby attenuating myocardial injury and post-infarction remodeling. Adult
      male Wistar rats (n = 45) underwent sham surgery or induction of MI followed by
      injection of phosphate buffered saline (PBS), 10 MUg HGFdf alone, SHIELD alone,
      or SHIELD encapsulating 10 MUg HGFdf. Ventricular function, infarct size, and
      angiogenic response were assessed 4 weeks post-infarction. Treatment with SHIELD
      + HGFdf significantly reduced infarct size and increased both ejection fraction
      and borderzone arteriole density compared to the controls. Thus, sustained
      delivery of HGFdf via SHIELD limits post-infarction adverse ventricular
      remodeling by increasing angiogenesis and reducing fibrosis. Encapsulation of
      HGFdf in SHIELD improves clinical translatability by enabling minimally-invasive
      delivery and subsequent retention and sustained administration of this novel,
      potent angiogenic protein analog. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2379-2389. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28574595
TI  - Influence of Hospital Type on Outcomes of Individuals Aged 80 and Older with
      Stroke Treated Using Intravenous Thrombolysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to confirm the safety and effectiveness of
      using intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) with individuals aged 80 and older in
      routine practice in different hospital settings. DESIGN: Observasional registry.
      SETTING: Prospective multicenter population-based registry of acute stroke
      patients treated with reperfusion therapies in Catalonia, Spain (Sistema Online
      d'Informacio de l'Ictus Agut). PARTICIPANTS: Individuals treated only with IVT (N
      = 3,231; 1,189 (36.8%) aged >=80). MEASUREMENTS: Symptomatic intracranial
      hemorrhage, mortality, and favorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score =
      0-2) at 3 months were evaluated according to hospital characteristics. Treating
      hospitals were classified in three categories: comprehensive stroke centers
      (CSCs), primary stroke centers (PSCs), and community hospitals operating a
      telestroke system (TS). First individuals aged 80 and older were compared with
      those younger than 80, and then participants aged 80 and older were focused on.
      RESULTS: Participants aged 80 and older had significantly higher baseline
      National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, longer onset to
      treatment times, and worse outcomes than younger participants. For participants
      aged 80 and older, 90-day mortality was 23.2%, with 38.7% having favorable
      outcomes at 3 months. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH; Safe
      Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-MOnitoring STudy definition) was
      observed in 4.7% of subjects. None of the risk factors differed significantly
      between participants treated in different types of hospitals. Basal stroke
      severity measured according to NIHSS score was not significantly different
      either. The three different types of hospitals achieved similar outcomes,
      although the TS and PSC hospitals had significantly higher proportions of SICH
      (6.3% and 6.3%, respectively) than the CSC (3.2%). CONCLUSION: Older adults with
      acute stroke treated with IVT had similar outcomes regardless of hospital
      characteristics.

PMID- 28574596
TI  - G protein-coupled receptor 84 controls osteoclastogenesis through inhibition of
      NF-kappaB and MAPK signaling pathways.
AB  - GPR84, a member of the G protein-coupled receptor family, is found predominantly
      in immune cells, such as macrophages, and functions as a pivotal modulator of
      inflammatory responses. In this study, we investigated the role of GPR84 in
      receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclast
      differentiation. Our microarray data showed that GPR84 was significantly
      downregulated in osteoclasts compared to in their precursors, macrophages. The
      overexpression of GPR84 in bone marrow-derived macrophages suppressed the
      formation of multinucleated osteoclasts without affecting precursor
      proliferation. In addition, GPR84 overexpression attenuated the induction of c
      Fos and nuclear factor of activated T cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1), which are
      transcription factors that are critical for osteoclastogenesis. Furthermore,
      knockdown of GPR84 using a small hairpin RNA promoted RANKL-mediated osteoclast
      differentiation and gene expression of osteoclastogenic markers. Mechanistically,
      GPR84 overexpression blocked RANKL-stimulated phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha and
      three MAPKs, JNK, ERK, and p38. GPR84 also suppressed NF-kappaB transcriptional
      activity mediated by RANKL. Conversely, GPR84 knockdown enhanced RANKL-induced
      activation of IkappaBalpha and the three MAPKs. Collectively, our results
      revealed that GPR84 functions as a negative regulator of osteoclastogenesis,
      suggesting that it may be a potential therapeutic target for osteoclast-mediated
      bone-destructive diseases.

PMID- 28574597
TI  - Mortality rates are lower in SIAD, than in hypervolaemic or hypovolaemic
      hyponatraemia: Results of a prospective observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hyponatraemia is associated with increased mortality, but the
      mortality associated specifically with SIAD is not known. We hypothesized that
      mortality in SIAD was elevated, but that it was less than in hypervolaemic (HEN)
      or hypovolaemic (HON) hyponatraemia. DESIGN: Mortality rates are presented as
      risk ratios (RR),with 95% confidence intervals (CI), and compared to
      normonatraemic controls (NN). METHODS: Prospective, single centre,
      noninterventional study of all patients with hyponatraemia (<=130 mmol/L)
      admitted to hospital. RESULTS: A total of 1323 admissions with hyponatraemia were
      prospectively evaluated and 1136 contemporaneous NN controls. 431(32.6%)
      hyponatraemic patients had HON, 573(43.3%) had SIAD and 275(20.8%) patients had
      HEN. In patient mortality was higher in hyponatraemia than NN (9.1% vs 3.3%,
      P<.0001). The RRs for in-hospital mortality compared to NN were: SIAD, 1.76 (95%
      CI 1.08-2.8, P=.02), HON 2.77 (95% CI 1.8-4.3, P<.0001) and HEN, 4.9 (95% CI 3.2
      7.4, P<.0001). The mortality rate was higher in HEN (RR 2.85; 95% CI 1.86-4.37,
      P<.0001) and in HON, (RR 1.6; 95% CI 1.04-2.52; P=.03), when compared to SIAD.
      The Charlson Comorbidity Index was lower in SIAD than in eunatraemic patients
      (P<.0001). 9/121(7.4%) patients died with plasma sodium <125 mmol/L and 4(3.3%)
      with plasma sodium <120 mmol/L. However, 69/121(57%) patients died with a plasma
      sodium above 133 mmol/L. CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed higher all-cause mortality in
      hyponatraemia than in NN. Mortality was higher in SIAD than in normonatraemia and
      was not explained on the basis of co-morbidities. Mortality was higher in HON and
      HEN than in SIAD. Mortality rates reported for all-cause hyponatraemia in the
      medical literature are not applicable to SIAD.

PMID- 28574598
TI  - Integrin-Linked Kinase Regulates Bone Formation by Controlling Cytoskeletal
      Organization and Modulating BMP and Wnt Signaling in Osteoprogenitors.
AB  - Cell-matrix interactions constitute a fundamental aspect of skeletal cell biology
      and play essential roles in bone homeostasis. These interactions are primarily
      mediated by transmembrane integrin receptors, which mediate cell adhesion and
      transduce signals from the extracellular matrix to intracellular responses via
      various downstream effectors, including integrin-linked kinase (ILK). ILK
      functions as adaptor protein at focal adhesion sites, linking integrins to the
      actin cytoskeleton, and has been reported to act as a kinase phosphorylating
      signaling molecules such as GSK-3beta and Akt. Thereby, ILK plays important roles
      in cellular attachment, motility, proliferation and survival. To assess the in
      vivo role of ILK signaling in osteoprogenitors and the osteoblast lineage cells
      descending thereof, we generated conditional knockout mice using the Osx-Cre:GFP
      driver strain. Mice lacking functional ILK in osterix-expressing cells and their
      derivatives showed no apparent developmental or growth phenotype, but by 5 weeks
      of age they displayed a significantly reduced trabecular bone mass, which
      persisted into adulthood in male mice. Histomorphometry and serum analysis
      indicated no alterations in osteoclast formation and activity, but provided
      evidence that osteoblast function was impaired, resulting in reduced bone
      mineralization and increased accumulation of unmineralized osteoid. In vitro
      analyses further substantiated that absence of ILK in osteogenic cells was
      associated with compromised collagen matrix production and mineralization.
      Mechanistically, we found evidence for both impaired cytoskeletal functioning and
      reduced signal transduction in osteoblasts lacking ILK. Indeed, loss of ILK in
      primary osteogenic cells impaired F-actin organization, cellular adhesion,
      spreading, and migration, indicative of defective coupling of cell-matrix
      interactions to the cytoskeleton. In addition, BMP/Smad and Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling was reduced in the absence of ILK. Taken together, these data
      demonstrate the importance of integrin-mediated cell-matrix interactions and ILK
      signaling in osteoprogenitors in the control of osteoblast functioning during
      juvenile bone mass acquisition and adult bone remodeling and homeostasis. (c)
      2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28574601
TI  - Explosive and maximal strength before and 6 months after total hip arthroplasty.
AB  - Patients with unilateral hip osteoarthritis experience impairments in lower limb
      muscle function due to pain and disuse of the affected limb. The influence of hip
      osteoarthritis and subsequent total hip arthroplasty (THA) has mostly been
      evaluated by maximal strength tests, yet the functionally important explosive
      strength capabilities of hip and knee muscles are largely unknown. We aimed to
      evaluate hip and knee explosive and maximal strength in hip osteoarthritis
      patients before and after THA. Twenty-one patients with unilateral hip
      osteoarthritis were evaluated before and 6 months after THA. They performed rapid
      maximal contractions of hip (flexor, extensor, abductor, adductor) and knee
      (flexor, extensor) muscles, from which explosive and maximal strength asymmetries
      were evaluated (involved versus uninvolved limb). Before THA, the involved limb
      showed significantly lower hip flexor, extensor, adductor, and knee extensor
      explosive and maximal strength compared to the uninvolved limb. Six months after
      THA surgery, hip flexor, extensor and adductor maximal and explosive strength
      asymmetries persisted, except for knee extensors. Explosive, but not maximal
      strength of hip abductors and knee extensors was lower in the involved limb
      before surgery and the reduced explosive strength capabilities may compromise
      daily living activities in hip osteoarthritis patients. After hip replacement,
      explosive strength asymmetries of knee extensors resolved, yet lingering
      asymmetries in hip flexor muscles should receive focused attention during
      postoperative rehabilitation. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:425-431, 2018.

PMID- 28574600
TI  - Diallyl trisulfides, a natural histone deacetylase inhibitor, attenuate HIF
      1alpha synthesis, and decreases breast cancer metastasis.
AB  - Intratumoral hypoxia promotes the distant metastasis of cancer subclones. The
      clinical expression level of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha)
      reflects the prognosis of a variety of cancers, especially breast cancer. Histone
      deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can target HIF-1alpha protein due to von Hippel
      Lindau (VHL) protein-dependent degradation. Dietary organosulfur compounds, such
      as those in garlic, have been reported as HDAC inhibitors. The effects of diallyl
      sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS), and diallyl trisulfide (DATS) on the
      ratio of firefly/Renilla luciferase activity in hypoxic MDA-MB-231 cells were
      determined. The mRNA expressions of HIF-1alpha target genes ANGPTL4, LOXL4, and
      LOX in hypoxic MDA-MB-231 cells were significantly down-regulated by DATS. DATS
      attenuated the metastatic potential of MDA-MB-231 cells in hypoxia-induced
      embryonic zebrafish, xenograft, and orthotopic tumors. Endothelial cell-cancer
      cell adhesion, wound healing, transwell, and tube formation assays showed that
      DATS dose-dependently inhibited the migration and angiogenesis of MDA-MB-231
      cells in vitro. The expressions of L1CAM, VEGF-A, and EMT-related proteins (Slug,
      Snail, MMP-2) were inhibited by DATS. DATS dose-dependently inhibited HIF-1alpha
      transcriptional activity and hypoxia-induced hematogenous metastasis of MDA-MB
      231 cells. It reduced the protein expression of HIF-1alpha, which did not involve
      inhibition of HIF-1alpha mRNA expression or ubiquitin proteasome degradation.
      Efficient inhibition of HIF-1alpha expression was required for DATS to resist
      breast cancer.

PMID- 28574602
TI  - Naive and Robust: Class-Conditional Independence in Human Classification
      Learning.
AB  - Humans excel in categorization. Yet from a computational standpoint, learning a
      novel probabilistic classification task involves severe computational challenges.
      The present paper investigates one way to address these challenges: assuming
      class-conditional independence of features. This feature independence assumption
      simplifies the inference problem, allows for informed inferences about novel
      feature combinations, and performs robustly across different statistical
      environments. We designed a new Bayesian classification learning model (the
      dependence-independence structure and category learning model, DISC-LM) that
      incorporates varying degrees of prior belief in class-conditional independence,
      learns whether or not independence holds, and adapts its behavior accordingly.
      Theoretical results from two simulation studies demonstrate that classification
      behavior can appear to start simple, yet adapt effectively to unexpected task
      structures. Two experiments-designed using optimal experimental design principles
      were conducted with human learners. Classification decisions of the majority of
      participants were best accounted for by a version of the model with very high
      initial prior belief in class-conditional independence, before adapting to the
      true environmental structure. Class-conditional independence may be a strong and
      useful default assumption in category learning tasks.

PMID- 28574599
TI  - Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3beta) suppresses the
      progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by modifying STAT3 activity.
AB  - Although GSK3beta has been reported to have contrasting effects on the
      progression of different tumors, it's possible functions in esophageal squamous
      cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the related molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Here,
      we investigated the expression, function, and molecular mechanism of GSK3beta in
      the development of ESCC in vitro and in vivo. Though the expression of total
      GSK3beta was significantly increased, the phosphorylated (inactivated) form of
      GSK3beta (Ser9) was concurrently decreased in the cancerous tissues of patients
      with ESCC compared with controls, suggesting that GSK3beta activity was enhanced
      in cancerous tissues. Further pathological data analysis revealed that higher
      GSK3beta expression was associated with poorer differentiation, higher metastasis
      rates, and worse prognosis of ESCC. These results were confirmed in different
      ESCC cell lines using a pharmacological inhibitor and specific siRNA to block
      GSK3beta. Using a cancer phospho-antibody array, we found that STAT3 is a target
      of GSK3beta. GSK3 inhibition reduced STAT3 phosphorylation, and overexpression of
      constitutively active GSK3beta had the opposite effect. Moreover, STAT3
      inhibition mimicked the effects of GSK3beta inhibition on ESCC cell migration and
      viability, while overexpression of a plasmid encoding mutant STAT3 (Y705F)
      abrogated these effects, and these results were further substantiated by
      clinicopathological data. In addition, a GSK3 inhibitor (LiCl) and/or STAT3
      inhibitor (WP-1066) efficiently suppressed the growth of ESCC cells in a
      xenograft tumor model. Altogether, these results reveal that higher GSK3beta
      expression promotes ESCC progression through STAT3 in vitro and in vivo, and
      GSK3beta-STAT3 signaling could be a potential therapeutic target for ESCC
      treatment.

PMID- 28574603
TI  - Persistence of chlorfluazuron in cabbage under different agro-climatic conditions
      of India and its risk assessment.
AB  - A multilocational field trial was conducted at 4 locations in India-Rajasthan,
      Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal-to determine the persistence in cabbage
      of chlorfluazuron applied twice at 75 and 150 g active ingredient ha-1 . Cabbage
      head samples were collected from each replicated plot on 0 (2 h after spraying),
      1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15 d after final insecticide application, including an
      untreated control. Chlorfluazuron residue in cabbage and field soil was estimated
      by high-performance liquid chromatography using a photo diode array detector. The
      limit of determination and limit of quantification of the method were recorded as
      0.05 and 0.10 MUg g-1 , respectively. Results revealed that chlorfluazuron
      dissipated linearly with progress of time, following first-order kinetics. The
      mean (+/- standard deviation) half-life value of chlorfluazuron in cabbage was
      found to be 7.18 +/- 0.71 d, considering different locations and treatments. The
      residue was below the level of quantification in the harvested cabbage and soil
      samples. Harvesting cabbage in the experimental location, at least on day 7,
      after 2 applications of chlorfluazuron at the recommended dose, may not pose any
      ill effect for Indian adults. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3028-3033. (c) 2017
      SETAC.

PMID- 28574604
TI  - Boosting the SNR by adding a receive-only endorectal monopole to an external
      antenna array for high-resolution, T2 -weighted imaging of early-stage cervical
      cancer with 7-T MRI.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain in
      early-stage cervical cancer at ultrahigh-field MRI (e.g. 7 T) using a combination
      of multiple external antennas and a single endorectal antenna. In particular, we
      used an endorectal monopole antenna to increase the SNR in cervical magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI). This should allow high-resolution, T2 -weighted imaging
      and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for metabolic staging, which could
      facilitate the local tumor status assessment. In a prospective feasibility study,
      five healthy female volunteers and six patients with histologically proven stage
      IB1-IIB cervical cancer were scanned at 7 T. We used seven external fractionated
      dipole antennas for transmit-receive (transceive) and an endorectally placed
      monopole antenna for reception only. A region of interest, containing both normal
      cervix and tumor tissue, was selected for the SNR measurement. Separated signal
      and noise measurements were obtained in the region of the cervix for each element
      and in the near field of the monopole antenna (radius < 30 mm) to calculate the
      SNR gain of the endorectal antenna in each patient. We obtained high-resolution,
      T2 -weighted images with a voxel size of 0.7 * 0.8 * 3.0 mm3 . In four cases with
      optimal placement of the endorectal antenna (verified on the T2 -weighted
      images), a mean gain of 2.2 in SNR was obtained at the overall cervix and tumor
      tissue area. Within a radius of 30 mm from the monopole antenna, a mean SNR gain
      of 3.7 was achieved in the four optimal cases. Overlap between the two different
      regions of the SNR calculations was around 24%. We have demonstrated that the use
      of an endorectal monopole antenna substantially increases the SNR of 7-T MRI at
      the cervical anatomy. Combined with the intrinsically high SNR of ultrahigh-field
      MRI, this gain may be employed to obtain metabolic information using MRS and to
      enhance spatial resolutions to assess tumor invasion.

PMID- 28574605
TI  - B Vitamins and Hip Fracture: Secondary Analyses and Extended Follow-Up of Two
      Large Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - Elevated plasma homocysteine levels are associated with increased risk of
      fractures in observational studies. However, it is unsettled whether homocysteine
      lowering treatment affects fracture risk. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the effect of an intervention with B vitamins on the risk of hip
      fracture in a secondary analysis of combined data from two large randomized
      controlled trials originally designed to study cardiovascular diseases. Both
      trials had identical design, intervention, and primary objective. Based on a two
      by-two factorial design, the intervention consisted of a daily capsule with
      either (1) folic acid (0.8 mg) plus vitamin B12 (0.4 mg) and vitamin B6 (40 mg);
      (2) folic acid (0.8 mg) plus vitamin B12 (0.4 mg); (3) vitamin B6 alone (40 mg);
      or (4) placebo. The participants were followed with respect to hip fracture
      during the trial or during an extended follow-up (from the trial start for each
      patient until the end of 2012). No statistically significant association was
      found between folic acid plus vitamin B12 treatment and the risk of hip fracture,
      neither during the trial (median 3.3 years; hazard ratio [HR] 0.87; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 0.48 to 1.59) nor during the extended follow-up (median
      11.1 years; HR 1.08; 95% CI, 0.84 to 1.40). Nor were there significant
      differences in the risk of hip fracture between groups receiving versus not
      receiving vitamin B6 during the trial (HR 1.42; 95% CI, 0.78 to 2.61). However,
      during the extended follow-up, those receiving vitamin B6 showed a significant
      42% higher risk of hip fracture (HR 1.42; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.83) compared to those
      not receiving vitamin B6 . In conclusion, treatment with folic acid plus vitamin
      B12 was not associated with the risk of hip fracture. Treatment with a high dose
      of vitamin B6 was associated with a slightly increased risk of hip fracture
      during the extended follow-up (in-trial plus post-trial follow-up). (c) 2017
      American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28574609
TI  - An Actor's Knowledge and Intent Are More Important in Evaluating Moral
      Transgressions Than Conventional Transgressions.
AB  - An actor's mental states-whether she acted knowingly and with bad intentions
      typically play an important role in evaluating the extent to which an action is
      wrong and in determining appropriate levels of punishment. In four experiments,
      we find that this role for knowledge and intent is significantly weaker when
      evaluating transgressions of conventional rules as opposed to moral rules. We
      also find that this attenuated role for knowledge and intent is partly due to the
      fact that conventional rules are judged to be more arbitrary than moral rules;
      whereas moral transgressions are associated with actions that are intrinsically
      wrong (e.g., hitting another person), conventional transgressions are associated
      with actions that are only contingently wrong (e.g., wearing pajamas to school,
      which is only wrong if it violates a dress code that could have been otherwise).
      Finally, we find that it is the perpetrator's belief about the arbitrary or non
      arbitrary basis of the rule-not the reality-that drives this differential effect
      of knowledge and intent across types of transgressions.

PMID- 28574607
TI  - Prognostic value of O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) protein
      expression in glioblastoma excluding nontumour cells from the analysis.
AB  - AIMS: It is important to predict response to treatment with temozolomide (TMZ) in
      glioblastoma (GBM) patients. Both MGMT protein expression and MGMT promoter
      methylation status have been reported to predict the response to TMZ. We
      investigated the prognostic value of quantified MGMT protein levels in tumour
      cells and the prognostic importance of combining information of MGMT protein
      level and MGMT promoter methylation status. METHODS: MGMT protein expression was
      quantified in tumour cells in 171 GBMs from the population-based Region of
      Southern Denmark (RSD)-cohort using a double immunofluorescence approach.
      Pyrosequencing was performed in 157 patients. For validation we used GBM-patients
      from a Nordic Study (NS) investigating the effect of radiotherapy and different
      TMZ schedules. RESULTS: When divided at the median, patients with low expression
      of MGMT protein (AF-low) had the best prognosis (HR = 1.5, P = 0.01). Similar
      results were observed in the subgroup of patients receiving the Stupp regimen (HR
      = 2.0, P = 0.001). In the NS-cohort a trend towards superior survival (HR = 1.6,
      P = 0.08) was seen in patients with AF-low. Including MGMT promoter methylation
      status, we found for both cohorts that patients with methylated MGMT promoter and
      AF-low had the best outcome; median OS 23.1 and 20.0 months, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that MGMT protein expression in tumour cells has an
      independent prognostic significance. Exclusion of nontumour cells contributed to
      a more exact analysis of tumour-specific MGMT protein expression. This should be
      incorporated in future studies evaluating MGMT status before potential
      integration into clinical practice.

PMID- 28574608
TI  - Role of Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase and Maturation Promoting Factor During
      the Achievement of Meiotic Competency in Mammalian Oocytes.
AB  - The oocyte quality remains as one of the major problems associated with poor in
      vitro fertilization (IVF) rate and assisted reproductive technology (ART) failure
      worldwide. The oocyte quality is dependent on its meiotic maturation that begins
      inside the follicular microenvironment and gets completed at the time of
      ovulation in most of the mammalian species. Follicular oocytes are arrested at
      diplotene stage of first meiotic prophase. The resumption of meiosis from
      diplotene arrest, progression through metaphase-I (M-I) and further arrest at
      metaphase-II (M-II) are important physiological requirements for the achievement
      of meiotic competency in mammalian oocytes. The achievement of meiotic competency
      is dependent upon cyclic stabilization/destabilization of maturation promoting
      factor (MPF). The mitogen-activated protein kinase3/1 (MAPK3/1) modulates
      stabilization/destabilization of MPF in oocyte by interacting either with signal
      molecules, transcription and post-transcription factors in cumulus cells or
      cytostatic factors (CSFs) in oocyte. MPF regulates meiotic cell cycle progression
      from diplotene arrest to M-II arrest and directly impacts oocyte quality. The
      MAPK3/1 activity is not reported during spontaneous meiotic resumption but its
      activity in cumulus cells is required for gonadotropin-induced oocyte meiotic
      resumption. Although high MAPK3/1 activity is required for the maintenance of M
      II arrest in several mammalian species, its cross-talk with MPF remains to be
      elucidated. Further studies are required to find out the MAPK3/1 activity and its
      impact on MPF destabilization/stabilization during achievement of meiotic
      competency, an important period that decides oocyte quality and directly impacts
      ARTs outcome in several mammalian species including human. J. Cell. Biochem. 119:
      123-129, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28574606
TI  - Sfp1 and Rtg3 reciprocally modulate carbon source-conditional stress adaptation
      in the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans.
AB  - The pathogenicity of the clinically important yeast, Candida albicans, is
      dependent on robust responses to host-imposed stresses. These stress responses
      have generally been dissected in vitro at 30 degrees C on artificial growth media
      that do not mimic host niches. Yet host inputs, such as changes in carbon source
      or temperature, are known to affect C. albicans stress adaptation. Therefore, we
      performed screens to identify novel regulators that promote stress resistance
      during growth on a physiologically relevant carboxylic acid and at elevated
      temperatures. These screens revealed that, under these 'non-standard' growth
      conditions, numerous uncharacterised regulators are required for stress
      resistance in addition to the classical Hog1, Cap1 and Cta4 stress pathways. In
      particular, two transcription factors (Sfp1 and Rtg3) promote stress resistance
      in a reciprocal, carbon source-conditional manner. SFP1 is induced in stressed
      glucose-grown cells, whereas RTG3 is upregulated in stressed lactate-grown cells.
      Rtg3 and Sfp1 regulate the expression of key stress genes such as CTA4, CAP1 and
      HOG1 in a carbon source-dependent manner. These mechanisms underlie the stress
      sensitivity of C. albicans sfp1 cells during growth on glucose, and rtg3 cells on
      lactate. The data suggest that C. albicans exploits environmentally contingent
      regulatory mechanisms to retain stress resistance during host colonisation.

PMID- 28574610
TI  - Costamere protein expression and tissue composition of rotator cuff muscle after
      tendon release in sheep.
AB  - Previous studies suggested that degradation of contractile tissue requires
      cleavage of the costamere, a structural protein complex that holds sarcomeres in
      place. This study examined if costamere turnover is affected by a rotator cuff
      tear in a previously established ovine model. We found the activity of focal
      adhesion kinase (FAK), a main regulator of costamere turnover, was unchanged at 2
      weeks but decreased by 27% 16 weeks after surgical release of the infraspinatus
      tendon. This was accompanied by cleavage of the costamere protein talin into a
      190 kDa fragment while full length talin remained unchanged. At 2 weeks after
      tendon release, muscle volume decreased by 17 cm3 from an initial 185 cm3 , the
      fatty tissue volume was halved, and the contractile tissue volume remained
      unchanged. After 16 weeks, the muscle volume decreased by 36 cm3 , contractile
      tissue was quantitatively lost, and the fat content increased by 184%. Nandrolone
      administration mitigated the loss of contractile tissue by 26% and prevented fat
      accumulation, alterations in FAK activity, and talin cleavage. Taken together,
      these findings imply that muscle remodeling after tendon release occurs in two
      stages. The early decrease of muscle volume is associated with reduction of fat;
      while, the second stage is characterized by substantial loss of contractile
      tissue accompanied by massive fat accumulation. Regulation of costamere turnover
      is associated with the loss of contractile tissue and seems to be impacted by
      nandrolone treatment. Clinically, the costamere may represent a potential
      intervention target to mitigate muscle loss after a rotator cuff tear. (c) 2017
      The Authors. Journal of Orthopaedic Research(r) published by Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. on behalf of the Orthopaedic Research Society. J Orthop Res 36:272-281,
      2018.

PMID- 28574611
TI  - Dithiafulvenyl-Extended N-Heterotriangulenes and Their Interaction with C60 :
      Cooperative Fluorescence.
AB  - We describe the synthesis as well as the electronic and photophysical
      characterization of novel N-heterotriangulene derivatives decorated with
      methoxycarbonyl- and methyl-sulfanyl-substituted dithiafulvenyl moieties. The
      association of these electron-rich compounds with fullerene C60 as electron
      acceptor was investigated by means of photophysical, voltammetric, and mass
      spectrometric methods and rationalized by DFT calculations. Importantly, light
      induced interactions between the dithiafulvene-substituted N-heterotriangulene
      bearing methoxycarbonyl substituents with C60 leads to cooperative fluorescence.
      Quantitative Job plot analyses by means of fluorescence spectroscopy and
      voltammetry confirm a 1:1 association with binding constants in the order of 104 
      m-1 . Supportive results for the supramolecular assembly of both N
      heterotriangulenes with C60 were obtained by ESI mass spectrometric
      investigations in the gas phase.

PMID- 28574613
TI  - SENP2 suppresses epithelial-mesenchymal transition of bladder cancer cells
      through deSUMOylation of TGF-betaRI.
AB  - SUMO-specific protease 2 (SENP2) is a deSUMOylation protease that plays an
      important role in the regulation of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)
      signaling. Aberrant TGF-beta signaling is common in human cancers and contributes
      to tumor metastasis by inducing an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In
      previous studies, we demonstrated that SENP2 suppresses bladder cancer cell
      migration and invasion. However, little is known about whether SENP2 inhibits EMT
      by regulating TGF-beta signaling in bladder cancer progression. Here, we
      investigated the role of SENP2 in regulating TGF-beta signaling and bladder
      cancer metastasis in vitro and in vivo. We found that SENP2 is frequently
      downregulated in bladder cancer, especially in metastatic bladder cancer. SENP2
      downregulation is associated with more aggressive phenotypes and poor patient
      outcomes. SENP2 knockdown results in a decrease of E-cadherin and an increase of
      N-cadherin and fibronectin at both transcript and protein levels, indicating that
      SENP2 negatively regulates EMT. On the contrary, SENP2 overexpression suppresses
      TGF-beta signaling and TGF-beta-induced EMT. We further demonstrated that SENP2
      regulates TGF-beta signaling partly through deSUMOylation of TGFbeta receptor I
      (TGF-betaRI). Functionally, SENP2 suppresses bladder cancer cell invasion in
      vitro and tumor metastasis in vivo, acts as a tumor suppressor gene in bladder
      cancer. Our results establish a function of SENP2 in metastatic progression and
      suggest its candidacy as a new prognostic biomarker and target for clinical
      management of bladder cancer.

PMID- 28574614
TI  - Strontium(II) and mechanical loading additively augment bone formation in calcium
      phosphate scaffolds.
AB  - Calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) are widely used for bone-defect treatment.
      Current developments comprise the fabrication of porous scaffolds by three
      dimensional plotting and doting using biologically active substances, such as
      strontium. Strontium is known to increase osteoblast activity and simultaneously
      to decrease osteoclast resorption. This study investigated the short- and long
      term in vivo performances of strontium(II)-doted CPC (SrCPC) scaffolds compared
      to non-doted CPC scaffolds after implantation in unloaded or load-bearing
      trabecular bone defects in sheep. After 6 weeks, both CPC and SrCPC scaffolds
      exhibited good biocompatibility and osseointegration. Fluorochrome labeling
      revealed that both scaffolds were penetrated by newly formed bone already after 4
      weeks. Neither strontium doting nor mechanical loading significantly influenced
      early bone formation. In contrast, after 6 months, bone formation was
      significantly enhanced in SrCPC compared to CPC scaffolds. Energy dispersive X
      ray analysis demonstrated the release of strontium from the SrCPC into the bone.
      Strontium addition did not significantly influence material resorption or
      osteoclast formation. Mechanical loading significantly stimulated bone formation
      in both CPC and SrCPC scaffolds after 6 months without impairing scaffold
      integrity. The most bone was found in SrCPC scaffolds under load-bearing
      conditions. Concluding, these results demonstrate that strontium doting and
      mechanical loading additively stimulated bone formation in CPC scaffolds and that
      the scaffolds exhibited mechanical stability under moderate load, implying good
      clinical suitability. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:106-117, 2018.

PMID- 28574615
TI  - Simultaneous spin-echo and gradient-echo BOLD measurements by dynamic MRS.
AB  - This study aimed to dissociate the intravascular and extravascular contributions
      to spin-echo (SE) and gradient-echo (GE) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)
      signals at 7 T, using dynamic diffusion-weighted MRS. We simultaneously acquired
      SE and GE data using a point-resolved spectroscopy sequence with diffusion
      weightings of 0, 600, and 1200 s/mm2 . The BOLD signals were quantified by
      fitting the free induction decays starting from the SE center to a mono
      exponential decay function. Without diffusion weighting, BOLD signals measured
      with SE and GE increased by 1.6 +/- 0.5% (TESE  = 40 ms) and 5.2 +/- 1.4%
      (nominal TEGE  = 40 ms) during stimulation, respectively. With diffusion
      weighting, the BOLD increase during stimulation measured with SE decreased from
      1.6 +/- 0.5% to 1.3 +/- 0.4% (P < 0.001), whereas that measured by GE was
      unaffected (P > 0.05); the post-stimulation undershoots in the BOLD signal time
      courses were largely preserved in both SE and GE measurements. These results
      demonstrated the feasiblity of simultaneous SE and GE measurements of BOLD
      signals with and without interleaved diffusion weighting. The results also
      indicated a predominant extravascular contribution to the BOLD signal time
      courses, including post-stimulation undershoots in both SE and GE measurements at
      7 T.

PMID- 28574616
TI  - The Therapeutic Potential of Targeting Tumor Microenvironment in Breast Cancer:
      Rational Strategies and Recent Progress.
AB  - The tumor microenvironment (TME) is cellular environment in addition to harboring
      carcinoma cells, consists of different components (e.g., blood vessels, immune
      cells, fibroblasts, bone marrow-derived inflammatory cells, lymphocytes,
      signaling molecules, and the extracellular matrix) that have an essential role on
      drug activity and efficacy. There is growing body of evidence showing its
      involvement in the progression and metastasis of different cancers, including
      breast cancer (BC). These observations provide a proof of concept of targeting
      TME compartments as a novel potential therapeutic approach in treatment of this
      malignancy, which is the main interested for current review. J. Cell. Biochem.
      119: 111-122, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28574617
TI  - Confirmed identification and toxin profiling of Campylobacter jejuni using a
      thermostabilized multiplex PCR formulation.
AB  - Cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) producing Campylobacter jejuni species are one
      of the leading causes of human gastroenteritis worldwide. The main intent of the
      study was to develop a multiplex PCR assay for the confirmed identification and
      toxin profiling of C. jejuni. The genes targeted were rpo B as genus specific,
      hip O for species; cdt A, cdt B, cdt C encoding respective subunit proteins of
      CDT with Internal Amplification Control (IAC). To enhance its application as a
      pre-mixed ready-to-use format, the master mix of developed mPCR was dried by
      lyophilization and stability was assessed. Thermostabilized reagents showed
      stability of 1.5 months at room-temperature and upto six months at 4  degrees C
      without any loss of functionality. The assay was evaluated on a number of
      presumptive Campylobacter isolates along with biochemical tests. Results obtained
      indicated the accurate identification of C. jejuni by developed mPCR format in
      contrast to misconception associated with biochemical assays. The assay was also
      tested on spiked samples for its real-time utility. Altogether, the room
      temperature storable and ready-to- use mPCR format developed in this study could
      be preferred for rapid detection and confirmed identification of toxigenic
      strains of C. jejuni in place of conventional biochemical assays.

PMID- 28574612
TI  - Basal cell carcinoma pathogenesis and therapy involving hedgehog signaling and
      beyond.
AB  - Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the skin is driven by aberrant hedgehog signaling.
      Thus blocking this signaling pathway by small molecules such as vismodegib
      inhibits tumor growth. Primary cilium in the epidermal cells plays an integral
      role in the processing of hedgehog signaling-related proteins. Recent genomic
      studies point to the involvement of additional genetic mutations that might be
      associated with the development of BCCs, suggesting significance of other
      signaling pathways, such as WNT, NOTCH, mTOR, and Hippo, aside from hedgehog in
      the pathogenesis of this human neoplasm. Some of these pathways could be
      regulated by noncoding microRNA. Altered microRNA expression profile is
      recognized with the progression of these lesions. Stopping treatment with
      Smoothened (SMO) inhibitors often leads to tumor reoccurrence in the patients
      with basal cell nevus syndrome, who develop 10-100 of BCCs. In addition, the
      initial effectiveness of these SMO inhibitors is impaired due to the onset of
      mutations in the drug-binding domain of SMO. These data point to a need to
      develop strategies to overcome tumor recurrence and resistance and to enhance
      efficacy by developing novel single agent-based or multiple agents-based
      combinatorial approaches. Immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy could be
      additional successful approaches particularly if developed in combination with
      chemotherapy for inoperable and metastatic BCCs.

PMID- 28574618
TI  - Effects of short-to-long term enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) on skeletal muscle
      tissue in late onset Pompe disease (LOPD).
AB  - AIMS: Pompe disease is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder
      resulting from deficiency of acid alpha-glucosidase (GAA) enzyme.
      Histopathological hallmarks in skeletal muscle tissue are fibre vacuolization and
      autophagy. Since 2006, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is the only approved
      treatment with human recombinant GAA alglucosidase alfa. We designed a study to
      examine ERT-related skeletal muscle changes in 18 modestly to moderately affected
      late onset Pompe disease (LOPD) patients along with the relationship between
      morphological/biochemical changes and clinical outcomes. Treatment duration was
      short-to-long term. METHODS: We examined muscle biopsies from 18 LOPD patients at
      both histopathological and biochemical level. All patients underwent two muscle
      biopsies, before and after ERT administration respectively. The study is
      partially retrospective because the first biopsies were taken before the study
      was designed, whereas the second biopsy was always performed after at least 6
      months of ERT administration. RESULTS: After ERT, 15 out of 18 patients showed
      improved 6-min walking test (6MWT; P = 0.0007) and most of them achieved
      respiratory stabilization. Pretreatment muscle biopsies disclosed marked
      histopathological variability, ranging from an almost normal pattern to a severe
      vacuolar myopathy. After treatment, we detected morphological improvement in 15
      patients and worsening in three patients. Post-ERT GAA enzymatic activity was
      mildly increased compared with pretreatment levels in all patients. Protein
      levels of the mature enzyme increased in 14 of the 18 patients (mean increase =
      +35%; P < 0.05). Additional studies demonstrated an improved autophagic flux
      after ERT in some patients. CONCLUSIONS: ERT positively modified skeletal muscle
      pathology as well as motor and respiratory outcomes in the majority of LOPD
      patients.

PMID- 28574622
TI  - Oxford medial unicompartmental knees display contact-loss during step-cycle
      motion and bicycle motion: A dynamic radiostereometric study.
AB  - The Oxford medial unicompartmental knee is designed fully congruent, with the
      purpose of maintaining a large contact-area throughout motion and minimize wear.
      No other study has investigated this design feature in-vivo. We aimed to evaluate
      if contact-loss was introduced between the articulating surfaces of the Oxford
      medial unicompartmental knee during bicycle- and step-cycle motion, and whether
      this correlated with essential implant parameters, such as polyethylene (PE)
      wear, knee-loadings, and clinical outcome. To study contact-loss, 15 patients (12
      males, mean age 69 years) with an Oxford medial unicompartmental knee (7
      cemented, mean follow-up 4.4 years) were examined with use of dynamic
      radiostereometry (RSA) (10 frames/s). PE wear was measured from static RSA and
      clinical outcome was evaluated with American Knee Society Score (AKSS) and Oxford
      Knee Score (OKS). Data on knee-loadings were acquired from the literature.
      Contact-loss was deteced in all patients during both exercises, and the trend of
      contact-loss correlated with the knee-loadings. Median contact-loss was 0.8 mm
      (95%PI: 0.3; 1.5) for bicycle motion and 0.3 mm (95%PI: 0.24; 0.35) for step
      cycle motion, and did not correlate with the PE wear rate of mean 0.06 mm/year.
      Possible in-congruency was seen in three patients. Clinical outcome scores
      correlated with contact-loss during step-cycle motion. In conclusion, contact
      loss was seen in all patients indicating a clinical tolerance during load.
      Contact-loss followed the knee-loadings, which could explain why no correlation
      was seen with PE wear, as an increase in load was acommadated by an increase in
      contact-area (contact-loss reduction). The size of contact-loss may reflect
      clinical outcome. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:357-364, 2018.

PMID- 28574620
TI  - Rescue allocation and recipient oriented extended allocation in kidney
      transplantation-influence of the EUROTRANSPLANT allocation system on recipient
      selection and graft survival for initially nonaccepted organs.
AB  - Nonaccepted kidneys grafts enter the rescue allocation (RA) process to avoid
      discards. In December 2013, recipient oriented extended allocation (REAL) was
      introduced to improve transparency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      influence of REAL on recipients' selection and graft function compared to the
      formerly existing RA as well as to identify factors that influence graft outcome.
      Therefore, a multicenter study of 10 transplant centers in the same region in
      Germany was performed. All transplantations after RA or REAL from December 1,
      2012, until December 31, 2014, with a follow-up time until December 31, 2015 were
      analyzed. 113 of 941 kidney transplantations were performed after RA or REAL
      (12%). With REAL, the number of refusals before transplantation had increased (12
      +/- 7.1 vs. 8.6 +/- 8.6, P = 0.036), and cold ischemia time has decreased (13.6
      +/- 3.6 vs. 17.2 +/- 4.8 h, P = 0.019). Recipients after REAL needed
      significantly more allocation points compared to RA to receive a kidney. One-year
      graft survival was comparable. If kidneys from the same donor were transplanted
      to two recipients at one center, the greater the difference in recipient age, the
      greater the difference in serum creatinine after 12 months (-0.019 mg/dl per
      year, P = 0.011) was, that is older recipients showed lower creatinine. REAL
      influences selection of the recipients compared to the former RA era for
      successful organ receipt. Graft function is comparable and seems to be influenced
      by recipient age.

PMID- 28574621
TI  - Prospects for induction of CD8 T cell-mediated immunity to Zika virus infection
      by yellow fever virus vaccination.

PMID- 28574623
TI  - A gap in comprehensive care: Sexual health in men with haemophilia.

PMID- 28574619
TI  - UCP2 upregulation promotes PLCgamma-1 signaling during skin cell transformation.
AB  - Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2), whose physiological role is to decrease
      mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, is
      often overexpressed in human cancers. UCP2 upregulation has recently been
      proposed as a novel survival mechanism for cancer cells. However, until now, how
      exactly UCP2 promotes tumorigenesis remains inconclusive. Based on a widely used
      skin cell transformation model, our data demonstrated that UCP2 differentially
      regulated ROS. UCP2 upregulation decreased superoxide whereas it increased
      hydrogen peroxide production with concomitant increase in the expression and
      activity of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), the primary mitochondrial
      antioxidant enzyme. Furthermore, hydrogen peroxide was responsible for induction
      of lipid peroxidation, and PLCgamma-1 activation in UCP2 overexpressed cells.
      Additionally, PLCgamma-1 activation enhanced skin cell transformation, and
      pharmacological, and siRNA mediated inhibition of PLCgamma-1, markedly reduced
      colony formation, and 3D cell growth. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide scavenger,
      catalase, suppressed lipid peroxidation, and dampened PLCgamma-1 activity. Taken
      together, our data suggest that (i) UCP2 is an important regulator of
      mitochondrial redox status and lipid signaling; (ii) hydrogen peroxide might
      mediate UCP2's tumor promoting activity; and (iii) pharmacological disruption of
      PLCgamma-1 and/or hydrogen peroxide may have clinical utility for UCP2
      overexpressed cancers.

PMID- 28574624
TI  - Proper reprogramming of imprinted and non-imprinted genes in cloned cattle
      gametogenesis.
AB  - Epigenetic abnormalities in cloned animals are caused by incomplete reprogramming
      of the donor nucleus during the nuclear transfer step (first reprogramming).
      However, during the second reprogramming step that occurs only in the germline
      cells, epigenetic errors not corrected during the first step are repaired.
      Consequently, epigenetic abnormalities in the somatic cells of cloned animals
      should be erased in their spermatozoa or oocytes. This is supported by the fact
      that offspring from cloned animals do not exhibit defects at birth or during
      postnatal development. To test this hypothesis in cloned cattle, we compared the
      DNA methylation level of two imprinted genes (H19 and PEG3) and three non
      imprinted genes (XIST, OCT4 and NANOG) and two repetitive elements (Satellite I
      and Satellite II) in blood and sperm DNAs from cloned and non-cloned bulls. We
      found no differences between cloned and non-cloned bulls. We also analyzed the
      DNA methylation levels of four repetitive elements (Satellite I, Satellite II,
      Alpha-satellite and Art2) in oocytes recovered from cloned and non-cloned cows.
      Again, no significant differences were observed between clones and non-clones.
      These results suggested that imprinted and non-imprinted genes and repetitive
      elements were properly reprogramed during gametogenesis in cloned cattle;
      therefore, they contributed to the soundness of cloned cattle offspring.

PMID- 28574625
TI  - PNPLA3 as a liver steatosis risk factor following living-donor liver
      transplantation for hepatitis C.
AB  - AIM: Liver steatosis frequently occurs following liver transplantation (LT) and
      can affect patient outcome. Here, we aimed to clarify the steatosis and
      steatohepatitis risk factors that apply after living-donor LT for chronic
      hepatitis C. METHODS: We retrospectively examined 43 transplant recipients and
      donors, and tested for single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PNPLA3 gene. Liver
      biopsies taken 1 year after transplantation and yearly thereafter, or when
      abnormal liver enzyme levels were detected, were examined by histopathology.
      RESULTS: Liver steatosis (>5% steatotic hepatocytes) was evident in 13 of 43
      cases (30%), and steatohepatitis in 3 (7.0%). The average time to steatosis after
      LT was 2.74 +/- 1.55 years. The PNPLA3 rs738409 GG genotype, a steatosis risk
      factor, was identified in 13 recipients and 10 donors. Steatosis prevalence did
      not differ according to recipient genotype. However, this condition was
      significantly more common among patients who received tissue from donors carrying
      the rs738409 GG genotype compared to those with grafts from donors of the CC or
      CG genotype (60, 7, and 26%, respectively; P < 0.05). All 3 steatohepatitis cases
      were associated with the GG donor genotype. CONCLUSION: The PNPLA3 rs738409 GG
      donor genotype affects liver steatosis and steatohepatitis risk following living
      donor LT.

PMID- 28574626
TI  - Assessment of phenotypic and genotypic antibiotic susceptibility of vaginal
      Lactobacillus sp.
AB  - AIM: To assess antibiotic susceptibility of vaginal lactobacilli strains and
      provide the data required for assessing the potential of antibiotic resistance
      risk of new strains selected as probiotic. METHODS AND RESULTS: Potential
      probiotic vaginal lactobacilli used in the study included 31 vaginal strains of
      Lactobacillus crispatus (n = 27), Lactobacillus gasseri (n = 3) and Lactobacillus
      jensenii (n = 1) obtained from the collection of Competence Centre on Health
      Technologies. Two commercial probiotic strains were used as controls
      (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus fermentum RC-14). The phenotypic
      and genotypic antibiotic resistances of the strains were determined by E-test and
      PCR methods. The location (chromosomal DNA or plasmid) of antibiotic resistance
      genes was also detected. All lactobacilli strains expressed high level of
      resistance to kanamycin, metronidazole, norfloxacin and
      trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole. Some of the strains also expressed resistance to
      other antibiotics (chloramphenicol, vancomycin) indicating acquired resistance. I
      class integrons were found in 20% (6/31) of the strains. The RPP (ribosomal
      protection protein) gene was found to be positive in 30% (9/31) of the strains.
      Only one L. jensenii strain was determined with tet(M) gene. The tet(K) gene was
      positive in 26.7% (8/31) and erm(B) gene in 43.3% (13/31) of strains. Three RPP
      and both four tet(K) and erm(B) genes were located in plasmids. CONCLUSIONS: High
      antibiotic resistance to clinically important antibiotics was demonstrated,
      including metronidazole, sulphonamides, aminoglycoside and quinolones. In
      addition, acquired tetracycline and erythromycin resistance genes were detected
      in either plasmid or chromosomal DNA of certain isolates, in some of the cases
      for the first time in the literature. It appears that antibiotic resistance genes
      erm(B) and tet(K) are widely spread in vaginal lactobacilli. SIGNIFICANCE AND
      IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This study provides new data about antimicrobial resistance
      and genotypic diversity of vaginal Lactobacillus isolates. In addition, it
      provides data assessing the potential of antibiotic resistance risk of new
      strains selected as probiotic.

PMID- 28574627
TI  - CT versus MR Techniques in the Detection of Cervical Artery Dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD) is an important
      etiology of juvenile stroke. The gold standard for the diagnosis of sCAD is
      convential angiography. However, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/MR angiography
      (MRA) and computed tomography (CT)/CT angiography (CTA) are frequently used
      alternatives. New developments such as multislice CT/CTA have enabled routine
      acquisition of thinner sections with rapid imaging times. The goal of this study
      was to compare the capability of recent developed 128-slice CT/CTA to MRI/MRA to
      detect radiologic features of sCAD. METHODS: Retrospective review of patients
      with suspected sCAD (n = 188) in a database of our Stroke center (2008-2014), who
      underwent CT/CTA and MRI/MRA on initial clinical work-up. A control group of 26
      patients was added. All Images were evaluated concerning specific and sensitive
      radiological features for dissection by two experienced neuroradiologists.
      Imaging features were compared between the two modalities. RESULTS: Forty
      patients with 43 dissected arteries received both modalities (29 internal carotid
      arteries [ICAs] and 14 vertebral arteries [VAs]). All CADs were identified in
      CT/CTA and MRI/MRA. The features intimal flap, stenosis, and lumen irregularity
      appeared in both modalities. One high-grade stenosis was identified by CT/CTA
      that was expected occluded on MRI/MRA. Two MRI/MRA-confirmed pseudoaneurysms were
      missed by CT/CTA. None of the controls evidenced specific imaging signs for
      dissection. CONCLUSIONS: CT/CTA is a reliable and better available alternative to
      MRI/MRA for diagnosis of sCAD. CT/CTA should be used to complement MRI/MRA in
      cases where MRI/MRA suggests occlusion.

PMID- 28574628
TI  - A Boronic Acid Assay for the Detection of Mucin-1 Glycoprotein from Cancer Cells.
AB  - Cell surface glycoproteins are commonly aberrant in disease and act as biomarkers
      that facilitate diagnostics. Mucin-1 (MUC1) is a prominent example, exhibiting
      truncated glycosylation in cancer. We present herein a boronic acid microplate
      assay for sensitive and high-throughput detection of such glycoproteins. The
      immobilization of biotin-boronic acid 1 onto streptavidin plates generated a
      multivalent surface for glycoprotein recruitment and detection. We first
      validated the binding properties of 1 in solution through titrations with
      alizarin dye. Next, the microplate assay was explored through horseradish
      peroxidase (HRP) analysis as a proof-of-concept glycoprotein with
      chemiluminescence detection. Finally, this platform was applied for the detection
      of MUC1 directly from MCF-7 human breast cancer cell lysates by using an HRP
      tagged antibody that targets the cancerous form of this glycoprotein. Sensitive,
      dose-dependent detection of MUC1 was observed, showcasing the efficacy of this
      platform for detecting disease-associated glycoproteins.

PMID- 28574631
TI  - Starry Aims to Overcome Knowledge Translation Inertia: The Standards for
      Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI) Guidelines.

PMID- 28574629
TI  - Reduction of indole-3-acetic acid methyltransferase activity compensates for high
      temperature male sterility in Arabidopsis.
AB  - High temperature is a general stress factor that causes a decrease in crop yield.
      It has been shown that auxin application reduces the male sterility caused by
      exposure to higher temperatures. However, widespread application of a hormone
      with vast effects on plant physiology may be discouraged in many cases.
      Therefore, the generation of new plant varieties that locally enhance auxin in
      reproductive organs may represent an alternative strategy. We have explored the
      possibility of increasing indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in ovaries by reducing IAA
      methyltransferase1 (IAMT1) activity in Arabidopsis thaliana. The iamt1 mutant
      showed increased auxin signalling in funiculi, which correlated with a higher
      growth rate of wild-type pollen in contact with mutant ovaries and premature
      ovule fertilization. While the production of seeds per fruit was similar in the
      wild type and the mutant at 20  degrees C, exposure to 29  degrees C caused a
      more severe decrease in fertility in the wild type than in the mutant. Loss of
      IAMT1 activity was also associated with the production of more nodes after
      flowering and higher tolerance of the shoot apical meristem to higher
      temperatures. As a consequence, the productivity of the iamt1 mutant under higher
      temperatures was more than double of that of the wild type, with almost no
      apparent trade-off.

PMID- 28574630
TI  - High-mobility group box-1 contributes tumor angiogenesis under interleukin-8
      mediation during gastric cancer progression.
AB  - Many soluble factors are involved in tumor angiogenesis. Thus, it is valuable to
      identify novel soluble factors for effective control of tumor angiogenesis in
      gastric cancer (GC). We investigated the role of extracellular high-mobility
      group box-1 (HMGB1) and its associated soluble factors in the tumor angiogenesis
      of GC. Clinically, we measured serum levels of HMGB1 and GC-associated
      cytokines/chemokines using GC serum samples (n = 120), and calculated microvessel
      density (MVD) by CD34 immunostaining using human GC tissues (n = 27). Then we
      analyzed the correlation of serum HMGB1 levels with MVD or that with
      cytokine/chemokine levels by linear regression. As in vitro angiogenesis assay
      for HMGB1, HUVEC migration and capillary tube formation assay were carried out
      using different histological types of human GC cells (N87 and KATOIII). CD34
      positive microvessels were detected from early GC, but MVD increased according to
      GC stages, and were closely correlated with serum HMGB1 levels (R = 0.608, P =
      0.01). The HUVECs cultured in conditioned media derived from rhHMGB1-treated or
      HMGB1-TF GC cells showed remarkably enhanced migration and tube formation
      activities. These effects were abrogated by anti-HMGB1 antibody or HMGB1 siRNA in
      both N87 and KATOIII cells (all P < 0.05). Among tested cytokines/chemokines,
      interleukin-8 (IL-8) was the most remarkable cytokine correlated with serum HMGB1
      (P < 0.001), and enhanced HUVEC migration and tube formation activities by
      rhHMGB1 or HMGB1-TF were significantly reversed by IL-8 inhibition. These results
      indicate overexpressed HMGB1 contributes to tumor angiogenesis through IL-8
      mediation, and combined targeting of HMGB1 and IL-8 can control tumor
      angiogenesis in GC.

PMID- 28574632
TI  - What about prophylactic surgery in BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers? Observations
      from an Italian pilot study.

PMID- 28574633
TI  - A General Mechanism of Photoconversion of Green-to-Red Fluorescent Proteins Based
      on Blue and Infrared Light Reduces Phototoxicity in Live-Cell Single-Molecule
      Imaging.
AB  - Photoconversion of fluorescent proteins by blue and complementary near-infrared
      light, termed primed conversion (PC), is a mechanism recently discovered for
      Dendra2. We demonstrate that controlling the conformation of arginine at residue
      66 by threonine at residue 69 of fluorescent proteins from Anthozoan families
      (Dendra2, mMaple, Eos, mKikGR, pcDronpa protein families) represents a general
      route to facilitate PC. Mutations of alanine 159 or serine 173, which are known
      to influence chromophore flexibility and allow for reversible photoswitching,
      prevent PC. In addition, we report enhanced photoconversion for pcDronpa variants
      with asparagine 116. We demonstrate live-cell single-molecule imaging with
      reduced phototoxicity using PC and record trajectories of RNA polymerase in
      Escherichia coli cells.

PMID- 28574634
TI  - Pinpointing clinical phenotypes - Is there evidence to support the use of a
      simple scoring system to define a milder bleeding phenotype in severe haemophilia
      A?

PMID- 28574635
TI  - Estradiol inhibits hepatic stellate cell area and collagen synthesis in the
      chicken liver.
AB  - Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the main collagen-producing cells in the liver.
      The HSC area and amount of collagen fibers are different between male and female
      chickens. This study was performed to confirm the effect of estradiol on collagen
      synthesis in the growing chicken liver. Blood estradiol levels in chicks were
      compared at 4 and 8 weeks of age, and the collagen fibril network in liver tissue
      was observed at 8 weeks by scanning electron microscopy. Intraperitoneal
      administrations of estradiol and tamoxifen to male and female chicks,
      respectively, were performed daily from 5 to 8 weeks of age. The areas of HSCs
      and collagen contents were measured in the liver tissue. The blood estradiol
      level was higher in females than in males, and the collagen fibril network was
      denser in males than in females at 8 weeks of age. Estradiol administration in
      males induced decreases in the HSC area and collagen content of the liver.
      Conversely, tamoxifen administration in females induced an increase in the HSC
      area but did not facilitate collagen synthesis. Based on these results, estradiol
      inhibits the area and collagen synthesis of HSCs in the growing chicken liver
      under normal physiological conditions.

PMID- 28574636
TI  - Top-level sport in athletes with severe haemophilia A.

PMID- 28574637
TI  - Efficacy and safety of gadobutrol-enhanced MRA of the renal arteries: Results
      from GRAMS (Gadobutrol-enhanced renal artery MRA study), a prospective,
      intraindividual multicenter phase 3 blinded study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the performance of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with
      1M gadobutrol, a high relaxivity macrocyclic contrast agent, to 2D time-of-flight
      MRA (ToF-MRA) using computed tomographic angiography (CTA) as the standard of
      reference. Primary objectives were evaluation for superiority of structural
      delineation and noninferiority for detection and exclusion of clinically
      significant disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 315 subjects underwent
      unenhanced and contrast-enhanced MRA with 1M gadobutrol (CE-MRA) and were scanned
      with 1.5T MRI equipped with an at least 6-element body coil. Evaluations were
      based on both centralized blinded read (BR) performed by six readers as well as
      investigator site interpretations for the 292 subjects who completed the study.
      Quantitative evaluations including percent stenosis and normal vessel
      measurements were also performed. Secondary endpoints included identification of
      accessory renal arteries, diagnosis of fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), diagnostic
      confidence, and need for additional imaging. RESULTS: A total of 292 patients
      suspected of renal artery disease completed the study. CE-MRA demonstrated
      statistically significant improvement in assessability of vascular segments
      compared to ToF: 95.9% vs. 77.6% (P < 0.0001). In the BR, the sensitivity and
      specificity of CE-MRA were noninferior to ToF-MRA (53.4% vs. 46.6% and 95.1% vs.
      85.7%, respectively). There was less error in the CE-MRA stenosis measurements
      (0.15 mm gadobutrol vs. 0.41 mm ToF, P < 0.05). FMD was correctly diagnosed more
      frequently, 10% more accessory renal arteries were identified (P < 0.01),
      diagnostic confidence increased (P < 0.01), and fewer additional imaging studies
      were recommended (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Gadobutrol-enhanced MRA of the renal
      arteries has superior visualization, more accurate vessel measurements, and may
      serve as a CTA alternative without any ionizing radiation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1
      Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:572-581.

PMID- 28574638
TI  - Amplification and quantification of cold-associated microRNAs in the Colorado
      potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) agricultural pest.
AB  - The Colorado potato beetle [Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say)] is an important
      insect pest that can inflict considerable damage to potato plants. This insect
      can survive extended periods of cold exposure, and yet the molecular switches
      underlying this phenomenon have not been fully elucidated. A better
      characterization of this process would highlight novel vulnerabilities associated
      with L. decemlineata that could serve as targets for the management of this
      devastating pest. Using high-throughput sequencing, the current work reveals a
      cold-associated signature group of microRNAs (miRNAs) in control (15  degrees C)
      and -5  degrees C-exposed L. decemlineata. The results show 42 differentially
      expressed miRNAs following cold exposure including miR-9a-3p, miR-210-3p, miR-276
      5p and miR-277-3p. Functional analysis of predicted targets associated with these
      cold-responsive miRNAs notably linked these changes with vital metabolic and
      cellular processes. Overall, this study highlights the miRNAs probably
      responsible for facilitating cold adaptation in L. decemlineata and implicates
      miRNAs as a key molecular target to consider in the development of novel pest
      management strategies against these insects.

PMID- 28574640
TI  - Trigeminal Neuralgia in Pregnancy: A Management Challenge.
AB  - Pregnancy is known to aggravate pre-existing chronic painful conditions.
      Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), albeit a disease of the elderly, may afflict pregnant
      females, which can further complicate its management. Teratogenic effects of the
      commonly used drugs on the developing fetus limit pharmacological treatment.
      Moreover, safety of commonly performed interventional therapies is marred by
      their inherent fetomaternal effects and more importantly the risk for radiation
      effects on the fetus due to the use of fluoroscopy. This rare coexistence of TN
      in pregnancy has not been reported before. Here we present a case of TN in a
      young woman, whose pain was aggravated when she became pregnant, and she was
      treated successfully by conventional radiofrequency ablation of the Gasserian
      ganglion.

PMID- 28574639
TI  - DNA origami applications in cancer therapy.
AB  - Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of cancer, the development of cancer
      diagnosis and therapy is still progressing, and a complete understanding of
      cancer biology remains elusive. Recently, cancer nanomedicine has gained much
      interest as a promising diagnostic and therapeutic strategy, as a wide range of
      nanomaterials possess unique physical properties that can render drug delivery
      systems safer and more effective. Also, targeted drug delivery and precision
      medicine have now become a new paradigm in cancer therapy. With nanocarriers,
      chemotherapeutic drugs could be directly delivered into target cancer cells,
      resulting in enhanced efficiency with fewer side-effects. DNA, a biomolecule with
      molecular self-assembly properties, has emerged as a versatile nanomaterial to
      construct multifunctional platforms; DNA nanostructures can be modified with
      functional groups to improve their utilities as biosensors or drug carriers. Such
      applications have become possible with the advent of the scaffolded DNA origami
      method. This breakthrough technique in structural DNA nanotechnology provides an
      easier and faster way to construct DNA nanostructures with various shapes.
      Several experiments proved that DNA origami nanostructures possess abilities to
      enhance efficacies of chemotherapy, reduce adverse side-effects, and even
      circumvent drug resistance. Here, we highlight the principles of the DNA origami
      technique and its applications in cancer therapeutics and discuss current
      challenges and opportunities to improve cancer detection and targeted drug
      delivery.

PMID- 28574643
TI  - How far have we progressed since the Tokyo Guidelines 2013?

PMID- 28574642
TI  - Delivering irrigation to the anterior ethmoid region: evaluation of a lacrimal
      diversion device in a cadaver model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Topical solutions to the sinus cavity are primarily administered via
      a transnasal route with inherent limitations of distribution. Here we describe an
      alternate method of sinus access via lacrimal sinus diversion using a novel
      lacrimal diversion device (LDD). METHODS: A cadaveric study was performed using
      12 disarticulated fresh heads. The LDD was implanted in 23 sides meeting
      insertion criteria. Time to placement was recorded and patency was assessed via
      nasal endoscopy. Methylene blue was administered via the LDD and 16 sides
      underwent surgical ethmoidectomy to assess distribution of mucosal staining. Four
      cadavers underwent computed tomography (CT) imaging to demonstrate stent
      position. RESULTS: Mean time of placement was 3.66 +/- 2.37 minutes (mean +/-
      standard deviation [SD]). Patency rate was 100%. Six sides (37.5%) had anterior
      ethmoid staining, 6 sides (37.5%) had posterior ethmoid staining, and the
      remaining 4 sides (25%) had mixed anterior and posterior ethmoid staining. Stents
      placed optimally resulted in anterior ethmoid staining without complication.
      Malpositioned stents resulted in posterior ethmoid staining and some inadvertent
      ethmoid vertical lamella trauma in 2 instances. CONCLUSION: Sinus irrigation can
      be delivered to the ethmoid sinuses directly via a lacrimal diversion stent.
      Technique modification or image guidance may be helpful in ensuring optimal
      placement.

PMID- 28574641
TI  - Ectopic expression of a novel OsExtensin-like gene consistently enhances plant
      lodging resistance by regulating cell elongation and cell wall thickening in
      rice.
AB  - Plant lodging resistance is an important integrative agronomic trait of grain
      yield and quality in crops. Although extensin proteins are tightly associated
      with plant cell growth and cell wall construction, little has yet been reported
      about their impacts on plant lodging resistance. In this study, we isolated a
      novel extensin-like (OsEXTL) gene in rice, and selected transgenic rice plants
      that expressed OsEXTL under driven with two distinct promoters. Despite different
      OsEXTL expression levels, two-promoter-driven OsEXTL-transgenic plants, compared
      to a rice cultivar and an empty vector, exhibited significantly reduced cell
      elongation in stem internodes, leading to relatively shorter plant heights by 7%
      10%. Meanwhile, the OsEXTL-transgenic plants showed remarkably thickened
      secondary cell walls with higher cellulose levels in the mature plants, resulting
      in significantly increased detectable mechanical strength (extension and pushing
      forces) in the mature transgenic plants. Due to reduced plant height and
      increased plant mechanical strength, the OsEXTL-transgenic plants were detected
      with largely enhanced lodging resistances in 3 years field experiments, compared
      to those of the rice cultivar ZH11. In addition, despite relatively short plant
      heights, the OsEXTL-transgenic plants maintain normal grain yields and biomass
      production, owing to their increased cellulose levels and thickened cell walls.
      Hence, this study demonstrates a largely improved lodging resistance in the
      OsEXTL-transgenic rice plants, and provides insights into novel extensin
      functions in plant cell growth and development, cell wall network construction
      and wall structural remodelling.

PMID- 28574645
TI  - Structure Mapping and Vocabularies for Thinking.
AB  - While extremes tend to capture attention, the ordinary is often most of the
      story. So it may be with the structure-mapping process. The structure-mapping
      process can account for such pinnacles of thinking as analogy and metaphor, which
      can lead to overlooking the mundane, incremental use of structure mapping.
      Consequently, the current discussion shifts focus to the value of close
      comparisons between literally similar items for the development of knowledge. The
      intent is to foster greater integration between process and content as well as
      between individuals and collectives. The payoff is identifying some undue
      simplifications and some promising new directions.

PMID- 28574644
TI  - New Prenylated ortho-Dihydroxycoumarins from the Fruits of Ficus nipponica.
AB  - Two new prenylated ortho-dihydroxycoumarins, designated fipsomin (1) and
      fipsotwin (2), were isolated from the fruits of Ficus nipponica together with a
      known prenylated coumarin, apigravin (3). Their structures were established by
      spectroscopic data and X-ray crystallographic analysis. Compound 1 exhibited
      antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis with an MIC value of 61 MUm,
      while 2 and 3 showed very weak activity.

PMID- 28574646
TI  - The measurement properties of the spence children's anxiety scale-parent version
      in a large international pooled sample of young people with autism spectrum
      disorder.
AB  - Anxiety-related difficulties are common in ASD, but measuring anxiety reliably
      and validly is challenging. Despite an increasing number of studies, there is no
      clear agreement on which existing anxiety measure is more psychometrically sound
      and what is the factor structure of anxiety in ASD. The present study examined
      the internal consistency, convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity, as
      well as the factor structure of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent
      Version (SCAS-P), in a large international pooled sample of 870 caregivers of
      youth with ASD from 12 studies in the United Kingdom, United States, and
      Singapore who completed the SCAS-P. Most were community recruited, while the
      majority had at least one measure of ASD symptomatology and either cognitive or
      adaptive functioning measures completed. Existing SCAS-P total scale and
      subscales had excellent internal consistency and good convergent, divergent and
      discriminant validity similar to or better than SCAS-P properties reported in
      typically developing children, except for the poorer internal consistency of the
      physical injury subscale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the existing SCAS
      P six-correlated factor structure was a poor fit for this pooled database.
      Principal component analysis using half of the pooled sample identified a 30-item
      five correlated factor structure, but a CFA of this PCA-derived structure in the
      second half of this pooled sample revealed a poor fit, although the PCA-derived
      SCAS-P scale and subscales had stronger validity and better internal consistency
      than the original SCAS-P. The study's limitations, the use of the SCAS-P to
      screen for DSM-derived anxiety problems in ASD and future research directions are
      discussed. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1629-1652. (c) 2017 International Society for
      Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28574647
TI  - Robust nondimensional estimators to assess the nasal airflow in health and
      disease.
AB  - There are significant variations of both human nose shapes and airflow patterns
      inside nasal cavities, so it is difficult to provide a comprehensive medical
      identification using a universal template for what otolaryngologists consider
      normal breathing at rest. In addition, airflow patterns present even more random
      characteristics in diseased nasal cavities. To give a medical assessment to
      differentiate the nasal cavities in health and disease, we propose 2
      nondimensional estimators obtained from both medical images and computational
      fluid dynamics. The first mathematical estimator phi is a function of geometric
      features and potential asymmetries between nasal passages, while the second
      estimator R represents in fluid mechanics terms the total nasal resistance that
      corresponds to the atmosphere-choana pressure drop. These estimators only require
      global information such as nasal geometry and magnitudes of flow determined by
      simulations under laminar conditions. We find that these estimators take low and
      high values for healthy and diseased nasal cavities, respectively. Our study,
      based on 24 healthy and 25 diseased Caucasian subjects, reveals that there is an
      interval of values associated with healthy cavities that clusters in a small
      region of the plane phi-R. Therefore, these estimators can be seen as a first
      approximation to provide nasal airflow data to the clinician in a noninvasive
      method, as the computed tomography scan that provides the required images is
      routinely obtained as a result of the preexisting naso-sinusal condition.

PMID- 28574648
TI  - Block Copolymer-Templated Approach to Nanopatterned Metal-Organic Framework
      Films.
AB  - The fabrication of patterned metal-organic framework (MOF) films with precisely
      controlled nanoscale resolution has been a fundamental challenge in nanoscience
      and nanotechnology. In this study, nanopatterned MOF films were fabricated using
      a layer-by-layer (LBL) growth method on functional templates (such as a
      bicontinuous nanoporous membrane or a structure with highly long-range-ordered
      nanoscopic channels parallel to the underlying substrate) generated by the
      microphase separation of polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP) block
      copolymers. HKUST-1 can be directly deposited on the templates without any
      chemical modification because the pyridine groups in P2VP interact with metal
      ions via metal-BCP complexes. As a result, nanopatterned HKUST-1 films with
      feature sizes below 50 nm and controllable thicknesses can be fabricated by
      controlling the number of LBL growth cycles. The proposed fabrication method
      further extends the applications of MOFs in various fields.

PMID- 28574649
TI  - Hybrid Pharmacophoric Approach in the Design and Synthesis of Coumarin Linked
      Pyrazolinyl as Urease Inhibitors, Kinetic Mechanism and Molecular Docking.
AB  - The current research article reports the synthesis of coumarinyl pyrazolinyl
      thioamide derivatives and their biological activity as inhibitors of jack bean
      urease. The coumarinyl pyrazolinyl thioamides were synthesized by reacting
      thiosemicarbazide with newly synthesized chalcones to afford the products in good
      yields and the synthesized compounds were purified by recrystallization.
      Coumarinyl pyrazolinyl thioamide derivatives 5a - 5q showed significant activity
      against Urease enzyme and also exhibited good antioxidant potential. The compound
      3-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)-5-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamide (5n)
      was found to be superior agent in the series with an IC50  = 0.358 +/- 0.017 MUm
      compared to standard thiourea with an IC50  = 4720 +/- 174 MUm. To undermine the
      binding mode of inhibition kinetic studies were performed for most potent
      derivative and it was found that compound 5n inhibits urease enzyme by non
      competitive mode of inhibition. Molecular docking studies were carried out to
      delineate the binding affinity of the synthesized derivatives.

PMID- 28574650
TI  - Anthropometric charts and congenital anomalies in newborns with Down syndrome.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to obtain updated neonatal measurements in
      French newborns with Down Syndrome (DS) according to their gestational age, and
      to assess the frequency and distribution of congenital anomalies. Data on
      congenital malformations, birth weight, birth length and birth occipito-frontal
      circumference (OFC) according to the gestational age was gathered from 1,030
      babies, born between 1980 and 2010. The mean gestational age was 38 weeks from
      the date of the last menstrual period (LMP) (range: 29-42 weeks). Repartition of
      complications was found to be similar to previous studies, with no difference
      according to the date of birth. For girls born after 37 weeks, the mean birth
      weight was 3,012 +/- 430 g, the mean birth length was 47.7 +/- 2 cm, and the mean
      birth OFC was 33 +/- 1.4 cm. For boys born after 37 weeks, the mean birth weight
      was 3,103 +/- 459, the mean birth length was 48.4 +/- 2.2 cm, and the mean birth
      OFC was 33.2 +/- 1.4 cm. We did not find any difference in these measurements
      when we compared children born before 1997 and after 2007. When compared to the
      general population (French data and WHO charts), newborns with DS have a more
      pronounced difference in their birth length and their birth OFC (15-25th) than in
      their birth weight (25-50th). The shape of the growth curves shows that growth
      velocity decreases during the last weeks of gestation in all measurements, which
      suggests that the modal age for delivery could be earlier in DS newborns than in
      the general population.

PMID- 28574653
TI  - Cortical and Trabecular Bone Microstructure Did Not Recover at Weight-Bearing
      Skeletal Sites and Progressively Deteriorated at Non-Weight-Bearing Sites During
      the Year Following International Space Station Missions.
AB  - Risk for premature osteoporosis is a major health concern in astronauts and
      cosmonauts; the reversibility of the bone lost at the weight-bearing bone sites
      is not established, although it is suspected to take longer than the mission
      length. The bone three-dimensional structure and strength that could be uniquely
      affected by weightlessness is currently unknown. Our objective is to evaluate
      bone mass, microarchitecture, and strength of weight-bearing and non-weight
      bearing bone in 13 cosmonauts before and for 12 months after a 4-month to 6-month
      sojourn in the International Space Station (ISS). Standard and advanced
      evaluations of trabecular and cortical parameters were performed using high
      resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography. In particular, cortical
      analyses involved determination of the largest common volume of each successive
      individual scan to improve the precision of cortical porosity and density
      measurements. Bone resorption and formation serum markers, and markers reflecting
      osteocyte activity or periosteal metabolism (sclerostin, periostin) were
      evaluated. At the tibia, in addition to decreased bone mineral densities at
      cortical and trabecular compartments, a 4% decrease in cortical thickness and a
      15% increase in cortical porosity were observed at landing. Cortical size and
      density subsequently recovered and serum periostin changes were associated with
      cortical recovery during the year after landing. However, tibial cortical
      porosity or trabecular bone failed to recover, resulting in compromised strength.
      The radius, preserved at landing, unexpectedly developed postflight fragility,
      from 3 months post-landing onward, particularly in its cortical structure.
      Remodeling markers, uncoupled in favor of bone resorption at landing, returned to
      preflight values within 6 months, then declined farther to lower than preflight
      values. Our findings highlight the need for specific protective measures not only
      during, but also after spaceflight, because of continuing uncertainties regarding
      skeletal recovery long after landing. (c) 2017 American Society for Bone and
      Mineral Research.

PMID- 28574656
TI  - Nut allergy guideline.

PMID- 28574651
TI  - Impact of tobacco smoke on upper airway dendritic cell accumulation and
      regulation by sinonasal epithelial cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In these studies we examined the impact of environmental tobacco
      smoke (ETS) and active smoking on sinonasal dendritic cell (DC) subsets in
      controls or patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). In
      subsequent in-vitro investigations, we examined the influence of cigarette smoke
      extract (CSE) on human sinonasal epithelial cells' (HSNECs) ability to regulate
      DC functions. METHODS: Sinonasal tissue, blood, and hair were collected from
      patients undergoing sinus surgery. Smoking status and ETS exposure were
      determined by hair nicotine. DC subsets were examined by flow cytometric
      analysis. Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) were treated with conditioned
      medium from non-smoked-exposed HSNECs (NS-HSNECs) or cigarette-smoke-extract
      exposed HSNECs (CSE-HSNECs) to assess the impact of CSE exposure on HSNEC
      regulation of moDC functions. RESULTS: Control subjects who were active smokers
      displayed increased sinonasal moDC and myeloid dendritic 1 (mDC1) cells and
      reduced mDC2 cells, whereas, in CRSwNP patients, only moDC and mDC2 cells were
      altered. ETS was found to increase only moDCs in the CRSwNP patients. In vitro,
      CSE stimulated HSNEC secretion of the moDC regulatory products chemokine (C-C
      motif) ligand 20, prostaglandin E2 , and granulocyte-macrophage colony
      stimulating factor. CSE exposure also promoted HSNECs to stimulate monocyte and
      moDC migration. moDCs treated with CSE-HSNEC media stimulated an increase in
      antigen uptake and expression of CD80 and CD86. Last, CSE-HSNEC-treated moDCs
      secreted increased levels of interleukin-10, interferon-gamma, and thymic stromal
      lymphopoietin. CONCLUSION: Active smoking, and to a lesser degree ETS, alters the
      sinonasal composition of DCs. A potential mechanism to account for this is that
      cigarette smoke stimulates HSNECs to induce moDC migration, maturation, and
      activation.

PMID- 28574652
TI  - Accuracy and consistency of anti-Xa activity measurement for determination of
      rivaroxaban plasma levels.
AB  - : Essentials Accurate determination of anticoagulant plasma concentration is
      important in clinical practice. We studied the accuracy and consistency of anti
      Xa assays for rivaroxaban in a multicentre study. In a range between 50 and 200
      MUg L-1 , anti-Xa activity correlated well with plasma concentrations. The
      clinical value might be limited by overestimation and intra- and inter-individual
      variation. SUMMARY: Background Determining the plasma level of direct oral
      anticoagulants reliably is important in the work-up of complex clinical
      situations. Objectives To study the accuracy and consistency of anti-Xa assays
      for rivaroxaban plasma concentration in a prospective, multicenter evaluation
      study employing different reagents and analytical platforms. Methods Rivaroxaban
      20 mg was administered once daily to 20 healthy volunteers and blood samples were
      taken at peak and trough levels (clinicaltrials.gov NCT01710267). Anti-Xa
      activity was determined in 10 major laboratories using different reagents and
      analyzers; corresponding rivaroxaban plasma concentrations were measured by high
      performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Findings
      Overall Pearson's correlation coefficient of anti-Xa levels and HPLC-MS results
      was 0.99 for Biophen(r) Heparin (95% CI, 0.99, 0.99), Biophen(r) DiXaI (95% CI,
      0.99, 0.99) and STA(r) anti-Xa liquid (95% CI, 0.99, 1.00). Correlation was lower
      in rivaroxaban concentrations below 50 MUg L-1 and above 200 MUg L-1 . The
      overall bias of the Bland-Altman difference plot was 14.7 MUg L-1 for Biophen
      Heparin, 17.9 MUg L-1 for Biophen DiXal and 19.0 MUg L-1 for STA anti-Xa liquid.
      Agreement between laboratories was high at peak level but limited at trough
      level. Conclusions Anti-Xa activity correlated well with rivaroxaban plasma
      concentrations, especially in a range between 50 and 200 MUg L-1 . However, anti
      Xa assays systematically overestimated rivaroxaban concentration as compared with
      HPLC-MS, particularly at higher concentrations. This overestimation, coupled with
      an apparent interindividual variation, might affect the interpretation of results
      in some situations.

PMID- 28574654
TI  - Neuroprotective effects respond to cerebral ischemia without susceptibility to HB
      tumorigenesis in VHL heterozygous knockout mice.
AB  - The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene plays a prominent role in the
      development of hemangioblastomas (HBs) within specific regions of the human'
      central nervous system (CNS). Alterations in VHL gene are rarely observed in the
      more common features of human VHL-related tumors in animal models, and VHL
      heterozygous knockout (VHL+/-) mice do not develop HBs. We tested whether VHL
      heterozygous knockout mice exhibited genetic predisposition to the development of
      HBs and conferred a selective advantage involving growth of blood vessels to its
      carrier. No differences were observed between wild-type and VHL+/- mice in
      development ad reproduction. The heterozygous VHL+/- mice did not develop higher
      genetic susceptibility to CNS-HBs over their lifetime. Furthermore, this
      recessive VHL gene heterozygosity is relatively stable. Interestingly, we found
      these heterozygous VHL+/- mice gained an advantage conferring to angiogenic
      ability in a particular environment, compared with wild-type mice. The
      heterozygous VHL+/- mice obviously enhanced hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF)
      dependent and Twist1 angiogenic mechanism in response to acute cerebral ischemia,
      resulting in decreased cerebral tissue damage and neuroprotective response
      through neovascularization. Our findings provide evidence of partial loss
      function of VHL as a novel precise therapeutic target in acute cerebral ischemia.

PMID- 28574657
TI  - Time-dependent uptake and toxicity of nickel to Enchytraeus crypticus in the
      presence of humic acid and fulvic acid.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the influence of different fractions of
      dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on the uptake and toxicity of nickel (Ni) in the
      soil invertebrate Enchytraeus crypticus after different exposure times. The
      addition of DOC as humic acid or fulvic acid significantly reduced Ni uptake by
      E. crypticus in the soil-solution test system. Median lethal effect
      concentrations were calculated based on total dissolved Ni concentrations
      (LC50[Ni]), free Ni ion activity (LC50{Ni2+ }), and Ni body concentrations
      (LC50Body-Ni ). The LC50[Ni] values increased with increasing DOC levels and
      decreased with exposure time (4, 7, and 10 d). Humic acid exerted a greater
      protective effect on Ni toxicity than fulvic acid, but the protective effects
      decreased with prolonged exposure time. The LC50{Ni2+ } values also decreased
      with exposure time but were almost constant with variation in DOC levels,
      indicating that the protective effect of DOC is mainly through complexation with
      free Ni ions to reduce Ni bioavailability. The LC50Body-Ni value was independent
      of DOC concentration and exposure time, with an estimated overall value of 22.1
      ug/g dry weight. The present study shows that body concentration could serve as
      an effective indicator for predicting Ni toxicity with variations in the exposure
      environment (e.g., DOC) and exposure time. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3019
      3027. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28574658
TI  - Patient-tailored colorectal cancer care: a challenge within the context of
      evidence based guidelines.

PMID- 28574663
TI  - A novel method for treatment of chronic anal fissure: adipose-derived
      regenerative cells - a pilot study.
AB  - AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and feasibility of
      autologous adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRC) in the treatment of chronic
      anal fissure. METHOD: A prospective pilot study was conducted in six patients
      with chronic anal fissures at the First Surgical Clinic, Clinical Center of
      Serbia and at the BelPrime Clinic, Belgrade, Serbia. All patients were candidates
      for surgical treatment. The average duration of symptoms was 24 months. Pain
      assessment was quantified using a visual analogue scale and bowel continence was
      assessed using the Wexner incontinence score. Both were assessed before treatment
      and during each postoperative outpatient visit. Liposuction was performed under
      local or general anaesthesia. Extraction of ADRC was achieved with a closed
      automated medical device. The fat and ADRC were injected subcutaneously into the
      edge of the fissure. The rest of the pellet was infiltrated into the internal
      anal sphincter. The study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov
      (NCT02628522). RESULTS: Complete healing of the anal fissure and the
      disappearance of symptoms was achieved in all patients. The average time to
      complete pain cessation was 33.7 +/- 15.0 days. All fissures healed after 3
      months and remained healed 12 months after the procedure. There were no
      complications related to the procedure. CONCLUSION: The application of ADRC may
      be an alternative to lateral sphincterotomy and a reliable procedure which avoids
      faecal incontinence.

PMID- 28574665
TI  - Simultaneous Multislice-Based 5-Minute Lumbar Spine MRI Protocol: Initial
      Experience in a Clinical Setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Previous studies have used parallel imaging (PI)
      techniques to decrease spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol
      acquisition times. Recently developed MRI sequences allow even faster
      acquisitions. Our purpose was to develop a lumbar spine MRI protocol using PI
      with GRAPPA (generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition) and a
      simultaneous multislice (SMS)-based sequence and to evaluate its diagnostic
      performance compared to a standard lumbar spine MRI protocol. METHODS: Ten
      patients were scanned in a 3-Tesla scanner (MAGNETOM Skyra, Siemens Healthcare).
      Each patient was imaged using a standard protocol and an optimized fast protocol
      acquiring the same contrasts and planes. The fast protocol included sagittal T1,
      T2, and fat suppressed T2 sequences accelerated with GRAPPA and an SMS-based
      axial T2-weighted sequence using a high-density spine coil (Siemens MR, 30
      channel spine). Two blinded neuroradiologists independently assessed image
      quality and diagnostic accuracy for clinically relevant imaging findings.
      RESULTS: The fast protocol acquisition time was 5:28 minutes, compared with 16:30
      minutes for the standard protocol. Both protocols had a similar performance for
      definition of anatomical structures, diagnostic quality, and identification of
      clinically relevant imaging findings. There were more artifacts in the SMS Turbo
      Spin Echo (P = .014) sequence without compromising diagnostic performance.
      Artifacts in the remaining non-SMS sequences were similar in both protocols (P >
      .180). The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the 5-minute protocol were
      92.3%, 100.0%, and 99.6%, respectively, for the clinically relevant findings (P =
      1.0, interrater agreement .57). CONCLUSIONS: A 5-minute SMS-based MRI protocol
      for lumbar spine imaging is feasible and can be achieved without significant
      impact in the overall diagnostic quality.

PMID- 28574664
TI  - Chemokine (CC motif) ligand 18 upregulates Slug expression to promote stem-cell
      like features by activating the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway in oral
      squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Chemokine (CC motif) ligand 18 (CCL18) is involved in remodeling of the tumor
      microenvironment and plays critical roles in oncogenesis, invasiveness, and
      metastasis. We previously investigated the overexpression of CCL18 in primary
      oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues and its association with advanced
      clinical stage in OSCC patients. However, the underlying mechanisms of this CCL18
      derived activity remains unidentified. This study showed exogenous CCL18
      increased cell migration and invasion and induced cell epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT), and that E-cadherin, an epithelial marker, decreased and N
      cadherin, a mesenchymal marker, increased, compared to negative control in OSCC
      cells. Furthermore, we detected that CCL18 induced the acquisition of cancer
      stem(-like) cell characteristics in oral cancer cells, but also found a
      significantly positive correlation between the expression of CCL18 and Bmi-1 (P <
      0.001) in OSCC surgical specimens by immunohistochemistry analysis. The
      expression of octamer-binding transcription factor 4 and Bmi-1 were significantly
      upregulated, and proportions of aldehyde dehydrogenasehigh+ cells and CD133+
      cells were markedly increased in CCL18-treated cells compared to untreated cells.
      Sphere formation ability was observably enhanced when cells were continually
      exposed to high levels of CCL18. Moreover, CCL18 upregulated Slug expression by
      stimulating the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway in OSCC
      cell lines. Inhibition of the mTOR pathway by INK128, or Slug knockdown by RNA
      interference, reversed CCL18-induced EMT and the stemness response at both
      molecular and functional levels. In conclusion, our data suggested that CCL18
      upregulated Slug expression to promote EMT and stem cell-like features by
      activating the mTOR pathway in oral cancer. These findings provide new potential
      targets for the early diagnosis and treatment of OSCC.

PMID- 28574666
TI  - Adjusting the scent ratio: using genetically modified Vitis vinifera plants to
      manipulate European grapevine moth behaviour.
AB  - Herbivorous insects use olfactory cues to locate their host plant within a
      complex olfactory landscape. One such example is the European grapevine moth
      Lobesia botrana, a key pest of the grape in the Palearctic region, which recently
      expanded both its geographical and host plant range. Previous studies have showed
      that a synthetic blend of the three terpenoids, (E)-beta-caryophyllene, (E)-beta
      farnesene and (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene (DMNT), was as attractive for the
      moth as the complete grape odour profile in laboratory conditions. The same
      studies also showed that the specific ratio of these compounds in the grape
      bouquet was crucial because a percentage variation in any of the three volatiles
      resulted in almost complete inhibition of the blend's attractiveness. Here, we
      report on the creation of stable grapevine transgenic lines, with modified (E)
      beta-caryophyllene and (E)-beta-farnesene emission and thus with an altered ratio
      compared to the original plants. When headspace collections from these plants
      were tested in wind tunnel behavioural assays, they were less attractive than
      control extracts. This result was confirmed by testing synthetic blends imitating
      the ratio found on natural and transformed plants, as well as by testing the
      plants themselves. With this evidence, we suggest that a strategy based on
      volatile ratio modification may also interfere with the host-finding behaviour of
      L. botrana in the field, creating avenues for new pest control methods.

PMID- 28574668
TI  - Unified Asymmetric Total Syntheses of (-)-Alotaketals A-D and (-)-Phorbaketal A.
AB  - The novel tricyclic spiroketal alotane-type sesterterpenoids showed strikingly
      different biological activities and potency with subtle structural alterations.
      Asymmetric total syntheses of the tricyclic sesterterpenoids (-)-alotaketals A-D
      and (-)-phorbaketal A were accomplished [29-31 steps from (-)-malic acid] in a
      collective way for the first time. The key features of the strategy included 1) a
      new cascade cyclization of vinyl epoxy delta-keto-alcohols to forge the common
      tricyclic spiroketal intermediate, 2) a late-stage allylic C-H oxidation, and 3)
      olefin cross-metathesis to install the different side chains.

PMID- 28574667
TI  - High density of CD204-positive macrophages predicts worse clinical prognosis in
      patients with breast cancer.
AB  - Recent studies have indicated the clinical significance of tumor-associated
      macrophages (TAM) in several malignant tumors including breast cancer. Although
      recent studies have focused on CD68-positive or CD163-positive TAM in breast
      cancer, no study has investigated the significance of CD204-positive TAM in
      breast cancer. We found that CD204 expression on macrophages was evaluated
      following stimulation with the conditioned medium (CM) of breast cancer cell
      lines. Paraffin sections of 149 breast cancer samples which were diagnosed as
      invasive ductal carcinoma were immunohistochemically analyzed for CD68, CD163 and
      CD204 expression. The results of analyses indicated that a high number of CD204
      positive TAM was associated with worse clinical prognoses, including relapse-free
      survival, distant relapse-free survival and breast cancer-specific survival;
      however, neither the numbers of CD68-positive or CD163-positive TAM were
      associated with clinical courses. Of the clinicopathological factors
      investigated, estrogen receptor, Ki-67 index, hormone subtype, and histological
      grade were significantly related to the increased number of CD163-positive and
      CD204-positive TAM. These data indicate the clinical significance of CD204
      positive TAM in breast cancer progression and CD204 is a marker for predicting
      clinical prognosis in breast cancer.

PMID- 28574669
TI  - Cross-site randomized control trial of the Social ABCs caregiver-mediated
      intervention for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - To evaluate the efficacy of the Social ABCs parent-mediated intervention for
      toddlers with suspected or confirmed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), through a
      cross-site randomized control trial, sixty-three parent-toddler dyads (toddler
      age: 16-30 months) were randomized into treatment (Social ABCs) or control
      (service-as-usual) conditions. Video data were obtained at three key time-points:
      Baseline; Post-training (PT; week 12); and Follow-Up (week 24). Analyses included
      62 dyads. Treatment allocation significantly accounted for PT gains, all
      favouring the Treatment group, in (1) child functional vocal responsiveness to
      parent prompts (R2  = 0.43, P < .001), (2) child vocal initiations (R2  = 0.28, P
      < .001), (3) parent smiling (R2  = 0.09, P = .017), and (4) fidelity of
      implementation (R2  = 0.71, P < .001). A trend was observed for increased social
      orienting (R2  = 0.06, P = 0.054); gains in parent smiling significantly
      predicted increases in child smiling and social orienting. Parents in the
      treatment condition reported significant gains in self-efficacy following the
      intervention (P = 0.009). No differential effects emerged for performance on
      standardized measures. The Social ABCs is a relatively low-resource, efficacious
      intervention, with potential to be a cost-effective means of intervening at the
      first signs of possible ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1700-1711. (c) 2017
      International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Clinical Trial
      Title: Social ABCs for Toddlers with Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder: RCT of a
      Parent-Mediated Intervention http//ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02428452.

PMID- 28574670
TI  - Performance of Aptima and Cobas HPV testing platforms in detecting high-grade
      cervical dysplasia and cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) tests and genotyping have been used in
      clinical risk assessment. The purpose of this study was to analyze the
      performance of 2 common HPV testing platforms in detecting high-grade cervical
      lesions (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion [HSIL] or worse [>=HSIL]).
      METHODS: Between January 1 and December 31, 2015, 2041 Papanicolaou (Pap) tests
      with biopsy confirmation were analyzed along with HPV tests performed on Cobas or
      Aptima platforms. A biopsy diagnosis of grade 2 cervical intraepithelial
      neoplasia was confirmed with p16/Ki-67 immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: In total,
      1866 and 175 Pap cases were tested on Cobas and Aptima platforms, respectively.
      Both platforms were highly sensitive (97% for both) for biopsy-confirmed >=HSIL.
      Cobas HPV testing had higher positive rates for the diagnosis of benign lesions
      (84% vs 51%) and low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (89% vs 63%) on
      biopsy compared with Aptima. Aptima testing had significantly higher specificity
      for >=HSIL than Cobas (41% vs 13%; P < .0001). Overall, performance of the Aptima
      platform was superior to that of the Cobas platform in detecting biopsy-confirmed
      >=HSIL, resulting from its significantly higher positive predictive value (25% vs
      16%; P < .03) and overall accuracy (50% vs 26%; P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Although
      both the Cobas and Aptima platforms offer highly sensitive tests for high-grade
      cervical lesions, Aptima HPV testing demonstrated significantly higher
      specificity and positive predictive value than Cobas testing for biopsy-confirmed
      >=HSIL. The considerable difference may be related to the significant increase in
      E6/E7 expression after HPV DNA integration. The significantly higher specificity
      and overall accuracy of Aptima testing for >=HSIL, resulting in the
      identification of high-risk populations that require immediate treatment and
      close follow-up, may prove useful in clinical risk stratification. Cancer
      Cytopathol 2017;125:652-7. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28574673
TI  - History is Magic... Share the Magic with Your Colleagues.

PMID- 28574671
TI  - Interdisciplinary care in disorders/differences of sex development (DSD): The
      psychosocial component of the DSD-Translational research network.
AB  - Scientific discovery and clinical management strategies for Disorders/Differences
      of Sex Development (DSD) have advanced in recent years. The 2006 Consensus
      Statement on Management of Intersex Disorders stated that a mental health
      component to care is integral to promote positive adaptation, yet the parameters
      of this element have not been described. The objective of this paper is
      threefold: to describe the psychosocial screening protocol adopted by the
      clinical centers of the DSD-Translational Research Network; to summarize
      psychosocial data collected at 1 of the 10 network sites; and to suggest how
      systematic behavioral health screenings can be employed to tailor care in DSD
      that results in better health and quality of life outcomes. Steps taken in
      developing the largely "noncategorical" screening protocol are described. These
      preliminary findings suggest that DSD, as one category of pediatric chronic
      conditions, is not associated with marked disturbances of psychosocial
      adaptation, either for the family or the child; however, screening frequently
      uncovered "risk factors" for individual families or patients that can potentially
      be addressed in the context of ongoing clinical care. Administration of the DSD
      TRN psychosocial screening protocol was demonstrated to be feasible in the
      context of interdisciplinary team care and was acceptable to families on a
      longitudinal basis. The ultimate value of systematic screening will be
      demonstrated through a tailoring of psychosocial, medical and surgical services,
      based on this information that enhances the quality of patient and family
      centered care and subsequent outcomes.

PMID- 28574672
TI  - Safety of multidetector computed tomography pulmonary angiography to exclude
      pulmonary embolism in patients with a likely pretest clinical probability.
AB  - : Essentials Safety of computed tomography (CTPA) to exclude pulmonary embolism
      (PE) in all patients is debated. We analysed the outcome of PE-likely outpatients
      left untreated after negative CTPA alone. The 3-month venous thromboembolic risk
      in these patients was very low (0.6%; 95% CI 0.2-2.3). Multidetector CTPA alone
      safely excludes PE in patients with likely clinical probability. SUMMARY:
      Background In patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) classified as
      having a likely or high pretest clinical probability, the need to perform
      additional testing after a negative multidetector computed tomography pulmonary
      angiography (CTPA) finding remains a matter of debate. Objectives To assess the
      safety of excluding PE by CTPA without additional imaging in patients with a
      likely pretest probability of PE. Patients/Methods We retrospectively analyzed
      patients included in two multicenter management outcome studies that assessed
      diagnostic algorithms for PE diagnosis. Results Two thousand five hundred and
      twenty-two outpatients with suspected PE were available for analysis. Of these
      2522 patients, 845 had a likely clinical probability as assessed by use of the
      simplified revised Geneva score. Of all of these patients, 314 had the diagnosis
      of PE excluded by a negative CTPA finding alone without additional testing, and
      were left without anticoagulant treatment and followed up for 3 months. Two
      patients presented with a venous thromboembolism (VTE) during follow-up.
      Therefore, the 3-month VTE risk in likely-probability patients after a negative
      CTPA finding alone was 2/314 (0.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.2-2.3%).
      Conclusions In outpatients with suspected PE and a likely clinical probability as
      assessed by use of the simplified revised Geneva score, CTPA alone seems to be
      able to safely exclude PE, with a low 3-month VTE rate, which is similar to the
      VTE rate following the gold standard, i.e. pulmonary angiography.

PMID- 28574674
TI  - Origins of the Electronic Apex Locator - Achieving Success with Strict Adherence
      to Business.
AB  - Current history would have you believe that the evolution and development of the
      electronic apex locator for use during root canal procedures emanated from the
      work of Suzuki in 1942, which was developed as a product by Sunada in 1962. Yes,
      this is partly correct, however the concept of using electrical means to locate
      the ends of root canals was brought to the dental profession as early as 1918 by
      Dr. Levitt Ellsworth Custer, which was not addressed until Suzuki revisited
      Custer's concepts. This contribution was only one of the many that Custer
      proffered as he championed the use of electricity in dentistry.

PMID- 28574675
TI  - A Building with a Provenance: The Thomas W. Evans Building at Penn Dental
      Medicine.

PMID- 28574676
TI  - Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company and Dr. Kazanjian.

PMID- 28574678
TI  - Collector's Corner: Soldering Pliers.

PMID- 28574677
TI  - Historical Perspectives on the Use of Microscopes in Dentistry.
AB  - The use of microscopes in dentistry has become quite popular since the late
      1980s. However, its origin for dental applications can be traced to the early
      20th century, when a microscope, invented by an American biologist named
      Greenough, working in the Zeiss Company, was adapted for use in dentistry.
      Initially it had been used in botany, metallurgy, and zoology, in addition to
      revolutionizing the study of coral and entomology.

PMID- 28574679
TI  - Depiction of a 17th-Century Tooth Extraction: A Drawing by Adriaen Pietersz van
      de Venne (Dutch, 1589-1662).
AB  - A prolific and inventive painter, draftsman, and poet, Adriaen Pietersz van de
      Venne was born in Delft in 1589. His wealthy parents had fled from Protestant
      persecution in the Southern (Spanish) Netherlands during the 1580s. Van de Venne
      was educated in Leiden, where he became part of the vibrant political and
      intellectual community around the University. He settled in Middleburg, in
      Zeeland, by 1614; his earliest dated paintings are also from this year. In 1625,
      van de Venne moved to The Hague, where he remained until his dealth. He executed
      several commissions for the Dutch stadholder Frederik Hendrik, was repeatedly
      elected dean of the guild of St. Luke, and in 1656 was one of the founding
      members of The Hague's painter's guild, "Pictura schilders confrerie." Van de
      Venne painted histories, portraits, and genre scenes; from 1618, he was also
      active as a printmaker and book illustrator, notably for the popular poet Jacob
      Cats. His literary accomplishments included satire and political propaganda, as
      well as several books of poetry.

PMID- 28574680
TI  - From the Archives: Vol. 6, Nos. 3 & 4.

PMID- 28574682
TI  - Increases in Drug Spending Slow.

PMID- 28574683
TI  - States Tackle Health Care.

PMID- 28574684
TI  - Stubbing Out Tobacco.

PMID- 28574686
TI  - The FMLA and Psychological Support: Courts Care About "Care" (and Employers
      Should, Too).
AB  - The Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") recognizes an employee's right to take
      leave to care for a qualifying family member. In light of the Act's remedial
      nature, the intended scope of the care provision is broad, but its definitional
      details are sparse. As a result of the attendant interpretive discretion afforded
      to courts, the Seventh Circuit announced its rejection of the requirement-- first
      articulated by the Ninth Circuit--that care provided during travel be related to
      continuing medical treatment. A facial analysis of the resulting circuit split
      fails to appreciate the fundamental difference between the Seventh and Ninth
      Circuits' considerations: the distinction between physical and psychological
      care. Whereas physical care is readily measurable, psychological care is less
      defined and, consequently, ripe to facilitate FMLA abuse. Efforts to combat this
      potential lead courts to impose judicially devised limitations on psychological
      care, but judicial discretion still infuses some uncertainty into proceedings.
      For employers, the best remedy lies in the FMLA's optional certification
      provision, which requires medical validation of an employee's need for leave. In
      requiring certification, employers should distinguish between physical and
      psychological care, maximize the FMLA's informational requirements, and implement
      complete and consistent request and approval procedures.

PMID- 28574685
TI  - Walking a tightrope. States are balancing the rights of addicted women with the
      health needs of their developing babies.

PMID- 28574687
TI  - Miscellaneous Lasing Actions in Organo-Lead Halide Perovskite Films.
AB  - Lasing actions in organo-lead halide perovskite films have been heavily studied
      in the past few years. However, due to the disordered nature of synthesized
      perovskite films, the lasing actions are usually understood as random lasers that
      are formed by multiple scattering. Herein, we demonstrate the miscellaneous
      lasing actions in organo-lead halide perovskite films. In addition to the random
      lasers, we show that a single or a few perovskite microparticles can generate
      laser emissions with their internal resonances instead of multiple scattering
      among them. We experimentally observed and numerically confirmed whispering
      gallery (WG)-like microlasers in polygon shaped and other deformed
      microparticles. Meanwhile, owing to the nature of total internal reflection and
      the novel shape of the nanoparticle, the size of the perovskite WG laser can be
      significantly decreased to a few hundred nanometers. Thus, wavelength-scale lead
      halide perovskite lasers were realized for the first time. All of these laser
      behaviors are complementary to typical random lasers in perovskite film and will
      help the understanding of lasing actions in complex lead halide perovskite
      systems.

PMID- 28574688
TI  - Understanding the Enhanced Kinetics of Gradient-Chemical-Doped Lithium-Rich
      Cathode Material.
AB  - Although chemical doping has been extensively employed to improve the
      electrochemical performance of Li-rich layered oxide (LLO) cathodes for Li ion
      batteries, the correlation between the electrochemical kinetics and local
      structure and chemistry of these materials after chemical doping is still not
      fully understood. Herein, gradient surface Si/Sn-doped LLOs with improved
      kinetics are demonstrated. The atomic local structure and surface chemistry are
      determined using electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, and remarkably,
      the correlation of local structure-enhanced kinetics is clearly described in this
      work. The experimental results suggest that Si/Sn substitution decreases the TMO2
      slab thickness and enlarges the interslab spacing, and the concentration gradient
      of Si/Sn affects the magnitude of these structural changes. The expanded
      interslab spacing accounts for the enhanced Li+ diffusivity and rate performance
      observed in Si/Sn-doped materials. The improved understanding of the local
      structure-enhanced kinetic relationship for doped LLOs demonstrates the potential
      for the design and development of other high-rate intercalated electrode
      materials.

PMID- 28574689
TI  - Changing Urban Carbon Metabolism over Time: Historical Trajectory and Future
      Pathway.
AB  - Cities are expected to play a major role in carbon emissions mitigation. A key
      step in decoupling urban economy from carbon emissions is to understand the full
      impact of socioeconomic development on urban metabolism over time. Herein, we
      establish a system-based framework for modeling the variation of urban carbon
      metabolism through time by integrating a metabolic flow inventory, input-output
      model, and network analysis. Using Beijing as a case study, we track the
      historical trajectory of carbon flows embodied in urban final consumption over
      1985-2012. We find that while the tendency of increase in direct carbon emission
      continues within this time frame, consumption-based carbon footprint might have
      peaked around 2010. Significant transitions in emission intensity and roles
      sectors play in transferring carbon over the period are important signs of
      decoupling urban development from carbonization. Our further analysis of driving
      factors reveals a strong competition between efficiency gains and consumption
      level rise, showing a cumulative contribution of -584% and 494% to total carbon
      footprint, respectively. Projection into a future pathway suggests there is still
      a great potential for carbon mitigation for the city, but a strong mitigation
      plan is required to achieve such decarbonization before 2030. By bridging
      temporal metabolic model and socioeconomic planning, this framework fills one of
      the main gaps between monitoring of urban metabolism and design of a low-carbon
      economy.

PMID- 28574690
TI  - Design, Multicomponent Synthesis, and Anticancer Activity of a Focused Histone
      Deacetylase (HDAC) Inhibitor Library with Peptoid-Based Cap Groups.
AB  - In this work, we report the multicomponent synthesis of a focused histone
      deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor library with peptoid-based cap groups and different
      zinc-binding groups. All synthesized compounds were tested in a cellular HDAC
      inhibition assay and an MTT assay for cytotoxicity. On the basis of their
      noteworthy activity in the cellular HDAC assays, four compounds were further
      screened for their inhibitory activity against recombinant HDAC1-3, HDAC6, and
      HDAC8. All four compounds showed potent inhibition of HDAC1-3 as well as
      significant inhibition of HDAC6 with IC50 values in the submicromolar
      concentration range. Compound 4j, the most potent HDAC inhibitor in the cellular
      HDAC assay, revealed remarkable chemosensitizing properties and enhanced the
      cisplatin sensitivity of the cisplatin-resistant head-neck cancer cell line
      Cal27CisR by almost 7-fold. Furthermore, 4j almost completely reversed the
      cisplatin resistance in Cal27CisR. This effect is related to a synergistic
      induction of apoptosis as seen in the combination of 4j with cisplatin.

PMID- 28574691
TI  - The Crystal Structure of a Bacterial l-Arabinonate Dehydratase Contains a [2Fe
      2S] Cluster.
AB  - We present a novel crystal structure of the IlvD/EDD family enzyme, l-arabinonate
      dehydratase from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii (RlArDHT, EC 4.2.1.25),
      which catalyzes the conversion of l-arabinonate to 2-dehydro-3-deoxy-l
      arabinonate. The enzyme is a tetramer consisting of a dimer of dimers, where each
      monomer is composed of two domains. The active site contains a catalytically
      important [2Fe-2S] cluster and Mg2+ ion and is buried between two domains, and
      also at the dimer interface. The active site Lys129 was found to be carbamylated.
      Ser480 and Thr482 were shown to be essential residues for catalysis, and the
      S480A mutant structure showed an unexpected open conformation in which the active
      site was more accessible for the substrate. This structure showed the partial
      binding of l-arabinonate, which allowed us to suggest that the alkoxide ion form
      of the Ser480 side chain functions as a base and the [2Fe-2S] cluster functions
      as a Lewis acid in the elimination reaction.

PMID- 28574693
TI  - Self-Repairing Function of Ni3S2 Layer on Ni Particles in the Na/NiCl2 Cells with
      the Addition of Sulfur in the Catholyte.
AB  - The role of the Ni3S2 layer on Ni particles in the electrochemical performance of
      Na/NiCl2 cells with the addition of sulfur into the cathode is studied. It was
      found that the Ni3S2 layer could be in situ generated on nickel particles and
      exhibit a self-repairing function during cycling when sulfur exists in the
      cathode due to the reaction between the sulfur and nickel particles. The self
      repairing function of the Ni3S2 layer could enhance the blocking effect and
      improve the battery cycle performance. The capacity of the cell with the optimum
      amount of sulfur (with self-repairing function) after 50 cycles is about 12%
      greater than that of the cell with the optimum level of Ni3S2 (without self
      repairing function). The effect of the self-repairing function of the Ni3S2 layer
      is determined by the amount of sulfur in the cathode.

PMID- 28574692
TI  - Cell Wall Remodeling by a Synthetic Analog Reveals Metabolic Adaptation in
      Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci.
AB  - Drug-resistant bacterial infections threaten to overburden our healthcare system
      and disrupt modern medicine. A large class of potent antibiotics, including
      vancomycin, operate by interfering with bacterial cell wall biosynthesis.
      Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) evade the blockage of cell wall
      biosynthesis by altering cell wall precursors, rendering them drug insensitive.
      Herein, we reveal the phenotypic plasticity and cell wall remodeling of VRE in
      response to vancomycin in live bacterial cells via a metabolic probe. A synthetic
      cell wall analog was designed and constructed to monitor cell wall structural
      alterations. Our results demonstrate that the biosynthetic pathway for vancomycin
      resistant precursors can be hijacked by synthetic analogs to track the kinetics
      of phenotype induction. In addition, we leveraged this probe to interrogate the
      response of VRE cells to vancomycin analogs and a series of cell wall-targeted
      antibiotics. Finally, we describe a proof-of-principle strategy to visually
      inspect drug resistance induction. Based on our findings, we anticipate that our
      metabolic probe will play an important role in further elucidating the interplay
      among the enzymes involved in the VRE biosynthetic rewiring.

PMID- 28574694
TI  - Two Barium Gold Iodates: Syntheses, Structures, and Properties of Polar
      BaAu(IO3)5 and Nonpolar HBa4Au(IO3)12 Materials.
AB  - Two new barium gold iodates, namely, BaAu(IO3)5 and HBa4Au(IO3)12, have been
      prepared. BaAu(IO3)5 crystallizes in the polar space group Pca21, whereas
      HBa4Au(IO3)12 crystallizes in the centrosymmetric space group P21/c. BaAu(IO3)5
      consists of unique polar [Au(IO3)4]- anions whose four iodate groups are located
      at both sides of the AuO4 plane and the polarity points in the [001] direction.
      BaAu(IO3)5 displays strong second-harmonic-generation (SHG) effects about
      0.6KTiOPO4 (KTP) and is phase-matchable. Thermal properties, optical spectra
      analyses, and theoretical calculations are also reported.

PMID- 28574695
TI  - Fabrication of Silk Scaffolds with Nanomicroscaled Structures and Tunable
      Stiffness.
AB  - Detailed control of nano- and microstructures in porous biomaterial scaffold
      systems is important for control of interfacial and biological functions. Self
      assembled silk protein nanostructured building blocks were incorporated into salt
      leached scaffolds to control these features. Controllable concentration and pH
      were used to induce the formation of amorphous silk nanofibers in solution and
      also to reduce beta-sheet transformation during the more traditional salt
      leaching process. These new scaffolds showed nanofibrous-microporous structures,
      reduced beta-sheet content, and tunable mechanical properties. Bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells grew better and showed differentiation behavior on these
      nanofibrous scaffolds, suggesting cytocompatibility and support for tunable
      differentiation via the scaffolds. These results suggested a new strategy of
      designing bioactive silk scaffolds by combining traditional scaffold formation
      processes with the controllable self-assembly of silk.

PMID- 28574696
TI  - Effect of Genetics, Environment, and Phenotype on the Metabolome of Maize Hybrids
      Using GC/MS and LC/MS.
AB  - We evaluated the variability of metabolites in various maize hybrids due to the
      effect of environment, genotype, phenotype as well as the interaction of the
      first two factors. We analyzed 480 forage and the same number of grain samples
      from 21 genetically diverse non-GM Pioneer brand maize hybrids, including some
      with drought tolerance and viral resistance phenotypes, grown at eight North
      American locations. As complementary platforms, both GC/MS and LC/MS were
      utilized to detect a wide diversity of metabolites. GC/MS revealed 166 and 137
      metabolites in forage and grain samples, respectively, while LC/MS captured 1341
      and 635 metabolites in forage and grain samples, respectively. Univariate and
      multivariate analyses were utilized to investigate the response of the maize
      metabolome to the environment, genotype, phenotype, and their interaction. Based
      on combined percentages from GC/MS and LC/MS datasets, the environment affected
      36% to 84% of forage metabolites, while less than 7% were affected by genotype.
      The environment affected 12% to 90% of grain metabolites, whereas less than 27%
      were affected by genotype. Less than 10% and 11% of the metabolites were affected
      by phenotype in forage and grain, respectively. Unsupervised PCA and HCA analyses
      revealed similar trends, i.e., environmental effect was much stronger than
      genotype or phenotype effects. On the basis of comparisons of disease tolerant
      and disease susceptible hybrids, neither forage nor grain samples originating
      from different locations showed obvious phenotype effects. Our findings
      demonstrate that the combination of GC/MS and LC/MS based metabolite profiling
      followed by broad statistical analysis is an effective approach to identify the
      relative impact of environmental, genetic and phenotypic effects on the forage
      and grain composition of maize hybrids.

PMID- 28574697
TI  - Combined EXAFS Spectroscopic and Quantum Chemical Study on the Complex Formation
      of Am(III) with Formate.
AB  - The complexation of Am(III) with formate in aqueous solution is studied as a
      function of the pH value using a combination of extended X-ray absorption fine
      structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, iterative transformation factor analysis (ITFA),
      and quantum chemical calculations. The Am LIII-edge EXAFS spectra are analyzed to
      determine the molecular structure (coordination numbers; Am-O and Am-C distances)
      of the formed Am(III)-formate species and to track the shift of the Am(III)
      speciation with increasing pH. The experimental data are compared to predictions
      from density functional calculations. The results indicate that formate binds to
      Am(III) in a monodentate fashion, in agreement with crystal structures of
      lanthanide formates. Furthermore, the investigations are complemented by
      thermodynamic speciation calculations to verify further the results obtained.

PMID- 28574699
TI  - Highly Enhanced Raman Scattering on Carbonized Polymer Films.
AB  - We have discovered a carbonized polymer film to be a reliable and durable carbon
      based substrate for carbon enhanced Raman scattering (CERS). Commercially
      available SU8 was spin coated and carbonized (c-SU8) to yield a film optimized to
      have a favorable Fermi level position for efficient charge transfer, which
      results in a significant Raman scattering enhancement under mild measurement
      conditions. A highly sensitive CERS (detection limit of 10-8 M) that was uniform
      over a large area was achieved on a patterned c-SU8 film and the Raman signal
      intensity has remained constant for 2 years. This approach works not only for the
      CMOS-compatible c-SU8 film but for any carbonized film with the correct
      composition and Fermi level, as demonstrated with carbonized-PVA (poly(vinyl
      alcohol)) and carbonized-PVP (polyvinylpyrollidone) films. Our study certainly
      expands the rather narrow range of Raman-active material platforms to include
      robust carbon-based films readily obtained from polymer precursors. As it uses
      broadly applicable and cheap polymers, it could offer great advantages in the
      development of practical devices for chemical/bio analysis and sensors.

PMID- 28574700
TI  - A Facile Way of Modifying Layered Double Hydroxide Nanoparticles with Targeting
      Ligand-Conjugated Albumin for Enhanced Delivery to Brain Tumour Cells.
AB  - Active targeting of nanoparticles (NPs) for cancer treatment has attracted
      increasing interest in the past decades. Various ligand modification strategies
      have been used to enhance the targeting of NPs to the tumor site. However, how to
      reproducibly fabricate diverse targeting NPs with narrowly changeable
      biophysiochemical properties remains as a major challenge. In this study, layered
      double hydroxide (LDH) NPs were modified as a target delivery system. Two brain
      tumor targeting ligands, i.e., angiopep-2 and rabies virus glycoprotein, were
      conjugated to the LDH NPs via an intermatrix protein moiety, bovine serum albumin
      (BSA), simultaneously endowing the LDHs with excellent colloidal stability and
      targeting capability. The ligands were first covalently linked with BSA through
      the heterobifunctional cross-linker sulfosuccinimidyl 4-(N
      maleimidomethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylate. Then, the ligand-linked BSA and
      pristine BSA were together coated onto the surface of LDHs through electrostatic
      interaction, followed by cross-linking with the cross-linker glutaraldehyde to
      immobilize these BSAs on the LDH surface. In this way, we are able to readily
      prepare colloidally stabilized tumor-targeted LDH NPs. The targeting efficacy of
      the ligand-conjugated LDH delivery system has been evidenced in the uptake by two
      neutral cells (U87 and N2a) compared to unmodified LDHs. This new approach
      provides a promising strategy for rational design and preparation of target
      nanoparticles as a selective and effective therapeutic treatment for brain
      tumors.

PMID- 28574698
TI  - Ozone Exposure, Cardiopulmonary Health, and Obesity: A Substantive Review.
AB  - From 1999-2014, obesity prevalence increased among adults and youth. Obese
      individuals may be uniquely susceptible to the proinflammatory effects of ozone
      because obese humans and animals have been shown to experience a greater decline
      in lung function than normal-weight subjects. Obesity is independently associated
      with limitations in lung mechanics with increased ozone dose. However, few
      epidemiologic studies have examined the interaction between excess weight and
      ozone exposure among adults. Using PubMed keyword searches and reference lists,
      we reviewed epidemiologic evidence to identify potential response-modifying
      factors and determine if obese or overweight adults are at increased risk of
      ozone-related health effects. We initially identified 170 studies, of which seven
      studies met the criteria of examining the interaction of excess weight and ozone
      exposure on cardiopulmonary outcomes in adults, including four short-term ozone
      exposure studies in controlled laboratory settings and three community
      epidemiologic studies. In the studies identified, obesity was associated with
      decreased lung function and increased inflammatory mediators. Results were
      inconclusive about the effect modification when data were stratified by sex.
      Obese and overweight populations should be considered as candidate at-risk groups
      for epidemiologic studies of cardiopulmonary health related to air pollution
      exposures. Air pollution is a modifiable risk factor that may decrease lung
      function among obese individuals with implications for environmental and
      occupational health policy.

PMID- 28574701
TI  - Discovery of Inactive Conformation-Selective Kinase Inhibitors by Utilizing
      Cascade Assays.
AB  - Achieving selectivity across the human kinome is a major hurdle in kinase
      inhibitor drug discovery. Targeting inactive (vs active) kinase conformations
      offers advantages in achieving selectivity because of their more diversified
      structures. Discovery of inactive conformation-selective inhibitors, however, has
      been hampered partly by the lack of general assay methods. Herein, we show that
      such inhibitors can be discovered by utilizing kinase cascade assays. This type
      of assay is initiated with the target kinase in its unphosphorylated, inactive
      conformation, which is activated during the assay. Inactive conformation
      selective inhibitors stabilize the inactive kinase, block activation, and yield
      reduced kinase activity. We investigate the properties of the assay by
      mathematical modeling, as well as by proof-of-concept experiments using the BRAF
      MEK1 cascade. This study demonstrates effective identification of inactive
      conformation-selective inhibitors by cascade assays, reveals key factors that
      impact results, and provides guidelines for successful cascade assay development.

PMID- 28574702
TI  - High-Throughput Platform for Synthesis of Melamine-Formaldehyde Microcapsules.
AB  - The synthesis of microcapsules via in situ polymerization is a labor-intensive
      and time-consuming process, where many composition and process factors affect the
      microcapsule formation and its morphology. Herein, we report a novel
      combinatorial technique for the preparation of melamine-formaldehyde
      microcapsules, using a custom-made and automated high-throughput platform (HTP).
      After performing validation experiments for ensuring the accuracy and
      reproducibility of the novel platform, a design of experiment study was
      performed. The influence of different encapsulation parameters was investigated,
      such as the effect of the surfactant, surfactant type, surfactant concentration
      and core/shell ratio. As a result, this HTP-platform is suitable to be used for
      the synthesis of different types of microcapsules in an automated and controlled
      way, allowing the screening of different reaction parameters in a shorter time
      compared to the manual synthetic techniques.

PMID- 28574703
TI  - Direct Formation of Carbon(sp3)-Heteroatom Bonds from RhIII To Produce Methyl
      Iodide, Thioethers, and Alkylamines.
AB  - Thermolysis of the RhIII-Me complex (DPEphos)RhMeI2 (1) results in reductive
      elimination of MeI. Mechanistic studies are consistent with SN2 attack by I- at
      the RhIII-Me group via two separate competing paths. Addition of sulfur and
      nitrogen nucleophiles allows effective competition and formation of C(sp3)-S and
      C(sp3)-N coupled products in high yields. C(sp3)-N bond formation is second-order
      in amine, consistent with amine substitution of iodide at the metal followed by
      nucleophilic attack at carbon by a second amine.

PMID- 28574704
TI  - How Does Recycling of Livestock Manure in Agroecosystems Affect Crop
      Productivity, Reactive Nitrogen Losses, and Soil Carbon Balance?
AB  - Recycling of livestock manure in agroecosystems to partially substitute synthetic
      fertilizer nitrogen (N) input is recommended to alleviate the environmental
      degradation associated with synthetic N fertilization, which may also affect food
      security and soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, how substituting
      livestock manure for synthetic N fertilizer affects crop productivity (crop
      yield; crop N uptake; N use efficiency), reactive N (Nr) losses (ammonia (NH3)
      emission, N leaching and runoff), GHG (methane, CH4; and nitrous oxide, N2O;
      carbon dioxide) emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in
      agroecosystems is not well understood. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 141
      studies and found that substituting livestock manure for synthetic N fertilizer
      (with equivalent N rate) significantly increased crop yield by 4.4% and
      significantly decreased Nr losses via NH3 emission by 26.8%, N leaching by 28.9%
      and N runoff by 26.2%. Moreover, annual SOC sequestration was significantly
      increased by 699.6 and 401.4 kg C ha-1 yr-1 in upland and paddy fields,
      respectively; CH4 emission from paddy field was significantly increased by 41.2%,
      but no significant change of that was observed from upland field; N2O emission
      was not significantly affected by manure substitution in upland or paddy fields.
      In terms of net soil carbon balance, substituting manure for fertilizer increased
      carbon sink in upland field, but increased carbon source in paddy field. These
      results suggest that recycling of livestock manure in agroecosystems improves
      crop productivity, reduces Nr pollution and increases SOC storage. To attenuate
      the enhanced carbon source in paddy field, appropriate livestock manure
      management practices should be adopted.

PMID- 28574705
TI  - Biochemical Profile of Heritage and Modern Apple Cultivars and Application of
      Machine Learning Methods To Predict Usage, Age, and Harvest Season.
AB  - The present study represents the first major attempt to characterize the
      biochemical profile in different tissues of a large selection of apple cultivars
      sourced from the United Kingdom's National Fruit Collection comprising dessert,
      ornamental, cider, and culinary apples. Furthermore, advanced machine learning
      methods were applied with the objective to identify whether the phenolic and
      sugar composition of an apple cultivar could be used as a biomarker fingerprint
      to differentiate between heritage and mainstream commercial cultivars as well as
      govern the separation among primary usage groups and harvest season. A prediction
      accuracy of >90% was achieved with the random forest method for all three models.
      The results highlighted the extraordinary phytochemical potency and unique
      profile of some heritage, cider, and ornamental apple cultivars, especially in
      comparison to more mainstream apple cultivars. Therefore, these findings could
      guide future cultivar selection on the basis of health-promoting phytochemical
      content.

PMID- 28574706
TI  - Application of Structure-Based Design and Parallel Chemistry to Identify a
      Potent, Selective, and Brain Penetrant Phosphodiesterase 2A Inhibitor.
AB  - Phosphodiesterase 2A (PDE2A) inhibitors have been reported to demonstrate in vivo
      activity in preclinical models of cognition. To more fully explore the biology of
      PDE2A inhibition, we sought to identify potent PDE2A inhibitors with improved
      brain penetration as compared to current literature compounds. Applying estimated
      human dose calculations while simultaneously leveraging synthetically enabled
      chemistry and structure-based drug design has resulted in a highly potent,
      selective, brain penetrant compound 71 (PF-05085727) that effects in vivo
      biochemical changes commensurate with PDE2A inhibition along with behavioral and
      electrophysiological reversal of the effects of NMDA antagonists in rodents. This
      data supports the ability of PDE2A inhibitors to potentiate NMDA signaling and
      their further development for clinical cognition indications.

PMID- 28574708
TI  - Packing Defects in Fatty Amine Self-Assembled Monolayers on Mica as Revealed from
      AFM Techniques.
AB  - Self-assembled monolayers of n-octadecylamine (ODA-SAMs) on mica have been
      prepared and studied by contact and jumping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM).
      Adhesion and friction data show that the compactness of the monolayers
      spontaneously increases as they are allowed to ripen. Molecular packing can also
      be induced by the controlled mechanical perturbation exerted by the probe when
      getting into and out of contact intermittently. Under these conditions, defects
      and vacancies aggregate giving rise to detectable pinholes uniformly distributed
      in AFM images. Created pinhole density was found to decrease with ripening time,
      thus confirming the proposed spontaneous self-healing mechanism. Pinhole density
      is also suggested as a parameter characterizing the packing degree of ODA-SAMs,
      and it has been related to their tribological properties. Additionally, molecular
      dynamics simulations were used to corroborate the compatibility between the
      packing degree and the observed topography of ODA-SAMs on mica.

PMID- 28574709
TI  - Examining Nanoparticle Adsorption on Electrostatically "Patchy" Glycopolymer
      Brushes Using Real-Time zeta-Potential Measurements.
AB  - Biomaterial surfaces can possess chemical, topographical, or electrostatic
      heterogeneity, which can profoundly influence their performance. By developing
      experimental models that reliably simulate this nanoscale heterogeneity, we can
      predict how heterogeneous surfaces are transformed by their interactions with the
      dynamic physiological environment. In this work, we present a model surface where
      well-defined glycopolymer brushes are interspersed with positively charged
      binding sites, giving rise to an interface presenting a mixture of repulsive and
      adhesive cues to an approaching virus particle. We show that the density of the
      affinity sites relative to the glycopolymer brushes can be tuned precisely by
      modifying the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) copolymerization conditions.
      Further, we examined the effects of binding site density and glycopolymer brush
      architecture on the adsorption kinetics of virus-like nanoparticles through a
      novel approach employing time-resolved zeta-potential measurements. Most
      materials have charge-bearing, dynamic surfaces that are sensitive to
      electrostatic effects. Hence, adsorption-triggered changes in zeta-potential
      measurements can be captured in real time to monitor interfacial events. Real
      time zeta-potential measurements present an interesting platform to probe the
      structure and function of chemically and electrostatically heterogeneous polymer
      interfaces. To validate this electrokinetic method, we examined the effect of
      neutravidin concentration on its rate of binding to biotinylated surfaces using
      zeta-potential and compared our results with QCM studies. By applying
      electrokinetic methods to examine the roles of glycopolymer brush architecture
      and surface charge of these tunable glycopolymer coatings, we can enhance our
      understanding of the interactions of viruses with heterogeneous biomaterial
      interfaces.

PMID- 28574707
TI  - New Ustilaginoidins from Rice False Smut Balls Caused by Villosiclava virens and
      Their Phytotoxic and Cytotoxic Activities.
AB  - Ustilaginoidins are a class of bis-naphtho-gamma-pyrones, typically produced by
      Villosiclava virens, the pathogen of the rice false smut (RFS), which has been
      one of the most destructive rice fungal diseases. Previously, we found that
      ustilaginoidins identified from the culture of V. virens on rice medium were less
      polar than those reported from the RFS balls in general. In this study, we
      reinvestigated the high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array
      detection and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-HRMS) profile of the
      ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of the RFS balls and found several interesting
      peaks that correspond to new ustilaginoidins. As a result, eight new and polar
      congeners, named ustilaginoidins Q-T (1-4), 2,3-dihydroustilaginoidin T (5), and
      ustilaginoidins U-W (6-8), were isolated. In addition, 17 known ustilaginoidins,
      including ustilaginoidins K-N (9-12), ustilaginoidin P (13), ustilaginoidin E1
      (14), isochaetochromin B2 (15), and ustilaginoidins A-J (16-25), were re
      isolated. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by comprehensive
      analysis of the spectroscopic data. Ustilaginoidins Q (1) and R (2) feature an
      uncommon 2-hydroxypropyl-substituted skeleton and biogenetically incorporate one
      more acetate unit than common ustilaginoidins. Ustilaginoidin W (8) is a rare
      formate-containing bis-naphtho-gamma-pyrone. Ustilaginoidins R (2), U (6), B
      (17), and I (24) showed moderate inhibitory activities toward the radicle or germ
      elongation of rice seeds. Ustilaginoidins R (2), S (3), V (7), W (8), B (17), C
      (18), and H-J (23-25) were cytotoxic to the tested human cancer cell lines
      (HCT116, NCI-H1650, BGC823, Daoy, and HepG2), with IC50 values in the range of
      4.06-44.1 MUM.

PMID- 28574710
TI  - 5-Selenocyanatouracil: A Potential Hypoxic Radiosensitizer. Electron Attachment
      Induced Formation of Selenium Centered Radical.
AB  - The propensity of 5-selenocyanatouracil (SeCNU) to decomposition induced by
      attachment of electron was scrutinized with the G3B3 composite quantum-chemical
      method and radiolytic studies. Favorable thermodynamic (Gibbs free reaction
      energy of -13.65 kcal/mol) and kinetic (Gibbs free activation energy of 1.22
      kcal/mol) characteristics revealed by the G3B3 free energy profile suggest SeCNU
      to be sensitive to electron attachment. The title compound was synthesized in the
      reaction between uracil and selenocyanogen chloride in acetic acid. Then, an
      aqueous and deoxygenated solution of the HPLC purified compound containing tert
      butanol as a hydroxyl radical scavenger was irradiated with X-rays. SeCNU radio
      degradation results in two major products: the U-Se-Se-U dimer and the adduct of
      the ?OtBu radical to the U-Se? radical, U-Se-OtBu. The effects of radiolysis as
      well as the results of G3B3 calculations point to U-Se? as the primary product of
      dissociative electron attachment to SeCNU. The MTT test shows that SeCNU is
      nontoxic in vitro in concentrations equal to or lower than 10-6 M. Ionizing
      radiation will probably induce cytotoxic intra- and interstrand DNA cross-links
      as well as protein-DNA cross-links in the genomic DNA labeled with SeCNU.

PMID- 28574711
TI  - General Procedures for the Lithiation/Trapping of N-Boc Piperazines.
AB  - To provide alpha-substituted piperazines for early stage medicinal chemistry
      studies, a simple, general synthetic approach is required. Here, we report the
      development of two general and simple procedures for the racemic
      lithiation/trapping of N-Boc piperazines. Optimum lithiation times were
      determined using in situ IR spectroscopy, and the previous complicated and
      diverse literature procedures were simplified. Subsequent trapping with
      electrophiles delivered a wide range of alpha-functionalized N-Boc piperazines.
      The scope and limitations of the distal N-group were investigated. The selective
      alpha- and beta- arylation of N-Boc piperazines via lithiation/Negishi coupling
      is reported.

PMID- 28574712
TI  - Tracking Single DNA Nanodevices in Hierarchically Meso-Macroporous Antimony-Doped
      Tin Oxide Demonstrates Finite Confinement.
AB  - Housing bio-nano guest devices based on DNA nanostructures within porous,
      conducting, inorganic host materials promise valuable applications in solar
      energy conversion, chemical catalysis, and analyte sensing. Herein, we report a
      single-template synthetic development of hierarchically porous, transparent
      conductive metal oxide coatings whose pores are freely accessible by large
      biomacromolecules. Their hierarchal pore structure is bimodal with a larger
      number of closely packed open macropores (~200 nm) at the higher rank and with
      the remaining space being filled with a gel network of antimony-doped tin oxide
      (ATO) nanoparticles that is highly porous with a broad size range of textual
      pores mainly from 20-100 nm at the lower rank. The employed carbon black template
      not only creates the large open macropores but also retains the highly structured
      gel network as holey pore walls. Single molecule fluorescence microscopic studies
      with fluorophore-labeled DNA nanotweezers reveal a detailed view of multimodal
      diffusion dynamics of the biomacromolecules inside the hierarchically porous
      structure. Two diffusion constants were parsed from trajectory analyses that were
      attributed to free diffusion (diffusion constant D = 2.2 MUm2/s) and to diffusion
      within an average confinement length of 210 nm (D = 0.12 MUm2/s), consistent with
      the average macropore size of the coating. Despite its holey nature, the ATO gel
      network acts as an efficient barrier to the diffusion of the DNA nanostructures,
      which is strongly indicative of physical interactions between the molecules and
      the pore nanostructure.

PMID- 28574713
TI  - Structure and Dissociation Pathways of Protonated Tetralin (1,2,3,4
      Tetrahydronaphthalene).
AB  - The infrared multiple-photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectrum of protonated tetralin
      (1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene, THN) has been recorded using an infrared free
      electron laser coupled to a Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometer. IR
      induced fragmentation of the protonated parent [THN + H] +, m/z 133, yielded a
      single fragment ion at m/z 91. No evidence for fragment ions at m/z 131 or 132
      was observed, indicating that protonated THN ejects neither atomic H nor
      molecular H2. Comparison of the experimental spectrum with density functional
      calculations (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)) of the two possible protonated isomers
      identifies a preference for the position of protonation. Possible decomposition
      pathways starting from both [THN + H(5)]+ and [THN + H(6)]+ are investigated. The
      potential energy profiles computed for these decomposition routes reveal that (1)
      the m/z 91 ionic product resembles the benzylium ion, but with the extra hydrogen
      and the methylene substituents in various ortho, meta, and para conformations
      around the aromatic ring and that (2) the decomposition process involving the
      [THN + H(6)]+ isomer is predominant, while the one involving the [THN + H(5)]+
      may play a smaller role. Potential energy pathways from the initial decomposition
      product(s) to the benzylium and tropylium ions have also been computed. Given the
      relatively low barriers to these ions, it is concluded that the benzylium ion
      and, with sufficient activation, the tropylium ion plus neutral propene are the
      final products.

PMID- 28574714
TI  - Fast Growth of GaN Epilayers via Laser-Assisted Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor
      Deposition for Ultraviolet Photodetector Applications.
AB  - In this study, we successfully developed a carbon dioxide (CO2)-laser-assisted
      metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (LMOCVD) approach to fast synthesis of
      high-quality gallium nitride (GaN) epilayers on Al2O3 [sapphire(0001)]
      substrates. By employing a two-step growth procedure, high crystallinity and
      smooth GaN epilayers with a fast growth rate of 25.8 MUm/h were obtained. The
      high crystallinity was confirmed by a combination of techniques, including X-ray
      diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic
      force microscopy. By optimizing growth parameters, the ~4.3-MUm-thick GaN films
      grown at 990  degrees C for 10 min showed a smooth surface with a root-mean
      square surface roughness of ~1.9 nm and excellent thickness uniformity with sharp
      GaN/substrate interfaces. The full-width at half-maximum values of the GaN(0002)
      X-ray rocking curve of 313 arcsec and the GaN(1012) X-ray rocking curve of 390
      arcsec further confirmed the high crystallinity of the GaN epilayers. We also
      fabricated ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors based on the as-grown GaN layers,
      which exhibited a high responsivity of 0.108 A W-1 at 367 nm and a fast response
      time of ~125 ns, demonstrating its high optical quality with potential in
      optoelectronic applications. Our strategy thus provides a simple and cost
      effective means toward fast and high-quality GaN heteroepitaxy growth suitable
      for fabricating high-performance GaN-based UV detectors.

PMID- 28574715
TI  - Development of a Data-Independent Targeted Metabolomics Method for Relative
      Quantification Using Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Quantitative metabolomics approaches can significantly improve the repeatability
      and reliability of metabolomics investigations but face critical technical
      challenges, owing to the vast number of unknown endogenous metabolites and the
      lack of authentic standards. The present study contributes to the development of
      a novel method known as "data-independent targeted quantitative metabolomics"
      (DITQM), which was used to investigate the label-free quantitative metabolomics
      of multiple known and unknown metabolites in biofluid samples. This approach
      initially involved the acquisition of MS/MS data for all metabolites in
      biosamples using a sequentially stepped targeted MS/MS (sst-MS/MS) method, in
      which multiple product ion scans were performed by selecting all ions in the
      targeted mass ranges as the precursor ions. Subsequently, scheduled multiple
      reaction monitoring (MRM) by LC-MS/MS of the metabolome was established for 1658
      characteristic ion pairs of 1324 metabolites. For sensitive and accurate
      quantification of these metabolites, mixed calibration curves were generated
      using sequentially diluted standard reference plasma samples using established
      MRM methods. Relative concentrations of all metabolites in each sample were
      calculated without using individual authentic standards. To evaluate the
      reliability and applicability of this new method, the performance of DITQM was
      validated by comparison to absolute quantification of 12 acylcarnitines using
      authentic standards and traditional metabolomics analysis for lung cancer. The
      results proved that the DITQM protocol is more reliable and can significantly
      improve clustering effects and repeatability in biomarker discovery. In this
      study, we established a novel methodology to standardize and quantify large-scale
      metabolome, providing a new choice for metabolomics research and its clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28574717
TI  - Optimized Separation of Acetylene from Carbon Dioxide and Ethylene in a
      Microporous Material.
AB  - Selective separation of acetylene (C2H2) from carbon dioxide (CO2) or ethylene
      (C2H4) needs specific porous materials whose pores can realize sieving effects
      while pore surfaces can differentiate their recognitions for these molecules of
      similar molecular sizes and physical properties. We report a microporous material
      [Zn(dps)2(SiF6)] (UTSA-300, dps = 4,4'-dipyridylsulfide) with two-dimensional
      channels of about 3.3 A, well-matched for the molecular sizes of C2H2. After
      activation, the network was transformed to its closed-pore phase, UTSA-300a, with
      dispersed 0D cavities, accompanied by conformation change of the pyridyl ligand
      and rotation of SiF62- pillars. Strong C-H...F and pi-pi stacking interactions
      are found in closed-pore UTSA-300a, resulting in shrinkage of the structure.
      Interestingly, UTSA-300a takes up quite a large amounts of acetylene (76.4 cm3 g
      1), while showing complete C2H4 and CO2 exclusion from C2H2 under ambient
      conditions. Neutron powder diffraction and molecular modeling studies clearly
      reveal that a C2H2 molecule primarily binds to two hexafluorosilicate F atoms in
      a head-on orientation, breaking the original intranetwork hydrogen bond and
      subsequently expanding to open-pore structure. Crystal structures, gas sorption
      isotherms, molecular modeling, experimental breakthrough experiment, and
      selectivity calculation comprehensively demonstrated this unique metal-organic
      framework material for highly selective C2H2/CO2 and C2H2/C2H4 separation.

PMID- 28574716
TI  - Development of a Clinically Viable Heroin Vaccine.
AB  - Heroin is a highly abused opioid and incurs a significant detriment to society
      worldwide. In an effort to expand the limited pharmacotherapy options for opioid
      use disorders, a heroin conjugate vaccine was developed through comprehensive
      evaluation of hapten structure, carrier protein, adjuvant and dosing.
      Immunization of mice with an optimized heroin-tetanus toxoid (TT) conjugate
      formulated with adjuvants alum and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) generated
      heroin "immunoantagonism", reducing heroin potency by >15-fold. Moreover, the
      vaccine effects proved to be durable, persisting for over eight months. The lead
      vaccine was effective in rhesus monkeys, generating significant and sustained
      antidrug IgG titers in each subject. Characterization of both mouse and monkey
      antiheroin antibodies by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) revealed low nanomolar
      antiserum affinity for the key heroin metabolite, 6-acetylmorphine (6AM), with
      minimal cross reactivity to clinically used opioids. Following a series of heroin
      challenges over six months in vaccinated monkeys, drug-sequestering antibodies
      caused marked attenuation of heroin potency (>4-fold) in a schedule-controlled
      responding (SCR) behavioral assay. Overall, these preclinical results provide an
      empirical foundation supporting the further evaluation and potential clinical
      utility of an effective heroin vaccine in treating opioid use disorders.

PMID- 28574719
TI  - The Role of Online Social Identity in the Relationship Between Alcohol-Related
      Content on Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Alcohol Use.
AB  - Social networking sites (SNSs) are social platforms that facilitate
      communication. For adolescents, peers play a crucial role in constructing the
      self online through displays of group norms on SNSs. The current study
      investigated the role of online social identity (OSI) in the relationship between
      adolescent exposure to alcohol-related content posted by peers on SNSs and
      alcohol use. In a sample (N = 929) of Australian adolescents (Age M = 17.25, SD =
      0.31) higher levels of exposure to alcohol-related content on SNSs was associated
      with higher levels of alcohol use. Importantly, the association was stronger when
      the participants reported higher OSI particularly when also reporting low or
      moderate amount of time spent on SNS. The findings can be explained by social
      identity literature that demonstrates individuals align their behaviors with
      other members of their social group to demonstrate, enact, and maintain social
      identity. The results of this study reflect the importance of considering the
      construction of the "self" through online and offline constructs.

PMID- 28574718
TI  - Calibration of 1,2,4-Triazole-3-Thione, an Original Zn-Binding Group of Metallo
      beta-Lactamase Inhibitors. Validation of a Polarizable MM/MD Potential by Quantum
      Chemistry.
AB  - In the context of the SIBFA polarizable molecular mechanics/dynamics (PMM/PMD)
      procedure, we report the calibration and a series of validation tests for the
      1,2,4-triazole-3-thione (TZT) heterocycle. TZT acts as the chelating group of
      inhibitors of dizinc metallo-beta-lactamases (MBL), an emerging class of Zn
      dependent bacterial enzymes, which by cleaving the beta-lactam bond of most beta
      lactam antibiotics are responsible for the acquired resistance of bacteria to
      these drugs. Such a study is indispensable prior to performing PMD simulations of
      complexes of TZT-based inhibitors with MBL's, on account of the anchoring role of
      TZT in the dizinc MBL recognition site. Calibration was done by comparisons to
      energy decomposition analyses (EDA) of high-level ab initio QC computations of
      the TZT complexes with two probes: Zn(II), representative of "soft" dications,
      and water, representative of dipolar molecules. We performed distance variations
      of the approach of each probe to each of the two TZT atoms involved in Zn
      ligation, the S atom and the N atom ortho to it, so that each SIBFA contribution
      matches its QC counterpart. Validations were obtained by performing in- and out
      of-plane angular variations of Zn(II) binding in monoligated Zn(II)-TZT
      complexes. The most demanding part of this study was then addressed. How well
      does DeltaE(SIBFA) and its individual contributions compare to their QC
      counterparts in the dizinc binding site of one MBL, L1, whose structure is known
      from high-resolution X-ray crystallography? Six distinct complexes were
      considered, namely each separate monozinc site, and the dizinc site, whether
      ligated or unligated by TZT. Despite the large magnitude of the interaction
      energies, in all six complexes DeltaE(SIBFA) can match DeltaE(QC) with relative
      errors <2% and the proper balance of individual energy contributions. The
      computations were extended to the dizinc site of another MBL, VIM-2, and its
      complexes with two other TZT analogues. DeltaE(SIBFA) faithfully reproduced
      DeltaE(QC) in terms of magnitude, ranking of the three ligands, and trends of the
      separate energy contributions. A preliminary extension to correlated calculations
      is finally presented. All these validations should enable a secure design of a
      diversity of TZT-containing MBL inhibitors: a structurally and energetically
      correct anchoring of TZT should enable all other inhibitor groups to in turn
      optimize their interactions with the other target MBL residues.

PMID- 28574720
TI  - "Bone Development" Is an Ontology Group Upregulated in Porcine Oocytes Before In
      Vitro Maturation: A Microarray Approach.
AB  - Mammalian cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) reach full developmental capability
      during folliculogenesis and oogenesis. It is well recognized that only gametes
      achieving MII stage after in vivo or in vitro maturation (IVM) are successfully
      fertilized by a single spermatozoon. Although the process of oocyte nuclear
      and/or cytoplasmic maturation in pigs is well determined, there exist many
      differences that promote these processes in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, this
      study aimed to investigate the differences in RNA expression profiles between
      porcine oocytes before and after IVM using microarray and real-time quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. Experiments were performed on oocytes
      isolated from 55 pubertal crossbred Landrace gilts. The oocytes were analyzed
      both before and after IVM and only Brilliant Cresyl Blue (BCB)-positive gametes
      were used for subsequent microarray analysis (Affymetrix) and RT-qPCR analysis.
      The microarray assay, which measures expression of 12,258 transcripts, revealed
      419 differentially expressed transcripts in porcine oocytes, from which 379 were
      downregulated and 40 were upregulated before IVM compared to those analyzed after
      IVM. After DAVID analysis, we found eight different transcripts, including IHH,
      BMP1, WWTR1, CHRDL1, KLF10, EIF2AK3, MMP14, and STC1. Their expression is related
      to the "bone development" ontology group and was further subjected to
      hierarchical clusterization. Using RT-qPCR analysis, we confirmed the results of
      the microarray assay, showing increased expression of the eight genes in oocytes
      before IVM compared to oocytes after maturation in vitro. It has been suggested
      that "bone development" belongs to one ontological group involving genes
      substantially upregulated in porcine oocytes before IVM. We suggest that the
      gamete mRNA expression profile before IVM may comprise stored transcripts, which
      are templates for protein biosynthesis following fertilization. We also
      hypothesize that these mRNAs may be a specific "fingerprint" of folliculogenesis
      and oogenesis in pigs.

PMID- 28574724
TI  - miR-144-3p Induces Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis in Pancreatic Cancer Cells by
      Targeting Proline-Rich Protein 11 Expression via the Mitogen-Activated Protein
      Kinase Signaling Pathway.
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) have been proved to be involved in many events of tumor
      development and progression, including cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, and
      cell cycle arrest. However, the potential role of miR-144-3p in pancreatic cancer
      (PC) remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-144-3p was
      decreased in PC tissues and PANC-1 cells, whereas proline-rich protein 11 (PRR11)
      was remarkably increased. miR-144-3p mimics were discovered to inhibit cell
      proliferation by arresting cells at the S-phase of the cell cycle, and inducing
      cell apoptosis in PANC-1 cells. The effects of miR-144-3p on cell proliferation
      and cell apoptosis were reversed after treatment with the miR-144-3p inhibitor.
      Furthermore, a luciferase activity assay indicated that miR-144-3p directly
      targeted PRR11 3'-UTR. Moreover, transfection with miR-144-3p mimics inhibited
      the expression of PRR11. miR-144-3p mimics also upregulated the expression of p
      JNK and p-p38, whereas they downregulated the expression of p-ERK. The effects of
      miR-144-3p on mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway proteins were reversed by
      the miR-144-3p inhibitor. PRR11 overexpression attenuated the effect of miR-144
      3p mimics on cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. The expression of caspase-3
      was decreased by enhanced PRR11. In summary, our findings indicated that miR-144
      3p induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in PC by targeting PRR11. Therefore,
      the targeting of miR-144-3p could serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for
      the treatment of PC.

PMID- 28574721
TI  - A Multiomics Approach to Identify Genes Associated with Childhood Asthma Risk and
      Morbidity.
AB  - Childhood asthma is a complex disease. In this study, we aim to identify genes
      associated with childhood asthma through a multiomics "vertical" approach that
      integrates multiple analytical steps using linear and logistic regression models.
      In a case-control study of childhood asthma in Puerto Ricans (n = 1,127), we used
      adjusted linear or logistic regression models to evaluate associations between
      several analytical steps of omics data, including genome-wide (GW) genotype data,
      GW methylation, GW expression profiling, cytokine levels, asthma-intermediate
      phenotypes, and asthma status. At each point, only the top genes/single
      nucleotide polymorphisms/probes/cytokines were carried forward for subsequent
      analysis. In step 1, asthma modified the gene expression-protein level
      association for 1,645 genes; pathway analysis showed an enrichment of these genes
      in the cytokine signaling system (n = 269 genes). In steps 2-3, expression levels
      of 40 genes were associated with intermediate phenotypes (asthma onset age,
      forced expiratory volume in 1 second, exacerbations, eosinophil counts, and skin
      test reactivity); of those, methylation of seven genes was also associated with
      asthma. Of these seven candidate genes, IL5RA was also significant in analytical
      steps 4-8. We then measured plasma IL-5 receptor alpha levels, which were
      associated with asthma age of onset and moderate-severe exacerbations. In
      addition, in silico database analysis showed that several of our identified IL5RA
      single-nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with transcription factors related
      to asthma and atopy. This approach integrates several analytical steps and is
      able to identify biologically relevant asthma-related genes, such as IL5RA. It
      differs from other methods that rely on complex statistical models with various
      assumptions.

PMID- 28574723
TI  - Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery for Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Undertaking High
      Intensity Interval Exercise Versus Moderate-Intensity Exercise: A Randomized,
      Crossover Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to compare closed-loop glucose control for people with type
      1 diabetes undertaking high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) versus moderate
      intensity exercise (MIE). METHODS: Adults with type 1 diabetes established on
      insulin pumps undertook HIIE and MIE stages in random order during automated
      insulin delivery via a closed-loop system (Medtronic). Frequent venous sampling
      for glucose, lactate, ketones, insulin, catecholamines, cortisol, growth hormone,
      and glucagon levels was performed. The primary outcome was plasma glucose <4.0
      mmol/L for >=15 min, from exercise commencement to 120 min postexercise.
      Secondary outcomes included continuous glucose monitoring and biochemical
      parameters. RESULTS: Twelve adults (age mean +/- standard deviation 40 +/- 13
      years) were recruited; all completed the study. Plasma glucose of one participant
      fell to 3.4 mmol/L following MIE completion; no glucose levels were <4.0 mmol/L
      for HIIE (primary outcome). There were no glucose excursions >15.0 mmol/L for
      either stage. Mean (+/-standard error) plasma glucose did not differ between
      stages pre-exercise; was higher during exercise in HIIE than MIE (11.3 +/- 0.5
      mmol/L vs. 9.7 +/- 0.6 mmol/L, respectively; P < 0.001); and remained higher
      until 60 min postexercise. There were no differences in circulating free insulin
      before, during, or postexercise. During HIIE compared with MIE, there were
      greater increases in lactate (P < 0.001), catecholamines (all P < 0.05), and
      cortisol (P < 0.001). Ketones increased more with HIIE than MIE postexercise (P =
      0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings suggest that closed-loop glucose
      control is safe for people undertaking HIIE and MIE. However, the management of
      the postexercise rise in ketones secondary to counter-regulatory hormone-induced
      insulin resistance observed with HIIE may represent a challenge for closed-loop
      systems.

PMID- 28574725
TI  - The Diversity of Challenges in the Control of Measles Outbreaks.
AB  - From the Field is a semi-regular column that explores what it means to be a local
      health professional on the front lines of an emergency. National Association of
      County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) members share their stories of
      preparing for and responding to disasters, epidemics, and other major health
      issues. Through exploring the analysis of the challenges faced and the solutions
      developed, readers can learn how these public health champions keep their
      communities safe even in extreme situations. Readers may submit topics of
      interest to the column's editor, Meghan McGinty, PhD, MPH, MBA, at
      mmcginty@naccho.org .

PMID- 28574722
TI  - Socioeconomic Status, Amygdala Volume, and Internalizing Symptoms in Children and
      Adolescents.
AB  - The associations among socioeconomic disadvantage, amygdala volume, and
      internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents are unclear and understudied
      in the extant literature. In this study, we examined associations between
      socioeconomic status (SES) and amygdala volume by age across childhood and
      adolescence to test whether socioeconomic disadvantage would be associated with
      larger amygdala volume at younger ages but with smaller amygdala volume at older
      ages. We then examined whether SES and amygdala volume were associated with
      children's levels of anxiety and depression. Participants were 3- to 21-year-olds
      from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics study (N = 1,196), which
      included structural magnetic resonance imaging. A subsample (n = 327; 7-21 years
      of age) completed self-report measures of anxiety and depression. Lower family
      income and parental education were significantly associated with smaller amygdala
      volume in adolescence (13-21 years) but not significantly associated with
      amygdala volume at younger ages (3-12 years). Lower parental education, but not
      family income, was significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety and
      depression, even after accounting for family history of anxiety/depression.
      Smaller amygdala volume was significantly associated with higher levels of
      depression, even after accounting for parental education and family history of
      anxiety/depression. These findings suggest that associations between SES and
      amygdala structure may vary by age. In addition, smaller amygdala volume may be
      linked with an increased risk for depression in children and adolescents.

PMID- 28574726
TI  - Failing States as Epidemiologic Risk Zones: Implications for Global Health
      Security.
AB  - Failed states commonly experience health and mortality crises that include
      outbreaks of infectious disease, violent conflict, reductions in life expectancy,
      and increased infant and maternal mortality. This article draws from recent
      research in political science, security studies, and international relations to
      explore how the process of state failure generates health declines and outbreaks
      of infectious disease. The key innovation of this model is a revised definition
      of "the state" as a geographically dynamic rather than static political space.
      This makes it easier to understand how phases of territorial contraction,
      collapse, and regeneration interrupt public health programs, destabilize the
      natural environment, reduce human security, and increase risks of epidemic
      infectious disease and other humanitarian crises. Better understanding of these
      dynamics will help international health agencies predict and prepare for future
      health and mortality crises created by failing states.

PMID- 28574727
TI  - Development of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptom Questionnaire (RASQ): a patient
      reported outcome scale for measuring symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic, progressive inflammatory,
      autoimmune disease, can substantially reduce health-related quality of life
      (HRQoL) and lead to severe disability and early mortality. Patient-reported
      outcome (PRO) instruments are used to assess the patient experience of RA
      symptoms and impacts, and can capture RA treatment effects. To address
      limitations in existing PRO instruments, this research aimed to establish the
      content validity of a new instrument, the Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptom
      Questionnaire (RASQ), to assess the signs and symptoms of RA. METHOD: The most
      important and relevant sign and symptom concepts for RA patients were identified
      through a targeted review of the published literature, expert opinion, and
      concept elicitation patient interviews. Cognitive interviews were conducted with
      patients to test the comprehensibility and comprehensiveness of the RASQ.
      RESULTS: Seven symptoms emerged consistently across the conceptual research:
      joint pain, joint swelling, joint stiffness, joint tenderness, joint warmth,
      muscle pain, and tiredness. Draft item content was developed to assess these
      symptoms, in addition to a single impact item, resulting in three RASQ versions:
      two utilizing a 7 day recall period (one assessing symptoms at their worst, the
      other on average) and a third using a 24 hour recall period assessing symptoms at
      their worst. Cognitive interview results demonstrated patient understanding and
      ability to use the instrument. CONCLUSIONS: Content validity of the RASQ was
      established in accordance with instrument development guidelines. The RASQ fills
      a measurement gap by assessing the RA signs and symptoms most important to
      patients. Research evaluating the RASQ's psychometric properties is underway.

PMID- 28574728
TI  - How Is CDC Funded to Respond to Public Health Emergencies? Federal Appropriations
      and Budget Execution Process for Non-Financial Experts.
AB  - The federal budgeting process affects a wide range of people who work in public
      health, including those who work for government at local, state, and federal
      levels; those who work with government; those who operate government-funded
      programs; and those who receive program services. However, many people who are
      affected by the federal budget are not aware of or do not understand how it is
      appropriated or executed. This commentary is intended to give non-financial
      experts an overview of the federal budget process to address public health
      emergencies. Using CDC as an example, we provide: (1) a brief overview of the
      annual budget formulation and appropriation process; (2) a description of
      execution and implementation of the federal budget; and (3) an overview of
      emergency supplemental appropriations, using as examples the 2009 H1N1 influenza
      pandemic, the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak, and the 2016 Zika epidemic. Public health
      emergencies require rapid coordinated responses among Congress, government
      agencies, partners, and sometimes foreign, state, and local governments. It is
      important to have an understanding of the appropriation process, including
      supplemental appropriations that might come into play during public health
      emergencies, as well as the constraints under which Congress and federal agencies
      operate throughout the federal budget formulation process and execution.

PMID- 28574729
TI  - Respiratory syncytial virus: prospects for new and emerging therapeutics.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of lower
      respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in infants, the elderly, and the
      immunocompromised. Although the development of a RSV vaccine has been a priority
      for >50 years, there is still no vaccine available. Treatment of RSV LRTI has
      remained mostly supportive, i.e. hydration and oxygenation. Palivizumab and
      ribavirin are the only options currently available for prevention and treatment
      of RSV infection, but evidence suggests that they are not fully effective. This
      creates a significant unmet medical need for new therapeutics for prevention and
      treatment of RSV worldwide. Areas covered: This article reviews the antiviral
      drugs and monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for RSV that are in different stages of
      clinical development. Expert commentary: Over the last 10 years, new antiviral
      drugs and mAb have shown clinical promise against RSV, and may become available
      in the coming years. Although the RSV fusion protein has been the most popular
      target for inhibitors and mAbs, new approaches targeting other viral proteins
      have shown promising results. To overcome the emergence of RSV escape mutants,
      combination antiviral therapy may be explored in the future.

PMID- 28574730
TI  - Physical Activity Behavior After a Diagnosis of Lung Cancer Differs Between
      Countries: An Observational Cohort Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Physical activity (PA) is important in lung cancer. OBJECTIVES: To
      investigate PA levels and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with
      lung cancer in China and compare this to a similar cohort in Australia. METHODS:
      Prospective cohort study. 71 patients from China (group CH) and 90 patients from
      Australia (group AU) with newly diagnosed lung cancer. Questionnaires assessed
      self-reported PA levels and HRQoL at baseline (diagnosis) and 8 weeks. RESULTS:
      At baseline, group CH were engaged in less overall PA than group AU (Physical
      Activity Scale for the Elderly [PASE] total score: median [IQR] group CH, 56 [32
      59]; group AU, 66 [38-116]; P < .005), and less occupational and household
      activity ( P < .005). However, at baseline, group CH reported significantly more
      walking time than group AU (median [IQR]: group CH, 210 [150-315] min/wk; group
      AU, 55[0-210] min/wk; P < .0005). Global HRQoL scores were similar between groups
      (P = .038). Over 8 weeks, group CH increased their overall PA levels ( P < .005)
      and walking time ( P = .008), and HRQoL remained unchanged. The comparison group
      AU experienced a reduction in PA levels ( P = .02) and HRQoL ( P < .005).
      CONCLUSIONS: A diagnosis, patients in China were less physically active than
      those in Australia. Following diagnosis, patients in China increased their PA
      levels, whereas those in Australia reduced their PA levels. Research is required
      to explore potential reasons behind differences, and this may inform
      research/clinical services to facilitate patients with lung cancer to be more
      active.

PMID- 28574731
TI  - Why Gene Editors Like CRISPR/Cas May Be a Game-Changer for Neuroweapons.
AB  - This year marks the Eighth Review Conference (RevCon) of the Biological Toxins
      and Weapons Convention (BWC). At the same time, ongoing international efforts to
      further and more deeply investigate the brain's complex neuronal circuitry are
      creating unprecedented capabilities to both understand and control neurological
      processes of thought, emotion, and behavior. These advances have tremendous
      promise for human health, but the potential for their misuse has also been noted,
      with most discussions centering on research and development of agents that are
      addressed by existing BWC and Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) proscriptions. In
      this article, we discuss the dual-use possibilities fostered by employing
      emergent biotechnologic techniques and tools-specifically, novel gene editors
      like clustered regular interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-to produce
      neuroweapons. Based on our analyses, we posit the strong likelihood that
      development of genetically modified or created neurotropic substances will
      advance apace with other gene-based therapeutics, and we assert that this
      represents a novel-and realizable-path to creating potential neuroweapons. In
      light of this, we propose that it will be important to re-address current
      categorizations of weaponizable tools and substances, so as to better inform and
      generate tractable policy to enable improved surveillance and governance of novel
      neuroweapons.

PMID- 28574732
TI  - In vitro and in vivo evaluation of cubosomal in situ nasal gel containing
      resveratrol for brain targeting.
AB  - The aim of this study was to enhance the delivery of resveratrol to the brain
      through the transnasal route by cubosomes. Cubosomes were prepared using glycerol
      monooleate and Lutrol F127 by probe sonication method. A 32 full factorial design
      was used for optimization of cubosomes and batch containing 4% w/v glycerol
      monooleate and 1.5% w/v of Lutrol F 127 was optimized. The selected cubosomal
      batch was cubical in shape, having mean particle size 161.5 +/- 0.12 nm.
      Entrapment efficiency was found to be 83.08% with zeta potential of -20.9 mV. In
      vitro release of cubosomal batch showed controlled release of drug profile (67%)
      up to 24 h. The optimized cubosomal dispersion was dispersed into gelling polymer
      (poloxamer 407) to form in situ gel for nasal use. The optimal cubosomal gel
      (containing 12% w/v poloxamer 407) had been subjected to ex-vivo permeation and
      in vivo biodistribution studies. It showed significantly higher transnasal
      permeation and better distribution to brain, when compared to the drug solution
      (i.n.) and drug solution (oral). Finally the cubosomal gel could be considered as
      a promising carrier for brain targeting of Resveratrol (Res) through transnasal
      route.

PMID- 28574733
TI  - Mechanistic investigation of mixing and segregation of ordered mixtures:
      experiments and numerical simulations.
AB  - Pulmonary delivery of cohesive and micronized drugs through dry powder inhalers
      (DPIs) is traditionally achieved through the formation of ordered mixtures. In
      order to improve the mechanistic understanding of formation of ordered mixtures,
      the system consisting of micronized lactose (AZFL, representative of an active
      pharmaceutical ingredient) and a coarse particle carrier (LH100) is investigated
      as a function of different process and material variables in a high shear mixer
      (HSM) and in a low shear double cone (DCN) blender, using both experimental and
      numerical methods. Process insight is developed using a Discrete Element Method
      (DEM) based numerical model which could predict the formation of ordered mixtures
      in the two blenders and was verified against experimental determinations. Spatial
      and temporal evolution of granular flow are visualized and quantified in silico
      to reveal distinguishing features of both blenders to aid in rational selection
      of blenders and process parameters.

PMID- 28574734
TI  - The Recognizability and Localizability of Auditory Alarms: Setting Global Medical
      Device Standards.
AB  - Objective Four sets of eight audible alarms matching the functions specified in
      IEC 60601-1-8 were designed using known principles from auditory cognition with
      the intention that they would be more recognizable and localizable than those
      currently specified in the standard. Background The audible alarms associated
      with IEC 60601-1-8, a global medical device standard, are known to be difficult
      to learn and retain, and there have been many calls to update them. There are
      known principles of design and cognition that might form the basis of more
      readily recognizable alarms. There is also scope for improvement in the
      localizability of the existing alarms. Method Four alternative sets of alarms
      matched to the functions specified in IEC 60601-1-8 were tested for
      recognizability and localizability and compared with the alarms currently
      specified in the standard. Results With a single exception, all prototype sets of
      alarms outperformed the current IEC set on both recognizability and
      localizability. Within the prototype sets, auditory icons were the most easily
      recognized, but the other sets, using word rhythms and simple acoustic metaphors,
      were also more easily recognized than the current alarms. With the exception of
      one set, all prototype sets were also easier to localize. Conclusion Known
      auditory cognition and perception principles were successfully applied to an
      existing audible alarm problem. Application This work constitutes the first
      (benchmarking) phase of replacing the alarms currently specified in the standard.
      The design principles used for each set demonstrate the relative ease with which
      different alarm types can be recognized and localized.

PMID- 28574735
TI  - Fatal course of Saprochaete capitata fungemia in children with acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - Saprochaete capitata (S. capitata) is a very rare fungal pathogen that causes
      disseminated opportunistic infections in patients with hematologic malignancies.
      Fever resistant to broad-spectrum antibiotic and antifungal treatment is common
      in the presence of fungemia during the period of profound neutropenia. We
      describe three cases of leukemic children who died from S. capitata fungemia
      following a first febrile neutropenic episode after the induction of
      chemotherapy. S. capitata fungemia is an emergent infection associated with high
      mortality and low susceptibility to fluconazole and echinocandins. Awareness of
      this emergent infection is needed to ensure that it can be properly treated.

PMID- 28574736
TI  - Multiple functions of the E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP in immunity.
AB  - The carboxyl terminal of Hsp70-interacting protein (CHIP) is an E3 ubiquitin
      ligase that plays a pivotal role in the protein quality control system by
      shifting the balance of the folding-refolding machinery toward the degradative
      pathway. However, the precise mechanisms by which nonnative proteins are selected
      for degradation by CHIP either directly or indirectly via chaperone Hsp70 or
      Hsp90 are still not clear. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive
      model of the mechanism by which CHIP degrades its substrate in a chaperone
      dependent or direct manner. In addition, through tight regulation of the protein
      level of its substrates, CHIP plays important roles in many physiological and
      pathological conditions, including cancers, neurological disorders, cardiac
      diseases, bone metabolism, immunity, and so on. Nonetheless, the precise
      mechanisms underlying the regulation of the immune system by CHIP are still
      poorly understood despite accumulating developments in our understanding of the
      regulatory roles of CHIP in both innate and adaptive immune responses. In this
      review, we also aim to provide a view of CHIP-mediated regulation of immune
      responses and the signaling pathways involved in the model described. Finally, we
      discuss the roles of CHIP in immune-related diseases.

PMID- 28574737
TI  - Preferred Place of Care and Death in Terminally Ill Patients with Lung and Heart
      Disease Compared to Cancer Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The dual aim of this study is, first, to describe preferred place of
      care (PPOC) and preferred place of death (PPOD) in terminally ill patients with
      lung and heart diseases compared with cancer patients and second, to describe
      differences in level of anxiety among patients with these diagnoses. BACKGROUND:
      Previous research on end-of-life preferences focuses on cancer patients, most of
      whom identify home as their PPOC and PPOD. These preferences may, however, not
      mirror those of patients suffering from nonmalignant fatal diseases. DESIGN: The
      study was designed as a cross-sectional study. SETTING: Eligible patients from
      the recruiting departments filled in questionnaires regarding sociodemographics,
      PPOC and PPOD, and level of anxiety. RESULTS: Of the 354 eligible patients, 167
      patients agreed to participate in the study. Regardless of their diagnosis, most
      patients wished to be cared for and to die at home. Patients with cancer and
      heart diseases chose hospice as their second most common preference for both PPOC
      and PPOD, whereas patients with lung diseases chose nursing home and hospice
      equally frequent as their second most common preference. Regardless of their
      diagnosis, all patients had a higher level of anxiety than the average Danish
      population; patients with heart diseases had a much higher level of anxiety than
      patients with lung diseases and cancer. CONCLUSION: Patient preferences for PPOC
      and PPOD vary according to their diagnoses; tailoring palliative needs to
      patients' preferences is important regardless of their diagnosis.

PMID- 28574739
TI  - Binocular Vision and Squint, Part 2.

PMID- 28574738
TI  - Characteristics and Outcome of Male and Female Methadone Maintenance Patients:
      MMT in Tel Aviv and Las Vegas.
AB  - : To compare in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) gender characteristics and
      outcomes, all patients ever admitted to Tel Aviv (TA) MMT clinic (N = 837) (June
      1993-December 2014) and Las Vegas (LV) MMT clinic (N = 1256) (February 2000-June
      2015) were prospectively followed-up (until June 2016). Drugs in urine on
      admission and after one year and long-term retention up to 23 and 16 years,
      respectively, were analyzed. Females in both clinics admitted younger than males
      and following shorter duration of opioid usage (TA: n = 215, 25.7%, age 35.0 +/-
      7.9 vs. 40.6 +/- 9.8 years, p < .0005, duration 12.4 +/- 7.0 vs. 18.1 +/- 10
      years, p < .0005; LV, n = 494, 39.3%, age 38.0 +/- 12.6 vs. 39.2 +/- 12.8, p =
      .08 duration 12.9 +/- 11.0 vs. 14.8 +/- 12.7 years, p = .008). On admission,
      higher proportion of female than male had positive urine for cocaine in TA (30.4%
      vs. 21.8%, p = .02) and for benzodiazepine in LVs (33.9% vs. 26.6%, p = .006).
      After 1 year, both genders had similar retention rate (TA: 76.1% LV: 49.8%) and
      opioid abstinence (TA: 67.6%, LV: 74.9%), and cumulative retention (TA: 8.2
      years, 95% Confidence-Interval 7.6-8.8; LV 2.2 years, 95% confidence interval 2.0
      2.4). CONCLUSIONS: Clinics differed in their characteristics and outcome, however
      in both clinic similar outcome between genders despite the difference in
      characteristics on admission was observed, as did the known women "telescoping
      effect."

PMID- 28574740
TI  - People Who Inject Drugs and Have Mood Disorders-A Brief Assessment of Health Risk
      Behaviors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People who inject drugs have a greater risk of infectious disease and
      mortality than other substance abusers and nondrug users. Variation in risk
      behavior among people who inject drugs is likely associated with comorbid mental
      health disorders. OBJECTIVES: Examine the association between a history of mood
      disorder and recent risk behavior among people who inject drugs. METHODS: With
      baseline data from a behavioral HIV prevention clinical trial in a population of
      people who inject drugs, we used logistic regression models to compare the risk
      behaviors of people who report a past diagnosis of bipolar disorder (n = 113) or
      depression (n = 237) to a comparison group with no history of diagnosed mental
      illness (n = 446). We also assessed differences between groups before and after
      adjusting for demographic characteristics and current depressive symptoms.
      RESULTS: While there were no differences between groups in frequency of drug use,
      people who inject drugs who report a history of mood disorders reported more
      injection risk behaviors, drug overdoses, sex exchanges, and multiple partners
      than those with no history of mental illness. Adjusting the comparison for
      demographic characteristics and current depressive symptoms had little impact on
      these findings. Variation in risk between depression and bipolar disorder groups
      was minimal. Conclusions/Importance: People who inject drugs and have mood
      disorders have unique and significant social, clinical, and risk reduction needs.
      Despite the limited validity of self-reported mental health history, simply
      asking about a history of mood disorder may be effective for identifying a
      particularly vulnerable population of people who inject drugs.

PMID- 28574741
TI  - Re: Drug-Drug Interactions between Methadone and Apixaban.

PMID- 28574742
TI  - Working together toward vaccines and biomarkers in the real world.

PMID- 28574743
TI  - Invasive pneumococcal infection due to serotype 15A after the pneumococcal
      conjugate vaccine implementation in Turkey.
AB  - Invasive pneumococcal infections among children are a serious public health
      problem in many countries, including Turkey. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine has
      been included in Turkey's National Immunization Programme since 2009. We report
      the first two pediatric cases of invasive pneumococcal infection due to non
      vaccine serotype 15A after pneumococcal conjugate vaccine implementation in
      Turkey. It is essential to monitor the countries' own local seroepidemiologic
      data for detecting selective pressure of non-vaccine serotypes of S. pneumonia.

PMID- 28574744
TI  - Spatial regulation of coalesced protein assemblies: Lessons from yeast to
      diseases.
AB  - Organisms rely on correctly folded proteins to carry out essential functions.
      Protein quality control factors guard proteostasis and prevent protein
      misfolding. When quality control fails and in response to diverse stresses, many
      proteins start to accumulate at specific deposit sites that maintain cellular
      organization and protect the functionality of coalescing proteins. These
      transitions involve dedicated proteins that promote coalescence and are
      facilitated by endo-membranes and cytoskeletal platforms. Moreover, several
      proteins make use of weak multivalent interactions or conformational templating
      to drive the formation of large-scale assemblies. Formation of such assemblies is
      often associated with a change in biochemical activity that can be used by cells
      to execute biochemical decisions in a localized manner during development and
      adaption. Since all assembly types impact cell physiology, their localization and
      dynamics need to be tightly regulated. Interestingly, at least some of the
      regulatory mechanisms are shared by functional membrane-less organelles and
      assemblies of terminally aggregated proteins. Furthermore, constituents of
      functional assemblies can aggregate and become non-functional during aging. Here
      we present the current knowledge as to how coalescing protein assemblies are
      spatially organized in cells and we postulate that failures in their spatial
      confinement might underscore certain aspects of aging and neurodegenerative
      diseases.

PMID- 28574746
TI  - Microbial production of mevalonate by recombinant Escherichia coli using acetic
      acid as a carbon source.
AB  - We sought to produce mevalonate, an important organic acid, by recombinant
      Escherichia coli, using acetic acid, a less costly alternative feedstock, as a
      carbon source. In this study, the mevalonate biosynthesis pathway originating
      with acetate was constructed in recombinant E. coli, resulting in the production
      of 1.06 g L-1 mevalonate with a productivity of 0.03 g L-1 h-1 in a 5-L
      bioreactor. The mevalonate concentration and productivity were significantly
      enhanced with increased cell density during 2-stage aerobic fermentation,
      reaching 7.85 g L-1 and 0.13 g L-1 h-1, respectively. Fed-batch fermentation was
      further optimized under anaerobic and microaerobic conditions, and mevalonate
      concentrations reached 3.05 g L-1 and 4.97 g L-1, respectively, indicating that
      the oxygen supply exerts a large impact on mevalonate production from acetate.
      This study describes a method with high potential to produce mevalonate with the
      engineered E. coli strain XU143 using the less costly alternative feedstock
      acetate as a carbon source.

PMID- 28574748
TI  - Ergonomic workplace design for health, wellness, and productivity.

PMID- 28574747
TI  - Health care utilization among young Australian women with severe tiredness:
      Results from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH).
AB  - In this article, we explore the use of health services and self-prescribed
      treatments among 8088 young Australian women with severe tiredness. Data were
      obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The prevalence
      of severe tiredness was 49.2%. The frequency of visits to healthcare
      practitioners was greater among women who sought help for their severe tiredness,
      compared to women who did not seek help for their severe tiredness or who did not
      report severe tiredness. Given the impact of this health problem on Australian
      women, we call for further research on the optimal treatment for severe
      tiredness.

PMID- 28574749
TI  - Significance of Upper Mediastinal Lymph Node Dissection with Video-Assisted
      Thoracic Surgery in the Treatment of Middle Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore the significance of upper
      mediastinal lymph node dissection performed by video-assisted thoracic surgery in
      the treatment of middle thoracic esophageal carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      clinical and pathological data from 128 patients with middle thoracic esophageal
      carcinoma who underwent surgery from January 2013 to December 2015 using a right
      chest-abdomen-neck approach combined with thoracoscopy and laparoscopy in the
      Jieyang People's Hospital of Huangdong province were analyzed retrospectively.
      RESULTS: The lymph node metastasis rates of the thoracic left para-recurrent
      laryngeal nerve (1, 2, and 4L zones) and right para-recurrent laryngeal nerve (1R
      zone) were 30.47% and 28.12% in 128 cases, respectively. The metastasis rates of
      the 2R, 4R, and 5 zones were 4.69%, 3.91%, and 5.47%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      The upper mediastinal region was the most common location for lymph node
      metastasis from middle thoracic esophageal carcinoma, and upper mediastinal lymph
      node dissection performed by video-assisted thoracic surgery was safe and
      complete. It also reduced the risk of para-recurrent laryngeal nerve injury,
      residual tumor, and the postoperative recurrence rate.

PMID- 28574745
TI  - Prion-specific Hsp40 function: The role of the auxilin homolog Swa2.
AB  - Yeast prions are protein-based genetic elements that propagate through cell
      populations via cytosolic transfer from mother to daughter cell. Molecular
      chaperone proteins including Hsp70, the Hsp40/J-protein Sis1, and Hsp104 are
      required for continued prion propagation, however the specific requirements of
      chaperone proteins differ for various prions. We recently reported that Swa2, the
      yeast homolog of the mammalian protein auxilin, is specifically required for the
      propagation of the prion [URE3]. 1 [URE3] propagation requires both a functional
      J-domain and the tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain of Swa2, but does not
      require Swa2 clathrin binding. We concluded that the TPR domain determines the
      specificity of the genetic interaction between Swa2 and [URE3], and that this
      domain likely interacts with one or more proteins with a C-terminal EEVD motif.
      Here we extend that analysis to incorporate additional data that supports this
      hypothesis. We also present new data eliminating Hsp104 as the relevant Swa2
      binding partner and discuss our findings in the context of other recent work
      involving Hsp90. Based on these findings, we propose a new model for Swa2's
      involvement in [URE3] propagation in which Swa2 and Hsp90 mediate the formation
      of a multi-protein complex that increases the number of sites available for
      Hsp104 disaggregation.

PMID- 28574750
TI  - Calcium Dobesilate Prevents Neurodegeneration and Vascular Leakage in
      Experimental Diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The mechanisms involved in the reported beneficial effects of Calcium
      dobesilate monohydrate (CaD) for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR)
      remain to be elucidated. The main aim of the present study is to examine whether
      CaD prevents early events in the pathogenesis of DR such as neurodegeneration and
      vascular leakage. In addition, putative mediators of both neurodegeneration
      (glutamate/GLAST, ET-1/ETB receptor) and early microvascular impairment (ET-1/ETA
      receptor, oxidative stress, VEGF, and the PKC-delta-p38 MAPK pathway) have been
      examined. METHODS: Diabetic (db/db) mice were randomly assigned to daily oral
      treatment with CaD (200 mg/Kg/day) (n = 12) or vehicle (n = 12) for 14 days. In
      addition, 12 non-diabetic (db/+) mice matched by age were used as the control
      group. Functional abnormalities were assessed by electroretinography.
      Neurodegeneration and microvascular abnormalities were evaluated by
      immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Glutamate was determined by HPLC. RESULTS:
      CaD significantly decreased glial activation and apoptosis and produced a
      significant improvement in the electroretinogram parameters. Mechanistically, CaD
      prevented the diabetes-induced up-regulation of ET-1 and its cognate receptors
      (ETA-R and ETB-R), which are involved in microvascular impairment and
      neurodegeneration, respectively. In addition, treatment with CaD downregulated
      GLAST, the main glutamate transporter, and accordingly prevented the increase in
      glutamate. Finally, CaD prevented oxidative stress, and the upregulation of VEGF
      and PKC delta-p38 MAPK pathway induced by diabetes, thus resulting in a
      significant reduction in vascular leakage. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate
      for the first time that CaD exerts neuroprotection in an experimental model of
      DR. In addition, we provide first evidence that CaD prevents the overexpression
      of ET-1 and its receptors in the diabetic retina. These beneficial effects on the
      neurovascular unit could pave the way for clinical trials addressed to confirm
      the effectiveness of CaD in very early stages of DR.

PMID- 28574751
TI  - Athletic Trainers' Reasons for and Mechanics of Documenting Patient Care: A
      Report From the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network.
AB  - CONTEXT:   Documenting patient care is an important responsibility of athletic
      trainers (ATs). However, little is known about ATs' reasons for documenting
      patient care and the mechanics of completing documentation tasks. OBJECTIVE:   To
      understand ATs' perceptions about reasons for and the mechanics of patient care
      documentation. DESIGN:   Qualitative study. SETTING:   Individual telephone
      interviews with Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network members.
      PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:   Ten ATs employed in the secondary school
      setting (age = 32.6 +/- 11.4 years, athletic training experience = 7.1 +/- 7.8
      years) were recruited using a criterion-based sampling technique. Participants
      were Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network members who used the
      Clinical Outcomes Research Education for Athletic Trainers electronic medical
      record system and practiced in 6 states. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:   We used
      the consensual qualitative research tradition. One investigator conducted
      individual telephone interviews with each participant. Data collection was
      considered complete after the research team determined that data saturation was
      reached. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and independently analyzed by 4
      research team members following the process of open, axial, and selective coding.
      After independently categorizing interview responses into categories and themes,
      the members of the research team developed a consensus codebook, reanalyzed all
      interviews, and came to a final agreement on the findings. Trustworthiness was
      established through multiple-analyst triangulation and member checking. RESULTS: 
      Participants identified 3 reasons for documenting patient care: communication,
      monitoring patient care, and legal implications. Four subcategories emerged from
      the mechanics-of-documentation theme: location, time of day, length of time, and
      criteria for documenting. The ATs described different criteria for documenting
      patient care, ranging from documenting every injury in the same manner to
      documenting time-loss and follow-up injuries differently. CONCLUSIONS:   Whereas
      ATs recognized individual mechanisms that enabled them to document patient care,
      they may need more guidance on the appropriate criteria for documenting various
      patient care encounters and strategies to help them document more effectively.

PMID- 28574752
TI  - Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of and Barriers to Patient Care Documentation: A
      Report From the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network.
AB  - CONTEXT:   For the practice characteristics of the services athletic trainers
      (ATs) provide to be identified, all ATs must complete high-quality patient care
      documentation. However, little is known about ATs' perceptions of patient care
      documentation or the potential barriers they may encounter while trying to ensure
      high-quality documentation. OBJECTIVE:   To explore ATs' perceptions of and
      barriers to patient care documentation via the Clinical Outcomes Research
      Education for Athletic Trainers (CORE-AT) electronic medical record system in the
      secondary school setting. DESIGN:   Qualitative study. SETTING:   Individual
      telephone interviews. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:   We interviewed 10 ATs (4
      men, 6 women; age = 32.6 +/- 11.4 years, athletic training experience = 7.1 +/-
      7.8 years) who were members of the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research
      Network (AT-PBRN) and employed in the secondary school setting. DATA COLLECTION
      AND ANALYSIS:   We conducted an individual interview with each participant. After
      transcription of the interviews, the data were analyzed into common themes and
      categories following the consensual qualitative research tradition. Data
      triangulation occurred through member checking and multiple researchers to ensure
      accuracy during data analysis. RESULTS:   Participants revealed several
      perceptions of patient care documentation, consisting of quality, expectations
      and accountability, priority, incentive, and culture of the secondary school
      setting. In addition, we identified barriers to quality patient care
      documentation: lack of time, lack of accountability for documenting patient care,
      inadequate facility resources, and lack of personnel. Participants discussed the
      volume of patients as a unique challenge in the secondary school setting.
      CONCLUSIONS:   Whereas ATs perceived patient care documentation as important,
      several practical barriers may inhibit their ability to complete high-quality
      documentation of the services they provide. Effective strategies to improve the
      quality of patient care documentation among ATs are needed to ensure that their
      value, particularly in the secondary school setting, is accurately characterized.

PMID- 28574753
TI  - Diurnal and seasonal variations of odor and gas emissions from a naturally
      ventilated free-stall dairy barn on the Canadian prairies.
AB  - : This study characterized the seasonal concentration (C) and emission (E)
      patterns of odor, ammonia (NH3), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) over the course of a
      whole year and their diurnal patterns in cold, warm, and mild seasons for a
      naturally ventilated free-stall dairy barn. It was found that seasonal odor and
      NH3 and H2S emissions varied greatly: from 17.2 to 84.4 odor units (OU) sec-1 AU
      1 (AU: animal unit, 500 kg of animal body mass), from 0.27 to 0.92 mg sec-1 AU-1,
      and from 3 to 105 MUg sec-1 AU-1, respectively. The overall concentrations of
      odor and NH3 were higher in the winter, whereas the emissions were higher in the
      mild and warm seasons. Diurnal variation was most significant for odor emission
      (OE) in the mild season when the ratio of maximum (279.2 OU sec-1 AU-1) to
      minimum value (60.5 OU sec-1 AU-1) was up to 4.6. The indoor air quality was also
      evaluated by considering not only the health effect of individual gases, but also
      the additive effect of NH3 and H2S. Results showed that the indoor air quality
      was poorest in cold seasons when NH3 C could exceed the threshold limit set out
      in occupational health regulation, and in fact could worsen due to the additive
      effect of the two gases. Further, it was suggested NH3 was a good indicator for
      predicting odor concentration (OC) or OE. The impact of climatic parameters on
      odor and gases were also examined, and it was found ventilation rate (VR)
      negatively affected OC and NH3 C, but positively impacted OE and NH3 E. Using 70%
      of the total data, a multilinear model for OE was developed as a function of VR
      and indoor relative humidity and was validated to be acceptable using the rest of
      the data. IMPLICATIONS: Diurnal and seasonal variations of odor, NH3, and H2S
      concentrations and emissions were monitored for a naturally ventilated dairy barn
      in a cold region. The emission factors were calculated and indoor air quality was
      evaluated. The overall odor and NH3 concentrations were higher in winter, whereas
      emissions were higher in the mild and warm seasons. Diurnal variation was most
      significant for odor emission in the mild season, when the ratio of maximum to
      minimum value was up to 4.6. The results can be used to estimate odor and gas
      emissions from other dairy barns in Canada and other cold regions.

PMID- 28574754
TI  - Multicenter study of environmental contamination with cyclophosphamide,
      ifosfamide, and methotrexate in 66 Canadian hospitals: A 2016 follow-up study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Oncology workers are occupationally exposed to antineoplastic drugs.
      This exposure can induce adverse health effects. To reduce their exposure,
      contamination on surfaces should be kept as low as possible. The main objective
      of this study was to monitor environmental contamination with cyclophosphamide,
      ifosfamide, and methotrexate in oncology pharmacy and patient care areas in
      Canadian centers. The secondary objective was to describe the impact of some
      factors that may limit contamination. METHODS: This is a descriptive study.
      Twelve standardized sites were sampled in each participating center (six in the
      pharmacy and six in patient care areas). Samples were analyzed for the presence
      of cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, and methotrexate by ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technology. Descriptive statistical
      analyses were done and results were compared with a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for
      independent samples. RESULTS: In 2016, 66 centers participated in this study
      (66/202, 32.7%). Overall, 43.4% (326/752) of the samples were positive for
      cyclophosphamide, 13.2% (99/752) for ifosfamide and 6.9% (52/752) for
      methotrexate. The 75th percentile value of cyclophosphamide surface concentration
      was 6.8 pg/cm2 and lower than the limit of detection for ifosfamide and
      methotrexate. Centers who prepared more antineoplastic drugs per year (p <
      0.0001), who used more cyclophosphamide per year (p < 0.0001) and who primed
      antineoplastic IV tubing in patient care unit by nurses (p = 0.004) showed
      significantly higher surface contamination to cyclophosphamide. CONCLUSION:
      Environmental surveillance is one part of a comprehensive approach for minimizing
      hazardous exposures in healthcare. This study highlights a low level of
      contamination of three hazardous drugs amongst 66 Canadian centers. Regular
      environmental monitoring is a good practice to maintain contamination as low as
      reasonably achievable.

PMID- 28574755
TI  - IH issues in natural disasters: Residents, first responders & public health.

PMID- 28574756
TI  - SOD2 Facilitates the Antiviral Innate Immune Response by Scavenging Reactive
      Oxygen Species.
AB  - Superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) is essential in radical scavenging, which balances
      the intracellular level of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The dysfunction of SOD2
      is associated with increasing incidence of various human diseases, including
      cancer, neuron diseases, and myocardial defects. However, the connections between
      SOD2-mediated oxidative homeostasis and innate immune response remain unclear. In
      this study, we report that SOD2 is a crucial regulator of antiviral signaling.
      Depletion of SOD2 impairs RNA virus-induced type I interferon (IFN) and
      proinflammatory cytokine production, resulting in enhanced viral replication.
      Type I IFN production is highly sensitive to cellular level of ROS. SOD2
      deficiency-mediated ROS accumulation potently inhibits RIG-I-like receptor (RLR)
      induced innate immune responses through the regulation of nuclear factor-kappa B
      (NF-kappaB) and interferon regulatory factor-3 activation. These findings uncover
      a novel role for SOD2 in regulating RLR-mediated antiviral innate immune
      signaling.

PMID- 28574758
TI  - Warburg effect-damping of electromagnetic oscillations.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction is a central defect in cells creating the Warburg and
      reverse Warburg effect cancers. However, the link between mitochondrial
      dysfunction and cancer has not yet been clearly explained. Decrease of
      mitochondrial oxidative energy production to about 50 % in comparison with
      healthy cells may be caused by inhibition of pyruvate transfer into mitochondrial
      matrix and/or disturbed H+ ion transfer across inner mitochondrial membrane into
      cytosol. Lowering of the inner membrane potential and shifting of the working
      point of mitochondria to high values of pH above an intermediate point causes
      reorganization of the ordered water layer at the mitochondrial membrane. The
      reorganized ordered water layers at high pH values release electrons which are
      transferred to the cytosol rim of the layer. The electrons damp electromagnetic
      activity of Warburg effect cancer cells or fibroblasts associated with reverse
      Warburg effect cancer cells leading to lowered electromagnetic activity,
      disturbed coherence, increased frequency of oscillations and decreased level of
      biological functions. In reverse Warburg effect cancers, associated fibroblasts
      supply energy-rich metabolites to the cancer cell resulting in increased power of
      electromagnetic field, fluctuations due to shift of oscillations to an unstable
      nonlinear region, decreased frequency and loss of coherence.

PMID- 28574757
TI  - Effect of bit wear on hammer drill handle vibration and productivity.
AB  - The use of large electric hammer drills exposes construction workers to high
      levels of hand vibration that may lead to hand-arm vibration syndrome and other
      musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of this laboratory study was to investigate
      the effect of bit wear on drill handle vibration and drilling productivity (e.g.,
      drilling time per hole). A laboratory test bench system was used with an 8.3 kg
      electric hammer drill and 1.9 cm concrete bit (a typical drill and bit used in
      commercial construction). The system automatically advanced the active drill into
      aged concrete block under feed force control to a depth of 7.6 cm while handle
      vibration was measured according to ISO standards (ISO 5349 and 28927). Bits were
      worn to 4 levels by consecutive hole drilling to 4 cumulative drilling depths: 0,
      1,900, 5,700, and 7,600 cm. Z-axis handle vibration increased significantly
      (p<0.05) from 4.8 to 5.1 m/s2 (ISO weighted) and from 42.7-47.6 m/s2 (unweighted)
      when comparing a new bit to a bit worn to 1,900 cm of cumulative drilling depth.
      Handle vibration did not increase further with bits worn more than 1900 cm of
      cumulative drilling depth. Neither x- nor y-axis handle vibration was effected by
      bit wear. The time to drill a hole increased by 58% for the bit with 5,700 cm of
      cumulative drilling depth compared to a new bit. Bit wear led to a small but
      significant increase in both ISO weighted and unweighted z-axis handle vibration.
      Perhaps more important, bit wear had a large effect on productivity. The effect
      on productivity will influence a worker's allowable daily drilling time if
      exposure to drill handle vibration is near the ACGIH Threshold Limit Value. [1]
      Construction contractors should implement a bit replacement program based on
      these findings.

PMID- 28574760
TI  - Targeting Future Customers: An Introductory Biobanking Course for Undergraduate
      Students of Life Sciences.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Biobanking is a relatively new concept in the Arab region.
      Targeting different stakeholders to introduce the concept of biobanking and
      develop an acceptance of it among them is important for the growth of biobanking
      in the region. Undergraduate students of life sciences represent an important
      segment of stakeholders, since they constitute potential future biobank
      customers. Limited funding, lack of awareness of the existence of the term
      "biobanking" itself among these students, and questions regarding best marketing
      strategies presented challenges to planning for the most effective message
      delivery to this target group. METHODS: A specific course was designed for
      undergraduate students of life sciences, which was conducted at the Faculty of
      Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt. The course was conducted twice in 2016 and
      included lectures covering biobanking, quality, ethics, information technology,
      and translational research. Facebook and word-of-mouth were used for marketing
      and advertising. RESULTS: A total number of 125 participants attended both
      courses cumulatively. Facebook appeared to have been an effective marketing
      outlet, especially when paid advertisements were used. Evaluation of knowledge,
      measured using a pretest and posttest, demonstrated some improvement in knowledge
      of participants. Evaluation forms filled after the course showed positive
      attitude toward content and message delivery by a majority of participants.
      Facebook was also used as an evaluation method through analysis of engagement
      with posts created after course completion. CONCLUSIONS: Biobanking education can
      be carried out effectively with limited resources. Understanding the needs of the
      target group and using appropriate methods of communication are essential
      prerequisites to a well-tailored curriculum and effective message delivery. Using
      Facebook appears to be an effective and affordable method of communication and
      advertising. Targeting undergraduate students of life sciences interested in
      research is a good investment and can be very effective in increasing awareness
      about biobanking inside the research community.

PMID- 28574759
TI  - Sedentary Behavior and Cardiometabolic Health Associations in Obese 11-13-Year
      Olds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improved understanding of sedentary time's impact on cardiometabolic
      health can help prioritize intervention targets. OBJECTIVE: We investigated cross
      sectional and longitudinal relations of reported screen time and objectively
      measured total percent of time spent sedentary with cardiometabolic health in
      obese youth. METHODS: Participants were 106 obese adolescents age 11-13 (N = 106,
      51% girls, and 82% Hispanic) recruited from primary care clinics in southern
      California. Main predictor measures were child-reported screen time and
      objectively assessed sedentary time. Outcome measures were body mass index (BMI),
      waist and hip circumference, body fat, blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides,
      insulin, cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and serum alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT). RESULTS: Total percent sedentary time was not associated
      with the cardiometabolic health markers after adjusting for moderate-to-vigorous
      physical activity (MVPA). However, screen time was positively associated with BMI
      and diastolic blood pressure at baseline, and positive longitudinal associations
      were found with BMI, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, AST, and ALT.
      CONCLUSIONS: Reported screen time, but not total sedentary time, was related to
      multiple cardiometabolic health markers in obese adolescents, independent of
      MVPA. The findings suggest that limiting and replacing screen time, which was
      more than 3 hours per day on average in this sample, is likely an important
      behavior change strategy for interventions treating childhood obesity and
      comorbidities. The associations with screen time were strongest with AST and ALT,
      suggesting that this form of sedentary behavior may impact liver health.

PMID- 28574761
TI  - Lessons learned from surface wipe sampling for lead in three workplaces.
AB  - Surface wipe sampling in the occupational environment is a technique widely used
      by industrial hygienists. Although several organizations have promulgated
      standards for sampling lead and other metals, uncertainty still exists when
      trying to determine an appropriate wipe sampling strategy and how to interpret
      sampling results. Investigators from the National Institute for Occupational
      Safety and Health (NIOSH) Health Hazard Evaluation Program have used surface wipe
      sampling as part of their exposure assessment sampling strategies in a wide range
      of workplaces. This article discusses wipe sampling for measuring lead on
      surfaces in three facilities: (1) a battery recycling facility; (2) a firing
      range and gun store; and (3) an electronic scrap recycling facility. We summarize
      our findings from the facilities and what we learned by integrating wipe sampling
      into our sampling plan. Wiping sampling demonstrated lead in non-production
      surfaces in all three workplaces and that the potential that employees were
      taking lead home to their families existed. We also found that the presence of
      metals such as tin can interfere with the colorimetric results. We also discuss
      the advantages and disadvantages of colorimetric analysis of surface wipe samples
      and the challenges we faced when interpreting wipe sampling results.

PMID- 28574762
TI  - Body Image, Eating Attitudes and Breastfeeding Intention: Implications for Mental
      Health and Maternal Child Nurses.
AB  - Body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating are often overlooked as personal
      factors that may affect pregnancy, postpartum, and infant feeding method. The
      current study compared body image, eating attitudes, and breastfeeding intention
      of first-time breastfeeding mothers to first-time non-breastfeeding mothers. A
      two-group, comparative design was used to analyze data for first-time mothers
      recruited through a large pediatric practice with multiple offices. Although
      there was no significant difference in body image scores between the groups, the
      literature suggests that body image dissatisfaction can affect the transition to
      motherhood and lead to more serious mental health issues. Prevention of
      psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders can be addressed early with
      information regarding body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Findings from
      this study have implications for mental health and maternal child health
      providers.

PMID- 28574764
TI  - Symbiosis of the Hydrothermal Vent Gastropod Ifremeria nautilei (Provannidae)
      With Endobacteria-Structural Analyses and Ecological Considerations.
AB  - The gastropod Ifremeria nautilei lives in high abundance around deep-sea
      hydrothermal vents of the Western Pacific. The filaments of its ctenidium are
      very long and have a rigid axis with a hemocoelic vessel and a strongly ciliated
      epithelium. The flattened part of each filament largely consists of bacteriocytes
      that are distally filled with numerous gram-negative bacteria. The bacteria lie
      one by one in vacuoles that seem to be part of an interconnected tubular system.
      Some of the apical vacuoles regularly showed what could be openings to the
      ambient seawater. This special topological arrangement of the bacteria suggests
      that in a morphological series mirroring the supposed evolutionary pathway from
      extra- to intracellular symbioses, I. nautilei might correspond to an
      intermediate stage. The high sulfur content and the low stable carbon isotope
      values measured in this study, combined with corresponding data from the
      literature, indicate that I. nautilei is the host partner in a thiotrophic
      chemoautotrophic bacterial symbiosis. The importance of this symbiosis for the
      nutrition of the gastropod is underlined by the reduced size of the host's
      stomach. Unlike specimens of I. nautilei from the Manus Basin (Galchenko et al.,
      1992), the inspected specimens from the North Fiji Basin did not contain any
      methanotrophic bacteria in addition to the thiotrophic type. From the disparity
      in results, it may be concluded that this host species can develop different
      patterns of symbiosis either as an adaptation to local variances of hydrothermal
      vent fluid chemistry or as a consequence of genetic differentiation in the host.

PMID- 28574765
TI  - Claw Transformation and Regeneration in Adult Snapping Shrimp: Test of the
      Inhibition Hypothesis for Maintaining Bilateral Asymmetry.
AB  - In the paired asymmetric claws of adult snapping shrimp, Alpheus heterochelis,
      the minor, or pincer, claw may transform into a major, or snapper, claw if the
      existing snapper claw is damaged or lost, implying that an intact snapper claw
      normally inhibits the contralateral pincer claw from advancing to a snapper. We
      find that the pincer-to-snapper advancement in external form occurs almost
      immediately after the snapper is lost even as late as the premolt stage. The
      transforming claw in turn inhibits the newly regenerating pincer claw from
      becoming a snapper, but if the dactyl of the transforming claw is cut, then
      snapper-based inhibition is removed and the contralateral claw may regenerate as
      a snapper, resulting in shrimp with paired snapper claws. However, damaging an
      established snapper claw will not allow another snapper claw to regenerate at the
      pincer site, implying that less inhibition is required to restrict a newly
      regenerating claw to a pincer than to arrest an existing pincer claw. Inhibition
      may be manifested largely in terms of quantity of innervation. Hence the greater
      innervation of the snapper side over the pincer side would inhibit the pincer
      side, accounting for the regeneration of paired claws in their previous
      configuration following loss of both claws. Loss of the paired claws in two
      consecutive molts retards their development so that both claws often appear as
      pincers, but in succeeding molts one usually differentiates into a snapper and
      bilateral asymmetry is restored. In contrast, shrimp with paired snapper claws
      retain this configuration over several molts unless one or both of the claws are
      lost; in that case, regeneration restores bilateral asymmetry. Thus, bilateral
      asymmetry of the paired claws of adult shrimp is governed by a strong intrinsic
      lateralizing mechanism in which the snapper claw inhibits the pincer from
      advancing to another snapper.

PMID- 28574763
TI  - The dark side of hippo signaling: A cancer promoter role.
AB  - The Hippo signaling pathway regulates organ size and tissue homeostasis. Given
      this role it is unsurprising that dysregulation of this pathway has implications
      for cancer progression. A convincing body of literature shows that the Hippo
      pathway serves a tumor suppressive function with its inactivation leading to
      massive overgrowth. However, additional studies have also shown that activation
      of Hippo signaling can promote tumor progression. It remains unknown how a single
      pathway can produce such diametrically opposed effects. This lack of knowledge is
      in part due to our inability to make meaningful comparisons from studies which
      have taken place in a variety of cell types, tissues, and organisms. Recently
      however, we have published 2 studies using the Drosophila wing disk to study the
      Hippo pathway and have found that Hippo pathway activation can promote cell
      migration and invasion while Hippo pathway inactivation leads to overgrowth. Thus
      we propose here that Drosophila can provide a research platform with which to
      begin addressing how the Hippo pathway can both enhance and suppress tumor
      progression due to published pro- and anti-tumor functionalities of the Hippo
      pathway in the same tissue.

PMID- 28574766
TI  - Limb Regeneration in the Eye Sockets of Crabs.
AB  - The eyestalks of crabs were removed and various tissues of the limbs were
      autotransplanted into the empty eye sockets to study the capacity of the limb
      tissue to regenerate in a heterotopic site. Autotransplantation of walking leg
      tissues into the eye sockets was able to regenerate complete walking legs in the
      new site. Autotransplantation of tissues of claw digit (dactyl and pollex) or
      more proximal claw segments (ischium and merus/carpus joint) could regenerate
      complete claws in the eye sockets. If the autotransplant of claw tissue was
      contralateral, claws could regenerate with host-site handedness. Sham operations
      or autotransplantation of frozen claw tissue did not induce regeneration in the
      eye sockets. These results demonstrate that complete crab claws can regenerate
      from the eye sockets by autotransplantation of live limb tissue and that the
      regeneration is not due to the traumatic effect of transplantation. The structure
      of the limbs regenerated in the eye sockets was determined by the source of the
      transplanted tissue. Complete claws resulted from autotransplantation of the
      tissues of the most distal claw segments (claw digits), and the most distal claw
      segments regenerated first, followed by the proximal claw segments in subsequent
      molts. Thus tissue from distal portions of crab claw can regenerate proximal
      portions of the claw in the eye sockets. Such a mode of regeneration is not
      consistent with the distalization rule of the polar coordinate model, which
      proposes that distal portions of the limb cannot regenerate proximal portions and
      that the direction of limb regeneration is always from proximal to distal.

PMID- 28574767
TI  - Spermiogenesis and Sperm Structure in Relation to Early Events of Fertilization
      in the Limpet Tectura testudinalis (Muller, 1776).
AB  - Spermiogenesis and fertilization in the limpet Tectura testudinalis (Mollusca:
      Archaeogastropoda: Patelloidea) were examined using scanning and transmission
      electron microscopy, as well as light microscopy. Spermiogenesis was similar to
      that described for other Lottiidae (Patelloidea), but some key differences were
      noted. We observed that the acrosomal vesicle forms on the plasma membrane from
      several Golgi-derived proacrosomal vesicles during the early spermatid. Evidence
      from anti-actin antibody staining of a related species, T. scutum, indicates that
      the acrosome probably contains G-actin in three different locations, but there
      are no preformed actin filaments. The flagellum of mature sperm tapers to a thin,
      filamentous end-piece. The mature egg of T. testudinalis is enclosed by a thin
      vitelline layer and a thick jelly coat bound by follicle cells. Where a mature
      sperm encounters the intact jelly coat, its acrosome tip may elongate, up to
      twice its original length. The acrosome reaction is not induced, but by this
      mechanism the acrosome bridges the jelly coat and extends down far enough to
      contact the vitelline layer. During the elongation of the acrosome,
      microfilaments are formed inside the tip. As well, new membrane required for this
      process is supplied by elimination of any slack in the plasma membrane and also
      perhaps by spontaneous formation of vesicles inside the acrosome. Once the tip of
      the sperm contacts and binds with the vitelline layer it undergoes the acrosome
      reaction, in which the plasma and acrosomal membranes fuse and roll back in a
      manner typical of scaphopods and some polychaetes. Sperm also may bind directly
      with the vitelline layer when the jelly coat is absent. Furthermore, the acrosome
      tip may undergo spontaneous fusion with a naked egg microvillus that formerly
      connected with a follicle cell process. Thus, the sperm either individually or
      collectively are equipped to deal with any one of several potential routes to
      successful fertilization of the egg. Current theories of gastropod phylogeny
      place the limpets as basal to the Gastropoda, but new evidence presented here
      supports the idea that they are a divergent group, with some unique innovations
      in sperm design.

PMID- 28574768
TI  - Are Echinoderm Egg Size Distributions Bimodal?
AB  - Marine invertebrates can be categorized into species that reproduce by producing
      either large numbers of small, energetically inexpensive eggs that become
      planktotrophic larvae, or fewer, larger eggs with more yolk and lecithotrophic
      development (1). The selective advantages of these alternative strategies were
      considered in a series of simple mathematical models by Vance (2, 3). These
      models predicted that intermediate egg sizes should have lower reproductive
      efficiency, and that only extreme egg sizes should be evolutionarily stable (2,
      3). Specifytally, Vance's models (2, 3) and later modifications (4-7), predict
      that eggs of marine invertebrates should have bimodal size distributions,
      rejecting the contrast between small egg/feeding and large egg/nonfeeding modes
      of development and the selection against intermediate egg sizes. Evidence for
      bimodality in egg size distributions is, however, equivocal, with unimodal
      distributions seen in the majority of comparative studies that are appropriate
      tests of the hypothesis (8-13). Bimodal distributions have been described only in
      a few groups of molluscs (4) and asteroid and echinoid echinoderms (14). Here we
      test the prediction of bimodality in the holothuroid and ophiuroid echinoderms
      and show that although the natural log-transformed egg size distributions are
      visually unimodal, the holothurian egg size distribution is statistically
      composed of two discrete modes. Moreover, reexamination of the asteroid and
      echinoid egg size distributions (14) with the addition of data from more recent
      literature confirms that there are two statistical modes in the egg size
      distributions of these classes. Thus, in the phylum Echinodermata, there is a
      bimodal egg size distribution three of the four classes in which this prediction
      can tested.

PMID- 28574769
TI  - Oocyte Maturation in the Brachiopod Terebratalia transversa: Role of Follicle
      Cell-Oocyte Attachments During Ovulation and Germinal Vesicle Breakdown.
AB  - In the brachiopod Terebratalia transversa, each ovarian follicle consists of (i)
      a prophase-arrested oocyte with an enlarged nucleus (= the germinal vesicle, or
      GV), and (ii) a surrounding sheath of follicle cells that attach to the oocyte by
      means of junctional complexes. Within about 80 min after removing a follicle from
      the ovary, the follicular sheath undergoes a microfilament-mediated retraction,
      and the ovulated oocyte that emerges from the retracted sheath subsequently
      completes germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Based on the experimental
      manipulations reported here, it appears that the follicle must be detached from
      the ovary for such ovulation and GVBD to occur. Moreover, GVBD can be prevented
      if the oocytes are mechanically stripped of their follicle cells up to 30 min
      after being isolated from the ovary. GVBD proceeds normally, however, if follicle
      cells are removed more than 40 min after the follicle is obtained from the ovary.
      The percentage of oocytes that undergo GVBD is also diminished following
      treatment with drugs that uncouple gap junctions. Collectively, these data
      suggest that removing a follicle from the ovary stimulates follicle cells to
      produce a maturation-inducing factor that uses the follicle cell-oocyte
      junctional complexes to reach the oocyte within about 30-40 min after follicular
      removal. The significance of these findings is discussed relative to previous
      reports on oocyte maturation in brachiopods and other animals.

PMID- 28574770
TI  - Hermaphroditic Freshwater Clams in the Genus Corbicula Produce Non-Reductional
      Spermatozoa With Somatic DNA Content.
AB  - Hermaphroditic freshwater clams in the genus Corbicula produce non-reductional
      spermatozoa. The DNA content of spermatozoa was almost identical with that of
      somatic cells in C. leana from Mie Prefecture, Japan. Hermaphroditic C. aff.
      fluminea from Saga Prefecture and C. fluminea from Taiwan also produce non
      reductional spermatozoa. On the other hand, spermatozoa of the dioecious C.
      sandai had half the DNA found in somatic cells. Analysis of chromosome numbers
      suggests that C. leana (3n = 54 in somatic cells and 18 in meiotic cells) from
      Mie Prefecture and C. aff. fluminea (2n = 36 in gills and 18 bivalents in meiotic
      cells) from Saga Prefecture are triploids and diploids, respectively. C. leana,
      C. aff. fluminea, and C. fluminea may lack either first or second meiosis,
      resulting in non-reductional spermatozoa. We assume that gynogenetic reproduction
      occurs in both species; maternal chromosomes are also nonreductional, and
      spermatozoa activate development of the eggs, but do not contribute to the
      offspring.

PMID- 28574771
TI  - Myogenic Heartbeat in the Primitive Crustacean Triops longicaudatus.
AB  - Pacemaker mechanisms in the heart of the primitive crustacean Triops
      longicaudatus were examined electrophysiologically. The heart is tubular and the
      heart wall consists of a single layer of myocardial cells. No nerve cells were
      found in the heart, either with methylene blue vital staining or by light
      microscopy of serial sections. The heart beats rhythmically at a frequency of 120
      to 240 beats/min, and each beat is associated with a slow membrane potential
      change in the heart muscle. The amplitude of the slow potential varies widely and
      no spikes appear on it. The heart muscle cells are electrically coupled with each
      other and generate synchronous slow potentials. No localized portion of the heart
      exhibited a frequency that always preceded the others. The muscle activity could
      be phase-shifted by injection of a single brief current pulse and could be
      entrained to a lower or higher frequency by repeated brief current pulses
      injected into the muscle cell. The frequency of muscle activity could be changed
      by the injection of DC current into the muscle cell, and the change in frequency
      was linearly related to the intensity of the current. When the intensity of
      hyperpolarizing DC current exceeded a certain value, the muscle activity
      disappeared abruptly, and the heart stopped beating completely. These results
      show clearly that the heartbeat of Triops is myogenic. The heart is diffusely
      myogenic and should be regarded as a single muscle oscillator.

PMID- 28574772
TI  - Egg-Mass Gel of Melanochlamys diomedea (Bergh) Protects Embryos From Low
      Salinity.
AB  - Many opisthobranch gastropods embed their embryos in gelatinous egg masses;
      however, the functions of gel are not well known. We analyze the hypothesis that
      egg-mass gel protects embryos from salinity change. Using egg masses of
      Melanochlamys diomedea, we found that experimental removal of gel decreased the
      ability of embryos to survive osmotic stress. We evaluate several possible
      protective mechanisms by estimating osmotic influx of water into egg masses and
      by modeling salt efflux from an egg mass. On immersion in low-salinity water, egg
      masses lost roughly 23% of their mass, indicating that osmotic influx of water
      did not occur. Therefore, the principal route of salinity change within the egg
      mass is probably salt efflux. The model suggests that this efflux occurs quite
      slowly even when ambient salinity changes rapidly. Slow salinity change may be
      less stressful for embryos because the mechanisms that regulate cellular volume
      have more time to adjust. We show experimentally that slow salinity changes are
      less harmful to veligers than rapid ones by isolating capsules from egg-mass gel
      and exposing them to gradual or abrupt salinity change. The results support the
      hypothesis that rate of change of salinity is an important determinant of embryo
      survival and that egg-mass gel retards the rate of salinity change.

PMID- 28574773
TI  - Sexual Competition Among Male Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus.
AB  - Experiments and field data on blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, from mid-Chesapeake
      Bay between 1991 and 1994 were used to test whether large males have advantages
      over small males in accessing females and in sperm competition. In the field,
      large males were paired more often, especially with large, more fecund females.
      However, the variance in the relationship between male and female size in mating
      pairs was high, suggesting that mating with large females may not be the primary
      determinant of male reproductive success. Large males had proportionately longer
      chelipeds, which may provide an advantage in aggressive interactions for females
      or in struggles to control females. Previous work indicates that sperm
      competition may occur in blue crabs and that ejaculate size may influence a
      male's ability to compete during sperm competition. Large males stored more
      seminal fluid and spermatophores and passed a larger volume of ejaculate to each
      mate than did small males. Ejaculate volume averaged 47% of a male's stored
      supply. However, ejaculate volume increased with the duration of copulation but
      decreased with successive matings, such that males needed about 15 days between
      matings to pass similar-sized ejaculates to successive mates. Pre-copulatory mate
      guarding may serve as a time to replenish ejaculate contents, and thus its
      duration also influences a male's performance in sperm competition.

PMID- 28574775
TI  - The 2017 ISBER Annual Meeting & Exhibits: "Due North: Aligning Biobanking
      Practice with Evolving Evidence and Innovation".

PMID- 28574774
TI  - Differing Experiences with Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Boston Among Lesbian, Gay,
      Bisexual, and Transgender Specialists and Generalists in Primary Care:
      Implications for Scale-Up.
AB  - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in four
      sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) could decrease their HIV risk by
      using HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Because many MSM access healthcare
      from primary care providers (PCPs), these clinicians could play an important role
      in providing access to PrEP. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted
      with 31 PCPs in Boston, MA, to explore how they approach decisions about
      prescribing PrEP to MSM and their experiences with PrEP provision. Purposive
      sampling included 12 PCPs from an urban community health center specializing in
      the care of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons ("LGBT specialists")
      and 19 PCPs from a general academic medical center ("generalists"). Analyses
      utilized an inductive approach to identify emergent themes. Both groups of PCPs
      approached prescribing decisions about PrEP as a process of informed decision
      making with patients. Providers would defer to patients' preferences if they were
      unsure about the appropriateness of PrEP. LGBT specialists and generalists were
      at vastly different stages of adopting PrEP into practice. For LGBT specialists,
      PrEP was a disruptive innovation that rapidly became normative in practice.
      Generalists had limited experience with PrEP; however, they desired succinct
      decision-support tools to help them achieve proficiency, because they considered
      preventive medicine to be central to their professional role. As generalists
      vastly outnumber LGBT specialists in the United States, interventions to support
      PrEP provision by generalists could accelerate the scale-up of PrEP for MSM
      nationally, which could in turn decrease HIV incidence for this priority
      population.

PMID- 28574778
TI  - Do the American Society of Clinical Oncology Value Framework and the European
      Society of Medical Oncology Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Measure the Same
      Construct of Clinical Benefit?
AB  - Purpose Whether the ASCO Value Framework and the European Society for Medical
      Oncology (ESMO) Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (MCBS) measure similar
      constructs of clinical benefit is unclear. It is also unclear how they relate to
      quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and funding recommendations in the United
      Kingdom and Canada. Methods Randomized clinical trials of oncology drug approvals
      by the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, and Health
      Canada between 2006 and August 2015 were identified and scored using the ASCO
      version 1 (v1) framework, ASCO version 2 (v2) framework, and ESMO-MCBS by at
      least two independent reviewers. Spearman correlation coefficients were
      calculated to assess construct (between frameworks) and criterion validity
      (against QALYs from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE]
      and the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review [pCODR]). Associations between scores
      and NICE/pCODR recommendations were examined. Inter-rater reliability was
      assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients. Results From 109 included
      randomized clinical trials, 108 ASCOv1, 111 ASCOv2, and 83 ESMO scores were
      determined. Correlation coefficients for ASCOv1 versus ESMO, ASCOv2 versus ESMO,
      and ASCOv1 versus ASCOv2 were 0.36 (95% CI, 0.15 to 0.54), 0.17 (95% CI, -0.06 to
      0.37), and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.63), respectively. Compared with NICE QALYs,
      correlation coefficients were 0.45 (ASCOv1), 0.53 (ASCOv2), and 0.46 (ESMO); with
      pCODR QALYs, coefficients were 0.19 (ASCOv1), 0.20 (ASCOv2), and 0.36 (ESMO).
      None of the frameworks were significantly associated with NICE/pCODR
      recommendations. Inter-rater reliability was good for all frameworks. Conclusion
      The weak-to-moderate correlations of the ASCO frameworks with the ESMO-MCBS, as
      well as their correlations with QALYs and with NICE/pCODR funding
      recommendations, suggest different constructs of clinical benefit measured.
      Construct convergent validity with the ESMO-MCBS did not increase with the
      updated ASCO framework.

PMID- 28574777
TI  - Coping and Prognostic Awareness in Patients With Advanced Cancer.
AB  - Purpose Patients' understanding of their illness is key for making informed
      treatment decisions, yet studies suggest an association between prognostic
      awareness and worse quality of life (QOL) and mood among patients with advanced
      cancer. We sought to explore the relationships among prognostic awareness,
      coping, QOL, and mood in patients with newly diagnosed, incurable cancer. Methods
      We assessed patients' self-reported health status and treatment goal (Prognosis
      and Treatment Perceptions Questionnaire), coping (Brief COPE), QOL (Functional
      Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General), and mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression
      Scale) within 8 weeks of incurable lung or GI cancer diagnosis. We used linear
      regression to examine associations and interaction effects among patients' health
      status and treatment goal, coping strategies, QOL, and mood. Results Patients who
      reported a terminally ill health status had worse QOL (unstandardized coefficient
      [B] = -6.88; P < .001), depression (B = 1.60; P < .001), and anxiety (B = 1.17; P
      = .007). Patients who reported their oncologist's treatment goal was "to cure my
      cancer" had better QOL (B = 4.33; P = .03) and less anxiety (B = -1.39; P =
      .007). We observed interaction effects between self-reported health status and
      treatment goal and certain coping strategies. Specifically, subgroup analyses
      showed that greater use of positive reframing was related to better QOL (B =
      2.61; P < .001) and less depression (B = -0.78; P < .001) among patients who
      reported a terminally ill health status. Active coping was associated with better
      QOL (B = 3.50; P < .001) and less depression (B = -1.01; P < .001) among patients
      who acknowledged their oncologist's treatment goal was not "to cure my cancer."
      Conclusion Prognostic awareness is related to worse QOL and mood in patients with
      newly diagnosed, incurable cancer; however, the use of certain coping strategies
      may buffer these relationships. Interventions to improve patients' prognostic
      awareness should seek to cultivate more adaptive coping strategies in order to
      enhance QOL and mood.

PMID- 28574780
TI  - Forty Years of Engagement Research in Children's Mental Health Services:
      Multidimensional Measurement and Practice Elements.
AB  - Poor engagement in child and adolescent mental health services is a significant
      public health concern. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the engagement
      literature using a multidimensional measurement framework to identify practice
      elements that are associated with improved engagement. We examined 50 randomized
      controlled trials of interventions targeting treatment engagement in youth mental
      health services published between 1974 and 2016. We utilized a multidimensional
      measurement framework that includes five engagement domains (i.e., Relationship,
      Expectancy, Attendance, Clarity, Homework [REACH]). We also used a distillation
      method (Chorpita & Daleiden, 2009; Chorpita, Daleiden, & Weisz, 2005) to identify
      specific practices common to interventions that were effective at increasing
      engagement within each REACH domain. Engagement was most frequently
      operationalized in intervention studies as Attendance. Individual practices
      distilled from effective interventions were successful when used with
      participants with diverse characteristics in a wide variety of contexts.
      Importantly, we found unique practice patterns associated with outcomes from each
      REACH domain. Findings suggest that practices such as assessment,
      psychoeducation, accessibility promotion, barriers to treatment, and goal setting
      might be used with all youth and families to promote engagement and that other
      practices could be introduced on an as-needed basis to target specific engagement
      domains (e.g., modeling to promote Clarity about therapy; therapist monitoring to
      promote Homework/participation). A substantial evidence base demonstrates that
      engagement can be improved through specific interventions, and findings highlight
      opportunities to advance the field's understanding of engagement through
      multidimensional measurement in future studies.

PMID- 28574779
TI  - HELOISE: Phase IIIb Randomized Multicenter Study Comparing Standard-of-Care and
      Higher-Dose Trastuzumab Regimens Combined With Chemotherapy as First-Line Therapy
      in Patients With Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2-Positive Metastatic
      Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Purpose To compare standard-of-care (SoC) trastuzumab plus chemotherapy with
      higher-dose (HD) trastuzumab plus chemotherapy to investigate whether HD
      trastuzumab increases trastuzumab serum trough concentration (Ctrough) levels and
      increases overall survival (OS) in first-line human epidermal growth factor
      receptor 2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction
      adenocarcinoma. Patients and Methods Patients with Eastern Cooperative Oncology
      Group performance status 2, no prior gastrectomy, and >= two metastatic sites
      were randomly assigned at a one-to-one ratio to loading-dose trastuzumab 8 mg/kg
      followed by SoC trastuzumab maintenance 6 mg/kg every 3 weeks or loading-dose
      trastuzumab 8 mg/kg followed by HD trastuzumab maintenance 10 mg/kg every 3 weeks
      until progression; treatment in each arm was combined with cisplatin 80 mg/m2
      plus capecitabine 800 mg/m2 twice per day in cycles 1 to 6. The primary objective
      was HD trastuzumab OS superiority (all randomly assigned patients [full-analysis
      set]). Final results are from an interim analysis for futility (boundary hazard
      ratio [HR] >= 0.95) at 125 deaths. Results At clinical cutoff, 248 patients had
      been randomly assigned. A marked increase in mean trastuzumab Ctrough was
      observed after the first HD trastuzumab cycle versus SoC trastuzumab. In the full
      analysis set, median OS was 12.5 months in the SoC trastuzumab arm and 10.6
      months in the HD trastuzumab arm (stratified HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.78; P =
      .2401). Results were similar in the per-protocol set (cycle 1 trastuzumab Ctrough
      < 12 ug/mL). Safety was comparable between arms. Conclusion HD trastuzumab
      maintenance dosing was associated with higher trastuzumab concentrations, no
      increased efficacy, and no new safety signals. HELOISE confirms standard-dose
      trastuzumab (loading dose of 8 mg/kg followed by 6 mg/kg maintenance dose every 3
      weeks) with chemotherapy as the SoC for first-line treatment of human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28574781
TI  - Associations between Age, Years in Post, Years in the Profession and Personal
      Experience of Mental Health Problems in UK Mental Health Nurses.
AB  - Nurses' mental health is of paramount importance, both in terms of patient safety
      and the sustainability of the workforce. Age, years in the profession, in post
      and personal experience or exposure to mental health problems are relevant to the
      mental health nursing workforce crisis in the United Kingdom. This study aimed to
      determine the relationship between age, years in the profession and post and self
      reported experience of mental health problems using an online cross-sectional
      survey of 225 UK mental health nurses. Number of years in post was inversely
      correlated with overall experience of mental health problems, particularly living
      with someone else with mental health problems. Those with experience of living
      with someone with mental health problems had significantly fewer years of
      professional experience than those without. This article discusses possible
      explanations for this phenomenon and makes the case for future research on the
      topic.

PMID- 28574783
TI  - Bacterial Symbionts Colonize the Accessory Nidamental Gland of the Squid Loligo
      opalescens via Horizontal Transmission.
AB  - The accessory nidamental gland (AN gland), a reproductive organ of the mature
      female squid Loligo opalescens, harbors a dense culture of bacteria of unknown
      function. A multilayered sheath surrounding the L. opalescens egg case is
      similarly colonized by bacteria that presumably originate in the AN gland, as
      evidenced by their presence in the egg case at oviposition. This study
      investigates how these bacteria are transmitted to juvenile squid and examines
      some morphological consequences of bacterial colonization of AN gland tissues. By
      observing the structure of the AN gland in adults and the development and
      bacterial colonization of the gland in juveniles raised in captivity, we
      determined that the AN gland was absent in newly hatched squid and did not appear
      until 87 days post-hatching. At 129 days posthatching, the organ displayed
      tubules composed of a single layer of epithelial cells and expressing numerous
      cilia and microvilli. These tubules were not yet fully formed and thus were open
      to the mantle cavity and external seawater, possibly to aid in the acquisition of
      microorganisms. Since the AN gland developed a considerable time after hatching,
      it most likely acquires its symbionts horizontally from environmental seawater
      and not vertically from the egg case sheath. The switch from expression of cilia
      to production of microvilli on the epithelial cell surface may dictate the
      competence of the tissue for bacterial colonization. Electron microscopic
      examination of juvenile and adult AN glands revealed that an analogous process
      occurs during the development of the related light organ of other cephalopod
      species that harbor symbiotic bacteria.

PMID- 28574782
TI  - RNA-based ovarian cancer research from 'a gene to systems biomedicine'
      perspective.
AB  - : Ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death from a gynecologic
      malignancy, and treatment of this disease is harder than any other type of female
      reproductive cancer. Improvements in the diagnosis and development of novel and
      effective treatment strategies for complex pathophysiologies, such as ovarian
      cancer, require a better understanding of disease emergence and mechanisms of
      progression through systems medicine approaches. RNA-level analyses generate new
      information that can help in understanding the mechanisms behind disease
      pathogenesis, to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic targets and in new drug
      discovery. Whole RNA sequencing and coding and non-coding RNA expression array
      datasets have shed light on the mechanisms underlying disease progression and
      have identified mRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs involved in ovarian cancer
      progression. In addition, the results from these analyses indicate that various
      signalling pathways and biological processes are associated with ovarian cancer.
      Here, we present a comprehensive literature review on RNA-based ovarian cancer
      research and highlight the benefits of integrative approaches within the systems
      biomedicine concept for future ovarian cancer research. We invite the ovarian
      cancer and systems biomedicine research fields to join forces to achieve the
      interdisciplinary caliber and rigor required to find real-life solutions to
      common, devastating, and complex diseases such as ovarian cancer. ABBREVIATIONS:
      CAF: cancer-associated fibroblasts; COG: Cluster of Orthologous Groups; DEA:
      disease enrichment analysis; EOC: epithelial ovarian carcinoma; ESCC: oesophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma; GSI: gamma secretase inhibitor; GO: Gene Ontology; GSEA:
      gene set enrichment analyzes; HAS: Hungarian Academy of Sciences; lncRNAs: long
      non-coding RNAs; MAPK/ERK: mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal
      regulated kinases; NGS: next-generation sequencing; ncRNAs: non-coding RNAs; OvC:
      ovarian cancer; PI3K/Akt/mTOR: phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase
      B/mammalian target of rapamycin; RT-PCR: real-time polymerase chain reaction;
      SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; TF: transcription factor; TGF-beta:
      transforming growth factor-beta.

PMID- 28574784
TI  - Effects of Salinity on Sperm Motility, Fertilization, and Development in the
      Pacific Herring, Clupea pallasi.
AB  - We investigated the effects of salinity on fertilization and early development in
      a population of Pacific herring, Clupea pallasi, that migrate from oceanic waters
      into the San Francisco Bay estuary to spawn. The salinity range for fertilization
      fell between 8 and 28 ppt, with an optimal range of about 12 to 24 ppt. In
      comparison, the range for a population of C. harengus membras (Airisto Sound,
      Finland) that reside year-round in the Baltic Sea was 4 to 24 ppt. Roles for both
      Na+ and K+ were indicated in C. pallasi fertilization since increasing Na+ in the
      presence of 10 mM K+ (concentration of seawater) mimicked the effects of
      increased overall salinity, whereas reduced effects were obtained if [K+] was
      held at 5 mM (that of half-strength seawater). The initiation of C. pallasi sperm
      motility by components of the egg chorion, a prerequisite for fertilization, was
      inhibited at both elevated (28 and 32 ppt) and reduced (4 and 8 ppt) salinities.
      Embryonic development through larval hatching in C. pallasi exhibited a salinity
      tolerance similar to that of fertilization; optimum development was obtained at
      salinities between 8 and 24 ppt. A comparison of developmental progression in
      3.5, 14, and 28 ppt seawater revealed that salinity effects became evident during
      the post-gastrulation stages of development and that progression to hatching was
      delayed in both the lower and higher salinities for those embryos that completed
      development.

PMID- 28574785
TI  - Recovery of Claw Size and Function Following Autotomy in Cancer productus
      (Decapoda: Brachyura).
AB  - We examined recovery of claw size and function following autotomy in red rock
      crabs Cancer productus. We also tested for costs of regeneration to growth and
      documented the frequency of claw injury in C. productus populations in Barkley
      Sound, Canada. Field and laboratory results indicated that crabs required at
      least three molts to recover a full-length cheliped. For injured crabs,
      regenerating claws were significantly less powerful than contralateral, normal
      (i.e., uninjured) claws even two instars after autotomy. Greater mechanical
      advantage in normal claws of injured (versus uninjured) crabs, however, suggests
      some morphological response by the remaining normal claw to increased exercise.
      Despite this compensatory response, our experiments indicate that injured crabs
      remain at a significant disadvantage while foraging. After adjusting for
      differences in propodus length, both regenerating and normal claws of injured
      crabs delivered significantly lower crushing forces than did claws of intact
      crabs. Energetic costs, in the form of reduced body size increase at the molt,
      were detected only for crabs regenerating both claws. High incidences of single
      claw loss in C. productus in Barkley Sound, together with our experimental data,
      suggest that much of the population experiences a prolonged foraging handicap
      following injury.

PMID- 28574786
TI  - Temperature and Embryonic Development in Relation to Spawning and Field
      Occurrence of Larvae of Three Antarctic Echinoderms.
AB  - The effects of temperature on development and viability were measured at 14
      levels between -2{deg}C and +3{deg}C on embryos of two asteroids (Odontaster
      validus and Odontaster meridionalis) and an echinoid (Sterechinus neumayeri) from
      Signy Island, Antarctica. Development rates were 2 to 10 times slower than those
      for temperate or tropical echinoderms, with times to hatching up to 240 h.
      Development rates for the two asteroids differed by 1.15 x, and rates for both
      species approximately doubled over the experimental temperature range. In O.
      validus, embryo viability was independent of temperature, but in O. meridionalis
      viability declined with increasing temperature. Development rates for S.
      neumayeri were little affected by temperature above +0.2{deg}C, but declined
      rapidly at lower temperatures. Conversely, the number of nonviable eggs was low
      and constant below +1.7{deg}C, but rose rapidly at higher temperatures. A window
      of optimal temperature, between +0.2{deg}C and +1.7{deg}C, has therefore been
      proposed for development time and embryo viability in this population of S.
      neumayeri. Spawning trials and field observations of larvae indicated that the
      time of gamete release and periods of larval development in S. neumayeri
      coincided with austral summer sea temperatures in the same window. Embryos of O.
      meridionalis and O. validus are released in winter, when temperatures are
      constantly below -1.6{deg}C. Comparison of the different strategies suggests that
      larval food supply and predation during planktonic phases are not the dominant
      ecological factors for these species.

PMID- 28574787
TI  - Neural Control of the Lateral Abdominal Arterial Valves in the Lobster Homarus
      americanus.
AB  - A dorsal abdominal artery in Homarus americanus runs the length of the abdomen,
      giving rise to one pair of large lateral arteries in each segment. These lateral
      arteries supply hemolymph to the abdominal muscles and the swimmerets. In
      addition, many small vessels leave the dorsal abdominal artery ventrolaterally to
      supply the gut and gonads. Bicuspid muscular valves are located at the junction
      of each segmental lateral artery with the dorsal abdominal artery, but not at the
      origin of the gut vessels. Nerves originating from the ventral abdominal ganglia
      travel along the lateral arteries to innervate the valves, providing both
      inhibitory and excitatory inputs. Inhibitory input produces hyperpolarizing
      inhibitory junctional potentials that relax the valve muscles, and in intact in
      situ perfused arteries causes increases in outflow from the affected lateral
      artery. Excitatory input produces depolarizing excitatory junctional potentials
      that close the valves and reduce perfusate outflow. The valve nerves also branch
      to innervate valves up to two segments anterior and one segment posterior.
      Application of exogenous {gamma}-aminobutyric acid hyperpolarizes valve muscle
      fibers. This and the hyperpolarizing effect of valve nerve stimulation are
      reversibly abolished by the application of picrotoxin (10-5 M). Acetylcholine (10
      5 M), but not glutamate, causes depolarization and contraction of valves. The
      role of the valves in controlling the distribution of hemolymph flow is
      discussed.

PMID- 28574788
TI  - Comparative Analysis of Escape Behavior in Male, and Gravid and Non-Gravid,
      Female Lobsters.
AB  - Few studies exist in which the parameters of a single behavior have been
      quantitatively compared for male and female lobsters. Here, we have examined the
      effects of sex and gravidity on the parameters of the escape behavior of the
      American lobster, Homarus americanus, elicited by a visual threat. Both non
      gravid females and male lobsters readily tailflipped in response to the stimulus,
      but gravid females failed, with one exception, to initiate a swim, even when
      stimulus strength was increased. Although the total distance swum by males and
      non-gravid females was not statistically different, males covered more ground in
      the initial power swim and during the subsequent swims than did non-gravid
      females. Males swam for a longer time, performing more tailflips, than females.
      Relative to their length and weight, males swam a greater distance at each stroke
      during the initial power swim and the subsequent swims, although, females might
      have compensated by swimming at a higher frequency. There were no significant
      differences in swimming velocity or acceleration, nor in the calculated force or
      work performed by the two sex classes (male and non-gravid females). Therefore,
      apart from egg-bearing, which severely inhibits the escape response, it remains
      to be seen whether the subtle physiological and anatomical sexual dimorphism that
      produces longer and more swim strokes in males but higher frequency tailflips in
      females results in the same chances of survival for the sexes.

PMID- 28574789
TI  - A Protein Identical to the Yolk Protein Is Stored in the Testis in Male Red Sea
      Urchin, Pseudocentrotus depressus.
AB  - Female sea urchins store the major yolk protein (MYP) in ovarian nutritive
      phagocytes before vitellogenesis. Using immunological procedures, we detected MYP
      in the testicular nutritive phagocytes of Pseudocentrotus depressus, the red sea
      urchin, and then compared the distribution of MYP between sexes during
      gametogenesis. MYP was purified from unfertilized eggs by ion exchange
      chromatography (Q Sepharose) and gel filtration (Superdex 200), and an antiserum
      (anti-MYP) was raised against MYP. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that immature
      testes, as well as ovaries, contained a large quantity of MYP.
      Immunohistochemistry showed that MYP was distributed in the nutritive phagocytes
      occupying the follicular lumen in both males and females. In both sexes, as
      gametogenesis proceeded, the nutritive phagocytes degenerated and the gonadal
      lumen filled with gametes. MYP accumulated in ripe ova as a yolk protein in the
      mature ovary. In contrast, MYP was not detected in mature testes, because stored
      spermatozoa did not react with anti-MYP. We conclude that in male P. depressus,
      MYP is stored in the testicular nutritive phagocytes and utilized as the nutrient
      source for spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28574790
TI  - Chemical Fate of a Metamorphic Inducer in Larvae-like Buds of the Cnidarian
      Cassiopea andromeda.
AB  - Larvae-like vegetative buds of the scyphozoan Cassiopea andromeda metamorphose
      into polyps in the presence of oligopeptides that have a well-defined primary
      structure. Buds were incubated with the hexapeptide 14C-dansyl-GPGGPA, a
      representative inducer. Autoradiography of longitudinal sections of these buds
      revealed rapid internalization of peptide by the buds. Silver grain density was
      highest in the pre-pedal disc region (or aboral knob) of metamorphosing buds.
      Larvae and buds sporadically explore their habitat with this aboral knob,
      searching for a suitable solid substrate to which irreversible attachment will be
      made. Buds were incubated for 3, 8, or 16 h with 14C-dansyl-GPGGPA, then
      homogenized and the supernatants analyzed to determine the chemical fate of the
      inducer. The signal molecule was shown to be partly degraded to 14C-dansyl-GP,
      partly to 14C-dansyl-G, and in part still present in its original structure.
      These cleavage products were also found in the surrounding medium after an
      incubation time of 8 h with 14C-dansyl-GPGGPA, but did not induce metamorphosis.
      This study suggests that exposure of metamorphosis-inducing peptides to buds of
      Cassiopea andromeda results in signal termination.

PMID- 28574791
TI  - Distinctive Cytoskeletal Organization in Erythrocytes of the Cold-Seep Vesicomyid
      Clam, Calyptogena kilmeri.
AB  - Erythrocytes have long served as model cells, useful for analyzing cytoskeletal
      structure and function. In non-mammalian vertebrates, erythrocytes are typically
      highly flattened, nucleated ellipsoids in which a marginal band (MB) of
      microtubules interacts with the membrane skeleton (MS) to generate and maintain
      cell shape. Though relatively rare, erythrocytes also occur in representatives of
      many invertebrate phyla, including the arcid and vesicomyid molluscs, but the
      structure and function of these cells are not well understood. Previous work has
      shown arcid erythrocytes to be highly flattened ellipsoids containing the MB-MS
      cytoskeletal system, similar to vertebrates but with an additional interesting
      feature: a functional centriole-containing centrosome associated with each MB. In
      the present study we have examined, for the first time, erythrocyte morphology
      and cytoskeletal structure in a vesicomyid. Using Calyptogena kilmeri, the
      dominant invertebrate at many Pacific cold seeps, we have found that the
      erythrocytes are only slightly flattened and do not contain MBs. Rather, their
      cytoskeletons display a peripheral centriole-containing centrosome with radiating
      fibers, a distinctive type of organization not observed previously in mature
      erythrocytes from any species.

PMID- 28574792
TI  - Stimulation of Metamorphosis in the Polychaete Hydroides elegans Haswell
      (Serpulidae).
AB  - The serpulid polychaete Hydroides elegans is a common, cosmopolitan warm-water
      biofouling organism. Competent larvae of H. elegans metamorphose rapidly after
      induction by marine biofilms. Only 15 min after coming in contact with the
      metamorphic cue, larvae have completed secretion of the primary tube; secretion
      of the secondary, calcareous tube begins 1.5 h after the primary tube has been
      deposited. Metamorphosis is characterized by disappearance of the prototroch and
      differentiation of the tentacular crown in the head region, the collar and
      thoracic membrane in the thoracic region, and the pygidium at the tip of the
      abdomen. These morphogenetic events were used to gauge the responses of larvae to
      biofilms, as well as to the artificial inducers Cs+ and K+. A maximal metamorphic
      response to the two ions requires exposure to different concentrations and
      durations, i.e., a 3-h pulse of 10 mM CsCl, or a 24-h continuous exposure to 50
      mM excess KCl. The metamorphic response to Cs+ or K+ is much slower than the
      response to biofilms, demonstrating that the tissues respond differently to
      artificial inducers. The differences in the kinetics of the responses to the
      natural and cationic inducers suggest that the induction mechanisms are not the
      same. When these artificial inducers were used, some, but not all, of the
      metamorphosed juveniles never attached to the substratum or secreted a primary
      tube, probably as a result of secondary effects of the ions on processes of tube
      formation. The exact mechanisms by which Cs+ and excess K+ induce metamorphosis
      are still unclear, although we assume, as do others, that these agents act by
      depolarizing the membranes of excitable sensory cells and not by interacting with
      specific receptors.

PMID- 28574793
TI  - Automated Cell Culture Systems and Their Applications to Human Pluripotent Stem
      Cell Studies.
AB  - Pluripotent stem cells are an extremely powerful tool in modeling human diseases
      and hold much promise for personalized regenerative or cell replacement
      therapies. There is an increasing need for reproducible large-scale stem cell and
      differentiated progeny production, with minimal variation, rendering manual
      approaches impracticable. Here, we provide an overview of systems currently
      available for automated stem cell culture, and undertake a review of their
      capacities, capabilities, and relative limitations. With the merging of modern
      technology and stem cell biology, an increased demand and implementation of
      automated platforms for stem cell studies is anticipated.

PMID- 28574796
TI  - Introduction to a special grouping of papers from the 2016 A&WMA Specialty
      Conference, Guideline on Air Quality Models: The New Path.

PMID- 28574797
TI  - What Do I Do Now?

PMID- 28574794
TI  - Health-care utilization and associated factors in Gauteng province, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: More than a billion people, mainly in low- and middle-income
      countries, are unable to access needed health-care services for a variety of
      reasons. Possible factors influencing health-care utilization include socio
      demographic and economic factors such as age, sex, education, employment and
      income. However, different studies have showed mixed results. Moreover, there are
      limited studies on health-care utilization. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to
      determine health-care utilization and associated factors among all residents aged
      18 or over in Gauteng province, South Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional study
      was conducted from data collected for a Quality of Life survey which was carried
      out by Gauteng City-Region Observatory in 2013. Simple random sampling was used
      to select participants. A total of 27,490 participants have been interviewed.
      Data were collected via a digital data collection instrument using an open source
      system called Formhub. Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) was used to improve
      estimation of causal effects. Stepwise multiple logistic regression was employed
      to identify factors associated with health-care utilization. RESULTS: Around
      95.7% reported usually utilizing health-care services while the other 4.3%
      reported not having sought health-care services of any type. Around 75% of
      participants reported reduced quality of public health services as a major reason
      not to visit them. Higher odds of reported health-care utilization were
      associated with being female (OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.88-2.53; p < 0.001), being
      White compared to being African (OR = 2.28, 95% CI: 1.84-2.74; p < 0.001), and
      having medical insurance (OR = 5.41, 95% CI: 4.06-7.23; p < 0.001). Lower odds of
      seeking health-care were associated with being an immigrant (OR = 0.61, 95% CI:
      0.53-0.70; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that there is a need to
      improve the quality of public health-care services and perception towards them as
      improved health-care quality increases the choice of health-care providers.

PMID- 28574798
TI  - Demographic factors, mental health problems, and psychosocial resources influence
      women's AIDS risk.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine how depressive mood, posttraumatic stress
      disorder (PTSD) symptoms, self-efficacy, and social support are associated with
      HIV risk behaviors. Participants were sexually active women (N = 1488) recruited
      when attending gynecological consultations in primary care settings. Standardized
      questionnaires were administered to assess for depressive mood, abuse/assault
      related PTSD, social support, self-efficacy, stress, and sexual risk behavior.
      The resulting association models showed that demographic factors, mental health
      problems, and resources are associated with sexual risk behavior. Detecting and
      treating mental health problems and interventions that bolster women's
      psychosocial resources are warranted.

PMID- 28574799
TI  - A novel entecavir analogue constructing with a spiro[2.4]heptane core structure
      in the aglycon moiety: Its synthesis and evaluation for anti-hepatitis B virus
      activity.
AB  - Synthesis of a novel 2'-deoxy-guanine carbocyclic nucleoside 4 constructed with
      spiro[2.4]heptane core structure in the aglycon moiety was carried out. Radical
      mediated 5-exo-dig mode cyclization and following cyclopropanation proceeded
      efficiently to furnish the spiro alcohol 10. Subsequent Mitsunobu-type
      glycosylation between 13 and 14, deoxygenation of the 2'-hydroxyl group of 16 and
      deprotection of 17 gave the title compound 4. Compound 4 demonstrated moderate
      anti-HBV activity (EC50 value of 0.12 +/- 0.02 uM) and no cytotoxicity against
      HepG2 cells was observed up to 100 uM.

PMID- 28574800
TI  - Nursing Staff Stress and Individual Characteristics in Relation to the Ward
      Atmosphere in Psychiatric In-Patient Wards.
AB  - This study investigated the interplay between nursing staff stress, Mastery,
      Moral Sensitivity, individual characteristics and the ward atmosphere in
      psychiatric in-patient care. Data were collected through five questionnaires from
      93 nursing staff. Multivariate analysis showed that Moral Strength, Moral Burden,
      Internal Demands, Perceived Stress and age were related to several factors of the
      ward atmosphere. We conclude that efforts to reduce stress levels and create a
      supporting ethical climate on psychiatric wards would be beneficial for both
      psychiatric nursing staff and their nursing practice.

PMID- 28574801
TI  - Direct Gallbladder Indocyanine Green Injection Fluorescence Cholangiography
      During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intravenous injection of indocyanine green (ICG) is used to
      illuminate extrahepatic biliary anatomy. Fluorescence of biliary structures may
      lower surgical complications that can arise due to inadvertent injury to the
      common bile duct. We describe a method of injecting ICG directly into the
      gallbladder to define the cystic duct and common bile duct anatomy. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed using a
      laparoscope with near-infrared imaging capability. Before dissection, the
      gallbladder was punctured with a cholangiogram catheter or a pigtail catheter to
      aspirate the bile within the gallbladder. The aspirated bile is mixed with ICG
      solution, which is reinjected into the gallbladder to fluoresce the gallbladder,
      cystic duct, and common bile duct structures. RESULTS: Eleven patients underwent
      direct gallbladder ICG injection for fluorescence cholangiography during
      cholecystectomy. Direct gallbladder ICG injection clearly defined the
      extrahepatic biliary anatomy, including the cystic duct-common bile duct
      junction, by fluorescence. In addition, the dissection plane between the
      gallbladder and the liver is highlighted with the gallbladder ICG fluorescence.
      CONCLUSIONS: Direct gallbladder ICG injection provides immediate visualization of
      extrahepatic biliary structures and clarifies the dissection plane between the
      gallbladder and the liver bed.

PMID- 28574802
TI  - Health Reform and the Substance Use Disorder Treatment System: A Time of Change.

PMID- 28574803
TI  - Noise characterization of oil and gas operations.
AB  - In cooperation with The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, researchers
      at Colorado State University performed area noise monitoring at 23 oil and gas
      sites throughout Northern Colorado. The goals of this study were to: (1) measure
      and compare the noise levels for the different phases of oil and gas development
      sites; (2) evaluate the effectiveness of noise barriers; and (3) determine if
      noise levels exceeded the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission noise
      limits. The four phases of oil and gas development include drilling, hydraulic
      fracturing, completion and production. Noise measurements were collected using
      the A- and C-weighted sound scales. Octave band analysis was also performed to
      characterize the frequency spectra of the noise measurements.  Noise measurements
      were collected using noise dosimeters and a hand-held sound-level meter at
      specified distances from the development sites in each cardinal direction. At 350
      ft (107 m), drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and completion sites without noise
      barriers exceeded the maximum permissible noise levels for residential and
      commercial zones (55 dBA and 60 dBA, respectively). In addition, drilling and
      hydraulic fracturing sites with noise barriers exceeded the maximum permissible
      noise level for residential zones (55 dBA). However, during drilling, hydraulic
      fracturing, and completion operations, oil producers are allowed an exception to
      the noise permissible limits in that they only must comply with the industrial
      noise limit (80 dBA). It is stated in Rule 604.c.(2)A. that: "Operations
      involving pipeline or gas facility installation or maintenance, the use of a
      drilling rig, completion rig, workover rig, or stimulation is subject to the
      maximum permissible noise levels for industrial zones (80dBA)." [8] Production
      sites were within the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission permissible
      noise level criteria for all zones. At 350 ft (107 m) from the noise source, all
      drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and completion sites exceeded 65 dBC.  Current
      noise wall mitigation strategies reduced noise levels in both the A- and C
      weighted scale measurements. However, this reduction in noise was not sufficient
      to reduce the noise below the residential permissible noise level (55 dBA).

PMID- 28574804
TI  - The Best of Times.
AB  - I came of age as a nutrition scientist during the best of times-years that
      spanned a rapidly changing world of food and nutrition science, politics, and
      policy that greatly broadened the specialty and its influence on public affairs.
      I followed the conventional route in academe, working my way up the academic
      ladder in Boston from a base first in a school of public health and later in a
      teaching hospital and medical school, interspersed with stints in Washington, DC.
      Thus I tell a tale of two cities. Those were the best of times because nutrition
      science and policy converged and led to important policies and programs that
      shaped the field for the next 50 years.

PMID- 28574805
TI  - The Development of FVIII Inhibitors in Relation to IL10 Gene Polymorphism in
      Hemophilia A Egyptian Pediatric Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Development of inhibitors against Factor VIII (FVIII) in hemophilia A
      patients is a serious complication of therapy. Many cytokines, including
      interleukin-10 (IL10), may affect inhibitor development; however, literature data
      are not sufficient to prove this association. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the relation between FVIII inhibitor formation and IL10-1082A/G
      polymorphism among Egyptian hemophiliacs. METHODS: Patients were screened for
      FVIII inhibitors using the Bethesda method. IL10-1082A/G polymorphism was
      detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.
      RESULTS: Six patients (12%) developed inhibitors. No statistically significant
      difference was found between inhibitor positive and negative patients regarding
      IL10-1082A/G genotypes, disease severity, or treatment-related variables (type of
      FVIII received, treatment regimen, age at first exposure to FVIII, and frequency
      of replacement therapy). CONCLUSIONS: FVIII inhibitor formation in this group of
      Egyptian hemophiliacs was not correlated to IL10-1082A/G polymorphism, disease
      severity, or any of the treatment variables.

PMID- 28574806
TI  - Free Fatty Acids of Newborns from Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fetal macrosomia in gestational diabetes mellitus is contributed to
      by compensatory fetal mechanisms responding to alterations in maternal
      metabolism. OBJECTIVES: To compare FFA and blood glucose concentrations of
      newborns derived from healthy and hyperglycemic mothers. METHODS: Prospective
      study included two equal groups of term newborns (50) from GDM and healthy
      mothers. Blood was derived from umbilical and cubital vein of mothers immediately
      after birth. RESULTS: The mean FFA concentration of mothers did not differ
      whereas in infants of GDM mothers FFA were significantly lower. A significant
      correlation was found between FFA levels of healthy mothers and their newborns (p
      < 0.05). No such correlation was found in GDM group (p > 0.05). A significant
      correlation was found between mother's and newborn's glycemia (p < 0.05) in both
      groups. CONCLUSION: Suppression of FFA acids in newborn blood of mothers with GDM
      may represent the lipogenic and antilipolytic activity of the fetus.

PMID- 28574807
TI  - Genetic studies in a patient with X-linked retinoschisis coexisting with
      developmental delay and sensorineural hearing loss.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we present a juvenile retinoschisis patient with
      developmental delay, sensorineural hearing loss, and reduced axial tone. X-linked
      juvenile retinoschisis (XLRS) is a retinal dystrophy, most often not associated
      with systemic anomalies and also not showing any locus heterogeneity. Therefore
      it was of interest to understand the genetic basis of the condition in this
      patient. MATERIALS AND METHODS: RS1 gene screening for XLRS was performed by
      Sanger sequencing. Whole genome SNP 6.0 array analysis was carried out to
      investigate gross chromosomal aberrations that could result in systemic
      phenotype. In addition, targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) was employed to
      determine any possible involvement of X-linked syndromic and non-syndromic mental
      retardation genes. This NGS panel consisted of 550 genes implicated in several
      other rare inherited diseases. RESULTS: RS1 gene screening revealed a pathogenic
      hemizygous splice site mutation (c.78+1G>T), inherited from the mother. SNP 6.0
      array analysis did not indicate any significant chromosomal aberrations that
      could be disease-associated. Targeted resequencing did not identify any mutations
      in the X-linked mental retardation genes. However, variations in three other
      genes (NSD1, LARGE, and POLG) were detected, which were all inherited from the
      patient's unaffected father. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, RS1 mutation was found
      to segregate with retinoschisis phenotype while none of the other identified
      variations were co-segregating with the systemic defects. Hereby, we infer that
      the multisystemic defects harbored by the patient are a rare coexistence of XLRS,
      developmental delay, sensorineural hearing loss, and reduced axial tone reported
      for the first time in the literature.

PMID- 28574808
TI  - Fetal Cardiac US: Techniques and Normal Anatomy Correlated with Adult CT and MR
      Imaging.
AB  - Congenital heart disease (CHD) is an important cause of childhood mortality.
      Despite the widespread use of ultrasonography (US) as a screening tool, the
      prenatal detection rate is suboptimal. Improvement of the initial screening
      examination, which is performed in low-risk populations and often interpreted by
      community radiologists, targets a point in the screening process that is likely
      to have the largest population effect. If the goal of community-based screenings
      is to detect cases that may be abnormal and refer those to specialized centers
      for complete assessment, it is logical to use a checklist to confirm normal
      anatomy. This article presents a stepwise process to evaluate fetal cardiac
      anatomy using comparison with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance
      (MR) images, which are more familiar to radiologists in busy general practices.
      In addition, this article presents a checklist for assessment of the four-chamber
      view and demonstrates the expected normal appearance of the outflow tract views
      as well as the additional views required for complex obstetric US. These
      additional views include the aortic arch and bicaval views, three-vessel view
      (3VV), and three-vessel trachea view (3TV). CHD may be isolated, but it may
      indicate aneuploidy or a syndrome that, if present, determines the prognosis. In
      isolated CHD, the prognosis is determined by the exact nature of the
      abnormalities. In particular, duct-dependent disease if undiagnosed results in
      circulatory collapse in the infant once the ductus closes. If the heart does not
      look normal, the patient should be referred for detailed evaluation. Timely
      diagnosis of significant CHD allows for development of a personalized pregnancy
      management plan. (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28574810
TI  - What Happens to High-Cost Patients? An Analysis of the Trajectories of Billed
      Charges Over Time.
AB  - A growing literature documents the substantial burden that a small proportion of
      high-cost, medically complex patients impose on health care systems. However, it
      is not clear whether high-cost patients remain costly over time. This study looks
      at the monthly distribution of billed charges for a cohort of high-cost,
      medically complex patients enrolled in an intensive care management program in a
      university health care system, and finds that the billing trajectory is
      heterogeneous and highly nonlinear, characterized by a substantial spike in
      billed charges prior to identification, followed by a considerable drop prior to
      enrollment and a sustained drop thereafter. The conclusion is that many high-cost
      patients experience costly events that resolve without intensive case management.
      These results also suggest that interventions should target only those high-cost
      patients with expected continued high cost and that pre-post study designs may
      overstate the impact of interventions for high-cost, medically complex patients.

PMID- 28574809
TI  - Testicular Seminoma and Its Mimics: From the Radiologic Pathology Archives.
AB  - Testicular seminoma is the most common malignant tumor of the testis. It
      classically manifests as a painless mass. Radiologic evaluation with high
      frequency ultrasonography (US) is critical for diagnosis. Seminomas are usually
      homogeneously hypoechoic masses at US. In challenging cases, magnetic resonance
      (MR) imaging may help confirm that a mass is intratesticular and provide data for
      local staging. Computed tomography (CT) provides valuable information for
      staging, including the presence and size of retroperitoneal lymph nodes.
      Testicular seminoma is treated with radical inguinal orchiectomy and is highly
      curable even at advanced stages of disease. Several neoplastic and nonneoplastic
      conditions may mimic testicular seminoma at imaging. Benign mimics include
      segmental infarction, hematoma, infection, epidermoid cyst, adrenal rests,
      sarcoidosis, splenogonadal fusion, and sex cord-stromal tumors. Malignant mimics
      include nonseminomatous germ cell tumors, lymphoma, and metastases. These
      conditions are individually reviewed with emphasis on features that allow
      differentiation from seminoma. Spermatocytic tumor, formerly known as
      spermatocytic seminoma, accounts for only 1% of testicular tumors. It is distinct
      from classic seminoma, with unique histologic, molecular, and genetic features.
      It affects an older patient population than classic seminoma and demonstrates
      indolent clinical behavior. Radiologists serve a key role in diagnosis, staging,
      and surveillance of patients with seminoma. A thorough knowledge of related
      clinical, radiologic, and pathologic findings will help the radiologist
      contribute to high-quality interdisciplinary care of affected patients.

PMID- 28574812
TI  - Associations between APOE genotype and cerebral small-vessel disease: a
      longitudinal study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: It remains unclear if and how the interactions between APOE genotypes
      and cerebral small-vessel diseases (CSVD) lead to cognitive decline in the long
      term. Based on ADNI cohort, this longitudinal study aimed to clarify the
      potential relationship among APOE genotype, CSVD and cognition by integrating
      multi-level data. METHOD: There were 135 healthy elderly (including epsilon2,
      epsilon4 allele carriers and epsilon3 homozygotes) who had completed two years'
      follow-up. MRI markers of CSVD, including white matter hyperintensities (WMH),
      dilated perivascular space (dPVS), microbleeds and lacune, were assessed.
      Besides, neuropathological factors including Alzheimer's disease-related
      pathology measured by CSF and PiB-PET were assessed. Repeated measurements ANOVAs
      were performed to test impact of different APOE genotypes on CSVD. RESULTS: We
      found that APOE epsilon4 carriers had significantly more frontal WMH burden and
      basal ganglia dPVS at baseline and faster progression of frontal WMH burden
      during follow-up. Furthermore, our results showed that APOE epsilon4 carriers had
      significantly decreased Abeta1-42 level, and its level was negatively related
      with baseline and progressive total WMH burden. Then, general linear modals
      indicated interaction between basal frontal WMH burden and epsilon4 allele was
      related with declining trend of cognition. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested
      APOE epsilon4 allele was associated with increased Abeta deposition, which may
      lead to the formation and progression of WMH, especially in frontal lobe.
      Besides, interaction between the increased frontal WMH burden and epsilon4 allele
      can exert long-term detrimental effects on individual's trajectory of cognition.

PMID- 28574816
TI  - Prediction of cervical cancer recurrence using textural features extracted from
      18F-FDG PET images acquired with different scanners.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify an imaging signature predicting local recurrence for
      locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) treated by chemoradiation and
      brachytherapy from baseline 18F-FDG PET images, and to evaluate the possibility
      of gathering images from two different PET scanners in a radiomic study. METHODS:
      118 patients were included retrospectively. Two groups (G1, G2) were defined
      according to the PET scanner used for image acquisition. Eleven radiomic features
      were extracted from delineated cervical tumors to evaluate: (i) the predictive
      value of features for local recurrence of LACC, (ii) their reproducibility as a
      function of the scanner within a hepatic reference volume, (iii) the impact of
      voxel size on feature values. RESULTS: Eight features were statistically
      significant predictors of local recurrence in G1 (p < 0.05). The multivariate
      signature trained in G2 was validated in G1 (AUC=0.76, p<0.001) and identified
      local recurrence more accurately than SUVmax (p=0.022). Four features were
      significantly different between G1 and G2 in the liver. Spatial resampling was
      not sufficient to explain the stratification effect. CONCLUSION: This study
      showed that radiomic features could predict local recurrence of LACC better than
      SUVmax. Further investigation is needed before applying a model designed using
      data from one PET scanner to another.

PMID- 28574817
TI  - Intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted MR imaging parameters predict
      pathological classification in thymic epithelial tumors.
AB  - We evaluated the performance of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters
      for preoperatively predicting the subtype and Masaoka stage of thymic epithelial
      tumors (TETs). Seventy-seven patients with pathologically confirmed TETs
      underwent a diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) sequence with 9 b values.
      Differences in the slow diffusion coefficient (D), fast perfusion coefficient
      (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) IVIM parameters, as well as the multi b-value
      fitted apparent diffusion coefficient (ADCmb), were compared among patients with
      low-risk (LRT) and high-risk thymomas (HRT) and thymic carcinomas (TC), and
      between early stage (stages I and II) and advanced stage (stages III and IV) TET
      patients. ADCmb, D, and D* values were higher in the LRT group than in the HRT or
      TC group, but did not differ between the HRT and TC groups. The mean ADCmb, D,
      and D* values were higher in the early stage TETs group than the advanced stage
      TETs group. The f values did not differ among the groups. These results suggest
      that IVIM DWI could be used to preoperatively predict subtype and Masaoka stage
      in TET patients.

PMID- 28574818
TI  - Characterization of the release and biological significance of cell-free DNA from
      breast cancer cell lines.
AB  - In breast cancer, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has been proven to be a diagnostic and
      prognostic biomarker. However, there have been few studies on the origin and
      biological significance of cfDNA. In this study, we assessed the release pattern
      of cfDNA from breast cancer cell lines under different culture conditions and
      investigated the biological significance of cfDNA. The cfDNA concentration
      increased rapidly (6 h) after passage, decreased gradually, and was then
      maintained at a relatively stable level after 24 h. In addition, the cfDNA
      concentration did not correlate with the amount of apoptotic and necrotic cells.
      Interestingly, if more cells were in the G1 phase, more cfDNA was detected (p <
      0.01) and the cfDNA concentration correlated positively with the percent of cells
      in the G1 phase (p < 0.05). We observed that cells could release cfDNA actively,
      but not exclusively, via exosomes. Furthermore, we showed that cfDNA could
      stimulate hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cell proliferation by
      activating the TLR9-NF-kappaB-cyclin D1 pathway. In conclusion, cfDNA is released
      from breast cancer mainly by active secretion, and cfDNA could stimulate
      proliferation of breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28574820
TI  - Differentiation capacities of skeletal muscle satellite cells in Lantang and
      Landrace piglets.
AB  - We isolated and cultured satellite cells (SCs) from the longissimus dorsi muscles
      of 1-day-old male Landrace and Lantang piglets to compare the SC differentiation
      capacity in the two breeds. Lantang piglets yielded more (P < 0.05) SCs per gram
      of muscle than Landrace piglets (5.2 +/- 0.9*104 vs. 2.4 +/- 0.2*104).
      Transcription of the differentiation markers myogenin and myosin heavy chain I
      (MyHC I) in the longissimus dorsi muscle was higher in Lantang than Landrace
      piglets (P < 0.05). Protein levels of myogenin (P < 0.05), MyHC I (P < 0.05), and
      myogenic regulatory factor 4 (P = 0.07) were higher in Lantang than Landrace
      piglet SCs after 72 h of differentiation. Creatine kinase activity was higher in
      Lantang than Landrace piglet SCs after 24, 48, and 72 h of differentiation (P <
      0.05), and there was a greater fusion index in Landrace piglet SCs after 72 h of
      differentiation. In addition, phosphorylation of Akt, mTOR, S6K1, S6, and 4EBP1
      was lower in Lantang than Landrace piglet SCs (P < 0.05). Thus differentiation
      was more extensive in Lantang than Landrace piglet SCs, but expression of the
      mTOR signaling pathway was lower in Lantang piglet SCs, suggesting mTOR signaling
      may inhibit myogenic differentiation. These findings reveal that mTOR signaling
      is a factor in myogenesis and imply that mTOR could potentially serve as an
      activator of myoblast differentiation and muscle regeneration.

PMID- 28574825
TI  - Dimethyl fumarate reduces the risk of mycotoxins via improving intestinal barrier
      and microbiota.
AB  - The effects of dimethyl fumarate (DMF) on mycotoxins and animal growth
      performance are well documented. However, its mechanism of anti-mildew effects is
      still unknown. The current study investigated how DMF detoxified the mycotoxin
      and improved the growth performance using BALB/c mice model, especially its
      effects on intestinal barrier function and gut micro-ecology. Our study also
      compared with the ultraviolet radiation (UR) treatment, a traditional anti-mildew
      control (TC). The results indicated that the DMF treatment had a lower contents
      of mycotoxin, better growth performance and improved mucosal morphology (P <
      0.05), accompanied with the decreased intestinal permeability and the tighter gut
      barrier. Moreover, the efficiency of DMF was better than TC (P < 0.05). 16S rRNA
      gene sequence analysis revealed that the richness and diversity of bacteria was
      increased in DMF treatment. The most abundant OTUs belonged to Firmicutes and
      Bacteroidetes, and their changes in DMF were more moderate than the TC group,
      suggesting a more stable micro-ecology and the positive impact of DMF on the
      biodiversity of intestine. Specifically, the increased abundance of bacteria
      producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as Gemella, Roseburia, Bacillus
      and Bacteroides in DMF group and prebiotics such as Lactobacillus in TC group,
      suggested a more healthier microbial composition and distribution. These findings
      supported that DMF had significant effects on animal's growth performance and
      intestinal barrier function by modulating the pathway of nutrient absorption and
      increasing the diversity and balance of gut microbes, which also illuminate that
      DMF is more efficient than traditional anti-mildew method.

PMID- 28574821
TI  - The effect of thermal dose on hyperthermia-mediated inhibition of DNA repair
      through homologous recombination.
AB  - Hyperthermia has a number of biological effects that sensitize tumors to
      radiotherapy in the range between 40-44  degrees C. One of these effects is heat
      induced degradation of BRCA2 that in turn causes reduced RAD51 focus formation,
      which results in an attenuation of DNA repair through homologous recombination.
      Prompted by this molecular insight into how hyperthermia attenuates homologous
      recombination, we now quantitatively explore time and temperature dynamics of
      hyperthermia on BRCA2 levels and RAD51 focus formation in cell culture models,
      and link this to their clonogenic survival capacity after irradiation (0-6 Gy).
      For treatment temperatures above 41  degrees C, we found a decrease in cell
      survival, an increase in sensitization towards irradiation, a decrease of BRCA2
      protein levels, and altered RAD51 focus formation. When the temperatures exceeded
      43  degrees C, we found that hyperthermia alone killed more cells directly, and
      that processes other than homologous recombination were affected by the heat.
      This study demonstrates that optimal inhibition of HR is achieved by subjecting
      cells to hyperthermia at 41-43  degrees C for 30 to 60 minutes. Our data provides
      a guideline for the clinical application of novel combination treatments that
      could exploit hyperthermia's attenuation of homologous recombination, such as the
      combination of hyperthermia with PARP-inhibitors for non-BRCA mutations carriers.

PMID- 28574826
TI  - Leflunomide/teriflunomide inhibit Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)- induced
      lymphoproliferative disease and lytic viral replication.
AB  - EBV infection causes mononucleosis and is associated with specific subsets of B
      cell lymphomas. Immunosuppressed patients such as organ transplant recipients are
      particularly susceptible to EBV-induced lymphoproliferative disease (LPD), which
      can be fatal. Leflunomide (a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis) and its
      active metabolite teriflunomide (used to treat multiple sclerosis) inhibit de
      novo pyrimidine synthesis by targeting the cellular dihydroorotate dehydrogenase,
      thereby decreasing T cell proliferation. Leflunomide also inhibits the
      replication of cytomegalovirus and BK virus via both "on target" and "off target"
      mechanisms and is increasingly used to treat these viruses in organ transplant
      recipients. However, whether leflunomide/teriflunomide block EBV replication or
      inhibit EBV-mediated B cell transformation is currently unknown. We show that
      teriflunomide inhibits cellular proliferation, and promotes apoptosis, in EBV
      transformed B cells in vitro at a clinically relevant dose. In addition,
      teriflunomide prevents the development of EBV-induced lymphomas in both a
      humanized mouse model and a xenograft model. Furthermore, teriflunomide inhibits
      lytic EBV infection in vitro both by preventing the initial steps of lytic viral
      reactivation, and by blocking lytic viral DNA replication.
      Leflunomide/teriflunomide might therefore be clinically useful for preventing EBV
      induced LPD in patients who have high EBV loads yet require continued
      immunosuppression.

PMID- 28574827
TI  - Induction of immunoglobulin transcription factor 2 and resistance to MEK
      inhibitor in melanoma cells.
AB  - Primary or acquired resistance to MEK inhibitors has been a barrier to successful
      treatment with MEK inhibitors in many tumors. In this study, we analyzed genome
      wide gene expression profiling data from 6 sensitive and 6 resistant cell lines
      to identify candidate genes whose expression changes are associated with
      responses to a MEK inhibitor, selumetinib (AZD6244). Of 62 identified
      differentially expressed genes, we selected Immunoglobulin Transcription Factor
      2, also known as transcription factor 4 as a potential drug resistance marker for
      further analysis. This was because the ITF-2 expression increase in resistant
      cell lines was relatively high and a previous study has suggested that ITF-2
      functions as an oncogene in human colon cancers. We also established an AZD6244
      resistant cell line (M14/AZD-3) from an AZD6244 sensitive M14 cell line. The
      expression of the ITF-2 was elevated both in primary AZD6244 resistant cell line,
      LOX-IMVI and acquired resistant cell line, M14/AZD-3. Targeted silencing of ITF-2
      by siRNA significantly enhanced susceptibility to AZD6244 in resistant cells.
      Wnt/beta-catenin pathway was activated through direct interaction of p-ERK and
      GSK3beta. Our results suggest that up-regulation of the ITF-2 gene expression is
      associated with cellular resistance to MEK inhibitors, and activation of Wnt
      signaling pathway through interaction of p-ERK and GSK3beta seems to be a
      mechanism for increase of ITF-2.

PMID- 28574828
TI  - Targeting ERK enhances the cytotoxic effect of the novel PI3K and mTOR dual
      inhibitor VS-5584 in preclinical models of pancreatic cancer.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly disease in urgent need of
      newer therapeutic modalities. Majority of patients with PDAC have mutations in
      KRAS, which unfortunately remains an ineffectual target. Our strategy here is to
      target KRAS downstream effectors PI3K and mTOR. In this study, we investigated
      the antitumor efficacy of the novel PI3K and mTOR dual inhibitor VS-5584 in PDAC.
      Our data shows that PI3K/mTOR dual inhibition causes ERK activation in all tested
      PDAC cell lines. Although the MEK inhibitor GSK1120212 could abrogate VS-5584
      induced ERK activation, it did not substantially enhance cell death in all the
      cell lines tested. However, combination with ERK inhibitor SCH772984 not only
      mitigated VS-5584-induced ERK activation but also enhanced VS-5584-induced cell
      death. In a xenograft model of PDAC, we observed 28% and 44% tumor inhibition for
      individual treatment with VS-5584 and SCH772984, respectively, while the combined
      treatment showed superior tumor inhibition (80%) compared to vehicle control
      treatment. Our findings support the clinical development of VS-5584 and ERK
      inhibitor combination for PDAC treatment.

PMID- 28574829
TI  - The impact of EpCAM expression on response to chemotherapy and clinical outcomes
      in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - Epithelial ovarian cancer is a highly lethal malignancy; moreover, overcoming
      chemoresistance is the major challenging in treating ovarian cancer patients. The
      cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis considers CSCs to be the main culprits in
      driving tumor initiation, metastasis, and resistance to conventional therapy.
      Although growing evidence suggest that CSCs are responsible for chemoresistance,
      the contribution of CSC marker EpCAM to resistance to chemotherapy remains
      unresolved.Here we have demonstrated that ovarian cancers containing high levels
      of EpCAM have a significantly much lower probability of achieving overall
      responsive rates after first-line chemotherapy. In addition, multivariate
      analysis revealed that EpCAM expression is an independent risk factor for
      chemoresistance, indicating that EpCAM expression is a predictive biomarker of
      chemotherapeutic response. Consistent with these clinical observations, in vitro
      assays, we found that the subpopulation of EpCAM-positive ovarian cancer cells
      shows a significantly higher viability compared with EpCAM-negative cells in
      response to cisplatin treatment by preventing chemotherapy-induced apoptosis,
      which is regulated by EpCAM-Bcl-2 axis. Furthermore, in an in vivo mouse model,
      platinum agents preferentially eliminated EpCAM-negative cells in comparison with
      EpCAM-positive cells, suggesting that the remaining subpopulation of EpCAM
      positive cells contributes to tumor recurrence after chemotherapy. Finally, we
      also found that an increased expression of EpCAM is associated with poor
      prognosis in ovarian cancer patients.Our findings highlight the clinical
      significance of EpCAM in the resistance to chemotherapy and provide a rationale
      for EpCAM-targeted therapy to improve chemoresistance. Targeting EpCAM should be
      a promising approach to effectively extirpate the CSCs as the putative root of
      ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28574830
TI  - Increased expression of long non-coding RNA CCEPR is associated with poor
      prognosis and promotes tumorigenesis in urothelial bladder carcinoma.
AB  - Recent emerging evidences have showed that long non-coding RNAs play important
      regulatory roles in diverse biological processes of tumor development and
      progression. CCEPR (cervical carcinoma expressed PCNA regulatory lncRNA) is a
      novel identified lncRNA that acts as a potential biomarker and involves in
      development and progression of cervical carcinoma. Nevertheless, we know nothing
      about the clinical significance and molecular mechanism of CCEPR in bladder
      cancer. In this study, we found that CCEPR was significantly up-regulated in
      bladder cancer. Furthermore, up-regulated CCEPR expression was positively
      correlated with advanced TNM stage and higher histological grade. Moreover,
      further experiments demonstrated that CCEPR promotes cell proliferation and
      suppresses cell apoptosis in bladder cancer. Mechanistically, we found CCEPR
      upregulates the expression of PCNA in mRNA and protein level to promote cancer
      growth. In conclusions, these findings demonstrated that CCEPR plays an important
      regulatory role in bladder cancer and may serve as a potential diagnostic
      biomarker and therapeutic target.

PMID- 28574831
TI  - EGF receptor lysosomal degradation is delayed in the cells stimulated with EGF
      Quantum dot bioconjugate but earlier key events of endocytic degradative pathway
      are similar to that of native EGF.
AB  - Quantum dots (QDs) complexed to ligands recognizing surface receptors undergoing
      internalization are an attractive tool for live cell imaging of ligand-receptor
      complexes behavior and for specific tracking of the cells of interest. However,
      conjugation of quasi-multivalent large QD-particle to monovalent small growth
      factors like EGF that bound their tyrosine-kinase receptors may affect key
      endocytic events tightly bound to signaling. Here, by means of confocal
      microscopy we have addressed the key endocytic events of lysosomal degradative
      pathway stimulated by native EGF or EGF-QD bioconjugate. We have demonstrated
      that the decrease in endosome number, increase in mean endosome integrated
      density and the pattern of EEA1 co-localization with EGF-EGFR complexes at early
      stages of endocytosis were similar for the both native and QD-conjugated ligands.
      In both cases enlarged hollow endosomes appeared after wortmannin treatment. This
      indicates that early endosomal fusions and their maturation proceed similar for
      both ligands. EGF-QD and native EGF similarly accumulated in juxtanuclear region,
      and live cell imaging of endosome motion revealed the behavior described
      elsewhere for microtubule-facilitated motility. Finally, EGF-QD and the receptor
      were found in lysosomes. However, degradation of receptor part of QD-EGF-EGFR
      complex was delayed compared to native EGF, but not inhibited, while QDs
      fluorescence was detected in lysosomes even after 24 hours. Importantly, in HeLa
      and A549 cells the both ligands behaved similarly. We conclude that during
      endocytosis EGF-QD behaves as a neutral marker for degradative pathway up to
      lysosomal stage and can also be used as a long-term cell marker.

PMID- 28574832
TI  - Impact of chronic unpredicted mild stress-induced depression on repaglinide fate
      via glucocorticoid signaling pathway.
AB  - Chronic unpredicted mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression could alter the
      pharmacokinetics of many drugs in rats, however, the underlying mechanism is not
      clear. In this work we studied the pharmacokinetics of repaglinide, and explored
      the role of glucocorticoid and adrenergic signaling pathway in regulating drug
      metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) in GK rats and BRL 3A cells. The plasma cortisol and
      epinephrine levels were increased, meanwhile the pharmacokinetics of repaglinide
      were altered significantly in depression model rats. Forty-nine genes in liver of
      model rats displayed significant difference comparing to control rats. The
      differentially expressed genes enriched in the drug metabolism and steroid
      hormone biosynthesis pathway significantly, and Nr1i3 matched 335 connectivity
      genes. CAR and Ugt1a1 protein expression were enhanced significantly in liver of
      model rats. The mRNA expression of Ugt1a1 and Nr1i2 were increased 2 and 4 times
      respectively with dexamethasone (DEX) and 8-Br-cAMP co-treatment in BRL 3A cells.
      The protein expression of PXR was up-regulated, too. However, RU486 reversed the
      up-regulated effect. The adrenergic receptor agonists had little impact on the
      DMEs in BRL 3A. Our data suggested that CUMS-induced depression might up-regulate
      DMEs expression via glucocorticoid signaling pathway, and accelerate the fate of
      the repaglinide in spontaneous diabetes rats.

PMID- 28574833
TI  - New interleukin-15 superagonist (IL-15SA) significantly enhances graft-versus
      tumor activity.
AB  - Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a potent cytokine that increases CD8+ T and NK cell
      numbers and function in experimental models. However, obstacles remain in using
      IL-15 therapeutically, specifically its low potency and short in vivo half-life.
      To help overcome this, a new IL-15 superagonist complex comprised of an IL-15N72D
      mutation and IL-15RalphaSu/Fc fusion (IL-15SA, also known as ALT-803) was
      developed. IL-15SA exhibits a significantly longer serum half-life and increased
      in vivo activity against various tumors. Herein, we evaluated the effects of IL
      15SA in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Weekly
      administration of IL-15SA to transplant recipients significantly increased the
      number of CD8+ T cells (specifically CD44+ memory/activated phenotype) and NK
      cells. Intracellular IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha secretion by CD8+ T cells increased
      in the IL-15SA-treated group. IL-15SA also upregulated NKG2D expression on CD8+ T
      cells. Moreover, IL-15SA enhanced proliferation and cytokine secretion of
      adoptively transferred CFSE-labeled T cells in syngeneic and allogeneic models by
      specifically stimulating the slowly proliferative and nonproliferative cells into
      actively proliferating cells.We then evaluated IL-15SA's effects on anti-tumor
      activity against murine mastocytoma (P815) and murine B cell lymphoma (A20). IL
      15SA enhanced graft-versus-tumor (GVT) activity in these tumors following T cell
      infusion. Interestingly, IL-15 SA administration provided GVT activity against
      A20 lymphoma cells in the murine donor leukocyte infusion (DLI) model without
      increasing graft versus host disease. In conclusion, IL-15SA could be a highly
      potent T- cell lymphoid growth factor and novel immunotherapeutic agent to
      complement stem cell transplantation and adoptive immunotherapy.

PMID- 28574834
TI  - The collagen receptor uPARAP/Endo180 as a novel target for antibody-drug
      conjugate mediated treatment of mesenchymal and leukemic cancers.
AB  - A key task in developing the field of personalized cancer therapy is the
      identification of novel molecular targets that enable treatment of cancers not
      susceptible to other means of specific therapy. The collagen receptor
      uPARAP/Endo180 is overexpressed by malignant cells in several non-epithelial
      cancers, notably including sarcomas, glioblastomas and subsets of acute myeloid
      leukemia. In contrast, in healthy adult individuals, expression is restricted to
      minor subsets of mesenchymal cells. Functionally, uPARAP/Endo180 is a rapidly
      recycling endocytic receptor that delivers its cargo directly into the endosomal
      lysosomal system, thus opening a potential route of entry into receptor-positive
      cells. This combination of specific expression and endocytic function appears
      well suited for targeting of uPARAP/Endo180-positive cancers by antibody-drug
      conjugate (ADC) mediated drug delivery. Therefore, we utilized a specific
      monoclonal antibody against uPARAP/Endo180, raised through immunization of a
      uPARAP/Endo180 knock-out mouse, which reacts with both the human and the murine
      receptor, to construct a uPARAP-directed ADC. This antibody was coupled to the
      highly toxic dolastatin derivative, monomethyl auristatin E, via a cathepsin
      labile valine-citrulline linker. With this ADC, we show strong and receptor
      dependent cytotoxicity in vitro in uPARAP/Endo180-positive cancer cell lines of
      sarcoma, glioblastoma and leukemic origin. Furthermore, we demonstrate the
      potency of the ADC in vivo in a xenograft mouse model with human uPARAP/Endo180
      positive leukemic cells, obtaining a complete cure of all tested mice following
      intravenous ADC treatment with no sign of adverse effects. Our study identifies
      uPARAP/Endo180 as a promising target for novel therapy against several highly
      malignant cancer types.

PMID- 28574838
TI  - Histone modifications affect differential regulation of TGFbeta- induced NADPH
      oxidase 4 (NOX4) by wild-type and mutant p53.
AB  - Previously, we showed wild-type (WT) and mutant (mut) p53 differentially regulate
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by NADPH oxidase-4 (NOX4): p53-WT
      suppresses TGFbeta-induced NOX4, ROS and cell migration, whereas tumor-associated
      mut-p53 proteins enhance NOX4 expression and cell migration. Here, we extended
      our findings on the effects of p53 on NOX4 in several tumors and examined the
      basis of NOX4 transcriptional regulation by p53 and SMAD3. Statistical analysis
      of expression data from primary tumors available from The Cancer Genome Atlas
      (TCGA) detected correlations between mut-p53 and increased NOX4 expression.
      Furthermore, by altering p53 levels in cell culture models we showed several
      common tumor-associated mutant forms support TGFbeta/SMAD3-dependent NOX4
      expression. Deletion analysis revealed two critical SMAD3 binding elements (SBE)
      required for mut-p53-dependent NOX4 induction, whereas p53-WT caused dose
      dependent suppression of NOX4 transcription. ChIP analysis revealed SMAD3 and p53
      WT or mut-p53 associate with SBEs and p53 response elements in a TGFbeta
      dependent manner. Interestingly, the repressive effects of p53-WT on NOX4 were
      relieved by mutation of its transactivation domain or histone deacetylase (HDAC)
      inhibitor treatment. Overexpression of p300, a transcriptional co-regulator and
      histone acetyltransferase (HAT), enhanced p53-mediated NOX4 induction, whereas
      HAT-inactive p300 reduced NOX4 expression. Mut-p53 augmented TGFbeta-stimulated
      histone acetylation within the NOX4 promoter. Finally, wound assays demonstrated
      NOX4 and p300 promote TGFbeta/mut-p53-mediated cell migration. Our studies
      provide new insight into TGFbeta/SMAD3 and mut-p53-mediated NOX4 induction
      involving epigenetic control of NOX4 in tumor cell migration, suggesting NOX4 is
      a potential therapeutic target to combat tumor progression and metastasis.

PMID- 28574837
TI  - 6-mercaptopurine promotes energetic failure in proliferating T cells.
AB  - The anticancer drug 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) inhibits de novo purine synthesis and
      acts as an antiproliferative agent by interfering with protein, DNA and RNA
      synthesis and promoting apoptosis. Metabolic reprogramming is crucial for tumor
      progression to foster cancer cells growth and proliferation, and is regulated by
      mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) as
      well as the oncogenes Myc and hypoxia inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha). We
      hypothesized that 6-MP impacts metabolic remodeling through its action on
      nucleotide synthesis. The aim of our study is to provide a comprehensive
      characterization of the metabolic changes induced by 6-MP in leukemic T cells.
      Our results indicate that exposition to 6-MP rapidly reduces intracellular ATP
      concentration, leading to the activation of AMPK. In turn, mTOR, an AMPK target,
      was inhibited, and the expression of HIF-1alpha and Myc was reduced upon 6-MP
      incubation. As a consequence of these inhibitions, glucose and glutamine fluxes
      were strongly decreased. Notably, no difference was observed on glucose uptake
      upon exposition to 6-MP. In conclusion, our findings provide new insights into
      how 6-MP profoundly impacts cellular energetic metabolism by reducing ATP
      production and decreasing glycolytic and glutaminolytic fluxes, and how 6-MP
      modifies human leukemic T cells metabolism with potential antiproliferative
      effects.

PMID- 28574840
TI  - Methylation regulates HEY1 expression in glioblastoma.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most lethal and difficult-to-treat cancers
      of the central nervous system. The poor prognosis in GBM patients is due in part
      to its resistance to available treatments, which calls for identifying novel
      molecular therapeutic targets. In this study, we identified a mediator of Notch
      signaling, HEY1, whose methylation status contributes to the pathogenesis of GBM.
      Datamining studies, immunohistochemistry and immunoblot analysis showed that HEY1
      is highly expressed in GBM patient specimens. Since methylation status of HEY1
      may control its expression, we conducted bisulphite sequencing on patient samples
      and found that the HEY1 promoter region was hypermethylated in normal brain when
      compared to GBM specimens. Treatment on 4910 and 5310 xenograft cell lines with
      sodium butyrate (NaB) significantly decreased HEY1 expression with a concomitant
      increase in DNMT1 expression, confirming that promoter methylation may regulate
      HEY1 expression in GBM. NaB treatment also induced apoptosis of GBM cells as
      measured by flow cytometric analysis. Further, silencing of HEY1 reduced
      invasion, migration and proliferation in 4910 and 5310 cells. Furthermore,
      immunoblot and q-PCR analysis showed the existence of a potential positive
      regulatory loop between HEY1 and p53. Additionally, transcription factor
      interaction array with HEY1 recombinant protein predicted a correlation with p53
      and provided various bonafide targets of HEY1. Collectively, these studies
      suggest HEY1 may be an important predictive marker for GBM and potential target
      for future GBM therapy.

PMID- 28574841
TI  - Establishment of mouse neuron and microglial cell co-cultured models and its
      action mechanism.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to establish a co-culture model of
      mouse neurons and microglial cells, and to analyze the mechanism of action of
      oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) and transient oxygen glucose deprivation (tOGD)
      preconditioning cell models. RESULTS: Mouse primary neurons and BV2 microglial
      cells were successfully cultured, and the OGD and tOGD models were also
      established. In the co-culture of mouse primary neurons and microglial cells, the
      cell number of tOGD mouse neurons and microglial cells was larger than the OGD
      cell number, observed by a microscope. CCK-8 assay result showed that at 1h after
      treatment, the OD value in the control group is lower compared to all the other
      three groups (P < 0.05). The treatment group exhibited the highest OD value among
      the four groups. The results observed at 5h were consistent with the results at 1
      h. Flow cytometry results showed that at 1h after treatment the apoptosis
      percentages is higher in the control group compared to other three groups (P <
      0.05). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mouse brain tissues were collected and primary
      neurons cells were cultured. In the meantime mouse BV2 microglia cells were
      cultured. Two types of cells were co-cultured, and OGD and tOGD cell models were
      established. There were four groups in the experiment: control group (OGD),
      treatment group (tOGD+OGD), placebo group (tOGD+OGD+saline) and minocycline
      intervention group (tOGD+OGD+minocycline). CCK-8 kit was used to detect cell
      viability and flow cytometry was used to detect apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      study, mouse primary neurons and microglial cells were co-cultured. The OGD and
      tOGD models were established successfully. tOGD was able to effectively protect
      neurons and microglial cells from damage, and inhibit the apoptosis caused by
      oxygen glucose deprivation.

PMID- 28574842
TI  - Dexmedetomidine alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced lung injury in Wistar rats.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of dexmedetomidine on
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung injury in Wistar rats. 24 female Wistar
      rats were randomly assigned into 3 groups (n = 8): a control group, a LPS
      challenged group, and a LPS plus dexmedetomidine group. Inflammation, oxidative
      stress, Nrf2/Keap1, and Akt signal were determined. The results showed that LPS
      caused inflammation and oxidative stress via increasing pro-inflammatory
      cytokines and oxidative products. Dexmedetomidine treatment alleviated
      inflammation and oxidative stress in LPS-challenged rats. Nrf2/Keap1 was
      inhibited and Akt signal was activated in the lung after exposure to LPS, while
      dexmedetomidine activated Nrf2/Keap1, which further mediated expressions of
      antioxidant genes. In conclusion, dexmedetomidine alleviated inflammatory
      response and oxidative stress in LPS-induced lung injury in rats via influencing
      Nrf2/Keap1 signal.

PMID- 28574845
TI  - Die later with ESCRT!

PMID- 28574844
TI  - Socioeconomic status is associated with global diabetes prevalence.
AB  - The incidence of diabetes is increasing globally. We investigated the
      relationship between diabetes prevalence and patient socioeconomic status across
      multiple countries. We searched PubMed to identify population-based surveys
      reporting diabetes prevalence between 1990 and May 2016. Search results were
      filtered, and Human Development Index (HDI) values from the United Nations
      Development Programme were used to assess socioeconomic status for a given
      nation. Our analysis included 45 national surveys from 32 countries. Diabetes
      prevalence was positively correlated with national HDI (r = 0.421 P = 0.041) in
      developing countries, and negatively correlated with HDI (r = -0.442 P = 0.045)
      in developed countries. Diabetes prevalence trends were the same in women and
      men, although men were associated with increased diabetes risk in developed
      countries (r = 0.459 P = 0.048). Thus, diabetes prevalence rises with increasing
      HDI in developing countries, and this is reversed in developed countries. Ours is
      the first study to investigate the relationship between diabetes and
      socioeconomic status at global level using HDI values. These results will aid in
      evaluating global diabetes prevalence and risk with respect to patient
      socioeconomic status, and will be useful in the development of policies that help
      reduce disease incidence.

PMID- 28574843
TI  - Characterization of tumor-associated T-lymphocyte subsets and immune checkpoint
      molecules in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - The composition of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) reflects biology and
      immunogenicity of cancer. Here, we characterize T-cell subsets and expression of
      immune checkpoint molecules in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We
      analyzed TIL subsets in primary tumors (n = 34), blood (peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells (PBMC); n = 34) and non-cancerous mucosa (n = 7) of 34
      treatment-naive HNSCC patients and PBMC of 15 healthy controls. Flow cytometry
      analyses revealed a highly variable T-cell infiltration mainly of an effector
      memory phenotype (CD45RA-/CCR7-). Naive T cells (CD45RA+/CCR7+) were decreased in
      the microenvironment compared to PBMC of patients, while regulatory T cells
      (CD4+/CD25+/CD127low and CD4+/CD39+) were elevated. Furthermore, we performed
      digital image analyses of entire cross sections of HNSCC to define the
      'Immunoscore' (CD3+ and CD8+ cell infiltration in tumor core and invasive margin)
      and quantified MHC class I expression on tumor cells by immunohistochemistry.
      Immune checkpoint molecules cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4),
      programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) were
      increased in TILs compared to peripheral T cells in flow-cytometric analysis.
      Human papillomavirus (HPV) positive tumors showed higher numbers of TILs, but a
      similar composition of T-cell subsets and checkpoint molecule expression compared
      to HPV negative tumors. Taken together, the tumor microenvironment of HNSCC is
      characterized by a strong infiltration of regulatory T cells and high checkpoint
      molecule expression on T-cell subsets. In view of increasingly used
      immunotherapies, a detailed knowledge of TILs and checkpoint molecule expression
      on TILs is of high translational relevance.

PMID- 28574846
TI  - Polymorphisms in BMP2/BMP4, with estimates of mean lung dose, predict radiation
      pneumonitis among patients receiving definitive radiotherapy for non-small cell
      lung cancer.
AB  - Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TGFbeta1 can predict the risk of
      radiation pneumonitis (RP) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      after definitive radiotherapy. Here we investigated whether SNPs in TGFbeta
      superfamily members BMP2 and BMP4 are associated with RP in such patients. In
      total, we retrospectively analyzed 663 patients given >= 60 Gy for NSCLC. We
      randomly assigned 323 patients to the training cohort and 340 patients to the
      validation cohort. Potentially functional and tagging SNPs of BMP2 (rs170986,
      rs1979855, rs1980499, rs235768, rs3178250) and BMP4 (rs17563, rs4898820,
      rs762642) were genotyped. The median of mean lung dose (MLD) was 17.9 Gy (range,
      0.15-32.74 Gy). Higher MLD was strongly associated with increased risk of grade
      >= 2 RP (hazard ratio [HR]=2.191, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.680-2.856, P <
      0.001) and grade >= 3 RP (HR = 4.253, 95% CI = 2.493-7.257, P < 0.001). In
      multivariate analyses, BMP2 rs235768 AT/TT was associated with higher risk of
      grade >= 2 RP (HR = 1.866, 95% CI = 1.221-2.820, P = 0.004 vs. AA) both in
      training cohort and validation cohort. Similar results were observed for BMP2
      rs1980499. BMP2 rs3178250 CT/TT was associated with lower risk of grade >= 3 RP
      (HR = 0.406, 95% CI = 0.175-0.942, P = 0.036 vs. CC) in the pooled analysis.
      Adding the rs235768 and rs1980499 SNPs to a model comprising age, performance
      status, and MLD raised the Harrell's C for predicting grade >= 2 RP from 0.6117
      to 0.6235 (P = 0.0105). SNPs in BMP2 can predict grade >= 2 or 3 RP after
      radiotherapy for NSCLC and improve the predictive power of MLD model. Validation
      is underway through an ongoing prospective trial.

PMID- 28574847
TI  - Body mass index and persistent pain after breast cancer surgery: findings from
      the women's healthy eating and living study and a meta-analysis.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between body mass index
      (BMI) and persistent pain after breast cancer surgery in a prospective study and
      synthesize available evidence through a meta-analysis. In the Women's Healthy
      Eating and Living (WHEL) Study, 3,088 women diagnosed of breast cancer were
      enrolled and assessed. After 4 years, a subgroup of 2,131 women was re-assessed
      for the pain information. Logistic regression models were used to assess the
      associations of baseline BMI and BMI change between baseline and 4 years of
      follow-up with general pain symptoms at 4 years of follow-up. We further
      synthesized all available evidence from observational studies by searching PubMed
      and Embase up to February 2017. In the WHEL study, baseline BMI was linearly
      associated with an increased risk of persistent pain at 4 years of follow-up
      (odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)): 1.07 (1.05-1.10)). After
      adjusting for baseline BMI, BMI change since baseline was associated with
      persistent pain (OR (95% CI) for every unit increase: 1.10 (1.04-1.16)). After
      searching the literature, additional eight studies were eligible to be included
      in the meta-analysis. After pooling estimates from all nine studies, there was a
      positive association with persistent pain development comparing obesity or
      overweight with normal weight. Available data suggested a linear relationship
      between BMI and persistent pain (OR (95% CI) for every one unit increment of BMI:
      1.04 (1.02-1.07)). Overall, our analyses suggested that BMI might be positively
      associated with risk of persistent pain after breast cancer surgery.

PMID- 28574848
TI  - The significance of microRNA-148/152 family as a prognostic factor in multiple
      human malignancies: a meta-analysis.
AB  - Recent studies have demonstrated that microRNA-148/152 family emerges as a
      attractive biomarker for predicting tumor prognosis and progression. However,
      outcomes of different studies are controversial. Eligible Literature were
      searched through online databases: PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science. A total of
      24 eligible studies were ultimately enrolled in this meta-analysis. Results
      indicated that overexpression of miR-148/152 family was significantly correlated
      with enhanced overall/cause-specific survival (OS/CSS) (HR=0.63, 95% CI: 0.54
      0.74). Stratified analysis indicated that high miR-148a and miR-148b expression
      predicted favorable OS/CSS (HR=0.76; 95% CI: 0.69-0.90) and (HR=0.49; 95% CI:
      0.39-0.61), while miR-152 developed no significant impact (HR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.12
      1.29). MiR-148/152 family was distinctly associated with superior OS/CSS in Asian
      (HR=0.53, 95% CI: 0.44-0.64), but not in Caucasian (HR=0.96, 95% CI: 0.82-1.13).
      Futhermore, miR-148/152 family expression also predicted longer
      disease/relapse/progression-free survival (DFS/RFS/PFS) (HR=0.37, 95% CI: 0.16
      0.88). A significantly favorable DFS/RFS/PFS was observed in Asian (HR=0.21, 95%
      CI: 0.06-0.81) than that in Caucasian (HR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.31-1.87). miR-148/152
      family overexpression also predicted longer DFS/RFS/PFS in tissues (HR=0.11, 95%
      CI: 0.01-0.98), but not in plasma/serum (HR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.38-1.18). Our meta
      analysis demonstrated that overexpression of miR-148/152 predicted enhanced
      OS/CSS and DFS/RFS/PFS of cancer patients. MiR-148a/b family may serve as a
      potential prognostic factor in multiple human malignancies.

PMID- 28574851
TI  - cRGD-installed docetaxel-loaded mertansine prodrug micelles: redox-triggered
      ratiometric dual drug release and targeted synergistic treatment of B16F10
      melanoma.
AB  - Combinatorial chemotherapy, which has emerged as a promising treatment modality
      for intractable cancers, is challenged by a lack of tumor-targeting, robust and
      ratiometric dual drug release systems. Here, docetaxel-loaded cRGD peptide
      decorated redox-activable micellar mertansine prodrug (DTX-cRGD-MMP) was
      developed for targeted and synergistic treatment of B16F10 melanoma-bearing
      C57BL/6 mice. DTX-cRGD-MMP exhibited a small size of ca. 49 nm, high DTX and DM1
      loading, low drug leakage under physiological conditions, with rapid release of
      both DTX and DM1 under a cytoplasmic reductive environment. Notably, MTT and flow
      cytometry assays showed that DTX-cRGD-MMP brought about a synergistic antitumor
      effect to B16F10 cancer cells, with a combination index of 0.37 and an IC50 over
      3- and 13-fold lower than cRGD-MMP (w/o DTX) and DTX-cRGD-Ms (w/o DM1) controls,
      respectively. In vivo studies revealed that DTX-cRGD-MMP had a long circulation
      time and a markedly improved accumulation in the B16F10 tumor compared with the
      non-targeting DTX-MMP control (9.15 versus 3.13% ID/g at 12 h post-injection).
      Interestingly, mice treated with DTX-cRGD-MMP showed almost complete growth
      inhibition of B16F10 melanoma, with tumor inhibition efficacy following an order
      of DTX-cRGD-MMP > DTX-MMP (w/o cRGD) > cRGD-MMP (w/o DTX) > DTX-cRGD-Ms (w/o DM1)
      > free DTX. Consequently, DTX-cRGD-MMP significantly improved the survival rates
      of B16F10 melanoma-bearing mice. Importantly, DTX-cRGD-MMP caused little adverse
      effects as revealed by mice body weights and histological analyses. The
      combination of two mitotic inhibitors, DTX and DM1, appears to be an interesting
      approach for effective cancer therapy.

PMID- 28574850
TI  - Whole-exome sequencing identified genetic risk factors for asparaginase-related
      complications in childhood ALL patients.
AB  - Allergy, pancreatitis and thrombosis are common side-effects of childhood acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treatment that are associated with the use of
      asparaginase (ASNase), a key component in most ALL treatment protocols. Starting
      with predicted functional germline variants obtained through whole-exome
      sequencing (WES) data of the Quebec childhood ALL cohort we performed exome-wide
      association studies with ASNase-related toxicities. A subset of top-ranking
      variants was further confirmed by genotyping (N=302) followed by validation in an
      independent replication group (N=282); except for thrombosis which was not
      available for that dataset. SNPs in 12 genes were associated with ASNase
      complications in discovery cohort including 3 that were associated with allergy,
      3 with pancreatitis and 6 with thrombosis. The risk was further increased through
      combined SNPs effect (p<=0.002), suggesting synergistic interactions between the
      SNPs identified in each of the studied toxicities. Interestingly, rs3809849 in
      the MYBBP1A gene was associated with allergy (p= 0.0006), pancreatitis (p=0.002),
      thrombosis (p=0.02), event-free survival (p=0.02) and overall survival (p=0.003).
      Furthermore, rs11556218 in IL16 and rs34708521 in SPEF2 were both associated with
      thrombosis (p=0.01 and p=0.03, respectively) and pancreatitis (p=0.02). The
      association of SNPs in MYBBP1A, SPEF2 and IL16 geneswith pancreatitis was
      replicated in the validation cohort (p <=0.05) as well as in combined cohort
      (p=0.0003, p=0.008 and p=0.02, respectively). The synergistic effect of combining
      risk loci had the highest power to predict the development of pancreatitis in
      both cohorts and was further potentiated in the combined cohort (p=1x10-8).The
      present work demonstrates that using WES data is a successful "hypothesis-free"
      strategy for identifying significant genetic markers modulating the effect of the
      treatment in childhood ALL.

PMID- 28574853
TI  - Chemical sintering of direct-written silver nanowire flexible electrodes under
      room temperature.
AB  - Transparent and flexible electrodes on cost effective plastic substrates for
      wearable electronics have attract great attention recently. Due to the
      conductivity and flexibility in network form, metal nanowire is regarded as one
      of the most promising candidates for flexible electrode fabrication. Prior to
      application, low temperature joining of nanowire processes are required to reduce
      the resistance of electrodes and simultaneously maintain the dimensionality and
      uniformity of those nanowires. In the present work, we presented an innovative,
      robust and cost effective method to minimize the heat effect to plastic substrate
      and silver nanowires which allows silver nanowire electrodes been directly
      written on polycarbonate substrate and sintered by different electrolyte
      solutions at room temperature or near. It has been rigorously demonstrated that
      the resistance of silver nanowire electrodes has been reduced by 90% after
      chemical sintering at room temperature due to the joining of silver nanowires at
      junction areas. After ~1000 bending cycles, the measured resistance of silver
      nanowire electrode was stable during both up-bending and down-bending states. The
      changes of silver nanowires after sintering were characterized using x-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy and a sintering
      mechanism was proposed and validated. This direct-written silver nanowire
      electrode with good performance has broad applications in flexible electronics
      fabrication and packaging.

PMID- 28574852
TI  - A novel 'leadless' dielectrophoresis chip with dot matrix electrodes for
      patterning nanowires.
AB  - In this paper, we present a novel 'leadless' dielectrophoresis chip with dot
      matrix electrodes (LDME-DEP chip) fabricated by stacking three different
      functional layers. Our LDME-DEP chip excels mainly in two aspects: we for the
      first time applied the technique of separating the lead and the electrode pattern
      into two different layers to patterning nanowires which achieves continuous-area
      manipulation of nanowires without interference from the lead; the use of dot
      matrix electrodes makes the manipulation more flexible. We firstly detail the
      fabrication and working principle of our LDME-DEP chip and propose the scheme for
      washing away the nanowires with unsatisfactorily positioned postures. Then,
      nanowire patterning applications (e.g., letter E, square and long chain) under
      the combination of dielectrophoretic force and hydrodynamic force are carried out
      and the effect of frequency of the electric signal on assembling accuracy of
      nanowires is discussed.

PMID- 28574854
TI  - Costoclavicular Space: A Reliable Gate for Continuous Regional Anesthesia
      Catheter Insertion.

PMID- 28574855
TI  - Fasting and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

PMID- 28574856
TI  - Camera-based measurement of respiratory rates is reliable.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Respiratory rate (RR) is one of the most important vital signs used
      to detect whether a patient is in critical condition. It is part of many risk
      scores and its measurement is essential for triage of patients in emergency
      departments. It is often not recorded as measurement is cumbersome and time
      consuming. We intended to evaluate the accuracy of camera-based measurements as
      an alternative measurement to the current practice of manual counting. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We monitored the RR of healthy male volunteers with a camera-based
      prototype application and simultaneously by manual counting and by capnography,
      which was considered the gold standard. The four assessors were mutually blinded.
      We simulated normoventilation, hypoventilation and hyperventilation as well as
      deep, normal and superficial breathing depths to assess potential clinical
      settings. The volunteers were assessed while being undressed, wearing a T-shirt
      or a winter coat. RESULTS: In total, 20 volunteers were included. The results of
      camera-based measurements of RRs and capnography were in close agreement
      throughout all clothing styles and respiratory patterns (Pearson's correlation
      coefficient, r=0.90-1.00, except for one scenario, in which the volunteer
      breathed slowly dressed in a winter coat r=0.84). In the winter-coat scenarios,
      the camera-based prototype application was superior to human counters.
      CONCLUSION: In our pilot study, we found that camera-based measurements delivered
      accurate and reliable results. Future studies need to show that camera-based
      measurements are a secure alternative for measuring RRs in clinical settings as
      well.

PMID- 28574857
TI  - Effect of Growth Hormone Supplementation on Osseointegration: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-analyses.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess whether growth hormone (GH)
      replacement therapy can enhance implant osseointegration. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A systematic literature search was conducted from 1982 to March 2016. A
      structured search using the keywords "growth hormone," "implants," and
      "osseointegration" was performed to identify preclinical and clinical in vivo
      controlled studies and was followed by a 2-phase search strategy. Initially, 31
      potentially relevant articles were identified. After removal of duplicates and
      screening by title and abstract, 10 potential studies were included. Studies were
      assessed for bias and data were synthesized using a random-effects meta-analysis
      model. RESULTS: All studies were preclinical animal trials, and the follow-up
      period ranged from 2 to 16 weeks. Seventy percent of the included studies
      reported an increase in bone-to-implant contact in animals receiving GH compared
      with controls. Meta-analysis showed a significant mean difference for bone to
      implant between GH groups versus controls (no GH supplementation) of 10.60% (95%
      confidence interval: 3.79%-17.41%) favoring GH administration. CONCLUSION: GH
      treatment seems to promote osseointegration around implants in preclinical
      studies; however, these findings must be assessed in highly controlled human
      clinical trials as a number of confounding factors may have influenced the
      outcomes of the included studies.

PMID- 28574858
TI  - Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy:
      Diagnostic Accuracy and Correlation With Electrophysiology.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to assess diagnostic accuracy of diffusion
      tensor imaging (DTI) in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP),
      to correlate DTI with electrophysiological parameters, and to evaluate whether
      radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD) might serve as specific
      biomarkers of demyelinating and axonal pathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      prospective study was approved by the institutional ethics committee, and written
      informed consent was obtained from all participants. Magnetic resonance
      neurography of upper and lower extremity nerves (median, ulnar, radial, sciatic,
      tibial) was performed by single-shot DTI sequences at 3.0 T in 18 patients with a
      diagnosis of CIDP and 18 healthy controls, matched to age and sex. The scalar
      readout parameters nerve fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), RD,
      and AD were obtained after manual segmentation and postprocessing and compared
      between patients and controls. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed by receiver
      operating characteristic analysis, and cutoff values were calculated by
      maximizing the Youden index. All patients underwent a complementary
      electroneurography and correlation of electrophysiological markers and DTI
      parameters was analyzed and described by Pearson and Spearman coefficients.
      RESULTS: Nerve FA was decreased to a mean of 0.42 +/- 0.08 in patients compared
      with 0.52 +/- 0.04 in healthy controls (P < 0.001). This decrease in FA was a
      result of an increase of RD (P = 0.02), whereas AD did not differ between the two
      groups. Of all DTI parameters, FA showed best diagnostic accuracy with a receiver
      operating characteristic area under the curve of 0.90. Optimal cutoff for an
      average FA of all analyzed nerves was 0.47, yielding a sensitivity of 0.83 and a
      specificity of 0.94. Fractional anisotropy and RD correlated strongly with
      electrophysiological markers of demyelination, whereas AD did not correlate with
      markers of axonal neuropathy. CONCLUSIONS: Diffusion tensor imaging yields valid
      quantitative biomarkers in CIDP and might aid in diagnosis with high diagnostic
      accuracy. Fractional anisotropy and RD may serve as parameters of myelin sheath
      integrity, but AD is unable to reflect axonal damage in CIDP.

PMID- 28574859
TI  - Female-to-Male Chest Reconstruction: A Review of Technique and Outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Female-to-male transgender individuals frequently seek out chest wall
      masculinization as part of their gender transition and to aid with treating
      gender dysphoria. Critical evaluation of techniques, complications, and outcomes
      is important particularly as the surgery becomes more commonly performed.
      METHODS: A retrospective review was performed of all patients undergoing female
      to-male chest wall reconstruction by the senior author from 2008 to 2015. Charts
      were reviewed to evaluate patient demographics, intraoperative details, and
      postoperative outcomes. Complications were stratified into major and minor
      complications based on the need to return to the operating room. Inframammary
      fold techniques and periareolar techniques cohorts were compared for major
      complications, minor complications, and need for revision surgeries. RESULTS:
      Over 8 years, 130 patients were identified. One hundred ten patients underwent
      inframammary fold techniques, and 20 patients underwent periareolar incisions.
      Early postoperative complications occurred in 25% of patients. Hematoma was the
      most common complications, occurring in 14% of patients. Major complications
      occurred in 8% of patients. Minor complications occurred in 16% of patients, with
      respiratory problems found to be a significant risk factor. On long-term follow
      up, 9% of patients had a revision procedure performed. Patients with prior breast
      surgery were more likely to require revisions (P = 0.009). Of patients requiring
      revision, 38% had a periareolar incision, compared with only 13% of patients who
      did not (P = 0.03). For unplanned revisions, there was no difference in
      periareolar and inframammary techniques. CONCLUSIONS: Our patient cohort
      demonstrates that female-to-male patients who undergo chest wall contouring
      through a transverse inframammary fold incision with either composite or standard
      free nipple grafting have decreased rates of revision surgery and trend toward
      having lower complication rates as compared with periareolar and limited scar
      techniques. To best manage expectations, patients undergoing a periareolar or
      other limited incision technique are counseled regarding an increased risk of
      hematoma and an increased likelihood of revisions.

PMID- 28574860
TI  - Crouch gait can be an effective form of forced-use/no constraint exercise for the
      paretic lower limb in stroke.
AB  - In hemiplegic gait the paretic lower limb provides less muscle power and shows a
      briefer stance compared with the unaffected limb. Yet, a longer stance and a
      higher power can be obtained from the paretic lower limb if gait speed is
      increased. This supports the existence of a 'learned non-use' phenomenon, similar
      to that underlying some asymmetric impairments of the motion of the eyes and of
      the upper limbs. Crouch gait (CG) (bent-hip bent-knee, about 30 degrees  minimum
      knee flexion) might be an effective form of 'forced-use' treatment of the paretic
      lower limb. It is not known whether it also stimulates a more symmetric muscle
      power output. Gait analysis on a force treadmill was carried out in 12 healthy
      adults and seven hemiplegic patients (1-127 months after stroke, median: 1.6).
      Speed was imposed at 0.3 m/s. Step length and single and double stance times,
      sagittal joint rotations, peak positive power, and work in extension of the hip,
      knee, and ankle (plantar flexion), and surface electromyography (sEMG) area from
      extensor muscles during the generation of power were measured on either side
      during both erect and crouch walking. Significance was set at P less than 0.05;
      corrections for multiplicity were applied. Patients, compared with healthy
      controls, adopted in both gait modalities and on both sides a shorter step length
      (61-84%) as well as a shorter stance (76-90%) and swing (63-83%) time. As a rule,
      they also provided a higher muscular work (median: 137%, range: 77-250%)
      paralleled by a greater sEMG area (median: 174%, range: 75-185%). In erect gait,
      the generation of peak extensor power across hip, knee, and ankle joints was in
      general lower (83-90%) from the paretic limb and higher (98-165%) from the
      unaffected limb compared with control values. In CG, peak power generation across
      the three lower limb joints was invariably higher in hemiparetic patients: 107
      177% from the paretic limb and 114-231% from the unaffected limb. When gait
      shifted from erect to crouch, only for hemiplegic patients, at the hip, the
      paretic/unaffected ratio increased significantly. For peak power, work, sEMG
      area, and joint rotation, the paretic/unaffected ratio increased from 55 to 85%,
      56 to 72%, 68 to 91%, and 67 to 93%, respectively. CG appears to be an effective
      form of forced-use exercise eliciting more power and work from the paretic lower
      limb muscles sustained by a greater neural drive. It also seems effective in
      forcing a more symmetric power and work from the hip extensor muscles, but
      neither from the knee nor the ankle.

PMID- 28574862
TI  - The role of microRNAs in the therapeutic action of D-cycloserine in a post
      traumatic stress disorder animal model: an exploratory study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by impaired fear
      extinction and excessive anxiety. D-Cycloserine (DCS) has previously been shown
      to facilitate fear extinction and decrease anxiety in animal and human studies.
      This study utilized a contextual fear-conditioning animal model to investigate
      the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in fear extinction and the reduction of
      anxiety, as mediated by the co-administration of DCS and behavioural fear
      extinction. METHODS: Fear conditioning consisted of an electric foot shock; fear
      extinction consisted of behavioural fear extinction co-administered with either
      DCS or saline. The light/dark avoidance test was used to evaluate anxiety-related
      behaviour subsequent to fear conditioning and was used to evaluate anxiety
      related behaviour following fear conditioning and to subsequently group animals
      into well-adapted and maladapted subgroups. These subgroups also showed
      significant differences in terms of fear extinction. Small RNAs extracted from
      the left dorsal hippocampus were sequenced using next-generation sequencing to
      identify differentially expressed miRNAs associated with DCS-induced fear
      extinction and reduction of anxiety. In-silico prediction analyses identified
      mRNA targets (from data of the same animals) of the differentially expressed
      miRNAs. Two of the predicted mRNA-miRNA interactions were functionally
      investigated. RESULTS: Overall, 32 miRNAs were differentially expressed between
      rats that were fear conditioned, received DCS and were well adapted and rats that
      were fear conditioned, received saline and were maladapted. Nineteen of these
      miRNAs were predicted to target and regulate the expression of 63 genes
      differentially expressed between fear-conditioned, DCS-administered, well-adapted
      and fear-conditioned, saline-administered, and maladapted groups (several of
      which are associated with neuronal inflammation, learning and memory). Functional
      luciferase assays indicated that rno-mir-31a-5p may have regulated the expression
      of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (Il1rn) and metallothionein 1a (Mt1a).
      CONCLUSION: These differentially expressed miRNAs may be mediators of gene
      expression changes that facilitated decreased neuronal inflammation, optimum
      learning and memory and contributed towards effective fear extinction and
      reduction of anxiety following the co-administration of DCS and behavioural fear
      extinction.

PMID- 28574861
TI  - Occurrence of nasal dermoid cysts in a family with a single maxillary median
      central incisor: extending the clinical spectrum.

PMID- 28574863
TI  - Mephentermine Dependence in a Young Athlete: Case Report With Review of
      Literature.
AB  - : Mephentermine is structurally related to amphetamines and is banned for its use
      as a performance-enhancing drug in competitive sports. Limited literature is
      available on management of mephentermine dependence. Here, we describe a case of
      mephentermine dependence followed by review of literature and a discussion about
      its management. A 20-year-old professional wrestler presented with high-dose
      intravenous mephentermine use, and rapid development of dependence, in the
      absence of any comorbid substance use or psychiatric disorder. The client showed
      improvement with bupropion and individual counseling sessions. The present report
      highlights the need to explore effective treatment options for individuals who
      have been addicted to mephentermine.

PMID- 28574864
TI  - Methadone Management of Withdrawal Associated With Loperamide-related Opioid Use
      Disorder.
AB  - : Loperamide hydrochloride is an over-the-counter anti-diarrheal agent, acting
      via mu-opioid receptor agonist effects in the intestinal myenteric plexus.
      Although preclinical investigations suggested that abuse liability associated
      with loperamide use is low, there are increasing numbers of cases reported to the
      US Food and Drug Administration, of abuse, dependence, and withdrawal associated
      with loperamide use. A case of a patient with opioid use disorder, that is, in
      the form of protracted loperamide excess use, requiring management of withdrawal
      with methadone is presented. Management of withdrawal from abrupt loperamide
      discontinuation has not been discussed in the literature. Long-term treatment
      issues are also described.

PMID- 28574865
TI  - The Regional Autopsy Center: The University of Alabama at Birmingham Experience.
AB  - Rates of autopsied deaths have decreased significantly for the last several
      decades. It may not be practical for some institutions to maintain the facilities
      and staffing required to perform autopsies. In recent years, the University of
      Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has established contracts to perform autopsies for
      several regional institutions including the Alabama Department of Forensic
      Sciences (ADFS), the United States Veterans Affairs, the local prison system,
      local community hospitals, and with families for private autopsy services.
      Contracts and autopsy data from 2004 to 2015 were obtained and reviewed. Since
      2004, the number of UAB hospital autopsies trended slightly downward. On average,
      UAB hospital cases comprised most yearly cases, and the ADFS was the second
      largest contributor of cases. Income generated from outside autopsies performed
      from 2006 to 2015 totaled just more than 2 million dollars, and most of the
      income was generated from referred ADFS cases. This study provides evidence that
      a centralized institution (regional autopsy center [RAC]) can provide regional
      autopsy service in a practical, feasible, and economically viable manner, and a
      RAC can benefit both the referring institutions as well as the RAC itself.

PMID- 28574866
TI  - A population-based approach to compare patient-reported outcomes of long-term
      Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors according to trial participation: a joint study from
      the Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Initial Treatment and Long-term
      Evaluation of Survivorship registry and European Organisation for Research and
      Treatment of Cancer.
AB  - Survival discrepancy between patients treated in a clinical trial and routine
      practice is well recognized. No study has assessed the health-related quality of
      life (HRQL) of long-term Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors (HLS) according to trial
      participation. We applied a population-based approach to examine the differences
      in HRQL, healthcare utilization, and satisfaction with healthcare among long-term
      HLS who had participated in a trial (tHLS) and those treated in routine care
      (rHLS). All HLS diagnosed during the period 1989-1998 and living in southern
      Netherlands were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry in 2004 to
      participate in the Patient Reported Outcomes Following Initial treatment and Long
      term Evaluation of Survivorship registry study. Data linkage with the European
      Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer was performed in 2015 to
      identify trial participation. The 65 tHLS and 67 rHLS had comparable demographic
      and clinical characteristics. Unadjusted and adjusted models indicated no
      association between trial participation and HRQL. There was no evidence of
      differences in healthcare satisfaction. Trial participation was associated with
      48% more visits to specialists in the past year (adjusted 95% confidence
      interval: 10-99). No association of trial participation with cancer-related
      contacts was observed. tHLS and rHLS had comparable long-term HRQL. Although
      trial participation was associated with more specialist visits, there was no
      evidence of an association with healthcare satisfaction and the number of cancer
      related visits. Identification of trial participation in population-based cancer
      registry through data linkage with clinical trials enables a population-based
      approach to examine patient-reported outcomes differences between tHLS and rHLS.

PMID- 28574867
TI  - Breast cancer screening effectiveness in Portugal central Region.
AB  - The central region of Portugal is covered by an organized population-based breast
      cancer screening programme. We designed a case-referent study to investigate the
      association of overall mortality with mammographic screening attendance. The
      study population (SP) included women aged 50-69 years who received at least one
      invitation to the breast cancer screening programme. A case was defined as a
      woman from the SP diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2006 who died
      before 1 August 2015. Index invitation (IV) was defined as the most recent
      invitation before diagnosis of the case. For each case, two referents were
      sampled from the SP. Referents were women who did not have a breast cancer
      diagnosis at the IV of the case and alive at time of death of the case. Exposure
      to screening was defined as participation in the screening examination following
      the IV and/or participation in the screening round preceding the IV. To correct
      for self-selection bias, we used a summary correction factor on the basis of
      published ones. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate the odds
      ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 227 cases and 454
      referents were considered. The overall OR showed a mortality reduction of 47%
      (OR=0.53, 95% CI: 0.37-0.78). The estimated correction factor was 1.15 (95% CI:
      1.06-1.25). This factor was used to correct the crude OR, resulting in a
      mortality reduction of 33% (OR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.45-1.00). Our results are in
      agreement with other case-referent studies worldwide, supporting the contribution
      of screening practices towards the decreasing breast cancer mortality in
      Portugal.

PMID- 28574868
TI  - Evaluation of completeness of case ascertainment in Swiss cancer registration.
AB  - This is the first comprehensive evaluation of completeness of case ascertainment
      in Swiss cancer registration. There is currently no method available that is
      considered to be the gold standard. Apart from simple measures such as the
      proportion of cases where registration was initiated by a death certificate and
      the proportion of diagnoses on the basis of histology or cytology/haematology, we
      applied two dedicated approaches: (i) the semiquantitative method of comparing
      the mortality to incidence rate ratio with relative survival (MI-Surv method) and
      (ii) the Flow method, which provides a quantitative estimate for the completeness
      depending on time since diagnosis. All 10 Swiss cancer registries in operation
      since at least 2006 and providing the required parameters were included. Simple
      and dedicated methods showed high completeness across all cancer registries and
      for most cancer types tested, with the notable exception of lymphoid leukaemia.

PMID- 28574869
TI  - Cancer incidence estimation method: an Apulian experience.
AB  - The Cancer Registry of Puglia (RTP) was instituted in 2008 as a regional
      population-based cancer registry. It consists of six sections (Foggia, Barletta
      Andria-Tran, Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto) and covers more than 4 000 000
      inhabitants. At present, four of six sections have received accreditation by
      AIRTUM (53% of regional population). To point out possible regional geographic
      variability in cancer incidence and also to support health services planning, we
      developed an original estimation method to ensure a complete territorial
      coverage. Incidence data of the four accredited RTP sections for the shared
      incidence period 2006-2008, the 2001-2009 hospitalization regional data, and 2006
      2009 mortality data were considered. To take into account specific health
      features of different provinces, we performed an estimate of cancer incidence
      rates of nonaccredited sections using a combination of accredited sections rates
      and a factor that combines mortality and hospitalization ratios available for all
      the sections. Finally, we validated the method and we applied it to estimate
      regional cancer rates as the population-weighted average of accredited sections
      and nonaccredited sections adjusted rates. The validation process shows that
      estimated rates are close to real incidence data. The most frequent neoplasms in
      Apulia are breast (direct standardized rates 96.8 per 100 000 inhabitants), colon
      rectum (36.6), and thyroid cancer (25.3) in women and prostate (70.2), lung
      (68.4), and colon-rectum cancer (52.2) in men. This method could be useful to
      assess the cancer incidence when complete cancer registration data are not
      available, but hospitalization, mortality, and neighbouring incidence data are
      available.

PMID- 28574871
TI  - Precise Target Site of Ultrasound-Guided C5 Cervical Root Block.

PMID- 28574870
TI  - Dietary supplementation with fish oil prevents high fat diet-induced enhancement
      of sensitivity to the behavioral effects of quinpirole.
AB  - Eating a diet high in fat can lead to negative health consequences, including
      obesity and insulin resistance. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as
      those found in fish oil) prevent high fat diet-induced obesity and insulin
      resistance in rats. Eating a high fat diet also enhances sensitivity of rats to
      the behavioral effects of drugs that act on dopamine systems (e.g. quinpirole, a
      dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist). To test the hypothesis that dietary
      supplementation with fish oil prevents high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity
      to the behavioral effects of quinpirole (0.0032-0.32 mg/kg), male rats ate
      standard laboratory chow, high fat chow, standard chow with fish oil, or high fat
      chow with fish oil (20% w/w). After 5 weeks, rats eating high fat chow were more
      sensitive (e.g. leftward shift of the quinpirole dose-response curve) than rats
      eating standard chow to yawning induced by quinpirole. Dietary supplementation
      with fish oil prevented this effect. That is, quinpirole dose-response curves
      were not different between rats eating high fat chow supplemented with fish oil
      and standard chow fed controls. These data add to a growing literature showing
      the complex relationship between diet and dopamine systems, and the health
      benefits of fish oil.

PMID- 28574872
TI  - Comment on "Stories of an Emigrant Physician: What It Has Been Like to Practice
      in Canada Compared With the United States".

PMID- 28574874
TI  - Physical Activity and Abdominal Fat Distribution in Greenland.
AB  - PURPOSE: We examined how total volume of physical activity and reallocation of
      time spent at various objectively measured intensities of physical activity (PA)
      were associated with overall and abdominal fat distribution in adult Inuit in
      Greenland. METHODS: Data were collected as part of a countrywide cross-sectional
      health survey in Greenland. A combined accelerometer and HR monitor measured
      total physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) and intensities of PA (N =
      1536). Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) were
      assessed by ultrasonography. Isotemporal substitution modeling was used to
      analyze the association between substitution of 1 h of sedentary time to light-
      or moderate-intensity PA and 1 h light-intensity PA to moderate- or vigorous
      intensity PA in relation to body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), SAT,
      and VAT. RESULTS: A negative linear association was found for total PAEE and BMI,
      WC, VAT, and SAT. Exchanging 1 h of sedentary time with light-intensity PA was
      associated with lower WC (-0.6 cm, P = 0.01), SAT (-0.08 cm, P < 0.001), and VAT
      (-0.04 cm, P = 0.359). Exchanging light-intensity PA with vigorous-intensity PA
      resulted in -6.1-cm lower WC (P < 0.001), -0.7-cm lower VAT (P = 0.018) and -0.7
      cm lower SAT (P < 0.001). When further adjusting for BMI, the associations were
      attenuated; however, most of them remained significant, and the directions were
      mostly unchanged. All 1-, 5-, and 10-min bouts of MVPA were negatively associated
      with overall and abdominal fat distribution. CONCLUSION: Physical activity energy
      expenditure is associated with lower BMI, WC, and abdominal fat among Greenland
      Inuit. The importance of promoting an upward shift of the whole PA intensity
      distribution and to spur even short bouts of MVPA to limit excessive accumulation
      of SAT and VAT is highlighted.

PMID- 28574877
TI  - Budd-Chiari Syndrome Demonstrated on PET/CT.
AB  - Budd-Chiari syndrome is a rare clinical condition that involves diminution or
      interruption of hepatic venous blood flow from the liver. We describe a case of
      Budd-Chiari syndrome visualized via F-FDG PET/CT in a 60-year-old woman with
      medical history of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma who presented with abdominal pain.
      FDG PET/CT fusion images demonstrate increased FDG uptake with SUVmax of 2.2
      along the course of the middle hepatic vein with decreased attenuation within
      both the middle and right hepatic veins, consistent with thrombus.

PMID- 28574875
TI  - Augmenting Amyloid PET Interpretations With Quantitative Information Improves
      Consistency of Early Amyloid Detection.
AB  - PURPOSE: Establishing reliable methods for interpreting elevated cerebral amyloid
      beta plaque on PET scans is increasingly important for radiologists, as
      availability of PET imaging in clinical practice increases. We examined a 3-step
      method to detect plaque in cognitively normal older adults, focusing on the
      additive value of quantitative information during the PET scan interpretation
      process. METHODS: Fifty-five F-florbetapir PET scans were evaluated by 3
      experienced raters. Scans were first visually interpreted as having "elevated" or
      "nonelevated" plaque burden ("Visual Read"). Images were then processed using a
      standardized quantitative analysis software (MIMneuro) to generate whole brain
      and region of interest SUV ratios. This "Quantitative Read" was considered
      elevated if at least 2 of 6 regions of interest had an SUV ratio of more than
      1.1. The final interpretation combined both visual and quantitative data together
      ("VisQ Read"). Cohen kappa values were assessed as a measure of interpretation
      agreement. RESULTS: Plaque was elevated in 25.5% to 29.1% of the 165 total Visual
      Reads. Interrater agreement was strong (kappa = 0.73-0.82) and consistent with
      reported values. Quantitative Reads were elevated in 45.5% of participants. Final
      VisQ Reads changed from initial Visual Reads in 16 interpretations (9.7%), with
      most changing from "nonelevated" Visual Reads to "elevated." These changed
      interpretations demonstrated lower plaque quantification than those initially
      read as "elevated" that remained unchanged. Interrater variability improved for
      VisQ Reads with the addition of quantitative information (kappa = 0.88-0.96).
      CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of quantitative information increases consistency of PET
      scan interpretations for early detection of cerebral amyloid-beta plaque
      accumulation.

PMID- 28574876
TI  - Utility of Follow-up Dopamine Transporter SPECT With 123I-FP-CIT in the
      Diagnostic Workup of Patients With Clinically Uncertain Parkinsonian Syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: Dopamine transporter SPECT with I-FP-CIT is registered for detection (or
      exclusion) of nigrostriatal degeneration to support the etiologic classification
      of parkinsonian syndromes. In case of uncertainty in the interpretation of SPECT
      findings or unexpected clinical course, follow-up SPECT might be useful. However,
      the utility of follow-up FP-CIT SPECT has not yet been clarified. METHODS: One
      hundred forty-one patients (65.1 +/- 10.4 years) from 3 sites with follow-up FP
      CIT SPECT 22.4 +/- 13.7 months after baseline SPECT were included. Retrospective
      visual interpretation of FP-CIT SPECT scans was performed by 2 experienced
      readers according to the following 7-point score: "normal," some minor degree of
      uncertainty due to "mild asymmetry" or mild to moderate "uniform reduction,"
      "Parkinson disease (PD) reduction type 1/2/3," and "atypical reduction." RESULTS:
      Normal FP-CIT SPECT or PD characteristic reduction was confirmed by follow-up
      SPECT in all cases (n = 58). Among patients with some minor degree of uncertainty
      at baseline (n = 65), the majority (72%) did now show abnormalities in follow-up
      SPECT, but 20% showed clear progression suggesting nigrostriatal degeneration.
      The latter was very rare at age younger than 60 years. The final categorization
      as normal or neurodegenerative was not affected by the time delay between
      baseline and follow-up SPECT. CONCLUSIONS: Follow-up FP-CIT SPECT cannot be
      generally recommended in case of completely normal baseline SPECT or PD
      characteristic reduction. It also cannot be recommended in patients younger than
      60 years, even in case of some minor degree of uncertainty in the baseline SPECT.
      There is no evidence to delay follow-up FP-CIT SPECT longer than 12 months.

PMID- 28574878
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging of Popliteal Vasculitis Associated With Polyarteritis
      Nodosa.
AB  - We report an F-FDG linear uptake of the right popliteal artery in a 25-year-old
      man who underwent a PET/CT scan for unexplained chronic asthenia associated with
      fever symptoms, arthralgia, and subcutaneous nodes, in favor of vasculitis. The
      patient had a history of saphenous vein thrombosis. Thrombophilia screening finds
      a blood lupus anticoagulant. A biopsy of subcutaneous nodes finds an
      anatomopathologic lesion of polyarteritis nodosa. F-FDG PET can be useful in
      initial staging of polyarteritis nodosa for an early diagnosis of vasculitis, and
      thus, early treatment can prevent arterial complications such as occlusion or
      aneurysm.

PMID- 28574879
TI  - Possible Treatment Approach to an Extravasation of 177Lu-PSMA-617.
AB  - A rare accident of a subcutaneous extravasation in the elbow with 4280 MBq Lu
      PSMA-617 occurred in our clinic. We tried to reduce the damage by warming the
      elbow for 12 hours, then cooling it, and recommended the patient avoid exercises
      with the elbow for the next 3 days. We recognized a good resorption of the
      radionuclide in the scintigraphic imaging in the first 2 days. No pain, burning,
      or necrosis occurred. The administered therapy afterward showed an adequate
      decrease in the tumor marker level.

PMID- 28574880
TI  - A Wise Surgical Approach for Reconstruction of Postburn Axillary Contractures and
      Versatility of Perforator Flaps.
AB  - Postburn axillary adduction contractures should essentially be released for
      adequate shoulder function. Many methods have been described for this purpose.
      However, use of perforator flaps prevents harm to the underlying muscle and
      provides thin, pliable skin flaps. Despite the major advantages offered by
      perforator flaps, certain shortcomings of perforator flap surgery restrict their
      widespread use by inexperienced surgeons, including anatomic variations of
      perforator vessels. In order to rule out these shortcomings, we devised a new
      surgical approach with an initial incision that provides access to possible
      perforator systems on the dorsolateral thoracic area. The approach can easily be
      converted to a fasciocutaneous transposition flap when attempts for
      identification of a proper perforator fail. Nevertheless, a proper perforator can
      easily be reached through the exposure provided by this initial incision. With
      the intention of using perforator-based flap for reconstruction, we used this
      surgical approach for coverage in 14 cases of postburn axillary contractures. In
      3 cases, conversions of the initial incision to local transposition flap
      (parascapular flap) were required. There was only 2 tip necrosis observed, which
      healed with secondary intention. Our current surgical approach may offer taking
      the advantages of using a true perforator flap for reconstruction while avoiding
      a second stress on the patient when an operative plan for perforator flap harvest
      fails.

PMID- 28574881
TI  - The Relationship Between Frailty and the Subjective Decision to Conduct a Goals
      of Care Discussion With Burned Elders.
AB  - Best practices are to conduct an early discussion of goals of care (GoC) after
      injury in the elderly, but this intervention is inconsistently applied. We
      hypothesized that a frail appearance was a factor in the decision to conduct a
      GoC discussion after thermal injury. A retrospective review was performed of all
      burn survivors aged >= 65 years at our American Burn Association (ABA)-verified
      level 1 burn center between April 02, 2009, and December 30, 2014. Demographic
      information included age, gender, mechanism of injury, percentage TBSA burned,
      revised Baux score, patient/physician racial discordance, documented GoC
      discussion (as defined within the electronic medical record), length of stay
      (LOS), and disposition. One rater retrospectively assigned clinical frailty
      scores to patients using the Canadian Study of Health and Aging Criteria, which
      ranged from 1 (very fit) to 7 (severely frail). Ordinal logistic regression was
      performed. Demographics for the cohort of 126 subjects were (mean +/- SD): age =
      75.5 +/- 7.7 years, %TBSA burned = 11.9% +/- 7.2, revised Baux = 87.8 +/- 10.2,
      hospital LOS (days) = 14.9 +/- 13.7, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) LOS (days) = 6.2
      +/- 1.2, frailty score = 4.1 +/- 1.1. Overall, 72% of geriatric survivors had a
      favorable discharge disposition. GoC discussions occurred in 25% of patients. GoC
      discussion (OR, 3.42; 95% CI, 1.54-7.60) and an unfavorable disposition (OR,
      9.01; 95% CI, 3.91-20.78) were associated with greater predicted odds of
      receiving a higher ordered frailty score. Our results suggest that, even in the
      absence of a formal diagnosis, a frail appearance may influence a provider's
      decision to perform GoC discussions after severe thermal injury.

PMID- 28574882
TI  - Surgical Outcomes of Posterior Spinal Fusion Alone Using Cervical Pedicle Screw
      Constructs for Cervical Disorders Associated With Athetoid Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case series. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      investigate clinical outcomes after posterior spinal fusion (PSF) using cervical
      pedicle screw (CPS) constructs for cervical disorders associated with athetoid
      cerebral palsy (CP). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Traditionally, most patients
      with cervical myelopathy associated with CP have required combined anterior and
      posterior fusion to achieve solid stability against severe involuntary movement.
      METHODS: Thirty-one CP patients with cervical disorders who underwent PSF alone
      with a minimum 2-year follow-up (mean 58 months) were analyzed. All patients were
      treated with PSF using CPS constructs with or without decompression procedures.
      The average number of fused segments was 5.1 (range, 1-10 segments), and a halo
      jacket was applied in 16 patients for at least 2 months after surgery. Clinical
      outcomes using the Japanese Orthoedic Association scoring system (JOA score) and
      walking ability, radiographic sagittal alignment, fusion status, and surgery
      related complications were evaluated. RESULTS: The JOA score improved from 8.3
      points preoperatively to 10.9 points at the final follow-up (P < 0.05). Although
      no patients experienced deterioration in their walking ability postoperatively,
      10 patients were unable to walk at the final follow-up. Sagittal alignment,
      including C0-2 angle, C2-7 angle, and local alignment in fused segments, was
      maintained postoperatively. Twenty-five patients achieved fusion at the final
      follow-up (fusion rate: 81%), and fivepatients with nonunion required additional
      surgery. With regard to complications, 5 patients encountered postoperative upper
      extremity palsy. CONCLUSION: The CPS construct is amenable to achieve a
      relatively high fusion rate without correction loss, and good clinical outcomes
      can be achieved with a posterior single approach for CP patients. In the future,
      efforts should be made to make appropriate decisions regarding the fusion area,
      take preventative measures against postoperative upper extremity palsy, and
      simplify external orthoses after surgery, especially with the use of a halo
      jacket. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28574883
TI  - Long-term Radiological and Clinical Outcomes After Using Bone Marrow Mesenchymal
      Stem Cells Concentrate Obtained With Selective Retention Cell Technology in
      Posterolateral Spinal Fusion.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the long-term clinical and radiological outcomes of the use of bone
      marrow mesenchymal stem cell concentrate obtained with selective cell retention
      technology using Cellect with a particular collagen scaffold, Healos for
      posterolateral spinal fusion. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: With the increasing
      rate of spinal fusion, the problem of pseudarthrosis, which contributes to
      recurrent pain with patient disability, is considered to be the most common cause
      of revision lumbar spine surgery. Intensive research is being carried out to
      develop an alternative source of bone grafting and improve the spinal fusion
      rate. METHODS: A retrospective review of hospital records was performed.
      Identified patients were contacted to have a clinical and radiological evaluation
      follow-up. Clinical outcome was evaluated using visual analog scales for the back
      pain (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, and quality of life (EQ-5D)
      questionnaire. Radiological outcome was evaluated by performing dynamic
      flexion/extension lateral views and calculation of segmental Cobb angle. Any
      implant-associated complication was reported. Computed tomography (CT) scans were
      also performed. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients were included and all patients
      achieved successful fusion. The mean difference of the segmental Cobb angle was
      0.48 degrees  (range 0.3 degrees -0.7 degrees ). Computed tomography scans showed
      solid bilateral fusion with bridging bone (Grade I) in all patients, but solid
      unilateral fusion with bridging bone (Grade II) was detected for one patient at
      one level. Patients started to resume working activities within a mean period of
      3.5 months. The VAS score for the residual back pain was 4.1 +/- 2.1, whereas the
      ODI was 10.5 +/- 5.6 points, and the mean disability index was 21.1%. CONCLUSION:
      The use of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell concentrate obtained with selective
      cell retention technology could be considered as an effective means for
      augmenting spinal fusion. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28574885
TI  - From the Editor.

PMID- 28574884
TI  - Comparative Analysis of Three Imaging Modalities for Evaluation of Cervical
      Sagittal Alignment Parameters: A Validity and Reliability Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: This was a radiologic validity and reliability study. OBJECTIVE: We
      aimed to assess the validity and reliability of measurements from standing
      lateral cervical radiography (XR), reconstructed midsagittal images of supine
      cervical computerized tomography (CT) scans, and supine magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) for evaluating C2-C7 distance (C27 SVA), C2-C7 Cobb angle (CL), T1
      slope (T1S), thoracic inlet angle (TIA), and neck tilt (NT). SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: XR is the criterion standard imaging modality for measuring
      cervical sagittal alignment parameters. However, overlapping bony structures and
      soft tissue often make the upper end of the manubrium and cervicothoracic
      junction indiscernible. CT and MRI can overcome this limitation, but their
      reliability and validity have not been fully elucidated. METHODS: Fifty sets of
      three examinations from our database have been randomly selected. Three
      experienced spinal surgeons independently measured C27 SVA, CL, T1S, TIA, and NT.
      Paired t test and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the validity of CT and
      MRI in comparison with that of XR. Interobserver and intraobserver reliability
      were assessed by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: The
      paired t test confirmed the similarities of all CT (except C27 SVA) and MR
      parameters (except C27 SVA and CL) to the XR parameters (all P > 0.05). All
      parameters except C27 SVA were correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient, 0.523
      0.913). Correlation was highest between CT and MRI and lowest between CT and XR.
      All three imaging modalities had excellent intraobserver and interobserver
      reliability (ICC range: 0.770-0.999). Intraobserver and interobserver reliability
      were highest with MRI and lowest with XR. CONCLUSION: CT and especially MRI were
      more reliable than XR for evaluating cervical sagittal alignment parameters.
      Considering the reliability and radiation exposure, MRI is a good alternative to
      XR for measuring cervical sagittal alignment parameters, especially thoracic
      inlet alignment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28574886
TI  - Guest Editorial.

PMID- 28574887
TI  - Preserving the Wisdom: Insight From Nurses Who Chose to Lead.

PMID- 28574888
TI  - Carrying Skills From One C-Suite to Another: An Interview With Dr Maureen Swick.
AB  - This interview of Dr Maureen Swick chronicles career development and preparation
      for a transition into the role of CEO of the American Organization of Nurse
      Executives. While there are an estimated 400 000 nurses in middle management
      roles in the United States and 5700 in the most senior nursing positions in US
      hospitals, Dr Swick has assumed a role leading the leaders and highlights those
      experiences that have influenced her and provides insights into her vision for
      nursing leadership.

PMID- 28574889
TI  - A Spiral of Transitions Leading to Broader Influence and Action.
AB  - This article describes lessons learned through a reflective analysis of job
      transitions experienced by a registered nurse from the time of entry into the
      profession until the current point where the nurse is engaged in state, national,
      and international policy development work. The centrality and symbiotic nature of
      the link between policy and practice and the importance of evidence and
      leadership have emerged as key aspects of the expanding spiral of influence
      traversed as a result of various career moves. At every stage, lessons have been
      learned. Some of these are professional in nature, but on occasion, the lessons
      have been more personal. The importance of mentors cannot be underestimated in
      terms of the support and guidance they offer but also the challenges they bring
      to existing patterns of thought and behavior.

PMID- 28574890
TI  - Normative and Cataclysmic Career Transitions: A Nurse's Memoir.
AB  - Drawn from 54 years of experience as a nursing professional, this author gives a
      personal account of 2 types of career transitions: (1) normative
      transitions/stages, which include position changes, educational pursuits, and
      promotion; and (2) cataclysmic transitions, such as dismissal, bankruptcy, and
      mergers, that arise out of disruptive work situations that dramatically influence
      one's beliefs, actions, and perspective over time and ultimately shape a career.
      The importance of influencers throughout a career and lessons learned along the
      way are also explored.

PMID- 28574891
TI  - Does a CEO's Departure Trigger a Crisis for a CNO?
AB  - For chief nursing officers, volatility has become an expected characteristic of
      the professional landscape. Recent studies indicate that this volatility is
      likely to continue for at least the next decade. For chief nursing officers
      caught in an organizational crisis, the thought of leaving the leadership ranks
      triggers professional angst and a range of personal emotion. This article
      examines the most common reasons chief nursing officers leave their positions and
      how they can take steps to rebound. It also explores the tools and resources that
      can positively affect these monumental transitions, whether voluntary or
      involuntary.

PMID- 28574892
TI  - Transitional Moments: Reflections on Fulfilling the Professional Role Across a
      Lifetime.
AB  - All leaders require a plan and a template for either transition from a career to
      another career or retirement. Part of this plan includes receiving transition
      information from others. Reflections about an individual's career, observations
      from a career, and insights about strategies to create a rich and robust
      transition experience are discussed in this article. Also included are
      suggestions for the "transition receivers," or those benefitting from the
      experiences and wisdom of others, to optimize their career transitions while
      recognizing the value of transitioning as a 2-way process and dialogue.

PMID- 28574893
TI  - Personal Experience Shapes Viewpoint on Transition to Retirement.
AB  - Executives transitioning to retirement experience professional and personal
      challenges. This article provides examples of decision points for timing and
      potential aspects to consider when transitioning to retirement. Examples are
      opinion-based as a result of personal experience and observations from an expert
      vantage point.

PMID- 28574894
TI  - An Unconventional Path Leads to a Lifetime Commitment to the Nursing Profession.
AB  - The author shares his learnings as a nurse leader. Currently, the president and
      chief executive officer (CEO) of CGFNS International, Inc. (formerly known as the
      Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools), he discusses job
      transitions; the importance of networks and colleagues, and collaboration.

PMID- 28574895
TI  - Job and Role Transitions: The Pathway to Career Evolution.
AB  - An individual's career trajectory evolves with each job and role transition. Over
      time, job/role experiences trigger choices as to whether to stay in a particular
      job setting or role. Reflective questions guide the process of deciding whether
      and when it is time to transition. Considerations include role fit with lifestyle
      expectations, need for advanced knowledge and formal education, and readiness for
      upward or lateral movement. Using a framework modeled after the work of Bolman
      and Deal, this article presents 4 lenses to guide a careerist's readiness and
      need for change: human resource, structural, political, and symbolic factors.
      Each lens is introduced to reinforce a holistic approach to key triggers and
      considerations in career change. The summary culminates with how to foster a joy
      filled career.

PMID- 28574896
TI  - Growing Clinical and Academic Nursing Leaders: Building the Pipeline.
AB  - Nursing faces a crisis because there exists a dearth of qualified nurse
      academicians and administrators willing to step up to high-level leadership
      positions such as deanships and chief nursing operators. This article critically
      appraises the available literature regarding succession planning in the nursing
      profession and offers pragmatic suggestions to the profession to engage in
      succession planning in a deliberate and thoughtful manner.

PMID- 28574897
TI  - Description of Nurse Scientists in a Large Health Care System.
AB  - Replicating a research study that described the work of nurse scientists in
      children's hospitals, the purpose of the study was to describe the role,
      activities, and outcomes of nurse scientists employed in a national health care
      organization. The characteristics of nurses filling the nurse scientist role in
      clinical settings and outcomes associated with the role have not been extensively
      described. The setting of this study is ideal since the organization includes
      facilities of various sizes located in rural, urban, and suburban areas in 18
      states. Names and contact information of nurse scientists were obtained from
      nurse executives at each of the 110 affiliated organizations. Nurse scientists
      completed an anonymous survey. The primary role of the nurse scientists is to
      facilitate the work of others. Recommendations to strengthen the research
      infrastructure are provided.

PMID- 28574898
TI  - Transformational Impact on Direct Care Nurses' Supporting the Magnet Site Visit.
AB  - Exposure to strategic project and workforce preparation for nursing excellence
      throughout organizational American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet journeys
      has been observed as positively impacting the escort nurse's personal goal
      setting and achievement beyond the site visit. This article describes a project
      undertaken to capture the characteristics of staff nurses serving as Magnet
      escorts for hospital site visits. The positive relationship of that experience on
      goal setting and future workplace volunteerism for projects is presented. An
      association with nurse confidence through perceived self-efficacy is explored.
      The results have significance for leader and staff involvement in nursing
      projects and strategic goal achievement.

PMID- 28574899
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28574900
TI  - Hyperdense artery sign on computed tomography in acute coronary syndrome.

PMID- 28574901
TI  - First-in-man demonstration of complete bioresorbable vascular scaffold resorption
      after treatment of in-stent restenosis.

PMID- 28574902
TI  - Advanced Donation Programs and Deceased Donor-Initiated Chains-2 Innovations in
      Kidney Paired Donation.
AB  - Kidney paired donation (KPD) strategies have facilitated compatible living-donor
      kidney transplants for end-stage renal disease patients with willing but
      incompatible living donors. Success has inspired further innovations that expand
      opportunities for kidney-paired donation. Two such innovations are the advanced
      donation strategy in which a donor provides a kidney before their recipient is
      matched, or even in need of, a kidney transplant, and deceased donor initiated
      chains in which chains are started with deceased donors rather than altruistic
      living donors. Although these innovations may expand KPD, they raise several
      ethical issues. Specific concerns raised by advanced donation include the
      management of uncertainty, the extent of donor and recipient consent, the scope
      of the obligation that the organization has to the kidney exchange paired
      recipient, the naming of alternative recipients, and the potential to unfairly
      advantage the recipient. Use of deceased donors for chain-initiating kidneys
      raises ethical issues concerning the consent process for each involved party, the
      prioritization of deceased donor kidneys, the allocation of chain ending kidneys,
      and the value of a living donor kidney versus a deceased donor kidney. We outline
      each ethical issue and discuss how it can be conceptualized and managed so that
      these KPD innovations programs are ultimately successful.

PMID- 28574903
TI  - HSCT-Based Approaches for Tolerance Induction in Renal Transplant.
AB  - Renal transplantation has become the preferred treatment for end stage kidney
      failure. Although short-term graft survival has significantly improved as
      advances in immunosuppression have occurred, long-term patient and graft survival
      have not. Approximately only 50% of renal transplant recipients are alive at 10
      years due to the toxicities of immunosuppression and alloimmunity. Emerging
      research on cell-based therapies is opening a new door for patients to receive
      the organs they need without sacrificing quality of life and longevity because of
      drug-based immunosuppression. Research has focused on inducing tolerance, a state
      in which the body accepts the transplant and graft function is stable. Cell-based
      therapies to facilitate chimerism and achieve tolerance in major
      histocompatibility disparate recipients have been developed in mouse, swine,
      canine, and nonhuman primate models. These findings are now being translated into
      the clinic in several trials currently underway. Protocols that use a combination
      of traditional therapeutic agents paired with cell populations including
      hematopoietic stem cells, regulatory T cells, and facilitating cells are being
      conducted with the objective to harness the donor immune system to protect the
      transplanted tissue. The benefits and feasibility of the clinical application of
      cell-based therapy has been demonstrated, and promising results have been
      achieved. Here we discuss the preclinical work that has led to the clinical
      application of the various approaches and a summary of the most current clinical
      data from groups throughout the world.

PMID- 28574904
TI  - Randomized Clinical Trials of Corticosteroids in Septic Shock: Possibly Feasible,
      But Will They or Should They Change My Practice?

PMID- 28574905
TI  - Sepsis Subclasses: Be Careful of What You Wish for.

PMID- 28574906
TI  - "One Piece at a Time": The Cache of Acute Kidney Injury Data in the Electronic
      Medical Record.

PMID- 28574907
TI  - "The Times They Are A-Changin": Universal Delirium Screening in Pediatric
      Critical Care.

PMID- 28574908
TI  - Mo Money Mortality: Cost and Value in the PICU.

PMID- 28574910
TI  - Is Functional Status Scale a Reliable Measure of Neurologic Outcome Post
      Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation?

PMID- 28574909
TI  - What's the Flight Plan, Captain?

PMID- 28574911
TI  - Does a Medical Emergency Team Activation Define a New Paradigm of Mortality Risk?

PMID- 28574912
TI  - We Can Not Compartmentalize Our Patients! Overlapping Symptoms of Iatrogenic
      Withdrawal Syndrome, Pediatric Delirium, and Anticholinergic Toxidrome.

PMID- 28574913
TI  - Central Venous to Arterial CO2 Difference After Cardiac Surgery in Children: Many
      Unknowns.

PMID- 28574914
TI  - The authors reply.

PMID- 28574915
TI  - Effect of Sitting Pause Times on Balance After Supine to Standing Transfer in Dim
      Light.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The risk of falling for older adults increases in dimly
      lit environments. Longer sitting pause times, before getting out of bed and
      standing during the night, may improve postural stability. The purpose of this
      study was to measure the effect of sitting pause times on postural sway velocity
      immediately after a supine to standing transfer in a dimly lit room in older
      adult women. METHODS: Eighteen healthy women aged 65 to 75 years who were able to
      independently perform supine to standing transfers participated in the study. On
      each of 2 consecutive days, participants assumed the supine position on a mat
      table and closed their eyes for 45 minutes. Then, participants were instructed to
      open their eyes and transfer from supine to sitting, with either 2- or 30-second
      pause in the sitting position followed by standing. The sitting pause time order
      was randomized. RESULTS: A significant difference was observed in postural sway
      velocity between the 2- and 30-second sitting pause times. The results revealed
      that there was less postural sway velocity after 30-second than 2-second sitting
      pause time (0.61 +/- 0.19 vs 1.22 +/- 0.68, P < .001). DISCUSSION: Falls related
      to bathroom usage at night are the most common reported falls among older adults.
      In the present study, the investigators studied the effect of sitting pause times
      on postural sway velocity after changing position from supine to standing in a
      dimly lit environment. The findings showed that the mean postural sway velocity
      was significantly less after 30-second sitting pause time compared with 2-second
      sitting pause time. CONCLUSIONS: Postural sway velocity decreased when
      participants performed a sitting pause of 30 seconds before standing in a dimly
      lit environment. These results suggest that longer sitting pause times may
      improve adaptability to dimly lit environments, contributing to improved postural
      stability and reduced risk of fall in older adult women when getting out of bed
      at night.

PMID- 28574916
TI  - Functional Performance and Balance in the Oldest-Old.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The group of individuals 85 years and over (termed oldest
      old) is the fastest-growing population in the Western world. Although daily
      functional abilities and balance capabilities are known to decrease as an
      individual grows older, little is known about the balance and functional
      characteristics of the oldest-old population. The aims of this study were to
      characterize balance control, functional abilities, and balance self-efficacy in
      the oldest-old, to test the correlations between these constructs, and to explore
      differences between fallers and nonfallers in this age group. METHODS: Forty-five
      individuals living in an assisted living facility who ambulated independently
      participated in the study. The mean age was 90.3 (3.7) years. Function was tested
      using the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument (LLFDI). Balance was
      tested with the mini-Balance Evaluation System Test (mini-BESTest) and the Timed
      Up and Go (TUG) test. Balance self-efficacy was tested with the Activities
      Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale. RESULTS: The mean total function LLFDI
      score was 63.2 (11.4). The mean mini-BESTest score was 69.8% (18.6%) and the mean
      TUG time was 12.6 (6.9) seconds. The mean ABC score was 80.2% (14.2%). Good
      correlation (r > 0.7) was observed between the ABC and the function component of
      the LLFDI, as well as with the lower extremity domains. Correlations between the
      mini-BESTest scores and the LLFDI were fair to moderate (r's range: 0.38-0.62).
      Age and ABC scores were significant independent explanators of LLFDI score (P =
      .0141 and P = .0009, respectively). Fallers and nonfallers differed significantly
      across all outcome measures scores, except for TUG and for the "Reactive Postural
      Control" and "Sensory Orientation" domains of the mini-BESTest. DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide normative data regarding the
      balance and functional abilities of the oldest-old, and indicate a strong
      association between self-efficacy and function. These results emphasize the
      importance of incorporating strategies that maintain and improve balance self
      efficacy in interventions aimed at enhancing the functional level of this cohort.

PMID- 28574917
TI  - An Intervention to Improve Cultural Competence in Graduate Nursing Education.
AB  - Noting the small number of studies on the influence of an entire curriculum on
      graduate nursing students' cultural competence, the researchers examined the
      effect of a curricular intervention using a pretest-posttest design. The study,
      conducted from 2012 to 2014, focused solely on the Doctor of Nursing Practice
      program at a midwestern university. Results from a pre- and postintervention
      faculty curriculum survey indicated that the percentage of courses including a
      cultural competence objective increased from 65 percent to 81 percent. Results
      from the pre- and postintervention administration of the Transcultural Self
      Efficacy Tool showed a statistically significant improvement in students' overall
      score and three subscale scores.

PMID- 28574919
TI  - Re: Collider Bias Is Only a Partial Explanation for the Obesity Paradox.

PMID- 28574920
TI  - Asking Too Much of Epidemiologic Studies: The Problem of Collider Bias and the
      Obesity Paradox.

PMID- 28574921
TI  - Mediation Analysis for Censored Survival Data Under an Accelerated Failure Time
      Model.
AB  - Recent advances in causal mediation analysis have formalized conditions for
      estimating direct and indirect effects in various contexts. These approaches have
      been extended to a number of models for survival outcomes including accelerated
      failure time models, which are widely used in a broad range of health
      applications given their intuitive interpretation. In this setting, it has been
      suggested that under standard assumptions, the "difference" and "product" methods
      produce equivalent estimates of the indirect effect of exposure on the survival
      outcome. We formally show that these two methods may produce substantially
      different estimates in the presence of censoring or truncation, due to a form of
      model misspecification. Specifically, we establish that while the product method
      remains valid under standard assumptions in the presence of independent
      censoring, the difference method can be biased in the presence of such censoring
      whenever the error distribution of the accelerated failure time model fails to be
      collapsible upon marginalizing over the mediator. This will invariably be the
      case for most choices of mediator and outcome error distributions. A notable
      exception arises in case of normal mediator-normal outcome where we show
      consistency of both difference and product estimators in the presence of
      independent censoring. These results are confirmed in simulation studies and two
      data applications.

PMID- 28574922
TI  - Severe complicated neutropenia in two patients with metastatic non-small-cell
      lung cancer treated with nivolumab.
AB  - Checkpoint inhibitors effectively enhance the natural immune response against
      cancer, but they are also known to induce a unique spectrum of immune-related
      adverse events. Here, we report the first case of isolated neutropenia subsequent
      to nivolumab therapy. Prominent activated T-cells were found in the patient's
      serum and bone marrow alongside evidence of maturational defects in neutrophil
      precursors. Antineutrophil antibodies were not detected despite reliable testing
      techniques. A T-cell-mediated response is probable, consistent with the
      established mechanism for the development of other immune-related toxicities.
      Awareness of this rare and severe side effect reinforces the importance of early
      diagnosis and prompt initiation of proper treatment.

PMID- 28574923
TI  - EVALUATION OF PATCHY ATROPHY SECONDARY TO HIGH MYOPIA BY SEMIAUTOMATED SOFTWARE
      FOR FUNDUS AUTOFLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the progression of patchy atrophy in high myopia using
      semiautomated software for fundus autofluorescence (FAF) analysis. METHODS: The
      medical records and multimodal imaging of 21 consecutive highly myopic patients
      with macular chorioretinal patchy atrophy (PA) were retrospectively analyzed. All
      patients underwent repeated fundus autofluorescence and spectral domain optical
      coherence tomography over at least 12 months. Color fundus photography was also
      performed in a subset of patients. Total atrophy area was measured on FAF images
      using Region Finder semiautomated software embedded in Spectralis (Heidelberg
      Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) at baseline and during follow-up visits. Region
      Finder was compared with manually measured PA on FAF images. RESULTS: Twenty-two
      eyes of 21 patients (14 women, 7 men; mean age 62.8 + 13.0 years, range 32-84
      years) were included. Mean PA area using Region Finder was 2.77 +/- 2.91 SD mm at
      baseline, 3.12 +/- 2.68 mm at Month 6, 3.43 +/- 2.68 mm at Month 12, and 3.73 +/-
      2.74 mm at Month 18 (overall P < 0.005); this accounts for PA progression rate of
      0.821 mm/year. Atrophy progression was significantly greater among eyes with
      larger PA compared with smaller baseline PA at Months 6, 12, and 18. There was no
      statistically significant difference between semiautomated Region Finder PA area
      and manually measured PA area on FAF images. CONCLUSION: Fundus autofluorescence
      analysis by Region Finder semiautomated software provides accurate measurements
      of lesion area and allows us to quantify the progression of PA in high myopia. In
      our series, PA enlarged significantly over at least 12 months, and its
      progression seemed to be related to the lesion size at baseline.

PMID- 28574924
TI  - OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY IN RETINAL VEIN OCCLUSION: Correlations
      Between Macular Vascular Density, Visual Acuity, and Peripheral Nonperfusion Area
      on Fluorescein Angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study correlations in patients with retinal vein occlusion between
      the automatically quantified macular vascular densities in the superficial and
      deep capillary plexus (DCP) obtained using optical coherence tomography
      angiography (OCTA) and the data from conventional examination, particularly
      visual acuity and peripheral retinal nonperfusion assessed using fluorescein
      angiography (FA). METHODS: Retrospective, observational study of patients with
      retinal vein occlusion who underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination
      including FA and OCTA using the AngioVue OCTA system version 2015.100.0.35
      (OptovueRTVue XR 100; AVANTI, Inc, Fremont, CA). Vascular densities in the
      superficial capillary plexus and DCP, as well as the area of the foveal avascular
      zone, were measured using the AngioAnalytics software. RESULTS: Our study of 65
      eyes of 61 patients (33 men, mean age: 67 years) showed a significant correlation
      between peripheral nonperfusion on FA and (1) automatically quantified global
      vascular density in both plexus (P = 0.021 for the DCP) and (2) foveal avascular
      zone area (P = 0.037). We also found significant correlations between capillary
      dropouts in both plexus and peripheral nonperfusion (P < 0.001 for both) and
      between visual acuity and vascular densities (P = 0.002 for the global density in
      the DCP). Global density less than 46% in the DCP was associated to the presence
      of peripheral nonperfusion area on FA (P = 0.003) and to enlargement of the
      superficial foveal avascular zone (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated
      a significant correlation between automatically quantified macular vascular
      density on OCTA and peripheral nonperfusion on FA; OCTA could help identify high
      risk retinal vein occlusion patients who may benefit from further evaluation
      using FA.

PMID- 28574925
TI  - The phosphodiesterase III inhibitor cilostazol protects the brain
      microvasculature from collagenase injury.
AB  - A patient's prognosis, including mortality, after intracranial hemorrhage (ICH)
      is strongly related to the disruption of the blood-brain barrier caused by damage
      to vascular endothelial cells (ECs). We reported previously that cilostazol, a
      phosphodiesterase III inhibitor, ameliorated collagenase-induced ICH in a mouse
      model. We also reported that cilostazol protected cultured ECs in a blood-brain
      barrier model. However, the influence of cilostazol on vascular structure and
      cell morphology remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether cilostazol
      exerts protective effects on vascular structures, such as the extracellular
      matrix (ECM). A mouse model of collagenase-induced ICH was used to observe
      structures of the brain vasculature in a peri-hemorrhagic lesion using
      transmission electron microscopy. We then evaluated the morphology of the ECM and
      cytoskeleton in human brain microvasculature ECs by immunostaining. The brain
      vasculature was changed 24 h after induction of ICH. Cilostazol (30 mg/kg,
      orally) suppressed the thinning of the basement membrane, which is formed by the
      ECM components collagen IV and laminin. Moreover, this drug also suppressed the
      enlargement of ECs caused by ICH. Collagenase treatment (30 U/ml) of human brain
      microvasculature ECs caused a decrease in collagen IV expression and an increase
      in the number and size of the intercellular spaces, as indicated by beta-actin
      immunostaining. Pretreatment of with 10 uM cilostazol suppressed these increases
      in the number and size of the intercellular spaces. These findings suggest that
      cilostazol protects the ECM of the brain microvasculature against ICH both in
      vivo and in vitro.

PMID- 28574926
TI  - Hyposmia, symptoms of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and
      parkinsonian motor signs suggest prodromal neurodegeneration in 22q11 deletion
      syndrome.
AB  - The 22q11 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is one of the most common genomic disorders
      in humans. There is an increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in individuals
      with 22q11DS. The characteristic motor features of PD begin when more than 50% of
      dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra have degenerated. Before this, there
      is a prodromal period, of up to 20 years, in which nonmotor features such as
      hyposmia, autonomic dysfunction, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and
      subtle motor dysfunction can occur. We used validated clinical tools to
      investigate the presence of prodromal markers of PD in 50 adults with 22q11DS and
      14 matched deletion-negative controls. The median score on the University of
      Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test was significantly lower in the 22q11
      deletion group, and 44% scored in the hyposmic range (P=0.024). Individuals with
      22q11DS were significantly more likely to report autonomic symptoms (urinary
      dysfunction or constipation, P=0.016). Twenty-eight percent of 22q11DS
      participants scored above the threshold for rapid eye movement sleep behavior
      disorder on a screening questionnaire (P=0.022). Four 22q11DS participants had
      parkinsonian motor signs on examination, which did not fulfill the diagnostic
      criteria for PD. We report prodromal markers of PD in 22q11DS. These may help
      identify individuals with 22q11 deletion at risk of neurological disease.
      However, the significance of these signs needs to be confirmed by longitudinal
      studies of development of PD.

PMID- 28574927
TI  - Altered functional connectivity of the periaqueductal gray in chronic neck and
      shoulder pain.
AB  - Chronic neck and shoulder pain with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CNSP-CSR)
      is one of the most common clinical chronic pain diseases. This study aimed to
      investigate the abnormal patterns in functional connectivity (FC) pertaining to
      the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) in patients with CNSP-CSR. A seed-based FC
      analysis was carried out for the right ventrolateral PAG and a correlation
      analysis was carried out with pain intensity, duration, and the extracted mean z
      scores. The PAG FC was significantly positively associated with the right orbital
      inferior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus/postcentral gyrus, putamen, and the
      left anterior cingulate cortex, and significant negative FC was observed in the
      right lingual gyrus/occipital cortex in patients with CNSP-CSR. A significant
      negative correlation was found between the pain intensity and the mean z scores
      in the left anterior cingulate cortex. Our study provides evidence to show that
      patients with CNSP-CSR have abnormal FC in the PAG-centered pain modulation
      network. Knowledge of this abnormal FC might lead to a better understanding of
      the mechanism underlying CNSP-CSR, especially the descending pain modulation
      system involved in chronic pain.

PMID- 28574928
TI  - Clinical and Economic Burden of Peristomal Skin Complications in Patients With
      Recent Ostomies.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk and economic burden
      of peristomal skin complications (PSCs) in a large integrated healthcare system
      in the Midwestern United States. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SUBJECTS AND
      SETTING: The sample comprised 128 patients; 40% (n = 51) underwent colostomy, 50%
      (n = 64) underwent ileostomy, and 10% (n = 13) underwent urostomy. Their average
      age was 60.6 +/- 15.6 years at the time of ostomy surgery. METHODS: Using
      administrative data, we retrospectively identified all patients who underwent
      colostomy, ileostomy, or urostomy between January 1, 2008, and November 30, 2012.
      Trained medical abstractors then reviewed the clinical records of these persons
      to identify those with evidence of PSC within 90 days of ostomy surgery. We then
      examined levels of healthcare utilization and costs over a 120-day period,
      beginning with date of surgery, for patients with and without PSC, respectively.
      Our analyses were principally descriptive in nature. RESULTS: The study cohort
      comprised 128 patients who underwent ostomy surgery (colostomy, n = 51 [40%];
      ileostomy, n = 64 [50%]; urostomy, n = 13 [10%]). Approximately one-third (36.7%)
      had evidence of a PSC in the 90-day period following surgery (urinary diversion,
      7.7%; colostomy, 35.3%; ileostomy, 43.8%). The average time from surgery to PSC
      was 23.7 +/- 20.5 days (mean +/- SD). Patients with PSC had index admissions that
      averaged 21.5 days versus 13.9 days for those without these complications.
      Corresponding rates of hospital readmission within the 120-day period following
      surgery were 47% versus 33%, respectively. Total healthcare costs over 120 days
      were almost $80,000 higher for patients with PSCs. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one
      third of ostomy patients over a 5-year study period had evidence of PSCs within
      90 days of surgery. Costs of care were substantially higher for patients with
      these complications.

PMID- 28574929
TI  - Treatment Patterns, Outcomes, and Costs for Bowel Obstruction in Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess treatment patterns, outcomes, and
      costs for bowel obstruction in ovarian cancer. METHODS/MATERIALS: All patients
      with stage II to IV ovarian cancer who were admitted for bowel obstruction
      greater than or equal to 6 months after cancer diagnosis from 2000 to 2011 were
      identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry-Medicare
      database. Management strategies and outcomes of bowel obstruction were compared.
      RESULTS: Among 1397 women with bowel obstruction, 562 (40%) underwent surgery,
      and 154 (11%) had a gastrostomy or jejunostomy (G/J) tube placed. Thirty-four
      percent of patients who underwent surgery subsequently received chemotherapy,
      compared with 8% of those managed with a G/J tube (odds ratio, 4.8; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 2.7-8.8). Thirty-day complications were higher for
      patients in the surgery group compared with those in the tube group (69% vs 46%;
      odds ratio, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.8-3.7), as were mean adjusted 30-day total costs
      ($28,872 vs $18,528, P < 0.001). Median survival was greater for women who
      underwent surgery compared with those who had a G/J tube (5.3 vs 1.2 months;
      adjusted hazard ratio, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.25-0.38). The median survival of patients
      in whom surgical correction failed and required G/J tube placement during the
      same inpatient admission was 2.6 months. Women who received postintervention
      chemotherapy had improved survival compared with those who did not in both the
      surgery (17.0 vs 2.8 months, P < 0.001) and G/J tube (5.7 vs 1.0 months, P <
      0.001) groups. CONCLUSIONS: In women with ovarian cancer who develop bowel
      obstruction, surgery may benefit a subset of patients, likely related to the
      ability to receive subsequent chemotherapy. Efforts to identify those who derive
      no benefit may reduce unnecessary laparotomy, along with its associated
      complications and costs. Given this population's limited survival, patient
      preferences should be evaluated in future studies assessing the management of
      bowel obstruction.

PMID- 28574930
TI  - Use of Adjuvant Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, or Combined Modality Therapy and
      the Impact on Survival for Uterine Carcinosarcoma Limited to the Pelvis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Clinical outcomes for patients with uterine carcinosarcoma are poor
      after surgical management alone. Adjuvant therapies including chemotherapy (CT)
      and/or radiation therapy (RT) have been previously investigated, but the optimal
      management of this disease remains controversial. The purposes of this study were
      to analyze the patterns of use of adjuvant CT and RT and to assess the impact on
      survival of each of these treatment regimens using the National Cancer Data Base.
      METHODS/MATERIALS: The National Cancer Data Base was queried for patients given a
      diagnosis of uterine carcinosarcoma confined to the pelvis who underwent total
      hysterectomy/bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy between 2004 and 2011. Patients were
      excluded if they survived less than 4 months after diagnosis. Data regarding CT
      and RT use were collected. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed using the Kaplan
      Meier method. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the
      effect of covariates on OS. RESULTS: A total of 4906 patients were included in
      this study. Median age was 67 years (interquartile range, 60-75 years). Median
      follow-up was 28.9 months (interquartile range, 15.4-52.9 months). There were
      1777 patients (36.2%) who received no adjuvant treatment, 971 (19.8%) who
      received CT alone, 1060 (21.6%) who received RT alone, and 1098 (22.4%) who
      received both RT and CT. The 5-year OS for patients receiving no adjuvant
      therapy, adjuvant RT alone, adjuvant CT alone, and combined CT and RT were 44.9%,
      47.1%, 47.5%, and 62.9%, respectively. On pairwise analysis, combined CT and RT
      was associated with improved survival compared with all other subgroups (P <
      0.001). On multivariable Cox regression analysis, combined CT and RT (hazard
      ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-0.57; P < 0.001) and CT alone (hazard
      ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.69-0.88; P < 0.001) were significantly
      associated with improved OS, whereas RT alone was not. CONCLUSIONS: Combination
      therapy with CT and RT was associated with significantly improved 5-year OS
      compared with no further therapy, RT alone, or CT alone.

PMID- 28574931
TI  - Neoadjuvant Weekly Paclitaxel-Carboplatin Is Effective in Stage I-II Cervical
      Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by surgery in cervical cancer
      is widely studied with paclitaxel-ifosfamide-cisplatinum 3 weekly (TIP). Although
      the response rates with TIP are high, the toxicity is substantial. Therefore,
      this study evaluates dose-dense paclitaxel-carboplatin (TC) as an alternative.
      METHODS: In this prospective phase 2 study trial, we included 36 patients with
      International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IB1 to IIB
      cervical cancer, who received 9 weeks' NACT dose-dense TC (median weekly dose
      paclitaxel 60 mg/m, carboplatinum area under the curve 2.7). Radiological
      response was evaluated by RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors).
      Optimal pathologic response (OPT) was defined as complete disappearance of tumor
      (complete response [CR]) or residual disease with less than 3-mm stromal invasion
      (PR1). Suboptimal pathologic response consisted of persistent residual disease
      with more than 3-mm stromal invasion (PR2). RESULTS: Nine patients had a FIGO
      stage IB1 (25%), 7 had stage IB2(19%), 3 had stage IIA (8%), and 17 had stage IIB
      disease (47%). Evaluation by magnetic resonance imaging after NACT showed 32
      RECIST responses (89%) (CR in 11, PR in 21). Patients who were inoperable had
      insufficient reduction of the tumor to be operable (4 patients), progressive
      disease (1 patient), or stable disease (1 patient). Thirty patients were suitable
      for surgery after NACT. Pathology showed OPT in 50% (CR in 10, PR1 in 5).
      Thirteen patients had pathologic lymph nodes on radiological evaluation before
      start of chemotherapy. After chemotherapy, the lymph nodes were negative in 6
      (47%) of these patients (pathologic complete remission). Postoperative
      chemoradiotherapy was administered in 11 patients (2 because of close resection
      margins, 5 because of metastatic lymph node after surgery, 2 because of close
      resection margins and metastatic lymph nodes after surgery, and 1 tumor >4 cm
      after NACT). Hematologic toxicity was acceptable with no febrile neutropenia and
      a low nonhematologic toxicity. The estimated 5-year overall survival was 70.8%.
      CONCLUSIONS: Neoadjuvant TC dose-dense in cervical carcinoma has a high response
      rate, comparable with TIP, and an acceptable toxicity.

PMID- 28574932
TI  - Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Polymorphisms and Serum VEGF Levels in
      Women With Epithelial Ovarian Cancer, Benign Tumors, and Healthy Ovaries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the relation of 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) in the VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) gene in patients with
      epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), compared with patients carrying benign tumors or
      healthy ovaries. We studied serum VEGF levels and the relation with SNPs and
      association between VEGF SNPs and haplotypes with progression-free survival (PFS)
      in patients with cancer. METHODS: The genotyping of VEGF gene polymorphisms (
      2578 C/A, -1154 G/A, -460 T/C, +405 G/C, +936 C/T) was performed in DNA isolated
      from blood samples of 100 women. The different genotypes were evaluated by
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Vascular endothelial growth
      factor protein concentration was assessed in serum using solid-phase sandwich
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: We found statistically significant
      differences in the distribution of VEGF genotypes among the 3 groups of patients:
      -2578 C/A between those with EOC and healthy ovary (P = 0.04), -460 T/C between
      those with EOC and healthy ovary (P = 0.03), and -460 T/C between those with
      benign tumors and healthy ovary (P = 0.02). Vascular endothelial growth factor
      serum levels were analyzed in patients with EOC. Higher levels were found in
      patients with clear cell carcinoma compared with those with serous, mucinous, or
      endometrioid tumors (P < 0.05). No clear association was observed between VEGF
      SNPs and serum VEGF levels. There was no significant correlation between VEGF
      SNPs and PFS. In haplotype analysis, CGTCT and CGTGT showed worse prognosis
      without reaching the statistical significance. CGCGC and AGTGC haplotypes had
      statistically significant differences among patients with EOC, benign tumors, and
      healthy ovaries (Ps = 0.046 and 0.041, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The
      distribution of VEGF genotypes was different in patients with EOC, compared with
      those with benign tumors or women with healthy ovaries. Vascular endothelial
      growth factor serum levels were higher in patients with clear cell carcinoma. No
      correlation was found with improved PFS, but CGTCT and CGTGT haplotypes showed
      worse prognosis.

PMID- 28574933
TI  - Real-World Management of Trabectedin/Pegylated Liposomal Doxorubicin in Platinum
      Sensitive Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Patients: A National Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trabectedin (T) plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is
      approved for treatment of platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC).
      Despite the recommendations and guidelines, variations in managing T/PLD
      administration in routine clinical practice cannot be excluded. We aimed at
      setting up an Italian survey collecting data about management of T/PLD
      administration in ROC patients. METHODS: We carried out the development of a
      questionnaire-based survey on routine clinical practice in the management of ROC
      patients administered T/PLD. The survey registered the physicians' approach to
      modification/discontinuation of treatment, type of modifications, reasons why,
      and so on. The survey was transmitted to medical oncologists and gynecologic
      oncologists practicing in national centers/institutions. RESULTS: Fifty-eight
      Italian centers/institutions returned the compiled questionnaire; participants
      practiced at community cancer centers or hospitals (56.9%), academic institutions
      (36.2%), and other settings (private clinics, etc) (6.9%). There was no
      statistically significant difference in the distribution of practice setting
      according to geographic areas. Most responders were medical oncologists (84.5%)
      and were members (82.8%) of at least 1 scientific society or cooperative group.
      Almost 31.5% of responders reported interruption of the whole treatment, mostly
      because of toxicity (41.2%), followed by patients' choice (29.4%), or achievement
      of clinical benefit (23.5%). Dose reduction was referred by 47.4% of responders.
      Reduction of dose for both drugs was referred by 88.5% of responders, and the
      extent of dose reduction ranged between 10% and 30%. CONCLUSIONS: This survey
      highlights the gaps in transposing evidence-based or consensus guidelines in the
      real-world management of T/PLD administration; these findings could be useful in
      order to focus the attention on specific knowledge and/or experience gaps and
      plan pertinent educational programs.

PMID- 28574934
TI  - PFO Closure for Cryptogenic Stroke: A Review and Clinical Treatment Algorithm.
AB  - With a high prevalence in the general population of approximately 25%, and a
      prevalence in the cryptogenic stroke population approaching 40%, the propensity
      of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) to precipitate or enable stroke, especially in
      young, otherwise healthy individuals, has been the subject of much debate. With
      proof of concept achieved via imaging modalities documenting thrombus-in-transit,
      and the development of minimally-invasive percutaneous approaches to closure,
      multiple observational studies and, more recently, several completed randomized
      controlled trials have sought to answer the question of when and in whom PFO
      closure should occur. We describe the historical context of PFO closure and
      review the observational and randomized control trial evidence in this field,
      culminating in the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the first
      dedicated closure device for PFO. Guidelines and consensus statements are
      discussed, and a novel treatment algorithm is proposed. Future directions in PFO
      closure will include new devices, further data from completed and upcoming
      clinical trials, and potential expansion into other disease states associated
      with PFO.

PMID- 28574935
TI  - Genetic Insights Into Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease.
AB  - Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common valvular congenital heart defect
      in the general population. BAV is commonly associated with the presence of other
      congenital cardiovascular malformations, which leads to cardiovascular
      complications requiring surgery in around 27% of cases. Familial clustering of
      BAV is well-recognized, and international guidelines advocate that first-degree
      relatives of patients with BAV be screened. Studies of genetic linkage in
      affected families, syndromic forms of BAV, and sporadic patients led to
      discoveries of genetic loci harboring genes involved in the development of BAV.
      However, only a few of these findings have been replicated in other populations
      and been proven functional in animal models. This task is further complicated by
      the phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity of BAV disease. BAV differs in valve
      fusion patterns and some studies have suggested that different valve fusion
      patterns originate from different pathophysiological processes. We present an
      overview of the published work on genetic linkage and its association with BAV
      disease. Presented articles used different discovery strategies ranging from
      candidate gene association to whole exome sequencing, as well as various
      validation protocols. Although still very limited, our understanding of the
      molecular pathology of BAV disease is likely to influence current clinical
      practice by enabling genetic counseling, prenatal diagnosis, and risk
      stratification for individual patients. This task will be made possible thanks to
      increasing availability, as well as the reduced cost of next-generation
      sequencing and bioinformatic processing of data.

PMID- 28574936
TI  - Coronary Microcirculatory Dysfunction in Human Cardiomyopathies: A Pathologic and
      Pathophysiologic Review.
AB  - Cardiomyopathies are a heterogeneous group of diseases of the myocardium. The
      term cardiomyopathy involves a wide range of pathogenic mechanisms that affect
      the structural and functional states of cardiomyocytes, extravascular tissues,
      and coronary vasculature, including both epicardial coronary arteries and the
      microcirculation. In the developed phase, cardiomyopathies present with various
      clinical symptoms: dyspnea, chest pain, palpitations, swelling of the
      extremities, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. Due to the heterogeneity of
      cardiomyopathic patterns and symptoms, their diagnosis and therapies are great
      challenges. Despite extensive research, the relation between the structural and
      functional abnormalities of the myocardium and the coronary circulation are still
      not well understood in the various forms of cardiomyopathy. The main pathological
      characteristics of cardiomyopathies and the coronary microcirculation develop in
      a progressive manner due to (1) genetic-immunologic-systemic factors; (2)
      comorbidities with endothelial, myogenic, metabolic, and inflammatory changes;
      (3) aging-induced arteriosclerosis; and (4) myocardial fibrosis. The aim of this
      review is to summarize the most important common pathological features and/or
      adaptations of the coronary microcirculation in various types of cardiomyopathies
      and to integrate the present understanding of the underlying pathophysiological
      mechanisms responsible for the development of various types of cardiomyopathies.
      Although microvascular dysfunction is present and contributes to cardiac
      dysfunction and the potential outcome of disease, the current therapeutic
      approaches are not specific for the given types of cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28574938
TI  - Chronic Anterior Pelvic Instability: Diagnosis and Management.
AB  - Chronic anterior pelvic ring instability can cause pain and disability. Pain
      typically is localized to the suprapubic area or inner thigh; often is associated
      with lower back or buttock pain; and may be exacerbated by activity, direct
      impact, or pelvic ring compression. Known etiologies of chronic anterior pelvic
      ring instability include pregnancy, parturition, trauma, insufficiency fractures,
      athletics, prior surgery, and osteitis pubis. Diagnosis often is delayed.
      Physical examination may reveal an antalgic or waddling gait, tenderness over the
      pubic bones or symphysis pubis, and pain with provocative maneuvers. AP pelvic
      radiographs may demonstrate chronic degenerative changes at the pubic symphysis
      or nonhealing fractures. Standing single leg stance (flamingo view) radiographs
      can demonstrate pathologic motion at the pubic symphysis. CT may be useful in
      assessing posterior pelvic ring involvement. The initial management is typically
      nonsurgical and may include the use of an orthosis, activity modification,
      medication, and physical therapy. If nonsurgical modalities are unsuccessful,
      surgery may be warranted, although little evidence exists to guide treatment.
      Surgical intervention may include internal fixation alone in select patients, the
      addition of bone graft to fixation, or symphyseal arthrodesis. In some patients,
      additional stabilization or arthrodesis of the posterior pelvic ring may be
      indicated.

PMID- 28574937
TI  - Vitamin D Deficiency and Supplementation in Cardiovascular Disorders.
AB  - Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in developed
      countries. Similarly, the frequency of vitamin D deficiency is increasing, and a
      number of epidemiologic and clinical studies have suggested that there is an
      increased risk of CVD among people with depletion of this vitamin. This has
      raised much interest in the potential pathogenic and therapeutic role of vitamin
      D in CVD. However, randomized trials and meta-analyses have not shown a clear
      benefit of vitamin D supplementation with respect to cardiovascular events.
      Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the most relevant evidence to date
      regarding vitamin D deficiency and supplementation, and their respective impact
      on CVD prevention and treatment.

PMID- 28574939
TI  - Management of Tarsometatarsal Joint Injuries.
AB  - Joint disruptions to the tarsometatarsal (TMT) joint complex, also known as the
      Lisfranc joint, represent a broad spectrum of pathology from subtle athletic
      sprains to severe crush injuries. Although injuries to the TMT joint complex are
      uncommon, when missed, they may lead to pain and dysfunction secondary to
      posttraumatic arthritis and arch collapse. An understanding of the appropriate
      anatomy, mechanism, physical examination, and imaging techniques is necessary to
      diagnose and treat injuries of the TMT joints. Nonsurgical management is
      indicated in select patients who maintain reduction of the TMT joints under
      physiologic stress. Successful surgical management of these injuries is
      predicated on anatomic reduction and stable fixation. Open reduction and internal
      fixation remains the standard treatment, although primary arthrodesis has emerged
      as a viable option for certain types of TMT joint injuries.

PMID- 28574940
TI  - Management of Lumbar Conditions in the Elite Athlete.
AB  - Lumbar disk herniation, degenerative disk disease, and spondylolysis are the most
      prevalent lumbar conditions that result in missed playing time. Lumbar disk
      herniation has a good prognosis. After recovery from injury, professional
      athletes return to play 82% of the time. Surgical management of lumbar disk
      herniation has been shown to be a viable option in athletes in whom nonsurgical
      measures have failed. Degenerative disk disease is predominately genetic but may
      be accelerated in athletes secondary to increased physiologic loading.
      Nonsurgical management is the standard of care for lumbar degenerative disk
      disease in the elite athlete. Spondylolysis is more common in adolescent athletes
      with back pain than in adult athletes. Nonsurgical management of spondylolysis is
      typically successful. However, if surgery is required, fusion or direct pars
      repair can allow the patient to return to sports.

PMID- 28574941
TI  - An Accurate Full-flexion Anterolateral Portal for Needle Placement in the Knee
      Joint With Dry Osteoarthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Accurate delivery of an injection into the intra-articular space of
      the knee is achieved in only two thirds of knees when using the standard
      anterolateral portal. The use of a modified full-flexion anterolateral portal
      provides a highly accurate, less painful, and more effective method for
      reproducible intra-articular injection without the need for ultrasonographic or
      fluoroscopic guidance in patients with dry osteoarthritis of the knee. METHODS:
      The accuracy of needle placement was assessed in a prospective series of 140
      consecutive injections in patients with symptomatic degenerative knee arthritis
      without clinical knee effusion. Procedural pain was determined using the
      Numerical Rating Scale. The accuracy rates of needle placement were confirmed
      with fluoroscopic imaging to document the dispersion pattern of injected contrast
      material. RESULTS: Using the standard anterolateral portal, 52 of 70 injections
      were confirmed to have been placed in the intra-articular space on the first
      attempt (accuracy rate, 74.2%). Using the modified full-flexion anterolateral
      portal, 68 of 70 injections were placed in the intra-articular space on the first
      attempt (accuracy rate, 97.1%; P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: This study revealed that
      using the modified full-flexion anterolateral portal for injections into the knee
      joint resulted in more accurate and less painful injections than those performed
      by the same orthopaedic surgeon using the standard anterolateral portal. In
      addition, the technique offered therapeutic delivery into the joint without the
      need for fluoroscopic confirmation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level II.

PMID- 28574942
TI  - Association Between Opioid Intake and Disability After Surgical Management of
      Ankle Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid-centric pain management strategies have created an epidemic of
      prescription opioid abuse. This study assesses whether opioid intake is
      associated with disability, satisfaction with treatment, and pain at the time of
      suture removal and at 5 to 8 months after suture removal following open reduction
      and internal fixation of ankle fractures. METHODS: We enrolled 102 adult patients
      in the study at the time of suture removal, 59 of whom were available for follow
      up at 5 to 8 months. At the time of suture removal, we recorded opioid use;
      trauma-related factors; and scores on measures of disability, pain, and treatment
      satisfaction. Patients who were available for follow-up completed the disability,
      pain, and treatment satisfaction measures at 5 to 8 months and their opioid use
      at that time was recorded. RESULTS: No association was found between opioid
      intake and disability at the time of suture removal. No association was found
      between opioid intake and satisfaction with treatment or satisfaction with pain
      management at the time of suture removal. At 5 to 8 months after suture removal,
      no variables were associated with opioid intake. The psychologic measures of pain
      anxiety and catastrophic thinking were the factors most consistently associated
      with disability, treatment satisfaction, satisfaction with pain management, pain
      at rest, and pain with activity at both of the time points. CONCLUSION: Patients
      with ankle fractures may be able to use fewer opioids than are currently
      prescribed and experience levels of disability and treatment satisfaction
      comparable with those of patients who take greater amounts of opioids,
      independent of injury characteristics. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic level II.

PMID- 28574943
TI  - The Timing and Relevance of Relapsed Deformity in Patients With Idiopathic
      Clubfoot.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The timing and relevance of relapsed deformity after correction of
      idiopathic clubfoot have not been well documented. METHODS: All patients with
      idiopathic clubfoot seen at the authors' institution during the study period who
      were followed for >=2 years (range, 2.0 to 9.8 years) were included (N = 191).
      Survival analysis and multivariate regression analysis were used to analyze the
      data. RESULTS: The median age at first relapse was 20 months. The probability of
      relapse remained approximately 30% at age 2 years and increased to 45% by 4 years
      and 52% by 6 years. Parent-reported adherence with bracing reduced the odds of a
      relapse by 15 times (P < 0.01). After an initial relapse, adherence with bracing
      was successful in avoiding a subsequent relapse in 68% of patients. Feet graded
      as very severe on the Dimeglio scale were 5.75 times more likely to relapse than
      those graded severe and were 7.27 times more likely than those graded as
      moderate. DISCUSSION: Patients whose parents reported nonadherence with bracing
      and patients with very severe deformities were most likely to relapse. After an
      initial relapse, regaining correction of the foot and resuming bracing were
      beneficial to avoid further relapses. These findings can be useful to clinicians
      in advising families regarding the prognosis of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The
      development of a relapse affects the subsequent management and outcome of
      clubfoot deformity. The importance of bracing should be reinforced to parents.
      Bracing until at least age 4 years may be beneficial. For patients whose families
      are especially resistant to brace use and for older patients who experience a
      second relapse, regaining correction of the deformity via cast treatment followed
      by an Achilles lengthening procedure and/or tendon transfer may be the best
      alternative.

PMID- 28574944
TI  - Factors Motivating Medical Students in Selecting a Career Specialty: Relevance
      for a Robust Orthopaedic Pipeline.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Selection of a career specialty by medical students is a complex
      and individualized decision. Our goals were to understand the factors that
      influenced medical students in selecting their career specialty, identify the
      stage at which this decision was made, and understand the role of demographics,
      mentors, and curricula in this process. METHODS: Medical students from 10
      institutions participated in a web-based survey. Results were stratified by sex,
      race/ethnicity, and level of interest in orthopaedic surgery. RESULTS: A total of
      657 students responded to the survey. Specialty content (mean rating, 8.4/10) and
      quality of life/lifestyle/stress level (7.5/10) were the primary motivating
      factors in selecting a specialty. Interest in orthopaedic surgery was lower in
      women than in men (2.7 versus 3.9; P < 0.01) and was equivalent among
      race/ethnicity groups. Although 27% of students reported moderate or extensive
      medical school curriculum exposure to orthopaedics, this education did not sway
      them toward the specialty. CONCLUSIONS: Levels of interest in orthopaedics among
      medical students may be lower than generally assumed. Increasing the
      attractiveness of the specialty will require a multifaceted approach, including
      recognition of lifestyle factors, adjustments in the orthopaedic clerkship to
      make the specialty more appealing, mentorship by orthopaedic faculty, and
      conversion of high levels of interest in the specialty among minority medical
      students into successful residency applications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

PMID- 28574945
TI  - A SERIES OF FIVE PATIENTS WITH FOVEAL HYPOPLASIA DEMONSTRATING GOOD VISUAL
      ACUITY.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Foveal hypoplasia is associated with low vision in a variety
      of conditions. We report and show imaging studies for a series of five patients
      with foveal hypoplasia who had visual acuity ranging from 20/25 to 20/60.
      METHODS: Observational case series. PATIENTS: This series includes five patients
      aged 5 to 18 years who presented to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Hoover
      Low Vision Clinic. All patients showed a partial or complete absence of the fovea
      in both eyes on examination. RESULTS: Eight eyes exhibited absence of foveal
      depression on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (Cirrus high
      definition OCT; Carl Zeiss Meditec). Four eyes exhibited Grade 3 foveal
      hypoplasia, two eyes exhibited Grade 4 foveal hypoplasia, and two eyes exhibited
      Grade 1 foveal hypoplasia. For two eyes (one patient), the optical coherence
      tomography was no longer available for grading, but was interpreted as foveal
      hypoplasia in both eyes in the chart. Visual acuities ranged from 20/25 to 20/60.
      Only two of five patients showed signs of albinism. CONCLUSION: Despite the
      presence of foveal hypoplasia, patients can retain a high level of visual acuity,
      which suggests that a foveal depression is not essential for the development of
      good visual acuity.

PMID- 28574946
TI  - Free Diced Cartilage: A New Application of Diced Cartilage Grafts in Primary and
      Secondary Rhinoplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Irregularities or deformities of the nasal dorsum after hump
      reduction account for a significant number of revision rhinoplasties. The authors
      therefore developed a technique of meticulously dicing and exactly placing free
      diced cartilage grafts, harvested from septum, rib, or ear cartilage. The
      cartilage paste is used for smoothening, augmentation, or camouflaging of the
      nasal dorsum in primary or revision rhinoplasties. METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis of multisurgeon consecutive open approach rhinoplasties from January to
      December of 2014 was conducted at a single center. The authors compared the
      outcome of three different techniques to augment or cover the nasal dorsum after
      an observation period of 7 months. In group I, 325 patients with free diced
      cartilage grafts as the only onlay were included. In group II, consisting of 73
      patients, the dorsal onlay was either fascia alone or in combination with free
      diced cartilage grafts. Forty-eight patients in group III received a dorsal
      augmentation with the classic diced cartilage in fascia technique. RESULTS: Four
      hundred forty-six patients undergoing primary and secondary rhinoplasties in
      which one of the above-mentioned diced cartilage techniques was used were
      included in the study. The authors found revision rates for dorsal irregularities
      within the 7-month postoperative observation period of 5.2, 8.2, and 25 percent
      for groups I, II, and III, respectively. CONCLUSION: The authors' findings
      strongly support their clinical experience that the free diced cartilage graft
      technique presents an effective and easily reproducible method for camouflage and
      augmentation in aesthetic and reconstructive rhinoplasty.

PMID- 28574947
TI  - Dynamic Rheology for the Prediction of Surgical Outcomes in Autologous Fat
      Grafting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of the abundance and biocompatibility of fat, lipotransfer
      has become an attractive method for treating soft-tissue deficits. However, it is
      limited by unpredictable graft survival and retention. Currently, little is known
      about the viscoelastic properties of fat after various injection methods. Here,
      the authors assess the effects of cannula diameter, length, and shape on the
      viscoelastic properties, structure, and retention of fat. METHODS: Human
      lipoaspirate was harvested using suction-assisted liposuction and prepared for
      grafting. A syringe pump was used to inject fat at a controlled flow rate through
      cannulas of varying gauges, lengths, and shapes. Processed samples were tested in
      triplicate on an oscillatory rheometer to measure their viscoelastic properties.
      Fat grafts from each group were placed into the scalps of immunocompromised mice.
      After 8 weeks, graft retention was measured using micro-computed tomography and
      grafts were explanted for histologic analysis. RESULTS: Lipoaspirate injected
      through narrower, longer, and bent cannulas exhibited more shear thinning with
      diminished quality. The storage modulus (G') of fat processed with 18-gauge
      cannulas was significantly lower than when processed with 14-gauge or larger
      cannulas, which also corresponded with inferior in vivo histologic structure.
      Similarly, the longer cannula group had a significantly lower storage modulus
      than the shorter cannula, and was associated with decreased graft retention.
      CONCLUSIONS: Discrete modifications in the methods used for fat placement can
      have a significant impact on immediate graft integrity, and ultimately on graft
      survival and quality. Respecting these biomechanical influences during the
      placement phase of lipotransfer may allow surgeons to optimize outcomes. CLINICAL
      QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, V.

PMID- 28574948
TI  - Five Operations That Give the Best Results after Brachial Plexus Injury.
AB  - Treatment of brachial plexus injuries has improved slowly over the past 45 years.
      Changes in strategy, techniques, microsurgical equipment, and technology have
      expanded the surgical options for reconstructing these life-altering, highly
      complex injuries. The surgical techniques available include neurolysis, nerve
      repair, nerve grafting, nerve transfers, tendon transfer, muscle transfer, and
      other soft- and bony-tissue procedures. In this article, the authors have
      selected five surgical procedures (i.e., Oberlin procedure, Leechavengvongs
      procedure, free functional muscle transfer, radial nerve tendon transfers, and C5
      C6 nerve grafting in obstetric birth palsy) that have consistently yielded good
      results in patients who require surgical reconstruction.

PMID- 28574949
TI  - Minor Suture Fusion in Syndromic Craniosynostosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infants with craniofacial dysostosis syndromes may present with
      midface abnormalities but without major (calvarial) suture synostosis and head
      shape anomalies. Delayed presentation of their calvarial phenotype is known as
      progressive postnatal craniosynostosis. Minor sutures/synchondroses are
      continuations of major sutures toward and within the skull base. The authors
      hypothesized that minor suture synostosis is present in infants with syndromic,
      progressive postnatal craniosynostosis, and is associated with major suture
      synostosis. METHODS: The authors performed a two-institution review of infants
      (<1 year) with syndromic craniosynostosis and available computed tomographic
      scans. Major (i.e., metopic, sagittal, coronal, and lambdoid) and minor
      suture/synchondrosis fusion was determined by two craniofacial surgeons and one
      radiologist using Mimics or Radiant software. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients
      with 84 scans were included. Those with FGFR2 mutations were more likely to lack
      any major suture fusion (OR, 19.0; p = 0.044). Minor suture fusion occurred more
      often in the posterior branch of the coronal arch (OR, 3.33; p < 0.001),
      squamosal arch (OR, 7.32; p < 0.001), and posterior intraoccipital synchondroses
      (OR, 15.84; p < 0.001), among FGFR2 versus other patients. Patients (n = 9) with
      multiple scans showed a pattern of minor suture fusion followed by increased
      minor and major suture synostosis. Over 84 percent of FGFR2 patients had minor
      suture fusion; however, six (13 percent) were identified with isolated major
      suture synostosis. CONCLUSIONS: Minor suture fusion occurs in most patients with
      FGFR2-related craniofacial dysostosis. Syndromic patients with patent calvarial
      sutures should be investigated for minor suture involvement. These data have
      important implications for the pathophysiology of skull growth and development in
      this select group of patients. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, III.

PMID- 28574950
TI  - Prepectoral Breast Reconstruction: A Safe Alternative to Submuscular Prosthetic
      Reconstruction following Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate prosthetic reconstruction is
      routinely performed because of excellent aesthetic results and safe oncologic
      outcomes. Typically, subpectoral expanders are placed, but in select patients,
      this can lead to significant postoperative pain and animation deformity, caused
      by pectoralis major muscle disinsertion and stretch. Prepectoral reconstruction
      is a technique that eliminates dissection of the pectoralis major by placing the
      prosthesis completely above the muscle with complete acellular dermal matrix
      coverage. METHODS: A single surgeon's experience with immediate prosthetic
      reconstruction following nipple-sparing mastectomy from 2012 to 2016 was
      reviewed. Patient demographics, adjuvant treatment, length and characteristics of
      the expansion, and incidence of complications during the tissue expander stage
      were compared between the partial submuscular/partial acellular dermal matrix
      (dual-plane) cohort and the prepectoral cohort. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients (84
      breasts) underwent immediate prepectoral tissue expander placement, compared with
      115 patients (186 breasts) undergoing immediate partial submuscular expander
      placement. The groups had similar comorbidities and postoperative radiation
      exposure. There was no significant difference in overall complication rate
      between the two groups (17.9 percent versus 18.8 percent; p = 0.49). CONCLUSIONS:
      Prepectoral breast reconstruction provides a safe and effective alternative to
      partial submuscular reconstruction, that yields comparable aesthetic results with
      less operative morbidity. In the authors' experience, the incidence of acute and
      chronic postoperative pain and animation deformity is significantly lower
      following prepectoral breast reconstruction. This technique is now considered for
      all patients who are safe oncologic candidates and are undergoing nipple-sparing
      mastectomy and prosthetic reconstruction. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Therapeutic, III.

PMID- 28574951
TI  - Single-Artery Human Ear Graft Procurement: A Simplified Approach.
AB  - : In the field of experimental facial vascularized composite tissue
      allotransplantation, a human auricular subunit model, pedicled on both
      superficial temporal and posterior auricular arteries, was described. Clinical
      cases of extensive auricular replantation, however, suggested that a single
      artery could perfuse the entire flap. In this study, variants of this single
      pedicle approach have been studied, aiming to develop a more versatile
      replantation technique, in which the question of venous drainage has also been
      addressed. For arterial perfusion study, the authors harvested 11 auricular
      grafts, either on a single superficial temporal artery pedicle (n = 3) or a
      double superficial temporal and posterior auricular artery pedicle (n = 8). The
      authors then proceeded to selective barium injections, in the superficial
      temporal, posterior auricular, or both superficial temporal and posterior
      auricular arteries. Arteriograms were acquired with a micro-computed tomographic
      scan and analyzed on three-dimensionally reconstructed images. Venous drainage
      was investigated in eight hemifaces, carefully dissected after latex injection.
      Observations showed a homogenous perfusion of the whole auricle in all arterial
      graft variants. Venous drainage was highly variable, with either a dominant
      superficial temporal vein (37.5 percent), dominant posterior auricular vein (12.5
      percent), or co-dominant trunks (50 percent). The authors demonstrated that
      auricular subunit vascularized composite tissue allotransplantation can be
      performed on a single artery, relying on the dynamic intraauricular anastomoses
      between superficial temporal artery and posterior auricular branches.
      Potentially, this vascular versatility is prone to simplify the subunit harvest
      and allows various strategies for pedicle selection. Venous drainage, however,
      remains inconstant and thus the major issue when considering auricular
      transplantation. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, V.

PMID- 28574952
TI  - The Hippocampus and Cortex Together Generate the Scalp EEG Ictal Discharge in
      Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The scalp EEG ictal discharge in temporal lobe epilepsy is reportedly
      visible only after the intracranial discharge becomes well synchronized and
      present over 10 to 30 cm of cortex. We investigated the role of the hippocampal
      formation in the generation of the scalp EEG ictal discharge. METHODS:
      Intracranial EEG video monitors were recorded using simultaneous scalp,
      stereotaxic depth, and subdural strip electrodes in 19 subjects with temporal
      lobe epilepsy. The location, frequency, morphology, and timing of the initial
      ictal discharge, and subsequent ictal patterns, were examined in hippocampal
      formation, medial paleocortex, and lateral temporal neocortex
      electrocorticographic and scalp temporal EEG recordings. RESULTS: In every
      subject, a scalp ictal discharge was visible only after the intracranial ictal
      discharge had spread to involve the whole temporal lobe (hippocampal formation,
      medial paleocortex, and lateral temporal neocortex). Beta/gamma frequency and
      decremental electrocorticographic ictal discharges were never visualized in the
      EEG. The scalp EEG ictal discharge frequency was 2.4 to 10 Hz and appeared a
      median of 18 seconds after a faster frequency electrocorticographic initial ictal
      discharge, once the intracranial discharge slowed to an alpha, theta, or delta
      frequency. CONCLUSIONS: In temporal lobe epilepsy, an ictal pattern is not
      readily visible in the scalp EEG until the intracranial ictal discharge is <=10
      Hz and has propagated from its site of onset to involve the hippocampus, medial
      paleocortex, and lateral temporal neocortex.

PMID- 28574955
TI  - Safety Culture in the Operating Room: Variability Among Perioperative Healthcare
      Workers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Safety culture is defined as the product of individual and group
      values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that
      determine an organization's health and safety management. There is a lack of
      studies assessing patient safety culture in the perioperative setting.
      OBJECTIVES: We examined safety culture at a single tertiary care hospital, across
      all types of surgery, using previously collected data from a validated survey
      tool. We aim to understand how safety culture varies among perioperative staff.
      METHODS: The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was administered at a
      single tertiary care hospital in 2014. We identified 431 respondents as
      perioperative healthcare workers: surgery attending physician, surgery trainee
      physician, anesthesia attending physician, anesthesia trainee physician, nurse,
      and technician. We calculated percent positive scores for each dimension of
      safety culture, as well as a composite score. Pairwise comparisons were
      calculated via analysis of variance. RESULTS: The average response rate was 67%.
      The dimensions with the highest average percent positive scores were teamwork
      within hospital units (69%) and organizational learning and continuous
      improvement (57%). The dimensions with the lowest scores were feedback and
      communication about error (34%) and hospital handoffs and transitions (30%).
      Surgery attending physicians perceived the strongest safety climate overall,
      whereas nurses and surgical technicians perceived significantly worse safety
      climate. CONCLUSIONS: We observed significant variability in perioperative safety
      culture, across dimensions of safety climate, professional roles, and levels of
      training. These variations in safety culture should be addressed when
      implementing culture change programs in the perioperative setting.

PMID- 28574956
TI  - Identifying High-alert Medications in a University Hospital by Applying Data From
      the Medication Error Reporting System.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To facilitate safe use of high-alert medications, lists of
      medications posing higher risks for medication errors (MEs) and harmful effects
      have been compiled. These lists can be general or reflect clinical practices in
      specific settings. Less common has been to compile a hospital-specific list
      applying data from the organization's ME reporting system. Our objective was to
      demonstrate a method for compiling such a high-alert medication list in a
      university hospital. METHODS: Of the eighteen 136 MEs reported during 2007 to
      2013, ME reports with medications coded as a contributing factor to the incident
      were included (n = 249). The involved medications were identified and compared
      with the hospital's drug consumption and Institute for Safe Medication Practice's
      List of High-Alert Medications. The report narratives of MEs with most reported
      and high-alert medications (120 reports) were qualitatively content analyzed.
      RESULTS: The included 249 reports concerned 280 medications, of which 33% were
      classified as high-alert medications by the Institute for Safe Medication
      Practice. The most common therapeutic groups were antibacterials for systemic use
      (13%), psycholeptics (10%), analgesics (9%), and antithrombotic agents (9%). The
      most common high-alert medications were oxycodone (5%), enoxaparin (3%), and
      noradrenaline (3%). Serious patient harm (3%) was related to cefuroxime,
      enoxaparin, ibuprofen, midazolam, propofol, and warfarin. A half of the MEs were
      related to parenteral preparations. The qualitative content analysis revealed the
      key process safety risks of the most reported and high-alert medications.
      CONCLUSIONS: The method is applicable for compiling a hospital-specific high
      alert medication list and related analysis of key process safety risks
      contributing to MEs.

PMID- 28574954
TI  - Short-term Variability of Repolarization Is Superior to Other Repolarization
      Parameters in the Evaluation of Diverse Antiarrhythmic Interventions in the
      Chronic Atrioventricular Block Dog.
AB  - Short-term variability (STV), to quantify beat-to-beat variability of
      repolarization, is a surrogate parameter that reliably identifies proarrhythmic
      risk in preclinical models. Examples include not only the use in the chronic
      atrioventricular block (CAVB) dog model whereby it was developed but also in
      vulnerable patients with heart failure or drug-induced long QT syndrome. In the
      CAVB dog model, STV can specifically distinguish between safe and unsafe drugs in
      proarrhythmic screening. Conversely, this dog model also offers the possibility
      to evaluate antiarrhythmic strategies in a setting of Torsades de Pointes (TdP)
      induction with a standard IKr inhibitor. The different antiarrhythmic
      interventions studied in suppression and prevention of drug-induced TdP in vivo
      in the CAVB dog model and in vitro in canine ventricular cardiomyocytes are
      described in this overview. We provide evidence that STV predicts the magnitude
      of antiarrhythmic effect against TdP better than other repolarization parameters
      in both suppression and prevention conditions. Moreover, suppression and
      prevention experiments revealed the same level of antiarrhythmic efficacy,
      whereas cellular experiments seem more sensitive in comparison with drug testing
      in vivo. Together, these observations suggest that STV could be used as a
      consistent indicator to rank efficacy of antiarrhythmic interventions in a number
      of conditions.

PMID- 28574953
TI  - Polymerase delta-interacting Protein 2: A Multifunctional Protein.
AB  - Polymerase delta-interacting protein 2 (Poldip2) is a multifunctional protein
      originally described as a binding partner of the p50 subunit of DNA polymerase
      delta and proliferating cell nuclear antigen. In addition to its role in DNA
      replication and damage repair, Poldip2 has been implicated in mitochondrial
      function, extracellular matrix regulation, cell cycle progression, focal adhesion
      turnover, and cell migration. However, Poldip2 functions are incompletely
      understood. In this review, we discuss recent literature on Poldip2 tissue
      distribution, subcellular localization, and function. We also address the
      putative function of Poldip2 in cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative
      conditions and in renal pathophysiology.

PMID- 28574957
TI  - "Attention Everyone, Time Out!": Safety Attitudes and Checklist Practices in
      Anesthesiology in Germany. A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of perioperative checklists has generated a growing body of
      evidence pointing toward reduction of mortality and morbidity, improved
      compliance with guidelines, reduction of adverse events, and improvements in
      human factor-related areas. Usual quality management metrics generally fall short
      in assessing compliance with their perioperative application. Our study assessed
      application attitudes and compliance with safety measures centered around the
      World Health Organization (WHO) "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign as perceived
      by anesthesia professionals in Germany. METHODS: Three hundred sixteen physicians
      and nurses participated in our cross-sectional survey, and 304 completed all 35
      questions. RESULTS: Only 59.5% of participants had knowledge of the theoretical
      framework behind the WHO campaign. During the "sign-in," patient ID and surgical
      site were checked in 99.6% and 95.1% as recommended by the WHO. Allergies were
      addressed by 89.2%, expected difficult airway by 65.7%, and the availability of
      blood products by 70.5%. A total of 84.9% of participants advocated for the time
      out to include all persons present in the operating room, which was the case in
      57.0%. A total of 40.8% stated that the time-out was only performed between
      anesthetist and surgeon; in 17.0% of cases, the patient was simultaneously draped
      and/or surgically scrubbed. No significant differences between hospital types
      were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study paints a heterogeneous picture of the
      implementation, usage, and safety attitudes concerning the Safe Surgery Checklist
      as promoted by the WHO. The lack of standardized execution and team-mindedness
      can be taken as further evidence for the importance of interdisciplinary training
      focusing on human factors, communication, and collaboration rather than the mere
      implementation by decree.

PMID- 28574958
TI  - Re: Cell Phone Calls in the Operating Theater and Staff Distractions: An
      Observational Study (Avidan A, Yavobi G, Weissman C, Levin P. J Patient Saf
      2017).

PMID- 28574960
TI  - Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2017 highlights.

PMID- 28574959
TI  - Intravenous Smart Pump Drug Library Compliance: A Descriptive Study of 44
      Hospitals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although intravenous (IV) smart pumps with built-in dose-error
      reduction systems (DERS) can reduce IV medication administration error, most
      serious adverse events still occur during IV medication administration. Sources
      of error include overriding DERS and manually bypassing drug libraries and the
      DERS. METHODS: Our purpose was to use the Regenstrief National Center for Medical
      Device Informatics data set to better understand IV smart pump drug library and
      DERS compliance. Our sample consisted of 12 months of data from 7 hospital
      systems, 44 individual hospitals, and descriptive data from the American Hospital
      Directory (AHD) for 2015. The aims of the study were (1) to determine whether
      there are differences in IV smart pump drug library compliance between hospital
      systems and (2) to provide a broad descriptive overview of relevant trends
      related to IV smart pump compliance. RESULTS: For aim 1, we found 3 significant
      relationships among the 7 hospital systems: systems 3 (P < 0.001), 6 (P = 0.003),
      and 7 (P = 0.002) had significantly higher IV smart compliance as compared with
      system 4. For aim 2, the number of drug library profiles was positively
      correlated (P = 0.029) with IV smart pump compliance and the IV smart pump type
      used was significantly correlated (P = 0.013) with IV smart pump compliance.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support that there are differences in IV smart pump
      compliance both within and between hospital systems and that IV smart pump type
      and the number of drug library profiles may be influencing factors. Further
      research is required to more accurately identify the impact of these factors in
      this very important area of patient safety.

PMID- 28574961
TI  - Modifications in acute phase and complement systems predict shifts in cognitive
      status of HIV-infected patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) has
      not changed considerably in the last two decades. Potent antiretroviral therapy
      has shifted the severity of HAND to milder phenotypes, but excess morbidity and
      mortality continue to be associated with HAND. Changes in numerous markers of
      immune function, inflammation, and cellular stress have been repeatedly
      associated with HAND, but the underlying systems that drive these changes have
      not been identified. METHOD: In this study, we used systems informatics to
      interrogate the cerebrospinal fluid proteomic content of longitudinal samples
      obtained from HIV-infected adults with stably unimpaired, stably impaired,
      worsening, or improving neurocognitive performance. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The
      patterns of change in cerebrospinal fluid protein content implicated the
      induction of acute phase and complement systems as important regulators of
      neurocognitive status. Worsening neurocognitive performance was preceded by
      induction of acute phase and complement systems, whereas improving neurocognitive
      performance was preceded by a downregulation of these systems.

PMID- 28574963
TI  - HIV-infection has no prognostic impact on advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is a non-AIDS-defining cancer with a
      good response to chemotherapy in the combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) era.
      The aim of the present study was to compare the characteristics, the response to
      treatment and the survival of advanced-stage cHL treated with adriamycin,
      bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (ABVD) between cART-treated HIV-positive
      and HIV-negative patients. DESIGN AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed
      advanced-stage cHL patients from a single institution, uniformly treated with
      ABVD. All HIV-positive patients received cART concomitantly with ABVD. RESULTS: A
      total of 69 patients were included in the study: 21 were HIV-positive and 48 were
      HIV-negative. HIV-positive patients had more aggressive features at cHL
      diagnosis, such as worse performance status, more frequent bone marrow
      involvement and mixed cellularity histologic subtype. There were no differences
      in complete response rate (89% in HIV-positive vs. 91% in HIV-negative), P = 1;
      disease-free survival (DFS) [10-year DFS probability (95% CI) 70% (41-99%) vs.
      74% (57-91%)], P = 0.907 and overall survival (OS) [10-year OS probability (95%
      CI) 73% (52-94%) vs. 68% (51-85%)], P = 0.904. On multivariate analysis, HIV
      infection did not correlate with worse OS. CONCLUSION: Although HIV-positive
      patients with cHL had more aggressive baseline features in this series, there
      were no differences in response rate or survival between HIV-positive and HIV
      negative patients.

PMID- 28574962
TI  - An increased rate of fracture occurs a decade earlier in HIV+ compared with HIV-
      men.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the incidence of fracture among aging HIV-infected
      (HIV+) and uninfected men (HIV-). To evaluate factors independently associated
      with fracture risk. DESIGN: Prospective, multicenter cohort study of men with or
      at risk for HIV. METHODS: Outcome measures: all fractures (excluding skull, face
      and digits) and fragility fractures (vertebral column, femur, wrist and humerus)
      were collected semiannually in 1221 HIV+ and 1408 HIV- men aged at least 40.
      Adjusted incident rate ratios (aIRR) with an interaction term for age (40-49, 50
      59 and >=60 years) and HIV serostatus were estimated with Poisson regression
      models accounting for additional risk factors. RESULTS: Fracture incidence
      increased with age among both HIV+ and HIV- men. Although there was no
      significant difference in fracture incidence by HIV serostatus among men aged 40
      49 years, the HIV+ men aged 50-59 years had a significantly higher incidence of
      all fractures [aIRR: 2.06 (1.49, 2.84)] and fragility fractures [aIRR: 2.06
      (1.21, 3.50)] compared with HIV- participants of similar age. HIV modified the
      effect of age on all fractures (P = 0.002) but did not significantly modify the
      effect for fragility fractures (P = 0.135). Hypertension increased the rate of
      all fractures by 32% after adjustment for covariates [aIRR: 1.32 (1.04, 1.69)].
      CONCLUSION: Fracture incidence increased with age among HIV+ and HIV- men but was
      higher among HIV+ men. A significant increase in fracture incidence was found
      among 50-59-year-old HIV+ men, highlighting the importance of osteoporosis
      screening for HIV-infected men above the age of 50.

PMID- 28574964
TI  - Does antiretroviral therapy change partnership dynamics and HIV risk behaviours
      among HIV-infected adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We explore the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on partnership
      acquisition and dissolution rates and changes in sexual behaviours among HIV
      infected adults. DESIGN: Using detailed longitudinal data from a prospective
      cohort of HIV-infected adults with CD4 cell count below 200 cells/MUl (ART
      eligible) or CD4 cell count above 500 cells/MUl (pre-ART) conducted in rural
      KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, from 2009 to 2012. METHODS: Partnership acquisition
      and dissolution are explored through survival analysis methods, whereas
      generalized linear models were fitted for the sexual behaviour outcomes with
      interaction terms to allow the association with ART to vary over time.
      Throughout, the primary comparison of interest for each outcome is differences
      between the two ART groups. RESULTS: ART is not associated with partner
      acquisition or relationship dissolution. During follow-up, the two ART groups do
      not differ in the odds of being sexually active nor the number of sex acts,
      whereas the odds of unprotected sex are significantly lower for partnerships of
      ART-eligible participants (adjusted odds ratio 0.26, 95% confidence interval
      0.15, 0.43). Relationship-level characteristics including cohabitation status and
      wanting more children with that partner are associated with higher odds and
      increased frequency of sexual activity, and increased odds of unprotected sex,
      whereas living with partner, higher relationship quality and longer relationship
      duration are associated with lower risk of partnership dissolution. CONCLUSION:
      Being on ART was not associated with increased sexual risk behaviours, a
      reassuring finding given the WHO recommends ART initiation upon HIV diagnosis.
      The importance of relationship-level characteristics provides evidence that HIV
      care services should offer routine support for HIV disclosure and sexual risk
      reduction, and promotion of couples-testing and positive couple relationships.

PMID- 28574965
TI  - Impact of comorbidity and ageing on health-related quality of life in HIV
      positive and HIV-negative individuals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV-infected individuals may be at risk for the premature onset of
      age-associated noncommunicable comorbidities. Being HIV-positive, having
      comorbidities and being of higher age may adversely impact health-related quality
      of life (HRQL). We investigated the possible contribution of HIV infection,
      comorbidities and age on HRQL and depression. METHODS: HIV-infected individuals
      and uninfected controls from the AGEhIV Cohort Study were screened for the
      presence of comorbidities. They completed the Short Form 36-item Health Survey to
      assess HRQL and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire to assess depression.
      Linear and logistic regression were used to investigate to which extent
      comorbidities, aging and HIV infection were independently associated with HRQL
      and depression. RESULTS: HIV-infected individuals (n = 541) reported
      significantly worse physical and mental HRQL and had a higher prevalence of
      depression than HIV-uninfected individuals (n = 526). A higher number of
      comorbidities and HIV-positive status were each independently associated with
      worse physical HRQL, whereas HIV-positive status and younger age were
      independently associated with worse mental HRQL and more depression. The
      difference in physical HRQL between HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals did
      not become greater with a higher number of comorbidities or with higher age.
      CONCLUSION: In a cohort of largely well suppressed HIV-positive participants and
      HIV-negative controls, HIV-positive status was significantly and independently
      associated with worse physical and mental HRQL and with an increased likelihood
      of depression. Our finding that a higher number of comorbidities was
      independently associated with worse physical HRQL reinforces the importance to
      optimize prevention and management of comorbidities as the HIV-infected
      population continues to age.

PMID- 28574967
TI  - Dolutegravir and weight gain: an unexpected bothering side effect?

PMID- 28574966
TI  - Moving toward test and start: learning from the experience of universal
      antiretroviral therapy programs for HIV-infected pregnant/ breastfeeding women.
AB  - : In 2015, the WHO recommended universal antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all
      people living with HIV after two randomized controlled trials revealed lower
      rates of mortality and serious illnesses among people living with HIV receiving
      immediate ART compared with those receiving deferred ART. Many countries in sub
      Saharan Africa rapidly adopted this guidance and are implementing 'test and
      start' programs.As this work begins, lessons learned from prevention of mother-to
      child transmission Option B+ programs can inform decisions for new universal HIV
      treatment programs. The Option B+ approach involved initiation of lifelong
      treatment for all HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women. Since its
      inception in Malawi in 2011 and WHO endorsement in 2012, widespread scale-up of
      Option B+ prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs in most resource
      limited countries has resulted in a dramatic increase in ART coverage for HIV
      infected pregnant and breastfeeding women.Despite the overall success of the
      Option B+ universal lifelong treatment approach, program and operational research
      data highlight the need for additional focus on strategies to retain women in
      care. In this commentary, we highlight program considerations and lessons learned
      from Option B+ implementation experience in resource-limited countries, which may
      help guide decisions and enhance the quality of general 'test and start'
      programing.

PMID- 28574968
TI  - Evaluation of non-sexual, non-needlestick, non-occupational HIV post-exposure
      prophylaxis cases.

PMID- 28574969
TI  - Daily Experiences and Challenges Among Children and Adolescents With Celiac
      Disease: Focus Group Results.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Maintaining a restrictive gluten-free diet is the only treatment for
      celiac disease (CD). Adherence among children and adolescents presents unique
      challenges and is often inadequate. The International Classification of
      Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth version (ICF-CY) model
      encompasses all aspects of human health and daily function while dealing with a
      disease and interacting with the environment. The purpose was to explore everyday
      life experiences and challenges as perceived by children and adolescents with CD
      and their parents in light of the ICF-CY concepts to identify the most crucial
      components in management challenges. The present study was the first stage in
      developing a standardized questionnaire to assess these needs. METHODS: Children
      and adolescents diagnosed with CD for more than 6 months and their parents
      participated in 4 separate focus group interviews: 12 children (8-12 years) and
      13 of their parents, and 10 adolescents (13-16 years) and 10 of their parents.
      RESULTS: The ICF-CY body functions component that includes higher-level cognitive
      functions, such as organization, planning, and problem solving was largely
      reflected. Food-related activities in and out of the home were discussed, yet
      thorough activity analysis was lacking in the available literature. CONCLUSIONS:
      The focus groups revealed a wide scope of coping issues that contribute to a
      deeper understanding of specific CD characteristics including daily management,
      participation in food-related activities, roles, strategies, and supporting or
      hindering factors in everyday life with CD.

PMID- 28574971
TI  - Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy in Children: First Experience With a New Triangular
      Knife.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) is a novel treatment modality for
      achalasia cardia. The procedure is technically challenging and time consuming.
      Recently, a new triangle tip knife (TTJ) has been introduced, which is equipped
      with water jet facility. In the present study, we analyzed the feasibility,
      safety, and efficacy of POEM in children with new triangle tip knife. METHODS: We
      retrospectively evaluated the data of children (18 years or younger) who
      underwent POEM using TTJ knife at our institution. All POEM procedures were
      performed under general anesthesia in an endoscopy suite. Technical feasibility,
      safety, efficacy, and procedure duration were assessed. RESULTS: Ten children (4
      boys, 6 girls) with mean age of 14.2 +/- 2.74 (9-18) years, underwent POEM with
      TTJ knife. The subtypes of achalasia cardia were type I (4), type II (5), and
      type III (1). Two children had prior treatment with pneumatic balloon dilatation.
      POEM was performed via anterior route in majority of children (70%). Mean
      operating time was 47.6 +/- 19.74 (30-98) minutes with no significant difference
      between anterior and posterior approaches to POEM (48.57 +/- 24.01 vs 45.3 +/-
      3.51; P < 0.05). Four gas-related adverse events were encountered including
      capnoperitoneum and retroperitoneal carbon dioxide in 2 children each. Clinical
      success was noticed in 9 children with significant reduction in Eckardt score at
      1 month after POEM (6.7 +/- 1.49 vs 0.3 +/- 0.48; P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: POEM
      can be efficiently performed with new triangle knife equipped with water jet
      technique. Integration of water jet reduces procedure duration and technical
      difficulty with POEM.

PMID- 28574970
TI  - Probiotics for the Prevention of Nosocomial Diarrhea in Children.
AB  - This document provides recommendations developed by the ESPGHAN Working Group on
      Probiotics and Prebiotics on the role of probiotics in the prevention of
      nosocomial diarrhea in children based on a systematic review of previously
      completed systematic reviews and of subsequently published randomized controlled
      trials. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations
      Assessment, Development and Evaluation guidelines. Recommendations were given
      only if at least 2 randomized controlled trials examined the same probiotic
      strain. Based on currently available evidence the Working Group recommends using
      Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG if the use of probiotics for preventing nosocomial
      diarrhea in children is considered.

PMID- 28574973
TI  - Depressive Symptoms Moderate the Association Between Appetite and Health Status
      in Patients With Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decreased appetite and depressive symptoms are clinical problems in
      patients with heart failure. Both may result in impaired health status.
      OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to investigate the association between
      appetite and health status in patients with heart failure and to explore whether
      depressive symptoms moderate this association. METHODS: In this cross-sectional
      study, patients with heart failure (n = 186; mean age, 71 years), New York Heart
      Association class II to IV, participated. Data on appetite (Council of Nutrition
      Appetite Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9),
      and health status (EQ-5D 3-level scale [EQ-5D-3L] descriptive system, EQ-5D-3L
      index, and EQ Visual Analog Scale) were collected by self-rating questionnaires.
      Pearson correlation was used to investigate the association between appetite and
      health status. Multiple regression was performed to examine whether depressive
      symptoms moderate the association between appetite and health status. RESULTS:
      There was a significant association between appetite and health status for EQ-5D
      3L descriptive system, mobility (P < .001), pain/discomfort (P < .001), and
      anxiety/depression (P < .001). This association was also shown in EQ-5D-3L index
      (P < .001) and EQ Visual Analog Scale (P < .001). Simple slope analysis showed
      that the association between appetite and health status was only significant for
      patients without depressive symptoms (B = 0.32, t = 4.66, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Higher level of appetite was associated with better health status. In moderation
      analysis, the association was presented for patients without depressive symptoms.
      Decreased appetite is an important sign of poor health status. To improve health
      status, health professionals should have greater attention on appetite, as well
      on signs of depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28574972
TI  - Heart Failure Rehospitalization and Delayed Decision Making: The Impact of Self
      care and Depression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rehospitalization soon after discharge can be distressing for persons
      with heart failure (HF) and places a heavy burden on the healthcare system.
      OBJECTIVE: We investigated and explored the association of self-care decision
      making variables with (1) rehospitalization within 30 days of discharge and (2)
      delay in seeking medical assistance (delayed decision making). METHODS: A cross
      sectional, explanatory sequential mixed methods design (quan > qual) was used to
      survey 127 hospitalized HF patients and interview 15 of these participants to
      explain their survey responses. The survey assessed rehospitalization within 30
      days of discharge, delayed decision making, HF self-care, and psychosocial
      factors influencing self-care. RESULTS: The likelihood of delaying the decision
      to be hospitalized was more than 5 times higher among those with high depressive
      symptoms (odds ratio, 5.33; 95% confidence interval, 2.14-13.28). Those who
      delayed going to the hospital were uncertain about their prognosis and did not
      feel their symptoms were urgent. The likelihood of being rehospitalized within 30
      days was more than doubled among those with high depressive symptoms (OR, 2.31;
      95% confidence interval, 1.01-5.31). Those who were rehospitalized within 30 days
      were less likely to consult healthcare professionals in their decision making and
      wanted immediate relief from their symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend a patient
      centered approach to help HF patients identify and adequately self-manage
      symptoms. The strong association between high depressive symptoms and
      rehospitalization within 30 days as well as delayed decision making highlights
      the critical need for clinicians to carefully assess and address depression among
      HF patients.

PMID- 28574974
TI  - Survivors of an Acute Coronary Syndrome With Lower Patient Activation Are More
      Likely to Experience Declines in Health-Related Quality of Life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient activation comprises the knowledge, skills, and confidence
      for self-care and may lead to better health outcomes. OBJECTIVES: We examined the
      relationship between patient activation and changes in health-related quality of
      life (HRQOL) after hospitalization for an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS:
      We studied patients from 6 medical centers in central Massachusetts and Georgia
      who had been hospitalized for an ACS between 2011 and 2013. At 1 month after
      hospital discharge, the patients completed the 6-item Patient Activation Measure
      and were categorized into 4 levels of activation. Multinomial logistic regression
      analyses compared activation level with clinically meaningful changes (>=3.0
      points, generic; >=10.0 points, disease-specific) in generic physical (SF-36v2
      Physical Component Summary [PCS]), generic mental (SF-36v2 Mental Component
      Summary [MCS]), and disease-specific (Seattle Angina Questionnaire [SAQ]) HRQOL
      from 1 to 3 and 1 to 6 months after hospitalization, adjusting for potential
      sociodemographic and clinical confounders. RESULTS: The patients (N = 1042) were,
      on average, 62 years old, 34% female, and 87% non-Hispanic white. A total of 10%
      were in the lowest level of activation. The patients with the lowest activation
      had 1.95 times (95% confidence interval, 1.05-3.62) and 2.18 times (95%
      confidence interval, 1.17-4.05) the odds of experiencing clinically significant
      declines in MCS and SAQ HRQOL, respectively, between 1 and 6 months than the most
      activated patients. The patient activation level was not associated with
      meaningful changes in PCS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital survivors of an ACS with
      lower activation may be more likely to experience declines in mental and disease
      specific HRQOL than more-activated patients, identifying a group at risk of poor
      outcomes.

PMID- 28574975
TI  - A prognostic model for resectable acral melanoma patients on the basis of
      preoperative inflammatory markers.
AB  - Acral melanoma is a rare disease, but is common in Asia. Knowledge of its
      prognostic indicators is limited. Growing evidence indicates that inflammation
      plays a critical role in the development and progression of acral melanoma. We
      developed a novel prognostic model on the basis of preoperative inflammatory
      markers and examined its prognostic value in a cohort of patients. This
      retrospective study included 232 acral melanoma patients who underwent radical
      surgical resection between 2000 and 2010 at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer
      Center. Significant predictive factors were identified by multivariate Cox
      regression analyses, and a prognostic model on the basis of these variables was
      constructed to predict survival. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to estimate
      overall survival. Multivariate analyses showed that C-reactive protein,
      albumin/globulin ratio, age, lactic dehydrogenase, and lymph node positivity were
      related independently to survival. After analyzing these variables, we classified
      patients into three risk groups. The new prognostic model identified three
      categories of patients with different prognoses (P<0.001) and significantly
      stratified patient prognosis into different tumor stages. The area under the
      curve of the new prognostic model was 0.684 (95% confidence interval: 0.620
      0.743), which was significantly higher than that of the other variables
      (P<0.001). C-reactive protein and albumin/globulin ratio were independently
      related to survival in our study population and the prognostic model developed
      using inflammatory-based scores was useful in stratifying patients into different
      risk groups. Thus, this model will be a valuable complement to the 2009 American
      Joint Committee on Cancer staging for Asian patients with acral melanoma.

PMID- 28574977
TI  - Development of a biclonal cutaneous T-cell lymphoproliferative process during
      treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic melanoma.
AB  - The immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated
      antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and the programmed death protein 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 pathway have
      recently shown promising therapeutic results in patients with metastatic
      melanoma. Dermatologic side effects of these agents occur in ~30-40% of cases.
      Here, we report the development of a biclonal cutaneous T-cell
      lymphoproliferative disorder in a patient being treated with ipilimumab (a CTLA-4
      inhibitor) for metastatic melanoma. Nivolumab (a PD-1 inhibitor) had also been
      administered to him previously. An 8 mm reddish papule appeared on the skin of
      the left forearm. A biopsy of that lesion showed an atypical population of
      predominantly CD4-positive, CD30-positive T-cells that also expressed PD-1 and PD
      L1 immunohistochemically. PCR studies for T-cell receptor rearrangements showed
      the presence of two distinct clonal T-cell populations. The lesion was completely
      excised and the patient had no local recurrences. There was also no subsequent
      evidence of a systemic lymphoproliferative process. Although the development of a
      lymphoid skin lesion in our patient may have only been coincidentally related to
      his treatment, immunostimulatory drugs could theoretically cause clonal expansion
      of a population of lymphocytes that leads to a lymphoproliferative disorder.

PMID- 28574976
TI  - Single-stage excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous melanoma in
      selected patients: a retrospective case-control study.
AB  - Sometimes, diagnostic excision of a primary melanoma would already necessitate
      skin grafting or transposition skin flaps, especially in areas with an esthetic
      or functional importance. The utility of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) after
      skin reconstruction is controversial. We carried out a single-institution
      retrospective case-control study. In patients with a wide primary lesion at high
      clinical-dermatoscopic suspicion for invasive melanoma in anatomical region in
      which a reconstruction with a skin graft or a flap is required, we proposed the
      performance of a confocal microscopy examination and an incisional biopsy of the
      primary lesion. If these diagnostic methodologies confirmed the suspicion of
      melanoma, lymphatic mapping was performed before the wide excision (WE) of the
      primary lesion, and WE and SLNB were performed during the same operative
      procedure. The database evaluation showed 496 patients who had undergone a
      previous complete local excision and a subsequent SLNB (two-stage group), whereas
      61 patients underwent WE and SLNB during the same surgical time (one-stage
      group). Histological results of the excisional biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of
      melanoma in all patients of the one-stage group. The false-negative rate was
      lower in the one-stage group (5.5%) than in the two-stage group (16.7%). Patients
      of the two groups showed a similar recurrence-free and overall survival period
      even when corrected for clinic-demographical variables. The concomitant execution
      of SLNB and WE after confocal microscopy examination and incisional biopsy
      appears to be a safe and accurate procedure in patients with a wide primary
      melanoma that requires a skin flaps or a skin graft to cover the residual defect.

PMID- 28574978
TI  - Adjacent Segment Degeneration Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
      Versus the Bryan Cervical Disc Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is an established
      treatment for degenerative disease of the cervical disc, but adjacent segment
      degeneration or instability may develop long term. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the risk factors for adjacent segment degeneration following ACDF
      compared with the use of the Bryan artificial disc for cervical disc arthroplasty
      (CDA). MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective comparative study included 93 patients
      who underwent ACDF or CDA with the Bryan artificial cervical disc between 2002
      and 2004, and who had more than eight years of follow-up. There were 29 cases in
      the CDA group and 39 cases in ACDF group, with a follow-up rate of 73.12%.
      Clinical results and imaging data were assessed before and after surgery. RESULTS
      There was no significant difference between the two groups in radiographic
      parameters at each follow-up time point. There were 19 cases of adjacent segment
      degeneration (48.72%) in the ACDF group, and 13 cases of adjacent segment
      degeneration (44.83%) in the CDA group, with no statistically significant
      difference (P>0.05). Univariate analysis showed that advanced age (OR 1.271, 95%
      CI 1.005-1.607), low preoperative overall lordosis (OR 0.858, 95% CI 0.786-0.936)
      and low preoperative segmental lordosis (OR 1.185, 95% CI 1.086-1.193) were
      significantly correlated with adjacent segment degeneration. CONCLUSIONS Equally
      good clinical outcomes were achieved with both the ACDF and the Bryan CDA.
      Increasing patient age was associated with adjacent segment degeneration in both
      patient groups.

PMID- 28574979
TI  - Antenatal corticosteroids and cardiometabolic outcomes in adolescents born with
      very low birth weight.
AB  - BackgroundExposure to antenatal corticosteroids (ANCS) is associated with adverse
      cardiometabolic outcomes in animal models; however, long-term outcomes in
      clinical studies are not well characterized. We hypothesized that exposure to
      ANCS would be associated with markers of increased cardiometabolic risk in
      adolescents born with very low birth weight (VLBW).MethodsIn an observational
      cohort of 186 14-year-old adolescents born with VLBW, we measured resting blood
      pressure (BP), BP response to cold, ambulatory BP, and anthropometrics; performed
      dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; and analyzed blood samples for uric acid,
      cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.
      Multivariate analyses were used to evaluate associations with ANCS, adjusting for
      race, sex, and maternal hypertensive pregnancy.ResultsThere were no ANCS group
      differences in BP measures or blood biomarkers. Compared with adolescents
      unexposed to ANCS, those exposed to ANCS were taller (exposed-unexposed mean
      difference 3.1 cm (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.7, 5.5)) and had decreased
      waist-to-height ratio (exposed-unexposed mean difference -0.03 (95% CI -0.058, 
      0.002)). Males exposed to ANCS had lower total cholesterol (exposed-unexposed
      mean difference -0.54 mmol/l (95%CI -0.83, -0.06)).ConclusionAmong adolescents
      born with VLBW, ANCS exposure was not associated with markers of increased
      cardiometabolic risk.

PMID- 28574982
TI  - MMTF-An efficient file format for the transmission, visualization, and analysis
      of macromolecular structures.
AB  - Recent advances in experimental techniques have led to a rapid growth in
      complexity, size, and number of macromolecular structures that are made available
      through the Protein Data Bank. This creates a challenge for macromolecular
      visualization and analysis. Macromolecular structure files, such as PDB or
      PDBx/mmCIF files can be slow to transfer, parse, and hard to incorporate into
      third-party software tools. Here, we present a new binary and compressed data
      representation, the MacroMolecular Transmission Format, MMTF, as well as software
      implementations in several languages that have been developed around it, which
      address these issues. We describe the new format and its APIs and demonstrate
      that it is several times faster to parse, and about a quarter of the file size of
      the current standard format, PDBx/mmCIF. As a consequence of the new data
      representation, it is now possible to visualize structures with millions of atoms
      in a web browser, keep the whole PDB archive in memory or parse it within few
      minutes on average computers, which opens up a new way of thinking how to design
      and implement efficient algorithms in structural bioinformatics. The PDB archive
      is available in MMTF file format through web services and data that are updated
      on a weekly basis.

PMID- 28574981
TI  - A motor unit-based model of muscle fatigue.
AB  - Muscle fatigue is a temporary decline in the force and power capacity of skeletal
      muscle resulting from muscle activity. Because control of muscle is realized at
      the level of the motor unit (MU), it seems important to consider the
      physiological properties of motor units when attempting to understand and predict
      muscle fatigue. Therefore, we developed a phenomenological model of motor unit
      fatigue as a tractable means to predict muscle fatigue for a variety of tasks and
      to illustrate the individual contractile responses of MUs whose collective action
      determines the trajectory of changes in muscle force capacity during prolonged
      activity. An existing MU population model was used to simulate MU firing rates
      and isometric muscle forces and, to that model, we added fatigue-related changes
      in MU force, contraction time, and firing rate associated with sustained
      voluntary contractions. The model accurately estimated endurance times for
      sustained isometric contractions across a wide range of target levels. In
      addition, simulations were run for situations that have little experimental
      precedent to demonstrate the potential utility of the model to predict motor unit
      fatigue for more complicated, real-world applications. Moreover, the model
      provided insight into the complex orchestration of MU force contributions during
      fatigue, that would be unattainable with current experimental approaches.

PMID- 28574980
TI  - Diagnostics for neonatal sepsis: current approaches and future directions.
AB  - Progress has been made in the reduction of morbidity and mortality from neonatal
      sepsis. However, diagnosis continues to rely primarily on conventional
      microbiologic techniques, which can be inaccurate. The objective of this review
      is to provide the clinician with an overview of the current information available
      on diagnosing this condition. We review currently available diagnostic approaches
      for documenting neonatal sepsis and also describe novel approaches for diagnosing
      infection in neonates who are under development and investigation. Substantial
      progress has been made with molecular approaches and further development of non
      culture-based methods offer promise. The potential ability to incorporate
      antimicrobial resistance gene testing in addition to pathogen identification may
      provide a venue to incorporate a predominantly molecular platform into a larger
      program of neonatal care.

PMID- 28574984
TI  - Complexity in action: Untangling latent relationships between land quality,
      economic structures and socio-spatial patterns in Italy.
AB  - Land quality, a key economic capital supporting local development, is affected by
      biophysical and anthropogenic factors. Taken as a relevant attribute of economic
      systems, land quality has shaped the territorial organization of any given region
      influencing localization of agriculture, industry and settlements. In regions
      with long-established human-landscape interactions, such as the Mediterranean
      basin, land quality has determined social disparities and polarization in the use
      of land, reflecting the action of geographical gradients based on elevation and
      population density. The present study investigates latent relationships within a
      large set of indicators profiling local communities and land quality on a fine
      grained resolution scale in Italy with the aim to assess the potential impact of
      land quality on the regional socioeconomic structure. The importance of land
      quality gradients in the socioeconomic configuration of urban and rural regions
      was verified analyzing the distribution of 149 socioeconomic and environmental
      indicators organized in 5 themes and 17 research dimensions. Agriculture, income,
      education and labour market variables discriminate areas with high land quality
      from areas with low land quality. While differential land quality in peri-urban
      areas may reflect conflicts between competing actors, moderate (or low) quality
      of land in rural districts is associated with depopulation, land abandonment,
      subsidence agriculture, unemployment and low educational levels. We conclude that
      the socioeconomic profile of local communities has been influenced by land
      quality in a different way along urban-rural gradients. Policies integrating
      environmental and socioeconomic measures are required to consider land quality as
      a pivotal target for sustainable development. Regional planning will benefit from
      an in-depth understanding of place-specific relationships between local
      communities and the environment.

PMID- 28574983
TI  - Network-assisted target identification for haploinsufficiency and homozygous
      profiling screens.
AB  - Chemical genomic screens have recently emerged as a systematic approach to drug
      discovery on a genome-wide scale. Drug target identification and elucidation of
      the mechanism of action (MoA) of hits from these noisy high-throughput screens
      remain difficult. Here, we present GIT (Genetic Interaction Network-Assisted
      Target Identification), a network analysis method for drug target identification
      in haploinsufficiency profiling (HIP) and homozygous profiling (HOP) screens.
      With the drug-induced phenotypic fitness defect of the deletion of a gene, GIT
      also incorporates the fitness defects of the gene's neighbors in the genetic
      interaction network. On three genome-scale yeast chemical genomic screens, GIT
      substantially outperforms previous scoring methods on target identification on
      HIP and HOP assays, respectively. Finally, we showed that by combining HIP and
      HOP assays, GIT further boosts target identification and reveals potential drug's
      mechanism of action.

PMID- 28574985
TI  - Economic evaluation of multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment versus
      cognitive behavioural therapy for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: A
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A multi-centre RCT has shown that multidisciplinary rehabilitation
      treatment (MRT) is more effective in reducing fatigue over the long-term in
      comparison with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for patients with chronic
      fatigue syndrome (CFS), but evidence on its cost-effectiveness is lacking. AIM:
      To compare the cost-effectiveness of MRT versus CBT for patients with CFS from a
      societal perspective. METHODS: A multi-centre randomized controlled trial
      comparing MRT with CBT was conducted among 122 patients with CFS diagnosed using
      the 1994 criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and aged
      between 18 and 60 years. The societal costs (healthcare costs, patient and family
      costs, and costs for loss of productivity), fatigue severity, quality of life,
      quality-adjusted life-year (QALY), and cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were
      measured over a follow-up period of one year. The main outcome of the cost
      effectiveness analysis was fatigue measured by the Checklist Individual Strength
      (CIS). The main outcome of the cost-utility analysis was the QALY based on the
      EuroQol-5D-3L utilities. Sensitivity analyses were performed, and uncertainty was
      calculated using the cost-effectiveness acceptability curves and cost
      effectiveness planes. RESULTS: The data of 109 patients (57 MRT and 52 CBT) were
      analyzed. MRT was significantly more effective in reducing fatigue at 52 weeks.
      The mean difference in QALY between the treatments was not significant (0.09, 95%
      CI: -0.02 to 0.19). The total societal costs were significantly higher for
      patients allocated to MRT (a difference of ?5,389, 95% CI: 2,488 to 8,091). MRT
      has a high probability of being the most cost effective, using fatigue as the
      primary outcome. The ICER is ?856 per unit of the CIS fatigue subscale. The
      results of the cost-utility analysis, using the QALY, indicate that the CBT had a
      higher likelihood of being more cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS: The probability of
      being more cost-effective is higher for MRT when using fatigue as primary outcome
      variable. Using QALY as the primary outcome, CBT has the highest probability of
      being more cost-effective. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN77567702.

PMID- 28574986
TI  - An ethnobotanical survey of indigenous medicinal plants in Hafizabad district,
      Punjab-Pakistan.
AB  - Present paper offers considerable information on traditional uses of medicinal
      plants by the inhabitants of Hafizabad district, Punjab-Pakistan. This is the
      first quantitative ethnobotanical study from the area comprising popularity level
      of medicinal plant species intendedby using relative popularity level (RPL) and
      rank order priority (ROP) indices.Ethnobotanical data were collected by
      interviewing 166 local informants and 35 traditional health practioners (THPs)
      from different localities of Hafizabad district. Demographic features of
      informants; life form, part used, methods of preparation, modes of application
      and ethnomedicinal uses were documented. Ethnobotanical data were analyzed using
      quantitative tools, i.e. Relative frequency citation (RFC), use value (UV),
      informant consensus factor (ICF) fidelity level (FL), RPL and ROP indices. A
      total of 85 species belonging to 71 genera and 34 families were documented along
      with ethnomedicinal uses. Solanum surattense, Withania somnifera, Cyperus
      rotundus, Solanum nigrum and Melia azedarach were the most utilized medicinal
      plant species with highest used value. The reported ailments were classified into
      11 disease categories based on ICF values and highest number of plant species was
      reported to treat dermatological and gastrointestinal disorders. Withania
      somnifera and Ranunculus sceleratus with maximum FL (100%), were used against
      gastrointestinal and urinary disorders, respectively. The RPL and ROP values were
      calculated to recognize the folk medicinal plant wealth; six out of 32 plant
      species (19%) were found popular, based on citation by more than half of the
      maximum number of informant viz. 26. Consequently, the ROP value for these
      species was more than 75. The comparative assessment with reported literature
      revealed 15% resemblance and 6% variation to previous data;however79% uses of the
      reported species were recorded for the first time. The diversity of medicinal
      plant species and associated traditional knowledge is significant in primary
      health care system. Medicinal plant species with high RPL values should be
      screened for comprehensive phytochemical and pharmacological studies. This could
      be useful in novel drug discovery and to validate the ethomendicinal knowledge.

PMID- 28574987
TI  - Reconstruction of stented coronary arteries from optical coherence tomography
      images: Feasibility, validation, and repeatability of a segmentation method.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an established catheter-based imaging
      modality for the assessment of coronary artery disease and the guidance of stent
      placement during percutaneous coronary intervention. Manual analysis of large OCT
      datasets for vessel contours or stent struts detection is time-consuming and
      unsuitable for real-time applications. In this study, a fully automatic method
      was developed for detection of both vessel contours and stent struts. The method
      was applied to in vitro OCT scans of eight stented silicone bifurcation phantoms
      for validation purposes. The proposed algorithm comprised four main steps, namely
      pre-processing, lumen border detection, stent strut detection, and three
      dimensional point cloud creation. The algorithm was validated against manual
      segmentation performed by two independent image readers. Linear regression showed
      good agreement between automatic and manual segmentations in terms of lumen area
      (r>0.99). No statistically significant differences in the number of detected
      struts were found between the segmentations. Mean values of similarity indexes
      were >95% and >85% for the lumen and stent detection, respectively. Stent point
      clouds of two selected cases, obtained after OCT image processing, were compared
      to the centerline points of the corresponding stent reconstructions from micro
      computed tomography, used as ground-truth. Quantitative comparison between the
      corresponding stent points resulted in median values of ~150 MUm and ~40 MUm for
      the total and radial distances of both cases, respectively. The repeatability of
      the detection method was investigated by calculating the lumen volume and the
      mean number of detected struts per frame for seven repeated OCT scans of one
      selected case. Results showed low deviation of values from the median for both
      analyzed quantities. In conclusion, this study presents a robust automatic method
      for detection of lumen contours and stent struts from OCT as supported by focused
      validation against both manual segmentation and micro computed tomography and by
      good repeatability.

PMID- 28574989
TI  - Optimal classifier for imbalanced data using Matthews Correlation Coefficient
      metric.
AB  - Data imbalance is frequently encountered in biomedical applications. Resampling
      techniques can be used in binary classification to tackle this issue. However
      such solutions are not desired when the number of samples in the small class is
      limited. Moreover the use of inadequate performance metrics, such as accuracy,
      lead to poor generalization results because the classifiers tend to predict the
      largest size class. One of the good approaches to deal with this issue is to
      optimize performance metrics that are designed to handle data imbalance. Matthews
      Correlation Coefficient (MCC) is widely used in Bioinformatics as a performance
      metric. We are interested in developing a new classifier based on the MCC metric
      to handle imbalanced data. We derive an optimal Bayes classifier for the MCC
      metric using an approach based on Frechet derivative. We show that the proposed
      algorithm has the nice theoretical property of consistency. Using simulated data,
      we verify the correctness of our optimality result by searching in the space of
      all possible binary classifiers. The proposed classifier is evaluated on 64
      datasets from a wide range data imbalance. We compare both classification
      performance and CPU efficiency for three classifiers: 1) the proposed algorithm
      (MCC-classifier), the Bayes classifier with a default threshold (MCC-base) and
      imbalanced SVM (SVM-imba). The experimental evaluation shows that MCC-classifier
      has a close performance to SVM-imba while being simpler and more efficient.

PMID- 28574990
TI  - The bat community of Haiti and evidence for its long-term persistence at high
      elevations.
AB  - Accurate accounts of both living and fossil mammal communities are critical for
      creating biodiversity inventories and understanding patterns of changing species
      diversity through time. We combined data from from14 new fossil localities with
      literature accounts and museum records to document the bat biodiversity of Haiti
      through time. We also report an assemblage of late-Holocene (1600-600 Cal BP) bat
      fossils from a montane cave (Trouing Jean Paul, ~1825m) in southern Haiti. The
      nearly 3000 chiropteran fossils from Trouing Jean Paul represent 15 species of
      bats including nine species endemic to the Caribbean islands. The fossil bat
      assemblage from Trouing Jean Paul is dominated by species still found on
      Hispaniola (15 of 15 species), much as with the fossil bird assemblage from the
      same locality (22 of 23 species). Thus, both groups of volant vertebrates
      demonstrate long-term resilience, at least at high elevations, to the past 16
      centuries of human presence on the island.

PMID- 28574988
TI  - The differing influence of several factors on the development of fatty liver with
      elevation of liver enzymes between genders with metabolic syndrome: A cross
      sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is known to be strongly
      associated with obesity, visceral fat, metabolic syndrome (MS), lifestyle, and
      lifestyle-related diseases in both males and females. However, the prevalence of
      NAFLD, MS, and clinical backgrounds is different between males and females.
      OBJECTIVE: We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the differing
      influence of lifestyle-related factors and visceral fat on fatty liver (FL) with
      elevation of liver enzymes between males and females with MS. METHODS: We
      enrolled 42,134 persons who underwent a regular health check-up, and after
      excluding subjects who fulfilled excluding criteria, the remaining subjects were
      2,110 persons with MS. We examined the differing influence of lifestyle-related
      factors and visceral fat on FL with elevation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
      (ALT elevation was defined as ALT level of >=31 IU/l in the present study).
      RESULTS: The odds rations for FL with ALT elevation were as follows: WC, 1.83
      (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.36-2.46); dyslipidemia, 1.89 (95% CI 1.34-2.68);
      hemoglobin A1c, 1.36 (95% CI 1.00-1.85); visceral fat type MS (V-type MS), 5.78
      (95% CI 4.29-7.80); and light drinker, 0.56 (95% CI 0.41-0.78) in males with MS
      and BMI, 2.18 (95% CI 1.43-3.33); WC, 1.85 (95% CI 1.27-2.70); diastolic blood
      pressure, 1.69 (95% CI 1.16-2.45); triglyceride, 2.22 (95% CI 1.56-3.17);
      impaired glucose tolerance, 1.66 (95% CI 1.11-2.47); and V-type MS, 3.83 (95% CI
      2.57-5.70) in females with MS. The prevalence of FL with ALT elevation and ALT
      was significantly higher in V-type MS than in the subcutaneous fat type MS in
      both males and females with MS (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Although V-type MS and WC
      is a common significant predictor of an increased prevalence of FL with ALT
      elevation in both males and females with MS, gender, lifestyle-related factors,
      and MS type in individuals with MS should be considered for the development of FL
      with ALT elevation.

PMID- 28574991
TI  - Exploring the potential of open big data from ticketing websites to characterize
      travel patterns within the Chinese high-speed rail system.
AB  - Big data have contributed to deepen our understanding in regards to many human
      systems, particularly human mobility patterns and the structure and functioning
      of transportation systems. Resonating the recent call for 'open big data,' big
      data from various sources on a range of scales have become increasingly
      accessible to the public. However, open big data relevant to travelers within
      public transit tools remain scarce, hindering any further in-depth study on human
      mobility patterns. Here, we explore ticketing-website derived data that are
      publically available but have been largely neglected. We demonstrate the power,
      potential and limitations of this open big data, using the Chinese high-speed
      rail (HSR) system as an example. Using an application programming interface, we
      automatically collected the data on the remaining tickets (RTD) for scheduled
      trains at the last second before departure in order to retrieve information on
      unused transit capacity, occupancy rate of trains, and passenger flux at
      stations. We show that this information is highly useful in characterizing the
      spatiotemporal patterns of traveling behaviors on the Chinese HSR, such as
      weekend traveling behavior, imbalanced commuting behavior, and station
      functionality. Our work facilitates the understanding of human traveling patterns
      along the Chinese HSR, and the functionality of the largest HSR system in the
      world. We expect our work to attract attention regarding this unique open big
      data source for the study of analogous transportation systems.

PMID- 28574992
TI  - A state space approach for piecewise-linear recurrent neural networks for
      identifying computational dynamics from neural measurements.
AB  - The computational and cognitive properties of neural systems are often thought to
      be implemented in terms of their (stochastic) network dynamics. Hence, recovering
      the system dynamics from experimentally observed neuronal time series, like
      multiple single-unit recordings or neuroimaging data, is an important step toward
      understanding its computations. Ideally, one would not only seek a (lower
      dimensional) state space representation of the dynamics, but would wish to have
      access to its statistical properties and their generative equations for in-depth
      analysis. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a computationally powerful and
      dynamically universal formal framework which has been extensively studied from
      both the computational and the dynamical systems perspective. Here we develop a
      semi-analytical maximum-likelihood estimation scheme for piecewise-linear RNNs
      (PLRNNs) within the statistical framework of state space models, which accounts
      for noise in both the underlying latent dynamics and the observation process. The
      Expectation-Maximization algorithm is used to infer the latent state
      distribution, through a global Laplace approximation, and the PLRNN parameters
      iteratively. After validating the procedure on toy examples, and using inference
      through particle filters for comparison, the approach is applied to multiple
      single-unit recordings from the rodent anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) obtained
      during performance of a classical working memory task, delayed alternation.
      Models estimated from kernel-smoothed spike time data were able to capture the
      essential computational dynamics underlying task performance, including stimulus
      selective delay activity. The estimated models were rarely multi-stable, however,
      but rather were tuned to exhibit slow dynamics in the vicinity of a bifurcation
      point. In summary, the present work advances a semi-analytical (thus reasonably
      fast) maximum-likelihood estimation framework for PLRNNs that may enable to
      recover relevant aspects of the nonlinear dynamics underlying observed neuronal
      time series, and directly link these to computational properties.

PMID- 28574993
TI  - Weigh the pros and cons to ovarian reserve before stripping ovarian endometriomas
      prior to IVF/ICSI: A meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore the effects of conservative surgery for endometriomas on
      ovarian responsiveness during assisted reproductive technology (ART) and provide
      reproductive and gynecological doctors with a more reliable reference program for
      the treatment of endometriomas. METHODS: A literature search was performed by
      searching the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Science Direct
      databases. Studies with inter- and intra-patient comparisons of ovarian responses
      and oocyte quality between operated and unoperated ovaries and that met the
      inclusion criteria were retrieved, and the data from the outcome measures were
      extracted and pooled for this meta-analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-one published
      studies (2649 ART cycles) were included. The total amount of gonadotropin (Gn)
      used (inverse variance (IV):0.48; 95% confidence interval (CI): [0.13, 1.82], P =
      0.0007) was significantly increased in the women with endometriomas who had a
      history of cystectomy. The estrogen (E) level on the day of hCG administration
      (IV: -0.29; 95% CI: [-0.41, -0.17], P<0.00001), the number of mature or dominant
      follicles (IV: -1.17; 95% CI: [-1.51, -0.82], P<0.00001) and the total number of
      oocytes retrieved (IV: -1.78; 95% CI: [-2.38, -1.17], P<0.00001) were
      significantly decreased in the women with endometriomas who had a history of
      cystectomy. The duration of stimulation (IV: 0.02; 95% CI: [-0.09, 0.13], P =
      0.77), the total number of formed embryos (IV: -0.06; 95% CI: [-0.17, 0.04], P =
      0.25), the pregnancy rate(IV:0.98;95%CI[0.82,1.18], P = 0.83) and the live birth
      rate(IV:0.93;95%CI[0.70,1.23], P = 0.61)were not statistically different between
      the two groups. Similar intra-patient results were found in the number of mature
      or dominant follicles (IV: -0.88; 95% CI: [-1.25, -0.52], P<0.00001) and the
      total number of oocytes retrieved (IV: -3.48; 95% CI: [-4.77, -2.19], P<0.00001).
      CONCLUSION: ART might be a better therapeutic method for ovarian endometrioma
      related infertility than cystectomy.

PMID- 28574994
TI  - Follistatin like-1 (Fstl1) is required for the normal formation of lung airway
      and vascular smooth muscle at birth.
AB  - Fstl1, a secreted protein of the BMP antagonist class, has been implicated in the
      regulation of lung development and alveolar maturation. Here we generated a Fstl1
      lacZ reporter mouse line as well as a Fstl1 knockout allele. We localized Fstl1
      transcript in lung smooth muscle cells and identified Fstl1 as essential
      regulator of lung smooth muscle formation. Deletion of Fstl1 in mice led to
      postnatal death as a result of respiratory failure due to multiple defects in
      lung development. Analysis of the mutant phenotype showed impaired airway smooth
      muscle (SM) manifested as smaller SM line in trachea and discontinued SM
      surrounding bronchi, which were associated with decreased transcriptional factors
      myocardin/serum response factor (SRF) and impaired differentiation of SM cells.
      Fstl1 knockout mice also displayed abnormal vasculature SM manifested as
      hyperplasia SM in pulmonary artery. This study indicates a pivotal role for Fstl1
      in early stage of lung airway smooth muscle development.

PMID- 28574996
TI  - Conversing with a devil's advocate: Interpersonal coordination in deception and
      disagreement.
AB  - This study investigates the presence of dynamical patterns of interpersonal
      coordination in extended deceptive conversations across multimodal channels of
      behavior. Using a novel "devil's advocate" paradigm, we experimentally elicited
      deception and truth across topics in which conversational partners either agreed
      or disagreed, and where one partner was surreptitiously asked to argue an opinion
      opposite of what he or she really believed. We focus on interpersonal
      coordination as an emergent behavioral signal that captures interdependencies
      between conversational partners, both as the coupling of head movements over the
      span of milliseconds, measured via a windowed lagged cross correlation (WLCC)
      technique, and more global temporal dependencies across speech rate, using cross
      recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Moreover, we considered how
      interpersonal coordination might be shaped by strategic, adaptive conversational
      goals associated with deception. We found that deceptive conversations displayed
      more structured speech rate and higher head movement coordination, the latter
      with a peak in deceptive disagreement conversations. Together the results allow
      us to posit an adaptive account, whereby interpersonal coordination is not
      beholden to any single functional explanation, but can strategically adapt to
      diverse conversational demands.

PMID- 28574995
TI  - Pulmonary emphysema is a predictor of pneumothorax after CT-guided transthoracic
      pulmonary biopsies of pulmonary nodules.
AB  - PURPOSE: Pneumothoraces are the most frequently occurring complications of CT
      guided percutaneous transthoracic pulmonary biopsies (PTPB). The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the influence of pre-diagnostic lung emphysema on the
      incidence and extent of pneumothoraces and to establish a risk stratification for
      the evaluation of the pre-procedure complication probability. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: CT-guided PTPB of 100 pre-selected patients (mean age 67.1+/-12.8 years)
      were retrospectively enrolled from a single center database of 235 PTPB performed
      between 2012-2014. Patients were grouped according to pneumothorax appearance
      directly after PTPB (group I: without pneumothorax, n = 50; group II: with
      pneumothorax, n = 50). Group II was further divided according to post
      interventional treatment (group IIa: chest tube placement, n = 24; group IIb:
      conservative therapy, n = 26). For each patient pre-diagnostic percentage of
      emphysema was quantified using CT density analysis. Emphysema stages were
      compared between groups using bivariate analyses and multinomial logistic
      regression analyses. RESULTS: Emphysema percentage was significantly associated
      with the occurrence of post-interventional pneumothorax (p = 0.006). Adjusted for
      potential confounders (age, gender, lesion size and length of interventional
      pathway) the study yielded an OR of 1.07 (p = 0.042). Absolute risk of
      pneumothorax increased from 43.4% at an emphysema rate of 5% to 73.8% at 25%. No
      differences could be seen in patients with pneumothorax between percentage of
      emphysema and mode of therapy (p = 0.721). CONCLUSION: The rate of lung emphysema
      is proportionally related to the incidence of pneumothorax after CT-guided PTPB
      and allows pre-interventional risk stratification. There is no association
      between stage of emphysema and post-interventional requirement of chest tube
      placement.

PMID- 28574997
TI  - Attenuation of postoperative adhesions using a modeled manual therapy.
AB  - Postoperative adhesions are pathological attachments that develop between
      abdominopelvic structures following surgery. Considered unavoidable and
      ubiquitous, postoperative adhesions lead to bowel obstructions, infertility,
      pain, and reoperations. As such, they represent a substantial health care
      challenge. Despite over a century of research, no preventive treatment exists. We
      hypothesized that postoperative adhesions develop from a lack of movement of the
      abdominopelvic organs in the immediate postoperative period while rendered
      immobile by surgery and opiates, and tested whether manual therapy would prevent
      their development. In a modified rat cecal abrasion model, rats were allocated to
      receive treatment with manual therapy or not, and their resulting adhesions were
      quantified. We also characterized macrophage phenotype. In separate experiments
      we tested the safety of the treatment on a strictureplasty model, and also the
      efficacy of the treatment following adhesiolysis. We show that the treatment led
      to reduced frequency and size of cohesive adhesions, but not other types of
      adhesions, such as those involving intraperitoneal fatty structures. This effect
      was associated with a delay in the appearance of trophic macrophages. The
      treatment did not inhibit healing or induce undesirable complications following
      strictureplasty. Our results support that that maintained movements of damaged
      structures in the immediate postoperative period has potential to act as an
      effective preventive for attenuating cohesive postoperative adhesion development.
      Our findings lay the groundwork for further research, including mechanical and
      pharmacologic approaches to maintain movements during healing.

PMID- 28574998
TI  - Expertise with unfamiliar objects is flexible to changes in task but not changes
      in class.
AB  - Perceptual expertise is notoriously specific and bound by familiarity;
      generalizing to novel or unfamiliar images, objects, identities, and categories
      often comes at some cost to performance. In forensic and security settings,
      however, examiners are faced with the task of discriminating unfamiliar images of
      unfamiliar objects within their general domain of expertise (e.g., fingerprints,
      faces, or firearms). The job of a fingerprint expert, for instance, is to decide
      whether two unfamiliar fingerprint images were left by the same unfamiliar finger
      (e.g., Smith's left thumb), or two different unfamiliar fingers (e.g., Smith and
      Jones's left thumb). Little is known about the limits of this kind of perceptual
      expertise. Here, we examine fingerprint experts' and novices' ability to
      distinguish fingerprints compared to inverted faces in two different tasks.
      Inverted face images serve as an ideal comparison because they vary naturally
      between and within identities, as do fingerprints, and people tend to be less
      accurate or more novice-like at distinguishing faces when they are presented in
      an inverted or unfamiliar orientation. In Experiment 1, fingerprint experts
      outperformed novices in locating categorical fingerprint outliers (i.e., a loop
      pattern in an array of whorls), but not inverted face outliers (i.e., an inverted
      male face in an array of inverted female faces). In Experiment 2, fingerprint
      experts were more accurate than novices at discriminating matching and
      mismatching fingerprints that were presented very briefly, but not so for
      inverted faces. Our data show that perceptual expertise with fingerprints can be
      flexible to changing task demands, but there can also be abrupt limits:
      fingerprint expertise did not generalize to an unfamiliar class of stimuli. We
      interpret these findings as evidence that perceptual expertise with unfamiliar
      objects is highly constrained by one's experience.

PMID- 28574999
TI  - Predictors of renal function recovery among patients undergoing renal replacement
      therapy following orthotopic liver transplantation.
AB  - Renal dysfunction frequently occurs during the periods preceding and following
      orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), and in many cases, renal replacement
      therapy (RRT) is required. Information regarding the duration of RRT and the rate
      of kidney function recovery after OLT is crucial for transplant program
      management. We evaluated a sample of 155 stable patients undergoing post
      intensive care hemodialysis (HD) from a patient population of 908 adults who
      underwent OLT. We investigated the average time to renal function recovery
      (duration of RRT required) and determined the risk factors for remaining on
      dialysis > 90 days after OLT. Log-rank tests were used for univariate analysis,
      and Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify factors associated with
      the risk of remaining on HD. The results of our analysis showed that of the 155
      patients, 28% had pre-OLT diabetes mellitus, 21% had pre-OLT hypertension, and
      40% had viral hepatitis. Among the patients, the median MELD (Model for End-Stage
      Liver Disease) score was 27 (interquartile range [IQR] 22-35). When they were
      listed for liver transplantation, 32% of the patients had serum creatinine (Scr)
      levels > 1.5 mg/dL or were on HD, and 50% had serum creatinine (Scr) levels > 1.5
      mg/dL or were on HD at the time of OLT. Of the transplanted patients, 25%
      underwent pre-OLT intermittent HD, and 14% and 41% underwent continuous renal
      replacement therapy (CRRT) pre-OLT and post-OLT, respectively. At 90 days post
      OLT, 118 (76%) patients had been taken off dialysis, and 16 (10%) patients had
      died while undergoing HD. The median recovery time of these post-OLT patients was
      33 (IQR 27-39) days. In the multivariate analysis, fulminant hepatic failure as
      the cause of liver disease (p<0.001), the absence of pre-OLT hypertension (p =
      0.016), a lower intraoperative fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) transfusion volume (p =
      0.019) and not undergoing pre-OLT intermittent HD (p = 0.032) were associated
      with performing RRT for less than 90 days. Therefore, a high proportion of OLT
      patients showed improved renal function after OLT, and those who were diagnosed
      with fulminant hepatic failure, had no pre-OLT hypertension, received a lower
      transfused volume of intraoperative FFP and did not undergo pre-OLT intermittent
      HD had a higher probability of recovery.

PMID- 28575000
TI  - Clinical and virological characteristics of dengue in Surabaya, Indonesia.
AB  - Dengue disease is still a major health problem in Indonesia. Surabaya, the second
      largest city in the country, is endemic for dengue. We report here on dengue
      disease in Surabaya, investigating the clinical manifestations, the distribution
      of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes, and the relationships between clinical
      manifestations and the genetic characteristics of DENV. A total of 148 patients
      suspected of having dengue were recruited during February-August 2012. One
      hundred one (68%) of them were children, and 47 (32%) were adults. Dengue fever
      (DF) and Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) were equally manifested in all of the
      patients. We performed DENV serotyping on all of the samples using real-time RT
      PCR. Of 148, 79 (53%) samples were detected as DENV positive, with DENV-1 as the
      predominant serotype (73%), followed by DENV-2 (8%), DENV-4 (8%), and DENV-3
      (6%), while 5% were mixed infections. Based on the Envelope gene sequences, we
      performed phylogenetic analyses of 24 isolates to genotype the DENV circulating
      in Surabaya in 2012, and the analysis revealed that DENV-1 consisted of Genotypes
      I and IV, DENV-2 was of the Cosmopolitan genotype, the DENV-3 viruses were of
      Genotype I, and DENV-4 was detected as Genotype II. We correlated the infecting
      DENV serotypes with clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters; however,
      no significant correlations were found. Amino acid analysis of Envelope protein
      did not find any unique mutations related to disease severity.

PMID- 28575001
TI  - Radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging predicts severity of cruciate
      ligament fiber damage and synovitis in dogs with cranial cruciate ligament
      rupture.
AB  - Cruciate ligament rupture (CR) and associated osteoarthritis (OA) is a common
      condition in dogs. Dogs frequently develop a second contralateral CR. This study
      tested the hypothesis that the degree of stifle synovitis and cranial cruciate
      ligament (CrCL) matrix damage in dogs with CR is correlated with non-invasive
      diagnostic tests, including magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. We conducted a
      prospective cohort study of 29 client-owned dogs with an unstable stifle due to
      complete CR and stable contralateral stifle with partial CR. We evaluated
      correlation of stifle synovitis and CrCL fiber damage with diagnostic tests
      including bilateral stifle radiographs, 3.0 Tesla MR imaging, and bilateral
      stifle arthroscopy. Histologic grading and immunohistochemical staining for CD3+
      T lymphocytes, TRAP+ activated macrophages and Factor VIII+ blood vessels in
      bilateral stifle synovial biopsies were also performed. Serum and synovial fluid
      concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) and carboxy-terminal telopeptide of
      type I collagen (ICTP), and synovial total nucleated cell count were determined.
      Synovitis was increased in complete CR stifles relative to partial CR stifles
      (P<0.0001), although total nucleated cell count in synovial fluid was increased
      in partial CR stifles (P<0.01). In partial CR stifles, we found that 3D Fast Spin
      Echo Cube CrCL signal intensity was correlated with histologic synovitis (SR =
      0.50, P<0.01) and that radiographic OA was correlated with CrCL fiber damage
      assessed arthroscopically (SR = 0.61, P<0.001). Taken together, results of this
      study show that clinical diagnostic tests predict severity of stifle synovitis
      and cruciate ligament matrix damage in stable partial CR stifles. These data
      support use of client-owned dogs with unilateral complete CR and contralateral
      partial CR as a clinical trial model for investigation of disease-modifying
      therapy for partial CR.

PMID- 28575002
TI  - Effects of early postnatal environment on hypothalamic gene expression in OLETF
      rats.
AB  - Previous reports have shown that the early postnatal environment has the ability
      to modify the obesity phenotype of Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF)
      rats. To determine whether this early postnatal environment affects hypothalamic
      signaling systems involved in energy balance, OLETF pups and lean Long-Evans
      Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) pups were cross-fostered to same or opposite strain Dams
      (designated as LdLp: LETO pups with LETO dams; LdOp: OLETF pups with LETO dams;
      OdLp: LETO pups with OLETF dams; and OdOp: OLETF pups with OLETF dams).
      Hypothalamic gene expression was examined at postnatal day 23 (PND 23) and PND 90
      as OdOp rats started to gain more body weight at PND 23 and developed obesity at
      PND 90 relative to lean control LdLp rats. On PND 23, neuropeptide Y (Npy) gene
      expression was significantly increased in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) in
      both LdOp and OdOp pups compared to LdLp pups. Maternal environment did not
      affect DMH Npy expression in LETO weanlings. On PND 90, maternal environment
      during the cross-fostering period had a major effect on DMH Npy expression.
      Levels were significantly increased in both OdOp and OdLp rats relative to those
      in LdOp rats and LdLp controls. Reduced expression of Npy in the DMH of LdOp rats
      was consistent with their reduction of body weight compared to OdOp rats. In
      contrast to DMH Npy, gene expression for Npy and proopiomelanocortin in the
      arcuate nucleus appeared to appropriately respond to alterations in body weight
      and plasma leptin levels. Levels of oxytocin gene expression in the
      paraventricular nucleus were lower in offspring raised by LETO dams apparently
      responding to the higher DMH NPY levels. Together, our results demonstrate
      effects of both genotype and early postnatal environment on obesity of OLETF rats
      and further suggest an important role of DMH NPY in the development of obesity of
      OLETF rats.

PMID- 28575004
TI  - Comparative chloroplast genomes of eleven Schima (Theaceae) species: Insights
      into DNA barcoding and phylogeny.
AB  - Schima is an ecologically and economically important woody genus in tea family
      (Theaceae). Unresolved species delimitations and phylogenetic relationships
      within Schima limit our understanding of the genus and hinder utilization of the
      genus for economic purposes. In the present study, we conducted comparative
      analysis among the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of 11 Schima species. Our
      results indicate that Schima cp genomes possess a typical quadripartite
      structure, with conserved genomic structure and gene order. The size of the
      Schima cp genome is about 157 kilo base pairs (kb). They consistently encode 114
      unique genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNAs, and 4 rRNAs, with 17
      duplicated in the inverted repeat (IR). These cp genomes are highly conserved and
      do not show obvious expansion or contraction of the IR region. The percent
      variability of the 68 coding and 93 noncoding (>150 bp) fragments is consistently
      less than 3%. The seven most widely touted DNA barcode regions as well as one
      promising barcode candidate showed low sequence divergence. Eight mutational
      hotspots were identified from the 11 cp genomes. These hotspots may potentially
      be useful as specific DNA barcodes for species identification of Schima. The 58
      cpSSR loci reported here are complementary to the microsatellite markers
      identified from the nuclear genome, and will be leveraged for further population
      level studies. Phylogenetic relationships among the 11 Schima species were
      resolved with strong support based on the cp genome data set, which corresponds
      well with the species distribution pattern. The data presented here will serve as
      a foundation to facilitate species identification, DNA barcoding and phylogenetic
      reconstructions for future exploration of Schima.

PMID- 28575005
TI  - Various meteorological conditions exhibit both immediate and delayed influences
      on the risk of stroke events: The HEWS-stroke study.
AB  - We hypothesized that meteorological conditions on the onset day and conditions on
      the former days may play important roles in the modulation of physical
      conditions. Associations of meteorological factors and their changes in former
      days with stroke onset are of interest. We conducted a multicenter retrospective
      study to evaluate the frequency of stroke events and their interaction with
      meteorological conditions and their daily changes. Acute stroke patients (n =
      3935, 73.5+/-12.4 years, 1610 females) who were admitted to 7 stroke hospitals in
      three restricted areas were enrolled in this study. Poisson regression models
      involving time-lag variables was used to compare daily rates of stroke events
      with mean thermo-hydrological index (THI), atmospheric pressure, and their daily
      changes. We divided onset days into quintiles based on the THI, atmospheric
      pressure, and their daily changes for the last 7 days. The frequencies of
      ischemic stroke significantly increased when THI varied either cooler or warmer
      from a previous day (extremely cooler, risk ratio (RR) 1.19, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 1.05 to 1.34; extremely warmer, RR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.31; r2 =
      0.001 for the best regression, p = 0.001). Intracerebral hemorrhage frequencies
      significantly decreased on high-THI days (extremely high, RR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54 to
      0.95; r2 = 0.013 for the best regression, p<0.001) and increased in high
      atmospheric pressure days (high, RR 1.31, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.65; r2 = 0.009 for the
      best regression, p<0.001). Additionally, even after adjusting for the THI on the
      onset day and its changes for the other days, intracerebral hemorrhage increased
      when THI got extremely cooler in 4 days prior (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.71, r2 =
      0.006 for the best regression, p<0.001). Various meteorological conditions may
      exhibit influences on stroke onset. And, when temperature cooled, there may be a
      possibility to show delayed influence on the frequency of intracerebral
      hemorrhage 4 days later.

PMID- 28575003
TI  - Establishment and transfer of classical eyeblink conditioning using electrical
      microstimulation of the hippocampus as the conditioned stimulus.
AB  - The present experiment was designed to determine whether classical eyeblink
      conditioning (EBC) can be established by using electrical microstimulation of the
      hippocampus as a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with an air-puff unconditioned
      stimulus (US). We intended to examine whether EBC transfer could occur when a CS
      was shifted between microstimulation of the hippocampus as a CS (Hip-CS) and tone
      as a CS (tone-CS) and to compare the difference in transfer effectiveness between
      delay EBC (dEBC) and trace EBC (tEBC). Eight groups of guinea pigs, including 4
      experimental groups and 4 control groups, were included in the study. First, the
      experimental groups received either a Hip-CS or a tone-CS paired with a US; then,
      these groups were exposed to a shifted CS (tone-CS or Hip-CS) paired with the US.
      The control groups received the corresponding Hip-CS or tone-CS, which was,
      however, pseudo-paired with the US. The control groups were then shifted to the
      tone-CS (or Hip-CS) paired with the US. The results show that EBC can be
      successfully established when using microstimulation of the hippocampus as a CS
      paired with an air-puff US, and that the acquisition rates of EBC are higher in
      the experimental groups than in the control groups after switching from the Hip
      CS to the tone-CS or vice versa, indicating the occurrence of learning transfer
      between EBC established with the Hip-CS and tone-CS. The present study also
      demonstrated that the EBC re-acquisition rates were remarkably higher in dEBC
      than in tEBC with both types of transfer, which suggests that the saving effect
      was more evident in dEBC than tEBC. These results significantly expand our
      knowledge of EBC transfer as well as the functional neural circuit underlying EBC
      transfer.

PMID- 28575007
TI  - Development of microsatellite markers and assembly of the plastid genome in
      Cistanthe longiscapa (Montiaceae) based on low-coverage whole genome sequencing.
AB  - Cistanthe longiscapa is an endemic annual herb and characteristic element of the
      Chilean Atacama Desert. Principal threats are the destruction of its seed
      deposits by human activities and reduced germination rates due to the decreasing
      occurrence of precipitation events. To enable population genetic and
      phylogeographic analyses in this species we performed paired-end shotgun
      sequencing (2x100 bp) of genomic DNA on the Illumina HiSeq platform and
      identified microsatellite (SSR) loci in the resulting sequences. From 29 million
      quality-filtered read pairs we obtained 549,174 contigs (average length 614 bp;
      N50 = 904). Searching for SSRs revealed 10,336 loci with microsatellite motifs.
      Initially, we designed primers for 96 loci, which were tested for PCR
      amplification on three C. longiscapa individuals. Successfully amplifying loci
      were further tested on eight individuals to screen for length variation in the
      resulting amplicons, and the alleles were exemplarily sequenced to infer the
      basis for the observed length variation. Finally we arrived at 26 validated SSR
      loci for population studies in C. longiscapa, which resulted in 146 bi-allelic
      SSR markers in our test sample of eight individuals. The genomic sequences were
      also used to assemble the plastid genome of C. longiscapa, which provides an
      additional set of maternally inherited genetic markers.

PMID- 28575006
TI  - Identification of CkSNAP33, a gene encoding synaptosomal-associated protein from
      Cynanchum komarovii, that enhances Arabidopsis resistance to Verticillium
      dahliae.
AB  - SNARE proteins are essential to vesicle trafficking and membrane fusion in
      eukaryotic cells. In addition, the SNARE-mediated secretory pathway can deliver
      diverse defense products to infection sites during exocytosis-associated immune
      responses in plants. In this study, a novel gene (CkSNAP33) encoding a
      synaptosomal-associated protein was isolated from Cynanchum komarovii and
      characterized. CkSNAP33 contains Qb- and Qc-SNARE domains in the N- and C
      terminal regions, respectively, and shares high sequence identity with AtSNAP33
      from Arabidopsis. CkSNAP33 expression was induced by H2O2, salicylic acid (SA),
      Verticillium dahliae, and wounding. Arabidopsis lines overexpressing CkSNAP33 had
      longer primary roots and larger seedlings than the wild type (WT). Transgenic
      Arabidopsis lines showed significantly enhanced resistance to V. dahliae, and
      displayed reductions in disease index and fungal biomass, and also showed
      elevated expression of PR1 and PR5. The leaves of transgenic plants infected with
      V. dahliae showed strong callose deposition and cell death that hindered the
      penetration and spread of the fungus at the infection site. Taken together, these
      results suggest that CkSNAP33 is involved in the defense response against V.
      dahliae and enhanced disease resistance in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28575009
TI  - A novel application of PageRank and user preference algorithms for assessing the
      relative performance of track athletes in competition.
AB  - Ranking enables coaches, sporting authorities, and pundits to determine the
      relative performance of individual athletes and teams in comparison to their
      peers. While ranking is relatively straightforward in sports that employ
      traditional leagues, it is more difficult in sports where competition is
      fragmented (e.g. athletics, boxing, etc.), with not all competitors competing
      against each other. In such situations, complex points systems are often employed
      to rank athletes. However, these systems have the inherent weakness that they
      frequently rely on subjective assessments in order to gauge the calibre of the
      competitors involved. Here we show how two Internet derived algorithms, the
      PageRank (PR) and user preference (UP) algorithms, when utilised with a simple
      'who beat who' matrix, can be used to accurately rank track athletes, avoiding
      the need for subjective assessment. We applied the PR and UP algorithms to the
      2015 IAAF Diamond League men's 100m competition and compared their performance
      with the Keener, Colley and Massey ranking algorithms. The top five places
      computed by the PR and UP algorithms, and the Diamond League '2016' points system
      were all identical, with the Kendall's tau distance between the PR standings and
      '2016' points system standings being just 15, indicating that only 5.9% of pairs
      differed in their order between these two lists. By comparison, the UP and '2016'
      standings displayed a less strong relationship, with a tau distance of 95,
      indicating that 37.6% of the pairs differed in their order. When compared with
      the standings produced using the Keener, Colley and Massey algorithms, the PR
      standings appeared to be closest to the Keener standings (tau distance = 67,
      26.5% pair order disagreement), whereas the UP standings were more similar to the
      Colley and Massey standings, with the tau distances between these ranking lists
      being only 48 (19.0% pair order disagreement) and 59 (23.3% pair order
      disagreement) respectively. In particular, the UP algorithm ranked 'one-off'
      victors more highly than the PR algorithm, suggesting that the UP algorithm
      captures alternative characteristics to the PR algorithm, which may more suitable
      for predicting future performance in say knockout tournaments, rather than for
      use in competitions such as the Diamond League. As such, these Internet derived
      algorithms appear to have considerable potential for objectively assessing the
      relative performance of track athletes, without the need for complicated points
      equivalence tables. Importantly, because both algorithms utilise a 'who beat who'
      model, they automatically adjust for the strength of the competition, thus
      avoiding the need for subjective decision making.

PMID- 28575008
TI  - Plasma metabolome and skin proteins in Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT1A) disease is the most common inherited
      neuropathy that lacks of therapy and of molecular markers to assess disease
      severity. Herein, we have pursued the identification of potential biomarkers in
      plasma samples and skin biopsies that could define the phenotype of CMT1A
      patients at mild (Mi), moderate (Mo) and severe (Se) stages of disease as
      assessed by the CMT neuropathy score to contribute to the understanding of CMT
      pathophysiology and eventually inform of the severity of the disease. METHODS: We
      have used: (i) a high-throughput untargeted metabolomic approach of plasma
      samples in a cohort of 42 CMT1A patients and 15 healthy controls (CRL) using
      ultrahigh liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and (ii) reverse
      phase protein microarrays to quantitate the expression of some proteins of energy
      metabolism and of the antioxidant response in skin biopsies of a cohort of 70
      CMT1A patients and 13 healthy controls. RESULTS: The metabolomic approach
      identified 194 metabolites with significant differences among the four groups
      (Mi, Mo, Se, CRL) of samples. A multivariate Linear Discriminant Analysis model
      using 12 metabolites afforded the correct classification of the samples. These
      metabolites indicate an increase in protein catabolism and the mobilization of
      membrane lipids involved in signaling inflammation with severity of CMT1A. A
      concurrent depletion of leucine, which is required for the biogenesis of the
      muscle, is also observed in the patients. Protein expression in skin biopsies
      indicates early loss of mitochondrial and antioxidant proteins in patients'
      biopsies. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that CMT1A disease is associated with
      a metabolic state resembling inflammation and sarcopenia suggesting that it might
      represent a potential target to prevent the nerve and muscle wasting phenotype in
      these patients. The observed changes in metabolites could be useful as potential
      biomarkers of CMT1A disease after appropriate validation in future longitudinal
      studies.

PMID- 28575010
TI  - Effects of HIV infection on maternal and neonatal health in southern Mozambique:
      A prospective cohort study after a decade of antiretroviral drugs roll out.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The HIV epidemic is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. However,
      limited information exists on its impact on women and infant's health since the
      introduction of antiretroviral drugs in this region, where health resources are
      often scarce. METHODS: The effect of HIV infection on maternal health, birth
      outcomes and infant health was analysed in two contemporary cohorts of HIV
      uninfected and HIV-infected pregnant women from southern Mozambique. Pregnant
      women attending the first antenatal care visit were followed until one month
      after delivery. Antiretroviral therapy was administered based on CD4+T cell count
      and clinical stage. Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, as well as
      pregnancy outcomes were assessed by mother's HIV status. RESULTS: A total of 1183
      HIV-uninfected and 561 HIV-infected pregnant women were enrolled. HIV-infected
      women were more likely to have anaemia both at the first antenatal care visit and
      at delivery than HIV-uninfected women (71.5% versus 54.8% and 49.4% versus 40.6%,
      respectively, p<0.001). Incidence of hospital admissions during pregnancy was
      increased among HIV-infected women (RR, 2.04, [95%CI, 1.45; 2.86]; p<0.001). At
      delivery, 21% of HIV-infected women reported being on antiretroviral therapy, and
      70% having received antiretroviral drugs for prevention of mother to child
      transmission of HIV. The risk of stillbirths was doubled in HIV-infected women
      (RR, 2.16 [95%CI 1.17; 3.96], p = 0.013). Foetal anaemia was also increased among
      infants born to HIV-infected women (10.6% versus 7.3%, p = 0.022). No differences
      were found in mean birth weight, malaria, prematurity and maternal and neonatal
      deaths between groups. CONCLUSIONS: HIV infection continues to be associated with
      significant maternal morbidity and poor neonatal health outcomes. Efforts should
      urgently be made to identify the barriers that impede improvements on the
      devastating effects of HIV in African women and their infants. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT 00811421.

PMID- 28575012
TI  - Characterization of interfacial socket pressure in transhumeral prostheses: A
      case series.
AB  - One of the most important factors in successful upper limb prostheses is the
      socket design. Sockets must be individually fabricated to arrive at a geometry
      that suits the user's morphology and appropriately distributes the pressures
      associated with prosthetic use across the residual limb. In higher levels of
      amputation, such as transhumeral, this challenge is amplified as prosthetic
      weight and the physical demands placed on the residual limb are heightened. Yet,
      in the upper limb, socket fabrication is largely driven by heuristic practices.
      An analytical understanding of the interactions between the socket and residual
      limb is absent in literature. This work describes techniques, adapted from lower
      limb prosthetic research, to empirically characterize the pressure distribution
      occurring between the residual limb and well-fit transhumeral prosthetic sockets.
      A case series analyzing the result of four participants with transhumeral
      amputation is presented. A Tekscan VersaTek pressure measurement system and
      FaroArm Edge coordinate measurement machine were employed to capture socket
      residual limb interface pressures and geometrically register these values to the
      anatomy of participants. Participants performed two static poses with their
      prosthesis under two separate loading conditions. Surface pressure maps were
      constructed from the data, highlighting pressure distribution patterns,
      anatomical locations bearing maximum pressure, and the relative pressure
      magnitudes. Pressure distribution patterns demonstrated unique characteristics
      across the four participants that could be traced to individual socket design
      considerations. This work presents a technique that implements commercially
      available tools to quantitatively characterize upper limb socket-residual limb
      interactions. This is a fundamental first step toward improved socket designs
      developed through informed, analytically-based design tools.

PMID- 28575011
TI  - Age-dependent regulation of obesity and Alzheimer-related outcomes by hormone
      therapy in female 3xTg-AD mice.
AB  - Depletion of ovarian hormones at menopause is associated with increased
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. Hormone loss also increases central adiposity,
      which promotes AD development. One strategy to improve health outcomes in
      postmenopausal women is estrogen-based hormone therapy (HT), though its efficacy
      is controversial. The window of opportunity hypothesis posits that HT is
      beneficial only if initiated near the onset of menopause. Here, we tested this
      hypothesis by assessing the efficacy of HT against diet-induced obesity and AD
      related pathology in female 3xTg-AD mice at early versus late middle-age. HT
      protected against obesity and reduced beta-amyloid burden only at early middle
      age. One mechanism that contributes to AD pathogenesis is microglial activation,
      which is increased by obesity and reduced by estrogens. In parallel to its
      effects on beta-amyloid accumulation, we observed that HT reduced morphological
      evidence of microglial activation in early but not late middle-age. These
      findings suggest that HT may be effective during human perimenopause in reducing
      indices of obesity and AD-related pathology, a conclusion consistent with the
      window of opportunity hypothesis.

PMID- 28575013
TI  - Adverse drug events-Analysis of a decade. A Portuguese case-study, from 2004 to
      2013 using hospital database.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to characterise adverse drug events (ADE),
      including both adverse drug reaction (ADR) and accidental poisoning by drugs
      (AP), considering age, gender, length of stay (LOS), number of deaths and year,
      during the period 2004-2013. Additionally distributions of the ten's most
      frequent ADR and AP were characterized, considering age-group and gender.
      METHODS: A retrospective descriptive nationwide study was conducted, based on the
      hospital discharges database in Portugal from 2004 to 2013, using ICD-9. Events
      were identified based on the following codes: from E930 to E949.9 and from E850
      to E858.9. RESULTS: A total of 9 320 076 patients were discharged within this
      period, with 133 688 patients (1.46%) having at least one ADE, 4% of them related
      with AP. The mean age of these patients was 63.79 years (SD 21.31), 54.50% were
      female and the mean LOS was 14.05 days (SD 22.19). Patient with AP had a mean age
      of 41.06 years (SD 34.05), 54.70% were female and LOS was 7.15 days (SD 19.42).
      We have identified 10.691 deaths that represent 8.00% from the total of patients
      with an ADE. The patients above 65 years were more affected by ADR and children
      below 18 were more affected by AP. CONCLUSION: In the last decade an increasing
      trend of ADR were observed and an AP pattern relatively stable. Elderly people
      and children were the age groups most affected. Antibiotics (in ADR) and
      benzodiazepine-based tranquilizers (in AP) were the major problems. This is a
      huge, increasing and challenging problem. Further research, using individual and
      contextual risk factors should be developed to understand spatiotemporal
      variability, promoting tailored interventions, within and across countries.

PMID- 28575014
TI  - The outcomes and controversies of transplant tourism-Lessons of an 11-year
      retrospective cohort study from Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transplant tourism has increased rapidly in the past two decades,
      accounting for about 10% of world organ transplants. However it is ethically
      controversial and discouraged by professional guidelines. We conducted this study
      to investigate the outcomes and trends of overseas kidney and liver
      transplantation in Taiwan to provide a sound basis for ethical reflection.
      METHODS AND FINDINGS: The Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database
      was used to identify 2381 domestic and 2518 overseas kidney transplant (KT)
      recipients from 1998 to 2009 and 1758 domestic and 540 overseas liver
      transplantation (LT) recipients from 1999 to 2009. Cox proportional hazards
      models were used to assess the risks of mortality and graft failure. The numbers
      of overseas transplantation increased after 2000, reached a peak in 2005 and
      decreased after 2007. Compared to their domestic counterparts, the overseas KT
      recipients were older, male predominant, with shorter pre-op dialysis period and
      more comorbidities. Similarly, the overseas LT recipients were older, male
      predominant and had more hepatocellular carcinoma cases. The 1-, 5-, and 10-year
      patient survival rates were 96.9%, 91.7% and 83.0% respectively for domestic KT
      and 95.8%, 87.8% and 73.1% for overseas KT (p<0.001). The 1-, 5-, and 10-year
      patient survival rates were 89.2%, 79.5%, 75.2% for domestic LT and 79.8%, 54.7%,
      49.9% for overseas LT (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The poorer outcomes of the overseas
      groups may be due to more older patients, more comorbidities (KT), or more
      hepatocellular carcinoma recurrences (LT). After domestic reform and
      international ethical challenges, the numbers of organ tourism decreased but the
      practice still persisted surreptitiously. Compulsory registration policies for
      overseas transplantation with international conventions to sanction organ
      trafficking and transplant tourism should be considered to stop these
      controversial practices.

PMID- 28575015
TI  - Sex initiates adaptive evolution by recombination between beneficial loci.
AB  - Current theory proposes that sex can increase genetic variation and produce high
      fitness genotypes if genetic associations between alleles at different loci are
      non-random. In case beneficial and deleterious alleles at different loci are in
      linkage disequilibrium, sex may i) recombine beneficial alleles of different
      loci, ii) liberate beneficial alleles from genetic backgrounds of low fitness, or
      iii) recombine deleterious mutations for more effective elimination. In our
      study, we found that the first mechanism dominated the initial phase of adaptive
      evolution in Brachionus calyciflorus rotifers during a natural selection
      experiment. We used populations that had been locally adapted to two environments
      previously, creating a linkage disequilibrium between beneficial and deleterious
      alleles at different loci in a combined environment. We observed the highest
      fitness increase when several beneficial alleles of different loci could be
      recombined, while the other mechanisms were ineffective. Our study thus provides
      evidence for the hypothesis that sex can speed up adaptation by recombination
      between beneficial alleles of different loci, in particular during early stages
      of adaptive evolution in our system. We also suggest that the benefits of sex
      might change over time and state of adaptive progress.

PMID- 28575016
TI  - The feline skin microbiota: The bacteria inhabiting the skin of healthy and
      allergic cats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The skin is inhabited by a multitude of microorganisms. An imbalance
      of these microorganisms is associated with disease, however, the causal
      relationship between skin microbiota and disease remains unknown. To describe the
      cutaneous bacterial microbiota of cats and determine whether bacterial dysbiosis
      occurs on the skin of allergic cats, the skin surfaces on various regions of 11
      healthy cats and 10 allergic cats were sampled. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:
      Genomic DNA was extracted from skin swabs and sequenced using primers that target
      the V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA. The bacterial sequences from healthy
      cats revealed that there are differences in species diversity and richness
      between body sites and different epithelial surfaces. Bacterial communities
      preferred body site niches in the healthy cats, however, the bacterial
      communities on allergic cat skin tended to be more unique to the individual cat.
      Overall, the number of bacterial species was not significantly different between
      the two health status groups, however, the abundances of these bacterial species
      were different between healthy and allergic skin. Staphylococcus, in addition to
      other taxa, was more abundant on allergic skin. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This
      study reveals that there are more bacterial species inhabiting the skin of cats
      than previously thought and provide some evidence of an association between
      dysbiosis and skin disease.

PMID- 28575018
TI  - Computing with networks of nonlinear mechanical oscillators.
AB  - As it is getting increasingly difficult to achieve gains in the density and power
      efficiency of microelectronic computing devices because of lithographic
      techniques reaching fundamental physical limits, new approaches are required to
      maximize the benefits of distributed sensors, micro-robots or smart materials.
      Biologically-inspired devices, such as artificial neural networks, can process
      information with a high level of parallelism to efficiently solve difficult
      problems, even when implemented using conventional microelectronic technologies.
      We describe a mechanical device, which operates in a manner similar to artificial
      neural networks, to solve efficiently two difficult benchmark problems (computing
      the parity of a bit stream, and classifying spoken words). The device consists in
      a network of masses coupled by linear springs and attached to a substrate by non
      linear springs, thus forming a network of anharmonic oscillators. As the masses
      can directly couple to forces applied on the device, this approach combines
      sensing and computing functions in a single power-efficient device with compact
      dimensions.

PMID- 28575017
TI  - FOXC1 modulates MYOC secretion through regulation of the exocytic proteins
      RAB3GAP1, RAB3GAP2 and SNAP25.
AB  - The neurodegenerative disease glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness
      in the world. Glaucoma is characterized by progressive visual field loss caused
      by retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death. Both surgical glaucoma treatments and
      medications are available, however, they only halt glaucoma progression and are
      unable to reverse damage. Furthermore, many patients do not respond well to
      treatments. It is therefore important to better understand the mechanisms
      involved in glaucoma pathogenesis. Patients with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS)
      offer important insight into glaucoma progression. ARS patients are at 50% risk
      of developing early onset glaucoma and respond poorly to treatments, even when
      surgical treatments are combined with medications. Mutations in the transcription
      factor FOXC1 cause ARS. Alterations in FOXC1 levels cause ocular malformations
      and disrupt stress response in ocular tissues, thereby contributing to glaucoma
      progression. In this study, using biochemical and molecular techniques, we show
      that FOXC1 regulates the expression of RAB3GAP1, RAB3GAP2 and SNAP25, three genes
      with central roles in both exocytosis and endocytosis, responsible for
      extracellular trafficking. FOXC1 positively regulates RAB3GAP1 and RAB3GAP2,
      while either increase or decrease in FOXC1 levels beyond its normal range results
      in decreased SNAP25. In addition, we found that FOXC1 regulation of RAB3GAP1,
      RAB3GAP2 and SNAP25 affects secretion of Myocilin (MYOC), a protein associated
      with juvenile onset glaucoma and steroid-induced glaucoma. The present work
      reveals that FOXC1 is an important regulator of exocytosis and establishes a new
      link between FOXC1 and MYOC-associated glaucoma.

PMID- 28575019
TI  - Clinicopathologic significance of the CXCL1-CXCR2 axis in the tumor
      microenvironment of gastric carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: It was reported that the chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (CXCL1) from
      cancer cells stimulated the recruitment of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal cells
      (BM-MCs) into tumor stroma via chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 2 (CXCR2)
      signaling. We conducted this retrospective study to determine the
      clinicopathologic significance of the CXCL1-CXCR2 axis in human gastric cancer.
      METHODS: The correlations between the clinicopathological features of 270 primary
      gastric carcinomas and CXCL1 in cancer cells and CXCR2 in stromal cells were
      analyzed in immunohistochemical studies. The effect of gastric cancer cells on
      the expression of CXCR2 in BM-MCs was examined using diffuse-type gastric cancer
      cell lines in vitro. RESULTS: The expression of CXCL1 in cancer cells was
      correlated with T invasion (T2-T4), lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion,
      venous invasion, peritoneal cytology, peritoneal metastasis and CXCR2 expression
      in stromal cells. The expression of CXCR2 in stromal cells was correlated with
      macroscopic type-4 cancers, histological type, T invasion (T2-T4), lymph node
      metastasis, lymphatic invasion, infiltration, peritoneal cytology, peritoneal
      metastasis and CD271 expression in stromal cells. The overall survival of
      patients with CXCL1 and CXCR2-positive cancer was poorer than that of the
      patients with negative cancer. Both CXCL1 expression in cancer cells and CXCR2
      expression in stromal cells were independent prognostic factors for gastric
      cancer patients. CONCLUSION: The expressions of CXCL1 in cancer cells and CXCR2
      in stromal cells are useful prognostic factors for gastric cancer patients.

PMID- 28575020
TI  - NGR-peptide-drug conjugates with dual targeting properties.
AB  - Peptides containing the asparagine-glycine-arginine (NGR) motif are recognized by
      CD13/aminopeptidase N (APN) receptor isoforms that are selectively overexpressed
      in tumor neovasculature. Spontaneous decomposition of NGR peptides can result in
      isoAsp derivatives, which are recognized by RGD-binding integrins that are
      essential for tumor metastasis. Peptides binding to CD13 and RGD-binding
      integrins provide tumor-homing, which can be exploited for dual targeted delivery
      of anticancer drugs. We synthesized small cyclic NGR peptide-daunomycin
      conjugates using NGR peptides of varying stability (c[KNGRE]-NH2, Ac-c[CNGRC]-NH2
      and the thioether bond containing c[CH2-CO-NGRC]-NH2, c[CH2-CO-KNGRC]-NH2). The
      cytotoxic effect of the novel cyclic NGR peptide-Dau conjugates were examined in
      vitro on CD13 positive HT-1080 (human fibrosarcoma) and CD13 negative HT-29
      (human colon adenocarcinoma) cell lines. Our results confirm the influence of
      structure on the antitumor activity and dual acting properties of the conjugates.
      Attachment of the drug through an enzyme-labile spacer to the C-terminus of
      cyclic NGR peptide resulted in higher antitumor activity on both CD13 positive
      and negative cells as compared to the branching versions.

PMID- 28575021
TI  - Chinook salmon and green sturgeon migrate through San Francisco Estuary despite
      large distortions in the local magnetic field produced by bridges.
AB  - Empirical evidence exists that some marine animals perceive and orient to local
      distortions in the earth's main static geomagnetic field. The magnetic fields
      produced by undersea electric power cables that carry electricity from
      hydrokinetic energy sources to shore-based power stations may produce similar
      local distortions in the earth's main field. Concerns exist that animals
      migrating along the continental shelves might orient to the magnetic field from
      the cables, and move either inshore or offshore away from their normal path. We
      have studied the effect of the Trans Bay Cable (TBC), an 85-km long, high
      voltage, direct current (DC) transmission line leading underwater from Pittsburg,
      CA to San Francisco, CA, on fishes migrating through the San Francisco Estuary.
      These included Chinook salmon smolts (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) that migrate
      downstream through the San Francisco Estuary to the Pacific Ocean and adult green
      sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), which migrate upstream from the ocean through
      the estuary to their spawning habitat in the upper Sacramento River and return to
      the ocean after spawning occurs. Based on a detailed gradiometer survey, we found
      that the distortions in the earth's main field produced by bridges across the
      estuary were much greater than those from the Trans Bay Cable. The former
      anomalies exceeded the latter by an order of magnitude or more. Significant
      numbers of tagged Chinook salmon smolts migrated past bridges, which produced
      strong magnetic anomalies, to the Golden Gate Bridge, where they were recorded by
      dual arrays of acoustic tag-detecting monitors moored in lines across the mouth
      of the bay. In addition, adult green sturgeon successfully swam upstream and
      downstream through the estuary on the way to and from their spawning grounds.
      Hence, the large anomalies produced by the bridges do not appear to present a
      strong barrier to the natural seasonal movement patterns of salmonid smolts and
      adult green sturgeon.

PMID- 28575022
TI  - Investigating the effect of forestry on leaf-litter arthropods (Algonquin Park,
      Ontario, Canada).
AB  - Arthropods are the most diverse taxonomic group of terrestrial eukaryotes and are
      sensitive to physical alterations in their environment such as those caused by
      forestry. With their enormous diversity and physical omnipresence, arthropods
      could be powerful indicators of the effects of disturbance following forestry.
      When arthropods have been used to measure the effects of disturbance, the total
      diversity of some groups is often found to increase following forestry. However,
      these findings are frequently derived using a coarse taxonomic grain (family or
      order) to accommodate for various taxonomic impediments (including cryptic
      diversity and poorly resourced taxonomists). Our intent with this work was to
      determine the diversity of arthropods in and around Algonquin Park, and how this
      diversity was influenced by disturbance (in this case, forestry within the past
      25 years). We used DNA barcode-derived diversity estimates (Barcode Index Number
      (BIN) richness) to avoid taxonomic impediments and as a source of genetic
      information with which we could conduct phylogenetic estimates of diversity (PD).
      Diversity patterns elucidated with PD are often, but not always congruent with
      taxonomic estimates-and departures from these expectations can help clarify
      disturbance effects that are hidden from richness studies alone. We found that
      BIN richness and PD were greater in disturbed (forested) areas, however when we
      controlled for the expected relationship between PD and BIN richness, we found
      that cut sites contained less PD than expected and that this diversity was more
      phylogenetically clustered than would be predicted by taxonomic richness. While
      disturbance may cause an evident increase in diversity, this diversity may not
      reflect the full evolutionary history of the assemblage within that area and thus
      a subtle effect of disturbance can be found decades following forestry.

PMID- 28575024
TI  - Efficient method for site-directed mutagenesis in large plasmids without
      subcloning.
AB  - Commonly used methods for site-directed DNA mutagenesis require copying the
      entire target plasmid. These methods allow relatively easy modification of DNA
      sequences in small plasmids but become less efficient and faithful for large
      plasmids, necessitating full sequence verification. Introduction of mutations in
      larger plasmids requires subcloning, a slow and labor-intensive process,
      especially for multiple mutations. We have developed an efficient DNA mutagenesis
      technique, UnRestricted Mutagenesis and Cloning (URMAC) that replaces subcloning
      steps with quick biochemical reactions. URMAC does not suffer from plasmid size
      constraints and allows simultaneous introduction of multiple mutations. URMAC
      involves manipulation of only the mutagenesis target site(s), not the entire
      plasmid being mutagenized, therefore only partial sequence verification is
      required. Basic URMAC requires two PCR reactions, each followed by a ligation
      reaction to circularize the product, with an optional third enrichment PCR step
      followed by a traditional cloning step that requires two restriction sites. Here,
      we demonstrate URMAC's speed, accuracy, and efficiency through several examples,
      creating insertions, deletions or substitutions in plasmids ranging from 2.6 kb
      to 17 kb without subcloning.

PMID- 28575023
TI  - Orexin receptor agonist Yan 7874 is a weak agonist of orexin/hypocretin receptors
      and shows orexin receptor-independent cytotoxicity.
AB  - Two promising lead structures of small molecular orexin receptor agonist have
      been reported, but without detailed analyses of the pharmacological properties.
      One of them, 1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-2-[2-imino-3-(4-methylbenzyl)-2,3-dihydro-1H
      benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl]ethan-1-ol (Yan 7874), is commercially available, and we
      set out to analyze its properties. As test system we utilized human OX1 and OX2
      orexin receptor-expressing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) K1 cells as well as
      control CHO-K1 and neuro-2a neuroblastoma cells. Gq-coupling was assessed by
      measurement of intracellular Ca2+ and phospholipase C activity, and the coupling
      to Gi and Gs by adenylyl cyclase inhibition and stimulation, respectively. At
      concentrations above 1 MUM, strong Ca2+ and low phospholipase C responses to Yan
      7874 were observed in both OX1- and OX2-expressing cells. However, a major
      fraction of the response was not mediated by orexin receptors, as determined
      utilizing the non-selective orexin receptor antagonist N-biphenyl-2-yl-1-{[(1
      methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)sulfanyl]acetyl}-L-prolinamide (TCS 1102) as well as
      control CHO-K1 cells. Yan 7874 did not produce any specific adenylyl cyclase
      response. Some experiments suggested an effect on cell viability by Yan 7874, and
      we thus analyzed this. Within a few hours of exposure, Yan 7874 markedly changed
      cell morphology (shrunken, rich in vacuoles), reduced growth, promoted cell
      detachment, and induced necrotic cell death. The effect was equal in cells
      expressing orexin receptors or not. Thus, Yan 7874 is a weak partial agonist of
      orexin receptors. It also displays strong off-target effects in the same
      concentration range, culminating in necrotic cell demise. This makes Yan 7874
      unsuitable as orexin receptor agonist.

PMID- 28575025
TI  - Perceptions of satisfaction, usability and desirability of the DEKA Arm before
      and after a trial of home use.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To: 1) describe perceptions of satisfaction with and usability of the
      DEKA Arm and preferences for the DEKA Arm or personal prosthesis; 2) compare
      perceptions of satisfaction and usability by DEKA Arm configuration level; and 3)
      evaluate satisfaction and usability for study completers and non-completers; and
      for those who did and did not want to receive a DEKA Arm. METHODS: The study had
      2 phases: in-laboratory (Part A) and home trial (Part B). 32 participants with
      amputation, (50% transradial, 38% transhumeral and 13% shoulder) completed Part A
      and 18 completed Part B 16 (89%) of whom were prosthesis users at baseline.
      Measures of satisfaction, usability and user preferences were administered.
      Responses were compared for completers of Part A only and completers of Parts A
      and B. Preferences for the DEKA Arm over personal prosthesis and proportion of
      participants who wanted to receive a DEKA Arm were evaluated. Relationships
      between satisfaction, usability and desire to receive a DEKA Arm were examined.
      RESULTS: At end of Part A, 22 (69%) of the 32 participants who completed in
      laboratory training wanted to receive a DEKA Arm and 5 (16%) might want one. At
      end of Part B, 14 (88%) of 16 prosthesis users who completed the home trial
      preferred the overall function of the DEKA Arm, 13 (81%) preferred DEKA hand
      function and 14 (88%) preferred DEKA wrist function to their own prosthesis. In
      contrast, 14 (88%) preferred the weight and 13 (81%) preferred the look of their
      own prosthesis. Most aspects of the DEKA Arm were rated "easy" to use. No items
      were rated as "difficult". Users were satisfied with most aspects of the DEKA
      Arm, except for the weight, shoulder appearance and harnessing. There were few
      differences in perceived usability or satisfaction by configuration level.
      Findings about desire to receive a DEKA Arm pertain only to study completers. Non
      completers viewed the DEKA Arm less favorably than completers. Satisfaction was
      strongly related to participants' expressed desire to receive a DEKA Arm in the
      future. SIGNIFICANCE: To maximize likelihood of adoption of the DEKA Arm,
      findings suggest that both an in-laboratory and a home use trial may be useful
      prior to finalizing a recommendation for prescription.

PMID- 28575026
TI  - Childhood chronic conditions and health-related quality of life: Findings from a
      large population-based study.
AB  - The objective of this study was to assess the impact of health-related quality of
      life (HRQOL) across prevalent chronic conditions, individually and comorbid, in
      school-aged children in the Netherlands. 5301 children aged 4-11 years from the
      Dutch Health Interview Survey were included. Parents completed questionnaires
      regarding child and parental characteristics. HRQOL of children was measured
      using the Child Health Questionnaire Parent Form 28 (CHQ-PF28). Independent-t
      tests were used to assess differences in the mean scores of the CHQ-PF28 summary
      scales and profile scales between children with a prevalent chronic condition
      (excluding or including children with multiple chronic conditions) and children
      without a chronic condition. Cohen's effect sizes (d) were calculated to assess
      the clinical significance of difference. The mean age of children was 7.55 (SD
      2.30) years; 50.0% were boys. In children without any chronic condition, the mean
      score of physical summary scale (PhS) was 58.53 (SD 4.28) and mean score of the
      psychosocial summary scale (PsS) was 53.86 (SD 5.87). Generally, PhS and/or PsS
      scores in children with only one condition were lower (p<0.05) than for children
      without chronic conditions. When children with multiple conditions were included,
      mean scores of CHQ-PF28 summary and profile scales were generally lower than when
      they were excluded. The present study shows important information regarding the
      impact of prevalent chronic conditions on HRQOL in a representative population
      based sample of school-aged children in the Netherlands. The information could be
      used for developing a more holistic approach to patient care and a surveillance
      framework for health promotion.

PMID- 28575028
TI  - Robust shrinking ellipsoid model predictive control for linear parameter varying
      system.
AB  - In this paper, a new off-line model predictive control strategy is presented for
      a kind of linear parameter varying system with polytopic uncertainty. A nest of
      shrinking ellipsoids is constructed by solving linear matrix inequality. By
      splitting the objective function into two parts, the proposed strategy moves most
      computations off-line. The on-line computation is only calculating the current
      control to assure the system shrinking into the smaller ellipsoid. With the
      proposed formulation, the stability of the closed system is proved, followed with
      two numerical examples to demonstrate the proposed method's effectiveness in the
      end.

PMID- 28575027
TI  - Linking epigenetic function to electrostatics: The DNMT2 structural model
      example.
AB  - The amino acid sequence of DNMT2 is very similar to the catalytic domains of
      bacterial and eukaryotic proteins. However, there is great variability in the
      region of recognition of the target sequence. While bacterial DNMT2 acts as a DNA
      methyltransferase, previous studies have indicated low DNA methylation activity
      in eukaryotic DNMT2, with preference by tRNA methylation. Drosophilids are known
      as DNMT2-only species and the DNA methylation phenomenon is a not elucidated case
      yet, as well as the ontogenetic and physiologic importance of DNMT2 for this
      species group. In addition, more recently study showed that methylation in the
      genome in Drosophila melanogaster is independent in relation to DNMT2. Despite
      these findings, Drosophilidae family has more than 4,200 species with great
      ecological diversity and historical evolution, thus we, therefore, aimed to
      examine the drosophilids DNMT2 in order to verify its conservation at the
      physicochemical and structural levels in a functional context. We examined the
      twenty-six DNMT2 models generated by molecular modelling and five
      crystallographic structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) using
      different approaches. Our results showed that despite sequence and structural
      similarity between species close related, we found outstanding differences when
      they are analyzed in the context of surface distribution of electrostatic
      properties. The differences found in the electrostatic potentials may be linked
      with different affinities and processivity of DNMT2 for its different substrates
      (DNA, RNA or tRNA) and even for interactions with other proteins involved in the
      epigenetic mechanisms.

PMID- 28575029
TI  - New evidence about the "dark side" of social cohesion in promoting binge drinking
      among adolescents.
AB  - Adolescence is characterized by heightened susceptibility to peer influence,
      which makes adolescents vulnerable to initiating or maintaining risky habits such
      as heavy drinking. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of
      social capital with longitudinal changes in the frequency of binge drinking among
      adolescents at public and private high schools in the city of Diamantina, Brazil.
      This longitudinal study used two waves of data collected when the adolescents
      were 12 and 13 years old. At the baseline assessment in 2013 a classroom survey
      was carried out with a representative sample of 588 students. In 2014, a follow
      up survey was carried out with the same adolescents when they were aged 13 years.
      The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-C (AUDIT C) was employed for the
      evaluation of alcohol intake. Our predictor variables included sociodemographic
      and economic characteristics (gender, type of school, mother's education, family
      income) and Social Capital. For evaluation of social capital, we used the Social
      Capital Questionnaire for Adolescent Students (SCQ-AS). Descriptive and bivariate
      analyzes were performed (p <0.05). The log-binomial model was used to calculate
      prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals. The two-tailed p value was
      set at <0.05. The prevalence of binge drinking in 2013 was 23.1% and in 2014 the
      prevalence had risen to 30.1%. Gender (PR 1.48; 95% CI 0.87-2.52) and
      socioeconomic status (type of school and mother's education) were not associated
      with the increase in the frequency of binge drinking. However, higher social
      capital was significantly associated with an increase in binge drinking by
      students. Adolescents who reported that they had an increase in social cohesion
      in the community/neighborhood subscale were 3.4 times more likely (95%CI 1.96
      6.10) to binge drink themselves. Our results provide new evidence about the "dark
      side" of social cohesion in promoting binge drinking among adolescents.

PMID- 28575030
TI  - Method to assess the temporal persistence of potential biometric features:
      Application to oculomotor, gait, face and brain structure databases.
AB  - We introduce the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to the biometric
      community as an index of the temporal persistence, or stability, of a single
      biometric feature. It requires, as input, a feature on an interval or ratio
      scale, and which is reasonably normally distributed, and it can only be
      calculated if each subject is tested on 2 or more occasions. For a biometric
      system, with multiple features available for selection, the ICC can be used to
      measure the relative stability of each feature. We show, for 14 distinct data
      sets (1 synthetic, 8 eye-movement-related, 2 gait-related, and 2 face-recognition
      related, and one brain-structure-related), that selecting the most stable
      features, based on the ICC, resulted in the best biometric performance generally.
      Analyses based on using only the most stable features produced superior Rank-1
      Identification Rate (Rank-1-IR) performance in 12 of 14 databases (p = 0.0065,
      one-tailed), when compared to other sets of features, including the set of all
      features. For Equal Error Rate (EER), using a subset of only high-ICC features
      also produced superior performance in 12 of 14 databases (p = 0. 0065, one
      tailed). In general, then, for our databases, prescreening potential biometric
      features, and choosing only highly reliable features yields better performance
      than choosing lower ICC features or than choosing all features combined. We also
      determined that, as the ICC of a group of features increases, the median of the
      genuine similarity score distribution increases and the spread of this
      distribution decreases. There was no statistically significant similar
      relationships for the impostor distributions. We believe that the ICC will find
      many uses in biometric research. In case of the eye movement-driven biometrics,
      the use of reliable features, as measured by ICC, allowed to us achieve the
      authentication performance with EER = 2.01%, which was not possible before.

PMID- 28575031
TI  - Is the efficacy of antidepressants in panic disorder mediated by adverse events?
      A mediational analysis.
AB  - It has been hypothesised that the perception of adverse events in placebo
      controlled antidepressant clinical trials may induce patients to conclude that
      they have been randomized to the active arm of the trial, leading to the breaking
      of blind. This may enhance the expectancies for improvement and the therapeutic
      response. The main objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that the
      efficacy of antidepressants in panic disorder is mediated by the perception of
      adverse events. The present analysis is based on a systematic review of published
      and unpublished randomised trials comparing antidepressants with placebo for
      panic disorder. The Baron and Kenny approach was applied to investigate the
      mediational role of adverse events in the relationship between antidepressants
      treatment and efficacy. Fourteen placebo-controlled antidepressants trials were
      included in the analysis. We found that: (a) antidepressants treatment was
      significantly associated with better treatment response (beta = 0.127, 95% CI
      0.04 to 0.21, p = 0.003); (b) antidepressants treatment was not associated with
      adverse events (beta = 0.094, 95% CI -0.05 to 0.24, p = 0.221); (c) adverse
      events were negatively associated with treatment response (beta = 0.035, 95% CI 
      0.06 to -0.05, p = 0.022). Finally, after adjustment for adverse events, the
      relationship between antidepressants treatment and treatment response remained
      statistically significant (beta = 0.122, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.23, p = 0.039). These
      findings do not support the hypothesis that the perception of adverse events in
      placebo-controlled antidepressant clinical trials may lead to the breaking of
      blind and to an artificial inflation of the efficacy measures. Based on these
      results, we argue that the moderate therapeutic effect of antidepressants in
      individuals with panic disorder is not an artefact, therefore reflecting a
      genuine effect that doctors can expect to replicate under real-world conditions.

PMID- 28575032
TI  - Envelope statistics of self-motion signals experienced by human subjects during
      everyday activities: Implications for vestibular processing.
AB  - There is accumulating evidence that the brain's neural coding strategies are
      constrained by natural stimulus statistics. Here we investigated the statistics
      of the time varying envelope (i.e. a second-order stimulus attribute that is
      related to variance) of rotational and translational self-motion signals
      experienced by human subjects during everyday activities. We found that envelopes
      can reach large values across all six motion dimensions (~450 deg/s for rotations
      and ~4 G for translations). Unlike results obtained in other sensory modalities,
      the spectral power of envelope signals decreased slowly for low (< 2 Hz) and more
      sharply for high (>2 Hz) temporal frequencies and thus was not well-fit by a
      power law. We next compared the spectral properties of envelope signals resulting
      from active and passive self-motion, as well as those resulting from signals
      obtained when the subject is absent (i.e. external stimuli). Our data suggest
      that different mechanisms underlie deviation from scale invariance in rotational
      and translational self-motion envelopes. Specifically, active self-motion and
      filtering by the human body cause deviation from scale invariance primarily for
      translational and rotational envelope signals, respectively. Finally, we used
      well-established models in order to predict the responses of peripheral
      vestibular afferents to natural envelope stimuli. We found that irregular
      afferents responded more strongly to envelopes than their regular counterparts.
      Our findings have important consequences for understanding the coding strategies
      used by the vestibular system to process natural second-order self-motion
      signals.

PMID- 28575033
TI  - Preoperative platelet lymphocyte ratio as independent predictors of prognosis in
      pancreatic cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, the preoperative platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) has
      been found reported to predict oncologic outcomes in multiple malignancies.
      However, its prognostic value in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) remains
      controversial. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of
      preoperative PLR in PC. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases were
      searched to identify studies evaluating the prognostic significance of
      preoperative PLR in PC. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS) were
      calculated using fixed-effects/random-effects models. RESULTS: A total of eight
      studies comprising 1,904 patients with PC were included in the meta-analysis. The
      pooled analysis demonstrated that elevated PLR had an association with decreased
      OS (HR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.04-1.43, p = 0.02). Subgroup analysis showed that a high
      PLR significantly predicted poor OS in Asian studies (HR: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.03
      1.52, p = 0.02), patients with metastatic disease (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.01-1.77, p
      = 0.04) and patients with PLR >150 (HR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.21-2.49, p = 0.003).
      CONCLUSIONS: The preoperative PLR may be a significant independent prognostic
      factor in patients with PC.

PMID- 28575034
TI  - Ebola virus disease contact tracing activities, lessons learned and best
      practices during the Duport Road outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia, November 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contact tracing is one of the key response activities necessary for
      halting Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) transmission. Key elements of contact tracing
      include identification of persons who have been in contact with confirmed EVD
      cases and careful monitoring for EVD symptoms, but the details of implementation
      likely influence their effectiveness. In November 2015, several months after a
      major Ebola outbreak was controlled in Liberia, three members of a family were
      confirmed positive for EVD in the Duport Road area of Monrovia. The cluster
      provided an opportunity to implement and evaluate modified approaches to contact
      tracing. METHODS: The approaches employed for improved contact tracing included
      classification and risk-based management of identified contacts (including
      facility based isolation of some high risk contacts, provision of support to
      persons being monitored, and school-based surveillance for some persons with
      potential exposure but not listed as contacts), use of phone records to help
      locate missing contacts, and modifications to data management tools. We recorded
      details about the implementation of these approaches, report the overall outcomes
      of the contact tracing efforts and the challenges encountered, and provide
      recommendations for management of future outbreaks. RESULTS: 165 contacts were
      identified (with over 150 identified within 48 hours of confirmation of the EVD
      cases) and all initially missing contacts were located. Contacts were closely
      monitored and promptly tested if symptomatic; no contacts developed disease.
      Encountered challenges related to knowledge gaps among contact tracing staff,
      data management, and coordination of contact tracing activities with efforts to
      offer Ebola vaccine. CONCLUSIONS: The Duport Road EVD cluster was promptly
      controlled. Missing contacts were effectively identified, and identified contacts
      were effectively monitored and rapidly tested. There is a persistent risk of EVD
      reemergence in Liberia; the experience controlling each cluster can help inform
      future Ebola control efforts in Liberia and elsewhere.

PMID- 28575035
TI  - Effects of local and regional climatic fluctuations on dengue outbreaks in
      southern Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Southern Taiwan has been a hotspot for dengue fever transmission
      since 1998. During 2014 and 2015, Taiwan experienced unprecedented dengue
      outbreaks and the causes are poorly understood. This study aims to investigate
      the influence of regional and local climate conditions on the incidence of dengue
      fever in Taiwan, as well as to develop a climate-based model for future
      forecasting. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Historical time-series data on
      dengue outbreaks in southern Taiwan from 1998 to 2015 were investigated. Local
      climate variables were analyzed using a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM),
      and the model of best fit was used to predict dengue incidence between 2013 and
      2015. The cross-wavelet coherence approach was used to evaluate the regional El
      Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) effects on dengue
      incidence and local climate variables. The DLNM results highlighted the important
      non-linear and lag effects of minimum temperature and precipitation. Minimum
      temperature above 23 degrees C or below 17 degrees C can increase dengue
      incidence rate with lag effects of 10 to 15 weeks. Moderate to high precipitation
      can increase dengue incidence rates with a lag of 10 or 20 weeks. The model of
      best fit successfully predicted dengue transmission between 2013 and 2015. The
      prediction accuracy ranged from 0.7 to 0.9, depending on the number of weeks
      ahead of the prediction. ENSO and IOD were associated with nonstationary inter
      annual patterns of dengue transmission. IOD had a greater impact on the
      seasonality of local climate conditions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings
      suggest that dengue transmission can be affected by regional and local climatic
      fluctuations in southern Taiwan. The climate-based model developed in this study
      can provide important information for dengue early warning systems in Taiwan.
      Local climate conditions might be influenced by ENSO and IOD, to result in
      unusual dengue outbreaks.

PMID- 28575036
TI  - Vitamin D status is inversely associated with markers of risk for type 2
      diabetes: A population based study in Victoria, Australia.
AB  - A growing body of evidence suggests a protective role of vitamin D on the risk of
      type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We investigated this relationship in a
      population sample from one Australian state. The data of 3,393 Australian adults
      aged 18-75 years who participated in the 2009-2010 Victorian Health Monitor
      survey was analyzed. Socio-demographic information, biomedical variables, and
      dietary intakes were collected and fasting blood samples were analyzed for 25,
      hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD), HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and lipid
      profiles. Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association
      between tertiles of serum 25OHD and categories of FPG (<5.6 mmol/L vs. 5.6-6.9
      mmol/L), and HbA1c (<5.7% vs. 5.7-6.4%). After adjusting for social, dietary,
      biomedical and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components (waist circumference, HDL
      cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure), every 10 nmol/L increment in
      serum 25OHD significantly reduced the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of a higher FPG
      [AOR 0.91, (0.86, 0.97); p = 0.002] and a higher HbA1c [AOR 0.94, (0.90, 0.98); p
      = 0.009]. Analysis by tertiles of 25OHD indicated that after adjustment for socio
      demographic and dietary variables, those with high 25OHD (65-204 nmol/L) had
      reduced odds of a higher FPG [AOR 0.60, (0.43, 0.83); p = 0.008] as well as
      higher HbA1c [AOR 0.67, (0.53, 0.85); p = 0.005] compared to the lowest 25OHD (10
      44 nmol/L) tertile. On final adjustment for other components of MetS, those in
      the highest tertile of 25OHD had significantly reduced odds of higher FPG [AOR
      0.61, (0.44, 0.84); p = 0.011] and of higher HbA1c [AOR 0.74, (0.58, 0.93); p =
      0.041] vs. low 25OHD tertile. Overall, the data support a direct, protective
      effect of higher 25OHD on FPG and HbA1c; two criteria for assessment of risk of
      T2DM.

PMID- 28575037
TI  - Elucidation of the compatible interaction between banana and Meloidogyne
      incognita via high-throughput proteome profiling.
AB  - With a diverse host range, Meloidogyne incognita (root-knot nematode) is listed
      as one of the most economically important obligate parasites of agriculture. This
      nematode species establishes permanent feeding sites in plant root systems soon
      after infestation. A compatible host-nematode interaction triggers a cascade of
      morphological and physiological process disruptions of the host, leading to
      pathogenesis. Such disruption is reflected by altered gene expression in affected
      cells, detectable using molecular approaches. We employed a high-throughput
      proteomics approach to elucidate the events involved in a compatible banana- M.
      incognita interaction. This study serves as the first crucial step in developing
      natural banana resistance for the purpose of biological-based nematode management
      programme. We successfully profiled 114 Grand naine root proteins involved in the
      interaction with M. incognita at the 30th- and 60th- day after inoculation (dai).
      The abundance of proteins involved in fundamental biological processes, cellular
      component organisation and stress responses were significantly altered in
      inoculated root samples. In addition, the abundance of proteins in pathways
      associated with defence and giant cell maintenance in plants such as
      phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, glycolysis and citrate cycle were also implicated
      by the infestation.

PMID- 28575038
TI  - Plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor concentration is a predictor of chronic
      kidney disease in patients with cardiovascular risk factors - Hyogo Sleep Cardio
      Autonomic Atherosclerosis study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been shown to have
      protective effects against cardiovascular diseases and death through neural and
      non-neural pathways via tropomyosin-related kinase B signaling. However, it is
      not known whether plasma BDNF concentration is a predictor of chronic kidney
      disease (CKD). DESIGN: This study was conducted as a prospective cohort study as
      part of the Hyogo Sleep Cardio-Autonomic Atherosclerosis. METHODS: We measured
      plasma BDNF concentration in 324 patients without CKD, defined as an estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) less than 60 ml/min/1.73m2, and with
      cardiovascular risk factors. As potential confounders, sleep condition, nocturnal
      hypertension, and autonomic function were quantitatively examined. The patients
      were followed for a median 37 months (range 2-59 months) and occurrence of CKD
      was noted. RESULTS: Plasma BDNF concentration was significantly and independently
      associated with CKD development, which occurred in 38 patients (11.7%). Kaplan
      Meier analysis revealed that patients with reduced plasma BDNF concentration
      exhibited a significantly (p = 0.029) greater number of CKD events as compared to
      those with a higher concentration. Moreover, comparisons of key subgroups showed
      that the risk of CKD in association with low plasma BDNF concentration was more
      prominent in patients with a greater reduction of nocturnal systolic blood
      pressure, better movement index, higher standard deviations of the NN(RR)
      interval or average NN(RR) interval for each 5-minute period, and without past
      cardiovascular disease events, smoking habit, or albuminuria. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma
      BDNF concentration is an independent predictor for development of CKD in patients
      with cardiovascular risk factors.

PMID- 28575039
TI  - Assessment of pathologic increase in liver stiffness enables earlier diagnosis of
      CFLD: Results from a prospective longitudinal cohort study.
AB  - About 30% of patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) develop CF-associated liver
      disease (CFLD). Recent studies have shown that transient elastography (TE), as a
      method to quantify liver stiffness, allows non-invasive diagnosis of CFLD in
      adults and children with CF. Within this study we aimed to prospectively identify
      patients at risk for development of CFLD by longitudinal analysis of liver
      stiffness and fibrosis scores in a 5-year follow-up. 36 pediatric and 16 adult
      patients with initial liver stiffness below the cut-off value indicative of CFLD
      (6.3 kPa) were examined by transient elastography for 4-5 years. TE, APRI-, and
      FIB-4-scores were assessed and compared by Kruskal-Wallis test and receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC)-analysis. Frequencies were compared by Chi2-test.
      Among the 36 patients participating in this study, a subgroup of 9 patients
      developed liver stiffness >6.3 kPa after 4-5 years with an increase of DeltaTE
      >0.38 kPa/a (the group with increasing liver stiffness was labelled TEinc). APRI-
      and FIB-4 scores confirmed the rationale for grouping. The frequency of CFLD
      assessed by conventional diagnosis was significantly higher in TEinc-group
      compared to the control group (TEnorm). None of the adult CF patients matched
      criteria for TEinc-group. For the first time it was shown that the non-invasive
      longitudinal assessment of TE allows identification of patients with progression
      of CFLD in a subgroup of juvenile but not in adult CF patients. Comparing TE to
      conventional fibrosis-scores underlined the strength of the continuous assessment
      of liver stiffness for the exact diagnosis of progressive CFLD. The newly
      described cut-off for pathologic increase of liver stiffness, DeltaTEcutoff =
      0.38kPa/a, might enable to detect developing CFLD using consequent follow up TE
      measurements before reaching the level of stiffness indicating established CFLD.
      Nevertheless, the limited size of the analyzed cohort should encourage a
      prospective, multi-center, long term follow up study to confirm the suggested cut
      off for the rise in liver stiffness.

PMID- 28575040
TI  - Knowledge of and attitudes towards hepatitis B and its transmission from mother
      to child among pregnant women in Guangdong Province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a serious public health
      problem worldwide. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HBV is the major mode
      of transmission in HBV-endemic areas, including China, where little is known
      about pregnant women's knowledge of and attitudes towards HBV infection and MTCT.
      METHODS: A cross-sectional survey, conducted in pregnant women in Guangdong
      Province, China, measured HBV knowledge and attitudes using a questionnaire, at
      one tertiary and two rural hospitals. RESULTS: The total response rate was 94.5%
      (737/780). Of the 11 knowledge questions, the mean score was 6.73 +/- 3.04 (mean
      +/- SD). Most pertinent to preventing MTCT, 53.3% of the respondents did not know
      that HBV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse and nearly 20%
      did not know that HBV can be transmitted from mother to infant. The results of
      the four attitude questions was better with 83% and 85% being willing to be
      screened for HBV and let their baby receive HBV vaccine and HBIg, respectively.
      However, only 16.5% of respondents agreed that they would be willing to take
      drugs that are known not to harm the fetus to prevent MTCT of HBV. In
      multivariable analysis, higher education level was associated with better
      knowledge and attitude scores. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about HBV among pregnant
      women was poor and needs to be improved to prevent MTCT of HBV. Health education
      needs to be directed towards pregnant mothers, particularly less educated
      mothers, in high HBV endemicity settings.

PMID- 28575041
TI  - The mutual effect of pre-pregnancy body mass index, waist circumference and
      gestational weight gain on obesity-related adverse pregnancy outcomes: A birth
      cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the mutual effect of pre
      pregnancy body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and gestational weight
      gain (GWG) on obesity-related adverse pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: This birth
      cohort study was conducted in three Streets in Changsha, China, including a total
      of 976 mother-child pairs. All data was collected within 15 days after deliveries
      from a self-administered questionnaire, maternal health manual and perinatal
      health care information system. Multivariate logistic regression models were
      conducted to estimate the effects of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, WC and GWG on
      obesity-related adverse pregnancy outcomes including gestational diabetes
      mellitus (GDM), primary cesarean section (P-CS), large for gestational age (LGA)
      and composite outcome (one or more adverse pregnancy outcomes). RESULTS: After
      controlling for all confounders, both maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity
      and central adiposity contributed to increased risks of GDM [ORs 95% CIs = 2.19
      (1.02-4.76) and 2.26 (1.11-4.60), respectively], P-CS [ORs 95% CIs = 1.66 (1.05
      2.65) and 1.71 (1.11-2.63), respectively], LGA [ORs 95% CIs = 1.93 (1.07-3.50)
      and 2.14 (1.21-3.75), respectively] and composite outcome [ORs 95% CIs = 1.82
      (1.15-2.87) and 1.98 (1.30-3.01), respectively] compared with mothers with normal
      pre-pregnancy weight and normal WC. Excessive GWG was found to be associated with
      an increased risk of LGA [OR 95% CI = 1.74 (1.05-2.89)], but was not
      significantly related to higher risks of GDM, P-CS and composite outcome [ORs 95%
      CIs = 0.90 (0.47-1.72), 1.08 (0.77-1.52), and 1.30 (0.94-1.79), respectively]. In
      terms of the joint effect of maternal pregestational BMI and WC on obesity
      related composite outcome, mothers with both pre-pregnancy overweight and central
      adiposity had the highest risk of composite outcome [OR 95% CI = 3.96 (2.40
      6.54)], compared with mothers without pre-pregnancy overweight or central
      adiposity. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that maternal pre
      pregnancy overweight/obesity and central adiposity may contribute to multiple
      obesity-related adverse pregnancy outcomes, excessive weight gain during
      pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of LGA. Healthcare providers
      should carry out health education, and guide women to keep an ideal BMI and WC
      prior to pregnancy and help them gain optimal weight during pregnancy based on
      their pre-pregnancy BMI and WC.

PMID- 28575042
TI  - TNF-alpha -308 A allele is associated with an increased risk of distant
      metastasis in rectal cancer patients from Southwestern China.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), an important factor in systematic
      inflammation, is reportedly involved in several cancer types. The TNF-alpha -308
      G>A (rs1800629) polymorphism in the promoter region influences TNF-alpha
      production. The association between TNF-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism and
      colorectal cancer (CRC) is not fully understood, especially the connections
      between TNF-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism and clinical features of CRC. In this
      study, TNF-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism was genotyped in 1140 individuals with or
      without CRC from Southwestern China. In case-control studies, we found no
      association between TNF-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism and CRC risk. Analysis of the
      correlations between TNF-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism and clinical features of CRC
      revealed that TNF-alpha -308 A allele was associated with higher body mass index
      (BMI) larger tumor size, and distant tumor metastasis in all CRC patients.
      Notably, rectal cancer (a subtype of CRC) patients with TNF-alpha -308 A allele
      had a very high risk of distant tumor metastasis [odds ratio (OR) = 4.481; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 2.072-9.693; P = 0.00025]. The association between TNF
      alpha -308 A allele and distant tumor metastasis remained even significant after
      adjusting all clinical characteristics (OR = 7.099; 95% CI: 2.482-20.301; P =
      0.000256) in rectal cancer patients. Our results suggested that TNF-alpha -308 A
      allele was significantly associated with distant tumor metastasis in rectal
      cancer patients.

PMID- 28575043
TI  - Radiological evolution of porcine neurocysticercosis after combined antiparasitic
      treatment with praziquantel and albendazole.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The onset of anthelmintic treatment of neurocysticercosis (NCC)
      provokes an acute immune response of the host, which in human cases is associated
      with exacerbation of neurological symptoms. This inflammation can occur at the
      first days of therapy. So, changes in the brain cysts appearance may be detected
      by medical imaging. We evaluated radiological changes in the appearance of brain
      cysts (enhancement and size) on days two and five after the onset of
      antiparasitic treatment using naturally infected pigs as a model for human NCC.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Contrast T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging with
      gadolinium was performed before and after antiparasitic treatment. Eight NCC
      infected pigs were treated with praziquantel plus albendazole and euthanized two
      (n = 4) and five (n = 4) days after treatment; another group of four infected
      pigs served as untreated controls. For each lesion, gadolinium enhancement
      intensity (GEI) and cyst volume were measured at baseline and after antiparasitic
      treatment. Volume and GEI quantification ratios (post/pre-treatment measures)
      were used to appraise the effect of treatment. Cysts from untreated pigs showed
      little variations between their basal and post treatment measures. At days 2 and
      5 there were significant increases in GEI ratio compared with the untreated group
      (1.32 and 1.47 vs 1.01, p = 0.021 and p = 0.021). Cyst volume ratios were
      significantly lower at days 2 and 5 compared with the untreated group (0.60 and
      0.22 vs 0.95, p = 0.04 and p = 0.02). Cysts with lower cyst volume ratios showed
      more marked post-treatment inflammation, loss of vesicular fluid and cyst wall
      wrinkling. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: A significant and drastic reduction of cyst
      size and increased pericystic enhancement occur in the initial days after
      antiparasitic treatment as an effect of acute perilesional immune response. These
      significant changes showed that early anthelmintic efficacy (day two) can be
      detected using magnetic resonance imaging.

PMID- 28575044
TI  - Evaluation of macrocyclic hydroxyisophthalamide ligands as chelators for
      zirconium-89.
AB  - The development of bifunctional chelators (BFCs) for zirconium-89 immuno-PET
      applications is an area of active research. Herein we report the synthesis and
      evaluation of octadentate hydroxyisophthalamide ligands (1 and 2) as zirconium-89
      chelators. While both radiometal complexes could be prepared quantitatively and
      with excellent specific activity, preparation of 89Zr-1 required elevated
      temperature and an increased reaction time. 89Zr-1 was more stable than 89Zr-2
      when challenged in vitro by excess DTPA or serum proteins and in vivo during
      acute biodistribution studies. Differences in radiometal complex stability arise
      from structural changes between the two ligand systems, and suggest further
      ligand optimization is necessary to enhance 89Zr chelation.

PMID- 28575045
TI  - The effect of alcohol on the differential expression of cluster of
      differentiation 14 gene, associated pathways, and genetic network.
AB  - Alcohol consumption affects human health in part by compromising the immune
      system. In this study, we examined the expression of the Cd14 (cluster of
      differentiation 14) gene, which is involved in the immune system through a
      proinflammatory cascade. Expression was evaluated in BXD mice treated with saline
      or acute 1.8 g/kg i.p. ethanol (12.5% v/v). Hippocampal gene expression data were
      generated to examine differential expression and to perform systems genetics
      analyses. The Cd14 gene expression showed significant changes among the BXD
      strains after ethanol treatment, and eQTL mapping revealed that Cd14 is a cis
      regulated gene. We also identified eighteen ethanol-related phenotypes correlated
      with Cd14 expression related to either ethanol responses or ethanol consumption.
      Pathway analysis was performed to identify possible biological pathways involved
      in the response to ethanol and Cd14. We also constructed a genetic network for
      Cd14 using the top 20 correlated genes and present several genes possibly
      involved in Cd14 and ethanol responses based on differential gene expression. In
      conclusion, we found Cd14, along with several other genes and pathways, to be
      involved in ethanol responses in the hippocampus, such as increased
      susceptibility to lipopolysaccharides and neuroinflammation.

PMID- 28575046
TI  - Habitat modification and seasonality influence avian haemosporidian parasite
      distributions in southeastern Brazil.
AB  - Habitat modification may change vertebrate and vector-borne disease
      distributions. However, natural forest regeneration through secondary succession
      may mitigate these effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that secondary
      succession influences the distribution of birds and their haemosporidian
      parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in a seasonally dry tropical
      forest, a globally threatened ecosystem, in Brazil. Moreover, we assessed
      seasonal fluctuations in parasite prevalence and distribution. We sampled birds
      in four different successional stages at the peak and end of the rainy season, as
      well as in the middle and at the end of the dry season. A non-metric
      multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that bird communities in the pasture
      (i.e., highly modified) areas were different from those in the early,
      intermediate, and late successional areas (secondary forests). Among 461
      individual birds, haemosporidian prevalence was higher in pasture areas than in
      the more advanced successional stages, but parasite communities were homogeneous
      across these areas. Parasite prevalence was higher in pasture-specialists birds
      (resilient species) than in forest-specialists species, suggesting that pasture
      specialists may increase infection risk for co-occurring hosts. We found an
      increase in prevalence between the middle and end of the dry season, a period
      associated with the beginning of the breeding season (early spring) in
      southeastern Brazil. We also found effects of seasonality in the relative
      prevalence of specific parasite lineages. Our results show that natural forest
      recovery through secondary succession in SDTFs is associated with compositional
      differences in avian communities, and that advanced successional stages are
      associated with lower prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites.

PMID- 28575047
TI  - Utility of normalized genome quantification of Helicobacter pylori in gastric
      mucosa using an in-house real-time polymerase chain reaction.
AB  - Traditional diagnostic assays for Helicobacter pylori detection have their
      limitations. Molecular methods can improve both diagnosis and understanding of
      gastric diseases. Here we describe an in-house quantitative real-time polymerase
      chain reaction (q-rt-PCR) for the detection of H. pylori in gastric biopsies
      which has been developed and has a detection limit of 10 copies, the specificity
      of which was tested against other gastric colonizer bacteria. In this study, 199
      gastric biopsies from adults with different clinical gastric symptoms were
      examined. Biopsies were obtained during endoscopy and the following tests
      performed: rapid urease testing (RUT), culture and q-rt-PCR. H. pylori bacterial
      load expressed as bacterial load per 105 cells was calculated using a standard
      curve. H. pylori was isolated in 41% of patients, RUT was positive in 32% and
      bacterial genome was detected in 45% (p = 0.010). Concordance between traditional
      invasive microbiological methods used together and q-rt-PCR was almost 100%.
      Bacterial load in patients with positive RUT was significantly higher than those
      where it was negative (p<0.0001). There were also significant differences between
      bacterial load in patients with more than one positive assay versus those where
      only one method was positive (p = 0.006). The in-house q-PCR developed here is
      quick and inexpensive, and allows accurate diagnosis of H. pylori infection. It
      also permits normalized bacterial load quantification, which is important to
      differentiate between asymptomatic colonisation and infection.

PMID- 28575048
TI  - Effects of a weight management program delivered by social media on weight and
      metabolic syndrome risk factors in overweight and obese adults: A randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of using
      social media to augment the delivery of, and provide support for, a weight
      management program delivered to overweight and obese individuals during a twenty
      four week intervention. METHODS: Participants randomly divided into either one of
      two intervention groups or a control group. The two intervention groups were
      instructed to follow identical weight-management program. One group received the
      program within a Facebook group, along with a support network with the group, and
      the other intervention group received the same program in a booklet. The control
      group was given standard care. Participants' weight and other metabolic syndrome
      risk factors were measured at baseline and at weeks 6, 12, 18 and 24. RESULTS:
      The Facebook Group reported a 4.8% reduction in initial weight, significant
      compared to the CG only (p = 0.01), as well as numerically greater improvements
      in body mass index, waist circumference, fat mass, lean mass, and energy intake
      compared to the Pamphlet Group and the Control Group. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      demonstrate the potential of social media to assist overweight and obese
      individuals with respect to dietary and physical activity modifications for
      weight management, and justify further research into the inclusion of social
      media in clinical weight management programs. It is anticipated that social media
      will provide an invaluable resource for health professionals, as a low
      maintenance vehicle for communicating with patients, as well as a source of
      social support and information sharing for individuals undergoing lifestyle
      modifications.

PMID- 28575049
TI  - Cognitive and affective trait and state factors influencing the long-term symptom
      course in remitted depressed patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by a high risk for
      relapses and chronic developments. Clinical characteristics such as residual
      symptoms have been shown to negatively affect the long-term course of MDD.
      However, it is unclear so far how trait repetitive negative thinking (RNT) as
      well as cognitive and affective momentary states, the latter experienced during
      daily-life, affect the long-term course of MDD. METHOD: We followed up 57
      remitted depressed (rMDD) individuals six (T2) and 36 (T3) months after baseline.
      Clinical outcomes were time to relapse, time spent with significant symptoms as a
      marker of chronicity, and levels of depressive symptoms at T2 and T3. Predictors
      assessed at baseline included residual symptoms and trait RNT. Furthermore,
      momentary daily life affect and momentary rumination, and their variation over
      the day were assessed at baseline using ambulatory assessment (AA). RESULTS: In
      multiple models, residual symptoms and instability of daily-life affect at
      baseline independently predicted a faster time to relapse, while chronicity was
      significantly predicted by trait RNT. Multilevel models revealed that depressive
      symptom levels during follow-up were predicted by baseline residual symptom
      levels and by instability of daily-life rumination. Both instability features
      were linked to a higher number of anamnestic MDD episodes. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings indicate that trait RNT, but also affective and cognitive processes
      during daily life impact the longer-term course of MDD. Future longitudinal
      research on the role of respective AA-phenotypes as potential transdiagnostic
      course-modifiers is warranted.

PMID- 28575050
TI  - Megalin dependent urinary cystatin C excretion in ischemic kidney injury in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cystatin C, a marker of kidney injury, is freely filtered in the
      glomeruli and reabsorbed by the proximal tubules. Megalin and cubilin are
      endocytic receptors essential for reabsorption of most filtered proteins. This
      study examines the role of these receptors for the uptake and excretion of
      cystatin C and explores the effect of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury on renal
      cystatin C uptake and excretion in a rat model. METHODS: Binding of cystatin C to
      megalin and cubilin was analyzed by surface plasmon resonance analysis. ELISA
      and/or immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry were used to study the urinary
      excretion and tubular uptake of endogenous cystatin C in mice. Furthermore, renal
      uptake and urinary excretion of cystatin C was investigated in rats exposed to
      ischemia/reperfusion injury. RESULTS: A high affinity binding of cystatin C to
      megalin and cubilin was identified. Megalin deficient mice revealed an increased
      urinary excretion of cystatin C associated with defective uptake by endocytosis.
      In rats exposed to ischemia/reperfusion injury urinary cystatin C excretion was
      increased and associated with a focal decrease in proximal tubule endocytosis
      with no apparent change in megalin expression. CONCLUSIONS: Megalin is essential
      for the normal tubular recovery of endogenous cystatin C. The increase in urinary
      cystatin C excretion after ischemia/reperfusion injury is associated with
      decreased tubular uptake but not with reduced megalin expression.

PMID- 28575051
TI  - Stability of infants' preference for prosocial others: Implications for research
      based on single-choice paradigms.
AB  - Some research suggests infants display a tendency to judge others' prosocial
      behavior, and in particular, that infants show a strong preference for prosocial
      others. For example, data from one frequently cited and well-publicized study
      showed that, after watching a puppet show with three puppets, 74% of infants
      chose the puppet that "helped" rather than the puppet that "hindered" a third
      puppet from attaining its goal. The purpose of the current investigation was to
      replicate these methods and extend them by including a within-subject measure of
      infant puppet choice across repeated trials to assess the stability of infants'
      choice. In the current study, 20 infants viewed a puppet show and chose between
      two puppets (i.e., helper or hinderer) immediately following the puppet show.
      Although results were similar to previously published work on the first-choice
      trial (65% of infants chose the helper puppet on the first trial), infants did
      not consistently choose the helper across trials; several infants demonstrated a
      side preference, with 9 infants almost exclusively choosing puppets presented on
      the right or left side. The current investigation addressed limitations of
      previous research by including a between-subjects (replication) as well as a
      within-subjects (extension) repeated measure of choice that allowed for the
      examination of the stability of the choice measure. Our results, particularly in
      light of other failed replications, raise questions regarding the robustness of
      infants' preference for prosocial others and the reliability and validity of the
      single-choice paradigm.

PMID- 28575053
TI  - Mxi1-0 regulates the growth of human umbilical vein endothelial cells through
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and interleukin-8 (IL-8)
      dependent pathways.
AB  - Mxi1 plays an important role in the regulation of cell proliferation. Mxi1-0, a
      Mxi1 isoform, has a different N-terminal amino acid sequence, intracellular
      location and expression profile from Mxi1. However, the precise role of Mxi1-0 in
      cell proliferation and the molecular mechanism underlying its function remain
      poorly understood. Here, we showed that Mxi1-0 suppression decreased the
      proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) along with cell
      accumulation in the G2/M phase. Mxi1-0 suppression also significantly decreased
      the expression and secretion of interleukin (IL-8). Neutralizing IL-8 in
      conditioned medium (CM) from Mxi1-0-overexpressed HUVECs significantly eliminated
      CM-induced proliferation of HUVECs. In addition, Mxi1-0 suppression significantly
      decreased the activity of MAP kinase ERK1/2. Treatment of HUVECs with U0126, an
      ERK1/2 signaling inhibitor, attenuated autocrine production of IL-8 induced by
      Mxi1-0 overexpression. On the other hand, Mxi1-0 overexpression-induced IL-8
      increased the level of phosphorylated ERK1/2 in HUVECs, and such increasing was
      diminished in cells incubated with CM, which neutralized with anti-IL-8 antibody.
      Taken together, our results suggest that Mxi1-0 regulates the growth of HUVECs
      via the IL-8 and ERK1/2 pathways, which apparently reciprocally activate each
      other.

PMID- 28575052
TI  - Myogenic differentiation of VCP disease-induced pluripotent stem cells: A novel
      platform for drug discovery.
AB  - Valosin Containing Protein (VCP) disease is an autosomal dominant multisystem
      proteinopathy caused by mutations in the VCP gene, and is primarily associated
      with progressive muscle weakness, including atrophy of the pelvic and shoulder
      girdle muscles. Currently, no treatments are available and cardiac and
      respiratory failures can lead to mortality at an early age. VCP is an AAA ATPase
      multifunction complex protein and mutations in the VCP gene resulting in
      disrupted autophagic clearance. Due to the rarity of the disease, the myopathic
      nature of the disorder, ethical and practical considerations, VCP disease muscle
      biopsies are difficult to obtain. Thus, disease-specific human induced
      pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) now provide a valuable resource for the research
      owing to their renewable and pluripotent nature. In the present study, we report
      the differentiation and characterization of a VCP disease-specific hiPSCs into
      precursors expressing myogenic markers including desmin, myogenic factor 5
      (MYF5), myosin and heavy chain 2 (MYH2). VCP disease phenotype is characterized
      by high expression of TAR DNA Binding Protein-43 (TDP-43), ubiquitin (Ub), Light
      Chain 3-I/II protein (LC3-I/II), and p62/SQSTM1 (p62) protein indicating
      disruption of the autophagy cascade. Treatment of hiPSC precursors with autophagy
      stimulators Rapamycin, Perifosine, or AT101 showed reduction in VCP pathology
      markers TDP-43, LC3-I/II and p62/SQSTM1. Conversely, autophagy inhibitors
      chloroquine had no beneficial effect, and Spautin-1 or MHY1485 had modest
      effects. Our results illustrate that hiPSC technology provide a useful platform
      for a rapid drug discovery and hence constitutes a bridge between clinical and
      bench research in VCP and related diseases.

PMID- 28575055
TI  - Correction: Dual-targeting of Arabidopsis DMP1 isoforms to the tonoplast and the
      plasma membrane.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174062.].

PMID- 28575054
TI  - Hemorrhagic versus ischemic stroke: Who can best benefit from blended
      conventional physiotherapy with robotic-assisted gait therapy?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contrary to common belief of clinicians that hemorrhagic stroke
      survivors have better functional prognoses than ischemic, recent studies show
      that ischemic survivors could experience similar or even better functional
      improvements. However, the influence of stroke subtype on gait and posture
      outcomes following an intervention blending conventional physiotherapy with
      robotic-assisted gait therapy is missing. OBJECTIVE: This study compared gait and
      posture outcome measures between ambulatory hemorrhagic patients and ischemic
      patients, who received a similar 4 weeks' intervention blending a conventional
      bottom-up physiotherapy approach and an exoskeleton top-down robotic-assisted
      gait training (RAGT) approach with Lokomat. METHODS: Forty adult hemiparetic
      stroke inpatient subjects were recruited: 20 hemorrhagic and 20 ischemic, matched
      by age, gender, side of hemisphere lesion, stroke severity, and locomotor
      impairments. Functional Ambulation Category, Postural Assessment Scale for
      Stroke, Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment, 6 Minutes Walk Test,
      Timed Up and Go and 10-Meter Walk Test were performed before and after a 4-week
      long intervention. Functional gains were calculated for all tests. RESULTS:
      Hemorrhagic and ischemic subjects showed significant improvements in Functional
      Ambulation Category (P<0.001 and P = 0.008, respectively), Postural Assessment
      Scale for Stroke (P<0.001 and P = 0.003), 6 Minutes Walk Test (P = 0.003 and P =
      0.015) and 10-Meter Walk Test (P = 0.001 and P = 0.024). Ischemic patients also
      showed significant improvements in Timed Up and Go. Significantly greater mean
      Functional Ambulation Category and Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility
      Assessment gains were observed for hemorrhagic compared to ischemic, with large
      (dz = 0.81) and medium (dz = 0.66) effect sizes, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Overall, both groups exhibited quasi similar functional improvements and benefits
      from the same type, length and frequency of blended conventional physiotherapy
      and RAGT protocol. The use of intensive treatment plans blending top-down
      physiotherapy and bottom-up robotic approaches is promising for post-stroke
      rehabilitation.

PMID- 28575056
TI  - Inter-center comparison of EasyTube and endotracheal tube during general
      anesthesia in minor elective surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The EasyTube(r) (EzT) is a supraglottic airway device (SAD) enabling
      ventilation irrespective of its placement into the esophagus or trachea. Data
      obtained on SADs from multicenter studies, performed in highly specialized
      centers cannot always be transferred to other sites. However, data on
      comparability of different sites are scarce. This study focused on inter-site
      variability of ventilatory and safety parameters during general anesthesia with
      the EzT. METHODS: 400 patients with ASA physical status I-II undergoing general
      anesthesia for elective surgery in four medical centers (EzT group (n = 200), ETT
      group (n = 200)). Mallampati classification, success of insertion, insertion
      time, duration of ventilation, number of insertion attempts, ease of insertion,
      tidal volumes, leakage, hemodynamic parameters, oxygenation, and complications
      rates with the EasyTube (EzT) or endotracheal tube (ETT) in comparison within the
      sites and in between the sites were recorded. RESULTS: Intra-site and inter-site
      comparison of insertion success as primary outcome did not differ significantly.
      The inter-site comparison of expiratory minute volumes showed that the volumes
      achieved over the course of anesthesia did not differ significantly, however,
      mean leakage at one site was significantly higher with the EzT (0.63 l/min, p =
      0.02). No significant inter-site differences in heart rate, blood pressure, or
      oxygenation were observed. Sore throat and blood on the cuff after removal of the
      device were the most frequent complications with significantly more complications
      at one site with the EzT (p = 0.01) where insertion was also reported
      significantly more difficult (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Performance of the EzT but
      not the ETT varied between sites with regard to insertion difficulty, leakage,
      and complications but not insertion success, ventilation, hemodynamics, and
      oxygenation parameters in patients with ASA physical status 1-2 during general
      anesthesia undergoing minor elective surgery.

PMID- 28575057
TI  - Proteomic variation and diversity in clinical Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates
      from invasive and non-invasive sites.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for a variety of invasive and non
      invasive human infections. There are over 90 serotypes of S. pneumoniae differing
      in their ability to adapt to the different niches within the host. Two
      dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to discriminate clinical S. pneumoniae
      isolates recovered from either blood cultures (invasive site isolates) or other
      sites, including sputum, tracheal aspirate, ear, eye and skin swabs (non-invasive
      site isolates). Global protein expression profiles for five invasive site and six
      non-invasive site isolates representing five different serotypes (serotypes 4, 6,
      9, 14 and 23) were obtained for each isolate and combined into a single data set
      using Progenesis SameSpotsTM software. One-hundred and eighty six protein spots
      (39% of the protein spots in the dataset) differed significantly (ANOVA, p<0.05)
      in abundance between the invasive site (101 upregulated protein spots) and non
      invasive site (85 upregulated protein spots) isolates. Correlations between the
      bacterial proteomes and their sites of isolation were determined by Principal
      Component Analysis (PCA) using the significantly different protein spots. Out of
      the 186 variable protein spots, 105 exhibited a serotype-associated pattern of
      variability. The expression of the remaining 81 protein spots was concluded to be
      uniquely linked to the site of bacterial isolation. Mass spectrometry was used to
      identify selected protein spots that showed either constant or differential
      abundance levels. The identified proteins had a diverse range of functions
      including, capsule biogenesis, DNA repair, protein deglycation, translation,
      stress response and virulence as well as amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid and
      nucleotide metabolism. These findings provide insight on the proteins that
      contribute towards the adaptation of the bacteria to different sites within the
      host.

PMID- 28575059
TI  - Distribution and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages in a semi
      arid region earmarked for shale gas exploration (Eastern Cape Karoo, South
      Africa).
AB  - This study aims to investigate macroinvertebrate assemblage structure and
      composition across the three major waterbody types (temporary rivers, depression
      wetlands and semi-permanent dams) of the Eastern Cape Karoo, and to identify
      important environmental and spatial correlates of macroinvertebrate assemblage
      composition in the region. A total of 33 waterbodies (9 dams, 13 depression
      wetlands and 11 rivers) were sampled. Altogether, 91 taxa were recorded in
      November 2014 and 82 in April 2015. Twenty-seven taxa were common to all three
      waterbody types (across both sampling occasions), with 17 of these observed in
      November and 19 in April. The ANOSIM tests revealed significant differences in
      assemblage composition between the depression wetlands and rivers for both
      sampling occasions, but dams did not differ from the other waterbody types.
      SIMPER analyses indicated that the notonectid Anisops varia and the corixid
      Micronecta scutellaris were abundant across all three waterbody types during both
      sampling occasions. The mayfly Cloeon africanum and the damselfly Pseudagrion sp.
      were abundant in river habitats during both sampling occasions, while the
      gastropod mollusc Bulinus tropicus and the copepod Lovenula falcifera best
      characterised depression wetlands on both occasions. Non-metric multidimensional
      scaling ordination highlighted a clear separation of assemblages between November
      and April, while distance-based Redundancy Analysis revealed that conductivity,
      altitude, turbidity and pH were the most important variables explaining the
      variation in macroinvertebrate assemblage patterns. These results provide
      baseline information which is important for future biological monitoring of
      impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing activities and climatic changes in
      the region.

PMID- 28575058
TI  - Timing of rehabilitation on length of stay and cost in patients with hip or knee
      joint arthroplasty: A systematic review with meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of early initiation of rehabilitation on
      length of stay (LOS) and cost following total hip arthroplasty, total knee
      arthroplasty, or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. DATA SOURCES: Electronic
      databases PubMed, CINAHL, Pedro, Embase, AMED, and the Cochrane Library were
      searched in July 2016. Five additional trials were identified through reference
      list scanning. STUDY SELECTION: Eligible studies were published in English
      language peer-reviewed journals; included participants that had undergone total
      hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty
      reported clearly defined timing of rehabilitation onset for at least two groups;
      and reported at least one measure of LOS or cost. Inclusion criteria were applied
      by 2 independent authors, with disagreements being determined by a third author.
      Searching identified 1,029 potential articles, of which 17 studies with 26,614
      participants met the inclusion criteria. DATA EXTRACTION: Data was extracted
      independently by 2 authors, with disagreements being determined by a third
      author. Methodological quality of each study was evaluated independently by 2
      authors using the Downs and Black checklist. Pooled analyses were analyzed using
      a random-effects model with inverse variance methods to calculate standardized
      mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals for LOS. DATA SYNTHESIS: When
      compared with standard care, early initiation of physical therapy demonstrated a
      decrease in length of stay for the 4 randomized clinical trials (SMD = -1.90; 95%
      CI -2.76 to -1.05; I2 = 93%) and for the quasi-experimental and 5 prospective
      studies (SMD = -1.47; 95% CI -1.85 to -1.10; I2 = 88%). CONCLUSION: Early
      initiation of rehabilitation following total hip arthroplasty, total knee
      arthroplasty, or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty is associated with a shorter
      LOS, a lower overall cost, with no evidence of an increased number of adverse
      reactions. Additional high quality studies with standardized methodology are
      needed to further examine the impact of early initiation of physical therapy
      among patients with joint replacement procedures.

PMID- 28575060
TI  - Increased miltefosine tolerance in clinical isolates of Leishmania donovani is
      associated with reduced drug accumulation, increased infectivity and resistance
      to oxidative stress.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Miltefosine (MIL) is an oral antileishmanial drug used for treatment
      of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Indian subcontinent. Recent reports
      indicate a significant decline in its efficacy with a high rate of relapse in VL
      as well as post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). We investigated the
      parasitic factors apparently involved in miltefosine unresponsiveness in clinical
      isolates of Leishmania donovani. METHODOLOGY: L. donovani isolated from patients
      of VL and PKDL at pretreatment stage (LdPreTx, n = 9), patients that relapsed
      after MIL treatment (LdRelapse, n = 7) and parasites made experimentally
      resistant to MIL (LdM30) were included in this study. MIL uptake was estimated
      using liquid chromatography coupled mass spectrometry. Reactive oxygen species
      and intracellular thiol content were measured fluorometrically. Q-PCR was used to
      assess the differential expression of genes associated with MIL resistance.
      RESULTS: LdRelapse parasites exhibited higher IC50 both at promastigote level
      (7.92 +/- 1.30 MUM) and at intracellular amastigote level (11.35 +/- 6.48 MUM)
      when compared with LdPreTx parasites (3.27 +/- 1.52 MUM) and (3.85 +/- 3.11 MUM),
      respectively. The percent infectivity (72 hrs post infection) of LdRelapse
      parasites was significantly higher (80.71 +/- 5.67%, P<0.001) in comparison to
      LdPreTx (60.44 +/- 2.80%). MIL accumulation was significantly lower in LdRelapse
      parasites (1.7 fold, P<0.001) and in LdM30 parasites (2.4 fold, P<0.001) when
      compared with LdPreTx parasites. MIL induced ROS levels were significantly lower
      (p<0.05) in macrophages infected with LdRelapse while intracellular thiol content
      were significantly higher in LdRelapse compared to LdPreTx, indicating a better
      tolerance for oxidative stress in LdRelapse isolates. Genes associated with
      oxidative stress, metabolic processes and transporters showed modulated
      expression in LdRelapse and LdM30 parasites in comparison with LdPreTx parasites.
      CONCLUSION: The present study highlights the parasitic factors and pathways
      responsible for miltefosine unresponsiveness in VL and PKDL.

PMID- 28575062
TI  - The rs16906252:C>T SNP is not associated with increased overall survival or
      temozolomide response in a Han-Chinese glioma cohort.
AB  - The methylation status of O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is
      associated with the prognosis in gliomas and in other cancers. Recent studies
      showed that rs16906252, an SNP in the MGMT promoter, is associated with promoter
      methylation and is a predictor of the overall survival time (OST) and the
      response to temozolomide (TMZ) treatment. However, these findings haven't been
      systematically investigated in the Han-Chinese population. We analyzed the
      relevance between rs16906252 polymorphisms, the MGMT methylation status, and the
      OST in 72 Han-Chinese gliomas patients. The MGMT promoter methylation was
      measured by bisulfite conversion followed by pyro-sequencing, while rs16906252
      was measured by restriction endonuclease digestion. Contrary to the previous
      findings, we found no association between rs16906252 genotypes and promoter
      methylation on MGMT. The lower-grade glioma (LGGs) patients carrying the C allele
      with rs16906252 showed a surprisingly better OST (P = 0.04). Furthermore, the LGG
      patients carrying hypo-methylated MGMT promoter and rs16906252 T allele showed
      significantly poorer prognosis. The prognostic benefit of MGMT promoter
      methylation and genotypes on gliomas patients is marginal. A new molecular
      stratified patient grouping of LGGs is potentially associated with poorer OST.
      Active MGMT might have a protective role in LGG tumors, enabling evolution to
      severe malignancy.

PMID- 28575061
TI  - Dissecting structures and functions of SecA-only protein-conducting channels:
      ATPase, pore structure, ion channel activity, protein translocation, and
      interaction with SecYEG/SecDF*YajC.
AB  - SecA is an essential protein in the major bacterial Sec-dependent translocation
      pathways. E. coli SecA has 901 aminoacyl residues which form multi-functional
      domains that interact with various ligands to impart function. In this study, we
      constructed and purified tethered C-terminal deletion fragments of SecA to
      determine the requirements for N-terminal domains interacting with lipids to
      provide ATPase activity, pore structure, ion channel activity, protein
      translocation and interactions with SecYEG-SecDF*YajC. We found that the N
      terminal fragment SecAN493 (SecA1-493) has low, intrinsic ATPase activity. Larger
      fragments have greater activity, becoming highest around N619-N632. Lipids
      greatly stimulated the ATPase activities of the fragments N608-N798, reaching
      maximal activities around N619. Three helices in amino-acyl residues SecA619-831,
      which includes the "Helical Scaffold" Domain (SecA619-668) are critical for pore
      formation, ion channel activity, and for function with SecYEG-SecDF*YajC. In the
      presence of liposomes, N-terminal domain fragments of SecA form pore-ring
      structures at fragment-size N640, ion channel activity around N798, and protein
      translocation capability around N831. SecA domain fragments ranging in size
      between N643-N669 are critical for functional interactions with SecYEG
      SecDF*YajC. In the presence of liposomes, inactive C-terminal fragments
      complement smaller non-functional N-terminal fragments to form SecA-only pore
      structures with ion channel activity and protein translocation ability. Thus,
      SecA domain fragment interactions with liposomes defined critical structures and
      functional aspects of SecA-only channels. These data provide the mechanistic
      basis for SecA to form primitive, low-efficiency, SecA-only protein-conducting
      channels, as well as the minimal parameters for SecA to interact functionally
      with SecYEG-SecDF*YajC to form high-efficiency channels.

PMID- 28575063
TI  - The composition of T-cell subsets are altered in the burn wound early after
      injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Burn-induced inflammation leads to impaired immune responses
      resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. T-cells are central in the immune
      response and circulating CD4 and CD8 T-cells have been used to evaluate immune
      status; however, the role of these T-cell subsets in the burn wound is unknown.
      METHODS: Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to a major 3rd degree scald burn or
      sham treatment. Twenty-four hours later, full thickness skin samples from sham
      mice and the burn wounds were collected and single cells were isolated and
      analyzed for alphabeta TCR, gammadelta TCR, CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD69 expressions by
      flow cytometry. RESULTS: The burn wound contained significantly greater numbers
      of T-cells than skin from sham mice, due to a profound infiltration of alphabeta
      T-cells. These infiltrating alphabeta T-cells were primarily suppressor T-cells
      with a CD8+ or CD8-CD4- phenotype. The 15-fold increase in CD8+ alphabeta T-cells
      caused a decrease in the CD4:CD8 ratio from 0.7 in sham skin to 0.3 in the burn
      wound. In contrast, the majority of the gammadelta T-cells in sham skin were CD4
      CD8-, which decreased 9-fold in the burn wound. CD69 expression was suppressed on
      burn wound alphabeta T-cells, but increased on gammadelta T-cells in the burn
      wound. CONCLUSIONS: The infiltrating burn wound alphabeta T-cells likely act to
      quell inflammation. In contrast wound gammadelta T-cells were activated with
      elevated CD4 and CD69 expression. Thus, these two distinct T-cell subsets likely
      differentially regulate the burn wound inflammatory response.

PMID- 28575064
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae stool isolates circulating in
      Kenya.
AB  - We sought to determine the genetic and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
      profiles of commensal Klebsiella spp. circulating in Kenya by testing human stool
      isolates of 87 K. pneumoniae and three K. oxytoca collected at eight locations.
      Over one-third of the isolates were resistant to >=3 categories of antimicrobials
      and were considered multidrug-resistant (MDR). We then compared the resistance
      phenotype to the presence/absence of 238 AMR genes determined by a broad-spectrum
      microarray and PCR. Forty-six genes/gene families were identified conferring
      resistance to beta-lactams (ampC/blaDHA, blaCMY/LAT, blaLEN-1, blaOKP-A/OKP-B1,
      blaOXA-1-like family, blaOXY-1, blaSHV, blaTEM, blaCTX-M-1 and blaCTX-M-2
      families), aminoglycosides (aac(3)-III, aac(6)-Ib, aad(A1/A2), aad(A4), aph(AI),
      aph3/str(A), aph6/str(B), and rmtB), macrolides (mac(A), mac(B), mph(A)/mph(K)),
      tetracyclines (tet(A), tet(B), tet(D), tet(G)), ansamycins (arr), phenicols
      (catA1/cat4, floR, cmlA, cmr), fluoroquinolones (qnrS), quaternary amines
      (qacEDelta1), streptothricin (sat2), sulfonamides (sul1, sul2, sul3), and
      diaminopyrimidines (dfrA1, dfrA5, dfrA7, dfrA8, dfrA12, dfrA13/21/22/23 family,
      dfrA14, dfrA15, dfrA16, dfrA17). This is the first profile of genes conferring
      resistance to multiple categories of antimicrobial agents in western and central
      Kenya. The large number and wide variety of resistance genes detected suggest the
      presence of significant selective pressure. The presence of five or more
      resistance determinants in almost two-thirds of the isolates points to the need
      for more effective, targeted public health policies and infection
      control/prevention measures.

PMID- 28575065
TI  - Does published research on non-communicable disease (NCD) in Arab countries
      reflect NCD disease burden?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To review trends in non-communicable (NCD) research output in the
      Arab region, in terms of quantity and quality, study design, setting and focus.
      We also examined differences by time and place, and assessed gaps between
      research output and NCD burden. METHODS: A scoping review of a total of 3,776 NCD
      related reports published between 2000 and 2013 was conducted for seven Arab
      countries. Countries were selected to represent diverse socio-economic
      development levels in the region: Regression analyses were used to assess trends
      in publications over time and by country. Research gaps were assessed by
      examining the degree of match between proportionate literature coverage of the
      four main NCDs (CVD, cancer, DM, and COPD) and cause-specific proportional
      mortality rates (PMR). RESULTS: The annual number of NCD publications rose nearly
      5-fold during the study period, with higher income countries having the higher
      publication rates (per million populations) and the most rapid increases. The
      increase in the publication rate was particularly prominent for descriptive
      observational studies, while interventional studies and systematic reviews
      remained infrequent (slope coefficients = 13.484 and 0.883, respectively). Gap
      analysis showed a mismatch between cause-specific PMR burden and NCD research
      output, with a relative surplus of reports on cancer (pooled estimate +38.3%) and
      a relative deficit of reports on CVDs (pooled estimate -30.3%). CONCLUSION: The
      widening disparity between higher and lower-income countries and the discordance
      between research output and disease burden call for the need for ongoing
      collaboration among Arab academic institutions, funding agencies and researchers
      to guide country-specific and regional research agendas, support and conduct.

PMID- 28575067
TI  - Correction: An automated algorithm for the detection of cortical interruptions on
      high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography images of finger
      joints.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175829.].

PMID- 28575066
TI  - Combined application of arsenic trioxide and lithium chloride augments viability
      reduction and apoptosis induction in human rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines.
AB  - Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) are the most prevalent soft tissue sarcomas affecting
      children and adolescents. Despite intensive treatment consisting of multimodal
      chemotherapy and surgery RMS patients diagnosed with metastatic disease expect
      long term survival rates of only 20%. Often multidrug resistance arises upon
      initial response emphasizing the need for new therapeutic drugs to improve
      treatment efficiency. Previously, we demonstrated the efficacy of the FDA
      approved drug arsenic trioxide (ATO) specifically inhibiting viability and clonal
      growth as well as inducing cell death in human RMS cell lines of different
      subtypes. In this study, we combined low dose ATO with lithium chloride (LiCl),
      which is approved as mood stabilizer for the treatment of bipolar disorder, but
      also inhibits growth and survival of different cancer cell types in pre-clinical
      research. Indeed, we could show additive effects of LiCl and ATO on viability
      reduction, decrease of colony formation as well as cell death induction. In the
      course of this, LiCl induced inhibitory glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK
      3beta) serine 9 phosphorylation, whereas glioma associated oncogene family 1
      (GLI1) protein expression was particularly reduced by combined ATO and LiCl
      treatment in RD and RH-30 cell lines, showing high rates of apoptotic cell death.
      These results imply that combination of ATO with LiCl or another drug targeting
      GSK-3 is a promising strategy to enforce the treatment efficiency in resistant
      and recurrent RMS.

PMID- 28575068
TI  - Perception of force and stiffness in the presence of low-frequency haptic noise.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work lays the foundation for future research on quantitative
      modeling of human stiffness perception. Our goal was to develop a method by which
      a human's ability to perceive suprathreshold haptic force stimuli and haptic
      stiffness stimuli can be affected by adding haptic noise. METHODS: Five human
      participants performed a same-different task with a one-degree-of-freedom force
      feedback device. Participants used the right index finger to actively interact
      with variations of force (~5 and ~8 N) and stiffness (~290 N/m) stimuli that
      included one of four scaled amounts of haptically rendered noise (None, Low,
      Medium, High). The haptic noise was zero-mean Gaussian white noise that was low
      pass filtered with a 2 Hz cut-off frequency; the resulting low-frequency signal
      was added to the force rendered while the participant interacted with the force
      and stiffness stimuli. RESULTS: We found that the precision with which
      participants could identify the magnitude of both the force and stiffness stimuli
      was affected by the magnitude of the low-frequency haptically rendered noise
      added to the haptic stimulus, as well as the magnitude of the haptic stimulus
      itself. The Weber fraction strongly correlated with the standard deviation of the
      low-frequency haptic noise with a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
      of rho > 0.83. The mean standard deviation of the low-frequency haptic noise in
      the haptic stimuli ranged from 0.184 N to 1.111 N across the four haptically
      rendered noise levels, and the corresponding mean Weber fractions spanned between
      0.042 and 0.101. CONCLUSIONS: The human ability to perceive both suprathreshold
      haptic force and stiffness stimuli degrades in the presence of added low
      frequency haptic noise. Future work can use the reported methods to investigate
      how force perception and stiffness perception may relate, with possible
      applications in haptic watermarking and in the assessment of the functionality of
      peripheral pathways in individuals with haptic impairments.

PMID- 28575069
TI  - A small molecule screen identifies in vivo modulators of peripheral nerve
      regeneration in zebrafish.
AB  - Adult vertebrates have retained the ability to regenerate peripheral nerves after
      injury, although regeneration is frequently incomplete, often leading to
      functional impairments. Small molecule screens using whole organisms have high
      potential to identify biologically relevant targets, yet currently available
      assays for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration are either very laborious and/or
      require complex technology. Here we take advantage of the optical transparency of
      larval zebrafish to develop a simple and fast pectoral fin removal assay that
      measures peripheral nerve regeneration in vivo. Twenty-four hours after fin
      amputation we observe robust and stereotyped nerve regrowth at the fin base.
      Similar to laser mediated nerve transection, nerve regrowth after fin amputation
      requires Schwann cells and FGF signaling, confirming that the fin amputation
      assay identifies pathways relevant for peripheral nerve regeneration. From a
      library of small molecules with known targets, we identified 21 compounds that
      impair peripheral nerve regeneration. Several of these compounds target known
      regulators of nerve regeneration, further validating the fin removal assay.
      Twelve of the identified compounds affect targets not previously known to control
      peripheral nerve regeneration. Using a laser-mediated nerve transection assay we
      tested ten of those compounds and confirmed six of these compounds to impair
      peripheral nerve regeneration: an EGFR inhibitor, a glucocorticoid, prostaglandin
      D2, a retinoic acid agonist, an inhibitor of calcium channels and a topoisomerase
      I inhibitor. Thus, we established a technically simple assay to rapidly identify
      valuable entry points into pathways critical for vertebrate peripheral nerve
      regeneration.

PMID- 28575071
TI  - Correction: Panel of three novel serum markers predicts liver stiffness and
      fibrosis stages in patients with chronic liver disease.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173506.].

PMID- 28575070
TI  - A preliminary examination of the diagnostic value of deep learning in hip
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - Hip Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common disease among the middle-aged and elderly
      people. Conventionally, hip OA is diagnosed by manually assessing X-ray images.
      This study took the hip joint as the object of observation and explored the
      diagnostic value of deep learning in hip osteoarthritis. A deep convolutional
      neural network (CNN) was trained and tested on 420 hip X-ray images to
      automatically diagnose hip OA. This CNN model achieved a balance of high
      sensitivity of 95.0% and high specificity of 90.7%, as well as an accuracy of
      92.8% compared to the chief physicians. The CNN model performance is comparable
      to an attending physician with 10 years of experience. The results of this study
      indicate that deep learning has promising potential in the field of intelligent
      medical image diagnosis practice.

PMID- 28575072
TI  - Assembly, maturation and three-dimensional helical structure of the teratogenic
      rubella virus.
AB  - Viral infections during pregnancy are a significant cause of infant morbidity and
      mortality. Of these, rubella virus infection is a well-substantiated example that
      leads to miscarriages or severe fetal defects. However, structural information
      about the rubella virus has been lacking due to the pleomorphic nature of the
      virions. Here we report a helical structure of rubella virions using cryo
      electron tomography. Sub-tomogram averaging of the surface spikes established the
      relative positions of the viral glycoproteins, which differed from the earlier
      icosahedral models of the virus. Tomographic analyses of in vitro assembled
      nucleocapsids and virions provide a template for viral assembly. Comparisons of
      immature and mature virions show large rearrangements in the glycoproteins that
      may be essential for forming the infectious virions. These results present the
      first known example of a helical membrane-enveloped virus, while also providing a
      structural basis for its assembly and maturation pathway.

PMID- 28575073
TI  - A comprehensive retrospective study of the seroprevalence of H9N2 avian influenza
      viruses in occupationally exposed populations in China.
AB  - The H9N2 avian influenza virus circulates worldwide, predominantly in poultry.
      Its increasing infectivity and adaptation in poultry and mammals have enhanced
      the possibility of human infection. However, H9N2 human cases are difficult to
      detect due to their mild clinical symptoms. Serological study is valuable for
      risk assessment. A total of 15,700 serum samples were collected from
      occupationally exposed populations in 22 provinces of China and tested using
      hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and microneutralization (MN) assays. The sera
      positive rate of A/Guangzhou/333/99 (G9) was significantly higher than that of
      A/quail/Hong Kong/G1/97 (G1) (p<0.0001). The seroprevalences of H9N2 were
      significantly higher in live poultry market workers, large-scale poultry farmers
      and backyard farmers than in poultry slaughtering factory workers and wild bird
      habitant workers. The seroprevalences of A/Guangzhou/333/99 (G9) (3.42%) and
      A/quail/Hong Kong/G1/97 (G1) (1.37%) in Southern China were significantly higher
      than those in Northern China (p<0.001). The seroprevalence was highest in the
      elderly, followed by adults and then youths. Our results indicate that
      subclinical human infection with H9N2 avian influenza virus is widely distributed
      in China. Longer poultry exposure might contribute to the higher seroprevalence
      in the elderly group. The higher seroprevalence observed in Southern China than
      in Northern China might be caused by a higher poultry density.

PMID- 28575075
TI  - SeqEnrich: A tool to predict transcription factor networks from co-expressed
      Arabidopsis and Brassica napus gene sets.
AB  - Transcription factors and their associated DNA binding sites are key regulatory
      elements of cellular differentiation, development, and environmental response.
      New tools that predict transcriptional regulation of biological processes are
      valuable to researchers studying both model and emerging-model plant systems.
      SeqEnrich predicts transcription factor networks from co-expressed Arabidopsis or
      Brassica napus gene sets. The networks produced by SeqEnrich are supported by
      existing literature and predicted transcription factor-DNA interactions that can
      be functionally validated at the laboratory bench. The program functions with
      gene sets of varying sizes and derived from diverse tissues and environmental
      treatments. SeqEnrich presents as a powerful predictive framework for the
      analysis of Arabidopsis and Brassica napus co-expression data, and is designed so
      that researchers at all levels can easily access and interpret predicted
      transcriptional circuits. The program outperformed its ancestral program
      ChipEnrich, and produced detailed transcription factor networks from Arabidopsis
      and Brassica napus gene expression data. The SeqEnrich program is ideal for
      generating new hypotheses and distilling biological information from large-scale
      expression data.

PMID- 28575074
TI  - Lessons learnt from human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in 45 low- and middle
      income countries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To synthesise lessons learnt and determinants of success from human
      papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine demonstration projects and national programmes in
      low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs). METHODS: Interviews were conducted
      with 56 key informants. A systematic literature review identified 2936 abstracts
      from five databases; after screening 61 full texts were included. Unpublished
      literature, including evaluation reports, was solicited from country
      representatives; 188 documents were received. A data extraction tool and
      interview topic guide outlining key areas of inquiry were informed by World
      Health Organization guidelines for new vaccine introduction. Results were
      synthesised thematically. RESULTS: Data were analysed from 12 national programmes
      and 66 demonstration projects in 46 countries. Among demonstration projects, 30
      were supported by the GARDASIL(r) Access Program, 20 by Gavi, four by PATH and 12
      by other means. School-based vaccine delivery supplemented with health facility
      based delivery for out-of-school girls attained high coverage. There were limited
      data on facility-only strategies and little evaluation of strategies to reach out
      of-school girls. Early engagement of teachers as partners in social mobilisation,
      consent, vaccination day coordination, follow-up of non-completers and adverse
      events was considered invaluable. Micro-planning using school/ facility registers
      most effectively enumerated target populations; other estimates proved
      inaccurate, leading to vaccine under- or over-estimation. Refresher training on
      adverse events and safe injection procedures was usually necessary. CONCLUSION:
      Considerable experience in HPV vaccine delivery in LAMICs is available. Lessons
      are generally consistent across countries and dissemination of these could
      improve HPV vaccine introduction.

PMID- 28575077
TI  - A productive clash of perspectives? The interplay between articles' and authors'
      perspectives and their impact on Wikipedia edits in a controversial domain.
AB  - This study examined predictors of the development of Wikipedia articles that deal
      with controversial issues. We chose a corpus of articles in the German-language
      version of Wikipedia about alternative medicine as a representative controversial
      issue. We extracted edits made until March 2013 and categorized them using a
      supervised machine learning setup as either being pro conventional medicine, pro
      alternative medicine, or neutral. Based on these categories, we established
      relevant variables, such as the perspectives of articles and of authors at
      certain points in time, the (im)balance of an article's perspective, the number
      of non-neutral edits per article, the number of authors per article, authors'
      heterogeneity per article, and incongruity between authors' and articles'
      perspectives. The underlying objective was to predict the development of
      articles' perspectives with regard to the controversial topic. The empirical part
      of the study is embedded in theoretical considerations about editorial biases and
      the effectiveness of norms and rules in Wikipedia, such as the neutral point of
      view policy. Our findings revealed a selection bias where authors edited mainly
      articles with perspectives similar to their own viewpoint. Regression analyses
      showed that an author's perspective as well as the article's previous
      perspectives predicted the perspective of the resulting edits, albeit both
      predictors interact with each other. Further analyses indicated that articles
      with more non-neutral edits were altogether more balanced. We also found a
      positive effect of the number of authors and of the authors' heterogeneity on
      articles' balance. However, while the effect of the number of authors was
      reserved to pro-conventional medicine articles, the authors' heterogenity effect
      was restricted to pro-alternative medicine articles. Finally, we found a negative
      effect of incongruity between authors' and articles' perspectives that was
      pronounced for the pro-alternative medicine articles.

PMID- 28575076
TI  - Prevalence of colistin resistance gene (mcr-1) containing Enterobacteriaceae in
      feces of patients attending a tertiary care hospital and detection of a mcr-1
      containing, colistin susceptible E. coli.
AB  - The emergence of the plasmid-mediated mcr colistin resistance gene in the
      community poses a potential threat for treatment of patients, especially when
      hospitalized. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of all
      currently known mcr mediated colistin resistance gene in fecal samples of
      patients attending a tertiary care hospital. From November 2014 until July 2015,
      fecal samples of patients attending the Leiden University Medical Center were
      collected and screened for presence of mcr using real-time PCR. Two of 576
      patients were positive for mcr-1, resulting in a prevalence of 0.35%, whereas no
      mcr-2 was found. One of these samples was culture negative, the second sample
      contained a blaCMY-2 and mcr-1 containing E.coli. This strain belonged to
      Sequence Type 359 and serotype O177:H21. The mcr-1 containing E.coli was
      phenotypically susceptible to colistin with a MIC of <= 0.25mg/l, due to a 1329bp
      transposon IS10R inserted into the mcr-1 gene as identified by WGS. This
      prevalence study shows that mcr-1 is present in low levels patients out of the
      community attending a hospital. Furthermore the study underlines the importance
      of phenotypical confirmation of molecular detection of a mcr-1 gene.

PMID- 28575078
TI  - Dynamic oceanography determines fine scale foraging behavior of Masked Boobies in
      the Gulf of Mexico.
AB  - During breeding, foraging marine birds are under biological, geographic, and
      temporal constraints. These contraints require foraging birds to efficiently
      process environmental cues derived from physical habitat features that occur at
      nested spatial scales. Mesoscale oceanography in particular may change rapidly
      within and between breeding seasons, and findings from well-studied systems that
      relate oceanography to seabird foraging may transfer poorly to regions with
      substantially different oceanographic conditions. Our objective was to examine
      foraging behavior of a pan-tropical seabird, the Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra),
      in the understudied Caribbean province, a moderately productive region driven by
      highly dynamic currents and fronts. We tracked 135 individuals with GPS units
      during May 2013, November 2013, and December 2014 at a regionally important
      breeding colony in the southern Gulf of Mexico. We measured foraging behavior
      using characteristics of foraging trips and used area restricted search as a
      proxy for foraging events. Among individual attributes, nest stage contributed to
      differences in foraging behavior whereas sex did not. Birds searched for prey at
      nested hierarchical scales ranging from 200 m-35 km. Large-scale coastal and
      shelf-slope fronts shifted position between sampling periods and overlapped
      geographically with overall foraging locations. At small scales (at the prey
      patch level), the specific relationship between environmental variables and
      foraging behavior was highly variable among individuals but general patterns
      emerged. Sea surface height anomaly and velocity of water were the strongest
      predictors of area restricted search behavior in random forest models, a finding
      that is consistent with the characterization of the Gulf of Mexico as an
      energetic system strongly influenced by currents and eddies. Our data may be
      combined with tracking efforts in the Caribbean province and across tropical
      regions to advance understanding of seabird sensing of the environment and serve
      as a baseline for anthropogenic based threats such as development, pollution, and
      commercial fisheries.

PMID- 28575079
TI  - Comparison of forced-air and water-circulating warming for prevention of
      hypothermia during transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedures at our
      institution were complicated by perioperative hypothermia despite use of the
      standard of care forced-air convective warming device (the BairHugger, Augustine
      Medical Inc, Eden Prairie, MN, USA). To remedy this problem, we initiated a
      quality improvement process that investigated the use of a conductive warm water
      circulating device (the Allon ThermoWrap, Menen Medical Corporation, Trevose, PA,
      USA), and hypothesized that it would decrease the incidence of perioperative
      hypothermia. METHODS: We compared two different intraoperative warming devices
      using a historic control. We retrospectively reviewed intraoperative records of
      80 TAVRs between 6/2013 and 6/2015, 46 and 34 of which were done with the forced
      air and water-circulating devices, respectively. Continuous temperature data
      obtained from pulmonary artery catheter, temperature upon arrival to
      cardiothoracic ICU (CTU), age, BSA, height, and BMI were compared. RESULTS:
      Patients warmed with both devices were similar in terms of demographic
      characteristics. First recorded intraoperative temperature (mean 36.26 +/- SD
      0.61 vs. 35.95 +/- 0.46 degrees C, p = 0.02), lowest intraoperative temperature
      (36.01 +/- 0.58 vs. 34.89 +/- 0.76 degrees C, p<0.001), temperature at the end of
      the procedure (36.47 +/- 0.51 vs. 35.17 +/- 0.75 degrees C, p<0.001), and
      temperature upon arrival to the CTU (36.35 +/- 0.44 vs. 35.07 +/- 0.78 degrees C,
      p<0.001) were significantly higher in the water-circulating group as compared to
      the forced-air group. CONCLUSION: A quality improvement process led to selection
      of a new warming device that virtually eliminated perioperative hypothermia at
      our institution. Patients warmed with the new device were significantly less
      likely to experience intraoperative hypothermia and were significantly more
      likely to be normothermic upon arrival to the CTU.

PMID- 28575081
TI  - Peripatric speciation in an endemic Macaronesian plant after recent divergence
      from a widespread relative.
AB  - The Macaronesian Scrophularia lowei is hypothesized to have arisen from the
      widespread S. arguta on the basis of several phylogenetic studies of the genus,
      but sampling has been limited. Although these two annual species are
      morphologically distinct, the origin of S. lowei is unclear because genetic
      studies focused on this Macaronesian species are lacking. We studied 5 S. lowei
      and 25 S. arguta populations to determine the relationship of both species and to
      infer the geographical origin of S. lowei. The timing of S. lowei divergence and
      differentiation was inferred by dating analysis of the ITS region. A phylogenetic
      analysis of two nuclear (ITS and ETS) and two chloroplast (psbJ-petA and psbA
      trnH) DNA regions was performed to study the relationship between the two
      species, and genetic differentiation was analysed by AMOVA. Haplotype network
      construction and Bayesian phylogeographic analysis were conducted using
      chloroplast DNA regions and a spatial clustering analysis was carried out on a
      combined dataset of all studied regions. Our results indicate that both species
      constitute a well-supported clade that diverged in the Miocene and differentiated
      in the Late Miocene-Pleistocene. Although S. lowei constitutes a well-supported
      clade according to nDNA, cpDNA revealed a close relationship between S. lowei and
      western Canarian S. arguta, a finding supported by the spatial clustering
      analysis. Both species have strong population structure, with most genetic
      variability explained by inter-population differences. Our study therefore
      supports a recent peripatric speciation of S. lowei-a taxon that differs
      morphologically and genetically at the nDNA level from its closest relative, S.
      arguta, but not according to cpDNA, from the closest Macaronesian populations of
      that species. In addition, a recent dispersal of S. arguta to Madeira from Canary
      Islands or Selvagens Islands and a rapid morphological differentiation after the
      colonization to generate S. lowei is the most likely hypothesis to explain the
      origin of the last taxon.

PMID- 28575080
TI  - Immunization of a wild koala population with a recombinant Chlamydia pecorum
      Major Outer Membrane Protein (MOMP) or Polymorphic Membrane Protein (PMP) based
      vaccine: New insights into immune response, protection and clearance.
AB  - We assessed the effects of two different single-dose anti-Chlamydia pecorum (C.
      pecorum) vaccines (containing either Major Outer Membrane Protein (3MOMP) or
      Polymorphic Membrane Protein (Pmp) as antigens) on the immune response of a group
      of wild koalas. Both vaccines elicited a systemic humoral response as seen by the
      production of anti-chlamydial IgG antibodies in more than 90% of vaccinated
      koalas. A mucosal immune response was also observed, with an increase in
      Chlamydia-specific mucosal IgG and/or IgA antibodies in some koalas post
      vaccination. Both vaccines elicited a cell-mediated immune response as measured
      by the production of the cytokines IFN-gamma and IL-17 post-vaccination. To
      determine the level of protection provided by the vaccines under natural
      conditions we assessed C. pecorum infection loads and chlamydial disease status
      of all vaccinated koalas pre- and post-vaccination, compared to a non-vaccinated
      cohort from the same habitat. The MOMP vaccinated koalas that were infected on
      the day of vaccination showed significant clearance of their infection at 6
      months post-vaccination. In contrast, the number of new infections in the PMP
      vaccine was similar to the control group, with some koalas progressing to
      disease. Genotyping of the ompA gene from the C. pecorum strains infecting the
      vaccinated animals, identified genetic variants of ompA-F genotype and a new
      genotype ompA-O. We found that those animals that were the least well protected
      became infected with strains of C. pecorum not covered by the vaccine. In
      conclusion, a single dose vaccine formulated with either recombinant PmpG or MOMP
      can elicit both cell-mediated and humoral (systemic and mucosal) immune
      responses, with the MOMP vaccine showing clearance of infection in all infected
      koalas. Although the capability of our vaccines to stimulate an adaptive response
      and be protective needs to be fully evaluated, this work illustrates the
      necessity to combine epitopes most relevant to a large panel of variable strains
      with an efficient adjuvant.

PMID- 28575082
TI  - The role of reactive oxygen intermediates in the intracellular fate of Leptospira
      interrogans in the macrophages of different hosts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pathogenic species of Leptospira cause leptospirosis, a global
      zoonotic disease. Our previous work showed that leptospires survive and replicate
      in human macrophages but are killed in murine macrophages. However, the mechanism
      responsible for the different intracellular fates of leptospires within the
      macrophages of different hosts remains unclear. RESULTS: The present study
      demonstrates that infection with Leptospira interrogans caused significant up
      regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and superoxide in J774A.1 cells but
      did so to a lesser extent in THP-1 cells. The up-regulation of ROS and superoxide
      was significantly inhibited by the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin. The damaged
      leptospires and remnants of leptospires within membrane-bound vacuoles were
      significantly inhibited by apocynin in J774A.1 cells but were less inhibited in
      THP-1 cells. In addition, apocynin significantly prevented damage to leptospires
      and the co-localization of L. interrogans with lysosomes in J774A.1 cells but did
      so to a lesser extent in THP-1 cells. Furthermore, the relative fluorescence
      intensity levels of intracellular leptospires and the viability of the
      intracellular leptospires increased in apocynin pretreated J774A.1 and THP-1
      cells after 2 h of infection. CONCLUSIONS: The present study, based on our
      previous findings, further demonstrated that ROS contributed substantially to the
      bactericidal ability of mouse macrophages to kill intracellular leptospires.
      However, ROS did not contribute as much in human macrophages, which partially
      explains the different intracellular fates of L. interrogans in human and mouse
      macrophages.

PMID- 28575083
TI  - A RNAi-based therapeutic proof of concept targets salmonid whirling disease in
      vivo.
AB  - Myxobolus cerebralis is a cnidarian-myxozoan parasite that causes salmonid
      whirling disease. M. cerebralis alternates between two hosts: (1) a vertebrate
      salmonid and (2) an invertebrate oligochaete, Tubifex tubifex. There is no
      successful treatment for salmonid whirling disease. MyxSP-1 is a M. cerebralis
      serine protease implicated in whirling disease pathogenesis. We hypothesized that
      short-interfering RNA (siRNA)-induced RNA interference (RNAi) can silence MyxSP-1
      in the invertebrate host and abrogate the M. cerebralis life cycle. This would
      preclude whirling disease infection in the salmonid host. To test this
      hypothesis, we first developed a siRNA delivery protocol in T. tubifex. Second,
      we determined the effective dose for siRNA treatment of M. cerebralis-infected T.
      tubifex. M. cerebralis-infected T. tubifex were treated with different
      concentrations of MyxSP-1 or negative control siRNAs (1MUM, 2MUM, 5MUM or 7MUM)
      at 15 degrees C for 24h, 48h, 72h and 96h, respectively. We monitored MyxSP-1
      knockdown using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). siRNA treatment with MyxSP-1
      siRNA at 2MUM concentration for 24h at 15 degrees C showed maximum significant
      MyxSP-1 knockdown in T. tubifex. Third, we determined the time points in the M.
      cerebralis life cycle in T. tubifex at which siRNA treatment was most effective.
      M. cerebralis-infected T. tubifex were treated with MyxSP-1 or negative control
      siRNAs (2MUM concentration for 24h at 15 degrees C) at 24 hours post-infection
      (24hpi), 48hpi, 72hpi, 96hpi, 1 month post-infection (1mpi), 2mpi and 3mpi,
      respectively. We observed that siRNA treatment of T. tubifex was most effective
      at 1mpi, 2mpi and 3mpi. Fourth, we immersed specific-pathogen-free rainbow trout
      fry in water inhabited by MyxSP-1 siRNA-treated T. tubifex (at 1mpi, 2mpi and
      3mpi). The salmonids did not develop whirling disease and showed significant
      MyxSP-1 knockdown. We also observed long-term RNAi in T. tubifex. Together these
      results demonstrate a novel RNAi-based therapeutic proof of concept in vivo
      against salmonid whirling disease.

PMID- 28575084
TI  - Writing in the air: A visualization tool for written languages.
AB  - The present study investigated interactions between cognitive processes and
      finger actions called "kusho," meaning "air-writing" in Japanese. Kanji-culture
      individuals often employ kusho behavior in which they move their fingers as a
      substitute for a pen to write mostly done when they are trying to recall the
      shape of a Kanji character or the spelling of an English word. To further examine
      the visualization role of kusho behavior on cognitive processing, we conducted a
      Kanji construction task in which a stimulus (i.e., sub-parts to be constructed)
      was simultaneously presented. In addition, we conducted a Kanji vocabulary test
      to reveal the relation between the kusho benefit and vocabulary size. The
      experiment provided two sets of novel findings. First, executing kusho behavior
      improved task performance (correct responses) as long as the participants watched
      their finger movements while solving the task. This result supports the idea that
      visual feedback of kusho behavior helps cognitive processing for the task.
      Second, task performance was positively correlated with the vocabulary score when
      stimuli were presented for a relatively long time, whereas the kusho benefits and
      vocabulary score were not correlated regardless of stimulus-presentation time.
      These results imply that a longer stimulus-presentation could allow participants
      to utilize their lexical resources for solving the task. The current findings
      together support the visualization role of kusho behavior, adding experimental
      evidence supporting the view that there are interactions between cognition and
      motor behavior.

PMID- 28575085
TI  - Acizzia solanicola (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) probing behaviour on two Solanum spp.
      and implications for possible pathogen spread.
AB  - Piercing-sucking insects are vectors of plant pathogens, and an understanding of
      their feeding behaviour is crucial for studies on insect population dynamics and
      pathogen spread. This study examines probing behaviour of the eggplant psyllid,
      Acizzia solanicola (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), using the electrical penetration graph
      (EPG) technique, on two widespread and common hosts: eggplant (Solanum melongena)
      and tobacco bush (S. mauritianum). Six EPG waveforms were observed: waveform NP
      (non-probing phase), waveform C (pathway phase), G (feeding activities in xylem
      tissues), D (first contact with phloem tissues), E1 (salivation in the sieve
      elements) and E2 (ingestion from phloem tissues). Results showed that A.
      solanicola is predominantly a phloem feeder and time spent in salivation and
      ingestion phases (E1 and E2) differed between hosts. Feeding was enhanced on
      eggplant compared to tobacco bush which showed some degree of resistance, as
      evidenced by shorter periods of phloem ingestion, a higher propensity to return
      to the pathway phase once in the sieve elements and higher number of salivation
      events on tobacco bush. We discuss how prolonged phloem feeding could indicate
      the potential for A. solanicola to become an important pest of eggplant and
      potential pathogen vector.

PMID- 28575086
TI  - Lung epithelial cells have virus-specific and shared gene expression responses to
      infection by diverse respiratory viruses.
AB  - The severity of respiratory viral infections is partially determined by the
      cellular response mounted by infected lung epithelial cells. Disease prevention
      and treatment is dependent on our understanding of the shared and unique
      responses elicited by diverse viruses, yet few studies compare host responses to
      viruses from different families while controlling other experimental parameters.
      Murine models are commonly used to study the pathogenesis of respiratory viral
      infections, and in vitro studies using murine cells provide mechanistic insight
      into the pathogenesis observed in vivo. We used microarray analysis to compare
      changes in gene expression of murine lung epithelial cells infected individually
      by three respiratory viruses causing mild (rhinovirus, RV1B), moderate
      (coronavirus, MHV-1), and severe (influenza A virus, PR8) disease in mice. RV1B
      infection caused numerous gene expression changes, but the differential effect
      peaked at 12 hours post-infection. PR8 altered an intermediate number of genes
      whose expression continued to change through 24 hours. MHV-1 had comparatively
      few effects on host gene expression. The viruses elicited highly overlapping
      responses in antiviral genes, though MHV-1 induced a lower type I interferon
      response than the other two viruses. Signature genes were identified for each
      virus and included host defense genes for PR8, tissue remodeling genes for RV1B,
      and transcription factors for MHV-1. Our comparative approach identified
      universal and specific transcriptional signatures of virus infection that can be
      used to distinguish shared and virus-specific mechanisms of pathogenesis in the
      respiratory tract.

PMID- 28575087
TI  - Vowel production of Mandarin-speaking hearing aid users with different types of
      hearing loss.
AB  - In contrast with previous research focusing on cochlear implants, this study
      examined the speech performance of hearing aid users with conductive (n = 11),
      mixed (n = 10), and sensorineural hearing loss (n = 7) and compared it with the
      speech of hearing control. Speech intelligibility was evaluated by computing the
      vowel space area defined by the Mandarin Chinese corner vowels /a, u, i/. The
      acoustic differences between the vowels were assessed using the Euclidean
      distance. The results revealed that both the conductive and mixed hearing loss
      groups exhibited a reduced vowel working space, but no significant difference was
      found between the sensorineural hearing loss and normal hearing groups. An
      analysis using the Euclidean distance further showed that the compression of
      vowel space area in conductive hearing loss can be attributed to the substantial
      lowering of the second formant of /i/. The differences in vowel production
      between groups are discussed in terms of the occlusion effect and the signal
      transmission media of various hearing devices.

PMID- 28575088
TI  - Effect of blood pressure lowering medications on leg ischemia in peripheral
      artery disease patients: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that anti-hypertensive medications may worsen
      leg ischemia in peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients. We undertook a meta
      analysis to assess the effect of anti-hypertensive medications on measures of leg
      ischemia including maximum walking distance (MWD), pain free walking distance
      (PFWD) and ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI). A meta-regression was performed
      to evaluate whether the effect of the anti-hypertensive medications on mean
      arterial pressure (MAP) was associated with changes in ABPI, MWD or PFWD. METHOD:
      A systematic literature search was performed to identify placebo controlled
      randomized control trials (RCT) testing anti-hypertensive medications, which
      reported baseline and follow-up measurements of: MAP and MWD, PFWD or ABPI in
      patients with intermittent claudication (IC) due to PAD. RESULT: A meta-analysis
      was performed on 5 RCTs comprising a total of 180 and 127 patients receiving anti
      hypertensive medications and placebo respectively. This analysis suggested that
      anti-hypertensive medication did not significantly affect MWD, PFWD or ABPI. In
      contrast, the meta-regression analysis showed that the reduction in MAP due to
      the anti-hypertensive drugs was positively correlated with increased MWD during
      follow-up (beta = 8.371, p = 0.035). Heterogeneity across studies, as assessed by
      I2, was high. The follow-up period within the included trials was generally short
      with 3 out of 5 studies having a follow-up period of <= 6 weeks. CONCLUSION: This
      study suggests that anti-hypertensive treatment does not worsen but may improve
      leg ischemia in PAD patients. Larger multicenter trials with longer anti
      hypertensive treatment periods are required to clarify the effect of anti
      hypertensives on leg ischemia in PAD patients.

PMID- 28575089
TI  - Transcriptomic analyses on muscle tissues of Litopenaeus vannamei provide the
      first profile insight into the response to low temperature stress.
AB  - The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is an important cultured
      crustacean species worldwide. However, little is known about the molecular
      mechanism of this species involved in the response to cold stress. In this study,
      four separate RNA-Seq libraries of L. vannamei were generated from 13 degrees C
      stress and control temperature. Total 29,662 of Unigenes and overall of 19,619
      annotated genes were obtained. Three comparisons were carried out among the four
      libraries, in which 72 of the top 20% of differentially-expressed genes were
      obtained, 15 GO and 5 KEGG temperature-sensitive pathways were fished out.
      Catalytic activity (GO: 0003824) and Metabolic pathways (ko01100) were the most
      annotated GO and KEGG pathways in response to cold stress, respectively. In
      addition, Calcium, MAPK cascade, Transcription factor and Serine/threonine
      protein kinase signal pathway were picked out and clustered. Serine/threonine
      protein kinase signal pathway might play more important roles in cold adaptation,
      while other three signal pathway were not widely transcribed. Our results had
      summarized the differentially-expressed genes and suggested the major important
      signaling pathways and related genes. These findings provide the first profile
      insight into the molecular basis of L. vannamei response to cold stress.

PMID- 28575090
TI  - DNA reference libraries of French Guianese mosquitoes for barcoding and
      metabarcoding.
AB  - The mosquito family (Diptera: Culicidae) constitutes the most medically important
      group of arthropods because certain species are vectors of human pathogens. In
      some parts of the world, the diversity is so high that the accurate delimitation
      and/or identification of species is challenging. A DNA-based identification
      system for all animals has been proposed, the so-called DNA barcoding approach.
      In this study, our objectives were (i) to establish DNA barcode libraries for the
      mosquitoes of French Guiana based on the COI and the 16S markers, (ii) to compare
      distance-based and tree-based methods of species delimitation to traditional
      taxonomy, and (iii) to evaluate the accuracy of each marker in identifying
      specimens. A total of 266 specimens belonging to 75 morphologically identified
      species or morphospecies were analyzed allowing us to delimit 86 DNA clusters
      with only 21 of them already present in the BOLD database. We thus provide a
      substantial contribution to the global mosquito barcoding initiative. Our results
      confirm that DNA barcodes can be successfully used to delimit and identify
      mosquito species with only a few cases where the marker could not distinguish
      closely related species. Our results also validate the presence of new species
      identified based on morphology, plus potential cases of cryptic species. We found
      that both COI and 16S markers performed very well, with successful
      identifications at the species level of up to 98% for COI and 97% for 16S when
      compared to traditional taxonomy. This shows great potential for the use of
      metabarcoding for vector monitoring and eco-epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28575091
TI  - Repeated exposure to methamphetamine induces sex-dependent hypersensitivity to
      ischemic injury in the adult rat heart.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We previously reported that adult female, but not male rats that were
      prenatally exposed to methamphetamine exhibit myocardial hypersensitivity to
      ischemic injury. However, it is unknown whether hypersensitivity to ischemic
      injury develops when rats are exposed to methamphetamine during adulthood. The
      goal of this study was to determine whether methamphetamine exposure during
      adulthood sensitizes the heart to ischemic injury. METHODS: Adult male and female
      rats received daily injections of methamphetamine (5 mg/kg) or saline for 10
      days. Their hearts were isolated on day 11 and subjected to a 20 min ischemic
      insult on a Langendorff isolated heart apparatus. Cardiac contractile function
      was measured by an intraventricular balloon, and infarct size was measured by
      triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. RESULTS: Hearts from methamphetamine
      treated females exhibited significantly larger infarcts and suppressed
      postischemic recovery of contractile function compared to hearts from saline
      treated females. In contrast, methamphetamine had no effect on infarct size or
      contractile recovery in male hearts. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that
      hypersensitivity to ischemic injury persisted in female hearts following a 1
      month period of abstinence from methamphetamine. Myocardial protein kinase C
      epsilon expression, Akt phosphorylation, and ERK phosphorylation were unaffected
      by adult exposure to methamphetamine. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure of adult rats to
      methamphetamine sex-dependently increases the extent of myocardial injury
      following an ischemic insult. These data suggest that women who have a heart
      attack might be at risk of more extensive myocardial injury if they have a recent
      history of methamphetamine abuse.

PMID- 28575092
TI  - Exploitation of Trametes versicolor for bioremediation of endocrine disrupting
      chemicals in bioreactors.
AB  - Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are environmental contaminants causing
      increasing concerns due to their toxicity, persistence and ubiquity. In the
      present study, degradative capabilities of Trametes versicolor, Pleurotus
      ostreatus and Phanerochaete chrysosporium to act on five EDCs, which represent
      different classes of chemicals (phenols, parabens and phthalate) and were first
      applied as single compounds, were assessed. T. versicolor was selected due to its
      efficiency against target EDCs and its potentialities were exploited against a
      mixture of EDCs in a cost-effective bioremediation process. A fed-batch approach
      as well as a starvation strategy were applied in order to reduce the need for
      input of 'fresh' biomass, and avoid the requirement for external nutrients. The
      fungus was successfully operated in two different bioreactors over one week. Semi
      batch cultures were carried out by daily adding a mixture of EDCs to the
      bioreactors in a total of five consecutive degradation cycles. T. versicolor was
      able to efficiently remove all compounds during each cycle converting up to 21 mg
      L-1 day-1 of the tested EDCs. The maintained ability of T. versicolor to remove
      EDCs without any additional nutrients represents the main outcome of this study,
      which enables to forecast its application in a water treatment process.

PMID- 28575093
TI  - Structure-function analysis of human stomatin: A mutation study.
AB  - Stomatin is an ancient, widely expressed, oligomeric, monotopic membrane protein
      that is associated with cholesterol-rich membranes/lipid rafts. It is part of the
      SPFH superfamily including stomatin-like proteins, prohibitins, flotillin/reggie
      proteins, bacterial HflK/C proteins and erlins. Biochemical features such as
      palmitoylation, oligomerization, and hydrophobic "hairpin" structure show
      similarity to caveolins and other integral scaffolding proteins. Recent structure
      analyses of the conserved PHB/SPFH domain revealed amino acid residues and
      subdomains that appear essential for the structure and function of stomatin. To
      test the significance of these residues and domains, we exchanged or deleted
      them, expressed respective GFP-tagged mutants, and studied their subcellular
      localization, molecular dynamics and biochemical properties. We show that
      stomatin is a cholesterol binding protein and that at least two domains are
      important for the association with cholesterol-rich membranes. The conserved,
      prominent coiled-coil domain is necessary for oligomerization, while association
      with cholesterol-rich membranes is also involved in oligomer formation. FRAP
      analyses indicate that the C-terminus is the dominant entity for lateral mobility
      and binding site for the cortical actin cytoskeleton.

PMID- 28575094
TI  - Barriers to disseminating brief CBT for voices from a lived experience and
      clinician perspective.
AB  - Access to psychological therapies continues to be poor for people experiencing
      psychosis. To address this problem, researchers are developing brief
      interventions that address the specific symptoms associated with psychosis, i.e.,
      hearing voices. As part of the development work for a brief Cognitive Behaviour
      Therapy (CBT) intervention for voices we collected qualitative data from people
      who hear voices (study 1) and clinicians (study 2) on the potential barriers and
      facilitators to implementation and engagement. Thematic analysis of the responses
      from both groups revealed a number of anticipated barriers to implementation and
      engagement. Both groups believed the presenting problem (voices and psychosis
      symptoms) may impede engagement. Furthermore clinicians identified a lack of
      resources to be a barrier to implementation. The only facilitator to engagement
      was reported by people who hear voices who believed a compassionate, experienced
      and trustworthy therapist would promote engagement. The results are discussed in
      relation to how these barriers could be addressed in the context of a brief
      intervention using CBT techniques.

PMID- 28575095
TI  - Probiotics for prevention of radiation-induced diarrhea: A meta-analysis of
      randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy is commonly used for abdominal or pelvic cancer, and
      patients receiving radiotherapy have a high risk developing to an acute radiation
      induced diarrhea. Several previous studies have discussed the effect of
      probiotics on prevention of radiation-induced diarrhea, but the results are still
      inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) to evaluate the efficacy of probiotic supplementation for
      prevention the radiation-induced diarrhea. METHODS: Relevant RCTs studies
      assessing the effect of probiotic supplementation on clinical outcomes compared
      with placebo were searched in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases
      (up to March 30 2016). Heterogeneity was assessed with I2 and H2, and publication
      bias was evaluated using sensitive analysis. RESULTS: Six trials, a total of 917
      participants (490 participants received prophylactic probiotics and 427
      participants received placebo), were included in this meta-analysis. Compared
      with placebo, probiotics were associated with a lower incidence of radiation
      induced diarrhea (RR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.34-0.88; P = 0.01; I2: 87%; 95% CI: 75%
      94%; H2: 2.8; 95% CI: 2.0-4.0). However, there is no significant difference in
      the anti-diarrheal medication use (RR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.40-1.14; P = 0.14) or
      bristol scale on stool form (RR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.35-1.17; P = 0.14). CONCLUSION:
      Probiotics may be beneficial to prevent radiation-induced diarrhea in patients
      who suffered from abdominal or pelvic cancers during radiotherapy period.

PMID- 28575096
TI  - Are social inequalities in early childhood smoking initiation explained by
      exposure to adult smoking? Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To assess the socio-economic gradient in early smoking initiation
      at age 11 years and the extent to which any inequality was explained after
      accounting for longitudinal exposure to adult smoking. METHODS: Analysis of the
      UK Millennium Cohort Study, based on 9, 609 children from ages 9 months to 11
      years. The outcome was smoking initiation by age 11. Odds ratios (ORs) for
      smoking initiation were estimated using logistic regression, according to
      maternal education, whilst adjusting for baseline demographic factors.
      Longitudinal exposure to a regular smoker in the same room was assessed as
      potential mediator of the association between maternal education and early
      smoking, along with other socially patterned risk factors for early smoking
      initiation, such as parental separation and mental health. RESULTS: Overall 2.7%
      (95% CI: 2.3-3.1) of children had tried a cigarette by age eleven. Children of
      mothers with no qualifications were more than six times as likely to have tried a
      cigarette than children of mothers with degree level qualifications or higher (OR
      6.0 [95%CI 3.5-10.1]), with clear social gradient. Controlling for potentially
      mediating variables, particularly exposure to a regular adult smoker reduced the
      OR smoking initiation in children of mothers with no qualifications by 63% (aOR
      2.9 [95%CI 1.7 to 5.1]). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking initiation is more common in
      disadvantaged children, and this is largely explained by regular exposure to an
      adult smoker in the same room. Reducing adult smoking in front of children may
      reduce inequalities in smoking initiation in children by over a half.

PMID- 28575097
TI  - Influence of the definition of "metabolically healthy obesity" on the progression
      of coronary artery calcification.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Debates whether metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) increases the
      cardiovascular risk might be due to the metabolic instability of MHO or the
      absence of a perfect definition of MHO. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the
      influence of the MHO phenotype on the coronary artery calcium score (CACS)
      progression according to definition of MHO. METHODS: We analyzed a retrospective
      cohort with a CACS of 0 at baseline and available serial CACS measurements taken
      >= 12 months apart (n = 1,218). Obesity was defined as BMI >= 25 kg/m2, and MHO
      was defined as obesity accompanied by <= 1 (MHO class I) or 0 (MHO class II)
      components of metabolic syndrome (MetS). RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 45
      months, 32.2% of MHO class I and 10.2% of MHO class II subjects developed MetS.
      Compared to non-obese/metabolically healthy subjects (reference group), hazard
      ratios (HR) for development of MetS were 2.174 (95% confidence interval [CI]:
      1.513-3.124) and 1.166 (95% CI: 0.434-3.129) for MHO class I and II subjects,
      respectively. The MHO class I subjects showed a significantly increased risk of
      CACS progression as compared to the reference group (HR: 1.653; 95% CI: 1.144
      2.390), whereas MHO class II subjects did not (HR: 1.195; 95% CI: 0.514-2.778).
      Among subjects with MHO class I, no significant CACS progression was observed in
      the subjects who maintained metabolic health during follow-up (HR: 1.448; 95% CI:
      0.921-2.278). CONCLUSIONS: The risks of metabolic deterioration and CACS
      progression were significant in subjects with MHO class I, but not in those with
      MHO class II.

PMID- 28575098
TI  - miR-148a-mediated estrogen-induced cholestasis in intrahepatic cholestasis of
      pregnancy: Role of PXR/MRP3.
AB  - Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is an idiopathic liver disease while
      the biochemical characteristic is the elevated level of total bile acid (TBA).
      The present study investigated whether miR-148a mediates the induced effect of
      estrogen on the development of ICP and the proper mechanism: PXR/MRP3 signal
      pathway. mRNA expression was detected by qPCR, protein expression was detected by
      western blotting, the concentration of estrogen and TBA were detected by reagent
      kit respectively. In the cinical research, it was found that miR-148a expression
      was positive related with the concentration of TBA in the serum of ICP patients.
      In in vitro research, estradiol (500 nmol/L, 12 h) significantly upregulated miR
      148a expression and LV-148a-siRNA inhibited the function of estradiol (500
      nmol/L, 48 h) on TBA secretion. In addition, gene silence of miR-148a upregulated
      PXR expression which was inhibited by estradiol in LO2 cells. Pretreatment of
      rifampin (10 MUmol/L), the agonist of PXR alleviated the TBA secretion induced by
      estradiol (500 nmol/L, 48 h). miR-148a-siRNA and PXR had a synergistic action on
      TBA secretion of LO2. Both of miR-148a-siRNA and rifampin (10 MUmol/L) inhibited
      the upregulated effect of estradiol on MRP3 expression. This research has
      demonstrated that miR-148a may be involved in the induction of estrogen on ICP
      via PXR signal pathway, and MRP3 may be involved.

PMID- 28575099
TI  - Differential stability of therapeutic peptides with different proteolytic
      cleavage sites in blood, plasma and serum.
AB  - Proteolytic degradation of peptide-based drugs is often considered as major
      weakness limiting systemic therapeutic applications. Therefore, huge efforts are
      typically devoted to stabilize sequences against proteases present in serum or
      plasma, obtained as supernatants after complete blood coagulation or
      centrifugation of blood supplemented with anticoagulants, respectively. Plasma
      and serum are reproducibly obtained from animals and humans allowing consistent
      for clinical analyses and research applications. However, the spectrum of active
      or activated proteases appears to vary depending on the activation of proteases
      and cofactors during coagulation (serum) or inhibition of such enzymes by
      anticoagulants (plasma), such as EDTA (metallo- and Ca2+-dependent proteases) and
      heparin (e.g. thrombin, factor Xa). Here, we studied the presumed effects on
      peptide degradation by taking blood via cardiac puncture of CD-1 mice using a
      syringe containing a peptide solution. Due to absence of coagulation activators
      (e.g. glass surfaces and damaged cells), visible blood clotting was prevented
      allowing to study peptide degradation for one hour. The remaining peptide was
      quantified and the degradation products were identified using mass spectrometry.
      When the degradation rates (half-life times) were compared to serum derived
      freshly from the same animal and commercial serum and plasma samples, peptides of
      three different families showed indeed considerably different stabilities.
      Generally, peptides were faster degraded in serum than in plasma, but
      surprisingly all peptides were more stable in fresh blood and the order of
      degradation rates among the peptides varied among the six different incubation
      experiments. This indicates, that proteolytic degradation of peptide-based
      therapeutics may often be misleading stimulating efforts to stabilize peptides at
      degradation sites relevant only in vitro, i.e., for serum or plasma stability
      assays, but of lower importance in vivo.

PMID- 28575100
TI  - Prevalence of microalbuminuria and its associated cardiometabolic risk factors in
      Korean youth: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microalbuminuria is a known early predictive factor for renal and
      cardiovascular diseases, not only for patients with diabetes mellitus or
      hypertension but also in the general population. However, the prevalence and risk
      factors associated with microalbuminuria in Korean youth are unknown. OBJECTIVES:
      The aims of this study are to evaluate the prevalence of microalbuminuria and the
      association between microalbuminuria and obesity or cardiometabolic risk factors
      in Korean children and adolescents without diabetes. METHODS: This study examines
      data obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
      (between 2011 and 2014). It includes a total of 1,976 participants aged between
      10 and 19 years (boys 1,128 and girls 848). Microalbuminuria was defined as a
      urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) of >= 30 mg/g and < 300 mg/g.
      Association between microalbuminuria and the risk factors for cardiometabolic
      diseases including insulin resistance was evaluated. RESULTS: The prevalence of
      microalbuminuria was found to be 3.0% in Korean children and adolescents over
      this time period. The mean UACR for non-obese youth was significantly greater
      than that found in obese youth (3.2 +/- 0.1 mg/g in the non-obese group vs. 2.1
      +/- 0.2 mg/g in the obese group; P < 0.001). In multiple logistic regression
      analysis, microalbuminuria was associated with hyperglycemia (OR 2.62, 95% CI
      1.09-6.30) and hemoglobin A1c (OR 3.34, 95% CI 1.09-10.17) in the non-obese group
      and hypertension (OR 14.10, 95% CI 1.12-177.98) and HbA1c (OR 6.68, 95% CI 1.87
      23.95) in the obese group. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of microalbuminuria is not
      prominent in obese children and adolescents. Our findings demonstrated that the
      presence of hypertension and hyperglycemia was associated with microalbuminuria.
      Especially Hemoglobin A1c was associated with microalbuminuria in youths
      regardless of weight status. Microalbuminuria in pediatric population can be a
      helpful marker for the risk of cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28575101
TI  - Efficacy of digital pupillometry for diagnosis of Horner syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of digital pupillometry in the diagnosis of
      anisocoria related to Horner syndrome in adult patients. DESIGN: Retrospective,
      observational, case control study. METHODS: Nineteen patients with unilateral
      Horner syndrome (Horner group) and age-matched controls of 30 healthy individuals
      with normal vision and neither optic nerve dysfunction nor pupillary
      abnormalities were included. Pupillary light reflex (PLR) of the Horner group and
      controls were measured by a dynamic pupillometer (PLR-200; NeurOptics Inc.,
      Irvine, USA). Minimal and maximal (min/max) pupil diameters, latency,
      constriction ratio, constriction velocity, dilation velocity, and total time
      taken by the pupil to recover 75% of maximal pupil diameter (T75) were noted. PLR
      were measured at baseline in both groups and at 30-45 minutes later after 0.5%
      apraclonidine (Iopidine(r); Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX, USA) instillation
      in the Horner group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The PLR parameters in the affected
      eye and inter-eye difference before and after 0.5% apraclonidine instillation.
      RESULTS: In the Horner group, pupil diameters and T75 showed significant
      difference between the affected eye and unaffected contralateral eye at baseline
      (all P<0.00625). Compared to controls, inter-eye difference values of pupil
      diameters and T75 were significantly larger in the Horner group (all P<0.001).
      After 0.5% apraclonidine instillation, changes in pupil diameter and constriction
      ratio were significantly larger in the affected eye compared to the unaffected
      contralateral eye (all P<0.00625). The area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curves for diagnosing Horner syndrome were largest for baseline
      inter-eye difference in min/max pupil sizes (AUC = 0.975, 0.994), T75 (AUC =
      0.838), and change in min/max pupil sizes after apraclonidine instillation (AUC =
      0.923, 0.929, respectively). The diagnostic criteria for Horner syndrome relying
      on baseline pupillary measurements was defined as one of the two major findings;
      1) smaller maximal pupil diameter in the affected eye with an inter-eye
      difference of > 0.5 mm, or 2) T75 > 2.61 seconds in the affected eye, which
      showed a sensitivity of 94.7% and specificity of 93.3%. The diagnostic accuracy
      of apraclonidine testing showed a sensitivity of 84.6% and specificity of 92.3%.
      CONCLUSIONS: Digital pupillometry is an objective method for quantifying PLR.
      Baseline inter-eye difference in maximal pupil sizes and dilation lag measured by
      T75 was equally effective in the diagnosis of Horner syndrome compared to the
      reversal of anisocoria after apraclonidine instillation.

PMID- 28575102
TI  - Development of indicators for monitoring Community-Based Rehabilitation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is a multi-sectoral approach
      working to equalize opportunities and include people with disability in all
      aspects of community life. Reliable and internationally comparable data needed to
      monitor and evaluate CBR are scarce, partially due to the absence of standardized
      indicators. The objective of this manuscript is to describe the collaborative
      development process which led to the World Health Organization's (WHO) recently
      launched set of standardized CBR outcome indicators. METHODS: The WHO's CBR
      Guidelines recognize CBR as a comprehensive and multi-sectoral strategy, and were
      therefore used as the starting point for the development of the indicators, in a
      consensus process involving WHO and International Disability and Development
      Consortium. Pilot implementations in Guatemala, Egypt and China using a
      specifically developed mobile phone application to collect data, and an online
      expert survey were completed to assess validity and feasibility of the indicators
      and their corresponding questions. RESULTS: The indicator set includes 13 Base
      Indicators which are broad enough to capture the situation of people with
      disability in settings where CBR is carried out, independently of the specific
      CBR activities carried out in a community; and 27 Supplementary Indicators that
      provide more specific coverage and can be selected based on the specific goals of
      a CBR program. CONCLUSION: The indicators were suitable to assess differences in
      health, education, social life, livelihood and empowerment between people with
      disability and other community members. This comparability provides valuable
      information to CBR managers, donors and government agencies, to guide decision
      making, support advocacy and improve accountability. The CBR indicators will
      support WHO and its member states in their efforts towards strengthening CBR, by
      generating evidence on its effectiveness.

PMID- 28575103
TI  - Relationships of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and body size with
      insulin resistance in a Japanese cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Impacts of chronic systemic inflammation and body size and their
      interaction effect on insulin resistance in Asian populations, in whom obesity is
      less common, are not fully understood. This study evaluated combined
      relationships of systemic inflammation and body size with insulin resistance in a
      Japanese cohort. METHODS: We analyzed cross-sectional data from 1,074 eligible
      subjects (536 men and 538 women) aged 35-69 years who participated in the
      baseline survey of a cohort study in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Systemic
      inflammation level was assessed by serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs
      CRP), and the degree of insulin resistance and beta-cell function were evaluated
      by the homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and beta-cell
      function (HOMA-beta), respectively. Overweight and obesity were defined as a body
      mass index (BMI) of 23.0-24.9 kg/m2 and >=25.0 kg/m2, respectively. Associations
      between serum hs-CRP (assessed as quartiles and additionally continuous values
      after log-transformation) and indices of glucose homeostasis were analysed
      adjusting for probable covariates, including BMI (quartiles). Combined
      associations of serum hs-CRP (<=median, >median) and body size (normal,
      overweight, obese) with insulin resistance as well as their interaction effect on
      insulin resistance were also evaluated. RESULTS: Serum hs-CRP was dose
      dependently associated with HOMA-IR, but not HOMA-beta, after adjustment for
      probable covariates, including BMI. Subjects with obesity and elevated serum hs
      CRP (>median) showed a high multivariable-adjusted HOMA-IR value of 1.32 (95%
      confidence interval (CI) 1.23, 1.41) compared with subjects with normal BMI and
      low serum hs-CRP (<=median) whose multivariable-adjusted HOMA-IR value was 1.14
      (95% CI 1.06, 1.21). The interaction effect between body size (normal,
      overweight, obese) and serum hs-CRP (<=median, >median) on HOMA-IR was
      significant (P for interaction <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that
      elevated systemic inflammation is dose-dependently associated with increased
      insulin resistance, independent of the known risk factors, in a Japanese
      population. Concomitant obesity and elevated systemic inflammation may
      synergistically contribute to increased insulin resistance.

PMID- 28575104
TI  - Genetically diverse herpesviruses in South American Atlantic coast seabirds.
AB  - Different herpesviruses have been associated with respiratory and enteric disease
      and mortality among seabirds and waterfowl. In 2011, a respiratory disease
      outbreak affected 58.3% (98/168) of the Magellanic penguins undergoing
      rehabilitation due to an oil spill off the southern Brazilian coast. Etiology was
      attributed to a novel herpesvirus identified by histopathology,
      immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy and molecular studies with partial DNA
      sequencing. Since migration, rehabilitation and translocation may facilitate the
      spread of pathogens between populations and trigger the onset of clinical disease
      in animals with latent infections, investigation of herpesvirus occurrence in
      asymptomatic seabirds was performed. Samples from free-ranging seabirds were
      collected in Argentinian Patagonia (Magellanic penguins) and the Abrolhos
      Archipelago in Brazil (Brown boobies, Masked boobies, Red-billed tropicbirds,
      White-tailed tropicbirds and South American tern). Furthermore, asymptomatic
      seabirds housed at the facility where the outbreak occurred were also sampled. In
      total, 354 samples from eight seabird species were analyzed by PCR for
      herpesvirus. Four different sequences of herpesviruses were identified, one in
      Yellow-nosed Albatross, one in Boobies and Tropicbirds and two in Magellanic
      penguins. Magellanic penguin herpesvirus 1 was identified during the penguin
      outbreak at the rehabilitation facility in Brazil, while Magellanic penguin
      herpesvirus 2 was recovered from free-ranging penguins at four reproduction sites
      in Argentina. Phylogenic analysis of the herpesviruses sequences tentatively
      identified suggested that the one found in Suliformes and the one associated with
      the outbreak are related to sequences of viruses that have previously caused
      seabird die-offs. These findings reinforce the necessity for seabird disease
      surveillance programs overall, and particularly highlight the importance of
      quarantine, good hygiene, stress management and pre-release health exams in
      seabirds undergoing rehabilitation.

PMID- 28575105
TI  - Assessment of treatment response during chemoradiation therapy for pancreatic
      cancer based on quantitative radiomic analysis of daily CTs: An exploratory
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: In an effort for early assessment of treatment response, we investigate
      radiation induced changes in quantitative CT features of tumor during the
      delivery of chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for pancreatic cancer. METHODS:
      Diagnostic-quality CT data acquired daily during routine CT-guided CRT using a CT
      on-rails for 20 pancreatic head cancer patients were analyzed. On each daily CT,
      the pancreatic head, the spinal cord and the aorta were delineated and the
      histograms of CT number (CTN) in these contours were extracted. Eight histogram
      based radiomic metrics including the mean CTN (MCTN), peak position, volume,
      standard deviation (SD), skewness, kurtosis, energy and entropy were calculated
      for each fraction. Paired t-test was used to check the significance of the change
      of specific metric at specific time. GEE model was used to test the association
      between changes of metrics over time for different pathology responses. RESULTS:
      In general, CTN histogram in the pancreatic head (but not in spinal cord) changed
      during the CRT delivery. Changes from the 1st to the 26th fraction in MCTN ranged
      from -15.8 to 3.9 HU with an average of -4.7 HU (p<0.001). Meanwhile the volume
      decreased, the skewness increased (less skewed), and the kurtosis decreased (less
      peaked). The changes of MCTN, volume, skewness, and kurtosis became significant
      after two weeks of treatment. Patient pathological response is associated with
      the changes of MCTN, SD, and skewness. In cases of good response, patients tend
      to have large reductions in MCTN and skewness, and large increases in SD and
      kurtosis. CONCLUSIONS: Significant changes in CT radiomic features, such as the
      MCTN, skewness, and kurtosis in tumor were observed during the course of CRT for
      pancreas cancer based on quantitative analysis of daily CTs. These changes may be
      potentially used for early assessment of treatment response and stratification
      for therapeutic intensification.

PMID- 28575106
TI  - Signal transduction pathway mediated by the novel regulator LoiA for low oxygen
      tension induced Salmonella Typhimurium invasion.
AB  - Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a major intestinal
      pathogen of both humans and animals. Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1)
      encoded virulence genes are required for S. Typhimurium invasion. While oxygen
      (O2) limitation is an important signal for SPI-1 induction under host conditions,
      how the signal is received and integrated to the central SPI-1 regulatory system
      in S. Typhimurium is not clear. Here, we report a signal transduction pathway
      that activates SPI-1 expression in response to low O2. A novel regulator encoded
      within SPI-14 (STM14_1008), named LoiA (low oxygen induced factor A), directly
      binds to the promoter and activates transcription of hilD, leading to the
      activation of hilA (the master activator of SPI-1). Deletion of loiA
      significantly decreased the transcription of hilA, hilD and other representative
      SPI-1 genes (sipB, spaO, invH, prgH and invF) under low O2 conditions. The
      response of LoiA to the low O2 signal is mediated by the ArcB/ArcA two-component
      system. Deletion of either arcA or arcB significantly decreased transcription of
      loiA under low O2 conditions. We also confirmed that SPI-14 contributes to S.
      Typhimurium virulence by affecting invasion, and that loiA is the virulence
      determinant of SPI-14. Mice infection assays showed that S. Typhimurium virulence
      was severely attenuated by deletion of either the entire SPI-14 region or the
      single loiA gene after oral infection, while the virulence was not affected by
      either deletion after intraperitoneal infection. The signal transduction pathway
      described represents an important mechanism for S. Typhimurium to sense and
      respond to low O2 conditions of the host intestinal tract for invasion. SPI-14
      encoded loiA is an essential element of this pathway that integrates the low O2
      signal into the SPI-1 regulatory system. Acquisition of SPI-14 is therefore
      crucial for the evolution of S. Typhimurium as an intestinal pathogen.

PMID- 28575107
TI  - Mutation spectrum of RB1 mutations in retinoblastoma cases from Singapore with
      implications for genetic management and counselling.
AB  - Retinoblastoma (RB) is a rare childhood malignant disorder caused by the
      biallelic inactivation of RB1 gene. Early diagnosis and identification of
      carriers of heritable RB1 mutations can improve disease outcome and management.
      In this study, mutational analysis was conducted on fifty-nine matched tumor and
      peripheral blood samples from 18 bilateral and 41 unilateral unrelated RB cases
      by a combinatorial approach of Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification
      (MLPA) assay, deletion screening, direct sequencing, copy number gene dosage
      analysis and methylation assays. Screening of both blood and tumor samples
      yielded a mutation detection rate of 94.9% (56/59) while only 42.4% (25/59) of
      mutations were detected if blood samples alone were analyzed. Biallelic mutations
      were observed in 43/59 (72.9%) of tumors screened. There were 3 cases (5.1%) in
      which no mutations could be detected and germline mutations were detected in
      19.5% (8/41) of unilateral cases. A total of 61 point mutations were identified,
      of which 10 were novel. There was a high incidence of previously reported
      recurrent mutations, occurring at 38.98% (23/59) of all cases. Of interest were
      three cases of mosaic RB1 mutations detected in the blood from patients with
      unilateral retinoblastoma. Additionally, two germline mutations previously
      reported to be associated with low-penetrance phenotypes: missense-c.1981C>T and
      splice variant-c.607+1G>T, were observed in a bilateral and a unilateral proband,
      respectively. These findings have implications for genetic counselling and risk
      prediction for the affected families. This is the first published report on the
      spectrum of mutations in RB patients from Singapore and shows that further
      improved mutation screening strategies are required in order to provide a
      definitive molecular diagnosis for every case of RB. Our findings also underscore
      the importance of genetic testing in supporting individualized disease management
      plans for patients and asymptomatic family members carrying low-penetrance,
      germline mosaicism or heritable unilateral mutational phenotypes.

PMID- 28575108
TI  - Changes in the leaf proteome profile of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal in response
      to Alternaria alternata infection.
AB  - Withania somnifera is a high value medicinal plant which is used against large
      number of ailments. The medicinal properties of the plant attributes to a wide
      array of important secondary metabolites. The plant is predominantly infected
      with leaf spot pathogen Alternaria alternata, which leads to substantial
      biodeterioration of pharmaceutically important metabolites. To develop an
      effective strategy to combat this disease, proteomics based approach could be
      useful. Hence, in the present study, three different protein extraction methods
      tris-buffer based, phenol based and trichloroacetic acid-acetone (TCA-acetone)
      based method were comparatively evaluated for two-dimensional electrophoresis (2
      DE) analysis of W. somnifera. TCA-acetone method was found to be most effective
      and was further used to identify differentially expressed proteins in response to
      fungal infection. Thirty-eight differentially expressed proteins were identified
      by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry
      (MALDI TOF/TOF MS/MS). The known proteins were categorized into eight different
      groups based on their function and maximum proteins belonged to energy and
      metabolism, cell structure, stress and defense and RNA/DNA categories.
      Differential expression of some key proteins were also crosschecked at
      transcriptomic level by using qRT-PCR and were found to be consistent with the 2
      DE data. These outcomes enable us to evaluate modifications that take place at
      the proteomic level during a compatible host pathogen interaction. The
      comparative proteome analysis conducted in this paper revealed the involvement of
      many key proteins in the process of pathogenesis and further investigation of
      these identified proteins could assist in the discovery of new strategies for the
      development of pathogen resistance in the plant.

PMID- 28575109
TI  - Computerised analysis of facial emotion expression in eating disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Problems with social-emotional processing are known to be an
      important contributor to the development and maintenance of eating disorders
      (EDs). Diminished facial communication of emotion has been frequently reported in
      individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). Less is known about facial expressivity
      in bulimia nervosa (BN) and in people who have recovered from AN (RecAN). This
      study aimed to pilot the use of computerised facial expression analysis software
      to investigate emotion expression across the ED spectrum and recovery in a large
      sample of participants. METHOD: 297 participants with AN, BN, RecAN, and healthy
      controls were recruited. Participants watched film clips designed to elicit happy
      or sad emotions, and facial expressions were then analysed using FaceReader.
      RESULTS: The finding mirrored those from previous work showing that healthy
      control and RecAN participants expressed significantly more positive emotions
      during the positive clip compared to the AN group. There were no differences in
      emotion expression during the sad film clip. DISCUSSION: These findings support
      the use of computerised methods to analyse emotion expression in EDs. The
      findings also demonstrate that reduced positive emotion expression is likely to
      be associated with the acute stage of AN illness, with individuals with BN
      showing an intermediate profile.

PMID- 28575111
TI  - The role of insulin resistance in experimental diabetic retinopathy-Genetic and
      molecular aspects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetic retinopathy is characterized by defects in the retinal
      neurovascular unit. The underlying mechanisms of impairment-including reactive
      intermediates and growth-factor dependent signalling pathways and their possible
      interplay are incompletely understood. This study aims to assess the relative
      role of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia alone or in combination on the gene
      expression patterning in the retina of animal models of diabetes. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: As insulinopenic, hyperglycemic model reflecting type 1 diabetes, male
      STZ-Wistar rats (60mg/kg BW; i.p. injection at life age week 7) were used. Male
      obese ZDF rats (fa/fa) were used as type-2 diabetes model characterized by
      persisting hyperglycemia and transient hyperinsulinemia. Male obese ZF rats
      (fa/fa) were used reflecting euglycemia and severe insulin resistance. All groups
      were kept till an age of 20 weeks on respective conditions together with
      appropriate age-matched controls. Unbiased gene expression analysis was performed
      per group using Affymetrix gene arrays. Bioinformatics analysis included analysis
      for clustering and differential gene expression, and pathway and upstream
      activator analysis. Gene expression differences were confirmed by microfluidic
      card PCR technology. RESULTS: The most complex genetic regulation in the retina
      was observed in ZDF rats with a strong overlap to STZ-Wistar rats. Surprisingly,
      systemic insulin resistance alone in ZF rats without concomitant hyperglycemia
      did not induce any significant change in retinal gene expression pattern. Pathway
      analysis indicate an overlap between ZDF rats and STZ-treated rats in pathways
      like complement system activation, acute phase response signalling, and
      oncostatin-M signalling. Major array gene expression changes could be confirmed
      by subsequent PCR. An analysis of upstream transcriptional regulators revealed
      interferon-gamma, interleukin-6 and oncostatin-M in STZ and ZDF rats.
      CONCLUSIONS: Systemic hyperinsulinaemia without hyperglycemia does not result in
      significant gene expression changes in retina. In contrast, persistent systemic
      hyperglycemia boosts much stronger expression changes with a limited number of
      known and new key regulators.

PMID- 28575110
TI  - Physical activity and risk of prostate and bladder cancer in China: The South and
      East China case-control study on prostate and bladder cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent meta-analyses have suggested a modest protective effect of
      high levels of physical activity on developing both prostate and bladder cancer,
      but significant heterogeneity between studies included in these meta-analyses
      existed. To our knowledge, few Chinese studies investigated the association
      between physical activity and prostate cancer and none between physical activity
      and bladder cancer. Given the inconsistencies between previous studies and
      because studies on the relation between physical activity and prostate and
      bladder cancer in China are scarce, it remains elusive whether there is a
      relationship between physical activity and prostate and bladder cancer within the
      Chinese population. METHODS: We investigated the association between physical
      activity and risk of developing prostate and bladder cancer within a hospital
      based case-control study in the East and South of China among 260 and 438
      incident prostate and bladder cancer cases, respectively, and 427 controls. A
      questionnaire was administered to measure physical activity as metabolic
      equivalents (METs). Random effects logistic regression was used to calculate odds
      ratios (ORs) of prostate and bladder cancer for different levels of physical
      activity and for the specific activities of walking and cycling. RESULTS:
      Increasing overall physical activity was associated with a significant reduction
      in prostate cancer risk (Ptrend = 0.04) with the highest activity tertile level
      showing a nearly 50% reduction in prostate cancer risk (OR = 0.53, 95%CI: 0.28
      0.98). Overall physical activity was not significantly associated with risk of
      bladder cancer (Ptrend = 0.61), neither were vigorous (Ptrend = 0.60) or moderate
      levels of physical activity (Ptrend = 0.21). Walking and cycling were not
      significantly associated with either prostate (Ptrend> = 0.62) or bladder cancer
      risk (Ptrend> = 0.25). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this largest ever case
      control study in China investigating the relationship between physical activity
      and prostate and bladder cancer suggest that overall physical activity is
      associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer, but not with bladder cancer.

PMID- 28575112
TI  - Molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in a single large
      Minnesota medical center in 2015 as assessed using MLST, core genome MLST and spa
      typing.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bacteremia in hospitalized patients.
      Whether or not S. aureus bacteremia (SAB) is associated with clonality,
      implicating potential nosocomial transmission, has not, however, been
      investigated. Herein, we examined the epidemiology of SAB using whole genome
      sequencing (WGS). 152 SAB isolates collected over the course of 2015 at a single
      large Minnesota medical center were studied. Staphylococcus protein A (spa)
      typing was performed by PCR/Sanger sequencing; multilocus sequence typing (MLST)
      and core genome MLST (cgMLST) were determined by WGS. Forty-eight isolates (32%)
      were methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). The isolates encompassed 66 spa
      types, clustered into 11 spa clonal complexes (CCs) and 10 singleton types. 88%
      of 48 MRSA isolates belonged to spa CC-002 or -008. Methicillin-susceptible S.
      aureus (MSSA) isolates were more genotypically diverse, with 61% distributed
      across four spa CCs (CC-002, CC-012, CC-008 and CC-084). By MLST, there was 31
      sequence types (STs), including 18 divided into 6 CCs and 13 singleton STs.
      Amongst MSSA isolates, the common MLST clones were CC5 (23%), CC30 (19%), CC8
      (15%) and CC15 (11%). Common MRSA clones were CC5 (67%) and CC8 (25%); there were
      no MRSA isolates in CC45 or CC30. By cgMLST analysis, there were 9 allelic
      differences between two isolates, with the remaining 150 isolates differing from
      each other by over 40 alleles. The two isolates were retroactively
      epidemiologically linked by medical record review. Overall, cgMLST analysis
      resulted in higher resolution epidemiological typing than did multilocus sequence
      or spa typing.

PMID- 28575113
TI  - Explaining ethnic disparities in lung function among young adults: A pilot
      investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ethnic disparities in lung function have been linked mainly to
      anthropometric factors but have not been fully explained. We conducted a cross
      sectional pilot study to investigate how best to study ethnic differences in lung
      function in young adults and evaluate whether these could be explained by birth
      weight and socio-economic factors. METHODS: We recruited 112 university students
      of White and South Asian British ethnicity, measured post-bronchodilator lung
      function, obtained information on respiratory symptoms and socio-economic factors
      through questionnaires, and acquired birth weight through data linkage. We
      regressed lung function against ethnicity and candidate predictors defined a
      priori using linear regression, and used penalised regression to examine a wider
      range of factors. We reviewed the implications of our findings for the
      feasibility of a larger study. RESULTS: There was a similar parental socio
      economic environment and no difference in birth weight between the two ethnic
      groups, but the ethnic difference in FVC adjusted for sex, age, height, demi
      span, father's occupation, birth weight, maternal educational attainment and
      maternal upbringing was 0.81L (95%CI: -1.01 to -0.54L). Difference in body
      proportions did not explain the ethnic differences although parental immigration
      was an important predictor of FVC independent of ethnic group. Participants were
      comfortable with study procedures and we were able to link birth weight data to
      clinical measurements. CONCLUSION: Studies of ethnic disparities in lung function
      among young adults are feasible. Future studies should recruit a socially more
      diverse sample and investigate the role of markers of acculturation in explaining
      such differences.

PMID- 28575114
TI  - Early derivation of IgM memory cells and bone marrow plasmablasts.
AB  - IgM memory cells are recognized as an important component of B cell memory in
      mice and humans. Our studies of B cells elicited in response to ehrlichial
      infection identified a population of CD11c-positive IgM memory cells, and an IgM
      bone marrow antibody-secreting cell population. The origin of these cells was
      unknown, although an early T-independent spleen CD11c- and T-bet-positive IgM
      plasmablast population precedes both, suggesting a linear relationship. A
      majority of the IgM memory cells detected after day 30 post-infection, also T-bet
      positive, had undergone somatic hypermutation, indicating they expressed
      activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Therefore, to identify early AID
      expressing precursor B cells, we infected an AID-regulated tamoxifen-inducible
      Cre-recombinase-EYFP reporter strain. Tamoxifen administration led to the
      labeling of both IgM memory cells and bone marrow ASCs on day 30 and later post
      infection. High frequencies of labeled cells were identified on day 30 post
      infection, following tamoxifen administration on day 10 post-infection, although
      IgM memory cells were marked when tamoxifen was administered as early as day 4
      post-infection. Transcription of Aicda in the early plasmablasts was not detected
      in the absence of CD4 T cells, but occurred independently of TLR signaling.
      Unlike the IgM memory cells, the bone marrow IgM ASCs were elicited independent
      of T cell help. Moreover, Aicda was constitutively expressed in IgM memory cells,
      but not in bone marrow ASCs. These studies demonstrate that two distinct long
      term IgM-positive B cell populations are generated early in response to
      infection, but are maintained via separate mechanisms.

PMID- 28575115
TI  - Multiplex one-step Real-time PCR by Taqman-MGB method for rapid detection of pan
      and H5 subtype avian influenza viruses.
AB  - Avian influenza virus (AIV) can infect a variety of avian species and mammals,
      leading to severe economic losses in poultry industry and posing a substantial
      threat to public health. Currently, traditional virus isolation and
      identification is inadequate for the early diagnosis because of its labor
      intensive and time-consuming features. Real-time RT-PCR (RRT-PCR) is an ideal
      method for the detection of AIV since it is highly specific, sensitive and rapid.
      In addition, as the new quencher MGB is used in RRT-PCR, it only needs shorter
      probe and helps the binding of target gene and probe. In this study, a pan-AIV
      RRT-PCR for the detection of all AIVs and H5-AIV RRT-PCR for detection of H5 AIV
      based on NP gene of AIV and HA gene of H5 AIV were successfully established using
      Taqman-MGB method. We tested 14 AIV strains in total and the results showed that
      the pan-AIV RRT-PCR can detect AIV of various HA subtypes and the H5-AIV RRT-PCR
      can detect H5 AIV circulating in poultry in China in recent three years,
      including H5 viruses of clade 7.2, clade 2.3.4.4 and clade 2.3.2.1. Furthermore,
      the multiplex detection limit for pan-AIV and H5-AIV RRT-PCR was 5 copies per
      reaction. When this multiplex method was applied in the detection of experimental
      and live poultry market samples, the detection rates of pan-AIV and H5 AIV in RRT
      PCR were both higher than the routine virus isolation method with embryonated
      chicken eggs. The multiplex RRT-PCR method established in our study showed high
      sensitivity, reproducibility and specificity, suggesting the promising
      application of our method for surveillance of both pan AIV and prevalent H5 AIV
      in live poultry markets and clinical samples.

PMID- 28575116
TI  - Molecular diagnosis and characterization of Cryptosporidium spp. in turkeys and
      chickens in Germany reveals evidence for previously undetected parasite species.
AB  - A total of 256 fecal specimens were randomly collected from farmed poultry in
      Germany and screened for the presence of Cryptosporidium spp. by PCR and further
      characterized by direct automated DNA sequencing. Using a nested PCR amplifying
      approximately 830 bp 18S rDNA fragment, 7.03% (n = 18) of the samples were
      Cryptosporidium-positive. In detail, Cryptosporidium was detected in 9.3% (8/86)
      of turkeys, 5.7% (9/158) of broilers and 8.3% (1/12) of layers. After DNA
      sequencing, Cryptosporidium parvum the most frequently observed species was
      identified in 5.1% (13/256) of all poultry species, including 8.1% (7/86) of
      turkeys, 3.2% (5/158) of broilers and 8.3% (1/12) of layers. Cryptosporidium
      baileyi was detected in 1.3% (2/256) of the broilers only. Three novel
      unclassified Cryptosporidium spp. were detected in 1.2% (1/86) of turkeys and
      1.3% (2/158) of broilers. The infection rate was high in 13-20 week old turkeys,
      1-6 weeks old broilers and >20 weeks old layers but differences between age
      groups were not significant. This is the first study in Germany uses molecular
      methods for the detection of Cryptosporidium in poultry. The results indicate
      that Cryptosporidium parasites are common among broilers and turkeys in Germany.
      Considering the large size of the poultry industry, the large amount of poultry
      meat that is consumed and the fact that C. parvum is also the most common
      Cryptosporidium parasite in humans, poultry might also be a source of human
      infections.

PMID- 28575117
TI  - Gene and metabolite time-course response to cigarette smoking in mouse lung and
      plasma.
AB  - Prolonged cigarette smoking (CS) causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD), a prevalent serious condition that may persist or progress after smoking
      cessation. To provide insight into how CS triggers COPD, we investigated temporal
      patterns of lung transcriptome expression and systemic metabolome changes induced
      by chronic CS exposure and smoking cessation. Whole lung RNA-seq data was
      analyzed at transcript and exon levels from C57Bl/6 mice exposed to CS for 1- or
      7 days, for 3-, 6-, or 9 months, or for 6 months followed by 3 months of
      cessation using age-matched littermate controls. We identified previously
      unreported dysregulation of pyrimidine metabolism and phosphatidylinositol
      signaling pathways and confirmed alterations in glutathione metabolism and
      circadian gene pathways. Almost all dysregulated pathways demonstrated
      reversibility upon smoking cessation, except the lysosome pathway. Chronic CS
      exposure was significantly linked with alterations in pathways encoding for
      energy, phagocytosis, and DNA repair and triggered differential expression of
      genes or exons previously unreported to associate with CS or COPD, including Lox,
      involved in matrix remodeling, Gp2, linked to goblet cells, and Slc22a12 and
      Agpat3, involved in purine and glycerolipid metabolism, respectively. CS-induced
      lung metabolic pathways changes were validated using metabolomic profiles of
      matched plasma samples, indicating that dynamic metabolic gene regulation caused
      by CS is reflected in the plasma metabolome. Using advanced technologies, our
      study uncovered novel pathways and genes altered by chronic CS exposure,
      including those involved in pyrimidine metabolism, phosphatidylinositol signaling
      and lysosome function, highlighting their potential importance in the
      pathogenesis or diagnosis of CS-associated conditions.

PMID- 28575118
TI  - Comparative analysis of genes frequently regulated by drugs based on connectivity
      map transcriptome data.
AB  - Gene expression is perturbated by drugs to different extent. Analyzing genes
      whose expression is frequently regulated by drugs would be useful for the
      screening of candidate therapeutic targets and genes implicated in side effect.
      Here, we obtained the differential expression number (DEN) for genes profiled in
      Affymetrix microarrays from the Connectivity Map project, and conducted systemic
      comparative computational analysis between high DEN genes and other genes.
      Results indicated that genes with higher down-/up-regulation number (down_h/up_h)
      tended to be clustered in genome, and have lower homologous gene number, higher
      SNP density and more disease-related SNP. Down_h and up_h were significantly
      enriched in cancer related pathways, while genes with lower down-/up-regulation
      number (down_l/up_l) were mainly involved in the development of nervous system
      diseases. Besides, up_h had lower interaction network degree, later developmental
      stage to express, higher tissue expression specificity than up_l, while down_h
      showed reversed tendency in comparison with down_l. Together, our analysis
      suggests that genes frequently regulated by drugs are more likely to be
      associated with disease-related functions, but the extensive activation of
      conserved and widely expressed genes by drugs is disfavored.

PMID- 28575119
TI  - Nucleolus association of chromosomal domains is largely maintained in cellular
      senescence despite massive nuclear reorganisation.
AB  - Mammalian chromosomes are organized in structural and functional domains of 0.1
      10 Mb, which are characterized by high self-association frequencies in the
      nuclear space and different contact probabilities with nuclear sub-compartments.
      They exhibit distinct chromatin modification patterns, gene expression levels and
      replication timing. Recently, nucleolus-associated chromosomal domains (NADs)
      have been discovered, yet their precise genomic organization and dynamics are
      still largely unknown. Here, we use nucleolus genomics and single-cell
      experiments to address these questions in human embryonic fibroblasts during
      replicative senescence. Genome-wide mapping reveals 1,646 NADs in proliferating
      cells, which cover about 38% of the annotated human genome. They are mainly
      heterochromatic and correlate with late replicating loci. Using Hi-C data
      analysis, we show that interactions of NADs dominate interphase chromosome
      contacts in the 10-50 Mb distance range. Interestingly, only minute changes in
      nucleolar association are observed upon senescence. These spatial rearrangements
      in subdomains smaller than 100 kb are accompanied with local transcriptional
      changes. In contrast, large centromeric and pericentromeric satellite repeat
      clusters extensively dissociate from nucleoli in senescent cells. Accordingly,
      H3K9me3-marked heterochromatin gets remodelled at the perinucleolar space as
      revealed by immunofluorescence analyses. Collectively, this study identifies
      connections between the nucleolus, 3D genome structure, and cellular aging at the
      level of interphase chromosome organization.

PMID- 28575120
TI  - Structural basis for 5'-ETS recognition by Utp4 at the early stages of ribosome
      biogenesis.
AB  - Eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis begins with the co-transcriptional assembly of the
      90S pre-ribosome. The 'U three protein' (UTP) complexes and snoRNP particles
      arrange around the nascent pre-ribosomal RNA chaperoning its folding and further
      maturation. The earliest event in this hierarchical process is the binding of the
      UTP-A complex to the 5'-end of the pre-ribosomal RNA (5'-ETS). This oligomeric
      complex predominantly consists of beta-propeller and alpha-solenoidal proteins.
      Here we present the structure of the Utp4 subunit from the thermophilic fungus
      Chaetomium thermophilum at 2.15 A resolution and analyze its function by UV RNA
      crosslinking (CRAC) and in context of a recent cryo-EM structure of the 90S pre
      ribosome. Utp4 consists of two orthogonal and highly basic beta-propellers that
      perfectly fit the EM-data. The Utp4 structure highlights an unusual Velcro
      closure of its C-terminal beta-propeller as relevant for protein integrity and
      potentially Utp8 recognition in the context of the pre-ribosome. We provide a
      first model of the 5'-ETS RNA from the internally hidden 5'-end up to the region
      that hybridizes to the 3'-hinge sequence of U3 snoRNA and validate a specific
      Utp4/5'-ETS interaction by CRAC analysis.

PMID- 28575121
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of caspofungin acetate to guide optimal dosing in cats.
AB  - Cats are the most common mammal to develop invasive fungal rhinosinusitis caused
      by cryptic species in Aspergillus section Fumigati that are resistant to azoles
      but susceptible to caspofungin. In this study nonlinear mixed-effects
      pharmacokinetic modeling and simulation was used to investigate caspofungin
      pharmacokinetics and explore dosing regimens in cats using caspofungin minimum
      effective concentrations (MECs). Plasma concentrations in healthy cats were
      determined using HPLC-MS/MS after administration of a single and seven
      consecutive daily intravenous doses of 1 mg/kg caspofungin. In the final
      pharmacokinetic model an optimum maximum concentration (Cmax): MEC ratio of 10-20
      was used to guide caspofungin efficacy. Simulations were performed for dosing
      regimens (doses 0.25-2 mg/kg and 6-72 h dosing intervals) with and without
      inclusion of a loading dose. Using a 1 mg/kg dose Cmax first dose was 14.8
      MUg/mL, Cmax at steady state was 19.8 MUg/mL, Cmin was 5 MUg/mL and Cmax: MEC was
      >20 in 42.6% of cats after multiple doses. An optimal Cmax: MEC ratio was
      achieved in caspofungin simulations using 0.75 mg/kg q 24 h or 1 mg/kg q 72h.
      However, at 1 mg/kg q 72h, Cmin was < MEC (<1 MUg/mL) in over 95% of the
      population. Using a loading dose of 1 mg/kg and a daily dose of 0.75 mg/kg
      thereafter, the Cmax: MEC was optimal and Cmin was > 2.5 MUg/mL for 98% of the
      population. Based on the modeling data this dosing regimen is likely to achieve
      target therapeutic concentrations, meet the proposed Cmax: MEC window and provide
      consistent exposure between doses.

PMID- 28575122
TI  - Multimodal assessment of white matter tracts in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Several quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have been
      proposed to investigate microstructural tissue changes in amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis (ALS) including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), magnetization transfer
      imaging, and R2* mapping. Here, in this study, we compared these techniques with
      regard to their capability for detecting ALS related white matter (WM) changes in
      the brain and their association with clinical findings. We examined 27 ALS
      patients and 35 age-matched healthy controls. MRI was performed at 3T, after
      which we analyzed the diffusion properties, the magnetization transfer ratio
      (MTR), and the effective transversal relaxation rate R2* in 18 WM tracts that
      were obtained by a fully automated segmentation technique. ALS patients,
      especially with a bulbar onset, showed a bilateral increase in radial and mean
      diffusivity, as well as a reduction in fractional anisotropy of the corticospinal
      tract (CST), and diffusion changes in the parietal and temporal superior
      longitudinal fasciculus. A reduction of the MTR was found in both CSTs and an R2*
      reduction was seen only in the left CST. Tract-specific diffusion properties were
      not related to clinical status in a cross-sectional manner but demonstrated some
      association with disease progression over three subsequent months. DTI reveals
      more widespread WM tissue changes than MTR and R2*. These changes are not
      restricted to the CST, but affect also other WM tracts (especially in patients
      with bulbar onset), and are associated with the short term course of the disease.

PMID- 28575123
TI  - Induction of axial chirality in divanillin by interaction with bovine serum
      albumin.
AB  - Vanillin is a plant secondary metabolite and has numerous beneficial health
      applications. Divanillin is the homodimer of vanillin and used as a taste
      enhancer compound and also a promissory anticancer drug. Here, divanillin was
      synthesized and studied in the context of its interaction with bovine serum
      albumin (BSA). We found that divanillin acquires axial chirality when complexed
      with BSA. This chiroptical property was demonstrated by a strong induced circular
      dichroism (ICD) signal. In agreement with this finding, the association constant
      between BSA and divanillin (3.3 x 105 mol-1L) was higher compared to its
      precursor vanillin (7.3 x 104 mol-1L). The ICD signal was used for evaluation of
      the association constant, demonstration of the reversibility of the interaction
      and determination of the binding site, revealing that divanillin has preference
      for Sudlow's site I in BSA. This property was confirmed by displacement of the
      fluorescent markers warfarin (site I) and dansyl-L-proline (site II). Molecular
      docking simulation confirmed the higher affinity of divanillin to site I. The
      highest scored conformation obtained by docking (dihedral angle 242 degrees ) was
      used for calculation of the circular dichroism spectrum of divanillin using Time
      Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT). The theoretical spectrum showed good
      similarity with the experimental ICD. In summary, we have demonstrated that by
      interacting with the chiral cavities in BSA, divanillin became a atropos
      biphenyl, i.e., the free rotation around the single bound that links the aromatic
      rings was impeded. This phenomenon can be explained considering the interactions
      of divanillin with amino acid residues in the binding site of the protein. This
      chiroptical property can be very useful for studying the effects of divanillin in
      biological systems. Considering the potential pharmacological application of
      divanillin, these findings will be helpful for researchers interested in the
      pharmacological properties of this compound.

PMID- 28575124
TI  - Seasonal variation in hemodialysis initiation: A single-center retrospective
      analysis.
AB  - The number of new dialysis patients has been increasing worldwide, particularly
      among elderly individuals. However, information on seasonal variation in
      hemodialysis initiation in recent decades is lacking, and the seasonal
      distribution of patients' conditions immediately prior to starting dialysis
      remains unclear. Having this information could help in developing a modifiable
      approach to improving pre-dialysis care. We retrospectively investigated the
      records of 297 patients who initiated hemodialysis at Hiroshima Prefectural
      Hospital from January 1st, 2009 to December 31st, 2013. Seasonal differences were
      assessed by chi2 or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Multiple comparison analysis was
      performed with the Steel test. The overall number of patients starting dialysis
      was greatest in winter (n = 85, 28.6%), followed by spring (n = 74, 24.9%),
      summer (n = 70, 23.6%), and autumn (n = 68, 22.9%), though the differences were
      not significant. However, there was a significant winter peak in dialysis
      initiation among patients aged >=65 years, but not in those aged <65 years. Fluid
      overload assessed by clinicians was the most common uremic symptom among all
      patients, but a winter peak was only detected in patients aged >=65 years. The
      body weight gain ratio showed a similar trend to fluid overload assessed by
      clinicians. Pulmonary edema was most pronounced in winter among patients aged
      >=65 years compared with other seasons. The incidences of infection were modestly
      increased in summer and winter, but not statistically significant. Cardiac
      complications were similar in all seasons. This study demonstrated the existence
      of seasonal variation in dialysis initiation, with a winter peak among patients
      aged >=65 years. The winter increment in dialysis initiation was mainly
      attributable to increased fluid overload. These findings suggest that elderly
      individuals should be monitored particularly closely during the winter.

PMID- 28575125
TI  - Emergence of local synchronization in neuronal networks with adaptive couplings.
AB  - Local synchronization, both prolonged and transient, of oscillatory neuronal
      behavior in cortical networks plays a fundamental role in many aspects of
      perception and cognition. Here we study networks of Hindmarsh-Rose neurons with a
      new type of adaptive coupling, and show that these networks naturally produce
      both permanent and transient synchronization of local clusters of neurons. These
      deterministic systems exhibit complex dynamics with 1/feta power spectra, which
      appears to be a consequence of a novel form of self-organized criticality.

PMID- 28575126
TI  - Gait dynamics to optimize fall risk assessment in geriatric patients admitted to
      an outpatient diagnostic clinic.
AB  - Fall prediction in geriatric patients remains challenging because the increased
      fall risk involves multiple, interrelated factors caused by natural aging and/or
      pathology. Therefore, we used a multi-factorial statistical approach to model
      categories of modifiable fall risk factors among geriatric patients to identify
      fallers with highest sensitivity and specificity with a focus on gait
      performance. Patients (n = 61, age = 79; 41% fallers) underwent extensive
      screening in three categories: (1) patient characteristics (e.g., handgrip
      strength, medication use, osteoporosis-related factors) (2) cognitive function
      (global cognition, memory, executive function), and (3) gait performance (speed
      related and dynamic outcomes assessed by tri-axial trunk accelerometry). Falls
      were registered prospectively (mean follow-up 8.6 months) and one year
      retrospectively. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on 11 gait variables was
      performed to determine underlying gait properties. Three fall-classification
      models were then built using Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS
      DA), with separate and combined analyses of the fall risk factors. PCA identified
      'pace', 'variability', and 'coordination' as key properties of gait. The best PLS
      DA model produced a fall classification accuracy of AUC = 0.93. The specificity
      of the model using patient characteristics was 60% but reached 80% when cognitive
      and gait outcomes were added. The inclusion of cognition and gait dynamics in
      fall classification models reduced misclassification. We therefore recommend
      assessing geriatric patients' fall risk using a multi-factorial approach that
      incorporates patient characteristics, cognition, and gait dynamics.

PMID- 28575127
TI  - Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) expressed in thyroid and breast tissues shows similar
      antigenic properties.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) is essential for physiological function of
      the thyroid gland. The high prevalence of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs)
      in patients with breast cancer and their protective role had previously been
      demonstrated, indicating a link between breast cancer and thyroid autoimmunity.
      Recently, TPO was shown to be present in breast cancer tissue samples but its
      antigenicity has not been analyzed. METHODS: In this study, we investigated TPO
      expression levels in a series of fifty-six breast cancer samples paired with
      normal (peri-tumoral) tissue and its antigenic activity using a panel of well
      characterized murine anti-human TPOAbs. RESULTS: We have shown that TPO
      transcripts were present in both normal and cancer tissue samples, although the
      amounts in the latter were reduced. Additionally, we observed that TPO levels are
      lower in more advanced cancers. TPO protein expression was confirmed in all
      tissue samples, both normal and cancerous. We also found that the antigenicity of
      the immunodominant regions (IDRs) in breast TPO resembles that of thyroid TPO,
      which is crucial for effective interactions with human TPOAbs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Expression of TPO in breast cancer together with its antigenic activity may have
      beneficial effects in TPOAb-positive breast cancer patients. However, further
      studies are needed to confirm the beneficial role of TPOAbs and to better
      understand the underlying mechanism.

PMID- 28575128
TI  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 is not associated with subarachnoid haemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of intracranial aneurysms (IAs) has been proposed to
      be elevated in the patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Our aims were to
      determine the prevalence of NF1 in a large Finnish population based cohort of IA
      patients and, on the other hand, the occurrences of subarachnoid haemorrhage and
      unruptured intracranial aneurysms in a nationwide population-based cohort of NF1
      patients and its matched ten-fold control cohort. METHODS: The Kuopio IA Database
      (www.kuopioneurosurgery.fi) includes all ruptured and unruptured IA cases
      admitted to the Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) from its defined Eastern Finnish
      catchment population since 1980. In this registry-based study, we cross-linked
      the Kuopio IA database with the Finnish national registry covering all hospital
      diagnoses. The NF1 diagnoses of the 4543 patients with either saccular of
      fusiform IA were identified from 1969 to 2015 and verified from patient records.
      Our second approach was to analyze the occurrence of aneurysmal subarachnoid
      haemorrhage (aSAH) and unruptured IAs in a nationwide population-based database
      of 1410 NF1 patients and its ten-fold matched control cohort (n = 14030) using
      national registry of hospital diagnoses between 1987 and 2014. RESULTS: One NF1
      patient was identified among the 4543 IA patients. Three verified IA cases (one
      unruptured IA and two aSAH cases) were identified in the cohort of 1410 NF1
      patients, with similar occurrences in the control cohort. CONCLUSIONS: We found
      no evidence in our population-based cohorts to support the conception that NF1 is
      associated with IAs. Our results indicate that the incidence of aSAH is not
      elevated in patients with NF1. Further studies are required to confirm that there
      is no association between NF1 and unruptured IAs.

PMID- 28575129
TI  - The involvement and possible mechanism of pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNF-alpha) in thoracic ossification of the ligamentum flavum.
AB  - Thoracic ossification of the ligamentum flavum (TOLF) is characterized by ectopic
      bone formation in the ligamentum flavum and is considered to be a leading cause
      of thoracic spinal canal stenosis and myelopathy. However, the underlying
      etiology is not well understood. An iTRAQ proteomics was used to reveal the
      involvement of inflammation factors in TOLF. TNF-alpha is a pro-inflammatory
      cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of many human diseases. Protein profiling
      analysis showed that the protein level of TNF-alpha increased in the ossified
      ligamentum flavum of TOLF, which was confirmed by western blot. The effects of
      TNF-alpha on primary ligamentum flavum cells was examined. Cell proliferation
      assay demonstrated that primary cells from the ossified ligamentum flavum of TOLF
      grew faster than the control. Flow cytometry assay indicated that the proportions
      of cells in S phase of cell cycle of primary cells increased after TNF-alpha
      stimulation. To address the effect of TNF-alpha on gene expression, primary cells
      were derived from ligamentum flavum of TOLF patients. Culture cells were
      stimulated by TNF-alpha. RNA was isolated and analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR.
      G1/S-specific proteins cyclin D1 and c-Myc were upregulated after TNF-alpha
      stimulation. On the other hand, osteoblast differentiation related genes such as
      Bmp2 and Osterix (Osx) were upregulated in the presence of TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha
      activated Osx expression in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, a specific
      mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK inhibitor U0126, but not JNK kinase
      inhibitor SP600125, abrogated TNF-alpha activation of Osx expression. This
      suggests that TNF-alpha activates Osx expression through the mitogen-activated
      protein kinase ERK pathway. Taken together, we provide the evidence to support
      that TNF-alpha involves in TOLF probably through regulating cell proliferation
      via cyclin D1 and c-Myc, and promoting osteoblast differentiation via Osx.

PMID- 28575130
TI  - Long-term consequences of developmental vascular defects on retinal vessel
      homeostasis and function in a mouse model of Norrie disease.
AB  - Loss of Norrin signalling due to mutations in the Norrie disease pseudoglioma
      gene causes severe vascular defects in the retina, leading to visual impairment
      and ultimately blindness. While the emphasis of experimental work so far was on
      the developmental period, we focus here on disease mechanisms that induce
      progression into severe adult disease. The goal of this study was the
      comprehensive analysis of the long-term effects of the absence of Norrin on
      vascular homeostasis and retinal function. In a mouse model of Norrie disease
      retinal vascular morphology and integrity were studied by means of in vivo
      angiography; the vascular constituents were assessed in detailed histological
      analyses using quantitative retinal morphometry. Finally, electroretinographic
      analyses were performed to assess the retinal function in adult Norrin deficient
      animals. We could show that the primary developmental defects not only persisted
      but developed into further vascular abnormalities and microangiopathies. In
      particular, the overall vessel homeostasis, the vascular integrity, and also the
      cellular constituents of the vascular wall were affected in the adult Norrin
      deficient retina. Moreover, functional analyses indicated to persistent hypoxia
      in the neural retina which was suggested as one of the major driving forces of
      disease progression. In summary, our data provide evidence that the key to adult
      Norrie disease are ongoing vascular modifications, driven by the persistent
      hypoxic conditions, which are ineffective to compensate for the primary Norrin
      dependent defects.

PMID- 28575131
TI  - Bacterial co-expression of human Tau protein with protein kinase A and 14-3-3 for
      studies of 14-3-3/phospho-Tau interaction.
AB  - Abundant regulatory 14-3-3 proteins have an extremely wide interactome and
      coordinate multiple cellular events via interaction with specifically
      phosphorylated partner proteins. Notwithstanding the key role of 14-3
      3/phosphotarget interactions in many physiological and pathological processes,
      they are dramatically underexplored. Here, we focused on the 14-3-3 interaction
      with human Tau protein associated with the development of several
      neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
      Among many known phosphorylation sites within Tau, protein kinase A (PKA)
      phosphorylates several key residues of Tau and induces its tight interaction with
      14-3-3 proteins. However, the stoichiometry and mechanism of 14-3-3 interaction
      with phosphorylated Tau (pTau) are not clearly elucidated. In this work, we
      describe a simple bacterial co-expression system aimed to facilitate biochemical
      and structural studies on the 14-3-3/pTau interaction. We show that dual co
      expression of human fetal Tau with PKA in Escherichia coli results in multisite
      Tau phosphorylation including also naturally occurring sites which were not
      previously considered in the context of 14-3-3 binding. Tau protein co-expressed
      with PKA displays tight functional interaction with 14-3-3 isoforms of a
      different type. Upon triple co-expression with 14-3-3 and PKA, Tau protein could
      be co-purified with 14-3-3 and demonstrates complex which is similar to that
      formed in vitro between individual 14-3-3 and pTau obtained from dual co
      expression. Although used in this study for the specific case of the previously
      known 14-3-3/pTau interaction, our co-expression system may be useful to study of
      other selected 14-3-3/phosphotarget interactions and for validations of 14-3-3
      complexes identified by other methods.

PMID- 28575132
TI  - Abnormal differentiation of Sandhoff disease model mouse-derived multipotent stem
      cells toward a neural lineage.
AB  - In Sandhoff disease (SD), the activity of the lysosomal hydrolytic enzyme, beta
      hexosaminidase (Hex), is lost due to a Hexb gene defect, which results in the
      abnormal accumulation of the substrate, GM2 ganglioside (GM2), in neuronal cells,
      causing neuronal loss, microglial activation, and astrogliosis. We established
      induced pluripotent stem cells from the cells of SD mice (SD-iPSCs). In the
      present study, we investigated the occurrence of abnormal differentiation and
      development of a neural lineage in the asymptomatic phase of SD in vitro using SD
      mouse fetus-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) and SD-iPSCs. It was assumed that
      the number of SD mouse fetal brain-derived NSCs was reduced and differentiation
      was promoted, resulting in the inhibition of differentiation into neurons and
      enhancement of differentiation into astrocytes. The number of SD-iPSC-derived
      NSCs was also reduced, suggesting that the differentiation of NSCs was promoted,
      resulting in the inhibition of differentiation into neurons and enhancement of
      that into astrocytes. This abnormal differentiation of SD-iPSCs toward a neural
      lineage was reduced by the glucosylceramide synthase inhibitor, miglustat.
      Furthermore, abnormal differentiation toward a neural lineage was reduced in SD
      iPSCs with Hexb gene transfection. Therefore, differentiation ability along the
      time axis appears to be altered in SD mice in which the differentiation ability
      of NSCs is promoted and differentiation into neurons is completed earlier, while
      the timing of differentiation into astrocytes is accelerated. These results
      clarified that the abnormal differentiation of SD-iPSCs toward a neural lineage
      in vitro was shown to reflect the pathology of SD.

PMID- 28575138
TI  - Elevated Plasma Transforming Growth Factor beta1 Levels Predict the Development
      of Hypertension in Normotensives: The 14-Year Follow-Up Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) is a multifunctional
      cytokine. There is growing evidence that TGF-beta1 is involved in the
      pathogenesis of hypertension and the development of target organ damage in
      hypertensives. Although several studies have shown that TGF-beta1 induced
      vascular hypertrophy and remodelling in various vascular diseases, there are no
      longitudinal data on hypertension in the epidemiological studies. The present
      study tested the hypothesis whether elevated TGF-beta1 levels can predict the
      development of hypertension. METHODS: In 2002-2004, 528 subjects received health
      examinations in Uku town, southwestern Japan. We examined blood pressure (BP),
      body mass index, and blood test. Data on fasting plasma TGF-beta1 were obtained
      from 528 individuals. Of these, 149 normotensives (BP <140/90 mm Hg without
      antihypertensive medications) at baseline were followed-up for 14 years. RESULTS:
      The receiver-operating characteristic curve was used and the calculated cutoff
      value was 8.9 ng/ml. Of 149 normotensives at baseline, 59 subjects developed
      hypertension. Plasma TGF-beta1 levels were significantly associated with the
      development of hypertension after adjustment for confounding factors. To further
      examine the association between them, we performed logistic regression analysis.
      We divided the baseline plasma TGF-beta1 levels into 2 groups using a cutoff
      value. The significant high odds ratio [3.582 (95% confidence interval, 1.025
      12.525)] for the development of hypertension was found in the highest group of
      TGF-beta1 level vs. the lowest group after adjustment for confounders.
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report demonstrating the causal relationship
      between them. Elevated plasma TGF-beta1 levels predicted the development of
      hypertension in normotensives in a population of community-dwelling Japanese.

PMID- 28575139
TI  - Ambulatory Blood Pressure Control in Children and Young Adults After Kidney
      Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring (ABPM) is the preferred
      method to characterize BP status, and its use in kidney transplant recipients is
      increasing. Data on longitudinal ambulatory BP (ABP) trends in pediatric and
      young adult kidney transplant recipients are limited. METHODS: Retrospective
      review of a large cohort of children and young adults following kidney
      transplantation and evaluation of their ABP status over time and its associations
      with any patient and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Two hundred and two
      patients had baseline ABPM available for analysis, and 123 of them had a follow
      up (median time 2.3 years) ABPM. At the time of follow up, more patients were
      treated for hypertension (80% vs. 72%, P = 0.02), and less patients had
      ambulatory hypertension (36% vs. 54%, P = 0.005), uncontrolled or untreated,
      compared with baseline, with 45% of all patients classified as having controlled
      hypertension (compared to 26% at baseline, P = 0.002). Prevalence of ambulatory
      hypertension decreased only in patients who were less than 18 years old at
      baseline. High baseline mean 24-hour systolic BP was independently associated
      with persistent hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: In young kidney transplant recipients
      followed by ABPM, the prevalence of ambulatory hypertension decreases over time,
      mainly due to the increased number of patients with controlled hypertension.

PMID- 28575140
TI  - Optimizing drug development in oncology by clinical trial simulation: Why and
      how?
AB  - In therapeutic research, the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products are
      necessarily tested on humans via clinical trials after an extensive and expensive
      preclinical development period. Methodologies such as computer modeling and
      clinical trial simulation (CTS) might represent a valuable option to reduce
      animal and human assays. The relevance of these methods is well recognized in
      pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics from the preclinical phase to
      postmarketing. However, they are barely used and are poorly regarded for drug
      approval, despite Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency
      recommendations. The generalization of CTS could be greatly facilitated by the
      availability of software for modeling biological systems, by clinical trial
      studies and hospital databases. Data sharing and data merging raise legal, policy
      and technical issues that will need to be addressed. Development of future
      molecules will have to use CTS for faster development and thus enable better
      patient management. Drug activity modeling coupled with disease modeling, optimal
      use of medical data and increased computing speed should allow this leap forward.
      The realization of CTS requires not only bioinformatics tools to allow
      interconnection and global integration of all clinical data but also a universal
      legal framework to protect the privacy of every patient. While recognizing that
      CTS can never replace 'real-life' trials, they should be implemented in future
      drug development schemes to provide quantitative support for decision-making.
      This in silico medicine opens the way to the P4 medicine: predictive, preventive,
      personalized and participatory.

PMID- 28575141
TI  - Objectively measured physical activity and kidney function in older men; a cross
      sectional population-based study.
AB  - Background: kidney function declines in older adults and physical activity levels
      are low. We investigated whether higher levels of physical activity and lower
      levels of sedentary behaviour were associated with lower odds of low kidney
      function in older men. Methods: cross-sectional study of 1,352 men from the
      British Regional Heart Study, mean (standard deviation) age 78.5 (4.6) year.
      Physical activity and sedentary behaviour were measured using Actigraph GT3X
      accelerometers. Kidney function was measured by estimated Glomerular filtration
      rate (eGFR) using the chronic kidney disease-EPI creatinine-cystatin equation.
      Associations between physical (in)activity and kidney function were investigated
      using regression models. Results: higher levels of physical activity and lower
      levels of sedentary behaviour were associated with reduced odds ratios (ORs) for
      lower eGFR (<45 versus >=45 ml/min per 1.73 m2) after adjustment for covariates.
      Each additional 1,000 steps, 30 min of light physical activity and 10 min of
      moderate/vigorous physical activity per day were associated with a lower odds
      (95% confidence interval (CI)) of a low eGFR; OR 0.81 (0.73, 0.91), OR 0.87
      (0.78, 0.97) and OR 0.84 (0.76, 0.92), respectively. Each additional 30 min of
      sedentary behaviour per day was associated with a higher odds of a low eGFR (1.16
      95% CI 1.06, 1.27). Associations between moderate/vigorous physical activity and
      lower kidney function persisted after adjustment for light physical activity or
      sedentary behaviour. Conclusion: physical activity is associated with kidney
      function in older men and could be of public health importance in this group who
      are at increased risk of poor kidney function and low physical activity. More
      evidence is needed on whether the association is causal.

PMID- 28575142
TI  - Flow Cytometric Patterns of CD200 and CD1d Expression Distinguish CD10-Negative,
      CD5-Negative Mature B-Cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders.
AB  - Objectives: The importance of distinguishing mature B-cell lymphoproliferative
      disorders (B-LPDs) is highlighted by the distinct treatments used for and varying
      prognoses seen in association with these different diseases. Immunophenotyping
      allows for accurate and efficient differentiation of many B-LPDs. Recently, we
      showed that CD200 is highly expressed in hairy cell leukemia (HCL) but not in
      marginal zone lymphoma (MZL), lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL), or hairy cell
      leukemia-variant (HCL-v). Here, we assessed the usefulness of a flow cytometric
      panel combining CD200 and CD1d with CD25, CD103, and CD11c to distinguish CD10-,
      CD5- B-LPDs. Methods: We analyzed the expression of CD200 and CD1d by flow
      cytometric analysis in 79 cases of CD10-, CD5- mature B-LPDs. Results: Distinct
      patterns of CD200 and CD1d expression were seen in the examined B-LPDs. HCL
      showed bright positivity for CD200 along with positive staining for CD1d, whereas
      HCL-v showed low levels of expression for both markers. LPL demonstrated positive
      staining for CD200 in combination with dim to negative staining for CD1d. In
      contrast, MZL was commonly positive for CD1d and negative for CD200. Conclusions:
      Flow cytometric analysis of CD200 and CD1d, along with CD25, CD103, and CD11c,
      can aid in the diagnosis of CD10-, CD5- mature B-LPDs.

PMID- 28575143
TI  - Seeing the wood for the trees: a forest of methods for optimization and omic
      network integration in metabolic modelling.
AB  - Metabolic modelling has entered a mature phase with dozens of methods and
      software implementations available to the practitioner and the theoretician. It
      is not easy for a modeller to be able to see the wood (or the forest) for the
      trees. Driven by this analogy, we here present a 'forest' of principal methods
      used for constraint-based modelling in systems biology. This provides a tree
      based view of methods available to prospective modellers, also available in
      interactive version at http://modellingmetabolism.net, where it will be kept
      updated with new methods after the publication of the present manuscript. Our
      updated classification of existing methods and tools highlights the most
      promising in the different branches, with the aim to develop a vision of how
      existing methods could hybridize and become more complex. We then provide the
      first hands-on tutorial for multi-objective optimization of metabolic models in
      R. We finally discuss the implementation of multi-view machine learning
      approaches in poly-omic integration. Throughout this work, we demonstrate the
      optimization of trade-offs between multiple metabolic objectives, with a focus on
      omic data integration through machine learning. We anticipate that the
      combination of a survey, a perspective on multi-view machine learning and a step
      by-step R tutorial should be of interest for both the beginner and the advanced
      user.

PMID- 28575144
TI  - ceRNAs in plants: computational approaches and associated challenges for target
      mimic research.
AB  - The competing endogenous RNA hypothesis has gained increasing attention as a
      potential global regulatory mechanism of microRNAs (miRNAs), and as a powerful
      tool to predict the function of many noncoding RNAs, including miRNAs themselves.
      Most studies have been focused on animals, although target mimic (TMs) discovery
      as well as important computational and experimental advances has been developed
      in plants over the past decade. Thus, our contribution summarizes recent
      progresses in computational approaches for research of miRNA:TM interactions. We
      divided this article in three main contributions. First, a general overview of
      research on TMs in plants is presented with practical descriptions of the
      available literature, tools, data, databases and computational reports. Second,
      we describe a common protocol for the computational and experimental analyses of
      TM. Third, we provide a bioinformatics approach for the prediction of TM motifs
      potentially cross-targeting both members within the same or from different miRNA
      families, based on the identification of consensus miRNA-binding sites from known
      TMs across sequenced genomes, transcriptomes and known miRNAs. This computational
      approach is promising because, in contrast to animals, miRNA families in plants
      are large with identical or similar members, several of which are also highly
      conserved. From the three consensus TM motifs found with our approach: MIM166,
      MIM171 and MIM159/319, the last one has found strong support on the recent
      experimental work by Reichel and Millar [Specificity of plant microRNA TMs: cross
      targeting of mir159 and mir319. J Plant Physiol 2015;180:45-8]. Finally, we
      stress the discussion on the major computational and associated experimental
      challenges that have to be faced in future ceRNA studies.

PMID- 28575145
TI  - Is Transforming Growth Factor beta1 a Cause of Hypertension?

PMID- 28575146
TI  - A comprehensive evaluation of popular proteomics software workflows for label
      free proteome quantification and imputation.
AB  - Label-free mass spectrometry (MS) has developed into an important tool applied in
      various fields of biological and life sciences. Several software exist to process
      the raw MS data into quantified protein abundances, including open source and
      commercial solutions. Each software includes a set of unique algorithms for
      different tasks of the MS data processing workflow. While many of these
      algorithms have been compared separately, a thorough and systematic evaluation of
      their overall performance is missing. Moreover, systematic information is lacking
      about the amount of missing values produced by the different proteomics software
      and the capabilities of different data imputation methods to account for them.In
      this study, we evaluated the performance of five popular quantitative label-free
      proteomics software workflows using four different spike-in data sets. Our
      extensive testing included the number of proteins quantified and the number of
      missing values produced by each workflow, the accuracy of detecting differential
      expression and logarithmic fold change and the effect of different imputation and
      filtering methods on the differential expression results. We found that the
      Progenesis software performed consistently well in the differential expression
      analysis and produced few missing values. The missing values produced by the
      other software decreased their performance, but this difference could be
      mitigated using proper data filtering or imputation methods. Among the imputation
      methods, we found that the local least squares (lls) regression imputation
      consistently increased the performance of the software in the differential
      expression analysis, and a combination of both data filtering and local least
      squares imputation increased performance the most in the tested data sets.

PMID- 28575148
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28575147
TI  - Tissue-specific network-based genome wide study of amygdala imaging phenotypes to
      identify functional interaction modules.
AB  - Motivation: Network-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) aim to identify
      functional modules from biological networks that are enriched by top GWAS
      findings. Although gene functions are relevant to tissue context, most existing
      methods analyze tissue-free networks without reflecting phenotypic specificity.
      Results: We propose a novel module identification framework for imaging genetic
      studies using the tissue-specific functional interaction network. Our method
      includes three steps: (i) re-prioritize imaging GWAS findings by applying machine
      learning methods to incorporate network topological information and enhance the
      connectivity among top genes; (ii) detect densely connected modules based on
      interactions among top re-prioritized genes; and (iii) identify phenotype
      relevant modules enriched by top GWAS findings. We demonstrate our method on the
      GWAS of [18F]FDG-PET measures in the amygdala region using the imaging genetic
      data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, and map the GWAS
      results onto the amygdala-specific functional interaction network. The proposed
      network-based GWAS method can effectively detect densely connected modules
      enriched by top GWAS findings. Tissue-specific functional network can provide
      precise context to help explore the collective effects of genes with biologically
      meaningful interactions specific to the studied phenotype. Availability and
      implementation: The R code and sample data are freely available at
      http://www.iu.edu/shenlab/tools/gwasmodule/. Contact: shenli@iu.edu.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28575150
TI  - Melatonin as a promising agent to treat ovarian cancer: molecular mechanisms.
AB  - Ovarian cancer (OC) has the highest mortality rate of all gynecological cancers,
      and most patients develop chemoresistance after first-line treatments. Despite
      recent advances, the 5-year relative survival is ~45% for all OC subtypes, and
      invasive epithelial OC has only a 17% survival rate when diagnosed at a late
      stage. Identification of new efficacious molecules or biomarkers represents
      important opportunities in the treatment of OC. The pharmacological and
      physiological properties of melatonin indicate this agent could be useful against
      OC progression and metastasis. In normal cells, melatonin has potent antioxidant
      and anti-apoptotic actions. Conversely, melatonin has pro-oxidant as well as anti
      proliferative, anti-angiogenic and immunomodulatory properties in many cancer
      types including hormone-dependent cancers. Although melatonin receptors have been
      identified in OC cells, the exact mechanism by which melatonin induces anticancer
      activities remains incompletely understood. Clinical studies have reported
      negative correlation between aggressiveness of OC and serum levels of melatonin,
      reinforcing the idea that melatonin may be a critical factor determining OC
      development. In vitro and in vivo studies suggest melatonin differentially
      regulates multiple signaling pathways in OC cells. This focused review explores
      the potential mechanisms of action of melatonin on cultured OC cells and in
      experimental models of OC in an attempt to clarify how melatonin modulates the
      signaling pathways involved in cancer cell apoptosis, survival, inflammation,
      proliferation and metabolic processes. Based on the evidence presented, we feel
      that melatonin, as an agent that controls cellular signals associated with
      malignancy, may be beneficial in combination with other therapeutics for OC
      treatment.

PMID- 28575149
TI  - Cerebrovascular resistance: effects on cognitive decline, cortical atrophy, and
      progression to dementia.
AB  - See Markus (doi:10.1093/awx161) for a scientific commentary on this
      article.Evidence for vascular contributions to Alzheimer's disease has been
      increasingly identified, with increased blood pressure and decreased cerebral
      blood flow both linked to in vivo biomarkers and clinical progression of
      Alzheimer's disease. We therefore hypothesized that an elevated ratio of blood
      pressure to cerebral blood flow, indicative of cerebrovascular resistance, would
      exhibit earlier and more widespread associations with Alzheimer's disease than
      cerebral blood flow alone. Further, we predicted that increased cerebrovascular
      resistance and amyloid retention would synergistically influence cognitive
      performance trajectories, independent of neuronal metabolism. Lastly, we
      anticipated associations between cerebrovascular resistance and later brain
      atrophy, prior to amyloid accumulation. To evaluate these hypotheses, we
      investigated associations between cerebrovascular resistance and amyloid
      retention, cognitive decline, and brain atrophy, controlling for neuronal
      metabolism. North American older adults (n = 232) underwent arterial spin
      labelling magnetic resonance imaging to measure regional cerebral blood flow in
      brain regions susceptible to ageing and Alzheimer's disease. An estimated
      cerebrovascular resistance index was then calculated as the ratio of mean
      arterial pressure to regional cerebral blood flow. Positron emission tomography
      with 18F-florbetapir and fludeoxyglucose was used to quantify amyloid retention
      and neuronal metabolism, respectively. Cognitive performance was evaluated via
      annual assessments of global cognition, memory, and executive function. Results
      indicated diminished inferior parietal and temporal cerebral blood flow for
      patients with Alzheimer's disease (n = 33) relative to both non-demented groups,
      but no cerebral blood flow differences between non-demented amyloid-positive (n =
      87) and amyloid-negative (n = 112) cases. In contrast, the cerebrovascular
      resistance index was significantly elevated in amyloid-positive versus amyloid
      negative cases, with additional elevation in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
      Furthermore, cerebrovascular resistance index group differences were of greater
      statistical effect size and encompassed a greater number of brain regions than
      those for cerebral blood flow alone. Cognitive decline over 2-year follow-up was
      accelerated by elevated baseline cerebrovascular resistance index, particularly
      for amyloid-positive individuals. Increased baseline cerebrovascular resistance
      index also predicted greater progression to dementia, beyond that attributable to
      amyloid-positivity. Finally, increased cerebrovascular resistance index predicted
      greater regional atrophy among non-demented older adults who were amyloid
      negative. Findings suggest that increased cerebrovascular resistance may
      represent a previously unrecognized contributor to Alzheimer's disease that is
      independent of neuronal hypometabolism, predates changes in brain perfusion,
      exacerbates and works synergistically with amyloidosis to produce cognitive
      decline, and drives amyloid-independent brain atrophy during the earliest stage
      of disease.

PMID- 28575151
TI  - Brain inflammation accompanies amyloid in the majority of mild cognitive
      impairment cases due to Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - See Kreisl (doi:10.1093/awx151) for a scientific commentary on this
      article.Subjects with mild cognitive impairment associated with cortical amyloid
      beta have a greatly increased risk of progressing to Alzheimer's disease. We
      hypothesized that neuroinflammation occurs early in Alzheimer's disease and would
      be present in most amyloid-positive mild cognitive impairment cases. 11C
      Pittsburgh compound B and 11C-(R)-PK11195 positron emission tomography was used
      to determine the amyloid load and detect the extent of neuroinflammation
      (microglial activation) in 42 mild cognitive impairment cases. Twelve age-matched
      healthy control subjects had 11C-Pittsburgh compound B and 10 healthy control
      subjects had 11C-(R)-PK11195 positron emission tomography for comparison. Amyloid
      positivity was defined as 11C-Pittsburgh compound B target-to-cerebellar ratio
      above 1.5 within a composite cortical volume of interest. Supervised cluster
      analysis was used to generate parametric maps of 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding
      potential. Levels of 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding potential were measured in a
      selection of cortical volumes of interest and at a voxel level. Twenty-six (62%)
      of 42 mild cognitive impairment cases showed a raised cortical amyloid load
      compared to healthy controls. Twenty-two (85%) of the 26 amyloid-positive mild
      cognitive impairment cases showed clusters of increased cortical microglial
      activation accompanying the amyloid. There was a positive correlation between
      levels of amyloid load and 11C-(R)-PK11195 binding potentials at a voxel level
      within subregions of frontal, parietal and temporal cortices. 11C-(R)-PK11195
      positron emission tomography reveals increased inflammation in a majority of
      amyloid positive mild cognitive impairment cases, its cortical distribution
      overlapping that of amyloid deposition.

PMID- 28575152
TI  - Fisetin Reduces the Impact of Aging on Behavior and Physiology in the Rapidly
      Aging SAMP8 Mouse.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is rarely addressed in the context of aging even though
      there is an overlap in pathology. We previously used a phenotypic screening
      platform based on old age-associated brain toxicities to identify the flavonol
      fisetin as a potential therapeutic for AD and other age-related neurodegenerative
      diseases. Based on earlier results with fisetin in transgenic AD mice, we
      hypothesized that fisetin would be effective against brain aging and cognitive
      dysfunction in rapidly aging senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mice, a model
      for sporadic AD and dementia. An integrative approach was used to correlate
      protein expression and metabolite levels in the brain with cognition. It was
      found that fisetin reduced cognitive deficits in old SAMP8 mice while restoring
      multiple markers associated with impaired synaptic function, stress, and
      inflammation. These results provide further evidence for the potential benefits
      of fisetin for the treatment of age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28575155
TI  - Dynamic-BM: multispecies Dynamic BodyMap database from temporal RNA-seq data.
AB  - Biological processes, especially developmental processes, are often dynamic.
      Previous BodyMap projects for human and mouse have provided researchers with
      portals to tissue-specific gene expression, but these efforts have not included
      dynamic gene expression patterns. Over the past few years, substantial progress
      in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of protein-coding and long
      noncoding RNA (lncRNA) genes in development processes has been achieved through
      numerous time series RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) studies. However, none of the
      existing databases focuses on these time series data, thus rendering the
      exploration of dynamic gene expression patterns inconvenient. Here, we present
      Dynamic BodyMap (Dynamic-BM), a database for temporal gene expression profiles,
      obtained from 2203 time series of RNA-seq samples, covering >25 tissues from five
      species. Dynamic-BM has a user-friendly Web interface designed for browsing and
      searching the dynamic expression pattern of genes from different sources. It is
      an open resource for efficient data exploration, providing dynamic expression
      profiles of both protein-coding genes and lncRNAs to facilitate the generation of
      new hypotheses in developmental biology research. Additionally, Dynamic-BM
      includes a literature-based knowledgebase for lncRNAs associated with tissue
      development and a list of manually selected lncRNA candidates that may be
      involved in tissue development. Dynamic-BM is available at
      http://bioinfo.ibp.ac.cn/Dynamic-BM.

PMID- 28575153
TI  - Targeting oxidative stress improves disease outcomes in a rat model of acquired
      epilepsy.
AB  - Epilepsy therapy is based on antiseizure drugs that treat the symptom, seizures,
      rather than the disease and are ineffective in up to 30% of patients. There are
      no treatments for modifying the disease-preventing seizure onset, reducing
      severity or improving prognosis. Among the potential molecular targets for
      attaining these unmet therapeutic needs, we focused on oxidative stress since it
      is a pathophysiological process commonly occurring in experimental
      epileptogenesis and observed in human epilepsy. Using a rat model of acquired
      epilepsy induced by electrical status epilepticus, we show that oxidative stress
      occurs in both neurons and astrocytes during epileptogenesis, as assessed by
      measuring biochemical and histological markers. This evidence was validated in
      the hippocampus of humans who died following status epilepticus. Oxidative stress
      was reduced in animals undergoing epileptogenesis by a transient treatment with N
      acetylcysteine and sulforaphane, which act to increase glutathione levels through
      complementary mechanisms. These antioxidant drugs are already used in humans for
      other therapeutic indications. This drug combination transiently administered for
      2 weeks during epileptogenesis inhibited oxidative stress more efficiently than
      either drug alone. The drug combination significantly delayed the onset of
      epilepsy, blocked disease progression between 2 and 5 months post-status
      epilepticus and drastically reduced the frequency of spontaneous seizures
      measured at 5 months without modifying the average seizure duration or the
      incidence of epilepsy in animals. Treatment also decreased hippocampal neuron
      loss and rescued cognitive deficits. Oxidative stress during epileptogenesis was
      associated with de novo brain and blood generation of disulfide high mobility
      group box 1 (HMGB1), a neuroinflammatory molecule implicated in seizure
      mechanisms. Drug-induced reduction of oxidative stress prevented disulfide HMGB1
      generation, thus highlighting a potential novel mechanism contributing to
      therapeutic effects. Our data show that targeting oxidative stress with
      clinically used drugs for a limited time window starting early after injury
      significantly improves long-term disease outcomes. This intervention may be
      considered for patients exposed to potential epileptogenic insults.

PMID- 28575154
TI  - Effects of propylene glycol or elevated luteinizing hormone during follicle
      development on ovulation, fertilization, and early embryo development.
AB  - Seventeen nonlactating Holstein cows were superovulated in a Latin-square
      designed experiment to determine the effects of increased propylene glycol (PROP)
      and luteinizing hormone (LH) during antral follicle development on ovarian
      function, fertilization, and early embryo quality. PROP was orally drenched every
      4 h for 7 days to induce hyperinsulinemia and associated metabolic changes. LH
      concentrations were altered by increasing LH (3-fold) during last 2 days of
      superovulation. Treatment groups were as follows: (1) control-oral drenching with
      water plus low-LH preparation; (2) high LH(HLH)-water plus HLH preparation; (3)
      PROP-drenching with PROP plus low LH; (4) PROP/HLH-PROP plus HLH. PROP increased
      glucose (P < 0.05) and insulin (P < 0.02) concentrations at all time points
      analyzed. Neither PROP nor LH affected numbers of follicles > 9 mm at time of
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone-induced LH surge, although percentage of these
      follicles that ovulated was decreased by both PROP (P = 0.002) and LH (P =
      0.048). In addition, PROP tended (P = 0.056) to decrease total number of
      ovulations. PROP reduced (P = 0.028) fertilization rate, while LH tended (P =
      0.092) to increase fertilization rate. There was no effect of either PROP or LH
      on any measure of embryo quality including percentage of embryos that were
      degenerate, quality 1, or quality 1 and 2 of total structures collected or
      fertilized structures. These results indicate that acute elevation in insulin
      during the preovulatory follicular wave can decrease percentage of large
      follicles that ovulate, particularly when combined with increased LH, and reduce
      fertilization of ovulated oocytes.

PMID- 28575158
TI  - A novel telomerase-interacting OTU protein of Eimeria tenella and its telomerase
      regulating activity.

PMID- 28575156
TI  - Consequences of endogenous and exogenous WNT signaling for development of the
      preimplantation bovine embryo.
AB  - The specific role of WNT signaling during preimplantation development remains
      unclear. Here, we evaluated consequences of activation and inhibition of beta
      catenin (CTNNB1)-dependent and -independent WNT signaling in the bovine
      preimplantation embryo. Activation of CTNNB1-mediated WNT signaling by the
      agonist 2-amino-4-(3,4-(methylenedioxy)benzylamino)-6-(3-methoxyphenyl)pyrimidine
      (AMBMP) and a glycogen synthase kinase 3 inhibitor reduced development to the
      blastocyst stage. Moreover, the antagonist of WNT signaling, dickkopf-related
      protein 1 (DKK1), alleviated the negative effect of AMBMP on development via
      reduction of CTNNB1. Based on labeling for phospho c-Jun N-terminal kinase, there
      was no evidence that DKK1 activated the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway.
      Inhibition of secretion of endogenous WNTs did not affect development but
      increased number of cells in the inner cell mass (ICM). In contrast, DKK1 did not
      affect number of ICM or trophectoderm (TE) cells, suggesting that embryo-derived
      WNTs regulate ICM proliferation through a mechanism independent of CTNNB1. In
      addition, DKK1 did not affect the number of cells positive for the transcription
      factor yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) involved in TE formation. In fact, DKK1
      decreased YAP1. In contrast, exposure of embryos to WNT family member 7A (WNT7A)
      improved blastocyst development, inhibited the PCP pathway, and did not affect
      amounts of CTNNB1. Results indicate that embryo-derived WNTs are dispensable for
      blastocyst formation but participate in regulation of ICM proliferation, likely
      through a mechanism independent of CTNNB1. The response to AMBMP and WNT7A leads
      to the hypothesis that maternally derived WNTs can play a positive or negative
      role in regulation of preimplantation development.

PMID- 28575159
TI  - Performance of Calculated and Directly Measured Low-Density Lipoprotein
      Cholesterol in a Pediatric Population.
AB  - Objectives: An assessment of methods for the accurate measurement of low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) at decreased concentrations has not yet been
      carried out. We evaluated the performance of the Friedewald equation, a direct
      enzymatic assay, and a novel equation for determining LDL-C levels in a pediatric
      population with elevated triglycerides and reduced LDL-C levels. Methods: LDL-C
      concentrations of 127 pediatric patients were determined by the Friedewald
      equation, a direct enzymatic assay, and a novel equation. The bias of each
      approach was assessed at selected LDL-C cutoffs and after stratifying samples by
      triglyceride content. The concordance of each approach, relative to the reference
      method, was determined at LDL-C cut-points of less than 70, 70 to 99, and 100 to
      129 mg/dL. Results: The Friedewald equation substantially underestimated
      pediatric LDL-C concentrations below 100 mg/dL in the presence of elevated
      triglycerides. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (Raritan, NJ) direct LDL assay was
      positively biased at low LDL-C levels. The novel equation most effectively
      reduced the bias of the Friedewald equation at all LDL-C concentrations and
      increased the concordance of sample classification to the reference method.
      Conclusions: The novel equation should be used for accurate measurement of
      pediatric LDL-C when the concentration is below 100 mg/dL in the presence of
      elevated triglycerides (150-399 mg/dL).

PMID- 28575157
TI  - Sex Differences in Aging: Genomic Instability.
AB  - Aging is characterized by decreasing physiological integration, reduced function,
      loss of resilience, and increased risk of death. Paradoxically, although women
      live longer, they suffer greater morbidity particularly late in life. These sex
      differences in human lifespan and healthspan are consistently observed in all
      countries and during every era for which reliable data exist. While these
      differences are ubiquitous in humans, evidence of sex differences in longevity
      and health for other species is more equivocal. Among fruit flies, nematodes, and
      mice, sex differences in lifespan vary depending on strain and treatment. In this
      review, we focus on sex differences in age-related alterations in DNA damage and
      mutation rates, telomere attrition, epigenetics, and nuclear architecture. We
      find that robust sex differences exist, eg, the higher incidence of DNA damage in
      men compared to women, but sex differences are not often conserved between
      species. For most mechanisms reviewed here, there are insufficient data to make a
      clear determination regarding the impact of sex, largely because sex differences
      have not been analyzed. Overall, our findings reveal an urgent need for well
      designed studies that explicitly examine sex differences in molecular drivers of
      aging.

PMID- 28575161
TI  - GateKeeper: a new hardware architecture for accelerating pre-alignment in DNA
      short read mapping.
AB  - Motivation: High throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) technologies generate an
      excessive number of small DNA segments -called short reads- that cause
      significant computational burden. To analyze the entire genome, each of the
      billions of short reads must be mapped to a reference genome based on the
      similarity between a read and 'candidate' locations in that reference genome. The
      similarity measurement, called alignment, formulated as an approximate string
      matching problem, is the computational bottleneck because: (i) it is implemented
      using quadratic-time dynamic programming algorithms and (ii) the majority of
      candidate locations in the reference genome do not align with a given read due to
      high dissimilarity. Calculating the alignment of such incorrect candidate
      locations consumes an overwhelming majority of a modern read mapper's execution
      time. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a fast and effective filter that can
      detect incorrect candidate locations and eliminate them before invoking
      computationally costly alignment algorithms. Results: We propose GateKeeper, a
      new hardware accelerator that functions as a pre-alignment step that quickly
      filters out most incorrect candidate locations. GateKeeper is the first design to
      accelerate pre-alignment using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which can
      perform pre-alignment much faster than software. When implemented on a single
      FPGA chip, GateKeeper maintains high accuracy (on average >96%) while providing,
      on average, 90-fold and 130-fold speedup over the state-of-the-art software pre
      alignment techniques, Adjacency Filter and Shifted Hamming Distance (SHD),
      respectively. The addition of GateKeeper as a pre-alignment step can reduce the
      verification time of the mrFAST mapper by a factor of 10. Availability and
      implementation: https://github.com/BilkentCompGen/GateKeeper. Contact:
      mohammedalser@bilkent.edu.tr or onur.mutlu@inf.ethz.ch or
      calkan@cs.bilkent.edu.tr. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28575160
TI  - Dynamic changes in methylome and transcriptome patterns in response to
      methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine treatment in citrus.
AB  - DNA methylation is known to play an important role in various developmental
      processes in plants. However, there is a general lack of understanding about the
      possible functions of DNA methylation in fruit trees. Using callus as a model,
      methylome, transcriptome and metabolite changes were assessed after treatment
      with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5azaC). Genome-wide
      methylome analysis revealed the demethylation of a diverse of genes, including
      many genes encoding transcription factors (TFs), genes involved in biological
      processes, and the up-regulation of a wide range of transposable elements (TEs).
      Combined with the RNA-seq data, we observed no obvious genome-wide correlation
      between the changes in methylation status and expression levels. Furthermore,
      5azaC treatment induced carotenoid degradation along with strong activation of
      carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases 1 (CpCCD1). Functional complementation analysis
      in bacterial system showed that CpCCD1 exhibited strong catalytic activities
      toward zeaxanthin, beta-carotene and lycopene. In summary, 5azaC treatments
      induced carotenoid degradation by CpCCD1 activation and led to a genome-wide
      demethylation effect.

PMID- 28575162
TI  - Mycoplasma hominis Infections Transmitted Through Amniotic Tissue Product.
AB  - Background: Mycoplasma hominis is a commensal genitourinary tract organism that
      can cause infections outside the genitourinary tract. We investigated a cluster
      of M. hominis surgical site infections in patients who underwent spine surgery,
      all associated with amniotic tissue linked to a common donor. Methods: Laboratory
      tests of tissue product from the donor, including culture, quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and whole-genome sequencing were performed. Use
      of this amniotic tissue product was reviewed. A multistate investigation to
      identify additional cases and locate any unused products was conducted. Results:
      Twenty-seven tissue product vials from a donor were distributed to facilities in
      7 states; at least 20 vials from this donor were used in 14 patients. Of these, 4
      of 14 (29%) developed surgical site infections, including 2 M. hominis
      infections. Mycoplasma hominis was detected by culture and qPCR in 2 unused vials
      from the donor. Sequencing indicated >99% similarity between patient and unopened
      vial isolates. For 5 of 27 (19%) vials, the final disposition could not be
      confirmed. Conclusions: Mycoplasma hominis was transmitted through amniotic
      tissue from a single donor to 2 recipients. Current routine donor screening and
      product testing does not detect all potential pathogens. Clinicians should be
      aware that M. hominis can cause surgical site infections, and may not be detected
      by routine clinical cultures. The lack of a standardized system to track tissue
      products in healthcare facilities limits the ability of public health agencies to
      respond to outbreaks and investigate other adverse events associated with these
      products.

PMID- 28575163
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28575164
TI  - Genetic Mouse Models with Intestinal-Specific Tight Junction Deletion Resemble an
      Ulcerative Colitis Phenotype.
AB  - Background and Aims: A key pathogenetic feature of ulcerative colitis [UC] is an
      intrinsic low mucus phosphatidylcholine[PC] content. Recently, a paracellular
      transport for PC across tight junctions[TJs] was described, suggesting TJ
      disturbance as a cause of diminished luminal PC transport. Therefore, we aimed to
      generate mutant mice with TJ deletion to evaluate whether a UC phenotype
      developed. Methods: CL57BL/6 control wild-type mice were compared to mutant mice
      with tamoxifen-induced villin-Cre-dependent intestinal deletion of kindlin 1 and
      2. Results: Electron microscopy of mucosal biopsies obtained from both mutants
      before overt inflammation following only 2 days of tamoxifen exposure revealed a
      defective TJ morphology with extended paracellular space and, by light
      microscopy, expanded mucosal crypt lumina. PC secretion into mucus was reduced by
      >65% and the mucus PC content dropped by >50%, causing a >50 % decrease of mucus
      hydrophobicity in both mutants. Consequently, the microbiota was able to
      penetrate the submucosa. After 3 days of tamoxifen exposure, intestinal
      inflammation was present in both mutants, with loose bloody stools as well as
      macroscopic and histological features of colitis. Oral PC supplementation was
      able to suppress inflammation. By analogy, colonic biopsies obtained from
      patients with UC in remission also showed a defective epithelium with widened
      intercellular clefts, and enlarged crypt luminal diameters with functionally
      impaired luminal PC secretion. Conclusions: Genetic mouse models with intestinal
      deletion of kindlin 1 and 2 resulted in TJ deletion and revealed
      pathophysiological features of impaired PC secretion to the mucus leading to
      mucosal inflammation compatible with human UC.

PMID- 28575165
TI  - Genome-wide profiling of Sus scrofa circular RNAs across nine organs and three
      developmental stages.
AB  - The spatio-temporal expression patterns of Circular RNA (circRNA) across organs
      and developmental stages are critical for its function and evolution analysis.
      However, they remain largely unclear in mammals. Here, we comprehensively
      analysed circRNAs in nine organs and three skeletal muscles of Guizhou miniature
      pig (S. scrofa), a widely used biomedical model animal. We identified 5,934
      circRNAs and analysed their molecular properties, sequence conservation, spatio
      temporal expression pattern, potential function, and interaction with miRNAs. S.
      scrofa circRNAs show modest sequence conservation with human and mouse circRNAs,
      are flanked by long introns, exhibit low abundance, and are expressed dynamically
      in a spatio-temporally specific manner. S. scrofa circRNAs show the greatest
      abundance and complexity in the testis. Notably, 31% of circRNAs harbour well
      conserved canonical miRNA seed matches, suggesting that some circRNAs act as
      miRNAs sponges. We identified 149 circRNAs potentially associated with muscle
      growth and found that their host genes were significantly involved in muscle
      development, contraction, chromatin modification, cation homeostasis, and ATP
      hydrolysis-coupled proton transport; moreover, this set of genes was markedly
      enriched in genes involved in tight junctions and the calcium signalling pathway.
      Finally, we constructed the first public S. scrofa circRNA database, allowing
      researchers to query comprehensive annotation, expression, and regulatory
      networks of circRNAs.

PMID- 28575166
TI  - LTA4H regulates cell cycle and skin carcinogenesis.
AB  - Leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H), a bifunctional zinc metallo-enzyme, is
      reportedly overexpressed in several human cancers. Our group has focused on LTA4H
      as a potential target for cancer prevention and/or therapy. In the present study,
      we report that LTA4H is a key regulator of cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase acting
      by negatively regulating p27 expression in skin cancer. We found that LTA4H is
      overexpressed in human skin cancer tissue. Knocking out LTA4H significantly
      reduced skin cancer development in the 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)
      initiated/12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-promoted two-stage skin
      cancer mouse model. LTA4H depletion dramatically decreased anchorage-dependent
      and -independent skin cancer cell growth by inducing cell cycle arrest at the
      G0/G1 phase. Moreover, our findings showed that depletion of LTA4H enhanced p27
      protein stability, which was associated with decreased phosphorylation of CDK2 at
      Thr160 and inhibition of the CDK2/cyclin E complex, resulting in down-regulated
      p27 ubiquitination. These findings indicate that LTA4H is critical for skin
      carcinogenesis and is an important mediator of cell cycle and the data begin to
      clarify the mechanisms of LTA4H's role in cancer development.

PMID- 28575167
TI  - Evaluation of Real-World Implementation of Partitioning and Negative
      Pressurization for Preventing the Dispersion of Dust From Renovation Sites.
AB  - Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the implementation of
      partitioning and the negative pressure method in limiting the dispersion of dust
      to areas adjacent to renovation sites. Methods: The pressure difference between
      the worksites and adjacent areas and PM10 concentrations in the both zones were
      measured in 12 renovation sites, and the factors affecting the prevention of
      dispersion of dust were assessed. Results: Poor implementation of partitioning
      and negative pressurization found in half of the renovation sites lead
      difficulties in achieving a proper negative pressure, causing dispersion of dust
      into adjacent areas. Main problems related to flimsy partitioning walls and poor
      air tightness of the enclosure. Dust concentrations in adjacent areas were
      substantially lower when natural ventilation in the renovation site was rejected
      and partitioning walls and their junctions to existing structures were sealed. In
      case of leaky enclosures, despite the high air exchange rates, a definite
      negative pressure could not be maintained. Instead, negative pressure minimum of 
      5 Pa was found to be sufficient for limiting the dispersion of dust from
      renovation sites. Conclusions: Improvement on implementation of dust controls is
      required through revising the guidance documents, education, and efficient
      supervision. This study revealed that the current Finnish practice to implement
      the negative pressurization based on the air exchange rate achieved with the
      portable exhaust fans alone is not reasonable to assure adequate dust
      containment. Continuous negative pressure minimum of -5 Pa is suggested, and it
      should be monitored with alarm devices throughout the renovation processes.

PMID- 28575168
TI  - Naked Surgeons? The Debate About What to Wear in the Operating Room.
AB  - There has been recent controversy regarding recommendations and regulations
      concerning operating room attire. We performed a nonsystematic literature search
      regarding operating room attire and surgical site infection (SSI) risk. Much of
      the literature relies on air sampling and culture of operating room equipment but
      does not present evidence regarding effect on SSI risk. There is no evidence
      regarding SSI risk related to operating room attire except for sterile gowns and
      the use of gloves. Naked surgeons shed fewer bacteria into the operating room
      environment than ones wearing scrub suits.

PMID- 28575170
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28575169
TI  - MD-TASK: a software suite for analyzing molecular dynamics trajectories.
AB  - Summary: Molecular dynamics (MD) determines the physical motions of atoms of a
      biological macromolecule in a cell-like environment and is an important method in
      structural bioinformatics. Traditionally, measurements such as root mean square
      deviation, root mean square fluctuation, radius of gyration, and various energy
      measures have been used to analyze MD simulations. Here, we present MD-TASK, a
      novel software suite that employs graph theory techniques, perturbation response
      scanning, and dynamic cross-correlation to provide unique ways for analyzing MD
      trajectories. Availability and implementation: MD-TASK has been open-sourced and
      is available for download from https://github.com/RUBi-ZA/MD-TASK , implemented
      in Python and supported on Linux/Unix. Contact: o.tastanbishop@ru.ac.za.

PMID- 28575171
TI  - karyoploteR: an R/Bioconductor package to plot customizable genomes displaying
      arbitrary data.
AB  - Motivation: Data visualization is a crucial tool for data exploration, analysis
      and interpretation. For the visualization of genomic data there lacks a tool to
      create customizable non-circular plots of whole genomes from any species.
      Results: We have developed karyoploteR, an R/Bioconductor package to create
      linear chromosomal representations of any genome with genomic annotations and
      experimental data plotted along them. Plot creation process is inspired in R base
      graphics, with a main function creating karyoplots with no data and multiple
      additional functions, including custom functions written by the end-user, adding
      data and other graphical elements. This approach allows the creation of highly
      customizable plots from arbitrary data with complete freedom on data positioning
      and representation. Availability and implementation: karyoploteR is released
      under Artistic-2.0 License. Source code and documentation are freely available
      through Bioconductor (http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/karyoploteR) and at
      the examples and tutorial page at
      https://bernatgel.github.io/karyoploter_tutorial. Contact: bgel@igtp.cat.

PMID- 28575172
TI  - Longitudinal Changes in Excess Pressure Independently Predict Declining Renal
      Function Among Healthy Individuals-A Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aortic reservoir function independently predicts end-organ damage in
      cross-sectional analyses. However, longitudinal associations are more important
      regarding causation, but this has never been examined at rest or in response to
      light-moderate intensity exercise. The aim of this study was to determine the
      association between the change in aortic reservoir characteristics, in particular
      excess pressure integral (Pexcess) at rest and in response to exercise and the
      change in kidney function among healthy individuals followed over time. METHODS:
      Aortic reservoir function (Pexcess and reservoir pressure), aortic stiffness,
      brachial and central blood pressure (BP), and renal function (estimated
      glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]) were recorded among 33 healthy individuals (57
      +/- 9 years; 55% male) at baseline and after an average 3.0 +/- 0.3 years.
      RESULTS: Over the follow up period, there was a significant increase in resting
      brachial BP, central BP, Pexcess, and aortic stiffness (P < 0.05 all). The change
      over time in resting Pexcess (but not aortic stiffness) was significantly related
      to the change in eGFR (r = -0.38, P = 0.038) and remained independent of age at
      follow up, change in 24-hour ambulatory systolic BP and body mass index (beta = 
      0.0300, P = 0.043). There was no association between the change in aortic pulse
      wave velocity and the change eGFR (P = 0.46) nor were there any associations with
      exercising hemodynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Pexcess is independently associated with a
      decline in renal function among healthy people followed over 3 years. These novel
      findings indicate the need to determine the underlying physiological determinants
      of aortic reservoir function.

PMID- 28575173
TI  - Healthcare-Associated Mycobacterium bovis-Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Infection
      in Cancer Patients Without Prior BCG Instillation.
AB  - Background: Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium
      bovis, is widely used as adjunctive therapy for superficial bladder cancer.
      Intravesical administration of BCG has been associated with systemic infection.
      Disseminated infection due to M. bovis is otherwise uncommon. Methods: After
      identification of 3 patients with healthcare-associated BCG infection who had
      never received intravesical BCG administration, an epidemiologic study was
      performed. All patients with healthcare-associated BCG infection in the Barcelona
      tuberculosis (TB) program were reviewed from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2015,
      searching for infections caused by M. bovis-BCG. Patients with healthcare
      associated BCG infection who had not received intravesical BCG instillation were
      selected and the source of infection was investigated. Results: Nine oncology
      patients with infection caused by M. bovis-BCG were studied. All had permanent
      central venous catheters. Catheter maintenance was performed at 4 different
      outpatient clinics in the same room in which other patients underwent BCG
      instillations for bladder cancer without required biological precautions. All
      patients developed pulmonary TB, either alone or with extrapulmonary disease.
      Catheter-related infection was considered the mechanism of acquisition based on
      the epidemiologic association and positive catheter cultures for BCG in patients
      in whom mycobacterial cultures were performed. Conclusions: Physicians should be
      alerted to the possibility of TB due to nosocomially acquired, catheter-related
      infections with M. bovis-BCG in patients with indwelling catheters. This problem
      may be more common than expected in centers providing BCG therapy for bladder
      cancer without adequate precautions.

PMID- 28575174
TI  - Effects of Endogenous Oxytocin Receptor Signaling in Nucleus Tractus Solitarius
      on Satiation-Mediated Feeding and Thermogenic Control in Male Rats.
AB  - Central oxytocin receptor (OT-R) signaling reduces food intake and increases
      energy expenditure, but the central sites and mechanisms mediating these effects
      are unresolved. We showed previously that pharmacological activation of OT-R in
      hindbrain/nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) amplifies the intake-inhibitory
      effects of gastrointestinal (GI) satiation signals. Unexplored were the energetic
      effects of hindbrain OT-R agonism and the physiological relevance of NTS OT-R
      signaling on food intake and energy expenditure control. Using a virally mediated
      OT-R knockdown (KD) strategy and a range of behavioral paradigms, this study
      examined the role of endogenous NTS OT-R signaling on satiation-mediated food
      intake inhibition and thermogenic control. Results showed that, compared with
      controls, NTS OT-R KD rats consumed larger meals, were less responsive to the
      intake-inhibitory effects of a self-ingested preload, and consumed more chow
      following a 24-hour fast. These data indicate that NTS OT-R signaling is
      necessary for normal satiation control. Whereas both control and NTS OT-R KD rats
      increased core temperature following high-fat diet maintenance (relative to chow
      maintenance), the percent increase in core temperature was greater in control
      compared with NTS OT-R KD rats during the light cycle. Hindbrain oxytocin agonist
      delivery increased core temperature in both control and NTS OT-R KD rats and the
      percent increase relative to vehicle treatment was not significantly different
      between groups. Together, data reveal a critical role for endogenous NTS OT-R
      signaling in mediating the intake-inhibitory effects of endogenous GI satiation
      signals and in diet-induced thermogenesis.

PMID- 28575176
TI  - Global oncofertility index-data gap slows progress.
AB  - The number of pediatric and young adult cancer survivors is increasing globally
      due to earlier diagnostics and expansion of targeted chemo- and biological-based
      therapeutics. As a consequence, cancer-related infertility and reproductive
      hormone loss is of increasing concern for both male and female survivors. We
      attempted to estimate the reproductive loss in oncofertility-practicing countries
      and to develop a global oncofertility index (OFI). This would allow an accounting
      of the level of urgency of the issue and would provide national comparisons of
      fertility loss, which differ based on the prevalence and/or diagnosis frequency
      and treatment variables by countries or region. While the goal is laudable, an
      index such as this is unachievable due to the lack of the kind of information
      that would be necessary to calculate such a meaningful index. Without this
      metric, we will be unable to assess how oncofertility concerns are being
      addressed and what lessons can be learned from countries that improve such an
      index over time.

PMID- 28575175
TI  - Central Administration of Indomethacin Mitigates the Injury-Induced Upregulation
      of Aromatase Expression and Estradiol Content in the Zebra Finch Brain.
AB  - Injury to the vertebrate brain causes neuroinflammation, characterized in part by
      increases in prostaglandins. In rodents and songbirds, brain injury also induces
      the transcription and translation of aromatase in reactive astrocytes around the
      site of damage. Interestingly, this induction is more rapid in female zebra
      finches relative to males. Induced aromatization is neuroprotective, as
      inhibition of aromatase and estrogen replacement, increases and decreases the
      extent of damage, respectively. Although the consequences of induced astrocytic
      aromatization are intensely studied, little is known about what factors induce
      aromatase. Inflammation is sufficient to induce astrocytic aromatase suggesting
      that the link between inflammation and aromatase expression may be causal. To
      test this hypothesis, adult male and female zebra finches received bilateral
      mechanical injuries through which either the cyclooxygenase (COX)-1/2 inhibitor
      indomethacin or vehicle was administered into contralateral hemispheres. Subjects
      were killed either 6 or 24 hours after injury. In both sexes, an enzyme
      immunoassay for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) revealed that indomethacin decreased PGE2
      relative to the contralateral hemisphere at both time points, suggesting that the
      dose and mode of administration used were successful in affecting
      neuroinflammation locally. Indomethacin reduced aromatase expression and 17beta
      estradiol (E2) content at 6 hours but not 24 hours following injury in females.
      However, in males, the inhibitory effect of indomethacin on aromatase and E2 was
      apparent at 24 but not 6 hours after treatment. These data suggest that COX
      activity, perhaps via consequent prostaglandin secretion, may induce aromatase
      expression and central E2, an effect that is detectable in temporally distinct
      patterns between sexes.

PMID- 28575177
TI  - The Prevalence and Role of Hemoglobin Variants in Biometric Screening of a
      Multiethnic Population: One Large Health System's Experience.
AB  - Objectives: To characterize and quantitate hemoglobin (Hb) variants discovered
      during biometric hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) analyses in a large multiethnic
      population with a focus on the effect of variants on testing method and results.
      Methods: In total, 13,913 individuals had their HbA1c measured via ion-exchange
      high-performance liquid chromatography. Samples that had a variant Hb detected or
      HbF fraction more than 25% underwent variant Hb characterization and confirmation
      by gel electrophoresis. RBC indices were also evaluated for possible concomitant
      thalassemia. Results: Of the 13,913 individuals evaluated, 524 (3.77%) had an Hb
      variant. The prevalence of each variant was as follows: HbS trait (n = 396,
      2.85%), HbSS disease (n = 4, 0.03%), HbC trait (n = 85, 0.61%), HbCC disease (n =
      2, 0.01%), HbSC disease (n = 5, 0.04%), HbE trait (n = 18, 0.13%), HbD or G trait
      (n = 9, 0.06%), HbS beta-thalassemia + disease (n = 1, 0.01%), hereditary
      persistence of HbF (n = 2, 0.01%), and HbMontgomery trait (n = 1, 0.01%).
      Concomitant alpha-thalassemia was detected in 20 (3.82%) of the 524 individuals
      with an Hb variant. Conclusions: This study represents one of the largest
      epidemiologic investigations into the prevalence of Hb variants in a North
      American metropolitan, multiethnic workforce and their dependents and reinforces
      the importance of method selection in populations with Hb variants.

PMID- 28575178
TI  - Predominance of CD4+ T Cells in T-Cell/Histiocyte-Rich Large B-Cell Lymphoma and
      Identification of a Subset of Patients With Peripheral B-Cell Lymphopenia.
AB  - Objectives: T-cell/histiocyte-rich large B-cell lymphoma (THRLBCL) is a
      morphologic variant of large B-cell lymphoma whose flow cytometry findings are
      not well characterized. Methods: Nineteen cases with flow cytometric
      immunophenotyping were identified from the case records of four institutions
      between 2001 and 2016. Results: In most cases, neoplastic B cells were not
      detected by flow cytometry. Overall, cases showed a predominance of CD4+ T cells,
      which in some cases was marked. Significant coexpression of CD57 was seen on CD4+
      T cells where this marker was analyzed, which correlated with PD-1 expression.
      Two cases also showed a profound systemic B-cell lymphopenia, which was
      associated in one case with hypogammaglobulinemia. Conclusions: Overall, our work
      challenges previous findings that cases of THRLBCL are rich in CD8+ T cells and
      highlights parallels between THRLBCL and nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin
      lymphoma (NLPHL). Also, an association of THRLBCL with systemic B-cell
      lymphopenia has not been previously reported but may represent an underrecognized
      manifestation.

PMID- 28575179
TI  - Measurement Bias of Gross Pathologic Compared With Radiologic Tumor Size of
      Resected Lung Adenocarcinomas: Implications for the T-Stage Revisions in the
      Eighth Edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual.
AB  - Objectives: The eighth edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual now stratifies
      the T descriptor for lung cancers by each increasing 1.0 cm increment, up to 5.0
      cm, with an additional category for tumor greater than 7.0 cm. Bias in pathologic
      versus radiologic measurements may impact tumor staging. Methods: The gross
      pathologic measurements of 493 resected lung adenocarcinomas were compared with
      presurgical computed tomography radiologic measurements. Also, pathologic tumor
      measurement data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)
      program database were examined. Results: The distribution of pathologic
      measurements showed clustering at 0.5-cm increments, with 43.0% of pathologic
      measurements falling on 0.5-cm increments compared to only 20.3% of radiologic
      measurements. This pathologic measurement clustering was also observed for both
      591,691 resected lung cancers and 3,597,685 tumors of any type from the SEER
      database. Conclusions: Compared to radiologic measurements, gross pathologic
      measurements cluster around whole- and half-cm values. This measurement bias
      could lead to incorrect pathologic tumor staging and influence clinical treatment
      plans.

PMID- 28575180
TI  - Performance Evaluation of Serum Free Light Chain Analysis: Nephelometry vs
      Turbidimetry, Monoclonal vs Polyclonal Reagents.
AB  - Objectives: Free light chain (FLC) measurement gained a lot of interest for
      diagnostic workup of monoclonal gammopathy. Methods: We evaluated the performance
      of turbidimetric polyclonal Freelite (The Binding Site, Birmingham, UK) assays on
      Cobas 6000 (Roche Diagnostics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland) and nephelometric
      monoclonal N Latex (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany) assays on
      BN ProSpec (Dade Behring, Deerfield, IL) vs established nephelometric Freelite
      assays on BN ProSpec. Results: Analytical performance was acceptable. Method
      comparison (n = 118) showed significant proportional FLC differences for N Latex
      assays. However, good correlation and clinical concordance were shown. Recovery
      study in the low concentration range demonstrated consistent over- and
      underrecovery for Freelite reagents, hampering future research on prognostic
      value of suppressed noninvolved FLC. Antigen excess detection was successful for
      kappa FLC in three-fourths of cases with Freelite reagents and in all cases with
      N Latex reagents. However, the latter resulted in underestimated kappa FLC
      concentrations. Conclusions: FLC analysis requires continuous awareness of
      analytical limitations. Monitoring of disease response requires FLC analysis on
      the same platform using the same reagents.

PMID- 28575181
TI  - DeepSite: protein-binding site predictor using 3D-convolutional neural networks.
AB  - Motivation: An important step in structure-based drug design consists in the
      prediction of druggable binding sites. Several algorithms for detecting binding
      cavities, those likely to bind to a small drug compound, have been developed over
      the years by clever exploitation of geometric, chemical and evolutionary features
      of the protein. Results: Here we present a novel knowledge-based approach that
      uses state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks, where the algorithm is
      learned by examples. In total, 7622 proteins from the scPDB database of binding
      sites have been evaluated using both a distance and a volumetric overlap
      approach. Our machine-learning based method demonstrates superior performance to
      two other competitive algorithmic strategies. Availability and implementation:
      DeepSite is freely available at www.playmolecule.org. Users can submit either a
      PDB ID or PDB file for pocket detection to our NVIDIA GPU-equipped servers
      through a WebGL graphical interface. Contact: gianni.defabritiis@upf.edu.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28575182
TI  - Erratum to: 'Proceedings from the 2nd European Clinical Consensus Conference for
      device-based therapies for hypertension: state of the art and considerations for
      the future.

PMID- 28575184
TI  - Corrigendum to: Risk of stroke in chronic heart failure patients with preserved
      ejection fraction, but without atrial fibrillation: analysis of the CHARM
      Preserved and I-Preserve trials.

PMID- 28575183
TI  - The genetic architecture of heterochrony as a quantitative trait: lessons from a
      computational model.
AB  - Heterochrony is known as a developmental change in the timing or rate of
      ontogenetic events across phylogenetic lineages. It is a key concept synthesizing
      development into ecology and evolution to explore the mechanisms of how
      developmental processes impact on phenotypic novelties. A number of molecular
      experiments using contrasting organisms in developmental timing have identified
      specific genes involved in heterochronic variation. Beyond these classic
      approaches that can only identify single genes or pathways, quantitative models
      derived from current next-generation sequencing data serve as a more powerful
      tool to precisely capture heterochronic variation and systematically map a
      complete set of genes that contribute to heterochronic processes. In this opinion
      note, we discuss a computational framework of genetic mapping that can
      characterize heterochronic quantitative trait loci that determine the pattern and
      process of development. We propose a unifying model that charts the genetic
      architecture of heterochrony that perceives and responds to environmental
      perturbations and evolves over geologic time. The new model may potentially
      enhance our understanding of the adaptive value of heterochrony and its
      evolutionary origins, providing a useful context for designing new organisms that
      can best use future resources.

PMID- 28575185
TI  - Recognition of short RP atrial tachycardia due to intra-atrial conduction delay:
      utility of a septal AH/HA Ratio <1.

PMID- 28575186
TI  - Comparing Manual Counting to Automated Image Analysis for the Assessment of
      Fungiform Papillae Density on Human Tongue.
AB  - The density of fungiform papillae (FPD) on the human tongue is currently taken as
      index for responsiveness to oral chemosensory stimuli. Visual analysis of digital
      tongue picture and manual counting by trained operators represents the most
      popular technique for FPD assessment. Methodological issues mainly due to
      operator bias are considered among factors accounting for the uncertainty about
      the relationships between FPD and responsiveness to chemosensory stimuli. The
      present study describes a novel automated method to count fungiform papillae (FP)
      from image analysis of tongue pictures. The method was applied to tongue pictures
      from 133 subjects. Taking the manual count as reference method, a partial least
      squares regression model was developed to predict FPD from tongue automated
      analysis output. FPD from manual and automated count showed the same normal
      distribution and comparable descriptive statistic values. Consistent subject
      classifications as low and high FPD were obtained according to the median values
      from manual and automated count. The same results on the effect of FPD variation
      on taste perception were obtained both using predicted and counted values. The
      proposed method overcomes count uncertainties due to researcher bias in manual
      counting and is suited for large population studies. Additional information is
      provided such as FP size class distribution which would help for a better
      understanding of the relationships between FPD variation and taste functions.

PMID- 28575187
TI  - High-Frequency Firing Activity of GnRH1 Neurons in Female Medaka Induces the
      Release of GnRH1 Peptide From Their Nerve Terminals in the Pituitary.
AB  - Hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons play an important role
      in promoting secretion of pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) and ovulation by
      releasing GnRH peptide. The release of GnRH peptide is generally assumed to be
      mainly modulated according to the firing activity of GnRH neurons. However, the
      relationship between the firing activity and the release of GnRH peptide has been
      elusive. We analyzed the relationship using two lines of transgenic medaka
      (gnrh1:enhanced green fluorescent protein and lhb:inverse-pericam) for the
      combined electrophysiological and Ca2+ imaging analyses. We show that a high
      frequency firing activity induced by an excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate,
      strongly increases [Ca2+]i in the cell bodies of GnRH1 neurons, which should lead
      to stimulation of GnRH release. We examined whether this high-frequency firing
      actually leads to the release of endogenous GnRH1 peptide from the nerve
      terminals projecting to the pituitary LH cells using a whole brain-pituitary
      preparation of a fish generated by crossing the two types of transgenic fish.
      Ca2+ imaging analyses showed that local glutamate activation of GnRH1 cell
      bodies, but not their nerve terminals in the pituitary, induced a substantial
      Ca2+ response in LH cells that was abolished in the presence of a GnRH receptor
      antagonist, Analog M. These results suggest that such an evoked high-frequency
      firing activity of GnRH1 cell body stimulates the release of endogenous GnRH1
      peptide from the axon terminals to the pituitary LH cells. Thus, the findings of
      the present study have clearly demonstrated the relationship between the firing
      activity of hypothalamic GnRH neurons and the release of GnRH peptide.

PMID- 28575188
TI  - Expression of OTUB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its effects on HCC cell
      migration and invasion.
AB  - OTUB1 (OTU domain-containing ubiquitin aldehyde binding protein 1) is a
      deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) that belongs to the ovarian tumor (OTU) domain
      protease superfamily. Although it has been demonstrated to play important roles
      in the development of many kinds of cancer, the mechanism of OTUB1 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not clear. The aim of this study was to explore
      the roles of OTUB1 in HCC progression using cell lines and 115 archived HCC
      samples. In addition, the clinical outcomes were also analyzed with a special
      focus on OTUB1 expression in HCC samples. In the immunohistochemical study, OTUB1
      showed high expression in 60 of the 115 cases (52.2%). The OTUB1 expression level
      was significantly correlated with many clinicopathological parameters, including
      TNM stage (P = 0.002), histology stage (P = 0.002), and metastasis/recurrence (P
      = 0.016). Survival analysis showed that the group with OTUB1 overexpression had
      significantly shorter overall survival time than the group with OTUB1
      downregulation (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.482; confidence interval [CI]: 0.311-0.748;
      P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that OTUB1 expression was a
      significant and independent prognostic parameter (HR = 0.214; CI: 0.126-0.364; P
      < 0.001) for HCC patients. The ability of HCC cells to undergo proliferation,
      migration, and invasion was suppressed by disruption of endogenous OTUB1 using
      short hairpin RNA (shRNA). OTUB1 expression appears to be a new and independent
      predictor for the prognosis of HCC patients. Overexpression of OTUB1 in HCC could
      be a novel, effective, and supplementary biomarker for HCC because it plays a
      vital role in the progression of HCC.

PMID- 28575189
TI  - Prosthetic valve endocarditis: predictors of early outcome of surgical therapy. A
      multicentric study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is an uncommon yet dreadful
      complication in patients with prosthetic valves that requires a distinct analysis
      from native valve endocarditis. The present study aims to investigate independent
      risk factors for early surgical outcomes in patients with PVE. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study was conducted in 8 Italian Cardiac Surgery Units from
      January 2000 to December 2013 by enrolling all PVE patients undergoing surgical
      treatment. RESULTS: A total of 209 consecutive patients were included in the
      study. During the study period, the global rate of surgical procedures for PVE
      among all operations for isolated or associated valvular disease was 0.45%.
      Despite its rarity this percentage increased significantly during the second time
      frame (2007-2013) in comparison with the previous one (2000-2006): 0.58% vs 0.31%
      (P < 0.001). Intraoperative and in-hospital mortality rates were 4.3% and 21.5%,
      respectively. Logistic regression analysis identified the following factors
      associated with in-hospital mortality: female gender [odds ratio (OR) = 4.62; P <
      0.001], shock status (OR = 3.29; P = 0.02), previous surgical procedures within 3
      months from the treatment (OR = 3.57; P = 0.009), multivalvular involvement (OR =
      8.04; P = 0.003), abscess (OR = 2.48; P = 0.03) and urgent surgery (OR = 6.63; P
      < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite its rarity, PVE showed a significant increase over
      time. Up to now, in-hospital mortality after surgical treatment still remains
      high (>20%). Critical clinical presentation and extension of anatomical lesions
      are strong preoperative predictors for poor early outcome.

PMID- 28575192
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28575191
TI  - Recurrent and congenital tracheoesophageal fistula in adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recurrent congenital tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) is well
      documented in infancy but may also present later in life. This study reviews our
      experience with the clinical presentation, diagnosis and management of 5
      recurrent and 2 primary congenital tracheoesophageal fistulas (TEF) in adult
      patients. There are no literature series of late recurrence of TEF (repaired in
      childhood and recurring in adulthood) and relatively few reported cases of
      initial adult presentation of TEF. In this series, we aim to provide the first
      large series description of late recurrence of congenital TEF following repair in
      infancy or childhood. We also present management considerations for this unique
      group of patients. METHODS: We performed a computer-based search of the adult
      thoracic surgery departmental operative database at our institution from 2002 to
      2014. Patients with iatrogenic TEF or malignant TEF were excluded. RESULTS: Seven
      patients are included in our series. Five patients (71%) had recurrent congenital
      TEF and 2 (29%) had initial diagnosis of congenital TEF. All presented with
      severe coughing symptoms, and most (86%) had a history of recurrent aspiration
      pneumonia. Repair technique was dictated by the location of the TEF and the
      specific tracheoesophageal pathology. Four patients underwent repair via cervical
      approach with or without a tracheal resection. Three patients with distal
      recurrence underwent repair via right thoracotomy with partial oesophagectomy for
      significant tissue compromise and cervical reconstruction. Patients were followed
      for at least 1 year. All 7 patients experienced full resolution of symptoms. One
      patient required postoperative placement of a retrievable tracheal stent for
      tracheomalacia. There were no mortalities. CONCLUSIONS: Adult presentation of
      congenital TEF is a rare but recognizable clinical entity. Recurrent TEF in
      adulthood is a possible late complication of TEF repair performed in childhood
      that has not previously been described. Adult patients experiencing symptoms of
      cough and recurrent aspiration pneumonia should be evaluated for congenital TEF.
      Surgical repair of congenital TEF in the adult is feasible and effective with
      acceptable morbidity.

PMID- 28575190
TI  - The Effects of Graded Levels of Calorie Restriction: X. Transcriptomic Responses
      of Epididymal Adipose Tissue.
AB  - Calorie restriction (CR) leads to a remarkable decrease in adipose tissue mass
      and increases longevity in many taxa. Since the discovery of leptin, the
      secretory abilities of adipose tissue have gained prominence in the responses to
      CR. We quantified transcripts of epididymal white adipose tissue of male C57BL/6
      mice exposed to graded levels of CR (0-40% CR) for 3 months. The numbers of
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in NF-kappaB, HIF1-alpha, and p53
      signaling increased with increasing levels of CR. These pathways were all
      significantly downregulated at 40% CR relative to 12 h ad libitum feeding. In
      addition, graded CR had a substantial impact on DEGs associated with pathways
      involved in angiogenesis. Of the 497 genes differentially expressed with graded
      CR, 155 of these genes included a signal peptide motif. These putative signaling
      proteins were involved in the response to ketones, TGF-beta signaling, negative
      regulation of insulin secretion, and inflammation. This accords with the
      previously established effects of graded CR on glucose homeostasis in the same
      mice. Overall these data suggest reduced levels of adipose tissue under CR may
      contribute to the protective impact of CR in multiple ways linked to changes in a
      large population of secreted proteins.

PMID- 28575193
TI  - The cost structure of routine infant immunization services: a systematic analysis
      of six countries.
AB  - Little information exists on the cost structure of routine infant immunization
      services in low- and middle-income settings. Using a unique dataset of routine
      infant immunization costs from six countries, we estimated how costs were
      distributed across budget categories and programmatic activities, and
      investigated how the cost structure of immunization sites varied by country and
      site characteristics. The EPIC study collected data on routine infant
      immunization costs from 319 sites in Benin, Ghana, Honduras, Moldova, Uganda,
      Zambia, using a standardized approach. For each country, we estimated the
      economic costs of infant immunization by administrative level, budget category,
      and programmatic activity from a programme perspective. We used regression models
      to describe how costs within each category were related to site operating
      characteristics and efficiency level. Site-level costs (incl. vaccines)
      represented 77-93% of national routine infant immunization costs. Labour and
      vaccine costs comprised 14-69% and 13-69% of site-level cost, respectively. The
      majority of site-level resources were devoted to service provision (facility
      based or outreach), comprising 48-78% of site-level costs across the six
      countries. Based on the regression analyses, sites with the highest service
      volume had a greater proportion of costs devoted to vaccines, with vaccine costs
      per dose relatively unaffected by service volume but non-vaccine costs
      substantially lower with higher service volume. Across all countries, more
      efficient sites (compared with sites with similar characteristics) had a lower
      cost share devoted to labour. The cost structure of immunization services varied
      substantially between countries and across sites within each country, and was
      related to site characteristics. The substantial variation observed in this
      sample suggests differences in operating model for otherwise similar sites, and
      further understanding of these differences could reveal approaches to improve
      efficiency and performance of immunization sites.

PMID- 28575194
TI  - Prohibitin 2/PHB2 in Parkin-mediated mitophagy: a potential therapeutic target
      for mitochondrial diseases.

PMID- 28575195
TI  - Prospective Associations of Local Destinations and Routes With Middle-to-Older
      Aged Adults' Walking.
AB  - Background and Objectives: To examine prospective associations of perceived
      attributes of local destinations and routes with middle-to-older aged adults' 4
      year changes in walking for transport (WT) and walking for recreation (WR).
      Research Design and Methods: Data were collected from adults aged 50-64 years
      old, living in Adelaide, Australia. Participants (N = 454) reported weekly
      frequency of WT and WR at baseline (2003-2004) and follow-up (2007-2008).
      Attributes of local destinations and routes were based on self-reported measures
      at baseline and included: proximity to utilitarian and recreational destinations,
      the number of such destinations within 10 and 11-20 min walk from home, street
      connectivity, and walking paths. Generalized additive mixed models were used to
      examine the associations of perceived destination and route attributes with
      changes in frequency of WT and WR. Results: Higher levels of perceived proximity
      to utilitarian destinations, reporting a larger number of utilitarian
      destinations within 10 min walk from home and higher street connectivity were
      associated with more positive changes in frequency of WT. Higher levels of
      perceived proximity to recreational destinations and better walking paths were
      associated with more positive changes in frequency of WR. No curvilinear
      relationships were observed and baseline frequency of walking did not moderate
      the associations. Discussion and Implications: Proximity of utilitarian and
      recreational destinations, well-connected streets, and better walking paths can
      be supportive of long-term participation in walking among middle-to-older aged
      adults. Environmental and policy initiatives focusing on such destination and
      route attributes have the potential to support residents' aging in place.

PMID- 28575196
TI  - Changes in immune cell distribution and their cytokine/chemokine production
      during regression of the rhesus macaque corpus luteum.
AB  - Our previous flow cytometry results demonstrated a significant increase in
      neutrophils, macrophages/monocytes, and natural killer (NK) cells in dispersed
      rhesus monkey corpora lutea (CL) after progesterone (P4) levels had fallen below
      0.3 ng/ml for >=3 days during the natural menstrual cycle. In this study,
      immunohistochemistry revealed the CD11b+ cells (neutrophils,
      macrophages/monocytes) present in the CL after luteal P4 synthesis ceased were
      distributed throughout the tissue. CD16+ cells (presumptive NK cells) were
      observed mainly near the vasculature in functional CL, until their numbers
      increased and they became widely distributed in regressing CL. To determine if
      the immune cells that enter luteal tissue during structural regression are
      functionally different from those that are present during peak function, CD11b+
      or CD16+ populations were enriched from mid-late stage (functional) and
      regressing (days 1.8 +/- 0.3 postmenses) CL using antibody-conjugated magnetic
      microbeads. Flow cytometry analyses revealed the majority of CD11b+ cells
      expressed CD14, a protein mainly produced by macrophages/monocytes. The antibody
      enriched and depleted fractions were cultured for 24 h, and the media then
      analyzed for the production of 29 cytokines/chemokines. From the mid-late CL, the
      CD11b+-enriched fraction produced three cytokines/chemokines, whereas CD16+
      enriched cells only produced the chemokine CCL2. However, CD11b +-enriched cells
      isolated from regressed CL produced eight cytokines/chemokines. The CD16+
      enriched cells isolated from regressing CL produced significant levels of only
      three cytokines. Thus, the CD11b+ cells that appear in the rhesus macaque CL
      after functional regression produce several cytokines/chemokines that likely play
      a role in orchestrating structural regression.

PMID- 28575197
TI  - Visual recognition memory is impaired in rhesus monkeys repeatedly exposed to
      sevoflurane in infancy.
AB  - Background: Experimental studies in animals have shown that exposure to general
      anaesthesia in infancy can cause loss of cells in the central nervous system and
      long-term impairments in neurocognitive function. Some human epidemiological
      studies have shown increased risk of learning disability after repeated
      anaesthesia exposure in early childhood. Thus, we investigated in a highly
      translational rhesus monkey model, whether repeated exposure in infancy to the
      inhalation anaesthetic sevoflurane is associated with impaired visual recognition
      memory during the first two yr of life. Methods: Rhesus monkeys of both sexes
      were exposed to sevoflurane inhalation anaesthesia on approximately postnatal day
      7 and then again 14 and 28 days later, for four h each time. Visual recognition
      memory was tested using the visual paired comparison task, which measures memory
      by assessing preference for looking at a new image over a previously-viewed
      image. Monkeys were tested at 6-10 months of age, again at 12-18 months of age,
      and again at 24-30 months of age. Results: No memory impairment was detected at 6
      10 months old, but significant impairment (reduced time looking at the novel
      image) was observed at 12-18 and 24-30 months old. Conclusions: Repeated exposure
      of infant rhesus monkeys to sevoflurane results in visual recognition memory
      impairment that emerges after the first yr of life. This is consistent with
      epidemiological studies that show increased risk of learning disability after
      repeated exposure to anaesthesia in infancy/early childhood. Moreover, these
      deficits may emerge at later developmental stages, even when memory performance
      is unaffected earlier in development.

PMID- 28575198
TI  - Autoantibodies to nodal isoforms of neurofascin in chronic inflammatory
      demyelinating polyneuropathy.
AB  - Chronic inflammatory demyelination polyneuropathy is a heterogeneous and
      treatable immune-mediated disorder that lacks biomarkers to support diagnosis.
      Recent evidence indicates that paranodal proteins (contactin 1, contactin
      associated protein 1, and neurofascin-155) are the targets of autoantibodies in
      subsets of patients showing distinct clinical presentations. Here, we identified
      neurofascin-186 and neurofascin-140 as the main targets of autoantibodies in five
      patients presenting IgG reactivity against the nodes of Ranvier. Four patients
      displayed predominantly IgG4 antibodies, and one patient presented IgG3
      antibodies that activated the complement pathway in vitro. These patients present
      distinct clinical features compared to those with anti-neurofascin-155 IgG4. Most
      patients had a severe phenotype associated with conduction block or decreased
      distal motor amplitude. Four patients had a subacute-onset and sensory ataxia.
      Two patients presented with nephrotic syndromes and one patient with an IgG4
      related retroperitoneal fibrosis. Intravenous immunoglobulin and corticosteroids
      were effective in three patients, and one patient remitted following rituximab
      treatment. Clinical remission was associated with autoantibody depletion and with
      recovery of conduction block and distal motor amplitude suggesting a nodo
      paranodopathy. Our data demonstrate that the pathogenic mechanisms responsible
      for chronic inflammatory demyelination polyneuropathy are broad and may include
      dysfunctions at the nodes of Ranvier in a subgroup of patients.

PMID- 28575199
TI  - Mixotrophy in Pyroleae (Ericaceae) from Estonian boreal forests does not vary
      with light or tissue age.
AB  - Background and Aims: In temperate forests, some green plants, namely pyroloids
      (Pyroleae, Ericaceae) and some orchids, independently evolved a mode of nutrition
      mixing photosynthates and carbon gained from their mycorrhizal fungi
      (mixotrophy). Fungal carbon is more enriched in 13C than photosynthates, allowing
      estimation of the proportion of carbon acquired heterotrophically from fungi in
      plant biomass. Based on 13C enrichment, mixotrophic orchids have previously been
      shown to increase shoot autotrophy level over the growth season and with
      environmental light availability. But little is known about the plasticity of use
      of photosynthetic versus fungal carbon in pyroloids. Methods: Plasticity of
      mixotrophy with leaf age or light level (estimated from canopy openness) was
      investigated in pyroloids from three Estonian boreal forests. Bulk leaf 13C
      enrichment of five pyroloid species was compared with that of control autotrophic
      plants along temporal series (over one growth season) and environmental light
      gradients (n=405 samples). Key Results: Mixotrophic 13C enrichment was detected
      at studied sites for Pyrola chlorantha and Orthilia secunda (except at one site
      for the latter), but not for Chimaphila umbellata, Pyrola rotundifolia and
      Moneses uniflora. Enrichment with 13C did not vary over the growth season or
      between leaves from current and previous years. Finally, although one co
      occurring mixotrophic orchid showed 13C depletion with increasing light
      availability, as expected for mixotrophs, all pyroloids responded identically to
      autotrophic control plants along light gradients. Conclusions: A phylogenetic
      trend previously observed is further supported: mixotrophy is rarely supported by
      13C enrichment in the Chimaphila + Moneses clade, whereas it is frequent in the
      Pyrola + Orthilia clade. Moreover, pyroloid mixotrophy does not respond
      plastically to ageing or to light level. This contrasts with the usual view of a
      convergent evolution with orchids, and casts doubt on the way pyroloids use the
      carbon gained from their mycorrhizal fungi, especially to replace photosynthetic
      carbon.

PMID- 28575200
TI  - The Role of Senior Housing in Hospitalizations Among Vulnerable Older Adults With
      Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Longitudinal Perspective.
AB  - Background and Objectives: This study focuses on vulnerable elders (i.e., those
      with moderate or low incomes who live alone) and examines to what extent a senior
      housing environment moderates the effects of multiple chronic conditions (MCCs)
      on hospitalization over time. Research Design and Methods: Data came from six
      waves (2002-2012) of the Health Retirement Study (N = 1,401 individuals, 3,705
      observations). Mixed-effect multinomial logistic regression modeling estimated
      the effects of senior housing on changes in hospitalization. Results: Vulnerable
      elders with MCCs were more likely to be hospitalized at both moderate and heavy
      levels at baseline. Consistent with the environment docility hypothesis, findings
      show that older individuals with MCCs who live in a senior housing environment
      have fewer hospitalizations over time. Discussions and Implications: As one of
      the first efforts to build empirical knowledge on health care use among
      vulnerable elders in senior housing, our findings underscore the importance of
      continued research into these environments as a possible alternative to existing
      models.

PMID- 28575202
TI  - Evaluation of Food-Based Attractants for Drosophila suzukii (Diptera:
      Drosophilidae).
AB  - The Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a highly invasive
      species attacking a wide range of ripening soft-skinned fruits. A series of
      laboratory choice tests were conducted to determine whether different levels of
      rice vinegar affected attraction of Merlot wine to D. suzukii, as well as to
      compare attractiveness of two common fermentation food baits: wine-vinegar and
      yeast-sugar water mixtures. The relative attraction of various combinations was
      used to develop a bait whose effectiveness was tested in the field. In laboratory
      choice experiments, wine-vinegar (80:20, v:v, hereafter referred to as wine) was
      more preferred over a yeast-sugar water mixture (hereafter referred to as yeast)
      by D. suzukii. Combination baits, either a mixture of wine and yeast or a mixture
      of wine and a supernatant from the yeast (comboS), were significantly more
      attractive than each product alone. The two combination baits were equally
      attractive to D. suzukii, so were the yeast and its supernatant, suggesting that
      yeast supernatant could be used as a replacement for the yeast-sugar mixture
      currently used for trapping D. suzukii. The additive effect between wine and
      yeast supernatant in the field was not as profound as observed in the laboratory.
      In the field trial, numerically more male and female D. suzukii were captured in
      traps baited with comboS than those baited with the wine or yeast alone; however,
      significant differences were only found between the comboS and wine or between
      the comboS and yeast in some weeks over the period of the experiment.

PMID- 28575203
TI  - Structurexplor: a platform for the exploration of structural features of RNA
      secondary structures.
AB  - Summary: Discovering function-related structural features, such as the cloverleaf
      shape of transfer RNA secondary structures, is essential to understand RNA
      function. With this aim, we have developed a platform, named Structurexplor, to
      facilitate the exploration of structural features in populations of RNA secondary
      structures. It has been designed and developed to help biologists interactively
      search for, evaluate and select interesting structural features that can
      potentially explain RNA functions. Availability and implementation: Structurxplor
      is a web application available at http://structurexplor.dinf.usherbrooke.ca. The
      source code can be found at http://jpsglouzon.github.io/structurexplor/. Contact:
      shengrui.wang@usherbrooke.ca. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28575204
TI  - Analysis of Copy Number Variation in the Abp Gene Regions of Two House Mouse
      Subspecies Suggests Divergence during the Gene Family Expansions.
AB  - The Androgen-binding protein ( Abp ) gene region of the mouse genome contains 64
      genes, some encoding pheromones that influence assortative mating between mice
      from different subspecies. Using CNVnator and quantitative PCR, we explored copy
      number variation in this gene family in natural populations of Mus musculus
      domesticus ( Mmd ) and Mus musculus musculus ( Mmm ), two subspecies of house
      mice that form a narrow hybrid zone in Central Europe. We found that copy number
      variation in the center of the Abp gene region is very common in wild Mmd ,
      primarily representing the presence/absence of the final duplications described
      for the mouse genome. Clustering of Mmd individuals based on this variation did
      not reflect their geographical origin, suggesting no population divergence in the
      Abp gene cluster. However, copy number variation patterns differ substantially
      between Mmd and other mouse taxa. Large blocks of Abp genes are absent in Mmm ,
      Mus musculus castaneus and an outgroup, Mus spretus , although with differences
      in variation and breakpoint locations. Our analysis calls into question the
      reliance on a reference genome for interpreting the detailed organization of
      genes in taxa more distant from the Mmd reference genome. The polymorphic nature
      of the gene family expansion in all four taxa suggests that the number of Abp
      genes, especially in the central gene region, is not critical to the survival and
      reproduction of the mouse. However, Abp haplotypes of variable length may serve
      as a source of raw genetic material for new signals influencing reproductive
      communication and thus speciation of mice.

PMID- 28575205
TI  - Relationship of Hypertension and Systolic Blood Pressure With the Risk of Stroke
      or Bleeding in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: The Fushimi AF Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension is considered a major risk factor of stroke and systemic
      embolism (SE) as well as bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The
      purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of hypertension and
      systolic blood pressure (SBP) with the risk of stroke/SE or bleeding in AF
      patients. METHODS: The Fushimi AF Registry, a community-based prospective survey,
      was designed to enroll all of the AF patients in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. Fushimi-ku is
      densely populated with a total population of 283,000. Follow-up data were
      available for 3,713 patients (follow-up rate 90.0%) as of August 2015, and the
      median follow-up period was 1,035 days. RESULTS: We compared the clinical
      backgrounds at baseline, and follow-up outcomes of AF patients between those with
      hypertension (HTN; n = 2,304, 62.1% of total) and those without (non-HTN; n =
      1,409). History of hypertension was neither associated with the incidence of
      stroke/SE, ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke nor major bleeding. However, when
      we divided the HTN group by baseline SBP >=150 mm Hg (HTN-high blood pressure
      [HBP]: n = 305, 13.3% of HTN group) or <150 mm Hg (HTN-low blood pressure [LBP]:
      n = 1,983), HTN-HBP group was significantly associated with a higher incidence of
      both stroke/SE (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.74, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-2.72)
      and major bleeding (HR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.21-3.23) compared with the non-HTN group.
      In contrast, HTN-LBP group was not associated with the risk of stroke/SE or major
      bleeding, compared with the non-HTN group. CONCLUSION: The incidences of
      stroke/SE and bleeding were higher in AF and hypertension patients with elevated
      SBP. UMIN Clinical Trials Registry: UMIN000005834.

PMID- 28575207
TI  - Moran's I quantifies spatio-temporal pattern formation in neural imaging data.
AB  - Motivation: Neural activities of the brain occur through the formation of spatio
      temporal patterns. In recent years, macroscopic neural imaging techniques have
      produced a large body of data on these patterned activities, yet a numerical
      measure of spatio-temporal coherence has often been reduced to the global order
      parameter, which does not uncover the degree of spatial correlation. Here, we
      propose to use the spatial autocorrelation measure Moran's I, which can be
      applied to capture dynamic signatures of spatial organization. We demonstrate the
      application of this technique to collective cellular circadian clock activities
      measured in the small network of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the
      hypothalamus. Results: We found that Moran's I is a practical quantitative
      measure of the degree of spatial coherence in neural imaging data. Initially
      developed with a geographical context in mind, Moran's I accounts for the spatial
      organization of any interacting units. Moran's I can be modified in accordance
      with the characteristic length scale of a neural activity pattern. It allows a
      quantification of statistical significance levels for the observed patterns. We
      describe the technique applied to synthetic datasets and various experimental
      imaging time-series from cultured SCN explants. It is demonstrated that major
      characteristics of the collective state can be described by Moran's I and the
      traditional Kuramoto order parameter R in a complementary fashion. Availability
      and implementation: Python 2.7 code of illustrative examples can be found in the
      Supplementary Material. Contact: christoph.schmal@charite.de or
      grigory.bordyugov@hu-berlin.de. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28575201
TI  - Birth Weight and Preterm Delivery Outcomes of Perinatally vs Nonperinatally Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Pregnant Women in the United States: Results From
      the PHACS SMARTT Study and IMPAACT P1025 Protocol.
AB  - Background: Pregnancy outcomes of perinatally human immunodeficiency virus
      infected women (PHIV) are poorly defined. Methods: We compared preterm delivery
      and birth weight (BW) outcomes (low BW [LBW], <2500 g), small-for-gestational-age
      [SGA], and BW z scores [BWZ]) in HIV-exposed uninfected infants of PHIV vs
      nonperinatally HIV-infected (NPHIV) pregnant women in the Pediatric HIV/AIDS
      Cohort Study Surveillance Monitoring of ART Toxicities or International Maternal
      Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials P1025 studies. Mixed effects models and
      log binomial models were used to assess the association of maternal PHIV status
      with infant outcomes. Age-stratified analyses were performed. Results: From 1998
      to 2013, 2270 HIV-infected pregnant women delivered 2692 newborns (270 born to
      PHIV and 2422 to NPHIV women). PHIV women were younger, (mean age 21 vs 25 years,
      P < .01) and more likely to have a pregnancy CD4 count <200 cells/mm3 (19% vs
      11%, P = .01). No associations between maternal PHIV status and preterm delivery,
      SGA, or LBW were observed. After adjustment, BWZ was 0.12 lower in infants of
      PHIV vs NPHIV women (adjusted mean, -0.45 vs -0.33; P = .04). Among women aged 23
      30 years (n = 1770), maternal PHIV was associated with LBW (aRR = 1.74; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.18, 2.58; P < .01). Conclusion: The overall lack of
      association between maternal PHIV status and preterm delivery or infant BW
      outcomes is reassuring. The higher rates of LBW observed in PHIV women aged 23-30
      years warrants further mechanism-based investigations as this is a rapidly
      growing and aging population worldwide. Clinical Trials Registration: PHACS
      SMARTT study, NCT01310023. Clinical Trials Registration: IMPAACT 1025,
      NCT00028145.

PMID- 28575208
TI  - High Rate of Treatment Completion in Program Settings With 12-Dose Weekly
      Isoniazid and Rifapentine for Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.
AB  - Background: Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that the newest latent
      tuberculosis (LTBI) regimen, 12 weekly doses of directly observed isoniazid and
      rifapentine (3HP), is as efficacious as 9 months of isoniazid, with a greater
      completion rate (82% vs 69%); however, 3HP has not been assessed in routine
      healthcare settings. Methods: Observational cohort of LTBI patients receiving 3HP
      through 16 US programs was used to assess treatment completion, adverse drug
      reactions, and factors associated with treatment discontinuation. Results: Of
      3288 patients eligible to complete 3HP, 2867 (87.2%) completed treatment.
      Children aged 2-17 years had the highest completion rate (94.5% [155/164]).
      Patients reporting homelessness had a completion rate of 81.2% (147/181). In
      univariable analyses, discontinuation was lowest among children (relative risk
      [RR], 0.44 [95% confidence interval {CI}, .23-.85]; P = .014), and highest in
      persons aged >=65 years (RR, 1.72 [95% CI, 1.25-2.35]; P < .001). In
      multivariable analyses, discontinuation was lowest among contacts of patients
      with tuberculosis (TB) disease (adjusted RR [ARR], 0.68 [95% CI, .52-.89]; P =
      .005) and students (ARR, 0.45 [95% CI, .21-.98]; P = .044), and highest with
      incarceration (ARR, 1.43 [95% CI, 1.08-1.89]; P = .013) and homelessness (ARR,
      1.72 [95% CI, 1.25-2.39]; P = .001). Adverse drug reactions were reported by 1174
      (35.7%) patients, of whom 891 (76.0%) completed treatment. Conclusions:
      Completion of 3HP in routine healthcare settings was greater overall than rates
      reported from clinical trials, and greater than historically observed using other
      regimens among reportedly nonadherent populations. Widespread use of 3HP for LTBI
      treatment could accelerate elimination of TB disease in the United States.

PMID- 28575209
TI  - Clinical standard for valve area after common atrioventricular valve plasty for a
      single ventricle.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine a clinical standard for post-repair common
      atrioventricular valve orifice area based on mid- to long-term valve function in
      patients with a functional single ventricle. METHODS: The medical records of 19
      single-ventricle patients who underwent common atrioventricular valve plasty from
      July 1988 to January 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Bivalvation
      valvuloplasty was performed in 7 patients with relatively hypoplastic leaflets.
      The relationship between the orifice area of the repaired common atrioventricular
      valve measured intraoperatively and valve function and ventricular volume in the
      early postoperative period (median, 9.5 months) and at mid- to long-term follow
      up (median, 4 years) were analysed. RESULTS: Post-repair valve area was
      significantly positively correlated with valve regurgitation severity in the
      early postoperative period (P = 0.001, r = 0.69) and at mid- to long-term follow
      up (P = 0.02, r = 0.57). Patients who did not undergo bivalvation had favourable
      valve function at mid- to long-term follow-up and in the early postoperative
      period when the post-repair valve area was 96-136% of the normal mitral valve
      area. Bivalvation patients had significantly more valve regurgitation in the
      early postoperative period than patients without bivalvation, despite equivalent
      repaired valve area (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The post-repair orifice area of the
      common atrioventricular valve is significantly related to postoperative valve
      function. The clinical standard of post-repair valve orifice area might be 96
      136% of the normal mitral valve area in patients undergoing repair without
      bivalvation. Patients undergoing bivalvation require greater reduction to obtain
      favourable mid- to long-term valve function.

PMID- 28575210
TI  - Triple low, double low: it's time to deal Achilles heel a single deadly blow.

PMID- 28575206
TI  - Heterozygote galactocerebrosidase (GALC) mutants have reduced remyelination and
      impaired myelin debris clearance following demyelinating injury.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies are identifying multiple genetic risk factors for
      several diseases, but the functional role of these changes remains mostly
      unknown. Variants in the galactocerebrosidase (GALC) gene, for example, were
      identified as a risk factor for Multiple Sclerosis (MS); however, the potential
      biological relevance of GALC variants to MS remains elusive. We found that
      heterozygote GALC mutant mice have reduced myelin debris clearance and diminished
      remyelination after a demyelinating insult. We found no histological or
      behavioral differences between adult wild-type and GALC +/- animals under normal
      conditions. Following exposure to the demyelinating agent cuprizone, however,
      GALC +/- animals had significantly reduced remyelination during recovery. In
      addition, the microglial phagocytic response and elevation of Trem2, both
      necessary for clearing damaged myelin, were markedly reduced in GALC +/- animals.
      These altered responses could be corrected in vitro by treatment with NKH-477, a
      compound discovered as protective in our previous studies on Krabbe disease,
      which is caused by mutations in both GALC alleles. Our data are the first to show
      remyelination defects in individuals with a single mutant GALC allele, suggesting
      such carriers may have increased vulnerability to myelin damage following injury
      or disease due to inefficient myelin debris clearance. We thus provide a
      potential functional link between GALC variants and increased MS susceptibility,
      particularly due to the failure of remyelination associated with progressive MS.
      Finally, this work demonstrates that genetic variants identified through genome
      wide association studies may contribute significantly to complex diseases, not by
      driving initial symptoms, but by altering repair mechanisms.

PMID- 28575212
TI  - Effectiveness of extraction of primary canines for interceptive management of
      palatally displaced permanent canines: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Background: Although extraction of primary canines in the mixed dentition has
      been suggested as a measure to prevent impaction of palatally displaced permanent
      canines (PDCs), the relevant evidence has been inconclusive. Objective: To assess
      the effectiveness of this practice and investigate the quality of the evidence.
      Search methods: Search without restrictions in 15 databases and hand searching
      until April 2017. Selection criteria: Randomized clinical trials comparing
      extraction of primary canines in the mixed dentition to no treatment. Data
      collection and analysis: Following study retrieval and selection, data
      extraction, and individual study risk of bias assessment using the Cochrane Risk
      of Bias Tool, the random effects method of combining treatment effects was used.
      The overall quality of the available evidence was assessed with the Grades of
      Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. Results:
      Finally 5 studies were identified involving 214 individuals, followed for up to
      48 months post-intervention. Two studies were at low and the rest at high risk of
      bias. Although at the 12-month evaluation, extraction of the primary canine did
      not result in a statistically significant difference [risk ratio (RR): 1.537; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 0.656-3.601, P = 0.323; 1 study, n = 67 individuals],
      beyond 12 months a benefit was noted (RR: 1.784; 95% CI: 1.376-2.314, P = 0.000;
      5 studies, n = 214 individuals; I2 = 0%). Analysis of the studies at low risk of
      bias confirmed the above-mentioned result (RR: 1.713; 95% CI: 1.226-2.394, P =
      0.002; 2 studies, n = 91 individuals; I2 = 0%; moderate quality evidence). No
      difference was observed regarding root resorption of adjacent permanent teeth
      (RR: 0.602; 95% CI: 0.277-1.308, P = 0.200; 1 study; n = 67 individuals; moderate
      quality evidence). Conclusions: Extraction of primary canines in the mixed
      dentition may increase the chance of subsequent successful eruption of PDC in the
      long term. However, better study standardization is necessary.

PMID- 28575211
TI  - Clinical outcomes in patients after extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support
      for post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock: a single-centre experience of 92 cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock is a major concern in cardiac
      surgery. We reviewed our experience of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
      as temporary circulatory support in post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock. METHODS:
      Between January 2005 and December 2014, adult patients implanted with ECMO after
      cardiac surgical procedures were included. Indications for ECMO were failure to
      be withdrawn from cardiopulmonary bypass or refractory cardiogenic shock
      occurring during postoperative Days 1 and 2. Patients' characteristics and
      outcomes were prospectively collected in a local ECMO database. RESULTS: Ninety
      two patients, median age of 63 years (17-83 years), were supported by ECMO
      following valvular surgery (66%), acute aortic dissection (10%) and coronary
      artery bypass grafting (9%). A total of 37% were combined surgical procedures,
      24% were redo procedures and 33% were emergent procedures. The median duration of
      ECMO support was 6 days (1-28 days). The weaning rate from mechanical support was
      48%. Overall 1-month and 6-month survival rates were, respectively, 42% and 39%.
      Survivors were younger (57 vs 63 years old, P = 0.02) and had a higher
      preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (52.5 vs 44.1%, P = 0.017). There
      was a trend for lower serum creatinine levels and total bilirubin rates in the
      survivors' group 24 h after initiation of ECMO (respectively, 162 vs 212 umol/l,
      P = 0.06; 25.3 vs 54.2 mg/dl, P = 0.08). Valvular surgery and peak lactic acid
      serum level were associated with poor outcomes. The mean health-related quality
      of life EuroQoL scale was 68 +/- 16/100 at 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Refractory
      cardiogenic shock requiring ECMO was most frequently observed after redo valvular
      surgery in the present study. The overall 6-month survival rate was 39% after
      ECMO support for post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock with acceptable health-related
      quality of life. Improved kidney and liver functions after 24 h of support were
      associated with favourable outcomes.

PMID- 28575213
TI  - The National Academy Report on the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis: An Infectious
      Disease Physician's Perspective.

PMID- 28575215
TI  - Comparison of the effects of selective and non-selective His bundle pacing on
      cardiac electrical and mechanical synchrony.
AB  - Aims: This study aimed to assess the acute effect of selective His bundle pacing
      (S-HBP), non-selective His bundle pacing (NS-HBP), and right ventricular septum
      pacing (RVSP) on electrical synchrony and left ventricular (LV) mechanical
      synchrony using electrocardiogram and phase analysis of gated single photon
      emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). Methods
      and results: Totally 39 patients eligible for pacemaker were enrolled. Thirty
      seven patients underwent successful His bundle pacing (HBP) including S-HBP in 23
      and NS-HBP in 14 patients, respectively. Thirty-one patients simultaneously
      underwent backup RVSP. Twenty-three patients received SPECT MPI scans under
      different pacing modes, including S-HBP low- and high-output, NS-HBP low- and
      high-output, and RVSP mode. The paced QRS duration (QRSd) in the S-HBP low- and
      high-output mode and in the NS-HBP high-output mode were similarly compared with
      the baseline intrinsic QRSd. QRS duration in the NS-HBP low-output mode was
      slightly longer than the baseline. QRS duration was the longest in the RVSP
      group. Left ventricular mechanical synchrony parameters in both the S-HBP and the
      NS-HBP groups were remarkably better than those in the RVSP group. Moreover, LV
      mechanical synchrony parameters were much better in the S-HBP groups and NS-HBP
      high-output group. Conclusion: Selective His bundle pacing and high-output NS-HBP
      could restore normal electrical and LV mechanical synchrony.

PMID- 28575217
TI  - Comprehensive Platelet Phenotypic Laboratory Testing and Bleeding History Scoring
      for Diagnosis of Suspected Hereditary Platelet Disorders: A Single-Institution
      Experience.
AB  - Objectives: Patients with hereditary/congenital platelet disorders (HPDs) have a
      broad range of clinical manifestations and laboratory phenotypes. We assessed the
      performance characteristics of the International Society on Thrombosis and
      Haemostasis bleeding assessment tool (ISTH-BAT) and clinically validated platelet
      laboratory tests for diagnosis of HPDs. Methods: The records of 61 patients with
      suspected HPDs were reviewed and ISTH-BAT scores calculated. Results: Nineteen
      (31%) patients had thrombocytopenia, and 46 (75%) had positive ISTH-BAT scores.
      Thirteen and 17 patients had prolonged PFA-100 (Dade Behring, Miami, FL)
      adenosine diphosphate and epinephrine closure times, respectively. Twenty-two had
      abnormal platelet light transmission aggregation. Twenty-four had platelet
      transmission electron microscopy (PTEM) abnormalities (10 dense granule
      deficiency, 14 other ultrastructural abnormalities). Positive ISTH-BAT scores
      were associated with thrombocytopenia (P < .0001) and abnormal PTEM (P = .002).
      Twenty-three patients had normal results. Conclusions: ISTH-BAT identified
      patients with suspected HPDs but lacked a robust association with laboratory
      abnormalities. Despite comprehensive laboratory testing, some patients may have
      normal results.

PMID- 28575216
TI  - Emergence of Livestock-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      Bloodstream Infections in Denmark.
AB  - Background: Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      clonal complex 398 (LA-MRSA CC398) is causing an increasing number of skin and
      soft tissue infections (SSTIs) in Denmark and other European countries with
      industrial pig production. Yet, its impact on MRSA bloodstream infections (BSIs)
      has not been well studied. Methods: We investigated the clinical epidemiology of
      all human cases of LA-MRSA CC398 BSI during 2010-2015. Cases of LA-MRSA CC398 BSI
      were compared to cases of BSI caused by other types of MRSA and cases of SSTI
      caused by LA-MRSA CC398. Whole-genome sequence analysis was used to assess the
      phylogenetic relationship among LA-MRSA CC398 isolates from Danish pigs and cases
      of BSI and SSTI. Results: The number of LA-MRSA CC398 BSIs and SSTIs increased
      over the years, peaking in 2014, when LA-MRSA CC398 accounted for 16% (7/44) and
      21% (211/985) of all MRSA BSIs and SSTIs, corresponding to 1.2 and 37.4 cases of
      BSI and SSTI per 1000000 person-years, respectively. Most patients with LA-MRSA
      CC398 BSI had no contact to livestock, although they tended to live in rural
      areas. LA-MRSA CC398 caused 24.3 BSIs per 1000 SSTIs among people with no
      livestock contact, which is similar to the ratio observed for other types of
      MRSA. Whole-genome sequence analysis showed that most of the BSI and SSTI
      isolates were closely related to Danish pig isolates. Conclusions: This study
      demonstrates that the increasing number of LA-MRSA CC398 BSIs occurred in
      parallel with a much larger wave of LA-MRSA CC398 SSTIs and an expanding pig
      reservoir.

PMID- 28575218
TI  - The safe volume threshold for chest drain removal following pulmonary resection.
AB  - A best evidence topic in thoracic surgery was written according to a structured
      protocol. The question addressed was 'In patients undergoing pulmonary resection,
      is there a safe drainage volume threshold for chest drain removal?' Altogether
      1054 papers were found, of which 5 papers represented the best evidence. The
      authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study
      type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. Chest drainage
      threshold, where used, ranged from 250 to 500 ml/day. Both randomized controlled
      trials showed no significant difference in reintervention rates with a higher
      chest drainage volume threshold. Four studies that performed analysis on other
      complications showed no statistical significant difference with a higher chest
      drainage volume threshold. Four studies evaluating length of hospital stay showed
      reduced or no difference in the length of stay with a higher chest drainage
      volume threshold. Two cohort studies reported the mortality rate of 0-0.01% with
      a higher chest drainage volume threshold. We conclude that early chest drain
      removal after pulmonary resection, accepting a higher chest drainage volume
      threshold of 250-500 ml/day is safe, and may result in shorter hospital stay
      without increasing reintervention, morbidity or mortality.

PMID- 28575219
TI  - Targeted Disruption of Aromatase Reveals Dual Functions of cyp19a1a During Sex
      Differentiation in Zebrafish.
AB  - Aromatase (encoded by the cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b genes) plays a central role in
      sex differentiation in fish, but its precise roles during sex differentiation are
      still largely unknown. Here, we systematically generated cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b
      mutant lines as well as a cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double mutant line in zebrafish using
      transcription activatorlike effector nucleases. Our results showed that cyp19a1a
      mutants and cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b double mutants, but not cyp19a1b mutants, had
      impaired sex differentiation, and all cyp19a1a mutants and cyp19a1a;cyp19a1b
      double mutants were males. During sex differentiation, the ovary-like gonads were
      not observed and the male sex differentiation program was delayed in the cyp19a1a
      null fish, and these phenotypes could be partially rescued by 17beta-estradiol
      treatment. Gene expression analysis indicated that male and female sex
      differentiation-related genes were significantly decreased in the cyp19a1a
      mutant. Collectively, our results revealed dual functions of the cyp19a1a gene
      during sex differentiation: cyp19a1a is not only indispensable for female sex
      differentiation but also required for male sex differentiation.

PMID- 28575220
TI  - Vancomycin Taper and Risk of Failure of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in
      Patients With Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection.
AB  - We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 109 subjects treated for recurrent
      Clostridium difficile infection with fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) at a
      tertiary referral center between 2011 and 2014 to determine risk factors for FMT
      failure. In a multivariate analysis, failure to use an oral vancomycin taper
      preceding FMT was associated with a significant risk of FMT failure (odds ratio,
      0.15; 95% confidence interval, .007-.40).

PMID- 28575222
TI  - Corrigenda.

PMID- 28575221
TI  - Sudden cardiac death and Ethical issues of CRISPR technology.

PMID- 28575223
TI  - Repurposing of nucleoside- and nucleobase-derivative drugs as antibiotics and
      biofilm inhibitors.
AB  - There is an urgent need for new antibacterial drugs that are robust against the
      development of resistance. Drug repurposing is a cost-effective strategy to fast
      track the drug development process. Here we examine why the nucleoside and
      nucleobase analogue drugs in particular present an attractive class for
      repurposing. Some of these drugs have already been evaluated for their potential
      as antibacterial agents. In addition to inhibiting bacterial growth and survival,
      some also act synergistically with antibiotics, and as such can enhance the
      therapeutic spectrum of currently available antibiotics. Furthermore, nucleoside
      and nucleobase analogue drugs can inhibit bacterial virulence and biofilm
      formation. Biofilms are known to impart antibiotic tolerance and are associated
      with chronic infections. Targeting biofilm formation thus renders pathogens more
      susceptible to antibiotic treatment and host immune defences. Moreover, specific
      analogues have properties that make them less susceptible to the development of
      resistance. Thus, nucleoside and nucleobase analogue drugs ought to be considered
      as new weapons in our fight against pathogenic bacteria.

PMID- 28575225
TI  - Single-stage repair for multiple muscular septal defects: a single-centre
      experience across 16 years.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Multiple muscular ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are surgically
      challenging and its management remains controversial. We present a technique of
      surgical repair for muscular VSDs, which includes surgical exposure and detection
      of these defects and has excellent clinical outcomes. METHODS: We have analysed
      consecutive patients who underwent surgical repair of isolated multiple muscular
      VSDs under cardiopulmonary bypass over a 16-year period (from January 2001 to
      November 2016) in a single centre from the southern part of India. These defects
      were accessed through the right atrium in most cases and closed directly;
      completeness of closure was confirmed by pressurizing the left ventricle with
      blood cardioplegia. There were no haemodynamically significant residual VSDs
      following repair. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients with an average time of
      follow-up of 4.1 years (1 month-12 years) were included. The mean age of our
      patients at the time of operation was 23.5 months (3 months-22 years) with a mean
      weight of 7.9 kg (2-55 kg). The mean cardiopulmonary bypass and cross-clamp time
      was 118.8 +/- 39.2 min (mean +/- SD) and 76.5 +/- 29.4 min (mean +/- SD),
      respectively. There were 10 (9.8%) hospital deaths and 3 late deaths in the
      entire study group. Permanent pacemaker was implanted in 2 patients. Seventy
      patients could be followed up after discharge. Postoperative pulmonary artery
      pressure was normal in 52% of the patients, mild-to-moderate hypertension in 27%
      and severe in 7% of the patients. The ejection fraction was >60% among the
      survivors, and there were no reoperations or reinterventions. CONCLUSIONS: This
      surgical approach to multiple muscular VSDs is safe and effective with minimal
      risk of complete heart block and diminution of ventricular function.

PMID- 28575226
TI  - Point-of-Care beta-Lactam Allergy Skin Testing by Antimicrobial Stewardship
      Programs: A Pragmatic Multicenter Prospective Evaluation.
AB  - Background: beta-lactam allergy skin testing (BLAST) is recommended by
      antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) guidelines, yet few studies have
      systematically evaluated its impact when delivered at point of care. Methods: We
      conducted a pragmatic multicenter prospective evaluation of the use of point-of
      care BLAST by ASPs. In staggered 3-month intervals, ASP teams at 3 hospitals
      received training by allergists to offer BLAST for eligible patients with
      infectious diseases receiving nonpreferred therapy due to severity of their
      reported allergy. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients receiving
      the preferred beta-lactam therapy. Results: Of 827 patients with reported beta
      lactam allergy over 15 months, beta-lactam therapy was preferred among 632 (76%).
      During baseline periods, 50% (124/246) received preferred beta-lactam therapy
      based on history, compared with 60% (232/386) during the intervention periods (P
      = .02), which improved further to 81% (313/386) upon provision of BLAST (P <
      .001) without any increase in incidence of adverse drug reactions (4% vs 3%; P =
      .4). After adjusting for patient variables and the correlation between hospitals,
      the intervention period was associated with a 4.5-fold greater odds of receiving
      preferred beta-lactam therapy (95% confidence interval, 2.4-8.2; P < .0001).
      Conclusions: The use of BLAST at the point of care across 3 hospital ASPs
      resulted in greater use of preferred beta-lactam therapy without increasing the
      risk of adverse drug reactions. Longer-term studies are needed to better assess
      the safety and clinical impact of this ASP intervention.

PMID- 28575227
TI  - Relationship Between Psychophysiological Responses to Aversive Odors and
      Nutritional Status During Normal Aging.
AB  - Psychophysiological responses to disgusting and pleasant smells are one of the
      most important aspects of olfaction. These emotional signals can constitute an
      alert against toxic substances, and they may play a major role in food selection
      and nutritional intake. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis by
      examining whether individual physiological responses to odors could predict the
      subject's nutritional status. Because aging is associated with changes in
      emotional response to smells, we also examined how aging affects the relationship
      between olfaction and nutrition. Twenty young and 20 old participants perceived a
      series of odorants while their psychophysiological responses were simultaneously
      measured, and completed the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire.
      Regression between individual correlation coefficients (r-values between odor
      perceptual ratings and physiological parameters) and individual MNA scores
      revealed that appropriateness of the physiological responses to aversive odors
      predicted nutritional status (R2 = 0.22, P < 0.007): participants with higher
      electromyogram corrugator activity in response to aversive smells had better
      nutritional status. Furthermore, this relationship was significant in old (R2 =
      0.45, P < 0.005) but not young participants (R2 = 0.04, P > 0.44). Taken
      together, preserved functioning of somatic markers in response to odors during
      normal aging is associated with better nutritional status, and may facilitate
      healthier food selection.

PMID- 28575224
TI  - Response to Antenatal Cholecalciferol Supplementation Is Associated With Common
      Vitamin D-Related Genetic Variants.
AB  - Context: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes related to vitamin D
      metabolism have been associated with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]
      concentration, but these relationships have not been examined following antenatal
      cholecalciferol supplementation. Objective: To determine whether SNPs in DHCR7,
      CYP2R1, CYP24A1, and GC are associated with the response to gestational
      cholecalciferol supplementation. Design: Within-randomization group analysis of
      the Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis Study trial of antenatal cholecalciferol
      supplementation. Setting: Hospital antenatal clinics. Participants: In total, 682
      women of white ethnicity (351 placebo, 331 cholecalciferol) were included. SNPs
      at rs12785878 (DHCR7), rs10741657 (CYP2R1), rs6013897 (CYP24A1), and rs2282679
      (GC) were genotyped. Interventions: 1000 IU/d cholecalciferol from 14 weeks of
      gestation until delivery. Main Outcome Measure: 25(OH)D at randomization and 34
      weeks of gestation were measured in a single batch (Liaison; Diasorin, Dartford,
      UK). Associations between 25(OH)D and the SNPs were assessed by linear regression
      using an additive model [beta represents the change in 25(OH)D per additional
      common allele]. Results: Only rs12785878 (DHCR7) was associated with baseline
      25(OH)D [beta = 3.1 nmol/L; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.0 to 5.2 nmol/L; P <
      0.004]. In contrast, rs10741657 (CYP2R1) (beta = -5.2 nmol/L; 95% CI, -8.2 to 
      2.2 nmol/L; P = 0.001) and rs2282679 (GC) (beta = 4.2 nmol/L; 95% CI, 0.9 to 7.5
      nmol/L; P = 0.01) were associated with achieved 25(OH)D status following
      supplementation, whereas rs12785878 and rs6013897 (CYP24A1) were not.
      Conclusions: Genetic variation in DHCR7, which encodes 7-dehyrocholesterol
      reductase in the epidermal vitamin D biosynthesis pathway, appears to modify
      baseline 25(OH)D. In contrast, the response to antenatal cholecalciferol
      supplementation was associated with SNPs in CYP2R1, which may alter 25
      hydroxylase activity, and GC, which may affect vitamin D binding protein
      synthesis or metabolite affinity.

PMID- 28575228
TI  - Right ventricular outflow tract dimensions in arrhythmogenic right ventricular
      cardiomyopathy/dysplasia-a multicentre study comparing echocardiography and
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
AB  - Aims: Right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) dilation is one of the
      echocardiographic criteria in the 2010 revised Task Force Criteria (TFC) of
      arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARVC/D). However,
      studies comparing cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and transthoracic
      echocardiography (TTE) suggest a lower diagnostic accuracy of TTE due to its
      operator dependence and limited reproducibility. The goal of this study was to
      compare the 2010 TFC measures of RVOT dilation with three alternative measures
      for improving the echocardiographic assessment of RVOT in patients with ARVC/D.
      Methods and results: In this multicentre study, CMR and TTE were performed in 38
      patients with a definite, borderline, or possible ARVC/D diagnosis and in 10
      healthy controls. Besides the echocardiographic RVOT measurements listed by the
      2010 TFC, we assessed three additional end-diastolic RVOT diameters. These
      included the RVOT diameter defined by the parasternal long axis M-mode of the
      aortic sinus portion (RVOT3), that defined by the parasternal long axis M-mode of
      the left ventricle (RVOT4), and that obtained by the parasternal short axis view
      of the distal RVOT proximal to the pulmonary valve (RVOT5). RVOT4 provided the
      best correlation between CMR and TTE (r = 0.92, [95% confidence interval (CI):
      0.84-0.96; P < 0.0001]) and enhanced diagnostic accuracy for diagnosing ARVC/D
      (area under the curve 0.92 [95% CI, 0.78-0.98]). Conclusion: Among all RVOT
      diameters examined, that defined by the parasternal long axis M-mode of the left
      ventricle (RVOT4) provides the best agreement between CMR and TTE and exhibits
      the best diagnostic accuracy for ARVC/D. This novel RVOT4 measurement carries the
      potential for improving the echocardiographic diagnosis of ARVC/D.

PMID- 28575229
TI  - The Relationship Between the Score on a Simple Measure of Cognitive Function and
      Incident CVD in People With Diabetes: A Post Hoc Epidemiological Analysis From
      the ACCORD-MIND Study.
AB  - Context and Objective: Diabetes is associated with a greater risk for incident
      cardiovascular disease and cognitive dysfunction. This study aimed to
      investigate, in people with type 2 diabetes, the association of a simple measure
      of cognitive function to cardiovascular disease events and mortality. Design,
      Setting, Participants, Measurements, and Outcomes: The Action to Control
      Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial included persons with longstanding
      type 2 diabetes. A substudy of 2977 (Memory in Diabetes) participants aged 55
      years or older aimed to test the effect of the interventions on brain structure
      and function. At baseline, participants were administered a cognitive battery
      that included the digit symbol substitution test (DSST). The associations of the
      DSST and the ACCORD primary outcome (the first occurrence of nonfatal myocardial
      infarction or nonfatal stroke or death from cardiovascular causes) and all-cause
      mortality were investigated with Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for
      several demographic and clinical variables. Results: Median follow-up time was
      4.27 years. An inverse relationship between the incidence of the ACCORD primary
      outcome and baseline cognitive score was demonstrated. A 1-point higher DSST
      score was associated with a lower incidence of the primary outcome (hazard ratio,
      0.987; 95% confidence interval, 0.977 to 0.998; P = 0.019), after adjustment for
      demographic and clinical trial factors, additional baseline cardiovascular risk
      factors, and self-reported need for assistance to follow the protocol.
      Conclusion: Lower scores on the DSST, a simple, sensitive neuropsychological
      instrument, are associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular events in
      persons >55 years old with longstanding diabetes.

PMID- 28575230
TI  - Cognitive Training for Ethnic Minority Older Adults in the United States: A
      Review.
AB  - Purpose of the Study: Interest in cognitive training for healthy older adults to
      reduce cognitive decline has grown considerably over the past few decades. Given
      the shift toward a more diverse society, the purpose of this review is to examine
      the extent of race/ethnic minority participation in cognitive training studies
      and characteristics of studies that included race/ethnic minority participants.
      Design and Methods: This review considered peer-reviewed studies reporting
      cognitive training studies for cognitively healthy, community-dwelling older
      adults (age 55+) in the United States published in English before December 31,
      2015. A total of 31 articles published between 1986 and 2015 meeting inclusion
      criteria were identified and included in the review. Results: A total of 6,432
      participants were recruited across all of the studies, and ranged in age from 55
      to 99 years. Across all studies examined, 39% reported racial/ethnic background
      information. Only 3 of these studies included a substantial number of minorities
      (26.7% in the ACTIVE study; 28.4% in the SeniorWISE study; 22.7% in the TEAM
      study). Race/ethnic minority older adults were disproportionately
      underrepresented in cognitive training studies. Implications: Further research
      should aim to enroll participants representative of various race/ethnic minority
      populations. Strategies for recruitment and retention of ethnic minority
      participants in cognitive training research are discussed, which could lead to
      the development of more culturally appropriate and perhaps more effective
      cognitive interventions.

PMID- 28575231
TI  - Everyday Multitasking Abilities in Older HIV+ Adults: Neurobehavioral Correlates
      and the Mediating Role of Metacognition.
AB  - Objective: The prevalence of older adults living with HIV is rising, as is their
      risk for everyday functioning problems associated with neurocognitive
      dysfunction. Multitasking, the ability to maintain and carry out subgoals in
      support of a larger goal, is a multidimensional skill ubiquitous during most real
      life tasks and associated with prefrontal networks that are vulnerable in HIV.
      Understanding factors associated with multitasking will improve characterization
      of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. Metacognition is also associated with
      frontal systems, is impaired among individuals with HIV, and may contribute to
      multitasking. Method: Ninety-nine older (>=50 years) adults with HIV completed:
      the Everyday Multitasking Test (MT), a performance-based measure during which
      participants concurrently attempt four everyday tasks (e.g., medication
      management) within a time limit; a comprehensive neuropsychological battery;
      measures of metacognition regarding their MT performance (e.g., metacognitive
      knowledge and online awareness). Results: Better global neuropsychological
      performance (i.e., average T-score across all domains) was associated with better
      Everyday MT total scores (rho = 0.34; p < .001), as was global metacognition (rho
      = 0.37, p < .01). Bootstrapping mediation analysis revealed global metacognition
      was a significant partial mediator between neurocognition and Everyday MT (b =
      0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01, 0.25). Specifically, metacognitive
      knowledge (but not online awareness) drove this mediation (b = 0.13, 95% CI =
      0.03, 0.27). Conclusions: Consistent with findings among younger persons with
      HIV, neuropsychological performance is strongly associated with a complex,
      laboratory-based test of everyday multitasking, and metacognition of task
      performance was a pathway through which successful multitasking occurred.
      Interventions aimed at modifying metacognition to improve daily functioning may
      be warranted among older adults with HIV.

PMID- 28575233
TI  - Stem cell activity of type A spermatogonia is seasonally regulated in rainbow
      trout.
AB  - Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) support continuous production of sperm
      throughout the male's life. However, the biological characteristics of SSCs are
      poorly understood in animals exhibiting seasonal reproduction, even though most
      wild animals are seasonal breeders. During the spermiation season in rainbow
      trout, the lumen of the testes contains only spermatozoa and scattered type A
      spermatogonia (ASG) along the walls of the testicular lobules. These few
      remaining ASG, designated "residual ASG," are the only germ cells capable of
      supporting the next spermatogenesis, suggesting that the residual ASG are true
      SSCs. However, whether residual ASG can behave as SSCs in any teleost species is
      unknown. In this study, we attempted to clarify the biological characteristics of
      SSCs associated with seasonal reproduction in rainbow trout using spermatogonial
      transplantation. We found that the stem cell activity was clearly regulated
      seasonally during the annual reproductive cycle. Although the residual ASG
      exhibited moderate transplantability and colony-forming ability at the beginning
      of the spermiation season, these parameters decreased dramatically later and
      remained low until the next spermatogenesis was initiated. Furthermore, no clear
      correlations were observed between these qualitative changes and previously
      described morphologic characteristics of ASG or plasma sex steroid levels. Our
      results suggest that the biological properties of SSC populations in rainbow
      trout are seasonally regulated by a novel mechanism.

PMID- 28575232
TI  - Liver Safety of Statins in Prediabetes or T2DM and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis:
      Post Hoc Analysis of a Randomized Trial.
AB  - Context: Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease have a high
      cardiovascular risk, but statins are rarely prescribed because of fear of
      hepatotoxicity. Objective: To prospectively assess the long-term safety of
      statins in patients with prediabetes/type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and
      nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Design: Post hoc analysis of statin use
      during a randomized, controlled trial assessing pioglitazone vs placebo for NASH.
      Patients: A total of 101 patients (86 receiving statins) with biopsy-proven NASH
      and prediabetes/T2DM were followed for up to 36 months. Interventions: Oral
      glucose tolerance test and percutaneous liver biopsy (baseline, month 18, and
      month 36); liver magnetic resonance spectroscopy and euglycemic insulin clamp
      (baseline and month 18). Main Outcome Measures: Histologic and biochemical safety
      of statin use among patients with NASH. Results: Only 37% of patients were
      receiving statins at enrollment despite their high cardiovascular risk. Statin
      nonusers had higher plasma alanine aminotransferase levels but similar histologic
      severity of liver disease at baseline. In both statin users and nonusers, the
      same number of patients (n = 4) had a twofold or greater increase in plasma
      aminotransferases during follow-up. One statin nonuser was discontinued from the
      study because of this elevation. Values returned to normal without any active
      measure in all other cases. No changes on liver histology or hepatic insulin
      resistance were observed in patients with NASH newly started on a statin and
      receiving placebo during the main study. Conclusions: Statin therapy is safe in
      patients with prediabetes/T2DM and NASH. Given their high cardiovascular risk,
      statin therapy should be encouraged in this population.

PMID- 28575234
TI  - Assessing Grief of Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: Validation of the
      Chinese Version of the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory.
AB  - Grief in dementia caregiving is underexplored in research studies in the Chinese
      context, yet social workers often work with caregivers of people with dementia
      (PWD) and who experience grief. Having a valid assessment tool can help social
      workers better identify the grief of caregivers and facilitate caregivers'
      articulation of grief. This article describes a study aimed to validate the
      Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory-Short Form (C-MM-CGI-SF) among Hong Kong
      Chinese caregivers of PWD. One hundred and twenty caregivers participated in this
      study. They were recruited from day care centers and a memory clinic. The short
      version of MM-CGI was translated into Chinese, and participants were asked to
      complete a questionnaire that included this scale and other scales validating it.
      Reliability and validity were examined. C-MM-CGI-SF was found to be a reliable
      and valid measure in the Hong Kong context. Its construct validity was
      demonstrated by the positive correlations with caregiving strain and depression,
      and negative correlations with presence of meaning and life satisfaction. The
      discriminant validity was supported by showing that spousal caregivers' grief
      level was significantly higher than that of nonspousal caregivers. Authors
      recommend social workers using the C-MM-CGI-SF to assess the grief of Chinese
      caregivers caring for people suffering from dementia.

PMID- 28575238
TI  - Does Disseminated Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Disease Cause False-Positive
      Determine TB-LAM Lateral Flow Assay Results? A Retrospective Review.
AB  - We retrospectively reviewed the Determine TB-LAM lateral flow assay (LF-LAM)
      results among human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with disseminated
      nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease. LF-LAM was positive in 19 of 21
      patients without evidence of tuberculosis (TB) coinfection. Although TB-NTM
      coinfection may have been underdiagnosed, our results suggest that disseminated
      NTM disease may cause false-positive LF-LAM results.

PMID- 28575235
TI  - Remote management of heart failure using implantable electronic devices.
AB  - Aims: Remote management of heart failure using implantable electronic devices
      (REM-HF) aimed to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of remote monitoring
      (RM) of heart failure in patients with cardiac implanted electronic devices
      (CIEDs). Methods and results: Between 29 September 2011 and 31 March 2014, we
      randomly assigned 1650 patients with heart failure and a CIED to active RM or
      usual care (UC). The active RM pathway included formalized remote follow-up
      protocols, and UC was standard practice in nine recruiting centres in England.
      The primary endpoint in the time to event analysis was the 1st event of death
      from any cause or unplanned hospitalization for cardiovascular reasons. Secondary
      endpoints included death from any cause, death from cardiovascular reasons, death
      from cardiovascular reasons and unplanned cardiovascular hospitalization,
      unplanned cardiovascular hospitalization, and unplanned hospitalization. REM-HF
      is registered with ISRCTN (96536028). The mean age of the population was 70 years
      (range 23-98); 86% were male. Patients were followed for a median of 2.8 years
      (range 0-4.3 years) completing on 31 January 2016. Patient adherence was high
      with a drop out of 4.3% over the course of the study. The incidence of the
      primary endpoint did not differ significantly between active RM and UC groups,
      which occurred in 42.4 and 40.8% of patients, respectively [hazard ratio 1.01;
      95% confidence interval (CI) 0.87-1.18; P = 0.87]. There were no significant
      differences between the two groups with respect to any of the secondary endpoints
      or the time to the primary endpoint components. Conclusion: Among patients with
      heart failure and a CIED, RM using weekly downloads and a formalized follow up
      approach does not improve outcomes.

PMID- 28575237
TI  - Inside out: efflux of carbon dioxide from leaves represents more than leaf
      metabolism.
AB  - High concentrations of inorganic carbon in the xylem, produced from root, stem,
      and branch respiration, travel via the transpiration stream and eventually exit
      the plant through distant tissues as CO2. Unlike previous studies that focused on
      the efflux of CO2 from roots and woody tissues, we focus on efflux from leaves
      and the potential effect on leaf respiration measurements. We labeled transported
      inorganic carbon, spanning reported xylem concentrations, with 13C and then
      manipulated transpiration rates in the dark in order to vary the rates of
      inorganic carbon supply to cut leaves from Brassica napus and Populus deltoides.
      We used tunable diode laser absorbance spectroscopy to directly measure the rate
      of gross 13CO2 efflux, derived from inorganic carbon supplied from outside of the
      leaf, relative to gross 12CO2 efflux generated from leaf cells. These experiemnts
      showed that 13CO2 efflux was dependent upon the rate of inorganic carbon supply
      to the leaf and the rate of transpiration. Our data show that the gross leaf
      efflux of xylem-transported CO2 is likely small in the dark when rates of
      transpiration are low. However, gross leaf efflux of xylem-transported CO2 could
      approach half the rate of leaf respiration in the light when transpiration rates
      and branch inorganic carbon concentrations are high, irrespective of the grossly
      different petiole morphologies in our experiment.

PMID- 28575236
TI  - Monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of BER/SSBR pathway proteins,
      including MYH, UNG2, MPG, NTH1 and NEIL1-3, during DNA replication.
AB  - Base lesions in DNA can stall the replication machinery or induce mutations if
      bypassed. Consequently, lesions must be repaired before replication or in a post
      replicative process to maintain genomic stability. Base excision repair (BER) is
      the main pathway for repair of base lesions and is known to be associated with
      DNA replication, but how BER is organized during replication is unclear. Here we
      coupled the iPOND (isolation of proteins on nascent DNA) technique with targeted
      mass-spectrometry analysis, which enabled us to detect all proteins required for
      BER on nascent DNA and to monitor their spatiotemporal orchestration at
      replication forks. We demonstrate that XRCC1 and other BER/single-strand break
      repair (SSBR) proteins are enriched in replisomes in unstressed cells, supporting
      a cellular capacity of post-replicative BER/SSBR. Importantly, we identify for
      the first time the DNA glycosylases MYH, UNG2, MPG, NTH1, NEIL1, 2 and 3 on
      nascent DNA. Our findings suggest that a broad spectrum of DNA base lesions are
      recognized and repaired by BER in a post-replicative process.

PMID- 28575239
TI  - Whole-Genome Cardiac DNA Methylation Fingerprint and Gene Expression Analysis
      Provide New Insights in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Chagas Disease
      Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Background: Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic
      in Latin America and affects 10 million people worldwide. Approximately 12000
      deaths attributable to Chagas disease occur annually due to chronic Chagas
      disease cardiomyopathy (CCC), an inflammatory cardiomyopathy presenting with
      heart failure and arrythmia; 30% of infected subjects develop CCC years after
      infection. Genetic mechanisms play a role in differential progression to CCC, but
      little is known about the role of epigenetic modifications in pathological gene
      expression patterns in CCC patients' myocardium. DNA methylation is the most
      common modification in the mammalian genome. Methods: We investigated the impact
      of genome-wide cardiac DNA methylation on global gene expression in myocardial
      samples from end-stage CCC patients, compared to control samples from organ
      donors. Results: In total, 4720 genes were differentially methylated between CCC
      patients and controls, of which 399 were also differentially expressed. Several
      of them were related to heart function or to the immune response and had
      methylation sites in their promoter region. Reporter gene and in silico
      transcription factor binding analyses indicated promoter methylation modified
      expression of key genes. Among those, we found potassium channel genes KCNA4 and
      KCNIP4, involved in electrical conduction and arrythmia, SMOC2, involved in
      matrix remodeling, as well as enkephalin and RUNX3, potentially involved in the
      increased T-helper 1 cytokine-mediated inflammatory damage in heart. Conclusions:
      Results support that DNA methylation plays a role in the regulation of expression
      of pathogenically relevant genes in CCC myocardium, and identify novel potential
      disease pathways and therapeutic targets in CCC.

PMID- 28575240
TI  - Epidemiology, diagnosis, and management of esophageal perforations: systematic
      review.
AB  - We performed a systematic review of epidemiological, diagnostic, and therapeutic
      outcomes of esophageal perforations. A systematic review was performed in PubMed
      database using the key-phrase 'esophageal perforation'. All studies regarding
      acute esophageal perforations were reviewed and parameters of epidemiology,
      diagnosis, and management published in the literature from 2005 up to 2015 were
      included in the study. Studies of postoperative esophageal leaks were excluded.
      Two researchers performed individually the research, while quality assessment was
      performed according to GRADE classification. Main outcomes and exposure were
      overall mortality, perforation-to-admission interval, anatomical position, cause,
      prevalent symptom at admission, diagnostic tests used, type of initial management
      (conservative or surgery), healing rate, and fistula complication. There were
      1319 articles retrieved, of which 52 studies including 2,830 cases finally met
      inclusion criteria. Mean duration of study period was 15.2 years. Mean patient
      age was 58.4 years. Out of 52 studies included, there were 43 studies of very low
      or low quality included. The overall mortality rate according to extracted data
      was 13.3% (n = 214, 1,644 patients, 39 studies). Admission before 24 hours was
      reported in 58.1% of patients (n = 514). Position was thoracic in 72.6% of
      patients (n = 813, 1,120 patients, 20 studies). Mean cause of perforation was
      iatrogenic in 46.5% of patients (n = 899, 1,933 patients, 40 studies). Initial
      management was conservative in 51.3% of cases (n = 904, 1,762 patients, 41
      studies) CT confirmed diagnosis in 38.7% of overall cases in which it was used as
      imaging diagnostic procedure (n = 266), X-ray in 36.6% (n = 231), and endoscopy
      in 37.4% (n = 343). Sepsis on admission was observed in 23.3% of cases (209 out
      of 898 patients, 16 studies). The present systematic review highlighted the
      significant proportion of cases diagnosed with delay over 24 hours, mortality
      rates ranging over 10% and no consensus regarding optimal therapeutic approach
      and optimal diagnostic management. As esophageal perforation represents a high
      risk clinical condition without consensus regarding optimal management, there
      should be large multicenter prospective studies or Randomized Controlled Trial
      (RCT)s performed in order to advance diagnostic and therapeutic approach of such
      challenging pathology.

PMID- 28575241
TI  - Reduced fitness and physical functioning are long-term sequelae after curative
      treatment for esophageal cancer: a matched control study.
AB  - Reduced physical functioning is common following resections for esophageal
      cancer; however, objective data on physical performance outcomes in this cohort
      are rare. The aim of this study was to assess the physical performance and health
      related quality of life (HRQOL) of disease free survivors and compare findings in
      a case matched noncancer control group. Twenty-five males (mean (+/-SD) aged 63
      (+/-6) years) who were over 6 months postesophagectomy and disease-free were
      compared with 25 controls (60 +/- 6 years). Physical functioning was assessed
      through hand grip strength (dynamometry), exercise capacity (incremental shuttle
      walk test), physical activity levels (RT3 accelerometer), and body composition
      (bio-electrical impedance analysis). Health-related quality of life was measured
      using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Esophageal cancer survivors demonstrated
      significantly lower fitness (P < 0.001) and time spent in moderate (P < 0.001)
      and vigorous (P < 0.001) intensity physical activity compared with controls.
      Global health status and quality of life were similar in both groups (P = 0.245);
      however, physical and role functioning domains were lower in the cancer survivors
      (P < 0.001, and P = 0.001, respectively). These data show that disease-free
      survivors of curative esophageal cancer treatment demonstrate a significant
      compromise in physical functioning compared with controls, thus highlighting the
      multiple, complex rehabilitative needs of this cohort.

PMID- 28575242
TI  - Prognostic significance of the prognostic nutritional index in esophageal cancer
      patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
AB  - Nutritional status is one of the most important issues faced by cancer patients.
      Several studies have shown that a low preoperative nutritional status is
      associated with a worse prognosis in patients with various types of cancer,
      including esophageal cancer (EC). Recently, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and/or
      radiotherapy have been accepted as the standard treatment for resectable advanced
      EC. However, NAC has the potential to deteriorate the nutritional status of a
      patient. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of the
      nutritional status for EC patients who underwent NAC. We retrospectively reviewed
      66 squamous cell EC patients who underwent NAC consisting of docetaxel,
      cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil followed by subtotal esophagectomy at Nara Medical
      University Hospital between January 2009 and August 2015. To assess the patients'
      nutritional status, the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) before commencing NAC
      and prior to the operation was calculated as 10 * serum albumin (g/dl) + 0.005 *
      total lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood (per mm3). The cutoff value of the
      PNI was set at 45. A multivariable analysis was performed to identify prognostic
      factors for overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). The mean pre
      NAC and preoperative PNI were 50.2 +/- 5.7 and 48.1 +/- 4.7, respectively (P =
      0.005). The PNI decreased following NAC in 44 (66.7%) patients. Before initiating
      NAC, 9 (13.6%) patients had a low PNI, and 12 (18.2%) patients had a low PNI
      prior to the operation. The pre-NAC PNI and preoperative PNI were significantly
      associated with the OS (P = 0.013 and P = 0.004, respectively) and RFS (P = 0.036
      and P = 0.005, respectively) rates. The multivariable analysis identified the
      preoperative PNI as an independent prognostic factor for poor OS and RFS,
      although the pre-NAC PNI was not an independent predictor. Our results suggest
      that the preoperative PNI is a useful marker for predicting the long-term
      outcomes of EC patients undergoing NAC and subsequent subtotal esophagectomy.
      Therefore, patients with a low preoperative nutritional status may be at a higher
      risk of EC recurrence.

PMID- 28575243
TI  - Predictive value of nodal maximum standardized uptake value of pretreatment
      [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging in patients with
      esophageal cancer.
AB  - We retrospectively reviewed 102 patients with esophageal cancer (97.1% squamous
      cell carcinoma, 96.1% stage III) received FDG-PET staging and were treated by
      chemoradiotherapy with or without resection to assess whether the pretreatment
      [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) maximum
      standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the primary tumor and metastatic lymph
      nodes can predict the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer. Receiver
      operating characteristic analysis was performed to find the cutoff values for
      primary tumor SUVmax and nodal SUVmax. The influence of clinical factors
      including primary tumor SUVmax and nodal SUVmax on local progression-free
      survival, nodal progression-free survival (NPFS), distant metastases-free
      survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated using univariate and
      multivariate analyses. A total of 40 patients received esophagectomy after
      neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (trimodality), while 62 patients received
      definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT). The median follow-up was 26.4 months. The
      SUVmax of primary tumor had no significant predictive value on all outcomes,
      while the SUVmax of metastatic lymph nodes had predictive value on several
      outcomes. High nodal SUVmax (>=7) predicted for worse outcomes than low nodal
      SUVmax (<7) in the patients who received dCRT (two-year DMFS, 17% vs. 92%, P <
      0.001; NPFS, 14% vs. 81%, P = 0.001; OS, 21% vs. 50%, P = 0.003), but not in
      those received trimodality. On multivariate analysis of patients receiving dCRT,
      nodal SUVmax was the strongest independent predictor on DMFS (hazard ratio [HR]
      13.93, P < 0.001), NPFS (HR 3.99, P = 0.026), PFS (HR 2.90, P = 0.003), and OS
      (HR 3.80, P = 0.001). High pretreatment nodal SUVmax predicts worse treatment
      outcomes for the patients treated with dCRT.

PMID- 28575244
TI  - Venous superdrained gastric tube pull-up procedure for hypopharyngeal and
      cervical esophageal reconstruction reduces postoperative anastomotic leakage and
      stricture.
AB  - Gastric pull-up is a common procedure to reconstruct the continuity of the upper
      digestive tract after esophageal resection. However, this technique sometimes
      causes postoperative anastomotic leakage or stricture, resulting from
      insufficient blood flow at the distal end. To overcome this problem, additional
      microvascular venous anastomoses were performed. The purpose of this study was to
      compare the outcomes of post-surgical anastomotic leakage and stricture in
      patients with and without additional microvascular venous superdrainage after
      cervical esophageal and hypopharyngeal resection and gastric tube reconstruction.
      A total of 29 consecutive patients with esophageal or hypopharyngeal cancer who
      underwent total esophagectomy and hypopharyngectomy with gastric tube
      reconstruction in the National Organization Nagasaki Medical Center between April
      2014 and May 2016 were analyzed in this study. Of these patients, 20 underwent
      additional venous anastomoses (superdrainage group), and 9 did not undergo
      additional procedures (standard group). We compared the frequency of post
      surgical stricture and leakage in the two groups retrospectively. Three of nine
      patients (33.3%) developed postoperative leakage in the standard group, and 1 of
      20 (5.0%) did so in the superdrainage group. Six of nine patients (66.7%) showed
      postoperative anastomotic stricture in the standard group, but none did so in the
      superdrainage group. Patients who did not undergo additional venous superdrainage
      were significantly more likely to develop postsurgical leakage (P < 0.05, Chi
      square test) and anastomotic stricture (P < 0.001, Chi-square test). Our study
      revealed that only additional venous anastomoses could reduce the incidence of
      postoperative anastomotic leakage and stricture. This procedure is of merit to
      perform after total esophagectomy and hypopharyngectomy with gastric tube
      reconstruction.

PMID- 28575245
TI  - Peroral endoscopic myotomy versus surgical myotomy for primary achalasia: single
      center, retrospective analysis of 74 patients.
AB  - Achalasia is a neurodegenerative motility disorder of the esophagus; dysphagia,
      weight loss, chest pain, and regurgitation are its main symptoms. Surgical
      myotomy (HM) is considered the gold standard treatment. However, peroral
      endoscopic myotomy (POEM) seems to be a safe and effective alternative option.
      The aim of this study is to compare the safety and efficacy of these techniques.
      From March 2012 to June 2015, 74 patients with symptomatic primary achalasia
      underwent myotomy. The two groups were compared in terms of intraoperative and
      postoperative outcomes and Eckardt score at last follow-up. A morphofunctional
      comparison was also performed. Thirty-two myotomies were performed endoscopically
      (POEM group) and 42 were performed laparoscopically with a 180 degrees  anterior
      fundoplication (surgical myotomy [SM] group). Operative time was significantly
      shorter for the POEM group (63 [range: 32-114] vs. 76 minutes [54-152]; P =
      0.0005). Myotomy was significantly longer for the POEM group (12 [range: 10-15]
      vs. 9 cm [range: 7-10]; P = 0.0001). Postoperative morbidity occurred in two
      patients (4.7%) in the SM group; no complications (P = not significant) were
      recorded for the POEM group. The median Eckardt score at last follow-up decreased
      for each group from 6 to 1 (P < 0.001). Morphological evaluation was performed
      for 20 patients and functional evaluation was performed in 18 patients of each
      group. Lower esophageal sphincter resting and relaxation pressures were
      significantly reduced in both groups (P < 0.001). Eight patients in the POEM
      group (40%) had esophagitis at endoscopy: 4 (20%) with Los Angeles (LA) grade A,
      3 (15%) with LA grade B, and 1 patient with LA grade D (5%). Five patients in
      POEM group (28%) had a pathologic DeMeester score. In the SM group, one patient
      (5%) had esophagitis (P = 0.04; 95% CI) and 4 patients (22%) presented a
      pathological DeMeester score. Perioperative results for POEM and SM are similar.
      The absence of an antireflux wrap leads to an increased risk of reflux with
      consequent esophagitis. SM with an antireflux wrap could be a preferred choice
      when a long standing gastroesophageal reflux could potentially lead to a damage
      as, for example, in young patients.

PMID- 28575246
TI  - Safety and feasibility of esophageal self- expandable metal stent placement
      without the aid of fluoroscopy.
AB  - Self-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) are used for the management of certain
      esophageal conditions such as strictures, perforations, and fistulae. These can
      be placed using fluoroscopic control, endoscopic control, or a combination of
      both. We evaluated our institutional experience of placing a SEMS using only
      endoscopy without the aid of fluoroscopy to determine safety and feasibility
      using this technique. A retrospective review was performed to identify all
      patients who underwent esophageal SEMS from January 2010 to June 2015. Placement
      of SEMS was accomplished under direct endoscopic visualization without the aid of
      fluoroscopy. Esophageal lesion was initially identified during endoscopy and a
      fully covered SEMS was passed over the guide wire and deployed under direct
      vision. Misplacement of the SEMS during the procedure that required replacement
      with another new SEMS was considered as a failed procedure. Other periprocedural
      complications caused by placement of SEMS were noted. A total of 172 patients
      underwent 280 procedures for SEMS placement. Mean age was 66 years. The most
      common indication for SEMS placement was stricture in 248 (88%) procedures.
      Periprocedure SEMS misplacement occurred in 12 (4%) patients. However, only 8
      (3%) patients needed to have a new SEMS placed during the same procedure. A total
      of 64 (23%) patients had migration of SEMS. There were no other periprocedure
      complications leading to adverse events. Self-expandable metal stent can be
      placed accurately and safely under direct endoscopic visualization without the
      aid of fluoroscopy.

PMID- 28575247
TI  - Endoscopic ultrasound in diagnosis of esophageal tuberculosis: 10-year experience
      at a tertiary care center.
AB  - Definite diagnosis of esophageal tuberculosis (ET) requires isolation of tubercle
      bacilli, which is challenging in clinical practice. Difficulty in differentiating
      ET from other esophageal diseases may well result in a delay in diagnosis. The
      literature on utility of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in diagnosis of ET is
      insufficient. This study aims to evaluate the role of EUS morphology combined
      with EUS-guided tissue acquisition in the diagnosis of ET. Data of the 35
      patients diagnosed with ET from January 2006 to October 2015 were retrospectively
      analyzed. After miniprobe and linear echoendoscopic visualization, either linear
      EUS-guided deep biopsy or EUS-guided fine needle aspiration was performed for
      tissue acquisition. Histocytopathological results showing caseous necrosis or
      acid fast bacilli (AFB) or epithelioid granuloma were considered diagnostic.
      Esophageal wall thickening or mass formation with disruption of the adventitia
      due to infiltration by adjacent mediastinal lymphadenopathy was typically
      observed under EUS. Tissue acquisition revealed epithelioid granuloma in 33
      patients, caseous necrosis in 13, a positive AFB stain in 14, and nonspecific
      chronic inflammation in 2. Of the 35 patients, 33 (94.3%) with both
      characteristic EUS morphology and diagnostic histocytopathology were considered
      to have an EUS established diagnosis. The remaining two with only nonspecific
      chronic inflammation received empirical antitubercular chemotherapy based solely
      on EUS morphology. The two-year follow-up confirmed diagnosis of ET in all
      patients. While the final diagnosis of ET was based upon two-year follow-up of
      treatment response to antitubercular medication in addition to caseous
      necrosis/granuloma/positive-AFB stain revealed by EUS-guided tissue acquisition,
      an EUS-established diagnosis of ET and medical treatment with long-term follow-up
      is rational and practical compared with surgery or untreated follow-up.

PMID- 28575249
TI  - Esophageal distensibility measurement: impact on clinical management and
      procedure length.
AB  - Luminal distensibility measurement has demonstrated relevance to various disease
      processes, though its effects on clinical decision-making have been less well
      understood. This study aims to characterize the clinical impact of impedance
      planimetry measurement as well as the learning curve associated with its use in
      the esophagus. A single provider performed distensibility measurement in
      conjunction with upper endoscopy for a variety of clinical indications with the
      functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) over a period of 21 months. Procedural data
      were prospectively collected and, along with medical records, retrospectively
      reviewed. Seventy-three procedures (70 patients) underwent esophageal
      distensibility measurement over the timeline of this study. The most common
      procedural indications were known or suspected achalasia (32.9%), dysphagia with
      connective tissue disease (13.7%), eosinophilic esophagitis (12.3%), and
      dysphagia with prior fundoplication (9.6%). FLIP results independently led to a
      change in management in 29 (39.7%) cases and supported a change in management in
      an additional 15 (20.5%) cases. The most common change in management was a new or
      amended therapeutic procedure (79.5%). Procedural time added by distensibility
      measurement was greater among earlier cases than among later cases. The median
      time added overall was 5 minutes and 46 seconds. Procedural time added varied
      significantly by procedural indication, but changes in management did not.
      Distensibility measurement added meaningful diagnostic information that impacted
      therapeutic decision-making in the majority of cases in which it was performed.
      Procedural time added by this modality is typically modest and decreases with
      experience.

PMID- 28575248
TI  - Catheter probe endoscopic ultrasonography by using cold lubricating jelly-filled
      method for esophageal subepithelial tumors.
AB  - Catheter probe endoscopic ultrasonography (C-EUS) by ultrasonographic jelly
      filled method has been used to evaluate esophageal subepithelial tumors (SETs).
      Ultrasonographic jelly is safe on the skin, but its internal safety has not been
      demonstrated. The jelly stored at room temperature is easily injected into the
      esophagus through the instrument channel of the endoscope. However, using jelly
      stored at room temperature remains problematic because the jelly is drained
      rapidly. We used cold lubricating jelly and an intravenous extension tube to
      resolve these problems. In this study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of
      cold lubricating jelly-filled method. The medical records of patients who
      underwent C-EUS by using water or cold lubricating jelly-filled method for
      esophageal SETs from March 2013 to September 2016 in Gangneung Asan hospital were
      reviewed. Clinical characteristics and EUS findings were evaluated
      retrospectively. Image quality and procedure time between water and cold
      lubricating jelly-filled method were compared retrospectively. This study
      included 138 patients (74 males, 64 females) with esophageal SET with a mean age
      of 57.1 +/- 11.1 years. Thirty-four patients had lesions in the upper esophagus,
      58 patients had lesions in the middle esophagus, and 46 patients had lesions in
      the lower esophagus. The EUS diagnoses were leiomyoma (82.6%), hemangioma (4.3%),
      extrinsic compressive lesion (3.6%), granulosa cell tumor (2.9%), ectopic
      calcification (1.4%), cyst (1.4%), lipoma (0.7%), varix (0.7%), and inconclusive
      lesion (2.2%). The mean image score in the cold lubricating jelly filled-method
      group was higher than that in the water-filled method group (3.2 +/- 0.7 vs. 2.8
      +/- 0.7, P = 0.002). The procedure time in the cold lubricating jelly filled
      method group was shorter than that in the water-filled method group (10 minutes
      27 seconds +/- 4 minutes 22 seconds versus 13 minutes 20 seconds +/- 6 minutes 20
      seconds, P = 0.045). No procedure-related complication was observed. C-EUS using
      the cold lubricating jelly-filled method seems to provide better image quality
      and shorter procedure time compared with C-EUS using the water-filled method.

PMID- 28575250
TI  - Characterization of tissue chromogranin A (CgA) immunostaining and
      clinicohistopathological changes for the 125 Chinese patients with primary small
      cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
AB  - The rarity of primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus (PSCE) has limited
      the clinical feature and survival analysis with large sample size. Tissue
      chromogranin A (CgA) protein expression has been reported to be a useful
      biomarker for diagnosing PSCE. Interestingly, recent studies have indicated
      tissue CgA as a significant prognostic marker in multiple human cancers, but
      without PSCE. The present study, thus, was undertaken to characterize the
      clinicopathological changes and to evaluate the associations of tissue CgA
      expression with clinical response on Chinese PSCE patients. All the 125 PSCE
      patients were enrolled from our 500,000 esophageal and gastric cardia carcinoma
      databases (1973-2015), constructed by the cooperative team from more than 700
      hospitals in China and established by Henan Key Laboratory for Esophageal Cancer
      Research in Henan, China. Immunostaining for CgA showed that CgA was mainly
      located in cytoplasm of tumor cells with a positive detection rate of 44.6%. The
      CgA positive expression rate in PSCE at lower segment of the esophagus (72.2%)
      was higher than that at middle segment (41.5%) (P = 0.001). However, CgA protein
      expression did not correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.767), TNM staging
      (P = 0.740), tumor invasion (P = 0.253), gender (P = 0.262), and age (P = 0.250).
      Multivariate survival analysis showed that the patients with higher CgA protein
      expression had a superior long survival than those without CgA expression (P =
      0.037). The clinicopathological analysis showed that PSCE occurred predominantly
      in male (M:F = 1.9:1) at the middle segment (68%) of the esophagus.
      Histologically, 89.6% were pure PSCE and 10.4% were mixed type with either
      squamous cell carcinoma (8%) or adenocarcinoma (2.4%). It was noteworthy that,
      with the in-depth invasion from T1 to T2 and T3, the positive lymph node
      metastasis rate increased dramatically from 38%, 56% to 74%, respectively. The
      survival rates of 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year were 64%, 35%, 18%, and 7%,
      respectively. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the young patients
      (<=60 years) had longer survival than the elderly (P = 0.011). Interestingly,
      multivariate survival analysis revealed that the patients with mixed PSCE had a
      significantly better survival than those with pure PSCE (P = 0.015). Furthermore,
      the median survival time for the patients with and without lymph node metastasis
      was 1.16 and 2.03 years, respectively. But, the difference was not significant (P
      = 0.143). Univariate analysis did not show any survival influence by gender,
      tumor location, tumor invasion depth, and TNM staging. It was noteworthy that, of
      the 13 early PSCE patients (T1N0M0), only one patient had more than 5 year
      survival, the others died with less than one or two year (65%). The present study
      indicates that the PSCE is of badly worsen prognosis, even in the pathological
      early stage. Tissue CgA protein expression is a promising maker not only for
      diagnosis and also for prognosis. Further assessment is needed to establish
      specific PSCE pathological staging system and to clarify the mechanisms of CgA
      protein in PSCE progression and prognosis.

PMID- 28575251
TI  - Hierarchical probabilistic models for multiple gene/variant associations based on
      next-generation sequencing data.
AB  - Motivation: The identification of genetic variants influencing gene expression
      (known as expression quantitative trait loci or eQTLs) is important in
      unravelling the genetic basis of complex traits. Detecting multiple eQTLs
      simultaneously in a population based on paired DNA-seq and RNA-seq assays employs
      two competing types of models: models which rely on appropriate transformations
      of RNA-seq data (and are powered by a mature mathematical theory), or count-based
      models, which represent digital gene expression explicitly, thus rendering such
      transformations unnecessary. The latter constitutes an immensely popular
      methodology, which is however plagued by mathematical intractability. Results: We
      develop tractable count-based models, which are amenable to efficient estimation
      through the introduction of latent variables and the appropriate application of
      recent statistical theory in a sparse Bayesian modelling framework. Furthermore,
      we examine several transformation methods for RNA-seq read counts and we
      introduce arcsin, logit and Laplace smoothing as preprocessing steps for
      transformation-based models. Using natural and carefully simulated data from the
      1000 Genomes and gEUVADIS projects, we benchmark both approaches under a variety
      of scenarios, including the presence of noise and violation of basic model
      assumptions. We demonstrate that an arcsin transformation of Laplace-smoothed
      data is at least as good as state-of-the-art models, particularly at small
      samples. Furthermore, we show that an over-dispersed Poisson model is comparable
      to the celebrated Negative Binomial, but much easier to estimate. These results
      provide strong support for transformation-based versus count-based (particularly
      Negative-Binomial-based) models for eQTL mapping. Availability and
      implementation: All methods are implemented in the free software eQTLseq:
      https://github.com/dvav/eQTLseq. Contact: dimitris.vavoulis@well.ox.ac.uk.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28575252
TI  - Family and Marital Conflict Among Chinese Older Adults in the United States: The
      Influence of Personal Coping Resources.
AB  - Background: Conflict in the family is a major risk factor for the well-being of
      older immigrants, whose lives are centered around their families. This study
      examined the potential linkage between personal coping resources and family and
      marital conflict among U.S. Chinese older adults. Methods: Data were derived from
      the PINE study, a population-based study of Chinese elders in Chicago (N =
      3,157). Logistic regressions were carried out to predict the likelihood of having
      conflict with family members and with the spouse, respectively, using indicators
      of personal coping resources (ie, socioeconomic status, physical health,
      acculturation level, perceived children's filial piety, number of friends, and
      sense of mastery). Results: The results showed that older adults with higher
      education (odds ratio [OR] = 1.03, confidence interval [CI] = 1.01-1.06; OR =
      1.09, CI = 1.06-1.11, respectively), lower perception of children being filial
      (OR = 0.95, CI = 0.93-0.97; OR = 0.96, CI = 0.94-0.98], respectively), and lower
      sense of mastery (OR = 0.95, CI = 0.94-0.96; OR = 0.98, CI = 0.97-0.99,
      respectively) were more likely to report both family and marital conflict. Older
      adults who had more friends were less likely to report marital conflict (OR =
      0.61, CI = 0.43-0.86). Conclusions: Overall, older immigrants with greater coping
      resources seemed to have less family and marital conflict. Particularly important
      are their own sense of control and available support from children and friends in
      the new society. Higher education could be a risk factor for these conflicts.
      Future studies are needed to distinguish everyday life conflict from
      acculturation-related conflict in this population.

PMID- 28575253
TI  - Family Relationships and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Older Immigrants in
      the United States.
AB  - Background: Given the growth in the number of older Chinese immigrants in the
      United States and the importance of family support in Chinese culture, this study
      examines how supportive and negative relationships with family members (children
      and spouse) influence depressive symptom severity among this population. Methods:
      Using data from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago, we carried
      out multivariate negative binomial regression analysis using a sample of 3,159
      Chinese older immigrants. Depressive symptom severity was measured using the
      Patient Health Questionnaire. Intergenerational and marital relationships were
      characterized using self-reported measures of two supportive features (confiding
      and aiding) and two negative features (demanding and criticizing). Results:
      Confiding and aiding relationships with children (incident rate ratio [IRR] =
      .70, confidence interval [CI]: 0.57, 0.85; IRR = .70, CI: 0.56, 0.88,
      respectively) and spouses (IRR = .61, CI:0.47, 0.79; IRR = .66, CI: 0.52, 0.83,
      respectively) were significantly associated with lower depressive symptom
      severity among the older Chinese immigrants sampled. Demanding (IRR = 1.39, CI:
      1.16, 1.68) and criticizing (IRR = 1.37, CI: 1.17, 1.60) intergenerational
      relationships significantly predicted higher depressive symptom severity, and
      spousal criticism (IRR = 1.41, CI: 1.24, 1.59) was related to higher depressive
      symptom severity. Aiding relationships with children appears to be more important
      for older women than men (IRR = .69, CI: 0.47, 1.01). Conclusions: The findings
      reveal the importance of both positive and negative interactions with spouses and
      children in shaping mental well-being among older Chinese immigrants. Future
      geriatric practice and research should consider both supportive and negative
      features in examining and addressing interpersonal relationships and mental
      health.

PMID- 28575254
TI  - Conscientiousness Moderates the Relationship Between Perceived Stress and
      Depressive Symptoms Among U.S. Chinese Older Adults.
AB  - Background: The present study examined whether individuals' personality traits,
      Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, moderated the relationship between perceived
      stress and depressive symptoms among U.S. Chinese older adults. Methods: Data
      analysis was based on the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE).
      Three thousand one hundred and fifty-nine Chinese adults aged 60 years and older
      participated in the PINE study. They completed scales that assessed their
      personality (ie, Neuroticism and Conscientiousness of the NEO Five-Factor
      Inventory), perceived stress (the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale), and depressive
      symptoms (the Patient Health Questionnaire). Results: Perceived stress was
      positively related to depressive symptoms among U.S. Chinese older adults. No
      moderation effects were found for Neuroticism. Conscientiousness significantly
      moderated the perceived stress-depressive symptom relationship. The positive
      relationship between perceived stress and depressive symptoms was weaker for
      people who were higher in Conscientiousness than those who were lower in
      Conscientiousness. Conclusion: Conscientiousness mitigated the stress-depressive
      symptom relationship among U.S. Chinese older adults. Future research is needed
      to identify the psychological and sociocultural profiles of individuals who show
      stress resilience and those who are vulnerable. Social services and psychological
      interventions are needed to promote health and well-being among U.S. Chinese
      older adults.

PMID- 28575255
TI  - Self-reported Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Chinese Adults
      in Chicago.
AB  - Background: Discrimination is part of life for many Americans, especially ethnic
      minorities. Focusing on older Chinese Americans, this study examines the
      association between self-reported discrimination and depressive symptoms and
      identifies subgroups that are more likely to report experiencing discrimination.
      Methods: We conducted cross-sectional analysis of data collected from adults (age
      60+ years) of Chinese origin residing in the Greater Chicago area (N = 3,004).
      Self-reported discrimination was assessed by the Experiences of Discrimination
      instrument and was dichotomized (yes vs no). Depressive symptoms were measured by
      the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Logistic regression of self-reported
      discrimination and negative binominal regression of depressive symptoms were
      conducted. Results: About 21.5% of the sample reported having experienced
      discrimination. The odds of reporting discrimination are higher for those who are
      younger, have higher education and income, are more acculturated, have been in
      the United States longer, live outside Chinatown, and have higher levels of
      neuroticism and conscientiousness. Self-reported discrimination is significantly
      and positively associated with depressive symptoms, independent of
      sociodemographic characteristics, migration-related variables, and personality
      factors. Conclusion: Findings suggest a robust relationship between self-reported
      discrimination and depressive symptoms in older Chinese Americans. They further
      suggest that the relatively advantaged groups-younger, higher socioeconomic
      status, more acculturated, and living outside Chinatown-are more likely to report
      experiencing discrimination.

PMID- 28575256
TI  - Grandparent Caregiving and Psychological Well-Being Among Chinese American Older
      Adults-The Roles of Caregiving Burden and Pressure.
AB  - Background: Though ample research on grandparent caregiving and psychological
      well-being outcomes exist in Western literature, little attention has been
      focused on Chinese American grandparents. Based on role enhancement and role
      strain theories, this study examined grandparent caregiving and psychological
      well-being among Chinese American older adults and tested whether caregiving
      burden or pressure from adult children moderated such association. Methods: We
      used the data from the Population Study of ChINese Elderly in Chicago (PINE), a
      population-based survey of community-dwelling Chinese older adults in the Greater
      Chicago area. Grandparents with grandchildren younger than 16 years old were
      selected for present study (N = 2,775). Negative binominal regression and
      logistic regression models were used to test the relationships of grandparent
      caregiving time and psychological well-being measured by depressive symptoms and
      quality of life. Results: Grandparents reported an average of 11.96 hours a week
      for caring for grandchildren. Caregiving time had a significantly negative
      association with depressive symptoms, but not with quality of life. The
      association between grandparent caregiving and depressive symptoms was moderated
      by the perception of caregiving burden. No moderating effect of caregiving
      pressure from adult children was found. Conclusions: More time spending on
      grandparent caregiving is generally beneficial to Chinese American grandparents'
      psychological well-being, thus supporting role enhancement theory. However, this
      association depends on whether this experience is a burden to the grandparents,
      therefore role strain theory is also supported. Policies and programs are
      discussed to address the grandparenting experience in the Chinese American older
      adults.

PMID- 28575257
TI  - The Relationship of Social Engagement and Social Support With Sense of Community.
AB  - Background: We aimed to investigate the relationship of engagement in social and
      cognitive activities and social support with the sense of community (SOC) and its
      components among older Chinese Americans. Methods: The Sense of Community Index
      (SCI) was used to measure SOC and its four component factors: membership,
      influence, needs fulfillment, and emotional connection. Social engagement was
      assessed with 16 questions. Social support included positive support and negative
      strain. Principal component analysis was used to identify the SCI components.
      Linear regression analysis was used to detect the contribution of social
      engagement and social support to SOC and its components. Results: After
      controlling for sociodemographics and self-rated health, social activity
      engagement and positive social support were positively related to SOC and its
      components. Conclusions: This study points to the importance of social activity
      engagement and positive support from family and friends in increasing the sense
      of community.

PMID- 28575258
TI  - Examination of Chronic Smoking Behavior and Eligibility for Low-Dose Computed
      Tomography for Lung Cancer Screening Among Older Chinese Male Smokers.
AB  - Background: Low-dose computed tomography lung cancer (LDCT) screening is an
      effective way to decrease lung cancer mortality. Both Medicare and private
      insurers offer coverage of LDCT screening to beneficiaries who are at high risk
      of developing lung cancer. In this study, we examined rates and predictors of
      chronic smoking behavior and eligibility for coverage of LDCT screening among
      older Chinese men living in the greater Chicago area. Methods: Data were obtained
      from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago, a population-based
      survey of community-dwelling, older Chinese adults in the Chicago metropolitan
      area. Eligibility criteria according to Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services
      (CMS) and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for LDCT screening were
      used. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to determine predictors of
      chronic smoking behavior which was operationalized as meeting criteria for LDCT
      screening. Results: A quarter of the sample were current smokers and 42.5%
      reported a prior history of smoking. Eighteen percent and 22% of older Chinese
      men met the eligibility criteria for appropriateness for CMS and USPSTF LDCT
      screening, respectively. Furthermore, education, marital status, and number of
      children were significantly associated with chronic smoking behavior. Conclusion:
      Older Chinese men with chronic smoking behavior are at high risk of developing
      lung cancer and nearly one in five meet eligibility for LDCT screening. Increased
      outreach and education regarding early detection of lung cancer and smoking
      cessation are needed for this vulnerable and high-risk population.

PMID- 28575259
TI  - The Association Between Childhood Abuse and Elder Abuse Among Chinese Adult
      Children in the United States.
AB  - Background: The previous researchers have postulated that an abused child may
      abuse his or her abuser parent when the parent is getting old, also known as the
      intergenerational transmission of violence. However, few studies use data to
      support this model, and it has yet to be examined in the U.S. Chinese community.
      This study aims to examine the association between childhood abuse and elder
      abuse reported by Chinese adult children in the United States. Methods: Guided by
      a community-based participatory research approach, 548 Chinese adult children
      aged 21 years and older participated in this study. Childhood abuse was assessed
      by four-item Hurt-Insult-Threaten-Scream (HITS) scale. Elder abuse was assessed
      by a 10-item instrument derived from the Caregiver Abuse Screen (CASE). Logistic
      regression analysis was performed. Results: Childhood abuse was associated with
      caregiver abuse screen results (odds ratio = 1.92, 95% confidence interval = 1.24
      2.95). Being physically hurt (r = .13, p < .01), insulted (r = .15, p < .001),
      threatened (r = .12, p < .01), and screamed at (r = .18, p < .001) as a child
      were significantly correlated with caregiver abuse screen results. Conclusion:
      This study suggests that childhood abuse is associated with increased risk of
      elder abuse among Chinese adult children in the United States. Longitudinal
      research should be conducted to explore the mechanisms through which childhood
      abuse and its subtypes links with elder abuse.

PMID- 28575260
TI  - Social Support, Social Strain, and Cognitive Function Among Community-Dwelling
      U.S. Chinese Older Adults.
AB  - Background: Limited research is available on the relationship between social
      support, social strain, and cognitive function among community-dwelling U.S.
      Chinese older adults. This study aims to examine the associations between social
      support/strain and cognitive outcomes. Methods: Data were drawn from the
      Population-Based Study of Chinese Elderly (N = 3,159). Cognitive function was
      measured by a battery of tests including the East Boston Memory Test, the Digit
      Span Backwards assessment, and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test. Social support
      and strain were measured by the scales drawn from the Health and Retirement
      study. Multiple regression analyses were conducted. Results: Social support was
      significantly associated with global cognitive function (beta = .11, SE = .02, p
      < .001), episodic memory (beta = .11, SE = .03, p < .001), working memory (beta =
      .18, SE = .08, p < .05), and executive function (beta = 1.44, SE = .37, p <
      .001). Social strain was significantly associated with global cognitive function
      (beta = .23, SE = .05, p < .001), episodic memory (beta = .27, SE = .07, p <
      .001), working memory (beta = .34, SE = .17, p < .05), and executive function
      (beta = 2.75, SE = .85, p < .01). In terms of sources of social support/strain,
      higher support from friends was significantly associated with higher global
      cognitive function (beta = .04, SE = .02, p < .05), higher episodic memory (beta
      = .05, SE = .02, p < .05), and higher executive function (beta = .71, SE = .29, p
      < .05). Higher strain from spouse was significantly associated with higher global
      cognitive function (beta = .10, SE = .03, p < .01), higher episodic memory (beta
      = .11, SE = .04, p < .01), and higher executive function (beta = 1.28, SE = .49,
      p < .01). Higher strain from friends was significantly associated with higher
      executive function (beta = 3.59, SE = 1.17, p < .01). Conclusions: Social support
      and strain were associated with cognitive outcomes. Future longitudinal studies
      should be conducted.

PMID- 28575261
TI  - Elder Self-neglect and Suicidal Ideation in an U.S. Chinese Aging Population:
      Findings From the PINE Study.
AB  - Background: Self-neglect and suicidal ideations are important public health
      issues among the aging population. This study aims to examine the association
      between self-neglect, its phenotypes, and suicidal ideation among U.S. Chinese
      older adults. Methods: Guided by a community-based participatory research
      approach, the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE) study is a
      population-based epidemiological study conducted from 2011 to 2013 among 3,159
      Chinese older adults aged 60 years and older in the Greater Chicago area. Self
      neglect was assessed by a 27-item instrument, describing five phenotypes with
      hoarding, poor personal hygiene, unsanitary condition, lack of utilities, and
      need of home repair. Suicidal ideation was assessed by the ninth item of the
      Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Geriatric Mental State Examination
      Version A (GMS-A). Logistic regression is utilized to analyze the association.
      Results: Higher level of self-neglect was found significantly associated with
      increased risk of self-reported suicidal ideation within 2 weeks (odds ratio 2.97
      [1.54-5.72]); 12 months (odds ratio 2.82 [1.77-4.51]); and lifetime (odds ratio
      2.74 [1.89-3.95]). For phenotypes, the study found that poorer personal hygiene
      and severer level of unsanitary conditions were associated with increased risk of
      suicidal ideation at all three time periods. Conclusion: This study suggests that
      self-neglect and its phenotypes are significantly associated with suicidal
      ideation among Chinese older adults. Longitudinal studies are needed to explore
      the mechanisms through which self-neglect links with suicidal ideation.

PMID- 28575262
TI  - The Association Between Physical Function and Elder Mistreatment Among Community
      Dwelling Chinese Older Adults in the Greater Chicago Area.
AB  - Background: Physical function (PF) impairment and elder mistreatment (EM) are
      alarming public health issues facing by many older adults. Prior studies have not
      generated uniform findings on the associations between PF and EM. This study
      aimed to address the research gap of this association among U.S. Chinese aging
      population. Methods: Three thousand one hundred fifty-eight community-dwelling
      Chinese older adults in the Greater Chicago Area were surveyed. Independent
      variables included both self-reported and performance-based PF measurements.
      Dependent variable was EM, assessed by a 10-item instrument that has been widely
      used in social studies. Results: The mean age of study participants was 76.3
      years (SD +/- 8.4) and 58.0% were female. After adjusting for potential
      covariates, higher scores of activities of daily living (odds ratio [OR] = 0.85,
      95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.73-0.98), instrumental activities of daily
      living (OR = 0.87, 0.82-0.92), and Rosow-Breslau reversely coded (OR = 0.85, 0.75
      0.96) were associated with lower risk of EM. Also, lower scores of observed PF
      performance measurements, including tandem stand (OR = 0.78, 0.70-0.88), measured
      walk (OR = 0.84, 0.77-0.91), and the overall measurement (OR = 0.93, 0.89-0.97)
      have significant associations with lower risk of EM. Conclusions: Findings from
      this study suggested that greater levels of PF impairment were associated with
      lower risk of EM among U.S. Chinese older adults in the Greater Chicago Area.
      Longitudinal studies are needed to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of
      the pathways between PF and EM and its subtypes among Chinese aging populations.

PMID- 28575263
TI  - Breast Cancer Screening Beliefs Among Older Chinese Women in Chicago's Chinatown.
AB  - Background: Chicago's Chinatown is home to a sizeable community of first
      generation Chinese American immigrants. This qualitative study seeks to describe
      the attitudes toward, and barriers and facilitators of, breast cancer screening
      among Chinese women in Chicago's Chinatown to inform strategies for future
      interventions. Methods: We conducted six focus groups among Chinese-speaking
      adult women aged 45 and older. Focus groups were transcribed, coded, and analyzed
      for emergent themes. Results: Forty-seven women participated in focus groups; 10
      (21%) had received a breast cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, all participants
      were foreign-born, and 80% have resided in the United States for over 10 years.
      Participants expressed a range of breast cancer beliefs, attitudes toward
      screening, barriers encountered, and facilitators. Some differences were noted
      between women with cancer and those without. Barriers described include language,
      time, not wanting to burden their adult children, and transportation. Navigation
      services and physician recommendation were suggested facilitators to screening.
      Conclusions: Our findings have important implications for development of
      interventions and policies to bolster breast cancer screening among Chinese
      women. We highlight the need to connect Chinese older adults with resources to
      navigate the health care system and present opportunities for community
      stakeholders, researchers, health professionals, and policy makers to improve the
      health of Chinese Americans.

PMID- 28575264
TI  - Knowledge and Beliefs About Biospecimen Research Among Chinese Older Women in
      Chicago's Chinatown.
AB  - Background: Enhancing the participation of Chinese older women in biobanking
      efforts is important for precision medicine efforts, as underrepresented groups
      risk benefiting less than others from medical advancements in individualized
      therapies. Focusing on a sample of Chinese older women in Chicago's Chinatown,
      this qualitative study seeks to describe attitudes toward, and barriers and
      facilitators of, participation in biospecimen research. Method: We conducted six
      focus groups among Chinese-speaking adult women age 45 and above. Focus groups
      were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emergent themes. Results: Forty-seven
      women participated in focus groups, the majority (66.0%) were age 66 and over and
      half (50.1%) had less than a high school education. Participants expressed
      predominantly positive attitudes toward biospecimen research, but also identified
      multifaceted barriers to participation that included cultural beliefs of the
      body, perceived physical and privacy risks, as well as perceptions related to
      aging. Use of minimally invasive biospecimen collection and education to promote
      awareness of biospecimen research were suggested facilitators to increasing
      biospecimen research participation. Conclusions: Culturally and linguistically
      isolated populations like Chinese older women are at risk of exclusion from
      advancements in precision medicine. Our findings provide cultural insights for
      tailoring interventions for Chinese older women to increase knowledge, change
      attitudes, and increase intention and participation in biospecimen research. We
      also highlight the need for individual, family, and community level interventions
      to promote healthy aging among Chinese older women.

PMID- 28575265
TI  - Change of Cognitive Function in U.S. Chinese Older Adults: A Population-Based
      Study.
AB  - Background: This study aims to assess cognitive change in a 2-year period among
      U.S. Chinese older adults and examine sociodemographic characteristics associated
      with the change. Methods: Data were from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly
      (PINE) in which 2,713 participants (aged 60 and older) received in-home
      interviews at both the baseline and 2-year follow-up. A battery of cognitive
      tests that assessed episodic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and
      overall cognitive status were administered in both times. A composite global
      cognition was constructed using all tests. Mixed-effect regression was conducted.
      Results: Older age was associated with worse baseline cognition (ie, in all
      cognitive abilities) and faster decline in global cognition, episodic memory, and
      perceptual speed-rates of decline increased by .006, .004, and .009 standard
      score units, respectively, for each year older. More education was associated
      with better baseline cognition, but each year of additional schooling increased
      rates of decline in global cognition and episodic memory by .004 and .012
      standard score units, respectively. Men performed better than women in most
      cognitive abilities at baseline but had faster rates of decline in working
      memory. Higher income was associated with better cognition at baseline and
      reduced rates of decline in working memory. Conclusions: Findings suggest
      differences in the rates of cognitive change by age, sex, education, and income.
      Those in advancing age are vulnerable to cognitive decline. The effects of
      education and sex on baseline performance versus change suggest a role for life
      experiences in cognition.

PMID- 28575266
TI  - Incidence of Elder Abuse in a U.S. Chinese Population: Findings From the
      Longitudinal Cohort PINE Study.
AB  - Background: Elder abuse (EA) is a global public health issue. However, no prior
      longitudinal research has quantified the incidence of EA, which is critical to
      understand risk factors and future prevention strategies. Methods: The study is
      based on a longitudinal cohort design. We followed 2,713 U.S. Chinese older
      adults who agreed to participate in the study within 2011 to 2015. A structured
      questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the 2-year incidence of EA and
      its subtypes. We employed multiple logistic regression analyses to examine the
      associations between the sociodemographic characteristics and incident EA.
      Results: The incidence of overall EA was 8.8% with 4.8% for psychological, 2.9%
      for financial, 0.5% for physical, 0.1% for sexual abuse, and 1.1% for caregiver
      neglect. Age, gender, duration of residence, language preference and health
      status change were associated with incident EA. Self-perceived worsened health
      was positively associated with overall EA (odds ratio [OR] 1.28 (1.01, 1.62).
      Women (OR 2.98 [1.10, 8.11]) and older individuals (OR 1.06 [1.00, 1.13]) had an
      increased risk of caregiver neglect. Older adults who have lived in the U.S.
      longer had a higher risk of financial exploitation (OR 1.02 [1.00, 1.05]).
      Individuals who prefer to speak Mandarin or English were more likely to
      experience EA (OR 2.08 [1.21, 3.58]) and sexual or physical abuse (OR 3.91 [1.01,
      15.17]). No significant association was observed between education, income,
      marital status, number of children, country of origin, overall health, life
      quality, and incident EA. Conclusion: This study presents the first illustration
      of EA incidence in a longitudinal cohort study, the findings of which verify and
      challenge prior fundamental assumptions of risk factors associated with EA, and
      are relevant to future prevention strategies.

PMID- 28575267
TI  - Associations Between the Differential Definitions of Elder Mistreatment and
      Suicidal Ideation Outcomes in U.S. Chinese Older Adults: Do the Definitions
      Matter?
AB  - Background: Elder mistreatment (EM) prevalence varies greatly according to
      definitional criteria. However, little is known regarding the significance of
      different EM definitions with respect to health outcome. This paper explores the
      association between different definitions of EM and their subtypes and suicidal
      ideation (SI) in an U.S. Chinese aging population. Methods: The Population Study
      of ChINese Elderly in Chicago Study was conducted from 2011 to 2013 of 3157
      community-dwelling Chinese older adults aged 60 years. Psychological, physical
      mistreatment (PM), caregiver neglect (CN), financial exploitation (FE), and
      overall EM were measured by different definitional approaches varying in the
      strictness. SI in the past 2 weeks and 12 months were assessed. Results: After
      adjusting for confounders, the least restrictive EM definition (odds ratio [OR],
      2.10 [1.34-3.28]; OR, 2.43 [1.66-3.55]), moderately restrictive EM definition
      (OR, 2.87 [1.80-4.56]; OR, 2.71 [1.82-4.04]), and most restrictive EM definition
      (OR, 2.24 [1.36-3.66]; OR, 2.34 [1.54-3.56]) were associated with increased risk
      for 2-week and 12-month SI. For subtypes of EM, psychological mistreatment (the
      least and most restrictive definitions, 2-week SI: OR, 2.83 [1.71-4.68]; OR, 3.13
      [1.10-8.91]; 12-month SI: OR, 2.43 [1.56-3.78]; OR, 2.88 [1.10-7.54]), PM (2-week
      SI: OR, 5.12 [1.83-14.29]; 12-month SI: OR, 3.45 [1.30-9.13]), and FE was not
      associated with 2-week SI, only the broadly defined FE (OR, 1.73 [1.01-2.96]) was
      associated with higher odds of reporting 12-month SI. CN was only associated with
      higher odds of reporting 12-month SI (OR, 2.17 [1.19-3.96]; OR, 1.94 [1.24-3.04])
      but not 2-week SI. Conclusion: EM and its subtypes were significantly associated
      with SI; some associations varied by definitions and subtypes.

PMID- 28575269
TI  - The Association Between Filial Discrepancy and Depressive Symptoms: Findings From
      a Community-Dwelling Chinese Aging Population.
AB  - Background: The relationship between filial piety and depressive symptoms has
      been widely discussed, but limited research focused on the gap between filial
      expectations and filial receipt. This study aims to investigate the association
      between filial discrepancy and depressive symptoms. Methods: Data were derived
      from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly (PINE), a community-engaged,
      population-based epidemiological study of U.S. Chinese older adults aged 60 and
      older in the greater Chicago area. Depressive symptoms were measured by the
      Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Overall filial discrepancy was evaluated by
      filial receipt minus expectations. Levels of overall filial discrepancy divided
      older adults into four groups based on the medium value of filial expectations
      and receipt. Logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Older adults
      with greater filial receipt than expectations were more likely to have lower risk
      of depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR], 0.95 [0.92-0.97]). The group with high
      expectations and low receipt has the highest risk of depressive symptoms among
      the four groups (OR, 1.51 [1.07-2.13]). Greater receipt than expectations in care
      (OR, 0.83 [0.76-0.92]), make happy (OR, 0.77 [0.69-0.86]), greet (OR, 0.88 [0.79
      0.97]), obey (OR, 0.76 [0.68-0.86]), and financial support (OR, 0.80 [0.71-0.89])
      was associated with lower risk of depressive symptoms. Conclusions: This study
      goes beyond previous research by examining the association between filial
      discrepancy domains and depressive symptoms. Cultural relevancy of health
      interventions is important in the context of Chinese communities. Health care
      professionals are suggested to be aware of the depressive symptoms of U.S.
      Chinese older adults with high filial expectations and low receipt.

PMID- 28575270
TI  - The Decline of Directly Observed Physical Function Performance Among U.S. Chinese
      Older Adults.
AB  - Background: Physical function decline is a major public health concern and can
      predict later mortality. This study aims to examine the sociodemographic factors
      associated with physical function decline among U.S. Chinese older adults through
      a longitudinal population-based study. Methods: Data were derived from the
      Population Study of Chinese Elderly (PINE) at two time points: 2011-2013 and 2013
      2015. Physical function was measured by observed physical performance testing,
      including chair stand, tandem stand, and timed walk. Mixed-effect models were
      used to analyze the demographic risk factors associated with physical function
      decline. Results: Of the 2,713 participants in waves 1 and 2, their average age
      was 72.6 years old, 58.4% were female, with 8.7 years of education average, and
      85.8% had an annual individual income of less than $10,000. Our findings show
      subjects of older age, female sex, lower education, lower income, and a greater
      number of medical comorbidities had lower physical function levels at baseline.
      Older adults experienced a faster decline in physical function for the overall
      performance measure (beta = -.02, p < .001). Additionally, elderly adults with
      higher education have a faster decline of physical function in the overall
      performance measure (beta = -.03, p < .01). Discussion: As the first to examine
      physical function decline among U.S. Chinese older adults, our study finds older
      age and higher education are two factors associated with a faster rate of
      physical function decline. In future research, long-term follow up and multiple
      waves of data are needed to investigate risk or resilience factors for disability
      or recovering from disability.

PMID- 28575271
TI  - Advancing Community and Health Equity: Health and Wellbeing of U.S. Chinese
      Populations.

PMID- 28575268
TI  - Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Association Between Trust in Physician and
      Depressive Symptoms Among U.S. Community-Dwelling Chinese Older Adults.
AB  - Background: Depression is a major public health concern among older adults and
      health care professionals play a vital role in screening and treatment. However,
      this process may be impeded by issues like lack of trust in physician (TIP). This
      study aims to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between
      TIP and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults in the Chicago area.
      Methods: Data were collected through the Population Study of Chinese Elderly
      (PINE), a longitudinal cohort study of Chinese older adults in the greater
      Chicago area. A total of 2,713 Chinese older adults completed both waves of data
      collection. TIP was measured through the Trust in Physician scale from Anderson
      and Dedrick (Anderson LA, Dedrick RF. Development of the Trust in Physician
      scale: a measure to assess interpersonal trust in patient-physician
      relationships. Psychol Rep. 1990;67(3 Pt 2):1091-1100.
      doi:10.2466/pr0.1990.67.3f.1091) (range: 11-55). Depressive symptoms were
      measured through Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Results: Every one point higher
      in TIP is associated with being 2% less likely to have any depressive symptoms
      (odds ratio [OR] 0.98, 0.97-0.99) in cross-sectional analysis. Longitudinally,
      every one-point increase in TIP score was associated with a 2% lower risk of
      depressive symptoms at Wave 2 (OR 0.98, 0.97-0.99). Improved TIP over 2 years was
      associated with 25% decreased risk of having any depressive symptoms at Wave 2
      (OR 0.75, 0.63-0.89). Additionally, highest tertile of TIP change was associated
      with a 31% decreased risk of any depressive symptoms compared to lowest tertile
      (OR 0.68, 0.55-0.84). Discussion: Improved TIP over 2 years is associated with
      less risk of experiencing depressive symptoms. Future research should examine
      possible pathways and routes of intervention to improve mental health among older
      adults.

PMID- 28575272
TI  - Variations Between Sources of Social Support and Cancer Screen Behaviors in U.S.
      Chinese Older Adults.
AB  - Background: Social support is a key indicator of utilization of preventive health
      care among older adults, but we have limited knowledge on these associations in
      U.S. Chinese older adults. This study aims to examine the association between
      sources of social support and cancer screening behaviors among Chinese older
      adults in the greater Chicago area. Methods: Data were drawn from the Population
      Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago. Social supports were measured by asking the
      frequency of receipt of support from spouse, non-spouse family members, and
      friends. Use of cancer screenings were evaluated by asking the history of
      utilization of colon, breast, cervical, and prostate cancer screenings. Results:
      After adjusting for covariates, results indicated significant association between
      higher social support and higher utilization of cancer screenings. Regarding to
      different sources of social support, higher levels of social supports from family
      members (odds ratio [OR], 1.15 [1.07, 1.25]) and friends (OR, 1.14 [1.06, 1.23])
      were associated with higher utilization of breast cancer screening. However,
      higher levels of social support from family members (OR, 0.94 [0.88, 0.99]) and
      friends (OR, 0.94 [0.88, 1.00]) were associated with lower utilization of colon
      cancer screening. No associations were found between social support and prostate
      cancer screening. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that different types
      of social support were associated with variations in the utilization of cancer
      screenings. Future longitudinal studies are needed to explore the causal
      relationship between social support and cancer screening use.

PMID- 28575273
TI  - Positioning Ustekinumab in Crohn's Disease: From Clinical Evidence to Clinical
      Practice.
AB  - Biological medicines have revolutionised the treatment of Crohn's disease [CD].
      Yet, the management of patients not responding to tumour necrosis factor [TNF]
      antagonists remains a clinical challenge. Ustekinumab is a human monoclonal
      antibody blocking the biological activity of interleukins 12 and 23, which
      regulate the immune system and immune-mediated inflammatory disorders.
      Ustekinumab has recently been approved for the treatment of adult patients with
      moderately to severely active CD, who have had an inadequate response with, lost
      response to, or were intolerant to either conventional therapy or a TNF
      antagonist, or have medical contraindications to such therapies. Herein, we
      review the new biological drug's efficacy and safety data reported from
      randomised controlled trials and real-world observational studies conducted in
      populations with CD, in order to identify the patient groups most likely to
      benefit, and to appropriately place ustekinumab into treatment algorithms for CD.

PMID- 28575275
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28575274
TI  - Visit-to-visit variability of blood pressure and cardiovascular outcomes in
      patients with stable coronary heart disease. Insights from the STABILITY trial.
AB  - Aims: To study the relation between visit-to-visit variability of blood pressure
      (BP) and cardiovascular risk in patients with stable coronary heart disease.
      Methods and results: In 15 828 patients from the STABILITY trial (darapladib vs.
      placebo in patients with established coronary heart disease), BP variability was
      assessed by the standard deviation (SD) of systolic BP, the SD of diastolic BP,
      maximum BP, and minimum BP, from 5 measurements (baseline and months 1, 3, 6, and
      12) during the first year after randomisation. Mean (SD) average BP during the
      first year of study was 131.0 (13.7) mmHg over 78.3 (8.3) mmHg. Mean (SD) of the
      visit-to-visit SD was 9.8 (4.8) mmHg for systolic and 6.3 (3.0) mmHg for
      diastolic BP. During the subsequent median follow-up of 2.6 years, 1010 patients
      met the primary endpoint, a composite of time to cardiovascular death, myocardial
      infarction, or stroke. In Cox regression models adjusted for average BP during
      first year of study, baseline vascular disease, treatment, renal function and
      cardiovascular risk factors, the primary endpoint was associated with SD of
      systolic BP (hazard ratio for highest vs. lowest tertile, 1.30, 95% CI 1.10-1.53,
      P = 0.007), and with SD of diastolic BP (hazard ratio for highest vs. lowest
      tertile, 1.38, 95% CI 1.18-1.62, P < 0.001). Peaks and troughs in BP were also
      independently associated with adverse events. Conclusion: In patients with stable
      coronary heart disease, higher visit-to-visit variabilities of both systolic and
      diastolic BP are strong predictors of increased risk of cardiovascular events,
      independently of mean BP.

PMID- 28575277
TI  - A comprehensive risk stratification at early follow-up determines prognosis in
      pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - Aims: Guidelines recommend a goal-oriented treatment approach in pulmonary
      arterial hypertension (PAH). The aim is to reach a low-risk profile, as
      determined by a risk assessment instrument. This strategy is incompletely
      validated. We aimed to investigate the bearing of such risk assessment and the
      benefit of reaching a low-risk profile. Methods and results: Five hundred and
      thirty PAH patients were included. Follow-up assessments performed after a median
      of 4 (interquartile range 3-5) months were available for 383 subjects. Patients
      were classified as 'Low', 'Intermediate', or 'High risk' and the benefit of
      reaching the 'Low risk' group was estimated. Survival differed (P < 0.001)
      between the risk groups at baseline and at follow-up. Survival was similar for
      patients who remained in or improved to the 'Low risk' group. Survival was
      similar for patients who remained in or worsened to the 'Intermediate risk' or
      'High risk' groups. Irrespective of follow-up risk group, survival was better (P
      < 0.001) for patients with a higher proportion of variables at low risk. Results
      were unchanged after excluding patients with idiopathic PAH >65 years at
      diagnosis, and when patients with idiopathic or connective tissue disease
      associated PAH were analysed separately. Patients in the 'Low risk' group at
      follow-up exhibited a reduced mortality risk (hazard ratio 0.2, 95% confidence
      interval 0.1-0.4 in multivariable analysis adjusted for age, sex and PAH subset),
      as compared to patients in the 'Intermediate risk' or 'High risk' groups.
      Conclusion: These findings suggest that comprehensive risk assessments and the
      aim of reaching a low-risk profile are valid in PAH.

PMID- 28575279
TI  - Commentary: Hospital Length of Stay and Readmission Rate for Neurosurgical
      Patients.

PMID- 28575278
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of nebulized colistin methanesulfonate in critically ill
      patients.
AB  - Objectives: Optimal dosing for nebulized colistin methanesulfonate (CMS), the
      prodrug of colistin, is unknown. We describe the pulmonary and systemic
      pharmacokinetics of CMS and colistin following nebulization of 0.5 million IU
      (MIU) of CMS in ventilated patients. Methods: Twelve critically ill patients
      received 0.5 MIU of CMS administered every 8 h as 30 min nebulizations. Blood
      samples were collected immediately before and until 8 h after first nebulization;
      mini-bronchoalveolar lavage (mini-BAL) was performed at 1 and 5 h or 3 and 8 h
      (six patients each) post-dose. Pharmacokinetic analysis was performed for CMS and
      colistin plasma concentrations using a non-compartmental method.
      ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01060891. Results: After nebulization, CMS concentrations
      in epithelial lining fluid (ELF) were much higher (100- to 1000-fold) than those
      in plasma. Concentrations of colistin in ELF should be considered with caution
      because when <6 mg/L in BAL, colistin bound to mini-BAL devices. Nevertheless,
      CMS and colistin concentrations in ELF were much lower than expected from
      previous results with a 2 MIU dose. From CMS plasma pharmacokinetics it was shown
      that CMS systemic bioavailability was only slightly decreased for the 0.5 MIU
      dose compared with 2 MIU. Conclusions: This study shows that CMS concentrations
      were much higher (100- to 1000-fold) in ELF than in plasma after a 0.5 MIU
      aerosol of CMS, but much lower (10-fold) than expected from previous results with
      a 2 MIU dose. Therefore, until new pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic
      assessments of the treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia with nebulized
      CMS are performed, the 2 MIU dose should be preferred to the 0.5 MIU dose.

PMID- 28575276
TI  - Structural determinants of APOBEC3B non-catalytic domain for molecular assembly
      and catalytic regulation.
AB  - The catalytic activity of human cytidine deaminase APOBEC3B (A3B) has been
      correlated with kataegic mutational patterns within multiple cancer types. The
      molecular basis of how the N-terminal non-catalytic CD1 regulates the catalytic
      activity and consequently, biological function of A3B remains relatively unknown.
      Here, we report the crystal structure of a soluble human A3B-CD1 variant and
      delineate several structural elements of CD1 involved in molecular assembly,
      nucleic acid interactions and catalytic regulation of A3B. We show that (i) A3B
      expressed in human cells exists in hypoactive high-molecular-weight (HMW)
      complexes, which can be activated without apparent dissociation into low
      molecular-weight (LMW) species after RNase A treatment. (ii) Multiple surface
      hydrophobic residues of CD1 mediate the HMW complex assembly and affect the
      catalytic activity, including one tryptophan residue W127 that likely acts
      through regulating nucleic acid binding. (iii) One of the highly positively
      charged surfaces on CD1 is involved in RNA-dependent attenuation of A3B
      catalysis. (iv) Surface hydrophobic residues of CD1 are involved in heterogeneous
      nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) binding to A3B. The structural and
      biochemical insights described here suggest that unique structural features on
      CD1 regulate the molecular assembly and catalytic activity of A3B through
      distinct mechanisms.

PMID- 28575282
TI  - Mitral valve repair or replacement in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: a
      prospective randomized study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The optimal surgical strategy for concomitant mitral valve
      intervention during myectomy remains controversial. The purpose of this study was
      to compare the results of mitral valve replacement versus repair in patients with
      hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and severe mitral regurgitation. METHODS:
      Between 2010 and 2013, a total of 88 patients with hypertrophic obstructive
      cardiomyopathy and severe mitral regurgitation were randomly assigned to undergo
      either mitral valve replacement or repair in addition to extended myectomy.
      RESULTS: Three patients from the repair group were switched to mitral valve
      replacement after repair failure. There was 1 early death (2.4%) in the
      replacement group. The resting left ventricular outflow tract gradient was
      reduced from 89.1 +/- 20.4 to 18.3 +/- 5.7 mmHg (P < 0.001) and from 96.6 +/-
      28.1 to 14.7 +/- 5.9 mmHg (P < 0.001) in the replacement and repair groups,
      respectively; there was no significant difference between the groups (P = 0.458).
      At 2-year follow-up, overall survival was 87.2 +/- 4.9% and 96.7 +/- 3.3% (P =
      0.034); freedom from sudden cardiac death was 95.6 +/- 3.1% and 96.7 +/- 3.3% (P
      = 0.615); and freedom from thromboembolic events was 91.2 +/- 4.2% and 100%,
      respectively (P = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Both mitral valve repair and valve
      replacement in addition to extended myectomy are effective methods of surgical
      treatment in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy who have
      severe mitral regurgitation. The benefits of mitral valve repair are better
      overall survival and a lower rate of thromboembolic events. Clinical trial
      registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02054221.

PMID- 28575283
TI  - Quantification of Oral Roughness Perception and Comparison with Mechanism of
      Astringency Perception.
AB  - Texture contributes to food acceptance, but oral texture perception is
      incompletely understood. Presently, we quantified individual sensitivities to
      lingual tactile roughness and assessed the impact of age, salivary flow (SF), and
      fungiform papillae density (FPD) on threshold and suprathreshold perception.
      Additionally, we tested the hypothesis that individuals highly sensitive to
      tactile roughness exhibit sensitivity to astringent stimuli. Detection thresholds
      (DTs) were determined using the staircase method for surface roughness from
      stainless steel coupons (Ra; 0.177-0.465 um) and astringency elicited by
      epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG; 0-1.64 mM) and tannic acid (TA; 0-0.71 mM) from
      30 individuals. Suprathreshold sensitivity was assessed from intensity ratings of
      electroforming comparator surfaces with roughnesses ranging from 0.51 to 22.8 um
      and astringent stimuli ranging from 0 to 5.2 mM (EGCG) and from 0 to 1.9 mM (TA).
      SF, FPD, and astringent food pleasantness scores were collected. Variability in
      threshold roughness sensitivity enabled dividing subjects into high (RHi; n = 16)
      and low (RLo; n = 14) sensitivity groups; however, no significant differences in
      age, FPD, or SF were observed across these cohorts. Interestingly, compared with
      RLo, the RHi group exhibited greater sensitivity to EGCG but not TA astringency
      and indicated greater pleasantness from astringent foods (e.g., unripe bananas
      and dark chocolate). When participants were allocated into high (SalivaHi; n =
      15) or low SF (SalivaLo; n = 15) groups, TA-evoked astringency thresholds were
      significantly lower in SalivaHi whom also indicated greater pleasantness from
      astringent red wines. For suprathreshold assessments of surface roughness or
      astringency, no significant associations were identified with age, FPD, or SF.
      Suprathreshold roughness sensitivity was, however, associated with suprathreshold
      sensitivity to EGCG but not TA astringency.

PMID- 28575281
TI  - Knockdown and replacement therapy mediated by artificial mirtrons in
      spinocerebellar ataxia 7.
AB  - We evaluate a knockdown-replacement strategy mediated by mirtrons as an
      alternative to allele-specific silencing using spinocerebellar ataxia 7 (SCA7) as
      a model. Mirtrons are introns that form pre-microRNA hairpins after splicing,
      producing RNAi effectors not processed by Drosha. Mirtron mimics may therefore
      avoid saturation of the canonical processing pathway. This method combines gene
      silencing mediated by an artificial mirtron with delivery of a functional copy of
      the gene such that both elements of the therapy are always expressed
      concurrently, minimizing the potential for undesirable effects and preserving
      wild-type function. This mutation- and single nucleotide polymorphism-independent
      method could be crucial in dominant diseases that feature both gain- and loss-of
      function pathologies or have a heterogeneous genetic background. Here we develop
      mirtrons against ataxin 7 with silencing efficacy comparable to shRNAs, and
      introduce silent mutations into an ataxin 7 transgene such that it is resistant
      to their effect. We successfully express the transgene and one mirtron together
      from a single construct. Hence, we show that this method can be used to silence
      the endogenous allele of ataxin 7 and replace it with an exogenous copy of the
      gene, highlighting the efficacy and transferability across patient genotypes of
      this approach.

PMID- 28575280
TI  - Global position paper on cardiovascular regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28575284
TI  - Role of Heat Shock Factor 1 in Conserving Cholesterol Transportation in Leydig
      Cell Steroidogenesis via Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein.
AB  - Testicular testosterone synthesis begins with cholesterol transport into
      mitochondria via steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein in Leydig cells.
      Acute heat stress is known to obstruct testicular steroidogenesis by
      transcriptional repression of StAR. In contrast, chronic heat stress such as
      cryptorchidism or varicocele generally does not affect testicular
      steroidogenesis, suggesting that Leydig cells adapt to heat stress and retain
      their steroid synthesis ability. However, the mechanisms of the stress response
      in steroid-producing cells are unclear. We examined the relationship between the
      heat stress response and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), which protects cells from
      proteotoxic stress by inducing heat shock protein as a molecular chaperone. The
      influences of HSF1 deficiency on cholesterol transport by StAR and the expression
      of steroidogenic enzymes under chronic heat stress were studied in testes of HSF1
      knockout (HSF1KO) mice with experimental cryptorchidism. StAR protein in wild
      type-cryptorchid mice was transiently decreased after induction of cryptorchidism
      and then gradually returned to basal levels. In contrast, StAR protein in HSF1KO
      mice continued to decrease and failed to recover, resulting in impaired serum
      testosterone. StAR messenger RNA was not decreased with cryptorchidism,
      indicating that posttranslational modification of StAR, not its transcription,
      was obstructed in cryptorchidism. Other steroidogenic enzymes, including CYP11A1,
      3beta-HSD, and CYP17A1, were not decreased. Lipid droplets were increased in the
      cytosol of HSF1KO-cryptorchid mice, suggesting dysfunctional cholesterol
      transportation. These findings provide insight into the role of HSF1 in Leydig
      cell steroidogenesis, suggesting that it maintains cholesterol transport by
      recovering StAR under chronic heat stress.

PMID- 28575285
TI  - Comparison of Control of Clostridium difficile Infection in Six English Hospitals
      Using Whole-Genome Sequencing.
AB  - Background: Variation in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) rates between
      healthcare institutions suggests overall incidence could be reduced if the lowest
      rates could be achieved more widely. Methods: We used whole-genome sequencing
      (WGS) of consecutive C. difficile isolates from 6 English hospitals over 1 year
      (2013-14) to compare infection control performance. Fecal samples with a positive
      initial screen for C. difficile were sequenced. Within each hospital, we
      estimated the proportion of cases plausibly acquired from previous cases.
      Results: Overall, 851/971 (87.6%) sequenced samples contained toxin genes, and
      451 (46.4%) were fecal-toxin-positive. Of 652 potentially toxigenic isolates >90
      days after the study started, 128 (20%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 17-23%) were
      genetically linked (within <=2 single nucleotide polymorphisms) to a prior
      patient's isolate from the previous 90 days. Hospital 2 had the fewest linked
      isolates, 7/105 (7%, 3-13%), hospital 1, 9/70 (13%, 6-23%), and hospitals 3-6 had
      similar proportions of linked isolates (22-26%) (P <= .002 comparing hospital-2
      vs 3-6). Results were similar adjusting for locally circulating ribotypes.
      Adjusting for hospital, ribotype-027 had the highest proportion of linked
      isolates (57%, 95% CI 29-81%). Fecal-toxin-positive and toxin-negative patients
      were similarly likely to be a potential transmission donor, OR = 1.01 (0.68
      1.49). There was no association between the estimated proportion of linked cases
      and testing rates. Conclusions: WGS can be used as a novel surveillance tool to
      identify varying rates of C. difficile transmission between institutions and
      therefore to allow targeted efforts to reduce CDI incidence.

PMID- 28575287
TI  - An essential domain of an early-diverged RNA polymerase II functions to
      accurately decode a primitive chromatin landscape.
AB  - A unique feature of RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) is its long C-terminal
      extension, called the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD). The well-studied eukaryotes
      possess a tandemly repeated 7-amino-acid sequence, called the canonical CTD,
      which orchestrates various steps in mRNA synthesis. Many eukaryotes possess a CTD
      devoid of repeats, appropriately called a non-canonical CTD, which performs
      completely unknown functions. Trypanosoma brucei, the etiologic agent of African
      Sleeping Sickness, deploys an RNA pol II that contains a non-canonical CTD to
      accomplish an unusual transcriptional program; all protein-coding genes are
      transcribed as part of a polygenic precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) that is initiated
      within a several-kilobase-long region, called the transcription start site (TSS),
      which is upstream of the first protein-coding gene in the polygenic array. In
      this report, we show that the non-canonical CTD of T. brucei RNA pol II is
      important for normal protein-coding gene expression, likely directing RNA pol II
      to the TSSs within the genome. Our work reveals the presence of a primordial CTD
      code within eukarya and indicates that proper recognition of the chromatin
      landscape is a central function of this RNA pol II-distinguishing domain.

PMID- 28575286
TI  - Efficacy of Maternal Influenza Vaccination Against All-Cause Lower Respiratory
      Tract Infection Hospitalizations in Young Infants: Results From a Randomized
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - Background: Influenza immunization of pregnant women protects their young infants
      against laboratory-confirmed influenza infection. Influenza infection might
      predispose to subsequent bacterial infections that cause severe pneumonia. In a
      secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial (RCT), we evaluated the effect
      of maternal vaccination on infant hospitalizations for all-cause acute lower
      respiratory tract infection (ALRI). Methods: Infants born to women who
      participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled RCT in 2011 and 2012 on the
      efficacy of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) during pregnancy were
      followed during the first 6 months of life. Results: The study included 1026
      infants born to IIV recipients and 1023 born to placebo recipients. There were 52
      ALRI hospitalizations (median age, 72 days). The incidence (per 1000 infant
      months) of ALRI hospitalizations was lower in infants born to IIV recipients (3.4
      [95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.2-5.4]; 19 cases) compared with placebo
      recipients (6.0 [95% CI, 4.3-8.5]; 33 cases) with a vaccine efficacy of 43.1% (P
      = .050). Thirty of the ALRI hospitalizations occurred during the first 90 days of
      life, 9 in the IIV group (3.0 [95% CI, 1.6-5.9]) and 21 in the placebo group (7.2
      [95% CI, 4.7-11.0]) (incidence rate ratio, 0.43 [95% CI, .19-.93]) for a vaccine
      efficacy of 57.5% (P = .032). The incidence of ALRI hospitalizations was similar
      in the IIV and placebo group for infants >3 months of age. Forty-four of the
      hospitalized infants were tested for influenza virus infection and 1 tested
      positive. Conclusions: Using an RCT as a vaccine probe, influenza vaccination
      during pregnancy decreased all-cause ALRI hospitalization during the first 3
      months of life, suggesting possible protection against subsequent bacterial
      infections that influenza infection might predispose to. Clinical Trial
      Registration: NCT01306669.

PMID- 28575290
TI  - Bringing the Mucosa to Heal With Vedolizumab in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel
      Disease.

PMID- 28575288
TI  - Maternal RNA regulates Aurora C kinase during mouse oocyte maturation in a
      translation-independent fashion.
AB  - During oocyte meiotic maturation, Aurora kinase C (AURKC) is required to
      accomplish many critical functions including destabilizing erroneous kinetochore
      microtubule (K-MT)attachments and regulating bipolar spindle assembly. How
      localized activity of AURKC is regulated in mammalian oocytes, however, is not
      fully understood. Female gametes from many species, including mouse, contain
      stores of maternal transcripts that are required for downstream developmental
      events. We show here that depletion of maternal RNA in mouse oocytes resulted in
      impaired meiotic progression, increased incidence of chromosome misalignment and
      abnormal spindle formation at metaphase I (Met I), and cytokinesis defects.
      Importantly, depletion of maternal RNA perturbed the localization and activity of
      AURKC within the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). These perturbations were
      not observed when translation was inhibited by cycloheximide (CHX) treatment.
      These results demonstrate a translation-independent function of maternal RNA to
      regulate AURKC-CPC function in mouse oocytes.

PMID- 28575291
TI  - Frailty Research Moves Beyond Risk Assessment.

PMID- 28575289
TI  - MyoD- and FoxO3-mediated hotspot interaction orchestrates super-enhancer activity
      during myogenic differentiation.
AB  - Super-enhancers (SEs) are cis-regulatory elements enriching lineage specific key
      transcription factors (TFs) to form hotspots. A paucity of identification and
      functional dissection promoted us to investigate SEs during myoblast
      differentiation. ChIP-seq analysis of histone marks leads to the uncovering of
      SEs which remodel progressively during the course of differentiation. Further
      analyses of TF ChIP-seq enable the definition of SE hotspots co-bound by the
      master TF, MyoD and other TFs, among which we perform in-depth dissection for
      MyoD/FoxO3 interaction in driving the hotspots formation and SE activation.
      Furthermore, using Myogenin as a model locus, we elucidate the hierarchical and
      complex interactions among hotspots during the differentiation, demonstrating SE
      function is propelled by the physical and functional cooperation among hotspots.
      Finally, we show MyoD and FoxO3 are key in orchestrating the Myogenin hotspots
      interaction and activation. Altogether our results identify muscle-specific SEs
      and provide mechanistic insights into the functionality of SE.

PMID- 28575292
TI  - Durability of Response After Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Seroclearance During
      Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Treatment in a Multiethnic Cohort of Chronic Hepatitis B
      Patients: Results After Treatment Cessation.
AB  - In 70 chronic hepatitis B patients with hepatitis B surface antigen seroclearance
      during nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy, response was sustained in all 54 patients
      who discontinued treatment. Clinically significant relapses as indicated by high
      hepatitis B virus DNA and ALT levels were not observed. Anti-HBs positivity may
      not be required to ensure sustained off-treatment response.

PMID- 28575293
TI  - Clinical value of induction protocol after second generation cryoballoon ablation
      for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Aims: The predictive value of induction studies after catheter ablation for
      atrial fibrillation (AF) is still debatable. To date, these studies have not been
      implemented in patients after cryoballoon (CB) ablation. Our aim was to analyse
      the clinical value of AF induction in patients treated by second generation CB
      for paroxysmal AF. Methods and results: Seventy patients underwent at first an
      isoproterenol challenge after pulmonary vein (PV) isolation to assess AF
      induction and early PV reconnections (EPVR). Patients without EPVR were evaluated
      for premature atrial contraction (PAC) induction; atrial ectopy was considered
      frequent (PAC+) if >1/10 cycles or >6/min. After restitution of baseline heart
      rate, rapid atrial pacing (RAP) was performed on all patients. AF induction by
      isoproterenol occurred only in 3/70 (4%) patients of whom 2/3 (66%) patients with
      an EPVR of a triggering vein. In the 62 patients without EPVR, PAC+ occurred in
      17 patients (27%). RAP could induce AF in 23/70 (33%) patients. At a mean follow
      up of 13.5 months, there were 11/70 (16%) AF recurrences. There was no
      significant difference in the AF recurrence rate between RAP inducible vs. non
      inducible patients (log-rank P = 0.33). A 41% recurrence rate (7/17 patients) was
      seen in the PAC+ group with significantly different AF-free survival for PAC+ vs.
      PAC- patients (log rank P < 0.0001). PAC+ was the only independent determinant to
      predict AF recurrence after multivariate analysis. Conclusion: PAC occurrence in
      response to isoproterenol could predict AF recurrence after PV isolation by CB,
      while RAP showed no prognostic implication.

PMID- 28575294
TI  - Impaired coordination of nucleophile and increased hydrophobicity in the +1
      subsite shift levansucrase activity towards transfructosylation.
AB  - Bacterial levansucrases produce beta(2,6)-linked levan-type polysaccharides using
      sucrose or sucrose analogues as donor/acceptor substrates. However, the dominant
      reaction of Bacillus megaterium levansucrase (Bm-LS) is hydrolysis. Single domain
      levansucrases from Gram-positive bacteria display a wide substrate-binding pocket
      with open access to water, challenging engineering for transfructosylation
      efficient enzymes. We pursued a shift in reaction specificity by either modifying
      the water distribution in the active site or the coordination of the catalytic
      acid/base (E352) and the nucleophile (D95), thus affecting the fructosyl-transfer
      rate and allowing acceptors other than water to occupy the active site. Two
      serine (173/422) and two water-binding tyrosine (421/439) residues located in the
      first shell of the catalytic pocket were modified. Library variants for positions
      173, 421 and 422, which coordinate the position of D95 and E352, show increased
      transfructosylation (30-200%) and modified product spectra. Substitutions at
      position 422 have a higher impact on sucrose affinity, while changes at position
      173 and 421 have a strong effect on the overall catalytic rate. As most retaining
      glycoside hydrolases (GHs) Bm-LS catalyzes hydrolysis and transglycosylation via
      a double displacement reaction involving two-transition states (TS1 and TS2).
      Hydrogen bonds of D95 with the side chains of S173 and S422 contribute a total of
      2.4 kcal mol-1 to TS1 stabilization, while hydrogen bonds between invariant Y421,
      E352 and the glucosyl C-2 hydroxyl-group of sucrose contribute 2.15 kcal mol-1
      stabilization. Changes at Y439 render predominantly hydrolytic variants
      synthesizing shorter oligosaccharides.

PMID- 28575296
TI  - Letter: Intraoperative Near-Infrared Optical Imaging Can Localize Gadolinium
      Enhancing Gliomas During Surgery.

PMID- 28575295
TI  - High-resolution crystal structures and STD NMR mapping of human ABO(H) blood
      group glycosyltransferases in complex with trisaccharide reaction products
      suggest a molecular basis for product release.
AB  - The human ABO(H) blood group A- and B-synthesizing glycosyltransferases GTA and
      GTB have been structurally characterized to high resolution in complex with their
      respective trisaccharide antigen products. These findings are particularly timely
      and relevant given the dearth of glycosyltransferase structures collected in
      complex with their saccharide reaction products. GTA and GTB utilize the same
      acceptor substrates, oligosaccharides terminating with alpha-l-Fucp-(1->2)-beta-d
      Galp-OR (where R is a glycolipid or glycoprotein), but use distinct UDP donor
      sugars, UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine and UDP-galactose, to generate the blood group
      A (alpha-l-Fucp-(1->2)[alpha-d-GalNAcp-(1->3)]-beta-d-Galp-OR) and blood group B
      (alpha-l-Fucp-(1->2)[alpha-d-Galp-(1->3)]-beta-d-Galp-OR) determinant structures,
      respectively. Structures of GTA and GTB in complex with their respective
      trisaccharide products reveal a conflict between the transferred sugar
      monosaccharide and the beta-phosphate of the UDP donor. Mapping of the binding
      epitopes by saturation transfer difference NMR measurements yielded data
      consistent with the X-ray structural results. Taken together these data suggest a
      mechanism of product release where monosaccharide transfer to the H-antigen
      acceptor induces active site disorder and ejection of the UDP leaving group prior
      to trisaccharide egress.

PMID- 28575297
TI  - Prognostic Factors for Satisfaction After Decompression Surgery for Lumbar Spinal
      Stenosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis is associated with both
      short- and long-term benefits with improvements in patient function and pain.
      Even though most patients are satisfied postoperatively, some studies report that
      up to one-third of patients are dissatisfied. OBJECTIVE: To present clinical
      outcome data and identify prognostic factors related to patient satisfaction 1 yr
      after posterior decompression surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS: This
      multicenter register study included 2562 patients. Patients were treated with
      various types of posterior decompression. Patients with previous spine surgery or
      concomitant fusion were excluded. Patient satisfaction was analyzed for
      associations with age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, duration of pain,
      number of decompressed vertebral levels, comorbidities, and patient-reported
      outcome measures, which were used to quantify the effect of the surgical
      intervention. RESULTS: At 1-yr follow-up, 62.4% of patients were satisfied but
      15.1% reported dissatisfaction. The satisfied patients showed significantly
      greater improvement in all outcome measures compared to the dissatisfied
      patients. The outcome scores for the dissatisfied patients were relatively
      unchanged or worse compared to baseline. Association was seen between
      dissatisfaction, duration of leg pain, smoking status, and patient comorbidities.
      Patients with good walking capacity at baseline were less prone to be
      dissatisfied compared to patients with poor walking capacity. CONCLUSION: This
      study found smoking, long duration of leg pain, and cancerous and neurological
      disease to be associated with patient dissatisfaction, whereas good walking
      capacity at baseline was positively associated with satisfaction after 1 yr.

PMID- 28575298
TI  - Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of lipid-linked GlcNAc2Man5 oligosaccharides using
      recombinant Alg1, Alg2 and Alg11 proteins.
AB  - The biosynthesis of eukaryotic lipid-linked oligosaccharides (LLOs) that act as
      donor substrates in eukaryotic protein N-glycosylation starts on the cytoplasmic
      side of the endoplasmic reticulum and includes the sequential addition of five
      mannose units to dolichol-pyrophosphate-GlcNAc2. These reactions are catalyzed by
      the Alg1, Alg2 and Alg11 gene products and yield Dol-PP-GlcNAc2Man5, an LLO
      intermediate that is subsequently flipped to the lumen of the endoplasmic
      reticulum. While the purification of active Alg1 has previously been described,
      Alg11 and Alg2 have been mostly studied in vivo. We here describe the expression
      and purification of functional, full length Alg2 protein. Along with the purified
      soluble domains Alg1 and Alg11, we used Alg2 to chemo-enzymatically generate Dol
      PP-GlcNAc2Man5 analogs starting from synthetic LLOs containing a chitobiose
      moiety coupled to oligoprenyl carriers of distinct lengths (C10, C15, C20 and
      C25). We found that while the addition of the first mannose unit by Alg1 was
      successful with all of the LLO molecules, the Alg2-catalyzed reaction was only
      efficient if the acceptor LLOs contained a sufficiently long lipid tail of four
      or five isoprenyl units (C20 and C25). Following conversion with Alg11, the
      resulting C20 or C25 -containing GlcNAc2Man5 LLO analogs were successfully used
      as donor substrates of purified single-subunit oligosaccharyltransferase STT3A
      from Trypanosoma brucei. Our results provide a chemo-enzymatic method for the
      generation of eukaryotic LLO analogs and are the basis of subsequent mechanistic
      studies of the enigmatic Alg2 reaction mechanism.

PMID- 28575299
TI  - Mortality in Children Receiving Growth Hormone Treatment of Growth Disorders:
      Data From the Genetics and Neuroendocrinology of Short Stature International
      Study.
AB  - Context: Although pediatric growth hormone (GH) treatment is generally considered
      safe for approved indications, concerns have been raised regarding potential for
      increased risk of mortality in adults treated with GH during childhood.
      Objective: To assess mortality in children receiving GH. Design: Prospective,
      multinational, observational study. Setting: Eight hundred twenty-seven study
      sites in 30 countries. Patients: Children with growth disorders. Interventions:
      GH treatment during childhood. Main Outcome Measure: Standardized mortality
      ratios (SMRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using age- and sex-specific
      rates from the general population. Results: Among 9504 GH-treated patients
      followed for >=4 years (67,163 person-years of follow-up), 42 deaths were
      reported (SMR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.56 to 1.05). SMR was significantly elevated in
      patients with history of malignant neoplasia (6.97; 95% CI, 3.81 to 11.69) and
      borderline elevated for those with other serious non-GH-deficient conditions
      (2.47; 95% CI, 0.99-5.09). SMRs were not elevated for children with history of
      benign neoplasia (1.44; 95% CI, 0.17 to 5.20), idiopathic GHD (0.11; 95% CI, 0.02
      to 0.33), idiopathic short stature (0.20; 95% CI, 0.01 to 1.10), short stature
      associated with small for gestational age (SGA) birth (0.66; 95% CI, 0.08 to
      2.37), Turner syndrome (0.51; 95% CI, 0.06 to 1.83), or short stature homeobox
      containing (SHOX) gene deficiency (0.83; 95% CI, 0.02 to 4.65). Conclusions: No
      significant increases in mortality were observed for GH-treated children with
      idiopathic GHD, idiopathic short stature, born SGA, Turner syndrome, SHOX
      deficiency, or history of benign neoplasia. Mortality was elevated for children
      with prior malignancy and those with underlying serious non-GH-deficient medical
      conditions.

PMID- 28575300
TI  - The Effects of Salinity on the Herbivorous Crop Pest Tetranychus urticae
      (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) on Soybean and Corn.
AB  - Many environmental factors, including soil characteristics, are critical for
      plants, herbivorous arthropods, and their interactions. Despite increasing
      evidence that soil salinity drastically impacts plants, little is known about how
      salinity affects the herbivorous arthropod pests feeding on those plants. We
      investigated how soil salinity affects the twospotted spider mite (Tetranychus
      urticae Koch) feeding on corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.). We
      performed two greenhouse studies, one focusing on the impact of salinity on
      individual mite fecundity over a period of 3 d and the other focusing on
      population growth of T. urticae over 7 d. Both experiments were performed across
      varying salinity levels; electrical conductivity values ranged from 0.84 to 8.07
      dS m-1. We also performed the 3-d fecundity experiment in the field, across
      naturally varying saline conditions. Overall, the twospotted spider mite
      performed better as salinity increased; both fecundity and population growth
      tended to have a positive linear correlation with salinity. These studies suggest
      that salinity can be important for herbivores, just as it is for plants.
      Moreover, the negative effects of soil salinity on crop plants in agroecosystems
      may be further compounded by a greater risk of pest problems. Salinity may be
      another important environmental stressor that can directly influence crop
      production while also indirectly influencing herbivorous pests.

PMID- 28575301
TI  - Reducing Antipsychotic Medication Use in Nursing Homes: A Qualitative Study of
      Nursing Staff Perceptions.
AB  - Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to use qualitative
      methods to explore nursing home staff perceptions of antipsychotic medication use
      and identify both benefits and barriers to reducing inappropriate use from their
      perspective. Research Design and Methods: Focus groups were conducted with a
      total of 29 staff in three community nursing homes that served both short and
      long-stay resident populations. Results: The majority (69%) of the staff
      participants were licensed nurses. Participants expressed many potential benefits
      of antipsychotic medication reduction with four primary themes: (a) Improvement
      in quality of life, (b) Improvement in family satisfaction, (c) Reduction in
      falls, and (d) Improvement in the facility Quality Indicator score (regulatory
      compliance). Participants also highlighted important barriers they face when
      attempting to reduce or withdraw antipsychotic medications including: (a) Family
      resistance, (b) Potential for worsening or return of symptoms or behaviors, (c)
      Lack of effectiveness and/or lack of staff resources to consistently implement
      nonpharmacological management strategies, and (d) Risk aversion of staff and
      environmental safety concerns. Discussion and Implications: Nursing home staff
      recognize the value of reducing antipsychotic medications; however, they also
      experience multiple barriers to reduction in routine clinical practice.
      Achievement of further reductions in antipsychotic medication use will require
      significant additional efforts and adequate clinical personnel to address these
      barriers.

PMID- 28575303
TI  - Are more extensive procedures warranted at the time of aortic arch reoperation?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the early and late outcomes of patients undergoing
      aortic arch reoperations. METHODS: The follow-up of 70 patients undergoing a
      second arch operation (excluding univentricular physiology) between 1979 and 2015
      was reviewed. Median age at initial arch operation and second operation was 9
      days (interquartile range: 5-35) and 10 months (interquartile range: 3-64),
      respectively. The most common indication for initial arch operation was
      coarctation in 79% (55/70). The most common indication for a second arch
      operation was arch reobstruction in 90% (63/70). RESULTS: There were 2 hospital
      deaths (2/70, 3%) and 3 early third arch operations (3/70, 4%). Late follow-up
      was available in 94% (64/68) of hospital survivors. After a mean of 9 +/- 7
      years, there were 5 late deaths (5/64, 8%). Fifteen-year survival was 90% (95%
      confidence interval: 75-96). Arch reobstruction (echocardiogram gradient >25
      mmHg/third operation for reobstruction) was present in 28% (18/64) and 16%
      (10/64) required a third arch operation. Fifteen-year freedom from arch
      reobstruction and third arch operation was 63% (95% confidence interval: 43-78)
      and 74% (95% confidence interval: 52-87), respectively. On multivariable
      analysis, hypoplastic arch at initial arch repair (P = 0.03) and interposition
      graft at second arch operation (P < 0.0001) were risk factors for third arch
      operation. CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing a second arch operation have
      significant rates of arch reobstruction and reoperation. The high rates of arch
      reobstruction and third arch operation warrant more extensive procedures at the
      time of second arch operation, especially in patients with a hypoplastic arch.
      Regular long-term monitoring after arch reoperation is mandatory.

PMID- 28575302
TI  - Impact of computed tomography myocardial perfusion following computed tomography
      coronary angiography on downstream referral for invasive coronary angiography,
      revascularization and, outcome at 12 months.
AB  - Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of adding stress computed
      tomography (CT) myocardial perfusion (CTP) to coronary CT angiography (CTA) on
      downstream referral for invasive coronary angiography (ICA), revascularization,
      and outcome in patients presenting with new-onset chest pain. Methods and
      results: Three hundred and eighty-four patients were referred for cardiac CT.
      Patients with lesions >=50% stenosis underwent subsequently stress CTP. Perfusion
      scans were considered abnormal if a defect was observed in >= 1 segment.
      Downstream performance of ICA, revascularization, and the occurrence of major
      cardiovascular events (death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and unstable
      angina requiring urgent revascularization) were assessed within 12 months. In
      total, 119 patients showed >=50% stenosis on coronary CTA; stress CTP was normal
      in 61 patients, abnormal in 38 patients and was not performed in 20 patients.
      After normal stress CTP, 19 (31%) patients underwent ICA and 9 (15%) underwent
      revascularization. After abnormal stress CTP, 36 (95%) patients underwent ICA and
      29 (76%) revascularizations were performed. Multivariable analyses showed a five
      fold reduction in likelihood of proceeding to ICA when a normal stress CTP was
      added to a coronary CTA showing obstructive CAD. Major cardiovascular event rates
      at 12 months for patients with obstructive CAD and normal stress CTP (N = 61)
      were low: 1 myocardial infarction, 1 urgent revascularization, and 1 non-cardiac
      death. Conclusion: The performance of stress CTP in patients with obstructive CAD
      at coronary CTA in the same setting is feasible and reduces the referral rate for
      ICA and revascularization. Secondly, the occurrence of major cardiovascular
      events at 12 months follow-up in patients with normal stress CTP is low.

PMID- 28575304
TI  - Impact of Rotavirus Vaccine Introduction and Postintroduction Etiology of
      Diarrhea Requiring Hospital Admission in Haydom, Tanzania, a Rural African
      Setting.
AB  - Background: No data are available on the etiology of diarrhea requiring
      hospitalization after rotavirus vaccine introduction in Africa. The monovalent
      rotavirus vaccine was introduced in Tanzania on 1 January 2013. We performed a
      vaccine impact and effectiveness study as well as a quantitative polymerase chain
      reaction (qPCR)-based etiology study at a rural Tanzanian hospital. Methods: We
      obtained data on admissions among children <5 years to Haydom Lutheran Hospital
      between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015 and estimated the impact of vaccine
      introduction on all-cause diarrhea admissions. We then performed a vaccine
      effectiveness study using the test-negative design. Finally, we tested diarrheal
      specimens during 2015 by qPCR for a broad range of enteropathogens and calculated
      pathogen-specific attributable fractions (AFs). Results: Vaccine introduction was
      associated with a 44.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.6%-97.4%) reduction in
      diarrhea admissions in 2015, as well as delay of the rotavirus season. The
      effectiveness of 2 doses of vaccine was 74.8% (95% CI, -8.2% to 94.1%) using an
      enzyme immunoassay-based case definition and 85.1% (95% CI, 26.5%-97.0%) using a
      qPCR-based case definition. Among 146 children enrolled in 2015, rotavirus
      remained the leading etiology of diarrhea requiring hospitalization (AF, 25.8%
      [95% CI, 24.4%-26.7%]), followed by heat-stable enterotoxin-producing Escherichia
      coli (AF, 18.4% [95% CI, 12.9%-21.9%]), Shigella/enteroinvasive E. coli (AF,
      14.5% [95% CI, 10.2%-22.8%]), and Cryptosporidium (AF, 7.9% [95% CI, 6.2%-9.3%]).
      Conclusions: Despite the clear impact of vaccine introduction in this setting,
      rotavirus remained the leading etiology of diarrhea requiring hospitalization.
      Further efforts to maximize vaccine coverage and improve vaccine performance in
      these settings are warranted.

PMID- 28575305
TI  - Functional Outcomes and Delayed Cerebral Ischemia Following Nonperimesencephalic
      Angiogram-Negative Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Similar to Aneurysmal Subarachnoid
      Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The angiogram-negative subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) literature
      includes patients with perimesencephalic hemorrhage, which is recognized to have
      a much better outcome than aneurysmal SAH. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical
      outcomes of Nonperimesencephalic Angiogram-Negative SAH (NPAN-SAH). METHODS: A
      prospective, spontaneous SAH database of 1311 patients that accrued between April
      2006 and December 2014 was screened. All patients with NPAN-SAH and 2 consecutive
      negative cerebral angiograms were included. RESULTS: We identified 191 (11%) from
      a total of 1311 patients with spontaneous SAH. Amongst angiogram-negative
      patients, 83 (4.9%) were adjudicated to have NPAN-SAH. Patient characteristics
      were similar across the groups, except NPAN-SAH patients were more likely to be
      men and had higher rates of diabetes. In a multivariable logistic regression
      model, NPAN-SAH patients were less likely to develop vasospasm, after adjusting
      for Fisher grade, sex, and diabetes (odds ratio [OR]: 0.197, 95% confidence
      interval [CI; 0.07-0.55], P = .002). In another adjusted model accounting for
      Hunt and Hess clinical grade, NPAN-SAH patients were also less likely to develop
      vasospasm (OR: 0.2, 95% CI [0.07-0.57], P = .002). We found no statistical
      significance between 2 groups for rebleed, developing hydrocephalus, seizures, or
      delayed cerebral ischemia. NPAN-SAH patients were equally associated with poor
      functional outcome (modified Rankin scale >=3; OR: 1.16, 95% CI [0.615-2.20], P =
      .6420), and death (OR: 1.22, 95% CI [0.362-4.132], P = .7455) compared to
      aneurysmal SAH. CONCLUSION: Although the risk of vasospasm may be lower, patients
      with NPAN-SAH are equally associated with delayed cerebral ischemia, poor
      outcome, and death as compared to patients with aneurysmal SAH. Furthers studies
      may be necessary to further clarify these findings.

PMID- 28575306
TI  - Job characteristics and mental health for older workers.
AB  - Background: Adverse job characteristics have been linked with increased incidence
      of depression and anxiety in working populations. However, the association
      between job characteristics and mental health, in an older working population
      while controlling for personality traits, is less well known. Aims: To examine
      the association between job characteristics (job demands and job control) and
      mental health (depression and anxiety) for older workers while controlling for
      personality traits. Methods: A sample of workers aged 50-69 years were recruited
      from a primary health care clinic in Southern Ireland. Job characteristics were
      measured using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire; demands (quantitative
      and cognitive) and control (influence at work and possibilities for development).
      Personality traits were measured using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory,
      depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression
      Scale and anxiety was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.
      Descriptive analysis, simple and multiple linear regression analyses were
      conducted. Results: The final sample size was 1025 with an initial 67% response
      rate. Multiple linear regression analysis showed job characteristics (in
      particular, job demands) to be significant positive predictors of symptoms of
      depression and anxiety. The inverse was true for job control variables and
      symptoms of depression. Neither possibilities for development nor influence at
      work were associated with symptoms of anxiety. Conclusions: Our findings indicate
      that despite potential confounders, higher demands at work can impact the
      worker's mental health negatively. Reducing job demands and encouraging role
      development may benefit the mental health of older workers.

PMID- 28575307
TI  - Identified Transmission Dynamics of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
      Infection During an Outbreak: Implications of an Overcrowded Emergency
      Department.
AB  - A total 130 cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus were identified
      during a large hospital outbreak in Saudi Arabia; 87 patients and 43 healthcare
      workers. The majority (80%) of transmission was healthcare-acquired (HAI)
      infection, with 4 generations of HAI transmission. The emergency department was
      the main location of exposure.

PMID- 28575308
TI  - Spatial-temporal transcriptional dynamics of long non-coding RNAs in human brain.
AB  - The functional architecture of the human brain is greatly determined by the
      temporal and spatial regulation of the transcription process. However, the
      spatial and temporal transcriptional landscape of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)
      during human brain development remains poorly understood. Here, we report the
      genome-wide lncRNA transcriptional analysis in an extensive series of 1340 post
      mortem human brain specimens collected from 16 regions spanning the period from
      early embryo development to late adulthood. We discovered that lncRNA
      transcriptome dramatically changed during fetal development, while transited to a
      surprisingly relatively stable state after birth till the late adulthood. We also
      discovered that the transcription map of lncRNAs was spatially different, and
      that this spatial difference was developmentally regulated. Of the 16 brain
      regions explored (cerebellar cortex, thalamus, striatum, amygdala, hippocampus
      and 11 neocortex areas), cerebellar cortex showed the most distinct lncRNA
      expression features from all remaining brain regions throughout the whole
      developmental period, reflecting its unique developmental and functional
      features. Furthermore, by characterizing the functional modules and cellular
      processes of the spatial-temporal dynamic lncRNAs, we found that they were
      significantly associated with the RNA processing, neuron differentiation and
      synaptic signal transportation processes. Furthermore, we found that many lncRNAs
      associated with the neurodegenerative Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases were co
      expressed in the fetal development of the human brain, and affected the
      convergent biological processes. In summary, our study provides a comprehensive
      map for lncRNA transcription dynamics in human brain development, which might
      shed light on the understanding of the molecular underpinnings of human brain
      function and disease.

PMID- 28575310
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28575309
TI  - Nonhuman Primate Studies to Advance Vision Science and Prevent Blindness.
AB  - Most primate behavior is dependent on high acuity vision. Optimal visual
      performance in primates depends heavily upon frontally placed eyes, retinal
      specializations, and binocular vision. To see an object clearly its image must be
      placed on or near the fovea of each eye. The oculomotor system is responsible for
      maintaining precise eye alignment during fixation and generating eye movements to
      track moving targets. The visual system of nonhuman primates has a similar
      anatomical organization and functional capability to that of humans. This allows
      results obtained in nonhuman primates to be applied to humans. The visual and
      oculomotor systems of primates are immature at birth and sensitive to the quality
      of binocular visual and eye movement experience during the first months of life.
      Disruption of postnatal experience can lead to problems in eye alignment
      (strabismus), amblyopia, unsteady gaze (nystagmus), and defective eye movements.
      Recent studies in nonhuman primates have begun to discover the neural mechanisms
      associated with these conditions. In addition, genetic defects that target the
      retina can lead to blindness. A variety of approaches including gene therapy,
      stem cell treatment, neuroprosthetics, and optogenetics are currently being used
      to restore function associated with retinal diseases. Nonhuman primates often
      provide the best animal model for advancing fundamental knowledge and developing
      new treatments and cures for blinding diseases.

PMID- 28575313
TI  - Power calculator for instrumental variable analysis in pharmacoepidemiology.
AB  - Background: Instrumental variable analysis, for example with physicians'
      prescribing preferences as an instrument for medications issued in primary care,
      is an increasingly popular method in the field of pharmacoepidemiology. Existing
      power calculators for studies using instrumental variable analysis, such as
      Mendelian randomization power calculators, do not allow for the structure of
      research questions in this field. This is because the analysis in
      pharmacoepidemiology will typically have stronger instruments and detect larger
      causal effects than in other fields. Consequently, there is a need for dedicated
      power calculators for pharmacoepidemiological research. Methods and Results: The
      formula for calculating the power of a study using instrumental variable analysis
      in the context of pharmacoepidemiology is derived before being validated by a
      simulation study. The formula is applicable for studies using a single binary
      instrument to analyse the causal effect of a binary exposure on a continuous
      outcome. An online calculator, as well as packages in both R and Stata, are
      provided for the implementation of the formula by others. Conclusions: The
      statistical power of instrumental variable analysis in pharmacoepidemiological
      studies to detect a clinically meaningful treatment effect is an important
      consideration. Research questions in this field have distinct structures that
      must be accounted for when calculating power. The formula presented differs from
      existing instrumental variable power formulae due to its parametrization, which
      is designed specifically for ease of use by pharmacoepidemiologists.

PMID- 28575311
TI  - Pre-diagnostic copper and zinc biomarkers and colorectal cancer risk in the
      European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort.
AB  - Adequate intake of copper and zinc, two essential micronutrients, are important
      for antioxidant functions. Their imbalance may have implications for development
      of diseases like colorectal cancer (CRC), where oxidative stress is thought to be
      etiologically involved. As evidence from prospective epidemiologic studies is
      lacking, we conducted a case-control study nested within the European Prospective
      Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort to investigate the
      association between circulating levels of copper and zinc, and their calculated
      ratio, with risk of CRC development. Copper and zinc levels were measured by
      reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometer in 966 cases and 966 matched controls.
      Multivariable adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were
      calculated using conditional logistic regression and are presented for the fifth
      versus first quintile. Higher circulating concentration of copper was associated
      with a raised CRC risk (OR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.13; P-trend = 0.02) whereas an
      inverse association with cancer risk was observed for higher zinc levels (OR =
      0.65; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.97; P-trend = 0.07). Consequently, the ratio of copper/zinc
      was positively associated with CRC (OR = 1.70; 95% CI: 1.20, 2.40; P-trend =
      0.0005). In subgroup analyses by follow-up time, the associations remained
      statistically significant only in those diagnosed within 2 years of blood
      collection. In conclusion, these data suggest that copper or copper levels in
      relation to zinc (copper to zinc ratio) become imbalanced in the process of CRC
      development. Mechanistic studies into the underlying mechanisms of regulation and
      action are required to further examine a possible role for higher copper and
      copper/zinc ratio levels in CRC development and progression.

PMID- 28575312
TI  - The contribution of tumor-associated macrophages in glioma neo-angiogenesis and
      implications for anti-angiogenic strategies.
AB  - "Tumor-associated macrophages" (TAMs) form a significant cell population in
      malignant tumors and contribute to tumor growth, metastasis, and
      neovascularization. Gliomas are characterized by extensive neo-angiogenesis, and
      knowledge of the role of TAMs in neovascularization is important for future anti
      angiogenic therapies. The phenotypes and functions of TAMs are heterogeneous and
      more complex than a classification into M1 and M2 inflammation response types
      would suggest. In this review, we provide an update on the current knowledge of
      the ontogeny of TAMs, focusing on diffuse gliomas. The role of TAMs in the
      regulation of the different processes in tumor angiogenesis is highlighted and
      the most recently discovered mechanisms by which TAMs mediate resistance against
      current antivascular therapies are mentioned. Novel compounds tested in clinical
      trials are discussed and brought in relation to different TAM-related
      angiogenesis pathways. In addition, potential therapeutic targets used to
      intervene in TAM-regulated tumor angiogenesis are summarized.

PMID- 28575314
TI  - Comment on: Increased inflammation and disease activity among current cigarette
      smokers with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional analysis of US veterans.

PMID- 28575315
TI  - Managing varicella zoster virus contact and infection in patients on anti
      rheumatic therapy.
AB  - Chickenpox and shingles can be more severe and occasionally life threatening in
      immunosuppressed patients. As such, some groups warrant a more detailed history,
      serological testing and consideration of prophylaxis following contact with the
      virus. Active disease may also require more aggressive treatment with antivirals.
      Guidance for the use of varicella zoster immunoglobulin has recently been updated
      by Public Health England with important implications for rheumatology patients.

PMID- 28575316
TI  - Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Early Onset First Episode Psychosis: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Background: People with schizophrenia and other psychosis show increased
      proinflammatory and prooxidative status. However, the few studies that have
      specifically assessed oxidative and inflammatory markers in early onset psychosis
      (onset before age 18) have shown contradictory results. Methods: Preferred
      Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines for
      systematic reviews and meta-analyses were used to conduct a systematic literature
      search to detect studies comparing inflammatory and oxidative markers in early
      onset psychosis patients and healthy controls. Results: Seven studies met
      criteria for the qualitative analysis. Four studies met criteria for meta
      analysis, comprising an overall sample of 261 early onset psychosis patients and
      246 healthy controls. Six independent meta-analyses were performed for catalase,
      glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant
      status, and cell/DNA oxidative damage. No significant differences were found
      between early onset psychosis patients and controls in any of the parameters
      assessed. Heterogeneity among studies was high. Qualitative analysis of
      individual studies showed an association of inflammatory and oxidative markers
      with clinical, cognitive, and neurobiological outcomes, especially in
      longitudinal assessments. Conclusions: Despite the lack of significant
      differences between early onset psychosis patients and controls in the oxidative
      markers assessed in the meta-analyses, results based on individual studies
      suggest that greater inflammation and oxidative stress might lead to poorer
      outcomes in patients with first episodes of early onset psychosis.

PMID- 28575317
TI  - Ribosomal selection of mRNAs with degenerate initiation triplets.
AB  - To assess the influence of degenerate initiation triplets on mRNA recruitment by
      ribosomes, five mRNAs identical but for their start codon (AUG, GUG, UUG, AUU and
      AUA) were offered to a limiting amount of ribosomes, alone or in competition with
      an identical AUGmRNA bearing a mutation conferring different electrophoretic
      mobility to the product. Translational efficiency and competitiveness of test
      mRNAs toward this AUGmRNA were determined quantifying the relative amounts of the
      electrophoretically separated wt and mutated products synthesized in vitro and
      found to be influenced to different extents by the nature of their initiation
      triplet and by parameters such as temperature and nutrient availability in the
      medium. The behaviors of AUAmRNA, UUGmRNA and AUGmRNA were the same between 20
      and 40 degrees C whereas the GUG and AUUmRNAs were less active and competed
      poorly with the AUGmRNA, especially at low temperature. Nutrient limitation and
      preferential inhibition by ppGpp severely affected activity and competitiveness
      of all mRNAs bearing non-AUG starts, the UUGmRNA being the least affected.
      Overall, our data indicate that beyond these effects exclusively due to the
      degenerate start codons within an optimized translational initiation region, an
      important role is played by the context in which the rare start codons are
      present.

PMID- 28575318
TI  - Early versus late pulmonary valve replacement in patients with transannular patch
      repaired tetralogy of Fallot.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Although the effects of pulmonary regurgitation after tetralogy of
      Fallot repair are detrimental, timing of pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) is
      unclear. Our goal was to evaluate the midterm efficacy and safety of early PVR.
      METHODS: Patients with tetralogy of Fallot who underwent repair from 1962 to 2015
      were included from the local database. Statistical analyses compared patients who
      underwent early PVR (age <=16 years), late PVR and no PVR. The timing of the
      intervention was compared for efficacy-all-cause mortality and the combined end
      point of all-cause mortality, ventricular tachycardia and defibrillator
      implantation-and for safety-the combined end-point of 1-year postoperative
      mortality after PVR, endocarditis and reintervention. Echocardiographic and
      electrocardiographic data at the last follow-up examination were compared across
      the 3 groups. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-three patients (age 21 +/- 5 years;
      52% female) were included. The mean follow-up was 24 (95% confidence interval
      22.7-26.2) years; the observed median was 21 years (interquartile range 11-31).
      No significant difference in survival was found between the early PVR (n = 106;
      39%), the late PVR (n = 47; 17%) and the no PVR groups (n = 120; 44%) (P =
      0.990). No significant difference in the combined efficacy end-point was noted
      between patients who underwent early PVR compared with patients who underwent
      late PVR (P = 0.247). Worse event-free survival for the 3-point safety end-point
      was observed after early PVR (P < 0.001). Right ventricular morphology (P <
      0.001) and function (P < 0.001) were better preserved in the patient group that
      underwent PVR before the age of 16 years. CONCLUSIONS: As expected, PVR-related
      morbidity was higher in patients who underwent early PVR but the midterm outcome
      was similar. Nevertheless, better preservation of right ventricular morphology
      and function in the early PVR group might result in better long-term survival.

PMID- 28575320
TI  - High-throughput sequencing of microbial eukaryotes in Lake Baikal reveals
      ecologically differentiated communities and novel evolutionary radiations.
AB  - We performed high-throughput 18S rDNA V9 region sequencing analyses of
      microeukaryote (protist) communities at seven sites with depths ranging from 0 to
      1450 m in the southern part of Lake Baikal. We show that microeukaryotic
      diversity differed according to water column depth and sediment depth.
      Chrysophytes and perkinsids were diverse in subsurface samples, novel radiations
      of petalomonads and Ichthyobodo relatives were found in benthic samples, and a
      broad range of divergent OTUs were detected in deep subbenthic samples. Members
      of clades usually associated with marine habitats were also detected, including
      syndineans for the first time in freshwater systems. Fungal- and cercozoan
      specific c. 1200 bp amplicon clone libraries also revealed many novel lineages in
      both planktonic and sediment samples at all depths, a novel radiation of aphelids
      in shallower benthic samples, and partitioning of sarcomonad lineages in shallow
      vs deep benthic samples. Putative parasitic lineages accounted for 12.4% of
      overall reads, including a novel radiation of Ichthyobodo (fish parasite)
      relatives. Micrometazoans were also analysed, including crustaceans, rotifers and
      nematodes. The deepest (>1000 m) subsurface sediment samples harboured some
      highly divergent sequence types, including heterotrophic flagellates, parasites,
      putative metazoans and sequences likely representing organisms originating from
      higher up in the water column.

PMID- 28575319
TI  - Translational Research in the Nonhuman Primate Model of Tuberculosis.
AB  - Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis predominantly establishes subclinical
      latent infection over the lifetime of an individual, with a fraction of infected
      individuals rapidly progressing to active disease. The immune control in latent
      infection can be perturbed by comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, obesity,
      smoking, and coinfection with helminthes or HIV. Modeling the varying aspects of
      natural infection remains incomplete when using zebrafish and mice. However, the
      nonhuman primate model of tuberculosis offers a unique and accurate model to
      investigate host responses to infection, test novel therapeutics, and thoroughly
      assess preclinical vaccine candidates. Rhesus macaques and cynomolgus macaques
      manifest the full gamut of clinical and pathological findings in human
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, including the ability to co-infect macaques
      with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus to model HIV co-infection. Here we discuss
      advanced techniques to assay various clinical outcomes of the natural progression
      of infection as well as therapeutics in development and novel preclinical
      vaccines. Finally, we survey the translational aspects of nonhuman primate
      research and argue the urgent need to thoroughly examine preclinical therapeutics
      and vaccines using this model prior to clinical implementation.

PMID- 28575321
TI  - The Validity and Sensitivity of PANSS-6 in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of
      Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) Study.
AB  - It was recently demonstrated in acutely exacerbated schizophrenia that a 6-item
      version (PANSS-6: P1 = delusions, P2 = conceptual disorganization, P3 =
      hallucinations, N1 = blunted affect, N4 = social withdrawal, N6 = lack of
      spontaneity/flow of conversation) of the 30-item Positive and Negative Syndrome
      Scale (PANSS-30) was scalable (all items provide unique information regarding
      syndrome severity) and able to separate the effect of antipsychotics from
      placebo. Here, we tested the validity and sensitivity of PANSS-6 in the Clinical
      Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) outpatient study. We
      examined (1) the scalability of PANSS-6 and PANSS-30; (2) the correlation between
      PANSS-6 and PANSS-30 total scores; (3) whether PANSS-6 could identify symptom
      remission (Andreasen criteria); and (4) the effect of the 5 antipsychotics
      studied in CATIE Phase-1, using PANSS-6 and PANSS-30 total scores as outcomes. We
      found that for the 577 subjects with complete PANSS ratings at baseline, month 1,
      3, and 6, PANSS-6 was scalable, whereas PANSS-30 was not. In the 1432 subjects in
      the intention-to-treat (ITT) sample, PANSS-6 and PANSS-30 total scores were
      highly correlated (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.86). Based on 5080 ITT
      ratings, PANSS-6 identified symptom remission with an accuracy of 0.99 (95%
      confidence interval = 0.99-0.99). In ITT analyses, PANSS-6 and PANSS-30
      identified the same statistically significant differences in antipsychotic
      efficacy, ie, olanzapine was superior to risperidone (P-value PANSS-6 = 0.0003
      and PANSS-30 = 0.0003) and ziprasidone (P-value PANSS-6 = 0.0018 and PANSS-30 =
      0.0046). In conclusion, PANSS-6 is a brief schizophrenia rating scale that
      adequately measures severity, remission, and antipsychotic efficacy related to
      core positive and negative symptoms in clinical trials. Prospective studies of
      PANSS-6 in clinical practice are required.

PMID- 28575323
TI  - Darunavir concentrations in CSF of HIV-infected individuals when boosted with
      cobicistat versus ritonavir.
AB  - Objectives: Cobicistat and ritonavir have different inhibitory profiles for drug
      transporters that could impact the distribution of co-administered drugs. We
      compared darunavir concentrations in CSF when boosted by cobicistat versus
      ritonavir relative to plasma concentrations and with WT HIV-1 IC50 and IC90.
      Methods: An open, single-arm, sequential clinical trial (NCT02503462) where
      paired CSF and blood samples were taken from seven HIV-infected patients
      presenting with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and treated with a
      darunavir/ritonavir (800/100 mg) once-daily regimen. Ritonavir was subsequently
      replaced by cobicistat and paired CSF and blood samples were obtained from the
      same patients after treatment with the darunavir/cobicistat (800/150 mg) once
      daily regimen. Darunavir concentrations at the end of the dosing interval were
      quantified by LC-MS/MS. Results: The median (IQR) darunavir concentrations in CSF
      with ritonavir and cobicistat boosting were 16.4 ng/mL (8.6-20.3) and 15.9 ng/mL
      (6.7-31.6), respectively (P = 0.58). The median (IQR) darunavir CSF:plasma ratios
      with ritonavir and cobicistat boosting were 0.007 (0.006-0.012) and 0.011 (0.007
      0.015), respectively (P = 0.16). Darunavir concentrations in CSF exceeded the
      darunavir IC50 and IC90 by a median of 9.2- and 6.7-fold with ritonavir boosting,
      and by 8.9- and 6.5-fold with cobicistat boosting, respectively. All patients had
      darunavir CSF concentrations above the target inhibitory concentrations and
      remained virologically suppressed in the CSF and plasma. Conclusions: This small
      study shows that cobicistat and ritonavir give comparable effective darunavir
      concentrations in CSF, thus suggesting that these boosters can be used
      interchangeably in once-daily darunavir regimens.

PMID- 28575322
TI  - Mutant Mice With Calcium-Sensing Receptor Activation Have Hyperglycemia That Is
      Rectified by Calcilytic Therapy.
AB  - The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a family C G-protein-coupled receptor that
      plays a pivotal role in extracellular calcium homeostasis. The CaSR is also
      highly expressed in pancreatic islet alpha- and beta-cells that secrete glucagon
      and insulin, respectively. To determine whether the CaSR may influence systemic
      glucose homeostasis, we characterized a mouse model with a germline gain-of
      function CaSR mutation, Leu723Gln, referred to as Nuclear flecks (Nuf).
      Heterozygous- (CasrNuf/+) and homozygous-affected (CasrNuf/Nuf) mice were shown
      to have hypocalcemia in association with impaired glucose tolerance and insulin
      secretion. Oral administration of a CaSR antagonist compound, known as a
      calcilytic, rectified the glucose intolerance and hypoinsulinemia of CasrNuf/+
      mice and ameliorated glucose intolerance in CasrNuf/Nuf mice. Ex vivo studies
      showed CasrNuf/+ and CasrNuf/Nuf mice to have reduced pancreatic islet mass and
      beta-cell proliferation. Electrophysiological analysis of isolated CasrNuf/Nuf
      islets showed CaSR activation to increase the basal electrical activity of beta
      cells independently of effects on the activity of the adenosine triphosphate
      (ATP)-sensitive K+ (KATP) channel. CasrNuf/Nuf mice also had impaired glucose
      mediated suppression of glucagon secretion, which was associated with increased
      numbers of alpha-cells and a higher alpha-cell proliferation rate. Moreover,
      CasrNuf/Nuf islet electrophysiology demonstrated an impairment of alpha-cell
      membrane depolarization in association with attenuated alpha-cell basal KATP
      channel activity. These studies indicate that the CaSR activation impairs glucose
      tolerance by a combination of alpha- and beta-cell defects and also influences
      pancreatic islet mass. Moreover, our findings highlight a potential application
      of targeted CaSR compounds for modulating glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28575324
TI  - Aortic diameter remodelling after the frozen elephant trunk technique in aortic
      dissection: results from an international multicentre registry.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The frozen elephant trunk (FET) technique allows one-stage hybrid
      repair approach in aortic dissection (AoD). Even if the effect of the FET
      technique on promoting false lumen (FL) thrombosis has been proved in the past,
      the relative importance of FL thrombosis on aortic remodelling at different
      levels of the distal aorta and the magnitude of this effect is not well known.
      The aim of the study was to evaluate aortic remodelling following a FET technique
      for AoD. METHODS: A multicentre international registry database was searched to
      identify all patients who underwent a FET procedure for an AoD. A total of 383
      patients with AoD were operated on between January 2005 and March 2014 with the
      FET technique; 137 patients (65 acute AoD and 72 chronic AoD) who survived the
      initial repair with at least a 1-year follow-up CT scan were included in the
      study. RESULTS: The rate of FL thrombosis was higher in the mid-descending
      thoracic aorta (99.3%) and lower in the distal abdominal aorta (13.9%) but
      similar between acute and chronic AoDs. The negative remodelling rate was similar
      between acute and chronic AoDs in the abdominal aorta, but chronic AoD exhibited
      a higher rate of negative remodelling in the descending thoracic aorta (33% vs
      17.5%, P  = 0.040). CONCLUSIONS: The FET technique provides an effective
      treatment for AoD, promoting FL thrombosis and remodelling in the descending
      thoracic aorta. Changes in the diameter of the aortic lumen depend mainly on the
      status of the FL and are similar between acute and chronic AoD. Changes in the
      diameter of true lumen are affected by both the FL status and the timing of the
      presentation. However, increased FL thrombosis and positive remodelling rates are
      not maintained at the level of the abdominal aorta, and strict follow-up is
      mandatory to detect early changes in the aortic dimensions, which may warrant
      further interventions.

PMID- 28575326
TI  - Two Pests Overlap: Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) Use of Fruit
      Exposed to Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae).
AB  - Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and brown marmorated
      stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stal) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), are global
      economic pests that may co-occur on small fruits. We investigated whether fruit
      recently exposed to H. halys affected subsequent host use by D. suzukii.
      Laboratory no-choice and choice tests presented D. suzukii with H. halys-fed and
      unfed raspberries and blueberries immediately or 3 d after H. halys feeding.
      Resulting D. suzukii eggs, or larvae and pupae, were counted. The number of D.
      suzukii immatures among fed and unfed fruit was not significantly different in
      lab studies. There was no relationship between the intensity of H. halys feeding,
      as estimated by the number of stylet sheaths, and D. suzukii oviposition on
      blueberry. Lastly, field studies compared D. suzukii infestation between H. halys
      fed and unfed raspberries. Raspberries were previously exposed to H. halys for 3
      d or simultaneously exposed to both pests for 7 d. Natural infestation by D.
      suzukii in the field was similar among raspberries previously or simultaneously
      exposed to H. halys compared to control fruit.

PMID- 28575325
TI  - Exclusive Enteral Nutrition Therapy in Paediatric Crohn's Disease Results in Long
      term Avoidance of Corticosteroids: Results of a Propensity-score Matched Cohort
      Analysis.
AB  - Background and Aims: Exclusive enteral nutrition [EEN] is recommended as a first
      line induction therapy for paediatric Crohn's disease [CD] although
      corticosteroids [CS] are still used commonly. Our aim was to compare short- and
      long-term disease outcomes of paediatric CD patients initially managed with
      either EEN or CS. Methods: Medical records of newly diagnosed paediatric CD
      patients treated with EEN or CS as induction therapy were retrospectively
      reviewed. To minimise selection bias inherent in observational cohort studies,
      propensity analysis was carried out. Data on anthropometrics, medical history,
      and presenting phenotype were collected at time of diagnosis [baseline]; outcomes
      of interest, including medication use, hospitalisation, surgical procedures, and
      disease progression were assessed up to 6 years following diagnosis. Results: Of
      127 patients reviewed, a total of 111 propensity-score matched CD patients
      receiving EEN [n = 76] or CS [n = 35] were analysed. By 4-12 weeks of induction
      therapy, 86.6% of EEN-treated patients achieved remission (Paediatric Crohn's
      Disease Activity Index [PCDAI] <= 7.5) compared with 58.1% of patients in the CS
      treated group [p < 0.01]. Choice of EEN over CS for induction was associated with
      avoidance of corticosteroids over a 6-year follow-up period. Analysis of long
      term linear growth, hospitalisation, need for biologic therapy, or surgical
      intervention did not reveal any significant differences. Conclusions: These
      findings suggest that EEN induction therapy is more effective in achieving early
      remission and is associated with long-term steroid avoidance without increased
      use of biologics or need for surgery.

PMID- 28575327
TI  - Interpreting weightings of the peer assessment rating index and the discrepancy
      index across contexts on Chinese patients.
AB  - Objective: Determine optimal weightings of Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) index and
      Discrepancy Index (DI) for malocclusion severity assessment in Chinese
      orthodontic patients. Methods: Sixty-nine Chinese orthodontists assessed a full
      set of pre-treatment records from a stratified random sample of 120 subjects
      gathered from six university orthodontic centres. Using professional judgment as
      the outcome variable, multiple regression analyses were performed to derive
      customized weighting systems for the PAR index and DI, for all subjects and each
      Angle classification subgroup. Results: Professional judgment was consistent,
      with an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of 0.995. The PAR index or DI
      can be reliably measured, with ICC = 0.959 and 0.990, respectively. The
      predictive accuracy of PAR index was greatly improved by the Chinese weighting
      process (from r = 0.431 to r = 0.788) with almost equal distribution in each
      Angle classification subgroup. The Chinese-weighted DI showed a higher predictive
      accuracy, at P = 0.01, compared with the PAR index (r = 0.851 versus r = 0.788).
      A better performance was found in the Class II group (r = 0.890) when compared to
      Class I (r = 0.736) and III (r = 0.785) groups. Conclusions: The Chinese-weighted
      PAR index and DI were capable of predicting 62 per cent and 73 per cent of total
      variance in the professional judgment of malocclusion severity in Chinese
      patients. Differential prediction across Angle classifications merits attention
      since different weighting formulas were found.

PMID- 28575329
TI  - Is the Association Between Late Life Morbidity and Disability Attenuated Over
      Time? Exploring the Dynamic Equilibrium of Morbidity Hypothesis.
AB  - Objective: There is evidence suggesting that the prevalence of disability in late
      life has declined over time while the prevalence of chronic diseases has
      increased. The dynamic equilibrium of morbidity hypothesis suggests that these
      patterns are due to the attenuation of the morbidity-disability link over time.
      This study aimed to test this assumption empirically. Methods: Data were drawn
      from three repeated cross-sections of SWEOLD, a nationally representative survey
      of the Swedish population aged 77 years and older. Poisson regression models were
      fitted to assess the trends in the prevalence of Activities of Daily Living (ADL)
      disability, Instrumental ADL (IADL) disability, and selected groups of chronic
      conditions. The changes in the associations between chronic conditions and
      disabilities were examined on both multiplicative and additive scales. Results:
      Between 1992 and 2011, the prevalence of both ADL and IADL disabilities decreased
      whereas the prevalence of nearly all chronic morbidities increased. Significant
      attenuations of the morbidity-disability associations were found for
      cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, poor lung function, and
      psychological distress. Discussion: In agreement with the dynamic equilibrium of
      morbidity hypothesis, this study concludes that the morbidity-disability
      associations among the Swedish older adults largely waned between 1992 and 2011.

PMID- 28575328
TI  - Identification of the amino acids inserted during suppression of CFTR nonsense
      mutations and determination of their functional consequences.
AB  - In-frame premature termination codons (PTCs) account for ~11% of all disease
      associated mutations. PTC suppression therapy utilizes small molecules that
      suppress translation termination at a PTC to restore synthesis of a full-length
      protein. PTC suppression is mediated by the base pairing of a near-cognate
      aminoacyl-tRNA with a PTC and subsequently, the amino acid becomes incorporated
      into the nascent polypeptide at the site of the PTC. However, little is known
      about the identity of the amino acid(s) inserted at a PTC during this process in
      mammalian cells, or how the surrounding sequence context influences amino acid
      incorporation. Here, we determined the amino acids inserted at the cystic
      fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) W1282X PTC (a UGA codon) in
      the context of its three upstream and downstream CFTR codons during G418-mediated
      suppression. We found that leucine, cysteine and tryptophan are inserted during
      W1282X suppression. Interestingly, these amino acids (and their proportions) are
      significantly different from those recently identified following G418-mediated
      suppression of the CFTR G542X UGA mutation. These results demonstrate for the
      first time that local mRNA sequence context plays a key role in near-cognate
      aminoacyl-tRNA selection during PTC suppression. We also found that some variant
      CFTR proteins generated by PTC suppression exhibit reduced maturation and
      activity, indicating the complexity of nonsense suppression therapy. However,
      both a CFTR corrector and potentiator enhanced activity of protein variants
      generated by G418-mediated suppression. These results suggest that PTC
      suppression in combination with CFTR modulators may be beneficial for the
      treatment of CF patients with PTCs.

PMID- 28575330
TI  - The Utility of Gene Expression Profiling from Tissue Samples to Support Drug
      Safety Assessments.
AB  - Originally conceptualized as an integrated approach combining conventional
      toxicology methods with genome-wide expression profiling, toxicogenomics has
      promised to provide unequivocal relationships between the molecular changes
      elicited by a compound or a target pathway and the lesions that appear
      subsequently in the tissues. However, the discipline has only partially delivered
      on this promise, and the number of publications and submissions related to
      toxicogenomics is stagnating. The purpose of this article is to outline key
      factors contributing to a successful implementation of toxicogenomics in the drug
      discovery and development process. Paradigms and methods of toxicogenomics are
      briefly reviewed, and the prominence of biostatistics and its limitations in the
      particular context of nonclinical toxicology studies are discussed. We present
      specific approaches for pathophysiological contextualization of gene expression
      data derived from tissues with lesions at variable incidence and severity:
      "unmixing" (deconvolution) of molecular expression profiles from complex tissues,
      the invaluable contribution of reference data, the role of establishing causation
      between expression signals and pathologic changes (phenotypic anchoring), and
      especially molecular localization. These approaches compensate for the
      limitations of biostatistical analysis, which in turn, derive from tissue
      heterogeneity. Finally, impactful applications of toxicogenomics along the drug
      discovery and development process are exemplified, from the evaluation of
      potential target toxicities to the selection of candidate compounds and
      elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to chronic toxicity.

PMID- 28575331
TI  - Oesophageal Doppler guided goal-directed haemodynamic therapy in thoracic surgery
      - a single centre randomized parallel-arm trial.
AB  - Background: Postoperative pulmonary and renal complications are frequent in
      patients undergoing lung surgery. Hyper- and hypovolaemia may contribute to these
      complications. We hypothesized that goal-directed haemodynamic management based
      on oesophageal Doppler monitoring would reduce postoperative pulmonary
      complications in a randomized clinical parallel-arm trial. Methods: One hundred
      patients scheduled for thoracic surgery were randomly assigned to either standard
      haemodynamic management (control group) or goal-directed therapy (GDT group)
      guided by an oesophageal Doppler monitoring-based algorithm. The primary endpoint
      was postoperative pulmonary complications, including spirometry. Secondary
      endpoints included haemodynamic variables, renal, cardiac, and neurological
      complications, and length of hospital stay. The investigator assessing outcomes
      was blinded to group assignment. Results: Forty-eight subjects of each group were
      analysed. Compared to the control group, fewer subjects in the GDT group
      developed postoperative pulmonary complications (6 vs. 15 patients; P  = 0.047),
      while spirometry did not differ between groups. Compared to the control group,
      patients of the GDT group showed higher cardiac index (2.9 vs. 2.1 [l min - 1 m  
      2 ]; P  < 0.001) and stroke volume index (43 vs. 34 [ml m 2 ]; P  < 0.001)
      during surgery. Renal, cardiac and neurological complications did not differ
      between groups. Length of hospital stay was shorter in the GDT compared to the
      control group (9 vs. 11 days; P  = 0.005). Conclusions: Compared to standard
      haemodynamic management, oesophageal Doppler monitor-guided GDT was associated
      with fewer postoperative pulmonary complications and a shorter hospital stay.
      Clinical trial registration.: The study was registered in the German Clinical
      Trials Register (DRKS 00006961). https://drks-neu.uniklinik
      freiburg.de/drks_web/.

PMID- 28575332
TI  - Effects of arterial load variations on dynamic arterial elastance: an
      experimental study.
AB  - Background.: Dynamic arterial elastance (Ea dyn ), the relationship between pulse
      pressure variation (PPV) and stroke volume variation (SVV), has been suggested as
      a functional assessment of arterial load. The aim of this study was to evaluate
      the impact of arterial load changes during acute pharmacological changes, fluid
      administration, and haemorrhage on Ea dyn . Methods.: Eighteen anaesthetized,
      mechanically ventilated New Zealand rabbits were studied. Arterial load changes
      were induced by phenylephrine ( n =9) or nitroprusside ( n =9). Thereafter,
      animals received a fluid bolus (10 ml kg -1 ), followed by stepwise bleeding
      (blood loss: 15 ml kg -1 ). The influence of arterial load and cardiac variables
      on PPV, SVV, and Ea dyn was analysed using a linear mixed-effects model analysis.
      Results.: After phenylephrine infusion, mean ( sd ) Ea dyn decreased from 0.89
      (0.14) to 0.49 (0.12), P <0.001; whereas after administration of nitroprusside,
      Ea dyn increased from 0.80 (0.23) to 1.28 (0.21), P <0.0001. Overall, the fluid
      bolus decreased Ea dyn [from 0.89 (0.44) to 0.73 (0.35); P <0.01], and
      haemorrhage increased it [from 0.78 (0.23) to 0.95 (0.26), P =0.03]. Both PPV and
      SVV were associated with similar arterial factors (effective arterial elastance,
      arterial compliance, and resistance) and heart rate. Furthermore, PPV was also
      related to the acceleration and peak velocity of aortic blood flow. Both arterial
      and cardiac factors contributed to the evolution of Ea dyn throughout the
      experiment. Conclusions.: Acute modifications of arterial load induced
      significant changes on Ea dyn ; vasodilatation increased Ea dyn , whereas
      vasoconstriction decreased it. The Ea dyn was associated with both arterial load
      and cardiac factors, suggesting that Ea dyn should be more properly considered as
      a ventriculo-arterial coupling index.

PMID- 28575333
TI  - The great fluid debate: time for Flexit?

PMID- 28575334
TI  - Characterization of peripheral and central sensitization after dorsal root
      ganglion intervention in patients with unilateral lumbosacral radicular pain: a
      prospective pilot study.
AB  - Background.: Quantitative sensory testing (QST) has been used to predict the
      outcome of epidural steroid injections in lumbosacral radicular pain and has the
      potential to be an important tool in the selection of appropriate treatment (such
      as epidural steroid injections vs surgery) for patients with chronic radicular
      pain. In addition, QST assists in identification of the pain pathways of
      peripheral and central sensitization in selected groups of patients. Methods.:
      Twenty-three patients were given dorsal root ganglion (DRG) infiltration with
      local anaesthesia and steroid ('DRG block'), and those who demonstrated at least
      50% pain relief were offered pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) to the DRG.
      Questionnaires and QST scores were measured before the DRG blocks and at 1 week
      and 3 months after their procedure. Those who received PRF also answered
      questionnaires and underwent QST measurements at 1 week and 3 months after their
      procedure. Results.: There was a significant increase in pressure pain threshold
      scores after DRG blocks. A reduced conditioned pain modulation response was seen
      before DRG, which increased after the procedure. Ten out of 23 patients underwent
      PRF to the DRG, and an increase in pressure pain threshold scores after PRF was
      observed. The conditioned pain modulation response was maintained in this group
      and increased after PRF. Conclusions.: The study demonstrates that patients with
      unilateral radicular low back pain who receive dorsal root ganglion interventions
      show changes in pressure pain thresholds and conditioned pain modulation that are
      consistent with a 'normalization' of peripheral and central sensitization.

PMID- 28575335
TI  - Deep neuromuscular block to optimize surgical space conditions during
      laparoscopic surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Neuromuscular block (NMB) is frequently used in abdominal surgery to improve
      surgical conditions by relaxation of the abdominal wall and prevention of sudden
      muscle contractions. The evidence supporting routine use of deep NMB is still
      under debate. We aimed to provide evidence for the superiority of routine use of
      deep NMB during laparoscopic surgery. We performed a systematic review and meta
      analysis of studies comparing the influence of deep vs moderate NMB during
      laparoscopic procedures on surgical space conditions and clinical outcomes.
      Trials were identified from Medline, Embase, and Central databases from inception
      to December 2016. We included randomized trials, crossover studies, and cohort
      studies. Our search yielded 12 studies on the effect of deep NMB on the surgical
      space conditions. Deep NMB during laparoscopic surgeries improves the surgical
      space conditions when compared with moderate NMB, with a mean difference of 0.65
      (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.47-0.83) on a scale of 1-5, and it facilitates
      the use of low-pressure pneumoperitoneum. Furthermore, deep NMB reduces
      postoperative pain scores in the postanaesthesia care unit, with a mean
      difference of - 0.52 (95% CI: -0.71 to - 0.32). Deep NMB improves surgical space
      conditions during laparoscopic surgery and reduces postoperative pain scores in
      the postanaesthesia care unit. Whether this leads to fewer intraoperative
      complications, an improved quality of recovery, or both after laparoscopic
      surgery should be pursued in future studies. The review methodology was specified
      in advance and registered at Prospero on July 27, 2016, registration number
      CRD42016042144.

PMID- 28575336
TI  - More or less? The Goldilocks Principle as it applies to red cell transfusions.

PMID- 28575337
TI  - Bank blood shortage, transfusion containment and viscoelastic point-of-care
      coagulation testing in cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28575338
TI  - Perioperative use of beta-blockers in vascular and endovascular surgery.

PMID- 28575339
TI  - Perioperative use of beta-blockers in vascular and endovascular surgery.

PMID- 28575341
TI  - 25-Hydroxyvitamin D deficiency among anaesthesiologists and anaesthesiology
      residents in Chile.

PMID- 28575340
TI  - Perioperative use of beta-blockers in vascular and endovascular surgery.

PMID- 28575343
TI  - Maintaining oxygenation with high-flow nasal cannula during emergent awake
      surgical tracheostomy.

PMID- 28575342
TI  - Prediction of postoperative mortality in elderly patients with hip fracture: are
      specific and geriatric scores better than general scores?

PMID- 28575344
TI  - Raw EEG characteristics, bispectral index, and suppression ratio variations
      during generalized seizure in electroconvulsive therapy.

PMID- 28575345
TI  - Hydrogen peroxide: more harm than good?

PMID- 28575346
TI  - Ventilation through an extraglottic tracheal tube: a technique for deep
      extubation and airway control.

PMID- 28575348
TI  - Preliminary Development of an Informational Media Use Measure for Patients with
      Implanted Defibrillators: Toward a Model of Social-Ecological Assessment of
      Patient Education and Support.
AB  - Social work interventions in health care, particularly those that involve working
      with people being treated for chronic and life-threatening conditions, frequently
      involve efforts to educate patients about their disease, treatment options,
      safety planning, medical adherence, and other associated issues. Despite an
      intuitive notion that patients access information about all of these issues
      through a variety of media-both inside and outside the clinical encounter,
      created by professionals and by others-there currently exists no validated means
      of assessing patients' use of these forms of information. To address this gap,
      authors first created candidate item measures with input from both physicians and
      a small group of diverse patients who currently have an implantable cardioverter
      defibrillator (ICD), a sophisticated cardiac device for which a trajectory model
      of social work intervention was recently outlined. Authors then surveyed a group
      of 205 individuals who have these devices, assessing their use of various media
      to learn about ICDs. They then conducted factor and item analysis to refine and
      remove poorly performing items while delineating forms of media use by type. The
      resultant preliminary measure of informational media use can be further refined
      and adapted for use with any clinical population.

PMID- 28575349
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of a Novel, Self-Adhering Dural Substitute in a Canine
      Supratentorial Durotomy Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks increase postoperative risk for
      complication, likelihood of reoperation, and costs. OBJECTIVE: To investigate a
      novel, self-adhering polyethylene glycol-coated collagen pad (PCC) as a dural
      substitute relative to Duragen XS (DGX; Integra LifeSciences Corporation,
      Plainsboro, New Jersey) and as a dural sealant relative to Tachosil (Takeda
      Austria GmbH, Linz, Austria), a fibrinogen and thrombin-coated collagen pad
      (FTC). METHODS: A canine supratentorial durotomy surgical model was used to
      investigate the safety and efficacy of PCC. For safety, 4 animals were
      bilaterally treated with DGX or PCC and recovered for 1, 8, or 16 wk; total 24
      animals. Each animal underwent physical and neurological examinations weekly and
      16-wk animals underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination at each
      time point. For efficacy, 9 animals were unilaterally treated with FTC or PCC and
      underwent a burst pressure test intraoperatively or 14 d postoperatively; total
      36 animals. RESULTS: In the safety study, no abnormal clinical signs or changes
      were noted on physical and neurological examinations, or in clinical pathology,
      CSF analysis or histopathology of DGX or PCC-treated animals. No consistent signs
      of cerebral compression, CSF leak, hemorrhage, or hydrocephalus were noted on
      MRI. In the efficacy study, no significant difference was found between FTC and
      PCC at each time point or overall (13.9 vs 12.3 mm Hg, n = 18 per group, P =
      .46). CONCLUSION: PCC is safe for use as a dural substitute and effective as a
      dural sealant. The novel, self-adhering combination of a polyethylene glycol
      based sealant and a collagen pad may offer unique benefits to the advancement of
      duraplasty.

PMID- 28575351
TI  - "Enquire into All the Circumstances of the Patient Narrowly": John Rutherford's
      Clinical Lectures in Edinburgh, 1749-53.
AB  - Early eighteenth-century Edinburgh provided a unique learning environment for
      aspiring practitioners: one in which the unity of medicine and surgery was
      appreciated and clinical observations and a reasoning practitioner became the
      well spring of proper patient care. John Rutherford, a surgical apprentice in
      this environment, student on the wards of London hospitals and under Boerhaave at
      Leiden, became one of the original medical professors at the University of
      Edinburgh medical school in 1726. Rutherford taught the popular, theory-based
      Practice of Medicine for twenty-two years. Then at the end of 1748 he convinced
      Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh managers to allow him to begin a new lecture series,
      entitled Clinical Lectures, conducted at the patient's bedside. Pedagogically,
      the new lecture series integrated medical theory and its application on the ward.
      Pragmatically, Rutherford used the Clinical Lectures to transition students into
      practitioners. He oriented the student to the medical profession at large and
      placed him simultaneously at the patient-disease-physician interface. He taught
      that systematic patient observation and examination, when combined with
      experience and reasoning, were essential to accurate diagnoses and proper
      therapeutic interventions. Importantly too, Rutherford prepared his students for
      failure through humility, introspection, and the speculative nature of medical
      practice.

PMID- 28575350
TI  - Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV as a Prognostic Marker and Therapeutic Target in
      Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.
AB  - Context: Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP4) is overexpressed in thyroid cancer and
      certain malignancies. Furthermore, DPP4 has been identified as a discriminatory
      marker for thyroid cancer. However, it remains unclear whether DPP4 expression
      plays a prognostic role. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the
      expression and function of DPP4 in thyroid cancer and the mechanisms involved.
      Design: We determined the expression of DPP4 by immunohistochemistry in tissue
      microarrays of thyroid tumors. In vitro functional studies were performed after
      genetic and pharmacological inhibition of DPP4. Gene expression and pathway
      analyses were used to identify downstream targets. The therapeutic potential of
      DPP4 inhibition was evaluated in a mouse xenograft model. Results: High DPP4
      expression was associated with extrathyroidal extension (P < 0.001), BRAF
      mutation (P < 0.001), and advanced tumor stage (P = 0.007) in papillary thyroid
      cancer. Patients in the high-DPP4 expression group were less likely to be
      classified as having no evidence of disease at final follow-up (P = 0.042). DPP4
      silencing or treatment with DPP4 inhibitors significantly suppressed colony
      formation, cell migration, and invasion. Analysis of differentially expressed
      genes after DPP4 knockdown suggested that the transforming growth factor-beta
      signaling pathway is involved. In vivo experiments revealed that sitagliptin
      treatment reduced tumor growth and xenograft transforming growth factor-beta
      receptor I expression. Conclusions: Increased DPP4 expression is associated with
      cellular invasion and more aggressive disease in papillary thyroid cancer.
      Targeting DPP4 may be a therapeutic strategy for DPP4-expressing thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28575352
TI  - DNA methylation signatures in cord blood of ICSI children.
AB  - STUDY QUESTION: Does ICSI induce specific DNA methylation changes in the
      resulting offspring? SUMMARY ANSWER: Although several thousand analyzed CpG sites
      (throughout the genome) displayed significant between-group methylation
      differences, both ICSI and spontaneously conceived children varied within the
      normal range of methylation variation. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Children conceived
      by ART have increased risks for medical problems at birth and to the extent of
      present knowledge also in later life (i.e. impaired metabolic and cardiovascular
      functions). One plausible mechanism mediating these ART effects are epigenetic
      changes originating in the germ cells and/or early embryos and persisting during
      further development. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: We compared the cord blood
      methylomes and candidate gene methylation patterns of newborns conceived through
      ICSI or spontaneously. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Umbilical cord
      bloods were obtained from healthy newborn singletons conceived spontaneously (53
      samples), through ICSI (89) or IVF (34). Bisulfite-converted DNA samples of 48
      ICSI and 46 control pregnancies were used for genome-wide analyses with
      Illumina's 450K methylation arrays. Candidate genes from the methylation screen
      were analyzed in all three groups by bisulfite pyrosequencing. MAIN RESULTS AND
      THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Altogether, 4730 (0.11%) of 428 227 analyzed CpG sites
      exhibited significant between-group methylation differences, but all with small
      (beta < 10%) or very small (beta < 1%) effect size. ICSI children showed a
      significantly decreased DNA methylation age at birth, lagging approximately half
      a week behind the controls. ART-susceptible CpGs were enriched in CpG islands
      with low methylation values (0-20%) and in imprinting control regions (ICRs).
      Eighteen promoter regions (six in microRNA and SNORD RNA genes), four CpG islands
      (three in genes including one long non-coding RNA), and two ICRs contained
      multiple significant sites. Three differentially methylated regions were studied
      in more detail by bisulfite pyrosequencing. ATG4C and SNORD114-9 could be
      validated in an independent ICSI group, following adjustment for maternal age and
      other confounding factors. ATG4C was also significant in the IVF group. LARGE
      SCALE DATA: N/A. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: The observed epigenetic
      effects are small and there are numerous potential confounding factors such as
      parental age and infertility. Although our study meets current standards for
      epigenetic screens, sample size is still two orders of magnitude below that of
      genome-wide association studies. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Our study
      suggests an impact of ICSI on the offspring's epigenome(s), which may contribute
      to phenotypic variation and disease susceptibility in ART children. Epigenetic
      regulation of gene expression by different classes of non-coding RNAs may be a
      key mechanism for developmental programming through ART. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING
      INTEREST(S): This work was supported by a research grant (no. 692185) from the
      European Union (ERA of ART). There are no competing interests.

PMID- 28575353
TI  - PERCH in Perspective: What Can It Teach Us About Pneumonia Etiology in Children?
AB  - The pneumonia team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation congratulates the
      Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study on delivering on their
      grant to collect high-quality data from thousands of children with World Health
      Organization-defined severe and very severe pneumonia and from controls in 9
      diverse sites in 7 low- and middle-income countries. This supplement sets the
      foundation to understanding this complex study by providing an in-depth
      description of the study methodology, including discussion of key aspects such as
      antibiotic pretreatment, chest radiograph interpretation, utility of induced
      sputum in children, measurement of pathogen density, and use of C-reactive
      protein, and how these affect pneumonia etiology.

PMID- 28575354
TI  - Should Controls With Respiratory Symptoms Be Excluded From Case-Control Studies
      of Pneumonia Etiology? Reflections From the PERCH Study.
AB  - Many pneumonia etiology case-control studies exclude controls with respiratory
      illness from enrollment or analyses. Herein we argue that selecting controls
      regardless of respiratory symptoms provides the least biased estimates of
      pneumonia etiology. We review 3 reasons investigators may choose to exclude
      controls with respiratory symptoms in light of epidemiologic principles of
      control selection and present data from the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child
      Health (PERCH) study where relevant to assess their validity. We conclude that
      exclusion of controls with respiratory symptoms will result in biased estimates
      of etiology. Randomly selected community controls, with or without respiratory
      symptoms, as long as they do not meet the criteria for case-defining pneumonia,
      are most representative of the general population from which cases arose and the
      least subject to selection bias.

PMID- 28575355
TI  - Standardization of Clinical Assessment and Sample Collection Across All PERCH
      Study Sites.
AB  - Background.: Variable adherence to standardized case definitions, clinical
      procedures, specimen collection techniques, and laboratory methods has
      complicated the interpretation of previous multicenter pneumonia etiology
      studies. To circumvent these problems, a program of clinical standardization was
      embedded in the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study.
      Methods.: Between March 2011 and August 2013, standardized training on the PERCH
      case definition, clinical procedures, and collection of laboratory specimens was
      delivered to 331 clinical staff at 9 study sites in 7 countries (The Gambia,
      Kenya, Mali, South Africa, Zambia, Thailand, and Bangladesh), through 32 on-site
      courses and a training website. Staff competency was assessed throughout 24
      months of enrollment with multiple-choice question (MCQ) examinations, a video
      quiz, and checklist evaluations of practical skills. Results.: MCQ evaluation was
      confined to 158 clinical staff members who enrolled PERCH cases and controls,
      with scores obtained for >86% of eligible staff at each time-point. Median scores
      after baseline training were >=80%, and improved by 10 percentage points with
      refresher training, with no significant intersite differences. Percentage
      agreement with the clinical trainer on the presence or absence of clinical signs
      on video clips was high (>=89%), with interobserver concordance being substantial
      to high (AC1 statistic, 0.62-0.82) for 5 of 6 signs assessed. Staff attained
      median scores of >90% in checklist evaluations of practical skills. Conclusions.:
      Satisfactory clinical standardization was achieved within and across all PERCH
      sites, providing reassurance that any etiological or clinical differences
      observed across the study sites are true differences, and not attributable to
      differences in application of the clinical case definition, interpretation of
      clinical signs, or in techniques used for clinical measurements or specimen
      collection.

PMID- 28575357
TI  - Data Management and Data Quality in PERCH, a Large International Case-Control
      Study of Severe Childhood Pneumonia.
AB  - The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study is the largest
      multicountry etiology study of pediatric pneumonia undertaken in the past 3
      decades. The study enrolled 4232 hospitalized cases and 5325 controls over 2
      years across 9 research sites in 7 countries in Africa and Asia. The volume and
      complexity of data collection in PERCH presented considerable logistical and
      technical challenges. The project chose an internet-based data entry system to
      allow real-time access to the data, enabling the project to monitor and clean
      incoming data and perform preliminary analyses throughout the study. To ensure
      high-quality data, the project developed comprehensive quality indicator, data
      query, and monitoring reports. Among the approximately 9000 cases and controls,
      analyzable laboratory results were available for >=96% of core specimens
      collected. Selected approaches to data management in PERCH may be extended to the
      planning and organization of international studies of similar scope and
      complexity.

PMID- 28575356
TI  - Safety of Induced Sputum Collection in Children Hospitalized With Severe or Very
      Severe Pneumonia.
AB  - Background.: Induced sputum (IS) may provide diagnostic information about the
      etiology of pneumonia. The safety of this procedure across a heterogeneous
      population with severe pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries has not been
      described. Methods.: IS specimens were obtained as part a 7-country study of the
      etiology of severe and very severe pneumonia in hospitalized children <5 years of
      age. Rigorous clinical monitoring was done before, during, and after the
      procedure to record oxygen requirement, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate,
      consciousness level, and other evidence of clinical deterioration. Criteria for
      IS contraindications were predefined and serious adverse events (SAEs) were
      reported to ethics committees and a central safety monitor. Results.: A total of
      4653 IS procedures were done among 3802 children. Thirteen SAEs were reported in
      relation to collection of IS, or 0.34% of children with at least 1 IS specimen
      collected (95% confidence interval, 0.15%-0.53%). A drop in oxygen saturation
      that required supplemental oxygen was the most common SAE. One child died after
      feeding was reinitiated 2 hours after undergoing sputum induction; this death was
      categorized as "possibly related" to the procedure. Conclusions.: The overall
      frequency of SAEs was very low, and the nature of most SAEs was manageable,
      demonstrating a low-risk safety profile for IS collection even among severely ill
      children in low-income-country settings. Healthcare providers should monitor
      oxygen saturation and requirements during and after IS collection, and assess
      patients prior to reinitiating feeding after the IS procedure, to ensure patient
      safety.

PMID- 28575358
TI  - Standardization of Laboratory Methods for the PERCH Study.
AB  - The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health study was conducted across 7
      diverse research sites and relied on standardized clinical and laboratory methods
      for the accurate and meaningful interpretation of pneumonia etiology data. Blood,
      respiratory specimens, and urine were collected from children aged 1-59 months
      hospitalized with severe or very severe pneumonia and community controls of the
      same age without severe pneumonia and were tested with an extensive array of
      laboratory diagnostic tests. A standardized testing algorithm and standard
      operating procedures were applied across all study sites. Site laboratories
      received uniform training, equipment, and reagents for core testing methods.
      Standardization was further assured by routine teleconferences, in-person
      meetings, site monitoring visits, and internal and external quality assurance
      testing. Targeted confirmatory testing and testing by specialized assays were
      done at a central reference laboratory.

PMID- 28575359
TI  - Standardized Interpretation of Chest Radiographs in Cases of Pediatric Pneumonia
      From the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: Chest radiographs (CXRs) are a valuable diagnostic tool in
      epidemiologic studies of pneumonia. The World Health Organization (WHO)
      methodology for the interpretation of pediatric CXRs has not been evaluated
      beyond its intended application as an endpoint measure for bacterial vaccine
      trials. Methods.: The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study
      enrolled children aged 1-59 months hospitalized with WHO-defined severe and very
      severe pneumonia from 7 low- and middle-income countries. An interpretation
      process categorized each CXR into 1 of 5 conclusions: consolidation, other
      infiltrate, both consolidation and other infiltrate, normal, or uninterpretable.
      Two members of a 14-person reading panel, who had undertaken training and
      standardization in CXR interpretation, interpreted each CXR. Two members of an
      arbitration panel provided additional independent reviews of CXRs with discordant
      interpretations at the primary reading, blinded to previous reports. Further
      discordance was resolved with consensus discussion. Results.: A total of 4172
      CXRs were obtained from 4232 cases. Observed agreement for detecting
      consolidation (with or without other infiltrate) between primary readers was 78%
      (kappa = 0.50) and between arbitrators was 84% (kappa = 0.61); agreement for
      primary readers and arbitrators across 5 conclusion categories was 43.5% (kappa =
      0.25) and 48.5% (kappa = 0.32), respectively. Disagreement was most frequent
      between conclusions of other infiltrate and normal for both the reading panel and
      the arbitration panel (32% and 30% of discordant CXRs, respectively).
      Conclusions.: Agreement was similar to that of previous evaluations using the WHO
      methodology for detecting consolidation, but poor for other infiltrates despite
      attempts at a rigorous standardization process.

PMID- 28575360
TI  - Microscopic Analysis and Quality Assessment of Induced Sputum From Children With
      Pneumonia in the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: It is standard practice for laboratories to assess the cellular
      quality of expectorated sputum specimens to check that they originated from the
      lower respiratory tract. The presence of low numbers of squamous epithelial cells
      (SECs) and high numbers of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells are regarded as
      indicative of a lower respiratory tract specimen. However, these quality ratings
      have never been evaluated for induced sputum specimens from children with
      suspected pneumonia. Methods.: We evaluated induced sputum Gram stain smears and
      cultures from hospitalized children aged 1-59 months enrolled in a large study of
      community-acquired pneumonia. We hypothesized that a specimen representative of
      the lower respiratory tract will contain smaller quantities of oropharyngeal
      flora and be more likely to have a predominance of potential pathogens compared
      to a specimen containing mainly saliva. The prevalence of potential pathogens
      cultured from induced sputum specimens and quantity of oropharyngeal flora were
      compared for different quantities of SECs and PMNs. Results.: Of 3772 induced
      sputum specimens, 2608 (69%) had <10 SECs per low-power field (LPF) and 2350
      (62%) had >25 PMNs per LPF, measures traditionally associated with specimens from
      the lower respiratory tract in adults. Using isolation of low quantities of
      oropharyngeal flora and higher prevalence of potential pathogens as markers of
      higher quality, <10 SECs per LPF (but not >25 PMNs per LPF) was the microscopic
      variable most associated with high quality of induced sputum. Conclusions.:
      Quantity of SECs may be a useful quality measure of induced sputum from young
      children with pneumonia.

PMID- 28575361
TI  - Chest Radiograph Findings in Childhood Pneumonia Cases From the Multisite PERCH
      Study.
AB  - Background.: Chest radiographs (CXRs) are frequently used to assess pneumonia
      cases. Variations in CXR appearances between epidemiological settings and their
      correlation with clinical signs are not well documented. Methods.: The Pneumonia
      Etiology Research for Child Health project enrolled 4232 cases of hospitalized
      World Health Organization (WHO)-defined severe and very severe pneumonia from 9
      sites in 7 countries (Bangladesh, the Gambia, Kenya, Mali, South Africa,
      Thailand, and Zambia). At admission, each case underwent a standardized
      assessment of clinical signs and pneumonia risk factors by trained health
      personnel, and a CXR was taken that was interpreted using the standardized WHO
      methodology. CXRs were categorized as abnormal (consolidation and/or other
      infiltrate), normal, or uninterpretable. Results.: CXRs were interpretable in
      3587 (85%) cases, of which 1935 (54%) were abnormal (site range, 35%-64%). Cases
      with abnormal CXRs were more likely than those with normal CXRs to have hypoxemia
      (45% vs 26%), crackles (69% vs 62%), tachypnea (85% vs 80%), or fever (20% vs
      16%) and less likely to have wheeze (30% vs 38%; all P < .05). CXR consolidation
      was associated with a higher case fatality ratio at 30-day follow-up (13.5%)
      compared to other infiltrate (4.7%) or normal (4.9%) CXRs. Conclusions.:
      Clinically diagnosed pneumonia cases with abnormal CXRs were more likely to have
      signs typically associated with pneumonia. However, CXR-normal cases were common,
      and clinical signs considered indicative of pneumonia were present in substantial
      proportions of these cases. CXR-consolidation cases represent a group with an
      increased likelihood of death at 30 days post-discharge.

PMID- 28575362
TI  - The Diagnostic Utility of Induced Sputum Microscopy and Culture in Childhood
      Pneumonia.
AB  - Background.: Sputum microscopy and culture are commonly used for diagnosing the
      cause of pneumonia in adults but are rarely performed in children due to
      difficulties in obtaining specimens. Induced sputum is occasionally used to
      investigate lower respiratory infections in children but has not been widely used
      in pneumonia etiology studies. Methods.: We evaluated the diagnostic utility of
      induced sputum microscopy and culture in patients enrolled in the Pneumonia
      Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study, a large study of community
      acquired pneumonia in children aged 1-59 months. Comparisons were made between
      induced sputum samples from hospitalized children with radiographically confirmed
      pneumonia and children categorized as nonpneumonia (due to the absence of
      prespecified clinical and laboratory signs and absence of infiltrate on chest
      radiograph). Results.: One induced sputum sample was available for analysis from
      3772 (89.1%) of 4232 suspected pneumonia cases enrolled in PERCH. Of these,
      sputum from 2608 (69.1%) met the quality criterion of <10 squamous epithelial
      cells per low-power field, and 1162 (44.6%) had radiographic pneumonia. Induced
      sputum microscopy and culture results were not associated with radiographic
      pneumonia, regardless of prior antibiotic use, stratification by specific
      bacteria, or interpretative criteria used. Conclusions.: The findings of this
      study do not support the culture of induced sputum specimens as a diagnostic tool
      for pneumonia in young children as part of routine clinical practice.

PMID- 28575364
TI  - The Incremental Value of Repeated Induced Sputum and Gastric Aspirate Samples for
      the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Young Children With Acute Community
      Acquired Pneumonia.
AB  - Background.: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) contributes to the pathogenesis of
      childhood acute community-acquired pneumonia in settings with a high tuberculosis
      burden. The incremental value of a repeated induced sputum (IS) sample, compared
      with a single IS or gastric aspirate (GA) sample, is not well known. Methods.:
      Two IS samples were obtained for Mtb culture from children enrolled as cases in
      the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study in South Africa.
      Nonstudy attending physicians requested GA if pulmonary tuberculosis was
      clinically suspected. We compared the Mtb yield of 2 IS samples to that of 1 IS
      sample and GA samples. Results: . Twenty-seven (3.0%) culture-confirmed pulmonary
      tuberculosis cases were identified among 906 children investigated with IS and GA
      samples for Mtb. Results from 2 IS samples were available for 719 children
      (79.4%). Of 12 culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis cases identified among
      children with >=2 IS samples, 4 (33.3%) were negative at the first IS sample. In
      head-to-head comparisons among children with both GA and IS samples collected,
      the yield of 1 GA sample (8 of 427; 1.9%) was similar to that of 1 IS sample (5
      of 427, 1.2%), and the yield of 2 GA samples (10 of 300; 3.3%) was similar to
      that of 2 IS samples (5 of 300; 1.7%). IS samples identified 8 (42.1%) of the 19
      culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis cases that were identified through
      submission of IS and GA samples. Conclusions.: A single IS sample underestimated
      the presence of Mtb in children hospitalized with severe or very severe
      pneumonia. Detection of Mtb is enhanced by combining 2 IS with GA sample
      collections in young children with acute severe pneumonia.

PMID- 28575363
TI  - Limited Utility of Polymerase Chain Reaction in Induced Sputum Specimens for
      Determining the Causes of Childhood Pneumonia in Resource-Poor Settings: Findings
      From the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) Study.
AB  - Background.: Sputum examination can be useful in diagnosing the cause of
      pneumonia in adults but is less well established in children. We sought to assess
      the diagnostic utility of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of
      respiratory viruses and bacteria in induced sputum (IS) specimens from children
      hospitalized with severe or very severe pneumonia. Methods.: Among children aged
      1-59 months, we compared organism detection by multiplex PCR in IS and
      nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal (NP/OP) specimens. To assess whether organism
      presence or density in IS specimens was associated with chest radiographic
      evidence of pneumonia (radiographic pneumonia), we compared prevalence and
      density in IS specimens from children with radiographic pneumonia and children
      with suspected pneumonia but without chest radiographic changes or clinical or
      laboratory findings suggestive of pneumonia (nonpneumonia group). Results.: Among
      4232 cases with World Health Organization-defined severe or very severe
      pneumonia, we identified 1935 (45.7%) with radiographic pneumonia and 573 (13.5%)
      with nonpneumonia. The organism detection yield was marginally improved with IS
      specimens (96.2% vs 92.4% for NP/OP specimens for all viruses combined [P = .41];
      96.9% vs 93.3% for all bacteria combined [P = .01]). After accounting for
      presence in NP/OP specimens, no organism was detected more frequently in the IS
      specimens from the radiographic pneumonia compared with the nonpneumonia cases.
      Among high-quality IS specimens, there were no statistically significant
      differences in organism density, except with cytomegalovirus, for which there was
      a higher quantity in the IS specimens from cases with radiographic pneumonia
      compared with the nonpneumonia cases (median cycle threshold value, 27.9 vs 28.5,
      respectively; P = .01). Conclusions.: Using advanced molecular methods with IS
      specimens provided little additional diagnostic information beyond that obtained
      with NP/OP swab specimens.

PMID- 28575368
TI  - Introduction to the Epidemiologic Considerations, Analytic Methods, and
      Foundational Results From the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health Study.

PMID- 28575365
TI  - Density of Upper Respiratory Colonization With Streptococcus pneumoniae and Its
      Role in the Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Pneumonia Among Children Aged <5 Years in
      the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: Previous studies suggested an association between upper airway
      pneumococcal colonization density and pneumococcal pneumonia, but data in
      children are limited. Using data from the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child
      Health (PERCH) study, we assessed this potential association. Methods.: PERCH is
      a case-control study in 7 countries: Bangladesh, The Gambia, Kenya, Mali, South
      Africa, Thailand, and Zambia. Cases were children aged 1-59 months hospitalized
      with World Health Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia. Controls
      were randomly selected from the community. Microbiologically confirmed
      pneumococcal pneumonia (MCPP) was confirmed by detection of pneumococcus in a
      relevant normally sterile body fluid. Colonization density was calculated with
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal
      specimens. Results.: Median colonization density among 56 cases with MCPP (MCPP
      cases; 17.28 * 106 copies/mL) exceeded that of cases without MCPP (non-MCPP
      cases; 0.75 * 106) and controls (0.60 * 106) (each P < .001). The optimal density
      for discriminating MCPP cases from controls using the Youden index was >6.9 log10
      copies/mL; overall, the sensitivity was 64% and the specificity 92%, with
      variable performance by site. The threshold was lower (>=4.4 log10 copies/mL)
      when MCPP cases were distinguished from controls who received antibiotics before
      specimen collection. Among the 4035 non-MCPP cases, 500 (12%) had pneumococcal
      colonization density >6.9 log10 copies/mL; above this cutoff was associated with
      alveolar consolidation at chest radiography, very severe pneumonia, oxygen
      saturation <92%, C-reactive protein >=40 mg/L, and lack of antibiotic
      pretreatment (all P< .001). Conclusions.: Pneumococcal colonization density >6.9
      log10 copies/mL was strongly associated with MCPP and could be used to improve
      estimates of pneumococcal pneumonia prevalence in childhood pneumonia studies.
      Our findings do not support its use for individual diagnosis in a clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28575366
TI  - The Effect of Antibiotic Exposure and Specimen Volume on the Detection of
      Bacterial Pathogens in Children With Pneumonia.
AB  - Background.: Antibiotic exposure and specimen volume are known to affect pathogen
      detection by culture. Here we assess their effects on bacterial pathogen
      detection by both culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in children.
      Methods.: PERCH (Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health) is a case-control
      study of pneumonia in children aged 1-59 months investigating pathogens in blood,
      nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal (NP/OP) swabs, and induced sputum by culture and
      PCR. Antibiotic exposure was ascertained by serum bioassay, and for cases, by a
      record of antibiotic treatment prior to specimen collection. Inoculated blood
      culture bottles were weighed to estimate volume. Results.: Antibiotic exposure
      ranged by specimen type from 43.5% to 81.7% in 4223 cases and was detected in
      2.3% of 4863 controls. Antibiotics were associated with a 45% reduction in blood
      culture yield and approximately 20% reduction in yield from induced sputum
      culture. Reduction in yield of Streptococcus pneumoniae from NP culture was
      approximately 30% in cases and approximately 32% in controls. Several bacteria
      had significant but marginal reductions (by 5%-7%) in detection by PCR in NP/OP
      swabs from both cases and controls, with the exception of S. pneumoniae in
      exposed controls, which was detected 25% less frequently compared to nonexposed
      controls. Bacterial detection in induced sputum by PCR decreased 7% for exposed
      compared to nonexposed cases. For every additional 1 mL of blood culture specimen
      collected, microbial yield increased 0.51% (95% confidence interval, 0.47%
      0.54%), from 2% when volume was <=1 mL to approximately 6% for >=3 mL.
      Conclusions.: Antibiotic exposure and blood culture volume affect detection of
      bacterial pathogens in children with pneumonia and should be accounted for in
      studies of etiology and in clinical management.

PMID- 28575370
TI  - Bayesian Estimation of Pneumonia Etiology: Epidemiologic Considerations and
      Applications to the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health Study.
AB  - In pneumonia, specimens are rarely obtained directly from the infection site, the
      lung, so the pathogen causing infection is determined indirectly from multiple
      tests on peripheral clinical specimens, which may have imperfect and uncertain
      sensitivity and specificity, so inference about the cause is complex. Analytic
      approaches have included expert review of case-only results, case-control
      logistic regression, latent class analysis, and attributable fraction, but each
      has serious limitations and none naturally integrate multiple test results. The
      Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study required an analytic
      solution appropriate for a case-control design that could incorporate evidence
      from multiple specimens from cases and controls and that accounted for
      measurement error. We describe a Bayesian integrated approach we developed that
      combined and extended elements of attributable fraction and latent class analyses
      to meet some of these challenges and illustrate the advantage it confers
      regarding the challenges identified for other methods.

PMID- 28575369
TI  - The Enduring Challenge of Determining Pneumonia Etiology in Children:
      Considerations for Future Research Priorities.
AB  - Pneumonia kills more children each year worldwide than any other disease.
      Nonetheless, accurately determining the causes of childhood pneumonia has
      remained elusive. Over the past century, the focus of pneumonia etiology research
      has shifted from studies of lung aspirates and postmortem specimens intent on
      identifying pneumococcal disease to studies of multiple specimen types distant
      from the lung that are tested for multiple pathogens. Some major challenges
      facing modern pneumonia etiology studies include the use of nonspecific and
      variable case definitions, poor access to pathologic lung tissue and to specimens
      from fatal cases, poor diagnostic accuracy of assays (especially when testing
      nonpulmonary specimens), and the interpretation of results when multiple
      pathogens are detected in a given individual. The future of childhood pneumonia
      etiology research will likely require integrating data from complementary
      approaches, including applications of advanced molecular diagnostics and vaccine
      probe studies, as well as a renewed emphasis on lung aspirates from
      radiologically confirmed pneumonia and postmortem examinations.

PMID- 28575367
TI  - Colonization Density of the Upper Respiratory Tract as a Predictor of Pneumonia
      Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and
      Pneumocystis jirovecii.
AB  - Background.: There is limited information on the association between colonization
      density of upper respiratory tract colonizers and pathogen-specific pneumonia. We
      assessed this association for Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis,
      Staphylococcus aureus, and Pneumocystis jirovecii. Methods.: In 7 low- and middle
      income countries, nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs from children with severe
      pneumonia and age-frequency matched community controls were tested using
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Differences in median colonization
      density were evaluated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Density cutoffs were
      determined using receiver operating characteristic curves. Cases with a pathogen
      identified from lung aspirate culture or PCR, pleural fluid culture or PCR, blood
      culture, and immunofluorescence for P. jirovecii defined microbiologically
      confirmed cases for the given pathogens. Results.: Higher densities of H.
      influenzae were observed in both microbiologically confirmed cases and chest
      radiograph (CXR)-positive cases compared to controls. Staphylococcus aureus and
      P. jirovecii had higher densities in CXR-positive cases vs controls. A 5.9 log10
      copies/mL density cutoff for H. influenzae yielded 86% sensitivity and 77%
      specificity for detecting microbiologically confirmed cases; however, densities
      overlapped between cases and controls and positive predictive values were poor
      (<3%). Informative density cutoffs were not found for S. aureus and M.
      catarrhalis, and a lack of confirmed case data limited the cutoff identification
      for P. jirovecii. Conclusions.: There is evidence for an association between H.
      influenzae colonization density and H. influenzae-confirmed pneumonia in
      children; the association may be particularly informative in epidemiologic
      studies. Colonization densities of M. catarrhalis, S. aureus, and P. jirovecii
      are unlikely to be of diagnostic value in clinical settings.

PMID- 28575372
TI  - Addressing the Analytic Challenges of Cross-Sectional Pediatric Pneumonia
      Etiology Data.
AB  - Despite tremendous advances in diagnostic laboratory technology, identifying the
      pathogen(s) causing pneumonia remains challenging because the infected lung
      tissue cannot usually be sampled for testing. Consequently, to obtain information
      about pneumonia etiology, clinicians and researchers test specimens distant to
      the site of infection. These tests may lack sensitivity (eg, blood culture, which
      is only positive in a small proportion of children with pneumonia) and/or
      specificity (eg, detection of pathogens in upper respiratory tract specimens,
      which may indicate asymptomatic carriage or a less severe syndrome, such as upper
      respiratory infection). While highly sensitive nucleic acid detection methods and
      testing of multiple specimens improve sensitivity, multiple pathogens are often
      detected and this adds complexity to the interpretation as the etiologic
      significance of results may be unclear (ie, the pneumonia may be caused by none,
      one, some, or all of the pathogens detected). Some of these challenges can be
      addressed by adjusting positivity rates to account for poor sensitivity or
      incorporating test results from controls without pneumonia to account for poor
      specificity. However, no classical analytic methods can account for measurement
      error (ie, sensitivity and specificity) for multiple specimen types and integrate
      the results of measurements for multiple pathogens to produce an accurate
      understanding of etiology. We describe the major analytic challenges in
      determining pneumonia etiology and review how the common analytical approaches
      (eg, descriptive, case-control, attributable fraction, latent class analysis)
      address some but not all challenges. We demonstrate how these limitations
      necessitate a new, integrated analytical approach to pneumonia etiology data.

PMID- 28575371
TI  - Detection of Pneumococcal DNA in Blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction for
      Diagnosing Pneumococcal Pneumonia in Young Children From Low- and Middle-Income
      Countries.
AB  - Background.: We investigated the performance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
      on blood in the diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia among children from 7 low-
      and middle-income countries. Methods.: We tested blood by PCR for the
      pneumococcal autolysin gene in children aged 1-59 months in the Pneumonia
      Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study. Children had World Health
      Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia or were age-frequency
      matched community controls. Additionally, we tested blood from general pediatric
      admissions in Kilifi, Kenya, a PERCH site. The proportion PCR-positive was
      compared among cases with microbiologically confirmed pneumococcal pneumonia
      (MCPP), cases without a confirmed bacterial infection (nonconfirmed), cases
      confirmed for nonpneumococcal bacteria, and controls. Results.: In PERCH, 7.3% (n
      = 291/3995) of cases and 5.5% (n = 273/4987) of controls were blood pneumococcal
      PCR-positive (P < .001), compared with 64.3% (n = 36/56) of MCPP cases and 6.3%
      (n = 243/3832) of nonconfirmed cases (P < .001). Blood pneumococcal PCR
      positivity was higher in children from the 5 African countries (5.5%-11.5% among
      cases and 5.3%-10.2% among controls) than from the 2 Asian countries (1.3% and
      1.0% among cases and 0.8% and 0.8% among controls). Among Kilifi general
      pediatric admissions, 3.9% (n = 274/6968) were PCR-positive, including 61.7% (n =
      37/60) of those with positive blood cultures for pneumococcus. Discussion.: The
      utility of pneumococcal PCR on blood for diagnosing childhood pneumococcal
      pneumonia in the 7 low- and middle-income countries studied is limited by poor
      specificity and by poor sensitivity among MCPP cases.

PMID- 28575376
TI  - Managing Person-Centered Dementia Care in an Assisted Living Facility: Staffing
      and Time Considerations.
AB  - Background and Objectives: To describe (a) the unlicensed staff time necessary to
      provide quality activities of daily living (ADL) care to residents receiving
      dementia care within an assisted living facility and (b) a staff management
      approach to maintain quality ADL care. Research Design and Methods: Supervisory
      staff used a standardized observational method to measure ADL care quality and
      the staff time to provide care during the morning and evening across 12
      consecutive months. Staff were given individual feedback about the quality of
      their care provision following each observation. Results: The average staff time
      to provide ADL care averaged 35 (+/- 11) minutes per resident per care episode
      with bathing and 18 (+/- 6) minutes/resident/care episode without bathing.
      Morning ADL care required significantly more staff time than evening care. There
      was not a significant relationship between residents' levels of cognitive
      impairment or ADL dependency and the staff time to provide ADL care. Quality ADL
      care was maintained for 12 months. Discussion and Implications: This study
      provides novel data related to the amount of staff time necessary to provide
      quality ADL care for persons with dementia in an assisted living care setting.
      This study also describes a standardized approach to staff management that was
      effective in maintaining quality ADL care provision. Assisted living facilities
      should consider these data when determining the necessary unlicensed staffing
      level to provide person-centered ADL care and how to effectively manage direct
      care providers.

PMID- 28575373
TI  - Is Higher Viral Load in the Upper Respiratory Tract Associated With Severe
      Pneumonia? Findings From the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: The etiologic inference of identifying a pathogen in the upper
      respiratory tract (URT) of children with pneumonia is unclear. To determine if
      viral load could provide evidence of causality of pneumonia, we compared viral
      load in the URT of children with World Health Organization-defined severe and
      very severe pneumonia and age-matched community controls. Methods.: In the 9
      developing country sites, nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs from children with
      and without pneumonia were tested using quantitative real-time polymerase chain
      reaction for 17 viruses. The association of viral load with case status was
      evaluated using logistic regression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curves were constructed to determine optimal discriminatory viral load cutoffs.
      Viral load density distributions were plotted. Results.: The mean viral load was
      higher in cases than controls for 7 viruses. However, there was substantial
      overlap in viral load distribution of cases and controls for all viruses. ROC
      curves to determine the optimal viral load cutoff produced an area under the
      curve of <0.80 for all viruses, suggesting poor to fair discrimination between
      cases and controls. Fatal and very severe pneumonia cases did not have higher
      viral load than less severe cases for most viruses. Conclusions.: Although we
      found higher viral loads among pneumonia cases than controls for some viruses,
      the utility in using viral load of URT specimens to define viral pneumonia was
      equivocal. Our analysis was limited by lack of a gold standard for viral
      pneumonia.

PMID- 28575379
TI  - Efficacy of Oral Zinc Supplementation in Radiologically Confirmed Pneumonia:
      Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the effect of zinc as an adjuvant therapy in
      radiologically confirmed pneumonia in children 2-24 months of age. Patients and
      Methods: We analyzed data of 212 children with pneumonia for whom chest X-ray
      films were available at enrollment and at least two radiologists agreed on the
      diagnosis of pneumonia. We compared the time to recovery in the two groups (n =
      121, zinc group and n = 91, placebo group) using a Cox proportional hazards
      regression model. Results: Time to recovery was similar in both groups [median
      interquartile range: zinc, 84 h (64, 140 h); placebo, 85 h (65, 140 h)]. The
      absolute risk reduction for treatment failure was 5.2% (95% confidence interval: 
      4.8, 15.1) with zinc supplementation. Conclusion: There was no significant
      beneficial effect of zinc on the duration of recovery or risk of treatment
      failure in children with radiologically confirmed pneumonia.

PMID- 28575375
TI  - Association of C-Reactive Protein With Bacterial and Respiratory Syncytial Virus
      Associated Pneumonia Among Children Aged <5 Years in the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: Lack of a gold standard for identifying bacterial and viral
      etiologies of pneumonia has limited evaluation of C-reactive protein (CRP) for
      identifying bacterial pneumonia. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of
      CRP for identifying bacterial vs respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) pneumonia in
      the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) multicenter case-control
      study. Methods.: We measured serum CRP levels in cases with World Health
      Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia and a subset of community
      controls. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of elevated CRP for
      "confirmed" bacterial pneumonia (positive blood culture or positive lung aspirate
      or pleural fluid culture or polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) compared to "RSV
      pneumonia" (nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal or induced sputum PCR-positive without
      confirmed/suspected bacterial pneumonia). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curves were constructed to assess the performance of elevated CRP in
      distinguishing these cases. Results.: Among 601 human immunodeficiency virus
      (HIV)-negative tested controls, 3% had CRP >=40 mg/L. Among 119 HIV-negative
      cases with confirmed bacterial pneumonia, 77% had CRP >=40 mg/L compared with 17%
      of 556 RSV pneumonia cases. The ROC analysis produced an area under the curve of
      0.87, indicating very good discrimination; a cut-point of 37.1 mg/L best
      discriminated confirmed bacterial pneumonia (sensitivity 77%) from RSV pneumonia
      (specificity 82%). CRP >=100 mg/L substantially improved specificity over CRP
      >=40 mg/L, though at a loss to sensitivity. Conclusions.: Elevated CRP was
      positively associated with confirmed bacterial pneumonia and negatively
      associated with RSV pneumonia in PERCH. CRP may be useful for distinguishing
      bacterial from RSV-associated pneumonia, although its role in discriminating
      against other respiratory viral-associated pneumonia needs further study.

PMID- 28575378
TI  - Long-term outcomes of different ablation strategies for ventricular tachycardia
      in patients with structural heart disease: systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Aims: To compare the long-term outcomes of standard ablation of stable
      ventricular tachycardia (VT) vs. substrate modification, and of complete vs.
      incomplete substrate modification in patients with structural heart disease (SHD)
      presenting with VT. Methods and results: An electronic search was performed using
      major databases. The main outcomes were a composite of long-term ventricular
      arrhythmia (VA) recurrence and all-cause mortality of standard ablation of stable
      VT vs. substrate modification, and long-term VA recurrence in complete vs.
      incomplete substrate modification. Six studies were included for the comparison
      of standard ablation of stable VT vs. substrate modification, with a total of 396
      patients (mean age 63 +/- 10 years, 87% males), and seven studies were included
      to assess the impact of extensive substrate modification, with a total of 391
      patients (mean age 64 +/- years, 90% males). More than 70% of all the patients
      included had ischaemic cardiomyopathy. Substrate modification was associated with
      decreased composite VA recurrence/all-cause mortality compared to standard
      ablation of stable VTs [risk ratio (RR) 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40
      0.81]. Complete substrate modification was associated with decreased VA
      recurrence as compared to incomplete substrate modification (RR 0.39, 95% CI 0.27
      0.58). Conclusion: In patients with SHD who had VT related mainly to ischaemic
      substrates, there was a significantly lower risk of the composite primary outcome
      of long-term VA recurrence and all-cause mortality among those undergoing
      substrate modification compared to standard ablation. Long-term success is
      improved when performing complete substrate modification.

PMID- 28575374
TI  - Evaluation of Pneumococcal Load in Blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction for the
      Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Pneumonia in Young Children in the PERCH Study.
AB  - Background.: Detection of pneumococcus by lytA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in
      blood had poor diagnostic accuracy for diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia in
      children in 9 African and Asian sites. We assessed the value of blood lytA
      quantification in diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia. Methods.: The Pneumonia
      Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) case-control study tested whole blood
      by PCR for pneumococcus in children aged 1-59 months hospitalized with signs of
      pneumonia and in age-frequency matched community controls. The distribution of
      load among PCR-positive participants was compared between microbiologically
      confirmed pneumococcal pneumonia (MCPP) cases, cases confirmed for
      nonpneumococcal pathogens, nonconfirmed cases, and controls. Receiver operating
      characteristic analyses determined the "optimal threshold" that distinguished
      MCPP cases from controls. Results.: Load was available for 290 of 291 cases with
      pneumococcal PCR detected in blood and 273 of 273 controls. Load was higher in
      MCPP cases than controls (median, 4.0 * 103 vs 0.19 * 103 copies/mL), but
      overlapped substantially (range, 0.16-989.9 * 103 copies/mL and 0.01-551.9 * 103
      copies/mL, respectively). The proportion with high load (>=2.2 log10 copies/mL)
      was 62.5% among MCPP cases, 4.3% among nonconfirmed cases, 9.3% among cases
      confirmed for a nonpneumococcal pathogen, and 3.1% among controls. Pneumococcal
      load in blood was not associated with respiratory tract illness in controls (P =
      .32). High blood pneumococcal load was associated with alveolar consolidation on
      chest radiograph in nonconfirmed cases, and with high (>6.9 log10 copies/mL)
      nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal load and C-reactive protein >=40 mg/L (both P < .01)
      in nonconfirmed cases but not controls. Conclusions.: Quantitative pneumococcal
      PCR in blood has limited diagnostic utility for identifying pneumococcal
      pneumonia in individual children, but may be informative in epidemiological
      studies.

PMID- 28575380
TI  - Looking Both Ways.

PMID- 28575377
TI  - Major hnRNP proteins act as general TDP-43 functional modifiers both in
      Drosophila and human neuronal cells.
AB  - Nuclear factor TDP-43 is known to play an important role in several
      neurodegenerative pathologies. In general, TDP-43 is an abundant protein within
      the eukaryotic nucleus that binds to many coding and non-coding RNAs and
      influence their processing. Using Drosophila, we have performed a functional
      screening to establish the ability of major hnRNP proteins to affect TDP-43
      overexpression/depletion phenotypes. Interestingly, we observed that lowering
      hnRNP and TDP-43 expression has a generally harmful effect on flies locomotor
      abilities. In parallel, our study has also identified a distinct set of hnRNPs
      that is capable of powerfully rescuing TDP-43 toxicity in the fly eye (Hrb27c,
      CG42458, Glo and Syp). Most importantly, removing the human orthologs of Hrb27c
      (DAZAP1) in human neuronal cell lines can correct several pre-mRNA splicing
      events altered by TDP-43 depletion. Moreover, using RNA sequencing analysis we
      show that DAZAP1 and TDP-43 can co-regulate an extensive number of biological
      processes and molecular functions potentially important for the neuron/motor
      neuron pathophysiology. Our results suggest that changes in hnRNP expression
      levels can significantly modulate TDP-43 functions and affect pathological
      outcomes.

PMID- 28575381
TI  - Rebellious Behaviors in Adolescents With Epilepsy.
AB  - Objectives: The study aims are to (1) examine the prevalence of risk-taking
      (i.e., behaviors that can be categorized as rebellious or reckless) and (2)
      determine the influence of risk-taking on adherence, seizures, and health-related
      quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents with epilepsy. An exploratory aim was to
      identify predictors of risk-taking. Methods: Fifty-four adolescents with epilepsy
      (M = 15.33 +/- 1.46 years) and caregivers completed questionnaires on
      demographics, risk-taking, parent-child relations, adolescent
      inattention/hyperactivity, and HRQOL at four time points across 1 year. Seizure
      occurrence and electronically monitored adherence were also collected. Results:
      Rebellious behaviors were normative and stable over 1 year in adolescents with
      epilepsy. Higher rebelliousness was related to poorer adolescent-reported memory
      HRQOL. The only significant positive predictor of rebellious behaviors was
      adolescent age. Conclusions: Adolescents with epilepsy endorsed normative levels
      of rebelliousness, which is negatively related to HRQOL. Older adolescents may
      warrant clinical attention.

PMID- 28575383
TI  - On Taking a Different Route: An Unlikely Case of Malaria by Nosocomial
      Transmission.
AB  - Vector-borne diseases can be contracted by exposure to contaminated material.
      This mode of transmission is not geographically restricted to the presence of a
      vector. Unexpected infection in regions of low incidence potentially delays
      diagnosis. We report a case of severe falciparum malaria following nosocomial
      Plasmodium falciparum transmission in nonendemic Germany.

PMID- 28575382
TI  - In vitro and in vivo activity of biapenem against drug-susceptible and rifampicin
      resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - Background: Biapenem, a carbapenem antibiotic, has been shown to have synergistic
      bactericidal anti-TB activity when combined with rifampicin both in vitro and in
      the mouse model of TB chemotherapy. We hypothesized that this synergy would
      result in biapenem/rifampicin activity against rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis . Objectives: Our objective was to evaluate the synergy of
      biapenem/rifampicin against both low- and high-level rifampicin-resistant strains
      of M. tuberculosis , in vitro and in the mouse model. Methods:
      Biapenem/rifampicin activity was evaluated using three strains of M. tuberculosis
      : strain 115R (low-level rifampicin resistance); strain 124R (high-level
      rifampicin resistance); and the drug-susceptible H37Rv parent strain.
      Biapenem/rifampicin synergy was evaluated in vitro by chequerboard titration. In
      vivo , we first conducted a dose-ranging experiment with biapenem against H37Rv
      in the mouse model. We then evaluated biapenem/rifampicin activity in mice
      infected with each M. tuberculosis strain. Results: In vitro , synergy was
      observed between biapenem and rifampicin against H37Rv and strain 115R. In vivo ,
      biapenem exhibited clear dose-dependent activity against H37Rv, with all biapenem
      doses as active or more active than rifampicin alone. Biapenem and rifampicin had
      synergistic bactericidal activity against H37Rv in the mouse model; no synergy
      was observed in mice infected with either of the rifampicin-resistant strains.
      Biapenem alone was active against all three strains. Conclusions: Our preclinical
      experiments indicate that biapenem has potential for use as an anti-TB drug,
      including for use against rifampicin-resistant TB. Thus, biapenem has promise for
      repurposing as a 'new' - and desperately needed - drug for the treatment of drug
      resistant TB.

PMID- 28575384
TI  - Isolation of azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus from the environment in the
      south-eastern USA.
AB  - Background: Azole resistance in isolates of the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus has
      been associated with agricultural use of azole fungicides. Environmental
      isolation of resistant isolates has been reported in Asia, Africa, Europe and
      South America. Objectives: To determine whether A. fumigatus isolates containing
      TR34/L98H or TR46/Y121F/T289A can be found in fields in the USA treated with
      agricultural azoles. Methods: Crop debris was collected and screened for A.
      fumigatus. All A. fumigatus isolates were screened for azole resistance. The
      CYP51A gene of azole-resistant isolates was sequenced. The population structure
      of a subset of isolates was determined using microsatellite typing. Results: This
      article identifies azole-resistant A. fumigatus isolates containing the TR34/L98H
      mutation in an experimental peanut field that had been treated with azole
      fungicides. Conclusions: These findings suggest the development of resistance to
      azole antifungals in A. fumigatus may be present where agricultural azoles are
      used in the USA.

PMID- 28575386
TI  - Rare Disease in Cardiovascular Medicine I.

PMID- 28575387
TI  - Older Adults Without Close Kin in the United States.
AB  - Objectives: We document the size and characteristics of the population of older
      adults without close kin in the contemporary United States. Methods: Using the
      Health and Retirement Study, we examine the prevalence of lacking different types
      and combinations of living kin, examine how kinless-ness is changing across birth
      cohorts, and provide estimates of kinless-ness for sociodemographic and health
      groups. Results: In 1998-2010, 6.6% of U.S. adults aged 55 and above lacked a
      living spouse and biological children and 1% lacked a partner/spouse, any
      children, biological siblings, and biological parents. Kinless-ness, defined both
      ways, is becoming more common among adults in their 50s and 60s for more recent
      birth cohorts. Lacking close kin is more prevalent among women than men, native
      born than immigrants, never-married, those living alone, college-educated women,
      those with low levels of wealth, and those in poor health. Discussion: Kinless
      ness should be of interest to policy makers because it is more common among those
      with social, economic and health risks; those who live alone, with low levels of
      wealth, and disability. Aging research should address the implications of kinless
      ness for public health, social isolation, and the demand for institutional care.

PMID- 28575385
TI  - A Phylogenetic Analysis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Sequences in Kiev:
      Findings Among Key Populations.
AB  - Background: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in Ukraine has been
      driven by a rapid rise among people who inject drugs, but recent studies have
      shown an increase through sexual transmission. Methods: Protease and reverse
      transcriptase sequences from 876 new HIV diagnoses (April 2013-March 2015) in
      Kiev were linked to demographic data. We constructed phylogenetic trees for 794
      subtype A1 and 64 subtype B sequences and identified factors associated with
      transmission clustering. Clusters were defined as >=2 sequences, >=80% local
      branch support, and maximum genetic distance of all sequence pairs in the cluster
      <=2.5%. Recent infection was determined through the limiting antigen avidity
      enzyme immunoassay. Sequences were analyzed for transmitted drug resistance
      mutations. Results: Thirty percent of subtype A1 and 66% of subtype B sequences
      clustered. Large clusters (maximum 11 sequences) contained mixed risk groups. In
      univariate analysis, clustering was significantly associated with subtype B
      compared to A1 (odds ratio [OR], 4.38 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.56-7.50]);
      risk group (OR, 5.65 [95% CI, 3.27-9.75]) for men who have sex with men compared
      to heterosexual males; recent, compared to long-standing, infection (OR, 2.72
      [95% CI, 1.64-4.52]); reported sex work contact (OR, 1.93 [95% CI, 1.07-3.47]);
      and younger age groups compared with age >=36 years (OR, 1.83 [95% CI, 1.10-3.05]
      for age <=25 years). Females were associated with lower odds of clustering than
      heterosexual males (OR, 0.49 [95% CI, .31-.77]). In multivariate analysis, risk
      group, subtype, and age group were independently associated with clustering (P <
      .001, P = .007, and P = .033, respectively). Eighteen sequences (2.1%) indicated
      evidence of transmitted drug resistance. Conclusions: Our findings suggest high
      levels of transmission and bridging between risk groups.

PMID- 28575389
TI  - Prospective, randomized, double-blind, Phase 2 dose-ranging study comparing
      efficacy and safety of imipenem/cilastatin plus relebactam with
      imipenem/cilastatin alone in patients with complicated urinary tract infections.
AB  - Objectives: The beta-lactamase inhibitor relebactam can restore imipenem activity
      against imipenem non-susceptible pathogens. Methods: To explore relebactam's
      safety, tolerability and efficacy, we conducted a randomized (1:1:1), controlled,
      Phase 2 trial comparing imipenem/cilastatin+relebactam 250 mg,
      imipenem/cilastatin+relebactam 125 mg and imipenem/cilastatin alone in adults
      with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) or acute pyelonephritis,
      regardless of baseline pathogen susceptibility. Treatment was administered
      intravenously every 6 h for 4-14 days, with optional step-down to oral
      ciprofloxacin. The primary endpoint was favourable microbiological response rate
      (pathogen eradication) at discontinuation of intravenous therapy (DCIV) in the
      microbiologically evaluable (ME) population. Non-inferiority of
      imipenem/cilastatin+relebactam over imipenem/cilastatin alone was defined as
      lower bounds of the 95% CI for treatment differences being above -15%. Results:
      At DCIV, 71 patients in the imipenem/cilastatin + 250 mg relebactam, 79 in the
      imipenem/cilastatin + 125 mg relebactam and 80 in the imipenem/cilastatin-only
      group were ME; 51.7% had cUTI and 48.3% acute pyelonephritis. Microbiological
      response rates were 95.5%, 98.6% and 98.7%, respectively, confirming non
      inferiority of both imipenem/cilastatin + relebactam doses to imipenem/cilastatin
      alone. Clinical response rates were 97.1%, 98.7% and 98.8%, respectively. All 23
      ME patients with imipenem non-susceptible pathogens had favourable DCIV
      microbiological responses (100% in each group). Among all 298 patients treated,
      28.3%, 29.3% and 30.0% of patients, respectively, had treatment-emergent adverse
      events. The most common treatment-related adverse events across groups (1.0%
      4.0%) were diarrhoea, nausea and headache. Conclusions: Imipenem/cilastatin +
      relebactam (250 or 125 mg) was as effective as imipenem/cilastatin alone for
      treatment of cUTI. Both relebactam-containing regimens were well tolerated.
      (NCT01505634).

PMID- 28575391
TI  - Protein-Sol: a web tool for predicting protein solubility from sequence.
AB  - Motivation: Protein solubility is an important property in industrial and
      therapeutic applications. Prediction is a challenge, despite a growing
      understanding of the relevant physicochemical properties. Results: Protein-Sol is
      a web server for predicting protein solubility. Using available data for
      Escherichia coli protein solubility in a cell-free expression system, 35 sequence
      based properties are calculated. Feature weights are determined from separation
      of low and high solubility subsets. The model returns a predicted solubility and
      an indication of the features which deviate most from average values. Two other
      properties are profiled in windowed calculation along the sequence: fold
      propensity, and net segment charge. The utility of these additional features is
      demonstrated with the example of thioredoxin. Availability and implementation:
      The Protein-Sol webserver is available at http://protein-sol.manchester.ac.uk.
      Contact: jim.warwicker@manchester.ac.uk.

PMID- 28575390
TI  - Self-protective responses to norvaline-induced stress in a leucyl-tRNA synthetase
      editing-deficient yeast strain.
AB  - The editing function of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) is indispensible for
      formation of the correct aminoacyl-tRNAs. Editing deficiency may lead to growth
      inhibition and the pathogenesis of various diseases. Herein, we confirmed that
      norvaline (Nva) but not isoleucine or valine is the major threat to the editing
      function of Saccharomyces cerevisiae leucyl-tRNA synthetase (ScLeuRS), both in
      vitro and in vivo. Nva could be misincorporated into the proteome of the LeuRS
      editing-deficient yeast strain (D419A/ScDeltaleuS), potentially resulting in
      dysfunctional protein folding and growth delay. Furthermore, the exploration of
      the Nva-induced intracellular stress response mechanism in D419A/ScDeltaleuS
      revealed that Hsp70 chaperones were markedly upregulated in response to the
      potential protein misfolding. Additionally, proline (Pro), glutamate (Glu) and
      glutamine (Gln), which may accumulate due to the conversion of Nva, collectively
      contributed to the reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in Nva
      treated D419A/ScDeltaleuS cells. In conclusion, our study highlights the
      significance of the editing function of LeuRS and provides clues for
      understanding the intracellular stress protective mechanisms that are triggered
      in aaRS editing-deficient organisms.

PMID- 28575392
TI  - Should limb revascularization take priority over dissection repair in type a
      aortic dissection presenting as isolated acute limb ischaemia.
AB  - A best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured
      protocol. The question addressed was should limb revascularization take priority
      over dissection repair in acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) presenting as
      isolated acute limb ischaemia? Altogether 133 papers were found using the
      reported search, of which 7 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical
      question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group
      studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated.
      Six studies showed that aortic repair alone resulted in the reperfusion of 60
      100% of ischaemic lower limbs and recommended a strategy prioritizing aortic
      repair. In those with persistent isolated limb ischaemia post-aortic repair,
      expeditious peripheral revascularization procedures produced excellent patient
      outcomes comparable to those of ATAAD patients without malperfusion syndromes. In
      the remaining study, aortic repair was delayed in order to prioritize
      percutaneous reperfusion therapy aimed at treating the peripheral malperfusion.
      However, this resulted in one-third of patients not surviving to aortic surgery.
      We conclude that delaying aortic repair for limb reperfusion procedures results
      in unacceptably high mortality rates and that repair alone results in high
      reperfusion rates of ischaemic limbs. We therefore strongly recommend that aortic
      repair be the primary therapy for ATAAD patients even when limb ischaemia is the
      presenting feature. Limbs should be reassessed immediately after aortic repair
      and revascularization procedures undertaken urgently if any pulse deficits
      remain.

PMID- 28575388
TI  - Functional details of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis VapBC26 toxin-antitoxin
      system based on a structural study: insights into unique binding and antibiotic
      peptides.
AB  - Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are essential for bacterial persistence under
      stressful conditions. In particular, Mycobacterium tuberculosis express VapBC TA
      genes that encode the stable VapC toxin and the labile VapB antitoxin. Under
      normal conditions, these proteins interact to form a non-toxic TA complex, but
      the toxin is activated by release from the antitoxin in response to unfavorable
      conditions. Here, we present the crystal structure of the M. tuberculosis VapBC26
      complex and show that the VapC26 toxin contains a pilus retraction protein (PilT)
      N-terminal (PIN) domain that is essential for ribonuclease activity and that, the
      VapB26 antitoxin folds into a ribbon-helix-helix DNA-binding motif at the N
      terminus. The active site of VapC26 is sterically blocked by the flexible C
      terminal region of VapB26. The C-terminal region of free VapB26 adopts an
      unfolded conformation but forms a helix upon binding to VapC26. The results of
      RNase activity assays show that Mg2+ and Mn2+ are essential for the ribonuclease
      activity of VapC26. As shown in the nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, several
      residues of VapB26 participate in the specific binding to the promoter region of
      the VapBC26 operon. In addition, toxin-mimicking peptides were designed that
      inhibit TA complex formation and thereby increase toxin activity, providing a
      novel approach to the development of new antibiotics.

PMID- 28575394
TI  - Sex and Age Specific Projections of Smoking Prevalence in Spain: A Bayesian
      Approach.
AB  - Objectives: To project future smoking prevalence rates in Spain by sex and age
      groups using Bayesian methods and to estimate the probability of a 30% relative
      reduction between 2010 and 2025. Methods: We used the data from the Spanish
      National Health Surveys (2003, 2006, and 2011) to obtain information about
      current and former smoking. We reconstructed annual smoking rates from 1989
      through 2011 by sex and 5-year age groups. The prevalence were projected for the
      period 2012-2025 using a Bayesian logistic binomial model and estimated the
      probability to achieve the 30% relative reduction endorsed by the WHO. We
      calculated the 95% credible interval (CrI) of the posterior distribution, which
      includes a 95% of the distribution of potential smoking prevalences. Results: In
      men, the projections show a decline for crude (-2.64% annually, 95% CrI: -3.32; 
      1.97) and adjusted (-2.50%, 95% CrI:-3.14; -1.87) prevalence. In women, the
      projections show a decline for crude prevalence (-0.36%, 95% CrI: -1.02; -0.30))
      and the age-adjusted prevalence (-1.02%, 95% CrI: -1.61, -0.47). By age groups,
      the decline is greater among women aged 15-39 years (-3.92%, 95% CrI: -4.92; 
      2.96)) while for women aged 40-64 years an increase (1.84%, 95% CrI: 1.06; 2.58)
      is expected. In men, the probability to achieve the WHO target is 0.728 and in
      women is less than 0.001. The age group 15-39 shows the highest probability to
      achieve the target. Conclusions: The results suggest smoking prevalence will
      decrease during 2012-2025 in all age groups for both sexes except for women aged
      40-64. We found that the WHO target of a 30% reduction in prevalence is likely to
      be achieved overall and in the 15-39 years age groups for both sexes, but not
      achieved for older women and it is uncertain whether it will be achieved for
      older men. These results highlight the need to strengthen public health
      interventions that focus on reducing tobacco use in adult women aged 40-64 years
      old. Implications: We project a decrease in smoking prevalence in during 2012
      2025 except for women aged 40-64. The WHO Target of a 30% relative reduction
      could be achieved in the population aged 15-39; but not in women and the results
      are inconclusive in men. These results highlight the need to strengthen public
      health interventions that focus on reducing tobacco use in adult women aged 40-64
      years old.

PMID- 28575393
TI  - T7 RNA polymerase translocation is facilitated by a helix opening on the fingers
      domain that may also prevent backtracking.
AB  - Here, we studied the complete process of a viral T7 RNA polymerase (RNAP)
      translocation on DNA during transcription elongation by implementing extensive
      all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to construct a Markov state model
      (MSM). Our studies show that translocation proceeds in a Brownian motion, and the
      RNAP thermally transits among multiple metastable states. We observed non
      synchronized backbone movements of the nucleic acid (NA) chains with the RNA
      translocation accomplished first, while the template DNA lagged. Notably, both
      the O-helix and Y-helix on the fingers domain play key roles in facilitating NA
      translocation through the helix opening. The helix opening allows a key residue
      Tyr639 to become inserted into the active site, which pushes the RNA-DNA hybrid
      forward. Another key residue, Phe644, coordinates the downstream template DNA
      motions by stacking and un-stacking with a transition nucleotide (TN) and its
      adjacent nucleotide. Moreover, the O-helix opening at pre-translocation (pre
      trans) likely resists backtracking. To test this hypothesis, we computationally
      designed mutants of T7 RNAP by replacing the amino acids on the O-helix with
      counterpart residues from a mitochondrial RNAP that is capable of backtracking.
      The current experimental results support the hypothesis.

PMID- 28575396
TI  - BLAST-AHF: insights into biased AT1 ligands and heart failure. Beginning of the
      end or end of the beginning?

PMID- 28575397
TI  - Performance of mass spectrometry steroid profiling for diagnosis of polycystic
      ovary syndrome.

PMID- 28575395
TI  - Novel mouse models of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) reveal early
      onset mitochondrial defects and suggest loss of PABPN1 may contribute to
      pathology.
AB  - Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a late onset disease caused by
      polyalanine expansion in the poly(A) binding protein nuclear 1 (PABPN1). Several
      mouse models have been generated to study OPMD; however, most of these models
      have employed transgenic overexpression of alanine-expanded PABPN1. These models
      do not recapitulate the OPMD patient genotype and PABPN1 overexpression could
      confound molecular phenotypes. We have developed a knock-in mouse model of OPMD
      (Pabpn1+/A17) that contains one alanine-expanded Pabpn1 allele under the control
      of the native promoter and one wild-type Pabpn1 allele. This mouse is the closest
      available genocopy of OPMD patients. We show that Pabpn1+/A17 mice have a mild
      myopathic phenotype in adult and aged animals. We examined early molecular and
      biochemical phenotypes associated with expressing native levels of A17-PABPN1 and
      detected shorter poly(A) tails, modest changes in poly(A) signal (PAS) usage, and
      evidence of mitochondrial damage in these mice. Recent studies have suggested
      that a loss of PABPN1 function could contribute to muscle pathology in OPMD. To
      investigate a loss of function model of pathology, we generated a heterozygous
      Pabpn1 knock-out mouse model (Pabpn1+/Delta). Like the Pabpn1+/A17 mice,
      Pabpn1+/Delta mice have mild histologic defects, shorter poly(A) tails, and
      evidence of mitochondrial damage. However, the phenotypes detected in
      Pabpn1+/Delta mice only partially overlap with those detected in Pabpn1+/A17
      mice. These results suggest that loss of PABPN1 function could contribute to but
      may not completely explain the pathology detected in Pabpn1+/A17 mice.

PMID- 28575398
TI  - Carbon dioxide insufflation and thoracoscopic ultrasonography image of pure
      ground-glass nodule.
AB  - Thoracic surgeons frequently encounter early lung cancer showing a pure ground
      glass nodule. Although thoracoscopic wedge resection is used extensively, it
      cannot be easily located for surgical procedures. Thoracoscopic ultrasonography
      is a real-time and less invasive technique for small lung lesion localization
      during thoracoscopic surgery. However, this technique has not been widely adopted
      because residual air in the lung results in poor ultrasound images. A 64-year-old
      woman was found to have pure ground-glass nodule. For intraoperative
      localization, we performed thoracoscopic ultrasonography. To deflate the lung, we
      insufflated carbon dioxide into the thoracic cavity and maintained an
      intrathoracic pressure of 10 mmHg for 5 min. We easily achieved complete lung
      collapse without any complications; pure ground-glass nodule clearly showed as a
      hyperechoic lesion. We performed thoracoscopic wedge resection with a
      pathological diagnosis of adenocarcinoma in situ. Carbon dioxide insufflation
      into the thoracic cavity may be effective for complete lung deflation, which is
      useful to detect small lung nodules.

PMID- 28575399
TI  - Characteristics and prognostic factors of node-negative non-small cell lung
      cancer larger than 5 cm.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In the 7th edition of the tumour, node and metastasis staging system,
      a primary tumour size larger than 5 cm was shifted to Stage II. Therefore, we
      aimed to evaluate the characteristics and prognostic factors of node-negative non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) larger than 5 cm. METHODS: We included 109
      patients who underwent curative resection and had pathologically confirmed node
      negative NSCLC >5 cm (Group 1). We compared the clinicopathological
      characteristics and prognosis of these patients with 85 patients with node
      positive NSCLC >5 cm (Group 2) and 383 patients who had node-positive NSCLC <=5
      cm (Group 3). RESULTS: Compared with Group 2, old age and absence of
      lymphovascular invasion was significantly more common in Group 1. Compared with
      Group 3, frequency of non-adenocarcinoma type and visceral pleural invasion were
      significantly higher in Group 1; however, the frequency of lymphovascular
      invasion was higher in Group 3. A Cox proportional hazards model showed that the
      maximized standardized uptake value and visceral pleural invasion was a
      statistically worse prognostic factor. Compared with Group 2, Group 1 showed
      significantly longer overall survival; however, there was no difference in
      recurrence-free survival. Compared with Group 3, there was no significant
      difference in recurrence-free survival and overall survival. In Group 1,
      recurrence in the contralateral lung was the most common recurrence pattern, and
      there was no metastasis in the mediastinal lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      with node-negative NSCLC >5 cm had a lower incidence of lymphovascular invasion
      and a more common contralateral recurrence than patients with node-positive
      NSCLC, and visceral pleural invasion was identified as independent prognostic
      factors.

PMID- 28575400
TI  - Enhancing multiplex genome editing by natural transformation (MuGENT) via
      inactivation of ssDNA exonucleases.
AB  - Recently, we described a method for multiplex genome editing by natural
      transformation (MuGENT). Mutant constructs for MuGENT require large arms of
      homology (>2000 bp) surrounding each genome edit, which necessitates laborious in
      vitro DNA splicing. In Vibrio cholerae, we uncover that this requirement is due
      to cytoplasmic ssDNA exonucleases, which inhibit natural transformation. In ssDNA
      exonuclease mutants, one arm of homology can be reduced to as little as 40 bp
      while still promoting integration of genome edits at rates of ~50% without
      selection in cis. Consequently, editing constructs are generated in a single
      polymerase chain reaction where one homology arm is oligonucleotide encoded. To
      further enhance editing efficiencies, we also developed a strain for transient
      inactivation of the mismatch repair system. As a proof-of-concept, we used these
      advances to rapidly mutate 10 high-affinity binding sites for the nucleoid
      occlusion protein SlmA and generated a duodecuple mutant of 12 diguanylate
      cyclases in V. cholerae. Whole genome sequencing revealed little to no off-target
      mutations in these strains. Finally, we show that ssDNA exonucleases inhibit
      natural transformation in Acinetobacter baylyi. Thus, rational removal of ssDNA
      exonucleases may be broadly applicable for enhancing the efficacy and ease of
      MuGENT in diverse naturally transformable species.

PMID- 28575402
TI  - Factors influencing women's preferences for subsequent management in the event of
      incomplete evacuation of the uterus after misoprostol treatment for miscarriage.
AB  - STUDY QUESTION: What affects women's treatment preferences in the management of
      an incomplete evacuation of the uterus after misoprostol treatment for a first
      trimester miscarriage? SUMMARY ANSWER: Women's treatment preferences in the
      management of an incomplete evacuation of the uterus after misoprostol treatment
      for miscarriage are most strongly influenced by 'the risk of a reduced fertility'
      followed by 'the probability of success'. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Available
      treatment options in miscarriage are surgical, medical or expectant management.
      Treatment with misoprostol leads to an incomplete evacuation of the uterus and
      additional surgical treatment in 20-50% of women. To our knowledge, women's
      preferences for subsequent treatment of an incomplete evacuation of the uterus
      after misoprostol treatment for miscarriage have not been studied yet. STUDY
      DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Between April 2014 and January 2015, we conducted a
      prospective nationwide multicentre discrete-choice experiment (DCE). DCEs have
      become the most frequently applied approach for studying patient preferences in
      health care. In our DCE, which considerers five attributes, a target sample size
      was calculated including 20 patients per attribute for the main analysis. We
      intended to include 25% more patients, i.e. a total of 125 thus enabling us to
      assess heterogeneity of treatment choices. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING,
      METHODS: All women visiting the outpatient clinic with first-trimester
      miscarriage or incomplete miscarriage were invited to participate in the study.
      Women under 18 years of age, women who were unable to understand the Dutch
      questionnaire or women who already had received a treatment for the current
      miscarriage were excluded. Women's preferences were assessed using a DCE. A
      literature review, expert opinions and interviews with women from the general
      population were used to define relevant treatment characteristics. Five
      attributes were selected: (i) certainty about the duration of convalescence; (ii)
      number of days of bleeding after treatment; (iii) probability of success (empty
      uterus after treatment); (iv) risk of reduced fertility and (v) risk of
      complications requiring more time or readmission to hospital. Fourteen scenarios
      using these attributes were selected in the DCE. Each of these scenarios
      presented two treatment options, while treatment characteristics varied between
      the 14 scenarios. For each scenario, respondents were asked to choose the
      preferred treatment option. The importance of each attribute was analysed, and
      preference heterogeneity was investigated through latent-class analysis. MAIN
      RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: One hundred and eighty-six women were included of
      whom 128 completed the DCE (69% response rate). The two attributes with the
      greatest effect on their preference were, probability of success and risk of
      reduced fertility. The latent-class analysis revealed two subgroups of patients
      with different preference patterns. Forty per cent of women were more influenced
      by treatment success and 59% were more influenced by risk. LIMITATIONS, REASONS
      FOR CAUTION: Most women were highly educated and were of Dutch origin, which
      limits the generalizability of our findings. Women with lower education levels,
      other cultural backgrounds and/or different previous experiences may differ from
      our findings. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Patients preferences should be
      addressed when counselling patients with an incomplete miscarriage after
      misoprostol treatment. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): This study was
      embedded in the MisoREST trial, and funded by ZonMw, a Dutch organization for
      Health Research and Development, project number 80-82310-97-12066. There were no
      conflicts of interests. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Dutch Trial Register NTR3310,
      http://www.trialregister.nl. TRIAL REGISTRATION DATE: 27 February 2012. DATE OF
      FIRST PATIENT'S ENROLMENT: 12 June 2012.

PMID- 28575401
TI  - Localization of Arabidopsis FORKED1 to a RABA-positive compartment suggests a
      role in secretion.
AB  - When FORKED1 (FKD1) is mutated, asymmetric localization of PINFORMED1 (PIN1),
      particularly to the apical side of cells, fails to occur properly in developing
      veins, resulting in an open vein pattern. FKD1 encodes a protein with a
      Pleckstrin homology-like (PL) domain, suggesting interaction with
      phosphoinositides. FKD1 has been previously found to interact with an ADP
      ribosylation factor GTPase-activating protein (ARF-GAP) important for vein
      patterning, SCARFACE/VAN3 (SFC). We find that FKD1-green fluorescent protein
      (GFP) localizes to the plasma membrane and to punctae labeled by SFC-yellow
      fluorescent protein (YFP). Supporting the idea that the FKD1 PL domain recognizes
      phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate [PtdIns(4)P], FKD1-GFP co-localizes with
      PtdIns(4)P markers, and is more cytosolic when in a background mutant for the
      PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolases CVP2 and CVL1. Both FKD1 and SFC partially co-localize
      with markers for the trans-Golgi network (TGN), at which endocytic and secretory
      pathways merge. FKD1-labeled punctae rarely co-localize with the endocytic marker
      FM4-64, suggesting that FKD1 is not involved primarily in the endocytic pathway.
      FKD1 and SFC co-localize with members of the RABA group of RAB-GTPases, which are
      proposed to act in the post-Golgi secretory pathway. The compartments labeled by
      FKD1 and SFC do not localize to membrane compartments induced by the fungal toxin
      brefeldin A (BFA). Collectively, our data suggest that FKD1 and SFC act in a BFA
      insensitive secretory pathway.

PMID- 28575403
TI  - Finding a gatekeeper to coronary angiography: a step in the right direction.

PMID- 28575404
TI  - Evolution of the Banana Genome (Musa acuminata) Is Impacted by Large Chromosomal
      Translocations.
AB  - Most banana cultivars are triploid seedless parthenocarpic clones derived from
      hybridization between Musa acuminata subspecies and sometimes M. balbisiana. M.
      acuminata subspecies were suggested to differ by a few large chromosomal
      rearrangements based on chromosome pairing configurations in intersubspecies
      hybrids. We searched for large chromosomal rearrangements in a seedy M. acuminata
      ssp. malaccensis banana accession through mate-pair sequencing, BAC-FISH,
      targeted PCR and marker (DArTseq) segregation in its progeny. We identified a
      heterozygous reciprocal translocation involving two distal 3 and 10 Mb segments
      from chromosomes 01 and 04, respectively, and showed that it generated high
      segregation distortion, reduced recombination and linkage between chromosomes 01
      and 04 in its progeny. The two chromosome structures were found to be mutually
      exclusive in gametes and the rearranged structure was preferentially transmitted
      to the progeny. The rearranged chromosome structure was frequently found in
      triploid cultivars but present only in wild malaccensis ssp. accessions, thus
      suggesting that this rearrangement occurred in M. acuminata ssp. malaccensis. We
      propose a mechanism for the spread of this rearrangement in Musa diversity and
      suggest that this rearrangement could have played a role in the emergence of
      triploid cultivars.

PMID- 28575406
TI  - Commentary: Incorporating a Modified Graeb Score to the Modified Fisher Scale for
      Improved Risk Prediction of Delayed Cerebral Ischemia Following Aneurysmal
      Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

PMID- 28575405
TI  - Long-term exposure to road traffic noise, ambient air pollution, and
      cardiovascular risk factors in the HUNT and lifelines cohorts.
AB  - Aims: Blood biochemistry may provide information on associations between road
      traffic noise, air pollution, and cardiovascular disease risk. We evaluated this
      in two large European cohorts (HUNT3, Lifelines). Methods and results: Road
      traffic noise exposure was modelled for 2009 using a simplified version of the
      Common Noise Assessment Methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU). Annual ambient air
      pollution (PM10, NO2) at residence was estimated for 2007 using a Land Use
      Regression model. The statistical platform DataSHIELD was used to pool data from
      144 082 participants aged >=20 years to enable individual-level analysis.
      Generalized linear models were fitted to assess cross-sectional associations
      between pollutants and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), blood lipids
      and for (Lifelines only) fasting blood glucose, for samples taken during
      recruitment in 2006-2013. Pooling both cohorts, an inter-quartile range (IQR)
      higher day-time noise (5.1 dB(A)) was associated with 1.1% [95% confidence
      interval (95% CI: 0.02-2.2%)] higher hsCRP, 0.7% (95% CI: 0.3-1.1%) higher
      triglycerides, and 0.5% (95% CI: 0.3-0.7%) higher high-density lipoprotein (HDL);
      only the association with HDL was robust to adjustment for air pollution. An IQR
      higher PM10 (2.0 ug/m3) or NO2 (7.4 ug/m3) was associated with higher
      triglycerides (1.9%, 95% CI: 1.5-2.4% and 2.2%, 95% CI: 1.6-2.7%), independent of
      adjustment for noise. Additionally for NO2, a significant association with hsCRP
      (1.9%, 95% CI: 0.5-3.3%) was seen. In Lifelines, an IQR higher noise (4.2 dB(A))
      and PM10 (2.4 ug/m3) was associated with 0.2% (95% CI: 0.1-0.3%) and 0.6% (95%
      CI: 0.4-0.7%) higher fasting glucose respectively, with both remaining robust to
      adjustment for air/noise pollution. Conclusion: Long-term exposures to road
      traffic noise and ambient air pollution were associated with blood biochemistry,
      providing a possible link between road traffic noise/air pollution and cardio
      metabolic disease risk.

PMID- 28575407
TI  - Reply to Naimi.

PMID- 28575408
TI  - Trends in Sales of Flavored and Menthol Tobacco Products in the United States
      During 2011-2015.
AB  - Introduction: Flavors can mask the harshness of tobacco and make it appealing to
      young people. This study assessed flavored and menthol tobacco product sales at
      the national and state levels. Methods: Universal Product Code tobacco sales data
      collected by Nielsen were combined for convenience stores and all-outlets
      combined during October 22, 2011-January 9, 2016. Products were characterized as
      flavored, menthol, or non-flavored/non-menthol. Total unit sales, and the
      proportion of flavored and menthol unit sales, were assessed nationally and by
      state for seven tobacco products. Joinpoint regression was used to assess trends
      in average monthly percentage change. Results: Nationally, the proportion of
      flavored and menthol sales in 2015 was as follows: cigarettes (32.5% menthol),
      large cigars (26.1% flavored), cigarillos (47.5% flavored, 0.2% menthol), little
      cigars (21.8% flavored, 19.4% menthol), chewing tobacco (1.4% flavored, 0.7%
      menthol), moist snuff (3.0% flavored, 57.0% menthol), and snus (88.5% menthol).
      From 2011 to 2015, sales increased for flavored cigarillos and chewing tobacco,
      as well as for menthol cigarettes, little cigars, moist snuff, and snus. Sales
      decreased for flavored large cigars, moist snuff, and snus, and for menthol
      chewing tobacco. State-level variations were observed by product; for example,
      flavored little cigar sales ranged from 4.4% (Maine) to 69.3% (Utah) and flavored
      cigarillo sales ranged from 26.6% (Maine) to 63.0% (Maryland). Conclusions:
      Menthol and flavored sales have increased since 2011, particularly for the
      products with the highest number of units sold, and significant state variation
      exists. Efforts to restrict flavored tobacco product sales could reduce overall
      U.S. tobacco consumption. Implications: Flavors in tobacco products can mask the
      harshness of tobacco and make these products more appealing to young people. This
      is the first study to assess national and state-level trends in flavored and
      menthol tobacco product sales. These findings underscore the importance of
      population-based interventions to address flavored tobacco product use at the
      national, state, and local levels. Additionally, further monitoring of flavored
      and menthol tobacco product sales can inform potential future regulatory efforts
      at the national, state, and local levels.

PMID- 28575409
TI  - Giant Reverse Transcriptase-Encoding Transposable Elements at Telomeres.
AB  - Transposable elements are omnipresent in eukaryotic genomes and have a profound
      impact on chromosome structure, function and evolution. Their structural and
      functional diversity is thought to be reasonably well-understood, especially in
      retroelements, which transpose via an RNA intermediate copied into cDNA by the
      element-encoded reverse transcriptase, and are characterized by a compact
      structure. Here, we report a novel type of expandable eukaryotic retroelements,
      which we call Terminons. These elements can attach to G-rich telomeric repeat
      overhangs at the chromosome ends, in a process apparently facilitated by
      complementary C-rich repeats at the 3'-end of the RNA template immediately
      adjacent to a hammerhead ribozyme motif. Terminon units, which can exceed 40 kb
      in length, display an unusually complex and diverse structure, and can form very
      long chains, with host genes often captured between units. As the principal
      polymerizing component, Terminons contain Athena reverse transcriptases
      previously described in bdelloid rotifers and belonging to the enigmatic group of
      Penelope-like elements, but can additionally accumulate multiple cooriented ORFs,
      including DEDDy 3'-exonucleases, GDSL esterases/lipases, GIY-YIG-like
      endonucleases, rolling-circle replication initiator (Rep) proteins, and
      putatively structural ORFs with coiled-coil motifs and transmembrane domains. The
      extraordinary length and complexity of Terminons and the high degree of
      interfamily variability in their ORF content challenge the current views on the
      structural organization of eukaryotic retroelements, and highlight their possible
      connections with the viral world and the implications for the elevated frequency
      of gene transfer.

PMID- 28575411
TI  - Operationalization of Sign Language Phonological Similarity and its Effects on
      Lexical Access.
AB  - Cognitive mechanisms for sign language lexical access are fairly unknown. This
      study investigated whether phonological similarity facilitates lexical retrieval
      in sign languages using measures from a new lexical database for American Sign
      Language. Additionally, it aimed to determine which similarity metric best fits
      the present data in order to inform theories of how phonological similarity is
      constructed within the lexicon and to aid in the operationalization of
      phonological similarity in sign language. Sign repetition latencies and accuracy
      were obtained when native signers were asked to reproduce a sign displayed on a
      computer screen. Results indicated that, as predicted, phonological similarity
      facilitated repetition latencies and accuracy as long as there were no strict
      constraints on the type of sublexical features that overlapped. The data
      converged to suggest that one similarity measure, MaxD, defined as the overlap of
      any 4 sublexical features, likely best represents mechanisms of phonological
      similarity in the mental lexicon. Together, these data suggest that lexical
      access in sign language is facilitated by phonologically similar lexical
      representations in memory and the optimal operationalization is defined as
      liberal constraints on overlap of 4 out of 5 sublexical features-similar to the
      majority of extant definitions in the literature.

PMID- 28575410
TI  - Enhanced endothelin-1/Rho-kinase signalling and coronary microvascular
      dysfunction in hypertensive myocardial hypertrophy.
AB  - Aims: Hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy is associated with reduced coronary flow
      reserve, but its impact on coronary flow regulation and vasomotor function
      remains incompletely understood and requires further investigation. Methods and
      results: Left ventricular hypertrophy was induced in mice by transverse aortic
      coarctation (TAC) for 4 weeks. The left coronary artery blood velocity (LCABV)
      and myocardium lactate level were measured following the metabolic activation by
      isoproterenol. Septal coronary arterioles were isolated and pressurized for
      functional studies. In TAC mice, the heart-to-body weight ratio was increased by
      45%, and cardiac fractional shortening and LCABV were decreased by 51 and 14%,
      respectively. The resting myocardial lactate level was 43% higher in TAC mice.
      Isoproterenol (5 ug/g, i.p.) increased heart rate by 20% in both groups of
      animals, but the corresponding increase in LCABV was not observed in TAC mice.
      The ventricular hypertrophy was associated with elevation of myocardial
      endothelin-1 (ET-1), increased vascular expression of rho-kinases (ROCKs), and
      increased superoxide production in the myocardium and vasculature. In coronary
      arterioles from TAC mice, the endothelial nitric oxide (NO)-mediated dilation to
      acetylcholine (ACh) was reversed to vasoconstriction and the vasoconstriction to
      ET-1 was augmented. Inhibition of ROCK by H-1152 alleviated oxidative stress and
      abolished enhanced vasoconstriction to ET-1. Both H-1152 and superoxide scavenger
      Tempol abolished coronary arteriolar constriction to ACh in a manner sensitive to
      NO synthase blocker NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. Conclusions: Myocardial
      hypertrophy induced by pressure overload leads to cardiac and coronary
      microvascular dysfunction and ischaemia possibly due to oxidative stress,
      enhanced vasoconstriction to ET-1 and compromised endothelial NO function via
      elevated ROCK signalling.

PMID- 28575412
TI  - Postpartum Changes in Mood and Smoking-Related Symptomatology: An Ecological
      Momentary Assessment Investigation.
AB  - Introduction: Postpartum smoking relapse is a highly prevalent public health
      problem. Mood and breast feeding are significantly associated with smoking
      relapse, although less is known about the temporality of these relationships.
      Therefore, this study utilized ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to
      prospectively examine changes in mood and smoking-related symptomatology in
      relationship to three events-childbirth, termination of breast feeding, and
      smoking relapse. We expected all three events to significantly alter mood and
      smoking-related symptomatology. Methods: We enrolled a sample of pregnant women
      who had recently quit smoking and intended to remain quit during the postpartum.
      Participants were randomized to active/placebo progesterone to prevent postpartum
      relapse. Participants also completed daily EMA to collect data mood and smoking
      related symptomatology as well as our three events of interest. Results:
      Participants (n = 46) were, on average, 26.5 +/- 0.8 years old and, prior to
      pregnancy, smoked 10.1 +/- 0.7 cigarettes/day. We noted a number of significant
      within- and between-subject relationships. For example, participants reported a
      24% decline in negative affect after childbirth (p = .0016). Among those who
      relapsed to smoking (n = 23), participants randomized to placebo had a
      significant increase in cigarette craving after relapse (beta = 1.06, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] = 0.62 to 1.49, p value = .0003), whereas participants
      randomized to active progesterone did not (beta = 0.63, 95% CI = -0.35 to 1.62, p
      value = .1824). Conclusions: These observations suggest that mood and smoking
      related symptomatology are influenced by childbirth, breast feeding, smoking
      relapse, and use of exogenous progesterone. Future research should explore how
      these observations may inform novel postpartum smoking relapse-prevention
      interventions. Implications: Postpartum smoking relapse has been a persistent
      public health problem for more than 40 years. Although a number of significant
      predictors of postpartum smoking relapse have been identified (eg, depression and
      breast feeding), much of these analyses have relied on cross-sectional and/or
      self-reported retrospective data. Therefore, for the first time, we utilized
      ecological momentary assessment to explore the effect of childbirth, termination
      of breast feeding, and smoking relapse on mood and smoking-related symptomatology
      (eg, craving). Numerous significant relationships were observed, including a 96%
      increase in craving after smoking relapse. These novel observations can inform
      new and effective postpartum smoking relapse-prevention programs.

PMID- 28575413
TI  - Comprehensive protocol of traceability during IVF: the result of a multicentre
      failure mode and effect analysis.
AB  - STUDY QUESTION: Can traceability of gametes and embryos be ensured during IVF?
      SUMMARY ANSWER: The use of a simple and comprehensive traceability system that
      includes the most susceptible phases during the IVF process minimizes the risk of
      mismatches. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Mismatches in IVF are very rare but
      unfortunately possible with dramatic consequences for both patients and health
      care professionals. Traceability is thus a fundamental aspect of the treatment. A
      clear process of patient and cell identification involving witnessing protocols
      has to be in place in every unit. To identify potential failures in the
      traceability process and to develop strategies to mitigate the risk of
      mismatches, previously failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) has been used
      effectively. The FMEA approach is however a subjective analysis, strictly related
      to specific protocols and thus the results are not always widely applicable. To
      reduce subjectivity and to obtain a widespread comprehensive protocol of
      traceability, a multicentre centrally coordinated FMEA was performed. STUDY
      DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Seven representative Italian centres (three public and
      four private) were selected. The study had a duration of 21 months (from April
      2015 to December 2016) and was centrally coordinated by a team of experts: a risk
      analysis specialist, an expert embryologist and a specialist in human factor.
      Principal investigators of each centre were first instructed about proactive risk
      assessment and FMEA methodology. A multidisciplinary team to perform the FMEA
      analysis was then formed in each centre. After mapping the traceability process,
      each team identified the possible causes of mistakes in their protocol. A risk
      priority number (RPN) for each identified potential failure mode was calculated.
      The results of the FMEA analyses were centrally investigated and consistent
      corrective measures suggested. The teams performed new FMEA analyses after the
      recommended implementations. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: In each
      centre, this study involved: the laboratory director, the Quality Control &
      Quality Assurance responsible, Embryologist(s), Gynaecologist(s), Nurse(s) and
      Administration. The FMEA analyses were performed according to the Joint
      Commission International. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: The FMEA teams
      identified seven main process phases: oocyte collection, sperm collection, gamete
      processing, insemination, embryo culture, embryo transfer and gamete/embryo
      cryopreservation. A mean of 19.3 (SD +/- 5.8) associated process steps and 41.9
      (SD +/- 12.4) possible failure modes were recognized per centre. A RPN >=15 was
      calculated in a mean of 6.4 steps (range 2-12, SD +/- 3.60). A total of 293
      failure modes were centrally analysed 45 of which were considered at medium/high
      risk. After consistent corrective measures implementation and re-evaluation, a
      significant reduction in the RPNs in all centres (RPN <15 for all steps) was
      observed. A simple and comprehensive traceability system was designed as the
      result of the seven FMEA analyses. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: The validity
      of FMEA is in general questionable due to the subjectivity of the judgments. The
      design of this study has however minimized this risk by introducing external
      experts for the analysis of the FMEA results. Specific situations such as
      sperm/oocyte donation, import/export and pre-implantation genetic testing were
      not taken into consideration. Finally, this study is only limited to the analysis
      of failure modes that may lead to mismatches, other possible procedural mistakes
      are not accounted for. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Every single IVF
      centre should have a clear and reliable protocol for identification of patients
      and traceability of cells during manipulation. The results of this study can
      support IVF groups in better recognizing critical steps in their protocols,
      understanding identification and witnessing process, and in turn enhancing safety
      by introducing validated corrective measures. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING
      INTEREST(S): This study was designed by the Italian Society of Embryology
      Reproduction and Research (SIERR) and funded by the Italian National Transplant
      Centre (CNT) of the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS). The authors have
      no conflicts of interest. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: N/A.

PMID- 28575415
TI  - Catastrophic healthcare expenditure and poverty related to out-of-pocket payments
      for healthcare in Bangladesh-an estimation of financial risk protection of
      universal health coverage.
AB  - The Sustainable Development Goals target to achieve Universal Health Coverage
      (UHC), including financial risk protection (FRP) among other dimensions. There
      are four indicators of FRP, namely incidence of catastrophic health expenditure
      (CHE), mean positive catastrophic overshoot, incidence of impoverishment and
      increase in the depth of poverty occur for high out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare
      spending. OOP spending is the major payment strategy for healthcare in most low
      and-middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh. Large and unpredictable health
      payments can expose households to substantial financial risk and, at their most
      extreme, can result in poverty. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact
      of OOP spending on CHE and poverty, i.e. status of FRP for UHC in Bangladesh. A
      nationally representative Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010 was used
      to determine household consumption expenditure and health-related spending in the
      last 30 days. Mean CHE headcount and its concentration indices (CI) were
      calculated. The propensity of facing CHE for households was predicted by
      demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The poverty headcount was
      estimated using 'total household consumption expenditure' and such expenditure
      without OOP payments for health in comparison with the poverty-line measured by
      cost of basic need. In absolute values, a pro-rich distribution of OOP payment
      for healthcare was found in urban and rural Bangladesh. At the 10%-threshold
      level, in total 14.2% of households faced CHE with 1.9% overshoot. 16.5% of the
      poorest and 9.2% of the richest households faced CHE. An overall pro-poor
      distribution was found for CHE (CI = -0.064) in both urban and rural households,
      while the former had higher CHE incidences. The poverty headcount increased by
      3.5% (5.1 million individuals) due to OOP payments. Reliance on OOP payments for
      healthcare in Bangladesh should be reduced for poverty alleviation in urban and
      rural Bangladesh in order to secure FRP for UHC.

PMID- 28575416
TI  - Toxic drug-induced liver failure during therapy of rheumatoid arthritis with
      tocilizumab subcutaneously: a case report.

PMID- 28575414
TI  - Randomized comparison of liposomal amphotericin B versus placebo to prevent
      invasive mycoses in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
AB  - Objectives: To prevent invasive fungal disease (IFD) in adult patients undergoing
      remission-induction chemotherapy for newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic
      leukaemia (ALL). Patients and methods: In a double-blind multicentre Phase 3
      study, patients received prophylactic liposomal amphotericin B (L-AMB) at 5 mg/kg
      intravenously or placebo twice weekly in a 2:1 random allocation during remission
      induction treatment. The primary endpoint was the development of proven or
      probable IFD. Secondary endpoints included those focused on the safety and
      tolerability of prophylactic L-AMB. Results: Three hundred and fifty-five
      patients from 86 centres in Europe and South America received at least one dose
      of L-AMB ( n =  237) or placebo ( n =  118). Rates of proven and probable IFD
      assessed independently were 7.9% (18/228) in the L-AMB group and 11.7% (13/111)
      in the placebo group ( P  =   0.24). Rates of possible IFD were 4.8% (11/228) in
      the L-AMB and 5.4% (6/111) in the placebo group ( P  =   0.82). The remission
      induction phase was a median of 22 days for both groups. Overall mortality was
      similar between the groups: 7.2% (17/237) for L-AMB and 6.8% (8/118) for placebo
      ( P  =   1.00). Hypokalaemia and creatinine increase were significantly more
      frequent with L-AMB. Conclusions: The IFD rate among adult patients undergoing
      remission-induction chemotherapy for newly diagnosed ALL was 11.7% in the placebo
      group, and was not significantly different in patients receiving L-AMB,
      suggesting that the L-AMB regimen studied is not effective as prophylaxis against
      IFD. The IFD rate appears higher than previously reported, warranting further
      investigation. Tolerability of L-AMB was what might be expected. Further studies
      are needed to determine the optimal antifungal strategy during remission
      induction chemotherapy of ALL.

PMID- 28575417
TI  - Implications of electronic health record downtime: an analysis of patient safety
      event reports.
AB  - Objective: We sought to understand the types of clinical processes, such as image
      and medication ordering, that are disrupted during electronic health record (EHR)
      downtime periods by analyzing the narratives of patient safety event report data.
      Materials and Methods: From a database of 80 381 event reports, 76 reports were
      identified as explicitly describing a safety event associated with an EHR
      downtime period. These reports were analyzed and categorized based on a developed
      code book to identify the clinical processes that were impacted by downtime. We
      also examined whether downtime procedures were in place and followed. Results:
      The reports were coded into categories related to their reported clinical
      process: Laboratory, Medication, Imaging, Registration, Patient Handoff,
      Documentation, History Viewing, Delay of Procedure, and General. A majority of
      reports (48.7%, n = 37) were associated with lab orders and results, followed by
      medication ordering and administration (14.5%, n = 11). Incidents commonly
      involved patient identification and communication of clinical information. A
      majority of reports (46%, n = 35) indicated that downtime procedures either were
      not followed or were not in place. Only 27.6% of incidents (n = 21) indicated
      that downtime procedures were successfully executed. Discussion: Patient safety
      report data offer a lens into EHR downtime-related safety hazards. Important
      areas of risk during EHR downtime periods were patient identification and
      communication of clinical information; these should be a focus of downtime
      procedure planning to reduce safety hazards. Conclusion: EHR downtime events pose
      patient safety hazards, and we highlight critical areas for downtime procedure
      improvement.

PMID- 28575418
TI  - Sorafenib-Induced Changes in Thyroid Hormone Levels in Patients Treated for
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Context: The pathogenesis of tyrosine kinase inhibitor-induced thyroid hormone
      (TH) alterations are still a matter of debate. Objective: The objective of this
      study was to determine the effects of sorafenib on TH levels in patients with
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to evaluate possible mechanisms. Design: We
      performed a prospective cohort study between 2009 and 2016. Setting: This study
      was conducted at a tertiary referral center. Patients: This study included 57
      consecutive patients with HCC who were treated with sorafenib. Main Outcome
      Measure: Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels were
      measured every 6 weeks, and extensive thyroid function tests (TFTs) were measured
      before treatment (t0), after 6 weeks (t6), and at the end of therapy. The effect
      of sorafenib on TH transport by monocarboxylate transporter (MCT)8 or MCT10 was
      tested in transfected COS1 cells. Results: Four patients (7%) developed
      thyroiditis. Among the other patients, 30% had elevation of TSH or FT4 above the
      normal range. Overall, between t0 and t6, mean TSH increased from 1.28 to 1.57
      mU/L (P < 0.001) and mean FT4 from 18.4 to 21.2 pmol/L (P < 0.001).
      Simultaneously, the serum triiodothyronine (T3)/reverse triiodothyronine ratio
      and the (T3/thyroxine) *100 ratio decreased. Sorafenib decreased cellular T3
      uptake by MCT8 and to a lesser extent by MCT10. Conclusions: These in vivo data
      suggest that sorafenib affects TFTs on multiple levels. Our in vitro experiments
      suggest a possible role of sorafenib-induced inhibition of T3 transport into the
      cell by MCT8 and MCT10.

PMID- 28575421
TI  - Evidence of the Impact of the truth FinishIt Campaign.
AB  - Introduction: Over the past decade, public education mass media campaigns have
      been shown to be successful in changing tobacco-related attitudes, intentions,
      and behaviors among youth and young adults. In 2014, the national truth(r)
      campaign re-launched a new phase of the campaign targeted at a broad audience of
      youth and young adults, aged 15-21, to help end the tobacco epidemic. Methods:
      The study sample for this analysis is drawn from the Truth Longitudinal Cohort
      (TLC), a probability-based, nationally representative cohort designed to evaluate
      the relationship between awareness of truth media messages and changes in
      targeted attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors over time. The sample for this study
      was limited to those with data at baseline and three subsequent follow-up surveys
      (n = 7536). Results: Logistic regression models indicate that truth ad awareness
      is significantly associated with increases in targeted anti-tobacco attitudes as
      well as reduced intentions to smoke over time, holding constant baseline
      attitudes and intentions. Results also suggest a dose-response relationship in
      that higher levels of truth ad awareness were significantly associated with
      higher likelihood of reporting agreement across all five attitudinal constructs:
      anti-smoking imagery, anti-social smoking sentiment, anti-tobacco social
      movement, anti-tobacco industry sentiment, and independence. Conclusions:
      Longitudinal results indicate a significant dose-response relationship between
      awareness of the new phase of the truth campaign and campaign-targeted attitudes
      and intentions not to smoke among youth and young adults. Implications: Findings
      from this study confirm that a carefully designed anti-tobacco public education
      campaign aimed at youth and young adults is a key population-level intervention
      within the context of an expanding tobacco product landscape and a cluttered
      media environment. As tobacco use patterns shift and new products emerge,
      evidence-based public education campaigns can play a central role in helping the
      next generation to reject tobacco. Public education mass media campaigns are a
      key component to changing tobacco use attitudes and behavior, particularly among
      youth and young adults.

PMID- 28575420
TI  - Exacerbation of Endometriosis Due To Regulatory T-Cell Dysfunction.
AB  - Context: Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with altered
      immune response to endometrial cells facilitating the implantation and
      proliferation of ectopic endometrial tissues. Although regulatory T (Treg) cells
      play a key role in T cell-mediated immune response and development of immune
      disorders, their significance in endometriosis remains to be elucidated.
      Recently, CD4+CD45RA- forkhead box protein 3 (Foxp3)hi T cells, activated Treg
      cells, have been identified as a functionally true suppressive population of Treg
      cells. Objective: To investigate the role of Treg cells in endometriosis. Design:
      Three Treg cell fractions (resting Treg cells, activated Treg cells, and non-Treg
      cells) were examined using flow cytometry in the endometrioma, endometrium,
      peritoneal fluid, and peripheral blood obtained from women with (n = 27) and
      without (n = 28) endometriosis. A mouse model of endometriosis was made in
      Foxp3tm3Ayr/J (Foxp3DTR) C57BL/6 Treg cell-depleted mice (n = 28). Results: In
      women with endometrioma, the proportion of activated Treg cells in the
      endometrioma and the endometrium, but not in the peritoneal fluid or peripheral
      blood, was significantly decreased compared with that in women without
      endometriosis. In Foxp3DTR/diphtheria toxin mice, the number and weight of
      endometriotic lesions, inflammatory cytokine levels and angiogenetic factors were
      significantly increased compared with those in control mice. Conclusions: Treg
      cell deficiency exaggerates local inflammation and angiogenesis and
      simultaneously facilitates the attachment and growth of endometrial implants. The
      findings provide an insight into dysregulated immune response for the
      pathogenesis and development.

PMID- 28575422
TI  - Fatalities Involving Carfentanil and Furanyl Fentanyl: Two Case Reports.
AB  - Carfentanil is a fentanyl analog frequently used in large animal veterinary
      medicine. Recently, carfentanil has been discovered in postmortem and antemortem
      cases throughout the United States in the heroin supply either alone or mixed
      with heroin and/or other fentanyl analogs. The potency of carfentanil is ~10,000
      times greater than morphine and 100 times greater than fentanyl. In two recent
      cases, carfentanil was identified and ruled to be the cause of death, either
      alone or in combination with other drugs. Case 1 involved a known heroin user. He
      was discovered slumped over in a running van blocking the bays of a carwash. Two
      syringes, a spoon with cotton and residue and a yellow baggie of powder were
      found in the van. Case 2 involved a man living in a tent in a park with his
      mother. He was last heard from by a sister via phone who stated he sounded very
      intoxicated and by his mother who noted him to be "itching all over" and upset
      over his girlfriend. When the mother returned from work, she discovered him
      unresponsive with a small baggie of brown powder next to him. Routine drug and
      volatile screening tests were performed on heart blood using headspace gas
      chromatography, immunoassay and gas chromatography mass spectrometry methods.
      Results from initial testing on both cases did not have any significant
      toxicological findings. However, due to the history, scene photos, toxicological
      findings in blood and urine and analysis of the drug paraphernalia on one of the
      cases which identified carfentanil and furanyl fentanyl, fentanyl analogues were
      suspected. Heart blood was sent to a reference laboratory for carfentanil and
      furanyl fentanyl analysis. Case 1 had a carfentanil concentration of 1.3 ng/mL
      and a furanyl fentanyl concentration of 0.34 ng/mL. Case 2 had a carfentanil
      concentration of 0.12 ng/mL.

PMID- 28575423
TI  - Purtscher-like retinopathy and transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy.

PMID- 28575419
TI  - Telomere shortening triggers a feedback loop to enhance end protection.
AB  - Telomere homeostasis is controlled by both telomerase machinery and end
      protection. Telomere shortening induces DNA damage sensing kinases ATM/ATR for
      telomerase recruitment. Yet, whether telomere shortening also governs end
      protection is poorly understood. Here we discover that yeast ATM/ATR controls end
      protection. Rap1 is phosphorylated by Tel1 and Mec1 kinases at serine 731, and
      this regulation is stimulated by DNA damage and telomere shortening. Compromised
      Rap1 phosphorylation hampers the interaction between Rap1 and its interacting
      partner Rif1, which thereby disturbs the end protection. As expected, reduction
      of Rap1-Rif1 association impairs telomere length regulation and increases
      telomere-telomere recombination. These results indicate that ATM/ATR DNA damage
      checkpoint signal contributes to telomere protection by strengthening the Rap1
      Rif1 interaction at short telomeres, and the checkpoint signal oversees both
      telomerase recruitment and end capping pathways to maintain telomere homeostasis.

PMID- 28575426
TI  - Evolution of microbial communities growing with carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and
      carbon dioxide.
AB  - Microbial anaerobic conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) and syngas (mainly
      composed of CO, CO2 and H2) leads to the production of important industrial
      products, such as acetate and ethanol. The composition of CO- and syngas
      converting microbial communities and the microbial interactions involved are
      still largely unknown. The main objectives of this study were (i) to understand
      the effects of CO, CO2, and H2 on the structure and function of a CO-consuming
      microbial community, and (ii) to identify key carboxidotrophs in the mixed
      culture. For this, sludge was anaerobically enriched with CO as the sole
      carbon/energy source at incrementally increasing CO partial pressures (PCO).
      Phylotypes of Methanobacteriaceae and methane production were detected at PCO <=
      44.1 kPa. At higher PCO, enriched phylotypes were Acetobacterium, Oscillospira
      and Pleomorphomonas, and acetate was the main end product. The addition of
      CO2/HCO3- or H2 to CO fermentation increased the acetate/ethanol ratio and
      species diversity, compared to growth with CO as sole substrate. Phylotypes
      associated with Pleomorphomonas and Acetobacterium increased in relative
      abundance during exponential CO utilization. The Pleomorphomonas-like isolate
      produced H2:CO2, whereas the Acetobacterium-like isolate produced ethanol, when
      CO was the only electron/carbon source. These findings shed light on the
      interplay between syngas components and microbial communities.

PMID- 28575427
TI  - Corrigendum for "Diet Polyphenol Curcumin Stimulates Hepatic Fgf21 Production and
      Restores Its Sensitivity in High-Fat-Fed Male Mice".

PMID- 28575425
TI  - Social Dominance Orientation, Language Orientation, and Deaf Identity.
AB  - The notion of the Deaf community as a linguistic-cultural minority has been
      increasingly recognized and studied over the last two decades. However,
      significant differences of opinion and perspective within that population
      typically have been neglected in the literature. Social dominance orientation
      (SDO), a theoretical construct, typically focusing on intergroup perceptions and
      relations, is one aspect that has been left unexplored and might prove
      particularly enlightening. The present study investigated SDO among 119 deaf and
      49 hearing young adults through a standardized SDO questionnaire. SDO was
      examined with regard to cultural identities (deaf, hearing, bicultural, and
      marginal), cochlear implant use, and language orientation (sign language or
      spoken language). The deaf participants were found to be more egalitarian than
      hearing individuals overall. Deaf individuals who held the strongest deaf
      identities, those who were sign language oriented, and not cochlear implant
      users, were the most egalitarian.

PMID- 28575424
TI  - Association between habenula dysfunction and motivational symptoms in unmedicated
      major depressive disorder.
AB  - The lateral habenula plays a central role in reward and punishment processing and
      has been suggested to drive the cardinal symptom of anhedonia in depression. This
      hypothesis is largely based on observations of habenula hypermetabolism in animal
      models of depression, but the activity of habenula and its relationship with
      clinical symptoms in patients with depression remains unclear. High-resolution
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modelling were
      used to investigate the activity of the habenula during a probabilistic
      reinforcement learning task with rewarding and punishing outcomes in 21
      unmedicated patients with major depression and 17 healthy participants. High
      resolution anatomical scans were also acquired to assess group differences in
      habenula volume. Healthy individuals displayed the expected activation in the
      left habenula during receipt of punishment and this pattern was confirmed in the
      computational analysis of prediction error processing. In depressed patients,
      there was a trend towards attenuated left habenula activation to punishment,
      while greater left habenula activation was associated with more severe depressive
      symptoms and anhedonia. We also identified greater habenula volume in patients
      with depression, which was associated with anhedonic symptoms. Habenula
      dysfunction may contribute to abnormal response to punishment in patients with
      depression, and symptoms such as anhedonia.

PMID- 28575428
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Hypothalamic Kisspeptin in Female Rat Models of PCOS.

PMID- 28575429
TI  - Evidence That a Sex Difference in Neonatal DNA Methylation Organizes Two Distinct
      Phenotypic Characteristics of Neurons in the Murine Forebrain.

PMID- 28575431
TI  - Peptide Therapeutics for Weight Loss: Preventing Plasma Pancreatic Polypeptide
      Proteolysis.

PMID- 28575430
TI  - A Shot in the Dark Exposes More Trees in the Forest: Adding a Histone Demethylase
      (Jmjd3) and RIP-cre Neurons to the Coordination of Female Reproductive Function.

PMID- 28575432
TI  - Steroids, Cytokines, and Implantation.

PMID- 28575433
TI  - Prolactin: The Bright and the Dark Side.

PMID- 28575434
TI  - Incretin-Based Therapies: Revisiting Their Mode of Action.

PMID- 28575435
TI  - Unique ER Stress Mechanisms in beta Cells Limit the Translation Potential of
      Therapies Targeting eIF2alpha.

PMID- 28575436
TI  - Unliganded TRalpha: A "Safety Lock" to Metamorphosis.

PMID- 28575438
TI  - Molecular Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates From Children With
      Periorbital or Orbital Cellulitis.
AB  - Background: Periorbital and orbital cellulitis cause significant pediatric
      morbidity. Here, we define the clinical features of and characterize isolates
      from children with periorbital or orbital cellulitis caused by Staphylococcus
      aureus at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Methods: Patients were identified
      from a prospective S aureus study database from January 2002 to July 2015.
      Demographic and clinical data were collected retrospectively. Isolates were
      genotyped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and Panton-Valentine leukocidin
      (lukSF-PV [pvl]) genes were detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
      Data were analyzed with the Fisher exact or Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results:
      Eighty-five patients with periorbital (n = 58) or orbital (n = 27) cellulitis
      were identified. We found 57 (67%) methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA)
      isolates, 72 (85%) pvl-positive (pvl+) isolates, and 66 (78%) USA300 isolates. No
      differences in clinical characteristics were found when we compared MRSA to
      methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) infections or USA300 to non-USA300 infections.
      Patients with orbital cellulitis were hospitalized a median of 12 days (range, 2
      28 days) and received antibiotics for 21 days (range, 10-32 days). Twelve (44%)
      patients with orbital cellulitis received steroids. Steroid treatment did not
      affect the length of hospitalization or duration of antibiotic treatment. Six
      (7%) patients with orbital cellulitis were bacteremic. Patients with periorbital
      cellulitis were hospitalized for a median of 3 days (range, 0-17 days) and
      received antibiotics for 11 days (range, 7-32 days). According to computed
      tomography (CT), 19 (70%) patients with orbital cellulitis and 11 (41%) with
      periorbital cellulitis had sinusitis. Conclusions: The majority of periorbital
      and orbital S aureus infections at Texas Children's Hospital were caused by MRSA,
      and no change was observed over time. Empirical antibiotic treatment should
      include coverage for MRSA. PVL might be an important virulence factor in these
      presentations. S aureus is associated with sinusitis and its complications.

PMID- 28575437
TI  - Successful treatment of post-surgical osteomyelitis caused by XDR Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa with ceftolozane/tazobactam monotherapy.

PMID- 28575440
TI  - Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Sensory Function in Marine Organisms.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Ocean acidification has been identified as a major contributor to ocean
      ecosystem decline, impacting the calcification, survival, and behavior of marine
      organisms. Numerous studies have observed altered sensory perception of chemical,
      auditory, and visual cues after exposure to elevated CO2. Sensory systems enable
      the observation of the external environment and therefore play a critical role in
      survival, communication, and behavior of marine organisms. This review seeks to
      (1) summarize the current knowledge of sensory impairment caused by ocean
      acidification, (2) discuss potential mechanisms behind this disruption, and (3)
      analyze the expected taxa differences in sensitivities to elevated CO2
      conditions. Although a lack of standardized methodology makes cross-study
      comparisons challenging, trends and biases arise from this synthesis including a
      substantial focus on vertebrates, larvae or juveniles, the reef ecosystem, and
      chemosensory perception. Future studies must broaden the scope of the field by
      diversifying the taxa and ecosystems studied, incorporating ontogenetic
      comparisons, and focusing on cryptic sensory systems such as electroreception,
      magnetic sense, and the lateral line system. A discussion of possible mechanisms
      reveals GABAA receptor reversal as the conspicuous physiological mechanism.
      However, the potential remains for alternative disruption through structure or
      cue changes. Finally, a taxonomic comparison of physiological complexity reveals
      few trends in sensory sensitivities to lowered pH, but we hypothesize potential
      correlations relating to habitat, life history or relative use of sensory
      systems. Elevated CO2, in concordance with other global and local stressors, has
      the potential to drastically shift community composition and structure. Therefore
      research addressing the extent of sensory impairment, the underlying mechanisms,
      and the differences between taxa is vital for improved predictions of organismal
      response to ocean acidification.

PMID- 28575441
TI  - Transmembrane Motions of PglB Induced by LLO are Coupled with EL5 Loop
      Conformational Changes Necessary for OST Activity.
AB  - N-linked glycosylation is an enzymatic reaction where an oligosaccharide is
      transferred en bloc onto an asparagine residue of an acceptor polypeptide,
      catalyzed by oligosaccharyltransferase (OST). Despite the available crystal
      structures, the role of the external loop EL5, which is critical for the
      catalytic cycle, is still enigmatic as EL5 in the crystal structures is partially
      absent or blocks a pathway of lipid-linked oligosaccharide to the active site.
      Here we report the molecular origin of EL5 conformational changes through a
      series of molecular dynamics simulations of a bacterial OST, Campylobacter lari
      PglB. The simulations reveal that the isoprenoid moiety of lipid-linked
      oligosaccharide favorably binds to a hydrophobic groove of the PglB transmembrane
      domain. This binding triggers the conformational changes of the transmembrane
      domain and subsequently impairs the structural stability of EL5, leading to
      disordered EL5 with open conformations that are required for correct placement of
      the oligosaccharide in the active site.

PMID- 28575439
TI  - Mediator binds to boundaries of chromosomal interaction domains and to proteins
      involved in DNA looping, RNA metabolism, chromatin remodeling, and actin
      assembly.
AB  - Mediator is a multi-unit molecular complex that plays a key role in transferring
      signals from transcriptional regulators to RNA polymerase II in eukaryotes. We
      have combined biochemical purification of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mediator
      from chromatin with chromatin immunoprecipitation in order to reveal Mediator
      occupancy on DNA genome-wide, and to identify proteins interacting specifically
      with Mediator on the chromatin template. Tandem mass spectrometry of proteins in
      immunoprecipitates of mediator complexes revealed specific interactions between
      Mediator and the RSC, Arp2/Arp3, CPF, CF 1A and Lsm complexes in chromatin. These
      factors are primarily involved in chromatin remodeling, actin assembly, mRNA 3'
      end processing, gene looping and mRNA decay, but they have also been shown to
      enter the nucleus and participate in Pol II transcription. Moreover, we have
      found that Mediator, in addition to binding Pol II promoters, occupies
      chromosomal interacting domain (CID) boundaries and that Mediator in chromatin
      associates with proteins that have been shown to interact with CID boundaries,
      such as Sth1, Ssu72 and histone H4. This suggests that Mediator plays a
      significant role in higher-order genome organization.

PMID- 28575442
TI  - Negative Symptom Therapeutics.

PMID- 28575443
TI  - Accelerating Biomedical Discoveries through Rigor and Transparency.
AB  - Difficulties in reproducing published research findings have garnered a lot of
      press in recent years. As a funder of biomedical research, the National
      Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken measures to address underlying causes of low
      reproducibility. Extensive deliberations resulted in a policy, released in 2015,
      to enhance reproducibility through rigor and transparency. We briefly explain
      what led to the policy, describe its elements, provide examples and resources for
      the biomedical research community, and discuss the potential impact of the policy
      on translatability with a focus on research using animal models. Importantly,
      while increased attention to rigor and transparency may lead to an increase in
      the number of laboratory animals used in the near term, it will lead to more
      efficient and productive use of such resources in the long run. The translational
      value of animal studies will be improved through more rigorous assessment of
      experimental variables and data, leading to better assessments of the
      translational potential of animal models, for the benefit of the research
      community and society.

PMID- 28575446
TI  - Transgender Sterilisation Requirements in Europe.
AB  - The possibility of individuals procreating post-transition has long stalked
      debates on transgender rights. In 1972, Sweden became the first European
      jurisdiction to formally acknowledge preferred gender. Under the original Swedish
      law, applicants for gender recognition were explicitly required to prove an
      incapacity to reproduce-either through natural infertility or through a positive
      act of sterilisation. Across the Council of Europe, 20 countries continue to
      enforce a sterilisation requirement. When considering reforms to their current
      gender recognition rules as recently as 2015, the Polish executive and the
      Finnish legislature both rejected proposals to remove mandatory infertility
      provisions. This article critiques the rationales for transgender sterilisation
      in Europe. It places transgender reproduction, and non-traditional procreation,
      in the wider context of European equality and family law. Adopting a highly inter
      disciplinary framework, the article explores legal, social, medical, and moral
      arguments in favour of sterilisation, and exposes the weak intellectual and
      evidential basis for the current national laws. The article ultimately proposes a
      new departure for Europe's attitude towards transgender parenting, and argues
      that sterilisation should not be a pre-condition for legal recognition.

PMID- 28575444
TI  - Intrinsically disordered RGG/RG domains mediate degenerate specificity in RNA
      binding.
AB  - RGG/RG domains are the second most common RNA binding domain in the human genome,
      yet their RNA-binding properties remain poorly understood. Here, we report a
      detailed analysis of the RNA binding characteristics of intrinsically disordered
      RGG/RG domains from Fused in Sarcoma (FUS), FMRP and hnRNPU. For FUS, previous
      studies defined RNA binding as mediated by its well-folded domains; however, we
      show that RGG/RG domains are the primary mediators of binding. RGG/RG domains
      coupled to adjacent folded domains can achieve affinities approaching that of
      full-length FUS. Analysis of RGG/RG domains from FUS, FMRP and hnRNPU against a
      spectrum of contrasting RNAs reveals that each display degenerate binding
      specificity, while still displaying different degrees of preference for RNA.

PMID- 28575447
TI  - Who should we trust?

PMID- 28575445
TI  - Quaternary interactions and supercoiling modulate the cooperative DNA binding of
      AGT.
AB  - Human O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) repairs mutagenic O6
      alkylguanine and O4-alkylthymine adducts in single-stranded and duplex DNAs. The
      search for these lesions, through a vast excess of competing, unmodified genomic
      DNA, is a mechanistic challenge that may limit the repair rate in vivo. Here, we
      examine influences of DNA secondary structure and twist on protein-protein
      interactions in cooperative AGT complexes formed on lesion-free DNAs that model
      the unmodified parts of the genome. We used a new approach to resolve nearest
      neighbor (nn) and long-range (lr) components from the ensemble-average
      cooperativity, omegaave. We found that while nearest-neighbor contacts were
      significant, long-range interactions dominated cooperativity and this pattern
      held true whether the DNA was single-stranded or duplex. Experiments with single
      plasmid topoisomers showed that the average cooperativity was sensitive to DNA
      twist, and was strongest when the DNA was slightly underwound. This suggests that
      AGT proteins are optimally juxtaposed when the DNA is near its torsionally
      relaxed state. Most striking was the decline of binding stoichiometry with
      linking number. As stoichiometry and affinity differences were not correlated, we
      interpret this as evidence that supercoiling occludes AGT binding sites. These
      features suggest that AGT's lesion-search distributes preferentially to sites
      containing torsionally-relaxed DNA, in vivo.

PMID- 28575448
TI  - Bacillus subtilis DNA polymerases, PolC and DnaE, are required for both leading
      and lagging strand synthesis in SPP1 origin-dependent DNA replication.
AB  - Firmicutes have two distinct replicative DNA polymerases, the PolC leading strand
      polymerase, and PolC and DnaE synthesizing the lagging strand. We have
      reconstituted in vitro Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage SPP1 theta-type DNA
      replication, which initiates unidirectionally at oriL. With this system we show
      that DnaE is not only restricted to lagging strand synthesis as previously
      suggested. DnaG primase and DnaE polymerase are required for initiation of DNA
      replication on both strands. DnaE and DnaG synthesize in concert a hybrid RNA/DNA
      'initiation primer' on both leading and lagging strands at the SPP1 oriL region,
      as it does the eukaryotic Pol alpha complex. DnaE, as a RNA-primed DNA
      polymerase, extends this initial primer in a reaction modulated by DnaG and one
      single-strand binding protein (SSB, SsbA or G36P), and hands off the initiation
      primer to PolC, a DNA-primed DNA polymerase. Then, PolC, stimulated by DnaG and
      the SSBs, performs the bulk of DNA chain elongation at both leading and lagging
      strands. Overall, these modulations by the SSBs and DnaG may contribute to the
      mechanism of polymerase switch at Firmicutes replisomes.

PMID- 28575449
TI  - Efficacy of a poly-aggregated formulation of amphotericin B in treating systemic
      sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis.
AB  - In severe cases of sporotrichosis, it is recommended to use amphotericin B
      deoxycholate (D-AMB) or its lipid formulations and/or in association with
      itraconazole (ITC). Our aim was to evaluate the antifungal efficacy of a poly
      aggregated amphotericin B (P-AMB), a nonlipid formulation, compared with D-AMB on
      systemic sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis. In vitro assays showed
      that Sporothrix schenckii sensu stricto and S. brasiliensis yeast clinical
      isolates were susceptible to low concentrations of P-AMB and D-AMB. Although P
      AMB presented a higher minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) compared to D-AMB,
      its cytotoxic effect on renal cells and erythrocytes was lower. For the in vivo
      assays, male BALB/c mice were intravenously infected with S. brasiliensis yeasts,
      and P-AMB or D-AMB was administered 3 days post-infection. The efficacy of five
      therapeutic regimens was tested: intravenous monotherapy with P-AMB or D-AMB,
      intravenous pulsed-therapy with P-AMB or D-AMB, and intravenous therapy with P
      AMB, followed by oral ITC. These treatments increased murine survival and
      controlled the fungal burden in the liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. However,
      only D-AMB monotherapy or the pulsed-therapies with D-AMB or P-AMB led to 100%
      survival of the mice 45 days post-infection; only pulsed administration of D-AMB
      was able to control the fungal load in all organs 45 days post-infection.
      Accordingly, the histopathological findings showed reductions in the fungal
      burden and inflammatory reactions in these treatment regimens. Together, our
      results suggest that the P-AMB formulation could be considered as an alternative
      drug to D-AMB for treating disseminated sporotrichosis.

PMID- 28575450
TI  - Universal attenuators and their interactions with feedback loops in gene
      regulatory networks.
AB  - Using a combination of mathematical modelling, statistical simulation and large
      scale data analysis we study the properties of linear regulatory chains (LRCs)
      within gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Our modelling indicates that downstream
      genes embedded within LRCs are highly insulated from the variation in expression
      of upstream genes, and thus LRCs act as attenuators. This observation implies a
      progressively weaker functionality of LRCs as their length increases. When
      analyzing the preponderance of LRCs in the GRNs of Escherichia coli K12 and
      several other organisms, we find that very long LRCs are essentially absent. In
      both E. coli and M. tuberculosis we find that four-gene LRCs are intimately
      linked to identical feedback loops that are involved in potentially chaotic
      stress response, indicating that the dynamics of these potentially destabilising
      motifs are strongly restrained under homeostatic conditions. The same
      relationship is observed in a human cancer cell line (K562), and we postulate
      that four-gene LRCs act as 'universal attenuators'. These findings suggest a role
      for long LRCs in dampening variation in gene expression, thereby protecting cell
      identity, and in controlling dramatic shifts in cell-wide gene expression through
      inhibiting chaos-generating motifs.

PMID- 28575451
TI  - Intra and Interspecific Variations of Gene Expression Levels in Yeast Are Largely
      Neutral: (Nei Lecture, SMBE 2016, Gold Coast).
AB  - It is commonly, although not universally, accepted that most intra and
      interspecific genome sequence variations are more or less neutral, whereas a
      large fraction of organism-level phenotypic variations are adaptive. Gene
      expression levels are molecular phenotypes that bridge the gap between genotypes
      and corresponding organism-level phenotypes. Yet, it is unknown whether natural
      variations in gene expression levels are mostly neutral or adaptive. Here we
      address this fundamental question by genome-wide profiling and comparison of gene
      expression levels in nine yeast strains belonging to three closely related
      Saccharomyces species and originating from five different ecological
      environments. We find that the transcriptome-based clustering of the nine strains
      approximates the genome sequence-based phylogeny irrespective of their ecological
      environments. Remarkably, only ~0.5% of genes exhibit similar expression levels
      among strains from a common ecological environment, no greater than that among
      strains with comparable phylogenetic relationships but different environments.
      These and other observations strongly suggest that most intra and interspecific
      variations in yeast gene expression levels result from the accumulation of random
      mutations rather than environmental adaptations. This finding has profound
      implications for understanding the driving force of gene expression evolution,
      genetic basis of phenotypic adaptation, and general role of stochasticity in
      evolution.

PMID- 28575453
TI  - Quantitative analysis of phagosome formation and maturation using an Escherichia
      coli probe expressing a tandem fluorescent protein.
AB  - Phagosome formation and maturation are essential innate immune mechanisms to
      engulf and digest foreign particles. To analyze these processes quantitatively,
      we established a specific Escherichia coli probe expressing a tandem fluorescent
      protein, comprising glutathione S-transferase fused with monomeric Cherry
      (mCherry) and monomeric Venus (mVenus). We demonstrated that mVenus was more
      susceptible to bleaching in an acidic environment than mCherry, and that the
      mVenus:mCherry fluorescence intensity ratio can be used to monitor phagosomal pH
      changes during maturation. Using this probe, we revealed that synaptosomal
      associated protein of 23 kDa, a plasma membrane soluble N-ethylmaleimide
      sensitive factor attachment protein receptor protein, actively regulated
      phagocytosis of E. coli and subsequent phagosome maturation in macrophages. Our
      results indicated that this probe has the potential to be a powerful tool in
      understanding the molecular mechanisms of phagosome formation and maturation.

PMID- 28575452
TI  - Selective disruption of an oncogenic mutant allele by CRISPR/Cas9 induces
      efficient tumor regression.
AB  - Approximately 15% of non-small cell lung cancer cases are associated with a
      mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which plays a
      critical role in tumor progression. With the goal of treating mutated EGFR
      mediated lung cancer, we demonstrate the use of clustered regularly interspaced
      short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) system to
      discriminate between the oncogenic mutant and wild-type EGFR alleles and
      eliminate the carcinogenic mutant EGFR allele with high accuracy. We targeted an
      EGFR oncogene harboring a single-nucleotide missense mutation (CTG > CGG) that
      generates a protospacer-adjacent motif sequence recognized by the CRISPR/Cas9
      derived from Streptococcus pyogenes. Co-delivery of Cas9 and an EGFR mutation
      specific single-guide RNA via adenovirus resulted in precise disruption at the
      oncogenic mutation site with high specificity. Furthermore, this CRISPR/Cas9
      mediated mutant allele disruption led to significantly enhanced cancer cell
      killing and reduced tumor size in a xenograft mouse model of human lung cancer.
      Taken together, these results indicate that targeting an oncogenic mutation using
      CRISPR/Cas9 offers a powerful surgical strategy to disrupt oncogenic mutations to
      treat cancers; similar strategies could be used to treat other mutation
      associated diseases.

PMID- 28575454
TI  - Comparison Between Chronic Migraine and Temporomandibular Disorders in Pain
      Related Disability and Fear-Avoidance Behaviors.
AB  - Objective: To compare patients with chronic migraine (CM) and chronic
      temporomandibular disorders (TMD) on disability, pain, and fear avoidance factors
      and to associate these variables within groups. Design: Descriptive, cross
      sectional study. Settings: A neurology department and a temporomandibular
      disorders consult in a tertiary care center. Subjects: A total of 50 patients
      with CM and 51 patients with chronic TMD, classified by international criteria
      classifications. Methods: The variables evaluated included pain intensity (visual
      analog scale [VAS]), neck disability (NDI), craniofacial pain and disability (CF
      PDI), headache impact (HIT-6), pain catastrophizing (PCS), and kinesiophobia (TSK
      11). Results: Statistically significant differences were found between the CM
      group and the chronic TMD group in CF-PDI (P < 0.001), PCS (P = 0.03), and HIT-6
      (P < 0.001); however, there were no differences between the CM group and the VAS,
      NDI, and TSK-11 groups (P > 0.05). For the chronic TMD group, the combination of
      NDI and TSK-11 was a significant covariate model of CF-PDI (adjusted R2 = 0.34).
      In the CM group, the regression model showed that NDI was a significant
      predictive factor for HIT-6 (adjusted R2 = 0.19). Conclusions: Differences
      between the CM group and the chronic TMD group were found in craniofacial pain
      and disability, pain catastrophizing, and headache impact, but they were similar
      for pain intensity, neck disability, and kinesiophobia. Neck disability and
      kinesiophobia were covariates of craniofacial pain and disability (34% of
      variance) for chronic TMD. In the CM group, neck disability was a predictive
      factor for headache impact (19.3% of variance).

PMID- 28575456
TI  - Letter: Washing and Irrigation: Faithful Allies of the Neurosurgeon for Endoscopy
      Hemostasis.

PMID- 28575455
TI  - Adolescent Alcohol Exposure-Induced Changes in Alpha-Melanocyte Stimulating
      Hormone and Neuropeptide Y Pathways via Histone Acetylation in the Brain During
      Adulthood.
AB  - Background: Adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure causes long-lasting
      alterations in brain epigenetic mechanisms. Melanocortin and neuropeptide Y
      signaling interact and are affected by ethanol exposure in the brain. Here, the
      persistent effects of adolescent intermittent ethanol on alpha-melanocyte
      stimulating hormone, melanocortin 4 receptor, and neuropeptide Y expression and
      their regulation by histone acetylation mechanisms were investigated in
      adulthood. Methods: Male rats were exposed to adolescent intermittent ethanol (2
      g/kg, i.p.) or volume-matched adolescent intermittent saline from postnatal days
      28 to 41 and allowed to grow to postnatal day 92. Anxiety-like behaviors were
      measured by the elevated plus-maze test. Brain regions from adult rats were used
      to examine changes in alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, melanocortin 4
      receptor, and neuropeptide Y expression and the histone acetylation status of
      their promoters. Results: Adolescent intermittent ethanol-exposed adult rats
      displayed anxiety-like behaviors and showed increased pro-opiomelanocortin mRNA
      levels in the hypothalamus and increased melanocortin 4 receptor mRNA levels in
      both the amygdala and hypothalamus compared with adolescent intermittent saline
      exposed adult rats. The alpha-Melanocyte stimulating hormone and melanocortin 4
      receptor protein levels were increased in the central and medial nucleus of the
      amygdala, paraventricular nucleus, and arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus in
      adolescent intermittent ethanol-exposed compared with adolescent intermittent
      saline-exposed adult rats. Neuropeptide Y protein levels were decreased in the
      central and medial nucleus of the amygdala of adolescent intermittent ethanol
      exposed compared with adolescent intermittent saline-exposed adult rats. Histone
      H3K9/14 acetylation was decreased in the neuropeptide Y promoter in the amygdala
      but increased in the melanocortin 4 receptor gene promoter in the amygdala and
      the melanocortin 4 receptor and pro-opiomelanocortin promoters in the
      hypothalamus of adolescent intermittent ethanol-exposed adult rats compared with
      controls. Conclusions: Increased melanocortin and decreased neuropeptide Y
      activity due to changes in histone acetylation in emotional brain circuitry may
      play a role in adolescent intermittent ethanol-induced anxiety phenotypes in
      adulthood.

PMID- 28575457
TI  - Characterizing Adult Cervical Deformity and Disability Based on Existing Cervical
      and Adult Deformity Classification Schemes at Presentation and Following
      Correction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adult cervical deformity (ACD) classifications have not been
      implemented in a prospective ACD population and in conjunction with adult spinal
      deformity (ASD) classifications. OBJECTIVE: To characterize cervical deformity
      type and malalignment with 2 classifications (Ames-ACD and Schwab-ASD). METHODS:
      Retrospective review of a prospective multicenter ACD database. Inclusion:
      patients >=18 yr with pre- and postoperative radiographs. Patients were
      classified with Ames-ACD and Schwab-ASD schemes. Ames-ACD descriptors (C =
      cervical, CT = cervicothoracic, T = thoracic, S = coronal, CVJ = craniovertebral)
      and alignment modifiers (cervical sagittal vertical axis [cSVA], T1 slope minus
      cervical lordosis [TS-CL], modified Japanese Ortphopaedic Association [mJOA]
      score, horizontal gaze) were assigned. Schwab-ASD curve type stratification and
      modifier grades were also designated. Deformity and alignment group distributions
      were compared with Pearson chi2/ANOVA. RESULTS: Ames-ACD descriptors in 84
      patients: C = 49 (58.3%), CT = 20 (23.8%), T = 9 (10.7%), S = 6 (7.1%). cSVA
      modifier grades differed in C, CT, and T deformities (P < .019). In C, TS-CL
      grade prevalence differed (P = .031). Among Ames-ACD modifiers, high (1+2) cSVA
      grades differed across deformities (C = 47.7%, CT = 89.5%, T = 77.8%, S = 50.0%,
      P = .013). Schwab-ASD curve type and presence (n = 74, T = 2, L = 6, D = 2)
      differed significantly in S deformities (P < .001). Higher Schwab-ASD pelvic
      incidence minus lumbar lordosis grades were less likely in Ames-ACD CT
      deformities (P = .027). Higher pelvic tilt grades were greater in high (1+2) cSVA
      (71.4% vs 36.0%, P = .015) and high (2+3) mJOA (24.0% vs 38.1%, P = .021) scores.
      Postoperatively, C and CT deformities had a trend toward lower cSVA grades, but
      only C deformities differed in TS-CL grade prevalence (0 = 31.3%, 1 = 12.2%, 2 =
      56.1%, P = .007). CONCLUSION: Cervical deformities displayed higher TS-CL grades
      and different cSVA grade distributions. Preoperative associations with global
      alignment modifiers and Ames-ACD descriptors were observed, though only cervical
      modifiers showed postoperative differences.

PMID- 28575458
TI  - Letter: Genealogy of Training in Vascular Neurosurgery.

PMID- 28575459
TI  - Intracranial Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases Presenting as Neurosurgical
      Pathologies.
AB  - There are many infectious and inflammatory processes affecting the central
      nervous system that can simulate other neurosurgical pathologies (e.g. tumor) and
      may precipitate a brain biopsy for definitive diagnosis if not suspected a
      priori. The challenge for the healthcare team is to recognize imaging features
      that support a nonsurgical pathology to avoid unnecessary interventions. This
      review aims to give a general overview of some common inflammatory and infectious
      entities that affect the central nervous system, with illustrative examples and
      highlighting important pearls and pitfalls.

PMID- 28575460
TI  - Testing Familial Transmission of Smoking With Two Different Research Designs.
AB  - Introduction: Classical twin studies show that smoking is heritable. To determine
      if shared family environment plays a role in addition to genetic factors, and if
      they interact (G*E), we use a children-of-twins design. In a second sample, we
      measure genetic influence with polygenic risk scores (PRS) and environmental
      influence with a question on exposure to smoking during childhood. Methods: Data
      on smoking initiation were available for 723 children of 712 twins from the
      Netherlands Twin Register (64.9% female, median birth year 1985). Children were
      grouped in ascending order of risk, based on smoking status and zygosity of their
      twin-parent and his/her co-twin: never smoking twin-parent with a never smoking
      co-twin; never smoking twin-parent with a smoking dizygotic co-twin; never
      smoking twin-parent with a smoking monozygotic co-twin; and smoking twin-parent
      with a smoking or never smoking co-twin. For 4072 participants from the
      Netherlands Twin Register (67.3% female, median birth year 1973), PRS for smoking
      were computed and smoking initiation, smoking heaviness, and exposure to smoking
      during childhood were available. Results: Patterns of smoking initiation in the
      four group children-of-twins design suggested shared familial influences in
      addition to genetic factors. PRS for ever smoking were associated with smoking
      initiation in all individuals. PRS for smoking heaviness were associated with
      smoking heaviness in individuals exposed to smoking during childhood, but not in
      non-exposed individuals. Conclusions: Shared family environment influences
      smoking, over and above genetic factors. Genetic risk of smoking heaviness was
      only important for individuals exposed to smoking during childhood, versus those
      not exposed (G*E). Implications: This study adds to the very few existing
      children-of-twins (CoT) studies on smoking and combines a CoT design with a
      second research design that utilizes polygenic risk scores and data on exposure
      to smoking during childhood. The results show that shared family environment
      affects smoking behavior over and above genetic factors. There was also evidence
      for gene-environment interaction (G*E) such that genetic risk of heavy versus
      light smoking was only important for individuals who were also exposed to (second
      hand) smoking during childhood. Together, these findings give additional
      incentive to recommending parents not to expose their children to cigarette
      smoking.

PMID- 28575461
TI  - Adjacent Segment Degeneration After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion With
      an Autologous Iliac Crest Graft: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of 59
      Patients With a Mean Follow-up of 27 Years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) is a widely
      accepted surgical technique for the treatment of degenerative disc disease. ACDF
      is associated with adjacent segment degeneration (ASD). OBJECTIVE: To assess
      whether physiological aging of the spine would overcome ASD by comparing adjacent
      to adjoining segments more than 18 yr after ACDF. METHODS: Magnetic resonance
      imaging of 59 (36 male, 23 female) patients who underwent ACDF was performed to
      assess degeneration. The mean follow-up was 27 yr (18-45 yr). Besides measuring
      the disc height, a 5-step grading system (segmental degeneration index [SDI])
      including disc signal intensity, anterior and posterior disc protrusion,
      narrowing of the disc space, and foraminal stenosis was used to assess the grade
      of adjacent and adjoining segments. RESULTS: The SDI of cranial and caudal
      adjacent segments was significantly higher compared to adjoining segments (P <
      .001). The disc height of cranial and caudal adjacent segments was significantly
      lower compared to adjoining segments (P < .001, P < .01). The SDI of adjacent
      segments in patients with repeat cervical procedure was significantly higher than
      in patients without repeat procedure (P = .02, P = .01). The disc height of the
      cranial adjacent segments in patients with repeat procedure was significantly
      lower than in patients without repeat procedure (P = .01). CONCLUSION: The
      physiological aging of the cervical spine does not overcome ASD. The disc height
      and the SDI in adjacent segment are significantly worse compared to adjoining
      segments. Patients who underwent repeat procedure had even worse findings of disc
      height and SDI.

PMID- 28575462
TI  - Sharing and helping: predictors of adolescents' willingness to share diabetes
      personal health information with peers.
AB  - Objective: Sharing personal information about type 1 diabetes (T1D) can help
      adolescents obtain social support, enhance social learning, and improve self
      care. Diabetes technologies, online communities, and health interventions
      increasingly feature data-sharing components. This study examines factors
      underlying adolescents' willingness to share personal T1D information with peers.
      Materials and Methods: Participants were 134 adolescents (12-17 years of age; 56%
      female) who completed an online survey regarding experiences helping others with
      T1D, perceived social resources, beliefs about the value of sharing information
      and helping others, and willingness to share T1D information. Hemoglobin A1c
      values were obtained from medical records. Results: Adolescents were more willing
      to share how they accomplished T1D tasks than how often they completed them, and
      least willing to share glucose control status. In multivariate analyses,
      sharing/helping beliefs (beta = 0.26, P < .01) and glucose control (HbA1c value;
      beta = -0.26, P < .01) were related to greater willingness to share personal
      health information. Glucose control moderated relationships such that adolescents
      with worse A1c values had stronger relationships between sharing/helping beliefs
      and willingness to share (beta = 0.18, P < .05) but weaker relationships between
      helping experience and willingness to share (beta = -0.22, P = .07). Discussion:
      Many adolescents with T1D are willing to share personal health information,
      particularly if they have better diabetes health status and a stronger belief in
      the benefits of sharing. Conclusion: Social learning and social media components
      may improve intervention participation, engagement, and outcomes by boosting
      adolescents' beliefs about the benefits of sharing information and helping
      others.

PMID- 28575463
TI  - Impact of working hours on sleep and mental health.
AB  - Background: The number of hours people are required to work has a pervasive
      influence on both physical and mental health. Excessive working hours can also
      negatively affect sleep quality. The impact at work of mental health problems can
      have serious consequences for individuals' as well as for organizations'
      productivity. Aims: To evaluate differences in sleep quality and anxiety and
      depression symptoms between longer working hours group (LWHG) and regular working
      hours group (RWHG). To examine factors influencing weekly working hours, sleep
      quality and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants were divided
      into two groups, RWHG and LWHG, based on working hours, with a cut-off of 48 h
      per week. We used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to assess
      anxiety and depression symptoms and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to
      measure the quality and patterns of sleep. Results: The response rate was 23%.
      Among the 429 study participants, those in the LWHG group (n = 256, 53%) had
      significantly more depressive and anxiety symptoms and worse sleep quality than
      those in RWHG (n = 223, 47%). Working time was significantly positively
      correlated with higher corporate position and HADS scores. Moreover, HADS scores
      were positively correlated with PSQI scores and negatively correlated with age.
      Conclusions: This study suggests that longer working hours are associated with
      poorer mental health status and increasing levels of anxiety and depression
      symptoms. There was a positive correlation between these symptoms and sleep
      disturbances.

PMID- 28575465
TI  - On wagging tales about causal inference.

PMID- 28575464
TI  - Phase II trial of dacomitinib, a pan-human EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in
      recurrent glioblastoma patients with EGFR amplification.
AB  - Background: We conducted a multicenter, 2-stage, open-label, phase II trial to
      assess the efficacy and safety of dacomitinib in adult patients with recurrent
      glioblastoma (GB) and epidermal growth factor receptor gene (EGFR) amplification
      with or without variant III (EGFRvIII) deletion. Methods: Patients with first
      recurrence were enrolled in 2 cohorts. Cohort A included patients with EGFR gene
      amplification without EGFRvIII mutation. Cohort B included patients with EGFR
      gene amplification and EGFRvIII mutation. Dacomitinib was administered (45
      mg/day) until disease progression/unacceptable adverse events (AEs). Primary
      endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS; RANO criteria) at 6 months (PFS6).
      Results: Thirty patients in Cohort A and 19 in Cohort B were enrolled. Median age
      was 59 years (range 39-81), 65.3% were male, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology
      Group Performance Status 0/1/2 were 10.2%/65.3%/24.5%, respectively. PFS6 was
      10.6% (Cohort A: 13.3%; Cohort B: 5.9%) with a median PFS of 2.7 months (Cohort
      A: 2.7 mo; Cohort B: 2.6 mo). Four patients were progression free at 6 months and
      3 patients were so at 12 months. Median overall survival was 7.4 months (Cohort
      A: 7.8 mo; Cohort B: 6.7 mo). The best overall response included 1 complete
      response and 2 partial responses (4.1%). Stable disease was observed in 12
      patients (24.5%: eight in Cohort A and four in Cohort B). Diarrhea and rash were
      the most common AEs; 20 (40.8%) patients experienced grade 3-4 drug-related AEs.
      Conclusions: Dacomitinib has a limited single-agent activity in recurrent GB with
      EGFR amplification. The detailed molecular characterization of the 4 patients
      with response in this trial can be useful to select patients who could benefit
      from dacomitinib.

PMID- 28575466
TI  - Dose-response mutation and spectrum analyses reveal similar responses at two
      microsatellite loci in benzo(a)pyrene-exposed mouse spermatogonia.
AB  - Identifying chemical exposures that can cause germline mutations is important as
      these mutations can be inherited, impacting both individual and population
      health. However, germline mutations are extremely rare and difficult to detect.
      Chemically induced germline mutations can be detected through analysis of highly
      unstable tandem repeat DNA. We recently developed a single-molecule PCR (SM-PCR)
      approach to quantify mutations at a mouse microsatellite locus (Mm2.2.1) in sperm
      for such purposes. In this study, we refine this approach through the combined
      analysis of mouse microsatellites Mm2.2.1 and Mm19.2.3. Mice were exposed to 0,
      25, 50 or 100 mg/kg/day benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) by oral gavage for 28 days and sperm
      sampled 42 days after the end of exposure to measure effects on dividing
      spermatogonia. DNA was diluted to a single genome per PCR well for amplification
      of microsatellites in singleplex and multiplex reactions, and alleles were sized
      to identify mutations using capillary electrophoresis. Analysis of ~300-500
      molecules per animal at both microsatellite loci, when tested individually,
      showed a ~2-fold increase in mutations relative to the controls at both the 50
      and 100 mg/kg/day BaP doses. Multiplex SM-PCR revealed similar increases in
      mutation frequencies in both microsatellites. Comparison with results from a
      previous lacZ mutation assay conducted on the same mice revealed that although
      microsatellite mutations are a sensitive endpoint for detecting changes in
      mutation frequencies at lower doses, they appear to be saturable and thus have a
      reduced dynamic range. These results confirm that BaP is a male germ cell mutagen
      that broadly impacts tandem repeat DNA. Likewise, addition of a second
      hypervariable microsatellite increases the sensitivity of this assay.

PMID- 28575467
TI  - Arousability and Fall Risk During Forced Awakenings From Nocturnal Sleep Among
      Healthy Males Following Administration of Zolpidem 10 mg and Doxepin 6 mg: A
      Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Four-Way Crossover Trial.
AB  - Study Objectives: To examine and compare the arousability threshold and fall risk
      upon awakening of doxepin (6 mg) versus zolpidem (10 mg). Methods: A total of 52
      healthy adult males were included in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-way
      crossover study. The experimental procedure included four nights with
      polysomnography in the lab (zolpidem, doxepin, and their respective placebo
      conditions). Arousability was measured using an auditory awakening threshold
      delivered at the peak-plasma concentration for the active hypnotics and at
      matched times for the respective placebo conditions. Fall risk during the night
      was measured following awakening using the Berg Balance Scale and the Tandem Walk
      Task. Results: Both arousability and fall risk were lower in the doxepin
      condition compared to the zolpidem condition. Furthermore, arousability and fall
      risk for doxepin did not differ significantly from the placebo conditions. A
      significantly greater proportion of participants in the zolpidem condition
      (63.5%) did not wake until receiving the loudest tone (110 dB) as compared to the
      doxepin (17.6%) and placebo conditions (17.3%, 5.8%). Conclusions: Results
      suggest that zolpidem has greater risks for balance and awakening threshold
      compared with low-dose doxepin. Future prospective studies should extend results
      to clinical samples with population-level risk of injury and arousability.

PMID- 28575469
TI  - Comment on: Increased inflammation and disease activity among current cigarette
      smokers with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional analysis of US veterans:
      reply.

PMID- 28575468
TI  - Evaluation of Lure Combinations Containing Essential Oils and Volatile
      Spiroketals for Detection of Host-Seeking Xyleborus glabratus (Coleoptera:
      Curculionidae: Scolytinae).
AB  - The invasive redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus Eichhoff (Coleoptera:
      Curculionidae: Scolytinae), vectors the fungal pathogen (Raffaelea lauricola)
      that causes laurel wilt, a disease responsible for widespread mortality of trees
      in the Lauraceae in the southeastern United States. Early detection of incipient
      vector populations may allow for management practices that could successfully
      mitigate damage. Developing new, highly effective attractants is a priority for
      improving sensitivity of early detection efforts. In this study, two field tests
      were conducted to evaluate combinations of commercially available bark and
      ambrosia beetle lures for enhanced attraction of host-seeking female X.
      glabratus. In addition, lures were compared for capture of nontarget scolytine
      beetles. In the first experiment, traps baited with a combination of cubeb oil,
      conophthorin, chalcogran, and ethanol captured greater numbers of X. glabratus
      than cubeb oil alone, the current standard attractant. However, this combination
      lure resulted in higher nontarget scolytine captures than with the cubeb lure. In
      the second field test, an oil enriched in the sesquiterpene alpha-copaene caught
      significantly more X. glabratus than other lures currently available for
      monitoring this pest. There were no differences in efficacy between cubeb oil
      lures produced by two different manufacturers, and a combination lure containing
      copaiba and cubeb oils did not increase captures over the cubeb lure alone.
      Results of these two tests suggest that increased sensitivity for detection of X.
      glabratus may be achieved with a multicomponent lure that incorporates alpha
      copaene, spiroketals, and low release of ethanol.

PMID- 28575470
TI  - Liver mitochondrial dysfunction and electron transport chain defect induced by
      high dietary copper in broilers.
AB  - Copper is an important trace mineral in the diet of poultry due to its biological
      activity. However, limited information is available concerning the effects of
      high copper on mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, 72 broilers were used to
      investigate the effects of high dietary copper on liver mitochondrial dysfunction
      and electron transport chain defect. Birds were fed with different concentrations
      [11, 110, 220, and 330 mg of copper/kg dry matter (DM)] of copper from tribasic
      copper chloride (TBCC). The experiment lasted for 60 d. Liver tissues on d 60
      were subjected to histopathological observation. Additionally, liver
      mitochondrial function was recorded on d 12, 36, and 60. Moreover, a site
      specific defect in the electron transport chain in liver mitochondria was also
      identified by using various chemical inhibitors of mitochondrial respiration. The
      results showed different degrees of degeneration, mitochondrial swelling, and
      high-density electrons in hepatocytes. In addition, the respiratory control ratio
      (RCR) and oxidative phosphorylation rate (OPR) in liver mitochondria increased at
      first and then decreased in high-dose groups. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
      generation velocity in treated groups was higher than that in control group,
      which were magnified by inhibiting electron transport at Complex IV. The results
      indicated that high dietary copper could decline liver mitochondrial function in
      broilers. The presence of a site-specific defect at Complex IV in liver
      mitochondria may be responsible for liver mitochondrial dysfunction caused by
      high dietary copper.

PMID- 28575471
TI  - Serum Cotinine and Hemoglobin A1c Among a National Sample of Adolescents Without
      Known Diabetes.
AB  - Introduction: National data suggest tobacco smoke is positively associated with
      higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) among adults. Our objective was to examine the
      association between serum cotinine and HbA1c among adolescents without known
      diabetes. Methods: We assessed adolescents 12-19 years old (N = 11550) who
      participated in the 1999-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
      We applied sampling weights while performing multiple linear regression analyses.
      Results: The prevalence of serum cotinine indicative of no tobacco smoke exposure
      (TSE, <0.05 ng/mL) was 43.2%, passive TSE (0.05-2.99 ng/mL) was 38.9%, and active
      TSE (>3 ng/mL) was 17.9% in our sample. Mean (+/- standard error) HbA1c in
      participants with no TSE was 5.16% (+/-0.01), passive TSE was 5.16% (+/-0.01),
      and active TSE was 5.14% (+/-0.01). No differences in HbA1c were found between
      TSE groups including sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, income, and physical
      activity or the fully adjusted model with waist circumference. We found cotinine
      * sex (p = .01) and cotinine * age (p = .02) interactions. There was an
      association between cotinine and HbA1c for males but not females. Within males,
      participants with cotinine >=3 ng/mL (5.26 +/- 0.02) had higher mean HbA1c than
      those with cotinine 0.05-2.99 ng/mL and <0.05 ng/mL (both 5.20 +/- 0.01, p <=
      .02). The negative association between age and HbA1c was stronger for
      participants with cotinine >=3 ng/mL than participants with cotinine <0.05 ng/mL.
      Conclusion: No linear association was found between HbA1c and serum cotinine in
      adolescents overall after adjusting for potential confounders. Differences
      between TSE groups were found in males. Future research in adolescents should
      examine chronic TSE over time to examine the potential for development of type 2
      diabetes. Implications: TSE has been associated with increased risk for the
      development of type 2 diabetes among adults. It is unclear if this relationship
      holds in adolescents. We examined the association between serum cotinine and
      HbA1c in adolescents without known diabetes who completed the 1999-2012 National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Although no association was found
      between serum cotinine and HbA1c overall while controlling for potential
      confounding factors, we observed interaction effects that are indicative of TSE
      influencing HbA1c differentially by sex and age. Reducing TSE in adolescents
      should be a priority for future tobacco control efforts.

PMID- 28575472
TI  - Population Aging and Health Trajectories at Older Ages.
AB  - Objective: This study examines relationships between municipal age structure and
      two types of self-rated health: general (SRH) and comparison with similar-aged
      peers (C-SRH). Methods: Using a national sample of almost 5,000 Japanese older
      adults over two decades, we employ hierarchical growth curve models to estimate
      health trajectories. For municipal age structure, we consider both the relative
      prevalence of elderly adults in the local population and the pace of aging over
      time. Results: Living in the oldest municipalities was generally associated with
      worse health, particularly between the ages of 70 and 80 years. For SRH, the
      speed of municipal population aging was also independently associated with worse
      health. For C-SRH, worse health in older areas was partially explained by less
      favorable economic conditions in those municipalities. Results also suggest that
      higher levels of employment and social integration among older adults living in
      the oldest municipalities operate in the opposite direction. That is, these
      attributes partially "protect" individuals from other factors that contribute to
      worse health. Discussion: Relative differences in municipal age structure and the
      pace of population aging are largely unexplored and potentially important
      correlates of older adult health. This line of research is increasingly salient
      in a world with substantial and growing regional variation in population aging.

PMID- 28575473
TI  - Should Rheumatology be a core discipline of a chronic pain multi-disciplinary
      team?

PMID- 28575474
TI  - Don't ignore the green light: exploring diverse roles in plant processes.
AB  - The pleasant green appearance of plants, caused by their reflectance of
      wavelengths in the 500-600 nm range, might give the impression that green light
      is of minor importance in biology. This view persists to an extent. However,
      there is strong evidence that these wavelengths are not only absorbed but that
      they also drive and regulate physiological responses and anatomical traits in
      plants. This review details the existing evidence of essential roles for green
      wavelengths in plant biology. Absorption of green light is used to stimulate
      photosynthesis deep within the leaf and canopy profile, contributing to carbon
      gain and likely crop yield. In addition, green light also contributes to the
      array of signalling information available to leaves, resulting in developmental
      adaptation and immediate physiological responses. Within shaded canopies this
      enables optimization of resource-use efficiency and acclimation of photosynthesis
      to available irradiance. In this review, we suggest that plants may use these
      wavelengths not just to optimize stomatal aperture but also to fine-tune whole
      canopy efficiency. We conclude that all roles for green light make a significant
      contribution to plant productivity and resource-use efficiency. We also outline
      the case for using green wavelengths in applied settings such as crop cultivation
      in LED-based agriculture and horticulture.

PMID- 28575476
TI  - Depressive Symptoms as a Predictor of Memory Complaints in the PRISM Sample.
AB  - Objectives : The current study investigated baseline and longitudinal
      relationships between memory complaints, depressive symptoms, and cognition in
      older adults. Method : Using the sample from the Personal Reminder Information
      and Social Management trial, we generated path models predicting self-rated
      memory complaints measured by the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ). Results
      : Our baseline models showed that more depressive symptoms were associated with
      reporting more frequent forgetting incidents and a greater decline in memory
      function. The baseline models also revealed that higher scores in a latent
      cognitive function were associated with reporting a greater decline in memory
      functioning and a greater use of mnemonics. However, cognitive predictors did not
      mediate the baseline associations between the MFQ measures and depressive
      symptoms. Further, these predictors were not able to directly predict the 12
      month MFQ measures over and above the baseline effects. Including personality
      traits (neuroticism and conscientiousness) did not significantly affect the
      models. Discussion : Our results suggest that memory complaints about frequency
      of forgetting can be the most reliable indicator of depression risk among the
      four factors in the MFQ. We discuss theoretical implications for longitudinal
      relationships between memory complaints, depressive symptoms, and cognitive
      function in older adults.

PMID- 28575477
TI  - Regulation of Gene Expression in the Remobilization of Carbon Reserves in Rice
      Stems During Grain Filling.
AB  - Carbon reserves in rice straw (stem and sheath) before flowering contribute to a
      significant portion of grain filling. However, the molecular mechanism of carbon
      reserve remobilization from straw to grains remains unclear. In this study, super
      rice LYP9 and conventional rice 9311 showed different carbon reserve
      remobilization behaviors. The transcriptomic profiles of straws of LYP9 and 9311
      were analyzed at three stages of grain filling. Among the differentially
      expressed genes (DGs), 5,733 genes were uniquely up- or down-regulated at 30 days
      after anthesis (DAA) between LYP9 and 9311 in comparison with 681 at 10 DAA and
      495 at 20 DAA, suggesting that the gene expression profile of LYP9 was very
      different from that of 9311 at the late stage of grain filling. Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and Gene Ontology (GO)
      classification of DGs both showed that the carbohydrate catabolic pathway, plant
      hormone signal transduction and photosynthesis pathway were enriched in DGs,
      suggesting their roles in carbon reserve remobilization, which explains to a
      certain extent the difference in non-structural carbohydrate content,
      photosynthesis and ABA content between the two cultivars during grain filling.
      Further comparative analysis and confirmation by quantitative real-time PCR and
      enzyme assays suggest that genes involved in trehalose synthesis (trehalose
      phosphate phosphatase and trehalose 6-phosphate synthase/phosphatase), starch
      degradation (beta-amylase) and sucrose synthesis (sucrose-phosphate synthase and
      sucrose synthase) were important for carbon reserve remobilization, whereas ABA
      content was determined by the counteraction of NCED1 and ABA8ox1 genes. The
      higher expression level of all these genes and ABA content in 9311 resulted in
      better efficiency of carbon reserve remobilization in 9311 than in LYP9.

PMID- 28575478
TI  - The Preservation of Cognition 1 Year After Carotid Endarterectomy in Patients
      With Prior Cognitive Decline.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vascular cognitive decline is critically important in the course of
      atherosclerosis and stroke. OBJECTIVE: To explore the hypothesis that carotid
      endarterectomy (CEA) by removing an unstable plaque may slow the course of
      vascular cognitive decline in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
      METHODS: Patients with clinically significant (>60%) carotid stenosis were
      studied preop and 1 yr post-CEA for clinical symptoms, vascular cognitive
      decline, instability of carotid plaque-presence of microemboli, brain white
      matter changes, and medical risk factors. RESULTS: Forty-six percent were
      classically symptomatic. All patients showed vascular cognitive decline at
      presentation which correlated with degree of plaque instability. Significant
      white matter hyperintensity changes (48.7%) and cerebral emboli (25%) were also
      seen at baseline in both classically symptomatic and asymptomatic. One year after
      CEA, both groups showed no decline in cognitive function and significant
      improvement in 2 tests (P = .028 and P = .013). Brain white matter
      hyperintensities were unchanged. Microemboli were reduced but remained present
      (17.86%). Improvement was predicted by the presence of hypertension (P = .001),
      or less advanced cognitive decline preoperatively (P = .009). CONCLUSION: This
      study demonstrates the importance of vascular cognitive decline in
      atherosclerotic disease. This is a function of the degree of instability of the
      atherosclerotic plaque more than the presence of stroke symptoms. It further
      suggests that atherosclerotic vascular cognitive decline need not be inevitable,
      and may be modified by treating hypertension and removal of the unstable plaque.
      This highlights the need for continued research on the cognitive effects of
      cerebrovascular disease and the synergistic benefits of intensive medical and
      surgical therapy.

PMID- 28575475
TI  - Abnormal Brain Activation During Theory of Mind Tasks in Schizophrenia: A Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - Social cognition abilities are severely impaired in schizophrenia (SZ). The
      current meta-analysis used foci of 21 individual studies on functional
      abnormalities in the schizophrenic brain in order to identify regions that reveal
      convergent under- or over-activation during theory of mind (TOM) tasks. Studies
      were included in the analyses when contrasting tasks that require the processing
      of mental states with tasks which did not. Only studies that investigated
      patients with an ICD or DSM diagnosis were included. Quantitative voxel-based
      meta-analyses were done using Seed-based d Mapping software. Common TOM regions
      like medial-prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction revealed abnormal
      activation in schizophrenic patients: Under-activation was identified in the
      medial prefrontal cortex, left orbito-frontal cortex, and in a small section of
      the left posterior temporo-parietal junction. Remarkably, robust over-activation
      was identified in a more dorsal, bilateral section of the temporo-parietal
      junction. Further abnormal activation was identified in medial occipito-parietal
      cortex, right premotor areas, left cingulate gyrus, and lingual gyrus. The
      findings of this study suggest that SZ patients simultaneously show over- and
      under-activation in TOM-related regions. Especially interesting, temporo-parietal
      junction reveals diverging activation patterns with an under-activating left
      posterior and an over-activating bilateral dorsal section. In conclusion, SZ
      patients show less specialized brain activation in regions linked to TOM and
      increased activation in attention-related networks suggesting compensatory
      effects.

PMID- 28575479
TI  - The Effect of Word Frequency on Phonemic Accuracy in Children With Cochlear
      Implants and Peers With Typical Levels of Hearing.
AB  - The frequency of occurrence of words and sounds has a pervasive influence on
      typically developing children's language acquisition. For instance, highly
      frequent words appear earliest in a child's lexicon, and highly frequent phonemes
      are produced more accurately. This study evaluates (a) whether word frequency
      influences word accuracy and (b) whether this is also the case for children with
      a history of auditory deprivation. More specifically, the influence of word
      frequency on phonemic accuracy is examined in deaf children with a cochlear
      implant (CI), and compared to age-matched children with typical hearing, between
      word onset and age 7. Results show that highly frequent words are produced more
      accurately, except for words in the highest frequency regions (i.e.,
      predominantly closed-class words). This effect is more pronounced in children
      with typical hearing when compared with children with CI. Thus, children with CI
      are sensitive to word frequency, but to a lesser extent than peers with typical
      hearing.

PMID- 28575480
TI  - DRB4 dsRBD1 drives dsRNA recognition in Arabidopsis thaliana tasi/siRNA pathway.
AB  - In Arabidopsis thaliana, endogenous trans-acting and exogenous siRNA pathways are
      initiated by the interaction of DRB4 with trigger dsRNA. Further, DCL4:DRB4
      complex cleaves the dsRNA into 21 bp siRNA. Understanding molecular determinants
      and mechanistic details of dsRNA recognition by DRB4 is vital for inducing long
      term RNAi-mediated gene regulation in plants. Here, we present solution
      structures of individual and concatenated DRB4 dsRBDs and demonstrate modes of
      dsRNA binding by employing NMR, ITC and site-specific mutagenesis. While both
      dsRBDs adopt the canonical alpha-beta-beta-beta-alpha fold, key structural
      differences and ms-MUs dynamics located at the RNA binding region were observed
      for dsRBD1. These features favor dsRBD1 to orient itself and make stronger
      tripartite contact with dsRNA, a feature missing in dsRBD2. Additionally, the
      inter-domain orientation induced by the linker restricts the mobility of dsRBD2,
      resulting in the steric hindrance of alpha1 helix in dsRBD2, and leads in further
      reduction of its dsRNA binding activity. Our study deciphers functional roles of
      DRB4 domains by showing that dsRBD1 drives the tasiRNA/siRNA pathway.
      Furthermore, we identify a potential role of the C-terminal region of DRB4 in
      protein:protein interaction as it possesses six PxxP motifs, binds to Zn2+ and
      contains a small structural domain.

PMID- 28575482
TI  - A comparison of pine and spruce in recovery from winter stress; changes in
      recovery kinetics, and the abundance and phosphorylation status of photosynthetic
      proteins during winter.
AB  - During winter evergreens maintain a sustained form of thermal energy dissipation
      that results in reduced photochemical efficiency measured using the chlorophyll
      fluorescence parameter Fv/Fm. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) and white
      spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] have been shown to differ in their rate of
      recovery of Fv/Fm from winter stress. The goal of this study was to monitor
      changes in photosynthetic protein abundance and phosphorylation status during
      winter recovery that accompany these functional changes. An additional goal was
      to determine whether light-dependent changes in light harvesting complex II
      (LHCII) phosphorylation occur during winter conditions. We used a combination of
      field measurements and recovery experiments to monitor chlorophyll fluorescence
      and photosynthetic protein content and phosphorylation status. We found that pine
      recovered three times more slowly than spruce, and that the kinetics of recovery
      in spruce included a rapid and slow component, while in pine there was only a
      rapid component to recovery. Both species retained relatively high amounts of the
      light harvesting protein Lhcb5 (CP26) and the PsbS protein during winter,
      suggesting a role for these proteins in sustained thermal dissipation. Both
      species maintained high phosphorylation of LHCII and the D1 protein in darkness
      during winter. Pine and spruce differed in the kinetics of the dephosphorylation
      of LHCII and D1 upon warming, suggesting the rate of dephosphorylation of LHCII
      and D1 may be important in the rapid component of recovery from winter stress.
      Finally, we demonstrated that light-dependent changes in LHII phosphorylation do
      not continue to occur on subzero winter days and that needles are maintained in a
      phosphorylation pattern consistent with the high light conditions to which those
      needles are exposed. Our results suggest a role for retained phosphorylation of
      both LHCII and D1 in maintenance of the photosynthetic machinery in a winter
      conformation that maximizes thermal energy dissipation.

PMID- 28575484
TI  - Comprehensive Analysis of Liberal and Restrictive Transfusion Strategies in
      Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - Background: We prospectively compared restrictive and liberal transfusion
      strategies for critically ill children regarding hemodynamic and laboratory
      parameters. Methods: A total of 180 children requiring packed red blood cells
      (PRBCs) were randomized into two groups: the liberal transfusion strategy group
      (transfusion trigger < 10 g/dL, Group 1) and the restrictive transfusion strategy
      group (transfusion trigger <= 7 g/dL, Group 2). Basal variables including
      venous/arterial hemoglobin, hematocrit and lactate levels; stroke volume; and
      cardiac output were recorded at the beginning and end of the transfusion. Oxygen
      saturation, noninvasive total hemoglobin, noninvasive total oxygen content,
      perfusion index (PI), heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were
      assessed via the Radical-7 Pulse co-oximeter (Masimo, Irvine, CA, USA) with the
      Root monitor, initially and at 4 h. Results: In all, 160 children were eligible
      for final analysis. The baseline hemoglobin level for the PRBC transfusion was
      7.38 +/- 0.98 g/dL for all patients. At the end of the PRBC transfusion, cardiac
      output decreased by 9.9% in Group 1 and by 24% in Group 2 (p  < 0.001); PI
      increased by 10% in Group 1 and by 45% in Group 2 (p  < 0.001). Lactate decreased
      by 9.8% in Group 1 and by 31.68% in Group 2 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Restrictive
      blood transfusion strategy is better than liberal transfusion strategy with
      regard to the hemodynamic and laboratory values during the early period. PI also
      provides valuable information regarding the efficacy of PRBC transfusion in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28575481
TI  - Occurrence of Anaemia in the First Year of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in a
      European Population-based Inception Cohort-An ECCO-EpiCom Study.
AB  - Background and aims: Anaemia is an important complication of inflammatory bowel
      disease [IBD]. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anaemia
      and the practice of anaemia screening during the first year following diagnosis,
      in a European prospective population-based inception cohort. Methods: Newly
      diagnosed IBD patients were included and followed prospectively for 1 year in 29
      European and one Australian centre. Clinical data including demographics, medical
      therapy, surgery and blood samples were collected. Anaemia was defined according
      to the World Health Organization criteria. Results: A total of 1871 patients
      (Crohn's disease [CD]: 686, 88%; ulcerative colitis [UC]: 1,021, 87%; IBD
      unclassified [IBDU] 164. 81%) were included in the study. The prevalence of
      anaemia was higher in CD than in UC patients and, overall, 49% of CD and 39% of
      UC patients experienced at least one instance of anaemia during the first 12
      months after diagnosis. UC patients with more extensive disease and those from
      Eastern European countries, and CD patients with penetrating disease or colonic
      disease location, had higher risks of anaemia. CD and UC patients in need of none
      or only mild anti-inflammatory treatment had a lower risk of anaemia. In a
      significant proportion of patients, anaemia was not assessed until several months
      after diagnosis, and in almost half of all cases of anaemia a thorough work-up
      was not performed. Conclusions: Overall, 42% of patients had at least one
      instance of anaemia during the first year following diagnosis. Most patients were
      assessed for anaemia regularly; however, a full anaemia work-up was frequently
      neglected in this community setting.

PMID- 28575486
TI  - Leaf water maintains daytime transpiration in young Cryptomeria japonica trees.
AB  - Compared with stem water storage, leaf water storage is understudied although it
      may be important for alleviating water stress by contributing quickly and
      directly to transpiration demand. To quantify the relative contribution of stem
      versus leaf water storage to daily water deficit, we measured diurnal changes in
      transpiration rate, sap-flow velocity and stem radius of 10-year-old Cryptomeria
      japonica D. Don trees. We assumed that the duration of time lags between
      transpiration rate and sap-flow velocity reflected stored water in the stem and
      leaf, and that stem volume change represented water content of elastic tissue.
      The relationship between fresh mass and water potential of the whole tree
      indicated that the study trees had capacity to store, on average, 91.4 ml of
      water per kg fresh mass at turgor loss. Leaves, sapwood and elastic tissue
      contributed around 51%, 29% and 20% of stored water, respectively. During
      morning, transpiration rates were higher than sap-flow velocity suggesting
      depletion of stored water. During the first 2 h after onset of transpiration,
      stored water contributed more than 100% of whole-tree transpiration. Depletion of
      leaf water (PLeaf) and sapwood water (PSap) coincided with the onset of
      transpiration and became maximum around 15:00 h. Depletion of elastic tissue
      water (PElastic) lagged behind that of PLeaf and PSap by 1-2 h, indicating that
      replenishment of stored water occurs late in the day when low leaf water
      potentials resulting from daytime transpiration drive water uptake. Maximum
      depletion of PLeaf was about 1-3 times and 5-10 times that of PSap and PElastic,
      respectively. The contribution of PLeaf to total daily transpiration was 5-8%,
      while those of PSap and PElastic were 3-4% and 0.7-1%, respectively. Our results
      suggest the importance of leaf water storage in maintaining daily transpiration
      in young C. japonica trees.

PMID- 28575483
TI  - That's me in the spotlight: neural basis of individual differences in self
      consciousness.
AB  - A long-standing literature implicates activity within the default mode network
      (DMN) to processes linked to the self. However, contemporary work suggests that
      other large-scale networks networks might also be involved. For instance, goal
      directed autobiographical planning requires positive functional connectivity (FC)
      between DMN and frontoparietal control (FPCN) networks. The present study
      examined the inter-relationship between trait self-focus (measured via a self
      consciousness scale; SCS), incidental memory in a self-reference paradigm, and
      resting state FC of large-scale networks. Behaviourally, we found that private
      SCS was linked to stronger incidental memory for self-relevant information. We
      also examined how patterns of FC differed according to levels of self
      consciousness by using the SCS data to drive multiple regression analyses with
      seeds from the DMN, the FPCN and the limbic network. High levels of SCS was not
      linked to differences in the functional behaviour of the DMN, however, it was
      linked to stronger FC between FPCN and a cluster extending into the hippocampus,
      which meta analytic decoding using Neurosynth linked to episodic memory
      retrieval. Subsequent analysis demonstrated that trait variance in this pattern
      of FC was a moderator for the observed relationship between private SCS and
      enhanced memory for self-items. Together these findings suggest that interactions
      between the FPCN and hippocampus may support the memory advantage of self
      relevant information associated with SCS and confirm theoretical positions that
      argue that that self-related processing does not simply depend upon the DMN, but
      instead relies on complex patterns of interactions between multiple large-scale
      networks.

PMID- 28575487
TI  - Late Life Employment Histories and Their Association With Work and Family
      Formation During Adulthood: A Sequence Analysis Based on ELSA.
AB  - Objectives: To extend research on workforce participation beyond age 50 by
      describing entire employment histories in later life and testing their links to
      prior life course conditions. Methods: We use data from the English Longitudinal
      Study of Ageing, with retrospective information on employment histories between
      age 50 and 70 for 1,103 men and 1,195 women (n = 2,298). We apply sequence
      analysis and group respondents into eight clusters with similar histories. Using
      multinomial regressions, we then test their links to labor market participation,
      partnership, and parenthood histories during early (age 20-34) and mid-adulthood
      (age 35-49). Results: Three clusters include histories dominated by full-time
      employees but with varying age of retirement (before, at, and after age 60). One
      cluster is dominated by self-employment with comparatively later retirement.
      Remaining clusters include part-time work (retirement around age 60 or no
      retirement), continuous domestic work (mostly women), or other forms of
      nonemployment. Those who had strong attachments to the labor market during
      adulthood are more likely to have histories of full-time work up until and beyond
      age 60, especially men. Parenthood in early adulthood is related to later
      retirement (for men only). Continued domestic work was not linked to parenthood.
      Partnered women tend to work part-time or do domestic work. The findings remain
      consistent after adjusting for birth cohort, childhood adversity, life course
      health, and occupational position. Discussion: Policies aimed at increasing the
      proportion of older workers not only need to address later stages of the life
      course but also early and mid-adulthood.

PMID- 28575485
TI  - Adult IDH wild-type lower-grade gliomas should be further stratified.
AB  - Background: Astrocytoma of the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild-type gene is
      described as a provisional entity within the new World Health Organization (WHO)
      classification. Some groups believe that IDH wild-type lower-grade gliomas, when
      interrogated for other biomarkers, will mostly turn out to be glioblastoma. We
      hypothesize that not all IDH wild-type lower-grade gliomas have very poor
      outcomes and the group could be substratified prognostically. Methods: Seven
      hundred and eighteen adult WHO grades II and III patients with gliomas from our
      hospitals were re-reviewed and tested for IDH1/2 mutations. One hundred and sixty
      six patients with IDH wild-type cases were identified for further studies, and
      EGFR and MYB amplifications, mutations of histone H3F3A, TERT promoter (TERTp),
      and BRAF were examined. Results: EGFR amplification, BRAF, and H3F3A mutations
      were observed in 13.8%, 6.9%, and 9.5% of patients, respectively, in a mutually
      exclusive pattern in IDH wild-type lower-grade gliomas. TERTp mutations were
      detected in 26.8% of cases. Favorable outcome was observed in patients with young
      age, oligodendroglial phenotype, and grade II histology. Independent adverse
      prognostic values of older age, nontotal resection, grade III histology, EGFR
      amplification, and H3F3A mutation were confirmed by multivariable analysis.
      Tumors were further classified into "molecularly" high grade (harboring EGFR,
      H3F3A, or TERTp) (median overall survival = 1.23 y) and lower grade (lacking all
      of the 3) (median overall survival = 7.63 y) with independent prognostic
      relevance. The most favorable survival was noted in molecularly lower-grade
      gliomas with MYB amplification. Conclusion: Adult IDH wild-type lower-grade
      gliomas are prognostically heterogeneous and do not have uniformly poor
      prognosis. Clinical information and additional markers, including MYB, EGFR,
      TERTp, and H3F3A, should be examined to delineate discrete favorable and
      unfavorable prognostic groups.

PMID- 28575489
TI  - Successful Implementation of a Bundle Strategy to Prevent Ventilator-Associated
      Pneumonia in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - Background: We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of evidence-based bundle
      that we developed to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) rates and to
      assess the degree of compliance rates to this strategy in a tertiary neonatal
      intensive care unit. Methods: This before-after prospective cohort trial divided
      into two periods was conducted. All neonates requiring ventilation were enrolled
      in the study. VAP incidence, compliance rates to bundle components and the
      contribution of each bundle component to VAP rates were compared between the
      periods. Results: Throughout the study period, 13 VAP episodes were observed.
      Full adherence to all six components of the bundle doubled in the active-bundle
      period (12.8 vs. 24.3%, p < 0.01). The mean VAP rate decreased from 7.33/1000 to
      2.71/1000 ventilator days following intervention (p = 0.083). Conclusion: This
      study showed that reliable implementation of a neonate-specific VAP prevention
      bundle can produce sustained reductions in VAP rates.

PMID- 28575488
TI  - A deep boosting based approach for capturing the sequence binding preferences of
      RNA-binding proteins from high-throughput CLIP-seq data.
AB  - Characterizing the binding behaviors of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is important
      for understanding their functional roles in gene expression regulation. However,
      current high-throughput experimental methods for identifying RBP targets, such as
      CLIP-seq and RNAcompete, usually suffer from the false negative issue. Here, we
      develop a deep boosting based machine learning approach, called DeBooster, to
      accurately model the binding sequence preferences and identify the corresponding
      binding targets of RBPs from CLIP-seq data. Comprehensive validation tests have
      shown that DeBooster can outperform other state-of-the-art approaches in RBP
      target prediction. In addition, we have demonstrated that DeBooster may provide
      new insights into understanding the regulatory functions of RBPs, including the
      binding effects of the RNA helicase MOV10 on mRNA degradation, the potentially
      different ADAR1 binding behaviors related to its editing activity, as well as the
      antagonizing effect of RBP binding on miRNA repression. Moreover, DeBooster may
      provide an effective index to investigate the effect of pathogenic mutations in
      RBP binding sites, especially those related to splicing events. We expect that
      DeBooster will be widely applied to analyze large-scale CLIP-seq experimental
      data and can provide a practically useful tool for novel biological discoveries
      in understanding the regulatory mechanisms of RBPs. The source code of DeBooster
      can be downloaded from http://github.com/dongfanghong/deepboost.

PMID- 28575491
TI  - Global health promotion in the era of 'galloping populism'.

PMID- 28575490
TI  - Ultrasound-guided versus conventional femoral venipuncture for catheter ablation
      of atrial fibrillation: a multicentre randomized efficacy and safety trial (ULTRA
      FAST trial).
AB  - Aims: Complications of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) are
      frequently related to vascular access. We hypothesized that ultrasound-guided
      (USG) venipuncture may facilitate the procedure and reduce complication rates.
      Methods and results: We conducted a multicentre, randomized trial in patients
      undergoing catheter ablation for AF on uninterrupted anticoagulation therapy. The
      study enrolled consecutive 320 patients (age: 63 +/- 8 years; male: 62%) and were
      randomized to USG or conventional venipuncture in 1:1 fashion. It was prematurely
      terminated due to substantially lower-than-expected complication rates, which
      doubled the population size needed to maintain statistical power. While the
      complication rates did not differ between two study arms (0.6% vs. 1.9%, P =
      0.62), intra-procedural outcome measures were in favour of the USG approach
      (puncture time, 288 vs. 369 s, P < 0.001; first pass success, 74% vs. 20%, P <
      0.001; extra puncture attempts 0.5 vs. 2.1, P < 0.001; inadvertent arterial
      puncture 0.07 vs. 0.25, P < 0.001; unsuccessful cannulation 0.6% vs. 14%, P <
      0.001). Though these measures varied between trainees (49% of procedures) and
      expert operators, between-arm differences (except for unsuccessful cannulation)
      were comparably significant in favour of USG approach for both subgroups.
      Conclusions: Ultrasound-guided puncture of femoral veins was associated with
      preferable intra-procedural outcomes, though the major complication rates were
      not reduced. Both trainees and expert operators benefited from the USG strategy.
      (www.clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02834221).

PMID- 28575492
TI  - Smoking and Mortality in Eastern Europe: Results From the PrivMort Retrospective
      Cohort Study of 177 376 Individuals.
AB  - Background: The estimated prevalence of smoking and proportion of deaths due to
      tobacco in Eastern European countries are among the highest in the world.
      Existing estimates of mortality attributable to smoking in the region are mostly
      indirect. The aim of this analysis was to calculate the proportion of tobacco
      attributed deaths in three Eastern European countries using individual level
      cohort data. Methods: The PrivMort project established a cohort of relatives of
      participants in population sample surveys in Russia, Belarus and Hungary. Survey
      participants provided data on smoking habits and vital statistics of their close
      relatives between 1982 and 2013. Population attributable risk fractions (PARF) in
      men (n = 99528) and women (n = 77848) aged 40-79 years were calculated from the
      prevalence rates of smoking and hazard ratios of mortality for smokers versus non
      smokers. Trends in PARF over four 8-year time periods (1982-1989, 1990-1997, 1998
      2005, and 2006-2013) were examined. Results: In men in the most recent period
      (2006-2013), the proportions of deaths attributable to tobacco were 23% in
      Russia, 22% in Belarus, and 22% in Hungary. The respective estimates in women
      were lower (2%, 2%, and 13%), possibly due to underestimation of smoking
      prevalence. PARF estimates have declined slightly since the early 1990s in men
      but increased in women. Conclusions: Consistently with existing indirect
      estimates, our results based on individual level cohort data suggest that over
      one fifth of all deaths in men aged 40-79 years are attributable to tobacco.
      While these proportions are lower in women, the increasing trend is a major
      concern. Implications: This is the first large scale, individual-level cohort
      study that estimated the mortality attributable to tobacco smoking directly in
      Eastern European population samples. The results confirm previous indirect
      estimates and show that more than 20% of all deaths in Eastern European men can
      be attributed to tobacco. The study also confirms the increasing trend in smoking
      related deaths among women. These findings emphasize the importance of targeted
      policy interventions in Eastern European countries.

PMID- 28575495
TI  - Maternal Smoking: A Life Course Blood Pressure Determinant?
AB  - Introduction: Exposure to maternal smoking early in life may affect blood
      pressure (BP) control mechanisms. We examined the association between maternal
      smoking (before conception, during pregnancy, and 4 years after delivery) and BP
      in preschool children. Methods: We evaluated 4295 of Generation XXI children,
      recruited at birth in 2005-2006 and reevaluated at the age of 4. At birth,
      information was collected by face-to-face interview and additionally abstracted
      from clinical records. At 4-year follow-up, interviews were performed and
      children's BP measured. Linear regression models were fitted to estimate the
      association between maternal smoking and children's BP. Results: Children of
      smoking mothers presented significantly higher BP levels. After adjustment for
      maternal education, gestational hypertensive disorders, and child's body mass
      index, children exposed during pregnancy to maternal smoking presented a higher
      systolic BP (SBP) z-score (beta = 0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.04 to
      0.14). In crude models, maternal smoking was associated with higher SBP z-score
      at every assessed period. However, after adjustment, an attenuation of the
      association estimates occurred (beta = 0.08, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.13 before
      conception; beta = 0.07, 95%CI 0.02 to 0.12; beta = 0.04, 95%CI -0.02 to 0.10;
      and beta = 0.06, 95%CI 0.00 to 0.13 for the first, second, and third pregnancy
      trimesters, respectively; and beta = 0.07, 95%CI 0.02 to 0.12 for current
      maternal smoking). No significant association was observed for diastolic BP z
      score levels. Conclusion: Maternal smoking before, during, and after pregnancy
      was independently associated with systolic BP z-score in preschool children. This
      study provides additional evidence to the public health relevance of maternal
      smoking cessation programs if early cardiovascular health of children is
      envisaged. Implications: Using observational longitudinal data from the birth
      cohort Generation XXI, this study showed that exposure to maternal smoking-before
      pregnancy, during pregnancy, and 4 years after delivery-was associated with a
      systolic BP-raising effect in children at the age of 4. The findings of this
      study add an important insight into the need to support maternal smoke-free
      environments in order to provide long-term cardiovascular benefit, starting as
      early as possible in life.

PMID- 28575493
TI  - miR miR on the wall, who's the most malignant medulloblastoma miR of them all?
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) have wide-ranging effects on large-scale gene regulation. As
      such, they play a vital role in dictating normal development, and their aberrant
      expression has been implicated in cancer. There has been a large body of research
      on the role of miRNAs in medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor
      of childhood. The identification of the 4 molecular subgroups with distinct
      biological, genetic, and transcriptional features has revolutionized the field of
      medulloblastoma research over the past 5 years. Despite this, the growing body of
      research on miRNAs in medulloblastoma has largely focused on the clinical entity
      of a single disease rather than the molecular subgroups. This review begins by
      highlighting the role of miRNAs in development and progresses to explore their
      myriad of implications in cancer. Medulloblastoma is characterized by increased
      proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, and maintenance of stemness programs
      features that are inadvertently regulated by altered expression patterns in
      miRNAs. This review aims to contextualize the large body of work on miRNAs within
      the framework of medulloblastoma subgroups. The goal of this review is to
      stimulate new areas of research, including potential therapeutics, within a
      rapidly growing field.

PMID- 28575494
TI  - Golgi phosphoprotein 3 promotes glioma progression via inhibiting Rab5-mediated
      endocytosis and degradation of epidermal growth factor receptor.
AB  - Background: Golgi phosphoprotein 3 (GOLPH3) is associated with worse prognosis of
      gliomas, but its role and mechanism in glioma progression remain largely unknown.
      This study aimed to explore the role and mechanism of GOLPH3 in glioma
      progression. Methods: The expression of GOLPH3 in glioma tissues was detected by
      quantitative PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry. GOLPH3's effect on
      glioma progression was examined using cell growth assays and an intracranial
      glioma model. The effect of GOLPH3 on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      stability, endocytosis, and degradation was examined by immunoblotting and
      immunofluorescence. The activity of Rab5 was checked by glutathione S-transferase
      pulldown assay. Results: GOLPH3 was upregulated in gliomas, and its
      downregulation inhibited glioma cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo.
      Furthermore, GOLPH3 depletion dampened EGFR signaling by enhancing EGFR
      endocytosis, driving EGFR into late endosome and promoting lysosome-mediated
      degradation. Interestingly, GOLPH3 bound to Rab5 and GOLPH3 downregulation
      promoted the activation of Rab5. In addition, Rab5 depletion abolished the effect
      of GOLPH3 on EGFR endocytosis and degradation. Conclusion: Our results imply that
      GOLPH3 promotes glioma cell proliferation via inhibiting Rab5-mediated
      endocytosis and degradation of EGFR, thereby activating the phosphatidylinositol
      3 kinase (PI3K)-Akt-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. We
      find a new mechanism by which GOLPH3 promotes tumor progression through
      regulating cell surface receptor trafficking. Extensive and intensive
      understanding of the role of GOLPH3 in glioma progression may provide an
      opportunity to develop a novel molecular therapeutic target for gliomas.

PMID- 28575496
TI  - Comparison of the Acute Effect of Radial Shock Wave Therapy and Ultrasound
      Therapy in the Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Study.
AB  - Objective: This study compared the effectiveness of radial extracorporeal shock
      wave therapy (r-ESWT) with ultrasound (US) therapy in the treatment of plantar
      fasciitis (PF). Study Design: Level II, randomized controlled study. Design: A
      total of 54 female patients with unilateral PF were randomly assigned to two
      study groups and one control group. All groups performed home exercises. In
      addition, the first study group received three sessions of r-ESWT treatment and
      the second study group received seven sessions of US treatment. The Foot Function
      Index (FFI) and the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Association (AOFAS) hind
      foot score were determined. Static and dynamic equilibrium were evaluated with
      the single leg standing test and the functional reach test. Ankle proprioception
      sense was determined with the Biodex III isokinetic device. Patients were
      evaluated before and four weeks after the first treatment. Results: According to
      the evaluation results, there was a decrease in FFI values in all groups and
      these decreases were more prominent in the US group than the other groups (P <
      0.05). It was observed that the hind foot AOFAS scores increased in all groups,
      but this increase was less in the control group (P < 0.05). Static and dynamic
      balance increased in all groups (P < 0.05). Ankle proprioception sense increased
      only in the r-ESWT group (P <0.05). Conclusions: All groups and particularly the
      r-ESWT and US groups' symptoms were decreased after treatment. However; FFI
      parameters were reduced more in the US groups than the other two groups, the
      ankle proprioception sense increased in the r-ESWT group, and there was no change
      in the other groups.

PMID- 28575498
TI  - Location, vocation, procreation: how choice influences life expectancy in
      doctors.

PMID- 28575500
TI  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in miners with special reference to
      smoking.

PMID- 28575499
TI  - Occupational cancer: recent developments in research and legislation.

PMID- 28575501
TI  - Well-being apps.

PMID- 28575497
TI  - Loss of hepatic LRPPRC alters mitochondrial bioenergetics, regulation of
      permeability transition and trans-membrane ROS diffusion.
AB  - The French-Canadian variant of Leigh Syndrome (LSFC) is an autosomal recessive
      oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) disorder caused by a mutation in LRPPRC,
      coding for a protein involved in the stability of mitochondrially-encoded mRNAs.
      Low levels of LRPPRC are present in all patient tissues, but result in a
      disproportionately severe OXPHOS defect in the brain and liver, leading to
      unpredictable subacute metabolic crises. To investigate the impact of the OXPHOS
      defect in the liver, we analyzed the mitochondrial phenotype in mice harboring an
      hepatocyte-specific inactivation of Lrpprc. Loss of LRPPRC in the liver caused a
      generalized growth delay, and typical histological features of mitochondrial
      hepatopathy. At the molecular level, LRPPRC deficiency caused destabilization of
      polyadenylated mitochondrial mRNAs, altered mitochondrial ultrastructure, and a
      severe complex IV (CIV) and ATP synthase (CV) assembly defect. The impact of
      LRPPRC deficiency was not limited to OXPHOS, but also included impairment of long
      chain fatty acid oxidation, a striking dysregulation of the mitochondrial
      permeability transition pore, and an unsuspected alteration of trans-membrane
      H2O2 diffusion, which was traced to the ATP synthase assembly defect, and to
      changes in the lipid composition of mitochondrial membranes. This study
      underscores the value of mitochondria phenotyping to uncover complex and
      unexpected mechanisms contributing to the pathophysiology of mitochondrial
      disorders.

PMID- 28575503
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28575502
TI  - Charles Turner Thackrah, 1795-1833, 'The Father of Occupational Medicine'.

PMID- 28575504
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28575505
TI  - Like mother like daughter: putamen activation as a mechanism underlying
      intergenerational risk for depression.
AB  - Having a depressed mother is one of the strongest predictors for developing
      depression in adolescence. Given the role of aberrant reward processing in the
      onset and maintenance of depression, we examined the association between mothers'
      and their daughters' neural response to the anticipation of reward and loss.
      Fifteen non-depressed mothers with a history of recurrent depression and their
      never-disordered daughters, and 23 mothers without past or current depression and
      their never-disordered daughters, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging
      while performing the monetary incentive delay task. To assess mother-daughter
      concordance, we first identified ROIs involved in the anticipation of reward and
      loss across all mother-daughter pairs. Within each of these ROIs, we examined the
      association between mothers' and daughters' neural response, and the interaction
      between group status and mothers' neural response in predicting daughters' neural
      response. We found a significant association between mothers' and daughters'
      putamen response to the anticipation of loss, regardless of mother's depression
      history. Furthermore, pubertal stage moderated the association between mother
      daughter putamen concordance. Our findings suggest a unique role of the putamen
      in the maternal transmission of reward learning and have important implications
      for understanding disorders characterized by disturbances in reward learning and
      processing, such as major depression.

PMID- 28575506
TI  - Limbic Interference During Social Action Planning in Schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is characterized by social interaction deficits contributing to
      poor functional outcome. Hand gesture use is particularly impaired, linked to
      frontal lobe dysfunction and frontal grey matter deficits. The functional neural
      correlates of impaired gesturing are currently unclear. We therefore investigated
      aberrant brain activity during impaired gesturing in schizophrenia. We included
      22 patients with schizophrenia and 25 healthy control participants matched for
      age, gender, and education level. We obtained functional magnetic resonance
      imaging data using an event-related paradigm to assess brain activation during
      gesture planning and execution. Group differences in whole brain effects were
      calculated using factorial designs. Gesture ratings were performed by a single
      rater, blind to diagnoses and clinical presentation. During gesture planning and
      execution both groups activated brain areas of the praxis network. However,
      patients had reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and increased
      inferior parietal lobe (IPL) activity. Performance accuracy was associated with
      IPL activity in patients. Furthermore, patients activated temporal poles,
      amygdala and hippocampus during gesture planning, which was associated with
      delusion severity. Finally, patients demonstrated increased dorsomedial
      prefrontal cortex activity during planning of novel gestures. We demonstrate less
      prefrontal, but more IPL and limbic activity during gesturing in schizophrenia.
      IPL activity was associated with performance accuracy, whereas limbic activity
      was linked to delusion severity. These findings may reflect impaired social
      action planning and a limbic interference with gestures in schizophrenia
      contributing to poor gesture performance and consequently poor social functioning
      in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28575508
TI  - Effects of Duloxetine on the Toll-Like Receptor 4 Signaling Pathway in Spinal
      Dorsal Horn in a Rat Model of Diabetic Neuropathic Pain.
AB  - Objective: Although duloxetine has been approved for clinical therapy for
      diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, the exact mechanism underlying the anti
      allodynic effects in rat models of diabetes mellitus remains obscure. We
      attempted to identify whether duloxetine exerts anti-allodynic effects via
      inhibition of the TLR4-Myd88-dependent pathway in diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP)
      rats. Methods: An animal model of type 1 diabetic neuropathic pain was induced by
      intraperitoneal streptozotocin in 108 rats randomized into four groups: control,
      DNP, solvent control + DNP, and DNP + duloxetine. The DNP model establishment was
      validated, providing the MWT and TWL measurements were less than 80% of the
      baseline value on d14 after streptozotocin administration. The expressions of
      TLR4, Myd88, and NF-kappaB in the spinal dorsal horn were determined 21 days
      after streptozotocin injection by immunohistochemical assay and Western blot.
      Results: The results revealed that MWT and TWL in DNP, SC + DNP, and DLX + DNP
      groups were significantly decreased 14 days after STZ administration vs control
      (P < 0.05), while the pain thresholds in the DLX + DNP group were partially
      reversed. The expressions of TLR4, Myd88, and NF-kappaB in groups C, DNP, and SC
      + DNP were significantly increased, whereas duloxetine administration
      significantly downregulated the expressions of TLR4, Myd88, and NF-kappaB (P <
      0.05). Conclusions: Our findings indicated that duloxetine mitigated mechanical
      and thermal withdrawal thresholds in STZ-injected rats and rescued the
      overexpression of the TLR4-Myd88-dependent pathway in the spinal dorsal horn in
      these rats. Whether these changes directly contributed to the reduction of
      thermal and mechanical withdrawal behavior needs to be further explored.

PMID- 28575507
TI  - Advances in the MYB-bHLH-WD Repeat (MBW) Pigment Regulatory Model: Addition of a
      WRKY Factor and Co-option of an Anthocyanin MYB for Betalain Regulation.
AB  - Flavonoids are secondary metabolites derived from the general phenylpropanoid
      pathway and are widespread throughout the plant kingdom. The functions of
      flavonoids are diverse, including defense against phytopathogens, protection
      against UV light damage and oxidative stress, regulation of auxin transport and
      allelopathy. One of the most conspicuous functions of flavonoids has long
      attracted the attention of pollinators and scientist alike: the vivid shades of
      red, pink, orange, blue and purple on display in the flowers of angiosperms.
      Thus, flavonoid pigments have perhaps been the most intensely studied
      phenylpropanoids. From Mendel to McClintock and up to the present, studies
      centered on flavonoid pigments have resulted in some of the most important
      scientific discoveries of the last 150 years, including the first examples of
      transcriptional regulation in plants. Here we focus on the highly conserved MYB
      bHLH-WD repeat (MBW) transcriptional complex model for the regulation of the
      flavonoid pigment pathway. We will survey the history of the MBW model spanning
      the last three decades, highlighting the major findings that have contributed to
      our current understanding. In particular, recent discoveries regarding WRKY
      protein control of the flavonoid pigment pathway and its relationship to the MBW
      complex will be emphasized. In addition, we will discuss recent findings about
      the regulation of the beet betalain pigment pathway, and how a MYB member of the
      MBW complex was co-opted to regulate this chemically unrelated but functionally
      equivalent pathway.

PMID- 28575509
TI  - Intercentre variance in patient reported outcomes is lower than objective
      rheumatoid arthritis activity measures: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - Objective: To assess intercentre variability in the ACR core set measures, DAS28
      based on three variables (DAS28v3) and Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3
      in a multinational study. Methods: Seven thousand and twenty-three patients were
      recruited (84 centres; 30 countries) using a standard protocol in the
      Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with RA study. Analysis of variance
      (ANOVA) and mixed-effect analysis of covariance models were used to model the
      relationship between study centre and different patient-reported and physician
      reported RA activity measures. These models were built to adjust for the
      remaining ACR core set measure (for each ACR core set measure or each composite
      index), socio-demographics and medical characteristics. ANOVA and analysis of
      covariance models yielded similar results, and ANOVA tables were used to present
      variance attributable to recruiting centre. Results: The proportion of variances
      attributable to recruiting centre was lower for patient reported outcomes (PROs:
      pain, HAQ, patient global) compared with objective measures (joint counts, ESR,
      physician global) in all models. In the full model, variance in PROs attributable
      to recruiting centre ranged from 1.53% for patient global to 3.71% for HAQ
      compared with objective measures that ranged from 5.92% for physician global to
      9.25% for ESR; and was lower for Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3
      (2.6%) compared with DAS28v3 (11.75%). Conclusion: Intercentre variability in
      PROs is lower than objective measures of RA activity demonstrating that PROs may
      be more comparable across centres, and the need for standardization of objective
      measures.

PMID- 28575511
TI  - Population pharmacokinetics and dosing considerations for the use of daptomycin
      in adult patients with haematological malignancies.
AB  - Objectives: To assess the population pharmacokinetics (popPK) of daptomycin at
      the conventional dose of 6 mg/kg/day in a cohort of oncohaematological patients.
      Methods: Patients underwent serial blood sampling on day 3 of therapy (before
      dosing and at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 h after dosing) to assess the
      pharmacokinetic profile of daptomycin. PopPK and Monte Carlo simulation were
      performed to define the probability of target attainment (PTA) with 6, 8, 10 and
      12 mg/kg/day of the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic target of AUC 24 /MIC >1081.
      Results: Thirty patients were recruited. A two-compartment open model with first
      order intravenous input and first-order elimination was developed. Estimated
      creatinine clearance (CL CR ), serum albumin concentration (Alb) and presence of
      AML were covariates included in the final model. Monte Carlo simulation showed
      that the conventional 6 mg/kg/day dose resulted in optimal PTAs (>=80%) in the
      presence of pathogens with an MIC up to 0.5 mg/L only in patients with CL CR 50
      100 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , Alb 26-45 g/L and a haematological diagnosis other than
      AML. Conversely, higher dosages, up to 12 mg/kg/day, were needed to achieve this
      goal in the presence of pathogens with an MIC of 0.25-0.5 mg/L in all of the
      other tested scenarios. In patients with CL CR 101-150 mL/min/1.73 m 2 and Alb 15
      25 g/L, suboptimal PTAs (<60%) were predicted even with 12 mg/kg/day dosing .
      Conclusions: Our study provides a strong rationale for considering daptomycin
      dosages of >= 8 mg/kg/day in several clinical scenarios for oncohaematological
      patients. In some of these scenarios therapeutic drug monitoring could be a
      useful adjunct for optimized care.

PMID- 28575512
TI  - Continuous excitation chlorophyll fluorescence parameters: a review for
      practitioners.
AB  - This review introduces, defines and critically reviews a number of chlorophyll
      fluorescence parameters with specific reference to those derived from continuous
      excitation chlorophyll fluorescence. A number of common issues and criticisms are
      addressed. The parameters fluorescence origin (F0) and the performance indices
      (PI) are discussed as examples. This review attempts to unify definitions for the
      wide range of parameters available for measuring plant vitality, facilitating
      their calculation and use.

PMID- 28575510
TI  - Externalizing Behaviors and Callous-Unemotional Traits: Different Associations
      With Sleep Quality.
AB  - Study Objectives: Sleep quality is associated with different aspects of
      psychopathology, but relatively little research has examined links between sleep
      quality and externalizing behaviors or callous-unemotional traits. We examined:
      (1) whether an association exists between sleep quality and externalizing
      behaviors; (2) whether anxiety mediates this association; (3) whether callous
      unemotional traits are associated with sleep quality. Methods: Data from two
      studies were used. Study 1 involved 1556 participants of the G1219 study aged 18
      27 years (62% female). Questionnaire measures assessed sleep quality, anxiety,
      externalizing behaviors, and callous-unemotional traits. Study 2 involved 338
      participants aged 18-66 years (65% female). Questionnaires measured sleep
      quality, externalizing behaviors, and callous-unemotional traits. In order to
      assess objective sleep quality, actigraphic data were also recorded for a week
      from a subsample of study 2 participants (n = 43). Results: In study 1, poorer
      sleep quality was associated with greater externalizing behaviors. This
      association was partially mediated by anxiety and moderated by levels of callous
      unemotional traits. There was no significant relationship between sleep quality
      and callous-unemotional traits. In study 2, poorer sleep quality, as assessed via
      self-reported but not objective measures, was associated with higher levels of
      externalizing behaviors. Furthermore, in study 2, better sleep quality (indicated
      in both questionnaires and actigraphy measures: lower mean activity, and greater
      sleep efficiency) was associated with higher levels of callous-unemotional
      traits. Conclusions: Self-reports of poorer sleep quality are associated with
      externalizing behaviors, and this association is partially mediated by anxiety.
      Callous-unemotional traits are not associated with poor sleep and may even be
      related to better sleep quality. This is an exceptional finding given that poor
      sleep quality appears to be a characteristic of most psychopathology.

PMID- 28575514
TI  - Association of Eveningness With Nonremission in Major Depressive Disorder: Reply
      to Knapen et al.

PMID- 28575515
TI  - Microscopy in this issue.

PMID- 28575513
TI  - Primary, Enduring Negative Symptoms: An Update on Research.
AB  - We previously proposed that people with schizophrenia who have primary, enduring
      negative symptoms have a disease-deficit schizophrenia (DS)-that is separate from
      that affecting people with schizophrenia without these features. Additional
      evidence consistent with the separate disease hypothesis has accumulated in
      recent years. White matter changes may be widespread in deficit compared to
      nondeficit patients and may relate to problems in early brain migration. These 2
      patient groups also appear to differ on metabolic measures prior to antipsychotic
      treatment. Studies of reward and defeatist beliefs provide the basis for future
      treatment trials. The 2 factors or groups within negative symptoms broadly
      defined (both primary and secondary) have also been found in DS, and recent
      evidence suggests these 2 symptom groups have different correlates and reflect
      the existence of 2 groups with in DS. Negative symptoms are found in disorders
      other than schizophrenia, and excess summer birth, a deficit risk factor, has
      been found in a non-patient group with deficit-like features. It may be useful in
      future research to determine whether findings in DS extend to patients with other
      neuropsychiatric disorders who also have negative symptoms.

PMID- 28575516
TI  - Increased temperature and CO2 alleviate photoinhibition in Desmarestia anceps:
      from transcriptomics to carbon utilization.
AB  - Ocean acidification and warming are affecting polar regions with particular
      intensity. Rocky shores of the Antarctic Peninsula are dominated by canopy
      forming Desmarestiales. This study investigates the physiological and
      transcriptomic responses of the endemic macroalga Desmarestia anceps to a
      combination of different levels of temperature (2 and 7  degrees C), dissolved
      CO2 (380 and 1000 ppm), and irradiance (65 and 145 umol photons m-2 s-1). Growth
      and photosynthesis increased at high CO2 conditions, and strongly decreased at 2 
      degrees C plus high irradiance, in comparison to the other treatments.
      Photoinhibition at 2  degrees C plus high irradiance was evidenced by the
      photochemical performance and intensive release of dissolved organic carbon. The
      highest number of differentially regulated transcripts was observed in thalli
      exposed to 2  degrees C plus high irradiance. Algal 13C isotopic discrimination
      values suggested an absence of down-regulation of carbon-concentrating mechanisms
      at high CO2. CO2 enrichment induced few transcriptomic changes. There was high
      and constitutive gene expression of many photochemical and inorganic carbon
      utilization components, which might be related to the strong adaptation of D.
      anceps to the Antarctic environment. These results suggest that increased
      temperature and CO2 will allow D. anceps to maintain its productivity while
      tolerating higher irradiances than at present conditions.

PMID- 28575518
TI  - Outcomes of Elective Cerebral Aneurysm Treatment Performed by Attending
      Neurosurgeons after Night Work.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between long work hours and outcomes among attending
      surgeons remains an issue of debate. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether operating
      emergently the night before an elective case was associated with inferior
      outcomes among attending neurosurgeons. METHODS: We executed a cohort study with
      unruptured cerebral aneurysm patients, who underwent endovascular coiling or
      surgical clipping from 2009 to 2013 and were registered in the Statewide Planning
      and Research Cooperative System database. We investigated the association of
      treatment by surgeons performing emergency procedures the night before with
      outcomes of elective cerebral aneurysm treatment using an instrumental variable
      analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 4700 patients underwent treatment for unruptured
      cerebral aneurysms. There was no difference in inpatient mortality (adjusted
      difference, -0.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.4% to 0.02%), discharge to a
      facility (adjusted difference, -0.1%; 95% CI, -1.2% to 1.2%), or length of stay
      (adjusted difference, -0.58; 95% CI, -1.66 to 0.50) between patients undergoing
      elective cerebral aneurysm treatment by surgeons who performed emergency
      procedures the night before, and those who did not. CONCLUSION: Using a
      comprehensive patient cohort in New York State for elective treatment of
      unruptured cerebral aneurysms, we did not identify an association of treatment by
      surgeons performing emergency procedures the night before, with mortality,
      discharge to a facility, or length of stay. Our study had 80% power to detect
      differences in mortality (our primary outcome), as small as 4.1%. The results of
      the present study do not support the argument for regulation of attending work
      hours.

PMID- 28575519
TI  - A Comparison of Daily Versus Weekly Electronic Cigarette Users in Treatment for
      Substance Abuse.
AB  - Objective: This research examined electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use by
      individuals in treatment for substance abuse, a population with a high prevalence
      of tobacco use and poor smoking cessation outcomes. Methods: We surveyed 1127
      individuals from 24 substance abuse treatment centers across the United States.
      Bivariate analyses and logistic regression were used to examine factors
      associated with daily (N = 87) versus weekly (N = 81) e-cigarette use. Results:
      Among the full sample, 59.8% reported any lifetime use of e-cigarettes, with
      23.6% reporting past 30-day use. Daily e-cigarette users were more likely to have
      used second-generation, tank-type e-cigarettes, chi2(1,N = 165) = 11.54, p =
      .001, used more flavors overall, t(168) = 2.15, p = .03, and were more likely to
      report using their e-cigarette continuously throughout the day, chi2(4,N = 168) =
      16.7, p = .002, compared to weekly e-cigarette users. Over half (57.7%) of the
      daily and weekly e-cigarette users reported having an e-cigarette device that
      broke. The logistic regression model adjusting for clinic type and days with poor
      mental health found that daily e-cigarette users were significantly more likely
      than weekly e-cigarette users to be from methadone clinics (adjusted odds ratio
      [AOR] = 2.40, p = .04), and former smokers (AOR = 6.37, p < .002). Conclusions:
      Daily e-cigarette users in substance abuse treatment were more likely to be from
      methadone clinics and former cigarette smokers. However, the majority (73.6%) of
      daily e-cigarette users were current cigarette smokers. E-cigarette device type
      reliability (eg, breakage) may be an important factor to consider among drug
      treatment and other populations with lower socioeconomic status. Implications:
      This study found several differences in the device type, flavors, and use
      characteristics of daily versus weekly e-cigarette users. While majority of e
      cigarette users in substance abuse treatment were current cigarette smokers,
      daily e-cigarette users were more likely to be former cigarette smokers.
      Administrators of substance abuse treatment programs should evaluate potential
      benefits and harms of e-cigarettes when developing program policies.

PMID- 28575521
TI  - Sex determines xylem anatomy in a dioecious conifer: hydraulic consequences in a
      drier world.
AB  - Increased drought frequency and severity may reshape tree species distribution in
      arid environments. Dioecious tree species may be more sensitive to climate
      warming if sex-related vulnerability to drought occurs, since lower performance
      of one sex may drive differential stress tolerance, sex-related mortality rates
      and biased sex ratios. We explored the effect of sex and environment on branch
      hydraulic (hydraulic conductivity and vulnerability to embolism) and trunk
      anatomical traits in both sexes of the dioecious conifer Juniperus thurifera L.
      at two sites with contrasting water availability. Additionally, we tested for a
      trade-off between hydraulic safety (vulnerability to embolism) and efficiency
      (hydraulic conductivity). Vulnerability to embolism and hydraulic conductivity
      were unaffected by sex or site at branch level. In contrast, sex played a
      significant role in xylem anatomy. We found a trade-off between hydraulic safety
      and efficiency, with larger conductivities related to higher vulnerabilities to
      embolism. At the anatomical level, females' trunk showed xylem anatomical traits
      related to greater hydraulic efficiency (higher theoretical hydraulic
      conductivity) over safety (thinner tracheid walls, lower Mork's Index), whereas
      males' trunk anatomy followed a more conservative strategy, especially in the
      drier site. Reconciling the discrepancy between branch hydraulic function and
      trunk xylem anatomy would require a thorough and integrated understanding of the
      tree structure-function relationship at the whole-plant level. Nevertheless,
      lower construction costs and higher efficiency in females' xylem anatomy at trunk
      level might explain the previously observed higher growth rates in mesic
      habitats. However, prioritizing efficiency over safety in trunk construction
      might make females more sensitive to drought, endangering the species'
      persistence in a drier world.

PMID- 28575517
TI  - Comprehensive classification of the PIN domain-like superfamily.
AB  - PIN-like domains constitute a widespread superfamily of nucleases, diverse in
      terms of the reaction mechanism, substrate specificity, biological function and
      taxonomic distribution. Proteins with PIN-like domains are involved in central
      cellular processes, such as DNA replication and repair, mRNA degradation,
      transcription regulation and ncRNA maturation. In this work, we identify and
      classify the most complete set of PIN-like domains to provide the first
      comprehensive analysis of sequence-structure-function relationships within the
      whole PIN domain-like superfamily. Transitive sequence searches using highly
      sensitive methods for remote homology detection led to the identification of
      several new families, including representatives of Pfam (DUF1308, DUF4935) and
      CDD (COG2454), and 23 other families not classified in the public domain
      databases. Further sequence clustering revealed relationships between individual
      sequence clusters and showed heterogeneity within some families, suggesting a
      possible functional divergence. With five structural groups, 70 defined clusters,
      over 100,000 proteins, and broad biological functions, the PIN domain-like
      superfamily constitutes one of the largest and most diverse nuclease
      superfamilies. Detailed analyses of sequences and structures, domain
      architectures, and genomic contexts allowed us to predict biological function of
      several new families, including new toxin-antitoxin components, proteins involved
      in tRNA/rRNA maturation and transcription/translation regulation.

PMID- 28575520
TI  - Neural dynamics underlying emotional transmissions between individuals.
AB  - Emotional experiences are frequently shaped by the emotional responses of co
      present others. Research has shown that people constantly monitor and adapt to
      the incoming social-emotional signals, even without face-to-face interaction. And
      yet, the neural processes underlying such emotional transmissions have not been
      directly studied. Here, we investigated how the human brain processes emotional
      cues which arrive from another, co-attending individual. We presented continuous
      emotional feedback to participants who viewed a movie in the scanner.
      Participants in the social group (but not in the control group) believed that the
      feedback was coming from another person who was co-viewing the same movie. We
      found that social-emotional feedback significantly affected the neural dynamics
      both in the core affect and in the medial pre-frontal regions. Specifically, the
      response time-courses in those regions exhibited increased similarity across
      recipients and increased neural alignment with the timeline of the feedback in
      the social compared with control group. Taken in conjunction with previous
      research, this study suggests that emotional cues from others shape the neural
      dynamics across the whole neural continuum of emotional processing in the brain.
      Moreover, it demonstrates that interpersonal neural alignment can serve as a
      neural mechanism through which affective information is conveyed between
      individuals.

PMID- 28575522
TI  - Identification of biomarker sets for predicting the efficacy of sublingual
      immunotherapy against pollen-induced allergic rhinitis.
AB  - Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is effective against allergic rhinitis, although
      a substantial proportion of individuals is refractory. Herein, we describe a
      predictive modality to reliably identify SLIT non-responders (NRs). We conducted
      a 2-year clinical study in 193 adult patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis,
      with biweekly administration of 2000 Japanese allergy units of cedar pollen
      extract as the maintenance dose. After identifying high-responder (HR) patients
      with improved severity scores and NR patients with unchanged or exacerbated
      symptoms, differences in 33 HR and 34 NR patients were evaluated in terms of
      peripheral blood cellular profiles by flow cytometry and serum factors by ELISA
      and cytokine bead array, both pre- and post-SLIT. Improved clinical responses
      were seen in 72% of the treated patients. Pre-therapy IL-12p70 and post-therapy
      IgG1 serum levels were significantly different between HR and NR patients,
      although these parameters alone failed to distinguish NR from HR patients.
      However, the analysis of serum parameters in the pre-therapy samples with the
      Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) algorithm distinguished NR patients with high
      probability within the training data set. Cluster analysis revealed a positive
      correlation between serum Th1/Th2 cytokines and other cytokines/chemokines in HR
      patients after SLIT. Thus, processing of pre-therapy serum parameters with
      AdaBoost and cluster analysis can be reliably used to develop a prediction method
      for HR/NR patients.

PMID- 28575523
TI  - Safety and Pharmacokinetic Study of Fidaxomicin in Children With Clostridium
      difficile-Associated Diarrhea: A Phase 2a Multicenter Clinical Trial.
AB  - Background: Fidaxomicin is an approved therapy for Clostridium difficile
      associated diarrhea (CDAD) in adults. The safety of fidaxomicin in children has
      not been reported. Methods: In this study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier
      NCT01591863), pediatric patients with CDAD received twice-daily oral fidaxomicin
      at a dose of 16 mg/kg per day (up to 200 mg) for 10 days in an open-label study.
      Plasma and fecal samples were collected for pharmacokinetic assessments. The
      primary outcome measure was safety, which was assessed by adverse-event (AE),
      laboratory, and physical examination/vital-sign monitoring. Efficacy was
      determined through early and sustained clinical response rates (clinical response
      without recurrence of CDAD). Results: The study enrolled 40 patients (11 months
      to 17 years of age), many with underlying comorbidity, including neoplasm
      (23.7%), gastrointestinal disorder (78.9%), and history of CDAD (60.5%). Plasma
      fidaxomicin and OP-1118 (the major fidaxomicin metabolite) 3- to 5-hour postdose
      concentrations were 0.6 to 87.4 and 2.4 to 882.0 ng/mL, respectively, and no age
      related trends were seen. Fecal fidaxomicin concentrations within 24 hours of the
      last dose averaged 3228 ug/g, and higher concentrations and greater variability
      in the youngest age group were found. AEs were reported in 73.7% of the patients;
      most of them were mild (44.7%) to moderate (21.1%) and were considered treatment
      related in 15.8% of the patients. Overall, the early clinical response rate was
      92.1%. The rate of sustained clinical response (clinical response without
      recurrence through 28 days after treatment) was 65.8% overall. Conclusions:
      Fidaxomicin was well tolerated in children with CDAD and has a pharmacokinetic
      profile in children similar to that in adults. The clinical response rate was
      high.

PMID- 28575525
TI  - Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenase CYP716A141 is a Unique b-Amyrin C-16b Oxidase
      Involved in Triterpenoid Saponin Biosynthesis in Platycodon grandiflorus.

PMID- 28575524
TI  - Identifying transposon insertions and their effects from RNA-sequencing data.
AB  - Insertional mutagenesis using engineered transposons is a potent forward genetic
      screening technique used to identify cancer genes in mouse model systems. In the
      analysis of these screens, transposon insertion sites are typically identified by
      targeted DNA-sequencing and subsequently assigned to predicted target genes using
      heuristics. As such, these approaches provide no direct evidence that insertions
      actually affect their predicted targets or how transcripts of these genes are
      affected. To address this, we developed IM-Fusion, an approach that identifies
      insertion sites from gene-transposon fusions in standard single- and paired-end
      RNA-sequencing data. We demonstrate IM-Fusion on two separate transposon screens
      of 123 mammary tumors and 20 B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias, respectively.
      We show that IM-Fusion accurately identifies transposon insertions and their true
      target genes. Furthermore, by combining the identified insertion sites with
      expression quantification, we show that we can determine the effect of a
      transposon insertion on its target gene(s) and prioritize insertions that have a
      significant effect on expression. We expect that IM-Fusion will significantly
      enhance the accuracy of cancer gene discovery in forward genetic screens and
      provide initial insight into the biological effects of insertions on candidate
      cancer genes.

PMID- 28575526
TI  - Reconstructing the suberin pathway in poplar by chemical and transcriptomic
      analysis of bark tissues.
AB  - The tree bark periderm confers the first line of protection against pathogen
      invasion and abiotic stresses. The phellogen (cork cambium) externally produces
      cork (phellem) cells that are dead at maturity; while metabolically active, these
      tissues synthesize cell walls, as well as cell wall modifications, namely suberin
      and waxes. Suberin is a heteropolymer with aliphatic and aromatic domains,
      composed of acylglycerols, cross-linked polyphenolics and solvent-extractable
      waxes. Although suberin is essentially ubiquitous in vascular plants, the
      biochemical functions of many enzymes and the genetic regulation of its synthesis
      are poorly understood. We have studied suberin and wax composition in four
      developmental stages of hybrid poplar (Populus tremula x Populus alba) stem
      periderm. The amounts of extracellular ester-linked acyl lipids per unit area
      increased with tissue age, a trend not observed with waxes. We used RNA-Seq deep
      sequencing technology to investigate the cork transcriptome at two developmental
      stages. The transcript analysis yielded 455 candidates for the biosynthesis and
      regulation of poplar suberin, including genes with proven functions in suberin
      metabolism, genes highlighted as candidates in other plant species and novel
      candidates. Among these, a gene encoding a putative lipase/acyltransferase of the
      GDSL-motif family emerged as a suberin polyester synthase candidate, and specific
      isoforms of peroxidase and laccase genes were preferentially expressed in cork,
      suggesting that their corresponding proteins may be involved in cross-linking
      aromatics to form lignin-like polyphenolics. Many transcriptional regulators with
      possible roles in meristem identity, cork differentiation and acyl-lipid
      metabolism were also identified. Our work provides the first large-scale
      transcriptomic dataset on the suberin-synthesizing tissue of poplar bark,
      contributing to our understanding of tree bark development at the molecular
      level. Based on these data, we have proposed a number of hypotheses that can be
      used in future research leading to novel biological insights into suberin
      biosynthesis and its physiological function.

PMID- 28575527
TI  - Neighborhood Influences on Violent Reoffending Risk in Released Prisoners
      Diagnosed With Psychotic Disorders.
AB  - Released prisoners diagnosed with psychotic disorders have elevated rates of
      violent reoffending risk and their exposure to adverse neighborhood environments
      may contribute to this risk. We identified all released sentenced prisoners in
      Sweden between 2003 and 2013 (n = 47226) and followed them up for a median period
      of 4.4 years. We identified prisoners who had ever been diagnosed with a
      psychotic disorder (n = 3782) or prescribed antipsychotics (n = 7366). We
      examined 3 neighborhood characteristics: income, proportion of welfare
      recipients, and crime rate. By fitting generalized mixed-effects and negative
      binomial regression models and adopting within-individual designs that controlled
      for all time-invariant unmeasured confounders within each individual, we
      estimated neighborhood intraclass correlations (ICCs) and associations between
      specific neighborhood characteristics and violent reoffending. Neighborhood
      factors explained 13.5% (95% CI: 10.9%; 16.6%) of the violent reoffending risk
      among released prisoners diagnosed with psychotic disorders. This contrasted with
      4.3% (95% CI: 3.7%; 4.9%) in all released prisoners. However, after controlling
      for unmeasured confounding, these estimates were not statistically significant
      (ICCpsychotic disorders = 0.9%; 95% CI: -0.8%; 2.3%; ICCall prisoners = 0.3%; 95%
      CI: -0.02%; 0.6%). Similarly, none of the within-individual correlations between
      the specific neighborhood factors and violent reoffending were significantly
      different from zero. We found consistent results when we investigated prisoners
      with other psychiatric and substance use disorders. These findings suggest that
      placing released prisoners with psychotic disorders in less deprived
      neighborhoods might not reduce their violent reoffending risk, which may also
      apply to other psychiatric disorders. The assessment, treatment, and community
      linkage of high-risk prisoners as a strategy to reduce reoffending needs further
      research.

PMID- 28575528
TI  - Increased Striatal and Reduced Prefrontal Cerebral Blood Flow in Clinical High
      Risk for Psychosis.
AB  - Increased striatal dopaminergic activity and decreased prefrontal functioning
      have been reported in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis.
      Abnormal metabolic rate might affect resting-state cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in
      the respective regions. Here, we examined if striatal and prefrontal rCBF differ
      between patients with CHR, first-episode psychosis (FEP), chronic schizophrenia
      spectrum disorder (SZ) and controls. Two cohorts with a total of 122 participants
      were included and analyzed separately: 32 patients with SZ and 31 healthy
      controls (HC) from the University Hospital of Psychiatry, and 59 patients from
      the Bern Early Recognition and Intervention Center (29 with CHR, 12 with FEP, and
      18 clinical controls [CC]). Ultra-high risk criteria were assessed with the
      Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes, basic symptom criteria with
      the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument. rCBF was measured with pseudo-continuous
      arterial spin labeling 3T-Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Striatal rCBF was
      significantly increased and prefrontal rCBF significantly decreased in the SZ
      group compared to HC group and in the CHR and FEP groups compared to CC group.
      Striatal rCBF correlated significantly with positive symptom scores in SZ and
      CHR. An inverse correlation between striatal and frontal rCBF was found in
      controls (HC, CC), but not in patient groups (SZ, FEP, CHR). This is the first
      study to demonstrate increased neuronal activity within the striatum, but reduced
      prefrontal activity in patients with CHR, FEP, and SZ compared to the respective
      controls. Our results indicate that alterations in striatal and prefrontal rCBF
      are reflecting metabolic abnormalities preceding the onset of frank psychosis.

PMID- 28575529
TI  - Abnormal gamma-aminobutyric acid neurotransmission in a Kcnq2 model of early
      onset epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mutations of the KCNQ2 gene, which encodes the Kv 7.2 subunit of
      voltage-gated M-type potassium channels, have been associated with epilepsy in
      the neonatal period. This developmental stage is unique in that the
      neurotransmitter gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is inhibitory in adults,
      triggers excitatory action due to a reversed chloride gradient. METHODS: To
      examine whether KCNQ2-related neuronal hyperexcitability involves neonatally
      excitatory GABA, we examined 1-week-old knockin mice expressing the Kv 7.2
      variant p.Tyr284Cys (Y284C). RESULTS: Brain slice electrophysiology revealed
      elevated CA1 hippocampal GABAergic interneuron activity with respect to
      presynaptic firing and postsynaptic current frequency. Blockade with the GABAA
      receptor antagonist bicuculline decreased ictal-like bursting in brain slices
      with lowered divalent ion concentration, which is consistent with GABA mediating
      an excitatory function that contributes to the hyperexcitability observed in
      mutant animals. SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that excitatory GABA contributes to the
      phenotype in these animals, which raises the question of whether this special
      type of neurotransmission has broader importance in neonatal epilepsy than is
      currently recognized.

PMID- 28575530
TI  - The skeletons in our closet: E-learning tools and what happens when one side does
      not fit all.
AB  - In the anatomical sciences, e-learning tools have become a critical component of
      teaching anatomy when physical space and cadaveric resources are limited.
      However, studies that use empirical evidence to compare their efficacy to visual
      kinesthetic learning modalities are scarce. The study examined how a visual
      kinesthetic experience, involving a physical skeleton, impacts learning when
      compared with virtual manipulation of a simple two-dimensional (2D) e-learning
      tool, A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy. Students from The University of Western
      Ontario, Canada (n = 77) participated in a dual-task study to: (1) investigate if
      a dual-task paradigm is an effective tool for measuring cognitive load across
      these different learning modalities; and (2) to assess the impact of knowledge
      recall and spatial ability when using them. Students were assessed using
      knowledge scores, Stroop task reaction times, and mental rotation test scores.
      Results demonstrated that the dual-task paradigm was not an effective tool for
      measuring cognitive load across different learning modalities with respect to
      kinesthetic learning. However, our study highlighted that handing physical
      specimens yielded major, positive impacts on performance that a simple commercial
      e-learning tool failed to deliver (P < 0.001). Furthermore, students with low
      spatial ability were significantly disadvantaged when they studied the bony joint
      and were tested on contralateral images (P = 0.046, R = 0.326). This suggests
      that, despite limbs being mirror images, students should be taught the anatomy
      of, as well as procedures on, both sides of the human body, enhancing the ability
      of all students, regardless of spatial ability, to take anatomical knowledge into
      the clinic and perform successfully. Anat Sci Educ 10: 570-588. (c) 2017 American
      Association of Anatomists.

PMID- 28575531
TI  - Myeloperoxidase/HLA Class II Complexes Recognized by Autoantibodies in
      Microscopic Polyangiitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Autoantibodies against myeloperoxidase (MPO) that are expressed in
      neutrophils play an important role in the pathogenesis of microscopic
      polyangiitis (MPA). We recently observed that misfolded cellular proteins are
      transported to the cell surface by HLA class II molecules and are targeted by
      autoantibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or antiphospholipid
      syndrome, suggesting that HLA class II molecules play an important role in
      autoantibody recognition. The aim of this study was to address the role of HLA
      class II molecules in the cell surface expression of MPO in patients with MPA.
      METHODS: The association of MPO with HLA-DR was analyzed using MPO and HLA-DR
      transfectants as well as neutrophils from healthy donors and patients with MPA.
      Autoantibody binding to the MPO/HLA-DR complex was analyzed by flow cytometry.
      The association of MPO with HLA-DR was assessed using the immunoprecipitation
      technique. The function of MPO-antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) was
      assessed using a neutrophil-like cell line expressing HLA-DR and MPO. RESULTS:
      MPO protein was detected on the cell surface in the presence of HLA-DR, and the
      MPO/HLA-DR complex was recognized by MPO-ANCA. A competitive inhibition assay
      suggested that MPO associated with HLA-DR expresses cryptic autoantibody epitopes
      for MPO-ANCA. Autoantibody binding to the MPO/HLA-DR complex was correlated with
      disease susceptibility conferred by each HLA-DR allele, suggesting that the
      MPO/HLA-DR complex is involved in the pathogenicity of MPA. Indeed, MPO-HLA class
      II complexes were detected in neutrophils from a patient with MPA as well as in
      cytokine-stimulated neutrophils from healthy donors. Moreover, MPO-ANCA
      stimulated MPO/HLA-DR complex-expressing HL-60 cells. CONCLUSION: Our findings
      suggest that MPO complexed with HLA class II molecules is involved in the
      pathogenesis of MPA as a target for MPO-ANCA.

PMID- 28575532
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28575533
TI  - Design and Synthesis of a Series of Novel Mixed Borate and Carbonate Halides.
AB  - Combining different functional units together has been regarded as the most ideal
      strategy to design and synthesize new inorganic materials. Based on numerous
      experiments, it was possible to assemble three kinds of anion groups together and
      find a series of novel mixed borate and carbonate halides, Rb9 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3
      (CO3 )X?7 H2 O (X=Cl, Br, and I) and K9 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 (CO3 )X?7 H2 O (X=OH and
      I). Based on the structural template of these compounds, we also obtained the
      NaRb6 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 X (X=OH, I) crystals through replacement of the CO3 group
      with the NaO6 octahedron, which results in the crystal structural changes from
      P6? 2c to R32. In addition, it has been confirmed that the replacement of the CO3
      group by the alkali cation has an influence on the band gaps, according to the
      experimental results and theoretical calculations. Meanwhile, millimeter-scale
      crystals of Rb9 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 (CO3 )I?7 H2 O, K9 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 (CO3 )I?7 H2
      O, K9 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 (CO3 )OH?7 H2 O and NaRb6 [B4 O5 (OH)4 ]3 OH were also
      obtained after adjusting their growing conditions.

PMID- 28575534
TI  - CCL2 in the Circulation Predicts Long-Term Progression of Interstitial Lung
      Disease in Patients With Early Systemic Sclerosis: Data From Two Independent
      Cohorts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There are few clinical predictors of the progression of systemic
      sclerosis (SSc)-related interstitial lung disease (ILD). The purpose of this
      study was to examine the predictive significance of key cytokines for long-term
      progression of ILD and survival in 2 independent cohorts of patients with early
      SSc. METHODS: Plasma levels of 11 Th1/Th2 cytokines (interleukin-1beta [IL
      1beta], IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, tumor necrosis factor, CCL2,
      interferon-inducible T cell alpha chemoattractant, and interferon-gamma-inducible
      10-kd protein) were measured in 266 patients with early SSc in the Genetics
      versus Environment in Scleroderma Outcome Study (GENISOS) discovery cohort.
      Levels of CCL2, IL-10, and IL-6 were measured in 171 patients with early SSc in
      the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG) replication cohort. The primary
      outcome measure was a decline in the forced vital capacity percent predicted
      (FVC%) value over time. A joint analysis of longitudinal FVC% values and survival
      was performed. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, and ethnicity, CCL2 and IL
      10 were found to be significant predictors of ILD progression in the discovery
      cohort. Higher CCL2 levels predicted a faster decline in FVC% values (b = -0.57,
      P = 0.032), while higher IL-10 levels predicted a slower decline (b = 0.26, P =
      0.01). A higher CCL2 value was also predictive of poorer survival (hazard ratio
      1.76, P = 0.030). In the CSRG replication cohort, higher CCL2 levels predicted a
      faster decline in FVC% values (b = -0.58, P = 0.038), but neither IL-10 nor IL-6
      had predictive significance. A higher CCL2 level also predicted poorer survival
      (hazard ratio 3.89, P = 0.037). CONCLUSION: Higher CCL2 levels in the circulation
      were predictive of ILD progression and poorer survival in patients with early
      SSc, findings that support the notion that CCL2 has a role as a biomarker and
      potential therapeutic target.

PMID- 28575536
TI  - Valuing Treatment With Infliximab for Ankylosing Spondylitis Using a Willingness
      to-Pay Approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate willingness to pay (WTP) for treatment with infliximab
      by patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and explore factors associated with
      WTP. METHODS: Data from 85 patients participating in the European AS Infliximab
      Cohort (EASIC) open-label extension of the AS Study for the Evaluation of
      Recombinant Infliximab Therapy (ASSERT) were used. WTP was included at baseline
      in EASIC and comprised a hypothetical scenario exploring whether the patient
      would be willing to pay for beneficial effects of infliximab and, if so, what
      amount they would be willing to pay per administration. Factors associated with
      WTP were explored using zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regressions.
      RESULTS: Of the 85 patients, 63 (74.1%) were willing to pay, and among these, the
      mean amount they were willing to pay per administration was ?275 (median ?100
      [interquartile range ?50-200]). Multivariable ZINB analysis showed that
      Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society criteria for 20%
      improvement (ASAS20) response was associated with a 7-fold lower likelihood to
      pay 0 euros (odds ratio [OR] 0.14 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.03-0.71])
      and a 3-fold increase in the amount willing to pay (exp(beta) = 3.32 [95% CI 1.44
      7.69]). In addition, the country of residence was associated with a lower
      likelihood to pay 0 euros (OR 0.07 [95% CI 0.02-0.36]), while increased age was
      associated with the amount willing to pay (exp(beta) = 1.05 [95% CI 1.01-1.09]).
      CONCLUSION: In a hypothetical scenario, three-quarters of patients with AS
      receiving long-term infliximab stated that they were willing to pay an out-of
      pocket contribution for this treatment. Treatment response contributed to the
      willingness as well as to the amount patients were willing to pay.

PMID- 28575537
TI  - Association between biochemical hyperandrogenism parameters and Ferriman-Gallwey
      score in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta
      regression analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A limited number of studies have evaluated the
      relationship between clinical and biochemical hyperandrogenism (HA). This study
      aimed to evaluate the association between biochemical hyperandrogenism parameters
      (BHPs) and Ferriman-Gallwey (FG) score in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome
      (PCOS). METHODS: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and
      Web of Sciences databases (2000-2015) to identify studies investigating clinical
      and biochemical parameters of HA in PCOS patients. In this meta-analysis, both
      fixed and random effect models were applied to estimate pooled effect size. To
      assess the relationships between BHPs and FG score, meta-regression analysis was
      used. RESULTS: Fifty-five study groups with a total of 6593 PCOS patients were
      analysed. Meta-regression analysis of pooled data from all eligible studies
      showed significant positive relationships of FG score with androstenedione (A4)
      (P=.034) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) (P=.012), whereas it showed
      no association with total testosterone (tT), free testosterone (fT), sex hormone
      bonding globulin (SHBG) and free androgen index (FAI). The results did not change
      after adjusting for quality assessment or method of assay. Nor did the
      associations between A4 and FG score remain after adjusting for age and BMI,
      diagnostic criteria for PCOS and study design or the association between DHEAS
      and FG score remain after adjusting for ethnicity. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis
      confirmed the associations of some BHPs, including A4 and DHEAS with FG score,
      indicating that measurement of these parameters can be useful for managing PCOS
      patients with hirsutism.

PMID- 28575535
TI  - Emerging Treatment Models in Rheumatology: IgG4-Related Disease: Insights Into
      Human Immunology and Targeted Therapies.

PMID- 28575539
TI  - Clinical Images: Progressive linear blaschkoid lupus erythematosus.

PMID- 28575538
TI  - Willingness toward organ and body donation among anatomy professors and students
      in Mexico.
AB  - Most anatomists agree that cadaver dissection serves as a superior teaching tool
      in human anatomy education. However, attitudes toward body donation vary widely
      between different individuals. A questionnaire was developed to determine the
      attitudes toward body and organ donation among those who learn the most from
      cadavers: medical students, medical student teaching assistants, medical students
      involved in research, and anatomy professors. A cross-sectional, prospective
      study was designed in which the questionnaire was distributed among first-year
      human anatomy students before undertaking cadaver dissection at the beginning of
      the semester, and then again after a commemoration service at the end of the
      course. The questionnaire items included demographic data, as well as questions
      designed to characterize participants' attitudes regarding body/organ donation
      from strangers, family members, and whether participants would consider such
      practices with their own bodies. Out of a total of 517 students enrolled in the
      Human Anatomy course in the Medical School at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo
      Leon, Mexico during January to June 2016, 95% responded to the first (491) and
      second (490) surveys. Participants' opinions on their own organ donation was
      similar before and after exposure to cadaver dissection, with between 87% and 81%
      in favor of such practices, and only 3% against it, in both surveys.
      Participants' willingness to donate their own bodies, as well as those of family
      members, increased, while reluctance regarding such practices decreased by half
      (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.05). Professors had the highest rates of positive opinions
      regarding their own body donation (74.9%), with 18.8% undecided. Low opposition
      toward organ and body donation remains prevalent among both anatomists and
      physicians in training in Mexico. Anat Sci Educ 10: 589-597. (c) 2017 American
      Association of Anatomists.

PMID- 28575540
TI  - Optimizing Antipsychotic Patient Management Using Population Pharmacokinetic
      Models and Point-of-Care Testing.
AB  - Schizophrenia is a common disease, characterized by progressive functional
      decline exacerbated by psychotic relapses that often result from a lack of full
      adherence to antipsychotic (APS) medication. Although atypical APS medications do
      not have clear therapeutic windows, as generally required for therapeutic drug
      monitoring (TDM), measuring APS plasma levels in the context of a population
      expected range at the point-of-care (POC) may provide valuable clinical insights
      for differentiating lack of efficacy from a lack of adherence to medication.

PMID- 28575541
TI  - Trends in the incidence of use of noninsulin glucose-lowering drugs between 2006
      and 2013 in France.
AB  - This study aimed at describing trends in the incidence of use of noninsulin
      glucose-lowering drugs (NIGLDs) between 2006 and 2013 in France. Repeated cross
      sectional studies on NIGLD new users were performed annually from 2006 to 2013
      within the Echantillon Generaliste des Beneficiaires (EGB) database, a 1/97th
      representative sample of the population covered by the French healthcare
      insurance system. NIGLD included metformin, sulfonylureas, alpha-glucosidase
      inhibitors, thiazolidinediones, dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors,
      glinides and glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues. New users were defined as
      patients with no delivery of any NIGLD (first-line new users) or no delivery of a
      NIGLD of the same class (add-on/switch new users) in the preceding year.
      Incidence rates of use and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were
      estimated per 1000 persons. Among the 507 043 persons included in the EGB in
      2006, 2036 were identified as NIGLD first-line new users and 2192 as add
      on/switch new users, which corresponded to an incidence of use of 4.00/00 (95%CI
      3.8-4.2) and 4.30/00 (4.1-4.5), respectively. First-line incidence increased to
      5.30/00 (5.1-5.5) in 2010 and then decreased to 4.20/00 (4.0-4.4) in 2013; add
      on/switch incidence increased to 8.00/00 (7.8-8.2) in 2010 and then decreased to
      5.30/00 (5.1-5.5) in 2013. This reduction was mainly related to DPP-4 inhibitors,
      whose use as add-on/switch NIGLDs was roughly halved between 2010 and 2013.
      Concomitantly, the use of sulfonylureas and glinides increased. In conclusion,
      after reaching a peak in 2010, the incidence of use of NIGLDs has markedly
      decreased in France. Since then, prescribers seem to have reverted to older and
      well-known therapies.

PMID- 28575543
TI  - Important Issues Concerning the Double-Blind Study of Anakinra in Familial
      Mediterranean Fever: Comment on the Article by Ben-Zvi et al.

PMID- 28575542
TI  - Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients' Motivations for Accepting or Resisting Disease
      Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Treatment Regimens.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patient refusal of and nonadherence to treatment with disease
      modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) can adversely affect disease outcomes in
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This qualitative study describes how RA patients'
      feelings in response to experiences and information affected their decisions to
      accept (agree to adopt, initiate, and implement) or resist (refuse, avoid, and
      discontinue) DMARD treatment regimens. METHODS: A total of 48 RA patients were
      interviewed about their experiences making decisions about DMARDs. The interviews
      were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for themes related to their internal
      motivations for accepting or resisting treatment regimens, using a narrative
      analysis approach. RESULTS: In addition to feelings about the necessity and
      dangers of medications, patients' feelings towards their identity as an ill
      person, the act of taking medication, and the decision process itself were
      important drivers of patient's decisions. For patients' motivations to accept
      treatment regimens, 2 themes emerged: a desire to return to a normal life, and
      fear of future disability due to RA. For motivations to resist treatment
      regimens, 5 themes emerged: fear of medications, maintaining control over health,
      denial of sick identity, disappointment with treatment, and feeling overwhelmed
      by the cognitive burden of deciding. CONCLUSION: Feelings in response to
      experiences and information played a major role in how patients weighed the
      benefits and costs of treatment options, suggesting that addressing patients'
      feelings may be important when rheumatologists counsel about therapeutic options.
      Further research is needed to learn how best to address patients' feelings
      throughout the treatment decision-making process.

PMID- 28575544
TI  - Improving Adherence to Exercise: Do People With Knee Osteoarthritis and Physical
      Therapists Agree on the Behavioral Approaches Likely to Succeed?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe which behavior change techniques (BCTs) to promote
      adherence to exercise have been experienced by people with knee osteoarthritis
      (OA) or used by physical therapists, and to describe patient- and physical
      therapist-perceived effectiveness of a range of BCTs derived from behavioral
      theory. METHODS: Two versions of a custom-designed survey were administered in
      Australia and New Zealand, one completed by adults with symptomatic knee OA and
      the second by physical therapists who had treated people with knee OA in the past
      6 months. Survey questions ascertained the frequency of receiving/prescribing
      exercise for knee OA, BCTs received/used targeting adherence to exercise, and
      perceived effectiveness of 36 BCTs to improve adherence to prescribed exercise.
      RESULTS: A total of 230 people with knee OA and 143 physical therapists completed
      the survey. Education about the benefits of exercise was the most commonly
      received/used technique by both groups. People with knee OA rated the perceived
      effectiveness of all BCTs significantly lower than the physical therapists (mean
      difference 1.9 [95% confidence interval 1.8-2.0]). When ranked by group mean
      agreement score, 2 BCTs were among the top 5 for both groups: development of
      specific goals related to knee pain and function; and review, supervision, and
      correction of exercise technique at subsequent treatment sessions. CONCLUSION:
      Goal-setting techniques related to outcomes were considered to be effective by
      both respondent groups, and testing of interventions incorporating these
      strategies should be a research priority.

PMID- 28575545
TI  - Can Patient Navigators Improve Adherence to Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic
      Drugs? Quantitative Findings From a Six-Month Single-Arm Pilot Intervention.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nonadherence to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is
      common, worsens during the treatment course, and results in adverse outcomes. We
      studied whether patient navigators (laypersons trained in care coordination,
      motivational interviewing, basic pharmacology, and disease management) improved
      oral DMARD adherence. METHODS: We enrolled 107 patients ages >=18 years with
      systemic rheumatic diseases who initiated an oral DMARD within 6 months.
      Navigators interacted with patients up to 2-4 times per week for 6 months.
      Patients completed validated surveys (Morisky Medication Adherence Scale [MMAS
      8], Mental Health Inventory [MHI-5], Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire, and
      Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire) at baseline and at 6 months. We used
      paired t-tests to compare baseline and 6-month outcomes. We examined the
      association of age, race/ethnicity, insurance, and MHI-5 with change in MMAS-8
      score using multivariable linear regression. RESULTS: Among 107 patients
      enrolled, 69 (64%) completed baseline and 6-month MMAS-8 surveys. Mean +/- SD age
      was 55 +/- 16 years and 93% were female. The mean +/- SD baseline MMAS-8 score
      was 6.7 +/- 1.3 (indicating borderline adherence), and the mean +/- SD MHI-5
      score was 60.8 +/- 9.1 (<68 suggests any depressive symptoms). After 6 months,
      there were no significant changes in MMAS-8 (P = 0.09) or MHI-5 (P = 0.83).
      Patients described fewer medication concerns (P = 0.03), but a more threatening
      perception of illness (P = 0.01). Our multivariable model demonstrated a small
      change in MMAS-8 for each 5-year increase in age (beta = 0.14, P = 0.02).
      CONCLUSION: Our intervention resulted in no significant change in adherence from
      baseline. A multicenter, randomized controlled trial is needed to determine
      whether patient navigators are effective in maintaining adherence to DMARDs over
      time.

PMID- 28575546
TI  - Quantifying Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis: Reliability of Computer
      Assisted Planimetry in Measuring Lesion Size.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Digital ulcers are a major problem in patients with systemic sclerosis
      (SSc), causing severe pain and impairment of hand function. In addition, digital
      ulcers heal slowly and sometimes become infected, which can lead to gangrene and
      necessitate amputation if appropriate intervention is not taken. A reliable,
      objective method for assessing digital ulcer healing or progression is needed in
      both the clinical and research arenas. This study was undertaken to compare 2
      computer-assisted planimetry methods of measurement of digital ulcer area on
      photographs (ellipse and freehand regions of interest [ROIs]), and to assess the
      reliability of photographic calibration and the 2 methods of area measurement.
      METHODS: Photographs were taken of 107 digital ulcers in 36 patients with SSc
      spectrum disease. Three raters assessed the photographs. Custom software allowed
      raters to calibrate photograph dimensions and draw ellipse or freehand ROIs. The
      shapes and dimensions of the ROIs were saved for further analysis. RESULTS:
      Calibration (by a single rater performing 5 repeats per image) produced an
      intraclass correlation coefficient (intrarater reliability) of 0.99. The mean +/-
      SD areas of digital ulcers assessed using ellipse and freehand ROIs were 18.7 +/-
      20.2 mm2 and 17.6 +/- 19.3 mm2 , respectively. Intrarater and interrater
      reliability of the ellipse ROI were 0.97 and 0.77, respectively. For the freehand
      ROI, the intrarater and interrater reliability were 0.98 and 0.76, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that computer-assisted planimetry methods
      applied to SSc-related digital ulcers can be extremely reliable. Further work is
      needed to move toward applying these methods as outcome measures for clinical
      trials and in clinical settings.

PMID- 28575549
TI  - Abstracts of the 21st International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement
      Disorders.

PMID- 28575547
TI  - Implications for Drug Characterization in Glucose Tolerance Tests Without
      Insulin: Simulation Study of Power and Predictions Using Model-Based Analysis.
AB  - In antihyperglycemic drug development, drug effects are usually characterized
      using glucose provocations. Analyzing provocation data using pharmacometrics has
      shown powerful, enabling small studies. In preclinical drug development, high
      power is attractive due to the experiment sizes; however, insulin is not always
      available, which potentially impacts power and predictive performance. This
      simulation study was performed to investigate the implications of performing
      model-based drug characterization without insulin. The integrated glucose-insulin
      model was used to simulate and re-estimated oral glucose tolerance tests using a
      crossover design of placebo and study compound. Drug effects were implemented on
      seven different mechanisms of action (MOA); one by one or in two-drug
      combinations. This study showed that exclusion of insulin may severely reduce the
      power to distinguish the correct from competing drug effect, and to detect a
      primary or secondary drug effect, however, it did not affect the predictive
      performance of the model.

PMID- 28575551
TI  - PharmML in Action: an Interoperable Language for Modeling and Simulation.
AB  - PharmML is an XML-based exchange format created with a focus on nonlinear mixed
      effect (NLME) models used in pharmacometrics, but providing a very general
      framework that also allows describing mathematical and statistical models such as
      single-subject or nonlinear and multivariate regression models. This tutorial
      provides an overview of the structure of this language, brief suggestions on how
      to work with it, and use cases demonstrating its power and flexibility.

PMID- 28575553
TI  - Identification of robust focus measure functions for the automated capturing of
      focused images from Ziehl-Neelsen stained sputum smear microscopy slide.
AB  - Capturing of the best-focused image using focus measure function (FMF) from a
      stack of images acquired at different focus distances is a crucial step in
      automatic microscopy development. Detection of bacilli present in Ziehl-Neelsen
      (ZN) stained sputum smears conventional microscope (CM) images is critical to
      disease diagnosis. Studies have revealed that the performances of FMFs are
      sensitive to image contents and background noise. In this article, 24 diverse
      FMFs were implemented on 31 stacks of CM's field of view images acquired from
      three different microscopes to determine the best-focused one. Seven FMFs
      achieved the accuracies of greater than 90%. Accuracy, focus error, and false
      maxima were calculated for each FMF, and overall score and ranking were also
      calculated for better interpretation. Preprocessing techniques such as filtering
      and image distortions (noise, contrast, saturation, illumination, etc.) were
      performed to evaluate the robustness of every FMF. Gaussian derivative, steerable
      filters, Tenengrad, and Hemli and Scherer's mean FMFs were identified as the most
      robust and accurate functions with the accuracy >90%. These FMFs have a
      relatively less focus error and false maxima rate. Full widths at half maximum of
      these four FMFs were also computed to determine their efficacy for the
      optimization process. These four FMFs can be implemented for automated capturing
      of the image from ZN-stained sputum smear slide. Gaussian derivative FMF can also
      be used effectively for both CM and fluorescence microscope's field of view image
      stacks to determine the best-focused one from each stack. (c) 2017 International
      Society for Advancement of Cytometry.

PMID- 28575552
TI  - Supervised Machine-Learning Reveals That Old and Obese People Achieve Low Dapsone
      Concentrations.
AB  - The human species is becoming increasingly obese. Dapsone, which is extensively
      used across the globe for dermatological disorders, arachnid bites, and for
      treatment of several bacterial, fungal, and parasitic diseases, could be affected
      by obesity. We performed a clinical experiment, using optimal design, in
      volunteers weighing 44-150 kg, to identify the effect of obesity on dapsone
      pharmacokinetic parameters based on maximum-likelihood solution via the
      expectation-maximization algorithm. Artificial intelligence-based multivariate
      adaptive regression splines were used for covariate selection, and identified
      weight and/or age as predictors of absorption, systemic clearance, and volume of
      distribution. These relationships occurred only between certain patient weight
      and age ranges, delimited by multiple hinges and regions of discontinuity, not
      identified by standard pharmacometric approaches. Older and obese people have
      lower drug concentrations after standard dosing, but with complex patterns. Given
      that efficacy is concentration-dependent, optimal dapsone doses need to be
      personalized for obese patients.

PMID- 28575554
TI  - [A new stage of development of gerontology and geriatrics in Russia: problems of
      creation of a geriatric care system. Part 1. Relevance, regulatory
      infrastructure].
AB  - This article is a 1st part of the analytical review, focused on a new step in
      development of geriatrics in Russia. Creation of state system geriatric care as
      important part of state politics in the area of enhancement of quality of life
      was proved. General aspects of improvement of social support of disable elderly
      persons in condition of restricted budget and interagency separation was
      presented. Establishment of unified system of medical social support and
      gerotechnologies for the elderly was substantiated, as a mechanism facilitated
      life activity and decreasing of demographic loading on economic status of regions
      of Russian Federation. Legislative and normative regulations of gerontology and
      geriatric development were observed as well. Accepted legislative and normative
      acts were analyzed for period since 1977 to 2014. The necessity of approaches to
      regulation modernization for elderly was demonstrated. Analytical review on
      number of legislative state documents issued after meeting of Presidium of State
      Council of the Russian Federation being in August 2014 was also presented.
      Applicability of these documents for realization new strategy of gerontology and
      geriatrics development in Russia was proved.

PMID- 28575555
TI  - [Description of aging dogs and fruit flies based on the kinetic theory].
AB  - The aim of the study is to assess the adequacy of model representations, accepted
      in the kinetic theory of aging of living systems, the analysis of the
      experimental data obtained on dogs and fruit flies. The work is illustrated by
      applying the need to develop a mathematical model of the kinetic theory of aging
      to describe the probability density of death, probability of death, the average
      duration of life of the considered biological systems in the natural conditions
      of existence, as well as for dogs with limited time and chronic RA-diciannove
      impact, and for Drosophila - high external temperature. Op-defined kinetic
      equation of aging and their parameters.

PMID- 28575556
TI  - [Endocrinology of cancer and age: early and late stages of ontogenesis].
AB  - Processes important for hormone-mediated carcinogenesis are present on different,
      even very early, ontogenesis stages. Early shifts in hormone-metabolic status
      often display opposite correlations with the risk of most common age-associated
      non-communicable pathologies (namely, hormone-dependent cancers and
      cardiovascular diseases). Additional known contradiction is the raise of
      reproductive system tumors incidence in the age associated with lower production
      of mitogenic hormones. Consequently, one should take into account production of
      steroids in target tissues themselves, recognize the importance of progenotoxic
      effect, which, apart from mitogenic function, is characteristic for estrogens and
      their derivatives, as well as the role of endocrine-genotoxic switchings forming
      so called basic triad, which is born under the influence of age-associated
      endocrine shifts and environmental factors. Aside from steroids-related system of
      increased cancer risk, attention should be paid to non-steroid ones (in
      particular insulin resistance- and inflammatory cytokines-associated), with their
      close connection to immune system functional state, low-grade chronic
      inflammation, obesity phenotype, and pro-/anti-inflammatory lipid factors ratio.
      In total, it confirms and importance of timely preventive interventions on both
      ontogenesis stages, early and late ones, which are often separated by several
      decades.

PMID- 28575557
TI  - [The relationship of lifespan with characteristics of life cycle and stress
      resistance in 12 species of Drosophila].
AB  - In the present study, we investigated the relationship of lifespan with different
      characteristics of the life history (length of the developmental period, imago
      body weight, fecundity) and stress resistance (response to oxidative stress,
      hyperthermia, starvation, and ionizing radiation) in flies of 12 species of the
      Drosophila genus. It was shown, that D. virilis has the highest maximum lifespan,
      but the lifespan of D. kikkawai was lowest. The investigated features have a
      positive (length of the developmental period, imago body weight, stress
      resistance) or negative (fecundity) correlation with species lifespan.
      Apparently, the observed differences are caused by adaptations of the species to
      different environmental conditions of their natural habitat, and lifespan is a
      key indicator of integrative fitness, reflecting the viability and various
      characteristics of life history and stress resistance.

PMID- 28575558
TI  - [Model ontogenetic variability functional state of the organism in different
      modes of motor activity].
AB  - The analysis of the study results of remote training effect of physical training
      and sports in the age range including the later periods of human ontogenesis,
      from the point of oxidative stress theory. To study the characteristics of
      developmental variability of the functional state of the organism, a comparative
      study of the functional state of the body at different modes of physical activity
      in different age stages of development was carried out: from sports veterans,
      remain actively locomotor activity after the termination of sports career; former
      athletes, leading a sedentary lifestyle; persons engaged in improving the forms
      of physical exercise; as well as persons who had not engaged in regular physical
      activity. Subjects contingent was formed of men of various ages, as well as
      former athletes and coaches teams in cycling and team sports that require
      endurance predominant manifestation. The results of the research allowed to
      develop a model that reflects the characteristics and mechanisms of developmental
      variability of the functional state of the organism under the influence of
      different modes of physical activity.

PMID- 28575559
TI  - [Syndrome of emotional burnout among women-physicians elderly].
AB  - The article presents the results of a comparative study of clinical symptoms of
      syndrome of emotional burnout among 84 working in the specialty physician of
      older women and 48 officially ceasing operations in this specialty. The findings
      suggest that burnout can take place among representatives of older age and more
      it is continued, provided professional activities. The cessation of the work
      activities leads to stress, often with the subsequent development post-traumatic
      stress disorder and stress-induced diseases. However in this case the clinical
      symptoms of the syndrome of emotional burnout, does not disappear, but only
      happens their clinical transformation attach various psychosomatic disorders.
      Thus, the elderly, suffering the syndrome of emotional burnout, are at high risk
      group with regard to the formation and development of diseases, associated with
      stress and require close monitoring in the framework of the compulsory program of
      medical examination.

PMID- 28575560
TI  - [Disability in the elderly owing to cerebrovascular diseases: the leading
      desadaptive syndromes].
AB  - The article presents data on the main desadaptive syndromes have disabilities due
      to cerebrovascular diseases in the elderly according to the results of analysis
      of medical expert documents the Bureau of medico-social examination of Saint
      Petersburg in the period from 2010 to 2014. The characteristics of the level,
      structure, dynamics and distribution according to groups of disability due to
      cerebrovascular diseases in retirement were shown; clinical expert in the
      features of the population of older people with disabilities due to
      cerebrovascular diseases were analyzed. We revealed a consistent decrease in the
      number of persons with disabilities over 5 years, increase the proportion of
      persons with disabilities of group III and group I disabled. We have determined
      the structure of the main desadaptive syndromes in the structure of the
      cerebrovascular diseases, causing dysfunctions of the body and disability.

PMID- 28575561
TI  - [Disturbance of coherence of cognitive-motor integration in elderly].
AB  - Social activity of older people can be associated with deterioration as motor
      function (ability to stand on one leg, walk heel to toe), motor dexterity
      (grasping power, the tapping-test). At the same time, deterioration in motor
      functions is due to the fading of social activity, and as a result, deterioration
      of cognitive functions. Greater involvement in social life can slow the
      deterioration of motor functions and to maintain daily quality of life.

PMID- 28575562
TI  - [Seven questions for elderly in the practice of primary care physicians].
AB  - Although geriatric syndromes are widespread, they often remain undiagnosed
      leading to the development of adverse outcomes. For the prompt detection of the
      most common geriatric syndromes in primary care we have created seven issues
      related to weight loss, vision and hearing impairments, falls, mood disorder,
      cognitive impairment, urinary incontinence, and the difficulties in walking. We
      believe that using of these questions will allow physicians to focus on
      addressing the important health problems associated with age and will produce the
      selection of patients for comprehensive geriatric assessment.

PMID- 28575563
TI  - [Validation of the questionnaire for screening frailty].
AB  - For screening frailty in daily practice, we developed the questionnaire relating
      issues of weight loss, impaired vision and hearing, injuries related to falls,
      mood decline, cognitive impairment, urinary incontinence, and mobility
      difficulties. 356 outpatients from Moscow were included in the study (mean age
      74,9+/-6,1 years, women - 80,4 %). Patients were interviewed using the
      questionnaire and underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment. The phenotype
      model of frailty was determined by L. Fried criteria, the frailty index model -
      by K. Rockwood criteria. ROC-analysis demonstrated a satisfactory agreement
      between the result of the survey by the questionnaire and assessment the
      phenotype model of frailty and the frailty index model (AUC=0,765 and 0,731,
      respectively). The results statistically significantly correlated with the
      assessment of the phenotype model of frailty and the frailty index model
      (Spearman correlation = 0,4 and 0,41, p<0,001). Optimal characteristics of the
      questionnaire for the frailty screening were consistent to cut-off >=3 and >= 4
      points. We propose to use a cut-off >= 3 point, since it corresponds to a higher
      value of sensitivity (85,7 and 93,3 % compared with the phenotype model of
      frailty and the frailty index model respectively). The proportion of patients who
      scored >= 3 points (58,4 %) indicates a high prevalence of geriatric syndromes
      among outpatients in Moscow.

PMID- 28575564
TI  - [Archaic stereotypies and modern approaches for understanding of ageing].
AB  - In the article we discussed the processes of awareness of the place of elderly
      people in modern society, elaboration of adequate relation to global aging and
      elderly themselves are still going in social sciences. These processes are
      expressed in a clash of archaic stereotypes and new approaches which changed
      social and age structure requires. Not only elderly people are providers of
      archaic stereotypes, but scientific institutions and practices as well.
      Reorientation of science, media and social policy towards study and realization
      of "postponed aging" opportunities is needed.

PMID- 28575565
TI  - EEG-neurofeedback training and quality of life of institutionalized elderly women
      (a pilot study).
AB  - This pilot study attempted to study the applicability of neurofeedback for
      elderly persons living in nursing homes. We hypothesized an improve of cognitive
      functioning and the independence in daily life (IDL) of elderly people by using
      low beta (12-15HZ) EEG neurofeedback training (E-NFT). The participants (active E
      NFT group, n=10; control group, n=6) were community living elderly women without
      dementia. Neurofeedback training was adjusted ten times within 9 weeks, with a
      training duration of 21 minutes by use of a single electrode, which was centrally
      placed on the skull surface. Executive functioning (measured with the Rey and
      fluency tasks), memory capacity (measured with the 15 words test), and IDL
      (measured with the Groningen Activity Restriction Scale) were measured before and
      after ten E-NFT sessions in nine weeks. No effects were found for IDL nor
      executive functioning. Interestingly, performance on the memory test improved in
      the experimental group, indicating a possible positive effect of E-NFT on memory
      in elderly women. This study demonstrates that E-NFT is applicable to older
      institutionalized women. The outcome of this pilot-study justifies the
      investigation of possible memory effects in future studies.

PMID- 28575566
TI  - [Adaptation to intermittent hypoxia-hyperoxia improves cognitive performance and
      exercise tolerance in elderly].
AB  - For improvements in exercise tolerance and cognitive function in geriatric
      patients Multimodal training programs (MTP) are used as combination of
      physiotherapy, occupational therapy and cardiovascular training. Intermittent
      Hypoxic-Hyperoxic Training (IHHT), a modified type of intermittent hypoxic
      training (IHT) is proposed to be included in MTP to elicit more pronounced
      beneficial effects in exercise tolerance and cognitive functions of geriatric
      patients likely by an additional pathway than a single MTP. Thirty four patients
      of the Geriatric Day Clinic aged between 64 and 92 years participated in the
      placebo controlled clinical trial. They were randomly assigned to receive MTP
      plus IHHT (experimental group - EG) or MTP plus placebo-breathing through a
      machine face mask (control group - CG) in a double blind fashion. Before and
      after the interventions course cognitive performance was assessed by the Dementia
      Detection-Test (DemTect) and the Clock-Drawing-Test (CDT), and functional
      exercise capacity - by the total distance of 6-Minute-Walk-Test (6MWT). After
      IHHT combined with MTP cognitive performance (DemTect) increased significantly
      when compared to NG (+16,7 % vs. +0,39 %, p<0,001). The CDT indicated similar
      results with a significant increase in the EG while the score of the CG even
      decreased (+10,7 % vs. -8%, p=0,031). Concerning the functional exercise
      capacity, both groups improved the total distance in the 6MWT but with a
      significantly larger increase in the EG compared to the CG (+24,1 % vs. +10,8 %,
      p=0,021). In addition, there was a significant relationship between the changes
      of the 6MWT and the DemTect Scores and the CDT. IHHT contributed significantly to
      improvements in cognitive performance and exercise capacity in elderly performing
      MTP. IHHT sessions are considered to be easily applicable to and well tolerated
      by geriatric patients up to 92 years.

PMID- 28575567
TI  - [Psychosocial characteristics of elderly people who have committed suicide
      attempts poisoning].
AB  - The aim of this study is to identify psychosocial characteristics of older people
      who attempted suicide by self-poisoning. A total of 44 older people with suicide
      attempts by self-poisoning was examined, 12 of whom were male and 32 were female,
      their average age was 71,9+10,8. The comparison group consisted of 53 young
      people - 19 males and 34 females, their average age was 26,6+4,4. In both groups
      dominated deliberate self-poisoning with antiepileptic, sedative, soporific,
      Antiparkinson and psychotropic drugs (40,9 % vs 47,2 %, p>0,05). Amongst older
      people number of those who engaged in deliberate self-poisoning with drugs
      affecting the autonomic nervous system (25 % vs 9,4 %, p<0,05) was significantly
      higher. Compared with younger adults, older adults are more likely to commit a
      suicide attempt with serious intentions to complete suicide (62,5 % vs 24,5 %,
      p<0,05). There is a positive statistically significant correlation between the
      factor of "suicide attempt with serious intentions" and factors "loneliness"
      (Y=0,68), "severe physical illness" (Y=0,58) and "constant pain" (Y=0, 60).

PMID- 28575568
TI  - [Concentration of proinflammatory cytokines, peroxiredoxin-1 and glutathione
      peroxidase activity in the blood plasma of patients with coronary artery disease
      undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting].
AB  - 76 patients with coronary heart disease (who had undergone coronary artery bypass
      grafting) were examined to investigate the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines and
      enzymes involved in redox regulation, in the mechanisms of development of
      systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Patients were divided into 2 groups: 1st
      - patients with coronary heart disease, who as a result of clinical trials has
      not been set postpericardiotomy syndrome; 2nd - patients with coronary heart
      disease who have been diagnosed postpericardiotomy syndrome. The blood plasma of
      both groups indicated intensification of production of interleukin-6, intrleukin
      8, as well as - an imbalance in the peroxiredoxin-1 and glutathione peroxidase.
      These changes by patients with postpericardiotomy syndrome are observed at the
      earliest time and differed depth of expression. The results of this work confirm
      the high potential of the investigated indicators for prevention and monitoring
      postpericardiotomy syndrome development.

PMID- 28575569
TI  - [Results of troponin I testing by high sensitive method in three age groups of
      healthy population].
AB  - Article is about troponin I testing by high sensitive method in healthy
      population group. 165 people (employees of hospital) were examined, 71 % - women
      and 29 % - men. Inclusion criteria were as follows: absence of active complaints
      at the time of health examination and during the previous 30 days. All the
      examinees were divided into three age groups: 18-34 years (middle age, I period),
      35-54 years (middle age, II period), above 55 years (old age). Research of
      correlation between cardiac troponin I and age of healthy population group was
      the main aim of investigation.

PMID- 28575570
TI  - [Aging of the myocardium and dilated cardiomyopathy: morphological and molecular
      aspects].
AB  - The review considers various aspects of myocardium aging in normal and dilated
      cardiomyopathy (DC). There is a partial fibrosis of the heart tissue due to
      accumulation of collagen type 1, and accumulation of amyloid during normal aging.
      Men myocardial aging is accompanied by loss of cardiomyocytes and increased
      volume of the remaining cells, whereas in women this effect is absent. There is
      an expression of nuclear proteins decrease (lamin A and C), the accumulation of
      lipofuscin, increased content of reactive oxygen species, reduction of protein
      synthesis Sirt1 in cardiomyocytes with aging. Sirt1 has a cardioprotective
      effect, supports the balance of lipid metabolism, inhibits the development of
      inflammation and the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. Reduction of its
      expression not only indicates the accelerated pace of myocardial aging, but can
      be a predictor of the development of DC. In DC occurs stretching of the heart
      cavities and systolic dysfunction, predominantly in the left ventricle. DC is
      characterized by the development of inflammation in the myocardium. Its markers
      is increased expression of ICAM-1 adhesion molecule, MMP-2, MMP-9 matrix
      metalloproteinases, TIMP-1 tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases and
      decreased expression of MMP-1 matrix metalloproteinase.

PMID- 28575571
TI  - [Age-related peculiarities of acute cholecystitis].
AB  - In the present study the analysis of dynamics of basic laboratory parameters of
      patients with acute cholecystitis (AC) in the four age groups subdivided
      according to the WHO classification into young, middle age, elderly and senile
      was carried out. The most pronounced changes were found in the senile age group
      in which the AC was accompanied by the decreased number of erythrocytes, low
      hemoglobin and total protein, leukocytosis, lower percentage of lymphocytes and
      the highest levels of ALT, AST, bilirubin and urea. Changes in the elderly and
      senile groups differed and in a number of cases were opposite. In the elderly and
      especially in the senile group the dynamics of the studied parameters related to
      surgery, was poorly expressed. These findings can be used in the preparation of
      the elderly and senile patients for AC surgery.

PMID- 28575572
TI  - [Features of vertebral pain syndromes in older women depending on the duration of
      postmenopausal period and bone mineral density indices].
AB  - We have analyzed the vertebral pain syndrome (VPS) rate in 2 844 women aged 40-89
      years, divided into groups according to the period of life (reproductive,
      perimenopausal and postmenopausal (PMP)) and evaluated the relationship between
      VPS frequency and indices of bone mineral density (BMD). It was found that the
      frequency of VPS during different physiological periods of woman life ranges from
      84,1 to 94,4 %, with significant increase when the PMP period is more than 20
      years compared with women in reproductive and early postmenopausal periods. The
      significant increase of the VPS frequency in thoracic and lumbar spines starts
      from 1-3 years of PMP and is retained at higher level for all subsequent periods
      of PMP. In postmenopausal women, a significant increase of the relative risk of
      VPS in the thoracic (in 1,3-1,4 times) and the lumbar (1,2-1,3 times) spines was
      found. In patients with osteoporosis with duration of PMP for 1-3 years, the
      frequency of VPS in thoracic spine was significantly higher than the indices in
      women with osteopenia, while patients with duration of PMP of 7-9 years had
      significantly higher frequency comparing to groups with osteopenia and norms. In
      patients without vertebral fractures and osteoporosis VPS frequency in the
      thoracic spine was significantly higher during periods of 4-6 and 7-9 years of
      PMP compared with women in reproductive period and compared with the women with
      normal BMD indices. The revealed features of the VPS should be considered while
      planning therapeutic interventions in women of older age groups.

PMID- 28575573
TI  - [Contrast induced nephropathy in the older age group patients].
AB  - This review devoted to actual medical problem that exists at a crossroad of
      cardiology, nephrology and radiology. Contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) is an
      important medical issue and its frequency is increasing last years. This disease
      may account for severe complications, including renal failure and even fatal
      outcome. We investigated contemporary sources to present epidemiology,
      pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis of CIN.

PMID- 28575574
TI  - Impact of Surface Charge on Cerium Oxide Nanoparticle Uptake and Translocation by
      Wheat (Triticum aestivum).
AB  - Nanoparticle (NP) physiochemical properties, including surface charge, affect
      cellular uptake, translocation, and tissue localization. To evaluate the
      influence of surface charge on NP uptake by plants, wheat seedlings were
      hydroponically exposed to 20 mg/L of ~4 nm CeO2 NPs functionalized with
      positively charged, negatively charged, and neutral dextran coatings. Fresh,
      hydrated roots and leaves were analyzed at various time points over 34 h using
      fluorescence X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy to provide laterally
      resolved spatial distribution and speciation of Ce. A 15-20% reduction from
      Ce(IV) to Ce(III) was observed in both roots and leaves, independent of NP
      surface charge. Because of its higher affinity with negatively charged cell
      walls, CeO2(+) NPs adhered to the plant roots the strongest. After 34 h, CeO2(-),
      and CeO2(0) NP exposed plants had higher Ce leaf concentrations than the plants
      exposed to CeO2(+) NPs. Whereas Ce was found mostly in the leaf veins of the
      CeO2(-) NP exposed plant, Ce was found in clusters in the nonvascular leaf tissue
      of the CeO2(0) NP exposed plant. These results provide important information for
      understanding mechanisms responsible for plant uptake, transformation, and
      translocation of NPs, and suggest that NP coatings can be designed to target NPs
      to specific parts of plants.

PMID- 28575575
TI  - Tunable Mechanochemistry of Lithium Battery Electrodes.
AB  - The interplay between mechanical strains and battery electrochemistry, or the
      tunable mechanochemistry of batteries, remains an emerging research area with
      limited experimental progress. In this report, we demonstrate how elastic strains
      applied to vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), a widely studied cathode material for Li
      ion batteries, can modulate the kinetics and energetics of lithium-ion
      intercalation. We utilize atomic layer deposition to coat V2O5 materials onto the
      surface of a shapememory superelastic NiTi alloy, which allows electrochemical
      assessment at a fixed and measurable level of elastic strain imposed on the V2O5,
      with strain state assessed through Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Our
      results indicate modulation of electrochemical intercalation potentials by ~40 mV
      and an increase of the diffusion coefficient of lithium ions by up to 2.5-times
      with elastic prestrains of <2% imposed on the V2O5. These results are supported
      by density functional theory calculations and demonstrate how mechanics of
      nanomaterials can be used as a precise tool to strain engineer the
      electrochemical energy storage performance of battery materials.

PMID- 28575576
TI  - Unusual Hollow Al2O3 Nanofibers with Loofah-Like Skins: Intriguing Catalyst
      Supports for Thermal Stabilization of Pt Nanocrystals.
AB  - Recently, hollow nanofibers could be fabricated by coaxis electrospinning method
      or template method. However, they are limited to applications because of the
      hardship in actual preparation. In this work, hollow gamma-Al2O3 nanofibers with
      loofah-like skins were first fabricated by using a single spinneret during
      electrospinning. These intriguing nanofibers were explored as new Pt supports
      with excellently sinter-resistant performance up to 500  degrees C, attributed to
      the unique loofah-like surface of gamma-Al2O3 nanofibers and the strong metal
      support interactions between Pt and gamma-Al2O3. When applied in the catalytic
      reduction of p-nitrophenol, the Pt/gamma-Al2O3 calcined at 500  degrees C
      exhibited 4-times higher reaction rate constant (6.8 s-1.mg-1) over free Pt
      nanocrystals.

PMID- 28575577
TI  - Diphenylalanine as a Reductionist Model for the Mechanistic Characterization of
      beta-Amyloid Modulators.
AB  - The phenomenon of protein aggregation into amyloid fibrils is associated with a
      large number of major diseases of unrelated etiology. Unraveling the mechanism of
      amyloid self-assembly and identifying therapeutic directions to control this
      process are of utmost importance. Research in this field has been hampered by
      several challenges, including reproducibility, low protein purification yields,
      and the inherent aggregation propensity of amyloidogenic proteins, making them
      extremely difficult to study. Herein, on the basis of the similarity in the
      assembly mechanism, as well as the physical, chemical, and biological
      characteristics, of diphenylalanine nanostructures and aromatic amino acid
      containing amyloid fibrils, we report a simple, yet robust peptide-based platform
      that could be used for screening of small molecules potentially capable of
      interfering with the aggregation process and for mechanistic exploration of their
      mode of action. The system was validated using four small-molecule inhibitors,
      and the effect was examined via turbidity assay, thioflavin T fluorescence, and
      electron microscopy. The aggregation profile of diphenylalanine was very similar
      to that of beta-amyloid polypeptide in the presence of the modulators. Rosmarinic
      acid emerged as an extremely potent inhibitor and a destabilizer of the
      aggregates. The effect of stoichiometric variation of rosmarinic acid on the
      process of destabilization was also probed using a microfluidic technique.
      Finally, the formation of equimolar complexes of diphenylalanine and inhibitors
      was detected using mass spectrometry. This approach not only provides a system
      for high-throughput screening of possible inhibitor molecules from larger
      libraries of modulators, but is also highly useful for understanding the
      mechanistic aspects of the interactions leading to the process of inhibition.

PMID- 28575578
TI  - Chain Length Dependence of the Dielectric Constant and Polarizability in
      Conjugated Organic Thin Films.
AB  - Dielectric materials are ubiquitous in optics, electronics, and materials
      science. Recently, there have been new efforts to characterize the dielectric
      performance of thin films composed of molecular assemblies. In this context, we
      investigate here the relationship between the polarizability of the constituent
      molecules and the film dielectric constant, using periodic density functional
      theory (DFT) calculations, for polyyne and saturated alkane chains. In
      particular, we explore the implication of the superlinear chain length dependence
      of the polarizability, a specific feature of conjugated molecules. We show and
      explain from DFT calculations and a simple depolarization model that this
      superlinearity is attenuated by the collective polarization. However, it is not
      completely suppressed. This confers a very high sensitivity of the dielectric
      constant to the thin film thickness. This latter can increase by a factor of 3-4
      at reasonable coverages, by extending the molecular length. This significantly
      limits the decline of the thin film capacitance with the film thickness.
      Therefore, the conventional fit of the capacitance versus thickness is not
      appropriate to determine the dielectric constant of the film. Finally, we show
      that the failures of semilocal approximations of the exchange-correlation
      functional lead to a very significant overestimation of this effect.

PMID- 28575579
TI  - Determination of statin drugs in hospital effluent with dispersive liquid-liquid
      microextraction and quantification by liquid chromatography.
AB  - Statins are classified as being amongst the most prescribed agents for treating
      hypercholesterolaemia and preventing vascular diseases. In this study, a rapid
      and effective liquid chromatography method, assisted by diode array detection,
      was designed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of atorvastatin
      (ATO) and simvastatin (SIM) in hospital effluent samples. The solid phase
      extraction (SPE) of the analytes was optimized regarding sorbent material and pH,
      and the dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), in terms of pH, ionic
      strength, type and volume of extractor/dispersor solvents. The performance of
      both extraction procedures was evaluated in terms of linearity, quantification
      limits, accuracy (recovery %), precision and matrix effects for each analyte. The
      methods proved to be linear in the concentration range considered; the
      quantification limits were 0.45 ug L-1 for ATO and 0.75 ug L-1 for SIM; the
      matrix effect was almost absent in both methods and the average recoveries
      remained between 81.5-90.0%; and the RSD values were <20%. The validated methods
      were applied to the quantification of the statins in real samples of hospital
      effluent; the concentrations ranged from 18.8 ug L-1 to 35.3 ug L-1 for ATO, and
      from 30.3 ug L-1 to 38.5 ug L-1 for SIM. Since the calculated risk quotient was
      <=192, the occurrence of ATO and SIM in hospital effluent poses a potential
      serious risk to human health and the aquatic ecosystem.

PMID- 28575580
TI  - Evaluation of the process performance of a down-flow hanging sponge reactor for
      direct treatment of domestic wastewater in Bangkok, Thailand.
AB  - This study assesses the performance of an aerobic trickling filter, down-flow
      hanging sponge (DHS) reactor, as a decentralized domestic wastewater treatment
      technology. Also, the characteristic eukaryotic community structure in DHS
      reactor was investigated. Long-term operation of a DHS reactor for direct
      treatment of domestic wastewater (COD = 150-170 mg/L and BOD = 60-90 mg/L) was
      performed under the average ambient temperature ranged from 28 degrees C to 31
      degrees C in Bangkok, Thailand. Throughout the evaluation period of 550 days, the
      DHS reactor at a hydraulic retention time of 3 h showed better performance than
      the existing oxidation ditch process in the removal of organic carbon (COD
      removal rate = 80-83% and BOD removal rate = 91%), nitrogen compounds (total
      nitrogen removal rate = 45-51% and NH4+-N removal rate = 95-98%), and low excess
      sludge production (0.04 gTS/gCOD removed). The clone library based on the 18S
      ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequence revealed that phylogenetic diversity of
      18S rRNA gene in the DHS reactor was higher than that of the present oxidation
      ditch process. Furthermore, the DHS reactor also demonstrated sufficient COD and
      NH4+-N removal efficiency under flow rate fluctuation conditions that simulates a
      small-scale treatment facility. The results show that a DHS reactor could be
      applied as a decentralized domestic wastewater treatment technology in tropical
      regions such as Bangkok, Thailand.

PMID- 28575581
TI  - Development and Validation of a New Cardio-Specific Resting Energy Expenditure
      Equation for Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study tested the accuracy of resting energy expenditure (REE)
      equations among patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass and
      developed/validated a more accurate cardio-specific equation (CSE). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Prospective observational cohort of 240 adults (derivation data set, 170
      patients; validation data set, 70 patients). REEs were calculated with 6
      equations-Penn State 2003a, Penn State 2003b, Ireton-Jones, Swinamer, Faisy, and
      American College of Chest Physicians-and results were compared with indirect
      calorimetry (IC). Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to develop
      the CSE. Agreement between measured and calculated REEs was assessed with Lin's
      concordance correlation coefficient (LCCC), Bland-Altman plot, and regression
      analysis. RESULTS: LCCCs present poor agreement between measured and calculated
      REEs: 0.24 (95% CI, 0.19-0.29), for the Faisy equation; 0.15 (95% CI, 0.1-0.19),
      Ireton-Jones; 0.31 (95% CI, 0.25-0.37), Swinamer; 0.17 (95% CI, 0.13-0.21), Penn
      State 2003a; 0.19 (95% CI, 0.14-0.23), Penn State 2003b; and 0.11 (95% CI, 0.07
      0.15), American College of Chest Physicians. Based on the derivation data set,
      REEs are explained by the following equation: CSE = 616 - 8 * age in years + 13 *
      weight in kilograms + 450 if on ventilator + 159 * MV in liters + 145 if on
      inotropes. Based on the validation study results, the LCCC between IC and the CSE
      was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.73-0.88). CONCLUSION: The CSE has adequate precision and
      could be used for REE estimation for patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass
      if IC is unavailable.

PMID- 28575582
TI  - An immunoinformatics-derived DNA vaccine encoding human class II T cell epitopes
      of Ebola virus, Sudan virus, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus is
      immunogenic in HLA transgenic mice.
AB  - Immunoinformatics tools were used to predict human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class
      II-restricted T cell epitopes within the envelope glycoproteins and nucleocapsid
      proteins of Ebola virus (EBOV) and Sudan virus (SUDV) and the structural proteins
      of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV). Selected epitopes were tested for
      binding to soluble HLA molecules representing 5 class II alleles (DRB1*0101,
      DRB1*0301, DRB1*0401, DRB1*0701, and DRB1*1501). All but one of the 25 tested
      peptides bound to at least one of the DRB1 alleles, and 4 of the peptides bound
      at least moderately or weakly to all 5 DRB1 alleles. Additional algorithms were
      used to design a single "string-of-beads" expression construct with 44 selected
      epitopes arranged to avoid creation of spurious junctional epitopes. Seventeen of
      these 44 predicted epitopes were conserved between the major histocompatibility
      complex (MHC) of humans and mice, allowing initial testing in mice. BALB/c mice
      vaccinated with the multi-epitope construct developed statistically significant
      cellular immune responses to EBOV, SUDV, and VEEV peptides as measured by
      interferon (IFN)-gamma ELISpot assays. Significant levels of antibodies to VEEV,
      but not EBOV, were also detected in vaccinated BALB/c mice. To assess
      immunogenicity in the context of a human MHC, HLA-DR3 transgenic mice were
      vaccinated with the multi-epitope construct and boosted with a mixture of the 25
      peptides used in the binding assays. The vaccinated HLA-DR3 mice developed
      significant cellular immune responses to 4 of the 25 (16%) tested individual
      class II peptides as measured by IFN-gamma ELISpot assays. In addition, these
      mice developed antibodies against EBOV and VEEV as measured by ELISA. While a low
      but significant level of protection was observed in vaccinated transgenic mice
      after aerosol exposure to VEEV, no protection was observed after intraperitoneal
      challenge with mouse-adapted EBOV. These studies provide proof of concept for the
      use of an informatics approach to design a multi-agent, multi-epitope immunogen
      and provide a basis for further testing aimed at focusing immune responses toward
      desired protective T cell epitopes.

PMID- 28575584
TI  - Variability in inorganic As, Sb and Tl species concentrations in waters and
      bottom sediments of the Klodnica River (Poland).
AB  - The study describes the application of new methodologies for the simultaneous
      determination of As(III)/As(V), Sb(III)/Sb(V) and Tl(I)/Tl(III) ions in waters
      and bottom sediments of the Klodnica River (Poland) with the hyphenated technique
      of high-performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) . Time and spatial correlations were determined in the
      changes of total and speciation concentrations of the above-mentioned analytes in
      Klodnica river in 2012. The developed methodologies demonstrate high selectivity
      and limits of quantification at the level of 0.009-0.120 ug/L. Their
      repeatability, precision and recovery are appropriate for trace analyses of
      environmental samples. Time and spatial correlations, and concentrations of
      inorganic As, Sb and Tl ions demonstrated high variability both in water and
      bottom sediments.

PMID- 28575583
TI  - The critical role played by endotoxin-induced liver autophagy in the maintenance
      of lipid metabolism during sepsis.
AB  - Macroautophagy/autophagy is a central mechanism by which cells maintain integrity
      and homeostasis, and endotoxin-induced autophagy plays important roles in innate
      immunity. Although TLR4 stimulation mediated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) also
      upregulates autophagy in hepatocytes and liver, its physiological role remains
      elusive. The objective of this study was to determine the role of LPS-induced
      autophagy in the regulation of liver lipid metabolism. LPS treatment (5 mg/kg)
      increased autophagy, as detected by LC3 conversion and transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM) analysis in C57BL6 mouse livers. AC2F hepatocytes also showed
      increased autophagic flux after LPS treatment (1 MUg/ml). To investigate the role
      of LPS-induced autophagy further, liver lipid metabolism changes in LPS-treated
      mice and fasted controls were compared. Interestingly, LPS-treated mice showed
      less lipid accumulation in liver than fasted mice despite increased fatty acid
      uptake and lipid synthesis-associated genes. In vitro analysis using AC2F
      hepatocytes demonstrated LPS-induced autophagy influenced the degradation of
      lipid droplets. Inhibition of LPS-induced autophagy using bafilomycin A1 or Atg7
      knockdown significantly increased lipid accumulation in AC2F hepatocytes. In
      addition, pretreatment with chloroquine aggravated LPS-induced lipid accumulation
      and inflammation in C57BL6 mouse livers. The physiological importance of
      autophagy was verified in LPS-treated young and aged rats. Autophagic response
      was diminished in LPS-treated aged rats and lipid metabolism was impaired during
      sepsis, indicating autophagy response is important for regulating lipid
      metabolism after endotoxin challenge. Our findings demonstrate endotoxin-induced
      autophagy is important for the regulation of lipid metabolism, and suggest that
      autophagy helps maintain lipid metabolism homeostasis during sepsis.

PMID- 28575587
TI  - Chemosensory Search Behavior in the Starfish Asterias forbesi.

PMID- 28575588
TI  - Far Field Chemo-orientation in the American Lobster, Homarus americanus: Effects
      of Unilateral Ablation and Lesioning of the Lateral Antennule.

PMID- 28575586
TI  - Do Tea Polyphenols Protect Dogfish Lens (Mustelus canis) Catalase Against UV
      Damage?

PMID- 28575589
TI  - Pulsatile Movement of Hermissenda.

PMID- 28575590
TI  - Behavioral Dynamics That Would Lead to Multiple Paternity within Egg Capsules of
      the Squid Loligo pealei.

PMID- 28575591
TI  - Nuclear Microprobe Mapping of Statoliths of Chokka Squid Loligo vulgaris
      reynaudii d'Orbigny, 1845.
AB  - Loliginid squid statoliths were broken in half and their elemental composition
      was assessed using the nuclear microprobe technique. Proton induced X-ray
      emission and proton backscattering were used simultaneously. True, quantitative
      maps of calcium and strontium distribution in the frontal plane were obtained
      using a rapid-matrix-transform method called Dynamic Analysis. These measurements
      were complemented by observations with scanning electron microscopy and light
      microscopy. In juvenile and adult statoliths, Sr was concentrated in the wing and
      adjacent areas, whereas the Ca concentration was highest on the edge of the
      lateral dome. In contrast, Sr and Ca were uniformly distributed in the statoliths
      of paralarval squid. Increments showed best definition in the areas anterior and
      adjacent to the wing, corresponding to areas of high Sr content. Although
      temperature, sex, maturity, and the administration of oxytetracycline may
      influence the quantitative distribution of Ca and Sr in the statoliths of adult
      squid, they do not appear to affect the general pattern described above. The
      finding that Sr is concentrated in regions adjacent to the macula where the
      clearest increments are found in loliginid statoliths supports the hypothesis
      linking strontium with the regulation of statolith deposition and the definition
      of daily increments.

PMID- 28575585
TI  - Transforming growth factor-beta: A therapeutic target for cancer.
AB  - Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) regulates cell growth and
      differentiation, apoptosis, cell motility, extracellular matrix production,
      angiogenesis, and cellular immunity. It has a paradoxical role in cancer. In the
      early stages it inhibits cellular transformation and prevents cancer progression.
      In later stages TGF-beta plays a key role in promoting tumor progression through
      mainly 3 mechanisms: facilitating epithelial to mesenchymal transition,
      stimulating angiogenesis and inducing immunosuppression. As a result of its
      opposing tumor promoting and tumor suppressive abilities, TGF-beta and its
      pathway has represented potential opportunities for drug development and several
      therapies targeting the TGF-beta pathway have been identified. This review
      focuses on identifying the mechanisms through which TGF-beta is involved in
      tumorigenesis and current therapeutics that are under development.

PMID- 28575592
TI  - Neurons Associated With a Novel Motor Pattern Expressed During Metamorphosis of
      the Hawkmoth, Manduca sexta.

PMID- 28575593
TI  - Effectiveness of Continuous Bilateral Sampling for Robot Chemotaxis in a
      Turbulent Odor Plume: Implications for Lobster Chemo-orientation.

PMID- 28575594
TI  - Can the Female American Lobster Predict the Dominant Male?

PMID- 28575595
TI  - Sexual Modes in the Colonial Kamptozoan Genus Barentsia.
AB  - Sexual mode in colonial animals is expressed at the zooid, colony, and genet
      level; all three must be characterized to understand sexuality in these animals.
      I carried out such an examination of the sexual mode of a colonial kamptozoan
      (entoproct), Barentsia hildegardae, at Friday Harbor, Washington. Calyces never
      contained both ovaries and testes, and colonies never contained both male and
      female calyces. Calyces and colonies (including replicate colonies from the same
      genet) monitored over two years did not change sex. These results suggest that B.
      hildegardae is comprehensively gonochoric. For comparison, I examined the sexual
      mode of five other species in the genus Barentsia. Barentsia benedeni, B.
      conferta, and B. ramosa also appear to be comprehensively gonochoric. Barentsia
      discreta is hermaphroditic at the colony level, with gonochoric calyces whose sex
      is environmentally determined, as noted by previous workers. Barentsia aggregata
      has simultaneously hermaphroditic calyces; this was reported by the authors who
      described it, but has escaped notice in subsequent reviews of kamptozoan biology.
      There are thus three contrasting modes of sex within the genus Barentsia. All
      three modes also occur in colonial cnidarians, and two of them are known in
      bryozoans, colonial hemichordates, and colonial urochordates. These disparate
      sexual modes may have evolved as adaptations to differing environmental
      conditions or population densities.

PMID- 28575596
TI  - Ciliary Feeding Assisted by Suction From the Muscular Oral Hood of Phoronid
      Larvae.
AB  - Phoronid larvae have an oral hood upstream from a postoral encircling array of
      ciliated tentacles. Cilia move water over the hood and between the tentacles,
      from anterior to posterior. When an algal cell or other particle in this current
      contacts a tentacle, the neighboring part of the hood lifts, and the particle is
      drawn toward the mouth. The correlation between movements of hood and particles
      indicates that the particle moves with water entering the enlarged space beneath
      the hood. Each lift of the hood is preceded by contact between a particle and a
      tentacle. A hood lift follows contact with a particle anywhere along the length
      of a tentacle, and clearance rates are thus proportional to the total length of
      tentacles deployed and the velocity of the current past the tentacles. After
      being detained at the ciliary bands of tentacles, particles are transported by
      the hood lift at speeds exceeding measured transport along the frontal ciliated
      surfaces of other larval forms. Faster transport may aid capture of faster prey.
      The larva's feeding mechanism is unique to the phylum Phoronida. Larvae of
      brachiopods, bryozoans, hemichordates, and echinoderms have similar ciliary bands
      producing feeding currents, but none are known to transport food toward the mouth
      by suction produced by muscle contractions.

PMID- 28575597
TI  - Zoogeographic Distributions of the Sibling Species Mytilus galloprovincialis and
      M. trossulus (Bivalvia: Mytilidae) and Their Hybrids in the North Pacific.
AB  - Diagnostic length differences in a PCR amplified fragment of the gene for byssal
      adhesive protein were used to study the zoogeographic distribution of Mytilus
      galloprovincialis and M. trossulus along the west coast of North America and in
      Japan. The distributions of M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus are patchy,
      although an overall geographic pattern emerges. M. galloprovincialis was the only
      species found on either Kyushu or Honshu, and it was the most abundant mussel
      from Tomales Bay to San Diego, California. M. trossulus was the only bay mussel
      found on Hokkaido and in Alaska, and it was by far the most abundant mussel along
      the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Mytilus galloprovincialis and M. trossulus
      are sympatric and hybridize near Whidbey Island, Washington, in San Francisco
      Bay, and in San Diego Bay. A second diagnostic anonymous nuclear PCR marker was
      used to examine the extent of hybridization at Palo Alto, California. At this
      site, genotypes appeared to be a mixture of M. galloprovincialis, F1 hybrids
      between M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus, and backcrosses between the F1's
      and M. galloprovincialis. The discontinuity between the zoogeographic
      distributions of these two species at about 40{deg}-41{deg}N latitude in both the
      eastern and western Pacific suggests that temperature is a factor in determining
      their present distribution and limiting their dispersal to other regions.

PMID- 28575598
TI  - Nearly Optimal Foraging in Patches Under Nutrient Constraints.
AB  - Three feeding strategies with different rules for prey selectivity were evaluated
      by Monte Carlo computer simulation. The predator must obtain a minimum quantity
      of each of three different nutrients, and it sequentially encounters one of three
      kinds of prey that differ in both their nutrient compositions and their relative
      abundances. Within patches, prey may be randomly dispersed or aggregated with
      Markovian transition probabilities. Overall cost is the sum of search time plus
      consumption cost plus emigration (between-patch traverses) risk. The predator
      will emigrate if it is unsuccessful in acquiring a minimum of {Gamma} units of
      any needed nutrient within the T most recent prey encounters. The three
      strategies are (1) no discrimination-with potentially high consumption costs, (2)
      minimal consumption-with potentially very prolonged search times, and (3) a
      hybrid strategy that requires a physiological monitoring of net nutrient
      acquisition (or the bookkeeping of highly correlated gustatory cues). Each
      strategy has its characteristic dynamics and optima, but collectively these
      simulations show that no one strategy is superior and that over a large portion
      of the parameter space the differences in overall cost are relatively small.

PMID- 28575599
TI  - Righting Response and Escape Response in Opsanus tau Are Temperature Dependent.

PMID- 28575600
TI  - Inhibition of Microtubule-Dependent, Minus-End Directed Transport of Axoplasmic
      Organelles by an Antibody Specific for the Intermediate Chain of Dynein.

PMID- 28575601
TI  - Comparison of a Nerve Gas Detoxifying Enzyme from Squid and from Pseudomonas
      diminuta.

PMID- 28575602
TI  - Aspects of Lead Toxicity and Habituation in Hermissenda Learning.

PMID- 28575603
TI  - Identification of Toadfish-Pathogenic Bacteria Based on a Comparative Molecular
      Approach.

PMID- 28575604
TI  - Photodynamic Effect of 488-nm Light on Eosin-B-stained Spisula Sperm.

PMID- 28575605
TI  - Physiological Stress Elevates Hemolymph Levels of Methyl Farnesoate in the Green
      Crab Carcinus maenas.

PMID- 28575606
TI  - Relationship of Methyl Transferase Activity and Methyl Farnesoate Levels in the
      Spider Crab, Libinia emarginata.

PMID- 28575608
TI  - Orientation of Motile Unicellular Algae to Oxygen: Oxytaxis in Euglena.

PMID- 28575607
TI  - Effect of Gossypol on the Ultrastructure of Spisula Sperm.

PMID- 28575609
TI  - Catecholamine-Containing Cells in Larval and Postlarval Bivalve Molluscs.
AB  - Previous studies have suggested an involvement of catecholamines in the control
      of several larval behaviors, such as feeding, locomotion, and induction of
      settling and metamorphosis. In the present study we employed aldehyde-induced,
      blue-green fluorescence to indicate catecholamines in cells within
      representatives of two bivalve families, the Pectinidae (Placopecten
      magellanicus) and the Mytilidae (Mytilus edulis). Larvae were examined at
      different stages of development before and also shortly after settlement. The
      general distribution of fluorescent cells was similar in the two species. By
      midveliger stage, several fluorescent cells and fibers were located along the
      outer rim of each velar lobe, and a pair of flask-shaped cells was located
      lateral to the mouth. A single fiber from near the mouth projected to a region
      beneath the apical tuft. In the pediveliger, the cells by the mouth were joined
      by an additional two to four fluorescent cells. The developing foot also
      contained numerous such cells, some of which had processes that penetrated the
      epithelium on the "sole" and bore ciliated terminals. Fluorescent somata were
      also located around the edge of the mantle. Centrally projecting fibers appeared
      to terminate in the pedal and abdominal ganglia, which also contained a few
      fluorescent somata. After settlement, the velar lobes and resident fluorescent
      somata disappeared, but fluorescent cells in the foot persisted as this latter
      organ grew. Fluorescent cells within the developing gill were connected with the
      abdominal ganglia by means of fibers. Control preparations labeled with
      antibodies raised against serotonin indicated that the aldehyde-induced
      fluorescence was not due to the presence of indoleamines. The present study not
      only confirms previous chromatographic evidence suggesting the presence of
      catecholamines in the larvae of bivalve molluscs, but also identifies putative
      neuronal circuits that may control various larval behaviors.

PMID- 28575610
TI  - Chemosensory Activation of an Antennular Grooming Behavior in the Spiny Lobster,
      Panulirus argus, Is Tuned Narrowly to L-Glutamate.
AB  - Antennular grooming behavior (AGB) is a stereotyped behavior in crustaceans in
      which the first pair of antennae, the major olfactory organs, are clasped and
      wiped repetitively by the third maxillipeds, which also serve as feeding
      appendages. AGB apparently functions to clear away accumulating debris on or
      between the antennular aesthetascs (olfactory sensilla). The purpose of this
      research was to determine whether AGB can be activated by chemicals commonly
      found in food odors. Lobsters were presented, via headset or handheld pipette,
      with 27 chemicals found in their food. One chemical, L-glutamate, evoked very
      high frequencies of wiping. Most chemicals tested were not stimulatory and only a
      few were weakly stimulatory (adenosine-5'-monophosphate, glycine, D-glutamate).
      This is surprising because previous studies have shown that other behaviors
      (antennular flick, search) can be evoked by a much broader array of chemicals
      found in food odorants. On the basis of these results, we propose that
      chemosensory neurons that specifically detect L-Glu activate AGB through a
      recently described non-olfactory pathway. Furthermore, we propose that the role
      of L-Glu in evoking AGB is based on its electrostatic properties. Because it has
      a high probability of electrostatic adherence to the antennular cuticle, L-Glu is
      a sensitive indicator of fouling by food-associated chemicals and thus an
      appropriate compound to stimulate antennular grooming.

PMID- 28575611
TI  - Differential Leucocyte Counts in the Toadfish, Opsanus tau: Insignificant
      Variation with Seasonal Temperature.

PMID- 28575612
TI  - Bacterial Pericarditis: A New Disease of Toadfish.

PMID- 28575614
TI  - Antimicrobial Activity in the Microbial Community of the Accessory Nidamental
      Gland and Egg Cases of Loligo pealei (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae).

PMID- 28575615
TI  - Coral Bleaching on Johnston Atoll, Central Pacific Ocean.

PMID- 28575613
TI  - Consumption of Oxygen by Isolated Skate Retinal Photoreceptors.

PMID- 28575616
TI  - A Hemolytic Activity Secreted by the Endotoxin-Challenged Horseshoe Crab: A Novel
      Immune System Operating at the Surface of the Carapace.

PMID- 28575617
TI  - Biosynthetic Induction of a Secondary Metabolite by a Marine Bacterium under
      Nutritional Stress: Potential Role of the Incomplete Oxidation of an Organic
      Acid.

PMID- 28575618
TI  - PCB Contamination Relative to Age for a Pacific Damselfish, Abudefduf sordidus
      (Pomacentridae).

PMID- 28575619
TI  - Identification of Phospholipase A2 and Phospholipase C Activities in Calcium
      Regulatory Endomembranes of Sand Dollar Cells.

PMID- 28575620
TI  - Comparison of Three Techniques for Evaluating Seasonal Gametogenesis in Spisula
      solidissima.

PMID- 28575621
TI  - Apoptosis and Tissue Regression in the Marine Sponge Microciona prolifera.

PMID- 28575624
TI  - Comparative Settlement Age of Damselfish Larvae (Plectroglyphidodon imparipennis,
      Pomacentridae) from Hawaii and Johnston Atoll.

PMID- 28575622
TI  - Statistical Image Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Patterns in the Pre-Nuclear
      Envelope Breakdown Calcium Signal.

PMID- 28575623
TI  - Tidal River Riffle Habitats Support High Diversity and Abundance of Gammaridean
      Amphipods.

PMID- 28575625
TI  - Control of Periphyton on Zostera marina by the Eastern Mudsnail, Ilyanassa
      obsoleta (Say), in a Shallow Temperate Estuary.

PMID- 28575627
TI  - Influence of Grazing and Nitrogen Loading on Benthic Microalgal Biomass in
      Estuaries of Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts.

PMID- 28575626
TI  - Binding of Hyaluronic Acid to Cellular Receptors of the Marine Sponge Microciona
      prolifera.

PMID- 28575628
TI  - Cell Localization of Lectin Binding in Microciona prolifera Sponge.

PMID- 28575629
TI  - The Importance of Access to Salt-Marsh Surface to Short-term Growth of Fundulus
      heteroclitus in a New England Salt Marsh.

PMID- 28575631
TI  - Experimental Analysis of Tentacle Formation in the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi.

PMID- 28575630
TI  - Growth Rates and Abundance of Fundulus heteroclitus in Estuaries Subject to
      Different Land-Derived Nitrogen Loads in Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts.

PMID- 28575632
TI  - Squids (Loligo pealei and Euprymna scolopes) Can Exhibit Polarized Light Patterns
      Produced by Their Skin.

PMID- 28575633
TI  - Photoreceptor Morphology and Visual Pigment Content in the Retina of the Common
      White Sucker (Catostomus commersoni).

PMID- 28575635
TI  - Field Verification of Predictions of the Waquoit Bay Nitrogen Loading Model.

PMID- 28575634
TI  - Effect of Salinity on the Fate of Inorganic Nitrogen in Sediments of the Parker
      River Estuary, Massachusetts.

PMID- 28575636
TI  - Release of N2 and N20 from Salt-Marsh Sediments Subject to Different Land-Derived
      Nitrogen Loads.

PMID- 28575637
TI  - Folic acid attenuates homocysteine and enhances antioxidative capacity in
      atherosclerotic rats.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease that can seriously endanger human life.
      Folic acid supplementation modulates several disorders, including
      atherosclerosis, via its antiapoptotic and antioxidative properties. This study
      investigated whether folic acid alleviates atherogenesis by restoring
      homocysteine levels and antioxidative capacity in atherosclerosis Wistar rats. To
      this end, 28 Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (7 rats/group) as
      follows: (i) wild-type group, fed only the AIN-93 semi-purified rodent diet
      (folic acid: 2.1 mg/kg); (ii) high-fat + folic acid-deficient group (HF+DEF)
      (folic acid: 0.2 mg/kg); (iii) high-fat + normal folic acid group (folic acid:
      2.1 mg/kg); and (iv) high-fat + folic acid-supplemented group (folic acid: 4.2
      mg/kg). After 12 weeks, histopathological changes in the atherosclerotic lesions
      of the aortic arch were determined. In addition, serum folate levels, plasma
      homocysteine levels, plasma S-adenosyl-homocysteine levels, antioxidant status,
      oxidant status, and lipid profiles were evaluated. The results show aggravated
      atherosclerotic lesions in the HF+DEF group. Folic acid supplementation increased
      concentrations of serum folate. Further, folic acid supplementation increased
      high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, decreased plasma homocysteine levels, and
      improved antioxidant capacity in atherogenic rats. These findings are consistent
      with the hypothesis that folic acid alleviates atherogenesis by reducing plasma
      homocysteine levels and improving antioxidant capacity in rats fed a high-fat
      diet.

PMID- 28575638
TI  - Elbow Injuries in Professional Baseball: Epidemiological Findings From the Major
      League Baseball Injury Surveillance System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elbow injuries cause significant disability for the throwing athlete.
      Scant data are available on the distribution and characteristics of these
      injuries in elite baseball players. No study exists that focuses solely on the
      epidemiological characteristics of elbow injuries in professional baseball
      players using a comprehensive injury surveillance system. HYPOTHESIS:
      Professional baseball players have a high occurrence of elbow injuries influenced
      by factors including length of time playing, time period within the annual
      baseball season, and specific position played. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive
      epidemiological study. METHODS: Data on elbow injuries occurring during the 2011
      2014 seasons were collected from Major League Baseball's Health Injury and
      Tracking System, a comprehensive injury surveillance system. Each specific type
      of elbow injury was evaluated with respect to overall injury rate, years as a
      professional player, mechanism of injury, treatment, average time lost, and
      return to play. RESULTS: During the study period, 3185 elbow injuries (n = 430
      Major League; n = 2755 Minor League) occurred. The mean number of days missed and
      percentage requiring surgery were similar between Major and Minor League players.
      Overall, 20.0% (650/3185) of the injuries required surgical treatment. Pitchers
      were the most likely to incur an elbow injury (40.0% of injured athletes were
      pitchers), were the most likely to require surgery (34.2% of injured pitchers
      required surgery), and had the greatest mean number of days missed when treated
      nonsurgically (33.2 days). Medial injuries composed 42.1% (1342/3185) of all
      elbow injuries. Of all elbow surgeries performed during the study period, the
      highest percentage involved ligaments (372/650; 57.2%). CONCLUSION: Elbow
      injuries are a considerable source of disability in professional baseball
      players. Pitchers are most likely to incur these injuries, are most likely to
      require surgery, and have the highest mean number of days missed when treated
      nonsurgically. The most common injuries involve the medial elbow, with ligament
      injuries most often requiring surgery. This study represents the only
      investigation to date using a comprehensive injury surveillance system to examine
      elbow injuries in professional baseball players. It provides a basis for injury
      prevention and treatment recommendations, establishes the most thorough framework
      for determining elbow injury risk, and focuses continued research on elbow injury
      prevention in the elite baseball player.

PMID- 28575639
TI  - Matrix Production Affects MRI Outcomes After Matrix-Associated Autologous
      Chondrocyte Transplantation in the Knee.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte transplantation (MACT) has
      been an effective therapy for large, full-thickness cartilage lesions for years.
      However, little is known about how graft maturation is affected by
      characteristics of transplanted chondrocytes. PURPOSE: To investigate the
      influence of gene expression of chondrocytes at the time of transplantation on
      MRI outcomes up to 2 years after MACT. STUDY DESIGN: Case series; Level of
      evidence, 4. METHODS: This study included 25 patients with 27 symptomatic
      traumatic defects of articular cartilage, who had undergone MACT in the knee.
      Postoperative MRI examinations were conducted at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after
      surgery. Biochemical graft maturation was assessed by measuring T2 relaxation
      time values of the transplant and healthy native cartilage areas. The MOCART
      (magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue) score was used to
      evaluate the morphological quality of regeneration tissue. Gene expression
      (collagen type I, collagen type II, aggrecan, versican, and interleukin-1beta)
      was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in transplant
      residuals at the time point of transplantation and was correlated with MRI
      outcomes using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. A Friedman test with post
      hoc analysis (Wilcoxon signed rank test) conducted with a Bonferroni correction
      was applied to compare scores at different time points. RESULTS: T2 relaxation
      time of regeneration tissue improved from a mean +/- SD of 74.6 +/- 20.1
      milliseconds at 3 months to 47.9 +/-13.3 milliseconds at 24 months ( P < .003).
      These values were similar to the T2 relaxation times of the native surrounding
      cartilage (50.9 +/- 15 ms). The calculated T2 index (ratio of regeneration tissue
      to native cartilage) improved from 1.63 +/- 0.76 at 3 months to 1.0 +/- 0.4 at 24
      months ( P < .011). The MOCART score increased from 51.6 +/- 15 points to 72.4 +/
      12.2 points ( P < .001). Improvement of the T2 index over time significantly
      correlated with aggrecan, COL1A1, COL2A1, and versican expression ( rs = 0.9, P <
      .001; rs = 0.674, P < .012; rs = 0.553, P < .05; and rs = 0.575, P < .04,
      respectively). No correlation was found for IL-1beta. CONCLUSION: These data
      demonstrate that matrix production in transplanted chondrocytes affects
      maturation of MACT grafts in MRI 2 years after surgery.

PMID- 28575640
TI  - The effect of subinhibitory concentrations of gentian violet on the germ tube
      formation by Candida albicans and its adherence to oral epithelial cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effect of subinhibitory concentrations of
      gentian violet on the germ tube formation by Candida albicans and its adherence
      ability to oral epithelial cells. METHODS: Thirty strains of C. albicans isolated
      from denture wearers, normal healthy individuals and HIV positive patients were
      used in the study. The antifungal property (Minimum Fungicidal Concentration) of
      gentian violet was determined at various time intervals using a microdilution
      technique. The effect of subinhibitory concentrations of gentian violet on the
      adherence ability (0.000244%) and on germ tube formation ((0.000244%, 0.000122%,
      0.000061% and 0.000031%) was determined. In both experiments, water was used as a
      control. The test results were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS:
      At 60min a high concentration (0.0078%) of gentian violet was required to
      completely kill C. albicans. Subinhibitory concentrations of gentian violet
      significantly reduced the adherence ability of C. albicans by 57% (p<0.01) and
      equally inhibited germ tube formation (p<0.01) compared with the controls. The
      inhibition was concentration dependent, with up to 98% reduction at a
      concentration of 0.000244%. Germ tube reduction was significantly higher in the
      isolates from the HIV positive patients than in the isolates from denture
      wearers. CONCLUSION: At high concentrations, gentian violet killed C. albicans,
      whereas at subinhibitory concentrations it reduced its virulence by preventing
      the adherence ability and germ tube formation. This suggests that the beneficial
      effects of gentian violet would last beyond the fungicidal concentrations in the
      treatment of candidiasis.

PMID- 28575641
TI  - Systematic analysis of the G-box Factor 14-3-3 gene family and functional
      characterization of GF14a in Brachypodium distachyon.
AB  - The 14-3-3 proteins are highly conserved and ubiquitously found in eukaryotes.
      Plant 14-3-3 proteins are involved in many signaling pathways to regulate plant
      growth and development. Here we identified seven Brachypodium distachyon 14-3-3
      genes and analyzed the evolution, gene structure and expression profiles of these
      genes. Several cis-elements involved in stress response and hormone pathway were
      found in the promoter region of 14-3-3 genes. Results of gene expression analysis
      showed that these genes were induced by abiotic stresses or hormone treatments.
      Transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing BdGF14a exhibited increased leaf water
      content (LWC) and decreased electrolyte leakage (EL) and showed improved drought
      stress tolerance. BdGF14a transgene significantly up-regulated expression levels
      of DREB1A and DREB1B, but slightly elevated ABI1 expression. These results
      indicated that BdGF14a functioned as a positive regulator in plant response to
      drought stress mainly via ABA independent pathway.

PMID- 28575642
TI  - Position statement: Harmful effects of environmental noise exposures.

PMID- 28575644
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28575643
TI  - Council happenings.

PMID- 28575645
TI  - TESC gene-regulating genetic variant (rs7294919) affects hippocampal subfield
      volumes and parahippocampal cingulum white matter integrity in major depressive
      disorder.
AB  - Two recent genome-wide association studies have suggested that rs7294919 is
      associated with changes in hippocampal volume. rs7294919 regulates the
      transcriptional products of the TESC gene, which is involved in neuronal
      proliferation and differentiation. We investigated the interactive effect of
      rs7294919 and major depressive disorder (MDD) on the volume of the hippocampal
      subfields and the integrity of the parahippocampal cingulum (PHC). We also
      investigated the correlation of these structural changes with the DNA methylation
      status of rs7294919. A total of 105 patients with MDD and 85 healthy control
      subjects underwent T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging and
      diffusion tensor imaging. The rs7294919 was genotyped and its DNA methylation
      status was assessed in all the participants. We analyzed the hippocampal subfield
      volumes and PHC integrity using FreeSurfer and the Tracts Constrained by
      Underlying Anatomy (TRACULA) respectively. Significant interactive effects of
      rs7294919 and MDD were observed in the volumes of the dentate gyrus and CA4. The
      patients with MDD had increased methylation in two of the three CpG loci of
      rs7294919, and the methylation of CpG3 was significantly correlated with right
      PHC integrity in the MDD group. Our results provide neurobiological evidence for
      the association of rs7294919 with brain structural changes in MDD.

PMID- 28575646
TI  - Improvement in quality of life and sexual functioning in a comorbid sample after
      the unified protocol transdiagnostic group treatment.
AB  - Patients with multiple mental disorders often experience sexual dysfunction and
      reduced quality of life. The unified protocol (UP) is a transdiagnostic treatment
      for emotional disorders that has the potential to improve quality of life and
      sexual functioning via improved emotion management. The present study evaluates
      changes in quality of life and sexual functioning in a highly comorbid sample
      treated with the UP in a group format. Forty-eight patients were randomly
      assigned to either a UP active-treatment group or a medication-only control
      group. Treatment was delivered in 14 sessions over the course of 4 months.
      Symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory
      and Beck Depression Inventory. Sexual functioning was assessed by the Arizona
      Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX), and quality of life was assessed by the World
      Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scale (WHOQOL-BREF). Quality of life,
      anxiety and depression all significantly improved among participants treated with
      the UP. Some improvement in sexual functioning was also noted. The results
      support the efficacy of the UP in improving quality of life and sexual
      functioning in comorbid patients.

PMID- 28575648
TI  - Mutations in SULT2B1 Cause Autosomal-Recessive Congenital Ichthyosis in Humans.
AB  - Ichthyoses are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of genodermatoses
      associated with abnormal scaling of the skin over the whole body. Mutations in
      nine genes are known to cause non-syndromic forms of autosomal-recessive
      congenital ichthyosis (ARCI). However, not all genetic causes for ARCI have been
      discovered to date. Using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and multigene panel
      screening, we identified 6 ARCI-affected individuals from three unrelated
      families with mutations in Sulfotransferase family 2B member 1 (SULT2B1), showing
      their causative association with ARCI. Cytosolic sulfotransferases form a large
      family of enzymes that are involved in the synthesis and metabolism of several
      steroids in humans. We identified four distinct mutations including missense,
      nonsense, and splice site mutations. We demonstrated the loss of SULT2B1
      expression at RNA and protein levels in keratinocytes from individuals with ARCI
      by functional analyses. Furthermore, we succeeded in reconstructing the
      morphologic skin alterations in a 3D organotypic tissue culture model with
      SULT2B1-deficient keratinocytes and fibroblasts. By thin layer chromatography
      (TLC) of extracts from these organotypic cultures, we could show the absence of
      cholesterol sulfate, the metabolite of SULT2B1, and an increased level of
      cholesterol, indicating a disturbed cholesterol metabolism of the skin upon loss
      of-function mutation in SULT2B1. In conclusion, our study reveals an essential
      role for SULT2B1 in the proper development of healthy human skin. Mutation in
      SULT2B1 leads to an ARCI phenotype via increased proliferation of human
      keratinocytes, thickening of epithelial layers, and altered epidermal cholesterol
      metabolism.

PMID- 28575647
TI  - YY1 Haploinsufficiency Causes an Intellectual Disability Syndrome Featuring
      Transcriptional and Chromatin Dysfunction.
AB  - Yin and yang 1 (YY1) is a well-known zinc-finger transcription factor with
      crucial roles in normal development and malignancy. YY1 acts both as a repressor
      and as an activator of gene expression. We have identified 23 individuals with de
      novo mutations or deletions of YY1 and phenotypic features that define a syndrome
      of cognitive impairment, behavioral alterations, intrauterine growth restriction,
      feeding problems, and various congenital malformations. Our combined clinical and
      molecular data define "YY1 syndrome" as a haploinsufficiency syndrome. Through
      immunoprecipitation of YY1-bound chromatin from affected individuals' cells with
      antibodies recognizing both ends of the protein, we show that YY1 deletions and
      missense mutations lead to a global loss of YY1 binding with a preferential
      retention at high-occupancy sites. Finally, we uncover a widespread loss of H3K27
      acetylation in particular on the YY1-bound enhancers, underscoring a crucial role
      for YY1 in enhancer regulation. Collectively, these results define a clinical
      syndrome caused by haploinsufficiency of YY1 through dysregulation of key
      transcriptional regulators.

PMID- 28575649
TI  - Genetic-Variation-Driven Gene-Expression Changes Highlight Genes with Important
      Functions for Kidney Disease.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex gene-environmental disease affecting
      close to 10% of the US population. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have
      identified sequence variants, localized to non-coding genomic regions, associated
      with kidney function. Despite these robust observations, the mechanism by which
      variants lead to CKD remains a critical unanswered question. Expression
      quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis is a method to identify genetic variation
      associated with gene expression changes in specific tissue types. We hypothesized
      that an integrative analysis combining CKD GWAS and kidney eQTL results can
      identify candidate genes for CKD. We performed eQTL analysis by correlating
      genotype with RNA-seq-based gene expression levels in 96 human kidney samples.
      Applying stringent statistical criteria, we detected 1,886 genes whose expression
      differs with the sequence variants. Using direct overlap and Bayesian methods, we
      identified new potential target genes for CKD. With respect to one of the target
      genes, lysosomal beta A mannosidase (MANBA), we observed that genetic variants
      associated with MANBA expression in the kidney showed statistically significant
      colocalization with variants identified in CKD GWASs, indicating that MANBA is a
      potential target gene for CKD. The expression of MANBA was significantly lower in
      kidneys of subjects with risk alleles. Suppressing manba expression in zebrafish
      resulted in renal tubule defects and pericardial edema, phenotypes typically
      induced by kidney dysfunction. Our analysis shows that gene-expression changes
      driven by genetic variation in the kidney can highlight potential new target
      genes for CKD development.

PMID- 28575653
TI  - Dynamic Role of trans Regulation of Gene Expression in Relation to Complex
      Traits.

PMID- 28575650
TI  - Defects in the Cell Signaling Mediator beta-Catenin Cause the Retinal Vascular
      Condition FEVR.
AB  - Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) is an inherited blinding disorder
      characterized by the abnormal development of the retinal vasculature. The
      majority of mutations identified in FEVR are found within four genes that encode
      the receptor complex (FZD4, LRP5, and TSPAN12) and ligand (NDP) of a molecular
      pathway that controls angiogenesis, the Norrin-beta-catenin signaling pathway.
      However, half of all FEVR-affected case subjects do not harbor mutations in these
      genes, indicating that further mutated genes remain to be identified. Here we
      report the identification of mutations in CTNNB1, the gene encoding beta-catenin,
      as a cause of FEVR. We describe heterozygous mutations (c.2142_2157dup
      [p.His720*] and c.2128C>T [p.Arg710Cys]) in two dominant FEVR-affected families
      and a de novo mutation (c.1434_1435insC [p.Glu479Argfs*18]) in a simplex case
      subject. Previous studies have reported heterozygous de novo CTNNB1 mutations as
      a cause of syndromic intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder,
      and somatic mutations are linked to many cancers. However, in this study we show
      that Mendelian inherited CTNNB1 mutations can cause non-syndromic FEVR and that
      FEVR can be a part of the syndromic ID phenotype, further establishing the role
      that beta-catenin signaling plays in the development of the retinal vasculature.

PMID- 28575652
TI  - Mutations in KDSR Cause Recessive Progressive Symmetric Erythrokeratoderma.
AB  - The discovery of new genetic determinants of inherited skin disorders has been
      instrumental to the understanding of epidermal function, differentiation, and
      renewal. Here, we show that mutations in KDSR (3-ketodihydrosphingosine
      reductase), encoding an enzyme in the ceramide synthesis pathway, lead to a
      previously undescribed recessive Mendelian disorder in the progressive symmetric
      erythrokeratoderma spectrum. This disorder is characterized by severe lesions of
      thick scaly skin on the face and genitals and thickened, red, and scaly skin on
      the hands and feet. Although exome sequencing revealed several of the KDSR
      mutations, we employed genome sequencing to discover a pathogenic 346 kb
      inversion in multiple probands, and cDNA sequencing and a splicing assay
      established that two mutations, including a recurrent silent third base change,
      cause exon skipping. Immunohistochemistry and yeast complementation studies
      demonstrated that the mutations cause defects in KDSR function. Systemic
      isotretinoin therapy has achieved nearly complete resolution in the two probands
      in whom it has been applied, consistent with the effects of retinoic acid on
      alternative pathways for ceramide generation.

PMID- 28575654
TI  - SUMO Teams Up with a Translocase to Save TOPO.
AB  - In this issue of Molecular Cell, Wei et al. (2017) report how a DNA translocase
      uses SUMO as a cue to save Top2 from ubiquitin-mediated degradation and to
      minimize DNA breaks, thus providing insights into the SUMO and ubiquitin
      interplay in genome maintenance.

PMID- 28575651
TI  - Mutations in NKX6-2 Cause Progressive Spastic Ataxia and Hypomyelination.
AB  - Progressive limb spasticity and cerebellar ataxia are frequently found together
      in clinical practice and form a heterogeneous group of degenerative disorders
      that are classified either as pure spastic ataxia or as complex spastic ataxia
      with additional neurological signs. Inheritance is either autosomal dominant or
      autosomal recessive. Hypomyelinating features on MRI are sometimes seen with
      spastic ataxia, but this is usually mild in adults and severe and life limiting
      in children. We report seven individuals with an early-onset spastic-ataxia
      phenotype. The individuals come from three families of different ethnic
      backgrounds. Affected members of two families had childhood onset disease with
      very slow progression. They are still alive in their 30s and 40s and show
      predominant ataxia and cerebellar atrophy features on imaging. Affected members
      of the third family had a similar but earlier-onset presentation associated with
      brain hypomyelination. Using a combination of homozygozity mapping and exome
      sequencing, we mapped this phenotype to deleterious nonsense or homeobox domain
      missense mutations in NKX6-2. NKX6-2 encodes a transcriptional repressor with
      early high general and late focused CNS expression. Deficiency of its mouse
      ortholog results in widespread hypomyelination in the brain and optic nerve, as
      well as in poor motor coordination in a pattern consistent with the observed
      human phenotype. In-silico analysis of human brain expression and network data
      provides evidence that NKX6-2 is involved in oligodendrocyte maturation and might
      act within the same pathways of genes already associated with central
      hypomyelination. Our results support a non-redundant developmental role of NKX6-2
      in humans and imply that NKX6-2 mutations should be considered in the
      differential diagnosis of spastic ataxia and hypomyelination.

PMID- 28575655
TI  - The ABC(E1)s of Ribosome Recycling and Reinitiation.
AB  - In a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Heuer et al. (2017)
      present a 3.9-A cryo-EM structure of the 40S:ABCE1 post-splitting complex. This
      structure provides new insights into a dual role for ABCE1 in translation
      recycling and reinitiation and revisits the interpretation of Simonetti et al.
      (2016).

PMID- 28575656
TI  - Histone Mutants Separate R Loop Formation from Genome Instability Induction.
AB  - R loops have positive physiological roles, but they can also be deleterious by
      causing genome instability, and the mechanisms for this are unknown. Here we
      identified yeast histone H3 and H4 mutations that facilitate R loops but do not
      cause instability. R loops containing single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), versus RNA-DNA
      hybrids alone, were demonstrated using ssDNA-specific human AID and bisulfite.
      Notably, they are similar size regardless of whether or not they induce genome
      instability. Contrary to mutants causing R loop-mediated instability, these
      histone mutants do not accumulate H3 serine-10 phosphate (H3S10-P). We propose a
      two-step mechanism in which, first, an altered chromatin facilitates R loops, and
      second, chromatin is modified, including H3S10-P, as a requisite for compromising
      genome integrity. Consistently, these histone mutations suppress the high H3S10
      phosphorylation and genomic instability of hpr1 and sen1 mutants. Therefore,
      contrary to what was previously believed, R loops do not cause genome instability
      by themselves.

PMID- 28575657
TI  - RPA-Mediated Recruitment of the E3 Ligase RFWD3 Is Vital for Interstrand
      Crosslink Repair and Human Health.
AB  - Defects in the repair of DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are associated with
      the genome instability syndrome Fanconi anemia (FA). Here we report that cells
      with mutations in RFWD3, an E3 ubiquitin ligase that interacts with and
      ubiquitylates replication protein A (RPA), show profound defects in ICL repair.
      An amino acid substitution in the WD40 repeats of RFWD3 (I639K) found in a new FA
      subtype abolishes interaction of RFWD3 with RPA, thereby preventing RFWD3
      recruitment to sites of ICL-induced replication fork stalling. Moreover, single
      point mutations in the RPA32 subunit of RPA that abolish interaction with RFWD3
      also inhibit ICL repair, demonstrating that RPA-mediated RFWD3 recruitment to
      stalled replication forks is important for ICL repair. We also report that
      unloading of RPA from sites of ICL induction is perturbed in RFWD3-deficient
      cells. These data reveal important roles for RFWD3 localization in protecting
      genome stability and preserving human health.

PMID- 28575658
TI  - RFWD3-Mediated Ubiquitination Promotes Timely Removal of Both RPA and RAD51 from
      DNA Damage Sites to Facilitate Homologous Recombination.
AB  - RFWD3 is a recently identified Fanconi anemia protein FANCW whose E3 ligase
      activity toward RPA is essential in homologous recombination (HR) repair.
      However, how RPA ubiquitination promotes HR remained unknown. Here, we identified
      RAD51, the central HR protein, as another target of RFWD3. We show that RFWD3
      polyubiquitinates both RPA and RAD51 in vitro and in vivo. Phosphorylation by ATR
      and ATM kinases is required for this activity in vivo. RFWD3 inhibits persistent
      mitomycin C (MMC)-induced RAD51 and RPA foci by promoting VCP/p97-mediated
      protein dynamics and subsequent degradation. Furthermore, MMC-induced chromatin
      loading of MCM8 and RAD54 is defective in cells with inactivated RFWD3 or
      expressing a ubiquitination-deficient mutant RAD51. Collectively, our data reveal
      a mechanism that facilitates timely removal of RPA and RAD51 from DNA damage
      sites, which is crucial for progression to the late-phase HR and suppression of
      the FA phenotype.

PMID- 28575659
TI  - Catch and Release of Cytokines Mediated by Tumor Phosphatidylserine Converts
      Transient Exposure into Long-Lived Inflammation.
AB  - Immune cells constantly survey the host for pathogens or tumors and secrete
      cytokines to alert surrounding cells of these threats. In vivo, activated immune
      cells secrete cytokines for several hours, yet an acute immune reaction occurs
      over days. Given these divergent timescales, we addressed how cytokine-responsive
      cells translate brief cytokine exposure into phenotypic changes that persist over
      long timescales. We studied melanoma cell responses to transient exposure to the
      cytokine interferon gamma (IFNgamma) by combining a systems-scale analysis of
      gene expression dynamics with computational modeling and experiments. We
      discovered that IFNgamma is captured by phosphatidylserine (PS) on the surface of
      viable cells both in vitro and in vivo then slowly released to drive long-term
      transcription of cytokine-response genes. This mechanism introduces an additional
      function for PS in dynamically regulating inflammation across diverse cancer and
      primary cell types and has potential to usher in new immunotherapies targeting PS
      and inflammatory pathways.

PMID- 28575660
TI  - The F-box Protein KIB1 Mediates Brassinosteroid-Induced Inactivation and
      Degradation of GSK3-like Kinases in Arabidopsis.
AB  - The glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) family kinases are central cellular
      regulators highly conserved in all eukaryotes. In Arabidopsis, the GSK3-like
      kinase BIN2 phosphorylates a range of proteins to control broad developmental
      processes, and BIN2 is degraded through unknown mechanism upon receptor kinase
      mediated brassinosteroid (BR) signaling. Here we identify KIB1 as an F-box E3
      ubiquitin ligase that promotes the degradation of BIN2 while blocking its
      substrate access. Loss-of-function mutations of KIB1 and its homologs abolished
      BR-induced BIN2 degradation and caused severe BR-insensitive phenotypes. KIB1
      directly interacted with BIN2 in a BR-dependent manner and promoted BIN2
      ubiquitination in vitro. Expression of an F-box-truncated KIB1 caused BIN2
      accumulation but dephosphorylation of its substrate BZR1 and activation of BR
      responses because KIB1 blocked BIN2 binding to BZR1. Our study demonstrates that
      KIB1 plays an essential role in BR signaling by inhibiting BIN2 through dual
      mechanisms of blocking substrate access and promoting degradation.

PMID- 28575661
TI  - RECQ5 Helicase Cooperates with MUS81 Endonuclease in Processing Stalled
      Replication Forks at Common Fragile Sites during Mitosis.
AB  - The MUS81-EME1 endonuclease cleaves late replication intermediates at common
      fragile sites (CFSs) during early mitosis to trigger DNA-repair synthesis that
      ensures faithful chromosome segregation. Here, we show that these DNA
      transactions are promoted by RECQ5 DNA helicase in a manner dependent on its
      Ser727 phosphorylation by CDK1. Upon replication stress, RECQ5 associates with
      CFSs in early mitosis through its physical interaction with MUS81 and promotes
      MUS81-dependent mitotic DNA synthesis. RECQ5 depletion or mutational inactivation
      of its ATP-binding site, RAD51-interacting domain, or phosphorylation site causes
      excessive binding of RAD51 to CFS loci and impairs CFS expression. This leads to
      defective chromosome segregation and accumulation of CFS-associated DNA damage in
      G1 cells. Biochemically, RECQ5 alleviates the inhibitory effect of RAD51 on 3'
      flap DNA cleavage by MUS81-EME1 through its RAD51 filament disruption activity.
      These data suggest that RECQ5 removes RAD51 filaments stabilizing stalled
      replication forks at CFSs and hence facilitates CFS cleavage by MUS81-EME1.

PMID- 28575662
TI  - HspQ Functions as a Unique Specificity-Enhancing Factor for the AAA+ Lon
      Protease.
AB  - The AAA+ Lon protease is conserved from bacteria to humans, performs crucial
      roles in protein homeostasis, and is implicated in bacterial pathogenesis and
      human disease. We investigated how Lon selectively degrades specific substrates
      among a diverse array of potential targets. We report the discovery of HspQ as a
      new Lon substrate, unique specificity-enhancing factor, and potent allosteric
      activator. Lon recognizes HspQ via a C-terminal degron, whose precise
      presentation, in synergy with multipartite contacts with the native core of HspQ,
      is required for allosteric Lon activation. Productive HspQ-Lon engagement
      enhances degradation of multiple new and known Lon substrates. Our studies reveal
      the existence and simultaneous utilization of two distinct substrate recognition
      sites on Lon, an HspQ binding site and an HspQ-modulated allosteric site. Our
      investigations unveil an unprecedented regulatory use of an evolutionarily
      conserved heat shock protein and present a distinctive mechanism for how Lon
      protease achieves temporally enhanced substrate selectivity.

PMID- 28575663
TI  - Structure and Dynamics of a 197 bp Nucleosome in Complex with Linker Histone H1.

PMID- 28575664
TI  - The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action.
AB  - Psychology must confront the bias in its broad literature toward the study of
      participants developing in environments unrepresentative of the vast majority of
      the world's population. Here, we focus on the implications of addressing this
      challenge, highlight the need to address overreliance on a narrow participant
      pool, and emphasize the value and necessity of conducting research with diverse
      populations. We show that high-impact-factor developmental journals are heavily
      skewed toward publishing articles with data from WEIRD (Western, educated,
      industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations. Most critically, despite calls
      for change and supposed widespread awareness of this problem, there is a habitual
      dependence on convenience sampling and little evidence that the discipline is
      making any meaningful movement toward drawing from diverse samples. Failure to
      confront the possibility that culturally specific findings are being
      misattributed as universal traits has broad implications for the construction of
      scientifically defensible theories and for the reliable public dissemination of
      study findings.

PMID- 28575666
TI  - The Code for Facial Identity in the Primate Brain.
AB  - Primates recognize complex objects such as faces with remarkable speed and
      reliability. Here, we reveal the brain's code for facial identity. Experiments in
      macaques demonstrate an extraordinarily simple transformation between faces and
      responses of cells in face patches. By formatting faces as points in a high
      dimensional linear space, we discovered that each face cell's firing rate is
      proportional to the projection of an incoming face stimulus onto a single axis in
      this space, allowing a face cell ensemble to encode the location of any face in
      the space. Using this code, we could precisely decode faces from neural
      population responses and predict neural firing rates to faces. Furthermore, this
      code disavows the long-standing assumption that face cells encode specific facial
      identities, confirmed by engineering faces with drastically different appearance
      that elicited identical responses in single face cells. Our work suggests that
      other objects could be encoded by analogous metric coordinate systems. PAPERCLIP.

PMID- 28575665
TI  - Senescence in Health and Disease.
AB  - Many cellular stresses activate senescence, a persistent hyporeplicative state
      characterized in part by expression of the p16INK4a cell-cycle inhibitor.
      Senescent cell production occurs throughout life and plays beneficial roles in a
      variety of physiological and pathological processes including embryogenesis,
      wound healing, host immunity, and tumor suppression. Meanwhile, the steady
      accumulation of senescent cells with age also has adverse consequences. These non
      proliferating cells occupy key cellular niches and elaborate pro-inflammatory
      cytokines, contributing to aging-related diseases and morbidity. This model
      suggests that the abundance of senescent cells in vivo predicts "molecular," as
      opposed to chronologic, age and that senescent cell clearance may mitigate aging
      associated pathology.

PMID- 28575667
TI  - Noninvasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Temporally Interfering Electric Fields.
AB  - We report a noninvasive strategy for electrically stimulating neurons at depth.
      By delivering to the brain multiple electric fields at frequencies too high to
      recruit neural firing, but which differ by a frequency within the dynamic range
      of neural firing, we can electrically stimulate neurons throughout a region where
      interference between the multiple fields results in a prominent electric field
      envelope modulated at the difference frequency. We validated this temporal
      interference (TI) concept via modeling and physics experiments, and verified that
      neurons in the living mouse brain could follow the electric field envelope. We
      demonstrate the utility of TI stimulation by stimulating neurons in the
      hippocampus of living mice without recruiting neurons of the overlying cortex.
      Finally, we show that by altering the currents delivered to a set of immobile
      electrodes, we can steerably evoke different motor patterns in living mice.

PMID- 28575668
TI  - Cryo-EM Structure of a KCNQ1/CaM Complex Reveals Insights into Congenital Long QT
      Syndrome.
AB  - KCNQ1 is the pore-forming subunit of cardiac slow-delayed rectifier potassium
      (IKs) channels. Mutations in the kcnq1 gene are the leading cause of congenital
      long QT syndrome (LQTS). Here, we present the cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM)
      structure of a KCNQ1/calmodulin (CaM) complex. The conformation corresponds to an
      "uncoupled," PIP2-free state of KCNQ1, with activated voltage sensors and a
      closed pore. Unique structural features within the S4-S5 linker permit uncoupling
      of the voltage sensor from the pore in the absence of PIP2. CaM contacts the
      KCNQ1 voltage sensor through a specific interface involving a residue on CaM that
      is mutated in a form of inherited LQTS. Using an electrophysiological assay, we
      find that this mutation on CaM shifts the KCNQ1 voltage-activation curve. This
      study describes one physiological form of KCNQ1, depolarized voltage sensors with
      a closed pore in the absence of PIP2, and reveals a regulatory interaction
      between CaM and KCNQ1 that may explain CaM-mediated LQTS.

PMID- 28575670
TI  - The Centrosome Is a Selective Condensate that Nucleates Microtubules by
      Concentrating Tubulin.
AB  - Centrosomes are non-membrane-bound compartments that nucleate microtubule arrays.
      They consist of nanometer-scale centrioles surrounded by a micron-scale, dynamic
      assembly of protein called the pericentriolar material (PCM). To study how PCM
      forms a spherical compartment that nucleates microtubules, we reconstituted PCM
      dependent microtubule nucleation in vitro using recombinant C. elegans proteins.
      We found that macromolecular crowding drives assembly of the key PCM scaffold
      protein SPD-5 into spherical condensates that morphologically and dynamically
      resemble in vivo PCM. These SPD-5 condensates recruited the microtubule
      polymerase ZYG-9 (XMAP215 homolog) and the microtubule-stabilizing protein TPXL-1
      (TPX2 homolog). Together, these three proteins concentrated tubulin ~4-fold over
      background, which was sufficient to reconstitute nucleation of microtubule asters
      in vitro. Our results suggest that in vivo PCM is a selective phase that
      organizes microtubule arrays through localized concentration of tubulin by
      microtubule effector proteins.

PMID- 28575669
TI  - The Mammalian Ribo-interactome Reveals Ribosome Functional Diversity and
      Heterogeneity.
AB  - During eukaryotic evolution, ribosomes have considerably increased in size,
      forming a surface-exposed ribosomal RNA (rRNA) shell of unknown function, which
      may create an interface for yet uncharacterized interacting proteins. To
      investigate such protein interactions, we establish a ribosome affinity
      purification method that unexpectedly identifies hundreds of ribosome-associated
      proteins (RAPs) from categories including metabolism and cell cycle, as well as
      RNA- and protein-modifying enzymes that functionally diversify mammalian
      ribosomes. By further characterizing RAPs, we discover the presence of
      ufmylation, a metazoan-specific post-translational modification (PTM), on
      ribosomes and define its direct substrates. Moreover, we show that the metabolic
      enzyme, pyruvate kinase muscle (PKM), interacts with sub-pools of endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER)-associated ribosomes, exerting a non-canonical function as an RNA
      binding protein in the translation of ER-destined mRNAs. Therefore, RAPs
      interconnect one of life's most ancient molecular machines with diverse cellular
      processes, providing an additional layer of regulatory potential to protein
      expression.

PMID- 28575673
TI  - Beyond Statins: New Therapeutic Frontiers for Cardiovascular Disease.

PMID- 28575671
TI  - Structural Basis for Mitotic Centrosome Assembly in Flies.
AB  - In flies, Centrosomin (Cnn) forms a phosphorylation-dependent scaffold that
      recruits proteins to the mitotic centrosome, but how Cnn assembles into a
      scaffold is unclear. We show that scaffold assembly requires conserved leucine
      zipper (LZ) and Cnn-motif 2 (CM2) domains that co-assemble into a 2:2 complex in
      vitro. We solve the crystal structure of the LZ:CM2 complex, revealing that both
      proteins form helical dimers that assemble into an unusual tetramer. A slightly
      longer version of the LZ can form micron-scale structures with CM2, whose
      assembly is stimulated by Plk1 phosphorylation in vitro. Mutating individual
      residues that perturb LZ:CM2 tetramer assembly perturbs the formation of these
      micron-scale assemblies in vitro and Cnn-scaffold assembly in vivo. Thus, Cnn
      molecules have an intrinsic ability to form large, LZ:CM2-interaction-dependent
      assemblies that are critical for mitotic centrosome assembly. These studies
      provide the first atomic insight into a molecular interaction required for
      mitotic centrosome assembly.

PMID- 28575674
TI  - How Do We Recognize a Face?
AB  - How individual faces are encoded by neurons in high-level visual areas has been a
      subject of active debate. An influential model is that neurons encode specific
      faces. However, Chang and Tsao conclusively show that, instead, these neurons
      encode features along specific axes, which explains why they were previously
      found to respond to apparently different faces.

PMID- 28575675
TI  - Noninvasive Neuromodulation Goes Deep.
AB  - Modulating deep regions of the brain with noninvasive technology has challenged
      researchers for decades. In a new study, Grossman et al. leverage the emergence
      of a slowly oscillating "beat" from intersecting high-frequency electric fields
      to stimulate deep brain regions, opening a frontier in the biophysics and
      technology of brain stimulation.

PMID- 28575672
TI  - A Class of Environmental and Endogenous Toxins Induces BRCA2 Haploinsufficiency
      and Genome Instability.
AB  - Mutations truncating a single copy of the tumor suppressor, BRCA2, cause cancer
      susceptibility. In cells bearing such heterozygous mutations, we find that a
      cellular metabolite and ubiquitous environmental toxin, formaldehyde, stalls and
      destabilizes DNA replication forks, engendering structural chromosomal
      aberrations. Formaldehyde selectively depletes BRCA2 via proteasomal degradation,
      a mechanism of toxicity that affects very few additional cellular proteins.
      Heterozygous BRCA2 truncations, by lowering pre-existing BRCA2 expression,
      sensitize to BRCA2 haploinsufficiency induced by transient exposure to natural
      concentrations of formaldehyde. Acetaldehyde, an alcohol catabolite detoxified by
      ALDH2, precipitates similar effects. Ribonuclease H1 ameliorates replication fork
      instability and chromosomal aberrations provoked by aldehyde-induced BRCA2
      haploinsufficiency, suggesting that BRCA2 inactivation triggers spontaneous
      mutagenesis during DNA replication via aberrant RNA-DNA hybrids (R-loops). These
      findings suggest a model wherein carcinogenesis in BRCA2 mutation carriers can be
      incited by compounds found pervasively in the environment and generated
      endogenously in certain tissues with implications for public health.

PMID- 28575676
TI  - Aldehydes Pose a Threat to BRCA2 Mutation Carriers.
AB  - Humans with inherited heterozygous BRCA2 mutations have an increased risk of
      developing cancer; however, what triggers carcinogenesis in these individuals is
      unclear. Tan et al. find that environmental and metabolic aldehydes pose a threat
      to these individuals by promoting degradation of wild-type BRCA2 protein, thereby
      predisposing them to genomic instability and perhaps to cancer.

PMID- 28575677
TI  - Curbing Tregs' (Lack of) Enthusiasm.
AB  - In this issue, Overacre-Delgoffe et al. show that interferon gamma production by
      a subset of regulatory T cells in the tumor microenvironment triggers Treg
      instability locally and restores anti-tumor immunity.

PMID- 28575678
TI  - Genetic Control of Floral Architecture: Insights into Improving Crop Yield.
AB  - Selection of plants with traits that are beneficial for cultivation and
      consumption has been a common practice for thousands of years; however,
      combination of these traits can be detrimental too, for instance by leading to
      undesirable branching and yield loss in tomato. The findings from Soyk et al. in
      this issue of Cell help understand how to bypass such negative effects and
      improve crop productivity.

PMID- 28575679
TI  - Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling, Disease, and Emerging Therapeutic Modalities.
AB  - The WNT signal transduction cascade is a main regulator of development throughout
      the animal kingdom. Wnts are also key drivers of most types of tissue stem cells
      in adult mammals. Unsurprisingly, mutated Wnt pathway components are causative to
      multiple growth-related pathologies and to cancer. Here, we describe the core
      Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway, how it controls stem cells, and contributes
      to disease. Finally, we discuss strategies for Wnt-based therapies.

PMID- 28575680
TI  - How does a plant orchestrate defense in time and space? Using glucosinolates in
      Arabidopsis as case study.
AB  - The sessile nature of plants has caused plants to develop means to defend
      themselves against attacking organisms. Multiple strategies range from physical
      barriers to chemical warfare including pre-formed anticipins as well as
      phytoalexins produced only upon attack. While phytoalexins require rapid
      induction, constitutive defenses can impose ecological costs if they deter
      pollinators or attract specialized herbivores. In the model Arabidopsis thaliana,
      the well-characterized glucosinolate anticipins are categorized into different
      classes, aliphatic and indole glucosinolates, depending on their amino acid
      precursor. Using glucosinolates in Arabidopsis as case study, we will discuss how
      plants orchestrate synthesis, storage and activation of pre-formed defense
      compounds spatially and temporally.

PMID- 28575682
TI  - Experience of harm from others' drinking and support for stricter alcohol
      policies: Analysis of the Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous research indicates that those who have experienced alcohol
      related harm from others are more likely to support stricter alcohol control
      policies. This study investigates the association between types of harm
      experienced because of others' drinking and support for stricter alcohol control
      policies. METHODS: Data from 20,570 Australians aged 18 and over who completed
      the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey was used. Questions about
      experience of alcohol-related harm from others - being put in fear and abuse
      (verbal or physical) - were asked. Support for stricter alcohol control policies
      was quantified by a mean policy support score across 18 alcohol policy questions.
      RESULTS: Twenty seven percent of respondents reported harm from someone's
      drinking. Respondents who were put in fear had a higher level of support for
      stricter alcohol control policies than respondents who were not harmed (p<0.001),
      regardless of whether they were abused or not. Conversely, respondents who
      experienced abuse but were not put in fear did not significantly differ in their
      support for stricter policies from those who experienced no harm. CONCLUSION: It
      is the apprehension of harm (i.e. having been put in fear), and not the
      experience of harm itself (i.e. abuse), which is related to people's support for
      stricter alcohol policies. These findings suggest that perceiving others'
      intoxication as dangerous to oneself may motivate support for stricter alcohol
      policies.

PMID- 28575681
TI  - Drug use practices among people who inject drugs in a context of drug market
      changes: Challenges for optimal coverage of harm reduction programs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Until the early 2000s, people who inject drugs (PWID) in Quebec had
      mainly been injecting powder cocaine and heroin. Since then, ethnographic studies
      have shown that the drug market has diversified, with crack and prescription
      opioids (PO) becoming increasingly available. This could have led to changes in
      drug use practices among PWID. The objectives of our study were to examine annual
      trends in injection of different drugs, crack smoking and frequent injection
      (FI), as well as relationships between injected drugs and FI. METHODS: PWID are
      participants in the ongoing Quebec SurvUDI surveillance system. PWID (past 6
      months) were recruited in 2 urban and 6 semi-urban/rural sites. Each visit
      included a structured interview addressing drug use behaviours. Analyses were
      carried out using GEE methods. For trend analyses (2003-2014) on drugs and FI
      (number of injections>=upper quartile, previous month), the first annual
      interview was selected for PWID with multiple participations per year. Analyses
      on associations between FI and types of injected drugs were based on all
      interviews (2004-2014). RESULTS: Crack/cocaine and heroin injection declined
      significantly, with prevalence ratios (PR) per year of 0.983 [95% confidence
      interval (CI): 0.980-0.986] and 0.979 (95% CI: 0.969-0.990), while PO injection
      [PR=1.052 (1.045-1.059)], crack smoking [PR=1.006 (1.001-1.012)], and FI (>=120
      injections, previous month) significantly increased [PR=1.015 (1.004-1.026)].
      Compared to PWID who injected crack/cocaine+/-other drugs, the proportion of PWID
      reporting FI was higher among those who injected PO+heroin/speedball,
      crack/cocaine or other drugs (adjusted PR 2.29; 95% CI: 2.07-2.53) or PO only
      (aPR 1.72; 95%CI: 1.47-2.01). CONCLUSIONS: Changes that have occurred in the drug
      market are reflected in PWID's practices. The high frequency of injection
      observed among PO injectors is of particular concern. Drug market variations are
      a challenge for health authorities responsible for harm reduction programs.

PMID- 28575683
TI  - Lineage Tracing across 10 Years.

PMID- 28575684
TI  - Gli-fully Halting the Progression of Fibrosis.
AB  - Activating triggers, selective markers, and the residual regenerative potential
      of scar-forming myofibroblasts are largely determined by their origin. In this
      issue of Cell Stem Cell, Schneider et al. report that bone marrow myofibroblasts
      derive from Gli1+ mesenchymal stromal cells and that a Gli inhibitor targets them
      for elimination in mice and humans, ameliorating fibrosis.

PMID- 28575685
TI  - Surface Markers Guide the Journey toward Naive Pluripotency.
AB  - Several protocols have managed to reset human primed PSCs to the naive state. In
      this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Collier et al. (2017) report a set of surface
      markers that identify which cells are susceptible to resetting and suggest a
      potential roadmap for the acquisition of naive pluripotency.

PMID- 28575686
TI  - Adipocytes at the Core of Bone Function.
AB  - Marrow adipose tissue (MAT) is a specialized adipose tissue with endocrine
      function found in bone marrow. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Ambrosi et al.
      (2017) identify a stem cell population in the bone marrow that can give rise to
      both osteogenic and adipogenic MAT precursors and is regulated by diet and aging
      and affects bone functionality.

PMID- 28575687
TI  - Mitotic Bookmarking: Maintaining the Stem Cell Identity during Mitosis.
AB  - In Cell Reports, Liu et al. (2017) investigate mechanisms for how pluripotent
      stem cells maintain their identity during cell division. They show that the
      histone mark H3K27ac and pluripotency transcription factors remain associated
      with mitotic chromatin in ESCs and during iPSC reprogramming, demonstrating the
      importance of mitotic bookmarking in pluripotency.

PMID- 28575688
TI  - The Dynamic Identity of Intestinal Cancer Stem Cells.
AB  - Elimination of self-renewing cancer stem cells (CSCs) is necessary to permanently
      eradicate malignant tissues. In a recent article in Nature, de Sousa e Melo et
      al. (2017) reveal that intestinal tumors can contain dynamic pools of
      functionally distinct CSC populations, which seem to interconvert depending on
      the host tissue microenvironment.

PMID- 28575690
TI  - Looking Back: Cancer Stem Cells.
AB  - Over the past decade, our growing understanding of cancer stem cell
      characteristics and function continues to guide innovative new treatments to
      eradicate cancer. For our tenth anniversary, we asked authors who cited a
      selection of our most popular papers in this area about the broad influences
      these studies have had.

PMID- 28575689
TI  - Racing to Uncover the Link between Zika Virus and Microcephaly.
AB  - In this Backstory, Ming, Song, and Tang give a behind-the-scenes account of the
      collaboration leading to their 2016 paper on Zika virus infection of neural
      progenitor cells. It was one of the first clues into how ZIKV could be causing
      birth defects in babies from infected mothers.

PMID- 28575691
TI  - Looking Back: Epigenomics.
AB  - Our understanding of how changes in epigenomics facilitate reprogramming and
      lineage specification has grown extensively over the last decade. For our tenth
      anniversary, we asked authors who cited a selection of our most popular papers in
      this area about how these studies influenced their work and the field.

PMID- 28575692
TI  - Looking Back: Disease Modeling.
AB  - Over the past decade, the growth of stem cell-based models of human disorders has
      contributed to novel drug discovery and precision medicine possibilities. For our
      tenth anniversary, we asked authors who cited a selection of our most popular
      papers in this area about how these studies influenced them.

PMID- 28575693
TI  - Looking Back: Aging and Regeneration.
AB  - Developing our understanding of how stem cell decline contributes to aging and
      its associated diseases promotes promising approaches to enhance stem cell
      regenerative capacity. For our tenth anniversary, we asked authors who cited a
      selection of our most popular papers in this area about the broad influences
      these studies have had.

PMID- 28575694
TI  - Looking Back: Single-Cell Analysis.
AB  - Over the past few years, burgeoning single-cell analyses platforms have unlocked
      access to previously unobtainable biological information about stem cell
      populations. For our tenth anniversary, we asked authors that cited a selection
      of our most popular papers in this area about how these studies influenced their
      work and the field.

PMID- 28575695
TI  - Single-Cell RNA-Seq Analysis Maps Development of Human Germline Cells and Gonadal
      Niche Interactions.

PMID- 28575696
TI  - Regiospecific radiolabelling of Nanofitin on Ni magnetic beads with [18F]FBEM and
      in vivo PET studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nanofitins are low molecular weight, single chain and cysteine-free
      protein scaffolds able to selectively bind a defined biological target. They
      derive from Sac7d bacterial protein family and are highly stable over a wide
      range of pH (0-13) and temperature (Tm ~80 degrees C). Their extreme stability,
      low cost of production and high tolerability for chemical coupling make
      Nanofitins a very interesting alternative to antibodies and their fragments.
      Here, a hexahistidine tagged model Nanofitin (H4) directed against hen egg white
      lysozyme was radiolabelled and injected in mice to provide a baseline
      biodistribution and pharmacokinetic profiles to support future Nanofitin
      development programs. METHOD: A single cysteine residue has been genetically
      inserted in a model Nanofitin and its regioselective radiolabelling has been
      performed with 4-[18F]fluorobenzamido-N-ethylamino-maleimide ([18F]FBEM). The
      synthesis of [18F]FBEM has been completely implemented on a radiosynthesis unit
      (FastLab) including HPLC purification and formulation. Coupling with the
      [18F]FBEM has been achieved on a solid support (Ni magnetic beads) allowing rapid
      purification at room temperature without organic solvent. PET-MRI studies on
      C57BL/6 mice were conducted after injection of [18F]FBEM-Cys-H4 in order to
      access the biodistribution of this Nanofitin model. RESULTS: Radiochemical yield
      (decay corrected) of 54+/-7% (n=4) was obtained after optimization for coupling
      the [18F]FBEM to Nanofitin. Pharmacokinetics results of [18F]FBEM-Cys-H4 revealed
      a fast clearance through the liver and the kidneys. CONCLUSION: An efficient new
      method on Ni magnetic beads was developed to radiolabelled his-tagged
      biomolecules with [18F]FBEM. This procedure was applied on a Nanofitin model Cys
      H4 and biodistribution kinetic studies were achieved to evaluate the potential
      use of Nanofitin for diagnostic imaging. Fast clearance indicates that Nanofitins
      represent very interesting tools for diagnostic imaging.

PMID- 28575697
TI  - PET/CT with 18F-choline: Physiological whole bio-distribution in male and female
      subjects and diagnostic pitfalls on 1000 prostate cancer patients: 18F-choline
      PET/CT bio-distribution and pitfalls. A southern Italian experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The 11C/18F-choline is a PET/CT radiopharmaceutical useful in
      detecting tumors with high lipogenesis. 11C/18F-choline uptake can occur in
      physiological conditions or tumors. The knowledge of its bio-distribution is
      essential to recognize physiologic variants or diagnostic pitfalls. Moreover, few
      information are available on the bio-distribution of this tracer in female
      patients. Our aim was to discuss some documented 18F-choline PET/CT pitfalls in
      prostate cancer patients. Our secondary aim was to describe the 18F-choline bio
      distribution in the female body. METHODS: We collected diagnostic pitfalls in
      three PET centers examining 1000 prostate cancer by 18F-choline PET/CT. All
      pitfalls were ensured by follow-up, imaging and/or histology. We also performed
      whole body 18F-choline PET/CT in 5 female patients. RESULTS: 169/1000 (16.9%)
      patients showed pitfalls not owing to prostate cancer. These findings were due to
      inflammation, benign tumors while, in 1% of examined patients, a concomitant
      neoplasm was found. In the female body, the breast showed low physiological
      uptake. CONCLUSIONS: The accurate knowledge of 18F-choline PET/CT bio
      distribution and diagnostic pitfalls is essential. Correlative imaging and
      histological exam are often necessary to depict pitfalls. In women, the uptake in
      the breast is due to the physiological gradient of 18F-choline uptake in the
      exocrine glands. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: Our results confirm the possibility of
      18F-choline uptake in several diseases other than prostate cancer. However, our
      experience was acquired on a large population and shows that a conspicuous amount
      of 18F-choline diagnostic pitfalls are easily recognizable and attributable to
      inflammation. A new advance in knowledge is the minimal difference in terms of
      physiological tracer bio-distribution between male and female patients.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PATIENT CARE: The knowledge of the physiological bio
      distribution and of the potential pitfalls linked of a tracer could help
      physicians to choose the best diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for a better
      patient quality of life.

PMID- 28575698
TI  - Corrigendum to "KB004, a first in class monoclonal antibody targeting the
      receptor tyrosine kinase EphA3, in patients with advanced hematologic
      malignancies: Results from a phase 1 study" [Leuk. Res. 50 (Nov) (2016) 123-131.
      PubMed PMID: 27736729].

PMID- 28575699
TI  - A novel spliced variant of the TIN2 shelterin is present in chronic lymphocytic
      leukemia.
AB  - The shelterin proteins play important roles in telomere maintenance and genome
      stability. These proteins have been found to be mutated in many cancers including
      CLL. Herein, we demonstrate here the presence of a novel spliced isoform of TIN2S
      in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), related to deletion of exon 2 in the TIN2
      gene. The expressions of spliced TIN2S mRNA varied widely in CLL and there was an
      inverse relationship between the mRNA levels of full-length TIN2S and the spliced
      moiety. Small amounts of spliced TIN2S were also observed in normal B cells but
      not in T cells. Spliced TIN2S appeared dysfunctional, as immunoprecipitation
      studies showed the typical association of TRF2 and TIN2 in normal lymphocytes but
      not in CLL cells. Moreover, whereas TRF2 localized to the nucleus in normal
      lymphocytes, it was present in both nuclei and cytoplasm in CLL cells. The levels
      of spliced TIN2S increased with age and in 3 of 8 patients increased over time.
      The presence of the spliced variant failed to be related to telomere length in
      CLL suggesting other functions for this protein. Further studies are required to
      determine the etiology and biological significance of this unique spliced TIN2S
      variant.

PMID- 28575700
TI  - Periodic venting of MABR lumen allows high removal rates and high gas-transfer
      efficiencies.
AB  - The membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) is a novel treatment technology that
      employs gas-supplying membranes to deliver oxygen directly to a biofilm growing
      on the membrane surface. When operated with closed-end membranes, the MABR
      provides 100-percent oxygen transfer efficiencies (OTE), resulting in significant
      energy savings. However, closed-end MABRs are more sensitive to back-diffusion of
      inert gases, such as nitrogen. Back-diffusion reduces the average oxygen transfer
      rates (OTR), consequently decreasing the average contaminant removal fluxes (J).
      We hypothesized that venting the membrane lumen periodically would increase the
      OTR and J. Using an experimental flow cell and mathematical modeling, we showed
      that back-diffusion gas profiles developed over relatively long timescales. Thus,
      very short ventings could re-establish uniform gas profiles for relatively long
      time periods. Using modeling, we systematically explored the effect of the
      venting interval (time between ventings). At moderate venting intervals, opening
      the membrane for 20 s every 30 min, the venting significantly increased the
      average OTR and J without substantially impacting the OTEs. When the interval was
      short enough, in this case shorter than 20 min, the OTR was actually higher than
      for continuous open-end operation. Our results show that periodic venting is a
      promising strategy to combine the advantages of open-end and closed end
      operation, maximizing both the OTR and OTE.

PMID- 28575701
TI  - Detailed modeling of oxalic acid degradation by UV-TiO2 nanoparticles: Importance
      of light scattering and photoreactor scale-up.
AB  - A detailed computational fluid dynamics model is presented that integrates
      reactor hydrodynamics with advanced light models and UV-TiO2 advanced oxidation
      kinetics to yield the degradation of oxalic acid in a dispersed-phase
      photoreactor. Model predictions were first compared against experimental data
      obtained from the literature and subsequently used in a parametric study for
      investigating scale-up effects associated with both process and photoreactor
      variables. Investigated variables included: TiO2 concentration (5-400 mg L-1),
      initial oxalic acid concentration (0.9-32 mg L-1), lamp irradiance (100-10,000 W
      m-2), background fluid absorbance (0-30 m-1), reactor size (1/4-4 as relative
      scaling factor), lamp orientation (0-360 degrees ) and flowrate (2.5-10 m3 h-1).
      The analysis revealed that an optimum in oxalic acid degradation is observed when
      the TiO2 concentration was controlled in the 20-40 mg L-1 range (depending on
      lamp irradiance). While lamp orientation showed minimal impact, reactor size and
      flowrate emerged as key variables for photoreactor design. Moreover, an increase
      in initial oxalic acid concentration substantially reduced oxalic acid
      degradation performance observed at high loadings. Also, TiO2 activation and
      photoreactor degradation performance were impacted negatively by light
      competition with background fluid absorbance.

PMID- 28575702
TI  - Gene expression profiles and bioinformatics analysis of human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells exposed to PM2.5.
AB  - Cardiovascular system is demonstrated the main target of PM2.5 and the objective
      of this study was to explore the toxic effect and molecular mechanisms caused by
      PM2.5 in primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) using microarray
      and bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that 591 genes were
      differentially expressed triggered by PM2.5, of which 174 genes were down
      regulated, while 417 genes were up-regulated. Gene ontology analysis revealed
      that PM2.5 caused significant changes in gene expression patterns, including
      response to stimuli, immune response, and cellular processes. Pathway analysis
      and Signal-net analysis suggested that endocytosis, chemokine signaling pathway,
      RNA transport, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and autophagy
      regulation were the most critical pathways in PM2.5-induced toxicity in HUVECs.
      Moreover, gene expression confirmation of LIF, BCL2L1, CSF3, HMOX1, RPS6, PFKFB,
      CAPN1, HSPBP1, MOGS, PREB, TUBB2A, GABARAP by qRT-PCR indicated that endocytosis
      might be involved in the cellular uptake of PM2.5 by forming phagosomes, and
      subsequently inflammation, hypoxia and ER stress was occurred, which finally
      activated autophagy after PM2.5 exposure in HUVECs. In summary, our data can
      serve as fundamental research clues for further studies of PM2.5-induced toxicity
      in HUVECs.

PMID- 28575703
TI  - Impact of feed water pH and membrane material on nanofiltration of
      perfluorohexanoic acid in aqueous solution.
AB  - Nanofiltration was thought to be a good option for the recovery of
      perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) from industrial wastewater. In this study, two
      commercially available nanofiltration (NF) membranes (NF 270 and NTR-7450) were
      tested to concentrate the PFHxA in aqueous solution. Filtration test was
      conducted in crossflow filtration mode. Membrane flux and PFHxA rejection rate
      were monitored throughout the filtration test. The impact of initial feed water
      pH on membrane performance was investigated. Results demonstrated that the two NF
      membranes showed different response to the change of initial feed water pH, which
      was caused by the intrinsic properties of membrane material. The flux performance
      of NF 270 was stable, while its rejection rate of PFHxA was very sensitive to the
      change of initial feed water pH. Opposite result was obtained with NTR-7450. It
      had a very good stability on rejection rate, while its flux was very sensitive to
      the change of initial feed water pH. The mechanisms behind these phenomena were
      also discussed. The results obtained in this study should be very useful for the
      process design in practical engineering.

PMID- 28575704
TI  - Muscle function in women with systemic sclerosis: Association with fatigue and
      general physical function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with systemic sclerosis have muscle functions with
      varying degrees of muscle weakness and atrophy, which in turn can have a negative
      impact on functional and health-related quality of life. This study aimed to
      evaluate peripheral muscle performance using isokinetic dynamometry of the knee
      in women with systemic sclerosis and to correlate peripheral muscle dysfunction
      with disability levels and general fatigue. METHODS: Twenty-six women with
      systemic sclerosis and a matched control group with an equal number of women
      underwent knee isokinetic dynamometry at angular speeds of 75 degrees /s and 240
      degrees /s, isometric handgrip strength, the Health Assessment Questionnaire
      Disability Index, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue
      scale, and the Fatigue Impact Scale. FINDINGS: Women with systemic sclerosis
      showed significant reductions in almost all isokinetic parameters for the two
      angular velocities tested compared with the controls. An agonist/antagonist ratio
      with values <40% was observed in approximately one-third of the patients. These
      patients had lower isometric handgrip strength. These patients also performed
      worse on the two general fatigue scales evaluated. Significant correlations were
      observed between the isokinetic parameters and the measured isometric handgrip
      strength, and the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index.
      INTERPRETATION: Systemic sclerosis patients have reduced strength and endurance
      as well as a muscle imbalance between the quadriceps and hamstrings. In these
      patients, lower muscle dysfunction of the knee joint is associated with lower
      handgrip strength and physical incapacity.

PMID- 28575705
TI  - Crossmodal attentional control sets between vision and audition.
AB  - The interplay between top-down and bottom-up factors in attentional selection has
      been a topic of extensive research and controversy amongst scientists over the
      past two decades. According to the influential contingent capture hypothesis, a
      visual stimulus needs to match the feature(s) implemented into the current
      attentional control sets in order to be automatically selected. Recently,
      however, evidence has been presented that attentional control sets affect not
      only visual but also crossmodal selection. The aim of the present study was
      therefore to establish contingent capture as a general principle of multisensory
      selection. A non-spatial interference task with bimodal (visual and auditory)
      distractors and bimodal targets was used. The target and the distractors were
      presented in close temporal succession. In order to perform the task correctly,
      the participants only had to process a predefined target feature in either of the
      two modalities (e.g., colour when vision was the primary modality). Note that the
      additional crossmodal stimulation (e.g., a specific sound when hearing was the
      secondary modality) was not relevant for the selection of the correct response.
      Nevertheless, larger interference effects were observed when the distractor
      matched both the stimulus of the primary as well as the secondary modality and
      this pattern was even stronger if vision was the primary modality than if
      audition was the primary modality. These results are therefore in line with the
      crossmodal contingent capture hypothesis. Both visual and auditory early
      processing seem to be affected by top-down control sets even beyond the spatial
      dimension.

PMID- 28575706
TI  - The impact of undergraduate clinical teaching models on the perceptions of work
      readiness among new graduate nurses: A cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical Placements are an essential component of bridging the gap
      between academic theory and nursing practice. There are multiple clinical models
      designed to ease the transition from student to professional, yet there has been
      little exploration of such models and their impact on graduates' perceptions of
      work-readiness. OBJECTIVES: This cross sectional study examined perceptions of
      work-readiness of new graduate nurses who attended one of the following clinical
      teaching models: the University Fellowship Program (UFP), the Traditional Multi
      facility Clinical Model (TMCPM), and the Mixed Program (MP). METHODS: Three
      groups of first year graduate nurses (UFP, TMCPM, and MP) were compared using the
      Work-readiness Scale, a validated and reliable tool, which assessed nurses'
      perceptions of work-readiness in four domains: organizational acumen, personal
      work characteristics, social intelligence, and work competence. A multivariable
      Generalized Estimating Equations regression investigated socio-demographic and
      teaching-modelrelated factors associated with work-readiness. RESULTS: Of 43
      nurses approached, 28 completed the survey (65% response rate) of whom 6 were UFP
      attendants, 8 attended the TMCPM and 14 the MP. Those who had attended the UFP
      scored higher than the other two in all four domains; however, the crude between
      group comparisons did not yield statistically significant results. Only after
      accounting for age, gender, teaching setting and prior work experience, the
      multivariable model showed that undertaking the UFP was likely to increase
      perceptions of work-readiness by 1.4 points (95% CI 0.11-2.69), P=0.03). The UFP
      was superior to the other two placement models. CONCLUSION: The study suggests
      that the UFP may enhance graduate nurses' perceptions of work readiness.

PMID- 28575707
TI  - Results of a study assessing teaching methods of faculty after measuring student
      learning style preference.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Learning style preference impacts how well groups of students respond
      to their curricula. Faculty have many choices in the methods for delivering
      nursing content, as well as assessing students. OBJECTIVES: The purpose was to
      develop knowledge around how faculty delivered curricula content, and then
      considering these findings in the context of the students learning style
      preference. DESIGN: Following an in-service on teaching and learning styles,
      faculty completed surveys on their methods of teaching and the proportion of time
      teaching, using each learning style (visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic).
      SETTING: This study took place at the College of Nursing a large all-female
      university in Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANTS: 24 female nursing faculty volunteered
      to participate in the project. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used.
      RESULTS: Faculty reported teaching using mostly methods that were kinesthetic and
      visual, although lecture was also popular (aural). Students preferred kinesthetic
      and aural learning methods. Read/write was the least preferred by students and
      the least used method of teaching by faculty. CONCLUSIONS: Faculty used visual
      methods about one third of the time, although they were not preferred by the
      students. Students' preferred learning style (kinesthetic) was the method most
      used by faculty.

PMID- 28575708
TI  - Education of student nurses - A systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review was to explore the literature on the connection
      between teaching strategies and nursing students' learning to clarify which
      teaching strategies provide optimal learning experiences and outcomes. DATA
      SOURCES: Sources dating from January 2000 to November 2016 were systematically
      searched in PubMed, Cinahl, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest. METHODS: A
      systematic literature review was conducted that included quantitative and
      qualitative studies. Quality assessment was made in accordance with Malterud's
      guidelines on qualitative research and Polit and Beck's guidelines on
      quantitative research. The analysis was guided by Patricia Benner's organisation
      of teaching as teaching and learning in classroom and skills laboratory and
      teaching and learning in clinical practice. RESULT: In this review, 502 titles
      and abstracts were screened resulting in 45 read and included studies.
      CONCLUSION: Teaching in skills lab and simulation laboratories provides a
      positive learning environment and motivates student nurses to learn. It develops
      critical thinking and the student nurses' ability to take part in what Benner
      refers to as problem-based nursing. However, there is a need to transform
      teaching strategies so that student nurses do not experience classroom and
      clinical practice teaching as separate parts during their education.

PMID- 28575709
TI  - Explicating Filipino student nurses' preferences of clinical instructors'
      attributes: A conjoint analysis.
AB  - The role of clinical instructor in student nurses' preparation for the
      professional nursing practice cannot be underestimated. The extent to which such
      role is achieved depends highly on the instructors' ability to realize the
      desired qualities expected of them. While a number of empirical studies have
      qualitatively explored the attributes of an effective clinical instructor, no
      attempt has ventured yet on the power of experimental vignettes for conjoint
      analysis in explicating the preferences of a select group of Filipino student
      nurses relative to their clinical instructors' attributes. Junior and senior
      nursing students (n=227), recruited from one of the comprehensive universities in
      the Philippines, were asked to sort out orthogonal cards generated by Sawtooth
      Software. As shown, the full-profile conjoint analysis was considerably fit for
      this study: Pearson's R=0.988, (p<0.05) and Kendall's t=0.944, (p<0.05). Results
      indicated that the student nurses are one in terms of their most preferred
      clinical instructor attribute, which was clinical teaching capacity (38.14%)
      followed by interpersonal relationship and caring behavior (33.17%). In regard to
      the clinical teaching capability, a clinical instructor who parallels clinical
      teaching skills with the students' understanding and experience (0.089) was the
      highest part-worth. As for the interpersonal relationship and caring behavior,
      the highest part-worth was a clinical instructor who respects a student nurse as
      an individual and cares about him/her as a person (0.114). Findings of this study
      can be a basis for clinical instructors as to which qualities to cultivate best
      to facilitate a first-rate clinical nursing instruction. Likewise, the results of
      this study can inform current practices of clinical instructors by making them
      aware of how they can nurture a pedagogical approach consistent with the student
      nurses' preferences.

PMID- 28575710
TI  - Upper limb movement analysis during gait in multiple sclerosis patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: Gait disorders in multiple sclerosis (MS) are well studied; however, no
      previous study has described upper limb movements during gait. However, upper
      limb movements have an important role during locomotion and can be altered in MS
      patients due to direct MS lesions or mechanisms of compensation. The aim of this
      study was to describe the arm movements during gait in a population of MS
      patients with low disability compared with a healthy control group. METHODS: In
      this observational study we analyzed the arm movements during gait in 52
      outpatients (mean age: 39.7+/-9.6years, female: 40%) with relapsing-remitting MS
      with low disability (mean EDSS: 2+/-1) and 25 healthy age-matched controls using
      a 3-dimension gait analysis. RESULTS: MS patients walked slower, with increased
      mean elbow flexion and decreased amplitude of elbow flexion (ROM) compared to the
      control group, whereas shoulder and hand movements were similar to controls.
      These differences were not explained by age or disability. CONCLUSION: Upper limb
      alterations in movement during gait in MS patients with low disability can be
      characterized by an increase in mean elbow flexion and a decrease in amplitude
      (ROM) for elbow flexion/extension. This upper limb movement pattern should be
      considered as a new component of gait disorders in MS and may reflect subtle
      motor deficits or the use of compensatory mechanisms.

PMID- 28575711
TI  - Microplastics in the sediments of a UK urban lake.
AB  - While studies on microplastics in the marine environment show their wide
      distribution, persistence and contamination of biota, the freshwater environment
      remains comparatively neglected. Where studies on freshwaters have been
      undertaken these have been on riverine systems or very large lakes. We present
      data on the distribution of microplastic particles in the sediments of Edgbaston
      Pool, a shallow eutrophic lake in central Birmingham, UK. These data provide, to
      our knowledge, the first assessment of microplastic concentrations in the
      sediments of either a small or an urban lake and the first for any lake in the
      UK. Maximum concentrations reached 25-30 particles per 100 g dried sediment
      (equivalent to low hundreds kg-1) and hence are comparable with reported river
      sediment studies. Fibres and films were the most common types of microplastic
      observed. Spatial distributions appear to be due to similar factors to other lake
      studies (i.e. location of inflow; prevailing wind directions; propensity for
      biofouling; distribution of macroplastic debris) and add to the growing burden of
      evidence for microplastic ubiquity in all environments.

PMID- 28575712
TI  - Effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles on the photodissolution of
      particulate organic matter: Insights from fluorescence spectroscopy and
      environmental implications.
AB  - Widely used titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are likely to accumulate
      ultimately in sediments and potentially pose a risk to water ecosystems. This
      study evaluated the effect of TiO2 nanoparticles on the photodissolution of
      particulate organic matter (POM) through fluorescence spectroscopy. Excitation
      emission matrices and parallel factor analyses revealed that the fluorescent
      characteristics of produced dissolved organic matter (DOM) during
      photodissolution of suspended sediment and synthetic particulate organic matter
      (SPOM) were primarily humic-like. SPOM particles appeared to simulate well the
      photodissolution of suspended sediment. Quasi-complete increases in fluorescence
      intensity and chromophoric DOM (CDOM) abundance were reached after 90, 60, and 50
      min irradiation for TiO2 concentrations of 0, 2, and 5 mg L-1, respectively. The
      faster increment of fluorescence intensity and CDOM abundance indicated the
      photocatalytic dissolution of SPOM, as opposite charges between TiO2 and SPOM at
      pH = 4 favored the adsorption of TiO2 onto SPOM. For sediments, the CDOM
      abundance and fluorescence intensity decreased with increasing TiO2
      concentration, resulting from the photocatalytic degradation of photoproduced DOM
      from sediments. These results demonstrated that pH plays an important role in the
      photocatalytic dissolution of POM by TiO2. Therefore, appropriate pH controls
      should be implemented when TiO2 are used to treat sediments contaminated with
      organic pollutants. Finally, with increasing use of TiO2, its accumulation in
      sediments may affect the fate of carbon, nutrients, and heavy metals in shallow
      water ecosystems.

PMID- 28575713
TI  - Characterization of the peptide fraction from digested Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
      and its effect on growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.
AB  - Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) is a raw-milk, hard cooked, long-ripened cheese of high
      quality and nutritional value. Long ripening times allow for extensive
      proteolysis of milk proteins to yield a number of peptides, some of which have
      potential healthy bioactive properties. This study aimed to: i) determine the
      peptide profile of PR cheese subjected to simulated gastrointestinal transit; ii)
      evaluate in vitro whether the peptides could support growth of beneficial
      microbial groups of the gut microbiota. PR samples were subjected to in vitro
      digestion, simulating oral, gastric, and duodenal transit. Liquid chromatography
      coupled with tandem mass spectrometry revealed that digestion caused the
      disappearance of the serum proteins and most of the original peptides, while 71
      new peptides were found, all ranging from 2 to 24 residues. The digests were
      given as sole nitrogen source to pure cultures of Bifidobacterium (27 strains)
      and Lactobacillus (30 strains), and to bioreactor batch cultures of human gut
      microbiota. Most of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli grew more abundantly on PR
      digests than on the control peptone, and exhibited strain- or species-specific
      peptide preferences, as evidenced by principal component analysis. Bifidobacteria
      generally consumed a greater amount of peptides than lactobacilli, in terms of
      both the mean peptide consumption and the number of peptides consumed. For
      bifidobacteria, peptide preferences were very diverse, but a core of 10 peptides
      with 4 or 5 residues were consumed by all the strains. Lactobacilli behaved more
      homogenously and consumed nearly only the same 6 peptides, mostly dipeptides. The
      peptide preferences of the different groups of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli
      could not be ascribed to features such as the length of the peptide or the
      abundance of residues with peculiar properties (hydrophobicity, polarity, charge)
      and likely depend on specific proteases and/or peptide transporters
      preferentially recognizing specific sequence motifs. The cultures of human
      colonic microbiota confirmed that PR digest promoted the growth of commensal
      bifidobacteria. This study demonstrated that peptides derived from simulated
      gastrointestinal digestion of PR supported the growth of most lactobacilli and
      bifidobacteria.

PMID- 28575714
TI  - Performance of people with diabetes in the labor market: An empirical approach
      controlling for complications.
AB  - This paper introduces a framework for modelling the impact that diabetes has on
      employment status and wages, improving the existing literature by controlling for
      diabetes-related complications. Using the last wave of the Spanish National
      Health Survey, we find that 1710 adults out of the original sample of 36,087 have
      diabetes, reporting higher rates of unemployment. Our empirical results suggest
      that persons with diabetes, compared with non-diabetic persons, have poorer labor
      outcomes in terms of length of unemployment and lower income. However, diabetes
      is not significantly associated with unemployment probabilities, suggesting that
      the burden of diabetes on employment is mediated by lifestyle factors and
      clinical and functional complications. In addition, there are mixed outcomes to
      this econometric approach, depending on age and gender, among other factors. This
      interesting finding has several implications for research and policy on
      strategies to get lower health inequalities.

PMID- 28575715
TI  - Determinants and geographical variation in the distribution of depression in the
      Southern cone of Latin America: A population-based survey in four cities in
      Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression is one of the major contributors to the global burden of
      diseases; however, population-based data in South America are limited. METHODS:
      We conducted a population-based cross sectional study with 7524 participants,
      aged 35-74 years old, recruited between February 2010 and December 2011 from
      randomly selected samples in 4 cities (Bariloche and Marcos Paz, Argentina;
      Temuco, Chile; and Pando-Barros Blancos, Uruguay). Major Depressive Episode (MDE)
      was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) - 9. RESULTS: The
      overall prevalence of MDE was 14.6% (95% CI: 13.6, 15.6). However, there was a
      geographical variability of up to 3.7 folds between different cities being 5.6%
      (95% CI: 4.6, 6.7) in Marcos Paz, Argentina; 9.5% (95% CI: 8.2, 10.9) in
      Bariloche, Argentina; 18.1% (95% CI: 16.3, 20.0) in Temuco, Chile, and 18.2 (95%
      CI: 16.3, 20.2) in Pando-Barros Blancos, Uruguay. The multivariate model showed
      that, adjusted by location, being female, being between 35 and 44 years old,
      having experienced at least one stressful life event, currently smoking, and
      having a history of chronic medical diseases were independently associated with
      an increased risk of MDE, while having higher education and being married or
      living with a partner reduced the risk of MDE. LIMITATIONS: These results are
      representative of the selected cities included in the study. As such
      extrapolation to the general populations of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay should
      be done with caution CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a high prevalence and
      variability of MDE in the Southern Cone of Latin America.

PMID- 28575716
TI  - Structural network connectivity impairment and depressive symptoms in cerebral
      small vessel disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) can disrupt mood regulation
      circuits and cause depressive symptoms which may occur prior to onset of other
      symptoms. However, the topological network alterations in SVD with depressive
      symptoms remained unclear. We aim to investigate how these changes in structural
      network were related to depressive symptoms in SVD. METHODS: We recruited 20 SVD
      with depressive symptoms (SVD+D), 20 SVD without depressive symptoms (SVD-D) and
      16 healthy control (HC) individuals. Graph theory and diffusion tensor imaging
      (DTI) were applied to construct a structural network. We compared networks
      between groups, and examined the relationships between network properties,
      conventional measures of MRI, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The structural
      network was significantly disrupted in global and regional levels in both SVD
      groups. SVD+D group showed more severe impairment of global network efficiency,
      and lower nodal efficiency and less connections within multiple regions like
      hippocampus, amygdala and several cortical structures. The disruption of network
      connectivity was associated with depressive symptoms and MRI measures of SVD,
      however, no mediation effect of network efficiency was detected between MRI
      measures and depressive symptoms. LIMITATION: The relatively small sample size
      and lower spatial resolution of DTI-based network limited our power of
      investigation. CONCLUSIONS: The brain structural network is significantly
      disrupted in SVD+D and the impairment is related to severity of vascular damages
      and depressive symptoms. The study provides evidence for the role of structural
      network damage in SVD-related depressive symptoms and might be a potential novel
      disease marker for SVD and comorbid depression.

PMID- 28575717
TI  - Recurrent pulmonary emboli with characteristic histopathology.
AB  - We report a unique case of recurrent thromboembolism and its histological
      findings that were revealed in an autopsy. Although it is well known that
      repeating thrombosis presents organization and recanalization, we also observed
      rare findings of thickening of the bronchial artery and fixation of the valve of
      the lower extremity vein in this case.

PMID- 28575718
TI  - Sleep homeostasis, habits and habituation.
AB  - The importance of sleep for behavioural performance during waking is long
      established, but the underlying reasons and mechanisms remain elusive. Waking and
      sleep are associated with changes in the levels of GluA1 AMPAR subunit in
      synaptic membranes, while studies using genetically-modified mice have identified
      an important role for GluA1-dependent synaptic plasticity in a non-associative
      form of memory that underlies short-term habituation to recently experienced
      stimuli. Here we posit that sleep may play a role in dishabituation, which
      restores attentional capacity and maximises the readiness of the animal for
      learning and goal-directed behaviour during subsequent wakefulness. Furthermore
      we suggest that sleep disturbance may fundamentally change the nature of
      behaviour, making it more model-free and habitual as a result of reduced
      attentional capacity.

PMID- 28575719
TI  - Fast and slow Ca2+-dependent hyperpolarization mechanisms connect membrane
      potential and sleep homeostasis.
AB  - Several lines of evidence indicate that the sleep-wake state of cortical neurons
      is regulated not only through neuronal projections from the lower brain, but also
      through the cortical neurons' intrinsic ability to initiate a slow firing pattern
      related to the slow-wave oscillation observed in electroencephalography of the
      sleeping brain. Theoretical modeling and experiments with genetic and
      pharmacological perturbation suggest that ion channels and kinases acting
      downstream of calcium signaling regulate the cortical-membrane potential and
      sleep duration. In this review, we introduce possible Ca2+-dependent
      hyperpolarization mechanisms in cortical neurons, in which Ca2+ signaling
      associated with neuronal excitation evokes kinase cascades, and the activated
      kinases modify ion channels or pumps to regulate the cortical sleep/wake firing
      mode.

PMID- 28575720
TI  - Local aspects of sleep and wakefulness.
AB  - Slow waves, the hallmark of NREM (Non Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, are not
      uniformly distributed across the cortical surface, but can occur locally and
      asynchronously across brain regions. Their regional distribution and amplitude is
      affected by brain maturation and by time spent awake, mediated in part by
      experience-dependent changes in synaptic strength. Recent studies have shown that
      local low-frequency oscillations (<10Hz) can also occur in REM sleep and during
      wakefulness, leading to region-specific cognitive errors. Local decreases and
      increases of slow wave activity in posterior brain regions have been linked to
      the occurrence of dreaming and to unconscious sleep, respectively. Finally, the
      coexistence of local sleep-like and wake-like patterns in different brain areas
      is characteristic of several sleep disorders and may offer insights into these
      conditions.

PMID- 28575721
TI  - Synthesis of a new series of aryl/heteroarylpiperazinyl derivatives of 8-acetyl-7
      hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin with low nanomolar 5-HT1A affinities.
AB  - We synthesized a series of aryl/heteroarylpiperazinyl derivatives of 8-acetyl-7
      hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin and evaluated their antidepressant-like activity. We
      used a fast, microwave-assisted synthesis protocol and 1H, 13C NMR and HRMS
      spectrometry to confirm the structure of all compounds. We also used radioligand
      binding assays to determine the affinities towards 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors
      and performed molecular docking studies to rationalize obtained results. Among
      the evaluated compounds seven displayed high affinity to the 5-HT1A (3a-1.3 nM,
      5a-1.6 nM, 10a-1.6 nM, 11a-1.0 nM, 3b-1.0 nM, 5b-0.8 nM and 11b-1.5 nM) as well
      as significant 5-HT1A antagonist profiles. The equilibrium dissociation constant
      values of tested compounds shown differential intrinsic activity (3a-190 nM, 3b
      28 nM, 5a-48 nM, 5b-23 nM, 10b-180 nM, 11a-99 nM, 11b-38 nM) of antagonist mode.
      Molecular docking studies using a homology model of 5-HT1A revealed that ligand
      5b is stabilized mainly by hydrogen bonds to Ser190.

PMID- 28575722
TI  - Applications of parallel synthetic lead hopping and pharmacophore-based virtual
      screening in the discovery of efficient glycine receptor potentiators.
AB  - Glycine receptors (GlyRs) are pentameric glycine-gated chloride ion channels that
      are enriched in the brainstem and spinal cord where they have been demonstrated
      to play a role in central nervous system (CNS) inhibition. Herein we describe two
      novel classes of glycine receptor potentiators that have been developed using
      similarity- and property-guided scaffold hopping enabled by parallel synthesis
      and pharmacophore-based virtual screening strategies. This effort resulted in the
      identification of novel, efficient and modular leads having favorable in vitro
      ADME profiles and high CNS multi-parameter optimization (MPO) scores, exemplified
      by azetidine sulfonamide 19 and aminothiazole sulfone (ent2)-20.

PMID- 28575723
TI  - Glycoform of a newly identified pollen allergen, Cha o 3, from Chamaecyparis
      obtusa (Japanese cypress, Hinoki).
AB  - Cha o 3 is a newly found glycosylated allergen from Chamaecyparis obtusa
      (Japanese cypress) pollen. The deduced amino acid sequence of Cha o 3 indicates
      that this glycoallergen contains a cellulase domain and a number of putative N
      glycosylation sites. However, the structures of N -glycans linked to Cha o 3
      remain to be determined. In this study, therefore, we analyzed the glycoform of
      Cha o 3 and found that this glycoallergen carries exclusively plant complex-type
      N-glycans; major structures were GlcNAc2Man3Xyl1Fuc1GlcNAc2 (39%),
      Gal1Fuc1GlcNAc2Man3Xyl1Fuc1GlcNAc2 (14%), and Gal2Fuc2GlcNAc2Man3Xyl1Fuc1GlcNAc2
      (25%). The glycoform of Cha o 3 bearing the Lea epitope is similar to those of
      Cry j1, Jun a 1, or Cup a 1, major glycoallergens in cedar or cypress pollens,
      and the predominant occurrence of GlcNAc2Man3Xyl1Fuc1GlcNAc2 is a common
      structural feature of glycoallergens from Cupressaceae pollens.

PMID- 28575724
TI  - A mapping review of take-home naloxone for people released from correctional
      settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People released from correctional settings are at an elevated risk of
      opioid overdose death in the weeks immediately following release. However, it is
      not well understood how this population, as a particularly high-risk group, is
      included in, and benefits from take-home naloxone (THN) programs. The objective
      of this review is to map research into THN for people released from correctional
      settings in order to identify further research needs. METHOD: We searched
      electronic databases, grey literature, and conference abstracts for reports on
      THN for people in or released from correctional settings. Studies were
      categorised into themes defined by the study's aims and focus. Results from each
      study were summarised by theme. RESULTS: We identified 19 studies reporting on
      THN programs for people released from correctional settings. Studies have
      examined attitudes towards naloxone among people in custody or recently released
      from custody (theme 1), and among non-prisoner stakeholders such as prison staff
      (theme 2). Evaluations and interventional studies (theme 3) have examined process
      indicators and approaches to naloxone training, including for contacts of
      prisoners, but there are challenges in assessing health outcomes of THN in the
      correctional context. Case reports suggest that training in correctional settings
      translates to action post-release (theme 4). CONCLUSION: The feasibility of THN
      in the context of release from a correctional setting has been established, but
      there is a need for rigorous research into health outcomes and program
      implementation. This is an emerging field of study and ongoing assessment of the
      state of the literature and research needs is recommended.

PMID- 28575725
TI  - Regional volumetric assessment of the brain in moderately preterm infants (30-35
      gestational weeks) scanned at term-equivalent age on magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early volume analyses of the infantile brain may help predict
      neurodevelopmental outcome. However, brain volumes are not well understood in
      moderately preterm infants at term-equivalent age (TEA). AIM: This study
      retrospectively investigated the relationship between regional brain volumes and
      infant gestational age (GA) at birth in moderately preterm infants (30-35weeks'
      GA) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at TEA. METHODS: Forty infants scanned at
      TEA were enrolled. Regional brain volumes were estimated by manual segmentation
      on MRI, and their relationship with GA at birth was assessed. RESULTS: The
      regional volumes of the cerebral hemispheres and deep gray matter were larger
      (Spearman rho=0.40, P=0.01, and Spearman rho=0.48, P<0.01, respectively), and
      volumes of the lateral ventricles were smaller (Spearman rho=-0.32, P=0.04) in
      infants born at a later GA. The volumes of the cerebral hemispheres of the
      infants born at 30weeks' GA were significantly smaller than those born at 33 and
      35weeks' GA (P<0.05). No associations were found between the volume of the
      cerebellum and brainstem, and GA at birth (Spearman rho=0.24, P=0.13, and
      Spearman rho=0.24, P=0.14, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The volumes of the
      cerebral hemispheres at TEA may be smaller in infants born at 30weeks' GA,
      whereas those of the cerebellum and brainstem may not be correlated with GA among
      moderately preterm infants.

PMID- 28575726
TI  - Sciadopitysin suppresses RANKL-mediated osteoclastogenesis and prevents bone loss
      in LPS-treated mice.
AB  - Previous studies reported that sciadopitysin (Sc), a type of biflavonoids,
      protects reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated osteoblast dysfunction, but its
      role in osteoclastogenesis remains unclear. In this study, we observed that Sc
      dose-dependently suppressed RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption.
      Our results indicated that Sc treatment strongly reduced RANKL-induced osteoclast
      specific genes expression, including cathepsin K (CTSK), tartrate-resistant acid
      phosphatase (TRAP) and MMP-9. Furthermore, Sc apparently attenuated RANKL
      increased expressions of c-Fos and NFATc1. Meanwhile, Sc also strikingly
      inhibited the activation of NF-kappaB without altering the phosphorylation of
      MAPKs (p38, JNK and ERK1/2). Finally, our study demonstrated that Sc
      administration could reverse the bone loss in LPS-induced mice model. This study
      suggests that Sc inhibits RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone loss by
      inhibiting NF-kappaB activation and reducing the expression of c-Fos and NFATc1.
      Therefore, Sc might be benefit for RANKL-mediated osteolytic bone diseases.

PMID- 28575727
TI  - Association of LTBR polymorphisms with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and
      hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LTbetaR) signaling is involved in hepatitis B virus
      (HBV) infection, hepatitis and liver carcinogenesis. However, the potential
      association between LTBR polymorphisms and HBV infection remains unclear. This
      study investigated the associations between LTBR polymorphisms and chronic HBV
      infection and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The study included 409
      patients with chronic HBV infection, 73 HBV infection resolvers, and 197 healthy
      controls. Two polymorphisms rs12354 and rs3759333 were selected and genotyped by
      polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction method. The frequencies of
      rs12354 genotype GT and allele T in HBV infection resolvers were significantly
      higher than those in patients with chronic HBV infection and healthy controls
      (genotype GT: 38.4% vs. 22.2% and 38.4% vs. 20.8%, P=0.004 and P=0.004,
      respectively; allele T: 20.5% vs. 13.1% and 20.5% vs. 12.9%, P=0.017 and P=0.028,
      respectively). The frequencies of rs3759333 genotypes and alleles between HBV
      patients, HBV infection resolvers and healthy controls had no statistical
      difference. The genotype and allele frequencies of rs12354 and rs3759333 had no
      statistical differences between chronic hepatitis B and HBV-related HCC patients.
      The serum LTbetaR levels and the overall survival rate between HBV-related HCC
      patients carrying different rs12354 and rs3759333 genotypes had no statistical
      differences. These results suggest that the LTBR rs12354 polymorphism might be
      associated with the spontaneous resolution of HBV infection. Additional studies
      with large sample size are needed to confirm and extend these findings.

PMID- 28575728
TI  - Sustaining diabetes prevention and care interventions: A multiple case study of
      translational research projects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study identifies the barriers and enablers for sustainability of
      interventions in primary and secondary prevention of diabetes. In the context of
      translational research, sustainability is defined as the continued use of program
      components and activities for the continued achievement of desirable program and
      population outcomes. METHODS: In this study, eleven translational research
      projects, supported by the BRIDGES program of the International Diabetes
      Federation, were investigated. By theoretically-informed semi-structured
      interviews and analyses of project reports, qualitative data was collected on the
      sustainability outcomes and the barriers and enablers. RESULTS: The
      sustainability outcomes can be grouped in three main areas: (1) sustainability at
      the intervention site(s); (2) diffusion to the wider community; and (3)
      replication of the intervention at other site(s). Each of the outcomes has their
      own set of enablers and barriers, and thus requires consideration for a different
      sustainability strategy. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first international study
      that relates the sustainability outcomes of translational research project to
      specific barriers and enablers, and develops an evidence-based framework which
      provides practical advice on how to ensure the sustainability of health
      interventions.

PMID- 28575729
TI  - Effects of saxagliptin on glucose homeostasis and body composition of obese
      patients with newly diagnosed pre-diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: To assess the effect of saxagliptin monotherapy on blood glucose and islet
      beta-cell function in obese patients with newly diagnosed pre-diabetes and
      abnormal fat metabolism. METHODS: A 24-week, randomized controlled trial was
      conducted involving 25 obese subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (mean age 45years) to receive lifestyle
      intervention only (control group) or combined with saxagliptin 2.5mg or 5mg daily
      (S2.5 or S5 group), metformin 1500mg daily (Met group). Anthropometrics, body fat
      and biochemical parameters were measured before and after 4, 12 and 24weeks
      intervention. RESULTS: S5 group and Met group showed a significant decrease in
      fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c compared with the control group (all
      P<0.05) after 24-week intervention. However, the decrease in 2h postprandial
      plasma glucose levels (2hPPG) in S5 group were greater compared with control
      group (P<0.01). Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was reduced in S5 group, Met group
      and control group (P<0.05), and the beta-cell function (HOMA-beta) was improved
      in all groups (P<0.05). However, the changes in obesity-related indicators
      including waist circumference, hip circumference, weight, BMI, body fat,
      percentage of body fat and waist-to-hip fat ratio were greate in Met group (all
      P<0.05) compared with other groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Saxagliptin monotherapy
      may prevent or delay the progression of IGT or IFG to type 2 diabetes mellitus in
      obese patients with newly diagnosed pre-diabetes. ClinicalTrials.gov:
      NCT01960205.

PMID- 28575730
TI  - Novel glucokinase gene mutation in the first Macedonian family tested for MODY.
AB  - We present a boy with mild hyperglycemia detected during an upper respiratory
      infection. Novel splicing mutation in the intron 1 of the GCK gene (c.45+1G>A)
      was detected, and was subsequently confirmed in his father. This is the first
      case of genetically confirmed Macedonian family with MODY.

PMID- 28575731
TI  - Empirical test of the performance of an acoustic-phonetic approach to forensic
      voice comparison under conditions similar to those of a real case.
AB  - In a 2012 case in New South Wales, Australia, the identity of a speaker on
      several audio recordings was in question. Forensic voice comparison testimony was
      presented based on an auditory-acoustic-phonetic-spectrographic analysis. No
      empirical demonstration of the validity and reliability of the analytical
      methodology was presented. Unlike the admissibility standards in some other
      jurisdictions (e.g., US Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and the Daubert criteria, or
      England & Wales Criminal Practice Directions 19A), Australia's Unified Evidence
      Acts do not require demonstration of the validity and reliability of analytical
      methods and their implementation before testimony based upon them is presented in
      court. The present paper reports on empirical tests of the performance of an
      acoustic-phonetic-statistical forensic voice comparison system which exploited
      the same features as were the focus of the auditory-acoustic-phonetic
      spectrographic analysis in the case, i.e., second-formant (F2) trajectories in
      /o/ tokens and mean fundamental frequency (f0). The tests were conducted under
      conditions similar to those in the case. The performance of the acoustic-phonetic
      statistical system was very poor compared to that of an automatic system.

PMID- 28575732
TI  - Extra precision docking, free energy calculation and molecular dynamics studies
      on glutamic acid derivatives as MurD inhibitors.
AB  - The binding modes of well known MurD inhibitors have been studied using molecular
      docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The docking results of
      inhibitors 1-30 revealed similar mode of interaction with Escherichia coli-MurD.
      Further, residues Thr36, Arg37, His183, Lys319, Lys348, Thr321, Ser415 and Phe422
      are found to be important for inhibitors and E. coli-MurD interactions. Our
      docking procedure precisely predicted crystallographic bound inhibitor 7 as
      evident from root mean square deviation (0.96A). In addition inhibitors 2 and 3
      have been successfully cross-docked within the MurD active site, which was pre
      organized for the inhibitor 7. Induced fit best docked poses of 2, 3, 7 and
      15/2Y1O complexes were subjected to 10ns MD simulations to determine the
      stability of the predicted binding conformations. Induce fit derived docked
      complexes were found to be in a state of near equilibrium as evident by the low
      root mean square deviations between the starting complex structure and the energy
      minimized final average MD complex structures. The results of molecular docking
      and MD simulations described in this study will be useful for the development of
      new MurD inhibitors with high potency.

PMID- 28575733
TI  - Biomaterials for skeletal muscle tissue engineering.
AB  - Although skeletal muscle can naturally regenerate in response to minor injuries,
      more severe damage and myopathies can cause irreversible loss of muscle mass and
      function. Cell therapies, while promising, have not yet demonstrated consistent
      benefit, likely due to poor survival of delivered cells. Biomaterials can improve
      muscle regeneration by presenting chemical and physical cues to muscle cells that
      mimic the natural cascade of regeneration. This brief review describes strategies
      for muscle repair utilizing biomaterials that can provide signals to either
      transplanted or host muscle cells. These strategies range from approaches that
      utilize biomaterials alone to those that combine biomaterials with exogenous
      growth factors, ex vivo cultured cells, and extensive culture time.

PMID- 28575735
TI  - Fractional-order leaky integrate-and-fire model with long-term memory and power
      law dynamics.
AB  - Pyramidal neurons produce different spiking patterns to process information,
      communicate with each other and transform information. These spiking patterns
      have complex and multiple time scale dynamics that have been described with the
      fractional-order leaky integrate-and-Fire (FLIF) model. Models with fractional
      (non-integer) order differentiation that generalize power law dynamics can be
      used to describe complex temporal voltage dynamics. The main characteristic of
      FLIF model is that it depends on all past values of the voltage that causes long
      term memory. The model produces spikes with high interspike interval variability
      and displays several spiking properties such as upward spike-frequency adaptation
      and long spike latency in response to a constant stimulus. We show that the
      subthreshold voltage and the firing rate of the fractional-order model make
      transitions from exponential to power law dynamics when the fractional order
      alpha decreases from 1 to smaller values. The firing rate displays different
      types of spike timing adaptation caused by changes on initial values. We also
      show that the voltage-memory trace and fractional coefficient are the causes of
      these different types of spiking properties. The voltage-memory trace that
      represents the long-term memory has a feedback regulatory mechanism and affects
      spiking activity. The results suggest that fractional-order models might be
      appropriate for understanding multiple time scale neuronal dynamics. Overall, a
      neuron with fractional dynamics displays history dependent activities that might
      be very useful and powerful for effective information processing.

PMID- 28575736
TI  - Collective neurodynamic optimization for economic emission dispatch problem
      considering valve point effect in microgrid.
AB  - The economic emission dispatch (EED) problem aims to control generation cost and
      reduce the impact of waste gas on the environment. It has multiple constraints
      and nonconvex objectives. To solve it, the collective neurodynamic optimization
      (CNO) method, which combines heuristic approach and projection neural network
      (PNN), is attempted to optimize scheduling of an electrical microgrid with ten
      thermal generators and minimize the plus of generation and emission cost. As the
      objective function has non-derivative points considering valve point effect
      (VPE), differential inclusion approach is employed in the PNN model introduced to
      deal with them. Under certain conditions, the local optimality and convergence of
      the dynamic model for the optimization problem is analyzed. The capability of the
      algorithm is verified in a complicated situation, where transmission loss and
      prohibited operating zones are considered. In addition, the dynamic variation of
      load power at demand side is considered and the optimal scheduling of generators
      within 24 h is described.

PMID- 28575734
TI  - Equitable access to health insurance for socially excluded children? The case of
      the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana.
AB  - To help reduce child mortality and reach universal health coverage, Ghana
      extended free membership of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to
      children (under-18s) in 2008. However, despite the introduction of premium
      waivers, a substantial proportion of children remain uninsured. Thus far, few
      studies have explored why enrolment of children in NHIS may remain low, despite
      the absence of significant financial barriers to membership. In this paper we
      therefore look beyond economic explanations of access to health insurance to
      explore additional wider determinants of enrolment in the NHIS. In particular, we
      investigate whether social exclusion, as measured through a sociocultural,
      political and economic lens, can explain poor enrolment rates of children. Data
      were collected from a cross-sectional survey of 4050 representative households
      conducted in Ghana in 2012. Household indices were created to measure
      sociocultural, political and economic exclusion, and logistic regressions were
      conducted to study determinants of enrolment at the individual and household
      levels. Our results indicate that socioculturally, economically and politically
      excluded children are less likely to enrol in the NHIS. Furthermore, households
      excluded in all dimensions were more likely to be non-enrolled or partially
      enrolled (i.e. not all children enrolled within the household) than fully
      enrolled. These results suggest that equity in access for socially excluded
      children has not yet been achieved. Efforts should be taken to improve coverage
      by removing the remaining small, annually renewable registration fee,
      implementing and publicising the new clause that de-links premium waivers from
      parental membership, establishing additional scheme administrative offices in
      remote areas, holding regular registration sessions in schools and conducting
      outreach sessions and providing registration support to female guardians of
      children. Ensuring equitable access to NHIS will contribute substantially to
      improving child health and reducing child mortality in Ghana.

PMID- 28575737
TI  - Bayesian geodesic path for human motor control.
AB  - Despite a near-infinite number of possible movement trajectories, our body
      movements exhibit certain invariant features across individuals; for example,
      when grasping a cup, individuals choose an approximately linear path from the
      hand to the cup. Based on these experimental findings, many researchers have
      proposed optimization frameworks to determine desired movement trajectories.
      Successful conventional frameworks include the geodesic path, which considers the
      geometry of our complicated body dynamics, and stochastic frameworks, which
      consider movement variability. The former succeed in explaining the kinematics in
      human reaching movements, and the latter succeed in explaining the variability in
      those movements. However, the conventional geodesic path framework does not
      consider variability, and the conventional stochastic frameworks do not consider
      the geometrical properties of our bodies. Thus, how to reconcile these two
      successful frameworks remains unclear. Here, I show that the conventional
      geodesic path can be interpreted as a Bayesian framework in which no uncertainty
      is considered. Hence, by introducing uncertainty into the framework, I propose a
      Bayesian geodesic path framework that can simultaneously consider the geometric
      properties of our bodies and movement variability. I demonstrate that the
      Bayesian geodesic path generates a mean movement trajectory that corresponds to
      the conventional geodesic path and a variability of movement trajectory, thus
      explaining the characteristic variability in human reaching movements.

PMID- 28575738
TI  - Perceived parental monitoring and adolescent internet addiction: A moderated
      mediation model.
AB  - Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model focuses on the interrelation between
      different contexts and the interaction between individuals and their proximal
      contexts. Based on this theory, the present study tested a moderated mediation
      model of family, peer, and individual characteristics to investigate how they
      impact adolescent Internet addiction. Specifically, we examined whether deviant
      peer affiliation partially mediated the relation between perceived parental
      monitoring and adolescent Internet addiction, and whether this indirect relation
      was moderated by effortful control. A total of 747 Chinese middle school students
      filled out anonymous questionnaires concerning perceived parental monitoring,
      deviant peer affiliation, effortful control, and Internet addiction. The findings
      indicated that while the impact of parental monitoring on Internet addiction was
      partially mediated by deviant peer affiliation, effortful control moderated the
      first stage of the indirect relationship. For low effortful control adolescents,
      perceived parental monitoring negatively predicted deviant peer affiliation.
      Conversely, the indirect path was not significant for high effortful control
      adolescents. These findings highlight the need to consider family, peer and
      individual factors simultaneously when evaluating risks associated with
      adolescent Internet addiction and have important implications for the prevention
      and intervention of adolescent Internet addiction.

PMID- 28575739
TI  - Proglycosomes: A novel nano-vesicle for ocular delivery of tacrolimus.
AB  - Tacrolimus is an emerging candidate for the treatment of immune-mediated
      inflammatory ocular disorders (IIODs) however its ocular delivery remained a
      challenge due to its hydrophobic nature, high molecular weight and physiological
      and anatomical constraints of the eye. The present work describes vesicles
      composed of propylene glycol, phospholipid and water, proglycosomes (PNVs), as
      novel carriers for ocular delivery of tacrolimus. Addition of propylene glycol
      decreases vesicle aggregation, increases encapsulation of tacrolimus and
      prevented drug leakage. Developed PNVs were of nanosize (111.5+/-3.2nm) and 5
      fold more elastic than conventional liposomes. PNVs showed prolonged drug release
      over period of 12h and higher corneal permeation, 5-fold and 13-fold, compared to
      conventional liposomes and tacrolimus solution, respectively. Studies in rabbits
      demonstrated prolonged precorneal retention (upto 8h) and manifestly improved
      intraocular drug levels, well above therapeutic levels, at all tested time-points
      following topical application of PNV formulation compared to drug solution.
      Further, PNVs were found to be safe for ocular use. In conclusion, the developed
      PNVs are prospective carriers for enhanced ocular delivery of tacrolimus.

PMID- 28575741
TI  - Amino-functionalized nano-vesicles for enhanced anticancer efficacy and reduced
      myelotoxicity of carboplatin.
AB  - Carboplatin is one of the few platinum-based antitumor drugs used worldwide.
      Unfortunately, systemic carboplatin therapy is limited by its dose-related
      myelosuppression. In this study, a viable way to reduce the serious myelotoxicity
      of carboplatin while improving its therapeutic efficacy using amino
      functionalized polyphosphazene vesicles is reported. First, three
      polyphosphazenes with different amino content were synthesized by amidating
      hydrophobic side groups; these polyphosphazenes could self-assemble into
      polymersomes with similar particle size and morphology. Based on FTIR analysis,
      hydrogen bonding interactions between the polymeric carriers and carboplatin were
      validated and shown to predominantly contribute to the significant improvement of
      drug loading in polymersomes. Therefore, it turned out that the amino level of
      polymers played a substantial role in carboplatin encapsulation. Then, PEAP-2-C
      polymersomes were optimized for further experimental verification to achieve
      depressed carboplatin-induced myelotoxicity as well as promote curative effects
      against CT-26 colon adenocarcinoma. These results in vitro and in vivo proved
      that amino-functionalized polyphosphazene vesicles have great potential for
      carboplatin delivery in the application of cancer therapy.

PMID- 28575740
TI  - Capture and separation of l-histidine through optimized zinc-decorated magnetic
      silica spheres.
AB  - Zinc-decorated magnetic silica spheres were developed, optimized and tested for
      the capture and separation of l-histidine. The magnetic silica spheres were
      prepared using a simple sol-gel method and show excellent magnetic
      characteristics, adsorption capacity toward metal ions, and stability in aqueous
      solution in a wide pH range. The binding capacity of zinc-decorated magnetic
      silica spheres to histidine proved to be strongly influenced by the morphology,
      composition and concentration of metal at the surface of the magnetic silica
      spheres and therefore these parameters should be carefully controlled in order to
      maximize the performance for protein purification purposes. Optimized zinc
      decorated magnetic silica spheres demonstrate a binding capacity to l-histidine
      of approximately 44mgg-1 at the optimum binding pH buffer.

PMID- 28575742
TI  - Formation of a hydrophobic and corrosion resistant coating on magnesium alloy via
      a one-step hydrothermal method.
AB  - A hydrophobic coating was fabricated on the surface of magnesium alloy using a
      simple one-step hydrothermal method with the use of environmentally friendly
      agent. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy,
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and
      contact angle test were used to characterize the surfaces. Corrosion behavior in
      a 3.5wt.% NaCl solution was evaluated using OCP time curves test, potentiodynamic
      polarization test and EIS analysis. The findings show that the substrate is
      covered by the coating of magnesium hydroxide and magnesium stearate, reaching a
      contact angle of around 146 degrees . Corrosion behavior show huge improvement,
      the progress with increase of treatment time could be related to the increased
      growth rate of coating.

PMID- 28575745
TI  - The contrasting microRNA content of a drought tolerant and a drought susceptible
      wheat cultivar.
AB  - Drought stress represents one of the most common stresses affecting the
      productivity of crop plants. A rather recently discovered component of the plant
      response to drought is the cellular population of microRNAs. Here, the microRNA
      content was revealed of two bread wheat cultivars contrasting strongly with
      respect to the ability to withstand drought stress. A total of 1813 miRNAs was
      identified, grouped into 106 families. Some 104 of these miRNAs were predicted to
      match 212 novel miRNA precursors. In the drought tolerant cultivar (SM), 105 (33
      known and 72 novel) miRNAs were altered in abundance by the imposition of drought
      stress, while the equivalent number in the more sensitive cultivar (SW) was 51
      (20 and 31). An in silico analysis predicted that these miRNAs target at least
      1959 genes in SM and 1111 in SW, suggesting their broad contribution to the
      drought stress response. Among the target genes were several known stress-related
      genes, encoding, for example, superoxide dismutase, various MYB transcription
      factors, various ABA signaling proteins and various MADS-box transcription
      factors. In many cases, the more susceptible cultivar SW behaved in a contrasting
      manner. The suggestion is that miRNAs represent an important aspect of the
      drought stress response, post-transcriptionally regulating a range of stress
      related genes.

PMID- 28575744
TI  - Decreased neural precursor cell pool in NADPH oxidase 2-deficiency: From mouse
      brain to neural differentiation of patient derived iPSC.
AB  - There is emerging evidence for the involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      in the regulation of stem cells and cellular differentiation. Absence of the ROS
      generating NADPH oxidase NOX2 in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) patients,
      predominantly manifests as immune deficiency, but has also been associated with
      decreased cognition. Here, we investigate the role of NOX enzymes in neuronal
      homeostasis in adult mouse brain and in neural cells derived from human induced
      pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). High levels of NOX2 were found in mouse adult
      neurogenic regions. In NOX2-deficient mice, neurogenic regions showed diminished
      redox modifications, as well as decrease in neuroprecursor numbers and in
      expression of genes involved in neural differentiation including NES, BDNF and
      OTX2. iPSC from healthy subjects and patients with CGD were used to study the
      role of NOX2 in human in vitro neuronal development. Expression of NOX2 was low
      in undifferentiated iPSC, upregulated upon neural induction, and disappeared
      during neuronal differentiation. In human neurospheres, NOX2 protein and ROS
      generation were polarized within the inner cell layer of rosette structures. NOX2
      deficiency in CGD-iPSCs resulted in an abnormal neural induction in vitro, as
      revealed by a reduced expression of neuroprogenitor markers (NES, BDNF, OTX2,
      NRSF/REST), and a decreased generation of mature neurons. Vector-mediated NOX2
      expression in NOX2-deficient iPSCs rescued neurogenesis. Taken together, our
      study provides novel evidence for a regulatory role of NOX2 during early stages
      of neurogenesis in mouse and human.

PMID- 28575743
TI  - IGF-II promotes neuroprotection and neuroplasticity recovery in a long-lasting
      model of oxidative damage induced by glucocorticoids.
AB  - Insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) is a naturally occurring hormone that
      exerts neurotrophic and neuroprotective properties in a wide range of
      neurodegenerative diseases and ageing. Accumulating evidence suggests that the
      effects of IGF-II in the brain may be explained by its binding to the specific
      transmembrane receptor, IGFII/M6P receptor (IGF-IIR). However, relatively little
      is known regarding the role of IGF-II through IGF-IIR in neuroprotection. Here,
      using adult cortical neuronal cultures, we investigated whether IGF-II exhibits
      long-term antioxidant effects and neuroprotection at the synaptic level after
      oxidative damage induced by high and transient levels of corticosterone (CORT).
      Furthermore, the involvement of the IGF-IIR was also studied to elucidate its
      role in the neuroprotective actions of IGF-II. We found that neurons treated with
      IGF-II after CORT incubation showed reduced oxidative stress damage and recovered
      antioxidant status (normalized total antioxidant status, lipid hydroperoxides and
      NAD(P) H:quinone oxidoreductase activity). Similar results were obtained when
      mitochondria function was analysed (cytochrome c oxidase activity, mitochondrial
      membrane potential and subcellular mitochondrial distribution). Furthermore,
      neuronal impairment and degeneration were also assessed (synaptophysin and PSD-95
      expression, presynaptic function and FluoroJade B(r) stain). IGF-II was also able
      to recover the long-lasting neuronal cell damage. Finally, the effects of IGF-II
      were not blocked by an IGF-IR antagonist, suggesting the involvement of IGF-IIR.
      Altogether these results suggest that, in or model, IGF-II through IGF-IIR is
      able to revert the oxidative damage induced by CORT. In accordance with the
      neuroprotective role of the IGF-II/IGF-IIR reported in our study, pharmacotherapy
      approaches targeting this pathway may be useful for the treatment of diseases
      associated with cognitive deficits (i.e., neurodegenerative disorders,
      depression, etc.).

PMID- 28575747
TI  - Reactive oxygen species induced by heat stress during grain filling of rice
      (Oryza sativa L.) are involved in occurrence of grain chalkiness.
AB  - Heat stress during grain filling increases rice grain chalkiness due to increased
      activity of alpha-amylase, which hydrolyzes starch. In rice and barley seeds,
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced after imbibition induce alpha-amylase
      activity via regulation of gibberellin (GA) and abscisic acid (ABA) levels during
      seed germination. Here, we examined whether ROS is involved in induction of grain
      chalkiness by alpha-amylase in developing rice grains under heat stress. To
      elucidate the role of ROS in grain chalkiness, we grew post-anthesis rice plants
      (Oryza sativa L. cv. Koshihikari) under control (25 degrees C) or heat stress (30
      degrees C) conditions with or without antioxidant (dithiothreitol) treatment. The
      developing grains were analyzed for expression of NADPH oxidases, GA biosynthesis
      genes (OsGA3ox1, OsGA20ox1), ABA catabolism genes (OsABA8'OH1, OsABA8'OH2) and an
      alpha-amylase gene (OsAmy3E), endogenous H2O2 content and the grain quality. In
      grains exposed to heat stress, the expression of NADPH oxidase genes (especially,
      OsRbohB, OsRbohD, OsRbohF and OsRbohI) and the ROS content increased. Heat stress
      also increased the expression of OsGA3ox1, OsGA20ox1, OsABA8'OH1, OsABA8'OH2 and
      OsAmy3E. On the other hand, dithiothreitol treatment reduced the effects of heat
      stress on the expression of these genes and significantly reduced grain
      chalkiness induced by heat stress. These results suggest that, similar to cereal
      seed germination mechanism, ROS produced under heat stress is involved in alpha
      amylase induction in maturating rice grains through GA/ABA metabolism, and
      consequently caused grain chalkiness.

PMID- 28575746
TI  - The proportion of nitrate in leaf nitrogen, but not changes in root growth, are
      associated with decreased grain protein in wheat under elevated [CO2].
AB  - The atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) is increasing and predicted to reach
      ~550ppm by 2050. Increasing [CO2] typically stimulates crop growth and yield, but
      decreases concentrations of nutrients, such as nitrogen ([N]), and therefore
      protein, in plant tissues and grains. Such changes in grain composition are
      expected to have negative implications for the nutritional and economic value of
      grains. This study addresses two mechanisms potentially accountable for the
      phenomenon of elevated [CO2]-induced decreases in [N]: N uptake per unit length
      of roots as well as inhibition of the assimilation of nitrate (NO3-) into protein
      are investigated and related to grain protein. We analysed two wheat cultivars
      from a similar genetic background but contrasting in agronomic features (Triticum
      aestivum L. cv. Scout and Yitpi). Plants were field-grown within the Australian
      Grains Free Air CO2 Enrichment (AGFACE) facility under two atmospheric [CO2]
      (ambient, ~400ppm, and elevated, ~550ppm) and two water treatments (rain-fed and
      well-watered). Aboveground dry weight (ADW) and root length (RL, captured by a
      mini-rhizotron root growth monitoring system), as well as [N] and NO3-
      concentrations ([NO3-]) were monitored throughout the growing season and related
      to grain protein at harvest. RL generally increased under e[CO2] and varied
      between water supply and cultivars. The ratio of total aboveground N (TN) taken
      up per RL was affected by CO2 treatment only later in the season and there was no
      significant correlation between TN/RL and grain protein concentration across
      cultivars and [CO2] treatments. In contrast, a greater percentage of N remained
      as unassimilated [NO3-] in the tissue of e[CO2] grown crops (expressed as the
      ratio of NO3- to total N) and this was significantly correlated with decreased
      grain protein. These findings suggest that e[CO2] directly affects the nitrate
      assimilation capacity of wheat with direct negative implications for grain
      quality.

PMID- 28575748
TI  - Effects of triclosan (TCS) on fecundity, the antioxidant system, and oxidative
      stress-mediated gene expression in the copepod Tigriopus japonicus.
AB  - Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial agent that has been widely dispersed and
      detected in the marine environment. However, the effects of TCS in marine
      invertebrates are poorly understood. In this study, the effects of TCS on life
      cycle history (e.g. mortality and fecundity) along with cellular reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) levels, GSH content, antioxidant enzymatic activities, and mRNA
      expression levels of oxidative stress-mediated genes were measured in the copepod
      Tigriopus japonicus. The no observed effect concentration (NOEC) and median
      lethal concentration (LC50) of TCS in the adult stage were determined to be
      300MUg/L and 437.476MUg/L, respectively, while in the nauplius stages the
      corresponding values were 20MUg/L, and 51.76MUg/L, respectively. Fecundity was
      significantly reduced (P<0.05) in response to TCS at 100MUg/L. Concentration- and
      time-dependent analysis of ROS, GSH content (%), and antioxidant enzymatic
      activities (e.g. GST, GPx, and SOD) were significantly increased (P<0.05) in
      response to TCS exposure. Additionally, mRNA expression of detoxification (e.g.,
      CYPs) and antioxidant (e.g., glutathione S-transferase-sigma isoforms, Cu/Zn
      superoxide dismutase, catalase) genes was modulated in response to TCS exposure
      at different concentrations over a 24h period. Our results revealed that TCS can
      induce reduced fecundity and oxidative stress with transcriptional regulation of
      oxidative stress-mediated genes with activation of the antioxidant system in the
      copepod T. japonicus.

PMID- 28575749
TI  - Copper alters hypoxia sensitivity and the behavioural emersion response in the
      amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus.
AB  - Elevated levels of metals have been reported in mangrove ecosystems worldwide.
      Mangrove fishes also routinely experience severe environmental stressors, such as
      hypoxia. In the amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus (mangrove rivulus), a key
      behavioural response to avoid aquatic stress is to leave water (emersion). We
      hypothesized that copper (Cu) exposure would increase the sensitivity of this
      behavioural hypoxia avoidance response due to histopathological effects of Cu on
      gill structure and function. K. marmoratus were exposed to either control (no
      added Cu) or Cu (300MUg/L) for 96h. Following this period, fish were exposed to
      an acute hypoxic challenge (decline in dissolved oxygen to ~0% over 15min), and
      the emersion response was recorded. Gills were examined for histological changes.
      Fish exposed to Cu emersed at a higher dissolved oxygen level (7.5+/-0.6%),
      relative to the control treatment group (5.8+/-0.4%). Histological analysis
      showed that the gill surface area increased and the interlamellar cell mass
      (ILCM) was reduced following Cu exposure, contrary to our prediction. Overall,
      these data indicate that Cu induces hypoxia-like changes to gill morphology and
      increases the sensitivity of the hypoxia emersion response.

PMID- 28575750
TI  - Raman microspectroscopy of nucleus and cytoplasm for human colon cancer
      diagnosis.
AB  - Subcellular Raman analysis is a promising clinic tool for cancer diagnosis, but
      constrained by the difficulty of deciphering subcellular spectra in actual human
      tissues. We report a label-free subcellular Raman analysis for use in cancer
      diagnosis that integrates subcellular signature spectra by subtracting cytoplasm
      from nucleus spectra (Nuc.-Cyt.) with a partial least squares-discriminant
      analysis (PLS-DA) model. Raman mapping with the classical least-squares (CLS)
      model allowed direct visualization of the distribution of the cytoplasm and
      nucleus. The PLS-DA model was employed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of
      five types of spectral datasets, including non-selective, nucleus, cytoplasm,
      ratio of nucleus to cytoplasm (Nuc./Cyt.), and nucleus minus cytoplasm (Nuc.
      Cyt.), resulting in diagnostic sensitivity of 88.3%, 84.0%, 98.4%, 84.5%, and
      98.9%, respectively. Discriminating between normal and cancerous cells of actual
      human tissues through subcellular Raman markers is feasible, especially when
      using the nucleus-cytoplasm difference spectra. The subcellular Raman approach
      had good stability, and had excellent diagnostic performance for rectal as well
      as colon tissues. The insights gained from this study shed new light on the
      general applicability of subcellular Raman analysis in clinical trials.

PMID- 28575752
TI  - Dynamic and static knee alignment at baseline predict structural abnormalities on
      MRI associated with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis after 2 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dynamic and static varus alignment, both, have been reported as risk
      factors associated with structural progression of knee osteoarthritis. However
      the association of none of the static and dynamic alignment with structural,
      clinical, and functional progression associated with knee osteoarthritis has not
      been assessed yet in a longitudinal study. METHODS: Forty-seven women with early
      and established medial knee osteoarthritis were evaluated. Static and dynamic
      alignment as well as MRI detected structural features, clinical, and functional
      characteristics of patients were assessed at baseline and at 2 years follow-up.
      Associations between baseline static and dynamic alignment with structural,
      functional, and clinical characteristics at the time of entry, as well as the
      changes over 2 years were evaluated. FINDINGS: Both static and dynamic varus
      alignment at baseline were significantly associated with osteoarthritis related
      tibio-femoral joint structural abnormalities detected on MRI, at the time of
      entry. Only the magnitude of varus thrust at baseline was predictive of the
      changes in the presence of meniscal maceration over two years. None of the static
      or dynamic measures of knee joint alignment were associated with clinical
      characteristics associated with medial knee osteoarthritis. INTERPRETATION: The
      key finding of this study is that both frontal plane dynamic and static
      alignment, are associated with structural abnormalities in patients with medial
      knee osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28575751
TI  - Comparison of outcomes for cancer patients discussed and not discussed at a
      multidisciplinary meeting.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Comparison of outcomes for cancer patients discussed and not
      discussed at a multidisciplinary meeting (MDM). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective
      analysis of the association of MDM discussion with survival. METHODS: All newly
      diagnosed cancer patients from 2009 to 2012, presenting to a large regional
      cancer service in South West Victoria, Australia (620 colorectal, 657 breast, 593
      lung and 511 haematological) were recorded and followed up to 5 years after
      diagnosis. Treatment patterns and survival of patients whose treatment was
      discussed at an MDM compared to those who were not, were explored. RESULTS: The
      proportion of patients presented to an MDM within 60 days after diagnosis was 56%
      (n = 366) for breast cancer, 59% (n = 363) for colorectal cancer, 27% (n = 137)
      for haematological malignancies and 60% (n = 355) for lung cancer. Seventy-three
      percent (n = 886) of patients discussed at an MDM had their tumour stage recorded
      in their medical records while only 52% (n = 604) of patients not discussed had
      their tumour stage recorded (P < 0.01). We found for haematological and lung
      cancer patients that those presented to an MDM prior to treatment had a
      significant reduction in mortality (lung cancer hazard ratio [HR] 0.62, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 0.50-0.76, P < 0.01) (haematological cancer HR 0.58, 95%
      CI 0.35-0.96, P = 0.03) compared to patients whose cases were not discussed at an
      MDM after adjusting for the potential cofounders of age, stage, comorbidities and
      treatment. This was not the case for colorectal and breast cancer patients where
      there was no significant difference. CONCLUSION: MDM discussion has been
      recommended as best practice in the management of cancer patients, however, from
      a public health perspective this creates potential issues around access and
      resources. It is likely that MDM presentation patterns and outcomes across tumour
      streams are linked in complex ways. We believe that our data would demonstrate
      that these patterns differ across tumour streams and that more detailed work is
      required to better allocate relatively scarce and potentially costly MDM
      resources to tumour streams and patient groups that may get the most benefit.

PMID- 28575753
TI  - Foot muscle morphology is related to center of pressure sway and control
      mechanisms during single-leg standing.
AB  - Maintaining balance is vitally important in everyday life. Investigating the
      effects of individual foot muscle morphology on balance may provide insights into
      neuromuscular balance control mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the
      correlation between the morphology of foot muscles and balance performance during
      single-leg standing. Twenty-eight recreational runners were recruited in this
      study. An ultrasound device was used to measure the thickness and cross-sectional
      area of three intrinsic foot muscles (abductor hallucis, flexor digitorum brevis
      and quadratus plantae) and peroneus muscles. Participants were required to
      perform 30s of single-leg standing for three trials on a force plate, which was
      used to record the center of pressure (COP). The standard deviation of the
      amplitude and ellipse area of the COP were calculated. In addition, stabilogram
      diffusion analysis (SDA) was performed on COP data. Pearson correlation
      coefficients were computed to examine the correlation between foot muscle
      morphology and traditional COP parameters as well as with SDA parameters. Our
      results showed that larger abductor hallucis correlated to smaller COP sway,
      while larger peroneus muscles correlated to larger COP sway during single-leg
      standing. Larger abductor hallucis also benefited open-loop dynamic stability, as
      well as supported a more efficient transfer from open-loop to closed loop control
      mechanisms. These results suggest that the morphology of foot muscles plays an
      important role in balance performance, and that strengthening the intrinsic foot
      muscles may be an effective way to improve balance.

PMID- 28575754
TI  - Mapping, modeling, and characterization of protein-protein interactions on a
      proteomic scale.
AB  - Proteins effect a number of biological functions, from cellular signaling,
      organization, mobility, and transport to catalyzing biochemical reactions and
      coordinating an immune response. These varied functions are often dependent upon
      macromolecular interactions, particularly with other proteins. Small-scale
      studies in the scientific literature report protein-protein interactions (PPIs),
      but slowly and with bias towards well-studied proteins. In an era where genomic
      sequence is readily available, deducing genotype-phenotype relationships requires
      an understanding of protein connectivity at proteome-scale. A proteome-scale map
      of the protein-protein interaction network provides a global view of cellular
      organization and function. Here, we discuss a summary of methods for building
      proteome-scale interactome maps and the current status and implications of
      mapping achievements. Not only do interactome maps serve as a reference,
      detailing global cellular function and organization patterns, but they can also
      reveal the mechanisms altered by disease alleles, highlight the patterns of
      interaction rewiring across evolution, and help pinpoint biologically and
      therapeutically relevant proteins. Despite the considerable strides made in
      proteome-wide mapping, several technical challenges persist. Therefore, future
      considerations that impact current mapping efforts are also discussed.

PMID- 28575755
TI  - Evaluation of an online master's programme in Somaliland. A phenomenographic
      study on the experience of professional and personal development among midwifery
      faculty.
AB  - To record the variation of perceptions of midwifery faculty in terms of the
      possibilities and challenges related to the completion of their first online
      master's level programme in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in
      Somaliland. The informants included in this phenomenongraphical focus group study
      were those well-educated professional women and men who completed the master's
      program. The informant perceived that this first online master's level programme
      provided tools for independent use of the Internet and independent searching for
      evidence-based information, enhanced professional development, was challenge
      driven and evoked curiosity, challenged professional development, enhanced
      personal development and challenged context-bound career paths. Online education
      makes it possible for well-educated professional women to continue higher
      education. It furthermore increased the informants' confidence in their use of
      Internet, software and databases and in the use of evidence in both their
      teaching and their clinical practice. Programmes such as the one described in
      this paper could counter the difficulties ensuring best practice by having a
      critical mass of midwives who will be able to continually gather contemporary
      midwifery evidence and use it to ensure best practice. An increase of online
      education is suggested in South-central Somalia and in similar settings globally.

PMID- 28575756
TI  - Dietary fatty acids modulate adipocyte TNFa production via regulation of its DNA
      promoter methylation levels.
AB  - The factors regulating TNF alpha (TNFa) levels could be considered therapeutic
      targets against metabolic syndrome development. DNA methylation is a potent
      regulator of gene expression and may be associated with protein levels. In this
      study we investigate whether the effect of dietary fatty acids on TNFa released
      from adipocytes might be associated with modifications of the TNFa promoter DNA
      methylation status. A group of rats was assigned to three diets with a different
      composition of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
      Samples of visceral adipose tissues were taken for adipocyte isolation, in which
      released TNFa levels were measured, and for methylation and expression studies.
      In addition, 3 T3-L1 cells were treated with palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids,
      with and without 5-Azacitydine (5-AZA). After treatments, cells and supernatants
      were included in the same analyses as rat samples. TNFa promoter methylation
      levels, gene expression and secretion were different according to the diets and
      fatty acid treatments associated with them. Cells treated with 5-AZA displayed
      higher TNFa levels than in the absence of 5-AZA, without differences between
      fatty acids. According to our results, dietary fatty acid regulation of adipocyte
      TNFa levels may be mediated by epigenetic modifications of the TNFa promoter DNA
      methylation levels.

PMID- 28575758
TI  - Accelerated Long Term Forgetting in patients with focal seizures: Incidence rate
      and contributing factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accelerated Long Term Forgetting (ALF) is usually defined as a memory
      impairment that is seen only at long delays (e.g., after days or weeks) and not
      at shorter delays (e.g., 30min) typically used in clinical settings. Research
      indicates that ALF occurs in some patients with epilepsy, but the incidence rates
      and underlying causes have not been established. In this study, we considered
      these issues. METHODS: Forty-four patients with a history of focal seizures were
      tested at 30min and 7day delays for material from the Rey Auditory Verbal
      Learning Test (RAVLT) and Aggie Figures Test. Recently published norms from a
      matched group of 60 control subjects (Miller et al., 2015 ) were used to
      determine whether patients demonstrated ALF, impairment at 30min or intact memory
      performance. RESULTS: The incidence of ALF in the epilepsy patients (18%) was >3
      times higher than normal on the RAVLT, but no different (7%) from the incidence
      in normal subjects on the Aggie Figures. A different, but again significantly
      high, proportion of patients (36%) showed shorter-term memory deficits on at
      least one task. ALF was found mainly in patients with temporal-lobe epilepsy, but
      also occurred in one patient with an extratemporal seizure focus. Presence of a
      hippocampal lesion was the main predicting factor of ALF. CONCLUSIONS: Many
      patients with a focal seizure disorder show memory deficits after longer delays
      that are not evident on standard assessment. The present study explored the
      factors associated with this ALF memory profile. These new findings will enhance
      clinical practice, particularly the management of patients with memory
      complaints.

PMID- 28575757
TI  - Sensorimotor experience and verb-category mapping in human sensory, motor and
      parietal neurons.
AB  - Semantic grounding is the process of relating meaning to symbols (e.g., words).
      It is the foundation for creating a representational symbolic system such as
      language. Semantic grounding for verb meaning is hypothesized to be achieved
      through two mechanisms: sensorimotor mapping, i.e., directly encoding the
      sensorimotor experiences the verb describes, and verb-category mapping, i.e.,
      encoding the abstract category a verb belongs to. These two mechanisms were
      investigated by examining neuronal-level spike (i.e. neuronal action potential)
      activities from the motor, somatosensory and parietal areas in two human
      participants. Motor and a portion of somatosensory neurons were found to be
      involved in primarily sensorimotor mapping, while parietal and some somatosensory
      neurons were found to be involved in both sensorimotor and verb-category mapping.
      The time course of the spike activities and the selective tuning pattern of these
      neurons indicate that they belong to a large neural network used for semantic
      processing. This study is the first step towards understanding how words are
      processed by neurons.

PMID- 28575759
TI  - Development of a web-based executive functioning intervention for adolescents
      with epilepsy: The Epilepsy Journey.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Youth with epilepsy exhibit significant deficits in executive
      functioning (EF), yet there are few interventions to improve EF for adolescents.
      The aims of the current study were to develop an individually-tailored
      intervention, called Epilepsy Journey, to improve aspects of EF through an
      iterative, patient-centered process including focus groups and usability testing.
      METHODS: Five adolescents and caregivers participated in focus groups. This input
      was used to develop ten learning modules based on subscales of the Behavioral
      Rating Inventory of Executive Functions and key issues that may impact EF in
      adolescents. Six adolescents participated in usability testing and a usability
      expert conducted a heuristic evaluation. Demographic information, chart reviews
      and measures of EF were also completed. RESULTS: Focus group participants and
      their parents reported difficulties with memory, attention, organization,
      monitoring, initiation, impulsivity, emotional control, sleep, awareness in
      schools and managing stress. They also identified successful strategies to
      address memory and organizational difficulties. Usability testing of the
      resultant Epilepsy Journey modules revealed problems with navigation and
      identified features that promoted usability, including progress bars and
      interactive modules. Program modifications were made after each usability trial
      resulting in a relatively brief, interactive and readily navigable program.
      Perceived utility was high with all but one participant. Participants rated the
      content as helpful and indicated they would recommend Epilepsy Journey to others.
      CONCLUSIONS: Feedback from the focus group and usability testing yielded a
      feasible, acceptable, relevant and user-friendly web-based intervention for
      adolescents with epilepsy. The Epilepsy Journey program will be further tested in
      an open pilot with adolescents with epilepsy and associated EF deficits.

PMID- 28575760
TI  - Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and developmental co
      ordination disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS) is a common
      childhood epilepsy syndrome also known as Rolandic Epilepsy (RE). Neurocognitive
      phenotypes have been described with greater focus on attention, reading and
      language domains but there have been far fewer studies focusing on motor
      functioning. This study included measures of motor, language and cognition in
      order to investigate the range, degree and pattern of difficulties associated
      with BECTS in a case series of children, but with a particular emphasis on motor
      skills. METHOD: Twenty-one children aged between 8 and 16years with a diagnosis
      of BECTS were asked to complete standardized assessments for language, cognition,
      motor functioning and handwriting. RESULTS: When measuring across language,
      cognitive and motor domains, 19 (90.48%) of the twenty-one children with a
      diagnosis of BECTS showed some difficulties on at least one area of functioning
      using standardized assessment tests. Of particular note nearly half (47.62%) of
      the children had some difficulties in one or more areas of motor functioning.
      DISCUSSION: Children with BECTS have a heterogeneous pattern of neurocognitive
      impairments. The presence of motor difficulties (DCD) should be considered in all
      children routinely seen in clinical settings with BECTS and included in any
      screening processes.

PMID- 28575761
TI  - Adjunctive eslicarbazepine acetate: A pooled analysis of three phase III trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and efficacy of once-daily (QD) adjunctive
      eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL). METHODS: This post-hoc pooled analysis of three
      randomized, placebo-controlled trials (2093-301, -302, -304) involved adults with
      refractory partial-onset seizures (POS) receiving 1-3 antiepileptic drugs (AEDs).
      All studies included 8-week baseline, 2-week titration, and 12-week maintenance
      periods. Patients were randomized equally to placebo, ESL 400mg (studies 301,
      302), 800mg, or 1200mg QD. The primary endpoint was standardized seizure
      frequency (SSF; per 4weeks); secondary endpoints included responder rates
      (maintenance period), and incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs),
      TEAEs leading to discontinuation, serious AEs (SAEs), and deaths. RESULTS: The
      safety and efficacy analysis populations totaled 1447 and 1410 patients,
      respectively. SSF was significantly reduced versus placebo with ESL 800mg
      (p=0.0001) and 1200mg (p<0.0001) but not 400mg (p=0.81). There were no
      significant interactions between treatment effect and age, gender,
      race/ethnicity, geographic region, epilepsy duration, or concomitant AED use.
      Incidences of TEAEs and TEAEs leading to discontinuation increased with ESL dose.
      Incidences of the most frequent TEAEs were lower for patients who initiated
      dosing at 400 versus 800mg QD, regardless of titration regimen and maintenance
      dose. SAE incidence was <10%; there were 3 deaths (placebo, n=2; ESL 800mg, n=1).
      CONCLUSIONS: ESL (800 and 1200mg QD) was effective and well tolerated as
      adjunctive therapy for adults with refractory POS.

PMID- 28575762
TI  - A specific deficit of auditory processing in children with Rolandic Epilepsy and
      their relatives.
AB  - Previous research shows that children with Rolandic Epilepsy have deficits of
      auditory processing. We wanted to confirm the nature of this deficit and whether
      it aggregates in families. We compared 40 children with Rolandic Epilepsy and 32
      unaffected siblings with 99 typically developing children and 71 parents of RE
      children with 31 healthy adults on a battery of auditory processing tests. We
      also examined ear advantage in children with RE, their siblings and parents using
      population norms and measured non-word reading performance. We found a specific
      deficit for competing words in patients, their siblings and their parents,
      suggesting that this particular impairment of auditory processing present in
      children with RE, is heritable and likely to be persistent. Importantly, scores
      on this subtest in patients and siblings were significantly correlated with non
      word reading performance. We saw increased rates of atypical left ear advantage
      in patients and siblings but no evidence of this in parents. We present these
      findings as evidence of familial incidence of dichotic listening and ear
      advantage abnormalities in relatives of children with Rolandic Epilepsy.

PMID- 28575763
TI  - Are physical activity levels associated with better health outcomes in people
      with epilepsy?
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate the association of physical activity in
      three categories (inactive, insufficiently active and active) with health
      outcomes in people with epilepsy. The dependent variables and the instruments
      used in the study were: a) quality of life - measured by Quality of Life in
      Epilepsy-31 for adults and Quality of Life in Epilepsy for Adolescents, b) side
      effects of medication - measured by Adverse Events Profile, c) depression -
      measured by Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy, and d)
      state and trait anxiety - measured by State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Physical
      activity levels were analyzed using the International Physical Activity
      Questionnaire (IPAQ) for adults in the commuting and leisure domains and Physical
      Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Simple and multiple linear
      regression was used in the statistical analysis. The cross-sectional study with
      one hundred and one individuals was conducted in Pelotas/RS, Brazil, at the
      Neurology Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Pelotas.
      In the crude analysis, physical activity was positively associated with quality
      of life (p<0.001) and negatively associated with depression (p=0.046), state of
      anxiety (p=0.014), trait of anxiety (p=0.015) and side effect of medication
      (p=0.01). In addition, physical activity levels explained 10% of the quality of
      life (R2=0.10). In the adjusted analysis, physical activity remained associated
      with side effect of medication (p=0.014) and was not associated with trait
      anxiety (p=0.066). However, quality of life showed a positive linear trend
      (p=0.001) while depression (p=0.033) and anxiety state (p=0.004) showed a
      negative trend according to physical activity levels. Physical activity was
      associated with health outcomes, and can be a nonpharmacological treatment in
      people with epilepsy for improving health and life conditions.

PMID- 28575764
TI  - Gaze matters! The effect of gaze direction on emotional enhancement of memory for
      faces in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to examine if gaze and emotional expression,
      both highly self-relevant social signals, affect the recollection accuracy of
      perceived faces in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). METHODS:
      Forty patients with MTLE (twenty-one without surgery and nineteen after anterior
      temporal lobectomy) as well as twenty healthy controls (HC) took part in the
      study. We used a set of 64 facial stimuli: 32 neutral and 32 emotional displays
      (16 fearful; 16 angry) from well-established affective stimuli databases. Half of
      the faces in each condition had eyes directed straight and half - away from the
      observer. Participants performed a gender identification task, and then, after a
      45-minute delay were asked to identify the previously seen stimuli, presented
      among a new set of photos. RESULTS: Increased automatic learning of angry and
      fearful compared to neutral expressions was found in HC. There was no emotional
      enhancement of memory in MTLE but an increased learning for faces with averted
      than direct gaze. CONCLUSION: Our results expand on previous research by
      demonstrating that emotion expression and gaze direction can affect memory of
      faces. The study supports the hypothesis that healthy individuals and patients
      with temporal lobe abnormalities present different patterns of emotional gazes
      processing. The potential consequences of altered emotional gaze processing and
      social cognition impairments need to be further investigated to improve the
      quality of life of patients with MTLE.

PMID- 28575765
TI  - The influence of levetiracetam on psychosocial and behavioral functioning in
      children: A case-control and follow-up study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Levetiracetam, a widely used antiepileptic drug in children, has been
      associated with psychosocial and behavioral problems, which are also influenced
      by epilepsy variables, including duration or seizure frequency. PURPOSE: The
      objective of this study is to investigate the frequency and timing of treatment
      emergent psychosocial and behavioral problems in children receiving
      levetiracetam, irrespective of seizure variables which are possible confounders.
      METHODS: A prospective, case-control study with a 3-month follow-up was
      conducted. Consecutive children aged 6 to 16years with new-onset partial seizures
      were included in case of starting treatment with either levetiracetam or valproic
      acid. Psychosocial and behavioral functioning were assessed using a set of
      standardized questionnaires including Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
      (SDQ) and Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) at baseline, 1 and 3-month follow
      up. Patients' baseline scores were compared to healthy subjects. The difference
      in the follow-up SDQ and CDI scores was evaluated in patients receiving
      levetiracetam and valproic acid. RESULTS: A total of 101 participants were
      analyzed; 32 patients in levetiracetam group, 19 patients in valproic acid group
      and 50 healthy controls. Baseline SDQ and CDI scores were not statistically
      different between patients and healthy subjects (p>0.05). No statistically
      significant difference was observed in CDI, total and subscale SDQ scores between
      patients receiving levetiracetam or valproic acid during the study period
      (p>0.05). A girl aged 15years receiving levetiracetam had a CDI score of 18
      without suicidal ideation at baseline. She developed suicidal ideation and
      depression, which resolved after switching of levetiracetam to valproic acid, at
      the 1-month follow-up. No other psychiatric or behavioral side-effects were
      observed in other patients. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial and behavioral side-effects
      of levetiracetam treatment are not frequent and they don't emerge in most of
      children at lower doses. At this dose, and after 3months, using these specific
      instruments, we did not observe any difference between the valproic acid and
      levetiracetam treatment groups.

PMID- 28575766
TI  - Increased odds and predictive rates of MMPI-2-RF scale elevations in patients
      with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and observed sex differences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form
      (MMPI-2-RF) is a self-report instrument, previously shown to differentiate
      patients with epileptic seizures (ES) and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
      (PNES). At present, the odds of MMPI-2-RF scale elevations in PNES patients, as
      well as the diagnostic predictive value of such scale elevations, remain largely
      unexplored. This can be of clinical utility, particularly when a diagnosis is
      uncertain. METHOD: After looking at mean group differences, we applied
      contingency table derived odds ratios to a sample of ES (n=92) and PNES (n=77)
      patients from a video EEG (vEEG) monitoring unit. We also looked at the positive
      and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV), as well as the false discovery rate
      (FDR) and false omission rate (FOR) for scales found to have increased odds of
      elevation in PNES patients. This was completed for the overall sample, as well as
      the sample stratified by sex. RESULTS: The odds of elevations related to somatic
      concerns, negative mood, and suicidal ideation in the PNES sample ranged from 2
      to 5 times more likely. Female PNES patients had 3-6 times greater odds of such
      scale elevations, while male PNES patients had odds of 5-15 times more likely.
      PPV rates ranged from 53.66% to 84.62%, while NPV rates ranged from 47.52% to
      90.91%. FDR across scales ranged from 15.38% to 50%, while the FOR ranged from
      9.09% to 52.47%. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with prior research, PNES patients have
      greater odds of MMPI-2-RF scale elevations, particularly related to somatic
      concerns and mood disturbance. Female PNES patients endorsed greater emotional
      distress, including endorsement of suicide related items. Elevations of these
      scales could aid in differentiating PNES from ES patients, although caution is
      warranted due to the possibility of both false positives and the incorrect
      omissions of PNES cases.

PMID- 28575767
TI  - Lacosamide and concomitant use of antiepileptic and other medications in a US
      population - A retrospective cohort study.
AB  - Information on the use of lacosamide and concomitant antiepileptic and non
      antiepileptic drugs (non-AEDs) is available from clinical trials and
      observational studies with small sample sizes. This retrospective cohort study
      was conducted to gain insight into the use of lacosamide in a large number of
      patients with epilepsy in real-life clinical practice with less restrictive
      selection criteria compared with clinical trial participants. The Truven Health
      MarketScan (Commercial Claims and Medicare Supplemental) database was used to
      identify patients with a prior diagnosis of epilepsy with at least one
      prescription claim for lacosamide between June 2009 and September 2013 and
      continuous health insurance enrolment with medical and pharmacy coverage during
      the 1-year pre-index baseline period. A total of 8859 eligible patients were
      identified, of whom, at index (lacosamide initiation), 16.8% received lacosamide
      as monotherapy and 54.0% as polytherapy. The median prescription duration was
      196days (Interquartile range 69-476days). Levetiracetam was the most frequently
      prescribed concomitant AED across all age groups, followed by phenytoin among
      older (>65years) and lamotrigine among younger patients. Older patients who had
      LCM monotherapy at initiation, were prescribed fewer concomitant AEDs, but more
      non-AEDs. The most common non-AED medications were prescribed for pain,
      psychiatric conditions, hyperlipidemia and gastrointestinal diseases across all
      age groups. Overall, results suggest that the lacosamide use is driven
      predominantly by age and that there is substantial use of lacosamide monotherapy
      (16.8%), despite lack of indication at the time of the study. Results also reveal
      substantial use of concomitant non-AEDs; 90.4% among patients >65years of age and
      54.3% among those <=17years, confirming the high prevalence of comorbidities
      among patients with epilepsy across all ages. Despite the availability of
      numerous newer AEDs, older AEDs are still being frequently prescribed, especially
      for elderly patients, notably phenytoin. This warrants careful consideration,
      given the strong propensity of enzyme-inducing AEDs to interact with other drugs,
      producing unwanted side effects. These results highlight the value of real-life
      prescription patterns and the potential in informing treatment decisions to
      ensure patients receive appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28575768
TI  - Early-life status epilepticus acutely impacts select quantitative and qualitative
      features of neonatal vocalization behavior: Spectrographic and temporal
      characterizations in C57BL/6 mice.
AB  - Early-life seizures are known to cause long-term deficits in social behavior,
      learning, and memory, however little is known regarding their acute impact.
      Ultrasonic vocalization (USV) recordings have been developed as a tool for
      investigating early communicative deficits in mice. Previous investigation from
      our lab found that postnatal day (PD) 10 seizures cause male-specific suppression
      of 50-kHz USVs on PD12 in 129 SvEvTac mouse pups. The present study extends these
      findings by spectrographic characterization of USVs following neonatal seizures.
      On PD10, male C57BL/6 pups were administered intraperitoneal injections of kainic
      acid or physiological saline. On PD12, isolation-induced recordings were captured
      using a broad-spectrum ultrasonic microphone. Status epilepticus significantly
      suppressed USV quantity (p=0.001) and total duration (p<0.05). Seizure pups also
      utilized fewer complex calls than controls (p<0.05). There were no changes in
      call latency or inter-call intervals. Spectrographic analysis revealed increased
      peak amplitude for complex, downward, short, two-syllable, and upward calls, as
      well as reduced mean duration for short and two-syllable calls in seizure mice.
      This investigation provides the first known spectrographic characterization of
      USVs following early-life seizures. These findings also enhance evidence for USVs
      as an indicator of select communicative impairment.

PMID- 28575770
TI  - People with epilepsy as partners in research.

PMID- 28575769
TI  - Written accounts of living with epilepsy: A thematic analysis.
AB  - This study examines the subjective experience of living with epilepsy by
      thematically analyzing participants' written accounts of their condition. Writing
      is seen as an individual act allowing for private exploration, reflection and
      expression of thoughts and feelings. Participants (n=20) were recruited from a
      United Kingdom hospital and from membership-led organizations for individuals
      living with seizures. Participants were asked to produce four pieces of writing:
      1) about their thoughts and feelings about their condition; 2) a letter to their
      condition; 3) a letter to their younger self; and 4) about a personal value. All
      writings were analyzed thematically using a theory- and data-driven approach.
      Five main-themes and 22 sub-themes emerged from the data. Theme 1: 'seizure
      onset' demonstrated that the development of seizures and subsequent diagnosis was
      an important event that could change an individuals' identity. Theme 2: 'seizure
      symptoms' revealed participants externalized their seizures as an intrusive agent
      with a constant presence in their lives. Theme 3: 'treatment and outcome'
      reflected medication as an essential means to controlling seizures with
      subsequent side effects being perceived as a compromise. Theme 4: 'living with
      epilepsy' explored the consequences of the condition including restrictions and
      stigma. Theme 5: 'displays of coping' demonstrated that, for the most part,
      participants were keen to present themselves as living well with epilepsy. The
      results add to the growing research applying qualitative methodologies to
      investigate the phenomenology of epilepsy. Qualitative research can improve our
      understanding and awareness of the condition, as well as inform clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28575771
TI  - Moving evidence based guidelines for seizures into practice in the emergency
      department: What's stopping us?
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify barriers to implementation of an evidence based integrated
      care pathway (ICP) for seizure management in the Emergency Department (ED).
      METHODS: A site specific bespoke questionnaire was designed to solicit anonymous
      responses from all grades of ED medical and nursing staff to a series of
      questions regarding utility, feasibility, significance and implementation of a
      locally designed and championed ICP for seizure management and onward referral.
      RESULTS: While 95% of respondents agreed that the pathway ensured patients were
      treated according to best practice, a number of human factors were identified as
      barriers to use. These fell into three categories 1) environmental 2) pathway
      design/process and 3) user related issues. CONCLUSIONS: Most respondents
      understood and endorsed the evidence based utility of the pathway. Barriers to
      use, however, are broad with interactions involving many complex human factors.
      Nevertheless, solutions can be relatively easily formulated but departmental-wide
      effort is required to comprehensively address all issues.

PMID- 28575772
TI  - Atypical handedness in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The main aim of our study was to investigate the handedness of
      patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). We also sought to identify
      clinical variables that correlated with left-handedness in this population.
      METHODS: Handedness (laterality quotient) was assessed in 73 consecutive patients
      with MTLE associated with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) using the
      Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Associations between right- and left-handedness
      and clinical variables were investigated. RESULTS: We found that 54 (74.0%)
      patients were right-handed, and 19 (26%) patients were left-handed. There were 15
      (36.6%) left-handed patients with left-sided seizure onset compared to 4 (12.5%)
      left-handed patients with right-sided seizure onset (p=0.030). Among patients
      with left-sided MTLE, age at epilepsy onset was significantly correlated with
      handedness (8years of age [median; min-max 0.5-17] in left-handers versus 15years
      of age [median; min-max 3-30] in right-handers (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Left-sided
      MTLE is associated with atypical handedness, especially when seizure onset occurs
      during an active period of brain development, suggesting a bi-hemispheric
      neuroplastic process for establishing motor dominance in patients with early
      onset left-sided MTLE.

PMID- 28575773
TI  - Glioneuronal tumors in childhood - Before and after surgery. A long-term follow
      up study.
AB  - AIM: To give a detailed description of the long-term outcome of a cohort of
      children with glioneuronal tumors regarding pre- and postsurgical factors,
      including "dual" and "double" pathology, seizure freedom, and psychosocial
      outcome. METHODS: During a fifteen-year period (1995-2009), all patients (age 0
      17.99years) with a glioneuronal brain tumor diagnosed and treated at Uppsala
      University Children's Hospital were identified from the National Brain Tumor
      Registry and the National Epilepsy Surgery Registry. Hospital medical records
      were reviewed and neuroradiological and neuropathological findings were re
      evaluated. A cross-sectional long-term follow-up prospective evaluation,
      including an interview, neurologic examination, and electroencephalogram, was
      accomplished in patients accepting participants in the study. RESULTS: A total of
      25 out of 28 (89%) eligible patients were included. The M:F ratio was 1.5:1. Mean
      follow-up time after surgery was 12.1years (range 5.0-19.3). Twenty patients were
      adults (>18years) at follow-up. Seizure freedom was achieved in 64%. Gross total
      resection (GTR) was the only preoperative factor significantly correlating to
      seizure freedom (p=0.027). Thirty-eight percent were at some time postoperatively
      admitted for a psychiatric evaluation. There was a trend towards both higher
      educational level and employment status in adults who became seizure free.
      CONCLUSION: Long-term outcome is good regarding seizure freedom if GTR can be
      achieved, but late seizure recurrence can occur. "Dual" and "double" pathology is
      uncommon and does not influence seizure outcome. Obtaining seizure freedom seems
      to be important for psychosocial outcome, but there is a risk for psychiatric
      comorbidities and long-term follow-up by a multi-professional team is advisable.

PMID- 28575774
TI  - A randomized controlled trial of a manual-based psychosocial group intervention
      for young people with epilepsy [PIE].
AB  - : We conducted an exploratory RCT to examine feasibility and preliminary efficacy
      for a manual-based psychosocial group intervention aimed at improving epilepsy
      knowledge, self-management skills, and quality of life in young people with
      epilepsy. METHOD: Eighty-three participants (33:50m/f; age range 12-17years) were
      randomized to either the treatment or control group in seven tertiary paediatric
      neuroscience centres in the UK, using a wait-list control design. Participants
      were excluded if they reported suicidal ideation and/or scored above the cut off
      on mental health screening measures, or if they had a learning disability or
      other neurological disorder. The intervention consisted of six weekly 2-hour
      sessions using guided discussion, group exercises and role-plays facilitated by
      an epilepsy nurse and a clinical psychologist. RESULTS: At three month follow up
      the treatment group (n=40) was compared with a wait-list control group (n=43) on
      a range of standardized measures. There was a significant increase in epilepsy
      knowledge in the treatment group (p=0.02). Participants receiving the
      intervention were also significantly more confident in speaking to others about
      their epilepsy (p=0.04). Quality of life measures did not show significant
      change. Participants reported the greatest value of attending the group was:
      Learning about their epilepsy (46%); Learning to cope with difficult feelings
      (29%); and Meeting others with epilepsy (22%). Caregiver and facilitator feedback
      was positive, and 92% of participants would recommend the group to others.
      CONCLUSION: This brief psychosocial group intervention was effective in
      increasing participants' knowledge of epilepsy and improved confidence in
      discussing their epilepsy with others. We discuss the qualitative feedback,
      feasibility, strengths and limitations of the PIE trial.

PMID- 28575775
TI  - Socialization characteristics in persons with epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this report was to describe social behaviors and
      preferences in adults with epilepsy, including self-reported use of various
      socialization media (face-to-face and indirect communication) as well as
      perceived social barriers. METHODS: 1320 consecutive persons with epilepsy (PWEs)
      confirmed through inpatient video-EEG monitoring were administered a
      questionnaire on the day of their first appointment. The questionnaire was
      designed to assess preferences in socialization practices, frequency of
      interpersonal contact, use of social media, and perceived barriers to
      socialization. The survey was developed to gain a better understanding of the
      socialization behaviors and preferences of our patients for the future
      development of customized activities in our wellness program. RESULTS: Our sample
      revealed higher rates of unemployment and single status as compared to the US
      Census of 2012. With regard socialization however, many were quite social (86%
      reported daily/weekly communication with friends and family via telephone, 71%
      saw relatives in person weekly, 68% saw friends weekly, and 65% reported using
      the computer daily/weekly to socialize). Facebook(r) was the preferred on-line
      social media. Indoor/solitary activities were most common with 63% stating they
      watch TV/read/use the computer followed by physical exercise and spending time
      outdoors (36%). The frequency of socialization with friends, relatives, and
      coworkers decreased with the respondents' age and the longer the respondent had
      carried the diagnosis of epilepsy. Respondents who were taking a greater number
      of AEDs or were considered refractory were less likely to consider participating
      in socialization-enhancing activities. The primary barriers to socialization that
      respondents endorsed were driving prohibition and medication side-effects.
      Respondents expressed the greatest interest in online support groups or
      educational programs (31%), office-based support groups (25%), and volunteering
      (19%). CONCLUSION: Although the respondents indicate that they do face barriers
      to socialization, a majority report frequent communication with relatives and
      friends via phone, in-person and social media. When designing wellness
      interventions with this group of patients in the future, online, as well as face
      to face options for support appear to be desired by a number of PWEs.

PMID- 28575776
TI  - A multi-objective structural optimization of an omnidirectional electromagnetic
      acoustic transducer.
AB  - In this paper an axisymmetric model of an omnidirectional electromagnetic
      acoustic transducer (EMAT) used to generate Lamb waves in conductive plates is
      introduced. Based on the EMAT model, the structural parameters of the permanent
      magnet were used as the design variables while other parameters were fixed. The
      goal of the optimization was to strengthen the generation of the A0 mode and
      suppress the generation of the S0 mode. The amplitudes of the displacement
      components at the observation point of the plate were used for calculation of the
      objective functions. Three approaches to obtain the amplitudes were discussed.
      The first approach was solving the peak values of the envelopes of the time
      waveforms from the time domain simulations. The second approach also involved
      calculation of the peaks, but the waveforms were from frequency domain model
      combined with the forward and inverse Fourier transforms. The third approach
      involved a single frequency in the frequency domain model. Single and multi
      objective optimizations were attempted, implemented with the genetic algorithms.
      In the single objective optimizations, the goal was decreasing the ratio of the
      amplitudes of the S0 and A0 modes, while in the multi-objective optimizations, an
      extra goal was strengthening the A0 mode directly. The Pareto front from the
      multi-objective optimizations was compared with the estimation from the data on
      the discrete grid of the design variables. From the analysis of the results, it
      could be concluded that for a linearized steel plate with a thickness of 10mm and
      testing frequency of 50kHz, the point with minimum S0/A0 could be selected, thus
      the multi-objective optimization effectively degenerated to the single objective
      optimization. While for an aluminum plate with a thickness of 3mm and frequency
      of 150kHz, without further information it would be difficult to select one
      particular solution from the Pareto front.

PMID- 28575777
TI  - Prevalence of psychological stress, depression and anxiety among medical students
      in Egypt.
AB  - Poor psychological health in medical students has been reported nationwide. This
      study estimated the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms among
      medical students who were enrolled in a public university in Upper Egypt and
      determine the association of these morbidities with the students' basic socio
      demographic variables. This cross-sectional study included 700 students. A self
      administered, questionnaire for the socio-demographic characteristics, Depression
      Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
      questionnaire were used for assessment. High frequencies of depression (65%),
      anxiety (73%) and stress (59.9%) were reported. Stress scores were significantly
      higher than depression and anxiety (P=0.001). 55.7% were poor sleepers. In
      univarate analysis, females, those living in the University campus/students'
      residence facility, in the preclinical years and with lower academic achievement
      had higher scores of DASS and PSQI compared to their comparative partners.
      Significant correlations were reported between stress with depression, anxiety
      and PQSI scores (P=0.0001). In multivariate analysis, stress scores were
      significantly associated with female sex, depression and anxiety scores. We
      conclude that depression, anxiety and stress symptoms are common in medical
      students of Assiut University relative to other schools and female gender was
      significantly correlated with these findings.

PMID- 28575778
TI  - Good for sewage treatment and good for agriculture: Algal based compost and
      biochar.
AB  - In this study we test a novel approach to closing the anthropogenic nutrient
      cycle, by using the freshwater macroalga, Oedogonium intermedium, to recover
      dissolved nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) from municipal wastewater. We then
      convert this cultivated algae into two types of soil ameliorant; compost and
      biochar. To produce compost, algae was combined with sugarcane bagasse and left
      to mature for 10 weeks, and to produce biochar, algae was processed through slow
      pyrolysis at 450  degrees C. The mature compost had a total N and P content of
      2.5% and 0.6%, which was 2- to 4-times lower than the algal biochar, which had a
      total N and P content of 5.5% and 2.5% respectively. Composting stabilized the N
      and P recovered from wastewater, with 80% of the initial N and >99% of the
      initial P retained in the mature compost. In contrast, only 29% of the initial N
      and 62% of the initial P was retained in the biochar. When the mature compost was
      added to a low fertility soil it significantly increased the production of sweet
      corn (Zea mays). Treatments receiving 50 and 100% compost produced 4-9 times more
      corn biomass than when synthetic fertilizer alone was added to the low fertility
      soil. When biochar was applied in conjunction with compost there was an
      additional 15% increase in corn productivity, most likely due to the ability of
      the biochar to bind labile N and P and prevent its loss from the soil. This study
      demonstrates a unique model for recovering N and P from municipal wastewater and
      recycling these nutrients into the agricultural industry. This could be an ideal
      model for regional areas where agriculture and water treatment facilities are co
      located and could ultimately reduce the reliance of agriculture on finite mineral
      sources of P.

PMID- 28575779
TI  - A conceptualisation framework for building consensus on environmental
      sensitivity.
AB  - Examination of the intrinsic attributes of a system that render it more or less
      sensitive to potential stressors provides further insight into the baseline
      environment. In impact assessment, sensitivity of environmental receptors can be
      conceptualised on the basis of their: a) quality status according to statutory
      indicators and associated thresholds or targets; b) statutory protection; or c)
      inherent risk. Where none of these considerations are pertinent, subjective value
      judgments can be applied to determine sensitivity. This pragmatic conceptual
      framework formed the basis of a stakeholder consultation process for harmonising
      degrees of sensitivity of a number of environmental criteria. Harmonisation was
      sought to facilitate their comparative and combined analysis. Overall, full or
      wide agreement was reached on relative sensitivity values for the large majority
      of the reviewed criteria. Consensus was easier to reach on some themes (e.g.
      biodiversity, water and cultural heritage) than others (e.g. population and
      soils). As anticipated, existing statutory measures shaped the outcomes but,
      ultimately, knowledge-based values prevailed. The agreed relative sensitivities
      warrant extensive consultation but the conceptual framework provides a basis for
      increasing stakeholder consensus and objectivity of baseline assessments. This,
      in turn, can contribute to improving the evidence-base for characterising the
      significance of potential impacts.

PMID- 28575780
TI  - Tourism as a driver of conflicts and changes in fisheries value chains in Marine
      Protected Areas.
AB  - Although critical tools for protecting ocean habitats, Marine Protected Areas
      (MPAs) are sometimes challenged for social impacts and conflicts they may
      generate. Some conflicts have an economic base, which, once understood, can be
      used to resolve associated socioenvironmental problems. We addressed how the fish
      trade in an MPA that combines no-take zones and tourist or resident zones creates
      incentives for increased fisheries. We performed a value chain analysis following
      the fish supply and trade through interviews that assessed consumer demand and
      preference. The results showed a simple and closed value chain driven by tourism
      (70% of the consumption). Both tourists and local consumers preferred high
      trophic level species (predators), but the former preferred large pelagics (tuna
      and dolphinfish) and the latter preferred reef species (barracuda and snapper).
      Pelagic predators are caught with fresh sardines, which are sometimes located
      only in the no-take zone. Pelagic species are mainly served as fillet, and the
      leftover fish parts end up as waste, an issue that, if properly addressed, can
      help reduce fishing pressure. Whereas some of the target species may be
      sustainable (e.g., dolphinfish), others are more vulnerable (e.g., wahoo) and
      should not be intensively fished. We advise setting stricter limits to the number
      of tourists visiting MPAs, according to their own capacity and peculiarities, in
      order to avoid conflicts with conservations goals through incentives for
      increased resource use.

PMID- 28575781
TI  - Estimation of global soil respiration by accounting for land-use changes derived
      from remote sensing data.
AB  - Soil respiration is one of the largest carbon fluxes from terrestrial ecosystems.
      Estimating global soil respiration is difficult because of its high
      spatiotemporal variability and sensitivity to land-use change. Satellite
      monitoring provides useful data for estimating the global carbon budget, but few
      studies have estimated global soil respiration using satellite data. We provide
      preliminary insights into the estimation of global soil respiration in 2001 and
      2009 using empirically derived soil temperature equations for 17 ecosystems
      obtained by field studies, as well as MODIS climate data and land-use maps at a 4
      km resolution. The daytime surface temperature from winter to early summer based
      on the MODIS data tended to be higher than the field-observed soil temperatures
      in subarctic and temperate ecosystems. The estimated global soil respiration was
      94.8 and 93.8 Pg C yr-1 in 2001 and 2009, respectively. However, the MODIS land
      use maps had insufficient spatial resolution to evaluate the effect of land-use
      change on soil respiration. The spatial variation of soil respiration (Q10)
      values was higher but its spatial variation was lower in high-latitude areas than
      in other areas. However, Q10 in tropical areas was more variable and was not
      accurately estimated (the values were >7.5 or <1.0) because of the low seasonal
      variation in soil respiration in tropical ecosystems. To solve these problems, it
      will be necessary to validate our results using a combination of remote sensing
      data at higher spatial resolution and field observations for many different
      ecosystems, and it will be necessary to account for the effects of more soil
      factors in the predictive equations.

PMID- 28575782
TI  - Incidence and survival of childhood cancer in the French islands of Reunion and
      Mayotte (2005-2011).
AB  - The aim of this study is to describe childhood cancer incidence and survival in
      the French islands of Reunion and Mayotte for the period 2005-2011. Data were
      taken from the population-based Cancer Registry of Reunion Island. All incident
      cases of malignant tumours and benign tumours of the Central Nervous System
      diagnosed between 2005 and 2011 in children under the age of 15 and living in
      Reunion or Mayotte were included. A total of 236 cases were registered (176 in
      Reunion, 60 in Mayotte). Age-standardised incidence rates (ASRs, world standard)
      for all cancers were 125.0 and 101.8 per million for Reunion and Mayotte,
      respectively. ASRs for the main cancer groups were lower than those described in
      mainland France for the same period. The 5-year overall survival rate for all
      patients was 78.5% (95%CI 71.9- 83.7), slightly lower than that reported in
      mainland France.

PMID- 28575783
TI  - Psychopathology and tobacco demand.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Behavioral economic measurement of the relative value of tobacco
      (Cigarette Purchase Task; CPT) is used to examine individual differences in
      motivation for tobacco under certain contexts. Smokers with psychopathology,
      relative to those without, may demonstrate stronger demand for tobacco following
      a period of smoking deprivation, which could account for disparate rates of
      smoking and cessation among this subgroup. METHOD: Participants (n=111) were
      community-recruited adult daily smokers who completed the CPT after a deprivation
      period of approximately 60min. Presence of psychopathology was assessed via
      clinical interview; 40.5% (n=45) of the sample met criteria for past-year
      psychological diagnosis. Specifically, 31.5% (n=35) had an emotional disorder
      (anxiety/depressive disorder), 17.1% (n=19) had a substance use disorder, and
      19.1% of the sample had more than one disorder. RESULTS: Smokers with any
      psychopathology showed significantly higher intensity (demand at unrestricted
      cost; $0) and Omax (peak expenditure for a drug) relative to smokers with no
      psychopathology. Intensity was significantly higher among smokers with an
      emotional disorder compared to those without. Smokers with a substance use
      disorder showed significantly higher intensity and Omax, and lower elasticity,
      reflecting greater insensitivity to price increases. Having>=2 disorders was
      associated with higher intensity relative to having 1 or no disorders.
      DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that presence of psychopathology may be associated
      with greater and more persistent motivation to smoke. Future work is needed to
      explore the mechanism linking psychopathology to tobacco demand.

PMID- 28575784
TI  - Exposure to extremely low and intermediate-frequency magnetic and electric fields
      among children from the INMA-Gipuzkoa cohort.
AB  - Detailed assessment of exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) and intermediate
      frequency (IF) fields is essential in order to conduct informative
      epidemiological studies of the health effects from exposure to these fields.
      There is limited information available regarding ELF electric fields and on both
      magnetic and electric field exposures of children in the IF range. The aim of
      this study was to characterize ELF and IF exposure of children in the Spanish
      INMA cohort. A combination of spot and fixed measurements was carried out in 104
      homes, 26 schools and their playgrounds and 105 parks. Low levels of ELF magnetic
      fields (ELF-MF) were observed (with the highest 24-h time-weighted average (TWA)
      exposure being 0.15MUT in one home). The interquartile range (IQR) of ELF
      electric fields (ELF-EF) ranged from 1 to 15V/m indoors and from 0.3 to 1.1V/m
      outdoors and a maximum value observed was 55.5V/m in one school playground. IQR
      ranges for IF magnetic and electric fields were between 0.02 and 0.23MUT and 0.2
      and 0.5V/m respectively and maximum values were 0.03MUT and 1.51V/m in homes.
      Correlations between magnetic and electric fields were weak for ELF (Spearman
      0.04-0.36 in different settings) and moderate for IF (between 0.28 and 0.75).
      Children of INMA-Gipuzkoa cohort were exposed to very low levels of ELF-MF in all
      settings and to similar levels of ELF-EF compared to the range of previously
      reported levels, although somewhat higher exposures occurred at home. Children
      enrolled to our study were similarly exposed to IF in all settings.

PMID- 28575785
TI  - Effect of season of birth on cord blood IgE and IgE at birth: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated cord blood IgE is important on the pathway to allergic
      disease. The association between season of birth and infant cord blood IgE is not
      well-established. Study findings differ on which birth season is associated with
      higher cord blood IgE risk and its magnitude. We conducted a systematic review
      and meta-analysis of studies on season of birth and cord blood IgE. METHODS: We
      searched Medline, Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest Health databases, and
      reviewed reference lists of articles that met the inclusion criteria. All
      included studies measured IgE as a binary variable using various cut-off values.
      We performed multivariate-random-effects meta-analysis to handle an exposure with
      multiple categories of Season of Birth. RESULTS: Our search identified 275
      records and 10 had sufficient data to be included in a meta-analysis. Relative to
      summer, winter birth had the greatest odds of high IgE (>= 0.1IU/ml), meta
      analysis OR = 1.24 (95%CI: 1.01-1.52). A similar OR, was found for IgE >= 0.5
      IU/ml, OR = 1.30 (95%CI: 0.99-1.71). CONCLUSIONS: A winter season of birth was
      associated with statistically significant higher odds of elevated cord blood IgE
      at cut-off >= 0.1IU/ml but borderline at cut-off >= 0.5IU/ml. This winter effect
      is likely to be a marker for a range of other environmental exposures during
      specific stages of pregnancy, such as aeroallergen exposures, maternal infections
      and vitamin D levels. Further research is required to support our finding and to
      identify the exact mechanisms that lead to the winter season of birth effect on
      circulating IgE levels, as this may have implications for allergic disease
      prevention.

PMID- 28575786
TI  - Clinical features of IgG4-related rhinosinusitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: IgG4-related disease is a systemic disease that affects various organs
      of the body. Aim of this study is to elucidate the clinical characteristics of
      IgG4-related rhinosinusitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Clinical features, laboratory
      findings, radiological and endoscopic findings, associated disease, treatment and
      prognosis were retrospectively examined in 10 patients with IgG4-related
      rhinosinusitis. RESULTS: The age was 59.1+/-11.3 years old and male-to-female
      ratio was 1:1. The chief nasal complaints were hyposmia (n=4), nasal obstruction
      (n=3), and nothing (n=3). Serum IgG4 levels were elevated in all patients and the
      value was 740.4+/-472.4mg/dl. Other IgG4-related diseases were associated in all
      10 patients, including IgG4-related sialadenitis (n=6), IgG4-related
      dacryoadenitis (n=5), and autoimmune pancreatitis (n=5). Imaging findings on
      CT/MRI were obstruction of the way of elimination (n=10), thickening of the sinus
      mucous membrane (n=10), and fluid in the sinus (n=6). All of the cases had
      bilateral findings. Nasal endoscopic findings were chiefly deviated nasal septum
      (n=5), polyps (n=4), edema of the mucous membrane (n=3). Histologically, abundant
      infiltration of IgG4 positive plasma cell and lymphocyte and an elevated
      IgG4+/IgG+ cell ration was detected in all 8 patients and 5 patients,
      respectively. Endoscopic sinus surgery was performed in 8 patients. Eight
      patients were treated with steroid therapy for other associated IgG4-related
      diseases. Symptoms improved in all 6 patients after an initial treatment
      (endoscopic surgery (n=5) and steroids (n=1)), but one patient suffered relapse.
      CONCLUSIONS: IgG4-related rhinosinusitis is a distinct entity of IgG4-related
      disease, and is associated in patients with multiple IgG4-related diseases.

PMID- 28575787
TI  - Activation of peroxymonosulfate by nitrogen-functionalized sludge carbon for
      efficient degradation of organic pollutants in water.
AB  - Nitrogen-functionalized sludge carbon (NSC) was prepared by urea-mediated
      pyrolysis of sewage sludge (SS) and was introduced, for the first time, as a
      potential metal-free catalyst to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for oxidative
      removal of organic pollutants in water. The nitrogen functionalization of NSC
      catalysts significantly affected the chemical micro-environments as well as
      microstructures (morphology and porosity), improving the PMS activation activity
      towards removing various pollutants, e.g., acid orange 7, phenol and rhodamine B.
      On the basis of quenching studies and electron paramagnetic resonance, the formed
      dominant reactive oxidative species (ROS) in the NSC/PMS system was clarified to
      be nonradical singlet oxygen, in addition to the typical radical ROSs, sulfate
      and hydroxyl radicals. The incorporated pyridine N, graphite N and pristine CO in
      the NSC framework promoted the generation of ROS. This study provided new
      insights into environmentally friendly resourcing SS and exploiting novel cost
      effective metal-free catalyst for PMS activation.

PMID- 28575788
TI  - Enzyme recycle and fed-batch addition for high-productivity soybean flour
      processing to produce enriched soy protein and concentrated hydrolysate of
      fermentable sugars.
AB  - Despite having high protein and carbohydrate, soybean flour utilization is
      limited to partial replacement of animal feed to date. Enzymatic process can be
      exploited to increase its value by enriching protein content and separating
      carbohydrate for utilization as fermentation feedstock. Enzyme hydrolysis with
      fed-batch and recycle designs were evaluated here for achieving this goal with
      high productivities. Fed-batch process improved carbohydrate conversion,
      particularly at high substrate loadings of 250-375g/L. In recycle process,
      hydrolysate retained a significant portion of the limiting enzyme alpha
      galactosidase to accelerate carbohydrate monomerization rate. At single-pass
      retention time of 6h and recycle rate of 62.5%, reducing sugar concentration
      reached up to 120g/L using 4ml/g enzyme. When compared with batch and fed-batch
      processes, the recycle process increased the volumetric productivity of reducing
      sugar by 36% (vs. fed-batch) to 57% (vs. batch) and that of protein product by
      280% (vs. fed-batch) to 300% (vs. batch).

PMID- 28575789
TI  - Quantitative approaches for illustrating correlations among the mechanical
      fragmentation scales, crystallinity and enzymatic hydrolysis glucose yield of
      rice straw.
AB  - Mechanical fragmentation is an important pretreatment in the biomass
      biotransformation process. Mechanical fragmentation at the tissue scale
      significantly reduced the particle size of rice straw but did not significantly
      change its crystalline properties; the increase in the glucose yield was limited
      from 28.75% (95.55mg/g substrate) to 35.29% (115.28mg/g substrate). Mechanical
      fragmentation at the cellular scale destroyed the cell wall structure and reduced
      its crystalline properties. Thus, the glucose yield also showed a significant
      increase from 35.29% (115.28mg/g substrate) to 81.71% (287.07mg/g of substrate).
      The quantitative equations among the particle size, crystalline properties and
      glucose yield (mg/g substrate) are as follows: CrI=44.14*[1-exp(-0.03658*D50)]
      and CP=(8.403*logD50-24.1836)/(1-4.225/D50^0.5); GY=-5.636CrI+343.7 and GY=
      14.62CP+512.1; and GY=97.218+247.5*exp(-0.03824*D50). The quantitative
      correlations among the mechanical fragmentation scales and crystalline properties
      can determine the effect and mechanism of mechanical fragmentation on biomass and
      can further promote the construction of a cost-competitive biotransformation
      process for biomass.

PMID- 28575790
TI  - Enhanced nitrogen removal of low C/N domestic wastewater using a biochar-amended
      aerated vertical flow constructed wetland.
AB  - Recently, vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs) with intermittent aeration
      have been proven as an efficient technology to enhance removal efficiency of
      organics and nitrogen for wastewater treatment. However, the low denitrification
      effect in VFCWs was a problem for treating low carbon source wastewater. In this
      study, intermittent aeration and biochar, produced by biomass pyrolysis, was used
      to promote the nitrogen removal in VFCWs for low C/N domestic wastewater. Four
      systems, including non-aerated with non-biochar VFCW, non-aerated with biochar
      VFCW, aerated with non-biochar VFCW and aerated with biochar VFCW, were conducted
      for comparing their treatment performances. The results showed that much higher
      removal of COD (94.9%), NH4+-N (99.1%), TN (52.7%) and lower N2O emission
      (60.54MUg.m-2.h-1) was obtained in aerated VFCW with biochar addition. The
      results suggested that adding biochar to intermittent aerated VFCWs could be an
      effective and appropriate strategy for low C/N wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28575791
TI  - Toxic effects of three crystalline phases of TiO2 nanoparticles on extracellular
      polymeric substances in freshwater biofilms.
AB  - Comparative toxicity of three typical TiO2 NPs (Anatase, Rutile, and Degussa P25,
      50mg/L respectively) under UVC irradiation (An+UV, Ru+UV, and P25+UV) on
      production and chemical characteristics of EPS in freshwater biofilms were
      investigated. Rutile was more stable in lake water, yet P25 and anatase were
      endowed with better photo-oxidation capacity. TiO2 NPs+UV enhanced total EPS,
      manifesting as LB-EPS increased by 98.16% (An+UV), 143.03% (Ru+UV), and 48.21%
      (P25+UV), while TB-EPS increased to 1.51 (An+UV), 1.36 (Ru+UV), and 1.61 (P25+UV)
      times greater than control without NPs and UVC, being mainly attributed to
      increase of polysaccharide and proteins. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum
      revealed tyrosine (An+UV and P25+UV) and tryptophan (P25+UV) protein-like
      substances vanished in LB-EPS. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated
      PO (An+UV and P25+UV) and CO or COC (P25+UV) disappeared in EPS. P25+UV and An+UV
      caused more lactate dehydrogenase release, while Ru+UV induced more reactive
      oxygen species and malondialdehyde production, consistent with decreased in cells
      viability.

PMID- 28575792
TI  - Optimization of hydrogen and syngas production from PKS gasification by using
      coal bottom ash.
AB  - Catalytic steam gasification of palm kernel shell is investigated to optimize
      operating parameters for hydrogen and syngas production using TGA-MS setup. RSM
      is used for experimental design and evaluating the effect of temperature,
      particle size, CaO/biomass ratio, and coal bottom ash wt% on hydrogen and syngas.
      Hydrogen production appears highly sensitive to all factors, especially
      temperature and coal bottom ash wt%. In case of syngas, the order of parametric
      influence is: CaO/biomass>coal bottom ash wt%>temperature>particle size. The
      significant catalytic effect of coal bottom ash is due to the presence of Fe2O3,
      MgO, Al2O3, and CaO. A temperature of 692 degrees C, coal bottom ash wt% of 0.07,
      CaO/biomass of 1.42, and particle size of 0.75mm are the optimum conditions for
      augmented yield of hydrogen and syngas. The production of hydrogen and syngas is
      1.5% higher in the pilot scale gasifier as compared to TGA-MS setup.

PMID- 28575793
TI  - Continuous bioethanol fermentation from wheat straw hydrolysate with high
      suspended solid content using an immersed flat sheet membrane bioreactor.
AB  - Finding a technological approach that eases the production of lignocellulosic
      bioethanol has long been considered as a great industrial challenge. In the
      current study a membrane bioreactor (MBR) set-up using integrated permeate
      channel (IPC) membrane panels was used to simultaneously ferment pentose and
      hexose sugars to ethanol in continuous fermentation of high suspended solid wheat
      straw hydrolysate. The MBR was optimized to flawlessly operated at high SS
      concentrations of up to 20% without any significant changes in the permeate flux
      and transmembrane pressure. By the help of the retained high cell concentration,
      the yeast cells were capable of tolerating and detoxifying the inhibitory medium
      and succeeded to co-consume all glucose and up to 83% of xylose in a continuous
      fermentation mode leading to up to 83% of the theoretical ethanol yield.

PMID- 28575794
TI  - 99mTc-labeled PSMA inhibitor: Biokinetics and radiation dosimetry in healthy
      subjects and imaging of prostate cancer tumors in patients.
AB  - : The prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is expressed in epithelial cells
      of the prostate and highly overexpressed in 95% of advanced prostate cancers. The
      aims of this study was to estimate the biokinetics and dosimetry of 99mTc
      EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA (99mTc-labeled PSMA inhibitor) in eight healthy subjects and
      evaluate its usefulness as a tumor-imaging agent in eight prostate cancer
      patients. METHODS: 99mTc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA was obtained from a lyophilized
      formulation with radiochemical purities >98%, determined by reversed-phase HPLC
      and ITLC-SG analyses. Whole-body images from eight healthy subjects were acquired
      at 20min, and at 2, 6 and 24h after 99mTc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA administration.
      Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn around the source organs on each time
      frame. Each ROI was corrected by background, attenuation, scattered radiation and
      physical decay. The image sequence was used to extrapolate the 99mTc-EDDA/HYNIC
      iPSMA time-activity curves of each organ to adjust the biokinetic model and
      calculate the total number of disintegrations (N) that occurred in the source
      regions. N data were the input for the OLINDA/EXM code to calculate internal
      radiation doses. In eight prostate cancer patients with histologically confirmed
      cancer, whole-body SPECT/CT images were obtained at 3h. RESULTS: The blood
      activity showed a half-life value of 4.98min for the fast component
      (T1/2alpha=ln2/8.34), 2.49h for the first slow component (T1/2beta=ln2/0.278),
      and 9.24h for the second slow component (T1/2gamma=ln2/0.076). Images from
      patients showed an average tumor/background ratio of 8.99+/-3.27 at 3h. The
      average equivalent doses calculated for a study using 740MBq were 3.80, 7.06,
      9.69, 10.70, and 28.80mSv for the breast, spleen, salivary glands, liver, and
      kidneys respectively, with an effective dose of 3.42+/-0.78mSv. CONCLUSIONS: All
      the absorbed doses were comparable to those known for most of the 99mTc studies.
      99mTc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA obtained from kit formulations showed high tumor uptake in
      patients with malignant lesions, making it a promising imaging
      radiopharmaceutical to target site-specific prostate cancer.

PMID- 28575796
TI  - A comprehensive conformational space analysis of N-formyl-l-tryptophanamide
      system by using a genetic algorithm for multi-modal search.
AB  - The conformational space of protected amino acid HCO-Tryptophane-NH2 was explored
      by using a new optimization procedure, in order to localize the stable minima on
      its potential energy surface (PES). The genetic algorithm based on the Multi
      Niche Crowding (MNC) technique was used initially to generate a set of optimized
      structures for title compound. Resulting structures from the genetic algorithm
      technique will be used hereafter as input conformers at a hierarchy of
      increasingly more accurate electronic structure calculations (RHF/6-31G+(d) and
      DFT/B3LYP/6-31G+(d) geometry optimizations). The lowest energy conformer
      gammaL(g+g+) presents a folded Backbone that is stabilized by strong hydrogen
      bond noted C7. This links the carbonyl oxygen of the formyl group and the
      hydrogen of the amine group. There are further interactions from one hand between
      the carbonyl oxygen of the formyl group and the neighboring CH group on the
      pyrrole ring and from other hand between the N-terminus hydrogen and the indole
      ring in accordance with the experimental results. This work includes also a
      comparison between the theoretical calculations and the experimental results of X
      ray crystallography extracted from protein data bank (PDB).

PMID- 28575797
TI  - Prediction of crystal morphology of 3,4-Dinitro-1H-pyrazole (DNP) in different
      solvents.
AB  - Analytical grade ethyl acetate was used to recrystallize 3,4-Dinitro-1H-pyrazole
      (DNP), it was found that there were two different morphologies of the crystals.
      There is a possibility that ethyl acetate undergoes hydrolysis due to the
      absorption of moisture in the air. The influence of the hydrolysis products of
      acetic acid and ethanol on the morphology of DNP crystal was considered. In order
      to investigate the effect of solvents on DNP morphology, there is ongoing
      research to validate molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results with experiment
      data. The morphology of DNP in vacuum was predicted by the attachment energy (AE)
      model, and the growth morphology of DNP in different solvents was simulated by MD
      method. The modified AE model was successfully verified the phenomenon by the
      prediction of DNP crystals morphology in Ethyl acetate, H2O, H2O/EtOH and
      H2O/AcOH. The calculated results show that the two different crystal shapes are
      diamond and hexagon, respectively. The results are in agreement with the crystal
      morphology obtained by experiment.

PMID- 28575795
TI  - [11C]Erlotinib PET cannot detect acquired erlotinib resistance in NSCLC tumor
      xenografts in mice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: [11C]Erlotinib PET has shown promise to distinguish non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors harboring the activating epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) mutation delE746-A750 from tumors with wild-type EGFR. To assess
      the suitability of [11C]erlotinib PET to detect the emergence of acquired
      erlotinib resistance in initially erlotinib-responsive tumors, we performed in
      vitro binding and PET experiments in mice bearing tumor xenografts using a range
      of different cancer cells, which were erlotinib-sensitive or exhibited clinically
      relevant resistance mechanisms to erlotinib. METHODS: The following cell lines
      were used for in vitro binding and PET experiments: the epidermoid carcinoma cell
      line A-431 (erlotinib-sensitive, wild-type EGFR) and the three NSCLC cell lines
      HCC827 (erlotinib-sensitive, delE746-A750), HCC827EPR (erlotinib-resistant,
      delE746-A750 and T790M) and HCC827ERLO (erlotinib-resistant, delE746-A750 and MET
      amplification). BALB/c nude mice with subcutaneous tumor xenografts underwent two
      consecutive [11C]erlotinib PET scans, a baseline scan and a second scan in which
      unlabeled erlotinib (10mg/kg) was co-injected. Logan graphical analysis was used
      to estimate total distribution volume (VT) of [11C]erlotinib in tumors. RESULTS:
      In vitro experiments revealed significantly higher uptake of [11C]erlotinib (5.2
      fold) in the three NSCLC cell lines as compared to A-431 cells. In all four cell
      lines co-incubation with unlabeled erlotinib (1MUM) led to significant reductions
      in [11C]erlotinib uptake (-19% to -66%). In both PET scans and for all four
      studied cell lines there were no significant differences in tumoral
      [11C]erlotinib VT values. For all three NSCLC cell lines, but not for the A-431
      cell line, tumoral VT was significantly reduced following co-injection of
      unlabeled erlotinib (-20% to -35%). CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant
      differences in the in vitro and in vivo binding of [11C]erlotinib between
      erlotinib-sensitive and erlotinib-resistant NSCLC cells. Our findings suggest
      that [11C]erlotinib PET will not be suitable to distinguish erlotinib-sensitive
      NSCLC tumors from tumors with acquired resistance to erlotinib.

PMID- 28575798
TI  - Design and computational support for the binding stability of a new CCR5/CXCR4
      dual tropic inhibitor: Computational design of a CCR5/CXCR4 drug.
AB  - The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects healthy human cells by binding to
      the glycoprotein cluster of differentiation 4 receptors on the surface of helper
      T-cells, along with either of two chemokine receptors, CC chemokine receptor type
      5 (CCR5) or C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4). Recently, a pyrazolo
      piperdine ligand was synthesized and the corresponding biological data showed
      good binding to both chemokine receptors, effectively blocking HIV-1 entry. Here,
      we exhaustively assess the atomistic binding interactions of this compound with
      both CCR5 and CXCR4, and we find that binding is driven by pi-stacking
      interactions between aromatic rings on the ligand and receptor residues, as well
      as electrostatic interactions involving the protonated piperidine nitrogen.
      However, these favorable binding interactions were partially offset by
      unfavorable desolvation of active site glutamates and aspartates, prompting our
      proposal of a new, synthetically-accessible derivative designed to increase the
      electrostatic interactions without compromising the pi-stacking features.

PMID- 28575800
TI  - Remediation of soil contaminated with organic and inorganic wood impregnation
      chemicals by soil washing.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of a large scale washing/wet
      sieving technique for a soil contaminated with wood impregnation chemicals by 1)
      defining the final distribution of trace elements (As, Cu, Cr, Zn) and polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in separated soil particle size fractions; and 2)
      defining the leaching behavior of the contaminants in these soil fractions. A
      soil washing experiment was implemented at waste management facility in Sweden
      using a full scale soil sorting and washing equipment. Five tons of soil was
      loaded to the equipment and wet-sieved into the following fractions: >16 mm, 8-16
      mm, 2-8 mm, 0.2-2 mm, <0.2 mm and a fraction that floated on top of the slurry
      before the final separation phase, composed of organic matter (OM). Analysis of
      total concentrations of contaminants in all soil fractions indicated that wet
      sieving/soil washing was not efficient to reduce the total volume of soil that
      needs further treatment. Even the coarsest soil fractions (>8 mm) contained
      elevated concentrations of total As and PAH. Leaching of As from all washed soil
      fractions was so high, that none of the particle size fractions could be disposed
      of without additional treatment.

PMID- 28575799
TI  - Application of fish cell lines for evaluating the chromium induced cytotoxicity,
      genotoxicity and oxidative stress.
AB  - In the present study, we hypothesize that cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and
      oxidative stress play a key role in chromium induced toxicity in SISS, SISK, IEE,
      IEK, IEG, SICH and ICG cell lines after 24 h exposure. Three fish species namely
      Lates calcarifer, Etroplus suratensis and Catla catla were exposed to the
      concentrations of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/L of chromium for 96 h under static
      conditions for conducting acute toxicity tests. LC50 was then calculated. The
      percentage cell survival was assessed by multiple endpoints such as MTT, NR, AB
      and CB assays in the seven fish cell lines exposed to different concentrations of
      chromium and EC50 values of all the four endpoints were calculated. High
      significances were noted in the correlations between each in vitro cytotoxicity
      assays and in vivo mortality data. Cell shrinkage, cell detachment, vacuolations
      and cell swelling at the highest concentration of chromium (50 mg/L) were seen on
      microscopic examination of cell morphology. Comet assay and Hoechst staining were
      carried out to assess DNA damage and nuclear fragmentation in the seven fish
      lines exposed to chromium. The results of antioxidant parameters obtained
      indicate a significant reduction in the level of catalase, superoxide dismutase,
      glutathione S-transferase and Glutathione peroxidase, and increased level of
      lipid peroxidation in all the cell lines exposed to chromium. These results
      confirm that fish cell lines could be used as an alternative to whole fish for
      cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and oxidative stress assessment in chromium toxicity
      studies.

PMID- 28575801
TI  - Evaluation of the Parasympathetic Tone Activity (PTA) index to assess the
      analgesia/nociception balance in anaesthetised dogs.
AB  - The Parasympathetic Tone Activity (PTA) is an index based on the analysis of
      heart rate variability that has been recently developed to assess the
      analgesia/nociception balance in anaesthetised animals. The present study aimed
      to evaluate its performance in dogs undergoing surgery. Thirty dogs admitted for
      elective surgeries, were anaesthetised with a standardised protocol. PTA, heart
      rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and HDR (defined as an increase by >20%
      in HR and/or SBP within 5min) were assessed at the following predefined time
      points: TStSt (steady-state, after induction of anaesthesia and before start of
      surgery), TClamp (clamping of surgical drapes on the skin), TCut (cutaneous
      incision), TPrePTA (retrospectively assessed 1min before a PTA decline of at
      least 20%) and TEndIso (isoflurane discontinuation). The dynamic variation of PTA
      over 1min (?PTA) was calculated at each predefined time-points and its
      performance to predict HDR was assessed by building Receiver Operating
      Characteristics (ROC) curves. A significant decrease of PTA (p<0.002) was
      detected 1min after TClamp, TCut and TPrePTA followed by a significant increase
      in HR and/or SBP within 5min after the time points (p<0.01). The DeltaPTA was
      associated with the following performance in predicting HDR: AUC ROC [95%
      CI]=0.80 [0.71 to 0.88] (p<0.05), with a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of
      72% for a threshold value of -18%. Although encouraging, the performance of the
      PTA index and its dynamic variation needs to be further evaluated, particularly
      in different clinical contexts.

PMID- 28575803
TI  - Paradigm shift of contamination risk of six heavy metals in tea (Camellia
      sinensis L.) growing soil: A new approach influenced by inorganic and organic
      amendments.
AB  - The present study provides several contamination and ecological risk indices for
      selected metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn) in tea (Camellia sinensis L.; cv.
      S.3A/3) growing soil influenced by lower to higher doses of inorganic and organic
      amendments. While ecological risk indices were applied, it was observed that same
      treatment showed different risk levels but contamination risk status did not vary
      significantly. All the indices showed significant correlation with heavy metals'
      concentration in young shoots of tea plants. As the indices characterized
      experimental soils with different extents of contamination, it would be important
      to standardize the indices with long term experiments followed by generation of
      new index. Therefore, we formulated a new contamination index named as Tea
      Research Association Heavy Metal Contamination Index (TRAHMCI) for tea growing
      soils. TRAHMCI is based on the probable change of metal status in soil with
      progress of growth of tea plant. This could be useful to negate discrepancies
      arised from use of various existing metal contamination indices in tea growing
      soils amended with different doses of fertilizers. TRAHMCI was formulated based
      on individual contamination factor using statistical technique and applied to the
      present dataset which provided a more holistic understanding of overall tea
      growing soil behavior. The limitation of the developed TRAHMCI index is that, the
      index had not been validated for other crops in our study not to claim its
      effective use for crops other than tea. As already mentioned, this new index had
      been formulated by taking tea as the test crop with above mentioned six heavy
      metal contents in young shoot and made tea.

PMID- 28575802
TI  - Themes and variations in gene regulation by extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma
      factors.
AB  - The ECF sigma family was identified 23 years ago as a distinct group of sigma70
      like factors. ECF sigma factors have since emerged as a major form of bacterial
      signal transduction that can be grouped into over 50 phylogenetically distinct
      subfamilies. Advances in our understanding of these sigma factors and the
      signaling pathways governing their activity have elucidated conserved features as
      well as aspects that have evolved over time. All ECF sigma factors are predicted
      to share a common streamlined domain structure and mode of promoter interaction.
      The activity of most ECF sigma factors is controlled by an anti-sigma factor. The
      nature of the anti-sigma factor and the activating signaling pathways appear to
      be conserved within ECF families, while considerable diversity exists between
      different families.

PMID- 28575804
TI  - Heteroatoms doped metal iron-polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane for
      enhancing oxidation of organic contaminants.
AB  - Iron nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in S, N-codoped carbon were prepared by one
      step pyrolysis of a homogeneous mixture consisting of Fe, S, N, C precursors, and
      then immobilized in poly (vinylidene fluoride) membranes as a multifunctional
      catalytic system (NSC-Fe@PVDF) to effectively activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS)
      and oxidize organic compounds in water. The NSC-Fe@PVDF membranes effectively
      decolorized organic pollutants at a wide pH range (2.05-10.85), due to the
      synergistic effects between the S, N-doped carbon and iron NPs. The efficiency
      depended on the doping types, amount of metal, PMS dosages, reaction
      temperatures, solution pHs, and organic substrates. In-situ electron spin
      resonance spectroscopy and sacrificial-reagent incorporated catalysis indicate
      radical intermediates such as sulfate and hydroxyl radicals are mainly
      responsible for this persulfate-driven oxidation of organic compounds. Membrane's
      porous structure and high internal surface area not only minimize the NPs
      agglomeration, but also allow the facile transport of catalytic reactants to the
      active surface of metal catalysts. The results demonstrate the morphological and
      structural features of catalytic membranes enhance the overall catalytic
      activity.

PMID- 28575805
TI  - Niclosamide induces apoptosis through mitochondrial intrinsic pathway and
      inhibits migration and invasion in human thyroid cancer in vitro.
AB  - The morbidity of thyroid cancer has been rising obviously throughout the world
      during the past years. Classic treatment procedure is generally curable for low
      risk differentiated thyroid cancer, but may lead to many postoperative
      complications. And low-level of thyroid stimulating hormone after surgery has
      side effects on both cardiovascular system and skeletal system. Furthermore
      effective treatment approaches for more aggressive differentiated thyroid cancer,
      poorly differentiated thyroid cancer and anaplastic thyroid cancer are absent,
      thus new candidates that can inhibit tumor growth and metastasis are urgently
      needed. In this study, niclosamide, an FDA approved anthelminthic drug, was
      evaluated for its anti-thyroid cancer activity in vitro. Niclosamide potently
      inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in human papillary thyroid
      cancer cell lines TPC-1 and BCPAP, as well as anaplastic thyroid cancer cell line
      ACT-1. In addition, the occurrence of TPC-1 apoptosis was correlated with
      activation of Bax and cleaved caspases-3, and inhibition of Bcl-2 and the
      mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaYm), indicating that niclosamide may
      induce apoptosis through a mitochondria-mediated intrinsic apoptotic pathway.
      Moreover, niclosamide markedly impaired TPC-1 cells and ACT-1 cells invasion. And
      we further found the inhibitory effect of TPC-1 was closely related with down
      regulating of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and -9 and up-regulating of tissue
      inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-2. Taken together, these results
      demonstrated that niclosamide could be a potential agent for inhibiting the
      growth and metastasis of thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28575806
TI  - Phytol induces ROS mediated apoptosis by induction of caspase 9 and 3 through
      activation of TRAIL, FAS and TNF receptors and inhibits tumor progression factor
      Glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase in lung carcinoma cell line (A549).
AB  - A number of drugs as well as lead molecules are isolated from natural sources.
      Phytol is one of such lead molecule belongs to terpenes group distributed widely
      in medicinal plants. In the present work, we investigated the cytotoxic behavior
      of phytol on human lung carcinoma cells (A549). Phytol was found to cause
      characteristic apoptotic morphological changes and generation of ROS in A549
      cells. The mechanism of phytol involved the activation of TRAIL, FAS and TNF
      alpha receptors along with caspase 9 and 3. In silico molecular docking studies
      revealed that phytol has a good binding affinity with glucose-6-phosphate
      dehydrogenase (G6PD), which is known to promote tumor proliferation. The ability
      of phytol to become potential drug candidate has been revealed from the
      pharmacokinetic study performed in the present study.

PMID- 28575807
TI  - A holistic review on the autoimmune disease vitiligo with emphasis on the causal
      factors.
AB  - Vitiligo is an idiopathic systemic autoimmune disease affecting skin, hair and
      oral mucosa. This genetic yet acquired disease characterized by melanin loss is a
      cause of morbidity across all races. Though thyroid disturbance has been
      recognized as a key trigger of this pathology, an array of other factors plays
      critical role in its manifestation. Multiple hormones (corticotropin-releasing
      hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone,
      melatonin, calcitriol, testosterone, estrogen), genes (Human leukocyte antigen
      (HLA), Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), Forkhead box D3
      (FOXD3), Cluster of differentiation 117 (CD117), Estrogen receptor (ESR) 1,
      Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2), Vitiligo-associated protein 1 (VIT1)), and lifestyle
      choices (stress, diet, cosmetic products, and medications) have been suspected as
      drivers of this disorder. The pathological mechanisms have been understood in
      recent times, with the aid of genomic studies; however a universally-effective
      therapy is yet to be achieved. This review discusses these under-investigated
      facets of vitiligo onset and progression; hence, it is expected to enrich
      vitiligo research.

PMID- 28575808
TI  - Induction of apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cell line, HCT-116 by a
      vanadium- Schiff base complex.
AB  - Vanadium compounds are well known for their therapeutic interventions against
      several diseases. Various biochemical attributes of vanadium complexes inspired
      us to evaluate the cancer cell killing efficacy of the vanadium complex, viz.,
      vanadyl N-(2-hydroxyacetophenone) glycinate [VO(NG)2]. Previously we showed that
      VO(NG)2 is an effective anticancer agent in in vitro and in vivo cancer models
      and imposed miniscule side effects. Herein we report that VO(NG)2 is
      significantly cytotoxic to various cancer cell lines. Furthermore, this redox
      active vanadyl complex altered the redox homeostatsis of many human cancer cell
      lines significantly. VO(NG)2 actuates programmed cell death in human colorectal
      carcinoma cells(HCT-116) through mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization
      but in caspase independent manner, possibly by altering cellular redox status and
      by inflicting DNA damage. Thus, the present work is an attempt to provide many
      evidences regarding the potent and selective chemotherapeutic efficacy of the
      novel VO(NG)2.

PMID- 28575809
TI  - Lutein mitigates cyclophosphamide induced lung and liver injury via NF
      kappaB/MAPK dependent mechanism.
AB  - This study targeted to test the potential protective role of lutein against lung
      and liver damage associated with cyclophosphamide (CP) administration. Lutein was
      given orally for 5days at two different doses both before and after CP injection.
      Results have shown that CP administration caused marked pulmonary and hepatic
      injurious effects in mice. Lung damage was evident through increased lung wet/dry
      ratio, elevated inflammatory cells infiltration into the pulmonary tissues,
      increased total protein content and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the
      broncho-alveolar lavage fluid. Estimation of high levels of serum transaminases,
      alkaline phosphatase and LDH in serum revealed hepatic injury. Histopathological
      examination of both organs confirmed the biochemical analysis. Elevation of
      oxidative stress along with depressed anti-oxidant status of lung and liver were
      evident in CP-intoxicated animals. Furthermore, CP induced elevation of
      inflammatory cytokines (NOx, TNF-alpha, IL-6) contaminant with activation of
      nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-kappaB) and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38
      MAPK). On the other side, lutein treatment successfully protected the lung and
      the liver as indicated by improvement of the biochemical and histopathological
      parameters. These results suggest that lutein can ameliorate CP-induced pulmonary
      and hepatic oxidative injurious effects via inhibition of reactive oxygen species
      (ROS)/NF-kappaB/MAPK pathway.

PMID- 28575810
TI  - Homology modeling and molecular docking studies on Type II diabetes complications
      reduced PPARgamma receptor with various ligand molecules.
AB  - Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), a type II nuclear
      receptor present in adipose tissue, colon and macrophages. It reduces the
      hyperglycemia associated metabolic syndromes. Particularly, type II diabetes
      related cardiovascular system risk in human beings. The fatty acid storage and
      glucose metabolism are regulated by PPARgamma activation in human body. According
      to recent reports commercially available PPARgamma activating drugs have been
      causing severe side effects. At the same time, natural products have been proved
      to be a promising area of drug discovery. Recently, many studies have been
      attempted to screen and identify a potential drug candidate to activate
      PPARgamma. Hence, in this study we have selected some of the bio-active molecules
      from traditional medicinal plants. Molecular docking studies have been carried
      out against the target, PPARgamma. We Results suggested that Punigluconin has a
      efficient docking score and it is found to have good binding affinities than
      other ligands. Hence, we concluded that Punigluconin is a better drug candidate
      for activation of PPARgamma gene expression. Further studies are necessary to
      confirm their efficacy and possibly it can develop as a potential drug in future.

PMID- 28575811
TI  - Perforation of the cecum resulting from a closed-loop obstruction in a patient
      with an adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon: a case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bowel obstruction is one of the principal non-traumatic causes of
      general surgery emergencies, both in Brazil and worldwide. This condition can be
      classified according to the degree (complete or incomplete), clinical course
      (acute or chronic) or nature (mechanical, vascular or functional) of the
      obstruction. CASE REPORT: ESS, a 62-year old Brazilian woman from Rio de Janeiro,
      was admitted to the emergency department complaining of constipation of two
      weeks' duration. She also reported fever and fecal vomiting in the preceding two
      days.A syndromic diagnosis of bowel obstruction was made, and the patient was
      referred for CT. The sigmoid colon, descending colon, transverse colon, ascending
      colon, the cecum and the terminal ileum were resected. DISCUSSION: Colorectal
      cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the elderly, perforation of
      the cecum occurs in only around 3-8% of cases. 15 This can be explained by the
      fact that patients with colorectal cancer present with wasting syndrome before
      the bowel lumen becomes completely obstructed. In a literature review conducted
      for this study, only one publication was found in which rupture of the cecum was
      associated with colorectal cancer. CONCLUSION: Although rupture of the cecum
      associated with colorectal cancer is a rare pathology, it constitutes a surgical
      emergency; therefore, all surgeons should be aware of the possibility.

PMID- 28575812
TI  - New insights into urine-based assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
      exposure from a rat model: Identification of relevant metabolites and influence
      of elimination kinetics.
AB  - A gas chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry method dedicated to the analysis of
      50 metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs) was applied to urine
      specimens collected from female Long Evans rats under controlled exposure to a
      mixture of PAHs (at 7 doses ranging from 0.01 to 0.8 mg/kg, by gavage, 3 times
      per week for 90 days). On four occasions (day 1, 28, 60 and 90), urine samples
      were collected over a 24 h period. Among these 50 OH-PAHs, 41 were detected in
      urine samples. Seven additional OH-PAHs were identified for the first time: 1
      corresponding to metabolite of pyrene and 3 of anthracene. Strong linear dose
      versus urinary concentration relationships were observed for 25 of the 41 OH-PAHs
      detected in rat urine, confirming their suitability for assessing exposure to
      their respective parent compound. In addition, some isomers (e.g. 1-OH-pyrene, 3
      OH-/4-OH-chrysene, 10-OH-benz[a]anthracene, 8-OH-benzo[k]fluoranthene, 11-OH
      benzo[b]fluoranthene and 3-OH-benzo[a]pyrene) that were detected starting from
      the lowest levels of exposure or even in controls were considered particularly
      relevant biomarkers compared to metabolites only detected at higher levels of
      exposure. Finally, on the basis of the excretion profiles (on days 1, 28, 60 and
      90) and urinary elimination kinetics of each OH-PAH detected at days 1 and 60,
      this study highlighted the fact that sampling time may influence the measurement
      of metabolites in urine. Taken together, these results provide interesting
      information on the suitability of the analysis of OH-PAHs in urine for the
      assessment of PAH exposure, which could be taken into consideration for the
      design of epidemiological studies in the future.

PMID- 28575813
TI  - A novel prognostic indicator for in-hospital and 4-year outcomes in patients with
      pulmonary embolism: TIMI risk index.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk index (TRI) was
      recently evaluated in patients with acute myocardial infarction and found as an
      important prognostic index. In the current study, we evaluated the prognostic
      value of TRI in patients with moderate-high and high risk pulmonary embolism (PE)
      who were treated with thrombolytic agents. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated
      the in-hospital and long-term (4-year) prognostic impact of TRI in a total number
      of 456 patients with moderate-high and high risk PE. Patients were stratified by
      quartiles (Q) of admission TRI. RESULTS: In-hospital analysis revealed
      significantly higher rates of in-hospital death for patients with TRI in Q4.
      After adjustment for confounding baseline variables, TRI in Q4 was associated
      with 2.8-fold hazard of in-hospital death. Upon multivariate analysis, admission
      TRI in Q4 vs. Q1-3 was associated with 3.1 fold hazard of 4-year mortality rate.
      CONCLUSION: TRI in Q4, as compared to Q1-3, was significantly predictive of short
      term and long-term outcomes in PE patients who treated with thrombolytic agents.
      Our data suggest TRI to be an independent, feasible, and cost-effective tool for
      rapid risk stratification in moderate-high and high risk PE patients who treated
      with thrombolytic agents.

PMID- 28575814
TI  - A comparison of pre ICU admission SIRS, EWS and q SOFA scores for predicting
      mortality and length of stay in ICU.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The 2015 sepsis definitions suggest using the quick SOFA score for
      risk stratification of sepsis patients among other changes in sepsis definition.
      Our aim was to validate the q sofa score for diagnosing sepsis and comparing it
      to traditional scores of pre ICU admission sepsis outcome prediction such as EWS
      and SIRS in our setting in order to predict mortality and length of stay.
      METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study. We retrospectively calculated the
      q sofa, SIRS and EWS scores of all ICU patients admitted with the diagnosis of
      sepsis at our center in 2015. This was analysed using STATA 12. Logistic
      regression and ROC curves were used for analysis in addition to descriptive
      analysis. RESULTS: 58 patients were included in the study. Based on our one year
      results we have shown that although q SOFA is more sensitive in predicting LOS in
      ICU of sepsis patients, the EWS score is more sensitive and specific in
      predicting mortality in the ICU of such patients when compared to q SOFA and SIRS
      scores. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we find that in our setting, EWS is better
      than SIRS and q SOFA for predicting mortality and perhaps length of stay as well.
      The q Sofa score remains validated for diagnosis of sepsis.

PMID- 28575815
TI  - Cardiac-disease-induced PTSD (CDI-PTSD): A systematic review.
AB  - The goal of the current systematic review was to provide an overview of the
      findings in the field of Cardiac-Disease-Induced Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
      (CDI-PTSD) in order to establish CDI-PTSD as a valid diagnostic entity for a wide
      spectrum of cardiac diseases and related medical procedures. In accordance with
      PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic electronic literature search. Of the
      3202 citations identified, 150 studies meeting the selection criteria were
      reviewed. Our main findings were that the prevalence of CDI-PTSD ranged between
      0% and 38% (averaging at 12%) and was highly dependent on the assessment tool
      used. The most consistent risk factors are of a psychological nature (e.g., pre
      morbid distress). The consequences of CDI-PTSD range from psychosocial
      difficulties to lack of adherence and heightened mortality rates. Much
      inconsistency in the field was found with regard to patients who present with
      diagnoses other than acute coronary syndrome (e.g., cardiac arrest) and who
      undergo potentially traumatic medical procedures (e.g., defibrillator
      implantation). Yet the current review seems to strengthen the conceptualization
      of CDI-PTSD as a valid diagnostic entity, at least with regard to acute cardiac
      events.

PMID- 28575816
TI  - A naphthalene benzimidazole-based chemosensor for the colorimetric and on-off
      fluorescent detection of fluoride ion.
AB  - A novel naphthalene benzimidazole (NBI)-based chemosensor (D2) was developed for
      fluoride ion (F-) detection. The absorption spectrum of D2 changed dramatically
      from yellow to blue in the visible region accompanied with a 225nm red shift of
      its absorption maximum upon the addition of F- in DMSO. D2 also exhibited a
      fluorescence turn-off response towards the fluoride ion. The emission intensity
      of D2 decreased drastically along the increasing F- concentration and the
      detection limit for F- was as low as 3.2*10-9mol/L. 1H NMR and HRMS-ESI results
      indicated that the formation of NBI-O- through the desilylation reaction of F-
      with NBI-OSi was responsible for the spectral changes. Overall, this kind of NBI
      type molecules represent a new type chemosensor for the spectral detection of
      fluoride ion in solution.

PMID- 28575817
TI  - Terahertz acoustic phonon detection from a compact surface layer of spherical
      nanoparticles powder mixture of aluminum, alumina and multi-walled carbon
      nanotube.
AB  - We present terahertz spectroscopy study on spherical nanoparticles powder mixture
      of aluminum, alumina, and MWCNTs induced by surface mechanical attrition
      treatment (SMAT) of aluminum substrates. Surface alloying of AL, Al2O3 0.95% and
      MWCNTs 0.05% powder mixture was produced during SMAT process, where a compact
      surface layer of about 200 MUm due to ball bombardment was produced from the
      mixture. Al2O3 alumina powder played a significant role in MWCNTs distribution on
      surface, those were held in deformation surface cites of micro-cavities due to
      SMAT process of Al. The benefits are the effects on resulted optical properties
      of the surface studied at the terahertz frequency range due to electrical
      isolation confinement effects and electronic resonance disturbances exerted on Al
      electronic resonance at the same range of frequencies. THz acoustic phonon around
      0.53-0.6THz (17-20cm-1) were observed at ambient conditions for the spherical
      nanoparticles powder mixture of Al, Al2O3 and MWCNTs. These results suggested
      that the presence of Al2O3 and MWCNTs during SMAT process leads to the optically
      detection of such acoustic phonon in the THz frequency range.

PMID- 28575818
TI  - In-situ studies on the micro-structure evolution of A2W2O7 (A=Li, Na, K) during
      melting by high temperature Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory.
AB  - In-situ high temperature Raman spectroscopic (HTRS) technique in combination with
      density functional theory (DFT) analysis has been adopted to investigate the
      micro-structure of solid and molten A2W2O7 (A=Li, Na, K). The [WO6] octahedra
      were found to be connected to each other by corner and edge sharing in the
      crystalline Li2W2O7 and K2W2O7 compounds. In the crystal lattice of Na2W2O7, on
      the other hand, the [WO4] tetrahedra and [WO6] octahedra were found to coexist
      and paired by corner sharing. Although the structural diversity has clearly led
      to distinct Raman spectra of the crystalline A2W2O7 compounds, the spectra of
      their melts tended to be analogous, showing the typical vibration modes of
      (W2O7)2- dimer. A mechanism was then proposed to explain the structure evolution
      occurring during the melting process of A2W2O7. The effect of A+ cation on the
      Raman bands of (W2O7)2- dimer in molten A2W2O7 has also been investigated. Both
      the wavenumber and full width at half-height (FWHH) of the characteristic band
      assigned to the symmetrical stretching vibration mode of WOnb (non-bridging
      oxygen) in (W2O7)2- were found to decrease in the sequence of Li+, Na+ and K+,
      indicating the cation effect on the mean bond length and its distribution range
      of WOnb. In addition, the relative intensity of this band was also influenced by
      the cation and it was increased in the order of Li2W2O7, Na2W2O7 and K2W2O7,
      which has been explained by the charge transfer process and confirmed by Mulliken
      overlap population analysis.

PMID- 28575819
TI  - Corrigendum to "New model for prediction binary mixture of antihistamine
      decongestant using artificial neural networks and least squares support vector
      machine by spectrophotometry method" [Spectrochim. Acta A Mol. Biomol. Spectrosc.
      182 (2017) 105-115].

PMID- 28575820
TI  - Effects of hydrogen bonding between pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde and nearest polar
      and nonpolar environment.
AB  - The present paper represents dominant effects of hydrogen bonding on the
      existence of different molecular aggregates in one of the heterocyclic pyrrole
      system: pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde (PCL). Theoretical and experimental Raman
      spectral evidence verifies the existence of different molecular aggregates like
      dimeric, monomeric, hydrated complex states in PCL. Atoms in molecules (AIMs)
      analysis and fluorescence decay profile provide a strong signature of
      intermolecular hydrogen bonding (IerHB) as the possible reason for the existence
      of cis form of dimeric (X) molecular aggregates. The high remnant polarization of
      3.13MUCcm-2 and smaller dielectric loss in solid form of PCL arise due to in X by
      ordering of dipoles as a result of IerHB. A remarkable high ferroelectric
      response in solid phase makes PCL a desirable candidate to be used as raw
      material for energy storage devices. For solution phase, in presence of external
      hydroxylic environment, PCL reacts with external water molecules through weak
      IerHB and creates different hydrated PCL/(H2O)n complexes by creating water
      bridge with number of water molecules from 1 to n. An increasing number of water
      molecules helps to form stronger hydrated complex by separation of charges by
      lowering the transferring energy barrier.

PMID- 28575821
TI  - Organic and inorganic colloids impacting total iodine behavior in groundwater
      from the Datong Basin, China.
AB  - The geochemical behaviors of colloids in aquifers played an important role in
      determining the fate of iodine in groundwater system. To decipher the impact of
      colloids on iodine mobilization in aquifers, three successive pore-sized colloids
      filtration (0.45MUm, 30kDa and 5kDa) were conducted on in-situ during groundwater
      sampling. The results showed that the distribution ratios (f) of total iodine
      (IT) and iron in the dissolved solution (i.e., 5kDa ultrafiltered) were from 0.78
      to 0.99 and from 0.56 to 0.94, respectively. Natural organic matter (NOM) in the
      colloidal fractions obtained the f values ranging from 0.14 to 1.00. The
      decreased Eh values from recharge area to discharge area indicated redox
      potential of groundwater system changed from oxidizing to reducing along
      groundwater flowpath, and interestingly, the corresponding iodine fractions in
      groundwater were decreasing in dissolved solution and increasing in colloidal
      fractions. Inverse correlation between Fe and DOC and positive correlation
      between iodine and DOC suggested the occurrence of reductive dissolution of iron
      oxyhydroxides and degradation of organic iodine in groundwater system. Iodine
      distribution increased in dissolved solution and decreased in colloids with pH
      increase. Moreover, as pH increased, f (Fe) and f (DOC) decreased in dissolved
      solution and increased in colloids. Relatively weak correlation of f (IT) with f
      (Fe) and strong relationship between f (IT) and f (DOC) in the large grain size
      fractions suggested the Fe-OM complexes controlled iodine distribution in
      groundwater, which depends on the presence of Fe bridges. Negligible association
      of iodine with Fe and NOM in the small grain size fractions might be attributed
      to the effects of abundant OH- content in groundwater.

PMID- 28575822
TI  - A national scale flood hazard mapping methodology: The case of Greece -
      Protection and adaptation policy approaches.
AB  - The present work introduces a national scale flood hazard assessment methodology,
      using multi-criteria analysis and artificial neural networks (ANNs) techniques in
      a GIS environment. The proposed methodology was applied in Greece, where flash
      floods are a relatively frequent phenomenon and it has become more intense over
      the last decades, causing significant damages in rural and urban sectors. In
      order the most prone flooding areas to be identified, seven factor-maps (that are
      directly related to flood generation) were combined in a GIS environment. These
      factor-maps are: a) the Flow accumulation (F), b) the Land use (L), c) the
      Altitude (A), b) the Slope (S), e) the soil Erodibility (E), f) the Rainfall
      intensity (R), and g) the available water Capacity (C). The name to the proposed
      method is "FLASERC". The flood hazard for each one of these factors is classified
      into five categories: Very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. The above
      factors are combined and processed using the appropriate ANN algorithm tool. For
      the ANN training process spatial distribution of historical flooded points in
      Greece within the five different flood hazard categories of the aforementioned
      seven factor-maps were combined. In this way, the overall flood hazard map for
      Greece was determined. The final results are verified using additional historical
      flood events that have occurred in Greece over the last 100years. In addition, an
      overview of flood protection measures and adaptation policy approaches were
      proposed for agricultural and urban areas located at very high flood hazard
      areas.

PMID- 28575823
TI  - Passive sampling for spatial and temporal monitoring of organic pollutants in
      surface water of a rural-urban river in Kenya.
AB  - Passive sampling is an emerging monitoring strategy for surface waters and can be
      applied in a range of environments including remote locations. Silicone rubber
      (SR) as a robust single-phase passive sampler was applied to characterize the
      spatial and temporal variability of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs),
      polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and three
      phthalates, namely, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) and
      bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) in a tropical river traversing rural and urban
      catchments. OCPs and PCBs were not detected. Up to 31.8ng/L of freely dissolved
      concentrations of PAHs were quantified and were dominated by the lower molecular
      weight members. Mean concentrations of DBP, BBP and DEHP were 72.6ng/L, 3.9ng/L
      and 7.1ng/L respectively. However, in sampling for phthalates using SR, quality
      control and assurance remains the key challenge and must always be ensured.
      Spatial variability in concentrations was evident and could be related to land
      use. Temporal variability was not significant.

PMID- 28575824
TI  - Factors shaping alien plant species richness spatial patterns across Natura 2000
      Special Areas of Conservation of Greece.
AB  - This paper aims to determine the main factors that shape the spatial patterns of
      alien plant species occurrence across Natura 2000 Special Areas of Conservation
      (SACs) in Greece, and quantify their influence. A series of spatial analysis
      techniques for the development of a spatial database of the factors involved,
      followed by a boosted negative binomial Generalised Additive Model for location
      scale and shape, were implemented. Native plant species richness, topography and
      hydrography, human population density, and a spatial preference to the northern
      western sites are the key factors that explain the variation in the occurrence of
      alien plant species. Native plant species richness and human population density
      have a positive effect on alien plant species presence, while topography aspects,
      such as elevation and slope, and the distance from the hydrographical network a
      negative one. All factors are indirectly linked to propagule pressure emphasizing
      the importance of human activities for the efforts on managing protected areas.

PMID- 28575825
TI  - Effect of biochar on the presence of nutrients and ryegrass growth in the soil
      from an abandoned indigenous coking site: The potential role of biochar in the
      revegetation of contaminated site.
AB  - Little is known regarding how biochars' feedstock and pyrolysis temperature
      affect soil function and plant growth. To address this gap in knowledge, 12
      biochars (walnut shells, corn cobs, corn straws, and rice straws were separately
      pyrolyzed at 250, 400, and 600 degrees C for 4h) were applied to soil from an
      indigenous coking site with application rate of 2.5% (w/w) in a pot experiment to
      determine the impact of biochar types on macro-nutrients (total and available N,
      P, and K) and ryegrass growth in the soil from an indigenous coking site.
      Generally, the total N, P, and K in the soil was not significantly different from
      that of the control group. However, biochars decreased the available N from
      21.76mg.kg-1 for the control to 14.96mg.kg-1. Corn straw and rice straw biochars
      increased the available P from 2.14mg.kg-1 for the control to 28.35mg.kg-1,
      specifically at higher pyrolysis temperature, while walnut shell and corn cob
      biochars had little influence on it regardless of pyrolysis temperature. Biochars
      increased the available K from 173.58mg.kg-1 for the control to 355.64mg.kg-1,
      varying as their feedstocks of corn cob>rice straw>corn straw>walnut shell and
      increasing with the increase of pyrolysis temperature. Correlation analysis
      suggests that it is responsible for the competition of soluble cations from
      biochars with K for adsorption sites on the soil surface. Biochars increased the
      ryegrass biomass from 0.07g.pot-1 for the control to 0.16g.pot-1, with the
      generally most effective stimulation by biochars produced at 400 degrees C.
      Ryegrass biomass had obviously positive correlation with available K, indicating
      its essential role in the growth of ryegrass in the studied soil.

PMID- 28575826
TI  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the settled dust of automobile
      workshops, health and carcinogenic risk evaluation.
AB  - : There are studies available on the occurrence of PAHs in indoor settled dust
      from residential and different occupational settings in literature but limited
      data is available on their occurrence and potential health risk assessment in
      automobile workshops. In recent decades Saudi Arabia has experienced tremendous
      growth in the petroleum industry and as a result, the automobile industry is
      booming. People working in automobile workshops are at a greater risk of exposure
      to chemicals releasing from the petroleum products. The main objective of this
      study was to report PAHs in settled dust from different automobile workshops of
      Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and evaluate health risk for workers through dust exposure.
      Pyrene (1585-13500ng/g), Benz[a]anthracene (<LOQ-5065ng/g), and Phenanthrene (280
      4860ng/g) were the major PAHs and ?12PAHs concentrations ranged between 7620 and
      30800ng/g. Profile of PAHs was different in dust from small and heavy vehicle
      workshops. For workers, health risk assessment was calculated based on
      benzo[a]pyrene equivalent carcinogenic power (BaPE), incremental lifetime cancer
      risk (ILCR), and daily exposure to PAHs via dust ingestion. The median
      concentration of BaPE was 285ng/g, ILCR was up to 6.78*10-3 (exceeded reference
      values of USEPA (range between 1*10-6 and 1*10-4)), and worker's exposure via
      dust ingestion on daily bases reached up to 33ng/kgbw/day for ?12PAHs. This study
      showed people working in automobile workshops in the studied area are getting
      expose to high levels of PAHs via dust ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact.
      CAPSULE: This is the first study reporting PAHs in automobile workshops settings
      from Middle East. The incremental lifetime cancer risk to workers via dust
      exposure exceeded set limits of USEPA.

PMID- 28575828
TI  - Urban planning and agriculture. Methodology for assessing rooftop greenhouse
      potential of non-residential areas using airborne sensors.
AB  - The integration of rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) in urban buildings is a practice
      that is becoming increasingly important in the world for their contribution to
      food security and sustainable development. However, the supply of tools and
      procedures to facilitate their implementation at the city scale is limited and
      laborious. This work aims to develop a specific and automated methodology for
      identifying the feasibility of implementation of rooftop greenhouses in non
      residential urban areas, using airborne sensors. The use of Light Detection and
      Ranging (LIDAR) and Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) data and the Leica ALS50-II and
      TASI-600 sensors allow for the identification of some building roof parameters
      (area, slope, materials, and solar radiation) to determine the potential for
      constructing a RTG. This development represents an improvement in time and
      accuracy with respect to previous methodology, where all the relevant information
      must be acquired manually. The methodology has been applied and validated in a
      case study corresponding to a non-residential urban area in the industrial
      municipality of Rubi, Barcelona (Spain). Based on this practical application, an
      area of 36,312m2 out of a total area of 1,243,540m2 of roofs with ideal
      characteristics for the construction of RTGs was identified. This area can
      produce approximately 600tons of tomatoes per year, which represents the average
      yearly consumption for about 50% of Rubi total population. The use of this
      methodology also facilitates the decision making process in urban agriculture,
      allowing a quick identification of optimal surfaces for the future implementation
      of urban agriculture in housing. It also opens new avenues for the use of
      airborne technology in environmental topics in cities.

PMID- 28575827
TI  - Enhanced flocculation and sedimentation of trace cadmium from irrigation water
      using phosphoric fertilizer.
AB  - Suspended substrate (SS) in natural waters controls the interaction,
      transportation, and biological effects of heavy metals in water bodies. The large
      amount of cadmium (Cd) carried by SS is an important source of Cd pollution in
      irrigation water. In this study, a novel procedure to remove trace Cd coexisting
      with SS from irrigation water by fertilizer flocculation was investigated. Four
      common fertilizers (K2HPO4, (NH4)2HPO4, KH2PO4, and K2SO4) were used as
      flocculants. Batch experiments with various fertilizers revealed that the removal
      efficiency followed the order: K2HPO4>(NH4)2HPO4>KH2PO4>K2SO4. When levels of
      K2HPO4 higher than 0.75g/L were applied, the total Cd decreased from 20 to
      3.8MUg/L after 12h of flocculation, i.e., the removal efficiency reached 80%. The
      mechanism analysis(Zeta potential, multi-element analysis) results demonstrated
      that the aggregation of SS and its sedimentation by K2HPO4 were due to the
      combined effect of the oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ and cation binding behavior
      towards SS, as a result of charge neutralization and electric double layer
      compression. This method of Cd removal from irrigation water is simple and has
      the potential to be applied in agricultural production.

PMID- 28575829
TI  - Comparative study of photocatalytic activities of Zn5(OH)8Cl2.H2O and ZnO
      nanostructures in ciprofloxacin degradation: Response surface methodology and
      kinetic studies.
AB  - Zinc hydroxide chloride monohydrate (Zn5(OH)8Cl2.H2O) and zinc oxide (ZnO)
      nanostructures were synthesized by simple precipitation and pyrolysis methods,
      respectively and characterized by means of various instrumental methods. Their
      photocatalytic efficiencies as two potential photocatalysts for photodegradation
      of a clinical wastewater, ciprofloxacin (CIP), were probed and compared. The
      results indicated that in comparison with Zn5(OH)8Cl2.H2O nanoplates, the
      photodegradation was 1.4 times faster when using ZnO nanoparticles as well as
      higher removal percentage. The optimum pH obtained was 8 that it is typically
      found for hospital wastewater. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) exhibited high R2
      values, high F-values, very low P-values, and non-significant lack of fit values
      demonstrating good correlation between experimental and predicted values of the
      response for both catalysts. Kinetic studies identified first order model as a
      suitable model for description of photodegradation processes for both nanosized
      Zn5(OH)8Cl2.H2O and ZnO. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 43.30 and
      56.30% were obtained after 24h for Zn5(OH)8Cl2.H2O nanoplates and ZnO
      nanoparticles, respectively. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography method
      coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) for the determination of CIP
      degradation products has been used. Taken together, ZnO nanoparticles were more
      efficient in CIP removal due to some properties as in higher surface area and
      lower band gap.

PMID- 28575830
TI  - Spatio-temporal variations in the areas suitable for the cultivation of rice and
      maize in China under future climate scenarios.
AB  - Predictions of changes in the distribution of areas suitable for the cultivation
      of rice and maize in China under future climate change scenarios may provide
      scientific support for the optimization of crop production and measures to
      mitigate climate change. We conducted a spatial grid-based analysis using
      projections of future climate generated by the National Center for Atmospheric
      Research Community Climate System Model version 4 for two representative
      concentration pathway scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5), adopted by the fifth phase
      of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to study the areas suitable for the
      cultivation of rice and maize in China. We investigated the migration of the
      centers of gravity of the cultivation areas based on climatic and hydrological
      factors from 2021 to 2100. The results indicated that, under RCP2.6, the areas
      suitable for the cultivation of rice were located throughout China, except for on
      the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, while the areas suitable for the cultivation of
      maize were located in northern, southwestern, central, eastern, parts of
      northeastern and some northern parts of western China. The distributions of both
      crops under RCP2.6 showed little change over time. In contrast, the areas
      suitable for the cultivation of rice and maize under RCP8.5 shifted northward and
      expanded from northwestern to northern China, as a result of greater warming in
      northern China and the faster warming trend under RCP8.5. This scenario would
      require much stronger climate mitigation policies to maintain the stable
      development of agriculture and to slow down the future migration of crop
      cultivation areas in China. The distribution of areas suitable for the
      cultivation of rice and maize should be studied further to design appropriate
      adaptation strategies for dealing with future climate change.

PMID- 28575831
TI  - Assessing the magnitude of potential environmental impacts related to water and
      toxicity in the Peruvian hyper-arid coast: A case study for the cultivation of
      grapes for pisco production.
AB  - The environmental sustainability of the cultivation of grapes for the production
      of alcoholic beverages has been extensively analyzed in the literature from a
      Life Cycle Assessment perspective, although certain impact categories have been
      repeatedly neglected despite their importance, such as toxic emissions or the
      depletion of freshwater resources. Hence, the current study provides a detailed
      assessment of water footprint-related impact categories, including toxicity, for
      the cultivation of grapes for pisco production, an alcoholic beverage produced in
      coastal Peru in hyper-arid areas that suffer high levels of water scarcity.
      Characterization factors at a sub-watershed level were used to calculate water
      consumption impact assessment of grape production using the AWARE method. Site
      specific toxic emissions were modelled using the PestLCI model, considering
      primary climate and soil data. The USEtox assessment method was then used to
      compute freshwater eco-toxicity with these data. Results demonstrate the high
      water footprint of irrigating vineyards in coastal Peru, especially considering
      the inefficient flooding irrigation process. In terms of water consumption,
      despite the high variability shown between sub-watersheds, the shift to other
      irrigation technologies must be analyzed with care due to the high competition
      for water existing in the area. Eutrophication potential showed particularly high
      values compared to the literature, whereas freshwater eco-toxicity impacts were
      relatively low due to the high volatilization of pesticides to air. Nevertheless,
      the lack of an adequate wastewater management system implies that the estimated
      potential toxic and eutrophying emissions may constitute a further environmental
      threat to water bodies.

PMID- 28575832
TI  - Estimates of water and solute release from a coal waste rock dump in the Elk
      Valley, British Columbia, Canada.
AB  - Long term (1999 to 2014) flow and water quality data from a rock drain located at
      the base of a coal waste rock dump constructed in the Elk Valley, British
      Columbia was used to characterize the release of three solutes (NO3-, Cl- and
      SO42-) from the dump and obtain whole dump estimates of net percolation (NP). The
      concentrations of dump derived solutes in the rock drain water were diluted by
      snowmelt waters from the adjacent natural watershed during the spring freshet and
      reached a maximum concentration during the winter baseflow period. Historical
      peak baseflow concentrations of conservative ions (NO3- and Cl-) increased until
      2006/07 after which they decreased. This decrease was attributed to completion of
      the flushing of the first pore volume of water stored within the dump. The
      baseflow SO42- concentrations increased proportionally with NO3- and Cl- to 2007,
      but then continued to slowly increase as NO3- and Cl- concentrations decreased.
      This was attributed to ongoing production of SO42- due to oxidation of sulfide
      minerals within the dump. Based on partitioning of the annual volume of water
      discharged from the rock drain to waste rock effluent (NP) and water entering the
      rock drain laterally from the natural watershed, the mean NP values were
      estimated to be 446+/-50mm/a (area normalized net percolation/year) for the dump
      and 172+/-71mm/a for the natural watershed. The difference was attributed to
      greater rates of recharge in the dump from summer precipitation compared to the
      natural watershed where rainfall interception and enhanced evapotranspiration
      will increase water losses. These estimates included water moving through
      subsurface pathways. However, given the limitations in quantifying these flows
      the estimated NP rates for both the natural watershed and the waste rock dump are
      considered to be low, and could be much higher (e.g. ~450mm/a and ~800mm/a).

PMID- 28575833
TI  - Source apportionment and health risk assessment among specific age groups during
      haze and non-haze episodes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
AB  - This study aims to determine PM2.5 concentrations and their composition during
      haze and non-haze episodes in Kuala Lumpur. In order to investigate the origin of
      the measured air masses, the Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling
      Environment (NAME) and Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) were applied.
      Source apportionment of PM2.5 was determined using Positive Matrix Factorization
      (PMF). The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks were estimated using
      the United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) method. PM2.5 samples
      were collected from the centre of the city using a high-volume air sampler (HVS).
      The results showed that the mean PM2.5 concentrations collected during pre-haze,
      haze and post-haze periods were 24.5+/-12.0MUgm-3, 72.3+/-38.0MUgm-3 and 14.3+/
      3.58MUgm-3, respectively. The highest concentration of PM2.5 during haze episode
      was five times higher than World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. Inorganic
      compositions of PM2.5, including trace elements and water soluble ions were
      determined using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ion
      chromatography (IC), respectively. The major trace elements identified were K,
      Al, Ca, Mg and Fe which accounted for approximately 93%, 91% and 92% of the
      overall metals' portions recorded during pre-haze, haze and post-haze periods,
      respectively. For water-soluble ions, secondary inorganic aerosols (SO42-, NO3-
      and NH4+) contributed around 12%, 43% and 16% of the overall PM2.5 mass during
      pre-haze, haze and post-haze periods, respectively. During haze periods, the
      predominant source identified using PMF was secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA) and
      biomass burning where the NAME simulations indicate the importance of fires in
      Sumatra, Indonesia. The main source during pre-haze and post-haze were mix SIA
      and road dust as well as mineral dust, respectively. The highest non-carcinogenic
      health risk during haze episode was estimated among the infant group (HI=1.06)
      while the highest carcinogenic health risk was estimated among the adult group
      (2.27*10-5).

PMID- 28575834
TI  - Measuring adaptive capacity of urban wastewater infrastructure - Change impact
      and change propagation.
AB  - The ability of urban wastewater systems to adapt and transform as a response to
      change is an integral part of sustainable development. This requires technology
      and infrastructure that can be adapted to new operational challenges. In this
      study the adaptive capacity of urban wastewater systems is evaluated by assessing
      the interdependencies between system components. In interdependent and therefore
      tightly coupled systems, changes to one systems component will require alteration
      elsewhere in the system, therefore impairing the capacity of these systems to be
      changed. The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology to evaluate the
      adaptive capacity of urban wastewater systems by assessing how change drivers and
      innovation affect existing wastewater technology and infrastructure. The
      methodology comprises 7 steps and applies a change impact table and a design
      structure matrix that are completed by experts during workshops. Change impact
      tables quantify where change drivers, such as energy neutrality and resource
      recovery, require innovation in a system. The design structure matrix is a tool
      to quantify "emerging changes" that are a result of the innovation. The method is
      applied for the change driver of energy neutrality and shown for two innovations:
      a decentralised upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor followed by an anammox
      process and a conventional activated sludge treatment with enhanced chemical
      precipitation and high temperature-high pressure hydrolysis. The results show
      that the energy neutrality of wastewater systems can be address by either
      innovation in the decentralised or centralised treatment. The quantification of
      the emerging changes for both innovations indicates that the decentralised
      treatment is more disruptive, or in other words, the system needs to undergo more
      adaptation. It is concluded that the change impact and change propagation method
      can be used to characterise and quantify the technological or infrastructural
      transformations. In addition, it provides insight into the stakeholders affected
      by change.

PMID- 28575835
TI  - A review on effectiveness of best management practices in improving hydrology and
      water quality: Needs and opportunities.
AB  - Best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to address hydrology and
      water quality issues in both agricultural and urban areas. Increasing numbers of
      BMPs have been studied in research projects and implemented in watershed
      management projects, but a gap remains in quantifying their effectiveness through
      time. In this paper, we review the current knowledge about BMP efficiencies,
      which indicates that most empirical studies have focused on short-term
      efficiencies, while few have explored long-term efficiencies. Most simulation
      efforts that consider BMPs assume constant performance irrespective of ages of
      the practices, generally based on anticipated maintenance activities or the
      expected performance over the life of the BMP(s). However, efficiencies of BMPs
      likely change over time irrespective of maintenance due to factors such as
      degradation of structures and accumulation of pollutants. Generally, the impacts
      of BMPs implemented in water quality protection programs at watershed levels have
      not been as rapid or large as expected, possibly due to overly high expectations
      for practice long-term efficiency, with BMPs even being sources of pollutants
      under some conditions and during some time periods. The review of available
      datasets reveals that current data are limited regarding both short-term and long
      term BMP efficiency. Based on this review, this paper provides suggestions
      regarding needs and opportunities. Existing practice efficiency data need to be
      compiled. New data on BMP efficiencies that consider important factors, such as
      maintenance activities, also need to be collected. Then, the existing and new
      data need to be analyzed. Further research is needed to create a framework, as
      well as modeling approaches built on the framework, to simulate changes in BMP
      efficiencies with time. The research community needs to work together in
      addressing these needs and opportunities, which will assist decision makers in
      formulating better decisions regarding BMP implementation in watershed management
      projects.

PMID- 28575836
TI  - Supporting local farming communities and crop production resilience to climate
      change through giant reed (Arundo donax L.) cultivation: An Italian case study.
AB  - Bioenergy crops are well known for their ability to reduce greenhouse gas
      emissions and increase the soil carbon stock. Although such crops are often held
      to be in competition with food crops and thus raise the question of current and
      future food security, at the same time mitigation measures are required to tackle
      climate change and sustain local farming communities and crop production.
      However, in some cases the actions envisaged for specific pedo-climatic
      conditions are not always economically sustainable by farmers. In this frame,
      energy crops with high environmental adaptability and yields, such as giant reed
      (Arundo donax L.), may represent an opportunity to improve farm incomes, making
      marginal areas not suitable for food production once again productive. In so
      doing, three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations
      would be met, namely SDG 2 on food security and sustainable agriculture, SDG 7 on
      reliable, sustainable and modern energy, and SDG 13 on action to combat climate
      change and its impacts. In this work, the response of giant reed in the marginal
      areas of an agricultural district of southern Italy (Destra Sele) and expected
      farm incomes under climate change (2021-2050) are evaluated. The normalized water
      productivity index of giant reed was determined (WP; 30.1gm-2) by means of a SWAP
      agro-hydrological model, calibrated and validated on two years of a long-term
      field experiment. The model was used to estimate giant reed response (biomass
      yield) in marginal areas under climate change, and economic evaluation was
      performed to determine expected farm incomes (woodchips and chopped forage). The
      results show that woodchip production represents the most profitable option for
      farmers, yielding a gross margin 50% lower than ordinary high-input maize
      cultivation across the study area.

PMID- 28575837
TI  - Adaptation of microbial community of the anode biofilm in microbial fuel cells to
      temperature.
AB  - Temperature as an important ecological factor affects biofilm development and
      microbial metabolic activity. Here, the performances and microbial communities of
      microbial fuel cells (MFCs) at different temperature were analyzed. As the
      temperature decreased, the power output of MFCs declined. A maximum power density
      of 894.3+/-48.6mW/m2 was obtained in MFCs operating at 30 degrees C, which was
      18.5% and 64.5% higher than that in MFCs at 20 degrees C and 10 degrees C,
      respectively. Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons showed that a
      distinct difference in microbial community structure of the anode biofilms
      occurred. This resulted in different power outputs of MFCs. Species diversity
      analyses indicated that species evenness of the anode biofilms shifted beyond
      species richness at different temperatures. The predominant populations of the
      anode biofilm shifted from Geobacter and Azonexus (30 degrees C) to Pelobacter
      (20 degrees C) or Acidovorax, Zoogloea and Simplicispira, (10 degrees C). These
      results indicate that temperature plays an important role in shaping microbial
      communities of the anode biofilms in MFCs through changes in species evenness.

PMID- 28575838
TI  - Biofilm promoted current generation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa microbial fuel cell
      via improving the interfacial redox reaction of phenazines.
AB  - Bacteria biofilm plays a key role in current generation of microbial fuel cells
      (MFCs), especially for the start-up stage. However, the detailed mechanism of the
      biofilm promoting the power generation is not very clear so far, especially for
      those exoelectrogens who rely on the self-excreted electron mediators for
      extracellular electron transfer. In this work, a biofilm formation inhibitor
      sodium houttuyfonate (SH) is used to build a "non-biofilm" anode of Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) without affecting the bacteria growth during the MFC
      operation. According to the comparison results of the "non-biofilm" anode and
      biofilm-covered anode on current generation, phenazines concentration variation
      and anodic electrocatalysis, the biofilm on the anode not only provides plenty of
      bacterial cells for catalysis but also promotes the interfacial phenazine redox
      reaction through accumulating the self-generated mediators on anode for fast
      interfacial electron transfer. This work proves that the biofilm assisted
      electron mediator accumulation will benefit such kind of exoelectrogens to
      sustain sufficient electron mediators for extracellular electron transfer.

PMID- 28575839
TI  - Physiological and biochemical assisted screening of wheat varieties under partial
      rhizosphere drying.
AB  - Wheat is one of the major staple food of the world, which is badly affected by
      water deficit stress. To fulfill the dietary needs of increasing population with
      depleting water resources there is need to adopt technologies which result in
      sufficient crop yield with less water consumption. One of them is partial root
      zone drying (PRD). Keeping in view these conditions, a wire house experiment was
      conducted at University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The
      Islamia University Bahawalpur during 2015, to screen out the different wheat
      genotypes for PRD. Five approved local wheat cultivars (V1= Galaxy-2013, V2=
      Punjab-2011, V3 = Faisalabad-2008, V4 = Lasani-2008 and V5 = V.8200) and two
      irrigation levels (I1 = control irrigation and I2 = PRD irrigation) with
      completely randomized design having four replications were used in the
      experiment. Among the varieties Galaxy-2013 performed the best and attained
      maximum plant height, leaf area, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, total
      sugars, proline contents and antioxidant enzymes activities and minimum values of
      all growth and physiological parameters were recorded in variety V.8200. For
      irrigation levels, higher values of growth, physiological and water related
      parameters were recorded in control treatment (I1) except leaf water potential,
      osmotic potential, total sugars and proline contents. However enzymes activities
      were higher under PRD treatment for all varieties. It was concluded that Galaxy
      2013 was the most compatible and V.8200 was the most susceptible variety under
      PRD condition, respectively and more quality traits and enzymatic activities were
      recorded under PRD condition as compared to control treatment.

PMID- 28575840
TI  - Typing DNA profiles from previously enhanced fingerprints using direct PCR.
AB  - Fingermarks are a source of human identification both through the ridge patterns
      and DNA profiling. Typing nuclear STR DNA markers from previously enhanced
      fingermarks provides an alternative method of utilising the limited fingermark
      deposit that can be left behind during a criminal act. Dusting with fingerprint
      powders is a standard method used in classical fingermark enhancement and can
      affect DNA data. The ability to generate informative DNA profiles from powdered
      fingerprints using direct PCR swabs was investigated. Direct PCR was used as the
      opportunity to generate usable DNA profiles after performing any of the standard
      DNA extraction processes is minimal. Omitting the extraction step will, for many
      samples, be the key to success if there is limited sample DNA. DNA profiles were
      generated by direct PCR from 160 fingermarks after treatment with one of the
      following dactyloscopic fingerprint powders: white hadonite; silver aluminium;
      HiFi Volcano silk black; or black magnetic fingerprint powder. This was achieved
      by a combination of an optimised double-swabbing technique and swab media,
      omission of the extraction step to minimise loss of critical low-template DNA,
      and additional AmpliTaq Gold(r) DNA polymerase to boost the PCR. Ninety eight out
      of 160 samples (61%) were considered 'up-loadable' to the Australian National
      Criminal Investigation DNA Database (NCIDD). The method described required a
      minimum of working steps, equipment and reagents, and was completed within 4h.
      Direct PCR allows the generation of DNA profiles from enhanced prints without the
      need to increase PCR cycle numbers beyond manufacturer's recommendations.
      Particular emphasis was placed on preventing contamination by applying strict
      protocols and avoiding the use of previously used fingerprint brushes. Based on
      this extensive survey, the data provided indicate minimal effects of any of these
      four powders on the chance of obtaining DNA profiles from enhanced fingermarks.

PMID- 28575842
TI  - Correction for Barka et al., Taxonomy, Physiology, and Natural Products of
      Actinobacteria.

PMID- 28575869
TI  - The relationship between tumor markers and pulmonary embolism in lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor markers (TMs) and D-Dimer are both hallmarks of severity and
      prognosis of lung cancer. Tumor markers could be related to pulmonary embolism
      (PE) in lung cancer. RESULTS: The number of abnormal tumor markers of lung cancer
      patients with pulmonary embolism (3.9 +/- 1.1vs1.6 +/- 0.6,P 0.005) was more than
      that in patients without pulmonary embolism. TMs panel (P trend < 0.001), CEA (R2
      0.735, P0.003) and CYFRA21-1 (R2 0.718, P0.005) were positively correlated with D
      Dimer in patients with pulmonary embolism. The multivariate logistic regression
      analysis showed that, for tumor markers, TMs panel (OR5.98, P < 0.001) had the
      strongest correlation with pulmonary embolism. The AUC (area under curve) of TMs
      panel and CEA were 0.82 [95%CI (0.71-0.95), P < 0.001] and 0.71 [95%CI (0.62
      0.84), P 0.002] by ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve analysis,
      respectively. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tumor markers were compared between lung
      cancer patients complicated with pulmonary embolism and those without pulmonary
      embolism Then the correlation between each tumor marker as well as panel of
      combined TMs and D-Dimer as well as pulmonary embolism were analyzed for patients
      with pulmonary embolism. CONCLUSIONS: There is a relationship between tumor
      markers and pulmonary embolism in patients with lung cancer. The panel of
      combined tumor markers is a valuable diagnostic marker for pulmonary embolism in
      lung cancer.

PMID- 28575877
TI  - Drug-induced Nephrotoxicity and Medicinal Plants.
AB  - Drug-induced nephrotoxicity is one of the most common causes of acute kidney
      injury. There are various agents that exert nephrotoxic effects through different
      pathogenic mechanisms. Aminoglycoside antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents,
      radiocontrast media, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are among common
      nephrotoxic agents. In recent years, natural compounds are being increasingly
      used in the treatment of kidney diseases. Given many reports available on the
      curative effects of a variety of medicinal plants against drug-associated
      nephrotoxicity, we aimed to review the protective effects of medicinal plants on
      certain nephrotoxic drugs.

PMID- 28575878
TI  - Kidney Calculi: Pathophysiology and as a Systemic Disorder.
AB  - The pathophysiology of urinary stone formation is complex, involving a
      combination of metabolic, genetic, and environmental factors. Over the past
      decades, remarkable advances have been emerged in the understanding of the
      pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of calcium kidney calculi. For this
      review, both original and review articles were found via PubMed search on
      pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of urinary calculi. These resources
      were integrated with the authors' knowledge of the field. Nephrolithiasis is
      suggested to be associated with systemic disorders, including chronic kidney
      insufficiency, hematologic malignancies, endocrine disorders, autoimmune
      diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, bone loss and fractures, hypertension,
      type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and vascular diseases like coronary
      heart diseases and most recently ischemic strokes. This is changing the
      perspective of nephrolithiasis from an isolated disorder to a systemic disease
      that justifies further research in understanding the underlying mechanisms and
      elaborating diagnostic-therapeutic options.

PMID- 28575879
TI  - Changes in Kidney Function in a Population With Essential Hypertension in Real
      Life Settings.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hypertension has been identified as one of the commonest modifiable
      determinants for chronic kidney disease progression. A variety of
      antihypertensive drugs are available and their effect on kidney function has been
      investigated by a large number of randomized controlled trials. Observational
      studies, although scarcely been used, outpatient can reflect everyday practice,
      where drug exposures vary over time, and may provide an alternative for detecting
      longitudinal changes in kidney function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We applied mixed
      model repeated measures analysis to investigate the effect of antihypertensive
      drug categories and their combinations on kidney function change over time in a
      cohort of 779 patients with essential hypertension, using the data from a Greek
      hypertension outpatient clinic. Antihypertensive drugs were grouped in 5
      categories. Their effect was evaluated and their combinations with and without
      renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors (RASI) to each other. In addition, the
      combination of RASI with calcium channel blockers (CCBs) was studied. RESULTS:
      Diuretics, RASI, CCBs, and beta-blockers had a significant renoprotective and
      blood pressure lowering effect. Combinations with RASI had a smaller beneficial
      effect on kidney function compared to CCBs (0.75 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year of drug
      use versus 0.97 mL/min/1.73 m2). There was no additional effect when combining
      RASI with CCBs. However, the lowering effect on systolic blood pressure was
      greater (-0.83 mm Hg per year of drug use, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: RASI were
      found to have a smaller, although significant, renoprotective effect. There was
      no additional effect on kidney function when combining RASI with CCBs.

PMID- 28575880
TI  - Urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase-associated Lipocalin as a Biomarker of Kidney
      Injury in Hematologic-Oncologic Patients Receiving Amphotericin B.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to compare the changing pattern of
      urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) with serum as well as
      urine creatinine during amphotericin B treatment and determine its accuracy in
      the early detection of amphotericin B nephrotoxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      cohort study was performed during 9 months at 3 hematology-oncology services.
      Patients aged 15 years and greater with no documented history of acute kidney
      injury or chronic kidney disease, planned to receive any formulation of
      amphotericin B for at least 1 week, were included. Serum as well as urine
      creatinine and urine NGAL were determined on days zero, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 of
      amphotericin B treatment. RESULTS: Forty patients with the mean age of 38.0 +/-
      14.1 years were recruited. Eleven of 40 patients (27.5%) developed amphotericin B
      nephrotoxicity. The overall changes in the mean values of urine NGAL were not
      significant during amphotericin B treatment, neither within nor between the two
      groups. The area under the curve of urine NGAL (0.765; 95% confidence interval,
      0.588 to 0.962) on day zero was significantly higher than that of serum
      creatinine (0.464; 95% confidence interval, 0.268 to 0.660; P = .01) for
      predicting amphotericin nephrotoxicity. CONCLUSIONS: The incremental pattern of
      urine NGAL during amphotericin B treatment was not significant compared to
      baseline values. The urine level of NGAL on the first day of amphotericin B
      administration was more accurate than serum creatinine in predicting acute kidney
      injury caused by this agent.

PMID- 28575881
TI  - Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis of Urinary Calculi and Metabolic Studies in a
      Group of Sicilian Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of urinary calculi in children has been increasing in
      the past years. We performed an analysis of the chemical composition of stones
      formers of the pediatric population in our geographical area over the years 2005
      to 2013. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was
      employed for the determination of the calculus composition of a group of Sicilian
      children, and metabolic studies were performed to formulate the correct diagnosis
      and establish therapy. RESULTS: The prevalence of stone formation was much higher
      for boys than for girls, with a sex ratio of 1.9:1. The single most frequent
      component was found to be calcium oxalate monohydrate, and calcium oxalates (pure
      or mixed calculi) were the overall most frequent components. Calcium phosphates
      ranked 2nd for frequency, most often in mixed calculi, while urates ranked 3rd.
      The metabolic disorder most often associated with pure calcium oxalate
      monohydrate calculi was hypocitraturia, while hyperoxaluria was predominantly
      associated with calcium oxalate dihydrate calculi. CONCLUSIONS: Mixed calculi had
      the highest prevalence in our pediatric population. Our data showed that Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy was a useful tool for the determination of the
      calculi composition.

PMID- 28575882
TI  - Relationship Between Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Gene Polymorphism and QT
      Dispersion in Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion or deletion
      in long-term hemodialysis patients may be associated with corrected QT interval
      prolongation, leading to fatal arrhythmias. The ACE D allele is known to increase
      the risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias and is also associated with
      increased QT dispersion after myocardial infarction and hypertension. This study
      aimed to evaluate the relationship between ACE gene polymorphism and QT
      dispersion in hemodialysis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 70 hemodialysis
      patients, electrocardiography was performed and QT dispersion was calculated.
      Corrected QT interval was calculated using Bazett Formula. The ACE gene
      polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The mean age
      of the patients was 60 +/- 12 years. The mean QT dispersion and corrected QT
      dispersion were 61.71 +/- 21.99 and 73.18 +/- 25.51, respectively. QT dispersion
      inversely correlated with serum calcium and potassium levels and positively
      correlated with ACE gene polymorphism and residual urine. Calcium level was the
      predictor factor for QT dispersion. The ACE genotype correlated with QT
      dispersion, corrected QT dispersion, hemoglobin, and residual urine, and
      inversely correlated with serum potassium. Corrected QT dispersion correlated
      with ACE gene polymorphism and residual urine. The DD genotype of ACE had
      significally greater QT dispersion and corrected QT dispersion than the II and ID
      genotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that the most important parameter
      affecting corrected QT dispersion was ACE gene polymorphism on the background of
      D allelle. Patients carrying this allelle need special attention regarding
      optimal suppression of renin-angiotensin-aldosteron system activity.

PMID- 28575883
TI  - Effects of Erythropoiesis-stimulating Agents on Intestinal Flora in Peritoneal
      Fibrosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate the effects of erythropoiesis
      stimulating agents (ESAs) on intestinal flora in peritoneal fibrosis. METHODS AND
      METHODS: Twenty-four Wistar albino rats were divided into 3 groups as the control
      group, which received 0.9% saline (3 mL/d) intraperitoneally; the chlorhexidine
      gluconate (CH) group, which received 3 mL/d injections of 0.1% CH
      intraperitoneally, and the ESA group, which received 3 mL/d injections of 0.1% CH
      intraperitoneally and epoetin beta (3 doses of 20 IU/kg/wk) subcutaneously. On
      the 21st day, the rats were sacrificed and the visceral peritoneum samples were
      obtained from left liver bowel. Blood samples were obtained from abdominal aorta
      and intestinal flora samples were obtained from transverse colon. RESULTS:
      Histopathologically, the CH, ESA, and control groups had peritoneal thickness of
      135.4 +/- 22.2 um, 48.6 +/- 12.8 um, and 6.0 +/- 2.3 um, respectively.
      Escherichia coli was the predominant bacterium in the intestinal flora in the
      control group. Significant changes in microbial composition of intestinal flora
      towards Proteus species and Enterobacter species was seen among the groups (P <
      .001). There was no significant difference between the ESA and CH groups
      regarding the isolates from blood cultures. However, the bacterial isolates from
      cultures of intestinal flora among these groups were significantly different (P <
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents change intestinal flora by a
      clinically significant amount in experimental peritoneal fibrosis. We consider
      that ESAs achieve this via regulating intestinal peristaltism.

PMID- 28575884
TI  - Predictors of Clinical Outcomes in Hemodialysis Patients: a Multicenter
      Observational Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular and noncardiovascular mortality and morbidity rates
      of hemodialysis patients are high despite improvement in dialysis delivery.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hemodialysis patients (n = 532) from 9 hemodialysis
      facilities were enrolled in this cohort study in September 2012. Causes of death,
      hospitalization, and hemodialysis exit were recorded during a 28-month follow-up
      period. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to predict death adjusting for
      case-mix variables, nutrition variables, bone mineral variables, Kt/V, vascular
      access, and Charlson comorbidities index. RESULTS: Patients were 56.0 +/- 15.4
      years old (57% men). A total of 161 patients (30%) died (17 per 100 patient
      years), and the most common causes of death were cardiovascular diseases (42%)
      and infections (25%). Transplantation rate was 7 per 100 patient years and
      hospitalization frequency was 0.76 per patient year. Based on the multivariable
      Cox proportional hazard model, the mortality hazard ratio was 1.03 (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.05; P = .007) for age (years), 0.21 (95% CI,
      0.11 to 0.40; P < .001) for serum albumin (g/dL), 1.21 (95% CI, 1.03 to 1.42; P =
      .02) for serum phosphorus (mg/dL), 1.001 (95% CI, 1.0005 to 1.002; P = .001) for
      serum intact parathyroid hormone (pg/mL), 1.58 (95% CI, 1.01 to 2.51; P = .047)
      for hemodialysis catheter (compared to arteriovenous fistula), and 1.75 (95% CI,
      1.59 to 1.94; P < .001) for the Charlson score. CONCLUSIONS: Nutritional factors,
      comorbidities, vascular access, and abnormal mineral metabolism are the main
      determinants of mortality and morbidity in hemodialysis patients.

PMID- 28575885
TI  - Helicobacter pylori Eradication With Levofloxacin or Clarithromycin in Dialysis
      Versus Nonuremic Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Various medication regimens have been used to eradicate
      Helicobacter pylori in dialysis patients; however, optimal response to treatment
      is still a challenge. This study aimed to compare response to H pylori
      eradication in dialysis and nonuremic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a
      randomized controlled trial, dialysis patients with dyspepsia and confirmed
      positive endoscopic biopsy for H pylori were compared to nonuremic patients.
      Participants were randomly assigned to receive clarithromycin or levofloxacin. H
      pylori eradication was assessed using stool antigen test 4 weeks later. RESULTS:
      Forty-four dialysis and 44 nonuremic patients participated in the study. Four
      dialysis patients and 2 nonuremic patients did not respond to levofloxacin (P =
      .35). Six dialysis patients and 4 nonuremic patients did not respond to
      clarithromycin (P = .47). CONCLUSIONS: Response rate to H pylori eradication by
      clarithromycin and levofloxacin was slightly lower in dialysis patients compare
      to nonuremic patients. In dialysis patients, response rate to levofloxacin was
      slightly higher than clarithromycin, but the results were not significantly
      different.

PMID- 28575886
TI  - Role of Donors and Recipients' Glutathione S-Transferase Gene Polymorphisms in
      Association of Oxidative Stress With Delayed Graft Function in Kidney Allograft
      Recipients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Oxidative stress contributes to delayed graft function (DGF).
      Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are polymorphic genes which produce enzymes
      with protective effect against oxidative stress. This study aimed to investigate
      the association between donors' and recipients' GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms and
      DGF, creatinine clearance, and oxidative stress parameters in kidney allograft
      recipients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and eighty-two donor-recipient
      pairs were studied. Lipid peroxidation and total antioxidant capacity were
      measured in the recipients' plasma as the parameters of oxidative stress. Delayed
      graft function was determined based on at least 10% increase, no change, or less
      than 10% decrease in the serum creatinine level in 3 consecutive days during the
      1st week after transplantation. RESULTS: Lipid peroxidation was significantly
      greater in the recipients with DGF (P < .001). The frequency of GSTM1 null was
      significantly higher in the patients with DGF (odds ratio [OR], 0.38; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 0.17 to 0.86; P = .02). There was also a significant
      association between the donors' GSTM1 polymorphism and DGF (OR, 0.31; 95% CI,
      0.14 to 0.68; P = .003). A significant association was detected between
      combination of recipients and donors' GSTM1 polymorphism and DGF (OR, 0.20; 95%
      CI, 0.07 to 0.64, P = .006). The recipients' GSTM1 polymorphism, alone and in
      combination with donors' GSTM1 and GSTT1, significantly affected the creatinine
      clearance on discharge day. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the donors
      and recipients' GSTM1 polymorphism may be a major risk factor for oxidative
      stress and poor kidney allograft transplantation outcomes.

PMID- 28575887
TI  - Glomerulonephritis as a Type of Kidney Injury in Multiple Myeloma: a Report of 2
      Cases.
AB  - Renal involvement in multiple myeloma has multiple etiologies. Glomerulonephritis
      rarely occurs in multiple myeloma and numerous case reports in the literature
      explain their correlation. We report 2 cases of glomerulonephritis, one
      membranous glomerulonephritis and the other focal segmental glomerulosclerosis,
      in which multiple myeloma was confirmed after several months in the first case
      and synchronous with the second. Glomerulonephritis can be an uncommon, but not
      rare, cause of proteinuria in multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28575888
TI  - Renal Involvement in 2 Siblings With Cockayne Syndrome.
AB  - Renal involvement in Cockayne syndrome is rare and its pathogenesis is yet
      unknown. We report herein 2 cases (siblings) with Cockayne syndrome type A
      confirmed by biochemical and molecular assays. The first case was a 13-year-old
      girl who presented with nephritic syndrome and a rapidly progressive kidney
      failure. Her younger sister, 7 years old, exhibited hypertension,
      hyperfiltration, and microalbuminuria. She had hyperreninemia and
      hyperaldosteronemia without kidney failure or renal arterial stenosis. Renal
      biopsy, performed the older sister, revealed cystic focal segmental
      glomerulosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, tubulointerstitial fibrosis, and tubular
      atrophy. The different clinical phenotypes in the two siblings support the
      absence of an obvious genotype-phenotype correlation in Cockayne syndrome type A
      patients. In the older sister, the particular focal glomerular sclerosis and
      senile lesions assume that kidney disease in Cockayne syndrome may be related to
      prematurely aging secondary to a defective nucleotide repair.

PMID- 28575889
TI  - A Very Unique Case of Boric Acid Intoxication With Very High-magnitude
      Rhabdomyolysis.

PMID- 28575890
TI  - Familial unilateral carpal bone dysplasia in mother and daughter.

PMID- 28575891
TI  - Using Simulation as an Investigational Methodology to Explore the Impact of
      Technology on Team Communication and Patient Management: A Pilot Evaluation of
      the Effect of an Automated Compression Device.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This pilot study used a simulation-based platform to evaluate the
      effect of an automated mechanical chest compression device on team communication
      and patient management. METHODS: Four-member emergency department
      interprofessional teams were randomly assigned to perform manual chest
      compressions (control, n = 6) or automated chest compressions (intervention, n =
      6) during a simulated cardiac arrest with 2 phases: phase 1 baseline (ventricular
      tachycardia), followed by phase 2 (ventricular fibrillation). Patient management
      was coded using an Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support-based checklist. Team
      communication was categorized in the following 4 areas: (1) teamwork focus; (2)
      huddle events, defined as statements focused on re-establishing situation
      awareness, reinforcing existing plans, and assessing the need to adjust the plan;
      (3) clinical focus; and (4) profession of team member. Statements were aggregated
      for each team. RESULTS: At baseline, groups were similar with respect to total
      communication statements and patient management. During cardiac arrest, the total
      number of communication statements was greater in teams performing manual
      compressions (median, 152.3; interquartile range [IQR], 127.6-181.0) as compared
      with teams using an automated compression device (median, 105; IQR, 99.5-123.9).
      Huddle events were more frequent in teams performing automated chest compressions
      (median, 4.0; IQR, 3.1-4.3 vs. 2.0; IQR, 1.4-2.6). Teams randomized to the
      automated compression intervention had a delay to initial defibrillation (median,
      208.3 seconds; IQR, 153.3-222.1 seconds) as compared with control teams (median,
      63.2 seconds; IQR, 30.1-397.2 seconds). CONCLUSIONS: Use of an automated
      compression device may impact both team communication and patient management.
      Simulation-based assessments offer important insights into the effect of
      technology on healthcare teams.

PMID- 28575893
TI  - Abstracts to be Presented at the 17th Annual International Meeting on Simulation
      in Healthcare: January 28th - February 1st, 2017 Orlando, FL: Erratum.

PMID- 28575892
TI  - Evaluation of a Vibrotactile Simulator for Dental Caries Detection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Developed to educate dental students in caries detection, the
      VerroTeach simulator allows dental faculty to share, record, and replay the
      tactile vibrations felt through a dental hand instrument. We assessed this
      simulation approach by asking experienced dental educators to evaluate the
      system's real-time and video playback modes. METHODS: VerroTeach uses an
      accelerometer to sense instrument vibrations and a voice coil actuator to
      reproduce these vibrations on another tool. Seventeen dental faculty participated
      in the study, first experiencing real-time mode by feeling vibrations while the
      experimenter touched extracted teeth. The subject then experienced vibrotactile
      playback of 5 prerecorded caries detection tasks and 1 prerecorded caries
      extraction procedure, making 10 total caries judgments and repeatedly rating the
      system's perceptual accuracy. RESULTS: Dental educators rated caries detection as
      significantly more difficult for students than experienced dentists (P < 0.0001),
      and they rated tactile feedback as a highly important source of information for
      this judgment. Subjects highly rated the realism of both real-time mode and
      playback mode. Experienced dentists performed well on the simulator, answering
      most questions correctly. Interestingly, nonpracticing dentists performed
      significantly worse than practicing dentists on the caries judgment questions (P
      = 0.003). Finally, subjects strongly recommended the system for training dental
      students. CONCLUSIONS: These positive results indicate that sharing, recording,
      and replaying instrument vibrations may be beneficial for teaching caries
      detection to dental students. Further research is planned to improve tactile
      feedback quality, integrate VerroTeach into the preclinical curriculum, and
      explore other possible applications for this approach to clinical simulation.

PMID- 28575894
TI  - Confounders, Mediators, or Colliders: What Types of Shared Covariates Does a
      Sibling Comparison Design Control For?
AB  - The sibling comparison design is an important epidemiologic tool to control for
      unmeasured confounding, in studies of the causal effect of an exposure on an
      outcome. It is routinely argued that within-family associations are automatically
      controlled for all measured and unmeasured covariates that are shared (constant)
      within sets of siblings, such as early childhood environment and parental genetic
      makeup. However, an important lesson from modern causal inference theory is that
      not all types of covariate control are desirable. In particular, it has been
      argued that collider control always leads to bias, and that mediator control may
      or may not lead to bias, depending on the research question. In this article, we
      use directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) to distinguish between shared confounders,
      shared mediators and shared colliders, and we examine which of these shared
      covariates the sibling comparison design really controls for.

PMID- 28575895
TI  - Can Collider Bias Explain Paradoxical Associations?

PMID- 28575896
TI  - Pirfenidone and Nintedanib for Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is one of the most common entities of the family of
      disorders known as the interstitial lung diseases. It is a chronic, progressive,
      and often-fatal disease with a median survival time of 3 to 5 years. In 2014 the
      US Food and Drug Administration approved pirfenidone and nintedanib, two
      antifibrotic agents for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Because
      these are the only drugs approved that can alter the course of this rare but
      fatal disease, this article reviews the major studies that led to the approval of
      these drugs and examines the indications for treatment and the expected outcomes
      of therapy.

PMID- 28575897
TI  - Effect of Diet Liberalization on Bowel Preparation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Precolonoscopy dietary regimens often are restricted to clear
      liquids; however, the superiority of a clear liquid diet (CLD) for bowel
      preparation quality is ambiguous. We performed a meta-analysis of randomized
      trials comparing bowel preparation outcomes between a low-residue diet (LRD) or
      regular diet (RD) compared with a CLD. METHODS: MEDLINE, clinicaltrials.gov,
      Cochrane Central Register, Scopus, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied
      Health Literature, and the Web of Science databases were used to conduct a search
      for randomized controlled trials from 1976 to March 2015. Of 122 relevant
      references, 12 studies met our inclusion criteria, 7 studies of which were
      classified as being of high quality. Pooled estimates of bowel preparation
      quality were defined as adequate versus inadequate. Secondary outcomes included
      tolerability, willingness to repeat bowel preparation, adverse events, and
      adenoma detection rate. Pooled estimates of relative risk (RR) were used for
      dichotomous variables and standardized mean difference for continuous variables.
      RESULTS: In the high-quality studies, there were no differences in bowel
      preparation quality among the LRD/RD and CLD groups (RR 0.98; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.93-1.04). Analysis of secondary outcomes included all of the
      studies. Tolerability (RR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.08) and willingness to repeat
      favored the liberalized diet arm (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.16). There was no
      significant difference in the adenoma detection rate, whereas hunger was more
      common in the CLD group. CONCLUSIONS: An LRD/RD provided no difference in bowel
      preparation quality as compared with a CLD. As such, it may be reasonable for
      patients without risk factors for poor preparation to undergo an LRD until lunch
      the day before their colonoscopy given that bowel preparation tolerability and
      willingness to repeat were greater among groups with a liberalized diet.

PMID- 28575898
TI  - Colon Cancer Screening in Concierge Practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Center for Executive
      Medicine (CEM) concierge primary care practice on preventive colorectal cancer
      (CRC) screening rates relative to local and national comparator data. METHODS: We
      performed an electronic medical record search encompassing our entire patient
      population who are between the ages of 50 and 75 years to determine the rate of
      CRC screening. We compared this rate with the average rate of Medicare Advantage
      plans reported by our Independent Physician Association (IPA) in 2015 and
      national health plans reported by the National Committee for Quality Assurance in
      2014. RESULTS: The CEM had a CRC screening rate of 90.2%, which was significantly
      higher than local IPA Medicare Advantage plans (63.3%) and National Committee for
      Quality Assurance national plans (57.7%-66.5%). CEM members were significantly
      more likely than were IPA members to undergo screening (odds ratio 1.425, 95%
      confidence interval 1.348-1.507, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest
      that the CEM practice strategy and processes increase CRC screening rates.

PMID- 28575899
TI  - Effects of a 12-Month Educational Intervention on Clinicians' Attitudes/Practices
      Regarding the Screening Spiritual History.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Patients' spiritual values, beliefs, and preferences are identified
      in outpatient medical settings by the taking of a screening spiritual history
      (SSH). We report the impact of an educational/training program on the
      attitudes/practices of physicians (MDs) and midlevel practitioners (MLPs).
      METHODS: A convenience sample of 1082 MDs or MLPs in outpatient practices was
      approached to participate in a 12-month educational/training program in this
      single-group experimental study. Of the 1082 professionals, 48% (427 physicians,
      93 MLPs) agreed to complete a questionnaire assessing demographics, practice
      characteristics, religiosity, and attitudes/practices regarding the SSH. Changes
      in attitudes/practices over time were examined and baseline predictors identified
      using mixed-effects regression. RESULTS: Of the 520 participants completing
      questionnaires at baseline, 436 were assessed at 1 month (83.8%) and 432 were
      assessed at 12 months (83.1%). The belief that MDs should take a SSH did not
      significantly change over time (B = -0.022, standard error [SE] 0.028, P =
      0.426). However, those who took an SSH often/always increased from 16.7% at
      baseline to 34.8% at 12-month follow-up (B = 0.328, SE 0.030, P < 0.0001), and
      perceived patient acceptance/appreciation increased from 72.1% to 80.5% (B =
      0.074, SE 0.023, P = 0.001). Predictors of increased SSH taking across time among
      MDs were older age, female sex, family medicine specialty, prior training, and
      importance of religion; older age was the only predictor in MLPs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although attitudes toward taking an SSH were not affected, taking an SSH
      increased initially and was sustained over time, as did the sense that patients
      accepted/appreciated this practice. Educational programs of this type may be used
      to increase SSH taking by outpatient MDs and MLPs.

PMID- 28575900
TI  - Commentary on "Effects of a 12-Month Educational Intervention on Clinicians'
      Attitudes/Practices Regarding the Screening Spiritual History".

PMID- 28575901
TI  - Dissemination Approaches to Participating Primary Care Providers in a Quality
      Improvement Program Addressing Opioid Use in Central Appalachia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) have been described as new
      clinical laboratories for primary care research and dissemination. PBRNs,
      however, have struggled to disseminate research results in a meaningful way to
      participating providers and clinics. METHODS: The Central Appalachia Inter
      Professional Pain Education Collaborative was developed to work with PBRN clinics
      using quality improvement methods, deliver statewide continuing education
      activities to address the issue of opioid use in patients with chronic pain, and
      develop a multimodal mechanism to disseminate project results to clinics and
      participating providers. RESULTS: Successful change in the delivery of chronic
      pain care was dependent on the clinic's commitment to a team-based, patient
      centered approach. Statistically significant improvements were shown in 10 of 16
      process measures, and 80% of the participants agreed that the quality improvement
      process activity increased their knowledge and would improve their performance in
      managing patients with chronic pain, as well as patient outcomes in their
      practice. CONCLUSIONS: The Central Appalachia Inter-Professional Pain Education
      Collaborative project used an extensive and innovative dissemination plan under
      the rubric of "continual dissemination." Unlike traditional dissemination efforts
      that focus on summary presentations, this initiative used a continual
      dissemination approach that updated participants quarterly through multiple means
      throughout the project, which improved engagement in the project.

PMID- 28575902
TI  - Can Computers Be Made to Respect the Art of Medicine?

PMID- 28575903
TI  - Do Mixed-Flora Preoperative Urine Cultures Matter?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether mixed-flora preoperative urine cultures, as
      compared with no-growth preoperative urine cultures, are associated with a higher
      prevalence of postoperative urinary tract infections (UTIs). METHODS: This was a
      retrospective cohort study. Women who underwent urogynecologic surgery were
      included if their preoperative clean-catch urine culture result was mixed flora
      or no growth. Women were excluded if they received postoperative antibiotics for
      reasons other than treatment of a UTI. Women were divided into two cohorts based
      on preoperative urine culture results-mixed flora or no growth; the prevalence of
      postoperative UTI was compared between cohorts. Baseline characteristics were
      compared using chi2 or Student t tests. A logistic regression analysis then was
      performed. RESULTS: We included 282 women who were predominantly postmenopausal,
      white, and overweight. There were many concomitant procedures; 46% underwent a
      midurethral sling procedure and 68% underwent pelvic organ prolapse surgery.
      Preoperative urine cultures resulted as mixed flora in 192 (68%) and no growth in
      90 (32%) patients. Overall, 14% were treated for a UTI postoperatively. There was
      no difference in the proportion of patients treated for a postoperative UTI
      between the two cohorts (25 mixed flora vs 13 no growth, P = 0.77). These results
      remained when controlling for potentially confounding variables in a logistic
      regression model (adjusted odds ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval 0.43-1.96).
      CONCLUSIONS: In women with mixed-flora compared with no-growth preoperative urine
      cultures, there were no differences in the prevalence of postoperative UTI. The
      clinical practice of interpreting mixed-flora cultures as negative is
      appropriate.

PMID- 28575904
TI  - Commentary on "Do Mixed-Flora Preoperative Urine Cultures Matter?"

PMID- 28575905
TI  - Association of White Matter Lesions, Cerebral Atrophy, Intracranial Extravascular
      Calcifications, and Ventricular-Communicating Hydrocephalus with Delirium Among
      Veterans.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The literature regarding the underlying neuropathogenesis of delirium
      on head computed tomography (CT) is limited. The aim of this research was to
      investigate, using case-control retrospective chart review, the association of
      white matter lesions (WML), cerebral atrophy, intracranial extravascular
      calcifications, and ventricular-communicating hydrocephalus in older adult
      military veterans with and without delirium hospitalized in a Veterans Affairs
      Medical Center. METHODS: Head CT scans were examined for WML, atrophy, and
      intracranial extravascular calcifications globally in the cortex, subcortex
      (frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital lobes), basal ganglia (globus pallidus,
      caudate, putamen), and internal capsule, in addition to the presence of
      ventricular-communicating hydrocephalus. WML were graded as not present, <1 cm, 1
      to 2 cm, or >2 cm. Atrophy, cerebral atrophy, intracranial extravascular
      calcifications, and ventricular-communicating hydrocephalus were graded as
      present or not present. RESULTS: There was a significant association of WML in
      the temporal lobe periventricular cortical and subcortical brain and a
      significant association of atrophy in the parietal lobes and the cerebellum in
      hospitalized older adult military veterans with delirium compared with
      hospitalized older adult military veterans without delirium. There were no
      differences between the delirium and nondelirium groups for intracranial
      extravascular calcifications and ventricular-communicating hydrocephalus.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that atrophy in the parietal lobes and the
      cerebellum of hospitalized older adult military veterans may be associated with
      an elevated risk of delirium when compared with age, race, and sex-matched
      control veterans. Continuing efforts are needed to clarify the role of atrophy
      during delirium in the veteran and nonveteran older adult population to reduce
      progressive frailty and decreased quality of life secondary to hospital and
      posthospital-discharge delirium.

PMID- 28575906
TI  - [Preoperative Evaluation of Adult Patients Before Elective, Non-Cardiothoracic
      Surgery].
AB  - Evaluation of the patient's medical history and a physical examination are the
      cornerstones of risk assessment prior to elective surgery and may help to
      optimize the patient's preoperative medical condition and to guide perioperative
      management. Whether the performance of additional technical tests (e.g. blood
      chemistry, ECG, spirometry, chest x-ray) can contribute to a reduction of
      perioperative risk is often not very well known or controversial. Similarly,
      there is considerable uncertainty among anaesthesiologists, internists and
      surgeons with respect to the perioperative management of the patient's long-term
      medication. Therefore, the German Scientific Societies of Anaesthesiology and
      Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI), Internal Medicine (DGIM) and Surgery (DGCH) have
      joined to elaborate recommendations on the preoperative evaluation of adult
      patients prior to elective, non-cardio-thoracic surgery, which have been
      initially published in 2010. These recommendations have now been updated based on
      the current literature and existing international guidelines. In the first part
      the general principles of preoperative evaluation are described (part A). The
      current concepts for extended evaluation of patients with known or suspected
      major cardiovascular disease are presented in part B. Finally, the perioperative
      management of patients' long-term medication is discussed (part C). The concepts
      proposed in these interdisciplinary recommendations endorsed by the DGAI, DGIM
      and DGCH provide a common basis for a structured preoperative risk assessment and
      management. These recommendations aim to ensure that surgical patients undergo a
      rational preoperative assessment and at the same time to avoid unnecessary,
      costly and potentially dangerous testing. The joint recommendations reflect the
      current state-of-the-art knowledge as well as expert opinions because scientific
      based evidence is not always available. These recommendations will be subject to
      regular re-evaluation and updating when new validated evidence becomes available.

PMID- 28575907
TI  - Correction of Tibial Valgus Deformity.

PMID- 28575908
TI  - Necrotizing Enterocolitis Incidence, Characteristics, and Outcomes in Neonatal
      Down Syndrome Patients.

PMID- 28575909
TI  - Trisomy 18 Pregnancies: Is there an Increased Maternal Risk?

PMID- 28575910
TI  - Oropharyngeal Administration of Colostrum Increases Salivary Secretory IgA Levels
      in Very Low-Birth-Weight Infants.

PMID- 28575912
TI  - [Growth Factor Concentration in Keratocyte Supernatant after Incubation with
      Human Serum In Vitro].
AB  - PURPOSE: Application of serum eye drops is an alternative treatment option for
      therapy-resistant corneal epithelial defects. In case of persisting epithelial
      defects, cytokines, which are secreted from stromal keratocytes, may play a role
      in epithelial wound healing. Our aim was to analyze fibroblast growth factor
      basic (FGFb), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), keratinocyte growth factor (KGF)
      and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) concentration in the supernatant
      of keratocytes, after incubation with human serum (HS). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Serum eye drops of 10 patients were prepared using the standards of the LIONS Eye
      Bank Saar-Lor-Lux, Trier/Westpfalz, and were stored at - 80  degrees C. Primary
      human keratocytes were isolated from human corneoscleral rings using collagenase
      A (1 mg/ml) (n = 1) and were cultured in DMEM/Ham's culture medium with 10% fetal
      bovine serum (FBS). Thereafter, keratocyte cultures were incubated in 15 or 30%
      HS (in DMEM/F14 without FBS) and FGFb, HGF, KGF and TGF-beta1 concentration was
      determined with an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) from the
      supernatant of the culture after 24 hours. We used 15 or 30% HS without
      keratocytes (under the same storage conditions) as controls. RESULTS: HGF
      concentration was, for both HS concentrations, significantly higher in the
      supernatant of keratocytes, than in HS controls (without keratocytes) following
      24 hours (p < 0.01). FGFb concentration was significantly increased in 30% HS
      with keratocytes compared to 30% HS without keratocytes after 24 hours (p <
      0.01). TGF-beta1 and KGF concentrations remained unchanged through keratocytes.
      CONCLUSION: HGF and FGFb concentrations increase in the supernatant of
      keratocytes, 24 hours after incubation with human serum. These concentration
      changes may play a role in wound healing of epithelial defects.

PMID- 28575911
TI  - Rapid Transient Production of a Monoclonal Antibody Neutralizing the Porcine
      Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) in Nicotiana benthamiana and Lactuca sativa.
AB  - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes acute diarrhea, vomiting,
      dehydration, weight loss, and high mortality rate in neonatal piglets. Porcine
      epidemic diarrhea (PED) has been reported in Europe, America, and Asia including
      Thailand. The disease causes substantial losses to the swine industry in many
      countries. Presently, there is no effective PEDV vaccine available. In this
      study, we developed a plant-produced monoclonal antibody (mAb) 2C10 as a
      prophylactic candidate to prevent the PEDV infection. Recently, plant expression
      systems have gained interest as an alternative for the production of antibodies
      because of many advantages, such as low production cost, lack of human and animal
      pathogen, large scalability, etc. The 2C10 mAb was transiently expressed in
      Nicotiana benthamiana and lettuce using geminiviral vector. After purification by
      protein A affinity chromatography, the antibody was tested for the binding and
      neutralizing activity against PEDV. Our result showed that the plant produced
      2C10 mAb can bind to the virus and also inhibit PEDV infection in vitro. These
      results show excellent potential for a plant-expressed 2C10 as a PEDV prophylaxis
      and a diagnostic for PEDV infection.

PMID- 28575913
TI  - [Results of Re-switch from Intravitreal Aflibercept to Ranibizumab in Patients
      with Exudative Age-related Macular Degeneration].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of re
      switch from intravitreal aflibercept to ranibizumab in patients with exudative
      age-related macular degeneration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective case
      series included 17 eyes of 17 patients who had previously switched from
      ranibizumab to aflibercept and finally back to ranibizumab. Main outcomes were
      change of visual acuity (VA) and assessment of central macular thickness (CMT).
      Secondary outcomes included predictive factors which had a beneficial effect as
      VA and CMT before re-switch, number of previous injections and gender. RESULTS:
      The mean VA was 0.64 +/- 0.36 logMAR before the switch, and 0.87 +/- 0.40 logMAR
      before the re-switch, and gained with a slight but not significantly improvement
      up to 0.85 +/- 0.58 logMAR after the re-switch (p = 0.896). The average CMT
      before the switch was 448.6 um +/- 181.5. This decreased to 343.8 um +/- 161.3
      after the switch (p = 0.614) to 299.1 um +/- 155.8 at switchback (p = 0.133).
      Overall, 8 patients (47%) had an improvement of vision, whereas in 5 patients
      (30%) VA deteriorated. Further analysis of predictive factors revealed a mean
      improvement of VA in male patients after re-switch, while female patients lost
      VA, with statistical significance between after the switch and after the re
      switch to the benefit of male patients (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: A re-switch from
      aflibercept to ranibizumab may enable improvement in morphological parameters and
      stabilization of VA in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration
      who achieved no more benefit from the initial switch.

PMID- 28575914
TI  - [Critical Incident Reporting System in Risk Management at the Eye Center in
      Freiburg].
AB  - Background With the help of reporting systems, errors that occur in medical
      settings can be documented and can lead to an improved workflow. We, herein,
      present data from our reporting system that we have used since 2012. Materials
      and Methods All reports since 2012 were evaluated and analyzed regarding the
      annual rate of reportings, who reported and what reasons were suspected to be
      causative for the reported errors. Results Over the last five years a mean of 33
      reports were given annually. While mostly doctors reported in the first year, the
      following years showed almost balanced reports from medical assistant staff and
      doctors. Not all of these reports resulted in actions. The most often stated
      reason for errors or critical situations was miscommunication between the staff.
      Conclusion Our data show that a constant number of reports can be obtained over
      at least five years from doctors as well as medical assistant staff. The main
      reason for critical situations seems to be miscommunication. With the increased
      experience with reporting systems, such as CIRS, we can expect more comparative
      data.

PMID- 28575915
TI  - ["Friendly Greetings from the Eye Clinic" - The Old Eye Hospitals in Tubingen on
      Postcards].

PMID- 28575916
TI  - ["Mystery Is in the Eye of the Beholder": The History of the "Haidinger's
      Brushes"].

PMID- 28575917
TI  - [Surgical Options in Glaucoma Management].
AB  - During the last few years, there has been a considerable capacity of innovations
      in glaucoma surgery owing to new micro-stents increasing the aqueous outflow via
      transscleral routes, via the trabecular meshwork or the suprachoroidal space.
      These interventions can be easily performed in combination with small-incision
      cataract surgery. Even the well-known filtering procedures, trabeculectomy and
      drainage device surgery, formerly perceived as being outdated, re-achieve better
      reputation owing to refinements in surgical technique and improved surgical
      experience. Although enthusiasm is understandable, considering the technical
      advances, we must wait for clinical long-term results and compare the new
      procedures with the established ones.

PMID- 28575918
TI  - [Expansion and Transplantation of Limbal Stem Cells for Corneal Surface
      Regeneration].
AB  - In humans, regeneration of the corneal epithelium is regulated by the stem cell
      reservoir of the limbus. After extensive limbal damage, e.g., by inflammation,
      thermal burn or chemical injury, limbal stem cell deficiency leading to
      vascularization and opacification of the cornea and resulting in vision loss, may
      develop. Several techniques of autologous and allogenic stem cell transplantation
      have been established. The limbus can be restored by transplantation of whole
      limbal grafts, small limbal biopsies or by ex vivo-expanded limbal cells. In this
      review, the physiology of corneal epithelium, the pathophysiology of limbal stem
      cell deficiency and the therapeutic procedures will be presented.

PMID- 28575919
TI  - Zika Virus Infection in Pregnant Women and Microcephaly.
AB  - From the discovery of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in 1947 in Uganda (Africa), until its
      arrival in South America, it was not known that it would affect human
      reproductive life so severely. Today, damage to the central nervous system is
      known to be multiple, and microcephaly is considered the tip of the iceberg.
      Microcephaly actually represents the epilogue of this infection's devastating
      process on the central nervous system of embryos and fetuses. As a result of
      central nervous system aggression by the ZIKV, this infection brings the
      possibility of arthrogryposis, dysphagia, deafness and visual impairment. All of
      these changes of varying severity directly or indirectly compromise the future
      life of these children, and are already considered a congenital syndrome linked
      to the ZIKV. Diagnosis is one of the main difficulties in the approach of this
      infection. Considering the clinical part, it has manifestations common to
      infections by the dengue virus and the chikungunya fever, varying only in
      subjective intensities. The most frequent clinical variables are rash, febrile
      state, non-purulent conjunctivitis and arthralgia, among others. In terms of
      laboratory resources, there are also limitations to the subsidiary diagnosis.
      Molecular biology tests are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with reverse
      transcriptase (RT) action, since the ZIKV is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus. The
      RT-PCR shows serum or plasma positivity for a short period of time, no more than
      five days after the onset of the signs and symptoms. The ZIKV urine test is
      positive for a longer period, up to 14 days. There are still no reliable
      techniques for the serological diagnosis of this infection. If there are no
      complications (meningoencephalitis or Guillain-Barre syndrome), further
      examination is unnecessary to assess systemic impairment. However, evidence is
      needed to rule out other infections that also cause rashes, such as dengue,
      chikungunya, syphilis, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, rubella, and herpes. There
      is no specific antiviral therapy against ZIKV, and the therapeutic approach to
      infected pregnant women is limited to the use of antipyretics and analgesics.
      Anti-inflammatory drugs should be avoided until the diagnosis of dengue is
      discarded. There is no need to modify the schedule of prenatal visits for
      pregnant women infected by ZIKV, but it is necessary to guarantee three
      ultrasound examinations during pregnancy for low-risk pregnancies, and monthly
      for pregnant women with confirmed ZIKV infection. Vaginal delivery and natural
      breastfeeding are advised.

PMID- 28575920
TI  - Intraoperative 1-Hour Electrical Nerve Stimulation Enhances Outcomes of Nerve
      Muscle-Endplate Band Grafting Technique for Muscle Reinnervation.

PMID- 28575921
TI  - Endurance Exercise in Hypoxia, Hyperoxia and Normoxia: Mitochondrial and Global
      Adaptations.
AB  - We hypothesized short-term endurance exercise (EN) in hypoxia (HY) to exert
      decreased mitochondrial adaptation, peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) and peak
      power output (PPO) compared to EN in normoxia (NOR) and hyperoxia (PER). 11 male
      subjects performed repeated unipedal cycling EN in HY, PER, and NOR over 4 weeks
      in a cross-over design. VO2peak, PPO, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and blood
      lactate (Bla) were determined pre- and post-intervention to assess physiological
      demands and adaptation. Skeletal muscle biopsies were collected to determine
      molecular mitochondrial signaling and adaptation. Despite reduced exercise
      intensity (P<0.05), increased Bla and RPE levels in HY revealed higher metabolic
      load compared to PER (P<0.05) and NOR (n.s.). PPO increased in all groups
      (P<0.05) while VO2peak and mitochondrial signaling were unchanged (P>0.05).
      Electron transport chain complexes tended to increase in all groups with the
      highest increase in HY (n.s.). EN-induced mitochondrial adaptability and exercise
      capacity neither decreased significantly in HY nor increased in PER compared to
      NOR. Despite decreased exercise intensity, short term EN under HY may not
      necessarily impair mitochondrial adaptation and exercise capacity while PER does
      not augment adaptation. HY might strengthen adaptive responses under
      circumstances when absolute training intensity has to be reduced.

PMID- 28575922
TI  - Comparison of Specific Prediction Equations to Estimate Peak Oxygen Uptake in
      Obese Women.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to compare 2 equations to predict peak oxygen
      uptake (VO2peak) in obese women, according to their obesity class. 92 maximal
      cardiopulmonary exercise testing sets (CPET with initial and subsequent
      increments set to achieve an exercise duration between 8-12 min) were
      retrospectively analysed. These CPET were divided into 3 groups according to the
      women body mass indexes (BMI): class 1 (30 kg.m-2<=BMI<35 kg.m-2, n=22), class 2
      (35 kg.m-2<=BMI<40 kg.m-2, n=36) or class 3 (BMI>=40 kg.m-2, n=34). Each
      participant's VO2peak was predicted from 2 prediction equations (from Wasserman
      et al.'s and Debeaumont et al.'s equations) and compared with the actual VO2peak.
      Moreover, the correlations between these values were studied, and the accuracy of
      the predictions was analysed. Only predicted VO2peak from the Debeaumont et al.'s
      equation was not significantly different from the actual VO2peak in the women in
      obesity class 3 (p=0.89). Moreover, significant correlation was found between
      these values (p<0.001, r=0.68). The bias and the 95% limits of agreement
      represented -3.2+/-34.0%. In women in obesity class 3, Debeaumont et al.'s
      equation may be the accurate one to predict VO2peak. However, the accuracy of
      predictions is low. Consequently, to improve this accuracy, new prediction
      equations for obese women are required according to the obesity class.

PMID- 28575923
TI  - The Effect of a Simulated Soccer Match on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Risk
      Factors.
AB  - To investigate the effect of within match fatigue on knee kinematics and jump
      kinetics in girls' soccer players, a quasi-experiment time series design was
      employed collecting data before, after and at 15-min intervals during a 90-min
      simulated soccer match. 15 girl players (age 13.1+/-1.4 years) performed a
      counter movement jump and a single-leg drop jump. Mean concentric force and
      flight time to contraction time ratio were derived from the counter movement
      jump. Knee valgus and flexion angles were calculated during the single-leg drop
      from 3-dimensional motion capture. Subjective ratings of perceived exertion (RPE)
      and readiness were collected at each time series. Small to large increases in RPE
      and reductions in readiness were observed throughout the match from baseline.
      Moderate to large improvements in mean concentric force were shown at 15, 75 and
      90-min when compared to baseline. Flight time to contraction time ratio increased
      moderately at 15 min. Changes in kinematics were typically trivial or unclear
      however, small increases in knee valgus were shown after 30 min compared to
      baseline. Subjective measures may provide useful information to understand the
      physical response of young players to match play.

PMID- 28575924
TI  - [Positive Airway Pressure Ventilation: Theory and Practice].

PMID- 28575926
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28575925
TI  - [Willingness of Students of Economics to Pay for Predictive Oncological Genetic
      Testing - An Empirical Analysis].
AB  - Objectives: The present study aims to investigate the interest of young adults in
      predictive oncological genetic testing and their willingness to pay for such a
      test. Furthermore, major determinants of the 2 variables of interest were
      identified. Methods: 348 students of economics from the Leibniz University of
      Hanover were queried in July 2013 using an extensive questionnaire. Among other
      things, the participants were asked if they are interested in information about
      the probability to develop cancer in the future and their willingness to pay for
      such information. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordinal
      probit regressions. Additionally marginal effects were calculated. Results: About
      50% of the students were interested in predictive oncological genetic testing and
      were willing to pay for the test. Moreover, the participants who were willing to
      pay for the test partly attach high monetary values to the information that could
      so be obtained. The study shows that the interest of the students and their
      willingness to pay were primarily influenced by individual attitudes and
      perceptions. Conclusions: The study proves that young adults were interested in
      predictive genetic testing and appreciate information about their probability of
      develop cancer someday.

PMID- 28575928
TI  - Impact of dust and smoke mixing on column-integrated aerosol properties from
      observations during a severe wildfire episode over Valencia (Spain).
AB  - The most destructive wildfire experienced in Spain since 2004 occurred close to
      Valencia in summer 2012. A total of 48.500ha were affected by two wildfires,
      which were mostly active during 29-30 June. The fresh smoke plume was detected at
      the Burjassot measurement station simultaneously to a severe dust episode. We
      propose an empirical method to evaluate the dust and smoke mixing and its impact
      on the microphysical and optical properties. For this, we combine direct-sun
      measurements with a Cimel CE-318 sun-photometer with an inversion methodology,
      and the Mie theory to derive the column-integrated size distribution, single
      scattering albedo (SSA) and asymmetry parameter (g). The mixing of dust and smoke
      greatly increased the aerosol load and modified the background aerosol
      properties. Mineral dust increased the aerosol optical depth (AOD) up to 1, while
      the smoke plume caused an extreme AOD peak of 8. The size distribution of the
      mixture was bimodal, with a fine and coarse modes dominated by the smoke
      particles and mineral dust, respectively. The SSA and g for the dust-smoke
      mixture show a marked sensitivity on the smoke mixing-ratio, mainly at longer
      wavelengths. Mineral dust and smoke share a similar SSA at 440nm (~0.90), but
      with opposite spectral dependency. A small dust contribution to the total AOD
      substantially affects the SSA of the mixture, and also SSA at 1020nm increases
      from 0.87 to 0.95. This leads to a different spectral behaviour of SSA that
      changes from positive (smoke plume) to negative (dust), depending on the dust and
      smoke mixing-ratio.

PMID- 28575927
TI  - Storage induced changes in coliform, heterotrophic groups of bacteria and
      nutrient levels of human urine for its safe use in biological production.
AB  - Human urine is a potential source of various nutrients, minerals and trace
      elements. Its use as a fertilizer is growing popular among farmers. Here, we
      examined the pattern of changes in the counts of coliform, heterotrophic bacteria
      as well as physico-chemical characteristics of human urine during different days
      of storage under closed conditions at ambient temperature. We observed that after
      253 days of storage under closed condition, the coliform counts were reduced
      significantly and remained within the safe limit to be used as fertilizer. With
      increase in storage period, the concentration of phosphate showed decline coupled
      with rise in pH, alkalinity and electrical conductance. Our study revealed that
      human urine can be used as safe fertilizer after 8 months of storage under closed
      conditions at ambient temperature ranging 25-35oC.

PMID- 28575929
TI  - Influence of land development on stormwater runoff from a mixed land use and land
      cover catchment.
AB  - Mitigating for the negative impacts of stormwater runoff is becoming a concern
      due to increased land development. Understanding how land development influences
      stormwater runoff is essential for sustainably managing water resources. In
      recent years, aggregate low impact development-best management practices (LID
      BMPs) have been implemented to reduce the negative impacts of stormwater runoff
      on receiving water bodies. This study used an integrated approach to determine
      the influence of land development and assess the ecological benefits of four
      aggregate LID-BMPs in stormwater runoff from a mixed land use and land cover
      (LULC) catchment with ongoing land development. It used data from 2011 to 2015
      that monitored 41 storm events and monthly LULC, and a Personalized Computer
      Storm Water Management Model (PCSWMM). The four aggregate LID-BMPs are:
      ecological (S1), utilizing pervious covers (S2), and multi-control (S3) and (S4).
      These LID-BMPs were designed and distributed in the study area based on catchment
      characteristics, cost, and effectiveness. PCSWMM was used to simulate the
      monitored storm events from 2014 (calibration: R2 and NSE>0.5; RMSE <11) and 2015
      (validation: R2 and NSE>0.5; RMSE <12). For continuous simulation and analyzing
      LID-BMPs scenarios, the five-year (2011 to 2015) stormwater runoff data and LULC
      change patterns (only 2015 for LID-BMPs) were used. Results show that the
      expansion of bare land and impervious cover, soil alteration, and high amount of
      precipitation influenced the stormwater runoff variability during different
      phases of land development. The four aggregate LID-BMPs reduced runoff volume
      (34%-61%), peak flow (6%-19%), and pollutant concentrations (53%-83%). The
      results of this study, in addition to supporting local LULC planning and land
      development activities, also could be applied to input data for empirical
      modeling, and designing sustainable stormwater management guidelines and
      monitoring strategies.

PMID- 28575930
TI  - Mapping cation exchange capacity using a Veris-3100 instrument and invVERIS
      modelling software.
AB  - The cation exchange capacity (CEC) is one of the most important soil properties
      as it influences soil's ability to hold essential nutrients. It also acts as an
      index of structural resilience. In this study, we demonstrate a method for 3
      dimensional mapping of CEC across a study field in south-west Spain. We do this
      by establishing a linear regression (LR) between the calculated true electrical
      conductivity (sigma - mS/m) and measured CEC (cmol(+)/kg) at various depths. We
      estimate sigma by inverting Veris-3100 data (ECa - mS/m) collected along 47
      parallel transects spaced 12m apart. We invert the ECa data acquired from both
      shallow (0-0.3m) and deep (0-0.9m) array configurations, using a quasi-three
      dimensional inversion algorithm (invVeris V1.1). The CEC data was acquired at 40
      locations and from the topsoil (0-0.3m), subsurface (0.3-0.6m) and subsoil (0.6
      0.9m). The best LR between sigma and CEC was achieved using S2 inversion
      algorithm using a damping factor (lambda)=18. The LR (CEC=1.77+0.33*sigma) had a
      large coefficient of determination (R2=0.89). To determine the predictive
      capability of the LR, we validated the model using a cross-validation. Given the
      high accuracy (root-mean-square-error [RMSE]=1.69 cmol(+)/kg), small bias (mean
      error [ME]=-0.00cmol(+)/kg) and large coefficient of determination (R2=0.88) and
      Lin's concordance (0.94), between measured and predicted CEC and at various
      depths, we conclude we were well able to predict the CEC distribution in topsoil
      and the subsurface. However, the predictions made in the subsoil were poor due to
      limited data availability in areas where ECa changed rapidly from small to large
      values. In this regard, improvements in prediction accuracy can be achieved by
      collection of ECa in more closely spaced transects, particularly in areas where
      ECa varies over short spatial scales.

PMID- 28575931
TI  - Recent forest cover changes (2002-2015) in the Southern Carpathians: A case study
      of the Iezer Mountains, Romania.
AB  - The paper explores the dynamics of the forest cover change in the Iezer
      Mountains, part of Southern Carpathians, in the context of the forest ownership
      recovery and deforestation processes, combined with the effects of biotic and
      abiotic disturbances. The aim of the study is to map and evaluate the typology
      and the spatial extension of changes in the montane forest cover between 700 and
      2462m a.s.l., sampling all the representative Carpathian ecosystems, from the
      European beech zone up to the spruce-fir zone and the subalpine-alpine pastures.
      The methodology uses a change detection analysis of satellite imagery with
      Landsat ETM+/OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data. The workflow started with a complete
      calibration of multispectral data from 2002, before the massive forest
      restitution to private owners, after the Law 247/2005 empowerment, and 2015, the
      intensification of deforestation process. For the data classification, a Maximum
      Likelihood supervised classification algorithm was utilized. The forest change
      map was developed after combining the classifications in a unitary formula using
      image difference. The principal outcome of the research identifies the type of
      forest cover change using a quantitative formula. This information can be
      integrated in the future decision-making strategies for forest stand management
      and sustainable development.

PMID- 28575932
TI  - Household air pollution and angiogenic factors in pregnant Nigerian women: A
      randomized controlled ethanol cookstove intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution affects placental growth
      markers. OBJECTIVES: Investigate impact of household air pollution (HAP) on
      placental growth markers. METHODS: Two groups of pregnant women were identified:
      firewood/kerosene stove-users (A, n=33) and bioethanol stove-users (B, n=44) that
      participated in a randomized control trial in Ibadan, Nigeria. A third group of
      non-smoking and presumed liquefied petroleum gas-using Chicago women (C, n=19)
      were included in this exploratory pilot to assess for possible differences
      between similar racial groups. Levels of placental growth factor (PlGF) and
      soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) were measured in maternal and cord
      plasma using ELISA. RESULTS: Maternal and cord blood sFlt-1 and PlGF did not
      differ significantly between women of groups A and B. Nevertheless, both groups
      differed significantly from the Chicago group in that group A women had lower
      maternal sFlt-1 (1372.50 vs. 3194.19) but higher PlGF (1607.87 vs. 442.80), and
      higher cord blood sFlt-1 (2925.02 vs. 107.53) and PlGF (223.68 vs. 6.92), all
      p<=0.001. Group B showed similar trends (all p<=0.002). Maternal PlGF levels were
      positively correlated to minutes of HAP exposure when PM2.5 concentration was
      above 100MUg/m3 in Nigerian women. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal levels of PlGF and cord
      blood levels of sFlt-1 and PlGF in Nigerian women with varying HAP exposures were
      significantly higher than Chicago-based women who had no presumed HAP exposure.
      It suggests that in-utero exposure to HAP influenced levels of angiogenic factors
      involved in normal placentation and growth and could represent compensation for
      pollutants exposure to preserve fetal viability.

PMID- 28575934
TI  - DNA interaction, antioxidant and in vitro cytotoxic activities of some
      mononuclear metal(II) complexes of a bishydrazone ligand.
AB  - A tridentate ONO donor bishydrazone ligand, 3-(((3-oxoindolin-2
      ylidene)hydrazono) methyl)quinoxalin-2(1H)-one (L) was synthesized. Using the
      ligand, mononuclear metal complexes of the type [M(L)(OAc)] (M=Co(II), Ni(II),
      Cu(II) and Zn(II), OAc=-OCOCH3) were synthesized. The newly synthesized compounds
      were thoroughly characterized by various analytical and spectral techniques.
      Tetrahedral geometry was proposed for Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes, while
      square planar geometry has been assigned to the Cu(II) complex. The in vitro
      antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant studies reveal that the Cu(II) complex
      of the bishydrazone ligand possess higher activities. DNA binding studies suggest
      that the present compounds interact with CT DNA through intercalation. This was
      further supported by molecular docking. Gel electrophoresis studies substantiated
      the involvement of free radicals in the cleavage of pUC18 DNA. In vitro
      cytotoxicity of the compounds against MCF-7 cell line was also examined. The
      molecular modeling studies reveal that the compounds strongly interact with VEGFR
      2 kinase receptor through hydrogen bonding, pi-pi, pi-cation and sigma-pi
      interactions. The bioavailability and bioactivity determination of the compounds
      suggest that the present compounds may be utilized as drug candidates.

PMID- 28575933
TI  - Application of surface modified nano ferrite nickel in catalytic reaction
      (epoxidation of alkenes) and investigation on its antibacterial and antifungal
      activities.
AB  - Newly, magnetic nanoparticles have extensively been used as alternative catalyst
      supports, in the view of their high surface area which results in high catalyst
      loading capacity, high dispersion, low toxicity, environmental preservation,
      distinguished stability, and suitable catalyst reusing. In the present study, the
      magnetite nanoparticles, NiFe2O4@Ag and NiFe2O4@Mo, were synthesized and
      characterized. The antimicrobial activities and catalytic properties of
      synthesized nanoparticles were tested afterwards. For synthetizing the
      nanoparticle NiFe2O4@Ag, silver ions were loaded onto the surface of the modified
      NiFe2O4 and reduced to silver crystal by adding NaBH4. The antibacterial effects
      of NiFe2O4@Ag were examined against two species of soil and plant related
      bacteria named Bacillus subtilis (gram positive) and Pseudomonas syringae (gram
      negative), respectively. The antifungal activity of this nanoparticle was
      evaluated against two species of plant pathogenic fungi called Alternaria solani
      and Fusarium oxysporum. Biological results indicated that the synthesized
      material has shown an excellent antibacterial and antifungal activity against all
      examined bacteria and fungi so that, their growth were completely inhibited 24h
      after treatment with NiFe2O4@Ag. For the synthesis of a heterogeneous catalyst
      NiFe2O4@Mo, complex Mo(CO)6 was loaded onto the surface of the modified NiFe2O4
      nanoparticle. This catalyst was found as an efficient catalyst for epoxidation of
      cis-cyclooctene and a wide variety of alkenes, including aromatic and aliphatic
      terminal ones using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as oxidant. This new heterogenized
      catalyst could easily be recovered by using a magnetic separator and reused four
      consecutive and loss only 13% of its catalytic activity.

PMID- 28575936
TI  - Solid crystal suspension of Efavirenz using hot melt extrusion: Exploring the
      role of crystalline polyols in improving solubility and dissolution rate.
AB  - Poor aqueous solubility of drugs has emerged as a major issue for pharmaceutical
      scientists from many decades. The current study explores the manufacture and
      development of a thermodynamically stabilized solid crystal suspension (SCS) of
      poorly water soluble drug efavirenz via hot melt extrusion. Efavirenz is a non
      nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and belongs to BCS class II. The SCS
      was prepared using pearlitol and xylitol as a crystalline carrier. The drug
      excipient blend was processed by hot melt extrusion with up to 50% (w/w) drug
      loading. Physico-chemical characterization of the SCS conducted via a scanning
      electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and hot stage microscopy
      confirmed that SCS are in crystalline state. Similarly, X-ray powder diffraction
      analysis revealed highly crystalline existence of pure drug, crystalline carriers
      and developed SCS. The FTIR chemical imaging analysis of SCS formulations showed
      a homogeneous drug distribution within respective crystalline carriers while an
      advanced chemical analysis via atomic force microscopy and Raman analysis
      complemented the foregoing findings. The developed SCS1 formulation showed up to
      81 fold increase in the solubility and 4.1 fold increase in the dissolution rate
      of the drug compared to that of the bulk substance. Surprisingly, the developed
      SCS formulation remained stable for a period of more than one year at accelerated
      conditions inferred from dissolution studies. It can be concluded that the SCS
      approach can be used as an alternative contemporary technique to enhance the
      dissolution rates of many other poorly water-soluble drugs by means of thermal
      HME processing.

PMID- 28575935
TI  - Preparation of novel dual-site drug delivery system based on hydroxypropyl methyl
      cyclodextrin.
AB  - An amphipathic copolymer of poly(polyethylene glycol-b-polycaprolactone-co
      hydroxypropyl methyl cyclodextrin) [poly(mPEG-b-PCL-co-HPCD)] was synthesized via
      the free radical polymerization. The copolymer was used to prepare novel
      nanoparticles (NPs) by a solvent evaporation method. Curcumin (CUR) was selected
      as a model drug and loaded in the both sites of inner NPs and the cavities of
      HPCD. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) study was carried out to confirm the
      synthesis of poly(mPEG-b-PCL-co-HPCD). The morphology and particle size
      distribution of the cargo-free NPs were monitored with transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM) and Malvern particle sizer. The distribution state of CUR in the
      CUR-loaded NPs was studied with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) methods. The 1H NMR spectrum demonstrated the successful
      preparation of poly(mPEG-b-PCL-co-HPCD) copolymer. TEM photograph illustrated
      that the cargo-free NPs had a spherical morphology with an average diameter of
      229+/-32.8nm. The cargo-free NPs had a low critical micelle concentration of
      2.9*10-2mg/mL. The HepG2 cells incubated with 1.0mg/mL NPs suspension showed high
      cell viability. The drug release profile showed that the medicated NPs could
      continuously release CUR for 24h. Therefore, the poly(mPEG-b-PCL-co-HPCD) NPs had
      a potential application on the drug delivery.

PMID- 28575937
TI  - A facile way to prepare anti-fouling and blood-compatible polyethersulfone
      membrane via blending with heparin-mimicking polyurethanes.
AB  - In this study, new kinds of heparin-mimicking polyurethanes (PUs) were fabricated
      conveniently in the mixed solution of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and water,
      reducing the usage of organic solvent. Functional groups of SO3H and/or COOH were
      introduced into PUs with various ratios of SO3H to COOH. The PUs were then
      blended with polyethersulfone (PES) to fabricate heparin-mimicking modified PES
      membranes by a phase inversion technique. Then, the microstructures, zeta
      potentials, water contact angles (WCA) and protein adsorptions of the membranes
      were characterized. Comparing with pristine PES membrane, the modified membranes
      showed changed cross-sectional morphology, lowered zeta potentials and decreased
      water contact angles, revealing that the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling
      properties were improved. The modified membranes also showed prolonged clotting
      tines (APTTs) and suppressed platelet adhesion, revealing that the anticoagulant
      properties increased. The results of complement activation, contact activation
      and platelet activation further implied that the modified membranes had good
      blood compatibility. In addition, the cells on the membranes showed good
      morphology with the introduction of the PUs. With the increase of the ratio of
      SO3H to COOH, the hydrophilicity, the blood compatibility as well as the
      cytocompatibility increased, implying that the SO3H groups could improve the
      hemocompatibility of the membranes more effectively than COOH groups. While the
      membranes containing more COOH groups had better antifouling properties of BSA
      and BFG. Therefore, the hemocompatibility for the heparin-mimicking membranes
      could be tuned by controlling the ratios of SO3H to COOH. The PES/PU composite
      membranes might have great potential to be used in the field of blood
      purification.

PMID- 28575938
TI  - Tailor made alginate hydrogel for local infection prophylaxis in orthopedic
      applications.
AB  - Preventing implants associated infections is crucial in orthopedics. Local
      delivery of antibiotics through implants is a promising strategy to solve this
      issue. In this study, alginate is tailored to control its swelling, entrapment
      and release of ciprofloxacin (antibiotic) through the formation of
      interpenetrating polymer network and composite matrices using gelatin and
      hydroxyapatite. Developed matrices were characterized by Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The
      individual tailoring approaches exerted significant influence on the swelling
      behavior of alginate matrix consequently enhanced the drug entrapment and
      extended the release period. However, the alginate matrix tailored with the
      combined approaches resulted in a superior matrix, which had a better control
      over the burst release of ciprofloxacin. Drug release prolonged from 5h to 240h
      for composite matrix as compared with alginate matrix showing that alginate
      combined with gelatin and hydroxyapatite sustained the release for longer
      periods. This matrix revealed excellent biocompatibility with osteoblast like MG
      63 cell lines and showed good antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E.
      coli.

PMID- 28575939
TI  - Innovative surface modification of Ti6Al4V alloy by electron beam technique for
      biomedical application.
AB  - The low elastic modulus, high corrosion resistance and excellent biological
      response allow titanium alloys to be used for permanent orthopaedic devices.
      Furthermore, the design of specific multi scale surface topographies on titanium
      alloys can provide a fast osseointegration. This work highlights the use of
      electron beam as a promising technique to produce a designed surface topography
      and improve the tribological behaviour of Ti6Al4V alloy. The produced surface
      topography due to the transport of molten material is influenced by the
      deflection figure, the physical properties of the material and the energy input.
      The analysis of the surface roughness shows an increment of the area up to 26%
      and a canal shape in a range from 1.3MUm up to 9MUm depth and from 68.6MUm up to
      119.7MUm width. The high solidification rate reached during the process affects
      the microstructure, provoking the formation of martensite and thus the
      improvement of hardness. In vitro studies with pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells
      performed for several cultivation times show the cells with a polygonal shape and
      built connections through elongated filopodia. A notable increase of cell
      spreading area on surface structure with a finer canal shape is found after 48h
      cultivation time.

PMID- 28575940
TI  - Ag nanoparticle-coated zirconia for antibacterial prosthesis.
AB  - : Bacterial adhesion to dental materials is a major cause of caries and
      periodontitis, necessitating the development of compounds such as yttria
      stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which are widely
      employed in medicine due to their high antimicrobial activity and low
      cytotoxicity. The main goal of this study is the synthesis of the broad
      antimicrobial activity of AgNP-coated YSZ with facile methods. The bactericidal
      AgNPs were immobilized on the surface of YSZ and tested for bactericidal activity
      against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Escherichia coli, and
      Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans based on ISO 22196:2007. The loading of
      AgNPs was optimized by culturing mouse fibroblast cells on AgNP-coated YSZ with
      cell viability test based on ISO 10993-5. In addition, the silver release profile
      of AgNP-coated YSZ in artificial saliva was determined using an accelerated aging
      test. Antibacterial activity, and cell viability test revealed optimum
      performance with no cytotoxicity at a level of 32 MUg/cm2. Accelerated aging test
      showed that the AgNP-coated surface was extremely stable, exhibiting a total
      silver leaching level of only 1% and confirming the effectiveness of this coating
      method for retaining AgNPs while exerting an antibacterial effect against oral
      pathogens. This finding also implies that the bactericidal action of AgNP-coated
      YSZ is not mediated by the released Ag ions, but rather corresponds to contact
      killing. ABBREVIATIONS: Yttria-stabilized zirconia, YSZ; silver nanoparticles,
      AgNPs; field emission scanning electron microscopy, FE-SEM; X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy, XPS; grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, GIXRD; ultraviolet
      visible, UV-vis; inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, ICP
      AES.

PMID- 28575941
TI  - A systematic study of mechanical properties, corrosion behavior and
      biocompatibility of AZ31B Mg alloy after ultrasonic nanocrystal surface
      modification.
AB  - Magnesium alloys have tremendous potential for biomedical applications due to
      their good biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, and degradability, but can be
      limited by their poor mechanical properties and fast corrosion in the
      physiological environment. In this study, ultrasonic nanocrystal surface
      modification (UNSM), a recently developed surface processing technique that
      utilizes ultrasonic impacts to induce plastic strain on metal surfaces, was
      applied to an AZ31B magnesium (Mg) alloy. The mechanical properties, corrosion
      resistance, and biocompatibility of the alloy after UNSM treatment were studied
      systematically. Significant improvement in hardness, yield stress and wear
      resistance was achieved after the UNSM treatment. In addition, the corrosion
      behavior of UNSM-treated AZ31B was not compromised compared with the untreated
      samples, as demonstrated by the weight loss and released element concentrations
      of Mg and Al after immersion in alpha-minimum essential medium (alpha-MEM) for
      24h. The in vitro biocompatibility of the AZ31B Mg alloys toward adipose-derived
      stem cells (ADSCs) before and after UNSM processing was also evaluated using a
      cell culture study. Comparable cell attachments were achieved between the two
      groups. These studies showed that UNSM could significantly improve the mechanical
      properties of Mg alloys without compromising their corrosion rate and
      biocompatibility in vitro. These findings suggest that UNSM is a promising method
      to treat biodegradable Mg alloys for orthopaedic applications.

PMID- 28575943
TI  - Ageing and degradation determines failure mode on sea urchin spines.
AB  - Sea urchin spines are an example of a hard natural composite with mineral and
      organic phases. The role of the organic phase in the response to mechanical
      stress was assessed by promoting the degradation of such spines by exposing them
      to ageing and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Thermal and structural
      characterization of the irradiated samples show that this UV irradiation
      treatment promotes degradation of the organic and inorganic phase of spines.
      Uniaxial compression tests carried out on aged and UV irradiated samples showed
      that both treatments affected the mechanical properties of the spines. Scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM) images of failed specimens were used to analyze the
      failure mechanisms of the compressed spines. The analysis of the fracture
      surfaces showed that the failure mechanisms of spines were modified as a
      consequence of UV irradiation, leading in the last case to mostly brittle
      fracture surfaces. We suggest that the proteins responsible for the formation of
      calcite also determine the mechanical properties and the failure mode of spines.
      This system can be used as a model for the study of the failure modes of other
      natural and synthetic hard composites.

PMID- 28575942
TI  - Hybrid ZnPc@TiO2 nanostructures for targeted photodynamic therapy, bioimaging and
      doxorubicin delivery.
AB  - In this study ZnPc@TiO2 hybrid nanostructures, both nanoparticles and nanotubes,
      as potential photosensitizers for the photodynamic therapy, fluorescent
      bioimaging agents, as well as anti-cancer drug nanocarriers, were prepared via
      zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) deposition on TiO2. In order to provide the
      selectivity of prepared hybrid nanostructures towards cancer cells they were
      modified with folic acid molecules (FA). The efficient attachment of both ZnPc
      and FA molecules was confirmed with dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta
      potential measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was
      presented that ZnPc and FA attachment has a strong effect on fluorescence
      emission properties of TiO2 nanostructures, which can be further used for their
      simultaneous visualization upon cellular uptake. ZnPc@TiO2 and FA/ZnPc@TiO2
      hybrid nanotubes were then employed as doxorubicin nanocarriers. It was
      demonstrated that doxorubicin can be easily loaded on these hybrid nanostructures
      via an electrostatic interaction and then released. In vitro cytotoxicity and
      photo-cytotoxic activity studies showed that prepared hybrid nanostructures were
      selectively targeting to cancer cells. Doxorubicin loaded hybrid nanostructures
      were significantly more cytotoxic than un-loaded ones and their cytotoxic effect
      was even more severe upon irradiation. The cellular uptake of prepared hybrid
      nanostructures and their localization in cells was monitored in vitro in 2D cell
      culture and tumor-like 3D multicellular culture environment with fluorescent
      confocal microscopy. These hybrid nanostructures preferentially penetrated into
      human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) than into normal fibroblasts (MSU-1.1) and
      were mainly localized within the cell cytoplasm. HeLa cells spheroids were also
      efficiently labelled by prepared hybrid nanostructures. Fluorescent imaging of
      Hela cells treated with doxorubicin loaded hybrid nanostructures showed that
      doxorubicin was effectively delivered into cells, released and evenly distributed
      in the cytoplasm. In conclusion, prepared hybrid nanostructures exhibit high
      potential as selective bioimaging agents next to their photodynamic activity and
      drug delivery ability.

PMID- 28575945
TI  - Mechanical properties of experimental composites with different calcium
      phosphates fillers.
AB  - Calcium phosphates (CaPs)-containing composites have already shown good
      properties from the point of view of dental restorative materials. The purpose of
      this study was to examine the crucial mechanical properties of twelve
      hydroxyapatite- or tricalcium phosphate-filled composites. The raw and surface
      treated forms of both CaP fillers were applied. As a reference materials two
      experimental glass-containing composites and one commercial dental restorative
      composite were applied. Nano-hardness, elastic modulus, compressive, flexural and
      diametral tensile strength of all studied materials were determined. Application
      of statistical methods (one-way analysis of variance and cluster agglomerative
      analysis) allowed for assessing the similarities between examined materials
      according to the values of studied parameters. The obtained results show that in
      almost all cases the mechanical properties of experimental CaPs-composites are
      comparable or even better than mechanical properties of examined reference
      materials.

PMID- 28575944
TI  - Novel and facile microwave-assisted synthesis of Mo-doped hydroxyapatite
      nanorods: Characterization, gamma absorption coefficient, and bioactivity.
AB  - In the current work, the authors report the microwave-assisted synthesis
      Molybdenum-doped (from 0.05 to 5wt%) hydroxyapatite (HAp) for the first time. The
      morphology of Mo-doped HAp is nanorods of diameter in the range of 25-70nm and
      length in the range of 25nm to 200nm. The good crystalline nature was confirmed
      from X-ray diffraction patterns and also lattice parameters, grain size, strain
      and dislocation density were determined. The crystallite size was found to be in
      the range 16 to 30nm and crystallinity was found to be enhanced from 0.5 to 0.7
      with doping. The field emission SEM micrographs show that the morphology of the
      synthesized nanostructures of pure and Mo-doped HAp are nanorods of few
      nanometers. The vibrational modes were identified using the FT-Raman and FT-IR
      spectroscopy. The dielectric properties were studied and the AC electrical
      conductivity was found to be increased with increasing the concentration of Mo
      ions doping in HAp. Moreover, antimicrobial studies were also carried out to
      understand the anti-bacterial and anti-fungi properties. The results suggest that
      it may be a good bio-ceramics material for bio-medical applications. Mo-doped HAp
      was subjected to the gamma irradiation produced from Cs-137 (662keV) and its
      related parameters such as linear absorption coefficient, the half-value layer
      (HVL) and the tenth value layer TVL were calculated and analyzed.

PMID- 28575946
TI  - Microwave assisted extraction as an efficient approach for biosynthesis of zinc
      oxide nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization, and biological properties.
AB  - In the present study, microwave assisted extraction (MAE) was applied as an
      efficient, green and rapid approach to prepare the aqueous extract of Suaeda
      aegyptiaca (SA) plant. The obtained aqueous extracts at two different irradiation
      power (90 and 270W; 15min) in MAE process as well as maceration method (24h) were
      used in a green and eco-friendly approach for the synthesis of zinc oxide
      nanoparticles (ZnO NPs). The synthesized ZnO NPs have been characterized via
      different techniques including UV-Vis absorption; fluorescence and Fourier
      transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopices, scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      and X-ray diffraction (XRD). According to the results, the average size of the
      prepared ZnO particles was estimated around 60nm. A broad absorption band around
      382nm in UV-Vis absorption spectrum and a maximum emission at wavelength of 458nm
      in fluorescence spectrum clarified the successful biosynthesis of ZnO NPs.
      Moreover, the biological properties of the extracts and biosynthesized ZnO NPs
      were investigated by antimicrobial tests (i.e. Well-diffusion, minimum inhibitory
      concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) tests), antifungal
      and antioxidant tests (total phenolic and flovonoid content, antioxidant activity
      against dipheny-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and ethylbenzothiazolin-6sulphonic acid
      (ABTS+)). Finally, DNA cleavage potential of the samples was studied, too.

PMID- 28575947
TI  - Platelet compatibility of magnesium alloys.
AB  - Lately, Mg alloys have been investigated as a new class of biomaterials owing to
      their excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility. It has previously been
      reported that the in vitro compatibility of a Mg alloy containing aluminum and
      zinc (AZ) alloy with the blood coagulation system is excellent due to Mg2+ ions
      eluting from the alloy. In this study, the compatibility of the AZ alloy with
      platelets was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and flow cytometry.
      In the flow cytometry analysis, the platelets were stained using PAC-1 and P
      selectin antibodies. SEM images and PAC-1 analyses showed no negative effects on
      the platelets, whereas P-selectin analysis showed marked platelet activation. To
      understand these contradictory results, the amount of beta-thromboglobulin (beta
      TG) released from the platelets was investigated. From that investigation, it was
      concluded that platelets are markedly activated by the alloys. In addition to
      clarifying divergent results depending on the analysis method used, the effects
      of Mg2+ ions and pH on platelet activation were studied. These results show that
      platelet activation is caused by an increase in pH at the alloy surface owing to
      the erosion of the alloy.

PMID- 28575948
TI  - Synthesis characterization and biological evaluation of alginate nanoparticle for
      the targeted delivery of curcumin.
AB  - Cancer continues to be a serious disaster to mankind. Chemotherapy is an
      efficient and effective treatment against cancer. Lack of selectivity is the main
      challenge faced by chemotherapy. In present study we used folic acid (FA) as a
      targeting ligand, which selectively targets the cancer cell lines with over
      expressed folate receptors (FR). We grafted polyethylene glycol (PEG) to
      polyethylene imine (PEI) to form PEG-b-PEI (mPPS), which is then coupled with FA
      to form FA- PEG-b-PEI (PPF) which is then assembled with curcumin (CUR) loaded
      alginate nanoparticle (AlgNP). The carrier is well characterized using FTIR, XRD,
      SEM and DLS. At optimum conditions DLE of 68.3% and DEE of 92.4% have been
      achieved and a drug release percentage higher than 80% is also obtained. The cell
      viability of CUR loaded carrier is found to be less than 40%. In vitro
      cytotoxicity studies and fluorescence images of HeLa and H9c2 cell lines confirm
      the selective destruction of tumor cell lines.

PMID- 28575949
TI  - A highly bioactive poly (amido amine)/70S30C bioactive glass hybrid with
      photoluminescent and antimicrobial properties for bone regeneration.
AB  - The field of tissue engineering constantly calls for novel biomaterials that
      possess intrinsically multifunctional properties such as bioactivity, bioimaging
      ability and antibacterial properties. In this paper, poly (amido amine)
      generation 5/bioactive glass inorganic-organic hybrids have been developed
      through direct hybridization by 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) as
      coupling agent. Results indicated that the degree of covalent coupling by GPTMS
      and the weight percent of inorganic and organic constituents highly influence
      hybrids properties. It was found that nanoscale integration of inorganic and
      organic chains by GPTMS significantly endows hybrids with high thermal stability.
      Furthermore, hybrids exhibited photoluminescent ability (emission 400-600nm and
      700nm) without incorporating of any organic dyes or quantum dots. In addition,
      hydrophilicity of our hybrids indicated good cell/material interaction. The
      biological apatite was formed on the surface of calcium containing hybrids when
      soaked in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 1week. Hybrids also showed linear
      biodegradation behavior in SBF that could be controlled by the degree of covalent
      crosslinking which was indicative of their stable biodegradation ability. High
      inherent antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus was also observed
      from poly (amido amine)/silica hybrids. No adverse cytotoxicity for human
      gingival fibroblast cell lines (HGF) was detected after 4days. It is envisaged
      that our novel multifunctional hybrid system will confer intriguing potential in
      advancing the field of tissue engineering.

PMID- 28575950
TI  - In vitro proliferation and differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem
      cells into osteoblasts on nanocomposite scaffolds based on bioactive glass
      (64SiO2-31CaO-5P2O5)-poly-l-lactic acid nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning
      method.
AB  - Electrospinning method was employed for fabrication of SiO2-CaO-P2O5 bioactive
      glass (BG) nanofibers, poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) nanofibers and nanocomposite
      scaffolds fabricated from as-prepared nanofibers. Characterization of the
      prepared nanofibers and scaffolds by XRD, FTIR, and SEM techniques revealed the
      formation of nanofibers with mean diameter of about 500nm and fully fibrous
      scaffolds with porous structure and interconnected pores. The growth, viability
      and proliferation of cultured human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in the
      fabricated nanofibers and bioactive glass-poly-l-lactic acid (BG-PLLA)
      nanocomposite scaffolds were studied using various biological assays including
      MTT, ALP activity, calcium deposit content, Alizarin red staining, and RT-PCR
      test. Based on the obtained results, incorporation of BG nanofibers in the
      nanocomposite scaffolds causes the better biological behavior of the scaffolds.
      In addition, three-dimensional and fibrous-porous structure of the scaffolds
      further contributes to their improved cell behavior compared to the components.

PMID- 28575951
TI  - Enhanced gelation of chitosan/beta-sodium glycerophosphate thermosensitive
      hydrogel with sodium bicarbonate and biocompatibility evaluated.
AB  - The application of chitosan/beta-sodium glycerophosphate (beta-GP)
      thermosensitive hydrogel has been limited by the relatively slow gelation, weak
      mechanical resistance and poor cytocompatibility. In this study, sodium hydrogen
      carbonate (NaHCO3) was applied with beta-GP as gel agents to produce high
      strength hydrogel. The hydrogels prepared with high NaHCO3 concentration or more
      gel agents showed shorter gelation time, better thermostability, drastically
      enhanced resistance in compression. Meanwhile, the hydrogels presented obvious
      porous structures and excellent biocompatibility to HUVEC and NIH 3T3 cultured in
      vitro with higher NaHCO3 concentration and moderate concentration of beta-GP.
      Overall, appropriate concentration of beta-GP combined with NaHCO3 can be a good
      gel regent to improve properties of chitosan thermosensitive hydrogels.

PMID- 28575952
TI  - Biocompatibility and neurotoxicity of magnesium alloys potentially used for
      neural repairs.
AB  - Nerve injury, especially the large-size nerve damage, is a serious problem
      affecting millions of people. Entubulation of two ends of the injured nerve by
      using an implantable device, e.g., nerve guidance conduit (NGC), to guide the
      regeneration of nerve tissue is a promising approach for treating the large-size
      nerve defect. Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are biodegradable, conductive, and
      own good mechanical properties. Mg2+ ion, one of the main degradation products of
      Mg and its alloys, was reported to promote the proliferation of neural stem cells
      and their neurite production. Thus, Mg and its alloys are potential materials for
      fabricating the nerve repair implants, such as NGC or scaffold. However, the
      compatibility of Mg alloys to cells, especially neurons is not clear. In this
      work, NZ20 (Mg-2Nd-Zn), ZN20 (Mg-2Zn-Nd) and Mg-10Li magnesium alloys were
      selected for study, due to the improved mechanical properties of NZ20 and ZN20
      alloys and bio-function of Li+ ions from Mg-10Li to nervous system, respectively.
      The degradation behavior and biocompatibility were studied by in vitro
      degradation test and cell adhesion assay, respectively. Specifically, the
      cytocompatibility to dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, RF/6A choroid-retina
      endothelial cells, and osteoblasts in the cell culture media containing Mg alloy
      extracts were investigated. The results showed that Mg alloys degraded at
      different rates in cell culture media and artificial cerebrospinal fluid. The
      three alloy extracts showed negligible toxic effects on the endothelial cells and
      osteoblasts at short term (1 day), while NZ20 extract inhibited the proliferation
      of these two types of cells. The effect of Mg alloy extracts on cell
      proliferation was also concentration-dependent. For DRG neurons, ZN20 and Mg-10Li
      alloy extracts showed no neural toxicity compared with control group. The results
      of the present work show a potential and feasibility of Mg-10Li and ZN20 for
      nerve repair applications.

PMID- 28575953
TI  - Ag-BaMoO4: Er3+/Yb3+ photocatalyst for antibacterial application.
AB  - Silver loaded and Er3+/Yb3+ doped BaMoO4 octahedron microcrystals were fabricated
      by microwave hydrothermal process. The synthesized samples were characterized by
      X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM),
      Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Ultraviolet-visible diffuse
      reflection spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The antibacterial application of samples
      were investigated by visible light irradiation and disk-diffusion method towards
      representative Gram-negative pathogen (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa) and Gram-positive pathogen (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus). The complete inactivation of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
      and Staphylococcus aureus were observed by Ag-BaMoO4: Er3+/Yb3+ photocatalyst
      within 1h, 4h, and 5h, respectively, under visible light irradiation. The high
      killing percentage and superior zone of inhibition revealed the excellent
      antibacterial performance. The FESEM images were used to visualize the morphology
      with the extent of damage in the phospholipid layer present in the cell membrane
      of bacteria. The synergistic effect of loaded silver particles and doped
      Er3+/Yb3+ ions in BaMoO4 contributed for efficient antibacterial performance in
      visible light as well as in the dark. The excellent antibacterial performance of
      Ag-BaMoO4: Er3+/Yb3+ photocatalyst makes the material suitable for smart weapon
      for multidrug-resistant microorganisms and disinfectants in biomedical
      application.

PMID- 28575955
TI  - Characterisation of polyamide 11/copper antimicrobial composites for medical
      device applications.
AB  - Direct incorporation of antimicrobial additive into the polymer matrix is a cost
      effective approach for the development of polymer/metal antimicrobial composites.
      Application of these antimicrobial composite systems for manufacturing medical
      devices addresses the issue of device related infections. In the present study,
      commercially available inorganic copper based additive, Plasticopper, was
      incorporated into a Polyamide 11(PA 11) matrix during the polymer processing
      stage. These polymer composites were evaluated for their morphological,
      mechanical, antimicrobial and ion release properties. Isothermal crystallisation
      studies showed that the copper additive acted as a nucleating agent and promoted
      faster crystallisation. Short term mechanical studies confirmed that the
      incorporation of copper has reinforcing effect on the composites with 5 and 10%
      copper loadings and did not adversely affect the short-term mechanical
      performance of the polymer composites. These composite systems were shown to be
      active against Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 with >99.99% reduction in bacterial
      population. Corresponding ion release profiles for these composites indicated
      long term antimicrobial activity.

PMID- 28575954
TI  - Scaffold composed of porous vancomycin-loaded poly(lactide-co-glycolide)
      microspheres: A controlled-release drug delivery system with shape-memory effect.
AB  - Loading antibiotics in a biodegradable polymer matrix is an excellent way to
      control its release kinetics, which eliminates side effects caused by
      conventional administrations of the drug. This approach is especially beneficial
      for bone regeneration when using a scaffold made of a biodegradable polymer
      loaded with drug agents capable of controllable releases. In this case, the
      scaffold serves as a mechanical support to tissue formation and the drug agents
      may provide biomolecules to assist the tissue formation and/or provide
      antibiotics to prevent tissues from infections. Towards this goal, we have
      developed an approach to make vancomycin-loaded poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)
      microspheres, from which we made scaffolds by compression molding. In this
      article we concentrate on characterizing the porosity and drug release profiles,
      as well as verifying shape-memory effect of the scaffolds. The scaffold was
      biodegradable and showed a much slower drug release profile than microspheres. We
      confirmed that our PLGA scaffolds recovered to their permanent shapes when heated
      to 45 degrees C. We believe that these scaffolds will find applications in bone
      regeneration where both the use of antibiotics against infection and
      accommodation to spatial restrictions may be required.

PMID- 28575956
TI  - Cell responses to titanium treated by a sandblast-free method for implant
      applications.
AB  - Sandblast and acid-etching (SLA) is the most prevalent treatment to titanium
      implants, while residual sand particles are inevitably introduced on SLA titanium
      surfaces. NH4OH and H2O2 mixture was used to etch titanium plates (E) and
      titanium bars (EB), aiming at substituting sandblast procedure. To study the
      effects of different scale rough structures on cell response of Human osteoblast
      like cells (MG63), traditional H2SO4 and HCl mixture was also used to further
      etch the titanium plates above (DE). Holes of 10-20MUm were obtained on E and DE
      surfaces, which are very close to the size of osteoblasts. Surfaces with
      micro/nano and micro/submicro hierarchical structures were obtained on the
      treated titanium. As-prepared E, DE and EB surfaces are hydrophilic, while only
      EB stayed hydrophilic after 5days' exposure to air. MG63 cultured on E and EB
      surfaces showed higher proliferation rate and attachment area than on DE and P
      surfaces. E and DE showed higher alkaline phosphatases (ALP) activity after 7 and
      14days of osteoinduction, while EB showed the highest osteopontin (OPN) and bone
      sialoprotein (BSP) production after 21days of osteoinduction. These results
      indicate that E and EB surfaces boost the proliferation and osteogenic
      differentiation of MG63 without introducing sand particles. This is a promising
      treatment to titanium implant.

PMID- 28575957
TI  - Neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells on
      polycaprolactone/gelatin bi-electrospun nanofibers.
AB  - In the present study, for the first time, polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin
      (GEL) were used for neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem
      cells (hiPSCs) in the form of bi-electrospun nanofibers. The electrospun fibers
      were evaluated by FTIR and tensile analysis. MTT assay was used to evaluate the
      toxicity on the scaffolds. The hiPSCs were seeded on the fibers and after 14days
      in neural differentiation medium. To confirm the differentiation, real-time PCR
      and immunocytochemistry (ICC) analyses were performed. For morphological studies
      of fibers and cultured cells on them, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
      optical microscopy (OM) were used. Our results indicated that hiPSCs had
      differentiated to neural cells completely after incubation time. Our study
      demonstrates that PCL/GEL bi-electrospun nanofibers not only have the capability
      to support hiPSCs differentiation to neural cells, but they also are able to
      enhance and improve such process. Overall, PCL/GEL scaffolds seem to be a
      feasible, reliable and easily accessed composite for further tissue engineering
      experiments.

PMID- 28575958
TI  - Mesoporous silica nanoparticles as potential carriers for enhanced drug
      solubility of paclitaxel.
AB  - In this study, paclitaxel (PTX), a typical chemotherapeutic agent with poor water
      solubility, was selected as the model drug to evaluate the feasibility of
      mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) to load a hydrophobic drug in different
      solvents. A sol-gel method was used to synthesize MSN. Drug loading was carried
      out in three different solvents: dichloromethane, ethanol and dimethyl sulfoxide
      (DMSO) via a solvent evaporation method, and their effects on drug loading were
      examined. We further studied the effects of drug loading period and mass ratio of
      drug to carrier on drug loading capacity of MSN, as well as the in vitro drug
      release was analyzed. Moreover, the cytotoxic effect of PTX loaded MSN on liver
      carcinoma (HepG2) cells was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5
      diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The related materials were characterized
      by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM),
      dynamic light scattering (DLS), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR),
      small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), wide-angle x-ray diffraction (XRD) and N2
      adsorption-desorption analyses. The results demonstrated a highly improved
      solubility of PTX by using MSN as drug carriers compared to free PTX. In
      addition, drug loading content increased as the solvent polarity parameter
      decreased or the drug/carrier mass ratio increased. Compared with the blank MSN,
      the PTX loaded MSN could produce a significant cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells. Our
      results indicated that MSN could be very potential drug delivery carriers for
      poorly water soluble drugs.

PMID- 28575959
TI  - Multifunctional inulin tethered silver-graphene quantum dots nanotheranostic
      module for pancreatic cancer therapy.
AB  - Cancer nanotechnology is an emerging area of cancer diagnosis and therapy.
      Although considerable progress has been made for targeted drug delivery systems
      to deliver anticancer agents to particular site of interest, new nanomaterials
      are frequently being developed and explored for better drug delivery efficiency.
      In the present work, we have explored a novel nanoformulation based on silver
      graphene quantum dots (Ag-GQDs) nanocomposite for its successful implementation
      for pancreatic cancer specific drug delivery in wistar rats. Carboxymethyl inulin
      (CMI); a modified variant of natural polysaccharide inulin is tethered with the
      nanocomposite via carbodiimide coupling to enhance the biocompatibility of
      nanoformulation. Experiments are performed to investigate the cytotoxicity
      reduction of silver nanoparticles after inulin tethering as well as anticancer
      efficacy of the system using 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) as model drug. SEM, TEM, FT
      IR, UV-vis, photoluminescence and anti proliferative assays (MTT) are performed
      for characterisation of the nanocomposite. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is conjugated as
      targeting moiety for CD-44 (cancer stem cell marker) to fabricate a complete
      targeted drug delivery vehicle specific for pancreatic cancer. In the present
      work two prime objectives were achieved; mitigation the toxicity of silver
      nanoparticles by inulin coating and it's in vivo application for pancreatic
      cancer.

PMID- 28575960
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of MFI-type borosilicate zeolites and evaluation
      of their efficiency as drug delivery systems.
AB  - MFI-type borosilicate zeolites with different Si/B ratio were synthesized by
      hydrothermal method using silicic acid and sodium tetraborate decahydrate as
      starting materials. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction
      (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA/DTG)
      and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Different characterization
      techniques confirmed the incorporation of boron atoms into the zeolite framework.
      SEM images revealed that the particle size of zeolites and their morphology can
      be controlled by different synthesis parameters. The effect of different
      parameters such as crystallization time and temperature, pH value of initial gel
      and Si/B ratio on the crystallinity, morphology and incorporation of boron atoms
      into final products was investigated and discussed in detail. The efficiency of
      synthesized borosilicate zeolites as drug delivery systems was examined by
      loading and in vitro release of anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). The results
      demonstrated that DOX-loaded borosilicate samples show a pH-sensitive drug
      release feature with higher drug release rate in relatively lower pH values. In
      vitro cytotoxicity of DOX- loaded borosilicate was evaluated by MTT assay.

PMID- 28575961
TI  - Strontium and strontium ranelate: Historical review of some of their functions.
AB  - The review covers historical and last decade's scientific literature on the
      biological and clinical role of strontium (Sr) and strontium ranelate (Sr RAN).
      It enrols the description of the main effects of Sr on supportive tissue, its
      proven and possible morphopathogenetical mechanisms and the interaction with the
      bone, and especially focuses on the Sr ability to inhibit osteoclasts and affect
      the programmed cell death. The main experimental and clinical experience
      regarding the Sr RAN influence in the treatment of osteoporosis and the search
      for correct doses is also highlighted. The review gives insight into the role of
      Sr/Sr RAN on stem cells, apoptosis, animal and clinical research.

PMID- 28575962
TI  - Colorimetric sensors for rapid detection of various analytes.
AB  - Sensor technology for the rapid detection of the analytes with high sensitivity
      and selectivity has several challenges. Despite the challenges, colorimetric
      sensors have been widely accepted for its high sensitive and selective response
      towards various analytes. In this review, colorimetric sensors for the detection
      of biomolecules like protein, DNA, pathogen and chemical compounds like heavy
      metal ions, toxic gases and organic compounds have been elaborately discussed.
      The visible sensing mechanism based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) using
      metal nanoparticles like Au, Ag, thin film interference using SiO2 and
      colorimetric array-based technique have been highlighted. The optical property of
      metal nanoparticles enables a visual color change during its interaction with the
      analytes owing to the dispersion and aggregation of nanoparticles. Recently,
      colorimetric changes using silica substrate for detection of protein and small
      molecules by thin film interference as a visible sensing mechanism has been
      developed without the usage of fluorescent or radioisotopes labels. Multilayer of
      biomaterials were used as a platform where reflection and interference of
      scattering light occur due to which color change happens leading to rapid
      sensing. Colorimetric array-based technique for the detection of organic
      compounds using chemoresponsive dyes has also been focused wherein the
      interaction of the analytes with the substrate coated with chemoresponsive dyes
      gives colorimetric change.

PMID- 28575963
TI  - Highly sensitive and selective non enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensors
      based on Graphene Oxide-Molecular Imprinted Polymer.
AB  - Graphene Oxide-Molecular Imprinted Polymer (GO-MIP) based electrochemical sensor
      was developed for the first time towards enzyme less determination of glucose.
      This GO-MIP was obtained from a series of fictionalization, polymerization and
      template molecule introduction/removal during the synthesizing process. The
      proposed GO-MIP based electrode showed excellent electrocatalytic activity
      towards glucose oxidation at optimized conditions and possessing detection limit
      of 0.1nM with a response time of ~2min. The current response of GO-MIP based
      glucose sensor was linearly related to the concentration of glucose. The results
      obtained from the real time usability of electrodes in human blood matches well
      with commercially available glucose monitors. Further, the reusability of the
      material is checked up to eight cycles and interference of glucose with ascorbic
      acid (AA), uric acid (UA) and dopamine (DA) were also studied. The obtained
      results endorse the promising application of GO-MIP towards superior glucose
      sensing with long term stability.

PMID- 28575964
TI  - Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering: State of the art and new perspectives.
AB  - This review is intended to give a state of the art description of scaffold-based
      strategies utilized in Bone Tissue Engineering. Numerous scaffolds have been
      tested in the orthopedic field with the aim of improving cell viability,
      attachment, proliferation and homing, osteogenic differentiation,
      vascularization, host integration and load bearing. The main traits that
      characterize a scaffold suitable for bone regeneration concerning its biological
      requirements, structural features, composition, and types of fabrication are
      described in detail. Attention is then focused on conventional and Rapid
      Prototyping scaffold manufacturing techniques. Conventional manufacturing
      approaches are subtractive methods where parts of the material are removed from
      an initial block to achieve the desired shape. Rapid Prototyping techniques,
      introduced to overcome standard techniques limitations, are additive fabrication
      processes that manufacture the final three-dimensional object via deposition of
      overlying layers. An important improvement is the possibility to create custom
      made products by means of computer assisted technologies, starting from patient's
      medical images. As a conclusion, it is highlighted that, despite its encouraging
      results, the clinical approach of Bone Tissue Engineering has not taken place on
      a large scale yet, due to the need of more in depth studies, its high
      manufacturing costs and the difficulty to obtain regulatory approval. PUBMED
      search terms utilized to write this review were: "Bone Tissue Engineering",
      "regenerative medicine", "bioactive scaffolds", "biomimetic scaffolds", "3D
      printing", "3D bioprinting", "vascularization" and "dentistry".

PMID- 28575965
TI  - A review of biocompatible metal injection moulding process parameters for
      biomedical applications.
AB  - Biocompatible metals have been revolutionizing the biomedical field,
      predominantly in human implant applications, where these metals widely used as a
      substitute to or as function restoration of degenerated tissues or organs. Powder
      metallurgy techniques, in specific the metal injection moulding (MIM) process,
      have been employed for the fabrication of controlled porous structures used for
      dental and orthopaedic surgical implants. The porous metal implant allows bony
      tissue ingrowth on the implant surface, thereby enhancing fixation and recovery.
      This paper elaborates a systematic classification of various biocompatible metals
      from the aspect of MIM process as used in medical industries. In this study,
      three biocompatible metals are reviewed-stainless steels, cobalt alloys, and
      titanium alloys. The applications of MIM technology in biomedicine focusing
      primarily on the MIM process setting parameters discussed thoroughly. This paper
      should be of value to investigators who are interested in state of the art of
      metal powder metallurgy, particularly the MIM technology for biocompatible metal
      implant design and development.

PMID- 28575966
TI  - Naturally derived proteins and glycosaminoglycan scaffolds for tissue engineering
      applications.
AB  - Tissue engineering (TE) aims to mimic the complex environment where organogenesis
      takes place using advanced materials to recapitulate the tissue niche. Cells,
      three-dimensional scaffolds and signaling factors are the three main and
      essential components of TE. Over the years, materials and processes have become
      more and more sophisticated, allowing researchers to precisely tailor the final
      chemical, mechanical, structural and biological features of the designed
      scaffolds. In this review, we will pose the attention on two specific classes of
      naturally derived polymers: fibrous proteins and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). These
      materials hold great promise for advances in the field of regenerative medicine
      as i) they generally undergo a fast remodeling in vivo favoring
      neovascularization and functional cells organization and ii) they elicit a
      negligible immune reaction preventing severe inflammatory response, both
      representing critical requirements for a successful integration of engineered
      scaffolds with the host tissue. We will discuss the recent achievements attained
      in the field of regenerative medicine by using proteins and GAGs, their merits
      and disadvantages and the ongoing challenges to move the current concepts to
      practical clinical application.

PMID- 28575967
TI  - Constructing multi-component organic/inorganic composite bacterial cellulose
      gelatin/hydroxyapatite double-network scaffold platform for stem cell-mediated
      bone tissue engineering.
AB  - Bacterial cellulose/hydroxyapatite (BC/HAp) composite had good bioaffinity but
      its poor mechanical strength limited its widespread applications in bone tissue
      engineering (BTE). Bacterial cellulose/gelatin (BC/GEL) double-network (DN)
      composite had excellent mechanical properties but was seldom used in biomedical
      fields. In this regard, a multi-component organic/inorganic composite BC-GEL/HAp
      DN composite was synthesized, which combined the advantages of BC/HAp and BC/GEL.
      Compared with BC/GEL, the BC-GEL/HAp exhibited rougher surface topography and
      higher thermal stability. Compression and tensile testing indicated that the
      mechanical strength of the BC-GEL/HAp was greatly reinforced compared with BC/HAp
      and was even higher than that of BC/GEL. In vitro cell culture demonstrated that
      the rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) cultured on the BC
      GEL/HAp showed better adhesion and higher proliferation and differentiation
      potential than the cells cultured on BC/GEL. We hope the BC-GEL/HAp composite
      could be used as ideal bone scaffold platform or biomedical membrane in the
      future.

PMID- 28575968
TI  - Structural aspects of graphitic carbon modified SBA-15 mesoporous silica and
      biological interactions with red blood cells and plasma proteins.
AB  - Functional mesoporous materials have been worldwide studied for different
      applications. Mesoporous silicas are highlighted due to the synthetic
      possibilities for the preparation of such materials with different particle sizes
      and morphologies, and controlled pores sizes and structures. Moreover, the silica
      superficial silanol groups are explored in several chemical modifications,
      leading to functional materials with tuned functionalities and properties. In
      this work, an organo-functionalization and pyrolysis synthetic procedure is used
      to obtain graphitic carbon modified mesoporous SBA-15 silica. The carbon content
      was tuned during the functionalization step, and the graphitic nanodomains were
      formed in the pores surface and particles outer surface. Textural and small angle
      X-ray diffraction analysis accessed the presence of the carbon nanostructures
      inside the SBA-15 mesopores. Advanced microanalysis using electron energy loss
      spectroscopy coupled to a transmission electron microscope had confirmed the
      carbon distribution along the silica pores, which gives higher hydrophobicity and
      changed the interaction of the mesoporous material with biological systems.
      Finally, the influence of the surface modification with graphitic carbon species
      over the interaction with human red blood cells (hemolysis) and human blood
      plasma (protein corona formation) was elucidated for the very first time for this
      kind of functional materials. It was observed that the graphitic carbon species
      considerably reduced the hemolytic effect of the silica particles, and was
      responsible for modulating the loading and composition of the hard corona plasma
      proteins. This work deepness the fundamental knowledge on the interaction between
      such nanomaterials and biological systems, one step further the use of these
      modified silicas in biomedical applications.

PMID- 28575969
TI  - Li+ activated nanohydroxyapatite doped with Eu3+ ions enhances proliferative
      activity and viability of human stem progenitor cells of adipose tissue and
      olfactory ensheathing cells. Further perspective of nHAP:Li+, Eu3+ application in
      theranostics.
AB  - Spinal cord injuries (SCI) often require simultaneous regeneration of nerve
      tissue and bone. Hydroxyapatites are described as bioresorbable materials with
      proper biocompatibility and osteoconductivity, therefore its application for
      spinal surgery is considered. In this paper, we present repeatable method for
      developing nanocrystalline calcium hydroxyapatites structurally modified with Li+
      ions (nHAP:Li+). Obtained biomaterials were profoundly characterized in terms of
      their physicochemical properties. Moreover, we have shown that nHAP:Li+ doped
      with europium (Eu3+) may serve as a theranostic agent, what additionally extend
      its potential usage for SCI treatment. The biocompatibility of nHAP:Li+ was
      determined using human olfactory ensheathing cells (hOECs) and adipose tissue
      derived multipotent stromal cells (hASCs). Both population of cells are eagerly
      applied for cell-based therapies in SCI, mainly due to their paracrine activity.
      The extensive in vitro studies showed that nHAP:Li+ promotes the cells
      proliferation, viability and cell-cell interactions. Obtained results provides
      encouraging approach that may have potential application in regenerative medicine
      and that could fulfil the promise of personalized medicine - important in SCI
      treatment.

PMID- 28575970
TI  - In situ foamable, degradable polyurethane as biomaterial for soft tissue repair.
AB  - Degradable foams which can be inserted endoscopically as liquid or pasty mixtures
      into soft tissue defects possess a promising potential for the surgical treatment
      of such defects. The defects can be sealed under in situ foaming and simultaneous
      material expansion. We developed an in situ foamable (l-lactide-co-epsilon
      caprolactone)-based, star-shaped prepolymer by ring opening polymerization of l
      lactide and epsilon-caprolactone in the presence of meso-erythritol as starter.
      By conversion of the terminal hydroxyl groups of the formed oligoester with
      lysine diisocyanate ethyl ester (LDI) an isocyanate-endcapped, reactive
      prepolymer has been received. Foaming can be initiated by addition of 1,4
      diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO), water, LDI and DMSO. By varying the
      composition of these additives, the foaming and curing time could be varied
      within a clinically acceptable range. A porosity of approximately 90%, and an
      average tensile strength of 0.3MPa with elongations of 90% were determined for
      the foams. In vitro cytotoxicity on cured foams was assayed on 3T3 fibroblasts
      and demonstrated an excellent cytocompatibility. This was also confirmed in an in
      vivo study using an established rat model, where prefabricated foams and in situ
      hardening material were inserted into subdermal skin incisions in parallel. The
      feature of chronic inflammation was only weakly developed in both groups and
      slightly more pronounced and persisted for longer time in the group of in situ
      foamed material. In both groups the foreign materials were vascularized, degraded
      and substituted by connective tissue. The results encourage to proceed with
      trials where the materials are used to fill more heavily loaded defects.

PMID- 28575972
TI  - Photoenhanced gene transfection by a curcumin loaded CS-g-PZLL micelle.
AB  - The codelivery of drug and gene is a promising method for cancer treatment. In
      our previous works, we prepared a cationic micelles based on chitosan and poly-(N
      3-carbobenzyloxylysine) (CS-g-PZLL), but transfection ratio of CS-g-PZLL to Hela
      cell was low. Herein, to improve the transfection efficiency of CS-g-PZLL,
      curcumin was loaded in the CS-g-PZLL micelle. After irradiation, the obtained
      curcumin loaded micelle showed a better transfection, and the p53 protein
      expression in Hela cells was higher. The apoptosis assay showed that the complex
      could induce a more significant apoptosis to Hela cells than that of curcumin or
      p53 used alone, and the curcumin loaded micelle inducing apoptosis was best after
      irradiation. Therefore, CS-g-PZLL is a safe and effective carrier for the
      codelivery of drug/gene, and curcumin could be used as a photosensitizer to
      induce a photoenhanced gene transfection, which should be encouraged in improving
      transfection and tumor therapy.

PMID- 28575971
TI  - Synthesis and biological properties of Zn-incorporated micro/nano-textured
      surface on Ti by high current anodization.
AB  - It is acknowledged that ideal implant coatings should possess micro/nano-textured
      surface, have good interfacial bonding, and can release bioactive elements. In
      this study, we fabricated a Zn-incorporated micro/nano-textured surface by one
      step high current anodization (HCA) in an aqueous solution with 10g/L of NaOH and
      different concentrations of Zn(NO3)2 (4, 7, and 12g/L). The control group of Zn
      free was fabricated in the electrolyte of 7g/L Zn(NO3)2. Scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X
      ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and inductively
      coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) were used to analyze the morphology,
      composition, microstructure, and Zn+ release kinetics of the micro/nano-textured
      coatings. The biological properties of the surface structure were evaluated by
      cytotoxicity assay, cell viability, cytoskeletal assembly and alkaline
      phosphatase activity. Our results show the micro/nano-textured surface is
      composed of TiO2 mesoporous arrays, into which the Zn is demonstrated to be
      incorporated in the form of ZnO. The Zn content in the surface and release level
      of Zn2+ can be tailored through varying Zn(NO3)2 concentration in the
      electrolyte. In addition, the surface oxide layers show good interfacial bonding
      strength to the substrate. Compared with pure Ti and anodized Zn-free samples,
      the Zn-incorporated surface can upregulate osteoblast functions such as
      proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity, which are assayed by MTT and ALP
      staining experiments, respectively. Collectively, this micro/nano-textured
      structure combined with high interfacial bonding strength and release of Zn2+
      render the material surface promising as orthopedic implant coatings.

PMID- 28575973
TI  - Electrochemical hydrogen peroxide sensor based on carbon supported Cu@Pt core
      shell nanoparticles.
AB  - The Cu@Pt/C nanocomposites have been synthesized via two-step reduction method.
      Electrochemical observations showed that the Cu@Pt/C had better electrocatalytic
      activity for the reduction of hydrogen peroxide than Pt/C, with a wide linear
      range between 0.50MUM and 32.56mM, a high sensitivity of 351.3MUAmM-1cm-2, and a
      low detection limit of 0.15MUM (signal/noise=3). Furthermore, the sensor based on
      Cu@Pt/C has potential applications due to its excellent long-time stability, good
      reproducibility and acceptable selectivity.

PMID- 28575975
TI  - Biosynthesis of reduced graphene oxide and its in-vitro cytotoxicity against
      cervical cancer (HeLa) cell lines.
AB  - The present work proposed a simple, one pot, and green approach for the
      deoxygenation of graphene oxide (GO) using pyrogallol as reducing and stabilizing
      agent. This synthetic strategy prevents the utilization of toxic reducing
      reagents during synthesis. The characterization results of Ultra violet visible
      (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS),
      Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the synthesized GO and reduced
      graphene oxide (RGO) indicated the strong removal of oxygen groups after
      reduction which followed by stabilization with oxidized form of pyrogallol. TEM
      analysis showed the thin transparent silk like sheets of graphene. FTIR analysis
      confirmed the stabilization of graphene sheets with oxidized pyrogallol
      molecules. XRD and XPS analysis represented the deoxygenation of GO to RGO. The
      in-vitro cytotoxicity of RGO towards HeLa cells is dose dependant. The prepared
      RGO also exhibited the percent cell viability of about 80% even at higher
      concentrations indicating the less toxic nature of the RGO stabilized with
      pyrogallol. These results have represented that this synthetic approach is
      effective for the preparation of bulk scale RGO in a simple, less expensive and
      eco-friendly method. Since this method avoids the use of chemical reagents that
      are toxic in nature, the produced graphene are likely to offer several potential
      biomedical applications.

PMID- 28575974
TI  - Construction of biodegradable and biocompatible AIE-active fluorescent polymeric
      nanoparticles by Ce(IV)/HNO3 redox polymerization in aqueous solution.
AB  - Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active fluorescence polymeric nanoparticles
      (FPNs) have recently received increasing interests for biomedical applications
      such as cell imaging, drug delivery, disease diagnosis and treatment. Fabricated
      strategies of AIE-active FPNs with high efficiency, simplification and tenderness
      are still passionately pursued to promote the development of theranostic systems.
      In this work, we develop a facile method for the preparation of AIE-active FPNs
      by adopting Ce(IV)/HNO3 redox polymerization under near room temperature. Thus
      prepared FPNs (named as PEG-PLC-1) possess unique AIE feature, great water
      dispersity, excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability because of the
      conjugation of ultra-bright AIE dye (PhE-alc) and biodegradable PEG-PCL linear
      copolymers. The 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier
      transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM),
      UV-Visible and fluorescence spectrometers were used to confirm the successful
      fabrication of AIE-active FPNs. Cell viability and cellular uptake behavior of
      PEG-PLC-1 FPNs were further investigated for their potential biomedical
      applications. Results demonstrated that PEG-PLC-1 FPNs are high water dispersity,
      intensive luminescence and low cytotoxicity, making them very attractive for
      biomedical applications. More importantly, the method for the fabrication of AIE
      active biodegradable FPNs can be occurred under rather facile conditions (e.g.,
      low temperature, free of metal catalysts, common chain transfer agent and aqueous
      solution) and are specially used for fabrication of AIE-active polysaccharides
      with poor organic solubility.

PMID- 28575976
TI  - Thermosensitive hydrogel as an in situ gelling antimicrobial ocular dressing.
AB  - Microbial keratitis is a severe ocular condition and one of the most prevalent
      causes of corneal scarring and associated blindness worldwide. Risk factors
      include contact lens use, ocular trauma, ocular surface disease and
      immunosuppression. Initial clinical management mandates intensive (hourly or more
      frequent) topical administration of broad spectrum antimicrobial therapy for at
      least 48h, which may require hospital admission, followed by tailored therapy
      based on microbiological investigation and the institution of strategies to
      reduce inflammation and promote healing. In this work we report an ocular wound
      dressing which can encapsulate and give sustained release of different
      antibiotics. The use of this dressing would allow patients to have eye drops on a
      4 hourly basis, thereby facilitating treatment compliance and reducing hospital
      admissions.

PMID- 28575977
TI  - Nonenzymatic glucose sensing by CuO nanoparticles decorated nitrogen-doped
      graphene aerogel.
AB  - CuO nanoparticles decorated N-doped graphene aerogel (NGA-CuO) was facilely
      synthesized via a mild hydrothermal method followed by freeze-drying and
      calcination, which was characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XPS, XRD and electrochemical
      impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The obtained NGA-CuO was used for the construction
      of a nonenzymatic sensing platform for glucose, exhibiting wide linear range, low
      detection limit, high sensitivity, reproducibility, selectivity and stability.
      The excellent analytical performances of the NGA-CuO based glucose sensor might
      be attributed to the synergistic effect of CuO nanoparticles and N-doped graphene
      aerogel (NGA). The practical applications of the proposed sensor was verified by
      determining glucose concentrations in five human serum samples, and the obtained
      results were quite comparable to those measured on the standard clinical
      instrument.

PMID- 28575978
TI  - Fabrication, optimization and characterization of electrospun
      poly(caprolactone)/gelatin/graphene nanofibrous mats.
AB  - Recently graphene-based materials have been exploited widely in graphene-polymer
      nanocomposites and hold notable potential for various applications. In this study
      novel graphene-incorporated poly(caprolactone)/gelatin nanofibrous web were
      produced by electrospinning technique using acetic acid as a cost-effective eco
      friendly solvent. Response surface methodology was used for optimizing the
      diameter of the electrospun nanofibrous web. To tailor electrospun nanofibers
      with suitable mechanical and electrical properties, the impact of affecting
      electrospinning parameters was studied. Our results show that, with increasing
      the PCL/gelatin ratio, the diameter of nanofibers increases, whereas increasing
      graphene concentration decreased the diameter of nanofibers up to an optimum
      content. With the incorporation of 1.5% graphene into PCL/gelatin matrix the
      tensile strength and Young modulus of nanofibrous mat considerably increased by
      117 and 128% respectively. The electrical conductivity results demonstrated that
      nanofibrous mats own nearly 11 times higher conductivity than that of PCL/gelatin
      nanofibers when the graphene concentration reached the percolation threshold.
      Contact angle measurements confirmed that graphene-incorporated electrospun
      nanofibers were more hydrophilic than that of neat nanofibrous mats. Cellular
      toxicity results of electrospun nanofibers ascertained almost no toxicity to PC12
      cells. The morphology of electrospun nanofibers was investigated by means of
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR and DSC analysis revealed that there
      might be possible interactions between graphene and PCL/gelatin matrix. XRD
      analysis demonstrated that graphene-incorporated PCL/gelatin nanofibers exhibited
      higher crystallinity. The uniform dispersion of graphene nanosheets in
      nanofibrous mat was also verified through Raman spectroscopy.

PMID- 28575979
TI  - Live-cell biosensor for assessment of adhesion qualities of biomaterials.
AB  - The present study describes a live-cell biosensor, suitable for general
      evaluation of adhesion qualities of different substrates. It is based on NIH/3T3
      fibroblast cell line stably expressing fusion fluorescently tagged proteins
      mCherry-vinculin and GFP-tensin as quantifiable markers for assessment not only
      of focal but also of fibrillar contacts. Four measurable parameters - spreading,
      polarization and development of focal and fibrillar adhesions were used to
      standardize the adhesion of biosensor cells after plating on five substrates of
      natural origin - fibronectin, vitronectin, laminin-111, laminin-521 and collagen
      type I. The obtained set of values (adhesion quality map) were utilized to
      describe the default biosensor behavior and as a standard for evaluation of
      surface biocompatibility of materials with unknown adhesive properties. To
      demonstrate the applicability of the biosensor we studied two PDMS-based
      artificial materials. The results demonstrated the superior adhesive properties
      of the poly(acrylic acid)-containing polymer (PDMS-PAA) over that of poly(vinyl
      pyrrolidone) copolymer (PDMS-PVP), and pointed out the formation of focal
      adhesions as a parameter for possible further improvements.

PMID- 28575980
TI  - Laser textured Co-Cr-Mo alloy stored chitosan/poly(ethylene glycol) composite
      applied on artificial joints lubrication.
AB  - Arthroplasty brings the wear problems because of body fluid has poor performance
      as lubricant. Lubricant which is used in artificial joints will rapidly degrade
      and be absorbed by human body after injecting. To prolong the lubricant's
      effectiveness, this study prepared chitosan/poly(ethylene glycol) (CS/PEG) and
      textures to play a role in joint lubrication and wear protection. Chitosan (CS)
      and poly(ethylene glycol) which have biocompatibility and biodegradability
      properties can be used in human body. The tribological results shown that CS/PEG
      sol has excellent performance when this sol was composed by 2wt% CS and 30wt%
      PEG, the average friction coefficient below 0.016 under the condition of 30-90N
      load (pressure 4.2-12.6MPa). In this study, CS/PEG was added in the texture of
      artificial joints, then the surfaces of the CS/PEG formed gel via NaOH
      solidification effect. The CS/PEG gel film could prevent the CS/PEG sol from
      diluting in body fluid. Meanwhile, FT-IR, XRD, UV/vis and Raman spectra revealed
      that CS associated with PEG via hydrogen bond effect may form a particular
      structure, which leaded the good tribological performance. This study provides a
      new, simple and green approach to enhance tribological performances of artificial
      joints.

PMID- 28575981
TI  - Pancreatic islet surface bioengineering with a heparin-incorporated starPEG
      nanofilm.
AB  - Cell surface engineering could protect implanted cells from host immune
      rejections while modify the cellular landscape for better post-transplantation
      graft function and survival. Islet transplantation is considered the most
      promising therapeutic option with the potential to cure diabetes. Current
      approach to improve clinical efficacy of pancreatic islet transplantation is
      alginate encapsulation. However, disappointing outcomes have been reported in
      clinical trials due to larger islet size resulted by encapsulation and alginate
      elicited host immune responses. We have developed an ultrathin nanofilm of
      starPEG with incorporated heparin (Hep-PEG) that binds covalently to the amine
      groups of islet surface membrane via its N-hydroxysuccinimide groups. The Hep-PEG
      nanocoating elicited minimal alteration on islet volume in culture. Hep-PEG
      coated islets exhibited robust islet viability accompanied by uncompromised islet
      insulin secretory function. Instant blood-mediated inflammatory reaction was also
      reduced by Hep-PEG islet coating, accompanied by enhanced intra-islet
      revascularization. In addition, despite its semi-permeability, Hep-PEG islet
      coating promoted the survival of islets exposed to pro-inflammatory cytokines.
      Considering that inflammation and hypoxia are primary causes of immediate cell
      loss for cell therapy, the Hep-PEG nanofilm represents a viable approach for cell
      surface engineering which would improve the clinical outcome of cell therapies.

PMID- 28575982
TI  - Acid-degradable carboxymethyl chitosan nanogels via an ortho ester linkage
      mediated improved penetration and growth inhibition of 3-D tumor spheroids in
      vitro.
AB  - This work describes an acid-degradable and tumor-targeted nanogels prepared by
      the copolymerization between lactobionic acid-modified methacrylated
      carboxymethyl chitosan and acid-labile methacrylated orthoester-based monomers.
      The size distribution and micromorphology of the prepared nanogels were observed
      by dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy and scanning
      electron microscopy. The stability of nanogels in various environments was then
      investigated. Doxorubicin as a model drug was successfully encapsulated into
      nanogels. In vitro cellular uptake and MTT results indicate that the tumor
      targeting and pH-sensitive nanogels display higher cellular internalization and
      cytotoxicity than non-target nanogels and free DOX. The improved penetration and
      growth inhibition against 3-D multicellular spheroids further demonstrate that
      the dual-functional nanogels may be a potential nano-carrier for drug delivery in
      cancer therapy.

PMID- 28575983
TI  - Evaluation of nanohydroxyapaptite (nano-HA) coated epigallocatechin-3-gallate
      (EGCG) cross-linked collagen membranes.
AB  - Collagen is the main component of extracellular matrix (ECM) with desirable
      biological activities and low antigenicity. Collagen materials have been widely
      utilized in guided bone regeneration (GBR) surgery due to its abilities to
      maintain space for hard tissue growth. However, pure collagen lacks optimal
      mechanical properties. In our previous study, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG)
      cross-linked collagen membranes, with better biological activities and enhanced
      mechanical properties, may promote osteoblast proliferation, but their effect on
      osteoblast differentiation is not very significant. Nanohydroxyapatite (nano-HA)
      is the main component of mineral bone, which possesses exceptional bioactivity
      properties including good biocompatibility, high osteoconductivity and
      osteoinductivity, non-immunogenicity and non-inflammatory behavior. Herein, by
      analyzing the physical and chemical properties as well as the effects on
      promoting bone regeneration, we have attempted to present a novel EGCG-modified
      collagen membrane with nano-HA coating, and have found evidence that the novel
      collagen membrane may promote bone regeneration with a better surface morphology,
      without destroying collagen backbone. To evaluate the surface morphologies,
      chemical and mechanical properties of pure collagen membranes, epigallocatechin-3
      gallate (EGCG) cross-linked collagen membranes, nano-HA coated collagen
      membranes, nano-HA coated EGCG-collagen membranes, (ii) to evaluate the bone
      regeneration promoted by theses membranes. In the present study, collagen
      membranes were divided into 4 groups: (1) untreated collagen membranes (2) EGCG
      cross-linked collagen membranes (3) nano-HA modified collagen membranes (4) nano
      HA modified EGCG-collagen membranes. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to evaluate surface
      morphologies and chemical properties, respectively. Mechanical properties were
      determined by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and elastic modulus (EM)
      measurements. Then in 12 rats, 4 types of membranes were randomly applied to
      cover the rat calvarial defects. The animals were sacrificed at 8weeks.
      Histologic analyses were performed using Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining and
      Masson's Trichrome stains. For statistical analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA)
      followed by Tukey's multiple comparison tests was applied. HA nanoparticles were
      fairly well distributed nanoparticles among the collagen fibers on the nano-HA
      modified EGCG-collagen membranes, with smoother surface. Moreover, collagen
      membranes with modifications all maintained their collagen backbone and the
      mechanical properties were enhanced by EGCG and nano-HA treatments. In addition,
      EGCG cross-linked collagen membranes with nano-HA coatings promoted bone
      regeneration. Nano-HA modified EGCG-collagen membranes can be utilized as a
      barrier membrane to enhance the bone regeneration in GBR surgeries.

PMID- 28575985
TI  - In-vitro biodegradation and corrosion-assisted cracking of a coated magnesium
      alloy in modified-simulated body fluid.
AB  - A calcium phosphate coating was directly synthesized on AZ91D magnesium (Mg)
      alloy. Resistance of this coating to corrosion in a modified-simulated body fluid
      (m-SBF) was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical
      impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Mechanical properties of the bare and coated alloy
      were investigated using slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) and fatigue testing in
      air and m-SBF. Very little is reported in the literature on human-body-fluid
      assisted cracking of Mg alloys, viz., resistance to corrosion fatigue (CF) and
      stress corrosion cracking (SCC). This study has a particular emphasis on the
      effect of bio-compatible coatings on mechanical and electrochemical degradations
      of Mg alloys for their applications as implants. The results suggest the coating
      to improve the general as well as pitting corrosion resistance of the alloy. The
      coating also provides visible improvement in resistance to SCC, but little
      improvement in CF resistance. This is explained on the basis of pitting behaviour
      in the presence and absence of the coating.

PMID- 28575984
TI  - Chitosan/gamma-poly(glutamic acid) scaffolds with surface-modified albumin,
      elastin and poly-l-lysine for cartilage tissue engineering.
AB  - Cartilage has limited ability to self-repair due to the absence of blood vessels
      and nerves. The application of biomaterial scaffolds using biomimetic
      extracellular matrix (ECM)-related polymers has become an effective approach to
      production of engineered cartilage. Chitosan/gamma-poly(glutamic acid) (gamma
      PGA) scaffolds with different mass ratios were prepared using genipin as a cross
      linker and a freeze-drying method, and their surfaces were modified with elastin,
      human serum albumin (HSA) and poly-l-lysine (PLL). The scaffolds were formed
      through a complex between NH3+ of chitosan and COO- of gamma-PGA, confirmed by
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and exhibited an interconnected porous
      morphology in field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis. The prepared
      chitosan/gamma-PGA scaffolds, at a 3:1 ratio, obtained the required porosity
      (90%), pore size (>=100MUm), mechanical strength (compressive strength>4MPa,
      Young's modulus>4MPa) and biodegradation (30-60%) for articular cartilage tissue
      engineering applications. Surface modification of the scaffolds showed positive
      indications with improved activity toward cell proliferation (deoxyribonucleic
      acid), cell adhesion and ECM (glycoaminoglycans and type II collagen) secretion
      of bovine knee chondrocytes compared with unmodified scaffolds. In caspase-3
      detection, elastin had a higher inhibitory effect on chondrocyte apoptosis in
      vitro, followed by HSA, and then PLL. We concluded that utilizing chitosan/gamma
      PGA scaffolds with surface active biomolecules, including elastin, HSA and PLL,
      can effectively promote the growth of chondrocytes, secrete ECM and improve the
      regenerative ability of cartilaginous tissues.

PMID- 28575986
TI  - Co-culturing epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts on nano-structured
      titanium surfaces.
AB  - Long-term success of percutaneous implants depends mostly on the stable
      connection between the soft tissue and implant surface because bacterial invasion
      and infection can be prevented by a proper seal between the skin and implant. The
      percutaneous seal is affected by responses of keratinocytes and/or fibroblasts to
      the implant. Herein, the in vitro functionality of fibroblasts and keratinocytes
      on titania nanotubes (TNT) and polished titanium (pTi) surfaces was investigated
      by different culture methods. Adhesion, proliferation, morphology, and
      differentiation were evaluated by cell viability assay, fluorescence microscopy,
      real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and indirect
      immunofluorescence. Single cultured fibroblasts on the TNT surface showed
      increased adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation, while these cellular
      properties were decreased in single cultured keratinocytes. In non-contact co
      culture with keratinocytes, fibroblasts presented better orientation, continuous
      proliferation, and increased gene expression on TNT. However, decreased adhesion
      and proliferation were observed for keratinocytes in non-contact co-culture with
      fibroblasts. Furthermore, keratinocytes presented high abilities to proliferate
      and differentiate in contact co-culture on fibroblasts adhering on the TNT
      surface. The gene expression results of contact co-culture model suggested that
      the nano-structured titanium surface promoted the maturation of fibroblasts and
      the formation of dermal matrix through secreting collagen I and transforming
      growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), and indirectly facilitated the proliferation of
      keratinocytes and the formation of the basement membrane by stimulating
      fibroblasts to secrete keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), nidogen, and collagen
      IValpha-1. Meanwhile, keratinocytes secreted TGF-beta1 to promote fibroblast
      differentiation. Moreover, the enhanced proliferation and differentiation of
      keratinocytes were favorable for skin-implant integration.

PMID- 28575987
TI  - Y-shaped methoxy poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly (epsilon-caprolactone)-based
      micelles for skin delivery of ketoconazole: in vitro study and in vivo
      evaluation.
AB  - Ketoconazole is a hydrophobic broad-spectrum antifungal agent for skin infection
      therapy. In order to develop topical formulation of ketoconazole for improving
      its selective skin deposition and water-solubility, ketoconazole-loaded Y-shaped
      monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(E-caprolactone) micelles were
      prepared through thin-film hydration method with high entrapment efficiency
      (96.1+/-0.76%) and small particle (about 58.66nm). The drug-loaded micelles
      showed comparative in vitro antimicrobial activity with KET cream. In ex in vivo
      skin deposition and permeation study, ketoconazole-loaded micelles provided skin
      accumulation higher than marketed ketoconazole cream without obvious permeation
      in the whole period. Fluorescence microscopy study and histopathological study
      demonstrated the copolymeric micelles' penetrating into skin in depth due to its
      capability of weakening the barrier function of stratum corneum. In vivo skin
      deposition parameters further confirmed high skin deposition of drug-loaded
      micelles (AUC(0-t)=396.16MUg.h/cm2) over marketed ketoconazole cream (AUC(0
      t)=250.03MUg.h/cm2). Meanwhile, in vivo pharmacokinetic parameters proved that
      ketoconazole-loaded micelles reduced ketoconazole's distribution in blood in
      comparison with the cream (AUC(0-t)=93,028.00MUg.h/L vs AUC(0
      t)=151,714.00MUg.h/L), meaning lower possibility of its systemic unwanted effects
      in the skin fungal infection treatment. The results suggested that the
      copolymeric micelles can be adopted for specific delivering ketoconazole into
      skin for fungal infection cure.

PMID- 28575988
TI  - An evaluation of colloidal and crystalline properties of CaCO3 nanoparticles for
      biological applications.
AB  - Biodegradable calcium carbonate carriers are a promising and safe nanoparticle
      platform which might enable various applications as an engineered nanomaterial in
      health care, food and cosmetics. However, engineered nanoparticles can exhibit
      new forms of toxicity that must be carefully evaluated before being widely
      adopted in consumer products or novel drug delivery systems. To this end, we
      studied four common calcium carbonate particle systems (calcite nanoparticles,
      amorphous sub-micrometer and vaterite sub-micrometer and micrometer particles)
      and compared their behavior in biological medium and in cell culture experiments.
      The thermodynamically stable calcite phase is shown to maintain its morphological
      features as no phase transformation occurs. Size- and time-dependent phase
      transformation of the less stable vaterite particles are observed within 96h in
      cell medium. The protein serum albumin can be an effective inhibitor of phase
      transition and it is shown to improve colloidal stability. The impact of the
      biological environment goes beyond protein-corona formation, as we observed rapid
      dissolution of amorphous particles in high ionic strength cell medium, but not in
      Millipore water. Cellular responses of human osteoblasts against CaCO3 particles
      indicate that increased intracellular calcium ions improve viability and that
      particle internalization is not size-dependent. Useful insights for designing
      CaCO3-based delivery systems are provided and also corroborate to the idea that
      intrinsic material properties as well as environmental conditions are of
      relevance for the successful implementation of dispersed CaCO3 particles in drug
      delivery systems and in other applications.

PMID- 28575989
TI  - Highly water-soluble, pH sensitive and biocompatible PAMAM 'dendrizyme' to
      maintain catalytic activity in complex medium.
AB  - The dendrimer based synthetic mimetic enzyme has been drawing great attention.
      However, this mimetic enzyme is different from the natural enzymes, which are pH
      sensitive, biocompatible and keep their catalytic activity in biological complex
      medium. A single zwitterionic layer composed by primary amine and carboxyl groups
      may be a useful method to obtain these properties. Herein, we report a novel
      facile method to prepare a mimetic enzyme. The complexes of generation 5
      poly(amido amine) dendrimers (G5 PAMAM) with free hemin (G5Hs) were modified by
      the maleic anhydride and cysteamine. Results showed that the mimetic enzymes
      (G5HMCs) had pH sensitivity and good stability by varying the pH from 4 to 9,
      while significant precipitation was observed for free hemin at pH5 after two
      days. The G5HMC (3:1) showed optimal catalytic activity at its isoelectric point.
      Furthermore, G5HMCs displayed excellent biocompatibility. The G5HMCs incubated
      with fibrinogen were stable for 24h, while G5Hs immediately formed large
      aggregates. G5HMC (3:1 2mg/mL) displayed little cytotoxicity with HeLa cells or
      A549 cells for 24h, while G5H (3:1) had serious cytotoxicity, which was also
      demonstrated by cell morphology observation. At last, G5HMCs fully preserved
      their catalytic activity in bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution compared with
      phosphate buffer saline (PBS) solution, while hemin decreased to 73.5-81.5%
      catalytic activity in BSA solution, which was caused by the less interaction with
      BSA for G5HMCs than free hemin. The surface functionalization schemes described
      in this report would represent a versatile method to prepare water-soluble, pH
      sensitive, biocompatible, and efficient artificial enzymes for biomedical related
      applications.

PMID- 28575990
TI  - Effects of curcumin-loaded PLGA nanoparticles on the RG2 rat glioma model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric, has a remarkable
      antitumor activity against various cancers, including glioblastoma. However, it
      has poor absorption and low bioavailability; thus, to cross the blood-brain
      barrier and reach tumor tissue, it needs to be transferred to tumor site by
      special drug delivery systems, such as nanoparticles. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to
      evaluate the antitumor activity of curcumin on glioblastoma tissue in the rat
      glioma-2 (RG2) tumor model when it is loaded on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-1,2
      distearoyl-glycerol-3-phospho-ethanolamine-N-[methoxy (polyethylene glycol)-2000]
      ammonium salt (PLGA-DSPE-PEG) hybrid nanoparticles. METHODS: Glioblastoma was
      induced in 42 adult female Wistar rats (250-300g) by RG2 tumor model. The
      curcumin-loaded nanoparticles were injected by intravenous (n=6) or intratumoral
      route (n=6). There were five control groups, each containing six rats. First
      control group was not applied any treatment. The remaining four control groups
      were given empty nanoparticles or curcumin alone by intravenous or intratumoral
      route, respectively. The change in tumor volume was assessed by magnetic
      resonance imaging and histopathology before and 5days after drug injections.
      RESULTS: Tumor size decreased significantly after 5days of intratumoral injection
      of curcumin-loaded nanoparticle (from 66.6+/-44.6 to 34.9+/-21.7mm3, p=0.028),
      whereas it significantly increased in nontreated control group (from 33.9+/-21.3
      to 123.7+/-41.1mm3, p=0.036) and did not significantly change in other groups
      (p>0.05 for all). CONCLUSION: In this in vivo experimental model, intratumoral
      administration of curcumin-loaded PLGA-DSPE-PEG hybrid nanoparticles was
      effective against glioblastoma. Curcumine-loaded nanoparticles may have potential
      application in chemotherapy of glioblastoma.

PMID- 28575991
TI  - Electrospun PCL/gelatin composite nanofiber structures for effective guided bone
      regeneration membranes.
AB  - Guided bone regeneration (GBR) membranes have been proved of great benefit for
      bone tissue engineering due to the improvement of cell attachment and
      proliferation. To develop GBR membranes with better biocompatibility and more
      proper degradation ability, here we fabricated polycaprolactone (PCL,
      polymer)/gelatin (protein) hybrid nanofibrous GBR membranes via electrospinning,
      followed by crosslinking with genipin. Acetic acid (HAc) was utilized to resolve
      the phase separation of PCL and gelatin, therefore homogeneous PCL/gelatin hybrid
      nanofibers with different ratios were successfully prepared. FTIR, XPS, TGA, DSC
      results proved that the proportion of PCL and gelatin in the as-spun nanofiber
      membranes could be simply adjusted by changing the weight ratio of PCL and
      gelatin in the spinning solution. SEM and AFM images demonstrated that all the
      nanofibers possessed uniform and smooth structures both in two dimension (2D) and
      three dimension (3D). The mechanical tests showed that these nanofibers exhibited
      appropriate tensile and strength properties, which were suitable for bone tissue
      engineering. CCK-8 and SEM images revealed that all the membranes were
      biocompatible to MC3T3-e1 cells. In addition, the in vitro osteogenesis
      characterizations, alizarin red in normal medium and osteogenesis medium,
      indicated that the nanofibers could promote bone formation. Therefore, all these
      results could suggest that our design of electrospun polymer/protein nanofiber
      membranes was effective for guided bone regeneration.

PMID- 28575992
TI  - Fabrication of superhydrophobic coating for preventing microleakage in a dental
      composite restoration.
AB  - Superhydrophobic coatings were successfully fabricated by photo-crosslinked
      polyurethane (PU) and organic fluoro group-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles (F
      SiO2 NPs), and were introduced for preventing microleakage in a dental composite
      restoration. The F-SiO2 NPs possessed low surface energy and the PU can not only
      improve the mechanical stability but also promote F-SiO2 NPs to form multiscale
      structure, which could facilitate the properties of the as-prepared
      superhydrophobic coating by synergetic effect. The morphology and properties of
      the resulted superhydrophobic coatings with different PU/F-SiO2 ratios were
      studied using 1H NMR spectrum, fourier transform infrared spectra, scanning
      electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and UV-vis spectrophotometry. The
      results showed that the superhydrophobic coatings with low PU/F-SiO2 ratio (1:3)
      possessed excellent hierarchical papillae structure with trapped air pockets,
      high contact angle (160.1 degrees ), low sliding angle (<1 degrees ) and good
      transparency. Additionally, MTT experiments results certified the prominent cell
      viability and biocompatibility for clinical application. Based on its
      fantastically superhydrophobic property, the as-prepared superhydrophobic
      coatings effectively prevented water permeation in resin composite restoration
      evaluation. This research may provide an effective method to solve the problem of
      microleakage and will efficiently increase the success rate of dental composite
      restorations.

PMID- 28575993
TI  - Graphene oxide nanoribbons as nanomaterial for bone regeneration: Effects on
      cytotoxicity, gene expression and bactericidal effect.
AB  - Graphene oxide nanoribbons (O-GNR) surges as an interesting nanomaterial for
      biomedical applications due to feasibility to incorporate functional groups and
      possible bactericidal properties. Herein, high concentrations of O-GNR were
      biologically evaluated using human osteoblast cells and gram positive and
      negative bacteria. Briefly, our goal were to evaluate: (1) synthetic pathway, (2)
      characterization and (3) effects of O-GNR composition and structural factors as a
      new approach for biomedical applications. For this, O-GNR were produced combining
      chemical vapor deposition and oxygen plasma treatment of multiwalled carbon
      nanotubes. Then, we analyzed the bioactivity, cell viability, osteogenic
      differentiation, matrix mineralization, mRNA levels of the five genes related
      direct to bone repair and bactericidal effect of high concentrations of O-GNR
      (10MUgmL-1, 100MUgmL-1, 200MUgmL-1 and 300MUgmL-1). Impressively, O-GNR showed no
      cytotoxic effects up to a concentration of 100MUgmL-1 and no gene expression
      alteration when used in its dose. We also observed that S. aureus and E. coli
      bacteria are susceptible to damage when incubated with 100MUgmL-1 of O-GNR,
      showing approximately 50% of bacterial death. We consider that O-GNR displays
      attractive properties when used at a suitable dose, displaying bactericidal
      effect and apparently lacking to cause damages in the bone repair process.

PMID- 28575994
TI  - PLLA microcapsules combined with silver nanoparticles and chlorhexidine acetate
      showing improved antibacterial effect.
AB  - In this study, composite antibacterial microcapsules combining of two
      antibacterial agents: chlorhexidine acetate and silver nanoparticle were
      prepared. The chlorhexidine acetate was encapsulated inside of the microcapsules
      and nano-sized silver particles were modified on the surface of microcapsules by
      electrostatic adsorption methods. Results show that this method decreases the
      silver usage dramatically, and promises a sustained antibacterial effect >30days.
      These microcapsules can also be modified on the surface of polymer films easily,
      which demonstrated the potential in functionalizing the implanted materials with
      antibacterial property.

PMID- 28575995
TI  - Improvement of adhesion and proliferation of mouse embryonic stem cells cultured
      on ozone/UV surface-modified substrates.
AB  - Culturing pluripotent stem cells effectively requires feeder cell layers or cell
      adhesion matrix coating. However, the feeder cell layers or animal-derived
      factors have to be removed to apply the pluripotent stem cells as resources for
      regenerative medicine. To enable xeno-free culture conditions, we focused on the
      UV/ozone surface treatment technique for polystyrene cell culture substrates to
      improve the adhesion and proliferation of pluripotent stem cells. In this study,
      as a fundamental research for the feeder- and matrix coating-free culture system
      for embryonic stem cells (ESCs), mouse ESCs were cultured on UV/ozone-modified
      polystyrene substrates without feeder layers. We observed that UV/ozone surface
      modified polystyrene substrates made it possible to culture mESCs under feeder
      free conditions without any chemical treatment for the substrates.

PMID- 28575996
TI  - A gelatin composite scaffold strengthened by drug-loaded halloysite nanotubes.
AB  - Mechanical properties and anti-infection are two of the most concerned issues for
      artificial bone grafting materials. Bone regeneration porous scaffolds with
      sustained drug release were developed by freeze-drying the mixture of nanosized
      drug-loaded halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and gelatin. The scaffolds showed porous
      structure and excellent biocompatibility. The mechanical properties of the
      obtained composite scaffolds were enhanced significantly by HNTs to >300%,
      comparing to those of gelatin scaffold, and match to those of natural cancellous
      bones. The ibuprofen-loaded HNTs incorporated in the scaffolds allowed extended
      drug release over 100h, comparing to 8h when directly mixed the drug into the
      gelatin scaffold. The biological properties of the composite scaffolds were
      investigated by culturing MG63 cells on them. The HNTs/gelatin scaffolds with
      excellent mechanical properties and sustained drug release could be a promising
      artificial bone grating material.

PMID- 28575997
TI  - Multimodal nanoporous silica nanoparticles functionalized with aminopropyl groups
      for improving loading and controlled release of doxorubicin hydrochloride.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop amino modified multimodal nanoporous
      silica nanoparticles (M-NSNs-NH2) loaded with doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX),
      intended to enhance the drug loading capacity and to achieve controlled release
      effect. M-NSNs were functionalized with aminopropyl groups through post
      synthesis. The contribution of large pore sizes and surface chemical groups on
      DOX loading and release were systemically studied using transmission electron
      microscope (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurement, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), zeta potential analysis, X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet spectrophotometer (UV). The results
      demonstrated that the NSNs were functionalized with aminopropyl successfully and
      the DOX molecules were adsorbed inside the nanopores by the hydrogen bonding. The
      release performance indicated that DOX loaded M-NSNs significantly controlled DOX
      release, furthermore DOX loaded M-NSNs-NH2 performed slower controlled release,
      which was mainly attributed to its stronger hydrogen bonding forces. As expected,
      we developed a novel carrier with high drug loading capacity and controlled
      release for DOX.

PMID- 28575998
TI  - Cellular internalisation kinetics and cytotoxic properties of statistically
      designed and optimised neo-geometric copper nanocrystals.
AB  - This study aimed to highlight a statistic design to precisely engineer homogenous
      geometric copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) for enhanced intracellular drug delivery
      as a function of geometrical structure. CuNPs with a dual functionality
      comprising geometric attributes for enhanced cell uptake and exerting cytotoxic
      activity on proliferating cells were synthesized as a novel drug delivery system.
      This paper investigated the defined concentrations of two key surfactants used in
      the reaction to mutually control and manipulate nano-shape and optimisation of
      the geometric nanosystems. A statistical experimental design comprising a full
      factorial model served as a refining factor to achieve homogenous geometric
      nanoparticles using a one-pot method for the systematic optimisation of the
      geometric CuNPs. Shapes of the nanoparticles were investigated to determine the
      result of the surfactant variation as the aim of the study and zeta potential was
      studied to ensure the stability of the system and establish a nanosystem of low
      aggregation potential. After optimisation of the nano-shapes, extensive cellular
      internalisation studies were conducted to elucidate the effect of geometric CuNPs
      on uptake rates, in addition to the vital toxicity assays to further understand
      the cellular effect of geometric CuNPs as a drug delivery system. In addition to
      geometry; volume, surface area, orientation to the cell membrane and colloidal
      stability is also addressed. The outcomes of the study demonstrated the success
      of homogenous geometric NP formation, in addition to a stable surface charge. The
      findings of the study can be utilized for the development of a drug delivery
      system for promoted cellular internalisation and effective drug delivery.

PMID- 28575999
TI  - Sterilization of silicone-based hydrogels for biomedical application using ozone
      gas: Comparison with conventional techniques.
AB  - Sterilization of hydrogels is challenging due to their often reported sensitivity
      to conventional methods involving heat or radiation. Although aseptic
      manufacturing is a possibility, terminal sterilization is safer in biological
      terms, leading to a higher overall efficiency, and thus should be used whenever
      it is possible. The main goal of this work was to study the applicability of an
      innovative ozone gas terminal sterilization method for silicone-based hydrogels
      and compare its efficacy and effects with those of traditional sterilization
      methods: steam heat and gamma irradiation. Ozone gas sterilization is a method
      with potential interest since it is reported as a low cost green method, does not
      leave toxic residues and can be applied to thermosensitive materials. A hydrogel
      intended for ophthalmological applications, based on tris(trimethylsiloxy)silyl]
      propyl methacrylate, was prepared and extensively characterized before and after
      the sterilization procedures. Alterations regarding transparency, swelling,
      wettability, ionic permeability, friction coefficient, mechanical properties,
      topography and morphology and chemical composition were monitored. Efficacy of
      the ozonation was accessed by performing controlled contaminations and sterility
      tests. In vitro cytotoxicity testes were also performed. The results show that
      ozonation may be applied to sterilize the studied material. A treatment with 8
      pulses allowed sterilizing the material with bioburdens<=103CFU/mL, preserving
      all the studied properties within the required known values for contact lenses
      materials. However, a higher exposure (10 pulses) led to some degradation of the
      material and induced mild cytotoxicity. Steam heat sterilization led to an
      increase of swelling capacity and a decrease of the water contact angle.
      Regarding gamma irradiation, the increase of irradiation dose led to an increase
      of the friction coefficient. The higher dose (25kGy) originated surface
      degradation and affected the mechanical properties of the hydrogel by inducing a
      significant increase of the Young's modulus. Overall, the results show that
      ozonation may be considered as a valid and promising alternative for the
      sterilization of silicon-based hydrogels for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28576001
TI  - Doped tricalcium phosphate bone tissue engineering scaffolds using sucrose as
      template and microwave sintering: enhancement of mechanical and biological
      properties.
AB  - beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) is a widely used biocompatible ceramic in
      orthopedic and dental applications. However, its osteoinductivity and mechanical
      properties still require improvements. In this study, porous beta-TCP and MgO/ZnO
      TCP scaffolds were prepared by the thermal decomposition of sucrose. Crack-free
      cylindrical scaffolds could only be prepared with the addition of MgO and ZnO due
      to their stabilization effects. Porous MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffolds with a density of
      61.39+/-0.66%, an estimated pore size of 200MUm and a compressive strength of
      24.96+/-3.07MPa were prepared by using 25wt% sucrose after conventional sintering
      at 1250 degrees C. Microwave sintering further increased the compressive strength
      to 37.94+/-6.70MPa, but it decreased the open interconnected porosity to 8.74+/
      1.38%. In addition, the incorporation of polycaprolactone (PCL) increased 22.36+/
      3.22% of toughness while maintaining its compressive strength at 25.45+/-2.21MPa.
      Human osteoblast cell line was seeded on scaffolds to evaluate the effects of
      MgO/ZnO and PCL on the biological property of beta-TCP in vitro. Both MgO/ZnO and
      PCL improved osteoinductivity of beta-TCP. PCL also decreased osteoblastic
      apoptosis due to its particular surface chemistry. This novel porous MgO/ZnO-TCP
      scaffold with PCL shows improved mechanical and biological properties, which has
      great potential in bone tissue engineering applications.

PMID- 28576000
TI  - The effect of solvents and hydrophilic additive on stable coating and
      controllable sirolimus release system for drug-eluting stent.
AB  - Various drug-eluting stents (DESs) have been developed to prevent restenosis
      after stent implantation. However, DES still needs to improve the drug-in-polymer
      coating stability and control of drug release for effective clinical treatment.
      In this study, the cobalt-chromium (CoCr) alloy surface was coated with
      biodegradable poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA) and sirolimus (SRL) mixed with
      hydrophilic Pluronic F127 additive by using ultrasonic spray coating system in
      order to achieve a stable coating surface and control SRL release. The
      degradation of PDLLA/SRL coating was studied under physiological solution. It was
      found that adding F127 reduced the degradation of PDLLA and improved the coating
      stability during 60days. The effects of organic solvent such as chloroform and
      tetrahydrofuran (THF) on the coating uniformity were also examined. It was
      revealed that THF produced a very smooth and uniform coating compared to
      chloroform. The patterns of in vitro drug release according to the type of
      organic solvent and hydrophilic additive proposed the possibility of controllable
      drug release design in DES. It was found that using F127 the drug release was
      sustained regardless of the organic solvent used. In addition, THF was able to
      get faster and controlled release profile when compared to chloroform. The
      structure of SRL molecules in different organic solvents was investigated using
      ultra-small angle neutron scattering. Furthermore, the structure of SRL is
      concentration-dependent in chloroform with tight nature under high concentration,
      but concentration-independent in THF. These results strongly demonstrated that
      coating stability and drug release patterns can be changed by physicochemical
      properties of various parameters such as organic solvents, additive, and coating
      strategy.

PMID- 28576002
TI  - A study of degradation resistance and cytocompatibility of super-hydrophobic
      coating on magnesium.
AB  - Calcium stearate based super-hydrophobic coating was deposited on plasma
      electrolytic oxidation (PEO) pre-treated magnesium substrate. The pre-treated
      magnesium and super-hydrophobic coating covered sample were characterized by
      scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical corrosion
      measurements. The cytocompatibility and degradation resistance of magnesium, pre
      treated magnesium and super-hydrophobic coating were analysed in terms of cell
      adhesion and osteoblast differentiation. The results indicate that the calcium
      stearate top coating shows super-hydrophobicity and that the surface is composed
      of micro/nanostructure. The super-hydrophobic coating covered sample shows higher
      barrier properties compared with the PEO pre-treated magnesium and bare
      magnesium. Human osteoblast proliferation, but not differentiation is enhanced by
      the PEO coating. Contrary, the super-hydrophobic coating reduces proliferation,
      but enhances differentiation of osteoblast, observable by the formation of
      hydroxyapatite. The combination of corrosion protection and cell reaction
      indicates that this system could be interesting for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28576003
TI  - Correlating cytotoxicity to elution behaviors of composite resins in term of
      curing kinetic.
AB  - Cytotoxicity of photocurable composite resins is a key issue for their safe use
      in dental restoration. Curing kinetic and elution behaviors of the composite
      resin would have decisive effects on its cytotoxicity. In this study, composite
      resins composed of bisphenol-glycidyl dimethacrylate (Bis-GMA), triethyleneglycol
      dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), camphorquinone (CQ), N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate
      (DMAEMA) and barium glass powders were prepared by setting the photoinitiators
      CQ/DMAEMA at 0.5wt%, 1wt% or 3wt% of the total weight of Bis-GMA/TEGDMA. The
      ratio of Bis-GMA/TEGDMA was 6:4, the ratio of CQ/DMAEMA was 1:1, and the
      incorporated inorganic powder was 75wt%. Then, curing kinetics were studied by
      using real-time Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photo-DSC
      (differential scanning calorimeter). Elution behaviors in both ethanol solution
      and deionized water were monitored by using liquid chromatogram/mass spectrometry
      (LC/MS). Cytotoxicity was evaluated by in vitro culture of L929 fibroblasts.
      Finally, they were all analyzed and correlated in terms of initiator contents. It
      was found that the commonly used 0.5wt% of photoinitiators was somewhat
      insufficient in obtaining composite resin with low cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28576004
TI  - Preparation of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and chitosan composite nanocarriers
      via electrostatic self assembly for oral delivery of insulin.
AB  - To improve insulin bioavailability and overcome multiple barriers for oral
      delivery of insulin, the composite nanocarriers (PLGA/FA-CS) prepared from
      poly(lactide-co-glycoside) (PLGA) and folic acid modified chitosan (FA-CS) were
      fabricated via electrostatic self-assembly method. The resultant composite
      nanocarriers exhibited low cytotoxicity against HT-29 cells and excellent
      stability against protein solution. The chemical stability of loaded insulin
      against digestive enzyme were established in presence of simulated gastric fluid
      (SGF) containing pepsin and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) containing
      pancreatin, respectively. The uptake behavior of HT-29 cells was evaluated by
      confocal laser scanning microscope. After oral administration to the diabetic
      rats, an effective hypoglycemic effect was obtained compared with subcutaneous
      injection of insulin. This work suggests that the as-prepared composite
      nanocarriers may be a promising drug delivery system for oral administration of
      insulin and other biomacromolecules.

PMID- 28576005
TI  - Protein-directed gold nanoparticles with excellent catalytic activity for 4
      nitrophenol reduction.
AB  - To explore high-performance noble metal nanomaterials for the reduction of the
      biotoxin 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in medicine, we developed a green synthesis
      strategy of bovine serum albumin-stabilized Au nanoparticles (Au@BSA NPs). The as
      synthesized Au@BSA NPs were characterized by ultraviolet-visible absorption
      spectrum, fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron
      microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The functional bio-nanocomposites showed
      Au-protein core-shell structure and uniform distribution, and their sizes were
      dependent on the additive amount of HAuCl4. Interestingly, Au@BSA NPs showed
      remarkable catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-NP into 4-aminophenol in the
      presence of sodium borohydride. Due to the introduction of Au@BSA NPs, the
      reduction reaction could be conducted at ambient temperature and pressure without
      any additional conditions. Moreover, the reduction rate was closely related to
      the sizes of NPs and reaction temperature, and the catalytic mechanism was
      verified to follow the pseudo-first-order kinetics. Due to the environmentally
      friendly synthesis process and green reduction strategy of 4-NP, Au@BSA NPs would
      show great potential in governance of the biotoxin in medicine.

PMID- 28576006
TI  - The role of welding techniques in the biomechanical behavior of implant-supported
      prostheses.
AB  - This in vitro study investigated the role of welding techniques of implant
      supported prostheses in the 2D and 3D marginal misfits of prosthetic frameworks,
      strain induced on the mini abutment, and detorque of prosthetic screws. The
      correlations between the analyzed variables were also investigated. Frameworks
      were cast in commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti). A marginal misfit of 200MUm was
      simulated in the working models (control group) (n=20). The 2D marginal misfit
      was analyzed according to the single-screw test protocol using a precision
      optical microscope. The 3D marginal misfit was performed by X-ray
      microtomography. Strain gauge analysis was performed to investigate the strain
      induced on the mini abutment. A digital torque meter was used for analysis of the
      detorque and the mean value was calculated for each framework. Afterwards, the
      frameworks were divided into two experimental groups (n=10): Laser (L) and TIG
      (T). The welding techniques were performed according to the following parameters:
      L (390V/9ms); T (36A/60ms). The L and T groups were reevaluated according to the
      marginal misfit, strain, and detorque. The results were submitted to one-way
      ANOVA followed by Tukey's HSD test and Person correlation analysis (alpha=0.05).
      Welding techniques statistically reduced the 2D and 3D marginal misfits of
      prosthetic frameworks (p<0.001), the strain induced on the mini abutment replicas
      (p=0.006), and improved the screw torque maintenance (p<0.001). Similar behavior
      was noted between L and T groups for all dependent variables (p>0.05). Positive
      correlations were observed between 2D and 3D marginal misfit reading methods
      (r=0.943, p<0.0001) and between misfit and strain (2D r=0.844, p<0.0001 and 3D
      r=0.864, p<0.0001). Negative correlation was observed between misfit and detorque
      (2D r=-0.823, p=0.003 and 3D r=-0.811, p=0.005). In conclusion, the welding
      techniques improved the biomechanical behavior of the implant-supported system.
      TIG can be an acceptable and affordable technique to reduce the misfit of 3-unit
      Ti frameworks.

PMID- 28576007
TI  - A dual-layer macro/mesoporous structured TiO2 surface improves the initial
      adhesion of osteoblast-like cells.
AB  - A dual-layer TiO2 surface with hierarchical macro and mesoporous structure was
      prepared by a combinational approach of micro-arc oxidation followed by
      evaporation-induced self-assembly of nano-crystallites. The mesoporous layer
      contains pores with an average size of <10nm and consists of anatase TiO2
      nanocrystallites. The dual-layer hierarchical macro/mesoporous structured TiO2
      surface improves the hydrophilicity and fibronectin adsorption ability in
      comparison with the sole macroporous or smooth TiO2 surface. With the formation
      of an additional mesoporous layer on macroporous TiO2 surface, the attached
      number of human osteogenic sarcoma cells (SaOS-2) increases in the initial
      incubation of 4h but it does not show significant difference after 24h compared
      to that attached on the macroporous or smooth surfaces. Whereas, it was noticed
      that SaOS-2 cells have larger spread area and more stress fibers on the
      macro/mesoporous structured surface than those on the other surfaces. To
      understand the intracellular mechanism of the initial cell adhesion on the
      macro/mesoporous surface, the Rho/ROCK pathway was investigated to reveal the
      topography-induced biological functions by introducing the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632
      during cell culture. In the presence of Y-27632, cells on the macroporous surface
      and macro/mesoporous surface both show stellate appearance, with poor assembly
      stress fibers and long cell membrane protrusions. Cells on the smooth surface
      have larger spread areas compared to the former two surfaces. And the attached
      cells significantly reduced but there are no differences among the three
      surfaces. It reveals that the ROCK inhibitor invalidates the promotion of initial
      cell adhesion on the macro/mesoporous structure. This study may shed light on the
      mechanism behind the enhancement effect of macro/mesoporous structure for initial
      cell adhesion.

PMID- 28576008
TI  - A novel chondroitin sulfate decorated nano platinum for the treatment of
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - The present work showed the biofabrication of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs)
      using chondroitin sulfate via a facile, eco-friendly route by just heating leaf
      extract and H2PtCl6.6H2O (Chloroplatinic acid) solution which gave a brown
      colored PtNPs dispersion. The assynthesized PtNPs were analyzed by using
      Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X
      ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and
      Selected area electron diffraction (SAED). TEM analysis showed PtNPs of irregular
      shape with a size existed in the range from 3 to 5nm. From zeta potential studies
      it is found the surface charge of the synthesized PtNPs is negative (-25.6mV).
      FTIR analysis and zeta potential measurements of PtNPs confirm the capping of
      chondroitin sulfate onto the surface of nanoparticles. XRD and SAED pattern
      revealed the crystalline nature of synthesized nanoparticles. Further, the in
      vitro cytotoxicity of PtNPs against the osteoarthritis chondrocytes showed their
      biocompatibility, hence the obtained nanoparticles may have future scope in the
      treatment of osteoarthritis. Also, the present approach is green alternative to
      the traditionally available chemical methods that are currently been used now a
      days using chemical reagents such that are hazardous to human and environment.

PMID- 28576009
TI  - Low toxicity superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles: One-pot facile green
      synthesis for biological applications.
AB  - Superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles have been synthesized by a highly
      reproducible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based modified sol-gel process using water
      as the only solvent. The synthesis method has proven to be effective, time and
      cost saving and environmental friendly, resulting in PVA-coated magnetite
      nanoparticles as direct product from the synthesis, without any special
      atmosphere or further thermal treatment. X-ray diffraction and transmission
      electron microscopy revealed that the biocompatible PVA-coating prevents the
      nanoparticle agglomeration, giving rise to spherical crystals with sizes of 6.8nm
      (as-cast) and 9.5nm (heat treated) with great control over size and shape with
      narrow size distribution. Complementary compositional and magnetic
      characterizations were employed in order to study the surface chemistry and
      magnetic behavior of the samples, respectively. Cytotoxicity endpoints including
      no observed adverse effect concentration (NOAEC), 50% lethal concentration (LC50)
      and total lethal concentration (TLC) of the tested materials on cell viability
      were determined after 3, 24 and 48h of exposure. The PVA coating improved the
      biocompatibility of the synthesized magnetite nanoparticles showing good cell
      viability and low cytotoxicity effects on the MTT assay performed on BHK cells.
      Preliminary assessment of nanoparticles in vivo effects, performed after 48h on
      Balb/c mice, exposed to a range of different sub-lethal doses, showed their
      capacity to penetrate in liver and kidneys with no significant morphological
      alterations in both organs.

PMID- 28576010
TI  - Dynamic adhesive environment alters the differentiation potential of young and
      ageing mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Engineering dynamic stem cell niche-like environment offers opportunity to obtain
      better control of the fate of stem cells. We identified, for the first time, that
      periodic changes in the adhesive environment of human adipose derived mesenchymal
      stem cells (ADSCs) alters dramatically their asymmetric division but not their
      ability for symmetric renewal. Hereby, we used smart thermo-responsive polymer
      (PNIPAM) to create a dynamic adhesive environment for ADSCs by applying periodic
      temperature cycles to perturb adsorbed adhesive proteins to substratum
      interaction. Cumulative population doubling time (CPDT) curves showed
      insignificant decline in the symmetric cell growth studied for up to 13th
      passages accompanied with small changes in the overall cell morphology and
      moderately declined fibronectin (FN) matrix deposition probably as a functional
      consequence of ADSCs ageing. However, a substantial alteration in the
      differentiation potential of ADSCs from both early and late passages (3rd and
      14th, respectively) was found when the cells were switched to osteogenic
      differentiation conditions. This behavior was evidenced by the significantly
      altered alkaline phosphatase activity and Ca deposition (Alizarin red) assayed at
      3, 14 and 21day in comparison to the control samples of regular TC polystyrene
      processed under same temperature settings.

PMID- 28576011
TI  - Design and characterization of dexamethasone-loaded poly (glycerol sebacate)-poly
      caprolactone/gelatin scaffold by coaxial electro spinning for soft tissue
      engineering.
AB  - The aim of this research was to fabricate dexamethasone (Dex)-loaded poly
      (glycerol sebacate) (PGS)-poly (caprolactone) (PCL)/gelatin (Gt) (PGS-PCL/Gt-Dex)
      fibrous scaffolds in the form of core/shell structure which have potential
      application in soft tissues. In this regard, after synthesize and
      characterizations of PGS, PGS-PCL and gelatin fibrous scaffolds were separately
      developed in order to optimize the electrospinning parameters. In the next step,
      coaxial electrospun fibrous scaffold of PGS-PCL/Gt fibrous scaffold with PGS-PCL
      as core and Gt as shell was developed and its mechanical, physical and chemical
      properties were characterized. Moreover, degradability, hydrophilicity and
      biocompatibility of PGS-PCL/Gt fibrous scaffold were evaluated. In addition, Dex
      was encapsulated in PGS-PCL/Gt fibrous scaffold and drug release was assessed for
      tissue engineering application. Results demonstrated the formation of coaxial
      fibrous scaffold with average porosity of 79% and average fiber size of 294nm.
      Moreover, PGS-PCL/Gt fibrous scaffold revealed lower elastic modulus, ultimate
      tensile and ultimate elongation than those of PGS-PCL scaffold and more close to
      mechanical properties of natural tissue. Furthermore, lower contact angle of PGS
      PCL/Gt than that of PGS-PCL demonstrated improved surface hydrophilicity of
      scaffold. DEX release was sustained over a period time of 30days from the
      scaffolds via three steps consisting of an initial burst release, secondary
      linear phase release pattern with slower rate over 20days followed by an apparent
      zero-order release phase. MTT observations demonstrated that there was no
      evidence of toxicity in the samples with and without Dex. Our findings indicated
      that core/shell PGS-PCL/Gt-Dex fibrous could be used as a carrier for the
      sustained release of drugs relevant for tissue engineering which makes it
      appropriate for soft tissue engineering.

PMID- 28576012
TI  - Hyaluronic acid and carbon dots-gated hollow mesoporous silica for redox and
      enzyme-triggered targeted drug delivery and bioimaging.
AB  - In this work, a redox and enzyme dual-stimuli responsive drug delivery system
      (DDS) with tracking function (HMSN-SS-CDPEI@HA) based on carbon dots capped
      hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN) has been developed for targeted
      drug delivery. The positively charged CDPEI nanoparticles prepared by
      polyethylenimine (PEI) were grafted on the pore openings of HMSN through
      disulfide bonds and were used as "gatekeepers" to trap the drugs within the
      hollow cavity. The hyaluronic acid (HA), a natural polysaccharide, was further
      grafted on the surface of HMSN to realize targeted drug delivery, controlled drug
      release and improved the stability. Doxorubicin (DOX) was chosen as a model drug
      due to its wide clinical application. In vitro drug release profiles demonstrated
      that DOX-loaded HMSN-SS-CDPEI@HA exhibited redox and enzyme dual-responsive drug
      release property. In addition, the prepared HMSN-SS-CDPEI@HA exhibited excellent
      fluorescent properties and biocompatibility. Confocal laser scanning microscope
      (CLSM) and flow cytometry (FCM) illustrated that HMSN-SS-CDPEI@HA exhibited a
      higher cellular uptake via the CD44 receptor-mediated endocytosis by CD44
      receptor over-expressed A549 cells than NIH-3T3 (receptor-negative) cells,
      leading to higher cytotoxicity against A549 cells than NIH 3T3 cells. This work
      suggested an exploration of dual-stimuli responsive as well as real-time imaging
      targeted drug delivery system based on HMSN and the prepared HMSN-SS-CDPEI@HA
      could be a promising platform for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28576013
TI  - The role of new zinc incorporated monetite cements on osteogenic differentiation
      of human mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - beta-Tricalcium phosphate particles were sintered in the presence of different
      amounts (0-0.72mol) of zinc oxide (ZnO) to prepare zinc doped beta-TCP (Znbeta
      TCP) particles for further use in novel monetite (DCPA: CaHPO4) zinc incorporated
      bone cements with osteogenic differentiation potential towards human mesenchymal
      stem cells (hMSCs). XRD analysis of zinc incorporated cements prepared with beta
      TCP reagent particles doped with different amount of ZnO (i.e. 0.03, 0.09 and
      0.18mol ZnO) revealed the presence of unreacted Znbeta-TCP and monetite.
      Furthermore, it was shown that zinc ions preferentially occupied the beta-TCP
      crystal lattice rather than the monetite one. Release experiments indicated a
      burst release of ions from the different fabricated cements during the first 24h
      of immersion with zinc concentrations ranging between 85 and 100% of the total
      concentration released over a period of 21days. Cell proliferation significantly
      increased (P<0.05) on zinc incorporated monetite respect to control samples (Zinc
      free cement) at 7 and 14days post seeding. The expression of Runx-2 was
      significantly up regulated (P<0.05) in the case of cells seeded on monetite
      prepared with beta-TCP doped with 0.03 moles of ZnO. On the other hand, the cell
      mineralization as well as the expression of osteogenic marker genes ALP and OSC
      decreased significantly (P<0.05) at 14days post cell seeding. In conclusion,
      these results suggest that the zinc ions released from the cements during the
      first 24h of culture played a critical role in regulating the osteogenic
      differentiation of hMSCs.

PMID- 28576014
TI  - Surface characteristics of bioactive Ti fabricated by chemical treatment for
      cartilaginous-integration.
AB  - Artificial hip joints are generally expected to fail due to wear after
      approximately 15years and then have to be replaced by revision surgery. If
      articular cartilage can be integrated onto the articular surfaces of artificial
      joints in the same way as osseo-integration of titanium dental implants, the wear
      of joint implants may be reduced or prevented. However, very few studies have
      focused on the relationship between Ti surface and cartilage. To explore the
      possibility of cartilaginous-integration, we fabricated chemically treated Ti
      surfaces with H2O2/HCl, collagen type II and SBF, respectively. Then, we
      evaluated surface characteristics of the prepared Ti samples and assessed the
      cartilage formation by culturing chondrocytes on the Ti samples. When oxidized Ti
      was immersed in SBF for 7days, apatite was formed on the Ti surface. The surface
      characteristics of Ti indicated that the wettability was increased by all
      chemical treatments compared to untreated Ti, and that H2O2/HCl treated surface
      had significantly higher roughness compared to the other three groups.
      Chondrocytes produced significantly more cartilage matrix on all chemically
      treated Ti surfaces compared to untreated Ti. Thus, to realize cartilaginous
      integration and to prevent wear of the implants in joints, application of
      bioactive Ti formed by chemical treatment would be a promising and effective
      strategy to improve durability of joint replacement.

PMID- 28576015
TI  - Porous Nb-Ti-Ta alloy scaffolds for bone tissue engineering: Fabrication,
      mechanical properties and in vitro/vivo biocompatibility.
AB  - Porous Nb-Ti-Ta (at.%) alloys with the pore size of 100-600MUm and the porosity
      of 50%-80% were fabricated by the combination of the sponge impregnation
      technique and sintering method. The results revealed that the pores were well
      connected with three-dimensional (3D) network structure, which showed
      morphological similarity to the anisotropic porous structure of human bones. The
      results also showed that the alloys could provide the compressive Young's modulus
      of 0.11+/-0.01GPa to 2.08+/-0.09GPa and the strength of 17.45+/-2.76MPa to
      121.67+/-1.76MPa at different level of porosity, indicating that the mechanical
      properties of the alloys are similar to those of human bones. Pore structure on
      the compressive properties was also discussed on the basis of the deformation
      mode. The relationship between compressive properties and porosity was well
      consistent with the Gibson-Ashby model. The mechanical properties could be
      tailored to match different requirements of the human bones. Moreover, the alloys
      had good biocompatibility due to the porous structure with higher surface, which
      were suitable for apatite formation and cell adhesion. In conclusion, the porous
      Nb-Ti-Ta alloy is potentially useful in the hard tissue implants for the
      appropriate mechanical properties as well as the good biocompatible properties.

PMID- 28576016
TI  - Gold nanoparticles embedded electropolymerized thin film of pyrimidine derivative
      on glassy carbon electrode for highly sensitive detection of l-cysteine.
AB  - This paper demonstrates the fabrication of novel gold nanoparticles incorporated
      poly (4-amino-6-hydroxy-2-mercaptopyrimidine) (Nano-Au/Poly-AHMP) film modified
      glassy carbon electrode and it is employed for highly sensitive detection of l
      cysteine (CYS). The modified electrode was characterized by scanning electron
      microscope (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance
      spectroscopy (EIS). SEM images of modified electrode revealed the homogeneous
      distribution of gold nanoparticles on poly (4-amino-6-hydroxy-2
      mercaptopyrimidine) thin film modified glassy carbon electrode. The modified
      electrode was successfully utilized for highly selective and sensitive
      determination of l-cysteine at physiological pH7.0. The present electrochemical
      sensor successfully resolved the voltammetric signals of ascorbic acid (AA) and l
      cysteine with peak separation of 0.510V. To the best of our knowledge, this is
      the first report of larger peak separation between AA and CYS. Wide linear
      concentration ranges (2MUM-500MUM), low detection limit (0.020MUM), an excellent
      reproducibility and stability are achieved for cysteine sensing with this Nano
      Au/Poly-AHMP/GCE.

PMID- 28576017
TI  - Preparation, optimization and property of PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel.
AB  - PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel is prepared by freezing-thawing, PEG dehydration
      and annealing method. Orthogonal design method is used to choose the optimization
      combination. Results showed that HA and PVA have the maximum effect on water
      content. PVA and freezing-thawing cycles have the maximum effect on creep
      resistance and stress relaxation rate of hydrogel. Annealing temperature and
      freezing-thawing cycles have the maximum effect on compressive elastic modulus of
      hydrogel. Comparing with the water content and mechanical properties of 16 kinds
      of combination, PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel with freezing-thawing cycles of 3,
      annealing temperature of 120 degrees C, PVA of 16%, HA of 2%, PAA of 4% has the
      optimization comprehensive properties. PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel has a porous
      network structure. There are some interactions between PVA, HA and PAA in
      hydrogel and the properties of hydrogel are strengthened. The annealing treatment
      improves the crystalline and crosslinking of hydrogel. Therefore, the annealing
      PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel has good thermostability, strength and mechanical
      properties. It also has good lubrication property and its friction coefficient is
      relative low.

PMID- 28576018
TI  - Modulation of the interface between polyester and spent coffee grounds in
      polysaccharide membranes: Preparation, cell proliferation, antioxidant activity
      and tyrosinase activity.
AB  - The structural, antioxidant and cytocompatibility properties of membranes
      prepared from polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and spent coffee ground (SCG) blends
      (PHA/SCG) were studied. Acrylic acid-grafted PHA (PHA-g-AA) was used to enhance
      the desirable characteristics of these membranes, which had better tensile
      properties than the corresponding PHA/SCG membranes. The water resistance of the
      PHA-g-AA/SCG membranes was greater than that of the PHA/SCG membranes, and a
      cytocompatibility evaluation with mouse normal tail fibroblasts (FBs) indicated
      that both materials were nontoxic. Cell cycle assays of FBs on PHA/SCG and PHA-g
      AA/SCG membrane samples were not affected by the DNA content related to damage.
      Moreover, SCG enhanced the saccharide and polyphenol contents, and antioxidant
      properties, of the PHA-g-AA/SCG and PHA/SCG membranes. Therefore, we analysed the
      effects of these compounds' membranes on melanogenesis in B16-F10 melanoma cells.
      The results demonstrated that PHA/SCG and PHA-g-AA/SCG membranes reduced cellular
      tyrosinase activities in vitro.

PMID- 28576019
TI  - Electrochemical and nonenzymatic glucose biosensor based on MDPA/MWNT/PGE
      nanocomposite.
AB  - The nonenzymatic detection of glucose has been widely investigated in a variety
      of fields ranging from biomedical applications to ecological approaches. Among
      these fields, electrochemical methods have great advantages such as high
      electrocatalytic ability, high sensitivity, good selectivity and low-cost for the
      electrooxidation of glucose. Future trends on glucose sensing are nanostructured
      electrodes depending upon the development of nanotechnology. In this study, an
      electrochemical and nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on (E)-4-((5-methylthiazole
      2-yl)diazenyl)-N-phenylaniline (MDPA)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)/pencil
      graphite electrode (PGE) was performed. Electrochemical measurements were
      obtained using cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry techniques, and
      characterization of surfaces was carried out using scanning electron microscope
      and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The modification of PGE
      was made using MDPA and MWNT, and 10 cycles coating was used to prepare the
      proposed electrode. The effects of scan rate and pH on the peak potential and the
      peak current were determined. The limit of detection and linear range were
      calculated using various concentrations of glucose. The interference study was
      made using coexisting substances including metal ions such as Al3+, Cu2+, Fe3+
      and ascorbic acid.

PMID- 28576020
TI  - Polymeric micelles self-assembled from amphiphilic polymers with twin disulfides
      used as siRNA carriers to enhance the transfection.
AB  - The sequence-defined polycationic polymers with or without Cys-Arg-Cys motifs
      conjugated with targeting and shielding segments were synthesized as siRNA
      carriers via native chemical ligation (NCL) reaction. After purification, the
      structures and physicochemical characteristics were determined by a variety of
      experimental techniques. The particle size of siRNA/CRC-polymer polyplex was much
      smaller than that of polyplex without CRC motifs. The buffer capacity and siRNA
      binding ability of CRC motifs modified polymers were significantly improved,
      resulting from the twin disulfides and hexatomic ring formulation. The critical
      micelle concentrations of the polymers were <10mg/L, indicating formation of
      polymeric micelles and sufficient stability of the system. The CRC motifs
      modified polymers with folate targeted ligands exhibited a strongly enhanced
      cellular uptake than the negative control and the unmodified analogues. The
      results of gene transfection showed that the folate-PEG-ligated polymer modified
      with CRC motifs had much better gene transfection compared to the alanine-ended
      control and other analogues. Furthermore, they showed barely cytotoxicity. By the
      way, there was no distinctly improvement for pDNA transfection. All above results
      suggested that folate-PEG-ligated polymers modified with CRC motifs and their
      self-assembly polymeric micelles could be promising non-viral siRNA carriers.

PMID- 28576021
TI  - Biosynthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles: Kinetics, in vitro and
      in vivo study.
AB  - This study reports a facile, cost effective, nontoxic and eco-friendly method for
      the synthesis of gold nanoparticles. In this paper, leaf extract of Mentha
      piperita was successfully used to reduce chloroauric acid, leading to synthesis
      of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The synthesized nanoparticles were further
      characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy and
      field emission scanning electron microscopy. Kinetics studies like effect of
      volume of leaf extract, precursor, pH, temperature for the synthesis of AuNPs
      were studied spectrophotometrically. Synthesized AuNPs were found to possess
      hexagon structure where size of nanoparticles was ~78nm in diameter. These
      biologically synthesized AuNPs exhibited significant activity against cancerous
      cell lines MDA-MB-231 and A549 and was compared with the normal 3T3-L1 cell line.
      Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were studied on a Wistar rat model to
      gauge the impact of AuNPs for a probable role in these applications. AuNPs gave
      positive results for both these activities, although the potency was less as
      compared to the standard drugs. These results suggested that the leaves extract
      of Mentha piperita is a very good bioreductant for the synthesis of AuNPs and
      have potential for various biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.

PMID- 28576022
TI  - A biomimetic Au@BSA-DTA nanocomposites-based contrast agent for computed
      tomography imaging.
AB  - Early detection of cancer is increasingly important for being considered to
      increase the survival rate in the treatment process. The past decades years have
      witnessed the great progress in the biological detection application of gold
      nanoparticles. Herein, we reported a facile one-pot synthesis process to obtain
      gold nanoparticles (Au@BSA) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a biotemplate
      following with conjugation of diatrizoic acid (DTA) for a potential X-ray
      computed tomography (CT) imaging contrast agent (Au@BSA-DTA). The as-prepared
      biomimetic material was characterized systematically by several techniques. It
      was shown that the prepared biomaterial is colloid stable under the tested range
      of pH and temperature. The cell cytotoxicity assay, hemolytic assay and cell
      morphology observation showed that Au@BSA-DTA has good biocompatibility and
      hemocompatibility at a concentration of Au even up to 80MUg/mL. Besides, the
      biomimetic material Au@BSA-DTA with double radiodense elements of Au and iodine
      displayed much stronger CT imaging effect compared with the traditional small
      molecule contrast agents, which paves the potential clinical application in
      cancer early diagnosis.

PMID- 28576023
TI  - Bioengineered porous composite curcumin/silk scaffolds for cartilage
      regeneration.
AB  - Articular cartilage repair is a challenge due to its limited self-repair
      capacity. Cartilage tissue engineering supports to overcome following injuries or
      degenerative diseases. Herein, we fabricated the scaffold composed of curcumin
      and silk fibroin as an appropriate clinical replacement for defected cartilage.
      The scaffolds were designed to have adequate pore size and mechanical strength
      for cartilage repair. Cell proliferation, sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG)
      content and mRNA expression analysis indicated that chondrocytes remained viable
      and showed its growth ability in the curcumin/silk scaffolds. Especially, in
      1mg/ml curcumin/silk scaffold showed higher cell viability rate and extracellular
      matrix formation than other experimental groups. Furthermore, curcumin/silk
      scaffold showed its biocompatibility and favorable environment for cartilage
      repair after transplantation in vivo, as indicated in histological examination
      results. Overall, the functional composite curcumin/silk scaffold can be applied
      in cartilage tissue engineering and promising substrate for cartilage repair.

PMID- 28576024
TI  - Layer-by-layer assembled polyelectrolytes on honeycomb-like porous poly(epsilon
      caprolactone) films modulate the spatial distribution of mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Cellular behaviors can be affected by both surface chemistry and topography of
      biomaterials substrates. The object of the present study was to investigate how
      pore structure and bioactive molecules regulate the adhesion and proliferation of
      rabbit bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) in synergy.
      Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) films with a honeycomb-like porous structure
      were fabricated via a breath-figure method, and then further coated with
      bioactive molecules including four combinations of polyelectrolytes (GEL/CS,
      GEL/HA, CHI/CS and CHI/HA) via a layer-by-layer self-assembly (LBL) process.
      rMSCs were seeded on these films to evaluate both adhesion and proliferation. It
      was shown that a uniform honeycomb-like porous structure with a pore size of
      18.87+/-3.25MUm was obtained in the films. Bioactive molecules were proven to be
      successfully deposited on the films, the amount of which increased with the
      number of assembled layer. Both surface pore structure and assembled molecules
      play significant roles on the adhesion and proliferation of rMSCs. Notably, the
      spatial distribution of cells (either entrapped in pores or spreading over pores)
      on porous films was also dictated by the identity of the assembled molecules.
      These findings might be fundamental to design bioactive scaffolds for tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28576025
TI  - Carboxylated chitosan/silver-hydroxyapatite hybrid microspheres with improved
      antibacterial activity and cytocompatibility.
AB  - The implant-associated infection remains a serious problem in clinic. A better
      compromise between the anti-infection property and biocompatibility of bone
      filling materials is still required. In this work, carboxylated chitosan/silver
      hydroxyapatite (CMCS/Ag-HA) hybrid microspheres were fabricated via a facile gas
      diffusion method. CMCS and Ag ion were evenly distributed into hybrid
      microspheres. CMCS regulated the morphological characteristics of the as
      synthesized hybrid microspheres. As the content of CMCS increased, the size of
      the sample increased and dispersion exacerbated. In addition, antimicrobial
      studies demonstrated that CMCS/Ag-HA hybrid microspheres exhibited an excellent
      antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus because of the synergistic
      effect of Ag+ and CMCS. In vitro cell tests indicated that the as-prepared
      CMCS/Ag-HA hybrid microspheres promoted the proliferation and adhesion of MG63
      cells. CMCS/Ag-HA hybrid microspheres showed excellent bactericidal property and
      biocompatibility; thus, they could be used in biomedical applications, such as
      infection-resistant bone replacement materials.

PMID- 28576026
TI  - Design, characterization and in vitro evaluation of novel amphiphilic block
      sunflower oil-based polyol nanocarrier as a potential delivery system: Raloxifene
      hydrochloride as a model.
AB  - Presently, modern pharmaceuticals, are almost exclusively derived from the
      arduous refining of petroleum whose supply is inherently unsustainable. In order
      to address this issue bio-based materials are increasingly being used for
      chemical synthesis, particularly in drug delivery systems. Biodegradable and
      biocompatible hyper-branched polyol (an alcohol containing three or more hydroxyl
      groups) was synthesized via a facile method through the ring-opening and thiol
      ene click reactions at room temperature. Due to the bio-based content of the
      polyol backbone, the synthesized polyol had both excellent biodegradability and
      low cytotoxicity. Raloxifene hydrochloride, an oral selective estrogen receptor
      modulator, was used as a hydrophobic drug model to test the potential of polyol
      as a drug delivery system carrier. Polyol showed an amphiphilic character and
      could be prepared as a nanoparticle for the sustained delivery of raloxifene
      hydrochloride, a drug with poor bioavailability in aqueous solution. Raloxifene
      hydrochloride was readily encapsulated in the lipophilic core of polyol whose
      branched hydroxyls were on the external part of the prepared nanoparticles. The
      diameter of the nanoparticles was 94+/-0.43nm, their drug entrapment efficiency
      was 93+/-0.5% and they showed a sustained release profile (17+/-1.5% after
      4weeks). The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4
      sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium (MTS) assay showed low toxicity towards human
      osteoblast MG-63 cells. Based on its good biodegradability and low cytotoxicity,
      polyol provides a bio-based source for the design new drug delivery systems.

PMID- 28576027
TI  - Methotrexate-loaded porous polymeric adsorbents as oral sustained release
      formulations.
AB  - Methotrexate as a model drug with poor aqueous solubility was adsorbed into
      porous polymeric adsorbents, which was used as oral sustained release
      formulations. In vitro release assay in simulated gastrointestinal fluids showed
      that the methotrexate-loaded adsorbents showed distinct sustained release
      performance. The release rate increased with increase in pore size of the
      adsorbents. In vivo pharmacokinetic study showed that the maximal plasma
      methotrexate concentrations after oral administration of free methotrexate and
      methotrexate-loaded DA201-H (a commercial porous polymeric adsorbent) to rats
      occurred at 40min and 5h post-dose, respectively; and the plasma concentrations
      decreased to 22% after 5h for free methotrexate and 44% after 24h for
      methotrexate-loaded DA201-H, respectively. The load of methotrexate into the
      porous polymeric adsorbents not only resulted in obvious sustained release, but
      also enhanced the oral bioavailability of methotrexate. The areas under the
      curve, AUC0-24 and AUC0-inf, for methotrexate-loaded DA201-H increased 3.3 and
      7.7 times, respectively, compared to those for free methotrexate.

PMID- 28576028
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of Eu(III) complexes of modified d-glucosamine and
      poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).
AB  - A series of chain-end functional polymers composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
      (PNIPAM) and 2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranose(d-glucosamine, GA) was synthesized
      via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Novel fluorescent complexes of
      glucosamine-PNI- PAM/Eu(III) were then formed by chelation of the polymers and
      europium(III) ions. The aqueous solutions of the polymers and its Eu(III)
      complexes exhibited a lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs), and which
      were approximately equal to body temperature. Cell viability assays suggested
      that these thermosensitive polymers and Eu(III) complexes showed excellent
      biocompatibility in vitro.

PMID- 28576029
TI  - Folate receptor targeted bufalin/beta-cyclodextrin supramolecular inclusion
      complex for enhanced solubility and anti-tumor efficiency of bufalin.
AB  - Bufalin (BF), a traditional Chinese medicine, exhibited inhibitory activities
      against a broad spectrum of tumor cells. The present study elaborates that
      bufalin was successfully encapsulated into the cavity of beta-cyclodextrin (beta
      CD), which was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR),
      proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR), differential scanning
      calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The best reaction mole
      ratio of BF/beta-CD was 1:5. The solubilities of bufalin in water and phosphate
      buffer solution (pH=7.4) were increased up to 24 and 34 times after encapsulated
      into the cavity of beta-CD respectively. The inclusion efficiency (IE) and drug
      loading (DL) of bufalin in the inclusion complex were (94.22+/-0.85)% and
      (14.11+/-0.20)%, respectively. Then beta-CD conjugated with folic acid (FA) were
      further prepared and employed to improve the anti-tumor efficacy of inclusion
      complex. The in vitro dissolution and solubility study showed better values of
      inclusion complex and FA targeted inclusion complex than that of pure BF.
      Cytotoxicity experiments by using HCT116 cell line revealed that the antitumor
      efficiency of bufalin were enhanced more than two folds in the presence of beta
      CD and folate conjugated beta-CD (FA-PEI-beta-CD), which demonstrated the
      potential application of beta-CD (FA-PEI-beta-CD) as delivery vehicles of bufalin
      for antitumor therapy.

PMID- 28576030
TI  - Sustainable and smart keratin hydrogel with pH-sensitive swelling and enhanced
      mechanical properties.
AB  - Protein based hydrogels are a very interesting type of biomaterials with many
      probed strengths related to their source and chemical structure. Biocompatibility
      and biodegradability are accompanied by affordability when it comes to low cost
      sources. The main keratin source is agroindustrial waste, such as feathers,
      horns, hooves, hair and wool. Thus, the main cost of keratin hydrogels derives
      from their processing. Here is presented a new strategy for the obtaining of a
      keratin hydrogel with enhanced mechanical properties using low cost reagents.
      This keratin hydrogel is stiff enough to allow handling without special cares and
      also presenting a reversible pH-responsive behavior. The minimum swelling is
      observed at low pH due to a collapsed and disordered protein network with water
      tightly adsorbed to the hydrophilic sites. The swelling rises significantly above
      pH6 and the maximum swelling appears above pH8 where an expanded network allows
      water to enter to the pores.

PMID- 28576031
TI  - Fabrication of a three dimensional spongy scaffold using human Wharton's jelly
      derived extra cellular matrix for wound healing.
AB  - The Wharton's jelly (WJ) contains significant amounts of extracellular matrix
      (ECM) components and rich source of endogenous growth factors. In this study, we
      designed a new biomimetic spongy scaffold from decellularized WJ-derived ECM and
      used it as a skin substitute. Histological analysis and biochemical assays showed
      that bio-active molecules preserved in the fabricated scaffolds and that the
      scaffolds have highly interconnected porous structure. Cytotoxicity and
      mechanical evaluation of the scaffold indicated that it is non-toxic and has
      appropriate mechanical properties. MTT assay, SEM and histological analysis of
      human fibroblast, seeded on the scaffolds, confirmed cellular viability,
      attachment, penetration and proliferation. The effectiveness of WJ-derived
      scaffolds in the regeneration of full-thickness wound was assessed through an in
      vivo experiment. Our results demonstrated that the scaffolds were well integrated
      into the mouse tissue and absorbed the exudates after one week. Unlike the
      controls, in WJ group there were not only complete wound closing and
      disappearance of the scab, but also complete reepithelialization, newly generated
      epidermal layers and appendages after 12days of implantation. Taken together, our
      results indicate that WJ-derived scaffolds are able to improve attachment,
      penetration and growth of the fibroblast cells and speed up the healing
      processes, which would offer a proper skin graft for wound healing.

PMID- 28576032
TI  - Hyperbranched polyglycerol-modified graphene oxide as an efficient drug carrier
      with good biocompatibility.
AB  - As a promising drug carrier, graphene oxide (GO) has been studied widely in drug
      delivery due to its excellent loading ability to aromatic drugs. However, its
      biocompatibility, such as stability and blood compatibility, is now the biggest
      obstacle for its further application. Herein, the hyperbranched polyglycerol
      (HPG)-modified GO was prepared through the anionic ring-opening polymerization
      using GO as the initiator directly, and then the doxorubicin hydrochloride was
      loaded and showed obvious cytotoxicity to tumor cells. The obtained HPG-GO
      displayed good stability in the aqueous solution, as well showed low toxicity in
      vitro and in vivo. As an injectable drug carrier, HPG-GO showed good blood
      compatibility with negligible effect on the hemolysis and blood coagulation. Such
      a stable and blood-compatible GO derivative may be applied widely in drug
      delivery in the future.

PMID- 28576033
TI  - Insight into cytotoxicity of Mg nanocomposites using MTT assay technique.
AB  - In the present study, Young's modulus measurements and indirect cytotoxicity test
      were performed on Mg (0.97, 1.98, 2.5) vol% TiO2, Mg (0.58, 0.97, 1.98) vol% TiC,
      and Mg (0.58, 0.97, 1.98) vol% TiN, synthesized using the Disintegrated Melt
      Deposition technique to determine the cytotoxicity of low volume nano-particulate
      reinforcement on magnesium. The results of the indirect MTT assay on Day 3 and
      Day 5 indicate that 2.5vol% TiO2, TiC and TiN has little effect on the
      cytotoxicity when added as low volume fraction reinforcement to magnesium. While
      (0.97, 1.98) vol% TiO2 negatively affected the cytotoxicity when added to Mg. The
      Young's modulus of the materials was found to remain close to that of cortical
      bone which would suggest that the stress shielding effect would be reduced as the
      increase in Young's modulus was mitigated by the low volume addition of
      reinforcements.

PMID- 28576034
TI  - Enhancement of fluorescence brightness and stability of copper nanoclusters using
      Zn2+ for ratio-metric sensing of S2.
AB  - It is acknowledged water soluble copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) are extremely
      unstable in aqueous solutions, which limit their fluorescence applications to a
      great extent. In this work, it is found the fluorescence intensity and stability
      of water soluble Cu NCs could obviously be enhanced by the introduction of Zn2+.
      Then, the as modified Cu NCs will be stable enough to be applied as a ratio
      metric sensor for S2-. This method may provide more broaden avenues for the
      application of fluorescent Cu NCs in the future.

PMID- 28576035
TI  - BMP-2 immobilized PLGA/hydroxyapatite fibrous scaffold via polydopamine
      stimulates osteoblast growth.
AB  - Combining biomaterials scaffolds with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is
      currently used to promote the regeneration of bone tissue. However, the
      traditional strategies used to add BMP-2 into the polymer scaffolds directly
      suffer from limitations that can result in lower growth factor loading and damage
      the bioactivity of growth factors. In this study, we report the fabrication of
      poly(lactide-co-glycolide)/hydroxyapatite (PLGA/HA) composite fibrous scaffolds
      via melt-spinning method to mimic native extracellular matrix (ECM). In order to
      effectively immobilize BMP-2 on PLGA/HA composite fibrous scaffolds, the surface
      of the scaffold was modified with polydopamine (PDA) (PDA-PLGA/HA). PDA was
      chosen as an adhesive polymeric bridge-layer between PLGA/HA fibrous scaffolds
      and BMP-2. Analysis of the scaffold using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope revealed
      that the PDA coating was attached to the scaffold surface. Moreover, analysis of
      the scaffold using water contact angle demonstrated an increased hydrophilicity
      via PDA modification. Furthermore, the PDA coating effectively immobilized BMP-2
      on the PDA-PLGA/HA fibrous scaffold and a sustained release profile of BMP-2 was
      achieved in the BMP-2-immobilized PLGA/HA fibrous scaffold. In vitro experiments
      showed that BMP-2-immobilized PLGA/HA fibrous scaffold significantly promoted the
      attachment and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells. More importantly, the ALP
      activity, mRNA expression of osteosis-related genes and calcium deposition in
      MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on BMP-2-immobilized PLGA/HA fibrous scaffold were
      significantly increased. These results collectively demonstrate that the BMP-2
      immobilized PLGA/HA fibrous scaffold is a promising candidate for bone
      regeneration.

PMID- 28576037
TI  - Drug release profiles of modified MCM-41 with superparamagnetic behavior
      correlated with the employed synthesis method.
AB  - Mesoporous materials with superparamagnetic properties were successfully
      synthesized by two different methods: direct incorporation (DI) and wet
      impregnation (WI). The synthetized solids were evaluated as host of drugs for
      delivery systems and their physicochemical properties were characterized by XRD,
      ICP, N2 adsorption-desorption, spectroscopies of UV-Vis DR, FT-IR and their
      magnetic properties were measured. Indomethacin (IND) was incorporated into the
      materials and the kinetic of the release profiles was studied by applying the
      Pepas and Sahlin model. In this sense, materials modified by DI, particularly
      that with hydrothermal treatment, showed the higher adsorption capacity and
      slower release rate. This behavior could be associated to the synthesis method
      used that allowed a high percentage of silanol groups available in the solids
      surface, which can interact with the IND molecule. This feature coupled with the
      superparamagnetic behavior; make these materials very interesting for drug
      delivery systems.

PMID- 28576036
TI  - Cytocompatibility, biofilm assembly and corrosion behavior of Mg-HAP composites
      processed by extrusion.
AB  - In this work the cytocompatibility of pure magnesium and Mg-xHAP composites (x=5,
      10 and 15wt%) fabricated by powder metallurgy routes has been investigated. The
      materials were produced from raw HAP powders with particle mean sizes of 6MUm (S
      xHAP) or 25MUm (L-xHAP). The biocompatibility study has been performed for MC3T3
      cells (osteoblasts/osteoclasts) and L929 fibroblasts. The results indicate that S
      Mg (pure magnesium), S-10HAP and L-10HAP composites are the materials with the
      best biocompatibility. The ability of S. aureus bacteria to assemble biofilms was
      also evaluated. Biofilm formation assays showed that these materials are not
      particular prone to colonization and biofilm assembly is strain dependent. The
      corrosion resistance of S-Mg, S-10HAP and L-10HAP materials immersed in the media
      used for the cells culture has also been analyzed. Different trends in the
      corrosion resistance have been found: S-Mg and S-10HAP show a very high
      resistance to corrosion whereas the corrosion of L-10HAP steadily increases with
      time.

PMID- 28576038
TI  - The effect of pH, fluoride and tribocorrosion on the surface properties of dental
      archwires.
AB  - Nickel-titanium and stainless steel are the most commonly used alloys for
      orthodontic treatments. Even though both are known to be resistant to corrosion,
      there are circumstances that can lead to undesired situations, like localized
      types of corrosion attack, wear during sliding of an archwire though brackets and
      breakdowns due to iatrogenic causes. The aim of this research was to analyse the
      influence of environmental effects on the corrosion and tribocorrosion properties
      of NiTi and stainless steel dental alloys. The effects of pH and fluorides on the
      electrochemical properties were studied using the cyclic potentiodynamic
      technique. The migration of ions from the alloy into saliva during exposure to
      saliva with and without the presence of wear was analysed using ICP-MS analyses.
      Auger spectroscopy was used to study the formation of a passive oxide layer on
      different dental alloys. It was found that lowering the pH preferentially affects
      the corrosion susceptibility of NiTi alloys, whereas stainless steel dental
      archwires are prone to local types of corrosion. The NiTi alloy is not affected
      by smaller increases of fluoride ions up to 0.024M, while at 0.076M (simulating
      the use of toothpaste) the properties are affected. A leaching test during wear
      assisted corrosion showed that the concentrations of Ni ions released into the
      saliva exceeded the limit value of 0.5MUg/cm2/week. The oxide films on the NiTi
      and stainless steel alloys after the tribocorrosion experiment were thicker than
      those exposed to saliva only.

PMID- 28576039
TI  - Investigation of the mechanical and chemical characteristics of nanotubular and
      nano-pitted anodic films on grade 2 titanium dental implant materials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the reproducibility,
      mechanical integrity, surface characteristics and corrosion behavior of
      nanotubular (NT) titanium oxide arrays in comparison with a novel nano-pitted
      (NP) anodic film. METHODS: Surface treatment processes were developed to grow
      homogenous NT and NP anodic films on the surface of grade 2 titanium discs and
      dental implants. The effect of process parameters on the surface characteristics
      and reproducibility of the anodic films was investigated and optimized. The
      mechanical integrity of the NT and NP anodic films were investigated by scanning
      electron microscopy, surface roughness measurement, scratch resistance and
      screwing tests, while the chemical and physicochemical properties were
      investigated in corrosion tests, contact angle measurement and X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The growth of NT anodic
      films was highly affected by process parameters, especially by temperature, and
      they were apt to corrosion and exfoliation. In contrast, the anodic growth of NP
      film showed high reproducibility even on the surface of 3-dimensional screw
      dental implants and they did not show signs of corrosion and exfoliation. The
      underlying reason of the difference in the tendency for exfoliation of the NT and
      NP anodic films is unclear; however the XPS analysis revealed fluorine dopants in
      a magnitude larger concentration on NT anodic film than on NP surface, which was
      identified as a possible causative. Concerning other surface characteristics that
      are supposed to affect the biological behavior of titanium implants, surface
      roughness values were found to be similar, whereas considerable differences were
      revealed in the wettability of the NT and NP anodic films. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings suggest that the applicability of NT anodic films on the surface of
      titanium bone implants may be limited because of mechanical considerations. In
      contrast, it is worth to consider the applicability of nano-pitted anodic films
      over nanotubular arrays for the enhancement of the biological properties of
      titanium implants.

PMID- 28576040
TI  - Engineered 3D-scaffolds of photocrosslinked chitosan-gelatin hydrogel hybrids for
      chronic wound dressings and regeneration.
AB  - Wound repair is one of the most complex biological processes in human life. To
      date, no ideal biomaterial solution has been identified, which that encompasses
      all functions and properties of real skin tissue. Thus, this study focused on the
      synthesis of new biocompatible hybrid hydrogel scaffolds based on methacrylate
      functionalized high molecular mass chitosan with gelatin-A photocrosslinked with
      UV radiation to tailor matrix network properties. These hybrid hydrogels were
      produced via freeze-drying and were extensively characterized by swelling and
      degradation measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV
      visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), and micro
      computed tomography (micro-CT). The results demonstrated that hydrogels were
      produced with broadly designed swelling degrees typically ranging from 500% to
      2000%, which were significantly dependent on the relative concentration of
      polymers and irradiation time for crosslinking. Analogously, degradation was
      reduced with increased photocrosslinking of the network. Moreover, insights into
      the mechanism of photochemical crosslinking were suggested based on FTIR and UV
      Vis analyses of the characteristic functional groups involved in the reactions.
      SEM analysis associated with micro-CT imaging of the hybrid scaffolds showed
      uniformly interconnected 3D porous structures, with architectural features
      affected by the crosslinking of the network. These hydrogels were biocompatible,
      with live cell viability responses of human embryonic kidney (HEK293T) cells
      being above 95%. Hence, novel hybrid hydrogels were designed and produced with
      tunable properties through photocrosslinking and with a biocompatible response
      suitable for use in wound dressing and skin tissue repair applications.

PMID- 28576041
TI  - Electrospinning of Ag Nanowires/polyvinyl alcohol hybrid nanofibers for their
      antibacterial properties.
AB  - In order to developing a sort of flexible fibrous mats with outstanding and
      durable antibacterial activates, silver nanowires incorporated into polyvinyl
      alcohol (PVA) nanofibers were fabricated by electrospun method. Uniform Ag
      nanowires (NWs) were synthesized through a template-free method of solvothermal
      combined with polyol process, and then, they were dispersed in PVA solution. At
      last, Ag NWs embedded in PVA (Ag NWs/PVA) hybrid nanofibrous films were gained by
      electrospun of the mixed solution. The antibacterial activity of Ag NWs/PVA
      nanofibers against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S.
      aureus) was investigated by the methods of absorption and turbidity. Ag NWs with
      a mean diameter of 86nm were demonstrated to be uniformly incorporated into PVA
      nanofibers, forming a core-sheath nanocable structure. The as-prepared flexible
      and free-standing Ag NWs/PVA nanofibrous films show outstanding antimicrobial
      activities against both E. coli and S. aureus. It's found that both matrix
      polymer of PVA and enrichment of active {111} facets present in Ag NWs are
      favorable for the antibacterial performance.

PMID- 28576042
TI  - Iron doped beta-Tricalcium phosphate: Synthesis, characterization, hyperthermia
      effect, biocompatibility and mechanical evaluation.
AB  - The ability of beta-Tricalcium phosphate [beta-TCP, beta-Ca3(PO4)2] to host iron
      at its structural lattice and its associated magnetic susceptibility,
      hyperthermia effect, biocompatibility and mechanical characteristics is
      investigated. The studies revealed the ability of beta-Ca3(PO4)2 to host 5.02mol%
      of Fe3+ at its Ca2+(5) site. Excess Fe3+ additions led to the formation of
      trigonal Ca9Fe(PO4)7 and moreover a minor amount of CaFe3(PO4)3O crystallization
      was also observed. A gradual increment in the iron content at beta-Ca3(PO4)2
      results in the simultaneous effect of pronounced hyperthermia effect and
      mechanical stability. However, the presence of CaFe3(PO4)3O contributes for the
      reduced hyperthermia effect and mechanical stability of iron substituted beta
      Ca3(PO4)2. Haemolytic tests, cytotoxicity tests and ALP gene expression analysis
      confirmed the biocompatibility of the investigated systems.

PMID- 28576043
TI  - Insights into the rheological behaviors evolution of alginate dialdehyde
      crosslinked collagen solutions evaluated by numerical models.
AB  - The elaboration of the rheological behaviors of alginate dialdehyde (ADA)
      crosslinked collagen solutions, along with the quantitative analysis via
      numerical models contribute to the controllable design of ADA crosslinked
      solution system's fluid mechanics performance during manufacturing process for
      collagen biomaterials. In the present work, steady shear flow, dynamical
      viscoelasticity, creep-recovery, thixotropy tests were performed to characterize
      the rheological behaviors of the collagen solutions incorporating of ADA from the
      different aspects and fitted with corresponding numerical models. It was found
      that pseudoplastic properties of all samples enhanced with increasing amounts of
      ADA, which was confirmed by the parameters calculated from the Ostwald-de Waele
      model, Carreau and Cross model, for instance, the non-Newtonian index (n)
      decreased from 0.786 to 0.201 and a great increase by 280 times in value of
      viscosity index (K) was obtained from Ostwald-de Waele model. The forth-mode
      Leonov model was selected to fit all dynamic modulus-frequency curves due to its
      higher fitting precision (R2>0.99). It could be found that the values of
      correlation shear viscosity (etak) increased and the values of relaxation time
      (thetak) decreased with increasing ADA at the fixed k value, suggesting that the
      incorporation of ADA accelerated the transformation of the collagen solutions
      from liquid-like to gel-like state due to more formation of CN linkages between
      aldehyde groups and lysine residues. Also, the curves of creep and recovery phase
      of the native and crosslinked collagen solutions were simulated well using Burger
      model and a semi-empirical model, respectively. The ability to resist to
      deformation and elasticity strengthened for the samples with higher amounts of
      ADA, accompanied with the important fact that compliance value (J50) decreased
      from 56.317Pa-1 to 2.135Pa-1 and the recovery percentage (Rcreep) increased from
      2.651% to 28.217%. Finally, it was found that the area of thixotropic loop
      increased from 8.942Pa/s to 17.823Pa/s with increasing introduction of ADA,
      suggesting that stronger thixotropic behavior was associated with higher amount
      of ADA. Furthermore, Herschel-Bulkley model was employed to describe the up and
      down curves of all samples and it was confirmed that all collagen solutions
      belonged to pseudoplastic fluid (the flow index<1) without apparent yield stress
      and shear-thinning behaviors were more obvious with increasing additions of ADA
      according to the increasing consistency coefficient K values. Overall, this work
      contributed a new insight into the interactions between collagen and ADA based on
      quantitative rheological methods reflecting the different rheological properties
      and the results obtained should be of great utility in the extensive application
      of ADA crosslinked collagen solutions into diverse collagen-based materials.

PMID- 28576044
TI  - Effects of DNase I coating of titanium on bacteria adhesion and biofilm
      formation.
AB  - The removal of mature biofilm from the surface of implant has been a formidable
      challenge in treating implant-associated infection. Prevention of biofilm
      formation rather than removal of existing biofilm is a more effective approach.
      Immobilization of biofilm-dispersing enzymes on material surfaces is regarded as
      one of the most promising strategies. Deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) can degrade
      extracellular DNA (eDNA) and then destabilize biofilm. In this study, DNase I was
      immobilized on a titanium (Ti) surface by using dopamine as an intermediate. The
      water contact angle, SEM, EDS and XPS confirmed that DNase I was successfully
      coated to the bare Ti and the final coating was highly hydrophilic. The DNase I
      coating showed significant effects in preventing Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans)
      and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) adhesion and biofilm formation over a time
      span of 24h. The favorable biocompatibility was demonstrated by cell study in
      vitro. In addition, cell adhesion results suggested that DNase I coating had the
      potential to facilitate MC3T3-E1 cell attachment. DNase I coating with anti
      infection ability and biocompatibility has great potential for increasing success
      rates of implant applications.

PMID- 28576045
TI  - Fabrication of high-capacity polyelectrolyte brush-grafted porous AAO-silica
      composite membrane via RAFT polymerization.
AB  - Surface-initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)
      polymerization has been utilized to fabricate high-capacity strong anion-exchange
      (AEX) membrane for the separation of protein. By means of RAFT polymerization,
      quaternized poly(3-(methacrylamidomethyl)-pyridine) brushes formed 3-dimensional
      nanolayers on the surface of porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)-silica composite
      membrane. The surface properties of the membranes were analyzed by SEM, water
      contact angle, ATR-FTIR, XPS and TGA. To investigate the adsorption performance,
      the new AEX membranes were applied to recover a model protein, ovalbumin (OVA).
      High adsorption capacities of 95.8mg/g membranes (static) and 65.3mg/g membranes
      (dynamic) were obtained at ambient temperature. In the further studies, up to 90%
      of the adsorbed OVA was efficiently eluted by using phosphate buffer-1M NaCl as
      elution medium. The successful separation of OVA with high purity from a mixture
      protein solution was also achieved by using the AEX membranes. The present study
      demonstrated that under mild reaction condition, RAFT polymerization can be used
      to fabricate ion-exchange membrane which has many remarkable features, such as
      high capacity and selectivity, easy elution and so on.

PMID- 28576046
TI  - Fabrication of self-assembled vesicle nanoparticles of poly(l-lysine)-arachidic
      acid conjugates for a vascular endothelial growth factor carrier.
AB  - Numerous growth factors account for tissue and organ development and therapeutic
      efficiency. Hence, the delivery of growth factors is crucial in regenerative
      medical practice. However, the delivery of a single factor to regenerate tissues
      lacks clinical utility in many current approaches. We reported the delivery of
      the bioactive vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from novel polymeric
      vesicles. Polymeric vesicles were prepared from the poly(l-lysine)-g
      polylysine(AA) amphiphilic graft copolymer through the conjugation of arachidic
      acid (AA) with poly(l-lysine) for obtaining a VEGF carrier. The prepared
      copolymer can form a polymersome and effectively condense with VEGF without
      affecting its size and surface charges. The Gaussian curve fit (GCF) of amide I
      band were revealed that VEGF efficiently interact through the alpha-helix of the
      amphiphilic graft copolymer rather than beta-sheet dominated poly(l-lysine). The
      polymersome-VEGF complex showed a considerably higher binding affinity,
      transfection efficiency, and less toxicity because of the peptide-based polymer
      backbone. Compared with the poly(l-lysine)-VEGF complex, polymersome-VEGF
      revealed a high secretion of VEGF and low toxicity. These polymersomes can
      deliver angiogenic factors in a controlled manner in tissue regeneration and
      biomedical engineering.

PMID- 28576047
TI  - Optimally designed collagen/polycaprolactone biocomposites supplemented with
      controlled release of HA/TCP/rhBMP-2 and HA/TCP/PRP for hard tissue regeneration.
AB  - Collagen has been widely used as a very promising material to regenerate various
      tissues. It is a chief component of the extracellular matrix, and encourages
      various biological effects conducive to tissue regeneration. However, poor
      mechanical stability, low processability, and high level of water absorption can
      lead to impaired control of growth factor release and have impeded the use of
      collagen as a functional biomedical scaffold. Here, to overcome the shortcomings
      of collagen scaffolds, we have additively manufactured collagen/polycaprolactone
      (PCL) biocomposites supplemented with a bioceramic (hydroxyapatite (HA)/beta
      tricalcium-phosphate (TCP)) and two growth factors (recombinant human bone
      morphogenetic protein-2 [rhBMP-2] and platelet-rich plasma [PRP]). Various weight
      fractions of PCL in the collagen/PCL composites were manipulated to select
      optimal growth factor release and highly active cellular responses. After the
      optimal concentration of PCL in the collagen/PCL scaffold was determined,
      biocomposites supplemented with bioceramic/growth-factors were fabricated.
      Continuously released growth factors were assumed to increase the in vitro
      cellular activities of the osteoblast-like cells (MG63) cultured on the
      biocomposites. In vitro cellular responses, including osteogenic activities, were
      examined, and results showed that compared to the HA/TCP/rhBMP-2 supplemented
      scaffold the HA/TCP/PRP biocomposites provide significantly high cellular
      activities (cell proliferation: >1.3-fold) and mineralization (calcium
      deposition: >1.4-fold, osteocalcin: >2.6-fold) sufficient for regenerating bone
      tissue.

PMID- 28576048
TI  - Study on beta-cyclodextrin-complexed nanogels with improved thermal response for
      anticancer drug delivery.
AB  - For achievement of controllability in drug delivery, development of nanocarriers
      with thermal response is one of the most investigated stimulative strategies for
      oncological treatment. How to improve the thermosensitivity of the nanocarriers
      is an important factor for their successful drug delivery applications. In this
      study, a kind of complexed nanogels (PNACD) was developed by incorporating beta
      cyclodextrin (beta-CD) into the nanogels of copolymers of N-isopropylacrylamide
      (NIPAM) and acrylic acid (AA) during their polymerization via in situ
      crosslinking of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. The complexed
      PNACD nanogels displayed a significantly enhanced thermosensitivity near body
      temperature compared to the beta-CD-free nanogels (PNA), which is probably
      associated with the rapid volumetric transformation during heating/cooling
      process due to the formation of complexed (decomplexed) structure between beta-CD
      and PNIPAM element. The PNACD nanogels can be used for loading of an anticancer
      drug (doxorubicin, DOX) with an encapsulation efficiency of 54+/-5%. The DOX
      loaded nanogels displayed pH-/thermo-dual responsivenesses in drug release, which
      can be effectively internalized into KB cells (a human epithelial carcinoma cell
      line) to exert good anticancer bioactivity. This approach may enlighten design of
      novel nanocarriers for delivery of drugs beyond anticancer chemotherapeutic
      reagents.

PMID- 28576049
TI  - Improved oral bioavailability of probucol by dry media-milling.
AB  - The polymer/probucol co-milled mixtures were prepared to improve drug dissolution
      rate and oral bioavailability. Probucol, a BCS II drug, was co-milled together
      with Copovidone (Kollidon VA64, VA64), Soluplus, or MCC using the dry media
      milling process with planetary ball-milling equipment. The properties of the
      milled mixtures including morphology, crystal form, vitro drug dissolution and in
      vivo oral bioavailability in rats were evaluated. Probucol existed as an
      amorphous in the matrix of the co-milled mixtures containing VA64, which helped
      to enhance drug dissolution. The ternary mixture composed of VA64, RH40, and
      probucol showed increased dissolution rates in both sink and non-sink conditions.
      It also had a higher oral bioavailability compared to the reference formulation.
      Dry-media milling of binary or ternary mixtures composed of drug, polymer and
      surfactant possibly have wide applications to improve dissolution rate and oral
      bioavailability of water-insoluble drugs.

PMID- 28576050
TI  - Extraction and characterization of collagen from Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic
      squid and its potential application in hybrid scaffolds for tissue engineering.
AB  - Collagen is the most abundant protein found in mammals and it exhibits a low
      immunogenicity, high biocompatibility and biodegradability when compared with
      others natural polymers. For this reason, it has been explored for the
      development of biologically instructive biomaterials with applications for tissue
      substitution and regeneration. Marine origin collagen has been pursued as an
      alternative to the more common bovine and porcine origins. This study focused on
      squid (Teuthoidea: Cephalopoda), particularly the Antarctic squid Kondakovia
      longimana and the Sub-Antarctic squid Illex argentinus as potential collagen
      sources. In this study, collagen has been isolated from the skins of the squids
      using acid-based and pepsin-based protocols, with the higher yield being obtained
      from I. argentinus in the presence of pepsin. The produced collagen has been
      characterized in terms of physicochemical properties, evidencing an amino acid
      profile similar to the one of calf collagen, but exhibiting a less preserved
      structure, with hydrolyzed portions and a lower melting temperature. Pepsin
      soluble collagen isolated from I. argentinus was selected for further evaluation
      of biomedical potential, exploring its incorporation on poly-epsilon-caprolactone
      (PCL) 3D printed scaffolds for the development of hybrid scaffolds for tissue
      engineering, exhibiting hierarchical features.

PMID- 28576051
TI  - On mechanical mechanism of damage evolution in articular cartilage.
AB  - Superficial lesions of cartilage are the direct indication of osteoarthritis. To
      investigate the mechanical mechanism of cartilage with micro-defect under
      external loading, a new plain strain numerical model with micro-defect was
      proposed and damage evolution progression in cartilage over time has been
      simulated, the parameter were studied including load style, velocity of load and
      degree of damage. The new model consists of the hierarchical structure of
      cartilage and depth-dependent arched fibers. The numerical results have shown
      that not only damage of the cartilage altered the distribution of the stress but
      also matrix and fiber had distinct roles in affecting cartilage damage, and
      damage in either matrix or fiber could promote each other. It has been found that
      the superficial cracks in cartilage spread preferentially along the tangent
      direction of the fibers. It is the arched distribution form of fibers that
      affects the crack spread of cartilage, which has been verified by experiment.
      During the process of damage evolution, its extension direction and velocity
      varied constantly with the damage degree. The rolling load could cause larger
      stress and strain than sliding load. Strain values of the matrix initially
      increased and then decreased gradually with the increase of velocity, and
      velocity had a greater effect on matrix than fibers. Damage increased steadily
      before reaching 50%, sharply within 50 to 85%, and smoothly and slowly after 85%.
      The finding of the paper may help to understand the mechanical mechanism why the
      cracks in cartilage spread preferentially along the tangent direction of the
      fibers.

PMID- 28576052
TI  - Facile in situ formation of hybrid gels for direct-forming tissue engineering.
AB  - Development of bioactive hydrogel as extracellular matrix (ECM) is a very
      important field for cell-based therapy. In this study, we provided a facile
      method based on sol-gel process for fabricating bioactive composite hydrogels.
      The composite hydrogels were composed of sol-gel derived silica and biopolymer.
      Different amounts of silica solution (20-80wt%) were mixed with 2% polymer sol
      (alginate) followed by aging and gelation to form a network so that the alginate
      silica hybrid mixture could form a gel without any additional crosslinking
      process. The self-gelation time of the hybrid hydrogel measured by rheometer was
      reduced as the content of silica was increased. Such hydrogels had highly porous
      and interconnected structures. Their strut showed uniform surface texture. Under
      physiological conditions (PBS, 37 degrees C), these hybrid hydrogels exhibited
      long-term stability compared to alginate hydrogels as control. The mechanical
      properties of these hydrogels such as compressive strength, compressive modulus,
      and work of fracture were significantly enhanced by hybridization with sol-gel
      derived silica. In vitro cell tests revealed that these hybrid hydrogels
      exhibited improved cell adhesion and proliferation behaviors compared to pure
      alginate hydrogel cross-linked by CaCl2 solution. Furthermore, cell encapsulation
      within these hydrogels revealed that their alginate-silica composite provided
      suitable microenvironment for cell survival.

PMID- 28576053
TI  - Antibacterial SnO2 nanorods as efficient fillers of poly(propylene fumarate-co
      ethylene glycol) biomaterials.
AB  - Antibacterial and biocompatible SnO2 nanorods have been easily synthesized
      through a hydrothermal process with the aid of a cationic surfactant, and
      incorporated as nanoreinforcements in poly(propylene fumarate-co-ethylene glycol)
      (P(PF-co-EG)) copolymer crosslinked with N-vinyl-pyrrolidone (NVP) by sonication
      and thermal curing. The nanorods were randomly and individually dispersed inside
      the P(PF-co-EG) network, and noticeably increased the thermal stability,
      hydrophilicity, degree of crystallinity, protein absorption capability as well as
      stiffness and strength of the matrix, whilst decreased its level of porosity and
      biodegradation rate. More importantly, the resulting nanocomposites retained
      adequate rigidity and strength after immersion in a simulated body fluid (SBF) at
      37 degrees C. They also exhibited biocide action against Gram-positive and Gram
      negative bacteria; their antibacterial effect was strong under UV-light
      illumination whilst in dark conditions was only moderate. Further, they did not
      cause toxicity on human dermal fibroblasts. The friction coefficient and wear
      rate strongly decreased with increasing nanorod loading under both dry and SBF
      conditions; the greatest drops in SBF were about 18-fold and 13-fold,
      respectively, compared to those of the copolymer network. These novel
      biomaterials are good candidates to be applied in the field of soft-tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28576054
TI  - Functionalized graphene oxide/Fe3O4 hybrids for cellular magnetic resonance
      imaging and fluorescence labeling.
AB  - In this work, we developed a T2-weighted contrast agent based on graphene oxide
      (GO)/Fe3O4 hybrids for efficient cellular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The
      GO/Fe3O4 hybrids were obtained by combining with co-precipitation method and
      pyrolysis method. The structural, surface and magnetic characteristics of the
      hybrids were systematically characterized by transmission electron microscopy
      (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), AFM, Raman, FT-IR and XRD. The
      GO/Fe3O4 hybrids were functionalized by modifying with anionic and cationic
      polyelectrolyte through layer-by-layer assembling. The fluorescence probe
      fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was further loaded on the surface of
      functionalized GO/Fe3O4 hybrids to trace the location of GO/Fe3O4 hybrids in
      cells. Functionalized GO/Fe3O4 hybrids possess good hydrophilicity, less
      cytotoxicity, high MRI enhancement with the relaxivity (r2) of 493mM-1s-1 as well
      as cellular MRI contrast effect. These obtained results indicated that the
      functionalized GO/Fe3O4 hybrids could have great potential to be utilized as
      cellular MRI contrast agents for tumor early diagnosis and monitoring.

PMID- 28576055
TI  - Antimicrobial property of silver, silver-zinc and silver-copper incorporated soda
      lime glass prepared by ion exchange.
AB  - Antimicrobial glasses are potential candidate as an additive in powder form for
      many different applications which makes them practically and scientifically
      important. In this context, incorporation of silver, zinc and copper into the
      powdered soda lime glass was carried out by ion exchange treatment using single
      and dual ion containing mediums. Investigating the effect of dual incorporation
      of silver-zinc and silver-copper on the ion release ability and antimicrobial
      activity of the glass was the motivation of this study. Considering the chemical
      analysis results, incorporation of silver, zinc and copper to the glass was
      realized after the treatment. The amount of released silver was observed to be
      higher than zinc and copper in aqueous environment. Unvarying pH values indicated
      that antimicrobial efficacies of the glasses were merely due to the incorporated
      ions. Silver release was significantly reduced in dual imparted glasses compared
      to the single silver imparted glasses. According to the antimicrobial test
      results, glasses showed sufficient and controlled level of ion release also
      showed antimicrobial activity. It was deduced that dual incorporation of silver
      zinc and silver-copper into the glass lowered the silver release which was still
      sufficient for effective antimicrobial activity and this contributes the long
      term activity.

PMID- 28576056
TI  - New infrared-assisted method for sol-gel derived ZnO:Ag thin films: Structural
      and bacterial inhibition properties.
AB  - A new sol-gel method, based on crystallization with Infrared heating, was
      developed to obtain ZnO:Ag thin films. The common sol, with zinc acetate as
      precursor and silver nitrate as doping source (1, 3 and 5 % molar), isopropanol
      and distilled water as solvents and monoethanolamine as stabilizer agent; was
      modified with Pluronic F127 and diethylene glycol as rheological agents, and with
      urea as fuel to produce enough energy to the combustion and to promote the
      crystallization process. Later, Corning glass-substrates were dipped into the sol
      at a constant speed of 3mms-1. To provide the necessary energy for obtaining the
      hexagonal ZnO structure of the coatings during the drying and consolidation
      process, instead of using the common furnace heat-treatment, the films were
      heated by means of an infrared (IR) ceramic lamp (800W) for 15, 30, 45, 60 and
      180 minutes, and the effect of this annealing method was analyzed. The structural
      properties were examined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), whereas morphology was studied by
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The
      examination revealed a homogeneous distribution of particles with the
      characteristic pores of pluronic F127, and the coating roughness had an average
      value of 100nm by AFM. To evaluate the effect on the number of dipping cycles and
      the IR-treatment on the thickness, ellipsometry results for 1, 3 and 5 deposits
      were analyzed and showed increments of 780, 945 and 1082nm, respectively.
      Finally, to test of the antibacterial activity, instead of the common one
      microorganism approach, environmental microorganisms that grow with expose of the
      broth to the ambient conditions were employed (microbial consortium), which is a
      real environmental condition. The biological test was carried out by kinetic
      growth inhibition (optical density) of heterotrophic bacteria in culture liquid
      media under conditions of light, light-dark and darkness, to analyze the effect
      of light. A significance reduction in growth was obtained for doped coatings with
      silver in comparison with the control ZnO substrate. Furthermore, the analysis
      bacteria growth inhibition on a solid surface showed that the films effectively
      present antibacterial activity. The best result was obtained with ZnO:Ag 1% in
      light conditions, about 67%, but all the coatings inhibited the bacterial
      activity.

PMID- 28576057
TI  - Solvothermal synthesis of cobalt ferrite hollow spheres with chitosan.
AB  - Cobalt ferrite hollow spheres with chitosan (CoFe2O4/CS) were synthesized by two
      different approaches using the solvothermal method. The first approach involves
      in-situ incorporation of FeCl3:6H2O and CoNO3:6H2O in the solvothermal reaction
      (M1) and in second approach already prepared CoFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) using
      the thermal decomposition method was placed in the solvothermal reaction to form
      the hollow spheres (M2). Structural identification of the samples were
      characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), powder X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analyses (DSC-TGA) and energy dispersive X
      ray spectroscopy (EDX). The magnetic properties were evaluated using a vibrating
      sample magnetometer (VSM). The presence of chitosan on the hollow sphere was
      confirmed by FTIR. The XRD analyses proved that the synthesized samples were
      cobalt ferrite with spinel structure. The structure of the surface and the
      average particle size of the spheres were observed by SEM and TEM showing the
      nano scale of the CoFe2O4 component. Structural characterization demonstrating
      that chitosan does not affect the crystallinity, chemical composition, and
      magnetic properties of the CoFe2O4/CS. This work demonstrates that the CoFe2O4/CS
      prepared using the as synthesized CoFe2O4 NPs have better structural and magnetic
      properties.

PMID- 28576058
TI  - Colloidal properties and in vitro evaluation of Hydroxy ethyl cellulose coated
      iron oxide particles for targeted drug delivery.
AB  - In this study, superparamagnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were prepared
      for the targeted drug delivery applications by controlling the colloidal
      properties with a cellulosic polymer that is Hydroxy ethyl cellulose (HEC). Fe3O4
      particles were treated with HEC in a variable range of polymer concentration.
      Rheological, electrokinetic, magnetorheological and morphological properties of
      the dispersions were investigated to have stable and fully covered surfaces of
      Fe3O4 particles by coating with HEC and obtaining non-toxic biocompatible
      multifunctional magnetic particles. Fully coated HEC and iron-oxide particles
      were characterized thermally, magnetically and tested for toxicity in vitro. Then
      Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), which is an anticancer drug widely used for
      cancer therapies, was loaded onto nanoparticles and their drug loading efficiency
      was determined. Finally, effects of DOX-loaded particles on the cancer cells were
      examined to report a nano drug system which can potentially open up new
      possibilities in the design of therapeutic agents. Results indicated that the
      synthesized nanoparticles in this study could be suitable to magnetically
      manipulated targeted delivery systems, imaging, magnetic hyperthermia treatments.

PMID- 28576059
TI  - Manufacture and property research of heparin grafted electrospinning PCU
      artificial vascular scaffolds.
AB  - PCU (polycarbonate polyurethane) is supposed to be an ideal elastomer for
      manufacturing artificial vessel scaffold with perfect mechanical strength and
      biocompatibility. Surface grafting by heparin sodium can increase its
      anticoagulant hemorrhagic, achieving a better application in artificial vessels.
      Artificial vessels were preliminarily prepared by electrostatic spinning, treated
      by NH3 plasma and cross-linked with the anticoagulant heparin sodium chemically.
      Performances of the PCU-Hep (heparin sodium grafted purethane artificial vessels)
      artificial vessel were calculated through the physical and chemical property
      tests, evaluation of blood and biocompatibility. Results manifested that heparin
      sodium was successfully grafted to the vascular surface, porosity, pore diameter
      and water permeability of the vascular prosthesis fitted the requirements of
      artificial vessels, the blood test results demonstrated that the vascular
      material had a low hemolysis, in vitro cytotoxicity experiment and animal
      experiments proved an excellent biocompatibility. Thus the heparin sodium grafted
      electrospinning vessels could reduce intravascular thrombus and had potential
      clinical application.

PMID- 28576060
TI  - Direct encapsulation of AIE-active dye with beta cyclodextrin terminated
      polymers: Self-assembly and biological imaging.
AB  - Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon has attracted great attention
      recently and been extensively explored for biomedical applications. Nevertheless,
      the direct utilization of AIE-active dyes for biomedical applications has
      demonstrated to be enormous challenge owing to the hydrophobic nature of these
      AIE-active dyes. In this work, we reported the fabrication of amphiphilic AIE
      active copolymers through the specific host-guest interaction between beta
      cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and an adamantine terminating tetraphenylethene derivative
      (TPE-Ad). In this construction system, beta-CD was acted as the bridge to link
      TPE-Ad with PEG. The TPE-beta-CD-PEG copolymers were characterized by various
      equipments in detail. Cytocompatibility and cell uptake behavior of TPE-beta-CD
      PEG were also examined to evaluate their biomedical application potential.
      Results demonstrated that TPE-beta-CD-PEG copolymers were prone to self-assemble
      into luminescent nanoparticles, which exhibited high water dispersity, AIE
      feature and excellent biocompatibility. These features endowed TPE-beta-CD-PEG
      great potential for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28576061
TI  - In-vitro efficacy of different morphology zinc oxide nanopowders on Streptococcus
      sobrinus and Streptococcus mutans.
AB  - ZnO with two different morphologies were used to study the inhibition of
      Streptococcus sobrinus and Streptococcus mutans which are closely associated with
      tooth cavity. Rod-like shaped ZnO-A and plate-like shaped ZnO-B were produced
      using a zinc boiling furnace. The nanopowders were characterized using energy
      filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD),
      photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and dynamic light
      scattering (DLS) to confirm the properties of the ZnO polycrystalline wurtzite
      structures. XRD results show that the calculated crystallite sizes of ZnO-A and
      ZnO-B were 36.6 and 39.4nm, respectively, whereas DLS revealed particle size
      distributions of 21.82nm (ZnO-A) and 52.21nm (ZnO-B). PL spectra showed ion
      vacancy defects related to green and red luminescence for both ZnO particles.
      These defects evolved during the generation of reactive oxygen species which
      contributed to the antibacterial activity. Antibacterial activity was
      investigated using microdilution technique towards S. sobrinus and S. mutans at
      different nanopowder concentrations. Results showed that ZnO-A exhibited higher
      inhibition on both bacteria compared with ZnO-B. Moreover, S. mutans was more
      sensitive compared with S. sobrinus because of its higher inhibition rate.

PMID- 28576062
TI  - Chemical and structural analysis of gallstones from the Indian subcontinent.
AB  - Representative gallstones from north and southern parts of India were analyzed by
      a combination of physicochemical methods: X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared
      spectroscopy (IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray
      spectroscopy (EDX), CHNS analysis, thermal analysis and Nuclear Magnetic
      Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy (1H and 13C). The stones from north Indian were
      predominantly consisting of cholesterol monohydrate and anhydrous cholesterol
      which was confirmed by XRD analysis. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of
      cholesterol and calcium bilirubinate in the south Indian gallstones. EDX
      spectroscopy revealed the presence of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, sulfur,
      sodium and magnesium and chloride in both south Indian and north Indian
      gallstones. FTIR and NMR spectroscopy confirmed the occurrence of cholesterol in
      north Indian gallstones. The respective colour of the north Indian and south
      Indian gallstones was yellowish and black. The morphology of the constituent
      crystals of the north Indian and south Indian gallstones were platy and globular
      respectively. The appreciable variation in colour, morphology and composition of
      south and north Indian gallstones may be due to different food habit and habitat.

PMID- 28576063
TI  - Bioresorbable beta-TCP-FeAg nanocomposites for load bearing bone implants: High
      pressure processing, properties and cell compatibility.
AB  - In this paper, the processing and properties of iron-toughened bioresorbable beta
      tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) nanocomposites are reported. beta-TCP is
      chemically similar to bone mineral and thus a good candidate material for
      bioresorbable bone healing devices; however intrinsic brittleness and low bending
      strength make it unsuitable for use in load-bearing sites. Near fully dense beta
      TCP-matrix nanocomposites containing 30vol% Fe, with and without addition of
      silver, were produced employing high energy attrition milling of powders followed
      by high pressure consolidation/cold sintering at 2.5GPa. In order to increase
      pure iron's corrosion rate, 10 to 30vol% silver were added to the metal phase.
      The degradation behavior of the developed composite materials was studied by
      immersion in Ringer's and saline solutions for up to 1month. The mechanical
      properties, before and after immersion, were tested in compression and bending.
      All the compositions exhibited high mechanical strength, the strength in bending
      being several fold higher than that of polymer toughened beta-TCP-30PLA
      nanocomposites prepared by the similar procedure of attrition milling and cold
      sintering, and of pure high-temperature sintered beta-TCP. Partial substitution
      of iron with silver led to an increase in both strength and ductility.
      Furthermore, the galvanic action of silver particles dispersed in the iron phase
      significantly accelerated in vitro degradation of beta-TCP-30(Fe-Ag)
      nanocomposites. After 1month immersion, the composites retained about 50% of
      their initial bending strength. In cell culture experiments, beta-TCP-27Fe3Ag
      nanocomposites exhibited no signs of cytotoxicity towards human osteoblasts
      suggesting that they can be used as an implant material.

PMID- 28576064
TI  - Synthesis, characterization, and sustained release property of
      Fe3O4@(enrofloxacin-layered double hydroxides) nanocomposite.
AB  - A novel magnetic nanocomposite with enrofloxacin (ENR) intercalated MgAl layered
      double hydroxides (LDH) coated on Fe3O4 particles, denoted as Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH),
      was assembled via a delamination-reassembling process. Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) was
      characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, element chemical analysis, transmission electron microscopy,
      differential scanning calorimetry, and room-temperature magnetic measurements.
      Results showed the following: 1 Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) consisted of both ENR-LDH
      nanocrystallite and Fe3O4 phases; 2 Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) presented well-defined core
      shell structure with diameter in the range of 15-20nm; 3 the thermal stability of
      ENR was enhanced after intercalation; and 4 Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) exhibited good
      superparamagnetism. The release kinetics of ENR was investigated in buffer
      solutions at pH4.6 and 7.2, and the release process fitted Bhaskar model
      indicating diffusion-controlled mechanism. In addition, ENR release rate from
      Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) was remarkably lower than that from the corresponding physical
      mixture, showing that Fe3O4@(ENR-LDH) can be considered as a potential magnetic
      targeting drug delivery-controlled-release system.

PMID- 28576066
TI  - Designing of macroporous magnetic bioscaffold based on functionalized
      methacrylate network covered by hydroxyapatites and doped with nano-MgFe2O4 for
      potential cancer hyperthermia therapy.
AB  - In this paper, we report on synthesis and characterization of three-dimensional
      biocomposite based on a polymerized 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl
      methacrylate/ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (pTMSPMA/pEGDMA) framework. The
      resulting composite was doped with Ca2+ and PO43- or decorated by hydroxyapatite
      (HA) and carbonate hydroxyapatite (CHA) to aid potential bone fixation and the in
      vitro bioactivity was evaluated. During the construction of the macroporous
      scaffold, the size and shape of pores were modified depending on the type of
      porogens which was applied (commercially available sugar, NaCl, or NH4Cl).
      Delivered 3D biomaterial was next used in preparation of a magnetic scaffold
      containing the core/shell magnetic nanoparticles covered with silicon-rich layer
      creating the amorphous magnetic dead layer. Preliminary magnetic studies showed
      that nanocrystalline MgFe2O4@SiO2 possesses a superparamagnetic properties,
      narrow hysteresis loop and virgin curve. The developed magnetic scaffold fulfills
      the requirements of a promising biomaterial for potential cancer hyperthermia
      therapy.

PMID- 28576065
TI  - (Chitosan-g-glycidyl methacrylate)-xanthan hydrogel implant in Wistar rats for
      spinal cord regeneration.
AB  - This work reports the results of in vivo assays of an implant composed of the
      hydrogel Chitosan-g-Glycidyl Methacrylate-Xanthan [(CTS-g-GMA)-X] in Wistar rats.
      Degradation kinetics of hydrogels was assessed by lysozyme assays. Wistar rats
      were subjected to laminectomy by cutting the spinal cord with a scalpel. After
      the surgical procedure, hydrogels were implanted in the injured zone (level T8).
      Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) obtained by electric stimulation onto
      periphery nerves were registered in the corresponding central nervous system
      (CNS) areas. Rats implanted with the biomaterials showed a successful recovery
      compared with the non-implanted rats after 30days. Lysozyme, derived from egg
      whites, was used for in vitro assays. This study serves as the basis for testing
      the biodegradability of the hydrogels (CTS-g-GMA)-X that is promoted by enzymatic
      hydrolysis. Hydrogels' hydrolysis was studied via lysozyme kinetics at two pH
      values, 5 and 7, under mechanical agitation at 37 degrees C. Results show that
      our materials' hydrolysis is slower than pure CTS possibly due to the steric
      hindrance imposed by the GMA grafting of functionalization. This hydrolysis helps
      degrade the biomaterial and at the same time it provides support for spinal cord
      recovery. Combination of these results may prove useful in the use of these
      hydrogels as scaffolds for cells proliferation and their application as implants
      in living organisms.

PMID- 28576067
TI  - pH-triggered degradable polymeric micelles for targeted anti-tumor drug delivery.
AB  - 2-(Octadecyloxy)-1,3-dioxan-5-amine (OD) with an acid degradable ortho ester
      group was synthesized, and conjugated to hyaluronic acid (HA) backbone to prepare
      pH-responsive and tumor-targeted hyaluronic acid-2-(octadecyloxy)-1,3-dioxan-5
      amine (HOD) conjugates. 1H NMR was used to confirm the structures of the OD and
      HOD. The studies of pH-responsive behavior showed that HOD micelles were stable
      under physiological conditions while they were degraded in the tumor acidic
      microenvironment. Doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded HOD micelles (DOX/HOD) with a narrow
      size distribution were prepared and characterized. The increased release of DOX
      from DOX/HOD micelles was presented at low pH condition. From in vitro
      cytotoxicity assays against MCF-7 cells, the blank micelles exhibited low
      cytotoxicity, but DOX/HOD micelles had the higher cytotoxicity than pH
      insensitive control and free DOX. Cellular uptake experiments and confocal images
      demonstrated that pH-sensitive DOX/HOD micelles could be internalized efficiently
      by CD44 receptor mediated endocytosis, and then DOX was rapidly released due to
      pH-induced degradable of OD to cell nucleus compared to the non-sensitive
      micelles. Furthermore, endocytosis inhibition studies presented that DOX/HOD
      micelles were internalized into cells mainly via caveolae-mediated routes. In
      vivo study of micelles in tumor-bearing mice indicates that HOD micelles were
      more effectively accumulated into the tumor tissue than HOA micelles. These
      results verify that the pH-sensitive HOD micellar system is a promising
      nanocarrier for enhanced internalization of antitumor drugs to cancer cells.

PMID- 28576068
TI  - Failure of flight feathers under uniaxial compression.
AB  - Flight feathers are light weight engineering structures. They have a central
      shaft divided in two parts: the calamus and the rachis. The rachis is a thinly
      walled conical shell filled with foam, while the calamus is a hollow tube-like
      structure. Due to the fact that bending loads are produced during birds' flight,
      the resistance to bending of feathers has been reported in different studies.
      However, the analysis of bent feathers has shown that compression could induce
      failure by buckling. Here, we have studied the compression of feathers in order
      to assess the failure mechanisms involved. Axial compression tests were carried
      out on the rachis and the calamus of dove and pelican feathers. The failure
      mechanisms and folding structures that resulted from the compression tests were
      observed from images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The rachis
      and calamus fail due to structural instability. In the case of the calamus, this
      instability leads to a progressive folding process. In contrast, the rachis
      undergoes a typical Euler column-type buckling failure. The study of failed
      specimens showed that delamination buckling, cell collapse and cell densification
      are the primary failure mechanisms of the rachis structure. The role of the foam
      is also discussed with regard to the mechanical response of the samples and the
      energy dissipated during the compression tests. Critical stress values were
      calculated using delamination buckling models and were found to be in very good
      agreement with the experimental values measured. Failure analysis and mechanical
      testing have confirmed that flight feathers are complex thin walled structures
      with mechanical adaptations that allow them to fulfil their functions.

PMID- 28576069
TI  - Starch, cellulose acetate and polyester biodegradable sheets: Effect of
      composition and processing conditions.
AB  - The production of biodegradable plastic materials using natural resources has
      aroused increased attention due to environmental concerns. This study aimed to
      manufacture novel, commercially feasible, biodegradable sheets by flat die
      extrusion-calendering process produced with thermoplastic starch/plasticized
      cellulose acetate (TPS/PCA) and thermoplastic starch/plasticized cellulose
      acetate/poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (TPS/PCA/PBAT) blends, and to
      investigate the effects of composition and processing conditions, morphological
      characteristics, and thermal properties. The results showed that TPS/PCA and
      TPS/PCA/PBAT biodegradable sheets properties were highly dependent upon both
      composition and processing temperature. The morphological characteristics and
      thermal properties of the sheets demonstrated the good compatibility between TPS
      and PCA in TPS/PCA blends, mainly at higher processing temperatures, whereas
      TPS/PCA/PBAT sheets present a heterogeneous structure due to the poor
      compatibility between the components. TPS/PCA biodegradable sheets presented
      suitable processability and handleability characteristics that allow them to be
      considered as a novel eco-friendly, economically feasible alternative to
      conventional plastic materials.

PMID- 28576070
TI  - Preparation and characterization of polymers based on PDMS and PEG-DMA as
      potential scaffold for cell growth.
AB  - This work describes a soft lithographic method for the generation of patterned
      both biopolymer and silver with each covered on microscope glass. Because of
      their biocompatible nature and permeability to gases the biopolymers are
      convenient for cell culture studies. The microscope glass was covered by
      polyethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate (PEG-DMA), as biopolymer and patterned by
      the UV light passing through the printed photomask for the preparation of the
      PDMS stamps. PDMS stamps were originally fabricated in this work for pattern
      transfer. Ag and polymer covered on the microscope glass were patterned by using
      these PDMS stamps. The patterned Ag, PDMS mold and PEG-DMA biopolymer were used
      as scaffolds and cell growth experiments have been performed on these materials.
      The degree of cell viability was measured by seeding them with L929 mouse
      fibroblasts and the number of the cells was measured by neutral red uptake assay.
      An increase in the number of cells on the material surfaces was observed. The
      pattern and the cell growth properties were followed by optic microscope. The
      results obtained from the cell growth was subjected to student's t-test.

PMID- 28576073
TI  - ZnO nanoflower based sensitive nano-biosensor for amyloid detection.
AB  - Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor metal oxide nanoparticle with inherent
      optical properties. Among the different zinc oxide nanostructures, nanoflowers
      have greater surface area. Utilizing this property a reagentless biosensor has
      been developed for the detection of beta amyloids, a hallmark of
      neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome,
      insulin dependent type II diabetes etc. The poor fluorescence quantum yield and
      photobleaching effect of Thioflavin T (ThT) upon binding to the model insulin
      amyloid beta sheets in solution can be overcome by the present engineered
      biosensor where ThT acts as a target as well as a reporter to detect amyloids
      adsorbed on a solid template based on ZnO nanoflower. ThT was adsorbed on ZnO NFs
      grown over nano-silver thin film coated glass slide. The in vivo imaging system
      was used to detect and quantify the fluorescence intensity generated from the
      substrates upon binding with insulin amyloid. ZnO NFs have the waveguiding
      property which increases the local field intensity caused by a resonance between
      the guided fundamental mode and evanescent field associated with high- order
      modes. This resonance phenomenon reinforces the excitation of the fluorophores in
      close proximity of the NFs thereby exhibiting enhanced fluorescence like Fabry
      Pero't Resonator (FPR). Considering the engineering and sensitivity, the reported
      nanobiosensor developed on ZnO nanoflower can be treated as faster and cost
      effective amyloid sensor.

PMID- 28576071
TI  - Augmentation of the cytotoxic effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles by MTCP
      conjugation: Non-canonical apoptosis and autophagy induction in human
      adenocarcinoma breast cancer cell lines.
AB  - Zinc oxide nanoparticles are very toxic, but their agglomeration reduces their
      lethal cytotoxic effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that conjugation of ZnO
      nanoparticles via Meso-Tetra (4-Carboxyphenyl) Porphyrin (MTCP) could provide
      electrostatic or steric stabilization of ZnO nanoparticles and increase their
      cytotoxic effects. The cytotoxicity and cell death induction were assessed using
      two human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468). The MTT
      results indicated that the toxicity of ZnO nanoparticles was significantly
      increased upon MTCP conjugation. Annexin/PI and real time RT-PCR results
      demonstrated that the ZnO-MTCP nanoparticles induced cell death via different non
      canonical pathways that are under ca2+ control. Calcium signaling could regulate
      lysosomal dependent apoptosis and death autophagy, and killing of the two
      selected types of breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28576072
TI  - Enhanced osteogenic activity of anatase TiO2 film: Surface hydroxyl groups induce
      conformational changes in fibronectin.
AB  - In this study, with an attempt to identify the effects of TiO2 crystalline phase
      compositions on the osteogenic properties, the anatase and rutile TiO2 thin films
      with similar film thickness, surface topography and hydrophilicity were prepared
      on Si (100) substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD), subsequent thermal
      annealing and ultraviolet irradiation. The films were studied with XRD, XPS, FE
      SEM, AFM, FTIR and contact angle measurements. In vitro cellular assays showed
      that the anatase phase led to better osteoblast compatibility in terms of
      adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, mineralization as well as osteogenesis
      related gene expression when compared with the rutile phase. We investigated the
      difference between the anatase and rutile TiO2 films at the biomolecular level to
      explain the enhanced osteogenic activity of the anatase film. It was found that
      the presence of more TiOH groups on anatase surface induced more cell-binding
      sites of fibronectin (FN) exposed on its surface, causing a more active
      conformation of the adsorbed FN for subsequent osteoblast behaviors.

PMID- 28576074
TI  - In vitro and in vivo evaluation of anti-cancer activity: Shape-dependent
      properties of TiO2 nanostructures.
AB  - Cancer is a complex and widespread disease, and it is going to be the first cause
      of death in the world. Chemotherapy has been used to treat cancer, but it is
      detrimental to immune cells and known to induce numerous side effects. Therefore
      it is imperative to develop new drugs for the treatment of cancer without any
      side effects and toxicity. TiO2 nanomaterials are human safe, cost effective,
      chemically stable and have numerous biomedical applications. Spherical TiO2 fine
      particles (TFP), TiO2 nanosquares (TNS) and TiO2 nanotubes (TNT) were developed
      and evaluated for anti-cancer activity in vitro and in vivo. Our data suggest
      that these nanostructured materials significantly inhibited proliferation of
      breast cancer MDAMB 231 cells in in vitro shape dependent manner. In addition, we
      found that TiO2 nanostructures inhibited the migration and colony formation of
      breast cancer MDAMB231 cells. More importantly, we found that TNS/TNT/TFP had
      anti-angiogenic effect in CAM assay and TNT had comparable anti-angiogenic effect
      with the positive control staurosporine. Additional qRT-PCR data suggest that
      TiO2 nanostructures induced the upregulation of tumor suppressor genes p53, MDA7,
      TRAIL and transcription factor STAT3, which suggests the probable mechanism for
      the anticancer activity of TiO2 nanostructures. Finally, analysis of TEM confirms
      the dispersion and interaction of nanostructures in the cells. Thus these
      materials could be potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer.

PMID- 28576076
TI  - Prevention of intra-abdominal adhesion using electrospun PEG/PLGA nanofibrous
      membranes.
AB  - The use of physical barriers, such as nanofiber membranes, is a potential method
      to prevent adhesion formation after surgery. In this study, we fabricated
      electrospun composite poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)/poly(lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA)
      nanofibrous membrane to prevent abdomen adhesion; this composite acts as a
      barrier between cecum and the surrounding tissues without interrupting mass
      transfer and cecum healing. PEG/PLGA nanofibrous membranes consisting of 0% (P0),
      5% (P1), 10% (P2), 15% (P3), 20% (P4), and 25% (P5) PEG were prepared, and their
      physicochemical properties were characterized. The P0 shows the highest
      thermostability, whereas P1 exhibited the most homogenous morphology, the
      narrowest diameter distribution, and the largest ultimate stress and strain. In
      vitro cell adhesion and proliferation tests using fibroblasts indicate that all
      nanofibrous membranes inhibited cell proliferation, with P1 showing the lowest
      degree of cell attachment. In vivo application of nanofibrous membranes on the
      repaired site of rat cecum model demonstrated that all of the membranes prevent
      adhesion formation to a certain extent. We concluded based on gross observation,
      histological analysis, and functional assays that P1 served as an effective anti
      adhesion membrane after cecum surgery in a clinical setting.

PMID- 28576075
TI  - Designing structural features of novel benznidazole-loaded cationic nanoparticles
      for inducing slow drug release and improvement of biological efficacy.
AB  - Several polymers have been investigated for producing cationic nanocarriers due
      to their ability to cross biological barriers. Polycations such as copolymers of
      polymethylmethacrylate are highlighted due to their biocompatibility and low
      toxicity. The purpose of this study was to produce small and narrow-sized
      cationic nanoparticles able to overcome cell membranes and improve the biological
      activity of benznidazole (BNZ) in normal and cancer cells. The effect of
      composition and procedure parameters of the used emulsification-solvent
      evaporation method were controlled for this purpose. The experimental approach
      included particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, atomic force
      microscopy (AFM), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transforms infrared
      spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR), drug loading efficiency, and physical stability assays.
      Spherical and stable (over six weeks) sub 150nm cationic nanoparticles were
      optimized, with the encapsulation efficiency >80%. The used drug/copolymer ratio
      modulated the slow drug release, which was adjusted by the parabolic diffusion
      mathematical model. In addition, the ability of the cationic nanoparticles
      improve the BNZ uptake in the normal kidney cells (HEK 293) and the human
      colorectal cancer cells (HT 29) demonstrate that this novel BNZ-loaded cationic
      has great potential as a chemotherapeutic application of benznidazole.

PMID- 28576077
TI  - Near-infrared mediated chemo/photodynamic synergistic therapy with DOX
      UCNPs@mSiO2/TiO2-TC nanocomposite.
AB  - To integrate photodynamic therapy (PDT) with chemotherapy for enhanced anticancer
      efficiency, near infrared (NIR) light mediated upconversion
      nanoparticles@mesoporous silica (UCNPs@mSiO2) nanovehicle was constructed as the
      nanocarrier. Based on the novel ultraviolet (UV) emission, TiO2 (3.0-3.2eV) was
      adopted as the photosensitiver (PS) on account of the high activity and excellent
      stability. Here, a simple host-assembly method was exploited to graft it onto the
      inner and outer surface of the mSiO2 shell. On the other hand, a UV cleavable o
      nitrobenzyl derivative linker (TC linker) was prepared as "gate" to encapsulate
      anticancer agent doxorubicin (DOX) inside mSiO2, insuring the few prematurity.
      Under NIR irradiation, the UV emission can excite TiO2 to produce reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) and also can induce the photodegradation of TC linker and drug
      release as well. The detailed release kinetics was studied to reveal that it is
      TC linker to manipulate the NIR-sensitive drug release and the amount of TC
      linker also can be used to adjust the release performance. The synergistic action
      of PDT and chemotherapy displays the improved cytotoxicity of DOX
      UCNPs@mSiO2/TiO2-TC to HeLa cells under NIR irradiation that makes the potential
      application in anticancer field due to the superior to any single means.

PMID- 28576078
TI  - CF2H, a Hydrogen Bond Donor.
AB  - The CF2H group, a potential surrogate for the OH group, can act as an unusual
      hydrogen bond donor, as confirmed by crystallographic, spectroscopic, and
      computational methods. Here, we demonstrate the bioisosterism of the OH and CF2H
      groups and the important roles of CF2-H...O hydrogen bonds in influencing
      intermolecular interactions and conformational preferences. Experimental
      evidence, corroborated by theory, reveals the distinctive nature of CF2H hydrogen
      bonding interactions relative to their normal OH hydrogen bonding counterparts.

PMID- 28576079
TI  - Some Theoretical and Experimental Insights on the Mechanistic Routes Leading to
      the Spontaneous Grafting of Gold Surfaces by Diazonium Salts.
AB  - The spontaneous grafting of diazonium salts on gold may involve the carbocation
      obtained by heterolytic dediazonation and not necessarily the radical, as usually
      observed on reducing surfaces. The mechanism is addressed on the basis of DFT
      calculations and experiments carried out under conditions where the carbocation
      and the radical are produced selectively. The calculations indicate that the
      driving force of the reaction leading from a gold cluster, used as a gold model
      surface, and the carbocation to the modified cluster is higher than that of the
      analogous reaction starting from the radical. The experiments performed under
      conditions of heterolytic dediazonation show the formation of thin films on the
      surface of gold. The grafting of a carbocation is therefore possible, but a
      mechanism where the cleavage of the Ar-N bond is catalyzed by the surface of gold
      cannot be excluded.

PMID- 28576080
TI  - Lysozyme orientation and conformation on MoS2 surface: Insights from molecular
      simulations.
AB  - Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has attracted intense interest owing
      to its unique properties and promising biosensor applications. To develop
      effective biocompatible platforms, it is crucial to understand the interactions
      between MoS2 and biological molecules such as proteins, but little knowledge
      exists on the orientation and conformation of proteins on the MoS2 surface at the
      molecular level. In this work, the lysozyme adsorption on the MoS2 surface was
      studied by molecular dynamics simulations, wherein six different orientations
      were selected based on the different faces of lysozyme. Simulation results showed
      that lysozyme tends to adsorb on the MoS2 surface in an "end-on" orientation,
      indicating that orientations within this range are favorable for stable
      adsorption. The end-on orientation could be further categorized into "bottom end
      on" and "top end-on" orientations. The driving forces responsible for the
      adsorption were dominated by van der Waals interactions and supplemented by
      electrostatic interactions. Further, the conformations of the lysozyme adsorbed
      on the MoS2 surface were basically preserved. This simulation study promotes the
      fundamental understanding of interactions between MoS2 and proteins and can guide
      the development of future biomedical applications of MoS2.

PMID- 28576081
TI  - The effects of tether placement on antibody stability on surfaces.
AB  - Despite their potential benefits, antibody microarrays have fallen short of
      performing reliably and have not found widespread use outside of the research
      setting. Experimental techniques have been unable to determine what is occurring
      on the surface of an atomic level, so molecular simulation has emerged as the
      primary method of investigating protein/surface interactions. Simulations of
      small proteins have indicated that the stability of the protein is a function of
      the residue on the protein where a tether is placed. The purpose of this research
      is to see whether these findings also apply to antibodies, with their greater
      size and complexity. To determine this, 24 tethering locations were selected on
      the antibody Protein Data Bank (PDB) ID: 1IGT. Replica exchange simulations were
      run on two different surfaces, one hydrophobic and one hydrophilic, to determine
      the degree to which these tethering sites stabilize or destabilize the antibody.
      Results showed that antibodies tethered to hydrophobic surfaces were in general
      less stable than antibodies tethered to hydrophilic surfaces. Moreover, the
      stability of the antibody was a function of the tether location on hydrophobic
      surfaces but not hydrophilic surfaces.

PMID- 28576083
TI  - Interpretation of x-ray absorption spectroscopy in the presence of surface
      hybridization.
AB  - X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) yields direct access to the electronic and
      geometric structure of hybrid inorganic-organic interfaces formed upon adsorption
      of complex molecules at metal surfaces. The unambiguous interpretation of
      corresponding spectra is challenged by the intrinsic geometric flexibility of the
      adsorbates and the chemical interactions with the interface. Density-functional
      theory (DFT) calculations of the extended adsorbate-substrate system are an
      established tool to guide peak assignment in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of
      complex interfaces. We extend this to the simulation and interpretation of XAS
      data in the context of functional organic molecules on metal surfaces using
      dispersion-corrected DFT calculations within the transition potential approach.
      For the prototypical case of 2H-porphine adsorbed on Ag(111) and Cu(111)
      substrates, we follow the two main effects of the molecule/surface interaction
      onto the X-ray absorption signatures: (1) the substrate-induced chemical shift of
      the 1s core levels that dominates in physisorbed systems and (2) the
      hybridization-induced broadening and loss of distinct resonances that dominate in
      more chemisorbed systems.

PMID- 28576082
TI  - Optimization of the linear-scaling local natural orbital CCSD(T) method:
      Redundancy-free triples correction using Laplace transform.
AB  - An improved algorithm is presented for the evaluation of the (T) correction as a
      part of our local natural orbital (LNO) coupled-cluster singles and doubles with
      perturbative triples [LNO-CCSD(T)] scheme [Z. Rolik et al., J. Chem. Phys. 139,
      094105 (2013)]. The new algorithm is an order of magnitude faster than our
      previous one and removes the bottleneck related to the calculation of the (T)
      contribution. First, a numerical Laplace transformed expression for the (T)
      fragment energy is introduced, which requires on average 3 to 4 times fewer
      floating point operations with negligible compromise in accuracy eliminating the
      redundancy among the evaluated triples amplitudes. Second, an additional speedup
      factor of 3 is achieved by the optimization of our canonical (T) algorithm, which
      is also executed in the local case. These developments can also be integrated
      into canonical as well as alternative fragmentation-based local CCSD(T)
      approaches with minor modifications. As it is demonstrated by our benchmark
      calculations, the evaluation of the new Laplace transformed (T) correction can
      always be performed if the preceding CCSD iterations are feasible, and the new
      scheme enables the computation of LNO-CCSD(T) correlation energies with at least
      triple-zeta quality basis sets for realistic three-dimensional molecules with
      more than 600 atoms and 12 000 basis functions in a matter of days on a single
      processor.

PMID- 28576084
TI  - Communication: Density functional theory embedding with the orthogonality
      constrained basis set expansion procedure.
AB  - Density functional theory (DFT) embedding approaches have generated considerable
      interest in the field of computational chemistry because they enable calculations
      on larger systems by treating subsystems at different levels of theory. To
      circumvent the calculation of the non-additive kinetic potential, various
      projector methods have been developed to ensure the orthogonality of molecular
      orbitals between subsystems. Herein the orthogonality constrained basis set
      expansion (OCBSE) procedure is implemented to enforce this subsystem orbital
      orthogonality without requiring a level shifting parameter. This scheme is a
      simple alternative to existing parameter-free projector-based schemes, such as
      the Huzinaga equation. The main advantage of the OCBSE procedure is that
      excellent convergence behavior is attained for DFT-in-DFT embedding without
      freezing any of the subsystem densities. For the three chemical systems studied,
      the level of accuracy is comparable to or higher than that obtained with the
      Huzinaga scheme with frozen subsystem densities. Allowing both the high-level and
      low-level DFT densities to respond to each other during DFT-in-DFT embedding
      calculations provides more flexibility and renders this approach more generally
      applicable to chemical systems. It could also be useful for future extensions to
      embedding approaches combining wavefunction theories and DFT.

PMID- 28576085
TI  - Lysozyme in water-acetonitrile mixtures: Preferential solvation at the inner edge
      of excess hydration.
AB  - Preferential solvation/hydration is an effective way for regulating the mechanism
      of the protein destabilization/stabilization. Organic solvent/water sorption and
      residual enzyme activity measurements were performed to monitor the preferential
      solvation/hydration of hen egg-white lysozyme at high and low water content in
      acetonitrile at 25  degrees C. The obtained results show that the protein
      destabilization/stabilization depends essentially on the initial hydration level
      of lysozyme and the water content in acetonitrile. There are three composition
      regimes for the dried lysozyme. At high water content, the lysozyme has a higher
      affinity for water than for acetonitrile. The residual enzyme activity values are
      close to 100%. At the intermediate water content, the dehydrated lysozyme has a
      higher affinity for acetonitrile than for water. A minimum on the residual enzyme
      activity curve was observed in this concentration range. At the lowest water
      content, the organic solvent molecules are preferentially excluded from the dried
      lysozyme, resulting in the preferential hydration. The residual catalytic
      activity is ~80%, compared with that observed after incubation in pure water. Two
      distinct schemes are operative for the hydrated lysozyme. At high and
      intermediate water content, lysozyme is preferentially hydrated. However, in
      contrast to the dried protein, at the intermediate water content, the initially
      hydrated lysozyme has the increased preferential hydration parameters. At low
      water content, the preferential binding of the acetonitrile molecules to the
      initially hydrated lysozyme was detected. No residual enzyme activity was
      observed in the water-poor acetonitrile. Our data clearly show that the initial
      hydration level of the protein macromolecules is one of the key factors that
      govern the stability of the protein-water-organic solvent systems.

PMID- 28576086
TI  - An extension of stochastic hierarchy equations of motion for the equilibrium
      correlation functions.
AB  - A traditional stochastic hierarchy equations of motion method is extended into
      the correlated real-time and imaginary-time propagations, in this paper, for its
      applications in calculating the equilibrium correlation functions. The central
      idea is based on a combined employment of stochastic unravelling and hierarchical
      techniques for the temperature-dependent and temperature-free parts of the
      influence functional, respectively, in the path integral formalism of the open
      quantum systems coupled to a harmonic bath. The feasibility and validity of the
      proposed method are justified in the emission spectra of homodimer compared to
      those obtained through the deterministic hierarchy equations of motion. Besides,
      it is interesting to find that the complex noises generated from a small portion
      of real-time and imaginary-time cross terms can be safely dropped to produce the
      stable and accurate position and flux correlation functions in a broad parameter
      regime.

PMID- 28576087
TI  - Self-assembly and molecular packing in cholesteryl esters at interfaces.
AB  - To understand the self-assembly and molecular packing in cholesteryl esters
      relevant to biological processes, we have studied them at the air-water and air
      solid interfaces. Our phase and thickness studies employing imaging ellipsometry
      and atomic force microscopy along with surface manometry show that the molecular
      packing of cholesteryl esters at interfaces can be related to Craven's model of
      packing, given for bulk. At the air-water interface, following Craven's model,
      cholesteryl nonanoate and cholesteryl laurate exhibit a fluidic bilayer phase.
      Interestingly, we find the fluidic bilayer phase of cholesteryl laurate to be
      unstable and it switches to a crystalline bilayer phase. However, according to
      Craven, only cholesteryl esters with longer chain lengths starting from
      cholesteryl tridecanoate should show the crystalline bilayer phase. The thickness
      behavior of different phases was also studied by transferring the films onto a
      silicon substrate by using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Texture studies show
      that cholesterol, cholesteryl acetate, cholesteryl nonanoate, cholesteryl
      laurate, and cholesteryl myristate exhibit homogeneous films with large size
      domains, whereas cholesteryl palmitate and cholesteryl stearate exhibit less
      homogeneous films with smaller size domains. We suggest that such an assembly of
      molecules can be related to their molecular structures. Simulation studies may
      confirm such a relation.

PMID- 28576088
TI  - Effect of nanoscale flows on the surface structure of nanoporous catalysts.
AB  - The surface structure and composition of a multi-component catalyst are critical
      factors in determining its catalytic performance. The surface composition can
      depend on the local pressure of the reacting species, leading to the possibility
      that the flow through a nanoporous catalyst can affect its structure and
      reactivity. Here, we explore this possibility for oxidation reactions on
      nanoporous gold, an AgAu bimetallic catalyst. We use microscopy and digital
      reconstruction to obtain the morphology of a two-dimensional slice of a
      nanoporous gold sample. Using lattice Boltzmann fluid dynamics simulations along
      with thermodynamic models based on first-principles total-energy calculations, we
      show that some sections of this sample have low local O2 partial pressures when
      exposed to reaction conditions, which leads to a pure Au surface in these
      regions, instead of the active bimetallic AgAu phase. We also explore the effect
      of temperature on the surface structure and find that moderate temperatures (~300
      450 K) should result in the highest intrinsic catalytic performance, in apparent
      agreement with experimental results.

PMID- 28576089
TI  - Coarse-grained representation of the quasi adiabatic propagator path integral for
      the treatment of non-Markovian long-time bath memory.
AB  - The description of non-Markovian effects imposed by low frequency bath modes
      poses a persistent challenge for path integral based approaches like the
      iterative quasi-adiabatic propagator path integral (iQUAPI) method. We present a
      novel approximate method, termed mask assisted coarse graining of influence
      coefficients (MACGIC)-iQUAPI, that offers appealing computational savings due to
      substantial reduction of considered path segments for propagation. The method
      relies on an efficient path segment merging procedure via an intermediate coarse
      grained representation of Feynman-Vernon influence coefficients that exploits
      physical properties of system decoherence. The MACGIC-iQUAPI method allows us to
      access the regime of biological significant long-time bath memory on the order of
      hundred propagation time steps while retaining convergence to iQUAPI results.
      Numerical performance is demonstrated for a set of benchmark problems that cover
      bath assisted long range electron transfer, the transition from coherent to
      incoherent dynamics in a prototypical molecular dimer and excitation energy
      transfer in a 24-state model of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer complex where in
      all cases excellent agreement with numerically exact reference data is obtained.

PMID- 28576090
TI  - On the physical interpretation of the nuclear molecular orbital energy.
AB  - Recently, several groups have extended and implemented molecular orbital (MO)
      schemes to simultaneously obtain wave functions for electrons and selected
      nuclei. Many of these schemes employ an extended Hartree-Fock approach as a first
      step to find approximate electron-nuclear wave functions and energies. Numerous
      studies conducted with these extended MO methodologies have explored various
      effects of quantum nuclei on physical and chemical properties. However, to the
      best of our knowledge no physical interpretation has been assigned to the nuclear
      molecular orbital energy (NMOE) resulting after solving extended Hartree-Fock
      equations. This study confirms that the NMOE is directly related to the molecular
      electrostatic potential at the position of the nucleus.

PMID- 28576091
TI  - Infrared spectroscopic and theoretical study of the HC2n+1O+ (n = 2-5) cations.
AB  - The carbon chain cations, HC2n+1O+ (n = 2-5), are produced via pulsed laser
      vaporization of a graphite target in supersonic expansions containing carbon
      monoxide and hydrogen. The infrared spectra are measured via mass-selected
      infrared photodissociation spectroscopy of the CO "tagged" [HC2n+1O.CO]+ cation
      complexes in the 1600-3500 cm-1 region. The geometries and electronic ground
      states of these cation complexes are determined by their infrared spectra
      compared to the predications of theoretical calculations. All of the HC2n+1O+ (n
      = 2-5) core cations are characterized to be linear carbon chain derivatives
      terminated by hydrogen and oxygen, which have the closed-shell singlet ground
      states with polyyne-like carbon chain structures.

PMID- 28576092
TI  - Searching for DFT-based methods that include dispersion interactions to calculate
      the physisorption of H2 on benzene and graphene.
AB  - Simulations of the hydrogen storage capacities of nanoporous carbons require an
      accurate treatment of the interaction of the hydrogen molecule with the graphite
      like surfaces of the carbon pores, which is dominated by the dispersion forces.
      These interactions are described accurately by high level quantum chemistry
      methods, like the Coupled Cluster method with single and double excitations and a
      non-iterative correction for triple excitations (CCSD(T)), but those methods are
      computationally very expensive for large systems and for massive simulations.
      Density functional theory (DFT)-based methods that include dispersion
      interactions at different levels of complexity are less accurate, but
      computationally less expensive. In order to find DFT-methods that include
      dispersion interactions to calculate the physisorption of H2 on benzene and
      graphene, with a reasonable compromise between accuracy and computational cost,
      CCSD(T), Moller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory method, and several DFT
      methods have been used to calculate the interaction energy curves of H2 on
      benzene and graphene. DFT calculations are compared with CCSD(T) calculations, in
      the case of H2 on benzene, and with experimental data, in the case of H2 on
      graphene. Among the DFT methods studied, the B97D, RVV10, and PBE+DCACP methods
      yield interaction energy curves of H2-benzene in remarkable agreement with the
      interaction energy curve obtained with the CCSD(T) method. With regards to
      graphene, the rev-vdW-DF2, PBE-XDM, PBE-D2, and RVV10 methods yield adsorption
      energies of the lowest level of H2 on graphene, very close to the experimental
      data.

PMID- 28576093
TI  - Diffusing diffusivity: Rotational diffusion in two and three dimensions.
AB  - We consider the problem of calculating the probability distribution function
      (pdf) of angular displacement for rotational diffusion in a crowded, rearranging
      medium. We use the diffusing diffusivity model and following our previous work on
      translational diffusion [R. Jain and K. L. Sebastian, J. Phys. Chem. B 120, 3988
      (2016)], we show that the problem can be reduced to that of calculating the
      survival probability of a particle undergoing Brownian motion, in the presence of
      a sink. We use the approach to calculate the pdf for the rotational motion in two
      and three dimensions. We also propose new dimensionless, time dependent
      parameters, alpharot,2D and alpharot,3D, which can be used to analyze the
      experimental/simulation data to find the extent of deviation from the normal
      behavior, i.e., constant diffusivity, and obtain explicit analytical expressions
      for them, within our model.

PMID- 28576094
TI  - Frequency and phase synchronization in large groups: Low dimensional description
      of synchronized clapping, firefly flashing, and cricket chirping.
AB  - A common observation is that large groups of oscillatory biological units often
      have the ability to synchronize. A paradigmatic model of such behavior is
      provided by the Kuramoto model, which achieves synchronization through coupling
      of the phase dynamics of individual oscillators, while each oscillator maintains
      a different constant inherent natural frequency. Here we consider the
      biologically likely possibility that the oscillatory units may be capable of
      enhancing their synchronization ability by adaptive frequency dynamics. We
      propose a simple augmentation of the Kuramoto model which does this. We also show
      that, by the use of a previously developed technique [Ott and Antonsen, Chaos 18,
      037113 (2008)], it is possible to reduce the resulting dynamics to a lower
      dimensional system for the macroscopic evolution of the oscillator ensemble. By
      employing this reduction, we investigate the dynamics of our system, finding a
      characteristic hysteretic behavior and enhancement of the quality of the achieved
      synchronization.

PMID- 28576095
TI  - Synchronization of moving oscillators in three dimensional space.
AB  - We investigate the macroscopic behavior of a dynamical network consisting of a
      time-evolving wiring of interactions among a group of random walkers. We assume
      that each walker (agent) has an oscillator and show that depending upon the
      nature of interaction, synchronization arises where each of the individual
      oscillators are allowed to move in such a random walk manner in a finite region
      of three dimensional space. Here, the vision range of each oscillator decides the
      number of oscillators with which it interacts. The live interaction between the
      oscillators is of intermediate type (i.e., not local as well as not global) and
      may or may not be bidirectional. We analytically derive the density dependent
      threshold of coupling strength for synchronization using linear stability
      analysis and numerically verify the obtained analytical results. Additionally, we
      explore the concept of basin stability, a nonlinear measure based on volumes of
      basin of attractions, to investigate how stable the synchronous state is under
      large perturbations. The synchronization phenomenon is analyzed taking limit
      cycle and chaotic oscillators for wide ranges of parameters like interaction
      strength k between the walkers, speed of movement v, and vision range r.

PMID- 28576096
TI  - An initial-boundary value problem for the integrable spin-1 Gross-Pitaevskii
      equations with a 4 * 4 Lax pair on the half-line.
AB  - We extend the idea of the Fokas unified transform to investigate the initial
      boundary value problem for the integrable spin-1 Gross-Pitaevskii equations with
      a 4 * 4 Lax pair on the half-line. The solution of this system can be expressed
      in terms of the solution of a 4 * 4 matrix Riemann-Hilbert (RH) problem
      formulated in the complex k-plane. The relevant jump matrices of the RH problem
      can be explicitly found using the two spectral functions s(k) and S(k), which can
      be defined by the initial data, the Dirichlet-Neumann boundary data at x = 0. The
      global relation is established between the two dependent spectral functions. The
      general mappings between Dirichlet and Neumann boundary values are analyzed in
      terms of the global relation. These results may be of the potential significance
      in both spinor Bose-Einstein condensates and the theory of multi-component
      integrable systems.

PMID- 28576097
TI  - Effects of partial time delays on phase synchronization in Watts-Strogatz small
      world neuronal networks.
AB  - In this paper, we study effects of partial time delays on phase synchronization
      in Watts-Strogatz small-world neuronal networks. Our focus is on the impact of
      two parameters, namely the time delay tau and the probability of partial time
      delay pdelay, whereby the latter determines the probability with which a
      connection between two neurons is delayed. Our research reveals that partial time
      delays significantly affect phase synchronization in this system. In particular,
      partial time delays can either enhance or decrease phase synchronization and
      induce synchronization transitions with changes in the mean firing rate of
      neurons, as well as induce switching between synchronized neurons with period-1
      firing to synchronized neurons with period-2 firing. Moreover, in comparison to a
      neuronal network where all connections are delayed, we show that small partial
      time delay probabilities have especially different influences on phase
      synchronization of neuronal networks.

PMID- 28576098
TI  - Generation of multi-scroll attractors without equilibria via piecewise linear
      systems.
AB  - In this paper, we present a new class of dynamical system without equilibria
      which possesses a multiscroll attractor. It is a piecewise-linear system which is
      simple, stable, displays chaotic behavior and serves as a model for analogous non
      linear systems. We test for chaos using the 0-1 Test for Chaos from Gottwald and
      Melbourne [SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. 8(1), 129-145 (2009)].

PMID- 28576099
TI  - Solitons and their stability in the nonlocal nonlinear Schrodinger equation with
      PT-symmetric potentials.
AB  - We report localized nonlinear modes of the self-focusing and defocusing nonlocal
      nonlinear Schrodinger equation with the generalized PT-symmetric Scarf-II, Rosen
      Morse, and periodic potentials. Parameter regions are presented for broken and
      unbroken PT-symmetric phases of linear bounded states and the linear stability of
      the obtained solitons. Moreover, we numerically explore the dynamical behaviors
      of solitons and find stable solitons for some given parameters.

PMID- 28576100
TI  - Isochronous dynamics in pulse coupled oscillator networks with delay.
AB  - We consider a network of identical pulse-coupled oscillators with delay and all
      to-all coupling. We demonstrate that the discontinuous nature of the dynamics
      induces the appearance of isochronous regions-subsets of the phase space filled
      with periodic orbits having the same period. For each fixed value of the network
      parameters, such an isochronous region corresponds to a subset of initial states
      on an appropriate surface of section with non-zero dimensions such that all
      periodic orbits in this set have qualitatively similar dynamical behaviour. We
      analytically and numerically study in detail such an isochronous region, give
      proof of its existence, and describe its properties. We further describe other
      isochronous regions that appear in the system.

PMID- 28576101
TI  - The stability of fixed points for a Kuramoto model with Hebbian interactions.
AB  - We consider a variation of the Kuramoto model with dynamic coupling, where the
      coupling strengths are allowed to evolve in response to the phase difference
      between the oscillators, a model first considered by Ha, Noh, and Park. We
      demonstrate that the fixed points of this model, as well as their stability, can
      be completely expressed in terms of the fixed points and stability of the
      analogous classical Kuramoto problem where the coupling strengths are fixed to a
      constant (the same for all edges). In particular, for the "all-to-all" network,
      where the underlying graph is the complete graph, the problem reduces to the
      problem of understanding the fixed points and stability of the all-to-all
      Kuramoto model with equal edge weights, a problem that is well understood.

PMID- 28576102
TI  - A critical comparison of Lagrangian methods for coherent structure detection.
AB  - We review and test twelve different approaches to the detection of finite-time
      coherent material structures in two-dimensional, temporally aperiodic flows. We
      consider both mathematical methods and diagnostic scalar fields, comparing their
      performance on three benchmark examples: the quasiperiodically forced Bickley
      jet, a two-dimensional turbulence simulation, and an observational wind velocity
      field from Jupiter's atmosphere. A close inspection of the results reveals that
      the various methods often produce very different predictions for coherent
      structures, once they are evaluated beyond heuristic visual assessment. As we
      find by passive advection of the coherent set candidates, false positives and
      negatives can be produced even by some of the mathematically justified methods
      due to the ineffectiveness of their underlying coherence principles in certain
      flow configurations. We summarize the inferred strengths and weaknesses of each
      method, and make general recommendations for minimal self-consistency
      requirements that any Lagrangian coherence detection technique should satisfy.

PMID- 28576103
TI  - Topological characterization and early detection of bifurcations and chaos in
      complex systems using persistent homology.
AB  - Early detection of bifurcations and chaos and understanding their topological
      characteristics are essential for safe and reliable operation of various
      electrical, chemical, physical, and industrial processes. However, the presence
      of non-linearity and high-dimensionality in system behavior makes this analysis a
      challenging task. The existing methods for dynamical system analysis provide
      useful tools for anomaly detection (e.g., Bendixson-Dulac and Poincare-Bendixson
      criteria can detect the presence of limit cycles); however, they do not provide a
      detailed topological understanding about system evolution during bifurcations and
      chaos, such as the changes in the number of subcycles and their positions,
      lifetimes, and sizes. This paper addresses this research gap by using topological
      data analysis as a tool to study system evolution and develop a mathematical
      framework for detecting the topological changes in the underlying system using
      persistent homology. Using the proposed technique, topological features (e.g.,
      number of relevant k-dimensional holes, etc.) are extracted from nonlinear time
      series data which are useful for deeper analysis of the system behavior and early
      detection of bifurcations and chaos. When applied to a Logistic map, a Duffing
      oscillator, and a real life Op-amp based Jerk circuit, these features are shown
      to accurately characterize the system dynamics and detect the onset of chaos.

PMID- 28576104
TI  - Systematic search for wide periodic windows and bounds for the set of regular
      parameters for the quadratic map.
AB  - An efficient method to find positions of periodic windows for the quadratic map
      f(x)=ax(1-x) and a heuristic algorithm to locate the majority of wide periodic
      windows are proposed. Accurate rigorous bounds of positions of all periodic
      windows with periods below 37 and the majority of wide periodic windows with
      longer periods are found. Based on these results, we prove that the measure of
      the set of regular parameters in the interval [3,4] is above 0.613960137. The
      properties of periodic windows are studied numerically. The results of the
      analysis are used to estimate that the true value of the measure of the set of
      regular parameters is close to 0.6139603.

PMID- 28576105
TI  - On the influence of additive and multiplicative noise on holes in dissipative
      systems.
AB  - We investigate the influence of noise on deterministically stable holes in the
      cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. Inspired by experimental
      possibilities, we specifically study two types of noise: additive noise delta
      correlated in space and spatially homogeneous multiplicative noise on the
      formation of pi-holes and 2pi-holes. Our results include the following main
      features. For large enough additive noise, we always find a transition to the
      noisy version of the spatially homogeneous finite amplitude solution, while for
      sufficiently large multiplicative noise, a collapse occurs to the zero amplitude
      solution. The latter type of behavior, while unexpected deterministically, can be
      traced back to a characteristic feature of multiplicative noise; the zero
      solution acts as the analogue of an absorbing boundary: once trapped at zero, the
      system cannot escape. For 2pi-holes, which exist deterministically over a fairly
      small range of values of subcriticality, one can induce a transition to a pi-hole
      (for additive noise) or to a noise-sustained pulse (for multiplicative noise).
      This observation opens the possibility of noise-induced switching back and forth
      from and to 2pi-holes.

PMID- 28576107
TI  - Experimental analysis of density fingering instability modified by precipitation.
AB  - We analyze the effect of precipitate formation on the development of density
      induced hydrodynamic instabilities. In this case, the precipitate is BaCO3,
      obtained by reaction of CO2 with aqueous BaCl2. CO2(g) dissolution increases the
      local density of the aqueous phase, triggering Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities and
      BaCO3 formation. It was observed that at first the precipitate was formed at the
      finger front. As the particles became bigger, they began to fall down from the
      front. These particles were used as tracers using PIV technique to visualize the
      particle streamlines and to obtain the velocity of that movement. This falling
      produced a downward flow that might increase the mixing zone. Contrary to
      expectations, it was observed that the finger length decreased, indicating that
      for the mixing zone development, the consumption of CO2 to form the precipitate
      is more important than the downward flow. The mixing zone length was recovered by
      increasing the availability of the reactant (higher CO2 partial pressure),
      compensating the CO2 used for BaCO3 formation. Mixing zone development rates
      reached constant values at shorter times when the precipitate is absent than when
      it is present. An analysis of the nonlinear regime with and without the
      precipitate is performed.

PMID- 28576106
TI  - Electrical resonance of Amphotericin B channel activity in lipidic membranes.
AB  - In our previous work [J. Membrane Biol. 237, 31 (2010)], we showed the dependence
      of the time average conductance of Nystatin channels as a function of the applied
      potential. Specifically, it was observed that greater potential induced enhanced
      channel activity. This indicates that the supramolecular structure could be
      stabilized by a large field, possibly by giving a preferential orientation to the
      monomers. In the present work, we entertain the notion that the process of pore
      formation in the lipidic membranes has an underlying deterministic component. To
      verify this hypothesis, experiments were performed under potentio-dynamic
      conditions, i.e., a square train of pulses of different frequencies (0.05-2 Hz)
      were applied to a 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine membrane
      having 30 mol. % cholesterol and the presence of 35 MUM Amphotericin B. An
      emergence of a resonant frequency, in the present experiments, is tantamount to
      observing fingerprints of determinism in the activity of these channels in
      lipidic membranes.

PMID- 28576108
TI  - Calculation of Hamilton energy and control of dynamical systems with different
      types of attractors.
AB  - Strange attractors can be observed in chaotic and hyperchaotic systems. Most of
      the dynamical systems hold a finite number of attractors, while some chaotic
      systems can be controlled to present an infinite number of attractors by
      generating infinite equilibria. Chaos can also be triggered in some dynamical
      systems that can present hidden attractors, and the attractors in these dynamical
      systems find no equilibria and the basin of attraction is not connected with any
      equilibrium (the equilibria position meets certain restriction function). In this
      paper, Hamilton energy is calculated on the chaotic systems with different types
      of attractors, and energy modulation is used to control the chaos in these
      systems. The potential mechanism could be that negative feedback in energy can
      suppress the phase space and oscillating behaviors, and thus, the chaotic,
      periodical oscillators can be controlled. It could be effective to control other
      chaotic, hyperchaotic and even periodical oscillating systems as well.

PMID- 28576109
TI  - Construction of rational solutions of the real modified Korteweg-de Vries
      equation from its periodic solutions.
AB  - In this paper, we consider the real modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation
      and construct a special kind of breather solution, which can be obtained by
      taking the limit lambdaj -> lambda1 of the Lax pair eigenvalues used in the n
      fold Darboux transformation that generates the order-n periodic solution from a
      constant seed solution. Further, this special kind of breather solution of order
      n can be used to generate the order-n rational solution by taking the limit
      lambda1 -> lambda0, where lambda0 is a special eigenvalue associated with the
      eigenfunction phi of the Lax pair of the mKdV equation. This eigenvalue lambda0,
      for which phi(lambda0)=0, corresponds to the limit of infinite period of the
      periodic solution. Our analytical and numerical results show the effective
      mechanism of generation of higher-order rational solutions of the mKdV equation
      from the double eigenvalue degeneration process of multi-periodic solutions.

PMID- 28576110
TI  - Improving the pseudo-randomness properties of chaotic maps using deep-zoom.
AB  - A generalized method is proposed to compose new orbits from a given chaotic map.
      The method provides an approach to examine discrete-time chaotic maps in a "deep
      zoom" manner by using k-digits to the right from the decimal separator of a given
      point from the underlying chaotic map. Interesting phenomena have been
      identified. Rapid randomization was observed, i.e., chaotic patterns tend to
      become indistinguishable when compared to the original orbits of the underlying
      chaotic map. Our results were presented using different graphical analyses (i.e.,
      time-evolution, bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent, Poincare diagram, and
      frequency distribution). Moreover, taking advantage of this randomization
      improvement, we propose a Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) based on the k
      logistic map. The pseudo-random qualities of the proposed PRNG passed both tests
      successfully, i.e., DIEHARD and NIST, and were comparable with other traditional
      PRNGs such as the Mersenne Twister. The results suggest that simple maps such as
      the logistic map can be considered as good PRNG methods.

PMID- 28576111
TI  - Generalized synchronization between chimera states.
AB  - Networks of coupled oscillators in chimera states are characterized by an
      intriguing interplay of synchronous and asynchronous motion. While chimera states
      were initially discovered in mathematical model systems, there is growing
      experimental and conceptual evidence that they manifest themselves also in
      natural and man-made networks. In real-world systems, however, synchronization
      and desynchronization are not only important within individual networks but also
      across different interacting networks. It is therefore essential to investigate
      if chimera states can be synchronized across networks. To address this open
      problem, we use the classical setting of ring networks of non-locally coupled
      identical phase oscillators. We apply diffusive drive-response couplings between
      pairs of such networks that individually show chimera states when there is no
      coupling between them. The drive and response networks are either identical or
      they differ by a variable mismatch in their phase lag parameters. In both cases,
      already for weak couplings, the coherent domain of the response network aligns
      its position to the one of the driver networks. For identical networks, a
      sufficiently strong coupling leads to identical synchronization between the drive
      and response. For non-identical networks, we use the auxiliary system approach to
      demonstrate that generalized synchronization is established instead. In this
      case, the response network continues to show a chimera dynamics which however
      remains distinct from the one of the driver. Hence, segregated synchronized and
      desynchronized domains in individual networks congregate in generalized
      synchronization across networks.

PMID- 28576112
TI  - Periodic nonlinear sliding modes for two uniformly magnetized spheres.
AB  - A uniformly magnetized sphere slides without friction along the surface of a
      second, identical sphere that is held fixed in space, subject to the magnetic
      force and torque of the fixed sphere and the normal force. The free sphere has
      two stable equilibrium positions and two unstable equilibrium positions. Two
      small-amplitude oscillatory modes describe the sliding motion of the free sphere
      near each stable equilibrium, and an unstable oscillatory mode describes the
      motion near each unstable equilibrium. The three oscillatory modes remain
      periodic at finite amplitudes, one bifurcating into mixed modes and
      circumnavigating the free sphere at large energies. For small energies, the free
      sphere is confined to one of the two discontiguous domains, each surrounding a
      stable equilibrium position. At large energies, these domains merge and the free
      sphere may visit both positions. The critical energy at which these domains merge
      coincides with the cumulation point of an infinite cascade of mixed-mode
      bifurcations. These findings exploit the equivalence of the force and torque
      between two uniformly magnetized spheres and the force and torque between two
      equivalent point dipoles, and offer clues to the rich nonlinear dynamics of this
      system. Online MagPhyx visualizations illustrate the dynamics.

PMID- 28576113
TI  - Degenerate ITS7 primer enhances oomycete community coverage and PCR sensitivity
      to Aphanomyces species, economically important plant pathogens.
AB  - Metagenomic analysis of oomycetes through deep amplicon sequencing has been
      conducted primarily using the ITS6-ITS7 primer set that targets the ITS1 region.
      While this primer set shows a perfect match to most oomycete taxa, ITS7 contains
      3 mismatches to the corresponding binding site of plant pathogens within the
      genus Aphanomyces. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) efficiency differs for taxa
      with uneven primer matching characteristics, which may explain why previous
      studies have detected this genus at low abundance. To overcome the impact of
      these mismatches on PCR sensitivity, the mismatched nucleotides were replaced
      with degenerate nucleotides. Oomycete communities from 35 soil samples collected
      from asymptomatic and root rot diseased sites in pea fields across Alberta were
      analyzed simultaneously using ITS6-ITS7 and ITS6-ITS7-a.e. (modified version of
      ITS7) primer sets on 1 Illumina MiSeq run. The number of high-quality reads
      obtained by ITS6-ITS7-a.e. was more than twice that of ITS6-ITS7. The relative
      abundance of Pythium spp. was reduced and Aphanomyces spp. increased. Aphanomyces
      cf. cladogamus and Aphanomyces euteiches were the second and third most abundant
      species, respectively, in the pea rhizosphere using the ITS7-a.e. primer, but
      were rare using the ITS7 primer. These results indicate that use of ITS7-a.e.
      provides a more accurate picture of oomycete communities than ITS7 by enhancing
      PCR sensitivity to Aphanomyces.

PMID- 28576114
TI  - A prospective cohort study on symptoms of common mental disorders among current
      and retired professional ice hockey players.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Scientific knowledge about symptoms of common mental disorders in
      professional ice hockey is lacking. Consequently, the primary aims of the study
      were to (i) determine the prevalence, comorbidity and 6-month incidence of
      symptoms of common mental disorders (distress, anxiety/depression, sleep
      disturbance, adverse alcohol use, eating disorders) among current and retired
      professional ice hockey players and (ii) evaluate their potential relation with
      potential stressors (severe musculoskeletal injuries, surgeries, recent life
      events, career dissatisfaction). METHODS: A prospective cohort study with a 6
      month follow-up period was conducted. Using validated questionnaires to assess
      symptoms of common mental disorders (thus not clinically diagnosed) as well as
      several stressors, an electronic questionnaire was set up and distributed by the
      national ice hockey players' unions from Denmark, Finland, Norway and
      Switzerland. RESULTS: Prevalence ranged from 8% for adverse alcohol use to 24%
      for anxiety/depression among current professional ice hockey players, and from
      12% for distress to 29% for adverse alcohol among retired professional ice hockey
      players. Six-month incidence reached up to 22% for eating disorders among current
      players and 25% for sleep disturbance among retired players. Especially a higher
      number of surgeries, a higher number of recent life events and higher level of
      career dissatisfaction was related to symptoms of common mental disorders.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that adequate interventions should be
      developed to improve not only awareness and psychological resilience of both
      current and retired ice hockey players but also their performance and quality-of
      life. An interdisciplinary approach should be applied in the medical care of ice
      hockey players by including psychologists/psychiatrists who can provide
      psychotherapeutic or clinical interventions.

PMID- 28576115
TI  - Metagenomic analysis of oomycete communities from the rhizosphere of field pea on
      the Canadian prairies.
AB  - Oomycetes are a diverse group of microorganisms; however, little is known about
      their composition and biodiversity in agroecosystems. Illumina MiSeq was used to
      determine the type and abundance of oomycetes associated with pea root rot in the
      Canadian prairies. Additional objectives of the study were to identify
      differences in oomycete communities associated with pea root health and compare
      oomycete communities among the 3 prairie provinces, where field peas are commonly
      cultivated. Samples of soil from the rhizosphere of field pea (Pisum sativum L.)
      were collected from patches of asymptomatic or diseased plants from 26 commercial
      fields in 2013 and 2014. Oomycete communities were characterized using
      metagenomic analysis of the ITS1 region on Illumina MiSeq. From 105 identified
      operational taxonomic units (OTUs), 45 and 16 oomycete OTUs were identified at
      species and genus levels, respectively. Pythium was the most prevalent genus and
      Pythium heterothallicum the most prevalent species in all 3 provinces in both
      2013 and 2014. Aphanomyces euteiches, a very important pea root rot pathogen in
      regions of the prairies, was detected in 57% of sites but at very low abundance
      (<0.2%). Multivariate analysis revealed differences in the relative abundance of
      species in oomycete communities between asymptomatic and diseased sites, and
      among years and provinces. This study demonstrated that deep amplicon sequencing
      can provide information on the composition and diversity of oomycete communities
      in agricultural soils.

PMID- 28576116
TI  - Endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm due to brucellosis: a
      rare case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arterial damage is a known complication of brucellosis, but the
      occurrence of a thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm secondary to brucellosis has not
      been previously reported. CASE PRESENTATION: A 65-year-old Chinese man presented
      with a pseudoaneurysm in the descending segment of the thoracic aorta that caused
      symptoms of chest pain and intermittent fever. He was diagnosed with a thoracic
      aortic pseudoaneurysm secondary to brucellosis based on a positive brucella
      serology test (standard-tube agglutination test) and imaging examination
      (computed tomography angiography). Anti-brucellosis treatment and covered stent
      graft implantation were attempted to eliminate the brucellosis and
      pseudoaneurysm, respectively, and were ultimately successful, with no symptoms
      after 6 months of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Endovascular repair may be effective and
      safe for treating a thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm resulting from brucellosis.

PMID- 28576117
TI  - Clinical failure with and without empiric atypical bacteria coverage in
      hospitalized adults with community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both typical and atypical bacteria can cause community-acquired
      pneumonia (CAP); however, the need for empiric atypical coverage remains
      controversial. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of antibiotic regimens
      with atypical coverage (a fluoroquinolone or combination of a
      macrolide/doxycycline with a beta-lactam) to a regimen without atypical
      antibiotic coverage (beta-lactam monotherapy) on rates of clinical failure
      (primary endpoint), mortality, bacteriologic failure, and adverse events,
      (secondary endpoints). METHODS: We searched the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane
      Library databases for relevant RCTs of hospitalized CAP adults. We estimated risk
      ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a fixed-effect model, but
      used a random-effects model if significant heterogeneity (I 2 ) was observed.
      RESULTS: Five RCTs with a total of 2011 patients were retained. A statistically
      significant lower clinical failure rate was observed with empiric atypical
      coverage (RR, 0.851 [95% CI, 0.732-0.99; P = 0.037]; I 2  = 0%). The secondary
      outcomes did not differ between the two study groups: mortality (RR = 0.549 [95%
      CI, 0.259-1.165, P = 0.118], I 2  = 61.434%) bacteriologic failure (RR = 0.816
      [95% CI, 0.523-1.272, P = 0.369], I 2  = 0%), diarrhea (RR = 0.746 [95% CI, 0.311
      1.790, P = 0.512], I 2  = 65.048%), and adverse events requiring antibiotic
      discontinuation (RR = 0.83 [95% CI, 0.542-1.270, P = 0.39], I 2  = 0%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Empiric atypical coverage was associated with a significant
      reduction in clinical failure in hospitalized adults with CAP. Reduction in
      mortality, bacterial failure, diarrhea, and discontinuation due to adverse
      effects were not significantly different between groups, but all estimates
      favored atypical coverage. Our findings provide support for the current
      guidelines recommendations to include empiric atypical coverage.

PMID- 28576118
TI  - Consultation patterns of children and adolescents with knee pain in UK general
      practice: analysis of medical records.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knee problems are common in children and adolescents. Despite this,
      little is known about the epidemiology of knee problems in children and
      adolescents who consult in general practice. The aim of this study was to
      describe consultations by children and adolescents about knee problems in general
      practice, and examine patterns of patient presentations and consultations by age
      group, sex and area of socio-economic deprivation. METHODS: Consultations records
      specific to the knee region were extracted from a general practice consultation
      database (CiPCA) over a one year period. Knee consultation codes were organised
      into 'symptom' or 'diagnosis' (sub-categorised: 'trauma', 'non-trauma')
      categories. Descriptive statistics were used to describe patient presentations
      and number of consultations overall, and stratified analysis carried out on age
      group, sex, and ar ea of socio-economic deprivation. RESULTS: Out of all
      musculoskeletal consultations, knee problems were the fourth most common patient
      presentation, responsible for the second highest number of consultations. Patient
      presentations and consultations increased up to age 12-15 years and then
      stabilised. Symptoms codes e.g. 'knee pain' were used more commonly than
      diagnosis codes e.g. 'knee sprain' overall. However, symptom code use declined as
      age increased, more symptom codes were used in girls compared to boys, and more
      diagnosis codes were used in patients from areas of high socio-economic
      deprivation. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the epidemiology of
      knee problems in children and adolescents in general practice. Future research is
      needed to improve our understanding of the knee problems encountered by GPs, and
      the influence socio-economic deprivation has on consultations.

PMID- 28576119
TI  - Nicotine stimulates collagen type I expression in lung via alpha7 nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tobacco-related chronic lung diseases are characterized by
      alterations in lung architecture leading to decreased lung function. Knowledge of
      the exact mechanisms involved in tobacco-induced tissue remodeling and
      inflammation remains incomplete. We hypothesize that nicotine stimulates the
      expression of extracellular matrix proteins, leading to relative changes in lung
      matrix composition, which may affect immune cells entering the lung after injury.
      METHODS: Pulmonary fibroblasts from wildtype and alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine
      receptor knockout (alpha7KO) mice were exposed to nicotine and examined for
      collagen type 1 mRNA and protein expression. Testing the potential role on immune
      cell function, pulmonary fibroblasts were retained in culture for 120 h. The
      fibroblasts were eliminated by osmotic lysis and the remaining matrix-coated
      dishes were washed thoroughly. U937 cells were incubated on the matrix-coated
      dishes for 24 h followed by evaluation of IL-1beta gene expression. Wildtype or
      alpha7KO C57BL/6 mice (female, 8-12 weeks) were fed normal diet and exposed to
      nicotine in their drinking water (100 MUg/ml) for 8-12weeks. Lungs were processed
      for mRNA, protein, and histology. Statistical significance was determined at p <=
      .05 by two-tailed test or 2-way ANOVA with Bonferroni posttest. RESULTS: We found
      that nicotine stimulated collagen type I mRNA and protein expression in a dose
      dependent manner and up to 72 h in primary lung fibroblasts. The stimulatory
      effect of nicotine was inhibited in alpha7KO primary lung fibroblasts. Testing
      the potential role of these events on immune cell function, U937 monocytic cells
      were cultured atop matrices derived from nicotine-treated lung fibroblasts. These
      cells expressed more IL-1beta than those cultured atop matrices derived from
      untreated fibroblasts, and antibodies against the alpha2beta1 collagen integrin
      receptor inhibited the effect. Nicotine also stimulated fibroblast proliferation
      via MEK-1/ERK, unveiling a potentially amplifying pathway. In vivo, nicotine
      increased collagen type I expression was detected in wildtype, but not in
      alpha7KO mice. Wildtype mice showed increased collagen staining in lung,
      primarily around the airways. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that
      nicotine stimulates fibroblast proliferation and their expression of collagen
      type I through alpha7 nAChRs, thereby altering the relative composition of the
      lung matrix without impacting the overall lung architecture; this may influence
      inflammatory responses after injury.

PMID- 28576121
TI  - Proximal spleno-renal shunt with retro-aortic left renal vein in a patient with
      extra-hepatic portal vein obstruction: first case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Presence of retro-aortic left renal vein poses special challenge in
      creating spleno-renal shunt potentially increasing the chance of shunt failure.
      The technical feasibility and successful outcome of splenectomy with proximal
      spleno-renal shunt (PSRS) with retro-aortic left renal vein is presented for the
      first time. The patient was treated for portal hypertension and hypersplenism due
      to idiopathic extra-hepatic portal vein obstruction. CASE PRESENTATION: A twenty
      year old male suffering from idiopathic extra-hepatic portal vein obstruction
      presented with bleeding esophageal varices, portal hypertensive gastropathy,
      asymptomatic portal biliopathy and symptomatic hypersplenism. As variceal
      bleeding did not respond to endoscopic and medical treatment, surgical portal
      decompression was planned. On preoperative contrast enhanced computed tomography
      retro-aortic left renal vein was detected. Splenectomy with proximal splenorenal
      shunt with retro-aortic left renal vein was successfully performed by using
      specific technical steps including adequate mobilisation of retro-aortic left
      renal vein and per-operative pressure studies. Perioperative course was
      uneventful and patient is doing well after 3 years of follow up. CONCLUSIONS:
      PSRS is feasible, safe and effective procedure when done with retro-aortic left
      renal vein for the treatment of portal hypertension related to extra-hepatic
      portal vein obstruction provided that attention is given to key technical
      considerations including pressure studies necessary to ensure effective shunt.
      Present case provides the first evidence that retro-aortic left renal vein can
      withstand the extra volume of blood flow through the proximal shunt with
      effective portal decompression so as to treat all the components of extra-hepatic
      portal vein obstruction without causing renal venous hypertension.

PMID- 28576120
TI  - Expression of genes associated with BMP signaling pathway in porcine oocytes
      before and after IVM - a microarray approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The full maturational capability of mammalian oocytes is accompanied
      by nuclear and cytoplasmic modifications, which are associated with proliferation
      and differentiation of surrounding cumulus cells. These events are regulated on
      molecular level by the expression of target genes involved in signal transduction
      pathways crucial for folliculogenesis and oogenesis. Transforming growth factor
      beta signaling includes several molecules that are involved in the regulation of
      oogenesis and embryo growth, including bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). However,
      the BMP-related gene expression profile in oocytes at different maturational
      stages requires further investigation. METHODS: Oocytes were isolated from
      pubertal crossbred Landrace gilts follicles, selected with a use of BCB staining
      test and analyzed before and after in vitro maturation. Gene expression profiles
      were examined using an Affymetrix microarray approach and validated by RT-qPCR.
      Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) software
      was used for the extraction of the genes belonging to a BMP-signaling pathway
      ontology group. RESULTS: The assay revealed 12,258 different transcripts in
      porcine oocytes, among which 379 genes were down-regulated and 40 were up
      regulated. The DAVID database indicated a "BMP signaling pathway" ontology group,
      which was significantly regulated in both groups of oocytes. We discovered five
      up-regulated genes in oocytes before versus after in vitro maturation (IVM):
      chordin-like 1 (CHRDL1), follistatin (FST), transforming growth factor-beta
      receptor-type III (TGFbetaR3), decapentaplegic homolog 4 (SMAD4), and inhibitor
      of DNA binding 1 (ID1). CONCLUSIONS: Increased expression of CHRDL1, FST,
      TGFbetaR3, SMAD4, and ID1 transcripts before IVM suggested a subordinate role of
      the BMP signaling pathway in porcine oocyte maturational competence. Conversely,
      it is postulated that these genes are involved in early stages of
      folliculogenesis and oogenesis regulation in pigs, since in oocytes before IVM
      increased expression was observed.

PMID- 28576122
TI  - Impact of rural family physician program on child mortality rates in Iran: a time
      series study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rural family physician program and social protection scheme were
      started in Iran about 10 years ago, and no comprehensive study has been carried
      out to investigate the effects of this program on mortality-related health
      indicators yet. The present study aims to examine the impacts of implementation
      of the family physician program and rural insurance program, which was launched
      in June 2005, on neonatal (NMR), infant (IMR), and under-5-year (U5MR) mortality
      rates in rural areas of Iran between 1995 and 2011, using a time-series analysis.
      METHODS: Three segmented regression models were built to evaluate the effects of
      the program on NMR, IMR, and U5MR, and several independent variables were entered
      into the models, including annual incremental effect of the program (variable of
      interest), time effect, behvarz density, effect of the family physician and rural
      insurance programs, as well as socioeconomic variables including years of
      schooling, wealth index, sex ratio, and logarithmic scales of rural population
      size in each area. Data were gathered from secondary sources and other studies.
      Data pertaining to the year 2007 were excluded from the final analysis due to
      their inaccuracy. RESULTS: Our results show that the incremental effect of
      implementing the rural family physician program is associated with significant
      reductions in NMR (beta = - 0.341. p - value = 0.003) and IMR (beta = - 0.016. p 
      value = 0.009). Although the association between this effect and reductions in
      U5MR were evident, they were not statistically significant (beta = - 0.003. p -
      value = 0.542). Moreover, wealth status of inhabitants was associated with
      reductions in NMR (beta = - 0.889. p - value = 0.001), IMR (beta = - 0.052. p -
      value < 0.001), and U5MR (beta = - 0.055. p - value < 0.001) in the time period
      of the study. CONCLUSIONS: In this nationally representative study, we showed
      that implementation of the second health system reform in Iran, known as the
      family physician program and social protection scheme for rural inhabitants, is
      associated with significant reductions in NMR and IMR. However, reported
      reductions in U5MR were not found to be statistically associated with the launch
      of the program. The advantage of this study was the ability to depict a more
      precise picture of the outcomes of a national-level intervention.

PMID- 28576123
TI  - Evaluation of strategies for increasing response rates to postal questionnaires
      in quality control of nasal septal surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postal questionnaires are often used to assess the results of nasal
      septoplasty, but response rates vary widely. This study assesses strategies
      designed to increase the response rate. METHODS: Postoperative questionnaires
      using visual analogue scales (VAS) for nasal obstruction were mailed to 160
      consecutive patients alternately allocated to one of two groups. Group A received
      the questionnaire in the usual manner and group B received a modified cover
      letter with hand-written name and signature and a hand-stamped return envelope.
      RESULTS: Of the 80 patients in each group, 47 (58.8%) in group A and 54 (67.5%)
      in group B returned the questionnaire (p = 0.25). There were no age or gender
      differences between the groups, nor did the pre- and postoperative VAS scores
      differ between the groups. CONCLUSION: The strategies used in this study
      increased the response rate to postal questionnaires by 8.7% points, but this was
      not a statistically significant or clinically meaningful improvement.

PMID- 28576124
TI  - Ancylostoma ailuropodae n. sp. (Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae), a new hookworm
      parasite isolated from wild giant pandas in Southwest China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hookworms belonging to the genus Ancylostoma (Dubini, 1843) cause
      ancylostomiasis, a disease of considerable concern in humans and domestic and
      wild animals. Molecular and epidemiological data support evidence for the
      zoonotic potential among species of Ancylostoma where transmission to humans is
      facilitated by rapid urbanization and increased human-wildlife interactions. It
      is important to assess and describe these potential zoonotic parasite species in
      wildlife, especially in hosts that have physiological similarities to humans and
      share their habitat. Moreover, defining species diversity within parasite groups
      that can circulate among free-ranging host species and humans also provides a
      pathway to understanding the distribution of infection and disease. In this
      study, we describe a previously unrecognized species of hookworm in the genus
      Ancylostoma in the giant panda, including criteria for morphological and
      molecular characterization. METHODS: The hookworm specimens were obtained from a
      wild giant panda that died in the Fengtongzai Natural Reserve in Sichuan Province
      of China in November 2013. They were microscopically examined and then
      genetically analyzed by sequencing the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS,
      ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) genes in
      two representative specimens (one female and one male, FTZ1 and FTZ2,
      respectively). RESULTS: Ancylostoma ailuropodae n. sp. is proposed for these
      hookworms. Morphologically the hookworm specimens differ from other congeneric
      species primarily based on the structure of the buccal capsule in males and
      females, characterized by 2 pairs of ventrolateral and 2 pairs of dorsolateral
      teeth; males differ in the structure and shape of the copulatory bursa, where the
      dorsal ray possesses 2 digitations. Pairwise nuclear and mitochondrial DNA
      comparisons, genetic distance analysis, and phylogenetic data strongly indicate
      that A. ailuropodae from giant pandas is a separate species which shared a most
      recent common ancestor with A. ceylanicum Looss, 1911 in the genus Ancylostoma
      (family Ancylostomatidae). CONCLUSION: Ancylostoma ailuropodae n. sp. is the
      fourth species of hookworm described from the Ursidae and the fifteenth species
      assigned to the genus Ancylostoma. A sister-species association with A.
      ceylanicum and phylogenetic distinctiveness from the monophyletic Uncinaria
      Frolich, 1789 among ursids and other carnivorans indicate a history of host
      colonization in the evolutionary radiation among ancylostomatid hookworms.
      Further, phylogenetic relationships among bears and a history of ecological and
      geographical isolation for giant pandas may be consistent with two independent
      events of host colonization in the diversification of Ancylostoma among ursid
      hosts. A history for host colonization within this assemblage and the
      relationship for A. ailuropodae n. sp. demonstrate the potential of this species
      as a zoonotic parasite and as a possible threat to human health. The cumulative
      morphological, molecular and phylogenetic data presented for A. ailuropodae n.
      sp. provides a better understanding of the taxonomy, diagnostics and evolutionary
      biology of the hookworms.

PMID- 28576125
TI  - Dissection of the internal carotid artery and stroke after mandibular fractures:
      a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We present a report of a patient with blunt trauma and mandibular
      fractures who developed a significant cerebral infarction due to an initially
      unrecognized injury of her left internal carotid artery. We believe that
      increased knowledge of this association will facilitate early recognition and
      hence prevention of a devastating outcome. CASE PRESENTATION: A 41-year-old
      ethnic Norwegian woman presented to our Emergency Room after a bicycle accident
      that had caused a direct blow to her chin. At admittance, her Glasgow Coma Scale
      was 15. Initial trauma computed tomography showed triple fractures of her
      mandible, but no further pathology. She was placed in our Intensive Care Unit
      awaiting open reduction of her mandibular fractures. During the following 9
      hours, she showed recurrent episodes of confusion and a progressive right-sided
      hemiparesis. Repeated cerebral computed tomography revealed no further pathology
      compared to the initial scan. She had magnetic resonance angiography 17 hours
      after admittance, which showed dissection and thrombus formation in her left
      internal carotid artery, total occlusion of her left medial cerebral artery, and
      left middle cerebral artery infarction was detected. CONCLUSIONS: Carotid artery
      dissection is a rare but life-threatening condition that can develop after trauma
      to the head and neck. There should be a high index of suspicion in patients with
      a mechanism of injury that places the internal carotid artery at risk because
      blunt vascular injury may show delayed onset with no initial symptoms of vascular
      damage. By implementing an algorithm for early detection and treatment of these
      injuries, serious brain damage may be avoided.

PMID- 28576126
TI  - Effective treatment of SIVcpz-induced immunodeficiency in a captive western
      chimpanzee.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Simian immunodeficiency virus of chimpanzees (SIVcpz), the progenitor
      of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), is associated with increased
      mortality and AIDS-like immunopathology in wild-living chimpanzees (Pan
      troglodytes). Surprisingly, however, similar findings have not been reported for
      chimpanzees experimentally infected with SIVcpz in captivity, raising questions
      about the intrinsic pathogenicity of this lentivirus. FINDINGS: Here, we report
      progressive immunodeficiency and clinical disease in a captive western chimpanzee
      (P. t. verus) infected twenty years ago by intrarectal inoculation with an SIVcpz
      strain (ANT) from a wild-caught eastern chimpanzee (P. t. schweinfurthii). With
      sustained plasma viral loads of 105 to 106 RNA copies/ml for the past 15 years,
      this chimpanzee developed CD4+ T cell depletion (220 cells/MUl), thrombocytopenia
      (90,000 platelets/MUl), and persistent soft tissue infections refractory to
      antibacterial therapy. Combination antiretroviral therapy consisting of
      emtricitabine (FTC), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), and dolutegravir (DTG)
      decreased plasma viremia to undetectable levels (<200 copies/ml), improved CD4+ T
      cell counts (509 cell/MUl), and resulted in the rapid resolution of all soft
      tissue infections. However, initial lack of adherence and/or differences in
      pharmacokinetics led to low plasma drug concentrations, which resulted in
      transient rebound viremia and the emergence of FTC resistance mutations (M184V/I)
      identical to those observed in HIV-1 infected humans. CONCLUSIONS: These data
      demonstrate that SIVcpz can cause immunodeficiency and other hallmarks of AIDS in
      captive chimpanzees, including P. t. verus apes that are not naturally infected
      with this virus. Moreover, SIVcpz-associated immunodeficiency can be effectively
      treated with antiretroviral therapy, although sufficiently high plasma
      concentrations must be maintained to prevent the emergence of drug resistance.
      These findings extend a growing body of evidence documenting the
      immunopathogenicity of SIVcpz and suggest that experimentally infected
      chimpanzees may benefit from clinical monitoring and therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28576127
TI  - Trials directly comparing alternative spontaneous breathing trial techniques: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of alternative spontaneous breathing trial (SBT)
      techniques on extubation success and other clinically important outcomes is
      uncertain. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, Evidence-Based
      Medicine Reviews, Ovid Health Star, proceedings of five conferences (1990-2016),
      and reference lists for randomized trials comparing SBT techniques in intubated
      adults or children. Primary outcomes were initial SBT success, extubation
      success, or reintubation. Two reviewers independently screened citations,
      assessed trial quality, and abstracted data. RESULTS: We identified 31 trials (n
      = 3541 patients). Moderate-quality evidence showed that patients undergoing
      pressure support (PS) compared with T-piece SBTs (nine trials, n = 1901) were as
      likely to pass an initial SBT (risk ratio (RR) 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI)
      0.89-1.11; I 2 = 77%) but more likely to be ultimately extubated successfully (RR
      1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.10; 11 trials, n = 1904; I 2 = 0%). Exclusion of one trial
      with inconsistent results for SBT and extubation outcomes suggested that PS (vs T
      piece) SBTs also improved initial SBT success (RR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.12; I 2 =
      0%). Limited data suggest that automatic tube compensation plus continuous
      positive airway pressure (CPAP) vs CPAP alone or PS increase SBT but not
      extubation success. CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing PS (vs T-piece) SBTs appear
      to be 6% (95% CI 2-10%) more likely to be extubated successfully and, if the
      results of an outlier trial are excluded, 6% (95% CI 1-12%) more likely to pass
      an SBT. Future trials should investigate patients for whom SBT and extubation
      outcomes are uncertain and compare techniques that maximize differences in
      support.

PMID- 28576128
TI  - B cells do not have a major pathophysiologic role in acute ischemic stroke in
      mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphocytes have been shown to play an important role in the
      pathophysiology of acute ischemic stroke, but the properties of B cells remain
      controversial. The aim of this study was to unravel the role of B cells during
      acute cerebral ischemia using pharmacologic B cell depletion, B cell transgenic
      mice, and adoptive B cell transfer experiments. METHODS: Transient middle
      cerebral artery occlusion (60 min) was induced in wild-type mice treated with an
      anti-CD20 antibody 24 h before stroke onset, JHD -/- mice and Rag1 -/- mice 24 h
      after adoptive B cell transfer. Stroke outcome was assessed at days 1 and 3.
      Infarct volumes were calculated from 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC)
      stained brain sections, and neurological scores were evaluated. The local
      inflammatory response was determined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry.
      Apoptosis was analyzed by TUNEL staining, and astrocyte activation was revealed
      using immunohistochemistry and Western blot. RESULTS: Pharmacologic depletion of
      B cells did not influence infarct volumes and functional outcome at day 1 after
      stroke. Additionally, lack of circulating B cells in JHD -/- mice also failed to
      influence stroke outcome at days 1 and 3. Furthermore, reconstitution of Rag1 -/-
      mice with B cells had no influence on infarct volumes. CONCLUSION: Targeting B
      cells in experimental stroke did not influence lesion volume and functional
      outcome during the acute phase. Our findings argue against a major
      pathophysiologic role of B cells during acute ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28576129
TI  - Treatment with long-acting lanreotide autogel in early infancy in patients with
      severe neonatal hyperinsulinism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment of severe diffuse congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) without
      sufficient response to diazoxide is complicated by the lack of approved drugs.
      Therefore, patients are often hospitalized long-term or have to undergo
      pancreatic surgery if episodes of severe hypoglycaemia cannot be prevented. A
      long-acting somatostatin analogue, octreotide, has been reported to be an
      effective treatment option that prevents severe hypoglycaemia in children with
      CHI, and its off-label use is common in CHI. However, octreotide requires
      continuous i.v. or s.c. infusion or multiple daily injections. Here, we report
      our experiences with the use of a monthly application of a long-acting
      somatostatin analogue, lanreotide autogel(r) (LAN-ATG), in early infancy.
      RESULTS: The mean blood glucose concentration within 7 days before the first LAN
      ATG administration were compared to 7 days after the first LAN-ATG administration
      and increased by 0.75 mmol/L (range 0.39-1.19 mmol/L). In the following weeks
      intravenous glucose infusions, octreotide, and glucagon treatment could be
      successfully stopped in all patients 3-20 days after the first LAN-ATG injection
      without substantial worsening of the hypoglycaemia rate. Increased carbohydrate
      requirements could be normalized with an average reduction in the carbohydrate
      intake of 7 g/kg body weight/d (range 1.75-12.8 g/kg body weight/d). Over a total
      of 52 treatment months, no serious adverse effects occurred. CONCLUSION: Long
      term LAN-ATG treatment improved blood glucose concentrations, lowered the
      frequency of hypoglycaemia or allowed for normalization of oral carbohydrate
      intake in infants with CHI younger than 6 months of age. No severe side effects
      were observed. LAN-ATG might be an alternative treatment option in infants with
      severe CHI who lack risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis and are not
      responding to current treatment regimens as an alternative to surgery after
      careful individual evaluation.

PMID- 28576130
TI  - The Galphah-PLCdelta1 signaling axis drives metastatic progression in triple
      negative breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distant metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) to other
      organs, e.g., the lungs, has been correlated with poor survival rates among
      breast cancer patients. Therefore, the identification of useful therapeutic
      targets to prevent metastasis or even inhibit tumor growth of TNBC is urgently
      needed. Galphah is a novel GTP-binding protein and known as an inactive form of
      calcium-dependent tissue transglutaminase. However, the functional consequences
      of transamidating and G-protein activities of tissue transglutaminase in
      promoting cancer metastasis are still controversial. METHODS: Kaplan-Meier
      analyses were performed to estimate the prognostic values of Galphah and
      PLCdelta1 by utilizing public databases and performing immunohistochemical
      staining experiments. Cell-based invasion assays and in vivo lung colony-forming
      and orthotropic lung metastasis models were established to evaluate the
      effectiveness of interrupting the protein-protein interaction (PPI) between
      Galphah and PLCdelta1 in inhibiting the invasive ability and metastatic potential
      of TNBC cells. RESULTS: Here, we showed that the increased level of cytosolic,
      not extracellular, Galphah is a poor prognostic marker in breast cancer patients
      and correlates with the metastatic evolution of TNBC cells. Moreover,
      clinicopathological analyses revealed that the combined signature of high
      Galphah/PLCdelta1 levels indicates worse prognosis in patients with breast cancer
      and correlates with lymph node metastasis of ER-negative breast cancer. Blocking
      the PPI of the Galphah/PLCdelta1 complex by synthetically myristoylated PLCdelta1
      peptide corresponding to the Galphah-binding interface appeared to significantly
      suppress cellular invasiveness in vitro and inhibit lung metastatic colonies of
      TNBC cells in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes Galphah/PLCdelta1 as a
      poor prognostic factor for patients with estrogen receptor-negative breast
      cancers, including TNBCs, and provides therapeutic value by targeting the PPI of
      the Galphah/PLCdelta1 complex to combat the metastatic progression of TNBCs.

PMID- 28576131
TI  - Analysis of 31-year-old patient with SYNGAP1 gene defect points to importance of
      variants in broader splice regions and reveals developmental trajectory of
      SYNGAP1-associated phenotype: case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whole exome sequencing is a powerful tool for the analysis of
      genetically heterogeneous conditions. The prioritization of variants identified
      often focuses on nonsense, frameshift and canonical splice site mutations, and
      highly deleterious missense variants, although other defects can also play a
      role. The definition of the phenotype range and course of rare genetic conditions
      requires long-term clinical follow-up of patients. CASE PRESENTATION: We report
      an adult female patient with severe intellectual disability, severe speech delay,
      epilepsy, autistic features, aggressiveness, sleep problems, broad-based clumsy
      gait and constipation. Whole exome sequencing identified a de novo mutation in
      the SYNGAP1 gene. The variant was located in the broader splice donor region of
      intron 10 and replaced G by A at position +5 of the splice site. The variant was
      predicted in silico and shown experimentally to abolish the regular splice site
      and to activate a cryptic donor site within exon 10, causing frameshift and
      premature termination. The overall clinical picture of the patient corresponded
      well with the characteristic SYNGAP1-associated phenotype observed in previously
      reported patients. However, our patient was 31 years old which contrasted with
      most other published SYNGAP1 cases who were much younger. Our patient had a
      significant growth delay and microcephaly. Both features normalised later,
      although the head circumference stayed only slightly above the lower limit of the
      norm. The patient had a delayed puberty. Her cognitive and language performance
      remained at the level of a one-year-old child even in adulthood and showed a slow
      decline. Myopathic facial features and facial dysmorphism became more pronounced
      with age. Although the gait of the patient was unsteady in childhood, more severe
      gait problems developed in her teens. While the seizures remained well
      controlled, her aggressive behaviour worsened with age and required extensive
      medication. CONCLUSIONS: The finding in our patient underscores the notion that
      the interpretation of variants identified using whole exome sequencing should
      focus not only on variants in the canonical splice dinucleotides GT and AG, but
      also on broader splice regions. The long-term clinical follow-up of our patient
      contributes to the knowledge of the developmental trajectory in individuals with
      SYNGAP1 gene defects.

PMID- 28576132
TI  - The socioeconomic context of the use of Euterpe precatoria Mart. and E. oleracea
      Mart. in Bolivia and Peru.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traditional knowledge (TK) has enabled communities to adapt to
      changes in life conditions over centuries. However, this local context is being
      dramatically affected by recent changes through globalization and modernization
      of societies. In this paper we seek to identify socio-economic factors that are
      related to the knowledge and use of two palm species in mestizo and indigenous
      communities in the Amazonian of Peru and Bolivia. Both species are known in the
      region under the main vernacular name of Asai, and are source of two highly
      commercialized resources: palm-hearts and fruits. Euterpe precatoria Mart. is
      native to the region whereas E. oleracea Mart. is being introduced for the use of
      both resources. METHODS: We compare TK about the two Euterpe species in both
      countries in relation to 14 socioeconomic factors in seven use categories. We
      performed a Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to elucidate the influence
      of each socioeconomic factor on the overall palm knowledge or on individual use
      categories. RESULTS: In the two countries, we found that mestizos, speaking only
      Spanish, and migrants in the same ecoregion, knew more uses in all use categories
      for E. precatoria than for E. oleracea, even in use categories such as Medicinal
      and veterinary and Construction, for which indigenous participants had more uses
      in case of other species. In Peru, the use of E. precatoria was higher among
      participants with greater wealth, which could be related to the commercial
      importance that both the fruits and the palm-hearts have had in the markets of
      the region. In contrast, in Bolivia, although some income generation from Euterpe
      sp. was observed, the use of E. precatoria was much more homogeneously
      distributed. The use of E. oleracea in Bolivia is recent, and although its most
      important uses are related to the consumption of fruits and palm-hearts (Human
      food), it is now being slowly used for Medicinal and Construction purposes,
      similar to E. precatoria. CONCLUSIONS: The use of each of the species forms part
      of divergent strategies in people's livelihoods. We show that integration into a
      market economy does not necessarily erode TK, but can rather stimulate knowledge
      acquisition and transmission of knowledge, and helps to understand the role and
      potential of these products to contribute to the livelihoods of households.

PMID- 28576133
TI  - Adherence, healthcare resource utilization and Medicaid spending associated with
      once-monthly paliperidone palmitate versus oral atypical antipsychotic treatment
      among adults recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Once-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP1M) is a long-acting
      injectable antipsychotic that may increase adherence rates, reduce
      hospitalizations, and lower medical costs compared to oral atypical
      antipsychotics (OAAs) among schizophrenia patients. However, the impact of PP1M
      in recently diagnosed patients remains unknown. The present study compared
      adherence, healthcare resource utilization and Medicaid spending between
      schizophrenia patients initiating PP1M versus OAA, among patients recently
      diagnosed (defined using ages 18-25 years as a proxy) and among the overall
      population. METHODS: Medicaid data from five states (09/2008-03/2015) were used
      to identify adults with schizophrenia initiated on PP1M or OAAs (index date) on
      or after 09/2009. Outcomes were compared between PP1M and OAA groups following
      inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). Univariate linear and Poisson
      regression models with nonparametric bootstrap procedures were used to compare
      the 12-month healthcare resource utilization and costs using rate ratios (RRs)
      and mean monthly cost differences (MMCDs), respectively. RESULTS: Overall,
      patients initiated on PP1M (N = 2053) were younger (mean age: 41 vs. 44 years)
      and had more baseline antipsychotic use (88% vs. 62%) compared to OAA patients (N
      = 22,247). IPTW resulted in balanced baseline characteristics. Among recently
      diagnosed patients, PP1M was associated with better adherence (PDC >= 80%: 29%
      vs. 21%, P < 0.001) on the index medication as well as less use of other
      psychiatric medications, compared to OAAs. Adherence findings were similar for
      the overall cohort. Among recently diagnosed patients, lower medical costs
      associated with PP1M (MMCD = $-466; P = 0.028) outweighed the higher pharmacy
      costs (MMCD = $322; P < 0.001) resulting in similar total healthcare costs across
      groups (MMCD = $-144; P = 0.553). Overall, findings were similar but there was a
      trend toward a lower magnitude of medical cost savings (MMCD = $-286; P < 0.001).
      Reductions in medical costs were mainly driven by reductions in inpatient days
      (recently diagnosed RR = 0.85, P = 0.353; overall RR = 0.84, P = 0.004) and in
      home care visits (recently diagnosed RR = 0.43, P = 0.008; overall RR = 0.78, P =
      0.048). CONCLUSIONS: PP1M patients demonstrated significantly lower medical costs
      offsetting higher pharmacy costs relative to OAA patients. Recently diagnosed
      patients using PP1M may have greater medical cost savings relative to OAAs than
      that observed in the overall population, highlighting the potential economic
      impact of PP1M in adults recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28576134
TI  - Effects of infant weight gain on subsequent allergic outcomes in the first 3
      years of life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between early weight gain and later allergic outcomes
      has not been well studied. We examined the relation between weight gain and the
      subsequent development of allergic outcomes in the first 36 months of life in a
      Singapore birth cohort. METHODS: In repeated visits in the first 15 months, we
      measured infant weight and administered questionnaires ascertaining allergic
      outcomes. At ages 18 and 36 months, we administered skin prick tests (SPTs) to
      inhalant and food allergens. RESULTS: At 18 months, 13.5% had a positive SPT,
      3.5% had wheeze and a positive SPT, 3.9% had rhinitis and a positive SPT, and
      6.1% had eczema and a positive SPT. Higher weight gain from 6 to 9 months, 9 to
      12 months and 12 to 15 months were independently associated with a reduced risk
      of developing a positive SPT at 18 months (p-trend <=0.03). At 36 months, 23.5%
      had a positive SPT, 11.9% had wheeze and a positive SPT, 12.2% rhinitis and a
      positive SPT, and 11.5% eczema and a positive SPT. Higher weight gain from 12 to
      15 months was associated with a reduced risk of developing a positive SPT at 36
      months (p-trend <0.01). No significant associations were observed between weight
      gain in any period and wheeze, rhinitis or eczema combined with a positive SPT at
      18 or 36 months. CONCLUSION: Higher weight gain in the first 15 months of life
      was associated with a reduced risk of allergen sensitization, but not with
      combinations of allergic symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01174875 Registered 1
      July 2010, retrospectively registered.

PMID- 28576135
TI  - Epidemiology and time trends of distal forearm fractures in adults - a study of
      11.2 million person-years in Sweden.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A distal forearm fracture is a very common injury causing both
      suffering and substantial health care costs. The incidence of this fracture type
      seemed to increase worldwide until the middle 1980's, but thereafter most reports
      have shown stable or decreasing rates. As few large studies have been presented
      lately we aimed to describe recent epidemiology and time trends of distal forearm
      fractures in adults. We paid special attention to fractures in working ages as
      they present challenges in terms of treatment and costs for sick-leave, and have
      not previously been thoroughly investigated. METHODS: By use of population data
      from Statistics Sweden and official in- and out-patient register data of men and
      women (>=17 years) in Sweden (Skane region), we ascertained distal forearm
      fractures and estimated age- and sex-specific rates and time-trends from year
      1999 to 2010 (11.2 million person-years (py)). RESULTS: The total incidence rate
      was 278 per 100,000 py (31,233 fractures) with 23% higher annual numbers 2010
      compared with 1999. An increase in the annual age standardized incidence was
      found in men, +0.7% per annum (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.1, 1.4), and women,
      +0.9% (95% CI 0.5, 1.3), driven mainly by an increasing incidence in working ages
      (17-64 years). Also, expected demographic changes including a 25% population
      increase may result in 38% more fractures until 2050, compared to 2017.
      CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of distal forearm fractures in adults in southern
      Sweden is increasing, mainly driven by an increase in working ages. In
      combination with expected demographic changes these findings may present
      substantial challenges for the future.

PMID- 28576137
TI  - Characteristics of patients receiving midwife-led prenatal care in Canada:
      results from the Maternity Experiences Survey (MES).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of women
      in Canada who received care from a midwife during their prenatal period. METHODS:
      The findings of this study were drawn from the Maternity Experiences Survey
      (MES), which was a cross-sectional survey that assessed the experiences of women
      who gave birth between November 2005 and May 2006. The main outcome variable for
      this study was the prenatal care provider (i.e. midwife versus other healthcare
      providers). Demographic, socioeconomic, as well as health and pregnancy factors
      were evaluated using bivariate and multivariate models of logistic regression.
      RESULTS: A total of 6421 participants were included in this analysis representing
      a weighted total of 76,508 women. The prevalence of midwife-led prenatal care was
      6.1%. The highest prevalence of midwife-led prenatal care was in British Columbia
      (9.8%), while the lowest prevalence of midwife-led prenatal care was 0.3%
      representing the cumulative prevalence in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island,
      Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Yukon. Factors
      showing significant association with midwife-led prenatal care were: Aboriginal
      status (OR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.41-3.64), higher education with bachelor and
      graduate degree attainment having higher ORs when compared to high-school or less
      (OR = 2.71, 95% CI: 1.71-4.31 and OR = 3.17, 95% CI: 1.81-5.55, respectively),
      and alcohol use (OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.17-2.26). Age, marital status, immigrant
      status, work during pregnancy, household income, previous pregnancies, perceived
      health, maternal Body Mass Index (BMI), and smoking during the last 3 months of
      pregnancy were not significantly associated with midwife care. CONCLUSIONS: In
      general, women who were more educated, have aboriginal status, and/or are alcohol
      drinkers were more likely to receive care from midwives. Since MES is the most
      recent resource that includes information about national midwifery utilization,
      future studies can provide more up-to-date information about this important area.
      Moreover, future research can aim at understanding the reasons that lead women to
      opt for midwife-led prenatal care.

PMID- 28576136
TI  - Novel APC gene mutations associated with protein alteration in diffuse type
      gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene in mitosis might be
      critical for regulation of genomic stability and chromosome segregation. APC gene
      mutations have been associated to have a role in colon cancer and since gastric
      and colon tumors share some common genetic lesions, it is relevant to investigate
      the role of APC tumor suppressor gene in gastric cancer. METHODS: We investigated
      for somatic mutations in the Exons 14 and 15 of APC gene from 40 diffuse type
      gastric cancersamples. Rabbit polyclonal anti-APC antibody was used, which
      detects the wild-type APC protein and was recommended for detection of the
      respective protein in human tissues. Cell cycle analysis was done from tumor and
      adjacent normal tissue. RESULTS: APC immunoreactivity showed positive expression
      of the protein in stages I, II, III and negative expression in Stages III and IV.
      Two novel deleterious variations (g.127576C > A, g.127583C > T) in exon 14
      sequence were found to generate stop codon (Y622* and Q625*)in the tumor samples.
      Due to the generation of stop codon, the APC protein might be truncated and all
      the regulatory features could be lost which has led to the down-regulation of
      protein expression. Our results indicate that aneuploidy might occurdue to the
      codon 622 and 625 APC-driven gastric tumorigenesis, in agreement with our cell
      cycle analysis. The APC gene function in mitosis and chromosomal stability might
      be lost and G1 might be arrested with high quantity of DNA in the S phase. Six
      missense somatic mutations in tumor samples were detected in exon 15 A-B, twoof
      which showed pathological and disease causing effects based on SIFT, Polyphen2
      and SNPs & GO score and were not previously reported in the literature or the
      public mutation databases. CONCLUSION: The two novel pathological somatic
      mutations (g.127576C > A, g.127583C > T) in exon 14 might be altering the protein
      expression leading to development of gastric cancer in the study population. Our
      study showed that mutations in the APC gene alter the protein expression and cell
      cycle regulation in diffuse type gastric adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28576138
TI  - Changes in pancreatic histology, insulin secretion and oxidative status in
      diabetic rats following treatment with Ficus deltoidea and vitexin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The potential application of Ficus deltoidea and vitexin for the
      management of symptomatologies associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) has gained
      much attention. However, less firm evidence comes from data to augment our
      understanding of the role of F. deltoidea and vitexin in protecting pancreatic
      beta-cells. The aim of this study was to assess histological and oxidative stress
      changes in the pancreas of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats following
      F. deltoidea extract and vitexin treatment. METHODS: F. deltoidea and vitexin was
      administrated orally to six-weeks STZ-induced diabetic rats over 8 weeks period.
      The glucose and insulin tolerances were assessed by intraperitoneal glucose (2
      g/kg) tolerance test (IPGTT) and intraperitoneal insulin (0.65 U/kg) tolerance
      test (IPITT), respectively. Subsequently, insulin resistance was assessed by
      homeostasis assessment model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), quantitative
      insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI) and the insulin/triglyceride-derived
      McAuley index. The histological changes in the pancreas were then observed by
      hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. Further, the pattern of fatty acid composition
      and infrared (IR) spectra of the serum and pancreas were monitored by gas
      chromatography (GC) method and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
      RESULTS: F. deltoidea and vitexin increased pancreatic antioxidant enzymes and
      promoted islet regeneration. However, a significant increase in insulin secretion
      was observed only in rats treated with F. deltoidea. More importantly, reduction
      of fasting blood glucose is consistent with reduced FT-IR peaks at 1200-1000 cm
      1. CONCLUSIONS: These results accentuate that F. deltoidea and vitexin could be a
      potential agent to attenuate pancreatic oxidative damage and advocate their
      therapeutic potential for treating DM.

PMID- 28576140
TI  - RANK/RANKL/OPG system in the intervertebral disc.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL), a member of the
      TNF ligand superfamily, is known to regulate bone metabolism. The expression of
      each component of the RANK/RANKL/osteoprotegerin (OPG) system in the
      intervertebral disc (IVD) has not been examined in detail. The purposes of this
      study were to examine the expression of the RANK/RANKL/OPG system and to evaluate
      the function of RANKL in the matrix metabolism of the rat IVD. METHODS: Sprague
      Dawley, 12-week-old, male rats were used in this study. Anulus fibrosus (AF),
      nucleus pulposus (NP) and cartilaginous endplate (CEP) cells isolated from
      dissected thoracolumbar discs were monolayer-cultured. RANK/RANKL/OPG expression
      in rat IVDs was examined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and
      immunohistochemical analysis (cultured cells and IVD tissues). To examine the
      effect of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) stimulation on the mRNA levels of RANK,
      RANKL and OPG, the cells were cultured with or without recombinant human IL-1beta
      (rhIL-1beta). To evaluate the effect of RANKL on the mRNA expression of catabolic
      factors (IL-1beta, matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) and MMP-13), the cells were
      cultured with RANKL in the presence or absence of rhIL-1beta. The
      immunohistochemical expression of this system was also evaluated using human IVD
      tissues with different grades of degeneration. RESULTS: mRNA expression levels of
      RANK, RANKL, and OPG were clearly identified in AF, NP and CEP cells.
      Immunoreactivity to RANK, RANKL and OPG was distributed in the cell membranes
      and/or cytoplasm of the three types of cells. The mRNA level of RANKL was
      significantly upregulated by treatment with rhIL-1beta of the three types of
      cells. Treatment with RANKL without rhIL-1beta did not induce significant effects
      on the mRNA expression of catabolic factors by AF, NP and CEP cells. However, the
      expression was significantly upregulated by stimulation with RANKL in the
      presence of rhIL-1beta. There was a general trend for more RANK/RANKL/OPG
      positive cells in human IVD tissues in an advanced stage of degeneration compared
      to an early stage. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed the possibility that the
      RANK/RANKL/OPG system may play a part in the process of intervertebral disc
      degeneration.

PMID- 28576139
TI  - Genome-wide sequence variations between wild and cultivated tomato species
      revisited by whole genome sequence mapping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the second most
      important vegetable crop after potato and a member of thirteen interfertile
      species of Solanum genus. Domestication and continuous selection for desirable
      traits made cultivated tomato species susceptible to many stresses as compared to
      the wild species. In this study, we analyzed and compared the genomes of wild and
      cultivated tomato accessions to identify the genomic regions that encountered
      changes during domestication. RESULTS: Analysis was based on SNP and InDel mining
      of twentynine accessions of twelve wild tomato species and forty accessions of
      cultivated tomato. Percentage of common SNPs among the accessions within a
      species corresponded with the reproductive behavior of the species. SNP profiles
      of the wild tomato species within a phylogenetic subsection varied with their
      geographical distribution. Interestingly, the ratio of genic SNP to total SNPs
      increased with phylogenetic distance of the wild tomato species from the
      domesticated species, suggesting that variations in gene-coding region play a
      major role in speciation. We retrieved 2439 physical positions in 1594 genes
      including 32 resistance related genes where all the wild accessions possessed a
      common wild variant allele different from all the cultivated accessions studied.
      Tajima's D analysis predicted a very strong purifying selection associated with
      domestication in nearly 1% of its genome, half of which is contributed by
      chromosome 11. This genomic region with a low Tajima's D value hosts a variety of
      genes associated with important agronomic trait such as, fruit size, tiller
      number and wax deposition. CONCLUSION: Our analysis revealed a broad-spectrum
      genetic base in wild tomato species and erosion of that in cultivated tomato due
      to recurrent selection for agronomically important traits. Identification of the
      common wild variant alleles and the genomic regions undergoing purifying
      selection during cultivation would facilitate future breeding program by
      introgression from wild species.

PMID- 28576141
TI  - Adult patients' experiences of NHS specialist services for chronic fatigue
      syndrome (CFS/ME): a qualitative study in England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have explored patients' experiences of treatment for
      CFS/ME. This study aims to fill this gap by capturing the perspective of patients
      who have been treated by NHS specialist CFS/ME services in England. METHODS: Semi
      structured interviews were conducted during the period June-September 2014 with
      16 adults who were completing treatment at one of three outpatient NHS specialist
      CFS/ME services. Interviews were analysed thematically using constant comparison
      techniques, with particular attention paid to contrasting views. RESULTS: Three
      themes were identified: 'Journey to specialist services'; 'Things that help or
      hinder treatment'; and 'Support systems'. Within these themes nine sub-themes
      were identified. A wide range of factors was evident in forming participants'
      experiences, including personal characteristics such as perseverance and
      optimism, and service factors such as flexibility and positive, supportive
      relationships with clinicians. Participants described how specialist services
      played a unique role, which was related to the contested nature of the condition.
      Many participants had experienced a lack of validation and medical and social
      support before attending a specialist service. Patients' experiences of life
      before referral, and the concerns that they expressed about being discharged,
      highlighted the hardship and obstacles which people living with CFS/ME continue
      to experience in our society. CONCLUSIONS: The experiences of CFS/ME patients in
      our study showed that NHS specialist CFS/ME services played a vital role in
      patients' journeys towards an improved quality of life. This improvement came
      about through a process which included validation of patients' experiences,
      acceptance of change, practical advice and support, and therapeutic outcomes.

PMID- 28576142
TI  - Factors influencing reproductive choices of HIV positive individuals attending
      primary health care facilities in a South African health district.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is global recognition of the reproductive health rights of
      people living with HIV (PLHIV). The aim of this research study was to explore the
      reproductive choices, and the factors influencing these choices, of HIV positive
      patients attending primary health care (PHC) facilities in the Ekurhuleni health
      district of the Gauteng Province of South Africa. METHODS: During 2013, a cross
      sectional survey was conducted in the Ekurhuleni health district. At each of
      three randomly selected community health centres, a random sample of HIV positive
      patients was selected. After informed consent was obtained, trained fieldworkers
      administered a structured questionnaire that elicited information on socio
      demographics, reproductive choices and knowledge of reproductive options. Survey
      data were analysed using STATA(r) 13. RESULTS: The majority of survey
      participants (n = 430) were female (70%) and unemployed (57%). The mean age of
      participants was 36.4 years (SD 8.6): 40.8 years (SD 8.7) for men and 34.5 years
      (SD7.8) for women. Among survey participants, 46% expressed a desire for children
      (95% CI: 41.4-50.9). In the multiple logistic regression analysis, predictors of
      desire for children were age less than 49 years, marriage or living together, and
      no biological children. The odds of wanting children was 16.48 [95% CI: 5.94
      45.74] times higher for PLHIV without children, compared with those with two or
      more children, while for those less than 25 years, the odds of wanting children
      was 0.78 [95% CI: 0.23-2.59] compared with those older than 50 years. The PLHIV
      knowledge on the available reproductive options was limited, with the majority
      relying on the guidance of the health workers. CONCLUSION: Health care providers
      at PHC level should be educated to address the reproductive health needs of
      PLHIV. These aspects should be reflected in provincial and national health
      policies.

PMID- 28576143
TI  - Cervical cancer risk perceptions, sexual risk behaviors and sexually transmitted
      infections among Bivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccinated and non-vaccinated
      young women in Uganda - 5 year follow up study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies were conflicting regarding the associations between
      HPV vaccination, cervical cancer risk perceptions, high-risk sexual behaviors and
      STIs. This study compared the HPV-vaccinated and non-vaccinated young women in
      Uganda regarding cervical cancer risk perceptions, high-risk sexual behaviors,
      syphilis and HIV infections 5 years after vaccine implementation. METHODS: This
      was a population-based comparative cross-sectional survey conducted in Uganda.
      The 438 participants were sexually active young women aged 15-24 years and mean
      age was 18.6 (SD 1.4). The majority (53.0%) were HPV-vaccinated in 2008 without
      assessment of sexual activity prior to HPV vaccination. Upon verbal assessment of
      sexual activity at the time of follow-up, data were collected using a
      questionnaire and laboratory testing of blood samples for syphilis and HIV
      infections. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the HPV
      vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups regarding the prevalence of high-risk sexual
      behaviors, syphilis and HIV infections. Cervical cancer risk perceptions and age
      at sexual debut were nonetheless significantly lower among the vaccinated group
      compared to their non-vaccinated counterparts. However, HPV vaccination was not
      significantly associated to cervical cancer risk perceptions and early age at
      sexual debut in multivariate logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: We found
      no associations between HPV vaccination, cervical cancer risk perceptions, high
      risk sexual behaviors, syphilis and HIV infections among young women in Uganda 5
      years after vaccine implementation. Young girls in the study population were
      found to be sexually active at a young age, affirming the importance of targeting
      girls of younger age for HPV vaccination.

PMID- 28576144
TI  - CUL4A overexpression as an independent adverse prognosticator in intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: CUL4A has been known for its oncogenic properties in various human
      cancers. However, its role in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) has not been
      explored. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated 105 iCCA cases from a single
      medical institution. Tissue microarrays were used for immunohistochemical
      analysis of CUL4A expression. CUL4A expression vectors were introduced in cell
      lines. Cell migration and invasion assays were used to compare the mobility
      potential of iCCA cells under basal conditions and after manipulation. Then we
      evaluated the effects of CUL4A on the cell growth by proliferation assay, and
      further checked the susceptibility to cisplatin in iCCA cells with or without
      CUL4A overexpression. RESULTS: CUL4A overexpression was detected in 34 cases
      (32.4%). Patients with CUL4A-overexpressing tumors exhibited shortened disease
      free survival (mean, 27.7 versus 90.4 months; P = 0.011). In the multivariate
      analysis model, CUL4A overexpression was shown to be an independent unfavorable
      predictor for disease-free survival (P = 0.045). Moreover, stably transfected
      CUL4A-overexpressing iCCA cell lines displayed an increased mobility potential
      and enhanced cell growth without impact on susceptibility to cisplatin.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that overexpression of CUL4A plays an oncogenic
      role in iCCA and adversely affects disease-free survival. Thus, it may prove to
      be a powerful prognostic factor and a potential therapeutic target.

PMID- 28576146
TI  - Coincidence of Persistent Mullerian duct syndrome and testicular tumors in dogs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Persistent Mullerian duct syndrome (PMDS), a rare form of male
      pseudohermaphroditism in dogs, is an abnormal sexual phenotype in males that is
      characterized by the existence of a hypoplastic oviduct, uterus, and cranial part
      of the vagina. Dogs suffering from PMDS are often accompanied by cryptorchidism.
      To date, it has been mainly found in the Miniature Schnauzer breed. CASE
      PRESENTATION: In this report, two cases of PMDS with a malignant testicular tumor
      originating from cryptorchidism in breeds other than the Miniature Schnauzer
      breed are described. The patients were a seven-year-old male Maltese dog and a 17
      year-old male mixed-breed dog weighing 3.8 kg. They also exhibited an enlarged
      prostate with or without abscess and an elevated serum estradiol level and were
      surgically treated to remove the testicular tumor and Mullerian duct derivatives.
      CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended that PMDS should be differentially diagnosed by
      ultrasonography and that orchiectomy be performed at an early age in patients
      suspected to have cryptorchidism to prevent the ectopic testes from becoming
      tumorous.

PMID- 28576145
TI  - The impact of a diagnostic decision support system on the consultation:
      perceptions of GPs and patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical decision support systems (DSS) aimed at supporting diagnosis
      are not widely used. This is mainly due to usability issues and lack of
      integration into clinical work and the electronic health record (EHR). In this
      study we examined the usability and acceptability of a diagnostic DSS prototype
      integrated with the EHR and in comparison with the EHR alone. METHODS: Thirty
      four General Practitioners (GPs) consulted with 6 standardised patients (SPs)
      using only their EHR system (baseline session); on another day, they consulted
      with 6 different but matched for difficulty SPs, using the EHR with the
      integrated DSS prototype (DSS session). GPs were interviewed twice (at the end of
      each session), and completed the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire at the
      end of the DSS session. The SPs completed the Consultation Satisfaction
      Questionnaire after each consultation. RESULTS: The majority of GPs (74%) found
      the DSS useful: it helped them consider more diagnoses and ask more targeted
      questions. They considered three user interface features to be the most useful:
      (1) integration with the EHR; (2) suggested diagnoses to consider at the start of
      the consultation and; (3) the checklist of symptoms and signs in relation to each
      suggested diagnosis. There were also criticisms: half of the GPs felt that the
      DSS changed their consultation style, by requiring them to code symptoms and
      signs while interacting with the patient. SPs sometimes commented that GPs were
      looking at their computer more than at them; this comment was made more often in
      the DSS session (15%) than in the baseline session (3%). Nevertheless, SP ratings
      on the satisfaction questionnaire did not differ between the two sessions.
      CONCLUSIONS: To use the DSS effectively, GPs would need to adapt their
      consultation style, so that they code more information during rather than at the
      end of the consultation. This presents a potential barrier to adoption. Training
      GPs to use the system in a patient-centred way, as well as improvement of the DSS
      interface itself, could facilitate coding. To enhance patient acceptability,
      patients should be informed about the potential of the DSS to improve diagnostic
      accuracy.

PMID- 28576147
TI  - The microbial changes in subgingival plaques of orthodontic patients: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orthodontic treatment was found to have an impact on the quantity and
      constitution of subgingival microbiota. However, contradictory findings regarding
      the effects of fixed appliances on microbial changes were reported. The aim of
      this systematic review was to investigate the microbial changes in subgingival
      plaques of orthodontic patients. METHODS: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and
      EMBASE databases were searched up to November 20, 2016. Longitudinal studies
      observing microbial changes in subgingival plaques at different time points of
      orthodontic treatment are included. The methodological quality of the included
      studies was assessed by Methodological index for non-randomized studies (MINORS).
      The studies that reported the frequency of subgingival periodontopathogens were
      used for quantitative analysis. Other studies were analysed qualitatively to
      describe the microbial changes during orthodontic treatment. RESULTS: Thirteen
      studies were selected, including two controlled clinical trials, three cohort
      studies and eight self-controlled studies. Four periodontopathogens, including
      Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa), Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg),
      Prevotella intermedia (Pi) and Tannerella forsythia (Tf), were analysed.
      Following orthodontic appliance placement, the frequencies of Pg and Aa showed no
      significant change (P = 0.97 and P = 0.77), whereas the frequency of Tf
      significantly increased (P < 0.01) during short-term observation (0-3 months).
      The frequency of Pi showed a tooth-specific difference, as it presented no
      significant difference (P = 0.25) at the site of the first molar but was
      significantly increased (P = 0.01) at the incisor. During long-term observation
      (> = 6 months), two studies reported that the levels of subgingival
      periodontopathogens exhibited a transient increase but decreased to the
      pretreatment levels afterwards. After removal of the orthodontic appliance, the
      four periodontopathogens showed no significant difference compared with before
      removal. CONCLUSION: The levels of subgingival pathogens presented temporary
      increases after orthodontic appliance placement, and appeared to return to
      pretreatment levels several months later. This indicates that orthodontic
      treatment might not permanently induce periodontal disease by affecting the level
      of subgingival periodontal pathogen levels. Further studies of high
      methodological quality are required to provide more reliable evidence regarding
      this issue.

PMID- 28576148
TI  - The creation and validation of the Measure of Effective Attributes of Trainers
      (MEAT).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Training is a core component in the implementation of empirically
      supported treatments, especially in the case of psychosocial interventions
      targeting mental illness. However, common forms of training are relatively
      ineffective in producing behavioral changes in providers. Trainers are in a
      strategic position to influence the success of training, but no research, to our
      knowledge, has explored whether personal characteristics of trainers (e.g.,
      enthusiasm, charisma) increase effectiveness of training empirically supported
      treatments in the field of mental health. To address this gap, the current study
      created a measure of trainer characteristics (the Measure of Effective Attributes
      of Trainers (MEAT)) and assessed preliminary evidence for its reliability and
      validity by following gold standard measure development procedures. METHODS:
      Measure development consisted of three steps: (1) An initial pool of items was
      generated based on extant literature, input from the target population, and
      expert input; (2) target users of the measure interacted with the initial item
      pool to ensure face validity as well as clarity of measure instructions, response
      options, and items; and (3) a convenience sample viewed training videos and
      completed the measure resulting from step 2 to establish preliminary evidence of
      reliability and validity. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on the
      measure to determine whether latent factors (i.e., subscales of characteristics)
      underlie the data. RESULTS: The final solution consisted of two factors that
      demonstrated preliminary evidence for structural validity of the measure. The
      first factor, labeled "Charisma," contained items related to characteristics that
      facilitate a positive personal relationship with the trainee (e.g., friendly,
      warm), and the second factor, labeled "Credibility," contained items related to
      characteristics that emphasize the qualification of the trainer (e.g.,
      professional, experienced). There was also evidence for face validity, content
      validity, reliability, and known groups validity of the measure. CONCLUSIONS: The
      MEAT demonstrated preliminary evidence of key psychometric properties. Future
      research is needed to further explore and contribute to its psychometric
      evidence, which could be done in conjunction with measures of trainee knowledge,
      attitudes towards empirically supported treatments, and evaluations of trainee
      behavior change to delineate key characteristics of trainers to be leveraged for
      more effective training.

PMID- 28576150
TI  - The Lausanne Centre for Ultrafast Science (LACUS).

PMID- 28576151
TI  - Harmonium: An Ultrafast Vacuum Ultraviolet Facility.
AB  - Harmonium is a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photon source built within the Lausanne
      Centre for Ultrafast Science (LACUS). Utilising high harmonic generation, photons
      from 20-110 eV are available to conduct steady-state or ultrafast photoelectron
      and photoion spectroscopies (PES and PIS). A pulse preserving monochromator
      provides either high energy resolution (70 meV) or high temporal resolution (40
      fs). Three endstations have been commissioned for: a) PES of liquids; b) angular
      resolved PES (ARPES) of solids and; c) coincidence PES and PIS of gas phase
      molecules or clusters. The source has several key advantages: high repetition
      rate (up to 15 kHz) and high photon flux (1011 photons per second at 38 eV). The
      capabilities of the facility complement the Swiss ultrafast and X-ray community
      (SwissFEL, SLS, NCCR MUST, etc.) helping to maintain Switzerland's leading role
      in ultrafast science in the world.

PMID- 28576149
TI  - Survival and quality of life in incident systemic sclerosis-related pulmonary
      arterial hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a leading cause of mortality
      in systemic sclerosis (SSc). We sought to determine survival, predictors of
      mortality, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) related to PAH in a large
      SSc cohort with PAH. METHODS: We studied consecutive SSc patients with newly
      diagnosed (incident) World Health Organization (WHO) Group 1 PAH enrolled in a
      prospective cohort between 2009 and 2015. Survival methods were used to determine
      age and sex-adjusted standardised mortality ratio (SMR) and years of life lost
      (YLL), and to identify predictors of mortality. HRQoL was measured using the
      Short form 36 (SF-36) instrument. RESULTS: Among 132 SSc-PAH patients (112 female
      (85%); mean age 62 +/- 11 years), 60 (45.5%) died, with a median (+/-IQR)
      survival time from PAH diagnosis of 4.0 (2.2-6.2) years. Median (+/-IQR) follow
      up from study enrolment was 3.8 (1.6-5.8) years. The SMR for patients with SSc
      PAH was 5.8 (95% CI 4.3-7.8), with YLL of 15.2 years (95% CI 12.3-18.1).
      Combination PAH therapy had a survival advantage (p < 0.001) compared with
      monotherapy, as did anticoagulation compared with no anticoagulation (p < 0.003).
      Furthermore, combination PAH therapy together with anticoagulation had a survival
      benefit compared with monotherapy with or without anticoagulation and combination
      therapy without anticoagulation (hazard ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.1-0.7). Older age at
      PAH diagnosis (p = 0.03), mild co-existent interstitial lung disease (ILD) (p =
      0.01), worse WHO functional class (p = 0.03) and higher mean pulmonary arterial
      pressure at PAH diagnosis (p = 0.001), and digital ulcers (p = 0.01) were
      independent predictors of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the significant
      benefits conferred by advanced PAH therapies suggested in this study, the median
      survival in SSc PAH remains short at only 4 years.

PMID- 28576152
TI  - Time-resolved ARPES at LACUS: Band Structure and Ultrafast Electron Dynamics of
      Solids.
AB  - The manipulation of the electronic properties of solids by light is an exciting
      goal, which requires knowledge of the electronic structure with energy, momentum
      and temporal resolution. Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr
      ARPES) is the most direct probe of the effects of an optical excitation on the
      band structure of a material. In particular, tr-ARPES in the extreme ultraviolet
      (VUV) range gives access to the ultrafast dynamics over the entire Brillouin
      zone. VUV tr-ARPES experiments can now be performed at the ASTRA (ARPES
      Spectrometer for Time-Resolved Applications) end station of Harmonium, at LACUS.
      Its capabilities are illustrated by measurements of the ultrafast electronic
      response of ZrSiTe, a novel topological semimetal characterized by linearly
      dispersing states located at the Brillouin zone boundary.

PMID- 28576153
TI  - Aqueous Nanoscale Systems.
AB  - In the past five years the Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics (LBP) has
      worked on developing new technology that can access the molecular structure and
      nanoscale properties of buried aqueous interfaces and aqueous solutions. Using
      these methods a better understanding of the important role that water plays in
      (nanoscale and interfacial) processes can be obtained. These processes include
      the long-range interaction of ions with water, structural and charge anomalies of
      the hydrophobic/aqueous interface, the formation and stabilization of amphiphilic
      aqueous droplet interfaces, the formation and molecular properties of the
      electric double layer, as well as membrane structure and hydration. The result of
      our work on these themes is summarized for this special issue article.

PMID- 28576154
TI  - Several Semiclassical Approaches to Time-resolved Spectroscopy.
AB  - Ultrafast spectroscopy allows molecular dynamics to be resolved on the
      femtosecond time scale. Whereas such short time scales obviously pose many
      experimental challenges, they provide an opportunity for semiclassical methods,
      which are naturally suited for short time dynamics. Here we review several
      semiclassical approaches for evaluating vibrationally resolved electronic pump
      probe spectra, starting with the simplest, 'phase averaging' or 'dephasing
      representation'. We continue by discussing several methods developed in our group
      that allow increasing the efficiency (the cellular dephasing representation) and
      accuracy (cellular dephasing representation with a prefactor) and end with the
      Gaussian dephasing representation, which, despite its semiclassical origins,
      converges to the exact quantum result. The merits as well as shortcomings of the
      different approaches are demonstrated on time-resolved stimulated emission
      spectra of NCO and pyrazine.

PMID- 28576155
TI  - The LOUVRE Laboratory: State-of-the-Art Ultrafast Ultraviolet Spectroscopies for
      Molecular and Materials Science.
AB  - We describe the facilities for ultraviolet studies in the femtosecond to
      nanosecond time domain. These facilities consist of: i) a set-up for deep
      ultraviolet spectroscopy in the 260-380 nm range in both pump and probe pulses
      for transient absorption/reflectivity or two-dimensional spectroscopy studies;
      ii) a set-up for ultrafast fluorescence measurements with detection down to 300
      nm. The capabilities of these set-ups are demonstrated by examples on molecular
      systems, biosystems, nanoparticles and solid materials.

PMID- 28576156
TI  - Ultrafast Laser to Tailor Material Properties: An Enabling Tool in Advanced Three
      dimensional Micromanufacturing.
AB  - The progress made in ultrafast laser technology towards high repetition rate
      systems have opened new opportunities in micromanufacturing. Non-linear
      absorption phenomena triggered by femtosecond pulses interacting with transparent
      materials allow material properties to be tailored locally and in three
      dimensions, with resolution beyond the diffraction limits and at rate compatible
      with fabrication process requirements. In this short article, we illustrate the
      potential of this technology for manufacturing, and more specifically micro
      engineering, with a few examples taken from our own research and beyond.

PMID- 28576157
TI  - Opportunities for Chemistry at the SwissFEL X-ray Free Electron Laser.
AB  - X-ray techniques have long been applied to chemical research, ranging from powder
      diffraction tools to analyse material structure to X-ray fluorescence
      measurements for sample composition. The development of high-brightness,
      accelerator-based X-ray sources has allowed chemists to use similar techniques
      but on more demanding samples and using more photon-hungry methods. X-ray Free
      Electron Lasers (XFELs) are the latest in the development of these large-scale
      user facilities, opening up new avenues of research and the possibility of more
      advanced applications for a range of research. The SwissFEL XFEL project at the
      Paul Scherrer Institute will begin user operation in the hard X-ray (2.1-12.4
      keV) photon energy range in 2018 with soft X-ray (240-1930 eV) user operation to
      follow and here we will present the details of this project, it's operating
      capabilities, and some aspects of the experimental stations that will be
      particularly attractive for chemistry research. SwissFEL is a revolutionary new
      machine that will complement and extend the time-resolved chemistry efforts in
      the Swiss research community.

PMID- 28576158
TI  - Mechanistic Insights into Gold Organometallic Compounds and their Biomedical
      Applications.

PMID- 28576162
TI  - Conference Report on TEDD & 3R Workshop at ZHAW Waedenswil.
AB  - On April 7, 2017, TEDD (Tissue Engineering for Drug Development and Substance
      Testing) and the Animal Research Foundation joined forces at ZHAW Waedenswil to
      present their latest scientific results in the domain of the 3Rs of biomedical
      research: how to Refine, Reduce and Replace animal testing with alternative
      approaches.

PMID- 28576163
TI  - Report on 17th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena and Related
      Equilibrium Processes (ISSP17).

PMID- 28576164
TI  - Swiss Chemical Society Spring Meeting, University of Bern, 21st April 2017.

PMID- 28576167
TI  - Imaging of Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Using [18F]DCFPyL.
AB  - Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has been explored as a target for
      molecular imaging of prostate cancer and other malignancies that express PSMA in
      their tumor-associated neovasculature. Although several PSMA-targeted
      radiotracers labeled with a variety of radionuclides have been reported, positron
      emitting radiotracers labeled with 18F are of particular interest. One such
      compound, the small molecule PSMA inhibitor [18F]DCFPyL, has demonstrated initial
      success. This article reviews the literature on this radiotracer, including
      radiosynthetic approaches to the molecule, data that are available from
      preclinical experiments, and evidence to date of the clinical utility of this
      agent in prostate cancer and clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28576166
TI  - Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2-Targeted PET/Single- Photon Emission
      Computed Tomography Imaging of Breast Cancer: Noninvasive Measurement of a
      Biomarker Integral to Tumor Treatment and Prognosis.
AB  - Increased human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression is a
      hallmark of aggressive breast cancer. Imaging modalities have the potential to
      diagnose HER2-positive breast cancer and detect distant metastases. The
      heterogeneity of HER2 expression between primary and metastatic disease sites
      limits the value of tumor biopsies. Molecular imaging is a noninvasive tool to
      assess HER2-positive primary lesions and metastases. Radiolabeled antibodies,
      antibody fragments, and affibody molecules devise a reliable and quantitative
      method for detecting HER2-positive cancer using PET. HER2-targeted PET imaging is
      a valuable clinical tool with respect to both the care and maintenance of
      patients with breast cancer.

PMID- 28576168
TI  - Theranostic Prospects of Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Receptor-Radioantagonists in
      Oncology.
AB  - Gastrin-releasing peptide receptors (GRPRs) represent attractive targets for
      cancer diagnosis and therapy owing to their overexpression in widespread human
      tumors. Bombesin (BBN) analogues coupled to suitable chelators for stable
      radiometal binding have been proposed for diagnostic imaging and radionuclide
      therapy (theranostics) of GRPR-positive tumors. Recently, interest has shifted
      from BBN-like receptor agonists to GRPR-radioantagonists, because
      radioantagonists do not induce adverse effects after injection to patients and
      display superior pharmacokinetic in vivo profiles. Thus, they seem more
      advantageous for clinical use compared to agonists. Newer developments
      highlighting the theranostic potential of GRPR-radioantagonists in cancer patient
      management are presented herein.

PMID- 28576169
TI  - Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor-PET with 68Ga-NOTA-AE105: First Clinical
      Experience with a Novel PET Ligand.
AB  - Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) is a key component in proteolysis
      and extracellular matrix degradation during cancer invasion and metastasis. uPAR
      overexpression is an important biomarker for aggressiveness in several solid
      tumors and provides independent clinical information. A recent major breakthrough
      was obtained with human translation of uPAR PET using 68Ga-NOTA-AE105. Clinical
      results are encouraging and several large-scale clinical trials are now ongoing.
      This review focuses on uPAR PET with 68Ga-NOTA-AE105 as a new broadly applicable
      diagnostic and prognostic imaging biomarker in cancer.

PMID- 28576170
TI  - Magnetic Resonance-based Motion Correction for Quantitative PET in Simultaneous
      PET-MR Imaging.
AB  - Motion degrades image quality and quantitation of PET images, and is an obstacle
      to quantitative PET imaging. Simultaneous PET-MR offers a tool that can be used
      for correcting the motion in PET images by using anatomic information from MR
      imaging acquired concurrently. Motion correction can be performed by transforming
      a set of reconstructed PET images into the same frame or by incorporating the
      transformation into the system model and reconstructing the motion-corrected
      image. Several phantom and patient studies have validated that MR-based motion
      correction strategies have great promise for quantitative PET imaging in
      simultaneous PET-MR.

PMID- 28576171
TI  - PET Imaging for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease: From Pathologic to
      Physiologic Biomarkers.
AB  - This article describes the application of various PET imaging agents in the
      investigation and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), including radiotracers
      for pathologic biomarkers of AD such as beta-amyloid deposits and tau protein
      aggregates, and the neuroinflammation biomarker 18 kDa translocator protein, as
      well as physiologic biomarkers, such as cholinergic receptors, glucose
      metabolism, and the synaptic density biomarker synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A.
      Potential of these biomarkers for early AD diagnosis is also assessed.

PMID- 28576173
TI  - Novel Phenotypes Detectable with PET in Mood Disorders: Elevated Monoamine
      Oxidase A and Translocator Protein Level.
AB  - As a result of high prevalence and high rates of treatment resistance, major
      depressive disorder has become the leading cause of death and disability in
      moderate-income to high-income nations. Poor targeting of phenotypes is a
      plausible reason for treatment resistance and PET imaging offers a unique role to
      identify phenotypes. Both increased monoamine oxidase A binding and greater
      translocator protein 18 kDa binding occur throughout the gray matter during major
      depressive episodes, including affect-modulating brain regions such as the
      prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, and are detectable with advanced
      radioligand technology for both of these targets.

PMID- 28576174
TI  - Novel PET Radiotracers with Potential Clinical Applications.

PMID- 28576172
TI  - Multimodal PET Imaging of Amyloid and Tau Pathology in Alzheimer Disease and Non
      Alzheimer Disease Dementias.
AB  - Biomarkers of the molecular pathology underpinning dementia syndromes are
      increasingly recognized as crucial for diagnosis and development of disease
      modifying treatments. Amyloid PET imaging is an integral part of the diagnostic
      assessment of Alzheimer disease. Its use has also deepened understanding of the
      role of amyloid pathology in Lewy body disorders and aging. Tau PET imaging is an
      imaging biomarker that will likely play an important role in the diagnosis,
      monitoring, and treatment in dementias. Using tau PET imaging to examine how tau
      pathology relates to amyloid and other markers of neurodegeneration will serve to
      better understand the pathophysiologic cascade that leads to dementia.

PMID- 28576175
TI  - Update on Radiotherapy for Central Nervous System Malignancies.
AB  - Malignancies arising from the central nervous system are rare. Brain metastases,
      in contrast, are perhaps the most common neurologic complication of cancer.
      Radiotherapy, as part of combined modality therapy, continues to evolve with the
      advancement of stereotactic radiosurgery indications, the addition of new
      technologies, such as alternating electric field therapy, and mounting advances
      in the complex biology of these entities. The explosion of new clinical trials
      combined with newly discovered molecular markers suggest the beginning of a
      paradigm shift in the management of these challenging malignancies that will
      allow for future risk-stratification strategies.

PMID- 28576176
TI  - Controversies in Postoperative Irradiation of Oropharyngeal Cancer After
      Transoral Surgery.
AB  - Transoral surgery (TOS) is a novel technology whose adoption is expanding in the
      United States and other countries. TOS offers the possibility of a minimally
      invasive surgical approach to head and neck cancers. Its most frequent
      application has been in oropharyngeal cancers (OPC), of which most are associated
      with human papillomavirus (HPV). For HPV-associated OPC, where high response and
      survival rates are expected, deintensification of standard therapy is a major
      area of clinical research. In HPV-OPC, traditional pathologic risk factors
      indicating a need for adjuvant radiation or chemoradiation may not apply as
      strongly.

PMID- 28576177
TI  - Updates in the Treatment of Breast Cancer with Radiotherapy.
AB  - Breast-conserving therapy is one of the most remarkable achievements of modern
      cancer care. The authors review the evidence supporting the role of adjuvant
      radiotherapy as the standard of care for breast cancer after breast-conserving
      surgery, consensus guidelines for margins in invasive cancer disease and ductal
      carcinoma in situ, the role of partial-breast irradiation and hypofractionated
      whole-breast irradiation, and the evolving indications for postmastectomy
      radiation therapy and extent of nodal coverage. Areas of research include
      specific methods of partial-breast irradiation, interactions between neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and integration of molecular profiles with the
      selection of the best treatment modality and timing.

PMID- 28576178
TI  - Updates in Postmastectomy Radiation.
AB  - Although the use of postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) is widely accepted in
      certain clinical situations, areas of controversy persist for some clinical
      scenarios. In addition, with significant shifts in the management of breast
      cancer, including omission of axillary nodal dissection in select sentinel node
      positive patients and increased use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, new clinical
      challenges have arisen regarding the role of PMRT. This article reviews the data
      to support current recommendations for postmastectomy radiation and explores
      areas of controversy and the studies that guide clinicians in these scenarios.

PMID- 28576179
TI  - Management of Stage I Lung Cancer with Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy.
AB  - Early stage non-small cell lung cancer is a growing clinical entity with evolving
      standards of care. With the adoption of lung screening guidelines, the incidence
      of early stage disease is expected to increase. Surgical resection for early
      stage disease has been considered standard of care; however, there is evidence
      that stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR) may be a viable alternate to
      surgery. In the last decade, advances in image guidance, treatment planning
      systems, and improved spatial accuracy of treatment delivery have converged to
      result in the effective use of SABR in the treatment of early stage lung cancer.

PMID- 28576180
TI  - Optimal Use of Combined Modality Therapy in the Treatment of Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - Esophageal cancer is associated with a poor prognosis with 5-year survival rates
      of approximately 15% to 20%. Although patients with early stage disease may
      adequately be treated with a single modality, combined therapy typically
      consisting of neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by esophagectomy is being
      adopted increasingly in patients with locally advanced disease. In patients who
      are not surgical candidates, definitive chemoradiation is the preferred treatment
      approach. All patients with newly diagnosed esophageal cancer should be evaluated
      in the multidisciplinary setting by a surgeon, radiation oncologist, and medical
      oncologist owing to the importance of each specialty in the management of these
      patients.

PMID- 28576181
TI  - The Role of Radiation Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer in the Adjuvant and
      Neoadjuvant Settings.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the
      United States. Although surgery remains the only curative treatment, chemotherapy
      and radiation therapy are frequently used. In the adjuvant setting, radiation is
      usually delivered with chemotherapy to eradicate residual microscopic or
      macroscopic disease in the resection bed. Neoadjuvant radiation therapy has
      become more frequently utilized. This article reviews the historical and modern
      literature regarding radiation therapy in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings,
      focusing on the evolution of radiation therapy techniques and clinical trials in
      an attempt to identify patients best suited to receiving radiation therapy.

PMID- 28576182
TI  - Evolving Role of Radiotherapy in the Management of Rectal Carcinoma.
AB  - Management of locally advanced rectal cancer has evolved over time from surgical
      resection alone to multimodality therapy with preoperative radiation,
      chemotherapy, and total mesorectal excision resulting in excellent local control
      rates. Refinements in neoadjuvant therapies and their sequencing have improved
      pathologic complete response rates such that consideration of selective radiation
      and nonoperative management are now active clinical trial questions. Advances in
      radiation treatment planning and delivery techniques may allow for further
      reduction in acute treatment-related toxicity in select patient populations.
      Collectively, therapeutic strategies remain focused on improving outcomes for
      patients with higher-risk disease and reducing the morbidity of treatment.

PMID- 28576183
TI  - Radiotherapy for Anal Cancer: Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy and Future
      Directions.
AB  - The treatment of anal cancer has evolved remarkably in the past 30 years.
      Definitive chemoradiotherapy is the standard of care, allowing organ preservation
      and maintenance of continence for most patients. This article reviews recent
      advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery that have resulted in improvements
      in treatment-related toxicity. Most notably, the advent and wide adoption of
      intensity-modulated radiotherapy provides a superior toxicity profile compared
      with older techniques, while maintaining similar oncologic outcomes. Current
      areas of active research include optimizing and individualizing treatment
      intensity and possible integration of biologic agents and immunotherapies in the
      treatment of anal cancer.

PMID- 28576184
TI  - Radiation Oncology Management of Stage I-III Cervix Cancer.
AB  - Radiotherapy plays a critical role in the management of cervix carcinoma, in the
      adjuvant setting for patients with high-risk pathologic features and in the
      definitive setting for locoregionally advanced disease. External beam
      radiotherapy fields encompass potential areas of microscopic disease spread in
      addition to known areas of gross disease. In the presence of gross disease,
      however, escalation of dose is required that is best accomplished using a
      brachytherapy boost to spare surrounding normal organs from toxicity. This
      article addresses indications for radiotherapy in the management of nonmetastatic
      cervix cancer and reviews various radiotherapy techniques, with a heavy focus on
      brachytherapy.

PMID- 28576185
TI  - Brachytherapy in the Management of Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Brachytherapy is performed by directly inserting radioactive sources into the
      prostate gland and is an important treatment option for appropriately selected
      men with prostate adenocarcinoma. Brachytherapy provides highly conformal
      radiotherapy and delivers tumoricidal doses that exceed those administered with
      external beam radiation therapy. There is a significant body of literature
      supporting the excellent long-term oncologic and safety outcomes achieved when
      brachytherapy is used for men in all risk categories of nonmetastatic prostate
      cancer. This article highlights some important considerations and published
      outcomes that relate to brachytherapy and its role in the treatment of prostate
      cancer.

PMID- 28576186
TI  - Novel Opportunities to Use Radiation Therapy with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
      for Melanoma Management.
AB  - Immunotherapy has revolutionized the systemic management of numerous
      malignancies. Nowhere has the proven benefit of these agents in clinical practice
      been more evident than in the management of advanced melanoma. Numerous
      preclinical studies have revealed the potential benefit of immune-priming
      radiotherapy in stimulating tumor-specific immune responses. This signal for
      immune activation may lead to clinically relevant synergy with immune checkpoint
      inhibitors against malignant cells. In this review, the authors summarize the
      current data outlining the role radiation therapy may play in the management of
      advanced melanoma alongside immune checkpoint inhibitors.

PMID- 28576187
TI  - Foreword.

PMID- 28576188
TI  - Update of Practical Radiation Oncology Management Trends for Surgeons.

PMID- 28576189
TI  - Digital Arthrodesis of the Lesser Toes.
AB  - Foot and ankle surgeons frequently treat digital deformities of the lesser toes
      surgically. Arthrodesis of the proximal interphalangeal joint is the workhorse
      procedure for correction of hammer toe contractures. Fusion of the
      interphalangeal joint can be fixated with a variety of methods, including K-wire
      fixation, intramedullary implants, absorbable pins, and screws. Each method of
      fixation has advantages and disadvantages, such as variations in complication
      rates, cost, and fusion rates. Further research is necessary to determine the
      best method of fixation for digital interphalangeal joint fusion."

PMID- 28576190
TI  - First Metatarsal-Phalangeal Joint Arthrodesis: Primary, Revision, and Salvage of
      Complications.
AB  - Arthrodesis of the first metatarsal-phalangeal joint has been proposed for
      treatment of severe hallux valgus, end-stage hallux rigidus, rheumatoid
      arthritis, and revision of failed surgery due to the perceived safety and
      efficacy. This article discusses the principles of first metatarsal-phalangeal
      joint arthrodesis in primary and revision situations, joint preparation,
      configurations of osteosynthesis, and common complications, including salvage of
      nonunion and revision of malunion with realignment osteotomy.

PMID- 28576191
TI  - Tarsometatarsal Arthrodesis for Lisfranc Injuries.
AB  - This article discusses tarsometatarsal arthrodesis for Lisfranc injuries.
      Although open reduction and internal fixation has traditionally been the
      treatment of choice for most Lisfranc fracture-dislocations, there is a trend
      toward primary fusion, especially for purely ligamentous injuries. Consideration
      should be made for primary fusion in select fracture-dislocation cases. Primary
      fusion offers a single-stage alternative with potentially more stable,
      predictable results overtime.

PMID- 28576192
TI  - Subtalar Joint Arthrodesis for Elective and Posttraumatic Foot and Ankle
      Deformities.
AB  - Subtalar joint arthrodesis is a procedure used in posttraumatic arthritis,
      osteoarthritis, tarsal coalition management, posterior tibial tendon dysfunction,
      and inflammatory arthropathies, and can be used in deformity correction. The
      goals of the procedure are to eliminate pain, improve function, restore
      stability, and realign the hind foot. The procedure has high patient satisfaction
      with low complications while preserving motion in adjacent tarsal joints. Joint
      preparation is important and time should be spent preparing the joint for
      successful arthrodesis and the fixation construct needs to be done well and
      effectively to provide a solid Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Osteosynthesefragen (AO)
      construct for good results.

PMID- 28576193
TI  - Hindfoot Arthrodesis for the Elective and Posttraumatic Foot Deformity.
AB  - Triple (talonavicular, subtalar, and calcaneocuboid) joint arthrodesis and most
      recently double (talonavicular and subtalar) joint arthrodesis have been well
      proposed in the literature for surgical repair of the elective, posttraumatic,
      and/or neuropathic hindfoot deformities. The articulation of the hindfoot with
      the ankle and midfoot is multiaxial, and arthrodesis of these joints can
      significantly alter the lower extremity biomechanical manifestations by providing
      anatomic correction and alignment. This article reviews the indications and
      preoperative planning for some of the most common procedures to address the
      hindfoot deformity.

PMID- 28576194
TI  - Operative Fixation Options for Elective and Diabetic Ankle Arthrodesis.
AB  - Ankle arthrodesis remains one of the most definitive treatment options for end
      stage arthritis, paralysis, posttraumatic and postinfectious conditions, failed
      total ankle arthroplasty, and severe deformities. The general aims of ankle
      arthrodesis are to decrease pain and instability, correct the accompanying
      deformity, and create a stable plantigrade foot. Several surgical approaches have
      been reported for ankle arthrodesis with internal fixation options. External
      fixation has also evolved for ankle arthrodesis in certain clinical scenarios.
      This article provides a comprehensive analysis of midterm to long-term outcomes
      for ankle arthrodesis using internal and/or external fixation each for elective
      and diabetic conditions.

PMID- 28576195
TI  - Tibiotalocalcaneal Arthrodesis for Foot and Ankle Deformities.
AB  - Tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis is a safe and viable option to treat patients with
      arthridities affecting ankle and subtalar joints, neuromuscular disorders,
      avascular necrosis of the talus, failed ankle arthrodesis, instability, and
      Charcot neuroarthropathy. Choice of incision and fixation is based on deformity,
      pathology, prior surgery and hardware, and surgeon comfort and preference.
      Intramedullary nails offer high primary stability, reduce sustained soft tissue
      damage, and may allow for earlier return to activities than traditional plate or
      screw constructs. Peri- and postoperative fractures, malunion, nonunion, and
      infections are potential complications. Postoperative recovery is a vital
      component for an overall successful outcome.

PMID- 28576196
TI  - Management of Osteomyelitis and Bone Loss in the Diabetic Charcot Foot and Ankle.
AB  - Bone loss and destruction due to diabetic Charcot neuroarthropathy (CN) and
      osteomyelitis of the foot and ankle is a challenging clinical condition when
      lower extremity preservation is considered. Resection and excision of
      osteomyelitis and associated nonviable soft tissue can lead into large osseous
      and soft tissue defects that will most likely need the utilization of bone
      grafting and subsequent arthrodesis for stability and anatomic alignment. In the
      diabetic population with peripheral neuropathy, osseous instability can lead to
      subsequent lower extremity deformity, ulceration, infection and/or amputation.
      This article reviews the surgical approach in the presence of diabetic CN and
      concomitant osteomyelitis.

PMID- 28576197
TI  - Soft Tissue Coverage After Revisional Foot and Ankle Surgery.
AB  - Unlike the traumatic "mangled" foot and ankle in which amputation could be an
      acceptable if not preferred option, revisional foot and ankle surgery starts with
      a viable foot that is then injured by the surgeon hopefully to benefit the
      patient. Any untoward sequela, such as inadequate wound healing, instead always
      requires consideration of limb salvage. Unfortunately, this may not be so simple.
      A proactive approach to solve this problem in a timely fashion is important. The
      goal must always be to get a healed wound so the final result improves the
      ability for independent ambulation by the patient.

PMID- 28576198
TI  - Current Orthobiologics for Elective Arthrodesis and Nonunions of the Foot and
      Ankle.
AB  - A fusion rate of 100% would be ideal. Despite adhering to sound surgical
      principles, complete compliance, and no adverse comorbidities, that 100% fusion
      rate goal is elusive. Orthobiologics are a special class of materials developed
      to enhance the fusion rates in foot and ankle arthrodesis sites. Whether
      orthobiologics are used for the first fusion or reserved for a nonunion is
      debatable, especially when considering cost.

PMID- 28576199
TI  - Foot and Ankle Arthrodesis.

PMID- 28576200
TI  - Retina area of focused competence diploma.

PMID- 28576201
TI  - Proposing a new scoring system in intermittent exotropia: towards a better
      assessment of control.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a clinical need for a valid and reliable assessment system to
      quantify the severity and measure the progression of intermittent exotropia. We
      have developed a new scoring system (Look And Cover, then Ten seconds of
      Observation Scale for Exotropia [LACTOSE]) based on the examinee's potential to
      regain the phoria for both distance and near fixation. The test takes only 1
      minute to complete. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and
      validity of LACTOSE. METHODS: The LACTOSE was created by incorporating both
      distance and near score (0-4 each) into a total score ranging from 0 to 8. A
      total of 235 consecutive patients with intermittent exotropia were prospectively
      evaluated using this new scoring system. Inter-rater and test-retest reliability
      was assessed from a cohort of 10 patients who were video recorded while
      undergoing the scoring testing and then scored by 10 trained ophthalmologists
      independently. Construct validity was studied by comparison with clinical
      variables indicating disease severity. RESULTS: Inter-rater reliability was good
      for both distance and near (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.729 and
      0.818). Test-retest reliability was excellent for both distance and near (ICC =
      0.849 and 0.727). Median scores for distance, near, and total were 3, 1, and 4,
      respectively. A broad representation of the total scores was significantly linked
      to the age of onset and the amount of exotropia (r2 = 0.194, p = 0.003 and r2 =
      0.159, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We found that our newly developed scoring system
      is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the severity of intermittent
      exotropia. This new measure can be implemented easily and efficiently across
      diverse clinical settings.

PMID- 28576202
TI  - Effect of artificial anisometropia in dominant and nondominant eyes on
      stereoacuity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of artificial anisometropia in dominant and
      nondominant eyes on stereoacuity. METHODS: In this descriptive analytic study, 60
      healthy adult volunteers 18-37 years of age (mean age: 25.58 years) without any
      ocular disease were enrolled at Tabriz Nikookari eye hospital over a 1-year
      period. Anisometropia (unilateral myopia) was induced by placing trial lenses
      over the dominant and nondominant eyes in 1-diopter (D) increments ranging from 1
      to 3 D. Stereoacuity was measured using the TNO, Randot, and Titmus stereotests
      and values were converted into Napierian logarithm (ln) and compared between the
      2 eyes. RESULTS: Of the 60 adults (25 male and 35 female subjects), the right eye
      was dominant in 49 (81.7%) of the cases. Stereoacuity levels were reduced
      proportionately to the degree of anisometropia in all participants. Mean
      stereoacuity was 4.3, 5.5, and 7.4 ln for dominant eyes and 4.1, 5.4, and 7.3 ln
      for nondominant eyes using the TNO test by applying 1, 2, and 3 D lenses,
      respectively (p > 0.05). Corresponding values were 3.5, 4.6, and 6.6 ln for
      dominant eyes and 3.4, 4.6, and 6.5 ln for nondominant eyes by the circles
      subcategory of Randot test, respectively (p > 0.05). The scores were 3.8, 4.7,
      and 6.5 ln for dominant eyes and 3.8, 4.7, and 6.4 ln for nondominant eyes by the
      circles subcategory of Titmus test, respectively (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Artificial anisometropia could reduce stereoacuity. However, ocular dominance has
      no effect on the amount of stereoacuity reduction.

PMID- 28576203
TI  - Trends in pediatric strabismus surgery in the new millennium: influence of
      funding and perceived benefits of surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The rate of strabismus surgery was previously reported to be
      decreasing in the United Kingdom and Ontario. Data on the influence of government
      funding on surgical trends and recent population trends for surgery in pediatric
      patients in Canada are limited. This study aims to analyze the trend in pediatric
      strabismus procedures in Ontario from 2000 to 2013. DESIGN: A population based,
      retrospective data analysis. METHODS: An analysis of the yearly volume of
      strabismus procedures in the pediatric population of Ontario was performed,
      subdivided by number of muscles repaired and repeat procedures. The number of
      ophthalmologists performing strabismus surgery on the pediatric population was
      analyzed, subdivided by high- and low-volume surgeons and career stage. RESULTS:
      From 2000 to 2013, per 100,000 pediatric population, the number of total
      strabismus surgeries in Ontario increased 38.1%; rates of single-muscle surgery
      increased 12.8%, 2-muscle surgery increased 24.2%, and surgery of >=3 muscles
      increased 135.4%. Repeat procedures increased 263.1% from 2000 to 2013 and
      represented 28.5% of all surgeries in 2013.The number of high-volume surgeons
      increased 33.3%, whereas low-volume surgeons decreased 61.4% during the same time
      span. CONCLUSION: The number of pediatric strabismus procedures in Ontario has
      increased since 2000, and the practice has become increasingly subspecialized.
      This is likely due to changes in health care funding and increased parental and
      physician awareness of the functional and psychosocial benefits of strabismus
      surgery.

PMID- 28576205
TI  - Incision-sparing management of canaliculitis: an efficacious alternative to
      surgical management.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the outcomes of conservative
      (punctal dilation, manual expression, microcurettage, and canalicular irrigation
      with antibiotics) and surgical (punctoplasty) modalities for the management of
      canaliculitis in an Asian population. METHODS: The medical records of 11
      consecutive patients (12 eyes) presenting with canaliculitis to one surgeon from
      August 2010 to January 2014 were reviewed. The clinical presentation, findings,
      management, microbiology, and treatment outcomes were studied. RESULTS: The mean
      age was 70.6 years (57-91 years), 8 (72.7%) patients were females, and all
      11(100%) were Chinese. The majority had unilateral canaliculitis-8 (66.7%) right
      eye only and 4 (33.3%) left eye only (1 patient had consecutive right
      canaliculitis followed by left canaliculitis)-involving the lower canaliculi
      (75%). Ten (83.3%) eyes had primary canaliculitis, and 2 (16.7%) eyes had
      secondary canaliculitis from punctal plug insertion. Common presenting symptoms
      included eye discharge (75%) and eyelid swelling/redness (50%). Common clinical
      signs included mucopurulent punctal regurgitation (75%) and pouting punctum
      (58.3%). Facultative anaerobes (56.3%) formed the majority of organisms, and the
      most common bacteria isolated were Streptococcus spp. (18.8%). Mean duration to
      definitive treatment was 35 days (0-126 days). Ten (83.3%) eyes were successfully
      treated with incision-sparing modalities, and 2 (16.7%) eyes were treated
      surgically. No recurrences were observed at 3, 6, and 12 months, and only 1
      (10.0%) of the 10 conservatively managed eyes had a recurrence of canaliculitis
      after 3.8 years. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical modalities remain effective for the
      treatment of canaliculitis. However, they are not without disadvantages, such as
      scarring, discomfort, infection, and recurrence of punctal stenosis. In our
      experience, incision-sparing modalities are effective in the treatment of
      canaliculitis and have low recurrence rates.

PMID- 28576204
TI  - Interactive navigation-guided ophthalmic plastic surgery: the techniques and
      utility of 3-dimensional navigation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the techniques and utility of 3-dimensional
      reconstruction (3DR) of the target pathologies for subsequent navigation guidance
      in ophthalmic plastic surgery. DESIGN: Prospective interventional case series.
      METHODS: Stereotactic surgeries using 3D reconstruction of target lesions as the
      intraoperative image-guiding tool were performed in 5 patients with varied
      etiopathologies. All the surgeries were performed using the intraoperative image
      guided StealthStation system in the electromagnetic mode. 3DR was performed using
      StealthStation 3D model software. The utility of 3D reconstruction for extensive
      orbital mass lesions, large orbital fractures, intraconal foreign body, and
      delineation of perilesional intricate structures was studied. The intraoperative
      ease and usefulness for the navigation of a 3D lesion at crucial phases of the
      surgery were noted. RESULTS: Intraoperative geometric localization of the 3D
      lesions was found to be enhanced and precise. 3D reconstruction of the lesion
      along with the major vessels and nerves in the vicinity helped the surgeon to
      prevent potential injuries to these structures. The fracture defects could be
      navigated in a 3D plane and this helped in moderate customization of the implants
      intraoperatively. Foreign body located in difficult access positions could be
      accurately targeted for geometric localization before safe retrieval. Detailed
      preoperative 3D reconstruction by the surgeon was found to be beneficial for
      successful outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Three-dimensional navigation is very useful in
      providing detailed anatomical delineation of the targets and enhances the
      precision in certain complex cases in ophthalmic plastic surgery.

PMID- 28576206
TI  - Association of orbital decompression and the characteristics of subsequent
      strabismus surgery in thyroid eye disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of orbital decompression and the
      characteristics and outcome of subsequent strabismus surgery in patients with
      thyroid eye disease (TED). METHODS: Data on patients with TED who underwent
      orbital decompression at the Goldschleger Eye Institute, Sheba Medical Center,
      Israel, between January 1990 to December 2011 were extracted. The characteristics
      of decompression and strabismus surgeries were recorded. The outcomes and
      association of both surgical procedures were analyzed. Statistical analysis
      included distribution, Pearson correlation, and matched paired tests. RESULTS:
      145 eyes underwent orbital decompression, of which 45 eyes (31.0%) underwent
      strabismus surgery. Esotropia developed in 70% of the patients. Men and smokers
      underwent strabismus surgeries after decompression procedures more frequently
      than women and nonsmokers (chi2 test, p = 0.07, 0.002). Moreover, patients who
      complained of diplopia before the decompression surgery underwent strabismus
      surgery more frequently (chi2 test, p = 0.005). Seventy-seven percent of the
      patients who underwent medial wall decompression developed esotropia (chi2 test,
      p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest series
      in the literature examining the association between decompression and strabismus
      surgeries. The patients' characteristics and the orbital walls involved in the
      decompression procedures are associated with the characteristics of subsequent
      strabismus that develops thereafter. These findings may have significant
      implications in planning TED management.

PMID- 28576207
TI  - Effect of air and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tamponade on visual acuity after
      epiretinal membrane surgery: a pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare visual acuity improvement after
      epiretinal membrane (ERM) surgery using air and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)
      tamponade. Secondary objectives were to evaluate Visual Function Questionnaire
      (VFQ) scores and central retinal thickness (CRT) changes. DESIGN: This was a
      prospective, randomized study. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two patients were
      prospectively randomized, 19 to the air group and 13 to the SF6 group. METHODS:
      This study has enrolled patients with ERM from clinical practice of 4
      vitreoretinal surgeons. Preoperative and postoperative data included best
      corrected visual acuity (BCVA) with the use of the Early Treatment Diabetic
      Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) chart, VFQ scores, CRT, and cataract staging. Pars
      plana vitrectomy with ERM peeling was performed on all patients, either with
      partial air tamponade or with complete SF6 tamponade. RESULTS: Mean BCVA improved
      by 0.07 logMAR (3.5 ETDRS letters) in the air group and by 0.09 logMAR (4.5 ETDRS
      letters) in the SF6 group (p = 0.58). There was no statistically significant
      difference between the groups with regard to BCVA, VFQ scores, and CRT. The
      groups had similar rates of cataract progression and adverse events. CONCLUSIONS:
      ERM peeling with partial air tamponade or with complete SF6 tamponade have
      similar outcomes in terms of BCVA, VFQ scores, CRT, cataract development, and
      adverse events.

PMID- 28576208
TI  - Long-term in vitro functional stability of compounded ranibizumab and
      aflibercept.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the long-term in vitro functional stability of compounded
      ranibizumab and aflibercept. DESIGN: Laboratory study. METHODS: Ranibizumab and
      aflibercept were compounded into plastic syringes and stored under refrigerated
      conditions for up to 4 weeks. Half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) from
      dose-response curves generated by using drugs and their respective targets in
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were calculated. The functional activity of
      the drugs stored under these conditions was then compared with that of drug from
      a fresh glass vial obtained from the manufacturer. RESULTS: There was no
      statistically significant change in IC50 between ranibizumab stored in plastic
      syringes for 4 weeks compared with drug obtained from a fresh glass vial (p =
      0.4883). Similarly, there was no statistically significant change in IC50 between
      aflibercept stored in plastic syringes for 4 weeks compared with drug obtained
      from a fresh glass vial (p = 0.6202). CONCLUSION: Compounding of ranibizumab and
      aflibercept in plastic syringes with storage for up to 4 weeks does not appear to
      have a detrimental effect on the in vitro functional activity of these
      medications. Because the cost of these medications can be prohibitive,
      compounding may be considered as a method of reducing cost.

PMID- 28576209
TI  - VEGF-A is increased in exogenous endophthalmitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Exogenous endophthalmitis is an ophthalmologic emergency defined by
      panocular inflammation. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) contributes
      to inflammation by promoting chemotaxis of monocytes and granulocytes and by
      increasing vascular permeability. The purpose of this article is to determine if
      VEGF-A is elevated in the vitreous samples obtained from individuals with
      exogenous endophthalmitis. METHODS: Vitreous samples from individuals with
      exogenous endophthalmitis (n = 18) were analyzed via Luminex assay and enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay for the cytokines VEGF-A, tumor necrosis factor (TNF),
      interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8 (chemokine [CXCL]-8), IL-1beta, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL
      33, interferon (IFN)-gamma, IFN-alpha, IFN-beta, chemokine ligand (CCL)-3, IL-2,
      IL-5, IL-15, CXCL-10, CCL-2, IL-1Ra, CCL-5, IL-17, and CCL-11. Vitreous samples
      obtained at the time of macular hole surgery served as controls (n = 8). RESULTS:
      Concentrations of VEGF-A were significantly elevated in vitreous samples from
      individuals with exogenous endophthalmitis compared with macular hole (p <
      0.001). VEGF-A was significantly upregulated in individuals with exogenous
      endophthalmitis after cataract surgery (p = 0.001), vitrectomy (p = 0.024), and
      intravitreal injection (p = 0.012). VEGF-A concentrations were similar in both
      culture-positive and culture-negative populations (p > 0.05). In a linear
      regression model, levels of VEGF-A correlated significantly with the chemokine
      CXCL-8 (p = 0.028). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that VEGF-A is potently
      upregulated in exogenous endophthalmitis. This observation provides a foundation
      for future studies of targeted VEGF-A blockade in the management of
      endophthalmitis.

PMID- 28576210
TI  - Accuracy of referral diagnosis to an emergency eye clinic.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of diagnosis of ophthalmic problems from
      health care practitioners such as optometrists, general practitioners, and
      emergency physicians in and around London, Ontario, Canada. DESIGN: Retrospective
      review of all referrals to the Ivey Eye Institute emergency eye clinic over a
      period of 6 months from January to July 2011. PARTICIPANTS: During the study
      period, there were 1810 patient encounters, including 1134 new referrals.
      METHODS: For each patient encounter, information was collected regarding basic
      demographics, referral source, referral diagnosis, and final diagnosis. Referrals
      were categorized by source of referral and anatomic location of the eye problem.
      The accuracy of each referral was assessed by comparing the referral diagnosis to
      the final diagnosis. Referrals were categorized as correct, incorrect, not yet
      diagnosed, nonspecific, or baseline examination. RESULTS: Referral diagnoses were
      correct in 45% and incorrect in 28% overall. Referral diagnoses from optometrists
      were correct in 54%, from emergency physicians were 39% correct, and from general
      practitioners were 33% correct. Ophthalmologists had the highest diagnostic
      accuracy, with 83% of referral diagnoses being correct. Diagnoses were incorrect
      in 36% from optometrists, 28% from emergency physicians, and 32% from general
      practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the low accuracy rate of
      referral diagnoses of emergency eye patients from nonophthalmologists to the Ivey
      Eye Institute emergency eye clinic. Better training in the diagnosis of
      ophthalmic problems for general practitioner and emergency medicine residents
      would be of benefit. Optometrists may also find it helpful to have improved
      emergency and urgency training. Ophthalmologists should be involved in this
      training.

PMID- 28576212
TI  - Short- to long-term results of Ahmed glaucoma valve in the management of elevated
      intraocular pressure in patients with pediatric uveitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of Ahmed
      glaucoma valve (AGV) implant for elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in pediatric
      patients with uveitis. DESIGN: This was a retrospective chart review.
      PARTICIPANTS: The study included 16 eyes (11 children) with uveitis. METHODS:
      Success was defined as having IOP between 6 and 21 mm Hg with (qualified success)
      or without (complete success) antiglaucoma medications and without the need for
      further glaucoma or tube extraction surgery. RESULTS: Mean age of patients at the
      time of AGV implantation was 14.19 +/- 3.25 years. AGV implantation was the first
      glaucoma surgical procedure in 12 eyes (75%). Average postoperative follow-up
      period was 64.46 +/- 33.56 months. Mean preoperative IOP was 33.50 +/- 7.30 mm Hg
      versus 12.69 +/- 3.20 mm Hg at the last follow-up visit (p < 0.001). Three eyes
      (18.7%) were determined as cases of "failure" because of tube removal in 2 eyes
      and a second AGV implantation in 1 eye. The cumulative probability of complete
      success was 68.8% at 6 months, 56.3% at 12 months, 49.2% at 36 months, 42.2% at
      48 months, and 35.2% at 84 months, and the cumulative probability of eyes without
      complication was 75.0% at 6 months, 66.7% at 24 months, 58.3% at 36 months, 48.6%
      at 48 months and 24.3% at 108 months based on Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although AGV implant is an effective choice in the management of
      elevated IOP in pediatric uveitis, antiglaucoma medications are frequently needed
      for control of IOP. Tube exposure is an important complication in the long term.
      Differential diagnosis between relapse of uveitis and endophthalmitis is
      important in patients who received AGV implantation.

PMID- 28576211
TI  - Morpho-functional analysis of Stargardt Disease for reading.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze Stargardt disease (STGD) by morpho-functional examination
      and investigate the relationship between morpho-functional measures and reading
      performance. DESIGN: Observational case series study. PARTICIPANTS: Fifteen
      patients with STGD. METHODS: Twenty-six eyes of 15 patients underwent complete
      ophthalmic evaluation. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography, fundus
      autofluorescence (FAF), best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and microperimetric
      examinations were performed. FAF and optical coherence tomography (OCT) overlap
      on microperimetric images was obtained in order to evaluate both tomographic and
      FAF features passing through the eccentric fixation area. Both morphologic
      features and functional data were correlated with magnification of prescribed
      device and reading rate. RESULTS: Univariable analysis showed a significant
      correlation between magnification power and greatest linear dimension of both OCT
      and FAF (r = 0.69 and r = 0.67; p < 0.05). Magnification power was related to
      best corrected visual acuity (r = 0.56; p < 0.05). Retinal sensitivity map (r =
      0.57; p < 0.05) was considered an indicator of reading rate. Magnification levels
      showed a positive correlation with eccentric preferred retinal location (p =
      0.03) and the degree of FAF alteration (normal, dishomogeneous,
      ipoautofluorescence; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the overlapping of
      OCT/FAF imaging on microperimetric exam, residual activity of outer retinal
      layers passing through the eccentric fixation area seems to be related with
      required magnification and reading rate. Identification of morpho-functional
      parameters is helpful for designing a customized rehabilitative program.

PMID- 28576213
TI  - Mechanical exposure of ophthalmic surgeons: a quantitative ergonomic evaluation
      of indirect ophthalmoscopy and slit-lamp biomicroscopy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Vitreoretinal (VR) surgeons have high rates of spinal pain. The aim of
      this study was to investigate if VR surgeons adopt more complex postures in
      indirect ophthalmoscopy procedures compared with procedures involving the slit
      lamp or operating microscope. METHODS: Postures of the neck, back, and overall
      spine were measured by inclinometers on 13 VR surgeons. Each doctor was measured
      during 3 indirect examinations and 3 slit-lamp examinations (SLE), and then
      during 1 operating microscope procedure (phacoemulsification/vitrectomy) and 1
      indirect procedure (indirect laser or cryotherapy/buckle). RESULTS: The average
      degree of flexion of neck/back/overall spine was significantly higher in indirect
      examinations compared with SLE (p < 0.01). SLE involved mainly neutral flexion,
      whereas indirect examinations involved significant time in moderate flexion of
      the neck and overall spine (42.2% and 76.2%, respectively), lateral bending of
      the back and overall spine (62.5% and 38%), and rotation of the neck and overall
      spine (76.6% and 32.1%). For indirect procedures, the neck was in moderate
      flexion and rotation approximately half of the time, and the overall spine was
      moderately flexed in >75% of the time. CONCLUSION: Based on biomechanical
      concepts, VR surgeons are at risk of developing spinal pain because they adopt
      postures that are described as ergonomically unacceptable.

PMID- 28576214
TI  - Surgical techniques for the treatment of conjunctivochalasis: paste-pinch-cut
      conjunctivoplasty versus thermal cautery conjunctivoplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of paste-pinch-cut
      conjunctivoplasty and cautery conjunctivoplasty for the treatment of symptomatic
      conjunctivochalasis. DESIGN: This was a prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS:
      Sixteen patients (32 eyes) with bilateral conjunctivochalasis that was
      symptomatic after medical therapy were enrolled in the study. METHODS: This was a
      single-centre, contralateral eye, prospective study. Paste-pinch-cut
      conjunctivoplasty was performed in the left eye, and thermal cautery
      conjunctivoplasty was performed in the right eye. The outcomes of each procedure
      were compared preoperatively and at the 1-month follow-up by using the Canadian
      Dry Eye Assessment (CDEA) scoring system, standard conjunctivochalasis grading,
      and corneal staining. Intraoperative discomfort and immediate postoperative
      discomfort were assessed by using a 10-point scale. RESULTS: The mean age of
      patients was 72.4 +/- 8.67 years. Conjunctival redundancy was absent in 14 of 16
      patients postoperatively. The mean CDEA score improved after both procedures (7.1
      +/- 2.8 preoperatively versus 4.5 +/- 0.78 at the 1-month follow-up for cautery
      conjunctivoplasty, 7.4 +/- 2.5 versus 4.9 +/- 3.1 for paste-pinch-cut
      conjunctivoplasty). This improvement was statistically significant in the cautery
      conjunctivoplasty group (p = 0.012). Mean intraoperative discomfort was 2.6 +/-
      2.1 with the use of paste-pinch-cut conjunctivoplasty and 3.5 +/- 3.2 with the
      use of cautery conjunctivoplasty; however, the difference was not statistically
      significant. No intraoperative or postoperative complications were observed with
      either technique. CONCLUSIONS: Paste-pinch-cut and thermal cautery
      conjunctivoplasty are both safe and effective surgical treatments for the repair
      of conjunctivochalasis, with patients reporting greater improvement in symptoms
      after the cautery technique.

PMID- 28576215
TI  - Effect of dry eye on Scheimpflug imaging of the cornea and elevation data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of dry eye on Scheimpflug imaging of the cornea
      and elevation data. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. PARTICIPANTS:
      Scheimpflug images of 50 patients with dry eye who were being tested for
      eligibility for corneal refractive surgery were screened. Twelve eyes of 12
      patients with abnormal Belin/Ambrosio enhanced ectasia display (BAD) anterior
      elevation difference were included in the study. The patients had no history of
      contact lens wear or any other sign of ectasia. METHODS: Peak central corneal
      densitometry value, corneal volume, pachymetry at the thinnest point, and BAD
      anterior elevation difference value at the centre of the 9 mm zone were recorded
      before and after 4 weeks of dry eye treatment. Measurements were compared with
      the Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: The mean corneal peak densitometry and
      volume were similar before and after therapy (p = 0.465 and p = 0.441,
      respectively). The mean anterior elevation difference value at the centre of the
      9 mm zone before treatment (6.67 +/- 1.72 um) was significantly higher than the
      mean post-treatment value (4.00 +/- 1.48 um) (p = 0.002). The mean pachymetry at
      the thinnest location after treatment (548 +/- 11.0) was significantly higher
      than the pretreatment value (538 +/- 8.5) (p = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: BAD anterior
      elevation differences and pachymetric measurements may be affected by ocular
      surface or tear film abnormalities associated with dry eye disease. Repeated
      evaluations after treatment may reveal normal results.

PMID- 28576216
TI  - An unusual case of cerebral polyopia.

PMID- 28576217
TI  - Bilateral optic neuritis: A new twist on immune reconstitution inflammatory
      syndrome.

PMID- 28576218
TI  - Transient smartphone blindness.

PMID- 28576219
TI  - A late onset of choroidal metastasis from renal cell carcinoma simulating
      melanoma.

PMID- 28576220
TI  - Orbital cellular blue nevus complicated by malignant melanoma.

PMID- 28576221
TI  - A rare case of perfluoro-n-octane in the orbit following vitreoretinal surgery.

PMID- 28576222
TI  - Concurrent diagnosis of giant cell arteritis and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in
      a temporal artery biopsy.

PMID- 28576223
TI  - Detection of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, enabled by tele-ophthalmology.

PMID- 28576224
TI  - City Lights: corneal diseases in Hollywood movies.

PMID- 28576225
TI  - Widefield en face optical coherence tomography to quantify the extent of
      paracentral acute middle maculopathy.

PMID- 28576226
TI  - Corneal melt following collagen crosslinking and topography-guided customized
      ablation treatment for keratoconus.

PMID- 28576227
TI  - Late-onset diffuse lamellar keratitis 15 years after laser in situ
      keratomileusis.

PMID- 28576228
TI  - Corneal keloid with cystoid cicatrix:post-small-incision cataract surgery.

PMID- 28576229
TI  - Corneal edema with a systemic epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor.

PMID- 28576230
TI  - Endogenous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus endophthalmitis secondary
      to axillary phlegmon: a case report.

PMID- 28576231
TI  - Blepharospasm as a masquerade of glaucomatous visual field defects.

PMID- 28576232
TI  - Lessons Learned from Burn Disasters in the Post-9/11 Era.
AB  - Although every disaster scenario is unique, certain themes have emerged
      repeatedly during management of burn disasters. These lessons learned are useful
      when planning an individual burn unit's role in future disaster response.

PMID- 28576234
TI  - Burn Injuries: Prevention, Advocacy, and Legislation.
AB  - Each year in the United States and Canada, thousands of individuals seek medical
      care for a burn injury. Some individuals are burned significantly enough they
      require treatment at specialized burn care facilities. Most of these injuries are
      preventable. This article presents an historical perspective related to burn
      prevention and elements of successful burn prevention programs and explores ways
      in which the plastic surgeon can promote burn prevention through education,
      advocacy, and the legislative process. Prevention efforts undertaken by the
      surgeon can increase awareness, ensure a safe environment, and reduce burn
      injuries.

PMID- 28576233
TI  - Disaster Preparedness and Response for the Burn Mass Casualty Incident in the
      Twenty-first Century.
AB  - The effective and efficient coordination of emergent patient care at the point of
      injury followed by the systematic resource-based triage of casualties are the
      most critical factors that influence patient outcomes after mass casualty
      incidents (MCIs). The effectiveness and appropriateness of implemented actions
      are largely determined by the extent and efficacy of the planning and preparation
      that occur before the MCI. The goal of this work was to define the essential
      efforts related to planning, preparation, and execution of acute and subacute
      medical care for disaster burn casualties. This type of MCI is frequently
      referred to as a burn MCI."

PMID- 28576235
TI  - Negligent and Inflicted Burns in Children.
AB  - One in 4 American children have been abused and up to 5 children die per day from
      abuse. Children are vulnerable and error or lag in diagnosis may lead to further
      injury or death. In contrast, misdiagnosis of abuse is also unacceptable. Burns
      are a leading cause of abuse-related fatality and determination of cause can be
      difficult. It is critical that clinicians distinguish between burns of abuse
      (inflicted) and neglect and those received accidentally (noninflicted).
      Discordant narratives, use of alcohol and illicit substances, characteristics of
      the burn wound, and concomitant injury are all red flags for inflicted and
      negligent burns.

PMID- 28576236
TI  - Burn Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
AB  - This article examines the societal impact of thermal injury in low- and middle
      income countries. The authors describe the unique challenges of these health care
      systems in providing care for burned patients, focusing on resuscitation,
      excision and grafting, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.

PMID- 28576237
TI  - Global Burn Care: Education and Research.
AB  - Burns are an often-overlooked health indicator in global health literature, but
      account for a significant global health burden in lower middle income countries.
      This article provides an overview of burn injury from the global health
      perspective. It focuses on education and research, emphasizing the appropriate
      role of volunteerism.

PMID- 28576238
TI  - Acute Fluid Management of Large Burns: Pathophysiology, Monitoring, and
      Resuscitation.
AB  - This article reviews the pathophysiology of large burn injury and the extreme
      fluid shifts that occur in the hours and days after this event. The authors focus
      on acute fluid management, monitoring of hemodynamic status, and end points of
      resuscitation. Understanding the need and causes for fluid resuscitation after
      burn injury helps the clinician develop an effective plan to balance the
      competing goals of normalized tissue perfusion and limited tissue edema.
      Thoughtful, individualized treatment is the best answer and the most effective
      compromise.

PMID- 28576240
TI  - Management of Pulmonary Failure after Burn Injury: From VDR to ECMO.
AB  - This article highlights the challenges in managing pulmonary failure after burn
      injury. The authors review several different ventilator techniques, provide
      weaning parameters, and discuss complications.

PMID- 28576241
TI  - Rational Selection and Use of Antimicrobials in Patients with Burn Injuries.
AB  - Caring for patients with burn injuries is challenging secondary to the acute
      disease process, chronic comorbidities, and underrepresentation in evidence-based
      literature. Much current practice relies on extrapolation of guidance from
      different patient populations and wide variations in universal practices.
      Identifying infections or sepsis in this hypermetabolic population is imperfect
      and often leads to overprescribing of antimicrobials, suboptimal dosing, and
      multidrug resistance. An understanding of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
      may aid optimization of dosing regimens to better attain treatment targets. This
      article provides an overview of the current status of burn infection and attempts
      recommendations for consideration to improve universally accepted care.

PMID- 28576239
TI  - Inhalation Injury: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
AB  - The classic determinants of mortality from severe burn injury are age, size of
      injury, delays of resuscitation, and the presence of inhalation injury. Of the
      major determinants of mortality, inhalation injury remains one of the most
      challenging injuries for burn care providers. Patients with inhalation injury are
      at increased risk for pneumonia (the leading cause of death) and multisystem
      organ failure. There is no consensus among leading burn care centers in the
      management of inhalation injury. This article outlines the current treatment
      algorithms and the evidence of their efficacy.

PMID- 28576242
TI  - Sedation and Pain Management in Burn Patients.
AB  - Although pain management is a major challenge for clinicians, appropriate pain
      control is the foundation of efficacious burn care from initial injury to long
      term recovery. The very treatments designed to treat burn wounds may inflict more
      pain than the initial injury itself, making it the clinician's duty to embrace a
      multimodal treatment approach to burn pain. Vigilant pain assessment, meaningful
      understanding of the pathophysiology and pharmacologic considerations across
      different phases of burn injury, and compassionate attention to anxiety and other
      psychosocial contributors to pain will enhance the clinician's ability to provide
      excellent pain management.

PMID- 28576243
TI  - Metabolic and Endocrine Considerations After Burn Injury.
AB  - Severe burn injury is followed by a profound hypermetabolic response that
      persists up to 2 years after injury. It is mediated by up to 50-fold elevations
      in plasma catecholamines, cortisol, and glucagon that lead to whole-body
      catabolism, elevated resting energy expenditures, and multiorgan dysfunction.
      Modulation of the response by early excision and grafting of burn wounds,
      thermoregulation, control of infection, early and continuous enteral nutrition,
      and pharmacologic treatments aimed at mitigating physiologic derangements have
      markedly decreased morbidity.

PMID- 28576244
TI  - Clinician's Guide to Nutritional Therapy Following Major Burn Injury.
AB  - This article provides a clinician's guide to nutritional support of the burn
      patient. The authors review the assessment and management of the needs of the
      thermally injured patient and provide recommendations on replacement and
      supplementation with calories, protein, carbohydrates, lipids, fluids, and
      minerals. Furthermore, the authors compare and contrast enteral versus parenteral
      delivery of nutrition.

PMID- 28576245
TI  - Acalculous Cholecystitis in Burn Patients: Is There a Role for Percutaneous
      Cholecystostomy?
AB  - Although acute acalculous cholecystitis is uncommon in burn patients, this
      condition can be rapidly fatal due to delays in diagnosis and treatment and
      should always be considered in the differential diagnosis when burn patients
      become septic, develop abdominal pain, or have hemodynamic instability. This
      article reviews the use of percutaneous cholecystostomy in burn patients as both
      a diagnostic and therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28576246
TI  - Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Thermal Injury: A Review of Risk
      Assessment Tools and Current Knowledge on the Effectiveness and Risks of
      Mechanical and Chemical Prophylaxis.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can be a life-threatening or limb-threatening
      complication of thermal injury. The severity of burn injury can be used to
      predict VTE risk among patients with thermal injury, and a weighted risk
      stratification tool has been developed. This article reviews the incidence,
      diagnosis, and management of thromboembolic events in patients with burns. The
      article particularly focuses on identifying those patients who are at highest
      risk for VTE and provides recommendations on mechanical and chemical prophylaxis.

PMID- 28576247
TI  - Burn Center Care of Patients with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal
      Necrolysis.
AB  - Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis are rare, life
      threatening, cutaneous drug reactions. Medications are the most common cause,
      although an infection may be responsible. A link between genetics and certain
      medications has been established. Clinical diagnosis should be confirmed with
      biopsy. When the area of epidermal detachment approaches 30%, burn center care is
      advisable. An ophthalmologist should be consulted to optimize ocular care.
      Pharmacologic interruption has been sought but there is little consensus on the
      most appropriate agent and no high-quality studies have been conducted to
      demonstrate if any of these agents lead to improved survival.

PMID- 28576248
TI  - Life-threatening Skin Disorders Treated in the Burn Center: Impact of Health care
      associated Infections on Length of Stay, Survival, and Hospital Charges.
AB  - This article reviews a single burn center experience with life-threatening skin
      disorders, over a 10-year period. It explores the incidence of health care
      associated infections and the impact on length of stay, hospital charges, and
      mortality.

PMID- 28576249
TI  - Pediatric Burn Care: Unique Considerations in Management.
AB  - Severe pediatric burns require a multidisciplinary team approach at a specialized
      pediatric burn center. Special attention must be paid to estimations of total
      body surface area, fluid resuscitation and metabolic demands, and adequate
      analgesia and sedation. Long-term effects involve scar management and
      psychosocial support to the child and their family. Compassionate comprehensive
      burn care is accomplished by a multidisciplinary team offering healing in the
      acute setting and preparing the child and family for long-term treatment and
      care.

PMID- 28576250
TI  - Patient Safety in Burn Care: Application of Evidence-based Medicine to Improve
      Outcomes.
AB  - This article reviews 5 areas in burn care that increasingly use evidence-based
      medicine to optimize quality and safety: resuscitation protocols, transfusion
      practices, vascular access, venous thromboembolic prophylaxis, and rational use
      of antibiotics.

PMID- 28576251
TI  - Surgical Excision of Burn Wounds: Best Practices Using Evidence-Based Medicine.
AB  - This article reviews guidelines for burn wound excision, regarding timing, depth,
      and technique. The authors collect evidence from both animal models and the
      clinical literature, to recommend best practices for burn wound excision.

PMID- 28576252
TI  - Skin Substitutes and Bioscaffolds: Temporary and Permanent Coverage.
AB  - Advancements in surgical wound treatment have led to skin substitutes and
      bioscaffolds as temporary and permanent coverage for burn wounds. Skin
      substitutes are used to improve wound coverage and restore the functional and
      aesthetic qualities of skin, and help to prevent wound infection and maintain a
      moist wound healing environment. Although allografts are preferred when
      autografts are not possible, high costs and limited availability have led to the
      use of xenografts and the development of skin substitutes and bioscaffolds.
      Despite constant evolution in the development of these skin substitutes and
      bioscaffolds, no single product stands out as the gold standard.

PMID- 28576254
TI  - Even Better Than the Real Thing? Xenografting in Pediatric Patients with Scald
      Injury.
AB  - This article reviews a single burn center experience with porcine xenografts to
      treat pediatric scald injuries, over a 10-year period. The authors compare
      xenografting to autografting, as well as wound care only, and provide outcome
      data on length of stay, incidence of health care-associated infections, and need
      for reconstructive surgery.

PMID- 28576256
TI  - Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Burns.
AB  - Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has become a widely used treatment for
      acute and chronic wounds. NPWT is indicated for a variety of complex wounds, and
      some studies validate its use for certain aspects of burn care. Although further
      research is needed to explore the benefits for burns, NPWT has proven beneficial
      in its use as a dressing that bolsters skin grafts, promotes integration of
      bilaminate dermal substitutes, promotes re-epithelialization of skin graft donor
      sites, and potentially reduces the zone of stasis. This article reviews the
      literature on NPWT in burns, based on indication/application, and describes our
      experience with the use of modified NPWT for large burns.

PMID- 28576255
TI  - Chemical, Electrical, and Radiation Injuries.
AB  - This article reviews the unique challenges presented by chemical, electrical, and
      radiation injuries. The authors discuss pathophysiology and diagnosis of these
      injuries and provide recommendations for management.

PMID- 28576253
TI  - Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering: Regeneration of the Skin and Its Contents.
AB  - In this review, the authors discuss the stages of skin wound healing, the role of
      stem cells in accelerating skin wound healing, and the mechanism by which these
      stem cells may reconstitute the skin in the context of tissue engineering.

PMID- 28576258
TI  - Volume 1: Rescue, Resuscitation, and Resurfacing.

PMID- 28576257
TI  - Management of the Chronic Burn Wound.
AB  - This article reviews the current evidence in using hyperbaric oxygen therapy
      (HBOT) in burn wounds. There is also separate consideration of diabetic foot
      burns and a protocol for use of HBOT in a specific case. The challenges of using
      HBOT in an acute burn care setting are reviewed. Next the pathophysiology of
      Marjolin ulcers is reviewed. The current thinking in diagnosis, treatment, and
      prevention of Marjolin ulcers is discussed. Finally, a background in using
      topical growth factors (tGF) is provided, followed by a summary of the current
      evidence of tGF in burn wounds.

PMID- 28576259
TI  - [Adolescents and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A specific
      management].
AB  - The acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the first cancer for which
      emerged the particularity of the adolescent and young adult population. After
      decades of poorly concerted approaches, adult and pediatric haematologists found
      out that adolescents treated according to pediatric approaches had a better
      outcome than those treated in adult protocols. Therefore, pediatric-inspired
      therapies have been successfully implemented in the young adult population,
      leading to decreased criteria for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. More
      recently, a high prevalence of Philadelphia-like ALL has been identified in the
      AYA population, which opens the door to the combination of target therapy similar
      to Philadelphia-positive ALL. AYA patients require specific care programs
      including fertility counselling, adhesion evaluation, and long-term survivor
      follow-up. They are to be optimally treated by multidisciplinary teams, exploring
      their personal needs and determining the best management of the "whole patient".

PMID- 28576260
TI  - Regulation of bone mass by the gut microbiota is dependent on NOD1 and NOD2
      signaling.
AB  - Germ-free (GF) mice have increased bone mass that is normalized by colonization
      with gut microbiota (GM) from conventionally raised (CONV-R) mice. To determine
      if innate immune signaling pathways mediated the effect of the GM, we studied the
      skeleton of GF and CONV-R mice with targeted inactivation of MYD88, NOD1 or NOD2.
      In contrast to WT and Myd88-/- mice, cortical bone thickness in mice lacking Nod1
      or Nod2 was not increased under GF conditions. The expression of Tnfalpha and the
      osteoclastogenic factor Rankl in bone was reduced in GF compared to CONV-R WT
      mice but not in Nod1-/- or Nod2-/- mice indicating that the effect of the GM to
      increase Tnfalpha and Rankl in bone and to reduce bone mass is dependent on both
      NOD1 and NOD2 signaling.

PMID- 28576261
TI  - [Critical analysis of reference studies on aluminium-based adjuvants
      toxicokinetics].
AB  - We reviewed the three reference toxicokinetic studies commonly used to suggest
      innocuity of aluminum (Al)-based adjuvants. A single experimental study was
      carried out using isotopic 26Al (Flarend et al., 1997). This study ignored
      adjuvant cell capture. It was conducted over a short period of time (28 days) and
      used only two rabbits per adjuvant. At the endpoint, Al retention was 78% for
      aluminum phosphate and 94% for aluminum hydroxide, both results being
      incompatible with quick elimination of vaccine-derived Al in urines. Tissue
      distribution analysis omitted three important retention sites: the injected
      muscle, the draining lymph node and bone. Two theoretical studies have evaluated
      the potential risk of vaccine Al in infants, by reference to the oral Minimal
      Risk Level (MRL) extrapolated from animal studies. Keith et al., 2002 used a too
      high MRL (2mg/kg/d), an erroneous model of 100% immediate absorption of vaccine
      Al, and did not consider renal and blood-brain barrier immaturity. Mitkus et al.
      (2011) only considered absorbed Al, with erroneous calculations of absorption
      duration. They ignored particulate Al captured by immune cells, which play a role
      in systemic diffusion and the neuro-inflammatory potential of the adjuvant. MRL
      they used was both inappropriate (oral Al vs injected adjuvant) and far too high
      (1mg/kg/d) with regard to experimental studies of Al-induced memory and
      behavioral changes. Both paucity and serious weaknesses of these studies strongly
      suggest that novel experimental studies of Al adjuvants toxicokinetics should be
      performed on the long-term, including post-natal and adult exposures, to ensure
      innocuity and restore population confidence in Al-containing vaccines.

PMID- 28576262
TI  - Total laparoscopic pelvic exenteration for a laterally recurrent cervical
      carcinoma with a vesicovaginal fistula that developed after concurrent
      chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: For locally advanced cervical carcinoma, concurrent chemoradiotherapy
      (CCRT) is the standard treatment, however, CCRT can lead to development of a
      vesicovaginal or rectovaginal fistula [1]. Treatment options are limited for
      patients with laterally recurrent cervical carcinoma and fistula formation after
      CCRT. Chemotherapy with bevacizumab is now used for recurrent or advanced
      cervical carcinoma, but this treatment is associated with fistula formation [2].
      When the recurrent mass is confined to the pelvic cavity, complete surgical
      resection with negative margins offers the most promise; however, the
      resectability rate is low in cases of laterally recurrent tumor [3], which may
      include bony structures, and survival outcomes seem to be poor in cases of a
      laterally recurrent vs. centrally recurrent tumor, even when the primary tumor
      has been resected in full [4]. Because analyses have shown that laparoscopy
      optimizes visualization and thus provides for meticulous dissection and that
      laparoscopic pelvic exenteration, in comparison to open pelvic exenteration
      results in minimal intraoperative blood loss and complications, fewer
      postoperative complications, and a shorter hospital stay [5], we perform
      laparoscopic pelvic exenteration in cases of laterally recurrent cervical
      carcinoma. METHODS: A 52-year-old woman underwent CCRT for a 10-cm stage IVA
      cervical carcinoma. That involved the bladder and right ureter, causing right
      hydronephrosis. Seven months after the CCRT, a recurrent mass at the right pelvic
      sidewall and vesicovaginal fistula were detected. The mass involved the right
      ureter and bladder and was attached to the rectum. The patient's right renal
      function was lost. RESULTS: Total pelvic exenteration and right
      nephroureterectomy were performed laparoscopically. Operation time was 566min,
      and the blood loss volume was 250mL. Complete tumor clearance was achieved
      without any complication. No adjuvant treatment has been performed, and follow-up
      positron emission tomography-computed tomography has revealed no sign of
      recurrence during the 5months that have passed since the surgery. CONCLUSION:
      Total laparoscopic pelvic exenteration is technically feasible for a laterally
      recurrent cervical carcinoma and vesicovaginal fistula that develop after CCRT.

PMID- 28576263
TI  - Numerical analysis of ammonia homogenization for selective catalytic reduction
      application.
AB  - Selective catalytic reduction based on urea water solution as ammonia precursor
      is a promising method for the NOx abatement form exhaust gasses of mobile diesel
      engine units. It consists of injecting the urea-water solution in the hot flue
      gas stream and reaction of its products with the NOx over the catalyst surface.
      During this process flue gas enthalpy is used for the urea-water droplet heating
      and for the evaporation of water content. After water evaporates, thermolysis of
      urea occurs, during which ammonia, a known NOx reductant, and isocyanic acid are
      generated. The uniformity of the ammonia before the catalyst as well as ammonia
      slip to the environment are important counteracting design requirements,
      optimization of which is crucial for development of efficient deNOx systems. The
      aim of this paper is to show capabilities of the developed mathematical framework
      implemented in the commercial CFD code AVL FIRE(r), to simulate physical
      processes of all relevant phenomena occurring during the SCR process including
      chemical reactions taking part in the catalyst. First, mathematical models for
      description of SCR process are presented and afterwards, models are used on the
      3D geometry of a real SCR reactor in order to predict ammonia generation, NOx
      reduction and resulting ammonia slip. Influence of the injection direction and
      droplet sizes was also investigated on the same geometry. The performed study
      indicates importance of droplet sizes on the SCR process and shows that
      counterflow injection is beneficial, especially in terms of minimizing harmful
      ammonia slip to environment.

PMID- 28576264
TI  - Causes and Predictors of 30-Day Readmissions in Atrial Fibrillation (from the
      Nationwide Readmissions Database).
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cause of arrhythmia-related
      hospitalizations. We assessed 30-day readmissions in patients admitted with AF in
      a national sample of US population. Data were extracted from Nationwide
      Readmissions Database for the calendar year 2013. Patients with primary discharge
      diagnosis of AF were identified by the International Classification of Diseases,
      Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, code 427.31. Patients who died during
      hospitalization and those <18 years were excluded. Our primary outcome was 30-day
      readmission rate. Causes and independent predictors of 30-day readmissions were
      examined. We identified 388,340 patients admitted with AF, of whom 58,634
      patients (15.1%) were readmitted within 30 days. Patients who were readmitted
      tended to be older and have a higher burden of co-morbidities. AF and heart
      failure were the main causes of 30-day readmissions in our cohort. Advanced age,
      female gender, and multiple co-morbidities were independently associated with 30
      day readmissions. In conclusion, 15% of patients admitted for AF were readmitted
      within 30 days. More than 1/3 of these readmissions were for AF or heart failure.

PMID- 28576265
TI  - Incidence and Outcomes of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia in Patients Undergoing
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - The main objective of this study was to investigate the incidence and magnitude
      of impact of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) on outcomes of patients
      undergoing transcatheter aortic valve placement (TAVR). The impact of HIT on
      procedural outcomes after cardiac surgery has been described. We sought to
      investigate the incidence and outcomes of HIT after TAVR using the Nationwide
      Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. We identified patients who underwent TAVR from
      2011 to 2014. The primary outcome was the effect of HIT on inpatient mortality.
      Secondary outcomes included perioperative thromboembolic complications and
      ensuing sequelae. We also examined the length of hospital stay and hospital cost.
      Hierarchical mixed-effects models tested the association between HIT and main
      outcomes, adjusted by patient- and hospital-level characteristics. Among 33,790
      patients who underwent TAVR (46.1% women and 81.4 +/- 8.5 years old), the
      cumulative incidence of HIT was 0.49% (95% CI 0.4% to 0.6%). After adjusting for
      patient- and hospital-level characteristics, in-hospital mortality was
      significantly higher in the TAVR group with HIT (odds ratio [OR] 5.6, 95% CI 2.0
      to 15.6, p = 0.001). Venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (OR 6.3, 95% CI 1.4 to
      28.8, p = 0.01) and acute kidney injury (OR 6.1, 95% CI 2.8 to 13.1, p <0.001)
      were significantly associated with HIT. Patients who developed HIT also had a
      longer hospital stay (p <0.001) with the median hospital cost of 68,168 USD
      versus 50, 494 USD for the group without HIT (p <0.001). In conclusion, among
      patient who underwent TAVR, HIT was associated with higher risk of in-hospital
      mortality, venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism, acute kidney injury, prolonged
      hospital stay, and increased cost.

PMID- 28576266
TI  - Safety and Tolerability of Transitioning from Cangrelor to Ticagrelor in Patients
      Who Underwent Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - The 3 phase 3 CHAMPION (Cangrelor vs Standard Therapy to Achieve Optimal
      Management of Platelet Inhibition) trials collectively demonstrated the safety of
      transitioning from cangrelor, a potent, parenteral rapidly-acting P2Y12
      inhibitor, to clopidogrel in patients who underwent percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI). However, variation in timing of therapy, site-specific
      binding, and drug half-lives may theoretically complicate switching to other oral
      P2Y12 inhibitors. Since regulatory approval, limited data are available regarding
      the "real-world" safety and tolerability of transitioning to these more potent
      oral P2Y12 antagonists. From November 2015 to January 2017, we evaluated the
      clinical profiles and efficacy and safety outcomes in cangrelor-treated patients
      who underwent PCI transitioned to clopidogrel (n = 42) or ticagrelor (n = 82) at
      a large, tertiary care center. Most patients receiving cangrelor underwent PCI
      with a drug-eluting stent for acute coronary syndrome via a radial approach in
      the background of unfractionated heparin. Stent thrombosis within 48 hours was
      rare and occurred in 1 patient treated with ticagrelor. Global Use of Strategies
      to Open Occluded Coronary Arteries-defined bleeding occurred in 20% of patients
      switched to ticagrelor and 29% of patients switched to clopidogrel, but none were
      severe or life-threatening. In conclusion, rates of stent thrombosis and
      severe/life-threatening bleeding were low and comparable with those identified in
      the CHAMPION program, despite use of more potent oral P2Y12 inhibition.

PMID- 28576267
TI  - Age * Gender Interaction Effect on Resuscitation Outcomes in Patients With Out-of
      Hospital Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - Although an interaction between gender and age has been shown to influence
      resuscitation outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA),
      this interaction has not been investigated in Asian populations. In this
      prospective, observational study, data from all cases of OHCA in Japan between
      2005 and 2012 were obtained from the Japanese National Registry. We determined
      the relative excess risk due to interaction and the ratio of odds ratios (ORs) to
      assess the interaction effect of gender and age on the incidence of return of
      spontaneous circulation (ROSC) before hospital arrival, 1-month survival, and
      neurologically intact survival 1 month after OHCA. Male gender was associated
      with decreased ROSC and lower 1-month survival rates in patients with OHCA of
      presumed cardiac origin. Older age was associated with lower 1-month and
      neurologically intact survival rates in male patients with OHCA of presumed
      cardiac and noncardiac origin and with increased ROSC in male patients with OHCA
      of presumed cardiac origin. The relative excess risk due to interaction for ROSC
      in patients with OHCA of presumed cardiac origin was statistically significant
      (OR 0.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06 to 0.32). The ratio of ORs for ROSC
      was statistically significant in patients with OHCA of presumed cardiac origin
      (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.47) and of noncardiac origin (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.17 to
      0.92). In conclusion, the interaction effect between age and gender on ROSC was
      positive in OHCA cases of presumed cardiac origin and negative in those of
      noncardiac origin.

PMID- 28576268
TI  - Comparison of 1, 2, and 6-Month Readmission Rates in Patients With Acute
      Myocardial Infarction Directly Admitted to Hospital Versus Transferred From
      Another Hospital to an Academic Medical Center.
AB  - Patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who are transferred are less
      likely than directly admitted patients to receive outpatient follow-up within 30
      days and are more likely to be readmitted. In 2015, we launched a clinic where
      post-AMI patients (direct admits and transfers) are seen within 1 week of
      hospital discharge. We compared short- and long-term clinical outcomes of
      patients who were transferred to patients who were directly admitted to our
      institution to determine the impact of transfer status on early outpatient follow
      up and clinical outcomes. A total of 280 post-AMI patients, 193 direct admissions
      (69%), and 87 transfers (31%) were referred to the clinic. Clinic attendance was
      similar between the transferred and the directly admitted patients (91% vs 92%, p
      = 0.688, respectively). Transferred patients had similar rates of confusion
      regarding their medical regimen as the directly admitted patients (11% vs 8%, p =
      0.393). Compared with directly admitted patients, transferred patients lived
      farther from the hospital (median distance of 30 vs 48 miles, p <0.0001), were
      predominately white (77% vs 91%, p = 0.005), and had higher rates of chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (9% vs 17%, p = 0.014). There was no difference in
      30- (16% vs 13%, p = 0.562) or 60-day readmission rates (6% vs 8%, p = 0.543)
      between transferred patients and directly admitted patients. At 6 months,
      mortality rates were similar (6% vs 4%, p = 0.556). In conclusion, transferred
      patients who were evaluated early after hospital discharge for acute MI had
      similar clinical outcomes (including rates of unplanned readmissions) to their
      directly admitted counterparts.

PMID- 28576269
TI  - Canine Hip Dysplasia: Diagnostic Imaging.
AB  - Diagnostic imaging is the principal method used to screen for and diagnose hip
      dysplasia in the canine patient. Multiple techniques are available, each having
      advantages, disadvantages, and limitations. Hip-extended radiography is the most
      used method and is best used as a screening tool and for assessment for
      osteoarthritis. Distraction radiographic methods such as the PennHip method allow
      for improved detection of laxity and improved ability to predict future
      osteoarthritis development. More advanced techniques such as MRI, although
      expensive and not widely available, may improve patient screening and allow for
      improved assessment of cartilage health.

PMID- 28576270
TI  - Conservative Management of Hip Dysplasia.
AB  - Hip dysplasia (HD) is a common orthopedic condition seen in small animal patients
      that leads to osteoarthritis of the coxofemoral joint. The disease can be managed
      conservatively or surgically. The goals of surgical treatment in the immature
      patient are to either prevent the clinical signs of HD or to prevent or slow the
      progression of osteoarthritis. In mature patients surgery is used as a salvage
      procedure to treat debilitating osteoarthritis. Conservative management can be
      used in dogs with mild or intermittent clinical signs and includes nutritional
      management and weight control, exercise modification, physical rehabilitation,
      pain management and disease-modifying agents.

PMID- 28576271
TI  - Physical Rehabilitation for the Management of Canine Hip Dysplasia.
AB  - Hip dysplasia is among the most common orthopedic conditions affecting dogs.
      Joint laxity is responsible for abnormal development of the femoral head and
      acetabulum, leading to excessive wear of the articular cartilage. Wear leads to
      secondary osteoarthritis. Rehabilitation is either conservative or after surgical
      management. Conservative rehabilitation therapies are directed at decreasing
      pain, improving hip range of motion (ROM), and building or maintaining muscle
      mass. Postoperatively, rehabilitation focuses on decreasing postoperative pain
      and inflammation, improving comfort and limb use, and protecting the surgical
      site. Once the patient has healed, rehabilitation is directed at improving ROM
      and promoting muscle mass.

PMID- 28576272
TI  - Juvenile Pubic Symphysiodesis.
AB  - In properly selected dogs, juvenile pubic symphysiodesis improves joint
      congruity, decreases hip laxity, and can reverse or prevent progression of
      degenerative joint disease in the hips. To be effective, surgery must be done at
      a young age and in hips that are only mildly to moderately lax. Juvenile pubic
      symphysiodesis is best viewed more as a preemptive procedure than as a strictly
      therapeutic one. Dogs considered to be at risk for hip dysplasia should be
      screened with Ortolani testing at 12 weeks of age, with further imaging and
      perhaps surgery to follow for those who have a positive Ortolani sign.

PMID- 28576273
TI  - Femoral Head and Neck Excision.
AB  - Femoral head and neck excision is a surgical procedure that is commonly performed
      in small animal patients. It is a salvage procedure that is done to relieve pain
      in the coxofemoral joint and restore acceptable function of the limb. Femoral
      head and neck excision is most commonly used to treat severe osteoarthritis in
      the coxofemoral joint and can be done in dogs and cats of any size or age. The
      procedure should not be overused and ideally should not be done when the
      integrity of the coxofemoral joint can be restored.

PMID- 28576274
TI  - BioMedtrix Total Hip Replacement Systems: An Overview.
AB  - Total hip replacement for canine and feline patients affected by degenerative,
      traumatic, and vascular injury of the coxofemoral joint has become a highly
      successful orthopedic procedure. The highly effective BioMedtrix total hip
      replacement systems use cemented and cementless implants with unique design
      features to address a variety of bone conditions and surgeon expertise and
      preferences. There are pros and cons for both systems with common and unique
      complications that can occur in either system. Surgeon experience and adherence
      to the principles of technique will strongly influence the complication rate and
      outcomes.

PMID- 28576275
TI  - INNOPLANT Total Hip Replacement System.
AB  - Total hip replacement is a salvage procedure that is done to alleviate discomfort
      secondary to osteoarthritis in the hip, which is most often a result of hip
      dysplasia. Commercially available total hip replacement implants for small animal
      patients are classified as cemented or cementless. The INNOPLANT Total Hip
      Replacement system includes modular, screw-in cementless components that were
      developed to improve implant stability by maintaining as much normal anatomic
      structure, and by extension biomechanics of the coxofemoral joint, as possible.
      As a newer system, there are few data and no long-term studies available in the
      veterinary literature.

PMID- 28576276
TI  - Hip Dysplasia: Where Are We Now and How Do We Treat?

PMID- 28576277
TI  - Simulated pressure denaturation thermodynamics of ubiquitin.
AB  - Simulations of protein thermodynamics are generally difficult to perform and
      provide limited information. It is desirable to increase the degree of detail
      provided by simulation and thereby the potential insight into the thermodynamic
      properties of proteins. In this study, we outline how to analyze simulation
      trajectories to decompose conformation-specific, parameter free,
      thermodynamically defined protein volumes into residue-based contributions. The
      total volumes are obtained using established methods from Fluctuation Solution
      Theory, while the volume decomposition is new and is performed using a simple
      proximity method. Native and fully extended ubiquitin are used as the test
      conformations. Changes in the protein volumes are then followed as a function of
      pressure, allowing for conformation-specific protein compressibility values to
      also be obtained. Residue volume and compressibility values indicate significant
      contributions to protein denaturation thermodynamics from nonpolar and coil
      residues, together with a general negative compressibility exhibited by acidic
      residues.

PMID- 28576278
TI  - Spectroscopic characterization and fluorescence imaging of Helicobacter pylori
      endogenous porphyrins.
AB  - Conventional antimicrobial strategies have become increasingly ineffective due to
      the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria. In order
      to overcome this problem, antimicrobial PhotoDynamic Therapy (PDT) is considered
      a promising alternative therapy. PDT has a broad spectrum of action and low
      mutagenic potential. It is particularly effective when microorganisms present
      endogenous photosensitizing pigments. Helicobacter pylori (Hp), a pathogen
      notoriously responsible of severe gastric infections (chronic gastritis, peptic
      ulcer, MALT lymphoma and gastric adenocarcinoma), produces and accumulates the
      photosensitizers protoporphyrin IX and coproporphyrin, thus it might be a
      suitable target of antimicrobial PDT. With the aim to design and develop an
      ingestible LED-based robotic pill for intragastric phototherapy, so that
      irradiation can be performed in situ without the use of invasive endoscopic
      light, photophysical studies on the Hp endogenous photosensitizers were carried
      out. These studies represent an important prerequisite in order to select the
      most effective irradiation conditions for Hp eradication. The photophysical
      characterization of Hp porphyrins, including their spectroscopic features in
      terms of absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence, was performed
      on bacterial extracts as well as within planktonic and biofilm growing Hp cells.

PMID- 28576279
TI  - [Atypical reaction to anesthesia in Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy].
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy affects skeletal
      muscles and leads to progressive muscle weakness and risk of atypical anesthetic
      reactions following exposure to succinylcholine or halogenated agents. The aim of
      this report is to describe the investigation and diagnosis of a patient with
      Becker muscular dystrophy and review the care required in anesthesia. CASE
      REPORT: Male patient, 14 years old, referred for hyperCKemia (chronic increase of
      serum creatine kinase levels - CK), with CK values of 7,779-29,040IU.L-1 (normal
      174IU.L-1). He presented with a discrete delay in motor milestones acquisition
      (sitting at 9 months, walking at 18 months). He had a history of liver
      transplantation. In the neurological examination, the patient showed difficulty
      in walking on one's heels, myopathic sign (hands supported on the thighs to
      stand), high arched palate, calf hypertrophy, winged scapulae, global muscle
      hypotonia and arreflexia. Spirometry showed mild restrictive respiratory
      insufficiency (forced vital capacity: 77% of predicted). The in vitro muscle
      contracture test in response to halothane and caffeine was normal. Muscular
      dystrophy analysis by Western blot showed reduced dystrophin (20% of normal) for
      both antibodies (C and N-terminal), allowing the diagnosis of Becker muscular
      dystrophy. CONCLUSION: On preanesthetic assessment, the history of delayed motor
      development, as well as clinical and/or laboratory signs of myopathy, should
      encourage neurological evaluation, aiming at diagnosing subclinical myopathies
      and planning the necessary care to prevent anesthetic complications.
      Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, although it does not increase susceptibility
      to MH, may lead to atypical fatal reactions in anesthesia.

PMID- 28576280
TI  - [Familial hypercholesterolemia: A largely underestimated cardiovascular risk].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia is a monogenic autosomal dominant
      dyslipidemia characterized by a permanent and isolated increase of cholesterol
      carried by low-density lipoproteins. The prevalence of its heterozygous form is
      estimated between 1/500 and 1/250, and in the absence of specific treatment, this
      form is responsible for an increase by a factor of 13 of the risk of premature
      coronary artery disease compared to patients non-affected by the disease.
      OBJECTIVES: To perform an inventory of the knowledge of heterozygous familial
      hypercholesterolemia in France for physicians involved in the management of the
      disease. METHODS: A survey was conducted (by phone and internet) among a
      representative sample of 495 physicians (cardiologists,
      endocrinologists/diabetologists, gynecologists, general practitioners) who, in
      parallel, completed 579 patient records. RESULTS: Thirty-two percent (95% CI
      [27.8; 36.2]) of physicians reported the difference between polygenic
      hypercholesterolemia and familial hypercholesterolemia. The presence of tendinous
      xanthomas, a key element of diagnosis, was spontaneously mentioned by 44% (95% CI
      [34; 54.2]) of cardiologists. Six percent (95% CI [2.2; 12.6]) of them gave a
      correct estimate of the prevalence of familial hypercholesterolemia. The
      likelihood of transmission of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, when
      one parent is affected, was known for 59% (95% CI [48.7; 68.7]) of surveyed
      cardiologists. A cascade screening was performed systematically by 4% (95% CI
      [1.1; 9.9]) of them. Eighteen percent (95% CI [11; 26.9]) of cardiologists gave
      an accurate estimation of cardiovascular risk of heterozygous familial
      hypercholesterolemia. Fifty-seven percent (95% CI [46.7; 66.8]) of cardiologists
      admitted being misinformed about the heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia
      and 83% (95% CI [74.1; 89.7]) expressed a need for information about this
      disease. CONCLUSION: The lack of knowledge of heterozygous familial
      hypercholesterolemia and its associated cardiovascular risk is probably the cause
      of a diagnostic default leading to inappropriate management of this disease.

PMID- 28576281
TI  - [Late discover of a coronaro-pulmonary fistula].
AB  - Anomalies of the coronary arteries mainly concern a pediatric population,
      bringing together a wide range of defects. In adults, the evolution is linked to
      the hemodynamic consequences of fistula. Several therapeutic options have been
      proposed such as surgery or embolization. We report the case of a 55 years old
      patient addressed because of dyspnea secondary to aortic insufficiency. The
      preoperative assessment shown the coexistence of coronary abnormality
      corresponding to a coronaro-pulmonary fistula. This type of coronary anomaly is
      rarely described in the adult population, because of its consequences secondary
      to the closure of the foramen ovale, resulting in angina symptoms in childhood.
      Without treatment, mortality from this type of malformation is important (90%).

PMID- 28576282
TI  - [Evidence of antihypertensive effect of a land snail (Helix aspersa) by-product
      hydrolysate - Identification of involved peptides].
AB  - The antihypertensive potential of a land snail by-product hydrolysate, obtained
      after an agri-food processing of the raw material, was studied in vitro and in
      vivo. First, the ACE inhibitory activity of hydrolysates obtained before and
      after an ultrafiltration step with a 10kDa membrane cutoff was assayed. The IC50
      obtained were of 98.3MUg.mL-1 and 23MUg.mL-1, respectively, showing a 4.2 fold
      increase in ACE inhibitory capacity after the ultrafiltration step. Then, ACE
      inhibitory capacity of the hydrolysate was followed. No significant modification
      of the ACE inhibition rate was observed during an in vitro simulated human gastro
      intestinal digestion. Moreover, the hydrolysate was not only safe for human
      intestinal cells but besides that it stimulated their metabolic activity. No
      toxicity of the hydrolysate was observed in vivo in Wistar rats regarding to the
      results of the acute toxicity study. The partial purification of the hydrolysate
      led to the obtention of an active fraction characterized by an IC50 of
      0.007MUg.mL-1. The sequences of the 17 most abundant peptides of the fraction
      were identified by LC/MS/MS analysis. Seven of these peptides (YG, YA, VY, FG/GF,
      DF, SF and VW) are known ACE inhibitory peptides. Finally, in vivo study on SHR
      rats showed that the hydrolysate reduced systolic blood pressure by 20mmHg after
      a single oral administration at both doses of 400 and 800mg.kg-1.

PMID- 28576283
TI  - Ketamine fails to prevent postoperative delirium.

PMID- 28576284
TI  - Congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
AB  - Congenital adrenal hyperplasia is a group of autosomal recessive disorders
      encompassing enzyme deficiencies in the adrenal steroidogenesis pathway that lead
      to impaired cortisol biosynthesis. Depending on the type and severity of steroid
      block, patients can have various alterations in glucocorticoid,
      mineralocorticoid, and sex steroid production that require hormone replacement
      therapy. Presentations vary from neonatal salt wasting and atypical genitalia, to
      adult presentation of hirsutism and irregular menses. Screening of neonates with
      elevated 17-hydroxyprogesterone concentrations for classic (severe) 21
      hydroxylase deficiency, the most common type of congenital adrenal hyperplasia,
      is in place in many countries, however cosyntropin stimulation testing might be
      needed to confirm the diagnosis or establish non-classic (milder) subtypes.
      Challenges in the treatment of congenital adrenal hyperplasia include avoidance
      of glucocorticoid overtreatment and control of sex hormone imbalances. Long-term
      complications include abnormal growth and development, adverse effects on bone
      and the cardiovascular system, and infertility. Novel treatments aim to reduce
      glucocorticoid exposure, improve excess hormone control, and mimic physiological
      hormone patterns.

PMID- 28576286
TI  - A novel hybrid tobacco product that delivers a tobacco flavour note with vapour
      aerosol (Part 1): Product operation and preliminary aerosol chemistry assessment.
AB  - Vapour products have demonstrated potential to be a lower-risk alternative to
      cigarettes. The present study describes a novel hybrid tobacco product that
      combines a warm aerosol stream generated by an electronic vaporisation mechanism
      with tobacco top flavour from cut tobacco. During operation, the aerosol stream
      released from the vapour cartomiser is passed through a bed of blended cut
      tobacco by the puffing flow, elevating the tobacco temperature and eluting
      volatile tobacco flavour components. A preliminary but comprehensive analysis of
      the aerosol composition of the hybrid tobacco product found that emissions were
      dominated by the control vapour formulation. In non-targeted chemical screening,
      no detectable difference in GC scans was observed between the hybrid tobacco
      product and the control vapour product. However, a sensorially elevated tobacco
      flavour was confirmed by a consumer sensory panel (P < 0.05). In a targeted
      analysis of 113 compounds, either identified by regulatory bodies as potential
      toxicants in cigarette smoke or formed from electronic vapour products, only 26
      were quantified. The novel action of tobacco heating and liquid aerosolisation
      produced classes and levels of toxicants that were similar to those of the
      control vapour product, but much lower than those of a Kentucky 3R4F reference
      cigarette. For nine toxicants mandated by the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product
      Regulation for reduction in cigarette emissions, the levels were 91%-99% lower
      per puff in the hybrid tobacco product aerosol than in 3R4F smoke. Overall, the
      novel hybrid tobacco product provides a sensorially enhanced tobacco flavour, but
      maintains a toxicant profile similar to its parent vapour product with relatively
      low levels of known cigarette smoke toxicants.

PMID- 28576287
TI  - 2017 Keystone Symposia at the Fairmont Banff Springs: Exploring new concepts in
      innate immunity and interferon signaling at the haunted castle.
AB  - At the 2017 Keystone Symposia meeting, new research was presented in the fields
      of innate immunity and type I interferon regulation. Gathering experts from these
      research communities offered a unique opportunity to discuss new concepts and
      formulate novel approaches to modulate pathological mechanisms in human
      inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28576288
TI  - Editor Note.

PMID- 28576289
TI  - Psychological counseling as an adjunct to stuttering treatment: Clients'
      experiences and perceptions.
AB  - PURPOSE: Stuttering can trigger anxiety and other psychological and emotional
      reactions, and limit participation in society. It is possible that psychological
      counseling could enhance stuttering treatment outcomes; however, little is known
      about how clients view such counseling. The purpose of this study was to gain an
      understanding of clients' experiences with, and perceptions of, a psychological
      counseling service that was offered as an optional adjunct to speech therapy for
      stuttering. METHOD: Nine individuals who stutter (13-38 years old) participated
      in semi-structured interviews. Six participants had taken part in psychological
      counseling; three participants did not do so. Interview data were analyzed using
      grounded theory as a guiding framework. RESULTS: Four thematic clusters emerged
      from participants' accounts: insights into personal decision-making, why others
      may not participate in counseling, psychological counseling as a worthwhile part
      of therapy, and counseling as a necessary component in a stuttering treatment
      program. CONCLUSION: In addition to experiencing barriers and facilitators to
      help-seeking that are reported in related fields, participants accounts also
      revealed novel facilitators (i.e., a 'why not' mentality and the importance of
      having a pre-existing relationship with the clinician who offered the service)
      and barriers (i.e., viewing the service as a 'limited resource,' and, the
      overwhelming nature of intensive stuttering treatment programs). Findings suggest
      that clients value the option to access psychological counseling with trained
      mental health professionals to support the stuttering treatment provided by
      speech-language pathologists. Participants made recommendations for the
      integration of psychological counseling into stuttering treatment programs.

PMID- 28576285
TI  - Intraoperative ketamine for prevention of postoperative delirium or pain after
      major surgery in older adults: an international, multicentre, double-blind,
      randomised clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delirium is a common and serious postoperative complication.
      Subanaesthetic ketamine is often administered intraoperatively for postoperative
      analgesia, and some evidence suggests that ketamine prevents delirium. The
      primary purpose of this trial was to assess the effectiveness of ketamine for
      prevention of postoperative delirium in older adults. METHODS: The Prevention of
      Delirium and Complications Associated with Surgical Treatments [PODCAST] study is
      a multicentre, international randomised trial that enrolled adults older than 60
      years undergoing major cardiac and non-cardiac surgery under general anaesthesia.
      Using a computer-generated randomisation sequence we randomly assigned patients
      to one of three groups in blocks of 15 to receive placebo (normal saline), low
      dose ketamine (0.5 mg/kg), or high dose ketamine (1.0 mg/kg) after induction of
      anaesthesia, before surgical incision. Participants, clinicians, and
      investigators were blinded to group assignment. Delirium was assessed twice daily
      in the first 3 postoperative days using the Confusion Assessment Method. We did
      analyses by intention-to-treat and assessed adverse events. This trial is
      registered with clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT01690988. FINDINGS: Between Feb 6,
      2014, and June 26, 2016, 1360 patients were assessed, and 672 were randomly
      assigned, with 222 in the placebo group, 227 in the 0.5 mg/kg ketamine group, and
      223 in the 1.0 mg/kg ketamine group. There was no difference in delirium
      incidence between patients in the combined ketamine groups and the placebo group
      (19.45% vs 19.82%, respectively; absolute difference 0.36%, 95% CI -6.07 to 7.38,
      p=0.92). There were more postoperative hallucinations (p=0.01) and nightmares
      (p=0.03) with increasing ketamine doses compared with placebo. Adverse events
      (cardiovascular, renal, infectious, gastrointestinal, and bleeding), whether
      viewed individually (p value for each >0.40) or collectively (36.9% in placebo,
      39.6% in 0.5 mg/kg ketamine, and 40.8% in 1.0 mg/kg ketamine groups, p=0.69), did
      not differ significantly across groups. INTERPRETATION: A single subanaesthetic
      dose of ketamine did not decrease delirium in older adults after major surgery,
      and might cause harm by inducing negative experiences. FUNDING: National
      Institutes of Health and Cancer Center Support.

PMID- 28576290
TI  - Comparing acceptance and rejection in the classroom interaction of students who
      stutter and their peers: A social network analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recent work has reported adverse effects of students' stuttering on
      their social and emotional functioning at school. Yet, few studies have provided
      an in-depth examination of classroom interaction of students who stutter (SWS).
      The current study uses a network perspective to compare acceptance and rejection
      in the classroom interaction between SWS and their peers in secondary education.
      METHODS: The sample comprised 22 SWS and 403 non-stuttering peers (22 classes) of
      secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). Students' nominations regarding three
      acceptance and three rejection criteria were combined. Social network analysis
      offered procedures that considered direct and indirect interaction between all
      classmates. RESULTS: We found few significant differences: SWS and their peers
      were distributed similarly across positive and negative status groups. Both
      considered and were considered by, on average, six or seven classmates as 'a
      friend', who they liked and could count on, and nominated or were nominated by
      one or two classmates as 'no friend', somebody who they disliked and could not
      count on. On average, SWS and their classmates also did not differ in terms of
      structural position in the class group (degree, closeness and betweenness),
      reciprocated rejection, and clique size. However, SWS do tend to be slightly more
      stringent or more careful in nominating peers, which led to fewer reciprocated
      friendships. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that SWS are quite accepted by peers
      in secondary education in Flanders. Such positive peer interaction can create a
      supportive and encouraging climate for SWS to deal with specific challenges.

PMID- 28576291
TI  - A pilot study into a possible relationship between diet and stuttering.
AB  - PURPOSE: There are theoretical and empirical reasons to consider a potential role
      for copper metabolism in the brain in how it could influence stuttering. However,
      a link between stuttering and dietary intake has never been researched in a
      systematic way. This pilot study therefore aimed to explore a possible
      association between ingested amounts of copper and thiamine (vitamin B1) with
      stuttering frequency using a double blind cross-over longitudinal paradigm.
      METHODS: 19 adults who stutter between 20 and 51 years old filled out an online
      survey for 9 consecutive weeks. The survey consisted of self-assessed fluency and
      mood state scales, as well as food journals. After 4 weeks, the participants
      consumed either copper or thiamine supplements for 2 weeks, followed by a 1-week
      washout period, and another period of two weeks taking the other supplement.
      Formal speech assessments were done pre/post baseline and at the end of each
      supplement intake. Participants were not informed about the nature of the
      supplements during the experiment and the investigators were blinded to the order
      of the supplements. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that copper and thiamine
      had no measurable effect on the amount of stuttering (self and formal
      assessments) but there was a moderate, significant correlation between mood state
      and fluency. CONCLUSION: The findings do not support notions of dietary
      influences of ingested copper or thiamine on stuttering but do provide modest
      support for a relationship between variations in stuttering and self-perceived
      anxiety.

PMID- 28576292
TI  - A country-wide probability sample of public attitudes toward stuttering in
      Portugal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Negative public attitudes toward stuttering have been widely
      reported, although differences among countries and regions exist. Clear reasons
      for these differences remain obscure. PURPOSE: Published research is unavailable
      on public attitudes toward stuttering in Portugal as well as a representative
      sample that explores stuttering attitudes in an entire country. This study sought
      to (a) determine the feasibility of a country-wide probability sampling scheme to
      measure public stuttering attitudes in Portugal using a standard instrument (the
      Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering [POSHA-S]) and (b) identify
      demographic variables that predict Portuguese attitudes. METHODS: The POSHA-S was
      translated to European Portuguese through a five-step process. Thereafter, a
      local administrative office-based, three-stage, cluster, probability sampling
      scheme was carried out to obtain 311 adult respondents who filled out the
      questionnaire. RESULTS: The Portuguese population held stuttering attitudes that
      were generally within the average range of those observed from numerous previous
      POSHA-S samples. Demographic variables that predicted more versus less positive
      stuttering attitudes were respondents' age, region of the country, years of
      school completed, working situation, and number of languages spoken. Non
      predicting variables were respondents' sex, marital status, and parental status.
      CONCLUSION: A local administrative office-based, probability sampling scheme
      generated a respondent profile similar to census data and indicated that
      Portuguese attitudes are generally typical.

PMID- 28576293
TI  - The relationship between the experience of stuttering and demographic
      characteristics of adults who stutter.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to examine the association between adults' experience of
      stuttering and their age, gender and marital status, as well as to evaluate the
      psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the OASES-A. METHODS: The Hebrew
      version of the OASES-A was administered to 91 adults-who-stutter. The validity of
      the translated version was evaluated using a subset of 43 participants, who also
      completed three additional instruments: (a) a Perceived Stuttering Severity (PSS)
      self-rating scale, (b) the Situation Avoidance Behavior Checklist (SABC), (c) the
      Students Life Satisfaction scale (SLSS). Finally, the correlations between the
      participants' OASES-A scores and their age, gender and marital status were
      calculated. RESULTS: A negative correlation was found between the participants'
      OASES-A impact scores and their age (p<0.01). In addition, married participants
      exhibited lower OASES-A impact scores compared with unmarried participants
      (p<0.05). On the other hand, the speakers' gender was not associated with OASES-A
      impact scores. RESULTS: revealed high internal consistency of the Hebrew OASES-A,
      and moderate to strong correlations with the additional examined instruments.
      Finally, results of the Hebrew version of the questionnaire were comparable with
      those obtained in other languages. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that, within
      our cohort, age and marital status are significantly associated with the personal
      experience of stuttering, whereas gender is not. In addition, the Hebrew version
      of the OASES-A is valid and comparable with equivalent versions in other
      languages. This facilitates the application of the OASES-A in future clinical and
      research settings.

PMID- 28576294
TI  - Development of quality indicators for endoscopic eradication therapies in
      Barrett's esophagus: the TREAT-BE (Treatment with Resection and Endoscopic
      Ablation Techniques for Barrett's Esophagus) Consortium.

PMID- 28576295
TI  - Alternative payment models lead to strategic care coordination workforce
      investments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Care coordination is generally viewed as a key to success for health
      systems seeking to adapt to a range of new value-based payment policies. PURPOSE:
      This study explores care coordination staffing in four health systems
      participating in new payment models, including Medicaid payment reform and
      Accountable Care Organizations. METHODS: Comparative case study design is used to
      describe models of care coordination. Analysis of 43 semi-structured interviews
      with leadership, clinicians, and care coordination staff at four health systems
      engaged in value-based contracts. DISCUSSION: Each of the sites engaged in
      significant task shifting of low-complexity care coordination activities to
      licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, and other unlicensed personnel
      freeing up registered nurses and social workers for more complex patients. Few
      have care coordination experience, requiring a significant investment in on-the
      job training. CONCLUSION: Payment reform is leading to a greater investment in
      the care coordination workforce. However, demonstrating the return on investment
      remains a challenge.

PMID- 28576297
TI  - Preoperative 3-D MRI planning of tunnel placement in ACL reconstruction for a
      skeletally immature patient: A case report.

PMID- 28576296
TI  - Biological determinants of health: Genes, microbes, and metabolism exemplars of
      nursing science.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasingly, nurse scientists are incorporating "omics" measures
      (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) in studies of
      biologic determinants of health and behavior. The role of omics in nursing
      science can be conceptualized in several ways: (a) as a portfolio of biological
      measures (biomarkers) to monitor individual risk, (b) as a set of combined data
      elements that can generate new knowledge based on large and complex patient data
      sets, (c) as baseline information that promotes health education and potentially
      personalized interventions, and (d) as a platform to understand how environmental
      parameters (e.g., diet) interact with the individual's physiology. PURPOSE: In
      this article, we provide exemplars of nursing scientists who use omics to better
      understand specific health conditions. METHODS: We highlight various ongoing
      nursing research investigations incorporating omics technologies to study chronic
      pain vulnerability, risk for a pain-related condition, cardiometabolic
      complications associated with pregnancy, and as biomarkers of response to a
      dietary intervention. DISCUSSION: Omics technologies add an important dimension
      to nursing science across many foci of investigation. However, there are also
      challenges and opportunities for nurse scientists who consider using omics in
      their research. CONCLUSION: The integration of omics holds promise for increasing
      the impact of nursing research and practice on population health outcomes.

PMID- 28576299
TI  - Effects of Donor Breastmilk Feeding on Growth and Early Neurodevelopmental
      Outcomes in Preterm Infants: An Observational Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Donor breastmilk (DBM) has gained popularity as an alternative to
      formula when mother's own milk (MOM) is unavailable. The objective of this study
      was to evaluate the effects of a predominantly DBM diet on growth and subsequent
      neurodevelopment in preterm infants at a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit
      (NICU). METHODS: This single-center, observational cohort study compared data
      from preterm infants supplemented with predominantly (>50%) DBM to those from age
      and weight-matched infants fed only MOM or supplemented with predominantly
      (>50%) preterm formula (PF). The primary outcome was in-hospital weight gain, and
      the secondary outcome was neurodevelopment, as assessed by the Bayley III scale
      at 1 and 2 years' corrected age. Exclusion criteria were major congenital
      defects, death prior to discharge from the NICU, or supplementation volumes of
      <50% over the first month of life. We compared the outcomes among the 3 feeding
      groups with the chi2 test, ANOVA, and ANCOVA, with post hoc pairwise comparisons
      after adjustment for the following confounders: bronchopulmonary dysplasia,
      multiple births, and social work involvement. FINDINGS: In the entire cohort, the
      mean gestational age was 27.1 weeks and the mean birthweight was 914 g. The DBM
      (n = 27) and PF (n = 25) groups were similar with regard to socioeconomic
      characteristics. DBM infants regained birthweight more slowly over the first
      month of life compared with infants fed MOM (n = 29) or PF (mean [SD], 17.9
      [5.7], 22.0 [6.8], and 20.3 [5.7] g/kg/d, respectively; P = 0.05); however, this
      growth difference was attenuated at later time points. In a fully adjusted model,
      the DBM group scored significantly lower in cognition at both 1 year (P = 0.005)
      and 2 years (P = 0.03) of age compared with the infants fed non-DBM diets.
      IMPLICATIONS: The findings from this study suggest that in this NICU, preterm
      infants supplemented with predominantly DBM had compromised early in-hospital
      weight gain and, possibly, early cognitive delays compared with infants fed only
      MOM or infants supplemented with predominantly PF. These findings reinforce the
      need for further research on the optimal use of DBM in the preterm population and
      a continued need for promoting breastfeeding efforts to supply MOM.

PMID- 28576300
TI  - Fibrin sealant (TisseelTM) for mesh fixation in repair of the deep circumflex
      iliac artery (DCIA) free flap donor site.

PMID- 28576302
TI  - Foreword.

PMID- 28576301
TI  - Obstetric and neonatal outcomes of pregnancies conceived after preimplantation
      genetic diagnosis: cohort study and meta-analysis.
AB  - Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) may pose risks to pregnancy outcome owing
      to the invasiveness of the biopsy procedure. This study compares outcome of
      singleton and twin clinical pregnancies conceived after fresh embryo transfers of
      PGD (n = 89) and matched intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) pregnancies (n =
      166). The study was carried out in a single university affiliated centre. Because
      of the paucity of available data, a literature-based meta-analysis of studies
      comparing neonatal outcome of PGD and ICSI pregnancies was also conducted. In the
      retrospective cohort study, obstetric and neonatal outcome were available in 67
      PGD and 118 ICSI pregnancies. Perinatal outcomes were comparable between PGD and
      ICSI pregnancies. Meta-analysis revealed similar outcomes, except for higher rate
      of low birth weight (<2500 g) neonates in ICSI twin pregnancies (RR 0.86, 95% CI
      0.74 to 1.0). Mean birth weight, gestational age at birth, pre-term deliveries
      (<37 weeks) and malformations were all comparable. In this cohort study and
      subsequent meta-analysis, no association was found between PGD conceived
      pregnancies and risks of adverse neonatal or obstetrical outcomes compared with
      ICSI pregnancies. Hence, blastomere biopsy for PGD does not seem to increase the
      risk for adverse perinatal outcome compared with ICSI pregnancies.

PMID- 28576304
TI  - The surgical management of inflammatory bowel disease.

PMID- 28576298
TI  - Intracellular trafficking pathways of Cx43 gap junction channels.
AB  - Gap Junction (GJ) channels, including the most common Connexin 43 (Cx43), have
      fundamental roles in excitable tissues by facilitating rapid transmission of
      action potentials between adjacent cells. For instance, synchronization during
      each heartbeat is regulated by these ion channels at the cardiomyocyte cell-cell
      border. Cx43 protein has a short half-life, and rapid synthesis and timely
      delivery of those proteins to particular subdomains are crucial for the cellular
      organization of gap junctions and maintenance of intracellular coupling.
      Impairment in gap junction trafficking contributes to dangerous complications in
      diseased hearts such as the arrhythmias of sudden cardiac death. Of recent
      interest are the protein-protein interactions with the Cx43 carboxy-terminus.
      These interactions have significant impact on the full length Cx43 lifecycle and
      also contribute to trafficking of Cx43 as well as possibly other functions. We
      are learning that many of the known non-canonical roles of Cx43 can be attributed
      to the recently identified six endogenous Cx43 truncated isoforms which are
      produced by internal translation. In general, alternative translation is a new
      leading edge for proteome expansion and therapeutic drug development. This review
      highlights recent mechanisms identified in the trafficking of gap junction
      channels, involvement of other proteins contributing to the delivery of channels
      to the cell-cell border, and understanding of possible roles of the newly
      discovered alternatively translated isoforms in Cx43 biology. This article is
      part of a Special Issue entitled: Gap Junction Proteins edited by Jean Claude
      Herve.

PMID- 28576305
TI  - Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator Modulators: Implications for the
      Management of Depression and Anxiety in Cystic Fibrosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) are at high risk for depression
      and anxiety, which are associated with worse medical outcomes. Novel therapies
      for CF hold great promise for improving physical health, but the effects of these
      therapies on mental health remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: This review aims
      to familiarize psychiatrists with the potential effect of novel CF therapies on
      depression and anxiety. METHODS: We discuss novel therapies that directly target
      the mutant CF protein, the CF transmembrane regulator (CFTR), which are called
      CFTR modulators. We summarize depression and anxiety screening and treatment
      guidelines under implementation in accredited CF centers. Case vignettes
      highlight the complexities of caring for individuals with CF with comorbid
      depression and anxiety, including patients experiencing worsening depression and
      anxiety proximate to initiation of CFTR modulator therapy, and management of drug
      drug interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Although CFTR modulator therapies provide hope
      for improving clinical outcomes, worsening depression and anxiety occurs in some
      patients when starting these novel agents. This phenomenon may be multifactorial,
      with hypothesized contributions from CFTR modulator-psychotropic medication
      interactions, direct effects of CFTR modulators on central nervous system
      function, the psychologic effect of starting a potentially life-altering drug,
      and typical triggers of depression and anxiety such as stress, pain, and
      inflammation. The medical and psychiatric complexity of many individuals with CF
      warrants more direct involvement of mental health specialists on the
      multidisciplinary CF team. Inclusion of mental health variables in patients with
      CF registries will facilitate further examination at an epidemiologic level.

PMID- 28576306
TI  - Robo-Tripping: A Case of Robitussin Abuse in a Methadone Maintenance Patient.

PMID- 28576308
TI  - MBL2 and FCN2 gene polymorphisms in a cohort of Italian children with rheumatic
      fever: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mannose-binding lectins and human ficolins are pattern-recognition
      proteins involved in innate immunity. A role for MBL2 and FCN2 gene polymorphisms
      in the pathogenesis of recurrent severe streptococcal infections and rheumatic
      carditis has been suggested. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      presence of MBL2 and FCN2 gene polymorphisms (SNPs) in children with a history of
      rheumatic fever (RF) and to investigate their possible role in RF clinical
      presentation and disease course. METHODS: A total of 50 Caucasian patients with
      RF were recruited with a control group of 52 healthy children. DNA was extracted
      for analysis of MBL2 gene (exon 1, codons: 52, 54, and 57) and FCN2 gene
      (promoter region at position -986, -602, and -4). RESULTS: The FCN2 AG genotype
      at the -986 position was more frequently observed in patients, as compared to
      healthy subjects (p = 0.006); furthermore, the A allele was identified as a
      possible risk factor for the development of RF (OR = 7.14, CI: 2.439-20.89).
      Conversely, the GG genotype at the same position was observed more frequently in
      the control group and can be considered a protective factor for the development
      of the disease (p = 0.001, OR = 8.37, 95% CI: 2.763-25.33). In addition, the FCN2
      GG and AG genotypes in the -4 position were also found to be protective factors
      for the development of RF and for carditis respectively (OR = 3.32, CI: 1.066
      10.364; OR = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.037-0.566). Finally, the AA genotype in the -602
      position was associated with a late onset of RF (p = 0.006). The analysis of the
      MBL2 gene only resulted in a higher frequency of the AA genotype on position 57
      in controls as compared to patients (p = 0.025). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first
      study evaluating the FCN2 gene polymorphisms in patients with RF and rheumatic
      carditis finding a protective effect of -986 GG and -4 GG genotypes in the
      development of RF and the -4 AG genotype for the development of carditis. Our
      data do not support a possible role for MBL2 polymorphisms in the pathogenesis
      and in the clinical manifestations of RF.

PMID- 28576307
TI  - Serological evolution in women with positive antiphospholipid antibodies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the clinical and serological course of fertile women with
      positive antiphospholipid (aPL), and the factors and therapeutic implications
      associated with aPL negativization. METHODS: Retrospective study including 105
      women with a positive aPL serology between 1995 and 2013 attending the obstetric
      autoimmune pathology clinic of a tertiary facility. Patients were classified into
      the following 3 groups: patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (pAPS,
      49), patients with a positive serology for aPL, not meeting clinical criteria
      (42), and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and a positive aPL serology
      (14). They were also classified according to the serological aPL evolution:
      persistently negative aPL, transiently positive serology, and persistently
      positive serology according to established criteria. RESULTS: After a mean follow
      up of 114.4 +/- 37.2 months, 59% of patients had persistently negative
      antibodies, while 25.7% of patients presented persistently positive aPL serology.
      Multivariate analysis confirmed that smoking (OR = 4; 95% CI: 1.45-11.08; p =
      0.008) was an independent risk factor for positive persistence. Persistent
      positivity as well as a higher antibody load was associated with higher risk for
      further pregnancy morbidity. In 29 patients, with persistently negative serology
      who were asymptomatic, treatment with low-dose aspirin was discontinued. No
      clinical events related to APS were reported after treatment withdrawal, during
      the 40.95 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of fertile
      women with aPL antibodies became negative during follow-up. Tobacco use and the
      number of positive antibodies are associated with persistently positive serology.
      Patients with persistently positive aPL serology suffer more obstetric
      complications. Treatment withdrawal might be safe in selected patients.

PMID- 28576309
TI  - BNDF heterozygosity is associated with memory deficits and alterations in
      cortical and hippocampal EEG power.
AB  - Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a pivotal role in structural
      plasticity, learning, and memory. Electroencephalogram (EEG) spectral power in
      the cortex and hippocampus has also been correlated with learning and memory. In
      this study, we investigated the effect of globally reduced BDNF levels on
      learning behavior and EEG power via BDNF heterozygous (KO) rats. We employed
      several behavioral tests that are thought to depend on cortical and hippocampal
      plasticity to varying degrees: novel object recognition, a test that is reliant
      on a variety of cognitive systems; contextual fear, which is highly hippocampal
      dependent; and cued fear, which has been shown to be amygdala-dependent. We also
      examined the effects of BDNF reduction on cortical and hippocampal EEG spectral
      power via chronically implanted electrodes in the motor cortex and dorsal
      hippocampus. We found that BDNF KO rats were impaired in novelty recognition and
      fear memory retention, while hippocampal EEG power was decreased in slow waves
      and increased in fast waves. Interestingly, our results, for the first time, show
      sexual dimorphism in each of our tests. These results support the hypothesis that
      BDNF drives both cognitive plasticity and coordinates EEG activity patterns,
      potentially serving as a link between the two.

PMID- 28576310
TI  - The paracrine effect of cobalt chloride on BMSCs during cognitive function rescue
      in the HIBD rat.
AB  - Hypoxia-ischemia (HI)-induced perinatal encephalopathy frequently causes chronic
      neurological morbidities and acute mortality. Bone mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC)
      transplantation could potentially promote functional and anatomical recovery of
      ischemic tissue. In vitro hypoxic preconditioning is an effective strategy to
      improve the survival of BMSCs in ischemic tissue. In this study, cobalt chloride
      (CoCl2) preconditioned medium from BMSC cultures was injected into the left
      lateral ventricle of HI rats using a micro-osmotic pump at a flow rate 1.0MUl/h
      for 7 days. The protein levels of HIF-1alpha and its target genes, vascular
      endothelial growth factor and erythropoietin, markedly increased after CoCl2
      preconditioning in BMSCs. In 7-week-old rats that received CoCl2 preconditioned
      BMSC medium, results of the Morris water maze test indicated ameliorated spatial
      working memory function following hypoxia-ischemia damage. Neuronal loss,
      cellular disorganization, and shrinkage in brain tissue were also ameliorated.
      Extracellular field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) in the brain
      slices of 8-week-old rats were recorded; administration of CoCl2 preconditioned
      BMSC culture medium induced a progressive increment of baseline and amplitude of
      the fEPSPs. Immunohistochemical quantification showed that GluR2 protein
      expression increased. In conclusion, CoCl2 activates HIF-1alpha signals in BMSCs.
      CoCl2 preconditioned BMSC culture medium likely effects neuroprotection by
      inducing long-term potentiation (LTP), which could be associated with GluR2
      expression. The paracrine effects of hypoxia preconditioning on BMSCs could have
      applications in novel cell-based therapeutic strategies for hypoxic and ischemic
      brain injury.

PMID- 28576312
TI  - Hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with congenital porto-systemic shunt.
AB  - Congenital porto-caval shunt is a rare anomaly that can result in direct shunt
      related complications (encephalopathy, pulmonary hypertension) or indirect
      complications such as the development of benign or malignant hepatic neoplasms.
      Treatment consists of management of the complications and occlusion of the porto
      caval shunt in one or two stages by either a surgical or an interventional
      radiology approach.

PMID- 28576311
TI  - Patient opinion of scarring is multidimensional: An investigation of the POSAS
      with confirmatory factor analysis: Statistical and methodological issues.

PMID- 28576313
TI  - Automated preconcentration of Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Co, and Mn in seawater with
      analysis using high-resolution sector field inductively-coupled plasma mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - A rapid, automated, high-throughput analytical method capable of simultaneous
      analysis of multiple elements at trace and ultratrace levels is required to
      investigate the biogeochemical cycle of trace metals in the ocean. Here we
      present an analytical approach which uses a commercially available automated
      preconcentration device (SeaFAST) with accurate volume loading and in-line pH
      buffering of the sample prior to loading onto a chelating resin (WAKO) and
      subsequent simultaneous analysis of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), nickel
      (Ni), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), cobalt (Co) and manganese (Mn) by high-resolution
      inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). Quantification of
      sample concentration was undertaken using isotope dilution for Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd
      and Pb, and standard addition for Co and Mn. The chelating resin is shown to have
      a high affinity for all analyzed elements, with recoveries between 83 and 100%
      for all elements, except Mn (60%) and Ni (48%), and showed higher recoveries for
      Ni, Cd, Pb, Co and Mn in direct comparison to an alternative resin (NOBIAS
      Chelate-PA1). The reduced recoveries for Ni and Mn using the WAKO resin did not
      affect the quantification accuracy. A relatively constant retention efficiency on
      the resin over a broad pH range (pH 5-8) was observed for the trace metals,
      except for Mn. Mn quantification using standard addition required accurate sample
      pH adjustment with optimal recoveries at pH 7.5 +/- 0.3. UV digestion was
      necessary to increase recovery of Co and Cu in seawater by 15.6% and 11.4%,
      respectively, and achieved full break-down of spiked Co-containing vitamin B12
      complexes. Low blank levels and detection limits could be achieved (e.g., 0.029
      nmol L-1 for Fe and 0.028 nmol L-1 for Zn) with the use of high purity reagents.
      Precision and accuracy were assessed using SAFe S, D1, and D2 reference
      seawaters, and results were in good agreement with available consensus values.
      The presented method is ideal for high throughput simultaneous analysis of trace
      elements in coastal and oceanic seawaters. We present a successful application of
      the analytical method to samples collected in June 2014 in the Northeast Atlantic
      Ocean.

PMID- 28576314
TI  - Multivariate analysis of Scotch whisky by total reflection x-ray fluorescence and
      chemometric methods: A potential tool in the identification of counterfeits.
AB  - Most methods used in the identification of counterfeit whisky have focused on the
      profiling of volatile organic congeners determined by gas chromatography. We
      tested the use of total reflection x-ray fluorescence (TXRF) for trace element
      analysis of whisky and application of the data as a potential tool in the
      identification of counterfeit samples. Twenty five whiskies that were produced in
      different regions of Scotland or were blends, 5 counterfeit whiskies, 1 unmatured
      grain whisky, and 1 matured grain whisky were analysed for 11 elements (P, S, Cl,
      K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br and Rb). The effect of cold plasma ashing with oxygen
      on whisky residues evaporated on the TXRF reflector on the instrument performance
      was investigated. Cold plasma ashing with oxygen reduced beam scatter and
      improved the limits of detection but was ultimately deemed unnecessary. The
      element concentration data for whisky obtained by TXRF (after log transformation)
      was compared with the values obtained by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy
      and showed correlation values (R2) >= 0.942 for K, Mn and Cu: >= 0.800 for Ca, Fe
      and Rb; and >=0.535 for P, S and Zn. The range of concentration values for
      individual elements was variable and principal components analysis of the
      elemental concentrations partially differentiated the whiskies by region or type
      but showed clear separation of the counterfeit samples from the other samples.
      Using the principal component scores of the elemental concentration data, linear
      discriminant analysis also distinguished the counterfeits from the other samples.

PMID- 28576315
TI  - Electrochemical determination of cephalosporins using a bare boron-doped diamond
      electrode.
AB  - The electrochemical oxidation of seven cephalosporins (ceftriaxone, cefotaxime,
      ceftazidime, cefadroxil, cefuroxime, cefaclor, cefalexin) was evaluated at high
      potential, using a bare boron-doped diamond electrode and the influence on the
      analytical response of the side chains was investigated. Based on the anodic
      oxidation of the cephalosporin nucleus, a simple and sensitive method was
      developed for the electrochemical detection of cefalexin by differential pulse
      voltammetry. After the optimization of the experimental conditions, a linear
      correlation was obtained between the peak height and the molar concentration of
      cefalexin in the range of 0.5 MUM-700 MUM, with a limit of detection of 34.74 ng
      mL-1. The anodic peak for cefalexin was evaluated in the presence of other
      cephalosporin molecules and of other common interferents. The developed method
      was applied to detection of cefalexin from real environmental, biomedical and
      pharmaceutical samples, with good results. The electrochemical oxidation of
      cephalosporins was successfully adapted for flow injection analyses, with
      sensitive and reproducible successive analyses of cefalexin, in different
      concentrations. The flow analyses allowed also the determination of the total
      amount of cephalosporins found in the sample.

PMID- 28576316
TI  - Switchable hydrophilicity solvent membrane-based microextraction: HPLC-FLD
      determination of fluoroquinolones in shrimps.
AB  - A switchable hydrophilicity solvent membrane-based microextraction (SHS-MME)
      strategy for simple and highly-available sample pretreatment of complex matrices
      has been proposed. The SHS-MME procedure based on extraction of target analytes
      from an aqueous sample into a porous hydrophobic membrane impregnated with a
      switchable hydrophilicity solvent (SHS) followed by SHS ionization and back
      extraction of the analytes in alkaline acceptor solution. The medium-chain fatty
      acids were investigated as SHS for the SHS-MME of fluoroquinolones (fleroxacin,
      lomefloxacin, norfloxacin and ofloxacin). The SHS-MME was successfully coupled
      with a HPLC-FLD for the determination of fluoroquinolones in shrimp samples with
      no further sample pretreatment. The calibration graphs were linear over the
      concentration ranges of 3-1500 MUg L-1 for ofloxacin, 10-1000 MUg L-1 for
      norfloxacin, 15-1500 MUg L-1 for lomefloxacin and fleroxacin. The limits of
      detection, calculated from a blank test based on 3sigma, were 1 MUg L-1 for
      ofloxacin, 3 MUg L-1 for norfloxacin and 5 MUg L-1 for lomefloxacin and
      fleroxacin. The SHS ionization can be considered as new potential fields in
      analytical application of membrane-based liquid phase microextraction.

PMID- 28576317
TI  - A miniature optical emission spectrometric system in a lab-on-valve for sensitive
      determination of cadmium.
AB  - A miniature optical emission spectrometric (OES) system is developed by
      incorporating dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) microplasma as excitation source
      in a lab-on-valve (LOV) configuration for trace cadmium analysis. The entire
      system integrates bead injection (BI) sample pretreatment, post-column
      derivatization, in-situ nebulization and OES detection. Trace cadmium in sample
      solution is separated and preconcentrated by flowing through a 2-(5-Br-2
      pyridylazo)-5-dethylaminophenol (5-Br-PADAP) loaded microcolumn in LOV, followed
      by elution with 20 MUL of 0.1 M hydrochloric acid. The eluate after online
      derivatization with 5 MUL of 0.2 M borate buffer solution containing 7.5% (v/v)
      ethanol is immediately transported into a pneumatic micronebulizer integrating
      DBD microplasma for cadmium excitation, and OES is recorded by using a charge
      coupled device (CCD) spectrometer. As a miniaturized analytical set-up, LOV
      provides an ideal sample-processing front-end with detection by DBD-OES, while
      introduction of DBD excitation source in LOV highly improves the analytical
      performances for trace metal species. With a sample volume of 1.0 mL, a detection
      limit of 0.06 MUg L-1 and a linear range of 0.2-50 MUg L-1 are achieved for
      cadmium, along with an enrichment factor of 38. The accuracy of the present
      system is confirmed by the determination of cadmium in certified reference
      materials, and further demonstrated by spiking recoveries of cadmium in real
      water samples.

PMID- 28576318
TI  - Automated quantification of metabolites in blood-derived samples by NMR.
AB  - NMR is widely applied in the field of metabolomics due to the quantitative nature
      of the technology and the reproducible data generated. However, because of severe
      spectral crowding, quantifying individual metabolites in body fluids such as
      serum and plasma remains a challenge. In this study, a method to automatically
      annotate and quantify a number of small metabolites in human serum and EDTA
      plasma is introduced. It combines the superior signal-to-noise ratio of the
      commonly applied CPMG and NOESY1D pulse sequences with the superior resolution of
      the 2D JRES experiment to construct a model that extracts the metabolite
      concentrations directly from the 1D spectra without tedious deconvolution. The
      performance of the method was assessed by comparing the calculated areas of the
      various glucose peaks with known clinical values, by comparing several peaks of
      the same metabolite (extracted versus non-extracted), and by comparing areas
      obtained from various NMR pulse sequences. Additionally, the models were tested
      on independent datasets. It was found that for many metabolites peaks could be
      assigned that show a consistent behavior, indicating a precise quantification.
      The same method should be applicable to other biofluids with a stable composition
      and pH, such as CSF fluid, cell extracts, and cell media.

PMID- 28576320
TI  - Self-assembled structures of N-alkylated bisbenzimidazolyl naphthalene in aqueous
      media for highly sensitive detection of picric acid.
AB  - A 2,6-dibenzimidazole-appended naphthalene derivative flanking with two N-alkyl
      chains (sensor 4) was designed and applied for highly sensitive detection of
      picric acid (PA) in aqueous media. Driven by the hydrophobicity of alkyl chain
      and pi-pi stacking effect of aryl, sensor 4 can undergo self-assembly to form an
      orderly rod-like structure in H2O/THF (v/v, 90/10) solution, as shown by the
      dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies.
      Sensor 4 shows high selectivity and sensitivity toward PA over other
      nitroaromatic explosives. DFT calculations and 1H NMR, the time-correlated single
      photon counting (TCSPC) experiments confirm that the quenching mechanism is due
      to both electron and energy transfer from the electron-rich sensor 4 to the
      electron-deficient PA. Sensor 4 can detect as low as 0.57 ppb PA in aqueous media
      and 11.46 ag cm-2 PA by contact mode. Importantly, sensor 4 exhibits low
      interference against common solvents, metal ions and anions. Thus, it is
      practically applicable for sensing PA in real environmental samples and vapor
      phase.

PMID- 28576319
TI  - Chloroformate derivatization for tracing the fate of Amino acids in cells and
      tissues by multiple stable isotope resolved metabolomics (mSIRM).
AB  - Amino acids have crucial roles in central metabolism, both anabolic and
      catabolic. To elucidate these roles, steady-state concentrations of amino acids
      alone are insufficient, as each amino acid participates in multiple pathways and
      functions in a complex network, which can also be compartmentalized. Stable
      Isotope-Resolved Metabolomics (SIRM) is an approach that uses atom-resolved
      tracking of metabolites through biochemical transformations in cells, tissues, or
      whole organisms. Using different elemental stable isotopes to label multiple
      metabolite precursors makes it possible to resolve simultaneously the utilization
      of these precursors in a single experiment. Conversely, a single precursor
      labeled with two (or more) different elemental isotopes can trace the allocation
      of e.g. C and N atoms through the network. Such dual-label experiments however
      challenge the resolution of conventional mass spectrometers, which must
      distinguish the neutron mass differences among different elemental isotopes. This
      requires ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry (UHR-FTMS).
      When combined with direct infusion nano-electrospray ion source (nano-ESI), UHR
      FTMS can provide rapid, global, and quantitative analysis of all possible mass
      isotopologues of metabolites. Unfortunately, very low mass polar metabolites such
      as amino acids can be difficult to analyze by current models of UHR-FTMS, plus
      the high salt content present in typical cell or tissue polar extracts may cause
      unacceptable ion suppression for sources such as nano-ESI. Here we describe a
      modified method of ethyl chloroformate (ECF) derivatization of amino acids to
      enable rapid quantitative analysis of stable isotope labeled amino acids using
      nano-ESI UHR-FTMS. This method showed excellent linearity with quantifiable
      limits in the low nanomolar range represented in microgram quantities of
      biological specimens, which results in extracts with total analyte abundances in
      the low to sub-femtomole range. We have applied this method to profile amino
      acids and their labeling patterns in 13C and 2H doubly labeled PC9 cell extracts,
      cancerous and non-cancerous tissue extracts from a lung cancer patient and their
      protein hydrolysates as well as plasma extracts from mice fed with a liquid diet
      containing 13C6-glucose (Glc). The multi-element isotopologue distributions
      provided key insights into amino acid metabolism and intracellular pools in human
      lung cancer tissues in high detail. The 13C labeling of Asp and Glu revealed de
      novo synthesis of these amino acids from 13C6-Glc via the Krebs cycle,
      specifically the elevated level of 13C3-labeled Asp and Glu in cancerous versus
      non-cancerous lung tissues was consistent with enhanced pyruvate carboxylation.
      In addition, tracking the fate of double tracers, (13C6-Glc + 2H2-Gly or 13C6-Glc
      + 2H3-Ser) in PC9 cells clearly resolved pools of Ser and Gly synthesized de novo
      from 13C6-Glc (13C3-Ser and 13C2-Gly) versus Ser and Gly derived from external
      sources (2H3-Ser, 2H2-Gly). Moreover the complex 2H labeling patterns of the
      latter were results of Ser and Gly exchange through active Ser-Gly one-carbon
      metabolic pathway in PC9 cells.

PMID- 28576321
TI  - Quantification of gene-specific DNA methylation in oesophageal cancer via
      electrochemistry.
AB  - Development of simple and inexpensive method for the analysis of gene-specific
      DNA methylation is important for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with
      cancer. Herein, we report a relatively simple and inexpensive electrochemical
      method for the sensitive and selective detection of gene-specific DNA methylation
      in oesophageal cancer. The underlying principle of the method relies on the
      affinity interaction between DNA bases and unmodified gold electrode. Since the
      affinity trend of DNA bases towards the gold surface follows as adenine (A) >
      cytosine (C) > guanine (G)> thymine (T), a relatively larger amount of bisulfite
      treated adenine-enriched unmethylated DNA adsorbs on the screen-printed gold
      electrodes (SPE-Au) in comparison to the guanine-enriched methylated sample. The
      methylation levels were (i.e., different level of surface attached DNA molecules
      due to the base dependent differential adsorption pattern) quantified by
      measuring saturated amount of charge-compensating [Ru(NH3)6]3+ molecules in the
      surface-attached DNAs by chronocoulometry as redox charge of the [Ru(NH3)6]3+
      molecules quantitatively reflects the amount of the adsorbed DNA confined at the
      electrode surface. The assay could successfully distinguish methylated and
      unmethylated DNA sequences at single CpG resolution and as low as 10% differences
      in DNA methylation. In addition, the assay showed fairly good reproducibility (%
      RSD= <5%) with better sensitivity and specificity by analysing various levels of
      methylation in two cell lines and eight fresh tissues samples from patients with
      oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Finally, the method was validated with
      methylation specific-high resolution melting curve analysis and Sanger sequencing
      methods.

PMID- 28576322
TI  - Accuracy in precordial ECG lead placement: Improving performance through a peer
      led educational intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Inaccurate electrocardiography (ECG) lead placement
      may lead to erroneous diagnoses, such as poor R wave progression. We sought to
      assess the accuracy of precordial ECG lead placement amongst hospital staff
      members, and to re-evaluate performance after an educational intervention.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: 100 randomly selected eligible staff members placed sticker
      dots on a mannequin, their positions were recorded on a radar plot and compared
      to the correct precordial lead positions. The commonest errors were placing V1
      and V2 leads too superiorly, and V5 and V6 leads too medially.Following an
      educational intervention with the aid of moderated poster presentations and
      volunteer patients, the study was repeated six months later. 60 subjects
      correctly placed all leads, compared to 10 in the pre-intervention cohort
      (P<0.0001) with the proportion achieving correct placement of any lead rising
      from 0.34 to 0.83, (p<0.0001 for all leads). CONCLUSION: Incorrect ECG lead
      placement is common. This may be addressed through regular training incorporated
      into annual induction processes for relevant health care professionals.

PMID- 28576323
TI  - Complement in clinical medicine: Clinical trials, case reports and therapy
      monitoring.
AB  - Research during past decades made it evident that complement is involved in more
      tasks than fighting infections, but has important roles in other immune
      surveillance and housekeeping functions. If the balance between complement
      activation and regulation is out of tune, however, complement can quickly turn
      against the host and contribute to adverse processes that result in various
      clinical conditions. Whereas clinical awareness was initially focused on
      complement deficiencies, excessive activation and insufficient regulation are
      frequently the dominant factors in complement-related disorders. The individual
      complement profile of a patient often determines the course and severity of the
      disease, and the pathophysiological involvement of complement may be highly
      diverse. As a consequence, complement assays have evolved as essential tools not
      only in initial diagnosis but also for following disease progression and for
      monitoring complement-targeted therapies, which become increasingly available in
      routine clinical use. We herein review the current state of complement-directed
      drug candidates in clinical evaluation and provide an overview of extended
      indications considered for the FDA-approved inhibitor eculizumab. Furthermore we
      review the literature describing cases reports and case series where eculizumab
      has been used "off-label". Finally, we give a summary of the currently available
      tests to measure complement profiles and discuss their suitability in diagnostics
      and treatment monitoring. With complement finally entering the clinical arena,
      there are intriguing opportunities for treating complement-mediated diseases.
      However, this progress also requires a new awareness about complement
      pathophysiology, adequate diagnostic tools and suitable treatment options among
      clinicians treating patients with such disorders.

PMID- 28576324
TI  - New concepts on the therapeutic control of complement anaphylatoxin receptors.
AB  - The complement system is a pivotal driver of innate immunity, coordinating the
      host response to protect against pathogens. At the heart of the complement
      response lie the active fragments, C3a and C5a, acting through their specific
      receptors, C3aR, C5aR1, and C5aR2, to direct the cellular response to
      inflammation. Their potent function however, places them at risk of damaging the
      host, with aberrant C3a and C5a signaling activity linked to a wide range of
      disorders of inflammatory, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative etiologies. As such,
      the therapeutic control of these receptors represents an attractive drug target,
      though, the realization of this clinical potential remains limited. With the
      success of eculizumab, and the progression of a number of novel C5a-C5aR1
      targeted drugs to phase II and III clinical trials, there is great promise for
      complement therapeutics in future clinical practice. In contrast, the toolbox of
      drugs available to modulate C3aR and C5aR2 signaling remains limited, however,
      the emergence of new selective ligands and molecular tools, and an increased
      understanding of the function of these receptors in disease, has highlighted
      their unique potential for clinical applications. This review provides an update
      on the growing arsenal of drugs now available to target C5, and C5a and C3a
      receptor signaling, and discusses their utility in both clinical and pre-clinical
      development.

PMID- 28576325
TI  - Distinct physiological and molecular responses in Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to
      aluminum oxide nanoparticles and ionic aluminum.
AB  - Nano-aluminium oxide (nAl2O3) is one of the most widely used nanomaterials.
      However, nAl2O3 toxicity mechanisms and potential beneficial effects on
      terrestrial plant physiology remain poorly understood. Such knowledge is
      essential for the development of robust nAl2O3 risk assessment. In this study, we
      studied the influence of a 10-d exposure to a total selected concentration of 98
      MUM nAl2O3 or to the equivalent molar concentration of ionic Al (AlCl3) (196 MUM)
      on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana on the physiology (e.g., growth and
      photosynthesis, membrane damage) and the transcriptome using a high throughput
      state-of-the-art technology, RNA-seq. We found no evidence of nAl2O3 toxicity on
      photosynthesis, growth and lipid peroxidation. Rather the nAl2O3 treatment
      stimulated root weight and length by 48% and 39%, respectively as well as
      photosynthesis opening up the door to the use of nAl2O3 in biotechnology and nano
      agriculture. Transcriptomic analyses indicate that the beneficial effect of
      nAl2O3 was related to an increase in the transcription of several genes involved
      in root growth as well as in root nutrient uptake (e.g., up-regulation of the
      root hair-specific gene family and root development genes, POLARIS protein). By
      contrast, the ionic Al treatment decreased shoot and root weight of Arabidopsis
      thaliana by 57.01% and 45.15%, respectively. This toxic effect was coupled to a
      range of response at the gene transcription level including increase
      transcription of antioxidant-related genes and transcription of genes involved in
      plant defense response to pathogens. This work provides an integrated
      understanding at the molecular and physiological level of the effects of nAl2O3
      and ionic Al in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28576326
TI  - Examination and physical therapy management of a young gymnast with bilateral
      wrist pain: A case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wrist pain associated with weight-bearing gymnastic activities may be
      linked to musculoskeletal impairments, faulty movement patterns, and poor
      training techniques. Inadequate proximal control may adversely impact the loading
      mechanics throughout the upper extremities and contribute to a gymnast's
      complaint of wrist pain. The purpose of this case report is to describe the
      management of a young gymnast with primary complaint of bilateral wrist pain
      associated with upper extremity weight-bearing activities. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 10
      year-old male gymnast presented with a 6-month history of bilateral wrist pain
      aggravated by weight-bearing gymnastic activities. Based on the findings from a
      physical therapy examination, a 3-stage progressive rehabilitation program was
      designed using an impairment-based, multi-modal approach to treat key
      musculoskeletal impairments and movement deficiencies. Consistent with the
      principle of activity simulation, treatment targeted areas of weakness considered
      key to activity performance and included a progression of exercises and
      techniques that simulated activities reported by the gymnast to be painful.
      OUTCOMES: The gymnast was treated for 11 visits over 8 weeks. He demonstrated
      improved strength, motor control, and self-reported outcome scores that allowed
      pain-free return to all gymnastic activities.

PMID- 28576327
TI  - Issue "noninvasive molecular imaging and theranostic probes": New concepts in
      myocardial imaging.
AB  - Cardiovascular applications continue to be a driving force for new developments
      in radionuclide imaging. Recent years have seen an evolution of myocardial
      perfusion imaging systems towards optimized radiation detection sensitivity,
      leading to fast and low dose studies with high image quality. Additional advances
      in hard- and software facilitated the integration of computed tomography and
      nuclear imaging, and enabled absolute quantification of myocardial blood flow.
      Finally, non-perfusion tracers and clinical indications outside of coronary
      artery disease (e.g. in endocarditis, infiltrative cardiomyopathies or
      regenerative medicine) have resulted in a growth of molecular-targeted myocardial
      imaging, aiming at improved guidance of increasingly specific therapies - in a
      manner similar to current oncologic applications of nuclear imaging.

PMID- 28576328
TI  - A novel method of predicting microRNA-disease associations based on microRNA,
      disease, gene and environment factor networks.
AB  - MicroRNAs have been reported to have close relationship with diseases due to
      their deregulation of the expression of target mRNAs. Detecting disease-related
      microRNAs is helpful for disease therapies. With the development of high
      throughput experimental techniques, a large number of microRNAs have been
      sequenced. However, it is still a big challenge to identify which microRNAs are
      related to diseases. Recently, researchers are interesting in combining multiple
      biological information to identify the associations between microRNAs and
      diseases. In this work, we have proposed a novel method to predict the microRNA
      disease associations based on four biological properties. They are microRNA,
      disease, gene and environment factor. Compared with previous methods, our method
      makes predictions not only by using the prior knowledge of associations among
      microRNAs, disease, environment factors and genes, but also by using the internal
      relationship among these biological properties. We constructed four biological
      networks based on the similarity of microRNAs, diseases, environment factors and
      genes, respectively. Then random walking was implemented on the four networks
      unequally. In the walking course, the associations can be inferred from the
      neighbors in the same networks. Meanwhile the association information can be
      transferred from one network to another. The results of experiment showed that
      our method achieved better prediction performance than other existing state-of
      the-art methods.

PMID- 28576329
TI  - Incentivizing secondary raw material markets for sustainable waste management.
AB  - Notwithstanding several policy initiatives in many countries over a number of
      years, there remains a general sense that too much municipal solid waste is
      generated and that too much of the waste that is generated is landfilled. There
      is an emerging consensus that a sustainable approach to waste management requires
      further development of secondary raw material markets. The purpose of this paper
      is to propose a theoretical economic model that focuses upon this stage of a
      sustainable waste management program and explores policy options that could
      motivate efficiency in secondary raw material markets. In particular, we show how
      firm profit and social welfare optimizing objectives can be reconciled in a two
      product market of waste management processes: landfilling and material
      reclamation. Our results provide theoretical support for building out recent
      Circular Economy initiatives as well as for the relatively recent emergence of
      landfill mining as a means for procuring secondary raw materials.

PMID- 28576330
TI  - First report of two cases of cryptococcosis in Tripoli, Libya, infected with
      Cryptococcus neoformans isolates present in the urban area.
AB  - Cryptococcosis is a potentially fatal fungal disease caused by the basidiomycetes
      yeasts Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii with high predilection to invade the
      central nervous system mainly in immunocompromised hosts. Skin can be secondarily
      involved in disseminated infection or be exceptionally involved as primary
      cutaneous infection by inoculation with contaminated materials. We report the
      first two Libyan cases of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV patients, in which one
      of them presented a secondary cutaneous involvement due to systemic
      dissemination. The first patient was a 17-year-old female, had fever, cough,
      headache and intractable vomiting as well as itchy water bumps on her skin and
      upper limbs. The cutaneous eruption prompted the accurate diagnosis. Cultures
      were positive for C. neoformans in both cerebrospinal fluid and skin specimens,
      as well as cryptococcal antigen was detected in serum. The isolate was
      identified, by molecular analysis, as C. neoformans AD-hybrid belonging to
      molecular type VNIII and mating type alphaAAalpha, the same genotype found for
      some environmental isolates recovered from olive trees in Tripoli. The second
      patient was a 36-years-old male with a long history of HIV on irregular
      treatment. Cryptococcal antigen in serum was positive and cultures yielded the
      growth of C. neoformans var. grubii, molecular type VNI and mating type alphaA.
      Both patients did not respond adequately to treatment and died of impaired
      central nervous system function and respiratory failure, respectively.

PMID- 28576331
TI  - Rapid preparation and single-cell analysis of concentrated blood smears using a
      high-throughput blood cell separator and a microfabricated grid film.
AB  - Cytological examination of peripheral white blood cells inhomogeneously
      distributed on a blood smear is currently limited by the low abundance and random
      sampling of the target cells. To address the challenges, we present a new
      approach to prepare and analyze concentrated blood smears by rapidly enriching
      white blood cells up to 32-fold with 92% recovery on average at a high throughput
      (1mL/min) using a deterministic migration-based separator and by systematically
      analyzing a large number of the cells distributed over a blood slide using a
      microfabricated grid film. We anticipate that our approach will improve the
      clinical utility of blood smear tests, while offering the capability to detect
      rare cell populations.

PMID- 28576332
TI  - Refolding of laccase from Trametes versicolor using aqueous two phase systems:
      Effect of different additives.
AB  - Protein refolding is a strategy used to obtain active forms of proteins from
      inclusion bodies. On its part, laccase is an enzyme with potential for different
      biotechnological applications but there are few reports regarding its refolding
      which in many cases is considered inefficient due to the poor obtained refolding
      yields. Aqueous Two-Phase Systems (ATPS) have been used for the refolding of
      proteins getting acceptable recovery percentages since PEG presents capacity to
      avoid protein aggregation. In this work, 48 PEG-phosphate ATPS were analyzed to
      study the impact of different parameters (i.e. tie line length (TLL), volume
      ratio (VR) and PEG molecular weight) upon the recovery and refolding of laccase.
      Additionally, since laccase is a metalloprotein, the use of additives
      (individually and in mixture) was studied with the aim of favoring refolding.
      Results showed that laccase presents a high affinity for the PEG-rich phase
      obtaining recovery values of up to 90%. Such affinity increases with increasing
      TLL and decreases when PEG molecular weight and VR increase. In denatured state,
      this PEG-rich phase affinity decreases drastically. However, the use of additives
      such as l-cysteine, glutathione oxidized, cysteamine and Cu+2 was critical in
      improving refolding yield values up to 100%. The best conditions for the
      refolding of laccase were obtained using the PEG 400gmol-1, TLL 45% w/w, VR 3
      ATPS and a mixture of 2.5mM cysteamine with 1mM Cu+2. To our knowledge, this is
      the first time that the use of additives and the behavior of the mixture of such
      additives to enhance refolding performance in ATPS is reported.

PMID- 28576333
TI  - [Hygienic-sanitary quality in abattoirs from Tucuman province, Argentina.
      Detection, isolation and characterization of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia
      coli].
AB  - Cattle are the main reservoir of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC),
      and the strategies to prevent the transmission of these microorganisms are
      concentrated in the slaughtering plant. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      hygienic-sanitary quality and the frequency of detection of STEC in beef
      carcasses in abattoirs from Tucuman province. Two hundred and seventy four beef
      carcass sponges were processed; the count of generic E. coli was marginal in 9
      (3,3%) of them. Escherichia coli O157 was isolated in 4 (1,4%) samples; 2 of
      which were characterized as stx2c(vh-a)/eae/ehxA whereas the other 2 were non
      toxigenic strains. Non-O157 E. coli ONT:H49, stx2a/ehxA/saa was isolated from 1
      sample (0,4%). In this work the quality of the analyzed product indicates that
      the good practices of manufacture are fulfilled in slaughtering facilities in
      Tucuman province.

PMID- 28576334
TI  - Diversity and distribution of lepidopteran-specific toxin genes in Bacillus
      thuringiensis strains from Argentina.
AB  - A total of 268 Bacillus thuringiensis strains obtained from different sources of
      Argentina were analyzed to determine the diversity and distribution of the cry1,
      cry2, cry8, cry9 and vip3A genes encoding for lepidopteran-specific insecticidal
      proteins. Twin strains were excluded. Ten different profiles were detected among
      the 80 selected B. thuringiensis strains. Two of these profiles (cry1Aa, cry1Ac,
      cry1Ia, cry2Aa, cry2Ab and vip3Aa (35/80), and cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry1Ia,
      cry2Aa, cry2Ab and vip3Aa (25/80)) pooled 75% of the strains. The existence of
      this low diversity is rare, since in most of the studied collections a great
      diversity of insecticidal toxin gene profiles has been described. In addition,
      the most frequently detected profile was also most frequently derived from soil
      (70%), stored product dust (59%) and spider webs (50%). In contrast, the cry1Aa,
      cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry1Ia, cry2Aa, cry2Ab and vip3Aa profiles were mainly detected
      in strains isolated from leaves (40%) and dead insect larvae (50%). Six of the
      identified insecticidal toxin gene profiles were discovered in strains isolated
      from stored product dust and leaves indicating higher diversity of profiles in
      these kinds of sources than in others. Some strains with high insecticidal
      activity against Epinotia aporema (Lepidoptera) larvae were identified, which is
      important to explore future microbial strategies for the control of this crop
      pest in the region.

PMID- 28576335
TI  - Kuwaiti Teachers' Perceptions of Voice Handicap.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to investigate the effects of age, gender, level of
      education, experience, and class level taught on the perception of voice handicap
      by Kuwaiti teachers using the Arabic version of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI
      Arab). The mean VHI scores of Kuwaiti teachers were compared with those of
      Jordanian and Emirati teachers. METHODS: The study had a cross-sectional survey
      design. A total of 460 individuals (100 controls and 360 teachers) participated
      in this study and completed the paper copy of the VHI-Arab. We recruited 360
      teachers, 180 males and 180 females (age range: 20-50 years), from 60 schools in
      6 Kuwaiti districts. Teachers' VHI scores were compared with 100 nonteaching
      voice users (50 males and 50 females, with an age range of 18-42 years). RESULTS:
      Female teachers scored significantly higher than male teachers in all subscales
      (ie, physical: P = 0.02; emotional: P = 0.007; total: P = 0.017), except for the
      functional subscale (P = 0.147). Elementary school teachers scored significantly
      higher than teachers of other levels (middle and high school) in all VHI
      subscales (physical: P = 0.047; emotional: P = 0.01; total: P = 0.039), except
      for the functional subscale (P = 0.47). The mean score of Jordanian teachers was
      higher than that of Kuwaiti and Emirati teachers in all VHI subscales.
      CONCLUSIONS: Teachers with a more favorable teaching environment scored better on
      the VHI. Gender differences were found in all the Arabic nationalities studied.
      Female teachers of the elementary level, in particular, should be the focus of
      attention of efforts to prevent voice damage.

PMID- 28576336
TI  - Working Toward a Common Vocabulary: Reconciling the Terminology of Teachers of
      Singing, Voice Scientists, and Speech-Language Pathologists.

PMID- 28576337
TI  - Angiostrongylus cantonensis daf-2 regulates dauer, longevity and stress in
      Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - The insulin-like signaling (IIS) pathway is considered to be significant in
      regulating fat metabolism, dauer formation, stress response and longevity in
      Caenorhabditis elegans. "Dauer hypothesis" indicates that similar IIS
      transduction mechanism regulates dauer development in free-living nematode C.
      elegans and the development of infective third-stage larvae (iL3) in parasitic
      nematodes, and this is bolstered by a few researches on structures and functions
      of the homologous genes in the IIS pathway cloned from several parasitic
      nematodes. In this study, we identified the insulin-like receptor encoding gene,
      Acan-daf-2, from the parasitic nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, and
      determined the genomic structures, transcripts and functions far more thorough in
      longevity, stress resistance and dauer formation. The sequence of Acan-DAF-2,
      consisting of 1413 amino acids, contained all of the characteristic domains of
      insulin-like receptors from other taxa. The expression patterns of Acan-daf-2 in
      the C. elegans surrogate system showed that pAcan-daf-2:gfp was only expressed in
      intestine, compared with the orthologue in C. elegans, Ce-daf-2 in both intestine
      and neurons. In addition to the similar genomic organization to Ce-daf-2, Acan
      DAF-2 could also negatively regulate Ce-DAF-16A through nuclear/cytosolic
      translocation and partially restore the C. elegans daf-2(e1370) mutation in
      longevity, dauer formation and stress resistance. These findings provided further
      evidence of the functional conservation of DAF-2 between parasitic nematodes and
      the free-living nematode C. elegans, and might be significant in understanding
      the developmental biology of nematode parasites, particularly in the infective
      process and the host-specificity.

PMID- 28576339
TI  - The toxicity and the acaricidal mechanism against Psoroptes cuniculi of the
      methanol extract of Adonis coerulea Maxim.
AB  - SCOPE: Adonis coerulea Maxim. is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows in
      scrub, grassy slope areas, and as traditional medicine it has been used to treat
      animal acariasis for thousands of years. In this paper, we aimed to study the
      acute toxicity and cytotoxicity of the methanol extract of A. coerulea (MEAC) in
      vivo and in vitro for supporting the clinic uses. The acaricidal activity and the
      mechanism of action against Psoroptes cuniculi were investigated. RESULTS: The
      results showed that isoorientin, luteolin and apigenin were the primary compounds
      in MEAC. The toxicity test showed that median lethal dose (LD50) and the 50%
      inhibitory concentration (IC50) of MEAC were estimated to be more than 5000mg/kg
      in mice in vivo and more than 50mg/ml against RAW 264.7 and GM00637 cells in the
      3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) test. After
      culturing with MEAC, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase
      (CAT), malonyldialdehyde (MDA), glutathione-S-transferase (GST),
      acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and Na+-K+-ATPase of mites were evaluated. Compared
      with the control group, SOD activity of MEAC-treated group of mites was
      inhibited, and CAT activity was activated at the preliminary phase but was
      gradually inhibited over the period of incubation. MDA content reached a peak at
      6h and then gradually decreased. However, GST activity in the mites was activated
      in a dose- and time-dependent manner. AChE and Na+-K+-ATPase activities related
      to neural conduction, vital functions and the transmembrane ion gradient of the
      mites were inhibited. CONCLUSION: MEAC is safe in the given doses in both the in
      vitro and the in vivo tests, can be applied in the clinic and it had good
      acaricidal activity. The extension of the incubation time in the mites led to
      dynamic disequilibrium between the production and clearing of superoxide anions,
      a disruption of the energy metabolism and the transmembrane ion gradient, and the
      inhibition of motor function. These factors may have resulted in mite death.

PMID- 28576338
TI  - Susceptibility of ten Haemonchus contortus isolates from different geographical
      origins towards acetone:water extracts of polyphenol-rich plants. Part 2:
      Infective L3 larvae.
AB  - This study explored the variation in susceptibility to acetone:water plant
      extracts between infective larvae (L3) of ten Haemonchus contortus isolates from
      different geographical origin. The L3 of 10 different isolates were exposed
      either to the acetone:water extract of a temperate plant (Onobrychis viciifolia)
      or a tropical plant (Acacia pennatula) and were evaluated with the larval
      exsheathment inhibition assay (LEIA). The L3 of each isolate were incubated with
      different concentrations of each extract (0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800,
      1000 and 1200MUg/mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS)). After incubation, the
      exsheathment process of L3 was induced using a solution with sodium hypochlorite
      (2%) and sodium chloride (16.5%). The proportion of exsheathed L3 was determined
      for each concentration at 0, 20, 40 and 60min. Effective concentrations 50%
      (EC50) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated
      for every isolate with both extracts. Moreover, a resistance ratio (RR) was
      calculated for each extract to compare isolates, using the most susceptible
      isolate as the respective reference for each extract. To determine the role of
      polyphenols on the reported effect, a second set of incubations was made for each
      isolate and each extract, using the extracts at a concentration of 1200MUg/mL PBS
      with or without polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), a polyphenol blocking agent, and
      controls without extract. The ten different H. contortus isolates showed
      variation in susceptibility for each of the 2 extracts tested (P<0.05). The EC50
      values for A. pennatula extract ranged from 36 to 501MUg/mL (RR: 2.11-13.68).
      Meanwhile, the EC50 values for O. viciifolia extract ranged from 128 to
      1003MUg/mL (RR: 1.25-7.82). The use of PVPP revealed that polyphenols were
      responsible for the anthelmintic activity recorded for both extracts. However,
      tested H. contortus isolates suggested that susceptibility to one polyphenol-rich
      extract did not determine the susceptibility to the other polyphenol rich
      extract. The latter result indicated that the different H. contortus isolates
      varied in their susceptibility to the polyphenols present in each extract
      evaluated.

PMID- 28576340
TI  - Utilization of composite fecal samples for detection of anthelmintic resistance
      in gastrointestinal nematodes of cattle.
AB  - Recent reports indicate that anthelmintic resistance in gastrointestinal
      nematodes of cattle is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. Presently, the
      fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) is the only means available for detection
      of resistance to anthelmintics in cattle herds at the farm level. However, the
      FECRT is labor and cost intensive, and consequently is only rarely performed on
      cattle farms unless for research purposes. If costs could be reduced, cattle
      producers might be more likely to pursue drug resistance testing on their farms.
      One approach to reducing the cost of the FECRT, is the use of composite fecal
      samples for performing fecal egg counts (FEC), rather than conducting FEC on
      fecal samples from 15 to 20 individual animals. In this study FECRT were
      performed on 14 groups of cattle using both individual and composite FEC methods
      To measure how well the results of composite sampling reproduce those of
      individual sampling, Lin's Concordance Correlation Coefficient was utilized to
      describe both the linear relationship between methods and the slope and y
      intercept of the line relating the data sets. There was little difference between
      the approaches with 98% agreement in mean FEC found between methods Mean FEC
      based on individual counts ranged between 0 and 670.6 eggs per gram of feces,
      indicating that the results of this study are applicable to a wide range of FEC
      levels. Standard error of the mean FEC and range of FEC are reported for each
      group prior to and following treatment to describe the variability of the data
      set. There was greater than 95% agreement in drug efficacy between individual and
      composite sampling methods, demonstrating composite sampling is appropriate to
      evaluate drug efficacy. Notably, for all groups tested the efficacy calculated by
      composite sampling was within the 95% confidence interval for efficacy calculated
      using individual sampling. The use of composite samples was shown to reduce the
      number of FEC required by 79%. These data demonstrate that pooling fecal samples
      from a group of cattle and then performing repeated FEC on that composite sample
      yields results very similar to performing individual FEC on those same animals,
      while substantially reducing the cost of performing a FECRT as compared to
      individual fecal samples. Furthermore, we have developed suggested methods for
      using composite samples in a FECRT, provided a cost comparison for this
      methodology, and described potential issues associated with the use of composite
      samples that must be considered.

PMID- 28576341
TI  - Molecular confirmation of Sarcocystis fayeri in a donkey.
AB  - Sarcocystis fayeri is a canine protozoan parasite with an equine intermediate
      host. Historically classified as an incidental pathogen, recent literature has
      described the toxic effects of Sarcocystis fayeri in human food poisoning, and
      highlighted potential involvement in equine neuromuscular disease. Until now,
      horses were believed to be the exclusive intermediate host. This study reports
      the first molecular confirmation of S. fayeri in a donkey, and gives rise to the
      consideration of donkeys being a potential reservoir for the parasite. This
      finding is of particular importance in understanding the epidemiology of this
      disease.

PMID- 28576342
TI  - Development of a colloidal gold immunochromatographic strip based on HSP70 for
      the rapid detection of Echinococcus granulosus in sheep.
AB  - Echinococcus granulosus is the causative pathogen of cystic echinococcosis, a
      serious disease endangering human and animal health. In this study, an
      immunochromatographic strip was developed based on the recombinant protein Heat
      shock protein 70 (HSP70) for the serological detection of E. granulosus. The
      protocol completes within 20min requiring no specialized equipment or chemical
      reagents, while specificity tests confirmed no cross-reactivity with positive
      serum of Fasciola hepatica, Haemonchus contortus, Peste des petits ruminants
      virus (PPRV) and Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The strips remained stable
      after storage at 4 degrees C for up to 8 months. Both immunochromatographic strip
      and ELISA tests were applied to detect E. granulosus antibody in a total of 728
      serum samples obtained from slaughter houses in Zhejiang Province. Our data
      revealed positive rates of 2.61 and 1.65% by immunochromatographic strip and
      ELISA methods, respectively. The immunochromatographic strip test developed in
      this study provides a simple, specific and rapid method of E. granulosus antibody
      detection and infected sheep monitoring.

PMID- 28576343
TI  - Economic assessment of Ostertagia ostertagi and Fasciola hepatica infections in
      dairy cattle herds in Germany using Paracalc(r).
AB  - The aim of the current study was to estimate economic costs of Ostertagia
      ostertagi and Fasciola hepatica infections in dairy cattle herds in Germany using
      the online calculation programme Paracalc(r). Following a questionnaire, survey
      data were available from 464 farms in 14 federal states. On those farms bulk tank
      milk (BTM) samples and additionally up to six serum samples collected from first
      season grazing calves were analysed, using a commercially available ELISA
      (Boehringer Ingelheim SVANOVA Biotech AB, Uppsala, Sweden), an in-house ELISA (F.
      hepatica) and an in-house serum pepsinogen test. In total, samples obtained from
      344 farms were included in the analysis since those were the only farms with
      complete questionnaires. Median costs per farm and year were estimated for
      gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections (?721.38) and F. hepatica infection
      (?565.61). Decreases in milk yield in multiparous cows were the major reason for
      annual production losses due to GI nematodes (?13.33 per cow) and F. hepatica
      infections (?7.95 per cow), which was followed by annual costs for anthelmintic
      treatment against GI nematode infections in adult cows (?10.00 per cow) and F.
      hepatica infection associated annual costs due to repeated artificial
      insemination (?10.13 per cow) and prolonged calving intervals (?9.40 per cow).
      The study demonstrated that if all required information is provided, the
      Paracalc(r) tool can assist to identify productions losses in dairy cattle herds
      due to helminth infections and to optimise farm economics in Germany.

PMID- 28576344
TI  - Association of water handling and child feeding practice with childhood diarrhoea
      in rural community of Southern Nepal.
AB  - Diarrhoea is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality globally. While
      the childhood diarrhoea and its association with child feeding, and hygiene, hand
      washing and water treatment are studied elsewhere, the association of water
      handling and child feeding with childhood diarrhoea is an understudied area in
      Nepal. This study aimed to investigate the association of water handling and
      child feeding practice with childhood diarrhoea among children of one to five
      years of age in Southern, Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the
      Dhanusha district of Southern Nepal in 2013. A total of 284 mother-child pairs
      were selected using systemic random sampling. A four-week prevalence of childhood
      diarrhoea was reported using frequency distribution. The association of childhood
      diarrhoea with water handling and child feeding practices was ascertained using
      multiple logistic regressions after adjusting for potential confounders. The
      result of the study demonstrated that the four-week prevalence of childhood
      diarrhoea was 36.6%. Our finding showed that unsafe water handling practices were
      associated independently with childhood diarrhoea: untreated water (aOR 3.55; 95%
      CI: 1.13-11.10), uncovered water (aOR 2.14; 95% CI: 1.09-4.19). Similarly,
      partial breast feeding (aOR 4.35; 95% CI: 1.87-10.12) was also associated with
      higher odds of childhood diarrhoea. One third of children in Southern Nepal still
      had diarrhoea within the four weeks preceding the survey. As poor water handling
      and sub optimal infant feeding practice were major risk factors contributing to
      such a high burden of the disease, health promotion strategies such as promotion
      of safe water handling, improved hygiene and child feeding practices are
      recommended for the prevention of childhood diarrhoea in Southern Terai of Nepal.

PMID- 28576345
TI  - Multidirectional instability of the glenohumeral joint: Etiology, classification,
      assessment, and management.
AB  - Multidirectional instability of the shoulder is a type of glenohumeral joint
      shoulder instability. There are discrepancies in the definition and
      classification of this condition, which can make diagnosis and treatment
      selection challenging. Knowledge of contributing factors, the typical clinical
      presentation, and current best evidence for treatment options can assist in the
      diagnosis and appropriate treatment selection for this pathology. The purpose of
      this article is to present an overview of the current literature regarding the
      etiology, classification, assessment, and management of multidirectional
      instability of the glenohumeral joint.

PMID- 28576346
TI  - Factors influencing final outcomes in patients with shoulder pain: A
      retrospective review.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. INTRODUCTION: Rehabilitation interventions
      are commonly prescribed for patients with shoulder pain, but it is unclear what
      factors may help clinicians' prognosis for final outcomes. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:
      The purpose of this study is to determine what factors are the best predictors of
      improved patient-reported outcomes at discharge in patients with shoulder pain.
      METHODS: Retrospective chart review of 128 patients presenting with shoulder pain
      to an outpatient physical therapy clinic. Chart review captured data regarding
      patient demographics, treatment interventions, patient history, and patient
      reported outcome scores. The primary dependent variable was the overall change
      score of the QuickDASH (initial to discharge). Thirty-eight predictor variables
      were entered into a forward stepwise multivariate linear regression model to
      determine which variables and to what degree contributed to the dependent
      variable. RESULTS: The linear regression model identified 5 predictor variables
      that yielded an R = 0.74 and adjusted R2 = 0.538 (P < .001). The 5 predictor
      variables identified in order of explained variance are QuickDASH change at the
      fifth visit, a total number of visits, initial QuickDASH score, scapular
      retraction exercise, and age. DISCUSSION: Early change scores, equal to minimal
      detectable change scores on patient-reported outcomes appear to be strong
      indicators that patients with shoulder pain are on a positive trajectory to
      benefit from rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Using patient-reported outcomes
      throughout care, not just at the start and end of care, will provide therapist
      feedback regarding patient's progress and indicate treatment effectiveness.
      LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28576347
TI  - Scapular muscle dysfunction associated with subacromial pain syndrome.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Narrative Review. INTRODUCTION: One of the shoulder pain disorders
      in which the function of the scapula is comprised is the subacromial pain
      syndrome. Several rehabilitation guidelines and exercises have been proposed to
      improve scapulothoracic muscle dysfunction. Consideration of muscle activation
      patterns may help to select the most appropriate rehabilitation exercise in these
      patients. To date, suggesting rehabilitation exercises is often based upon the
      knowledge of the superficial lying scapulothoracic muscles' activity. In the
      assumption that the deeper lying scapulothoracic muscles' activity may hinder
      normal scapular movement in case of tightness or hyperactivity, exercise
      protocols for patients with altered pattern in scapulothoracic muscles should
      also integrate knowledge on the deeper lying scapulothoracic muscle activity.
      PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To help clinicians choosing the most appropriate exercise
      in patients with subacromial pain syndrome related to scapulothoracic muscle
      dysfunction. METHODS: First, a summary of key alterations in scapulothoracic
      (muscle) function in patients with subacromial pain was accomplished. Second,
      promising practical rehabilitation strategies toward restoring scapulothoracic
      muscle dysfunction (with a focus on scapulothoracic exercises) were developed,
      integrating current new research evidence (including information about the deeper
      lying scapulothoracic muscles) with clinical practice. CONCLUSION: This review
      details clinical exercises and their muscular activity to guide clinicians to
      optimize individualized scapulothoracic training and treatment programs by
      selecting the most appropriate exercise, based on knowledge from the clinical
      examination. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 5.

PMID- 28576348
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28576349
TI  - Response to "Baclofen and alcohol use disorders: From miracle to mirage".

PMID- 28576350
TI  - Cannabinoids in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A randomised-controlled
      trial.
AB  - Adults with ADHD describe self-medicating with cannabis, with some reporting a
      preference for cannabis over ADHD medications. A small number of psychiatrists in
      the US prescribe cannabis medication for ADHD, despite there being no evidence
      from randomised controlled studies. The EMA-C trial (Experimental Medicine in
      ADHD-Cannabinoids) was a pilot randomised placebo-controlled experimental study
      of a cannabinoid medication, Sativex Oromucosal Spray, in 30 adults with ADHD.
      The primary outcome was cognitive performance and activity level using the
      QbTest. Secondary outcomes included ADHD and emotional lability (EL) symptoms.
      From 17.07.14 to 18.06.15, 30 participants were randomly assigned to the active
      (n=15) or placebo (n=15) group. For the primary outcome, no significant
      difference was found in the ITT analysis although the overall pattern of scores
      was such that the active group usually had scores that were better than the
      placebo group (Est=-0.17, 95%CI-0.40 to 0.07, p=0.16, n=15/11 active/placebo).
      For secondary outcomes Sativex was associated with a nominally significant
      improvement in hyperactivity/impulsivity (p=0.03) and a cognitive measure of
      inhibition (p=0.05), and a trend towards improvement for inattention (p=0.10) and
      EL (p=0.11). Per-protocol effects were higher. Results did not meet significance
      following adjustment for multiple testing. One serious (muscular seizures/spasms)
      and three mild adverse events occurred in the active group and one serious
      (cardiovascular problems) adverse event in the placebo group. Adults with ADHD
      may represent a subgroup of individuals who experience a reduction of symptoms
      and no cognitive impairments following cannabinoid use. While not definitive,
      this study provides preliminary evidence supporting the self-medication theory of
      cannabis use in ADHD and the need for further studies of the endocannabinoid
      system in ADHD.

PMID- 28576351
TI  - Publicly available software tools for decision-makers during an emergent epidemic
      Systematic evaluation of utility and usability.
AB  - Epidemics and emerging infectious diseases are becoming an increasing threat to
      global populations-challenging public health practitioners, decision makers and
      researchers to plan, prepare, identify and respond to outbreaks in near real
      timeframes. The aim of this research is to evaluate the range of public domain
      and freely available software epidemic modelling tools. Twenty freely utilisable
      software tools underwent assessment of software usability, utility and key
      functionalities. Stochastic and agent based tools were found to be highly
      flexible, adaptable, had high utility and many features, but low usability.
      Deterministic tools were highly usable with average to good levels of utility.

PMID- 28576352
TI  - Reprint of: Alterations of TRIM21-mRNA expression during monocyte maturation.
AB  - Tripartite motif-containing protein 21 (TRIM21) play a dual role in the cytoplasm
      of the cells where it facilitates destruction of some antibody-coated viruses and
      some bacteria, and initiates synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines. Macrophages
      and CD16+ monocyte subset can particularly participate in a proinflammatory
      response caused by viral infection, however, the molecular mechanisms underlying
      these processes are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to determine
      the level of TRIM21-mRNA expression in monocyte subsets including: classical
      (CD14++CD16-), intermediate (CD14++CD16+) and non-classical (CD14+CD16++)
      monocytes, as well as during in vitro differentiation of the isolated monocytes
      towards dendritic cells or macrophages. Our results revealed that the level of
      TRIM21 mRNA expression was significantly lower in CD16- monocytes, when compared
      to CD16+ cells and the whole monocyte population, yet no significant differences
      were observed when CD16+ population was divided into intermediate and non
      classical subsets. More pronounced differences were observed in the case of
      monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and dendritic cells (DCs). TRIM21-mRNA
      expression level was app. 6-fold higher in DCs, and app. 16-fold higher in MDM
      (p<0,01), when compared to freshly isolated monocytes. Our results may suggest
      the new mechanism of increased proinflammatory cytokine production by CD16+
      (intermediate and non-classical) monocytes and macrophages, at least in patients
      with acute or chronic infections, caused by enveloped viruses. We suggest that
      TRIM21 may be one of the factors associated with the "switching on" the
      proinflammatory programme in CD16+ monocytes or monocyte-derived macrophages.

PMID- 28576354
TI  - Does the addition of active body warming to in-line intravenous fluid warming
      prevent maternal hypothermia during elective caesarean section? A randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia occurs frequently during
      elective caesarean section but perioperative active body warming is not widely
      used. There is a paucity of evidence of its use in the obstetric population, and
      no applicable guidelines. We set out to identify a superior active warming method
      for preventing inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. METHODS: Following ethical
      approval, 132 women presenting for uncomplicated elective caesarean section under
      spinal anaesthesia were recruited. All participants received in-line intravenous
      fluid warming and were randomised to one of three parallel groups: no active body
      warming; forced air warming; and conduction mattress warming. The primary outcome
      was the difference in mean core temperature, measured on admission to the
      recovery room, between study groups. Core temperature and thermal comfort were
      measured perioperatively at 15-min intervals. Estimated blood loss, haemoglobin
      change, length of hospital stay and neonatal core temperature were also recorded.
      RESULTS: One-hundred-and-thirty-one women completed the study. There was no
      significant difference in mean core temperature on admission to the recovery room
      (36.6 degrees C vs. 36.6 degrees C vs. 36.6 degrees C, eta2=0.005, P=0.74).
      Maternal hypothermia was prevented in all groups with only 0.3% hypothermic at
      any of the temperature measurements (3/1016). There was no difference in mean
      neonatal core temperature (36.3 degrees C vs. 36.3 degrees C vs. 36.3 degrees C,
      eta2=0.003, P=0.82); however, 59.4% (76/128) of all neonates were hypothermic.
      CONCLUSION: In-line intravenous fluid warming is sufficient to prevent maternal
      hypothermia and maintain core temperature. The addition of active body warming
      conferred no added benefit.

PMID- 28576353
TI  - Reprint of: Heme oxygenase 1 affects granulopoiesis in mice through control of
      myelocyte proliferation.
AB  - Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is stress-inducible, cytoprotective enzyme degrading heme
      to carbon monoxide (CO), biliverdin and Fe2+. We showed that HO-1 knock-out mice
      (HO-1-/-) have a twofold higher level of granulocytes than wild type (WT) mice,
      despite decreased concentration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)
      in the blood and reduced surface expression of G-CSF receptor on the
      hematopoietic precursors. This suggests the effect of HO-1 on granulopoiesis.
      Here we aimed to determine the stage of granulopoiesis regulated by HO-1. The
      earliest stages of hematopoiesis were not biased toward myeloid differentiation
      in HO-1-/- mice. Within committed granulocytic compartment, in WT mice, HO-1 was
      up-regulated starting from myelocyte stage. This was concomitant with up
      regulation of miR-155, which targets Bach1, the HO-1 repressor. In HO-1-/- mice
      granulopoiesis was accelerated between myelocyte and metamyelocyte stage. There
      was a higher fraction of proliferating myelocytes, with increased nuclear
      expression of pro-proliferative C/EBPbeta (CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta)
      protein, especially its active LAP (liver-enriched activator proteins) isoform.
      Also our mathematical model confirmed shortening the myelocyte cyclic-time and
      prolonged mitotic expansion in absence of HO-1. It seems that changes in
      C/EBPbeta expression and activity in HO-1-/- myelocytes can be associated with
      reduced level of its direct repressor miR-155 or with decreased concentration of
      CO, known to reduce nuclear translocation of C/EBPs. Mature HO-1-/- granulocytes
      were functionally competent as determined by oxidative burst capacity. In
      conclusion, HO-1 influences granulopoiesis through regulation of myelocyte
      proliferation. It is accompanied by changes in expression of transcriptionally
      active C/EBPbeta protein. As HO-1 expression vary in human and is up-regulated in
      response to chemotherapy, it can potentially influence chemotherapy-induced
      neutropenia.

PMID- 28576355
TI  - Context is king - obstetric anaesthesia management strategies in limited resource
      settings.

PMID- 28576356
TI  - Quantitative proteomics reveals new insights into calcium-mediated resistance
      mechanisms in Aspergillus flavus against the antifungal protein PgAFP in cheese.
AB  - The ability of Aspergillus flavus to produce aflatoxins in dairy products
      presents a potential hazard. The antifungal protein PgAFP from Penicillium
      chrysogenum inhibits various foodborne toxigenic fungi, including Aspergillus
      flavus. However, PgAFP did not inhibit A. flavus growth in cheese, which was
      related to the associated cation content. CaCl2 increased A. flavus permeability
      and prevented PgAFP-mediated inhibition in potato dextrose broth (PDB). PgAFP did
      not elicit any additional increase in permeability of CaCl2-incubated A. flavus.
      Furthermore, PgAFP did not alter metabolic capability, chitin deposition, or
      hyphal viability of A. flavus grown with CaCl2. Comparative proteomic analysis
      after PgAFP treatment of A. flavus in calcium-enriched PDB revealed increased
      abundance of 125 proteins, including oxidative stress-related proteins, as
      determined by label-free mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics. Seventy
      proteins were found at lower abundance, with most involved in metabolic pathways
      and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. These changes do not support the
      blockage of potential PgAFP receptors in A. flavus by calcium as the main cause
      of the protective role. A. flavus resistance appears to be mediated by
      calcineurin, G-protein, and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase that combat oxidative
      stress and impede apoptosis. These findings could serve to design strategies to
      improve PgAFP activity against aflatoxigenic moulds in dairy products.

PMID- 28576357
TI  - Industrial-scale application of Lactobacillus reuteri coupled with glycerol as a
      biopreservation system for inhibiting Clostridium tyrobutyricum in semi-hard ewe
      milk cheese.
AB  - The suitability of the biopreservation system formed by reuterin-producing L.
      reuteri INIA P572 and glycerol (required for reuterin production) to prevent late
      blowing defect (LBD) was evaluated in industrial sized semi-hard ewe milk cheese
      contaminated with Clostridium tyrobutyricum INIA 68, a wild strain isolated from
      a LBD cheese. For this purpose, six batches of cheese were made (three with and
      three without clostridial spores): control cheeses with lactococci starter,
      cheeses with L. reuteri as adjunct, and cheeses with L. reuteri and 30 mM
      glycerol. Spores of C. tyrobutyricum INIA 68 germinated during pressing of cheese
      curd, causing butyric acid fermentation in cheese after 30 d of ripening. The
      addition of L. reuteri, without glycerol, enhanced the symptoms and the formation
      of volatile compounds associated with LBD. When glycerol was added to cheese milk
      contaminated with C. tyrobutyricum, L. reuteri was able to produce reuterin in
      cheese resulting in cheeses with a uniform cheese matrix and a volatile profile
      similar to cheese made with L. reuteri and glycerol (without spores).
      Accordingly, L. reuteri INIA P572 coupled with glycerol seems a novel
      biopreservation system to inhibit Clostridium growth and prevent LBD by means of
      in situ reuterin production.

PMID- 28576358
TI  - Longitudinal monitoring of Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria phages in seafood
      processing environments in Thailand.
AB  - Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen commonly found in environments of
      seafood processing, thus presenting a challenge for eradication from seafood
      processing facilities. Monitoring the prevalence and subtype diversity of L.
      monocytogenes together with phages that are specific to Listeria spp. ("Listeria
      phages") will provide knowledge on the bacteria-phage ecology in food processing
      plants. In this work, a total of 595 samples were collected from raw material,
      finished seafood products and environmental samples from different sites of a
      seafood processing plant during 17 sampling visits in 1.5 years of study. L.
      monocytogenes and Listeria spp. (non-monocytogenes) were found in 22 (3.7%) and
      43 (7.2%) samples, respectively, whereas 29 Listeria phages were isolated from 9
      (1.5%) phage-positive samples. DNA fingerprint analysis of L. monocytogenes
      isolates revealed 11 Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles, with two
      subtypes were frequently observed over time. Our data reveal a presence of
      Listeria phages within the same seafood processing environments where a diverse
      set of L. monocytogenes subtypes was also found. Although serotype 4b was
      observed at lower frequency, data indicate that isolates from this seafood
      processing plant belonged to both epidemiologically important serotypes 1/2a and
      4b, which may suggest a potential public health risk. Phages (all showed a unique
      genome size of 65 +/- 2 kb) were classified into 9 host range groups,
      representing both broad- and narrow-host range. While most L. monocytogenes
      isolates from this facility were susceptible to phages, five isolates showed
      resistance to 12-20 phages. Variations in phage host range among Listeria phages
      isolated from food processing plant may affect a presence of a diverse set of L.
      monocytogenes isolates derived from the same processing environment in Thailand.

PMID- 28576359
TI  - Survey on the phage resistance mechanisms displayed by a dairy Lactobacillus
      helveticus strain.
AB  - In this study the presence and functionality of phage defence mechanisms in
      Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 10386, a strain of dairy origin which is sensitive
      to PhiLh56, were investigated. After exposure of ATCC 10386 to PhiLh56, the whole
      genome sequences of ATCC 10386 and of a phage-resistant derivative (LhM3) were
      compared. LhM3 showed deletions in the S-layer protein and a higher expression of
      the genes involved in the restriction/modification (R/M) system. Genetic data
      were substantiated by measurements of bacteriophage adsorption rates, efficiency
      of plaquing, cell wall protein size and by gene expression analysis. In LhM3 two
      phage resistance mechanisms, the inhibition of phage adsorption and the
      upregulation of Type I R/M genes, take place and explain its resistance to
      PhiLh56. Although present in both ATCC 10386 and LhM3 genomes, the CRISPR
      machinery did not seem to play a role in the phage resistance of LhM3. Overall,
      the natural selection of phage resistant strains resulted successful in detecting
      variants carrying multiple phage defence mechanisms in L. helveticus. The
      concurrent presence of multiple phage-resistance systems should provide starter
      strains with increased fitness and robustness in dairy ecosystems.

PMID- 28576360
TI  - Characterization of antimicrobial properties of Salmonella phage Felix O1 and
      Listeria phage A511 embedded in xanthan coatings on Poly(lactic acid) films.
AB  - Beyond simply providing a barrier between food and external contaminants, active
      packaging technologies aim to inhibit pathogen survival and growth within the
      packaged environment. Bacteriophages have a proven track record as targeted
      antimicrobials but have yet to be successfully integrated in active packaging
      without serious loss of activity. We have developed two bacteriophage based
      xanthan coatings on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) film which significantly inhibits
      Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes growth in culture (P < 0.01),
      and significantly reduces survival and growth of diverse cocktails of Salmonella
      sp. and L. monocytogenes respectively on precooked sliced turkey breast over 30
      days of anaerobic packaging at 4 or 10  degrees C (P < 0.05). Specifically
      reductions of 0.832 log at 4  degrees C and 1.30 log at 10  degrees C for
      Salmonella sp., and 6.31 log at 4  degrees C and 1.52 log at 10  degrees C for L.
      monocytogenes were observed. The coating containing Listeria phage A511 also
      significantly inhibited growth of L. monocytogenes over 14 days in aerobic
      packaging (3.79 log at 4  degrees C, 2.17 log at 10  degrees C, P < 0.05). These
      coatings showed 99.99% phage release within 30 min for both phages. Similar
      approaches could be used to develop packaging inhibitory to other significant
      foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli, as well as
      spoilage bacteria.

PMID- 28576361
TI  - Multiple microbial cell-free extracts improve the microbiological, biochemical
      and sensory features of ewes' milk cheese.
AB  - This study used cell-free enzyme (CFE) extracts from Lactobacillus casei, Hafnia
      alvei, Debaryomyces hansenii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to condition or
      accelerate Pecorino-type cheese ripening. Compositional, microbiological, and
      biochemical analyses were performed, and volatile and sensory profiles were
      obtained. Lactobacilli and cocci increased during ripening, especially in cheeses
      containing CFE from L. casei, H. alvei and D. hansenii (LHD-C) and L. casei, H.
      alvei and S. cerevisiae (LHS-C). Compared to control cheese (CC), several
      enzymatic activities were higher (P < 0.05) in CFE-supplemented cheeses. Compared
      to the CC (1907 mg kg-1 of cheese), the free amino acid level increased (P <
      0.05) in CFE-supplemented cheeses, ranging from approximately 2575 (LHS-C) to
      5720 (LHD-C) mg kg-1 of cheese after 60 days of CFE-supplemented ripening. As
      shown by GC/MS analysis, the levels of several volatile organic compounds were
      significantly (P < 0.05) lower in CC than in CFE-supplemented cheeses. All
      cheeses manufactured by adding multiple CFEs exhibited higher scores (P < 0.05)
      for internal structure, acid taste and juiciness than CC samples. This study
      shows the possibility of producing ewes' milk cheese with standardized
      characteristics and improved flavor intensity in a relatively short time.

PMID- 28576362
TI  - Effect of different marinating conditions on the evolution of spoilage microbiota
      and metabolomic profile of chicken breast fillets.
AB  - Five different marinades were prepared containing lemon juice, apple cider
      vinegar, pomegranate juice and combinations of them. Three different temperatures
      (4, 10, and 20  degrees C) and five marinating time intervals (1, 3, 6, and 9 h)
      were tested. Microbial, physicochemical as well as sensory analyses were
      performed to assess marination. Noticeable microbial reductions and satisfactory
      sensory results were observed only in samples treated for short time (1 and 3 h).
      The marinade in which pomegranate and lemon juices were combined caused a
      decrease in microbial counts and led to desirable sensory attributes. Each of the
      marinades was characterized by a distinguishable organic acid profile, while the
      discrimination of the samples, based on organic acid concentration, between low
      (1 and 3) and high (6 and 9) marinating time was feasible. It can be concluded
      that marinating time affected the indigenous microbiota and the sensory
      characteristics of chicken meat while pomegranate could be a promising marinating
      ingredient from a microbiological and physicochemical perspective.

PMID- 28576363
TI  - Effect of green tea extract on enteric viruses and its application as natural
      sanitizer.
AB  - In this work, the effect of green tea extract (GTE) was assessed against murine
      norovirus (MNV) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) at different temperatures, exposure
      times and pH conditions. Initially, GTE at 0.5 and 5 mg/ml were individually
      mixed with each virus at 5 log TCID50/ml and incubated 2 h at 37  degrees C at
      different pHs (from 5.5 to 8.5). GTE affected both viruses depending on pH with
      higher reductions observed in alkaline conditions. Secondly, different
      concentrations of GTE (0.5 and 5 mg/ml) were mixed with viral suspensions and
      incubated for 2 or 16 h at 4, 25 and 37  degrees C at pH 7.2. A concentration-,
      temperature- and exposure time-dependent response was showed by GTE in suspension
      tests, where complete inactivation was achieved after overnight exposure at 37 
      degrees C for both viruses and also at 25  degrees C for HAV. In addition,
      antiviral effect of GTE proved efficient in the surface disinfection tests since
      1.5 log reduction and complete inactivation were recorded for MNV and HAV on
      stainless steel and glass surfaces treated with 10 mg/ml GTE for 30 min, analyzed
      in accordance with ISO 13697:2001. GTE was also evaluated as a natural
      disinfectant of produce, showing 10 mg/ml GTE reduced MNV and HAV titers in
      lettuce and spinach by more than 1.5 log after 30 min treatment. The results show
      a potential of GTE as natural disinfectant able to limit enteric viral (cross
      )contaminations conveyed by food and food-contact surfaces.

PMID- 28576364
TI  - Lack of viable parasites in cured 'Parma Ham' (PDO), following experimental
      Toxoplasma gondii infection of pigs.
AB  - Twelve Large White pigs were experimentally infected with 1000 Toxoplasma gondii
      oocysts/each. Serology was carried out at different time points post infection
      (p.i.) and animals were slaughtered at four months p.i. One of two thighs was
      examined for T. gondii infection status by PCR and bioassay in mice. The other
      thigh was processed for Parma ham production. Four thighs were examined after
      twelve months of curing, four after fourteen months and four were examined after
      sixteen months. Cured hams were analyzed by PCR, bioassay and in-vitro
      cultivation on Vero cells followed by real-time PCR. Pigs seroconverted from day
      21 p.i. Bioassays were positive for all fresh thighs, but negative for cured
      hams. PCR was positive for parasite DNA from most thighs both at slaughter and
      post curing, but parasite growth was not observed following in vitro cultivation
      and real-time PCR. Results indicate that the curing process of Parma Ham (PDO),
      when carried out according to the Parma Ham consortium regulations, can
      inactivate T. gondii tissue cysts. Results would suggest that food-borne
      transmission of T. gondii to consumers from Parma ham can be excluded.

PMID- 28576365
TI  - Influence of soy fortification on microbial diversity during cassava fermentation
      and subsequent physicochemical characteristics of garri.
AB  - This study investigated the influence of the addition of soy products on the
      microbiology, nutritional and physico-chemical characteristics of garri, a
      fermented cassava product. Malted soy flour (MSF) and soy protein (SP) were
      separately added (12% w/w) to cassava mash prior to controlled fermentation,
      while non-supplemented cassava mash served as a control. Identification of lactic
      acid bacteria (LAB) and aerobic mesophilic bacteria was accomplished by
      repetitive sequence based (rep)-PCR analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
      Physicochemical, nutritional and sensory characterisation of control and soy
      fortified garri was performed using conventional methods. rep-PCR allowed
      differentiation of 142 isolates into 41 groups corresponding to 6 species of LAB
      and 25 species of aerobic mesophiles. LAB isolates belonged to the genera
      Lactobacillus, Weissella, Leuconostoc and Lactococcus with Leuconostoc
      mesenteroides being the dominant species in control and MSF-cassava while
      Weissella cibaria dominated SP-cassava fermentation. Aerobic mesophiles included
      Gram positive and negative bacteria including species of the genera Bacillus,
      Clostridium, Staphylococcus, Serratia, Acinetobacter and Raoultella. Diversity of
      aerobic mesophiles varied between control, MSF- and SP- cassava mash. Protein
      content of soy-fortified garri increased from 0.73% to 10.17% and 10.05% in MSF
      and SP garri respectively with a significant decrease in total cyanide from 26 to
      11 ppm. Results from physicochemical and organoleptic evaluation indicate that
      supplementation of cassava with soy products prior to fermentation can produce
      acceptable garri. Soy products can be considered a viable option for protein
      fortification of garri, a low protein food with the aim of combating
      malnutrition.

PMID- 28576366
TI  - Large-scale targeted metagenomics analysis of bacterial ecological changes in 88
      kimchi samples during fermentation.
AB  - The microbial communities in kimchi vary widely, but the precise effects of
      differences in region of origin, ingredients, and preparation method on the
      microbiota are unclear. We analyzed the bacterial community composition of
      household (n = 69) and commercial (n = 19) kimchi samples obtained from six
      Korean provinces between April and August 2015. Samples were analyzed by barcoded
      pyrosequencing targeting the V1-V3 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. The
      initial pH of the kimchi samples was 5.00-6.39, and the salt concentration was
      1.72-4.42%. Except for sampling locality, all categorical variables, i.e., salt
      concentration, major ingredient, fermentation period, sampling time, and
      manufacturing process, influenced the bacterial community composition.
      Particularly, samples were highly clustered by sampling time and salt
      concentration in non-metric multidimensional scaling plots and an analysis of
      similarity. These results indicated that the microbial community differed
      according to fermentation conditions such as salt concentration, major
      ingredient, fermentation period, and sampling time. Furthermore, fermentation
      properties, including pH, acidity, salt concentration, and microbial abundance
      differed between kimchi samples from household and commercial sources. Analyses
      of changes in bacterial ecology during fermentation will improve our
      understanding of the biological properties of kimchi, as well as the
      relationships between these properties and the microbiota of kimchi.

PMID- 28576367
TI  - Factors influencing the Salmonella internalization into seedpods and whole plants
      of Arachis hypogaea (L.).
AB  - Here we investigated whether Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028
      was capable of internalizing in peanut seedpods and plants when exposed to
      inoculated soil and the edaphic factors that influenced uptake. Intact dry
      Virginia (DV) and fresh green Virginia (GV) seedpods were exposed to soil
      containing 6.5 Log (CFU/g) Salmonella under different soil moisture conditions.
      Internalization of S. Typhimurium into peanut plants germinated in inoculated
      soil was also examined with and without Bradyrhizobium (Arachis) sp.NC92.
      Salmonella counts recovered from GV seedpods were on average of 2.0 Log (CFU/pod)
      less than those recovered from DV seedpods. The internalization in DV pods was
      only observed at soil water content of 15% or greater in a loamy sand soil. S.
      Typhimurium was detected inside peanut plant tissues during most testing times.
      Cells were recovered from stem samples (3.5 Log CFU/g) at greater levels than it
      was observed for root (2.6 Log CFU/g) and leaf (1.7 Log CFU/g) samples. Overall,
      recovery of Salmonella from stem, root, and leaf samples were lower when B. NC92
      was inoculated on seeds before sowing, but this trend was not significant. Our
      observations suggest possible routes of contamination of Salmonella into peanut
      products from soil.

PMID- 28576368
TI  - Efficacy of gaseous ozone to counteract postharvest table grape sour rot.
AB  - This work aims at studying the efficacy of low doses of gaseous ozone in
      postharvest control of the table grape sour rot, a disease generally attributed
      to a consortium of non-Saccharomyces yeasts (NSY) and acetic acid bacteria (AAB).
      Sour rot incidence of wounded berries, inoculated with 8 NSYstrains, or 7 AAB, or
      56 yeast-bacterium associations, was monitored at 25  degrees C up to six days.
      Sour rot incidence in wounded berries inoculated with yeast-bacterium
      associations resulted higher than in berries inoculated with one single NSY or
      AAB strain. Among all NSY-AAB associations, the yeast-bacterium association
      composed of Candida zemplinina CBS 9494 (Cz) and Acetobacter syzygii LMG 21419
      (As) showed the highest prevalence of sour rot; thus, after preliminary in vitro
      assays, this simplified As-Cz microbial consortium was inoculated in wounded
      berries that were stored at 4  degrees C for ten days under ozone (2.14 mg m-3)
      or in air. At the end of cold storage, no berries showed sour-rot symptoms
      although ozonation mainly affected As viable cell count. After additional 12 days
      at 25  degrees C, the sour rot index of inoculated As-Cz berries previously cold
      stored under ozone or in air accounted for 22.6 +/- 3.7% and 66.7 +/- 4.5%,
      respectively. Molecular analyses of dominant AAB and NSY populations of both
      sound and rotten berries during post-refrigeration period revealed the appearance
      of new strains mainly belonging to Gluconobacter albidus and Hanseniaspora uvarum
      species, respectively. Cold ozonation resulted an effective approach to extend
      the shelf-life of table grapes also after cold storage.

PMID- 28576369
TI  - Effects of heat, cold, acid and bile salt adaptations on the stress tolerance and
      protein expression of kefir-isolated probiotic Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens M1.
AB  - Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens M1 is a probiotic strain isolated from Taiwanese
      kefir grains. The present study evaluated the effects of heat, cold, acid and
      bile salt adaptations on the stress tolerance of L. kefiranofaciens M1. The
      regulation of protein expression of L. kefiranofaciens M1 under these adaptation
      conditions was also investigated. The results showed that adaptation of L.
      kefiranofaciens M1 to heat, cold, acid and bile salts induced homologous
      tolerance and cross-protection against heterologous challenge. The extent of
      induced tolerance varied depending on the type and condition of stress. Proteomic
      analysis revealed that 27 proteins exhibited differences in expression between
      non-adapted and stress-adapted L. kefiranofaciens M1 cells. Among these proteins,
      three proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism (triosephosphate isomerase,
      enolase and NAD-dependent glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), two proteins
      involved in pH homeostasis (ATP synthase subunits AtpA and AtpB), two stress
      response proteins (chaperones DnaK and GroEL) and one translation-related protein
      (30S ribosomal protein S2) were up-regulated by three of the four adaptation
      treatments examined. The increased synthesis of these stress proteins might play
      a critical protective role in the cellular defense against heat, cold, acid and
      bile salt stresses.

PMID- 28576370
TI  - Leuconostoc strains isolated from dairy products: Response against food stress
      conditions.
AB  - A systematic study about the intrinsic resistance of 29 strains (26 autochthonous
      and 3 commercial ones), belonging to Leuconostoc genus, against diverse stress
      factors (thermal, acidic, alkaline, osmotic and oxidative) commonly present at
      industrial or conservation processes were evaluated. Exhaustive result processing
      was made by applying one-way ANOVA, Student's test (t), multivariate analysis by
      Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Matrix Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. In
      addition, heat adaptation on 4 strains carefully selected based on previous data
      analysis was assayed. The strains revealed wide diversity of resistance to stress
      factors and, in general, a clear relationship between resistance and Leuconostoc
      species was established. In this sense, the highest resistance was shown by
      Leuconostoc lactis followed by Leuconostoc mesenteroides strains, while
      Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides and Leuconostoc citreum strains revealed the
      lowest resistance to the stress factors applied. Heat adaptation improved thermal
      cell survival and resulted in a cross-resistance against the acidic factor.
      However, all adapted cells showed diminished their oxidative resistance.
      According to our knowledge, this is the first study regarding response of
      Leuconostoc strains against technological stress factors and could establish the
      basis for the selection of "more robust" strains and propose the possibility of
      improving their performance during industrial processes.

PMID- 28576372
TI  - Controlling Brochothrix thermosphacta as a spoilage risk using in-package
      atmospheric cold plasma.
AB  - Brochothrix thermosphacta is the predominant spoilage microorganism in meat and
      its control in processing environments is important to maintain meat product
      quality. Atmospheric cold plasma is of interest for control of pathogenic and
      spoilage microorganisms in foods. This study ascertained the potential of
      dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric cold plasma (DBD-ACP) for control of B.
      thermosphacta, taking microbial and food environment factors into consideration,
      and investigated the shelf-life of lamb chop after in-package plasma treatment in
      modified atmosphere. Community profiling was used to assess the treatment effects
      on the lamb microflora. ACP treatment (80 kV) for 30s inactivated B.
      thermosphacta populations below detection levels in PBS, while 5 min treatment
      achieved a 2 Log cycle reduction using a complex meat model medium and attached
      cells. The antimicrobial efficacy of plasma was reduced but still apparent on
      lamb chop surface-inoculated with high concentrations of B. thermosphacta. Lamb
      chop treated under modified atmosphere exhibited reduced microbial growth over
      the product shelf-life and community profiling showed no evident changes to the
      microbial populations after the treatment. The overall results indicated
      potential of ACP to enhance microbial control leading to meat storage life
      extension through adjusting the modality of treatment.

PMID- 28576371
TI  - Comparison of Listeria monocytogenes recoveries from spiked mung bean sprouts by
      the enrichment methods of three regulatory agencies.
AB  - Three selective enrichment methods, the United States Food and Drug
      Administration's (FDA method), the United States Department of Agriculture Food
      Safety Inspection Service's (USDA method), and the EN ISO 11290-1 standard
      method, were assessed for their suitability for recovery of Listeria
      monocytogenes from spiked mung bean sprouts. Three parameters were evaluated; the
      enrichment L. monocytogenes population from singly-spiked sprouts, the enrichment
      L. monocytogenes population from doubly-spiked (L. monocytogenes and Listeria
      innocua) sprouts, and the population differential resulting from the enrichment
      of doubly-spiked sprouts. Considerable L. monocytogenes inter-strain variation
      was observed. The mean enrichment L. monocytogenes populations for singly-spiked
      sprouts were 6.1 +/- 1.2, 4.9 +/- 1.2, and 6.9 +/- 2.3 log CFU/mL for the FDA,
      USDA, and EN ISO 11290-1 methods, respectively. The mean L. monocytogenes
      populations for doubly-spiked sprouts were 4.7 +/- 1.1, 5.5 +/- 1.3, and 4.6 +/-
      1.4 log CFU/mL for the FDA, USDA, and ISO 11290-1 enrichment methods,
      respectively. The corresponding mean population differentials were 2.8 +/- 1.1,
      3.3 +/- 1.3, and 3.6 +/- 1.4 Deltalog CFU/mL for the same three enrichment
      methods, respectively. The presence of L. innocua and resident microorganisms on
      the sprouts negatively impacted final levels of L. monocytogenes with all three
      enrichment methods.

PMID- 28576373
TI  - High relative humidity pre-harvest reduces post-harvest proliferation of
      Salmonella in tomatoes.
AB  - Outbreaks of human illness caused by enteric pathogens such as Salmonella are
      increasingly linked to the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Knowledge on the
      factors affecting Salmonella proliferation on fresh produce therefore becomes
      increasingly important to safeguard public health. Previous experiments showed a
      limited impact of pre-harvest production practices on Salmonella proliferation on
      tomatoes, but suggested a significant effect of harvest time. We explored the
      data from two previously published and one unpublished experiment using
      regression trees, which allowed overcoming the interpretational difficulties of
      classical statistical models with higher order interactions. We assessed the
      effect of harvest time by explicitly modeling the climatic conditions at harvest
      time and by performing confirmatory laboratory experiments. Across all datasets,
      regression trees confirmed the dominant effect of harvest time on Salmonella
      proliferation, with humidity-related factors emerging as the most important
      underlying climatic factors. High relative humidity the week prior to harvest was
      consistently associated with lower Salmonella proliferation. A controlled lab
      experiment confirmed that tomatoes containing their native epimicrobiota
      supported significantly lower Salmonella proliferation when incubated at higher
      humidity prior to inoculation. The complex interactions between environmental
      conditions and the native microbiota of the tomato crop remain to be fully
      understood.

PMID- 28576374
TI  - Molecular investigation of bacterial communities during the manufacturing and
      ripening of semi-hard Iranian Liqvan cheese.
AB  - Liqvan (or Lighvan) is a traditional Iranian cheese from the East Azerbaijan
      province of Iran, which is made of raw ewe's milk without the addition of a
      starter. The grazing pastures, environmental conditions and the ancient regional
      production methods allocate a distinctive microbial ecology to this type of
      cheese, and these factors are consequently associated with the quality of the
      product. In this study, the microbiota of the milk, curd and cheese has been
      investigated using culture independent approaches. Denaturing gradient gel
      electrophoresis (DGGE) of the bacteria, 16S rRNA based high-throughput sequencing
      and enumeration of the live bacterial community by means of quantitative PCR
      (qPCR) have been used for this purpose. The results showed that the main
      bacterial population in the milk belonged to both microbial contaminants and
      lactic acid bacteria (LAB). However, both of these populations were totally
      replaced by LAB during ripening. The present survey contributes by describing the
      microbiota of this ancient cheese in more detail during fermentation and
      ripening.

PMID- 28576376
TI  - Impact of solar radiation exposure on phyllosphere bacterial community of red
      pigmented baby leaf lettuce.
AB  - Solar radiation has been identified as a stress factor affecting phyllosphere
      associated bacteria colonization and survival during primary production. In the
      present study, the impact of different solar radiation doses on the phyllosphere
      microbiota of red-pigmented baby leaf lettuce cultivated in open field under
      commercial conditions was evaluated. Four weeks before harvest, the growing field
      was divided into four plots; each one was consecutively covered with one-week
      interval with a light-excluding plastic to reduce the sunlight exposure. Four
      different solar radiation treatments were generated and cumulative
      photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was used to differentiate treatments as
      follows: 4889 +/- 428 MUmol/m2/s (uncovered), 4265 +/- 356 MUmol/m2/s (covered
      for 1 week), 3602 +/- 225 MUmol/m2/s (covered for 2 weeks) and 3115 +/- 313
      MUmol/m2/s (covered for 3 weeks). The size and composition of the phyllosphere
      bacterial community were determined by cultivation-depended (plate count) and
      independent (qPCR) techniques. Exposure to decreased levels of cumulative PAR did
      not produce significant differences in total bacterial community size, regardless
      of the chosen quantification techniques. However, total bacteria size quantified
      by qPCR was around 3.5 orders of magnitude higher than those obtained by plate
      count. The observed differences between cultivation-depended and independent
      techniques could be attributed to the presence of non-viable or viable but non
      culturable (VBNC) bacteria. The bacterial community structure was analyzed using
      temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE), and significant differences were
      detected when the four solar treatment were compared. A qPCR approach was applied
      to the quantification of specific bacterial phyla and classes, previously
      identified in the phyllosphere of plants available literature, confirming that
      Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacterias and Firmicutes were the most
      abundantly represented phyla in lettuce. Treatment comparison revealed higher
      proportions of Gammaproteobacteria as opposed to the Betaproteobacteria on the
      lettuce exposed to the lowest cumulative PAR dose (3115 +/- 313 MUmol/m2/s). The
      obtained results demonstrated that the solar radiation is a relevant
      environmental factor influencing the relative abundance of specific-groups of
      phyllosphere-associated bacteria in pigmented baby leaf lettuce.

PMID- 28576375
TI  - Testing commercial biopreservative against spoilage microorganisms in MAP packed
      Ricotta fresca cheese.
AB  - Ricotta fresca cheese is susceptible to secondary contamination and is able to
      support the growth of pathogens or spoilage psychotrophic bacteria during
      storage. The aim of the present study was to evaluate which among three
      commercial biopreservatives was suitable to be used to control the growth of
      spoilage microorganisms in sheep's milk MAP ricotta fresca cheese. 144 Ricotta
      fresca cheese samples were inoculated either with the bioprotective culture
      Lyofast FPR 2 (including Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus plantarum e
      Lactobacillus rhamnosus) or Lyofast CNBAL (Carnobacterium spp) or the fermentate
      MicroGARD 430. Not inoculated control and experimental ricotta were MAP packed
      (30% CO2 and 70% N2) and stored at 4  degrees C. Triplicate samples were analyzed
      after 5 h and 7, 14 and 21 days after inoculation for total bacterial count,
      mesophilic lactic acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp, Listeria
      monocytogenes, moulds and yeasts. Among the tested biopreservatives only
      Carnobacterium spp was able to control Pseudomonas spp and Enterobacteriaceae.
      The maximum reduction in the concentration of Pseudomonas spp and
      Enterobacteriaceae was respectively 1.93 and 2.66 log10 cfu/g, observed 14 days
      after production. Therefore, Carnobacterium spp was selected as the culture of
      choice to conduct a challenge study against Pseudomonas spp.

PMID- 28576377
TI  - Microbiological, biochemical, and functional aspects of sugary kefir fermentation
      - A review.
AB  - Sugary kefir beverage is produce by fermenting raw sugar solution with kefir
      grains, the latter consisting of polysaccharide and microorganisms. This
      beverage, with great consumption in countries such as USA, Japan, France, and
      Brazil, represents a promising market to functional cultured drinks. This paper
      reviews the microbial diversity and interaction, kinetics, safety, and
      bioactivities of sugary kefir fermentation. The literature reviewed here
      demonstrates that sugary kefir possesses a similar microbial association relative
      to traditional milk kefir fermentation, especially among lactic acid bacteria and
      yeast species, such as Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, and
      Saccharomyces. However, a selective pressure at species level is generally
      observed, as, for example, the stimulation of Saccharomyces species metabolism,
      leading to a high content of alcohol in the final product. This also seems to
      stimulate the growth of acetic acid bacteria that benefit of increased ethanol
      production to acetic acid metabolism. Existing reports have suggested important
      bioactivities associated with sugary kefir beverage consumption, such as
      antimicrobial, antiedematogenic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cicatrizing, and
      healing activities. Other alternative non-dairy substrates, such as fruits,
      vegetables, and molasses, have also been tested for adaptation of kefir grains
      and production of functional beverages with distinct sensory characteristics.
      This diversification is of crucial importance for the production of new probiotic
      products to provide people with special needs (lactose intolerance) and vegan
      consumers.

PMID- 28576378
TI  - Synergistic mixtures of chitosan and Mentha piperita L. essential oil to inhibit
      Colletotrichum species and anthracnose development in mango cultivar Tommy
      Atkins.
AB  - This study assessed the efficacy of chitosan (CHI) and Mentha piperita L.
      essential oil (MPEO) alone or in combination to control the mycelial growth of
      five different Colletotrichum species, C. asianum, C. dianesei, C. fructicola, C.
      tropicale and C. karstii, identified as potential anthracnose-causing agents in
      mango (Mangifera indica L.). The efficacy of coatings of CHI and MPEO mixtures in
      controlling the development of anthracnose in mango cultivar Tommy Atkins was
      evaluated. CHI (2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 mg/mL) and MPEO (0.3, 0.6, 1.25, 2.5 and 5
      MUL/mL) alone effectively inhibited mycelial growth of all tested Colletotrichum
      strains in synthetic media. Mixtures of CHI (5 or 7.5 mg/mL) and MPEO (0.3, 0.6
      or 1.25 MUL/mL) strongly inhibited mycelial growth and showed additive or
      synergistic inhibitory effects on the tested Colletotrichum strains based on the
      Abbott index. The application of coatings of CHI (5 or 7.5 mg/mL) and MPEO (0.6
      or 1.25 MUL/mL) mixtures that presented synergistic interactions decreased
      anthracnose lesion severity in mango artificially contaminated with either of the
      tested Colletotrichum strains over 15 days of storage at 25  degrees C. The
      anthracnose lesion severity in mango coated with the mixtures of CHI and MPEO was
      similar or lower than those observed in mango treated with the synthetic
      fungicides thiophanate-methyl (10 MUg a.i./mL) and difenoconazole (0.5 MUg
      a.i./mL). The application of coatings containing low doses of CHI and MPEO may be
      an effective alternative for controlling the postharvest development of
      anthracnose in mango cultivar Tommy Atkins.

PMID- 28576379
TI  - [Using cancer case identification algorithms in medico-administrative databases:
      Literature review and first results from the REDSIAM Tumors group based on
      breast, colon, and lung cancer].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The development and use of healthcare databases accentuates the need
      for dedicated tools, including validated selection algorithms of cancer diseased
      patients. As part of the development of the French National Health Insurance
      System data network REDSIAM, the tumor taskforce established an inventory of
      national and internal published algorithms in the field of cancer. This work aims
      to facilitate the choice of a best-suited algorithm. METHOD: A non-systematic
      literature search was conducted for various cancers. Results are presented for
      lung, breast, colon, and rectum. Medline, Scopus, the French Database in Public
      Health, Google Scholar, and the summaries of the main French journals in oncology
      and public health were searched for publications until August 2016. An extraction
      grid adapted to oncology was constructed and used for the extraction process.
      RESULTS: A total of 18 publications were selected for lung cancer, 18 for breast
      cancer, and 12 for colorectal cancer. Validation studies of algorithms are
      scarce. When information is available, the performance and choice of an algorithm
      are dependent on the context, purpose, and location of the planned study.
      Accounting for cancer disease specificity, the proposed extraction chart is more
      detailed than the generic chart developed for other REDSIAM taskforces, but
      remains easily usable in practice. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates the
      complexity of cancer detection through sole reliance on healthcare databases and
      the lack of validated algorithms specifically designed for this purpose. Studies
      that standardize and facilitate validation of these algorithms should be
      developed and promoted.

PMID- 28576380
TI  - [Study of algorithms to identify schizophrenia in the SNIIRAM database conducted
      by the REDSIAM network].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the REDSIAM network is to foster communication between
      users of French medico-administrative databases and to validate and promote
      analysis methods suitable for the data. Within this network, the working group
      "Mental and behavioral disorders" took an interest in algorithms to identify
      adult schizophrenia in the SNIIRAM database and inventoried identification
      criteria for patients with schizophrenia in these databases. METHODS: The
      methodology was based on interviews with nine experts in schizophrenia concerning
      the procedures they use to identify patients with schizophrenia disorders in
      databases. The interviews were based on a questionnaire and conducted by
      telephone. RESULTS: The synthesis of the interviews showed that the SNIIRAM
      contains various tables which allow coders to identify patients suffering from
      schizophrenia: chronic disease status, drugs and hospitalizations. Taken
      separately, these criteria were not sufficient to recognize patients with
      schizophrenia, an algorithm should be based on all of them. Apparently, only one
      third of people living with schizophrenia benefit from the longstanding disease
      status. Not all patients are hospitalized, and coding for diagnoses at the
      hospitalization, notably for short stays in medicine, surgery or obstetrics
      departments, is not exhaustive. As for treatment with antipsychotics, it is not
      specific enough as such treatments are also prescribed to patients with bipolar
      disorders, or even other disorders. It seems appropriate to combine these
      complementary criteria, while keeping in mind out-patient care (every year 80,000
      patients are seen exclusively in an outpatient setting), even if these data are
      difficult to link with other information. Finally, the experts made three
      propositions for selection algorithms of patients with schizophrenia. CONCLUSION:
      Patients with schizophrenia can be relatively accurately identified using SNIIRAM
      data. Different combinations of the selected criteria must be used depending on
      the objectives and they must be related to an appropriate length of time.

PMID- 28576381
TI  - Agreement between hospital discharge diagnosis codes and medical records to
      identify metastatic colorectal cancer and associated comorbidities in elderly
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quality of coding to identify cancers and comorbidities through the
      French hospital diagnosis database (Programme de medicalisation des systemes
      d'information, PMSI) has been little investigated. Agreement between medical
      records and PMSI database was evaluated regarding metastatic colorectal cancer
      (mCRC) and comorbidities. METHODS: From 01/01/2013 to 06/30/2014, 74 patients
      aged>=65years at mCRC diagnosis were identified in Bordeaux teaching hospital.
      Data on mCRC and comorbidities were collected from medical records. All diagnosis
      codes (main, related and associated) registered into the PMSI were extracted.
      Agreement between sources was evaluated using the percent agreement for mCRC and
      the kappa (kappa) statistic for comorbidities. RESULTS: Agreement for primary CRC
      and mCRC was higher using all types of diagnosis codes instead of the main one
      exclusively (respectively 95% vs. 53% for primary CRC and 91% vs. 24% for mCRC).
      Agreement was substantial (kappa 0.65) for cardiovascular diseases, notably
      atrial fibrillation (kappa 0.77) and hypertension (kappa 0.68). It was moderate
      for psychiatric disorders (kappa 0.49) and respiratory diseases (kappa 0.48),
      although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had a good agreement (kappa 0.75).
      Within the class of endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (kappa 0.55),
      agreement was substantial for diabetes (kappa 0.91), obesity (kappa 0.82) and
      hypothyroidism (kappa 0.72) and moderate for hypercholesterolemia (kappa 0.51)
      and malnutrition (kappa 0.42). CONCLUSION: These results are reassuring with
      regard to detection through PMSI of mCRC if all types of diagnosis codes are
      considered and useful to better choose comorbidities in elderly mCRC patients
      that could be well identified through hospital diagnosis codes.

PMID- 28576382
TI  - Peripheral venous catheter, a dangerous weapon. Key points to improve its use.
AB  - Catheter-related bacteremia is one of the most important causes of nosocomial
      infection. Is associated to high rates of morbidity and mortality, including an
      economic burden. Peripheral venous catheter bacteremia is a leading cause of
      nosocomial infection in internal medicine departments. In this article, we review
      some important key points to improve its use and avoid infections.

PMID- 28576384
TI  - Interaction of triterpenoids with human serum albumin: A review.
AB  - Triterpenoids are a large group of natural and synthetic products. This review
      deals with the current state of knowledge on their interaction with serum
      albumin. The binding of drugs to albumin may control their distribution in
      tissues. In literature, different techniques were used to investigate the albumin
      triterpenoid interaction and include fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, circular dichroism, calorimetric techniques and molecular
      modeling. Changes in fluorescence intensity of albumin were observed upon
      triterpenoid-albumin complex formation. Thermodynamic analyses proved that
      hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds were the mainly binding forces in
      triterpenoid-albumin systems. Molecular docking and site marker competitive
      experimental results revealed that triterpenoids bound to Sudlow's site I of
      albumin. Furthermore, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and circular
      dichroism spectra analysis indicated that the native conformation of the protein
      is affected upon binding to triterpenoids.

PMID- 28576385
TI  - Prognostic value of venous invasion in resected T3 pancreatic adenocarcinoma:
      Depth of invasion matters.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Incomplete evaluation of venous invasion has led to conflicting
      results regarding the prognosis of patients undergoing pancreatectomy with a
      synchronous venous resection. This study evaluates the prognostic value
      associated with the presence and the depth of venous invasion in T3 pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma. METHODS: This study evaluated retrospectively 181 consecutive
      pancreatoduodenectomies performed for T3N0M0 and T3N1M0 pancreatic
      adenocarcinomas (stages IIA and IIB) from January 2006 to December 2014.
      Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were performed to assess survival
      prognostic factors. RESULTS: Pancreatoduodenectomies with a segmental venous
      resection was performed on 91 patients, while 90 other patients had a standard
      pancreatoduodenectomies without venous resection. Pathologic venous invasion was
      detected in 68 (74%) of the 91 venous resection patients. Depth of venous
      invasion was into the adventitia (n = 25), media (n = 28), and intima (n = 15).
      The overall survival rates at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years were 75%, 33%, 21%, and 6%,
      respectively. There were no differences in survival between patients undergoing
      standard pancreatoduodenectomies and pancreatoduodenectomies with venous
      resection (27 vs 22 months; P = .28) or between patients with and without venous
      invasion (20 vs 27 months; P = .08). In multivariate analysis, depth of venous
      invasion into the intima (hazard ratio, 2.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-4.34;
      P = .0001) and adjuvant chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.16; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.09-0.43; P <= .0001) were identified as independent prognostic
      factors of overall survival. CONCLUSION: Depth of venous invasion into the intima
      indicates poor survival in pancreatic T3 adenocarcinoma. Preoperative
      identification of this factor could be helpful for better selection of patients
      for curative operation.

PMID- 28576387
TI  - Role of PET/angio-CT in the Evaluation of Intracardiac Devices.

PMID- 28576383
TI  - Cholesterol metabolism and glaucoma: Modulation of Muller cell membrane
      organization by 24S-hydroxycholesterol.
AB  - Glaucoma is a progressive and irreversible blinding neuropathy that is
      characterized by the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Muller Glial Cell
      (MGC) activation is induced in retinal gliosis. MGCs are the most numerous glial
      cells in the retina and one of their roles is to sustain cholesterol homeostasis.
      24S-hydroxycholesterol (24S-OHC) is one of the form of cholesterol elimination
      from the retina and is overexpressed during glaucoma. The objective of this study
      was to determine whether 24S-OHC triggers MGC membrane dynamics involving lipid
      rafts and contributes to gliosis at early and late time points. A proteomic
      analysis was carried out by nanoLC-MS/MS in raft and non-raft fractions from MGCs
      after treatment with 24S-OHC (10MUM). The expression of structural and functional
      proteins was further analyzed by Western-blotting, as well as the levels of GM3
      ganglioside by LC-MS. Cholesterol, sphingomyelin, saturated fatty acids and
      ganglioside GM3 are enriched in the rafts fractions in MGCs. Caveolin-1,
      flotillin-1, connexin-30 and -43 are localized in the MGCs rafts. Proteins
      implicated in adhesion or oxidative stress pathways in raft fractions were up and
      down-regulated by the treatment. Our data showed that 24S-OHC induced early
      changes in protein distribution in raft microdomains; however, further studies
      are needed to better characterize the surrounded mechanisms.

PMID- 28576388
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Prasugrel and Ticagrelor in Acute Coronary Syndrome.
      Results of a "Real World" Multicenter Registry.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The incorporation of the new antiplatelet agents
      (NAA) prasugrel and ticagrelor into routine clinical practice is irregular and
      data from the "real world" remain scarce. We aimed to assess the time trend of
      NAA use and the clinical safety and efficacy of these drugs compared with those
      of clopidogrel in a contemporary cohort of patients with acute coronary syndromes
      (ACS). METHODS: A multicenter retrospective observational study was conducted in
      patients with ACS admitted to coronary care units and prospectively included in
      the ARIAM-Andalusia registry between 2013 and 2015. In-hospital rates of major
      cardiovascular events and bleeding with NAA vs clopidogrel were analyzed using
      propensity score matching and multivariate regression models. RESULTS: The study
      included 2906 patients: 55% received clopidogrel and 45% NAA. A total of 60% had
      ST-segment elevation ACS. Use of NAA significantly increased throughout the
      study. Patients receiving clopidogrel were older and were more likely to have
      comorbidities. Total mortality, ischemic stroke, and stent thrombosis were lower
      with NAA (2% vs 9%, P < .0001; 0.1% vs 0.5%, P = .025; 0.07% vs 0.5%, P = .025,
      respectively). There were no differences in the rate of total bleeding (3% vs 4%;
      P = NS). After propensity score matching, the mortality reduction with NAA
      persisted (OR, 0.37; 95%CI, 0.13 to 0.60; P < .0001) with no increase in total
      bleeding (OR, 1.07; 95%CI, 0.18 to 2.37; P = .094). CONCLUSIONS: In a "real
      world" setting, NAA are selectively used in younger patients with less
      comorbidity and are associated with a reduction in major cardiac events,
      including mortality, without increasing bleeding compared with clopidogrel.

PMID- 28576386
TI  - [Identification of alloantibodies and their associations: Balance sheet of 3
      years at the Regional Center of Blood Transfusion in Rabat/Morocco and difficult
      in transfusion management].
AB  - : Red blood cell immunization can lead to delays or even an impasse in a
      transfusion. OBJECTIVES: Determine the specificities of the most common of
      alloantibodies and their associations to correct management of red blood cell
      transfused. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective study between 2013 and 2015 in
      immunohematology laboratories at the Blood Transfusion Center of Rabat in
      Morocco. The following data were studied: frequency, specificities of
      alloantibodies, blood group involved in alloimmunization and difficult of
      management of transfusion in case with association of alloantibodies. RESULTS:
      Five hundred of alloantibodies were identified in 425 people (372
      patients/pregnant women and 53 blood donors). The alloantibodies were directed
      against the following antigen: RH1 (50.8 %), RH3 (11.4 %), KEL 1 (8.2 %), RH2
      (7.6 %), RH4 (4.6 %), MNS1 (4 %), MNS3 (2.6 %), Jka (2.4 %) and Fya (2.2 %). Only
      one alloantibody was identified in 85 % of cases. In 15 %, at least, two
      alloantibodies were found. The most common associations were directed against:
      anti-(D+C) (25), anti-(E+K) (4), anti-(E+c) (3) and anti-(D+C+E) (3). The rhesus
      system is the most involved in alloimmunization. Frequency of specific
      associations of alloantibodies was identified: Fya-/Jkb- (18.23 %), Fyb-/Jkb-
      (11.7 %), Jka-/S- (8.70 %), Jka-/Fyb- (5.20 %), Fyb-/s- (3.40 %) and Fyb-/Jkb-/s-
      (0.85 %). CONCLUSIONS: Red blood cell immunization is a serious problem in
      transfused patients. This study proves the data of literature, the interest of
      using RH-Kel1 red cell units compatibles among women in age to procreate and for
      the transfused patients to reduce the rate of immunization. Associations of
      antibodies with low frequency suggest a promotion of donation.

PMID- 28576389
TI  - Healthcare utilization in adults with opioid dependence receiving extended
      release naltrexone compared to treatment as usual.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid use disorders have reached epidemic proportions, with overdose
      now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Extended release
      naltrexone (XR-NTX) has emerged as a medication treatment that reduces opioid use
      and craving. However, the effect of XR-NTX therapy on acute healthcare
      utilization, including emergency department visits and inpatient
      hospitalizations, remains uncertain. The objective of the current study is to
      evaluate hospital-based healthcare resource utilization in adults involved in the
      criminal justice system with a history of opioid use disorder randomized to XR
      NTX therapy compared with treatment as usual (TAU) during a 6-month treatment
      phase and 12months post-treatment follow up. METHODS: This retrospective
      exploratory analysis uses data collected in a published randomized trial.
      Comparisons of the number of emergency department visits and hospital admissions
      (for drug detox, psychiatric care and other medical reasons) were performed using
      chi square tests for any admission and negative binomial models for number of
      admissions. RESULTS: Of the 308 participants randomized, 96% had utilization data
      (76% complete 6months, 67% complete follow up). No significant differences were
      seen in overall healthcare utilization (IRR=0.88, 95%CI 0.63-1.23, p=0.45), or
      substance use-related drug detox hospitalizations (IRR=0.83, 95%CI 0.32-2.16,
      p=0.71). Despite having more participants report chronic medical problems at
      baseline (43% vs. 32%, p=0.05), those receiving XR-NTX generally experienced
      equivalent or lower rates of healthcare utilization compared to TAU. The XR-NTX
      group had significantly lower medical/surgical related hospital admissions
      (IRR=0.55, 95%CI 0.30-1.00, p=0.05) during the course of the entire study.
      CONCLUSIONS: XR-NTX did not significantly increase rates of healthcare
      utilization compared to TAU. Provider concerns regarding healthcare utilization
      should not preclude the consideration of XR-NTX as therapy for opioid use
      disorders.

PMID- 28576390
TI  - Genetic basis of eugonadal and hypogonadal female reproductive disorders.
AB  - This review discusses the current state of our understanding regarding the
      genetic basis of the most important reproductive disorders in women. For clarity,
      these disorders have been divided into eugonadal and hypogonadal types.
      Hypogonadal disorders have been further subdivided according to serum
      gonadotropin levels. Our review focuses on historical and recent data regarding
      the genetics of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis dysfunction, as well as
      the development and etiology of eugonadal disorders including leiomyomata,
      endometriosis, spontaneous ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, polycystic ovarian
      syndrome, mullerian aplasia, and steroid hormone resistance syndromes. We discuss
      the known genes most commonly involved in hypergonadotropic hypogonadism (Turner
      syndrome and premature ovarian failure) and hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism
      (Kallmann syndrome and normosmic types). In addition, we summarize the current
      clinical testing approaches and their utility in practical application.

PMID- 28576391
TI  - Perceptions and use of the e-cigarette among university students.

PMID- 28576393
TI  - Diffuse gastric metastases from salivary duct carcinoma.

PMID- 28576392
TI  - Enzymatic tailoring of oleuropein from Olea europaea leaves and product
      identification by HRMS/MS spectrometry.
AB  - Oleuropein, a bioactive compound found in all parts of olive tree, especially in
      leaves and branches, presents numerous health promoting properties that increase
      research and market interest the last few years. In addition, oleuropein
      degradation products, such as hydroxytyrosol, elenolic acid, and the aglycones
      also exhibit biological activities with different properties compared to the
      starting compound. Under this view, a commercial lipase preparation Lipolase 100L
      and a thermophilic beta-glucosidase from Myceliophthora thermophila were used for
      the regioselective hydrolysis of oleuropein towards the production of the
      corresponding biologically active compounds. The enzymatic degradation products
      of oleuropein, such as hydroxytyrosol, elenolic acid and its glucoside, and
      oleuropein aglycones were identified by LC-HRMS/MS and NMR spectroscopy. The
      latter, was found as a mix of diastereomers of the monoaldehydic form of
      oleuropein aglycone, identified as (5S, 8R, 9S)-, (5S, 8S, 9S)- and (5S, 8R, 9R).
      The high substrate specificity exhibited by both lipase and beta-glucosidase
      allows the successful tailoring of oleuropein towards the production of different
      biologically active compounds with significant potential in the cosmeceutical and
      food industry.

PMID- 28576394
TI  - Cronkhite-Canada syndrome.

PMID- 28576395
TI  - Successful endoscopic submucosal dissection for superficial esophageal cancer on
      solitary esophageal varix.

PMID- 28576396
TI  - Hymenolepis nana infection detected by magnifying colonoscopy with narrow-band
      imaging (with video).

PMID- 28576397
TI  - The contribution of clinical and pathological predisposing factors to severe
      gastro-duodenal lesions in patients with long-term low-dose aspirin and proton
      pump inhibitor therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preventive strategies developed to avoid the complications of
      antiplatelet therapies recommend the evaluation of risk factors for
      gastrointestinal events and indicated gastroprotective strategies. AIM: We aimed
      to assess the impact of predisposing factors - histological findings, concomitant
      drug consumption, comorbidities, symptoms, social habits, Helicobacter pylori
      infection - on severe gastro-duodenal lesions in patients with low-dose aspirin
      and concomitant protective therapy with proton pump inhibitors (PPI). METHOD: We
      enrolled 237 patients with LDA and PPI therapy, referred for upper digestive
      endoscopy, divided into two groups according to the severity of their endoscopic
      lesions (172 patients with no or mild endoscopic lesions and 65 patients with
      severe endoscopic lesions). RESULTS: In the univariate logistic regression model,
      the factors associated with severe gastro-duodenal lesions were gender (OR=1.87,
      95% CI: 1.04-3.41), anticoagulants (OR=2.40, 95% CI: 1.26-4.53), gastric atrophy
      and/or intestinal metaplasia (OR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.04-3.32), congestive heart
      failure (OR=2.59, 95% CI: 1.16-6.62), anaemia (OR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.67-5.47) and
      smoking (OR=4.29, 95% CI: 1.57-12.32). In the final model, anticoagulants
      (p=0.041<0.05) and anaemia (p=0.019<0.05) were risk factors for severe lesions
      via multivariate regression analysis, while for active/inactive chronic gastritis
      and smoking a positive dependency with a tendency towards statistical
      significance (p<0.10) was noticed for severe gastric lesions. CONCLUSIONS: In
      patients treated with low-dose aspirin and gastroprotective therapy with proton
      pump inhibitors we have enough evidence to consider co-treatment with
      anticoagulants and anaemia important predictors for severe endoscopic lesions,
      while other factors such as inflammation in gastric biopsies, congestive heart
      failure, co-treatment with clopidogrel and smoking tended to have a positive
      influence on risk for severe gastro-duodenal lesions.

PMID- 28576398
TI  - Characterization of circadian COPD symptoms by phenotype: Methodology of the
      STORICO observational study.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of
      morbidity and mortality worldwide. The symptoms of COPD are troublesome,
      variable, can occur during all parts of the 24-h day and have a substantial
      impact on patients' health status, quality of life and healthcare resource
      utilization. Reducing symptoms, improving health status and increasing physical
      activity are major goals in the management of stable COPD. In order to provide
      effective, patient-oriented care, patients should be evaluated on the basis of
      lung function, frequency of symptoms and patient-perceived impact of symptoms on
      their lives and treatment decisions made on a case-by-case basis. The
      identification of COPD phenotypes is an evolving debate and literature data about
      the circadian variation of COPD symptoms according to phenotypes are nowadays
      lacking. The ongoing STORICO (STudio Osservazionale sulla caratteRizzazione dei
      sIntomi delle 24 ore nei pazienti con BPCO) study (NCT03105999) is aimed to
      describe by clinically defined phenotypes the frequency and 12-month evolution of
      early-morning, day- and night-time COPD symptoms in a cohort of 600 Italian
      patients with stable COPD. Secondary objectives include the description of the 12
      month variation of outcomes of interest according to phenotypes and of the
      healthcare resources utilization (overall and by phenotype) during 12-month
      observation. An exploratory analysis will be conducted aimed to phenotype COPD
      patients in an alternative researcher-independent way based on circadian pattern
      of symptoms combined with measures of respiratory function, health-related
      quality of life and comorbidity. The present paper describes the methodology of
      the STORICO study.

PMID- 28576400
TI  - Innovation in pediatric clinical trials: The need to rethink the end-point.

PMID- 28576399
TI  - Weather is not significantly correlated with destination-specific transport
      related physical activity among adults: A large-scale temporally matched
      analysis.
AB  - Weather is an element of the natural environment that could have a significant
      effect on physical activity. Existing research, however, indicates only modest
      correlations between measures of weather and physical activity. This prior work
      has been limited by a failure to use time-matched weather and physical activity
      data, or has not adequately examined the different domains of physical activity
      (transport, leisure, occupational, etc.). Our objective was to identify the
      correlation between weather variables and destination-specific transport-related
      physical activity in adults. Data were sourced from the California Household
      Travel Survey, collected in 2012-3. Weather variables included: relative
      humidity, temperature, wind speed, and precipitation. Transport-related physical
      activity (walking) was sourced from participant-recorded travel diaries. Three
      part hurdle models were used to analyze the data. Results indicate statistically
      or substantively insignificant correlations between the weather variables and
      transport-related physical activity for all destination types. These results
      provide the strongest evidence to date that transport-related physical activity
      may occur relatively independently of weather conditions. The knowledge that
      weather conditions do not seem to be a significant barrier to this domain of
      activity may potentially expand the universe of geographic locations that are
      amenable to environmental and programmatic interventions to increase transport
      related walking.

PMID- 28576401
TI  - [Blood pressure values in adolescents in the Community of Madrid: Tables based on
      the MEPAFAC Study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: High blood pressure (HBP) is a modifiable cardiovascular risk
      factor and its detection at early ages may allow strategies to be designed to
      reduce cardiovascular risk in adulthood. OBJECTIVES: To provide blood pressure
      (BP) values in a sample of adolescents using an electronic oscillometric device.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: BP was measured according the European Society of
      Hypertension guidelines using an oscillometric device. Height and weight were
      also measured. Four height groups were used in order to associate the 90, 95, and
      99 percentiles with systolic BP (pSBP) and diastolic BP percentiles (pDBP) for
      sex and age: H150 (<= 150cm), H160(151-160cm), H170(161-170cm), and
      H180(>=171cm). RESULTS: Data from 2,758 students aged 12-17 years were included
      in the analysis. BP increases with age, with differences of up to 11mmHg in boys
      vs. 3mmHg in girls for SBP and 3mmHg vs. 1mmHg for DBP. In high SBP, for the
      younger adolescents, the difference related to height was 15mmHg in boys vs.
      8mmHg in girls, with no significant increase in the older ones in either gender.
      The high BDP varied depending on the height, 10mmHg in younger boys and 3mmHg in
      older ones, while in girls the variation was 3mmHg for all ages. CONCLUSIONS:
      SBP/DBP in adolescents increases with age and also with height, giving similar
      figures in the taller ones, regardless of age.

PMID- 28576402
TI  - [Anterior lamellar resection with lid margin split of the upper eyelid in the
      treatment of trachomatous entropion].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study is to assess functional and aesthetic
      results of anterior lamellar resection with lid margin splitting of the upper lid
      in the treatment of cicatricial trachomatous entropion. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Descriptive cross-sectional study of a series of 26 consecutive patients treated
      between January 2014 and December 2015. All patients were operated for
      cicatricial trachomatous entropion in our tertiary center using the technique of
      the anterior lamellar resection with lid margin splitting of the upper eyelid.
      All patients were followed for 6 to 12 months after surgery. The anatomical,
      functional and aesthetic results were evaluated six months after surgery. They
      were considered good if there was no recurrence of the entropion, no lashes in
      contact with the cornea and no associated eyelid complications. RESULTS: The mean
      age of the patients was 68.5+/-10 years with a male predominance (sex ratio=1.8).
      The average initial corrected visual acuity was 0.65+/-0.35 LogMAR, ranging from
      counting fingers at 1m to 6/10. Involvement was bilateral in 34.6% of cases.
      Correction of the cicatricial entropion was achieved in 24 patients (92.3% of
      cases) and full correction of misdirected lashes without any contact with the
      ocular surface was obtained in 23 patients (88.4% of cases). The lid margin was
      regular in 88.4% of cases. A significant improvement of the tear film and corneal
      surface was observed in 84.6% of patients. During the follow-up period, no cases
      of recurrent entropion were reported. DISCUSSION: Among the various surgical
      techniques, anterior lamellar resection with lid margin splitting is one that
      most respects the anatomy of the upper eyelid and allows precise intraoperative
      control of eyelid rotation and eversion of the misdirected lashes. Therefore, it
      reduces significantly the risk of recurrence and significantly enhances the
      aesthetic results of surgery. CONCLUSION: Anterior lamellar resection with lid
      margin splitting of the upper eyelid is a simple and effective technique that
      significantly improves the aesthetic result of cicatricial trachomatous
      entropion.

PMID- 28576403
TI  - [Phacoemulsification versus manual small incision cataract surgery: Anatomic and
      functional results].
AB  - PURPOSE: Prospective randomised study to compare the impact of phacoemusification
      (PHACO) and small incision cataract surgery (SICS) on endothelial structure (cell
      density and morphology) and refractive results (visual acuity, induced
      astigmatism). METHODS: Prospective study of 57 patients (63 eyes) over 20 months
      (May 2012-January 2014) undergoing surgery by 2 experienced surgeons. We included
      patients with senile or presenile cataracts, LOCS III class 2, 3 and 4. Patients
      were randomized into 2 groups based on their birth month (group 1: PHACO [33];
      group 2: SICS [30]). All pre- intra- and postoperative data were collected
      prospectively. The minimum follow-up was 6 months. We used the SPSS 18.0 for
      statistical analysis. Statistical tests used included the test-t Student, the
      Anova test, the Mann-Witney non-parametric test and the Khi2 test. A threshold of
      significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The mean preoperative endothelial cell
      density was 2447.5+/-225 c/mm2 with no significant difference between the two
      groups (P=0.207). The mean percentage of hexagonality was 55.5+/-8.2% in groups 1
      and 2. The most significant cell loss was during the first immediate
      postoperative period for both groups. At Day 15 postoperative, the decrease in
      cell loss was significant (P<0.001) with a mean loss of 312.9+/-208.9 c/mm2 (P<10
      2). Postoperatively, the mean best-corrected visual acuity was 0.057 log MAR for
      all of our patients (P=0.170); no patient had an acuity <=1/10. The mean
      astigmatism at the conclusion of follow-up was 1.08+/-0.42 D in group 1 and
      1.51+/-0.55 D in group 2, with a significant difference (P=0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Both SICS and PHACO give excellent results, both anatomical and refractive.
      However, SICS appears to be more advantageous than PHACO in terms of speed, cost,
      and independence from technology, and appears to be better suited to dense
      cataracts and mass surgery.

PMID- 28576404
TI  - Attenuated diuresis and natriuresis in response to glucagon-like peptide-1 in
      hypertensive rats are associated with lower expression of the glucagon-like
      peptide-1 receptor in the renal vasculature.
AB  - Accumulating evidence from clinical and experimental studies indicates that the
      incretin glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) elicits blood-pressure lowering effects
      via its diuretic, natriuretic and vasodilatory properties. The present study
      investigated whether acute infusion of GLP-1 induces diuresis and natriuresis in
      spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Additionally, we examined whether GLP-1
      influences the vascular reactivity of the renal arteries of normotensive and
      hypertensive rats and elucidated the underlying mechanisms. We found that the
      increase in urinary output and urinary sodium excretion in response to systemic
      infusion of GLP-1 for 30min in SHRs was much less pronounced than in normotensive
      rats. The diuretic and natriuretic actions of GLP-1 in normotensive rats were
      accompanied by increases in GFR and RBF and a reduction in RVR through activation
      of the cAMP signaling pathway. However, no changes in renal hemodynamics were
      observed in SHRs. Similarly, GLP-1 induced an endothelium-independent relaxation
      effect in the renal arteries of normotensive rats, whereas the renal vasculature
      of SHRs was unresponsive to this vasodilator. The absence of a GLP-1-induced
      renal artery vasodilator effect in SHRs was associated with lower expression of
      the GLP-1 receptor, blunted GLP-1-induced increases in cAMP production and higher
      activity and expression of the GLP-1 inactivating enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV
      relative to the renal arteries of normotensive rats. Collectively, these results
      demonstrate that the renal acute responses to GLP-1 are attenuated in SHRs. Thus,
      chronic treatment with incretin-based agents may rely upon the upregulation of
      GLP-1/GLP-1 receptor signaling in the kidneys of hypertensive patients and
      experimental models.

PMID- 28576405
TI  - Protective effects of Donepezil against endothelial permeability.
AB  - The endothelium lines the interior surface of blood vessels, and under
      pathophysiologic conditions, its integrity can be compromised due to a
      disturbance in the expression of tight junctions. Donepezil is a licensed drug
      used in the palliative treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Increasing evidence
      has reported that donepezil has an anti-inflammatory activity. However, little
      information is available regarding the role of donepezil in vascular diseases. In
      this study, we found that pretreatment with donepezil significantly ameliorated
      endothelial permeability induced by tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) by
      restoring the expression of the tight junction proteins vascular endothelial
      cadherin (VE-cadherin) and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) in human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells (HUVECs). Mechanistically, our results indicate that donepezil
      regulates the expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and
      tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP-1), but not matrix
      metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) or tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP-2).
      Importantly, the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)/ serine
      threonine kinase (AKT)/ nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) pathway was found to
      be involved in this process. These results suggest that donepezil may potentially
      play an important therapeutic role in vascular diseases.

PMID- 28576406
TI  - Puerarin promotes ABCA1-mediated cholesterol efflux and decreases cellular lipid
      accumulation in THP-1 macrophages.
AB  - It was reported that puerarin decreases the total cholesterol, low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride (TG) and increases high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level, but the underlying mechanism is unclear.
      This study was designed to determine whether puerarin decreased lipid
      accumulation via up-regulation of ABCA1-mediated cholesterol efflux in THP-1
      macrophage-derived foam cells. Our results showed that puerarin significantly
      promoted the expression of ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) mRNA and
      protein via the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma)-liver X receptor-alpha (LXR-alpha) pathway
      and decreased cellular lipid accumulation in human THP-1 macrophage-derived foam
      cells. The miR-7 directly targeted 3' untranslated region of STK11
      (Serine/Threonine Kinase 11), which activated the AMPK pathway. Transfection with
      miR-7 mimic significantly reduced STK11 expression in puerarin-treated
      macrophages, decreased the phosphorylation of AMPK, down-regulated the expression
      of the PPARgamma-LXR-alpha-ABCA1 expression. Additionally, treatment with miR-7
      decreased cholesterol efflux and increased cholesterol levels in THP-1 macrophage
      derived foam cells. Our study demonstrates that puerarin promotes ABCA1-mediated
      cholesterol efflux and decreases intracellular cholesterol levels through the
      pathway involving miR-7, STK11, and the AMPK-PPARgamma-LXR-alpha-ABCA1 cascade.

PMID- 28576407
TI  - RP5063, a novel, multimodal, serotonin receptor modulator, prevents Sugen 5416
      hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension in rats.
AB  - RP5063, a multimodal dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) modulator with high
      affinity for DA2/3/4 and 5-HT2A/2B/7 receptors and moderate affinity for SERT, is
      a novel therapeutic of special interest in the treatment of pulmonary arterial
      hypertension (PAH). Evidence indicates that therapeutics targeting the 5-HT2A/2B
      receptors can influence the pathogenesis of PAH. However, the therapeutic effect
      of RP5063 in humans has yet to be investigated. A Sugen 5416-hypoxia (SuHx)
      induced PAH model was used to evaluate twice-daily (b.i.d.) RP5063 at 10mg/kg (RP
      10) and 20mg/kg (RP-20), as compared with positive (sildenafil 50mg/kg b.i.d.;
      Sil-50) and negative controls (SuHx+vehicle; SuHx+veh), in 24 adult male Wistar
      Kyoto rats. RP5063 showed significantly lower systolic pulmonary arterial (both
      doses) and systolic right ventricular (RP-10) pressures, and improvement in
      oxygen saturation (RP-20). It significantly reduced small-vessel wall thickness
      (RP-20), lowered the percentage of muscular vessels (both doses). Both doses
      limited arterial obliteration due to endothelial cell proliferation, prevented
      plexiform lesion formation, and stemmed the release of leukotriene B4. Sildenafil
      showed statistically greater effects on vessel structure than that seen in both
      RP5063 groups and improved oxygen saturation. Additionally, Sildenafil did not
      demonstrate any significant effect on arterial obliteration, plexiform lesion
      development, or pulmonary arterial or right ventricular pressure. As PAH gains in
      severity, the impact of RP5063 inhibition of 5HT2B increases, preventing arterial
      constriction and improving pulmonary hemodynamics. Due to its functional,
      structural, and chemokine effects, RP5063 represents a promising candidate for
      investigation in late-phase PAH.

PMID- 28576408
TI  - Browning effects of (-)-epicatechin on adipocytes and white adipose tissue.
AB  - In this study, we demonstrate that (-)-epicatechin (Epi), a cacao flavanol,
      induces the browning of fat by promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, enhancing
      indicators of mitochondrial structure and function, increasing fatty acid
      metabolism and upregulating the expression of brown adipose tissue-specific
      proteins in a high-fat diet mouse model of obesity and in cultured human
      adipocytes. Epi treatment significantly improved mitochondrial function, as
      measured by citrate synthase activity, and also reduced protein acetylation of
      total and specific regulators in both adipose tissue and human adipocytes.
      Browning of fat via Epi was evidenced by the increased expression of key
      thermogenic genes, phosphorylation of upstream regulators of fatty acid
      oxidation, and reduced triglyceride levels. Properly designed clinical trials are
      needed to explore the potential of Epi as an agent that promotes the browning of
      fat.

PMID- 28576409
TI  - Phosphoproteome and transcription factor activity profiling identify actions of
      the anti-inflammatory agent UTL-5g in LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 cells including
      disrupting actin remodeling and STAT-3 activation.
AB  - UTL-5g is a novel small-molecule TNF-alpha modulator. It reduces cisplatin
      induced side effects by protecting kidney, liver, and platelets, thereby
      increasing tolerance for cisplatin. UTL-5g also reduces radiation-induced acute
      liver toxicity. The mechanism of action for UTL-5g is not clear at the present
      time. A phosphoproteomic analysis to a depth of 4943 phosphopeptides and a
      luminescence-based transcription factor activity assay were used to provide
      complementary analyses of signaling events that were disrupted by UTL-5g in RAW
      264.7 cells. Transcriptional activity downstream of the interferon gamma, IL-6,
      type 1 Interferon, TGF-beta, PKC/Ca2+ and the glucocorticoid receptor pathways
      were disrupted by UTL-5g. Phosphoproteomic analysis indicated that
      hyperphosphorylation of proteins involved in actin remodeling was suppressed by
      UTL-5g (gene set analysis, FDR < 1%) as was phosphorylation of Stat3, consistent
      with the IL-6 results in the transcription factor assay. Neither analysis
      indicated that LPS-induced activation of the NF-kB, cAMP/PKA and JNK signaling
      pathways were affected by UTL-5g. This global characterization of UTL-5g activity
      in a macrophage cell line discovered that it disrupts selected aspects of LPS
      signaling including Stat3 activation and actin remodeling providing new insight
      on how UTL-5g acts to reduce cisplatin-induced side effects.

PMID- 28576410
TI  - Phenylpyrrolidine structural mimics of pirfenidone lacking antifibrotic activity:
      A new tool for mechanism of action studies.
AB  - Pirfenidone recently received FDA approval as one of the first two drugs designed
      to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. While the clinical data continues to
      support the efficacy of pirfenidone, the specific molecular mechanism of action
      of this drug has not been fully defined. From a chemical perspective the
      comparatively simple and lipophilic structure of pirfenidone combined with its
      administration at high doses, both experimentally and clinically, complicates
      some of the basic tenants of drug action and drug design. Our objective here was
      to identify a commercially available structural mimic of pirfenidone which
      retains key aspects of its physical chemical properties but does not display any
      of its antifibrotic effects. We tested these molecules using lung fibroblasts
      derived from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and found
      phenylpyrrolidine based analogs of pirfenidone that were non-toxic and lacked
      antifibrotic activity even when applied at millimolar concentrations. Based on
      our findings, these molecules represent pharmacological tools for future studies
      delineating pirfenidone's mechanism of action.

PMID- 28576411
TI  - Postnatal hyperoxia or DEHP exposure leads to growth restriction and delayed lung
      development in newborn rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is commonly used as a plasticizer
      in many medical devices. We previously showed that maternal DEHP exposure led to
      restricted growth and delayed lung maturation in newborn rats. As oxygen toxicity
      continues to be a major risk factor for bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the aim of
      this study was to examine the effect of hyperoxia, DEHP or DEHP combined with
      hyperoxia on the growth and lung maturation of newborn rats. METHODS: Newborn
      rats received DEHP injection, hyperoxia exposure or DEHP injection combined with
      hyperoxia exposure for one week or two weeks. A control group received an equal
      volume of vehicle and was maintained in room air. RESULTS: Hyperoxia and
      hyperoxia + DEHP exposure for one week led to growth failure in newborn rats.
      Pups in the hyperoxia group showed catch-up growth after being maintained in room
      air for an additional 7 days but this was not the case with the latter group,
      which continued to receive DEHP. Hyperoxia and DEHP both delayed lung
      development, as evidenced by decreased radial alveolar count. Quantitative RT-PCR
      showed that hyperoxia decreased the transcripts of VEGF, VEGFR-2 and eNOS on days
      7 and 14, and DEHP exposure alone also led to decreased expression of VEGF gene
      in 14-day-old rat pups. CONCLUSION: Postnatal hyperoxia and/or DEHP exposure lead
      to growth restriction and delayed lung alveolar development. The VEGF gene
      expression was altered and may be involved as one of the possible molecular
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28576412
TI  - Test-retest reliability of the magnetic mismatch negativity response to sound
      duration and omission deviants.
AB  - Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a neurophysiological measure of auditory novelty
      detection that could serve as a translational biomarker of psychiatric disorders,
      such as schizophrenia. However, the replicability of its magnetoencephalographic
      (MEG) counterpart (MMNm) has been insufficiently addressed. In the current study,
      test-retest reliability of the MMNm response to both duration and omission
      deviants was evaluated over two MEG sessions in 16 healthy adults. MMNm
      amplitudes and latencies were obtained at both sensor- and source-level using a
      cortically-constrained minimum-norm approach. Intraclass correlations (ICC) were
      derived to assess stability of MEG responses over time. In addition, signal-to
      noise ratios (SNR) and within-subject statistics were obtained in order to
      determine MMNm detectability in individual participants. ICC revealed robust
      values at both sensor- and source-level for both duration and omission MMNm
      amplitudes (ICC = 0.81-0.90), in particular in the right hemisphere, while
      moderate to strong values were obtained for duration MMNm and omission MMNm peak
      latencies (ICC = 0.74-0.88). Duration MMNm was robustly identified in individual
      participants with high SNR, whereas omission MMNm responses were only observed in
      half of the participants. Our data indicate that MMNm to unexpected duration
      changes and omitted sounds are highly reproducible, providing support for the use
      of MEG-parameters in basic and clinical research.

PMID- 28576413
TI  - SISSY: An efficient and automatic algorithm for the analysis of EEG sources based
      on structured sparsity.
AB  - Over the past decades, a multitude of different brain source imaging algorithms
      have been developed to identify the neural generators underlying the surface
      electroencephalography measurements. While most of these techniques focus on
      determining the source positions, only a small number of recently developed
      algorithms provides an indication of the spatial extent of the distributed
      sources. In a recent comparison of brain source imaging approaches, the VB-SCCD
      algorithm has been shown to be one of the most promising algorithms among these
      methods. However, this technique suffers from several problems: it leads to
      amplitude-biased source estimates, it has difficulties in separating close
      sources, and it has a high computational complexity due to its implementation
      using second order cone programming. To overcome these problems, we propose to
      include an additional regularization term that imposes sparsity in the original
      source domain and to solve the resulting optimization problem using the
      alternating direction method of multipliers. Furthermore, we show that the
      algorithm yields more robust solutions by taking into account the temporal
      structure of the data. We also propose a new method to automatically threshold
      the estimated source distribution, which permits to delineate the active brain
      regions. The new algorithm, called Source Imaging based on Structured Sparsity
      (SISSY), is analyzed by means of realistic computer simulations and is validated
      on the clinical data of four patients.

PMID- 28576414
TI  - Is urodynamic evaluation a must in all operated cases of open neural tube
      defects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spina bifida is a common cause of pediatric neurogenic bladder. It
      causes renal failure in almost 100% of patients if the associated detrusor
      sphincter dyssynergia (DSD) is inadequately managed. Detrusor instability and
      high detrusor pressures (Figure) have been implicated as the major factors
      predictive of renal damage in these patients. Urodynamic studies provide early
      identification of "at risk" kidneys so that appropriate intervention can be made.
      However, the role in post-operative patients of spina bifida who have no clinical
      manifestations remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To study the bladder dynamics in
      asymptomatic post-operative patients of spina bifida and to determine whether
      routine urodynamic study is justifiable. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Urodynamics was
      performed on 15 operated patients of spina bifida who did not have any
      neurological deficit and were asymptomatic. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients
      was 4.97 years. None of the patients had any urological complaints with their
      ultrasonography being normal. None had scars on nuclear scan. Of the 15 patients,
      12 (80%) had abnormal findings on urodynamic assessment. Three patients (20%) had
      detrusor pressures greater than 40 cm of H2O. One patient had significant
      residual urine and detrusor instability. DISCUSSION: The use of urodynamic
      studies in asymptomatic patients of spina bifida remains controversial, with one
      school of thought advocating early invasive urodynamic testing. In contrast, some
      favor noninvasive sonological monitoring, reserving invasive tests only for
      patients with renal tract dilatation. In our subset of patients none had renal
      tract dilatation but three patients (20%) had "at risk" bladders. These patients
      would benefit from early intervention aimed at renal preservation. The study is
      limited by a small sample size because of the relative rarity of the patient
      profile included. A further multicenter study with a case-control design could
      conclusively indicate the role of urodynamic testing in these patients.
      CONCLUSION: Patients of spina bifida, even when asymptomatic, have a high
      incidence of unsafe bladders. Early identification and appropriate measures can
      protect kidneys from long-term damage, hence urodynamic profiling is mandatory
      for identification of potentially high-risk bladders.

PMID- 28576415
TI  - Stem cell contributions to neurological disease modeling and personalized
      medicine.
AB  - Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a revolutionary tool for
      disease modeling and drug discovery. The generation of tissue-relevant cell types
      exhibiting a patient's genetic and molecular background offers the ability to
      develop individual and effective therapies. In this review, we present some major
      achievements in the neuroscience field using iPSCs and discuss promising
      perspectives in personalized medicine. In addition to disease modeling, the
      understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of neurological disorders is
      explored, including the discovery of new targets and potential drugs. Ultimately,
      we highlight how iPSC technology, together with genome editing approaches, may
      bring a deep impact on pre-clinical trials by reducing costs and increasing the
      success of treatments in a personalized fashion.

PMID- 28576416
TI  - Tools for Predicting Clinical and Patient-reported Outcomes in Prostate Cancer
      Patients Undergoing Androgen Deprivation Therapy: A Systematic Review of
      Prognostic Accuracy and Validity.
AB  - Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) can result in a range of adverse symptoms that
      reduce patients' quality of life. Careful patient counseling on the likely
      clinical outcomes and adverse effects is therefore vital. The present systematic
      review was undertaken to identify and characterize all the tools used for the
      prediction of clinical and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in patients
      with prostate cancer undergoing ADT. PubMed and EMBASE were systematically
      searched from 2007 to 2016. Search terms related to the inclusion criteria were:
      prostate cancer, clinical outcomes, PROMs, ADT, and prognosis. Titles and
      abstracts were reviewed to find relevant studies, which were advanced to full
      text review. The reference lists were screened for additional studies. The Centre
      for Evidence Based Medicine critical appraisal of prognostic studies tool was
      applied. The search strategy identified 8755 studies. Of the 8755 studies, 22 on
      clinical outcomes were identified. However, no studies of PROMs were found. Nine
      tools could be used to predict clinical outcomes in treatment-naive patients and
      10 in patients with recurrence. The Japan Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment
      (J-CAPRA) nomogram was the best performing and validated tool for the prediction
      of clinical outcomes in treatment-naive patients, and the Chi and Shamash
      prognostic indexes have been validated for use in patients with castration
      resistant disease in different clinical contexts. Using the J-CAPRA nomogram
      should help clinicians deliver accurate, evidence-based counseling to patients
      undergoing primary ADT. A strong need exists for primary studies that derive and
      validate tools for the prediction of PROMs in patients undergoing ADT under any
      circumstance because these are currently absent from the literature.

PMID- 28576417
TI  - Low concentrations of neutrophil extracellular traps induce proliferation in
      human keratinocytes via NF-kB activation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Granulocytes play a pivotal role in innate immune response, as
      pathogen invasion activates neutrophils, a subclass of granulocytes, inducing the
      production of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). In this study, it has been
      evaluated how NETs could affect human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) behaviour.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: HaCaT cells were treated with increasing NETs
      concentrations (0.01-200ng/ml) and the effect on cell proliferation was evaluated
      by MTT assay. Inhibition studies were performed by pre-treating cells with
      dexamethasone, chloropromazine or amiloride. NF-kB pathway activation was
      evaluated by western blot. RESULTS: HaCaT cells stimulation with increasing
      concentrations of NETs (0.01-50ng/ml) for 48h resulted in a modulation of cell
      proliferation with a maximum increase corresponding to 0.5-1ng/ml stimulation.
      NETs low concentrations not only increased cell proliferation, but were also able
      to induce a faster wound closure in an in vitro scratch assay. NETs scaffold,
      composed by histone proteins and DNA, is recognized by Toll Like Receptor 9 (TLR
      9) that, in turn, activates the NF-kB pathway. In fact, NETs induced
      proliferation was inhibited by chloropromazine (1nM), that blocks chlatrin
      vesicles formation, and by amiloride (50nM) that inhibits macropinocytosis.
      Moreover, dexamethasone, an inhibitor of NF-kB, was able to abolish the NETs
      effect. DISCUSSION: This study thus demonstrates that low NETs concentrations
      undergo internalization finally resulting in a quick NF-kB pathway activation and
      HaCaT cells proliferation increase, suggesting a close relationship between first
      immune response and wound healing onset.

PMID- 28576419
TI  - Crash risk analysis during fog conditions using real-time traffic data.
AB  - This research investigates the changes of traffic characteristics and crash risks
      during fog conditions. Using real-time traffic flow and weather data at two
      regions in Florida, the traffic patterns at the fog duration were compared to the
      traffic patterns at the clear duration. It was found that the average 5-min speed
      and the average 5-min volume were prone to decreasing during fog. Based on
      previous studies, a "Crash Risk Increase Indicator (CRII)" was proposed to
      explore the differences of crash risk between fog and clear conditions. A binary
      logistic regression model was applied to link the increase of crash risks with
      traffic flow characteristics. The results suggested that the proposed indicator
      worked well in evaluating the increase of crash risk under fog condition. It was
      indicated that the crash risk was prone to increase at ramp vicinities in fog
      conditions. Also, the average 5-min volume during fog and the lane position are
      important factors for crash risk increase. The differences between the regions
      were also explored in this study. The results indicated that the locations with
      heavier traffic or locations at the lanes that were closest to the median in
      Region 2 were more likely to observe an increase in crash risks in fog
      conditions. It is expected that the proposed indicator can help identify the
      dangerous traffic status under fog conditions and then proper ITS technologies
      can be implemented to enhance traffic safety when the visibility declines.

PMID- 28576418
TI  - A Methyl-Balanced Diet Prevents CRF-Induced Prenatal Stress-Triggered
      Predisposition to Binge Eating-like Phenotype.
AB  - Binge eating (BE) is a common aberrant form of eating behavior, characterized by
      overconsumption of food in a brief period of time. Recurrent episodes of BE
      constitute the BE disorder, which mostly affects females and is associated with
      early-life adversities. Here, we show that corticotropin releasing factor (CRF)
      induced prenatal stress (PNS) in late gestation predisposes female offspring to
      BE-like behavior that coincides with hypomethylation of hypothalamic miR-1a and
      downstream dysregulation of the melanocortin system through Pax7/Pax3. Moreover,
      exposing the offspring to a methyl-balanced diet during adolescence prevents the
      dysregulation and predisposition from being triggered. We demonstrate that
      gestational programming, per se, will not lead to BE-like behavior, but pre
      existing alterations due to prenatal programming are revealed only when
      challenged during adolescence. We provide experimental evidence for long-term
      epigenetic abnormalities stemming from PNS in predisposing female offspring to BE
      disorder as well as a potential non-invasive prevention strategy.

PMID- 28576420
TI  - Effects of dietary arachidonic acid on the reproductive physiology of female
      Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.).
AB  - The present study was designed to investigate potential effects of arachidonic
      acid (ARA) on the reproductive physiology of female Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua
      L.). Two-year old Atlantic cod of both sexes were equally distributed into eight
      sea cages after completion of their first spawning in May 2005. Four experimental
      groups were established and fed diets with different levels of ARA corresponding
      to 0.5, 1, 2 and 4% of total fatty acid. Ovarian growth and development was
      documented every month. Fatty acid composition was analysed in ovaries, liver and
      plasma at the beginning of the experiment, one month prior to spawning, and in
      spent fish, one month after spawning was completed. Plasma concentrations of
      estradiol-17beta, testosterone and vitellogenin, and ovarian gene transcript
      levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (star), P450aromatase (cyp19a1a)
      and 20beta-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase (20bhsd/cbr1) were monitored every month
      in fish fed the experimental diets and related to oocyte stage. Potential
      fecundity was calculated based on ovarian samples taken one month before onset of
      spawning. Ovarian and plasma ARA levels were highly correlated to dietary ARA
      levels. There was a net accumulation of ARA compared to other essential fatty
      acids in ovarian tissue that was reflected in a decrease in EPA:ARA ratio. Plasma
      concentrations of vitellogenin, estradiol-17beta and testosterone and key gene
      transcript levels were affected by dietary ARA and stage of maturation. The
      results show that ARA has a significant influence on the reproductive physiology
      of female Atlantic cod.

PMID- 28576421
TI  - [Impact of Gleason score on biochemical recurrence free survival after radical
      prostatectomy with positive surgical margins].
AB  - PURPOSE: Research of predictive factors of biochemical recurrence to guide the
      establishment of an adjuvant treatment after radical prostatectomy for cancer
      with positive surgical margins. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective cohort of 1577 afro
      caribbean patients undergoing radical prostatectomy operated between 1st January
      2000 and 1st July 2013 was analyzed. In this cohort, 406 patients had positive
      surgical margin, we excluded 11 patients who received adjuvant therapy
      (radiotherapy, hormonotherapy, radio-hormonotherapy) and 2 patients for whom
      histological analysis of the surgical specimen was for a pT4 pathological stage.
      After a descriptive analysis, we used a Cox model to look for predictors of
      survival without biochemical recurrence then, depending on the significant
      variables, we separated our population into six groups: stage pT2 with Gleason
      score<=3+4 (group 1), stage pT2 with a score of Gleason>=4+3 (group 2), stage
      pT3a with a Gleason core<=3+4 (group 3), pT3a stage with a score of Gleason>=4+3
      (group 4), stage pT3b with a Gleason score<=3+4 (group 5) and stage pT3b
      Gleason>=with a score of 4+3 (group 6) and compared survival without biochemical
      recurrence using a log rank test. After radical prostatectomy with surgical
      margins with an anatomopathological stage<=pT3b, a Gleason score>=4+3 had a
      pejorative survival without biochemical recurrence than pathological stage
      (P<0.001). RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, predictors of survival without
      biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy with positive surgical margins
      were the majority Gleason postoperative (P<0.0001), pathological stage (P=0.049)
      adjusted preoperative PSA (P=0.826), with the body mass index (BMI) (P=0.59) and
      tumor volume (P=0.95). CONCLUSION: A high postoperatively Gleason score (>=4+3)
      has a better predictive value of biochemical recurrence than pathological stage
      pT2 or pT3 at the patients having been treated for prostate cancer by radical
      prostatectomy with positive surgical margins. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28576422
TI  - A bicentric comparative and prospective study between classic photovaporization
      and anatomical GreenLight laser vaporization for large-volume prostatic adenomas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Long-term outcome after prostate photovaporization (PVP) remains
      largely unknown, especially when performed on enlarged prostates. However, new
      vaporisation techniques (e.g., laser enucleation) are increasingly used. Our aim
      was to compare postoperative results after standard PVP to those of an anatomical
      technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This bicentric prospective study included males
      treated for enlarged prostate caused by benign prostatic hyperplasia using a
      GreenLight laser. Patients were preoperatively assessed according to prostate
      volume, post-void residual volume (PVR), maximum urinary-flow rate (Qmax),
      prostatic specific antigens, and International prostate symptom score (IPSS).
      Peroperative data included vaporization time, energy delivered, and operative
      length. Postoperative data at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months were compared with initial
      data; all complications were recorded. Comparisons were made between the
      conventional vaporization technique versus anatomical vaporization, which
      initially differentiated the peripheral zone of the prostate using an enucleation
      technique but no morcellation. RESULTS: Records from 106 surgical patients
      between December 2012 and December 2013 were analyzed. Operative length,
      vaporisation time, and energy used were greater in the anatomical PVP group. The
      average length of hospital stay (2.0 vs. 2.5 days), time with a catheter (1.3 vs.
      1.9 days), IPSS (5.0 vs. 6.4), PVR (15.5 vs. 11.7mL), and Qmax (19.9 vs.
      19.7mL/s) were comparable between the two groups. However, more complications
      occurred (27% vs. 37%), including stress urinary incontinence (0% vs. 8%) when
      using anatomic vaporization. CONCLUSION: Despite comparable groups and similar
      functional results, anatomical PVP caused more stress incontinence. However, the
      learning curve between the two techniques may explain this difference. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28576423
TI  - [PET/CT and biochemical recurrence of prostate adenocarcinoma: Added value of
      68Ga-PSMA-11 when 18F-fluorocholine is non-contributive].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Since April 201, we have introduced PET/CT using a ligand of
      prostate-specific membrane antigen labeled with gallium-68 (PSMA-11). We aimed to
      evaluate its positivity rate and impact in patients presenting biochemical
      recurrence of prostate cancer whose 18F-fluorocholine (FCH) PET/CT was non
      contributive. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Patients were prospectively included between
      April and December 2016. PET/CT was performed 60min after injection of 2MBq/kg of
      body mass of 68Ga-PSMA-11. Three anatomical areas were considered: prostatic
      lodge, pelvic lymph nodes and distant locations. The impact of PSMA-11 PET/CT was
      assessed by comparing changes in therapeutic strategy decided during
      multidisciplinary meeting. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients were included. The mean
      PSA serum level measured on the month of the PSMA-11 PET/CT was 2,8ng/mL. Twenty
      five (76%) PSMA-11 PET/CT were positive, 7 (21%) negative and 1 (3%) equivocal.
      Of 11 patients whose FCH PET/CT showed equivocal foci, PSMA-11 PET/CT confirmed
      those foci in 5 cases. Follow-up was available for 18 patients (55%). PSMA-11
      PET/CT results led to a change in management in 12 patients (67%). CONCLUSION:
      68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT is useful in detecting recurrence of prostate cancer, by
      identifying residual disease which was not detected on other imaging modalities
      and by changing management of 2 patients out of 3. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5.

PMID- 28576424
TI  - [Salvage radical prostatectomy for recurrent prostate cancer. Morbidity,
      oncological and functional results].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Salvage radical prostatectomy (sRP) for radiorecurrent prostate
      cancer (PCa) is a challenging procedure. To report our experience with sRP for
      selected patients with local recurrence after primary treatment for localised
      PCa. METHODS: From 2005 to 2015, 24 patients underwent sRP for recurrent PCa in
      our center and were included in this retrospective study. Local recurrence was
      suspected by PSA increase>nadir+2ng/mL and was confirmed by biopsy. Perioperative
      complications according to Clavien-Dindo classification, oncological and
      functional results were analysed. RESULTS: Overall, 24 patients with a median age
      of 59 years (IQR: 55-60) were included. Median follow-up was 25 months (IQR: 9
      26). Procedures were performed with open-retropubic approach in 50 % and robot
      assisted laparoscopic approach in 50 %. Overall, 5 (21 %) and 2 (8 %) patients
      experienced grade<=IIIa and grade>=IIIb postoperative complication, respectively.
      Surgical margins were positive in 46 % of cases. Three out of 4 patients with
      postoperatively detectable PSA (>0.2ng/mL) had positive surgical margins. Seven
      patients experienced biochemical recurrence in a median delay of 19 months (9
      62). Seventy-one percent (5) of these patients experienced clinical recurrence in
      a median delay of 24 months (10-113). Severe urinary incontinence (>=3 pads/day)
      and erectile dysfunction were reported in 25 % and 63 %, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: sRP for patients is a feasible procedure with encouraging local
      control rate and acceptable morbidity. This technique should be discussed as a
      treatment option for locally recurrent PCa in well-selected patients. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28576426
TI  - [Impact of pharmaceutical interventions on antibiotic therapy of urinary tract
      infections in rehabilitation center].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of medico
      pharmaceutical partnership on the quality of antibiotic treatment in urinary
      tract infection (UTI) within rehabilitation center. MATERIAL: All antibiotic
      prescriptions were validated by the pharmacist at the start of treatment and
      twice a week. All patients with symptomatic urinary tract infection between
      January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015 were included in this study. Addition to
      awareness among specifiers to promoting the appropriate use of antibiotics, the
      pharmacist suggested pharmaceutical interventions (PI) in order to improve the
      quality of antibiotic treatments. At the same time, 3 quality indicators (QI)
      were followed: duration, dosage, antibiotic susceptibility. The compliance rates
      of this 3 QI allowed to assess the quality of the antibiotic treatment in urinary
      tract infection. RESULTS: The study population included 154 patients
      corresponding to 252 UTI. Sixty-eight PI were made by pharmacist about urinary
      tract infection treatment (overdosage or under-dosing, duration unknown,
      inadequate route of administration). These QI achieved 96.4% compliance with
      duration, 98.8% compliance with dosage and 99.2% with the antibiotic
      susceptibility. CONCLUSION: This study allowed showing the medico-pharmaceutical
      impact on the quality of antibiotic treatments in UTI. The awareness among
      specifiers with a daily validation of prescription by the pharmacist allowed to
      improve urinary tract infections care in rehabilitation center. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28576425
TI  - [Correlation of genetic and cytogenetic alterations in pathological
      aggressiveness urothelial carcinoma of the bladder: Performance of BCA-1, a mini
      array comparative genomic hybridisation-based test].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Urothelial carcinomas are the fourth leading cause of cancer in
      humans. Their incidence is increasing by more than 50% in 25 years. The
      superficial forms (70% cases) require a close active surveillance to identify
      frequent recurrences and progression to invasive stage. Our main goal was to
      identify prognostic molecular markers for bladder cancer that could be used alone
      or in combination in routine clinical practice. In this aim, we evaluated the
      capability of the BCA-oligo test based on a CGH array to correctly classify
      tumoral grade/stage. METHOD: Urinary DNA was extracted from 81 patients with
      superficial bladder cancer and has been hybridized on the BCA-oligo array. The
      results from the molecular analysis were correlated with the tumoral grade and
      stage. RESULTS: Several chromosomal alterations were significantly more frequent
      in tumors of higher grade and more advanced stage. A significant association was
      observed between a high grade and the presence of one of these alterations: loss
      on 6p, gain on 8q or 13q, loss or gain on 9q or 11q, with an odds ratio of 6.91
      (95% CI=2.20-21.64; P=0.0009). Moreover, a significant association was found
      between a more advanced stage (pT1) and the presence of one of these alterations:
      loss on 6p, gain on 8q, loss or gain on 5p, with an odds ratio of 15.2 (95%
      CI=3.71-62.58; P=0.0002). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that molecular analyses
      of superficial bladder cancers based on urinary DNA and the BCA-oligo test could
      be used as prognostic factor for the tumor evolution, allowing then a more
      adapted clinical management.

PMID- 28576427
TI  - [Food, diet and dietetic in treatment of urinary tract dysfunctions. A review].
AB  - : Overactive bladder symptoms (OAB) are frequent and can impact quality of life
      for these patients. Numerous and various treatments could be proposed in order to
      improve well-being and quality of life, but all these treatments have side
      effects and determine for many patients, important care constraints. We present
      here a review of food and diet in OAB. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Literature review
      from PubMed Medline database and Google scholar to August 2016, without time
      restriction. Two hundred and ninety-six articles were screened, in English and in
      French, and finally, 10 were retained. HAS recommandation have been used for
      level of evidence. RESULTS: On the 10 studies included, only two randomised
      controled trial were included. The first one showed decreases on urgency (by a
      half) (P=0.02) and on frequency (by a third) (P=0.035), secondary to reduction of
      caffeine consumption by a half after education [LE2]. The second randomized trial
      showed significant decreases on the first need to void in urodynamic study after
      caffeine consumption (170mL vs. 210mL) [LE2]. Feed like bread, chicken or
      nutrient like vitamin C or D were assessed in cohort or observational studies and
      appear as protective factors of OAB onset. Instead carbonated drinks may have a
      negative impact on symptoms, increasing urinary incontinence (OR 1.41 [95 % CI:
      1.02-1.95]) [LE2], and there are contradictory results for alcohol consumption.
      CONCLUSION: Diet seems to have an impact on overactive bladder syndrome and
      particularly caffeine consumption, which increases storage symptoms.

PMID- 28576428
TI  - Surgical management of corrosive-induced gastric injury in children: 10years'
      experience.
AB  - AIM: The purpose of this study was to report surgical management and outcome of
      corrosive-induced gastric injuries in children at our institute over the last
      decade. PATIENTS & METHOD: Medical records of patients admitted for corrosive
      induced gastric injury at the Pediatric Surgery Department of Ain Shams
      University between January 2007 and January 2017 were retrospectively reviewed.
      RESULTS: Twenty six cases (17 boys and 9 girls) were enrolled. Mean age was
      3.61+/-1.29. Ingested agent was acid in all the patients. Main presenting symptom
      was gastric output obstruction in 22 cases. The interval between corrosive
      ingestion and presentation ranged from one to 135days (mean=43.9+/-34). Surgical
      procedure included total gastrectomy (n=2), partial gastrectomy (n=2),
      augmentation gastroplasty (n=1), Billroth I (n=2), antrectomy (n=2), antroplasty
      (n=3), gastrojejunostomy (n=2), Heineke-Mikulicz pyloroplasty (n=9), Finney
      pyloroplasty (n=5), and feeding jejunostomy (n=4). Anastomotic stricture
      requiring a second operation developed in one patient. There were three
      mortalities related to the associated esophageal strictures. The mean follow-up
      period is 3.5years. All patients are free of symptoms and gained adequate weight.
      CONCLUSION: Surgery is the mainstay of management for corrosive-induced gastric
      injuries with good long-term results. Surgical procedure should be tailored
      according to the patient's general condition and extent of gastric injury. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: This is a case series with no comparison group (level IV).

PMID- 28576430
TI  - Gastric bypass surgery mimetic approaches.
AB  - Gastric bypass surgery is effectively a polypharmacological approach for
      treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
      The gastric bypass mimetic approaches reviewed are fixed-dose combinatorial
      pharmacological approaches. There are two key concepts incorporated into these
      gastric bypass surgery mimetic approaches. The first key concept is that the
      combination of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and fibroblast growth factor 21
      (FGF21) is essential for success of any gastric bypass surgery mimetic approach.
      This combination affords the potential for durable weight loss, glycemic control
      and reduction in liver lipids. The second key concept is that a fixed-dose
      combination approach is preferred over post-approval combination of the
      individual components because the individual components alone often lack
      sufficient efficacy for development.

PMID- 28576429
TI  - Population-level surgical outcomes for infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Determine national outcomes for pyloromyotomy; how these are affected
      by: (i) surgical approach (open/laparoscopic), or (ii) centre type/volume and
      establish potential benchmarks of quality. METHODS: Hospital Episode Statistics
      data were analysed for admissions 2002-2011. Data presented as median (IQR).
      RESULTS: 9686 infants underwent pyloromyotomy (83% male). Surgery was performed
      in 22 specialist (SpCen) and 39 nonspecialist centres (NonSpCen). The proportion
      treated in SpCen increased linearly by 0.4%/year (r=0.76, p=0.01). Annual case
      volume in SpCen vs. NonSpCen was 40 (24-53) vs. 1 (0-3). Time to surgery was
      shorter in SpCen (1day [1, 2] vs. 2 [1-3]), but total stay equal (4days [3-6]).
      137 (1.4%) had complications requiring reoperation (wound problem 0.6%; repeat
      pyloromyotomy 0.5% and perforation, bleeding or obstruction 0.2%): pooled rates
      were similar between SpCen and NonSpCen (1.4% vs. 1.6%, p=0.52). Three NonSpCen
      had >5% reoperations (within 99.8% C.I. as small denominators). There was no
      relationship between reoperation and centre volume. Laparoscopic pyloromyotomy
      had increased risk of repeat pyloromyotomy (OR 2.28 [1.14-4.57], p=0.029).
      CONCLUSIONS: Pyloric stenosis surgery shifted from centres local to patients, but
      outcomes were unaffected by centre type/volume. Modest reported benefits of
      laparoscopy appear offset by increased reoperations. Quality benchmarks could be
      set for reoperation <4%. TYPE OF STUDY: Treatment Study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level
      III.

PMID- 28576431
TI  - Corrigendum to "Persistent organic pollutants in juvenile Magellanic Penguins
      (Spheniscus magellanicus) in South America" [Chemosphere 149 (2016) 391-399].

PMID- 28576432
TI  - Anticeramide antibody and butyrylcholinesterase in peripheral neuropathies.
AB  - Ceramide is a glycosphingolipid, a component of nerve and non neuronal cell
      membrane and plays a role in maintaining the integrity of neuronal tissue.
      Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a multifunctional enzyme, its involvement in
      neurodegenerative diseases has been well established. Anticeramide antibody (Ab
      Cer) and enzyme BChE have been implicated in peripheral neuropathies. The present
      study investigates whether there is an association between Ab-Cer and BChE
      activities and peripheral neuropathies. Patients included: human immunodeficiency
      virus associated peripheral neuropathy (HIV-PN, n=39), paucibacillary leprosy (PB
      L, n=36), multibacillary leprosy (MB-L, n=52), diabetic neuropathy (DN, n=22),
      demyelinating sensory motor polyneuropathy (DSMN, n=13) and chronic inflammatory
      demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP, n=10). Plasma Ab-Cer was measured by indirect
      enzyme linked immune assay (ELISA) and BChE activity in plasma was measured by
      colorimetric method. Ab-Cer levels were significantly elevated in MB-L and DN as
      compared to healthy subjects (HS). BChE levels were significantly higher in MB-L
      and DN as well as in HIV and HIV-PN. There is no significant difference in either
      Ab-Cer or BChE levels in DSMN and CIDP. Elevated plasma Ab-Cer and BChE levels
      may be considered significant in the pathogenesis of neuropathies. The variation
      in concurrent involvement of both the molecules in the neuropathies of the study,
      suggest their unique involvement in neurodegenerative pathways.

PMID- 28576433
TI  - Postictal apnea as an important mechanism for SUDEP: A near-SUDEP with continuous
      EEG-ECG-EMG recording.
AB  - Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is one of the most frequent causes of
      death among patients with epilepsy. Most SUDEP or near-SUDEP are unwitnessed and
      not observed or recorded during video-EEG recording in epilepsy monitoring units.
      This report describes a young woman with post ictal apnea and generalized EEG
      suppression (PGES) after a secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizure (sGTCS).
      This was accompanied by bradycardia and then ventricular tachycardia (VT). But at
      the end of VT, the patient's breath recovered without any intervention, such as
      cardio-respiratory resuscitation. This case report with continuous EEG, EKG, EMG
      during near SUDEP may provide insights into the mechanism of action.

PMID- 28576434
TI  - [Molecular epidemiology and kinetics of early Escherichia coli urinary tract
      infections in kidney transplant recipients].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Escherichia coli strains causing Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) have
      a fecal origin. METHODS: A fecal sample was collected before Kidney
      Transplantation (KT) and concomitantly with urine at each of the 15 E. coli UTIs
      which occurred in 11 KT recipients. Unique E. coli strains were identified among
      25 isolates per feces and 5 isolates per urinary sample by random amplification
      of polymorphic DNA. Phylogenetic group (which is correlated to virulence in the
      E. coli species) was determined for each E. coli strain by a PCR based method.
      RESULTS: Forty-three unique fecal strains and 14 unique urinary strains were
      identified among 650 fecal isolates and 75 urinary isolates. Urinary strains
      frequently (55% of the cases) belonged to a phylogroup usually not linked to
      virulence. They were detected in the feces collected concomitantly in 60% of the
      cases. Urinary strains belonging to a phylogroup usually linked to virulence were
      more frequently dominant in the feces (100%) than urinary strains belonging to a
      non-pathogenic phylogroup (42%; P<0.05). Vesical catheter was a facilitating
      factor only for urinary strains belonging to non-pathogenic phylogroups. Thirty
      three percent of the fecal strains were persisting in two consecutive fecal
      samples and 62% were detected for the first time at the UTI. Numerous pathway
      lead to UTIs: from a unique, virulent and persisting strain to a non-virulent
      recently acquired strain facilitated by a vesical catheter. CONCLUSION: Our work
      shows the diversity of host-microbial interactions which precede extra-intestinal
      virulence.

PMID- 28576435
TI  - [Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis].
AB  - Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis is a rare but devastating complication of long
      term peritoneal dialysis with a high mortality rate. The incidence is between 0.5
      and 2.5%, decreasing with time. PSE is defined as a clinical syndrome with signs
      of gastrointestinal obstruction, inflammation parameters, radiological and
      macroscopic changes. The duration of treatment and the cessation of peritoneal
      dialysis are the main risks. About 75% occured in patients on hemodialysis or
      after kidney transplantation. Morphological alterations are disappearance of
      mesothelial layer, submesothelial fibrosis, interstitial sclerosis and
      vasculopathy. Ultrafiltration failure, fast transport status of the peritoneal
      membrane and loss of sodium sieving, the most powerful predictor, are the
      functional abnormalities. Biomarkers in peritoneal effluent include cancer
      antigen 125, interleukin-6. The pathophysiology is probably a consequence of a
      multiple-hit process in which expression of growth factors and cytokines play a
      central role. Medical strategies (corticosteroids, tamoxifen) in association with
      parenteral nutrition and/or surgery (enterolysis) are discussed. Prevention is
      the use of physiological peritoneal dialysis solutions, icodextrine instead of
      high glucose concentration solutions and peritoneal lavage after peritoneal
      dialysis stopping.

PMID- 28576436
TI  - CTA in acute stroke: short intensive training intervention is highly effective in
      improving radiologists' performance.
AB  - AIM: To determine whether focussed radiology training in reporting stroke
      computed tomography angiography (CTA) improved diagnostic performance of general
      radiology specialty trainees staffing regional on call rotas. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A validated case archive (VCA) consisting of 50 hyperacute stroke CTA
      cases was developed for a full day course on CTA interpretation. Training days
      were organised ensuring all local trainees had a chance to attend. The rate of
      major and minor amendments by neuroradiology consultants were reviewed in 252 on
      call radiology trainee reports. RESULTS: Before training, radiology trainees had
      a total discrepancy (reporting error) rate of 37%: 12% major, 25% minor.
      Following CTA training, the total discrepancy rate was not significantly reduced
      (34%) but there was a substantial reduction in major discrepancies to 4%
      (p=0.037; odds ratio=3.30, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08 to 10.12).
      CONCLUSION: An intensive training course based on a hyperacute stroke VCA
      significantly reduced major discrepancies in stroke CTA interpretation for
      radiology trainees. The ability of radiology trainees to recognise large vessel
      occlusions and other significant findings improved.

PMID- 28576437
TI  - Feasibility of high-pitch spiral dual-source CT angiography in children with
      complex congenital heart disease compared to retrospective-gated spiral
      acquisition.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the use of second-generation dual-source high-pitch computed
      tomography in obtaining confident diagnostic image quality using a low radiation
      dose in young patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: From July 2014 to June 2016, 50 consecutive children <4 years with
      complex CHD underwent electrocardiography (ECG)-triggered dual-source computed
      tomography (CT). The patients were assigned randomly to two groups: high-pitch
      (pitch 3.4) spiral dual-source CT acquisition (group A) and retrospectively
      spiral dual-source CT acquisition (group B). The image quality, diagnostic
      accuracy, coronary artery origin, course demonstration, and radiation exposure
      were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Fifty examinations were performed
      (group A, 25; group B, 25). There were no significant differences in image
      quality, diagnostic accuracy, coronary artery origin, and course demonstration
      between the two groups. The image quality scores were 1.3+/-0.4 in group A and
      1.1+/-0.3 in group B (p=0.2). The diagnostic accuracy was 100% in both groups.
      The coronary arteries were traceable in 80% in group A and 84% in group B
      (p=0.7). A single coronary artery was identified in one case in group A and the
      left anterior descending (LAD) branch originated from the right coronary artery
      (RCA) in one case in group B. There were significant differences in the effective
      doses between the two groups (0.40+/-0.20 mSv in group A and 2.7+/-1.0 mSv in
      group B, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Intra-cardiac and extra-cardiac malformation,
      coronary artery origin, and course malformation can be visualised clearly using a
      high-pitch ECG-triggered dual-source CT with a low radiation dose and good image
      quality in patients with CHD.

PMID- 28576438
TI  - Increase of allosensitization after a kidney graft failure: Predictors and effect
      on retransplantation outcomes.
AB  - Patients who are candidates for a second kidney transplant (SKT) frequently have
      a higher level of panel reactive antibodies (PRA). We assessed the
      allosensitisation change after a first graft failure (GF), its predictors and
      impact on retransplantat outcomes. We retrospectively selected 140 adult patients
      who received a SKT. Recipient and donor characteristics were analyzed. We defined
      the delta PRA (dPRA) as the difference between peak PRA before the SKT and first
      one (cohort median value=+10%). Logistic regression analysis was used to
      determine risk factors for dPRA>=10% and acute rejection (AR) in the SKT.
      Univariable and multivariable Cox analysis was applied to assess independent
      predictors of second GF. Risk factors for dPRA>=10% at SKT were AR (OR=2.57;
      P=0.022), first graft survival <1 year (OR=2.47; P=0.030) and ABDR HLA mismatch
      (OR=1.38 per each mismatch; P=0.038). AR in the SKT was associated with dPRA>=10%
      (OR=2.79; P=0.047). Induction with a lymphocyte-depleting agent had a protective
      effect (OR=0.23; P=0.010). SKT survival was lower (P=0.008) in patients with a
      dPRA>=10% (75.6%, 60.5% in dPRA>=10%; 88.6%, 88.6% in dPRA<10% patients at 5 and
      10 years, post-transplant respectively). Multivariable Cox regression showed that
      dPRA>=10% (HR=2.38, P=0.042), delayed graft function (HR=2.82, P=0.006) and AR
      (HR=3.30, P=0.001) in the SKT were independent predictors of retransplant
      failure. This study shows that an increased allosensitisation at retransplant was
      associated with the degree of HLA mismatch and led to poorer outcomes. De
      emphasis of HLA matching in current allocation policies may be undesirable,
      particularly in patients with a higher chance of needing a SKT.

PMID- 28576439
TI  - Serum ICAM-1 level and ICAM-1 gene 1462A>G (K469E) polimorphism on
      microalbuminuria in nondiabetic, nonhypertensive and normolipidemic obese
      patients: Genetical background of microalbuminuria in obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence suggest that obese individuals are under
      risk of renal parenchymal disorders when compared to nonobese counterparts.
      Microalbuminuria is the early marker of renal involvement. Although most of obese
      patients carries multiple risk factors for microalbuminuria, some obese
      individuals without risk factor may progress to microalbuminuria. The present
      study was performed to examine the role of ICAM-1 gene 1462A>G (K469E)
      polymorphism on microalbuminuria in obese subjects without diabetes mellitus,
      hypertension, hiperlipidemia and older age. METHODS: Ninety eight obese and 96
      nonobese individuals without a comorbidity enrolled into the study. Serum ICAM-1
      level was measured by enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) method. ICAM-1
      gene 1462A>G (K469E) polymorphism was examined by restriction fragment length
      polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction (RFLP-PCR). Nepholometric method was used
      to examine urinary albumin loss, and microalbuminuria was measured by albumin to
      creatinine ratio. RESULTS: Obese individuals had significantly higher
      microalbuminuria and proteinuria level compared to nonobese subjects (p: 0.043
      and p: 0.011; respectively). GG genotype of ICAM-1 carriers have significantly
      higher microalbuminuria compared to individuals with AA or AG genotype carriers
      (p: 0.042). Serum ICAM-1 level was significantly correlated with creatinine and
      microalbuminuria (p: 0.002 and p: 0.03; respectively). Logistic regression
      analysis indicated a 7.39 fold increased risk of microalbuminuria in individuals
      with GG genotype of ICAM-1 gene 1462A>G (K469E) polymorphism. CONCLUSIONS: GG
      genotype of ICAM-1 gene K469E polymorphism is associated with increased
      microalbuminuria in obese individuals without another metabolic risk factor.

PMID- 28576441
TI  - SPN Position Statement: Transition of Pediatric Patients Into Adult Care.

PMID- 28576440
TI  - Photometric assay of maltose and maltose-forming enzyme activity by using 4-alpha
      glucanotransferase (DPE2) from higher plants.
AB  - Maltose frequently occurs as intermediate of the central carbon metabolism of
      prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Various mutants possess elevated maltose
      levels. Maltose exists as two anomers, (alpha- and beta-form) which are rapidly
      interconverted without requiring enzyme-mediated catalysis. As maltose is often
      abundant together with other oligoglucans, selective quantification is essential.
      In this communication, we present a photometric maltose assay using 4-alpha
      glucanotransferase (AtDPE2) from Arabidopsis thaliana. Under in vitro conditions,
      AtDPE2 utilizes maltose as glucosyl donor and glycogen as acceptor releasing the
      other hexosyl unit as free glucose which is photometrically quantified following
      enzymatic phosphorylation and oxidation. Under the conditions used, DPE2 does not
      noticeably react with other di- or oligosaccharides. Selectivity compares
      favorably with that of maltase frequently used in maltose assays. Reducing end
      interconversion of the two maltose anomers is in rapid equilibrium and,
      therefore, the novel assay measures total maltose contents. Furthermore, an
      AtDPE2-based continuous photometric assay is presented which allows to quantify
      beta-amylase activity and was found to be superior to a conventional test.
      Finally, the AtDPE2-based maltose assay was used to quantify leaf maltose
      contents of both Arabidopsis wild type and AtDPE2-deficient plants throughout the
      light-dark cycle. These data are presented together with assimilatory starch
      levels.

PMID- 28576442
TI  - Comparative study of thylakoid membranes in terminal heterocysts and vegetative
      cells from two cyanobacteria, Rivularia M-261 and Anabaena variabilis, by
      fluorescence and absorption spectral microscopy.
AB  - Heterocyst is a nitrogen-fixing cell differentiated from a cell for oxygen
      evolving photosynthesis (vegetative cell) in some filamentous cyanobacteria when
      fixed nitrogen (e.g., ammonia and nitrate) is limited. Heterocysts appear at
      multiple separated positions in a single filament with an interval of 10-20 cells
      in some genera (including Anabaena variabilis). In other genera, a single
      heterocyst appears only at the basal terminal in a filament (including Rivularia
      M-261). Such morphological diversity may necessitate different properties of
      heterocysts. However, possible differences in heterocysts have largely remained
      unexplored due to the minority of heterocysts among major vegetative cells. Here,
      we have applied spectroscopic microscopy to Rivularia and A. variabilis to
      analyze their thylakoid membranes in individual cells. Absorption and
      fluorescence spectral imaging enabled us to estimate concentrations and
      interconnections of key photosynthetic components like photosystem I (PSI),
      photosystem II (PSII) and subunits of light-harvesting phycobilisome including
      phycocyanin (PC). The concentration of PC in heterocysts of Rivularia is far
      higher than that of A. variabilis. Fluorescence quantum yield of PC in Rivularia
      heterocysts was found to be virtually the same as those in its vegetative cells,
      while fluorescence quantum yield of PC in A. variabilis heterocysts was enhanced
      in comparison with its vegetative cells. PSI concentration in the thylakoid
      membranes of heterocysts seems to remain nearly the same as those of the
      vegetative cells in both the species. The average stoichiometric ratio between
      PSI monomer and PC hexamer in Rivularia heterocysts is estimated to be about 1:1.

PMID- 28576443
TI  - A Multicenter, Open-Label, Phase 1b Study of Carfilzomib, Cyclophosphamide, and
      Dexamethasone in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Patients (CHAMPION-2).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This phase 1b study evaluated the safety and efficacy of 3 dose
      levels of carfilzomib when provided with fixed dose oral cyclophosphamide and
      dexamethasone (KCyd) in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: CHAMPION-2 was a multicenter single-arm study. Patients
      with newly diagnosed secretory MM were enrolled and received KCyd treatment for
      up to 8 cycles. A 3 + 3 dose escalation scheme was used to evaluate twice-weekly
      carfilzomib at 36, 45, and 56 mg/m2 dose levels, followed by a dose expansion.
      RESULTS: No dose-limiting toxicities were observed in any of the dose evaluation
      cohorts. The KCyd regimen that included the maximum planned carfilzomib dose of
      56 mg/m2 twice weekly was brought forward into dose expansion. A total of 16
      patients were treated at this dose level. At 56 mg/m2 the overall response rate
      was 87.5% (95% confidence interval, 61.7-98.4), and the median time to response
      of 14 patients whose disease responded to therapy was 1 month. At this dose
      level, common adverse events of grade 3 or higher were anemia (25.0%),
      neutropenia (18.8%), acute kidney injury (12.5%), and decreased white blood cell
      count (12.5%). Ten of 16 patients who received carfilzomib at 56 mg/m2 completed
      all 8 cycles, 5 patients discontinued study therapy before cycle 8 as a result of
      adverse events, and 1 patient discontinued therapy as a result of progressive
      disease. CONCLUSION: Carfilzomib in combination with cyclophosphamide and
      dexamethasone is effective and has manageable toxicity for patients with newly
      diagnosed MM.

PMID- 28576444
TI  - Alterations in physique among young children after the Great East Japan
      Earthquake: Results from a nationwide survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data for earthquake-related alterations in physique among young
      children in developed countries is lacking. The Great East Japan Earthquake
      caused severe damage in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures in northeastern
      Japan. METHODS: We retrospectively obtained anthropometric measurements in
      nursery school from 40,046 (cohort 1, historical control) and 53,492 (cohort 2)
      children aged 3.5-4.5 years without overweight in October 2008, and in October
      2010, respectively. At the time of the earthquake in March, 2011, children in
      cohort 1 had already graduated from nursery school; however, children in cohort 2
      were still enrolled in nursery school at this time. We compared the onset of
      overweight at 1 year after the baseline between children enrolled in their school
      located in one of the three target prefectures versus those in other prefectures
      using a logistic regression model, with adjustment for sex, age, history of
      disease, and obesity index at baseline. Overweight was defined as an obesity
      index of >+15%, which was calculated as (weight minus sex- and height-specific
      standard weight)/sex- and height-specific standard weight. RESULTS: The odds
      ratio (OR) for the onset of overweight in the three target prefectures was
      significant in cohort 2 (OR 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.55) but
      not in cohort 1. When the two cohort were pooled (n = 93,538), the OR of the
      interaction term for school location * cohort was significant (OR 1.56; 95% CI,
      1.09-2.23). CONCLUSIONS: Incident overweight in young children was significantly
      more common in the three prefectures affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake
      than in other prefectures after the disaster.

PMID- 28576445
TI  - Interactions between inflammatory gene polymorphisms and HTLV-I infection for
      total death, incidence of cancer, and atherosclerosis-related diseases among the
      Japanese population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An increased risk of total death owing to human T-lymphotropic virus
      type-I (HTLV-I) infection has been reported. However, its etiology and protective
      factors are unclear. Various studies reported fluctuations in immune-inflammatory
      status among HTLV-I carriers. We conducted a matched cohort study among the
      general population in an HTLV-I-endemic region of Japan to investigate the
      interaction between inflammatory gene polymorphisms and HTLV-I infection for
      total death, incidence of cancer, and atherosclerosis-related diseases. METHOD:
      We selected 2180 sub-cohort subjects aged 35-69 years from the cohort population,
      after matching for age, sex, and region with HTLV-I seropositives. They were
      followed up for a maximum of 10 years. Inflammatory gene polymorphisms were
      selected from TNF-alpha, IL-10, and NF-kappaB1. A Cox proportional hazard model
      was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and the interaction between gene
      polymorphisms and HTLV-I for risk of total death and incidence of cancer and
      atherosclerosis-related diseases. RESULTS: HTLV-I seropositivity rate was 6.4% in
      the cohort population. The interaction between TNF-alpha 1031T/C and HTLV-I for
      atherosclerosis-related disease incidence was statistically significant (p =
      0.020). No significant interaction was observed between IL-10 819T/C or NF
      kappaB1 94ATTG ins/del and HTLV-I. An increased HR for total death was observed
      in the Amami island region, after adjustment of various factors with gene
      polymorphisms (HR 3.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-7.77). CONCLUSION: The
      present study found the interaction between TNF-alpha 1031T/C and HTLV-I to be a
      risk factor for atherosclerosis-related disease. Further follow-up is warranted
      to investigate protective factors against developing diseases among susceptible
      HTLV-I carriers.

PMID- 28576446
TI  - Prenatal and childhood exposure to phthalate diesters and sex steroid hormones in
      2-, 5-, 8-, and 11-year-old children: A pilot study of the Taiwan Maternal and
      Infant Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phthalate diesters are commonly used and have been well established
      as environmental endocrine disruptors. However, few studies have examined their
      effects on sex steroid hormones in children. We followed children over time to
      examine the association between pre- and post-natal phthalate exposure and sex
      steroid hormone levels at 2, 5, 8, and 11 years of age. METHODS: We recruited 430
      pregnant women from central Taiwan from 2000 to 2001 and assessed their children
      at birth, 2, 5, 8, and 11 years of age. We studies children with at least one
      measurement for both phthalate and hormone levels during each any of the follow
      up time point (n = 193). Estradiol, free testosterone, testosterone, and
      progesterone were measured from venous blood. Three monoesters of di-2-ethylhexyl
      phthalate (DEHP), mono-benzyl phthalate, mono-n-butyl phthalate, mono-ethyl
      phthalate, and mono-methyl phthalate were measured in maternal urine collected
      during the 3rd trimester and child urine collected at each follow-up point. The
      sum of mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (?MEHP) was calculated by summing the
      concentrations of the three DEHP monoesters. Generalized estimating equation
      regression analysis with repeated measures was used to estimate associations
      between phthalate metabolites and hormone levels. RESULTS: After adjustment for
      potential confounders, maternal ?MEHP level was associated with decreased levels
      of progesterone in girls (beta = -0.309 p = 0.001). The child ?MEHP concentration
      was associated with decreased levels of progesterone for girls (beta = -0.194, p
      = 0.003) and with decreased levels of free testosterone for boys (beta = -0.124,
      p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Early-life DEHP exposure may alter sex steroid hormones
      of children over time, which may pose potential reproductive health risks.

PMID- 28576447
TI  - Relationship between nutrition knowledge and dietary intake among primary school
      children in Japan: Combined effect of children's and their guardians' knowledge.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improving the dietary habits of children is important to decrease the
      future burden of noncommunicable diseases. While various food education programs
      have been implemented worldwide, evaluation of nutrition knowledge is difficult,
      even at baseline. Further, the relationship between nutrition knowledge and
      dietary intake has not been clarified in non-western countries. METHODS: After
      developing nutrition knowledge questionnaires for Japanese primary school
      children and adults, we examined whether higher nutrition knowledge of children
      and their guardians was associated with better dietary intake in children. A
      total of 1210 children in four public primary schools and 319 guardians were
      included in this cross-sectional study. RESULTS: Nutrition knowledge
      questionnaires were developed for children in lower and higher grades and adults.
      Higher nutrition knowledge of the children was significantly associated with
      higher vegetable intake (p for trend = 0.024 for boys and <0.0001 for girls in
      lower grades, <0.0001 for boys and 0.020 for girls in higher grades). Higher
      nutrition knowledge of the guardians was also associated with higher vegetable
      intake, except for boys in higher grades. The relationship between guardians'
      nutrition knowledge and intake of staple foods and fruits in children differed by
      children's sex. CONCLUSIONS: We developed nutrition knowledge questionnaires for
      Japanese children and adults and identified a relationship between higher
      nutrition knowledge and healthier dietary habits. The child's own nutrition
      knowledge of dietary intake might be as important as that of the guardian for
      some foods. Sex differences in the effect of nutrition knowledge should receive
      greater attention in food education.

PMID- 28576448
TI  - Stepwise characterization of non-synonymous mutations in the HSV-1 thymidine
      kinase gene by different functional assays.
AB  - Twenty amino acid substitutions in the thymidine kinase (TK) of clinical herpes
      simplex virus type 1 strains were assessed for conferring acyclovir (ACV)
      resistance. Site-directed mutagenesis, cell-free protein synthesis and protein
      expression in Escherichia coli were performed to obtain recombinant TK proteins,
      which were authenticated by Western blotting. A modified enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out to determine the phosphorylation
      activity of the mutants towards 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU). The activity
      against ACV and deoxythymidine (dT) was analyzed by high performance liquid
      chromatography/ultraviolet spectroscopy (HPLC/UV) following incubation of
      recombinant TK with ACV and dT. Using ELISA, seven substitutions (G61E, A93V,
      M121K, R163G, P173del, V238F, G264V) showing negative activity could be
      classified likely as resistance-related, eleven (Q15K, R20C, R32H, E43A, E43D,
      R89H, A156V, P269S, G271V, S276N, I326V) with high activity as natural
      polymorphisms, and two (N244H and N376stop) with low phosphorylation activity.
      Since the N244H protein did not show any activity towards ACV, but activity
      towards dT using HPLC/UV, it was classified as TK with altered substrate
      specificity. In conclusion, the ELISA determining activity towards BrdU is
      suitable for the characterization of substitutions regarding their significance
      for resistance. Ambiguous results can be re-assessed by HPLC/UV, which classifies
      TK with altered substrate specificity.

PMID- 28576449
TI  - Evaluation of the COBAS(r) AmpliPrep/COBAS(r) TaqMan(r) HCV Test v2.0 for HCV
      viral load monitoring using dried blood spot specimens.
AB  - This study evaluated the use of dried blood spot (DBS) for HCV viral load
      quantification using the COBAS(r) AmpliPrep/COBAS(r) Taqman(r) HCV Quantitative
      Test v2.0 (CAP/CTM HCV v2), and compared two different procedures for preparation
      of DBS samples with a Specimen Pre-Extraction (SPEX) reagent (either heated [SPEX
      with SH] for 10min at 56 degrees C on a thermomixer, or incubated for 1h at room
      temperature [SPEX at RT]) against the standard plasma input. Whole blood
      specimens from 48 patients with chronic HCV infection and Whatman(r) 903 Protein
      Saver Cards were used to prepare 35MUL DBS. An aliquot of plasma was spun and
      frozen from each draw. Mean DBS viral load results were compared to the
      corresponding results from plasma. Correlation between DBS to plasma was linear
      for both SPEX with SH (R2=0.96) and SPEX at RT (R2=0.97) procedures, with a
      constant negative offset of approximately 2.0log10IU/mL between whole blood DBS
      without any adjustments and plasma results. After volume corrections, the mean
      offset to plasma decreased to -0.39 and -0.36 for the two procedures,
      respectively. The study demonstrated the use of DBS for HCV viral load correlates
      well with plasma with a constant offset.

PMID- 28576450
TI  - Opioid-induced constipation: reflections on efficacy assessment.

PMID- 28576451
TI  - Elbasvir plus grazoprevir in patients with hepatitis C virus infection and stage
      4-5 chronic kidney disease: clinical, virological, and health-related quality-of
      life outcomes from a phase 3, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the C-SURFER study, therapy with the all-oral elbasvir plus
      grazoprevir regimen for 12 weeks in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      infection and stage 4-5 chronic kidney disease resulted in a high rate of
      virological cure compared with placebo. Here, we report sustained virological
      response (SVR), safety data, health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL), and
      virological resistance analyses in patients in C-SURFER who received immediate
      antiviral therapy or who received placebo before therapy. METHODS: In this phase
      3, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled study, we randomly assigned adults
      with HCV genotype 1 infection and stage 4-5 chronic kidney disease enrolled at 68
      centres worldwide to either elbasvir 50 mg plus grazoprevir 100 mg once per day
      for 12 weeks (immediate treatment group) or placebo for 12 weeks followed by
      elbasvir 50 mg plus grazoprevir 100 mg once per day for 12 weeks beginning at
      week 16 (deferred treatment group). The primary safety and efficacy endpoints for
      the immediate treatment group and placebo phase of the deferred treatment group
      have been reported previously. Here, we report safety and efficacy data for the
      treatment phase of the deferred treatment group, as well as HRQOL assessed using
      the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey for all groups, and baseline and treatment
      emergent resistance-associated substitutions (RASs). SVR at 12 weeks (SVR12) was
      assessed in the modified full analysis set (FAS), defined as all patients
      excluding those who did not receive at least one dose of study drug, who died, or
      who discontinued the study before the end of treatment for reasons determined to
      be unrelated to HCV treatment. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov,
      Number NCT02092350. FINDINGS: Between March 30 and Nov 28, 2014, 235 patients
      were enrolled and received at least one dose of study drug. The modified FAS
      included 116 patients assigned to immediate treatment and 99 assigned to deferred
      treatment. 115 (99.1%; 95% CI 95.3-100.0) of 116 assigned to immediate treatment
      achieved SVR12 compared with 97 (98.0%; 92.9-99.7) of 99 assigned to deferred
      treatment. In patients with genotype 1a infections, SVR12 was achieved by 11
      (84.6%) of 13 patients with detectable baseline NS5A RASs and in 98 (100%) of 98
      without. HRQOL did not differ at week 12 between immediate treatment and the
      placebo phase of deferred treatment. Safety was generally similar between
      patients receiving immediate treatment and those receiving placebo in the
      deferred treatment group. One serious adverse event during deferred treatment
      (interstitial nephritis) and one during the placebo phase of deferred treatment
      (raised lipase concentration) were deemed related to study drug. Four patients
      died, one who received immediate treatment (cardiac arrest) and three who
      received deferred treatment (aortic aneurysm, pneumonia, and unknown cause); all
      four deaths were considered unrelated to study drugs. Of the three deaths in the
      deferred treatment group, one occurred during placebo treatment and two occurred
      before starting active treatment. There were no notable differences in
      aminotransferase elevations in the deferred treatment group compared with the
      immediate treatment group, and no patients in the deferred treatment group had
      total bilirubin elevations. INTERPRETATION: These data add to the growing body of
      clinical evidence for the fixed-dose combination regimen of elbasvir plus
      grazoprevir for 12 weeks and support use of this therapy in patients with HCV
      genotype 1 infection and stage 4-5 chronic kidney disease. FUNDING: Merck Sharp &
      Dohme.

PMID- 28576453
TI  - Epidemiology of infections and antimicrobial use in Australian haemodialysis
      outpatients: findings from a Victorian surveillance network, 2008-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic renal failure who require haemodialysis are at
      high risk for infections. AIM: To determine the burden of bloodstream and local
      access-related infections and the prescribing patterns for intravenous
      antibiotics in Australian haemodialysis outpatients. METHODS: A surveillance
      network was established following stakeholder consultation, with voluntary
      participation by haemodialysis centres and data collation by the Victorian
      Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance System Coordinating Centre.
      Definitions for infection and intravenous antimicrobial starts were based upon
      methods employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Longitudinal
      mixed-effects Poisson regression was used to model time-trends for the period
      2008-2015. FINDINGS: Forty-eight of 78 Victorian dialysis centres participated in
      the network, with 3449 events reported over 78,826 patient-months. Rates of
      bloodstream infection, local infection and intravenous antimicrobial starts were
      much higher for patients with tunnelled central lines (2.60, 1.41, and 3.37 per
      100 patient-months, respectively), compared to those with arteriovenous fistulae
      (0.27, 0.23, and 0.73 per 100 patient-months, respectively) and arteriovenous
      grafts (0.76, 1.08, 1.50 per 100 patient-months, respectively). Staphylococcus
      aureus was the most frequent pathogen, with meticillin-resistant isolates (MRSA)
      responsible for 14.0%. Access-related infections diminished significantly across
      all vascular-access modalities over time. Vancomycin contributed nearly half of
      all antimicrobial starts consistently throughout the study period. CONCLUSION:
      Risk for bloodstream and local access-related infections is highest in Australian
      haemodialysis patients with tunnelled central lines. S. aureus is the most
      frequent cause of infection, with a low incidence of MRSA. Future programmes
      should evaluate infection prevention practices and appropriateness of antibiotic
      prescribing in this population.

PMID- 28576452
TI  - Naldemedine versus placebo for opioid-induced constipation (COMPOSE-1 and COMPOSE
      2): two multicentre, phase 3, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid-induced constipation is a frequent side-effect of opioid
      treatment, and standard interventions have limited or inconsistent efficacy. This
      study assessed the efficacy and safety of naldemedine, a peripherally acting MU
      opioid receptor antagonist, for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in
      patients with chronic non-cancer pain. METHODS: We report two double-blind,
      randomised, placebo-controlled trials in adults with chronic non-cancer pain and
      opioid-induced constipation. The first (COMPOSE-1) was done in 68 outpatient
      sites in seven countries and the second (COMPOSE-2) at 69 outpatient sites in six
      countries; both studies were done in Europe and the USA. Eligible patients were
      aged 18-80 years, did not use laxatives, and had a stable opioid regimen for
      treatment of chronic non-cancer pain with a total daily dose averaging at least
      30 mg (morphine equivalent) for at least 1 month before screening. Patients were
      randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either oral naldemedine 0.2 mg or matching
      placebo once a day for 12 weeks. Randomisation was stratified by average total
      daily opioid dose (30-100 mg and >100 mg equivalents of oral morphine sulphate).
      The primary endpoint was proportion of responders. A responder had at least three
      spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs) per week with an increase from baseline of at
      least one SBM per week for at least 9 weeks of the 12-week treatment period
      including at least three of the last 4 weeks. Efficacy endpoints were analysed by
      intention to treat and the safety population included all patients who received
      at least one dose of study drug. These trials have both been completed and are
      registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, numbers NCT01965158 and NCT01993940.
      FINDINGS: In COMPOSE-1, 547 patients were recruited between Aug 29, 2013, and Jan
      22, 2015, and were randomly assigned to receive naldemedine (n=274) or placebo
      (n=273). Patients for COMPOSE-2 were recruited between Nov 4, 2013, and June 9,
      2015; 553 patients were randomly assigned to receive naldemedine (n=277) or
      placebo (n=276). Five patients were enrolled at more than one site, so were
      excluded from the intention-to-treat population (COMPOSE-1: one per group;
      COMPOSE-2: one in the naldemedine group, two from the placebo group), with
      intention-to-treat group sizes of 273 in the naldemedine group and 272 in the
      placebo group in COMPOSE-1, and 276 in the naldemedine group and 274 in the
      placebo group in COMPOSE-2. The proportion of responders in both trials was
      significantly higher with naldemedine than with placebo in COMPOSE-1 (130
      responders [47.6%] of 273 in the naldemedine group vs 94 responders [34.6%] of
      272 in the placebo group, difference 13.0% [95% CI 4.8-21.3]; p=0.002) and in
      COMPOSE-2 (145 [52.5%] of 276 vs 92 [33.6%] of 274, difference 18.9% [10.8-27.0];
      p<0.0001). Incidence of adverse events with naldemedine was similar to placebo
      (COMPOSE-1: 132 [49%] of 271 in the naldemedine group vs 123 [45%] of 272 in the
      placebo group; COMPOSE-2: 136 [50%] of 271 vs 132 [48%] of 274). Treatment
      related adverse events were noted in 59 (22%) of 271 patients in the naldemedine
      group and 45 (17%) of 272 in the placebo group in COMOPOSE-1, and in 54 (20%) of
      271 patients in the naldemedine group and 31 (11%) of 274 in the placebo group of
      COMPOSE-2; the between-group differences were largely due to gastrointestinal
      disorders, which were more common with naldemedine than placebo (COMPOSE-1: 40
      [15%] patients in the naldemedine group vs 18 [7%] in the placebo group; COMPOSE
      2: 42 [16%] vs 20 [7%]). INTERPRETATION: Naldemedine treatment led to a
      significantly higher responder rate than did placebo and was generally well
      tolerated. These results support that naldemedine could be a new option for the
      treatment of opioid-induced constipation in patients with chronic non-cancer
      pain. FUNDING: Shionogi & Co, Ltd.

PMID- 28576454
TI  - Hospital effect on infections after four major surgical procedures: outlier and
      volume-outcome analysis using all-inclusive state data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital volume is known to have a direct impact on the outcomes of
      major surgical procedures. However, it is unclear if the evidence applies
      specifically to surgical site infections. AIMS: To determine if there are
      procedure-specific hospital outliers [with higher surgical site infection rates
      (SSIRs)] for four major surgical procedures, and to examine if hospital volume is
      associated with SSIRs in the context of outlier performance in New South Wales
      (NSW), Australia. METHODS: Adults who underwent one of four surgical procedures
      (colorectal, joint replacement, spinal and cardiac procedures) at a NSW
      healthcare facility between 2002 and 2013 were included. The hospital volume for
      each of the four surgical procedures was categorized into tertiles (low, medium
      and high). Multi-variable logistic regression models were built to estimate the
      expected SSIR for each procedure. The expected SSIRs were used to compute
      indirect standardized SSIRs which were then plotted in funnel plots to identify
      hospital outliers. FINDINGS: One hospital was identified to be an overall outlier
      (higher SSIRs for three of the four procedures performed in its facilities),
      whereas two hospitals were outliers for one specific procedure throughout the
      entire study period. Low-volume facilities performed the best for colorectal
      surgery and worst for joint replacement and cardiac surgery. One high-volume
      facility was an outlier for spinal surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical site infections
      seem to be mainly a procedure-specific, as opposed to a hospital-specific,
      phenomenon in NSW. The association between hospital volume and SSIRs differs for
      different surgical procedures.

PMID- 28576455
TI  - Efficacy of the SENSIMED Triggerfish(r) in the postoperative follow-up of PHACO
      ExPRESS combined surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the usefulness of the SENSIMED Triggerfish(r) system in
      the postoperative control of combined phacoemulsification and ExPRESS implant
      (PHACO-ExPRESS) surgery in patients with cataract and chronic open angle glaucoma
      (COAG) during a 2 months follow-up. METHODS: A prospective study conducted on 15
      eyes that were subjected to PHACO-ExPRESS combined surgery. Using the SENSIMED
      Triggerfish(r) system, two records of the circadian patterns of intraocular
      pressure (IOP) were performed, one before and one after surgery. A record was
      made of the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), comorbidities, previous IOP, and
      7-30-60 days after surgery, as well as any hypotensive drugs and complications.
      RESULTS: The final sample was 12 eyes. The mean pre-operative BCVA (log MAR
      chart) before surgery was 0.5+/-0.2, and after surgery 0.14+/-0.1 (P=.02). The
      previous IOP was 18.7+/-3.8mmHg with 2.9+/-0.7 drugs. The mean IOP at 7, 30, and
      60 days after surgery decreased to 13+/-4.1mmHg (P=.002), 13.5+/-2mmHg (P=.001),
      and 13.9+/-2.5mmHg (P=.001), respectively. The amplitudes of the circadian curves
      changed significantly after surgery (P=.007). The mean values between daytime and
      night-time periods decreased significantly from 146.8+/-80.9 mVeq and 61.2+/
      92.mVeq before surgery to 36.4+/-36 mVeq (P=.000), and -23,2+/-47.6mVeq (P=.014)
      after surgery, respectively. There were complications in one patient.
      CONCLUSIONS: The SENSIMED Triggerfish(r) monitoring system showed changes in the
      curves of the circadian patterns, as well as decreased mean amplitudes after the
      combined PHACO-ExPRESS technique, suggesting that it may become a useful tool for
      postoperative follow-up of COAG.

PMID- 28576456
TI  - Clinical, fundoscopic, tomographic and angiographic characteristics of dome
      shaped macula classified by bulge height.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To classify dome shaped macula cases by their bulge height (BH). To
      analyse the characteristics associated with the groups formed by this
      classification. METHODS: Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study on
      15 selected eyes with dome shaped macula and high myopia. Using Caillaux method
      and optical coherence tomography images, 3groups were determined by their BH: low
      (50-350 MU), medium (351-650 MU), and high (>650 MU), and a study of visual
      acuity, axial length, presence of subfoveal serous detachment, and images by
      fluorescein angiography and optic coherence tomography, as main variables. The
      confidence interval was 95%. RESULTS: By using the chi-squared test, the study
      showed that a BH higher than 400 MU was associated with lower visual acuity,
      presence of subfoveal serous detachment, and greater atrophy of the retinal
      pigment epithelium measured by disc diameters (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: The medium
      and high BH showed a positive correlation with the presence of foveal serous
      detachment and a lower visual acuity.

PMID- 28576457
TI  - Sugar and amino acid preference in the black garden ant Lasius niger (L.).
AB  - The mutualistic relationship that the garden ant Lasius niger (L.) establishes
      with trophobiotic homopterans makes this ant an unwelcome host in commercial
      crops, as ants improve the survival of homopteran pests from which they collect
      honeydew as a source of carbohydrates. Because the offering of alternative sugar
      sources can be used to disrupt this relationship, the present study explored L.
      niger's preference towards sugar and amino acid components that may be used in
      sugar solutions to increase their attractiveness. We tested the ant's preference
      between basic sugars (mono- and disaccharides) used as main ingredients and
      attractants (trisaccharides and amino acid (AA) sources) added to basic sugar in
      small amounts. Results showed that ants preferred disaccharides over
      monosaccharides, and that trisaccharides increased the attractiveness of sucrose
      solutions, albeit not when a protein source was added to the mix. In the case of
      AA sources, ants preferred components with a more diverse composition. In
      conclusion, trisaccharides and AA sources can be used to increase the
      attractiveness of sugar solutions, leading to the development of solutions that
      when supplied in artificial feeders can out-compete honeydew and disrupt harmful
      ant-homopteran mutualisms in agriculture.

PMID- 28576458
TI  - Understanding the complexities of traumatic brain injury: A big data approach to
      a big disease.

PMID- 28576459
TI  - Corrigendum to "TRPC3 channels critically regulate hippocampal excitability and
      contextual fear memory" Behav. Brain Res. 281(March) 2015, 69-77.

PMID- 28576460
TI  - The promising impact of molecular profiling on treatment strategies in oral
      cancers.
AB  - Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a major cause of cancer-associated
      morbidity and mortality. Although OSCC may develop from easily accessible oral
      preneoplastic lesions (OPLs), no intervention has been reported so far that
      reduces the rate of malignant transformation. A comprehensive molecular
      characterization of oral carcinogenesis may help refining treatment strategies
      both in patients with OPLs and OSCC. Herein, we review main molecular alterations
      occurring at different steps during oral carcinogenesis and show how molecularly
      based medicine and surgery may impact the outcome of OSCC in the future.

PMID- 28576461
TI  - Osteomyelitis of the jaw (with pathological fracture) following extraction of an
      impacted wisdom tooth. A case report.
AB  - Osteomyelitis is an infection and inflammation associated with the bone
      structures: bone marrow, cortical bone, periosteum, blood vessels and nerves.
      Although it does not have a frequent presentation, it can sometimes lead to
      complications such as pathological fractures or even septicemia. We present a
      clinical case study, to assess the relationship between osteomyelitis of the jaw
      and pathological fractures, after the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth.
      This case highlights a rare complication following the surgical removal of
      mandibular third molar; a slow evolution of the pathology following an extraction
      should lead to close monitoring of the patient both clinically and
      radiographically, albeit osteomyelitis is a rare complication, it should be
      included as one of the differential diagnosis of persistent post-extraction pain.

PMID- 28576462
TI  - Platelet-rich plasma-enriched autologous fat graft in regenerative and aesthetic
      facial surgery: Technical note.
AB  - The goal of adding platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to autologous fat graft is to
      increase the survival rate of the graft. After their activation, platelets
      release some important growth factors. As a result, PRP may increase the
      proliferation and differentiation of Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) into
      adipocytes, improve fat graft vascularisation, and may block the apoptosis of
      grafted adipocytes. The other benefit expected from the addition of PRP to fat
      graft is the improvement of cutaneous trophicity above the grafted areas. An
      exhaustive review of the literature retrieved 11 clinical studies on humans and 7
      on animals. A statistically significant increase of the survival rate of fat
      grafts has been found in 9 comparative studies. Our synthesis allowed us to set
      up the following protocol: addition of 20% of PRP activated with calcium
      hydrochloride to fat grafts. It may enhance the results of autologous facial fat
      graft in regenerative and aesthetic facial surgery.

PMID- 28576463
TI  - Prognostic implications of occult nodal tumour cells in stage I and II colon
      cancer: The correlation between micrometastasis and disease recurrence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Occult nodal tumour cells should be categorised as micrometastasis
      (MMs) and isolated tumour cells (ITCs). A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that
      MMs, but not ITCs, are prognostic for disease recurrence in patients with stage
      I/II colon cancer. AIMS & METHODS: The objective of this retrospective
      multicenter study was to correlate MMs and ITCs to characteristics of the primary
      tumour, and to determine their prognostic value in patients with stage I/II colon
      cancer. RESULTS: One hundred ninety two patients were included in the study with
      a median follow up of 46 month (IQR 33-81 months). MMs were found in eight
      patients (4.2%), ITCs in 37 (19.3%) and occult tumour cells were absent in 147
      patients (76.6%). Between these groups, tumour differentiation and venous or
      lymphatic invasion was equally distributed. Advanced stage (pT3/pT4) was found in
      66.0% of patients without occult tumour cells (97/147), 72.9% of patients with
      ITCs (27/37), and 100% in patients with MMs (8/8), although this was a non
      significant trend. Patients with MMs showed a significantly reduced 3 year
      disease free survival compared to patients with ITCs or patients without occult
      tumour cells (75.0% versus 88.0% and 94.8%, respectively, p = 0.005). When
      adjusted for T-stage, MMs independently predicted recurrence of cancer (OR 7.6
      95% CI 1.5-37.4, p = 0.012). CONCLUSION: In this study, the incidence of MMs and
      ITCs in patients with stage I/II colon cancer was 4.2% and 19.3%, respectively.
      MMs were associated with an reduced 3 year disease free survival rate, but ITCs
      were not.

PMID- 28576464
TI  - Prognostic impact of macrometastasis linear size in sentinel node biopsy for
      breast carcinoma.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the risk of axillary non
      sentinel lymph-node metastases (ALN) in breast cancer patients presenting
      macrometastasis (Mac-m) in the sentinel lymph node (SN). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective series of 1464 breast cancers from patients who underwent ALN
      dissection following the diagnosis of Mac-m in the sentinel node (SN) was
      studied. In all the cases the MAC-m linear size was evaluated and correlated with
      presence or absence of non-SN ALN metastases. RESULTS: Non-SN metastases were
      detected in 644?1464 cases (43.98%). The risk of further axillary metastases
      ranged from 20.2% (37/183) in cases with Mac-m between 2 and 2.9 mm, to 65.3%
      (262/401) in cases with Mac-m measuring > 10 mm. The risk of non-SN ALN
      metastases showed a 3% increase, parallel to each mm increment in SN metastasis
      size. The data evaluated with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
      showed that the Mac-m could be subdivided according to a new cut-off of 7 mm. pT1
      tumours, with Mac-m < 7 mm had a risk of non-SN ALN metastases of <30%.
      Furthermore 109/127 of these (85.8%) had 3 or less non-SN ALN -metastases.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present data give a detailed description on the risk of non-SN
      ALN involvement, that may be useful in the evaluation of breast cancer patients.
      It is suggested that a Mac-m size of <7 mm is related to a low residual axillary
      disease burden in breast cancer patients with small (pT1) tumours.

PMID- 28576465
TI  - Metformin and caffeic acid regulate metabolic reprogramming in human cervical
      carcinoma SiHa/HTB-35 cells and augment anticancer activity of Cisplatin via cell
      cycle regulation.
AB  - Metformin shows benefits in anticancer prevention in humans. In this study,
      normal human fibroblasts (FB) and metastatic cervical cancer cells (SiHa) were
      exposed to 10 mM Metformin (Met), 100 MUM Caffeic Acid (trans-3,4
      dihydroxycinnamic acid, CA) or combination of the compounds. Both drugs were
      selectively toxic towards cancer cells, but neither Met nor CA treatment
      suppressed growth of normal cells. Met and CA regulated metabolic reprogramming
      in SiHa tumor cells through different mechanisms: Met suppressed regulatory
      enzymes Glurtaminase (GLS) and Malic Enzyme 1 (ME1) and enhanced pyruvate
      oxidation via tricarboxylic acids (TCA) cycle, while CA acted as glycolytic
      inhibitor. Met/CA treatment impaired expression of Sterol Regulatory Element
      Binding Protein 1 (SREBP1c) which resulted in alleviation of de novo synthesis of
      unsaturated fatty acid. The toxic action of CisPt was supported by Met and CA not
      only in tumor cells, but also during co-culture of SiHa GFP+ cells with
      fibroblasts. Furthermore, Met and CA augmented Cisplatin (CisPt) action against
      quiescent tumor cells involving reprogramming of cell cycle. Our findings provide
      new insights into specific targeting of mitochondrial metabolism in neoplastic
      cells and into designing new cisplatin-based selective strategies for treating
      cervical cancer in humans with regard to the role of tumor microenvironment.

PMID- 28576466
TI  - Are additive effects of dietary surfactants on intestinal tight junction
      integrity an overlooked human health risk? - A mixture study on Caco-2
      monolayers.
AB  - Surfactants may cause dysfunction of intestinal tight junctions (TJs), which is a
      common feature of intestinal autoimmune diseases. Effects of dietary surfactants
      on TJ integrity, measured as trans-epithelial resistance (TEER), were studied in
      Caco-2 cell monolayers. Cytotoxicity was assessed as apical LDH leakage.
      Monolayers were apically exposed for 60 min to the dietary surfactants solanine
      and chaconine (SC, potato glycoalkaloids, 0-0.25 mM), perfluorooctane sulfonic
      acid (PFOS, industrial contaminant, 0-0.8 mM), and sucrose monolaurate (SML, food
      emulsifier E 473, 0-2.0 mM) separately and as a mixture. Dose-response modelling
      of TEER EC50 showed that SC were 2.7- and 12-fold more potent than PFOS and SML,
      respectively. The mixture was composed of 1 molar unit SC, 2.7 units PFOS and 12
      units SML ("SC TEER equivalent" proportions 1:1:1). Mixture exposure (0-0.05 mM
      SC equivalents) dose-response modelling suggested additive action on TJ
      integrity. Increasing SC and SML concentrations caused increased LDH leakage, but
      PFOS decreased LDH leakage at intermediate exposure concentrations. In the
      mixture PFOS appeared to protect from extensive SC- and SML-induced LDH leakage.
      Complex mixtures of surfactants in food may act additively on intestinal TJ
      integrity, which should be considered in risk assessment of emulsifier
      authorisation for use in food production.

PMID- 28576467
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, acetic acid, C7-9-branched alkyl
      esters, C8-rich, CAS Registry Number 108419-32-5.
AB  - The use of this material under current conditions is supported by existing
      information. This material was evaluated for genotoxicity, repeated dose
      toxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, local respiratory toxicity,
      phototoxicity/photoallergenicity, skin sensitization, as well as environmental
      safety. Data show that this material is not genotoxic. Data from the suitable
      read across analog isoamyl acetate (CAS# 123-92-2) show that this material does
      not have skin sensitization potential. The reproductive and local respiratory
      toxicity endpoints were completed using the TTC (Threshold of Toxicological
      Concern) for a Cramer Class I material (0.03 mg/kg/day and 1.4 mg/day,
      respectively). The repeated dose and developmental endpoint was completed using
      data on the target material, which provided a MOE > 100. The
      phototoxicity/photoallergenicity endpoint was completed based on suitable UV
      spectra. The environmental endpoint was completed as described in the RIFM
      Framework.

PMID- 28576468
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, dihydro-alpha-terpineol, CAS
      Registry Number 498-81-7.

PMID- 28576469
TI  - The toxic influence of paraquat on hippocampal neurogenesis in adult mice.
AB  - Paraquat, a fast-acting non-selective contact herbicide, is considered an
      etiological factor related to Parkinson's disease. This study investigated its
      effects on hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition in adult mice as well as
      possible mechanisms for the effects. We administered paraquat (1.25 mg/kg,
      intraperitoneal injection, i.p.) and an equal volume of normal saline for 3 weeks
      to adult male C57BL/6J mice. The results showed that hippocampus-dependent
      spatial learning and memory was significantly impaired in paraquat-treated mice.
      Moreover, paraquat administration inhibited the proliferation of neural
      progenitor cells, and impaired the survival and altered the fate decision of
      newly generated cells in the hippocampus. The expression levels of caspase-3 and
      glial fibrillary acidic protein were significantly higher in paraquat-treated
      mice than in control mice. Interestingly, paraquat reduced the phosphorylation of
      Akt, but did not affect the total amount of Akt. In conclusion, our findings
      suggest that paraquat negatively affected adult hippocampal neurogenesis and
      cognition function.

PMID- 28576470
TI  - Toxicity of coumarins synthesized by Pechmann-Duisberg condensation against
      Drosophila melanogaster larvae and antibacterial effects.
AB  - On the background of the search of new insecticides friendly with the environment
      for replace those from synthesis organic origin with adverse effects on animals,
      soils and vegetables. It is reported in this study, the synthesis of a series of
      coumarins derivatives synthesized by Pechmann-Duisberg condensation assisted by
      microwave irradiation, their antibacterial and insecticidal activities. The most
      relevant results show that all compounds exhibit a mortality effect of 30-80%
      with doses between 10 and 100 MUg/mL. This activity is related to alkyl or aryl
      substituent type at position C-4 coumarin skeleton. The coumarins 5, 6, 7 and 9
      showed highest insecticidal activities, and these coumarins have at 4-position a
      bulky and low polarity substituent. The aim of this work is to find the effects
      of the 4-substitued coumarins with different lipophilic and bulky substituents.
      Even though many researchers were worked on coumarins, there are not reports
      about the insecticidal effects of specifically 4-substitued coumarins. The
      difference of our major findings versus current knowledge is in this scope of the
      research. On the other hand, was possible to find that a chloride at 4-position,
      drew to extend the antibacterial spectra.

PMID- 28576471
TI  - Connection of Protein Transport and Organelle Contact Sites in Mitochondria.
AB  - Mitochondrial biogenesis and function depend on the intensive exchange of
      molecules with other cellular compartments. The mitochondrial outer membrane
      plays a central role in this communication process. It is equipped with a number
      of specific protein machineries that enable the transport of proteins and
      metabolites. Furthermore, the outer membrane forms molecular contact sites with
      other cell organelles like the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), thus integrating
      mitochondrial function in cellular physiology. The best-studied mitochondrial
      organelle contact site, the ER-mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) has been
      linked to many vital processes including mitochondrial division, inheritance,
      mitophagy, and phospholipid transport. Strikingly, ER-mitochondria contact sites
      are closely connected to outer membrane protein translocases. The translocase of
      the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM) represents the general mitochondrial entry
      gate for precursor proteins that are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes. The
      outer membrane also harbors the sorting and assembly machinery (SAM) that
      mediates membrane insertion of beta-barrel proteins. Both of these essential
      protein translocases are functionally linked to ER-mitochondria contact sites.
      First, the SAM complex associates with an ERMES core component to promote
      assembly of the TOM complex. Second, several TOM components have been co-opted as
      ER-mitochondria tethers. We propose that protein import and organelle contact
      sites are linked to coordinate processes important for mitochondrial biogenesis.

PMID- 28576473
TI  - [The vomiting infant: When should intestinal volvulus be suspected?]

PMID- 28576472
TI  - Redirecting SR Protein Nuclear Trafficking through an Allosteric Platform.
AB  - Although phosphorylation directs serine-arginine (SR) proteins from nuclear
      storage speckles to the nucleoplasm for splicing function, dephosphorylation
      paradoxically induces similar movement, raising the question of how such chemical
      modifications are balanced in these essential splicing factors. In this new
      study, we investigated the interaction of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) with the SR
      protein splicing factor (SRSF1) to understand the foundation of these opposing
      effects in the nucleus. We found that RNA recognition motif 1 (RRM1) in SRSF1
      binds PP1 and represses its catalytic function through an allosteric mechanism.
      Disruption of RRM1-PP1 interactions reduces the phosphorylation status of the RS
      domain in vitro and in cells, redirecting SRSF1 in the nucleus. The data imply
      that an allosteric SR protein-phosphatase platform balances phosphorylation
      levels in a "goldilocks" region for the proper subnuclear storage of an SR
      protein splicing factor.

PMID- 28576474
TI  - Netrins as prophylactic targets in skeletal diseases: A double-edged sword?
AB  - The netrin family of proteins are involved in axon guidance during central
      nervous system development. In vertebrates, two membrane bound forms and five
      secreted forms of netrin have been reported. In addition to their critical role
      in neural morphogenesis, a growing number of reports suggest that netrin family
      proteins also play a role in inflammatory conditions, angiogenesis, and
      tumorigenesis. In these processes, Unc5 and DCC family proteins serve as
      receptors of netrin proteins. Recently, it was reported that some netrin family
      proteins may be involved in the pathogenesis of skeletal diseases including
      osteoporosis and arthritis. For example, administration of secreted netrin family
      proteins such as netrin 1 and netrin 4 has prophylactic potential in pathogenic
      bone degradation in mice. However, netrin 1 blocking antibody also protects mice
      from inflammatory bone destruction. Therefore, netrin family proteins are
      involved in the regulation of bone homeostasis, but their bona fide roles in the
      skeletal system remain controversial. In this review, we discuss the osteo-innate
      immune functions of the netrin family of proteins, and summarize their
      therapeutic potential.

PMID- 28576475
TI  - Gut microbiota and acute graft-versus-host disease.
AB  - Although allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is a potentially
      curative treatment for various hematological diseases, acute graft-versus-host
      disease (GVHD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and its management is
      clinically important. Advances in biological techniques have led to great
      progress in understanding the complex interactions between the host and the gut
      microbiota. The gut microbiota clearly modulates the immune response and is
      associated with the pathogenesis of various disorders. Also in allo-SCT, both
      preclinical and clinical results indicate that the gut microbiota is closely
      associated with the development of acute GVHD and transplant outcomes. These
      results led to the idea that improvement in quantitative and/or qualitative
      abnormalities of microbiota (dysbiosis) may be a new treatment strategy for acute
      GVHD. Evaluations of therapies targeting the gut microbiota such as probiotics or
      fecal microbiota transplantation have just begun. Furthermore, intervention in
      the gut microbiota with a nutritional approach including prebiotics, postbiotics,
      and antibiotics selection may also be another promising treatment option for
      acute GVHD.

PMID- 28576476
TI  - Mitral valve repair in dogs using an ePTFE chordal implantation device: a pilot
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mitral valve (MV) regurgitation due to degenerative MV disease is the
      leading cause of cardiac death in dogs. We carried out preliminary experiments to
      determine the feasibility and short-term effects of beating-heart MV repair using
      an expanded polytetrafluorethylene (ePTFE) chordal implantation device (Harpoon
      TSD-5) in dogs. ANIMALS: This study involved six healthy purpose-bred Beagles
      (weight range 8.9-11.4 kg). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Following a mini-thoracotomy
      performed under general anesthesia, the TSD-5 was used to place 1 or 2 artificial
      ePTFE cords on the anterior MV leaflet or the posterior MV leaflet via a left
      ventricular transapical approach. The procedure was guided and monitored by
      transesophageal echocardiography. Postoperative antithrombotic treatment
      consisted of clopidogrel or a combination of clopidogrel and apixaban. Dogs were
      serially evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography at day 1, 7, 14, 21, and 30.
      The hearts were then examined for evaluation of tissues reactions and to detect
      signs of endothelialization. RESULTS: One or two chords were successfully
      implanted in five dogs. Four dogs completed the 30 days follow-up. One dog died
      intra-operatively because of aortic perforation. One dog died early post
      operatively from a hemorrhagic pleural effusion attributed to overly aggressive
      antithrombotic treatment. One dog developed a thrombus surrounding both the knot
      and the synthetic cord. Postmortem exam confirmed secure placement of ePTFE knots
      in the mitral leaflets in all dogs and the presence of endothelialization of the
      knots and chords. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results demonstrate the
      feasibility of artificial chordal placement using an ePTFE cordal implantation
      device in dogs.

PMID- 28576477
TI  - Perceptions of transcatheter device closure of patent ductus arteriosus in
      veterinary cardiology and evaluation of a canine model to simulate device
      placement: a preliminary study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a canine patent ductus
      arteriosus (PDA) model developed for practicing device placement and to determine
      practices and perceptions regarding transcatheter closure of PDA from the
      veterinary cardiology community. METHOD: A silicone model was developed from
      images obtained from a dog with a PDA and device placement was performed with
      catheter equipment and a document camera to simulate fluoroscopy. A total of 36
      individuals including 24 diplomates and 12 residents participated, and the
      feedback was obtained. The study included an initial questionnaire, practice with
      the model, observation of device placement using the model, and a follow-up
      questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 92% of participants including 100% of
      residents indicated they did not have the opportunity to practice device
      placement before performing the procedure and obtained knowledge of the procedure
      from reading journal articles or observation. Participants indicated selecting
      the appropriate device size (30/36, 83%) and ensuring the device is appropriately
      positioned before release (18/36, 50%) as the most common areas of difficulty
      with device placement. Confidence level was higher after practicing with the
      model for residents when compared with diplomates and for participants that had
      performed 1-15 procedures when compared with those that had performed >15
      procedures. These findings suggest those that have performed fewer procedures may
      benefit the most from practicing with a model. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary
      study demonstrates the feasibility of a PDA model for practicing device placement
      and suggests that there is a potential benefit from providing additional training
      resources.

PMID- 28576478
TI  - Intracardiac echocardiography: use during transcatheter device closure of a
      patent ductus arteriosus in a dog.
AB  - Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) is used in humans for percutaneous
      interventional procedures, such as transcatheter device closures. Intracardiac
      echocardiography provides high-resolution imaging of cardiac structures with two
      dimensional, M-mode, Doppler, and also three-dimensional modalities. The present
      report describes application of ICE during transcatheter occlusion of patent
      ductus arteriosus using a canine ductal occluder in a dog for which
      transesophageal echocardiography could not provide an optimal acoustic window.

PMID- 28576479
TI  - Aldosterone breakthrough in dogs with naturally occurring myxomatous mitral valve
      disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aldosterone breakthrough (ABT) is the condition in which
      angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and/or angiotensin receptor
      blockers fail to effectively suppress the activity of the renin angiotensin
      aldosterone system. The objective of this study was to determine if ABT occurs in
      dogs with naturally occurring myxomatous mitral valve disease receiving an ACEI,
      using the urine aldosterone to creatinine ratio (UAldo:C) as a measure of renin
      angiotensin aldosterone system activation. ANIMALS, MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      study includes 39 dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease. A UAldo:C cut-off
      definition (derived from a normal population of healthy, adult, and client-owned
      dogs) was used to determine the prevalence of ABT in this population. Spearman
      analysis and univariate logistic regression were used to evaluate the
      relationship between UAldo:C and ABT (yes/no) and eight variables (age, serum K+
      concentration, serum creatinine concentration, ACEI therapy duration and ACEI
      dosage, furosemide therapy duration and furosemide dosage, and urine sample
      storage time). Finally, the UAldo:C in dogs receiving spironolactone, as part
      congestive heart failure (CHF) therapy, was compared to dogs with CHF that were
      not receiving spironolactone. RESULTS: The prevalence of ABT was 32% in dogs with
      CHF and 30% in dogs without CHF. There was no relationship between either the
      UAldo:C or the likelihood of ABT and the eight variables. Therapy with
      spironolactone lead to a significant elevation of the UAldo:C. DISCUSSION: Using
      the UAldo:C and a relatively stringent definition of ABT, it appears that
      incomplete RAAS blockade is common in dogs with MMVD receiving an ACEI. The
      prevalence of ABT in this canine population mirrors that reported in humans.
      While the mechanism of ABT is likely multifactorial and still poorly understood,
      the proven existence of ABT in dogs offers the potential to improve the prognosis
      for MMVD with the addition of a mineralocorticoid receptor blocker to current
      therapeutic regimens. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 30% of dogs being treated for
      heart disease and CHF satisfied the definition of ABT. Identifying patient
      subpopulations experiencing ABT may help guide future study design and clinical
      decision-making.

PMID- 28576480
TI  - An orbital perivascular epithelioid cell tumor in a 7-year-old boy: case report
      and review of the literature.
AB  - We report the case of a 7-year-old boy who presented with a swollen right eye.
      Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a right intraconal orbital mass with intense
      contrast enhancement. Incisional biopsy led to a diagnosis of perivascular
      epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa). Sirolimus was initiated but discontinued at the
      third week of treatment because the tumor had progressed. A minor regression of
      the tumor was seen after six cycles of systemic chemotherapy. Previously reported
      cases of PEComa were benign in nature, and full remission was achieved with
      surgical excision. In the present case the tumor was malignant and responded only
      slightly to systemic chemotherapy.

PMID- 28576481
TI  - Ferrofluid-assisted rapid and directional harvesting of marine microalgal
      Chlorella sp. used for biodiesel production.
AB  - In this work, a novel harvesting strategy using ferrofluids coupled with
      flocculation as a magnetic directional harvesting system was developed, providing
      a fast and easy way to effectively collect microalgae with no further
      modifications made to the ferrofluids. With a ferrofluid dosage of 25mgL-1, a
      high harvesting efficiency of 95-100% was achieved within 1min. In addition, we
      successfully performed a wastewater recycling strategy coupled with a microalgal
      ferrofluid-harvesting dynamic flow-through system to harvest biomass of Chlorella
      sp. MTF-7 which could achieve over 80% of the maximum level after three repeated
      recycling cultivations. This work demonstrated the use of an integrated
      microalgal ferrofluid-harvesting dynamic flow-through system to develop a simple
      and effective strategy to enhance microalgal harvesting efficiency, along with
      wastewater recycling, in a marine microalgal Chlorella sp. MTF-7.

PMID- 28576482
TI  - Biosorption of Co (II) from aqueous solution using algal biochar: Kinetics and
      isotherm studies.
AB  - The present investigation deals with the utilization of biochar derived from the
      pyrolysis of microalgae Scenedesmus dimorphus as an adsorbent for the removal of
      cobalt (II) ion (Co) from aqueous solution. A series of experiments were
      conducted in a batch system to evaluate the performance of the biochar for Co
      removal. The effect of contact time on adsorption of Co (II) onto surface of the
      biochar was investigated. The equilibrium sorption data were analyzed by using
      Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Harkins-Jura and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R)
      isotherms and were found to be adequate in describing the Co adsorption onto the
      biochar. Equilibrium data were well fitted for Freundlich, Temkin and D-R
      isotherms. The kinetic study of Co (II) adsorption on microalgae biochar were
      described by applying pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order rate equations.
      The surface of adsorbent before and after the removal of Co (II) was
      characterized by using SEM, EDX and XRD analysis.

PMID- 28576483
TI  - Biofilm based attached cultivation technology for microalgal biorefineries-A
      review.
AB  - The attached cultivation for microalga has many superiorities over the
      conventional aqua-suspend methods, which make it a promising pathway to supply
      feedstock for microalgae based bio-refinery attempts. In this review, the current
      reports on bioreactor, application, modeling, substratum material and engineering
      aspects were summarized and the future research and developments should be
      focused on the following aspects: 1) Build principles and guidelines for rational
      structure design by studying the relationship of physiological properties with
      typical structures and light regimes; 2) Set up theory foundation of substratum
      material selection by studying the physic-chemical properties of algal cells and
      substratum materials; 3) Further understanding the mass transfer behaviors of
      both CO2 and nutrients in biofilm for enhanced growth rate and products
      accumulation; 4) New equipment and machines for inoculation, harvesting and
      moisture keeping should be developed and integrated with bioreactor structure.

PMID- 28576484
TI  - Signs of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic patients at increased risk
      of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIMS: We aimed to study carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) in asymptomatic
      patients with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and in a pre
      diabetic state. METHODS: Diabetes risk assessment was performed in 2420
      participants in a voluntary screening program between 2011 and 2013. The risk of
      T2DM was estimated by the Findrisc scoring system (FR). A FR>=12 was considered
      as increased risk. HbA1c% between 5.7 and 6.4% signified a pre-diabetic state.
      Carotid duplex scan was performed and CIMT above 0.9 mm was regarded as
      pathological. Patients with T2DM or a history of cardiovascular disease were
      excluded. RESULTS: Overall 1475 subjects were included. Four groups were
      compared: "control" (normal HbA1c, FR<12), "HbA1c only" (HbA1c: 5.7-6.4%, FR<12),
      "Findrisc only" (normal HbA1c, FR>=12) and "combined" (HbA1c: 5.7-6.4%, FR>=12).
      Frequency of pathological maximal CIMT was 9.4%, 19.7%, 27.4% and 36.4% in the
      groups, respectively (p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that
      compared to control subjects, sex and risk factor-adjusted Odds Ratios for the
      presence of pathological maximal CIMT were 2.2 (p<0.001), 3.4 (p<0.001) and 5.1
      (p<0.001) for the groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of Findrisc score
      and HbA1c at population level may facilitate early recognition of subclinical
      vascular complications even in the pre-diabetic state.

PMID- 28576485
TI  - Highly efficient one-step scarless protein tagging by type IIS restriction
      endonuclease-mediated precision cloning.
AB  - Protein tagging with a wide variety of epitopes and/or fusion partners is used
      routinely to dissect protein function molecularly. Frequently, the required DNA
      subcloning is inefficient, especially in cases where multiple constructs are
      desired for a given protein with unique tags. Additionally, the generated clones
      have unwanted junction sequences introduced. To add versatile tags into the
      extracellular domain of the transmembrane protein THSD1, we developed a protein
      tagging technique that utilizes non-classical type IIS restriction enzymes that
      recognize non-palindromic DNA sequences and cleave outside of their recognition
      sites. Our results demonstrate that this method is highly efficient and can
      precisely fuse any tag into any position of a protein in a scarless manner.
      Moreover, this method is cost-efficient and adaptable because it uses
      commercially available type IIS restriction enzymes and is compatible with the
      traditional cloning system used by many labs. Therefore, precision tagging
      technology will benefit a number of researchers by providing an alternate method
      to integrate an array of tags into protein expression constructs.

PMID- 28576486
TI  - Construction of an inducible stable cell line for efficient incorporation of
      unnatural amino acids in mammalian cells.
AB  - The genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids (Uaas) with defined properties
      into proteins at designated sites represents an extremely powerful tool for
      protein engineering. However, the efficient incorporation of Uaas in response to
      the amber stop codon in mammalian cells remains a substantial challenge due to
      the competition from release factor 1(RF1). Addressing this challenge will
      greatly broaden the power and scope of this technology. Here, we chose the eRF1
      mutant, which can selectively enhance Uaa incorporation in response to the amber
      codon without increasing the readthrough of the opal and ochre codons. Then, we
      developed an engineered stable cell line using a tetracycline-controlled
      inducible lentiviral system for the conditional expression of mutant eRF1, which
      can minimize the potential effect on normal translation termination. Using the
      eRF1-engineered cells, we provided a 2-fold improvement in the yield of protein
      containing a Uaa incorporated at a single site, with the protein yield
      approaching 90% of the wild-type control without the amber codon. Moreover, we
      achieved the successful incorporation of Uaas at four sites in various proteins
      at a measured level of 20%.

PMID- 28576487
TI  - MEK and PI3K catalytic activity as predictor of the response to molecularly
      targeted agents in triple-negative breast cancer.
AB  - Hyper-activation of the MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways is linked to tumour
      progression in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, clinically
      effective predictive markers for drugs targeted against protein kinases involved
      in these pathways have not been identified. We investigated the ability of MEK
      and PI3K catalytic activity to predict sensitivity to trametinib and wortmannin
      in TNBC. MEK and PI3K activities correlated strongly with each other only in cell
      lines showing wortmannin-specific sensitivity, as shown by a linear regression
      curve (R = 0.951). Accordingly, we created a new parameter that distinguishes
      trametinib and wortmannin sensitivity in vitro and in vivo. Our findings suggest
      that the catalytic activities of MEK and PI3K might predict the response of TNBC
      to trametinib and wortmannin.

PMID- 28576488
TI  - Intronic miRNA-641 controls its host Gene's pathway PI3K/AKT and this
      relationship is dysfunctional in glioblastoma multiforme.
AB  - MicroRNAs have established their role as important regulators of the epigenome. A
      considerable number of human miRNA genes are found in intronic regions of protein
      coding host genes, in many cases adopting their regulatory circuitry. However,
      emerging evidence foreshadows an unprecedented importance for this relationship:
      Intronic miRNAs may protect the cell from overactivation of the respective host
      pathway, a setting that may trigger tumor development. AKT2 is a well-known proto
      oncogene central to the PI3K/AKT pathway. This pathway is known to promote tumor
      growth and survival, especially in glioblastoma. Its intronic miRNA, hsa-miR-641,
      is scarcely investigated, however. We hypothesized that miR-641 regulates its
      host AKT2 and that this regulation may become dysfunctional in glioblastoma. We
      found that indeed miR-641 expression differs significantly between GBM tissue and
      normal brain samples, and that transfection of glioma cells with miR-641
      antagonizes the PI3K/AKT pathway. Combining clinical samples, cell cultures, and
      biomolecular methods, we could show that miR-641 doesn't affect AKT2's expression
      levels, but down-regulates kinases that are necessary for AKT2-activation,
      thereby affecting its functional state. We also identified NFAT5 as a miR-641
      regulated central factor to trigger the expression of these kinases and
      subsequently activate AKT2. In summary, our study is the first that draws a
      connecting line between the proto-oncogene AKT2 and its intronic miRNA miR-641
      with implication for glioblastoma development.

PMID- 28576490
TI  - Solution structure of human steroidogenic acute regulatory protein STARD1 studied
      by small-angle X-ray scattering.
AB  - Intracellular cholesterol transfer to mitochondria, a bottleneck of adrenal and
      gonadal steroidogenesis, relies on the functioning of the steroidogenic acute
      regulatory protein (StAR, STARD1), for which many disease-associated mutations
      have been described. Despite significant progress in the field, the exact
      mechanism of cholesterol binding and transfer by STARD1 still remains debatable
      and often considers significant structural rearrangements to achieve ligand
      binding. The crystal structure of STARD1, obtained recently at medium resolution,
      suggests that this protein has the same fold as other members of the START
      family. However, hydrodynamic properties and solution conformation of STARD1 are
      insufficiently characterized, partially due to poor solubility of this protein.
      Here, we used our recent protocol to obtain stable and soluble STARD1 and
      analyzed its hydrodynamic properties and solution conformation using a previously
      inapplicable small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The SAXS data obtained
      exclusively from a monodisperse fraction of the monomeric protein suggest that,
      apart from movements of the flexible Omega1-loop, STARD1 unlikely undergoes
      significant spontaneous rearrangements proposed earlier as a gating mechanism for
      cholesterol binding. The consistency with the previously reported solution NMR
      structure of STARD6 suggests similarity of hydrodynamic behavior of other STARD
      containing proteins.

PMID- 28576489
TI  - Mitochondrial protein p32/HAPB1/gC1qR/C1qbp is required for efficient respiratory
      syncytial virus production.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory infections in
      infants and the elderly, leading to more deaths than influenza each year, but
      there is no antiviral or efficacious vaccine currently available. Here we examine
      the role in infection of the host mitochondrial protein p32 (HABP/gC1qR/C1qbp)
      for the first time. RSV replication as well as infectious virus production was
      significantly reduced by p32 siRNA knockdown, consistent with an important role
      for p32 in RSV infection. p32 showed distinct mitochondrial localization
      throughout RSV infection, but immunostaining and high resolution confocal imaging
      for p32 as well as MitoTracker Red and cytochrome c, revealed clear changes in
      mitochondrial organization in RSV infection, with perinuclear mitochondrial
      compaction and asymmetric distribution at 8 and 18 h post-infection,
      respectively. The results implicate p32 as a key host factor for RSV virus
      production, and bring to light the potential importance of mitochondria in RSV
      infection.

PMID- 28576492
TI  - A DNA sequence obtained by replacement of the dopamine RNA aptamer bases is not
      an aptamer.
AB  - A unique specificity of the aptamer-ligand biorecognition and binding facilitates
      bioanalysis and biosensor development, contributing to discrimination of
      structurally related molecules, such as dopamine and other catecholamine
      neurotransmitters. The aptamer sequence capable of specific binding of dopamine
      is a 57 nucleotides long RNA sequence reported in 1997 (Biochemistry, 1997, 36,
      9726). Later, it was suggested that the DNA homologue of the RNA aptamer retains
      the specificity of dopamine binding (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 2009, 388,
      732). Here, we show that the DNA sequence obtained by the replacement of the RNA
      aptamer bases for their DNA analogues is not able of specific biorecognition of
      dopamine, in contrast to the original RNA aptamer sequence. This DNA sequence
      binds dopamine and structurally related catecholamine neurotransmitters non
      specifically, as any DNA sequence, and, thus, is not an aptamer and cannot be
      used neither for in vivo nor in situ analysis of dopamine in the presence of
      structurally related neurotransmitters.

PMID- 28576491
TI  - Blockage of glycolysis by targeting PFKFB3 alleviates sepsis-related acute lung
      injury via suppressing inflammation and apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells.
AB  - Sepsis-related acute lung injury (ALI) is characterized by excessive lung
      inflammation and apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells resulting in acute
      hypoxemic respiratory failure. Recent studies indicated that anaerobic glycolysis
      play an important role in sepsis. However, whether inhibition of aerobic
      glycolysis exhibits beneficial effect on sepsis-induced ALI is not known. In
      vivo, a cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced ALI mouse model was set up and
      mice treated with glycolytic inhibitor 3PO after CLP. The mice treated with the
      3PO ameliorated the survival rate, histopathological changes, lung inflammation,
      lactate increased and lung apoptosis of mice with CLP-induced sepsis. In vitro,
      the exposure of human alveolar epithelial A549 cells to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      resulted in cell apoptosis, inflammatory cytokine production, enhanced glycolytic
      flux and reactive oxygen species (ROS) increased. While these changes were
      attenuated by 3PO treatment. Sequentially, treatment of A549 cells with lactate
      caused cell apoptosis and enhancement of ROS. Pretreatment with N-acetylcysteine
      (NAC) significantly lowered LPS and lactate-induced the generation of ROS and
      cell apoptosis in A549 cells. Therefore, these results indicate that anaerobic
      glycolysis may be an important contributor in cell apoptosis of sepsis-related
      ALI. Moreover, LPS specifically induces apoptotic insults to A549 cell through
      lactate-mediated enhancement of ROS.

PMID- 28576493
TI  - The suppression of innate immune response by human rhinovirus C.
AB  - Rhinovirus C (RV-C), a newly identified group of human rhinoviruses (RVs), is
      associated with exacerbation of severe asthma. The type I interferon (IFN)
      response induced by this virus and the mechanisms of evasion of IFN-mediated
      innate immunity for RV-C remain unclear. In this study, we constructed a full
      length cDNA clone of RV-C (LZ651) from a clinical sample. IFN-beta mRNA and
      protein levels were not elevated in differentiated Human bronchial epithelial
      (HBE) cells at the air-liquid interface infected with RV-C, except in the early
      stage of infection. The ability to attenuate IFN-beta activation was ascribed to
      3Cpro of RV-C, and the 40-His site of 3Cpro played an important role.
      Furthermore, RIG-I was degraded by 3Cpro in a caspase-dependent manner and 3Cpro
      cleaved MAVS at 148 Q/A, which inhibited IFN signaling. Taken together, our
      results demonstrate the mechanism by which RV-C circumvents the production of
      type I IFN in infected cells.

PMID- 28576495
TI  - Metabolic pathway catalyzed by Vanin-1 pantetheinase plays a suppressive role in
      influenza virus replication in human alveolar epithelial A549 cells.
AB  - Our previous analysis of gene expression profiles in the peripheral blood from
      patients with influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 pneumonia revealed elevated transcription
      levels of the vanin-1 (vascular non-inflammatory molecule 1, VNN1) gene, which
      encodes an epithelial ectoenzyme with pantetheinase activity involved in
      recycling coenzyme A. Here, to elucidate the role of VNN1 in influenza A virus
      (IAV) H1N1 infection, we investigated the change of VNN1 expression in the
      context of IAV infection and the effects of its related substances, i.e., its
      direct substrate pantetheine and its two metabolites pantothenic acid and
      cysteamine on the replication of IAV in the human alveolar epithelial carcinoma
      cell line A549. The messenger RNA expression of VNN1 in A549 cells was
      significantly increased (by 4.9-fold) after IAV infection under an elevated
      concentration of pantetheine. Moreover, VNN1 mRNA levels were elevated by > 100
      fold in response to pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially TNF-alpha and IL
      1beta. Pantetheine significantly reduced the IAV replication and IAV Matrix 1
      (M1) mRNA levels when it was administered prior to and during infection. In
      addition, cysteamine treatment during IAV infection significantly reduced the
      viral replication and IAV M1 mRNA levels, whereas pantothenic acid did not. These
      findings suggest that the metabolic pathway catalyzed by VNN1 pantetheinase plays
      a suppressive role in IAV infection in the respiratory tract, especially in
      severe conditions under hypercytokinemia.

PMID- 28576496
TI  - Identification of zinc finger transcription factor EGR2 as a novel acetylated
      protein.
AB  - EGR2 is a zinc finger transcription factor that regulates myelination in the
      peripheral nervous system and T cell anergy. The transcriptional activity of EGR2
      is known to be regulated by its co-activators and/or co-repressors. Although the
      activity of transcription factors is generally regulated not only by interactions
      with co-regulators but also posttranslational modifications including
      acetylation, little is known about posttranslational modifications of EGR2. Here
      we show that EGR2 is a novel acetylated protein. Through immunoblotting analyses
      using an antibody that specifically recognizes the acetylated form of EGR2, CBP
      and p300 were identified as acetyltransferases, while HDAC6, 10 and SIRT1 were
      identified as deacetylases of EGR2. Although the NuRD complex containing HDAC1
      and HDAC2 is known to associate with EGR2, the present study suggests that
      acetylation of EGR2 is regulated independently of NuRD.

PMID- 28576497
TI  - Regulation of osteoclast differentiation and actin ring formation by the
      cytolinker protein plectin.
AB  - Osteoclasts are cells that resorb the bone matrix and maintain bone and calcium
      homeostasis. An actin ring is a characteristic actin structure that is essential
      for bone resorption by osteoclasts. Tyrosine kinase Src deficient osteoclasts do
      not form actin rings; thus, Src is a key molecule for actin ring formation in
      osteoclasts. However, how Src regulates actin ring formation is not fully
      understood. We identified the cytolinker protein plectin as a Src-binding protein
      by immunoprecipitation and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.
      Plectin is a huge protein (>500 kDa) and regulates the cytoskeleton by binding to
      actin and tubulin. We assessed the expression and role of plectin in osteoclasts.
      Plectin was expressed and co-localized with Src close to the actin ring in
      osteoclasts. Moreover, plectin was tyrosine-phosphorylated by Src.
      Differentiation and actin ring formation were inhibited by downregulation of
      plectin. These results suggest an important role for plectin in osteoclast
      differentiation and actin ring formation through Src binding.

PMID- 28576498
TI  - Characterization of cancer stem cell drug resistance in the human colorectal
      cancer cell lines HCT116 and SW480.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) share a number of properties with somatic
      stem cells including heightened protective mechanisms and the ability to self
      renew. CSCs are a critical subpopulation of cancer cells implicated in tumor
      formation, metastases and recurrence. METHODS: We used serial colonosphere
      culture to enrich for CSCs from two human CRC cell lines. The expression of
      proposed colorectal CSC markers and multi-drug resistance genes were assessed via
      flow cytometry and RT-qPCR. Drug resistance gene expression and self-renewal
      ability were also determined following treatment with the chemotherapeutic 5
      fluorouracil. RESULTS: Colonosphere culture successfully enriched for a
      subpopulation of cells with CSC-related gene expression and heightened self
      renewal ability, particularly in the SW480 cell line. Chemotherapy treatment
      significantly reduced sphere formation however a small fraction of cells survived
      treatment and retained their self-renewal ability. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      support the use of the sphere formation assay to study CSCs. The ability of cells
      to self-renew following chemotherapy treatment highlights the importance of
      targeting both the bulk of tumor cells and the CSC population to prevent
      recurrence in colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28576494
TI  - Antagonism of type I interferon by flaviviruses.
AB  - The prompt and tightly controlled induction of type I interferon is a central
      event of the immune defense against viral infection. Flaviviruses comprise a
      large family of arthropod-borne positive-stranded RNA viruses, many of which
      represent a serious threat to global human health due to their high rates of
      morbidity and mortality. All flaviviruses studied so far have been shown to
      counteract the host's immune response to establish a productive infection and
      facilitate viral spread. Here, we review the current knowledge on the main
      strategies that human pathogenic flaviviruses utilize to escape both type I IFN
      induction and effector pathways. A better understanding of the specific
      mechanisms by which flaviviruses activate and evade innate immune responses is
      critical for the development of better therapeutics and vaccines.

PMID- 28576499
TI  - Retraction notice to "Multiple inflammatory pathways are involved in the
      development and progression of cognitive deficits in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice"
      [Neurobiol. Aging 33 (2012) 2661-2677].

PMID- 28576500
TI  - The efficacy of conventional radiofrequency denervation in patients with chronic
      low back pain originating from the facet joints: a meta-analysis of randomized
      controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Radiofrequency denervation is commonly used for the treatment
      of chronic facet joint pain that has been refractory to more conservative
      treatments, although the evidence supporting this treatment has been
      controversial. PURPOSE: We aimed to elucidate the precise effects of
      radiofrequency denervation in patients with low back pain originating from the
      facet joints relative to those obtained using control treatments, with particular
      attention to consistency in the denervation protocol. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A
      meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was carried out. PATIENT SAMPLE:
      Adult patients undergoing radiofrequency denervation or control treatments (sham
      or epidural block) for facet joint disease of the lumbar spine comprised the
      patient sample. OUTCOME MEASURES: Visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were
      measured and stratified by response of diagnostic block procedures. METHOD: We
      searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database for randomized
      controlled trials regarding radiofrequency denervation and control treatments for
      back pain. Changes in VAS pain scores of the radiofrequency group were compared
      with those of the control group as well as the minimal clinically important
      difference (MCID) for back pain VAS. Meta-regression model was developed to
      evaluate the effect of radiofrequency treatment according to responses of
      diagnostic block while controlling for other variables. We then calculated mean
      differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effects models.
      RESULTS: We included data from seven trials involving 454 patients who had
      undergone radiofrequency denervation (231 patients) and control treatments such
      as sham or epidural block procedures (223 patients). The radiofrequency group
      exhibited significantly greater improvements in back pain score when compared
      with the control group for 1-year follow-up. Although the average improvement in
      VAS scores exceeded the MCID, the lower limit of the 95% CI encompassed the MCID.
      A subgroup of patients who responded very well to diagnostic block procedures
      demonstrated significant improvements in back pain relative to the control group
      at all times. When placed into our meta-regression model, the response to
      diagnostic block procedure was responsible for a statistically significant
      portion of treatment effect. Studies published over the last two decades revealed
      that radiofrequency denervation reduced back pain significantly in patients with
      facet joint disease compared with the MCID and control treatments. CONCLUSIONS:
      Conventional radiofrequency denervation resulted in significant reductions in low
      back pain originating from the facet joints in patients showing the best response
      to diagnostic block over the first 12 months when compared with sham procedures
      or epidural nerve blocks.

PMID- 28576501
TI  - Reporting the results of meta-analyses: a plea for incorporating clinical
      relevance referring to an example.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The results of meta-analyses are frequently reported, but
      understanding and interpreting them is difficult for both clinicians and
      patients. Statistical significances are presented without referring to values
      that imply clinical relevance. PURPOSE: This study aimed to use the minimal
      clinically important difference (MCID) to rate the clinical relevance of a meta
      analysis. STUDY DESIGN: This study is a review of the literature. PATIENT SAMPLE:
      This study is a review of meta-analyses relating to a specific topic, clinical
      results of cervical arthroplasty. OUTCOME MEASURE: The outcome measure used in
      the study was the MCID. METHODS: We performed an extensive literature search of a
      series of meta-analyses evaluating a similar subject as an example. We searched
      in Pubmed and Embase through August 9, 2016, and found articles concerning meta
      analyses of the clinical outcome of cervical arthroplasty compared with that of
      anterior cervical discectomy with fusion in cases of cervical degenerative
      disease. We evaluated the analyses for statistical significance and their
      relation to MCID. MCID was defined based on results in similar patient groups and
      a similar disease entity reported in the literature. RESULTS: We identified 21
      meta-analyses, only one of which referred to MCID. However, the researchers used
      an inappropriate measurement scale and, therefore, an incorrect MCID. The
      majority of the conclusions were based on statistical results without mentioning
      clinical relevance. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the articles we reviewed drew
      conclusions based on statistical differences instead of clinical relevance. We
      recommend introducing the concept of MCID while reporting the results of a meta
      analysis, as well as mentioning the explicit scale of the analyzed measurement.

PMID- 28576502
TI  - Re: Umberto Leone Roberti Maggiore, Simone Ferrero, Massimo Candiani, et al.
      Bladder Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, Treatment,
      Impact on Fertility, and Risk of Malignant Transformation. Eur Urol 2017;71:790
      807.

PMID- 28576503
TI  - Reply to Erfan Ayubi and Saeid Safiri's Letter to the Editor re: R. Jeffrey
      Karnes, Voleak Choeurng, Ashley E. Ross, et al. Validation of a Genomic Risk
      Classifier to Predict Prostate Cancer-specific Mortality in Men with Adverse
      Pathologic Features. Eur Urol. In press.
      https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2017.03.036. Methodological Issues.

PMID- 28576504
TI  - Improving Quality in Renal Cell Carcinoma Care: Bridging the Gap Between
      Measurement and Meaning.

PMID- 28576505
TI  - Reply to Thorsten Derlin, Christoph-A. von Klot, and Katja Hueper's Letter to the
      Editor re: Sungmin Woo, Chong Hyun Suh, Sang Youn Kim, Jeong Yeon Cho, Seung Hyup
      Kim. Diagnostic Performance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for the Detection of
      Bone Metastasis in Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Eur
      Urol. In press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2017.03.042.

PMID- 28576506
TI  - Re: R. Jeffrey Karnes, Voleak Choeurng, Ashley E. Ross, et al. Validation of a
      Genomic Risk Classifier to Predict Prostate Cancer-specific Mortality in Men with
      Adverse Pathologic Features. Eur Urol. In press.
      https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2017.03.036.

PMID- 28576507
TI  - Dementia registries around the globe and their applications: A systematic review.
AB  - Patient registries are valuable tools helping to address significant challenges
      in research, care, and policy. Registries, well embedded in many fields of
      medicine and public health, are relatively new in dementia. This systematic
      review presents the current situation in regards to dementia registries
      worldwide. We identified 31 dementia registries operating on an international,
      national, or local level between 1986 and 2016. More than half of the registries
      aimed to conduct or facilitate research, including preclinical research
      registries and registries recruiting research volunteers. Other dementia
      registries collected epidemiological or quality of care data. We present evidence
      of practical and economic outcomes of registries for research, clinical practice
      and policy, and recommendations for future development. Global harmonization of
      recruitment methods and minimum data would facilitate international comparisons.
      Registries provide a positive return on investment; their establishment and
      maintenance require ongoing support by government, policy makers, research
      funding bodies, clinicians, and individuals with dementia and their caregivers.

PMID- 28576508
TI  - A review of the role of serotonin system genes in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
AB  - Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder
      that causes the patient to experience intrusive thoughts and/or to carry out
      repetitive, ritualized behaviors that are time consuming and impairing. OCD is
      familial and heritable. The genetic factors responsible for pathogenesis,
      however, remain largely unknown despite the numerous candidate gene studies
      conducted. Based on efficacy of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) in treating
      OCD, serotonin system genes have been a dominant focus in OCD candidate gene
      studies. We review the most commonly studied candidate serotonin system gene
      variants (specifically in SLC6A4, HTR2A, HTR1B, and HTR2C) and their association
      with OCD. Although findings to date are mixed, serotonin transporter polymorphism
      5-HTTLPR and HTR2A polymorphism rs6311 (or rs6313) are most consistently
      associated with OCD. Mixed findings may be the result of genetic complexity and
      phenotypic heterogeneity that future studies should account for. Homogenous
      patient subgroups reflecting OCD symptom dimensions, OCD subtypes, and sex should
      be used for gene discovery.

PMID- 28576509
TI  - A neuroanatomical account of mental time travelling in schizophrenia: A meta
      analysis of functional and structural neuroimaging data.
AB  - Mental time travel (MTT) abilities could be particularly compromised in
      schizophrenic patients due to a deficit of the cognitive processes at the basis
      of remembering the past and imaging the future: constructive processes, theory of
      mind and self-awareness. Accordingly, we assumed that the neural circuits
      typically associated with MTT in healthy people might be partially compromised in
      chronic schizophrenic patients. To quantitatively and anatomically test our
      hypothesis, we run two meta-analyses using the Activation Likelihood Estimate
      method: (i) a neurofunctional meta-analysis on MTT in healthy subjects, (ii) a
      morphometrical meta-analysis on chronic schizophrenia. The results of the two
      meta-analyses were overlapped in order to identify the candidate regions involved
      in MTT deficit in schizophrenia. A significant overlap was found in the vmPFC, in
      the precuneus, in the hippocampus and in the insular cortex. We assume that MTT
      deficits in schizophrenic patients may be the results of a complex dysfunctional
      interaction between the system underlying the creation of self-representation,
      the constructive system and the salience attribution network.

PMID- 28576510
TI  - The role of the habenula in the transition from reward to misery in substance use
      and mood disorders.
AB  - The habenula (Hb) is an evolutionary well-conserved structure located in the
      epithalamus. The Hb receives inputs from the septum, basal ganglia, hypothalamus,
      anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, and projects to several midbrain
      centers, most importantly the inhibitory rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg)
      and the excitatory interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), which regulate the activity of
      midbrain monoaminergic nuclei. The Hb is postulated to play a key role in reward
      and aversion processing across species, including humans, and to be implicated in
      the different stages of transition from recreational drug intake to addiction and
      co-morbid mood disorders. The Hb is divided into two anatomically and
      functionally distinct nuclei, the lateral (LHb) and the medial (MHb), which are
      primarily involved in reward-seeking (LHb) and misery-fleeing (MHb) behavior by
      controlling the RMTg and IPN, respectively. This review provides a
      neuroanatomical description of the Hb, discusses preclinical and human findings
      regarding its role in the development of addiction and co-morbid mood disorders,
      and addresses future directions in this area.

PMID- 28576512
TI  - Erratum to "Impact of spillover from white matter by partial volume effect on
      quantification of amyloid deposition with [11C]PiB PET" [NeuroImage 143 (2016)
      316-324].

PMID- 28576513
TI  - miRNA expression profile in multicellular breast cancer spheroids.
AB  - Multicellular Tumor Spheroids develop a heterogeneous micromilieu and different
      cell populations, thereby constituting a cancer model with intermediate
      characteristics between in vitro bi-dimensional cultures and in vivo tumors.
      Multicellular Tumor Spheroids also acquire tumor aggressiveness features due to
      transcription modulation of coding and non-coding RNA. Utilizing microarray
      analyses, we evaluated the microRNAs expression profile in MCF-7 breast cancer
      cells cultured as Multicellular Tumor Spheroids. The expression data was used to
      predict associated cellular and molecular functions using different software
      tools. The biological importance of two dysregulated miRNAs (miR-221-3p and miR
      187) was studied by functional assays. Finally, the clinical relevance of these
      dysregulated miRNAs was explored using previously reported data. Thirty-three
      dysregulated microRNAs were found in MCF-7 Multicellular Tumor Spheroids. miRNA
      expression changes were closely linked with growth, proliferation, and cell
      development. miRNA-221-3p and miR-187 were implicated in the acquisition of
      migration/invasion capacities, sensitivity to the deprivation of growth factors,
      cell cycle phase regulation, and cell death. A panel of 5 miRNAs, including miR
      187, showed a good predictive value in discriminating between low and high-risk
      groups of breast cancer.

PMID- 28576514
TI  - Ultrasonographic assessment of tonsillar volume in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Adenotonsillar hypertrophy in children is the most common anatomical
      abnormality associated with obstructive sleep apnoea. Perioperative complications
      associated with adenotonsillectomy are more common in children with severe
      obstructive sleep apnoea. An objective preoperative method to determine the size
      of tonsils is missing. This study assessed the validity of ultrasound as a tool
      for measuring tonsillar size in children. METHODS: Single-institution prospective
      study of twenty-six children aged 2-6 years who underwent elective bilateral
      tonsillectomy. Trans-cervical ultrasonographic assessment of tonsillar size prior
      to tonsillectomy operation was performed. We assessed correlation of
      ultrasonographic and actual tonsillar volume. RESULTS: A total of 52 tonsils from
      26 patients were measured. Actual and ultrasonographic mean tonsillar volume (+/
      SD) was 3.9 (+/-2.1) ml and 3.6 (+/-2.5) ml, respectively (P = 0.24).
      Ultrasonographic and actual measurements correlated well (r = 0.89). CONCLUSIONS:
      This is the first study to show that ultrasound is a suitable objective method
      for determining tonsillar volume in paediatric patients. Preoperative ultrasound
      assessment of tonsillar anatomy and size may be an additional and suitable,
      objective method in the development of a risk stratification system in children
      with obstructive sleep apnoea undergoing tonsillar surgery.

PMID- 28576515
TI  - A case report of cavernous sinus thrombosis after trauma.
AB  - Cavernous sinus thrombosis is a rare but well-documented complication of sinus
      disease, propagated by intracranial spread of infection via valveless veins of
      the midface, with facial cellulitis as an uncommon source of infection. We
      present a case of significant intracranial thromboses secondary to nasal dorsal
      abscess after trauma that was successfully treated with bedside drainage of the
      abscess in addition to broad-spectrum antibiotics, anticoagulation, and steroids,
      and remains asymptomatic with seven months follow-up.

PMID- 28576516
TI  - A novel missense mutation in the SLC26A4 gene causes nonsyndromic hearing loss
      and enlarged vestibular aqueduct.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the genetic causes of hearing loss in a
      Chinese proband with nonsyndromic hearing loss and enlarged vestibular aqueduct
      syndrome. METHODS: We conducted clinical and genetic evaluations in a deaf
      proband and his normal-hearing parents. Multiplex PCR technology combined with
      Ion TorrentTM next-generation sequencing technology was used to detect the
      pathogenic mutations. As a control, a group of 1500 previously studied healthy
      newborns from the same ethnic background were subjected to deafness gene
      screening using the same method as in our previous study. RESULTS: The proband
      harbored two mutations in the SLC26A4 gene in the form of compound
      heterozygosity. He was found to be heterozygous for a novel mutation named c.1742
      G > T (p.Arg581Met) in exon 13 and for the known mutation c.589 G > A
      (p.Gly197Arg). These variants were carried in the heterozygous state by the
      parents and therefore co-segregated with the genetic disease. The c.1742 G > T
      (p.Arg581Met) mutation was absent in 1500 healthy newborns. Protein alignment
      indicated high evolutionary conservation of the p.R581 residue, and this mutation
      was predicted by PolyPhen-2 and other online tools to be damaging. CONCLUSION:
      This study demonstrates that the novel mutation c.1742 G > T (p.Arg581Met) in
      compound heterozygosity with c.589 G > A in the SLC26A4 gene is the main cause of
      deafness in a family clinically diagnosed with enlarged vestibular aqueduct
      (EVA). Our study will provide a basic foundation for further investigations to
      elucidate the SLC26A4-related mechanisms of hearing loss.

PMID- 28576517
TI  - Retrieval of tracheobronchial foreign bodies by short flexible endoscopy in
      children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Flexible endoscopy (FE) is frequently used to diagnose
      tracheobronchial foreign bodies (TBFB). However, it is still controversial for
      retrieval of TBFB in pediatric field. This study aims at reporting and evaluating
      our experiences of using short-length FE with a non-invasive ventilation (NIV)
      technique and intensive care unit (ICU) support in retrieving pediatric TBFB.
      METHODS: A retrospective review of the hospital database and FE videos of
      pediatric patients aged less than 18 year-old who were diagnosed of TBFB and
      managed in our hospital over a 17-year period (1999-2015). The demographic data
      were collected and analyzed. A NIV technique of providing nasopharyngeal oxygen
      with intermittent nose closure and abdominal compression was routinely performed
      in procedural sedated patients throughout the whole FE procedures. RESULTS: Sixty
      six consecutive patients with 76 TBFB were enrolled. Among them, 72 (94.7%) TBFB
      in 64 patients were successfully retrieved at the first attempt of FE immediately
      after the diagnosis was made. There were 13 iatrogenic TBFB in patients who
      already had coexisting airway problems. The median age was 16 months (range 1.5
      months-17 years) and the median body weight was 10.5 kg (range 3.5-48.5 kg).
      Seventy (70/72, 97.2%) TBFB were retrieved by short-length FE and among them, 55
      procedures (55/72, 76.4%) used FE with no working channel. No significant acute
      or late adverse effects were noted. The mean retrieval procedural time was 23.6
      +/- 15.1 min. CONCLUSION: Using short-length FE with this NIV technique,
      appropriate sedation and ICU support is a safe, simple and effective modality for
      the retrieval of TBFB immediately after confirming the diagnosis in pediatric
      patients.

PMID- 28576511
TI  - Elucidating opportunities and pitfalls in the treatment of experimental traumatic
      brain injury to optimize and facilitate clinical translation.
AB  - The aim of this review is to discuss the research presented in a symposium
      entitled "Current progress in characterizing therapeutic strategies and
      challenges in experimental CNS injury" which was presented at the 2016
      International Behavioral Neuroscience Society annual meeting. Herein we discuss
      diffuse and focal traumatic brain injury (TBI) and ensuing chronic behavioral
      deficits as well as potential rehabilitative approaches. We also discuss the
      effects of stress on executive function after TBI as well as the response of the
      endocrine system and regulatory feedback mechanisms. The role of the
      endocannabinoids after CNS injury is also discussed. Finally, we conclude with a
      discussion of antipsychotic and antiepileptic drugs, which are provided to
      control TBI-induced agitation and seizures, respectively. The review consists
      predominantly of published data.

PMID- 28576518
TI  - Refractory sleep-disordered breathing due to unilateral lingual tonsillar
      hypertrophy in a child with Proteus Syndrome.
AB  - Proteus Syndrome (PS) is a rare congenital overgrowth disease affecting bones,
      skin, adipose and the central nervous system. The result is asymmetric,
      disfiguring hypertrophy which can manifest as craniofacial dysmorphia and
      aerodigestive tract abnormalities. We report the case of obstructive lingual
      tonsillar hypertrophy resulting in residual sleep disordered breathing after
      adenotonsillectomy in a child with PS, a previously unrecognized manifestation of
      the disease. Endoscopic treatment with coblation effectively and safely treated
      the obstructive symptoms.

PMID- 28576519
TI  - Pediatric post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage in the setting of post-transplantation
      immunosuppression.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Long-term immunosuppressants form an integral part of therapy for
      post-transplantation patients. Immunosuppressants may also have an anticoagulant
      effect, and little is known about their effects on bleeding risk after
      adenotonsillectomy. Our objective was to investigate whether there is an
      increased observed rate of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage in a population of
      pediatric patients on long-term immunosuppressants after solid organ
      transplantation, compared to healthy controls. METHODS: This was a retrospective
      chart review of pediatric patients with a history of renal or heart transplant
      undergoing adenotonsillectomy at our institution between 2000 and 2014. All
      patients underwent tonsillectomy with monopolar electrocautery. Retrieved data
      included perioperative medications, occurrence of post-operative bleeding and
      associated treatment. For comparison, we obtained a population of age-matched
      controls with no history of immunosuppression who underwent the same procedure.
      RESULTS: A total of 34 patients meeting criteria were identified, of which 3
      (8.82%) suffered a postoperative bleed. Forty-seven controls were obtained, with
      a total of 2 (4.26%) postoperative hemorrhages (p = 0.65). Two of the post
      transplantation patients who bled postoperatively required cauterization in the
      operating room. None of the controls required surgical treatment. The incidences
      of postoperative bleeding requiring surgical treatment were 5.88% and 0%,
      respectively (p = 0.17). CONCLUSION: We failed to demonstrate an increased risk
      of bleeding after undergoing adenotonsillectomy in our cohort of post
      transplantation pediatric patients on chronic immunosuppression. Future research,
      likely requiring a multi-institutional effort, could stratify by
      immunosuppressive agent to elucidate bleeding risk with specific medications.

PMID- 28576520
TI  - Clinical characterization of novel chromosome 22q13 microdeletions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The advent of chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) for evaluation
      of patients with multiple congenital anomalies has made it possible to define
      chromosomal imbalances with greater precision and resolutions significantly
      smaller than possible by standard G-banded chromosome analysis. We describe two
      patients with novel chromosomal anomalies involving chromosome 22q13, a locus
      also associated with Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS). OBJECTIVE: We aim to
      characterize the novel phenotypic and genotypic findings of two patients with
      22q13 microdeletions, distinct from PMS, comparing and contrasting with features
      of PMS. RESULTS: Case 1 is a 4-year-old boy with global developmental delay,
      esotropia, moderate aortic root dilation, genu valgum, and in-toeing gait. MRI
      brain for evaluation of neonatal hypotonia revealed a left cerebellopontine angle
      arachnoid cyst. He referred on newborn hearing screening, and diagnostic auditory
      brainstem response (ABR) showed left profound retrocochlear hearing loss.
      Surgical intervention for the arachnoid cyst was deferred, with spontaneous
      resolution at age two years without hearing recovery. CMA revealed a novel, de
      novo 5.1 Mb microdeletion of 22q13.31q13.33 not involving SHANK3, a gene
      typically deleted in PMS. Case 2 is a 6-year-old girl with some features also
      seen in patients with PMS but also several atypical features. She has a complex
      chromosomal rearrangement including a 5.3 Mb 22q13 microdeletion (not including
      SHANK3) and de novo 2.1 Mb gain of 22q11. CONCLUSION: As diagnostic sensitivity
      improves, smaller chromosomal imbalances will be detectable related to milder or
      different phenotypes. We present two patients with novel deletions of chromosome
      22q13 associated with multiple congenital anomalies and features distinct from
      PMS.

PMID- 28576521
TI  - The effect of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on tympanosclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on
      tympanosclerosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two male Sprague Dawley rats were
      separated into 4 groups as CAPE (n = 10), alcohol (n = 10), control (n = 8) and
      normal (n = 4) groups. All tympanic membranes except normal group were
      myringotomised and type 3 Streptococcus pneumoniae strains was injected into
      their middle ears. Myringotomies were repeated for 5 weeks. Intraperitoneal (i.p)
      CAPE were administrated to the CAPE group at 10 MUmol/kg/day and 10% ethyl
      alcohol administrated to the alcohol group for 5 weeks. The control group were
      left untreated. Findings of myringosclerosis were recorded by otomicroscope at
      sixth week. Then, all rats were sacrificed and tympanic membrane thickness and
      severity of middle ear mucosal inflammation evaluated histopathalogically.
      RESULTS: Severity of myringosclerosis was significantly higher in the alcohol and
      control groups compared to the CAPE group (p < 0.001), but was not significant
      when alcohol and control groups were compared (p = 0.17). The tympanic membrane
      thickness measured in the alcohol and control groups were significantly higher
      compared to the CAPE group (p < 0.001), but was not significant when alcohol and
      control groups were compared (p = 0.17). The severity of inflammation in the
      middle ear mucosa was significantly higher in the alcohol and control groups
      compared to the CAPE group (respectively, p < 0.001, p = 0.03). The severity of
      inflammation in the middle ear mucosa was not significant between alcohol and
      control groups (p = 0.30). CONCLUSION: CAPE has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant
      effects on the development of MS in myringotomized rats, so reduces the severity
      of tympanosclerosis.

PMID- 28576522
TI  - PD-L1 expression and CD8+ infiltration shows heterogeneity in juvenile recurrent
      respiratory papillomatosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tumor immunotherapy have broadened therapeutic options for tumor
      treatment. The role of immune function in juvenile recurrent respiratory
      papillomatosis (JRRP) has not been investigated. Applying immunoblockade
      inhibitors as a novel disease treatment is unclear. Our study, for the first
      time, evaluates immune infiltration and immuno-suppressive molecule expression in
      JRRP. Our study provides insights in possibly treating this disease with tumor
      immunotherapies. We aimed to determine expression of programmed death-ligand 1
      (PD-L1), a cancer escape protein, and presence of CD8+ T cell infiltration in
      tumor microenvironment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Seven patients with JRRP (mean age:
      7.43; age range 3-17) in this study routinely have their tumors surgical debulked
      at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Following surgery, samples were de
      identified and sent to pathology where they were stained and analyzed. RESULTS:
      Six out of seven patients expressed PD-L1 on tumor cells to various extents.
      Three patients showed concurrent PD-L1 expression on tumor cells and abundant
      CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as well as PD-L1+ stromal lymphocytes, while
      PD-L1 expression on tumor cells were not associated with CD8+ tumor infiltrating
      T cells nor PD-L1+ stromal lymphocytes in the other three patients. HPV 6/11 and
      p16 was detected in all the patients. There appeared to be no correlation between
      either PD-L1 expression and CD8+ infiltration and clinical severity as measured
      by both the number of surgeries per year or Derkay score. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a
      small cohort, the expression of p16 and HPV 6/11 in all of the patients confirms
      the tissues were HPV tumor cells. PD-L1 expression was detected in the vast
      majority of tumor samples, while inflammatory cell compartments showed a higher
      degree of variation. Expression of PD-L1 on tumor cells but not inflammatory
      cells raises the possibility of a tumor cell intrinsic manner of PD-L1
      expression. In contrast, a group of patients showed PD-L1 positivity in both
      tumor and inflammatory cells along with abundant CD8+ tumor infiltrating
      lymphocytes, suggesting adoptive immune resistance in these tumors and potential
      benefits from tumor immunotherapy.

PMID- 28576523
TI  - Clinical symptoms that predict the presence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if a set of clinical symptoms can help in determining the
      presence and severity of OSA. SETTING: Tertiary urban pediatric hospital.
      METHODS: Parents of children undergoing an overnight PSG answered a 56 item
      questionnaire based on their child's symptoms. The responses to the questionnaire
      were compared between patients with different severities of OSA (s determined by
      PSG) and those without OSA. Responses to questionnaire were also analyzed between
      obese and non-obese patients. RESULTS: 235 children were included (140 male and
      95 female) with a mean age of 5.76 +/- 2.78 years. The mean Apnea Hypopnea Index
      (AHI) was 7.78 +/- 14.50 events/hour (range 0-110 events/h). 74 (31.5%) children
      had mild-OSA (AHI between 1 and 4.99 events/h), 31 (13.19%) had moderate-OSA (AHI
      between 5 and 9.99 events/h), 58 (24.7%) had severe-OSA (AHI>=10events/h) and the
      remaining 72 (30.64%) had No-OSA (AHI<=1event/h). 87 (37%) patients were obese.
      Eight clinical symptoms in non-obese and six clinical symptoms in obese patients
      predicted the mild to severe OSA. Sixteen symptoms in non-obese patients and nine
      symptoms in obese patients predicted the presence of severe OSA in these
      patients. CONCLUSION: Clinical symptoms reported in this study are useful to
      predict the presence of and the severity of OSA in children. Clinical symptoms
      can also predict the presence and severity of OSA in children who are obese,
      however, the symptoms required to make the prediction are different in obese
      children.

PMID- 28576524
TI  - Influence of nasal septum deformity on nasal obstruction, disease severity, and
      medical treatment response among children and adolescents with persistent
      allergic rhinitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of different types of nasal septum deformity
      (NSD) on nasal obstruction, rhinitis severity and response to medical treatment
      among pediatric persistent allergic rhinitis (PER) patients. METHODS: In a
      prospective, real-life study, 150 children and adolescents (mean age 13 +/- 2.8
      years, females 32.6%) diagnosed with PER according to ARIA guidelines were
      assessed by nasal endoscopy for NSD according to Mladina's classification, their
      response to medical treatment (intranasal steroids and antihistamines or
      antileucotriens), the presence of comorbidities, rhinitis severity (modified-ARIA
      criterion) and nasal obstruction visual analog scale score (VAS). RESULTS: Most
      patients (87%) had 1 of the 7 types of septal deformities. There was a high
      prevalence of bilateral (types 4 and 6; 46%) and anterior unilateral (types 1 and
      2; 25%) NSD in patients not responding to medical treatment. Type 4 (OR = 6.4; p
      = 0.005) or type 6 (OR = 4.4; p = 0.03) NSD increased the risk of lack of
      improvement with medical treatment. Coexistence of anterior unilateral or
      bilateral NSD with severe turbinate enlargement increased >20-fold the risk of
      lack of improvement. Patients with bilateral NSD presented greater rhinitis
      severity. Non-responder adolescents displayed higher prevalence of bilateral NSD
      than children (53% vs. 23%; p = 0.02). Nasal obstruction VAS was higher for
      patients with anterior than posterior NSD, and greater for patients with
      bilateral NSD than any other type of septal morphology. CONCLUSION: Nasal
      endoscopy shows that bilateral and unilateral anterior nasal septum deformities
      are strongly associated with a poor response to medical treatment, greater
      rhinitis severity and higher nasal obstruction VAS. Consequently, nasal endoscopy
      is necessary in the PER patients to understand the disease severity as well as to
      plan a specific surgical treatment in order to improve nasal obstruction, disease
      severity, and patient's quality of life.

PMID- 28576525
TI  - An analysis of hearing screening test results in 2291 premature infants of
      Chinese population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the hearing screening program
      among preterm infants as well as to identify risk factors associated with failing
      primary newborn hearing screening. METHODS: The retrospectively selected
      population included all preterm infants who had primary hearing screening in a
      neonatal ward from January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2015 at West China Second
      University Hospital, Sichuan University. The newborn hearing screening (NHS)
      procedure was performed in all preterm infants by automated auditory brainstem
      response (AABR). Infants who failed the primary hearing screening received a
      second screening at 42 days after birth. Infants who failed both tests were
      referred to a tertiary audiology center for diagnostic confirmation and
      management before 6 months of age. The final diagnosis for referred infants was
      obtained by telephone follow-up. The risk factors associated with failure to pass
      the primary hearing screen were evaluated and analyzed for preterm infants.
      RESULTS: Among 2291 preterm infants recruited, 155 infants (6.8%) failed the
      primary hearing screening with an abnormal AABR. Of these 155 infants, 113
      (72.9%) passed the secondary screening. At the end of the follow-up, 1 infant
      (0.04%) was diagnosed with hearing loss, 3 infants had delayed language
      development, and 40 infants were lost to follow up. Multivariate regression
      analysis revealed that gestational age <=32 weeks (Odds ratio [OR] = 2.093, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.370-3.196), super hyperbilirubinemia (>=25 mg/dl) (OR
      = 3.560, 95% CI 1.009-12.560), and respiratory failure (OR = 1.971, 95% CI 1.188
      3.265) were associated with failure to pass newborn hearing screening.
      CONCLUSION: The prevalence of failure to pass primary hearing screening among
      preterm infants was 6.8% in our study, and we found a relatively low prevalence
      of hearing loss (0.04%). Super hyperbilirubinemia, gestational age <=32weeks, and
      respiratory failure were risk factors associated with failure of preterm infants
      to pass the primary hearing screening. Our results suggest that preterm infants
      with hyperbilirubinemia, gestational age <=32 weeks, and respiratory failure
      should be closely followed.

PMID- 28576526
TI  - Assessment of red blood cell distribution width and mean platelet volume in
      children with epistaxis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship
      between red blood cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and epistaxis in
      children. METHODS: Between January 2015 and July 2016, 105 children who were
      referred to our clinic with epistaxis and 100 sex- and age-matched controls were
      retrospectively analyzed. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and mean
      platelet volume (MPV) values were determined in both groups. RESULTS: RDW values
      were found significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the group with epistaxis than in the
      control group (11.95 +/- 1.31 vs. 12.74 +/- 1.21). MPV was 7.49 +/- 1.33 in the
      group with epistaxis and 7.23 +/- 1.06 in the control group, and there was no
      significant difference between the groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: We found no
      difference between MPV values of both groups and significantly lower RDW values
      in children with epistaxis. Decreased RDW values were considered as an
      accompanying marker rather than a result of epistaxis. In addition, it may be
      thought that low RDW values may increase the bleeding tendency by disrupting the
      thrombotic activities. Further studies are needed to validate the relation of
      these parameters with epistaxis and its mechanisms.

PMID- 28576527
TI  - Transcervical ultrasonographic examination of palatine tonsil size and its
      correlation with age, gender and body-mass index in healthy children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to assess the palatine tonsil size with transcervical
      ultrasonography in healthy children and to analyze whether the palatine tonsil
      size is correlated with age, gender and body-mass index (BMI). METHODS: This
      series consisted of 680 healthy children (340 females, 340 males) who underwent
      transcervical ultrasonography for evaluation of palatine tonsil size. A total of
      seventeen age groups (range: 1-17 years) comprised of 40 children (20 females, 20
      males) were constituted. Demographic data including gender, height, weight and
      BMI were noted. Correlation between baseline descriptive data and tonsil volume
      was investigated. RESULTS: The average age was 102.51 +/- 59.24 months (range: 12
      to 204) and body-mass index was 17.50-5.16 kg/m2 (min: 12.4-max:25.8). The
      average tonsil volume was 1819.5-2023.5 mm3 (min:601, max: 4007). The tonsil
      volume did not differ significantly between females and males (p = 0.108).
      However, there was a significant difference between tonsil volumes of various age
      groups (p < 0.001). Tonsil size seemed to be greater in parallel with advancement
      of age (p < 0.001) and increased BMI (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Transcervical
      ultrasonography can be an accurate, safe, cheap, non-invasive and accessible
      measure for evaluation of the size of tonsils objectively. There were strongly
      positive correlations between age, BMI and palatine tonsil size in healthy
      children and variability with respect to descriptive characteristics must be
      considered during diagnostic procedures and preoperative evaluation. ADVANCES IN
      KNOWLEDGE: In our study, we suggest that transcervical ultrasonography can be an
      accurate, safe, cheap, non-invasive and accessible measure for evaluation of the
      size of tonsils. There were positive correlations between age, BMI and palatine
      tonsil size in healthy children.

PMID- 28576528
TI  - Endovascular management of iatrogenic cervical internal carotid artery
      pseudoaneurysm in a 9-year-old child: Case report and literature review.
AB  - Extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) pseudoaneurysms are uncommon in the
      pediatric population and are usually secondary to direct trauma to the vessel.
      Treatment options include surgery (ligation), anticoagulation therapy and
      endovascular treatment. Endovascular covered stents have shown good results in
      adult populations, resulting in occlusion of the aneurysm and preservation of the
      artery without significant complications. However, there have been only limited
      reports in the literature reporting endovascular carotid stent placement in the
      pediatric population. We report a case of a 9-year-old boy patient, who developed
      a cervical ICA pseudoaneurysm after a parapharyngeal tumor resection. He was
      successfully treated by primary endovascular covered stent placement. During a
      follow-up of 6 months the patient has been asymptomatic, without any adverse
      event. Additionally, a literature review is done.

PMID- 28576529
TI  - Parent educational materials regarding the newborn hearing screening process.
AB  - PURPOSE: Newborn hearing screening (NHS) procedures and implementation vary from
      state to state in the US. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content
      and nature of information provided to parents about their infant's NHS across
      states to answer two questions: 1) what information is included in each state's
      parent information brochure? and 2) do the brochures include educational
      information requested by parents that may help reduce parental anxiety, improve
      satisfaction, and decrease the potential for misunderstandings? METHOD: Each
      state's parent brochures and educational resources provided to parents were
      accessed via the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM)
      website, categorized, and reviewed for content. RESULTS: Results indicate that
      the information provided to parents varies considerably across states and many
      brochures do not contain important information that is desired by parents.
      CONCLUSIONS: NHS procedures may be improved by providing standardized information
      regarding the process to parents in all states.

PMID- 28576530
TI  - Maturation of auditory brainstem responses in young children with congenital
      monaural atresia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To date, the impact of conductive hearing loss on the auditory pathway
      at brainstem level has only been investigated in animal studies, which showed a
      species-specific delay of maturation. In this study, the functional maturation of
      auditory brainstem response (ABR) parameters in humans with unilateral atresia of
      the external auditory canal was investigated. METHODS: 42 newborns and toddlers
      ranging in age from 13 days to 11 months were included. The click-evoked ABR
      interpeak latencies (IPL) of the atretic ears and the contralateral ears with
      normal hearing were evaluated. The children had no comorbidities and had never
      been fitted with any kind of hearing aid. The absolute latencies (AL) and IPL of
      a matched control group were compared to the contralateral normally hearing ears
      of the children with unilateral atresia. RESULTS: The mean air-bone gap in the
      ears with atresia was 44 dB HL. Despite this partial acoustic deprivation, no
      significant difference between the IPLs of normal ears and ears with atresia
      could be detected. Both for AL and IPL, the differences between the normal ears
      and the control group were all within 1 standard deviation to the mean.
      CONCLUSION: The data showed that the monaural acoustic deprivation by a block of
      sound conduction does not produce any delay of functional maturation at brainstem
      level in this group of patients. With regard to the AL and IPL on brainstem
      level, no differences between the normal ears of children with unilateral atresia
      and children with bilateral normal hearing could be detected.

PMID- 28576531
TI  - The clinical efficacy of early intervention for infected preauricular sinus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to evaluate the outcomes of early surgical
      intervention, and to suggest the accurate operation time and surgical strategies.
      METHODS: A total of 190 cases (144 patients) of PAS excision were classified into
      2 groups according to their time of surgery; early intervention group (n = 53),
      and non-early intervention group (n = 137). Early intervention was defined as
      excision performed within 3 weeks from their first hospital visit, and after
      acute infection control, surgical removal was followed regardless of their
      infection status. The mean age of patients was 18.3 +/- 15.7 years old (62 male,
      82 female). During surgery, a parallel incision was added when iatrogenic fistula
      due to incision and drainage (I &D) or additionally opened wounds caused by
      infection was present. RESULTS: Cases of I & D history, revision cases, use of
      preoperative antibiotics were significantly higher in the early intervention
      group compared to the non-early intervention group, however, the time of surgery
      did not affect the complication rate (p = 0.533). Within the infected cases, only
      1 patient from the non-early intervention group showed a minor complication of
      keloid scar. During our follow up period of minimum of 6 months, there was no
      recurrence in either groups. CONCLUSION: The early intervention of PASs does not
      seem to increase postoperative complication or recurrence rates. A double
      parallel skin incision is a simple but adequate technique to treat infected PASs.

PMID- 28576532
TI  - Inner ear anomalies in children with isolated unilateral congenital aural
      atresia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: We aim to define the frequencies of anomalies of the inner
      ear, oval window, and round window ipsilateral to isolated non-syndromic
      unilateral aural atresia. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Retrospective case series. We
      reviewed high resolution computed tomography scans of the temporal bones of 70
      children with isolated non-syndromic unilateral congenital aural atresia. Scans
      were reviewed according to the Jahrsdoerfer criteria and further evaluated for
      anomalies of the vestibule, semi-circular canals, cochlea, internal auditory
      canal and vestibulocochlear nerve. RESULTS: Inner ear dysplasia was seen in two
      of 70 atretic ears: one with a dysmorphic lateral semicircular canal and another
      with a large vestibule assimilating the lateral semicircular canal. Abnormalities
      of the oval window and round window ipsilateral to the atresia were identified in
      21% (15) and 7% (5), respectively, of the atretic ears. Oval window and round
      window abnormalities were associated with disproportionately lower Jahrsdoerfer
      scores compared to aural atresia patients without these abnormalities (P < 0.001
      and P = 0.04, respectively). CONCLUSION: Compared to studies that included
      syndromic or bilateral atresia cases, we found inner ear and oval window
      abnormalities less common in children with isolated non-syndromic unilateral
      aural atresia. However, round window anomalies seem to occur at about the same
      frequency.

PMID- 28576533
TI  - Acoustic absorbance measurements in neonates exposed to smoking during pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze acoustic absorbance using wideband tympanometry in neonates
      exposed to passive smoking during pregnancy. METHOD: A study comprising 54
      neonates in the control group (CG - unexposed) and 19 in the study group (SG -
      exposed) was carried out. Subjects were submitted to the wideband tympanometry
      test and subsequent analysis of absorbance of 17 frequencies. RESULT: Low
      frequencies had a lower level of absorbance compared to high frequencies for both
      ambient and peak pressures, with no difference between the groups. CONCLUSION: No
      effect of passive smoking on acoustic absorbance measurements in neonates was
      observed.

PMID- 28576534
TI  - Using click-evoked auditory brainstem response thresholds in infants to estimate
      the corresponding pure-tone audiometry thresholds in children referred from UNHS.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine whether behavioral pure-tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds in
      children can be accurately estimated from the corresponding infants' click-evoked
      auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds through a retrospective review of
      data from a universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program in Taiwan. METHOD:
      According to medical records from Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei Hospital
      District, 45,450 newborns received hearing screening during January 1999-December
      2011. Among these newborns, 104 (82, both ears; 22, one ear; total, 186 ears)
      received regular follow-up and were recruited as subjects. The relationship
      between infant click-evoked ABR thresholds and the corresponding child PTA
      thresholds was determined through Pearson correlation coefficient and linear
      regression analyses. RESULTS: The correlation coefficient between click-evoked
      ABR thresholds and behavioral PTA thresholds at the average of frequencies of 1-4
      and 2-4 kHz was 0.76 and 0.76, respectively. Linear regression analysis showed
      that behavioral audiometry thresholds at the average of frequencies of 1-4 and 2
      4 kHz were accurately estimated from click-evoked ABR thresholds in 57% and 58%
      children, respectively. CONCLUSION: Click-evoked ABR testing is a reliable tool
      to cautiously estimate behavioral PTA thresholds at the average of frequencies of
      1-4 and 2-4 kHz. For accurately performing hearing aid fitting and auditory
      rehabilitation in congenitally deaf infants, a combination of frequency-specific
      tone-burst ABR and click-evoked ABR should be used.

PMID- 28576535
TI  - Adherence to acute otitis media diagnosis and treatment guidelines among Israeli
      otolaryngologists.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The recent Israeli acute otitis media (AOM) guidelines, drafted
      mainly by pediatricians and family physicians in 2013, addressed diagnostic and
      therapeutic issues, in order to reduce over-diagnosis and treatment. These
      guidelines are considered as the 'standard of care' for AOM management. While the
      adherence rate of pediatricians to previous Israeli AOM guidelines (2004) was
      reported to be high (>85%), the compliance of otolaryngologists has not been
      studied. METHODS: An anonymous 19-item questionnaire was circulated among
      practicing Israeli otolaryngologists (residents [n = 93], specialists [n = 283]).
      All the items were scored according to the number of correct answers in line with
      the guidelines, and summed on a 0-100 scale. RESULTS: Response rate was 34% (n =
      127). Overall, scores of correct answers of residents (n = 48, 52% of all
      residents) and specialists (n = 79, 28% of all specialists) were similar, and
      showed comparable moderate adherence to both guidelines: 55.7 vs 58.3 (p = 0.26).
      Residents were more likely to adhere to the U.S. guidelines, when compared to
      specialists (score difference 6.1 vs 2.8, p = 0.008). Responders preferred the
      microscope for diagnosis (48%), over the recommended (pneumatic) otoscope (62%)
      (p = 0.05), and were more likely to start antibiotic therapy (62%), rather than
      the 'watchful waiting' (38%) (p = 0.03). Concerning antibiotic treatment, 50% of
      otolaryngologists prescribed amoxicillin as recommended, at 60-80 mg/kg/d.
      CONCLUSION: The moderate adherence rate suggests that the guidelines were
      partially adopted by otolaryngologists, who use different instrumentation than
      recommended, and treat more severe/complicated cases. Over-treatment with
      antibiotics and inaccurate dosing regimens are still common. Better
      implementation of the AOM guidelines among otolaryngologists should be performed
      in designated training platforms.

PMID- 28576536
TI  - Bilateral cochlear implantation in a child with Johanson Blizzard Syndrome.
AB  - Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) occurs in more than 80% of cases of Johanson
      Blizzard Syndrome (JBS). However, limited knowledge exists in medical literature
      of cochlear implantation (CI) outcomes in children with JBS. We report the case
      of a 5 year-old male with JBS and bilateral CI. While minimal progress in spoken
      language scores was noted after 4 years of bilateral CI use, substantial
      improvements in discrimination of speech sounds and audibility of spoken language
      and environmental sounds were documented. Cochlear implantation is an available
      treatment option of profound SNHL in children with JBS even if spoken language
      outcomes are marginal.

PMID- 28576537
TI  - Can changes in parentally measured acoustic reflectometry levels predict the
      middle ear status?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Spectral gradient acoustic reflectometry (SG-AR) may be used to detect
      middle ear effusion. Our aim was to investigate whether increasing SG-AR levels
      between two SG-AR examinations indicate deterioration from a healthy middle ear
      to acute otitis media (AOM). METHODS: We enrolled 185 children (age 6-35 months)
      whose parents were willing to use the SG-AR at home daily. Measurement pairs of
      parental home SG-AR examination results were generated and analyzed. There was
      one SG-AR examination result obtained within +/-1 day of the reference visit and
      another result within +/-1 day of the subsequent visit. We defined the SG-AR
      level as increasing when the difference between two measurements was >=2 levels
      from a lower to a higher level, suggesting development of AOM. When the SG-AR
      level difference was <=1, we defined this no change of the SG-AR level. The
      middle ear diagnosis was determined by pneumatic otoscopy at the study clinic.
      RESULTS: 361 paired SG-AR home measurements were obtained. The reference
      measurement was related to a healthy middle ear as determined by pneumatic
      otoscopy. Increasing SG-AR levels (59/361), were 63% (95% CI 50%-74%) sensitive
      and 94% (91%-97%) specific for deterioration of a healthy middle ear to AOM. The
      positive predictive value was 71% (58%-82%) and the negative predictive value was
      92% (88%-95%). When there was no SG-AR level difference between the SG-AR
      examinations, the corresponding figures were 88% (95% CI 84%-92%), 69% (56%-79%),
      93% (89%-95%) and 57% (45%-68%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that
      increasing SG-AR levels might not be sufficiently sensitive to detect
      deterioration of the middle ear status from healthy middle ear to AOM in
      symptomatic children. Importantly, however, the development of AOM seems to be
      unlikely in an initially healthy middle ear when there is no difference between
      the SG-AR levels in two separate measurements.

PMID- 28576538
TI  - Do post-tonsillectomy patients who report bleeding require observation if no
      bleeding is present on exam?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Three to ten percent of tonsillectomy patients experience post
      tonsillectomy hemorrhage. Examination of those patients who return to the
      Emergency Department (ED) with a history of hemorrhage may be found to have
      active bleeding, a coagulum within the fossa, or a normal post-operative exam. It
      is not known if those with a normal postoperative exam require inpatient
      observation. METHODS: This is a retrospective series from 1/1/2010 to 12/31/2014
      at a tertiary pediatric hospital. We evaluated outcomes in patients who presented
      to our ED with a history of post tonsillectomy hemorrhage, but after a thorough
      inspection failed to demonstrate active bleeding or clot, and were thus deemed to
      have a normal postoperative exam. This cohort was then evaluated for subsequent
      active bleeding requiring cauterization. Demographics and clinical data were
      extracted from the medical record. RESULTS: In 337 visits with a history of
      bleeding, and a normal postoperative exam, 38 (11%) subsequently bled requiring
      cauterization. 32/38 (84%) bled within 24 h of admission to the ED. No
      demographic or clinical variables predicted an increased risk of bleeding during
      observation. CONCLUSIONS: Eleven percent of patients who presented to the ED with
      a history of bleeding at home but a normal postoperative exam subsequently bled
      and required cautery, usually within 24 h. Aside from the history of bleeding at
      home, we found no additional predictors of subsequent bleeding and recommend this
      group of patients should be considered for 24 hour in-hospital observation prior
      to discharge.

PMID- 28576539
TI  - Fully-covered metallic stenting in an infant with tracheoesophageal fistula due
      to button battery ingestion.
AB  - Previously, the main treatment options for tracheoesophageal fistula included
      surgery and conservative treatment. Herein, we report a child suffering from
      severe tracheoesophageal fistula due to button battery ingestion. The child
      relapsed soon after a repair surgery. Then, he was endotracheally implanted with
      a fully-covered metallic stent combined with a jejunal tube feeding. He recovered
      soon and the stent was removed five months later. The fistula was healed with no
      relapse during a 25-month follow-up. Therefore, endotracheal implantation of
      fully-covered metallic stent is an alternative treatment for tracheoesophageal
      fistula due to button battery ingestion, especially in cases with severe
      respiratory disorders.

PMID- 28576540
TI  - Refractory sleep apnea caused by tubal tonsillar hypertrophy.
AB  - Snoring/sleep apnea are usual symptoms of adenotonsillar hypertrophy, and
      adenotonsillectomy is usually recommended. In rare cases, symptoms remain after
      surgery, and tubal tonsil hypertrophy could be the cause. We experienced a
      pediatric patient whose symptoms were refratory snoring/sleep apnea although he
      previously underwent three times of adenotonsillectomy. We diagnosed tubal tonsil
      hypertrophy which was the cause of refractory symptoms, and decided to perform
      volume reduction with radiofrequency ablation. We suggest that tubal tonsil
      hypertrophy should be taken into account of the cause of refractory sleep apnea
      after adenotonsillectomy, and volume reduction with radiofrequency may be an
      effective method.

PMID- 28576541
TI  - A case of acute clival osteomyelitis in a 7-year-old boy secondary to infection
      of a Thornwaldt cyst.
AB  - Clival osteomyelitis is a potentially life-threatening infection that can occur
      in healthy children. It can be related to congenital anomalies. We report the
      case of a 7-year-old boy with Streptococcus intermedius and Fusobacterium clival
      osteomyelitis arising from a Thornwaldt cyst situated in a fossa navicularis
      magna of the occipital bone. Multidisciplinary management is necessary to ensure
      rapid improvement and complete healing.

PMID- 28576542
TI  - A national survey of knowledge, attitude and practices among pediatricians
      towards newborn hearing screening in India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pediatricians have a key role in ensuring that infant has undergone
      hearing screening and required follow-up. Attempts in various countries and
      centers have been made at exploring their knowledge, attitude and practices
      towards universal newborn hearing screening. In India, such a program is at its
      preliminary stage, and hence a need was felt to study this aspect in
      pediatricians working in India. METHOD: A cross-sectional online survey was
      carried out among 112 pediatricians working in India. The questionnaire was
      framed after reviewing the existing questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was
      used to summarize the findings. RESULTS: A response rate of 7.99% (112/1402) was
      obtained of which only 20.5% reported of availability of screening program in
      their work set-up. The majority of the pediatricians (95%) were aware of the
      newborn hearing screening while 98.3% were affirmative about the importance of
      screening of all infants. Very few pediatricians reported of a screening program
      in their set-up or in their close locality. Overall the pediatricians were
      confident about their knowledge on this topic yet expressed a need to know more
      about several intricacies about hearing screening. The pediatricians also
      provided an input on the most preferred method of receiving more information.
      SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: The success of the universal newborn hearing screening
      program lies in the support and cooperation of health care providers such as
      pediatricians. The present study draws attention to the positive attitude and
      practices exhibited by them. It also sheds light on the knowledge gaps that are
      present and need the due attention of the policy makers. Further, it highlights
      the need for having more continuing medical education program and awareness
      drives for ensuring a better implementation of UNHS.

PMID- 28576543
TI  - Pycnodysostosis at otorhinolaryngology.
AB  - AIM: Pycnodysostosis is a rare autosomal, recessive, skeletal dysplasia caused by
      a mutation in the cathepsin k gene. Pycnodysostosis is characterized by short
      stature, characteristic facial appearance (delayed closure of fontanelles and
      cranial sutures, mandibular hypoplasia and angle disorder, blue sclera), and
      acroosteolysis of the distal phalanges. Our aim was to describe the
      otorhinolaryngologic findings, differential diagnoses, various treatment options,
      and followup in eight cases of pycnodysostosis. METHOD: This retrospective
      clinical study used data from eight patients diagnosed with pycnodysostosis by a
      single pediatric endocrinologist primarily based on clinical and radiographic
      findings. All patients were referred to the otorhinolaryngology outpatient clinic
      by the pediatric endocrinology unit of the Marmara University between February
      2013 and March 2015. Detailed medical histories were obtained in all cases and
      otorhinolaryngologic physical examination, blood assays, electrocardiogram,
      lateral skull X-rays, chest radiograph, cephalometric investigations,
      tympanograms, and audiograms were also carried out. Sleep videos of patients were
      recorded and those with upper airway problems were evaluated for sleep apnea by
      polysomnography. Informed consent form was obtained from the parents of all
      patients. RESULTS: Eight patients (7 females and 1 male) displaying proportionate
      dwarfism were included in the study. They had a mean age of 14.7 years (range: 13
      16 y), the mean height of 141.3 cm (range 132-155 cm), and mean weight of 44.4 kg
      (range: 39.6-49.3 kg). All patients had facial dysmorphism with frontal bossing
      and the hands and feet had short digits with overlying cutaneous wrinkles that
      tapered off with large overriding nails. Midfacial hypoplasia and malocclusion
      were observed in seven of the eight patients (87.5%), four (50%) had
      micrognathia, and five (62.5%) had proptosis. Tympanograms and audiograms of all
      patients were type A and normal, and the mean of the pure tone audiogram was 13.3
      dB (range: 10-16 dB). All patients had a narrow and grooved palate with disturbed
      dentition; two of them (25%) had mild markedness of the tongue base, five (62.5%)
      had grade 3 and three (37.5%) had grade 2 tonsillar hypertrophy, and five (62.5%)
      had adenoid hypertrophy. One patient (12.5%) had grade 3 Mallampati, four (50%)
      showed grade 2 Mallampati while three (37.5%) patients displayed grade 1
      Mallampati score. Further, while six (75%) patients had no uvular pathology, one
      (12.5%) patient presented with uvular elongation and another patient had a bifid
      uvula. Cephalometric measurements such as PAS-UP (mean 5.67 mm; range: 5.0-7.6
      mm) and PAS-TP (mean 9.61 mm; range: 8.5-12.2 mm) were lower than that of normal
      subjects. Video recordings showed that six of the eight patients (75%) had
      respiratory distress and four (50%) had sleep apnea. Polysomnography in these
      patients with sleep apnea showed that two had mild OSA (AHI: 18.2 and 20.1
      events/hour) and two had severe OSA (AHI: 53.4 and 62.8 events/hour). For upper
      airway problems, an adenotonsillectomy was performed in two (25%) patients while
      two others required an adenoidectomy. Positive pressure ventilation was
      recommended in two patients with persistent sleep apnea after
      adeno/adenotonsillectomy. However, because of the parental objections, the follow
      up polysomnographs could not be obtained. CONCLUSION: Pycnodysostosis is a very
      rare form of bone dysplasia. Otorhinolaryngologically, proper follow-up of these
      patients and appropriate treatment of upper airway problems are important to
      achieve an acceptable quality of life. Adeno/adenotonsillectomy and positive
      pressure ventilation, used as conservative approaches in treating upper airway
      problems, are effective and could be used instead of an aggressive surgery such
      as tracheotomy or maxillomandibular advancement. This study, to the best of our
      knowledge, is the largest ENT case series on pycnodysostosis.

PMID- 28576544
TI  - Cystic cervical teratoma: A diagnostic and management challenge.
AB  - Cervical teratomas are relatively rare congenital tumors pathologically defined
      by their three germ cell layer composition. Classically they manifest as solid or
      mixed solid-cystic lesions. Purely cystic teratomas pose a diagnostic challenge
      due to their clinical and radiologic similarity to lymphatic vascular
      malformations. Sclerotherapy, rather than operative excision, may be offered as
      therapy. We present an unusual cystic neck mass to highlight this dilemma.

PMID- 28576545
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT as staging of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.

PMID- 28576547
TI  - Impact of sample size and matching on single-subject classification of
      schizophrenia: A meta-analysis.

PMID- 28576546
TI  - D2/D3 dopamine receptor binding with [F-18]fallypride correlates of executive
      function in medication-naive patients with schizophrenia.
AB  - Converging evidence indicates that the prefrontal cortex is critically involved
      in executive control and that executive dysfunction is implicated in
      schizophrenia. Reduced dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding potential has been
      reported in schizophrenia, and the correlations with neuropsychological test
      scores have been positive and negative for different tasks. The aim of this study
      was to examine the relation between dopamine D2/D3 receptor levels with frontal
      and temporal neurocognitive performance in schizophrenia. Resting-state 18F
      fallypride positron emission tomography was performed on 20 medication-naive and
      5 previously medicated for brief earlier periods patients with schizophrenia and
      19 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Striatal and extra-striatal dopamine
      D2/D3 receptor levels were quantified as binding potential using fallypride
      imaging. Magnetic resonance images in standard Talairach position and segmented
      into gray and white matter were co-registered to the fallypride images, and the
      AFNI stereotaxic atlas was applied. Two neuropsychological tasks known to
      activate frontal and temporal lobe function were chosen, specifically the
      Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the California Verbal Learning Test
      (CVLT). Images of the correlation coefficient between fallypride binding and WCST
      and CVLT performance showed a negative correlation in contrast to positive
      correlations in healthy volunteers. The results of this study demonstrate that
      lower fallypride binding potential in patients with schizophrenia may be
      associated with better performance. Our findings are consistent with previous
      studies that failed to find cognitive improvements with typical dopamine-blocking
      medications.

PMID- 28576548
TI  - Defining the impact of childhood adversities on cognitive deficits in psychosis:
      An exploratory analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and cognitive
      deficits are both prevalent in psychosis. While it has been repeatedly
      demonstrated that ACE contribute to cognitive dysfunctions, the specific nature
      of this contribution remains elusive. Recent evidence suggests that types of
      adversities during critical periods have deleterious effects on brain structures
      that are important for cognitive functioning. The present study sought to clarify
      which types of adversities experienced at which time during development aggravate
      cognitive deficits in psychosis. METHODS: Exposure to abuse and neglect during
      childhood and adolescence were retrospectively assessed in N=168 adult
      individuals with psychotic disorder. Conditioned random forest regression was
      used to define the importance of type and timing of ACE for predicting domains of
      the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). RESULTS: Significant importance
      of ACE was determined for 5 out of 7 MCCB domains. Particularly abuse at age 3
      contributed to dysfunctional cognitive domains attention, learning, and working
      memory. Social cognition was related to neglect experienced at 11-12years, and to
      cumulative ACE. CONCLUSION: Abuse and neglect at periods when children spend
      substantial time in their families affect cognitive functioning, and hence
      aggravate dysfunction in psychosis. Results support the neurodevelopmental
      perspective on psychosis and the diagnostic value of type and timing of ACE.

PMID- 28576549
TI  - Computational and experimental model of transdermal iontophorethic drug delivery
      system.
AB  - The concept of iontophoresis is often applied to increase the transdermal
      transport of drugs and other bioactive agents into the skin or other tissues. It
      is a non-invasive drug delivery method which involves electromigration and
      electroosmosis in addition to diffusion and is shown to be a viable alternative
      to conventional administration routs such as oral, hypodermic and intravenous
      injection. In this study we investigated, experimentally and numerically, in
      vitro drug delivery of dexamethasone sodium phosphate to porcine skin. Different
      current densities, delivery durations and drug loads were investigated
      experimentally and introduced as boundary conditions for numerical simulations.
      Nernst-Planck equation was used for calculation of active substance flux through
      equivalent model of homogeneous hydrogel and skin layers. The obtained numerical
      results were in good agreement with experimental observations. A comprehensive in
      silico platform, which includes appropriate numerical tools for fitting, could
      contribute to iontophoretic drug-delivery devices design and correct dosage and
      drug clearance profiles as well as to perform much faster in-silico experiments
      to better determine parameters and performance criteria of iontophoretic drug
      delivery.

PMID- 28576550
TI  - Comparison of different zeolite framework types as carriers for the oral delivery
      of the poorly soluble drug indomethacin.
AB  - Microporous zeolites of distinct framework types, textural properties and crystal
      morphologies namely BEA, ZSM and NaX, have been employed as carriers to assess
      their effect on modulating the dissolution behavior of a BCS II model drug
      (indomethacin). Preparation of the loaded carriers via the incipient wetness
      method induced significant drug amorphization for the BEA and NaX samples, as
      well as high drug payloads. The stability of the amorphous drug content was
      retained after stressing test evaluation of the porous carriers. The dissolution
      profile of loaded indomethacin was evaluated in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2)
      and simulated intestinal fluids FaSSIF (fasted) and FeSSIF (fed state) conditions
      and was found to be dependent on the aluminosilicate ratio of the zeolites and
      the degree of crystalline drug content. The feasibility of the zeolitic particles
      as oral drug delivery systems was appraised with cytocompatibility and cellular
      toxicity studies in Caco-2 cultures in a time- and dose-dependent manner by means
      of the MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. Intracellular
      accumulation of the zeolite particles was observed with no apparent cytotoxic
      effects at the lower concentrations tested, rendering such microporous zeolites
      pertinent candidates in oral drug delivery applications.

PMID- 28576551
TI  - Free paclitaxel-loaded E-selectin binding peptide modified micelle self-assembled
      from hyaluronic acid-paclitaxel conjugate inhibit breast cancer metastasis in a
      murine model.
AB  - The present work seeks to construct a nanovehicle for the efficient suppression
      of breast cancer metastasis through targeting E-selectin on tumor vascular
      endothelial cells and hyaluronic acid-receptor on tumor cells. Herein, a new
      ligand-PEG-lipid conjugate, E-selectin binding peptide-polyethene glycol-1
      octadecylamine (Esbp-PEG-OA), was used as the targeting molecule of micelle self
      assembled form hyaluronic acid-paclitaxel (HA-PTX) conjugate. When loaded with
      free PTX, the micelles (Esbp-HA-PTX/PTX) exhibited nanoscale particle size with
      high drug-loading capacity (up to 31.5%). In vitro release study showed that the
      conjugated and entrapped PTX released simultaneously. Cellular uptake of micelles
      confirmed that Esbp-HA-PTX micelles could be specifically and efficiently
      internalized into E-selectin expressing human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVEC) and 4T1 breast cancer cells via receptor-meditated endocytosis. In vitro
      cytotoxicity assay further revealed that Esbp-HA-PTX/PTX micelles significantly
      improved the selectivity of PTX for killing the two cell types compared with PTX
      solution formulation. More importantly, Esbp-HA-PTX micelles raised the
      accumulation of payload in tumor through targeting two cell types in the tumor
      microenvironment simultaneously, resulting in marked in vivo inhibition of tumor
      growth, intratumoral microvessel density and metastasis, and decreased systemic
      toxicity over solution formulation. Overall, Esbp-HA-PTX/PTX micelle is promising
      in therapy of breast cancer metastasis.

PMID- 28576552
TI  - Poisoning in goats by the monofluoracetate-containing plant Palicourea aeneofusca
      (Rubiaceae).
AB  - The epidemiological, clinical and pathological aspects of a spontaneous outbreak
      of Palicourea aeneofusca poisoning in goats are reported. The main clinical signs
      were motor incoordination, generalized muscle tremors, broad-based posture,
      tachypnea, tachycardia, vocalization and respiratory distress. Two goats died 5
      and 20 min after the observation of the first clinical signs. Another that was
      found recumbent died 80 h later. One goat with mild clinical signs recovered.
      Congestion and hemorrhages were observed macroscopically and histologically in
      most organs. Pulmonary edema was also observed. The main microscopic findings
      consisted of cytoplasmic vacuolization and necrosis of the renal tubular
      epithelium. The average concentration of monofluoroacetate obtained in sixteen
      samples of P. aeneofusca was 0.29 +/- 0.17%. It is concluded that P. aeneofusca
      is toxic to goats under natural conditions.

PMID- 28576553
TI  - Phosphate crosslinked pectin based dual responsive hydrogel networks and
      nanocomposites: Development, swelling dynamics and drug release characteristics.
AB  - Potential dual responsive hydrogel networks (PPAD) are fabricated from pectin,
      poly((2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)) and phosphate crosslinker bis[2
      methacryloyloxy] ethyl phosphate (BMEP) by a simple free radical polymerization.
      These hydrogel networks are successfully utilized for encapsulation of an anti
      cancer drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and also employed as versatile platforms for
      production of silver nanoparticles. Fabricated hydrogel networks and silver
      nanocomposites were characterized by FTIR, SEM, EDX, TEM, DLS, DSC, TGA and XRD.
      Different polymer network parameters such as MC-, chi, xi and upsilone and
      diffusion constant (D) were evaluated to assess the drug release profile. The 5FU
      loaded PPAD hydrogels were used to perform in vitro release studies in both
      gastric and intestinal conditions of GIT (pH 1.2 & pH 7.4) at two different
      temperatures (25 and 37 degrees C). On the other hand various kinetic models
      (zero, first, Higuchi & Koresmeyer-Peppas) have also been employed to fit drug
      release profile. In addition, the antibacterial activity of PPAD silver
      nanocomposites were tested against four bacterial species Escherichia coli (-ve),
      Klebsiella pneumoniae (-ve), Bacillus cereus (+ve) and Staphylococcus aereus
      (+ve) using zone of inhibition test.

PMID- 28576555
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28576554
TI  - Absence seizure susceptibility correlates with pre-ictal beta oscillations.
AB  - Absence seizures are generalized, cortico-thalamo-cortical (CTC) high power
      electroencephalographic (EEG) or electrocorticographic (ECoG) events that
      initiate and terminate suddenly. ECoG recordings of absence seizures in animal
      models of genetic absence epilepsy show a sudden spike-wave-discharge (SWD) onset
      that rapidly emerges from normal ECoG activity. However, given that absence
      seizures occur most often during periods of drowsiness or quiet wakefulness, we
      wondered whether SWD onset correlates with pre-ictal changes in network activity.
      To address this, we analyzed ECoG recordings of both spontaneous and induced SWDs
      in rats with genetic absence epilepsy. We discovered that the duration and
      intensity of spontaneous SWDs positively correlate with pre-ictal 20-40Hz (beta)
      spectral power and negatively correlate with 4-7Hz (O) power. In addition, the
      output of thalamocortical neurons decreases within the same pre-ictal window of
      time. In separate experiments we found that the propensity for SWD induction was
      correlated with pre-ictal beta power. These results argue that CTC networks
      undergo a pre-seizure state transition, possibly due to a functional
      reorganization of cortical microcircuits, which leads to the generation of
      absence seizures.

PMID- 28576557
TI  - A prospective double blind randomized controlled study on the use of ethanol
      locks in HPN patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Ethanol lock therapy (ELT) has been shown to reduce the rate
      of catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) in high-risk home parenteral
      nutrition (HPN) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether ELT
      therapy for all patients newly started on HPN would reduce the incidence of
      CRBSI. METHODS: This study was a prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled
      trial that was carried out from July 2014 to April 2016. The study participants
      were patients newly started on HPN, and they were randomly assigned to either
      treatment with ELT or our current standard of care with saline heparin locks. The
      primary outcome was occurrence of CRBSI. RESULTS: Thirty eight patients that were
      newly started on HPN were randomized to either treatment with ELT (n = 18) or to
      our current standard of care with heparin locks (n = 20). Four patients in the
      ELT group and one patient in the control arm had a CRBSI (p = 0.17). No
      significant adverse side effects were noted during the study. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study did not show improvement in the rate of CRBSI with ELT in all patients
      started on HPN. ELT therapy may be most helpful to reduce in CRBSI in high-risk
      HPN patients, but further studies with a randomized control trial design of high
      risk patients are needed to further clarify this important issue in HPN patients.
      The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov prior to patient enrollment
      (NCT02227329).

PMID- 28576556
TI  - Correlative super-resolution fluorescence and electron microscopy using
      conventional fluorescent proteins in vacuo.
AB  - Super-resolution light microscopy, correlative light and electron microscopy, and
      volume electron microscopy are revolutionising the way in which biological
      samples are examined and understood. Here, we combine these approaches to deliver
      super-accurate correlation of fluorescent proteins to cellular structures. We
      show that YFP and GFP have enhanced blinking properties when embedded in acrylic
      resin and imaged under partial vacuum, enabling in vacuo single molecule
      localisation microscopy. In conventional section-based correlative microscopy
      experiments, the specimen must be moved between imaging systems and/or further
      manipulated for optimal viewing. These steps can introduce undesirable
      alterations in the specimen, and complicate correlation between imaging
      modalities. We avoided these issues by using a scanning electron microscope with
      integrated optical microscope to acquire both localisation and electron
      microscopy images, which could then be precisely correlated. Collecting data from
      ultrathin sections also improved the axial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio
      of the raw localisation microscopy data. Expanding data collection across an
      array of sections will allow 3-dimensional correlation over unprecedented
      volumes. The performance of this technique is demonstrated on vaccinia virus
      (with YFP) and diacylglycerol in cellular membranes (with GFP).

PMID- 28576558
TI  - Metabolomics of mitochondrial disease.
AB  - Mitochondrial disease (MD) diagnostics and disease progression investigations
      have traditionally relied very little on metabolic data, due to a lack of
      biomarker sensitivity and specificity. The recent drive to find novel, low
      intervention biomarkers and new therapeutic approaches have revived an interest
      in what metabolic data can offer, as presented in this timely review. We review
      how metabolomics has been applied to MD and provide an extensive overview of the
      reported metabolic perturbations and common mechanistic features that may provide
      a basis for future research. We conclude by highlighting the substantial
      potential of metabolomics for future diagnostics and mitochondrial medicine.

PMID- 28576559
TI  - The neuroprotective effect of melatonin on the hippocampus exposed to diclofenac
      sodium during the prenatal period.
AB  - Melatonin (Mel) has strong antioxidant properties since it is a direct scavenger
      of oxygen-based free radicals and related species. The main aim of this study is
      to show whether the effects of Mel can prevent the potential adverse effects of
      diclofenac sodium (DS), used as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)
      during the prenatal period, on the newborn experimental rat brain tissues using
      stereological methods Twenty-four male 12-week old Wistar albino rats were used.
      The study involved four groups (each containing six rats), those exposed, during
      the prenatal period, to saline 1ml/kg (Saline group), to diclofenac sodium
      3.6mg/kg (DS group), or to diclofenac sodium+melatonin 50mg/kg (DS+Mel group),
      and a control group (Cont group). At the end of the experiment, the brains were
      removed from the cranium for histological and stereological analyses. Cell loss
      in the hippocampus exposed to DS was observed compared to the Cont group
      (p<0.01), and a similar side-effect was also seen in the Saline group (p<0.01).
      However, there was no significant difference in cell numbers between the Cont and
      DS+Mel groups (p>0.05). These results suggest that exposure to DS during
      pregnancy causes a decrease in the number of cells in the hippocampus and dentate
      gyrus in the postnatal period. Using Mel, a neuroprotective agent, reduced the
      toxic effects of DS.

PMID- 28576560
TI  - The study of dental occlusion in ancient skeletal remains from Mallorca (Spain):
      A new approach based on dental clinical practice.
AB  - Occlusal characteristics, fundamental to assess the presence of malocclusion,
      have been often unexplored in bioarchaeological analyses. This is largely due to
      the fragmented condition of the skeletal remains. By applying a method that
      considers dental and maxillary features useful to evaluate occlusion in ancient
      fragmentary material, the purpose of this work is to define the occlusal features
      and explore the causes of malocclusion in a mediaeval population from Mallorca.
      The findings of this study suggest that normocclusion was present in ca. 60% of
      the individuals (N=31), and that some characteristics, such as molar
      relationship, were slightly different from those of modern populations. The
      analysis of the occlusal features revealed for example that open-bite was absent
      in 85% of the sample, posterior open-bite was completely absent and overbite and
      overjet were normal in around 90% of the individuals. Statistically significant
      correlations between canine and molar relationships and between molar
      relationship and dental wear of the superior and inferior canines and incisors
      were observed. In addition, wear could affect the curve of Spee. All these
      findings strengthen the hypothesis that in ancient times malocclusion was not as
      generalized as in modern times. Although the factors that lead to malocclusion
      throughout centuries could have several causes, we suggest that in this
      population dental wear, which is strongly associated with the diet, was the
      fundamental causing factor.

PMID- 28576561
TI  - Antimicrobial activity of polymyxin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (PLX-SLN):
      Characterization of physicochemical properties and in vitro efficacy.
AB  - Antimicrobial resistance is a current public health concern, limiting the
      available therapeutic options used for the treatment of common bacterial
      infections. The development of new drug entities via biotechnological processes
      is however expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, old antimicrobial agents have
      been recovered for clinical use. An example of these drugs is polymyxin, which is
      known for its serious adverse side effects, such as nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity
      and promotion of skin pigmentation. To overcome these limitations, the use of
      biodegradable nanoparticles has been proposed to allow site-specific targeting,
      increasing the drug's bioavailability and decreasing its side effects. The aim of
      this work was the development of an optimized pharmaceutical formulation composed
      of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) loading polymyxin B sulphate (PLX) for the
      treatment of bacterial infections. The PLX-loaded SLN were produced by a double
      emulsion method (w/o/w), obtaining particles with a mean size of approximately
      200nm, polydispersity of 0.3 and zeta potential of -30mV. The encapsulation
      efficiency reached values above 90% for all developed formulations. SLN remained
      stable for a period of 6months of storage at room temperature. The occlusive
      properties of the SLN was shown to be dependent on the type of lipid, while the
      antimicrobial properties of PLX-loaded SLN were effective against resistant
      strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Results from the differential scanning
      calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small angle X-ray
      scattering (SAXS) analyses confirmed the crystallinity of the inner SLN matrices,
      suggesting the capacity of these particles to modify the release profile of the
      loaded drug.

PMID- 28576562
TI  - A survey of the incidence of dyslipidemia and its components in people over 20
      years old in Ahvaz: A cohort study 2009-2014.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis
      and the main cause of death in the developing and developed countries. In this
      cohort study, the incidence of dyslipidemia and its components have been studied
      among individuals over 20 years old in Ahvaz, southwest of Iran. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The Phase 1 of this study was conducted on the prevalence of Metabolic
      syndrome and its related factors by Diabetes Research Center in 2009. The target
      population included individuals over 20 years old who were selected using cluster
      sampling in Ahvaz health centers. In the second phase of the study, 5 years later
      in 2014, subjects were again recalled by health centers. Questionnaires,
      anthropometric indices and measurements were repeated similar to Phase 1. The
      blood sample was taken from everyone after 12h of fasting and then the factors
      (Chol, TG, HDL) were measured. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of dyslipidemia
      obtained 60.7% (males 56.7% and females 64.8%). lipid profile {HDL, Triglycerides
      and Cholesterol had changes in their means(a significant reduction in the mean
      about 10, 22.25 and 13 units respectively) between baseline and 5 years later.
      Waist circumference here associated with incidence of high LDL and high chol,
      also sex and High LDL 'educational level and daily consumption of vegetables were
      associated with incidence of low HDL and dyslipidemia respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Age, educational level and daily intake of fruits and vegetables were effective
      variables on incidence of dyslipidemia. According to various studies, LDL and HDL
      levels in different regions of Iran, seems to be influenced by factors such as
      climate, nutrition and activity levels.

PMID- 28576563
TI  - Development and validation of health related quality of life questionnaire
      (Indian scenario) in diabetic foot ulcer patients.
AB  - AIM: To develop and validate Health Related Quality of Life Questionnaire in
      Diabetic Foot Ulcer Patients (HRQLQDFU) for Indian scenario. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This study was conducted in two phases. First phase was Development of
      HRQLQDFU which included literature search and expert interview. Second phase was
      validation of HRQLQDFL which included face validation, content validation and
      construct validation. Face validation was done by ten diabetic foot ulcer
      patients, ten practicing nurses and ten care givers. They were asked to read and
      respond to questionnaire and report any difficulty in understanding the
      questions. Further they were asked to add any item to the questionnaire which
      according to them has a significant effect on quality of life. Content validation
      was done by six subject experts who judged the content relevance of questionnaire
      with score ranging from zero to four; zero being least relevant and four being
      most relevant. Content validity index was calculated for each question. Questions
      having content validity index>=0.8 were selected for the study. Reliability was
      tested by calculating Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS: In the development phase a
      questionnaire containing 37 questions with six domains was developed. None of
      patient had difficulty in understanding questions. After content validation a new
      questionnaire containing 20 questions was developed. Cronbach's alpha was 0.86
      which shows good reliability. CONCLUSION: The new health related quality of life
      questionnaire on diabetic foot ulcer patients for an Indian scenario is validated
      and can be a reliably measure for quality of life in diabetic foot ulcer
      patients.

PMID- 28576564
TI  - Cognitive deficits induced by combined exposure of stress and alcohol mediated
      through oxidative stress-PARP pathway in the hippocampus.
AB  - Several studies reported that stress can enhance the consumption of alcohol in
      humans and animals. However, the combinatorial effect of stress and alcohol on
      cognitive function and neurochemical alterations is quite understudied. In the
      present study, we have elucidated the involvement of oxidative stress-PARP
      cascade in alcohol and restraint stress (RS)-exposed animals using a PARP
      inhibitor, 1,5-isoquinolinediol (3mg/kg for 14days). Male Swiss albino mice were
      given alcohol (ALC) or RS (2h per day) or both in ALC+RS group for 28days.
      Behavioral analysis revealed cognitive dysfunction in ALC+RS group. Furthermore,
      oxidative stress and raised level of pro-inflammatory cytokines were found in the
      hippocampus region of ALC+RS group. Semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR
      showed overactivation of PARP-1 gene in ALC+RS group. 1,5-isoquinolinediol
      treatment significantly prevented cognitive deficits and aforementioned
      neurochemical alterations. Overall, our findings showed that ALC+RS exerted
      deleterious effects on the hippocampus which involves oxidative stress-PARP
      overactivation cascade.

PMID- 28576565
TI  - The expression of VDR mRNA but not NF-kappaB surprisingly decreased after vitamin
      D treatment in multiple sclerosis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the expression
      levels of vitamin D receptor (VDR) and NF-kappaB mRNAs in vitamin D (VD)
      supplemented multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. METHODS: RRMS patients received
      50,000 IU vitamin D3/week as an intra-muscular injection for 2 months. Blood
      samples were obtained from 30 MS patients before and after VD supplementation and
      32 healthy individuals, and then VDR and NF-kappaB mRNA levels were measured by
      real time PCR method and analyzed with independent and paired t-tests. Moreover,
      some correlations were performed between the expression levels of selected genes
      and some clinical features of MS and control groups. RESULTS: Surprisingly, the
      expression level of VDR mRNA significantly decreased after 2 months
      supplementation with VD in our selected patients and in contrast, the level of
      serum 25(OH) D increased after supplementation. Although, we didn't find any
      significant difference in the expression level of NF-kappaB gene before and after
      treatment with VD, its expression significantly decreased in untreated MS cases
      compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we found some new
      evidences from the molecular mechanism of vitamin D effectiveness in MS
      treatment. Also, we need more functional studies to find the effect of VD on the
      expression level of VDR mRNA.

PMID- 28576566
TI  - Continuous theta burst stimulation facilitates the clearance efficiency of the
      glymphatic pathway in a mouse model of sleep deprivation.
AB  - Sleep deprivation (SD) is a common condition associated with a variety of nervous
      system diseases, and has a negative impact on emotional and cognitive function.
      Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is known to improve cognition and
      emotion function in normal situations as well as in various types of dysfunction,
      but the mechanism remains unknown. We used two-photon in vivo imaging to explore
      the effect of cTBS on glymphatic pathway clearance in normal and SD C57BL/6J
      mice. Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) polarization was detected by immunofluorescence. Anxiety
      like behaviors was measured using open field tests. We found that SD reduced
      influx efficiency along the peri-vascular space (PVS), disturbed AQP4
      polarization and induced anxiety-like behaviors. CTBS significantly attenuated
      the decrease in efficiency of solute clearance usually incurred with SD, restored
      the loss of AQP4 polarization and improved anxiety-like behavior in SD animals.
      Our results implied that cTBS had the potential to protect against neuronal
      dysfunction induced by sleep disorders.

PMID- 28576567
TI  - Developing a data sharing community for spinal cord injury research.
AB  - The rapid growth in data sharing presents new opportunities across the spectrum
      of biomedical research. Global efforts are underway to develop practical guidance
      for implementation of data sharing and open data resources. These include the
      recent recommendation of 'FAIR Data Principles', which assert that if data is to
      have broad scientific value, then digital representations of that data should be
      Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). The spinal cord injury
      (SCI) research field has a long history of collaborative initiatives that include
      sharing of preclinical research models and outcome measures. In addition, new
      tools and resources are being developed by the SCI research community to enhance
      opportunities for data sharing and access. With this in mind, the National
      Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes
      of Health (NIH) hosted a workshop on October 5-6, 2016 in Bethesda, MD, in
      collaboration with the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (ODC-SCI) titled
      "Preclinical SCI Data: Creating a FAIR Share Community". Workshop invitees were
      nominated by the workshop steering committee (co-chairs: ARF and VPL; members:
      AC, KDA, MSB, KF, LBJ, PGP, JMS), to bring together junior and senior level
      experts including preclinical and basic SCI researchers from academia and
      industry, data science and bioinformatics experts, investigators with expertise
      in other neurological disease fields, clinical researchers, members of the SCI
      community, and program staff representing federal and private funding agencies.
      The workshop and ODC-SCI efforts were sponsored by the International Spinal
      Research Trust (ISRT), the Rick Hansen Institute, Wings for Life, the Craig H.
      Neilsen Foundation and NINDS. The number of attendees was limited to ensure
      active participation and feedback in small groups. The goals were to examine the
      current landscape for data sharing in SCI research and provide a path to its
      future. Below are highlights from the workshop, including perspectives on the
      value of data sharing in SCI research, workshop participant perspectives and
      concerns, descriptions of existing resources and actionable directions for
      further engaging the SCI research community in a model that may be applicable to
      many other areas of neuroscience. This manuscript is intended to share these
      initial findings with the broader research community, and to provide talking
      points for continued feedback from the SCI field, as it continues to move forward
      in the age of data sharing.

PMID- 28576568
TI  - Early-life exposure to caffeine affects the construction and activity of cortical
      networks in mice.
AB  - The consumption of psychoactive drugs during pregnancy can have deleterious
      effects on newborns. It remains unclear whether early-life exposure to caffeine,
      the most widely consumed psychoactive substance, alters brain development. We
      hypothesized that maternal caffeine ingestion during pregnancy and the early
      postnatal period in mice affects the construction and activity of cortical
      networks in offspring. To test this hypothesis, we focused on primary visual
      cortex (V1) as a model neocortical region. In a study design mimicking the daily
      consumption of approximately three cups of coffee during pregnancy in humans,
      caffeine was added to the drinking water of female mice and their offspring were
      compared to control offspring. Caffeine altered the construction of GABAergic
      neuronal networks in V1, as reflected by a reduced number of somatostatin
      containing GABA neurons at postnatal days 6-7, with the remaining ones showing
      poorly developed dendritic arbors. These findings were accompanied by increased
      synaptic activity in vitro and elevated network activity in vivo in V1.
      Similarly, in vivo hippocampal network activity was altered from the neonatal
      period until adulthood. Finally, caffeine-exposed offspring showed increased
      seizure susceptibility in a hyperthermia-induced seizure model. In summary, our
      results indicate detrimental effects of developmental caffeine exposure on mouse
      brain development.

PMID- 28576569
TI  - Top-down modulation of early print-tuned neural activity in reading.
AB  - Fast neural tuning to print has been found within the first 250ms of stimulus
      processing across different writing systems, indicated by larger N1 negativity in
      the ERP to words (or characters) compared to control stimuli, such as symbols.
      However, whether print tuning effects can be modulated by task demands at early
      stages of visual word recognition is still under debate. To further explore this
      issue, an ERP study in Chinese was conducted. Familiar, high-frequency,
      left/right-structured Chinese characters and unfamiliar, stroke number-matched
      symbols (Korean characters) were used as stimulus conditions. While viewing the
      characters and symbols, 20 native Chinese speakers performed three tasks: delayed
      naming, repetition detection, and blue color detection. Results from occipito
      temporal and whole map analyses suggest that the influence of task on print
      tuning changes throughout the N1. Accordingly in the N1 onset, a print tuning
      main effect was found, with a stronger N1 to words than symbols, irrespective of
      task. In the N1 offset, a print-by-task interaction reflected a more negative N1
      to symbols than words in both delayed naming and color detection, but not in the
      repetition detection. After the N1 an N2 was observed with task and condition
      main effects at the whole map level. Taken together, the current study provides
      evidence that neural tuning to print is modulated by task demands already within
      the first 250ms, suggesting that early visual-orthographic processing may be less
      automatic than it was thought, and the possible top-down modulation may be much
      faster than it was previously assumed.

PMID- 28576570
TI  - Deinococcus Mn2+-peptide complex: A novel approach to alphavirus vaccine
      development.
AB  - Over the last ten years, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an Old World alphavirus has
      caused numerous outbreaks in Asian and European countries and the Americas,
      making it an emerging pathogen of great global health importance. Venezuelan
      equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), a New World alphavirus, on the other hand, has
      been developed as a bioweapon in the past due to its ease of preparation, aerosol
      dispersion and high lethality in aerosolized form. Currently, there are no FDA
      approved vaccines against these viruses. In this study, we used a novel approach
      to develop inactivated vaccines for VEEV and CHIKV by applying gamma-radiation
      together with a synthetic Mn-decapeptide-phosphate complex (MnDpPi), based on
      manganous-peptide-orthophosphate antioxidants accumulated in the extremely
      radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. Classical gamma-irradiated
      vaccine development approaches are limited by immunogenicity-loss due to
      oxidative damage to the surface proteins at the high doses of radiation required
      for complete virus-inactivation. However, addition of MnDpPi during irradiation
      process selectively protects proteins, but not the nucleic acids, from the
      radiation-induced oxidative damage, as required for safe and efficacious vaccine
      development. Previously, this approach was used to develop a bacterial vaccine.
      In the present study, we show that this approach can successfully be applied to
      protecting mice against viral infections. Irradiation of VEEV and CHIKV in the
      presence of MnDpPi resulted in substantial epitope preservation even at supra
      lethal doses of gamma-rays (50,000Gy). Irradiated viruses were found to be
      completely inactivated and safe in vivo (neonatal mice). Upon immunization, VEEV
      inactivated in the presence of MnDpPi resulted in drastically improved protective
      efficacy. Thus, the MnDpPi-based gamma-inactivation approach described here can
      readily be applied to developing vaccines against any pathogen of interest in a
      fast and cost-effective manner.

PMID- 28576571
TI  - Nontoxic outer membrane vesicles efficiently increase the efficacy of an
      influenza vaccine in mice and ferrets.
AB  - In this study, we developed a further-modified outer membrane vesicle (fmOMV)
      from the DeltamsbB/DeltapagP mutant of Escherichia coli transformed with the
      plasmid, pLpxF, in order to use it as an adjuvant for pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1)
      influenza vaccine. We evaluated the efficacy of the pH1N1 influenza vaccine
      containing the fmOMV in animal models as compared to the commercial adjuvants,
      alum or AddaVaxTM. The fmOMV-adjuvanted pH1N1 influenza vaccine induced a
      significant increase in the humoral immunity; however, this effect was less than
      that of the AddaVaxTM. The fmOMV-adjuvanted vaccine displayed pronounced an
      enhanced protective efficacy with increased T cell immune response and reduced
      the viral load in the lungs of the infected mice after challenging them with a
      lethal dose of the homologous virus. Moreover, it resulted in a significantly
      higher cross-protection against heterologous virus challenge than that of the
      pH1N1 vaccine with alum or with no adjuvants. In ferrets, the fmOMV-adjuvanted
      vaccine elicited a superior antibody response based on the HI titer and
      efficiently protected the animals from the lethal viral challenges. Taken
      together, the nontoxic fmOMV could be a promising adjuvant for inducing robust T
      cell priming into the pH1N1 vaccine and might be broadly applicable to the
      development of preventive measures against influenza virus infection.

PMID- 28576572
TI  - Intradermal injection of a fractional dose of an inactivated HFMD vaccine elicits
      similar protective immunity to intramuscular inoculation of a full dose of an
      Al(OH)3-adjuvanted vaccine.
AB  - Enterovirus 71 (EV71) and Coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16) are the two major causative
      agents of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), which erupts in the Asia-Pacific
      regions. A bivalent vaccine against both EV71 and CVA16 is highly desirable. In
      the present study, on the bases that an experimental bivalent vaccine comprising
      of inactivated EV71 and CVA16 induces a balanced protective immunity against both
      EV71 and CVA16, we compare the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of one fourth of
      a full dose of an intradermal vaccine administered by needle-free liquid jet
      injector with a full dose of an intramuscular vaccine administered by needle
      syringe in monkeys. The results suggest that intradermal injection of a
      fractional dose of an inactivated HFMD vaccine elicits similar immunogenicity and
      reactogenicity to intramuscular inoculation of a full dose of an Al(OH)3
      adjuvanted vaccine, regardless of whether monovalent or bivalent vaccines were
      used. Our results support the use of an intradermal bivalent vaccine strategy for
      HFMD vaccination in order to satisfy the requirements and reduce the costs.

PMID- 28576575
TI  - Urgent care medicine and the role of the APP within this specialty.

PMID- 28576573
TI  - Rapid development of vaccines against emerging pathogens: The replication
      deficient simian adenovirus platform technology.
AB  - Despite the fact that there had been multiple small outbreaks of Ebola Virus
      Disease, when a large outbreak occurred in 2014 there were no vaccines or drugs
      available for use. Clinical development of multiple candidate vaccines was then
      initiated in parallel with attempts to contain the outbreak but only one vaccine
      was eventually tested in a phase III trial. In order to be better prepared for
      future outbreaks of known human pathogens, platform technologies to accelerate
      vaccine development should be employed, allowing vaccine developers to take
      advantage of detailed knowledge of the vaccine platform and facilitating rapid
      progress to clinical trials and eventually to vaccine stockpiles. This review
      gives an example of one such vaccine platform, replication-deficient simian
      adenoviruses, and describes progress in human and livestock vaccine development
      for three outbreak pathogens, Ebola virus, Rift Valley Fever Virus and Middle
      East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.

PMID- 28576574
TI  - Physical and functional interactions between nuclear receptor LXRalpha and the
      forkhead box transcription factor FOXA2 regulate the response of the human
      lipoprotein lipase gene to oxysterols in hepatic cells.
AB  - Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) catalyzes the hydrolysis of triglycerides from
      triglyceride-rich lipoproteins such as VLDL and chylomicrons in the circulation.
      Mutations in LPL or its activator apolipoprotein C-II cause hypertriglyceridemia
      in humans and animal models. The levels of LPL in the liver are low but they can
      be strongly induced by a high cholesterol diet or by synthetic ligands of Liver X
      Receptors (LXRs). However, the mechanism by which LXRs activate the human LPL
      gene is unknown. In the present study we show that LXR agonists increased the
      mRNA and protein levels as well as the promoter activity of human LPL in HepG2
      cells. A promoter deletion analysis defined the proximal -109/-28 region, which
      contains a functional FOXA2 element, as essential for transactivation by ligand
      activated LXRalpha/RXRalpha heterodimers. Silencing of endogenous FOXA2 in HepG2
      cells by siRNAs or by treatment with insulin compromised the induction of the LPL
      gene by LXR agonists whereas mutations in the FOXA2 site abolished the
      synergistic transactivation of the LPL promoter by LXRalpha/RXRalpha and FOXA2.
      Physical and functional interactions between LXRalpha and FOXA2 were established
      in vitro and ex vivo. In summary, the present study revealed a novel mechanism of
      human LPL gene induction by oxysterols in the liver with is based on physical and
      functional interactions between transcription factors LXRalpha and FOXA2. This
      mechanism, which may not be restricted to the LPL gene, is critically important
      for a better understanding of the regulation of cholesterol and triglyceride
      metabolism in the liver under healthy or pathological states.

PMID- 28576576
TI  - Recent advances in measuring the kinetics of biomolecules by NMR relaxation
      dispersion spectroscopy.
AB  - Protein function can be modulated or dictated by the amplitude and timescale of
      biomolecular motion, therefore it is imperative to study protein dynamics.
      Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique capable of
      studying timescales of motion that range from those faster than molecular
      reorientation on the picosecond timescale to those that occur in real-time.
      Across this entire regime, NMR observables can report on the amplitude of atomic
      motion, and the kinetics of atomic motion can be ascertained with a wide variety
      of experimental techniques from real-time to milliseconds and several nanoseconds
      to picoseconds. Still a four orders of magnitude window between several
      nanoseconds and tens of microseconds has remained elusive. Here, we highlight new
      relaxation dispersion NMR techniques that serve to cover this "hidden-time"
      window up to hundreds of nanoseconds that achieve atomic resolution while
      studying the molecule under physiological conditions.

PMID- 28576577
TI  - Advanced technology for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: A double-edged
      sword?

PMID- 28576578
TI  - Understanding solid-phase HLA antibody assays and the value of MFI.
AB  - As the practice of medicine becomes more reliant on imaging and laboratory tests,
      medical decisions will be increasingly based on numbers. Accordingly, following
      the introduction of solid-phase testing to the HLA testing repertoire, laboratory
      directors and physicians have employed preset mean fluorescence intensity (MFI)
      thresholds as the basis for decisions in the management of transplant patients.
      However, what do MFI values mean? The literature is rife with reports detailing
      numerous factors that influence antibody assessment including (but not limited
      to) sensitization history of the patient, level of mismatch between donor and
      recipient, presence of interfering substances in the serum, whether the antigen
      on multiplex beads is native or denatured, day-to-day and technologist
      variability, and the historical performance of an assay in a given institution.
      How are these variables incorporated into the interpretation of MFI values?
      Herein, the pitfalls and complexities of single antigen bead (SAB) testing and
      interpretation are discussed with specific attention to what can and cannot be
      inferred by MFI.

PMID- 28576580
TI  - Quassia "biopiracy" case and the Nagoya Protocol: A researcher's perspective.
AB  - Biopiracy accusations are common in the world of biodiversity research. At the
      end of 2015, a French NGO accused researchers from the Institut de Recherche pour
      le Developpement (IRD) of biopiracy. These researchers had applied for a patent
      for a natural bioactive molecule against malaria and cancer, the Simalikalactone
      E, isolated from Quassia amara L. (Simaroubaceae) leaves. This biopiracy
      allegation triggered a huge wave of attacks from the media and social networks,
      and vehement recrimination from political officials in French Guiana against
      researchers who have been accused of ethical misconduct, by stealing the
      traditional knowledge of indigenous people. These accusations were made in the
      contentious context of the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol in the frame of
      implementing the French law on biodiversity, nature and landscapes. So, in an
      atmosphere of heightened emotions it is crucial to understand the issues behind
      these accusations. We describe herein the genesis of our discovery, present the
      detractors' arguments, and discuss the consequences of such biopiracy
      denunciations for scientific research. We also address our concerns about the gap
      between rhetoric and reality and the real impact of the Nagoya Protocol on
      biodiversity conservation.

PMID- 28576581
TI  - In vivo dosimetry for lung radiotherapy including SBRT.
AB  - SBRT for lung cancer is being rapidly adopted as a treatment option in modern
      radiotherapy centres. This treatment is one of the most complex in common
      clinical use, requiring significant expertise and resources. It delivers a high
      dose per fraction (typically ~6-30Gy/fraction) over few fractions. The complexity
      and high dose delivered in only a few fractions make powerful arguments for the
      application of in vivo dosimetry methods for these treatments to enhance patient
      safety. In vivo dosimetry is a group of techniques with a common objective - to
      estimate the dose delivered to the patient through a direct measurement of the
      treatment beam(s). In particular, methods employing an electronic portal imaging
      device have been intensely investigated over the past two decades. Treatment
      verification using in vivo dosimetry approaches has been shown to identify errors
      that would have been missed with other common quality assurance methods. With the
      addition of in vivo dosimetry to verify treatments, medical physicists and
      clinicians have a higher degree of confidence that the dose has been delivered to
      the patient as intended. In this review, the technical aspects and challenges of
      in vivo dosimetry for lung SBRT will be presented, focusing on transit dosimetry
      applications using electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs). Currently available
      solutions will be discussed and published clinical experiences, which are very
      limited to date, will be highlighted.

PMID- 28576579
TI  - Suppression of Baeckea frutescens L. and its components on MyD88-dependent NF
      kappaB pathway in MALP-2-stimulated RAW264.7 cells.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Baeckea frutescens L. is commonly used as a folk
      medicinal material. There are nineteen components in its volatile oil, including
      Pcymol which has effects of eliminating phlegm, relieving asthma and antiviral.
      This study was aimed to investigate the anti-infectious inflammatory activities
      of Baeckea frutescens L. and its conponents and analyzing the mechanisms.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The anti-infectious inflammation of Baeckea frutescens L.
      were studied by using macrophage activating lipopeptide-2 (MALP-2)-stimulated
      RAW264.7 cell model in vitro. Secretion of nitric oxide (NO), expression of
      inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cytokines were detected as classic inflammatory
      index. Expression of Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), degradation of
      inhibitory kappaBalpha (IkappaBalpha) and nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB p65
      were further investigated. RESULTS: The results suggested that Baeckea frutescens
      L. has effect on suppression of MALP-2-mediated inflammation in RAW264.7 cells.
      The secretion of NO and the expression of iNOS could be inhibited. The secretion
      of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were also
      declined. Baeckea frutescens L. significantly decreased the expression of MyD88,
      therefore, inhibited the degradation of IkappaBalpha, reduced the level of
      nuclear translocation of p65. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated
      that Baeckea frutescens L. and its components could inhibit the anti-infectious
      inflammatory events and iNOS expression in MALP-2 stimulated RAW264.7 cells.
      Among them, BF-2 might play a role through the inhibition of the MyD88 and NF
      kappaB pathway. Our study might provide a new strategy to design and develop this
      kind of drug towards mycoplasma-infected inflammation.

PMID- 28576583
TI  - [ECG before administration of Ritalin(r): Is it useful ?]

PMID- 28576582
TI  - Visualization of air and metal inhomogeneities in phantoms irradiated by carbon
      ion beams using prompt secondary ions.
AB  - PURPOSE: Non-invasive methods for monitoring of the therapeutic ion beam
      extension in the patient are desired in order to handle deteriorations of the
      dose distribution related to changes of the patient geometry. In carbon ion
      radiotherapy, secondary light ions represent one of potential sources of
      information about the dose distribution in the irradiated target. The capability
      to detect range-changing inhomogeneities inside of an otherwise homogeneous
      phantom, based on single track measurements, is addressed in this paper. METHODS:
      Air and stainless steel inhomogeneities, with PMMA equivalent thickness of 10mm
      and 4.8mm respectively, were inserted into a PMMA-phantom at different positions
      in depth. Irradiations of the phantom with therapeutic carbon ion pencil beams
      were performed at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center. Tracks of single
      secondary ions escaping the phantom under irradiation were detected with a
      pixelized semiconductor detector Timepix. The statistical relevance of the found
      differences between the track distributions with and without inhomogeneities was
      evaluated. RESULTS: Measured shifts of the distal edge and changes in the
      fragmentation probability make the presence of inhomogeneities inserted into the
      traversed medium detectable for both, 10mm air cavities and 1mm thick stainless
      steel. Moreover, the method was shown to be sensitive also on their position in
      the observed body, even when localized behind the Bragg-peak. CONCLUSIONS: The
      presented results demonstrate experimentally, that the method using distributions
      of single secondary ion tracks is sensitive to the changes of homogeneity of the
      traversed material for the studied geometries of the target.

PMID- 28576584
TI  - [Zellweger syndrome].

PMID- 28576585
TI  - [Identifying pediatric victims and informing their families: An additional
      difficulty].

PMID- 28576586
TI  - [The lung microbiota. Review].
AB  - In the last 20years, culture-independent DNA-based techniques ("shotgun
      sequencing") demonstrated that complex microbial communities reside on most
      epithelial surfaces, including the lower airways. Until the amniotic sac
      ruptures, a fetus is considered to be essentially sterile. Many factors affect
      the composition of the lung microbiota: inheritance, mode of delivery, diet, and
      age-related changes in adults. It interacts with the digestive and oropharyngeal
      microbiotas. Animal models show that these interactions play a role in innate
      pulmonary immunity and modulation of the inflammatory response. The microbial
      composition of the airway microbiota differs between healthy children and those
      with chronic lung disease. The advances in the comprehension of microbiome
      changes have resulted in new approaches concerning the microbiota for treatment
      and prevention of disease.

PMID- 28576587
TI  - [Is nephron-sparing surgery relevant for unilateral Wilms tumors?]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wilms tumors (WTs) are the most frequent renal tumors in children.
      Radical nephrectomy (RN) remains the gold-standard surgical treatment for this
      type of cancer. Excellent results in overall survival (>90%) make it possible to
      consider nephronic preservation. The objective of this systematic review is to
      evaluate the relevance of nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) for the treatment of
      nonsyndromic unilateral Wilms tumor (UWT) in children. METHODS: Articles in
      English related to "unilateral Wilms tumor, unilateral nephroblastoma, partial
      nephrectomy, nephron-sparing surgery, renal function" identified in the Medline
      library were screened and data were extracted to perform a qualitative systematic
      review. RESULTS: We identified 377 articles, 14 of which were integrated into the
      analysis. Data on 4288 children were included, 3994 (93.1%) underwent RN, whereas
      294 (6.8%) underwent NSS. Stage I anatomopathology resulted in 55.1% RN and 79%
      NSS. Overall survival and event-free survival were similar: respectively 95.7%
      and 92.8% after RN and 96 and 90.5% after NSS. Positive margin status was higher
      after NSS (8.5% vs 0.5%), but tumor rupture and local tumor recurrences were
      similar. The rate of mild to moderate renal function was higher after RN (42% vs
      10% after NSS). DISCUSSION: NSS is regularly performed for WT in case of
      bilateral or syndromic tumors, but the literature considering UWT does not show
      consensus. The superiority of NSS for renal outcomes has now been fully
      evaluated, but the main problem of this surgery in case of UWT is to ensure
      oncologic outcomes as good as outcomes after RN. WTs are usually massive tumors
      for which partial nephrectomy is contraindicated, but studies showed that
      chemotherapy before surgery could reduce tumor volume and make NSS possible. This
      review shows that NSS results seem to be as good as RN results and that
      preoperative chemotherapy should be highlighted for its participation in the
      reduction of the positive margin status. Although radiotherapy is used with
      caution because of its side effects, some studies showed that it gave excellent
      results for oncologic salvage after local recurrence. Constant progress in
      medical imaging and detection systems has led to the emergence of a new type of
      assistance for surgeons such as image reconstruction and vessel or urinary tract
      system segmentation. Virtual simulation of the operation based on a real case
      should help evaluate the feasibility of complex procedures in the near future.
      CONCLUSION: NSS for UWT seems to be a credible therapeutic alternative. New
      technologies such as 3D reconstruction should help surgeons define the best
      parameters to select ideal tumors for this surgery in the near future. For the
      moment, small tumors (<4cm), distant from the renal hilum (ideally on the upper
      pole) that respect at least 50% of the renal parenchyma (ideally superficial with
      exophytic development) seem to be the perfect indication for NSS.

PMID- 28576588
TI  - [Dystonia 12: A rare and difficult diagnosis].
AB  - We report a case of dystonia 12, also called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism,
      which occurred in a young 12-year-old boy. Type 12 dystonia is a genetic syndrome
      characterized by a pathogenic mutation on ATP1A3 gene encoding the subunit alpha
      3 of Na-K-ATPase protein, resulting in neuronal dysfunctions. It remains a rare
      syndrome with less than 100 cases described in the literature. Its atypical
      presentation and its rarity may lead to a wandering diagnosis, even in some cases
      to a conversion hysteria diagnosis. Today, unfortunately, there is no effective
      treatment.

PMID- 28576590
TI  - An approach to improving heart failure management - A local contribution

PMID- 28576591
TI  - Large thrombus formation on an AmplatzerTM Cardiac Plug.

PMID- 28576589
TI  - Early changes in atrial conduction times in hypertensive patients with elevated
      pulse pressure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pulse pressure (PP) is the difference between systolic and diastolic
      blood pressure, and is an independent predictor of atrial fibrillation (AF). In
      this study we investigated the relationship between PP and atrial conduction
      times. METHODS: The study included 157 patients with essential hypertension. PP
      of 60 mmHg or more was regarded as elevated (n=56). Atrial electromechanical
      delay (EMD) was assessed with tissue Doppler echocardiography and P-wave
      dispersion (Pd) was calculated from the electrocardiogram. RESULTS: Left atrial
      volume index (23.6+/-4.9 ml/m2 vs. 25.2+/-6.5 ml/m2, p=0.141), left ventricular
      mass index (77.3+/-13.5 g/m2 vs. 80.9+/-19.6 g/m2, p=0.180) and grade I diastolic
      dysfunction (42% vs. 53%, p=0.242) were similar between groups. Inter-atrial
      (33.6+/-9.2 ms vs. 41.5+/-11.3 ms, p<0.001), intra-left atrial (23.0+/-8.8 ms vs.
      28.2+/-10.6 ms, p=0.001) and intra-right atrial (10.5+/-5.8 ms vs. 13.2+/-4.9 ms,
      p=0.004) EMD were found to be higher in patients with elevated PP. P-maximum
      (108+/-8 ms vs. 114+/-9 ms, p<0.001) and Pd (30+/-13 ms vs. 38+/-13 ms, p<0.001)
      were also prolonged in patients with elevated PP. Multivariate linear regression
      analysis revealed that PP was independently associated with inter-atrial EMD
      (beta=0.379, t=4.088, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed that elevated PP is
      associated with prolonged atrial EMD and Pd. Atrial conduction is disturbed in
      hypertensive patients with elevated PP before the development of significant
      structural remodeling.

PMID- 28576592
TI  - Evaluating the Genomic Yield of a Single Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided
      Transbronchial Needle Aspiration in Lung Cancer: Meeting the Challenge of Doing
      More With Less.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive techniques, including endobronchial ultrasound
      guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), yield small specimens that
      are adequate for cytologic diagnosis of lung cancer, but also need to provide
      material for molecular analysis to guide treatment. The number of EBUS-TBNA
      passes needed for mutation testing remains unclear. We sought to assess the
      adequacy of a single pass for genomic profiling of actionable mutations. METHODS:
      In a prospective observational study, paired samples from the same lesion were
      obtained from patients undergoing EBUS-TBNA for lung cancer diagnosis/staging.
      Following tumor cell confirmation by rapid on-site evaluation, a "reference"
      sample comprising >= 3 passes was obtained and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded.
      A "study" sample comprising a single pass was taken and snap-frozen. The primary
      outcome was DNA yield and quality from a single pass. The secondary outcome was
      diagnostic accuracy of a single pass for detecting actionable mutations. RESULTS:
      In 40 patients, single-pass specimens yielded a mean 3.98 MUg of highly intact
      DNA, well above the minimum threshold for targeted sequencing, which was
      performed in adenocarcinoma cases (n = 24). In 23 cases, there was 100% agreement
      in mutation status between reference and study samples. In 1 case, the reference
      sample failed to generate a molecular diagnosis owing to insufficient tumor
      cells; however, the study specimen identified a KRAS mutation. Tumor cell
      percentage in mutation-positive specimens was 1% to 70%, suggesting that single
      pass samples detect mutations even when tumor cell content is low. CONCLUSION:
      Single EBUS-TBNA passes yield DNA of high quantity and quality with high accuracy
      for molecular profiling, irrespective of tumor cell content.

PMID- 28576593
TI  - Impact of Omission of Intrapulmonary Lymph Node Retrieval on Outcome Evaluation
      of Lung Cancer Patients Without Lymph Node Metastasis: A Propensity Score
      Matching Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Clinical practice of retrieval of segmental (station 13) and
      subsegmental (station 14) lymph nodes for pathologic examination varies during
      lung cancer surgery. This study aimed to evaluate whether omitting retrieval of
      nodes from stations 13 and 14 could affect outcome evaluation for patients with
      pN0 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: This retrospective study
      analyzed 442 patients with NSCLC who were treated with both R0 resection and
      systematic mediastinal lymphadenectomy with pathologically confirmed stage pN0
      NSCLC. The study group included patients in whom N1 nodes including stations 10
      to 14 were investigated, and the control group included patients in whom stations
      10 to 12 only were investigated. Clinical and pathologic parameters of the groups
      were balanced by propensity score matching, and oncologic outcomes were assessed
      by the log-rank test. RESULTS: A total of 435 cases were included in the final
      analysis (170 in the study group and 265 in the control group). In the study
      group, a mean +/- SD of 5.0 +/- 3.0 nodes per case were collected from nodes 13
      and 14. After propensity score matching, 143 cases were included in each group.
      Overall and disease-free survival improved in the study group compared to the
      control group (P = .027 and P = .021, respectively). T staging and intrapulmonary
      node collection were prognostic factors for pN0 cases. CONCLUSION: Inferior
      oncologic outcomes of pN0 cases without intrapulmonary node retrieval suggest
      that the procedure of intrapulmonary lymph node retrieval may play a role in
      outcome evaluation for pN0 NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28576594
TI  - Time and Effort Required for Tissue Acquisition and Submission in Lung Cancer
      Clinical Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasingly, analysis of tumor tissue samples for predictive and
      pharmacodynamic biomarkers is incorporated into lung cancer clinical trials. We
      determined the time and effort required for tissue acquisition and submission.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data from patients enrolled from 2009 to 2016
      at UT Southwestern onto lung cancer trials with mandatory or optional submission
      of tumor tissue. We collected dates of treatment-related events and staff
      communications; nature of tissue requirement and biomarker analysis; and location
      of archival tissue. Associations between case characteristics, clinical
      intervals, and number of staff communications were analyzed by Fisher's exact
      test, Wilcoxon 2-sample test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: We identified 129
      patients enrolled onto 19 clinical trials, of whom 108 (84%) ultimately received
      study therapy. For cases in which tissue submission was required if available or
      optional, 16% and 0%, respectively, had tissue sent. The median interval between
      consent and treatment was 28 (interquartile range, 11-43) days if tissue was
      requested and 7 (interquartile range, 6-13) days if tissue was not requested (P <
      .001). Among cases with requested tissue, the median number of related research
      staff communications was 3 (range, 0-10). Over time, the number of staff
      communications increased (P < .001). Location of archival tissue was not
      associated with number of staff communications or treatment intervals.
      CONCLUSION: Lung cancer clinical trial requirements for tissue acquisition and
      submission affect the time to treatment initiation and require increasing staff
      effort. Improved systems to expedite these processes, as well as use of blood- or
      imaging-based biomarkers, may help address these issues.

PMID- 28576595
TI  - Prognostic Impact of Minimal Pericardial Effusion in Patients With Advanced Non
      small-cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Minimal (< 10 mm in thickness) pericardial effusion (PCE) can be
      incidentally detected by computed tomography at the time of diagnosis in patients
      with lung cancer. Although malignant PCE is known to be associated with poor
      prognosis, the impact of minimal PCE on outcome has remained unclear. We
      therefore examined the prognostic relevance of minimal PCE in patients with
      advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC at
      Kindai University Hospital between April 2009 and March 2015. The patients were
      classified into 3 groups on the basis of the presence and thickness of PCE: no
      PCE, minimal (< 10 mm) PCE, and malignant (>= 10 mm) PCE. The relation between
      overall survival and PCE status was examined with a Cox proportional hazards
      model. RESULTS: The total of 428 enrolled patients included 327 (76.4%) in the no
      PCE group, 61 (14.3%) in the minimal PCE group, and 40 (9.3%) in the malignant
      PCE group. Median overall survival was 15.0, 10.1, and 7.6 months in the no PCE,
      minimal PCE, and malignant PCE groups, respectively, with the survival of
      patients with minimal PCE thus being intermediate between that of the other 2
      groups (P = .003). Multivariable analysis revealed that minimal PCE was
      independently associated with reduced survival (hazard ratio, 1.46; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.07-1.96; P = .019). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of minimal
      PCE was an independent prognostic factor for reduced survival in patients with
      advanced NSCLC.

PMID- 28576597
TI  - Benchmark dynamics in the environmental performance of ports.
AB  - This paper analyses the 2016 environmental benchmark performance of the port
      sector, based on a wide representation of EcoPorts members. This is the fifth
      time that this study has been conducted as an initiative of the European Sea
      Ports Organisation (ESPO). The data and results are derived from the Self
      Diagnosis Method (SDM), a concise checklist against which port managers can self
      assess the environmental management of their port in relation to the performance
      of the EcoPorts membership. The SDM tool was developed in the framework of the
      ECOPORTS project (2002-2005) and it is managed by ESPO. A total number of 91
      ports from 20 different European Maritime States contributed to this evaluation.
      The main results are that air quality remains as the top environmental priority
      of the respondent ports, followed by energy consumption and noise. In terms of
      environmental management, the study confirms that key components are commonly
      implemented in the majority of European ports. 94% of contributing ports have a
      designated environmental manager, 92% own an environmental policy and 82%
      implement an environmental monitoring program. Waste is identified as the most
      monitored issue in ports (80%), followed by energy consumption (73%) and water
      quality (70%).

PMID- 28576596
TI  - Bronchoalveolar lavage triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC) determination for diagnosis
      of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with hematological malignancies.

PMID- 28576598
TI  - Blood cadmium and metallothionein concentrations in females of two sympatric
      pinnipeds species.
AB  - Otaria flavescens (SASL) and Arctocephalus australis (SAFS) are endemic of South
      America. The aims were to assess Cd concentrations in red blood cells (RBC) and
      plasma from free living females of both species; and to establish
      metallothioneins (MT) levels in blood fractions and the possible relationship
      between MTs and Cd. Blood of fifteen SASL and eight SAFS females from Isla de
      Lobos were analyzed (years 2010-2011). All animals showed Cd levels above the
      detection limit. Cd concentrations on SAFS were higher than those of SASL,
      however, no significant differences were observed on metal concentrations between
      cell fractions by species. Metal levels were associated with a natural presence
      and ecological-trophic habits of the prey items. On SASL the MT concentrations
      between fractions were similar; whereas, SAFS plasma concentrations were higher
      than RBC. The results reported constitute the first information on Cd and MT
      blood levels in these species.

PMID- 28576599
TI  - Hepatitis E virus IgG seroprevalence in HIV patients and blood donors, west
      central Poland.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess hepatitis E virus (HEV) seroprevalence in HIV patients and
      blood donors from one region in Poland. METHODS: A group of 490 persons (244 HIV
      patients and 246 blood donors) aged 18-55 years were examined using the anti-HEV
      IgG assay (Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, Beijing, China). An analysis of
      the association between certain factors and the presence of this HEV exposure
      marker was conducted in both groups. RESULTS: An HEV seropositivity rate of 50.2%
      was found. There was no difference in HEV seroprevalence between blood donors
      (49.6%, 122/246) and HIV patients (50.8%, 124/244) (p=0.569). The anti-HEV IgG
      positivity rate increased with age as follows: 36.2% (59/163) in persons aged 18
      30 years, 52.0% (92/177) in individuals aged 31-40 years and 63.3% (95/150) in
      those aged 41-55 years. HEV infection occurred in 56.4% (31/55) of people who had
      never travelled abroad. CONCLUSIONS: Wielkopolska Region in west-central Poland
      is an area hyperendemic for HEV infection. In this part of Poland, the exposure
      of HIV-positive persons to this virus is not greater than that of healthy blood
      donors.

PMID- 28576600
TI  - The role of nailfold capillaroscopy in the assessment of internal organ
      involvement in systemic sclerosis: A critical review.
AB  - Endothelial dysfunction and microvascular damage constitute the hallmarks of
      systemic sclerosis (SSc), explaining much of the pathophysiology and clinical
      manifestations of the disease. Nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) is an
      established method for the assessment of the microvasculature, aiding in
      distinguishing different types of structural vascular abnormalities. Until
      recently, NVC was used in the diagnosis of SSc as well as in the assessment and
      follow-up of peripheral digital vasculopathy. On the top of digital ulcers,
      internal organ involvement such as myocardial dysfunction, pulmonary vascular
      and/or parenchymal lung disease characterizes severe SSc imparting a high risk of
      mortality. There is growing evidence suggesting that the extent of peripheral
      microvascular changes reflects the severity of the disease, especially in terms
      of life-threatening cardiopulmonary complications. The possible use of nailfold
      videocapillaroscopy as a useful, non-invasive modality to improve the ability to
      identify patients at higher risk for these devastating complications of the
      disease remains to be established. The aim of this review is to critically
      summarize and discuss current literature regarding the relationship between
      morphological alterations of nailfold dermal papillary vessels and several
      manifestations of SSc, focusing on visceral organ involvement, as well as their
      association with surrogate markers of macrovascular disease.

PMID- 28576601
TI  - Linc-ing the Noncoding Genome to Heart Function: Beating Hypertrophy.
AB  - The principal event of aberrant gene expression occurs in numerous disorders and
      syndromes, including heart failure. LncRNAs may constitute powerful treatment
      targets because they intensively interact with their genetic environment, as they
      are important regulators of genetic networks. Recent advances on the functional
      roles of lncRNAs in cardiac hypertrophy are expected to usher improved
      therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28576602
TI  - Biomarkers of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiac Lineages.
AB  - Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offer a practical source for the de novo
      generation of cardiac tissues and a unique opportunity to investigate
      cardiovascular lineage commitment. Numerous strategies have focused on the in
      vitro production of cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle, and endothelium from hPSCs.
      However, these differentiation protocols often yield undesired cell types. Thus,
      establishing a set of stage-specific markers for pure cardiac subpopulations will
      assist in defining the hierarchy of cardiac differentiation, aid in the
      development of cellular therapy, and facilitate drug screening and disease
      modeling. The recent characterization of many such markers is enabling the
      isolation of major cardiac lineages and subpopulations from differentiating
      hPSCs. We provide here a comprehensive review detailing the suite of biomarkers
      used to differentiate cardiac lineages from mixed hPSC-derived populations.

PMID- 28576603
TI  - Association of low serum BDNF with depression in patients with Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Increasing evidence shows that brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      (BDNF) plays a critical role in the development of depression and the mechanisms
      of antidepressant. Parkinson disease (PD) is associated with depression and
      decreased BDNF. The aim of the present study was to examine the association of
      BDNF with depression in PD, which has not been investigated. METHODS: We
      recruited 96 PD patients with (n = 46) and without depression (n = 50) and 102
      healthy controls and measured the serum BDNF levels in both groups. Zung Self
      Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was administered for the severity of depression and
      Hoehn-Yahr staging scale for motor abilities in PD patients. RESULTS: Serum BDNF
      levels were significantly lower in PD patients than healthy controls (p < 0.01).
      Also serum BDNF levels were significantly decreased in PD patients with than
      without depression (p < 0.01). BDNF levels were negatively associated with SDS in
      both PD patients with and without depression (both p < 0.01). Multiple regression
      analysis confirmed that in either PD with or without depression group, BDNF was
      an independent contributor to SDS (both p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      suggest that decreased serum BDNF may be involved in the pathophysiology of
      depression in PD patients.

PMID- 28576604
TI  - Task-dependent variability of Essential Tremor.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Essential Tremor (ET), tremor characteristics and the impairment
      caused by tremor may vary from task to task. A variability of tremor frequency
      between postural and kinetic tasks has been proposed in ET, suggesting either
      multiple central oscillating networks, or peripheral or proprioceptive feedback
      mechanisms. This electrophysiological study aimed to assess tremor frequencies
      and amplitudes in tasks involving postural and kinetic tremor, and compare
      findings within and across tasks, to delineate physiological differences
      underlying individually affected manual tasks in ET. METHODS: 40 ET patients were
      included in the study. Tremor was characterized clinically, as well as
      electrophysiologically using accelerometry and digitizing tablet tasks. Tremor
      amplitude measures and frequencies were extracted for tasks involving kinetic
      (digital spiral drawing, handwriting), as well as postural tremor. Tremor was
      compared between and within tasks. RESULTS: Digital spiral tremor frequencies
      were significantly higher compared to postural tremor frequencies, as measured by
      accelerometry, with a mean difference of >2 Hz (p < 0.001). Within-task
      variability of repeated digital spirals revealed a significant amplitude
      reduction over time in both hands (p < 0.001), with an up to 32% reduction
      compared to the first spiral. CONCLUSION: ET exhibited a frequency variability,
      which was dependent on activation condition, suggesting neurophysiologically
      distinct pathways between postural and kinetic tremor. The reduction of tremor
      amplitudes observed in repeated digital spiral drawing may be explained by a
      learning effect or adaptation, and should be considered as non-random factor of
      variability when using spirals in ET to assess effects of interventions.

PMID- 28576605
TI  - Cognitive impairment is associated with Hoehn and Yahr stages in early, de novo
      Parkinson disease patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The relationship between motor impairment and cognitive
      deterioration has long been described in Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of the
      study was to compare cognitive performance of de novo PD patients in relation to
      the motor impairment severity according to Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages. METHODS:
      Forty de novo PD patients at HY stage I and 40 patients at HY stage II completed
      a standardized neuropsychological battery. A multivariate analysis of covariance
      was used to compare cognitive performance between HY groups. Odds ratios (ORs)
      were employed to explore the risk of cognitive impairment between HY stages.
      Finally, the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was estimated for
      patients in HY stage I and II. RESULTS: Patients at HY stage I obtained better
      scores on neuropsychological tests than patients at HY stage II (p = 0.001).
      Univariate analysis of covariance revealed significant differences between HY
      stages on Rey's auditory verbal learning test -immediate recall (p < 0.0001), 10
      points Clock Drawing Test (p = 0.002), and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test 
      copy (p < 0.0001). ORs of having cognitive impairment were greater for HY stage
      II than stage I group. MCI occurred in 7.5% of patients in HY stage I, and in
      42.5% of patients in HY stage II. CONCLUSION: In de novo PD patients, the
      severity of motor impairment at the diagnosis is associated to cognitive deficits
      and higher risk of MCI.

PMID- 28576606
TI  - Difference of achalasia subtypes based on clinical symptoms, radiographic
      findings, and stasis scores.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Three subtypes of achalasia have been defined through high
      resolution esophageal manometry: subtype i shows no pressurization with swallows,
      subtype ii has increased isobaric panesophageal pressure, and subtype iii has
      distal esophageal spastic non-isobaric contractions. Studies describing the
      subtypes based on radiographic findings, clinical symptoms, and stasis scores are
      limited. AIM: To determine the differences in clinical symptoms, radiographic
      findings, and stasis scores for the 3 achalasia subtypes. METHODS: Patients
      undergoing high-resolution esophageal manometry received a questionnaire about
      current symptoms and previous treatments. The questions included the presence of
      symptoms and their severity. Barium swallow tests were performed before the high
      resolution esophageal manometry study to evaluate the maximum esophageal
      diameter. Stasis scores were calculated using the transit patterns on high
      resolution esophageal manometry. RESULTS: One hundred and eight patients with
      high-resolution esophageal manometry diagnosis of achalasia (n=8, subtype i;
      n=84, subtype ii; n=16, subtype iii) within the time frame of 1/2012-6/2015 were
      included in the study. Sex distribution was similar between the subtypes. Patient
      age was younger for subtype i (38+/-16 years), compared with subtypes ii (55+/-17
      years) and iii (63+/-17 years) (P=.03). Esophageal symptoms did not differ
      between subtypes regarding the severity of nausea, chest pain, coughing, and
      heartburn, except for increased vomiting severity in subtype i (2.8+/-1.4 vs.
      1.4+/-1.4 vs. 1.2+/-1.2, P<.01). A significant radiographic difference in
      esophageal dilation was seen between subtypes ii and iii (35.1+/-14.4 vs. 24.0+/
      7.2mm, P=.023). Stasis scores did not significantly differ between the subtypes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Achalasia subtypes had similar clinical symptoms, except for
      increased vomiting severity in subtype i. The maximum esophageal diameter in
      subtype ii was significantly greater than in subtype iii. Esophageal stasis
      scores were similar. Thus, high-resolution esophageal manometry remains essential
      in assessing achalasia subtypes.

PMID- 28576607
TI  - Extensiometric analysis of strain in craniofacial bones during implant-supported
      palatal expansion.
AB  - Palatal expansion has several orthodontic and orthopedic applications, such as
      increasing maxillary transverse dimensions and correcting maxillary atresia, oral
      breathing, and skeletal cross-bites. Little is known about the strain to which
      craniofacial bones are submitted when a palatal expander is loaded. The
      objectives of the present work were to propose a new palatal bone-borne titanium
      device (expansion screw), to determine patterns of strain distribution in
      craniofacial bones during palatal expansion and to show the clinical results of a
      new palatal expander supported by implants. For in vitro testing, the palatal
      expander supported by two commercially pure titanium (cp Ti) implants was
      inserted parallel to the median palatine suture of four dry adult human skulls.
      Uniaxial and triaxial strain gauges were attached to craniofacial bones and
      connected to a signal acquisition system. An expansion screw was turned and
      strain data were collected during palatal expansion. The results showed that the
      bone strain distribution in craniofacial bones loaded by the palatal bone-borne
      titanium device was complex: the strain was tensile in the palatine cortical bone
      and compressive in pterygopalatine processes, nasal bones, and orbital floor. The
      maximum compressive strain occurs in the upper portion of the pterygopalatine
      processes and the strain changes from compressive to tensile in the zygomatic
      process. The experimental results suggest that the bone strain due to the palatal
      expander is distributed over all craniofacial bones and that the upper portions
      of pterygopalatine processes are the main sites of resistance to palatal
      expansion. The new palatal expander supported by two cp Ti implants proposed was
      employed on adult patient as an illustrative report, where adequate palatal
      expansion was achieved. The new protocol proposed was less invasive, risky,
      painful and costless for the correction of moderate maxillary transverse
      deficiency.

PMID- 28576608
TI  - Response to request by journal editorship from Blood Cells, Molecules and
      Diseases in reference to a "Dear Editor" letter to the Pastores et al. paper,
      2016.

PMID- 28576609
TI  - Missed opportunities.

PMID- 28576610
TI  - Body composition substudy of the SECOND-LINE study - Author's reply.

PMID- 28576611
TI  - Body composition substudy of the SECOND-LINE study.

PMID- 28576613
TI  - Seizing the opportunity - a salutogenic approach to public health.

PMID- 28576612
TI  - Evaluation of an association between long sleep duration and periodontal disease
      among men and women using nationally representative data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between long sleep duration and periodontal
      disease among men and women using nationally representative data. METHODS: In
      this study, we performed a cross-sectional analysis and used multivariable
      logistic regression analysis models. We analysed data from 2012 through 2014 from
      the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The analysis in this
      study was confined to a total of 14,675 respondents over 19 years of age. We used
      a community periodontal index code greater than or equal to 3 to define
      periodontitis. RESULTS: The tendency of periodontitis increased with longer sleep
      duration in women. Compared with women who slept 5hours or less, women with a
      sleep duration of 6 to 8hours and 9hours or more had higher odds of periodontitis
      at 1.29 (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 1.06-1.56) and 1.45 (95%CI: 1.07-1.96),
      respectively, after adjustment for age, smoking, drinking, exercise, frequency of
      tooth brushing, self-reported oral status, body mass index, diabetes mellitus,
      hypertension, white blood cell count, income, and education. A significant
      relationship between sleep duration and periodontitis was not found in men.
      CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that long sleep duration was associated with
      periodontitis, after adjusting for potential confounding factors, among Korean
      women, especially in premenopausal women.

PMID- 28576614
TI  - The complexity of implementation factors in professional pharmacy services.
AB  - Implementation of professional pharmacy services is a complex process, in which
      multi-level factors interact and influence implementation process and outcomes at
      various levels or domains. In this paper the terms that have been used to
      describe the factors that influence implementation of evidence-based services and
      their domains are presented. The complex 'cause-and-effect' interactions by which
      implementation factors appear to interact throughout the implementation process
      are also discussed. Identifying and understanding these complex and causal
      relationships between different implementation factors, represents a key process
      in the implementation of any service, in order to assist in the development of
      tailored implementation strategies. Future research should be directed to gain an
      understanding of the nature of individual implementation factors, their cause-and
      effect interactions, and their relationships. Implementation strategies are less
      likely to succeed unless these are identified and targeted to the causes
      identified when designing and planning an implementation strategy.

PMID- 28576615
TI  - Non-regulatory related factors leading to off-label prescribing in children: A
      concept map.

PMID- 28576616
TI  - Discovery of highly reactive peptide tag by ELISA-type screening for specific
      cysteine conjugation.
AB  - We report the discovery of a highly reactive peptide tag for the specific
      cysteine conjugation of proteins. Screening of cysteine-containing peptides using
      ELISA-type screening yielded a 19-amino acid tag (DCPPPDDAADDAADDAADD), named
      DCP3 tag, which enabled the rapid and selective labeling of the tag-fused protein
      with a synthetic zinc complex on the surface of living cells.

PMID- 28576617
TI  - Synthesis of resveratrol derivatives as new analgesic drugs through
      desensitization of the TRPA1 receptor.
AB  - A series of 31 resveratrol derivatives was designed, synthesized and evaluated
      for activation and inhibition of the TRPA1 channel. Most acted as activators and
      desensitizers of TRPA1 channels like resveratrol or allyl isothiocyanate (AITC).
      Compound 4z (HUHS029) exhibited higher inhibitory activity than resveratrol with
      an IC50 value of 16.1MUM. The activity of 4z on TRPA1 was confirmed in TRPA1
      expressing HEK293 cells, as well as in rat dorsal root ganglia neurons by a whole
      cell patch clamp recording. Furthermore, pretreatment with 4z exhibited an
      analgesic effect on AITC-evoked TRPA1-related pain behavior in vivo.

PMID- 28576618
TI  - Giving birth: Expectations of first time mothers in Switzerland at the mid point
      of pregnancy.
AB  - PROBLEM AND BACKGROUND: Despite a generally affluent society, the caesarean
      section rate in Switzerland has steadily climbed in recent years from 22.9% in
      1998 to 33.7% in 2014. Speculation by the media has prompted political questions
      as to the reasons. However, there is no clear evidence as to why the Swiss rate
      should be so high especially in comparison with neighbouring countries. AIM: To
      describe the emerging expectations of giving birth of healthy primigravid women
      in the early second semester of pregnancy in four Swiss cantons. METHODS:
      Qualitative individual interviews with 58 healthy primigravid women, were audio
      recorded, transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. Recruitment took place
      through public and private hospitals, birth centres, obstetricians and
      independent midwives. The main ethical issues were informed consent, autonomy,
      confidentiality and anonymity. FINDINGS: The three main themes identified were
      taking or avoiding decisions, experiencing a continuum of emotions and planning
      the care. DISCUSSION: Being pregnant was part of a project women had mapped out
      for their lives. Only three women in our sample expressed a wish for a caesarean
      section. One of the strongest emotions was that of fear but in contrast some
      participants expressed faith that their bodies would cope with the experience.
      CONCLUSION: Bringing together the three languages and cultures produced a truly
      "Swiss" study showing contrasts between a matter of fact approach to pregnancy
      and the concept of fear. Such a contrast is worthy of further and deeper
      exploration by a multi-disciplinary research team.

PMID- 28576619
TI  - Three different Hepatozoon species in domestic cats from southern Italy.
AB  - Three species of Hepatozoon, namely, Hepatozoon felis, Hepatozoon canis and
      Hepatozoon silvestris may affect domestic and/or wild felids. Although
      hepatozoonosis has been documented in a wide range of mammal species, data on
      cats are limited. To investigate the occurrence of these pathogens in cats, blood
      samples were collected from animals living in three provinces of southern Italy
      (Bari, Lecce, and Matera), and molecularly analysed by PCR amplification and
      sequencing of segments of the 18S rRNA gene. Out of 196 blood samples collected,
      Hepatozoon spp. DNA was amplified in ten cats (5.1%, CI: 3%-9%), with the
      majority of infected animals from Matera (8/34, 23.5%) and one each from the
      other two provinces. BLAST analysis revealed the highest nucleotide identity with
      sequences of H. canis, H. felis and H. silvestris deposited in GenBank. Results
      of this study indicate that these three species of Hepatozoon infect domestic
      cats in Italy. This is the first report of H. silvestris infection in a domestic
      cat.

PMID- 28576620
TI  - Sonographic Phenotypes of Molecular Subtypes of Invasive Ductal Cancer in
      Automated 3-D Breast Ultrasound.
AB  - Our aim was to investigate whether Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System
      Ultrasound (BI-RADS-US) lexicon descriptors can be used as imaging biomarkers to
      differentiate molecular subtypes (MS) of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in
      automated breast ultrasound (ABUS). We included 125 IDCs diagnosed between 2010
      and 2014 and imaged with ABUS at two institutes retrospectively. IDCs were
      classified as luminal A or B, HER2 enriched or triple negative based on reports
      of histopathologic analysis of surgical specimens. Two breast radiologists
      characterized all IDCs using the BI-RADS-US lexicon and specific ABUS features.
      Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. A multinomial logistic
      regression model was built to predict the MSs from the imaging characteristics.
      BI-RADS-US descriptor margins and the retraction phenomenon are significantly
      associated with MSs (both p < 0.001) in both univariate and multivariate
      analysis. Posterior acoustic features and spiculation pattern severity were only
      significantly associated in univariate analysis (p < 0.001). Luminal A IDCs tend
      to have more prominent retraction patterns than luminal B IDCs. HER2-enriched and
      triple-negative IDCs present significantly less retraction than the luminal
      subtypes. The mean accuracy of MS prediction was 0.406. Overall, several BI-RADS
      US descriptors and the coronal retraction phenomenon and spiculation pattern are
      associated with MSs, but prediction of MSs on ABUS is limited.

PMID- 28576622
TI  - Haemodynamic effects of stent diameter and compaction ratio on flow-diversion
      treatment of intracranial aneurysms: A numerical study of a successful and an
      unsuccessful case.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compacting a flow-diverting (FD) stent is an emerging technique to
      create a denser configuration of wires across the aneurysm ostium. However,
      quantitative analyses of post-stenting haemodynamics affected by the compaction
      level of different stent sizes remain inconclusive. OBJECTIVE: To compare the
      aneurysmal haemodynamic alterations after virtual FD treatments with different
      device diameters at different compaction ratios. METHODS: We virtually implanted
      three sizes of FD stent, with each size deployed at four compaction ratios, into
      two patient aneurysms previously treated with the Silk+FD-one successful case and
      the other unsuccessful. Wire configurations of the FD in the 24 treatment
      scenarios were examined, and aneurysmal haemodynamic alterations were resolved by
      computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. We investigated the aneurysmal
      flow patterns, aneurysmal average velocity (AAV), mass flowrate (MF), and energy
      loss (EL) in each scenario. RESULTS: Compactions of the stent in the successful
      case resulted in a greater metal coverage rate than that achieved in the
      unsuccessful one. A 25% increment in compaction ratio further decreased the AAV
      (12%), MF (11%), and EL (9%) in both cases (average values). The averaged maximum
      differences attributable to device size were 10% (AAV), 8% (MF), and 9% (EL).
      CONCLUSIONS: Both stent size and compaction level could markedly affect the FD
      treatment outcomes. It is therefore important to individualise the treatment plan
      by selecting the optimal stent size and deployment procedure. CFD simulation can
      be used to investigate the treatment outcomes, thereby assisting doctors in
      choosing a favourable treatment plan.

PMID- 28576621
TI  - Chelating agents in combination with rosmarinic acid for boar sperm freeze
      drying.
AB  - The presence of DNA protective agents in the medium is necessary to maintain
      sperm functionality after freeze-drying procedure. The objective of this study
      was to investigate the effect of chelating agents, ethylene diaminetetraacetic
      acid (EDTA) and ethylene glycoltetraacetic acid (EGTA), in combination with
      rosmarinic acid (RA) on DNA integrity of freeze-dried boar sperm. We also
      examined the effect of these agents on the in vitro developmental ability of
      porcine oocytes following sperm injection (ICSI). Heterospermic mix, obtained
      from ejaculated sperm of three boars, was freeze-dried in two different chelating
      agents' media: 50mM EDTA or 50mM EGTA, and in these media supplemented with
      105MUM of rosmarinic acid. Frozen-thawed sperm was used as control. After
      rehydration, samples were subjected to DNA damage detection using Sperm Chromatin
      Dispersion test. ICSI was performed to verify the ability of freeze-dried sperm
      to participate in embryonic development. Five replicated trials were carried out
      for each group. In the presence of rosmarinic acid, the percentage of spermatozoa
      with DNA damage decreased significantly (p=0.010), without differences between
      the two chelating agents combination. EDTA solution preserves more efficiently
      DNA integrity of boar sperm than EGTA solution (p=0.002). There were no
      significant differences among the studied groups related to the blastocyst
      formation rate. Results suggested that the addition of rosmarinic acid to the
      medium improves sperm DNA integrity after freeze-drying, but does not promote
      fertilization and blastocyst development. We also observed a similar percentage
      of embryos production with freeze-dried and with frozen-thawed sperm.

PMID- 28576623
TI  - The biomechanical model of the long finger extensor mechanism and its parametric
      identification.
AB  - The extensor mechanism of the finger is a structure transmitting the forces from
      several muscles to the finger joints. Force transmission in the extensor
      mechanism is usually modeled by equations with constant coefficients which are
      determined experimentally only for finger extension posture. However, the
      coefficient values change with finger flexion because of the extensor mechanism
      deformation. This induces inaccurate results for any other finger postures. We
      proposed a biomechanical model of the extensor mechanism represented as elastic
      strings. The model includes the main tendons and ligaments. The parametric
      identification of the model in extension posture was performed to match the
      distribution of the forces among the tendons to experimental data. The
      parametrized model was used to simulate three degrees of flexion. Furthermore,
      the ability of the model to reproduce how the force distribution in simulated
      extensor mechanism changes according to the muscle forces was also demonstrated.
      The proposed model could be used to simulate the extensor mechanism for any
      physiological finger posture for which the coefficients involved in the equations
      are unknown.

PMID- 28576624
TI  - Constrained Acetabular Components Used in Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty: A
      Registry Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Constrained acetabular components have a mechanism to lock in the
      femoral head. They have been developed to control postoperative dislocation,
      particularly in revision total hip arthroplasty (THA). Although these components
      may reduce dislocation, there are durability concerns: with reports of locking
      mechanism failures and loosening. We wanted to determine the outcome of
      constrained components in controlling dislocation, and if these components had a
      higher rate of second revision when compared with standard nonconstrained
      components. METHODS: Revision THA procedures from the Australian Orthopaedic
      Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) with a recorded primary
      procedure and initial diagnosis of osteoarthritis were used to compare
      constrained and standard nonconstrained components. Kaplan-Meier estimates of
      survivorship were calculated, and hazard ratios using Cox proportional hazard
      models were used to compare groups. RESULTS: There were 9509 THA first-revision
      procedures and 700 constrained components. Constrained components had a
      significantly higher revision rate after 3 months when large-head metal-on-metal
      components were included (hazard ratio = 1.37; P = .005). When large-head metal
      on-metal components were excluded, there was no difference in the rate of second
      revision between the 2 groups. When the analysis was limited to first revision
      for dislocation, constrained components had a higher second revision rate for
      further dislocation after 9 months. CONCLUSION: Constrained acetabular components
      had similar second-revision rates when compared with standard nonconstrained
      components, both for all first-revision reasons and when used to treat
      dislocation. Although possibly used for the more difficult unstable hips,
      constrained components had a higher rate of second revision for further
      dislocation.

PMID- 28576625
TI  - Detection of mechanical complications related to the potential risk of sudden
      cardiac death in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension by computed
      tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We explored the value of cardiac computed tomography (CT) for the
      detection and prediction of mechanical complications related to the risk of
      sudden cardiac death (SCD) in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients.
      METHODS: PAH patients (n=60, mean age 47+/-15, 31.7% male) with pulmonary artery
      (PA) enlargement (>=40mm) by echocardiography were studied with cardiac CT.
      Complications explored were the presence of left main coronary artery (LM)
      compression, airway compression, PA dissection and PA thrombosis in relation to
      diameters of main PA (MPA) which were measured in (1) axial plane (MPAAx) and (2)
      LM oblique view (MPALMobq). RESULTS: Mechanical complications were found in 21
      patients (35.0%): LM compression in 20 patients; airway compression in 3
      patients; and PA thrombosis in 4 patients. Patients with complications had more
      dilated MPALMobq than patients without complication (59.4+/-13.0mm vs. 42.4+/
      7.0mm, p<0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for
      MPALMobq was 0.889 (95% confidence interval: 0.795 to 0.983, p<0.001) with the
      highest discriminating sensitivity and specificity being 90.5% and 69.2%,
      respectively at MPALMobq of 45mm. MPAAx failed to predict the presence of
      mechanical complications (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: MPALMobq>=45mm was significantly
      associated with the presence of mechanical complications of PAH. Evaluation with
      CT should be considered in PAH patients with dilated MPA.

PMID- 28576626
TI  - Carotid artery screening at the time of coronary artery bypass - Does it
      influence neurological outcomes?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) are
      recommended to undergo carotid duplex study in presence of risk factors. Aim of
      the study was to quantify the relationship between risk factors and presence of
      carotid disease and examine if screening influenced outcomes. METHODS: Over a
      four year period in a single institution, 4364 consecutive patients presenting
      for primary isolated CABG were enrolled to undergo carotid duplex scanning.
      Patients were grouped as no significant carotid artery stenosis (<50%), moderate
      stenosis (50%-70%) and severe stenosis (>70%). Sub group analysis of patients
      with severe carotid stenosis was performed. Sensitivity of risk factors thought
      to be associated with carotid disease was also assessed. RESULTS: Of the 4364
      patients, 406 patients (9.3%) had moderate or severe carotid artery stenosis. 32
      (7.88%) had bilateral disease. Age>65, hypertension, left main stem stenosis,
      peripheral vascular disease, and previous neurological injury were all associated
      with carotid artery disease (p<0. 01). Diabetes (p=0.06) and smoking (p=0.79)
      were not significant risk factors. In patients with moderate carotid artery
      stenosis there was no difference in the incidence of major 4 (0.98%) vs.18
      (0.45%) p=0.14 or minor 8 (1.9%) vs. 56 (1.41%); p=0.38 neurological outcomes.
      However, severe carotid stenosis was associated with an increase in all-cause
      mortality but no increase in neurological events. CONCLUSIONS: In the presence of
      risk factors carotid screening identifies at risk population. Severe carotid
      stenosis was associated with increased all-cause mortality. However, moderate
      stenosis did not influence neurological outcomes or mortality in patients
      undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting.

PMID- 28576627
TI  - Comparison of everolimus- and biolimus-eluting coronary stents with everolimus
      eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffolds: Two-year clinical outcomes of the
      EVERBIO II trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data from randomized controlled trials have shown that the ABSORB BVS
      is non-inferior to Cobalt Chromium everolimus-eluting stents at 2years. METHODS &
      RESULTS: The EVERBIO II trial (Comparison of Everolimus- and Biolimus-Eluting
      Coronary Stents with Everolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold) is a
      single-center, assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial enrolling 240 patients
      with an allocation ration of 1:1:1 conducted at University and Hospital Fribourg,
      Switzerland. The studied devices were an everolimus-eluting persistent polymer
      stent (EES), a biolimus-eluting stent with bioabsorbable polymer (BES) and a
      fully bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS). Clinical end points collected at
      9months, 12months, and 2years, were academic research consortium defined
      composites, device thrombosis and target-vessel revascularization. Clinical
      follow-up at 2years was available in 96% (N=77) of patients in the EES group, in
      100% (N=80) in the BES and 99% (N=77) in the BVS group. The device-oriented
      composite end point of cardiac death, target-vessel myocardial infarction and
      target-lesion revascularization occurred in 13 (16%) patients treated with EES,
      in 7 (9%) patients treated with BES and in 16 (21%) patients treated with BVS.
      There was no significant difference when the metallic stents were compared to the
      BVS (p=0.12). There was one late scaffold thrombosis throughout the trial in the
      BVS group, and no definite stent thrombosis in either EES or BES treated
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: The current analysis shows no significant differences with
      regard to clinical outcomes at 2years between BVS and the best-in-class metallic
      DES. Event rates were numerically higher in BVS-treated patients. However, when
      BVS were compared to BES alone, the occurrence of device related adverse events
      was significantly increased.

PMID- 28576628
TI  - Incidence of Torsade de Pointes in a tertiary hospital population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple risk factors play a role in the development of QTc
      prolongation and Torsade de Pointes (TdP). Cases of TdP are underreported and
      data on the incidence of TdP is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the incidence of TdP in a Belgian university hospital and describe the
      characteristics of TdP-cases using a risk score. METHODS: All cases from 2011
      till 2013 coded with the ICD-9 code 427.1 in the University Hospitals of Leuven
      were selected. The medical files were reviewed and demographical, medical,
      medication and electrocardiographic data were collected. We focused on TdP-cases
      that were probably caused by the acquired long QT-syndrome. The RISQ-PATH score
      was used to quantify the risk in these cases (>=10 points as high risk for QTc
      prolongation/TdP). RESULTS: Over three years, 41 TdP-cases were identified of
      which 19 cases were secondary to the acquired long QT-syndrome (52.6% females,
      mean age of 74+/-12years). This corresponds with an incidence of 0.160/00/year in
      a hospital population. Most of the patients (N=17) were treated with at least one
      QTc-prolonging drug (most frequently amiodarone, sotalol and furosemide) of whom
      12 patients with >=1 QTc-prolonging drug of list 1 of CredibleMeds. Fifteen
      patients had an electrocardiogram in a 24-hours interval before the TdP with a
      prolonged QTc-interval (>=450/470ms). All the patients had a RISQ-PATH score>=10.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although the incidence of 0.160/00/year might seem low, this means
      that approximately 173 possibly lethal TdP-cases can be expected in Belgian
      hospitals each year. All TdP-cases were associated with a high RISQ-PATH score.

PMID- 28576629
TI  - Robotic Resistance Treadmill Training Improves Locomotor Function in Children
      With Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether applying controlled resistance forces to the legs
      during the swing phase of gait may improve the efficacy of treadmill training as
      compared with applying controlled assistance forces in children with cerebral
      palsy (CP). DESIGN: Randomized controlled study. SETTING: Research unit of a
      rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Children with spastic CP (N=23; mean age,
      10.6y; range, 6-14y; Gross Motor Function Classification System levels, I-IV).
      INTERVENTIONS: Participants were randomly assigned to receive controlled
      assistance (n=11) or resistance (n=12) loads applied to the legs at the ankle.
      Participants underwent robotic treadmill training 3 times a week for 6 weeks (18
      sessions). A controlled swing assistance/resistance load was applied to both legs
      starting from the toe-off to mid-swing phase of gait during training. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures consisted of overground walking speed, 6
      minute walk distance, and Gross Motor Function Measure scores and were assessed
      pre and post 6 weeks of training and 8 weeks after the end of training. RESULTS:
      After 6 weeks of treadmill training in participants from the resistance training
      group, fast walking speed and 6-minute walk distance significantly improved (18%
      and 30% increases, respectively), and 6-minute walk distance was still
      significantly greater than that at baseline (35% increase) 8 weeks after the end
      of training. In contrast, overground gait speed and 6-minute walk distance had no
      significant changes after robotic assistance training. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      of the present study indicated that robotic resistance treadmill training is more
      effective than assistance training in improving locomotor function in children
      with CP.

PMID- 28576630
TI  - CA-125 in Disease Progression and Treatment of Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a destructive lung disease of women
      caused by proliferation of neoplastic-like LAM cells, with mutations in the
      TSC1/2 tumor suppressor genes. Based on case reports, levels of cancer antigen
      125 (CA-125), an ovarian cancer biomarker, can be elevated in patients with LAM.
      We hypothesized that elevated serum CA-125 levels seen in some patients with LAM
      were due to LAM, not other malignancies, and might respond to sirolimus
      treatment. METHODS: Serum CA-125 levels were measured for 241 patients at each
      visit. Medical records were reviewed for co-morbidities, disease progression, and
      response to sirolimus treatment. CA-125 expression in LAM cells was determined by
      using immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: Almost 25% of patients with LAM had
      at least one elevated serum CA-125 measurement. Higher serum CA-125 levels
      correlated with lower FEV1, premenopausal status, and pleural effusion in a
      multivariate model (each P < .001). Serum CA-125 levels decreased following
      sirolimus treatment (P = .002). CA-125 and alpha-smooth muscle actin were co
      expressed in LAM lung nodules. CONCLUSIONS: Higher serum CA-125 levels were
      associated with pleural effusions and reduced pulmonary function and were
      decreased with sirolimus therapy. LAM cells express CA-125. Some elevated serum
      CA-125 levels may reflect serosal membrane involvement.

PMID- 28576631
TI  - Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Has a Worse Prognosis in Male Than in
      Female Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Male breast carcinoma (MBC) is treated similarly to female breast
      carcinoma (FBC), and similar survival rates for both have been assumed. We
      analyzed prognostic and clinicopathologic features of MBC to determine whether
      MBC subtypes differ from FBC subtypes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed data for
      172,847 FBC and 1442 MBC patients from 2010 to 2012 from the National Cancer
      Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Carcinomas were
      subtyped according to hormone receptor (HR) and HER2 status as HR-positive
      (HR+)/HER2-, HR+/HER2+, HR-/HER2+, and HR-/HER2-. RESULTS: The overall incidence
      of MBC in all breast carcinoma cases was 0.8%. MBC was more frequently HR+/HER2-
      than was FBC (78.3% vs. 67.4%) and less frequently HR-/HER2- (2.1% vs. 10.9%).
      More MBC was staged as III or IV (24.9% vs. 17.2%). MBC had significantly worse
      overall survival (OS) than FBC (P < .0001). After adjustment for age, ethnicity,
      and tumor grade, stage I and II MBC had significantly worse OS time than stage
      matched FBC (P = .0011 for stage I, P = .0229 for stage II). When stage- and
      subtype-matched patients were compared, MBC had significantly worse OS than FBC
      for stage I overall, for substages IA and IIB HR+/HER2- carcinoma, and for stage
      III HR+/HER2+ carcinoma. Furthermore, MBC patients with HR+/HER2- T1aN0
      carcinomas had worse OS than did FBC patients. CONCLUSION: Patients with MBC have
      worse survival than patients with FBC, especially for early-stage HR+ breast
      cancers. More studies are needed optimize treatment for MBC.

PMID- 28576632
TI  - The synthesis and evaluation of triazolopyrimidines as anti-tubercular agents.
AB  - We identified a di-substituted triazolopyrimidine with anti-tubercular activity
      against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Three segments of the scaffold were examined
      rationally to establish a structure-activity relationship with the goal of
      improving potency and maintaining good physicochemical properties. A number of
      compounds displayed sub-micromolar activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      with no cytotoxicity against eukaryotic cells. Non-substituted aromatic rings at
      C5 and a two-carbon chain connecting a terminal aromatic at C7 were preferred
      features; the presence of NH at C7 and a lack of substituent at C2 were essential
      for potency. We identified compounds with acceptable metabolic stability in
      rodent and human liver microsomes. Our findings suggest that the easily
      synthesized triazolopyrimidines are a promising class of potent anti-tubercular
      agents and warrant further investigation in our search for new drugs to fight
      tuberculosis.

PMID- 28576633
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of sulfonamide-substituted
      diphenylpyrimidine derivatives (Sul-DPPYs) as potent focal adhesion kinase (FAK)
      inhibitors with antitumor activity.
AB  - A class of sulfonamide-substituted diphenylpyrimidines (Sul-DPPYs) were
      synthesized to improve activity against the focal adhesion kinase (FAK). Most of
      these new Sul-DPPYs displayed moderate activity against the FAK enzyme with IC50
      values of less than 100nM; regardless, they could effectively inhibit several
      classes of refractory cancer cell lines with IC50 values of less than 10uM,
      including the pancreatic cancer cell lines (AsPC-1, Panc-1 and BxPC-3), the NSCLC
      resistant H1975 cell line, and the B lymphocyte cell line (Ramos cells). Results
      of flow cytometry indicated that inhibitor 7e promoted apoptosis of pancreatic
      cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, it almost completely
      induced the apoptosis at a concentration of 10uM. Compound 7e may be selected as
      a potent FAK inhibitor for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28576634
TI  - BACE1 inhibitory activity and molecular docking analysis of meroterpenoids from
      Sargassum serratifolium.
AB  - A wide range of pharmacological properties of Sargassum spp. extracts and
      isolated components have been recognized. Although individual meroterpenoids of
      Sargassum species have been reported to possess strong activity against
      Alzheimer's disease (AD), the active compounds of Sargassum serratifolium have
      not been fully explored. Therefore, we evaluated the anti-AD activity of S.
      serratifolium extract through enzyme inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE),
      butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and beta-site amyloid precursor protein (APP)
      cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1). Three meroterpenoids (sargahydroquinoic acid (1),
      sargachromenol (2) and sargaquinoic acid (3)) were isolated from S.
      serratifolium. These compounds showed moderate AChE inhibitory activity, but
      exhibited potent inhibitory activity against BChE and BACE1 (15.1, 9.4, and
      10.4uM for BChE; 4.3, 6.9, and 12.5uM for BACE1, respectively). Kinetic study and
      molecular docking simulation of these compounds demonstrated that 1 and 3
      interacted with both catalytic aspartyl residues and allosteric sites of BACE1,
      whereas 2 interacted with the allosteric site of BACE1. The results of the
      present study demonstrate that meroterpenoids from S. serratifolium might be
      beneficial in the treatment of AD.

PMID- 28576635
TI  - [Infective endocarditis prophylaxis in congenital heart disease].
AB  - Infective endocarditis can negatively impact prognosis of congenital heart
      disease and has a 10-15% incidence of mortality. New guidelines recommend
      prophylaxis of infective endocarditis only for high-risk group (cyanotic
      congenital heart disease, valvular prosthesis, previous endocarditis) and for
      some specific invasive dental procedures. New guidelines are focused mainly on
      oral and cutaneous hygiene. Native shunts and valvular disease are no more
      targets for prophylaxis. More than half of the physicians do not follow the new
      guidelines. High-velocity shunts like ventricular septal defect should be
      included in the at-risk congenital disease for infective endocarditis where
      prophylaxis should be applied. The new guidelines for prophylaxis of infective
      endocarditis did not impact on the incidence of infective endocarditis.

PMID- 28576636
TI  - The treatment of the pulmonary and extrapulmonary manifestations of cystic
      fibrosis.
AB  - Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a complex multisystem disease with considerable between
      patient variability in its manifestations and severity. In the past several
      decades, the range of treatments and the evidence to support their use for the
      pulmonary and extrapulmonary manifestations of CF have increased dramatically,
      contributing to the improved median survival of patients. As therapy for CF has
      evolved, new challenges including treatment adherence, medication intolerance and
      allergy, medical complications and coping with the burden of disease in the
      context of having a family and managing employment have arisen. While the
      majority of current therapy focuses primarily on improving symptoms, new
      therapies (CFTR modulators) target the underlying genetic defect.

PMID- 28576637
TI  - The diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.
AB  - Establishing the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) is straight forward in the
      majority of patients: they present with a clear clinical picture (most frequently
      chronic respiratory symptoms plus malabsorption), the sweat chloride value
      is>60mmol/L and two known disease causing CFTR mutations are identified. In less
      than 5% of subjects, mainly those with a milder or limited phenotype, the
      diagnostic process is more complex, because initial diagnostic test results are
      inconclusive: sweat chloride concentration in the intermediate range, less than 2
      CF causing mutations identified or both. These patients should be referred to
      expert centers where bioassays of CFTR function like nasal potential difference
      measurement or intestinal current measurement can be done. Still, in some
      patients, despite symptoms compatible with CF and some indication of CFTR
      dysfunction (e.g. only intermediate sweat chloride value), diagnostic criteria
      are not met (e.g. only 1 CFTR mutation identified). For these subjects, the term
      CFTR related disorder (CFTR-RD) is used. Patients with disseminated
      bronchiectasis, congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens and acute or
      recurrent pancreatitis may fall in this category. CF has a very wide disease
      spectrum and increasingly the diagnosis is being made during adult life, mainly
      in subjects with milder phenotypes. In many countries, nationwide CF newborn
      screening (NBS) has been introduced. In screen positive babies, the diagnosis of
      CF must be confirmed by a sweat test demonstrating a sweat chloride concentration
      above 60mmol/L. To achieve the benefit of NBS, every baby in whom the diagnosis
      of CF is confirmed must receive immediate follow-up and treatment in a CF
      reference center. CF NBS is not full proof: some diagnoses will be missed and in
      some babies the diagnosis cannot be confirmed nor ruled out with certainty.
      Screening algorithms that include gene sequencing will detect a high number of
      such babies that are screen positive with an inconclusive diagnosis (CFSPID).
      Even in 2016, the most reliable and widely available diagnostic test for CF is
      the measurement of chloride concentration in sweat. The method of choice is sweat
      induction by pilocarpine iontophoresis, followed by sweat collection on a gauze
      or filter paper or in a Macroduct coil. Since mutation specific therapies have
      become available, it is important to identify the mutations responsible for CF in
      each individual patient.

PMID- 28576638
TI  - Linezolid versus vancomycin in Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      nosocomial pneumonia in the elderly.

PMID- 28576639
TI  - When a Surgical Trainee Needs Surgery: Autonomy, Privacy, and Maintaining the
      Standard of Care.

PMID- 28576640
TI  - Tumor progression effects on drug vector access to tumor-associated capillary
      bed.
AB  - Over the last decade, the benefits of drug vectors to treat cancer have been well
      recognized. However, drug delivery and vector distribution differences in tumor
      associated capillary bed at different stages of disease progression are not well
      understood. To obtain further insights into drug vector distribution changes in
      vasculature during tumor progression, we combined intra-vital imaging of
      metastatic tumors in mice, microfluidics-based artificial tumor capillary models,
      and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling. Microfluidic and CFD circulation
      models were designed to mimic tumor progression by escalating flow complexity and
      chaoticity. We examined flow of 0.5 and 2MUm spherical particles, and tested the
      effects of hematocrit on particle local accessibility to flow area of capillary
      beds by co-circulating red blood cells (RBC). Results showed that tumor
      progression modulated drug vector distribution in tumor-associated capillaries.
      Both particles shared 80-90% common flow area, while 0.5 and 2MUm particles had 2
      9% and 1-2% specific flow area, respectively. Interestingly, the effects of
      hematocrit on specific circulation area was opposite for 0.5 and 2MUm particles.
      Dysfunctional capillaries with no flow, a result of tumor progression, limited
      access to all particles, while diffusion was shown to be the only prevailing
      transport mechanism. In view of drug vector distribution in tumors, independent
      of formulation and other pharmacokinetic aspects, our results suggest that the
      evolution of tumor vasculature during progression may influence drug delivery
      efficiency. Therefore, optimized drug vectors will need to consider primary vs
      metastatic tumor setting, or early vs late stage metastatic disease, when
      undergoing vector design.

PMID- 28576641
TI  - A quantitative study of the intracellular fate of pH-responsive doxorubicin
      polypeptide nanoparticles.
AB  - Nanoscale carriers with an acid-labile linker between the carrier and drug are
      commonly used for drug delivery. However, their efficacy is potentially limited
      by inefficient linker cleavage, and lysosomal entrapment of drugs. To address
      these critical issues, we developed a new imaging method that spatially overlays
      the location of a nanoparticle and the released drug from the nanoparticle, on a
      map of the local intracellular pH that delineates individual endosomes and
      lysosomes, and the therapeutic intracellular target of the drug-the nucleus. We
      used this method to quantitatively map the intracellular fate of micelles of a
      recombinant polypeptide conjugated with doxorubicin via an acid-labile hydrazone
      linker as a function of local pH and time within live cells. We found that
      hydrolysis of the acid-labile linker is incomplete because the pH range of 4-7 in
      the endosomes and lysosomes does not provide complete cleavage of the drug from
      the nanoparticle, but that once cleaved, the drug escapes the acidic endo
      lysosomal compartment into the cytosol and traffics to its therapeutic
      destination-the nucleus. This study also demonstrated that unlike free drug,
      which enters the cytosol directly through the cell membrane and then traffics
      into the nucleus, the nanoparticle-loaded drug almost exclusively traffics into
      endosomes and lysosomes upon intracellular uptake, and only reaches the nucleus
      after acid-triggered drug release in the endo-lysosomes. This methodology
      provides a better and more quantitative understanding of the intracellular
      behavior of drug-loaded nanoparticles, and provides insights for the design of
      the next-generation of nanoscale drug delivery systems.

PMID- 28576642
TI  - The pathway of subarachnoid CSF moving into the spinal parenchyma and the role of
      astrocytic aquaporin-4 in this process.
AB  - AIMS: It has been proved that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the subarachnoid space
      could reenter the brain parenchyma via the perivascular space. The present study
      was designed to explore the pathway of subarachnoid CSF flux into the spinal cord
      and the potential role of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) in this process. MAIN METHODS:
      Fluorescently tagged cadaverine, for the first time, was used to study CSF
      movement in mice. Following intracisternal infusion of CSF tracers, the cervical
      spinal cord was sliced and prepared for fluorescence imaging. Some sections were
      subject with immunostaining in order to observe tracer distribution and AQP4
      expression. KEY FINDINGS: Fluorescently tagged cadaverine rapidly entered the
      spinal cord. Tracer influx into the spinal parenchyma was time dependent. At
      10min post-infusion, cadaverine was largely distributed in the superficial tissue
      adjacent to the pial surface. At 70min post-infusion, cadaverine was distributed
      in the whole cord and especially concentrated in the gray matter. Furthermore,
      fluorescent tracer could enter the spinal parenchyma either along the
      perivascular space or across the pial surface. AQP4 was observed highly expressed
      in the astrocytic endfeet surrounding blood vessels and the pial surface.
      Blocking AQP4 by its specific inhibitor TGN-020 strikingly reduced the inflow of
      CSF tracers into the spinal cord. SIGNIFICANCE: Subarachnoid CSF could flow into
      the spinal cord along the perivascular space or across the pial surface, in which
      AQP4 is involved. Our observation provides a basis for the study on CSF movement
      in the spinal cord when some neurological diseases occur.

PMID- 28576643
TI  - Heel pain in psoriatic arthropathy: Analysis of a series of 291 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of heel pain in a series of patients with
      psoriatic arthritis (PsA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional, observational
      and retrospective study of a series of 347 patients. All patients fulfilled the
      CASPAR criteria for PsA and 291 had a clinically significant history of heel
      pain. The statistical analysis was performed using chi-square test, ANOVA and
      binary logistic regression. RESULTS: Thirty-five percent of the patients had
      clinically significant heel pain. A significant association was established
      between an early onset of skin and joint involvement in the disease and the
      development of heel pain. However, no significant correlation was found between
      disease duration and the presence of heel pain. History of dactylitis and PsA in
      first-degree family members was also statistically associated with this
      complication. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically significant heel pain was recorded in one
      third of the patients in this series. There was a statistically significant
      association with dactylitis, PsA in first-degree family members and an earlier
      onset of joint and skin disease.

PMID- 28576644
TI  - Real-time electromagnetic tracking-based treatment platform for high-dose-rate
      prostate brachytherapy: Clinical workflows and end-to-end validation.
AB  - PURPOSE: New technologies were integrated into a novel treatment platform
      combining electromagnetically (EM) tracked catheters, a 3D ultrasound (3DUS)
      imaging device, and a new treatment planning system to provide a real-time
      prostate high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment system. This work defines
      workflows for offline CT and online 3DUS planning scenarios and preclinical end
      to-end validation of the platform. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The platform is
      composed of an EM-tracked stylet, a EM-tracked 3DUS probe, and an EM-tracked
      template guide, all used with the NDI Aurora field generator (NDI, Ontario,
      Canada). The treatment planning system performs continuous position and angular
      readings from all three EM sensors into a streamlined environment that allows for
      (1) contouring; (2) planning; (3) catheter insertion guidance and reconstruction;
      (4) QA of catheter path and tip position; and (5) exporting to an afterloader.
      Data were gathered on the times required for the various key steps of the 3DUS
      based workflow. RESULTS: The complete 3DUS-based workflow on 16-catheter implant
      phantoms took approximately 15 min. This time is expected to increase for actual
      patients. Plan generation is fast (7.6 +/- 2.5s) and the initial catheter
      reconstruction with updated dose distribution is obtained at no (time) cost as
      part of the insertion process. Subsequent catheter reconstruction takes on
      average 10.5 +/- 3.1s per catheter, representing less than 3 min for a 16
      catheter implant. CONCLUSIONS: This preclinical study suggests that EM technology
      could help to significantly streamline real-time US-based high-dose-rate prostate
      brachytherapy.

PMID- 28576645
TI  - Effects of developmental conditions on glucocorticoid concentrations in adulthood
      depend on sex and foraging conditions.
AB  - Developmental conditions in early life frequently have long-term consequences on
      the adult phenotype, but the adult environment can modulate such long-term
      effects. Glucocorticoid hormones may be instrumental in mediating developmental
      effects, but the permanency of such endocrine changes is still debated. Here, we
      manipulated environmental conditions during development (small vs. large brood
      size, and hence sibling competition) and in adulthood (easy vs. hard foraging
      conditions) in a full factorial design in zebra finches, and studied effects on
      baseline (Bas-CORT) and stress-induced (SI-CORT) corticosterone in adulthood.
      Treatments affected Bas-CORT in females, but not in males. Females reared in
      small broods had intermediate Bas-CORT levels as adults, regardless of foraging
      conditions in adulthood, while females reared in large broods showed higher Bas
      CORT levels in hard foraging conditions and lower levels in easy foraging
      conditions. Female Bas-CORT was also more susceptible than male Bas-CORT to non
      biological variables, such as ambient temperature. In line with these results,
      repeatability of Bas-CORT was higher in males (up to 51%) than in females (25%).
      SI-CORT was not responsive to the experimental manipulations in either sex and
      its repeatability was high in both sexes. We conclude that Bas-CORT
      responsiveness to intrinsic and extrinsic conditions is higher in females than in
      males, and that the expression of developmental conditions may depend on the
      adult environment. The latter finding illustrates the critical importance of
      studying of causes and consequences of long-term developmental effects in other
      environments in addition to standard laboratory conditions.

PMID- 28576646
TI  - Increase in hypothalamic AMPK phosphorylation induced by prolonged exposure to
      LPS involves ghrelin and CB1R signaling.
AB  - Acute administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria
      induces hypophagia. However, the repeated administration of LPS leads to
      desensitization of hypophagia, which is associated with increased hypothalamic p
      AMPK expression. Because ghrelin and endocannabinoids modulate AMPK activity in
      the hypothalamus, we hypothesized that these neuromodulators play a role in the
      reversal of tolerance to hypophagia in rats under long-term exposure to LPS. Male
      Wistar rats were treated with single (1 LPS, 100MUg/kg body weight, ip) or
      repeated injections of LPS over 6days (6 LPS). Food intake was reduced in the 1
      LPS, but not in the 6 LPS group. 6 LPS rats showed an increased serum
      concentration of acylated ghrelin and reduced ghrelin receptor mRNA expression in
      the hypothalamus. Ghrelin injection (40MUg/kg body weight, ip) increased food
      intake, body weight gain, p-AMPK hypothalamic expression, neuropeptide Y (NPY)
      and Agouti related peptide (AgRP) mRNA expression in control animals (Saline).
      However, in 6 LPS rats, ghrelin did not alter these parameters. Central
      administration of a CB1R antagonist (AM251, 200ng/MUl in 5MUl/rat) induced
      hypophagia in 6 LPS animals, suggesting that the endocannabinoid system
      contributes to preserved food intake during LPS tolerance. In the presence of
      AM251, the ability of ghrelin to phosphorylate AMPK in the hypothalamus of 6 LPS
      group was restored, but not its orexigenic effect. Our data highlight that the
      orexigenic effects of ghrelin require CB1R signaling downstream of AMPK
      activation. Moreover, CB1R-mediated pathways contribute to the absence of
      hypophagia during repeated exposure to endotoxin.

PMID- 28576647
TI  - Testosterone, oxytocin, and the development of human parental care.
AB  - The steroid testosterone (T) and neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) have each been
      implicated in the development of parental care in humans and animals, yet very
      little research addressed the interaction between these hormones at the
      transition to parenthood in mothers and fathers. One hundred and sixty mothers
      and fathers (80 couples) were visited 1 and 6months after the birth of their
      first child, plasma OT and T were assayed at each time-point, and interactions
      between each parent and the infant were observed and micro-coded for two key
      parental behaviors; affectionate touch and parent-infant synchrony. T showed
      gender-specific effects. While paternal T was individually stable across the
      first six months of parenting and predicted lower father-infant synchrony,
      maternal T was neither stable nor predictive of maternal behavior. An interaction
      of OT and T showed that T has complex modulatory effects on the relations of OT
      and parenting. Slope analysis revealed that among fathers, only when T was high
      (+1SD), negative associations emerged between OT and father affectionate touch.
      In contrast, among mothers, the context of high T was related to a positive
      association between OT and maternal touch. Our findings, the first to test the
      interaction of OT and T in relation to observed maternal behavior, underscore the
      need for much further research on the complex bidirectional effects of steroid
      and neuropeptide systems on human mothering and fathering.

PMID- 28576648
TI  - Sex differences and sex hormones in anxiety-like behavior of aging rats.
AB  - Sex differences in the prevalence of affective disorders might be attributable to
      different sex hormone milieu. The effects of short-term sex hormone deficiency on
      behavior, especially on anxiety have been studied in numerous animal experiments,
      mainly on young adult rats and mice. However, sex differences in aged animals and
      the effects of long-term hypogonadism are understudied. The aim of our study was
      to analyze sex differences in anxiety-like behavior in aged rats and to prove
      whether they can be attributed to endogenous sex hormone production in males. A
      battery of tests was performed to assess anxiety-like behavior in aged female,
      male and gonadectomized male rats castrated before puberty. In addition, the aged
      gonadectomized male rats were treated with a single injection of estradiol or
      testosterone or supplemented with estradiol for two-weeks. Female rats displayed
      a less anxious behavior than male rats in most of the conducted behavioral tests
      except the light-dark box. Long-term androgen deficiency decreased the sex
      difference in anxiety either partially (open field, PhenoTyper cage) or
      completely (elevated plus maze). Neither single injection of sex hormones, nor
      two-week supplementation of estradiol in gonadectomized aged male rats
      significantly affected their anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze. In
      conclusion, our results confirm sex differences in anxiety in aged rats likely
      mediated by endogenous testosterone production in males. Whether long-term
      supplementation with exogenous sex hormones could affect anxiety-like behavior in
      elderly individuals remains to be elucidated.

PMID- 28576649
TI  - Anti-androgenic effects of bisphenol-A on spatial memory and synaptic plasticity
      of the hippocampus in mice.
AB  - Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a common environmental endocrine disruptor. Our recent
      studies found that exposure to BPA in both adolescent and adulthood sex
      specifically impaired spatial memory in male mice. In this study, 11-week-old
      gonadectomied (GDX) male mice daily received subcutaneous injections of
      testosterone propionate (TP, 0.5mg/kg), TP and BPA (0.4 and 4mg/kg), or vehicle
      for 45days. The results of Morris water maze task showed that exposure to BPA did
      not affect the spatial memory of GDX mice but impaired that of sham (4mg/kg/day)
      and TP-treated GDX mice (0.4mg/kg/day). In addition, BPA reduced the level of
      testosterone (T) in the serum and brain of sham and TP-treated GDX mice. Exposure
      to BPA decreased the synaptic density and had an adverse effect on the synaptic
      interface of the hippocampus in sham and TP-treated GDX mice. The results of
      western blot analysis further showed that BPA (4mg/kg) reduced the levels of
      synaptic proteins (synapsin I and PSD-95) and NMDA receptor subunit NR2B in sham
      and TP-treated GDX mice. BPA decreased the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 but
      increased the phosphorylation of p38 in sham and TP-treated GDX mice. These
      results suggest that impairment of spatial memory and adverse effects on synaptic
      remodeling of hippocampal neurons in males after long-term BPA exposure is
      related to the anti-androgen effect of BPA. These effects of BPA may be
      associated with downregulated synaptic proteins and NMDA receptor through
      inhibiting ERKs and promoting the p38 pathways.

PMID- 28576651
TI  - Female college students' beliefs about cervical cancer screening.

PMID- 28576653
TI  - A G-protein-coupled chemokine receptor: A putative insertion site for a multi
      pathogen recombinant capripoxvirus vaccine strategy.
AB  - Capripoxviruses (CaPVs) have been shown to be ideal viral vectors for the
      development of recombinant multivalent vaccines to enable delivery of immunogenic
      genes from ruminant pathogens. So far, the viral thymidine kinase (TK) gene is
      the only gene used to generate recombinants. A putative non-essential gene
      encoding a G-protein-coupled chemokine receptor subfamily homologue (GPCR) was
      targeted as an additional insertion site. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) was
      chosen as a disease model. A new recombinant CaPV expressing the viral attachment
      hemagglutinin (H) of the PPR virus (PPRV) in the GPCR insertion site (rKS1-HPPR
      GPCR) was generated in the backbone North African isolate KS1 strain of lumpy
      skin disease virus (LSDV). Comparison with the recombinant CaPV expressing the H
      of PPRV in the TK gene (rKS1-HPPR-TK) shown to induce protection against both PPR
      and LSD in both sheep and goats was assessed. The suitability of the GPCR gene to
      be a putative additional insertion site in the CaPV genome is evaluated and
      discussed.

PMID- 28576654
TI  - Mutations on M3 helix of Plutella xylostella glutamate-gated chloride channel
      confer unequal resistance to abamectin by two different mechanisms.
AB  - Abamectin is one of the most widely used avermectins for agricultural pests
      control, but the emergence of resistance around the world is proving a major
      threat to its sustained application. Abamectin acts by directly activating
      glutamate-gated chloride channels (GluCls) and modulating other Cys-loop ion
      channels. To date, three mutations occurring in the transmembrane domain of
      arthropod GluCls are associated with target-site resistance to abamectin: A309V
      in Plutella xylostella GluCl (PxGluCl), G323D in Tetranychus urticae GluCl1
      (TuGluCl1) and G326E in TuGluCl3. To compare the effects of these mutations in a
      single system, A309V/I/G and G315E (corresponding to G323 in TuGluCl1 and G326 in
      TuGluCl3) substitutions were introduced individually into the PxGluCl channel.
      Functional analysis using Xenopus oocytes showed that the A309V and G315E
      mutations reduced the sensitivity to abamectin by 4.8- and 493-fold,
      respectively. In contrast, the substitutions A309I/G show no significant effects
      on the response to abamectin. Interestingly, the A309I substitution increased the
      channel sensitivity to glutamate by one order of magnitude (~12-fold). Analysis
      of PxGluCl homology models indicates that the G315E mutation interferes with
      abamectin binding through a steric hindrance mechanism. In contrast, the
      structural consequences of the A309 mutations are not so clear and an allosteric
      modification of the binding site is the most likely mechanism. Overall the
      results show that both A309V and G315E mutations may contribute to target-site
      resistance to abamectin and may be important for the future prediction and
      monitoring of abamectin resistance in P. xylostella and other arthropod pests.

PMID- 28576652
TI  - Platelet Function Testing in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: An
      Observational Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The measurement of platelet reactivity in patients with stroke
      undergoing antiplatelet therapies is not commonly performed in clinical practice.
      We assessed the prevalence of therapy responsiveness in patients with stroke and
      further investigated differences between patients on prevention therapy at stroke
      onset and patients naive to antiplatelet medications. We also sought differences
      in responsiveness between etiological subtypes and correlations between
      Clopidogrel responsiveness and genetic polymorphisms. METHODS: A total of 624
      stroke patients on antiplatelet therapy were included. Two different groups were
      identified: "non-naive patients", and "naive patients". Platelet function was
      measured with multiple electrode aggregometry, and genotyping assays were used to
      determine CYP2C19 polymorphisms. RESULTS: Aspirin (ASA) responsiveness was
      significantly more frequent in naive patients compared with non-naive patients
      (94.9% versus 82.6%, P < .0010). A better responsiveness to ASA compared with
      Clopidogrel or combination therapy was found in the entire population (P <
      .0010), in non-naive patients (P < .0253), and in naive patients (P < .0010).
      Multivariate analysis revealed a strong effect of Clopidogrel as a possible "risk
      factor" for unresponsiveness (odds ratio 3.652, P < .0001). No difference between
      etiological subgroups and no correlations between responsiveness and CYP2C19
      polymorphisms were found. CONCLUSION: In our opinion, platelet function testing
      could be potentially useful in monitoring the biological effect of antiplatelet
      agents. A substantial proportion of patients with stroke on ASA were "resistant",
      and the treatment with Clopidogrel was accompanied by even higher rates of
      unresponsiveness. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess whether aggregometry
      might supply individualized prognostic information and whether it can be
      considered a valid tool for future prevention strategies.

PMID- 28576655
TI  - Intra- and extracellular domains of the Helicoverpa armigera cadherin mediate
      Cry1Ac cytotoxicity.
AB  - Diverse midgut cadherin mutations confer resistance to Cry1A toxins in at least
      three lepidopteran pests, including the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.
      Most of these cadherin mutations are inherited as recessive alleles and result in
      changes within the cadherin repeat (CR) regions of the extracellular protein
      domain. However, the H. armigera r15 cadherin mutation results in a deletion of
      55 amino acid residues within the cytoplasmic domain, and Cry1A resistance is
      inherited as a non-recessive trait. Here, eight recombinant H. armigera cadherin
      (HaCad) proteins, including seven variants containing different combinations of
      CRs and the cytoplasmic domain, were expressed in cultured insect cells using a
      baculovirus expression system and were analyzed for Cry1Ac binding and toxicity.
      Cells expressing either the wild-type HaCad or a mutant lacking only the region
      corresponding to the first nine CRs bound Cry1Ac and were equally susceptible to
      Cry1Ac. Cells expressing mutant HaCad proteins without the Cry1A toxin binding
      region (TBR) located in the CR nearest the plasma membrane did not bind Cry1Ac
      and were not killed by the toxin. Among the mutant proteins, loss of toxicity was
      observed in all cells producing HaCad variants lacking the amino acids 1422-1440,
      indicating that this TBR motif is important for both toxin binding and to confer
      susceptibility to Cry1Ac. Cells expressing the HaCad variant lacking the entire
      cytoplasmic domain retained Cry1Ac binding, but were significantly less
      susceptible to Cry1Ac than the cells producing either wild-type HaCad or HaCad
      lacking the first nine CRs. These results suggest that both the extracellular and
      the cytoplasmic domains of HaCad participate in Cry1Ac intoxication.

PMID- 28576650
TI  - Steroid metabolism in the brain: From bird watching to molecular biology, a
      personal journey.
AB  - Since Arnold Adolph Berthold established in 1849 the critical role of the testes
      in the activation of male sexual behavior, intensive research has identified many
      sophisticated neurochemical and molecular mechanisms mediating this action.
      Studies in Japanese quail demonstrated the critical role of testosterone action
      and of testosterone aromatization in the sexually dimorphic medial preoptic
      nucleus in the activation of male copulatory behavior. The development of an
      immunohistochemical visualization of brain aromatase in quail then allowed
      further refinement in the localization of the sites of neuroestrogens production.
      Testosterone aromatization is required for the activation of both appetitive and
      consummatory aspects of male sexual behavior. Brain aromatase activity is
      modulated by steroid-induced changes in the transcription of the corresponding
      gene but also more rapidly by phosphorylation processes. Sexual interactions with
      a female also rapidly regulate brain aromatase activity in an anatomically
      specific manner presumably via the release and action of endogenous glutamate.
      These rapid changes in estrogen production modulate sexual behavior and in
      particular its motivational component with latencies ranging between 15 and
      30min. Brain estrogens seem to act in a manner akin to a neurotransmitter or at
      least a neuromodulator. More recently, assays of brain estradiol concentrations
      in micropunched samples or in dialysis samples obtained from behaviorally active
      males suggested that aromatase activity measured ex vivo might not be an accurate
      proxy to the rapid changes in local neuroestrogens production and concentrations.
      Studies of brain testosterone metabolism are thus not over and will keep
      scientists busy for a little longer. Elsevier SBN Keynote Address, Montreal.

PMID- 28576657
TI  - WISH, a novel CFEM GPCR is indispensable for surface sensing, asexual and
      pathogenic differentiation in rice blast fungus.
AB  - We have selected and characterized a unique Conserved Fungal-specific Extra
      cellular Membrane-spanning (CFEM) domain containing PTH11 like G-protein coupled
      receptor (GPCR), which is responsible for Water wettability, Infection, Surface
      sensing and Hyper-conidiation (WISH). The pathogenicity gene WISH is predicted to
      encode a novel seven transmembrane protein in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe
      oryzae, one of the deadliest pathogens of rice. We generated knockout mutants
      through a homologous recombination-based method to understand the function of the
      gene. These mutants are nonpathogenic due to a defect in sensing hydrophobic
      surface and appressorium differentiation. The mutant failed to undergo early
      events of pathogenesis, and appressorium development is diminished on inductive
      hydrophobic surface and was unable to penetrate susceptible rice leaves. The
      Deltawish mutant did not develop any appressorium, suggesting that WISH protein
      is required for appressorium morphogenesis and is also involved in host surface
      recognition. We examined various aspects of pathogenesis and the results
      indicated involvement of WISH in preventing autolysis of vegetative hyphae,
      determining surface hydrophobicity and maintenance of cell-wall integrity. WISH
      gene from M. oryzae strain B157 complemented the Deltawish mutant, indicating
      functional authenticity. Exogenous activation of cellular signaling failed to
      suppress the defects in Deltawish mutants. These findings suggest that WISH GPCR
      senses diverse extracellular signals to play multiple roles and might have
      effects on PTH11 and MPG1 genes especially as an upstream effector of
      appressorium differentiation. It is for the first time that a typical GPCR
      containing seven transmembrane helices involved in the early events of plant
      pathogenesis of M. oryzae has been functionally characterized.

PMID- 28576656
TI  - A double-stranded RNA degrading enzyme reduces the efficiency of oral RNA
      interference in migratory locust.
AB  - Application of RNA interference (RNAi) for insect pest management is limited by
      variable efficiency of RNAi in different insect species. In Locusta migratoria,
      RNAi is highly efficient through injection of dsRNA, but oral delivery of dsRNA
      is much less effective. Efforts to understand this phenomenon have shown that
      dsRNA is more rapidly degraded in midgut fluid than in hemolymph due to nuclease
      enzyme activity. In the present study, we identified and characterized two full
      length cDNAs of double-stranded RNA degrading enzymes (dsRNase) from midgut of L.
      migratoria, which were named LmdsRNase2 and LmdsRNase3. Gene expression analysis
      revealed that LmdsRNase2 and LmdsRNase3 were predominantly expressed in the
      midgut, relatively lower expression in gastric caeca, and trace expression in
      other tested tissues. Incubation of dsRNA in midgut fluid from LmdsRNase3
      suppressed larvae or control larvae injected with dsGFP resulted in high levels
      of degradation; however, dsRNA incubated in midgut fluid from LmdsRNase2
      suppressed larvae was more stable, indicating LmdsRNase2 is responsible for dsRNA
      degradation in the midgut. To verify the biological function of LmdsRNase2 in
      vivo, nymphs were injected with dsGFP, dsLmdsRNase2 or dsLmdsRNase3 and chitinase
      10 (LmCht10) or chitin synthase 1 (LmCHS1) dsRNA were orally delivered. Mortality
      associated with reporter gene knockdown was observed only in locusts injected
      with dsLmdsRNase2 (48% and 22%, for dsLmCht10 and dsLmCHS1, respectively),
      implicating LmdsRNase2 in reducing RNAi efficiency. Furthermore, recombinantly
      expressed LmdsRNase2 fusion proteins degraded dsRNA rapidly, whereas LmdsRNase3
      did not. These results suggest that rapid degradation of dsRNA by dsRNase2 in the
      midgut is an important factor causing low RNAi efficiency when dsRNA is orally
      delivered in the locust.

PMID- 28576658
TI  - Current Resources for Evidence-Based Practice, July/August 2017.

PMID- 28576659
TI  - Ceftriaxone reverses deficits of behavior and neurogenesis in an MPTP-induced rat
      model of Parkinson's disease dementia.
AB  - Hyperactivity of the glutamatergic system is involved in excitotoxicity and
      neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) so that glutamatergic modulation
      maybe a potential therapeutic target for PD. Ceftriaxone (CEF) has been reported
      to increase glutamate uptake by increasing glutamate transporter expression and
      has been demonstrated neuroprotective effects in animal study. The aim of this
      study was to determine the effects of CEF on behavior and neurogenesis in the 1
      methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD rat model. MPTP was
      stereotaxically injected into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) of male
      Wistar rats. Starting on the same day after MPTP lesioning (day 0), the rats were
      injected daily with either CEF or saline for 14days and underwent a T-maze test
      on days 8-10 and an object recognition test on days 12-14, then the brain was
      taken for histological evaluation on day 15. The results showed that MPTP
      lesioning resulted in decreased motor function, working memory, and object
      recognition and reduced neurogenesis in the substantial nigra and dentate gyrus
      of the hippocampus. These behavioral and neuronal changes were prevented by CEF
      treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that CEF prevents
      loss of neurogenesis in the brain of PD rats. CEF may therefore have clinical
      potential in the treatment of PD.

PMID- 28576660
TI  - Impact of light transmittance mode on polymerisation kinetics in bulk-fill resin
      based composites.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: to determine the mode of light transmission and its impact on the
      polymerisation kinetic in modern bulk-fill resin-based composites (B-RBC).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four low-viscosity methacrylate-based and one high
      viscosity ormocer-based B-RBCs were considered. One material was available in
      three different shades that were all analyzed. Polymerization kinetic and light
      transmittance were assessed in 2 and 4mm specimen depths. Incident and
      transmitted irradiance and radiant exposure were measured in real-time on a
      laboratory-grade spectrometer. RESULTS: A progressive enhanced light
      transmittance during polymerisation was identified in all materials except for
      TetricEvoFlow BulkFill, which became progressively opaque in all shades. One-way
      ANOVA and multivariate analysis (alpha=0.05) were performed. The parameter
      material has a significant (p<0.001) effect on DC (etaP2=0.856) and light
      transmittance parameters (irradiance, etaP2=0.965; radiant exposure,
      etaP2=0.956); specimen depth influences only transmittance (etaP2=0.978; 0.980).
      DC variation in time was best described by an exponential sum function (R2>0.95),
      differentiating between the gel- and the glass-phase and revealing a faster
      initiation of polymerization and a slower transition into the glass-phase by
      lowering the filler volume. Depth retarded the transition into the glass-phase,
      but did not alter DC measured 300s post-irradiation. Moderate inverse correlation
      was identified among DC and filler volume% (-0.646) or filler weight% (-0.403),
      while no correlation among DC and light transmittance (p=0.141; 0.125). The
      maximal rate of carbon-carbon double bond conversion varied within the analyzed
      materials but was independent from specimen's depths. CONCLUSIONS: Light
      transmission changes during polymerization do not alter polymerization kinetics
      in modern B-RBCs. DC 300s post-irradiation was maintained with depth, while light
      was attenuated, the faster the more translucent the material was. DC and quality
      of curing cannot be related to light transmittance in B-RBCs.

PMID- 28576661
TI  - Knowledge and practice related to gestational diabetes among primary health care
      providers in Morocco: Potential for a defragmentation of care?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and practices
      of general practitioners, nurses and midwives working at primary health care
      facilities in Morocco regarding screening and management of gestational diabetes
      (GDM). METHODS: Structured interviews with 100 doctors, midwives and nurses at 44
      randomly selected public health care centers were conducted in Marrakech and Al
      Haouz. All data were descriptively analyzed. Ethical approval for the study was
      granted by the institutional review boards in Belgium and Morocco. RESULTS:
      Public primary health care providers have a basic understanding of gestational
      diabetes but screening and management practices are not uniform. Although 56.8%
      of the doctors had some pre-service training on gestational diabetes, most nurses
      and midwives lack such training. After diagnosing GDM, 88.5% of providers refer
      patients to specialists, only 11.5% treat them as outpatients. DISCUSSION:
      Updating knowledge and skills of providers through both pre- and in-service
      training needs to be supported by uniform national standards enabling first line
      health care workers to manage women with GDM and thus increase access and provide
      a continuity in care. Findings of this study will be used to pilot a model of GDM
      screening and initial management through the primary level of care.

PMID- 28576663
TI  - Impact of ranolazine on coronary microvascular dysfunction (MICRO) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with angina and coronary microvascular dysfunction, without
      evidence of structural or epicardial coronary disease (Type I CMVD) remain
      without evidence based treatment options. Previous work has demonstrated that
      ranolazine can improve angina frequency and stability among patients with Type 1
      CMVD; however, the mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, the objective of this
      pilot project was to assess the impact of ranolazine on Type I CMVD as measured
      using an invasive tool to measure global resistance (index of microcirculatory
      resistance (IMR)). METHODS: Patients with Type 1 CMVD diagnosed using IMR were
      enrolled and treated with ranolazine 1000mg BID. Coronary angiography and IMR
      were performed at baseline and on treatment after four weeks. The primary outcome
      measure was change in IMR pre- and post-treatment. Secondary outcome measures,
      improvement in angina and activity level, were assessed using the Seattle Angina
      Questionnaire (SAQ), Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) and Metabolic equivalent
      for Task (MET) scores. RESULTS: A total of 7 patient were enrolled and completed
      the study. Mean age was 57.6+/-7.5, 43% were female and 43% were Hispanic. Mean
      baseline IMR was 37.25+/-16.27 which decreased to 19.48+/-5.69 (p=0.02; (-48%
      Delta) after treatment with ranolazine. Four of the five SAQ domains improved on
      treatment with significant improvement in physical limitation (p=0.001), angina
      frequency (p=0.04), angina stability (p=0.05) and disease perception (p=0.001).
      Non-significant improvements in activity were also seen in both the DASI and MET
      scores. CONCLUSION: Among patients with Type 1 CMVD, our pilot data suggest
      favorable changes in IMR, anginal symptoms and activity status with ranolazine
      treatment. These findings support further evaluation of the effects of ranolazine
      on microcirculatory function and angina symptoms in a larger cohort of patients
      with Type 1 CMVD.

PMID- 28576662
TI  - Comparison of very long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes of bare metal
      stent implants between patients with and without type 2 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data on a large patient population regarding very long-term outcomes
      after bare metal stent (BMS) implantation in diabetic patients are lacking. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the very long-term (8-17 years) clinical and 6
      month angiographic outcomes of BMS implantations in patients with and without
      type 2 diabetes. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 2391 patients (579 with and 1812
      without diabetes) who received BMS implantations between November 1995 and May
      2004 were enrolled from the Cardiovascular Atherosclerosis and Percutaneous
      TrAnsluminal INterventions (CAPTAIN) registry into this study. During a mean
      follow-up period of 152+/-53months, the diabetic patients had higher rates of all
      cause mortality (28% vs. 15%, p<0.001), re-infarction (6% vs. 5%, p=0.284),
      target lesion revascularization (13% vs. 10%, p=0.049), and a lower
      cardiovascular event-free survival rate (42% vs. 56%, p<0.001) compared to the
      patients without diabetes. The diabetic patients also had a higher restenosis
      rate (26% vs. 18%, p<0.001) at 6-month angiographic follow-up. The multivariate
      analysis of risk factors for cardiac event-free survival included age (hazard
      ratio [HR]: 1.011; p=0.001), hypertension (HR: 1.168; p=0.011), diabetes mellitus
      (HR: 1.353; p<0.001), pre-existing coronary artery disease (HR: 1.341; p<0.001),
      and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (HR: 0.992; p=0.002) (Table 7). The
      Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a significant difference in cardiovascular event
      free survival rate between the two groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The clinical and
      angiographic outcomes of diabetic patients with BMS implantations were worse than
      those of patients without diabetes after a very long-term follow-up period.

PMID- 28576664
TI  - Uncertainty and stress: Why it causes diseases and how it is mastered by the
      brain.
AB  - The term 'stress' - coined in 1936 - has many definitions, but until now has
      lacked a theoretical foundation. Here we present an information-theoretic
      approach - based on the 'free energy principle' - defining the essence of stress;
      namely, uncertainty. We address three questions: What is uncertainty? What does
      it do to us? What are our resources to master it? Mathematically speaking,
      uncertainty is entropy or 'expected surprise'. The 'free energy principle' rests
      upon the fact that self-organizing biological agents resist a tendency to
      disorder and must therefore minimize the entropy of their sensory states. Applied
      to our everyday life, this means that we feel uncertain, when we anticipate that
      outcomes will turn out to be something other than expected - and that we are
      unable to avoid surprise. As all cognitive systems strive to reduce their
      uncertainty about future outcomes, they face a critical constraint: Reducing
      uncertainty requires cerebral energy. The characteristic of the vertebrate brain
      to prioritize its own high energy is captured by the notion of the 'selfish
      brain'. Accordingly, in times of uncertainty, the selfish brain demands extra
      energy from the body. If, despite all this, the brain cannot reduce uncertainty,
      a persistent cerebral energy crisis may develop, burdening the individual by
      'allostatic load' that contributes to systemic and brain malfunction (impaired
      memory, atherogenesis, diabetes and subsequent cardio- and cerebrovascular
      events). Based on the basic tenet that stress originates from uncertainty, we
      discuss the strategies our brain uses to avoid surprise and thereby resolve
      uncertainty.

PMID- 28576665
TI  - Understanding B-DNA to A-DNA transition in the right-handed DNA helix:
      Perspective from a local to global transition.
AB  - The right-handed DNA helix exhibits two major conformations, A-DNA and B-DNA,
      depending on the environmental conditions. The B-DNA to A-DNA (B->A) transition
      is sequence specific, cooperative, and reversible. The reduced water activity due
      to the addition of solvents like ethanol or the presence of protein or drug
      molecules causes B->A transition. In several biological cases, B->A transition
      occurs at a local level where small fragments of a long DNA sequence undergoes B
      >A transition. In this review, we have discussed various aspects of B->A
      transition such as the role of water, sequence specificity, mechanism of B->A
      transition, etc. The review primarily focuses on the B->A mechanism involved at a
      local level, and finally its connection to the global transition in theoretical
      and experimental studies.

PMID- 28576666
TI  - Itching for a diagnosis - A travel medicine perspective on delusional
      infestation.

PMID- 28576667
TI  - Bipolar Plasma Enucleation of the Prostate (B-TUEP) in Benign Prostate
      Hypertrophy Treatment: 3-Year Results.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate numerous endoscopic techniques that have been described
      for the treatment of benign prostate enlargement. Plasma-button enucleation of
      the prostate (B-TUEP) is a successful treatment option because the large surface
      creates a fast enucleation process, vaporization, and concomitant hemostasis. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of bipolar button electrode
      transurethral adenoma enucleation (B-TUEP) in saline solution. The second end
      point was to determine the change of International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS),
      post-void residual urine, International Index of Erectile Function, transrectal
      ultrasound gland volume evaluation, and prostate-specific antigen. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Between July 2011 and March 2012, 50 consecutive patients underwent B
      TUEP in our facility, all performed by a single surgeon (R.G.). All patients were
      preoperatively assessed with maximum urinary flow rate, single-question quality
      of life assessment, IPSS and the International Index of Erectile Function
      questionnaires, transrectal ultrasound gland volume evaluation, prostate-specific
      antigen, and post-void residual urine. RESULTS: We observed a significant
      improvement at 12, 24, and 36 months in terms of maximum urinary flow rate (22.3
      +/- 4.74 mL/s, 23.2 +/- 0.30 mL/s, and 23.6 +/- 1.26 mL/s, respectively, P <.01)
      and quality of life (5.28 +/- 0.97, 5.69 +/- 0.90, and 5.73 +/- 0.87). IPSS and
      IEEF scores improved significantly (P <.05). Gland volume evaluation and post
      void residue decreased (P <.001). The prostate-specific postoperative antigen
      levels were 0.76 +/- 0.61 ng/mL, 0.7 +/- 0.51 ng/mL, and 0.62 +/- 0.18 ng/mL, at
      12, 24, and 36 months, respectively. Two patients (4%) had persistent bladder
      outlet obstruction requiring reoperation. CONCLUSION: After 3-year follow-up, B
      TUEP represents an effective, durable, and safe form of surgical intervention. B
      TUEP is an alternative treatment for symptomatic benign prostate enlargement.

PMID- 28576668
TI  - Length of Stay and Cost in Patients Undergoing Orthognathic Surgery: Does Surgeon
      Volume Matter?
AB  - PURPOSE: The relations among procedure-specific annual surgeon volume, hospital
      length of stay (LOS), and hospital costs for patients undergoing the 2 most
      common orthognathic surgical (OGS) procedures, segmental osteoplasty or osteotomy
      of the maxilla (SOM) or open osteoplasty or osteotomy of the mandibular ramus
      (SOMR), are not known. The authors hypothesized that treatment by high-volume
      surgeons would be associated with decreased LOS and costs. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      All patients 8 to 64 years old who underwent elective SOM or SOMR were selected
      from the 2001 to 2009 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Patients with missing vital
      status or payment mode status or who underwent more than 1 OGS procedure during
      the index hospitalization were excluded. Based on year- and procedure-specific
      annual surgeon volumes, the highest (highest quartile) and lowest (lowest
      quartile) procedure volume surgeon groups were compared. Multivariable logistic
      regression was used to study the relation between surgeon volume and extended
      patient LOS (defined as LOS >= 75th percentile). Generalized linear models with a
      log-link and gamma distribution were used to examine the association between
      surgeon volume and hospital costs. Models were adjusted for patient- and hospital
      level factors and type of procedure (SOM or SOMR). Analysis was weighted to
      represent national-level estimates and an alpha value of 0.05 was used for all
      comparisons. RESULTS: After weighting to the population level, 8,062 patients
      were included for study. Most were white (80.6%), female (61.4%), and privately
      insured (84.6%). Mean age was 26 years (standard deviation, 0.38 yr). After
      adjusting for potential confounders, patients treated by high-volume surgeons
      showed 40% lower odds of extended LOS (odds ratio = 0.60; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 0.38-0.95; P = .032) and incurred substantially lower costs (-$1,484.74;
      95% CI, -2,782.76 to -185.58; P = .025) compared with patients treated by low
      volume surgeons. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that regionalization of
      patients to high-volume surgeons for OGS procedures could decrease LOS and
      incurred costs.

PMID- 28576669
TI  - Impact of Autologous Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells on Degenerative Changes of
      Articulating Surfaces Associated With the Arthritic Temporomandibular Joint: An
      Experimental Study in Rabbits.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study evaluated the effect of bone marrow-derived stem cells
      (BMSCs) on degenerative changes of TMJ associated with bovine collagen type II
      (BCII) induced-arthritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty rabbits were divided into
      3 groups. Group I (n = 10) received no treatment. Group II (n = 20) was divided
      into 2 subgroups according to treatment type. One subgroup (n = 10) received an
      intra-articular (IA) injection of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and the other
      (n = 10) received an IA injection of PBS plus BMSCs. Group III (n = 20) received
      an injection of oil emulsion of BCII before treatment with PBS or PBS plus BMSCs
      as in group II. Rabbits were euthanized after the third week and the joints were
      processed for histology. RESULTS: Compared to TMJs of subgroup III treated with
      PBS, TMJs of subgroup III treated with combined therapy showed improvements in
      all parameters tested. Mean values in mm3 for this subgroup regarding fibrous
      condylar covering, cartilaginous condylar plate, subchondral bone, articular
      eminence, upper joint cavity, lower joint cavity and disc thickness were 4.04+/
      0.13, 5.09+/-0.08, 25.29+/-0.36, 10.54+/-0.36, 4.53+/-0.44, 3.21+/-0.27, and
      24.52+/-0.41, respectively. Significant differences were found between subgroups
      mean values of group II and group IIII. CONCLUSIONS: BMSCs can be used safely and
      effectively to repair degenerative changes in rabbit TMJs associated with BCII
      induced arthritis.

PMID- 28576671
TI  - Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue on 4-Hydroxynonenal and Related Lipid
      Oxidation Products.

PMID- 28576670
TI  - Validation of the Youth Acute Pain Functional Ability Questionnaire in Children
      and Adolescents Undergoing Inpatient Surgery.
AB  - : Half of children admitted after surgery experience intense pain in hospital,
      and many experience continued pain and delayed functional recovery at home.
      However, there is a gap in tools available to measure acute functional ability in
      pediatric postsurgical settings. We aimed to validate the Youth Acute Pain
      Functional Ability Questionnaire (YAPFAQ) in a large inpatient pediatric surgical
      population, evaluate its responsiveness to expected functional recovery, and
      develop a short form for broad clinical implementation. The YAPFAQ is a self
      report measure assessing acute functional ability, developed in children admitted
      for acute sickle cell pain. We evaluated psychometric properties of the measure
      in 564 children ages 8 to 18 years admitted after surgery. A sample of 54
      participants completed the YAPFAQ daily for 3 days after major surgery to assess
      responsiveness. The measure showed good reliability (Cronbach alpha = .96) and
      construct validity, with expected relationships with physical health-related
      quality of life (r = -.53, P < .001) and pain intensity (r = .42, P < .001).
      YAPFAQ scores decreased over time showing good responsiveness to expected
      recovery. A 3-item short form of the YAPFAQ showed promising psychometric
      properties. Early assessment of functioning after surgery may identify children
      at risk for poor functional outcomes and allow targeting of therapies to improve
      postsurgical recovery. PERSPECTIVE: The YAPFAQ showed promising psychometric
      properties in a pediatric postsurgical population. This study addresses a gap in
      tools available to monitor functional recovery during hospitalization after
      pediatric surgery. Early detection of problems with recovery may enable targeted
      therapies to improve postsurgical outcomes.

PMID- 28576672
TI  - Watching television for more than two hours increases the likelihood of reporting
      poor sleep quality among Brazilian schoolteachers.
AB  - Although time spent watching television and sleep problems have increased in the
      last few decades, it is unclear whether these conditions are associated in
      working adults after controlling for lifestyle, job characteristics and other
      individual aspects. The present study analyzed the association between time spent
      watching television and sleep quality among teachers from public schools in
      Londrina, Brazil. In this cross-sectional study, information from the Pittsburgh
      Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and about time spent watching television was obtained
      during personal interviews. Logistic regression models adjusted by the main
      confounders (sociodemographic, occupational and lifestyle variables) were used in
      the analyses. Among the 959 studied teachers (68.2% women, median age: 42years),
      teachers who watched >120min/day had a higher likelihood of reporting poor sleep
      quality (PSQI>5) (odds ratio=1.41; 95% confidence interval=1.01; 1.98) compared
      with those who watched television for up to 60min/day, regardless of gender, age,
      work hours, leisure time physical activity and other lifestyle variables. This
      association did not remain significant after the adjustment for health
      conditions, i.e., obesity, anxiety, depression and chronic pain, which may act as
      confounding variables in the relationship between watching television and poor
      sleep quality. Watching television for >120min/day was independently associated
      with poorer sleep quality, which should be considered in the prevention and
      treatment of sleep disturbances among working population.

PMID- 28576673
TI  - Comparison of the immunogenicity of BM32, a recombinant hypoallergenic B cell
      epitope-based grass pollen allergy vaccine with allergen extract-based vaccines.

PMID- 28576674
TI  - Public Park Spaces as a Platform to Promote Healthy Living: Introducing a
      HealthPark Concept.
AB  - The concept of Healthy Living (HL) as a primary medical intervention continues to
      gain traction, and rightfully so. Being physically active, consuming a nutritious
      diet, not smoking and maintaining an appropriate body weight constitute the HL
      polypill, the foundation of HL medicine (HLM). Daily use of the HL polypill,
      working toward optimal dosages, portends profound health benefits, substantially
      reducing the risk of chronic disease [i.e., cardiovascular disease (CVD),
      pulmonary disease, metabolic syndromes, certain cancers, etc.] and associated
      adverse health consequences. To be effective and proactive, our healthcare system
      must rethink where its primary intervention, HLM, is delivered. Waiting for
      individuals to come to the traditional outpatient setting is an ineffective
      approach as poor lifestyle habits are typically well established by the time care
      is initiated. Ideally, HLM should be delivered where individuals live, work and
      go to school, promoting immersion in a culture of health and wellness. To this
      end, there is a growing interest in the use of public parks as a platform to
      promote the adoption of HL behaviors. The current perspectives paper provides a
      brief literature review on the use of public parks for HL interventions and
      introduces a new HealthPark model being developed in Chicago.

PMID- 28576676
TI  - Targeting PIK3CA-mutant advanced breast cancer in the clinical setting.

PMID- 28576677
TI  - Impact of different dilution techniques on boar sperm quality and sperm
      distribution of the extended ejaculate.
AB  - The dilution of ejaculates is a fundamental step for the production of liquid
      preserved boar semen. For a long time, it has been recommended to add the
      extender to the ejaculate. The aim of the present study was to first compare the
      effect of the position ('center' vs. 'wall') where the extender is added to the
      semen-mixing cylinder (height 32.5cm; diameter 12.7cm) using an automatic
      dispenser (n=11). In experiment 2 (n=30), we analyzed the two main dilution
      methods (extender to the semen ('control') vs. 'reverse'). Experiment 3 was
      carried out to study the dilution effect on kinematics. In Experiments 1 and 2,
      the sperm distribution 10min after the dilution and the sperm quality parameters
      during long-term storage (d1, d3, d5, and d7) were evaluated. In Experiment 3,
      sperm quality was assessed during short-term storage at 0, 10, 20, 30 and 60min
      after semen dilution ('control' vs. 'reverse'; n=6). There were no significant
      differences (P>0.05) between the treatments in the specific response to
      bicarbonate, mitochondrial activity, membrane status, thermo-resistance or sperm
      motility immediately after dilution or long-term storage. The sperm distribution
      was significantly (P=0.029) affected by the dilution method in Experiment 2. In
      summary, treatment with the extender first, which is used by only a few European
      boar studs, leads to comparable results in sperm quality during storage and
      better results in sperm distribution after dilution. This procedure is also less
      time consuming, less foam formation occurs during the semen dilution and the
      procedure is more hygienic.

PMID- 28576678
TI  - Immune therapeutic strategies using optimal controls with L1 and L2 type
      objectives.
AB  - Therapeutic strategies to correct an excessive immune response to pathogenic
      infection is investigated as an optimal control problem. The control problem is
      formulated around a four dimensional mathematical model describing the
      inflammatory response to a pathogenic insult with two therapeutic control inputs
      which have either a direct pro- or anti-inflammatory effect in the given system.
      We use Pontryagin's maximum principle and discuss necessary optimality
      conditions. We consider both an L1 type objective functional as well as an L2
      type objective. For the former, the presence of singular control will be
      addressed. For each case, numerical simulations using a nonlinear programming
      optimization solver to acquire different drug treatment strategies are presented
      and discussed. The results provide insight for possible treatment strategies and
      the methods could be a relevant tool for future practice to assist in better
      prediction of clinical outcomes and subsequently better treatment for patients.

PMID- 28576680
TI  - What is the impact on the healthcare system if access to bariatric surgery is
      delayed?

PMID- 28576679
TI  - Effects of low doses of carbendazim or iprodione either separately or in mixture
      on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium: An ex vivo study.
AB  - It has been shown that non-cytotoxic doses of Carbendazim (CBZ), a broad-spectrum
      benzimidazole fungicide, possess endocrine-disrupting (androgen-like) actions, ex
      vivo, on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium. Iprodione (IPR), a
      dicarboximide fungicide, is also known to be an endocrine-disrupter (anti
      androgen). The effect of a mixture of these two pesticides was investigated in
      the validated rat seminiferous tubule culture model. Cultures were performed in
      the absence or presence of CBZ 50nM or IPR 50nM either alone or in mixture (Mix),
      over a 3-week period. Mix exerted a dramatic effect on two proteins (Connexin 43
      and Claudin-11) of the blood-testis barrier and possessed similar effects to IPR
      on some germ cell populations. The presence of IPR together with CBZ (Mix)
      cancelled the effect of CBZ on the increase of the androgen-dependent TP1 and TP2
      mRNAs and on the decrease of ERalpha, ERbeta mRNAs. Nevertheless, CBZ alone or
      IPR alone or Mix induced toxicity on spermatogenesis resulting in a decrease of
      round spermatids (the precursors of spermatozoa). These results strongly suggest
      that, even at these low concentrations, the effects of IPR and of CBZ are not
      solely dependent on their respective anti-androgenic and androgen-like effects
      and should involve several mechanisms of action.

PMID- 28576681
TI  - 30-day readmission following weight loss surgery: can psychological factors
      predict nonspecific indications for readmission?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thirty-day readmissions occur in 5% or more of bariatric surgery
      patients. Some readmissions relate directly to surgical risks, whereas others
      relate to more nonspecific complaints or nonadherence and may reflect risks
      outside of the surgical procedure. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether presurgical
      psychosocial factors are related to readmission. SETTING: Tertiary/quaternary
      academic referral center. METHODS: Bariatric surgery patients readmitted within
      30 days of surgery during 2012-2015 were identified (n = 102). Patients were
      matched (2:1) on body mass index, age, sex, and race to 204 nonreadmitted
      patients. Psychiatric variables and psychological testing (Minnesota Multiphasic
      Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form) at intake were compared between the 2
      groups. Among those readmitted, the indication for readmission was investigated.
      Those with specific complications (n = 61) were delineated from those with
      nonspecific indications (n = 33). RESULTS: Those with nonspecific readmissions
      were younger and more likely to be female. These patients were also less likely
      to be in outpatient psychiatric care than nonreadmitted patients. Significant
      differences were found on the Uncommon Virtues scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic
      Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form, which reflects a tendency to
      underreport disinhibited behaviors. Those with nonspecific readmissions had
      significantly higher underreporting scores compared to those with specific
      indications or those not readmitted. CONCLUSIONS: Readmitted patients,
      particularly those with nonspecific indications, were more likely to
      presurgically present themselves in an overly positive manner. The tendency to
      underreport may affect the team's ability to identify risk factors that could be
      ameliorated before surgery. Readmitted patients were also less likely to be
      receiving mental health care. Such ongoing treatment may increase monitoring
      and/or adherence after surgery.

PMID- 28576675
TI  - Buparlisib plus fulvestrant versus placebo plus fulvestrant in postmenopausal,
      hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer (BELLE-2): a
      randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activation is a hallmark
      of endocrine therapy-resistant, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. This
      phase 3 study assessed the efficacy of the pan-PI3K inhibitor buparlisib plus
      fulvestrant in patients with advanced breast cancer, including an evaluation of
      the PI3K pathway activation status as a biomarker for clinical benefit. METHODS:
      The BELLE-2 trial was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre
      study. Postmenopausal women aged 18 years or older with histologically confirmed,
      hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor (HER2)-negative
      inoperable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease had
      progressed on or after aromatase inhibitor treatment and had received up to one
      previous line of chemotherapy for advanced disease were included. Eligible
      patients were randomly assigned (1:1) using interactive voice response technology
      (block size of 6) on day 15 of cycle 1 to receive oral buparlisib (100 mg/day) or
      matching placebo, starting on day 15 of cycle 1, plus intramuscular fulvestrant
      (500 mg) on days 1 and 15 of cycle 1, and on day 1 of subsequent 28-day cycles.
      Patients were assigned randomisation numbers with a validated interactive
      response technology; these numbers were linked to different treatment groups
      which in turn were linked to treatment numbers. PI3K status in tumour tissue was
      determined via central laboratory during a 14-day run-in phase. Randomisation was
      stratified by PI3K pathway activation status (activated vs non-activated vs and
      unknown) and visceral disease status (present vs absent). Patients,
      investigators, local radiologists, study team, and anyone involved in the study
      were masked to the identity of the treatment until unblinding. The primary
      endpoints were progression-free survival by local investigator assessment per
      Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (version 1.1) in the total
      population, in patients with known (activated or non-activated) PI3K pathway
      status, and in PI3K pathway-activated patients. Efficacy analyses were done in
      the intention-to-treat population. Safety was analysed in all patients who
      received at least one dose of study drug and had at least one post-baseline
      safety assessment according to the treatment they received. This trial is
      registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01610284, and is currently ongoing
      but not recruiting participants. FINDINGS: Between Sept 7, 2012, and Sept 10,
      2014, 1147 patients from 267 centres in 29 countries were randomly assigned to
      receive buparlisib (n=576) or placebo plus fulvestrant (n=571). In the total
      patient population (n=1147), median progression-free survival was 6.9 months (95%
      CI 6.8-7.8) in the buparlisib group versus 5.0 months (4.0-5.2) in the placebo
      group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.78 [95% CI 0.67-0.89]; one-sided p=0.00021). In
      patients with known PI3K status (n=851), median progression-free survival was 6.8
      months (95% CI 5.0-7.0) in the buparlisib group vs 4.5 months (3.3-5.0) in the
      placebo group (HR 0.80 [95% CI 0.68-0.94]; one-sided p=0.0033). In PI3K pathway
      activated patients (n=372), median progression-free survival was 6.8 months (95%
      CI 4.9-7.1) in the buparlisib group versus 4.0 months (3.1-5.2) in the placebo
      group (HR 0.76 [0.60-0.97], one-sided p=0.014). The most common grade 3-4 adverse
      events in the buparlisib group versus the placebo group were increased alanine
      aminotransferase (146 [25%] of 573 patients vs six [1%] of 570), increased
      aspartate aminotransferase (103 [18%] vs 16 [3%]), hyperglycaemia (88 [15%] vs
      one [<1%]), and rash (45 [8%] vs none). Serious adverse events were reported in
      134 (23%) of 573 patients in the buparlisib group compared with 90 [16%] of 570
      patients in the placebo group; the most common serious adverse events (affecting
      >=2% of patients) were increased alanine aminotransferase (17 [3%] of 573 vs one
      [<1%] of 570) and increased aspartate aminotransferase (14 [2%] vs one [<1%]). No
      treatment-related deaths occurred. INTERPRETATION: The results from this study
      show that PI3K inhibition combined with endocrine therapy is effective in
      postmenopausal women with endocrine-resistant, hormone receptor-positive and HER2
      negative advanced breast cancer. Use of more selective PI3K inhibitors, such as
      alpha-specific PI3K inhibitor, is warranted to further improve safety and benefit
      in this setting. No further studies are being pursued because of the toxicity
      associated with this combination. FUNDING: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

PMID- 28576682
TI  - Bile reflux of the remnant stomach following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: an
      etiology of chronic abdominal pain treated with remnant gastrectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bile reflux gastritis of the remnant stomach following Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass (RYGB) causing chronic abdominal pain has not been reported. We
      report a series of symptomatic patients with remnant gastritis treated
      effectively with remnant gastrectomy (RG). OBJECTIVE: The objective was to report
      our experience with bile reflux remnant gastritis after RYGB and our outcomes
      following RG. SETTING: Community teaching hospital. METHODS: All patients
      undergoing RG were retrospectively reviewed for presenting symptoms, diagnostic
      workup, pathology, complications, and symptom resolution. RESULTS: Nineteen
      patients underwent RG for bile reflux gastritis at a mean of 4.4 years (52.3 mo,
      range 8.5-124 mo) after RYGB. All patients were female and presented with pain,
      primarily epigastric (18/19; 95%), and described as burning (11/19; 58%), with 10
      (53%) reporting nausea. Endoscopy was performed preoperatively on all patients
      with successful remnant inspection in 13 (68%), using push endoscopy (n = 10) or
      operative assist (n = 3), with 12 (of 13; 92%) biopsy-positive for reactive
      gastropathy. Seventeen (90%) completed a hepatobiliary scintigraphy scan with
      100% positivity demonstrating bile reflux across the pylorus. Surgical approach
      was laparoscopic or robotic in 18 (95%) with a hospital length of stay of 2.7
      days (range 0-12 d), with no major complications or readmissions. Pathology of
      the remnant confirmed reactive gastropathy in 90% (n = 17). Ninety percent of
      patients (n = 17) reported sustained symptom resolution, and 11% of patients (n =
      2) remained symptomatic at last follow-up. We followed all patients for a mean of
      6.6 years (1-194 mo). CONCLUSION: Bile reflux gastritis of the remnant stomach is
      a new consideration for chronic abdominal pain months to years following RYGB.
      Hepatobiliary scintigraphy imaging and endoscopic biopsy are highly suggestive.
      RG is safe and effective treatment.

PMID- 28576683
TI  - Management of acute intra-abdominal sepsis caused by leakage after one
      anastomosis gastric bypass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leakage after one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) is fortunately
      rare (<1%), but it remains the most severe complication. Few published data exist
      on this specific issue. OBJECTIVES: To analyze the results from patients who
      presented with acute intra-abdominal sepsis (AIAS) caused by leakage after OAGB.
      SETTING: A university public hospital in France. METHODS: Between October 2006
      and February 2016, 17 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of AIAS caused by
      leakage after OAGB were included. Preoperative characteristics, clinical
      symptoms, radiologic findings, management, morbidity, and mortality were
      assessed. RESULTS: All 17 patients were included in the study. There were 4 men
      (23.5%), the median age was 48 years, and median preoperative body mass index
      (BMI) was 51 kg/m2. The most frequent clinical sign was tachycardia (65%). An
      oral contrast computed tomography scan was performed in 15 patients (88%) and
      showed a diagnosis of AIAS in 93% of cases. The median time between OAGB and leak
      diagnosis was 4 days. A gastrojejunal anastomosis (GJA) leak was the most
      frequent origin (41%). Sixteen patients (94%) were managed surgically (laparotomy
      n = 11, laparoscopy n = 5) and one medically. There were no deaths. The overall
      morbidity rate was 47% (major = 41%). Six patients underwent an emergency
      conversion into Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) (in cases of GJA, gastric-tube,
      and biliary-limb leakages) and were compared to 6 patients who did not undergo
      conversion but who could have benefited. We observed a tendency toward a reduced
      overall morbidity rate (16.7% versus 83.3%, P = .08) and shorter lengths of stay
      in the "conversion to RYGB" group. CONCLUSION: The management of AIAS caused by
      leakage after OAGB was safe, effective, and mostly surgical. Emergency conversion
      to RYGB in cases of GJA, gastric-tube, or biliary-limb perforation was feasible
      and safe.

PMID- 28576684
TI  - Influence of oil-related environmental pollutants on female reproduction.
AB  - The petroleum low-weight aromatic hydrocarbons benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene,
      m/p-xylene, and o-xylene, also known as BTEX, are among the most common hazardous
      sources of environmental contamination. This paper reviews the available data
      concerning the effects of BTEX on different aspects of female reproduction,
      including the fecundity, ovaries, central nervous system (CNS), oocytes, embryos,
      oviducts, cytogenetics of somatic and generative cells, intracellular signaling
      systems, and hypothalamic, pituitary and peripheral reproductive hormones.
      Analysis of the available literature demonstrates that BTEX can exert negative
      effects on various female reproductive sites, including the CNS-pituitary-ovarian
      axis, their signaling molecules and receptors, ovarian follicles, corpora lutea,
      oocytes, embryos, oviducts, ovarian cycles, fertility, and the viability of
      offspring. These effects could be due to the ability of BTEX to destroy
      chromosomes, to affect cell metabolism, including the accumulation of free
      radicals, and to affect the release of hormonal regulators of reproductive
      processes and intracellular protein kinases.

PMID- 28576685
TI  - Aberrant DNA methylation patterns of human spermatozoa in current smoker males.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of current cigarette
      smoking on sperm DNA methylation patterns. A total of 108 males (51 current
      smokers and 57 never smoked males) were included in the study. Using 450 BeadChip
      Arrays, the differentially methylated CpGs between current smokers (n=15) and
      never smoked males (n=15) were identified. Out of significantly 11 CpGs
      identified, 2 CpGs namely cg07869343 and cg19169023, which are located in the
      MAPK8IP3 and TKR genes were selected for further analysis. Using deep bisulfite
      sequencing in an independent cohort of current smokers (n=36) and never smoked
      males (n=42), 6 and 1 CpGs showed a significant difference in the MAPK8IP (CpG3,
      CpG5, CpG6, CpG7, CpG8, and CpG21) and in the TKR (CpG4) were identified,
      respectively (P<=0.05). Our results indicate that cigarette smoking causes
      biochemical changes in the sperm DNA methylation in many regions and could
      adversely affect semen parameters.

PMID- 28576686
TI  - Miscalculations can lead to misinterpretation of the results.

PMID- 28576688
TI  - Rating the blood pressure outcome after adrenalectomy for unilateral primary
      aldosteronism.

PMID- 28576687
TI  - Outcomes after adrenalectomy for unilateral primary aldosteronism: an
      international consensus on outcome measures and analysis of remission rates in an
      international cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although unilateral primary aldosteronism is the most common
      surgically correctable cause of hypertension, no standard criteria exist to
      classify surgical outcomes. We aimed to create consensus criteria for clinical
      and biochemical outcomes and follow-up of adrenalectomy for unilateral primary
      aldosteronism and apply these criteria to an international cohort to analyse the
      frequency of remission and identify preoperative determinants of successful
      outcome. METHODS: The Primary Aldosteronism Surgical Outcome (PASO) study was an
      international project to develop consensus criteria for outcomes and follow-up of
      adrenalectomy for unilateral primary aldosteronism. An international panel of 31
      experts from 28 centres, including six endocrine surgeons, used the Delphi method
      to reach consensus. We then retrospectively analysed follow-up data from
      prospective cohorts for outcome assessment of patients diagnosed with unilateral
      primary aldosteronism by adrenal venous sampling who had undergone a total
      adrenalectomy, consecutively included from 12 referral centres in nine countries.
      On the basis of standardised criteria, we determined the proportions of patients
      achieving complete, partial, or absent clinical and biochemical success in
      accordance with the consensus. We then used logistic regression analyses to
      identify preoperative factors associated with clinical and biochemical outcomes.
      FINDINGS: Consensus was reached for criteria for six outcomes (complete, partial,
      and absent success of clinical and biochemical outcomes) based on blood pressure,
      use of antihypertensive drugs, plasma potassium and aldosterone concentrations,
      and plasma renin concentrations or activities. Consensus was also reached for two
      recommendations for the timing of follow-up assessment. For the international
      cohort analysis, we analysed clinical data from 705 patients recruited between
      1994 and 2015, of whom 699 also had biochemical data. Complete clinical success
      was achieved in 259 (37%) of 705 patients, with a wide variance (range 17-62),
      and partial clinical success in an additional 334 (47%, range 35-66); complete
      biochemical success was seen in 656 (94%, 83-100) of 699 patients. Female
      patients had a higher likelihood of complete clinical success (odds ratio [OR]
      2.25, 95% CI 1.40-3.62; p=0.001) and clinical benefit (complete plus partial
      clinical success; OR 2.89, 1.49-5.59; p=0.002) than male patients. Younger
      patients had a higher likelihood of complete clinical success (OR 0.95 per extra
      year, 0.93-0.98; p<0.001) and clinical benefit (OR 0.95 per extra year, 0.92
      0.98; p=0.004). Higher levels of preoperative medication were associated with
      lower levels of complete clinical success (OR 0.80 per unit increase, 0.70-0.90;
      p<0.001). INTERPRETATION: These standardised outcome criteria are relevant for
      the assessment of the success of surgical treatment in individual patients and
      will allow the comparison of outcome data in future studies. The variable
      baseline clinical characteristics of our international cohort contributed to wide
      variation in clinical outcomes. Most patients derive clinical benefit from
      adrenalectomy, with younger patients and female patients more likely to have a
      favourable surgical outcome. Screening for primary aldosteronism should
      nonetheless be done in every individual fulfilling US Endocrine Society guideline
      criteria because biochemical success without clinical success is by itself
      clinically important and older women and men can also derive post-operative
      clinical benefit. FUNDING: European Research Council; European Union's Horizon
      2020; Else Kroner-Fresenius Stiftung; Netherlands Organisation for Health
      Research and Development-Medical Sciences; Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour
      and Welfare; Ministry of Health, Slovenia; US National Institutes of Health; and
      CONICYT-FONDECYT (Chile).

PMID- 28576689
TI  - Coronal alignment predicts the use of semi-constrained implants in contemporary
      total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Semi-constrained, or varus-valgus constrained, implants are
      occasionally necessary to achieve stability in primary total knee arthroplasty
      (TKA). However, outcomes with these implants are largely unknown. Therefore, the
      primary goals of this study were to determine 1) can we identify preoperatively
      which patients might require a semi-constrained implant and 2) are there any
      clinical and or radiographic differences for those that require a semi
      constrained implant? METHODS: A multicenter retrospective study was performed to
      retrospectively review patients that had a Stryker Triathlon (Kalamazoo, MI) TKA
      with a Total Stabilized (TS) tibial insert (n=75). This TS cohort was
      subsequently matched 1:1 based on age, gender, and BMI to a cohort of patients
      with the same primary TKA design with a PS insert (n=75). Preoperative and
      postoperative radiographic and clinical data were compared between the two
      groups. RESULTS: Preoperatively, the TS cohort had significantly greater varus
      (9.72 vs. 3.48; p=0.0001) and valgus (14.1 vs. 7.57; p=0.0001) deformity. Post
      operatively, there were no statistically significant differences in revisions
      (p=1), reoperations (p=1), or complications (p=1). Mean clinical and radiographic
      follow-ups were equivalent between groups (25.5 vs. 25.8months, p=0.8851).
      CONCLUSION: As suspected, use of a semi-constrained insert to achieve
      intraoperative coronal stability was most predicted by preoperative coronal
      deformity (either varus or valgus). Longer follow-up and larger patient cohorts
      are necessary to determine.

PMID- 28576691
TI  - Recurrent elevated liver transaminases and acute liver failure in two siblings
      with novel bi-allelic mutations of NBAS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute liver failure (ALF) in children can be life-threatening.
      Although many causes are known, ALF remains unexplained in about half of the
      cases. Recently, bi-allelic mutations in NBAS were reported to underlie recurrent
      episodes of elevated liver transaminases (ELT) and ALF in the context of diverse
      extrahepatic phenotypes. METHODS AND RESULTS: We here describe two sisters, born
      to non-consanguineous Portuguese parents, who had short stature and presented
      with recurrent episodes of severe ELT triggered by febrile respiratory viral
      infections since early childhood. Patient 1 had mild facial dysmorphism and died
      during the second ELT crisis at 3-11/12 years of age. Patient 2, currently 9
      years old, had multiple episodes of ELT (>30), twice with ALF, often accompanied
      by extensive urticaria and facial angioedema. Whole-exome and Sanger sequencing
      revealed that both patients carried previously undescribed compound heterozygous
      mutations of NBAS (NM_015909.3): c.680A > C (p.His227Pro), affecting an
      evolutionarily conserved residue, and c.1749G > A (p.Trp583*), causing a
      premature stop codon. Both mutations are predicted to be highly damaging. The
      parents and two younger siblings are healthy and heterozygous for one or another
      mutant allele. CONCLUSION: The multiplex kindred reported herein expands the
      genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of this recently described clinical syndrome
      due to autosomal recessive NBAS deficiency.

PMID- 28576692
TI  - Uteroabdominal Wall Fistula After Cesarean Section in a Patient With Prior
      Colorectal Resection for Endometriosis: A Case Report and Systematic Review.
AB  - Uteroabdominal wall fistula (UAWF) is a very rare complication of cesarean
      section. We report an unusual case of a UAWF occurring in a 37-year-old woman 4
      years after a cesarean section and previous radical surgery for deep infiltrating
      endometriosis with bowel resection. The patient presented with persistent
      purulent discharge of the Pfannenstiel scar and noted that the discharge was
      blood stained during menstruation. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the
      diagnosis of UAWF. Surgery was performed by laparotomy and was complicated by a
      postoperative rectovaginal fistula, which was successfully treated by the
      placement of a biological mesh via the vagina route. The postoperative course was
      favorable at 6 months with disappearance of painful symptoms and good quality of
      the colorectal anastomosis. A systematic review was conducted, and 18 case
      reports were found from 1939 to 2016. This case report highlights the risk of
      postdelivery complications in women with deep infiltrating endometriosis and
      colorectal involvement, especially after cesarean section. Persistent abdominal
      discharge in this context should suggest a diagnosis of UAWF despite its low
      incidence. Finally, the vaginal route for rectovaginal fistula might be
      considered an option for patients with prior multiple laparotomies.

PMID- 28576694
TI  - How Can We Increase the Percentage and Quality of Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy
      for Benign Disease Among Low/Intermediate-Volume Gynecologic Surgeons? A
      Perspective Piece From an Expert Panel Session at the 2017 Society of Gynecologic
      Surgeons Annual Meeting.

PMID- 28576693
TI  - Direct Laparoscopic Trocar Insertion: Lessons Learned from Nine Litigated Cases.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To report circumstances and clinical and medicolegal outcomes of
      9 litigated cases associated with direct trocar insertion (DTI) injuries to the
      bowel (7 cases) and major vessel (2 cases) during primary laparoscopic access.
      DESIGN: A case series from 1990 through 2015 (Canadian Task Force Classification
      II-2). PATIENTS: Nine litigated cases. INTERVENTIONS: A retrospective review of
      medical and legal records of litigated cases in Canada reviewed by the primary
      author (G.A.V.). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The average and range of age and
      body mass index of the women were 31 years (range, 14-65 years) and 25 kg/m2
      (range, 20-35 kg/m2), respectively. Indications for laparoscopy included
      diagnostic (4), laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy (3), pelvic mass
      (1), and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (1). DTI was performed with 10-mm trocars
      (5 shielded, 1 reusable, and 3 unknown). Two complications were experienced by
      patients of the same male surgeon (cases 2 and 9). Injuries included the small
      bowel (4 cases), colon (3 cases), and major vessel (2 cases). Vascular injuries
      resulted in permanent brain damage in 1 and near loss of limb in the other;
      litigation was favorable to the plaintiff in both cases. All bowel injuries
      presented with signs and symptoms of peritonitis within 3 postoperative days
      (PODs) (5 patients on POD 1, 1 patient on POD 2, and 1 patient on POD 3);
      however, only 2 cases were acted upon and remedied with favorable clinical and
      medicolegal outcomes. A delayed exploratory laparotomy resulted in significant
      adverse clinical outcomes (ileostomy/colostomy in 4 patients, multiple surgeries
      in 7 patients, and 1 death), and in all delayed actions, the medicolegal outcomes
      were favorable to the plaintiff. CONCLUSION: During laparoscopic primary
      peritoneal access using the DTI technique, inadvertent intra-abdominal injury may
      be significant when major vessels are involved and when intervention is delayed
      in bowel injuries. These result in significant adverse clinical complications and
      may provoke higher litigation with more favorable outcomes for the plaintiff.

PMID- 28576690
TI  - Complement component C3aR constitutes a novel regulator for chick eye
      morphogenesis.
AB  - Complement components have been implicated in a wide variety of functions
      including neurogenesis, proliferation, cell migration, differentiation, cancer,
      and more recently early development and regeneration. Following our initial
      observations indicating that C3a/C3aR signaling induces chick retina
      regeneration, we analyzed its role in chick eye morphogenesis. During eye
      development, the optic vesicle (OV) invaginates to generate a bilayer optic cup
      (OC) that gives rise to the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and neural retina.
      We show by immunofluorescence staining that C3 and the receptor for C3a (the
      cleaved and active form of C3), C3aR, are present in chick embryos during eye
      morphogenesis in the OV and OC. Interestingly, C3aR is mainly localized in the
      nuclear compartment at the OC stage. Loss of function studies at the OV stage
      using morpholinos or a blocking antibody targeting the C3aR (anti-C3aR Ab),
      causes eye defects such as microphthalmia and defects in the ventral portion of
      the eye that result in coloboma. Such defects were not observed when C3aR was
      disrupted at the OC stage. Histological analysis demonstrated that microphthalmic
      eyes were unable to generate a normal optic stalk or a closed OC. The
      dorsal/ventral patterning defects were accompanied by an expansion of the ventral
      markers Pax2, cVax and retinoic acid synthesizing enzyme raldh-3 (aldh1a3)
      domains, an absence of the dorsal expression of Tbx5 and raldh-1 (aldh1a1) and a
      re-specification of the ventral RPE to neuroepithelium. In addition, the eyes
      showed overall decreased expression of Gli1 and a change in distribution of
      nuclear beta-catenin, suggesting that Shh and Wnt pathways have been affected.
      Finally, we observed prominent cell death along with a decrease in proliferating
      cells, indicating that both processes contribute to the microphthalmic phenotype.
      Together our results show that C3aR is necessary for the proper morphogenesis of
      the OC. This is the first report implicating C3aR in eye development, revealing
      an unsuspected hitherto regulator for proper chick eye morphogenesis.

PMID- 28576695
TI  - Perspectives on Subcutaneous Route of Administration as an Immunogenicity Risk
      Factor for Therapeutic Proteins.
AB  - An increasing number of therapeutic proteins are being developed for delivery
      through the subcutaneous (SC) route of administration. Relative to intravenous
      (IV) administration, the SC route offers more convenience to patients,
      flexibility in dosing, and potential to reduce health care costs. There is a
      perception that SC administration can pose a higher immunogenicity risk than IV
      administration for a given protein. To evaluate whether there is a difference in
      therapeutic protein immunogenicity associated with administration routes, a more
      detailed understanding of the interactions with the immune system by each route
      is needed. Few approved therapeutic proteins have available clinical
      immunogenicity data sets in the public domain that represent both IV and SC
      administration routes. This has prevented a direct comparison of the 2 routes of
      administration across a large sample size. Of the 6 marketed products where SC
      and IV route-related incidences of anti-drug antibody (ADA) were available, 4
      were associated with higher immunogenicity incidence with SC. In other cases,
      there was no apparent difference between the SC and IV routes. Overall, the ADA
      incidence was low (<15%) with no impact on safety or efficacy. The challenges
      associated with identifying specific risk factors unique to SC administration are
      discussed.

PMID- 28576696
TI  - Anti-interleukin 5 therapies in severe asthma.

PMID- 28576697
TI  - Sequencing viral siRNAs to identify previously undescribed viruses and viroids in
      a panel of ornamental plant samples structured as a matrix of pools.
AB  - Ornamental plants constitute a largely unknown and potentially important source
      of pathogens affecting not only ornamental plants, but also major crop species.
      We have carried out studies using high-throughput sequencing of 21-24 nt RNAs
      from potentially virus-infected ornamental plants, followed by assembly of
      sequence scaffolds, to identify the virus and viroid genomes present in a panel
      of 67 plant samples representing 46 species belonging to the main sectors of the
      ornamental plant industry (cut flowers, pot plants, bulbs). A pilot study
      demonstrated that samples could be pooled (5 samples per pool), and the overall
      process simplified without loss of detection of important known pathogens. In a
      full-scale study, pools of 5 samples were organized in a 5*5 matrix to facilitate
      attribution of a sequence to a precise sample directly from analysis of the
      matrix. In the total of 67 samples analyzed in the two studies, partial sequences
      suggesting the presence of 25 previously unknown viruses and viroids were
      detected, including all types of virus and viroid genomes, and also showed four
      cases of known viruses infecting previously undescribed hosts. Furthermore, two
      types of potential mis-assembly were analyzed, and were shown to not affect the
      conclusions regarding the presence of the pathogens identified, but show that mis
      assembly can affect the results when the objective is determining complete bona
      fide viral genome sequences. These results clearly confirm that ornamental plants
      constitute a potential source of unknown viruses and viroids that could have a
      major impact on agriculture, and that sequencing siRNAs of potentially virus- or
      viroid-infected ornamental plants is an effective means for screening for the
      presence of potentially important pathogens.

PMID- 28576698
TI  - Impact of shoulder rotation on neck-shaft angle: A clinical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Two recent experimental studies evaluated the influence of shoulder
      rotation on neck-shaft angle, with conflicting results. However, there have been
      no clinical studies of whether this angle varies in different shoulder positions.
      The present study aimed to determine whether shoulder rotation affects neck-shaft
      angle on standard radiographs in patients with complaints of shoulder pain.
      HYPOTHESIS: Shoulder rotation does not affect neck-shaft angle. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A prospective study was conducted in selected patients with shoulder
      pain. Three true anterior-posterior radiographic views were obtained: in neutral
      rotation, 30 degrees  external rotation, and internal rotation with patient's arm
      in a sling. The X-rays were evaluated by three shoulder and elbow surgeons. Inter
      and intra-observer reliability was evaluated by intraclass correlation
      coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: Neck-shaft angle on true AP view did not differ
      between neutral rotation and 30 degrees  external rotation: 132+/-6 degrees  and
      130+/-9 degrees , respectively (P>0.999). In internal rotation with the hand
      resting on the abdomen, neck-shaft angle was 145+/-6 degrees : i.e.,
      significantly different (P<0.001) to the other two positions. Intra- and inter
      observer correlation demonstrated excellent reliability. CONCLUSIONS:
      Radiographic neck-shaft angle was significantly different in internal rotation
      with the patient's arm in a sling, compared with views in neutral or 30 degrees 
      external rotation. Intra- and inter-observer correlation showed excellent
      reliability. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II, comparative prospective study.

PMID- 28576699
TI  - Chronic instability of the thumb metacarpo-phalangeal joint: Seven-year outcomes
      of three surgical techniques.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe sprain of the thumb metacarpo-phalangeal joint (TMCPJ) is a
      common injury whose functional outcome is good when repair is performed at the
      acute stage. The diagnosis is often missed, however, leading to chronic
      instability. The optimal treatment of chronic TMCPJ instability is controversial.
      The objective of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of the three
      main surgical techniques used to treat chronic TMCPJ instability. HYPOTHESIS:
      Arthrodesis is the best surgical option when ligament repair is not feasible.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: This single-centre retrospective study included all
      patients managed surgically between 2000 and 2012 for chronic post-traumatic
      TMCPJ instability using any of the three following techniques: primary repair,
      ligament reconstruction, and arthrodesis. Subjective and objective outcomes and
      complication rates at last follow-up were compared across these three techniques.
      RESULTS: Of 67 included patients, 55 were re-evaluated, after a mean follow-up of
      84 months (range: 24-164 months). Among them, 48 (87.3%) were satisfied or very
      satisfied with the outcome. Pain relief was significantly better in the
      arthrodesis group. Mean Quick-DASH scores were 17.4 (range: 0.0-89.5) with
      primary repair, 25.7 (range: 0.0-58.3) with ligament reconstruction, and 17.8
      (range: 0.0-50.0) with arthrodesis. Mean pinch-test strength compared to the
      normal side was 89% with primary repair, 84% with ligament reconstruction, and
      94% with arthrodesis. In the ligament reconstruction group, 6 of the 10 patients
      had instability at last follow-up and the proportion of patients describing
      themselves as fully recovered was significantly smaller than in the other groups.
      Four failures were recorded at last follow-up. CONCLUSION: Surgery to treat
      chronic TMCPJ instability produces good outcomes. Primary repair deserves
      preference whenever possible. In contrast to previous reports, outcomes after
      ligament reconstruction were not better compared to arthrodesis. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: IV, retrospective study.

PMID- 28576700
TI  - Tumoral calcinosis: Diffuse multifocal form in hemodialysis patients. Two case
      reports.
AB  - Orthopedic surgeons are often consulted for diagnosis of MASS syndrome, imaging
      showing periarticular calcification, or joint stiffness. Such presentations in a
      dialyzed patient should suggest tumoral calcinosis, which is a rare complication
      of dialysis, often diagnosed wrongly or late. It is often associated with calcium
      phosphate balance disorder, in which treatment is difficult and must take account
      of known contributing factors: severe hyperparathyroidism, increased
      phosphocalcic product, therapeutic calcium and vitamin D overload, and bone
      turnover slowed for varying reasons. We report a clinical, radiological and
      therapeutic description of two cases of tumoral calcinosis, which consists in
      deposits of hydroxyapatite, the crystalline form of calcium phosphate, in diffuse
      multifocal periarticular locations, inducing both esthetic and functional damage.

PMID- 28576701
TI  - Relevance of MRI for management of non-displaced lateral humeral condyle
      fractures in children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The treatment for non-displaced (<2 mm displacement) fractures of
      the lateral humeral condyle in children is controversial. Most studies recommend
      non-surgical treatment. However, plain radiographs are not sufficient to evaluate
      extension of the fracture line through the articular cartilage. This explains the
      high frequency of secondary displacements and non-unions, despite well-conducted
      conservative treatment. We hypothesized that MRI could be used to analyse whether
      the fracture is complete or incomplete. This could help to determine whether
      surgical or conservative treatment is indicated. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This
      prospective study enrolled children being treated for a non-displaced (< 2 mm
      gap) fracture of the lateral humeral condyle. All patients were treated with a
      long-arm cast in the emergency room. An MRI was done later on without sedation. A
      specific protocol was used to reduce the duration of the examination. T2-weighted
      and proton density fat-saturated sequences were used. RESULTS: Twenty-seven
      patients were enrolled: 16 boys and 11 girls with a mean age of 5 years (2-10).
      The MRI was performed an average of 7 days (1-23) after the fracture. The MRI
      could not be interpreted in two cases because the child had moved during the
      examination. In the other 25 patients, the fracture was incomplete in 17 patients
      and complete in 8 patients. Two children had secondary displacement diagnosed 7
      and 11 days after the fracture event. These two patients underwent open reduction
      and internal fixation. There was no correlation between patient age and the
      fracture being complete or incomplete. There were no cases of non-union.
      CONCLUSION: MRI appears to be a reliable method for determining whether the
      fracture line is complete or incomplete. It can be performed without sedation,
      even in children as young as 2 years of age. Use of an injury-specific MRI
      protocol reduces the length of the examination, thereby improving its
      performance. We recommend that it be used to analyse non-displaced fractures of
      the lateral humeral condyle in children. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Prospective study.

PMID- 28576702
TI  - Operative management of supracondylar humeral fractures in children: Comparison
      of five fixation methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The best method for stabilising supracondylar humeral fractures
      (SHFs) in children remains unclear. The objective of this study was to compare
      the outcomes of five different fixation methods for SHFs in children. HYPOTHESIS:
      Differences in intra-operative and short-term post-operative parameters can be
      demonstrated across different fixation methods for SHFs in children. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We reviewed the medical files of paediatric patients managed at our
      centre between 2006 and 2016 for SHF with major displacement (type 3 or 4 in the
      Lagrange-Rigault classification). Clinical and radiological parameters collected
      post-operatively and at last follow-up included Baumann's angle, anteversion of
      the distal humeral epiphysis, and operative time. Over the 11-year study period,
      251 patients were included; mean age was 6.4 years and mean follow-up 4.7 months.
      The five fixation methods used were elastic stable intra-medullary nailing (ESIN,
      n=16), two pins in an X configuration (n=33), two lateral pins and one medial pin
      (n=144), two lateral pins (n=33), and three lateral pins (n=25). A minimally
      invasive 2-cm approach was used to insert the medial pins. Immediate instability
      of the fixation was considered in patients with an at least 15 degrees  deficit
      in Baumann's angle or anteversion, or with rotational malalignment, on the
      radiographs taken on day 1. Outcomes were analysed in each of the five internal
      fixation groups. RESULTS: Immediate instability showed no significant differences
      across the five groups. Operative time was significantly shorter with two lateral
      pins (33min, P=0.046). Time to hardware removal was longer in the ESIN group (54
      days, P=0.03). Use of a medial pin was associated with a lower risk of secondary
      displacement (2.0% vs. 8.6%, P=0.04) but did not affect the risk of nerve injury
      (4% vs. 3%, P=0.86). DISCUSSION: This is one of the largest retrospective cohort
      studies of outcomes according to the fixation technique used to treat SHFs in
      children. Adding a medial pin through a minimally invasive approach is associated
      with a longer operative time but limits the risk of secondary displacement
      without increasing the frequency of iatrogenic nerve injury and improves fracture
      site stability. Use of a medial pin therefore deserves to be considered in
      paediatric SHFs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, retrospective cohort study.

PMID- 28576703
TI  - Porin flexibility in Providencia stuartii: cell-surface-exposed loops L5 and L7
      are markers of Providencia porin OmpPst1.
AB  - Epidemiologically unrelated Providencia stuartii strains isolated in hospitals in
      the south of France were investigated for their porin sequences and profiles.
      Noticeable resistance to beta-lactams was found to be associated with production
      of extended spectrum beta-lactamases or AmpC overproduction, but not metallo-beta
      lactamases. At the same time, the expression level of outer membrane porins was
      unmodified in these isolates. The identity of the amino acid sequences of the
      major porin OmpPst1 was less than 90% in the tested clinical strains, whereas
      sequences of the second major porin OmpPst2 were found to be identical in all
      isolates. Sequence diversity identified in the OmpPst1 porins was mainly located
      in two cell-surface-exposed loops (L5 and L7): these loops were found to be
      responsible for 80% of the main movements of the protein. Parallel tempering MD
      simulations indicated possible coordinated movement of these loops that might
      affect the electrostatic interaction of the porin with membrane components (e.g.
      LPS) or with external molecules/surfaces. This suggests that such flexibility of
      surface-exposed domains of OmpPst1 may participate in bacterial adaptation to the
      environment.

PMID- 28576705
TI  - The pathogenic LRRK2 R1441C mutation induces specific deficits modeling the
      prodromal phase of Parkinson's disease in the mouse.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to further explore the in vivo function of the
      Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2)-gene, which is mutated in certain familial
      forms of Parkinson's disease (PD). We generated a mouse model harboring the
      disease-associated point mutation R1441C in the GTPase domain of the endogenous
      murine LRRK2 gene (LRRK2 R1441C line) and performed a comprehensive analysis of
      these animals throughout lifespan in comparison with an existing knockdown line
      of LRRK2 (LRRK2 knockdown line). Animals of both lines do not exhibit severe
      motor dysfunction or pathological signs of neurodegeneration neither at young nor
      old age. However, at old age the homozygous LRRK2 R1441C animals exhibit clear
      phenotypes related to the prodromal phase of PD such as impairments in fine motor
      tasks, gait, and olfaction. These phenotypes are only marginally observable in
      the LRRK2 knockdown animals, possibly due to activation of compensatory
      mechanisms as suggested by in vitro studies of synaptic transmission. Thus, at
      the organismal level the LRRK2 R1441C mutation does not emerge as a loss of
      function of the protein, but induces mutation specific deficits. Furthermore,
      judged by the phenotypes presented, the LRRK2-R1441C knock-in line is a valid
      preclinical model for the prodromal phase of PD.

PMID- 28576704
TI  - alpha-Synuclein fibril-induced inclusion spread in rats and mice correlates with
      dopaminergic Neurodegeneration.
AB  - Proteinaceous inclusions in neurons, composed primarily of alpha-synuclein,
      define the pathology in several neurodegenerative disorders. Neurons can
      internalize alpha-synuclein fibrils that can seed new inclusions from
      endogenously expressed alpha-synuclein. The factors contributing to the spread of
      pathology and subsequent neurodegeneration are not fully understood, and
      different compositions and concentrations of fibrils have been used in different
      hosts. Here, we systematically vary the concentration and length of well
      characterized alpha-synuclein fibrils and determine their relative ability to
      induce inclusions and neurodegeneration in different hosts (primary neurons,
      C57BL/6J and C3H/HeJ mice, and Sprague Dawley rats). Using dynamic-light
      scattering profiles and other measurements to determine fibril length and
      concentration, we find that femptomolar concentrations of fibrils are sufficient
      to induce robust inclusions in primary neurons. However, a narrow and non-linear
      dynamic range characterizes fibril-mediated inclusion induction in axons and the
      soma. In mice, the C3H/HeJ strain is more sensitive to fibril exposures than
      C57BL/6J counterparts, with more inclusions and dopaminergic neurodegeneration.
      In rats, injection of fibrils into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc)
      results in similar inclusion spread and dopaminergic neurodegeneration as
      injection of the fibrils into the dorsal striatum, with prominent inclusion
      spread to the amygdala and several other brain areas. Inclusion spread,
      particularly from the SNpc to the striatum, positively correlates with
      dopaminergic neurodegeneration. These results define biophysical characteristics
      of alpha-synuclein fibrils that induce inclusions and neurodegeneration both in
      vitro and in vivo, and suggest that inclusion spread in the brain may be promoted
      by a loss of neurons.

PMID- 28576706
TI  - rHIgM22 enhances remyelination in the brain of the cuprizone mouse model of
      demyelination.
AB  - Failure of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) to differentiate and
      remyelinate axons is thought to be a major cause of the limited ability of the
      central nervous system to repair plaques of immune-mediated demyelination in
      multiple sclerosis (MS). Current therapies for MS aim to lessen the immune
      response in order to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks, but these
      existing therapies do not target remyelination or stimulate repair of the damaged
      tissue. Thus, the promotion of OPC differentiation and remyelination is
      potentially an important therapeutic goal. Previous studies have shown that a
      recombinant human-derived monoclonal IgM antibody, designated rHIgM22, promotes
      remyelination, particularly of the spinal cord in rodent models of demyelination.
      Here, we examined the effects of rHIgM22 in remyelination in the brain using the
      mouse model of cuprizone-induced demyelination, which is characterized by
      spontaneous remyelination. The myelination state of the corpus callosum of
      cuprizone-fed mice treated with rHIgM22 was examined immediately after the end of
      the cuprizone diet as well as at different time points during the recovery period
      with regular food, and compared with that of cuprizone-fed animals treated with
      either vehicle or human IgM isotype control antibody. Mice fed only regular food
      were used as controls. We demonstrate that treatment with rHIgM22 accelerated
      remyelination of the demyelinated corpus callosum. The remyelination-enhancing
      effects of rHIgM22 were found across different, anatomically distinct regions of
      the corpus callosum, and followed a spatiotemporal pattern that was similar to
      that of the spontaneous remyelination process. These enhancing effects were also
      accompanied by increased differentiation of OPCs into mature oligodendrocytes.
      Our data indicate strong remyelination-promoting capabilities of rHIgM22 and
      further support its therapeutic potential in MS.

PMID- 28576708
TI  - A systems level analysis of epileptogenesis-associated proteome alterations.
AB  - Despite intense research efforts, the knowledge about the mechanisms of
      epileptogenesis and epilepsy is still considered incomplete and limited. However,
      an in-depth understanding of molecular pathophysiological processes is crucial
      for the rational selection of innovative biomarkers and target candidates. Here,
      we subjected proteomic data from different phases of a chronic rat
      epileptogenesis model to a comprehensive systems level analysis. Weighted Gene Co
      expression Network analysis identified several modules of interconnected protein
      groups reflecting distinct molecular aspects of epileptogenesis in the
      hippocampus and the parahippocampal cortex. Characterization of these modules did
      not only further validate the data but also revealed regulation of molecular
      processes not described previously in the context of epilepsy development. The
      data sets also provide valuable information about temporal patterns, which should
      be taken into account for development of preventive strategies in particular when
      it comes to multi-targeting network pharmacology approaches. In addition,
      principal component analysis suggests candidate biomarkers, which might inform
      the design of novel molecular imaging approaches aiming to predict
      epileptogenesis during different phases or confirm epilepsy manifestation.
      Further studies are necessary to distinguish between molecular alterations, which
      correlate with epileptogenesis versus those reflecting a mere consequence of the
      status epilepticus.

PMID- 28576707
TI  - Development of transcripts regulating dendritic spines in layer 3 pyramidal cells
      of the monkey prefrontal cortex: Implications for the pathogenesis of
      schizophrenia.
AB  - Certain cognitive deficits in schizophrenia appear to emerge from altered
      postnatal development of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Dendritic
      spines on DLPFC layer 3 pyramidal cells are essential for certain cognitive
      functions, change in density over development, and are reduced in number in
      schizophrenia. Altered expression of molecular regulators of actin filament
      assembly and stability, which are essential for spine formation and maintenance,
      is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of spine deficits in the disease.
      However, the normal developmental expression patterns of these molecular
      regulators of dendritic spines, which might provide insight into the timing of
      spine deficits in schizophrenia, are unknown. Therefore, we quantified the
      expression from birth to adulthood of key transcripts regulating dendritic spine
      density in monkey DLPFC. Layer 3 pyramidal cells, and tissue samples containing
      layers 3 or 6, were captured by laser microdissection and selected transcripts
      were quantified using PCR. In layer 3 pyramidal cells, the expression levels of
      most of the transcripts studied changed early, and not late, in postnatal
      development. These developmental shifts in expression were generally not detected
      in tissue homogenates of layers 3 or 6, suggesting that the changes may be
      enriched in layer 3 pyramidal cells. The timing of these shifts in expression
      suggests that early, rather than later, postnatal development may be a vulnerable
      period for layer 3 pyramidal neurons. Disruption of the normal developmental
      trajectories of these transcripts may contribute to layer 3 pyramidal neuron
      spine deficits in individuals who are later diagnosed with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28576709
TI  - Rescue of altered HDAC activity recovers behavioural abnormalities in a mouse
      model of Angelman syndrome.
AB  - Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe
      intellectual and developmental disabilities. The disease is caused by the loss of
      function of maternally inherited UBE3A, a gene that exhibits paternal-specific
      imprinting in neuronal tissues. Ube3a-maternal deficient mice (AS mice) display
      many classical features of AS, although, the underlying mechanism of these
      behavioural deficits is poorly understood. Here we report that the absence of
      Ube3a in AS mice brain caused aberrant increase in HDAC1/2 along with decreased
      acetylation of histone H3/H4. Partial knockdown of Ube3a in cultured neuronal
      cells also lead to significant up-regulation of HDAC1/2 and consequent down
      regulation of histones H3/H4 acetylation. Treatment of HDAC inhibitor, sodium
      valproate, to AS mice showed significant improvement in social, cognitive and
      motor impairment along with restoration of various proteins linked with synaptic
      function and plasticity. Interestingly, HDAC inhibitor also significantly
      increased the expression of Ube3a in cultured neuronal cells and in the brain of
      wild type mice but not in AS mice. These results indicate that anomalous HDAC1/2
      activity might be linked with synaptic dysfunction and behavioural deficits in AS
      mice and suggests that HDAC inhibitors could be potential therapeutic molecule
      for the treatment of the disease.

PMID- 28576710
TI  - Evaluation of Screw Placement Accuracy in Circumferential Lumbar Arthrodesis
      Using Robotic Assistance and Intraoperative Flat-Panel Computed Tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neuronavigation has become a common means of placing pedicle screws
      in vertebral arthrodesis, because it reduces the incidence of complications
      related to poor screw positioning. OBJECTIVE: The To evaluate the accuracy of
      pedicle screw placement during lumbar arthrodesis performed with the new ROSA
      Spine robot and intraoperative flat-panel computed tomography (fpCT) guidance.
      METHODS: We performed a descriptive, observational, retrospective, single-center
      study of patients having undergone transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF)
      for degenerative pathologies with the ROSA Spine robot and intraoperative fpCT
      guidance. The primary endpoint was the presence or absence of pedicle wall
      breach, as assessed from the fpCT scan. Screw placement was graded according to
      Ravi's classification. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients were operated on between
      November 2014 and July 2016; 21 underwent minimally invasive TLIF, and 4
      underwent open TLIF. The mean +/- standard deviation operating time was 241 +/-
      49.8 minutes. Of the 110 screws placed, 101 (91.8%) were completely within the
      pedicle (Ravi grade A), 5 (4.5%) had a pedicle wall breach <2 mm (grade B), 2
      (1.8%) had a pedicle wall breach of 2-4 mm (grade C), and 2 had pedicle wall
      breach >4 mm (grade D) (1.8%). One screw (a grade D) was replaced during surgery.
      None of the breaches were symptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: When coupled with fpCT, the
      ROSA Spine robot is a reliable, accurate means of performing lumbar pedicle
      screwing.

PMID- 28576711
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Antibacterial Prophylaxis After Craniotomy: A Decision
      Model Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antibiotic prophylaxis has revolutionized the safety of neurosurgical
      procedures in the last century. Today, the clinician's drug of choice before
      surgery often is based on the antibiotic's resistance profile and drug-induced
      complications. METHODS: A decision tree model was developed to compare cefazolin
      (cephalosporin), vancomycin, or their combination on 90-day mortality
      postcraniotomy. We modeled the infection type (methicillin-sensitive, methicillin
      resistant, or other organisms), antibiotic-related complications that could
      affect mortality (e.g., renal injury), and Clostridium difficile infections.
      Parameters' values were extracted from published sources. One-way sensitivity
      analysis was used to examine results' robustness to plausible variations in input
      parameter values. RESULTS: The expected value (EV) of 90-day survival was the
      greatest among patients on cefazolin (EV = 0.9145), followed by patients on
      vancomycin (EV = 0.8898), and patients on the combination (EV = 0.8886).
      Cefazolin was the preferred strategy in most one-way sensitivity analyses, except
      for a few cases in which other options could be preferred based on expected
      survival. Vancomycin was preferred if kidney injury risk was <=0.056 conditional
      on vancomycin intake or >=12% conditional on cefazolin intake. The combination
      was preferred if kidney injury conditional risk was <=0.083 or that for kidney
      injury-mortality was <=4.7%. Varying other risks (e.g., postsurgical-site
      infections (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-sensitive
      Staphylococcus aureus, or other); Clostridium difficile infections' risks
      conditional on each antibiotic) did not change the preferred strategy.
      CONCLUSIONS: According to this decision analysis, patients undergoing a
      craniotomy who had cefazolin as prophylaxis had a slightly greater expected
      survival compared with other strategies. These results were sensitive to changes
      in kidney injury development risk and kidney failure-associated death.

PMID- 28576712
TI  - Preserving the Facial Nerve During Orbitozygomatic Craniotomy: Surgical Anatomy
      Assessment and Stepwise Illustration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Surgical safety and efficiency during an orbitozygomatic (OZ)
      osteotomy rely on thorough knowledge of the surgical anatomy of the facial nerve.
      Although the anatomy of the facial nerve and its relation to the pterional
      craniotomy are described, a thorough assessment of facial nerve preservation
      techniques during the OZ approach and its variations is lacking. We assessed the
      surgical anatomy of the facial nerve related to the OZ approach and provided a
      thorough stepwise description on how to preserve it. METHODS: The OZ approach was
      performed bilaterally in 15 cadaveric heads. The interfascial and subfascial
      techniques were performed to study their nuances in preserving the facial nerve.
      We compared the 2 techniques and provided a thorough description on how to
      preserve the facial nerve during each step of the OZ approach. RESULTS: At the
      zygomatic arch, the facial nerve was found between the galea and the superficial
      temporal fascia. A cut in the fascia at the posterior end of the zygomatic arch
      did not cross any facial nerve branches. The subfascial technique was simpler,
      more efficient, and provided more structural protection of the facial nerve
      branches than the interfascial technique. CONCLUSIONS: The frontal division of
      the facial nerve is related directly to dissection over the zygomatic bone and
      may be injured during fascial dissection or osteotomies. Both interfascial and
      subfascial techniques are feasible to use during the OZ craniotomy and provide
      ample exposure of the OZ unit. Regarding the preservation of the facial nerve
      branches, we favor the subfascial method.

PMID- 28576713
TI  - Adaptation of continuous biogas reactors operating under wet fermentation
      conditions to dry conditions with corn stover as substrate.
AB  - Corn stover (CS) is the agricultural by-product of maize cultivation. Due to its
      high abundance and high energy content it is a promising substrate for the
      bioenergy sector. However, it is currently neglected in industrial scale biogas
      plants, because of its slow decomposition and hydrophobic character. To assess
      the maximum biomethane potential of CS, long-term batch fermentations were
      carried out with various substrate concentrations and particle sizes for 72 days.
      In separate experiments we adapted the biogas producing microbial community in
      wet fermentation arrangement first to the lignocellulosic substrate, in
      Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR), then subsequently, by continuously
      elevating the feed-in concentration, to dry conditions in solid state fermenters
      (SS-AD). In the batch tests, the <10 mm fraction of the grinded and sieved CS was
      amenable for biogasification, but it required 10% more time to produce 90% of the
      total biomethane yield than the <2 mm sized fraction, although in the total
      yields there was no significant difference between the two size ranges. We also
      observed that increasing amount of substrate added to the fermentation lowered
      the specific methane yield. In the CSTR experiment, the daily substrate loading
      was gradually increased from 1 to 2 gvs/L/day until the system produced signs of
      overloading. Then the biomass was transferred to SS-AD reactors and the
      adaptation process was studied. Although the specific methane yields were lower
      in the SS-AD arrangement (177 mL CH4/gvs in CSTR vs. 105 mL in SS-AD), the
      benefits of process operational parameters, i.e. lower energy consumption,
      smaller reactor volume, digestate amount generated and simpler configuration, may
      compensate the somewhat lower yield.

PMID- 28576715
TI  - Thermo-sensitive polypeptide hydrogel for locally sequential delivery of two
      pronged antitumor drugs.
AB  - : In the synergistic treatment with cytotoxic drug and vascular disrupting agent,
      the order of drug release shows great importance to enhance the antitumor
      efficacy. When vascular disrupting agent is firstly administrated, the reduced
      blood supply and overexpressed hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha greatly limit the
      efficiency of chemotherapy. In this work, an injectable thermo-sensitive
      polypeptide hydrogel was firstly developed for the locally sequential delivery of
      hydrophilic doxorubicin (DOX, a cytotoxic agent) and hydrophobic combretastatin
      A4 (CA4, a vascular disrupting drug). The aqueous solution of polypeptide at low
      temperature transformed into hydrogel under the body temperature after
      subcutaneous injection and completely degraded after four weeks with excellent
      biocompatibility. DOX and CA4 were co-loaded into the hydrogel, and the release
      of DOX showed much faster than that of CA4 due to their difference in water
      solubility. The superior inhibition of tumor volume after treatment with DOX and
      CA4 co-loaded hydrogel occurred in the treatment of grafted mouse U14 cervical
      tumor compared with both free drugs and single drug-loaded hydrogels. In
      addition, the co-loaded hydrogel obtained enhanced apoptosis of tumor cells,
      significant shutdown of blood vessels, and wholly regional tumor apoptosis, which
      indicated the eradication of solid tumor. Moreover, treatments with the drug
      loaded hydrogels showed negligible damage to normal tissues, suggesting their low
      systemic toxicity. The locally sequential delivery system had great potential for
      in situ synergistic chemotherapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The release order
      makes great difference in the synergistic efficacies of cytotoxic drug and
      vascular disrupting agent. When cytotoxic drug is administrated before vascular
      disrupting agent, an eradication of tumor might be obtained. On the contrary, the
      antitumor efficiency will be greatly hindered by limited penetration of later
      cytotoxic drug and drug resistant induced by vascular disrupting agent.
      Therefore, the adjustment of the delivery behaviors of such two-pronged agents in
      one platform was significant for their efficiently synergistic chemotherapy. The
      present study originally provides a convenient strategy and an advanced sample
      for sequential administration of cytotoxic drug and vascular disrupting agent in
      one platform based on their water solubility to achieve upregulated efficacy and
      safety.

PMID- 28576716
TI  - Enhanced targeting of invasive glioblastoma cells by peptide-functionalized gold
      nanorods in hydrogel-based 3D cultures.
AB  - : Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are responsible for drug resistance, tumor recurrence,
      and metastasis in several cancer types, making their eradication a primary
      objective in cancer therapy. Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) tumors are usually
      composed of a highly infiltrating CSC subpopulation, which has Nestin as a
      putative marker. Since the majority of these infiltrating cells are able to elude
      conventional therapies, we have developed gold nanorods (AuNRs) functionalized
      with an engineered peptide capable of specific recognition and selective
      eradication of Nestin positive infiltrating GBM-CSCs. These AuNRs generate heat
      when irradiated by a near-infrared laser, and cause localized cell damage.
      Nanoparticle internalization assays performed with GBM-CSCs or Nestin negative
      cells cultured as two-dimensional (2D) monolayers or embedded in three
      dimensional (3D) biodegradable-hydrogels of tunable mechanical properties,
      revealed that the AuNRs were mainly internalized by GBM-CSCs, and not by Nestin
      negative cells. The AuNRs were taken up via energy-dependent and caveolae
      mediated endocytic mechanisms, and were localized inside endosomes. Photothermal
      treatments resulted in the selective elimination of GBM-CSCs through cell
      apoptosis, while Nestin negative cells remained viable. Results also indicated
      that GBM-CSCs embedded in hydrogels were more resistant to AuNR photothermal
      treatments than when cultured as 2D monolayers. In summary, the combination of
      our engineered AuNRs with our tunable hydrogel system has shown the potential to
      provide an in vitro platform for the evaluation and screening of AuNR-based
      cancer therapeutics, leading to a substantial advancement in the application of
      AuNRs for targeted GBM-CSC therapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: There is an urgent
      need for reliable and efficient therapies for the treatment of Glioblastoma
      Multiforme (GBM), which is currently an untreatable brain tumor form with a very
      poor patient survival rate. GBM tumors are mostly comprised of cancer stem cells
      (CSCs), which are responsible for tumor reoccurrence and therapy resistance. We
      have developed gold nanorods functionalized with an engineered peptide capable of
      selective recognition and eradication of GBM-CSCs via heat generation by nanorods
      upon NIR irradiation. An in vitro evaluation of nanorod therapeutic activities
      was performed in 3D synthetic-biodegradable hydrogel models with distinct
      biomechanical cues, and compared to 2D cultures. Results indicated that cells
      cultured in 3D were more resistant to photothermolysis than in 2D systems.

PMID- 28576717
TI  - Transient phase behavior of an elastomeric biomaterial applied to abdominal
      laparotomy closure.
AB  - : Secure closure of the fascial layers after entry into the peritoneal cavity is
      crucial to prevent incisional hernia, yet appropriate purchase of the tissue can
      be challenging due to the proximity of the underlying protuberant bowel which may
      become punctured by the surgical needle or strangulated by the suture itself.
      Devices currently employed to provide visceral protection during abdominal
      closure, such as the metal malleable retractor and Glassman Visceral Retainer,
      are unable to provide complete protection as they must be removed prior to
      complete closure. A puncture resistant, biocompatible, and degradable matrix that
      can be left in place without need for removal would facilitate rapid and safe
      abdominal closure. We describe a novel elastomer (CC-DHA) that undergoes a rapid
      but controlled solid-to-liquid phase transition through the application of a
      destabilized carbonate cross-linked network. The elastomer is comprised of a
      polycarbonate cross-linked network of dihydroxyacetone, glycerol ethoxylate, and
      tri(ethylene glycol). The ketone functionality of the dihydroxyacetone
      facilitates hydrolytic cleavage of the carbonate linkages resulting in a rapidly
      degrading barrier that can be left in situ to facilitate abdominal fascial
      closure. Using a murine laparotomy model we demonstrated rapid dissolution and
      metabolism of the elastomer without evidence of toxicity or intraabdominal
      scarring. Furthermore, needle puncture and mechanical properties demonstrated the
      material to be both compliant and sufficiently puncture resistant. These unique
      characteristics make the biomaterial extraordinarily useful as a physical barrier
      to prevent inadvertent bowel injury during fascial closure, with the potential
      for wider application across a variety of medical and surgical applications.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Fascial closure after abdominal surgery requires
      delicate maneuvers to prevent incisional hernia while minimizing risk for
      inadvertent bowel injury. We describe a novel biocompatible and biodegradable
      polycarbonate elastomer (CC-DHA) comprised of dihydroxyacetone, glycerol
      ethoxylate, and tri(ethylene glycol), for use as a rapidly degrading protective
      visceral barrier to aid in abdominal closure. Rapid polymer dissolution and
      metabolism was demonstrated using a murine laparotomy model without evidence of
      toxicity or intraabdominal scarring. Furthermore, mechanical studies showed the
      material to be sufficiently puncture resistant and compliant. Overall, this new
      biomaterial is extraordinary useful as a physical barrier to prevent inadvertent
      bowel injury during fascial closure, with the potential for wider application
      across a variety of medical and surgical applications.

PMID- 28576714
TI  - Alginate microbeads are coagulation compatible, while alginate microcapsules
      activate coagulation secondary to complement or directly through FXII.
AB  - : Alginate microspheres are presently under evaluation for future cell-based
      therapy. Their ability to induce harmful host reactions needs to be identified
      for developing the most suitable devices and efficient prevention strategies. We
      used a lepirudin based human whole blood model to investigate the coagulation
      potentials of alginate-based microspheres: alginate microbeads (Ca/Ba Beads),
      alginate poly-l-lysine microcapsules (APA and AP microcapsules) and sodium
      alginate-sodium cellulose sulfate-poly(methylene-co-cyanoguanidine) microcapsules
      (PMCG microcapsules). Coagulation activation measured by prothrombin fragments
      1+2 (PTF1.2) was rapidly and markedly induced by the PMCG microcapsules, delayed
      and lower induced by the APA and AP microcapsules, and not induced by the Ca/Ba
      Beads. Monocytes tissue factor (TF) expression was similarly activated by the
      microcapsules, whereas not by the Ca/Ba Beads. PMCG microcapsules-induced PTF1.2
      was abolished by FXII inhibition (corn trypsin inhibitor), thus pointing to
      activation through the contact pathway. PTF1.2 induced by the AP and APA
      microcapsules was inhibited by anti-TF antibody, pointing to a TF driven
      coagulation. The TF induced coagulation was inhibited by the complement
      inhibitors compstatin (C3 inhibition) and eculizumab (C5 inhibition), revealing a
      complement-coagulation cross-talk. This is the first study on the coagulation
      potentials of alginate microspheres, and identifies differences in activation
      potential, pathways and possible intervention points. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:
      Alginate microcapsules are prospective candidate materials for cell encapsulation
      therapy. The material surface must be free of host cell adhesion to ensure free
      diffusion of nutrition and oxygen to the encapsulated cells. Coagulation
      activation is one gateway to cellular overgrowth through deposition of fibrin.
      Herein we used a physiologically relevant whole blood model to investigate the
      coagulation potential of alginate microcapsules and microbeads. The coagulation
      potentials and the pathways of activation were depending on the surface
      properties of the materials. Activation of the complement system could also be
      involved, thus emphasizing a complement-coagulation cross-talk. Our findings
      points to complement and coagulation inhibition as intervention point for
      preventing host reactions, and enhance functional cell-encapsulation devices.

PMID- 28576719
TI  - Phenolic derivatives from Blaps japanensis and their biological evaluation.
AB  - This study was designed to characterize compounds from two thousands of insects
      of Blaps japanensis. With this purpose, pipajiains A-C (1-3), three novel
      phenolic derivatives, pipajiains D (4) and E (5), two new natural occurring
      compounds, and four known substances were isolated thereof. Their structures were
      identified by spectroscopic methods. Biological activities of all these compounds
      towards EV71, tuberculosis, COX-2, ROCK1/2, and JAK3 kinases were evaluated.

PMID- 28576718
TI  - Effect of altered haemodynamics on the developing mitral valve in chick embryonic
      heart.
AB  - Intracardiac haemodynamics is crucial for normal cardiogenesis, with recent
      evidence showing valvulogenesis is haemodynamically dependent and inextricably
      linked with shear stress. Although valve anomalies have been associated with
      genetic mutations, often the cause is unknown. However, altered haemodynamics
      have been suggested as a pathogenic contributor to bicuspid aortic valve disease.
      Conversely, how abnormal haemodynamics impacts mitral valve development is still
      poorly understood. In order to analyse altered blood flow, the outflow tract of
      the chick heart was constricted using a ligature to increase cardiac pressure
      overload. Outflow tract-banding was performed at HH21, with harvesting at crucial
      valve development stages (HH26, HH29 and HH35). Although normal valve morphology
      was found in HH26 outflow tract banded hearts, smaller and dysmorphic mitral
      valve primordia were seen upon altered haemodynamics in histological and
      stereological analysis at HH29 and HH35. A decrease in apoptosis, and aberrant
      expression of a shear stress responsive gene and extracellular matrix markers in
      the endocardial cushions were seen in the chick HH29 outflow tract banded hearts.
      In addition, dysregulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins fibrillin-2,
      type III collagen and tenascin were further demonstrated in more mature
      primordial mitral valve leaflets at HH35, with a concomitant decrease of ECM
      cross-linking enzyme, transglutaminase-2. These data provide compelling evidence
      that normal haemodynamics are a prerequisite for normal mitral valve
      morphogenesis, and abnormal blood flow could be a contributing factor in mitral
      valve defects, with differentiation as a possible underlying mechanism.

PMID- 28576720
TI  - Pocahemiketals A and B, two new hemiketals with unprecedented sesquiterpenoid
      skeletons from Pogostemon cablin.
AB  - Pocahemiketals A and B (1 and 2), two novel hemiketal sesquiterpenoids with
      unprecedented skeletons, were isolated from the essential oil of the aerial parts
      of Pogostemon cablin. In addition to a bicyclo[3.2.1]-carbon core, 1 and 2
      possessed a hemiketal alpha,beta-unsaturated-gamma-lactone moiety. Their
      structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis, electronic
      circular dichroism calculation, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound 2
      exhibited significant vasorelaxant activity against phenylephrine-induced
      contraction of a rat aorta ring with the EC50 value of 16.32MUM.

PMID- 28576721
TI  - Novel hybrids of natural beta-elemene bearing isopropanolamine moieties:
      Synthesis, enhanced anticancer profile, and improved aqueous solubility.
AB  - A series of novel beta-elemene isopropanolamine derivatives were synthesized and
      evaluated for their antitumor activity. The results indicated that all of the
      compounds showed stronger antiproliferative activities than beta-elemene as well
      as improved aqueous solubility. In particular dimer 6q showed the strongest
      cytotoxicity against four tumor cell lines (SGC-7901, HeLa, U87 and A549) with
      IC50 values ranging from 4.37 to 10.20MUM. Moreover, combination of 6q with
      cisplatin exhibited a synergistic effect on these cell lines with IC50 values
      ranging from 1.21 to 2.94MUM, and reversed the resistance of A549/DPP cells with
      an IC50 value of 2.52MUM. The mechanism study revealed that 6q caused cell cycle
      arrest at the G2 phase and induced apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells through a
      mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathway. Further in vivo study in H22 liver
      cancer xenograft mouse model validated the antitumor activity of 6q with a tumor
      inhibitory ratio (TIR) of 60.3%, which was higher than that of beta-elemene (TIR,
      49.1%) at a dose of 60mg/kg. Altogether, the potent antitumor activity of 6qin
      vitro and in vivo warranted further preclinical investigation for potential
      anticancer chemotherapy.

PMID- 28576722
TI  - A novel dihydroxylated derivative of artemisinin from microbial transformation.
AB  - Microbial transformation of artemisinin (1) by Cunninghamella elegans was
      investigated. Four isolated products were identified as 6beta-hydroxyartemisinin
      (2), 7alpha-hydroxyartemisinin (3), 7beta-hydroxyartemisinin (4), and
      6beta,7alpha-dihydroxyartemisinin (5). The structures were elucidated by
      spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic analysis. Product 5 is a novel compound
      and being reported here for the first time. It features two hydroxyl groups in
      its structure, and this is the first report on dihydroxylation of the artemisinin
      skeleton. Quantitative structure-activity relationship and molecular modeling
      studies indicate the modification of artemisinin skeleton will increase
      antimalarial activity and water solubility. The chemical syntheses of artemisinin
      derivatives at C6 or C7 position are impossible due to the lack of functional
      groups. 6beta,7alpha-Dihydroxyartemisinin is hydroxylated at both 6beta- and
      7alpha-positions of artemisinin skeleton at the same time. Therefore, this new
      compound would be a good scaffold for further structural modification in the
      search for more potent antimalarial drugs.

PMID- 28576723
TI  - Four new bi-phenylethylchromones from artificial agarwood.
AB  - Four new bi-phenylethylchromones (1-4) were isolated from the EtOAc extract of
      artificial agarwood induced by holing method originating from Aquilaria sinensis
      (Lour.) Gilg. The structures of new compounds were unambiguously elucidated by
      one- and two-dimensional NMR and HRESIMS measurements, and the absolute
      configuration was determined by analysis of circular dichroism (CD) spectra. All
      compounds were tested for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity using
      modified Ellman's colorimetric method and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity
      using PNPG method. Compounds 2-4 exhibited different levels of inhibitory
      activity against AChE with the inhibition ratios in the range of 10-45%. However,
      none of the compounds was active against the alpha-glucosidase.

PMID- 28576724
TI  - Interaction of GABA and norepinephrine in the lateral division of the bed nucleus
      of the stria terminals in anesthetized rat, correlating single-unit and
      cardiovascular responses.
AB  - The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) consists of multiple anatomically
      distinct nuclei. The lateral division, which receives dense noradrenergic
      innervation, has been implicated in cardiovascular regulation and modulation of
      responses to stress. This study is performed to identify the cardiovascular and
      single-unit responses of the lateral BST to norepinephrine (NE), involved
      adrenoceptors, and possible interaction with GABAergic system of the BST in
      urethane-anesthetized rats. NE, adrenoreceptor antagonists, and GABAA antagonist
      were microinjected into the lateral division of BST, while arterial pressure
      (AP), heart rate (HR), and single-unit responses were simultaneously recorded. NE
      microinjected into the lateral division of BST produced depressor and bradycardic
      responses. The decrease in AP and HR to NE was blocked by prazosin, an alpha1
      adrenoreceptor antagonist, but not by yohimbine, an alpha2 antagonist.
      Furthermore, injections of the GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline methiodide
      (BMI), into the lateral BST abolished the NE-induced depressor and bradycardic
      responses. We also observed single-unit responses consisting of excitatory and
      inhibitory responses correlated with cardiovascular function to the
      microinjection of NE. In conclusion, these data provide the first evidence that
      microinjection of NE in the lateral division of BST produces depressor and
      bradycardic responses in urethane-anesthetized rat. The depressor and
      bradycardiac response are mediated by local alpha1- but not alpha2-adrenoceptors.
      alpha1-AR activates the GABAergic system within the BST, which in turn produces
      depressor and bradycardic responses.

PMID- 28576725
TI  - Imaging of glial cell morphology, SOD1 distribution and elemental composition in
      the brainstem and hippocampus of the ALS hSOD1G93A rat.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting
      motor and cognitive domains of the CNS. Mutations in the Cu,Zn-superoxide
      dismutase (SOD1) cause 20% of familial ALS and provoke formation of intracellular
      aggregates and copper and zinc unbinding, leading to glial activation and
      neurodegeneration. Therefore, we investigated glial cell morphology,
      intracellular SOD1 distribution, and elemental composition in the brainstem and
      hippocampus of the hSOD1G93A transgenic rat model of ALS. Immunostaining for
      astrocytes, microglia and SOD1 revealed glial proliferation and progressive
      tissue accumulation of SOD1 in both brain regions of ALS rats starting already at
      the presymptomatic stage. Glial cell morphology analysis in the brainstem of ALS
      rats revealed astrocyte activation occurring before disease symptoms onset,
      followed by activation of microglia. Hippocampal ALS astrocytes exhibited an
      identical reactive profile, while microglial morphology was unchanged.
      Additionally, ALS brainstem astrocytes demonstrated progressive SOD1 accumulation
      in the cell body and processes, while microglial SOD1 levels were reduced and its
      distribution limited to distal cell processes. In the hippocampus both glial cell
      types exhibited SOD1 accumulation in the cell body. X-ray fluorescence imaging
      revealed decreased P and increased Ca, Cl, K, Ni, Cu and Zn in the brainstem, and
      higher levels of Cl, Ni and Cu, but lower levels of Zn in the hippocampus of
      symptomatic ALS rats. These results bring new insights into the glial response
      during disease development and progression in motor as well as in non-motor CNS
      structures, and indicate disturbed tissue elemental homeostasis as a prominent
      hallmark of disease pathology.

PMID- 28576726
TI  - Nicotine-induced and D1-receptor-dependent dendritic remodeling in a subset of
      dorsolateral striatum medium spiny neurons.
AB  - Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known, targeting multiple memory
      systems, including the ventral and dorsal striatum. One form of neuroplasticity
      commonly associated with nicotine is dendrite remodeling. Nicotine-induced
      dendritic remodeling of ventral striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) is well
      documented. Whether MSN dendrites in the dorsal striatum undergo a similar
      pattern of nicotine-induced structural remodeling is unknown. A morphometric
      analysis of Golgi-stained MSNs in rat revealed a natural asymmetry in dendritic
      morphology across the mediolateral axis, with larger, more complex MSNs found in
      the dorsolateral striatum (DLS). Chronic nicotine produced a lasting (at least
      21day) expansion in the dendritic complexity of MSNs in the DLS, but not
      dorsomedial striatum (DMS). Given prior evidence that MSN subtypes can be
      distinguished based on dendritic morphology, MSNs were segregated into
      morphological subpopulations based on the number of primary dendrites. Analysis
      of these subpopulations revealed that DLS MSNs with more primary dendrites were
      selectively remodeled by chronic nicotine exposure and remodeling was specific to
      the distal-most portions of the dendritic arbor. Co-administration of the
      dopamine D1 receptor (D1R) antagonist SCH23390 completely reversed the selective
      effects of nicotine on DLS MSN dendrite morphology, supporting a causal role for
      dopamine signaling at D1 receptors in nicotine-induced dendrite restructuring.
      Considering the functional importance of the DLS in shaping and expressing
      habitual behavior, these data support a model in which nicotine induces
      persistent and selective changes in the circuit connectivity of the DLS that may
      promote and sustain addiction-related behavior.

PMID- 28576727
TI  - Reconfiguration of dominant coupling modes in mild traumatic brain injury
      mediated by delta-band activity: A resting state MEG study.
AB  - During the last few years, rich-club (RC) organization has been studied as a
      possible brain-connectivity organization model for large-scale brain networks. At
      the same time, empirical and simulated data of neurophysiological models have
      demonstrated the significant role of intra-frequency and inter-frequency coupling
      among distinct brain areas. The current study investigates further the importance
      of these couplings using recordings of resting-state magnetoencephalographic
      activity obtained from 30 mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) subjects and 50
      healthy controls. Intra-frequency and inter-frequency coupling modes are
      incorporated in a single graph to detect group differences within individual rich
      club subnetworks (type I networks) and networks connecting RC nodes with the rest
      of the nodes (type II networks). Our results show a higher probability of inter
      frequency coupling for (delta-gamma1), (delta-gamma2), (theta-beta), (theta
      gamma2), (alpha-gamma2), (gamma1-gamma2) and intra-frequency coupling for (gamma1
      gamma1) and (delta-delta) for both type I and type II networks in the mTBI group.
      Additionally, mTBI and control subjects can be correctly classified with high
      accuracy (98.6%), whereas a general linear regression model can effectively
      predict the subject group using the ratio of type I and type II coupling in the
      (delta, theta), (delta, beta), (delta, gamma1), and (delta, gamma2) frequency
      pairs. These findings support the presence of an RC organization simultaneously
      with dominant frequency interactions within a single functional graph. Our
      results demonstrate a hyperactivation of intrinsic RC networks in mTBI subjects
      compared to controls, which can be seen as a plausible compensatory mechanism for
      alternative frequency-dependent routes of information flow in mTBI subjects.

PMID- 28576728
TI  - Cellular circadian oscillators in the suprachiasmatic nucleus remain coupled in
      the absence of connexin-36.
AB  - In mammals, the master circadian clock resides in the suprachiasmatic nucleus
      (SCN). The SCN is characterized by robust circadian oscillations of clock gene
      expression and neuronal firing. The synchronization of circadian oscillations
      among individual cells in the SCN is attributed to intercellular coupling.
      Previous studies have shown that gap junctions, specifically those composed of
      connexin-36 (Cx36) subunits, are required for coupling of electrical firing among
      SCN neurons at a time scale of milliseconds. However, it remains unknown whether
      Cx36 gap junctions also contribute to coupling of circadian (~24h) rhythms of
      clock gene expression. Here, we investigated circadian expression patterns of the
      clock gene Period 2 (Per2) in the SCN of Cx36-deficient mice using luminometry
      and single-cell bioluminescence imaging. Surprisingly, we found that
      synchronization of circadian PER2 expression rhythms is maintained in SCN
      explants from Cx36-deficient mice. Since Cx36 expression levels change with age,
      we also tested circadian running-wheel behavior of juvenile (3-4weeks old) and
      adult (9-30weeks old) Cx36-deficient mice. We found that impact of connexin-36
      expression on circadian behavior changes greatly during postnatal development.
      However, consistent with the intact synchrony among SCN cells in cultured
      explants, Cx36-deficient mice had intact locomotor circadian rhythms, although
      adults displayed a lengthened period in constant darkness. Our data indicate that
      even though Cx36 may be required for electrical coupling of SCN cells, it does
      not affect coupling of molecular clock gene rhythms. Thus, electrical coupling of
      neurons and coupling of circadian clock gene oscillations can be regulated
      independently in the SCN.

PMID- 28576729
TI  - Afferent synaptogenesis between ectopic hair-cell-like cells and neurites of
      spiral ganglion induced by Atoh1 in mammals in vitro.
AB  - Newly formed ectopic hair-cell-like cells (EHCLCs) induced by overexpression of
      atonal homolog 1 (Atoh1) in vitro were found to possess features of endogenous
      hair cells (HCs) in previous reports and in the present study. However, limited
      information is available regarding whether EHCLCs and native spiral ganglion
      neurons (SGNs) form afferent synapses, which are important for the restoration of
      hearing. In the current study, we focused on the afferent synaptogenesis between
      EHCLCs and SGN-derived dendrites. Cochlear explants of auditory epithelia with
      native SGNs retained were cultured in vitro, and human adenovirus serotype 5
      (Ad5) vectors encoding Atoh1 were used to overexpress Atoh1 and induce EHCLCs. We
      observed that the neurites of the original SGNs extended toward the lesser
      epithelial ridge (LER) and innervated the EHCLCs. Immunohistochemical analyses
      revealed the expression of presynaptic ribbon C-terminal-binding protein 2
      (CtBP2) and postsynaptic density protein (PSD)-95 in the nerve endings of SGN
      derived neurons adjacent to EHCLCs. PSD-95 was located directly opposite CtBP2
      positive puncta in the terminals of branches of SGNs, demonstrating that the
      neurites of SGNs formed afferent-like synaptic connections with EHCLCs. However,
      the expression of glutamate receptor type 2 (GluR2) could not be detected in the
      terminals of branches of SGNs surrounding EHCLCs. In addition, we found that the
      presynaptic ribbon (CtBP2) formation in EHCLCs preceded neural innervation.
      Furthermore, CtBP2-positive puncta increased and then decreased in EHCLCs,
      similar to the changes observed in endogenous HCs in terms of their number and
      distribution. Our finding of the generation of cochlear afferent synapses between
      EHCLCs and original SGNs will lay the foundation for regenerative approaches to
      restoring hearing after hair cell loss.

PMID- 28576730
TI  - Short-term deep brain stimulation of the thalamic reticular nucleus modifies
      aberrant oscillatory activity in a neurodevelopment model of schizophrenia.
AB  - Dysfunction of thalamo-cortical networks involving particularly the thalamic
      reticular nucleus (TRN) is implicated in schizophrenia. In the neonatal ventral
      hippocampal lesion (NVHL), a heuristic animal model of schizophrenia, brain
      oscillation changes similar to those of schizophrenic patients have been
      reported. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of short-term deep
      brain stimulation (DBS) in the thalamic reticular nucleus on
      electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the NVHL. Male and female Sprague
      Dawley rats were used and the model was prepared by excitotoxicity damage of the
      ventral hippocampus on postnatal day 7 (PD-7). Chronic bilateral stainless steel
      electrodes were implanted in the TRN, thalamic dorsomedial nucleus and prelimbic
      area at PD-90. Rats were classified as follows: sham and NVHL groups, both groups
      received bilateral DBS in the TRN for one hour (100Hz, 100us pulses, 200uA). All
      animals showed a sudden behavioral arrest accompanied by widespread symmetric
      bilateral spike-wave discharges, this activity was affected by DBS-TRN.
      Additionally, the power spectra of 0.5-100Hz and the coherence of 0.5-4.5 and 35
      55Hz frequencies were modified by DBS-TRN. Our results suggest that DBS in the
      TRN may modify functional connectivity between different parts of the thalamo
      cortical network. Additionally, our findings may suggest a beneficial effect of
      DBS-TRN on some preclinical aberrant oscillatory activities in a
      neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28576731
TI  - Quantify neuromagnetic network changes from pre-ictal to ictal activities in
      absence seizures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The cortico-thalamo-cortical network plays a key role in childhood
      absence epilepsy (CAE). However, the exact interaction between the cortex and the
      thalamus remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to investigate the
      dynamic changes of frequency-dependent neural networks during the initialization
      of absence seizures. METHODS: Magnetoencephalography data from 14 patients with
      CAE were recorded during and between seizures at a sampling rate of 6000Hz and
      analyzed in seven frequency bands. Neuromagnetic sources were volumetrically
      scanned with accumulated source imaging. Effective connectivity networks of the
      entire brain, including the cortico-thalamo-cortical network, were evaluated at
      the source level through Granger causality analysis. RESULTS: The low-frequency
      (1-80Hz) activities showed significant frontal cortical and parieto-occipito
      temporal junction source localization around seizures. The high-frequency (80
      250Hz) oscillations showed predominant activities consistently localized in deep
      brain areas and medial frontal cortex. The increased cortico-thalamic effective
      connectivity was observed around seizures in both low- and high-frequency ranges.
      The direction was predominantly from the cortex to the thalamus at the early
      time, although the cortex that drove connectivity varied among subjects.
      CONCLUSIONS: The cerebral cortex plays a key role in driving the cortico-thalamic
      connections at the early portion of the initialization of absence seizures. The
      oscillatory activities in the thalamus could be triggered by networks from
      various regions in the cortex. SIGNIFICANCE: The dynamic changes of neural
      network provide evidences that absence seizures are probably resulted from
      cortical initialized cortico-thalamic network.

PMID- 28576732
TI  - Forskolin and protein kinase inhibitors differentially affect hair cell potassium
      currents and transmitter release at the cytoneural junction in the isolated frog
      labyrinth.
AB  - The post-transductional elaboration of sensory input at the frog semicircular
      canal has been studied by correlating the effects of drugs that interfere with
      phosphorylation processes on: (i) potassium conductances in isolated hair cell
      and (ii) transmitter release at the cytoneural junction in the intact labyrinth.
      At hair cells, delayed potassium currents (IKD) undergo voltage- and time
      dependent inactivation; inactivation removal requires ATP, is sensitive to kinase
      blockade, but is unaffected by exogenous application of cyclic nucleotides. We
      report here that forskolin, an activator of endogenous adenylyl cyclase, enhances
      IKD inactivation removal in isolated hair cells, but produces an overall decrease
      in IKD amplitude consistent with the direct blocking action of the drug on
      several families of K channels. In the intact labyrinth, forskolin enhances
      transmitter release, consistent with such depression of K conductances. Kinase
      blockers - H-89 and KT5823 - have been shown to reduce IKD inactivation removal
      and IKD amplitude at isolated hair cells. In the labyrinth, the effects of these
      drugs on junctional activity are quite variable, with predominant inhibition of
      transmitter release, rather than the enhancement expected from the impairment of
      K currents. The overall action of forskolin and kinase inhibitors on K
      conductances is similar (depression), but they have opposite effects on
      transmitter release: this indicates that some intermediate steps between the
      bioelectric control of hair cell membrane potential and transmitter release are
      affected in opposite ways and therefore are presumably regulated by protein
      phosphorylation.

PMID- 28576733
TI  - Neuronal zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein is decreased in temporal lobe epilepsy in
      patients and rats.
AB  - Zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein (ZAG) is a 42-kDa protein encoded by the AZGP1 gene that
      is known as a lipid mobilizing factor and is highly homologous to major
      histocompatibility complex class I family molecules. Recently, transcriptomic
      research has shown that AZGP1 expression is reduced in the brain tissue of
      epilepsy patients. However, the cellular distribution and biological role of ZAG
      in the brain and epilepsy are unclear. Patients with refractory temporal lobe
      epilepsy (TLE) and brain trauma were included in this study, and
      pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-kindled rats were also used. The existence and level of
      ZAG in the brain were identified using immunohistochemistry, double-labeled
      immunofluorescence and western blot, and the expression level of AZGP1 mRNA was
      determined with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qrt-PCR). To
      explore the potential biological role of ZAG in the brain, co-immunoprecipitation
      (Co-IP) of phosphorylated ERK (p-ERK), TGF-beta1 and ZAG was also performed. ZAG
      was found in the cytoplasm of neurons in brain tissue from both patients and
      rats. The levels of AZGP1 mRNA and ZAG were lower in refractory TLE patients and
      PTZ-kindled rats than in controls. In addition, the ZAG level decreased as PTZ
      kindling continued. Co-IP identified direct binding between p-ERK, TGF-beta1 and
      ZAG. ZAG was found to be synthesized in neurons, and both the AZGP1 mRNA and ZAG
      protein levels were decreased in epilepsy patients and rat models. The reduction
      in ZAG may participate in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of epilepsy by
      interacting with p-ERK and TGF-beta1, promoting inflammation, regulating the
      metabolism of ketone bodies, or affecting other epilepsy-related molecules.

PMID- 28576735
TI  - The Syk Tyrosine Kinase Is Required for Skin Inflammation in an In Vivo Mouse
      Model of Epidermolysis Bullosa Acquisita.
AB  - The inflammatory form of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita is caused by
      autoantibodies against type VII collagen (C7), a component of the dermal
      epidermal junction. We have previously shown that myeloid Src family kinases
      mediate skin inflammation triggered by anti-C7 antibodies. Here we identify the
      Syk tyrosine kinase as a critical component of autoantibody-induced skin
      inflammation downstream of Src family kinases. Immobilized C7-anti-C7 immune
      complexes triggered neutrophil activation and Syk phosphorylation in a Src family
      kinase-dependent manner. Bone marrow chimeric mice lacking Syk in their
      hematopoietic compartment were completely protected from skin inflammation
      triggered by anti-C7 antibodies despite normal circulating anti-C7 levels. Syk
      deficiency abrogated the accumulation of CXCL2, IL-1beta, and leukotriene B4 at
      the site of inflammation and resulted in defective in vivo neutrophil
      recruitment. Syk-/- neutrophils had a normal intrinsic migratory capacity but
      failed to release CXCL2 or leukotriene B4 upon activation by immobilized C7-anti
      C7 immune complexes, indicating a role for Syk in the amplification of the
      inflammation process. These results identify Syk as a critical component of skin
      inflammation in a mouse model of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita and as a
      potential therapeutic target in epidermolysis bullosa acquisita and other
      mechanistically related inflammatory skin diseases such as bullous pemphigoid.

PMID- 28576734
TI  - Protocol for the MATCH study (Mindfulness and Tai Chi for cancer health): A
      preference-based multi-site randomized comparative effectiveness trial (CET) of
      Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR) vs. Tai Chi/Qigong (TCQ) for cancer
      survivors.
AB  - PURPOSE: A growing number of cancer survivors suffer high levels of distress,
      depression and stress, as well as sleep disturbance, pain and fatigue. Two
      different mind-body interventions helpful for treating these problems are
      Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR) and Tai Chi/Qigong (TCQ). However, while
      both interventions show efficacy compared to usual care, they have never been
      evaluated in the same study or directly compared. This study will be the first to
      incorporate innovative design features including patient choice while evaluating
      two interventions to treat distressed cancer survivors. It will also allow for
      secondary analyses of which program best targets specific symptoms in particular
      groups of survivors, based on preferences and baseline characteristics. METHODS
      AND SIGNIFICANCE: The design is a preference-based multi-site randomized
      comparative effectiveness trial. Participants (N=600) with a preference for
      either MBCR or TCQ will receive their preferred intervention; while those without
      a preference will be randomized into either intervention. Further, within the
      preference and non-preference groups, participants will be randomized into
      immediate intervention or wait-list control. Total mood disturbance on the
      Profile of mood states (POMS) post-intervention is the primary outcome. Other
      measures taken pre- and post-intervention and at 6-month follow-up include
      quality of life, psychological functioning, cancer-related symptoms and physical
      functioning. Exploratory analyses investigate biomarkers (cortisol, cytokines,
      blood pressure/Heart Rate Variability, telomere length, gene expression), which
      may uncover potentially important effects on key biological regulatory and
      antineoplastic functions. Health economic measures will determine potential
      savings to the health system.

PMID- 28576737
TI  - Nrf2 Promotes Keratinocyte Proliferation in Psoriasis through Up-Regulation of
      Keratin 6, Keratin 16, and Keratin 17.
AB  - Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by keratinocyte
      hyperproliferation of epidermis. Although hyperproliferation-associated keratins
      K6, K16, and K17 are considered to be the hallmarks of psoriasis, the molecular
      basis underlying the overexpression of these keratins remains unclear. Nrf2
      regulates cell proliferation. Therefore, we investigated whether Nrf2 regulates
      keratinocyte proliferation via promoting expression of K6, K16, and K17 in
      psoriasis. We initially found that psoriatic epidermis exhibited elevated
      expression of Nrf2. Furthermore, Nrf2 promoted expression of K6, K16, and K17 in
      both HaCaT cells and primary human keratinocytes by binding to the ARE domains
      located in the promoter of these genes. Additionally, upon stimulation with IL-17
      or IL-22, Nrf2 translocated to the nucleus and initiated expression of targeted
      keratins. In mice of imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis, topical
      application of Nrf2 small interfering RNA alleviated the epidermal hyperplasia
      with reduced expression of these keratins. More importantly, Nrf2 promoted the
      proliferation of human keratinocytes through up-regulation of K6, K16, or K17.
      These data suggested that inflammatory cytokines promoted Nrf2 nuclear
      translocation in psoriatic epidermis, which led to elevated expression of K6,
      K16, and K17, thus promoting keratinocyte proliferation and contributing to the
      pathogenesis of psoriasis.

PMID- 28576736
TI  - Oral Vitamin D Rapidly Attenuates Inflammation from Sunburn: An Interventional
      Study.
AB  - The diverse immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D are increasingly being
      recognized. However, the ability of oral vitamin D to modulate acute inflammation
      in vivo has not been established in humans. In a double-blinded, placebo
      controlled interventional trial, 20 healthy adults were randomized to receive
      either placebo or a high dose of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) one hour after
      experimental sunburn induced by an erythemogenic dose of UVR. Compared with
      placebo, participants receiving vitamin D3 (200,000 international units)
      demonstrated reduced expression of proinflammatory mediators tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha (P = 0.04) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (P = 0.02) in skin
      biopsy specimens 48 hours after experimental sunburn. A blinded, unsupervised
      hierarchical clustering of participants based on global gene expression profiles
      revealed that participants with significantly higher serum vitamin D3 levels
      after treatment (P = 0.007) demonstrated increased skin expression of the anti
      inflammatory mediator arginase-1 (P = 0.005), and a sustained reduction in skin
      redness (P = 0.02), correlating with significant expression of genes related to
      skin barrier repair. In contrast, participants with lower serum vitamin D3 levels
      had significant expression of proinflammatory genes. Together the data may have
      broad implications for the immunotherapeutic properties of vitamin D in skin
      homeostasis, and implicate arginase-1 upregulation as a previously unreported
      mechanism by which vitamin D exerts anti-inflammatory effects in humans.

PMID- 28576739
TI  - mcr-1 plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene detection in an Enterobacter
      cloacae clinical isolate in France.

PMID- 28576738
TI  - Monoallelic Large Intragenic KRT5 Deletions Account for Genetically Unsolved
      Cases of Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex.

PMID- 28576740
TI  - Draft genome sequence of a Kluyvera intermedia isolate from a patient with a
      pancreatic abscess.
AB  - The genus Kluyvera comprises potential pathogens that can cause many infections.
      This study reports a Kluyvera intermedia strain (FOSA7093) from a pancreatic cyst
      specimen from a long-term hospitalised patient. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of
      the K. intermedia isolate was performed and the strain was reported as sensitive
      to Danish-registered antibiotics although it had a fosA-like gene in the genome.
      There were nine contigs that aligned to a plasmid, and these contigs contained
      several heavy metal resistance gene homologues. Furthermore, a prophage was
      discovered in the genome. WGS represents an efficient tool for monitoring
      Kluyvera spp. and its role as a reservoir of multidrug resistance. Therefore,
      this susceptible K. intermedia genome has many characteristics that allow
      comparison of resistant K. intermedia that might be discovered in the future.

PMID- 28576741
TI  - Multilocus sequence typing of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacter cloacae
      bloodstream isolates between 2002 and 2013 in a Taiwanese university hospital.

PMID- 28576742
TI  - Draft genome sequence of a CTX-M-15-producing endophytic Klebsiella pneumoniae
      ST198 isolate from commercial lettuce.
AB  - CTX-M-15-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the leading causes of hospital
      acquired infections globally. In this study, we present the draft genome sequence
      of the first CTX-M-15-producing endophytic K. pneumoniae strain, belonging to
      sequence type 198 (ST198) and isolated from commercial lettuce, which can be used
      as a reference sequence for comparative analysis with clinical and environmental
      strains of K. pneumoniae.

PMID- 28576743
TI  - Internalization and localization of basal insulin peglispro in cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Basal insulin peglispro (BIL) is a novel, PEGylated insulin lispro
      that has a large hydrodynamic size compared with insulin lispro. It has a
      prolonged duration of action, which is related to a delay in insulin absorption
      and a reduction in clearance. Given the different physical properties of BIL
      compared with native insulin and insulin lispro, it is important to assess the
      cellular internalization characteristics of the molecule. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Using immunofluorescent confocal imaging, we compared the cellular
      internalization and localization patterns of BIL, biosynthetic human insulin, and
      insulin lispro. We assessed the effects of BIL on internalization of the insulin
      receptor (IR) and studied cellular clearance of BIL. RESULTS: Co-localization
      studies using antibodies to either insulin or PEG, and the early endosomal marker
      EEA1 showed that the overall internalization and subcellular localization pattern
      of BIL was similar to that of human insulin and insulin lispro; all were rapidly
      internalized and co-localized with EEA1. During ligand washout for 4 h,
      concomitant loss of insulin, PEG methoxy group, and PEG backbone immunostaining
      was observed for BIL, similar to the loss of insulin immunostaining observed for
      insulin lispro and human insulin. Co-localization studies using an antibody to
      the lysosomal marker LAMP1 did not reveal evidence of lysosomal localization for
      insulin lispro, human insulin, BIL, or PEG using either insulin or PEG
      immunostaining reagents. BIL and human insulin both induced rapid phosphorylation
      and internalization of human IR. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that treatment of
      cells with BIL stimulates internalization and localization of IR to early
      endosomes. Both the insulin and PEG moieties of BIL undergo a dynamic cellular
      process of rapid internalization and transport to early endosomes followed by
      loss of cellular immunostaining in a manner similar to that of insulin lispro and
      human insulin. The rate of clearance for the insulin lispro portion of BIL was
      slower than the rate of clearance for human insulin. In contrast, the PEG moiety
      of BIL can recycle out of cells.

PMID- 28576744
TI  - Jak Stat signaling and cancer: Opportunities, benefits and side effects of
      targeted inhibition.
AB  - The effects of Jak Stat signaling and the persistent activation of Stat3 and
      Stat5 on tumor cell survival, proliferation and invasion have made the Jak Stat
      pathway a favorite target for drug development and cancer therapy. This notion
      was strengthened when additional biological functions of Stat signaling in cancer
      and their roles in the regulation of cytokine dependent inflammation and immunity
      in the tumor microenvironment were discovered. Stats act not only as
      transcriptional inducers, but affect gene expression via epigenetic
      modifications, induce epithelial mesenchymal transition, generate a pro
      tumorigenic microenvironment, promote cancer stem cell self-renewal and
      differentiation, and help to establish the pre-metastatic niche formation. The
      effects of Jak Stat inhibition on the suppression of pro-inflammatory responses
      appears most promising and could become a strategy in the prevention of tumor
      progression. The direct and mediated mechanisms of Jak Stat signaling in and on
      tumors cells, the interactions with other signaling pathways and transcription
      factors and the targeting of the functionally crucial secondary modifications of
      Stat molecules suggest novel approaches to the future development of Jak Stat
      based cancer therapeutics.

PMID- 28576745
TI  - Lung Adenocarcinoma Manifesting as Pure Ground-Glass Nodules: Correlating CT
      Size, Volume, Density, and Roundness with Histopathologic Invasion and Size.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to quantify the relationship between
      computed tomography (CT) size, volume, density, and roundness of lung
      adenocarcinomas (ACs) manifesting as pure ground-glass nodules (pGGNs) on CT
      images and to correlate these parameters with histologic features of
      invasiveness. METHODS: From 2005 to 2015, 63 ACs manifesting as pGGNs on CT
      images were surgically resected at our institution. CT size was measured, and
      roundness, volumes and densities were computed. CT parameters were correlated to
      age and sex, as well as to size and number of invasive foci and histologic AC
      subcategories. Correlations were quantified with Spearman rank correlation
      coefficients. RESULTS: Of 63 ACs, 28 (44%) were AC in situ, 25 (40%) were
      minimally invasive AC, and 10 (16%) were invasive AC. Six of 35 nodules with
      invasive foci (17%) were smaller than 10 mm. Correlations between age and CT
      size, volume, density, and roundness were not significant (range r = -0.061 to
      0.144, p = 0.285 to 0.902). Correlations between size and number of invasive foci
      with CT size (r = 0.417, p < 0.001 and r = 0.389, p = 0.003, respectively) were
      similar to the correlations with volume (r = 0.401, p = 0.001 and r = 0.350, p =
      0.005, respectively) and stronger than the correlation with density (r = 0.237, p
      = 0.062 and r = 0.222, p = 0.081, respectively) and roundness (r = 0.059, p =
      0.648 and r = -0.030, p = 0.831, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In ACs manifesting
      as pGGNs on CT images, nodule size is positively related to size and number of
      histologically invasive foci. However, invasive foci can be found in pGGNs
      smaller than 10 mm. Measuring volume and density of pGGNs provides no advantage
      over two-dimensional size measurements, which appear sufficient for risk
      estimation in clinical practice.

PMID- 28576746
TI  - A Higher Proportion of the EGFR T790M Mutation May Contribute to the Better
      Survival of Patients with Exon 19 Deletions Compared with Those with L858R.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increasing evidence has demonstrated that exon 19 deletions (Del19)
      and L858R mutation in EGFR have different prognostic and predictive roles in
      NSCLC. We aimed to investigate whether these two mutations produced differences
      in mechanisms of resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. METHODS:
      Consecutive patients with advanced EGFR-mutant NSCLC who acquired resistance to
      EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors and underwent postprogression biopsy were
      enrolled. Mechanisms including T790M mutation, mesenchymal-epithelial transition
      proto-oncogene (MET) amplification, and histological transformation, as well as
      KRAS, phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha gene
      (PIK3CA) mutation, and anaplastic lymphoma receptor tyrosine kinase gene (ALK)
      fusion, were analyzed. RESULTS: The prevalence of T790M mutation was
      significantly higher in the Del19 subgroup than that in L858R subgroup (50.4%
      versus 36.5%, p = 0.043). Apart from this, there was no difference in other
      mechanisms including MET amplification and histological transformation. The
      median overall survival (OS) of patients with T790M mutation was 36.0 months (95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 30.9-41.2), which was significantly longer than the
      26.5 months (95% CI: 24.0-29.0) in MET-positive patients, 19.7 months (95% CI:
      18.2-21.2) in patients with histological transformation, and 23.0 months (95% CI:
      17.4-28.6) in the KRAS/PIK3CA/ALK-altered population (p = 0.021). The hazard
      ratios of the MET-amplification subgroup and subgroup with histological
      transformation were 1.809-fold and 2.370-fold higher than that in T790M-positive
      subgroup. The median OS times were months 33.3 (95% CI: 28.9-37.7) in the Del19
      subgroup and 26.4 months (95% CI: 23.2-29.6) in the L858R subgroup (p = 0.028).
      However, in multivariable analysis adjusted for T790M genotype, the EGFR mutation
      subtype was no longer found to be significant. CONCLUSIONS: Significant OS
      benefit was observed in patients with T790M mutation, suggesting that a larger
      proportion of T790M mutation might contribute to the better survival of patients
      with Del19.

PMID- 28576747
TI  - Long-term Outcome of Surgery or Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Lung
      Oligometastases.
AB  - Local treatment for pulmonary oligometastases (one to five lesions) using
      metastasectomy or stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) was investigated in a
      cohort that received multidisciplinary tumor board-based treatment decisions. The
      first choice of treatment was surgery; SABR was recommended in cases of adverse
      clinical factors. Propensity score-adjusted and unadjusted overall survival was
      the primary end point; local control and time to failure of a local-only
      treatment strategy were also analyzed. With a minimum follow-up time of 5.8
      years, the 5-year overall survival rate was 41% for surgery (n = 68) and 45% for
      SABR (n = 42). Again not different for the two modalities, 40% of patients were
      free from failure of a local-only treatment strategy, and 20% were free from any
      progression at 5 years. The 5-year local control rate was 83% for SABR and 81%
      for surgery. Despite treatment selection clearly disadvantaging SABR against
      surgery, even unadjusted outcome was not better when pulmonary oligometastases
      were surgically removed rather than irradiated.

PMID- 28576748
TI  - Automatic recognition of symptom severity from psychiatric evaluation records.
AB  - This paper presents a novel method for automatically recognizing symptom severity
      by using natural language processing of psychiatric evaluation records to extract
      features that are processed by machine learning techniques to assign a severity
      score to each record evaluated in the 2016 RDoC for Psychiatry Challenge from
      CEGS/N-GRID. The natural language processing techniques focused on (a) discerning
      the discourse information expressed in questions and answers; (b) identifying
      medical concepts that relate to mental disorders; and (c) accounting for the role
      of negation. The machine learning techniques rely on the assumptions that (1) the
      severity of a patient's positive valence symptoms exists on a latent continuous
      spectrum and (2) all the patient's answers and narratives documented in the
      psychological evaluation records are informed by the patient's latent severity
      score along this spectrum. These assumptions motivated our two-step machine
      learning framework for automatically recognizing psychological symptom severity.
      In the first step, the latent continuous severity score is inferred from each
      record; in the second step, the severity score is mapped to one of the four
      discrete severity levels used in the CEGS/N-GRID challenge. We evaluated three
      methods for inferring the latent severity score associated with each record: (i)
      pointwise ridge regression; (ii) pairwise comparison-based classification; and
      (iii) a hybrid approach combining pointwise regression and the pairwise
      classifier. The second step was implemented using a tree of cascading support
      vector machine (SVM) classifiers. While the official evaluation results indicate
      that all three methods are promising, the hybrid approach not only outperformed
      the pairwise and pointwise methods, but also produced the second highest
      performance of all submissions to the CEGS/N-GRID challenge with a normalized MAE
      score of 84.093% (where higher numbers indicate better performance). These
      evaluation results enabled us to observe that, for this task, considering
      pairwise information can produce more accurate severity scores than pointwise
      regression - an approach widely used in other systems for assigning severity
      scores. Moreover, our analysis indicates that using a cascading SVM tree
      outperforms traditional SVM classification methods for the purpose of determining
      discrete severity levels.

PMID- 28576749
TI  - A combinatorial strategy using YAP and pan-RAF inhibitors for treating KRAS
      mutant pancreatic cancer.
AB  - KRAS mutation is the most common genetic event in pancreatic cancer. Whereas KRAS
      itself has proven difficult to inhibit, agents that target key downstream signals
      of KRAS, such as RAF, are possibly effective for pancreatic cancer treatment.
      Because selective BRAF inhibitors paradoxically induce downstream signaling
      activation, a pan-RAF inhibitor, LY3009120 is a better alternate for KRAS-mutant
      tumor treatment. Here we explored a new combinational strategy using a YAP
      inhibitor and LY3009120 in pancreatic cancer treatment. We found that reduced YAP
      expression closely correlates with longer relapse-free and overall survival of
      patients. Stable knockdown of YAP significantly inhibited pancreatic cancer cell
      proliferation and tumor growth. In addition, LY3009120 exhibited a dramatically
      enhanced antitumor effect in combination with YAP knockdown. YAP depletion blocks
      the activation of a parallel AKT signal pathway after LY3009120 treatment.
      Finally, combination with a YAP inhibitor, verteporfin, significantly enhanced
      the antitumor efficacy of LY3009120. Collectively, our results demonstrate that
      genetic or pharmacological inhibition of YAP can increase sensitivity to
      LY3009120 in pancreatic cancer through blocking compensatory activation of a
      parallel AKT signal pathway, thereby validating a combinatorial approach for
      treating KRAS-mutant pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28576750
TI  - BZML, a novel colchicine binding site inhibitor, overcomes multidrug resistance
      in A549/Taxol cells by inhibiting P-gp function and inducing mitotic catastrophe.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) interferes with the efficiency of chemotherapy.
      Therefore, developing novel anti-cancer agents that can overcome MDR is
      necessary. Here, we screened a series of colchicine binding site inhibitors
      (CBSIs) and found that 5-(3, 4, 5-trimethoxybenzoyl)-4-methyl-2-(p-tolyl)
      imidazol (BZML) displayed potent cytotoxic activity against both A549 and
      A549/Taxol cells. We further explored the underlying mechanisms and found that
      BZML caused mitosis phase arrest by inhibiting tubulin polymerization in A549 and
      A549/Taxol cells. Importantly, BZML was a poor substrate for P-glycoprotein (P
      gp) and inhibited P-gp function by decreasing P-gp expression at the protein and
      mRNA levels. Cell morphology changes and the expression of cycle- or apoptosis
      related proteins indicated that BZML mainly drove A549/Taxol cells to die by
      mitotic catastrophe (MC), a p53-independent apoptotic-like cell death, whereas
      induced A549 cells to die by apoptosis. Taken together, our data suggest that
      BZML is a novel colchicine binding site inhibitor and overcomes MDR in A549/Taxol
      cells by inhibiting P-gp function and inducing MC. Our study also offers a new
      strategy to solve the problem of apoptosis-resistance.

PMID- 28576751
TI  - Targeting of super-enhancers and mutant BRAF can suppress growth of BRAF-mutant
      colon cancer cells via repression of MAPK signaling pathway.
AB  - Bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) inhibitors suppress super-enhancers and show
      cytotoxicity against multiple types of tumors. However, early clinical trials
      with BET inhibitors showed severe hematopoietic toxicities, highlighting the need
      for sensitive tumors and rational combination strategies to enhance their
      therapeutic potential. Here, we identified colon cancer-specific super-enhancers
      that were associated with multiple oncogenic pathways, including the mitogen
      activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Among the 14 colon cancer cell
      lines tested, their sensitivity to JQ1, a BET inhibitor, was not correlated with
      c-MYC expression. Three of four BRAFV600E-mutant cell lines were sensitive.
      Addition of JQ1 to vemurafenib, a specific mutant BRAF inhibitor, suppressed cell
      growth by arresting cell cycle progression and inducing apoptosis in the
      BRAFV600E-mutant cells. Mechanistically, the feedback activation of MAPK
      signaling pathway by vemurafenib was repressed by JQ1. Further, the addition of
      JQ1 to a BRAF inhibitor enhanced the in vivo anti-tumor effect. Thus, this study
      indicates the therapeutic potential of targeting of super-enhancers and mutant
      BRAF in patients with BRAFV600E-mutant colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28576752
TI  - Response to "Circular RNA profile identifies circPVT1 as a proliferative factor
      and prognostic marker in gastric cancer," Cancer Lett. 2017 Mar 1; 388(2017): 208
      219.

PMID- 28576754
TI  - Stroke Avoidance for Children in REpublica Dominicana (SACRED): Protocol for a
      Prospective Study of Stroke Risk and Hydroxyurea Treatment in Sickle Cell Anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the Dominican Republic, where the burden of sickle cell anemia
      (SCA) is high, many children lack access to routine screening and preventative
      care. Children with SCA are at risk for stroke, an event that leads to
      significant morbidity and mortality. In the United States, screening via
      transcranial Doppler (TCD) identifies children with SCA at highest stroke risk,
      allowing early intervention with blood transfusions. The need for indefinite
      transfusions for primary stroke prevention limits their practicality in limited
      resource countries. Hydroxyurea has been shown to lower TCD velocities and to
      prevent conversion from conditional (170 to 199 cm/sec) to abnormal (greater than
      or equal to 200 cm/sec) velocities. In resource-limited settings, implementation
      of a TCD screening program, coupled with hydroxyurea therapy, could reduce the
      burden of SCA and stroke. OBJECTIVE: The aims of the Stroke Avoidance for
      Children in REpublica Dominicana (SACRED) trial are (1) to screen children with
      SCA for stroke risk using TCD and to determine the prevalence of elevated
      velocities in a cross-sectional sample; (2) to identify clinical and laboratory
      correlates of elevated velocities; and (3) to obtain longitudinal data on the
      natural history of TCD velocities and to measure therapeutic effects of
      hydroxyurea. METHODS: This prospective trial, designed and conducted by
      Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and Hospital Infantil
      Robert Reid Cabral (HIRRC) with Centro de Obstetricia y Ginecologia, includes a
      baseline cross-sectional epidemiological survey of the distribution of TCD
      velocities across a large cohort of children with SCA in the Dominican Republic.
      Children with conditional velocities are eligible to begin protocol-directed
      hydroxyurea if laboratory criteria are met. The treatment schedule begins with a
      fixed-dose of approximately 20 mg/kg/day for 6 months, after which it escalates
      to maximum tolerated dose (MTD). All participants undergo longitudinal annual TCD
      evaluation, while those on hydroxyurea have semi-annual evaluations during the 3
      year study period. Data are collected using an Internet-based Research Electronic
      Data Capture (REDCap) system with forms translated into Spanish; both remote and
      on-site monitoring are used. RESULTS: To date, 122 children with SCA have
      enrolled in SACRED including 85 (69.7%, 85/122) with normal, 29 (23.8%, 29/122)
      with conditional, 5 (4.1%, 5/122) with abnormal, and 3 (2.5%, 3/122) with
      inadequate TCD velocities. Of the 29 children with conditional TCD velocities, 17
      (59%, 17/29) have initiated hydroxyurea per protocol, with plans for escalation
      to MTD. CONCLUSIONS: The SACRED trial will provide novel epidemiologic data about
      the prevalence of children with SCA and increased stroke risk in the Dominican
      Republic. The study also includes an investigation of the impact of hydroxyurea
      at MTD on elevated TCD velocities, as well as clinical and laboratory parameters.
      The design and implementation of SACRED reflect a successful international
      institutional partnership, one that features local capacity building and training
      in research methods and clinical care. The trial's results have important
      implications for screening and prevention of primary stroke in children with SCA
      living in resource-limited settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov
      NCT02769845; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02769845 (Archived by
      WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qf6n0Egh).

PMID- 28576753
TI  - Review: The function of regulatory T cells at the ocular surface.
AB  - Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are critical modulators of immune homeostasis. Tregs
      maintain peripheral tolerance to self-antigens, thereby preventing autoimmune
      disease. Furthermore, Tregs suppress excessive immune responses deleterious to
      the host. Recent research has deepened our understanding of how Tregs function at
      the ocular surface. This manuscript describes the classification, the
      immunosuppressive mechanisms, and the phenotypic plasticity of Tregs. We review
      the contribution of Tregs to ocular surface autoimmune disease, as well as the
      function of Tregs in allergy and infection at the ocular surface. Finally, we
      review the role of Tregs in promoting allotolerance in corneal transplantation.

PMID- 28576756
TI  - The Research Topic Defines "Noise" in Social Media Data - a Response from the
      Authors.

PMID- 28576757
TI  - Using Feedback to Promote Physical Activity: The Role of the Feedback Sign.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Providing feedback is a technique to promote health behavior that is
      emphasized by behavior change theories. However, these theories make
      contradicting predictions regarding the effect of the feedback sign-that is,
      whether the feedback signals success or failure. Thus, it is unclear whether
      positive or negative feedback leads to more favorable behavior change in a health
      behavior intervention. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the effect
      of the feedback sign in a health behavior change intervention. METHODS: Data from
      participants (N=1623) of a 6-month physical activity intervention was used.
      Participants received a feedback email at the beginning of each month. Feedback
      was either positive or negative depending on the participants' physical activity
      in the previous month. In an exploratory analysis, change in monthly step count
      averages was used to evaluate the feedback effect. RESULTS: The feedback sign did
      not predict the change in monthly step count averages over the course of the
      intervention (b=-84.28, P=.28). Descriptive differences between positive and
      negative feedback can be explained by regression to the mean. CONCLUSIONS: The
      feedback sign might not influence the effect of monthly feedback emails sent out
      to participants of a large-scale physical activity intervention. However,
      randomized studies are needed to further support this conclusion. Limitations as
      well as opportunities for future research are discussed.

PMID- 28576755
TI  - Access to Electronic Personal Health Records Among Patients With Multiple Chronic
      Conditions: A Secondary Data Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the United States, national incentives for offering access to
      electronic personal health records (ePHRs) through electronic means are geared
      toward creating a culture of patient engagement. One group of patients who stand
      to benefit from online access to ePHRs is the growing population with multiple
      chronic conditions (MCC). However, little is known about the current availability
      and use of ePHRs and patient portals among those managing MCC. OBJECTIVE: The aim
      was to determine the associations between number of chronic conditions and
      sociodemographic characteristics and usage of ePHRs, and to assess how the
      public's use of ePHRs varies across subpopulations, including those with MCC.
      METHODS: This study used data collected from the 2014 Health Information National
      Trends Survey (HINTS), and assessed differences in use of ePHRs between those
      with and without MCC (N=3497) using multiple logistic regression techniques.
      Variables associated with health care systems (insurance status, having a regular
      provider) and patient-reported self-efficacy were included in the statistical
      models. RESULTS: Those with MCC (n=1555) had significantly higher odds of
      accessing their records three or more times in the past year compared to those
      reporting no chronic conditions (n=1050; OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.37-4.45), but the
      overall percentage of those with MCC using ePHRs remained low (371 of 1529 item
      respondents, 25.63% weighted). No difference in odds of accessing their records
      was found between those reporting one chronic condition (n=892) and those
      reporting none (n=1050; OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.66-1.58). Significant differences in
      odds of accessing ePHRs were seen between income and age groups (P<.001 and
      P=.05, respectively), and by whether respondents had a regular provider (P=.03).
      CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that ePHRs provide a unique opportunity to enhance MCC
      patient self-management, but additional effort is needed to ensure that these
      patients are able to access their ePHRs. An increase in availability of patient
      access to their ePHRs may provide an opportunity to increase patient engagement
      and support self-management for all patients and especially those with MCC.

PMID- 28576758
TI  - Recruiting Young Gay and Bisexual Men for a Human Papillomavirus Vaccination
      Intervention Through Social Media: The Effects of Advertisement Content.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Web-based approaches, specifically social media sites, represent a
      promising approach for recruiting young gay and bisexual men for research
      studies. Little is known, however, about how the performance of social media
      advertisements (ads) used to recruit this population is affected by ad content
      (ie, image and text). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      effects of different images and text included in social media ads used to recruit
      young gay and bisexual men for the pilot test of a Web-based human papillomavirus
      (HPV) vaccination intervention. METHODS: In July and September 2016, we used paid
      Facebook advertisements to recruit men who were aged 18-25 years, self-identified
      as gay or bisexual, US resident, and had not received HPV vaccine. A 4x2x2
      factorial experiment varied ad image (a single young adult male, a young adult
      male couple, a group of young adult men, or a young adult male talking to a
      doctor), content focus (text mentioning HPV or HPV vaccine), and disease framing
      (text mentioning cancer or a sexually transmitted disease [STD]). Poisson
      regression determined whether these experimental factors affected ad performance.
      RESULTS: The recruitment campaign reached a total of 35,646 users who viewed ads
      for 36,395 times. This resulted in an overall unique click-through rate of 2.01%
      (717/35,646) and an overall conversion rate of 0.66% (241/36,395). Reach was
      higher for ads that included an image of a couple (incidence rate ratio,
      IRR=4.91, 95% CI 2.68-8.97, P<.001) or a group (IRR=2.65, 95% CI 1.08-6.50,
      P=.03) compared with those that included an image of a single person. Ads that
      included an image of a couple also had a higher conversion rate (IRR=2.56, 95% CI
      1.13-5.77, P=.02) than ads that included an image of a single person. Ads with
      text mentioning an STD had a higher unique click-through rate compared with ads
      with text mentioning cancer (IRR=1.34, 95% CI 1.06-1.69, P=.01). The campaign
      cost a total of US $413.72 and resulted in 150 eligible and enrolled individuals
      (US $2.76 per enrolled participant). CONCLUSIONS: Facebook ads are a convenient
      and cost-efficient strategy for reaching and recruiting young gay and bisexual
      men for a Web-based HPV vaccination intervention. To help optimize ad performance
      among this population, researchers should consider the importance of the text and
      image included in the social media recruitment ads.

PMID- 28576759
TI  - Competitive Dominance within Biofilm Consortia Regulates the Relative
      Distribution of Pneumococcal Nasopharyngeal Density.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae is a main cause of child mortality worldwide, but
      strains also asymptomatically colonize the upper airways of most children and
      form biofilms. Recent studies have demonstrated that ~50% of colonized children
      carry at least two different serotypes (i.e., strains) in the nasopharynx;
      however, studies of how strains coexist are limited. In this work, we
      investigated the physiological, genetic, and ecological requirements for the
      relative distribution of densities, and spatial localization, of pneumococcal
      strains within biofilm consortia. Biofilm consortia were prepared with vaccine
      type strains (i.e., serotype 6B [S6B], S19F, or S23F) and strain TIGR4 (S4).
      Experiments first revealed that the relative densities of S6B and S23F were
      similar in biofilm consortia. The density of S19F strains, however, was reduced
      to ~10% in biofilm consortia, including either S6B, S23F, or TIGR4, in comparison
      to S19F monostrain biofilms. Reduction of S19F density within biofilm consortia
      was also observed in a simulated nasopharyngeal environment. Reduction of
      relative density was not related to growth rates, since the Malthusian parameter
      demonstrated similar rates of change of density for most strains. To investigate
      whether quorum sensing (QS) regulates relative densities in biofilm consortia,
      two different mutants were prepared: a TIGR4DeltaluxS mutant and a TIGR4DeltacomC
      mutant. The density of S19F strains, however, was similarly reduced when
      consortia included TIGR4, TIGR4DeltaluxS, or TIGR4DeltacomC Moreover, production
      of a different competence-stimulating peptide (CSP), CSP1 or CSP2, was not a
      factor that affected dominance. Finally, a mathematical model, confocal
      experiments, and experiments using Transwell devices demonstrated physical
      contact-mediated control of pneumococcal density within biofilm
      consortia.IMPORTANCEStreptococcus pneumoniae kills nearly half a million children
      every year, but it also produces nasopharyngeal biofilm consortia in a proportion
      of asymptomatic children, and these biofilms often contain two strains (i.e.,
      serotypes). In our study, we investigated how strains coexist within pneumococcal
      consortia produced by vaccine serotypes S4, S6B, S19F, and S23F. Whereas S6B and
      S23F shared the biofilm consortium, our studies demonstrated reduction of the
      relative density of S19F strains, to ~10% of what it would otherwise be if alone,
      in consortial biofilms formed with S4, S6B, or S23F. This dominance was not
      related to increased fitness when competing for nutrients, nor was it regulated
      by quorum-sensing LuxS/AI-2 or Com systems. It was demonstrated, however, to be
      enhanced by physical contact rather than by a product(s) secreted into the
      supernatant, as would naturally occur in the semidry nasopharyngeal environment.
      Competitive interactions within pneumococcal biofilm consortia regulate
      nasopharyngeal density, a risk factor for pneumococcal disease.

PMID- 28576760
TI  - Mathermycin, a Lantibiotic from the Marine Actinomycete Marinactinospora
      thermotolerans SCSIO 00652.
AB  - Lantibiotics are antimicrobial peptides belonging to the family of ribosomally
      synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) and feature
      thioether linkages in their structures. In this study, we identified the
      biosynthetic gene cluster of a cinnamycin analog, named mathermycin, from
      Marinactinospora thermotolerans SCSIO 00652 and reconstituted its biosynthesis in
      Streptomyces lividans and Escherichia coli Key posttranslational modification
      enzymes of mathermycin were characterized. Mathermycin exhibited antimicrobial
      activity and therefore represents an example of cinnamycin-like lantibiotics from
      Marinactinospora species.IMPORTANCE The discovery of new antimicrobial compounds
      that can be used as potential drugs is in urgent need due to increasing bacterial
      resistance to current antibiotics. Lantibiotics are important antimicrobial
      compounds that have found applications in both the clinic setting and food
      industry. We report here the discovery of a new lantibiotic, mathermycin, from a
      marine-derived Marinactinospora thermotolerans strain and elucidation of its
      biosynthesis. We also demonstrate that mathermycin possesses antimicrobial
      activity toward a Bacillus strain.

PMID- 28576761
TI  - A natural Vibrio parahaemolyticus PirvpA-B+ mutant kills shrimp but produces no
      Pirvp toxins or AHPND lesions.
AB  - Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) of shrimp is caused by Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus (VP) isolates that harbor a pVA plasmid encoding toxins PirvpA
      and PirvpB (VPAHPND). These are released from VPAHPND that colonize the shrimp
      stomach and produce pathognomonic AHPND lesions (massive sloughing of
      hepatopancreatic tubule epithelial cells). PCR results indicated that VP isolate
      XN87 lacked PirvpA but carried PirvpB Unexpectedly, western blot analysis of
      proteins from culture broth of XN87 revealed absence of both toxins and the lack
      of PirvpB was further confirmed by ELISA assay. However, shrimp immersion
      challenge with XN87 resulted in 47% mortality without AHPND lesions. Instead,
      lesions consisted of collapsed hepatopancreatic tubule epithelia. By contrast,
      control shrimp challenged with typical VPAHPND isolate 5HP gave 90% mortality,
      accompanied by AHPND lesions. Sequence analysis revealed that pVA plasmid of XN87
      contained a mutated PirvpA gene interrupted by out-of-frame insertion of a
      transposon gene fragment. The upstream region and beginning of the original
      PirvpA gene remained intact, but the insertion caused a 2-base reading-frame
      shift in the remainder of the PirvpA gene sequence and in the downstream PirvpB
      gene sequence. RT-PCR and sequencing of 5HP revealed a bi-cystronic PirvpAB mRNA
      transcript that was not produced by XN87, explaining the absence of both toxins
      in its culture broth. However, the virulence of XN87 revealed some VP isolates
      carrying mutant pVA plasmids that produce no Pirvp toxins can cause mortality in
      EMS outbreak ponds but may not have been previously recognized as AHPND-related
      because they do not cause pathognomonic AHPND lesions.IMPORTANCE Shrimp acute
      hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus
      isolates that harbor pVA1 plasmid encoding toxins PirvpA and PirvpB (VPAHPND).
      The toxins are produced in the shrimp stomach but cause death by massive
      sloughing of hepatopancreatic tubule epithelial cells (pathognomonic AHPND
      lesions). VP isolate XN87 harbors a mutant pVA plasmid that produces no Pir
      toxins and does not cause AHPND lesions but still causes ~50% shrimp mortality.
      Such isolates may cause a portion of the mortality in EMS ponds that is not
      ascribed to VPAHPND Thus, they pose an additional threat to shrimp farmers that
      would be missed by current testing for VPAHPND Moribund shrimp from EMS ponds
      that exhibit collapsed hepatopancreatic tubule epithelial cells can serve as
      indicators for the possible presence of such isolates that can then be confirmed
      by additional PCR tests for presence of a pVA plasmid.

PMID- 28576762
TI  - Anaerobic Copper Toxicity and Iron-Sulfur Cluster Biogenesis in Escherichia coli.
AB  - While copper is an essential trace element in biology, pollution of groundwater
      from copper has become a threat to all living organisms. Cellular mechanisms
      underlying copper toxicity, however, are still not fully understood. Previous
      studies have shown that iron-sulfur proteins are among the primary targets of
      copper toxicity in Escherichia coli under aerobic conditions. Here, we report
      that, under anaerobic conditions, iron-sulfur proteins in E. coli cells are even
      more susceptible to copper in medium. Whereas addition of 0.2 mM copper(II)
      chloride to LB (Luria-Bertani) medium has very little or no effect on iron-sulfur
      proteins in wild-type E. coli cells under aerobic conditions, the same copper
      treatment largely inactivates iron-sulfur proteins by blocking iron-sulfur
      cluster biogenesis in the cells under anaerobic conditions. Importantly, proteins
      that do not have iron-sulfur clusters (e.g., fumarase C and cysteine desulfurase)
      in E. coli cells are not significantly affected by copper treatment under aerobic
      or anaerobic conditions, indicating that copper may specifically target iron
      sulfur proteins in cells. Additional studies revealed that E. coli cells
      accumulate more intracellular copper under anaerobic conditions than under
      aerobic conditions and that the elevated copper content binds to the iron-sulfur
      cluster assembly proteins IscU and IscA, which effectively inhibits iron-sulfur
      cluster biogenesis. The results suggest that the copper-mediated inhibition of
      iron-sulfur proteins does not require oxygen and that iron-sulfur cluster
      biogenesis is the primary target of anaerobic copper toxicity in cells.IMPORTANCE
      Copper contamination in groundwater has become a threat to all living organisms.
      However, cellular mechanisms underlying copper toxicity have not been fully
      understood up to now. The work described here reveals that iron-sulfur proteins
      in Escherichia coli cells are much more susceptible to copper in medium under
      anaerobic conditions than they are under aerobic conditions. Under anaerobic
      conditions, E. coli cells accumulate excess intracellular copper, which
      specifically targets iron-sulfur proteins by blocking iron-sulfur cluster
      biogenesis. Since iron-sulfur proteins are involved in diverse and vital
      physiological processes, inhibition of iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis by copper
      disrupts multiple cellular functions and ultimately inhibits cell growth. The
      results from this study illustrate a new interplay between intracellular copper
      toxicity and iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis in bacterial cells under anaerobic
      conditions.

PMID- 28576765
TI  - Citizens' juries for health policy.

PMID- 28576763
TI  - Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Total (DNA) and Expressed (RNA)
      Bacterial Communities in Urban Green Infrastructure Bioswale Soils.
AB  - New York City (NYC) is pioneering green infrastructure with the use of bioswales
      and other engineered soil-based habitats to provide stormwater infiltration and
      other ecosystem functions. In addition to avoiding the environmental and
      financial costs of expanding traditional built infrastructure, green
      infrastructure is thought to generate cobenefits in the form of diverse
      ecological processes performed by its plant and microbial communities. Yet,
      although plant communities in these habitats are closely managed, we lack basic
      knowledge about how engineered ecosystems impact the distribution and functioning
      of soil bacteria. We sequenced amplicons of the 16S ribosomal subunit, as well as
      seven genes associated with functional pathways, generated from both total (DNA
      based) and expressed (RNA) soil communities in the Bronx, NYC, NY, in order to
      test whether bioswale soils host characteristic bacterial communities with
      evidence for enriched microbial functioning, compared to nonengineered soils in
      park lawns and tree pits. Bioswales had distinct, phylogenetically diverse
      bacterial communities, including taxa associated with nutrient cycling and
      metabolism of hydrocarbons and other pollutants. Bioswale soils also had a
      significantly greater diversity of genes involved in several functional pathways,
      including carbon fixation (cbbL-R [cbbL gene, red-like subunit] and apsA),
      nitrogen cycling (noxZ and amoA), and contaminant degradation (bphA); conversely,
      no functional genes were significantly more abundant in nonengineered soils.
      These results provide preliminary evidence that urban land management can shape
      the diversity and activity of soil communities, with positive consequences for
      genetic resources underlying valuable ecological functions, including
      biogeochemical cycling and degradation of common urban pollutants.IMPORTANCE
      Management of urban soil biodiversity by favoring taxa associated with
      decontamination or other microbial metabolic processes is a powerful prospect,
      but it first requires an understanding of how engineered soil habitats shape
      patterns of microbial diversity. This research adds to our understanding of urban
      microbial biogeography by providing data on soil bacteria in bioswales, which had
      relatively diverse and compositionally distinct communities compared to park and
      tree pit soils. Bioswales also contained comparatively diverse pools of genes
      related to carbon sequestration, nitrogen cycling, and contaminant degradation,
      suggesting that engineered soils may serve as effective reservoirs of functional
      microbial biodiversity. We also examined both total (DNA-based) and expressed
      (RNA) communities, revealing that total bacterial communities (the exclusive
      targets in the vast majority of soil studies) were poor predictors of expressed
      community diversity, pointing to the value of quantifying RNA, especially when
      ecological functioning is considered.

PMID- 28576764
TI  - Early postnatal hyperglycaemia is a risk factor for treatment-demanding
      retinopathy of prematurity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate whether neonatal hyperglycaemia in the first postnatal
      week is associated with treatment-demanding retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
      METHODS: This is a Danish national, retrospective, case-control study of
      premature infants (birth period 2003-2006). Three national registers were
      searched, and data were linked through a unique civil registration number. The
      study sample consisted of 106 cases each matched with two comparison infants.
      Matching criteria were gestational age (GA) at birth, ROP not registered and born
      at the same neonatal intensive care unit. Potential 'new' risk factors were
      analysed in a multivariate logistic regression model, while adjusted for
      previously recognised risk factors (ie, GA at birth, small for gestational age,
      multiple birth and male sex). RESULTS: Hospital records of 310 preterm infants
      (106 treated; 204 comparison infants) were available. Nutrition in terms of
      energy (kcal/kg/week) and protein (g/kg/week) given to the preterm infants during
      the first postnatal week were statistically insignificant between the study
      groups (Mann-Whitney U test; p=0.165/p=0.163). Early postnatal weight gain
      between the two study groups was borderline significant (t-test; p=0.047).
      Hyperglycaemic events (indexed value) were statistically significantly different
      between the two study groups (Mann-Whitney U test; p<0.001). Hyperglycaemia was a
      statistically independent risk factor (OR: 1.022; 95% CI 1.002 to 1.042;
      p=0.031). CONCLUSION: An independent association was found between the occurrence
      of hyperglycaemic events during the first postnatal week and later development of
      treatment-demanding ROP, when adjusted for known risk factors.

PMID- 28576766
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Plasma Bile Acids, Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate,
      Hexadecanedioate, and Tetradecanedioate with Coproporphyrins I and III as Markers
      of OATP Inhibition in Healthy Subjects.
AB  - Multiple endogenous compounds have been proposed as candidate biomarkers to
      monitor organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) function in preclinical
      species or humans. Previously, we demonstrated that coproporphyrins (CPs) I and
      III are appropriate clinical markers to evaluate OATP inhibition and recapitulate
      clinical drug-drug interactions (DDIs). In the present study, we investigated
      bile acids (BAs) dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), hexadecanedioate (HDA),
      and tetradecanedioate (TDA) in plasma as endogenous probes for OATP inhibition
      and compared these candidate probes to CPs. All probes were determined in samples
      from a single study that examined their behavior and their association with
      rosuvastatin (RSV) pharmacokinetics after administration of an OATP inhibitor
      rifampin (RIF) in healthy subjects. Among endogenous probes examined, RIF
      significantly increased maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and area under the
      concentration-time curve (AUC)(0-24h) of fatty acids HDA and TDA by 2.2- to 3.2
      fold. For the 13 bile acids in plasma examined, no statistically significant
      changes were detected between treatments. Changes in plasma DHEAS did not
      correlate with OATP1B inhibition by RIF. On the basis of the magnitude of effects
      for the endogenous compounds that demonstrated significant changes from baseline
      over interindividual variations, the overall rank order for the AUC change was
      found to be CP I > CP III > HDA ~ TDA ~ RSV > > BAs. Collectively, these results
      reconfirmed that CPs are novel biomarkers suitable for clinical use. In addition,
      HDA and TDA are useful for OATP functional assessment. Since these endogenous
      markers can be monitored in conjunction with pharmacokinetics analysis, the CPs
      and fatty acid dicarboxylates, either alone or in combination, offer promise of
      earlier diagnosis and risk stratification for OATP-mediated DDIs.

PMID- 28576767
TI  - Risk factors for human-directed canine aggression in a referral level clinical
      population.
AB  - Risk factors for human-directed aggression were investigated using retrospective
      analysis ofdata from a referral-level clinical behaviour population in the UK. A
      sample of 200 casesinvolving human-directed canine aggression and 200 control
      cases involving no instance ofhuman-directed aggression were selected at random
      from a population of 746 cases. Thefinal model suggested that clinical cases with
      human-directed aggression were significantlyyounger than those presenting with
      other undesired behaviours (P=0.008) and that maledogs were 1.4 times more likely
      to be aggressive towards human beings than female dogs(P=0.019). Dogs were 1.7
      times more likely to be aggressive towards people if they hadattended more than
      five puppy classes than if they had never attended puppy class(P=0.015) and that
      dogs were 2.8 times more likely to be aggressive towards human beingsif there was
      another dog between 0 months and 24 months of age in the home (P=0.004).These
      factors only account for 7 per cent to 10 per cent of the variance between the
      human-directedaggression population and the control population, but factors such
      as attendance atpuppy classes and numbers of dogs in the household suggest the
      need for longitudinalstudies to investigate temporal relationships.

PMID- 28576769
TI  - Defective Hand1 phosphoregulation uncovers essential roles for Hand1 in limb
      morphogenesis.
AB  - The morphogenesis of the vertebrate limbs is a complex process in which cell
      signaling and transcriptional regulation coordinate diverse structural
      adaptations in diverse species. In this study, we examine the consequences of
      altering Hand1 dimer choice regulation within developing vertebrate limbs.
      Although Hand1 deletion via the limb-specific Prrx1-Cre reveals a non-essential
      role for Hand1 in mouse limb morphogenesis, altering Hand1 phosphoregulation, and
      consequently Hand1 dimerization affinities, results in a severe truncation of
      proximal-anterior limb elements. Molecular analysis reveals a non-cell-autonomous
      mechanism that causes widespread cell death within the embryonic limb bud. In
      addition, we observe changes in proximal-anterior gene regulation, including a
      reduction in the expression of Irx3, Irx5, Gli3 and Alx4, all of which are
      upregulated in Hand2 limb conditional knockouts. A reduction of Hand2 and Shh
      gene dosage improves the integrity of anterior limb structures, validating the
      importance of the Twist-family bHLH dimer pool in limb morphogenesis.

PMID- 28576768
TI  - Defining epithelial cell dynamics and lineage relationships in the developing
      lacrimal gland.
AB  - The tear-producing lacrimal gland is a tubular organ that protects and lubricates
      the ocular surface. The lacrimal gland possesses many features that make it an
      excellent model in which to investigate tubulogenesis, but the cell types and
      lineage relationships that drive lacrimal gland formation are unclear. Using
      single-cell sequencing and other molecular tools, we reveal novel cell identities
      and epithelial lineage dynamics that underlie lacrimal gland development. We show
      that the lacrimal gland from its earliest developmental stages is composed of
      multiple subpopulations of immune, epithelial and mesenchymal cell lineages. The
      epithelial lineage exhibits the most substantial cellular changes, transitioning
      through a series of unique transcriptional states to become terminally
      differentiated acinar, ductal and myoepithelial cells. Furthermore, lineage
      tracing in postnatal and adult glands provides the first direct evidence of
      unipotent KRT5+ epithelial cells in the lacrimal gland. Finally, we show
      conservation of developmental markers between the developing mouse and human
      lacrimal gland, supporting the use of mice to understand human development.
      Together, our data reveal crucial features of lacrimal gland development that
      have broad implications for understanding epithelial organogenesis.

PMID- 28576770
TI  - Placental labyrinth formation in mice requires endothelial FLRT2/UNC5B signaling.
AB  - The placental labyrinth is the interface for gas and nutrient exchange between
      the embryo and the mother; hence its proper development is essential for
      embryogenesis. However, the molecular mechanism underlying development of the
      placental labyrinth, particularly in terms of its endothelial organization, is
      not well understood. Here, we determined that fibronectin leucine-rich
      transmembrane protein 2 (FLRT2), a repulsive ligand of the UNC5 receptor family
      for neurons, is unexpectedly expressed in endothelial cells specifically in the
      placental labyrinth. Mice lacking FLRT2 in endothelial cells exhibited embryonic
      lethality at mid-gestation, with systemic congestion and hypoxia. Although they
      lacked apparent deformities in the embryonic vasculature and heart, the placental
      labyrinths of these embryos exhibited aberrant alignment of endothelial cells,
      which disturbed the feto-maternal circulation. Interestingly, this vascular
      deformity was related to endothelial repulsion through binding to the UNC5B
      receptor. Our results suggest that the proper organization of the placental
      labyrinth depends on coordinated inter-endothelial repulsion, which prevents
      uncontrolled layering of the endothelium.

PMID- 28576771
TI  - BMP signaling orchestrates a transcriptional network to control the fate of
      mesenchymal stem cells in mice.
AB  - Signaling pathways are used reiteratively in different developmental processes
      yet produce distinct cell fates through specific downstream transcription
      factors. In this study, we used tooth root development as a model with which to
      investigate how the BMP signaling pathway regulates transcriptional complexes to
      direct the fate determination of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). We
      first identified the MSC population supporting mouse molar root growth as Gli1+
      cells. Using a Gli1-driven Cre-mediated recombination system, our results provide
      the first in vivo evidence that BMP signaling activity is required for the
      odontogenic differentiation of MSCs. Specifically, we identified the
      transcription factors Pax9, Klf4, Satb2 and Lhx8 as being downstream of BMP
      signaling and expressed in a spatially restricted pattern that is potentially
      involved in determining distinct cellular identities within the dental
      mesenchyme. Finally, we found that overactivation of one key transcription
      factor, Klf4, which is associated with the odontogenic region, promotes
      odontogenic differentiation of MSCs. Collectively, our results demonstrate the
      functional significance of BMP signaling in regulating MSC fate during root
      development and shed light on how BMP signaling can achieve functional
      specificity in regulating diverse organ development.

PMID- 28576774
TI  - The fusogen AFF-1 can rejuvenate the regenerative potential of adult dendritic
      trees by self-fusion.
AB  - The aging brain undergoes structural changes that affect brain homeostasis,
      neuronal function and consequently cognition. The complex architecture of
      dendritic arbors poses a challenge to understanding age-dependent morphological
      alterations, behavioral plasticity and remodeling following brain injury. Here,
      we use the PVD polymodal neurons of C. elegans as a model to study how aging
      affects neuronal plasticity. Using confocal live imaging of C. elegans PVD
      neurons, we demonstrate age-related progressive morphological alterations of
      intricate dendritic arbors. We show that mutations in daf-2, which encodes an
      insulin-like growth factor receptor ortholog, fail to inhibit the progressive
      morphological aging of dendrites and do not prevent the minor decline in response
      to harsh touch during aging. We uncovered that PVD aging is characterized by a
      major decline in the regenerative potential of dendrites following experimental
      laser dendrotomy. Furthermore, the remodeling of transected dendritic trees by
      AFF-1-mediated self-fusion can be restored in old animals by daf-2 mutations, and
      can be differentially re-established by ectopic expression of the fusion protein
      AFF-1. Thus, ectopic expression of the fusogen AFF-1 in the PVD and mutations in
      daf-2 differentially rejuvenate some aspects of dendritic regeneration following
      injury.

PMID- 28576773
TI  - Distinct roles for the mTOR pathway in postnatal morphogenesis, maturation and
      function of pancreatic islets.
AB  - While much is known about the molecular pathways that regulate embryonic
      development and adult homeostasis of the endocrine pancreas, little is known
      about what regulates early postnatal development and maturation of islets. Given
      that birth marks the first exposure to enteral nutrition, we investigated how
      nutrient-regulated signaling pathways influence postnatal islet development in
      mice. We performed loss-of-function studies of mechanistic target of rapamycin
      (mTOR), a highly conserved kinase within a nutrient-sensing pathway known to
      regulate cellular growth, morphogenesis and metabolism. Deletion of Mtor in
      pancreatic endocrine cells had no significant effect on their embryonic
      development. However, within the first 2 weeks after birth, mTOR-deficient islets
      became dysmorphic, beta-cell maturation and function were impaired, and animals
      lost islet mass. Moreover, we discovered that these distinct functions of mTOR
      are mediated by separate downstream branches of the pathway, in that mTORC1 (with
      adaptor protein Raptor) is the main complex mediating the maturation and function
      of islets, whereas mTORC2 (with adaptor protein Rictor) impacts islet mass and
      architecture. Taken together, these findings suggest that nutrient sensing may be
      an essential trigger for postnatal beta-cell maturation and islet development.

PMID- 28576772
TI  - Incompatibility between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes during oogenesis
      results in ovarian failure and embryonic lethality.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction can cause female infertility. An important unresolved
      issue is the extent to which incompatibility between mitochondrial and nuclear
      genomes contributes to female infertility. It has previously been shown that a
      mitochondrial haplotype from D. simulans (simw501 ) is incompatible with a
      nuclear genome from the D. melanogaster strain Oregon-R (OreR), resulting in
      impaired development, which was enhanced at higher temperature. This mito-nuclear
      incompatibility is between alleles of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial tyrosyl
      tRNA synthetase (Aatm) and the mitochondrial-encoded tyrosyl-tRNA that it
      aminoacylates. Here, we show that this mito-nuclear incompatibility causes a
      severe temperature-sensitive female infertility. The OreR nuclear genome
      contributed to death of ovarian germline stem cells and reduced egg production,
      which was further enhanced by the incompatibility with simw501  mitochondria.
      Mito-nuclear incompatibility also resulted in aberrant egg morphology and a
      maternal-effect on embryonic chromosome segregation and survival, which was
      completely dependent on the temperature and mito-nuclear genotype of the mother.
      Our findings show that maternal mito-nuclear incompatibility during Drosophila
      oogenesis has severe consequences for egg production and embryonic survival, with
      important broader relevance to human female infertility and mitochondrial
      replacement therapy.

PMID- 28576775
TI  - Cold Fusion: Massive Karyotype Evolution in the Antarctic Bullhead Notothen
      Notothenia coriiceps.
AB  - Half of all vertebrate species share a series of chromosome fusions that preceded
      the teleost genome duplication (TGD), but we do not understand the causative
      evolutionary mechanisms. The "Robertsonian-translocation hypothesis" suggests a
      regular fusion of each ancestral acro- or telocentric chromosome to just one
      other by centromere fusions, thus halving the karyotype. An alternative "genome
      stirring hypothesis" posits haphazard and repeated fusions, inversions, and
      reciprocal and nonreciprocal translocations. To study large-scale karyotype
      reduction, we investigated the decrease of chromosome numbers in Antarctic
      notothenioid fish. Most notothenioids have 24 haploid chromosomes, but bullhead
      notothen (Notothenia coriiceps) has 11. To understand mechanisms, we made a RAD
      tag meiotic map with ~10,000 polymorphic markers. Comparative genomics aligned
      about a thousand orthologs of platyfish and stickleback genes along bullhead
      chromosomes. Results revealed that 9 of 11 bullhead chromosomes arose by fusion
      of just two ancestral chromosomes and two others by fusion of three ancestral
      chromosomes. All markers from each ancestral chromosome remained contiguous,
      implying no inversions across fusion borders. Karyotype comparisons support a
      history of: (1) Robertsonian fusions of 22 ancestral chromosomes in pairs to
      yield 11 fused plus two small unfused chromosomes, like N. angustata; (2) fusion
      of one of the remaining two ancestral chromosomes to a preexisting fused pair,
      giving 12 chromosomes like N. rossii; and (3) fusion of the remaining ancestral
      chromosome to another fused pair, giving 11 chromosomes in N. coriiceps These
      results raise the question of what selective forces promoted the systematic
      fusion of chromosomes in pairs and the suppression of pericentric inversions in
      this lineage, and provide a model for chromosome fusions in stem teleosts.

PMID- 28576779
TI  - Trump's decision to leave climate pact threatens public health, US doctors warn.

PMID- 28576776
TI  - RNA Binding Protein Vigilin Collaborates with miRNAs To Regulate Gene Expression
      for Caenorhabditis elegans Larval Development.
AB  - Extensive studies have suggested that most miRNA functions are executed through
      complex miRNA-target interaction networks, and such networks function
      semiredundantly with other regulatory systems to shape gene expression dynamics
      for proper physiological functions. We found that knocking down vgln-1, which
      encodes a conserved RNA-binding protein associated with diverse functions, causes
      severe larval arrest at the early L1 stage in animals with compromised miRISC
      functions (an ain-2/GW182 mutant). Through an enhancer screen, we identified five
      specific miRNAs, and miRNA families, that act semiredundantly with VGLN-1 to
      regulate larval development. By RIP-Seq analysis, we identified mRNAs that are
      directly bound by VGLN-1, and highly enriched for miRNA binding sites, leading to
      a hypothesis that VGLN-1 may share common targets with miRNAs to regulate gene
      expression dynamics for development.

PMID- 28576780
TI  - Outcomes of Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation Using Percutaneous Left Ventricular
      Assist Devices.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although percutaneous left ventricular assist devices (pLVADs)
      facilitate mapping and ablation of hemodynamically unstable ventricular
      tachycardia (VT), there is limited data whether clinical outcomes are improved.
      We sought to retrospectively compare the outcomes of patients undergoing scar
      related VT ablation with and without pLVAD support. METHODS AND RESULTS: The
      study population comprised 194 patients (109 pLVAD and 85 non-pLVAD). The pLVAD
      group more often had dilated cardiomyopathy (33% versus 13%; P=0.001), New York
      Heart Association heart failure class >=III (51% versus 25%; P<0.001), lower left
      ventricular ejection fractions (26+/-10% versus 39+/-16%; P<0.001), and
      electrical storm (49% versus 34%; P=0.04). Procedure times (422+/-112 versus
      330+/-92 minutes; P<0.001), postablation VT inducibility (20% versus 7%; P=0.02),
      and length of subsequent hospitalization (median 6 versus 4 days; P=0.001) were
      all higher in the pLVAD group. During median follow-up of 215 days, the primary
      end point (recurrent VT, heart transplantation, or death) occurred in 36% of the
      pLVAD versus 26% of the non-pLVAD groups (P=0.14). After propensity matching for
      differences between groups, no differences were seen between groups for both
      acute procedural outcomes and the primary end point. CONCLUSIONS: In this large
      single-center scar-related VT ablation experience, despite the worse clinical
      status of the patients selected for pLVAD support, clinical outcomes were better
      than expected and were similar to healthier patients not receiving hemodynamic
      support. Patients with dilated cardiomyopathy presenting with electrical storm,
      advanced heart failure, and severe left ventricular dysfunction most frequently
      received hemodynamic support during VT ablation.

PMID- 28576781
TI  - Electrocardiographic Preexcitation and Risk of Cardiovascular Morbidity and
      Mortality: Results From the Copenhagen ECG Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of available data on the clinical course of patients
      with ventricular preexcitation in the ECG originates from tertiary centers. We
      aimed to investigate long-term outcomes in individuals from a primary care
      population with electrocardiographic preexcitation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Digital
      ECGs from 328 638 primary care patients were collected during 2001 to 2011. We
      identified 310 individuals with preexcitation (age range, 8-85 years). Data on
      medication, comorbidity, and outcomes were collected from Danish nationwide
      registries. The median follow-up time was 7.4 years (quartiles, 4.6-10.3 years).
      Compared with the remainder of the population, patients with preexcitation had
      higher adjusted hazards of atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio [HR], 3.12; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 2.07-4.70) and heart failure (HR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.27
      3.50). Subgroup analysis on accessory pathway location revealed a higher adjusted
      hazard of heart failure for a right anteroseptal accessory pathway (HR, 5.88; 95%
      CI, 2.63-13.1). There was no evidence of a higher hazard of death among
      individuals with preexcitation when looking across all age groups (HR, 1.07; 95%
      CI, 0.68-1.68). However, a statistically significant (P=0.01) interaction
      analysis (<65 versus >=65 years) indicated a higher hazard of death for patients
      with preexcitation >=65 years (HR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.07-3.18). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      large ECG study, individuals with preexcitation had higher hazards of atrial
      fibrillation and heart failure. The higher hazard of heart failure seemed to be
      driven by a right anteroseptal accessory pathway. Among elderly people, we found
      a statistically significant association between preexcitation and a higher hazard
      of death.

PMID- 28576782
TI  - Tenecteplase in ischemic stroke offers improved recanalization: Analysis of 2
      trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test whether patients with complete vessel occlusion show greater
      recanalization at 24 hours and have improved clinical outcomes at 24 hours and 90
      days when treated with tenecteplase compared to alteplase. METHODS: Pooled
      clinical and imaging data from 2 phase 2 randomized trials comparing tenecteplase
      with alteplase allowed CT angiography (CTA) scans to be assessed centrally for
      occlusion status at baseline and at 24 hours post thrombolysis using the modified
      thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (TICI) scale. Twenty-four-hour poststroke NIH
      Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores were also
      compared between treatment groups using linear regression to generate odds ratios
      (ORs). RESULTS: From 146 pooled patients, 69 had a TICI 0/1 occlusion overall at
      baseline. Tenecteplase-treated patients with a complete vessel occlusion had
      greater complete recanalization rates at 24 hours (71% for tenecteplase vs 43%
      for alteplase, p < 0.001). Patients with a TICI 0/1 occlusion who were treated
      with tenecteplase also showed greater early clinical improvement (median NIHSS
      change with tenecteplase was 9, interquartile range [IQR] 6, alteplase 1, IQR 1,
      p = 0.001) and higher rates of favorable 90-day outcomes (mRS 0-1 of tenecteplase
      compared with alteplase, OR 4.82, 95% confidence interval 1.02-7.84, p = 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Tenecteplase may offer greater recanalization efficacy compared to
      alteplase, possibly exaggerated in patients with complete vessel occlusions on
      baseline CTA.

PMID- 28576785
TI  - Chlamydia trachomatis-induced reactive arthritis in India: frequency and clinical
      presentation.

PMID- 28576783
TI  - Survival and Left Ventricular Function Changes in Fulminant Versus Nonfulminant
      Acute Myocarditis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous reports have suggested that despite their dramatic
      presentation, patients with fulminant myocarditis (FM) might have better outcome
      than those with acute nonfulminant myocarditis (NFM). In this retrospective
      study, we report outcome and changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)
      in a large cohort of patients with FM compared with patients with NFM. METHODS:
      The study population consists of 187 consecutive patients admitted between May
      2001 and November 2016 with a diagnosis of acute myocarditis (onset of symptoms
      <1 month) of whom 55 required inotropes and/or mechanical circulatory support
      (FM) and the remaining 132 were hemodynamically stable (NFM). We also performed a
      subanalysis in 130 adult patients with acute viral myocarditis and viral prodrome
      within 2 weeks from the onset, which includes 34 with FM and 96 with NFM.
      Patients with giant-cell myocarditis, eosinophilic myocarditis, or cardiac
      sarcoidosis and those <15 years of age were excluded from the subanalysis.
      RESULTS: In the whole population (n=187), the rate of in-hospital death or heart
      transplantation was 25.5% versus 0% in FM versus NFM, respectively (P<0.0001).
      Long-term heart transplantation-free survival at 9 years was lower in FM than NFM
      (64.5% versus 100%, log-rank P<0.0001). Despite greater improvement in LVEF
      during hospitalization in FM versus NFM forms (median, 32% [interquartile range,
      20%-40%] versus 3% [0%-10%], respectively; P<0.0001), the proportion of patients
      with LVEF <55% at last follow-up was higher in FM versus NFM (29% versus 9%;
      relative risk, 3.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-7.64, P=0.003). Similar
      results for survival and changes in LVEF in FM versus NFM were observed in the
      subgroup (n=130) with viral myocarditis. None of the patients with NFM and LVEF
      >=55% at discharge had a significant decrease in LVEF at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with FM have an increased mortality and need for heart transplantation
      compared with those with NFM. From a functional viewpoint, patients with FM have
      a more severely impaired LVEF at admission that, despite steep improvement during
      hospitalization, remains lower than that in patients with NFM at long-term follow
      up. These findings also hold true when only the viral forms are considered and
      are different from previous studies showing better prognosis in FM.

PMID- 28576786
TI  - Pilot study for the 'Test n Treat' trial of on-site rapid chlamydia/gonorrhoea
      tests and same day treatment.

PMID- 28576787
TI  - Use of Multimodality Imaging in Diagnosing Invasive Fungal Diseases of the Heart.

PMID- 28576819
TI  - Time to put health at the heart of all policy making.

PMID- 28576788
TI  - Pigs, Unlike Mice, Have Two Distinct Colonic Stem Cell Populations Similar to
      Humans That Respond to High-Calorie Diet prior to Insulin Resistance.
AB  - Basal colonic crypt stem cells are long lived and play a role in colon
      homeostasis. Previous evidence has shown that high-calorie diet (HCD) enhances
      colonic stem cell numbers and expansion of the proliferative zone, an important
      biomarker for colon cancer. However, it is not clear how HCD drives dysregulation
      of colon stem cell/colonocyte proliferative kinetics. We used a human-relevant
      pig model and developed an immunofluorescence technique to detect and quantify
      colonic stem cells. Pigs (n = 8/group) were provided either standard diet (SD; 5%
      fat) or HCD (23% fat) for 13 weeks. HCD- and SD-consuming pigs had similar total
      calorie intake, serum iron, insulin, and glucose levels. However, HCD elevated
      both colonic proliferative zone (KI-67) and stem cell zone (ASCL-2 and BMI-1).
      Proliferative zone correlated with elevated innate colonic inflammatory markers
      TLR-4, NF-kappaB, IL6, and lipocalin-2 (r >= 0.62, P = 0.02). Elevated gut
      bacterial phyla proteobacteria and firmicutes in HCD-consuming pigs correlated
      with proliferative and stem cell zone. Colonic proteome data revealed the
      upregulation of proteins involved in cell migration and proliferation and
      correlated with proliferative and stem cell zone expansion. Our study suggests
      that pig colon, unlike mice, has two distinct stem cells (ASCL-2 and BMI-1)
      similar to humans, and HCD increases expansion of colonic proliferative and stem
      cell zone. Thus, pig model can aid in the development of preventive strategies
      against gut bacterial dysbiosis and inflammation-promoted diseases, such as colon
      cancer. Cancer Prev Res; 10(8); 442-50. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576820
TI  - miR-210 expression is associated with methionine-induced differentiation of trout
      satellite cells.
AB  - In fish, data on microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in myogenesis are scarce. In order
      to identify miRNAs involved in satellite cell differentiation, we used a
      methionine depletion/replenishment protocol to synchronize myogenic cell
      differentiation. Our results validated that methionine removal (72 h) from the
      medium strongly decreased myoD1 and myogenin expression, indicating
      differentiation arrest. In contrast, methionine replenishment rescued expression
      of myoD1 and myogenin, showing a resumption of differentiation. We performed a
      miRNA array analysis of myogenic cells under three conditions: presence of
      methionine for 72 h (control), absence of methionine for 72 h (Meth-) and absence
      of methionine for 48 h followed by 24 h of methionine replenishment (Meth-/+). A
      clustering analysis identified three clusters: cluster I corresponds to miRNA
      upregulated only in Meth-/+ conditions; cluster II corresponds to miRNA
      downregulated only in Meth-/+ conditions; cluster III corresponds to miRNAs with
      high expression in control, low expression in Meth- conditions and intermediate
      expression after methionine replenishment (Meth-/+). Cluster III was very
      interesting because it fitted with the data obtained for myoD1 and myogenin
      (supporting an involvement in differentiation) and contained seven miRNAs with
      muscle-related function (e.g. miR-133a) and one (miR-210) with unknown function.
      Based on our previously published miRNA repertoire ( Juanchich et al., 2016), we
      confirmed miR-133a was expressed only in white muscle and showed that miR-210 had
      strong expression in white muscle. We also showed that miR-210 expression was
      upregulated during differentiation of satellite cells, suggesting that miR-210
      was potentially involved in the differentiation of satellite cells.

PMID- 28576821
TI  - Contraction-induced enhancement of relaxation during high force contractions of
      mouse lumbrical muscle at 37 degrees C.
AB  - Repeated stimulation of unfatigued rodent fast-twitch skeletal muscle accelerates
      the kinetics of tension relaxation through an unknown mechanism. This effect
      varies with muscle type and stimulation parameters, and has been observed at
      physiological temperatures for submaximal but not maximal contractions. The
      purpose of this study was to compare relaxation kinetics of C57BL/6 mouse
      lumbrical muscles ex vivo from maximal isometric force (500 Hz for 20 ms) when
      evoked before (pre) and after (post) an intervening tetanic contraction at 37
      degrees C. During post contractions, we noted significant increases in the rate
      of tension decline during both the slow linear phase and the fast exponential
      phase of relaxation, as well as a reduced duration of the slow phase of
      relaxation compared with pre contractions (all P<0.05). This is the first
      demonstration of enhanced slow and fast relaxation phases from maximal isometric
      tension induced by prior stimulation in intact muscle at a physiological
      temperature.

PMID- 28576823
TI  - Heart rate dynamics in a marsupial hibernator.
AB  - The eastern pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus) is a small marsupial that can
      express spontaneous short bouts of torpor, as well as multi-day bouts of deep
      hibernation. To examine heart rate (fH) control at various stages of torpor in a
      marsupial hibernator, and to see whether fH variability differs from that of deep
      placental hibernators, we used radiotelemetry to measure ECG and body temperature
      (Tb) while measuring the rate of O2 consumption and ventilation. fH and O2
      consumption rate during euthermia were at a minimum (321+/-34 beats min-1,
      0.705+/-0.048 ml O2 g-1 h-1) at an ambient temperature (Ta) of 31 degrees C. fH
      had an inverse linear relationship with Ta to a maximum of 630+/-19 beats min-1
      at a Ta of 20 degrees C. During entry into torpor at a Ta of 20 degrees C, fH
      slowed primarily as a result of episodic periods of cardiac activity where
      electrical activity of the heart occurred in groups of 3 or 4 heart beats. When
      Tb was stable at 24 degrees C in these torpor bouts, the episodic nature of fH
      had disappeared (i.e. no asystoles) with a rate of 34+/-3 beats min-1 For multi
      day bouts of deep torpor, Ta was lowered to 6.6+/-0.8 degrees C. During these
      deep bouts of torpor, Tb reached a minimum of 8.0+/-1.0 degrees C, with a minimum
      fH of 8 beats min-1 and a minimum O2 consumption rate of 0.029+/-0.07 ml O2 g-1 h
      1 Shivering bouts occurred in deep torpor about every 8 min, during which
      ventilation occurred, and fH was elevated to 40 beats min-1 The duration of the
      QRS complex increased from 12 ms during euthermia to 69 ms at a Tb of 8 degrees
      C. These findings demonstrate the dynamic functioning range of fH to be about 600
      beats min-1 (~80-fold), one of the largest known ranges in mammals. Our study
      shows that despite a separation of ~160 million years, the control and function
      of the cardiac system seems indistinguishable in marsupial and placental
      hibernating mammals.

PMID- 28576822
TI  - Ammonia exposure affects the mRNA and protein expression levels of certain Rhesus
      glycoproteins in the gills of climbing perch.
AB  - The freshwater climbing perch, Anabas testudineus, is an obligate air-breathing
      and euryhaline teleost capable of active ammonia excretion and tolerant of high
      concentrations of environmental ammonia. As Rhesus glycoproteins (RhGP/Rhgp) are
      known to transport ammonia, this study aimed to obtain the complete cDNA coding
      sequences of various rhgp isoforms from the gills of A. testudineus, and to
      determine their mRNA and protein expression levels during 6 days of exposure to
      100 mmol l-1 NH4Cl. The subcellular localization of Rhgp isoforms in the
      branchial epithelium was also examined in order to elucidate the type of ionocyte
      involved in active ammonia excretion. Four rhgp (rhag, rhbg, rhcg1 and rhcg2) had
      been identified from the gills of A. testudineus They had conserved amino acid
      residues for NH4+ binding, NH4+ deprotonation, channel gating and lining of the
      vestibules. Despite inwardly directed NH3 and NH4+ gradients, there were
      significant increases in the mRNA expression levels of the four branchial rhgp in
      A. testudineus at certain time points during 6 days of ammonia exposure, with
      significant increases in the protein abundances of Rhag and Rhcg2 on day 6.
      Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed a type of ammonia-inducible Na+/K+-ATPase
      alpha1c-immunoreactive ionocyte with apical Rhag and basolateral Rhcg2 in the
      gills of fish exposed to ammonia for 6 days. Hence, active ammonia excretion may
      involve NH4+ entering the ionocyte through the basolateral Rhcg2 and being
      excreted through the apical Rhag, driven by a transapical membrane electrical
      potential generated by the apical cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance
      regulator Cl- channel, as suggested previously.

PMID- 28576824
TI  - Pre-settlement coral-reef fish larvae respond to magnetic field changes during
      the day.
AB  - Observations of coral-reef fish larvae have revealed remarkably consistent
      orientation behaviour while swimming offshore, requiring large-scale orientation
      cues. However, the mechanisms underlying this behaviour are still being
      investigated. One potential large-scale cue for orientation is the Earth's
      geomagnetic field. Here, we examined the effect of magnetic field manipulations
      on the orientation behaviour of coral-reef fish during the pelagic larval phase.
      In the absence of visual cues, individual larvae responded to a 90 deg shift of
      the horizontal component of the magnetic field within a Helmholtz coil with a
      comparable shift in orientation, demonstrating that they use a magnetic compass
      for orientation. Our findings suggest that geomagnetic field information guides
      swimming behaviour of larval fish in the pre-settlement phase. The ability to use
      large-scale sensory cues allows location-independent orientation of swimming, a
      behaviour that influences dispersal and connectivity of fish populations, which
      has important ecological implications for anthropogenic development of marine
      areas.

PMID- 28576825
TI  - Identification of an optimized 2'-O-methylated trinucleotide RNA motif inhibiting
      Toll-like receptors 7 and 8.
AB  - Bacterial RNA serves an important function as activator of the innate immune
      system. In humans bacterial RNA is sensed by the endosomal receptors TLR7 and
      TLR8. Differences in the posttranscriptional modification profile of prokaryotic
      when compared with eukaryotic RNA allow innate immune cells to discriminate
      between "host" and "foreign" RNA. Ribose 2'-O-methylation is of particular
      importance and has been reported to antagonize TLR7/8 activation. Yet, the exact
      sequence context in which 2'-O-methylation has to occur to mediate its inhibitory
      activity remains largely undefined. On the basis of a naturally occurring 2'-O
      methylated RNA sequence, we performed a systematic permutation of the methylated
      nucleotide as well as adjacent bases and hereby identify two minimal
      trinucleotide motifs within a 9-mer oligoribonucleotide that are necessary and
      sufficient to antagonize TLR7 and TLR8 activation, respectively. Given the
      growing interest in the development of inhibitors of nucleic acid-sensing TLRs
      for therapeutic purposes, these results will facilitate the rational design of
      such antagonists in the future.

PMID- 28576826
TI  - Archaeal fibrillarin-Nop5 heterodimer 2'-O-methylates RNA independently of the
      C/D guide RNP particle.
AB  - Archaeal fibrillarin (aFib) is a well-characterized S-adenosyl methionine (SAM)
      dependent RNA 2'-O-methyltransferase that is known to act in a large C/D
      ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex together with Nop5 and L7Ae proteins and a box
      C/D guide RNA. In the reaction, the guide RNA serves to direct the methylation
      reaction to a specific site in tRNA or rRNA by sequence complementarity. Here we
      show that a Pyrococcus abyssi aFib-Nop5 heterodimer can alone perform SAM
      dependent 2'-O-methylation of 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs in vitro independently
      of L7Ae and C/D guide RNAs. Using tritium-labeling, mass spectrometry, and
      reverse transcription analysis, we identified three in vitro 2'-O-methylated
      positions in the 16S rRNA of P. abyssi, positions lying outside of previously
      reported pyrococcal C/D RNP methylation sites. This newly discovered stand-alone
      activity of aFib-Nop5 may provide an example of an ancestral activity retained in
      enzymes that were recruited to larger complexes during evolution.

PMID- 28576827
TI  - The transcriptional repressor GATAD2B mediates progesterone receptor suppression
      of myometrial contractile gene expression.
AB  - The mechanisms whereby progesterone (P4), acting via the progesterone receptor
      (PR), inhibits proinflammatory/contractile gene expression during pregnancy are
      incompletely defined. Using immortalized human myometrial (hTERT-HM) cells stably
      expressing wild-type PR-A or PR-B (PRWT), we found that P4 significantly
      inhibited IL-1beta induction of the NF-kappaB target genes, COX-2 and IL-8 P4
      PRWT transrepression occurred at the level of transcription initiation and was
      mediated by decreased recruitment of NF-kappaB p65 and RNA polymerase II to COX-2
      and IL-8 promoters. However, in cells stably expressing a PR-A or PR-B DNA
      binding domain mutant (PRmDBD), P4-mediated transrepression was significantly
      reduced, suggesting a critical role of the PR DBD. ChIP analysis of hTERT-HM
      cells stably expressing PRWT or PRmDBD revealed that P4 treatment caused
      equivalent recruitment of PRWT and PRmDBD to COX-2 and IL-8 promoters, suggesting
      that PR inhibitory effects were not mediated by its direct DNA binding. Using
      immunoprecipitation, followed by MS, we identified a transcriptional repressor,
      GATA zinc finger domain-containing 2B (GATAD2B), that interacted strongly with
      PRWT but poorly with PRmDBD P4 treatment of PRWT hTERT-HM cells caused enhanced
      recruitment of endogenous GATAD2B to COX-2 and IL-8 promoters. Further, siRNA
      knockdown of endogenous GATAD2B significantly reduced P4-PRWT transrepression of
      COX-2 and IL-8 Notably, GATAD2B expression was significantly decreased in
      pregnant mouse and human myometrium during labor. Our findings suggest that
      GATAD2B serves as an important mediator of P4-PR suppression of proinflammatory
      and contractile genes during pregnancy. Decreased GATAD2B expression near term
      may contribute to the decline in PR function, leading to labor.

PMID- 28576828
TI  - The intracellular chloride channel proteins CLIC1 and CLIC4 induce IL-1beta
      transcription and activate the NLRP3 inflammasome.
AB  - The NLRP3 inflammasome is a multiprotein complex that regulates the activation of
      caspase-1 leading to the maturation of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1beta and
      IL-18 and promoting pyroptosis. Classically, the NLRP3 inflammasome in murine
      macrophages is activated by the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular
      patterns and by many structurally unrelated factors. Understanding the precise
      mechanism of NLRP3 activation by such a wide array of stimuli remains elusive,
      but several signaling events, including cytosolic efflux and influx of select
      ions, have been suggested. Accordingly, several studies have indicated a role of
      anion channels in NLRP3 inflammasome assembly, but their direct involvement has
      not been shown. Here, we report that the chloride intracellular channel proteins
      CLIC1 and CLIC4 participate in the regulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Confocal
      microscopy and cell fractionation experiments revealed that upon LPS stimulation
      of macrophages, CLIC1 and CLIC4 translocated into the nucleus and cellular
      membrane. In LPS/ATP-stimulated bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs), CLIC1 or
      CLIC4 siRNA transfection impaired transcription of IL-1beta, ASC speck formation,
      and secretion of mature IL-1beta. Collectively, our results demonstrate that
      CLIC1 and CLIC4 participate both in the priming signal for IL-1beta and in NLRP3
      activation.

PMID- 28576829
TI  - Differential effects of the dynein-regulatory factor Lissencephaly-1 on
      processive dynein-dynactin motility.
AB  - Cytoplasmic dynein is the primary minus-end-directed microtubule motor protein in
      animal cells, performing a wide range of motile activities, including transport
      of vesicular cargos, mRNAs, viruses, and proteins. Lissencephaly-1 (LIS1) is a
      highly conserved dynein-regulatory factor that binds directly to the dynein motor
      domain, uncoupling the enzymatic and mechanical cycles of the motor and stalling
      dynein on the microtubule track. Dynactin, another ubiquitous dynein-regulatory
      factor, releases dynein from an autoinhibited state, leading to a dramatic
      increase in fast, processive dynein motility. How these opposing activities are
      integrated to control dynein motility is unknown. Here, we used fluorescence
      single-molecule microscopy to study the interaction of LIS1 with the processive
      dynein-dynactin-BicD2N (DDB) complex. Surprisingly, in contrast to the prevailing
      model for LIS1 function established in the context of dynein alone, we found that
      binding of LIS1 to DDB does not strongly disrupt processive motility. Motile DDB
      complexes bound up to two LIS1 dimers, and mutational analysis suggested that
      LIS1 binds directly to the dynein motor domains during DDB movement.
      Interestingly, LIS1 enhanced DDB velocity in a concentration-dependent manner, in
      contrast to observations of the effect of LIS1 on the motility of isolated
      dynein. Thus, LIS1 exerts concentration-dependent effects on dynein motility and
      can synergize with dynactin to enhance processive dynein movement. Our results
      suggest that the effect of LIS1 on dynein motility depends on both LIS1
      concentration and the presence of other regulatory factors such as dynactin and
      may provide new insights into the mechanism of LIS1 haploinsufficiency in the
      neurodevelopmental disorder lissencephaly.

PMID- 28576831
TI  - Shifting the Balance of Activating and Inhibitory Natural Killer Receptor Ligands
      on BRAFV600E Melanoma Lines with Vemurafenib.
AB  - Over 60% of human melanoma tumors bear a mutation in the BRAF gene. The most
      frequent mutation is a substitution at codon 600 (V600E), leading to a
      constitutively active BRAF and overactivation of the MAPK pathway. Patients
      harboring mutated BRAF respond to kinase inhibitors such as vemurafenib. However,
      these responses are transient, and relapses are frequent. Melanoma cells are
      efficiently lysed by activated natural killer (NK) cells. Melanoma cells express
      several stress-induced ligands that are recognized by activating NK-cell
      receptors. We have investigated the effect of vemurafenib on the immunogenicity
      of seven BRAF-mutated melanoma cells to NK cells and on their growth and
      sensitivity to NK-cell-mediated lysis. We showed that vemurafenib treatment
      modulated expression of ligands for two activating NK receptors, increasing
      expression of B7-H6, a ligand for NKp30, and decreasing expression of MICA and
      ULBP2, ligands for NKG2D. Vemurafenib also increased expression of HLA class I
      and HLA-E molecules, likely leading to higher engagement of inhibitory receptors
      (KIRs and NKG2A, respectively), and decreased lysis of vemurafenib-treated
      melanoma cell lines by cytokine-activated NK cells. Finally, we showed that
      whereas batimastat (a broad-spectrum matrix metalloprotease inhibitor) increased
      cell surface ULBP2 by reducing its shedding, vemurafenib lowered soluble ULBP2,
      indicating that BRAF signal inhibition diminished expression of both cell-surface
      and soluble forms of NKG2D ligands. Vemurafenib, inhibiting BRAF signaling,
      shifted the balance of activatory and inhibitory NK ligands on melanoma cells and
      displayed immunoregulatory effects on NK-cell functional activities. Cancer
      Immunol Res; 5(7); 582-93. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576830
TI  - GTPase Sar1 regulates the trafficking and secretion of the virulence factor gp63
      in Leishmania.
AB  - Metalloprotease gp63 (Leishmania donovani gp63 (Ldgp63)) is a critical virulence
      factor secreted by Leishmania However, how newly synthesized Ldgp63 exits the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is secreted by this parasite is unknown. Here, we
      cloned, expressed, and characterized the GTPase LdSar1 and other COPII components
      like LdSec23, LdSec24, LdSec13, and LdSec31 from Leishmania to understand their
      role in ER exit of Ldgp63. Using dominant-positive (LdSar1:H74L) and dominant
      negative (LdSar1:T34N) mutants of LdSar1, we found that GTP-bound LdSar1
      specifically binds to LdSec23, which binds, in turn, with LdSec24(1-702) to form
      a prebudding complex. Moreover, LdSec13 specifically interacted with His6
      LdSec31(1-603), and LdSec31 bound the prebudding complex via LdSec23.
      Interestingly, dileucine 594/595 and valine 597 residues present in the Ldgp63 C
      terminal domain were critical for binding with LdSec24(703-966), and GFP
      Ldgp63L594A/L595A or GFP-Ldgp63V597S mutants failed to exit from the ER.
      Moreover, Ldgp63-containing COPII vesicle budding from the ER was inhibited by
      LdSar1:T34N in an in vitro budding assay, indicating that GTP-bound LdSar1 is
      required for budding of Ldgp63-containing COPII vesicles. To directly demonstrate
      the function of LdSar1 in Ldgp63 trafficking, we coexpressed RFP-Ldgp63 along
      with LdSar1:WT-GFP or LdSar1:T34N-GFP and found that LdSar1:T34N overexpression
      blocks Ldgp63 trafficking and secretion in Leishmania Finally, we noted
      significantly compromised survival of LdSar1:T34N-GFP-overexpressing transgenic
      parasites in macrophages. Taken together, these results indicated that Ldgp63
      interacts with the COPII complex via LdSec24 for Ldgp63 ER exit and subsequent
      secretion.

PMID- 28576832
TI  - EET intervention on Wnt1, NOV, and HO-1 signaling prevents obesity-induced
      cardiomyopathy in obese mice.
AB  - We have previously reported that epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET) has multiple
      beneficial effects on vascular function; in addition to its antiapoptotic action,
      it increases insulin sensitivity and inhibits inflammation. To uncover the
      signaling mechanisms by which EET reduces cardiomyopathy, we hypothesized that
      EET infusion might ameliorate obesity-induced cardiomyopathy by improving heme
      oxygenase (HO)-1, Wnt1, thermogenic gene levels, and mitochondrial integrity in
      cardiac tissues and improved pericardial fat phenotype. EET reduced levels of
      fasting blood glucose and proinflammatory adipokines, including nephroblastoma
      overexpressed (NOV) signaling, while increasing echocardiographic fractional
      shortening and O2 consumption. Of interest, we also noted a marked improvement in
      mitochondrial integrity, thermogenic genes, and Wnt 1 and HO-1 signaling
      mechanisms. Knockout of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma
      coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1alpha) in EET-treated mice resulted in a reversal of
      these beneficial effects including a decrease in myocardial Wnt1 and HO-1
      expression and an increase in NOV. To further elucidate the effects of EET on
      pericardial adipose tissues, we observed EET treatment increases in adiponectin,
      PGC-1alpha, phospho-AMP-activated protein kinase, insulin receptor
      phosphorylation, and thermogenic genes, resulting in a "browning" pericardial
      adipose phenotype under high-fat diets. Collectively, these experiments
      demonstrate that an EET agonist increased Wnt1 and HO-1 signaling while
      decreasing NOV pathways and the progression of cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, this
      report presents a portal into potential therapeutic approaches for the treatment
      of heart failure and metabolic syndrome.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The mechanism by which
      EET acts on obesity-induced cardiomyopathy is unknown. Here, we describe a
      previously unrecognized function of EET infusion that inhibits nephroblastoma
      overexpressed (NOV) levels and activates Wnt1, hence identifying NOV inhibition
      and enhanced Wnt1 expression as novel pharmacological targets for the prevention
      and treatment of cardiomyopathy and heart failure.Listen to this article's
      corresponding podcast at
      http://ajpheart.physiology.org/content/early/2017/05/31/ajpheart.00093.2017.

PMID- 28576833
TI  - Spinal cord stimulation reduces ventricular arrhythmias during acute ischemia by
      attenuation of regional myocardial excitability.
AB  - Myocardial ischemia creates autonomic nervous system imbalance and can trigger
      cardiac arrhythmias. We hypothesized that neuromodulation by spinal cord
      stimulation (SCS) will attenuate local cardiac sympathoexcitation from ischemia
      induced increases in afferent signaling, reduce ventricular arrhythmias, and
      improve myocardial function during acute ischemia. Yorkshire pigs (n = 20) were
      randomized to SCS (50 Hz at 200-MUs duration, current 90% motor threshold) or
      sham operation (sham) for 30 min before ischemia. A four-pole SCS lead was placed
      percutaneously in the epidural space (T1-T4), and a 56-electrode mesh was placed
      over the heart for high-resolution electrophysiological recordings, including
      activation recovery intervals (ARIs), activation time, repolarization time, and
      dispersion of repolarization. Electrophysiological and hemodynamic measures were
      recorded at baseline, after SCS/sham, during acute ischemia (300-s coronary
      artery ligation), and throughout reperfusion. SCS 1) reduced sympathoexcitation
      induced ARI and repolarization time shortening in the ischemic myocardium; 2)
      attenuated increases in the dispersion of repolarization; 3) reduced ventricular
      tachyarrythmias [nonsustained ventricular tachycardias: 24 events (3 sham
      animals) vs. 1 event (1 SCS animal), P < 0.001]; and 4) improved myocardial
      function (dP/dt from baseline to ischemia: 1,814 +/- 213 to 1,596 +/- 282 mmHg/s
      in sham vs. 1,422 +/- 299 to 1,380 +/- 299 mmHg/s in SCS, P < 0.01). There was no
      change in ventricular electrophysiology during baseline conditions without
      myocardial stress or in the nonischemic myocardium. In conclusion, in a porcine
      model of acute ventricular ischemia, SCS reduced regional myocardial
      sympathoexcitation, decreased ventricular arrhythmias, and improved myocardial
      function. SCS decreased sympathetic nerve activation locally in the ischemic
      myocardium with no effect observed in the normal myocardium, thus providing
      mechanistic insights into the antiarrhythmic and myocardial protective effects of
      SCS.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In a porcine model of ventricular ischemia, spinal cord
      stimulation decreased sympathetic nerve activation regionally in ischemic
      myocardium with no effect on normal myocardium, demonstrating that the
      antiarrhythmic effects of spinal cord stimulation are likely due to attenuation
      of local sympathoexcitation in the ischemic myocardium and not changes in global
      myocardial electrophysiology.

PMID- 28576835
TI  - Relative contributions from the ventricle and arterial tree to arterial pressure
      and its amplification: an experimental study.
AB  - Arterial pressure is an important diagnostic parameter for cardiovascular
      disease. However, relative contributions of individual ventricular and arterial
      parameters in generating and augmenting pressure are not understood. Using a
      novel experimental arterial model, our aim was to characterize individual
      parameter contributions to arterial pressure and its amplification. A piston
      driven ventricle provided programmable stroke profiles into various silicone
      arterial trees and a bovine aorta. Inotropy was varied in the ventricle, and
      arterial parameters modulated included wall thickness, taper and diameter, the
      presence of bifurcation, and a native aorta (bovine) versus silicone. Wave
      reflection at bifurcations was measured and compared with theory, varying parent
      to-child tube diameter ratios, and branch angles. Intravascular pressure-tip
      wires and ultrasonic flow probes measured pressure and flow. Increasing
      ventricular inotropy independently augmented pressure amplification from 17% to
      61% between the lower and higher systolic gradient stroke profiles in the
      silicone arterial network and from 10% to 32% in the bovine aorta. Amplification
      increased with presence of a bifurcation, decreasing wall thickness and vessel
      taper. Pulse pressure increased with increasing wall thickness (stiffness) and
      taper angle and decreasing diameter. Theoretical predictions of wave transmission
      through bifurcations werre similar to measurements (correlation: 0.91, R2 = 0.94)
      but underestimated wave reflection (correlation: 0.75, R2 = 0.94), indicating
      energy losses during mechanical wave reflection. This study offers the first
      comprehensive investigation of contributors to hypertensive pressure and its
      propagation throughout the arterial tree. Importantly, ventricular inotropy plays
      a crucial role in the amplification of peripheral pressure wave, which offers
      opportunity for noninvasive assessment of ventricular health.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The
      present study distinguishes contributions from cardiac and arterial parameters to
      elevated blood pressure and pressure amplification. Most importantly, it offers
      the first evidence that ventricular inotropy, an indicator of ventricular
      function, is an independent determinant of pressure amplification and could be
      measured with such established devices such as the SphygmoCor.

PMID- 28576834
TI  - Autophagy modulation: a potential therapeutic approach in cardiac hypertrophy.
AB  - Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process used by the cell to degrade
      cytoplasmic contents for quality control, survival for temporal energy crisis,
      and catabolism and recycling. Rapidly increasing evidence has revealed an
      important pathogenic role of altered activity of the autophagosome-lysosome
      pathway (ALP) in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Although an early study
      suggested that cardiac autophagy is increased and that this increase is
      maladaptive to the heart subject to pressure overload, more recent reports have
      overwhelmingly supported that myocardial ALP insufficiency results from chronic
      pressure overload and contributes to maladaptive cardiac remodeling and heart
      failure. This review examines multiple lines of preclinical evidence derived from
      recent studies regarding the role of autophagic dysfunction in pressure
      overloaded hearts, attempts to reconcile the discrepancies, and proposes that
      resuming or improving ALP flux through coordinated enhancement of both the
      formation and the removal of autophagosomes would benefit the treatment of
      cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure resulting from chronic pressure overload.

PMID- 28576837
TI  - Hypothalamic Inflammation in Human Obesity Is Mediated by Environmental and
      Genetic Factors.
AB  - Obesity is associated with hypothalamic inflammation (HI) in animal models. In
      the current study, we examined the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) of 57 obese
      human subjects and 54 age- and sex- matched nonobese control subjects by MRI and
      analyzed the T2 hyperintensity as a measure of HI. Obese subjects exhibited T2
      hyperintensity in the left but not the right MBH, which was strongly associated
      with systemic low-grade inflammation. MRS revealed the number of neurons in the
      left hypothalamic region to be similar in obese versus control subjects,
      suggesting functional but not structural impairment due to the inflammatory
      process. To gain mechanistic insights, we performed nutritional analysis and 16S
      rDNA microbiome sequencing, which showed that high-fat diet induces reduction of
      Parasutterella sp. in the gut, which is significantly correlated with MBH T2
      hyperintensity. In addition to these environmental factors, we found subjects
      carrying common polymorphisms in the JNK or the MC4R gene to be more susceptible
      to HI. Finally, in a subgroup analysis, bariatric surgery had no effect on MBH T2
      hyperintensity despite inducing significant weight loss and improvement of
      peripheral insulin sensitivity. In conclusion, obesity in humans is associated
      with HI and disturbances in the gut-brain axis, which are influenced by both
      environmental and genetic factors.

PMID- 28576841
TI  - Quantifying the Benefits of Genome-Driven Oncology.
AB  - <b/> The excitement surrounding genomically selected cancer therapy has led many
      to question whether this treatment paradigm is living up to its initial promise.
      The MOSCATO study suggests that a genome-driven strategy for cancer therapy
      improves outcomes in a significant minority of patients who undergo molecular
      screening. Cancer Discov; 7(6); 552-4. (c)2017 AACR.See related article by
      Massard et al., p. 586.

PMID- 28576842
TI  - Toward Molecularly Driven Precision Medicine in Lung Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - <b/> Assessing the benefit of routine panel-based genomic sequencing of tumor
      tissue remains a critical need in clinical oncology. Jordan and coauthors report
      on 860 patients with metastatic or recurrent lung adenocarcinoma from a single
      institution with prospectively sequenced tumors using a targeted gene panel of
      >300 genes to guide therapy. Their results suggest that early prospective tumor
      sequencing, including non-standard-of-care predictive biomarkers combined with
      careful clinical annotation, can guide therapy, improve clinical outcomes, and
      accelerate the development of biomarkers and drugs. Cancer Discov; 7(6); 555-7.
      (c)2017 AACRSee related article by Jordan et al., p. 596.

PMID- 28576843
TI  - Targeting BRAF-Mutant Colorectal Cancer: Progress in Combination Strategies.
AB  - <b/> BRAF mutations in colorectal cancer portend a poor prognosis, with first
      line treatment often involving triplet or quadruplet chemotherapy, and single
      agent targeted therapy with BRAF inhibitors failing to demonstrate clinical
      activity. Blockade of multiple critical nodes along the MAPK and other pathways
      may be necessary to improve response rates and survival. Cancer Discov; 7(6); 558
      60. (c)2017 AACR.See related article by van Geel et al., p. 610.

PMID- 28576844
TI  - The Sequences of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitate Rapid
      Functional Genomic Studies.
AB  - The availability of a whole-genome sequenced mutant population and the cataloging
      of mutations of each line at a single-nucleotide resolution facilitate functional
      genomic analysis. To this end, we generated and sequenced a fast-neutron-induced
      mutant population in the model rice cultivar Kitaake (Oryza sativa ssp japonica),
      which completes its life cycle in 9 weeks. We sequenced 1504 mutant lines at 45
      fold coverage and identified 91,513 mutations affecting 32,307 genes, i.e., 58%
      of all rice genes. We detected an average of 61 mutations per line. Mutation
      types include single-base substitutions, deletions, insertions, inversions,
      translocations, and tandem duplications. We observed a high proportion of loss-of
      function mutations. We identified an inversion affecting a single gene as the
      causative mutation for the short-grain phenotype in one mutant line. This result
      reveals the usefulness of the resource for efficient, cost-effective
      identification of genes conferring specific phenotypes. To facilitate public
      access to this genetic resource, we established an open access database called
      KitBase that provides access to sequence data and seed stocks. This population
      complements other available mutant collections and gene-editing technologies.
      This work demonstrates how inexpensive next-generation sequencing can be applied
      to generate a high-density catalog of mutations.

PMID- 28576845
TI  - Cytokinin Signaling Activates WUSCHEL Expression during Axillary Meristem
      Initiation.
AB  - The homeodomain transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS) defines the shoot stem cell
      niche, but the mechanisms underlying the establishment of WUS expression remain
      unclear. Here, we show that cytokinin signaling precedes WUS expression in leaf
      axils and activates WUS expression de novo in the leaf axil to promote axillary
      meristem initiation. Furthermore, type-B Arabidopsis response regulator proteins,
      which are transcriptional activators in the cytokinin signaling pathway, directly
      bind to the WUS promoter and activate its expression. Finally, we show that
      cytokinin activation of WUS in the leaf axil correlates with increased histone
      acetylation and methylation markers associated with transcriptional activation,
      supporting the fact that WUS expression requires a permissive epigenetic
      environment to restrict it to highly defined meristematic tissues. Taken
      together, these findings explain how cytokinin regulates axillary meristem
      initiation and establish a mechanistic framework for the postembryonic
      establishment of the shoot stem cell niche.

PMID- 28576846
TI  - Type-B ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORs Specify the Shoot Stem Cell Niche by Dual
      Regulation of WUSCHEL.
AB  - Plants are known for their capacity to regenerate the whole body through de novo
      formation of apical meristems from a mass of proliferating cells named callus.
      Exogenous cytokinin and auxin determine cell fate for the establishment of the
      stem cell niche, which is the vital step of shoot regeneration, but the
      underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that type-B ARABIDOPSIS
      RESPONSE REGULATORs (ARRs), critical components of cytokinin signaling, activate
      the transcription of WUSCHEL (WUS), which encodes a key regulator for maintaining
      stem cells. In parallel, type-B ARRs inhibit auxin accumulation by repressing the
      expression of YUCCAs, which encode a key enzyme for auxin biosynthesis,
      indirectly promoting WUS induction. Both pathways are essential for de novo
      regeneration of the shoot stem cell niche. In addition, the dual regulation of
      type-B ARRs on WUS transcription is required for the maintenance of the shoot
      apical meristem in planta. Thus, our results reveal a long-standing missing link
      between cytokinin signaling and WUS regulator, and the findings provide critical
      information for understanding cell fate specification.

PMID- 28576847
TI  - Arabidopsis WRKY46, WRKY54, and WRKY70 Transcription Factors Are Involved in
      Brassinosteroid-Regulated Plant Growth and Drought Responses.
AB  - Plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids (BRs), play important roles in growth
      and development. BR signaling controls the activities of BRASSINOSTERIOD
      INSENSITIVE1-EMS-SUPPRESSOR1/BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT1 (BES1/BZR1) family
      transcription factors. Besides the role in promoting growth, BRs are also
      implicated in plant responses to drought stress. However, the molecular
      mechanisms by which BRs regulate drought response have just begun to be revealed.
      The functions of WRKY transcription factors in BR-regulated plant growth have not
      been established, although their roles in stress responses are well documented.
      Here, we found that three Arabidopsis thaliana group III WRKY transcription
      factors, WRKY46, WRKY54, and WRKY70, are involved in both BR-regulated plant
      growth and drought response as the wrky46 wrky54 wrky70 triple mutant has defects
      in BR-regulated growth and is more tolerant to drought stress. RNA-sequencing
      analysis revealed global roles of WRKY46, WRKY54, and WRKY70 in promoting BR
      mediated gene expression and inhibiting drought responsive genes. WRKY54 directly
      interacts with BES1 to cooperatively regulate the expression of target genes. In
      addition, WRKY54 is phosphorylated and destabilized by GSK3-like kinase BR
      INSENSITIVE2, a negative regulator in the BR pathway. Our results therefore
      establish WRKY46/54/70 as important signaling components that are positively
      involved in BR-regulated growth and negatively involved in drought responses.

PMID- 28576848
TI  - Identification of Fc Gamma Receptor Glycoforms That Produce Differential Binding
      Kinetics for Rituximab.
AB  - Fc gamma receptors (FcgammaR) bind the Fc region of antibodies and therefore play
      a prominent role in antibody-dependent cell-based immune responses such as ADCC,
      CDC and ADCP. The immune effector cell activity is directly linked to a
      productive molecular engagement of FcgammaRs where both the protein and glycan
      moiety of antibody and receptor can affect the interaction and in the present
      study we focus on the role of the FcgammaR glycans in this interaction. We
      provide a complete description of the glycan composition of Chinese hamster ovary
      (CHO) expressed human Fcgamma receptors RI (CD64), RIIaArg131/His131 (CD32a),
      RIIb (CD32b) and RIIIaPhe158/Val158 (CD16a) and analyze the role of the glycans
      in the binding mechanism with IgG. The interactions of the monoclonal antibody
      rituximab with each FcgammaR were characterized and we discuss the CHO
      FcgammaRIIIaPhe158/Val158 and CHO-FcgammaRI interactions and compare them to the
      equivalent interactions with human (HEK293) and murine (NS0) produced receptors.
      Our results reveal clear differences in the binding profiles of rituximab, which
      we attribute in each case to the differences in host cell-dependent FcgammaR
      glycosylation. The glycan profiles of CHO expressed FcgammaRI and
      FcgammaRIIIaPhe158/Val158 were compared with the glycan profiles of the receptors
      expressed in NS0 and HEK293 cells and we show that the glycan type and abundance
      differs significantly between the receptors and that these glycan differences
      lead to the observed differences in the respective FcgammaR binding patterns with
      rituximab. Oligomannose structures are prevalent on FcgammaRI from each source
      and likely contribute to the high affinity rituximab interaction through a
      stabilization effect. On FcgammaRI and FcgammaRIIIa large and sialylated glycans
      have a negative impact on rituximab binding, likely through destabilization of
      the interaction. In conclusion, the data show that the IgG1-FcgammaR binding
      kinetics differ depending on the glycosylation of the FcgammaR and further
      support a stabilizing role of FcgammaR glycans in the antibody binding
      interaction.

PMID- 28576851
TI  - Urinary Tamm-Horsfall protein, albumin, vitamin D-binding protein, and retinol
      binding protein as early biomarkers of chronic kidney disease in dogs.
AB  - Proteinuria is a marker and mediator of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In clinical
      practice, the urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UP/C) is of limited
      usefulness, because it indicates only the magnitude of proteinuria and not the
      origin of the loss (glomerular or tubular). The complete assessment of
      proteinuria includes quantitative and qualitative evaluations, both of which are
      required in order to optimize the therapy. In addition to measuring the UP/C, we
      performed SDS-PAGE and western blotting to determine the expression of albumin,
      vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP), retinol-binding protein (RBP), and Tamm
      Horsfall protein (THP) in urine samples of 49 dogs: healthy (control) dogs (n =
      9); and dogs with CKD (n = 40), stratified by stage. In the dogs with stage 3 or
      4 CKD, there was a predominance of tubular proteins. Neither VDBP nor RBP was
      observed in the urine of the control dogs. Among the dogs with stage 1 or 2 CKD,
      VDBP and RBP were detected in those without proteinuria or with borderline
      proteinuria. The expression of urinary albumin was significantly higher in the
      stage 4 group than in any other group (P <= 0.01). In the stage 4 group, urinary
      THP was either undetectable or lower than in the control group (P <= 0.01). In
      conclusion, urinary VDBP and RBP might act as early markers of kidney injury, and
      a decrease in urinary THP could be an indicator of CKD progression.

PMID- 28576849
TI  - Proteome-wide Identification of Glycosylation-dependent Interactors of Galectin-1
      and Galectin-3 on Mesenchymal Retinal Pigment Epithelial (RPE) Cells.
AB  - Identification of interactors is a major goal in cell biology. Not only protein
      protein but also protein-carbohydrate interactions are of high relevance for
      signal transduction in biological systems. Here, we aim to identify novel
      interacting binding partners for the beta-galactoside-binding proteins galectin-1
      (Gal-1) and galectin-3 (Gal-3) relevant in the context of the eye disease
      proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). PVR is one of the most common failures
      after retinal detachment surgeries and is characterized by the migration,
      adhesion, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of retinal pigment epithelial
      cells (RPE) and the subsequent formation of sub- and epiretinal fibrocellular
      membranes. Gal-1 and Gal-3 bind in a dose- and carbohydrate-dependent manner to
      mesenchymal RPE cells and inhibit cellular processes like attachment and
      spreading. Yet knowledge about glycan-dependent interactors of Gal-1 and Gal-3 on
      RPE cells is very limited, although this is a prerequisite for unraveling the
      influence of galectins on distinct cellular processes in RPE cells. We identify
      here 131 Gal-3 and 15 Gal-1 interactors by galectin pulldown experiments combined
      with quantitative proteomics. They mainly play a role in multiple binding
      processes and are mostly membrane proteins. We focused on two novel identified
      interactors of Gal-1 and Gal-3 in the context of PVR: the low-density lipoprotein
      receptor LRP1 and the platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta PDGFRB.
      Addition of exogenous Gal-1 and Gal-3 induced cross-linking with LRP1/PDGFRB and
      integrin-beta1 (ITGB1) on the cell surface of human RPE cells and induced
      ERK/MAPK and Akt signaling. Treatment with kifunensine, an inhibitor of complex
      type N-glycosylation, weakened the binding of Gal-1 and Gal-3 to these
      interactors and prevented lattice formation. In conclusion, the identified
      specific glycoprotein ligands shed light into the highly specific binding of
      galectins to dedifferentiated RPE cells and the resulting prevention of PVR
      associated cellular events.

PMID- 28576852
TI  - Neurocardiovascular deficits in the Q175 mouse model of Huntington's disease.
AB  - Cardiovascular dysautonomia as well as the deterioration of circadian rhythms are
      among the earliest detectable pathophysiological changes in individuals with
      Huntington's disease (HD). Preclinical research requires mouse models that
      recapitulate disease symptoms and the Q175 knock-in model offers a number of
      advantages but potential autonomic dysfunction has not been explored. In this
      study, we sought to test the dual hypotheses that cardiovascular dysautonomia can
      be detected early in disease progression in the Q175 model and that this
      dysfunction varies with the daily cycle. Using radiotelemetry implants, we
      observed a significant reduction in the diurnal and circadian activity rhythms in
      the Q175 mutants at the youngest ages. By middle age, the autonomically driven
      rhythms in core body temperature were highly compromised, and the Q175 mutants
      exhibited striking episodes of hypothermia that increased in frequency with
      mutant huntingtin gene dosage. In addition, Q175 mutants showed higher resting
      heart rate (HR) during sleep and greatly reduced correlation between activity and
      HR HR variability was reduced in the mutants in both time and frequency domains,
      providing more evidence of autonomic dysfunction. Measurement of the baroreceptor
      reflex revealed that the Q175 mutant could not appropriately increase HR in
      response to a pharmacologically induced decrease in blood pressure.
      Echocardiograms showed reduced ventricular mass and ejection fraction in mutant
      hearts. Finally, cardiac histopathology revealed localized points of fibrosis
      resembling those caused by myocardial infarction. Thus, the Q175 mouse model of
      HD exhibits cardiovascular dysautonomia similar to that seen in HD patients with
      prominent sympathetic dysfunction during the resting phase of the activity
      rhythm.

PMID- 28576853
TI  - Myocardial apoptosis and mesenchymal stem cells with acute exercise.
AB  - Aerobic exercise confers many health benefits. However, numerous reports have
      shown that acute aerobic exercise can injure the heart. We tested the general
      hypothesis that acute moderate-intensity exercise in rodents induces
      cardiomyocyte damage and stimulates mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to increase
      paracrine-mediated protective effects on cardiomyocytes. A single session of
      treadmill running (13 m/min, 0% grade, for 45 min) in untrained C57BL/6 male mice
      (n = 18) increased cleaved poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), a marker of
      apoptosis, in the myocardium 24 h postexercise. Microarray analysis of mouse
      myocardium identified 11 relevant apoptotic genes and several shifts in matrix
      remodeling transcripts over the postexercise window. Postexercise cardiomyocyte
      death was recapitulated in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) by culturing cells
      in 2% plasma harvested from exercised rats. The increased cell death observed in
      exercise-treated NRCMs was attenuated by beta-adrenergic blockade, but not
      antioxidant treatment. MSC survival, proliferation, and chemotaxis showed no
      significant differences between sedentary and exercise plasma conditions, despite
      increased IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IFN-gamma secretions from MSCs treated
      with exercise plasma. NRCM survival was increased nearly 500% when cocultured
      with MSCs, but this effect was not altered under exercise plasma culture
      conditions. Our results suggest acute moderate-intensity aerobic treadmill
      running in exercise-naive rodents induces temporal cardiomyocyte death due to
      plasma-borne factors, namely, catecholaminergic stress. Even though exercise
      conditions prompt an inflammatory response in MSCs, the exercise milieu does not
      alter the MSC-protective phenotype on cardiomyocytes.

PMID- 28576854
TI  - Mdivi-1 induced acute changes in the angiogenic profile after ischemia
      reperfusion injury in female mice.
AB  - The aim of this study is to determine the effects of mitochondrial division
      inhibitor 1 (Mdivi-1), the mitochondrial fission inhibitor, on the angiogenic
      profiles after the ischemia reperfusion injury (IR injury) in female mice. Female
      mice were treated with Mdivi-1 inhibitor, 2 days prior, on the day of IR injury
      and 2 days after IR injury, for a period of 5 days. Both control and treatment
      groups underwent 30 min of ischemia and 72 h of reperfusion. On the day 3, mice
      were sacrificed and the ischemic and nonischemic portions of heart tissue were
      collected. Relative levels of 53 angiogenesis-related proteins were quantified
      simultaneously using Angiogenic arrays. Heart function was evaluated before and
      after 72 h of IR injury. Mdivi-1 treatment ameliorated IR induced functional
      deterioration with positive angiogenic profile. The seminal changes include
      suppression of Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP3), tissue inhibitor of
      metalloproteases (TIMP1) and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 10 (CXCL10) levels
      and prevention of connexin 43 (Cx43) loss and downregulation in the antioxidant
      enzyme levels. These changes are correlated with enhanced endothelial progenitor
      cell marker (cluster of differentiation (CD31), endothelial-specific receptor
      tyrosine kinase (Tek), fMS-like tyrosine kinase 4 (Flt4) and kinase insert domain
      protein receptor (Kdr)) presence. Our study is the first to report the role of
      mitochondrial dynamics in regulation of myocardial IR-induced angiogenic
      responses. Inhibition of excessive mitochondrial fission after IR injury
      ameliorated heart dysfunction and conferred positive angiogenic response. In
      addition, there were improvements in the preservation of Cx43 levels and
      oxidative stress handling along with suppression of apoptosis activation. The
      findings will aid in shaping the rational drug development process for the
      prevention of ischemic heart disease, especially in females.

PMID- 28576856
TI  - Oncology Drug Approvals: Evaluating Endpoints and Evidence in an Era of
      Breakthrough Therapies.

PMID- 28576855
TI  - Sodium balance, circadian BP rhythm, heart rate variability, and intrarenal renin
      angiotensin-aldosterone and dopaminergic systems in acute phase of ARB therapy.
AB  - We have revealed that even in humans, activated intrarenal renin-angiotensin
      aldosterone system (RAAS) enhances tubular sodium reabsorption to facilitate salt
      sensitivity and nondipper rhythm of blood pressure (BP), and that angiotensin
      receptor blocker (ARB) could increase daytime urinary sodium excretion rate
      (UNaV) to produce lower sodium balance and restore nondipper rhythm. However, the
      sympathetic nervous system and intrarenal dopaminergic system can also contribute
      to renal sodium handling. A total of 20 patients with chronic kidney disease (61
      +/- 15 years) underwent 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring before and during two-day
      treatment with ARB, azilsartan. Urinary angiotensinogen excretion rate (UAGTV,
      MUg/gCre) was measured as intrarenal RAAS; urinary dopamine excretion rate (UDAV,
      pg/gCre) as intrarenal dopaminergic system; heart rate variabilities (HRV,
      calculated from 24-h Holter-ECG) of non-Gaussianity index lambda25s as
      sympathetic nerve activity; and power of high-frequency (HF) component or
      deceleration capacity (DC) as parasympathetic nerve activity. At baseline,
      glomerular filtration rate correlated inversely with UAGTV (r = -0.47, P = 0.04)
      and positively with UDAV (r = 0.58, P = 0.009). HF was a determinant of night/day
      BP ratio (beta = -0.50, F = 5.8), rather than DC or lambda25s During the acute
      phase of ARB treatment, a lower steady sodium balance was not achieved. Increase
      in daytime UNaV preceded restoration of BP rhythm, accompanied by decreased UAGTV
      (r = -0.88, P = 0.05) and increased UDAV (r = 0.87, P = 0.05), but with no
      changes in HRVs. Diminished sodium excretion can cause nondipper BP rhythm. This
      was attributable to intrarenal RAAS and dopaminergic system and impaired
      parasympathetic nerve activity. During the acute phase of ARB treatment,
      cooperative effects of ARB and intrarenal dopaminergic system exert natriuresis
      to restore circadian BP rhythm.

PMID- 28576857
TI  - BRAF Mutations as Predictive Biomarker for Response to Anti-EGFR Monoclonal
      Antibodies.
AB  - : Recently, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European
      Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) recommended that patients with epidermal
      growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing metastatic colorectal cancer could be
      treated with anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) cetuximab and panitumumab
      only in absence of Rat-Sarcoma (RAS) mutations. In addition to the previously
      established biomarker Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) exon 2,
      cumulative evidence also shows that patients whose tumors harbor KRAS exons 3 or
      4 and neuroblastoma rat-sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (NRAS) exons 2, 3, and 4
      mutations are found unlikely to benefit from anti-EGFR treatment.In line with the
      resistance of RAS mutated (mt) tumors, treatment response in BRAFmt tumors may
      also be altered given their important role in the EGFR signaling pathway.
      However, BRAF is not recommended as predictive biomarker yet because the evidence
      for the impact of BRAF mutations on treatment outcome is considered
      insufficient.This article summarizes the evidence for the impact of BRAF
      mutations on treatment outcome of anti-EGFR mAbs. Based on a review of
      literature, eight meta-analyses were included that consistently show that
      patients with BRAF mutations have a lack of treatment benefit of anti-EGFR mAbs.
      After discussing the quality and quantity of available evidence, we conclude that
      evidence is stronger than suggested by ESMO and ASCO. Additionally, we highlight
      that the quality of evidence for BRAF is even higher than for extended RAS as a
      biomarker. We therefore advise ESMO and ASCO to reconsider BRAF status as a
      predictive biomarker for response. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: In metastatic
      colorectal cancer (mCRC), therapy with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies cetuximab and panitumumab is indicated in absence of
      RAS mutations. Cumulative evidence shows that patients with BRAF mutations, who
      comprise 10% of the mCRC population, do not benefit from anti-EGFR-antibody
      treatment. Although guidelines state that evidence for BRAF as a predictive
      marker is insufficient, we highlight that the quality and quantity of evidence is
      higher than suggested. We therefore encourage the use of BRAF as a predictive
      marker in order to exclude patients from therapy for whom limited treatment
      benefit is expected.

PMID- 28576859
TI  - Regarding "Oncology Drug Approvals: Evaluating Endpoints and Evidence in an Era
      of Breakthrough Therapies".

PMID- 28576858
TI  - Inflammatory Arthritis: A Newly Recognized Adverse Event of Immune Checkpoint
      Blockade.

PMID- 28576860
TI  - Coordination of Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans with Wnt Signaling To Control
      Cellular Migrations and Positioning in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Heparan sulfates (HS) are linear polysaccharides with complex modification
      patterns, which are covalently bound via conserved attachment sites to core
      proteins to form heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). HSPGs regulate many
      aspects of the development and function of the nervous system, including cell
      migration, morphology, and network connectivity. HSPGs function as cofactors for
      multiple signaling pathways, including the Wnt-signaling molecules and their
      Frizzled receptors. To investigate the functional interactions among the HSPG and
      Wnt networks, we conducted genetic analyses of each, and also between these
      networks using five cellular migrations in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans We
      find that HSPG core proteins act genetically in a combinatorial fashion dependent
      on the cellular contexts. Double mutant analyses reveal distinct redundancies
      among HSPGs for different migration events, and different cellular migrations
      require distinct heparan sulfate modification patterns. Our studies reveal that
      the transmembrane HSPG SDN-1/Syndecan functions within the migrating cell to
      promote cellular migrations, while the GPI-linked LON-2/Glypican functions cell
      nonautonomously to establish the final cellular position. Genetic analyses with
      the Wnt-signaling system show that (1) a given HSPG can act with different Wnts
      and Frizzled receptors, and that (2) a given Wnt/Frizzled pair acts with
      different HSPGs in a context-dependent manner. Lastly, we find that distinct HSPG
      and Wnt/Frizzled combinations serve separate functions to promote cellular
      migration and establish position of specific neurons. Our studies suggest that
      HSPGs use structurally diverse glycans in coordination with Wnt-signaling
      pathways to control multiple cellular behaviors, including cellular and axonal
      migrations and, cellular positioning.

PMID- 28576861
TI  - Pharmacological Inhibition of the DNA Damage Checkpoint Prevents Radiation
      Induced Oocyte Death.
AB  - Ovarian function is directly correlated with survival of the primordial follicle
      reserve. Women diagnosed with cancer have a primary imperative of treating the
      cancer, but since the resting oocytes are hypersensitive to the DNA-damaging
      modalities of certain chemo- and radiotherapeutic regimens, such patients face
      the collateral outcome of premature loss of fertility and ovarian endocrine
      function. Current options for fertility preservation primarily include the
      collection and cryopreservation of oocytes or in vitro-fertilized oocytes, but
      this necessitates a delay in cancer treatment and additional assisted
      reproductive technology procedures. Here, we evaluated the potential of
      pharmacological preservation of ovarian function by inhibiting a key element of
      the oocyte DNA damage checkpoint response, checkpoint kinase 2 (CHK2; CHEK2).
      Whereas nonlethal doses of ionizing radiation (IR) eradicate immature oocytes in
      wild-type mice, irradiated Chk2-/- mice retain their oocytes and, thus,
      fertility. Using an ovarian culture system, we show that transient administration
      of the CHK2 inhibitor 2-(4-(4-chlorophenoxy)phenyl)-1H-benzimidazole-5
      carboxamide-hydrate ("CHK2iII") blocked activation of the CHK2 targets TRP53 and
      TRP63 in response to sterilizing doses of IR, and preserved oocyte viability.
      After transfer into sterilized host females, these ovaries proved functional and
      readily yielded normal offspring. These results provide experimental evidence
      that chemical inhibition of CHK2 is a potentially effective treatment for
      preserving the fertility and ovarian endocrine function of women exposed to DNA
      damaging cancer therapies such as IR.

PMID- 28576862
TI  - Genetics of Genome-Wide Recombination Rate Evolution in Mice from an Isolated
      Island.
AB  - Recombination rate is a heritable quantitative trait that evolves despite the
      fundamentally conserved role that recombination plays in meiosis. Differences in
      recombination rate can alter the landscape of the genome and the genetic
      diversity of populations. Yet our understanding of the genetic basis of
      recombination rate evolution in nature remains limited. We used wild house mice
      (Mus musculus domesticus) from Gough Island (GI), which diverged recently from
      their mainland counterparts, to characterize the genetics of recombination rate
      evolution. We quantified genome-wide autosomal recombination rates by
      immunofluorescence cytology in spermatocytes from 240 F2 males generated from
      intercrosses between GI-derived mice and the wild-derived inbred strain WSB/EiJ.
      We identified four quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for inter-F2
      variation in this trait, the strongest of which had effects that opposed the
      direction of the parental trait differences. Candidate genes and mutations for
      these QTL were identified by overlapping the detected intervals with whole-genome
      sequencing data and publicly available transcriptomic profiles from
      spermatocytes. Combined with existing studies, our findings suggest that genome
      wide recombination rate divergence is not directional and its evolution within
      and between subspecies proceeds from distinct genetic loci.

PMID- 28576863
TI  - Evolving Mistranslating tRNAs Through a Phenotypically Ambivalent Intermediate in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - The genetic code converts information from nucleic acid into protein. The genetic
      code was thought to be immutable, yet many examples in nature indicate that
      variations to the code provide a selective advantage. We used a sensitive
      selection system involving suppression of a deleterious allele (tti2-L187P) in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae to detect mistranslation and identify mechanisms that
      allow genetic code evolution. Though tRNASer containing a proline anticodon (UGG)
      is toxic, using our selection system we identified four tRNASerUGG variants, each
      with a single mutation, that mistranslate at a tolerable level. Mistranslating
      tRNALeuUGG variants were also obtained, demonstrating the generality of the
      approach. We characterized two of the tRNASerUGG variants. One contained a G26A
      mutation, which reduced cell growth to 70% of the wild-type rate, induced a heat
      shock response, and was lost in the absence of selection. The reduced toxicity of
      tRNASerUGG-G26A is likely through increased turnover of the tRNA, as lack of
      methylation at G26 leads to degradation via the rapid tRNA decay pathway. The
      second tRNASerUGG variant, with a G9A mutation, had minimal effect on cell
      growth, was relatively stable in cells, and gave rise to less of a heat shock
      response. In vitro, the G9A mutation decreases aminoacylation and affects folding
      of the tRNA. Notably, the G26A and G9A mutations were phenotypically neutral in
      the context of an otherwise wild-type tRNASer These experiments reveal a model
      for genetic code evolution in which tRNA anticodon mutations and mistranslation
      evolve through phenotypically ambivalent intermediates that reduce tRNA function.

PMID- 28576865
TI  - Canalization by Selection of de Novo Induced Mutations.
AB  - One of the most fascinating scientific problems, and a subject of intense debate,
      is that of the mechanisms of biological evolution. In this context, Waddington
      elaborated the concepts of "canalization and assimilation" to explain how an
      apparently somatic variant induced by stress could become heritable through the
      germline in Drosophila He resolved this seemingly Lamarckian phenomenon by
      positing the existence of cryptic mutations that can be expressed and selected
      under stress. To investigate the relevance of such mechanisms, we performed
      experiments following the Waddington procedure, then isolated and fixed three
      phenotypic variants along with another induced mutation that was not preceded by
      any phenocopy. All the fixed mutations we looked at were actually generated de
      novo by DNA deletions or transposon insertions, highlighting a novel mechanism
      for the assimilation process. Our study shows that heat-shock stress produces
      both phenotypic variants and germline mutations, and suggests an alternative
      explanation to that of Waddington for the apparent assimilation of an acquired
      character. The selection of the variants, under stress, for a number of
      generations allows for the coselection of newly induced corresponding germline
      mutations, making the phenotypic variants appear heritable.

PMID- 28576867
TI  - Early Evaluation of Circulating Tumor DNA as Marker of Therapeutic Efficacy in
      Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients (PLACOL Study).
AB  - Purpose: Markers of chemotherapy efficacy in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC)
      are essential for optimization of treatment strategies. We evaluated the
      applicability of early changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a marker of
      therapeutic efficacy.Experimental Design: This prospective study enrolled
      consecutive patients with mCRC receiving a first- or second-line chemotherapy.
      CtDNA was assessed in plasma collected before the first (C0), second (C1) and/or
      third (C2) chemotherapy cycle, using picodroplet-digital PCR assays based either
      on detection of gene mutation (KRAS, BRAF, TP53) or hypermethylation (WIF1, NPY).
      CT scans were centrally assessed using RECIST v1.1 criteria. Multivariate
      analyses were adjusted on age, gender, ECOG performance status (PS), metastatic
      synchronicity, and treatment line.Results: Eighty-two patients with mCRC treated
      in first- (82.9%) or second- (17.1%) line chemotherapy were included. Patients
      with a high (>10 ng/mL) versus low (<=0.1 ng/mL) ctDNA concentration at C0 had a
      shorter overall survival (OS; 6.8 vs. 33.4 months: adjusted HR, 5.64; 95% CI, 2.5
      12.6; P < 0.0001). By analyzing the evolution of the ctDNA concentration between
      C0 and C2 or C1 (C2or1), we classified the patients in two groups (named "good"
      or "bad ctDNA responders"). In multivariate analysis, patients belonging to the
      group called "good ctDNA responder" (n = 58) versus "bad ctDNA responder" (n =
      15) had a better objective response rate (P < 0.001), and a longer median
      progression-free survival (8.5 vs. 2.4 months: HR, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.09-0.40; P <
      0.0001) and OS (27.1 vs. 11.2 months: HR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.11-0.57; P <
      0.001).Conclusions: This study suggests that early change in ctDNA concentration
      is a marker of therapeutic efficacy in patients with mCRC. Clin Cancer Res;
      23(18); 5416-25. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576869
TI  - Triiodothyroacetic acid in health and disease.
AB  - Thyroid hormone (TH) is crucial for development and metabolism of many tissues.
      The physiological relevance and therapeutic potential of TH analogs have gained
      attention in the field for many years. In particular, the relevance and use of
      3,3',5-triiodothyroacetic acid (Triac, TA3) has been explored over the last
      decades. Although TA3 closely resembles the bioactive hormone T3, differences in
      transmembrane transport and receptor isoform-specific transcriptional activation
      potency exist. For these reasons, the application of TA3 as a treatment for
      resistance to TH (RTH) syndromes, especially MCT8 deficiency, is topic of ongoing
      research. This review is a summary of all currently available literature about
      the formation, metabolism, action and therapeutic applications of TA3.

PMID- 28576870
TI  - Role of miR-383 and miR-146b in different propensities to obesity in male mice.
AB  - The study was designed to investigate the possible mechanisms of hepatic
      microRNAs (miRs) in regulating local thyroid hormone (TH) action and ultimately
      different propensities to high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. When obesity-prone
      (OP) and obesity-resistant (OR) mice were fed HFD for 7 weeks, OP mice showed
      apparent hepatic steatosis, with significantly higher body weight and lower
      hepatic TH receptor b (TRb) expression and type 1 deiodinase (DIO1) activity than
      OR mice. Next-generation sequencing technology revealed that 13 miRs in liver
      were dysregulated between the two phenotypes, of which 8 miRs were predicted to
      target on Dio1 or TRb When mice were fed for 17 weeks, OR mice had mild hepatic
      steatosis and increased Dio1 and TRb expression than OP mice, with downregulation
      of T3 target genes (including Srebp1c, Acc1, Scd1 and Fasn) and upregulation of
      Cpt1alpha, Atp5c1, Cox7c and Cyp7a1 A stem-loop qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that
      the levels of miR-383, miR-34a and miR-146b were inversely correlated with those
      of DIO1 or TRb. Down-regulated expression of miR-383 or miR-146b by miR-383
      inhibitor (anti-miR-383) or miR-146b inhibitor (anti-miR-146b) in free fatty acid
      treated primary mouse hepatocytes led to increased DIO1 and TRb expressions,
      respectively, and subsequently decreased cellular lipid accumulation, while miR
      34a inhibitor (anti-miR-34a) transfection had on effects on TRb expression.
      Luciferase reporter assay illustrated that miR-146b could directly target TRb
      3'untranslated region (3'UTR). These findings suggested that miR-383 and miR-146b
      might play critical roles in different propensities to diet-induced obesity via
      targeting on Dio1 and TRb, respectively.

PMID- 28576864
TI  - LIN-41 and OMA Ribonucleoprotein Complexes Mediate a Translational Repression-to
      Activation Switch Controlling Oocyte Meiotic Maturation and the Oocyte-to-Embryo
      Transition in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - An extended meiotic prophase is a hallmark of oogenesis. Hormonal signaling
      activates the CDK1/cyclin B kinase to promote oocyte meiotic maturation, which
      involves nuclear and cytoplasmic events. Nuclear maturation encompasses nuclear
      envelope breakdown, meiotic spindle assembly, and chromosome segregation.
      Cytoplasmic maturation involves major changes in oocyte protein translation and
      cytoplasmic organelles and is poorly understood. In the nematode Caenorhabditis
      elegans, sperm release the major sperm protein (MSP) hormone to promote oocyte
      growth and meiotic maturation. Large translational regulatory ribonucleoprotein
      (RNP) complexes containing the RNA-binding proteins OMA-1, OMA-2, and LIN-41
      regulate meiotic maturation downstream of MSP signaling. To understand the
      control of translation during meiotic maturation, we purified LIN-41-containing
      RNPs and characterized their protein and RNA components. Protein constituents of
      LIN-41 RNPs include essential RNA-binding proteins, the GLD-2 cytoplasmic poly(A)
      polymerase, the CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex, and translation initiation factors.
      RNA sequencing defined messenger RNAs (mRNAs) associated with both LIN-41 and OMA
      1, as well as sets of mRNAs associated with either LIN-41 or OMA-1 Genetic and
      genomic evidence suggests that GLD-2, which is a component of LIN-41 RNPs,
      stimulates the efficient translation of many LIN-41-associated transcripts. We
      analyzed the translational regulation of two transcripts specifically associated
      with LIN-41 which encode the RNA regulators SPN-4 and MEG-1 We found that LIN-41
      represses translation of spn-4 and meg-1, whereas OMA-1 and OMA-2 promote their
      expression. Upon their synthesis, SPN-4 and MEG-1 assemble into LIN-41 RNPs prior
      to their functions in the embryo. This study defines a translational repression
      to-activation switch as a key element of cytoplasmic maturation.

PMID- 28576866
TI  - Heat-Induced Calcium Leakage Causes Mitochondrial Damage in Caenorhabditis
      elegans Body-Wall Muscles.
AB  - Acute onset of organ failure in heatstroke is triggered by rhabdomyolysis of
      skeletal muscle. Here, we showed that elevated temperature increases free
      cytosolic Ca2+ [Ca2+]f from RYR (ryanodine receptor)/UNC-68 in vivo in the
      muscles of an experimental model animal, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans This
      subsequently leads to mitochondrial fragmentation and dysfunction, and breakdown
      of myofilaments similar to rhabdomyolysis. In addition, treatment with an
      inhibitor of RYR (dantrolene) or activation of FoxO (Forkhead box O)/DAF-16 is
      effective against heat-induced muscle damage. Acute onset of organ failure in
      heatstroke is triggered by rhabdomyolysis of skeletal muscle. To gain insight
      into heat-induced muscle breakdown, we investigated alterations of Ca2+
      homeostasis and mitochondrial morphology in vivo in body-wall muscles of C.
      elegans exposed to elevated temperature. Heat stress for 3 hr at 35 degrees 
      increased the concentration of [Ca2+]f, and led to mitochondrial fragmentation
      and subsequent dysfunction in the muscle cells. A similar mitochondrial
      fragmentation phenotype is induced in the absence of heat stress by treatment
      with a calcium ionophore, ionomycin. Mutation of the unc-68 gene, which encodes
      the ryanodine receptor that is linked to Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic
      reticulum, could suppress the mitochondrial dysfunction, muscle degeneration, and
      reduced mobility and life span induced by heat stress. In addition, in a daf-2
      mutant, in which the DAF-16/FoxO transcription factor is activated, resistance to
      calcium overload, mitochondrial fragmentation, and dysfunction was observed.
      These findings reveal that heat-induced Ca2+ accumulation causes mitochondrial
      damage and consequently induces muscle breakdown.

PMID- 28576873
TI  - Patient experience should be recorded in health records.

PMID- 28576871
TI  - STEAP4: its emerging role in metabolism and homeostasis of cellular iron and
      copper.
AB  - Preserving energy homeostasis in the presence of stressors such as
      proinflammatory cytokines and nutrient overload is crucial to maintaining normal
      cellular function. Six transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate 4
      (STEAP4), a metalloreductase involved in iron and copper homeostasis, is thought
      to play a potentially important role in the cellular response to inflammatory
      stress. Genome-wide association studies have linked various mutations in STEAP4
      with the development of metabolic disorders such as obesity, metabolic syndrome
      and type 2 diabetes. Several studies have shown that expression of Steap4 is
      modulated by inflammatory cytokines, hormones and other indicators of cellular
      stress and that STEAP4 may protect cells from damage, helping to maintain normal
      metabolic function. STEAP4 appears to be particularly relevant in metabolically
      oriented cells, such as adipocytes, hepatocytes and pancreatic islet cells. These
      cells struggle to maintain their function in iron or copper overloaded states,
      presumably due to increased oxidative stress, suggesting STEAP4's role in metal
      homeostasis is critical to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis in general,
      and in preventing the onset of metabolic disease. In this review, we explore
      genetic associations of STEAP4 with metabolic disorders, and we examine STEAP4
      tissue expression, subcellular localization, regulation, structure and function
      as it relates to metabolic diseases. We then examine how STEAP4's role as a
      regulator of cellular iron and copper may relate to type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28576872
TI  - Origin of a rapidly evolving homeostatic control system programming testis
      function.
AB  - Mammals share common strategies for regulating reproduction, including a
      conserved hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis; yet, individual species exhibit
      differences in reproductive performance. In this report, we describe the
      discovery of a species-restricted homeostatic control system programming testis
      growth and function. Prl3c1 is a member of the prolactin gene family and its
      protein product (PLP-J) was discovered as a uterine cytokine contributing to the
      establishment of pregnancy. We utilized mouse mutagenesis of Prl3c1 and revealed
      its involvement in the regulation of the male reproductive axis. The Prl3c1-null
      male reproductive phenotype was characterized by testiculomegaly and
      hyperandrogenism. The larger testes in the Prl3c1-null mice were associated with
      an expansion of the Leydig cell compartment. Prl3c1 locus is a template for two
      transcripts (Prl3c1-v1 and Prl3c1-v2) expressed in a tissue-specific pattern.
      Prl3c1-v1 is expressed in uterine decidua, while Prl3c1-v2 is expressed in Leydig
      cells of the testis. 5'RACE, chromatin immunoprecipitation and DNA methylation
      analyses were used to define cell-specific promoter usage and alternative
      transcript expression. We examined the Prl3c1 locus in five murid rodents and
      showed that the testicular transcript and encoded protein are the result of a
      recent retrotransposition event at the Mus musculus Prl3c1 locus. Prl3c1-v1
      encodes PLP-J V1 and Prl3c1-v2 encodes PLP-J V2. Each protein exhibits distinct
      intracellular targeting and actions. PLP-J V2 possesses Leydig cell-static
      actions consistent with the Prl3c1-null testicular phenotype. Analysis of the
      biology of the Prl3c1 gene has provided insight into a previously unappreciated
      homeostatic setpoint control system programming testicular growth and function.

PMID- 28576874
TI  - BLOC-1 is required for selective membrane protein trafficking from endosomes to
      primary cilia.
AB  - Primary cilia perceive the extracellular environment through receptors localized
      in the ciliary membrane, but mechanisms directing specific proteins to this
      domain are poorly understood. To address this question, we knocked down proteins
      potentially important for ciliary membrane targeting and determined how this
      affects the ciliary trafficking of fibrocystin, polycystin-2, and smoothened. Our
      analysis showed that fibrocystin and polycystin-2 are dependent on IFT20,
      GMAP210, and the exocyst complex, while smoothened delivery is largely
      independent of these components. In addition, we found that polycystin-2, but not
      smoothened or fibrocystin, requires the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles
      complex-1 (BLOC-1) for ciliary delivery. Consistent with the role of BLOC-1 in
      sorting from the endosome, we find that disrupting the recycling endosome reduces
      ciliary polycystin-2 and causes its accumulation in the recycling endosome. This
      is the first demonstration of a role for BLOC-1 in ciliary assembly and
      highlights the complexity of pathways taken to the cilium.

PMID- 28576875
TI  - Genome editing of factor X in zebrafish reveals unexpected tolerance of severe
      defects in the common pathway.
AB  - Deficiency of factor X (F10) in humans is a rare bleeding disorder with a
      heterogeneous phenotype and limited therapeutic options. Targeted disruption of
      F10 and other common pathway factors in mice results in embryonic/neonatal
      lethality with rapid resorption of homozygous mutants, hampering additional
      studies. Several of these mutants also display yolk sac vascular defects,
      suggesting a role for thrombin signaling in vessel development. The zebrafish is
      a vertebrate model that demonstrates conservation of the mammalian hemostatic and
      vascular systems. We have leveraged these advantages for in-depth study of the
      role of the coagulation cascade in the developmental regulation of hemostasis and
      vasculogenesis. In this article, we show that ablation of zebrafish f10 by using
      genome editing with transcription activator-like effector nucleases results in a
      major embryonic hemostatic defect. However, widespread hemorrhage and subsequent
      lethality does not occur until later stages, with absence of any detectable
      defect in vascular development. We also use f10-/- zebrafish to confirm 5 novel
      human F10 variants as causative mutations in affected patients, providing a rapid
      and reliable in vivo model for testing the severity of F10 variants. These
      findings as well as the prolonged survival of f10-/- mutants will enable us to
      expand our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of hemostasis, including a
      platform for screening variants of uncertain significance in patients with F10
      deficiency and other coagulation disorders. Further study as to how fish tolerate
      what is an early lethal mutation in mammals could facilitate improvement of
      diagnostics and therapeutics for affected patients with bleeding disorders.

PMID- 28576876
TI  - Targeting chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells with the hypoxia-inducible factor
      inhibitor acriflavine.
AB  - Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-driven
      neoplasia characterized by expression of the constitutively active tyrosine
      kinase BCR/Abl. CML therapy based on tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is highly
      effective in inducing remission but not in targeting leukemia stem cells (LSCs),
      which sustain minimal residual disease and are responsible for CML relapse
      following discontinuation of treatment. The identification of molecules capable
      of targeting LSCs appears therefore of primary importance to aim at CML
      eradication. LSCs home in bone marrow areas at low oxygen tension, where HSCs are
      physiologically hosted. This study addresses the effects of pharmacological
      inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), a critical regulator of LSC
      survival, on the maintenance of CML stem cell potential. We found that the HIF-1
      inhibitor acriflavine (ACF) decreased survival and growth of CML cells. These
      effects were paralleled by decreased expression of c-Myc and stemness-related
      genes. Using different in vitro stem cell assays, we showed that ACF, but not
      TKIs, targets the stem cell potential of CML cells, including primary cells
      explanted from 12 CML patients. Moreover, in a murine CML model, ACF decreased
      leukemia development and reduced LSC maintenance. Importantly, ACF exhibited
      significantly less-severe effects on non-CML hematopoietic cells in vitro and in
      vivo. Thus, we propose ACF, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug
      for nononcological use in humans, as a novel therapeutic approach to prevent CML
      relapse and, in combination with TKIs, enhance induction of remission.

PMID- 28576877
TI  - Presenting ADAMTS13 antibody and antigen levels predict prognosis in immune
      mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
AB  - Immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a life-threatening
      disorder caused by antibodies against ADAMTS13. From the United Kingdom TTP
      registry, we undertook a prospective study investigating the impact of the
      presenting anti-ADAMTS13 IgG antibody and ADAMTS13 antigen on mortality. A total
      of 312 episodes involving 292 patients over 87 months were included; 68% were
      female, median age 46 (range, 11-88 years), and median presenting ADAMTS13 of <5%
      (range, <5%-18%). The mortality rate was 10.3% (n = 32); 68% of patients had a
      raised troponin at presentation conferring a sixfold increase in mortality
      compared with those with normal troponin levels (12.1% vs 2.0%, P = .04). Twenty
      four percent had a reduced Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) at presentation with a
      ninefold increase in mortality (20% vs 2.2% for normal GCS at presentation, P <
      .0001). Mortality increased with higher anti-ADAMTS13 antibody levels and lower
      ADAMTS13 antigen levels. Those with antibody levels in the upper quartile
      (antibody >77%) had a mortality of 16.9% compared with 5.0% for the lowest
      quartile (antibody <20%) (P = .004). Those with an antigen level in the lowest
      quartile (antigen <1.5%) had a mortality of 18% compared with 3.8% for the
      highest quartile (antigen >11%) (P = .005). The synergistic effect of anti
      ADAMTS13 IgG antibody in the upper quartile and ADAMTS13 antigen in the lowest
      quartile had the highest mortality of 27.3%. We conclude that both anti-ADAMTS13
      IgG antibody and ADAMTS13 antigen levels correlate with outcome in TTP with
      increased cardiac and neurological involvement and increased mortality.

PMID- 28576878
TI  - The disulfide isomerase ERp72 supports arterial thrombosis in mice.
AB  - Several CGHC motif-containing disulfide isomerases support thrombosis. We here
      report that endoplasmic reticulum protein 72 (ERp72), with 3 CGHC redox-active
      sites (ao, a, and a'), supports thrombosis. We generated a new conditional
      knockout mouse model and found that Tie2-Cre/ERp72fl/fl mice with blood and
      endothelial cells lacking ERp72 had prolonged tail bleeding times and decreased
      platelet accumulation in laser-induced cremaster arteriole injury and FeCl3
      induced mesenteric arterial injury. Fibrin deposition was decreased in the laser
      injury model. Both platelet and fibrin accumulation defects were fully rescued by
      infusion of recombinant ERp72 containing functional a and a' CGHC motifs
      (ERp72(oo-ss-ss)). Infusion of ERp72 containing inactivated a and a' CGHC motifs
      (ERp72(ss-oo-oo)) inhibited platelet accumulation and fibrin deposition in wild
      type mice. Infusion of ERp72(oo-ss-ss) into beta3-null mice increased fibrin
      deposition in the absence of platelets. ERp72-null platelets had defective
      aggregation, JON/A binding, P-selectin expression, and adenosine triphosphate
      (ATP) secretion. The aggregation and ATP secretion defects were fully rescued by
      ERp72(oo-ss-ss) but partially rescued by ERp72(ss-oo-ss) and ERp72(ss-ss-oo).
      Aggregation and ATP secretion of human platelets was potentiated by ERp72(oo-ss
      ss) but inhibited by ERp72(ss-oo-ss) and ERp72(ss-ss-oo). These data suggest that
      both the a and a' active sites are required for platelet function. ERp72 bound
      poorly to beta3-null mouse platelets, and the addition of ERp72(oo-ss-ss) to
      human platelets generated thiols in alphaIIbbeta3, suggesting a direct
      interaction of ERp72 with alphaIIbbeta3. Defective aggregation of ERp72-null
      platelets was recovered by ERp72, but not other thiol isomerases. In summary,
      ERp72 plays a critical role in platelet function and coagulation through the a
      and a' CGHC motifs.

PMID- 28576880
TI  - Differential regulation of monocarboxylate transporter 8 expression in thyroid
      cancer and hyperthyroidism.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Thyroid hormone (TH) transporters are expressed in thyrocytes and most
      play a role in TH release. We asked whether expression of the monocarboxylate
      transporter 8 (MCT8) and the L-type amino acid transporters LAT2 and LAT4 is
      changed with thyrocyte dedifferentiation and in hyperfunctioning thyroid tissues.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: Protein expression and localization of transporters was
      determined by immunohistochemistry in human thyroid specimen including normal
      thyroid tissue (NT, n = 19), follicular adenoma (FA, n = 44), follicular thyroid
      carcinoma (FTC, n = 45), papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC, n = 40), anaplastic
      thyroid carcinoma (ATC, n = 40) and Graves' disease (GD, n = 50) by calculating
      the 'hybrid' (H) score. Regulation of transporter expression was investigated in
      the rat follicular thyroid cell line PCCL3 under basal and thyroid stimulating
      hormone (TSH) conditions. RESULTS: MCT8 and LAT4 were localized at the plasma
      membrane, while LAT2 transporter showed cytoplasmic localization. MCT8 expression
      was downregulated in benign and malignant thyroid tumours as compared to NT. In
      contrast, significant upregulation of MCT8, LAT2 and LAT4 was found in GD.
      Furthermore, a stronger expression of MCT8 was demonstrated in PCCL3 cells after
      TSH stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Downregulation of MCT8 in thyroid cancers qualifies
      MCT8 as a marker of thyroid differentiation. The more variable expression of LATs
      in distinct thyroid malignancies may be linked with other transporter properties
      relevant to altered metabolism in cancer cells, i.e. amino acid transport.
      Consistent upregulation of MCT8 in GD is in line with increased TH release in
      hyperthyroidism, an assumption supported by our in vitro results showing TSH
      dependent upregulation of MCT8.

PMID- 28576881
TI  - Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication
      and agricultural origin research.
AB  - The development of agricultural societies, one of the most transformative events
      in human and ecological history, was made possible by plant and animal
      domestication. Plant domestication began 12,000-10,000 y ago in a number of major
      world areas, including the New World tropics, Southwest Asia, and China, during a
      period of profound global environmental perturbations as the Pleistocene epoch
      ended and transitioned into the Holocene. Domestication is at its heart an
      evolutionary process, and for many prehistorians evolutionary theory has been
      foundational in investigating agricultural origins. Similarly, geneticists
      working largely with modern crops and their living wild progenitors have
      documented some of the mechanisms that underwrote phenotypic transformations from
      wild to domesticated species. Ever-improving analytic methods for retrieval of
      empirical data from archaeological sites, together with advances in genetic,
      genomic, epigenetic, and experimental research on living crop plants and wild
      progenitors, suggest that three fields of study currently little applied to plant
      domestication processes may be necessary to understand these transformations
      across a range of species important in early prehistoric agriculture. These
      fields are phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, niche construction theory, and
      epigenetics with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. All are central in a
      controversy about whether an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is needed to
      reconceptualize how evolutionary change occurs. An exploration of their present
      and potential utility in domestication study shows that all three fields have
      considerable promise in elucidating important issues in plant domestication and
      in agricultural origin and dispersal research and should be increasingly applied
      to these issues.

PMID- 28576882
TI  - Modeling gene regulation from paired expression and chromatin accessibility data.
AB  - The rapid increase of genome-wide datasets on gene expression, chromatin states,
      and transcription factor (TF) binding locations offers an exciting opportunity to
      interpret the information encoded in genomes and epigenomes. This task can be
      challenging as it requires joint modeling of context-specific activation of cis
      regulatory elements (REs) and the effects on transcription of associated
      regulatory factors. To meet this challenge, we propose a statistical approach
      based on paired expression and chromatin accessibility (PECA) data across diverse
      cellular contexts. In our approach, we model (i) the localization to REs of
      chromatin regulators (CRs) based on their interaction with sequence-specific TFs,
      (ii) the activation of REs due to CRs that are localized to them, and (iii) the
      effect of TFs bound to activated REs on the transcription of target genes (TGs).
      The transcriptional regulatory network inferred by PECA provides a detailed view
      of how trans- and cis-regulatory elements work together to affect gene expression
      in a context-specific manner. We illustrate the feasibility of this approach by
      analyzing paired expression and accessibility data from the mouse Encyclopedia of
      DNA Elements (ENCODE) and explore various applications of the resulting model.

PMID- 28576879
TI  - Robust patient-derived xenografts of MDS/MPN overlap syndromes capture the unique
      characteristics of CMML and JMML.
AB  - Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia
      (JMML) are myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)/myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)
      overlap disorders characterized by monocytosis, myelodysplasia, and a
      characteristic hypersensitivity to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating
      factor (GM-CSF). Currently, there are no available disease-modifying therapies
      for CMML, nor are there preclinical models that fully recapitulate the unique
      features of CMML. Through use of immunocompromised mice with transgenic
      expression of human GM-CSF, interleukin-3, and stem cell factor in a NOD/SCID
      IL2Rgammanull background (NSGS mice), we demonstrate remarkable engraftment of
      CMML and JMML providing the first examples of serially transplantable and
      genetically accurate models of CMML. Xenotransplantation of CD34+ cells (n = 8
      patients) or unfractionated bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (n = 10) resulted in robust engraftment of CMML in BM, spleen, liver, and
      lung of recipients (n = 82 total mice). Engrafted cells were myeloid-restricted
      and matched the immunophenotype, morphology, and genetic mutations of the
      corresponding patient. Similar levels of engraftment were seen upon serial
      transplantation of human CD34+ cells in secondary NSGS recipients (2/5 patients,
      6/11 mice), demonstrating the durability of CMML grafts and functionally
      validating CD34+ cells as harboring the disease-initiating compartment in vivo.
      Successful engraftments of JMML primary samples were also achieved in all NSGS
      recipients (n = 4 patients, n = 12 mice). Engraftment of CMML and JMML resulted
      in overt phenotypic abnormalities and lethality in recipients, which facilitated
      evaluation of the JAK2/FLT3 inhibitor pacritinib in vivo. These data reveal that
      NSGS mice support the development of CMML and JMML disease-initiating and mature
      leukemic cells in vivo, allowing creation of genetically accurate preclinical
      models of these disorders.

PMID- 28576883
TI  - Crystal structure of tubulin tyrosine ligase-like 3 reveals essential
      architectural elements unique to tubulin monoglycylases.
AB  - Glycylation and glutamylation, the posttranslational addition of glycines and
      glutamates to genetically encoded glutamates in the intrinsically disordered
      tubulin C-terminal tails, are crucial for the biogenesis and stability of cilia
      and flagella and play important roles in metazoan development. Members of the
      diverse family of tubulin tyrosine ligase-like (TTLL) enzymes catalyze these
      modifications, which are part of an evolutionarily conserved and complex tubulin
      code that regulates microtubule interactions with cellular effectors. The site
      specificity of TTLL enzymes and their biochemical interplay remain largely
      unknown. Here, we report an in vitro characterization of a tubulin glycylase. We
      show that TTLL3 glycylates the beta-tubulin tail at four sites in a hierarchical
      order and that TTLL3 and the glutamylase TTLL7 compete for overlapping sites on
      the tubulin tail, providing a molecular basis for the anticorrelation between
      glutamylation and glycylation observed in axonemes. This anticorrelation
      demonstrates how a combinatorial tubulin code written in two different
      posttranslational modifications can arise through the activities of related but
      distinct TTLL enzymes. To elucidate what structural elements differentiate TTLL
      glycylases from glutamylases, with which they share the common TTL scaffold, we
      determined the TTLL3 X-ray structure at 2.3-A resolution. This structure reveals
      two architectural elements unique to glycyl initiases and critical for their
      activity. Thus, our work sheds light on the structural and functional
      diversification of TTLL enzymes, and constitutes an initial important step toward
      understanding how the tubulin code is written through the intersection of
      activities of multiple TTLL enzymes.

PMID- 28576884
TI  - Mdm2 Is Required for Survival and Growth of p53-Deficient Cancer Cells.
AB  - p53 deletion prevents the embryonic lethality of normal tissues lacking Mdm2,
      suggesting that cells can survive without Mdm2 if p53 is also absent. Here we
      report evidence challenging this view, with implications for therapeutically
      targeting Mdm2. Deletion of Mdm2 in T-cell lymphomas or sarcomas lacking p53
      induced apoptosis and G2 cell-cycle arrest, prolonging survival of mice with
      these tumors. p53-/- fibroblasts showed similar results, indicating that the
      effects of Mdm2 loss extend to premalignant cells. Mdm2 deletion in p53-/- cells
      upregulated p53 transcriptional target genes that induce apoptosis and cell-cycle
      arrest. Mdm2 deletion also increased levels of p73, a p53 family member. RNAi
      mediated attenuation of p73 rescued the transcriptional and biological effects of
      Mdm2 loss, indicating that p73 mediates the consequences of Mdm2 deletion. In
      addition, Mdm2 deletion differed from blocking Mdm2 interaction with p53 family
      members, as Nutlin-3 induced G1 arrest but did not activate apoptosis in p53-/-
      sarcoma cells. Our results indicate that, in contrast to current dogma, Mdm2
      expression is required for cell survival even in the absence of p53. Moreover,
      our results suggest that p73 compensates for loss of p53 and that targeting Mdm2
      in p53-deficient cancers has therapeutic potential. Cancer Res; 77(14); 3823-33.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576886
TI  - Regulation of sphingolipid biosynthesis by the morphogenesis checkpoint kinase
      Swe1.

PMID- 28576885
TI  - Osteoporosis and ageing affects the migration of stem cells and this is
      ameliorated by transfection with CXCR4.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cellular movement and relocalisation are important for many
      physiologic properties. Local mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from injured tissues
      and circulating MSCs aid in fracture healing. Cytokines and chemokines such as
      Stromal cell-derived factor 1(SDF-1) and its receptor chemokine receptor type 4
      (CXCR4) play important roles in maintaining mobilisation, trafficking and homing
      of stem cells from bone marrow to the site of injury. We investigated the
      differences in migration of MSCs from the femurs of young, adult and
      ovariectomised (OVX) rats and the effect of CXCR4 over-expression on their
      migration. METHODS: MSCs from young, adult and OVX rats were put in a Boyden
      chamber to establish their migration towards SDF-1. This was compared with MSCs
      transfected with CXCR4, as well as MSCs differentiated to osteoblasts. RESULTS:
      MSCs from OVX rats migrate significantly (p < 0.05) less towards SDF-1 (9%, sd
      5%) compared with MSCs from adult (15%, sd 3%) and young rats (25%, sd 4%). Cells
      transfected with CXCR4 migrated significantly more towards SDF-1 compared with
      non-transfected cells, irrespective of whether these cells were from OVX (26.5%,
      sd 4%), young (47%, sd 17%) or adult (21%, sd 4%) rats. Transfected MSCs
      differentiated to osteoblasts express CXCR4 but do not migrate towards SDF-1.
      CONCLUSIONS: MSC migration is impaired by age and osteoporosis in rats, and this
      may be associated with a significant reduction in bone formation in osteoporotic
      patients. The migration of stem cells can be ameliorated by upregulating CXCR4
      levels which could possibly enhance fracture healing in osteoporotic
      patients.Cite this article: A. Sanghani-Kerai, M. Coathup, S. Samazideh, P.
      Kalia, L. Di Silvio, B. Idowu, G. Blunn. Osteoporosis and ageing affects the
      migration of stem cells and this is ameliorated by transfection with CXCR4. Bone
      Joint Res 2017;6:-365. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.66.BJR-2016-0259.R1.

PMID- 28576888
TI  - Correction: New Perspectives of Curcumin in Cancer Prevention.

PMID- 28576887
TI  - Astrocytes take the stage in a tale of signaling-metabolism coupling.
AB  - Astrocytes are crucial cells in the brain that are intimately coupled with
      neuronal metabolism. A new paper from San Martin et al. provides evidence that
      physiological levels of the gaseous signal molecule NO can rapidly and reversibly
      increase astrocyte metabolism of glucose and production of lactate. A proposed
      neurological coupling-from the potential source of NO, endothelial cells, to the
      potential beneficiary from the lactate, neurons-prompts new questions regarding
      the controversial role of lactate in the brain.

PMID- 28576889
TI  - Blood coagulation system in patients with chronic kidney disease: a prospective
      observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Thromboembolic events are the major factor affecting the prognosis of
      patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Haemostatic alterations are possible
      causes of these complications, but their roles remain poorly characterised. In
      the prospective observational study, we investigated the entire coagulation
      process in patients with CKD to elucidate the mechanisms of their high
      thromboembolic risk. METHODS: A total of 95 patients with CKD and 20 healthy
      controls who met the inclusion criteria were consecutively recruited from
      September 2015 to March 2016. The platelet count, platelet aggregation, von
      Willebrand factor antigen (vWF:Ag), vWF ristocetin cofactor activity (vWF:RCo),
      fibrinogen, factor V (FV), FVII, FVIII, antithrombin III, protein C, protein S, D
      dimer, standard coagulation tests and thromboelastography were measured in
      patients with CKD and controls. Associations between the estimated glomerular
      filtration rate (eGFR) and haemostatic biomarkers were tested using multivariable
      linear regression. RESULTS: The adjusted and unadjusted levels of vWF:Ag,
      vWF:RCo, fibrinogen, FVII, FVIII and D-dimer were significantly higher in
      patients with CKD than that in the healthy controls, and were elevated with CKD
      progression. However, after adjustment for baseline differences, platelet
      aggregation and thromboelastography parameters showed no significant differences
      between patients with CKD and healthy controls. In the correlation analysis,
      vWF:Ag, vWF:RCo and FVIII were inversely associated with eGFR (r=-0.359, p<0.001;
      r=-0.391, p<0.001; r=-0.327, p<0.001, respectively). During the 1-year of follow
      up, one cardiovascular event occurred in patients with CKD 5 stage, whereas no
      thromboembolic event occurred in the CKD 3 and 4 and control groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with CKD are characterised by endothelial dysfunction and increased
      coagulation, especially FVIII activity. The abnormal haemostatic profiles may
      contribute to the elevated risk of thrombotic events but further longer-term
      study with large samples is still required to more precisely determine the
      relationship between the elevation of procoagulant factors and clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28576890
TI  - Perceived challenges to achieving universal health coverage: a cross-sectional
      survey of social health insurance managers/administrators in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: China has achieved over 96% health insurance coverage. However,
      universal health coverage (UHC) entails population coverage and the range of
      services covered and the extent to which health service costs are covered. This
      study aimed to determine the performance of the health insurance system in China
      in terms of its role in UHC and to identify challenges in the progress of UHC as
      perceived by health insurance managers/administrators. METHODS: A cross-sectional
      questionnaire survey was conducted in Beijing, Ningbo, Harbin and Chongqing over
      the period of 2014 and 2015. A stratified cluster random sampling strategy was
      adopted to select study participants. A total of 1277 (64.8%) respondents who
      reported familiarity with the current health insurance system and the
      requirements of UHC provided valid data for analyses. They gave a rating on the
      role of the current health insurance system in achieving UHC. A multivariate
      logistic regression model was developed to determine the associations between the
      rating and the features of insurance arrangements. RESULTS: There was consensus
      among the respondents on the performance of the current health insurance system
      in terms of its role in UHC, regardless who they were and what responsibility
      they held in their organisation (ie, policy development, managing fund
      transactions, and so on). Overall, about 45% of the respondents believed that
      there is a long way to go to achieve UHC. The low rating was found to be
      associated with limited financial protection (OR=1.656, 95% CI 1.279 to 2.146),
      healthcare inequity (OR=1.607, 95% CI 1.268 to 2.037), poor portability
      (OR=1.347, 95% CI 1.065 to 1.703) and ineffective supervision and administration
      of funds (OR=1.339, 95% CI 1.061 to 1.692) as perceived by the respondents.
      CONCLUSION: Health insurance managers/administrators in China are pessimistic
      about the achievements of the current health insurance system. They are concerned
      about the overall lack of benefit that insurance programmes bring to members,
      including low levels of entitlements, large healthcare inequity, limited
      financial protection and poor portability. A singular amendment of the structural
      design of the existing funds may not be enough to offer a satisfactory solution
      to these identified barriers. There is a need to increase funding capacities, to
      develop unified and consistent policies and to increase the level of fund
      pooling.

PMID- 28576891
TI  - The effect of life course socioeconomic position on crystallised cognitive
      ability in two large UK cohort studies: a structured modelling approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study systematically compared accumulation, sensitive period,
      critical period and social mobility models relating life course socioeconomic
      position (SEP) and adult crystallised cognitive ability, which has not been
      comprehensively investigated. DESIGN: Two prospective cohort studies.
      PARTICIPANTS: Five thousand three hundred and sixty-two participants in the
      Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) Birth
      Cohort Study and 10 308 participants in the Whitehall II Occupational Cohort
      Study. MEASURES: Childhood SEP was measured by father's occupational SEP, early
      adulthood SEP by educational qualifications and adult SEP by own occupational
      SEP. Each life course model was compared with a saturated model. RESULTS: Using
      multiple imputation to account for missing data, the sensitive period model,
      which contained childhood, early adulthood and adult SEP terms, with different
      coefficients, provided the best fit for both men and women in the NSHD and
      Whitehall II cohorts. Early adulthood SEP had the largest coefficient in NSHD
      women, whereas for NSHD men early adulthood and adult SEP had similar
      coefficients. In Whitehall II adult SEP had the largest effect size for both men
      and women. CONCLUSIONS: Sensitive period with all three time periods was the most
      appropriate life course models for adult crystallised cognitive ability in both
      cohorts, including an effect of childhood SEP. It is important to directly
      compare the life course models to determine which is the most appropriate.

PMID- 28576892
TI  - Study protocol of a pragmatic, randomised controlled pilot trial: clinical
      effectiveness on smoking cessation of traditional and complementary medicine
      interventions, including acupuncture and aromatherapy, in combination with
      nicotine replacement therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nicotine dependence is a disease, and tobacco use is related to 6
      million deaths annually worldwide. Recently, in many countries, there has been
      growing interest in the use of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM)
      methods, especially acupuncture, as therapeutic interventions for smoking
      cessation. The aim of this pilot study is to investigate the effectiveness of
      T&CM interventions on smoking cessation. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The STOP (Stop
      Tobacco Programme using traditional Korean medicine) study is designed to be a
      pragmatic, open-label, randomised pilot trial. This trial will evaluate whether
      adding T&CM methods (ie, ear and body acupuncture, aromatherapy) to conventional
      cessation methods (ie, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), counselling) increases
      smoking cessation rates. Forty participants over 19 years old who are capable of
      communicating in Korean will be recruited. They will be current smokers who meet
      one of the following criteria: (1) smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, (2) smoke
      less than 10 cigarettes a day and previously failed to cease smoking, or (3)
      smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes a day and have a nicotine dependence score
      (Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence) of 4 points or more. The trial will
      consist of 4 weeks of treatment and a 20 week follow-up period. A statistician
      will perform the statistical analyses for both the intention-to-treat (all
      randomly assigned participants) and per-protocol (participants who completed the
      trial without any protocol deviations) data using SAS 9.1.3. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board
      (IRB) of the Dunsan Korean Medicine Hospital of Daejeon University (IRB reference
      no: DJDSKH-15-BM-11-1, Protocol No. version 4.1.).The protocol will be reapproved
      by IRB if it requires amendment. The trial will be conducted according to the
      Declaration of Helsinki, 7th version (2013). This study is designed to minimise
      the risk to participants, and the investigators will explain the study to the
      participants in detail. As an ethical clinical trial, the control group will also
      be given conventional cessation treatments, including NRT and counselling.
      Participants will be screened and provided with a registration number to protect
      their personal information. Informed consent will be obtained from the
      participants prior to enrolling them in the trial. Participants will be allowed
      to withdraw at anytime without penalty. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02768025); pre-results.

PMID- 28576893
TI  - Motivation of Dutch high school students from various backgrounds for applying to
      study medicine: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore high school students' motivation for applying to study
      medicine and the factors that influence this. To find explanations for under
      representation of minority students in medical education, descriptions of
      motivation of students with different background characteristics were compared.
      DESIGN: Qualitative phenomenological study using semistructured one-on-one
      interviews. SETTING: One predominantly white and one mixed high school in a large
      multicultural city in the Netherlands. The study was conducted in March-December
      2015. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four high school students, purposively sampled for
      demographic characteristics. METHODS: The analysis consisted of the coding of
      data using a template based on the motivation types (autonomous and controlled
      motivation) described by self-determination theory and open coding for factors
      that influence motivation. RESULTS: The main reasons for pursuing a medical
      career pertained to autonomous motivation (interest in science and helping
      people), but controlled motivation (eg, parental pressure, prestige) was also
      mentioned. Experiences with healthcare and patients positively influenced
      students' autonomous motivation and served as a reality check for students'
      expectations. Having to go through a selection process was an important
      demotivating factor, but did not prevent most students from applying. Having
      medical professionals in their network also sparked students' interest, while
      facilitating easier access to healthcare experiences. CONCLUSIONS: The findings
      showed a complex interplay between healthcare experiences, growing up in a
      medical family, selection processes and motivation. Healthcare experiences, often
      one of the selection criteria, help students to form autonomous motivation for
      studying medicine. However, such experiences as well as support in the selection
      process seem unequally accessible to students. As a result, under-represented
      students' motivation decreases. Medical schools should be aware of this and could
      create opportunities to acquire healthcare experiences. High schools could
      incorporate internships as part of their study counselling programmes and offer
      tailor-made guidance to each individual student.

PMID- 28576895
TI  - Has the NHS 111 urgent care telephone service been a success? Case study and
      secondary data analysis in England.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the success of the introduction of the National Health
      Service (NHS) 111 urgent care service and describe service activity in the period
      2014-2016. DESIGN: Comparative mixed method case study of five NHS 111 service
      providers and analysis of national level routine data on activity and service
      use. SETTINGS AND DATA: Our primary research involved five NHS 111 sites in
      England. We conducted 356 hours of non-participant observation in NHS 111 call
      centres and the urgent care centres and, linked to these observations, held 6
      focus group interviews with 47 call advisors, clinical and managerial staff. This
      primary research is augmented by a secondary analysis of routine data about the
      44 NHS 111 sites in England contained in the NHS 111 Minimum Data Set made
      available by NHS England. RESULTS: Opinions vary depending on the criteria used
      to judge the success of NHS 111. The service has been rolled out across 44 sites.
      The 111 phone number is operational and the service has replaced its predecessor
      NHS Direct. This new service has led to changes in who does the work of managing
      urgent care demand, achieving significant labour substitution. Judged against
      internal performance criteria, the service appears not to meet some targets such
      as call answering times, but it has seen a steady increase in use over time.
      Patients appear largely satisfied with NHS 111, but the view from some
      stakeholders is more mixed. The impact of NHS 111 on other health services is
      difficult to assess and cost-effectiveness has not been established. CONCLUSION:
      The new urgent care service NHS 111 has been brought into use but its success
      against some key criteria has not been comprehensively proven.

PMID- 28576894
TI  - Use of a geographic information system to identify differences in automated
      external defibrillator installation in urban areas with similar incidence of
      public out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective registry-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Early defibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is of
      importance to improve survival. In many countries the number of automated
      external defibrillators (AEDs) is increasing, but the use is low. Guidelines
      suggest that AEDs should be installed in densely populated areas and in locations
      with many visitors. Attempts have been made to identify optimal AED locations
      based on the incidence of OHCA using geographical information systems (GIS), but
      often on small datasets and the studies are seldom reproduced. The aim of this
      paper is to investigate if the distribution of public AEDs follows the incident
      locations of public OHCAs in urban areas of Stockholm County, Sweden. METHOD:
      OHCA data were obtained from the Swedish Register for Cardiopulmonary
      Resuscitation and AED data were obtained from the Swedish AED Register. Urban
      areas in Stockholm County were objectively classified according to the pan
      European digital mapping tool, Urban Atlas (UA). Furthermore, we reclassified and
      divided the UA land cover data into three classes (residential, non-residential
      and other areas). GIS software was used to spatially join and relate public AED
      and OHCA data and perform computations on relations and distance. RESULTS:
      Between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2014 a total of 804 OHCAs occurred in
      public locations in Stockholm County and by December 2013 there were 1828 AEDs
      available. The incidence of public OHCAs was similar in residential (47.3%) and
      non-residential areas (43.4%). Fewer AEDs were present in residential areas than
      in non-residential areas (29.4% vs 68.8%). In residential areas the median
      distance between OHCAs and AEDs was significantly greater than in non-residential
      areas (288 m vs 188 m, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The majority of public OHCAs
      occurred in areas classified in UA as 'residential areas' with limited AED
      accessibility. These areas need to be targeted for AED installation and
      international guidelines need to take geographical location into account when
      suggesting locations for AED installation.

PMID- 28576896
TI  - Barriers and facilitators to recruitment of South Asians to health research: a
      scoping review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: People of South Asian ethnicity are under-represented in health
      research studies. The objectives of this scoping review were to examine the
      barriers and facilitators to recruitment of South Asians to health research
      studies and to describe strategies for improving recruitment. DESIGN: Scoping
      review METHODS: Using the Arksey and O'Malley framework for scoping reviews, we
      comprehensively searched electronic databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, Cochrane
      Library, CINAHL and PsycINFO). Studies that identified barriers and facilitators
      to recruitment, or recruitment strategies for South Asian populations were
      included. Recruitment barriers, facilitators and strategies were grouped
      thematically and summarised narratively. SYNTHESIS: Of 1846 potentially relevant
      articles, 15 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the thematic
      synthesis. Multiple facilitators and barriers to enrolment of South Asians in
      health research studies were identified; these most commonly related to
      logistical challenges, language and cultural barriers, concerns about adverse
      consequences of participating and mistrust of research. Several actionable
      strategies were discussed, the most common being engagement of South Asian
      communities, demonstration of cultural competency, provision of incentives and
      benefits, language sensitivity through the use of translators and translated
      materials and the development of trust and personal relationships. CONCLUSION:
      There is a growing awareness of the barriers and facilitators to recruitment of
      South Asian participants to health research studies. Knowledge of effective
      recruitment strategies and implementation during the grant funding stages may
      reduce the risk of poor recruitment and representation of South Asians.

PMID- 28576897
TI  - Anticipatory guidance to prevent infant sleep problems within a randomised
      controlled trial: infant, maternal and partner outcomes at 6 months of age.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of sleep education delivered antenatally
      and at 3 weeks postpartum to prevent infant sleep problems at 6 months of age.
      DESIGN: Sleep intervention within a randomised controlled trial for the
      Prevention of Overweight in Infancy (POI) study. PARTICIPANTS: 802 families were
      randomly allocated to one of four groups: usual care (control), sleep
      intervention (sleep), food, activity and breastfeeding intervention (FAB), and
      combined group receiving both interventions (combination). INTERVENTIONS: All
      groups received standard Well Child care. The sleep intervention groups (sleep
      and combination) received an antenatal group education session (all mothers and
      most partners) emphasising infant self-settling and safe sleeping, and a home
      visit at 3 weeks reinforcing the antenatal sleep education. FAB and combination
      groups received four contacts providing education and support on breast feeding,
      food and activity up to 4 months postpartum. OUTCOME MEASURES: Here we report
      secondary sleep outcomes from the POI study: the prevalence of parent-reported
      infant sleep problems and night waking, and differences in sleep duration.
      Additional outcomes reported include differences in infant self-settling, safe
      sleep practices, and maternal and partner reports of their own sleep, fatigue and
      depression symptoms. RESULTS: Linear or mixed linear regression models found no
      significant intervention effects on sleep outcomes, with 19.1% of mothers and
      16.6% of partners reporting their infant's sleep a problem at 6 months.
      Actigraphy estimated the number of night wakings to be significantly reduced (8%)
      and the duration of daytime sleep increased (6 min) in those groups receiving the
      sleep intervention compared with those who did not. However, these small
      differences were not clinically significant and not observed in 24 hours infant
      sleep diary data. No other differences were observed. CONCLUSION: A strategy
      delivering infant sleep education antenatally and at 3 weeks postpartum was not
      effective in preventing the development of parent-reported infant sleep problems.

PMID- 28576898
TI  - Sex differences in auditory verbal hallucinations in early, middle and late
      adolescence: results from a survey of 17 451 Japanese students aged 12-18 years.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Women have higher rates of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) than
      men; however, less is known about sex differences in the prevalence of AVH in
      early, middle and late adolescence. We sought to elucidate the differences in the
      prevalence of AVH and to examine the degree to which these differences could be
      explained by differences in levels of depressive symptoms. DESIGN: We used a
      cross-sectional design and a self-reported questionnaire. SETTING: Participants
      were recruited from public junior and senior high schools in Tsu, Mie Prefecture
      and Kochi Prefecture, Japan. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 19 436 students were
      contacted and 18 250 participated. Responses from 17 451 students with no missing
      data were analysed (aged 12-18 years, Mage=15.2 years (SD=1.7), 50.6% girls).
      MEASURES: AVH were assessed through one of four items adopted from the
      schizophrenia section of the Japanese version of the Diagnostic Interview
      Schedule for Children. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 12-item
      General Health Questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of AVH was 7.0% among early
      adolescents (aged 12-13 years), 6.2% among middle adolescents (aged 14-15 years)
      and 4.8% among late adolescents (aged 16-18 years). Being female was
      significantly associated with a higher prevalence of AVH through adolescence
      (OR=1.71, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.23 in early adolescence; OR=1.42, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.76
      in middle adolescence; OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.87 in late adolescence);
      however, these differences became non-significant after adjusting for depressive
      symptoms (OR=1.21, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.60; OR=1.00, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.25; OR=1.16,
      95% CI 0.93 to 1.44, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Sex differences in auditory
      hallucinations are seen in both adult and youth populations. The higher rates of
      auditory verbal hallucinations seen in girls may be secondary to the differences
      in the rate of depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28576899
TI  - Association between exposure to the Chinese famine during infancy and the risk of
      self-reported chronic lung diseases in adulthood: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between early-life exposure to the Chinese
      famine and the risk of chronic lung diseases in adulthood. DESIGN: Data analysis
      from a cross-sectional survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 4135 subjects were
      enrolled into the study from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
      (CHARLS) 2011-2012 baseline survey to analyse the associations between prenatal
      and early postnatal famine exposure and the risk of chronic lung diseases in
      adulthood. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Chronic lung diseases were defined based on
      self-reported information. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported chronic lung
      diseases in fetus-exposed, infant-exposed, preschool-exposed, and non-exposed
      groups was 6.5%, 7.9%, 6.8%, and 6.1%, respectively. The risk of chronic lung
      diseases in the infant-exposed group was significantly higher (OR 1.95, 95% CI
      1.10 to 3.44) than the non-exposed group in severely affected areas, even after
      adjusting for gender, smoking, and drinking, family economic status, and the
      highest educational attainment of the parents (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.26 to 5.25). In
      addition, after stratification by gender and famine severity, we found that only
      infant exposure to the severe famine was associated with the elevated risk of
      chronic lung diseases among male adults (OR 3.16, 95% CI 1.17 to 8.51).
      CONCLUSIONS: Severe famine exposure during the period of infancy might increase
      the risk of chronic lung diseases in male adults.

PMID- 28576900
TI  - Hepatitis B vaccination coverage, knowledge and sociodemographic determinants of
      uptake in high risk public safety workers in Kaduna State, Nigeria: a cross
      sectional survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To estimate hepatitis B vaccination (HBVc) coverage, and knowledge
      and sociodemographic determinants of full dose uptake in Federal Road Safety
      Corps (FRSC) members, Kaduna State, Nigeria, to inform relevant targeted
      vaccination policies. DESIGN: A cross sectional survey of FRSC members, Kaduna
      Sector Command. SETTINGS: Six randomly selected unit commands under Kaduna Sector
      Command, Kaduna State, Nigeria. PARTICIPANTS: A pilot tested, structured, self
      administered questionnaire was administered to 341 participants aged >=18 years
      with >=6 months of service between 17 June and 22 July 2015. Excluded were FRSC
      members in road safety 1 zonal command headquarters as the zonal command includes
      other states beyond the study scope. PRIMARY OUTCOME: HBVc status of participants
      categorised as 'not vaccinated' for uptake of <3 doses and 'vaccinated' for
      uptake of >=3 doses. ANALYSIS: Descriptive analysis estimated HBVc coverage while
      logistic regression ascertained associations. RESULTS: Most participants were
      men, aged 30-39 years, with 3-10 years of service and of marshal cadre. HBVc
      coverage was 60.9% for >=1 dose and 30.5% for >=3 doses. Less than 47% of
      participants scored above the mean knowledge score for hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      and HBVc. Female sex (AOR 2.28, 95% CI 1.15 to 4.52, p<0.05), perceiving there to
      be an occupational risk of exposure to HBV (AOR 2.86, 95% CI 1.06 to 7.70,
      p<0.001) and increasing HBVc knowledge (AOR 2.68, 95% CI 1.83 to 3.92, p<0.001)
      were independent predictors of full dose HBVc in FRSC members, Kaduna Sector
      Command. CONCLUSIONS: HBVc coverage and knowledge were poor among FRSC members,
      Kaduna Sector Command. Educational intervention, geared towards improving FRSC
      members' knowledge of HBVc and perception of risk of occupational exposure to
      HBV, is recommended for these vulnerable public safety workers. Such
      enlightenment could be a cheap and easy way of improving HBVc coverage in the
      study population.

PMID- 28576901
TI  - AnAnkle Trial study protocol: a randomised trial comparing pain profiles after
      peripheral nerve block or spinal anaesthesia for ankle fracture surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ankle fracture surgery is a common procedure, but the influence of
      anaesthesia choice on postoperative pain and quality of recovery is poorly
      understood. Some authors suggest a benefit of peripheral nerve block (PNB) in
      elective procedures, but the different pain profile following acute fracture
      surgery and the rebound pain on cessation of the PNB both remain unexplored. We
      present an ongoing randomised study aiming to compare primary PNB anaesthesia
      with spinal anaesthesia for ankle fracture surgery regarding postoperative pain
      profiles and quality of recovery. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: AnAnkle Trial is a
      randomised, dual-centre, open-label, blinded analysis trial of 150 adult patients
      undergoing primary internal fixation of an ankle fracture. Main exclusion
      criteria are habitual opioid use, impaired pain sensation, other painful injuries
      or cognitive impairment. The intervention is ultrasound-guided popliteal sciatic
      (20 mL) and saphenal nerve (8 mL) PNB with ropivacaine 7.5 mg/mL, and controls
      receive spinal anaesthesia (2 mL) with hyperbaric bupivacaine 5 mg/mL.
      Postoperatively all receive paracetamol, ibuprofen and patient-controlled
      intravenous morphine on demand. Morphine consumption and pain scores are
      registered in the first 27 hours and reported as an integrated pain score as the
      primary endpoint. Pain score intervals are 3 hours and we will use the area under
      curve to get a longitudinal measure of pain. Secondary outcomes include rebound
      pain on cessation of anaesthesia, opioid side effects (Opioid-Related Symptom
      Distress Scale), quality of recovery (Danish Quality of Recovery-15 score) and
      pain scores and medication days 1-7 (diary). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study
      has been approved by the Regional Ethics Committees in the Capital Region of
      Denmark, the Danish Data Protection Agency and the Danish Health and Medical
      Authority. We will publish the results in international peer-reviewed medical
      journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: AnAnkle Trial is registered in the European
      Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT 2015-001108-76).

PMID- 28576902
TI  - Application of pharmacogenomics to investigate adverse drug reactions to the
      disease-modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis: a case-control study
      protocol for dimethyl fumarate-induced lymphopenia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a global public health issue. The
      potential for pharmacogenomic biomarkers has been demonstrated in several
      therapeutical areas, including HIV infection and oncology. Dimethyl fumarate
      (DMF) is a licensed disease-modifying therapy for the treatment of multiple
      sclerosis (MS). The use of DMF in MS has been associated with a severe reduction
      in lymphocyte counts and reports of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.
      Here, we outline the protocol for a case-control study designed to discover
      genomic variants associated with DMF-induced lymphopenia. The ultimate goal is to
      replicate these findings and create an efficient and adaptable approach towards
      the identification of genomic markers that could assist in mitigating adverse
      drug reactions in MS. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The population sample will comprise
      DMF-exposed patients with MS, with cases representing those who developed
      lymphopenia and controls who did not. DNA genotyping will take place using a high
      throughput genome-wide array. Fine mapping and imputation will be performed to
      focus in on the potentially causal variants associated with lymphopenia.
      Multivariable logistic regression will be used to compare genotype and allele
      frequencies between the cases and the controls, with consideration of potential
      confounders. The association threshold will be set at p<1.0*10-5 for the
      discovery of genomic association analyses to select variants for replication.
      ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been obtained from the respective
      research ethics board, which includes written informed consent. Findings will be
      disseminated widely, including at scientific conferences, via podcasts (targeted
      at both healthcare professionals as well as patients and the wider community),
      through patient engagement and other outreach community events, written lay
      summaries for all participants and formal publication in peer-reviewed scientific
      journals.

PMID- 28576903
TI  - The Taking Charge After Stroke (TaCAS) study protocol: a multicentre,
      investigator-blinded, randomised controlled trial comparing the effect of a
      single Take Charge session, two Take Charge sessions and control intervention on
      health-related quality of life 12 months after stroke for non-Maori, non-Pacific
      adult New Zealanders discharged to community living.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Recent
      data support the possibility that person-centred, self-management interventions
      can reduce dependence after stroke. However, there is limited information on the
      generalisability and optimum dose of these interventions. METHODS: The Taking
      Charge After Stroke (TaCAS) study is a multicentre, investigator-blinded,
      randomised controlled trial recruiting 400 participants following acute stroke
      from seven hospitals in New Zealand. All patients discharged to community living
      who have ongoing symptoms at time of discharge (modified Rankin scale>0) will be
      eligible. Participants will be randomly assigned to one Take Charge session, two
      Take Charge sessions 6 weeks apart or control. OUTCOMES: The primary outcome will
      be the Physical Component Summary score of the Short-Form 36 at 12 months post
      stroke. Secondary outcomes will include dependence (modified Rankin scale),
      performance in activities of daily living (Barthel Index) and carer strain
      (Caregiver Strain Index), at 6 and 12 months post stroke. All analyses will be
      conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The TaCAS
      study is funded by a Health Research Council of New Zealand grant. It has been
      approved by the Central Health and Disability Ethics Committee (15/CEN/115).
      Results will be published and presented at relevant stroke meetings within New
      Zealand and internationally, informing the use of a self-management intervention
      after stroke. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials
      Registry ACTRN12615001163594. Date registered 02-11-2015. Medical Research
      Institute of New Zealand Registry TCS01. Universal trial number U1111-1171-4127.

PMID- 28576905
TI  - CMV and BKPyV Infections in Renal Transplant Recipients Receiving an mTOR
      Inhibitor-Based Regimen Versus a CNI-Based Regimen: A Systematic Review and Meta
      Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this meta-analysis is to compare the
      incidences of cytomegalovirus and BK polyoma virus infections in renal transplant
      recipients receiving a mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor (mTOR)-based
      regimen compared with a calcineurin inhibitor-based regimen. DESIGN, SETTING,
      PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We conducted a comprehensive search for randomized,
      controlled trials up to January of 2016 addressing our objective. Other outcomes
      included acute rejection, graft loss, serious adverse events, proteinuria, wound
      healing complications, and eGFR. Two review authors selected eligible studies,
      abstracted data, and assessed risk of bias. We assessed quality of evidence using
      the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation
      methodology. RESULTS: We included 28 randomized, controlled trials with 6211
      participants classified into comparison 1: mTOR inhibitor versus calcineurin
      inhibitor and comparison 2: mTOR inhibitor plus reduced dose of calcineurin
      inhibitor versus regular dose of calcineurin inhibitor. Results showed decreased
      incidence of cytomegalovirus infection in mTOR inhibitor-based group in both
      comparison 1 (risk ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.41 to 0.72), with high
      quality of evidence, and comparison 2 (risk ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval,
      0.24 to 0.80), with moderate quality of evidence. The available evidence neither
      confirmed nor ruled out a reduction of BK polyoma virus infection in mTOR
      inhibitor-based group in both comparisons. Secondary outcomes revealed more
      serious adverse events and acute rejections in mTOR inhibitor-based group in
      comparison 1 and no difference in comparison 2. There was no difference in graft
      loss in both comparisons. eGFR was higher in the mTOR inhibitor-based group in
      comparison 1 (mean difference =4.07 ml/min per 1.73 m2; 95% confidence interval,
      1.34 to 6.80) and similar to the calcineurin inhibitor-based group in comparison
      2. More proteinuria and wound-healing complications occurred in the mTOR
      inhibitor-based groups. CONCLUSIONS: We found moderate- to high-quality evidence
      of reduced risk of cytomegalovirus infection in renal transplant recipients in
      the mTOR inhibitor-based compared with the calcineurin inhibitor-based regimen.
      Our review also suggested that a combination of a mTOR inhibitor and a reduced
      dose of calcineurin inhibitor may be associated with similar eGFR and rates of
      acute rejections and serious adverse events compared with a standard calcineurin
      inhibitor-based regimen at the expense of higher incidence of proteinuria and
      wound-healing complications.

PMID- 28576908
TI  - Increase body weight to treat superior mesenteric artery syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome is a rare cause of
      duodenal obstruction resulting from vascular compression of the third part of the
      duodenum in the angle between the abdominal aorta and SMA. CASE PRESENTATION: A
      19-year-old woman with anorexia nervosa with upper gastrointestinal obstruction
      symptoms resorted to the emergency department. A diagnosis of SMA syndrome was
      made. Symptoms were solved with conservative treatment aimed at increase body
      weight. DISCUSSION: SMA syndrome is most commonly associated with debilitating
      illnesses. Patients present with acute or insidious upper gastrointestinal
      obstruction symptoms. Aortomesenteric artery angle of <=25 degrees  is the most
      sensitive measure of diagnosis. Advances in both enteral and parenteral nutrition
      led to a shift towards conservative treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Low threshold of
      suspicion is important to make a timely diagnosis and treatment. A conservative
      treatment aimed at increasing body weight is the first-line approach, leaving
      surgical intervention for failure cases.

PMID- 28576906
TI  - Factors Associated with Frailty and Its Trajectory among Patients on
      Hemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Frailty is common among patients on hemodialysis and
      associated with adverse outcomes. However, little is known about changes in
      frailty over time and the factors associated with those changes. DESIGN, SETTING,
      PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: To address these questions, we examined 762
      participants in the A Cohort to Investigate the Value of Exercise/Analyses
      Designed to Investigate the Paradox of Obesity and Survival in ESRD cohort study,
      among whom frailty was assessed at baseline and 12 and 24 months. We used ordinal
      generalized estimating equations analyses and modeled frailty (on a scale from
      zero to five possible components) and death during follow-up. RESULTS: The mean
      frailty score at baseline was 1.9, and the distribution of frailty scores was
      similar at each evaluation. However, most participants' scores changed, with
      patients improving almost as often as worsening (overall change, 0.2 points per
      year; 95% confidence interval, 0.1 to 0.3). Hispanic ethnicity (0.6 points per
      year; 95% confidence interval, 0.0 to 1.1) and diabetes (0.7 points per year; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.3 to 1.0) were associated with higher frailty scores and
      higher serum albumin concentration with lower frailty scores (-1.1 points per
      g/dl; 95% confidence interval, -1.5 to -0.7). In addition, patients whose serum
      albumin increased over time were less likely to become frail, with each 1-g/dl
      increase in albumin associated with a 0.4-point reduction in frailty score (95%
      confidence interval, -0.80 to -0.05). To examine the underpinnings of the
      association between serum albumin and frailty, we included serum IL-6, normalized
      protein catabolic rate, and patient self-report of hospitalization within the
      last year in a second model. Higher IL-6 and hospitalization were statistically
      significantly associated with worse frailty at any point and worsening frailty
      over time, whereas normalized protein catabolic rate was not independently
      associated with frailty. CONCLUSIONS: There was substantial year to year
      variability in frailty scores, with approximately equal numbers of patients
      improving and worsening. Markers of inflammation and hospitalization were
      independently associated with worsening frailty. Studies should examine whether
      interventions to address inflammation or posthospitalization rehabilitation can
      improve the trajectory of frailty.

PMID- 28576909
TI  - Abciximab-induced delayed profound thrombocytopaenia.
AB  - Abciximab, the first approved glycoprotein (GP IIb/IIIa) inhibitor, is being
      widely used during acute coronary syndromes and offers the promising approach to
      antithrombotic therapy. We present a case of a young woman who initially received
      abciximab infusion for undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention of left
      anterior descending artery and was eventually diagnosed with abciximab-induced
      delayed thrombocytopaenia. This case outlines the importance of close follow-up
      of these patients to prevent serious adverse events.

PMID- 28576907
TI  - Low Bone Density and Bisphosphonate Use and the Risk of Kidney Stones.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have demonstrated lower bone density
      in patients with kidney stones, but no longitudinal studies have evaluated kidney
      stone risk in individuals with low bone density. Small studies with short follow
      up reported reduced 24-hour urine calcium excretion with bisphosphonate use. We
      examined history of low bone density and bisphosphonate use and the risk of
      incident kidney stone as well as the association with 24-hour calcium excretion.
      DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We conducted a prospective
      analysis of 96,092 women in the Nurses' Health Study II. We used Cox proportional
      hazards models to adjust for age, body mass index, thiazide use, fluid intake,
      supplemental calcium use, and dietary factors. We also conducted a cross
      sectional analysis of 2294 participants using multivariable linear regression to
      compare 24-hour urinary calcium excretion between participants with and without a
      history of low bone density, and among 458 participants with low bone density,
      with and without bisphosphonate use. RESULTS: We identified 2564 incident stones
      during 1,179,860 person-years of follow-up. The multivariable adjusted relative
      risk for an incident kidney stone for participants with history of low bone
      density compared with participants without was 1.39 (95% confidence interval [95%
      CI], 1.20 to 1.62). Among participants with low bone density, the multivariable
      adjusted relative risk for an incident kidney stone for bisphosphonate users was
      0.68 (95% CI, 0.48 to 0.98). In the cross-sectional analysis of 24-hour urine
      calcium excretion, the multivariable adjusted mean difference in 24-hour calcium
      was 10 mg/d (95% CI, 1 to 19) higher for participants with history of low bone
      density. However, among participants with history of low bone density, there was
      no association between bisphosphonate use and 24-hour calcium with multivariable
      adjusted mean difference in 24-hour calcium of -2 mg/d (95% CI, -25 to 20).
      CONCLUSIONS: Low bone density is an independent risk factor for incident kidney
      stone and is associated with higher 24-hour urine calcium excretion. Among
      participants with low bone density, bisphosphonate use was associated with lower
      risk of incident kidney stone but was not independently associated with 24-hour
      urine calcium excretion.

PMID- 28576910
TI  - Large bilateral seminal vesicle calculi presenting with spermolithiasis.
AB  - A 34-year-old male presented with an 8-month history of passing increasingly
      painful 'grit' in his ejaculate. Semen analysis was normal as were urinary and
      blood tests. T1-weighted MRI revealed several bilateral high-signal areas
      measuring up to 1 cm in diameter, located in the seminal vesicles. These were
      confirmed as calculi on T2-weighted imaging and a seminal vesiculogram, with no
      drainage from the left ejaculatory duct and only minimal from the right duct. He
      is currently awaiting a robot-assisted laparoscopic vesiculotomy after completion
      of family.

PMID- 28576911
TI  - High-grade myxofibrosarcoma of the abdominal wall.
AB  - The authors present a case of a 57-year-old man, who presented to the surgical
      clinic with a mass in the suprapubic region. A CT scan revealed a well
      circumscribed lobular, heterogeneous soft tissue mass measuring 12*8.6*7.8 cm.
      The final histopathological diagnosis from the resection of the lesion was a
      myxofibrosarcoma (MFS), grade 3. The management of MFS includes surgical and
      oncological options which are reviewed here. These are aimed at complete excision
      and reducing the risk of local occurrence.

PMID- 28576913
TI  - Peptoniphilus asaccharolyticus-associated septic arthritis and osteomyelitis in a
      woman with osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus.
AB  - Peptoniphilus asaccharolyticus, a Gram-positive obligatory anaerobic coccus, is a
      commensal of the human vagina and gut and can be an opportunistic pathogen in
      immunocompromised patients. It is usually part of polymicrobial anaerobic
      infections such as skin and soft tissue infections in diabetics, bone and joint
      infections and surgical site infections; however, infections caused by P.
      asaccharolyticus in pure culture have been reported as well. Herein, we describe
      a case of septic arthritis and osteomyelitis caused by P. asaccharolyticus in a
      woman with osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28576912
TI  - Insular carcinoma arising on a background of follicular carcinoma,
      thyrolipomatosis and amyloid goitre.
AB  - A 67-year-old man was referred with a history of a right-sided neck lump and
      dysphonia, secondary to a lesion in the thyroid gland. After undergoing a total
      thyroidectomy, he was found to have an exceedingly rare combination of follicular
      carcinoma, insular carcinoma, thyrolipomatosis and an amyloid goitre in his
      thyroid gland. He subsequently underwent further radioactive iodine ablation and
      has been in remission. He was also later incidentally diagnosed with systemic
      amyloidosis, which explained the amyloid deposition in his thyroid gland.

PMID- 28576914
TI  - Do not treat the numbers: lithium toxicity.
AB  - We describe the case of a 62-year-old man with a history of bipolar disorder,
      previously stable on lithium for over 20 years, who presented with a manic
      relapse and signs of lithium toxicity in the form of a coarse tremor. Serum
      lithium levels were in the normal range, and the patient had stage 3 chronic
      kidney disease. He was admitted for treatment under Section 2 of the Mental
      Health Act, and after stopping lithium was started on olanzapine. Signs of
      lithium toxicity improved after withdrawal of lithium. This case highlights the
      need to treat normal serum lithium levels with caution in patients showing signs
      of clinical lithium toxicity.

PMID- 28576915
TI  - Transanal removal of a broken drinking glass self-inserted and retained in the
      rectum.
AB  - Retained rectal foreign bodies are increasingly reported in current clinical
      practice, and there is no clear consensus in the literature as to whether
      transanal extraction should be performed in the emergency or in the operating
      room. A 47-year-old presented to the hospital for a retained drinking glass in
      the rectum that was broken after an attempt at self-extraction. Physical
      examination showed no evidence of abdominal guarding nor bleeding from the
      rectum; abdominal and pelvic X-rays confirmed the presence of a broken glass, 8*6
      cm in size and no signs of perforation. Initial anoscopy performed in the
      emergency room confirmed the partial fracture of the glass. The patient was
      transferred to the operating room and transanal extraction was carried out under
      general anaesthesia without complications.

PMID- 28576916
TI  - Fabry heterozygote mimicking multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Fabry's disease (FD) is a recognised mimic of multiple sclerosis (MS). It is an X
      linked storage lysosomal disorder with deficiency of alpha-galactosidase A and
      enzyme replacement therapy is available. Patients with FD may satisfy modified
      McDonald criteria if the diagnosis of FD has not been pursued. We present a case
      of FD in a 65-year-old woman masquerading as benign MS for 40 years. She has
      recurrent posterior circulation stroke-like symptoms, hearing loss and
      acroparaesthesia, but typical radiological features of MS on MRI brain. Later she
      developed an ischaemic stroke, infiltrative cardiomyopathy and chronic renal
      failure. There was a missense mutation at p.R342Q in the galactodisdase alpha
      (GLA) gene. Neurologists need to consider FD and look for red flags in atypical
      MS cases and should not be over-reliant on MRI findings. Missed diagnosis of FD
      could lead to unnecessary immunosuppression, inappropriate disease counselling
      and missed treatment opportunity.

PMID- 28576917
TI  - Consider the vulnerable patient given full access to health records.

PMID- 28576918
TI  - An unusual cause of neonatal ascites.

PMID- 28576919
TI  - Trivial role for NSMCE2 during in vitro proliferation and differentiation of male
      germline stem cells.
AB  - Spermatogenesis, starting with spermatogonial differentiation, is characterized
      by ongoing and dramatic alterations in composition and function of chromatin.
      Failure to maintain proper chromatin dynamics during spermatogenesis may lead to
      mutations, chromosomal aberrations or aneuploidies. When transmitted to the
      offspring, these can cause infertility or congenital malformations. The
      structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) 5/6 protein complex has recently been
      described to function in chromatin modeling and genomic integrity maintenance
      during spermatogonial differentiation and meiosis. Among the subunits of the
      SMC5/6 complex, non-SMC element 2 (NSMCE2) is an important small ubiquitin
      related modifier (SUMO) ligase. NSMCE2 has been reported to be essential for
      mouse development, prevention of cancer and aging in adult mice and topological
      stress relief in human somatic cells. By using in vitro cultured primary mouse
      spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), referred to as male germline stem (GS) cells,
      we investigated the function of NSMCE2 during spermatogonial proliferation and
      differentiation. We first optimized a protocol to generate genetically modified
      GS cell lines using CRISPR-Cas9 and generated an Nsmce2-/- GS cell line. Using
      this Nsmce2-/- GS cell line, we found that NSMCE2 was dispensable for
      proliferation, differentiation and topological stress relief in mouse GS cells.
      Moreover, RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that the transcriptome was only
      minimally affected by the absence of NSMCE2. Only differential expression of
      Sgsm1 appeared highly significant, but with SGSM1 protein levels being unaffected
      without NSMCE2. Hence, despite the essential roles of NSMCE2 in somatic cells,
      chromatin integrity maintenance seems differentially regulated in the germline.

PMID- 28576922
TI  - Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Taking a Place in Mainstream Oncology
      Keystone Symposia Meeting Summary.
AB  - The Keystone Symposia conference on Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy: Taking a
      Place in Mainstream Oncology was held at the Fairmont Chateau in Whistler,
      British Columbia, Canada, on March 19-23, 2017. The conference brought together a
      sold-out audience of 654 scientists, clinicians, and others from both academia
      and industry to discuss the latest developments in cancer immunology and
      immunotherapy. This meeting report summarizes the main themes that emerged during
      the four-day conference. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(6); 434-8. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576921
TI  - Novel "Elements" of Immune Suppression within the Tumor Microenvironment.
AB  - Adaptive evolution has prompted immune cells to use a wide variety of inhibitory
      signals, many of which are usurped by tumor cells to evade immune surveillance.
      Although tumor immunologists often focus on genes and proteins as mediators of
      immune function, here we highlight two elements from the periodic table-oxygen
      and potassium-that suppress the immune system in previously unappreciated ways.
      While both are key to the maintenance of T-cell function and tissue homeostasis,
      they are exploited by tumors to suppress immuno-surveillance and promote
      metastatic spread. We discuss the temporal and spatial roles of these elements
      within the tumor microenvironment and explore possible therapeutic interventions
      for effective and promising anticancer therapies. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(6); 426
      33. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576928
TI  - Half of CCGs plan treatment cutbacks to meet financial targets.

PMID- 28576930
TI  - Robert C Gray.

PMID- 28576932
TI  - Advancing Our Profession in Exciting and Challenging Times.

PMID- 28576931
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28576933
TI  - The Value of Experience: Lessons Learned and Pearls of Wisdom Gathered.

PMID- 28576927
TI  - Overcoming the Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment of Hodgkin Lymphoma Using
      Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells.
AB  - Patients with otherwise treatment-resistant Hodgkin lymphoma could benefit from
      chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART) therapy. However, Hodgkin lymphoma lacks
      CD19 and contains a highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). We
      hypothesized that in Hodgkin lymphoma, CART should target both malignant cells
      and the TME. We demonstrated CD123 on both Hodgkin lymphoma cells and TME,
      including tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). In vitro, Hodgkin lymphoma cells
      convert macrophages toward immunosuppressive TAMs that inhibit T-cell
      proliferation. In contrast, anti-CD123 CART recognized and killed TAMs, thus
      overcoming immunosuppression. Finally, we showed in immunodeficient mouse models
      that CART123 eradicated Hodgkin lymphoma and established long-term immune memory.
      A novel platform that targets malignant cells and the microenvironment may be
      needed to successfully treat malignancies with an immunosuppressive
      milieu.Significance: Anti-CD123 chimeric antigen receptor T cells target both the
      malignant cells and TAMs in Hodgkin lymphoma, thereby eliminating an important
      immunosuppressive component of the tumor microenvironment. Cancer Discov; 7(10);
      1154-67. (c)2017 AACR.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature,
      p. 1047.

PMID- 28576934
TI  - Cholesteryl esters of omega-(O-acyl)-hydroxy fatty acids in vernix caseosa.
AB  - Cholesteryl esters of omega-(O-acyl)-hydroxy FAs (Chl-omegaOAHFAs) were
      identified for the first time in vernix caseosa and characterized using
      chromatography and MS. Chl-omegaOAHFAs were isolated using adsorption
      chromatography on silica gel and magnesium hydroxide. Their general structure was
      established using high-resolution and tandem MS of intact lipids, and products of
      their transesterification and derivatizations. Individual molecular species were
      characterized using nonaqueous reversed-phase HPLC coupled to atmospheric
      pressure chemical ionization. The analytes were detected as protonated molecules,
      and their structures were elucidated in the negative ion mode using controlled
      thermal decomposition and data-dependent fragmentation. About three hundred
      molecular species of Chl-omegaOAHFAs were identified in this way. The most
      abundant Chl-omegaOAHFAs contained 32:1 omega-hydroxy FA (omega-HFA) and 14:0,
      15:0, 16:0, 16:1, and 18:1 FAs. The double bond in the 32:1 omega-HFA was in the
      n-7 and n-9 positions. Chl-omegaOAHFAs are estimated to account for approximately
      1-2% of vernix caseosa lipids.

PMID- 28576936
TI  - betaIII Spectrin Is Necessary for Formation of the Constricted Neck of Dendritic
      Spines and Regulation of Synaptic Activity in Neurons.
AB  - Dendritic spines are postsynaptic structures in neurons often having a mushroom
      like shape. Physiological significance and cytoskeletal mechanisms that maintain
      this shape are poorly understood. The spectrin-based membrane skeleton maintains
      the biconcave shape of erythrocytes, but whether spectrins also determine the
      shape of nonerythroid cells is less clear. We show that betaIII spectrin in
      hippocampal and cortical neurons from rodent embryos of both sexes is distributed
      throughout the somatodendritic compartment but is particularly enriched in the
      neck and base of dendritic spines and largely absent from spine heads. Electron
      microscopy revealed that betaIII spectrin forms a detergent-resistant
      cytoskeletal network at these sites. Knockdown of betaIII spectrin results in a
      significant decrease in the density of dendritic spines. Surprisingly, the
      density of presynaptic terminals is not affected by betaIII spectrin knockdown.
      However, instead of making normal spiny synapses, the presynaptic structures in
      betaIII spectrin-depleted neurons make shaft synapses that exhibit increased
      amplitudes of miniature EPSCs indicative of excessive postsynaptic excitation.
      Thus, betaIII spectrin is necessary for formation of the constricted shape of the
      spine neck, which in turn controls communication between the synapse and the
      parent dendrite to prevent excessive excitation. Notably, mutations of SPTNB2
      encoding betaIII spectrin are associated with neurodegenerative syndromes,
      spinocerebellar ataxia Type 5, and spectrin-associated autosomal recessive
      cerebellar ataxia Type 1, but molecular mechanisms linking betaIII spectrin
      functions to neuronal pathologies remain unresolved. Our data suggest that
      spinocerebellar ataxia Type 5 and spectrin-associated autosomal recessive
      cerebellar ataxia Type 1 pathology likely arises from poorly controlled synaptic
      activity that leads to excitotoxicity and neurodegeneration.SIGNIFICANCE
      STATEMENT Dendritic spines are small protrusions from neuronal dendrites that
      make synapses with axons of other neurons in the brain. Dendritic spines usually
      have a mushroom-like shape, which is essential for brain functions, because
      aberrant spine morphology is associated with many neuropsychiatric disorders. The
      bulbous head of a mushroom-shaped spine makes the synapse, whereas the narrow
      neck transmits the incoming signals to the dendrite and supposedly controls the
      signal propagation. We show that a cytoskeletal protein betaIII spectrin plays a
      key role for the formation of narrow spine necks. In the absence of betaIII
      spectrin, dendritic spines collapse onto dendrites. As a result, synaptic
      strength exceeds acceptable levels and damages neurons, explaining pathology of
      human syndromes caused by betaIII spectrin mutations.

PMID- 28576937
TI  - Binocular Disparity Selectivity Weakened after Monocular Deprivation in Mouse V1.
AB  - Experiences during the critical period sculpt the circuitry within the neocortex,
      leading to changes in the functional responses of sensory neurons. Monocular
      deprivation (MD) during the visual critical period causes shifts in ocular
      preference, or dominance, toward the open eye in primary visual cortex (V1) and
      disrupts the normal development of acuity. In carnivores and primates, MD also
      disrupts the emergence of binocular disparity selectivity, a cue resulting from
      integrating ocular inputs. This disruption may be a result of the increase in
      neurons driven exclusively by the open eye that follows deprivation or a result
      of a mismatch in the convergence of ocular inputs. To distinguish between these
      possibilities, we measured the ocular dominance (OD) and disparity selectivity of
      neurons from male and female mouse V1 following MD. Normal mouse V1 neurons are
      dominated by contralateral eye input and contralateral eye deprivation shifts
      mouse V1 neurons toward more balanced responses between the eyes. This shift
      toward binocularity, as assayed by OD, decreased disparity sensitivity. MD did
      not alter the initial maturation of binocularity, as disparity selectivity before
      the MD was indistinguishable from normal mature animals. Decreased disparity
      tuning was most pronounced in binocular and ipsilaterally biased neurons, which
      are the populations that have undergone the largest shifts in OD. In concert with
      the decline in disparity selectivity, we observed a shift toward lower spatial
      frequency selectivity for the ipsilateral eye following MD. These results suggest
      an emergence of novel synaptic inputs during MD that disrupt the representation
      of disparity selectivity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We demonstrate that monocular
      deprivation during the developmental critical period impairs binocular
      integration in mouse primary visual cortex. This impairment occurs despite an
      increase in the degree to which neurons become more binocular. We further
      demonstrate that our deprivation did not impair the maturation of disparity
      selectivity. Disparity selectivity has already reached a matured level before the
      monocular deprivation. The loss of disparity tuning is primarily observed in
      neurons dominated by the open eye, suggesting a link between altered inputs and
      loss of disparity sensitivity. These results suggest that new inputs following
      deprivation may not maintain the precise spatial relationship between the two eye
      inputs required for disparity selectivity.

PMID- 28576935
TI  - Inflammatory Pain Reduces C Fiber Activity-Dependent Slowing in a Sex-Dependent
      Manner, Amplifying Nociceptive Input to the Spinal Cord.
AB  - C fibers display activity-dependent slowing (ADS), whereby repetitive stimulation
      (>=1 Hz) results in a progressive slowing of action potential conduction
      velocity, which manifests as a progressive increase in response latency. However,
      the impact of ADS on spinal pain processing has not been explored, nor whether
      ADS is altered in inflammatory pain conditions. To investigate, compound action
      potentials were made, from dorsal roots isolated from rats with or without
      complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) hindpaw inflammation, in response to electrical
      stimulus trains. CFA inflammation significantly reduced C fiber ADS at 1 and 2 Hz
      stimulation rates. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in the spinal cord slice
      preparation with attached dorsal roots also demonstrated that CFA inflammation
      reduced ADS in the monosynaptic C fiber input to lamina I neurokinin 1 receptor
      expressing neurons (1-10 Hz stimulus trains) without altering the incidence of
      synaptic response failures. When analyzed by sex, it was revealed that females
      display a more pronounced ADS that is reduced by CFA inflammation to a level
      comparable with males. Cumulative ventral root potentials evoked by long and
      short dorsal root stimulation lengths, to maximize and minimize the impact of
      ADS, respectively, demonstrated that reducing ADS facilitates spinal summation,
      and this was also sex dependent. This finding correlated with the behavioral
      observation of increased noxious thermal thresholds and enhanced inflammatory
      thermal hypersensitivity in females. We propose that sex/inflammation-dependent
      regulation of C fiber ADS can, by controlling the temporal relay of nociceptive
      inputs, influence the spinal summation of nociceptive signals contributing to
      sex/inflammation-dependent differences in pain sensitivity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
      The intensity of a noxious stimulus is encoded by the frequency of action
      potentials relayed by nociceptive C fibers to the spinal cord. C fibers conduct
      successive action potentials at progressively slower speeds, but the impact of
      this activity-dependent slowing (ADS) is unknown. Here we demonstrate that ADS is
      more prevalent in females than males and is reduced in an inflammatory pain model
      in females only. We also demonstrate a progressive delay of C fiber monosynaptic
      transmission to the spinal cord that is similarly sex and inflammation dependent.
      Experimentally manipulating ADS strongly influences spinal summation consistent
      with sex differences in behavioral pain thresholds. This suggests that ADS
      provides a peripheral mechanism that can regulate spinal nociceptive processing
      and pain sensation.

PMID- 28576938
TI  - Neuroimmune-Glia Interactions in the Sensory Ganglia Account for the Development
      of Acute Herpetic Neuralgia.
AB  - Herpetic neuralgia is the most important symptom of herpes zoster disease, which
      is caused by Varicella zoster Nevertheless, the pathophysiological mechanisms
      involved in herpetic neuralgia are not totally elucidated. Here, we examined the
      neuroimmune interactions at the sensory ganglia that account for the genesis of
      herpetic neuralgia using a murine model of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 (HSV-1)
      infection. The cutaneous HSV-1 infection of mice results in the development of a
      zosteriform-like skin lesion followed by a time-dependent increase in pain-like
      responses (mechanical allodynia). Leukocytes composed mainly of macrophages and
      neutrophils infiltrate infected DRGs and account for the development of herpetic
      neuralgia. Infiltrating leukocytes are responsible for driving the production of
      TNF, which in turn mediates the development of herpetic neuralgia through
      downregulation of the inwardly rectifying K+ channel Kir4.1 in satellite glial
      cells. These results revealed that neuroimmune-glia interactions at the sensory
      ganglia play a critical role in the genesis of herpetic neuralgia. In conclusion,
      the present study elucidates novel mechanisms involved in the genesis of acute
      herpetic pain and open new avenues for its control.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Acute
      herpetic neuralgia is the most important symptom of herpes zoster disease and it
      is very difficult to treat. Using a model of peripheral infection of mice with
      HSV-1, we have characterized for the first time the neuroimmune-glia interactions
      in the sensory ganglia that account for the development of acute herpetic
      neuralgia. Among these mechanisms, leukocytes composed mainly of macrophages and
      neutrophils infiltrate infected sensory ganglia and are responsible for driving
      the production of TNF. TNF, via TNFR1, mediates herpetic neuralgia development
      through downregulation of the inwardly rectifying K+ channel Kir4.1 in satellite
      glial cells. This study elucidates novel mechanisms involved in the genesis of
      acute herpetic neuralgia and open new avenues for its control.

PMID- 28576939
TI  - The X-Linked Intellectual Disability Protein IL1RAPL1 Regulates Dendrite
      Complexity.
AB  - Mutations and deletions of the interleukin-1 receptor accessory protein like 1
      (IL1RAPL1) gene, located on the X chromosome, are associated with intellectual
      disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). IL1RAPL1 protein is located
      at the postsynaptic compartment of excitatory synapses and plays a role in
      synapse formation and stabilization. Here, using primary neuronal cultures and
      Il1rapl1-KO mice, we characterized the role of IL1RAPL1 in regulating dendrite
      morphology. In Il1rapl1-KO mice we identified an increased number of dendrite
      branching points in CA1 and CA2 hippocampal neurons associated to hippocampal
      cognitive impairment. Similarly, induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons
      from a patient carrying a null mutation of the IL1RAPL1 gene had more dendrites.
      In hippocampal neurons, the overexpression of full-length IL1RAPL1 and mutants
      lacking part of C-terminal domains leads to simplified neuronal arborization.
      This effect is abolished when we overexpressed mutants lacking part of N-terminal
      domains, indicating that the IL1RAPL1 extracellular domain is required for
      regulating dendrite development. We also demonstrate that PTPdelta interaction is
      not required for this activity, while IL1RAPL1 mediates the activity of IL-1beta
      on dendrite morphology. Our data reveal a novel specific function for IL1RAPL1 in
      regulating dendrite morphology that can help clarify how changes in IL1RAPL1
      regulated pathways can lead to cognitive disorders in humans.SIGNIFICANCE
      STATEMENT Abnormalities in the architecture of dendrites have been observed in a
      variety of neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, and neuropsychiatric disorders.
      Here we show that the X-linked intellectual disability protein interleukin-1
      receptor accessory protein like 1 (IL1RAPL1) regulates dendrite morphology of
      mice hippocampal neurons and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from a
      patient carrying a null mutation of IL1RAPL1 gene. We also found that the
      extracellular domain of IL1RAPL1 is required for this effect, independently of
      the interaction with PTPdelta, but IL1RAPL1 mediates the activity of IL-1beta on
      dendrite morphology. Our data reveal a novel specific function for IL1RAPL1 in
      regulating dendrite morphology that can help clarify how changes in IL1RAPL1
      regulated pathways can lead to cognitive disorders in humans.

PMID- 28576940
TI  - Descending Systems Direct Development of Key Spinal Motor Circuits.
AB  - The formation of mature spinal motor circuits is dependent on both activity
      dependent and independent mechanisms during postnatal development. During this
      time, reorganization and refinement of spinal sensorimotor circuits occurs as
      supraspinal projections are integrated. However, specific features of postnatal
      spinal circuit development remain poorly understood. This study provides the
      first detailed characterization of rat spinal sensorimotor circuit development in
      the presence and absence of descending systems. We show that the development of
      proprioceptive afferent input to motoneurons (MNs) and Renshaw cells (RCs) is
      disrupted by thoracic spinal cord transection at postnatal day 5 (P5TX). P5TX
      also led to malformation of GABApre neuron axo-axonic contacts on Ia afferents
      and of the recurrent inhibitory circuit between MNs and RCs. Using a novel in
      situ perfused preparation for studying motor control, we show that malformation
      of these spinal circuits leads to hyperexcitability of the monosynaptic reflex.
      Our results demonstrate that removing descending input severely disrupts the
      development of spinal circuits and identifies key mechanisms contributing to
      motor dysfunction in conditions such as cerebral palsy and spinal cord
      injury.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Acquisition of mature behavior during postnatal
      development correlates with the arrival and maturation of supraspinal projections
      to the spinal cord. However, we know little about the role that descending
      systems play in the maturation of spinal circuits. Here, we characterize
      postnatal development of key spinal microcircuits in the presence and absence of
      descending systems. We show that formation of these circuits is abnormal after
      early (postnatal day 5) removal of descending systems, inducing hyperexcitability
      of the monosynaptic reflex. The study is a detailed characterization of spinal
      circuit development elucidating how these mechanisms contribute to motor
      dysfunction in conditions such as cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury.
      Understanding these circuits is crucial to developing new therapeutics and
      improving existing ones in such conditions.

PMID- 28576941
TI  - Reduced Slc6a15 in Nucleus Accumbens D2-Neurons Underlies Stress Susceptibility.
AB  - Previous research demonstrates that Slc6a15, a neutral amino acid transporter, is
      associated with depression susceptibility. However, no study examined Slc6a15 in
      the ventral striatum [nucleus accumbens (NAc)] in depression. Given our previous
      characterization of Slc6a15 as a striatal dopamine receptor 2 (D2)-neuron
      enriched gene, we examined the role of Slc6a15 in NAc D2-neurons in mediating
      susceptibility to stress in male mice. First, we showed that Slc6a15 mRNA was
      reduced in NAc of mice susceptible to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), a
      paradigm that produces behavioral and molecular adaptations that resemble
      clinical depression. Consistent with our preclinical data, we observed Slc6a15
      mRNA reduction in NAc of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). The
      Slc6a15 reduction in NAc occurred selectively in D2-neurons. Next, we used Cre
      inducible viruses combined with D2-Cre mice to reduce or overexpress Slc6a15 in
      NAc D2-neurons. Slc6a15 reduction in D2-neurons caused enhanced susceptibility to
      a subthreshold social defeat stress (SSDS) as observed by reduced social
      interaction, while a reduction in social interaction following CSDS was not
      observed when Slc6a15 expression in D2-neurons was restored. Finally, since both
      D2-medium spiny neurons (MSNs) and D2-expressing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)
      interneurons express Slc6a15, we examined Slc6a15 protein in these interneurons
      after CSDS. Slc6a15 protein was unaltered in ChAT interneurons. Consistent with
      this, reducing Slc5a15 selectively in NAc D2-MSNs, using A2A-Cre mice that
      express Cre selectively in D2-MSNs, caused enhanced susceptibility to SSDS.
      Collectively, our data demonstrate that reduced Slc6a15 in NAc occurs in MDD
      individuals and that Slc6a15 reduction in NAc D2-neurons underlies stress
      susceptibility.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our study demonstrates a role for reduced
      Slc6a15, a neutral amino acid transporter, in nucleus accumbens (NAc) in
      depression and stress susceptibility. The reduction of Slc6a15 occurs selectively
      in the NAc D2-neurons. Genetic reduction of Slc6a15 induces susceptibility to a
      subthreshold stress, while genetic overexpression in D2-neurons prevents social
      avoidance after chronic social defeat stress.

PMID- 28576942
TI  - Wild-Type Monomeric alpha-Synuclein Can Impair Vesicle Endocytosis and Synaptic
      Fidelity via Tubulin Polymerization at the Calyx of Held.
AB  - alpha-Synuclein is a presynaptic protein the function of which has yet to be
      identified, but its neuronal content increases in patients of synucleinopathies
      including Parkinson's disease. Chronic overexpression of alpha-synuclein
      reportedly expresses various phenotypes of synaptic dysfunction, but the primary
      target of its toxicity has not been determined. To investigate this, we acutely
      loaded human recombinant alpha-synuclein or its pathological mutants in their
      monomeric forms into the calyces of Held presynaptic terminals in slices from
      auditorily mature and immature rats of either sex. Membrane capacitance
      measurements revealed significant and specific inhibitory effects of WT monomeric
      alpha-synuclein on vesicle endocytosis throughout development. However, the alpha
      synuclein A53T mutant affected vesicle endocytosis only at immature calyces,
      whereas the A30P mutant had no effect throughout. The endocytic impairment by WT
      alpha-synuclein was rescued by intraterminal coloading of the microtubule (MT)
      polymerization blocker nocodazole. Furthermore, it was reversibly rescued by
      presynaptically loaded photostatin-1, a photoswitcheable inhibitor of MT
      polymerization, in a light-wavelength-dependent manner. In contrast, endocytic
      inhibition by the A53T mutant at immature calyces was not rescued by nocodazole.
      Functionally, presynaptically loaded WT alpha-synuclein had no effect on basal
      synaptic transmission evoked at a low frequency, but significantly attenuated
      exocytosis and impaired the fidelity of neurotransmission during prolonged high
      frequency stimulation. We conclude that monomeric WT alpha-synuclein primarily
      inhibits vesicle endocytosis via MT overassembly, thereby impairing high
      frequency neurotransmission.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Abnormal alpha-synuclein
      abundance is associated with synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease, but
      neither the primary target of alpha-synuclein toxicity nor its mechanism is
      identified. Here, we loaded monomeric alpha-synuclein directly into mammalian
      glutamatergic nerve terminals and found that it primarily inhibits vesicle
      endocytosis and subsequently impairs exocytosis and neurotransmission fidelity
      during prolonged high-frequency stimulation. Such alpha-synuclein toxicity could
      be rescued by blocking microtubule polymerization, suggesting that microtubule
      overassembly underlies the toxicity of acutely elevated alpha-synuclein in the
      nerve terminal.

PMID- 28576943
TI  - Polysialic Acid Regulates Sympathetic Outflow by Facilitating Information
      Transfer within the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract.
AB  - Expression of the large extracellular glycan, polysialic acid (polySia), is
      restricted in the adult, to brain regions exhibiting high levels of plasticity or
      remodeling, including the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and the nucleus of the
      solitary tract (NTS). The NTS, located in the dorsal brainstem, receives constant
      viscerosensory afferent traffic as well as input from central regions controlling
      sympathetic nerve activity, respiration, gastrointestinal functions, hormonal
      release, and behavior. Our aims were to determine the ultrastructural location of
      polySia in the NTS and the functional effects of enzymatic removal of polySia,
      both in vitro and in vivo polySia immunoreactivity was found throughout the adult
      rat NTS. Electron microscopy demonstrated polySia at sites that influence
      neurotransmission: the extracellular space, fine astrocytic processes, and
      neuronal terminals. Removing polySia from the NTS had functional consequences.
      Whole-cell electrophysiological recordings revealed altered intrinsic membrane
      properties, enhancing voltage-gated K+ currents and increasing intracellular Ca2+
      Viscerosensory afferent processing was also disrupted, dampening low-frequency
      excitatory input and potentiating high-frequency sustained currents at second
      order neurons. Removal of polySia in the NTS of anesthetized rats increased
      sympathetic nerve activity, whereas functionally related enzymes that do not
      alter polySia expression had little effect. These data indicate that polySia is
      required for the normal transmission of information through the NTS and that
      changes in its expression alter sympathetic outflow. polySia is abundant in
      multiple but discrete brain regions, including sensory nuclei, in both the adult
      rat and human, where it may regulate neuronal function by mechanisms identified
      here.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT All cells are coated in glycans (sugars) existing
      predominantly as glycolipids, proteoglycans, or glycoproteins formed by the most
      complex form of posttranslational modification, glycosylation. How these glycans
      influence brain function is only now beginning to be elucidated. The adult
      nucleus of the solitary tract has abundant polysialic acid (polySia) and is a
      major site of integration, receiving viscerosensory information which controls
      critical homeostatic functions. Our data reveal that polySia is a determinant of
      neuronal behavior and excitatory transmission in the nucleus of the solitary
      tract, regulating sympathetic nerve activity. polySia is abundantly expressed at
      distinct brain sites in adult, including major sensory nuclei, suggesting that
      sensory transmission may also be influenced via mechanisms described here. These
      findings hint at the importance of elucidating how other glycans influence neural
      function.

PMID- 28576947
TI  - The Slow Cycling Phenotype: A Growing Problem for Treatment Resistance in
      Melanoma.
AB  - Treatment resistance in metastatic melanoma is a longstanding issue. Current
      targeted therapy regimes in melanoma largely target the proliferating cancer
      population, leaving slow-cycling cancer cells undamaged. Consequently, slow
      cycling cells are enriched upon drug therapy and can remain in the body for years
      until acquiring proliferative potential that triggers cancer relapse. Here we
      overview the molecular mechanisms of slow-cycling cells that underlie treatment
      resistance in melanoma. Three main areas of molecular reprogramming are discussed
      that mediate slow cycling and treatment resistance. First, a low microphthalmia
      associated transcription factor (MITF) dedifferentiated state activates various
      signaling pathways. This includes WNT5A, EGFR, as well as other signaling
      activators, such as AXL and NF-kappaB. Second, the chromatin-remodeling factor
      Jumonji/ARID domain-containing protein 1B (JARID1B, KDM5B) orchestrates and
      maintains slow cycling and treatment resistance in a small subpopulation of
      melanoma cells. Finally, a shift in metabolic state toward oxidative
      phosphorylation has been demonstrated to regulate treatment resistance in slow
      cycling cells. Elucidation of the underlying processes of slow cycling and its
      utilization by melanoma cells may reveal new vulnerable characteristics as
      therapeutic targets. Moreover, combining current therapies with targeting slow
      cycling subpopulations of melanoma cells may allow for more durable and greater
      treatment responses. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(6); 1002-9. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576946
TI  - FLT3 Inhibitors in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Current Status and Future Directions.
AB  - The receptor tyrosine kinase fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3), involved in
      regulating survival, proliferation, and differentiation of hematopoietic
      stem/progenitor cells, is expressed on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells in most
      patients. Mutations of FLT3 resulting in constitutive signaling are common in
      AML, including internal tandem duplication (ITD) in the juxtamembrane domain in
      25% of patients and point mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain in 5%. Patients
      with AML with FLT3-ITD have a high relapse rate and short relapse-free and
      overall survival after chemotherapy and after transplant. A number of inhibitors
      of FLT3 signaling have been identified and are in clinical trials, both alone and
      with chemotherapy, with the goal of improving clinical outcomes in patients with
      AML with FLT3 mutations. While inhibitor monotherapy produces clinical responses,
      they are usually incomplete and transient, and resistance develops rapidly.
      Diverse combination therapies have been suggested to potentiate the efficacy of
      FLT3 inhibitors and to prevent development of resistance or overcome resistance.
      Combinations with epigenetic therapies, proteasome inhibitors, downstream kinase
      inhibitors, phosphatase activators, and other drugs that alter signaling are
      being explored. This review summarizes the current status of translational and
      clinical research on FLT3 inhibitors in AML, and discusses novel combination
      approaches. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(6); 991-1001. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576948
TI  - Correction: Dedifferentiation of Glioma Cells to Glioma Stem-like Cells By
      Therapeutic Stress-induced HIF Signaling in the Recurrent GBM Model.

PMID- 28576945
TI  - The Role of CtBP1 in Oncogenic Processes and Its Potential as a Therapeutic
      Target.
AB  - Transcriptional corepressor proteins have emerged as an important facet of cancer
      etiology. These corepressor proteins are often altered by loss- or gain-of
      function mutations, leading to transcriptional imbalance. Thus, research directed
      at expanding our current understanding of transcriptional corepressors could
      impact the future development of new cancer diagnostics, prognostics, and
      therapies. In this review, our current understanding of the CtBP corepressors,
      and their role in both development and disease, is discussed in detail.
      Importantly, the role of CtBP1 overexpression in adult tissues in promoting the
      progression of multiple cancer types through their ability to modulate the
      transcription of developmental genes ectopically is explored. CtBP1
      overexpression is known to be protumorigenic and affects the regulation of gene
      networks associated with "cancer hallmarks" and malignant behavior, including
      increased cell survival, proliferation, migration, invasion, and the epithelial
      mesenchymal transition. As a transcriptional regulator of broad developmental
      processes capable of promoting malignant growth in adult tissues, therapeutically
      targeting the CtBP1 corepressor has the potential to be an effective method for
      the treatment of diverse tumor types. Although efforts to develop CtBP1
      inhibitors are still in the early stages, the current progress and the future
      perspectives of therapeutically targeting this transcriptional corepressor are
      also discussed. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(6); 981-90. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28576950
TI  - Retrospective Case Reports of Two Central North Carolina Residents: Frequency of
      Tick Bites and Associated Illnesses, 2001-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND Tick bites are a source of illness and disease agents that may lead to
      morbidity and occasional fatalities in North Carolina. Public health interest in
      tick-borne illness and disease has increased due to continuing discoveries of
      tick-borne diseases and their increasing geographic spread and disease incidence.
      There are no data published on lay individuals with cumulative tick bites and
      associated illnesses over a period of years.METHODS We learned of a married
      couple living on a central North Carolina property who had used reasonable bite
      prevention methods, kept attached ticks after removal, and recorded dates and
      related illness records from 2001-2014. We obtained permission to analyze their
      records. Ticks were identified by an entomologist.RESULTS The male subject had a
      total of 219 bites from identifiable ticks comprising 213 Amblyomma americanum, 4
      Dermacentor variabilis, and 2 Ixodes scapularis He was treated for possible Rocky
      Mountain spotted fever once and presumed Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness
      once. The female subject had 193 bites comprising 168 A. americanum, 23 D.
      variabilis, and 2 I. scapularis She was treated for 4 episodes of presumed
      Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness and one possible case of a tick-borne
      infection. Several years of data were missing for both subjects.LIMITATIONS This
      retrospective report relied on the subjects' own records for much of the data.
      The experience of these individuals cannot be generalized. Diagnoses of these
      tick-related illnesses are inexact due to lack of tests for the Southern Tick
      Associated Rash Illness and cross-reactivity in tests for spotted fever
      rickettsiosis.CONCLUSIONS This report demonstrates that tick-associated
      illnesses, including episodes fitting the Center for Disease Control and
      Prevention's definition of the Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness, may be more
      common than realized. Use of personal tick protection measures for tick bite
      illness and disease prevention may not be sufficiently protective. Further
      subject-based research on tick and disease burden on selected populations would
      be informative, and could aid in planning appropriate actions to mitigate the
      effects of tick-borne disease in North Carolina.

PMID- 28576951
TI  - Not Your Father's Pharmacist.

PMID- 28576952
TI  - The Role of the Pharmacist in Health Care: Expanding and Evolving.

PMID- 28576949
TI  - Trends and Correlates of Hookah Use Among High School Students in North Carolina.
AB  - OBJECTIVES Although youth cigarette smoking has declined in the United States,
      use of alternative tobacco products, such as hookah, has increased. This study
      assesses changes in prevalence of use from 2011 to 2013, and examines factors
      associated with current hookah use among North Carolina high school students in
      2013.METHODS Data came from the North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey in 2011 (n =
      4,791) and 2013 (n = 4,092). STATA (StataCorp LLC) logistic regression survey
      procedures account for the complex survey design and sampling weights.RESULTS
      Prevalence of reported current hookah use significantly increased from 3.6% (95%
      CI: 2.8-4.5) in 2011 to 6.1% (95% CI: 4.9-7.5) in 2013 while reported lifetime
      hookah use increased from 9.8% (95% CI: 8.0-12.0) in 2011 to 12.6% (95% CI: 11.0
      14.4) in 2013. Correlates of current hookah use included having a weekly
      disposable income over $50 (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.25-3.35),
      currently smoking cigarettes (AOR = 4.57, 95% CI: 1.80-11.62), and living with
      hookah users (AOR = 6.45, 95% CI: 3.21-12.93). Participant self-reports of
      "liking" or positively commenting on tobacco products on social media were
      associated with current hookah use (AOR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.84-4.52). Frequent
      exposure to online tobacco advertisements (AOR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.13-2.28) were
      also associated with current hookah use.CONCLUSIONS Comprehensive product
      specific communication and policy interventions are needed to educate youth about
      the dangers of hookah use and reduce social acceptability among youth. To
      decrease hookah use in North Carolina, policymakers should consider restoring
      funding for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs, and equalizing
      tobacco tax rates for all tobacco product types.

PMID- 28576953
TI  - The Medication Optimization Value Proposition: Aligning Teams and Education to
      Improve Care.
AB  - United States health care lags behind other countries in quality and cost. The
      present health care system is unsustainable, and there is now a quick movement
      toward value-based care. This article lays out essential care delivery elements,
      and makes the case for medication optimization to enable new value-based models.
      Success factors include enhancing team-based care and interdisciplinary education
      to achieve patient-centered care.

PMID- 28576954
TI  - Payment Reform Meets Pharmacy Practice and Education Transformation.
AB  - The pharmacy profession has for the greater part of four decades been associated
      with dispensing activities and product reimbursement. This has hindered the
      ability of pharmacists to evolve their roles in their respective sites of care.
      Payment reform efforts that create an outcomes marketplace offer an opportunity
      for professional transformation.

PMID- 28576955
TI  - Health Care Systems and Transitions of Care: Implication on Interdisciplinary
      Pharmacy Services.
AB  - Effective medication management is critical to successful patient outcomes.
      Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working within North Carolina Health Systems
      provide a variety of services that aid in those successful outcomes. By
      leveraging the North Carolina Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner designation along
      with integrated health records, health system pharmacists are uniquely positioned
      to provide expert clinical support to patients. Services such as medication
      history collection, discharge medication dispensing and counseling, post
      discharge clinic engagement, and drug therapy management are all components of an
      even larger number of strategic health system pharmacy assets that aid in the
      care of patients whether they are admitted to hospitals, seen in clinics, or
      cared for in the community.

PMID- 28576956
TI  - The Integral Role of the Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner in Primary Care.
AB  - Clinical pharmacist practitioners serve as integral team members in primary care
      clinics. They extend the care provided for patients with chronic illnesses,
      improve health and wellness, and positively impact quality metrics in patient
      centered medical homes and accountable care organizations.

PMID- 28576957
TI  - A Clinical Pharmacist in Telehealth Team Care for Rural Patients with Diabetes.

PMID- 28576958
TI  - The North Carolina Experiment: Active Research in the Development and Assessment
      of New Practice Models.
AB  - Improving the quality of health care requires innovative approaches to addressing
      the misuse, overuse, and underuse of medication in the United States. Strategies
      must be patient-centered, collaborative, and aligned with the move toward value
      based care. We highlight research in North Carolina aimed at achieving these
      goals.

PMID- 28576959
TI  - Achieving Better Quality and Lower Costs in Medicaid Through Enhanced Pharmacy
      Services.

PMID- 28576960
TI  - Compounding Pharmacists Provide Customized Care.
AB  - Compounding is the creation of a pharmaceutical preparation by a licensed
      pharmacist to meet the unique needs of an individual patient when commercially
      available drugs do not meet those needs. For hundreds of years, compounding was
      the traditional practice of pharmacy. Today's advanced practice of compounding
      provides health care practitioners customized options for unique patients or for
      hard to treat conditions.

PMID- 28576961
TI  - Disaster Relief: A Look Into the Pharmacist's Role.
AB  - After hurricane Matthew devastated southeastern North Carolina on October 8,
      2016, health care providers and medical volunteers from various regions in North
      Carolina and from other surrounding states pulled together to initiate emergency
      medical services. Along with other healthcare providers, pharmacists played a key
      role in relief efforts. By using their broad knowledge of medicine and healthcare
      to efficiently utilize limited resources, pharmacists were vital in providing
      patient care. Their skills and knowledge make them a valuable resource in
      disaster relief.

PMID- 28576963
TI  - The Role of Pharmacists in the Opioid Epidemic: An Examination of Pharmacist
      Focused Initiatives Across the United States and North Carolina.
AB  - A pharmacy presence on national, state, and local levels is helping to address
      the opioid epidemic. This article will comment on and examine how pharmacists are
      working together with the health care team and community to address the opioid
      crisis.

PMID- 28576962
TI  - Innovative Community Pharmacy Practice Models in North Carolina.
AB  - There are several different types and sizes of community pharmacies ranging from
      large chains to small individually owned pharmacies. Community pharmacies are
      located in supermarkets, drugstores, big box stores, and even shopping malls in
      neighborhoods across North Carolina. Pharmacists are the most accessible health
      professionals and the ones that many patients see most frequently. Many
      pharmacists provide services long after other health care professionals' offices
      have closed. The traditional role of the pharmacist-the health care professional
      who dispenses prescriptions written by doctors-is changing. In recent years many
      pharmacists have developed services to help manage highly complex patient
      populations and improve health care outcomes. The profiles below highlight four
      innovative community pharmacies in North Carolina that show the potential
      community pharmacies have to improve quality, outcomes, and cost of care.

PMID- 28576964
TI  - The Role of Pharmacists as Immunizers in North Carolina.
AB  - Pharmacists are well-equipped to provide information to other health care
      providers on immunizations that may benefit patients, and can administer these
      immunizations in the pharmacy setting. Pharmacists have positively impacted
      vaccination rates, especially among patients who infrequently visit other health
      care providers or have reduced access to care. North Carolina has expanded the
      list of vaccinations pharmacists can provide, which helps to promote disease
      prevention and improve population health.

PMID- 28576965
TI  - Running the Numbers: Drug Expenditure Trends in North Carolina Medicaid.

PMID- 28576966
TI  - Spotlight on the Safety Net: Dispensing Hope: North Carolina's Only Statewide
      Free Pharmacy Program for the Uninsured.

PMID- 28576967
TI  - North Carolina Child Health Report Card 2017.

PMID- 28576968
TI  - Localisation of Nup153 and SENP1 to nuclear pore complexes is required for 53BP1
      mediated DNA double-strand break repair.
AB  - The nuclear basket of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) is composed of three
      nucleoporins: Nup153, Nup50 and Tpr. Nup153 has a role in DNA double-strand break
      (DSB) repair by promoting nuclear import of 53BP1 (also known as TP53BP1), a
      mediator of the DNA damage response. Here, we provide evidence that loss of
      Nup153 compromises 53BP1 sumoylation, a prerequisite for efficient accumulation
      of 53BP1 at DSBs. Depletion of Nup153 resulted in reduced SUMO1 modification of
      53BP1 and the displacement of the SUMO protease SENP1 from NPCs. Artificial
      tethering of SENP1 to NPCs restored non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) in the
      absence of Nup153 and re-established 53BP1 sumoylation. Furthermore, Nup50 and
      Tpr, the two other nuclear basket nucleoporins, also contribute to proper DSB
      repair, in a manner distinct from Nup153. Similar to the role of Nup153, Tpr is
      implicated in NHEJ and homologous recombination (HR), whereas loss of Nup50 only
      affects NHEJ. Despite the requirement of all three nucleoporins for accurate
      NHEJ, only Nup153 is needed for proper nuclear import of 53BP1 and SENP1
      dependent sumoylation of 53BP1. Our data support the role of Nup153 as an
      important regulator of 53BP1 activity and efficient NHEJ.

PMID- 28576969
TI  - Redox regulation of the yeast voltage-gated Ca2+ channel homolog Cch1p by
      glutathionylation of specific cysteine residues.
AB  - Cch1p, the yeast homolog of the pore-forming subunit alpha1 of the mammalian
      voltage-gated Ca2+ channel (VGCC), is located on the plasma membrane and mediates
      the redox-dependent influx of Ca2+ Cch1p is known to undergo both rapid
      activation (after oxidative stress and or a change to high pH) and slow
      activation (after ER stress and mating pheromone activation), but the mechanism
      of activation is not known. We demonstrate here that both the fast activation
      (exposure to pH 8-8.5 or treatment with H2O2) and the slow activation (treatment
      with tunicamycin or alpha-factor) are mediated through a common redox-dependent
      mechanism. Furthermore, through mutational analysis of all 18 exposed cysteine
      residues in the Cch1p protein, we show that the four mutants C587A, C606A, C636A
      and C642A, which are clustered together in a common cytoplasmic loop region, were
      functionally defective for both fast and slow activations, and also showed
      reduced glutathionylation. These four cysteine residues are also conserved across
      phyla, suggesting a conserved mechanism of activation. Investigations into the
      enzymes involved in the activation reveal that the yeast glutathione S
      transferase Gtt1p is involved in the glutathionylation of Cch1p, while the
      thioredoxin Trx2p plays a role in the Cch1p deglutathionylation.

PMID- 28576971
TI  - Substrate stiffness-dependent regulation of the SRF-Mkl1 co-activator complex
      requires the inner nuclear membrane protein Emerin.
AB  - The complex comprising serum response factor (SRF) and megakaryoblastic leukemia
      1 protein (Mkl1) promotes myofibroblast differentiation during wound healing. SRF
      Mkl1 is sensitive to the mechanical properties of the extracellular environment;
      but how cells sense and transduce mechanical cues to modulate SRF-Mkl1-dependent
      gene expression is not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that the nuclear
      lamina-associated inner nuclear membrane protein Emerin stimulates SRF-Mkl1
      dependent gene activity in a substrate stiffness-dependent manner. Specifically,
      Emerin was required for Mkl1 nuclear accumulation and maximal SRF-Mkl1-dependent
      gene expression in response to serum stimulation of cells grown on stiff
      substrates but was dispensable on more compliant substrates. Focal adhesion area
      was also reduced in cells lacking Emerin, consistent with a role for Emerin in
      sensing substrate stiffness. Expression of a constitutively active form of Mkl1
      bypassed the requirement for Emerin in SRF-Mkl1-dependent gene expression and
      reversed the focal adhesion defects evident in EmdKO fibroblasts. Together, these
      data indicate that Emerin, a conserved nuclear lamina protein, couples
      extracellular matrix mechanics and SRF-Mkl1-dependent transcription.

PMID- 28576970
TI  - Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound promotes cell motility through vinculin
      controlled Rac1 GTPase activity.
AB  - Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) is a therapy used clinically to promote
      healing. Using live-cell imaging we show that LIPUS stimulation, acting through
      integrin-mediated cell-matrix adhesions, rapidly induces Rac1 activation
      associated with dramatic actin cytoskeleton rearrangements. Our study
      demonstrates that the mechanosensitive focal adhesion (FA) protein vinculin, and
      both focal adhesion kinase (FAK, also known as PTK2) and Rab5 (both the Rab5a and
      Rab5b isoforms) have key roles in regulating these effects. Inhibiting the link
      of vinculin to the actin-cytoskeleton abolished LIPUS sensing. We show that this
      vinculin-mediated link was not only critical for Rac1 induction and actin
      rearrangements, but was also important for the induction of a Rab5-dependent
      increase in the number of early endosomes. Expression of dominant-negative Rab5,
      or inhibition of endocytosis with dynasore, also blocked LIPUS-induced Rac1
      signalling events. Taken together, our data show that LIPUS is sensed by cell
      matrix adhesions through vinculin, which in turn modulates a Rab5-Rac1 pathway to
      control ultrasound-mediated endocytosis and cell motility. Finally, we
      demonstrate that a similar FAK-Rab5-Rac1 pathway acts to control cell spreading
      upon fibronectin.

PMID- 28576972
TI  - Secreted tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase restricts trans-synaptic
      signaling to coordinate synaptogenesis.
AB  - Synaptogenesis is coordinated by trans-synaptic signals that traverse the
      specialized synaptomatrix between presynaptic and postsynaptic cells. Matrix
      metalloproteinase (Mmp) activity sculpts this environment, balanced by secreted
      tissue inhibitors of Mmp (Timp). Here, we use the simplified Drosophila
      melanogaster matrix metalloproteome to test the consequences of eliminating all
      Timp regulatory control of Mmp activity at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ).
      Using in situ zymography, we find Timp limits Mmp activity at the NMJ terminal
      and shapes extracellular proteolytic dynamics surrounding individual synaptic
      boutons. In newly generated timp null mutants, NMJs exhibit architectural
      overelaboration with supernumerary synaptic boutons. With cell-targeted RNAi and
      rescue studies, we find that postsynaptic Timp limits presynaptic architecture.
      Functionally, timp null mutants exhibit compromised synaptic vesicle cycling,
      with activity that is lower in amplitude and fidelity. NMJ defects manifest in
      impaired locomotor function. Mechanistically, we find that Timp limits BMP trans
      synaptic signaling and the downstream synapse-to-nucleus signal transduction.
      Pharmacologically restoring Mmp inhibition in timp null mutants corrects bone
      morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and synaptic properties. Genetically
      restoring BMP signaling in timp null mutants corrects NMJ structure and motor
      function. Thus, Timp inhibition of Mmp proteolytic activity restricts BMP trans
      synaptic signaling to coordinate synaptogenesis.

PMID- 28576973
TI  - Caspase-9 has a nonapoptotic function in Xenopus embryonic primitive blood
      formation.
AB  - Caspases constitute a family of cysteine proteases centrally involved in
      programmed cell death, which is an integral part of normal embryonic and fetal
      development. However, it has become clear that specific caspases also have
      functions independent of cell death. In order to identify novel apoptotic and
      nonapoptotic developmental caspase functions, we designed and transgenically
      integrated novel fluorescent caspase reporter constructs in developing Xenopus
      embryos and tadpoles. This model organism has an external development, allowing
      direct and continuous monitoring. These studies uncovered a nonapoptotic role for
      the initiator caspase-9 in primitive blood formation. Functional experiments
      further corroborated that caspase-9, but possibly not the executioners caspase-3
      and caspase-7, are required for primitive erythropoiesis in the early embryo.
      These data reveal a novel nonapoptotic function for the initiator caspase-9 and,
      for the first time, implicate nonapoptotic caspase activity in primitive blood
      formation.

PMID- 28576974
TI  - Lecithin:Cholesterol Acyltransferase Activation by Sulfhydryl-Reactive Small
      Molecules: Role of Cysteine-31.
AB  - Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) catalyzes plasma cholesteryl ester
      formation and is defective in familial lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase
      deficiency (FLD), an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by low high
      density lipoprotein, anemia, and renal disease. This study aimed to investigate
      the mechanism by which compound A [3-(5-(ethylthio)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2
      ylthio)pyrazine-2-carbonitrile], a small heterocyclic amine, activates LCAT. The
      effect of compound A on LCAT was tested in human plasma and with recombinant
      LCAT. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance were used to determine
      compound A adduct formation with LCAT. Molecular modeling was performed to gain
      insight into the effects of compound A on LCAT structure and activity. Compound A
      increased LCAT activity in a subset (three of nine) of LCAT mutations to levels
      comparable to FLD heterozygotes. The site-directed mutation LCAT-Cys31Gly
      prevented activation by compound A. Substitution of Cys31 with charged residues
      (Glu, Arg, and Lys) decreased LCAT activity, whereas bulky hydrophobic groups
      (Trp, Leu, Phe, and Met) increased activity up to 3-fold (P < 0.005). Mass
      spectrometry of a tryptic digestion of LCAT incubated with compound A revealed a
      +103.017 m/z adduct on Cys31, consistent with the addition of a single
      hydrophobic cyanopyrazine ring. Molecular modeling identified potential
      interactions of compound A near Cys31 and structural changes correlating with
      enhanced activity. Functional groups important for LCAT activation by compound A
      were identified by testing compound A derivatives. Finally, sulfhydryl-reactive
      beta-lactams were developed as a new class of LCAT activators. In conclusion,
      compound A activates LCAT, including some FLD mutations, by forming a hydrophobic
      adduct with Cys31, thus providing a mechanistic rationale for the design of
      future LCAT activators.

PMID- 28576975
TI  - Route of Administration Affects Corticosteroid Sensitivity of a Combined
      Ovalbumin and Lipopolysaccharide Model of Asthma Exacerbation in Guinea Pigs.
AB  - Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) contributes to asthma exacerbations and development of
      inhaled corticosteroid insensitivity. Complete resistance to systemic
      corticosteroids is rare, and most patients lie on a continuum of steroid
      responsiveness. This study aimed to examine the sensitivity of combined ovalbumin
      (Ova) and LPS-induced functional and inflammatory responses to inhaled and
      systemic corticosteroid in conscious guinea pigs to test the hypothesis that the
      route of administration affects sensitivity. Guinea pigs were sensitized to Ova
      and challenged with inhaled Ova alone or combined with LPS. Airway function was
      determined by measuring specific airway conductance via whole-body
      plethysmography. Airway hyper-responsiveness to histamine was determined before
      and 24 hours post-Ova challenge. Airway inflammation and underlying mechanisms
      were determined from bronchoalveolar lavage cell counts and lung tissue
      cytokines. Vehicle or dexamethasone was administered by once-daily i.p. injection
      (5, 10, or 20 mg/kg) or twice-daily inhalation (4 or 20 mg/ml) for 6 days before
      Ova challenge or Ova with LPS. LPS exacerbated Ova-induced responses, elongating
      early asthmatic responses (EAR), prolonging histamine bronchoconstriction, and
      further elevating airway inflammation. Intraperitoneal dexamethasone (20 mg/kg)
      significantly reduced the elongated EAR and airway inflammation but not the
      increased bronchoconstriction to histamine. In contrast, inhaled dexamethasone
      (20 mg/ml), which inhibited responses to Ova alone, did not significantly reduce
      functional and inflammatory responses to combined Ova and LPS. Combined Ova and
      LPS-induced functional and inflammatory responses are insensitive to inhaled, but
      they are only partially sensitive to systemic, dexamethasone. This finding
      suggests that the route of corticosteroid administration may be important in
      determining corticosteroid sensitivity of asthmatic responses.

PMID- 28576976
TI  - Pleiotropic and Adverse Effects of Statins-Do Epigenetics Play a Role?
AB  - Statins are widely used to prevent major cardiovascular events by lowering serum
      cholesterol. There is evidence that statins have pleiotropic effects-that is,
      cholesterol-independent effects-that may also confer protection from
      cardiovascular disease and potentially numerous other pathologies, including
      cancer. Statins also have a number of well described adverse effects, including
      myopathy, rhabdomyolysis, liver damage, and type 2 diabetes. This paper examines
      the evidence of epigenetic modifications as a contributory factor to the
      pleiotropic and adverse effects of statins. In vitro and animal studies have
      shown that statins can inhibit histone deacetylase activity and increase histone
      acetylation. Similarly, there is evidence that statins may inhibit both histone
      and DNA methyltransferases and subsequently demethylate histone residues and DNA,
      respectively. These changes have been shown to alter expression of various genes,
      including tumor suppressor genes and genes thought to have anti-atherosclerotic
      actions. Statins have also been shown to influence the expression of numerous
      microRNAs that suppress the translation of proteins involved in tumorigenesis and
      vascular function. Whether the adverse effects of statins may also have an
      epigenetic component has been less widely studied, although there is evidence
      that microRNA expression may be altered in statin-induced muscle and liver
      damage. As epigenetics and microRNAs influence gene expression, these changes
      could contribute to the pleiotropic and adverse effects of statins and have long
      lasting effects on the health of statin users.

PMID- 28576977
TI  - Monoclonal Invariant NKT (iNKT) Cell Mice Reveal a Role for Both Tissue of Origin
      and the TCR in Development of iNKT Functional Subsets.
AB  - Invariant NKT (iNKT) cell functional subsets are defined by key transcription
      factors and output of cytokines, such as IL-4, IFN-gamma, IL-17, and IL-10. To
      examine how TCR specificity determines iNKT function, we used somatic cell
      nuclear transfer to generate three lines of mice cloned from iNKT nuclei. Each
      line uses the invariant Valpha14Jalpha18 TCRalpha paired with unique Vbeta7 or
      Vbeta8.2 subunits. We examined tissue homing, expression of PLZF, T-bet, and
      RORgammat, and cytokine profiles and found that, although monoclonal iNKT cells
      differentiated into all functional subsets, the NKT17 lineage was reduced or
      expanded depending on the TCR expressed. We examined iNKT thymic development in
      limited-dilution bone marrow chimeras and show that higher TCR avidity correlates
      with higher PLZF and reduced T-bet expression. iNKT functional subsets showed
      distinct tissue distribution patterns. Although each individual monoclonal TCR
      showed an inherent subset distribution preference that was evident across all
      tissues examined, the iNKT cytokine profile differed more by tissue of origin
      than by TCR specificity.

PMID- 28576978
TI  - Hox5 Paralogous Genes Modulate Th2 Cell Function during Chronic Allergic
      Inflammation via Regulation of Gata3.
AB  - Allergic asthma is a significant health burden in western countries, and
      continues to increase in prevalence. Th2 cells contribute to the development of
      disease through release of the cytokines IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, resulting in
      increased airway eosinophils and mucus hypersecretion. The molecular mechanisms
      behind the disease pathology remain largely unknown. In this study we
      investigated a potential regulatory role for the Hox5 gene family, Hoxa5, Hoxb5,
      and Hoxc5, genes known to be important in lung development within mesenchymal
      cell populations. We found that Hox5-mutant mice show exacerbated pathology
      compared with wild-type controls in a chronic allergen model, with an increased
      Th2 response and exacerbated lung tissue pathology. Bone marrow chimera
      experiments indicated that the observed enhanced pathology was mediated by immune
      cell function independent of mesenchymal cell Hox5 family function. Examination
      of T cells grown in Th2 polarizing conditions showed increased proliferation,
      enhanced Gata3 expression, and elevated production of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 in
      Hox5-deficient T cells compared with wild-type controls. Overexpression of FLAG
      tagged HOX5 proteins in Jurkat cells demonstrated HOX5 binding to the Gata3 locus
      and decreased Gata3 and IL-4 expression, supporting a role for HOX5 proteins in
      direct transcriptional control of Th2 development. These results reveal a novel
      role for Hox5 genes as developmental regulators of Th2 immune cell function that
      demonstrates a redeployment of mesenchyme-associated developmental genes.

PMID- 28576980
TI  - TLR9 Regulates the NF-kappaB-NLRP3-IL-1beta Pathway Negatively in Salmonella
      Induced NKG2D-Mediated Intestinal Inflammation.
AB  - TLRs are key sensors for conserved bacterial molecules and play a critical role
      in host defense against invading pathogens. Although the roles of TLRs in defense
      against pathogen infection and in maintaining gut immune homeostasis have been
      studied, the precise functions of different TLRs in response to pathogen
      infection in the gut remain elusive. The present study investigated the role of
      TLR signaling in defense against the Gram-negative bacterial pathogen Salmonella
      typhimurium The results indicated that TLR9-deficient mice were more susceptible
      to S. typhimurium infection compared with wild-type and TLR2- or TLR4-deficient
      mice, as indicated by more severe intestinal damage and the highest bacterial
      load. TLR9 deficiency in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) augmented the
      activation of NF-kappaB and NLRP3 inflammasomes significantly, resulting in
      increased secretion of IL-1beta. IL-1beta increased the expression of NKG2D on
      intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes and NKG2D ligands on IECs, resulting in
      higher susceptibility of IECs to cytotoxicity of intestinal intraepithelial
      lymphocytes and damage to the epithelial barrier. We proposed that TLR9 regulates
      the NF-kappaB-NLRP3-IL-1beta pathway negatively in Salmonella-induced NKG2D
      mediated intestinal inflammation and plays a critical role in defense against S.
      typhimurium infection and in the protection of intestinal integrity.

PMID- 28576984
TI  - Pets at risk as vaccinations decline.

PMID- 28576985
TI  - Who will get your vote next week?
AB  - How do the political parties compare on Brexit and animal welfare issues?

PMID- 28576979
TI  - Controlled Human Malaria Infection Leads to Long-Lasting Changes in Innate and
      Innate-like Lymphocyte Populations.
AB  - Animal model studies highlight the role of innate-like lymphocyte populations in
      the early inflammatory response and subsequent parasite control following
      Plasmodium infection. IFN-gamma production by these lymphocytes likely plays a
      key role in the early control of the parasite and disease severity. Analyzing
      human innate-like T cell and NK cell responses following infection with
      Plasmodium has been challenging because the early stages of infection are
      clinically silent. To overcome this limitation, we examined blood samples from a
      controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) study in a Tanzanian cohort, in which
      volunteers underwent CHMI with a low or high dose of Plasmodium falciparum
      sporozoites. The CHMI differentially affected NK, NKT (invariant NKT), and
      mucosal-associated invariant T cell populations in a dose-dependent manner,
      resulting in an altered composition of this innate-like lymphocyte compartment.
      Although these innate-like responses are typically thought of as short-lived, we
      found that changes persisted for months after the infection was cleared, leading
      to significantly increased frequencies of mucosal-associated invariant T cells 6
      mo postinfection. We used single-cell RNA sequencing and TCR alphabeta-chain
      usage analysis to define potential mechanisms for this expansion. These single
      cell data suggest that this increase was mediated by homeostatic expansion-like
      mechanisms. Together, these data demonstrate that CHMI leads to previously
      unappreciated long-lasting alterations in the human innate-like lymphocyte
      compartment. We discuss the consequences of these changes for recurrent parasite
      infection and infection-associated pathologies and highlight the importance of
      considering host immunity and infection history for vaccine design.

PMID- 28576989
TI  - Targeted control measures to reduce bovine TB 'are working' in Wales.

PMID- 28576993
TI  - Owners of brachycephalic dogs pay more attention to looks than health.

PMID- 28576995
TI  - Disease surveillance in England and Wales, May 2017.
AB  - Current and emerging issues: potentially toxic blue-green algal blooms
      Highlights from the scanning surveillance network Update on international disease
      threats Focus on topical issues and recent cases relating to wildlifeThese are
      among matters discussed in the Animal and Plant Health Agency's (APHA's) disease
      surveillance report for May 2017.

PMID- 28576981
TI  - STAT1 Represses Cytokine-Producing Group 2 and Group 3 Innate Lymphoid Cells
      during Viral Infection.
AB  - The appropriate orchestration of different arms of the immune response is
      critical during viral infection to promote efficient viral clearance while
      limiting immunopathology. However, the signals and mechanisms that guide this
      coordination are not fully understood. IFNs are produced at high levels during
      viral infection and have convergent signaling through STAT1. We hypothesized that
      STAT1 signaling during viral infection regulates the balance of innate lymphoid
      cells (ILC), a diverse class of lymphocytes that are poised to respond to
      environmental insults including viral infections with the potential for both
      antiviral or immunopathologic functions. During infection with respiratory
      syncytial virus (RSV), STAT1-deficient mice had reduced numbers of antiviral IFN
      gamma+ ILC1 and increased numbers of immunopathologic IL-5+ and IL-13+ ILC2 and
      IL-17A+ ILC3 compared with RSV-infected wild-type mice. Using bone marrow
      chimeric mice, we found that both ILC-intrinsic and ILC-extrinsic factors were
      responsible for this ILC dysregulation during viral infection in STAT1-deficient
      mice. Regarding ILC-extrinsic mechanisms, we found that STAT1-deficient mice had
      significantly increased expression of IL-33 and IL-23, cytokines that promote
      ILC2 and ILC3, respectively, compared with wild-type mice during RSV infection.
      Moreover, disruption of IL-33 or IL-23 signaling attenuated cytokine-producing
      ILC2 and ILC3 responses in STAT1-deficient mice during RSV infection.
      Collectively, these data demonstrate that STAT1 is a key orchestrator of cytokine
      producing ILC responses during viral infection via ILC-extrinsic regulation of IL
      33 and IL-23.

PMID- 28576996
TI  - Wildlife: topical issues, recent cases.
AB  - This focus article was prepared by Paul Duff, Paul Holmes and Alex Barlow of the
      APHA Wildlife Expert Group.

PMID- 28576997
TI  - What is causing acute haemorrhagic diarrhoea syndrome in dogs?

PMID- 28576999
TI  - Can zoo licensing be improved?

PMID- 28577000
TI  - Hunting with hounds.

PMID- 28577001
TI  - Transfusion medicine across the species.

PMID- 28577002
TI  - Transfusion medicine across the species.

PMID- 28577004
TI  - No action likely on slaughter without stunning.

PMID- 28577003
TI  - Holly leaf ingestion causing pharyngeal obstruction in lambs.

PMID- 28577005
TI  - Duncan McMartin.
AB  - A veterinarian whose contributions to avian health and food safety were
      recognised nationally and internationally. He enthusiastically and readily shared
      his knowledge about poultry care and health.

PMID- 28577006
TI  - General Election 2017: influencing the party manifestos.
AB  - Amy Waddell, BVA head of media and public affairs, says that following the
      announcement of a snap General Election, BVA has produced a manifesto for 2017,
      highlighting 20 key recommendations for the next Government to consider in terms
      of domestic policy setting as well as throughout Brexit discussions.

PMID- 28577007
TI  - Helping clients understand pets' needs.
AB  - During National Pet Month in April the Veterinary Animal Welfare Coalition
      launched its second public-facing campaign to improve pet owners' understanding
      of their animals' welfare, writes Felicity Quick, BVA media officer.

PMID- 28577009
TI  - Championing the profession in Scotland.
AB  - Hayley Atkin, BVA Policy Officer, gives a roundup of highlights from BVA Scottish
      Branch.

PMID- 28577008
TI  - Great value BVA In Practice CPD for 2017.
AB  - BVA has 16 CPD courses coming up for the second half of the year. They are aimed
      at vets working in general and mixed practice. Zoe Davies, marketing manager,
      outlines some of the highlights.

PMID- 28577010
TI  - Hop to it to help rabbits.
AB  - Rabbit Awareness Week promotes the welfare needs of rabbits; it takes place from
      June 17 to 25.

PMID- 28577011
TI  - Outback is put through its paces.
AB  - Ashley Rubens, winner of the competition to find the BVA member facing the
      toughest driving conditions in the UK, has spent the past few months putting a
      Subaru Outback through its paces.

PMID- 28577013
TI  - How I found my career.
AB  - Kenny Hall was unaware of the veterinary nursing profession until his vet student
      girlfriend suggested it would be the perfect career for him. As a male nurse he
      got used to being a 'rarity' and now encourages other men to consider veterinary
      nursing as a great career choice.

PMID- 28577012
TI  - Help build a network that's right for you.
AB  - Becky Richardson, Young Vet Network representative on BVA Council, explains how
      young vets can get involved.

PMID- 28577014
TI  - My week: Greta Manfrin.
AB  - Greta Manfrin joined Vets Now through its Cutting Edge programme. Here, she
      describes a recent working week as the principal vet at an out-of-hours pet
      emergency clinic in Gillingham, Kent.

PMID- 28577015
TI  - PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL COHORT STUDY OF PREDICTORS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
      PEGYLATED INTERFERON IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATITIS C IN GEORGIA.
AB  - The main objective of the study was to evaluate the predictive values of
      virological response at 4th and 12th weeks after treatment initiation on
      sustained virological response by HCV genotype in patients with hepatitis C in
      Georgia. Local, non-interventional, prospective, cohort study was conducted in
      2011-2016. A cohort of adult peginterferon treatment naive patients with chronic
      hepatitis C were observed during the complete active treatment period with
      PEGASYS(r)/COPEGUS(r) and 24 weeks after the end of treatment. HCV RNA titers
      were assessed prior to treatment, after 4, 12 weeks of treatment, at the end of
      treatment and 24 weeks after the end of treatment.530 men and women aged >=18
      years with serologically proven CHC (all genotypes) were enrolled in this study.
      Enrolles study subjects were treated with PEGASYS(r) 180mkg (peginterferon alfa
      2a) in combination with COPEGUS(r) 200mg (ribavirin) according to the current
      standard of care and in line with current summary of product characteristics. All
      clinical information for this cohort study was collected from the patient's
      medical records. All laboratory parameters which were collected for this
      observational study according to the protocol were performed in study centers.
      All data were analyzed with descriptive and analytical statistics. Our analysis
      demonstrated that the early achievement of viral response predicts the higher
      probability of achieving sustainvirul response. The viral response itself was
      strongly associated with baseline liver fibrosis quantitive HCV RNA level. Early
      starting of treatment determines the probability of achievement higher osustain
      viral response.

PMID- 28577016
TI  - CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF INFLUENZA A/H1N1PDM AND B AMONG
      HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN, GEORGIA, SEASON 2010-2011.
AB  - The aim of the study was to describe, analyze and compare clinical and
      epidemiological characteristics of laboratory confirmed influenza A(H1N1)pdm and
      B cases in hospitalized children during post pandemic season. Between 1st January
      and 1st May, 2011 retrospective observational study was conducted in M. Iashvili
      Children's Central Hospital. From 1028 patients with influenza like illness
      hospitalized at Children's Hospital 871 specimens were collected and 360 tested
      positive for influenza: A(H1N1)pdm - 139 and B - 221. Data were obtained for 290
      cases: A(H1N1)pdm - 122 and B - 168. At the time of hospital admission, influenza
      A(H1N1)pdm and B cases had similar median age of 2 years. The median length of
      hospital stay was 5 days for both influenza types. Predominant clinical symptoms
      were fever (98.3%), cough (82.4%) and running nose (68.6%). 39.7% (115/290) of
      patients suffered with lower respiratory tract infection: A(H1N1)pdm - 41%
      (50/122) and B - 38.7% (65/168). 19% (55/290) developed pneumonia of which 12
      with primary diagnosis of acute respiratory failure were admitted to ICU:
      A(H1N1)pdm - 4.9% (6/122) and B - 3.6% (6/168). Median length in ICU stay was 6
      days. Only two patients with A(H1N1)pdm required artificial ventilation with one
      fatal outcome. Almost equally (31%) patients with influenza A or B viruses
      suffered with at least one pre-existing condition. Statistically significant
      association was revealed between neurological pre-existing conditions and
      developing pneumonia (OR=5.6; p=0.00) and ICU requirement (OR=17.5, p=0.00).
      Congenital malformations were also associated with sever course of disease
      (OR=9.1; p=0.01). Treatment with antiviral oseltamivir was prescribed to 29.5%
      (36/122) A(H1N1)pdm and 8.3% (14/168) B cases among whom only 24% cases received
      antiviral within 48 hours after symptoms onset. None of the patients was
      vaccinated against influenza. Our study revealed no significant difference
      between influenza A(H1N1)pdm and influenza B in terms of age distribution,
      clinical manifestation, hospital stay or complications in hospitalized children
      during post pandemic season. Pre-existing conditions such as neurological
      disorders and congenital malformations represented risk factors for severe course
      of influenza, therefore timely antiviral treatment and annual influenza
      vaccination is recommended to avoid complications.

PMID- 28577017
TI  - Effect of CYP2C19 Gene Polymorphisms on Proton Pump Inhibitor, Amoxicillin, and
      Levofloxacin Triple Therapy for Eradication of Helicobacter Pylori.
AB  - BACKGROUND The effects of PPI are variable owing to the CYP2C19 polymorphisms.
      However, whether the polymorphisms could affect the Hp eradication efficacy of
      triple therapy is still not clear. The present study aimed to assess the effects
      of CYP2C19 gene polymorphisms on proton pump inhibitor (PPI), amoxicillin, and
      levofloxacin triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori (Hp) eradication. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS We randomly assigned 160 Hp-positive patients with chronic gastritis
      to 2 groups to receive either 20 mg bid omeprazole (OAL group, n=80) or 10 mg bid
      rabeprazole (RAL group, n=80), combined with 1000 mg bid amoxicillin and 500 mg
      qd levofloxacin. The 2 groups were treated for 10 days. The CYP2C19 genotypes
      included wild-type, M1 mutant gene (*2, the mutation of exon 5), and M2 mutant
      gene (*3, the mutation of exon 4) identified by polymerase chain reaction
      restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFIP). According to CYP2C19
      genotype combinations, the patients were divided into extensive metabolizer (EM),
      intermediate metabolizer (IM), and poor metabolizer (PM) subgroups. The
      eradication efficacy of Hp was evaluated by 14C-UBT at 28 days after treatment.
      RESULTS The trial was completed by 155 patients. Hp eradication rates in OAL and
      RAL groups were 78.2% and 88.3%, respectively, on per-protocol (PP) analysis,
      indicating no significant difference (P>0.05). Regarding CYP2C19 genotypes,
      eradication rates of 60.7%, 84.2%, and 100% were obtained for EM, IM, and PM
      subgroups, respectively, of the OAL group. EM group eradication rates were
      significantly lower than IM and PM group values (P<0.05). In the RAL group, no
      such difference was observed (P>0.05). Hp eradication rates were significantly
      lower in the EM subgroup of the OAL group compared with that of the RAL group.
      CONCLUSIONS Hp eradication rates were higher in the RAL group than in OAL-treated
      patients. Interestingly, omeprazole-based therapy was significantly affected by
      the CYP2C19 genotype, unlike the rabeprazole-based therapy.

PMID- 28577018
TI  - A Case of Kidney Involvement in Primary Sjogren's Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune disorder caused by the
      infiltration of monocytes in epithelial glandular and extra-glandular tissues.
      Hallmark presentations include mouth and eye dryness. Although renal involvement
      is uncommon in primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS), patients may experience renal
      tubular acidosis type I (RTA I), tubulointerstitial nephritis, diabetes insipidus
      (DI), nephrolithiasis, and Fanconi syndrome. However, it is atypical to see more
      than 1 of these manifestations in a single patient. CASE REPORT We present the
      case of a 24-year-old woman with polyuria and polydipsia, who was initially
      diagnosed with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. She also had chronic hypokalemia
      and nephrolithiasis. Based on clinical presentation and work up, she was
      diagnosed with pSS and treated accordingly. CONCLUSIONS This was a pSS patient
      with tubulointerstitial nephritis, diabetes insipidus, renal tubular acidosis,
      hypokalemia, and nephrolithiasis, who was receiving symptomatic treatment for
      diabetes insipidus. Diagnosis and treatment of pSS led to significant improvement
      in systemic and renal presentations of the patient. pSS should be considered as
      one of the differential diagnoses in patients with diabetes insipidus and renal
      tubular acidosis.

PMID- 28577019
TI  - RNA-sequencing Identifies Novel Pathways in Sarcoidosis Monocytes.
AB  - Sarcoidosis is a complex systemic granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology.
      Genome-wide association studies have not been able to explain a causative role
      for nucleotide variation in its pathogenesis. The goal of the present study was
      to identify the gene expression profile and the cellular pathways altered in
      sarcoidosis monocytes via RNA-sequencing. Peripheral blood monocytes play a role
      in sarcoidosis inflammation. Therefore, we determined and compared the
      transcriptional signature of monocytes from peripheral blood from sarcoidosis
      patients and healthy controls via RNA-sequencing. We found 2,446 differentially
      expressed (DE) genes between sarcoidosis and healthy control monocytes. Analysis
      of these DE genes showed enrichment for ribosome, phagocytosis, lysosome,
      proteasome, oxidative phosphorylation and metabolic pathways. RNA-sequencing
      identified upregulation of genes involved in phagocytosis and lysosomal pathway
      in sarcoidosis monocytes, whereas genes involved in proteasome degradation and
      ribosomal pathways were downregulated. Further studies are needed to investigate
      the role of specific genes involved in the identified pathways and their possible
      interaction leading to sarcoidosis pathology.

PMID- 28577020
TI  - Assessment of the diagnostic value of different biomarkers in relation to various
      stages of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetic patients.
AB  - Albuminuria is widely used to indicate early phases of diabetic nephropathy
      although it is limited by the fact that structural damage might precede albumin
      excretion. This necessitates identifying better biomarkers that diagnose or
      predict diabetic nephropathy. This is a cross-sectional hospital based study
      recruiting type 2 diabetic patients cohort aged 35-75 years with diabetes
      duration of >=10 years. Out of total eligible 467 patients, 200 patients were
      with normal albumin excretion, 184 patients with microalbuminuria and 83 patients
      with macroalbuminuria. All the patients were tested for the 22 selected
      biomarkers including serum, plasma and urinary markers. Sensitivity, specificity,
      and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated as measures of diagnostic
      accuracy. Out of the tested biomarkers, urinary transferrin, urinary Retinol
      binding protein (RBP) and serum osteopontin had the best diagnostic value for
      diabetic nephropathy presence based on the AUC value. The rest of the biomarkers
      had comparatively less or even no discriminative power. The urinary transferrin
      and RBP and serum osteopontin, had the best diagnostic value in type 2 diabetic
      patients at different stages of diabetic nephropathy. Further longitudinal
      prospective studies are needed to evaluate the predictive power of those markers
      for detecting diabetic nephropathy before any structural damage occurs.

PMID- 28577022
TI  - Liquid-liquid extraction intensification by micro-droplet rotation in a
      hydrocyclone.
AB  - The previous literature reports that using a hydrocyclone as an extractor
      intensifies the mass transfer and largely reduces the consumption of extractant
      from 1800-2000 kg h-1 to 30-90 kg h-1. However, the intensification mechanism has
      not been clear. This paper presents experimental and numerical methods to study
      the multi-scale motion of particles in hydrocyclones. In addition to the usually
      considered translational behavior, the high-speed rotation of dispersed micro
      spheres caused by the anisotropic swirling shear flow is determined. The rotation
      speeds of the tested micro-spheres are above 1000 rad s-1, which are much larger
      than the instantaneous rotation speed in isotropic turbulence. Due to the conical
      structure of a hydrocyclone, the rotation speed maintains stability along the
      axial direction. Numerical results show that the particle Reynolds number of
      micro-droplets in a hydrocyclone is equal to that in conventional extractors, but
      the particles have high rotation speeds of up to 10,000 rad s-1 and long mixing
      lengths of more than 1000 mm. Both the rotation of micro-droplets along the
      spiral trajectories and the intense eddy diffusion in a hydrocyclone contribute
      to the extraction intensification.

PMID- 28577021
TI  - Segmental Duplication of Chromosome 11 and its Implications for Cell Division and
      Genome-wide Expression in Rice.
AB  - Segmental duplication is a major structural variation that occurs in chromosomes.
      Duplication leads to the production of gene copies with increased numbers of
      related repeat segments, causing the global genome to be in a state of imbalance.
      In addition, if the added segment contains a centromeric specific DNA, the
      duplicated chromosome will have structural multiple centromeres. We identified a
      segmental duplication containing structurally tricentric regions derived from the
      short arm of chromosome 11 (11L? + 11L? + 11S?11S?11S?11S, "?" represents the
      centromeric DNA repeat loci), and analyzed its implications for cell division and
      genome-wide expression. In the variant, only the middle centromere of
      11S?11S?11S?11S is functionally active. As a result, the structurally tricentric
      chromosome was stable in mitosis, because it is actually a functional monocentric
      chromosome. However, the structurally tricentric chromosome, which usually formed
      a bivalent, was either arranged on the equatorial plane or was lagging, which
      affected its separation during meiosis. Furthermore, RNA-seq and RT-qPCR analysis
      showed that the segmental duplication affected genome-wide expression patterns.
      34.60% of genes in repeat region showed positive dosage effect. Thus, the genes
      on chromosome arm 11S-2 didn't exhibit obviously dosage compensation, as
      illustrated by no peak around a ratio of 1.00. However, the gene dosage effect
      will reduce after sexual reproduction of a generation.

PMID- 28577023
TI  - Palaeoclimatic conditions in the Mediterranean explain genetic diversity of
      Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows.
AB  - Past environmental conditions in the Mediterranean Sea have been proposed as main
      drivers of the current patterns of distribution of genetic structure of the
      seagrass Posidonia oceanica, the foundation species of one of the most important
      ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, the location of cold climate refugia
      (persistence regions) for this species during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is
      not clear, precluding the understanding of its biogeographical history. We used
      Ecological Niche Modelling together with existing phylogeographic data to locate
      Pleistocene refugia in the Mediterranean Sea and to develop a hypothetical past
      biogeographical distribution able to explain the genetic diversity presently
      found in P. oceanica meadows. To do that, we used an ensemble approach of six
      predictive algorithms and two Ocean General Circulation Models. The minimum SST
      in winter and the maximum SST in summer allowed us to hindcast the species range
      during the LGM. We found separate glacial refugia in each Mediterranean basin and
      in the Central region. Altogether, the results suggest that the Central region of
      the Mediterranean Sea was the most relevant cold climate refugium, supporting the
      hypothesis that long-term persistence there allowed the region to develop and
      retain its presently high proportion of the global genetic diversity of P.
      oceanica.

PMID- 28577024
TI  - Voluntary movement reverses the effect of cathodal transcranial direct current
      stimulation (tDCS) on corticomotor excitability.
AB  - Motor cortex activity level is a critical part of the effect of transcranial
      direct current stimulation (tDCS) on corticomotor excitability. Based on
      homeostatic plasticity, the state of the stimulated cortical area influences the
      direction of neuroplastic changes induced by stimuli. Owing to homeostatic
      plasticity, cathodal tDCS (c-tDCS) would likely have a pronounced inhibitory
      effect on corticomotor excitability during a motor task, compared with the
      resting state. To test this hypothesis, we detected motor evoked potential (MEP)
      amplitude changes before and during c-tDCS with voluntary movement. Twelve
      healthy right-handed volunteers (9 males, 27-48 years) were enrolled in the
      study. Subjects performed little finger abduction motor task. Passive (APB) and
      active (ADM) muscles were studied. MEP amplitudes were measured during resting
      (baseline) and movement stages, and subsequently with the contralateral M1
      modulated by c-tDCS. c-tDCS caused reduced baseline MEP amplitude in the ADM (p <
      0.05) and APB (p < 0.001) muscles. Sham stimulation had no effect on the baseline
      MEP amplitudes. MEP amplitude ratio (MEP amplitude triggered by movement/baseline
      MEP amplitude) was higher during c-tDCS than before c-tDCS (p < 0.01). Our
      results suggested that during voluntary contraction, c-tDCS has an opposite
      effect on corticospinal excitability compared with resting state modulation
      effect. This contrast effect could be related to modulation of movement
      preparation and execution.

PMID- 28577025
TI  - SUV driving "masculinizes" risk behavior in females: a public health challenge.
AB  - Involvement of sport utility vehicles (SUV) in accidents especially with children
      is of increasing importance. Studies have indicated a more risky behavior in SUV
      drivers. We conducted an observational study focusing on traffic violations, car
      type, and the gender of the driver in Vienna. The study was conducted on five
      weekdays at the beginning of school term. Three busy intersections were
      selected.Drivers of 43,168 normal cars and 5653 SUVs were counted at the
      intersections during the observation period. In total 13.8% drivers were
      unbelted, 3.1% were using a handheld mobile phone, and 2.5% violated traffic
      lights. These frequencies were significantly higher in SUV drivers than in normal
      passenger car drivers. This "SUV effect" also occurred in women for all
      violations, although male drivers violated traffic laws more often than female
      drivers. However, for driving unbelted the difference between males and females
      was smaller in SUV drivers.

PMID- 28577026
TI  - Low temperature, autotrophic microbial denitrification using thiosulfate or
      thiocyanate as electron donor.
AB  - Wastewaters generated during mining and processing of metal sulfide ores are
      often acidic (pH < 3) and can contain significant concentrations of nitrate,
      nitrite, and ammonium from nitrogen based explosives. In addition, wastewaters
      from sulfide ore treatment plants and tailings ponds typically contain large
      amounts of inorganic sulfur compounds, such as thiosulfate and tetrathionate.
      Release of these wastewaters can lead to environmental acidification as well as
      an increase in nutrients (eutrophication) and compounds that are potentially
      toxic to humans and animals. Waters from cyanidation plants for gold extraction
      will often conjointly include toxic, sulfur containing thiocyanate. More
      stringent regulatory limits on the release of mining wastes containing compounds
      such as inorganic sulfur compounds, nitrate, and thiocyanate, along the need to
      increase production from sulfide mineral mining calls for low cost techniques to
      remove these pollutants under ambient temperatures (approximately 8  degrees C).
      In this study, we used both aerobic and anaerobic continuous cultures to
      successfully couple inorganic sulfur compound (i.e. thiosulfate and thiocyanate)
      oxidation for the removal of nitrogenous compounds under neutral to acidic pH at
      the low temperatures typical for boreal climates. Furthermore, the development of
      the respective microbial communities was identified over time by DNA sequencing,
      and found to contain a consortium including populations aligning within
      Flavobacterium, Thiobacillus, and Comamonadaceae lineages. This is the first
      study to remediate mining waste waters by coupling autotrophic thiocyanate
      oxidation to nitrate reduction at low temperatures and acidic pH by means of an
      identified microbial community.

PMID- 28577027
TI  - Heavy metal accumulation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells armed with metal
      binding hexapeptides targeted to the inner face of the plasma membrane.
AB  - Accumulation of heavy metals without developing toxicity symptoms is a phenotype
      restricted to a small group of plants called hyperaccumulators, whose metal
      related characteristics suggested the high potential in biotechnologies such as
      bioremediation and bioextraction. In an attempt to extrapolate the heavy metal
      hyperaccumulating phenotype to yeast, we obtained Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells
      armed with non-natural metal-binding hexapeptides targeted to the inner face of
      the plasma membrane, expected to sequester the metal ions once they penetrated
      the cell. We describe the construction of S. cerevisiae strains overexpressing
      metal-binding hexapeptides (MeBHxP) fused to the carboxy-terminus of a
      myristoylated green fluorescent protein (myrGFP). Three non-toxic myrGFP-MeBHxP
      (myrGFP-H6, myrGFP-C6, and myrGFP-(DE)3) were investigated against an array of
      heavy metals in terms of their effect on S. cerevisiae growth, heavy metal
      (hyper) accumulation, and capacity to remove heavy metal from contaminated
      environments.

PMID- 28577029
TI  - [Osteoarthritis of the upper ankle joint].
AB  - The majority of cases of upper ankle joint (UAJ) osteoarthritis are due to
      secondary causes. Clinically, osteoarthritis is usually characterized by an
      increasing limitation in dorsal extension of the UAJ with often relatively mild
      symptoms. In the course of time the full scale of the typical symptoms and the
      progressive restriction of the global function of the joint develop. Conservative
      therapy is often able to provide long-term improvement of the symptoms for the
      majority of patients by means of intermittent analgesics and orthoses as well as
      shoe modifications. Operative treatment strategies for initial stages are based
      on joint-sparing methods. The most frequently used therapy for progressive
      destruction of the UAJ is still arthrodesis. Total ankle replacement is becoming
      an increasingly more competitive procedure. Total ankle replacement provides a
      valuable extension of therapeutic possibilities for UAJ osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28577028
TI  - Ketones 2-heptanone, 2-nonanone, and 2-undecanone inhibit DnaK-dependent
      refolding of heat-inactivated bacterial luciferases in Escherichia coli cells
      lacking small chaperon IbpB.
AB  - Many bacteria, fungi, and plants produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
      emitted to the environment. Bacterial VOCs play an important role in interactions
      between microorganisms and in bacterial-plant interactions. Here, we show that
      such VOCs as ketones 2-heptanone, 2-nonanone, and 2-undecanone inhibit the DnaKJE
      ClpB bichaperone dependent refolding of heat-inactivated bacterial luciferases.
      The inhibitory activity of ketones had highest effect in Escherichia coli
      ibpB::kan cells lacking small chaperone IbpB. Effect of ketones activity
      increased in the series: 2-pentanone, 2-undecanone, 2-heptanone, and 2-nonanone.
      These observations can be explained by the interaction of ketones with
      hydrophobic segments of heat-inactivated substrates and the competition with the
      chaperones IbpAB. If the small chaperone IbpB is absent in E. coli cells, the
      ketones block the hydrophobic segments of the polypeptides and inhibit the action
      of the bichaperone system. These results are consistent with the data on
      inhibitory effects of VOCs on survival of bacteria. It can be suggested that the
      inhibitory activity of the ketones indicated is associated with different ability
      of these substances to interact with hydrophobic segments in proteins.

PMID- 28577030
TI  - Stereotactic radiosurgery for small brain metastases and implications regarding
      management with systemic therapy alone.
AB  - While stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has been shown effective in the management
      of brain metastases, small brain metastases (<=10 mm) can pose unique challenges.
      Our aim was to investigate the efficacy of SRS in the treatment of small brain
      metastases, as well as elucidate clinically relevant factors impacting local
      failure (LF). We utilized a large, single-institution cohort to perform a
      retrospective analysis of patients with brain metastases up to 1 cm in maximal
      dimension. Clinical and radiosurgical parameters were investigated for an
      association with LF and compared using a competing risk model to calculate
      cumulative incidence functions, with death and whole brain radiotherapy serving
      as competing risks. 1596 small brain metastases treated with SRS among 424
      patients were included. Among these tumors, 33 developed LF during the follow-up
      period (2.4% at 12 months following SRS). Competing risk analysis demonstrated
      that LF was dependent on tumor size (0.7% if <=2 mm and 3.0% if 2-10 mm at 12
      months, p = 0.016). Other factors associated with increasing risk of LF were the
      decreasing margin dose, increasing maximal tumor diameter, volume, and
      radioresistant tumors (each p < 0.01). 22 tumors (0.78%) developed radiographic
      radiation necrosis following SRS, and this incidence did not differ by tumor size
      (<=2 mm and 2-10 mm, p = 0.200). This large analysis confirms that SRS remains an
      effective modality in treatment of small brain metastases. In light of the
      excellent local control and relatively low risk of toxicity, patients with small
      brain metastases who otherwise have a reasonable expected survival should be
      considered for radiosurgical management.

PMID- 28577031
TI  - Natural history of optic pathway gliomas in a cohort of unselected patients
      affected by Neurofibromatosis 1.
AB  - Optic pathway glioma (OPG) represents the most common central nervous system
      tumor in children with Neurofibromatosis type-1 (NF1). Although overall survival
      is usually good, no clear prognostic factors have been identified so far. We
      assessed the natural history of OPG in a cohort of unselected patients affected
      by NF1. We retrospectively evaluated 414 consecutive patients affected by NF1 and
      referred to our NF1 clinic before age 6. Average follow-up was 11.9 years: 52 out
      of 414 patients had OPG with a total cumulative incidence of 15.4% at age 15
      (Kaplan-Meier estimate) and a statistically significant difference according to
      sex. Brain and orbit MRI was performed in 44.7% of patients: 34.6% for screening
      purposes and 65.4% because of the presence of neurological, ocular or other
      symptoms. OPG was diagnosed in 12.5% of cases in the first group, whereas in
      36.4% in the latter group (p = 0.001). Clinical management was conservative in
      most patients, while 8 of them underwent therapy mainly because of visual
      deterioration. OPG was diagnosed earlier in treated patients, but the difference
      was not statistically significant. Conversely, all patients who underwent
      screening MRI had normal visual outcome. In conclusion, OPG location does not
      correlate with need for treatment; female patients were more frequently affected
      by OPG but not more frequently treated. OPG diagnosis by screening MRI does not
      affect the natural history of the tumor.

PMID- 28577032
TI  - Advancements in the study of miRNA regulation during the cell cycle in human
      pituitary adenomas.
AB  - Pituitary adenomas (PAs), single-clone adenomas arising from pituitary gland
      cells, comprise one of the most frequent tumors found in the sella region. The
      prevalence of PAs is approximately 15%, third only after gliomas and meningioma
      among intracranial tumors. Autopsy and radiological analysis found that the
      incidence of PAs is approximately 22.5%. Most PAs are benign, although a few are
      malignant. Just 0.1% of patients with PAs develop pituitary carcinoma. However,
      owing to mass effects and unregulated secretion of pituitary hormones, PAs also
      lead to serious morbidity. The low rate of diagnosis at onset and the lack of
      effective treatments for patients with recurrent disease increase the morbidity
      rates. Therefore, there is an urgent need to ascertain the pathological mechanism
      of PAs for improved diagnosis and development of specific therapies. At present,
      the pathogenesis of PAs is poorly understood; however, disruption of the cell
      cycle is known to play an important role. MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs that
      regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and play a role in
      regulating genes involved in carcinogenesis or tumor suppression. Previous
      studies have demonstrated a strong connection between dysregulation of microRNAs
      and dysregulation of the cell cycle in PAs. In this review, we summarize the
      recent progress in the study of microRNA dysregulation resulting in disruption of
      the cell cycle in PAs.

PMID- 28577033
TI  - Impact of acute hematological toxicity on treatment interruptions during cranio
      spinal irradiation in medulloblastoma: a tertiary care institute experience.
AB  - To analyze treatment interruptions due to acute hematological toxicity in
      patients of medulloblastoma receiving cranio-spinal irradiation (CSI).
      Prospectively collected data from case records of 52 patients of medulloblastoma
      treated between 2011 and 2014 was evaluated. Blood counts were monitored twice a
      week during CSI. Spinal irradiation was interrupted for patients with >=grade 2
      hematological toxicity and resumed after recovery to grade 1 level (TLC >3000;
      platelet count >75,000). Treatment interruptions and hematological toxicity were
      analyzed. Median age was 11 years. All patients received adjuvant CSI of 36 Gy,
      followed by boost of 18 Gy to posterior fossa, at 1.8 Gy per fraction. Concurrent
      chemotherapy was not given. Adjuvant chemotherapy was given after CSI for high
      risk patients. Spinal fields were interrupted in 73.1% of patients. Cause of
      first interruption was leucopenia in 92.1%, thrombocytopenia in 2.6%, and both in
      5.3%. Median number of fractions at first interruption was 8, with 25% of
      interruptions in first week. Median duration for hematological recovery after
      nadir was 5 days for leucopenia and 3 days for thrombocytopenia. Half of the
      patients had at least 2 interruptions, and 19% subsequently developed grade 3
      toxicity. On multivariate analysis, significant correlation with duration of
      delay was observed for pre-treatment haemoglobin, number of fractions at first
      interruption, grade and duration of recovery of leucopenia. Acute hematological
      toxicity with CSI is frequently under-reported. Patients with low pre-treatment
      hemoglobin, early onset leucopenia, profound leucopenia and prolonged recovery
      times are at a higher risk of having protracted courses of irradiation. Frequent
      monitoring of blood counts and timely interruption of spinal fields of
      irradiation at grade 2 level of hematological toxicity minimizes the risk of
      grade 3 and grade 4 toxicity, while reducing the interruptions in irradiation of
      the gross tumour bed.

PMID- 28577034
TI  - Antero-lateral minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) with the radial
      nerve exploration for extra-articular distal-third diaphyseal fractures of the
      humerus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Traditional open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of extra
      articular distal humerus fractures has a risk of iatrogenic radial nerve injury,
      extensive soft tissue stripping, and long incision scar. We performed an antero
      lateral minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) technique with the radial
      nerve exploration for distal-third diaphyseal fractures of the humerus and
      evaluated clinical and radiographic outcomes through this respective study.
      METHODS: From April 2010 to June 2016, 28 cases of extra-articular distal-third
      diaphyseal fractures were treated with an antero-lateral MIPO procedure. Patient
      demographics, Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) Score, Mayo Elbow
      Performance (MEP) Score, elbow range of motion, scars and post-operative
      complications were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: All fractures were united with
      a mean time of 3.5 months. One patient exhibited delayed union (3.6%). The mean
      DASH Score was 6.6, and all patients had excellent or good MEP Score values. The
      average scar length was 6.8 cm, and the shortest was 4.5 cm. CONCLUSIONS: The
      MIPO technique via an antero-lateral approach for extra-articular distal-third
      diaphyseal fractures of the humerus results in satisfactory clinical outcomes.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, case series, treatment study.

PMID- 28577035
TI  - Survivorship of medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy in the elderly: two to
      ten years of follow up.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (MOWHTO) is a
      well-accepted procedure, which has been widely used for pain relief and varus
      deformity correction in the osteoarthritic (OA) knee, especially in the young
      patient. However, in the elderly patient, the efficacy of this procedure is still
      unknown. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the survivorship of MOWHTO in
      elderly patients as the primary outcome. The secondary outcome is to evaluate the
      loss of correction angle that is the common complication after MOWTHO. MATERIALS
      AND METHOD: A retrospective study of 50 elderly patients (>= 60 years) was
      conducted to track survivorship of MOWHTO. All patients were diagnosed with varus
      OA knee and underwent MOWHTO at our institute. The patients who had previous knee
      surgery or incomplete data were excluded. Medical records and radiographs of
      eligible patients were reviewed for recruiting the data. Survivorship of MOWHTO
      was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. The starting point was the time of
      operation and the end point was the time of subsequent TKA. The loss of
      correction angle was defined as the change of medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA)
      between three months and one year post-operatively. RESULTS: The mean age of
      patients was 66 +/- 5.0 years. The majority of patients were female (74%). The
      mean correction angle was 10.6 +/- 3.6 degrees. The union rate of osteotomy site
      was 100%. In survival analysis, the median follow-up time was 6.0 +/- 3.0 years.
      Two patients required subsequent conversions to TKA. The survivorship of MOWHTO
      at four years was 95.5% (95%CI, 96.0 to 98.0). For radiographic assessment, the
      loss of correction angle was 1.0 +/- 0.5 degrees at one year post-operatively.
      CONCLUSION: This study proved that MOWHTO in patient >=60 years had good mid-term
      survivorship with acceptable complications. This procedure can be the alternative
      option for the treatment of varus OA knee in the elderly.

PMID- 28577036
TI  - Long-term wear of dual mobility total hip replacement cups: explant study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Dual mobility THA implantations are increasing. THA survival of more
      than 15 years is considered long-term survival based on the Charnley prosthesis,
      which has a median wear rate of 39 to 98 mm3/year. What is the median wear rate
      of dual mobility THA cups and its repartition on the liner volume? What are the
      factors influencing dual mobility wear? METHODS: Thirty-five explants were
      analysed. The liners were entirely mapped with a fully automatic stripe light
      scanner that uses green LED light. RESULTS: The liners had a median wear rate of
      38 mm3/year. The distribution of the wear between the two bearings varied
      greatly. No factor was found influencing wear volumes. CONCLUSIONS: The median
      annual wear of dual mobility liners is at least as low as the wear of cemented
      polyethylene liners and lower than equivalent cementless liners. The two
      articulations of the dual mobility THA do not cause more wear. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Level IV - case series.

PMID- 28577037
TI  - Metabolic Impact of Rapamycin (Sirolimus) and B-Estradiol Using Mouse Embryonic
      Fibroblasts as a Model for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare, progressive cystic lung
      disease that predominantly affects women of childbearing age. Exogenous rapamycin
      (sirolimus) has been shown to improve clinical outcomes and was recently approved
      to treat LAM, whereas estrogen (E2) is implicated in disease progression. No
      consistent metabolic model currently exists for LAM, therefore wild-type mouse
      embryonic fibroblasts (MEF +/+) and TSC2 knockout cells (MEF -/-) were used in
      this study as a model for LAM. METHODS: Oxygen consumption rates (OCR) and redox
      potential were measured to determine metabolic state across control cells, MEF
      +/+ and -/- cells treated with rapamycin (Rapa), and MEF +/+ and -/- cells
      treated with E2. An XF96 extracellular flux analyzer from Seahorse Bioscience(r)
      was used to measure OCR, and a RedoxSYSTM ORP was used to measure redox
      potential. RESULTS: OCR of MEF -/- cells treated with rapamycin (MEF -/- Rapa)
      versus MEF -/- control were significantly lower across all conditions. The static
      oxidation reduction potential of the MEF -/- Rapa group was also lower,
      approaching significance. The coupling efficiency and ratio of ATP-linked
      respiration to maximum respiration were statistically lower in MEF -/- Rapa
      compared to MEF +/+ Rapa. There were no significant metabolic findings across any
      of the MEF cells treated with E2. MEF -/- control cells versus MEF +/+ control
      cells were not found to significantly differ. CONCLUSION: MEF cells are thought
      to be a feasible metabolic model for LAM, which has implications for future
      pharmacologic and biologic testing.

PMID- 28577039
TI  - How I do it? Cranial setup for cranial settling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Expanded endonasal endoscopic techniques allow us to treat several
      pathologies related to the odontoid process and craniocervical junction. Cases
      such as giant basilar invagination represent a surgical challenge. METHODS: The
      authors provide technical nuances and describe how to complete an endoscopic
      endonasal odontoidectomy and release the craniocervical junction with the aim of
      restoring a correct sagittal balance in cases with giant basilar invagination.
      The study of cadaveric specimens adds clarifying dissections. CONCLUSIONS:
      Endonasal endoscopic odontoidectomy and craniocervical junction joint release
      allow the treatment of irreducible basilar invagination and restoration of better
      sagittal balance before posterior cervical occipitocervical fusion.

PMID- 28577038
TI  - A Swine Model of Percutaneous Intracoronary Ethanol Induced Acute Myocardial
      Infarction and Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation.
AB  - Ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) is a frequent complication after a myocardial
      infarction (MI), which doubles mortality. Transcatheter mitral repairs are
      emerging as alternative treatment options to open heart surgery for IMR, but
      animal models to test them are lacking. We report a percutaneous swine model of
      IMR. Seventeen swine were randomized to (group 1, n = 12) MI causing IMR, and
      (group 2, n = 5) controls. In group 1, MI was induced via percutaneous ethanol
      injection into the obtuse marginal branches of the left circumflex artery,
      resulting in ST elevating myocardial infarction. Nine animals were survived to 8
      10 weeks with weekly echocardiograms and three swine were survived to 16-20 weeks
      with MRI at termination. In group 1 animals, average IMR fraction at termination
      was 26.6 +/- 2.3% in the echo group, and 24.51 +/- 0.41% in the MRI group. None
      of the animals in group 2 had IMR. Left ventricular dysfunction and significant
      dilatation were evident in group 1 animals, compared to the controls. In
      conclusion, a reproducible model of IMR is reported for use in pre-clinical
      testing of new mitral technologies.

PMID- 28577040
TI  - Highlight report: N-acetyltransferase 2 and urinary bladder cancer risk.

PMID- 28577041
TI  - Determining skeletal muscle architecture with Laplacian simulations: a comparison
      with diffusion tensor imaging.
AB  - Determination of skeletal muscle architecture is important for accurately
      modeling muscle behavior. Current methods for 3D muscle architecture
      determination can be costly and time-consuming, making them prohibitive for
      clinical or modeling applications. Computational approaches such as Laplacian
      flow simulations can estimate muscle fascicle orientation based on muscle shape
      and aponeurosis location. The accuracy of this approach is unknown, however,
      since it has not been validated against other standards for muscle architecture
      determination. In this study, muscle architectures from the Laplacian approach
      were compared to those determined from diffusion tensor imaging in eight adult
      medial gastrocnemius muscles. The datasets were subdivided into training and
      validation sets, and computational fluid dynamics software was used to conduct
      Laplacian simulations. In training sets, inputs of muscle geometry, aponeurosis
      location, and geometric flow guides resulted in good agreement between methods.
      Application of the method to validation sets showed no significant differences in
      pennation angle (mean difference [Formula: see text] or fascicle length (mean
      difference 0.9 mm). Laplacian simulation was thus effective at predicting
      gastrocnemius muscle architectures in healthy volunteers using imaging-derived
      muscle shape and aponeurosis locations. This method may serve as a tool for
      determining muscle architecture in silico and as a complement to other
      approaches.

PMID- 28577042
TI  - Intra-Suprasellar Schwannoma Presumably Originating from the Internal Carotid
      Artery Wall : Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Intracranial schwannomas are common but intra-suprasellar schwannomas are
      extremely rare. We represent the case of a 57-year-old woman with an intra
      suprasellar tumor that was presurgically diagnosed as an anterior clinoidal
      meningioma. Intraoperatively it adhered tightly to the internal carotid artery
      wall and could not easily be dissected, possibly leading to profuse hemorrhage
      and sacrifice of the carotid artery with coil embolization. Histopathology
      demonstrated a schwannoma. We reviewed and summarized the clinical, imaging, and
      intraoperative findings of previously reported intra-suprasellar schwannomas.

PMID- 28577043
TI  - Anti-CD138 chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cell therapy for multiple myeloma
      with extensive extramedullary involvement.

PMID- 28577044
TI  - Successful treatment with azacitidine for the simultaneous occurrence of multiple
      myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia with concomitant del(5q) and the JAK2 V617F
      mutation.

PMID- 28577045
TI  - Prevalence and Risk Factors of Drug-Associated Corrected QT Prolongation in
      Elderly Hospitalized Patients: Results of a Retrospective Analysis of Data
      Obtained Over 6 Months.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Little information exists on the frequency and determinants of drug
      associated long QT syndrome in older adults. The objectives of this study were to
      assess the prevalence and identify risk factors of drug-associated long QT
      syndrome in a population of elderly hospitalized patients. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective study performed over 6 months in hospital geriatric medicine.
      Various QT-correction equations were fitted to the individual QT-RR data to
      evaluate the most appropriate equation. Long QT syndrome was defined as corrected
      QT >=450 ms. Available data were compared in patients with and without long QT
      syndrome. Logistic regression and classification and regression tree analysis
      were performed to identify determinants of long QT syndrome. RESULTS: Thirty
      three of 152 patients (22%) exhibited corrected QT >=450 ms. The different QT
      correction equations provided similar results, except the Bazett equation. In
      patients with long QT syndrome, there was a higher proportion of male subjects
      (58 vs. 33%, p = 0.009) and a higher number of QT-prolonging drugs than in
      patients without long QT syndrome. Male sex (odds ratio, 3.25) and the number of
      prescribed QT-prolonging agents (odds ratio, 1.77) were significantly associated
      with the probability of long QT syndrome. The number of QT-prolonging drugs had a
      stronger influence on the risk of long QT syndrome in men than in women.
      CONCLUSION: Male sex was found to be a significant risk factor of corrected QT
      prolongation in elderly hospitalized patients. The risk also increased with the
      number of QT-prolonging agents, especially in men. Those findings may help to
      mitigate the risk of long QT syndrome in elderly patients in clinical practice.

PMID- 28577047
TI  - Erratum to: The Effect of Losses Disguised as Wins and Near Misses in Electronic
      Gaming Machines: A Systematic Review.

PMID- 28577048
TI  - Impact of Pluronic(r) F68 on hollow fiber filter-based perfusion culture
      performance.
AB  - High cell density is an important factor in achieving high bioreactor
      productivity. To meet the oxygen demand with density at >100 * 106 cells/mL, a
      frit sparger is often used. In this study, the impact of Pluronic(r) F68 on a
      perfusion process using a frit sparger was studied. The perfusion process was
      developed using an alternating tangential flow device with a 0.2 um PES hollow
      fiber filter. Pluronic(r) F68 at 2 g/L was sufficient in preventing cell damage
      at gas flow rate of ~0.20 vvm from a drilled hole sparger (0.5 mm) but inadequate
      at ~0.025 vvm from a frit sparger (20 um). Increase of Pluronic(r) F68
      concentration to 5 g/L prevented cell death at up to ~0.10 vvm from the frit
      sparger and was able to maintain high cell density at high viability in the range
      of 60-80 * 106 cells/mL. Such positive effect was demonstrated in both 3- and 200
      L bioreactors. Supplementing additional Pluronic(r) F68 was also effective in
      restoring cell growth/viability from low viability cultures. Increased
      Pluronic(r) F68 concentration had no adverse impact on target antibody, HCP, and
      Pluronic(r) F68 transmissions.

PMID- 28577046
TI  - Fractional flow reserve: a clinical perspective.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a reference invasive diagnostic test to assess
      the physiological significance of an epicardial coronary artery stenosis. FFR
      guided percutaneous coronary intervention in stable coronary artery disease has
      been assessed in three seminal clinical trials and the indications for FFR
      assessment are expanding into other clinical scenarios. In this article we review
      the theoretical, experimental and clinical basis for FFR measurement. We place
      FFR measurement in the context of the comprehensive invasive assessment of
      coronary physiology in patients presenting with known or suspected angina
      pectoris in daily clinical practice, and review the recent developments in FFR
      assessment.

PMID- 28577049
TI  - Eburicoic acid from Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.:Fr.) Murrill attenuates
      inflammatory responses through inhibiting LPS-induced activation of
      PI3K/Akt/mTOR/NF-kappaB pathways in RAW264.7 cells.
AB  - Excessive activation of macrophages has been implicated in various types of
      inflammatory injury. Suppression of macrophage activation would have therapeutic
      benefits, leading to the alleviation of the progression of inflammatory diseases.
      Eburicoic acid (EA) is one of main bioactive components isolated from Laetiporus
      sulphureus (Bull.:Fr.) Murrill. In our previous study, we found that EA possessed
      anti-inflammatory activities. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms
      underlying its anti-inflammatory activities remain to be poorly understood. The
      present study aimed to further evaluate its effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      induced inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 macrophage cells. We investigated the
      anti-inflammatory effect by modulating LPS-induced activation of
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/mammalian target of
      rapamycin (mTOR)/nuclear transcription factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) pathway in
      RAW264.7 cells. The results showed that EA caused no obvious cytotoxicity, and
      its suitable concentrations on RAW264.7 cells were in the range from 0.02 to 0.08
      MUM. EA significantly inhibited the releases of inflammatory mediators, nitrite
      oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2); suppressed mRNA and protein expression
      levels of inducible nitrite oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 COX-2 and
      pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-1beta; and reduced levels of
      phosphorylated PI3K, Akt, mTOR, and NF-kappaBp65 in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells in
      dose- and time-dependent manners. These aforementioned results indicated that EA
      executed anti-inflammatory effect on LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells, and this effect
      might be achieved via suppressing the PI3K/Akt/mTOR/NF-kappaB signaling pathway
      and inhibiting the LPS-induced productions of inflammatory mediators and pro
      inflammatory cytokines.

PMID- 28577050
TI  - Anticonvulsive activity of (1S)-(-)-verbenone involving RNA expression of BDNF,
      COX-2, and c-fos.
AB  - (1S)-(-)-verbenone (VRB) is a monoterpene present in the essential oils of many
      plants which has shown therapeutic effect; however, its anticonvulsant activity
      has not yet been evaluated. The present work sought to investigate the
      anticonvulsant activity of VRB using pilocarpine and pentylenetetrazole-induced
      seizure testing; seeking also probable mechanisms of action. VRB caused no
      significant changes in motor coordination. Also, no significant data was observed
      in the pilocarpine-induced seizure tests. In the PTZ-induced seizures test, VRB
      showed anticonvulsant activity at doses of 200 mg/kg i.p. (733 +/- 109.4 s) and
      250 mg/kg i.p. (648.8 +/- 124.5 s) significantly increasing the latency to onset
      of first seizure as compared with the vehicle group (51.8 +/- 2.84 s).
      Pretreatment with flumazenil (FLU) did not reverse the anticonvulsive effect of
      VRB; however, it was able to upregulate BDNF and COX-2 genes and downregulate c
      fos. The findings suggest that the anticonvulsant effects of VRB may be related
      to RNA expression modulations of COX-2, BDNF, and c-fos.

PMID- 28577051
TI  - Riparian Meadow Response to Modern Conservation Grazing Management.
AB  - Riparian meadows occupy a small proportion of the public lands in the western
      United States but they provide numerous ecosystem services, including the
      production of high-quality forage for livestock grazing. Modern conservation
      management strategies (e.g., reductions in livestock stocking rates and adoption
      of new riparian grazing standards) have been implemented to better balance
      riparian conservation and livestock production objectives on publicly managed
      lands. We examined potential relationships between long-term changes in plant
      community, livestock grazing pressure and environmental conditions at two spatial
      scales in meadows grazed under conservation management strategies. Changes in
      plant community were not associated with either livestock stocking rate or
      precipitation at the grazing allotment (i.e., administrative) scale.
      Alternatively, both grazing pressure and precipitation had significant, albeit
      modest, associations with changes in plant community at the meadow (i.e.,
      ecological site) scale. These results suggest that reductions in stocking rate
      have improved the balance between riparian conservation and livestock production
      goals. However, associations between elevation, site wetness, precipitation, and
      changes in plant community suggest that changing climate conditions (e.g.,
      reduced snowpack and changes in timing of snowmelt) could trigger shifts in plant
      communities, potentially impacting both conservation and agricultural services
      (e.g., livestock and forage production). Therefore, adaptive, site-specific
      management strategies are required to meet grazing pressure limits and safeguard
      ecosystem services within individual meadows, especially under more variable
      climate conditions.

PMID- 28577052
TI  - [Analysis of therapy-relevant receptors in bone marrow carcinosis : Comparison of
      pathological and clinical parameters].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone marrow carcinosis is a sign of advanced tumor stage with
      nonspecific clinical and hematological symptoms. Diagnosis is based on bone
      marrow biopsy and histopathology, but biopsies are not part of the standard work
      up in oncological diseases and data on the correlation between clinical
      presentation and pathological findings are sparse. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a
      retrospective single-center study, data from 20 tumor patients with bone marrow
      carcinosis were analyzed. Bone marrow biopsies were re-evaluated regarding
      quantity of tumor cells, fibrosis/necrosis, and bone changes.
      Immunohistochemistry of potential therapy-relevant receptors and PD-L1 was
      performed. RESULTS: The median age in these 20 patients (13 women, 7 men) was 65
      years. The most frequent diagnoses were breast (n = 8) and lung cancer (n = 5).
      Anemia (94% of patients), thrombocytopenia (72%), and elevated LDH (83%) were
      frequent findings. The degree of bone marrow infiltration was highly variable and
      accounted for between 1 and 95% of biopsy space. Significant bone remodeling was
      present in 14/20 biopsies. No correlation could be found between histological and
      radiological findings. Treated patients showed some clinical and biochemical
      improvement, but the overall survival was poor (median 4.5 months, range < 0.5 to
      21.5 months). DISCUSSION: Anemia and thrombocytopenia are frequently associated
      with bone marrow carcinosis, but are nonspecific. The extent of tumor cell
      infiltration and osteolytic/osteoblastic changes did not correlate with
      radiological findings. Therapy-relevant target factors should be evaluated, but
      therapeutic options are often limited and the prognosis is bad.

PMID- 28577054
TI  - [What is a granuloma?]
AB  - The histogenesis of granulomata is dependent on various cell types. The typical
      composition is a center of macrophages/histiocytes with lymphocytes at the
      border. The sequence of events leading to granuloma formation is regulated by
      various cell types and cytokines: While Th1-associated mechanisms promote
      granuloma development, it appears that regulatory T cells as well as M2
      macrophages together with interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-13 lead to their
      dissociation and tissue healing. There is a strong correlation between structure
      and function of granulomas. Chronic inflammatory granulomatous skin diseases are
      primarily based on dysfunctional downmodulation of inflammatory processes that
      lead to and maintain granuloma formation.

PMID- 28577055
TI  - [Evidence of compression therapy].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical compression therapy is widely used to treat phlebologic
      diseases. Compression bandages as well as compression stockings are used.
      Compression has been identified to be an effective conservative therapy for the
      healing of venous ulcers and other indications. Thus, the evidence for the use of
      medical compression therapy and for which indications is presented. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Review and systematic presentation of the evidence-based use of
      compression. The current literature, guidelines, and consensus statements were
      searched and the indications for compression therapy are presented. RESULTS:
      There is a high level of evidence that compression therapy is effective to heal
      venous ulcers and to prevent recurrent ulcers. The use of compression bandages
      and hosiery after interventional and surgical procedures for varicose veins is
      based on experience but not on randomized controlled trials. According to
      clinical experience, the healing of inflammatory skin diseases (e.g., erythema
      nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum, necrobiosis lipoidica, cutaneous leukocytoclastic
      vasculitis, and psoriasis of the extremities) is supported by compression
      therapy. Compression therapy in patients suffering from venous ulcers is highly
      recommended.

PMID- 28577053
TI  - Regenerative properties of collagenated porcine bone grafts in human maxilla:
      demonstrative study of the kinetics by synchrotron radiation microtomography and
      light microscopy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recently, it has been reported that heterologous biomaterials, where
      the collagen matrix is preserved, seem to facilitate blood clotting and the
      subsequent invasion of repairing and regenerative cells. This study aimed at
      evaluating the healing of human extraction sockets grafted with a collagenated
      cortico-cancellous porcine bone (mp3(r), OsteoBiol(r), Tecnoss(r), Giaveno,
      Italy) by synchrotron radiation X-ray microtomography (microCT) and histology in
      order to have a 3D quantitative characterization over time. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Ridge preservation with porcine bone and collagen membrane was performed
      on 21 patients using a flapless approach and a secondary soft tissue closure. At
      the time of implant placement, six bone samples were harvested, two in the 3
      month group, two in the 6-month group, one in the 12-month group post-surgery,
      and one spontaneously healed control, and evaluated by microCT and histology.
      RESULTS: MicroCT revealed that in the grafted sites there were a greater number
      of trabeculae, although they appeared thinner than in the control sites; these
      trabeculae homogenously filled the defects, suggesting an improved strength of
      the socket. Histology showed that over time, the amount of biomaterial decreased
      and the newly formed bone increased, while less dense bone with wider marrow
      spaces was detected in the control sample, supporting synchrotron findings.
      CONCLUSIONS: The morphometric data converge to indicate the suitability of
      porcine bone for the preservation of post-extraction sockets. CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      The use of mp3 is encouraged to preserve and heal sockets.

PMID- 28577056
TI  - [Specific indications for foam sclerotherapy].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Foam sclerotherapy is well established in the treatment of varicose
      veins of different sizes. METHODS: A literature review was performed to determine
      which specific indications for foam sclerotherapy exist. RESULTS: Treatment of
      venous leg ulcers, varices that might rupture, varicose veins in geriatric
      patients, pudendal veins and seroma could be determined as specific indications
      for foam sclerotherapy. CONCLUSION: In some indications, foam sclerotherapy is
      the treatment option of first choice. It is an effective and safe treatment
      option.

PMID- 28577057
TI  - Case reports e-online in Supplement 1, 2017.

PMID- 28577058
TI  - Type B and A monoamine oxidase and their inhibitors regulate the gene expression
      of Bcl-2 and neurotrophic factors in human glioblastoma U118MG cells: different
      signal pathways for neuroprotection by selegiline and rasagiline.
AB  - Type B monoamine oxidase (MAO-B) in glial cells has been considered to be
      associated with neuronal death in Parkinson's disease. MAO-B inhibitors,
      rasagiline and selegiline [(-)deprenyl], protect neurons in animal and cellular
      models of neurodegeneration. However, the role of MAO-B itself in the regulation
      of cell death processing remains elusive, whereas type A MAO (MAO-A) mediates the
      induction of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 genes by rasagiline and selegiline. In this
      paper, the involvement of MAOs in the induction of neuroprotective genes by MAO
      inhibitors was investigated in human glioblastoma U118MG cells expressing mainly
      MAO-B. Selegiline significantly increased Mao-B, which was suppressed by Mao-A
      knockdown with short interfering (si)RNA, whereas rasagiline less markedly
      increased Mao-B, which was not affected by Mao-A knockdown. Mao-A mRNA was also
      markedly increased by rasagiline and selegiline, and Mao-B knockdown
      significantly enhanced the induction by selegiline, but not by rasagiline. Mao-B
      knockdown also significantly increased mRNA levels of Bcl-2, brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor
      (GDNF). Selegiline synergistically enhanced the expression of these genes in Mao
      B knockdown cells, but Mao-A knockdown suppressed the increase. Rasagiline
      increased BDNF and GDNF, which Mao-B and Mao-A knockdown inhibited. These results
      show that MAO-B might function as a repressor and MAO-A as a mediator in the
      constitutional expression of pro-survival genes, and that MAO-B and MAO-A might
      regulate different signal pathways for rasagiline and selegiline to induce
      neuroprotective genes. The novel role of glial MAOs in the regulation of gene
      expression is discussed.

PMID- 28577060
TI  - Is sedation administration strategy and analysis during drug-induced sedation
      endoscopy objective and systematic?

PMID- 28577059
TI  - Totally laparoscopic right colectomy versus laparoscopically assisted right
      colectomy: a propensity score analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to compare short- and long-term outcomes
      of totally laparoscopic right colectomy (TLRC) and laparoscopically assisted
      right colectomy (LARC), using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patients who underwent laparoscopic
      right colectomy between January 2006 and July 2016 was conducted. PSM analysis
      was performed to overcome patient selection bias between the two surgical
      techniques. RESULTS: A total of 116 patients were reviewed. After PSM, 54
      patients for the TLRC group and 54 patients for the LARC group were compared.
      TLRC was associated with shorter post-operative hospital stay (6.81 vs. 4.79
      days; p < 0.001) with no difference in 30-day morbidity and mortality. A lower
      incidence of long-term incisional hernia was observed in the TLRC group (1.9 vs.
      21.2%; p = 0.002). TLRC showed better oncological accuracy as demonstrated by a
      greater number of lymph node achieved (19.21 vs. 15.19; p = 0.001) and higher
      vascular pedicle length (131.81 vs. 114.76 mm; p = 0.014). DISCUSSION: TLRC is a
      safe and feasible technique with similar results of LARC in terms of short-term
      morbidity and mortality. Major advantages related to TLRC are represented by
      shorter post-operative hospital stay and lower incidence of long-term incisional
      hernias. Further investigations are needed to assess the oncological outcomes for
      this technique.

PMID- 28577061
TI  - Chronology of mineralization of the permanent mandibular second molar teeth and
      forensic age estimation.
AB  - Forensic age estimation frequently relies upon the chronology of mineralization
      of the third molar teeth. However, even when present, third molar teeth cannot
      always be used for estimating age in people who are classified as minors. Seconds
      molars develop earlier and in a more predictable way, and therefore are often
      more reliable for age estimation in this age group. This study aims to contribute
      to forensic age estimation using an age threshold of 14-years, studying the
      stages of development of permanent mandibular second molar teeth mineralization.
      367 orthopantograms of a Portuguese population group, aged between 3 and 19
      years, were studied. The stages of mineralization of mandibular permanent second
      molar teeth were studied following the classification stages proposed by
      Demirjian et al. Stage descriptive analysis was performed, and associations
      between age and stage were studied. A logistic regression to determine age over
      14 years, using maturation stages and sex as a predictive variables, was made. A
      second sample was used for testing the model. The significance level was set at
      5%. The model correctly classified 92.0% of cases overall. The equation was
      tested in the second sample, and the results showed that there were no
      statistical significant differences between the binary real age (i.e. age < 14
      and age >= 14 years) and the estimated age (p = 0.109). The developed model is
      useful for age estimation using 14-years as a threshold. However, stage
      maturation analyses showed that stage F, in males, and stages G and H, in both
      sexes, lead to an estimated age with significant statistical differences from
      chronological age.

PMID- 28577062
TI  - Hepatic progenitor cell expansion in early-stage nonalcoholic steatohepatitis:
      evidence from immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy of matrix
      metalloproteinase-1.

PMID- 28577063
TI  - Indoor and outdoor radon measurements at lung cancer patients' homes in the
      dwellings of Rize Province in Turkey.
AB  - In this study, indoor and outdoor radon (222Rn) surveys were carried out in the
      summer and winter seasons in homes of one hundred lung cancer patients in the
      year 2013-2014. The aim was to investigate the relationship between radon and
      cancer patients. Lung cancer patients completed a questionnaire concerning their
      living environment, various physical parameters and living habits. Pearson
      correlation and t tests revealed no meaningful results between radon
      concentrations, on one hand, and environmental and personal living habits, on the
      other hand. Consequently, the BEIR VI model was adapted and 222Rn exposure was
      estimated to be responsible for about 12% of the lung cancer incidences in the
      winter season and around 5% in the summer season in the Rize Province. However,
      due to the limited number of data and numerous parameters that could lead to lung
      cancer, the estimations done with the model should be taken very lightly. The
      annual effective doses due to inhalation of indoor and outdoor 222Rn were
      estimated to be, respectively, 1.43 and 0.94 mSv y-1. The indoor and outdoor
      annual effective doses were, respectively, close and below the world annual
      effective dose (1.3 mSv y-1). At the district level, the indoor annual effective
      dose equivalent in the Iyidere district was 4.52 mSv y-1, which was 3.5 times
      greater than the world average. The number of patients in the majority of the
      houses in this district was more than one.

PMID- 28577065
TI  - Treatment of talus osteochondral defects in chronic lateral unstable ankles:
      small-sized lateral chondral lesions had good clinical outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess and compare the clinical and MRI outcomes of patients with
      talus osteochondral defect (OCD) and patients without OCD in a cohort with
      chronic lateral ankle instability. METHODS: All patients who underwent open or
      arthroscopic anterior talofibular ligament repair of the lateral ligament complex
      by a single surgeon were included in this study. Ankle arthroscopic surgery was
      initially performed to manage any intra-articular OCD, including debridement and
      microfracture. Functional scores (AOFAS, Karlsson score) and Tegner activity
      level scores were determined. An MRI scan was performed at follow-up to assess
      talus OCD after treatment. Spearman's correlation coefficients were calculated
      between functional scores and various factors. RESULTS: A total of 104 patients
      with chronic ankle instability were included in this study. Among them, 33
      patients had cartilage injury on the talus (OCD group), and the other 71 patients
      had no cartilage injury (control group). After surgery, there was a significant
      increase in the AOFAS scores (p < 0.001), the Karlsson scores (p < 0.001), and
      the Tegner activity scores (p < 0.001) in both the OCD group and the control
      group. However, there was no significant difference in the AOFAS scores (90.7 +/-
      6.6 vs. 92.5 +/- 8.5; n.s.), the Karlsson scores (89.7 +/- 9.3 vs. 91.2 +/- 9.1;
      n.s.), or the Tegner activity scores (5 vs. 6; n.s.) between the OCD group and
      the control group postoperatively. In the OCD group, there was a significant
      negative association between the functional scores (AOFAS, Karlsson score, or
      Tegner score) and the number of intra-articular lesions. For the lateral OCD, the
      mean lesion area significantly decreased from 49.0 +/- 10.7 mm2 preoperatively to
      18.3 +/- 13.1 mm2 at the final follow-up (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: No significant
      difference in functional outcomes was found between the OCD group and the control
      group postoperatively. Arthroscopic microfracture is a good option for the long
      term treatment of lateral talus OCD. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28577064
TI  - No benefit of autologous transfusion drains in total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: Autologous blood transfusion drains are commonly used to
      reduce allogeneic blood transfusion rate after total knee arthroplasty. There is
      conflicting evidence as to whether autologous transfusion drains (ABT drains)
      were effective when restrictive transfusion triggers were used. The aim of our
      study was to ascertain where, as a part of a blood management protocol,
      autologous blood transfusion drains reduce the allogeneic blood transfusion rate
      after total knee arthroplasty. METHODS: Two-hundred total knee arthroplasty
      patients were included in the prospective randomized controlled study. After
      implantation, a Redon drain without vacuum assistance (control, n = 100) or an
      autologous blood transfusion drain (ABT group, n = 100) was used. Demographic and
      operative data were collected. The blood loss, total blood loss, blood values and
      transfusion rate were documented. RESULTS: The blood loss in the drains was
      significantly increased for the ABT group (409 vs. 297 ml, p < 0.001). There was
      a non-significant trend towards a higher total blood loss for ABT patients (1844
      vs. 1685 ml, n.s.). The allogeneic blood transfusion rate was similar for both
      groups (8 vs. 9%, n.s.). Similarly, the number of transfused blood units was
      comparable between both groups (0.2U/patient vs. 0.17U/patient n.s.). CONCLUSION:
      In combination with restrictive blood transfusion triggers, ABT drains had no
      positive effect on the allogeneic blood transfusion rate. The blood loss in ABT
      drains was higher. As a consequence, the use of ABT drains was discontinued.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I.

PMID- 28577068
TI  - Intensive care medicine in 2050: statistical tools for development of prognostic
      models (why clinicians should not be ignored).

PMID- 28577066
TI  - Comparison of the Psychopharmacological Effects of Tiletamine and Ketamine in
      Rodents.
AB  - The glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine (KET)
      produces rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients. Tiletamine (TIL;
      2-ethylamino-2-thiophen-2-yl-cyclohexan-1-one) is another uncompetitive NMDA
      receptor antagonist, used in a medical (veterinary) setting as an anesthetic
      tranquilizer. Here, we compared the behavioral actions of KET and TIL in a
      variety of tests, focusing on antidepressant-like and dissociative-like effects
      in mice and rats. The minimum effective doses of KET and TIL were 10 mg/kg to
      reduce mouse forced swim test immobility and 15 mg/kg to reduce marble-burying
      behavior. However, at similar doses, both compounds diminished locomotor activity
      and disturbed learning processes in the mouse passive avoidance test and the rat
      novel object recognition test. KET and TIL also reduced social behavior and
      accompanying 50-kHz "happy" ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rats. TIL (5-15
      mg/kg) displayed additional anxiolytic-like effects in the four-plate test.
      Neither KET nor TIL affected pain response in the hot plate test. Examination of
      the "side effects" revealed that only at the highest doses investigated did both
      compounds produce motor deficits in the rotarod test in mice. While KET produced
      behavioral effects at doses comparable between species, in the rats, TIL was ~10
      times more potent than in the mice. In summary, antidepressant-like properties of
      both KET and TIL are similar, as are their adverse effect liabilities. We suggest
      that TIL could be an alternative to KET as an antidepressant with an additional
      anxiolytic-like profile.

PMID- 28577070
TI  - Heparan sulfate proteoglycans as key regulators of the mesenchymal niche of
      hematopoietic stem cells.
AB  - The complex microenvironment that surrounds hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in
      the bone marrow niche involves different coordinated signaling pathways. The stem
      cells establish permanent interactions with distinct cell types such as
      mesenchymal stromal cells, osteoblasts, osteoclasts or endothelial cells and with
      secreted regulators such as growth factors, cytokines, chemokines and their
      receptors. These interactions are mediated through adhesion to extracellular
      matrix compounds also. All these signaling pathways are important for stem cell
      fates such as self-renewal, proliferation or differentiation, homing and
      mobilization, as well as for remodeling of the niche. Among these complex
      molecular cues, this review focuses on heparan sulfate (HS) structures and
      functions and on the role of enzymes involved in their biosynthesis and turnover.
      HS associated to core protein, constitute the superfamily of heparan sulfate
      proteoglycans (HSPGs) present on the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix
      of all tissues. The key regulatory effects of major medullar HSPGs are described,
      focusing on their roles in the interactions between hematopoietic stem cells and
      their endosteal niche, and on their ability to interact with Heparin Binding
      Proteins (HBPs). Finally, according to the relevance of HS moieties effects on
      this complex medullar niche, we describe recent data that identify HS mimetics or
      sulfated HS signatures as new glycanic tools and targets, respectively, for
      hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell based therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28577071
TI  - Isolation of a methylated mannose-binding protein from terrestrial worm
      Enchytraeus japonensis.
AB  - To elucidate a biological role of the methylated mannose residues found in N
      glycans of terrestrial worm Enchytraeus japonensis, we first synthesized 3-O
      methyl mannose- and 4-O-methyl mannose-derivatives and immobilized them to
      Sepharose 4B beads in order to isolate the sugar-binding protein. When whole
      protein extracts from the worms was applied to a series of the columns
      immobilized with the modified and unmodified mannose-derivatives, respectively, a
      protein with a molecular weight of 25,000 was isolated by 4-O-methyl mannose
      immobilized column chromatography, and termed as a methylated mannose-binding
      protein (mMBP). mMBP bound weakly to a mannose-immobilized column and moderately
      to a 3-O-methyl mannose-immobilized column. The N-terminal amino acid sequences
      of mMBP and its endoprotease-digested peptides were determined. Using the
      degenerate first primers synthesized based on the primary sequence, a genomic DNA
      fragment was isolated. Then, the second primers were synthesized based on the
      genomic DNA fragment, and with use of them two cDNA fragments were obtained by
      the 3'- and 5'-RACE methods. Finally, the third primers were synthesized based on
      the sequences of the two cDNA fragments and one genomic DNA fragment, and with
      use of them a full-length cDNA of mMBP was isolated and shown to comprise a
      putative 633 bp open reading frame encoding 210 amino acid residues. BLAST
      analysis revealed that mMBP has identities by 26 ~ 55% to several proteins
      including the regeneration-upregulated protein 3 from the same species. Whether
      mMBP is involved in the regeneration of the worm is under investigation.

PMID- 28577073
TI  - Size-exclusion chromatography of xylan derivatives-the critical evaluation of
      macromolecular data.
AB  - Hydroxypropyl xylans with varying degrees of substitution were characterized by
      size-exclusion chromatography. Molar masses of the samples were determined using
      two approaches: by conventional calibration with molar mass standards and by a
      multi-detection method that utilizes the combination of static light scattering,
      viscometry, and differential refractive index detection. The molar mass results
      obtained by the multi-detection method were accurate, but required the
      determination of separate refractive index increments for each structurally
      different sample. The column calibration approach with standard pullulan samples
      gave biased results due to the differences in hydrodynamic volumes between
      pullulans and hydroxypropyl xylans with similar molar masses. The degree of
      hydroxypropylation affected the chain conformation and compactness of the polymer
      chains. Mark-Houwink parameters and persistence length values suggested that the
      hydroxypropyl substituents reduced the flexibility of the xylan chain and made
      the polymer chain more extended.

PMID- 28577072
TI  - Regulation of renal Na-(K)-Cl cotransporters by vasopressin.
AB  - Vasopressin (AVP) induces antidiuresis, thus playing an essential role in body
      water and electrolyte homeostasis. Its antidiuretic effects are mediated chiefly
      by V2 vasopressin receptors (V2R) expressed along the distal nephron and
      collecting duct epithelia. NaCl reabsorption in the distal nephron, which
      includes the thick ascending limb (TAL) and distal convoluted tubule (DCT),
      largely depends on the activity of two structurally related Na-(K)-Cl
      cotransporters, NKCC2 in TAL and NCC in DCT. AVP-induced activation of these
      transporters contributes to urine concentration and renal electrolyte
      reabsorption. Previous work has specified molecular pathways mediating the
      effects of V2R activation in TAL and DCT, and protein networks involved in
      intracellular trafficking and phosphoregulation of the two transporters have been
      identified. This review summarizes recent progress in understanding AVP
      signalling mechanisms that are responsible for the activation of NKCC2 and NCC.
      Implications in the pathophysiology of diseases such as nephrogenic diabetes
      insipidus, diabetes mellitus and salt-sensitive hypertension are discussed in
      this context.

PMID- 28577074
TI  - Laboratory and field studies on a new sensor for dissolved N2O.
AB  - Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a strong greenhouse gas, whose atmospheric concentration
      has been continuously increasing for more than 200 years. One major source is
      wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), where N2O emissions should either be
      minimized or pushed to levels where exploitation in biogas combustion engines
      becomes efficient. Both these strategies require online control of the N2O
      concentrations in the liquid as well as in the gas phase. For this purpose, we
      propose a system for membrane extraction of the gas from the liquid phase, which
      then allows for a subsequent gas-phase analysis, which we perform by
      photoacoustic spectroscopy. We compare different theoretical calculations of the
      extraction efficiency, based either on a straightforward mathematical model or on
      a finite element simulation. The comparison of results with measurements produced
      on a well-defined model system shows good accordance. Based on the outcome, a
      field probe was developed and tested on a WWTP, yielding results comparable to
      the one achieved by GC reference analysis. Graphical abstract Gas extraction from
      liquids, e.g. from a wastewater treatment plant, for online gas monitoring.

PMID- 28577075
TI  - The holocaust of the disabled.
AB  - The Holocaust is commonly known as the genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime
      which killed six million European Jews. Not many people know, however, that
      another holocaust took place at the same time: the holocaust of the disabled. As
      Hitler pursued a strategic vision of a dominant, pure Aryan race, any inferior
      and weak human being was exterminated. A brief consideration is called for in
      order to not forget the horrifying events that took place at the beginning of the
      last century and in order to re-shape our concept of normality.

PMID- 28577076
TI  - 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT: the rising star of nuclear medicine in prostate cancer
      imaging?
AB  - Ever since the introduction of 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen 11
      positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT) a few
      years ago, it has rapidly achieved great success in the field of prostate cancer
      imaging. A large number of studies have been published to date, indicating a high
      potential of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the work-up of prostate cancer patients,
      including primary diagnosis, staging and biochemical recurrence. The aim of this
      review is to present the most important data on this novel, highly promising
      imaging technique, and to formulate recommendations for possible applications of
      68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in clinical routine.

PMID- 28577069
TI  - Prevention of acute kidney injury and protection of renal function in the
      intensive care unit: update 2017 : Expert opinion of the Working Group on
      Prevention, AKI section, European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) in the intensive care unit is associated
      with significant mortality and morbidity. OBJECTIVES: To determine and update
      previous recommendations for the prevention of AKI, specifically the role of
      fluids, diuretics, inotropes, vasopressors/vasodilators, hormonal and nutritional
      interventions, sedatives, statins, remote ischaemic preconditioning and care
      bundles. METHOD: A systematic search of the literature was performed for studies
      published between 1966 and March 2017 using these potential protective strategies
      in adult patients at risk of AKI. The following clinical conditions were
      considered: major surgery, critical illness, sepsis, shock, exposure to
      potentially nephrotoxic drugs and radiocontrast. Clinical endpoints included
      incidence or grade of AKI, the need for renal replacement therapy and mortality.
      Studies were graded according to the international GRADE system. RESULTS: We
      formulated 12 recommendations, 13 suggestions and seven best practice statements.
      The few strong recommendations with high-level evidence are mostly against the
      intervention in question (starches, low-dose dopamine, statins in cardiac
      surgery). Strong recommendations with lower-level evidence include controlled
      fluid resuscitation with crystalloids, avoiding fluid overload, titration of
      norepinephrine to a target MAP of 65-70 mmHg (unless chronic hypertension) and
      not using diuretics or levosimendan for kidney protection solely. CONCLUSION: The
      results of recent randomised controlled trials have allowed the formulation of
      new recommendations and/or increase the strength of previous recommendations. On
      the other hand, in many domains the available evidence remains insufficient,
      resulting from the limited quality of the clinical trials and the poor reporting
      of kidney outcomes.

PMID- 28577077
TI  - [Pain therapy during labour].
AB  - To date the gold standard of treating labour pain is regional analgesia by
      application of epidural analgesia. When offering epidural analgesia, the
      programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) is more effective in terms of pain
      reduction, less motor blocks and higher satisfaction of the parturient compared
      to continuous application via perfusor pump. An upcoming alternative to epidural
      analgesia is remifentanil, a short acting and potent opioid. Remifentanil,
      however, requires haemodynamic monitoring as cardiac and respiratory impairment
      has been described. Nitrous oxide has been used for decades in the Anglosphere
      but it is a greenhouse gas, and interactions with Vitamin B12 are possible. Using
      novel extraction systems, nitrous oxide has become more attractive for treatment
      of the initial phase of labour pain in Central Europe. In order to provide the
      parturient with the best possible and with a tailored pain concept an
      interdisciplinary approach with obstetricians, midwives and anaesthesiologists is
      required.

PMID- 28577078
TI  - Comparison of residual cancer burden, American Joint Committee on Cancer staging
      and pathologic complete response in breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy:
      results from the I-SPY 1 TRIAL (CALGB 150007/150012; ACRIN 6657).
AB  - PURPOSE: Several pathologic staging systems characterize residual tumor in
      patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Pathologic
      complete response (pCR) is now accepted by the Food and Drug Administration as an
      endpoint for granting accelerated drug approval. Two other systems of post
      neoadjuvant pathologic tumor staging-residual cancer burden (RCB) and the
      American Joint Committee on Cancer post-neoadjuvant therapy staging system
      (yAJCC)-have been developed to characterize residual tumors when patients do not
      achieve pCR. The optimal system and the ways in which these systems complement
      each other have not been fully determined. METHODS: Using data from the I-SPY 1
      TRIAL, we compared pCR, RCB, and yAJCC as predictors of early recurrence-free
      survival (RFS) to identify ways to improve post-neoadjuvant pathologic
      evaluation. RESULTS: Among 162 patients assessed, pCR identified patients at
      lowest risk of recurrence, while RCB and yAJCC identified patients at highest
      risk. Hormone-receptor (HR) and HER2 subtypes further improved risk prediction.
      Recursive partitioning indicated that triple-negative or HER2+ patients with
      yAJCC III or RCB 3 have the highest recurrence risk, with an RFS of 27%. Our
      analysis also highlighted discrepancies between RCB and yAJCC stratification: 31%
      of patients had discrepant RCB and yAJCC scores. We identified differential
      treatment of lymph node involvement and tumor cellularity as drivers of these
      discrepancies. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that there is benefit to
      reporting both RCB and yAJCC for patients in order to identify those at highest
      risk of relapse.

PMID- 28577079
TI  - Unenhanced magnetic resonance screening using fused diffusion-weighted imaging
      and maximum-intensity projection in patients with a personal history of breast
      cancer: role of fused DWI for postoperative screening.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the diagnostic performance of unenhanced abbreviated protocol
      (AP) comprising fused diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) using T1-weighted imaging
      (T1WI) with DWI maximum-intensity projections (DWI MIPs) for screening patients
      with a personal history of breast cancer (PHBC). METHODS: This institutional
      review board-approved retrospective observational study included 343 patients
      with PHBC who underwent 3T breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) between
      November 2013 and September 2015. Three breast radiologists reviewed the DWI MIPs
      of the AP to identify lesions, and the remaining axial AP images to characterize
      the detected lesions and establish the breast imaging reporting and data system
      final assessment. The conventional protocol (CP) images were also evaluated in
      the same way. The decision-making times were recorded. RESULTS: MRI acquisition
      time was approximately 5 min for AP. The mean times to read MIPs and remaining
      images were shorter in AP than in CP (5.5 and 22.1 s vs. 7.8 and 29.6 s). On DWI
      MIPs, the readers detected 9, 8, and 9 of 9 pathologically proven cancers, with
      negative predictive values (NPVs) of 100.0, 99.6, and 100.0%. Complete AP showed
      sensitivities of 88.9, 100.0, and 88.9% and specificities of 94.8, 93.4, and
      95.1%. Complete CP showed sensitivities of 100.0, 100.0, and 88.9% and
      specificities of 93.4, 94.0, and 96.3%. CONCLUSIONS: An unenhanced AP had a short
      acquisition time of 5 min, and DWI MIPs showed NPVs greater than 99% across
      readers. The diagnostic performance of complete AP was equivalent to that of CP
      for screening patients with PHBC.

PMID- 28577080
TI  - Receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B (RANK) expression in primary breast
      cancer correlates with recurrence-free survival and development of bone
      metastases in I-SPY1 (CALGB 150007/150012; ACRIN 6657).
AB  - PURPOSE: The receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B (RANK)/RANK ligand
      (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) axis may contribute to the development of bone
      metastases (BM). We studied gene expression in this pathway in primary breast
      cancer (BC) to determine correlations with clinical characteristics and outcomes
      in the neoadjuvant I-SPY1 study. METHODS: We evaluated RANK/RANKL/OPG expression
      using expression microarrays in I-SPY1 (n = 149). Associations with clinical
      features were determined using t test and ANOVA. Associations between biomarker
      high versus low groups (dichotomized at an optimal cutpoint) and recurrence-free
      survival (RFS) were evaluated using the log-rank test and in a multivariate Cox
      proportional hazard model. A pooled external neoadjuvant cohort with gene
      expression data (GSE25066) (Hatzis et al. in JAMA 305(18):1873-1881, 30) (n =
      425) was used for validation. Associations with site-specific relapse were
      evaluated using the t-test and multivariate logistic regression adjusting for
      hormone receptor (HR) status. RESULTS: RANK was significantly higher in HR
      negative versus HR positive (p = 0.027), in basal versus non-basal disease (p =
      0.004), and in those achieving pathologic complete response (p = 0.038); the
      associations with HR negative and basal BC were also significant in GSE25066. In
      both datasets, higher RANK associated with significantly worse RFS (I-SPY1: p =
      0.045, GSE25066: p = 0.044). However, this association did not remain significant
      after adjusting for HR status. In I-SPY1 patients with recurrence, higher RANK
      correlated with BM versus non-BM (p = 0.045), even after adjusting for HR status
      (p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: RANK is increased in HR negative and basal BC, and
      correlates with worse RFS and risk of BM. The RANK pathway is a potential
      therapeutic target in BC.

PMID- 28577082
TI  - [Psychological interventions for pain reduction].

PMID- 28577081
TI  - The 21-gene recurrence score in special histologic subtypes of breast cancer with
      favorable prognosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) assay predicts the
      likelihood of distant recurrence and chemotherapy benefit in early-stage,
      estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Data on the RS of
      special histologic subtypes of invasive breast carcinoma with favorable prognosis
      are limited. METHODS: We reviewed our institutional database to identify patients
      with special histologic subtypes of breast cancer associated with favorable
      prognosis and available RS results. Our cohort consists of fifty-seven women:
      thirty-three patients with pure mucinous carcinoma (MC), ten with tubular
      carcinoma (TC), nine with encapsulated papillary carcinoma (EPC), and five with
      solid papillary carcinoma (SPC). RESULTS: Most (44/57, 77.2%) carcinomas had low
      RS (<=17), and none had high RS (>=31). All EPCs had low RS, but other subtypes
      had RS 18-30. Higher RS was associated with lower progesterone receptor (PR)
      expression by immunohistochemistry and lower PR mRNA scores (P <= 0.007). No
      morphologic feature (tumor grade, biopsy site changes, cellular stroma,
      inflammatory cells) was associated with RS >= 18. At a median follow-up of 40
      months, the distant recurrence-free survival was 100%. One patient with SPC
      developed locoregional recurrence at 22 months. CONCLUSIONS: As the largest
      series to date, our study raises the question of whether the RS assay is
      necessary for breast cancers with favorable histology. Reflex testing of node
      negative, ER+/HER2- breast cancers may be deferred for these special histologic
      subtypes, emphasizing the need for multidisciplinary discussions between breast
      pathologists and other members of the breast cancer team.

PMID- 28577084
TI  - Integrated analysis of leaf morphological and color traits in different
      populations of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis).
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: QTLs and candidate gene markers associated with leaf morphological
      and color traits were identified in two immortalized populations of Brassica
      rapa, which will provide genetic information for marker-assisted breeding.
      Brassica rapa is an important leafy vegetable consumed worldwide and morphology
      is a key character for its breeding. To enhance genetic control, quantitative
      trait loci (QTLs) for leaf color and plant architecture were identified using two
      immortalized populations with replications of 2 and 4 years. Overall, 158 and 80
      QTLs associated with 23 and 14 traits were detected in the DH and RIL
      populations, respectively. Among them, 23 common robust-QTLs belonging to 12
      traits were detected in common loci over the replications. Through comparative
      analysis, five crucifer genetic blocks corresponding to morphology trait (R, J&U,
      F and E) and color trait (F, E) were identified in three major linkage groups
      (A2, A3 and A7). These might be key conserved genomic regions involved with the
      respective traits. Through synteny analysis with Arabidopsis, 64 candidate genes
      involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis, cell proliferation and elongation were co
      localized within QTL intervals. Among them, SCO3, ABI3, FLU, HCF153, HEMB1, CAB3
      were mapped within QTLs for leaf color; and CYCD3;1, CYCB2;4, AN3, ULT1 and ANT
      were co-localized in QTL regions for leaf size. These robust QTLs and their
      candidate genes provide useful information for further research into leaf
      architecture with crop breeding.

PMID- 28577083
TI  - Genome-wide association study for agronomic and physiological traits in spring
      wheat evaluated in a range of heat prone environments.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: We identified 27 stable loci associated with agronomic traits in
      spring wheat using genome-wide association analysis, some of which confirmed
      previously reported studies. GWAS peaks identified in regions where no QTL for
      grain yield per se has been mapped to date, provide new opportunities for gene
      discovery and creation of new cultivars with desirable alleles for improving
      yield and yield stability in wheat. We undertook large-scale genetic analysis to
      determine marker-trait associations (MTAs) underlying agronomic and physiological
      performance in spring wheat using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Field
      trials were conducted at seven sites in three countries (Sudan, Egypt, and Syria)
      over 2-3 years in each country. Twenty-five agronomic and physiological traits
      were measured on 188 wheat genotypes. After correcting for population structure
      and relatedness, a total of 245 MTAs distributed over 66 loci were associated
      with agronomic traits in individual and mean performance across environments
      respectively; some of which confirmed previously reported loci. Of these, 27 loci
      were significantly associated with days to heading, thousand kernel weight, grain
      yield, spike length, and leaf rolling for mean performance across environments.
      Despite strong QTL by environment interactions, eight of the loci on chromosomes
      1A, 1D, 5A, 5D, 6B, 7A, and 7B had pleiotropic effects on days to heading and
      yield components (TKW, SM-2, and SNS). The winter-type alleles at the
      homoeologous VRN1 loci significantly increased days to heading and grain yield in
      optimal environments, but decreased grain yield in heat prone environments. Top
      20 high-yielding genotypes, ranked by additive main effects and multiplicative
      interaction (AMMI), had low kinship relationship and possessed 4-5 favorable
      alleles for GY MTAs except two genotypes, Shadi-4 and Qafzah-11/Bashiq-1-2. This
      indicated different yield stability mechanisms due to potentially favorable rare
      alleles that are uncharacterized. Our results will enable wheat breeders to
      effectively introgress several desirable alleles into locally adapted germplasm
      in developing wheat varieties with high yield stability and enhanced heat
      tolerance.

PMID- 28577087
TI  - Ritual Participation, Sense of Community, and Social Well-Being: A Study of Seva
      in the Sikh Community.
AB  - The study examined the impact of frequency of ritual participation on sense of
      community and social well-being of a minority community in India, the Sikhs. We
      looked at a unique ritualistic practice of the Sikhs, seva. Rituals are known to
      contribute toward social solidarity and cohesion as well as physical and mental
      well-being. In particular for a minority community, rituals help group members
      establish and maintain strong community networks and a unique group identity. A
      total of 156 members of the Sikh community (85 males; 71 females) participated in
      the study. Frequency of ritual participation was positively related with social
      well-being and sense of community. Furthermore, sense of community was found to
      mediate the effect of frequency of ritual participation on social well-being.
      Results are discussed in the light of the importance of studying rituals in
      minority groups, the frequency of participation in a ritual activity and the
      importance of addressing social well-being in ritual research.

PMID- 28577085
TI  - Endoplasmic reticulum stress regulates tumor growth and anti-tumor immunity: a
      promising opportunity for cancer immunotherapy.
AB  - The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a cellular process that occurs as a
      consequence of several stress circumstances, such as the accumulation of unfolded
      proteins in the lumen of the ER or distinct insults that disturb the ER normal
      function. Different conditions in the tumor microenvironment (TME), including
      hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and the elevated production of reactive oxygen and
      nitrogen species destabilize the loading and dispatching of the newly synthesized
      proteins, triggering ER stress in cancer cells and tumor-infiltrating leukocytes.
      In order to cope with TME-induced ER stress, tumor and stromal cells initiate an
      adaptive response process that aims to resolve ER stress and to restore cellular
      homeostasis, which is referred as the unfolded protein responses (UPR).
      Paradoxically, the UPR can also induce cell death under severe and/or permanent
      ER stress. The UPR is started through three mediators, the activation of the
      inositol-requiring enzyme-1alpha, the pancreatic ER kinase-like ER kinase, and
      the activating transcription factor 6. In this minireview, we will discuss the
      pro- and anti-tumorigenic role of the UPR in cancer cells. In addition, we will
      describe the effects of the TME-induced ER stress in the immunosuppressive
      activity of tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells. Also, we will review the results of
      emerging therapeutic interventions that target ER stress and the UPR mediators in
      cancer. We postulate that the inhibition of ER stress or the UPR-related elements
      could represent a significant approach to increase the efficacy of various forms
      of cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28577088
TI  - Role of ATP-Sensitive K+ Channels in Myocardial Infarct Size-Limiting Effect of
      Chronic Continuous Normobaric Hypoxia.
AB  - The role of KATP channels in myocardial infarct size-limiting effect of chronic
      continuous normobaric hypoxia was examined in a rat model based on a 20-min
      coronary occlusion and subsequent 3-h reperfusion. Rats were adapted to
      normobaric hypoxia (12% O2) for 21 days. This hypoxia produced a pronounced
      infarct size-limiting effect, which had been prevented by 0.3 mg/kg
      glibenclamide, a non-selective inhibitor of entire pool of KATP channels, or 5
      mg/kg 5-hydroxydecanoate, an inhibitor of mitochondrial KATP channels. The study
      highlighted the important role of mitochondrial KATP channels in myocardial
      infarct size-limiting effect of chronic normobaric hypoxia.

PMID- 28577089
TI  - Effects of Bone Marrow Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Their Secretory
      Products on Microcirculation in the Broad Ligament of the Uterus of Wistar Rats
      during Experimental Chronic Genital Inflammation.
AB  - Effects of bone marrow multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells and their secretory
      products released into the conditioned medium on microcirculatory bed in the
      broad ligament of the uterus were studied in Wistar rats with chronic genital
      inflammation. Opposite changes in the parameters of microcirculation and
      lymphatic drainage in the broad ligament of the uterus were observed after
      administration of cells and conditioned medium via different routes, which should
      be taken into account during the treatment of inflammatory and degenerative
      processes in the pelvic organs.

PMID- 28577090
TI  - Circulating Proteasomes in the Pathogenesis of Head and Neck Squamous Cell
      Carcinoma.
AB  - Increased proteasome activity was revealed in blood serum of patients with stage
      T1N0M0 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in comparison with patients with
      chronic diseases of the larynx and laryngopharynx. This opens prospects of using
      chymotrypsin-like activity measurement for differential diagnosis of squamous
      cell carcinoma, screening for high-risk groups, and evaluation of the degree of
      tumor differentiation.

PMID- 28577091
TI  - Characteristics of 4-Day Infradian Biorhythms in Mature Male Wistar Rats after
      Pinealectomy.
AB  - We studied the effect of pinealectomy on the parameters of 4-day infradian
      biorhythms in mature male Wistar rats. It was shown that pinealectomy did not
      change the period and phase of infradian biorhythm of total locomotor activity,
      serum concentrations corticosterone and testosterone, and mitotic index of
      esophageal epithelium. No significant changes in the number of nucleated cells in
      the spleen of pinealectomized animals in comparison with intact animals were
      found. The amplitude of biorhythms of locomotor activity and corticosterone and
      testosterone concentrations did not significantly change in pinealectomized
      animals. Despite the important role of the epiphysis in the regulation of
      circadian biorhythms in mammals, this organ is not the main synchronizer of
      infradian biorhythms of glucocorticoid and sex hormones in male Wistar rats.

PMID- 28577092
TI  - Response of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal System to Repeated Moderate
      Psychoemotional Stress Exposure Is Associated with Behavioral Parameters.
AB  - Individual features of the response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
      (HPAA) to repeated moderate stress exposure (daily 2-h restraint stress for 10
      days) was studied in young female rhesus monkeys with healthy normal behavior and
      combined group of female rhesus monkeys with abnormal depression-like and anxious
      behavior. No between-group differences in the response of ACTH and cortisol were
      found on day 1. On day 10, a rapid and less pronounced increase in ACTH secretion
      was observed in all animals in comparison with day 1. Analysis of between-group
      differences in HPAA response showed higher increase in ACTH level and lower
      increase in cortisol concentration in animals with depression-like and anxious
      behavior. These changes were similar to the previously described differences in
      the response of the adenohypophysis and adrenal cortex to acute restraint stress
      in old monkeys with similar behavior. Thus, individuals with depression-like and
      anxious behavior demonstrate impaired stress-induced reactivity of HPAA as early
      as in young age.

PMID- 28577093
TI  - Structure of Rat Lungs after Administration of Magnetomicelles Based on the
      Carbon-Coated Iron Nanoparticles.
AB  - We studied the effects of single administration of a suspension of
      magnetomicelles based on carbon-coated iron nanoparticles on the structure of rat
      lungs within 40 days. Histological analysis revealed a complex of hemodynamic
      alterations in the lungs. Described changes persisted in the lung stroma from day
      1 until day 40, but their intensity decreased by the end of the experiment. Using
      immunohistochemical Perls reaction we identified cells morphologically
      corresponding to alveolar and interstitial lung macrophages. The number of Perls+
      cells decreased by day 40 of the experiment. Ultrastructural analysis showed
      endocytosis of modified iron nanoparticles and their accumulation in
      intracellular digestionorganelles (endo- and lysosomes) of mononuclear phagocyte
      system cells. Accumulation of magnetomicelles in the lungs was not associated
      with damage to pneumocytes, macrophages, and blood-air barrier.

PMID- 28577094
TI  - Local and Systemic Functional Responses of Mouse Macrophages to Intravaginal
      Infection with Type 2 Herpes Simplex Virus and Vaccination.
AB  - Activity of cathepsin D and phagocytosis of macrophages from vaginal lavage
      fluid, peritoneal exudation, and spleen were studied in mice of sensitive (DBA/2)
      and resistant (BALB/c) lines after intravaginal infection with type 2 herpes
      simplex virus and vaccination. Activity of cathepsin D and intensity of
      phagocytosis (irrespective of the macrophage source) and their ratio in BALB/c
      mice in early terms after infection were close to the control levels taken as a
      unit. In DBA/2 mice, these parameters and their balance were shifted and changes
      in cathepsin D activity depended on the time after challenge. Activities of
      cellular and extracellular cathepsin D increased sharply on day 1 postinfection
      under conditions of local virus interaction with the vaginal mucosa and
      activation of the pathological process. Later, after generalization of the
      infection, activity of cathepsin D decreased, while phagocytosis increased in all
      the studied macrophage populations. Vaccination corrected the cathepsin
      D/phagocytosis imbalance and created conditions for rapid elimination of the
      virus.

PMID- 28577095
TI  - Initial Stages of Angiogenesis after Acute Experimental Local Venous Outflow
      Disturbances and Application of Cell Technologies.
AB  - The initial stages of angiogenesis in rats after transcutaneous injection of
      autologous bone marrow multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells transfected with GFP
      gene and stained cell membranes in the projection of ligated femoral vein were
      studied by fluorescent light and confocal laser microscopy. Large clusters of
      brightly fluorescing elongated fibroblast-like cells were seen in the paravasal
      tissue and in the postoperative scar and signs of angiogenesis were noted as soon
      as in 4 days. The injected cells not only formed new vessels, but also integrated
      into vessels formed by host cells. Some injected cells were phagocytizied by
      macrophages and the latter started to fluoresce due to the presence of the
      membrane dye. These macrophages within the specified period appeared in the
      regional inguinal lymph nodes where they formed clusters in the lymphoid
      parenchyma of the cortical substance.

PMID- 28577097
TI  - Influence of ACTG4-7-PGP (Semax) on Morphofunctional State of Hepatocytes in
      Chronic Emotional and Painful Stress.
AB  - We studied the effect of intraperitoneal administration of peptide ACTG4-7-PGP to
      male Wistar rats in doses of 5, 50, 150, and 450 MUg/kg on the morphofunctional
      state of hepatocytes in chronic emotional and painful stress. A dose-dependent
      stress-limiting effect of the peptide was observed: it normalized the protein
      synthesis function of the liver and serum activity of ALT. The anticytolytic
      effect of the peptide increased with increasing its dose against the background
      of the increase in the relative number of multinucleated and multinucleolated
      cells and deceleration of the recovery of serum protein concentration. The
      decrease of hepatocyte cytolysis against the background of more intense
      morphological signs of protein synthesis processes attests to activation of
      reparative processes in the liver parenchyma via enhanced constitutional
      synthesis of protein.

PMID- 28577096
TI  - Association of Polymorphism in SCN5A, GJA5, and KCNN3 Gene with Sudden Cardiac
      Death.
AB  - We studied association of single-nucleotide SCN5A (rs1805124), GJA5 (rs35594137),
      and KCNN3 (rs13376333) polymorphisms and sudden cardiac death. Humans died
      suddenly from cardiac causes (N=379) and unrelated sex- and age-matched control
      subjects were genotyped. No significant intergroup differences were found in the
      frequency of rs1805124 and rs13376333 genotypes and alleles. In women under 50
      years, enhanced risk of sudden cardiac death was associated with rs35594137 GG
      genotype (OR=3.6; 95%CI=1.2-10.4; p=0.022), while in older women it was
      associated with rs35594137 AA genotype (OR=3.0; 95%CI=2.3-3.9; p=0.041). In women
      under 50 years, GA rs35594137 genotype was associated with a protective effect
      against sudden cardiac death (OR=0.3; 95%CI=0.1-0.8; p=0.036). Thus, GJA5 gene
      rs35594137 polymorphism is significantly associated with sudden cardiac death in
      the examined group.

PMID- 28577098
TI  - Effect of Cytokines on the Formation Tube-Like Structures by Endothelial Cells in
      the Presence of Trophoblast Cells.
AB  - Despite ample data on cytokine secretion in the uteroplacental interface, the
      influence of microenvironment cells, in particular, trophoblast cells on
      angiogenesis and the role of cytokines in this process remain poorly studied. We
      studied the influence of cytokines on the formation of tube-like structures by
      endothelial cells in the presence of trophoblast cells and showed that
      trophoblast cells suppressed the angiogenic potential of endothelial cells.
      Antiangiogenic cytokines IFN-gamma, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGFbeta via modulation
      of trophoblast cells stimulated the formation of tube-like structures by
      endothelial cells. In the co-culture of endothelial and trophoblast cells, the
      effects of cytokines changed and they gained additional regulatory functions.

PMID- 28577099
TI  - Toxic Effects of Nanostructured Silicon Dioxide on Multipotent Mesenchymal
      Stromal Cells.
AB  - We studied the effect of nanostructured silicon dioxide particles on functional
      activity and ultrastructure of rat multipotent mesenchymal stem cells. A dose
      dependent decrease in cell adhesion to plastics and their proliferative
      potential, accumulation of apoptotic cells, a decrease in the electron density of
      cell cytoplasm due to swelling and degenerative changes of organelles, and
      intracellular accumulation of nanostructured of silicon dioxide particles were
      observed.

PMID- 28577100
TI  - The Content of Multipotent Stromal Cells in 3-4.5-Month Heterotopic Bone Marrow
      Transplants of CBA Mice Subjected to a Single Exposure to Osteogenic Stimuli
      (Curettage, BMP-2) or Antigens (S. typhimurium antigenic complex, LPS).
AB  - At the early stages of development (3 months), transplants from bone marrow
      donors subjected to single in vivo stimulation (curettage, administration of BMP
      2 or antigenic complex of S. typhimurium) 1 day before transplantation were
      characterized by significantly elevated content of nucleated cells (by 1.4, 1.9
      and 2.9 times, respectively), efficiency of cloning of multipotent stromal cells
      (by 3.8, 3.8 and 7.2 times), and total number of multipotent stromal cells (by 5,
      7 and 21 times) and osteogenic multipotent stromal cells (by 5, 9 and 15 times)
      in comparison with the control (intact donors); more rapid increase in the weight
      of bone capsules was also noted. At later terms, the difference by these
      parameters between the control and experimental groups became less pronounced,
      but even in 4.5 months, the total number of multipotent stromal cells in the
      transplant in experimental groups exceeded the control values by 1.4-1.7 times
      and osteogenic multipotent stromal cells by 2 times. In donors exposed to the
      specified stimulations, the content of multipotent stromal cells in the femoral
      bone marrow in 1 day increased by 2.1 times (curettage), 2.6 times
      (administration of S. typhimurium antigens), and 3.3 times (LPS); administration
      of BMP-2 reduced this value by 50%. The content of osteogenic bone marrow
      multipotent stromal cells at this term increased by 1.7 times (BMP-2) and 5.5
      times (curettage), after administration of S. typhimurium antigens, this
      parameter corresponded to the control. The concentration of osteogenic
      multipotent stromal cells in the bone marrow of intact donors was 22%; the
      maximum values were observed after curettage (57%) and BMP-2 administration (74%)
      and minimum after treatment with S. typhimurium antigens (8%). However, this
      parameter in all groups of transplants little differed and leveled as soon as by
      3-4 months, which can be due to regulatory influences of the recipient body. The
      initial advantage in the content of bone marrow multipotent stromal cells in
      donors exposed to osteogenic stimuli and administration of antigens ensured
      considerably more rapid growth of the transplants in comparison with the control.
      These results can be useful for the development of optimal protocols of tissue
      grafting.

PMID- 28577101
TI  - High Potassium Concentration during Culturing of Early Mammalian Embryos: Normal
      or Extreme Situation?
AB  - Analysis of the element composition of oviduct and uterine fluid in mammals
      showed high potassium concentrations in the early embryo microenvironment in
      vivo. The results of early embryogenesis of mammals in vitro in the presence of
      high potassium concentrations are discussed. The data are summarized in
      accordance with the conditions of experimentally modeled pre-implantation
      development. Comparative assessment of the quality of embryo development until
      the blastocyst stage in vitro proved the embryos more successfully developed at
      potassium concentrations close to those registered in the oviductal fluid.

PMID- 28577102
TI  - Dihydroquercetin Improves Microvascularization and Microcirculation in the Brain
      Cortex of SHR Rats during the Development of Arterial Hypertension.
AB  - The effects of dihydroquercetin (50 mg/kg intragastrically daily for 6 weeks) on
      the density of capillary network (mean number of capillaries per mm2), mean
      capillary diameter, structure of capillary network, capillary diameter
      distribution (<3, 3-5, 5-7, and 7-9 MU), and local cerebral blood flow (by laser
      Doppler) in the visual cortex were studied in SHR rats during the development of
      arterial hypertension (from the 6th to the 12th week of life). Normally, the
      systolic and diastolic BP progressively increased in SHR rats during this period.
      Dihydroquercetin did not affect the development of arterial hypertension. At the
      same time, the drug significantly increased the mean diameter of capillaries (by
      11%), capillary network density (by 23%), and in the percentage of capillaries
      with a diameter of 3-9 MU (passable for erythrocytes; by 42%). Positive effects
      of dihydroquercetin on the structure of microcirculatory bed improved
      microcirculation: local cerebral blood flow in the visual cortex of SHR rats was
      significantly higher (by 36%) than in rats receiving no flavonoid and close to
      the value in Wistar-Kyoto rats. Dihydroquercetin improved microvascularization
      and microcirculation in the cerebral cortex of SHR rats during the formation of
      arterial hypertension.

PMID- 28577103
TI  - Neuromotor Activity, Anxiety and Cognitive Function in the In Vivo Model of
      Alimentary Hyperlipidemia and Obesity.
AB  - Behavioral indicators characterizing specific features of the pathological
      process of alimentary-dependent diseases were studied using in vivo model of
      alimentary hyperlipidemia in rats and mice. Rats and mice of the control groups
      received balanced semisynthetic diet for 63 days; animals of the experimental
      groups received a diet with high fat content (30% dry weight), balanced or high
      fat diet with fructose solution instead of water, balanced cholesterol-enriched
      diet (0.5% dry weight), or balanced cholesterol-enriched diet with fructose
      solution. During the experiment, the mass of food, consumed by the animals, was
      monitored daily. Muscle tone was assessed by the front paw grip strength on days
      33 and 54 of the experiment. Anxiety was tested in the elevated plus maze on days
      36 and 57. Behavior and memory were assessed by conditioned passive avoidance
      reflex on days 39, 40, and 61. A significant increase in muscle tone was revealed
      on day 54 in rats fed with a balanced diet with fructose, and in mice, that
      received a similar diet, supplemented with fructose and cholesterol. Anxiety in
      the second test (day 57) was significantly decreased in rats fed high-fat diet
      and increased in mice fed high fat diet and high fat diet with fructose. In the
      second test, additional amount of cholesterol in the diet was the factor that
      significantly improved both short-term and long-term memory in both species. In
      mice, in contrast to rats, addition of fructose, including combination with high
      fat diet, significantly worsened short-term and long-term memory. Thus, dietary
      factors, contributing to alimentary dyslipidemia development in rats and mice,
      can significantly affect the indices of neuromotor activity, anxiety level and
      cognitive functions, and the nature and direction of these changes are largely
      species-specific.

PMID- 28577104
TI  - Level of Interleukins IL-6 and IL-15 in Blood Plasma of Mice after Forced
      Swimming Test.
AB  - We measured the concentrations of IL-6 and IL-15 in blood plasma of mice at
      different terms after forced swimming, taking into account exercise intensity and
      preliminary training. It was shown that training was an important factor
      affecting blood plasma level of IL both at rest and after single forced swimming:
      in trained animals, the concentration of both myokines increased immediately
      after swimming, while in untrained animals, this increase was observed only after
      5 h. Changes in cytokine production against the background of training can be
      associated with various factors, including neuroendocrine mechanisms, stress,
      modification of intracellular signaling, as well as reorganization of
      transcriptional mechanisms in muscle fibers. The most important factor is shift
      in the ratio of monovalent cations (sodium and potassium) in the cytoplasm.

PMID- 28577106
TI  - Effect of Stimulation of Neurotransmitter Systems on Heart Rate Variability and
      beta-Adrenergic Responsiveness of Erythrocytes in Outbred Rats.
AB  - We studied heart rate variability and beta-adrenergic responsiveness of
      erythrocytes and changes in these parameters in response to single administration
      of beta-adrenoblocker propranolol (2 mg/kg) in outbred male rats against the
      background of activation of the noradrenergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic
      neurotransmitter systems achieved by 4-fold injections maprotiline (10 mg/kg), 5
      hydroxytryptophan (50 mg/kg) combined with fluoxetine (3 mg/kg), and L-DOPA (20
      mg/kg) with amantadine (20 mg/kg), respectively. Stimulation of the noradrenergic
      system moderately enhanced the heart rhythm rigidity and beta-adrenergic
      responsiveness of erythrocytes. In addition, it markedly augmented the moderating
      effect of subsequently administered propranolol on LF and VLF components in the
      heart rate variability and reversed the effect of propranolol on beta-adrenergic
      responsiveness of erythrocytes. Stimulation of the serotonergic system
      dramatically decreased all components in the heart rate variability and
      pronouncedly enhanced beta-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes. Subsequent
      injection of propranolol slightly restored all components in the heart rate
      variability and decreased beta-adrenergic responsiveness of erythrocytes to the
      control level. Stimulation of the dopaminergic system made the heart rate more
      rigid due to decrease of all components in the heart rate variability; in
      addition, it slightly but significantly enhanced beta-adrenergic responsiveness
      of erythrocytes. Subsequent injection of propranolol produced no significant
      effects on all components in the heart rate variability and on beta-adrenergic
      responsiveness of erythrocytes. Stimulation of noradrenergic, serotonergic, and
      dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems produced unidirectional and consorted
      effects on heart rate variability and beta-adrenergic responsiveness of
      erythrocytes, although the magnitudes of these effects were different. Probably,
      the changes in the heart rate variability in rats with stimulated
      neurotransmitter systems results from modification of the cellular sensitivity in
      peripheral organs to adrenergic influences. However, the differences in the
      reactions to beta-adrenoblocker attest to specificity of the mechanisms
      underlying the changes in membrane reception and adrenergic pathways in every
      experimental model employed in this study.

PMID- 28577105
TI  - Effect of Atorvastatin Therapy on the Level of CD34+CD133+CD309+ Endothelial
      Progenitor Cells in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease.
AB  - In 58 patients with coronary heart disease, the count of CD34+CD133+CD309+
      endothelial progenitor cells in the blood was determined and the dynamics of the
      content of endothelial progenitor cells, angiogenic growth factors, and lipid
      parameters over 3 months of atorvastatin therapy was analyzed. Atorvastatin was
      administered in daily doses of 10 mg (26 patients) and 40 mg (32 patients).
      Control group comprised 15 healthy volunteers. In patients with coronary heart
      disease, the count of endothelial progenitor cells was lower by 4 times, the
      level of VEGF was higher by 52%, and the level of endostatin was lower by 13%
      than in healthy volunteers. Atorvastatin therapy significantly reduced the levels
      of VEGF (by 11%), C-reactive protein (by 26%), total cholesterol (by 30%), LDL
      cholesterol (by 35%), and triglycerides (by 18%); the levels of endostatin, MCP
      1, and HDL cholesterol remained unchanged. The count of endothelial progenitor
      cells increased significantly by 72% irrespectively on the statin dose, but the
      changes were more pronounced in patients with lower initial endothelial
      progenitor cell counts and in patients with more drastic decrease in LDL
      cholesterol.

PMID- 28577107
TI  - Interaction of Constitutive Nitric Oxide Synthases with Cyclooxygenases in
      Regulation of Bicarbonate Secretion in the Gastric Mucosa.
AB  - Neuronal NO synthase blocker 7-nitroindazole suppressed bicarbonate secretion in
      rat gastric mucosa induced by mild local irritation with 1 M NaCl (pH 2.0). Non
      selective blocker of neuronal and endothelial synthases, Nomega-nitro-L-arginine
      (L-NNA), did not affect HCO3- production, but inhibited secretion after
      pretreatment with omeprazole. Non-selective cyclooxygenase blocker indomethacin
      inhibited HCO3- production under conditions of normal synthase activity and in
      the presence of L-NNA, but was ineffective when co-administered with 7
      nitroindazole. It was concluded that neuronal and endothelial synthases are
      involved in different mechanisms of regulation of HCO3- secretion in the gastric
      mucosa induced by mild irritation. Activation of neuronal synthase stimulated
      HCO3- production, which is mediated mainly through activation of cyclooxygenase.
      Theoretically, activation of endothelial synthase should suppress HCO3-
      production. The effect of endothelial synthase depends on acid secretion in the
      stomach and bicarbonate concentration in the submucosa, as it was demonstrated in
      experiments with intravenous NaHCO3 infusion.

PMID- 28577108
TI  - [Intracranial hemorrhage secondary to vitamin K deficiency in an infant despite
      oral vitamin K prophylaxis : Also a challenge for the anesthesiologist].
AB  - This article presents the case of a 6-week-old infant who, despite oral vitamin K
      prophylaxis and otherwise normal developmental progress, suffered a severe
      intracerebral and subdural hemorrhage, which required surgical evacuation. The
      interdisciplinary approach is described with emphasis on the management of
      hemostasis. Furthermore, the clinical picture of intracranial bleeding due to
      vitamin K deficiency, which is nowadays rare in the Western World, is described
      in the anesthesiology literature for the first time. The usual recommendations
      regarding prophylaxis as well as certain risk factors are presented.

PMID- 28577110
TI  - Daily chronomics of proteomic profile in aging and rotenone-induced Parkinson's
      disease model in male Wistar rat and its modulation by melatonin.
AB  - Aging is associated with changes in several basic parameters of circadian timing
      system (CTS) in mammals leading to circadian dysfunction. We had reported earlier
      that upon aging and in rotenone induced Parkinson's disease (RIPD) rat model
      there were significant alterations in the core clock genes expression levels and
      daily pulses. To identify biomarkers of aging and PD chronomics of proteomic day
      night profiles in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), pineal and substantia nigra (SN)
      in 3 month (m), 12, 24 m and RIPD rat model were studied at two time points i.e.
      Zeitgeber Time (ZT)-6 (mid-day) and ZT-18 (mid-night). Proteome analysis was done
      by using two dimensional (2-D) electrophoresis and the spots showing robust day
      night variations were identified by using MALDI TOF/TOF analysis. In 3 m rats the
      number of proteins showing day-night variations were relatively more than 12, 24
      m and RIPD rat model in SCN and SN. But in pineal there was increase in number of
      protein spots showing day-night variations in 24 m. Mass spectroscopy of the
      protein spots showing robust day night variation in aging and RIPD rats were
      identified. As melatonin, a multitasking molecule, an endogenous synchronizer of
      rhythm, an antioxidant and an antiaging drug, declines with aging, the effects of
      melatonin administration on differential alterations in chronomics of 2-D protein
      profiles in aging and RIPD male Wistar rats were studied. We report here that the
      melatonin could be playing an important role in modulating the chronomics of 2-D
      protein profiles. Additionally, various proteins were identified for the first
      time in this study showing significant day night variation in SCN, pineal and SN
      may prove useful towards targeting novel treatments for circadian dysfunction,
      good health and longevity.

PMID- 28577109
TI  - Phosgene-induced acute lung injury (ALI): differences from chlorine-induced ALI
      and attempts to translate toxicology to clinical medicine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phosgene (carbonyl dichloride) gas is an indispensable chemical inter
      mediate used in numerous industrial processes. There is no clear consensus as to
      its time- and inhaled-dose-dependent etiopathologies and associated preventive or
      therapeutic treatment strategies. METHODS: Cardiopulmonary function was examined
      in rats exposed by inhalation to the alveolar irritant phosgene or to the airway
      irritant chlorine during and following exposure. Terminal measurements focused on
      hematology, protein extravasation in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and increased
      lung weight. Noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic endpoints in exhaled breath
      (carbon dioxide and nitric oxide) were used to detect the clinically occult stage
      of pulmonary edema. RESULTS: The first event observed in rats following high but
      sublethal acute exposure to phosgene was the stimulation of alveolar nociceptive
      vagal receptors. This afferent stimulation resulted in dramatic changes in
      cardiopulmonary functions, ventilation: perfusion imbalances, and progressive
      pulmonary edema and phospholipoproteinosis. Hematology revealed hemoconcentration
      to be an early marker of pulmonary edema and fibrin as a discriminating endpoint
      that was positive for the airway irritant chlorine and negative for the alveolar
      irritant phosgene. CONCLUSIONS: The application of each gas produced typical
      ALI/ARDS (acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome) characteristics.
      Phosgene-induced ALI showed evidence of persistent apnea periods, bradycardia,
      and shifts of vascular fluid from the peripheral to the pulmonary circulation.
      Carbon dioxide in expired gas was suggestive of increased ventilation dead space
      and appeared to be a harbinger of progressively developing lung edema. Treatment
      with the iNOS inhibitor aminoguanidine aerosol by inhalation reduced the severity
      of phosgene-induced ALI when applied at low dose-rates. Symptomatic treatment
      regimens were considered inferior to causal modes of treatment.

PMID- 28577111
TI  - Family Life and Social Medicine: Discourses and Discontents Surrounding Puebla's
      Psychiatric Care.
AB  - Drawing on clinical data from 15 months of on-site participant observation in the
      only public psychiatric hospital in the state of Puebla, Mexico, this article
      advances our understanding of globalization in relation to psychiatry. I
      challenge the construction of psychiatry as only treating the individual patient
      and provide grounded doctor-patient-family member interaction in a Mexican
      psychiatric clinic in order to review what happens when doctors cannot interact
      with patients as atomized individuals even though in theory they are trained to
      think of patients that way. Challenged by severe structural constraints and
      bolstered by lessons from other nations' efforts at deinstitutionalization,
      psychiatrists in Puebla push to keep patients out of the inpatient wards and in
      their respective communities. To this end, psychiatrists call upon co-present kin
      who are identified both as the customer and part of the caretaking system outside
      the clinic. This modification to the visit structure changes the dynamic and
      content of clinical visits while doctors seamlessly respond to unspoken beliefs
      and values that are central to local life, ultimately showing that efforts to
      define a "global psychiatry" informed by global policy will fail because it
      cannot exist in a uniform way-interpersonal interaction and personal experience
      matters.

PMID- 28577112
TI  - 3D-QSAR, molecular dynamics simulations, and molecular docking studies on
      pyridoaminotropanes and tetrahydroquinazoline as mTOR inhibitors.
AB  - Cancer is a second major disease after metabolic disorders where the number of
      cases of death is increasing gradually. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is
      one of the most important targets for treatment of cancer, specifically for
      breast and lung cancer. In the present research work, Comparative Molecular Field
      Analysis (CoMFA) and Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices Analysis (CoMSIA)
      studies were performed on 50 compounds reported as mTOR inhibitors. Three
      different alignment methods were used, and among them, distill method was found
      to be the best method. In CoMFA, leave-one-out cross-validated coefficients
      [Formula: see text], conventional coefficient [Formula: see text], and predicted
      correlation coefficient [Formula: see text] values were found to be 0.664, 0.992,
      and 0.652, respectively. CoMSIA study was performed in 25 different combinations
      of features, such as steric, electrostatic, hydrogen bond donor, hydrogen bond
      acceptor, and hydrophobic. From this, a combination of steric, electrostatic,
      hydrophobic (SEH), and a combination of steric, electrostatic, hydrophobic,
      donor, and acceptor (SEHDA) were found as best combinations. In CoMSIA (SEHDA),
      [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were found to be
      0.646, 0.977, and 0.682, respectively, while in the case of CoMSIA (SEH), the
      values were 0.739, 0.976, and 0.779, respectively. Contour maps were generated
      and validated by molecular dynamics simulation-assisted molecular docking study.
      Highest active compound 19, moderate active compound 15, and lowest active
      compound 42 were docked on mTOR protein to validate the results of our molecular
      docking study. The result of the molecular docking study of highest active
      compound 19 is in line with the outcomes generated by contour maps. Based on the
      features obtained through this study, six novel mTOR inhibitors were designed and
      docked. This study could be useful for designing novel molecules with increased
      anticancer activity.

PMID- 28577113
TI  - Support for Military Medical Students-One School's Experience.

PMID- 28577114
TI  - Building Beautiful Minds: Teaching Through Movies to Tackle Stigma in Psychology
      Students in the UAE.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The use of movie-based educational interventions has been used widely
      and is considered an effective method aiming at changing the stigmatizing
      attitudes of future mental health professionals. The purpose of this study was to
      examine the effectiveness of a 10-week intervention that combined movies and
      related discussions in a sample of 26 psychology students in the United Arab
      Emirates, where the opportunities for real contact with patients with mental
      illness are limited. METHODS: By means of mixed methods approach, students were
      assessed at two time points by the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care
      Providers [OMS-HC] (T1-T2) and by qualitative questions only at the end of the
      intervention (T2). RESULTS: The results corroborated changes to some of the
      students' attitudes, namely agency, compassion, and proximity, but did not prove
      a general attitudinal change. Additionally, students acknowledged the benefit
      obtained by their participation with regard to their learning experience,
      pointing out the importance of combining theory with practical examples of mental
      illness for spreading awareness and tackling stigma. CONCLUSION: The results are
      discussed in the light of their importance for the United Arab Emirates
      educational context.

PMID- 28577115
TI  - The Psychiatry Major: A Curricular Innovation to Improve Undergraduate Psychiatry
      Education in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In China, a psychiatry major curriculum (PMC) has been implemented in
      select medical schools to improve the quality of undergraduate psychiatry
      education (UPE). Our aim was to describe this PMC and compare it with UPE in the
      standard Chinese clinical medicine curriculum (CMC). We also benchmarked PMC to
      UPE programs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China and the
      United States of America (USA) to determine how well it met standards of well
      established programs and to highlight areas for improvement. METHODS: Based on
      archival information, relevant literature, and communication with key informants,
      we described PMC and CMC in a Chinese school with both curriculums. We then
      compared PMC to UPE curriculums in Hong Kong and the USA. RESULTS: PMC provides
      substantially more comprehensive exposure to psychiatry than CMC, with more
      preclinical experiences and psychiatry clerkship course hours, greater diversity
      of clinical sites, and exploration of subspecialties. PMC employs a variety of
      teaching methods and offers mentoring for students. PMC has similar UPE
      preclinical content and course hours as programs in Hong Kong and the USA. PMC
      also provides more clinical exposure than programs in Hong Kong or the USA,
      although there is less variety in clinical settings. CONCLUSION: We recommend
      implementation of concrete measures to improve UPE in Chinese medical schools,
      using the PMC curriculum as a model that has been successfully implemented in
      China. We also recommend improvements to PMC based on comparisons with existing
      programs outside Mainland China.

PMID- 28577116
TI  - The Community Value of Academic Psychiatry: The Development of a Psychiatry
      Residency Program in a Federally Qualified Health Center.

PMID- 28577117
TI  - Teaching Psychological Assessments to Forensic Psychiatry Fellows: A Practical
      Guide.

PMID- 28577118
TI  - Comparing and Contrasting the Use of Problem-Based Learning in Child and
      Adolescent Psychiatry Programs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the core components of medical
      education. To facilitate the spread and use of PBL in child and adolescent
      psychiatry (CAP) fellowship training, a special interest study group (SISG) was
      formed at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).
      Different approaches to the implementation of PBL between programs represented at
      the SISG are compared in this report. METHODS: The authors distributed a survey
      to SISG participants after the 2015 annual AACAP meeting, which gathered
      information about the different approaches programs use to implement PBL in
      graduate medical education. RESULTS: Six CAP training programs responded to the
      survey, providing descriptions of the structure and content of PBL seminars.
      Programs chose to include a wide variety of topics in PBL courses and approach
      course organization in a number of ways. To the degree that PBL draws from
      identified reference texts, programs were similar in selecting definitive
      textbooks, practice parameters, and seminal articles. CONCLUSIONS: This small
      pilot study is intended to provide a snapshot of the state of PBL implementation
      in CAP fellowship programs. It reflects that programs can incorporate PBL in a
      variety of ways, tailored to the needs of the institution. Future directions of
      research include assessment of resident satisfaction with PBL, impact on resident
      education, and identifying successful methods of implementation of PBL.

PMID- 28577119
TI  - Gene networks for total number born in pigs across divergent environments.
AB  - For reproductive traits such as total number born (TNB), variance due to
      different environments is highly relevant in animal breeding. In this study, we
      aimed to perform a gene-network analysis for TNB in pigs across different
      environments using genomic reaction norm models. Thus, based on relevant single
      nucleotide polymorphisms and linkage disequilibrium blocks across environments
      obtained from GWAS, different sets of candidate genes having biological roles
      linked to TNB were identified. Network analysis across environment levels
      resulted in gene interactions consistent with known mammal's fertility biology,
      captured relevant transcription factors for TNB biology and pointing out
      different sets of candidate genes for TNB in different environments. These
      findings may have important implication for animal production, as optimal
      breeding may vary depending on later environments. Based on these results,
      genomic diversity was identified and inferred across environments highlighting
      differential genetic control in each scenario.

PMID- 28577121
TI  - Recent Advances in Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration.

PMID- 28577120
TI  - Large-Scale Prediction of Drug-Target Interaction: a Data-Centric Review.
AB  - The prediction of drug-target interactions (DTIs) is of extraordinary
      significance to modern drug discovery in terms of suggesting new drug candidates
      and repositioning old drugs. Despite technological advances, large-scale
      experimental determination of DTIs is still expensive and laborious. Effective
      and low-cost computational alternatives remain in strong need. Meanwhile, open
      access resources have been rapidly growing with massive amount of bioactivity
      data becoming available, creating unprecedented opportunities for the development
      of novel in silico models for large-scale DTI prediction. In this work, we review
      the state-of-the-art computational approaches for identifying DTIs from a data
      centric perspective: what the underlying data are and how they are utilized in
      each study. We also summarize popular public data resources and online tools for
      DTI prediction. It is found that various types of data were employed including
      properties of chemical structures, drug therapeutic effects and side effects,
      drug-target binding, drug-drug interactions, bioactivity data of drug molecules
      across multiple biological targets, and drug-induced gene expressions. More
      often, the heterogeneous data were integrated to offer better performance.
      However, challenges remain such as handling data imbalance, incorporating
      negative samples and quantitative bioactivity data, as well as maintaining cross
      links among different data sources, which are essential for large-scale and
      automated information integration.

PMID- 28577122
TI  - Successful Treatment of Pulmonary Mucormycosis Caused by Cunninghamella
      bertholletiae with High-Dose Liposomal Amphotericin B (10 mg/kg/day) Followed by
      a Lobectomy in Cord Blood Transplant Recipients.
AB  - Infection caused by Cunninghamella bertholletiae carries one of the highest
      mortality rates among mucormycosis, and there are no reported cases that survived
      from the infection in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      recipients occurring before neutrophil engraftment. Here, we present two cases of
      pulmonary mucormycosis caused by C. bertholletiae occurring before neutrophil
      engraftment after cord blood transplantation. Both were successfully treated with
      high-dose liposomal amphotericin B (10 mg/kg/day) combined with micafungin, which
      was then followed by neutrophil recovery, reduction in immunosuppressive agents,
      and a subsequent lobectomy. The intensive antifungal therapy immediately
      administered upon suspicion of mucormycosis greatly suppressed the infection in
      its early stage and was well tolerated despite its prolonged administration and
      simultaneous use of nephrotoxic agents after transplantation. Although the
      synergic effect of micafungin remains unclear, these cases highlight the
      importance of prompt administration of high-dose lipid polyene when suspecting
      mucormycosis in highly immunocompromised patients, which enables subsequent
      diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, resulting in a favorable outcome.

PMID- 28577123
TI  - Hepatic Disease with Portal Hypertension and Acute Juvenile
      Paracoccidioidomycosis: A Report of Two Cases and Literature Review.
AB  - Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a neglected systemic mycosis endemic to Latin
      America caused by dimorphic fungi of the genus Paracoccidioides. The acute
      juvenile PCM is a severe type of presentation that usually affects young
      vulnerable patients and rarely progresses to portal hypertension. Here, two cases
      of liver disease and portal hypertension as complications of acute juvenile PCM
      are reported. Diagnosis of PCM was performed by isolation of the fungus and
      molecular identification of the strains provided through partial sequencing of
      two protein encoding genes, arf and gp43. Genotypic analysis revealed that
      Paracoccidioides brasiliensis S1 was the phylogenic species involved in both
      cases. Patients presented a good clinical response to amphotericin B and
      sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim. These results highlight the importance of the
      interdisciplinary approach in patients with severe forms of PCM to avoid and
      treat complications, and the necessity of further investigations focusing on host
      pathogen interaction in order to explain the broad clinical spectrum in PCM as
      well as the severity and poor outcome in some clinical cases.

PMID- 28577125
TI  - Preparation of Nano- and Microstructures For Drug Delivery.

PMID- 28577124
TI  - Association mapping to discover significant marker-trait associations for
      resistance against fusarium wilt variant 2 in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.)
      Millspaugh] using SSR markers.
AB  - Pigeonpea production is severely constrained by wilt disease caused by Fusarium
      udum. In the current study, we discover the putative genomic regions that control
      resistance response to variant 2 of fusarium wilt using association mapping
      approach. The association panel comprised of 89 diverse pigeonpea genotypes
      including seven varieties, three landraces and 79 germplasm lines. The panel was
      screened rigorously for 3 consecutive years (2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-2016)
      against variant 2 in a wilt-sick field. A total of 65 pigeonpea specific
      hypervariable SSR markers (HASSRs) were screened representing seven linkage
      groups and 29 scaffolds of the pigeonpea genome. A total of 181 alleles were
      detected, with average values of gene diversity and polymorphism information
      content (PIC) of 0.55 and 0.47, respectively. Further analysis using model based
      (STRUCTURE) and distance based (clustering) approaches separated the entire
      pigeonpea collection into two distinct subgroups (K = 2). The marker trait
      associations (MTAs) were established based on three-year wilt incidence data and
      SSR dataset using a unified mixed linear model. Consequently, six SSR markers
      were identified, which were significantly associated with wilt resistance and
      explained up to 6% phenotypic variance (PV) across the years. Among these SSRs,
      HASSR18 was found to be the most stable and significant, accounting for 5-6% PV
      across the years. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of
      identification of favourable alleles for resistance to variant 2 of Fusarium udum
      in pigeonpea using association mapping. The SSR markers identified here will
      greatly facilitate marker assisted resistance breeding against fusarium wilt in
      pigeonpea.

PMID- 28577126
TI  - Nanoencapsulation Improves Scavenging Capacity and Decreases Cytotoxicity of
      Silibinin and Pomegranate Oil Association.
AB  - Silibinin (SB) and pomegranate oil (PO) present therapeutic potential due to
      antioxidant activity, but the biological performance of both bioactives is
      limited by their low aqueous solubility. To overcome this issue, the aim of the
      present investigation was to develop nanocapsule suspensions with PO as oil core
      for SB encapsulation, as well as assess their toxicity in vitro and radical
      scavenging activity. The nanocapsule suspensions were prepared by interfacial
      deposition of preformed polymer method. SB-loaded PO-based nanocapsules (SBNC)
      showed an average diameter of 157 +/- 3 nm, homogenous size distribution, zeta
      potential of -14.1 +/- 1.7 mV, pH of 5.6 +/- 0.4 and SB content close to 100%.
      Similar results were obtained for the unloaded formulation (PONC). The
      nanocapsules controlled SB release at least 10 times as compared with free SB in
      methanolic solution. The SBNC scavenging capacity in vitro was statistically
      higher than free SB (p < 0.05). Cell viability in monocytes and lymphocytes was
      kept around 100% in the treatments with SBNC and PONC, while the SB and the PO
      caused a decrease around 30% at 50 MUM (SB) and 724 MUg/mL (PO). Protein
      carbonyls and DNA damage were minimized by SB and PO nanoencapsulation. Lipid
      peroxidation occurred in nanocapsule treatments regardless of the SB presence,
      which may be attributed to PO acting as substrate in reaction. The free compounds
      also caused lipid peroxidation. The results show that SBNC and PONC presented
      adequate physicochemical characteristics and low toxicity against human blood
      cells. Thereby, this novel nanocarrier may be a promising formulation for
      therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28577128
TI  - Letter to the editor.

PMID- 28577127
TI  - Utility of intraoperative nerve monitoring in thyroid surgery: 20-year experience
      with 1418 cases.
AB  - PURPOSE: The efficacy of intraoperative nerve monitoring is controversial in the
      literature. This study of a single surgeon's experience seeks to determine if the
      use of intraoperative nerve monitoring influences recurrent laryngeal nerve
      injury during thyroid surgery. METHODS: Six hundred fifty-seven patients with
      normal pre-operative vocal fold function underwent thyroid surgery without the
      use of intraoperative nerve monitoring from September 1997 to January 2007, while
      761 patients underwent thyroid surgery from February 2007 to February 2016 with
      routine use of nerve monitoring. Patients were followed for a minimum of 6 months
      after surgery, and postoperative nerve function was determined by fiberoptic
      laryngoscopy. A Fisher test was used to determine if nerve injury was
      statistically different between both groups. RESULTS: In patients operated on
      without nerve monitoring, 21 patients were found to have postoperative vocal fold
      paralysis with nine regaining functioning. In patients operated on with nerve
      monitoring, 27 were found to have vocal fold dysfunction with 17 regaining
      function. Fisher test analysis, both with and without patients regaining
      function, showed no difference in nerve injury between groups (p > 0.05, p >
      0.05). CONCLUSION: Intraoperative monitoring during thyroidectomy may not prevent
      injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve.

PMID- 28577129
TI  - Effects of Mild to Severe Hepatic Impairment on the Pharmacokinetics of
      Sonidegib: A Multicenter, Open-Label, Parallel-Group Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Sonidegib is a potent, selective and orally
      bioavailable inhibitor of the Hedgehog signaling pathway, primarily metabolized
      by the liver. In order to make dose recommendations for patients with hepatic
      impairment, we have assessed here the pharmacokinetics (PKs) and safety of
      sonidegib in subjects with varying degrees of hepatic function. METHODS: The
      primary objective of this phase I, multicenter, open-label study was to evaluate
      the PKs of a single oral 800 mg dose of sonidegib in subjects with impaired
      hepatic function compared with healthy subjects. PK parameters (e.g. area under
      the concentration-time curve from time zero to infinity [AUCinf], area under the
      concentration-time curve from time zero to the last measurable concentration
      [AUClast], maximum concentration [C max], apparent clearance [CL/F], and terminal
      half-life [t 1/2]) for parent drug and the metabolite were compared with the
      normal group, as the reference. Metabolite ratio, unbound PK parameters, and the
      relationship between specific PK parameters and liver function parameters were
      assessed. RESULTS: In total, 33 subjects entered the study and received
      sonidegib. Plasma concentrations peaked at approximately 2-3 h in all groups
      after dosing. Compared with the normal group, AUClast decreased by 35 and 23% and
      increased by 14% in the mild, severe, and moderate hepatic impairment groups,
      respectively. The C max values were lower in all groups with respect to the
      normal group (decreases of 20, 21 and 60% in the mild, moderate and severe
      hepatic impairment groups, respectively). Protein binding was independent of
      hepatic function, and similar trends in the PK parameters were observed for
      unbound sonidegib and the metabolite. Protein binding was similar across all
      groups. Weak to no correlation between specific PK and hepatic function
      parameters was found. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, sonidegib exposures were similar or
      decreased in the hepatic impairment groups compared with the normal group, and
      sonidegib was generally well-tolerated in all subjects. Dose adjustment is not
      considered necessary for subjects with mild, moderate, or severe hepatic
      impairment.

PMID- 28577130
TI  - Gemcitabine/Cisplatin Treatment Induces Concomitant SERTAD1, CDKN2B and GADD45A
      Modulation and Cellular Changes in Bladder Cancer Cells Regardless of the Site of
      TP53 Mutation.
AB  - Simultaneous use of cisplatin (CIS) and gemcitabine (GEN) for treating bladder
      cancer has increased because of their complementary effects. However, the
      molecular mechanisms underlying the activities of these two antineoplastic drugs
      are not fully known. Here, molecular biology techniques and microscopy were used
      to investigate transcriptomic and morphological changes in low and high-grade
      urinary bladder transitional carcinoma cell lines [RT4 - wild type TP53; 5637 -
      two TP53 mutations, one in codon 72 (Arg-Pro) and other in codon 280 (Arg-Thr)
      and T24 - in-frame deletion of tyrosine 126 in the TP53 allele] simultaneously
      treated with CIS/GEN. Gene expression profile was evaluated by PCR arrays; cell
      morphology by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and apoptosis was
      analyzed using fluorescent dye. Results showed concomitantly upregulation of
      CDKN2B (G1/S transition), GADD45A (DNA repair and apoptosis) and SERTAD1
      (regulation of transcription) gene, increased number of nuclear chamfers and
      apoptotic cells, and reduced number of microfilaments, organelles and in the size
      of the nucleus in 5637 and T24 cells after simultaneous treatment with CIS/GEN.
      In conclusion, independently of the TP53 mutation status and tumor grade, CIS/GEN
      induced gene modulation accompanied by changes in cell morphologies, which
      confirm the antiproliferative activity of the treatment protocol. These findings
      help to understand the pathways modulated by these antineoplastic agents and may
      provide insights for anti-cancer chemotherapy.

PMID- 28577131
TI  - Deep Learning for Brain MRI Segmentation: State of the Art and Future Directions.
AB  - Quantitative analysis of brain MRI is routine for many neurological diseases and
      conditions and relies on accurate segmentation of structures of interest. Deep
      learning-based segmentation approaches for brain MRI are gaining interest due to
      their self-learning and generalization ability over large amounts of data. As the
      deep learning architectures are becoming more mature, they gradually outperform
      previous state-of-the-art classical machine learning algorithms. This review aims
      to provide an overview of current deep learning-based segmentation approaches for
      quantitative brain MRI. First we review the current deep learning architectures
      used for segmentation of anatomical brain structures and brain lesions. Next, the
      performance, speed, and properties of deep learning approaches are summarized and
      discussed. Finally, we provide a critical assessment of the current state and
      identify likely future developments and trends.

PMID- 28577132
TI  - Tangeretin inhibits neurodegeneration and attenuates inflammatory responses and
      behavioural deficits in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)
      induced Parkinson's disease dementia in rats.
AB  - Our aim was to investigate whether tangeretin, a citrus flavonoid, was able to
      prevent neuroinflammation and improve dementia in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6
      tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced rodent model of Parkinson's disease (PD). MPTP
      HCl was infused into the substantia nigra pars compacta of male Sprague-Dawley
      rats. Tangeretin (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg body weight) was administered orally
      starting 3 days prior to MPTP injection and was continued for 20 days following
      injection. MPTP-lesioned rats revealed motor dysfunction in bar test and rota rod
      tests. Deficits in working memory and object recognition function were also
      observed following MPTP induction. Tangeretin treatment significantly attenuated
      the memory deficits and improved motor functions and cognition.
      Immunohistochemical analysis reveals the protective effects of tangeretin against
      MPTP lesion-induced dopaminergic degeneration and hippocampal neuronal loss.
      Tangeretin reduced expression of inflammatory mediators-COX-2, iNOS-as well
      reduced the levels of cytokines-interleukins (IL)-IL-1beta, IL-6 and IL-2. The
      experimental data suggest tangeretin as an effective candidate drug with
      potential for prevention and treatment of neuroinflammation and dementia
      associated with PD.

PMID- 28577133
TI  - Protective effect of gallic acid in experimental model of ketamine-induced
      psychosis: possible behaviour, biochemical, neurochemical and cellular
      alterations.
AB  - Gallic acid has been reported to possess a number of psychopharmacological
      activities. These activities are attributed to the antioxidant potential due to
      the presence of phenolic moeity. The present study was carried out to investigate
      the protective effects of gallic acid in an experimental model of ketamine
      induced psychosis in mice. Ketamine (50 mg/kg, i.p.) was used to induce
      stereotyped psychotic behavioural symptoms in mice. Behavioural studies
      (locomotor activity, stereotype behaviour, immobility duration and memory
      retention) were carried out to investigate the protective of gallic acid on
      ketamine-induced psychotic symptoms, followed by biochemical and neurochemical
      changes and cellular alterations in the brain. Chronic treatment with gallic acid
      for 15 consecutive days significantly attenuated stereotyped behavioural symptoms
      in mice. Biochemical estimations revealed that gallic acid reduced the lipid
      peroxidation and restored the total brain proteins. Furthermore, gallic acid
      remarkably reduced the dopamine levels, AChE activity and inflammatory surge
      (serum TNF-alpha), and increased the levels of GABA and increased glutathione in
      mice. The study revealed that gallic acid could ameliorate psychotic symptoms and
      biochemical changes in mice, indicating protective effects in psychosis.

PMID- 28577134
TI  - Role of Oxidative Stress in the Suppression of Immune Responses in Peripheral
      Blood Mononuclear Cells Exposed to Combustible Tobacco Product Preparation.
AB  - Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for several human diseases. Chronic
      inflammation, resulting from increased oxidative stress, has been suggested as a
      mechanism that contributes to the increased susceptibility of smokers to cancer
      and microbial infections. We have previously shown that whole-smoke conditioned
      medium (WS-CM) and total particulate matter (TPM) prepared from Kentucky 3R4F
      reference cigarettes [collectively called as combustible tobacco product
      preparations (TPPs)] potently suppressed agonist-stimulated cytokine secretion
      and target cell killing in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Here we
      have investigated the role of oxidative stress from TPPs, which alters
      inflammatory responses in vitro. Particularly, we investigated the mechanisms of
      WS-CM-induced suppression of select cytokine secretions in Toll-like receptor
      (TLR) agonist-stimulated cells and target cell killing by effector cells in
      PBMCs. Pretreatment with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), a precursor of reduced
      glutathione and an established anti-oxidant, protected against DNA damage and
      cytotoxicity caused by exposure to WS-CM. Similarly, secretion of tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-8 in response to TLR-4 stimulation was
      restored by pretreatment with NAC. Target cell killing, a functional measure of
      cytolytic cells in PBMCs, is suppressed by WS-CM. Pretreatment with NAC restored
      the target cell killing in WS-CM treated PBMCs. This was accompanied by higher
      perforin levels in the effector cell populations. Collectively, these data
      suggest that reducing oxidative stress caused by cigarette smoke components
      restores select immune responses in this ex vivo model.

PMID- 28577135
TI  - A Review of Adjunctive CNS Medications Used for the Treatment of Post-Surgical
      Pain.
AB  - Inadequate post-operative pain management can have significant impacts on
      patients' quality of life. Effective management of acute pain after surgery is
      important for early mobilization and discharge from hospital, patient
      satisfaction, and overall well-being. Utilizing multimodal analgesic strategies
      has become the mainstay of acute post-operative pain management. A comprehensive
      search was performed, assessing the published or otherwise publically available
      literature on different central nervous system (CNS) drugs [excluding opioids,
      non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and acetaminophen] and their uses
      to treat acute post-surgical pain. Included among the drugs evaluated in this
      review are anticonvulsants, N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) agonists, local
      anesthetics, alpha2-agonists, cannabinoids, serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake
      inhibitors (SNRIs), and serotonin-noradrenaline-dopamine reuptake inhibitors
      (SNDRIs). Timing, dosing, routes of administration, as well as mechanisms of
      action are discussed for these CNS drugs.

PMID- 28577136
TI  - Genome-wide gene expression profiling reveals that CD274 is up-regulated new
      onset type 1 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIMS: Early studies have identified type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) as a disease
      that is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic
      beta-cells. Genetics, environment and the immune pathogenesis of T1DM are three
      major pillars of T1DM research. We try to understand the changes in the gene
      expression profile during the pathogenesis of T1DM. METHODS: We performed a
      systematic search in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for microarray
      studies of T1DM with samples taken at or before the T1DM onset. RESULTS: The
      results of an integrated analysis of different GEO datasets and a comparison of
      the gene expression level in T1DM samples taken at the time of appearance of the
      islet autoantibodies, 1 year before T1DM onset, and at the time of T1DM onset
      showed that CD274, which encodes PD-L1, was up-regulated in the newly onset T1DM
      samples. CD274 had a stable expression level in the control samples but showed a
      gradual up-regulation from the appearance of autoantibodies to the onset of T1DM.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that CD274 up-regulation in T1DM is
      correlated with disease pathogenesis. PD-L1 might play a protective role in
      preventing the pancreatic islets from autoimmune destruction, which may help
      researchers find strategies for preventing the destruction process of pancreas
      beta-cells in T1DM.

PMID- 28577137
TI  - Ischemic index changes in diabetic retinopathy after intravitreal dexamethasone
      implant using ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography: a pilot study.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate the effect of dexamethasone intravitreal implant on
      peripheral ischemia in patients affected by diabetic macular edema (DME).
      METHODS: Patients with treatment-naive diabetic retinopathy (DR) undergoing
      intravitreal dexamethasone implant for DME between October 2015 and March 2017
      were enrolled. Patients underwent a comprehensive ocular examination at baseline
      (<2 weeks before treatment) and 10 +/- 2 weeks after dexamethasone implant
      including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure, optical
      coherence tomography, ultra-widefield (UWF) retinography and UWF fluorescein
      angiography (UWFA). RESULTS: Nine eyes of seven consecutive patients (five males;
      mean age 66.4 +/- 6.7 years) were enrolled. Mean duration of DR was 12.3 +/- 8.4
      years. Mean interval between UWFA acquisitions was 12.1 +/- 2.1 weeks, and the
      mean interval between intravitreal injection and UWFA acquisition was 11.0 +/-
      1.6 weeks. Mean pre- and post-injection BCVA was 0.30 +/- 0.20 and 0.21 +/- 0.14
      logMAR (p = 0.06), respectively. Mean pre- and post-injection central macular
      thickness was 449.8 +/- 92.5 and 356.3 +/- 52.4 MUm (p = 0.03), respectively.
      Mean pre- and post-injection ischemic index was 24.0 +/- 25.0 and 9.8 +/- 12.1%
      (p = 0.0427), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Intravitreal dexamethasone implant
      reduces peripheral retina ischemia in patients with DR.

PMID- 28577138
TI  - Elevated 1-h post-challenge plasma glucose levels in subjects with normal glucose
      tolerance or impaired glucose tolerance are associated with whole blood
      viscosity.
AB  - AIM: It has been suggested that glucose levels >=155 mg/dl at 1-h during an oral
      glucose tolerance test (OGTT) may predict development of type 2 diabetes and
      cardiovascular events among adults with normal glucose tolerance (NGT 1 h-high).
      Studies showed a link between increased blood viscosity and type 2 diabetes.
      However, whether blood viscosity is associated with dysglycemic conditions such
      as NGT 1 h-high, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or impaired fasting glucose
      (IFG) is unsettled. METHODS: 1723 non-diabetic adults underwent biochemical
      evaluation and OGTT. A validated formula based on hematocrit and total plasma
      proteins was employed to estimate whole blood viscosity. Subjects were
      categorized into NGT with 1 h glucose <155 mg/dL (NGT-1 h-low), NGT-1 h-high, IFG
      and/or IGT. RESULTS: Hematocrit and blood viscosity values appeared significantly
      higher in individuals with NGT 1 h-high, IFG and/or IGT as compared to NGT 1 h
      low subjects. Blood viscosity was significantly correlated with age, waist
      circumference, blood pressure, HbA1c, fasting, 1- and 2-h post-challenge insulin
      levels, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, fibrinogen,
      white blood cell, and inversely correlated with high-density lipoprotein and
      insulin sensitivity. Of the four glycemic parameters, 1-h post-challenge glucose
      showed the strongest correlation with blood viscosity (beta = 0.158, P < 0.0001)
      in a multivariate regression analysis model including several atherosclerosis
      risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate a positive relationship
      between blood viscosity and 1-h post-challenge plasma glucose. They also suggest
      that a subgroup of NGT individuals with 1-h post-challenge plasma >155 mg/dl have
      increased blood viscosity comparable to that observed in subjects with IFG and/or
      IGT.

PMID- 28577139
TI  - Temporal comparison of global inventories of CO2 emissions from biomass burning
      during 2002-2011 derived from remotely sensed data.
AB  - Biomass burning is a large important source of greenhouse gases and atmospheric
      aerosols, and can contribute greatly to the temporal variations of CO2 emissions
      at regional and global scales. In this study, we compared four globally gridded
      CO2 emission inventories from biomass burning during the period of 2002-2011,
      highlighting the similarities and differences in seasonality and interannual
      variability of the CO2 emissions both at regional and global scales. The four
      datasets included Global Fire Emissions Database 4s with small fires (GFED4s),
      Global Fire Assimilation System 1.0 (GFAS1.0), Fire INventory from NCAR 1.0
      (FINN1.0), and Global Inventory for Chemistry-Climate studies-GFED4s (G-G). The
      results showed that in general, the four inventories presented consistent
      temporal trend but with large differences as well. Globally, CO2 emissions of
      GFED4s, GFAS1.0, and G-G all peaked in August with the exception in FINN1.0,
      which recorded another peak in annual March. The interannual trend of all
      datasets displayed an overall decrease in CO2 emissions during 2002-2011, except
      for the inconsistent FINN1.0, which showed a tendency to increase during the
      considered period. Meanwhile, GFED4s and GFAS1.0 noted consistent agreement from
      2002 to 2011 at both global (R 2 > 0.8) and continental levels (R 2 > 0.7).
      FINN1.0 was found to have the poorest temporal correlations with the other three
      inventories globally (R 2 < 0.6). The lower estimation in savanna CO2 emissions
      and higher calculation in cropland CO2 emissions by FINN1.0 from 2002 to 2011 was
      the primary reason for the temporal differences of the four inventories. Besides,
      the contributions of the three land covers (forest, savanna, and cropland) on CO2
      emissions in each region varied greatly within the year (>80%) but showed small
      variations through the years (<40%).

PMID- 28577140
TI  - Malondialdehyde concentrations in the intestine and gills of Vardar chub
      (Squalius vardarensis Karaman) as indicator of lipid peroxidation.
AB  - A lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde (MDA), was studied in Vardar chub
      (Squalius vardarensis Karaman) as an indicator of oxidative stress, using native
      fish from three rivers in northern Macedonia: the mining-impacted Zletovska and
      Kriva rivers and the agriculturally impacted Bregalnica River. MDA concentrations
      were measured in the intestine in the spring and autumn of 2012 and in the gills
      in autumn. The aims of the study were to establish the type of contamination
      which provokes a more pronounced MDA increase, as well as the organ which more
      reliably reflects the occurrence of oxidative stress. MDA levels in the intestine
      in spring amounted to 3.29-155.8 nmol g-1 and in autumn to 4.85-111.1 nmol g-1,
      whereas MDA concentrations in the gills in autumn were 7.69-147.5 nmol g-1.
      Stronger influence of organic contamination on development of oxidative stress
      was observed in both organs, as seen from higher median MDA concentrations in
      autumn in fish from the highly pesticide-contaminated Bregalnica River (gills
      78.4 nmol g-1; intestine 23.5 nmol g-1) compared to the highly metal-contaminated
      Zletovska River (gills 15.9 nmol g-1; intestine 17.4 nmol g-1). The response of
      the gills to contamination was twice stronger than that of the intestine. The
      majority of fish from the pesticide-polluted river had increased MDA in the
      gills, in contrast to only sporadically increased MDA in the intestine. Our
      results indicated that development of oxidative stress strongly depends on the
      selected fish organ and that the gills seem to be a better choice for monitoring
      oxidative stress than the intestine, due to their continuous and direct exposure
      to polluted river water.

PMID- 28577141
TI  - Detection of typhoid fever by diatom-based optical biosensor.
AB  - Surface-modified diatom substrates are employed for the development of
      immunocomplex-based optical biosensor for diagnosis of typhoid. Biosensor has
      been prepared by covalent immobilization of Salmonella typhi antibody onto the
      crosslinked diatom substrates via glutaraldehyde. Photoluminescent (PL) studies
      revealed good specificity and ability of conjugated diatom substrates to
      distinguish complementary (S. typhi) and non-complementary (Escherichia coli)
      antigens. The immunocomplexed biosensor showed detection limit of 10 pg. The
      excellent performance of biosensor is associated to its large surface-to-volume
      ratio, good photoluminescent property, and biocompatibility of diatom frustules,
      which enhances the antibody immobilization and facilitates the nucleophilic
      electron transfer between antibody and conjugated diatom surface. Hence,
      immunocomplexed diatom substrates are considered to be a suitable platform for
      the environmental monitoring of water-borne pathogen S. typhi.

PMID- 28577142
TI  - Acute toxic effect of sewage effluent on the early life phase of an estuarine
      crab Scylla serrata.
AB  - The biological quality of secondary treated sewage effluent was evaluated using a
      toolbox approach, which combined a larval developmental bioassay and measurement
      of fecal indicator organisms. The zoea developmental toxicity of Scylla serrata
      from stage I to stage II was determined by exposing to a range of secondary
      treated sewage concentrations. Results indicated that the relative progress of
      zoea stage I to zoea stage II negatively correlated with increasing sewage
      concentrations. Data was analyzed statistically to determine lethal, median
      lethal, sublethal, low observed effect, and no observed effect concentrations.
      Water samples collected along the Buckingham canal discharge zone were also
      analyzed for its toxicity to the larval development. Fecal indicator organisms
      chosen to determine the water quality were E. coli, enterococci, C. perfrigens,
      and F+ coliphages. Concentrations of these fecal markers were determined in the
      raw influent, primary treated effluent, secondary treated effluent, and in four
      discharge zone sites. Data showed that this biological toolbox is helpful for
      providing baseline information on the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment
      and environmental health of the discharge zone.

PMID- 28577143
TI  - Spectroscopic and molecular characterization of humic substances (HS) from soils
      and sediments in a watershed: comparative study of HS chemical fractions and the
      origins.
AB  - Optical properties and molecular composition of humic substances (HS) can provide
      valuable information on the sources and the history of the associated
      biogeochemical processes. In this study, many well-known spectral and molecular
      characteristics were examined in eight different HS samples, which were extracted
      from soils and sediments located in a forested watershed, via two advanced tools
      including fluorescence excitation emission matrix-parallel factor analysis (EEM
      PARAFAC) and high-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass
      spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Two humic-like (C1 and C2) and one protein-like (C3)
      components were identified from EEM-PARAFAC. Irrespective of the origins, humic
      acid (HA) fractions were distinguished from fulvic acid (FA) fractions by the HS
      characteristics of specific UV absorbance (SUVA), the number of formulas, maximum
      fluorescence intensities of C1 and C2, condensed aromatics, tannins, and CHON,
      CHOS, and CHONS classes. In contrast, only five HS indices, including C3
      intensity, H%, modified aromatic index (AImod), the percentages of carbohydrates,
      and unsaturated hydrocarbons, were found to be significant factors in
      discriminating between the two HS origins (i.e., soils and sediments). The
      ordination of the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix further confirmed that the HS
      chemical fraction (i.e., HA or FA) was the more important factor to determine the
      measured HS characteristics than the HS origin. Our results provided an in-depth
      insight into the chemical and structural heterogeneity of bulk HS, which could be
      even beyond the differences observed along the two HS origins. This study also
      delivers a cautious message that the two operationally defined HS chemical
      fractions should be carefully considered in tracking the origins of different HS
      samples.

PMID- 28577145
TI  - The pesticide chlordecone is trapped in the tortuous mesoporosity of allophane
      clays.
AB  - Some volcanic soils like andosols contain short-range order nanoclays (allophane)
      which build aggregates with a tortuous and fractal microstructure. The aim of the
      work was to study the influence of the microstructure and mesoporosity of the
      allophane aggregates on the pesticide chlordecone retention in soils. Our study
      shows that the allophane microstructure favors pollutants accumulation and
      sequestration in soils. We put forth the importance of the mesoporous
      microstructure of the allophane aggregates for pollutant trapping in andosols. We
      show that the soil contamination increases with the allophane content but also
      with the mesopore volume, the tortuosity, and the size of the fractal aggregate.
      Moreover, the pore structure of the allophane aggregates at nanoscale favors the
      pesticide retention. The fractal and tortuous aggregates of nanoparticles play
      the role of nanolabyrinths. It is suggested that chlordecone storage in
      allophanic soils could be the result of the low transport properties
      (permeability and diffusion) in the allophane aggregates. The poor accessibility
      to the pesticide trapped in the mesopore of allophane aggregates could explain
      the lower pollutant release in the environment.

PMID- 28577144
TI  - Resource recovery of food waste through continuous thermophilic in-vessel
      composting.
AB  - In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Gulf region, a very small amount of
      municipal solid waste (MSW) is treated for compost production. The produced
      compost through traditional methods of compost piles and trenches does not
      coincide with the international standards of compost quality. Therefore, in this
      study, a continuous thermophilic composting (CTC) method is introduced as a novel
      and efficient technique for treating food waste into a quality compost in a short
      period of time. The quality of the compost was examined by degradation rates of
      organic matter (OM), changes in total carbon (TC), ash contents, pH, dynamics in
      ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), and nitrification index
      (NI). The results showed that thermophilic treatment at 60  degrees C increased
      the pH of the substrate and promoted degradation and mineralization process.
      After 30 days of composting, the degree of OM degradation was increased by 43.26
      and 19.66%, NH4-N by 65.22 and 25.23%, and NO3-N by 44.76 and 40.05% as compared
      to runs treated at 25 and 40  degrees C, respectively. The stability of the
      compost was attained after 30 to 45 days with quality better than the compost
      that was stabilized after 60 days of the experiment under mesophilic treatment
      (25  degrees C). The final compost also showed stability at room temperature,
      confirming the rapid degradation and maturation of food waste after thermophilic
      treatment. Moreover, the quality of produced compost is in line with the compost
      quality standard of United States (US), California, Germany, and Austria. Hence,
      CTC can be implemented as a novel method for rapid decomposition of food waste
      into a stable organic fertilizer in the given hot climatic conditions of KSA and
      other Gulf countries with a total net saving of around US $70.72 million per
      year.

PMID- 28577146
TI  - Historical and future emission of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from gas-fired
      combustion in Beijing, China.
AB  - The consumption of natural gas in Beijing has increased in the past decade due to
      energy structure adjustments and air pollution abatement. In this study, an
      integrated emission inventory of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) emitted from gas
      fired combustion in Beijing was developed for the period from 2000 to 2014 using
      a technology-based approach. Future emission trends were projected through 2030
      based on current energy-related and emission control policies. We found that
      emissions of primary HAPs exhibited an increasing trend with the rapid increase
      in natural gas consumption. Our estimates indicated that the total emissions of
      NO X , particulate matter (PM)10, PM2.5, CO, VOCs, SO2, black carbon, Pb, Cd, Hg,
      As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, and
      benzo[a]pyrene from gas-fired combustion in Beijing were approximately 22,422 t,
      1042 t, 781 t, 19,097 t, 653 t, 82 t, 19 t, 0.6 kg, 0.1 kg, 43 kg, 52 kg, 0.3 kg,
      0.03 kg, 4.3 kg, 0.6 kg, 216 MUg, and 242 g, respectively, in 2014. To mitigate
      the associated air pollution and health risks caused by gas-fired combustion,
      stricter emission standards must be established. Additionally, combustion
      optimization and flue gas purification system could be used for lowering NO X
      emissions from gas-fired combustion, and gas-fired facilities should be
      continuously monitored based on emission limits. Graphical abstract Spatial
      distribution and typical live photos of gas-fired boiler in Beijing.

PMID- 28577147
TI  - Enhancement of sorption capacity of cocoa shell biomass modified with non-thermal
      plasma for removal of both cationic and anionic dyes from aqueous solution.
AB  - Removal of cationic dye, Azur II, and anionic dye, Reactive Red 2 (RR-2) from
      aqueous solutions, has been successfully achieved by using a modified
      agricultural biomaterial waste: cocoa shell husk (Theobroma cacao) treated by
      gliding arc plasma (CPHP). The biomass in its natural form CPHN and modified form
      CPHP was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric
      analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and point of zero charge
      (pHpzc). Experimental variables such as initial pH, contact time, and temperature
      were optimized for adsorptive characteristics of CPHN and CPHP. The results show
      that the removal of the Azur II dye was favorable in the basic pH region (pH 10)
      while the Reactive Red 2 dye was favorable in the acidic pH region (pH 2). The
      minimum equilibrium time for Azur II and RR-2 dye was obtained after 40 and 240
      min, respectively. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm data obtained were best
      described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic rate model and a combination of
      Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm models. This work indicates that the plasma-treated
      raw materials are good alternative multi-purpose sorbents for the removal of many
      coexisting pollutants from aqueous solutions.

PMID- 28577148
TI  - Assessing energy efficiencies, economy, and global warming potential (GWP)
      effects of major crop production systems in Iran: a case study in East Azerbaijan
      province.
AB  - Efficient use of energy in farming systems is one of the most important
      implications for decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating global
      warming (GW). This paper describes the energy use patterns, analyze the
      economics, and report global warming potential effects of major crop production
      systems in East Azerbaijan province, Iran. For this purpose, 110 farmers whose
      main activity was major crop production in the region, including wheat, barley,
      carrot, tomato, onion, potato, alfalfa, corn silage, canola, and saffron, were
      surveyed. Some other data was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of
      Iran. Results showed that, in terms of total energy input, onion (87,556 Mj ha-1)
      and potato (80,869 Mj ha-1) production systems were more energy-intensive than
      other crops. Among the studied crops, the highest values of net return (6563.8 $
      ha-1) and benefit/cost ratio (1.95) were related to carrot and corn silage
      production systems, respectively. Studies have also shown that onion and saffron
      production systems emit the highest (5332.6 kg CO2eq ha-1) and lowest (646.24 kg
      CO2eq ha-1) CO2 eq. emission, respectively. When it was averaged across crops,
      diesel fuel accounted for the greatest GHG contribution with 43% of the total,
      followed by electric power (28%) and nitrogen fertilizer (21%). In the present
      study, eco-efficiency was calculated as a ratio of the gross production value and
      global warming potential effect for the studied crops. Out of all the studied
      crops, the highest values of eco-efficiency were calculated to be 8.65 $ kg CO2eq
      1 for the saffron production system followed by the carrot (3.65 $ kg CO2eq-1)
      production. Generally, from the aspect of energy balance and use efficiency, the
      alfalfa production system was the best; however, from an economical point of
      view, the carrot production system was better than the other crops.

PMID- 28577149
TI  - An unusual case of neck pain in Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

PMID- 28577150
TI  - Yogurt consumption, body composition, and metabolic health in the Quebec Family
      Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim was to compare the anthropometric and metabolic profiles and
      lifestyle behaviours of yogurt consumers and non-consumers and to determine if
      the observed differences persisted after adjustment for diet quality and related
      variables. METHODS: Using cross-sectional and follow-up data from the Quebec
      Family Study, men and women were classified into yogurt consumers (n = 269; 96
      men and 173 women) and non-consumers (n = 570; 279 men and 291 women), and their
      anthropometric measurements, metabolic profiles, and lifestyle factors were
      compared. RESULTS: Men yogurt consumers had a lower body weight, BMI, % body fat,
      waist circumference and lower plasma insulin, and C-peptide concentrations in
      response to oral glucose, while women yogurt consumers had lower waist
      circumference, BMI, % body fat, plasma glucose, insulin, and C-peptide compared
      with non-consumers (P < 0.05). After adjustment for the Nutrient-Rich Foods (NRF)
      index, a marker of diet quality, these differences persisted in men and only for
      glycemic variables in women. Additional adjustment for physical activity
      participation and % body fat did not abolish the significant differences observed
      between yogurt consumers and non-consumers for plasma glucose, insulin, and C
      peptide responses to oral glucose in women only (P < 0.05). Analyses of data
      after a 6-year follow-up reinforced these observations, since both men and women
      yogurt consumers maintained a better metabolic profile compared with non
      consumers after adjustments for age and NRF (P < 0.05). In addition, an
      interaction between group and time for % body fat in men suggests a benefit of
      yogurt consumption over time on body composition. CONCLUSION: Yogurt consumption
      is associated with body composition and metabolic health benefits that are not
      entirely explained by a global effect of diet quality.

PMID- 28577151
TI  - Haemoglobin monitoring in endometrial cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the level of anaemia monitoring and to determine the
      prevalence of anaemia in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC) undergoing
      postoperative pelvic radiotherapy (RT). METHODS: We evaluated 233 consecutive
      patients diagnosed with EC receiving RT in our institution between January 2011
      and December 2015. One hundred and fifty-two patients (65.2%) received a
      combination of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and high dose rate brachytherapy
      (HDR-BT) (mean dose 53.4 Gy, range 21-75), and 71 patients (30.5%) were
      exclusively treated with HDR-BT (mean dose 10.2 Gy, range 7-20). Blood test
      results with haemoglobin (Hb) levels were collected at three specific time points
      were: pre-RT (Hb1), during RT (Hb2) and post-RT (Hb3). Anaemia was defined as Hb
      <12 g/dL. RESULTS: Anaemia was detected in 54% of patients (67 patients) in the
      pre-RT analysis. Only 53.7% (n = 36) of the patients with anaemia detected pre-RT
      underwent subsequent Hb controls (during or post-RT). Blood tests were performed
      in 124 patients (53.20%) pre-RT, in 51 (17.59%) during RT and in 90 patients
      (38.62%) post-RT. Significant differences were observed between the mean Hb
      levels at Hb1-Hb3 (p = 0.001) and Hb2-Hb3 (p = 0.004). Patients with a pre-RT Hb
      level <12 g/dL presented a worse overall survival (OS) (p = 0.021, chi 2 5.3)
      with a mean OS of 53.39 months (range 45.5-61.3) vs. 61.4 (range 58.4-64.4) in
      patients with Hb >=12 g/dL. CONCLUSION: Although the presence of anaemia is
      frequent in patients with EC (53.2% of patients affected at cancer diagnosis) and
      influences the OS, Hb monitoring in patients receiving RT remains suboptimal (no
      controls during RT in 46.3%). There is a strong need to pay attention to blood
      test prescription for all the patients during and after RT.

PMID- 28577152
TI  - Cost minimization analysis of treatment with intravenous or subcutaneous
      trastuzumab in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in Spain.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe healthcare professional (HCP) and patient time and related
      costs associated with trastuzumab intravenous infusion (IV) and trastuzumab
      subcutaneous (SC) formulations in patients with HER2-positive early breast
      cancer. METHODS: This prospective, observational time, and motion study in three
      Spanish centers was run as a substudy of the PrefHer trial. We recorded active
      HCP time for trastuzumab SC and IV-related tasks and calculated HCP time as the
      mean sum of task times over 154 administrations (80 IV, 74 SC). We calculated
      mean patient infusion chair time and treatment room time. Staff costs were
      calculated using fully loaded salary costs based on Spanish salaries (? 2012).
      RESULTS: The transition from trastuzumab IV to SC led to a 50% reduction in
      active HCP time [27.2 min (95% CI 21.8-32.6) vs. 13.2 min (95% CI 8.9-17.5) per
      cycle]. Time savings resulted from avoiding IV catheter installation and removal,
      line flushing, and drug reconstitution. SC administration led to a fivefold
      reduction (78-85%) in chair time and a fourfold reduction (59-81%) in patient
      treatment room time, resulting in 24 h free-up time in the total treatment course
      (18 cycles). Total estimated direct costs were ? 29,431.75 and ? 28,452.12 for IV
      and SC, respectively, a saving of ? 979.60 over a full treatment course.
      CONCLUSIONS: Trastuzumab SC provided substantial time savings for HCP and
      patients, and reduced staff costs vs. trastuzumab IV. Reducing the use of
      hospital facilities may result in further savings and improved quality of medical
      care.

PMID- 28577154
TI  - Association of endometrial hyperplasia and cancer with a history of gestational
      diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Excess circulating insulin may contribute to endometrial cancer (EC)
      development; studies suggest increased risk of EC associated with type 2
      diabetes. We investigated whether gestational diabetes is associated with
      increased risk of EC and its precursor, endometrial hyperplasia (EH). METHODS: We
      conducted a population-based, case-control study of women in Washington State.
      Cases were women with a hospital discharge record indicating the presence of
      EH/EC who could be linked to a prior delivery hospitalization or birth record
      from 1987 to 2013 (n = 593). Controls were randomly selected from remaining
      deliveries, frequency matched 10:1 on delivery year and maternal age at delivery
      (n = 5,743). Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: After adjustment for race/ethnicity,
      maternal age at delivery, and delivery year, EH/EC was associated with a history
      of gestational diabetes (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.27-2.35). This association was present
      for both EH and EC (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.00-2.60 and OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.22-2.65,
      respectively). After adjustment for prepregnancy body mass index, the OR for
      EH/EC was attenuated and became statistically non-significant (OR 1.22, 95% CI
      0.87-1.72), except in women <50 years old at the time of case ascertainment (OR
      1.49, 95% CI 1.00-2.20). Associations were slightly stronger for EC than EH.
      CONCLUSIONS: We observed an association between EH/EC and a history of
      gestational diabetes specific to younger women. Future studies focusing on the
      relationships between gestational diabetes, obesity, and EC, including age at
      diagnosis, are warranted.

PMID- 28577153
TI  - Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in acral lentiginous melanoma: a study of a large
      cohort of cases from Latin America.
AB  - PURPOSE: Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a poor prognosis subtype and is the
      most prevalent in non-Caucasian populations. The presence of tumor infiltrating
      lymphocytes (TILs) has been associated with poor prognosis in melanoma. A large
      cohort of ALM cases was studied to determine status of TIL and its association
      with outcome. METHODS: All patients with cutaneous melanoma presenting from 2005
      to 2012 at Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas in Peru were
      retrospectively identified. Clinicopathological information was obtained from the
      medical charts. A prospective evaluation of TIL was performed. Analysis of
      association between ALM and clinicopathological features including TIL as well as
      survival analysis compared the outcome of ALM to whole group and extremity NALM
      was performed. RESULTS: 537 ALM from a total of 824 cutaneous melanoma cases were
      studied. Older age (p = 0.022), higher Breslow (p = 0.008) and ulceration (p <
      0.001) were found to be more frequent in ALM. Acral had worse overall survival
      (OS) compared with the whole group (p = 0.04). Clinical stage (CS) I-II patients
      had a median OS of 5.3 (95% CI 4.3-6.2) for ALM and 9.2 (95% CI 5.0-7.0) for
      extremity NALM (p = 0.016). Grade 0 (absence of TIL), I, II and III were found in
      7.5, 34.5, 32.1, and 25.9%, respectively. Lower TIL grade was associated with
      larger tumor size (p = 0.003), higher Breslow (p = 0.001), higher Clark level (p
      = 0.007), higher CS (p = 0.002), extremity location (p = 0.048), histological
      subtype ALM (p = 0.024) and better OS (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: ALM is highly
      prevalent in Peru and carries poor outcome. Lower TIL levels were associated with
      poor outcome and ALM.

PMID- 28577156
TI  - Recanalization of TIPSS via transsplenic puncture.
AB  - Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPSS) has important role in the
      management of Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS). Stent dysfunction rate up to 80% at 2
      years limits the use of TIPSS. Reintervention is required if shunt develops
      occlusion or stenosis. Different techniques have been reported for the
      catheterization of TIPSS in cases of an occluded stent. In those failing a
      standard transvenous approach, the Colapinto needle technique, a combined
      transvenous transhepatic approach or transplenic approaches have been described.
      Here, we report our experience in a challenging TIPSS recanalization using a
      transsplenic approach.

PMID- 28577155
TI  - RBM20, a potential target for treatment of cardiomyopathy via titin isoform
      switching.
AB  - Cardiomyopathy, also known as heart muscle disease, is an unfavorable condition
      leading to alterations in myocardial contraction and/or impaired ability of
      ventricular filling. The onset and development of cardiomyopathy have not
      currently been well defined. Titin is a giant multifunctional sarcomeric filament
      protein that provides passive stiffness to cardiomyocytes and has been implicated
      to play an important role in the origin and development of cardiomyopathy and
      heart failure. Titin-based passive stiffness can be mainly adjusted by isoform
      switching and post-translational modifications in the spring regions. Recently,
      genetic mutations of TTN have been identified that can also contribute to
      variable passive stiffness, though the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. In
      this review, we will discuss titin isoform switching as it relates to alternative
      splicing during development stages and differences between species and muscle
      types. We provide an update on the regulatory mechanisms of TTN splicing
      controlled by RBM20 and cover the roles of TTN splicing in adjusting the
      diastolic stiffness and systolic compliance of the healthy and the failing heart.
      Finally, this review attempts to provide future directions for RBM20 as a
      potential target for pharmacological intervention in cardiomyopathy and heart
      failure.

PMID- 28577157
TI  - Analysis of the incidence and risk factors of male urinary tract infection
      following urodynamic study.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and risk factors of
      male urinary tract infection (UTI) after urodynamic study (UDS). A total of 854
      consecutive male patients, who underwent UDS at Peking Union Medical College
      Hospital from January 2010 to March 2016, were recruited in this study. Two to
      four weeks before the examination, urinalysis with bacterial culture was
      performed. Patients with negative results were selected for UDS. Immediately
      before the examination, urinalysis was repeated to rule out any preoperative UTI.
      Between 48 and 72 h after the exam, urine culture was performed again to
      determine the incidence of UTI. The incidence of UTI and patients' baseline
      characteristics, including age, medical history, urodynamic parameters, current
      diagnosis and pathogen type, were analyzed. Among the 854 patients undergoing
      UDS, urinary infection was found in 84 cases after the examination, the incidence
      was 9.83%. Comorbidity with diabetes, post void residual (PVR), volume of
      prostate (Vp), and two urodynamic parameters, maximal flow rate (Qmax) and
      average flow rate (Qav) were found to be the independent risk factors for UTI
      after UDS. The most common pathogens were Escherichia coli (54.76%) and
      Enterococcus faecalis (19.05%). The incidence of UTI after UDS in male patients
      was 9.83%. Patients who suffered from comorbidity of diabetes, high PVR, high Vp,
      low Qmax or Qav may need to be treated with prophylactic antibiotics to prevent
      postoperative UTI.

PMID- 28577158
TI  - Adherence to clinical practice guidelines for the management of Clostridium
      difficile infection in Japan: a multicenter retrospective study.
AB  - This study was conducted to investigate the adherence to clinical practice
      guidelines (CPGs) for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). A retrospective
      multicenter observational study was conducted via chart review at four teaching
      hospitals in Japan from April 2012 through September 2013. CDI was diagnosed
      based on positive identification of CD toxin by enzyme immunoassay testing. CDI
      patients were divided into non-severe and severe groups according to the severity
      criteria of four published guidelines (SHEA/IDSA 2010, ACG 2013, ESCMID 2009,
      HPA/DH 2008). Three parameters were assessed in association with disease
      severity: adherence to treatment guidelines, prognosis, and relapse rate. In
      total, 170 patients were diagnosed with CDI (1.04 cases per 10,000 patient-days).
      The 30-day all-cause mortality and recurrence rates were 13% and 14%,
      respectively. CPGs adherence ranged from 52% to 70% in the non-severe group and
      from 8.5 to 23% in the severe group (P < 0.01). Among severe CDI patients, no
      significant difference in mortality or recurrence was found between the patients
      whose treatments adhered and did not adhere to the CPGs. CPGs adherence was low,
      especially for patients with severe CDI. Improved guideline adherence and more
      accurate definitions of severity based on prognosis are needed for appropriate
      CDI management.

PMID- 28577159
TI  - Biventricular thrombosis in biventricular stress(takotsubo)-cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Endo-ventricular thrombosis represents a possible clinical complication of
      stress(takotsubo)-cardiomyopathy (SC). Depressed ventricular systolic ventricular
      function, localized left ventricular (LV) dyskinesis, but also an increased pro
      thrombotic state induced by catecholamine surge may facilitate the occurrence of
      endovascular thrombosis in SC. SC, however, may also present as right ventricular
      (RV) dysfunction or even as biventricular ballooning. Ventricular thrombosis may
      therefore theoretically occur in either ventricles or both. We report the case of
      an 88-year old woman, with vascular dementia and depression, admitted for
      abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding. Unexpectedly, electrocardiogram
      showed induced QT-prolongation with diffuse negative T-waves, while
      echocardiogram severe LV dysfunction (ejection fraction 35%), but also RV
      dysfunction and biventricular thrombosis. The diagnosis was therefore
      biventricular SC complicated by biventricular thrombosis; LV recovered after 10
      days. When SC presents with a biventricular involvement, a careful assessment of
      either ventricular cavities should be therefore recommended to exclude the
      presence of (bi)ventricular thrombosis. It remains unresolved whether
      biventricular SC may represent a condition at higher risk of ventricular
      thrombosis.

PMID- 28577160
TI  - Fascial reinforcement fixing the bronchi to the heart: its anatomy and clinical
      significance.
AB  - PURPOSE: The details of the mediastinal fascia have been scarcely described and
      the bronchopericardial membrane is the only known structure that is present
      between the bronchi and the pericardium. However, the anatomical description of
      this structure is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the fascial structures
      between the bronchi and the pericardium based on surgical findings. METHODS: The
      connective tissues in the mid-mediastinum were observed surgically when lung
      lobectomy, including mediastinal lymph node dissection for lung cancer, was
      performed at our institute from April 2011 to March 2016. RESULTS: In total, 96
      lobectomies were performed in 94 patients. A firm fibrous structure connecting
      the tracheobronchus and the fibrous pericardium was observed. It fixes the
      central bronchi to the pericardium and is composed of three parts. The largest
      part exists in front of the carina, its appearance is membranous, and runs behind
      the pulmonary artery. The other parts run over the right pulmonary artery and
      diverge at its superior trunk. The location at which all these structures fuse to
      the pericardium is the venous part of the hilum cordis (VHC). CONCLUSIONS: The
      results showed that connections of the dense fibrous tissues existed between the
      tracheobronchus and VHC. The structure not only works as a ligament that fixes
      the bronchi to the mid-mediastinum, but also divides the mid-mediastinum into two
      compartments: the Barety and subcarinal spaces. The anatomy of the structure
      observed in this study differs from the previous description of the
      bronchopericardial membrane.

PMID- 28577163
TI  - Expanding the circle of care: Can children find a perioperative surgical home?

PMID- 28577161
TI  - Morphological and qualitative characteristics of the quadriceps muscle of
      community-dwelling older adults based on ultrasound imaging: classification using
      latent class analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Muscle thickness and echo intensity measured using ultrasound imaging
      represent both increased muscle volume and connective tissue accumulation. In
      combination, these ultrasound measurements can be utilized for assessing
      sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults. AIMS: This study aimed to
      determine whether morphological and qualitative characteristics classified by
      quadriceps muscle thickness and echo intensity measured using ultrasound are
      associated with muscle strength, physical function, and sarcopenia in community
      dwelling older adults. METHODS: Quadriceps muscle thickness and echo intensity
      were measured using ultrasound imaging in 1239 community-dwelling older adults.
      Latent class analyses were conducted to classify participants based on similarity
      in the subcutaneous fat thickness (FT), quadriceps muscle thickness (MT),
      subcutaneous fat echo intensity (FEI), and muscle echo intensity (MEI), which
      were assessed using ultrasound imaging. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Morphological and
      qualitative characteristics were classified into four types as follows: (A)
      normal, (B) sarcopenic obesity, (C) obesity, and (D) sarcopenia type. Knee
      extension strength was significantly greater in A than in B and D. FT and percent
      body fat were greater in C than in the other types. The correlation between the
      ultrasound measures and knee extension strength differed among the classification
      types. The classification types were significantly associated with sarcopenia
      prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: Classification of the morphological and qualitative
      characteristics obtained from ultrasound imaging may be useful for assessing
      sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults.

PMID- 28577164
TI  - Internal jugular vein blood flow in the upright position during external
      compression and increased central venous pressure: an ultrasound study in healthy
      volunteers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: External compression of the jugular veins is an effective method to
      increase intracranial blood volume and brain stiffness in rats and healthy
      volunteers. It has been reported that, on assuming an upright posture, cerebral
      venous drainage is distributed away from the internal jugular veins (IJVs) to the
      cervical venous plexus, causing complete collapse of the IJV. If so, it is not
      clear why external IJV compression would increase intracranial blood volume, but
      the latter is frequently observed in neurosurgery in the sitting position. The
      aim of this study was to observe the effect of external IJV compression and the
      Valsalva maneuver on the change in IJV cross-sectional area and IJV flow in
      volunteers in the upright posture. METHODS: After Research Ethics Board approval,
      we used ultrasound to evaluate both IJV cross-sectional areas and peak velocities
      in ten healthy volunteers in the sitting position. With the volunteers breathing
      normally at rest, we applied the Valsalva maneuver along with circumferential
      supraclavicular compression of 15 mmHg. Imaging was performed at the level of the
      cricoid cartilage and at the most superior level under the mandible. The IJV flow
      was calculated using the product of Doppler velocity and IJV cross-sectional
      area. RESULTS: Flow was detected in both IJVs of all subjects. The median
      [interquartile range] cross-sectional area for the right IJV at the level of the
      cricoid was 0.04 [0.03-0.08] cm2 (baseline), with collar 0.4 [0.2-0.6] cm2 (P =
      0.003 compared with baseline). There were no significant changes in the median
      blood flow. CONCLUSIONS: Compression of the internal jugular veins or an increase
      in intrathoracic pressure does not reduce venous drainage but actually may
      increase intracranial venous volume.

PMID- 28577165
TI  - Situational awareness: a tacit yet viable concept.

PMID- 28577166
TI  - 8th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference.

PMID- 28577169
TI  - Anesthesia research in Japan: seeds of recovery and the role of the Journal of
      Anesthesia.

PMID- 28577167
TI  - Bacterial Rhizoplane Colonization Patterns of Buchloe dactyloides Growing in
      Metalliferous Mine Tailings Reflect Plant Status and Biogeochemical Conditions.
AB  - Plant establishment during phytostabilization of legacy mine tailings in semiarid
      regions is challenging due to low pH, low organic carbon, low nutrients, and high
      toxic metal(loid) concentrations. Plant-associated bacterial communities are
      particularly important under these harsh conditions because of their beneficial
      services to plants. We hypothesize that bacterial colonization profiles on
      rhizoplane surfaces reflect deterministic processes that are governed by plant
      health and the root environment. The aim of this study was to identify
      associations between bacterial colonization patterns on buffalo grass (Buchloe
      dactyloides) rhizoplanes and both plant status (leaf chlorophyll and plant cover)
      and substrate biogeochemistry (pH, electrical conductivity, total organic carbon,
      total nitrogen, and rhizosphere microbial community). Buffalo grass plants from
      mesocosm- and field-scale phytostabilization trials conducted with tailings from
      the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter Superfund Site in Dewey-Humboldt,
      Arizona, were analyzed. These tailings are extremely acidic and have arsenic and
      lead concentrations of 2-4 g kg-1 substrate. Bacterial communities on rhizoplanes
      and in rhizosphere-associated substrate were characterized using fluorescence in
      situ hybridization and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, respectively. The
      results indicated that the metabolic status of rhizoplane bacterial colonizers is
      significantly related to plant health. Principal component analysis revealed that
      root-surface Alphaproteobacteria relative abundance was associated most strongly
      with substrate pH and Gammaproteobacteria relative abundance associated strongly
      with substrate pH and plant cover. These factors also affected the phylogenetic
      profiles of the associated rhizosphere communities. In summary, rhizoplane
      bacterial colonization patterns are plant specific and influenced by plant status
      and rhizosphere biogeochemical conditions.

PMID- 28577168
TI  - Behavioural effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide thiamethoxam on the
      predatory insect Platynus assimilis.
AB  - Little information is available regarding sublethal effects of neonicotinoids on
      insect predators, many of which perform important roles in ecosystem functioning
      and biocontrol. In this study, dose-dependent sublethal effects of a dietary
      administered neonicotinoid insecticide thiamethoxam on two basic behaviours,
      locomotion and feeding, were quantified in the carabid Platynus assimilis
      (Coleoptera, Carabidae) using automated video-tracking and weighing of consumed
      food, respectively. Acute toxicity tests showed that, when orally administered,
      the LD50 of thiamethoxam for P. assimilis beetles was 114.5 ng/g. Thiamethoxam at
      108.1 ng/g caused a short-term locomotor hyperactivity within several hours of
      treatment. Next day after exposure to the insecticide, all the beetles were in a
      state of locomotor hypoactivity independent of the administered dose ranging from
      1.1 to 108.1 ng/g. Reduction in clean food consumption rate (CFCR) is another
      altered behavioural endpoint of poisoned insect predators as first demonstrated
      in this study. On the first day of thiamethoxam administration, a remarkable
      reduction in feeding only occurred in beetles treated at 108.1 ng/g but on the
      next day, this negative effect appeared even at doses ten to a hundred-fold
      lower. Recovery from locomotion abnormalities and reduced feeding took several
      days. Both locomotor activity and CFCR are sensitive and valuable
      ecotoxicological biomarkers of carabids which should be taken into account in
      Integrated Pest Management programs where optimal combination of reduced
      insecticide use and biological control by predatory insects is crucial to achieve
      best results.

PMID- 28577170
TI  - Laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy for obstructive defecation syndrome: still
      the way to go?
AB  - Laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy (VMR) has become a popular surgical technique
      for treating women with full-thickness rectal prolapse with a low recurrence
      rate, as demonstrated by several studies. In addition, it is increasingly applied
      to female patients with obstructive defecation syndrome (ODS) caused by
      intussusception +/- rectocele. Functional improvement can be achieved in a high
      number of patients with ODS, but expectations need to be discussed carefully, as
      a few patients may not benefit at all. In particular, long-term data on
      functional outcome and complications following laparoscopic VMR for ODS are still
      lacking in the literature. Notably, laparoscopic VMR appears to be better than
      alternative operations for prolapse, intussusception, and rectocele in terms of
      efficacy, recurrence rates, and adverse effects, but there is a lack of evidence
      directly comparing techniques through randomized controlled trials; thus, its
      exact role stills needs to be defined in the future.

PMID- 28577171
TI  - A randomized, nonblinded extension study of single-incision versus transobturator
      midurethral sling in women with stress urinary incontinence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Midurethral sling procedures are the first surgical
      option in women undergoing surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Single
      incision midurethral-slings (SIMS) were designed to provide similar efficacy to
      traditional midurethral slings but with reduced morbidity. In this international
      trial we compared the efficacy of a SIMS (MiniArc) and a transobturator standard
      midurethral sling (SMUS; Monarc) in the treatment of SUI in terms of subjective
      and objective cure rates and morbidity over a long-term follow-up. METHODS: This
      was a randomized controlled nonblinded extended trial with a follow-up period of
      36 months. Women with symptomatic SUI were eligible. The primary outcome was
      subjective cure, defined as an improvement in the Patient Global Impression of
      Improvement (PGI-I) score. Secondary outcomes were objective cure (negative cough
      stress test), disease-specific quality of life, surgical parameters and
      morbidity. An intention to treat analysis was performed. Differences in
      dichotomous variables were tested using the chi-squared test. Differences in
      continuous variables were tested using Student's t test or the Mann-Whitney U
      test. We hypothesized that MiniArc would be noninferior to Monarc concerning
      subjective cure. RESULTS: We randomized 97 women to the MiniArc group and 96 to
      the Monarc group. The attrition rate was 23% in the MiniArc group and 22% in the
      Monarc group after 3 years. At 36 months, the subjective cure rates were 86% in
      the MiniArc group and 87% in the Monarc group (risk difference -0.6%, 95% CI -12
      to 11%). The objective cure rates were 89% and 88%, respectively (risk difference
      1.3%, 95% CI -9 to 11%). Both procedures were associated with low complication
      rates. CONCLUSIONS: After a follow-up of 36 months, MiniArc (SIMS) is non
      inferior to Monarc (SMUS) with respect to subjective and objective cure.

PMID- 28577173
TI  - Surgery for recurrent stress urinary incontinence: the views of surgeons and
      women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The objectives were to explore the views of women
      with recurrent stress incontinence (SUI) with regard to treatment preferences and
      the acceptability of randomisation to a future trial, and to survey the views of
      UK specialists on treatment preferences and equipoise regarding different
      treatment alternatives. METHODS: An online survey of the British Society of
      Urogynaecology (BSUG) and British Society of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) was
      carried out. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of
      surgeons and women suffering from recurrent SUI from three UK centres. RESULTS:
      Two hundred fifty-six survey replies were received (176 gynaecology; 80 urology).
      Comparing the treatments offered, urogynaecologists were more likely to offer
      pelvic floor exercises (p < 0.05), and repeat midurethral tape (MUT) (p < 0.001).
      From the Surgical Equipoise Scale (SES) responses, "no preference" was rarely the
      commonest response. Marked differences for several options existed; midurethral
      tape dominated responses whenever it appeared. Twenty-one clinicians were
      interviewed. Treatment preferences were complex, influenced by a range of factors
      (reason for failure, patient comorbidity, investigations, personal experience,
      training). A future trial was regarded as important. Eleven women were
      interviewed. Most had considered more than one option, but felt that decision
      making was more a process of elimination rather than a positive process.
      Randomisation to a study was regarded as unacceptable by most. CONCLUSIONS: No
      consensus exists among surgeons about preferred treatment options for recurrent
      SUI, and personal experience and training dominate decision-making. For patients,
      choices were usually based on an elimination of options, including that of a
      repeat failed procedure. This contrasts with surgeons, who mostly preferred a
      repeat MUT above other options. Any future comparative study will be challenging.

PMID- 28577172
TI  - Impact of surgeon experience on routine prolapse operations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Surgical work encompasses important aspects of
      personal and manual skills. In major surgery, there is a positive correlation
      between surgical experience and results. For pelvic organ prolapse (POP), this
      relationship has to our knowledge never been examined. In any clinical practice,
      there is always a certain proportion of inexperienced surgeons. In Sweden, most
      prolapse surgeons have little experience in performing prolapse operations, 74%
      conducting the procedure once a month or less. Simultaneously, surgery for POP
      globally has failure rates of 25-30%. In other words, for most surgeons, the
      operation is a low-frequency procedure, and outcomes are unsatisfactory. The aim
      of this study was to clarify the acceptability of having a high proportion of low
      volume surgeons in the management of POP. METHODS: A group of 14,676 exclusively
      primary anterior or posterior repair patients was assessed. Data were analyzed by
      logistic regression and as a group analysis. RESULTS: Experienced surgeons had
      shorter operation times and hospital stays. Surgical experience did not affect
      surgical or patient-reported complication rates, organ damage, reoperation,
      rehospitalization, or patient satisfaction, nor did it improve patient-reported
      failure rates 1 year after surgery. Assistant experience, similarly, had no
      effect on the outcome of the operation. CONCLUSIONS: A management model for
      isolated anterior or posterior POP surgery that includes a high proportion of low
      volume surgeons does not have a negative impact on the quality or outcome of
      anterior or posterior colporrhaphy. Consequently, the high recurrence rate was
      not due to insufficient experience of the surgeons performing the operation.

PMID- 28577174
TI  - An image retrieval framework for real-time endoscopic image retargeting.
AB  - PURPOSE: Serial endoscopic examinations of a patient are important for early
      diagnosis of malignancies in the gastrointestinal tract. However, retargeting for
      optical biopsy is challenging due to extensive tissue variations between
      examinations, requiring the method to be tolerant to these changes whilst
      enabling real-time retargeting. METHOD: This work presents an image retrieval
      framework for inter-examination retargeting. We propose both a novel image
      descriptor tolerant of long-term tissue changes and a novel descriptor matching
      method in real time. The descriptor is based on histograms generated from
      regional intensity comparisons over multiple scales, offering stability over long
      term appearance changes at the higher levels, whilst remaining discriminative at
      the lower levels. The matching method then learns a hashing function using random
      forests, to compress the string and allow for fast image comparison by a simple
      Hamming distance metric. RESULTS: A dataset that contains 13 in vivo
      gastrointestinal videos was collected from six patients, representing serial
      examinations of each patient, which includes videos captured with significant
      time intervals. Precision-recall for retargeting shows that our new descriptor
      outperforms a number of alternative descriptors, whilst our hashing method
      outperforms a number of alternative hashing approaches. CONCLUSION: We have
      proposed a novel framework for optical biopsy in serial endoscopic examinations.
      A new descriptor, combined with a novel hashing method, achieves state-of-the-art
      retargeting, with validation on in vivo videos from six patients. Real-time
      performance also allows for practical integration without disturbing the existing
      clinical workflow.

PMID- 28577175
TI  - Multi-level deep supervised networks for retinal vessel segmentation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Changes in the appearance of retinal blood vessels are an important
      indicator for various ophthalmologic and cardiovascular diseases, including
      diabetes, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and choroidal neovascularization.
      Vessel segmentation from retinal images is very challenging because of low blood
      vessel contrast, intricate vessel topology, and the presence of pathologies such
      as microaneurysms and hemorrhages. To overcome these challenges, we propose a
      neural network-based method for vessel segmentation. METHODS: A deep supervised
      fully convolutional network is developed by leveraging multi-level hierarchical
      features of the deep networks. To improve the discriminative capability of
      features in lower layers of the deep network and guide the gradient back
      propagation to overcome gradient vanishing, deep supervision with auxiliary
      classifiers is incorporated in some intermediate layers of the network. Moreover,
      the transferred knowledge learned from other domains is used to alleviate the
      issue of insufficient medical training data. The proposed approach does not rely
      on hand-crafted features and needs no problem-specific preprocessing or
      postprocessing, which reduces the impact of subjective factors. RESULTS: We
      evaluate the proposed method on three publicly available databases, the DRIVE,
      STARE, and CHASE_DB1 databases. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our
      approach achieves better or comparable performance to state-of-the-art methods
      with a much faster processing speed, making it suitable for real-world clinical
      applications. The results of cross-training experiments demonstrate its
      robustness with respect to the training set. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed approach
      segments retinal vessels accurately with a much faster processing speed and can
      be easily applied to other biomedical segmentation tasks.

PMID- 28577176
TI  - Complement C5a induces mesenchymal stem cell apoptosis during the progression of
      chronic diabetic complications.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Regeneration and repair mediated by mesenchymal stem cells
      (MSCs) are key self-protection mechanisms against diabetic complications, a
      reflection of diabetes-related cell/tissue damage and dysfunction. MSC
      abnormalities have been reported during the progression of diabetic
      complications, but little is known about whether a deficiency in these cells
      plays a role in the pathogenesis of this disease. In addition to MSC resident
      sites, peripheral circulation is a major source of MSCs that participate in the
      regeneration and repair of damaged tissue. Therefore, we investigated whether
      there is a deficiency of circulating MSC-like cells in people with diabetes and
      explored the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: The abundance of MSC-like cells in
      peripheral blood was evaluated by FACS. Selected diabetic and non-diabetic serum
      (DS and NDS, respectively) samples were used to mimic diabetic and non-diabetic
      microenvironments, respectively. The proliferation and survival of MSCs under
      different serum conditions were analysed using several detection methods. The
      survival of MSCs in diabetic microenvironments was also investigated in vivo
      using leptin receptor mutant (Lepr db/db ) mice. RESULTS: Our data showed a
      significant decrease in the abundance of circulating MSC-like cells, which was
      correlated with complications in individuals with type 2 diabetes. DS strongly
      impaired the proliferation and survival of culture-expanded MSCs through the
      complement system but not through exposure to high glucose levels. DS-induced MSC
      apoptosis was mediated, at least in part, by the complement C5a-dependent
      upregulation of Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD) and the Bcl-2
      associated X protein (BAX)/B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) ratio, which was
      significantly inhibited by neutralising C5a or by the pharmacological or genetic
      inhibition of the C5a receptor (C5aR) on MSCs. Moreover, blockade of the C5a/C5aR
      pathway significantly inhibited the apoptosis of transplanted MSCs in Lepr db/db
      recipient mice. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: C5a-dependent apoptotic death is
      probably involved in MSC deficiency and in the progression of complications in
      individuals with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, anticomplement therapy may be a
      novel intervention for diabetic complications.

PMID- 28577177
TI  - The epigenetic memory of temperature during embryogenesis modifies the expression
      of bud burst-related genes in Norway spruce epitypes.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: Epigenetic memory affects the timing of bud burst phenology and
      the expression of bud burst-related genes in genetically identical Norway spruce
      epitypes in a manner usually associated with ecotypes. In Norway spruce, a
      temperature-dependent epigenetic memory established during embryogenesis affects
      the timing of bud burst and bud set in a reproducible and predictable manner. We
      hypothesize that the clinal variation in these phenological traits, which is
      associated with adaptation to growth under frost-free conditions, has an
      epigenetic component. In Norway spruce, dehydrins (DHNs) have been associated
      with extreme frost tolerance. DHN transcript levels decrease gradually prior to
      flushing, a time when trees are highly sensitive to frost. Furthermore, EARLY BUD
      BREAK 1 genes (EBB1) and the FT-TFL1-LIKE 2-gene (PaFTL2) were previously
      suggested to be implied in control of bud phenology. Here we report an analysis
      of transcript levels of 12 DHNs, 3 EBB1 genes and FTL2 in epitypes of the same
      genotype generated at different epitype-inducing temperatures, before and during
      spring bud burst. Earlier flushing of epitypes originating from embryos developed
      at 18  degrees C as compared to 28  degrees C, was associated with differential
      expression of these genes between epitypes and between buds and last year's
      needles. The majority of these genes showed significantly different expressions
      between epitypes in at least one time point. The general trend in DHN expression
      pattern in buds showed the expected reduction in transcript levels when
      approaching flushing, whereas, surprisingly, transcript levels peaked later in
      needles, mainly at the moment of bud burst. Collectively, our results demonstrate
      that the epigenetic memory of temperature during embryogenesis affects bud burst
      phenology and expression of the bud burst-related DHN, EBB1 and FTL2 genes in
      genetically identical Norway spruce epitypes.

PMID- 28577178
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Bisoprolol in Patients with Stable
      Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Bisoprolol is a selective beta adrenergic antagonist
      commonly used in treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of our
      analysis was to estimate and identify different factors that could affect
      bisoprolol clearance (CL) and develop a population pharmacokinetic model in
      patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: Population
      pharmacokinetic analysis was performed by using sixty-six plasma concentrations
      from the same number of patients (mean age 60.26 +/- 9.68 years; mean total body
      weight 80.37 +/- 12.93 kg) with CAD. We examined the effects of various clinical
      and demographic parameters using nonlinear mixed-effect modeling (NONMEM) with
      ADVAN1 with TRANS2 subroutine. The pharmacokinetics of bisoprolol in patients
      with CAD were suitably defined by an oral one-compartment model. RESULTS: The
      typical mean value for bisoprolol CL, estimated by the base model, in the target
      population was 6.76 l/h. The only demographic covariate which affected bisoprolol
      pharmacokinetic variability was creatinine clearance (CLcr). The final model of
      bisoprolol clearance was described by following equation: CL (l/h) = 2.83 +
      0.0385 * CLcr (ml/min). Validation of the final model was performed in a group of
      17 patients using the validation set and bootstrapping analysis. CONCLUSIONS:
      These findings suggest that one of the causes of clearance of bisoprolol
      variability in patients with CAD is the difference in renal function.

PMID- 28577179
TI  - Good isometric and isokinetic power restoration after distal biceps tendon repair
      with anchors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Distal biceps brachii tendon rupture can lead to 30-40% power loss
      of elbow flexion and up to 50% of forearm supination. Re-fixation of the distal
      biceps brachii tendon is recommended to warrant an adequate quality of the
      patient's life. This study reports the isometric and isokinetic results after
      anchor re-fixation 2.5 years after surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 2007
      and 2010, 69 patients with distal biceps brachii tendon tear underwent a suture
      anchor reattachment. During the follow-up examination, a questionnaire and DASH
      score were filled in, the circumferences of the arm were measured, range of
      motion was collected, and different trials were conducted at the BTE Primus RSTM
      (Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment) on both arms. RESULTS: 49 patients (71%) were
      reinvestigated with a follow-up of 32 months (11-58 months). A significant
      difference was found in the ability of elbow flexion between the affected arm and
      the opposite side as well as in pronation and supination. In elbow flexion and
      extension as well as in pronation and supination of the forearm, the strength was
      significantly diminished. CONCLUSIONS: 32 months after surgical re-fixation of
      the distal biceps brachii tendon rupture, strength in all exercises is marginally
      reduced in comparison to the opposite arm. Re-fixation of the distal biceps
      brachii tendon is an adequate method to return the range of motion and the
      strength in the elbow joint to an almost normal level and that gives rise to a
      high level of patient satisfaction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, case-control
      study.

PMID- 28577180
TI  - Olivibacter flavus sp. nov., a novel endophytic bacterium isolated from the root
      of Camellia sinensis.
AB  - A novel Gram-negative rod, endophytic bacterium, designated strain TMCC 8258T,
      was isolated from the root of Camellia sinensis collected from Puer, south-west
      China. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the strain belongs
      to the family Sphingobacteriaceae and a neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree
      suggested that strain TMCC 8258T formed a cluster with the type strain of
      Olivibacter ginsengisoli (showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of
      95.8%). Chemotaxonomic data [major fatty acid iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (C16:1
      omega7c and/or C16:1 omega6c), iso-C17:0 3-OH and major respiratory quinone MK-7]
      confirmed the affiliation of strain TMCC 8258T to the genus Olivibacter. The G +
      C content was 39.1 mol %. The results of the phylogenetic analysis, together with
      the physiological, morphological and biochemical tests, suggested that strain
      TMCC 8258T should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus
      Olivibacter, for which the name Olivibacter flavus is proposed. The type strain
      is TMCC 8258T (=CGMCC 1.16141 = KCTC 42683).

PMID- 28577181
TI  - Clinical Outcomes in pT4 Tongue Carcinoma are Worse than in pT3 Disease: How
      Extrinsic Muscle Invasion Should be Considered?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The identification of extrinsic tongue muscle invasion in oral cavity
      cancer remains challenging. Notably, the most recent American Joint Committee on
      Cancer (AJCC 2017, 8th edition) staging manual indicates that extrinsic muscle
      invasion does not lead to the diagnosis of a T4 tumor. Because this approach
      carries the risk of tumor downstaging, we compared the clinical outcomes of
      patients with oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) staged as pT3 vs. pT4
      according to the AJCC 2010, 7th edition criteria. METHODS: We retrospectively
      examined the records of consecutive patients with pT3 (n = 135) and pT4 (n = 68)
      tongue SCC who underwent radical surgery. Of the 68 pT4 tongue SCC, 63 (93%) had
      extrinsic muscle involvement alone. The 5-year locoregional control (LRC),
      distant metastasis (DM), and disease-free survival (DFS) rates served as outcome
      measures. RESULTS: Compared with pT3 tongue SCC, pT4 patients presented
      significantly more frequently with pN2 disease, extranodal extension, poor tumor
      differentiation, tumor depth >15 and >20 mm, margin status <=4 mm, perineural
      invasion, vascular invasion, and were more frequently treated with surgery plus
      concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Less favorable 5-year outcomes were observed in
      patients with pT4 than pT3 tumors (LRC 50 vs. 75%, p < 0.001; DM 27 vs. 14%, p =
      0.013; DFS 43 vs. 69%, respectively, p < 0.001). We identified pT4 disease (vs.
      pT3) as an independent adverse prognostic factor for LRC and DFS. CONCLUSIONS: We
      suggest classifying patients with tongue SCC and extrinsic muscle invasion as
      having pT4 disease.

PMID- 28577182
TI  - Economic burden of cancer among patients with surgical resections of the lung,
      rectum, liver and uterus: results from a US hospital database claims analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine hospital resource utilization, associated costs and the
      risk of complications during hospitalization for four types of surgical
      resections and to estimate the incremental burden among patients with cancer
      compared to those without cancer. METHODS: Patients (>=18 years old) were
      identified from the Premier Research Database of US hospitals if they had any of
      the following types of elective surgical resections between 1/2008 and 12/2014:
      lung lobectomy, lower anterior resection of the rectum (LAR), liver wedge
      resection, or total hysterectomy. Cancer status was determined based on ICD-9-CM
      diagnosis codes. Operating room time (ORT), length of stay (LOS), and total
      hospital costs, as well as frequency of bleeding and infections during
      hospitalization were evaluated. The impact of cancer status on outcomes (from a
      hospital perspective) was evaluated using multivariable generalized estimating
      equation models; analyses were conducted separately for each resection type.
      RESULTS: Among the identified patients who underwent surgical resection, 23 858
      (87.9% with cancer) underwent lung lobectomy, 13 522 (63.8% with cancer)
      underwent LAR, 2916 (30.0% with cancer) underwent liver wedge resection and 225
      075 (11.3% with cancer) underwent total hysterectomy. After adjusting for
      patient, procedural, and hospital characteristics, mean ORT, LOS, and hospital
      cost were statistically higher by 3.2%, 8.2%, and 9.2%, respectively for patients
      with cancer vs. no cancer who underwent lung lobectomy; statistically higher by
      6.9%, 9.4%, and 9.6%, respectively for patients with cancer vs. no cancer who
      underwent LAR; statistically higher by 4.9%, 14.8%, and 15.7%, respectively for
      patients with cancer vs. no cancer who underwent liver wedge resection; and
      statistically higher by 16.0%, 27.4%, and 31.3%, respectively for patients with
      cancer vs. no cancer who underwent total hysterectomy. Among patients who
      underwent each type of resection, risks for bleeding and infection were generally
      higher among patients with cancer as compared to those without cancer.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis, we found that patients who underwent lung
      lobectomy, lower anterior resection of the rectum (LAR), liver wedge resection or
      total hysterectomy for a cancer indication have significantly increased hospital
      resource utilization compared to these same surgeries for benign indications.

PMID- 28577183
TI  - Evaluation of comprehensive chromosome screening platforms for the detection of
      mosaic segmental aneuploidy.
AB  - PURPOSE: A subset of preimplantation embryos identified as euploid may in fact
      possess both whole and sub-chromosomal mosaicism, raising concerns regarding the
      predictive value of current comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) methods
      utilizing a single biopsy. Current CCS methods may be capable of detecting sub
      chromosomal mosaicism in a trophectoderm biopsy by examining intermediate levels
      of segmental aneuploidy within a biopsy. This study evaluates the sensitivity and
      specificity of segmental aneuploidy detection by three commercially available CCS
      platforms utilizing a cell line mixture model of segmental mosaicism in a six
      cell trophectoderm biopsy. METHODS: Two cell lines with known karyotypes were
      obtained and mixed together at specific ratios of six total cells (0:6, 1:5, 2:4,
      3:3, 4:2, 5:1, and 6:0). A female cell line containing a 16.2 Mb deletion on
      chromosome 5 and a male cell line containing a 25.5 Mb deletion on chromosome 4
      were used to create mixtures at each level. Six replicates of each mixture were
      prepared, randomized, and blinded for analysis by one of the three CCS platforms
      (SNP-array, VeriSeq NGS, or NexCCS). Sensitivity and specificity of segmental
      aneuploidy at each level of mosaicism was determined and compared between each
      platform. Additionally, an alternative VeriSeq NGS analysis method utilizing
      previously published criteria was evaluated. RESULTS: Examination of the default
      settings of each platform revealed that the sensitivity was significantly
      different between NexCCS and SNP up to 50% mosaicism, custom VeriSeq, and SNP
      array up to 66% mosaicism, and between NexCCS and custom VeriSeq up to 50%
      mosaicism. However, no statistical difference was observed in mixtures with >50%
      mosaicism with any platform. No comparison was made between default VeriSeq, as
      it does not report segmental imbalances. Furthermore, while the use of previously
      published criteria for VeriSeq NGS significantly increased sensitivity at low
      levels of mosaicism, a significant decrease in specificity was observed (66%
      false positive prediction of segmental aneuploidy). CONCLUSION: These results
      demonstrate the potential of NGS-based detection methods to detect segmental
      mosaicism within a biopsy. However, these data also demonstrate that a balance
      between sensitivity and specificity should be more carefully considered. These
      results emphasize the importance of vigorous preclinical evaluation of new
      testing criteria prior to clinical implementation providing a point of departure
      for further algorithm development and improved detection of mosaicism within
      preimplantation embryos.

PMID- 28577184
TI  - Is employer coverage of elective egg freezing coercive?: a survey of medical
      students' knowledge, intentions, and attitudes towards elective egg freezing and
      employer coverage.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand medical students' knowledge,
      intentions, and attitudes towards oocyte cryopreservation and employer coverage
      of such treatment. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed via an
      online cross-sectional survey distributed to 280 female medical students from
      March through August 2016. Demographics, attitudes towards employer coverage, and
      factors influencing decision-making were assessed via a self-reported multiple
      choice questionnaire. The relationship between respondents' attitudes towards
      employer coverage and other parameters was analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 99
      responses were obtained out of 280 female medical students. Most respondents
      (71%) would consider oocyte cryopreservation (potential freezers), although 8%
      would not consider the procedure and 21% were unsure. Seventy-six percent of
      respondents felt pressure to delay childbearing. Potential freezers were more
      likely to be single (p = 0.001), to report feeling pressure to delay childbearing
      (p = 0.016), and to consider egg freezing if offered by an employer (p < 0.001).
      Importantly, 71% percent did not view employer coverage as coercive and 77% of
      respondents would not delay childbearing due to employer coverage. Factors
      influencing decision-making in potential freezers were absence of a suitable
      partner (83%), likelihood of success (95%), and health of offspring (94%), among
      others. Knowledge about the low chance of pregnancy per oocyte (6-10%) would
      influence decision-making in 42% of potential freezers. CONCLUSION: Oocyte
      freezing is an acceptable strategy for the majority of young women surveyed.
      Pressure to delay childbearing was related to openness to freeze eggs. The
      majority of respondents did not find employer coverage for egg freezing coercive
      although further research is needed with larger, representative samples to
      ascertain the relationship between pressure to delay childbearing due to work
      demands and employer coverage for egg freezing.

PMID- 28577185
TI  - Light-emitting diode modulates carbohydrate metabolism by pancreatic duct
      regeneration.
AB  - Pancreatic lesions can produce metabolic disorders. Light-emitting diode (LED)
      has been used as a safe and effective phototherapy for cell proliferation and
      regeneration. We investigate the effects of phototherapy using LED irradiation on
      the pancreas after the injection of streptozotocin (STZ) to induce experimental
      diabetes and evaluate that the beta cells can regenerate in the pancreas in an in
      vivo model and observe its implications on the control of carbohydrate
      metabolism. Twenty Wistar rats were randomized into three groups: non-diabetic
      control, diabetic control, and diabetic treated with LED. Except for the non
      diabetic control group, all were induced to diabetes type I by streptozotocin
      injection. Treated groups were irradiated by LED: lambda = 805 nm; 40 mW, 22 s;
      spot diameter 5 mm, spot area 0.196 cm2, 0.88 J that it was applied on pancreas
      projection area for 5 consecutive days and monitored for 30 days. Diabetic group
      treated with LED showed regeneration of islets and ducts (p = 0.001) on the
      pancreas. Intraperitoneal insulin tolerance test showed differences between the
      diabetic control and diabetic treated groups (p = 0.03). In diabetic control
      group, the hepatic glycogen content was 296% lower when compared with diabetic
      treated with LED. Furthermore, in the diabetic control group, the glycogen
      content of the gastrocnemius muscle was 706% smaller when compared with diabetic
      treated with LED. This study shows that LED was able to modify morphological and
      metabolic features and also altered carbohydrate metabolism on irradiated
      pancreas in experimental model of diabetes.

PMID- 28577186
TI  - Multiple laser pulses in conjunction with an optical clearing agent to improve
      the curative effect of cutaneous vascular lesions.
AB  - Port-wine stains (PWSs) usually respond poorly to pulsed dye laser treatment
      because of the shallow penetration and light absorption of melanin in the
      epidermis. Multiple laser pulses (MLPs) Nd:YAG laser in conjunction with an
      optical clearing agent can help to reduce the total laser energy required for
      blood coagulation. The quantitative optical clearing effect (OCE) of glycerol was
      investigated by using a tissue-like phantom. Thereafter, an in vitro capillary
      tube experimental system and an in vivo hamster dorsal skin chamber experiment
      for the laser treatment of PWSs were established to visually obtain the
      quantitative relationship between the OCE and the blood coagulation properties
      under the irradiation of 1064 nm MLPs. Diffuse reflection coefficient decreases
      by 36.69% and transmission coefficient increases by 38.73% at 1064 nm, after
      applying 0.5 mL anhydrous glycerol for 10 min on the surface of the tissue-like
      phantom. The number of laser pulses required for blood coagulation decreases by
      25% after the application of 0.5 mL anhydrous glycerol for 4 min, thrombosis
      appears after 10 min, and the 0.0854 clotting area completely blocks the
      capillary tubes in 6 pulses. For 10 min, the incident energy can be reduced by
      35.09 and 29.82%. When the 0.3-mm vessel's buried depths are 1 and 0.5 mm, the
      pulse number can be reduced from 11 to 8 and from 6 to 4, respectively. Adding
      anhydrous glycerol directly on the hamster dorsal skin is an effective way to
      reduce the number of laser pulses from 4~5 to 2~3 for similar capillary tube
      diameter. Therefore, the MLPs of 1064 nm Nd:YAG demonstrates a substantial
      curative effect for large capillary tubes. In conjunction with glycerol, this
      approach may treat deeply buried cutaneous capillary tubes and prevent the
      unwanted thermal damage of normal dermal tissue.

PMID- 28577187
TI  - Autofluorescence imaging for improved visualization of joint structures during
      arthroscopic surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of our study is to develop the arthroscopic
      autofluorescence imaging (AFI) system to improve the visualization during
      arthroscopic surgery by real-time enhancing the contrast between joint structures
      with autofluorescence imaging. Its validity was evaluated around the arthroscopic
      anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, specifically improving the
      contrast between the femoral insertion site and its background. The feasibility
      of the AFI system was validated with bovine and human knees. The spectral
      responses of the femoral insertion site and its surrounding bone and cartilage
      were measured with a fluorospectrometer. A prototype of the AFI system was
      developed based on the spectral responses (SR) and test images of the insertion
      site. The accuracy was validated by evaluating the overlap between manually
      segmented insertion sites on the white light color images and on the
      corresponding spectral unmixed autofluorescence images. The final prototype of
      the AFI system was tested during arthroscopy in cadaveric knees. RESULTS: The
      results showed that the joint structures have different SRs. Spectral unmixing
      enabled separation of the SRs and improved the contrast between the joint
      structures. The agreement between visible light and autofluorescence ligament
      insertions had a mean Dice coefficient of 0.84 and the mean Dice coefficient of
      the interobserver variability for visible light imaging was 0.85. CONCLUSIONS: We
      have shown that the femoral insertion site can be accurately visualized with
      autofluorescence imaging combined with spectral unmixing. The AFI system
      demonstrates the feasibility of real-time and subject-specific visualization of
      the femoral insertion site which can facilitate anatomic ACL reconstruction. In
      addition, the AFI system can facilitate arthroscopic procedures in other joints
      and can also be used as a diagnostic tool.

PMID- 28577188
TI  - From genetics to personalized nephrology: kidney research at a tipping point.

PMID- 28577189
TI  - The use of tucuma oil (Astrocaryum vulgare) in alloxan-induced diabetic mice:
      effects on behavior, oxidant/antioxidant status, and enzymes involved in brain
      neurotransmission.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of tucuma oil (Astrocaryum
      vulgare) on memory, enzymatic activities of sodium-potassium pump (Na+, K+
      ATPase) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the brain of alloxan-induced diabetic
      mice. The animals were divided into four groups (n = 6 each): the group A (non
      diabetic/water), the group B (non-diabetic/tucuma oil), the group C
      (diabetic/water), and the group D (diabetic/tucuma oil) treated 14 days with 5.0
      mL kg-1 via oral gavage. Untreated diabetic mice (the group C) showed memory
      deficit, increased levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) and
      protein carbonylation (PC), and decreased (p < 0.05) catalase (CAT), superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), and the Na+, K+-ATPase activities, while acetylcholinesterase
      (AChE) activity showed a significant increase (p < 0.05) compared to non-diabetic
      mice (the group A). Tucuma oil prevented these alterations in diabetic mice
      treated with tucuma oil (the group D) compared to diabetic mice (the group C).
      Our findings suggest that tucuma oil can modulate cholinergic neurotransmission
      resting membrane potential of neurons by modulating enzymatic antioxidant
      defenses. In conclusion, the present data showed that treatment with tucuma oil
      is beneficial to diabetic mice, demonstrating that this oil can modulate
      cholinergic neurotransmission and consequently improve or avoid memory deficits.

PMID- 28577191
TI  - Deletion Analysis of GH7 Endoglucanase Gene (cel7B) Promoter Region in a
      Talaromyces cellulolyticus ligD-Disrupted Strain.
AB  - Talaromyces cellulolyticus is expected to become an industrial cellulase
      producer. In this study, we performed deletion analysis of the promoter region of
      the GH7 endoglucanase gene (cel7B), which encodes one of the major cellulases,
      using a beta-glucuronidase reporter system. To obtain strains that harbor each
      gene cassette at the same locus, we had to improve the homologous recombination
      frequency. Hence, the ligD gene, encoding DNA ligase IV, was disrupted by
      homologous recombination. After that, the introduced pyrF marker gene, encoding
      orotate phosphoribosyl transferase, was deleted by a marker recycling system. The
      resultant strain, YDLP, exhibits high homologous recombination frequency. These
      data suggest that this approach will drastically improve the genetic modification
      tools of T. cellulolyticus. We obtained 7 strains for reporter analysis using
      YDLP as the host strain. Reporter analysis revealed that the promoter region
      between -812 and -612 is important for expression of cel7B. These results imply a
      relationship between this region and novel transcriptional factors.

PMID- 28577192
TI  - Cloning, Site-Directed Mutagenesis, and Functional Analysis of Active Residues in
      Lymantria dispar Chitinase.
AB  - Chitinases are glycosyl hydrolases that catalyze the hydrolysis of beta-(1,4)
      glycosidic bonds in chitin, the major structural polysaccharide presented in the
      cuticle and gut peritrophic matrix of insects. Two aspartate residues (D143,
      D145) and one tryptophan (W146) in the Lymantria dispar chitinase are highly
      conserved residues observed within the second conserved motif of the family 18
      chitinase catalytic region. In this study, a chitinase cDNA, LdCht5, was cloned
      from L. dispar, and the roles of the three residues were investigated using site
      directed mutagenesis and substituting them with three other amino acids. Seven
      mutant proteins, D143E, D145E, W146G, D143E/D145E, D143E/W146G, D145E/W146G, and
      D143E/D145E/W146G, as well as the wild-type enzyme, were produced using the
      baculovirus-insect cell line expression system. The enzymatic and kinetic
      properties of these mutant enzymes were measured using the oligosaccharide
      substrate MU-(GlcNAc)3. Among the seven mutants, the D145E, D143E/D145E, and
      D145E/W146G mutations kept some extant catalytic activity toward MU-(GlcNAc)3,
      while the D143E, W146G, D143E/W146G, and D143E/D145E/W146G mutant enzymes were
      inactivated. Compared with the mutant enzymes, the wild-type enzyme had higher
      values of k cat and k cat / K m . A study of the multiple point mutations in the
      second conserved catalytic region would help to elucidate the role of the
      critical residues and their relationships.

PMID- 28577190
TI  - 17beta-Estradiol and/or estrogen receptor alpha blocks isoproterenol-induced
      calcium accumulation and hypertrophy via GSK3beta/PP2A/NFAT3/ANP pathway.
AB  - The present study was aimed to investigate the protective effects of 17beta
      estradiol (E2) and estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) on isoproterenol (ISO)
      treated H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells. In the present study, we treated H9c2 cells
      with ISO, a beta-adrenergic receptor agonist, to induce myocardiac hypertrophy.
      Pre-administration of E2 or ERalpha (induced by doxycycline) and E2 plus ERalpha
      significantly prevented ISO-induced increase of cell size and cytosolic calcium
      accumulation, accompanied with increased mRNA of atrial natriuretic peptide and
      brain natriuretic peptide. However, ICI-ERs antagonist, and melatonin, a specific
      inhibitor for ERalpha, reversed the cardioprotective effects, suggesting that E2
      action was mediated through ERalpha. Further evidences showed that E2 and ERalpha
      increased the protein level of GSK3beta and protein phosphatase 2a inhibitor 2
      (I2-PP2A), which subsequently enhanced the activation of I2-PP2A by disrupting
      PP2A activity and maintains normal calcium outflow. Collectively, E2 and ERalpha
      inhibited hypertrophy by preventing cytosol calcium accumulation and by
      inhibiting the association between PP2A with Na+-Ca2+ exchanger via GSK3beta and
      I2-PP2A activation.

PMID- 28577193
TI  - The effects of local variation in light availability on pollinator visitation,
      pollen and resource limitation of female reproduction in Hosta ventricosa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Light availability may have direct effects on reproduction through
      resource availability, and indirect effects on female reproduction by influencing
      plant-pollinator interactions. Floral display size, pollinator visitation per
      flower, resource and pollen limitation of fruit and seed production were
      quantified in a forested patch and an adjacent open patch of two populations of
      the perennial herb Hosta ventricosa. RESULTS: Plants in the open patch produced
      significantly larger floral displays than those in the forested patch in both
      populations. Floral display size had a positive effect on pollinator visitation
      rate per flower in one population, but no effect in the other. Plants in the open
      patch received approximately 8-11 times more visitation rates and produced
      significantly more fruit and seeds per flower than those in the forested patch.
      However, supplemental pollination resulted in significantly more fruit and seed
      production per flower compared to natural pollination in the forested patch but
      not in the open patch in one population, and did not enhance fruit and seed
      production in either the forested or the open patch in the other. In both
      populations, supplementally pollinated plants in the open patch produced
      significantly more fruit and seeds per flower than supplementally pollinated
      plants in the forested patch. CONCLUSIONS: In H. ventricosa, local variation in
      light conditions could affect pollinator activity and influence female
      reproduction through resource availability; however differences in the degree of
      pollen limitation between local habitats were found to be population-specific.

PMID- 28577194
TI  - Genome-wide characterization of the Rab gene family in Gossypium by comparative
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rab protein family is the largest subfamily of small G protein
      family. As one of the most important families in plant, Rab family plays an
      important role in the process of plant growth and development. So far, the
      identification of 57 members of the Rab family in Arabidopsis has been completed.
      In cotton, the relevant family has not been reported. RESULTS: Here, we
      identified 87, 169, 136, 80 Rabs in the four sequenced cotton species, G.
      raimondii (D5), G. hirsutum acc. TM-1 (AD1), G. barbadense acc. 3-79 (AD2) and G.
      arboreum (A2), respectively. Biological information analysis showed that the
      number of amino acid is 200-300 aa among Rab family members in G. raimondii and
      the protein molecular weight is between 20 and 30 kDa, which is consistent with
      the characterization of the Rab protein itself. 87 GrRabs in G. raimondii are
      divided into eight groups. In each group, intron numbers and subcellular
      localization of Rab protein are basically the same. We mapped the distribution of
      GrRab genes on 13 chromosomes of G. raimondii except two genes. Among the 87
      GrRabs in G. raimondii, we identified 60 pairs of GrRabs formed in whole genome
      duplication. Among all the gene pairs, the Ka/Ks values were less than 1. This
      indicates that it is the results of the purification selection and will help
      maintain the conservation of gene in structure and function. Further, 4 of the 87
      GrRabs showed tandem duplication. They were GrRabA2a vs GrRabD1a and GrRabA2h vs
      GrRabD1b respectively. Expression patterns analysis of 169 GhRabs in G. hirsutum
      acc. TM-1 indicates that most Rab family members play a certain role in different
      tissues/organs and different growth stages of cotton, implying their potential
      function in the polar growth of pollen tube, root hair and fiber cell, as well as
      improving stress and disease tolerance. CONCLUSION: The systematic investigation
      of Rab genes in cotton will lay a foundation for understanding the functional
      roles of different Rab members in the polar growth and stress tolerance.

PMID- 28577195
TI  - Identification among morphologically similar Argyreia (Convolvulaceae) based on
      leaf anatomy and phenetic analyses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The genus Argyreia Lour. is one of the species-rich Asian genera in
      the family Convolvulaceae. Several species complexes were recognized in which
      taxon delimitation was imprecise, especially when examining herbarium materials
      without fully developed open flowers. The main goal of this study is to
      investigate and describe leaf anatomy for some morphologically similar Argyreia
      using epidermal peeling, leaf and petiole transverse sections, and scanning
      electron microscopy. Phenetic analyses including cluster analysis and principal
      component analysis were used to investigate the similarity of these morpho-types.
      RESULTS: Anatomical differences observed between the morpho-types include
      epidermal cell walls and the trichome types on the leaf epidermis. Additional
      differences in the leaf and petiole transverse sections include the epidermal
      cell shape of the adaxial leaf blade, the leaf margins, and the petiole
      transverse sectional outline. The phenogram from cluster analysis using the UPGMA
      method represented four groups with an R value of 0.87. Moreover, the important
      quantitative and qualitative leaf anatomical traits of the four groups were
      confirmed by the principal component analysis of the first two components. The
      results from phenetic analyses confirmed the anatomical differentiation between
      the morpho-types. CONCLUSIONS: Leaf anatomical features regarded as particularly
      informative for morpho-type differentiation can be used to supplement macro
      morphological identification.

PMID- 28577196
TI  - Role of a novel benzoxazine derivative in the chemosensitization of colon cancer.
AB  - The concept to fight against tumour resistance is to use chemosensitizers that
      selectively sensitize tumour cells to chemotherapeutic drugs without affecting
      normal tissue. In this study, the chemosensitizing potential of a novel
      benzoxazine derivative in combination with Doxorubicin, a DNA damaging
      chemotherapeutic drug was evaluated. The results of this study showed that the
      compound LTUR6 is a potent chemosensitizer of Doxorubicin in colon cancer cell
      lines, HCT116 and HT29. It was also observed that LTUR6 delayed the resolution of
      Doxorubicin-induced gammaH2AX, a specific marker of unrepaired DNA DSB, and
      prolonged cell cycle arrest in both cell lines. This eventually led to DNA
      fragmentation, caspase activation and ultimately apoptosis in LTUR6 treated cell
      lines. Results of western blot analysis revealed that LTUR6 significantly
      inhibited the phosphorylation of DSB repair enzyme AKT, in response to
      Doxorubicin-induced DSB. We propose that the chemosensitization observed
      following inhibition of PI3K is likely due to the involvement of a number of
      downstream targets of AKT.

PMID- 28577197
TI  - Health promotion in the poly-tobacco market.

PMID- 28577198
TI  - Heart disease versus cancer: understanding perceptions of population prevalence
      and personal risk.
AB  - Although the gap is narrowing, Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with and
      die from heart disease than cancer, and yet many believe cancer is more common
      and their personal risk of cancer is higher than their heart disease risk. Using
      nationally representative 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey data, we
      assessed such beliefs and examined sociodemographic and psychological factors and
      health behaviors associated with these beliefs. 42.8% of participants rated
      cancer as more common and 78.5% rated their own cancer risk as equal to or
      exceeding their heart disease risk. These misperceptions were only modestly
      correlated. Beliefs about relative population risk were associated with various
      psychological factors, whereas beliefs about relative personal risk were not.
      Both beliefs were inconsistently associated with health behaviors. Accuracy in
      beliefs about cancer and heart disease relative risk and prevalence is low and
      future research should explore antecedents and consequences of these beliefs.

PMID- 28577199
TI  - Urine Incontinence Induced by Valproic Acid.

PMID- 28577200
TI  - ANCA-associated Vasculitis Presenting as Severe Pulmonary Hypertension and Right
      Heart Failure.
AB  - Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) is a small vessel multisystemic disorder
      characterised by necrotising small vessel vasculitis without any immune deposits.
      Kidney and lung are the predominant organs affected in MPA. Skin,
      gastrointestinal and neurological findings are also described. Isolated pulmonary
      manifestations are rare. The authors describe a two-year girl who presented with
      right heart failure and was subsequently diagnosed as ANCA-associated vasculitis.
      This case report is intended to sensitise pediatricians to consider systemic
      vasculitis with pulmonary hemorrhage in children with pulmonary hypertension even
      in the absence of severe pallor.

PMID- 28577201
TI  - Lung Ultrasound in Childhood Pneumonia: The Emerging New Era.

PMID- 28577202
TI  - Symposium "Brain plasticity in epilepsy", Leuven, Belgium, 13-16 May 2017.

PMID- 28577203
TI  - The Non-Union Scoring System: an interobserver reliability study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Non-Union Scoring System (NUSS) aims to classify non-unions
      according to their severity and relate them to four treatment categories. The
      main purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the NUSS. In
      addition we assessed its clinical validity. METHODS: Forty-four Patients with a
      tibia non-union between 2005 and 2015 were included in this study. Data from all
      included patients were scored independently by three observers according to the
      NUSS criteria. The interobserver agreement was evaluated using the intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC). The interobserver agreement of the Weber-Cech
      system was assessed using Fleiss' kappa. Finally, the clinical validity of the
      NUSS was analysed by comparing outcomes of the actual treatment groups to the
      proposed treatment groups following from the NUSS scores. RESULTS: Forty-four
      patients were included. The comparison of NUSS scores between observers showed
      substantial agreement [ICC; 0.78 (0.67-0.86)]. The comparison of the Weber-Cech
      classification between observers showed only fair agreement [Fleiss kappa; 0.30
      (0.17-0.42)]. The chi 2 test for the treatment groups according to the NUSS and
      the treatments at index procedure showed an independent relation (chi 2 = 5.794,
      6 degrees of freedom, p: 0.447). In contrast, the proposed treatment strategy
      corresponds well to the definitive treatment (chi 2 = 29.963, 9 degrees of
      freedom, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that the NUSS is both a reliable and
      valid system to classify non-unions.

PMID- 28577204
TI  - The treatment of juvenile/adult GM1-gangliosidosis with Miglustat may reverse
      disease progression.
AB  - Juvenile and adult GM1-gangliosidosis are invariably characterized by progressive
      neurological deterioration. To date only symptomatic therapies are available. We
      report for the first time the positive results of Miglustat (OGT 918, N-butyl
      deoxynojirimycin) treatment on three Italian GM1-gangliosidosis patients. The
      first two patients had a juvenile form (enzyme activity <=5%, GLB1 genotype
      p.R201H/c.1068 + 1G > T; p.R201H/p.I51N), while the third patient had an adult
      form (enzyme activity about 7%, p.T329A/p.R442Q). Treatment with Miglustat at the
      dose of 600 mg/day was started at the age of 10, 17 and 28 years; age at last
      evaluation was 21, 20 and 38 respectively. Response to treatment was evaluated
      using neurological examinations in all three patients every 4-6 months, the
      assessment of Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale (MD-CRS) in the second
      patient, and the 6-Minute Walking Test (6-MWT) in the third patient. The baseline
      neurological status was severely impaired, with loss of autonomous ambulation and
      speech in the first two patients, and gait and language difficulties in the third
      patient. All three patients showed gradual improvement while being treated; both
      juvenile patients regained the ability to walk without assistance for few meters,
      and increased alertness and vocalization. The MD-CRS class score in the second
      patient decreased from 4 to 2. The third patient improved in movement and speech
      control, the distance covered during the 6-MWT increased from 338 to 475 m. These
      results suggest that Miglustat may help slow down or reverse the disease
      progression in juvenile/adult GM1-gangliosidosis.

PMID- 28577206
TI  - Comment on: "Measuring the Volume-Outcome Relation for Complex Hospital Surgery".

PMID- 28577205
TI  - A Preliminary Study: PS1 Increases U1 snRNA Expression Associated with AD.
AB  - U1 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is selectively enriched in 100% of familial
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) resulting from presenilin1 (PS1) and amyloid precursor
      protein (APP) mutations. However, it remains unknown what gene or protein cause
      the U1 snRNA overexpression and then resulted in AD. Using SH-SY5Y cells, we
      discovered that PS1 induced the overexpression of U1 snRNA, which increased the
      production of Abeta. Moreover, the U1 snRNA overexpression induced the
      upregulation of apoe and clu transcripts. In addition, the levels of
      phosphorylation of tau protein at Thr212 were significantly elevated in U1 snRNA
      overexpression cells. Immunofluorescence using antibodies reactive with the
      phosphorylation of tau at Thr212 site demonstrated the hyperphosphorylated tau
      localization with alpha-tubulin, the main component of cytoskeleton. Importantly,
      the increased levels of Bax, Bcl2, and Bax/Bcl2 ratio showed that the
      overexpression of U1 snRNA could cause cell apoptosis. Conclusively, these
      findings suggest that PS1 considerably increases the level of U1snRNA accompanied
      with the adverse change of Abeta level, AD-related tau cytoskeletal pathology,
      and cell apoptosis.

PMID- 28577207
TI  - Vitiligo: An Update on Pathophysiology and Treatment Options.
AB  - The pathophysiology of vitiligo is becoming increasingly clarified. In non
      segmental vitiligo, early factors include activation of innate immunity,
      inflammasome activation, oxidative stress, and loss of melanocyte adhesion.
      Nonetheless, the main mechanism leading to non-segmental vitiligo involves an
      immune-mediated destruction of melanocytes. Anti-melanocyte-specific cytotoxic T
      cells exert a central role in the final effector stage. Genetic research revealed
      a multi-genetic inheritance displaying an overlap with other autoimmune
      disorders. However, some melanocyte-specific genes were also affected. Segmental
      vitiligo carries a different pathogenesis with most evidence indicating a mosaic
      skin disorder. Current management includes topical corticosteroids and
      immunomodulators. Narrow-band ultraviolet B can be used in patients not
      responding to topical treatment or in patients with extensive disease. Pigment
      cell transplantation offers an alternative for the treatment of segmental
      vitiligo or stable non-segmental lesions. Recent findings have revealed new
      targets for treatment that could lead to more efficient therapies. Targeted
      immunotherapy may halt the active immune pathways, although combination therapy
      may still be required to induce satisfying repigmentation. A recently established
      core set of outcome measures, new measurement instruments, and biomarker research
      pave the way for future standardized clinical trials.

PMID- 28577208
TI  - Erratum to: Primary fungal prophylaxis in acute leukemia patients with different
      risk factors: retrospective analysis from the CAESAR study.

PMID- 28577209
TI  - Improved diagnosis and prognostication of patients with pleural malignant
      mesothelioma using biomarkers in pleural effusions and peripheral blood samples -
      a short report.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is a lack of robust and clinically utilizable markers for the
      diagnosis and prognostication of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). This
      research was aimed at optimizing and exploring novel approaches to improve the
      diagnosis and prognostication of MPM in pleural effusions and peripheral blood
      samples. METHODS: CellSearch-based and flow cytometry-based assays using melanoma
      cell adhesion molecule (MCAM) to identify circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in
      pleural effusions and peripheral blood samples of MPM patients were optimized,
      validated, explored clinically and, in case of pleural effusions, compared with
      cytological analyses. Additionally, tumor-associated circulating endothelial
      cells (CECs) were measured in peripheral blood samples. The assays were performed
      on a MPM cohort encompassing patients with histology-confirmed MPM (n=27) and in
      a control cohort of patients with alternative diagnoses (n=22). Exploratory
      analyses on the prognostic value of all assays were also performed. RESULTS: The
      malignancy of MCAM-positive cells in pleural effusions from MPM patients was
      confirmed. The detection of MPM CTCs in pleural effusions by CellSearch showed a
      poor specificity. The detection of MPM CTCs in pleural effusions by flow
      cytometry showed a superior sensitivity (48%) to standard cytological analysis
      (15%) (p = 0.03). In peripheral blood, CTCs were detected in 26% of the MPN
      patients, whereas in 42% of the MPM patients tumor-associated CECs were detected
      above the upper limit of normal (ULN). In exploratory analyses the absence of
      CTCs in pleural effusions, and tumor-associated CECs in peripheral blood samples
      above the ULN, appeared to be associated with a worse overall survival.
      CONCLUSION: MCAM-based flow cytometric analysis of pleural effusions is more
      sensitive than routine cytological analysis. Flow cytometric analysis of pleural
      effusions and tumor-associated CECs in peripheral blood may serve as a promising
      approach for the prognostication of MPM patients and, therefore, warrants further
      study.

PMID- 28577210
TI  - [Distal femoral osteotomy using a lateral opening wedge technique].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To shift the weight-bearing axis of the lower limb medially by opening
      a lateral-based metaphyseal osteotomy at the distal femur. INDICATIONS: Femoral
      based valgus malalignment and symptomatic lateral unicompartimental
      osteoarthritis, lateral hyperpression syndrome, cartilage therapy of the lateral
      compartment, lateral meniscal replacement/transplantation, medial instability
      with valgus thrust, reconstruction of the medial collateral ligament, patellar
      instability and/or maltracking. CONTRAINDICATIONS: Advanced cartilage damage
      (>grade 2) or subtotal meniscal loss of the medial compartment, age >65 years
      (relative), nicotine abuse, body mass index >30, flexion contracture >25 degrees
      , corrections with a wedge base >10 mm in case of congenital deformities,
      inflammatory or septic arthritis, severe osteoporosis. SURGICAL TECHNIQUE:
      Lateral approach to the distal femur; biplanar osteotomy (frontal + axial
      osteotomy), gradual opening of the osteotomy, osteotomy fixation with a locking
      plate. POSTOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT: Free range of motion. Partial weight bearing
      with 20 kg for 2 weeks, followed by progressive weight bearing thereafter.
      RESULTS: Mean improvement of knee scores from 20-30 points and mean 10-year
      survival rate of 80% in patients with lateral unicompartimental osteoarthritis.
      Mean complication rate of 9%.

PMID- 28577211
TI  - Prognostic factors for return to work of employees with common mental disorders:
      a meta-analysis of cohort studies.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine prognostic factors for return to work (RTW) of employees with
      common mental disorders (CMDs). METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis
      were performed using data from 18 published cohort studies with 24,579
      participants. The studies were identified from MEDLINE/PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE,
      SocINDEX, and Human resource management databases from 1995 to 2016. Two authors
      independently screened selected studies and assessed the quality of the studies
      as well as the extracted data. RESULTS: We screened 7755 abstracts, from which
      211 full text articles were reviewed. Eighteen cohort studies met the inclusion
      criteria and were included in the analysis. Significant prognostic factors for
      RTW included age, contact with medical specialists, RTW-self-efficacy, and work
      ability. The pooled hazard ratios and 95% confidence interval (CI) for age, RTW
      SE, contact with medical specialists, and high work ability/low work demands in
      relation to RTW were 0.77 (95% CI 0.65-0.88), 1.79 (95% CI 1.24-2.33), 0.64 (95%
      CI 0.49-0.80) and 1.08 (95% CI 1.06-1.11), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Self
      efficacy (SE) is a key factor in the enhancement of work ability and RTW.
      Improving employee's SE and collaborating with employers to enhance work ability
      may help to facilitate RTW. As the RTW process is complex, exploring theoretical
      frameworks for RTW in individuals with a CMD is also needed.

PMID- 28577212
TI  - Salivirus infection in children with diarrhea, Thailand.
AB  - A new member of the Picornaviridae family named salivirus, and also known as
      klassevirus, was identified recently from the feces of children with
      gastroenteritis. At present, it remains unclear whether salivirus is associated
      with gastroenteritis in humans and epidemiological data are very limited. To
      investigate the prevalence of salivirus in Thailand, we performed molecular
      screening of fecal samples from children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis
      in Chiang Mai, Thailand during 2015-2016 through the application of RT-nested
      PCR. Salivirus was detected in 1 out of 229 (0.44%) fecal samples tested and it
      belonged to genotype A1, based on nucleotide sequences of the 5'UTR, VP1, and 3D
      regions. This is the first report of salivirus infection in young children with
      acute diarrhea in Thailand.

PMID- 28577214
TI  - Monitoring of Newcastle disease virus in environmental samples.
AB  - Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an important pathogen in poultry. Waterfowl and
      a number of other avian species serve as the host for NDV. Severity of the
      disease is variable and infected animals mainly develop respiratory and
      neurological symptoms. Outbreaks of NDV in poultry are recorded regularly in the
      Republic of Kazakhstan despite the widespread use of vaccines. Here we present
      evidence that nucleic acid found in open water bodies in Kazakhstan can be
      detected by means of next-generation sequencing and belongs to at least three
      distinct genotypes of NDV.

PMID- 28577213
TI  - Evaluation of the impact of ul54 gene-deletion on the global transcription and
      DNA replication of pseudorabies virus.
AB  - Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is an animal alphaherpesvirus with a wide host range.
      PRV has 67 protein-coding genes and several non-coding RNA molecules, which can
      be classified into three temporal groups, immediate early, early and late
      classes. The ul54 gene of PRV and its homolog icp27 of herpes simplex virus have
      a multitude of functions, including the regulation of viral DNA synthesis and the
      control of the gene expression. Therefore, abrogation of PRV ul54 function was
      expected to exert a significant effect on the global transcriptome and on DNA
      replication. Real-time PCR and real-time RT-PCR platforms were used to
      investigate these presumed effects. Our analyses revealed a drastic impact of the
      ul54 mutation on the genome-wide expression of PRV genes, especially on the
      transcription of the true late genes. A more than two hour delay was observed in
      the onset of DNA replication, and the amount of synthesized DNA molecules was
      significantly decreased in comparison to the wild-type virus. Furthermore, in
      this work, we were able to successfully demonstrate the utility of long-read SMRT
      sequencing for genotyping of mutant viruses.

PMID- 28577215
TI  - Sequence analysis of double-strand RNA6 and RNA9 from the fungus Sclerotium
      hydrophilum.
AB  - We have recently reported the identification of 10 double-strand RNA segments
      from Sclerotium hydrophilum [HZ11] mycelia and of virus-like particles isolated
      from the mycelia, as well as the sequences of dsRNA2 and dsRNA7. Phylogenetic
      analysis revealed that dsRNA2 and dsRNA7 belong to a group of unclassified
      viruses. In this report, we cloned and sequenced dsRNA6 and dsRNA9 from the 10
      dsRNAs. We tentatively named the putative virus "Sclerotium hydrophilum virus 1",
      with isolates being abbreviated to ShV1, with dsRNA6 and dsRNA9 corresponding to
      dsRNA1 and dsRNA2, respectively, of ShV1. dsRNA1 was 1975 bp in length and
      encoded a putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). dsRNA2 was 1728 bp and
      encoded a putative coat protein (CP). Phylogenetic analysis showed that the
      proteins encoded by dsRNA1 and dsRNA2 were highly related to known viral RdRps
      and CP, respectively, of viruses classified within the genus Alphapartitivirus of
      the family Partitiviridae. These members include Rhizoctonia solani dsRNA virus
      2, Diuris pendunculata cryptic virus, and Heterobasidion partitivirus. The 5'-
      and 3'-untranslated regions (UTRs) of the two dsRNAs showed a high sequence
      identity. The 5'-UTR contained conserved sequences 5'-GAAGCAUCACUU(/G)
      G(/U)AGU(/A)UCGC(/U)CCA(/G) CAAUAACGAA-3' and 5'-AAAUUGAUCUUACCUCUCAC-3'. The 3'
      UTR contained the conserved sequence 5'-UUGUUUU-3' and 5'-UUUA(/U)A(/C) UUAU-3'.
      These results indicate that dsRNA1 and dsRNA2 are phylogenetically related to
      members of the genus Alphapartitivirus of family Partitiviridae. We therefore
      propose that dsRNA1 and dsRNA2 are the genome sequences of a new partitivirus,
      ShV1.

PMID- 28577216
TI  - Concentration-based self-assembly of phycocyanin.
AB  - Cyanobacteria light-harvesting complexes can change their structure to cope with
      fluctuating environmental conditions. Studying in vivo structural changes is
      difficult owing to complexities imposed by the cellular environment. Mimicking
      this system in vitro is challenging, as well. The in vivo system is highly
      concentrated, and handling similar in vitro concentrated samples optically is
      difficult because of high absorption. In this research, we mapped the
      cyanobacteria antennas self-assembly pathways using highly concentrated solutions
      of phycocyanin (PC) that mimic the in vivo condition. PC was isolated from the
      thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus vulcanus and measured by several
      methods. PC has three oligomeric states: hexamer, trimer, and monomer. We showed
      that the oligomeric state was changed upon increase of PC solution concentration.
      This oligomerization mechanism may enable photosynthetic organisms to adapt their
      light-harvesting system to a wide range of environmental conditions.

PMID- 28577217
TI  - Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in the Groundwater of the Northern Develi
      Closed Basin, Kayseri, Turkey.
AB  - This study was carried out to assess the groundwater pollution in the northern
      Develi Closed Basin by using the heavy metal pollution index (HPI). Samples from
      10 wells and 5 springs were collected in dry and wet seasons and concentrations
      of Pb, Zn, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Cd, As and B were determined. In both seasons, for
      more than half of the samples, As, B and Fe concentrations exceeded the Turkish
      drinking water guideline values. Due to the occurrence of these metals in high
      concentrations in some samples HPI values are up to 1740. The source of these
      metals is geogenic and attributed to the interaction of these waters with highly
      altered volcanic and pyroclastic rocks. The overall HPI for wet and dry periods
      are reported as 360 and 440, respectively. Accordingly, the pollution level in
      the groundwater of this area is unacceptable.

PMID- 28577218
TI  - Total Mercury, Methylmercury, Inorganic Arsenic and Other Elements in Meat from
      Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) from the North East Atlantic Ocean.
AB  - Meat samples of 84 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) mainly from the
      Barents Sea, collected between 1 May and 16 August 2011, were analyzed for total
      mercury, methylmercury, cadmium, lead, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic and
      selenium. The average total mercury concentration found was 0.15 +/- 0.09 mg/kg,
      with a range from 0.05 to 0.49 mg/kg. The molar ratio of selenium to mercury
      varied between 1.0 and 10.3. Cadmium content ranged from 0.002 to 0.036 mg/kg,
      while the content of lead in whale meat ranged from <0.01 to 0.09 mg/kg. None of
      the whale samples exceeded established EU maximum levels for metals in fish
      muscle, but 4.8% and 6.8% of the samples exceeded Japanese maximum levels for
      total mercury and methylmercury, respectively, in whale meat. There was only
      minor variations in element concentrations between whales from different
      geographical areas, and cadmium was the only element were the concentration
      increased with increasing length.

PMID- 28577220
TI  - Response to Sharma et al.: Long Pulmonary Residence Time and Plasma Half-Life of
      Tiotropium: Implications for Pharmacokinetic Bioequivalence Studies.

PMID- 28577219
TI  - Spo0M: structure and function beyond regulation of sporulation.
AB  - In this mini-review, we present a perspective on the recent findings relating
      Spo0M structure and function that will stimulate and guide further studies in the
      characterization of this interesting protein. Cell division and sporulation
      constitute two of the best studied processes in the model organism Bacillus
      subtilis; however, there are many missing pieces in the giant regulatory puzzle
      that governs the independent and shared networks between them. Spo0M is a little
      studied protein that has been related to both, cell division and sporulation, but
      its biochemical function and its direct interactions have not been yet defined.
      Structural analysis of Spo0M revealed the presence of an arrestin-like domain and
      an FP domain (a dimerization domain present in proteasome elements), motifs more
      commonly found in eukaryotic proteins. The aim of this perspective is to present
      open questions regarding the functional and structural features of Spo0M that
      make this protein a good candidate for the ancestor of arrestins in bacteria and
      an important element in developmental and differentiation processes of Bacillus
      subtilis.

PMID- 28577221
TI  - Concentration-dependent effects of PM2.5 mass on expressions of adhesion
      molecules and inflammatory cytokines in nasal mucosa of rats with allergic
      rhinitis.
AB  - Allergic rhinitis (AR) represents a clinical health issue affecting approximately
      500 million people worldwide. This study aimed to explore the effects of airborne
      fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the nasal mucosa of rats with AR. Seventy-five
      healthy male SD rats were included and randomly divided into the normal, model,
      low-concentration, middle-concentration, and high-concentration groups (15 rats
      each group). AR rat models were established using sensitized mixture and were
      stimulated using different concentrations of PM2.5. Sneeze and nose-scratching
      events were observed. Automatic hematology analyzer was utilized to count white
      blood cells (WBCs). The serum IgE, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 expressions, eosinophil
      (EOS) infiltration, and IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-5, IL-33, and TSLP expressions were
      detected by ELISA, HE staining, and qRT-PCR. Greater numbers of WBCs, increased
      IgE level, elevated levels of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, EOS, IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-5, IL-33,
      and TSLP in the model, low-concentration, middle-concentration, and high
      concentration groups than the normal group. The same trend also exhibited in rats
      of the middle-concentration and high-concentration groups than that of the model
      and low-concentration groups. Comparisons between normal rats and AR rats
      indicated that AR rats exhibit remarkably higher cytokine expression levels of
      IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-5, TSLP, and IL-33. The study revealed that as stimulation is
      triggered by PM2.5, AR rats result in increased levels of adhesion molecules and
      inflammatory cytokine expressions in a concentration-dependent manner. Analyses
      of PM2.5 as well as, its effects on AR are crucial in the continued drive for
      both prevention and management of the disease.

PMID- 28577222
TI  - Relationship Between the Relative Age Effect and Lengths of Professional Careers
      in Male Japanese Baseball Players: a Retrospective Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The mechanisms underlying the relative age effect in sport events
      have been investigated for more than two decades. The present study focused on
      the relationship between the relative age effect and lengths of professional
      careers among professional male Japanese baseball players. METHODS: The birth
      dates of players and lengths of professional careers were collected from an
      official publication, and data were divided into four quarters (Q1: April-June;
      Q2: July-September; Q3: October-December; Q4: January-March of the following
      year) grouped by 3 years. Based on the data for Q4, the expected numbers for the
      lengths of professional careers were calculated for Q1, Q2, and Q3. RESULTS: The
      number of players with professional careers of more than 19 years was
      significantly smaller in Q4 than in Q1, Q2, and Q3. CONCLUSIONS: The relative age
      effect among professional male Japanese baseball players was associated with the
      lengths of professional careers. Relative age appears to be a very important
      factor for the development of expertise among male Japanese baseball players and
      involves long-term disadvantages after becoming professional players.

PMID- 28577223
TI  - Correspondence between negative symptoms and potential sources of secondary
      negative symptoms over time.
AB  - There has been a debate in the literature about the distinction between primary
      and secondary negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Our aim was to study the
      associations between negative symptoms and potential sources of secondary
      negative symptoms over time. A sample of 275 participants with at least mid
      moderate negative symptoms was randomized into body psychotherapy or Pilates
      class in a previous study. No significant differences were found between groups
      over time and changes in the symptom domains were modest. The present
      investigation considers the longitudinal correlation between variables of
      interest at baseline, 3 and 9 months follow-up. Measures were the Clinical
      Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS), the Positive and Negative
      Symptom Scale (PANSS), the Calgary Depression Scale (CDSS) and the Simpson-Angus
      Extrapyramidal side-effects Scale (SAS). Mixed models were computed to test the
      longitudinal association between these variables. In a sensitivity analysis, the
      dosages of antipsychotic, illness duration and allocated intervention were taken
      into account. Overall, the course of extrapyramidal side-effects, depressive and
      positive symptoms was significantly related to the course of negative symptoms.
      Only extrapyramidal effects were longitudinally correlated to expressive negative
      symptoms. The sensitivity analyses showed unaltered results for positive symptoms
      and depression but a lack of association between extrapyramidal effects and the
      CAINS outcomes. In conclusion, the unambiguous interpretation between primary and
      secondary negative symptoms may lead to refined treatment approaches for
      schizophrenia and to increased effects of the interventions.

PMID- 28577225
TI  - High opioids tolerance due to transmucosal fentanyl abuse.

PMID- 28577224
TI  - Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors among community-dwelling persons with and
      without Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of use and long
      term use (>=180 days) of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and associated factors
      among community-dwellers with and without Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS:
      MEDALZ cohort encompassed all persons who received a verified diagnosis of AD in
      Finland during the years 2005-2011 and their age-, sex-, and region of residence
      matched comparison persons, including 69,353 persons with and 69,353 persons
      without AD. Data was derived from several Finnish administrative registers. A
      mathematical modelling method, PRE2DUP, was used for converting dispensing data
      to drug use periods (when regular PPI use started and ended). Morbid conditions
      and concomitant drugs associated with use and long-term use of PPIs were assessed
      with logistic regression models. RESULTS: Use of PPIs was more common among
      comparison persons than persons with AD (39.0 and 35.8%, respectively, p <
      0.001), whereas long-term use of PPIs was more frequent among persons with than
      without AD (20.3 and 17.9%, respectively, p < 0.001). Factors related to long
      term use of PPIs were female sex, history of gastrointestinal bleedings, AD,
      rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, asthma/COPD and use of
      bisphosphonates, SSRIs and antithrombotic agents. Median follow-up time was 2.6
      years among persons with AD and 3.5 years among persons without AD. Median
      duration of the first long-term PPI use was similar in both groups (1.4 years).
      CONCLUSION: Long-term use of PPIs was common among persons with and without AD.
      Due to possible adverse events associated with the long-term use of PPIs, need
      for PPIs should be assessed regularly.

PMID- 28577226
TI  - PET measurements of myocardial blood flow post myocardial infarction:
      Relationship to invasive and cardiac magnetic resonance studies and potential
      clinical applications.
AB  - This review focuses on clinical studies concerning assessment of coronary
      microvascular and conduit vessel function primarily in the context of acute and
      sub acute myocardial infarction (MI). The ability of quantitative PET
      measurements of myocardial blood flow (MBF) to delineate underlying
      pathophysiology and assist in clinical decision making in this setting is
      discussed. Likewise, considered are physiological metrics fractional flow
      reserve, coronary flow reserve, index of microvascular resistance (FFR, CFR, IMR)
      obtained from invasive studies performed in the cardiac catheterization
      laboratory, typically at the time of PCI for MI. The role both of invasive
      studies and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in assessing microvascular
      function, a key determinant of prognosis, is reviewed. The interface between
      quantitative PET MBF measurements and underlying pathophysiology, as demonstrated
      both by invasive and CMR methodology, is discussed in the context of optimal
      interpretation of the quantitative PET MBF exam and its potential clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28577227
TI  - [Search for risk genes in Alzheimer's disease].
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of neurodegenerative dementia.
      The susceptibility to AD is determined by a complex interaction between genetic,
      epigenetic, and environmental factors. Herein, the risk that can be attributed to
      genetic factors is high (up to 80%). While most AD patients are sporadic, in rare
      families Mendelian mode of inheritance can be observed. In these rare familial
      cases, full penetrant mutations have been identified in APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2.
      Mutations in these three genes are however rarely found in sporadic AD. For over
      20 years, the only known genetic risk factor in sporadic AD cases was the APOE
      epsilon4 allele, which increases susceptibility to AD by approximately threefold.
      Unfortunately, none of these genes explain the frequency of AD. Identification of
      additional genetic factors was propelled by the advent of genomic approaches such
      as genome-wide association studies, which has already led to the characterization
      of 26 novel genetic risk factors. Interestingly, several of these genetic signals
      cluster in biological pathways including cholesterol, lipid metabolism, immune
      response, and endocytic trafficking. An additional impulse in genetic research
      came from the development of novel sequencing technologies. For example, the
      whole exome sequencing approach has identified an association between the risk of
      AD and rare coding variants (minor allele frequency <1%) located in genes such as
      TREM2, SORL1, and ABCA7. Thus, progress from genetic research has significantly
      increased our understanding of the disease mechanisms operating in AD. However,
      even though our knowledge of the genetics of sporadic forms of AD has progressed
      markedly over the last years, it is still far from complete. Additional research
      is needed to complete the genetic architecture of AD.

PMID- 28577228
TI  - Role of hepatectomy in gastric cancer with multiple liver-limited metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have demonstrated the benefit of hepatectomy for
      treating gastric cancer (GC) with liver-limited metastases (LLM). The survival
      benefit of hepatectomy compared with that of systemic chemotherapy is unknown,
      particularly in patients with multiple LLM. This study investigated the survival
      benefit of hepatectomy compared with that of systemic chemotherapy administered
      to patients with GC with multiple LLM. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the
      data of consecutive patients with GC with two or three LLM who underwent
      hepatectomy or received systemic chemotherapy as initial treatment at the
      Shizuoka Cancer Center between December 2004 and December 2015. RESULTS: Nine of
      24 patients who met the inclusion criteria underwent hepatectomy, and 15 received
      chemotherapy. In the hepatectomy group, all patients achieved R0 resection and
      none died during hospitalization. Three patients received adjuvant chemotherapy.
      Disease recurred in eight patients (88.9%). In the chemotherapy group, three
      patients underwent hepatectomy following initial chemotherapy and did not
      experience recurrence or death during follow-up. Median follow-up was 47.9 months
      and median overall survival (OS) was 38.1 and 24.8 months in the chemotherapy and
      hepatectomy groups, respectively. Multivariate analysis of OS, including initial
      treatment, revealed that unilobar liver metastasis was the only independent
      favorable prognostic factor. CONCLUSIONS: Although hepatectomy for patients with
      GC with multiple LLM is not recommended as the initial therapy, it prolonged the
      survival of patients with tumors controlled using systemic chemotherapy.

PMID- 28577230
TI  - The financial performance of the health care industry: a global, regional and
      industry specific empirical investigation.
AB  - This article analyzes the financial (out-) performance of all listed health care
      companies. The health care sector outperformed the market in the period from 2000
      to June 2015. The performance was driven by companies from Americas, and Asia as
      well as companies from the pharmaceuticals sub-segment. Additionally, bull
      periods appear to be the main driver for the outperformance. Euro-based investors
      can expect different outcomes of their investments to those of USD investors.
      However, the main trends remain unchanged.

PMID- 28577229
TI  - Automated histological classification of whole-slide images of gastric biopsy
      specimens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Automated image analysis has been developed currently in the field of
      surgical pathology. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the
      classification accuracy of the e-Pathologist image analysis software. METHODS: A
      total of 3062 gastric biopsy specimens were consecutively obtained and stained.
      The specimen slides were anonymized and digitized. At least two experienced
      gastrointestinal pathologists evaluated each slide for pathological diagnosis. We
      compared the three-tier (positive for carcinoma or suspicion of carcinoma;
      caution for adenoma or suspicion of a neoplastic lesion; or negative for a
      neoplastic lesion) or two-tier (negative or non-negative) classification results
      of human pathologists and of the e-Pathologist. RESULTS: Of 3062 cases, 33.4%
      showed an abnormal finding. For the three-tier classification, the overall
      concordance rate was 55.6% (1702/3062). The kappa coefficient was 0.28 (95% CI,
      0.26-0.30; fair agreement). For the negative biopsy specimens, the concordance
      rate was 90.6% (1033/1140), but for the positive biopsy specimens, the
      concordance rate was less than 50%. For the two-tier classification, the
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive
      value were 89.5% (95% CI, 87.5-91.4%), 50.7% (95% CI, 48.5-52.9%), 47.7% (95% CI,
      45.4-49.9%), and 90.6% (95% CI, 88.8-92.2%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      there are limitations and requirements for applying automated histopathological
      classification of gastric biopsy specimens in the clinical setting, the results
      of the present study are promising.

PMID- 28577232
TI  - Impact of sleep disorders in cognitive function of thyroid cancer survivors.

PMID- 28577231
TI  - Electronic versus paper-pencil methods for assessing chemotherapy-induced
      peripheral neuropathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to examine and compare with the validated,
      paper/pencil European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality
      of Life Questionnaire-Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Scale (QLQ
      CIPN20), the psychometric properties of three electronically administered patient
      reported outcome (PRO) measures of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
      (CIPN): (1) the two neuropathy items from the National Cancer Institute's Patient
      Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events
      (PRO-CTCAE), (2) the QLQ-CIPN20, and (3) the 0-10 Neuropathy Screening Question
      (NSQ). METHODS: We employed a descriptive, cross-sectional design and recruited
      25 women with breast cancer who were receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy at an
      academic hospital. Participants completed the paper/pencil QLQ-CIPN20 and
      electronic versions of the QLQ-CIPN20, PRO-CTCAE, and NSQ. Internal consistency
      reliability, intraclass correlation, and concurrent and discriminant validity
      analyses were conducted. RESULTS: The alpha coefficients for the electronic QLQ
      CIPN20 sensory and motor subscales were 0.76 and 0.75. Comparison of the
      electronic and paper/pencil QLQ-CIPN20 subscales supported mode equivalence
      (intraclass correlation range >0.91). Participants who reported the presence of
      numbness/tingling via the single-item NSQ reported higher mean QLQ-CIPN20 sensory
      subscale scores (p < 0.001). PRO-CTCAE neuropathy severity and interference items
      correlated well with the QLQ-CIPN20 electronic and paper/pencil sensory (r =
      0.76; r = 0.70) and motor (r = 0.55; r = 0.62) subscales, and with the NSQ (r =
      0.72; r = 0.44). CONCLUSION: These data support the validity of the
      electronically administered PRO-CTCAE neuropathy items, NSQ, and QLQ-CIPN20 for
      neuropathy screening in clinical practice. The electronic and paper/pencil
      versions of the QLQ-CIPN can be used interchangeably based on evidence of mode
      equivalence.

PMID- 28577233
TI  - Zinc and Selenium Co-supplementation Reduces Some Lipid Peroxidation and
      Angiogenesis Markers in a Rat Model of NAFLD-Fed High Fat Diet.
AB  - Studies have shown that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients are
      more prone to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Zinc and selenium deficiency are
      common in NAFLD. But the effects of zinc and selenium co-supplementation before
      and/or after disease progression on CVD markers are not clear in NAFLD patients.
      This study aimed to compare the effects of zinc and selenium co-supplementation
      before and/or after disease progression on some of the CVD markers in an
      experimental model of NAFLD. Forty male Sprague Dawley rats (197 +/- 4 g) were
      randomly assigned into four dietary groups: control group (C; received 9% of
      calorie as fat), model group (M; received 82% of calorie as fat), and
      supplementation before (BS) or after (AS) disease progression. Animals were fed
      diets for 20 weeks in all groups. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), insulin, HOMA-IR,
      ALT, AST, lipid profile, malondialdehyde (MDA) and vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) levels were measured as CVD indices. Serum ALT, AST, FPG, insulin,
      MDA, VEGF and HOMA-IR were significantly higher in the M than C group. Co
      supplementation reduced serum ALT and AST levels in the BS and AS groups compared
      with the M group. FPG, insulin, HOMA-IR, VEGF, MDA, LDL/HDL-c and TC/HDL-c ratio
      were significantly reduced in the AS compared with the M group. TG/HDL-c ratio
      was significantly reduced in the BS and AS compared with the M group. Serum MDA,
      VEGF, Insulin and HOMA-IR were significantly lowered in the AS than BS group (p <
      0.05). Zinc and selenium co-supplementation after NAFLD progression reduced CVD
      risk indices in an experimental model.

PMID- 28577234
TI  - Antagonistic Effect of Laver, Pyropia yezonensis and P. haitanensis, on
      Subchronic Lead Poisoning in Rats.
AB  - Lead, one of the most harmful heavy metals, can cause various hazardous effects
      on living organisms. This study was undertaken to evaluate the antagonistic and
      protective effects of two economically important laver species, Pyropia yezoensis
      and P. haitanensis, against subchronic lead poisoning in rats by a 30-day feeding
      test. Sixty-four healthy Wistar rats were randomly divided into eight groups with
      eight rats (4? + 4?) per group, among which, one group was served as the control,
      the others were respectively treated with lead acetate (5 mg/kg b w), and a
      combination of lead acetate and P. yezoensis or P. haitanensis at different
      dosages. Weight gain of rats was observed and recorded. Changes in antioxidant
      indexes, and liver and renal function markers were determined to evaluate the
      antagonistic effect. Lead content in rats was determined to investigate lead
      excretion effect of laver. The results showed that exposure to lead caused lead
      accumulation in kidney and liver, thus leading to significant oxidative damage
      and impaired liver and renal function compared to the control group. The co
      treatment of laver slightly increased body weight compared to the lead-treated
      group. The co-administration of laver restored liver and renal function of rats
      by preventing the increment in the activities of alanine transaminase (ALT),
      alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and aspartate transaminase (AST), and the levels of
      blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr). The increasing of superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities, and lowering of the
      enhanced malondialdehyde (MDA) contents of rats were observed in the laver co
      treated groups, which indicated that laver enhanced the antioxidative capacity of
      rats. The laver also enhanced lead content in feces and reduced it in liver and
      kidney. The results indicated that P. yezoensis and P. haitanensis could maintain
      or promote the normal physiological and biochemical function of lead-induced
      subchronic poisoning of rats, probably owing to their enhancements of antioxidant
      capacity and lead excretion.

PMID- 28577235
TI  - Dietary Iodine Affected the GSH-Px to Regulate the Thyroid Hormones in Thyroid
      Gland of Rex Rabbits.
AB  - Iodine (I) is an essential trace element that can influence animal health and
      productivity. In this study, we investigated the effects of dietary iodine on the
      antioxidant indices of organ (liver and thyroid gland) and messenger RNA (mRNA)
      expression of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in Rex rabbits. A total of 120 4
      month-old Rex rabbits (2235.4 +/- 13.04 g BW) were divided into four equal
      groups, and their diets were supplemented with iodine (0, 0.2, 2, or 4 mg/kg dry
      matter (DM)). The iodine concentration in basal diet (control group) was 0.36
      mg/kg DM. In most of measured parameters, supplemental iodine exerted no
      significant effect. Growth and slaughter performance and organ weight were not
      influenced significantly by iodine supplementation. Serum T3 was significantly
      lower in 2-mg I group than in 0.2 and 4-mg I groups (P < 0.05). Superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), GSH-Px, methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA), and thyroperoxidase
      (TPO) in the serum and liver were not influenced (P > 0.05). Conversely, serum
      catalase (CAT) was significantly reduced (P < 0.05). In the thyroid, GSH-Px was
      higher in the 2-mg I group than in the 0.2- and 4-mg I groups (P < 0.05). RT-PCR
      results showed that the mRNA expression level of GSH-Px in the liver was not
      significantly influenced (P > 0.05). In the thyroid gland, the mRNA expression
      level of GSH-Px was higher in the 2-mg I group than in the 4-mg I group (P <
      0.05), which agreed with the activity of GSH-Px. In conclusion, iodine
      supplementation exerted no effect on the performance and antioxidant capacity of
      the body, but dietary iodine influenced serum T3 or GSH-Px in the thyroid gland.
      Thus, on the basis of serum T3 and GSH-Px levels in the thyroid gland, we
      hypothesized that GSH-Px secretion was increased by adding dietary iodine in the
      thyroid, which may inhibit the H2O2 generation and further influence the thyroid
      hormone synthesis.

PMID- 28577236
TI  - Glutathione S-transferase related detoxification processes are correlated with
      receptor-mediated vacuolar sorting mechanisms.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Triticum durum Glutathione S-transferase Z1 is specifically
      responsive to glyphosate. Its expression influences the receptor-mediated
      vacuolar sorting mechanisms involved in tolerance mechanisms. A zeta subfamily
      glutathione S-transferase gene from Triticum durum (cv Cappelli) (TdGSTZ1) was
      characterized as part of a complex detoxification mechanism. The effect of
      different abiotic stresses on TdGSTZ1 revealed that the gene is unexpectedly
      responsive to glyphosate (GLY) herbicide despite it should not be part of
      tolerance mechanisms. Its role in the non-target-site mechanism of GLY resistance
      was then investigated. To analyze the GLY and the TdGSTZ1 overexpression effects
      on vacuolar sorting mechanisms, we performed transient transformation experiments
      in Nicotiana tabacum protoplasts using two vacuolar markers, AleuGFPgl133 and
      GFPgl133Chi, labeling the Sar1 dependent or independent sorting, respectively. We
      observed that the adaptive reaction of tobacco protoplasts vacuolar system to the
      treatment with GLY could be partially mimicked by the overexpression of TdGSTZ1
      gene. To confirm the influence of GLY on the two vacuolar markers accumulation
      and the potential involvement of the secretion pathway activity in detoxification
      events, Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic plants overexpressing the non
      glycosylated versions of the two markers were analyzed. The results suggested
      that GLY treatment specifically altered different vacuolar sorting
      characteristics, suggesting an involvement of the receptor-mediated AleuGFP
      sorting mechanism in GLY resistance. Finally, the expression analysis of selected
      genes confirmed that the non-target-site GLY resistance mechanisms are related to
      vacuolar sorting.

PMID- 28577237
TI  - Insertion of a solo LTR retrotransposon associates with spur mutations in 'Red
      Delicious' apple (Malus * domestica).
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Insertion of a solo LTR, which possesses strong bidirectional, stem
      specific promoter activities, is associated with the evolution of a dwarfing
      apple spur mutation. Spur mutations in apple scions revolutionized global apple
      production. Since long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons are tightly related
      to natural mutations, inter-retrotransposon-amplified polymorphism technique and
      genome walking were used to find sequences in the apple genome based on these
      LTRs. In 'Red Delicious' spur mutants, a novel, 2190-bp insertion was identified
      as a spur-specific, solo LTR (sLTR) located at the 1038th nucleotide of another
      sLTR, which was 1536 bp in length. This insertion-within-an-insertion was
      localized within a preexisting Gypsy-50 retrotransposon at position 3,762,767 on
      chromosome 4. The analysis of transcriptional activity of the two sLTRs (the 2190
      and 1536-bp inserts) indicated that the 2190-bp sLTR is a promoter, capable of
      bidirectional transcription. GUS expression in the 2190-bp-sense and 2190-bp
      antisense transgenic lines was prominent in stems. In contrast, no promoter
      activity from either the sense or the antisense strand of the 1536-bp sLTR was
      detected. From ~150 kb of DNA on each side of the 2190 bp, sLTR insertion site,
      corresponding to 300 kb of the 'Golden Delicious' genome, 23 genes were
      predicted. Ten genes had predicted functions that could affect shoot development.
      This first report, of a sLTR insertion associated with the evolution of apple
      spur mutation, will facilitate apple breeding, cloning of spur-related genes, and
      discovery of mechanisms behind dwarf habit.

PMID- 28577239
TI  - Population pharmacokinetic analyses of the effect of carboplatin pretreatment on
      olaparib in recurrent or refractory women's cancers.
AB  - PURPOSE: Combining olaparib with carboplatin was recently shown to be active in
      both BRCA and non-BRCA mutant cancers in a recent phase I/Ib combination trial.
      The optimal drug sequence recommended was carboplatin 1-day before olaparib.
      However, carboplatin pre-treatment induced a ~50% faster olaparib clearance.
      METHODS: To further explore this drug interaction, a population pharmacokinetic
      (PK) model was designed that included a lag time parameter, a second absorption
      compartment from tablet formulation, a single distribution/elimination
      compartment, and covariance among the clearance and volume parameters. RESULTS:
      Clearance (6.8 L/h) and volume (33 L) estimates were comparable with literature.
      The only significant covariate was the presence of carboplatin on olaparib
      clearance, consistent with published noncompartmental PK and in vitro data.
      CONCLUSIONS: Simulations predicted lower steady-state peak/trough olaparib
      exposure through 24-36 h post carboplatin pre-treatment, but this effect was lost
      by day 2 and thus no dose adjustment is recommended.

PMID- 28577238
TI  - Dihedral angle preferences of amino acid residues forming various non-local
      interactions in proteins.
AB  - In theory, a polypeptide chain can adopt a vast number of conformations, each
      corresponding to a set of backbone rotation angles. Many of these conformations
      are excluded due to steric overlaps. Ramachandran and coworkers were the first to
      look into this problem by plotting backbone dihedral angles in a two-dimensional
      plot. The conformational space in the Ramachandran map is further refined by
      considering the energetic contributions of various non-bonded interactions.
      Alternatively, the conformation adopted by a polypeptide chain may also be
      examined by investigating interactions between the residues. Since the
      Ramachandran map essentially focuses on local interactions (residues closer in
      sequence), out of interest, we have analyzed the dihedral angle preferences of
      residues that make non-local interactions (residues far away in sequence and
      closer in space) in the folded structures of proteins. The non-local interactions
      have been grouped into different types such as hydrogen bond, van der Waals
      interactions between hydrophobic groups, ion pairs (salt bridges), and pipi
      stacking interactions. The results show the propensity of amino acid residues in
      proteins forming local and non-local interactions. Our results point to the vital
      role of different types of non-local interactions and their effect on dihedral
      angles in forming secondary and tertiary structural elements to adopt their
      native fold.

PMID- 28577240
TI  - A Rhodamine-Based Fluorescent Chemosensor for the Detection of Pb2+, Hg2+ and
      Cd2.
AB  - A new rhodamine-based fluorescent chemosensor (1) has been designed and
      synthesized by linking rhodamine 6G hydrazide with N-methylisatin via an imine
      linkage. The receptor can selectively recognize and sense Pb2+, Hg2+ and Cd2+ by
      showing different fluorescence characteristics. In ethanol/HEPES buffer medium,
      the addition of Cd2+ caused a yellowish-green fluorescence, while the presence of
      Pb2+ or Hg2+ gave rise to an orange fluorescence. Additionally, the sensor shows
      an irreversible fluorescence response to Pb2+ and reversible fluorescence
      responses to Hg2+ and Cd2+.

PMID- 28577242
TI  - Divergence in the approach to tumor necrosis factor alpha-inhibitor recipients
      with coccidioidomycosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor alpha-inhibitors (TNFIs) have been associated
      with increased risk of certain fungal infections, including coccidioidomycosis.
      The optimal treatment approach to coccidioidomycosis in TNFI recipients is
      unknown. METHODS: We constructed an anonymous, voluntary survey for practicing
      pulmonary and infectious disease physicians in the state of Arizona regarding
      approach to TNFI patients with coccidioidomycosis. RESULTS: There is no current
      consensus on managing these patients. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is necessary
      to determine the optimal approach to TNFI recipients with coccidioidomycosis.

PMID- 28577243
TI  - Review on the Biological Mechanisms Associated with Depo-Provera and HIV-1 Risk
      Acquisition in Women.
AB  - Women constitute more than 50% out of millions of individuals infected with HIV
      1, the major causative agent of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. About 40% of
      HIV-1 infections have been reported to initiate in the female reproductive tract.
      However, the mechanisms through which these infections are spread are poorly
      understood; hence, there is now a major concern in women who use long acting
      injectable hormonal contraceptives, particularly Depo-Provera and an increase of
      HIV-1 risk acquisition. Based on literature, Depo-Provera has an affinity for
      both the glucocorticoid receptor and the progesterone receptor in the female
      reproductive tract. Therefore, investigating HIV-1 pathogenesis in the female
      reproductive tract via the glucocorticoid receptor and the progesterone receptor
      mechanisms in response to the effect of Depo-Provera is of great importance.

PMID- 28577241
TI  - Human infectious diseases and risk of preeclampsia: an updated review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the major causes of maternal and
      perinatal morbidity and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income
      countries. In recent years, a growing body of literatures suggests that
      infections by bacteria, viruses, and parasites and their related inflammations
      play an important role in the pathogenesis of PE. METHODS: We searched PubMed,
      Google scholar, and Cochrane databases using the following search words:
      "infection and preeclampsia," "bacterial infection and preeclampsia," "viral
      infection and preeclampsia" and "parasitic infection and preeclampsia." RESULTS:
      The literature review revealed that many bacteria including Helicobacter pylori,
      Chlamydia pneumonia, and those are involved in periodontal disease or urinary
      tract infections (UTIs) and some viral agents such as Cytomegalovirus, herpes
      simplex virus type-2, human immunodeficiency virus, and some parasites especially
      Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii can be effective in development of PE.
      Inflammation responses against infections has major role in the inducement of PE.
      The shift of immunological cytokine profile of Th2 toward Th1 and high levels of
      pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-12, IFN-gamma, etc.), increase of
      oxidative stress, increase of anti-angiogenic proteins, increase of vascular
      endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (sVEGFR1), and complement C5a are the main
      potential mechanisms related to infections and enhanced development of PE.
      CONCLUSION: Thus, early diagnosis and treatment of bacterial, viral, and
      parasitic infections could be an effective strategy to reduce the incidence of
      PE.

PMID- 28577246
TI  - Gestational Weight Gain: A New Factor Influencing Pregnancy Outcomes in Women
      with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28577244
TI  - Furazolidone, an Underutilized Drug for H. pylori Eradication: Lessons from Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment success of H. pylori eradication therapy has declined
      worldwide largely because of increased antimicrobial resistance. New therapeutic
      approaches are needed, especially for countries like Iran, where resistance to
      commonly used drugs is already widespread and traditional H. pylori therapies
      produce poor cure rates. AIM: To review the results of quadruple therapy trials
      containing bismuth and furazolidone in Iran. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Google
      scholar as well as the references of all published papers for studies conducted
      in Iran, utilizing furazolidone in the treatment of H. pylori infections. The
      target population was four drug studies that utilized a combination of bismuth,
      furazolidone, amoxicillin, or tetracycline plus a proton pump inhibitor. RESULTS:
      Eighteen studies with 22 arms including 1713 subjects were found. The weighted
      mean cure rate for 14-day studies (six studies) using 200 mg b.i.d. furazolidone
      was 80% intention to treat (ITT) and 87% per protocol (PP). Studies using 100 mg
      b.i.d. (three studies) were less effective (weighted mean ITT cure rate = 67%).
      One small 14-day study with furazolidone 100 mg q.i.d. achieved cure rates of
      94.5% ITT and PP. CONCLUSIONS: Although furazolidone-bismuth quadruple therapy
      proved relatively effective in Iran, furazolidone-containing regimens remain to
      be optimized. Based on these data and results from China, it appears likely that
      14-day therapy containing furazolidone 100 mg t.i.d. or q.i.d. is likely to
      provide the highest cure rates with lowest side effects; this remains to be
      experimentally tested. Detailed suggestions for further development of
      furazolidone-containing regimens are provided.

PMID- 28577245
TI  - From Harmful Treatment to Secondary Gain: Adverse Event Reporting in Dyspepsia
      and Gastroparesis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Medical management of gastroparesis and functional dyspepsia
      remains difficult with several recent trials showing limited or no benefit. If
      treatment comes with only marginal improvements, concerns about adverse events
      become more relevant. We therefore examined the type and outcomes of side effects
      submitted to a public repository. METHODS: We searched the Federal Adverse Event
      Reporting System for reports associated with the treatment of dyspepsia or
      gastroparesis. Demographic data, medications used and implicated, side effects,
      and outcomes were abstracted for the years 2004-2015. RESULTS: Acid-suppressive
      agents and prokinetics were the most commonly listed medications with a stronger
      emphasis on prokinetics in gastroparesis. Submissions related to metoclopramide
      by far exceeded reports about other agents and mostly described tardive
      dyskinesia or other neurological concerns. They peaked around 2012, driven by
      submissions through legal workers. Most reports about metoclopramide described
      short-term use to prevent or treat nausea and vomiting. Concerns about acid
      suppressive medications increased over time and spanned a wide spectrum of
      potential problems, including osteoporosis, worsening renal function, or cardiac
      events. CONCLUSION: Despite biasing factors, such as pending legal action, the
      voluntary repository of adverse events provides insight into current medical
      practice and its associated risk. Knowing about common and uncommon, but
      potentially serious risks may enable patients and providers to decide on
      effective and safe management strategies.

PMID- 28577247
TI  - Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) with the XL Probe of the Fibroscan(r): A
      Comparative Study with the M Probe and Liver Biopsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) is a new method for the
      diagnosis of steatosis. Until now, CAP was available only with the M probe of the
      Fibroscan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of
      CAP with the XL probe versus CAP with the M probe, using liver biopsy (LB) as
      gold standard. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 236 patients with chronic liver
      disease undergoing LB had CAP measurement with M and XL probes the same day. All
      LB were analyzed independently by two experienced pathologists. RESULTS: Median
      CAP was 240.5 and 239.5 dB/m with the M and XL probes, respectively. For the
      detection of steatosis grade with the M and XL probes, AUROCs were 0.82/0.83 for
      S >= 1, 0.89/0.88 for S >= 2, and 0.92/0.93 for S3, respectively. Cutoffs were (M
      and XL probes) 246/242 for S >= 1, 269/267 for S >= 2, and 285/286 dB/m for S3,
      respectively. The factor significantly associated with CAP with the M and XL
      probes was steatosis grade. In multivariate analysis, a low CAP value with XL
      probe was negatively associated with waist circumference, triglycerides, albumin,
      and the alcohol consumption, and positively with alkaline phosphatases. In
      multivariate analysis, a high CAP value with the XL probe was positively
      associated with waist circumference and triglycerides. CONCLUSION: CAP with the
      XL probe is a new tool for the diagnosis of steatosis. This parameter could be
      useful for the diagnosis and the follow-up of obese patients.

PMID- 28577249
TI  - Progeny production in the periplasm of Thermosipho globiformans.
AB  - Thermotogales are rod-shaped, Gram-negative, anaerobic, (hyper) thermophiles
      distinguished by an outer sheath-like toga, which comprises an outer membrane
      (OM) and an amorphous layer (AL). Thermosipho globiformans bacteria can transform
      into spheroids with multiple cells concurrently with AL disintegration during
      early growth; the cell is defined as the cytoplasmic membrane (CM) plus the
      entity surrounded by the CM. Spheroids eventually produce rapidly moving
      periplasmic 'progenies' through an unknown mechanism. Here, we used high
      temperature microscopy (HTM) to directly observe spheroid generation and growth.
      Rod OMs abruptly inflated to form ~2 MUm-diameter balloons. Concurrently,
      multiple globular cells emerged in the balloons, suggesting their translocation
      and transformation from the rod state. During spheroid growth, the cells
      elongated and acquired a large dish shape by possible fusion. Spheroids with dish
      shaped cells further enlarged to ~12 MUm in diameter. HTM and epifluorescence
      microscopy results collectively indicated that the nucleoids of dish-shaped cells
      transformed to form a ring shape, which then distorted to form a lip shape as the
      spheroid enlarged. HTM showed that 'progenies' were produced in the spheroid
      periplasm. Transmission electron microscopy results suggested that the
      'progenies' represented immature progenies lacking togas, which were acquired
      subsequently.

PMID- 28577248
TI  - Pathological Findings of the Antral and Pyloric Smooth Muscle in Patients with
      Gastroparesis-Like Syndrome Compared to Gastroparesis: Similarities and
      Differences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastroparesis (GP)-like syndrome presents with the symptoms of GP but
      without delayed gastric emptying (GE). Whether GP-like syndrome is part of a
      spectrum of GP is not clear. This study aimed to compare the histopathological
      features of antral and pyloric smooth muscle tissue in GP and GP-like syndrome.
      METHODS: Full-thickness antral and/or pyloric biopsies were obtained from 37 GP
      and 18 GP-like syndrome patients who underwent abdominal surgery to place a
      gastric electrical stimulator or jejunal feeding tube and/or pyloroplasty. The
      tissues were stained with H&E, C-Kit, and trichrome. Based on previous control
      data, an interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) count of <10 per high power field in
      the antrum and/or pylorus was considered depletion. Baseline total symptom score
      (TSS) was recorded. RESULTS: Twenty-four GP and 7 GP-like patients had pyloric
      biopsies. Pyloric ICC loss was observed in 20/24 (83.3%) GP and 2/7 (28.6%) GP
      like patients (p < 0.01). Fibrosis was detected in the pyloric tissue of 20/24
      (83.3%) GP and 2/7 (28.6%) GP-like patients who had pyloric trichrome staining (p
      < 0.01). Seventeen out of 24 (70.8%) GP patients with pyloric biopsies had
      concomitant pyloric ICC loss and fibrosis, while only one GP-like patient had ICC
      loss and simultaneous pyloric fibrosis. GP patients had a greater TSS compared to
      GP-like patients. In GP patients, those with pyloric ICC loss had a greater TSS
      compared to those with normal ICC. GP patients with pyloric fibrosis had a higher
      TSS compared to those without pyloric fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to GP-like
      patients, the pyloric histopathological findings of ICC loss and fibrosis are
      common in GP and predict a greater symptom score. These pathological findings
      might be considered as markers of "pyloric dysfunction" and explain delayed GE in
      GP.

PMID- 28577250
TI  - Bone mineral density in older patients with never-treated congenital
      hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.

PMID- 28577251
TI  - [Anti-infective strategies in trauma surgery Part 1].

PMID- 28577252
TI  - ?

PMID- 28577253
TI  - Am I ready for it? Students' perceptions of meaningful feedback on entrustable
      professional activities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Receiving feedback while in the clinical workplace is probably the
      most frequently voiced desire of students. In clinical learning environments,
      providing and seeking performance-relevant information is often difficult for
      both supervisors and students. The use of entrustable professional activities
      (EPAs) can help to improve student assessment within competency-based education.
      This study aimed to illustrate what students' perceptions are of meaningful
      feedback viewed as conducive in preparing for performing EPA unsupervised.
      METHODS: In a qualitative multicentre study we explored students' perceptions on
      meaningful feedback related to EPAs in the clinical workplace. Focus groups were
      conducted in three different healthcare institutes. Based on concepts from the
      literature, the transcripts were coded, iteratively reduced and displayed.
      RESULTS: Participants' preferences regarding meaningful feedback on EPAs were
      quite similar, irrespective of their institution or type of clerkship.
      Participants explicitly mentioned that feedback on EPAs could come from a variety
      of sources. Feedback must come from a credible, trustworthy supervisor who knows
      the student well, be delivered in a safe environment and stress both strengths
      and points for improvement. The feedback should be provided immediately after the
      observed activity and include instructions for follow-up. Students would
      appreciate feedback that refers to their ability to act unsupervised. CONCLUSION:
      There is abundant literature on how feedback should be provided, and what factors
      influence how feedback is sought by students. This study showed that students who
      are training to perform an EPA unsupervised have clear ideas about how, when and
      from whom feedback should be delivered.

PMID- 28577255
TI  - Erratum to: Intra-procedural determination of viability by myocardial deformation
      imaging: a randomized prospective study in the cardiac catheter laboratory.

PMID- 28577254
TI  - The value of whole-brain CT perfusion imaging and CT angiography using a 320
      slice CT scanner in the diagnosis of MCI and AD patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To validate the value of whole-brain computed tomography perfusion
      (CTP) and CT angiography (CTA) in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment
      (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: Whole-brain CTP and four-dimensional
      CT angiography (4D-CTA) images were acquired in 30 MCI, 35 mild AD patients, 35
      moderate AD patients, 30 severe AD patients and 50 normal controls (NC). Cerebral
      blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), mean transit time (MTT), time to
      peak (TTP), and correlation between CTP and 4D-CTA were analysed. RESULTS:
      Elevated CBF in the left frontal and temporal cortex was found in MCI compared
      with the NC group. However, TTP was increased in the left hippocampus in mild AD
      patients compared with NC. In moderate and severe AD patients, hypoperfusion was
      found in multiple brain areas compared with NC. Finally, we found that the extent
      of arterial stenosis was negatively correlated with CBF in partial cerebral
      cortex and hippocampus, and positively correlated with TTP in these areas of AD
      and MCI patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that whole-brain CTP and 4D
      CTA could serve as a diagnostic modality in distinguishing MCI and AD, and
      predicting conversion from MCI based on TTP of left hippocampus. KEY POINTS: *
      Whole-brain perfusion using the full 160-mm width of 320 detector rows * Provide
      clinical experience of 320-row CT in cerebrovascular disorders of Alzheimer's
      disease * Initial combined 4D CTA-CTP data analysed perfusion and correlated with
      CT angiography * Whole-brain CTP and 4D-CTA have high value for monitoring MCI to
      AD progression * TTP in the left hippocampus may predict the transition from MCI
      to AD.

PMID- 28577256
TI  - Dominance and social information use in a lizard.
AB  - There is mounting evidence that social learning is not just restricted to group
      living animals, but also occurs in species with a wide range of social systems.
      However, we still have a poor understanding of the factors driving individual
      differences in social information use. We investigated the effects of relative
      dominance on social information use in the eastern water skink (Eulamprus
      quoyii), a species with age-dependent social learning. We used staged contests to
      establish dominant-subordinate relationships in pairs of lizards and tested
      whether observers use social information to more quickly solve both an
      association and reversal learning task in situations where the demonstrator was
      either dominant or subordinate. Surprisingly, we found no evidence of social
      information use, irrespective of relative dominance between observer and
      demonstrator. However, dominant lizards learnt at a faster rate than subordinate
      lizards in the associative learning task, although there were no significant
      differences in the reversal task. In light of previous work in this species, we
      suggest that age may be a more important driver of social information use because
      demonstrators and observers in our study were closely size-matched and were
      likely to be of similar age.

PMID- 28577257
TI  - Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations
      and Physical Performance in Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of
      Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is currently no systematic review examining the effects of
      vitamin D supplementation among athletes. A rigorous systematic review and meta
      analysis is important to provide a balanced view of current knowledge on the
      effect of vitamin D on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations and
      physical performance. OBJECTIVES: This systematic review of randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) evaluated the effects of oral vitamin D supplementation on serum
      25(OH)D concentrations and physical performance in athletes. METHODS: Multiple
      electronic databases were searched, and study eligibility, methodological quality
      assessment, and data extraction were completed independently and in duplicate.
      Studies were stratified by baseline vitamin D sufficiency, season, and latitude.
      A cut-off of 30 ng/ml (75 nmol/l) of 25(OH)D was used for sufficiency. Absolute
      mean differences (AMDs) between vitamin D and placebo using random effects
      analysis, and heterogeneity using Q statistic and I 2 index, were calculated. AMD
      with 95% confidence interval (CI), p value, and I 2 are reported. RESULTS: In
      total, 13 RCTs (2005-2016) with 532 athletes (vitamin D 311, placebo 221) were
      eligible. A total of 433 athletes (vitamin D 244, placebo 189) had complete
      outcome data. Among athletes with baseline values suggesting insufficiency,
      vitamin D supplementation led to significant increases from 3000 IU (AMD 15.2
      ng/ml; 95% CI 10.7-19.7, p < 0.0001, I 2 = 0%) and 5000 IU (AMD 27.8 ng/ml; 95%
      CI 16.9-38.8, p < 0.0001, I 2 = 78%) per day at >45 degrees  latitudes. Both
      doses led to sufficiency concentrations during winter months. Among athletes with
      baseline vitamin D suggesting sufficiency, serum 25(OH)D sufficiency was
      maintained from different doses at both latitudes. Of 13 included trials, only
      seven measured different physical performances and none demonstrated a
      significant effect of vitamin D supplementation during 12 weeks of follow-up.
      CONCLUSION: Despite achieving sufficiency in vitamin D concentrations from >=3000
      IU supplementation, physical performance did not significantly improve. Between
      study heterogeneity was large, and well-designed RCTs examining the effect of
      vitamin D supplementation on serum 25(OH)D concentrations, physical performance,
      and injuries in different sports, latitudes, ethnicities, and vitamin D status
      are needed.

PMID- 28577259
TI  - ?

PMID- 28577263
TI  - Modelling for the proposed roll-out of the '111' service in Wales: a case study.
AB  - NHS Direct Wales provides a single point of access where members of the public
      can telephone and seek medical support and/or advice. The service is provided for
      all the Health Boards in Wales by a single virtual call centre run from a main
      location in Swansea with 2 satellite locations. Patients in Wales can also access
      a local General Practitioner service during the evenings and at weekends, by
      phoning their Out of Hours service. The introduction of a '111' service is
      intended to combine these two operations on a pan-Wales basis using the existing
      NHS Direct Wales call centre and staff, with the existing Health Board Out of
      Hours 'hubs'. The merger of the two services is intended to improve the overall
      performance of both services. This paper focuses on the planned introduction of
      '111' in Cwm Taf and Hywel Dda University Health Boards. The purpose of the case
      study was to support the merger of the two telephony systems from both an
      organisational and service delivery perspective, by developing a Discrete Event
      Simulation to model the impact on service levels and staffing. In particular, to
      examine the percentage increase / decrease in the staffing requirements needed
      under partial or full integration of the two services. The results from the
      scenario analysis highlight that extra staffing resources would be required in
      certain groups (nurses and call handlers) whilst savings could be achieved in
      others, provided that there wasn't an increase in call volume after
      implementation of the new service.

PMID- 28577262
TI  - Altered EEG spectral power during rest and cognitive performance: a comparison of
      preterm-born adolescents to adolescents with ADHD.
AB  - Preterm birth has been associated with an increased risk for ADHD-like
      behavioural symptoms and cognitive impairments. However, direct comparisons
      across ADHD and preterm-born samples on neurophysiological measures are limited.
      The aim of this analysis was to test whether quantitative EEG (QEEG) measures
      identify differences or similarities in preterm-born adolescents, compared to
      term-born adolescents with and without ADHD, during resting-state and cognitive
      task conditions. We directly compared QEEG activity between 186 preterm-born
      adolescents, 69 term-born adolescents with ADHD and 135 term-born control
      adolescents during an eyes-open resting-state condition (EO), which previously
      discriminated between the adolescents with ADHD and controls, and during a cued
      continuous performance task (CPT-OX). Absolute delta power was the only frequency
      range to demonstrate a significant group-by-condition interaction. The preterm
      group, like the ADHD group, displayed significantly higher delta power during EO,
      compared to the control group. In line with these findings, parent-rated ADHD
      symptoms in the preterm group were significantly correlated with delta power
      during rest. While the preterm and control groups did not differ with regard to
      absolute delta power during CPT-OX, the ADHD group showed significantly higher
      absolute delta power compared to both groups. Our results provide evidence for
      overlapping excess in the absolute delta range in preterm-born adolescents and
      term-born adolescents with ADHD during rest. During CPT-OX, preterm-born
      adolescents resembled controls. Increased delta power during rest may be a
      potential general marker of brain trauma, pathology or neurotransmitter
      disturbances.

PMID- 28577264
TI  - Negative and Positive Emotion Responses to Daily School Problems: Links to
      Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms.
AB  - Examining emotion reactivity and recovery following minor problems in daily life
      can deepen our understanding of how stress affects child mental health. This
      study assessed children's immediate and delayed emotion responses to daily
      problems at school, and examined their correlations with psychological symptoms.
      On 5 consecutive weekdays, 83 fifth graders (M = 10.91 years, SD = 0.53, 51%
      female) completed brief diary forms 5 times per day, providing repeated ratings
      of school problems and emotions. They also completed a one-time questionnaire
      about symptoms of depression, and parents and teachers rated child internalizing
      and externalizing problems. Using multilevel modeling techniques, we assessed
      within-person daily associations between school problems and negative and
      positive emotion at school and again at bedtime. On days when children
      experienced more school problems, they reported more negative emotion and less
      positive emotion at school, and at bedtime. There were reliable individual
      differences in emotion reactivity and recovery. Individual-level indices of
      emotion responses derived from multilevel models were correlated with child
      psychological symptoms. Children who showed more negative emotion reactivity
      reported more depressive symptoms. Multiple informants described fewer
      internalizing problems among children who showed better recovery by bedtime, even
      after controlling for children's average levels of exposure to school problems.
      Diary methods can extend our understanding of the links between daily stress,
      emotions and child mental health. Recovery following stressful events may be an
      important target of research and intervention for child internalizing problems.

PMID- 28577265
TI  - On the injectability of free-standing magnetic nanofilms.
AB  - Free-standing films with sub-micrometric thickness, composed of soft polymers and
      functional nanostructures are promising candidates for many potential
      applications in the biomedical field, such as reduced port abdominal surgery. In
      this work, freely suspended poly(L-lactic acid) nanofilms with controlled
      morphology embedding superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were fabricated
      by spin-coating deposition. The mechanical properties of magnetic nanofilms were
      investigated by Strain-Induced Elastic Buckling Instability for Mechanical
      Measurements (SIEBIMM) test. Our results show that these freely suspended
      nanocomposite nanofilms are highly flexible and deformable, with Young's moduli
      of few GPa. Since they can be handled in liquid with syringes, a quantitative
      description of the nanofilms behavior during the manipulation with clinically
      applicable needles has been also provided. These magnetic nanofilms, remotely
      controllable by external electromagnetic fields, have potential applications in
      minimally invasive surgery as injectable nanopatches on inner organs wall.
      Graphical abstract ?.

PMID- 28577258
TI  - "Beet-ing" the Mountain: A Review of the Physiological and Performance Effects of
      Dietary Nitrate Supplementation at Simulated and Terrestrial Altitude.
AB  - Exposure to altitude results in multiple physiological consequences. These
      include, but are not limited to, a reduced maximal oxygen consumption, drop in
      arterial oxygen saturation, and increase in muscle metabolic perturbations at a
      fixed sub-maximal work rate. Exercise capacity during fixed work rate or
      incremental exercise and time-trial performance are also impaired at altitude
      relative to sea level. Recently, dietary nitrate (NO3-) supplementation has
      attracted considerable interest as a nutritional aid during altitude exposure. In
      this review, we summarise and critically evaluate the physiological and
      performance effects of dietary NO3- supplementation during exposure to simulated
      and terrestrial altitude. Previous investigations at simulated altitude indicate
      that NO3- supplementation may reduce the oxygen cost of exercise, elevate
      arterial and tissue oxygen saturation, improve muscle metabolic function, and
      enhance exercise capacity/performance. Conversely, current evidence suggests that
      NO3- supplementation does not augment the training response at simulated
      altitude. Few studies have evaluated the effects of NO3- at terrestrial altitude.
      Current evidence indicates potential improvements in endothelial function at
      terrestrial altitude following NO3- supplementation. No effects of NO3-
      supplementation have been observed on oxygen consumption or arterial oxygen
      saturation at terrestrial altitude, although further research is warranted.
      Limitations of the present body of literature are discussed, and directions for
      future research are provided.

PMID- 28577266
TI  - Reimagining Childhood: Responding to the Challenge Presented by Severe
      Developmental Disability.
AB  - Through an exploration of the experience of severe and profound intellectual
      disability, this essay will attempt to expose the predominant, yet usually
      obscured, medical anthropology of the child and examine its effects on pediatric
      bioethics. I will argue that both modern western society and modern western
      medicine do, actually, have a robust notion of the child, a notion which can find
      its roots in three influential thinkers: Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and Jean
      Piaget. Together, these philosophers offer us a compelling vision: the child is
      primarily a future rational, autonomous adult. While this tacit understanding has
      arguably widespread effects on such things as our concept of good parenting, of
      proper schooling, and so on, I will focus on the effect is has on the treatment
      of children with severe developmental disabilities. When examined in light of
      this population, the dominant medical anthropology of the child will be shown to
      be deficient. Instead, I argue for an expansion-indeed, a full reimagining-of our
      notions of childhood, not only to re-infuse dignity into the lives of children
      with SDD, but to better represent the goods of childhood, generally.

PMID- 28577267
TI  - Cognitive training in Alzheimer's disease: a controlled randomized study.
AB  - This controlled randomized single-blind study evaluated the effects of cognitive
      training (CT), compared to active music therapy (AMT) and neuroeducation (NE), on
      initiative in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Secondarily, we explored the effects of CT on episodic memory, mood, and social
      relationships. Thirty-nine AD patients were randomly assigned to CT, AMT, or NE.
      Each treatment lasted 3 months. Before, at the end, and 3 months after treatment,
      neuropsychological tests and self-rated scales assessed initiative, episodic
      memory, depression, anxiety, and social relationships. At the end of the CT,
      initiative significantly improved, whereas, at the end of AMT and NE, it was
      unchanged. Episodic memory showed no changes at the end of CT or AMT and a
      worsening after NE. The rates of the patients with clinically significant
      improvement of initiative were greater after CT (about 62%) than after AMT (about
      8%) or NE (none). At the 3-month follow-up, initiative and episodic memory
      declined in all patients. Mood and social relationships improved in the three
      groups, with greater changes after AMT or NE. In patients with mild to moderate
      AD, CT can improve initiative and stabilize memory, while the non-cognitive
      treatments can ameliorate the psychosocial aspects. The combining of CT and non
      cognitive treatments may have useful clinical implications.

PMID- 28577268
TI  - The predictive accuracy of the black hole sign and the spot sign for hematoma
      expansion in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - In patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH), hematoma expansion
      (HE) is associated with poor outcome. Spot sign and black hole sign are
      neuroimaging predictors for HE. This study was aimed to compare the predictive
      value of two signs for HE. Within 6 h after onset of sICH, patients were screened
      for the computed tomography angiography spot sign and the non-contrast computed
      tomography black hole sign. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive
      value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of two signs for HE prediction
      were calculated. The accuracy of two signs in predicting HE was analyzed by
      receiver-operator analysis. A total of 129 patients were included in this study.
      Spot sign was identified in 30 (23.3%) patients and black hole sign in 29 (22.5%)
      patients, respectively. Of 32 patients with HE, spot sign was observed in 19
      (59.4%) and black hole sign was found in 14 (43.8%). The occurrence of black hole
      sign was significantly associated with spot sign (P < 0.001). The sensitivity,
      specificity, PPV, and NPV of spot sign for predicting HE were 59.38, 88.66,
      63.33, and 86.87% respectively. In contrast, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV,
      and NPV of black hole sign for predicting HE were 43.75, 84.54, 48.28, and
      82.00%, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.740 for spot sign and 0.641
      for black hole sign. (P = 0.228) Both spot sign and black hole sign appeared to
      have good predictive value for HE, and spot sign seemed to be a better predictor.

PMID- 28577269
TI  - Catheterization via direct cannulation of superior vena cava for a hemodialysis
      patient with an original dysfunctional catheter on the left internal jugular
      vein.
AB  - Establishing a long-term vascular access in patients exhibiting vascular access
      exhaustion is challenging. In this study, we reported a case of a direct
      catheterization in the superior vena cava of a hemodialysis patient with vascular
      access exhaustion and original dysfunctional catheter inserted via the left
      internal jugular vein. The direct catheterization was performed with cuffed
      tunnel catheter (CUFF) and guided by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and
      multidetector computed tomography venography (MDCTV). The DSA and MDCTV results
      revealed an occlusion in the right innominate vein and thromboses in the left
      innominate, right internal jugular, subclavian, and femoral veins. The distal end
      of the superior vena cava was localized clearly by the original CUFF under DSA.
      Directed at the distal end of the superior vena cava, a 0.5-cm secondary puncture
      was introduced below the lateral head of the sternocleidomastoid muscle via the
      right neck area. This study is one of the few reports regarding direct
      catheterization of CUFF via the superior vena cava of a patient with vascular
      access exhaustion and CUFF dysfunction on the left internal jugular vein.We
      believe that our study can provide a new alternative for inserting central venous
      catheter for such patient.

PMID- 28577270
TI  - Hidden Causes of Anaphylaxis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This study aimed to review important hidden causes of
      anaphylaxis in ingestants, non-ingestants, and uncommon settings. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Multiple new and elusive causes of anaphylaxis have been described over
      the past 35 years. Further research is required to identify the epidemiology,
      pathophysiology, and clinical impact of these hidden causes. Although these
      culprits should be considered in the appropriate clinical scenarios, many remain
      exceedingly rare.

PMID- 28577271
TI  - Genotoxicity of two heavy metal compounds: lead nitrate and cobalt chloride in
      Polychaete Perinereis cultrifera.
AB  - The present study explores the in vivo and in vitro genotoxic effects of lead
      nitrate, [Pb(NO3)2] a recognized environmental pollutant and cobalt chloride
      (CoCl2), an emerging environmental pollutant in polychaete Perinereis cultrifera
      using comet assay. Despite widespread occurrence and extensive industrial
      applications, no previous published reports on genotoxicity of these compounds
      are available in polychaete as detected by comet assay. Polychaetes were exposed
      in vivo to Pb(NO3)2 (0, 100, 500, and 1000 MUg/l) and CoCl2 (0, 100, 300, and 500
      MUg/l) for 5 days. At 100 MUg/l Pb(NO3)2 concentration, tail DNA (TDNA) values in
      coelomocytes were increase by 1.16, 1.43, and 1.55-fold after day 1, day 3, and
      day 5, whereas, OTM showed 1.12, 2.33, and 2.10-fold increase in in vivo.
      Pb(NO3)2 showed a concentration and time-dependent genotoxicity whereas CoCl2
      showed a concentration-dependent genotoxicity in in vivo. A concentration
      dependent increase in DNA damage was observed in in vitro studies for Pb(NO3)2
      and CoCl2. DNA damage at 500 MUg/L showed almost threefold increase in TDNA and
      approximately fourfold increase in OTM as compared to control in in vitro. Our
      studies suggest that Pb(NO3)2 and CoCl2 have potential to cause genotoxic damage,
      with Pb(NO3)2 being more genotoxic in polychaete and should be used more
      carefully in industrial and other activities. Graphical abstract.

PMID- 28577273
TI  - Reply to Comment on "The Impact of Psychological Support on Weight Loss Post
      Weight Loss Surgery: a Randomised Control Trial" Ratcliffe et al.

PMID- 28577272
TI  - A Two-way Randomized Cross-over Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Study of an
      Innovative Oral Solution of Midazolam (ADV6209).
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess the bioavailability and the
      sedative effect of a single-dose administration of an innovative oral solution of
      midazolam containing gamma-cyclodextrins (ADV6209). METHODS: A bioavailability
      study with a standard two-sequences, two-periods, and crossover design was
      conducted. Subjects randomly received 15 mg of ADV6209 by oral route followed by
      5 mg of the reference drug (midazolam hydrochloride intravenous solution
      (Hypnovel(r), Roche) by intravenous route or vice versa. Blood samples were drawn
      at different time points to measure midazolam and its metabolite alpha
      hydroxymidazolam concentrations. Non-compartmental pharmacokinetic methods were
      used to calculate main pharmacokinetic parameters and absolute bioavailability.
      RESULTS: Caucasian healthy subjects (n = 12) were included in the study. ADV6209
      had a bioavailability of 39.6%. The oral elimination half-life with ADV6209 was
      slightly shorter than with the reference i.v. form (2.66 h versus 2.99 h). The
      sedative effect was observed 27.5 +/- 15.5 min after oral administration for a
      duration of 48.5 +/- 35.4 min. Double peak phenomenon was observed in 5 patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cyclodextrins have little impact on midazolam oral bioavailability
      and the pharmacokinetics parameters of midazolam formulation ADV6209 are close to
      those reported previously.

PMID- 28577274
TI  - Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing.
AB  - When an unexpected event, such as a car horn honking, occurs in daily life, it
      often disrupts our train of thought. In the lab, this effect was recently modeled
      with a task in which verbal working memory (WM) was disrupted by unexpected
      auditory events (Wessel et al. in Nature Communications, 7, 11195, 2016). Here we
      tested whether this effect extends to a different type of WM-namely, visuomotor.
      We found that unexpected auditory events similarly decremented visuomotor WM.
      Moreover, this effect persisted for many more trials than had previously been
      shown for verbal WM, and the effect occurred for two different types of
      unexpected auditory events. Furthermore, we found that unexpected events
      decremented WM by decreasing the quantity, but not necessarily the quality, of
      items stored. These results showed an impact of unexpected events on visuomotor
      WM that was statistically robust and endured across time. They also showed that
      the effect was based on an increase in guessing, consistent with a neuroscience
      inspired theory that unexpected events "wipe out" WM by stopping the ongoing
      maintenance of the trace. This new task paradigm is an excellent vehicle for
      further explorations of distractibility.

PMID- 28577275
TI  - Are you mind-wandering, or is your mind on task? The effect of probe framing on
      mind-wandering reports.
AB  - The last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number of studies that utilize
      the probe-caught method of collecting mind-wandering reports. This method
      involves stopping participants during a task, presenting them with a thought
      probe, and asking them to choose the appropriate report option to describe their
      thought-state. In this experiment we manipulated the framing of this probe, and
      demonstrated a substantial difference in mind-wandering reports as a function of
      whether the probe was presented in a mind-wandering frame compared with an on
      task frame. This framing effect has implications both for interpretations of
      existing data and for methodological choices made by researchers who use the
      probe-caught mind-wandering paradigm.

PMID- 28577276
TI  - Examining an Executive Function Battery for Use with Preschool Children with
      Disabilities.
AB  - Performance-based assessments of EF for use with young children who have or are
      at risk for disabilities are lacking. The current study investigates the use of a
      computerized battery for children with subclinical behaviors (N = 846) across a
      variety of developmental disabilities and evaluates practical information about
      feasibility of task administration. Results reveal that children with
      disabilities performed similarly to their typically developing peers across a
      variety of metrics for evaluating the battery, ranging from percent correct
      scores to administrator quality ratings. Thus, the battery may be considered an
      easy-to-administer, performance-based assessment tool in which children with
      disabilities do not perform systemically worse than typically developing peers.

PMID- 28577277
TI  - In vitro production of insulin-responsive skeletal muscle tissue from mouse
      embryonic stem cells by spermine-induced differentiation method.
AB  - The treatment of an embryoid body with spermine for a short duration can trigger
      the generation of a 3-dimensional multilayer myotube sheet (MMTS) that shows
      pulsatile activity. MMTS was previously characterized as a model of skeletal
      muscle tissue. In the present work, the insulin responsiveness of MMTS was
      investigated because it is an essential function for a model of skeletal muscle.
      The glucose uptake activity of MMTS was analyzed by confocal microscopy using
      fluorescent glucose analogs, namely 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4
      yl)amino]-2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-NBDG) and its L-glucose counterpart, 2-NBDLG. The
      specific uptake rate of glucose was estimated from the difference between the
      fluorescent signals of 2-NBDG and 2-NBDLG. It was enhanced by insulin stimulation
      to 3.6 times higher than the control without insulin, and this insulin
      responsiveness was maintained for 5 days. The advantages of the 3-dimensional
      structure of MMTS are discussed in the contexts of its potential in vivo and in
      vitro uses.

PMID- 28577278
TI  - ARENA 2.0: The next generation automated remote environmental navigation
      apparatus to facilitate cross-species comparisons in behavior and cognition.
AB  - A series of experiments illustrated the effectiveness and flexibility of a newly
      developed Automated Remote Environmental Navigation Apparatus (ARENA) as an
      alternative to traditional operant and open-field procedures. This system
      improves the concept developed by Badelt and Blaisdell (Behavior Research
      Methods, 40, 613-621, 2008; see also Leising, Garlick, Parenteau, & Blaisdell in
      Behavioural Processes, 81, 105-113, 2009), with significant upgrades in
      flexibility and reliability, as well as a reduction in cost. ARENA is
      particularly well adapted for open-field studies and eliminates many confounding
      factors associated with traditional procedures, such as handling effects and
      physical cues left by the subject. The original system was based on wireless
      modules with a small stimulus-response well. Nosepokes or pecks within the
      aperture of the well could be detected and recorded by a computer. ARENA 2.0
      increases the flexibility of this system by replacing the modules with stimulus
      presentation through a data projector mounted on the ceiling and response
      detection and recording through a video camera system. We report the specifics of
      this system as well as behavioral tests using rats and pigeons. We demonstrated
      the feasibility of ARENA 2.0 for the acquisition of conditional approach to a
      visual target, followed by tests showing generalization of performance to novel
      locations and visual properties of the target. These experiments support the use
      of this technology for automated tasks traditionally studied through open-field
      preparations or using touchscreen-equipped operant chambers. The advantages of
      ARENA 2.0 over the original system are a significant reduction in cost and
      increased reliability, ease of use, and flexibility in both stimulus
      configuration and subject response measures.

PMID- 28577279
TI  - Role of PET to evaluate coronary microvascular dysfunction in non-ischemic
      cardiomyopathies.
AB  - Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) can result from structural and
      functional abnormalities at the intramural and small coronary vessel level
      affecting coronary blood flow autoregulation and consequently leading to impaired
      coronary flow reserve. CMD often co-exists with epicardial coronary artery
      disease but is also commonly seen in patients with various forms of heart
      disease, including dilated, hypertrophic, and infiltrative cardiomyopathies. CMD
      can go unnoticed without any symptoms, or manifest as angina, and/or dyspnea, and
      contribute to the development of heart failure, and even sudden death especially
      when co-existing with myocardial fibrosis. However, whether CMD in non-ischemic
      cardiomyopathy is a cause or an effect of the underlying cardiomyopathic process,
      or whether it can be potentially modifiable with specific therapies, remains
      incompletely understood.

PMID- 28577281
TI  - Acquired Tamoxifen Resistance in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells Requires
      Hyperactivation of eIF4F-Mediated Translation.
AB  - While selective estrogen receptor modulators, such as tamoxifen, have contributed
      to increased survival in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer,
      the development of resistance to these therapies has led to the need to
      investigate other targetable pathways involved in oncogenic signaling. Approval
      of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus in the therapy of secondary endocrine resistance
      demonstrates the validity of this approach. Importantly, mTOR activation
      regulates eukaryotic messenger RNA translation. Eukaryotic translation initiation
      factor 4E (eIF4E), a component of the cap-dependent translation complex eIF4F,
      confers resistance to drug-induced apoptosis when overexpressed in multiple cell
      types. The eIF4F complex is downstream of multiple oncogenic pathways, including
      mTOR, making it an appealing drug target. Here, we show that the eIF4F
      translation pathway was hyperactive in tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) MCF-7L breast
      cancer cells. While overexpression of eIF4E was not sufficient to confer
      resistance to tamoxifen in MCF-7L cells, its function was necessary to maintain
      resistance in TamR cells. Targeting the eIF4E subunit of the eIF4F complex
      through its degradation using an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) or via
      sequestration using a mutant 4E-BP1 inhibited the proliferation and colony
      formation of TamR cells and partially restored sensitivity to tamoxifen. Further,
      the use of these agents also resulted in cell cycle arrest and induction of
      apoptosis in TamR cells. Finally, the use of a pharmacologic agent which
      inhibited the eIF4E-eIF4G interaction also decreased the proliferation and
      anchorage-dependent colony formation in TamR cells. These results highlight the
      eIF4F complex as a promising target for patients with acquired resistance to
      tamoxifen and, potentially, other endocrine therapies.

PMID- 28577283
TI  - A giant pararectal cyst successfully treated by robotic surgery.
AB  - A 50 year-old patient was referred to our department with severe obstructive
      lower urinary tract symptoms, suprapubic pain and rectal fullness that started
      after a perianal fistula operation performed one year ago. Radiologic evaluation
      showed a large pararectal cystic lesion with septa formation on the right side
      compressing the bladder and prostate. Aspiration of the cystic fluid attempted
      initially but was not successful. A robotic transperitoneal approach was applied
      and the cyst was excised completely. On 1-year follow-up, patient did not have
      any symptoms and cyst was completely disappeared on radiology.

PMID- 28577280
TI  - The role of myocardial viability in contemporary cardiac practice.
AB  - Ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains the single most common cause of death
      worldwide. Ischemic cardiomyopathy is a major sequel of coronary artery disease.
      The economic health burden of IHD is substantial. In patients with old myocardial
      infarction (OMI), the extent of viable myocardium (VM) directly affects the short
      and long-term outcome. There is a considerable collection of observational data
      showing substantial improvement in patients with significant left ventricular
      dysfunction when the need for revascularization is guided by preoperative
      assessment of viability and hibernation. However, a major challenge for present
      cardiovascular imaging is to identify better ways to assess viable but
      inadequately perfused myocardium and thus optimize selection of patients for
      coronary revascularization. Several non-invasive techniques have been developed
      to detect signs of viability. Hence, our aim is to provide the reader a state-of
      the art review for the assessment of myocardial viability.

PMID- 28577282
TI  - Estrogen Receptor-beta Modulation of the ERalpha-p53 Loop Regulating Gene
      Expression, Proliferation, and Apoptosis in Breast Cancer.
AB  - Estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) is a crucial transcriptional regulator in
      breast cancer, but estrogens mediate their effects through two estrogen
      receptors, ERalpha and ERbeta, subtypes that have contrasting regulatory actions
      on gene expression and the survival and growth of breast cancer cells. Here, we
      examine the impact of ERbeta on the ERalpha-p53 loop in breast cancer. We found
      that ERbeta attenuates ERalpha-induced cell proliferation, increases apoptosis,
      and reverses transcriptional activation and repression by ERalpha. Further,
      ERbeta physically interacts with p53, reduces ERalpha-p53 binding, and
      antagonizes ERalpha-p53-mediated transcriptional regulation. ERalpha directs
      SUV39H1/H2 and histone H3 lys9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) heterochromatin assembly
      at estrogen-repressed genes to silence p53-activated transcription. The
      copresence of ERbeta in ERalpha-positive cells abrogates the H3K9me3 repressive
      heterochromatin conformation by downregulating SUV39H1 and SUV39H2, thereby
      releasing the ERalpha-induced transcriptional block. Furthermore, the presence of
      ERbeta stimulates accumulation of histone H3 lys4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and
      RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) on ERalpha-repressed genes, inducing H3K4me3
      associated epigenetic activation of the transcription of these repressed genes
      that can promote p53-based tumor suppression. ERbeta also reduced corepressor N
      CoR and SMRT recruitment by ERalpha that could attenuate the crosstalk between
      ERalpha and p53. Overall, our data reveal a novel mechanism for ERbeta's anti
      proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in breast cancer cells involving p53 and
      epigenetic changes in histone methylation that underlie gene regulation of these
      cellular activities.

PMID- 28577284
TI  - Overexpression of Rice Auxilin-Like Protein, XB21, Induces Necrotic Lesions, up
      Regulates Endocytosis-Related Genes, and Confers Enhanced Resistance to
      Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rice immune receptor XA21 confers resistance to the bacterial
      pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). To elucidate the mechanism of XA21
      mediated immunity, we previously performed a yeast two-hybrid screening for XA21
      interactors and identified XA21 binding protein 21 (XB21). RESULTS: Here, we
      report that XB21 is an auxilin-like protein predicted to function in clathrin
      mediated endocytosis. We demonstrate an XA21/XB21 in vivo interaction using co
      immunoprecipitation in rice. Overexpression of XB21 in rice variety Kitaake and a
      Kitaake transgenic line expressing XA21 confers a necrotic lesion phenotype and
      enhances resistance to Xoo. RNA sequencing reveals that XB21 overexpression
      results in the differential expression of 8735 genes (4939 genes up- and 3846
      genes down-regulated) (>=2-folds, FDR <=0.01). The up-regulated genes include
      those predicted to be involved in 'cell death' and 'vesicle-mediated transport'.
      CONCLUSION: These results indicate that XB21 plays a role in the plant immune
      response and in regulation of cell death. The up-regulation of genes controlling
      'vesicle-mediated transport' in XB21 overexpression lines is consistent with a
      functional role for XB21 as an auxilin.

PMID- 28577287
TI  - Lipemic Serum in Hypertriglyceridemia-Induced Pancreatitis.

PMID- 28577285
TI  - The influence of birth weight and length on bone mineral density and content in
      adolescence: The Tromso Study, Fit Futures.
AB  - : The influence of birth weight and length on bone mineral parameters in
      adolescence is unclear. We found a positive association between birth size and
      bone mineral content, attenuated by lifestyle factors. This highlights the impact
      of environmental stimuli and lifestyle during growth. PURPOSE: The influence of
      birth weight and length on bone mineral density and content later in life is
      unclear, especially in adolescence. This study evaluated the impact of birth
      weight and length on bone mineral density and content among adolescents. METHODS:
      We included 961 participants from the population-based Fit Futures study (2010
      2011). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to measure bone mineral
      density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) at femoral neck (FN), total hip (TH)
      and total body (TB). BMD and BMC measures were linked with birth weight and
      length ascertained from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Linear regression
      models were used to investigate the influence of birth parameters on BMD and BMC.
      RESULTS: Birth weight was positively associated with BMD-TB and BMC at all sites
      among girls; standardized beta coefficients [95% CI] were 0.11 [0.01, 0.20] for
      BMD-TB and 0.15 [0.06, 0.24], 0.18 [0.09, 0.28] and 0.29 [0.20, 0.38] for BMC-FN,
      TH and TB, respectively. In boys, birth weight was positively associated with BMC
      at all sites with estimates of 0.10 [0.01, 0.19], 0.12 [0.03, 0.21] and 0.15
      [0.07, 0.24] for FN, TH and TB, respectively. Corresponding analyses using birth
      length as exposure gave significantly positive associations with BMC at all sites
      in both sexes. The significant positive association between birth weight and BMC
      TB in girls, and birth length and BMC-TB in boys remained after multivariable
      adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: We found a positive association between birth size and
      BMC in adolescence. However, this association was attenuated after adjustment for
      weight, height and physical activity during adolescence.

PMID- 28577286
TI  - Management of older adults with hip fractures in India: a mixed methods study of
      current practice, barriers and facilitators, with recommendations to improve care
      pathways.
AB  - : Evidence-based management can reduce deaths and suffering of older adults with
      hip fractures. This study investigates the evidence-practice gaps in hip fracture
      care in three major hospitals in Delhi, potential barriers and facilitators to
      improving care, and consequently, identifies contextually appropriate
      interventions for implementing best practice for management of older adults with
      hip fractures in India. PURPOSE: Hip fracture in older adults is a significant
      public health issue in India. The current study sought to document current
      practices, identify barriers and facilitators to adopting best practice
      guidelines and recommend improvements in the management of older adults with hip
      fractures in Delhi, India. METHODS: This mixed methods observational study
      collected data from healthcare providers, patients, carers and medical records
      from three major public tertiary care hospitals in Delhi, India. All patients
      aged >=50 years with an X-ray confirmed hip fracture that were admitted to these
      hospitals over a 10-week period were recruited. Patients' data were collected at
      admission, discharge and 30 days post-injury. Eleven key informant interviews and
      four focus group discussions were conducted with healthcare providers.
      Descriptive data for key quantitative variables were computed. The qualitative
      data were analysed and interpreted using a behaviour change wheel framework.
      RESULTS: A total of 136 patients, 74 (54%) men and 62 women, with hip fracture
      were identified in the three participating hospitals during the recruitment
      period and only 85 (63%) were admitted for treatment with a mean age of 66.5
      years (SD 11.9). Of these, 30% received surgery within 48 h of hospital
      admission, 95% received surgery within 39 days of hospital admission and two (3%)
      had died by 30 days of injury. According to the healthcare providers, inadequate
      resources and overcrowding prevent adequate caring of the hip fracture patients.
      They unanimously felt the need for protocol-based management of hip fracture in
      India. CONCLUSION: The development and implementation of national guidelines and
      standardized protocols of care for older people with hip fractures in India has
      the potential to improve both care and patient-related outcomes.

PMID- 28577288
TI  - Single Analyzer Precursor Ion Scans in a Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap Using
      Orthogonal Double Resonance Excitation.
AB  - Reported herein is a simple method of performing single analyzer precursor ion
      scans in a linear quadrupole ion trap using orthogonal double resonance
      excitation. A first supplementary AC signal applied to the y electrodes is
      scanned through ion secular frequencies in order to mass-selectively excite
      precursor ions while, simultaneously, a second fixed-frequency AC signal is
      applied orthogonally on the x electrodes in order to eject product ions of
      selected mass-to-charge ratios towards the detector. The two AC signals are
      applied orthogonally so as to preclude the possibility of (1) inadvertently
      ejecting precursor ions into the detector, which results in artifact peaks, and
      (2) prevent beat frequencies on the x electrodes from ejecting ions off
      resonance. Precursor ion scans are implemented while using the inverse Mathieu q
      scan for easier mass calibration. The orthogonal double resonance experiment
      results in single ion trap precursor scans with far less intense artifact peaks
      than when both AC signals are applied to the same electrodes, paving the way for
      implementation of neutral loss scanning in single ion trap mass spectrometers.
      Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28577290
TI  - In silico Discovery of Novel FXa Inhibitors by Pharmacophore Modeling and
      Molecular Docking.
AB  - Coagulation Factor Xa (FXa) is the crucial enzyme at the convergent point of the
      intrinsic and extrinsic coagulation pathways. The inhibition of FXa is an
      effective approach against thrombotic diseases. In the present study, a specific
      strategy is reported to discover 10 novel FXa inhibitors based on ligand-based
      (pharmacophore) virtual screening and molecular docking analysis from a dataset
      of specs(containing 220000 molecules). The binding modes analysis provide
      insights into the contribution of particular structural moieties of the compounds
      towards their activity against FXa, and 10 novel structural compounds were
      discovered as potent candidate molecules. This work could be helpful in further
      design and development of FXa inhibitors.

PMID- 28577289
TI  - Immunoglobulin-responsive chikungunya encephalitis: two case reports.
AB  - Chikungunya virus is an alphavirus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes, mainly
      Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, that can cause acute illness, mostly self
      limited, characterized by fever, maculopapular rash, and disabling
      polyarthritis/arthralgia, with an incubation period of 1 to 12 days. Chikungunya
      was largely regarded as a non-fatal and self-limited disease, but recently,
      serious cases have been reported including some with severe involvement of the
      nervous system, such as meningoencephalitis, myelitis, polyradiculitis, and
      polyradiculoneuropathy. In this report, we describe the clinical and laboratory
      findings of two patients with encephalitis associated with chikungunya in a
      northeastern city in Brazil, who exhibited a good outcome, with improvement after
      treatment with i.v. immunoglobulin (IVIg).

PMID- 28577291
TI  - A CZT-based blood counter for quantitative molecular imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Robust quantitative analysis in positron emission tomography (PET)
      and in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) typically requires the
      time-activity curve as an input function for the pharmacokinetic modeling of
      tracer uptake. For this purpose, a new automated tool for the determination of
      blood activity as a function of time is presented. The device, compact enough to
      be used on the patient bed, relies on a peristaltic pump for continuous blood
      withdrawal at user-defined rates. Gamma detection is based on a 20 * 20 * 15 mm3
      cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector, read by custom-made electronics and a
      field-programmable gate array-based signal processing unit. A graphical user
      interface (GUI) allows users to select parameters and easily perform
      acquisitions. RESULTS: This paper presents the overall design of the device as
      well as the results related to the detector performance in terms of stability,
      sensitivity and energy resolution. Results from a patient study are also
      reported. The device achieved a sensitivity of 7.1 cps/(kBq/mL) and a minimum
      detectable activity of 2.5 kBq/ml for 18F. The gamma counter also demonstrated an
      excellent stability with a deviation in count rates inferior to 0.05% over 6 h.
      An energy resolution of 8% was achieved at 662 keV. CONCLUSIONS: The patient
      study was conclusive and demonstrated that the compact gamma blood counter
      developed has the sensitivity and the stability required to conduct quantitative
      molecular imaging studies in PET and SPECT.

PMID- 28577292
TI  - A Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor, Teneligliptin, Decreases Plasma Triglyceride
      Rich Lipoprotein Remnants in Diabetic Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
      Undergoing Hemodialysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A high plasma level of remnant-like particle cholesterol (RLP-C),
      which is equivalent to triglyceride-rich lipoprotein remnant, is an important
      coronary risk marker. RLP-C level is high, independent of other plasma lipids, in
      patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing hemodialysis. The effect of
      teneligliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitor, on plasma levels of RLP
      C in patients with diabetes mellitus and CKD under hemodialysis was studied.
      METHODS: Teneligliptin 20 mg/day was administered to 15 patients with diabetes
      and CKD undergoing hemodialysis for 12 weeks. Ten patients with diabetes and CKD
      undergoing hemodialysis were allocated to the control group. Blood was sampled
      following a 12-h fast. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), C-peptide, triglyceride, low
      density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol (C), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-C, RLP
      C, apolipoprotein (apo) B, oxidized LDL, lipoprotein lipase, and glycated
      hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured. RESULTS: HbA1c decreased in the teneligliptin
      group but significantly increased in the control group. FPG and RLP-C
      significantly decreased in the teneligliptin group. Plasma lipoprotein-related
      parameters except RLP-C were not affected by teneligliptin treatment. CONCLUSION:
      Teneligliptin treatment significantly reduced plasma levels of RLP-C, FPG, and
      HbA1c in patients with diabetes with CKD who are undergoing hemodialysis.

PMID- 28577293
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of Bevacizumab in Three Patients Under the Age of 3 Years with
      CNS Malignancies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab is a recombinant antibody that is increasingly used in
      pediatric malignancies. The pharmacokinetics of bevacizumab in pediatric patients
      have been shown to be influenced by tumor localization and body weight. In this
      report, we present data on the pharmacokinetics and safety of bevacizumab in
      children under the age of 3 years with central nervous system (CNS) malignancies.
      METHODS: Three patients (mean age 22 months) were treated with intravenous
      bevacizumab 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks. In total, 20 trough and peak bevacizumab
      concentrations of 10 treatment cycles were obtained at steady state. RESULTS:
      Bevacizumab was generally well-tolerated in this age group. The mean trough
      concentration was 127 +/- 29 ug/ml (range 77-155), and the mean peak
      concentration was 149 +/- 13 ug/ml (range 113-157). Trough and peak levels were
      stable upon repeated treatment cycles in the same patient. In contrast, we
      determined strong interindividual variations in trough levels. Whereas the plasma
      concentration of the oldest patient matched the prediction of a previously
      published model, younger patients showed markedly higher trough levels.
      CONCLUSIONS: Serum peak concentrations of bevacizumab in children under the age
      of 3 years with CNS malignancies are in a similar magnitude to that found in
      older children and adults. Thus, a dosing schedule of bevacizumab 10 mg/kg every
      2 weeks can be considered sufficient and safe, even in very young children. We
      further show that very young children with CNS malignancies show a markedly
      reduced plasma clearance, possibly related to lower body weight or differences in
      clearance mechanisms of antibodies.

PMID- 28577294
TI  - Comparison of Generic Drug Reviews for Marketing Authorization between Japan and
      Canada.
AB  - PURPOSE: Generic drugs are assuming an increasingly important role in sustaining
      modern healthcare systems, as the cost of healthcare, including drug usage, is
      gradually expanding around the world. To date, published articles comparing
      generic drug reviews between different countries are scarce. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective of this study was to examine generic drug reviews in Japan and Canada.
      METHODS: We surveyed generic drug reviews from Japan and Canada and compared the
      following points: general matter (application types, type of partial change or
      Supplement to an Abbreviated New Drug Submission, application and approval
      numbers, review period, application format, review report, responsibility for
      review), bioequivalence studies for solid oral dosage forms, and bioequivalence
      guidelines, guidance, or basic principles regarding various dosage forms.
      RESULTS: This survey described the many similarities and differences in generic
      drug reviews between the two countries and points that should be improved to
      promote better generic drug reviews. In particular, regulations for the
      definition of the same or different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are
      similar for both authorities. CONCLUSIONS: The results clarified the future
      challenges of generic drug reviews, and the differences highlighted by this
      survey will be important considerations for the future. This is the first article
      to present and discuss the details of generic drug reviews between Japan and
      Canada.

PMID- 28577295
TI  - Response assessment with the CXCR4-directed positron emission tomography tracer
      [68Ga]Pentixafor in a patient with extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of the
      orbital cavities.
AB  - CXCR4 belongs to the family of chemokine receptors. Together with its sole known
      ligand CXCL12 (SDF-1alpha), it has a pivotal role during organogenesis and for
      homing of hematopoietic stem cells. CXCR4 is overexpressed in various
      malignancies, and this is often associated with poor prognosis. Therefore,
      molecular imaging of CXCR4 bears a great potential for diagnostics and selecting
      patients for CXCR4-directed therapies. The CXCR4-directed positron emission
      tomography (PET) tracer [68Ga]Pentixafor has been shown to visualize CXCR4
      expression in various malignancies in vivo. Whereas this tracer has limitations
      compared to 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) in diagnostic PET imaging in
      peripheral tumour lesions, it might add valuable information in routine
      diagnostics and response assessment of tumours in close proximity to the central
      nervous system (CNS) and malignancies within this organ. As a proof-of-concept,
      we performed [68Ga]Pentixafor PET imaging in a patient with extranodal marginal
      zone lymphoma (MZL) of the orbital cavities at diagnosis and for post-therapy
      response assessment. Compared to routinely conducted [18F]FDG PET, the lymphoma
      lesions determined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed high tracer
      accumulation at diagnosis, which decreased upon treatment. We therefore propose
      that imaging of CXCR4 with [68Ga]Pentixafor is a potential diagnostic tool for
      tumours close to or within the CNS and suggest this being studied in clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28577297
TI  - Prevalence and type distribution of human papillomavirus in squamous cell
      carcinoma and intraepithelial neoplasia of the vulva.
AB  - In this updated systematic review and meta-analysis, we estimate the pooled
      prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and HPV type distribution in
      squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva (vulvar cancer) and vulvar intraepithelial
      neoplasia (VIN). PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were used to
      identify studies published between 1990 and 2015 and using a PCR-based or hybrid
      capture test to evaluate the presence of HPV DNA in vulvar cancer or VIN. Pooled
      estimates of the HPV prevalence with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI)
      were calculated based on a random effects model. The I2 statistic was used to
      describe the amount of heterogeneity. In meta-regression analyses, potential
      sources of heterogeneity were evaluated. We identified 92 eligible papers,
      comprising altogether 5,015 cases of vulvar cancer (64 papers) and 2,764 cases of
      VIN (48 papers). The pooled prevalence of HPV in vulvar cancer was 39.7% (95% CI:
      35.1-44.4%). Overall, 76.3% (95% CI: 70.1-82.1%) of VIN lesions tested HPV
      positive, while the HPV prevalence in new subcategories of VIN, uVIN and dVIN,
      was 86.2% (95% CI: 73.5-95.5%) and 2.0% (95% CI: 0-10.0%), respectively.
      Substantial between-study heterogeneity was observed (vulvar cancer: I2  = 88.4%;
      VIN: I2  = 90.7%) with the largest variation between geographical regions. Among
      HPV-positive cases, the predominant high-risk HPV type was HPV16, followed by
      HPV33 and HPV18. HPV6 was detected as a single infection in a small subset of VIN
      and vulvar cancer samples. Thus, HPV vaccination targeting these HPV types may
      prevent a substantial number of vulvar lesions.

PMID- 28577296
TI  - Concise Review: Criteria for Chamber-Specific Categorization of Human Cardiac
      Myocytes Derived from Pluripotent Stem Cells.
AB  - Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (PSC-CMs) have great potential
      application in almost all areas of cardiovascular research. A current major goal
      of the field is to build on the past success of differentiation strategies to
      produce CMs with the properties of those originating from the different chambers
      of the adult human heart. With no anatomical origin or developmental pathway to
      draw on, the question of how to judge the success of such approaches and assess
      the chamber specificity of PSC-CMs has become increasingly important; commonly
      used methods have substantial limitations and are based on limited evidence to
      form such an assessment. In this article, we discuss the need for chamber
      specific PSC-CMs in a number of areas as well as current approaches used to
      assess these cells on their likeness to those from different chambers of the
      heart. Furthermore, describing in detail the structural and functional features
      that distinguish the different chamber-specific human adult cardiac myocytes, we
      propose an evidence-based tool to aid investigators in the phenotypic
      characterization of differentiated PSC-CMs. Stem Cells 2017;35:1881-1897.

PMID- 28577298
TI  - Cx43 suppresses evx1 expression to regulate joint initiation in the regenerating
      fin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: How joints are correctly positioned in the vertebrate skeleton
      remains poorly understood. From our studies on the regenerating fin, we have
      evidence that the gap junction protein Cx43 suppresses joint formation by
      suppressing the expression of the evx1 transcription factor. Joint morphogenesis
      proceeds through at least two discrete stages. First, cells that will produce the
      joint condense in a single row on the bone matrix ("initiation"). Second, these
      cells separate coincident with articulation of the bone matrix. We propose that
      Cx43 activity is transiently reduced prior to joint initiation. RESULTS: We first
      define the timing of joint initiation with respect to regeneration. We next
      correlate reduced cx43 expression and increased evx1 expression with initiation.
      Through manipulation of cx43 expression, we demonstrate that Cx43 negatively
      influences evx1 expression and joint formation. We further demonstrate that Cx43
      activity in the dermal fibroblasts is required to rescue joint formation in the
      cx43 mutant, short finb123 . CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that Cx43 activity in the
      dermal fibroblasts influences the expression of evx1, and therefore the
      differentiation of the precursor cells that give rise to the joint-forming
      osteoblasts. Developmental Dynamics 246:691-699, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28577299
TI  - uPA/uPAR system activation drives a glycolytic phenotype in melanoma cells.
AB  - In this manuscript, we show the involvement of the uPA/uPAR system in the
      regulation of aerobic glycolysis of melanoma cells. uPAR over-expression in human
      melanoma cells controls an invasive and glycolytic phenotype in normoxic
      conditions. uPAR down-regulation by siRNA or its uncoupling from integrins, and
      hence from integrin-linked tyrosine kinase receptors (IL-TKRs), by an antagonist
      peptide induced a striking inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/HIF1alpha pathway,
      resulting into impairment of glucose uptake, decrease of several glycolytic
      enzymes and of PKM2, a checkpoint that controls metabolism of cancer cells.
      Further, binding of uPA to uPAR regulates expression of molecules that govern
      cell invasion, including extracellular matrix metallo-proteinases inducer
      (EMPPRIN) and enolase, a glycolytyc enzyme that also serves as a plasminogen
      receptor, thus providing a common denominator between tumor metabolism and
      phenotypic invasive features. Such effects depend on the alpha5beta1-integrin
      mediated uPAR connection with EGFR in melanoma cells with engagement of the PI3K
      mTOR-HIFalpha pathway. HIF-1alpha trans-activates genes whose products mediate
      tumor invasion and glycolysis, thus providing the common denominator between
      melanoma metabolism and its invasive features. These findings unveil a
      unrecognized interaction between the invasion-related uPAR and IL-TKRs in the
      control of glycolysis and disclose a new pharmacological target (i.e., uPAR/IL
      TKRs axis) for the therapy of melanoma.

PMID- 28577300
TI  - Application of higher energy collisional dissociation (HCD) to the fragmentation
      of new DOTA-based labels and N-termini DOTA-labeled peptides.
AB  - 1,4,7,10-Tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) derivatives are
      applied in quantitative proteomics owing to their ability to react with different
      functional groups, to harbor lanthanoides and hence their compatibility with
      molecular and elemental mass spectrometry. The new DOTA derivatives, namely Ln
      MeCAT-Click and Ln-DOTA-Dimedone, allow efficient thiol labeling and targeting
      sulfenation as an important post-translational modification, respectively.
      Quantitative applications require the investigation of fragmentation behavior of
      these reagents. Therefore, the fragmentation behavior of Ln-MeCAT-Click and Ln
      DOTA-Dimedone was studied using collision-induced dissociation (CID), infrared
      multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) and higher-energy collision dissociation (HCD)
      using different energy levels, and the efficiency of reporter ion production was
      estimated. The efficiency of characteristic fragment formation was in the order
      IRMPD > HCD (normal energy level) > CID. On the other hand, the application of
      HCD at high energy levels (HCD@HE; NCE > 250%) resulted in a significant increase
      in reporter ion production (33-54%). This new strategy was successfully applied
      to generate label-specific reporter ions for DOTA amino labeling at the N-termini
      and in a quantitative fashion for the estimation of amino:thiol ratio in
      peptides. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28577301
TI  - Neural organization of afferent pathways from the stomatopod compound eye.
AB  - Crustaceans and insects share many similarities of brain organization suggesting
      that their common ancestor possessed some components of those shared features.
      Stomatopods (mantis shrimps) are basal eumalacostracan crustaceans famous for
      their elaborate visual system, the most complex of which possesses 12 types of
      color photoreceptors and the ability to detect both linearly and circularly
      polarized light. Here, using a palette of histological methods we describe
      neurons and their neuropils most immediately associated with the stomatopod
      retina. We first provide a general overview of the major neuropil structures in
      the eyestalks lateral protocerebrum, with respect to the optical pathways
      originating from the six rows of specialized ommatidia in the stomatopod's eye,
      termed the midband. We then focus on the structure and neuronal types of the
      lamina, the first optic neuropil in the stomatopod visual system. Using Golgi
      impregnations to resolve single neurons we identify cells in different parts of
      the lamina corresponding to the three different regions of the stomatopod eye
      (midband and the upper and lower eye halves). While the optic cartridges relating
      to the spectral and polarization sensitive midband ommatidia show some
      specializations not found in the lamina serving the upper and lower eye halves,
      the general morphology of the midband lamina reflects cell types elsewhere in the
      lamina and cell types described for other species of Eumalacostraca.

PMID- 28577303
TI  - Hhex Regulates Hematopoietic Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Stress Hematopoiesis via
      Repression of Cdkn2a.
AB  - The hematopoietically expressed homeobox transcription factor (Hhex) is important
      for the maturation of definitive hematopoietic progenitors and B-cells during
      development. We have recently shown that in adult hematopoiesis, Hhex is
      dispensable for maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and myeloid
      lineages but essential for the commitment of common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs)
      to lymphoid lineages. Here, we show that during serial bone marrow
      transplantation, Hhex-deleted HSCs are progressively lost, revealing an intrinsic
      defect in HSC self-renewal. Moreover, Hhex-deleted mice show markedly impaired
      hematopoietic recovery following myeloablation, due to a failure of progenitor
      expansion. In vitro, Hhex-null blast colonies were incapable of replating,
      implying a specific requirement for Hhex in immature progenitors. Transcriptome
      analysis of Hhex-null Lin- Sca+ Kit+ cells showed that Hhex deletion leads to
      derepression of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) and PRC1 target genes,
      including the Cdkn2a locus encoding the tumor suppressors p16Ink 4a and p19Arf .
      Indeed, loss of Cdkn2a restored the capacity of Hhex-null blast colonies to
      generate myeloid progenitors in vitro, as well as hematopoietic reconstitution
      following myeloablation in vivo. Thus, HSCs require Hhex to promote PRC2-mediated
      Cdkn2a repression to enable continued self-renewal and response to hematopoietic
      stress. Stem Cells 2017;35:1948-1957.

PMID- 28577302
TI  - IP6K1 Reduces Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell Fitness and Potentiates High Fat Diet
      Induced Skeletal Involution.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are the predominant source of bone and
      adipose tissue in adult bone marrow and play a critical role in skeletal
      homeostasis. Age-induced changes in bone marrow favor adipogenesis over
      osteogenesis leading to skeletal involution and increased marrow adiposity so
      pathways that prevent MSC aging are potential therapeutic targets for treating
      age-related bone diseases. Here, we show that inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 1
      (Ip6k1) deletion in mice increases MSC yields from marrow and enhances cell
      growth and survival ex vivo. In response to the appropriate stimuli, Ip6k1-/-
      versus Ip6k1+/+ MSCs also exhibit enhanced osteogenesis and hematopoiesis
      supporting activity and reduced adipogenic differentiation. Mechanistic-based
      studies revealed that Ip6k1-/- MSCs express higher MDM2 and lower p53 protein
      levels resulting in lower intrinsic mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      levels as compared to Ip6k1+/+ MSCs, but both populations upregulate
      mitochondrial ROS to similar extents in response to oxygen-induced stress.
      Finally, we show that mice fed a high fat diet exhibit reduced trabecular bone
      volume, and that pharmacological inhibition of IP6K1 using a pan-IP6K inhibitor
      largely reversed this phenotype while increasing MSC yields from bone marrow.
      Together, these findings reveal an important role for IP6K1 in regulating MSC
      fitness and differentiation fate. Unlike therapeutic interventions that target
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and leptin receptor activity,
      which yield detrimental side effects including increased fracture risk and
      altered feeding behavior, respectively, inhibition of IP6K1 maintains insulin
      sensitivity and prevents obesity while preserving bone integrity. Therefore,
      IP6K1 inhibitors may represent more effective insulin sensitizers due to their
      bone sparing properties. Stem Cells 2017;35:1973-1983.

PMID- 28577304
TI  - The association between individual metabolic syndrome components, primary liver
      cancer and cirrhosis: A study in the Swedish AMORIS cohort.
AB  - Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
      which may progress to cirrhosis, a significant risk factor of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC), the commonest malignant primary liver cancer (PLC). We
      investigated the association between the individual components of MetS (lipids,
      apolipoproteins, raised glucose, diabetes and obesity), PLC and cirrhosis. A
      total of 509,436 participants from the Swedish AMORIS cohort, recruited between
      January 1985 and December 1996 (end-date December 2011), aged >=20 with baseline
      triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), glucose and liver enzymes were
      included. Those with baseline benign liver tumours, PLC or cirrhosis were
      excluded. Multivariate Cox regression, adjusted for age, gender, socio-economic
      status, liver disease (excluding cirrhosis) and MetS factors were used to
      estimate the association with PLC and cirrhosis. There were 766 PLC and 2,775
      cirrhosis cases over 13 years. Raised TG, low TC, raised glucose, diabetes and
      low HDL were associated with an increased risk of developing PLC and cirrhosis.
      ApoB/ApoA-I ratio were also associated with PLC, whilst low LDL, raised TG/HDL,
      low ApoA-I and low ApoB were associated with cirrhosis. Obesity was significantly
      associated with PLC but not cirrhosis. Raised TG, low TC, raised glucose and
      diabetes showed stronger associations with PLC in participants with cirrhosis but
      many participants developed PLC without cirrhosis. Individual components of MetS
      (lipids, apolipoproteins, raised glucose, diabetes and obesity) were associated
      with an increased risk of developing PLC or cirrhosis. MetS components were more
      strongly associated with PLC with preceding cirrhosis history but many
      participants developed PLC without cirrhosis.

PMID- 28577306
TI  - Cetuximab or nimotuzumab plus intensity-modulated radiotherapy versus cisplatin
      plus intensity-modulated radiotherapy for stage II-IVb nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - To compare intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with cisplatin (CDDP) versus
      cetuximab (CTX) and nimotuzumab (NTZ) for Stage II-IVb Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
      (NPC). A total of 1,837 patients with stage II-IVb NPC who received IMRT plus CTX
      or NTZ, or CDDP between January 2009 and December 2013 were included in the
      current analysis. Using propensity scores to adjust for potential prognostic
      factors, a well-balanced cohort of 715 patients was created by matching each
      patient who underwent IMRT plus concomitant NTZ/CTX with four patients who
      underwent IMRT plus concomitant CDDP (1:4). Efficacy and safety were compared
      between the CTX/NTZ and CDDP groups of this well-balanced cohort. Furthermore, we
      conducted multivariate analysis and subgroup analysis based on all the 1,837
      eligible cases. There was no significant difference between CTX/NTZ group and
      CDDP group in terms of DFS (3-year, 86.7% vs. 86.2%, p > 0.05), LRRFS (96.2% vs.
      96.3%, p > 0.05), DMFS (91.1% vs. 92.3%, p > 0.05) and OS (91.7% vs. 91.9%, p >
      0.05). Subgroup analysis demonstrated a significant interaction effect between
      patients with IMRT plus CTX/NTZ and N3 node stage on LRRFS with the highest risk
      of loco-regional relapse (HR 8.85, p = 0.001). Significantly increased
      hematologic toxicities, gastrointestinal reactions were observed in the CDDP
      group (p < 0.05). Patients of 3.4-4.7% experienced severe hematologic toxicities
      during the treatment with concomitant CTX and NTZ. Increased rate of CTX related
      skin reaction and mucositis was observed in the CTX group. CTX/NTZ used
      concurrently with IMRT may be comparable to those of the standard CDDP-IMRT
      combination for maximizing survival for patients with stage II-IVb NPC.

PMID- 28577305
TI  - Phenotyping of nNOS neurons in the postnatal and adult female mouse hypothalamus.
AB  - Neurons expressing nitric oxide (NO) synthase (nNOS) and thus capable of
      synthesizing NO play major roles in many aspects of brain function. While the
      heterogeneity of nNOS-expressing neurons has been studied in various brain
      regions, their phenotype in the hypothalamus remains largely unknown. Here we
      examined the distribution of cells expressing nNOS in the postnatal and adult
      female mouse hypothalamus using immunohistochemistry. In both adults and
      neonates, nNOS was largely restricted to regions of the hypothalamus involved in
      the control of bodily functions, such as energy balance and reproduction. Labeled
      cells were found in the paraventricular, ventromedial, and dorsomedial nuclei as
      well as in the lateral area of the hypothalamus. Intriguingly, nNOS was seen only
      after the second week of life in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH).
      The most dense and heavily labeled population of cells was found in the organum
      vasculosum laminae terminalis (OV) and the median preoptic nucleus (MEPO), where
      most of the somata of the neuroendocrine neurons releasing GnRH and controlling
      reproduction are located. A great proportion of nNOS-immunoreactive neurons in
      the OV/MEPO and ARH were seen to express estrogen receptor (ER) alpha. Notably,
      almost all ERalpha-immunoreactive cells of the OV/MEPO also expressed nNOS.
      Moreover, the use of EYFPVglut2 , EYFPVgat , and GFPGad67 transgenic mouse lines
      revealed that, like GnRH neurons, most hypothalamic nNOS neurons have a
      glutamatergic phenotype, except for nNOS neurons of the ARH, which are GABAergic.
      Altogether, these observations are consistent with the proposed role of nNOS
      neurons in physiological processes.

PMID- 28577307
TI  - Disrupting Interactions Between beta-Catenin and Activating TCFs Reconstitutes
      Ground State Pluripotency in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.
AB  - The 2i-media, composed of two small molecule inhibitors (PD0325901 and CHIR99021)
      against MEK and GSK3-kinases, respectively, is known to establish naive ground
      state pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). These inhibitors block
      MEK-mediated differentiation, while driving beta-catenin dependent de-repression
      of pluripotency promoting targets. However, accumulating evidence suggest that
      beta-catenin's association with activating TCFs (TCF7 and TCF7L2) can induce
      expression of several lineage-specific prodifferentiation genes. We posited that
      CHIR-induced upregulation of beta-catenin levels could therefore compromise the
      stability of the naive state in long-term cultures. Here, we investigated whether
      replacing CHIR with iCRT3, a small molecule that abrogates beta-catenin-TCF
      interaction, can still retain ground state pluripotency in mESCs. Our data
      suggests that iCRT3 + PD mediated coinhibition of MEK and beta-catenin/TCF
      dependent transcriptional activity over multiple passages significantly reduces
      expression of differentiation markers, as compared to 2i. Furthermore, the
      ability to efficiently contribute toward chimera generation and germline
      transmission suggests that the inhibition of beta-catenin's TCF-dependent
      transcriptional activity, independent of its protein expression level, retains
      the naive ground state pluripotency in mESCs. Additionally, growth medium
      containing iCRT3 + PD can provide an alternative to 2i as a stable culture
      method. Stem Cells 2017;35:1924-1933.

PMID- 28577308
TI  - Empirical antibiotics targeting gram-positive bacteria for the treatment of
      febrile neutropenic patients with cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pattern of infections among neutropenic patients with cancer has
      shifted in the last decades to a predominance of gram-positive infections. Some
      of these gram-positive bacteria are increasingly resistant to beta-lactams and
      necessitate specific antibiotic treatment. OBJECTIVES: To assess the
      effectiveness of empirical anti-gram-positive (antiGP) antibiotic treatment for
      febrile neutropenic patients with cancer in terms of mortality and treatment
      failure. To assess the rate of resistance development, further infections and
      adverse events associated with additional antiGP treatment. SEARCH METHODS: For
      the review update we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
      (CENTRAL) (2017, Issue 2), MEDLINE (May 2012 to 2017), Embase (May 2012 to 2017),
      LILACS (2012 to 2017), conference proceedings, ClinicalTrials.gov trial registry,
      and the references of the included studies. We contacted the first authors of all
      included and potentially relevant trials. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) comparing one antibiotic regimen versus the same regimen
      with the addition of an antiGP antibiotic for the treatment of febrile
      neutropenic patients with cancer. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review
      authors independently assessed trial eligibility and risk of bias, and extracted
      all data. Risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. A
      random-effects model was used for all comparisons showing substantial
      heterogeneity (I2 > 50%). Outcomes were extracted by intention-to-treat and the
      analysis was patient-based whenever possible. MAIN RESULTS: Fourteen trials and
      2782 patients or episodes were included. Empirical antiGP antibiotics were tested
      at the onset of treatment in 12 studies, and for persistent fever in two studies.
      The antiGP treatment was a glycopeptide in nine trials. Eight studies were
      assessed in the overall mortality comparison and no significant difference was
      seen between the comparator arms, RR of 0.90 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.25; 8 studies,
      1242 patients; moderate-quality data). Eleven trials assessed failure, including
      modifications as failures, while seven assessed overall failure disregarding
      treatment modifications. Failure with modifications was reduced, RR of 0.72 (95%
      CI 0.65 to 0.79; 11 studies, 2169 patients; very low-quality data), while overall
      failure was the same, RR of 1.00 (95% CI 0.79 to 1.27; 7 studies, 943 patients;
      low-quality data). Sensitivity analysis for allocation concealment and incomplete
      outcome data did not change the results. Failure among patients with gram
      positive infections was reduced with antiGP treatment, RR of 0.56 (95% CI 0.38 to
      0.84, 5 studies, 175 patients), although, mortality among these patients was not
      changed.Data regarding other patient subgroups likely to benefit from antiGP
      treatment were not available. Glycopeptides did not increase fungal
      superinfection rates and were associated with a reduction in documented gram
      positive superinfections. Resistant colonisation was not documented in the
      studies. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Based on very low- or low-quality evidence using
      the GRADE approach and overall low risk of bias, the current evidence shows that
      the empirical routine addition of antiGP treatment, namely glycopeptides, does
      not improve the outcomes of febrile neutropenic patients with cancer.

PMID- 28577309
TI  - 1 H-19 F REDOR-filtered NMR spin diffusion measurements of domain size in
      heterogeneous polymers.
AB  - Solid state NMR spectroscopy is inherently sensitive to chemical structure and
      composition and thus makes an ideal method to probe the heterogeneity of
      multicomponent polymers. Specifically, NMR spin diffusion experiments can be used
      to extract reliable information about spatial domain sizes on multiple length
      scales, provided that magnetization selection of one domain can be achieved. In
      this paper, we demonstrate the preferential filtering of protons in fluorinated
      domains during NMR spin diffusion experiments using 1 H-19 F heteronuclear
      dipolar dephasing based on rotational echo double resonance (REDOR) MAS NMR
      techniques. Three pulse sequence variations are demonstrated based on the
      different nuclei detected: direct 1 H detection, plus both 1 H?13 C cross
      polarization and 1 H?19 F cross polarization detection schemes. This 1 H-19 F
      REDOR-filtered spin diffusion method was used to measure fluorinated domain sizes
      for a complex polymer blend. The efficacy of the REDOR-based spin filter does not
      rely on spin relaxation behavior or chemical shift differences and thus is
      applicable for performing NMR spin diffusion experiments in samples where
      traditional magnetization filters may prove unsuccessful. This REDOR-filtered NMR
      spin diffusion method can also be extended to other samples where a heteronuclear
      spin pair exists that is unique to the domain of interest.

PMID- 28577311
TI  - Acclimation of 2-chlorophenol Biodegrading Activated Sludge and Microbial
      Community Analysis.
AB  - Taking glucose as co-substrate, the activated sludge which could effectively
      biodegrade 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) of 40 mg/L was successfully domesticated after
      acclimation for 49 days in sequencing batch reactors. High-throughput sequencing
      (HTS) analysis revealed that the community richness initially increased for 5
      days and then decreased after another 20 days with the increase of 2-CP. The
      original sludge obtained from water resource recovery facility had the highest
      diversity. At the beginning of acclimation, the community diversity decreased.
      With the acclimation going on, both richness and diversity of community
      increased, but decreased significantly when the concentration of 2-CP was
      increased to 40 mg/L. Saccharibacteria_norank, Bacillus,
      Saprospiraceae_uncultured and Lactococcus were the dominant bacteria detected in
      this study. Bacillus and Pseudomonas were the main chlorophenol-degrading
      bacteria. WCHB1-60_norank, Tetrasphaera, Comamonadaceae_unclassified and
      Haliangium had lower tolerance to 2-CP. Higher bacterial tolerance to CPs does
      not mean higher degrading capability. The degradation of CPs was not positively
      correlated with the abundance of known 2-CP degrading bacteria detected in this
      study.

PMID- 28577310
TI  - Elucidating the molecular basis of MSH2-deficient tumors by combined germline and
      somatic analysis.
AB  - In a proportion of patients presenting mismatch repair (MMR)-deficient tumors, no
      germline MMR mutations are identified, the so-called Lynch-like syndrome (LLS).
      Recently, MMR-deficient tumors have been associated with germline mutations in
      POLE and MUTYH or double somatic MMR events. Our aim was to elucidate the
      molecular basis of MSH2-deficient LS-suspected cases using a comprehensive
      analysis of colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated genes at germline and somatic
      level. Fifty-eight probands harboring MSH2-deficient tumors were included.
      Germline mutational analysis of MSH2 (including EPCAM deletions) and MSH6 was
      performed. Pathogenicity of MSH2 variants was assessed by RNA analysis and
      multifactorial likelihood calculations. MSH2 cDNA and methylation of MSH2 and
      MSH6 promoters were studied. Matched blood and tumor DNA were analyzed using a
      customized next generation sequencing panel. Thirty-five individuals were
      carriers of pathogenic or probably pathogenic variants in MSH2 and EPCAM. Five
      patients harbored 4 different MSH2 variants of unknown significance (VUS) and one
      had 2 novel MSH6 promoter VUS. Pathogenicity assessment allowed the
      reclassification of the 4 MSH2 VUS and 6 probably pathogenic variants as
      pathogenic mutations, enabling a total of 40 LS diagnostics. Predicted pathogenic
      germline variants in BUB1, SETD2, FAN1 and MUTYH were identified in 5 cases.
      Three patients had double somatic hits in MSH2 or MSH6, and another 2 had somatic
      alterations in other MMR genes and/or proofreading polymerases. In conclusion,
      our comprehensive strategy combining germline and somatic mutational status of
      CRC-associated genes by means of a subexome panel allows the elucidation of up to
      86% of MSH2-deficient suspected LS tumors.

PMID- 28577312
TI  - Biodegradation of Laundry Wastewater Under Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditions: A
      Kinetic Evaluation.
AB  - This research was conducted in a batch mode in a laboratory-scale setup to
      study (1) the biodegradation of laundry wastewater under aerobic and anaerobic
      conditions and to quantify the degradation at steady-state in terms of kinetic
      parameters and (2) the inhibition caused by laundry wastewater on growth
      substrate utilization by un-acclimated ethanol-enriched aerobic and anaerobic
      microbial cultures. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was above 95% under
      aerobic condition; however, the COD removal varied between 70 and 88% under
      anaerobic condition. The steady-state kinetic parameters k, Ks, Y, MUm, and kd
      were 1.75 d-1, 21.67 mg COD/L, 0.4 mg volatile suspended solids (VSS)/mg COD, 0.7
      d-1, and 0.06 d-1 respectively under aerobic condition; corresponding values
      under anaerobic condition were 4.7 d-1, 173.67 mg COD/L, 0.06 mg VSS/mg COD, 0.3
      d-1, and 0.04 d-1. Laundry wastewater caused a competitive inhibition at doses
      above 200 mg/L under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

PMID- 28577313
TI  - A Nanofiltration Decision Tool for Potable Reuse: A New Rejection Model for
      Recalcitrant CECs.
AB  - Effluent samples from three water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) were
      individually characterized for presence and concentration of 94 different
      chemicals of emerging concern (CECs), using analytical methods with reporting
      limits in the low-parts-per-trillion. Following CEC analysis, each sample was
      subjected to dead-end, pressurized membrane filtration with either a
      nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. The majority of the
      measured CECs were rejected by both membranes by 1-log removal (90%) or greater.
      However, nine of the 94 CECs had average rejection rates by the NF membrane less
      than 90%. A multilevel, multivariable model was developed to predict the probable
      rejection coefficients of CECs with the studied NF membrane. The resulting
      Quantitative Molecular Properties Model (QMPM) predicted the NF rejection of CECs
      based on size, ionic charge, and hydrophobicity. The model parameters that
      successfully predicted NF rejection in bench testing were log (Kow/Kaw) and the
      polar surface area of the CEC molecule.

PMID- 28577315
TI  - Multiscale regeneration scaffold in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Biocompatible scaffolds play an important role in modulating tissue growth. A
      gelatin and sodium alginate scaffold with a unique structure produced by a
      combination of 3-D printing, electrospinning, and vacuum freeze-drying has been
      developed for tissue engineering. The scaffold is composed of a macrostructure, a
      honeycomb microporous surface morphology, and nanofibers. This structure meets
      the design criteria for an ideal tissue engineering scaffold. The scaffold
      degrades and has low cytotoxicity. The biocompatibility of the scaffold is
      improved by the favorable cell-matrix interaction; cells attach to the scaffold
      well and secrete large amounts of extracellular matrix in vitro. Rats with the
      scaffold implanted survived without signs of complications and the host cells
      infiltrated the interior of the scaffold. After 2 months in vivo, the scaffold
      was vascularized and contained collagen fibers. This multiscale regeneration
      scaffold may be suitable for tissue engineering because of its unique structure,
      degradation, mechanical properties, and lower cytotoxicity, which support cell
      infiltration and growth, and promote vascularization and generation of
      granulation tissue in vivo. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res
      Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1218-1225, 2018.

PMID- 28577316
TI  - Seroprevalence and risk factors of hepatitis E virus infection among the Korean,
      Manchu, Mongol, and Han ethnic groups in Eastern and Northeastern China.
AB  - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a serious public health concern in
      developing countries. China is regarded as an HEV-endemic area, but
      epidemiological data for HEV among different nationalities is limited. This study
      was conducted to estimate the seroprevalence and risk factors of HEV infection in
      Koreans (n = 520), Manchus (n = 303), Mongols (n = 217), and Hans (n = 802) in
      Eastern and Northeastern China between 2013 and 2015. A total of 366 (19.87%) out
      of 1842 samples were seropositive for IgG or IgM HEV-antibodies detected by
      enzyme-linked immunoassays. Among these groups, the Mongols had the highest
      seroprevalence of HEV infection (25.35%, 55/217), followed by the Koreans
      (23.65%, 123/520), the Manchus (19.80%, 60/303), and the Hans (15.96%, 128/802).
      Multiple analysis showed that the gender, consumption of raw/undercooked meat,
      source of drinking water, residence area, and age were significantly associated
      with HEV infection in four ethnic groups. The present results indicated that HEV
      infection was prevalent in Mongols, Koreans, Manchus, and Hans in the surveyed
      regions, which demonstrated the higher risk of transmitting HEV in multiple
      nationalities in Eastern and Northeastern China.

PMID- 28577314
TI  - Transcription factor TFCP2L1 patterns cells in the mouse kidney collecting ducts.
AB  - Although most nephron segments contain one type of epithelial cell, the
      collecting ducts consists of at least two: intercalated (IC) and principal (PC)
      cells, which regulate acid-base and salt-water homeostasis, respectively. In
      adult kidneys, these cells are organized in rosettes suggesting functional
      interactions. Genetic studies in mouse revealed that transcription factor Tfcp2l1
      coordinates IC and PC development. Tfcp2l1 induces the expression of IC specific
      genes, including specific H+-ATPase subunits and Jag1. Jag1 in turn, initiates
      Notch signaling in PCs but inhibits Notch signaling in ICs. Tfcp2l1 inactivation
      deletes ICs, whereas Jag1 inactivation results in the forfeiture of discrete IC
      and PC identities. Thus, Tfcp2l1 is a critical regulator of IC-PC patterning,
      acting cell-autonomously in ICs, and non-cell-autonomously in PCs. As a result,
      Tfcp2l1 regulates the diversification of cell types which is the central
      characteristic of 'salt and pepper' epithelia and distinguishes the collecting
      duct from all other nephron segments.

PMID- 28577318
TI  - Persistence of acetochlor, atrazine, and S-metolachlor in surface and subsurface
      horizons of 2 typic argiudolls under no-tillage.
AB  - Variations in soil properties with depth strongly influence the degradation and
      persistence of herbicides, underlining the importance of studying these processes
      in soil horizons with distinctively different properties. The persistence of the
      herbicides acetochlor, atrazine, and S-metolachlor was measured in samples of the
      A, B, and C horizons of 2 Typic Argiudolls from Argentina under no-till
      management. The soils studied differed in soil organic carbon (OC) content, pH,
      particle size distribution, and structure. Quantification of herbicides in soil
      was done through high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array
      detector. There were interactions of herbicide * horizon (p < 0.01) that resulted
      in degradation rates (k) of all herbicides decreasing, and their corresponding
      dissipation half-life (DT50) values increasing, with soil depth. Herbicide
      persistence across all soils and horizons ranged from 15 to 73 d for acetochlor,
      13 to 29 d for atrazine, and 82 to 141 d for S-metolachlor, which had
      significantly (p < 0.01) greater persistence than atrazine and acetochlor. The
      DT50 values of herbicides were negatively correlated with the contents of OC
      (correlation coefficients ranging from -0.496 to -0.773), phosphorus (-0.427 to 
      0.564), and nitrogen-nitrate (-0.507 to -0.662), and with microbial activity (
      0.454 to -0.687) and the adsorption coefficient (-0.530 to -0.595); DT50s were
      positively correlated with pH (0.366 to 0.648). Adsorption was likely the most
      influential process in determining persistence of these herbicides in surface and
      subsurface horizons. The present study can potentially improve the prediction of
      the fate of acetochlor, atrazine, and S-metolachlor in soils because it includes
      much needed information on the degradation of the herbicides in subsurface
      horizons. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3065-3073. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28577319
TI  - Diffusion kurtosis MRI versus conventional diffusion-weighted imaging for
      evaluating inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and to
      compare DKI-derived parameters with that of conventional diffusion-weighted
      imaging (DWI) for grading the inflammatory activity of Crohn's disease (CD).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 38 patients with CD underwent 3T magnetic
      resonance enterography (MRE) with DKI (b values of 0-2000 s/mm2 ). The
      inflammatory activity of the bowel segments was graded by magnetic resonance
      index of activity (MaRIA) as inactive (<7), mild (>=7 and <11), or moderate
      severe (>=11). Apparent diffusion for non-Gaussian distribution (Dapp ) and
      apparent kurtosis coefficient (Kapp ) on DKI as well as apparent diffusion
      coefficient (ADC) on DWI were compared. RESULTS: In all, 86 bowel segments
      including inactive (20), mild (19), and moderate-severe (47) CD were analyzed.
      The differences in Kapp , Dapp , and ADC among inactive, mild, and moderate
      severe CD were significant (all P < 0.05). Kapp (r = 0.862), Dapp (r = -0.755),
      and ADC (r = -0.713) correlated well with MaRIA in all segments. Stronger
      correlation with MaRIA in moderate-severe CD was found for Kapp (r = 0.647) than
      that of Dapp (r = -0.414) and ADC (r = -0.580). Receiver operating characteristic
      (ROC) curve analysis showed high accuracy of Kapp , Dapp , and ADC for
      differentiating active from inactive CD (AUC: 0.953 for Kapp , 0.944 for Dapp ,
      0.907 for ADC) as well as differentiating inactive-mild from moderate-severe CD
      (AUC: 0.946 for Kapp , 0.887 for Dapp , 0.846 for ADC). The threshold Kapp of
      0.731 allowed differentiation of active from inactive CD with 89.4% sensitivity
      and 95% specificity. CONCLUSION: DKI of CD is clinically feasible and might be
      superior to conventional DWI for grading the inflammatory activity of CD. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:702
      709.

PMID- 28577320
TI  - Life of Martha Entwistle: Australia's first convict mental health nurse.
AB  - The present position paper provides an account of the life of Martha Entwistle,
      the earliest recorded convict nurse who worked within the Castle Hill Asylum. In
      our review of primary historical sources, Australia's first convict mental health
      nurse was found to be a resilient woman who endured several traumatic life
      experiences. Her nursing within Australia's first mental health asylum was highly
      valued by the superintendent of the service. She nursed in a harsh colonial
      environment, short of adequate resources, during an era of fast-paced industrial
      and technological a change. Martha Entwistle's experiences provide a historical
      account of the role of the early convict mental health nurse. Her life story
      enables modern-day nurses to reflect on the advances made in mental health
      nursing and contexts of care for nurses today.

PMID- 28577321
TI  - Chlorophyll-Based Organic-Inorganic Heterojunction Solar Cells.
AB  - Solid-state chlorophyll solar cells (CSCs) employing a carboxylated chlorophyll
      derivative, methyl trans-32 -carboxypyropheophorbide a, as a light-harvesting dye
      sensitizer chlorophyll (DSC) deposited on mesoporous TiO2 , on which four zinc
      hydroxylated chlorophyll derivatives were spin-coated for hole transporter
      chlorophylls (HTCs), are described. Key parameters, including the effective
      carrier mobility of the HTC films, as determined by the space charge-limited
      current method, and the frontier molecular orbitals of these DSCs and HTCs, as
      estimated from cyclic voltammetry and electronic absorption spectra, suggest that
      both charge separation and carrier transport are favorable. The power conversion
      efficiencies (PCEs) of the present CSCs with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/TiO2
      /DSC/HTCs/Ag were determined to follow the order of HTC-1>HTC-2>HTC-3>HTC-4,
      which coincided perfectly with the order of their hole mobilities. The maximum
      PCE achieved was 0.86 % with HTC-1. The photovoltaic devices studied herein with
      two types of chlorophyll derivatives as dye sensitizers and hole transporters
      provide a unique solution for the utilization of solar energy with a view to
      truly realizing "green energy".

PMID- 28577322
TI  - Programmed Synthesis of Molecular Wires with Fixed Insulation and Defined Length
      Based on Oligo(phenylene ethynylene) and Permethylated alpha-Cyclodextrins.
AB  - The development of new tuning methods for pi-conjugated insulated molecular wires
      with strictly defined axle lengths as well as positions and degrees of macrocycle
      coverage would provide unprecedented insight into insulation effects in
      functionalized materials. Herein, iterative reactions of oligo(phenylene
      ethynylene) (OPE) linked with permethylated alpha-cyclodextrins were carried out
      to fabricate insulated molecular wires with a defined length and insulation in
      desired areas. Insulated OPEs were elongated in a stepwise manner by performing
      sequential coupling/deprotection reactions. The insulated areas on the OPE units
      in each expansion step were selectively controlled by means of programmed solvent
      conditions (high/low polarity). Moreover, a completely insulated OPE (up to a
      linked [11]rotaxane) with high structural regularity and high covering ratio was
      synthesized by appropriate tuning of the Pd catalyst and an extension unit
      bearing a traceless capping unit based on a tert-butyldimethylsilyl group. This
      strategy may guide the development of the selective synthesis of fully insulated,
      partially insulated, and uninsulated molecular wires with well-defined lengths
      and covered/uncovered areas.

PMID- 28577323
TI  - Na+ Ions Induce the Pirouetting Motion and Catalytic Activity of [2]Rotaxanes.
AB  - We have prepared [2]rotaxanes, the behavior of which as switchable catalysts
      depends on their pirouetting motion, which can be controlled through the addition
      and removal of Na+ ions. At least three sequential on/off cycles of a Michael
      reaction can be performed in situ when using the NaTFPB/[2.2.2]cryptand reagent
      pair to switch "on" and "off" the catalytic ability of the [2]rotaxanes.

PMID- 28577324
TI  - Soluble Two-Dimensional Covalent Organometallic Polymers by (Arene)Ruthenium
      Sulfur Chemistry.
AB  - A class of two-dimensional (2D) covalent organometallic polymers, with nanometer
      scale crosslinking, was obtained by arene(ruthenium) sulfur chemistry. Their
      ambivalent nature, with positively charged crosslinks and lypophylic branches is
      the key to the often sought-for and usually hard-to-achieve solubility of 2D
      polymers in various kinds of solvents. Solubility is here controlled by the
      planarity of the polymer, which in turn controls Coulomb interactions between the
      polymer layers. High planarity is achieved for high symmetry crosslinks and
      short, rigid branches. Owing to their solubility, the polymers are easily
      processable, and can be handled as powder, deposited on surfaces by mere spin
      coating, or suspended across membranes by drop-casting. The novel 2D materials
      are potential candidates as flexible membranes for catalysis, cancer therapy, and
      electronics.

PMID- 28577325
TI  - Borylenes: An Emerging Class of Compounds.
AB  - Free borylenes (R-B:) have only been spectroscopically characterized in the gas
      phase or in matrices at very low temperatures. However, in recent years, a few
      mono- and bis(Lewis base)-stabilized borylenes have been isolated. In both of
      these compounds the boron atom is in the formal oxidation state +I which
      contrasts with classical organoboron derivatives wherein the element is in the
      +III oxidation state. Mono(Lewis base)-stabilized borylenes are isoelectronic
      with singlet carbenes, and their reactivity mimics to some extent that of
      transition metals. They can activate small molecules, such as H2 , and coordinate
      an additional ligand; in other words, they are boron metallomimics. Bis(Lewis
      base)borylene adducts are isoelectronic with amines and phosphines. In contrast
      to boranes, which act as electron acceptors and thus Lewis acids, they are
      electron-rich and act as ligands for transition metals.

PMID- 28577326
TI  - Trivalent chromium induces autophagy by activating sphingomyelin
      phosphodiesterase 2 and increasing cellular ceramide levels in renal HK2 cells.
AB  - In this study, we examined the role of autophagy in the initiation of lipid
      increases in renal epithelial HK2 cells. We found that trivalent chromium
      [Cr(III)] induced autophagy by activating sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase 2
      (SMPD2). SMPD2 increases levels of ceramide and other lipids. Confocal
      immunofluorescence microscopy showed that signals of ceramide overlapped with
      LC3, suggesting that ceramide might play an important role in the formation of
      autophagosome. In conclusion, our data indicate that Cr(III) induces autophagy
      via structural aberration of organelle membrane, in particular by the increase of
      lipid compositions in addition to autophagy-associated proteins.

PMID- 28577328
TI  - Human embryonic stem cell dispersion in electrospun PCL fiber scaffolds by
      coating with laminin-521 and E-cadherin-Fc.
AB  - Advances in human pluripotent cell cultivation and differentiation protocols have
      led to production of stem cell-derived progenitors as a promising cell source for
      replacement therapy. Three-dimensional (3-D) culture is a better mimic of the
      natural niche for stem cells and is widely used for disease modeling. Here, we
      describe a nonaggregate culture system of human embryonic stem cells inside
      electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fiber scaffolds combined with defined
      extracellular proteins naturally occurring in the stem cell niche. PCL fiber
      scaffolds coated with recombinant human laminin-521 readily supported initial
      stem cell attachment and growth from a single-cell suspension. The combination of
      recombinant E-cadherin-Fc and laminin-521 further improved cell dispersion
      rendering a uniform cell population. Finally, we showed that the cells cultured
      in E-cadherin-Fc- and laminin-521-coated PCL scaffolds could differentiate into
      all three germ layers. Importantly, we provided a chemically defined 3-D system
      in which pluripotent stem cells grown and differentiated avoiding the formation
      of cell aggregates. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B:
      Appl Biomater, 106B: 1226-1236, 2018.

PMID- 28577327
TI  - Merging Photoredox with Bronsted Acid Catalysis: The Cross-Dehydrogenative C-O
      Coupling for sp3 C-H Bond Peroxidation.
AB  - A photoredox and Bronsted acid synergistically catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative C
      O coupling reaction is developed in which isochroman peroxyacetals are formed
      through sp3 C-H bond peroxidation. The reported method is characterized by its
      extremely mild reaction conditions, excellent yields, and broad substrate scope.
      An oxocarbenium ion p-chlorobenzenesulfonate was speculated to be the reactive
      intermediate. The role of hemiacetals and oxygenated dimers on the effective
      stabilization of the oxocarbenium ion was investigated; the presence of acid
      appeared to establish equilibrium between hemiacetals and oxygenated dimers with
      the oxocarbenium ion pairs. The broad applicability of the method highlights the
      potential of the protocol for molecule synthesis.

PMID- 28577329
TI  - Automated image quality evaluation of T2 -weighted liver MRI utilizing deep
      learning architecture.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop and test a deep learning approach named Convolutional Neural
      Network (CNN) for automated screening of T2 -weighted (T2 WI) liver acquisitions
      for nondiagnostic images, and compare this automated approach to evaluation by
      two radiologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated 522 liver magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) exams performed at 1.5T and 3T at our institution between
      November 2014 and May 2016 for CNN training and validation. The CNN consisted of
      an input layer, convolutional layer, fully connected layer, and output layer. 351
      T2 WI were anonymized for training. Each case was annotated with a label of being
      diagnostic or nondiagnostic for detecting lesions and assessing liver morphology.
      Another independently collected 171 cases were sequestered for a blind test.
      These 171 T2 WI were assessed independently by two radiologists and annotated as
      being diagnostic or nondiagnostic. These 171 T2 WI were presented to the CNN
      algorithm and image quality (IQ) output of the algorithm was compared to that of
      two radiologists. RESULTS: There was concordance in IQ label between Reader 1 and
      CNN in 79% of cases and between Reader 2 and CNN in 73%. The sensitivity and the
      specificity of the CNN algorithm in identifying nondiagnostic IQ was 67% and 81%
      with respect to Reader 1 and 47% and 80% with respect to Reader 2. The negative
      predictive value of the algorithm for identifying nondiagnostic IQ was 94% and
      86% (relative to Readers 1 and 2). CONCLUSION: We demonstrate a CNN algorithm
      that yields a high negative predictive value when screening for nondiagnostic T2
      WI of the liver. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson.
      Imaging 2018;47:723-728.

PMID- 28577330
TI  - Treated wastewater effluent as a source of pyrethroids and fipronil at todos
      santos bay, Mexico: Its impact on sediments and organisms.
AB  - Pyrethroids are insecticides widely used to control pests and disease vectors in
      residential areas and agricultural lands. Pyrethroids are emerging pollutants,
      and their use is a growing concern because of their toxicity potential to aquatic
      organisms. Todos Santos Bay and the Punta Banda estuary, 2 coastal bodies located
      to the south of the Southern California Bight, were studied to establish a
      baseline of the current conditions of pollution by pyrethroids and fipronil.
      Eight pyrethroids, along with fipronil and its 2 metabolites, were determined in
      effluents from wastewater-treatment plants (n = 3), surface sediments (n = 32),
      and 3 locations with mussels (Mytilus californianus, n = 9). Bifenthrin,
      permethrin, and cypermethrin were the most common pyrethroids found in the study
      areas and were widespread in sediments, mussels, and wastewater-treated
      effluents. Fipronil and its metabolites were detected in mussels and wastewater
      treated effluents only. Total pyrethroid concentrations in sediments ranged from
      0.04 to 1.95 ng/g dry weight in the Punta Banda estuary (n = 13) and from 0.07 to
      6.62 ng/g dry weight in Todos Santos Bay (n = 19). Moreover, total pyrethroids in
      mussels ranged from 1.19 to 6.15 ng/g wet weight. Based on the toxic unit data
      calculated for pyrethroids and fipronil for Eohaustorius estuarius and Hyalella
      azteca, little to no impact is expected to the benthic population structure.
      Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3057-3064. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28577331
TI  - Risk-based prioritization method for the classification of groundwater pesticide
      pollution from agricultural regions.
AB  - Agricultural regions are a significant source of groundwater pesticide pollution.
      To ensure that agricultural regions with a significantly high risk of groundwater
      pesticide contamination are properly managed, a risk-based ranking method related
      to groundwater pesticide contamination is needed. In the present paper, a risk
      based prioritization method for the classification of groundwater pesticide
      pollution from agricultural regions was established. The method encompasses 3
      phases, including indicator selection, characterization, and classification. In
      the risk ranking index system employed here, 17 indicators involving the
      physicochemical properties, environmental behavior characteristics, pesticide
      application methods, and inherent vulnerability of groundwater in the
      agricultural region were selected. The boundary of each indicator was determined
      using K-means cluster analysis based on a survey of a typical agricultural region
      and the physical and chemical properties of 300 typical pesticides. The total
      risk characterization was calculated by multiplying the risk value of each
      indicator, which could effectively avoid the subjectivity of index weight
      calculation and identify the main factors associated with the risk. The results
      indicated that the risk for groundwater pesticide contamination from agriculture
      in a region could be ranked into 4 classes from low to high risk. This method was
      applied to an agricultural region in Jiangsu Province, China, and it showed that
      this region had a relatively high risk for groundwater contamination from
      pesticides, and that the pesticide application method was the primary factor
      contributing to the relatively high risk. The risk ranking method was determined
      to be feasible, valid, and able to provide reference data related to the risk
      management of groundwater pesticide pollution from agricultural regions. Integr
      Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:1052-1059. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28577333
TI  - MRI-based assessment of acute effect of head-down tilt position on intracranial
      hemodynamics and hydrodynamics.
AB  - PURPOSE: To quantify the acute effect of the head-down tilt (HDT) posture on
      intracranial hemodynamics and hydrodynamics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated
      the intracranial physiological parameters, blood flow-related parameters, and
      brain morphology in the HDT (-6 degrees  and -12 degrees ) and the horizontal
      supine (HS) positions. Seven and 15 healthy subjects were scanned for each
      position using 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging system. The peak-to-peak
      intracranial volume change, the peak-to-peak cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure
      gradient (PGp-p ), and the intracranial compliance index were calculated from the
      blood and CSF flow determined using a cine phase-contrast technique. The brain
      volumetry was conducted using SPM12. The measurements were compared using the
      Wilcoxon signed-rank test or a paired t-test. RESULTS: No measurements changed in
      the -6 degrees  HDT. The PGp-p and venous outflow of the internal jugular veins
      (IJVs) in the -12 degrees  HDT were significantly increased compared to the HS (P
      < 0.001 and P = 0.025, respectively). The cross-sectional areas of the IJVs were
      significantly larger (P < 0.001), and the maximum, minimum, and mean blood flow
      velocity of the IJVs were significantly decreased (P = 0.003, < 0.001, and =
      0.001, respectively) in the -12 degrees  HDT. The mean blood flow velocities of
      the internal carotid arteries were decreased (P = 0.023). Neither position
      affected the brain volume. CONCLUSION: Pressure gradient and venous outflow were
      increased in accordance with the elevation of the intracranial pressure as an
      acute effect of the HDT. However, the CSF was not constantly shifted from the
      spinal canal to the cranium. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J.
      Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:565-571.

PMID- 28577332
TI  - Hippocampal fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and functional
      connectivity changes in premenstrual syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate differences in hippocampal activity between premenstrual
      syndrome (PMS) patients and healthy controls, to elucidate the neural mechanisms
      of PMS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty female patients with PMS (PMS group) and 21
      healthy controls (HC group) underwent a single-shot gradient-recalled echo planar
      imaging (EPI) sequence scan during the luteal phase in 3.0 Tesla MRI. Spontaneous
      neural activity in hippocampus (HIPP) was measured by fractional amplitude of low
      frequency fluctuation (fALFF). Functional connectivity (FC) was used to examine
      the neural networks of PMS patients by selecting the abnormal HIPP as the seed
      region. All participants completed a daily record of severity of problems (DRSP)
      questionnaire to measure the severity of clinical symptoms. RESULTS: Results from
      a two-sample t-test showed increased left HIPP fALFF in the PMS group compared
      with the HC group (P = 0.042), while there was no between-group difference of
      fALFF in the right HIPP (P = 0.1011). A secondary analysis using a two-sample t
      test with the left HIPP as the seed region, the results revealed that the PMS
      group exhibited increased FC between the left HIPP and left medial prefrontal
      cortex (mPFC), left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), right middle cingulate
      cortex (MCC), and bilateral precentral cortex (PC), while decreased FC between
      the left HIPP and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Moreover, the PMS group
      exhibited higher DRSP scores, which were positively correlated (r = 0.64, P =
      0.003) with FC between the left HIPP and mPFC during the luteal phase.
      CONCLUSION: Altered spontaneous neural activity and connectivity of left HIPP may
      be involved in PMS. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn.
      Reson. Imaging 2018;47:545-553.

PMID- 28577334
TI  - Catalytic Oxygenative Allylic Transposition of Alkenes into Enones with an
      Azaadamantane-Type Oxoammonium Salt Catalyst.
AB  - The first catalytic oxygenative allylic transposition of unactivated alkenes into
      enones has been developed using an oxoammonium salt as the catalyst. This
      reaction converts various tri- and trans-disubstituted alkenes into their
      corresponding enones with transposition of their double bonds at ambient
      temperature in good yields. The use of a less-hindered azaadamantane-type
      oxoammonium salt as the catalyst and a combination of two distinct stoichiometric
      oxidants, namely, iodobenzene diacetate and magnesium monoperoxyphthalate
      hexahydrate (MMPP?6 H2 O) are essential to facilitate the enone formation
      efficiently.

PMID- 28577335
TI  - Application of whole-lesion histogram analysis of pharmacokinetic parameters in
      dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of breast lesions with the CAIPIRINHA-Dixon-TWIST
      VIBE technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the application of whole-lesion histogram analysis of
      pharmacokinetic parameters for differentiating malignant from benign breast
      lesions on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 92 women with 97 breast lesions (26 benign and 71
      malignant lesions) were enrolled in this study. Patients underwent dynamic breast
      MRI at 3T using a prototypical CAIPIRINHA-Dixon-TWIST-VIBE (CDT-VIBE) sequence
      and a subsequent surgery or biopsy. Inflow rate of the agent between plasma and
      interstitium (Ktrans ), outflow rate of agent between interstitium and plasma
      (Kep ), extravascular space volume per unit volume of tissue (ve ) including mean
      value, 25th/50th/75th/90th percentiles, skewness, and kurtosis were then
      calculated based on the whole lesion. A single-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test,
      paired t-test, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were
      used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Malignant breast lesions had
      significantly higher Ktrans , Kep , and lower ve in mean values,
      25th/50th/75th/90th percentiles, and significantly higher skewness of ve than
      benign breast lesions (all P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in
      kurtosis values between malignant and benign breast lesions (all P > 0.05). The
      90th percentile of Ktrans , the 90th percentile of Kep , and the 50th percentile
      of ve showed the greatest areas under the ROC curve (AUC) for each
      pharmacokinetic parameter derived from DCE-MRI. The 90th percentile of Kep
      achieved the highest AUC value (0.927) among all histogram-derived values.
      CONCLUSION: The whole-lesion histogram analysis of pharmacokinetic parameters can
      improve the diagnostic accuracy of breast DCE-MRI with the CDT-VIBE technique.
      The 90th percentile of Kep may be the best indicator in differentiation between
      malignant and benign breast lesions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Technical Efficacy
      Stage: 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:91-96.

PMID- 28577337
TI  - Confounding factors of ultrafiltration and protein analysis in extracellular
      vesicle research.
AB  - Identification and validation of extracellular vesicle (EV)-associated biomarkers
      requires robust isolation and characterization protocols. We assessed the impact
      of some commonly implemented pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical
      variables in EV research. Centrifugal filters with different membrane types and
      pore sizes are used to reduce large volume biofluids prior to EV isolation or to
      concentrate EVs. We compared five commonly reported filters for their efficiency
      when using plasma, urine and EV-spiked PBS. Regenerated cellulose membranes with
      pore size of 10 kDa recovered EVs the most efficient. Less than 40% recovery was
      achieved with other filters. Next, we analyzed the effect of the type of protein
      assays to measure EV protein in colorimetric and fluorometric kits. The
      fluorometric assay Qubit measured low concentration EV and BSA samples the most
      accurately with the lowest variation among technical and biological replicates.
      Lastly, we quantified Optiprep remnants in EV samples from density gradient
      ultracentrifugation and demonstrate that size-exclusion chromatography
      efficiently removes Optiprep from EVs. In conclusion, choice of centrifugal
      filters and protein assays confound EV analysis and should be carefully
      considered to increase efficiency towards biomarker discovery. SEC-based removal
      of Optiprep remnants from EVs can be considered for downstream applications.

PMID- 28577339
TI  - A new method to reduce the number of time delays in a network.
AB  - Time delays may cause dramatic changes to the dynamics of interacting
      oscillators. Coupled networks of interacting dynamical systems can have
      unexpected behaviours when the signal between the vertices are time delayed. It
      has been shown for a very general class of systems that the time delays can be
      rearranged as long as the total time delay over the constitutive loops of the
      network is conserved. This fact allows to reduce the number of time delays of the
      problem without loss of information. There is a theoretical lower bound for this
      number that can be numerically improved if the time delays are commensurable.
      Here we propose a formulation of the problem and a numerical method to even
      further reduce the number of time delays in a network.

PMID- 28577338
TI  - Specific brain activation patterns associated with two neuromuscular electrical
      stimulation protocols.
AB  - The influence of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) parameters on brain
      activation has been scarcely investigated. We aimed at comparing two frequently
      used NMES protocols - designed to vary in the extent of sensory input. Whole
      brain functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in sixteen healthy
      subjects during wide-pulse high-frequency (WPHF, 100 Hz-1 ms) and conventional
      (CONV, 25 Hz-0.05 ms) NMES applied over the triceps surae. Each protocol included
      20 isometric contractions performed at 10% of maximal force. Voluntary plantar
      flexions (VOL) were performed as control trial. Mean force was not different
      among the three protocols, however, total current charge was higher for WPHF than
      for CONV. All protocols elicited significant activations of the sensorimotor
      network, cerebellum and thalamus. WPHF resulted in lower deactivation in the
      secondary somatosensory cortex and precuneus. Bilateral thalami and caudate
      nuclei were hyperactivated for CONV. The modulation of the NMES parameters
      resulted in differently activated/deactivated regions related to total current
      charge of the stimulation but not to mean force. By targeting different cerebral
      brain regions, the two NMES protocols might allow for individually-designed
      rehabilitation training in patients who can no longer execute voluntary
      movements.

PMID- 28577340
TI  - Abnormal Growth and Feeding Behavior Persist After Removal of Upper Airway
      Obstruction in Juvenile Rats.
AB  - Pediatric obstructive sleep-disordered breathing is associated with growth
      retardation, but also with obesity that has a tendency to persist following
      treatment. We investigated the effect of upper airways obstruction (AO) and of
      obstruction removal (OR) in juvenile rats on gut-derived ghrelin and related
      hypothalamic factors, feeding, and growth hormone (GH) homeostasis. Here, we show
      that after seven weeks of AO, animals gained less weight compared to controls,
      despite an increase in food intake due to elevated ghrelin and hypothalamic
      feeding factors. OR rats who had complete restoration of tracheal diameter,
      consumed more food due to increased ghrelin and exhibited growth retardation due
      to deregulation of GH homeostasis. This study is the first to show dysregulation
      of the hormonal axes controlling feeding behavior and growth that are not fully
      restored following OR. Thus, surgical treatment by itself may not be sufficient
      to prevent post-surgical increased food intake and growth retardation.

PMID- 28577341
TI  - The malate sensing two-component system MaeKR is a non-canonical class of sensory
      complex for C4-dicarboxylates.
AB  - Microbial colonization of different environments is enabled to a great extent by
      the plasticity of their sensory mechanisms, among them, the two-component signal
      transduction systems (TCS). Here, an example of TCS plasticity is presented: the
      regulation of L-malate catabolism via malic enzyme by MaeRK in Lactobacillales.
      MaeKR belongs to the citrate family of TCS as the Escherichia coli DcuSR system.
      We show that the Lactobacillus casei histidine-kinase MaeK is defective in
      autophosphorylation activity as it lacks a functional catalytic and ATP binding
      domain. The cognate response regulator MaeR was poorly phosphorylated at its
      phosphoacceptor Asp in vitro. This phosphorylation, however, enhanced MaeR
      binding in vitro to its target sites and it was required for induction of
      regulated genes in vivo. Elucidation of the MaeR structure revealed that response
      regulator dimerization is accomplished by the swapping of alpha4-beta5-alpha5
      elements between two monomers, generating a phosphoacceptor competent
      conformation. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that the MaeKR
      peculiarities are not exclusive to L. casei as they are shared by the rest of
      orthologous systems of Lactobacillales. Our results reveal MaeKR as a non
      canonical TCS displaying distinctive features: a swapped response regulator and a
      sensor histidine kinase lacking ATP-dependent kinase activity.

PMID- 28577342
TI  - Lower SHBG level is associated with higher leptin and lower adiponectin levels as
      well as metabolic syndrome, independent of testosterone.
AB  - In addition to testosterone (T), the emerging role of sex hormone-binding
      globulin (SHBG) in pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been noted
      recently. However, reports of associations with serum adipocytokine levels are
      still limited. Therefore, we conducted this study to evaluate whether serum T and
      SHBG levels are independent predictors for the risk of MetS that are associated
      with adiponectin and leptin levels in 614 Taiwanese men over 40 years old
      collected from a free health screening. Subjects in the lowest quartile of TT and
      SHBG levels are exposed to a 1.58 and 3.22 times risk of developing MetS, as
      compared to those in the highest quartile of TT and SHBG levels. However, SHBG
      retains its significance independent of TT as a MetS risk predictor, but not vice
      versa. In addition, SHBG was significantly correlated with both adiponectin and
      leptin levels even after adjusting for TT levels. In conclusion, SHBG served as a
      major predictor for the risk of MetS and was correlated with serum adiponectin
      and leptin levels that are independent of T. Further studies are needed to
      elucidate the true role of SHBG in the pathogenesis of MetS and possible
      mechanisms associated with serum adiponectin and leptin levels.

PMID- 28577344
TI  - Associated anomalies in cases with esophageal atresia.
AB  - Esophageal atresia (EA) is a common type of congenital anomaly. The etiology of
      esophageal atresia is unclear and its pathogenesis is controversial. Infants with
      esophageal atresia often have other non-EA associated congenital anomalies. The
      purpose of this investigation was to assess the prevalence and the types of these
      associated anomalies in a defined population. The associated anomalies in cases
      with EA were collected in all livebirths, stillbirths, and terminations of
      pregnancy during 29 years in 387,067 consecutive births in the area covered by
      our population-based registry of congenital malformations. Of the 116 cases with
      esophageal atresia, representing a prevalence of 2.99 per 10,000, 54 (46.6%) had
      associated anomalies. There were 9 (7.8%) cases with chromosomal abnormalities
      including 6 trisomies 18, and 20 (17.2%) nonchromosomal recognized dysmorphic
      conditions including 12 cases with VACTERL association and 2 cases with CHARGE
      syndrome. Twenty five (21.6%) of the cases had multiple congenital anomalies
      (MCA). Anomalies in the cardiovascular, the digestive, the urogenital, the
      musculoskeletal, and the central nervous systems were the most common other
      anomalies. The anomalies associated with esophageal atresia could be classified
      into a recognizable malformation syndrome or pattern in 29 out of 54 cases
      (53.7%). This study included special strengths: each affected child was examined
      by a geneticist, all elective terminations were ascertained, and the surveillance
      for anomalies was continued until 2 years of age. In conclusion the overall
      prevalence of associated anomalies, which was close to one in two cases,
      emphasizes the need for a thorough investigation of cases with EA. A routine
      screening for other anomalies may be considered in infants and in fetuses with
      EA.

PMID- 28577343
TI  - De novo RNA synthesis catalyzed by the Zika Virus RNA polymerase domain.
AB  - Mosquito- and tick-borne pathogens including Chikungunya, Dengue, Japanese
      encephalitis, West Nile, Yellow fever and Zika virus, represent a new economic
      and public health challenge. In the absence of effective vaccines and specific
      therapies, only supportive regimens are administrated for most of these
      infections. Thus, the development of a targeted therapy is mandatory to stop the
      rapid progression of these pathogens and preoccupant associated burdens such as
      Guillain-Barre syndrome, microcephaly. For this, it is essential to develop
      biochemical tools to help study and target key viral enzymes involved in
      replication such as helicase complexes, methyl-transferases and RNA-dependent RNA
      polymerases. Here, we show that a highly purified ZIKV polymerase domain is
      active in vitro. Importantly, we show that this isolated domain is capable of de
      novo synthesis of the viral genome and efficient elongation without terminal
      nucleotide transferase activity. Altogether, this isolated polymerase domain will
      be a precious tool to screen and optimize specific nucleoside and non-nucleoside
      inhibitors to fight against Zika infections.

PMID- 28577345
TI  - Coexistence of Strong Second Harmonic Generation Response and Wide Band Gap in
      AZn4 Ga5 S12 (A=K, Rb, Cs) with 3D Diamond-like Frameworks.
AB  - Mid-infrared (MIR, 2-20 MUm) second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials with
      outstanding performances are of great importance in laser science and technology.
      However, the enormous challenge to design and synthesize an excellent MIR NLO
      material lies in achieving simultaneously a strong second harmonic generation
      (SHG) response [dij >0.6 * AgGaS2 (AGS)] and wide band gap (Eg >3.5 eV). Herein
      three new MIR NLO materials, AZn4 Ga5 S12 (A=K, Rb, Cs) are reported, which
      crystallize in the KCd4 Ga5 S12 -type structure and adopt a 3D diamond-like
      framework (DLF) consisting of MS4 (M=Zn/Ga) tetrahedra; achieving the desired
      balance with strong powder SHG response (1.2-1.4 * AGS) and wide band gap (Eg
      ~3.65 eV). Moreover, they also show large laser induced damage thresholds (LIDTs,
      36 * AGS), a wide range of optical transparency (0.4-25 MUm) and ultrahigh
      thermal stability (up to 1400 K). Upon analyzing the structure-property
      relationship of AXII4 XIII5 Q12 family, these 3D DLF structures can be used as a
      highly versatile and tunable platform for designing excellent MIR NLO materials.

PMID- 28577346
TI  - Scanning of own- versus other-race faces in infants from racially diverse or
      homogenous communities.
AB  - We examined the role of community face experience on 6- and 8-month-old Caucasian
      infants' scanning of own- and other-race face scanning. We measured infants'
      proportional fixation time and scan path amplitudes as indices of face
      processing. Proportional fixation time to informationally rich face regions
      varied as a function of age and face race for infants living in a racially
      homogeneous community, whereas scan path amplitudes varied as a function of age
      and face race for infants living in a racially diverse community. In both
      communities 6-month-old infants did not show different responding to own- and
      other-race faces, whereas 8-month-old infants responded differently to own- and
      other-race faces. However, 8-month-old infants from the two communities showed
      different patterns of cross-race face scanning. Therefore, experience in the
      community beyond the home appears to contribute to the development of
      differential scanning of own- versus other-race faces between 6 and 8 months of
      age.

PMID- 28577348
TI  - Chirality Induction from a Chiral Guest to the Hydrogen-Bonding Network of Its
      Hexameric Resorcinarene Host Capsule.
AB  - The hexameric capsule of resorcin[4]arene 1 is capable of encapsulating tertiary
      amines, which has recently been used in the application of [(1)6 (H2 O)8 ] as (co
      )catalyst in various asymmetric reactions. However, not much is known about the
      highly asymmetric but conformationally very dynamic structure of the capsule
      after uptake of chiral molecules. Therefore, in this contribution, we utilize
      electronic circular dichroism and vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy to
      investigate how several chiral guest molecules affect the structural preferences
      of the capsule [(1)6 (H2 O)8 ]. In particular, we show that one small chiral
      amine encapsulated in [(1)6 (H2 O)8 ] is sufficient to control and dictate the
      stereochemical preferences of the entire capsule. Furthermore, neither strong pi
      pi interactions nor a significant steric bulk are required for this induction.
      The observation of such a chiral imprint of the guest's stereochemistry onto its
      host molecule is expected to have implications also for other supramolecular
      capsules.

PMID- 28577347
TI  - Neuroradiographic findings in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
AB  - 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is a common genetic disorder with enormous
      phenotypic heterogeneity. Despite the established prevalence of developmental and
      neuropsychiatric issues in this syndrome, its neuroanatomical correlates are not
      as well understood. A retrospective chart review was performed on 111 patients
      diagnosed with 22q11.2DS. Of the 111 patients, 24 with genetically confirmed
      22q11.2 deletion and brain MRI or MRA were included in this study. The most
      common indications for imaging were unexplained developmental delay (6/24),
      seizures of unknown etiology (5/24), and unilateral weakness (3/24). More than
      half (13/24) of the patients had significant radiographic findings, including
      persistent cavum septi pellucidi and/or cavum vergae (8/24), aberrant cortical
      veins (6/24), polymicrogyria or cortical dysplasia (4/24), inner ear deformities
      (3/24), hypoplastic internal carotid artery (2/24), and hypoplastic cerebellum
      (1/24). These findings reveal the types and frequencies of brain malformations in
      this case series, and suggest that the prevalence of neuroanatomical
      abnormalities in 22q11.2DS may be underestimated. Understanding indications for
      imaging and frequently encountered brain malformations will result in early
      diagnosis and intervention in an effort to optimize patient outcomes.

PMID- 28577349
TI  - Emerging issues in disorders/differences of sex development (DSD).
AB  - Disorders/Differences of Sex Development (DSD), as defined by the 2006 Consensus
      Statement, are "congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal,
      gonadal, or anatomic sex is atypical." They represent a spectrum of chronic
      medical conditions collectively affecting about 1% of the population and are
      associated with increased risk of infertility, cancer, and psychosocial distress.
      Clinical management in DSD is subject to multiple controversies about gender
      assignment, the timing and appropriateness of genital surgery and the approach to
      disclosure. There is dissent within and between stakeholders (healthcare
      providers, advocacy groups, families) regarding what constitutes optimal care.
      This special issue investigates the progress made as well as the uncertainties
      remaining a decade after the consensus statement and the gaps to be filled by
      future research and improved clinical practice. It discusses the increasing
      intricacy of genetic variant interpretation in the era of next-generation
      sequencing and the associated complexity of phenotypic variability. The issue
      tackles ethical dilemmas and the complicated decision-making process of
      assignment of sex of rearing at birth in cases of 5-alpha reductase type 2
      deficiency, surveys delivery of clinical services in the United States, discusses
      challenges of interdisciplinary care and of educating patients and parents about
      DSD,and reviews the factors predisposing to gonadal tumor and their consequences
      on clinical management.

PMID- 28577350
TI  - Treatment of fifth metacarpal neck fractures with antegrade single elastic
      intramedullary nailing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate clinical outcomes of fifth
      metacarpal neck fractures using antegrade single elastic nail and to explore
      ideal puncture point to avoid iatrogenic ulnar nerve injury. METHODS: A single
      elastic nail with suitable diameter was used in 27 cases of fifth metacarpal neck
      fractures with dorsal angulation over 45 degrees . An initial entry point was
      perforated at the ulnar-dorsal base of the metacarpal. The nail was inserted in
      an antegrade approach. The nail was usually removed at about 5 weeks
      postoperatively. RESULTS: At final follow up, all fractures proceeded to bony
      union. The mean total passive motion was 285 degrees  and the mean total active
      motion (TAM) was 270 degrees . The mean angulation decreased from 50.2 +/- 6.3
      degrees  preoperatively to 7.4 +/- 2.3 degrees  postoperatively (p < 0.001). The
      mean DASH-Score was 2.1 +/- 3.6 points after surgery. Two cases of skin
      irritation and one case of the dorsal cutaneous branch of the ulnar nerve (DCBUN)
      injury were observed. Superficial wound infections were not observed.
      CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, antegrade single elastic intramedullary nailing was a
      minimally invasive and reliable fixation technique for fifth metacarpal neck
      fractures with dorsal angulation over 45 degrees . Appropriate puncture position
      helped to reduce nerve damage.

PMID- 28577351
TI  - After accounting for competing causes of death and more advanced stage, do
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with cancer still have worse
      survival? A population-based cohort study in New South Wales.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia have been
      found to have poorer cancer survival than non-Aboriginal people. However, use of
      conventional relative survival analyses is limited due to a lack of life tables.
      This cohort study examined whether poorer survival persist after accounting for
      competing risks of death from other causes and disparities in cancer stage at
      diagnosis, for all cancers collectively and by cancer site. METHODS: People
      diagnosed in 2000-2008 were extracted from the population-based New South Wales
      Cancer Registry. Aboriginal status was multiply imputed for people with missing
      information (12.9%). Logistic regression models were used to compute odds ratios
      (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for 'advanced stage' at diagnosis
      (separately for distant and distant/regional stage). Survival was examined using
      competing risk regression to compute subhazard ratios (SHRs) with 95%CIs.
      RESULTS: Of the 301,356 cases, 2517 (0.84%) identified as Aboriginal (0.94% after
      imputation). After adjusting for age, sex, year of diagnosis, socio-economic
      status, remoteness, and cancer site Aboriginal peoples were more likely to be
      diagnosed with distant (OR 1.30, 95%CI 1.17-1.44) or distant/regional stage (OR
      1.29, 95%CI 1.18-1.40) for all cancers collectively. This applied to cancers of
      the female breast, uterus, prostate, kidney, others (those not included in other
      categories) and cervix (when analyses were restricted to cases with known
      stages/known Aboriginal status). Aboriginal peoples had a higher hazard of death
      than non-Aboriginal people after accounting for competing risks from other causes
      of death, socio-demographic factors, stage and cancer site (SHR 1.40, 95%CI 1.31
      1.50 for all cancers collectively). Consistent results applied to colorectal,
      lung, breast, prostate and other cancers. CONCLUSIONS: Aboriginal peoples with
      cancer have an elevated hazard of cancer death compared with non-Aboriginal
      people, after accounting for more advanced stage and competing causes of death.
      Further research is needed to determine reasons, including any contribution of co
      morbidity, lifestyle factors and differentials in service access to help explain
      disparities.

PMID- 28577352
TI  - Increased postpartum haemorrhage, the possible relation with serotonergic and
      other psychopharmacological drugs: a matched cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postpartum haemorrhage is a major obstetric risk worldwide. Therefore
      risk factors need to be investigated to control for this serious complication. A
      recent systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that the use of both
      serotonergic and non-serotonergic antidepressants in pregnancy are associated
      with a higher risk of postpartum haemorrhage. However, use of antidepressants in
      pregnancy is often necessary because untreated depression in pregnancy is
      associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcome, such as postpartum
      depression, preterm birth and dysmaturity. Therefore it is of utmost importance
      to unravel the possible association between postpartum haemorrhage and the use of
      serotonergic and other psychopharmacological medication during pregnancy.
      METHODS: We performed a matched cohort observational study consecutively
      including all pregnant women using serotonergic medication (n = 578) or other
      psychopharmacological medication (n = 50) visiting two teaching hospitals in
      Amsterdam between 2010 and 2014. The incidence of postpartum haemorrhage in women
      using serotonergic medication or other psychopharmacological medication was
      compared with the incidence of postpartum haemorrhage in 641,364 pregnant women
      not using psychiatric medication selected from the database of the Netherlands
      Perinatal Registry foundation (Perined). Matching took place 1:5 for nine
      factors, i.e., parity, maternal age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, macrosomia,
      gestational duration, history of postpartum haemorrhage, labour induction and
      hypertensive disorder. RESULTS: Postpartum haemorrhage occurred in 9.7% of the
      women using serotonergic medication. In the matched controls this was 6.6% (p =
      0.01). The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) before matching was 1.6 (95% CI 1.2-2.1) and
      after matching 1.5 (95% CI 1.1-2.1). Among the women using other
      psychopharmacological medication, the incidence of postpartum haemorrhage before
      matching was 12.0% versus 6.1% (p = 0.08) with OR 2.1 (95% CI 0.9-4.9), and after
      matching 12.1% versus 4.4% (p = 0.03) with aOR of 3.3 (95% CI 1.1-9.8).
      CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women using serotonergic medication have an increased risk
      of postpartum haemorrhage, but this high risk is also seen in pregnant women
      using other psychopharmacological medication. We suggest that this higher risk of
      postpartum haemorrhage could not only be explained by serotonin, but also by
      other mechanisms. An additional explanation could be the underlying psychiatric
      disorder.

PMID- 28577353
TI  - Simeprevir with peginterferon alpha-2a/ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C virus
      genotype 1 infection in treatment-experienced patients: an open-label, rollover
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This Phase 3, open-label, rollover study (NCT01323244) investigated
      the efficacy and safety of simeprevir plus peginterferon alpha-2a (PegIFNalpha
      2a) and ribavirin (RBV) in a well-characterized population of HCV genotype 1
      (GT1)-infected treatment-experienced patients. METHODS: Patients who had failed
      PegIFNalpha/RBV treatment in the placebo arm of a previous Phase 2/3 simeprevir
      study (Phase 2/3 group, n = 125), or had been exposed to HCV direct-acting
      antivirals (simeprevir or other) for up to 14 days in a selected Phase 1 study
      (Phase 1 group, n = 16), were eligible. Phase 2/3 group patients were classified
      according to prior relapse, breakthrough, or non-response (null response, partial
      response, non-classifiable non-response) to PegIFNalpha/RBV. Eight patients in
      the Phase 1 group received short-term (<=14 days) simeprevir. Treatment comprised
      simeprevir 150 mg once daily (QD) plus PegIFNalpha-2a/RBV for 12 weeks followed
      by PegIFNalpha-2a/RBV for 12 or 36 weeks (using response-guided therapy [RGT] to
      determine total treatment duration in Phase 2/3 prior relapsers or breakthrough)
      or 36 weeks fixed (Phase 2/3 group non-responders and Phase 1 group). The primary
      endpoint was sustained virologic response 12 weeks after planned end of treatment
      (SVR12). RESULTS: Phase 2/3 group: SVR12 rate was 69.6% (87/125) overall; 92.7%
      (51/55), 60.0% (6/10), 64.3% (18/28), and 36.7% (11/30) in patients with prior
      relapse, viral breakthrough, partial response, or null response, respectively.
      SVR12 rates were similar for patients with HCV GT1a (66.0% [33/50]) and GT1b
      infection (72.0% [54/75]) and among HCV GT1a-infected patients with/without a
      baseline Q80K polymorphism (66.7% [8/12] and 65.8% [25/38], respectively). The
      majority of RGT-eligible patients (prior viral relapse or breakthrough) met RGT
      criteria (89.2% [58/65]); of these, 89.7% (52/58) achieved SVR12. Overall, 16.0%
      (20/125) of patients experienced on-treatment failure and 14.4% (18/125)
      experienced post-treatment failure (15 relapses, 3 missing data). Phase 1 group
      (simeprevir-naive and -experienced patients combined): SVR12 rate was 37.5%
      (6/16). Safety and tolerability findings were comparable to those of the feeder
      studies. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of RGT-eligible patients met criteria for
      shortening treatment to 24 weeks in total. Simeprevir 150 mg QD with PegIFNalpha
      2a/RBV led to a high SVR rate among prior relapsers with HCV GT1 infection. No
      new safety signals were noted. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01323244 . (date of
      registration: March 24, 2011).

PMID- 28577354
TI  - Clinical outcomes of arthroscopic surgery for external snapping hip.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies have reported on the arthroscopic technique for release of
      external snapping hip syndrome. However, no study with large sample size has been
      reported for arthroscopic surgery. METHODS: Patients with 229 bilateral and 19
      unilateral external snapping hips were treated from January 2012 to June 2013.
      After locating the contracture position, arthroscopic surgery was performed
      accordingly. Preoperative and postoperative angles were compared. RESULTS:
      Comparing range of motion, all patients obtained higher adduction and flexion
      angles. At postoperative follow-up of 24 months, the adduction angle was improved
      from -14.4 +/- 5.14 to 35.7 +/- 4.21 for type I, from -31.2 +/- 5.22 to 31.7 +/-
      2.84 for type II, from -49.0 +/- 3.47 to 21.6 +/- 3.43 for type III, and from 
      64.5 +/- 4.65 to 18.3 +/- 3.10 for type IV (P < 0.001). Similarly, the flexion
      angle was also significantly improved for all the four types (P < 0.001).
      Excellent ratio and satisfaction rate were good in types I and II. All the
      clinical features were cured after arthroscopic surgery. CONCLUSIONS:
      Arthroscopic surgery could be an effective procedure for external snapping hip,
      due to less operating time, small scar, fast postoperative recovery, and complete
      contracture release.

PMID- 28577355
TI  - Frailty assessment in older adults using upper-extremity function: index
      development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous multidimensional assessment tools have been developed to
      measure frailty; however, the clinical feasibility of these tools is limited. We
      previously developed and validated an upper-extremity function (UEF) assessment
      method that incorporates wearable motion sensors. The purpose of the current
      study was to: 1) cross-sectionally validate the UEF method in a larger sample in
      comparison with the Fried index; 2) develop a UEF frailty index to predict
      frailty categories including non-frail, pre-frail, and frail based on UEF
      parameters and demographic information, using the Fried index as the gold
      standard; and 3) develop a UEF continuous score (points scores for each UEF
      parameter and a total frailty score) based on UEF parameters and demographic
      information, using the Fried index as the gold standard. METHODS: We performed a
      cross-sectional validation and index development study within the Banner Medical
      Center, Tucson, and Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Arizona.
      Community-dwelling and outpatient older adults (>=60 years; n = 352; 132 non
      frail, 175 pre-frail, and 45 frail based on Fried criteria) were recruited. For
      the UEF test, each participant performed a 20-s elbow flexion, within which they
      repetitively and rapidly flexed and extended their dominant elbow. Using elbow
      motion outcomes two UEF indexes were developed (categorical and score). The Fried
      index was measured as the gold standard. RESULTS: For the categorical index,
      speed of elbow flexion, elbow range of motion, elbow moment, number of flexion,
      speed variability and reduction within 20 s, as well as body mass index (BMI)
      were included as the pre-frailty/frailty predictor parameters. Results from 10
      fold cross-validation showed receiver operator characteristic area under the
      curve of 0.77 +/- 0.07 and 0.80 +/- 0.12 for predicting Fried pre-frailty and
      frailty, respectively. UEF score (0.1 to 1.0) was developed using similar UEF
      parameters. CONCLUSIONS: We present an objective, sensor-based frailty assessment
      tool based on physical frailty features including slowness, weakness, exhaustion
      (muscle fatigue), and flexibility of upper-extremity movements. Within the
      current study, the method was validated cross-sectionally using the Fried index
      as the gold standard and the UEF categorical index and UEF frailty score were
      developed for research purposes and potentially for future clinical use.

PMID- 28577356
TI  - BMI is a poor predictor of adiposity in young overweight and obese children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The body mass index (BMI) is a simple and widely utilized screening
      tool for obesity in children and adults. The purpose of this investigation was to
      evaluate if BMI could predict total fat mass (TFM) and percent body fat (%FAT) in
      a sample of overweight and obese children. METHODS: In this observational study,
      body composition was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 663
      male and female overweight and obese children at baseline within a
      multidisciplinary, pediatric fitness clinic at an academic medical center.
      Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to evaluate
      whether BMI z-score (BMIz) predicts TFM or %FAT. RESULTS: The BMIz, sex and age
      of subjects were identified as significant predictors for both TFM and %FAT. In
      subjects younger than 9 years, the BMIz was a weak to moderate predictor for both
      TFM (R2 = 0.03 for males and 0.26 for females) and %FAT (R2 = 0.22 for males and
      0.38 for females). For subjects between 9 and 18 years, the BMIz was a strong
      predictor for TFM (R2 between 0.57 and 0.73) while BMIz remained only moderately
      predictive for %FAT (R2 between 0.22 and 0.42). CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      advance the understanding of the utility and limitations of BMI in children and
      adolescents. In youth (9-18y), BMIz is a strong predictor for TFM, but a weaker
      predictor of relative body fat (%FAT). In children younger than 9y, BMIz is only
      a weak to moderate predictor for both TFM and %FAT. This study cautions the use
      of BMIz as a predictor of %FAT in children younger than 9 years.

PMID- 28577357
TI  - Assessing the effect of patient screening and isolation on curtailing Clostridium
      difficile infection in hospital settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient screening at the time of hospital admission is not
      recommended as a routine practice, but may be an important strategy for
      containment of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in hospital settings. We
      sought to investigate the effect of patient screening in the presence of
      asymptomatic carriers and in the context of imperfect patient isolation. METHODS:
      We developed and parameterized a stochastic simulation model for the transmission
      dynamics of CDI in a hospital ward. RESULTS: We found that the transmission of
      CDI in the hospital, either through asymptomatic carriers or as a results of
      ineffective implementation of infection control practices, at the time of
      hospital admission. The results show that, for a sufficiently high reproduction
      number of CDI, the disease can persist within a hospital setting in the presence
      of in-ward transmission, even when there are no asymptomatically colonized
      patients at the time of hospital admission. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings have
      significant public health and clinical implications, especially in light of the
      emergence and community spread of hypervirulent CDI strains with enhanced
      transmission rates and toxin production. Rapid detection of colonized patients
      remains an important component of CDI control, especially in the context of
      asymptomatic transmission. Screening of in-hospital patients with potential
      exposure to colonized patients or contaminated environment and equipment can help
      reduce the rates of silent transmission of CDI through asymptomatic carriers.

PMID- 28577358
TI  - Sensitivity of alternative measures of functioning and wellbeing for adults with
      sickle cell disease: comparison of PROMIS(r) to ASCQ-MeSM.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) causes profound suffering and decrements in
      daily functioning. Demand is growing for valid and reliable measures to
      systematically document these effects, particularly in adults. The Adult Sickle
      Cell Quality of Life Measurement System, ASCQ-MeSM, was developed for this
      purpose. ASCQ-MeSM is one of four measurement systems housed within the Person
      Centered Assessment Resource (PCAR), funded by the National Institutes of Health,
      to support clinical research. To help users select the best of these measures for
      adults with SCD, we evaluated and compared two PCAR systems: one designed to be
      "universally applicable" (the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information
      System, PROMIS(r)) and one designed specifically for SCD (ASCQ-MeSM). METHODS:
      Respondents to PROMIS and ASCQ-Me questions were 490 adults with SCD from seven
      geographically-disbursed clinics within the US. Data were collected for six ASCQ
      Me measures (Emotional Impact, Sleep Impact, Social Impact, Stiffness Impact,
      Pain Impact, SCD Pain Episode Frequency and Severity) and ten PROMIS measures
      (Pain Impact, Pain Behavior, Physical Functioning, Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue,
      Satisfaction with Discretionary Social Activities, Satisfaction with Social
      Roles, Sleep Disturbance, and Sleep-Related Impairment). Statistical analyses,
      including analysis of variance and multiple linear regression, were conducted to
      determine the sensitivity of measures to SCD severity. SCD severity was assessed
      via a checklist of associated treatments and conditions. RESULTS: For those with
      the most severe SCD, PROMIS scores showed worse health compared to the general
      population for nine of ten health domains: the magnitude of the difference ranged
      0.5 to 1.1 standard deviation units. The PROMIS domains most severely affected
      were Physical Functioning and Pain (Impact and Behavior). Significant differences
      by tertile of the SCD-MHC were shown for most PROMIS short forms and all ASCQ-Me
      short and fixed forms. In most models, ASCQ-Me measures explained statistically
      significant unique variance in SCD-MHC scores complementary to that explained by
      corresponding PROMIS measures. CONCLUSIONS: Study results supported the validity
      of both PROMIS and ASCQ-Me measures for use in adults with SCD. Compared to
      comparable PROMIS scores, most ASCQ-Me scores were better predictors of SCD
      disease severity, as measured by a medical history checklist. The clinical
      implications of these results require further investigation.

PMID- 28577359
TI  - A nationwide multi-institutional retrospective study to identify prognostic
      factors and develop a graded prognostic assessment system for patients with brain
      metastases from uterine corpus and cervical cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of brain metastases (BM) from uterine cancer has
      recently increased because of the improvement of overall survival (OS) of
      patients with uterine cancer due to its early detection and improved local
      control as a result of new effective treatments. However, little information is
      available regarding their clinical characteristics and prognosis, because
      oncologists have encountered BM from uterine cancer on rare occasions. METHODS:
      Records from 81 patients with uterine BM were collected from 10 institutes in
      Japan. These were used in a multi-institutional study to identify prognostic
      factors and develop a graded prognostic assessment (GPA) for patients with BM
      from uterine cancer. RESULTS: Median OS after the development of BM was 7 months
      (95% confidence interval, 4 to 10 months). Multivariate analysis revealed that
      there were survival differences according to the existence of extracranial
      metastases and number of BM. In the present uterine-GPA, a score of 0 was
      assigned to those patients with >=5 BM and extracranial metastasis, a score of 2
      was assigned to those patients with one to four BM or without extracranial
      metastasis, and a score of 4 was assigned to those patients with one to four BM
      and without extracranial metastasis. The median OS for patients with a uterine
      GPA scores of 0, 2, and 4 was 3, 7, and 22 months, respectively. A survival
      analysis confirmed the presence of statistically significant differences between
      these groups (p < 0.05). The results were validated by data obtained from the
      National Report of Brain Tumor Registry of Japan. CONCLUSION: Uterine GPA
      incorporates two simple clinical parameters of high prognostic significance and
      can be used to predict the expected survival times in patients with BM from
      uterine cancer. Its use may help in determining an appropriate treatment for
      individual patients with BM.

PMID- 28577360
TI  - Aeroembolism in left atrium during catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in a
      patient with dextrocardia: a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Air embolus penetrating into heart chamber as a complication during
      percutaneous radiofrequency catheter ablation has been infrequently reported.
      CASE PRESENTATION: A 55-year-old man with dextrocardia who suffered from
      abdominal pain was suspected to have multiple arterial thromboembolisms, which
      might have originated from left atrium thrombosis since he had atrial
      fibrillation. He received oral anticoagulant therapy and catheter ablation of the
      arrhythmia. During the ablation procedure, an iatrogenic aeroembolism penetrated
      into the left atrium due to improper operation. Ultimately, the entire air
      embolus was extracted from the patient, who was free of any aeroembolism events
      thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: It is essential for an operator to pay full attention to
      all details of the procedure to avoid an aeroembolism during catheter ablation.
      In case of aeroembolism, removal by aspiration is an optimal and effective
      treatment.

PMID- 28577361
TI  - 'It is a difficult topic' - a qualitative study of midwives' experiences with
      routine antenatal enquiry for intimate partner violence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy may jeopardize
      maternal and fetal health (IJFWM 49:159-164, 2004; IJGO 133:269-276, 2016). In
      recognition of the significant public health impact of IPV, the Norwegian
      Directorate of Health issued new guidelines in 2014, which recommend that health
      professionals routinely ask all women in antenatal care about their exposure to
      violence. The objective of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of
      midwives' experiences with routine enquiry for intimate partner violence during
      the antenatal period. METHODS: The study had a qualitative design. Individual
      semi-structured interviews with eight midwives providing antenatal care at eight
      Mother and Child Health Centres (MCHC) in Norway were conducted. Graneheim and
      Lundmans method of content analysis inspired the analysis. RESULTS: Three main
      themes emerged: Midwives do ask about violence; It can be a challenge; and
      Factors that make it easier to ask. All midwives enquired, but not on a regular
      basis, about violence. The midwives' personal interest in the topic was an
      important factor that made it easier for them to ask about violence. Lack of
      time, fear of not knowing how to deal with a positive answer and lack of
      organizational support were barriers to asking pregnant women about their
      experiences of violence. CONCLUSION: Midwives were aware of the guidelines and
      made some efforts to implement them. However, further education and
      organisational support is needed to enable midwives to routinely ask all pregnant
      women about IVP.

PMID- 28577362
TI  - Serum uric acid concentration is associated with hypertensive retinopathy in
      hypertensive chinese adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This cross sectional investigation included 12,966 subjects with
      hypertension, a cohort of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial (CSPPT), a
      randomized, multicenter clinical trial. This study aimed to explore the
      correlation between serum uric acid (SUA) concentration and hypertensive
      retinopathy in hypertensive adults. METHODS: Diagnosis of hypertensive
      retinopathy was determined by non-mydriatic fundus photography and classified
      with Keith-Wagener-Barker (KWB) system. The correlation of SUA levels with
      hypertensive retinopathy prevalence and severity was assessed by statistical
      analysis. RESULTS: 9848 (75.95%) subjects were diagnosed with hypertensive
      retinopathy with the following retinopathy grade distribution: grade 1: 58.80%,
      grade 2: 14.81%, and grade 3-4: 2.34%. SUA levels were significantly associated
      with hypertensive retinopathy prevalence. Patients with hypertensive retinopathy
      had higher SUA levels than those without hypertensive retinopathy. Patients in
      the highest uric acid quartile had an odds ratio for hypertensive retinopathy of
      1.21 compared to patients in the lowest uric acid quartile (OR = 1.21, 95% CI:
      1.05-1.40, P = 0.008). When compared to the non-hyperuricemia group, those in the
      hyperuricemia group had an odds ratio for hypertensive retinopathy of 1.18(OR =
      1.18, 95% CI: 1.05-1.33, P = 0.004). Every 1 mg/dl increase in uric acid
      concentration was significantly associated with a 6% higher odds of hypertensive
      retinopathy (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02-1.10, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The
      prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy was high (75.95%) among hypertensives in
      our patients cohort. In addition, SUA concentration was significantly associated
      with hypertensive retinopathy.

PMID- 28577364
TI  - Factors associated with impaired color vision without retinopathy amongst people
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) may develop color
      vision impairment. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors
      associated with impaired color vision in patients with T2DM but without diabetic
      retinopathy. METHODS: Enrolment criteria included multi-ethnic Asian
      participants, age 21 to 80 years, with known T2DM for a minimum of 2 years. Their
      diagnoses were affirmed from oral glucose tolerance test results and they were
      screened for impaired color vision using the Farnsworth D-15 instrument.
      Demographic characteristics were described and clinical data for the preceding 2
      years were analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of 849
      eligible participants had impaired color vision with higher involvement of the
      right eye. Impaired blue-yellow color-vision(Tritanomaly) was the commonest
      impaired color vision. Participants with impaired color vision were significantly
      associated with age and lower education; longer duration of T2DM (median 6 years
      vs 4 years); higher HbA1c level and HDL-Cholesterol in 2nd year; lower mean total
      cholesterol, mean LDL-Cholesterol and mean triglyceride in 2nd year. They also
      have poorer vision beyond 6/12 in the affected eye. Logistic regression showed
      that impaired color vision was associated with older patients (OR=1.04),
      increased duration of T2DM (OR=1.07); prescription of Tolbutamide (OR=3.79) and
      lower mean systolic blood pressure (OR=0.98). CONCLUSION: Almost one in four
      participants with T2DM had impaired color vision, largely with tritanomaly. Color
      vision screening may be considered for participants who develop T2DM for 6 years
      or longer, but this requires further cost-effectiveness evaluation.

PMID- 28577363
TI  - International workshop on insecticide resistance in vectors of arboviruses,
      December 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
AB  - Vector-borne diseases transmitted by insect vectors such as mosquitoes occur in
      over 100 countries and affect almost half of the world's population. Dengue is
      currently the most prevalent arboviral disease but chikungunya, Zika and yellow
      fever show increasing prevalence and severity. Vector control, mainly by the use
      of insecticides, play a key role in disease prevention but the use of the same
      chemicals for more than 40 years, together with the dissemination of mosquitoes
      by trade and environmental changes, resulted in the global spread of insecticide
      resistance. In this context, innovative tools and strategies for vector control,
      including the management of resistance, are urgently needed. This report
      summarizes the main outputs of the first international workshop on Insecticide
      resistance in vectors of arboviruses held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 5-8 December
      2016. The primary aims of this workshop were to identify strategies for the
      development and implementation of standardized insecticide resistance management,
      also to allow comparisons across nations and across time, and to define research
      priorities for control of vectors of arboviruses. The workshop brought together
      163 participants from 28 nationalities and was accessible, live, through the web
      (> 70,000 web-accesses over 3 days).

PMID- 28577365
TI  - Prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Lumbini Medical
      College and Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Western Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus is common in both tertiary
      and primary health care settings. Emergence of methicillin resistance in S.
      aureus (MRSA) along with macrolide, lincosamide, streptogramin B (MLSB) has made
      treatment of Staphylococcal infection more challenging. The main objective of
      this study was to detect MRSA, MLSB (inducible; MLSBi and constitutive; MLSBc)
      resistant S. aureus using phenotypic methods and to determine their antibiogram.
      METHODS: Various samples were collected from 1981 patients who attended Lumbini
      Medical College and Teaching Hospital (LMCTH) during the period of 6 months from
      September 2015 to February 2016. Out of a total of 1981 samples, 133 S. aureus
      were isolated. Cefoxitin was used to detect MRSA by the disk diffusion test.
      Inducible clindamycin resistance (MLSBi) was detected by the D-zone test. The
      antibiotic profile of all isolates was tested by a modified Kirby Bauer disk
      diffusion method. RESULTS: Among 133 S. aureus, there were 58 (43.6%) MRSA, 34
      (25.6%) MLSBi and 30 (22.6%) MLSBc. Of a total of 64 MLSB, a significant
      proportion (62.5%) was MRSA (p < 0.001). Among 11 different antibiotics that were
      tested for S. aureus, MRSA showed significant resistance to 9 (p < 0.05) with the
      exception of vancomycin and linezolid. All the isolates were 100% sensitive to
      linezolid. MLSBi organisms were 100% sensitive to vancomycin and linezolid. Both
      MLSBi and MLSBc showed a higher degree of resistance to multiple antibiotics (p <
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Isolation of MRSA, MLSBi and MLSBc were remarkably high.
      Routine use of simple and cost effective methods such as the disk diffusion test
      by cefoxitin for MRSA and the D-zone test for MLSBi organisms can easily identify
      these isolates. Antibiotic resistance profiles from this study can optimize the
      treatment of multi-drug resistant S. aureus.

PMID- 28577366
TI  - Accuracy of four intraoral scanners in oral implantology: a comparative in vitro
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Until now, only a few studies have compared the ability of different
      intraoral scanners (IOS) to capture high-quality impressions in patients with
      dental implants. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare the trueness and
      precision of four IOS in a partially edentulous model (PEM) with three implants
      and in a fully edentulous model (FEM) with six implants. METHODS: Two gypsum
      models were prepared with respectively three and six implant analogues, and
      polyether-ether-ketone cylinders screwed on. These models were scanned with a
      reference scanner (ScanRider(r)), and with four IOS (CS3600(r), Trios3(r),
      Omnicam(r), TrueDefinition(r)); five scans were taken for each model, using each
      IOS. All IOS datasets were loaded into reverse-engineering software, where they
      were superimposed on the reference model, to evaluate trueness, and superimposed
      on each other within groups, to determine precision. A detailed statistical
      analysis was carried out. RESULTS: In the PEM, CS3600(r) had the best trueness
      (45.8 +/- 1.6MUm), followed by Trios3(r) (50.2 +/- 2.5MUm), Omnicam(r) (58.8 +/-
      1.6MUm) and TrueDefinition(r) (61.4 +/- 3.0MUm). Significant differences were
      found between CS3600(r) and Trios3(r), CS3600(r) and Omnicam(r), CS3600(r) and
      TrueDefinition(r), Trios3(r) and Omnicam(r), Trios3(r) and TrueDefinition(r). In
      the FEM, CS3600(r) had the best trueness (60.6 +/- 11.7MUm), followed by
      Omnicam(r) (66.4 +/- 3.9MUm), Trios3(r) (67.2 +/- 6.9MUm) and TrueDefinition(r)
      (106.4 +/- 23.1MUm). Significant differences were found between CS3600(r) and
      TrueDefinition(r), Trios3(r) and TrueDefinition(r), Omnicam(r) and
      TrueDefinition(r). For all scanners, the trueness values obtained in the PEM were
      significantly better than those obtained in the FEM. In the PEM,
      TrueDefinition(r) had the best precision (19.5 +/- 3.1MUm), followed by Trios3(r)
      (24.5 +/- 3.7MUm), CS3600(r) (24.8 +/- 4.6MUm) and Omnicam(r) (26.3 +/- 1.5MUm);
      no statistically significant differences were found among different IOS. In the
      FEM, Trios3(r) had the best precision (31.5 +/- 9.8MUm), followed by Omnicam(r)
      (57.2 +/- 9.1MUm), CS3600(r) (65.5 +/- 16.7MUm) and TrueDefinition(r) (75.3 +/-
      43.8MUm); no statistically significant differences were found among different
      IOS. For CS3600(r), For CS3600(r), Omnicam(r) and TrueDefinition(r), the values
      obtained in the PEM were significantly better than those obtained in the FEM; no
      significant differences were found for Trios3(r). CONCLUSIONS: Significant
      differences in trueness were found among different IOS; for each scanner, the
      trueness was higher in the PEM than in the FEM. Conversely, the IOS did not
      significantly differ in precision; for CS3600(r), Omnicam(r) and
      TrueDefinition(r), the precision was higher in the PEM than in the FEM. These
      findings may have important clinical implications.

PMID- 28577367
TI  - Occurence of dentinal defects after root canal preparation with R-phase, M-Wire
      and Gold Wire instruments: a micro-CT analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to evaluate the frequency of dentinal defects after
      root canal preparation with the ProTaper NEXT, K3XF and WaveOne GOLD systems
      using microcomputed tomography. METHODS: Sixty permanent mandibular incisors with
      a single canal were selected. Inspection of the teeth was performed under a
      stereomicroscope (15x) to observe the presence of pre-existing cracks and
      fractures lines. Samples were divided into three experimental groups (n = 20):
      ProTaper NEXT (PTN), K3XF (K3XF) and WaveOne GOLD (WOG). Specimens were scanned
      through high-resolution microcomputed tomography before and after the preparation
      of the root canal. Subsequently, all the axial images were examined by two
      different methods to find possible dentinal defects. Furthermore, an analysis of
      each millimeter of ten apical millimeters was also performed. The absence or
      presence of dentinal defects was screened by 3 pre-calibrated blinded examiners.
      RESULTS: After analysing all 45,720 slices, dentinal defects were observed in
      48,33% (22096 slices). PTN, K3XF and WOG groups represented 11,11% (5079 slices),
      17,22% (7873 slices) and 20% (n = 9144) of the cross-sectional images,
      respectively. At 10 apical millimeters (600 slices), 33,33% (200 slices)
      presented some dentinal defects, representing 7,22% (43 slices), 13,33% (80
      slices) and 12,77% (77 slices) of the cross-sectional images in the PTN, K3XF and
      WOG groups, respectively. All the dentinal defects presented in the postoperative
      images existed in the images prior to instrumentation. CONCLUSIONS: There was no
      correlation between the preparation of a root canal using the PTN, K3XF and WOG
      systems and the formation of new dentinal defects.

PMID- 28577368
TI  - Inhibitors of ubiquitin E3 ligase as potential new antimalarial drug leads.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Protein ubiquitylation is an important post-translational regulation,
      which has been shown to be necessary for life cycle progression and survival of
      Plasmodium falciparum. Ubiquitin is a highly conserved 76 amino acid polypeptide,
      which attaches covalently to target proteins through combined action of three
      classes of enzymes namely, the ubiquitin-activating enzyme (E1), ubiquitin
      conjugating enzyme (E2) and ubiquitin-protein ligase (E3). Ubiquitin E1 and E2
      are highly conserved within eukaryotes. However, the P. falciparum E3 ligase is
      substantially variable and divergent compared to the homologs from other
      eukaryotes, which make the E3 ligase a parasite-specific target. METHODS: A set
      of selected E3 ubiquitin ligase inhibitors was tested in vitro against a
      chloroquine-sensitive P. falciparum D6 strain (PfD6) and a chloroquine-resistant
      P. falciparum W2 strain (PfW2). The inhibitors were also tested against Vero and
      transformed THP1 cells for cytotoxicity. The lead antimalarial E3 ubiquitin
      ligase inhibitors were further evaluated for the stage-specific antimalarial
      action and effects on cellular development of P. falciparum in vitro. Statistics
      analysis was done by two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey and Sidak multiple
      comparison test using GraphPad Prism 6. RESULTS: E3 ligase inhibitors namely, JNJ
      26854165, HLI 373 and Nutlin 3 showed prominent antimalarial activity against
      PfD6 and PfW2. These inhibitors were considerably less cytotoxic to mammalian
      Vero cells. JNJ 26854165, HLI 373 and Nutlin 3 blocked the development of P.
      falciparum parasite at the trophozoite and schizont stages, resulting in
      accumulation of distorted trophozoites and immature schizonts. CONCLUSIONS:
      Interruption of trophozoites and schizont maturation by the antimalarial E3
      ligase inhibitors suggest the role of ubiquitin/proteasome functions in the
      intraerythrocytic development of malaria parasite. The ubiquitin/proteasome
      functions may be critical for schizont maturation. Further investigations on the
      lead E3 ligase inhibitors shall provide better understanding regarding the
      importance of E3 ligase functions in the malaria parasite as a potential new
      antimalarial drug target and a new class of antimalarial drug leads.

PMID- 28577370
TI  - Viruses vector control proposal: genus Aedes emphasis.
AB  - The dengue fever is a major public health problem in the world. In Brazil, in
      2015, there were 1,534,932 cases, being 20,320 cases of severe form, and 811
      deaths related to this disease. The distribution of Aedes aegypti, the vector, is
      extensive. Recently, Zika and Chikungunya viruses had arisen, sharing the same
      vector as dengue and became a huge public health issue. Without specific
      treatment, it is urgently required as an effective vector control. This article
      is focused on reviewing vector control strategies, their effectiveness, viability
      and economical impact. Among all, the Sterile Insect Technique is highlighted as
      the best option to be adopted in Brazil, once it is largely effectively used in
      the USA and Mexico for plagues related to agribusiness.

PMID- 28577369
TI  - Efficacy of a Four-Hour Drainage Clamping Technique in the Reduction of Blood
      Loss Following Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Prospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND During total hip arthroplasty (THA) drainage is used by most surgeons.
      However, the optimal drainage strategy remains controversial. The aim of this
      prospective cohort study was to determine the safety and efficacy of a four-hour
      drainage clamping technique in patients undergoing THA. MATERIAL AND METHODS
      There were 64 patients who underwent THA from March 2012 to December 2015 who
      were enrolled in the study; 32 patients were randomly assigned to four hours of a
      drainage clamping technique (clamping group); 32 patients were treated with a non
      clamping drainage technique (non-clamping group). All perioperative clinical
      details were recorded for comparative analysis. RESULTS The postoperative
      drainage volume and calculated blood loss were significantly greater in the
      drainage non-clamping group, p<0.001 and p=0.028, respectively. Significantly
      more patients in the drainage non-clamping group required a blood transfusion,
      seven cases versus one case (p=0.023). Significantly more units of blood were
      transfused in the drainage non-clamping group (p=0.001). No significant
      differences were found for all other clinical outcome factors. CONCLUSIONS The
      four-hour drainage clamping technique following THA, compared with drainage non
      clamping technique reduced blood loss and requirement for blood transfusion.
      There was no increase in adverse clinical events using the four-hour drainage
      clamping method. Therefore, four-hour drainage clamping has the potential for
      routine use in THA.

PMID- 28577371
TI  - Prevalence of Torus Mandibularis in Young Healthy Dentate Adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: There have been only a few reports on the prevalence of torus
      mandibularis (TM) in young adult patients, and TM can have various adverse
      effects on oral and occlusal states in middle-age patients. This study was
      designed to determine the association between TM status and oral and occlusal
      states in young healthy dentate adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional study; the sample population included students at Hiroshima University
      (Hiroshima, Japan) who participated for practical education. The predictor
      variables in this study included oral symptoms (temporomandibular joint noise,
      tooth clenching and grinding, buccal mucosa ridging, dental attrition, and tongue
      habit), oral anatomy (occlusal vertical dimension), and oral function (average
      occlusal pressure, occlusal contact area, and maximum voluntary tongue pressure).
      The outcome variable was TM status (present or absent). Additional variables were
      demographic in nature and included age, number of residual teeth, body weight,
      and gender. These variables were compared among participants with and without TM
      using univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis. Statistical
      analyses were carried out using SPSS Statistics 19 for Windows (IBM Corp, Armonk,
      NY); a P value less than .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Of 204
      participants included in the study, 50% were men and 50% were women. The mean age
      was 22.4 +/- 2.7 years. TM was present in 119 (58.3%). Multiple logistic
      regression analysis showed that TM status was associated with dental attrition
      and occlusal contact area (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that TM was
      present in more than half the young healthy dentate participants and was closely
      associated with dental attrition and occlusal contact area. This study will
      provide readers with useful information to help prevent the development of TM
      before middle age.

PMID- 28577373
TI  - Using Q Methodology in Quality Improvement Projects.
AB  - Q methodology consists of a philosophical framework and procedures to identify
      subjective viewpoints that may not be well understood, but its use in nursing is
      still quite limited. We describe how Q methodology can be used in quality
      improvement projects to better understand local viewpoints that act as
      facilitators or barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice. We
      describe the use of Q methodology to identify nurses' attitudes about the
      provision of skin-to-skin care after cesarean birth.

PMID- 28577372
TI  - Effects of Objective 3-Dimensional Measures of Facial Shape and Symmetry on
      Perceptions of Facial Attractiveness.
AB  - PURPOSE: Meeting patient desires for enhanced facial esthetics requires that
      providers have standardized and objective methods to measure esthetics. The
      authors evaluated the effects of objective 3-dimensional (3D) facial shape and
      asymmetry measurements derived from 3D facial images on perceptions of facial
      attractiveness. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The 3D facial images of 313 adults in Iowa
      were digitized with 32 landmarks, and objective 3D facial measurements capturing
      symmetric and asymmetric components of shape variation, centroid size, and
      fluctuating asymmetry were obtained from the 3D coordinate data using geo
      morphometric analyses. Frontal and profile images of study participants were
      rated for facial attractiveness by 10 volunteers (5 women and 5 men) on a 5-point
      Likert scale and a visual analog scale. Multivariate regression was used to
      identify the effects of the objective 3D facial measurements on attractiveness
      ratings. RESULTS: Several objective 3D facial measurements had marked effects on
      attractiveness ratings. Shorter facial heights with protrusive chins, midface
      retrusion, faces with protrusive noses and thin lips, flat mandibular planes with
      deep labiomental folds, any cants of the lip commissures and floor of the nose,
      larger faces overall, and increased fluctuating asymmetry were rated as
      significantly (P < .001) less attractive. CONCLUSION: Perceptions of facial
      attractiveness can be explained by specific 3D measurements of facial shapes and
      fluctuating asymmetry, which have important implications for clinical practice
      and research.

PMID- 28577374
TI  - Evaluation of lipid oxidation of Chinese-style sausage during processing and
      storage based on electronic nose.
AB  - A portable electronic nose was used for extracting flavour fingerprint map of
      Chinese-style sausage during processing and storage, in parallel with detection
      of acid value (AV) and peroxide value (POV) for evaluating lipid oxidation.
      Sausage samples during processing and storage were divided into three and five
      quality phases, respectively. After comparison of sensors response to lipid
      oxidation, optimal sensor array was determined. Several classification and
      regression models were developed to classify samples into their respective
      quality phase and predict lipid oxidation using full and optimal sensor array.
      Results indicated classification accuracy for sausage samples were, respectively,
      above 95% and 82% during the processing and storage. For support vector machine
      (SVM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) regression models, good performance in
      predicting AV and POV were obtained, with the coefficients of determination (R2s)
      >0.914 and 0.814 during processing and storage, respectively. Thus, E-nose
      demonstrated acceptable feasibility in evaluating the degree of lipid oxidation
      of Chinese-style sausage during processing and storage.

PMID- 28577376
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28577375
TI  - Moisture migration, microstructure damage and protein structure changes in
      porcine longissimus muscle as influenced by multiple freeze-thaw cycles.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of multiple freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles on water
      mobility, microstructure damage and protein structure changes in porcine
      longissimus muscle. The transverse relaxation time T2 increased significantly
      when muscles were subjected to multiple F-T cycles (P<0.05), which means that
      immobile water shifted to free water and the free water mobility increased.
      Multiple F-T cycles caused sarcomere shortening, Z line fractures, and I band
      weakening and also led to microstructural destruction of muscle tissue. The
      decreased free amino group content and increased dityrosine in myofibrillar
      protein (MP) revealed that multiple F-T cycles caused protein cross-linking and
      oxidation. In addition, the results of size exclusion chromatography, circular
      dichroism spectra, UV absorption spectra, and intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy
      indirectly proved that multiple F-T cycles could cause protein aggregation and
      degradation, alpha-helix structure disruption, hydrophobic domain exposure, and
      conformational changes of MP. Overall, repeated F-T cycles changed the protein
      structure and water distribution within meat.

PMID- 28577377
TI  - Reply by Authors.

PMID- 28577378
TI  - Re: Extended Duration Enoxaparin Decreases the Rate of Venous Thromboembolic
      Events after Radical Cystectomy Compared to Inpatient Only Subcutaneous Heparin:
      J. J. Pariser, S. M. Pearce, B. B. Anderson, V. T. Packiam, V. N. Prachand, N. D.
      Smith and G. D. Steinberg J Urol 2017;197:302-307.

PMID- 28577379
TI  - Re: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Underestimation of Prostate Cancer Geometry: Use
      of Patient Specific Molds to Correlate Images with Whole Mount Pathology: A.
      Priester, S. Natarajan, P. Khoshnoodi, D. J. Margolis, S. S. Raman, R. E. Reiter,
      J. Huang, W. Grundfest and L. S. Marks J Urol 2017;197:320-326.

PMID- 28577380
TI  - Season, molt, and body size influence mercury concentrations in grebes.
AB  - We studied seasonal and physiological influences on mercury concentrations in
      western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's grebes (A. occidentalis)
      across 29 lakes and reservoirs in California, USA. Additionally, at three of
      these lakes, we conducted a time series study, in which we repeatedly sampled
      grebe blood mercury concentrations during the spring, summer, and early fall.
      Grebe blood mercury concentrations were higher among males (0.61 +/- 0.12 MUg/g
      ww) than females (0.52 +/- 0.10 MUg/g ww), higher among Clark's grebes (0.58 +/-
      0.12 MUg/g ww) than western grebes (0.51 +/- 0.10 MUg/g ww), and exhibited a
      strong seasonal pattern (decreasing by 60% from spring to fall). Grebe blood THg
      concentrations exhibited a shallow, inverse U-shaped pattern with body size, and
      was lowest among the smallest and largest grebes. Further, the relationship
      between grebe blood mercury concentrations and wing primary feather molt
      exhibited a shallow U-shaped pattern, where mercury concentrations were highest
      among birds that had not yet begun molting, decreased approximately 24% between
      pre-molt and late molt, and increased approximately 19% from late molt to post
      molt. Because grebes did not begin molting until mid-summer, lower grebe blood
      mercury concentrations observed in late summer and early fall were consistent
      with the onset of primary feather molt. However, because sampling date was a much
      stronger predictor of grebe mercury concentrations than molt, other seasonally
      changing environmental factors likely played a larger role than molt in the
      seasonal variation in grebe mercury concentrations. In the time series study, we
      found that seasonal trends in grebe mercury concentrations were not consistent
      among lakes, indicating that lake-specific variation in mercury dynamics
      influence the overall seasonal decline in grebe blood mercury concentrations.
      These results highlight the importance of accounting for sampling date, as well
      as ecological processes that may influence mercury concentrations, when
      developing monitoring programs to assess site-specific exposure risk of mercury
      to wildlife.

PMID- 28577381
TI  - Neurotoxicity of low bisphenol A (BPA) exposure for young male mice: Implications
      for children exposed to environmental levels of BPA.
AB  - To investigate the neuron toxicities of low-dose exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in
      children, mice were used as an animal model. We examined brain cell damage and
      the effects of learning and memory ability after BPA exposure in male mice (4
      weeks of age) that were divided into four groups and chronically received
      different BPA treatments for 8 weeks. The comet assay and hippocampal neuron
      counting were used to detect the brain cell damage. The Y-maze test was applied
      to test alterations in learning and memory ability. Long term potentiation
      induction by BPA exposure was performed to study the potential mechanism of
      performance. The percentages of tail DNA, tail length and tail moment in brain
      cells increased with increasing BPA exposure concentrations. Significant
      differences in DNA damage were observed among the groups, including between the
      low-dose and control groups. In the Y-maze test, the other three groups qualified
      for the learned standard one day earlier than the high-exposed group.
      Furthermore, the ratio of qualified mice in the high-exposed group was always the
      lowest among the groups, indicating that high BPA treatment significantly altered
      the spatial memory performance of mice. Different BPA treatments exerted
      different effects on the neuron numbers of different regions in the hippocampus.
      In the CA1 region, the high-exposed group had a significant decrease in neuron
      numbers. A non-monotonic relationship was observed between the exposure
      concentrations and neuron quantity in the CA3 region. The hippocampal slices in
      the control and medium-exposed groups generated long-term potentiation after
      induction by theta burst stimulation, but the low-exposed group did not. A
      significant difference was observed between the control and low-exposed groups.
      In conclusion, chronic exposure to a low level of BPA had adverse effects on
      brain cells and altered the learning and memory ability of adolescent mice.

PMID- 28577382
TI  - Transport, retention, and long-term release behavior of polymer-coated silver
      nanoparticles in saturated quartz sand: The impact of natural organic matters and
      electrolyte.
AB  - This study investigated the transport and long-term release of stabilized silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs), including polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated AgNPs (PVP-AgNPs)
      and bare AgNPs (Bare-AgNPs), in the presence of natural organic matters (NOMs;
      both humic acids (HA) and alginate (Alg)) and an electrolyte (Ca2+) in a sand
      packed column. Very low breakthrough rate (C/C0) of AgNPs (below 0.04) occurred
      in the absence of NOM and the electrolyte. Increasing the concentration of NOM
      and decreasing the influent NOM solution's ionic strength (IS) reduced the
      retention of AgNPs. The reduced NP retention at high NOM and low IS was mainly
      attributed to the increased energy barrier between the AgNPs and the sand grain
      surface. Notably, the retention of PVP-AgNPs was enhanced at high Alg
      concentration and low IS, which mainly resulted from the improved hydrophobicity
      that could increase the interaction between the PVP-AgNPs and the collector. The
      total release amount of PVP-AgNPs (10.03%, 9.50%, 28.42%, 6.37%) and Bare-AgNPs
      (3.28%, 2.58%, 10.36%, 1.54%) were gained when exposed to four kinds of NOM
      solutions, including deionized water, an electrolyte solution (1 mM Ca2+), HA
      with an electrolyte (1 mM Ca2+), and a Alg (40 mg/L) solution with an electrolyte
      (1 mM Ca2+). The long-term release of retained silver nanoparticles in the quartz
      sand was mostly through the form of released Ag NPs. The factors that increased
      the mobility of AgNPs in quartz sand could improve the release of the AgNPs. The
      release of AgNPs had no significant change in the presence Ca2+ but were
      increased in the presence of HA. The Alg slightly decreased the release of AgNPs
      by increasing the hydrophobicity of AgNPs. The results of the study indicated
      that all the tested NOM and Ca2+ have prominent influence on the transport and
      long-term release behavior of silver nanoparticles in saturated quartz sand.

PMID- 28577383
TI  - Transport of terrigenous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons affected by the coastal
      upwelling in the northwestern coast of South China Sea.
AB  - Coastal upwelling prevails in the coast of Hainan Island, the northern South
      China Sea (SCS) during summer. We studied the influences of the upwelling on the
      horizontal and vertical transport of terrigenous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      (PAHs). PAHs in dissolved and suspended particulate phase of water samples were
      determined in the upper (depth < 1 m) and water column (depth > 10 m). PAH levels
      decreased sharply from inshore to offshore to open sea. The results showed that
      terrestrial input was the main source of coastal PAHs. Perylene, an important
      indicator of land plant-derived PAH, showed the significant correlation with PAHs
      (p < 0.005). This implied that fluvial transport was the primary pathway of
      terrigenous PAHs into the coast of northern SCS. Variations of the
      concentrations, compositions and diagnostic ratios of PAHs, accompanied the
      partition equilibrium in the water column, could indicate the selective
      degradation of PAHs by the plankton affected by upwelling. Different from the
      "traditional" transport pathway of PAHs in the water column (surface enrichment
      depth depletion distribution), the upwelling could provide the original driver to
      elevate the upward diffusion of sediment entrained contaminants towards the
      intermediate even the upper waters. It could also enhance the outward diffusion
      of terrigenous PAHs accompanied by the offshore transport of the upper waters.
      Therefore, the transport pathway of PAHs can be summarized by the coastal
      upwelling rising PAHs with their subsequent transport offshore and settling in
      the adjacent open sea.

PMID- 28577384
TI  - Elemental mercury: Its unique properties affect its behavior and fate in the
      environment.
AB  - Elemental mercury (Hg0) has different behavior in the environment compared to
      other pollutants due to its unique properties. It can remain in the atmosphere
      for long periods of time and so can travel long distances. Through air-surface
      (e.g., vegetation or ocean) exchange (dry deposition), Hg0 can enter terrestrial
      and aquatic systems where it can be converted into other Hg species. Despite
      being ubiquitous and playing a key role in Hg biogeochemical cycling, Hg0
      behavior in the environment is not well understood. The objective of this review
      is to provide a better understanding of how the unique physicochemical properties
      of Hg0 affects its cycling and chemical transformations in different
      environmental compartments. The first part focuses on the fundamental chemistry
      of Hg0, addressing why Hg0 is liquid at room temperature and the formation of
      amalgam, Hg halide, and Hg chalcogenides. The following sections discuss the long
      range transport of Hg0 as well as its redistribution in the atmosphere, aquatic
      and terrestrial systems, in particular, on the sorption/desorption processes that
      occur in each environmental compartment as well as the involvement of Hg0 in
      chemical transformation processes driven by photochemical, abiotic, and biotic
      reactions.

PMID- 28577385
TI  - Mercury levels of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) are associated with capture
      location.
AB  - Mercury is a toxic compound to which humans are exposed by consumption of fish.
      Current fish consumption advisories focus on minimizing the risk posed by the
      species that are most likely to have high levels of mercury. Less accounted for
      is the variation within species, and the potential role of the geographic origin
      of a fish in determining its mercury level. Here we surveyed the mercury levels
      in 117 yellowfin tuna caught from 12 different locations worldwide. Our results
      indicated significant variation in yellowfin tuna methylmercury load, with levels
      that ranged from 0.03 to 0.82 MUg/g wet weight across individual fish. Mean
      mercury levels were only weakly associated with fish size (R2 < 0.1461) or lipid
      content (R2 < 0.00007) but varied significantly, by a factor of 8, between sites.
      The results indicate that the geographic origin of fish can govern mercury load,
      and argue for better traceability of fish to improve the accuracy of exposure
      risk predictions.

PMID- 28577386
TI  - Hydraulics and gas exchange recover more rapidly from severe drought stress in
      small pot-grown grapevines than in field-grown plants.
AB  - Modifications of plant hydraulics and shoot resistances (Rshoot) induced by water
      withholding followed by rewatering, and their relationships with plant water
      status, leaf gas exchange and water use efficiency at the leaf level, were
      investigated in pot-grown and field-grown, own-rooted Syrah grapevines in an arid
      climate. Water stress induced anisohydric behavior, gradually reducing stomatal
      conductance (gs) and leaf photosynthesis (A) in response to decreasing midday
      stem water potential (Psis). Water stress also rapidly increased intrinsic water
      use efficiency (A/gs); this effect persisted for many days after rewatering.
      Whole-plant (Kplant), canopy (Kcanopy), shoot (Kshoot) and leaf (Kleaf) hydraulic
      conductances decreased during water stress, in tune with the gradual decrease in
      Psis, leaf gas exchange and whole plant water use. Water-stressed vines also had
      a lower Psi gradient between stem and leaf (DeltaPsil), which was correlated with
      lower leaf transpiration rate (E). E and DeltaPsil increased with increasing
      vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in non-stressed control vines but not in stressed
      vines. Perfusion of xylem-mobile dye showed that water flow to petioles and
      leaves was substantially reduced or even stopped under moderate and severe
      drought stress. Leaf blade hydraulic resistance accounted for most of the total
      shoot resistance. However, hydraulic conductance of the whole root system (Kroot)
      was not significantly reduced until water stress became very severe in pot-grown
      vines. Significant correlations between Kplant, Kcanopy and Psis, Kcanopy and
      leaf gas exchange, Kleaf and Psis, and Kleaf and A support a link between water
      supply, leaf water status and gas exchange. Upon re-watering, Psis recovered
      faster than gas exchange and leaf-shoot hydraulics. A gradual recovery of
      hydraulic functionality of plant organs was also observed, the leaves being the
      last to recover after rewatering. In pot-grown vines, Kcanopy recovered rather
      quickly following restoration of Psis, although gas exchange recovery did not
      directly depend on recovery of Kcanopy. In field-grown vines, recovery of water
      status, gas exchange and hydraulic functionality was slower than in pot-grown
      plants, and low gs after rewatering was related to sustained decreased Kplant,
      Kcanopy and Kshoot and lower water transport to leaves. These results suggest
      that caution should be exercised when scaling up conclusions from experiments
      with small pot-grown plants to field conditions.

PMID- 28577387
TI  - A double knockout mutant of acyl-glucose-dependent anthocyanin
      glucosyltransferase genes in Delphinium grandiflorum.
AB  - Blue coloration in delphinium flowers arises from 7-polyacylated anthocyanins
      which are modified alternately with acyl and glucosyl residues at the 7 position
      of the aglycone. Previously, we identified two independent genes for acyl-glucose
      dependent anthocyanin 7-(6-(p-hydroxybenzoyl)-glucoside) glucosyltransferases
      (AA7BG-GT); recombinant proteins from the two cDNAs were produced in Escherichia
      coli and showed AA7BG-GT activity in vitro. Here, a double knockout mutant of
      both genes was found to lack modification of the second glucosyl residue
      following further acyl and glucosyl modifications. Both genes in the double
      mutant had nucleotide sequence changes and deletions that disrupted their
      transcripts and caused loss of AA7BG-GT activity in sepals. These results provide
      genetic confirmation that both genes are responsible for AA7BG-GT enzyme
      activity.

PMID- 28577388
TI  - Recurrence of venous thromboembolism among adults acute leukemia patients treated
      at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Incidence and risk factors.
AB  - The purpose was to determine the incidence and risk factors for venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) recurrence among adult acute leukemia patients. We
      performed a retrospective study of adult acute leukemia patients who were treated
      at our institution between November 1999 and May 2005. Medical records of 139
      patients with an initial VTE were reviewed and followed up to May 2010 for VTE
      recurrence. Of these 139 patients [86 with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 53
      with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)], 27 (19.4%, 16 AML and 11 ALL) had VTE
      recurrence. The overall incidence rate of VTE was 8.6 per 100 person-years
      (median follow-up time: 0.9years). It was 5.9 and 12.4 per 100 person-years among
      ALL and AML patients, respectively. The cumulative proportion of recurrent VTE
      was 2.16%, 10.9%, 16.6%, 25.9%, 30.6%, and 34.2% at 1month, 6months, 1year,
      3years, 5years, and 7years, respectively. In a multivariate Cox hazards model,
      significant predictors for VTE recurrence included catheter thrombosis [adjusted
      hazard ratio (aHR)]:6.3, 95%CI:1.17-34.0), prior history of hematologic cancer
      (aHR:4.2, 95%CI:1.5-11.2), chronic lung disease (aHR: 3.4, 95%CI:0.92-12.5),
      psychological disorder (aHR: 4.3, 95%CI:1.5-12.2), and liver disease (aHR: 3.8,
      95%CI: 1.04-14.3). VTE recurrence is common among adult acute leukemia patients
      and it continues up to 7years after the initial episode. Catheter thrombosis, a
      history of hematologic malignancy antecedent to acute leukemia, and lung, liver
      and psychiatric co-morbidities increase the patient risk for VTE recurrence.
      Further studies should be conducted to improve the prevention of VTE recurrence
      in leukemia patients.

PMID- 28577389
TI  - Factor V Leiden paradox and the occurrence of distal vein thrombosis in a large
      cohort of thrombotic patients.

PMID- 28577390
TI  - Feasibility of the Von Willebrand disease PREVENT trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite treatment, women with von Willebrand disease (VWD) have lower
      von Willebrand factor (VWF) levels and greater blood loss at delivery than
      controls. Current weight-based dosing does not account for the ~1.5-fold increase
      in blood volume in pregnancy. METHODS: To evaluate the feasibility of a trial to
      prevent postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), we reviewed pre-pregnancy and 8th month VWF
      levels in women with VWD with and without PPH following vaginal delivery,
      assessed VWF concentrate use at delivery by U.S. hemophilia treatment center
      physician survey, and reviewed thrombosis risk with VWF concentrate by literature
      review. We determined trial interest and acceptability by structured interviews
      of physicians and patients. Analysis was by Student's t-test for continuous data,
      and chi-square or Fisher's exact test for discrete data. RESULTS: PPH was
      associated with lower pre-pregnancy VWF:RCo, p<0.005; higher pre-pregnancy, 8th
      and 9th-month weight, each p<0.001; a family bleeding history, p=0.036; and VWF
      concentrate treatment, p=0.005. Surveyed physicians reported first-line therapy
      at delivery was VWF concentrate, at a mean dose 50IU/kg. A trial of a 1.5-fold
      volume-based dose increase was acceptable to physicians and patients, if it is
      safe and if costs and visits are minimized. A literature review determined
      thrombosis risk with VWF concentrate is low, 0.4%. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      suggests pre-pregnancy VWF:RCo may predict PPH, but 50-80IU/kg VWF concentrate
      dosing may not prevent PPH. If pharmacokinetic modeling confirms volume-based
      dosing achieves VWF levels comparable to pregnant controls, it may be possible to
      determine if volume-modified VWF concentrate dosing will reduce PPH in VWD.

PMID- 28577391
TI  - Shrimp TAB1 interacts with TAK1 and p38 and activates the host innate immune
      response to bacterial infection.
AB  - Mammalian TAB1 has been previously identified as transforming growth factor-beta
      (TGF-beta)-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) binding protein, which functions as the
      activator of TAK1 and p38. This report, for the first time, identified and
      characterized the homolog of TAB1 in shrimp, to be specific, the homolog gene
      from Litopenaeus vannamei, containing a 1560-bp open reading frame (ORF) that
      encoded a putative protein of 519 amino acids with the conserved PP2Cc
      (Serine/threonine phosphatases, family 2C, catalytic) domain in N-terminal and a
      TAK1 binding motif in C-terminus, has been cloned and named LvTAB1. LvTAB1 was
      most abundant in gills and its expression could respond significantly to a series
      of stimuli, including LPS, Vibrio parahemolyticus and Staphylococcus aureus.
      Moreover, Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) experiments showed that LvTAB1 could
      combine with LvTAK1 as well as Lvp38, two members of IMD-NF-kappaB/MAPK pathway,
      which meant LvTAB1 could have a role in regulating the activities of these
      kinases. Over-expression of LvTAB1 in drosophila S2 cells could improve the
      transcriptional levels of antimicrobial peptide genes (AMPs) such as Diptericin
      (Dpt), the hallmark of drosophila NF-kappaB activated genes, indicating its
      activation effect on NF-kappaB pathway. Furthermore, suppression of LvTAB1
      expression in vivo by RNA-interference increased the sensibility of shrimps to V.
      parahaemolyticus infection, implying its protective role against bacterial
      infection. In conclusion, these results provide some insight into the function of
      LvTAB1 during bacterial infection.

PMID- 28577392
TI  - Impact of in-vehicle navigation information on lane-change behavior in urban
      expressway diverge segments.
AB  - Lane-changing behaviors frequently occur at upstream of the urban expressway off
      ramp, which possibly cause bottleneck or accident. This paper studies how in
      vehicle navigation information impacts lane-changing behavior at this urban
      expressway diverge segments with comparison to the traditional road signs by
      conducting a series of driving simulator experiments, in consideration of
      variation of the first provision time point and traffic flow density. Firstly,
      the driving simulator is validated by comparing data of lane-changing position
      and merging gap from both field survey and simulator. Then comparison study was
      performed for twelve scenarios which comprise four information provision design
      schemes under three different traffic flow density status. Lane-changing
      characteristics are analyzed by selecting six indicators, which are lane-changing
      merging gap, lane-changing position, lane change delay, lane-changing steering
      angle, lane-changing deceleration, and the safe distance of lane-changing. The
      results show that the impact of in-vehicle navigation information on lane
      changing behavior varies with traffic flow density and the time point of the
      first navigation information provided. The in-vehicle navigation information had
      significant positive impact on lane-changing safety under medium to high density
      condition. However, the effect is not significant under light density condition.
      Moreover, more improvement in operational safety and smooth could be gained when
      the in-vehicle navigation information is provided earlier within range of 2km
      upstream of the exit gore.

PMID- 28577393
TI  - Vaporised nicotine and tobacco harm reduction for addressing smoking among people
      living with HIV: A cross-sectional survey of Australian HIV health practitioners'
      attitudes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among
      people living with HIV (PLHIV). Due to the limited success of standard abstinence
      focused smoking cessation strategies in this population, there is growing
      interest in tobacco harm reduction (THR) approaches as an additional strategy to
      address these high smoking rates. This study explored the attitudes of health
      practitioners who provide healthcare to PLHIV towards THR. METHODS: 179
      Australian health practitioners who provide healthcare to PLHIV completed an
      online survey that measured their attitudes towards THR approaches, including
      switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes or vaporised nicotine products (VNPs).
      RESULTS: Respondents supported the concept of THR but were undecided on the role
      of VNPs. Respondents most commonly reported 'don't know' or 'undecided' responses
      to statements regarding VNPs. More respondents, however, agreed than disagreed
      that switching from smoking to long-term vaping could reduce risk (36% and 22%
      respectively) and be an effective strategy to help PLHIV to quit smoking (37%
      agree and 17% disagree). Only a minority of respondents (20%) agreed that VNPs
      are too harmful to recommend to patients, however around half (53%) were
      undecided. CONCLUSIONS: Despite supporting the principle of THR, health
      practitioners may require more evidence and knowledge about VNPs before being
      willing to consider them as a suitable intervention strategy.

PMID- 28577394
TI  - Combining lead isotopes and cluster analysis to distinguish the Guarani and Serra
      Geral Aquifer Systems and contaminated waters in a highly industrialized area in
      Southern Brazil.
AB  - The Rio dos Sinos Watershed area is located at the Middle-West region of the Rio
      Grande do Sul State, Southern Brazil, along thirty two municipalities and
      affecting 1.5 million inhabitants and many important industrial centers. Three
      main aquifers are recognized in the study area: the unconfined-fractured Serra
      Geral Aquifer System, the porous Guarani Aquifer System, and the Permian
      Aquitard. This study aims to understand groundwater, surface water and human
      activity interactions in the Rio dos Sinos Watershed, evaluating the application
      of stable lead isotopic ratios analyzed for this propose. Thirty six groundwater
      samples, 8 surface water samples and 5 liquid effluents of tanneries and
      landfills samples were measured using a Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer
      Thermo-Finnigan and a Neptune Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass
      Spectrometer. Groundwater isotopic ratios have a wider range compared to the
      surface water, with less radiogenic averages 208Pb/204Pb = 38.1837 vs 38.4050
      (standard deviation = 0.2921 vs 0.1343) and 206Pb/204Pb = 18.2947 vs 18.4766
      (standard deviation = 0.2215 vs 0.1059), respectively. Industrial liquid
      effluents (tanneries and industrial landfill) have averages 208Pb/204Pb = 38.1956
      and 206Pb/204Pb = 18.3169, distinct from effluent samples of domestic sanitary
      landfill (averages 208Pb/204Pb = 38.2353 and 206Pb/204Pb = 18.6607). Hierarchical
      cluster analysis led to distinguish six groups of groundwater, representing the
      three aquifers that occur in the area, two clusters suggesting groundwater
      mixtures and one demonstrating a highly contaminated groundwater. By analyzing
      the cluster results and wells' stratigraphic profiles it was possible to
      distinguish the different aquifers in the area. The Serra Geral Aquifer System
      has 206Pb/204Pb ratios between 18.4718 and 18.7089; 207Pb/204Pb between 15.6692
      and 15.6777; 208Pb/204Pb between 38.6826 and 38.7616; 207Pb/206Pb between 0.8372
      and 0.8623; 208Pb/206Pb between 2.0671 and 2.0964 and the Guarani Aquifer System
      has a wider range (208Pb/204Pb ranged from 37.9393 to 38.1279 and 206Pb/204Pb
      ranged from 18.0892 to 18.3217). Water mixing of these two aquifer systems is
      reflected by transitional results. The results confirm that the hierarchical
      cluster analysis of lead isotopes is a useful tool to discriminate different
      aquifer conditions, reflecting mostly the influence of the natural lead isotopic
      composition of the aquifers instead of the anthropogenic activities (urban and
      industrial), except when the groundwater is highly contaminated by human
      activity.

PMID- 28577396
TI  - Hydrogeological characteristics influencing the occurrence of pesticides and
      pesticide metabolites in groundwater across the Republic of Ireland.
AB  - Pesticide contamination of water is a potential environmental issue which may
      impact the quality of drinking water. The full extent of pesticide contamination
      is not fully understood due to complex fate pathways in the subsurface.
      Groundwater pesticide occurrence was investigated at seven agricultural sites in
      different hydrogeological settings to identify where pesticide occurrence
      dominated in temperate maritime climatic conditions. In Ireland, six cereal
      dominated sites in the South East and one grassland site in the West were
      investigated. Soil and subsoils varied from acid brown earths with high
      permeability to clay and silt rich tills with lower permeability. Over a 2year
      monitoring period, 730 samples were collected from a network of dedicated wells
      and springs across the seven sites. Multi-nested piezometers were installed in
      intergranular, fissured and karstic type aquifers to target shallow, transition
      and deeper groundwaters. Several springs were also sampled and the network
      included a confined aquifer. Groundwater was analysed for nine pesticide active
      ingredients and eight metabolites. Mecoprop and 2,4-D were the most frequently
      detected active ingredients above the instrument detection limit, accounting for
      36% and 26% of the 730 samples collected and analysed. Phenoxyacetic acid was the
      most frequently detected and widespread metabolite found in 39% of samples
      collected at all seven sites. Where the European Union drinking water standard of
      0.1MUg/L was exceeded, metabolites accounted for the majority of exceedances with
      3,5-dichlorobenzoic acid (DBA) and phenoxyacetic acid (PAC) dominating. Highest
      detections were encountered in sites with well drained soils underlain by gravel
      and limestone aquifers and within gravel lenses in lower permeability subsoil.
      Across the seven sites pesticide detections were mostly associated with
      metabolites and the environmental impact of many of these is unknown as they have
      received little attention in groundwater previously.

PMID- 28577395
TI  - Investigating the social behavioral dynamics and differentiation of skill in a
      martial arts technique.
AB  - Coordinating interpersonal motor activity is crucial in martial arts, where
      managing spatiotemporal parameters is emphasized to produce effective techniques.
      Modeling arm movements in an Aikido technique as coupled oscillators, we
      investigated whether more-skilled participants would adapt to the perturbation of
      weighted arms in different and predictable ways compared to less-skilled
      participants. Thirty-four participants ranging from complete novice to veterans
      of more than twenty years were asked to perform an Aikido exercise with a
      repeated attack and response, resulting in a period of steady-state coordination,
      followed by a take down. We used mean relative phase and its variability to
      measure the steady-state dynamics of both the inter- and intrapersonal
      coordination. Our findings suggest that interpersonal coordination of less
      skilled participants is disrupted in highly predictable ways based on oscillatory
      dynamics; however, more-skilled participants overcome these natural dynamics to
      maintain critical performance variables. Interestingly, the more-skilled
      participants exhibited more variability in their intrapersonal dynamics while
      meeting these interpersonal demands. This work lends insight to the development
      of skill in competitive social motor activities.

PMID- 28577397
TI  - Efficiency and acceptance of new water allocation rules - The case of an
      agricultural water users association.
AB  - Water scarcity is one of the major environmental problems in Southern Europe.
      High levels of water stress and increasing frequency of droughts, along with a
      greater environmental protection, make it necessary to design water management
      strategies that are allocative efficient and balance supply and demand. When
      functioning markets cannot be developed, the allocation rules proposed in the
      literature of social choice have been recognized as a suitable alternative.
      However, the application of new water allocation rules can be impaired by a lack
      of acceptance and implementation problems. This paper examines these obstacles
      for the case of an agricultural water users association (WUA), situated in the
      basin of the River Ebro, in relation to the governance structure and collective
      decision rule of the WUA. It analyzes the extent to which the gains and losses of
      the farmers affect their acceptance, and examines conditions for building
      agreements with side payments that provide incentives for the majority of the
      farmers to form part of a possible agreement. The results show that the uniform
      and sequential rules improve the allocative efficiency under normal conditions
      compared to the status quo and the sequential rule even in the case of droughts.
      In the presence of side payments this rule is likely to be accepted and has only
      an insignificant impact on distributional inequality.

PMID- 28577398
TI  - Evaluation of synergy and bacterial regrowth in photocatalytic ozonation
      disinfection of municipal wastewater.
AB  - The use of solar and ultraviolet titanium dioxide photocatalytic ozonation
      processes to inactivate waterborne pathogens (Escherichia coli, Salmonella
      species, Shigella species and Vibrio cholerae) in synthetic water and secondary
      municipal wastewater effluent is presented. The performance indicators were
      bacterial inactivation efficiency, post-disinfection regrowth and synergy effects
      (collaboration) between ozonation and photocatalysis (photocatalytic ozonation).
      Photocatalytic ozonation effectively inactivated the target bacteria and positive
      synergistic interactions were observed, leading to synergy indices (SI) of up to
      1.86 indicating a performance much higher than that of ozonation and
      photocatalysis individually (SI<=1, no synergy; SI>1 shows synergy between the
      two processes). Furthermore, there was a substantial reduction in contact time
      required for complete bacterial inactivation by 50-75% compared to the individual
      unit processes of ozonation and photocatalysis. Moreover, no post-treatment
      bacterial regrowth after 24 and 48h in the dark was observed. Therefore, the
      combined processes overcame the limitations of the individual unit processes in
      terms of the suppression of bacterial reactivation and regrowth owing to the fact
      that bacterial cells were irreparably damaged. The treated wastewater satisfied
      the bacteriological requirements in treated wastewater for South Africa.

PMID- 28577399
TI  - A parsimonious approach to estimate PAH concentrations in river sediments of
      anthropogenically impacted watersheds.
AB  - The contamination of riverine sediments and suspended matter with hydrophobic
      pollutants is typically associated with urban land use. However, it is rarely
      related to the sediment supply of the watershed, because sediment yield data are
      often missing. We show for a suite of watersheds in two regions of Germany with
      contrasting land use and geology that the contamination of suspended particles
      with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can be explained by the ratio of
      inhabitants residing within the watershed and the watershed's sediment yield. The
      modeling of sediment yields is based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation
      (RUSLE2015, Panagos et al., 2015) and the sediment delivery ratio (SDR). The
      applicability of this approach is demonstrated for watersheds ranging in size
      from 1.4 to 3000km2. The approach implies that the loading of particles with PAH
      can be assumed as time invariant. This is indicated by additional long-term
      measurements from sub-watersheds of the upper River Neckar basin, Germany. The
      parsimonious conceptual approach allows for reasonable predictions of the PAH
      loading of suspended sediments especially at larger scales. Our findings may
      easily be used to estimate the vulnerability of river systems to particle
      associated urban pollutants with similar input pathways as the PAH or to indicate
      if contaminant point sources such as sites of legacy pollution exist in a river
      basin.

PMID- 28577400
TI  - Integral microalgae-bacteria model (BIO_ALGAE): Application to wastewater high
      rate algal ponds.
AB  - An integral mechanistic model describing the complex interactions in mixed algal
      bacterial systems was developed. The model includes crucial physical, chemical
      and biokinetic processes of microalgae as well as bacteria in wastewater. Carbon
      limited microalgae and autotrophic bacteria growth, light attenuation,
      photorespiration, temperature and pH dependency are some of the new features
      included. The model named BIO_ALGAE was built using the general formulation and
      structure of activated sludge models (ASM), and it was implemented in COMSOL
      MultiphysicsTM platform. Calibration and validation were conducted with
      experimental data from two identical pilot HRAPs receiving real wastewater. The
      model was able to simulate the dynamics of different components in the ponds, and
      to predict the relative proportion of microalgae (58-68% in average of total
      suspended solids (TSS) and bacteria (30-20% in average of TSS). Microalgae growth
      resulted strongly influenced by the light factor fL(I), decreasing microalgae
      concentrations from 40 to 60%. Furthermore, reducing the influent organic matter
      concentration of 50% and 70%, model predictions indicated that microalgae
      production increased from (8.7gTSSm-2d-1 to 13.5gTSSm-2d-1) due to the new
      distribution of particulate components. The proposed model could be an efficient
      tool for industry to predict the production of microalgae, as well as to design
      and optimize HRAPs.

PMID- 28577401
TI  - Enhanced protection of PDMS-embedded palladium catalysts by co-embedding of
      sulphide-scavengers.
AB  - For Pd-containing hydrodechlorination catalysts, coating with poly(dimethyl
      siloxane) (PDMS) was proposed earlier as promising protection scheme against
      poisoning. The PDMS coating can effectively repel non-permeating poisons (such as
      SO32-) retaining the hydrodechlorination Pd activity. In the present study, the
      previously achieved protection efficiency was enhanced by incorporation of
      sulphide scavengers into the polymer. The embedded scavengers were able to bind
      permeating non-ionic poisons (such as H2S) during their passage through PDMS
      prior to Pd contact which ensured an extended catalyst lifetime. Three scavenger
      types forming non-permeable sulphur species from H2S - alkaline, oxidative or
      iron-based compounds - were either incorporated into single-layer coats around
      individual Pd/Al2O3 particles or into a second layer above Pd-containing PDMS
      films (Pd-PDMS). Hydrodechlorination and hydrogenation were chosen as model
      reactions, carried out in batch and continuous-flow reactors. Batch tests with
      all scavenger-containing catalysts showed extended Pd protection compared to
      scavenger-free catalysts. Solid alkaline compounds (Ca(OH)2, NaOH, CaO) and MnO2
      showed the highest instantaneous scavenger efficiencies (retained Pd activity=30
      60%), while iron-based catalysts, such as nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) or
      ferrocene (FeCp2), proved less efficient (1-10%). When stepwise poisoning was
      applied, the protection efficiency of iron-based and oxidizing compounds was
      higher in the long term than that of alkaline solids. Long-term experiments in
      mixed-flow reactors were performed with selected scavengers, revealing the
      following trend of protection efficiency: CaO2>Ca(OH)2>FeCp2. Under field
      simulating conditions using a fixed-bed reactor, the combination of sulphide pre
      oxidation in the water phase by H2O2 and local scavenger-enhanced Pd protection
      was successful. The oxidizing agent H2O2 does not disturb the Pd-catalysed
      reduction, while the PDMS-incorporated scavenger considerably extends the
      catalyst life in the presence of H2S. This work demonstrates that the scavenger
      based protection strategy is an effective means to increase the resistance of
      PDMS-embedded Pd against permeating poisons.

PMID- 28577402
TI  - Comparative effects of sulfuric and nitric acid rain on litter decomposition and
      soil microbial community in subtropical plantation of Yangtze River Delta region.
AB  - Acid rain is mainly caused by dissolution of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
      in the atmosphere, and has a significant negative effect on ecosystems. The
      relative composition of acid rain is changing gradually from sulfuric acid rain
      (SAR) to nitric acid rain (NAR) with the rapidly growing amount of nitrogen
      deposition. In this study, we investigated the impact of simulated SAR and NAR on
      litter decomposition and the soil microbial community over four seasons since
      March 2015. Results first showed that the effects of acid rain on litter
      decomposition and soil microbial were positive in the early period of the
      experiment, except for SAR on soil microbes. Second, soil pH with NAR decreased
      more rapidly with the amount of acid rain increased in summer than with SAR
      treatments. Only strongly acid rain (both SAR and NAR) was capable of depressing
      litter decomposition and its inhibitory effect was stronger on leaf than on fine
      root litter. Meanwhile, NAR had a higher inhibitory effect on litter
      decomposition than SAR. Third, in summer, autumn and winter, PLFAs were
      negatively impacted by the increased acidity level resulting from both SAR and
      NAR. However, higher acidity level of NAR (pH=2.5) had the strongest inhibitory
      impact on soil microbial activity, especially in summer. In addition, Gram
      negative bacteria (cy19:0) and fungi (18:1omega9) were more sensitive to both SAR
      and NAR, and actinomycetes was more sensitive to SAR intensity. Finally, soil
      total carbon, total nitrogen and pH were the most important soil property factors
      affecting soil microbial activity, and high microbial indices (fungi/bacteria)
      with high soil pH. Our results suggest that the ratio of SO42- to NO3- in acid
      rain is an important factor which could affect litter decomposition and soil
      microbial in subtropical forest of China.

PMID- 28577403
TI  - Temporal changes in radiological and chemical composition of Cambrian-Vendian
      groundwater in conditions of intensive water consumption.
AB  - Intensive groundwater uptake is a process at the intersection of the
      anthroposphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. In this study, groundwater uptake
      on a peninsula where only one aquifer system - the Cambrian-Vendian (CmV) - is
      available for drinking water uptake is observed for a period of four years for
      relevant radionuclides and chemical parameters (Cl, Mn, Fe, delta18O). Intensive
      groundwater uptake from the CmV aquifer system may lead to water inflow either
      from the sea, through ancient buried valleys or from the under-laying crystalline
      basement rock which is rich in natural radionuclides. Changes in the geochemical
      conditions in the aquifer may in turn bring about desorption of Ra from sediment
      surface. Knowing the hydrogeological background of the wells helps to predict
      possible changes in water quality which in turn are important for sustainable
      groundwater management and optimization of water treatment processes. Changes in
      Cl and Ra concentrations are critical parameters to monitor for sustainable
      management of the CmV groundwater. Radionuclide activity concentrations in
      groundwater are often considered rather stable, minimum monitoring frequency of
      the total indicative dose from drinking water is set at once every ten years. The
      present study demonstrates that this is not sufficient for ensuring stable
      drinking water quality in case of aquifer systems as sensitive as the CmV aquifer
      system. Changes in Cl concentrations can be used as a tool to predict Ra activity
      concentrations and distribute the production between different wells opening to
      the same aquifer system.

PMID- 28577404
TI  - Sources of groundwater salinity and potential impact on arsenic mobility in the
      western Hetao Basin, Inner Mongolia.
AB  - The quality of groundwater used for human consumption and irrigation in the Hetao
      Basin of Inner Mongolia, China is affected by elevated salinity as well as high
      arsenic (As) concentrations. However, the origin of high salinity and its
      potential impact on As mobility in the Basin remain unclear. This study explores
      both issues using stable isotopic compositions and Cl/Br ratios of groundwater as
      well as the major ions of both groundwater and leachable salts in aquifer
      sediments. Limited variations in delta18O and delta2H (-11.13 to -8.10, -82.23 to
      -65.67) with the wide range of Total Dissolved Solid (TDS, 351-6734mg/L) suggest
      less contribution of direct evaporation to major salinity in groundwater.
      Deuterium excess shows that non-direct evaporation (capillary evaporation,
      transpiration) and mineral/evaporite dissolution contribute to >60% salinity in
      groundwater with TDS>1000mg/L. Non-direct evaporation, like capillary evaporation
      and transpiration, is proposed as important processes contributing to groundwater
      salinity based on Cl/Br ratio and halite dissolution line. The chemical
      weathering of Ca, Mg minerals and evaporites (Na2SO4 and CaSO4) input salts into
      groundwater as well. This is evidenced by the fact that lacustrine environment
      and the arid climate prevails in Pleistocene period. Dissolution of sulfate salts
      not only promotes groundwater salinity but affects As mobilization. Due to the
      dissolution of sulfate salts and non-direct evaporation, groundwater SO42-
      prevails and its reduction may enhance As enrichment. The higher As
      concentrations (300-553MUg/L) are found at the stronger SO42- reduction stage,
      indicating that reduction of Fe oxide minerals possibly results from HS- produced
      by SO42- reduction. This would have a profound impact on As mobilization since
      sulfate is abundant in groundwater and sediments. The evolution of groundwater As
      and salinity in the future should be further studied in order to ensure
      sustainable utilization of water resource in this water scarce area.

PMID- 28577405
TI  - Meteorological factors had more impact on airborne bacterial communities than air
      pollutants.
AB  - Airborne bacteria have gained increasing attention because they affect ecological
      balance and pose potential risks on human health. Recently, some studies have
      focused on the abundance and composition of airborne bacteria under heavy, hazy
      polluted weather in China, but they reached different conclusions about the
      comparisons with non-polluted days. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that
      meteorological factors could have a higher impact on shaping airborne bacterial
      communities than air pollutants by systematically monitoring the communities for
      1year. Total suspended particles in Beijing were sampled for 20 consecutive days
      in each season of 2015. Bacterial abundance varied from 8.71*103 to 2.14*107
      ribosomal operons per cubic meter according to the quantitative PCR analysis.
      There were relatively higher bacterial counts in spring and in autumn than in
      winter and summer. Airborne bacterial communities displayed a strong seasonality,
      according to the hierarchical cluster analysis. Only two exceptions overtook the
      seasonal trend, and both occurred in or after violent meteorological changes
      (sandstorm or rain). Aggregated boosted tree analysis performed on bacterial
      abundance showed that the dominant factors shaping bacterial communities were
      meteorological. They were air pressure in winter, air temperature and relative
      humidity in spring, RH in summer, and vapor pressure in autumn. Variation
      partition analysis on community structure showed that meteorological factors
      explained more variations than air pollutants. Therefore, both of the two models
      verified our hypothesis that the differences in airborne bacterial communities in
      polluted days or non-polluted days were mainly driven by the discrepancies of
      meteorological factors rather than by the presence of air pollutants.

PMID- 28577406
TI  - The removal efficiency and insight into the mechanism of para arsanilic acid
      adsorption on Fe-Mn framework.
AB  - Para arsanilic acid (p-ASA) is extensively used as feed additives in poultry
      industry, resulting contaminates soil and natural water sources through the use
      of poultry litter as a fertilizer in croplands. Thus, removal of p-ASA prior to
      its entering environments is significant to control their environmental risk.
      Herein, we studied Fe-Mn framework and cubic Fe(OH)3 as promising novel
      adsorbents for the removal of p-ASA from aqueous solution. The chemical and micro
      structural properties of Fe-Mn framework and cubic Fe(OH)3 materials were
      characterized by X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), nitrogen adsorption (SBET),
      zeta (zeta-) potential, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS). The maximum
      adsorption capacity for p-ASA on Fe-Mn framework and cubic Fe(OH)3 was determined
      to be 1.3mmolg-1 and 0.72mmolg-1 at pH4.0, respectively. Adsorption of p-ASA
      decreased gradually with increasing pH indicated that adsorption was strongly pH
      dependent. Azophenylarsonic acid was identified as an oxidation intermediate
      product of p-ASA after adsorption on Fe-Mn framework. Plausible removal mechanism
      for p-ASA by Fe-Mn framework was proposed. The obtained results gain insight into
      the potential applicability of Fe-Mn framework, which can be potentially
      important for the removal of p-ASA from water.

PMID- 28577407
TI  - Time-resolved immunoassay based on magnetic particles for the detection of
      diethyl phthalate in environmental water samples.
AB  - Diethyl phthalate (DEP) is an extensively used phthalic acid diester (PAEs) with
      estrogenic activity and the potential for carcinogenic and teratogenic effects.
      To monitor trace DEP in environmental waters, a sensitive direct competitive time
      resolved fluoroimmunoassay based on magnetic particles (MPs) as solid support was
      established. For the assay system, the anti-DEP antibody was oriented on the
      surface of the MPs using goat anti-rabbit antibody as linkers, and DEP-OVA was
      labeled using Eu3+. Several physicochemical factors that potentially influence
      the assay performance of the proposed method were investigated in detail,
      including concentration of MPs, dilution of DEP-OVA-Eu3+ and incubation time.
      Under the optimized conditions, the method showed: (i) low limit of detection
      (LOD) of 5.92ng/L; (ii) satisfactory accuracy (recoveries, 91.97-134.54%) with
      good reproducibility (inter-CV, 4.17-9.17%; intra-CV, 7.41-14.72%). All of which
      indicated that the newly established method had much higher efficiency and great
      potential for use in environmental water analysis for DEP. In addition, the
      proposed immunoassay was applied for investigation of DEP in aquatic environments
      at Zhenjiang City. Our results showed that DEP was detected at the concentration
      of 2.98-65.18ng/mL in river samples and 46.95-306.19ng/mL in wastewater treatment
      plants (WWTPs), which showed rather high concentrations compared with reported
      data. Our study provides background data important for risk assessment and
      contamination control of DEP in the aquatic environment of this area.

PMID- 28577408
TI  - Dendrimer-functionalized electrospun nanofibres as dual-action water treatment
      membranes.
AB  - This work reports the preparation of composite electrospun membranes combining
      antimicrobial action with the capacity of retaining low-molecular weight non
      polar pollutants. The membranes were electrospun blends of polyvinyl alcohol
      (PVA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) stabilized using heat curing. The membranes
      were functionalized by grafting amino-terminated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) G3
      dendrimers. The antimicrobial effect was assessed using strains of Escherichia
      coli and Staphylococcus aureus by tracking their capacity to form new colonies
      and their metabolic impairment upon contact with membranes. The antimicrobial
      activity was particularly high to the gram-positive bacterium S. aureus with a 3
      log reduction in their capacity to colonize dendrimer-functionalized membranes
      with respect to neat PVA/PAA fibers. The effect to gram-positive bacteria was
      attributed to the interaction of dendrimers with the negatively charged bacterial
      membranes and resulted in membranes essentially free of bacterial colonization
      after 20h in contact with cultures at 36 degrees C. The adsorption of toluene on
      PAA/PVA fibers and on dendrimer-functionalized membranes was assayed using
      toluene over a broad concentration range. The host-guest encapsulation of toluene
      inside dendrimer molecules was computed through docking studies, which allowed
      calculating a maximum capacity of 14 molecules of toluene per molecule of PAMAM
      G3. The theoretical prediction was in good agreement with the experimental
      capacity at the higher concentrations assayed.

PMID- 28577409
TI  - The role of cadmium in obesity and diabetes.
AB  - Multiple studies have shown an association between environmental exposure to
      hazardous chemicals including toxic metals and obesity, diabetes, and metabolic
      syndrome. At the same time, the existing data on the impact of cadmium exposure
      on obesity and diabetes are contradictory. Therefore, the aim of the present work
      was to review the impact of cadmium exposure and status on the risk and potential
      etiologic mechanisms of obesity and diabetes. In addition, since an effect of
      cadmium exposure on incidence of diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance was
      suggested by several epidemiologic studies, we carried out a meta-analysis of all
      studies assessing risk of prevalence and incidence of diabetes. By comparing the
      highest versus the lowest cadmium exposure category, we found a high risk of
      diabetes incidence (odds ratio=1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.12-1.71), which
      was higher for studies using urine as exposure assessment. On the converse,
      results of epidemiologic studies linking cadmium exposure and overweight or
      obesity are far less consistent and even conflicting, also depending on
      differences in exposure levels and the specific marker of exposure (blood, urine,
      hair, nails). In turn, laboratory studies demonstrated that cadmium adversely
      affects adipose tissue physiopathology through several mechanisms, thus
      contributing to increased insulin resistance and enhancing diabetes. However,
      intimate biological mechanisms linking Cd exposure with obesity and diabetes are
      still to be adequately investigated.

PMID- 28577410
TI  - Human health implications, risk assessment and remediation of As-contaminated
      water: A critical review.
AB  - Arsenic (As) is a naturally occurring metalloid and Class-A human carcinogen.
      Exposure to As via direct intake of As-contaminated water or ingestion of As
      contaminated edible crops is considered a life threatening problem around the
      globe. Arsenic-laced drinking water has affected the lives of over 200 million
      people in 105 countries worldwide. Limited data are available on various health
      risk assessment models/frameworks used to predict carcinogenic and non
      carcinogenic health effects caused by As-contaminated water. Therefore, this
      discussion highlights the need for future research focusing on human health risk
      assessment of individual As species (both organic and inorganic) present in As
      contaminated water. Various conventional and latest technologies for remediation
      of As-contaminated water are also reviewed along with a discussion of the fate of
      As-loaded waste and sludge.

PMID- 28577412
TI  - Postmortem computed tomography evaluation of fatal gas embolism due to connection
      of an intravenous cannula to an oxygen supply.
AB  - An 84-year-old man who had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      accompanied by moderate pneumonia as well as gastric cancer with liver metastasis
      was found dead by a nurse, who noticed that the patient's intravenous catheter in
      the left forearm had been erroneously connected to an oxygen supply in his
      hospital room, leading to infusion of oxygen into a vein. Postmortem CT scanning
      demonstrated multiple accumulations of gas in the pulmonary artery, the right
      atrium and ventricle, as well as the left subclavian and brachiocephalic veins,
      corresponding to the route that the infused gas would have taken to the heart and
      pulmonary artery. Conventional autopsy revealed the presence of gas in the right
      ventricle. These findings suggested that the immediate cause of death was a gas
      embolus due to oxygen that had entered the cardiopulmonary circulation via the
      intravenous catheter. This case highlights the usefulness of postmortem imaging
      as an aid to conventional autopsy for demonstrating gas embolism.

PMID- 28577413
TI  - Contact analysis and experimental investigation of a linear ultrasonic motor.
AB  - The effects of surface roughness are not considered in the traditional motor
      model which fails to reflect the actual contact mechanism between the stator and
      slider. An analytical model for calculating the tangential force of linear
      ultrasonic motor is proposed in this article. The presented model differs from
      the previous spring contact model, the asperities in contact between stator and
      slider are considered. The influences of preload and exciting voltage on
      tangential force in moving direction are analyzed. An experiment is performed to
      verify the feasibility of this proposed model by comparing the simulation results
      with the measured data. Moreover, the proposed model and spring model are
      compared. The results reveal that the proposed model is more accurate than spring
      model. The discussion is helpful for designing and modeling of linear ultrasonic
      motors.

PMID- 28577411
TI  - Tau pathology and cognitive reserve in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Cognitive reserve (CR) is defined as the ability to maintain functionality
      despite accumulating pathology. Education has been used as a proxy for CR. For
      example, by using positron emission tomography imaging, higher educated
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients presented increased amyloid beta pathology than
      lower educated patients despite equal symptomatology. Whether similar
      associations exist for in vivo tau pathology remains elusive. We utilized [18F]AV
      1451 positron emission tomography imaging to examine whether high-educated AD
      patients (n = 12) present more severe tau pathology compared with low-educated
      patients (n = 12) despite equal clinical severity in regions of interest
      corresponding to the pathologic disease stages defined by Braak & Braak. We
      report tau pathology in advanced Braak stages associated with parietal and
      frontal regions in high-educated AD patients, whereas in low-educated AD patients
      tau accumulation is still confined to lower Braak stages associated with temporal
      and cingulate regions. Highly educated AD patients seem to be able to tolerate
      more tau tangle pathology than lower educated patients with comparable cognitive
      impairment supporting the cognitive reserve hypothesis.

PMID- 28577414
TI  - Dynamic measurement of speed of sound in n-Heptane by ultrasonics during fuel
      injections.
AB  - The paper presents a technique to measure the speed of sound in fuels based on
      pulse-echo ultrasound. The method is applied inside the test chamber of a Zeuch
      type instrument used for indirect measurement of the injection rate (Mexus). The
      paper outlines the pulse-echo method, considering probe installation, ultrasound
      beam propagation inside the test chamber, typical signals obtained, as well as
      different processing algorithms. The method is validated in static conditions by
      comparing the experimental results to the NIST database both for water and n
      Heptane. The ultrasonic system is synchronized to the injector so that time
      resolved samples of speed of sound can be successfully acquired during a series
      of injections. Results at different operating conditions in n-Heptane are shown.
      An uncertainty analysis supports the analysis of results and allows to validate
      the method. Experimental results show that the speed of sound variation during an
      injection event is less than 1%, so the Mexus model assumption to consider it
      constant during the injection is valid.

PMID- 28577415
TI  - Maternal emotion regulation during child distress, child anxiety accommodation,
      and links between maternal and child anxiety.
AB  - Environmental contributions are thought to play a primary role in the familial
      aggregation of anxiety, but parenting influences remain poorly understood. We
      examined dynamic relations between maternal anxiety, maternal emotion regulation
      (ER) during child distress, maternal accommodation of child distress, and child
      anxiety. Mothers (N=45) of youth ages 3-8 years (M=4.8) participated in an
      experimental task during which they listened to a standardized audio recording of
      a child in anxious distress pleading for parental intervention. Measures of
      maternal and child anxiety, mothers' affective states, mothers' ER strategies
      during the child distress, and maternal accommodation of child anxiety were
      collected. Mothers' resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity during
      the recording was also acquired. Higher maternal negative affect and greater
      maternal ER switching (i.e., using multiple ER strategies in a short time without
      positive regulatory results) during child distress were associated with child
      anxiety. Sequential mediation modeling showed that maternal anxiety predicted
      ineffective maternal ER during child distress exposure, which in turn predicted
      greater maternal accommodation, which in turn predicted higher child anxiety.
      Findings support the mediating roles of maternal ER and accommodation in linking
      maternal and child anxiety, and suggest that ineffective maternal ER and
      subsequent attempts to accommodate child distress may act as mechanisms
      underlying the familial aggregation of anxiety.

PMID- 28577416
TI  - The impact of attentional and emotional demands on memory performance in
      obsessive-compulsive disorder.
AB  - Lower performance on memory tests in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been
      repeatedly observed. However, the origins of these performance deficits are not
      sufficiently explained. In this study we tested if OCD-related extensive focus of
      attention on thoughts (heightened self-consciousness) could be an explanatory
      mechanism for lower memory performance. Heightened situational self-consciousness
      was manipulated by instructing participants to either monitor neutral thoughts or
      to monitor OCD-related thoughts. We included a Behavioral Avoidance Task based on
      individual obsessions and compulsions to induce OCD-related thoughts.
      Participants were asked to perform these monitoring tasks in parallel to a taxing
      verbal memory task, resulting in learning under divided attention. The two
      conditions of learning under divided attention were compared to a single-task
      condition. Twenty-four participants with OCD and 24 healthy controls took part in
      these three learning conditions. The results indicate that in both groups memory
      performance deteriorated in the two conditions with divided attention compared to
      the single task condition. In the OCD-related thought monitoring condition (OTM)
      self-consciousness and Behavioral Avoidance Task-induced stress and fear were
      particularly increased and memory performance further deteriorated in the OCD
      group. This finding highlights an important and underestimated mechanism
      (personal involvement) which might serve to better understand lower memory
      performance in OCD.

PMID- 28577417
TI  - Structured debriefing: What difference does it make?
AB  - Debriefing in simulation is a cornerstone of learning. However, in-depth studies
      examining simulation debriefing are scarce. This study explored four key
      debriefing attributes-feedback, reflection, knowledge development, and
      psychological safety-prior and subsequent to the implementation of a new
      pedagogical intervention in a pre-clinical scenario simulation course. The
      scenarios focused on patients with deteriorating conditions and took place at
      bachelor's nursing degree level. The new intervention for the debriefing sessions
      contained a detailed observation tool describing specific, correct nursing
      actions for deteriorating patients; video playback watched only by students
      acting as nurses, and debriefing organized into two sections. The study design
      was explorative. To generate data, 12 debriefing sessions were audio and video
      recorded in 2013 and 11 in 2014. Two student groups participated each year,
      comprising 16 and 10 students, respectively. Qualitative analysis was performed
      to examine the transcribed audio and video recordings. Relative to the 2013
      cohort, the reflections of observers and the students acting as nurses were more
      assertive, and students' feedback was more specific and comprehensive in the 2014
      cohort. Conducting in-depth studies examining debriefing is important to increase
      knowledge regarding the impact of pedagogical underpinnings on debriefing content
      and processes.

PMID- 28577418
TI  - Macro- and microstructural tracking of ageing-related changes of papaverine
      hydrochloride-loaded electrospun nanofibrous buccal sheets.
AB  - Electrospun papaverine hydrochloride-loaded nanofibrous sheets consist of
      hydroxypropyl cellulose/poly(vinyl alcohol) composite were prepared for buccal
      administration for cerebral ischemia. The nanofibrous drug delivery system was
      subjected to accelerated stability test for four weeks in order to scrutinize the
      solid state changes relating to the stress induced (40+/-2 degrees C/75+/-5%
      relative humidity) physical ageing. Micro- and macrostructural alterations were
      detected using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and positron annihilation lifetime
      spectroscopy (PALS). Significant changes were revealed at both supramolecular and
      macroscopic levels. Microscopic morphology uncovered major morphological
      transitions. Subtle variations of Raman and FTIR spectra indicated that the local
      chemical environment of papaverine was altered suggesting a partial phase
      transition of the active. Discrete o-Ps lifetimes and lifetime-distributions
      unveiled a two-step ageing process of the drug carrier. In addition to the
      tracking of the glassy-to-rubbery transition of the fiber forming polymers, the
      Raman spectroscopy enabled monitoring the kinetics of the phase transition
      observed.

PMID- 28577419
TI  - A simplified guide for charged aerosol detection of non-chromophoric compounds
      Analytical method development and validation for the HPLC assay of aerosol
      particle size distribution for amikacin.
AB  - Amikacin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic lacking a UV chromophore, was developed
      into a drug product for delivery by inhalation. A robust method for amikacin
      assay analysis and aerosol particle size distribution (aPSD) determination, with
      comparable performance to the conventional UV detector was developed using a
      charged aerosol detector (CAD). The CAD approach involved more parameters for
      optimization than UV detection due to its sensitivity to trace impurities, non
      linear response and narrow dynamic range of signal versus concentration. Through
      careful selection of the power transformation function value and evaporation
      temperature, a wider linear dynamic range, improved signal-to-noise ratio and
      high repeatability were obtained. The influences of mobile phase grade and
      glassware binding of amikacin during sample preparation were addressed. A weighed
      (1/X2) least square regression was used for the calibration curve. The limit of
      quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for this method were determined
      to be 5MUg/mL and 2MUg/mL, respectively. The method was validated over a
      concentration range of 0.05-2mg/mL. The correlation coefficient for the peak area
      versus concentration was 1.00 and the y-intercept was 0.2%. The recovery
      accuracies of triplicate preparations at 0.05, 1.0, and 2.0mg/mL were in the
      range of 100-101%. The relative standard deviation (Srel) of six replicates at
      1.0mg/mL was 1%, and Srel of five injections at the limit of quantitation was 4%.
      A robust HPLC-CAD method was developed and validated for the determination of the
      aPSD for amikacin. The CAD method development produced a simplified procedure
      with minimal variability in results during: routine operation, transfer from one
      instrument to another, and between different analysts.

PMID- 28577420
TI  - Reliability of point-of-collection testing devices for drugs of abuse in oral
      fluid: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Point-of-collection testing (POCT) devices for drugs of abuse are used to screen
      for the presence of psychoactive substances (PAS) in different types of settings
      and environments. However, these quick and advantageous tools also present
      disadvantages, including low-reliability measures in comparison to
      chromatographic assays. Therefore, this article presents a systematic review and
      meta-analysis of studies evaluating the reliability of measurements of PAS
      detection in oral fluid using POCT devices. The reliability measures for
      detection of the five most important drug classes - cocaine, amphetamines,
      benzodiazepines, cannabinoids and opioids, are reported. The article also
      presents a subgroup analysis considering the reliability estimates for the
      different POCT devices that were evaluated by the studies contemplated in the
      review. A discussion considering the strengths and limitations of POCT techniques
      was performed in order to guide policymakers, traffic agents and other
      professionals who also conduct such tests. The use of POCT devices often involves
      legal and moral aspects of the subjects tested, which demands critical evaluation
      of these devices before they are implemented in different settings.

PMID- 28577421
TI  - Season-dependent effects of photoperiod and temperature on circadian rhythm of
      arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase2 gene expression in pineal organ of an air
      breathing catfish, Clarias gariepinus.
AB  - Arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) activity, aanat gene expression and
      melatonin production have been reported to exhibit prominent circadian rhythm in
      the pineal organ of most species of fish. Three types of aanat genes are
      expressed in fish, but the fish pineal organ predominantly expresses aanat2 gene.
      Increase and decrease in daylength is invariably associated with increase and
      decrease in temperature, respectively. But so far no attempt has been made to
      delineate the role of photoperiod and temperature in regulation of the circadian
      rhythm of aanat2 gene expression in the pineal organ of any fish with special
      reference to seasons. Therefore, we studied effects of various lighting regimes
      (12L-12D, 16L-8D, 8L-16D, LL and DD) at a constant temperature (25 degrees C) and
      effects of different temperatures (15 degrees , 25 degrees  and 35 degrees C)
      under a common photoperiod 12L-12D on circadian rhythm of aanat2 gene expression
      in the pineal organ of Clarias gariepinus during summer and winter seasons.
      Aanat2 gene expression in fish pineal organ was studied by measuring aanat2 mRNA
      levels using Real-Time PCR. Our findings indicate that the pineal organ of C.
      gariepinus exhibits a prominent circadian rhythm of aanat2 gene expression
      irrespective of photoperiods, temperatures and seasons, and the circadian rhythm
      of aanat2 gene expression responds differently to different photoperiods and
      temperatures in a season-dependent manner. Existence of circadian rhythm of
      aanat2 gene expression in pineal organs maintained in vitro under 12L-12D and DD
      conditions as well as a free running rhythm of the gene expression in pineal
      organ of the fish maintained under LL and DD conditions suggest that the fish
      pineal organ possesses an endogenous circadian oscillator, which is entrained by
      light-dark cycle.

PMID- 28577422
TI  - Midwifery continuity: The use of social media.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Continuity models of midwifery care improve women's experiences of
      care and clinical outcomes, but organisationally driven working practices do not
      facilitate a continuity model and the midwifery care received by most women is
      fragmented (Sandall et al., 2016, NHS England, 2016). Little is known about the
      potential for continuity of midwifery care to be achieved using an electronic
      platform. This paper examines the experiences of women accessing known midwives
      through a social media platform and their experiences and perception of
      continuity of care. METHODS: The study forms part of a larger research project
      aiming to increase understanding about online social learning within
      professionally moderated social media based communities. This paper reports
      specifically the concept of midwifery continuity within the online communities.
      Two secret Facebook groups consisting of 31 mothers and 4 midwife moderators were
      created (17 mothers & 2 midwives / 14 mothers & 2 midwives). Primary data
      included 8 online and face to face focus groups, conducted at approximately 10
      week intervals, and 28 individual one to one interviews with members of the
      online community within six weeks of giving birth. DATA ANALYSIS: A thematic
      analysis using a priori themes was undertaken. This involved coding data which
      evidenced relational, informational and management continuity across the entire
      dataset (28 interviews and 8 focus groups). The analysis was undertaken broadly
      following the six stages described by Braun and Clarke (2006). FINDINGS:
      Relational and informational continuity were identified across the data.
      Relational continuity was evident for both the participants and the midwife
      moderators; informational continuity was described by the participants.
      Management continuity was not identified. Continuity through social media use was
      valued by both the mothers and the midwives. CONCLUSION: Information and
      relational continuity needs of women can be met using professionally moderated,
      social media based groups. They may provide an alternative means of facilitating
      the continuity that is so often lacking in traditional models of care.

PMID- 28577423
TI  - Severe hand, foot and mouth disease associated with Coxsackievirus A10 infections
      in Xiamen, China in 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coxsackievirus A10 (CV-A10) is one of the etiological agents
      associated with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and usually causes mild
      cases. During 2009-2014, no severe cases caused by CV-A10 was reported in Xiamen,
      China, however, an increase in cases was seen in 2015. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to
      perform a retrospective molecular epidemiological analysis of HFMD associated
      with CV-A10 infections in Xiamen. STUDY DESIGN: CV-A10 VP1 (n=41) capsid and full
      length or near full-length genomes (n=14) were sequenced. Phylogenetic trees were
      constructed based on these sequences and other reference sequences and nucleotide
      and amino acid changes were characterized. RESULTS: From 2009-2014, no laboratory
      confirmed CV-A10 infections associated with severe cases were identified,
      however, in 2015, 39% (7/18) of severe HFMD cases were CV-A10 infections.
      Sequence analysis of severe and non-severe CV-A10 HFMD cases determined that
      severe cases predominantly clustered with an emerging clade E lineage A strain
      which contained 4 nucleotide changes in 5' UTR and 5 amino acid substitutions in
      structural and non-structural proteins. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate CV-A10
      infection may be emerging as a new and major cause of severe HFMD and CV-A10
      surveillance should be increased and considered in HFMD prevention and control
      strategies.

PMID- 28577424
TI  - Specific needs of families of young adults with profound intellectual disability
      during and after transition to adulthood: What are we missing?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: At the age of 21, the trajectory of services offered to youth with
      profound intellectual disability (ID) change significantly since access to
      specialised services is more limited. Despite the desire of parents to avoid any
      impact on their child, several factors can influence the course of this
      transition. However, there is little research on facilitators and obstacles to
      the transition to adulthood, and impacts on people with a profound ID. It is
      therefore difficult to provide solutions that meet their specific needs.
      OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to document the needs of parents and young adults with
      profound ID during and after the transition to adulthood by exploring their
      transitioning experience and factors that influenced it. METHOD: Using a
      descriptive qualitative design, two individual semi-structured interviews were
      conducted with fourteen (14) parents of young adults aged between 18 and 26 with
      a profound ID. RESULTS: At this point, many material, informative, cognitive and
      emotional needs of young adults and their parents are not met. Obstacles, mainly
      organisational, persist and result in a particularly difficult transition to
      adulthood experience. CONCLUSION: By knowing the specific needs of these
      families, it is possible to develop and implement solutions tailored to their
      reality. WHAT THE PAPERS ADDS?: The transition to adulthood is a critical period
      for families with young adults with an intellectual disability (ID), a reality
      observed internationally. Current literature on all levels of ID suggests some
      barriers to transition that lead to negative impacts on both parents and young
      adults with ID. However, presently, very little research exists on the reality of
      families of young adults with profound ID and factors influencing transition to
      adult life. Most of studies target people with mild to moderate ID. Considering
      the significant disabilities of people with profound ID, it is possible to
      imagine that their experience of transition will be even more difficult and they
      will present specific needs. The lack of understanding of these needs makes it
      difficult to introduce solutions tailored to their reality. The results of this
      current study suggest that many needs of young adults with profound ID and their
      parents are not met despite existent transition planning services. Transition to
      adulthood seems particularly difficult for these families who face many
      challenges. Parents in this study proposed different obstacles during transition
      to adulthood that could be improved for creation of future solutions adapted to
      their reality.

PMID- 28577425
TI  - Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiles of bacteria from the saliva of
      twenty four different individuals form clusters that showed no relationship to
      the yeasts present.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim was to investigate the relationship between groups of
      bacteria identified by cluster analysis of the DGGE fingerprints and the amounts
      and diversity of yeast present. METHODS: Bacterial and yeast populations in
      saliva samples from 24 adults were analysed using denaturing gradient gel
      electrophoresis (DGGE) of the bacteria present and by yeast culture. RESULTS:
      Eubacterial DGGE banding patterns showed considerable variation between
      individuals. Seventy one different amplicon bands were detected, the band number
      per saliva sample ranged from 21 to 39 (mean+/-SD=29.3+/-4.9). Cluster and
      principal component analysis of the bacterial DGGE patterns yielded three major
      clusters containing 20 of the samples. Seventeen of the 24 (71%) saliva samples
      were yeast positive with concentrations up to 103cfu/mL. Candida albicans was the
      predominant species in saliva samples although six other yeast species, including
      Candida dubliniensis, Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Candida guilliermondii,
      Candida rugosa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were identified. The presence,
      concentration, and species of yeast in samples showed no clear relationship to
      the bacterial clusters. CONCLUSION: Despite indications of in vitro bacteria
      yeast interactions, there was a lack of association between the presence,
      identity and diversity of yeasts and the bacterial DGGE fingerprint clusters in
      saliva. This suggests significant ecological individual-specificity of these
      associations in highly complex in vivo oral biofilm systems under normal oral
      conditions.

PMID- 28577426
TI  - Trajectories of traumatic stress symptoms during conflict: A latent class growth
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ways in which traumatic stress symptoms unfold under situations
      of ongoing threat and trauma exposure are poorly understood. The current study
      aims to identify traumatic stress symptom trajectories during conflict, as well
      as potential risk factors. METHODS: Experience sampling methods were used to
      study traumatic stress symptoms during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict in 100
      Israeli civilians exposed to rocket fire. Summary reports of traumatic symptoms
      were made twice-daily for 30 days via mobile phone. RESULTS: Latent class growth
      analysis revealed four distinct classes (low, reducing, moderate, and high)
      characterised by their trajectory of traumatic stress symptoms during the
      conflict. Female gender, not being in a relationship, and higher prior trauma
      exposure were identified as potential risk factors. LIMITATIONS: Data were not
      collected in the early phase of the conflict, the sample was relatively small,
      and only traumatic stress symptoms were investigated as outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study identified heterogeneous traumatic stress symptom trajectories among
      civilians during a conflict, with different subgroups showing distinct response
      patterns over time, associated with various risk factors. Investigating responses
      to ongoing trauma, and identifying predictors of different stress symptom
      trajectories has clinical implications for the targeted delivery of
      interventions. Further exploration of heterogeneous trajectories could
      potentially elucidate mechanisms that drive resilience and recovery, including in
      situations of ongoing exposure such as during conflict.

PMID- 28577427
TI  - Fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and depressive symptoms in the
      African American Health (AAH) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Healthy diet and physical activity (PA) have been associated with
      reduced depressive symptoms, but few studies have examined them simultaneously in
      African Americans. AIMS: To investigate fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and PA
      as predictors of clinically-relevant levels of depressive symptoms (CRLDS) in
      African Americans. METHODS: African American Health (AAH) is a population-based
      longitudinal study of African Americans in St. Louis, MO, who were born in 1936
      1950 (inclusive) and empaneled in 2000-01 (wave 1). At wave 8, participants self
      reported fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and completed the Yale Physical
      Activity Scale. At both waves 8 and 10, the CES-D 11-item scale was used to
      identify those who met criteria for CRLDS. Sequential logistic regression
      modeling was used to examine the associations of components of FVI/PA with CRLDS,
      both cross-sectionally (n = 680, including imputed values) and longitudinally (n
      = 582, including imputed values). Modeling employed gender, age, perceived income
      adequacy, and education as potential confounders. RESULTS: Cross-sectionally,
      vigorous PA, and leisurely walking PA, were independently associated with lower
      odds of CRLDS in all but the fifth model and green vegetables in all models.
      Longitudinally, green vegetables and interactions between the FVI summary score,
      the PA summary score, and other factors at wave 8 were most consistently
      associated with CRLDS at wave 10. In both cross-sectional and longitudinal
      models, the socioeconomic variables showed the strongest association as risk
      factors for CRLDS. LIMITATIONS: Both FVI and PA were self-reported rather than
      observed, our cohort had limited geographic- and age-ranges, and confidence
      intervals for some results were broad. CONCLUSIONS: Green vegetables, total FVI,
      and various aspects of PA showed protective effects regarding CRLDS. Therefore,
      the promotion of such lifestyles is likely to help prevent CRLDS in this
      population.

PMID- 28577428
TI  - VPAC1 Targeted 64Cu-TP3805 kit preparation and its evaluation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previously, our laboratory has shown that 64Cu-TP3805 can
      specifically target VPAC1 receptors and be used for positron emission tomography
      (PET) imaging of breast (BC) and prostate cancer (PC) in humans. Present work is
      aimed at the formulation of a freeze-dried diaminedithiol-peptide (N2S2-TP3805)
      kit and it's evaluation for the preparation of 64Cu labeled TP3805. Parameters
      such as pH, temperature and incubation time were examined that influenced the
      radiolabeling efficiency and stability of the product. METHODS: Kits were
      prepared under different conditions and radiolabeling efficiency of TP3805 kit
      was evaluated for a range of pH3.5-8.5, after addition of 64Cu in 30MUl, 0.1M
      HCl. Incubation temperature (37-90 degrees C) and time (30-120min.) were also
      investigated. Kits were stored at -10 degrees C and their long term stability was
      determined as a function of their radiolabeling efficiency. Further, stability of
      64Cu-TP3805 complex was evaluated in presence of fetal bovine serum and bovine
      serum albumin by using SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Kits were then
      used for PET imaging of BC and PC following eIND (101550) and institutional
      approvals. Specificity of 64Cu-TP3805 for VPAC1 was examined with digital
      autoradiography (DAR) of prostate tissues obtained after prostatectomy, benign
      prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) tissue, and benign and malignant lymph nodes. Results
      were compared with corresponding tissue histology. RESULTS: Radiolabeling
      efficiency was >=95% at final pH ~7.2 when incubated at 50 degrees C for 90min.
      Kits were stable up to 18months when stored at -10 degrees C, and 64Cu-TP3805
      complex exhibited excellent stability for up to 4h at room temperature. 64Cu
      TP3805 complex did not show any transchelation even after 2h incubation at 37
      degrees C in 10% FBS as well as in BSA as determined by SDS PAGE analysis. DAR
      identified >=95% of malignant lesions 11 new PC lesions, 20 high grade prostatic
      intraepithelial neoplasia, 2/2 ejaculatory ducts and 5/5 urethra verumontanum not
      previously identified The malignant lymph nodes were correctly identified by DAR
      and for 3/3 BPH patients, and 5/5 cysts, DAR was negative. In human BC (n=19) and
      PC (n=26) were imaged with 100% sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Availability of ready to
      use N2S2-peptide kits for 64Cu labeling is convenient and eliminates possible day
      to day variation during its routine preparation for clinical use.

PMID- 28577429
TI  - Genetic strategies to access activated neurons.
AB  - A major goal of modern neuroscience is to understand how ensembles of neurons
      participate in neural circuits underlying behavior. The recent explosion of
      genetically-encoded circuit analysis tools has allowed neuroscientists to
      characterize molecularly-defined neuronal types with unprecedented detail.
      However, since neurons defined by molecular expression can be functionally
      heterogeneous, targeting circuit analysis tools to neurons based on their
      activity is critical to elucidating the neural basis of behavior. Here we review
      genetic strategies to access activated neurons and characterize their functional
      properties, molecular profiles, connectivity, and causal roles in sensory-coding,
      memory, and valence-encoding. We also discuss future possibilities for improving
      these strategies and using them to screen brain-wide activity patterns underlying
      adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.

PMID- 28577430
TI  - Posttranslational modifications of neuroligins regulate neuronal and glial
      signaling.
AB  - This review covers the dynamic regulation of neuroligin isoforms, focusing on
      posttranslational events including phosphorylation, glycosylation and activity
      dependent cleavage. There is a growing literature on how phosphorylation confers
      an isoform-specific level of modulation affecting a variety of protein
      interactions. In addition, recent studies describe activity-dependent proteolytic
      cleavage of neuroligins, revealing a broader role for neuroligins than just
      synaptic 'glue'. Interesting new research implicates the cleaved extracellular
      fragments of neuroligins in promoting glioma. These reports on cell signaling
      mediated by the cleavage products of neuroligins suggest novel and important
      roles for neuroligins in neuro-glial signaling.

PMID- 28577431
TI  - Supramolecular organization of NMDA receptors and the postsynaptic density.
AB  - The postsynaptic density (PSD) of all vertebrate species share a highly complex
      proteome with ~1000 conserved proteins that function as sophisticated molecular
      computational devices. Here, we review recent studies showing that this
      complexity can be understood in terms of the supramolecular organization of
      proteins, which self-assemble within a hierarchy of different length scales,
      including complexes, supercomplexes and nanodomains. We highlight how genetic and
      biochemical approaches in mice are being used to uncover the native molecular
      architecture of the synapse, revealing hitherto unknown molecular structures,
      including highly selective mechanisms for specifying the assembly of NMDAR-MAGUK
      supercomplexes. We propose there exists a logical framework that precisely
      dictates the subunit composition of synaptic complexes, supercomplexes, and
      nanodomains in vivo.

PMID- 28577432
TI  - Psychophysical assessment of koniocellular pathway in patients with schizophrenia
      versus healthy controls.
AB  - This study was designed to perform psychophysical assessment of koniocellular
      pathway in patients with schizophrenia versus healthy controls. A total of 26
      patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 15 healthy controls were included.
      Snellen Visual Acuity Chart scores and Short Wavelength Automated Perimetry
      (SWAP) visual field testing including global visual field indices [mean deviation
      (MD), pattern standard deviation (PSD), test time (min)], reliability parameters
      [false negative responses (%), false positive responses (%) and fixed losses (%)]
      and average threshold sensitivity [central (parafovea), peripheral area, and four
      quadrants] were recorded in both groups. Significantly lower MD scores, higher
      PSD scores and lower average threshold sensitivity at each location across the
      visual field were noted in schizophrenia relative to control group. In
      conclusion, our findings revealed a deficit in koniocellular pathway with
      impaired SWAP global indices and lower threshold sensitivity at each location
      across the visual field among chronic schizophrenic patients as compared with
      control subjects. Our findings emphasize potential application of SWAP outside
      its original intended purpose as a glaucoma test, to provide deeper understanding
      of the specific contribution of lateral geniculate nucleus to the visual and
      cognitive disturbances of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28577434
TI  - Simulation, identification and statistical variation in cardiovascular analysis
      (SISCA) - A software framework for multi-compartment lumped modeling.
AB  - It has not yet been possible to obtain modeling approaches suitable for covering
      a wide range of real world scenarios in cardiovascular physiology because many of
      the system parameters are uncertain or even unknown. Natural variability and
      statistical variation of cardiovascular system parameters in healthy and diseased
      conditions are characteristic features for understanding cardiovascular diseases
      in more detail. This paper presents SISCA, a novel software framework for
      cardiovascular system modeling and its MATLAB implementation. The framework
      defines a multi-model statistical ensemble approach for dimension reduced, multi
      compartment models and focuses on statistical variation, system identification
      and patient-specific simulation based on clinical data. We also discuss a data
      driven modeling scenario as a use case example. The regarded dataset originated
      from routine clinical examinations and comprised typical pre and post surgery
      clinical data from a patient diagnosed with coarctation of aorta. We conducted
      patient and disease specific pre/post surgery modeling by adapting a validated
      nominal multi-compartment model with respect to structure and parametrization
      using metadata and MRI geometry. In both models, the simulation reproduced
      measured pressures and flows fairly well with respect to stenosis and stent
      treatment and by pre-treatment cross stenosis phase shift of the pulse wave.
      However, with post-treatment data showing unrealistic phase shifts and other more
      obvious inconsistencies within the dataset, the methods and results we present
      suggest that conditioning and uncertainty management of routine clinical data
      sets needs significantly more attention to obtain reasonable results in patient
      specific cardiovascular modeling.

PMID- 28577433
TI  - Reduced fronto-amygdalar connectivity in adolescence is associated with increased
      depression symptoms over time.
AB  - Depression is common among adolescents, affecting greater than 12% of youth in a
      given year. Studies have shown aberrant amygdala connectivity in depressed
      adolescents, compared with controls; however, no studies have examined whether
      these abnormalities precede and heighten risk for depressive symptom expression.
      This study used resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) magnetic resonance
      imaging to examine neurobiological markers of escalating depression symptoms in
      adolescents (ages 12-16 years; free from psychopathology at baseline). Of a large
      sample of adolescents, 18 showed >= 1 S.D. increase in depression scale t-scores
      over time ("escalators"; time to escalation ranging from 6 to 54 months in follow
      up) and were matched and compared to 19 youth showing stable CDI scores over time
      ("controls"). Whole-brain analyses on baseline RSFC data using an amygdala seed
      region-of-interest (ROI) showed that controls had greater RSFC, relative to
      escalators, between the right amygdala and left inferior frontal and
      supramarginal gyrus and right mid-cingulate cortex. Additionally, relative to
      escalators, control youth had less RSFC between the left amygdala and cerebellum.
      Findings suggest a possible neurobiological marker of increasing depressive
      symptoms during adolescence, characterized in part by reduced fronto-limbic
      connectivity, suggesting a premorbid deficiency in top-down emotional regulation.

PMID- 28577435
TI  - Aryl benzofuran derivatives from the stem bark of Calpocalyx dinklagei attenuate
      inflammation.
AB  - Calpocalyx dinklagei Harms (Fabaceae) is a tropical medicinal tree, which is
      indigenous to Western Africa. A phytochemical study of this local plant species
      from its stem bark has led to the isolation of two previously undescribed aryl
      benzofuran derivatives, named dinklagein A and B, together with eight known
      compounds. Their chemical structures were elucidated by use of extensive
      spectroscopic methods (IR, HREI-MS and 1D and 2D NMR). Among all isolates,
      dinklagein A displayed remarkably potent inhibitory activity against the
      production of nitric oxide (NO) in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced RAW264.7
      macrophages. SAR and molecular docking investigations on iNOS and previously
      undescribed compounds (dinklagein A and B) supported experimental data.
      Furthermore, dinklagein A dose dependently suppressed the LPS-stimulated iNOS
      expression at both mRNA and protein level. It also attenuated IL-1beta release,
      mRNA expressions of IL-1beta and COX-2 at low doses. These results suggest that
      dinklagein A can be developed as natural, multi-target agent against several
      inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28577436
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of ursolic acid-3-acetate on human synovial fibroblasts
      and a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Ursolic acid (UA), a pentacyclic triterpenoid, is a common natural substance
      known to be effective in the treatment of inflammation, oxidative stress, and
      ulcers in arthritis. This study examined the effects of ursolic acid-3-acetate
      (UAA), a derivative of UA, on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and verified the
      underlying mechanism of action by using a type-II collagen-induced arthritis
      (CIA) mice model and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-stimulated RA synovial
      fibroblasts. The oral administration of UAA showed a decrease in clinical
      arthritis symptoms, paw thickness, histologic and radiologic changes, and serum
      IgG1 and IgG2a levels. UAA administration reduced Th1/Th17 phenotype CD4+ T
      lymphocyte expansion and inflammatory cytokine production in draining lymph
      nodes. In addition, UAA effectively reduced the expression and production of
      inflammatory mediators, including cytokines and matrix metalloproteinase-1/3 in
      the knee joint tissue and RA synovial fibroblasts, through the downregulation of
      IKKalpha/beta, IotakappaBalpha, and nuclear factor-kappaB. Our findings showed
      that UAA modulated helper T cell immune responses and matrix-degrading enzymes.
      The effects of UAA were comparable with those of the positive control drug,
      dexamethasone. In summary, all the evidence presented in this paper suggest that
      UAA could be a therapeutic candidate for the treatment of RA.

PMID- 28577437
TI  - Rutin exhibits hepatoprotective effects in a mouse model of non-alcoholic fatty
      liver disease by reducing hepatic lipid levels and mitigating lipid-induced
      oxidative injuries.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by excessive
      accumulation of hepatic lipids and oxidative injury of hepatocytes. Rutin is a
      natural flavonoid with significant roles in combating cellular oxidative stress
      and regulating lipid metabolism. The current study aims to investigate the
      molecular mechanisms underlying rutin's hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective
      effects in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Rutin treatment was applied to male
      C57BL/6 mice maintained on a high-fat diet and HepG2 cells challenged with oleic
      acid. Hepatic lipid accumulation was evaluated by triglyceride assay and Oil Red
      O staining. Oxidative hepatic injury was assessed by malondialdehyde assay,
      superoxide dismutase assay and reactive oxygen species assay. The expression
      levels of various lipogenic and lipolytic genes were determined by quantitative
      real-time polymerase chain reactions. In addition, liver autophagy was
      investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In both fat-challenged murine
      liver tissues and HepG2 cells, rutin treatment was shown to significantly lower
      triglyceride content and the abundance of lipid droplets. Rutin was also found to
      reduce cellular malondialdehyde level and restore superoxide dismutase activity
      in hepatocytes. Among the various lipid-related genes, rutin treatment was able
      to restore the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha
      (PPAR-alpha) and its downstream targets, carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 and 2
      (CPT-1 and CPT-2), while suppressing those of sterol regulatory element-binding
      protein 1c (SREBP-1c), diglyceride acyltransfase 1 and 2 (DGAT-1 and 2), as well
      as acyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC). In addition, rutin was shown to repress the
      autophagic function of liver tissues by down-regulating key autophagy biomarkers,
      including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1beta).
      The experimental data demonstrated that rutin could reduce triglyceride content
      and mitigate oxidative injuries in fat-enriched hepatocytes. The hypolipidemic
      properties of rutin could be attributed to its ability to simultaneously
      facilitate fatty acid metabolism and inhibit lipogenesis.

PMID- 28577438
TI  - Schisandrin B inhibits LPS-induced inflammatory response in human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells by activating Nrf2.
AB  - Schisandrin B (SchB), an active ingredient extracted from Schisandra chinensis
      (Turcz.) Baill, has been known to have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory
      activities. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects and
      mechanism of SchB in LPS-stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVECs). The effects of SchB on VCAM-1, ICAM-1, NF-kappaB and Nrf2 expression
      were detected by western blot analysis. The effects of SchB on TNF-alpha and IL-8
      production were detected by ELISA. The results showed that SchB strongly
      suppressed the production of TNF-alpha and IL-8 in HUVECs stimulated with LPS.
      SchB also inhibited LPS-induced VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 expression. Furthermore, SchB
      blocked the activation of NF-kappaB induced by LPS. In addition, SchB increased
      the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 in a concentration-dependent manner. And the
      inhibition of TNF-alpha and IL-8 production by SchB was blocked by transfection
      with Nrf2 siRNA. Our findings showed that SchB inhibited LPS-induced inflammation
      in HUVECs by activating Nrf2 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28577440
TI  - Effects of unstable footwear on gait characteristic: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over the last three decades, several designs of unstable footwear
      have been developed in the forms of shoes, sandals and boots. There are marketing
      claims related to the positive effects of these shoes on the training of lower
      limb muscles and improving gait. Many studies have been performed on the effects
      of unstable footwear on muscle activity, balance, posture, energy expenditure,
      lower extremity disorders, and biomechanical changes. The analysis of the
      kinetics and kinematics characteristics of gait would provide objective
      representation of body movement. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review available
      evidence on the use of unstable footwear on kinetic and kinematic parameters to
      make specific recommendation for practice and future studies. METHOD: A computer
      based search was undertaken through PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, PEDro, Web
      of Science and Google Scholar from 2005 to 2015. The included studies were
      appraised using McMaster Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies. RESULT:
      Ten studies (quasi-experimental design) were included. CONCLUSION: Considering
      kinetic and kinematic interaction of variables in the included studies revealed
      that confounding factors may have high impact on biomechanical findings of
      unstable footwear. Then, more homogeneous studies, considering these factors,
      should be implemented in future studies to inform the best clinical practice.

PMID- 28577439
TI  - Targeted alpha-Particle Radiation Therapy of HER1-Positive Disseminated
      Intraperitoneal Disease: An Investigation of the Human Anti-EGFR Monoclonal
      Antibody, Panitumumab.
AB  - Identifying molecular targets and an appropriate targeting vehicle, i.e.,
      monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and their various forms, for radioimmunotherapy (RIT)
      remains an active area of research. Panitumumab, a fully human and less
      immunogenic mAb that binds to the epidermal growth factor receptor (Erb1; HER1),
      was evaluated for targeted alpha-particle radiation therapy using 212Pb, an in
      vivo alpha generator. A single dose of 212Pb-panitumumab administered to athymic
      mice bearing LS-174T intraperitoneal (i.p.) tumor xenografts was found to have
      greater therapeutic efficacy when directly compared with 212Pb-trastuzumab, which
      binds to HER2. A dose escalation study determined a maximum effective working
      dose of 212Pb-panitumumab to be 20MUCi with a median survival of 35 days versus
      25 days for the untreated controls. Pretreatment of tumor-bearing mice with
      paclitaxel and gemcitabine 24hours prior to injection of 212Pb-pantiumumab at 10
      or 20MUCi resulted in the greatest enhanced therapeutic response at the higher
      dose with median survivals of 106 versus 192 days, respectively. The greatest
      therapeutic impact, however, was observed in the animals that were treated with
      topotecan 24hours prior to RIT and then again 24hours after RIT; the best
      response from this combination was also obtained with the lower 10-MUCi dose of
      212Pb-panitumumab (median survival >280 days). In summary, 212Pb-panitumumab is
      an excellent candidate for the treatment of HER1-positive disseminated i.p.
      disease. Furthermore, the potentiation of the therapeutic impact of 212Pb
      pantiumumab by chemotherapeutics confirms and validates the importance of
      developing a multimodal therapy regimen.

PMID- 28577442
TI  - The environmental impact of obesity: longitudinal evidence from the United
      States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper examines the relationship between obesity and greenhouse
      gas (GHG) emissions while accounting for the environmental impact of growth in
      transportation output and in crop and animal farming. STUDY DESIGN: The study
      makes use of US state-level longitudinal data over the 1997-2011 period. METHODS:
      Random effects and fixed effects estimators are employed within a multiple
      regression analysis framework. RESULTS: After controlling for other sources of
      emissions, there is evidence that the effect of transportation output on CO2
      emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding 33.7% and the effect on N2O
      emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding 22.5%. In addition, the impact of
      crop and animal farming on N2O emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding
      20.2%. CONCLUSION: This paper provides significant and new insight about the
      causal link between obesity and environmental emissions and highlights the
      importance of addressing the obesity epidemic on public health and environmental
      grounds. Thus, mitigating GHG emissions connected to obesity requires joint
      effort between policymakers, public health officials, and parties from concerned
      economic sectors in pursuing remedial actions to reverse the current obesity
      trend. Various policy measures are discussed.

PMID- 28577441
TI  - Exploring disparities in incidence and mortality rates of breast and gynecologic
      cancers according to the Human Development Index in the Pan-American region.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a country's Human Development Index (HDI) can help
      explain the differences in the country's breast cancer and gynecological cancer
      incidence and mortality rates in the Pan-American region. STUDY DESIGN:
      Ecological analysis. METHODS: Pan-American region countries with publicly
      available data both in GLOBOCAN 2012 and the United Nations Development Report
      2012 were included (n = 28). Incidence and mortality rates age-standardized per
      100,000 were natural log-transformed for breast cancer, ovarian cancer, corpus
      uteri cancer, and cervical cancer. The mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) was
      calculated for each site. Pearson's correlation test and a simple linear
      regression were performed. RESULTS: The HDI showed a positive correlation with
      breast cancer and ovarian cancer incidence and mortality rates, respectively, and
      a negative correlation with cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates. The
      HDI and corpus uteri cancer showed no association. MIR and the HDI showed a
      negative correlation for all tumor types except ovarian cancer. An increment in 1
      HDI unit leads to changes in cancer rates: in breast cancer incidence beta = 4.03
      (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.61; 5.45) P < 0.001, breast cancer mortality beta
      = 1.76 (95% CI 0.32; 3.21) P = 0.019, and breast cancer-MIR beta = -0.705 (95% CI
      0.704; 0.706) P < 0.001; in cervical cancer incidence beta = -3.28 (95% CI -4.78;
      -1.78) P < 0.001, cervical cancer mortality beta = -4.63 (95% CI -6.10; -3.17) P
      < 0.001, and cervical cancer-MIR beta = -1.35 (95% CI -1.83; -0.87) P < 0.001; in
      ovarian cancer incidence beta = 3.26 (95% CI 1.78; 4.75) P < 0.001, ovarian
      cancer mortality beta = 1.82 (95% CI 0.44; 3.20) P = 0.012, and ovarian cancer
      MIR beta = 5.10 (95% CI 3.22; 6.97) P < 0.001; in corpus uteri cancer incidence
      beta = 2.37 (95% CI -0.33; 5.06) P = 0.83, corpus uteri cancer mortality beta =
      0.68 (95% CI -2.68; 2.82) P = 0.96, and corpus uteri cancer-MIR beta = -2.30 (95%
      CI -3.19; -1.40) P < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: A country's HDI should be considered to
      understand disparities in breast cancer and gynecological cancer in the Pan
      American region.

PMID- 28577443
TI  - Re-working biographies: Women's narratives of pregnancy whilst living with
      epilepsy.
AB  - This paper explores the multiple ways experiences of pregnancy and early
      motherhood come to 'rework' the biographies of women living with epilepsy.
      Pregnancy is explored as a temporarily concurrent status alongside the long-term
      condition of epilepsy. Narrative interviews were conducted with 32 women from
      across the UK. Analysis of these narratives suggests that biographical disruption
      and continuity are both useful in the conceptualisation of women's diverse
      experiences of pregnancy and epilepsy. Such findings challenge the notion that
      the presence of a condition over a long period of time leads to the normalisation
      of illness. Participants' narratives demonstrate that, for some, pregnancy and
      early motherhood may be disruptive and can raise concerns regarding an ever
      present condition that may previously have been taken for granted. Findings also
      indicate the need for a greater consideration of gender and care
      responsibilities, as well explorations of concomitant conditions, in the
      theorising of biographies and chronic illness.

PMID- 28577444
TI  - Auditory processing deficits are sometimes necessary and sometimes sufficient for
      language difficulties in children: Evidence from mild to moderate sensorineural
      hearing loss.
AB  - There is a general consensus that many children and adults with dyslexia and/or
      specific language impairment display deficits in auditory processing. However,
      how these deficits are related to developmental disorders of language is
      uncertain, and at least four categories of model have been proposed: single
      distal cause models, risk factor models, association models, and consequence
      models. This study used children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss
      (MMHL) to investigate the link between auditory processing deficits and language
      disorders. We examined the auditory processing and language skills of 46, 8
      16year-old children with MMHL and 44 age-matched typically developing controls.
      Auditory processing abilities were assessed using child-friendly psychophysical
      techniques in order to obtain discrimination thresholds. Stimuli incorporated
      three different timescales (us, ms, s) and three different levels of complexity
      (simple nonspeech tones, complex nonspeech sounds, speech sounds), and tasks
      required discrimination of frequency or amplitude cues. Language abilities were
      assessed using a battery of standardised assessments of phonological processing,
      reading, vocabulary, and grammar. We found evidence that three different auditory
      processing abilities showed different relationships with language: Deficits in a
      general auditory processing component were necessary but not sufficient for
      language difficulties, and were consistent with a risk factor model; Deficits in
      slow-rate amplitude modulation (envelope) detection were sufficient but not
      necessary for language difficulties, and were consistent with either a single
      distal cause or a consequence model; And deficits in the discrimination of a
      single speech contrast (/balpha/ vs /dalpha/) were neither necessary nor
      sufficient for language difficulties, and were consistent with an association
      model. Our findings suggest that different auditory processing deficits may
      constitute distinct and independent routes to the development of language
      difficulties in children.

PMID- 28577445
TI  - Wormholes in virtual space: From cognitive maps to cognitive graphs.
AB  - Humans and other animals build up spatial knowledge of the environment on the
      basis of visual information and path integration. We compare three hypotheses
      about the geometry of this knowledge of navigation space: (a) 'cognitive map'
      with metric Euclidean structure and a consistent coordinate system, (b)
      'topological graph' or network of paths between places, and (c) 'labelled graph'
      incorporating local metric information about path lengths and junction angles. In
      two experiments, participants walked in a non-Euclidean environment, a virtual
      hedge maze containing two 'wormholes' that visually rotated and teleported them
      between locations. During training, they learned the metric locations of eight
      target objects from a 'home' location, which were visible individually. During
      testing, shorter wormhole routes to a target were preferred, and novel shortcuts
      were directional, contrary to the topological hypothesis. Shortcuts were strongly
      biased by the wormholes, with mean constant errors of 37 degrees  and 41 degrees 
      (45 degrees  expected), revealing violations of the metric postulates in spatial
      knowledge. In addition, shortcuts to targets near wormholes shifted relative to
      flanking targets, revealing 'rips' (86% of cases), 'folds' (91%), and ordinal
      reversals (66%) in spatial knowledge. Moreover, participants were completely
      unaware of these geometric inconsistencies, reflecting a surprising insensitivity
      to Euclidean structure. The probability of the shortcut data under the Euclidean
      map model and labelled graph model indicated decisive support for the latter
      (BFGM>100). We conclude that knowledge of navigation space is best characterized
      by a labelled graph, in which local metric information is approximate,
      geometrically inconsistent, and not embedded in a common coordinate system. This
      class of 'cognitive graph' models supports route finding, novel detours, and
      rough shortcuts, and has the potential to unify a range of data on spatial
      navigation.

PMID- 28577446
TI  - That's my hand! Therefore, that's my willed action: How body ownership acts upon
      conscious awareness of willed actions.
AB  - Whether and how body ownership ("this body is mine") contributes to human
      conscious experience of voluntary action is still unclear. In order to answer
      this question, here we incorporated two signatures (i.e., an ad hoc questionnaire
      and the sensory attenuation paradigm) of human's sense of agency ("this action is
      due to my own will") within a well-known experimental manipulation of body
      ownership (i.e., the rubber hand illusion paradigm). In two different
      experiments, we showed that the illusory ownership over a fake hand (induced by
      the rubber hand illusion) triggered also an illusory agency over its movements at
      both explicit and implicit level. Specifically, when the fake (embodied) hand
      pressed a button delivering an electrical stimulus to the participant's body, the
      movement was misattributed to participant's will (explicit level) and the
      stimulus intensity was attenuated (implicit level) exactly as it happened when
      the own hand actually delivered the stimulus. Our findings suggest that body
      ownership per se entails also motor representations of one's own movements.
      Whenever required by the context, this information would act upon agency
      attribution even prospectively (i.e., prior to action execution).

PMID- 28577447
TI  - Unconscious integration of multisensory bodily inputs in the peripersonal space
      shapes bodily self-consciousness.
AB  - Recent studies have highlighted the role of multisensory integration as a key
      mechanism of self-consciousness. In particular, integration of bodily signals
      within the peripersonal space (PPS) underlies the experience of the self in a
      body we own (self-identification) and that is experienced as occupying a specific
      location in space (self-location), two main components of bodily self
      consciousness (BSC). Experiments investigating the effects of multisensory
      integration on BSC have typically employed supra-threshold sensory stimuli,
      neglecting the role of unconscious sensory signals in BSC, as tested in other
      consciousness research. Here, we used psychophysical techniques to test whether
      multisensory integration of bodily stimuli underlying BSC also occurs for
      multisensory inputs presented below the threshold of conscious perception. Our
      results indicate that visual stimuli rendered invisible through continuous flash
      suppression boost processing of tactile stimuli on the body (Exp. 1), and enhance
      the perception of near-threshold tactile stimuli (Exp. 2), only once they entered
      PPS. We then employed unconscious multisensory stimulation to manipulate BSC.
      Participants were presented with tactile stimulation on their body and with
      visual stimuli on a virtual body, seen at a distance, which were either visible
      or rendered invisible. We found that participants reported higher self
      identification with the virtual body in the synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation
      (as compared to asynchronous stimulation; Exp. 3), and shifted their self
      location toward the virtual body (Exp.4), even if stimuli were fully invisible.
      Our results indicate that multisensory inputs, even outside of awareness, are
      integrated and affect the phenomenological content of self-consciousness,
      grounding BSC firmly in the field of psychophysical consciousness studies.

PMID- 28577448
TI  - Wettability alteration of oil-wet limestone using surfactant-nanoparticle
      formulation.
AB  - Wettability remains a prime factor that controls fluid displacement at pore-scale
      with substantial impact on multi-phase flow in the subsurface. As the rock
      surface becomes hydrophobic, any oleic phase present is tightly stored in the
      rock matrix and produced (hydrocarbon recovery) or cleaned up (soil
      decontamination) by standard waterflooding methods. Although surface active
      agents such as surfactants have been used for several decades for changing the
      wetting states of such rocks, an aspect that has been barely premeditated is the
      simultaneous blends of surfactants and nanoparticles. This study thus,
      systematically reports the behaviour of surfactants augmented nanoparticles on
      wettability alteration. Contact angle, spontaneous imbibition, and mechanistic
      approaches were adopted to assess the technical feasibility of the newly
      formulated wetting agents, tested over wide-ranging conditions to ascertain
      efficient wetting propensities. The contact angle measurement is in good
      agreement with the morphological and topographical studies and spontaneous
      imbibition. The wetting trends for the formulated systems indicate advancing and
      receding water contact angle decreased with increase in nanoparticle
      concentration and temperature, and the spontaneous water imbibition test also
      showed faster water-imbibing tendencies for nanoparticle-surfactant exposed
      cores. Thus, the new formulated nanoparticle-surfactant systems were considered
      suitable for enhancing oil recovery and soil-decontamination, particularly in
      fractured hydrophobic reservoirs.

PMID- 28577449
TI  - Thoracic spinal osteochondroma: A rare presentation of spinal cord compression.
AB  - Osteochondromas are the most common benign bone tumor typically seen in the
      appendicular skeleton and are rarely found in the spine. We present a case of an
      osteochondroma of the spine presenting with spinal cord compression. 27-year-old
      male presented with lower extremity weakness and paresthesia, decreased lower
      extremity sensation, and decreased proprioception. MRI showed a heterogeneous
      mass with minimal peripheral enhancement and without restricted diffusion. CT
      demonstrated a calcified mass extending from the left facet joint of T11-T12 with
      medial extension, resulting in severe central canal stenosis and cord
      compression. The patient underwent surgical resection with pathology
      demonstrating an osteochondroma.

PMID- 28577451
TI  - Optimization of the operation of packed bed bioreactor to improve the sulfate and
      metal removal from acid mine drainage.
AB  - The present study discusses the potentiality of using anaerobic Packed Bed
      Bioreactor (PBR) for the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). The multiple
      process parameters such as pH, hydraulic retention time (HRT), concentration of
      marine waste extract (MWE), total organic carbon (TOC) and sulfate were optimized
      together using Taguchi design. The order of influence of the parameters towards
      biological sulfate reduction was found to be pH > MWE > sulfate > HRT > TOC. At
      optimized conditions (pH - 7, 20% (v/v) MWE, 1500 mg/L sulfate, 48 h HRT and 2300
      mg/L TOC), 98.3% and 95% sulfate at a rate of 769.7 mg/L/d. and 732.1 mg/L/d. was
      removed from the AMD collected from coal and metal mine, respectively. Efficiency
      of metal removal (Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg and Ni) was in the range of 94-98%. The levels
      of contaminants in the treated effluent were below the minimum permissible limits
      of industrial discharge as proposed by Bureau of Indian Standards (IS 2490:1981).
      The present study establishes the optimized conditions for PBR operation to
      completely remove sulfate and metal removal from AMD at high rate. The study also
      creates the future scope to develop an efficient treatment process for sulfate
      and metal-rich mine wastewater in a large scale.

PMID- 28577450
TI  - N-Acetylcysteine-induced vasodilatation is modulated by KATP channels, Na+/K+
      ATPase activity and intracellular calcium concentration: An in vitro study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of ATP-sensitive
      potassium (KATP) channel, Na+/K+-ATPase activity, and intracellular calcium
      levels on the vasodilatory effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in thoracic aorta by
      using electrophysiological and molecular techniques. METHODS: Rat thoracic aorta
      ring preparations and cultured thoracic aorta cells were divided into four groups
      as control, 2mM NAC, 5mM NAC, and 10mM NAC. Thoracic aorta rings were isolated
      from rats for measurements of relaxation responses and Na+/K+-ATPase activity. In
      the cultured thoracic aorta cells, we measured the currents of KATP channel, the
      concentration of intracellular calcium and mRNA expression level of KATP channel
      subunits (KCNJ8, KCNJ11, ABCC8 and ABCC9). RESULTS: The relaxation rate
      significantly increased in all NAC groups compared to control. Similarly, Na+/K+-
      ATPase activity also significantly decreased in NAC groups. Outward KATP channel
      current significantly increased in all NAC groups compared to the control group.
      Intracellular calcium concentration decreased significantly in all groups with
      compared control. mRNA expression level of ABCC8 subunit significantly increased
      in all NAC groups compared to the control group. Pearson correlation analysis
      showed that relaxation rate was significantly associated with KATP current,
      intracellular calcium concentration, Na+/K+-ATPase activity and mRNA expression
      level of ABCC8 subunit. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that NAC relaxes
      vascular smooth muscle cells through a direct effect on KATP channels, by
      increasing outward K+ flux, partly by increasing mRNA expression of KATP subunit
      ABCC8, by decreasing in intracellular calcium and by decreasing in Na+/K+-ATPase
      activity.

PMID- 28577452
TI  - Green and efficient biosorptive removal of methylene blue by Abelmoschus
      esculentus seed: Process optimization and multi-variate modeling.
AB  - The present work explores, for the first time, the adsorptive removal of
      methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solution using different parts of abundantly
      available agricultural product, Abelmoschus esculentus (lady's finger), and the
      processed seed powder (designated as LFSP) was found as the best. The aforesaid
      biosorbent was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy
      (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and pHZPC analyses. The
      biosorption performance was evaluated using batch studies at 303 K, at varying
      operating conditions such as solution pH, biosorbent dosage, initial dye
      concentration and contact time. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was
      followed during the adsorption, and it was also found that intra-particle
      diffusion played a prominent role in the rate-controlling step. Langmuir and
      Temkin isotherms were followed the best, as was evident from the lower % non
      linear error values and higher degree of determination coefficients.
      Thermodynamic investigations revealed that the biosorption processes were
      spontaneous and endothermic. Using the response surface methodology (RSM), a
      central composite design was developed, and subsequently applied as an input for
      the artificial neural network (ANN) approach in order to further analyze the
      interactive term effects between the significant process parameters, on the
      maximum biosorption capacity for MB dye removal by LFSP. The non-linear error
      functions and linear regression coefficients on the RSM model showed its
      dominance behaviour over ANN model for both data fitting and estimation
      capabilities. Using the statistical optimization, the maximum uptake capacity was
      found to be 205.656 mg/g. Experiments were conducted to regenerate the adsorbent
      and to recover the adsorbed dye using the eluent 0.5 M HCl. Cost analysis showed
      that, LFSP was 7 times cheaper than commercially available activated carbons.

PMID- 28577453
TI  - Stabilization of arsenic and fluoride bearing spent adsorbent in clay bricks:
      Preparation, characterization and leaching studies.
AB  - The presence of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater has been observed throughout
      the world. Many technologies have been developed by various research groups in
      order to tackle this problem. Adsorption has emerged as one of the best possible
      technique for the removal of arsenic, fluoride and many other pollutants from
      drinking water. Although a considerable amount of work has been published on the
      adsorptive removal of arsenic and fluoride, the area related to the management of
      spent adsorbent is not well explored. Present paper deals with the adsorptive
      removal of arsenic and fluoride from aqueous solution by three different types of
      adsorbents, namely, thermally treated laterite (TTL), acid-base treated laterite
      (ABTL) and aluminum oxide/hydroxide nanoparticles (AHNP). Under the experimental
      conditions in batch operation, the adsorption capacities of TTL, ABLT and AHNP
      for arsenic are found to be 6.43 MUg/g, 9.25 MUg/g and 48.5 MUg/g respectively,
      whereas for fluoride, these values are found as 0.21 mg/g, 0.85 mg/g and 4.65
      mg/g respectively. After adsorption, the spent adsorbents have been stabilized in
      the form of clay bricks. The effects of spent adsorbent concentration on the
      properties of bricks and their leaching properties are investigated. The bricks
      have been tested for various properties like density, percentage water
      absorption, shrinkage, compressive strength and efflorescence. The maximum values
      of density and shrinkage of the bricks formed are found as 2.3 g/cm3 and 10.2%,
      whereas the percentage water absorption and compressive strength of the bricks
      are found between 11 and 14% and 35 to 150 kgf/cm2 respectively. All the test
      results are in accordance with the criteria set by Indian Standards. The leaching
      test of arsenic and fluoride from the bricks reveals that their maximum values in
      leachate are 510 MUg/L and 2.1 mg/L respectively, which are below the permissible
      limits of USEPA standards.

PMID- 28577454
TI  - Evaluation of waste biomasses and their biochars for removal of polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons.
AB  - This work evaluates the use of biomasses and their biochars as adsorbents to
      remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from water. Coconut waste (CW) and orange
      waste (OW) were pyrolyzed at 350  degrees C to produce the corresponding biochars
      (BCW and BOW). Adsorption tests using a mixed solution of benzo(a)anthracene,
      benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, and
      dibenzo(a,h)anthracene showed removal percentages of 30.33-83.43% (CW), 47.09
      83.02% (BCW), 24.20-74.25% (OW), and 23.84-84.02% (BOW). The adsorption
      mechanisms appeared to involve pi-pi interactions of similar groups of the
      adsorbate and adsorbent, together with hydrophobic effects. There was no
      indication of competition between the PAHs for the adsorption sites, and there
      was evidence of cooperative adsorption. The PAHs could be desorbed from the
      adsorbents with efficiencies in the range 34.88-72.32%, and the reuse of the
      adsorbents in two further cycles demonstrated their potential for use in the
      removal of PAHs from water.

PMID- 28577456
TI  - DNA decontamination of fingerprint brushes.
AB  - Genetic profiling of DNA collected from fingerprints that have been exposed to
      various enhancement techniques is routine in many forensic laboratories. As a
      result of direct contact with fingermark residues during treatment, there is
      concern around the DNA contamination risk of dusting fingermarks with fingerprint
      brushes. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential for cross-contamination
      between evidentiary items through various mechanisms, highlighting the risk of
      using the same fingerprint brush to powder multiple surfaces within and between
      crime-scenes. Experiments were performed to assess the contamination risk of
      reused fingerprint brushes through the transfer of dried saliva and skin deposits
      from and to glass surfaces with new unused squirrel hair and fiberglass brushes.
      Additional new unused brushes and brushes previously used in casework were also
      tested for their ability to contaminate samples. In addition, the ability to
      eradicate DNA from used squirrel hair and fiberglass fingerprint brushes was
      assessed using a 1% sodium hypochlorite solution and a 5% solution of a
      commercially available alternative, Virkon. DNA profiling results from surfaces
      contacted by treated and untreated brushes were compared to determine the
      effectiveness of the devised cleaning protocol. Brush durability was also
      assessed over multiple wash/rinse/dry cycles with both agents. Varying amounts of
      DNA-containing material were collected and transferred by squirrel hair and
      fiberglass brushes, with detectability on the secondary surface dependent on the
      biological nature of the material being transferred. The impact of DNA
      contamination from dirty fingerprint brushes was most apparent in simulations
      involving the transfer of dried saliva and brushes previously used in casework,
      while minimal transfer of touch DNA was observed. Alarmingly, large quantities of
      DNA were found to reside on new unused squirrel hair brushes, while no DNA was
      detected on new unused fiberglass brushes or brushes sold as DNA-free. Squirrel
      hair brushes were easily and effectively cleaned with both hypochlorite and
      Virkon, with no evidence of DNA transfer between exhibits by treated brushes.
      Brushes were still deemed useable after multiple cleaning cycles with either
      agent. In contrast, fiberglass bristles became tangled and matted when wet and
      could not be cleaned effectively using either method. It is recommended they are
      disposed of following use. Each laboratory should consider their current
      circumstances before adapting a cleaning method. The implementation of a program
      to monitor the effectiveness of the cleaning regime is also advised.

PMID- 28577455
TI  - The treatment of chromium containing wastewater using electrocoagulation and the
      production of ceramic pigments from the resulting sludge.
AB  - This research experimentally investigates the treatment of authentic
      electroplating wastewater with high Cr(VI) content by electrocoagulation with the
      obtained sludge being reused as a raw material to produce inorganic pigments. A
      zero waste process is introduced to help conserve resources and to minimize
      environmental effects. The effects of operational parameters on
      electrocoagulation are determined in a batch stirred reactor using an iron
      electrode. The best performance was observed when a current density 20 mA/cm2, pH
      2.4 and 0.05 M NaCl electrolyte were maintained. The initial Cr(VI) concentration
      of 1000 mg/L was almost completely abated (~100%) at an energy cost of 2.68
      kWh/m3, fulfilling the EPA guideline of 2.77 mg/L within a single step process.
      The sludge was characterized using XRD and XRF showing that the sludge is a rich
      source of iron and chromium and can be reused to produce value added ceramic
      pigments. Pigments prepared in this way appeared to be reddish brown and black
      color in transparent glaze and were also characterized using XRD and XRF. In this
      study, a zero waste process is successfully introduced with ~100% Cr(VI) removal,
      with subsequent reuse of the resulting sludge.

PMID- 28577457
TI  - A qualitative study on feedback provided by students in nurse education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to help nurse educators/academics understand the
      perspectives and expectations of students providing their feedback to educators
      about teaching performance and subject quality. AIM: The aim of this study is to
      reveal students' voices regarding their feedback in nurse education in order to
      shed light on how the current student feedback practice may be modified. DESIGN:
      A qualitative study using focus group inquiry. METHODS: Convenience sampling was
      adopted and participants recruited from one school of nursing in Hong Kong. A
      total of 66 nursing students from two pre-registration programs were recruited
      for seven focus group interviews: one group of Year 1 students (n=21), two groups
      of Year 3 students (n=27), and four groups of Final Year students (n=18). The
      interviews were guided by a semi-structured interview guideline and the interview
      narratives were processed through content analysis. The trustworthiness of this
      study was guaranteed through peer checking, research meetings, and an audit
      trail. The participants' privacy was protected throughout the study. RESULTS:
      Four core themes were discerned based on the narratives of the focus group
      interviews: (1) "timing of collecting feedback at more than one time point"; (2)
      "modify the questions being asked in collecting student feedback"; (3) "are
      electronic means of collecting feedback good enough?; and (4) "what will be next
      for student feedback?". CONCLUSIONS: This study is significant in the following
      three domains: 1) it contributed to student feedback because it examined the
      issue from a student's perspective; 2) it explored the timing and channels for
      collecting feedback from the students' point of view; and 3) it showed the
      preferred uses of student feedback.

PMID- 28577458
TI  - The "Hispanic mortality paradox" revisited: Meta-analysis and meta-regression of
      life-course differentials in Latin American and Caribbean immigrants' mortality.
AB  - The literature on immigrant health has repeatedly reported the paradoxical
      finding, where immigrants from Latin American countries to OECD countries appear
      to enjoy better health and greater longevity, compared with the local population
      in the host country. However, no previous meta-analysis has examined this effect
      focusing specifically on immigrants from Latin America (rather than Hispanic
      ethnicity) and we still do not know enough about the factors that may moderate
      the relationship between immigration and mortality. We conducted meta-analyses
      and meta-regressions to examine 123 all-cause mortality risk estimates and 54
      cardiovascular mortality risk estimates from 28 publications, providing data on
      almost 800 million people. The overall results showed that the mean rate ratio
      (RR) for immigrants vs. controls was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.84-1.01) for all-cause
      mortality and 0.73 (CI, 0.67-0.80) for cardiovascular mortality. While the
      overall results suggest no immigrant mortality advantage, studies that used only
      native born persons as controls did find a significant all-cause mortality
      advantage (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76-0.97). Furthermore, we found that the relative
      risk of mortality largely depends on life course stages. While the mortality
      advantage is apparent for working-age immigrants, it is not significant for older
      age immigrants and the effect is reversed for children and adolescents.

PMID- 28577459
TI  - Nurse practitioners as primary care providers with their own patient panels and
      organizational structures: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health care systems globally are facing challenges of meeting the
      growing demand for primary care services due to a shortage of primary care
      physicians. Policy makers and administrators are searching for solutions to
      increase the primary care capacity. The effective utilization of nurse
      practitioners (NPs) has been proposed as a solution. However, organizations
      utilize NPs in variable capacities. In some settings, NPs serve as primary care
      providers delivering ongoing continuous care to their patients, referred to as
      patient panels, whereas in other settings they deliver episodic care. Little is
      known about why organizations deploy NPs differently. OBJECTIVES: Investigate the
      NP role in care delivery-primary care providers with the own patient panels or
      delivering episodic care-within their organizations and understand how work
      environments affect their role. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey design was used
      to collect data from primary care NPs. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in one
      state in the United States (Massachusetts). Data from 163 primary care
      organizations was obtained, which employed between one to 12 NPs. PARTICIPANTS:
      807 NPs recruited from the Massachusetts Provider Database received mail surveys;
      314 completed and returned the survey, yielding a response rate of 40%. METHODS:
      The survey contained measures of NP role in care delivery and work environment.
      NP role was measured by an item asking NPs to report if they deliver ongoing
      continuous care to their patient panel or if they do not have patient panel. The
      work environment was measured with the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care
      Organizational Climate Questionnaire (NP-PCOCQ). The multilevel Cox regression
      models investigated the influence of organization-level work environment on NP
      role in care delivery. RESULTS: About 45% of NPs served as primary care providers
      with their own patient panel. Organization-level Independent Practice and Support
      subscale, an NP-PCOCQ subscale, had a significant positive effect on NP role
      (risk ratio=2.33; 95% CI: 1.06-5.13); with a one unit increase on this subscale,
      the incidence of the NPs serving as primary care providers with their own patient
      panel doubled. CONCLUSIONS: NPs can help meet the increasing demand for primary
      care by taking responsibilities as primary care providers, and organizations can
      assign NPs their own patient panels. Supporting NP independent practice within
      organizations promotes NP role as primary care providers. Policy and
      organizational change focused on promoting NP work environments so NPs can
      practice as primary care providers can be an effective strategy to increase the
      primary care capacity.

PMID- 28577460
TI  - Fabrication of alpha-FeOOH decorated graphene oxide-carbon nanotubes aerogel and
      its application in adsorption of arsenic species.
AB  - Arsenic pollution has caused worldwide attention due to its mandatory toxicity.
      Chemical structures of the adsorbent and arsenic species greatly influence the
      arsenic adsorption efficiency. The goethite impregnated graphene oxide (GO)
      carbon nanotubes (CNTs) aerogel (alpha-FeOOH@GCA) was prepared via a facile self
      assembly method of GO-CNTs induced by in-situ Fe2+ reduction. alpha-FeOOH@GCA
      showed excellent adsorption capacities of 56.43, 24.43 and 102.11mgg-1 for As(V),
      DMA and p-ASA comparing with that of 25.71, 8.03 and 14.52mgg-1 of pristine alpha
      FeOOH, respectively. The incorporation of GO-CNTs not only hinders the
      aggregation of GO-CNTs but also inhibits the growth of alpha-FeOOH nanoparticles
      greatly facilitating the diffusion and adsorption capacity of arsenic species.
      alpha-FeOOH@GCA shows wide favorable application pH for arsenic species
      adsorption, high adsorption kinetics and excellent reusability. The phosphate and
      silicate anions compete with the arsenic species for active adsorption sites due
      to the similar anionic structure. Based on FTIR spectra, arsenic species were
      proven to form inner sphere complex on the surface of alpha-FeOOH@GCA through
      different ligand exchanging mechanism greatly dependent on the molecular
      structures of arsenic species. The results show that alpha-FeOOH@GCA could be
      used as promising adsorbent for arsenic purification in water system.

PMID- 28577461
TI  - Gold nanoparticle and graphene oxide incorporated strontium crosslinked
      alginate/carboxymethyl cellulose composites for o-nitroaniline reduction and
      Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions.
AB  - Self-organized strontium ion crosslinked alginate/carboxymethyl cellulose
      composite materials with gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and graphene oxide (GO) were
      effectively fabricated using dissipative convective procedures followed by the
      freeze-drying method. Composite gels were characterized by using Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning
      electron microscopy with Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDAX) and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Moreover, thermal, mechanical
      and rheological properties were also performed to identify their strength and
      stability. The results revealed that Sr/Alg/CMC/Au and Sr/Alg/CMC/GO/Au
      composites showed remarkably porous structures with ordered capillaries;
      rheologically gel-like structures with high mechanical strength. Moreover,
      composites were tested for the reduction of o-nitroaniline and Suzuki-Miyaura
      cross-coupling reaction. The Sr/Alg/CMC/GO/Au composite competently reduced the o
      nitroaniline within 2min (k=4.86*10-2s-1) with recyclability up to 7 consecutive
      cycles and also displayed 98% isolated yield (TOF value is 4900h-1) for Suzuki
      Miyaura cross-coupling reaction with 6cycles recyclability. This approach of
      using nanoparticles incorporated composite systems as reusable catalysts opens a
      door of new materials for various catalytic applications.

PMID- 28577463
TI  - Stabilisation of water-in-water emulsions by montmorillonite platelets.
AB  - The formation of water-in-water emulsions from the aqueous two phase system
      containing polyethylene oxide and pullulan, stabilised by montmorillonite
      platelets, was investigated. A novel approach of preparing the emulsions at non
      equilibrium polymer concentrations was successfully utilised to control viscosity
      during mixing and allow the use of low energy emulsification methods.
      Polyethylene oxide adsorbed to the platelets much more strongly than pullulan
      favouring the formation of pullulan-in-polyethylene oxide emulsions which
      remained stable for a period of weeks. Polarising microscopy and small angle
      light scattering were used to show that droplets were most likely stabilised
      against coalescence by the adsorption of randomly oriented aggregates of
      platelets and against creaming by the formation of chains of droplets bridged by
      the adsorbed aggregates. Montmorillonite platelets were therefore shown to
      stabilise water-in-water emulsions and their preference for emulsion type was
      driven by the adsorption of the polymers to the particle surface.

PMID- 28577462
TI  - One-pot preparation of ternary reduced graphene oxide
      nanosheets/Fe2O3/polypyrrole hydrogels as efficient Fenton catalysts.
AB  - Ternary reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (rGSs)/Fe2O3/polypyrrole (PPy)
      hydrogels with Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) embedded between rGSs and PPy layer were
      prepared in one-pot. The ternary hydrogels exhibited an interconnected and porous
      three-dimensional network with co-existence of macropores and mesopores. Fe2O3
      NPs uniformly dispersed on rGS surface with the diameter of 8.8nm. Control
      experiments were carried out to investigate the roles of components in formation
      of ternary hydrogels. During heterogeneous Fenton degradation of methylene blue
      (MB) dyes, the ternary hydrogels exhibited much better removal efficiency than
      the reference samples, not only because rGSs and PPy layer altered the
      adsorption, dispersity and diameter of Fe2O3 NPs; but also owing to the
      structural merits of ternary hydrogels. The effects of operating conditions, such
      as initial MB concentrations, dosages of catalysts and H2O2, were carefully
      investigated. With the help of Fe2O3 NPs, ternary rGSs/Fe2O3/PPy hydrogels could
      be easily separated via a magnet. In recycling experiments, they showed superior
      reusability.

PMID- 28577464
TI  - Ag filament induced nonvolatile resistive switching memory behaviour in hexagonal
      MoSe2 nanosheets.
AB  - In this work, hexagonal MoSe2 nanosheets were prepared by hydrothermal process.
      Next, the resistive switching memory behaviour of single MoSe2 nanosheets was
      further investigated. We observed that MoSe2 nanosheets based memory device show
      reproducible and stable bipolar resistive switching memory characteristics.
      Through the analysis for conductive mechanism, the formation and rupture of
      nanoscale Ag filament inside the MoSe2 nanosheets is suggested to explain the
      memory behaviour.

PMID- 28577465
TI  - Nanocomposites based on banana starch reinforced with cellulose nanofibers
      isolated from banana peels.
AB  - Cellulose nanofibers were isolated from banana peel using a combination of
      chemical and mechanical treatments with different number of passages through the
      high-pressure homogenizer (0, 3, 5, and 7 passages). New nanocomposites were then
      prepared from a mixed suspension of banana starch and cellulose nanofibers using
      the casting method and the effect of the addition of these nanofibers on the
      properties of the resulting nanocomposites was investigated. The cellulose
      nanofibers homogeneously dispersed in the starch matrix increased the glass
      transition temperature, due to the strong intermolecular interactions occurring
      between the starch and cellulose. The nanocomposites exhibited significantly
      increased the tensile strength, Young's modulus, water-resistance, opacity, and
      crystallinity as the number of passages through the homogenizer augmented.
      However, a more drastic mechanical treatment (seven passages) caused defects in
      nanofibers, deteriorating the nanocomposite properties. The most suitable
      mechanical treatment condition for the preparation of cellulose nanofibers and
      the corresponding nanocomposite was five passages through the high-pressure
      homogenizer. In general, the cellulose nanofibers improved the features of the
      starch-based material and are potentially applicable as reinforcing elements in a
      variety of polymer composites.

PMID- 28577466
TI  - Synthesis of functionalized MgAl-layered double hydroxides via modified mussel
      inspired chemistry and their application in organic dye adsorption.
AB  - In this paper, a novel strategy for the preparation of poly(levodopa)
      functionalized MgAl-layered double hydroxide (PDOPA-f-LDH) was developed based on
      the modified mussel inspired chemistry. The utilization of PDOPA-f-LDH for the
      removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution was also examined. Taken
      advantage of the self-polymerization of levodopa (DOPA) in alkaline solution and
      the strong affinity of catechol groups to the substrate surface, the LDH was
      covered homogeneously by a layer of polymer coating of DOPA, leading to the
      functionalization toward LDH. The structure, surface morphology, thermostability
      and elemental composition of as-prepared PDOPA-f-LDH were investigated by the
      transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy. Besides, the surface charge of the PDOPA-f-LDH was also
      investigated using zeta potential. The effects of various parameters, including
      contact time, initial MB concentration, solution pH and temperature, on the
      adsorption of MB onto PDOPA-f-LDH were systematically investigated. Results show
      that the adsorption capacity of functionalized LDH at 25 degrees C could reach up
      to 102mg/g, which is much higher than that of pure LDH in the same experimental
      conditions. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm of MB adsorption were studied in
      batch experiments. The pseudo-second-order model is found to be the best to
      describe the adsorption kinetics. The isotherm result shows that the Freundlich
      isotherm is the better-fit-isotherm model to represent the equilibrium data. The
      values of thermodynamic parameters, including enthalpy change DeltaH0, entropy
      change DeltaS0 and Gibbs free energy change DeltaG0, were also determined. All
      the DeltaG0 values are negative; the DeltaH0 and DeltaS0 values of PDOPA-f-LDH
      were -7.824kJmol-1 and -0.01562kJmol-1K-1, respectively. And the activation
      energy of system (Ea) is calculated as 24.69kJmol-1. The fact suggests that the
      MB adsorption on PDOPA-f-LDH is a spontaneous and exothermic process. These
      obtained results indicate that the prepared PDOPA-f-LDH could be used as an
      interesting adsorbent with great potential to adsorb the cationic dyeing
      pollutants from aqueous media.

PMID- 28577467
TI  - Ag/AgCl nanoparticles-modified CdSnO3.3H2O nanocubes photocatalyst for the
      degradation of methyl orange and antibiotics under visible light irradiation.
AB  - CdSnO3.3H2O (CSH) nanocubes modified with Ag/AgCl nanoparticles were constructed
      via the ultrasonic-assisted precipitation-photoreduction method. The obtained
      samples were characterized using various analytical techniques. Methyl orange
      (MO), tetracycline (TC), and oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC-HCl) were
      degraded as target pollutants under visible light irradiation to evaluate the
      photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared samples. Compared with pure CSH and
      Ag/AgCl nanoparticles, the developed composite of which 5mL of AgNO3 was added on
      the synthesis, labelled as 5-Ag/AgCl/CSH, occupied the best photocatalytic
      activity. The corresponding degradation rate for MO was 94% within 40min. 94% of
      TC and 90% of OTC-HCl were also degraded by 5-Ag/AgCl/CSH catalyst within 60min,
      respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity might arise from the surface
      plasmon resonance effect of Ag/AgCl nanoparticles and efficient separation of
      photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Meanwhile, a possible photocatalytic
      mechanism over 5-Ag/AgCl/CSH sample was proposed based on the experiment and
      theoretical analysis.

PMID- 28577468
TI  - Wake-sleep circuitry: an overview.
AB  - Although earlier models of brain circuitry controlling wake-sleep focused on
      monaminergic and cholinergic arousal systems, recent evidence indicates that
      these play mainly a modulatory role, and that the backbone of the wake-sleep
      regulatory system depends upon fast neurotransmitters, such as glutmate and GABA.
      We review here recent advances in understanding the role these systems play in
      controlling sleep and wakefulness.

PMID- 28577470
TI  - Ankle-foot orthosis bending axis influences running mechanics.
AB  - Passive-dynamic ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) are commonly prescribed to improve
      locomotion for people with lower limb musculoskeletal weakness. The clinical
      prescription and design process are typically qualitative and based on
      observational assessment and experience. Prior work examining the effect of AFO
      design characteristics generally excludes higher impact activities such as
      running, providing clinicians and researchers limited information to guide the
      development of objective prescription guidelines. The proximal location of the
      bending axis may directly influence energy storage and return and resulting
      running mechanics. The purpose of this study was to determine if the location of
      an AFO's bending axis influences running mechanics. Marker and force data were
      recorded as 12 participants with lower extremity weakness ran overground while
      wearing a passive-dynamic AFO with posterior struts manufactured with central
      (middle) and off-centered (high and low) bending axes. Lower extremity joint
      angles, moments, powers, and ground reaction forces were calculated and compared
      between limbs and across bending axis conditions. Bending axis produced
      relatively small but significant changes. Ankle range of motion increased as the
      bending axis shifted distally (p<0.003). Peak ankle power absorption was greater
      in the low axis than high (p=0.013), and peak power generation was greater in the
      low condition than middle or high conditions (p<0.009). Half of the participants
      preferred the middle bending axis, four preferred low and two preferred high.
      Overall, if greater ankle range of motion is tolerated, a low bending axis
      provides power and propulsive benefits during running, although individual
      preference and physical ability should also be considered.

PMID- 28577469
TI  - The interaction between HIV-1 Nef and adaptor protein-2 reduces Nef-mediated CD4+
      T cell apoptosis.
AB  - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is characterized by a decline in CD4+ T
      cells. Here, we elucidated the mechanism underlying apoptosis in Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) infection by examining host apoptotic pathways
      hijacked by the HIV-1 Nef protein in the CD4+ T-cell line Sup-T1. Using a panel
      of Nef mutants unable to bind specific host proteins we uncovered that Nef
      generates pro- and anti-apoptotic signals. Apoptosis increased upon mutating the
      motifs involved in the interaction of Nef:AP-1 (NefM20A or NefEEEE62-65AAAA) or
      Nef:AP-2 (NefLL164/165AA), implying these interactions limit Nef-mediated
      apoptosis. In contrast, disrupting the Nef:PAK2 interaction motifs (NefH89A or
      NefF191A) reduced apoptosis. To validate further, apoptosis was measured after
      short-hairpin RNA knock-down of AP-1, AP-2 and PAK2. AP-2alpha depletion enhanced
      apoptosis, demonstrating that disrupting the Nef:AP-2alpha interaction limits Nef
      mediated apoptosis. Collectively, we describe a mechanism by which HIV-1
      regulates cell survival and demonstrate the consequence of interfering with
      Nef:host protein interactions.

PMID- 28577471
TI  - Men and women show similar survival outcome in stage IV breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinicopathological features, patterns of distant
      metastases, and survival outcome between stage IV male breast cancer (MBC) and
      female breast cancer (FBC). METHODS: Patients diagnosed with stage IV MBC and FBC
      between 2010 and 2013 were included using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
      Results program. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to
      analyze risk factors for overall survival (OS). RESULTS: A total of 4997 patients
      were identified, including 60 MBC and 4937 FBC. Compared with FBC, patients with
      MBC were associated with a significantly higher rate of estrogen receptor
      positive, progesterone receptor-positive, unmarried, lung metastases, and a lower
      frequency of liver metastases. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed no
      significant difference in OS between MBC and FBC. In the propensity score-matched
      population, there was also no difference in survival between MBC and FBC.
      Multivariate analysis of MBC showed that OS was longer for patients aged 50-69
      years and with estrogen receptor-positive disease. CONCLUSIONS: There was no
      significant difference in survival outcome between stage IV MBC and FBC, but
      significant differences in clinicopathological features and patterns of
      metastases between the genders.

PMID- 28577472
TI  - General movement trajectories and neurodevelopment at 3months of age following
      neonatal surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonates who undergo major surgery are at risk of neurodevelopmental
      disability. The General Movements Assessment (GMA) is a valid and reliable method
      to predict neurodevelopment, however, there are minimal data on the applicability
      among infants post-surgery. AIM: To describe GMs trajectories following neonatal
      surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS: 217 infants following
      major cardiac and non-cardiac neonatal surgery. OUTCOME MEASURES: Infants were
      assessed following surgery at term age (mean 40weeks, SD 2.3), and at 3months of
      age (mean 12weeks, SD 1.6) using the GMA and the Bayley Scales of Infant and
      Toddler Development III. GMA videos were independently scored by three advanced
      trained assessors, two blinded to infant details. RESULTS: The most common result
      in the writhing period was 'poor repertoire' (n=117, 54%), however, 99 (84%) of
      these infants had normal fidgety movements. For infants with normal writhing
      (n=75, 34%), only four had absent fidgety movements. Cramped synchronised
      movements were seen in 10 infants, and three of these were rated as absent
      fidgety. There was no significant difference between the surgical groups. In
      total, 24 infants (11%) had absent fidgety movements and lower scores on average
      in all subtests of the BSID-III than those with normal fidgety movements.
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report describing GMs trajectories in infants who
      have undergone neonatal surgery. Similar to other high risk infant populations,
      this group showed a high proportion of poor repertoire writhing movements,
      however, most infants demonstrated normal fidgety movements and development at
      3months of age.

PMID- 28577473
TI  - Alexithymia and depression in patients with fibromyalgia: When the whole is
      greater than the sum of its parts.
AB  - This study investigated the link between alexithymia and depressive symptoms in
      Fibromyalgia (FM). 181 FM women and 181 healthy controls (HC) were compared using
      the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. A
      moderation analysis was performed to examine the moderation effect of the group
      (FM vs. HC) on the relationship between alexithymia and depression. Group was a
      significant moderator, highlighting a stronger relationship between alexithymia
      and depressive symptoms in the FM compared to HC. The study highlighted that the
      association between alexithymia and depression is different when we consider FM
      patients rather than the healthy population.

PMID- 28577474
TI  - Promiscuous viruses-how do viruses survive multiple unrelated hosts?
AB  - Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) require efficient replication in
      taxonomically divergent hosts in order to perpetuate in nature. This review
      discusses recent advances in our understanding of the phylogenetic position of
      arthropod-borne viruses relative to insect-specific viruses, which appear to be
      more common and ecological requirements for successful adoption of the 'arbovirus
      phenotype.' Several molecular and other mechanisms that permit replication in
      divergent hosts are also discussed.

PMID- 28577475
TI  - Needle-guided ultrasound technique for axillary artery catheter placement in
      critically ill patients: A case series and technique description.
AB  - PURPOSE: Axillary arterial cannulation for blood pressure monitoring has been
      reported in adults since 1973. Reported failure rates using palpation landmarks
      are high. This report describes a needle-guided ultrasound technique for axillary
      arterial line placement in critically ill patients. METHODS: A retrospective
      review of all patients requiring axillary arterial cannulation attempts with
      ultrasound-assisted needle guidance for hemodynamic monitoring was performed from
      July 2010 to June 2016 at a single institution. RESULTS: One hundred fifty nine
      (159) cannulation attempts were performed in 155 patients. The overall success
      rate was 97%, with a first pass success rate of 84%. Inexperienced operators
      performed 49% of procedures under direct faculty supervision, and had a 99%
      success rate, which was not different from experienced operators. Almost 20% of
      patients had moderate-to-severe coagulopathy (platelets<50k/uL, INR>2.0 or
      PTT>60s). Complications reported included the following: nonfunctioning of
      catheter (6%) and hematoma (6%). Ischemia was noted in 2 patients (1%), but only
      one was attributed to the arterial catheter. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the needle
      guided ultrasound assisted approach for axillary arterial line placement is
      easily teachable and can be used to promote safe and successful placement of
      axillary arterial lines for novice learners.

PMID- 28577476
TI  - Concurrent intravenous drug administration to critically ill children: Evaluation
      of frequency and compatibility.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the frequency of concurrent drug administration and drug
      drug incompatibility of concurrently administered drugs in critically ill
      children based on available references. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      evaluated concurrent intravenous drug administration in children admitted to a
      single centre. Eligible patients included those admitted to the critical care
      unit for at least 6-hours in the ten-year period ending 30 July 2015 and received
      two or more IV drug administrations. Compatibilities were classified using local
      reference documents. RESULTS: The 16,863 eligible patients were admitted to ICU
      for 2,212,326h and received 3,664,667 concurrent administrations. Concurrent
      infusions ran for 6,263,600h. There were 2,284,066 (62%) concurrent
      administrations; 334,144 (9%) were compatible, 293,856 (8%) were incompatible,
      293,856 (8%) required pharmacist consultation, and 752,601 (21%) had 'unknown'
      compatibility. Individual patients received a median (IQR) of 33 (10-132)
      concurrent administrations, comprised of 7 (1-30) concurrent injections 1 (0-5)
      concurrent infusions and 13 (0-74) concurrently administered injections and
      infusions. CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent IV-drug administration is frequent in
      critically ill children. Known incompatible concurrent administration occurs,
      however the compatibilities of many drug-drug pairs were unknown - adding
      complexity to routine bedside management and identifying information gaps for
      future research.

PMID- 28577477
TI  - Is 'gut feeling' by medical staff better than validated scores in estimation of
      mortality in a medical intensive care unit? - The prospective FEELING-ON-ICU
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the FEELING-ON-ICU study was to compare mortality estimations
      of critically ill patients based on 'gut feeling' of medical staff and by Acute
      Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, Simplified Acute Physiology
      Score (SAPS) II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Medical staff estimated patients' mortality risks via questionnaires.
      APACHE II, SAPS II and SOFA were calculated retrospectively from records.
      Estimations were compared with actual in-hospital mortality using receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under the ROC curve (AUC).
      RESULTS: 66 critically ill patients (60.6% male, mean age 63+/-15years (range 30
      86)) were evaluated each by a nurse (n=66, male 32.4%) and a physician (n=66,
      male 67.6%). 15 (22.7%) patients died on the intensive care unit. AUC was largest
      for estimations by physicians (AUC 0.814 (95% CI 0.705-0.923)), followed by SOFA
      (AUC 0.749 (95% CI 0.629-0.868)), SAPS II (AUC 0.723 (95% CI 0.597-0.849)),
      APACHE II (AUC 0.721 (95% CI 0.595-0.847)) and nursing staff (AUC 0.669 (95% CI
      0.529-0.810)) (p<0.05 for all results). CONCLUSIONS: The concept of physicians'
      'gut feeling' was comparable to classical objective scores in mortality
      estimations of critically ill patients. Concerning practicability physicians'
      evaluations were advantageous to complex score calculation.

PMID- 28577478
TI  - Association between advanced practice nursing and 30-day mortality in
      mechanically ventilated critically ill patients: A retrospective cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Little is known about the association between advanced practice nursing
      and mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the presence of
      advanced practice nurses (APN), that is, certified nurse (CN) and certified nurse
      specialist (CNS) in intensive care, is associated with 30-day mortality for
      mechanically ventilated critically ill patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a
      Japanese national in-patient database, we identified 45,620 patients who were
      admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and received mechanical ventilation
      within 2 days of hospital admission between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015. We
      assessed the association between the number of CN/CNSs per 10 adult ICU beds and
      30-day mortality. RESULTS: We examined 8955 patients in 134 hospitals without
      CN/CNSs and 36,665 in 284 hospitals with CN/CNSs. Overall, the number of CN/CNSs
      per 10 adult ICU beds ranged from 0 to 7.5. In the multivariable analysis, the
      number of CN/CNSs per 10 adult ICU beds was significantly associated with a
      reduction in 30-day mortality (adjusted odds ratio 0.97; 95% confidence interval,
      0.94-1.00; P=0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that APNs may play an
      important role in improving patient outcome in the adult ICU.

PMID- 28577479
TI  - Characterization of a beta-glucosidase from Paenibacillus species and its
      application for succinic acid production from sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate.
AB  - In this study, a beta-glucosidase from Paenibacillus sp. M1 was expressed in E.
      coli BL21(DE3), purified and characterized. The specific activity of purified
      BglA was 137.64U.mg-1 protein with optimal temperature and pH of 50 degrees C and
      6.0. Furthermore, BglA shows excellent adaption to various environmental factors
      such as temperature, pH and metal ions. Engineered E. coli Suc260 was further
      reconstructed by overexpressing the beta-glucosidase for achieving direct
      cellobiose utilization, which could efficiently utilize the pretreated sugarcane
      bagasses hydrolysate (SBH) consisting of 25.30g.L-1 cellobiose, 9.70g.L-1
      glucose, 5.90g.L-1 arabinose and 7.10g.L-1 xylose. As a result, 26.50g.L-1 and
      24.30g.L-1 succinic acid were produced by strain Suc260(pTbglA) from cellobiose
      and SBH with corresponding yields of 88.30% and 89.20% using dual-phase
      fermentation, respectively. This study indicated that incomplete enzymatic
      hydrolysate of SCB will be a potential feedstock for succinic acid production.

PMID- 28577480
TI  - A novel glycosylated solution from Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright
      significantly improves the solvent productivity of Clostridium beijerinckii.
AB  - The economics of bio-solvent production are largely dependent on the cost of the
      fermentation substrate. Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright (DZW), the main raw
      material used to produce saponin, contains 13-18% starch which can be directly
      saccharified to a saccharification liquid of DZW starch (SLDS) that contains
      abundant nutrients. In this study, the water-soluble micromolecule compounds in
      SLDS were quantified through 1H NMR. Using SLDS as the substrate to conduct ABE
      fermentation by Clostridium beijerinckii, the fermentation cycle was shortened
      24h, the maximum biomass and consumption rate of the glucose significantly
      increased, and the productivity of total solvents were increased by 0.244+/
      0.010g/L/h compared to standard P2 medium. Expression analysis of genes encoding
      key enzymes involved in acetone and butanol production and glucose consumption
      showed that they were induced by SLDS. Taken together, SLDS is a useful and
      renewable glycosylated solution for ABE fermentation.

PMID- 28577481
TI  - A simple method for preparing a binder-free paper-based air cathode for microbial
      fuel cells.
AB  - In this paper, we proposed a simple method for preparing a binder-free air
      cathode using carbonized kraft paper as the support and iron (II) phthalocyanine
      (FePc) as the catalyst. The results indicated that the oxygen reduction reaction
      (ORR) performance of the air-cathodes was dependent on the fabrication steps. A
      cathode (KP-HT-FePc-HT) fabricated by pyrolyzing kraft paper at 1000 degrees C
      followed by FePc heat treatment at 700 degrees C showed the highest Pmax of 830+/
      31mWm-2 compared to FePc/KP-HT (363+/-48mWm-2) prepared by direct pyrolysis. X
      ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy
      and electrochemical tests showed that the superior electrocatalytic activity of
      KP-HT-FePc-HT was attributable to its higher content of pyridinic-N. This study
      demonstrated that the FePc/KP-based binder-free air-cathode had the advantages of
      low cost, easy fabrication, environmental benefits, and good scalability and
      therefore could serve as a good alternative for the air-cathode of MFCs.

PMID- 28577482
TI  - Microbial monitoring of ammonia removal in a UASB reactor treating pre-digested
      chicken manure with anaerobic granular inoculum.
AB  - Performance and microbial community dynamics in an upflow anaerobic sludge bed
      (UASB) reactor coupled with anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (Anammox) treating
      diluted chicken manure digestate (Total ammonia nitrogen; TAN=123+/-10mg/L) were
      investigated for a 120-d operating period in the presence of anaerobic granular
      inoculum. Maximum TAN removal efficiency reached to above 80% with as low as
      20mg/L TAN concentrations in the effluent. Moreover, total COD (tCOD) with 807+/
      215mg/L in the influent was removed by 60-80%. High-throughput sequencing
      revealed that Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes were dominant phyla
      followed by Euryarchaeota and Bacteroidetes. The relative abundance of
      Planctomycetes significantly increased from 4% to 8-9% during the late days of
      the operation with decreased tCOD concentration, which indicated a more optimum
      condition to favor ammonia removal through anammox route. There was also
      significant association between the hzsA gene and ammonia removal in the UASB
      reactor.

PMID- 28577483
TI  - Evaluation of agricultural residues pyrolysis under non-isothermal conditions:
      Thermal behaviors, kinetics, and thermodynamics.
AB  - The thermal conversion characteristics, kinetics, and thermodynamics of
      agricultural residues, rape straw (RS) and wheat bran (WB), were investigated
      under non-isothermal conditions. TGA experiments showed that the pyrolysis
      characteristics of RS were quite different from those of WB. As reflected by the
      comprehensive devolatilization index, when the heating rate increased from 10 to
      30Kmin-1, the pyrolysis performance of RS and WB were improved 5.27 and 5.96
      times, respectively. The kinetic triplets of the main pyrolysis process of
      agricultural residues were calculated by the Starink method and the integral
      master-plots method. Kinetic analysis results indicated that the most potential
      kinetic models for the pyrolysis of RS and WB were D2 and F2.7, respectively. The
      thermodynamic parameters (DeltaH, DeltaG, and DeltaS) were determined by the
      activated complex theory. The positive DeltaH, positive DeltaG, and negative
      DeltaS at characteristic temperatures validated that the pyrolysis of
      agricultural residues was endothermic and non-spontaneous.

PMID- 28577484
TI  - Effect of ensiling and silage additives on biogas production and microbial
      community dynamics during anaerobic digestion of switchgrass.
AB  - Silage processing has a crucial positive impact on the methane yield of anaerobic
      treated substrates. Changes in the characteristics of switchgrass after ensiling
      with different additives and their effects on methane production and microbial
      community changes during anaerobic digestion were investigated. After ensiling
      (CK), methane yield was increased by 33.59% relative to that of fresh switchgrass
      (FS). In comparison with the CK treatment, methane production was improved by
      17.41%, 13.08% and 8.72% in response to ensiling with LBr+X, LBr and X,
      respectively. A modified Gompertz model predicted that the optimum treatment was
      LBr+X, with a potential cumulative methane yield of 178.31mL/g total solids (TS)
      and a maximum biogas production rate of 44.39mL/g TS.d. Firmicutes and
      Bacteroidetes were the predominant bacteria in FS and silage switchgrass;
      however, the switchgrass treated with LBr+X was rich in Synergistetes, which was
      crucial for methane production.

PMID- 28577485
TI  - Polishing of anaerobic secondary effluent by Chlorella vulgaris under low light
      intensity.
AB  - To investigate anaerobic secondary effluent polishing by microalgae (Chlorella
      vulgaris) under low light intensity (14MUmol/m2/s), bubbling column reactors were
      operated in batches of 8 d with initial ammonium nitrogen 10-50mg/L, initial
      phosphate phosphorus 2-10mg/L and microalgal seed 40mg/L. Maximum microalgal
      biomass and minimum generation time were 370.9mg/L and 2.5d, respectively.
      Nitrogen removal (maximum 99.6%) was mainly attributed to microalgal growth rate,
      while phosphorus removal (maximum 49.8%) was related to microalgal growth rate,
      cell phosphorus content (maximum 1.5%) and initial nutrients ratio. Dissolved
      microalgal organics release in terms of chemical oxygen demand (maximum 63.2mg/L)
      and hexane extractable material (i.e., oil and grease, maximum 8.5mg/L) was
      firstly reported and mainly affected by nitrogen deficiency and deteriorated
      effluent quality. Ultrafiltration critical flux (16.6-39.5L/m2/h) showed negative
      linear correlation to microalgal biomass. Anaerobic membrane bioreactor effluent
      polishing showed similar results with slight inhibition to synthetic effluent.

PMID- 28577486
TI  - An accurate and robust LC-MS/MS method for the quantification of chlorfenvinphos,
      ethion and linuron in liver samples.
AB  - A method for the determination of chlorfenvinphos, ethion and linuron in liver
      samples by LC-MS/MS is described. Sample treatment was performed by using SolaTM
      polymeric reverse phase SPE cartridges after protein precipitation. Gradient
      elution using 10 mM ammonium formate in methanol (A) and 10 mM ammonium formate
      in water (B) was used for chromatographic separation of analytes on a HypersilTM
      end-capped Gold PFP reverse phase column (100 mm * 2.1 mm, 3 MUm). All analytes
      were quantified without interference, in positive ionization mode using multiple
      reaction monitoring (MRM) with chlorfenvinphos-d10 as internal standard. The
      whole procedure was validated according to the FDA guidelines for bioanalytical
      methods. The calibration curves for chlorfenvinphos, linuron and ethion compounds
      were linear over the concentration range of 0.005-2 MUM (i.e. 0.0018-0.720
      MUg/mL, 0.0019-0.770 MUg/mL and 0.0012-0.500 MUg/mL respectively) with
      coefficients of determination higher than 0.998. A Lower limit of quantification
      of 0.005 MUM was achieved for all analytes, i.e. 5.76, 6.08 and 3.84 MUg/kg of
      liver for chlorfenvinphos, ethion and linuron respectively. Compounds extraction
      recovery rates ranged from 92.9 to 99.5% with a RSD of 2.3%. Intra- and inter-day
      accuracies were within 90.9 and 100%, and imprecision varied from 0.8 to 8.2%.
      Stability tests proved all analytes were stable in liver extracts during
      instrumental analysis (+12  degrees C in autosampler tray for 72 h) at the end of
      three successive freeze-thaw cycles and at -20  degrees C for up to 9 months.
      This accurate and robust analytical method is therefore suitable for
      contamination or metabolism studies.

PMID- 28577487
TI  - Modeling pesticide diuron loading from the San Joaquin watershed into the
      Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta using SWAT.
AB  - Quantifying pesticide loading into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of northern
      California is critical for water quality management in the region, and
      potentially useful for biological weed control planning. In this study, the Soil
      and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to model streamflow, sediment, and
      pesticide diuron loading in the San Joaquin watershed, a major contributing area
      to the elevated pesticide levels in the downstream Delta. The Sequential
      Uncertainty Fitting version 2 (SUFI-2) algorithm was employed to perform
      calibration and uncertainty analysis. A combination of performance measures (PMs)
      and standardized performance evaluation criteria (PEC) was applied to evaluate
      model performance, while prediction uncertainty was quantified by 95% prediction
      uncertainty band (95PPU). Results showed that streamflow simulation was at least
      "satisfactory" at most stations, with more than 50% of the observed data
      bracketed by the 95PPU. Sediment simulation was rated as at least "satisfactory"
      based on two PMs, and diuron simulation was judged as "good" by all PMs. The
      95PPU of sediment and diuron bracketed about 40% and 30% of the observed data,
      respectively. Significant correlations were observed between the diuron loads,
      and precipitation, streamflow, and the current and antecedent pesticide use.
      Results also showed that the majority (>70%) of agricultural diuron was
      transported during winter months, when direct exposure of biocontrol agents to
      diuron runoff is limited. However, exposure in the dry season could be a concern
      because diuron is relatively persistent in aquatic system. This study not only
      provides valuable information for the development of biological weed control plan
      in the Delta, but also serves as a foundation for the continued research on
      calibration, evaluation, and uncertainty analysis of spatially distributed,
      physically based hydrologic models.

PMID- 28577488
TI  - Motor imagery-based implicit sequence learning depends on the formation of
      stimulus-response associations.
AB  - Implicit sequence learning (ISL) occurs without conscious awareness and is
      critical for skill acquisition. The extent to which ISL occurs is a function of
      exposure (i.e., total training time and/or sequence to noise ratio) to a repeated
      sequence, and thus the cognitive mechanism underlying ISL is the formation of
      stimulus-response associations. As the majority of ISL studies employ paradigms
      whereby individuals unknowingly physically practice a repeated sequence, the
      cognitive mechanism underlying ISL through motor imagery (MI), the mental
      rehearsal of movement, remains unknown. This study examined the cognitive
      mechanisms of MI-based ISL by probing the link between exposure and the resultant
      ISL. Seventy-two participants underwent MI-based practice of an ISL task
      following randomization to one of four conditions: 4 training blocks with a high
      (4-High) or low (4-Low) sequence to noise ratio, or 2 training blocks with a high
      (2-High) or low (2-Low) sequence to noise ratio. Reaction time differences (dRT)
      and effect sizes between repeated and random sequences assessed the extent of
      learning. All groups showed a degree of ISL, yet effect sizes indicated a greater
      degree of learning in groups with higher exposure (4-Low and 4-High). Findings
      indicate that the extent to which ISL occurs through MI is impacted by
      manipulations to total training time and the sequence to noise ratio. Overall, we
      show that the extent of ISL occurring through MI is a function of exposure,
      indicating that like physical practice, the cognitive mechanisms of MI-based ISL
      rely on the formation of stimulus response associations.

PMID- 28577490
TI  - Quantitative biomonitoring of nitrogen deposition with TONIS (Total N Input
      Biomonitoring System).
AB  - Monitoring of air pollutants is an important instrument to detect threats and to
      observe temporal trends of emissions. Determining the spatial distribution of
      oxidized and reduced N species via modelling requires sufficient knowledge about
      innumerous small sources from traffic, settlements and agriculture. Empirical
      studies are required to validate the model data but measurements of the total N
      deposition (e.g. micrometeorological measurements) are very expensive. Against
      this background, the TONIS, a new suitable technique which combines a
      biomonitoring with plants and technical measurements was developed. During 6
      exposures between 2012 and 2016 at different polluted sites in Northwest Germany,
      TONIS accumulated between 17 and 25 kg N ha-1 yr-1t. The results are feasible
      compared to simultaneously measured NH3 and NO2 concentration and bulk N
      deposition. At one site within a peat bog the accumulated N in TONIS was found to
      be in the range of total N deposition derived from a micrometeorological
      approach.

PMID- 28577491
TI  - Bluetongue outbreaks: Looking for effective control strategies against Culicoides
      vectors.
AB  - Several arthropod-borne diseases are now rising with increasing impact and risks
      for public health, due to environmental changes and resistance to pesticides
      currently marketed. In addition to community surveillance programs and a careful
      management of herds, a next-generation of effective products is urgently needed
      to control the spread of these diseases, with special reference to arboviral
      ones. Natural product research can afford alternative solutions. Recently, a re
      emerging of bluetongue disease is ongoing in Italy. Bluetongue is a viral disease
      that affects ruminants and is spread through the bite of bloodsucking insects,
      especially Culicoides species. In this review, we focused on the importance of
      vector control programs for prevention or bluetongue outbreaks, outlining the
      lack of effective tools in the fight against Culicoides vectors. Then, we
      analyzed a field case study in Sardinia (Italy) concerning the utilization of the
      neem cake (Azadirachta indica), to control young instar populations of Culicoides
      biting midges, the vectors of bluetongue virus. Neem cake is a cheap and eco
      friendly by-product obtained from the extraction of neem oil. Overall, we propose
      that the employ of neem extraction by-products as aqueous formulations in muddy
      sites close to livestock grazing areas may represent an effective tool in the
      fight against the spread of bluetongue virus in the Mediterranean areas.

PMID- 28577493
TI  - Inhibition of PI3K/AKt/mTOR signaling pathway protects against d
      galactosamine/lipopolysaccharide-induced acute liver failure by chaperone
      mediated autophagy in rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effects of PI3K/AKt/mTOR signaling
      pathway on the proliferation and apoptosis in acute liver failure (ALF) by
      chaperone mediated autophagy (CMA). METHODS: The hepatocytes extracted from both
      normal rats and rats with ALF were assigned to control, acute injury, P13K
      agonist, and P13K inhibitor groups. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain
      reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting were used as part of this investigation
      to detect the expression of PI3K/AKt/mTOR signaling pathway related-proteins
      (PI3K, AKt, mTOR), apoptosis related-proteins (Fas, Bax, Bcl-2), chaperone
      mediated autophagy (CMA) marker proteins (LAMP-2A, HSC 70), p-PI3K, p-AKt, p-4E
      BPI, and p-S6K. An MTT assay was used for analysis of cell proliferation after
      transfection. Flow cytometry is performed to detect the cell apoptosis. RESULTS:
      In comparison to the normal group, the model group showed enhanced positive rate
      of PI3K, AKt, mTOR, increased expression levels of PI3K, AKt, mTOR, Fas, Bax, p
      PI3K, p-AKt, p-4E-BPI and p-S6K, reduced expression levels of Bcl-2, LAMP-2A and
      HSC 70. The results in vitro experiment: compared with the acute injury group,
      the PI3K agonist group showed elevated expression levels of PI3K, AKt, mTOR, Fas,
      Bax, p-PI3K, p-AKt, p-4E-BPI and p-S6K, decreased expression levels of Bcl-2,
      LAMP-2A and HSC 70, inhibited cell proliferation, more arrested cells in G1
      stage, and promoted cell apoptosis. Opposing this, the P13K inhibitor group
      exhibited an opposite trend. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, inhibition of the
      PI3K/AKt/mTOR signaling pathway plays a protective role in ALF by promoting CMA
      expression, which could arrest cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis.

PMID- 28577492
TI  - rhBMP2-loaded calcium phosphate cements combined with allogenic bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells for bone formation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The osteogenesis effect of recombinant human bone morphogenetic
      protein-2 (rhBMP-2) and osteogenic differentiation potential of bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) has been generally acknowledged. However, human
      bone formation effect of rhBMP-2 loaded calcium phosphate cememts (CPC) combined
      with allogenic BMSCs is still undefined. This study aimed to investigate how
      composite osteogenic bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and
      osteoinductive bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) influenced the process of
      bone formation. METHODS: We chose calcium phosphate cements (cancellous bone
      granules; cancellous bone granules contained rhBMP-2) to facilitate osteogenesis.
      The composites of CPC+BMSC and CPC/rhBMP-2+BMSC were implanted respectively into
      nude mice via subcutaneous implantation and the tooth socket after maxillary
      canine teeth extraction. MAR analysis, Micro-CT analysis and immunohistochemistry
      assay were performed in this study to observe and compare by the schedule.
      RESULTS: It was showed that combined with CPC+BMSC or CPC/rhBMP-2+BMSC induced
      stronger ability of the proliferation of allogenic BMSCs observed by scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM). Picric acid-fuchsin staining and immunohistochemical
      analysis illustrated the stronger new bone forming ability of CPC+BMSC group and
      CPC/rhBMP-2+BMSC group than those of controlled group. CONCLUSION: The
      combinations of rhBMP2-loaded CPC with allogeneic BMSCs promote new bone tissue
      formation.

PMID- 28577494
TI  - Antibacterial, modulatory activity of antibiotics and toxicity from Rhinella jimi
      (Stevaux, 2002) (Anura: Bufonidae) glandular secretions.
AB  - The increase in microorganisms with resistance to medications has caused a strong
      preoccupation within the medical and scientific community. Animal toxins studies,
      such as parotoid glandular secretions from amphibians, possesses a great
      potential in the development of drugs, such as antimicrobials, as these possess
      bioactive compounds. It was evaluated Rhinella jimi (Stevaux, 2002) glandular
      secretions against standard and multi-resistant bacterial strains; the effect of
      secretions combined with drugs; and determined the toxicity using two biologic in
      vivo models, and a in vitro model with mice livers. Standard strains were used
      for the determination of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), while for
      the modulatory activity of antibiotics, the clinical isolates Escherichia coli
      06, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 03 and Staphylococcus aureus 10 were used. Modulatory
      activity was evaluated by the broth microdilution method with aminoglycosides and
      beta-lactams as target antibiotics. The secretions in association with the
      antibiotics have a significant reduction in MIC, both the aminoglycosides and
      beta-lactams. The toxicity and cytotoxicity results were lower than the values
      used in the modulation. R. jimi glandular secretions demonstrated clinically
      relevant results regarding the modulation of the tested antimicrobials.

PMID- 28577495
TI  - Knockdown of long noncoding RNA GHET1 inhibits cell activation of gastric cancer.
AB  - OBJECTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of lncRNA GHET1 in
      developing of Gastric Cancer. METHODS: Collecting the 20 gastric cancer patients
      and evaluated the pathological of adjacent and tumor tissues by HE stating. We
      analyzed the protein expression of Numb in gastric cancer (GC) tissues by using
      IHC and the gene expression of Numb and GHET1 in adjacent and GC tissues by RT
      PCR. The AGS cells were divided into 3 groups: Control (Co), NC and shRNA groups.
      Measuring the cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, invasion and migration
      abilities by MTT, flow cytometry, transwell and wound healing assays. We analyzed
      the relative signaling pathway by WB assay. RESULTS: In the clinical analyzing,
      compared with adjacent tissues, the pathological was significantly changed in
      tumor tissues, the GHET1 gene and protein expressions were significantly
      increased in the GC tissues. In the cell experiment, down-regulation of GHET1 had
      suppressed the cell proliferation, invasion and migration activities and enhanced
      the cell apoptosis and G1 phase. We found that knockdown of GHET1 dramatically
      increased E-cadherin, while reducing fibronectin and vimentin. CONCLUSION: lncRNA
      GHET1 promoted AGS cells activations, and the results were shown that GHET1
      dysregulation might be involved in the occurrence and development of gastric
      cancer. These results suggested that GHET1 might be a molecular marker for the
      progression of gastric cancer and a molecular target for targeted therapy.

PMID- 28577496
TI  - Hepatoprotective and antioxidant activity of quercetin loaded chitosan/alginate
      particles in vitro and in vivo in a model of paracetamol-induced toxicity.
AB  - The toxic liver impairment caused by free radical injury or excessive reactive
      oxigen species (ROS) formation could be effectivelly attenuated by natural
      antioxidants. The present study aimed to explore and compare the hepatoprotective
      and antioxidant effects of free and encapsulated quercetin in in vitro and in
      vivo models of hepatotoxicity. Thus, quercetin was encapsulated in
      chitosan/alginate nanoparticles by gelation method. Both empty and quercetin
      loaded nanoparticles revealed good safety profile in vitro, determined by the
      lack of cytotoxicity in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. The pretreatment of HepG2
      cells with encapsulated quercetin (10MUg/ml) significantly attenuated the
      decrease in cell viability in H2O2-induced oxidative stress (0.1mM H2O2), thus
      showing an effective in vitro protection. In vivo evaluation of the antioxidant
      and hepatoprotective potential of free and encapsulated quercetin was performed
      in a model of paracetamol - induced liver injury in male Wistar rats. The oral
      pretreatment with encapsulated quercetin (0.18mg/kg b.w., 7days) significantly
      diminished the increased levels of serum transaminases ALT and AST, attenuated
      the lipid peroxidation and restored the levels of gluthation (a marker of cell
      antioxidant defence system). The protective effects of quercetin encapsulated in
      chitosan-based nanoformulation were superior to those of free quercetin. The
      results of the study suggest that the encapsulation of quercetin in
      chitosan/alginate nanoformulations might represent an effective therapeutic
      approach against oxidative stress induced liver injury.

PMID- 28577497
TI  - MicroRNA-505 predicts prognosis and acts as tumor inhibitor in cervical carcinoma
      with inverse association with FZD4.
AB  - PURPOSE: We investigated the expression and mechanisms of microRNA-505 (miR-505)
      and its downstream target gene Frizzled-4 (FZD4) in cervical cancer. METHODS: miR
      505 expression was evaluated by qRT-PCR in cervical cancer cell lines and human
      carcinomas. Cancer patients' clinicopathological factors and survival were
      analyzed based on their tumorous miR-505 levels. Ca-Ski and HeLa cells were
      transduced with lentivirus to upregulate or downregulate miR-505. Their impacts
      on cervical cancer were evaluated by in vitro proliferation, invasion and in vivo
      tumorigenicity assays, respectively. Target gene of miR-505, FZD4, was evaluated
      by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Its expression in cervical cancer cell was
      evaluated by qRT-PCR. FZD4 was either upregulated or downregulated in cervical
      cancer cells to further assess its impact on modulating cervical cancer
      development in vitro. RESULTS: MiR-505 is lowly expressed in cervical cancer cell
      lines and human carcinomas. Low tumorous miR-505 expression was associated with
      patients' advanced tumor stage and short survival. In Ca-Ski and HeLa cells,
      lentivirus-mediated miR-505 upregulation suppressed cancer proliferation and
      invasion in vitro, and tumorigenicity in vivo, whereas miR-505 downregulation had
      no functional effects. FZD4 was confirmed to be a downstream target of miR-505,
      and found to be upregulated in cervical cancer. Genetic modification of FZD4 in
      cervical cancer cells yielded a significant change in cancer growth, as FZD4
      upregulation suppressed whereas FZD4 downregulation promoted cervical cancer
      proliferation and invasion In vitro. CONCLUSION: MiR-505 may act as a cancer
      inhibitor and prognostic factor in cervical cancer. FDZ4 is reversely expressed
      as miR-505, and has dramatic regulatory function in cervical cancer.

PMID- 28577498
TI  - Telomerase reverse transcriptase genetically modified adipose tissue derived stem
      cells improves erectile dysfunction by inhibiting oxidative stress and enhancing
      proliferation in rat model.
AB  - Erectile dysfunction (ED) is considered to be incapable of obtaining or/and
      keeping a sufficient erection function to receive the satisfactory during the
      sexual intercourse. This study aims to investigate the effects of telomerase
      reverse transcriptase (hTERT) modified adipose tissue derived stem cells (ADSCs)
      autologously injected into cavernosa of the ED rats on erectile function. The
      ADSCs were isolated form the rat subcutaneous adipose tissue sample, and
      identified by examining the CD29 and CD44 molecule. The ED model was established
      by using 100MUg/kg apomorphine (APO). The adenovirus expressing rat hTERT (Ade
      hTERT vector) was established, and transfected into ADSCs and injected into ED
      rat model, respectively. Telomerase activity, cell growth, cell apoptosis were
      analyzed by using TRAP ELISA assay, CCK8 assay and flow cytometry assay,
      respectively. The trophic growth factors were examined by using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The mRNA and proteins were detected by using semi
      quantitative PCR and western blot assay, respectively. Ade-hTERT vector was
      highly expressed in both ADSCs and ED rat mode. The hTERT expression enhanced the
      telomerase activity, inhibits cell apoptosis and enhances proliferation of ADSCs
      (P<0.05). hTERT expression triggers the secretory function of ADSCs and induces
      differentiative potential of ADSCs. hTERT expression inhibits apoptosis and
      increases eNOS and nNOS levels in older ED rats compared to the Ade-vector
      injected ED rats (P<0.05). In conclusion, the hTERT modification could enhance
      the ADSCs proliferation, and hTERT modified ADSCs could increase the anti
      oxidative stress capacity in the ED rat model.

PMID- 28577499
TI  - Leukocyte trafficking in tumor microenvironment.
AB  - The tumor microenvironment consists of both malignant and non-malignant cells and
      a plethora of soluble mediators. Different types of tumors have specific tumor
      microenvironments characterized by distinct chemokines and chemotactic factors
      that influence leukocyte recruitment. The immune cell infiltrate continuously
      interacts with stroma cells and influence tumor growth. Emerging evidence
      suggests that the regulation of the composition and the metabolic state of tumor
      associated leukocytes may represent a new promising intervention strategy. Here
      we summarize the current knowledge on the role of tumor-associated immune cells
      in tumor growth and dissemination, with a specific focus on the nature of the
      chemotactic factors responsible for their accumulation and activation in tumors.

PMID- 28577500
TI  - A genosensor for detection of consensus DNA sequence of Dengue virus using ZnO/Pt
      Pd nanocomposites.
AB  - An electrochemical genosensor based on Zinc oxide/platinum-palladium (ZnO/Pt-Pd)
      modified fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass plate was fabricated for detection
      of consensus DNA sequence of Dengue virus (DENV) using methylene blue (MB) as an
      intercalating agent. To achieve it, probe DNA (PDNA) was immobilized on the
      surface of ZnO/Pt-Pd nanocomposites modified FTO electrode. The synthesized nano
      composites were characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy
      (HRTEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM),
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD)
      analysis and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy. This PDNA modified
      electrode (PDNA/ZnO/Pt-Pd/FTO) served as a signal amplification platform for the
      detection of the target hybridized DNA (TDNA). The hybridization between PDNA and
      TDNA was detected by reduction in current, generated by interaction of anionic
      mediator, i.e., methylene blue (MB) with free guanine (3'G) of ssDNA. The sensor
      showed a dynamic linear range of 1 * 10-6M to 100 * 10-6M with LOD as 4.3 * 10-5
      M and LOQ as 9.5 * 10-5 M. Till date, majorly serotype specific biosensors for
      dengue detection have been developed. The genosensor reported here eliminates the
      possibility of false result as in case of serotype specific DNA sensor. This is
      the report where conserved sequences present in all the serotypes of Dengue virus
      has been employed for fabrication of a genosensor.

PMID- 28577501
TI  - Advances in developing rapid, reliable and portable detection systems for
      alcohol.
AB  - Development of portable, reliable, sensitive, simple, and inexpensive detection
      system for alcohol has been an instinctive demand not only in traditional
      brewing, pharmaceutical, food and clinical industries but also in rapidly growing
      alcohol based fuel industries. Highly sensitive, selective, and reliable alcohol
      detections are currently amenable typically through the sophisticated instrument
      based analyses confined mostly to the state-of-art analytical laboratory
      facilities. With the growing demand of rapid and reliable alcohol detection
      systems, an all-round attempt has been made over the past decade encompassing
      various disciplines from basic and engineering sciences. Of late, the research
      for developing small-scale portable alcohol detection system has been accelerated
      with the advent of emerging miniaturization techniques, advanced materials and
      sensing platforms such as lab-on-chip, lab-on-CD, lab-on-paper etc. With these
      new inter-disciplinary approaches along with the support from the parallel
      knowledge growth on rapid detection systems being pursued for various targets,
      the progress on translating the proof-of-concepts to commercially viable and
      environment friendly portable alcohol detection systems is gaining pace. Here, we
      summarize the progress made over the years on the alcohol detection systems, with
      a focus on recent advancement towards developing portable, simple and efficient
      alcohol sensors.

PMID- 28577502
TI  - Influence of the environmental tonicity perturbations on the release of model
      compounds from large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs): A mechanistic investigation.
AB  - In this work, the influence of environmental tonicity perturbations on the size
      and release kinetics of model markers from liposomes (calcein and rhodamine) was
      investigated. Large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) were prepared from a mixture
      composed of organic solvents containing dissolved phosphatidylcholine and
      phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4). Organic phase was removed by rotary
      evaporation and the obtained liposomal dispersions were extruded to reduce the
      liposomal sizes to approx. 400 nm. The LUVs were exposed to PBS of different
      tonicity to induce water migration, and consequently, generate an osmotic
      pressure on the vesicle membranes. The markers release kinetics were studied by
      the dialysis method employing Franz diffusion cells. LUVs appeared to be more
      susceptible to the osmotic swelling than the shrinking and the size changes were
      significantly more pronounced for calcein-loaded LUVs in comparison to rhodamine
      loaded LUVs. The calcein release from LUVs was highly affected by the water
      influx/efflux, whereas rhodamine release was less affected by the tonicity
      perturbations. Mechanistically, it appeared that hydrophilic molecules (calcein)
      followed the water flux, whereas lipophilic molecules (rhodamine) seemed to be
      more affected by the changes in LUVs size and consequent alteration of the
      tightness of the phospholipid bilayer (where the lipophilic marker was imbedded
      in). These results demonstrate that the different tonicity (within the inner core
      and external environment of vesicles) can enhance/hamper the diffusion of a
      marker from LUVs and that osmotically active liposomes could be used as a novel
      controlled drug delivery system.

PMID- 28577503
TI  - pH triggered controlled drug delivery from contact lenses: Addressing the
      challenges of drug leaching during sterilization and storage.
AB  - In the present work a novel cyclosporine-loaded Eudragit S100 (pH-sensitive)
      nanoparticles-laden contact lenses were designed to provide sustained release of
      cyclosporine at therapeutic rates, without leaching of drug during sterilization
      and storage period (shelf life). The nanoparticles were prepared by Quasi
      emulsion solvent diffusion technique using different weight ratios of
      cyclosporine to Eudragit S100. The contact lenses with direct drug entrapment
      were also fabricated (DL-50) for comparison. The percentage swelling and optical
      transparency of nanoparticles-laden contact lenses were improved in comparison to
      DL-50 lenses. The nanoparticles-laden contact lenses showed sustained drug
      release profiles, with inverse relationship to the amount of nanoparticles loaded
      in the contact lenses. It was interesting to note that nanoparticles form
      nanochannels/cavities after dissolution of Eudragit S 100 in tear fluid pH=7.4
      (in vitro release study). This followed the precipitation of drug in hydrogel
      matrix of contact lenses. As the amount of nanoparticles loading increased, more
      number of cavities were formed, which caused the formation of large cavities in
      contact lens matrix. This in turn precipitated the drug. The nanoparticles-laden
      contact lenses with 1:1 (drug: Eudragit) weight ratio showed the most promising
      results of sustaining the drug release up to 156h, without affecting optical and
      physical properties of contact lenses. Packaging study confirmed that the drug
      was not leached in packaging solution (buffer, pH=6.5) from nanoparticles-laden
      lenses during shelf life period. In-vivo study in rabbit tear fluid showed
      sustained release up to 14days. The study revealed the application of pH
      sensitive nanoparticles-laden contact lenses for controlled release of
      cyclosporine without altering the optical and physical properties of lens
      material.

PMID- 28577504
TI  - Isolation and characterization of Cepa2, a natural alliospiroside A, from shallot
      (Allium cepa L. Aggregatum group) with anticancer activity.
AB  - Exploration of new and promising anticancer compounds continues to be one of the
      main tasks of cancer research because of the drug resistance, high cytotoxicity
      and limitations of tumor selectivity. Natural products represent a better choice
      for cancer treatment in comparison with synthetic compounds because of their
      pharmacokinetic properties and lower side effects. In the current study, we
      isolated a steroidal saponin, named Cepa2, from the dry roots of shallot (Allium
      cepa L. Aggregatum group), and determined its structure by using two-dimensional
      nuclear manganic resonance (2D NMR). The 1H NMR and 13C NMR data revealed that
      the newly isolated Cepa2 compound is identical to alliospiroside A (C38H60O12)
      [(25S)-3beta-hydroxyspirost-5-en-1beta-yl-2-O-(6-deoxy-alpha-L-mannopyranosyl)
      alpha-L-arabinopyranoside], whose anticancer activity remains elusive. Our in
      vitro examination of the cytotoxic activity of the identified Cepa2 against P3U1
      myeloma cancer cell line showed its high efficiency as an anticancer with 91.13%
      reduction in P3U1 cell viability 12 h post-treatment. The reduction of cell
      viability was correlated with the increase in reactive oxygen species levels in
      Cepa2-treated P3U1 cells, as compared with untreated cells. Moreover, scanning
      electron microscope results demonstrated apoptosis of the Cepa2-treated P3U1
      cells in a time course-dependent manner. The results of our study provide
      evidence for the anticancer properties of the natural Cepa2/alliospiroside A
      extracted from shallot plants, and a strong foundation for in-depth
      investigations to build theoretical bases for cell apoptosis and development of
      novel anticancer drugs.

PMID- 28577505
TI  - Transdiagnostic treatment of bipolar disorder and comorbid anxiety using the
      Unified Protocol for Emotional Disorders: A pilot feasibility and acceptability
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Comorbid anxiety in bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with greater
      illness severity, reduced treatment response, and greater impairment. Treating
      anxiety in the context of BD is crucial for improving illness course and
      outcomes. The current study examined the feasibility, acceptability and
      preliminary efficacy of the Unified Protocol (UP), a transdiagnostic cognitive
      behavioral therapy, as an adjunctive treatment to pharmacotherapy for BD and
      comorbid anxiety disorders. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with BD and at least
      one comorbid anxiety disorder were randomized to pharmacotherapy treatment-as
      usual (TAU) or TAU with 18 sessions of the UP (UP+TAU). All patients completed
      assessments every four weeks to track symptoms, functioning, emotion regulation
      and temperament. Linear mixed-model regressions were conducted to track symptom
      changes over time and to examine the relationship between emotion-related
      variables and treatment response. RESULTS: Satisfaction ratings were equivalent
      for both treatment groups. Patients in the UP+TAU group evidenced significantly
      greater reductions over time in anxiety and depression symptoms (Cohen's
      d's>0.80). Baseline levels of neuroticism, perceived affective control, and
      emotion regulation ability predicted magnitude of symptom change for the UP+TAU
      group only. Greater change in perceived control of emotions and emotion
      regulation skills predicted greater change in anxiety related symptoms.
      LIMITATIONS: This was a pilot feasibility and acceptability trial; results should
      be interpreted with caution. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with the UP+TAU was rated
      high in patient satisfaction, and resulted in significantly greater improvement
      on indices of anxiety and depression relative to TAU. This suggests that the UP
      may be a feasible treatment approach for BD with comorbid anxiety.

PMID- 28577508
TI  - Change in gait after high tibial osteotomy: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - We conducted a meta-analysis to analyze how high tibial osteotomy (HTO) changes
      gait and focused on the following questions: (1) How does HTO change basic gait
      variables? (2) How does HTO change the gait variables in the knee joint? Twelve
      articles were included in the final analysis. A total of 383 knees was evaluated.
      There were 237 open wedge (OW) and 143 closed wedge (CW) HTOs. There were 4 level
      II studies and 8 level III studies. All studies included gait analysis and
      compared pre- and postoperative values. One study compared CWHTO and
      unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), and another study compared CWHTO and
      OWHTO. Five studies compared gait variables with those of healthy controls. One
      study compared operated limb gait variables with those in the non-operated limb.
      Gait speed, stride length, knee adduction moment, and lateral thrust were major
      variables assessed in 2 or more studies. Walking speed increased and stride
      length was increased or similar after HTO compared to the preoperative value in
      basic gait variables. Knee adduction moment and lateral thrust were decreased
      after HTO compared to the preoperative knee joint gait variables. Change in co
      contraction of the medial side muscle after surgery differed depending on the
      degree of frontal plane alignment. The relationship between change in knee
      adduction moment and change in mechanical axis angle was controversial. Based on
      our systematic review and meta-analysis, walking speed and stride length
      increased after HTO. Knee adduction moment and lateral thrust decreased after HTO
      compared to the preoperative values of gait variables in the knee joint.

PMID- 28577507
TI  - Design, synthesis and antimycobacterial activity of novel imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine
      3-carboxamide derivatives.
AB  - We report herein the design and synthesis of "novel imidazo [1,2-a]pyridine-3
      carboxamides (IPAs)" bearing a variety of different linkers, based on the
      structure of IMB-1402 discovered in our lab. Results reveal that 2,6-dimethyl-N
      [2-(phenylamino)ethyl] IPAs with an electron-donating group on the benzene ring
      as a potent scaffold. Compounds 26g and 26h have considerable activity (MIC:
      0.041-2.64 MUM) against drug-sensitive/resistant MTB strains, and they have
      acceptable safety indices against MTB H37Rv with the SI values of 4395 and 1405,
      respectively. Moreover, N-[2-(piperazin-1-yl)ethyl] moiety was also identified as
      a potentially alternative linker (compound 31), opening a new direction for
      further SAR studies.

PMID- 28577506
TI  - High enhancer, downer, withdrawal helper: Multifunctional nonmedical
      benzodiazepine use among young adult opioid users in New York City.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepines are a widely prescribed psychoactive drug; in the
      U.S., both medical and nonmedical use of benzodiazepines has increased markedly
      in the past 15 years. Long-term use can lead to tolerance and dependence, and
      abrupt withdrawal can cause seizures or other life-threatening symptoms.
      Benzodiazepines are often used nonmedically in conjunction with other drugs, and
      with opioids in particular-a combination that can increase the risk for fatal and
      non-fatal overdose. This mixed-methods study examines nonmedical use of
      benzodiazepines among young adults in New York City and its relationship with
      opioid use. METHODS: For qualitative analysis, 46 90-minute semi-structured
      interviews were conducted with young adult opioid users (ages 18-32). Interviews
      were transcribed and coded for key themes. For quantitative analysis, 464 young
      adult opioid users (ages 18-29) were recruited using Respondent-Driven Sampling
      and completed structured interviews. Benzodiazepine use was assessed via a self
      report questionnaire that included measures related to nonmedical benzodiazepine
      and opioid use. RESULTS: Participants reported using benzodiazepines nonmedically
      for a wide variety of reasons, including: to increase the high of other drugs; to
      lessen withdrawal symptoms; and to come down from other drugs. Benzodiazepines
      were described as readily available and cheap. There was a high prevalence (93%)
      of nonmedical benzodiazepine use among nonmedical opioid users, with 57%
      reporting regular nonmedical use. In bivariate analyses, drug-related risk
      behaviours such as polysubstance use, drug binging, heroin injection and overdose
      were strongly associated with regular nonmedical benzodiazepine use. In
      multivariate analysis, growing up in a middle-income household (earning between
      $51,000 and $100,000 annually), lifetime overdose experience, having ever used
      cocaine regularly, having ever been prescribed benzodiazepines, recent drug
      binging, and encouraging fellow drug users to use benzodiazepines to cope with
      opioid withdrawal were consistently strong predictors of regular nonmedical
      benzodiazepine use. CONCLUSION: Nonmedical benzodiazepine use may be common among
      nonmedical opioid users due to its drug-related multi-functionality. Harm
      reduction messages should account for the multiple functions benzodiazepines
      serve in a drug-using context, and encourage drug users to tailor their
      endorsement of benzodiazepines to peers to include safer alternatives.

PMID- 28577509
TI  - Nuclear bodies: news insights into structure and function.
AB  - The cell nucleus contains a number of different dynamic bodies that are variously
      composed of proteins and generally, but not always, specific RNA molecules.
      Recent studies have revealed new understanding about nuclear body formation and
      function in different aspects of nuclear metabolism. Here, we focus on findings
      describing the role of nuclear bodies in the biogenesis of specific
      ribonucleoprotein complexes, processing of key mRNAs, and subnuclear
      sequestration of protein factors. We highlight how nuclear bodies are involved in
      stress responses, innate immunity and tumorigenesis. We further review
      organization of nuclear bodies and principles that govern their assembly,
      highlighting the pivotal role of scaffolding noncoding RNAs, and liquid-liquid
      phase separation, which are transforming our picture of nuclear body formation.

PMID- 28577510
TI  - Drop coating deposition Raman spectroscopy of proteinogenic amino acids compared
      with their solution and crystalline state.
AB  - The Raman spectra of 20 proteinogenic amino acids were recorded in the solution,
      glass phase (as drop coating deposition Raman (DCDR) samples) and crystalline
      forms in the wide spectral range of 200-3200cm-1. The most apparent spectral
      differences between the Raman spectra of the crystalline forms, glass phases and
      aqueous solutions of amino acids were briefly discussed and described in the
      frame of published works. The possible density dependencies of spectral bands
      were noted. In some cases, a strong influence of the sample density, as well as
      of the organization of the water envelope, was observed. The most apparent
      changes were observed for Ser and Thr. Nevertheless, for the majority of amino
      acids, the DCDR sample form is an intermediate between the solution and
      crystalline forms. In contrast, aromatic amino acids have only a small
      sensitivity to the form of the sample. Our reference set of Raman spectra is
      useful for revealing discrepancies between the SERS and solid/solution spectra of
      amino acids. We also found that some previously published Raman spectra of
      polycrystalline samples resemble glassy state rather than crystalline spectra.
      Therefore, this reference set of spectra will find application in every branch of
      Raman spectroscopy where the spectra of biomolecules are collected from coatings.

PMID- 28577511
TI  - Therapies for castration-resistant prostate cancer in a new era: The indication
      of vintage hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and the new medicines.
AB  - When advanced prostate cancer recurred during hormonal therapy and became the
      castration-resistant prostate cancer, "vintage hormonal therapy," such as
      antiandrogen alternating therapy or estrogen-related hormonal therapy, was widely
      carried out in Japan until 2013. This vintage hormonal therapy controlled the
      progression of castration-resistant prostate cancer. When castration-resistant
      prostate cancer relapses during these therapies, chemotherapy using docetaxel has
      been carried out subsequently. Since new hormonal therapies using abiraterone
      acetate and enzalutamide, which improve the prognosis of castration-resistant
      prostate cancer, became available in Japan from 2014, therapeutic options for
      castration-resistant prostate cancer have increased. Furthermore, the improvement
      of the further prognosis is promising by using cabazitaxel for docetaxel
      resistant castration-resistant prostate cancer and radium-223 for castration
      resistant prostate cancer with bone metastasis. An increase in therapeutic
      options gives rise to many questions, including best timing to use them and the
      indication. Furthermore, physicians have to consider the treatment for the
      recurrence after having carried out chemotherapy. We want to argue the difference
      in hormonal therapy between Japan and Western countries, and problems when
      carrying out new treatments, and the importance of imaging in the present review
      article.

PMID- 28577512
TI  - Possible radioprotective effect of folic acid supplementation on low dose
      ionizing radiation-induced genomic instability in vitro.
AB  - Ionizing radiation (IR) induces DNA damage through production of single and
      double-strand breaks and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Folic acid (FA) prevents
      radiation-induced DNA damage by modification of DNA synthesis and/or repair and
      as a radical scavenger. We hypothesized that in vitro supplementation with FA
      will decrease the sensitivity of cells to genetic damage induced by low dose of
      ionizing radiation. Annexin V, comet and micronucleus assays were performed in
      cultured CHO cells. After 7 days of pre-treatment with 0, 100, 200 or 300 nM FA,
      cultures were exposed to radiation (100 mSv). Two un-irradiated controls were
      executed (0 and 100 nM FA). Data were statistically analyzed with X2-test and
      linear regression analysis (P ?0.05). We observed a significantly decreased
      frequency of apoptotic cells with the increasing FA concentration (P <0.05). The
      same trend was observed when analyzing DNA damage and chromosomal instability (P
      <0.05 for 300 nM). Only micronuclei frequencies showed significant differences
      for linear regression analysis (R2=94.04; P <0.01). Our results have demonstrated
      the radioprotective effect of folic acid supplementation on low dose ionizing
      radiation-induced genomic instability in vitro; folate status should be taken
      into account when studying the effect of low dose radiation in environmental or
      occupational exposure.

PMID- 28577513
TI  - Synergistic protective effect of picrorhiza with honey in acetaminophen induced
      hepatic injury.
AB  - Rhizome of picrorhiza along with honey prevents hepatic damage and cure the
      acetaminophen (paracetamol) induced hepatotoxicity by modulating the activity of
      hepatic enzymes. Here, we studied the in vivo effects of Picrorhiza kurroa and
      honey on acetaminophen induced hepatotoxicity Balb/c mice model. Hepatic
      histopathological observations of acetaminophen fed (day-6) group showed more
      congestion, hemorrhage, necrosis, distorted hepatic architecture and nuclear
      inclusion. Such damages were recompensed to normal by picrorhiza or honey alone
      or both in combinations. We observed increased activity of SGPT and SGOT in
      injured liver tissues, and that too was compensated to normal with picrorhiza or
      honey alone or both in combinations. We observed 1.27 and 1.23-fold enhanced
      activity of SGPT in serum and liver lysate, respectively while SGOT showed 1.66
      and 1.11 fold enhanced activity. These two enzymes are signature enzymes of liver
      damage. Thus, our results support that honey may be used with drug picrorhiza due
      to its synergistic role to enhance hepatoprotective and hepatoregenerative
      ability along with allopathic drugs to mitigate the hepatotoxic effects.

PMID- 28577514
TI  - Ethanol production from Rice (Oryza sativa) straw by simultaneous
      saccharification and cofermentation.
AB  - Ethanol production from alkali treated rice straw was investigated by
      simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF) using commercial
      cellulase and 3 different yeast strains viz., Saccharomyces cerevisiae HAU-1,
      Pachysolen tannophilus and Candida sp. individually as well as in combination at
      varied fermentation temperature and incubation time. Dilute alkali (2%)
      pretreatment of straw resulted in efficient delignification as observed by low
      residual lignin (12.52%) with 90.6% cellulose and 28.15% hemicellulose recovery.
      All the 3 yeast strains were able to produce ethanol form alkali treated rice
      straw and overall ethanol concentration varied from 5.30 to 24.94 g/L based on
      different fermentation time and temperature. Comparative analysis of ethanol
      production from different yeast strains combinations revealed maximum ethanol
      concentration of 23.48 g/L after 96 h incubation at 35oC with P. tannophilus
      individually and 24.94 g/L when used as co-culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PMID- 28577515
TI  - Glycoside hydrolase production by Aspergillus terreus CM20 using mixture design
      approach for enhanced enzymatic saccharification of alkali pretreated paddy
      straw.
AB  - A successful lignocellulosic ethanol production process needs to address the
      technological impediments such as cost-competitiveness and sustainability of the
      process. Effective biomass utilization requires a repertoire of enzymes including
      various accessory enzymes. Developing an enzyme preparation with defined
      hydrolytic activities can circumvent the need for supplementing cellulases with
      accessory enzymes for enhanced hydrolysis. With this objective, mixture design
      approach was used in the present study to enhance glycoside hydrolase production
      of a fungal isolate, Aspergillus terreus CM20, by determining the proportion of
      different lignocellulosic components as enzyme inducers in the culture medium. A
      mixture of paddy straw and wheat straw (1.42:1.58) resulted in improved
      cellulolytic activities. The precipitated crude enzyme showed higher CMCase
      (365.03 18 IU g-1), FPase (161.48 IU g-1), avicelase (15.46 IU g-1), beta
      glucosidase (920.92 IU g-1) and xylanase (9627.79 IU g-1) activities. The
      potential of the crude enzyme for saccharification of alkali pretreated paddy
      straw was also tested. Under optimum conditions, saccharification released 25.0 g
      L-1 of fermentable sugars. This indicates the superiority of the crude enzyme
      produced with respect to its hydrolytic enzyme components.

PMID- 28577516
TI  - Improvement of Bacillus strains by mutation for overproduction of
      exopolygalacturonases.
AB  - Pectinases, produced by microorganisms, have wide range application in food
      industry, textile processing, paper making, coffee and tea fermentation, etc. It
      accounts for 10% of the global industrial enzymes produced. The most important
      and widely used commercial pectinase polygalacturonase is produced by
      alkalophilic strains of Bacillus sp. and Streptomyces sp. Here, we explored 29
      bacterial strains isolated from rotten mango samples for polygalacturonase
      production and selected 16 strains through preliminary screening by well-plate
      method for enzyme activity. The maximum zone of inhibition of pectin was observed
      up to 28 mm in diameter but one strain ZM11 was exhibiting no activity.
      Quantitative dinitrisalicylic acid (DNS) assay for polygalacturonase enzyme was
      also performed for the selected bacterial isolates. All the strains bestowed
      significant enzyme activity with the highest activity of 2.4 U/uL exhibited by
      strain ZM3 (P <=0.05). Characterization of the isolates was performed using
      different biochemical tests which also confirmed the isolates as members of the
      genus Bacillus. Mutation was induced to the selected strains by UV light and
      acridine orange for different periods of time. Qualitative and quantitative
      assays of the mutant bacterial isolates showed that the enzyme activity increased
      to 4.62 U/uL which clearly indicated that induced mutation enhanced the ability
      of Bacillus strains to produce more polygalacturonase enzyme up to 3-fold as
      compared to the wild strains (P <=0.05). Molecular characterization by 16S rRNA
      sequences further confirmed that the bacterial isolates belong to Bacillus
      subtilis and B. amyloliquefaciens.

PMID- 28577517
TI  - Genotoxicity in lead treated human lymphocytes evaluated by micronucleus and
      comet assays.
AB  - Lead (Pb) which plays a significant role in modern industry is related to a broad
      range of physiological, biochemical, behavioural and genetical dysfunctions. Its
      exposure leads to an increased frequency of genetic aberrations in humans. Hence,
      this study was designed to assess the genotoxic effect of lead acetate at three
      dosage levels (10, 25 and 50 ug/mL) by employing: the Cytokinesis Block
      Micronucleus (CBMN) assay and the Comet assay in Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte
      Cultures. The results of this study revealed an increased level of DNA damage
      among treated groups. A significant increase in the tail length of comets and
      other indices was observed at 25 and 50 ug/mL concentrations comparatively. Thus,
      lead acetate induced single-strand breaks (SSB) and double strand breaks (DSB) in
      DNA, alkali-labile sites (ALS), oxidative DNA damage as well as DNA-DNA/DNA
      protein/DNA-metal cross linking as evidenced by the Comet assay. The chromosome
      breakage, DNA misrepair, chromosome loss and telomere end fusion were determined
      by the Micronucleus assay. Micronucleus frequency in treated lymphocytes was
      significantly higher as compared to controls. Nucleoplasmic bridges increased
      significantly and Nuclear buds increased at higher two doses only in exposed
      cultures. Thus, these assays are better indices for lead induced genotoxicity and
      metal-nucleus interactions.

PMID- 28577518
TI  - Development of transgenic pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan. L Millsp) overexpressing
      citrate synthase gene for high phosphorus uptake.
AB  - Plants have developed several adaptive strategies to enhance the availability and
      uptake of phosphorus (P) from the soil under conditions of P deficiency.
      Exudation of organic acids like citrate is one of the important strategies. In
      this study, we developed transgenic pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) over-expressing
      Dacus carota citrate synthase (DcCs) gene to increase the synthesis and exudation
      of citrate. Transgenic plants were generated through agro bacterium mediated in
      planta transformation technique. Integration and expression of the transgene was
      confirmed by genomic Southern and RT-PCR analysis. We observed that the
      transgenic lines had more tissue P and chlorophyll content, and also citrate
      synthase content higher in the roots. Further, transgenic lines had more vigorous
      root system both under P sufficient and deficient conditions with more lateral
      roots and root hairs under P deficient conditions. We conclude that the
      transgenic pigeonpea plants have the capacity to acquire more P under P deficient
      conditions.

PMID- 28577519
TI  - Drug allergy evaluation for betalactam hypersensitivity: Cross-reactivity with
      cephalosporines, carbapenems and negative predictive value.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are no studies on cross-reactivity of betalactams among
      patients allergic to penicillin, or on the negative predictive value (NPV) of
      penicillin allergy evaluation from Arabian Gulf countries. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to
      assess the role and NPV of drug provocation test (DPT) for betalactam
      hypersensitivity reactions in patients referred for allergy evaluation in Kuwait.
      METHODS: Skin test (ST) was performed for all patients with a history of
      betalactam hypersensitivity, other than anaphylaxis. Patients with a negative ST
      were challenged with a DPT containing phenoxymethyl penicillin or the culprit
      drug. Patients with anaphylaxis or who tested positive to betalactams were then
      challenged with a DPT containing cefuroxime, meropenem or ceftriaxone. Patients
      who tested negative were contacted by phone to evaluate subsequent betalactam
      intake. RESULTS: A total of 214 patients were tested for betalactam
      hypersensitivity. We had 91(42.5%) positive cases. Among positives, there were 78
      (85.7%) patients with an initial reaction to penicillin and 13 (14.3%) who
      reacted to cephalosporin. DPT with alternative betalactam was performed in fifty
      who tested positive for betalactam hypersensitivity and 45 (90%) tolerated
      alternative antibiotics. Phone calls to 113 (59.8%) patients with negative
      betalactam testing showed that among 40(35.4%) patients who were successfully
      contacted; 17 (15%) took betalactams and 23 (20%) did not. Among the 17 patients
      who took betalactams, our calculated NPV for penicillin testing range from 88.2
      to 100%, as the 2 patients who reported a reaction refused confirmatory
      retesting. CONCLUSION: Carbapenems and cephalosporines can be safely given to
      penicillin allergic patients by means of skin testing and if negative, proceeding
      with a graded challenge. Our calculated NPV for penicillin testing is similar to
      other studies.

PMID- 28577520
TI  - Duration of neutralizing antibody persisting in Thai individuals after childhood
      vaccination against smallpox.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although smallpox was completely eliminated by 1980, it remains
      possible that variola virus could be intentionally released in an act of
      bioterrorism. Thus, several studies have been performed to detect antibody levels
      after smallpox vaccination of the current population in various countries to
      indicate the duration of maintenance of immunological memory. Our study
      endeavored to investigate the level of neutralizing (Nt) antibody responses of
      Thai individuals who had been immunized with smallpox vaccine during childhood.
      METHODS: The plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) was used to study
      vaccinia Nt antibody responses in sera of individuals ranging in age from 35-4,
      45-54, 55-64, 65-74, 75-84 and > 84 years old, referred to as groups 1-6,
      respectively. Each group included 200 sera: 100 male sera and 100 female sera.
      RESULTS: An incubation time of 15 hours for sera and vaccinia virus was confirmed
      to be the optimal incubation period for PRNT. Positive Nt antibody titers (>=32)
      were detected in 135 (11.25%) of 1,200 sera: 81 (6.75%) male sera and 54 (4.5%)
      female sera. There were 4 (2%), 11 (5.5%), 19 (9.5%), 16 (8%), 33 (16.5%), and 52
      (26%) positive sera in groups 1-6, respectively. Interestingly, the oldest
      individual with positive Nt antibody was a 98-year-old female. Two males aged 96
      and 91 years old had the highest Nt antibody titers. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggests that the vaccinia-specific Nt antibody response in the current Thai
      population could be maintained for more than 90 years after vaccination. However,
      the majority of the Thai population aged >=35-74 years old is still highly
      susceptible to infection.

PMID- 28577521
TI  - Seven chronic granulomatous disease cases in a single-center experience and a
      review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare primary
      immunodeficiency caused by defects in the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
      phosphate (NADPH) oxidase enzyme system. This disease causes the disordered
      functioning of phagocytic cells. It is characterized by life-threatening and/or
      recurrent infections by bacteria and fungi. CGD has both an X-linked recessive (X
      CGD) and autosomal recessive (AR-CGD) phenotypes. AR form have four subtypes
      including defects with one of these NADPH oxidase components (p22, p40, p47 and
      p67phox). OBJECTIVES: To report the clinical and laboratory characteristics of
      seven CGD patients based on their genetic characteristics. METHODS: Seven boys
      with CGD were reviewed based on clinical findings and genetic results.
      Dihydrorhodamine-1,2,3 (DHR) assay was used as a diagnostic test. Genetic
      analysis was conducted to establish moleculer diagnoses in all patients. RESULTS:
      The age of diagnosis varied between 1.5 years and 15 years. The most frequent
      clinical presentation was pneumonia, and two patients had BCG-itis. Four patients
      had the AR-CGD phenotype, and three patients had the X-CGD phenotype. Severe
      invasive infections due to Aspergillus, Staphylococcus, and Serratia species were
      reported. Frequent lung and lymph node involvement was observed during follow-up
      of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: CGD is life-threatening disease that involves deep
      seated infection. In our patients, the most commonly affected organs were the
      lungs and lymph nodes. Phagocytic disorders should be considered in cases of
      recurrent infectious diseases, invasive fungal diseases, BCG complications that
      are not self-limiting, unexplained lymphadenitis or osteomyelitis, and chronic
      inflammatory disorders.

PMID- 28577522
TI  - Rosai-Dorfman disease with features of IgG4-related disease in the breast: Cases
      report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A proportion of cases of Rosai-Dorfman disease exhibit some
      histological features consistent with IgG4-related disease (IgG4RD). Several
      investigators have discussed whether Rosai-Dorfman disease belongs to the
      spectrum of IgG4RD or is concurrent with it by coincidence. OBJECTIVE: To
      elucidate the relationship between the two diseases, we report key features,
      including IgG4 and amyloid levels, of four cases of Rosai-Dorfman disease in the
      breast. METHODS: The histological features of the four cases were analyzed and
      the numbers of IgG4+ plasma cells and IgG4/IgG ratios were evaluated. Serum IgG4
      concentrations were also measured in two recent cases. A literature review was
      also performed. RESULTS: Two cases (case 1 and 2) showed features of IgG4RD,
      including lymphoid follicle formation with regressive changes, obliterative
      phlebitis, increased number of IgG4+ plasma cells, and increased IgG4/IgG ratio;
      one of the two had an elevated serum IgG4 level. Amyloidosis was detected in
      these cases, with amyloid in the stroma and the vessel walls of the lesion. The
      other two cases (case 3 and 4) only had mild increases in the numbers of IgG4+
      plasma cells, while amyloid was deposited in the stroma only. CONCLUSIONS: A
      subset of Rosai-Dorfman disease may overlap with IgG4RD in the breast. When Rosai
      Dorfman disease has features of IgG4RD, amyloidosis could be induced in the
      lesion.

PMID- 28577523
TI  - Quantification of Fel d 1 in house dust samples of cat allergic patients by using
      monoclonal antibody specific to a novel IgE-binding epitope.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Avoidance of allergen exposure is an effective measure for preventing
      naIve and allergic individuals from sensitization (primary intervention) and
      disease aggravation (secondary intervention), respectively. Regular monitoring of
      the allergens in the environment is required for the effective intervention.
      Thus, there is a need for cost-effective test kits for environmental allergen
      quantifications. OBJECTIVE: To invent a test kit for quantification of cat major
      allergen, Fel d 1. METHODS: A mouse monoclonal antibody (MAb) specific to the
      newly identified IgE-binding conformational epitope of the cat major allergen
      (Fel d 1) and rabbit polyclonal IgG to recombinant Fel d 1 were used as allergen
      capture and detection reagents, respectively. Native Fel d 1 was used in
      constructing a standard curve. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Sixteen of 36 dust samples
      collected from houses of cat allergic subjects in Bangkok contained Fel d 1 above
      0.29 MUg/gram of dust which is considered as a novel threshold level for causing
      cat allergy sensitization or symptoms. Among them, 7 samples contained the
      allergen exceeding 2.35 MUg/gram of dust which is the level that would aggravate
      asthma. Results of the allergen quantification using the locally made test kit
      showed strong correlation (r = 0.923) with the allergen quantification using
      commercialized reagents. The assay using MAb to Fel d 1 IgE-binding epitope of
      this study has potential application as an economic and practical tool for cat
      allergy intervention measure especially in localities where health resources are
      relatively limited.

PMID- 28577524
TI  - Childhood asthma control in Japan: A nationwide, cross-sectional, web-based
      survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent surveys have shown that many patients with asthma experience
      uncontrolled symptoms and decreased quality of life due to their disease.
      However, few large population-based studies have evaluated asthma control in
      Japanese children. OBJECTIVE: To show the reality of asthma control and the
      pattern of asthma controller medication use among Japanese children. METHODS: In
      2012, a web-based survey was conducted to identify children aged 6 to 11 years
      with asthma in Japan. Among children with current asthma, we collected
      information regarding their asthma controller medication use and evaluated the
      control level of asthma using the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT). In this
      study, a C-ACT score of 19 or less, 20 to 22 and over 22 were classified as
      uncontrolled asthma, well-controlled asthma, and optimally controlled asthma,
      respectively. RESULTS: Among the 3,033 children with current asthma, 442 (14.6%),
      635 (20.9%), and 1,956 (64.5%) children had uncontrolled, well-controlled, and
      optimally controlled disease, respectively. In the past 1 month, 1,387 (45.7%)
      reported receiving at least 1 asthma controller medication with 638 (21.0%)
      reported receiving inhaled corticosteroid. Among the children with uncontrolled
      asthma, 67 (15.2%) were not receiving any asthma controller mediations. Among
      children receiving asthma controller medication, 27.0%, 31.4% and 41.5% had
      uncontrolled, well-controlled, and optimally controlled asthma, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although more than half of children with current asthma had
      optimally controlled disease, some children without any controller medications
      and more than a quarter of the children receiving asthma controller medications
      had uncontrolled disease.

PMID- 28577525
TI  - Unstimulated salivary flow, pH, proteins and oral health in patients with
      Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There have been inconsistent conclusions regarding salivary
      abnormalities and their effect on oral health of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
      (JIA) patients. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the flow rate and
      selected biochemical parameters of unstimulated whole saliva in correlation to
      oral health in JIA children. METHODS: Thirty-four JIA patients and 34 age- and
      sex-matched controls not affected by JIA (C) were divided into two groups: with
      mixed and permanent dentition. DMFT/dmft, gingival and simplified oral hygiene
      indices were evaluated. Salivary flow rate, pH, lysozyme, lactoferrin, salivary
      protein concentrations and peroxidase activity were assessed. RESULTS: The
      salivary flow rate was significantly lower in the total JIA group (0.41 ml/min)
      as compared with the C (0.51 ml/min) and in the permanent dentition of JIA
      children (0.43 ml/min) as compared with the C (0.61 ml/min). A significantly
      lower pH was observed in total (6.74), mixed (6.7) and permanent (6.76) dentition
      of JIA groups in comparison to the C (7.25, 7.21, 7.28 respectively). The
      specific activity of peroxidase was significantly higher in JIA patients (total
      112.72 IU/l, mixed dentition 112.98 IU/l, permanent dentition 112.5 IU/l) than in
      the C group (total 70.03 IU/l, mixed dentition 71.83 IU/l, permanent dentition
      68.61 IU/l). The lysozyme concentration in JIA patients (total and permanent
      dentition groups) was significantly higher than in the C group. There were no
      significant differences in lactoferrin and salivary protein concentrations. There
      were no statistically significant differences in oral status between JIA patients
      and C, respectively: DMFT = 5.71, dmft = 3.73, OHI-S = 0.95, GI = 0.25 and DMFT
      5.71, dmft = 3.73, OHI-S = 0.85, GI = 0.24. The specific activity of peroxidase
      in the unstimulated whole saliva was inversely correlated with the GI index,
      whereas the salivary lysozyme concentration was inversely correlated with the
      dmft index in JIA patients. CONCLUSION: In the course of JIA occur a reduction of
      the resting salivary flow rate and a decrease of saliva pH. In spite of this, no
      differences in the clinical oral status between the JIA children population and
      the control group were found. The mobilisation of salivary peroxidase and
      lysozyme contributes to the maintenance of healthy oral tissues.

PMID- 28577526
TI  - Unplanned pregnancy-risks and use of emergency contraception: a survey of two
      Nigerian Universities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vulnerabilities of young women of low socio-economic status and
      those with little or no formal education tend to dominate the discourse on
      unplanned pregnancy, unsafe abortion and emergency contraception (EC) in sub
      Saharan Africa. This article draws on a survey conducted among female
      undergraduate students to shed light on sexual behaviour and the dynamics of
      emergency contraceptive use among this cohort. METHODS: The survey involved 420
      female undergraduate students drawn using a multistage sampling technique, while
      a self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Univariate and
      bivariate analyses were applied to examine the factors associated with the use of
      emergency contraception. RESULTS: Of the 176 female students who reported being
      sexually active in the year preceding the survey, only 38.6% reported the use of
      condom during the entire year. Of those who reported unplanned pregnancy anxiety
      n = 94, about 30.1% used EC, 20.4% used non-EC pills as EC, while others reported
      having used no EC. A few respondents (n = 3) had terminated a pregnancy under
      unsafe conditions. Awareness of EC (p < 0.001), knowledge of timing of EC (p =
      0.001), perceived risk of unplanned pregnancy (p < 0.001), and level of study (p
      = 0.013), were significantly correlated with the use of EC. CONCLUSION: The study
      revealed that educated youths engaged in high-risk sexual activities and also,
      sought recourse to unproven and unsafe contraceptive methods. Poor knowledge of
      EC methods and timing of use, as well as wrong perception about EC side effects,
      are barriers to the utilisation of EC for the prevention of unplanned pregnancy
      among the study participants.

PMID- 28577527
TI  - Misdiagnosis of HIV treatment failure based on clinical and immunological
      criteria in Eastern and Central Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine laboratory monitoring is part of the basic care package
      offered to people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV). This
      paper aims to identify the proportion of PLHIVs with clinical and immunological
      failure who are virologically suppressed and risk being misclassified as
      treatment failures. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patient viral load data
      collected between January 2013 and June 2014 was conducted. Of the patients
      classified as experiencing either clinical or immunological failure, we evaluated
      the proportion of true (virological) failure, and estimated the sensitivity and
      specificity of the immunological and clinical criteria in diagnosing true
      treatment failure. RESULTS: Of the 27,418 PLHIVs aged 2-80 years on ART in the
      study period, 6.8% (n = 1859) were suspected of treatment failure and their viral
      loads analysed. 40% (n = 737) demonstrated viral suppression (VL < 1000
      copies/ml). The median viral load (VL) was 3317 copies/ml (IQR 0-47,547). Among
      the 799 (2.9%) PLHIVs on ART classified as having clinical failure, 41.1% (n =
      328) of them had confirmed viral suppression. Of the 463 (1.7%) classified as
      having immunological failure, 36.9% (n = 171) had confirmed viral suppression.
      The sensitivity of the clinical criteria in diagnosing true failure was 61% (CI
      58%-65%) while that of the immunological criteria 38% (CI 35%-42%). The
      specificity of the clinical criteria was 34% (CI 30%-39%) while that of the
      immunological criteria 66% (61%-70%). Age below 20 years was associated with a
      high viral load (p < .001). Sex and ART regimen were not associated with the
      viral load. CONCLUSION: Clinical and immunological criteria alone are not
      sufficient to identify true treatment failure. There is need for accurate
      treatment failure diagnosis through viral load testing to avoid incorrect early
      or delayed switching of patients to second-line regimens. This study recommends
      increased viral load testing in line with the Kenya's ART guidelines.

PMID- 28577489
TI  - European contribution to the study of ROS: A summary of the findings and
      prospects for the future from the COST action BM1203 (EU-ROS).
AB  - The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal
      framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203
      (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who
      are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox
      biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies
      to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report
      highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new
      perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than
      140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly
      described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is
      an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also
      act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact
      that many diseases have been found to be associated with oxidative stress
      established the theory of oxidative stress as a trigger of diseases that can be
      corrected by antioxidant therapy. However, while experimental studies support
      this thesis, clinical studies still generate controversial results, due to
      complex pathophysiology of oxidative stress in humans. For future improvement of
      antioxidant therapy and better understanding of redox-associated disease
      progression detailed knowledge on the sources and targets of RONS formation and
      discrimination of their detrimental or beneficial roles is required. In order to
      advance this important area of biology and medicine, highly synergistic
      approaches combining a variety of diverse and contrasting disciplines are needed.

PMID- 28577528
TI  - Factors associated with the occurrence of injuries requiring hospital transfer
      among older and working-age pedestrians in Kurume, Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pedestrian injuries among older people tend to occur near their
      residence. However, knowledge regarding whether distance travelled from home to
      the injury site or road environmental/socioeconomic factors affect injury
      severity remains limited. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed using
      injury registry data from the Kurume City Fire Department, Japan. Distance
      travelled from home was determined with geographic information system (GIS)
      software. Data were analyzed for potential association with injury occurrence and
      severity, with stratification by age. Signal detection analysis using 10
      variables was applied to identify factors associated with the occurrence of
      severe pedestrian injuries. RESULTS: Among the 545 adult pedestrian injuries
      reviewed, the factors associated with the occurrence of severe pedestrian
      injuries for older people and working-age people were evaluated, focusing on the
      effect of the network distance travelled from home to injury site. Network
      distance travelled from home to injury site was not associated with the
      occurrence of severe pedestrian injuries among older people. By applying signal
      detection analysis, for older people, higher socioeconomic status, wider road
      width per lane, and higher aging rate in the residential area were significant
      factors, and for working-age pedestrians, longer network distance travelled
      between injury place and their residential area and a higher aging rate in the
      residential area were significantly associated. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce severe
      pedestrian injuries among older people, improvement of road infrastructure in
      areas with wider roads, higher socioeconomic status and higher aging rates is
      required.

PMID- 28577529
TI  - The effect of immunoregulation of Streptococcus lactis L16 strain upon
      Staphylococcus aureus infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen that causes various
      infections in medical facilities. However, resistance to multiple drugs has made
      this infection difficult to manage. Thus, new therapeutic strategies are urgently
      needed to solve this worldwide public health problem. The Streptococcus lactis
      L16 strain was isolated from the fermented hot chili sauce. To explore whether it
      can be used as a protective agent against S. aureus infection, we designed a
      mouse model of S. aureus infection to evaluate the therapeutic potency of S.
      lactis. Mice were grouped into pre-(P) and post-(T) S. aureus infection groups
      following oral administration of S. lactis L16. The protection and treatment
      effects were assessed by examining body weight, internal organ weight, serum
      cytokines and intestinal secretory IgA alternations. RESULT: Oral administration
      of the S. lactis L16 strain reduced the loss of body weight in mice post
      infection and alleviated infection-induced hepatomegaly. In particular, the PL16
      group (protection with L16) showed more effective resistance to S. aureus than
      the TL16 group (treatment with L16). The level of serum cytokine interferon gamma
      following oral administration of the L16 strain was remarkably increased during
      infection, as were interleukin-4 levels during convalescence. The probiotic L16
      strain induced more sIgA production than S. aureus. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest
      that S. lactis L16 is an effective strain with anti-Staphylococcus activity. By
      regulating the Th1/Th2 response, S. lactis can effectively reduce lesions from
      infection, indicating its therapeutic potential in overcoming antibiotic
      resistance in this mouse infection model that mimics infections observed in
      humans.

PMID- 28577531
TI  - Ideal T1 laminar screw fixation based on computed tomography morphometry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The application of laminar screws is an alternative fixation for the
      first thoracic vertebra (T1). This paper is to determine the anatomical
      characteristics for adequate laminar screw fixation, and present a modified
      method of sagittal reconstruction of T1 to provide more accurate measurements.
      METHODS: Computed tomography (CT) images of 62 patients (32 males, 30 females)
      were used for the analysis. The following parameters of the T-1 lamina were
      measured using Mimics software: lamina length, axis angle, minimal outer cortical
      width, cancellous width, minimal outer cortical height, cancellous height, and
      spinous process height. Right or left modified sagittal reconstructions (parallel
      to right or left screws) were innovatively used for measurement. RESULTS: There
      were no significant differences between the left and right sides for each
      measurement performed (P > 0.05), but significant differences were detected
      between males and females (P < 0.05). The mean length of the T1 lamina was 32.8
      mm of the T1 minimal outer cortical width was 7.4 mm, and 3.8% of males had a
      minimal outer cortical width < 5 mm, while 8.6% of females had a minimal outer
      cortical width < 5 mm. The mean minimal outer cortical height was 10.8 mm, and
      1.9% of males had a minimal outer cortical height < 9 mm, while 7.7% of females
      had a minimal outer cortical height < 9 mm. CONCLUSION: This study suggests there
      are no anatomical limitations for T1 laminar screw placement in most people. The
      modified sagittal reconstruction method described allows for easy and precise
      measurement to aid in the insertion of laminar screws in T1, and gives good
      visualization of laminar screw insertion direction.

PMID- 28577532
TI  - Parasitic outbreak of the copepod Balaenophilus manatorum in neonate loggerhead
      sea turtles (Caretta caretta) from a head-starting program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diseases associated to external parasitosis are scarcely reported in
      sea turtles. During the last decades several organism have been documented as a
      part of normal epibiont community connected to sea turtles. The copepod
      Balaenophilus manatorum has been cited as a part of epibiont fauna with some
      concern about its parasitic capacity. This study serves three purposes, i.e. (i)
      it sheds light on the type of life style that B. manatorum has developed with its
      hosts, particularly turtles; (ii) it makes a cautionary note of the potential
      health risks associated with B. manatorum in sea turtles under captivity
      conditions and in the wild, and (iii) it provides data on effective treatments
      against B. manatorum. RESULTS: We report for the first time a massive infestation
      of the copepod B. manatorum and subsequent acute mortality in a group of
      loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings. Four-month-old turtles from a head-starting
      program started exhibiting excitatory and fin rubbing behavior preceding an acute
      onset of lethargy, skin ulceration and death in some animals. All the individuals
      (n = 57) were affected by severe copepod load and presented different degrees of
      external macroscopic skin lesions. The ventral area of front flippers, axillar
      and pericloacal skin were mostly affected, and were the main parasite
      distribution regions. Copepods were also detected on plastron and carapace
      sutures. The gut contents of B. manatorum reacted positively for cytokeratin,
      indicating consumption of turtle skin. Severe ulcerative necrotic dermatitis and
      large amount of bacteria presence were the major histopathological findings.
      CONCLUSIONS: Individual fresh water immersion for 10 min and lufenuron
      administration (0.1 ppm) to the water system every 2 weeks proved effective for
      removing turtle parasites and to control re-infestation, respectively. The
      results from our study clearly indicated that B. manatorum individuals consume
      turtle skin. The pathological effects of this agent and the potential
      implications in sea turtle conservation and management are discussed.

PMID- 28577530
TI  - Implementation fidelity of a nurse-led falls prevention program in acute
      hospitals during the 6-PACK trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 31,411
      patients, the nurse-led 6-PACK falls prevention program did not reduce falls.
      Poor implementation fidelity (i.e., program not implemented as intended) may
      explain this result. Despite repeated calls for the examination of implementation
      fidelity as an essential component of evaluating interventions designed to
      improve the delivery of care, it has been neglected in prior falls prevention
      studies. This study examined implementation fidelity of the 6-PACK program during
      a large multi-site RCT. METHODS: Based on the 6-PACK implementation framework and
      intervention description, implementation fidelity was examined by quantifying
      adherence to program components and organizational support. Adherence indicators
      were: 1) falls-risk tool completion; and for patients classified as high-risk,
      provision of 2) a 'Falls alert' sign; and 3) at least one additional 6-PACK
      intervention. Organizational support indicators were: 1) provision of resources
      (executive sponsorship, site clinical leaders and equipment); 2) implementation
      activities (modification of patient care plans; training; implementation
      tailoring; audits, reminders and feedback; and provision of data); and 3) program
      acceptability. Data were collected from daily bedside observation, medical
      records, resource utilization diaries and nurse surveys. RESULTS: All seven
      intervention components were delivered on the 12 intervention wards. Program
      adherence data were collected from 103,398 observations and medical record
      audits. The falls-risk tool was completed each day for 75% of patients. Of the
      38% of patients classified as high-risk, 79% had a 'Falls alert' sign and 63%
      were provided with at least one additional 6-PACK intervention, as recommended.
      All hospitals provided the recommended resources and undertook the nine outlined
      program implementation activities. Most of the nurses surveyed considered program
      components important for falls prevention. CONCLUSIONS: While implementation
      fidelity was variable across wards, overall it was found to be acceptable during
      the RCT. Implementation failure is unlikely to be a key factor for the observed
      lack of program effectiveness in the 6-PACK trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The 6-PACK
      cluster RCT is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials
      Registry, number ACTRN12611000332921 (29 March 2011).

PMID- 28577534
TI  - A novel variation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve is one of the most severe
      complications of thyroid surgery. Several anatomic variations of the nerve
      increase the likelihood of iatrogenic damage. CASE PRESENTATION: A 50-year-old
      woman was presented to our department with a nodule in the right thyroid lobe,
      and she reported no voice changes. She had no history of surgery or radiation to
      the head or neck. Fine-needle aspiration was recorded as papillary thyroid
      carcinoma. The preoperative laryngoscopy revealed left vocal cord paralysis.
      Right thyroid lobectomy was performed. A scarce course of the left recurrent
      laryngeal nerve was found during the operation that ascended along the medial
      edge of the superior thyroid pole and finally disappeared beneath the superior
      cornu of the thyroid cartilage without any tracheal, esophageal, or laryngeal
      branches. The patient was discharged on the third postoperative day with the
      diagnoses of papillary thyroid carcinoma and congenital left vocal cord
      paralysis. CONCLUSIONS: The novel variation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve may
      challenge the current concept of the anatomy of the nerve. The vocal folds
      mobility should be examined routinely before surgery in patients undergoing
      thyroid operation.

PMID- 28577533
TI  - An agent-based model simulation of influenza interactions at the host level:
      insight into the influenza-related burden of pneumococcal infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Host-level influenza virus-respiratory pathogen interactions are
      often reported. Although the exact biological mechanisms involved remain
      unelucidated, secondary bacterial infections are known to account for a large
      part of the influenza-associated burden, during seasonal and pandemic outbreaks.
      Those interactions probably impact the microorganisms' transmission dynamics and
      the influenza public health toll. Mathematical models have been widely used to
      examine influenza epidemics and the public health impact of control measures.
      However, most influenza models overlooked interaction phenomena and ignored other
      co-circulating pathogens. METHODS: Herein, we describe a novel agent-based model
      (ABM) of influenza transmission during interaction with another respiratory
      pathogen. The interacting microorganism can persist in the population year round
      (endemic type, e.g. respiratory bacteria) or cause short-term annual outbreaks
      (epidemic type, e.g. winter respiratory viruses). The agent-based framework
      enables precise formalization of the pathogens' natural histories and complex
      within-host phenomena. As a case study, this ABM is applied to the well-known
      influenza virus-pneumococcus interaction, for which several biological mechanisms
      have been proposed. Different mechanistic hypotheses of interaction are simulated
      and the resulting virus-induced pneumococcal infection (PI) burden is assessed.
      RESULTS: This ABM generates realistic data for both pathogens in terms of weekly
      incidences of PI cases, carriage rates, epidemic size and epidemic timing.
      Notably, distinct interaction hypotheses resulted in different transmission
      patterns and led to wide variations of the associated PI burden. Interaction
      strength was also of paramount importance: when influenza increased pneumococcus
      acquisition, 4-27% of the PI burden during the influenza season was attributable
      to influenza depending on the interaction strength. CONCLUSIONS: This open-source
      ABM provides new opportunities to investigate influenza interactions from a
      theoretical point of view and could easily be extended to other pathogens. It
      provides a unique framework to generate in silico data for different scenarios
      and thereby test mechanistic hypotheses.

PMID- 28577535
TI  - Tuberculosis screening among persons with diabetes mellitus in Pune, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) increases tuberculosis (TB) risk, and there is
      increasing concern over the public health implications of the convergence of
      these two epidemics. Screening for TB among people with DM is now recommended in
      India. METHODS: People with DM seeking care at a large public sector tertiary
      care hospital clinic in Pune, India, were screened for TB from June 2015 to May
      2016. All consenting people with DM were screened for TB at each clinic visit
      using a five-item, WHO-recommended questionnaire and those with TB symptoms
      and/or risk factors were tested for active TB using sputum smear microscopty,
      Xpert(r) MTB/RIF and TB culture. Categorical data and continuous variables were
      summarized using descriptive statistics. The x 2 test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test
      was used to ascertain significant associations between categorical and continuous
      variables, respectively. RESULTS: Among 630 adults approached for screening,
      median age was 60 (interquartile range (IQR), 57-64) years and 350 (56%) were
      females. Median hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was 8.7% (IQR, 6.7-9.9) and 444 (70.5%)
      were poorly controlled DM (HbA1c > 7). Forty-four (7%) had prior history of TB
      but the proportion with TB risk factors at screening was low (<5%). While 18% of
      participants reported any TB symptoms, none of these patients were diagnosed with
      culture confirmed TB. CONCLUSIONS: Our study failed to yield any active TB cases
      using a WHO-recommended questionnaire among people with DM. High TB risk
      populations among people with DM must be identified if TB screening is to be
      feasible in settings such as India where the DM epidemic continues to rise.

PMID- 28577536
TI  - How changing quality management influenced PGME accreditation: a focus on
      decentralization and quality improvement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluating the quality of postgraduate medical education (PGME)
      programs through accreditation is common practice worldwide. Accreditation is
      shaped by educational quality and quality management. An appropriate
      accreditation design is important, as it may drive improvements in training.
      Moreover, accreditors determine whether a PGME program passes the assessment,
      which may have major consequences, such as starting, continuing or discontinuing
      PGME. However, there is limited evidence for the benefits of different choices in
      accreditation design. Therefore, this study aims to explain how changing views on
      educational quality and quality management have impacted the design of the PGME
      accreditation system in the Netherlands. METHODS: To determine the historical
      development of the Dutch PGME accreditation system, we conducted a document
      analysis of accreditation documents spanning the past 50 years and a vision
      document outlining the future system. A template analysis technique was used to
      identify the main elements of the system. RESULTS: Four themes in the Dutch PGME
      accreditation system were identified: (1) objectives of accreditation, (2) PGME
      quality domains, (3) quality management approaches and (4) actors'
      responsibilities. Major shifts have taken place regarding decentralization,
      residency performance and physician practice outcomes, and quality improvement.
      Decentralization of the responsibilities of the accreditor was absent in 1966,
      but this has been slowly changing since 1999. In the future system, there will be
      nearly a maximum degree of decentralization. A focus on outcomes and quality
      improvement has been introduced in the current system. The number of formal
      documents striving for quality assurance has increased enormously over the past
      50 years, which has led to increased bureaucracy. The future system needs to
      decrease the number of standards to focus on measurable outcomes and to strive
      for quality improvement. CONCLUSION: The challenge for accreditors is to find the
      right balance between trusting and controlling medical professionals. Their
      choices will be reflected in the accreditation design. The four themes could
      enhance international comparisons and encourage better choices in the design of
      accreditation systems.

PMID- 28577537
TI  - Large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of native honey bee Apis mellifera
      populations reveals a new African subgroup private to the South West Indian Ocean
      islands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) archipelagos and Madagascar
      constitute a hotspot of biodiversity with a high rate of endemism. In this area,
      the endemic subspecies A. m. unicolor has been described in Madagascar. It
      belongs to the African lineage, one of the four described evolutionary lineages
      in honey bees. Despite a long beekeeping tradition and several recorded European
      introductions, few studies have been carried out on the diversity and proportion
      of honey bee subspecies. In order to identify and define which evolutionary
      lineages and potential sub-lineages are present in the SWIO, the COI-COII
      intergenic region and the ND2 gene of the mtDNA were sequenced in honey bee
      colonies from three archipelagos. An extensive sampling (n = 1184 colonies) was
      done in the Mascarene (La Reunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues), Seychelles (Mahe,
      Praslin, La Digue) and Comoros (Grande Comore, Moheli, Anjouan, Mayotte)
      archipelagos. Islands genetic diversity was compared to newly sampled populations
      from Madagascar, continental African and European populations. RESULTS: African
      lineage haplotypes were found in all islands (except for Rodrigues). Madagascar,
      Comoros and Seychelles had 100% of A lineage, 95.5% in La Reunion and 56.1% in
      Mauritius. Among all African colonies detected in the SWIO, 98.1% (n = 633) of
      COI-COII haplotypes described the presence of the subspecies A. M. unicolor. Both
      genetic markers revealed i) a new private AI mitochondrial group shared by the
      SWIO archipelagos and Madagascar distant from continental populations; ii) the
      private African haplotypes for each island suggested diversity radiation in the
      archipelagos; iii) the detection of the Comoros archipelago as a possible contact
      area between insular and continental African populations. The exotic European C
      and M lineages were only detected in the Mascarene archipelago, but striking
      differences of proportion were observed among islands. Merely 4.6% of European
      colonies were found in La Reunion whereas Mauritius cumulated 44%. Here, among
      the 84 observed COI-COII haplotypes, 50 were newly described including 13 which
      were private to the SWIO archipelagos and Madagascar. Similarly, 24 of the 34
      found ND2 haplotypes were novel which included six haplotypes particular to the
      SWIO populations. CONCLUSION: A new African subgroup was described in the SWIO
      region with mitochondrial genetic evidence that A. m. unicolor is the indigenous
      subspecies of the archipelagos surrounding Madagascar.

PMID- 28577538
TI  - Dai-Huang-Fu-Zi-Tang alleviates pulmonary and intestinal injury with severe acute
      pancreatitis via regulating aquaporins in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dai-Huang-Fu-Zi-Tang (DHFZT) is a famous traditional Chinese
      prescription with intestinal obstruction, acute pancreatitis and cholecystalgia
      for thousands of years. Our previous work found that DHFZT could act against
      pulmonary and intestinal pathological injury in rats with severe acute
      pancreatitis (SAP). But the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated.
      The aim of present study was to investigate whether DHFZT could relieve pulmonary
      and intestinal injury by regulating aquaporins after SAP induced by sodium
      taurocholate in rats. METHODS: Forty of SD rats were used for dose dependant
      experiments of DHFZT.Accurate-mass Time-of-flight liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry was used for qualitative screening of chemical compositions of
      DHFZT. Twenty-four rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: sham group (n = 8),
      model group (SAP, n = 8), DHFZT group (SAP with DHFZT treatment, n = 8). SAP
      models were established by retrograde injections of 5% sodium taurocholate
      solutions into rat pancreaticobiliary ducts. Blood samples were taken at 0, 12,
      24, 48 h post-operation for detecting serum amylase, lipase, endotoxin, TNF
      alpha, IL-6 and IL-10. Protein expression and location of aquaporin (AQP)1, 5, 8
      and 9 were assessed by immunohistochemistry, western blot and immunofluorescence
      respectively. RESULTS: The study showed that 27 kinds of chemical composition
      were identified, including 10 kinds in positive ion mode and 17 kinds in negative
      ion mode. The results showed that AQP1, AQP5 of lung, and AQP1, AQP5, AQP8 of
      intestine in model group were significantly lower than that of sham group (P <
      0.05), and which were obviously reversed by treatment with DHFZT. In addition,
      protein levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-6 and
      endotoxin in peripheral blood were significantly suppressed by DHFZT, and that
      anti-inflammatory cytokine like IL-10 was just opposite. Finally, we also noted
      that DHFZT reduced serum levels of amylase, lipase and endotoxin, and also
      improved edema and pathological scores of lung and intestine after SAP.
      CONCLUSIONS: DHFZT ameliorated the pulmonary and intestinal edema and injury
      induced by SAP via the upregulation of different AQPs in lung and intestine, and
      suppressed TNF-alpha, IL-6 expression and enhanced IL-10 expression.

PMID- 28577540
TI  - Overview of systematic reviews of therapeutic ranges: methodologies and
      recommendations for practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many medicines are dosed to achieve a particular therapeutic range,
      and monitored using therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). The evidence base for a
      therapeutic range can be evaluated using systematic reviews, to ensure it
      continues to reflect current indications, doses, routes and formulations, as well
      as updated adverse effect data. There is no consensus on the optimal methodology
      for systematic reviews of therapeutic ranges. METHODS: An overview of systematic
      reviews of therapeutic ranges was undertaken. The following databases were used:
      Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), Database of Abstracts and Reviews
      of Effects (DARE) and MEDLINE. The published methodologies used when
      systematically reviewing the therapeutic range of a drug were analyzed. Step by
      step recommendations to optimize such systematic reviews are proposed. RESULTS:
      Ten systematic reviews that investigated the correlation between serum
      concentrations and clinical outcomes encompassing a variety of medicines and
      indications were assessed. There were significant variations in the methodologies
      used (including the search terms used, data extraction methods, assessment of
      bias, and statistical analyses undertaken). Therapeutic ranges should be
      population and indication specific and based on clinically relevant outcomes.
      Recommendations for future systematic reviews based on these findings have been
      developed. CONCLUSION: Evidence based therapeutic ranges have the potential to
      improve TDM practice. Current systematic reviews investigating therapeutic ranges
      have highly variable methodologies and there is no consensus of best practice
      when undertaking systematic reviews in this field. These recommendations meet a
      need not addressed by standard protocols.

PMID- 28577539
TI  - Inguinal and anorectal Lymphogranuloma Venereum: a case series from a sexually
      transmitted disease center in Rome, Italy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) is a sexually transmitted infection
      caused by L1, L2, L3 serovars of C. trachomatis (CT). Since 2003, LGV cases have
      been increasing in Europe. Aim of this report is to describe the LGV cases
      diagnosed in the largest STI center in Rome, Italy, from 2000 to 2016. This
      report shows that two clinically and epidemiologically different series of cases
      exist, and that, at present, the ano-rectal LGV represents the clinical variant
      occurring more frequently among men having sex with men (MSM), particularly those
      HIV-infected. CASE PRESENTATION: Ten cases of LGV were observed. Three were
      diagnosed in 2009 in HIV-negative heterosexuals patients that presented the
      classical genito-ulcerative form with lymphadenopathy. Seven cases were observed
      in 2015-2016 in HIV-infected MSM, that presented the rectal variant and L2b
      serovar infection; 4 of these had been misclassified as a chronic bowel disease.
      Chlamydia infection was confirmed by CT-specific PCR (ompA gene nested PCR),
      followed by sequence analysis to identify the serovar. All the patients were
      treated with doxycycline for 3 weeks, obtaining a complete response with healing
      of both clinical symptoms and dermatological lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      suggest that, in case of persistent rectal symptoms in HIV-infected MSM, LGV
      should be taken into account and investigated through molecular analyses, in
      order to achieve a correct diagnosis and management of the patients.

PMID- 28577541
TI  - Phytomedical assessment of two Cymbopogon species found in Nkonkobe Municipality:
      toxicological effect on human Chang liver cell line.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cymbopogon species are widely used as herbal remedies by the
      traditional healers living in Nkonkobe Municipality for the treatment and
      management of skin and respiratory infections. According to our survey, the
      plants seem to be very important because of the higher demands. METHODS: The
      leaves of C. validis and C. plurinodis were hydro-distilled and the resulted
      extracted oils were analyzed by GC/MS. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs)
      ranging from 7.8 to 500.0 MUg/ml of the extracted oils were tested against eight
      bacterial strains, using micro-well dilution method. The human Chang liver cell
      viability was determined using the CellTiter-Blue cell assay. RESULTS: GC-MS
      analysis of the C. validis essential oil amounted to 87.03%, major components
      identified were Linalyl alcohol (18.9%), 2-Nephthalenemethanol (6.67%),
      Longifolene (6.53%), Cubedol (6.08%). Total oil percentage of C. plurinodis was
      81.47% and the main components were characterized as 3-Cyclohexane-1-ol (13.58%),
      Nerolidol (13.6%) and 2-Carene (12.6%). The essential oils from both plants were
      found to be active against the growth of Gram positive than the Gram negative
      bacterial tested. Lethal dose at 50 (LD50) of both plants showed 74.87 +/- 1.41
      and 81.66 +/- 1.40 degree of toxicity at 24 h. CONCLUSION: Both plants extracts
      were toxic to human Chang liver cell lines.

PMID- 28577542
TI  - The effectiveness of creatine treatment for Parkinson's disease: an updated meta
      analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of creatine in treating Parkinson's disease (PD)
      has not been conclusively determined. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to
      address this issue. METHODS: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials,
      PUBMED, EMBASE, and other databases were searched, and outcomes measured by the
      Total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and the Schwab & England
      Scale were analyzed. RESULTS: Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were
      selected, and 1339 participants were included in the analysis. There were no
      significant differences between the control and treatment groups in the total,
      mental, activities of daily living (ADL), or motor UPDRS scores, but an
      improvement in Schwab & England Scale scores was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Creatine
      has no observed benefit in PD patients, although more correlated studies are
      still needed.

PMID- 28577543
TI  - Implementation of eMental Health care: viewpoints from key informants from
      organizations and agencies with eHealth mandates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of technology such as computers, tablets, and smartphones to
      improve access to and the delivery of mental health care (eMental Health care) is
      growing worldwide. However, despite the rapidly expanding evidence base
      demonstrating the efficacy of eMental Health care, its implementation in clinical
      practice and health care systems remains fragmented. To date, no peer-reviewed,
      key-informant studies have reported on the perspectives of decision-makers
      concerned with whether and how to implement eMental Health care. METHODS: From
      September to November 2015, we conducted 31 interviews with key informants
      responsible for leadership, policy, research, and/ or information technology in
      organizations influential in the adoption of technology for eMental Health care.
      Deductive and inductive thematic analyses of transcripts were conducted using the
      Behavior Change Wheel as an organizing framework. Frequency and intensity effect
      sizes were calculated for emerging themes to further explore patterns within the
      data. RESULTS: Key informant responses (n = 31) representing 6 developed
      countries and multiple organizations showed consensus on common factors impacting
      implementation: individual and organizational capacities (e.g., computer literacy
      skills [patients and providers], knowledge gaps about cyber security, limited
      knowledge of available services); motivational drivers of technology-based care
      (e.g., extending care, data analytics); and opportunities for health systems to
      advance eMental Health care implementation (e.g., intersectoral research, rapid
      testing cycles, sustainable funding). Frequency effect sizes showed strong
      associations between implementation and credibility, knowledge, workflow, patient
      empowerment, electronic medical record (EMR) integration, sustained funding and
      intersectoral networks. Intensity effect sizes showed the highest concentration
      of statements (>10% of all comments) related to funding, credibility, knowledge
      gaps, and patient empowerment. CONCLUSION: This study provides previously
      unavailable information about key informant perspectives on eMental Health care
      implementation. The themes that emerged, namely the need to intensify
      intersectoral research, measure/monitor readiness to implement, define cost
      utility benchmarks, raise awareness about available technologies, and test
      assumptions that 'proven' technologies will be easily integrated can inform the
      design and evaluation of eMental Health care implementation models.

PMID- 28577544
TI  - Deactivation vs. asynchronous pacing - prospective evaluation of a protocol for
      rhythm management in patients with magnetic resonance conditional pacemakers
      undergoing adenosine stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) imaging with adenosine stress
      is an important diagnostic tool in patients with known or suspected coronary
      artery disease (CAD). However, the method is not yet established for CAD patients
      with pacemakers (PM) in clinical practice. A possible reason is that no
      recommendations exist for PM setting (paused pacing or asynchronous mode) during
      adenosine stress. We elaborated a protocol for rhythm management in clinical
      routine for PM patients that considers heart rate changes under adenosine using a
      test infusion of adenosine in selected patients. METHODS: 47 consecutive patients
      (mean age 72.3 +/- 10,0 years) with MR conditional PM and known or suspected CAD
      who underwent CMR in clinical routine were studied in this prospective
      observational study. PM indications were sinus node dysfunction (SND, n = 19;
      40,4%), atrioventricular (AV) block (n = 26; 55.3%) and bradyarrhythmia in
      permanent atrial fibrillation (AF, n = 2; 4.3%). In patients with SND, normal AV
      conduction and resting HR >45 bpm at the time of CMR and in AF the PM was
      deactivated for the scan. In intermittent AV-block a test infusion of adenosine
      was given prior to the scan. All patients with permanent higher degree sinuatrial
      or AV-block or deterioration of AV-conduction in the adenosine test were paced
      asynchronously during CMR, in patients with preserved AV-conduction under
      adenosine the pacemaker was deactivated. CMR protocol included cine imaging,
      adenosine stress perfusion and late gadolinium enhancement. RESULTS: The
      adenosine test was able to differentiate between mandatory PM stimulation during
      CMR and safe deactivation of the device. In patients with permanent sinuatrial or
      AV-block (n = 11; 23.4%) or deterioration of AV conduction in the adenosine test
      (n = 5, 10.6%) asynchronous pacing above resting heart rate did not interfere
      with intrinsic rhythm, no competitive stimulation was seen during the scan. 10 of
      15 (66,7%) patients with intermittent AV-block showed preserved AV-conduction
      under adenosine. As in SND and AF deactivation of the PM showed to be safe during
      CMR, no bradycardia was observed. CONCLUSION: Our protocol for rhythm management
      during adenosine stress CMR showed to be feasible and safe and may be recommended
      for pacemaker patients undergoing routine CMR.

PMID- 28577545
TI  - The effect of a prenatal lifestyle intervention on glucose metabolism: results of
      the Norwegian Fit for Delivery randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of prenatal lifestyle intervention to prevent
      gestational diabetes and improve maternal glucose metabolism remains to be
      established. The Norwegian Fit for Delivery (NFFD) randomized, controlled trial
      studied the effect of a combined lifestyle intervention provided to a general
      population, and found significantly lower gestational weight gain among
      intervention participants but no improvement in obstetrical outcomes or the
      proportion of large infants. The aim of the present study is to examine the
      effect of the NFFD intervention on glucose metabolism, including an assessment of
      the subgroups of normal-weight and overweight/obese participants. METHODS:
      Healthy, non-diabetic women expecting their first child, with pre-pregnancy body
      mass index (BMI) >=19 kg/m2, age >= 18 years and a singleton pregnancy of <=20
      gestational-weeks were enrolled from healthcare clinics in southern Norway.
      Gestational weight gain was the primary endpoint. Participants (n = 606) were
      individually randomized to intervention (two dietary consultations and access to
      twice-weekly exercise groups) or control group (routine prenatal care). The
      effect of intervention on glucose metabolism was a secondary endpoint, measuring
      glucose (fasting and 2-h following 75-g glucose load), insulin, homeostatic
      assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and leptin levels at gestational-week
      30. RESULTS: Blood samples from 557 (91.9%) women were analyzed. For the total
      group, intervention resulted in reduced insulin (adj. Mean diff -0.91 mU/l, p =
      0.045) and leptin levels (adj. Mean diff -207 pmol/l, p = 0.021) compared to
      routine care, while glucose levels were unchanged. However, the effect of
      intervention on both fasting and 2-h glucose was modified by pre-pregnancy BMI
      (interaction p = 0.030 and p = 0.039, respectively). For overweight/obese women
      (n = 158), intervention was associated with increased risk of at least one
      glucose measurement exceeding International Association of Pregnancy and Diabetes
      Study Group thresholds (33.7% vs. 13.9%, adj. OR 3.89, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS:
      The Norwegian Fit for Delivery intervention lowered neither glucose levels nor
      GDM incidence, despite reductions in insulin and leptin. Prenatal combined
      lifestyle interventions designed for a general population may be unsuited to
      reduce GDM risk, particularly among overweight/obese women, who may require
      earlier and more targeted interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov
      ID NCT01001689 , registered July 2, 2009, confirmed completed October 26, 2009
      (retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28577546
TI  - High maternal mortality in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria estimated using the
      sisterhood method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal mortality is extremely high in Nigeria. Accurate estimation
      of maternal mortality is challenging in low-income settings such as Nigeria where
      vital registration is incomplete. The objective of this study was to estimate the
      lifetime risk (LTR) of maternal death and the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in
      Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria using the Sisterhood Method. METHODS: Interviews
      with 7,069 women aged 15-49 in 96 randomly selected clusters of communities in 24
      Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Jigawa state were conducted. A retrospective
      cohort of their sisters of reproductive age was constructed to calculate the
      lifetime risk of maternal mortality. Using most recent estimates of total
      fertility for the state, the MMR was estimated. RESULTS: The 7,069 respondents
      reported 10,957 sisters who reached reproductive age. Of the 1,026 deaths in
      these sisters, 300 (29.2%) occurred during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42
      days after delivery. This corresponds to a LTR of 6.6% and an estimated MMR for
      the study areas of 1,012 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (95% CI: 898
      1,126) with a time reference of 2001. CONCLUSIONS: Jigawa State has an extremely
      high maternal mortality ratio underscoring the urgent need for health systems
      improvement and interventions to accelerate reductions in MMR. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT01487707 ).
      Initially registered on December 6, 2011.

PMID- 28577547
TI  - Validity of self-reported weight and height: a cross-sectional study among
      Malaysian adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-reported weight and height are commonly used in lieu of direct
      measurements of weight and height in large epidemiological surveys due to
      inevitable constraints such as budget and human resource. However, the validity
      of self-reported weight and height, particularly among adolescents, needs to be
      verified as misreporting could lead to misclassification of body mass index and
      therefore overestimation or underestimation of the burden of BMI-related
      diseases. The objective of this study was to determine the validity of self
      reported weight and height among Malaysian secondary school children. METHODS:
      Both self-reported and directly measured weight and height of a subgroup of 663
      apparently healthy schoolchildren from the Malaysian Adolescent Health Risk
      Behaviour (MyAHRB) survey 2013/2014 were analysed. Respondents were required to
      report their current body weight and height via a self-administrative
      questionnaire before they were measured by investigators. The validity of self
      reported against directly measured weight and height was examined using
      intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the Bland-Altman plot and weighted
      Kappa statistics. RESULTS: There was very good intraclass correlation between
      self-reported and directly measured weight [r = 0.96, 95% confidence interval
      (CI): 0.93, 0.97] and height (r = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90, 0.96). In addition the
      Bland-Altman plots indicated that the mean difference between self-reported and
      direct measurement was relatively small. The mean difference (self-reported minus
      direct measurements) was, for boys: weight, -2.1 kg; height, -1.6 cm; BMI, -0.44
      kg/m2 and girls: weight, -1.2 kg; height, -0.9 cm; BMI, -0.3 kg/m2. However, 95%
      limits of agreement were wide which indicated substantial discrepancies between
      self-reported and direct measurements method at the individual level.
      Nonetheless, the weighted Kappa statistics demonstrated a substantial agreement
      between BMI status categorised based on self-reported weight and height and the
      direct measurements (kappa = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.84). CONCLUSION: Our results
      show that the self-reported weight and height were consistent with direct
      measurements and therefore can be used in assessing the nutritional status of
      Malaysian school children from the age of 13 to 17 years old in epidemiological
      studies and for surveillance purposes when direct measurements are not feasible,
      but not for assessing nutritional status at the individual level.

PMID- 28577548
TI  - Depression, suicidality, and alcohol use disorder among people living with
      HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) face various day-to-day and long
      term personal, interpersonal, social, physical and psychological challenges as a
      result of, and in addition to the health conditions they are susceptible to due
      to their HIV status. There is a dearth of large-scale research to provide robust
      prevalence estimates of mental health problems among PLHIV, especially in
      Nigeria. This study aimed to ascertain the prevalence and factors associated with
      major depressive episodes, suicidality, and alcohol use disorder among people
      living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. METHODS: A survey of 1187 participants aged 18
      years and above was conducted within three HIV treatment centres in Abuja,
      Nigeria. Depression, suicidality, and alcohol use disorder modules of the WHO
      World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview questionnaire
      were used for this study. A socio-demographic questionnaire was also used to
      collect other health and demographic data. Descriptive statistics (frequency
      distribution, percentage, mean, median, mode, and standard deviation) and
      regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between mental health
      problems and demographic and other health-related factors. RESULTS: Twelve-month
      prevalence rates were 28.2% for major depressive episodes, 2.9% for suicidal
      ideation, 2.3% for suicide attempts, 7.8% for harmful alcohol use, 7.0% for
      alcohol abuse, and 2.2% for alcohol dependence. Major depressive episodes were
      significantly associated with having planned suicide and marital status. Suicidal
      ideation was significantly associated with major depressive episodes, marital
      status, and religion. Females were less likely to be diagnosed with alcohol
      disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Some people living with HIV/AIDS also tend to suffer from
      depression, suicidality, and alcohol use disorders. These findings highlight the
      need for the integration of mental health services into HIV/AIDS care in Nigeria.

PMID- 28577549
TI  - Whole exome sequencing of an asbestos-induced wild-type murine model of malignant
      mesothelioma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive cancer of the pleural
      and peritoneal cavities caused by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos-induced
      mesotheliomas in wild-type mice have been used extensively as a preclinical model
      because they are phenotypically identical to their human counterpart. However, it
      is not known if the genetic lesions in these mice tumours are similar to in the
      human disease, a prerequisite for any new preclinical studies that target genetic
      abnormalities. METHODS: We performed whole exome sequencing of fifteen asbestos
      induced murine MM tumour cell lines from BALB/c, CBA and C57BL/6 mouse strains
      and compared the somatic mutations and copy number variations with those
      recurrently reported in human MM. We then catalogued and characterised the
      mutational landscape of the wild-type murine MM tumours. Quantitative RT-PCR was
      used to interrogate the expression of key MM genes of interest in the mRNA.
      RESULTS: Consistent with human MM tumours, we identified homozygous loss of the
      tumour suppressor Cdkn2a in 14/15 tumours. One tumour retained the first exon of
      both of the p16INK4a and p19ARF isoforms though this tumour also contained
      genetic amplification of Myc resulting in increased expression of the c-Myc proto
      oncogene in the mRNA. There were no chromosomal losses in either the Bap1 or Nf2
      regions. One tumour harbored homozygous loss of Trp53 in the DNA. Mutation rates
      were similar in tumours generated in the CBA and C57BL/6 strains when compared to
      human MM. Interestingly, all BALB/c tumour lines displayed high mutational loads,
      consistent with the known mutator phenotype of the host strain. The Wnt, MAPK and
      Jak-STAT signaling pathways were found to be the most commonly affected
      biological pathways. Mutations and copy number deletions also occurred in the
      Hedgehog and Hippo pathways. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that in the wild
      type murine model asbestos causes mesotheliomas in a similar way to in human MM.
      This further supports the notion that the murine model of MM represents a genuine
      homologue of the human disease, something uncommon in cancer, and is thus a
      valuable tool to provide insight into MM tumour development and to aide the
      search for novel therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28577550
TI  - Study protocol of the ASD-Net, the German research consortium for the study of
      Autism Spectrum Disorder across the lifespan: from a better etiological
      understanding, through valid diagnosis, to more effective health care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a severe, lifelong
      neurodevelopmental disorder with early onset that places a heavy burden on
      affected individuals and their families. Due to the need for highly specialized
      health, educational and vocational services, ASD is a cost-intensive disorder,
      and strain on health care systems increases with increasing age of the affected
      individual. METHODS: The ASD-Net will study Germany's largest cohort of patients
      with ASD over the lifespan. By combining methodological expertise from all levels
      of clinical research, the ASD-Net will follow a translational approach necessary
      to identify neurobiological pathways of different phenotypes and their
      appropriate identification and treatment. The work of the ASD-Net will be
      organized into three clusters concentrating on diagnostics, therapy and health
      economics. In the diagnostic cluster, data from a large, well-characterized
      sample (N = 2568) will be analyzed to improve the efficiency of diagnostic
      procedures. Pattern classification methods (machine learning) will be used to
      identify algorithms for screening purposes. In a second step, the developed
      algorithm will be tested in an independent sample. In the therapy cluster, we
      will unravel how an ASD-specific social skills training with concomitant oxytocin
      administration can modulate behavior through neurobiological pathways. For the
      first time, we will characterize long-term effects of a social skills training
      combined with oxytocin treatment on behavioral and neurobiological phenotypes.
      Also acute effects of oxytocin will be investigated to delineate general and
      specific effects of additional oxytocin treatment in order to develop
      biologically plausible models for symptoms and successful therapeutic
      interventions in ASD. Finally, in the health economics cluster, we will assess
      service utilization and ASD-related costs in order to identify potential needs
      and cost savings specifically tailored to Germany. The ASD-Net has been
      established as part of the German Research Network for Mental Disorders, funded
      by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research). DISCUSSION: The
      highly integrated structure of the ASD-Net guarantees sustained collaboration of
      clinicians and researchers to alleviate individual distress, harm, and social
      disability of patients with ASD and reduce costs to the German health care
      system. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Both clinical trials of the ASD-Net are registered in
      the German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00008952 (registered on August 4, 2015)
      and DRKS00010053 (registered on April 8, 2016).

PMID- 28577551
TI  - Clinical diagnostic exome evaluation for an infant with a lethal disorder:
      genetic diagnosis of TARP syndrome and expansion of the phenotype in a patient
      with a newly reported RBM10 alteration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnostic Exome Sequencing (DES) has been shown to be an effective
      tool for diagnosis individuals with suspected genetic conditions. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We report a male infant born with multiple anomalies including
      bilateral dysplastic kidneys, cleft palate, bilateral talipes, and bilateral
      absence of thumbs and first toes. Prenatal testing including chromosome analysis
      and microarray did not identify a cause for the multiple congenital anomalies.
      Postnatal diagnostic exome studies (DES) were utilized to find a molecular
      diagnosis for the patient. Exome sequencing of the proband, mother, and father
      showed a previously unreported maternally inherited RNA binding motif protein 10
      (RBM10) c.1352_1353delAG (p.E451Vfs*66) alteration. Mutations in RBM10 are
      associated with TARP syndrome, an X-linked recessive disorder originally
      described with cardinal features of talipes equinovarus, atrial septal defect,
      Robin sequence, and persistent left superior vena cava. CONCLUSION: DES
      established a molecular genetic diagnosis of TARP syndrome for a neonatal patient
      with a poor prognosis in whom traditional testing methods were uninformative and
      allowed for efficient diagnosis and future reproductive options for the parents.
      Other reported cases of TARP syndrome demonstrate significant variability in
      clinical phenotype. The reported features in this infant including multiple
      hemivertebrae, imperforate anus, aplasia of thumbs and first toes have not been
      reported in previous patients, thus expanding the clinical phenotype for this
      rare disorder.

PMID- 28577552
TI  - Determining the amount of training needed for competency of anesthesia trainees
      in ultrasonographic identification of the cricothyroid membrane.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Airway guidelines recommend the use of ultrasound to localize the
      cricothyroid membrane prior to airway manipulation in difficult airways. In this
      study, we aimed to determine the amount of training anesthesia trainees would
      need to achieve competence in bedside ultrasound to identify the cricothyroid
      membrane. METHODS: This is a prospective non-randomized cohort study in the
      Department of Anesthesia at Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
      Following institutional ethics approval, six anesthesia trainees consisting of
      four residents and two fellows underwent a 2-h training session on neck
      ultrasound to identify neck landmarks and the cricothyroid membrane. The trainees
      had no previous airway ultrasound experience. One-two weeks later, each trainee
      performed consecutive neck ultrasound scans on 20 healthy volunteers to identify
      the cricothyroid membrane. Cumulative sum (CUSUM) learning curves were
      constructed for each trainee. Primary outcome was the number of ultrasound
      examinations required to achieve competence, defined as 90% success rate in a
      series of 20 ultrasound scans. Secondary outcomes were the overall success rate,
      the time (sec.) required to perform the task, and 3-month skills assessment.
      RESULTS: CUSUM analysis showed four trainees achieved competence with a mean
      [range] success rate of 94.0% [90-100%] and a median [range] number of attempts
      of 14 [9-18]. Two trainees did not achieve competence, but obtained a success
      rate of 75.0 and 80.0% each. Overall (number of attempts) success rate was 88.3%
      (106/120) with a mean (SD) time of 36.9 (9.0) sec. Three months after training,
      ultrasound of five consecutive neck scans showed a mean success rate of 86.7%
      (26/30) and mean (SD) time of 47.7 (16.0) sec. CONCLUSIONS: After a short 2-h
      training session, most anesthesia trainees (n = 4/6) achieved competence in
      ultrasound-identification of the cricothyroid membrane with less than 20 scans in
      a mean time less than 60 s., and that they remain reasonably competent 3 months
      later. The learning curve for ultrasound identification of the cricothyroid
      membrane seems to be short even without prior airway ultrasound experience.

PMID- 28577553
TI  - The refractive state of the eye in Icelandic horses with the Silver mutation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The syndrome Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalies (MCOA) is a
      congenital eye disorder in horses. Both the MCOA syndrome and the Silver coat
      colour in horses are caused by the same missense mutation in the premelanosome
      protein (PMEL) gene. Horses homozygous for the Silver mutation (TT) are affected
      by multiple ocular defects causing visual impairment or blindness. Horses
      heterozygous for the Silver mutation (CT) have less severe clinical signs,
      usually cysts arising from the ciliary body iris or retina temporally. It is
      still unknown if the vision is impaired in horses heterozygous for the Silver
      mutation. A recent study reported that Comtois horses carrying the Silver
      mutation had significantly deeper anterior chambers of the eye compared to wild
      type horses. This could potentially cause refractive errors. The purpose of the
      present study was to investigate if Icelandic horses with the Silver mutation
      have refractive errors compared to wild-type horses. One hundred and fifty-two
      Icelandic horses were included in the study, 71 CT horses and five TT horses. All
      horses were genotyped for the missense mutation in PMEL. Each CT and TT horse was
      matched by a wild-type (CC) horse of the same age +/- 1 year. Skiascopy and a
      brief ophthalmic examination were performed in all horses. Association between
      refraction and age, eye, genotype and sex was tested by linear mixed-effect model
      analysis. TT horses with controls were not included in the statistical analyses
      as they were too few. RESULTS: The interaction between age and genotype had a
      significant impact on the refractive state (P = 0.0001). CT horses older than 16
      years were on average more myopic than wild-type horses of the same age. No
      difference in the refractive state could be observed between genotypes (CT and
      CC) in horses younger than 16 years. TT horses were myopic (-2 D or more) in one
      or both eyes regardless of age. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that an elderly
      Icelandic horse (older than 16 years) carrying the Silver mutation is more likely
      to be myopic than a wild-type horse of the same age.

PMID- 28577554
TI  - Fermentation of lactose to ethanol in cheese whey permeate and concentrated
      permeate by engineered Escherichia coli.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whey permeate is a lactose-rich effluent remaining after protein
      extraction from milk-resulting cheese whey, an abundant dairy waste. The lactose
      to ethanol fermentation can complete whey valorization chain by decreasing dairy
      waste polluting potential, due to its nutritional load, and producing a biofuel
      from renewable source at the same time. Wild type and engineered microorganisms
      have been proposed as fermentation biocatalysts. However, they present different
      drawbacks (e.g., nutritional supplements requirement, high transcriptional demand
      of recombinant genes, precise oxygen level, and substrate inhibition) which limit
      the industrial attractiveness of such conversion process. In this work, we aim to
      engineer a new bacterial biocatalyst, specific for dairy waste fermentation.
      RESULTS: We metabolically engineered eight Escherichia coli strains via a new
      expression plasmid with the pyruvate-to-ethanol conversion genes, and we carried
      out the selection of the best strain among the candidates, in terms of growth in
      permeate, lactose consumption and ethanol formation. We finally showed that the
      selected engineered microbe (W strain) is able to efficiently ferment permeate
      and concentrated permeate, without nutritional supplements, in pH-controlled
      bioreactor. In the conditions tested in this work, the selected biocatalyst could
      complete the fermentation of permeate and concentrated permeate in about 50 and
      85 h on average, producing up to 17 and 40 g/l of ethanol, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first report showing efficient ethanol
      production from the lactose contained in whey permeate with engineered E. coli.
      The selected strain is amenable to further metabolic optimization and represents
      an advance towards efficient biofuel production from industrial waste stream.

PMID- 28577555
TI  - Intake of Boron, Cadmium, and Molybdenum enhances rat thyroid cell
      transformation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic data in volcanic areas suggest that environmental
      factors might be involved in the increase of thyroid cancer (TC) incidence.
      Recent reports indicate that several heavy metals and metalloids are increased in
      volcanic areas. This study aims to evaluate the combined effect of three of these
      elements Boron (B), Cadmium (Cd), and Molybdenum (Mo) - all increased in the
      volcanic area of Mt. Etna, in Italy - on thyroid tumorigenesis in the rat.
      METHODS: Female Wistar rats prone to develop thyroid tumors by low-iodine diet
      and methimazole treatment received ad libitum drinking water supplemented with B,
      Cd, and Mo at concentrations in the range found in the urine samples of residents
      of the volcanic area. At 5 and 10 months animals were euthanized, and their
      thyroid analysed. Statistical analysis was performed with a 2-way unpaired t
      test. RESULTS: No toxic effect of the three elements on the growth of the animals
      was observed. A significant increase of histological features of transformation
      was observed in thyroid follicular cells of rats treated with B, Cd, and Mo
      compared with those of control group. These abnormalities were associated with
      decreased iodine content in the thyroid. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the
      evidence that slightly increased environmental concentrations of B, Cd, and Mo
      can accelerate the appearance of transformation marks in the thyroid gland of
      hypothyroid rats.

PMID- 28577556
TI  - Mobile phone use, school electromagnetic field levels and related symptoms: a
      cross-sectional survey among 2150 high school students in Izmir.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health outcomes of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from mobile phones
      and their base stations are of concern. Conducting multidisciplinary research,
      targeting children and exploring dose-response are recommended. Our objectives
      were to describe the mobile phone usage characteristics of high school students
      and to explore the association between mobile phone usage characteristics, high
      school EMF levels and self-reported symptoms. METHODS: This cross-sectional
      study's data were collected by a survey questionnaire and by measuring school EMF
      levels between November 2009 and April 2011. A sample size of 2530 was calculated
      from a total of 20,493 students in 26 high schools and 2150 (85.0%) were included
      in the analysis. The frequencies of 23 symptoms were questioned and analysed
      according to 16 different aspects of mobile phone use and school EMF levels,
      exploring also dose-response. School EMF levels were measured with Aaronia
      Spectran HF-4060 device. Chi square and trend tests were used for univariate and
      logistic regression was used for multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Among
      participants, 2021 (94.0%) were using mobile phones and 129 (6.0%) were not.
      Among users, 49.4% were speaking <10 min and 52.2% were sending/receiving 75 or
      more messages per day. Headache, fatigue and sleep disturbances were observed
      respectively 1.90 (95% CI 1.30-2.77), 1.78 (1.21-2.63) and 1.53 (1.05-2.21) times
      more among mobile phone users. Dose-response relationships were observed
      especially for the number of calls per day, total duration of calls per day,
      total number of text messages per day, position and status of mobile phone at
      night and making calls while charging as exposures and headache, concentration
      difficulties, fatigue and sleep disturbances as general symptoms and warming of
      the ear and flushing as local symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: We found an association
      between mobile phone use and especially headache, concentration difficulties,
      fatigue, sleep disturbances and warming of the ear showing also dose-response. We
      have found limited associations between vicinity to base stations and some
      general symptoms; however, we did not find any association with school EMF
      levels. Decreasing the numbers of calls and messages, decreasing the duration of
      calls, using earphones, keeping the phone away from the head and body and similar
      precautions might decrease the frequencies or prevalence of the symptoms.

PMID- 28577557
TI  - Unusual neoplasm on the hard palate of a child: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myoepitheliomas account for less than 1% of salivary gland tumors.
      They mostly affect the parotid glands of adults during the third to fifth
      decades. CASE PRESENTATION: A 10-year-old Indian boy reported a small swelling in
      the roof of his mouth of 10 days' duration. History revealed that the lesion was
      painless and not associated with bleeding or pus discharge. On examination, a
      purplish well-circumscribed growth was noted on his posterior hard palate.
      Magnetic resonance imaging was suggestive of a well-encapsulated hemangioma. An
      excisional biopsy was performed and histopathology along with
      immunohistochemistry analysis showed that the lesion was a spindle cell variant
      of benign myoepithelioma. CONCLUSION: Palatal myoepitheliomas are rare and their
      occurrence in young individuals is rarer.

PMID- 28577558
TI  - Epidemiology of pertussis in Alberta, Canada 2004-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We describe the epidemiology of pertussis in Alberta, Canada by
      person, place, and time between 2004 and 2015, identify outbreak years, and
      examine vaccination coverage and vaccination timeliness. METHODS: We used health
      data from Alberta's Communicable Disease Registry System for the period of
      January 1, 2004 through August 31, 2015 to identify unique cases of pertussis.
      Unique cases were deterministically linked to data in Alberta's immunization
      repository and health care insurance plan registry. Population estimates and
      vaccination coverage were extracted from Alberta's online Interactive Health Data
      Application. We estimated pertussis incidence rates per 100,000 persons by year,
      age group, gender, and health zone. Outbreak years were identified using a one
      sided cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis by comparing annual incidence rates to
      baseline rates. RESULTS: Over the period, 3510 cases of pertussis were confirmed
      by laboratory testing or epidemiological linkage. Incidence rates per 100,000
      persons were highest in 2004 (20.5), 2005 (13.6), and 2015 (10.4) for all age
      groups. Incidence rates were highest among the youngest age groups and decreased
      as age groups increased. Based on CUSUM analysis, 2008 and 2012 met the criteria
      for outbreak years. Vaccination coverage was over 90% among the general
      population, however only 61% of cases received at least one dose. About 60% of
      cases were diagnosed 5+ years after receiving the vaccine. Approximately 87-91%
      of vaccinated cases did not receive the first three vaccine doses in a timely
      manner. CONCLUSION: Pertussis incidence rates fluctuated over the period across
      all age groups. The majority of cases had no record of vaccination or were
      delayed in receiving vaccines. CUSUM analysis was an effective method for
      identifying outbreaks.

PMID- 28577560
TI  - Research dissemination workshops: observations and implications based on an
      experience in Burkina Faso.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Burkina Faso, malaria remains the primary cause of healthcare use,
      morbidity and child mortality. Therefore, efforts are needed to support the
      knowledge transfer and application of the results of numerous studies to better
      formulate and implement programs in the fight against the malaria pandemic. To
      this end, a 2-day dissemination workshop was held to share the most recent
      results produced by a multidisciplinary research team. The objective of the
      present study was to evaluate the workshop and the policy briefs distributed
      there, the effects these produced on research results use and the processes that
      facilitated, or not, the application of the knowledge transmitted. METHODS: A
      mixed-methods design was used. The data were drawn from a quantitative evaluation
      questionnaire completed after the workshop (n = 25/31) and qualitative interviews
      conducted with the researchers and various actors who attended the workshop (n =
      11) and with participants in working groups (n = 40) that later analysed the
      policy briefs distributed at the workshop. RESULTS: The participants recognised
      the quality of the research results presented, but felt that more needed to be
      done to adapt the researchers' language and improve the functioning of the
      workshop. The potential effects of the workshop were rather limited. Effects were
      mainly at two levels: individual (e.g. acquisition of new knowledge, personal
      awareness raising) and local (e.g. change of practice in a local non-governmental
      organisation). Most participants perceived the utility of the research results,
      but several reported that their narrow decisional power limited their ability to
      apply this knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the importance of workshops
      to inform key actors of research results and the need to undertake several
      different activities to increase the chances that the knowledge will be applied.
      Several recommendations are proposed to improve knowledge translation approaches
      in the West African context, including organising working and discussion groups,
      developing an action plan at the end of the workshop and offering support to
      participants after the workshop, among others.

PMID- 28577559
TI  - Ectopic germinal center and megalin defect in primary Sjogren syndrome with renal
      Fanconi syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study reports the clinical and pathological features of 12 cases
      of primary Sjogren syndrome (pSS) with renal involvement presenting with proximal
      tubular dysfunction in a single center, and investigates the possible correlation
      of ectopic germinal center formation and megalin/cubilin down-expression. METHOD:
      Clinical and pathological records were reviewed. Immunohistochemistry was carried
      out to detect megalin, cubilin, CD21 and IL-17 expression. RESULTS: Patients
      presented with different degrees of proximal renal tubule lesion and decreased
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Renal biopsy revealed
      tubulointerstitial nephritis, with tubular epithelial cell degeneration, tubular
      atrophy, interstitial inflammation and focal fibrosis. Immunohistochemistry
      revealed decreased expression of megalin and cubilin, two important multiligand
      protein receptors on the brush border of proximal tubular epithelial cells. IL-17
      secreted by Th17 subtype effector T cells was diffusely detected in the renal
      proximal tubule, with a negative correlation of IL-17 and megalin expression. In
      addition, ectopic germinal centers characterized by CD21+ follicular dendritic
      cells were present in the renal interstitium. In patients with a decreased eGFR,
      treatment with 4 weeks of glucocorticoid therapy resulted in an improved eGFR in
      75% of patients. CONCLUSION: We report 12 cases of pSS characterized by Fanconi
      syndrome. The decreased megalin and cubilin expression may contribute to the
      proximal tubular reabsorption defect, possibly secondary to Th17 infiltration and
      formation of ectopic germinal centers.

PMID- 28577561
TI  - Cameroonian professional soccer players and risk of atherosclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated titers of antibodies against oxidized low-density
      lipoproteins-cholesterol (ox-LDL-Ab) have been reported among professional
      athletes, paradoxically reflecting an increased risk of developing atherogenic
      and/or cardiovascular events. This study aimed to determine titers of ox-LDL-Ab
      in a group of Cameroonian professional soccer players, and evaluate their
      evolution during part of a competition season as well as the plasmatic
      antioxidant status to find out if this latter correlates with ox-LDL-Ab .
      METHODS: We conducted a descriptive cohort study in 2012 including 18 healthy
      male soccer players. Three samplings were performed in March (T1), May (T2), and
      July 2012 (T3) to assess the lipid profile, titers of ox-LDL-Ab, and plasmatic
      concentrations of four antioxidants: the ferric reducing antioxidant power
      (FRAP), reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and uric acid.
      RESULTS: Ages ranged from 16 to 28 years with a median (interquartile range) of
      19.5 (19-23) years. Total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (HDL
      C), low-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides varied within
      normal ranges throughout the three samplings. While total cholesterol and LDL-C
      titers increased significantly (p = 0.003 and p = 0.006, respectively),
      triglycerides and HDL-C values varied non-significantly throughout the
      measurements (p = 0.061 and p = 0.192, respectively). The median ox-LDL-Ab titers
      were respectively: 653.3 (468.2-838.8) mIU/ml at T1, 777.7 (553.7-1150.7) mIU/ml
      at T2, and 1037.7 (901.7-1481.5) mIU/ml at T3. Overall, ox-LDL-Ab titers
      increased significantly from T1 to T3 (p = 0.006). Concomitantly, uric acid and
      FRAP concentrations decreased significantly (p = 0.001 and p = 0.003,
      respectively); on the contrary, GSH and SOD values increased, but insignificantly
      (p = 0.115 and p = 0.110, respectively). There was a positive and significant
      correlation between ox-LDL-Ab and HDL-C (rho = 0.519, p = 0.027), and between ox
      LDL-Ab and SOD (rho = 0.504, p = 0.033) at T2. Ox-LDL-Ab values were expected to
      increase with each new visit (beta = 201.1; p = 0.041) and each IU/ml of SOD
      titers (beta = 23.6; p = 0.019). CONCLUSION: These Cameroonian professional
      soccer players exhibited high levels of ox-LDL-Ab reflecting elevated levels of
      oxidatively-modified LDL-C particles with an increment over time, this being
      insufficiently counterbalanced by the antioxidant defense mechanisms. As a
      consequence, they may be at increased atherogenic and cardiovascular risks.

PMID- 28577563
TI  - Endoscopic ultrasonography compared with multidetector computed tomography for
      the preoperative staging of gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current study sought to perform a meta-analysis to compare the
      preoperative staging of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and multidetector
      computed tomography (MDCT) in gastric carcinoma. METHODS: Articles published
      between January 1, 2000, and April 1, 2016, that compared EUS with MDCT were
      included, and data were presented as 2 * 2 tables. The sensitivities,
      specificities and summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for T
      and N staging were calculated using a bivariate mixed effects model. Data were
      weighted by generic variance and then pooled by random-effects modeling. RESULTS:
      Eight studies comprising 1736 patients were included in this meta-analysis. For
      T1 staging, the sensitivity value for EUS (82%) was significantly higher than
      that for MDCT (41%) (relative risk (RR): 2.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07
      3.94; P = 0.030). For lymph node involvement, the sensitivity value for EUS (91%)
      was also significantly higher than that for MDCT (77%) (RR 1.14, 95% CI 1.05
      1.23; P = 0.001). However, the specificity values of both EUS and MDCT were quite
      low, at 49 and 63%, respectively. No significant differences in T2-4 staging
      between EUS and MDCT were noted. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicates that
      EUS may be superior to MDCT in preoperative T1 and N staging. Additionally, the
      low specificity values of EUS and MDCT for N staging merits attention.

PMID- 28577562
TI  - Current role of perampanel in pediatric epilepsy.
AB  - Perampanel is among the latest AEDs approved, indicated for the treatment of
      partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalization, and for primary
      generalized tonic-clonic seizures, in patients aged 12 years and older. This
      paper summarizes the clinical recommendations on the current role of perampanel
      in the treatment of pediatric epilepsies and future directions for research. The
      optimal dosage should be comprised between 4 and 12 mg/day, with 8 mg/day being
      the most common dosage used. The rate and severity of adverse events, including
      psychiatric symptoms, can be decreased by starting at low doses, and titrating
      slowly. Overall, perampanel presents an acceptable risk/benefit ratio, but
      special caution should be made to the risk of seizure aggravation and behavioral
      problems. The favorable cognitive profile, the ease of use of the titration
      scheme and the once-daily formulation offer advantage over other AEDs and make
      this drug particularly suitable for adolescent population. Perampanel is a
      welcome addition to the armamentarium of the existing AEDs, as it represents a
      new approach in the management of epilepsy, with a novel mechanism of action and
      a potential to have a considerable impact on the treatment of adolescents with
      epilepsy.

PMID- 28577565
TI  - The sound of tumor cell-microenvironment communication - composed by the Cancer
      Cluster Salzburg research network.

PMID- 28577564
TI  - High frequency of the recurrent c.1310_1313delAAGA BRCA2 mutation in the North
      East of Morocco and implication for hereditary breast-ovarian cancer prevention
      and control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To date, a limited number of BRCA1/2 germline mutations have been
      reported in hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer in the Moroccan population.
      Less than 20 different mutations of these two genes have been identified in
      Moroccan patients, and recently we reported a further BRCA2 mutation
      (c.1310_1313delAAGA; p.Lys437IlefsX22) in three unrelated patients, all from the
      North-East of the country. We aimed in this study to evaluate the frequency and
      geographic distribution of this BRCA2 frameshift mutation, in order to access its
      use as the first-line BRCA genetic testing strategy for Moroccan patients. We
      enrolled in this study 122 patients from different regions of Morocco, with
      suggestive inherited predisposition to breast and ovarian cancers. All subjects
      gave written informed consent to BRCA1/2 genetic testing. According to available
      resources of our lab and enrolled families, 51 patients were analyzed by the
      conventional individual exon-by-exon Sanger sequencing, 23 patients were able to
      benefit from a BRCA next generation sequencing and a target screening for exon 10
      of BRCA2 gene was performed in 48 patients. RESULTS: Overall, and among the 122
      patients analyzed for at least the exon 10 of the BRCA2 gene, the
      c.1310_1313delAAGA frameshift mutation was found in 14 patients. Genealogic
      investigation revealed that all carriers of this mutation shared the same
      geographic origin and were descendants of the North-East of Morocco. DISCUSSION:
      In this study, we highlighted that c.1310_1313delAAGA mutation of BRCA2 gene is
      recurrent with high frequency in patients from the North-East region of Morocco.
      Therefore, we propose to use, in public health strategies, the detection of this
      mutation as the first-line screening tests in patients with breast and ovarian
      cancer originated from this region.

PMID- 28577566
TI  - Erratum to: The progressive fragmentation of the KIT/PDGFRA wild-type (WT)
      gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST).

PMID- 28577567
TI  - Erratum to: Telomere shortening and accelerated aging in COPD: findings from the
      BODE cohort.

PMID- 28577569
TI  - Overexpression of apolipoprotein A-I alleviates endoplasmic reticulum stress in
      hepatocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abnormal lipid metabolism may contribute to an increase in
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, resulting in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic
      steatohepatitis. Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) accepts cellular free cholesterol
      and phospholipids transported by ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 to generate
      nascent high density lipoprotein particles. Previous studies have revealed that
      the overexpression of apoA-I alleviated hepatic lipid levels by modifying lipid
      transport. Here, we examined the effects of apoA-I overexpression on ER stress
      and genes involved in lipogenesis in both HepG2 cells and mouse hepatocytes.
      METHODS: Human apoA-I was overexpressed in HepG2 hepatocytes, which were then
      treated with 2 MUg/mL tunicamycin or 500 MUM palmitic acid. Eight-week-old male
      apoA-I transgenic or C57BL/6 wild-type mice were intraperitoneally injected with
      1 mg/kg body weight tunicamycin or with saline. At 48 h after injecting, blood
      and liver samples were collected. RESULTS: The overexpression of apoA-I in the
      models above resulted in decreased protein levels of ER stress makers and
      lipogenic gene products, including sterol regulatory element binding protein 1,
      fatty acid synthase, and acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1. In addition, the cellular
      levels of triglycerides and free cholesterol also decreased. Some of gene
      products which are related to ER stress-associated apoptosis were also affected
      by apoA-I overexpression. These results suggested that apoA-I overexpression
      could reduce steatosis by decreasing lipid levels and by suppressing ER stress
      and lipogenesis in hepatocytes. CONCLUSION: ApoA-I expression could significantly
      reduce hepatic ER stress and lipogenesis in hepatocytes.

PMID- 28577568
TI  - Pirfenidone inhibits myofibroblast differentiation and lung fibrosis development
      during insufficient mitophagy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pirfenidone (PFD) is an anti-fibrotic agent used to treat idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but its precise mechanism of action remains elusive.
      Accumulation of profibrotic myofibroblasts is a crucial process for fibrotic
      remodeling in IPF. Recent findings show participation of autophagy/mitophagy,
      part of the lysosomal degradation machinery, in IPF pathogenesis. Mitophagy has
      been implicated in myofibroblast differentiation through regulating mitochondrial
      reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated platelet-derived growth factor receptor
      (PDGFR) activation. In this study, the effect of PFD on autophagy/mitophagy
      activation in lung fibroblasts (LF) was evaluated, specifically the anti-fibrotic
      property of PFD for modulation of myofibroblast differentiation during
      insufficient mitophagy. METHODS: Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)
      induced or ATG5, ATG7, and PARK2 knockdown-mediated myofibroblast differentiation
      in LF were used for in vitro models. The anti-fibrotic role of PFD was examined
      in a bleomycin (BLM)-induced lung fibrosis model using PARK2 knockout (KO) mice.
      RESULTS: We found that PFD induced autophagy/mitophagy activation via enhanced
      PARK2 expression, which was partly involved in the inhibition of myofibroblast
      differentiation in the presence of TGF-beta. PFD inhibited the myofibroblast
      differentiation induced by PARK2 knockdown by reducing mitochondrial ROS and
      PDGFR-PI3K-Akt activation. BLM-treated PARK2 KO mice demonstrated augmentation of
      lung fibrosis and oxidative modifications compared to those of BLM-treated wild
      type mice, which were efficiently attenuated by PFD. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      suggest that PFD induces PARK2-mediated mitophagy and also inhibits lung fibrosis
      development in the setting of insufficient mitophagy, which may at least partly
      explain the anti-fibrotic mechanisms of PFD for IPF treatment.

PMID- 28577570
TI  - Post-traumatic stress disorder in parturients delivering by caesarean section and
      the implication of anaesthesia: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in 1-7% of women
      following childbirth. While having a caesarean section (C-section) is known to be
      a significant risk factor for postpartum PTSD, it is currently unknown whether
      coexisting anaesthesia-related factors are also associated to the disorder. The
      aim of this study was to assess anaesthesia-linked factors in the development of
      acute postpartum PTSD. METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study on women
      having a C-section in a tertiary hospital in Switzerland. Patients were followed
      up six weeks postpartum. Patient and procedure characteristics, past morbidity or
      traumatic events, psychosocial status and stressful perinatal events were
      measured. Outcome was divided into two categories: full PTSD disease and PTSD
      profile. This was based on the number of DSM-IV criteria of the Diagnostic and
      Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV) present. The PTSD
      Checklist Scale and the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale were used for
      measurement. RESULTS: Of the 280 patients included, 217 (77.5%) answered the
      questionnaires and 175 (62.5%) answered to an additional phone interview. Twenty
      (9.2%) had a PTSD profile and six (2.7%) a PTSD. When a full predictive model of
      risk factors for PTSD profile was built using logistic regression, maternal
      prepartum and intrapartum complications, anaesthetic complications and
      dissociative experiences during C-section were found to be the significant
      predictors for PTSD profile. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to show in
      parturients having a C-section that an anaesthesia complication is an independent
      risk factor for postpartum PTSD and PTSD profile development, in addition to
      known perinatal and maternal risk factors.

PMID- 28577572
TI  - Using Ellenberg-Pignatti values to estimate habitat preferences of wild food and
      medicinal plants: an example from northeastern Istria (Croatia).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The paper presents the first ethnobotanical application of Ellenberg
      indicator values, which are widely used in European plant ecology. The aim of the
      study was to find out if Ellenberg values (indicating habitat preferences) differ
      for wild food and medicinal plants used in north-eastern Istria (Croatia). We
      used Ellenberg-Pignatti values (the version of Ellenberg values used in this part
      of Europe). METHODS: Fifty semi-structured interviews were carried out among
      local key informants, asking which wild food and medicinal plants they used.
      RESULTS: The mean number of food and medicinal plants mentioned per interview was
      30. Altogether, 121 species were recorded as food or medicine used or previously
      used in the study area. Thirty-one species are used exclusively as food or
      everyday drink, 50 species are used exclusively as medicine and 40 species are
      used for both food and medicine. There were no significant differences between
      Ellenberg values for food and medicinal plants, apart from the Nitrogen indicator
      value - the plants used exclusively as food had a significantly higher index than
      those used in medicine. This probably stems from the fact that plants with soft
      fleshy shoots are attractive as food and they are more likely to come from
      nitrogen-rich ruderal habitats. CONCLUSIONS: Food plants and medicinal plants are
      collected from a variety of habitats and no clear difference between the two
      categories of plants was detected, however further testing of Ellenberg values in
      ethnobotanical studies could be interesting.

PMID- 28577573
TI  - Differences in placement of calcium phosphate-hybridized tendon grafts within the
      femoral bone tunnel during ACL reconstruction do not influence tendon-to-bone
      healing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcium phosphate (CaP)-hybridization of tendon grafts has been shown
      to improve tendon-to-bone healing. The purpose of this study was to clarify the
      influence of different tendon graft placement methods on tendon-to-bone healing
      using CaP-hybridized tendon grafts in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
      reconstructions in rabbits. METHODS: We compared two methods of tendon graft
      placement within the femoral bone tunnel: suspension of the tendon graft within
      the bone tunnel (suspension group) and implantation of the tendon graft coherent
      with the bone socket (coherence group). CaP-hybridized tendon grafts were used in
      both groups. Fifty-six male Japanese white rabbits were used for this study. The
      results of biomechanical tests (n = 9) and histological analyses (n = 5) were
      evaluated at 2 and 4 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: The ultimate failure load,
      stiffness, stress, soft tissue remaining in bone tunnel after biomechanical
      testing, and direct bonding area at tendon-bone interface did not differ
      significantly between the suspension and coherence groups at either 2 or 4 weeks
      after surgery (p > 0.05). In both groups, the ultimate failure load, stress, soft
      tissue remaining in the bone tunnel, and direct bonding area at interface at 4
      weeks after surgery were significantly greater than those at 2 weeks after
      surgery (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Tendon-to-bone healing in both groups progressed
      until the endpoint of 4 weeks. There was no influence of the CaP-hybridized
      tendon graft placement method on tendon-to-bone healing at 4 weeks after ACL
      reconstruction in rabbits. Thus, the CaP-hybridized tendon grafts were unaffected
      by differences in their placement within the bone tunnel and became equally
      anchored to the bone tunnel during the early postoperative period. The tendon
      graft placement method may not influence tendon-to-bone healing in ACL
      reconstruction when CaP-hybridized tendon grafts are used.

PMID- 28577574
TI  - Activating transcription factor 3 promotes embryo attachment via up-regulation of
      leukemia inhibitory factor in vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A receptive endometrium is essential for maternal-embryonic molecular
      communication during implantation. However, the specific molecular regulatory
      mechanisms of the endometrial capacity remain poorly understood. Here, we
      examined activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) expression in human endometria
      and the functional effect of ATF3 on embryo attachment in vitro. METHODS:
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to assess the ATF3 expression patterns in
      human endometria. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), western blotting and
      immunofluorescence (IF) studies were applied to explore ATF3 expression in
      Ishikawa cells upon estrogen (E2) and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)
      treatment. qRT-PCR and western blotting were performed to inspect LIF (leukemia
      inhibitory factor) expression after enhancement or inhibition of ATF3, and a
      luciferase reporter assay and ChIP-PCR were used to confirm the regulatory
      mechanism of ATF3 to LIF. Endometrial epithelial capacity was assessed by an in
      vitro model of attachment of BeWo spheroids to Ishikawa cells. Western blotting
      was performed to compare the expression of ATF3 in endometrial samples of
      recurrent implantation failure (RIF) patients with that in samples from fertile
      women (FER) who had undergone no less than one successful embryo transplantation.
      RESULTS: ATF3 was located in human endometrial epithelial cells and stromal cells
      and was significantly induced by E2 and MPA in Ishikawa cells. Adenovirus
      mediated overexpression of ATF3 in Ishikawa cells activated LIF promoter activity
      and enhanced its expression. Accordingly, the stimulation of BeWo spheroid
      adhesion promoted by ATF3 was inhibited by pretreatment with a specific antibody
      against LIF via the antibody-blocking assay. Moreover, ATF3 was aberrantly
      decreased in the endometria of RIF patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest
      that ATF3 plays a significant role in regulating human endometrial receptivity
      and embryo attachment in vitro via up-regulation of leukemia inhibitory factor.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: Construction and management of the Nanjing multi-center
      biobank. No. 2013-081-01 . Registered 10 Dec. 2013.

PMID- 28577571
TI  - Genetic determinants of inherited susceptibility to hypercholesterolemia - a
      comprehensive literature review.
AB  - Hypercholesterolemia is a strong determinant of mortality and morbidity
      associated with cardiovascular diseases and a major contributor to the global
      disease burden. Mutations in four genes (LDLR, APOB, PCSK9 and LDLRAP1) account
      for the majority of cases with familial hypercholesterolemia. However, a
      substantial proportion of adults with hypercholesterolemia do not have a mutation
      in any of these four genes. This indicates the probability of having other genes
      with a causative or contributory role in the pathogenesis of hypercholesterolemia
      and suggests a polygenic inheritance of this condition. Here in, we review the
      recent evidence of association of the genetic variants with hypercholesterolemia
      and the three lipid traits; total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and
      LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), their biological pathways and the associated
      pathogenetic mechanisms. Nearly 80 genes involved in lipid metabolism (encoding
      structural components of lipoproteins, lipoprotein receptors and related
      proteins, enzymes, lipid transporters, lipid transfer proteins, and activators or
      inhibitors of protein function and gene transcription) with single nucleotide
      variants (SNVs) that are recognized to be associated with hypercholesterolemia
      and serum lipid traits in genome-wide association studies and candidate gene
      studies were identified. In addition, genome-wide association studies in
      different populations have identified SNVs associated with TC, HDL-C and LDL-C in
      nearly 120 genes within or in the vicinity of the genes that are not known to be
      involved in lipid metabolism. Over 90% of the SNVs in both these groups are
      located outside the coding regions of the genes. These findings indicates that
      there might be a considerable number of unrecognized processes and mechanisms of
      lipid homeostasis, which when disrupted, would lead to hypercholesterolemia.
      Knowledge of these molecular pathways will enable the discovery of novel
      treatment and preventive methods as well as identify the biochemical and
      molecular markers for the risk prediction and early detection of this common, yet
      potentially debilitating condition.

PMID- 28577575
TI  - Identification of sympatric cryptic species of Aedes albopictus subgroup in
      Vietnam: new perspectives in phylosymbiosis of insect vector.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus subgroup includes 11 cryptic species
      of which Ae. albopictus is the most widely distributed. Its global expansion
      associated with a documented vector competence for several emerging arboviruses
      raise obvious concerns in the recently colonized regions. While several studies
      have provided important insights regarding medical importance of Ae. albopicus,
      the investigations of the other sibling species are scarce. In Asia, indigenous
      populations within the Ae. albopictus subgroup can be found in sympatry. In the
      present study, we aimed to describe and compare molecular, morphological and
      bacterial symbionts composition among sympatric individuals from the Ae.
      albopictus subgroup inhabiting a Vietnamese protected area. RESULTS: Based on
      morphological structure of the cibarial armarture, we identified a cryptic
      species in the forest park at Bu Gia Map in the south-eastern region of Vietnam.
      Analysis of nuclear (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) and mitochondrial (cox1, nad5) markers
      confirmed the divergence between the cryptic species and Ae. albopictus. Analysis
      of midgut bacterial microbiota revealed a strong similarity among the two species
      with a notable difference; contrary to Ae. albopictus, the cryptic species did
      not harbour any Wolbachia infection. CONCLUSIONS: These results could reflect
      either a recent invasion of Wolbachia in Ae. albopictus or alternatively a loss
      of this symbiont in the cryptic species. We argue that neglected species of the
      Ae. albopictus subgroup are of main importance in order to estimate variation of
      host-symbionts interactions across evolution.

PMID- 28577578
TI  - Retraction Note: Robust method for TALEN-edited correction of pF508del in patient
      specific induced pluripotent stem cells.

PMID- 28577577
TI  - Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone and interleukin-8 levels in boys with autism
      spectrum disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1 in 68 children
      in the USA. An ASD blood biomarker may enable early diagnosis and/or
      identification of new therapeutic targets. Serum samples from ASD and typically
      developing (TD) boys (n = 30/group) were screened for differences in 110 proteins
      using a multiplex immunoassay. RESULTS: Eleven proteins were found that together
      could confirm ASD with modest accuracy using multiple training and test sets. Two
      of the 11 proteins identified here were further tested using a different
      detection platform and with a larger sample of ASD and TD boys. The two proteins,
      thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and interleukin-8 (IL-8), have been previously
      identified as putative biomarkers for ASD. TSH levels were significantly lower in
      ASD boys, whereas IL-8 levels were significantly elevated. The diagnostic
      accuracy for ASD based upon TSH or IL-8 levels alone varied from 74 to 76%, but
      using both proteins together, the diagnostic accuracy increased to 82%. In
      addition, TSH levels were negatively correlated with the Autism Diagnostic
      Observation Schedule subdomain scores. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that a
      panel of proteins may be useful as a putative blood biomarker for ASD.

PMID- 28577576
TI  - Sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 3 and RhoA signaling mediate inflammatory gene
      expression in astrocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signals through G protein-coupled
      receptors to elicit a wide range of cellular responses. In CNS injury and
      disease, the blood-brain barrier is compromised, causing leakage of S1P from
      blood into the brain. S1P can also be locally generated through the enzyme
      sphingosine kinase-1 (Sphk1). Our previous studies demonstrated that S1P
      activates inflammation in murine astrocytes. The S1P1 receptor subtype has been
      most associated with CNS disease, particularly multiple sclerosis. S1P3 is most
      highly expressed and upregulated on astrocytes, however, thus we explored the
      involvement of this receptor in inflammatory astrocytic responses. METHODS:
      Astrocytes isolated from wild-type (WT) or S1P3 knockout (KO) mice were treated
      with S1P3 selective drugs or transfected with short interfering RNA to determine
      which receptor subtypes mediate S1P-stimulated inflammatory responses.
      Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFa) messenger
      RNA (mRNA) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA and protein were assessed by q-PCR
      and Western blotting. Activation of RhoA was measured using SRE.L luciferase and
      RhoA implicated in S1P signaling by knockdown of Galpha12/13 proteins or by
      inhibiting RhoA activation with C3 exoenzyme. Inflammation was simulated by in
      vitro scratch injury of cultured astrocytes. RESULTS: S1P3 was highly expressed
      in astrocytes and further upregulated in response to simulated inflammation.
      Studies using S1P3 knockdown and S1P3 KO astrocytes demonstrated that S1P3
      mediates activation of RhoA and induction of COX-2, IL-6, and VEGFa mRNA, with
      some contribution from S1P2. S1P induces expression of all of these genes through
      coupling to the Galpha12/13 proteins which activate RhoA. Studies using S1P3
      selective agonists/antagonists as well as Fingolimod (FTY720) confirmed that
      stimulation of S1P3 induces COX-2 expression in astrocytes. Simulated
      inflammation increased expression of Sphk1 and consequently activated S1P3,
      demonstrating an autocrine pathway through which S1P is formed and released from
      astrocytes to regulate COX-2 expression. CONCLUSIONS: S1P3, through its ability
      to activate RhoA and its upregulation in astrocytes, plays a unique role in
      inducing inflammatory responses and should be considered as a potentially
      important therapeutic target for CNS disease progression.

PMID- 28577580
TI  - The Role of Threat Level and Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) in Anxiety: An
      Experimental Test of IU Theory.
AB  - Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has been proposed as an important transdiagnostic
      variable within mood- and anxiety-related disorders. The extant literature has
      suggested that individuals high in IU interpret uncertainty more negatively.
      Furthermore, theoretical models of IU posit that those elevated in IU may
      experience an uncertain threat as more anxiety provoking than a certain threat.
      However, no research to date has experimentally manipulated the certainty of an
      impending threat while utilizing an in vivo stressor. In the current study,
      undergraduate participants (N = 79) were randomized to one of two conditions:
      certain threat (participants were told that later on in the study they would give
      a 3-minute speech) or uncertain threat (participants were told that later on in
      the study they would flip a coin to determine whether or not they would give a 3
      minute speech). Participants also completed self-report questionnaires measuring
      their baseline state anxiety, baseline trait IU, and prespeech state anxiety.
      Results indicated that trait IU was associated with greater state anticipatory
      anxiety when the prospect of giving a speech was made uncertain (i.e., uncertain
      condition). Further, findings indicated no significant difference in anticipatory
      state anxiety among individuals high in IU when comparing an uncertain versus
      certain threat (i.e., uncertain and certain threat conditions, respectively).
      Furthermore, results found no significant interaction between condition and trait
      IU when predicting state anticipatory anxiety. This investigation is the first to
      test a crucial component of IU theory while utilizing an ecologically valid
      paradigm. Results of the present study are discussed in terms of theoretical
      models of IU and directions for future work.

PMID- 28577579
TI  - Patterns of relapse in primary central nervous system lymphoma: inferences
      regarding the role of the neuro-vascular unit and monoclonal antibodies in
      treating occult CNS disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The radiologic features and patterns of primary central
      nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) at initial presentation are well described. High
      response rates can be achieved with first-line high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX)
      based regimens, yet many relapse within 2 years of diagnosis. We describe the
      pattern of relapse and review the potential mechanisms involved in relapse.
      METHODS: We identified 78 consecutive patients who attained complete radiographic
      response (CR) during or after first-line treatment for newly diagnosed PCNSL
      (CD20+, diffuse large B cell type). Patients were treated with HD-MTX based
      regimen in conjunction with blood-brain barrier disruption (HD-MTX/BBBD); 44
      subsequently relapsed. Images and medical records of these 44 consecutive
      patients were retrospectively reviewed. The anatomical location of enhancing
      lesions at initial diagnosis and at the time of relapse were identified and
      compared. RESULTS: 37/44 patients fulfilled inclusion criteria and had new
      measureable enhancing lesions at relapse; the pattern and location of relapse of
      these 37 patients were identified. At relapse, the new enhancement was at a
      spatially distinct site in 30 of 37 patients. Local relapse was found only in
      seven patients. DISCUSSION: Unlike gliomas, the majority of PCNSL had
      radiographic relapse at spatially distinct anatomical locations within the brain
      behind a previously intact neurovascular unit (NVU), and in few cases outside,
      the central nervous system (CNS). This may suggest either (1) reactivation of
      occult reservoirs behind an intact NVU in the CNS (or ocular) or (2) seeding from
      bone marrow or other extra CNS sites. CONCLUSION: Recognizing patterns of relapse
      is key for early detection and may provide insight into potential mechanisms of
      relapse as well as help develop strategies to extend duration of complete
      response.

PMID- 28577581
TI  - Trait Affect, Emotion Regulation, and the Generation of Negative and Positive
      Interpersonal Events.
AB  - Positive and negative trait affect and emotion regulatory strategies have
      received considerable attention in the literature as predictors of
      psychopathology. However, it remains unclear whether individuals' trait affect is
      associated with responses to state positive affect (positive rumination and
      dampening) or negative affect (ruminative brooding), or whether these affective
      experiences contribute to negative or positive interpersonal event generation.
      Among 304 late adolescents, path analyses indicated that individuals with higher
      trait negative affect utilized dampening and brooding rumination responses,
      whereas those with higher trait positive affect engaged in rumination on positive
      affect. Further, there were indirect relationships between trait negative affect
      and fewer positive and negative interpersonal events via dampening, and between
      trait positive affect and greater positive and negative interpersonal events via
      positive rumination. These findings suggest that individuals' trait negative and
      positive affect may be associated with increased utilization of emotion
      regulation strategies for managing these affects, which may contribute to the
      occurrence of positive and negative events in interpersonal relationships.

PMID- 28577582
TI  - The Role of Patient Characteristics in the Concordance of Daily and Retrospective
      Reports of PTSD.
AB  - Research has documented discrepancies between daily and retrospective reports of
      psychological symptoms in a variety of conditions. A limited number of studies
      have assessed these discrepancies in samples of individuals with posttraumatic
      stress disorder (PTSD), with even less research addressing potential covariates
      that may influence such discrepancies. In the current study, 65 individuals with
      co-occurring PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD) completed daily assessments of
      their PTSD symptoms for 1 month, followed by a standard retrospective report of
      PTSD over the same month. Initial analyses explored the mean levels of daily and
      retrospective PTSD symptoms, while multilevel models assessed the level of
      agreement between daily and retrospective reports and the role of demographic
      variables and comorbid psychopathology (e.g., depression) or substance use (e.g.,
      alcohol use) in moderating the association of daily and retrospective reports.
      Results showed that retrospective reports of arousal and avoidance symptoms were
      weakly related to daily reports of these symptoms, while reports of
      reexperiencing and numbing symptoms showed better agreement. Intra-individual
      alcohol consumption also moderated associations of reexperiencing and avoidance
      symptoms, such that on days individuals drank more, their daily reports resembled
      their retrospective reports less well. Future research should explore the degree
      to which these results generalize to nondually diagnosed samples, as well as the
      role such reporting discrepancies may play in PTSD treatment.

PMID- 28577583
TI  - Long-Term Outcomes of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Body Dysmorphic
      Disorder.
AB  - Emerging evidence suggests that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an
      efficacious treatment for adolescent body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in the short
      term, but longer-term outcomes remain unknown. The current study aimed to follow
      up a group of adolescents who had originally participated in a randomized
      controlled trial of CBT for BDD to determine whether treatment gains were
      maintained. Twenty-six adolescents (mean age = 16.2, SD = 1.6) with a primary
      diagnosis of BDD received a course of developmentally tailored CBT and were
      followed up over 12 months. Participants were assessed at baseline, midtreatment,
      posttreatment, 2-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure was
      the clinician-rated Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale Modified for BDD.
      Secondary outcomes included measures of insight, depression, quality of life, and
      global functioning. BDD symptoms decreased significantly from pre- to
      posttreatment and remained stable over the 12-month follow-up. At this time
      point, 50% of participants were classified as responders and 23% as remitters.
      Participants remained significantly improved on all secondary outcomes at 12
      month follow-up. Neither baseline insight nor baseline depression predicted long
      term outcomes. The positive effects of CBT appear to be durable up to 12-month
      follow-up. However, the majority of patients remained symptomatic and vulnerable
      to a range of risks at 12-month follow-up, indicating that longer-term monitoring
      is advisable in this population. Future research should focus on enhancing the
      efficacy of CBT in order to improve long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28577584
TI  - Computer Informed and Flexible Family-Based Treatment for Adolescents: A
      Randomized Clinical Trial for at-Risk Racial/Ethnic Minority Adolescents.
AB  - Family interventions have been shown to be effective for adolescents with
      behavior problems. Current literature supports both adaptive treatments and
      technology-assisted interventions as highly promising innovations for treating at
      risk adolescents. The purpose of this investigation was to develop and test the
      efficacy of a computer-assisted version of an established office-based
      multicomponent family therapy. Eighty Hispanic and Black Non-Hispanic adolescents
      and their families participated in the study and were randomized to either
      Immediate Computer-Assisted CIFFTA or Delayed Computer-Assisted CIFFTA.
      Significant between-groups effects were found from baseline to posttreatment
      showing the superiority of the Immediate CA CIFFTA condition on both the Conduct
      Disorder (B = -5.17, SE = 1.73, p < .01, CI [-8.55, -1.79]) and Socialized
      Aggression (B = -2.04, SE = .83, p < .05, CI [-3.67, -.41]) subscales of the
      Revised Behavior Problem Checklist, on the Youth Self Report Externalizing scale
      (B = -4.22, SE = 1.40, p < .01, CI [-6.95, -1.48]), and on both the parent (B =
      1.34, SE = .50, p < .01, CI [.36, 2.32]) and adolescent (B = 1.31, SE = .46, p <
      .01, CI [.41, 2.21]) reports of the Family Environment Scale's family cohesion
      subscale. Baseline to 6-weeks posttreatment (T1-T3) analyses showed that these
      significant within-subjects effects were sustained for the treatment group.
      Results highlight that adolescent behavior problems can be significantly impacted
      by a computer-assisted intervention that replaces psychoeducational face-to-face
      meetings with computer-delivered modules.

PMID- 28577585
TI  - Advancing Personalized Medicine: Application of a Novel Statistical Method to
      Identify Treatment Moderators in the Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management
      Study.
AB  - There has been increasing recognition of the value of personalized medicine where
      the most effective treatment is selected based on individual characteristics.
      This study used a new method to identify a composite moderator of response to
      evidence-based anxiety treatment (CALM) compared to Usual Care. Eight hundred
      seventy-six patients diagnosed with one or multiple anxiety disorders were
      assigned to CALM or Usual Care. Using the method proposed by Kraemer (2013), 35
      possible moderators were examined for individual effect sizes then entered into a
      forward-stepwise regression model predicting differential treatment response. K
      fold cross validation was used to identify the number of variables to include in
      the final moderator. Ten variables were selected for a final composite moderator.
      The composite moderator effect size (r = .20) was twice as large as the strongest
      individual moderator effect size (r = .10). Although on average patients
      benefitted more from CALM, 19% of patients had equal or greater treatment
      response in Usual Care. The effect size for the CALM intervention increased from
      d = .34 to d = .54 when accounting for the moderator. Findings support the
      utility of composite moderators. Results were used to develop a program that
      allows mental health professionals to prescribe treatment for anxiety based on
      baseline characteristics (http://anxiety.psych.ucla.edu/treatmatch.html).

PMID- 28577587
TI  - Criticism in the Romantic Relationships of Individuals With Social Anxiety.
AB  - Social anxiety is associated with difficulties in intimate relationships. Because
      fear of negative evaluation is a cardinal feature of social anxiety disorder,
      perceived criticism and upset due to criticism from partners may play a
      significant role in socially anxious individuals' intimate relationships. In the
      present study, we examine associations between social anxiety and perceived,
      observed, and expressed criticism in interactions with romantic partners. In
      Study 1, we collected self-report data from 343 undergraduates and their romantic
      partners on social anxiety symptoms, perceived and expressed criticism, and upset
      due to criticism. One year later couples reported whether they were still in this
      relationship. Results showed that social anxiety was associated with being more
      critical of one's partner, and among women, being more upset by criticism from a
      partner. Social anxiety was not related to perceived criticism, nor did criticism
      variables predict relationship status at Time 2. In Study 2, undergraduate
      couples with a partner high (n = 26) or low (n = 26) in social anxiety completed
      a 10-minute, video-recorded problem-solving task. Both partners rated their
      perceived and expressed criticism and upset due to criticism following the
      interaction, and observers coded interactions for criticism. Results indicated
      that social anxiety was not significantly related to any of the criticism
      variables, but post hoc analyses cast doubts upon the external validity of the
      problem-solving task. Results are discussed in light of known difficulties with
      intimacy among individuals with social anxiety.

PMID- 28577586
TI  - Does the Delivery of CBT for Youth Anxiety Differ Across Research and Practice
      Settings?
AB  - Does delivery of the same manual-based individual cognitive-behavioral treatment
      (ICBT) program for youth anxiety differ across research and practice settings? We
      examined this question in a sample of 89 youths (M age = 10.56, SD = 1.99; 63.70%
      Caucasian; 52.80% male) diagnosed with a primary anxiety disorder. The youths
      received (a) ICBT in a research setting, (b) ICBT in practice settings, or (c)
      non-manual-based usual care (UC) in practice settings. Treatment delivery was
      assessed using four theory-based subscales (Cognitive-behavioral, Psychodynamic,
      Client-Centered, Family) from the Therapy Process Observational Coding System for
      Child Psychotherapy-Revised Strategies scale (TPOCS-RS). Reliable independent
      coders, using the TPOCS-RS, rated 954 treatment sessions from two randomized
      controlled trials (1 efficacy and 1 effectiveness trial). In both settings,
      therapists trained and supervised in ICBT delivered comparable levels of
      cognitive-behavioral interventions at the beginning of treatment. However,
      therapists trained in ICBT in the research setting increased their use of
      cognitive-behavioral interventions as treatment progressed whereas their practice
      setting counterparts waned over time. Relative to the two ICBT groups, the UC
      therapists delivered a significantly higher dose of psychodynamic and family
      interventions and a significantly lower dose of cognitive-behavioral
      interventions. Overall, results indicate that there were more similarities than
      differences in manual-based ICBT delivery across research and practice settings.
      Future research should explore why the delivery of cognitive-behavioral
      interventions in the ICBT program changed over time and across settings, and
      whether the answers to these questions could inform implementation of ICBT
      programs.

PMID- 28577588
TI  - Social Anxiety and Biased Recall of Positive Information: It's Not the Content,
      It's the Valence.
AB  - Cognitive theorists hypothesize that individuals with social anxiety are prone to
      memory biases such that event recall becomes more negative over time. With few
      exceptions, studies have focused primarily on changes in negative self-judgments.
      The current study examined whether memory for positive social events is also
      subject to recall bias. Undergraduate participants (N = 138) engaged in an
      unexpected public speaking task and received standardized positive or neutral
      feedback on their performance. They rated their memory of the received feedback
      following a 5-minute delay and again 1 week later. Results revealed that higher
      scores on social anxiety symptoms predicted significant reductions in the
      recalled valence of positive feedback over time, whereas no changes were observed
      for neutral feedback. The results suggest that social anxiety may lead to erosion
      in memory of positive events.

PMID- 28577589
TI  - Prospective Investigation of the Contrast Avoidance Model of Generalized Anxiety
      and Worry.
AB  - The factors that maintain generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and worry
      over time are not entirely clear. The Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM) postulates
      that individuals at risk for pathological worry and GAD symptoms uniquely fear
      emotional shifts from neutral or positive emotions into negative emotional
      states, and consequently use worry to maintain negative emotion in order to avoid
      shifts or blunt the effect of negative contrasts. This model has received support
      in laboratory experiments, but has not been investigated prospectively in the
      naturalistic context of daily life. The present study tested the CAM in a
      longitudinal experience sampling study with a subclinical sample. Participants
      selected to represent a broad range of symptoms (N = 92) completed baseline
      measures of GAD and depression symptoms, and eight weekly assessments of worry,
      experiences of negative emotional contrasts during their worst event of the week,
      and situation-specific negative emotion. Consistent with the CAM, GAD symptoms
      prospectively predicted higher endorsement of negative contrast experiences as
      worst events, independent of depression symptoms. Unsurprisingly, higher negative
      contrasts predicted higher negative emotion. However, both higher baseline GAD
      symptoms and weekly worry uniquely moderated (reduced) this relationship,
      providing consistent support for the idea that worry may blunt the emotional
      effects of contrasts. Depression symptoms did not have the same moderating
      effect. These findings support the CAM in an ecologically valid context.

PMID- 28577590
TI  - Dialectical Behavior Therapy Group Skills Training for Bipolar Disorder.
AB  - There is growing evidence that the capacity for emotion regulation is compromised
      in individuals with bipolar disorder. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an
      empirically supported treatment that specifically targets emotion dysregulation,
      may be an effective adjunct treatment for improving emotion regulation and
      residual mood symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder. In this open, proof-of
      concept pilot study, 37 participants engaged in a 12-week DBT group skills
      training program, learning mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress
      tolerance skills. Repeated measures mixed models revealed skill acquisition in
      the areas of mindfulness, emotion regulation and distress tolerance, as well as
      improved psychological well-being and decreased emotion reactivity. The results
      of this study support a burgeoning literature that DBT is a feasible adjunct
      intervention for patients with bipolar disorder.

PMID- 28577593
TI  - Chemical generation of volatile species of copper - Optimization, efficiency and
      investigation of volatile species nature.
AB  - This work is a comprehensive study on chemical generation of volatile species
      (VSG) of copper for analytical atomic spectrometry. VSG was carried out in a flow
      injection mode in a special arrangement of the generator. Atomization in a
      diffusion flame atomizer (DF) with atomic absorption spectrometry detection was
      mostly used for VSG optimization. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
      (ICP-MS) was utilized to investigate generation efficiencies and feasibility of
      VSG system for ultratrace analysis. Concentration of individual reagents, namely
      of nitric acid, sodium tetrahydroborate and various reaction modifiers, was
      optimized with respect to generation efficiency. Triton X-100 and Antifoam B were
      chosen as the best combination of the modifiers owing to sixfold increase in
      sensitivity, decrease of tailing of measured signals and long-term repeatability.
      The addition of 500 MUg L-1 of Ag was found crucial to maintain identical
      generation efficiency at low concentrations of Cu. This phenomenon was ascribed
      to the change in the size of generated species. The release and generation
      efficiency were accurately determined as 56-58 and 31-32%, respectively. The
      contribution of co-generated aerosol to release and generation efficiency
      measured by means of Cs and Ba was found negligible, only 0.40 and 0.13%,
      respectively, which underlines highly efficient VSG of Cu. The nature of volatile
      species was investigated by various approaches. The results cannot provide the
      decisive evidence. However, experiments with the DF, ICP-MS and transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM) indicate that the generated species are not volatile in
      the true sense but that they are strongly associated with fine aerosol co
      generated during VSG. Cu clusters or nanoparticles of very small size (< 10 nm)
      are presumed but the formation of metastable copper hydride cannot be
      conclusively excluded.

PMID- 28577592
TI  - Electrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polyscopoletin nanofilms for human serum
      albumin detection.
AB  - Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) rendered selective solely by the imprinting
      with protein templates lacking of distinctive properties to facilitate strong
      target-MIP interaction are likely to exhibit medium to low template binding
      affinities. While this prohibits the use of such MIPs for applications requiring
      the assessment of very low template concentrations, their implementation for the
      quantification of high-abundance proteins seems to have a clear niche in the
      analytical practice. We investigated this opportunity by developing a
      polyscopoletin-based MIP nanofilm for the electrochemical determination of
      elevated human serum albumin (HSA) in urine. As reference for a low abundance
      protein ferritin-MIPs were also prepared by the same procedure. Under optimal
      conditions, the imprinted sensors gave a linear response to HSA in the
      concentration range of 20-100 mg/dm3, and to ferritin in the range of 120-360
      mg/dm3. While as expected the obtained limit of detection was not sufficient to
      determine endogenous ferritin in plasma, the HSA-sensor was successfully employed
      to analyse urine samples of patients with albuminuria. The results suggest that
      MIP-based sensors may be applicable for quantifying high abundance proteins in a
      clinical setting.

PMID- 28577591
TI  - Implementing Clinical Research Using Factorial Designs: A Primer.
AB  - Factorial experiments have rarely been used in the development or evaluation of
      clinical interventions. However, factorial designs offer advantages over
      randomized controlled trial designs, the latter being much more frequently used
      in such research. Factorial designs are highly efficient (permitting evaluation
      of multiple intervention components with good statistical power) and present the
      opportunity to detect interactions amongst intervention components. Such
      advantages have led methodologists to advocate for the greater use of factorial
      designs in research on clinical interventions (Collins, Dziak, & Li, 2009).
      However, researchers considering the use of such designs in clinical research
      face a series of choices that have consequential implications for the
      interpretability and value of the experimental results. These choices include:
      whether to use a factorial design, selection of the number and type of factors to
      include, how to address the compatibility of the different factors included,
      whether and how to avoid confounds between the type and number of interventions a
      participant receives, and how to interpret interactions. The use of factorial
      designs in clinical intervention research poses choices that differ from those
      typically considered in randomized clinical trial designs. However, the great
      information yield of the former encourages clinical researchers' increased and
      careful execution of such designs.

PMID- 28577594
TI  - Errors in alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and sulfur heterocycle
      concentrations caused by currently employed standardized methods.
AB  - Alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polycyclic aromatic sulfur
      heterocycle (PASH) standardized methods often rely on gas chromatography/mass
      spectrometry operated in the selected ion monitoring mode (GC/MS-SIM). The
      objective of this study is to develop a method that produces accurate data while
      minimizing sample preparation and achieving low levels of detection. Most
      standardized methods are based on acquiring a given homologue's molecular ion (1
      ion). Some methods include a second, confirming ion (2-ion) in the hopes of
      excluding non-target ion signals from the total homologue peak area. Although all
      methods use homologue-specific retention windows, these windows differ greatly
      among the methods. In this paper we evaluate, for the first time, errors in
      quantitation caused by using different windows as well as common ion effects when
      target and/or matrix compounds coelute. Two NIST-certified Standard Reference
      Materials (SRMs), crude oil SRM 1582 and marine sediment SRM 1941b, were analyzed
      by five standardized methods and by the new method we developed, which relies on
      spectral deconvolution of three to five ions per PAH/PASH and as many
      fragmentation patterns as needed to correctly identify the C1 to C4 homologues
      (MFPPH). All of the standardized methods overestimated the concentrations of the
      majority of alkylated homologues whereas MFPPH obtained values much closer to
      NIST-certified concentrations. Rather than straight-line integration of all peaks
      in the retention window or recognizing peak patterns, the MFPPH data analysis
      software integrates only those peaks that meet the compound identity criteria.

PMID- 28577595
TI  - A strategy to identify and quantify closely related adulterant herbal materials
      by mass spectrometry-based partial least squares regression.
AB  - In this study, a new strategy combining mass spectrometric (MS) techniques with
      partial least squares regression (PLSR) was proposed to identify and quantify
      closely related adulterant herbal materials. This strategy involved preparation
      of adulterated samples, data acquisition and establishment of PLSR model. The
      approach was accurate, sensitive, durable and universal, and validation of the
      model was done by detecting the presence of Fritillaria Ussuriensis Bulbus in the
      adulteration of the bulbs of Fritillaria unibracteata. Herein, three different MS
      techniques, namely wooden-tip electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (wooden
      tip ESI/MS), ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight
      mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) and UPLC-triple quadrupole tandem mass
      spectrometry (UPLC-TQ/MS), were applied to obtain MS profiles for establishing
      PLSR models. All three models afforded good linearity and good accuracy of
      prediction, with correlation coefficient of prediction (rp2) of 0.9072, 0.9922
      and 0.9904, respectively, and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of
      0.1004, 0.0290 and 0.0323, respectively. Thus, this strategy is very promising in
      tracking the supply chain of herb-based pharmaceutical industry, especially for
      identifying adulteration of medicinal materials from their closely related herbal
      species.

PMID- 28577596
TI  - Novel electrochemical immune sensor based on Hep-PGA-PPy nanoparticles for
      detection of alpha-Fetoprotein in whole blood.
AB  - A simple and accurate immune sensor for quantitative detection of alpha
      Fetoprotein (AFP) was developed based on the immobilization of antigen on the
      surface of Hep-PGA-PPy nanoparticles modified glassy carbon electrodes (GCE). The
      obtained Hep-PGA-PPy nanoparticles were characterized by fourier transform
      infrared (FT-IR) spectra and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). And the
      blood compatibility of Hep-PGA-PPy nanoparticles was investigated by in vitro
      coagulation tests, hemolysis assay and whole blood adhesion tests. Combining the
      conductive property of polypyrrole (PPy) and the biocompatibility of heparin
      (Hep), the Hep-PGA-PPy nanoparticles could improve not only the anti-biofouling
      effect the electrode, but also improved the electrochemical properties of the
      immune sensor. Under optimal conditions, the proposed immune sensor could detect
      AFP in a linear range from 0.1 to 100 ng mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.099 ng
      mL-1 at the signal-to-noise ratio of 3, and it also possessed good
      reproducibility and storage stability. Furthermore, the detection of AFP in five
      human blood samples also showed satisfactory accuracy with low relative errors.
      Thus, the developed immune sensor which showed acceptable reproducibility,
      selectivity, stability and accuracy could be potentially used for the detection
      of whole blood samples directly.

PMID- 28577597
TI  - Enhanced DNA sensitized Tb3+ luminescence in organic solvents for more sensitive
      detection.
AB  - DNA-sensitized Tb3+ luminescence spectroscopy is a powerful method for probing
      nucleic acids and developing biosensors. Its performance in organic solvents has
      yet to be explored. In this study, Tb3+ luminescence with nucleosides,
      nucleotides and DNA oligonucleotides in various organic solvents is studied. Tb3+
      emission with single nucleotides is quenched up to 88% in dimethyl formamide
      (DMF), while its emission with nucleosides is enhanced. For the four 15-mer DNA
      homopolymers, the strongest absolute emission enhancement was achieved with C15.
      Similar emission properties are observed in other solvents including DMF, DMSO,
      acetonitrile methanol, ethanol, isopropanol and ethylene glycol. A few DNAzymes
      are tested as random DNA sequences all showing 1.4-6.9-fold emission enhancement
      in ethanol. A previously reported optimized sequence in water (G3T)5 is further
      enhanced by the solvents. Using this sequence, a detection limit of 5.5 nm Hg2+
      is achieved in 25% ethanol solution. A similar Hg2+ sensitivity is also observed
      in a lake water mixed with ethanol. Luminescence lifetime is longer in DMF than
      in water. This study indicates that DNA-sensitized Tb3+ luminescence can be
      measured in water miscible solvents and most likely, with even stronger emission
      than that in water.

PMID- 28577598
TI  - Microwave-assisted, grafting polymerization preparation of strong cation exchange
      nylon 6 capillary-channeled polymer fibers and their chromatographic properties.
AB  - Native nylon 6 C-CP fibers were modified with 2-acrylamido-2
      methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) via the microwave-assisted grafting
      polymerization to affect a strong cation exchange stationary phase. Various
      concentrations of AMPS and the initiator potassium persulfate (KPS) were used in
      the modifications. The resultant nylon-SO3H fibers were characterized by
      Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR),
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and acid-base titrations. The chromatographic
      properties, including column permeability, protein separation quality, and
      protein binding capacity, of the nylon-SO3H fiber columns were also studied. The
      cation exchange ligand densities on the modified fibers (SO3H) were determined to
      be 50-317 MUmol g-1, in comparison to the cation (COOH) density of 28 MUmol g-1
      of native nylon 6 fibers. The modified fiber phase showed increased lysozyme
      dynamic loading capacities (up to ~13 mg mL-1 bed volume) at a linear velocity of
      ~90 cm min-1, while native nylon 6 showed only ~1 mg mL-1 lysozyme loading
      capacity. Fast (30 s-3 min) gradient separations of myoglobin, alpha
      chymotrypsinogen A, and lysozyme were achieved on nylon-SO3H columns, with the
      separation resolution and peak capacity characterized. The efficiency of surface
      re-equilibration was probed with an eye toward using the phase as the second
      dimension in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). The
      results indicate that this nylon-SO3H fiber phase has a good deal of potential
      for use in high-throughput analytical and preparative protein separations.

PMID- 28577599
TI  - Molecular inversion probes equipped with discontinuous rolling cycle
      amplification for targeting nucleotide variants: Determining SMN1 and SMN2 genes
      in diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy.
AB  - The novel techniques of molecular inversion probes (MIPs) combined with
      discontinuous rolling cycle amplification (DRCA) was developed for determination
      of the multi-nucleotide variants at single base. The different-length MIPs, a
      padlock-probe based technology, are designed to simultaneously recognize the
      identical nucleotide variants. After ligation and DRCA, the different-length
      genetic products representing the certain genotypes could be simply determined by
      the short-end capillary electrophoresis (CE) method. By using MIPs-DRCA method,
      the various gene dosages of SMN1 and SMN2 genes in homologous or heterologous
      subjects were successfully quantified for diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy
      (SMA). The length of the MIP for SMN1 gene was 106 bp, and for SMN2 gene was 86
      bp. After method optimization, the MIP products of SMN1 and SMN2 were well
      separated with the resolution of 1.13 +/- 0.17 (n = 3) within 10 min. There were
      total of 56 DNA blind samples analyzed by this strategy, including 38 wild types,
      12 carriers and 6 SMA patients, and the data of gene dosages was corresponding to
      those analyzed by conformation sensitive CE and denatured high performance liquid
      chromatography (DHPLC) methods. This MIPs-DRCA method which could be applied to
      simultaneously genotype multi nucleotide variants at single base, such as K-ras
      gene, was very feasible for determination of genetic diseases in clinical.

PMID- 28577600
TI  - Early Childhood Mental Health: Starting Early with the Pregnant Mother.
AB  - Perinatal mental health has important implications for maternal and child
      outcomes. Most women with psychiatric disorders during pregnancy go undiagnosed
      and untreated, despite widespread initiatives for early identification. Universal
      screening for psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and anxiety, has
      been implemented in obstetric and primary care settings. However, there is little
      evidence regarding the effectiveness on psychiatric symptom reduction or
      prevention of adverse outcomes in children. Recently, comprehensive screening and
      follow-up programs integrated within obstetric or primary care settings have
      shown promising results in improving maternal mental health outcomes. Further
      work is needed to determine best clinical and most cost-effective practices.

PMID- 28577602
TI  - Clinical Assessment of Young Children.
AB  - Mental health assessment of young children provides valuable information to shape
      a formulation and guide treatment. Early childhood mental health assessment can
      occur in an increasing number of settings beyond traditional mental health
      practices, including childcare settings, primary care settings, and other
      settings where children and family are regularly seen. Although many of the
      components of an early childhood mental health assessment are included in the
      assessment of older children, assessment of very young children requires some
      specific developmental adjustments and additional considerations including
      attention to the parent-child relationship and caregiving context and rapid
      development.

PMID- 28577601
TI  - Assessment: The Newborn.
AB  - Neonatal neurobehavioral assessment has become a standardized component of
      clinical care provided to newborn infants, guiding neonatal clinical care and
      subsequent access to early interventions and services. Links between neonatal
      assessment and neurosensory and motor impairments in high-risk infants have been
      relatively well established. In contrast, the extent to which newborn
      neurobehavioral assessment might also facilitate the early identification of
      infants susceptible to socioemotional impairments in early childhood is less well
      documented. This review examines longitudinal links between the neonatal
      neurobehavioral assessment, temperament, and socioemotional outcomes in early
      childhood.

PMID- 28577603
TI  - Beyond Reactive Attachment Disorder: How Might Attachment Research Inform Child
      Psychiatry Practice?
AB  - This article provides an updated review of attachment research with a focus on
      how comprehensive clinical assessment and intervention informs the care of young
      children. Child psychiatrists can serve as an important part of care coordination
      teams working with young children who have histories of early maltreatment and/or
      disruption in caregiving whether or not the children they are seeing meet
      criteria for an attachment disorder. Child psychiatrists should be familiar with
      both comprehensive assessment and the recent attachment-based interventions and
      appreciate how pharmacotherapy can be a useful adjunctive intervention when
      intensive therapy alone is ineffective.

PMID- 28577604
TI  - Trauma and Very Young Children.
AB  - This article examines the intersection of early childhood mental health and
      trauma. Working definitions, incidence, and prevalence of trauma events for this
      population are outlined with an emphasis on children younger than age 4 years.
      Trauma impacts on early childhood development are reviewed, with attention to
      clinical consequences, protective factors, and resilience. Best practices for
      assessment, screening tools, and treatment methods are presented based on the
      current research. Future implications include clinician and researcher
      partnerships to increase the number of effective screening and intervention tools
      for addressing trauma in very young children.

PMID- 28577605
TI  - Disruptive Behavior Disorders in Children 0 to 6 Years Old.
AB  - Disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs), specifically oppositional defiant disorder
      and conduct disorder, are common, serious, and treatable conditions among
      preschoolers. DBDs are marked by frequent aggression, deceitfulness, and
      defiance, and often persist through the lifespan. Exposure to harsh or
      inconsistent parenting, as frequently seen with parental depression and stress,
      increases DBD risk. Candidate genes that may increase DBD risk in the presence of
      childhood adversity have also been identified, but more research is needed.
      Neurophysiologic and structural correlates with DBD also exist. Parent management
      training programs, focusing on increasing parenting competence and confidence,
      are the gold standard treatment of preschool DBDs.

PMID- 28577607
TI  - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Preschool-Age Children.
AB  - Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked
      by age-inappropriate deficits in attention or hyperactivity/impulsivity that
      interfere with functioning or development. It is highly correlated with other
      disorders, such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and mood
      symptoms. The etiology is multifactorial, and neuroimaging findings are
      nonspecific. Although assessment tools exist, there is variability among them,
      and historically, parent-teacher agreement has not been consistent. Treatment
      algorithm for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in preschoolers includes
      behavioral interventions first followed by psychopharmacologic treatment when
      behavioral therapies fail. Other nonpharmacologic and nonbehavioral interventions
      are discussed including the role of exercise and nutrition.

PMID- 28577609
TI  - The Early Origins of Autism.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders whose core
      features of impaired social communication and atypical repetitive behaviors
      and/or restrictions in range of interests emerge in toddlerhood and carry
      significant implications at successive stages of development. The ability to
      reliably identify most cases of the condition far earlier than the average age of
      diagnosis presents a novel opportunity for early intervention, but the
      availability of such an intervention is disparate across US communities, and its
      impact is imperfectly understood. New research may transform the clinical
      approach to these conditions in early childhood.

PMID- 28577610
TI  - Feeding Disorders.
AB  - Feeding disorders often present in children with complex medical histories as
      well as those with neurodevelopmental disabilities. If untreated, feeding
      problems will likely persist and may lead to additional developmental and medical
      complications. Treatment of pediatric feeding disorders should involve an
      interdisciplinary team, but the core intervention should include behavioral
      feeding techniques as they are the only empirically supported therapy for feeding
      disorders.

PMID- 28577606
TI  - Depression and Anxiety in Preschoolers: A Review of the Past 7 Years.
AB  - This article reviews recent empirical literature on the prevalence, correlates,
      assessment, and treatment of preschool-onset internalizing disorders. Major
      advances in the acceptance and recognition of both preschool-onset depression and
      anxiety have occurred over the past decade. This work has been greatly enhanced
      by the discovery of genetic, neural, and physiologic indicators, which further
      validate these constellations of symptoms in young children. Despite this growth
      in research, much work still needs to be done to further elucidate the cause,
      risk, treatment, and protective factors for preschool-onset internalizing
      disorders.

PMID- 28577611
TI  - Sleep Disorders: Assessment and Treatment in Preschool-Aged Children.
AB  - Sleep issues are common in preschoolers, defined in this article as ages 3 to 5
      years. Sleep deprivation can cause behavioral and cognitive issues. Sleep issues
      seen in the preschool years include insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea,
      parasomnias, and restless legs syndrome. Sleep issues seem to exacerbate mood and
      attention disturbances. Conversely, children with psychiatric disorders are
      likely to have sleep problems. Treatment of sleep issues is important for long
      term mental health and optimization of functioning.

PMID- 28577608
TI  - Intellectual Disability and Language Disorder.
AB  - Intellectual disability (ID) and language disorders are neurodevelopmental
      conditions arising in early childhood. Child psychiatrists are likely to
      encounter children with ID and language disorders because both are strongly
      associated with challenging behaviors and mental disorder. Because early
      intervention is associated with optimal outcomes, child psychiatrists must be
      aware of their signs and symptoms, particularly as related to delays in cognitive
      and adaptive function. Optimal management of both ID and language disorders
      requires a multidisciplinary, team-based, and family centered approach. Child
      psychiatrists play an important role on this team, given their expertise with
      contextualizing and treating challenging behaviors.

PMID- 28577612
TI  - Partnerships with Primary Care for the Treatment of Preschoolers.
AB  - This article reviews mental health access issues relevant to preschool children
      and data on this population obtained through the Michigan Child Collaborative
      Care Program (MC3). The MC3 program provides telephonic consultation to primary
      care physicians (PCPs) in 40 counties in Michigan and video telepsychiatric
      consultation to patients and families. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
      and disruptive behavioral disorders are frequent initial presenting diagnoses,
      but autism spectrum disorders, parent-child relational issues, trauma, and
      posttraumatic stress disorder should also be considered. Collaborative care
      programs provide promising ways to promote access to child psychiatric services
      when these services are distant to local PCP offices.

PMID- 28577614
TI  - Early Childhood Mental Health: Empirical Assessment and Intervention from
      Conception Through Preschool.

PMID- 28577613
TI  - The Future of Preschool Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention.
AB  - Preschoolers are in the most rapid period of brain development. Environment
      shapes the structure and function of the developing brain. Promoting brain health
      requires cultivation of healthy environments at home, school, and in the
      community. This improves the emotional-behavioral and physical health of all
      children, can prevent problems in children at risk, and can alter the trajectory
      of children already suffering. For clinicians, this starts with assessing and
      treating the entire family, equipping parents with the principles of parent
      management training, and incorporating wellness prescriptions for nutrition,
      physical activity, music, and mindfulness.

PMID- 28577615
TI  - Maternal allo-recognition of the fetus.
AB  - Immunological adjustments are needed to accommodate the close contact between two
      genetically different individuals, the mother and her baby, during mammalian
      pregnancy. Contact occurs between fetal somatic or placental cells that enter the
      maternal systemic circulation or between uterine immune cells and the invading
      extravillous trophoblast. Here we discuss two main types of maternal allo
      recognition of the fetus. One depends on avoidance of maternal T cells
      recognizing and responding to paternally-derived non-self human leukocyte
      antigens class I and class I allotypes. The other is natural killer allo
      recognition where maternally-inherited variable killer immunoglobulin-like
      receptors expressed by uterine natural killer cells bind to polymorphic fetal
      human leukocyte antigens-C molecules displayed by extravillous trophoblast.
      Genetic studies indicate that natural killer cell allo-recognition regulates
      placentation and the allocation of resources to the fetus.

PMID- 28577616
TI  - DNAH1 gene mutations and their potential association with dysplasia of the sperm
      fibrous sheath and infertility in the Han Chinese population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate dynein, axonemal, heavy chain 1 (DNAH1) gene mutations
      that may be associated with dysplasia of the sperm fibrous sheath (DFS) and
      infertility in the Han Chinese population. DESIGN: Dysfunction of DNAH1 is known
      to cause multiple morphologic abnormalities of the flagella (MMAF), DFS, and
      infertility. Whole-exome sequencing was performed in DFS subjects and the healthy
      control subjects. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Twenty-one patients of Han
      ethnicity with primary infertility and diagnosed with asthenozoospermia and MMAF,
      but without primary ciliary dyskinesia. Fifty healthy men with normal fertility
      served as control subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Whole-exome sequencing,
      polymerase chain reaction and sequencing, pedigree analysis, Western blotting,
      and immunofluorescence assay. INTERVENTIONS(S): None. RESULT(S): A total of 17
      mutations in the DNAH1 gene were identified in 12 of the 21 patients. These
      included one homozygous mutation at the splice site and 16 complex heterozygous
      mutations at the splice sites and exons. These mutations may cause deletion,
      replacement of amino acids in the peptide, or introduction of a stop codon in the
      coding sequence according to bioinformatic prediction. Of note, 52430998CCT>C
      deletion at exon 73, which may result in c.11726_11727del:p.P3909fs, was found in
      six patients, which suggests that this mutation may be an etiologic factor for
      MMAF. Although these DNAH1 gene mutations were found in Exome Aggregation
      Consortium (ExAC) databases, none were found in the Han healthy control subjects.
      The expression of DNAH1 protein in the sperm of patient P10, with 52409336C>T in
      exon 45 and 52430998CCT>C in exon 73 mutations, and patient P12, with 52402755A>G
      in exon 37 and 52428484G>T in exon 67 mutations, was missing or very weak
      compared with the sperm of healthy control subjects. The peptide phenotypes of
      52409336C>T, 52402755A>G, and 52428484G>T were R2356W, nonsense, and E3544X,
      respectively. The sperm tails were short or coiled in P10 and P12 compared with
      healthy control subjects. Pedigree analysis supported the notion that the
      combination of DNAH1 gene mutations 52430998CCT>C and 52409336C>T and 52428484G>T
      alone were associated with MMAF. CONCLUSION(S): These DNAH1 gene mutations may be
      associated with DFS and infertility in the Han population.

PMID- 28577617
TI  - Novel zona pellucida gene variants identified in patients with oocyte anomalies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To detect ZP (zona pellucida) gene (ZP1-ZP4) mutations in patients
      with oocyte anomalies. DESIGN: Case-control genetic study. SETTING: University
      based reproductive medicine center. PATIENT(S): A total of 92 infertile patients
      with repeated cycles of oocyte maturation arrest (group I, n = 49) or oocyte
      morphologic defect (group II, n = 43) as well as 373 healthy controls.
      INTERVENTION(S): Genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood and coding regions
      of ZP genes amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced by a DNA
      analyzer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Variant prediction of ZP genes with software.
      RESULT(S): In group I with oocyte maturation arrest, no novel variants were
      found. In group II with oocyte morphologic defects, four novel variants, two in
      the ZP1 gene [c.247T>C (p.W83R) and c.1413G>A (p.W471X)] and two in the ZP2 gene
      [c.1599G>T (p.R533S) and c.1696T>C (p.C566R)] were detected in 4 of 43 patients
      (approximately 9%) but were absent from the controls. Protein alignments showed
      that the four variants were highly conserved among different species, and all
      four variants were predicted to be deleterious by gene software predictions.
      CONCLUSION(S): ZP gene variants may account for patients with oocyte morphologic
      abnormalities but not for those with oocyte maturation arrest.

PMID- 28577618
TI  - Hysteroscopic management of a stenotic cervix.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate an approach to the hysteroscopic management of a
      stenotic cervix. DESIGN: Step-by-step explanation of the techniques using video
      and animation (educational video). SETTING: Academic tertiary level referral
      center. PATIENT(S): Patients with cervical stenosis, inclusive of both
      reproductive age and postmenopausal women. Gynecologists require intrauterine
      access for many procedures, but a stenotic cervix can obstruct surgery. Blind
      dilation of a stenotic cervix can lead to a cervical laceration or uterine
      perforation, with concomitant complications. INTERVENTION(S): The hysteroscopic
      management of a stenotic cervix includes optimizing the surgical environment,
      performing vaginoscopy and "no-touch" hysteroscopy, and revision of the cervical
      canal. Revision can be performed using microscissors, micrograspers, or a cutting
      loop electrode. Partial cervical canal excision to aid in hysteroscopy access
      should be reserved in women who are not interested in future pregnancy or those
      who are postmenopausal. Outpatient hysteroscopy uses smaller instruments and
      shows operative success with patient satisfaction. Although these techniques are
      demonstrated in an outpatient hysteroscopy setting, they can be adapted for use
      in an operating theater. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The individual steps and
      approach are emphasized. RESULT(S): Intrauterine access can be achieved with
      various techniques. CONCLUSION(S): The "see-and-treat" approach demonstrated in
      this video can allow access into the uterine cavity despite a stenotic cervix.

PMID- 28577619
TI  - Cardiovascular Risk Assessment.
AB  - Cardiovascular risk assessment is fundamental to prevention of cardiovascular
      disease, because it helps determine the size of the potential benefits that might
      accrue to individual patients from use of statins, aspirin, and other preventive
      interventions. Current guidelines recommend specific algorithms for
      cardiovascular risk assessment that combine information from traditional risk
      factors including blood pressure, lipids, and smoking, along with age and sex and
      other factors. These algorithms are the subject of active research and
      controversy. This article addresses the rationale, current guidelines and use,
      and potential future directions of cardiovascular risk assessment.

PMID- 28577621
TI  - Screening for Hypertension and Lowering Blood Pressure for Prevention of
      Cardiovascular Disease Events.
AB  - Hypertension affects 1 in 3 American adults. Blood pressure (BP)-lowering therapy
      reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. The United States Preventive Services
      Task Force recommends all adults be screened for hypertension. Most patients
      whose office BP is elevated should have out-of-office monitoring to confirm the
      diagnosis. Ambulatory BP monitoring is preferred for out-of-office measurement,
      but home BP monitoring is a reasonable alternative. Guidelines for treatment are
      stratified by age (<60 vs >60 years) and include cutoffs for recommended
      treatment BPs and target BP goals. Quality of hypertension care is improved by
      incorporating population health management using registries and medication
      titration.

PMID- 28577620
TI  - Statins for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: Review of Evidence and
      Recommendations for Clinical Practice.
AB  - Numerous large randomized clinical trials have shown that statin therapy is
      effective and safe for primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular
      disease (CVD) for adults aged 40 to 75 years and support the use of 10-year CVD
      risk as a means to identify individuals for treatment. Uncertainty exists in
      those older than 75 years who may be more likely to benefit because of their
      underlying CVD risk, but also face uncertain harms. Several high-quality
      mathematical simulation models have shown that statin therapy is cost-effective
      for primary prevention of atherosclerotic CVD. Despite effectiveness and safety,
      statins are underutilized for primary prevention.

PMID- 28577622
TI  - Aspirin for Primary Prevention.
AB  - Aspirin reduces the risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke, and the
      risk of colorectal cancer. Aspirin increases the risk of gastrointestinal and
      intracranial bleeding. The best available evidence supports initiating aspirin in
      select populations. In 2016, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended
      initiating aspirin for the primary prevention of both cardiovascular disease and
      colorectal cancer among adults ages 50 to 59 who are at increased risk for
      cardiovascular disease. Adults 60 to 69 who are at increased cardiovascular
      disease risk may also benefit. There remains considerable uncertainty about
      whether younger and older patients may benefit.

PMID- 28577624
TI  - Cervical Cancer Screening.
AB  - Cervical cancer screening in the United States has accompanied profound decreases
      in cancer incidence and mortality over the last half century. Two screening
      strategies are currently endorsed by US-based guideline groups: (1) triennial
      cytology for women aged 21 to 65 years, and (2) triennial cytology for women aged
      21 to 29 years followed by cytology plus testing for high-risk human
      papillomavirus types every 5 years for women aged 30 years and older. Providing
      women with affordable, easily accessible screening, follow-up of abnormal tests,
      and timely treatment will result in the greatest impact of screening on cervical
      cancer incidence and mortality.

PMID- 28577623
TI  - Risk-based Breast Cancer Screening: Implications of Breast Density.
AB  - The approach to breast cancer screening has changed over time from a general
      approach to a more personalized, risk-based approach. Women with dense breasts,
      one of the most prevalent risk factors, are now being informed that they are at
      increased risk of developing breast cancer and should consider supplemental
      screening beyond mammography. This article reviews the current evidence regarding
      the impact of breast density relative to other known risk factors, the evidence
      regarding supplemental screening for women with dense breasts, supplemental
      screening options, and recommendations for physicians having shared decision
      making discussions with women who have dense breasts.

PMID- 28577625
TI  - Colorectal Cancer Screening in Average Risk Patients.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) contributes a major burden of cancer mortality in the
      United States. There are multiple effective screening approaches that can reduce
      CRC mortality. These approaches are supported by different levels of evidence,
      and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Implementing a systematic
      approach to screening that addresses the multiple steps involved in the screening
      process is essential to improving population-level CRC screening. Offering
      patients stool-based screening is important for increasing screening uptake.
      However, programs that offer stool testing must support the population health
      infrastructure needed to promote adherence to repeat testing and follow-up of
      abnormal tests.

PMID- 28577626
TI  - Lung Cancer Screening.
AB  - Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. More than
      80% of these deaths are attributed to tobacco use, and primary prevention can
      effectively reduce the cancer burden. The National Lung Screening Trial showed
      that low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening could reduce lung cancer
      mortality in high-risk patients by 20% compared with chest radiography. The US
      Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual LDCT screening for persons aged
      55 to 80 years with a 30-pack-year smoking history, either currently smoking or
      having quit within 15 years.

PMID- 28577627
TI  - Prevention of Prostate Cancer Morbidity and Mortality: Primary Prevention and
      Early Detection.
AB  - More than any other cancer, prostate cancer screening with the prostate-specific
      antigen (PSA) tests increases the risk a man will have to face a diagnosis of
      prostate cancer. The best evidence from screening trials suggests a small but
      finite benefit from prostate cancer screening in terms of prostate cancer
      specific mortality, about 1 fewer prostate cancer death per 1000 men screened
      over 10 years. The more serious harms of prostate cancer screening, such as
      erectile dysfunction and incontinence, result from cancer treatment with surgery
      or radiation, particularly for men whose PSA-detected cancers were never destined
      to cause morbidity or mortality.

PMID- 28577628
TI  - Screening Adults for Depression in Primary Care.
AB  - The burden of depression in the United States is substantial. Evidence supports
      the benefits of screening for depression in all adults, including older patients
      and pregnant and postpartum women, when coupled with appropriate resources for
      management of disease. Developing, implementing, and sustaining a high-fidelity
      screening process is an important first step for improving the care of patients
      with depression in primary care. Initial treatment for depression should include
      psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, or a combination of both. Collaborative care
      models are evidence-based approaches to depression treatment and follow-up that
      can be feasibly initiated in the primary care setting.

PMID- 28577630
TI  - An Ounce of Prevention?

PMID- 28577629
TI  - Screening and Counseling for Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Primary Care Settings.
AB  - Unhealthy alcohol use is a leading causes of preventable death in the United
      States. Reducing unhealthy alcohol use should be a high priority for health care
      providers. Well-validated screening instruments are available, and behavioral
      counseling interventions delivered in primary care can reduce risky drinking. For
      people with alcohol use disorder, treatment programs with or without medication
      can reduce consumption and promote abstinence. To overcome barriers to
      implementation of screening for alcohol use and subsequent delivery of
      appropriate interventions in primary care settings, support systems, changes in
      staffing or roles, formal protocols, and additional provider and staff training
      may be required.

PMID- 28577631
TI  - Update on Key Clinical Preventive Services for Adults.

PMID- 28577632
TI  - Oral Health Interventions During Pregnancy.
AB  - Oral health is a fundamental component of health and physical and mental well
      being. Oral health is influenced by an individual's physiologic and psychosocial
      attributes and cumulative oral health experiences. The perinatal period is a
      critical time when health and oral health determinants set in and thus an
      important time for intervention. Recognition of the importance of oral health
      intervention during pregnancy and oral health infrastructures have substantially
      grown over the last several years. This article reviews the current state of
      knowledge and practice of oral health intervention during pregnancy with a focus
      on individual- and population-based strategies, and summarizes key agendas for
      advancing prenatal oral health.

PMID- 28577633
TI  - Prenatal Maternal Factors, Intergenerational Transmission of Disease, and Child
      Oral Health Outcomes.
AB  - This article reviews maternal prenatal risk factors for caries in children and
      intergenerational transmission of caries, emphasizing early interventions for
      pregnant women and mother-infant pairs. A growing body of evidence focuses on
      maternal interventions. Studies suggest that early prenatal clinical and
      educational interventions are effective at reducing mother-child mutans
      streptococci (MS) transmission and delaying colonization and caries in young
      children. Dental screenings and anticipatory guidance about maternal and infant
      oral health should be included in prenatal care and pediatric well visits. Dental
      care during pregnancy is safe and recommended and can reduce maternal MS levels.
      Infants should visit a dentist by age 1.

PMID- 28577634
TI  - Social Determinants of Pediatric Oral Health.
AB  - Social determinants of health are defined as conditions in which people are born
      and live and the role these conditions play on health outcomes. Research
      indicates that risk factors and their interactions are far more complex than
      originally thought. This article outlines social determinant constructs and their
      role in understanding oral health promotion. Due to the complex interactions,
      oral health must be promoted using a multilevel chronic disease model or common
      risk factor approach. An understanding of social determinants is particularly
      important for the pediatric population because optimum oral health and general
      health in adulthood are heavily influenced by childhood.

PMID- 28577637
TI  - Interventions Focusing on Children with Special Health Care Needs.
AB  - The term children with special health care needs encompasses a wide variety of
      conditions. When considering interventions, a broad definition of children with
      special needs is suggested in this article along with a focus on developing
      specific treatment recommendations based on a thorough data-gathering process and
      developing customized recommendations for children based on their unique
      circumstances. An area for future research is increasing the understanding of the
      relationship between customized recommendations and the underlying special health
      care needs.

PMID- 28577635
TI  - Intergenerational and Social Interventions to Improve Children's Oral Health.
AB  - Dental caries and gingival and periodontal diseases are commonly occurring,
      preventable chronic conditions in children. These diseases are more common in
      disadvantaged communities and marginalized populations. Thus, public health
      approaches that stress prevention are key to improving oral health equity. There
      is currently limited evidence on which community-based, population-level
      interventions are most effective and equitable in promoting children's oral
      health. More rigorous measurement and reporting of study findings are needed to
      improve the quality of available evidence. Improved understanding of the
      multilevel influences of children's oral health may lead to the design of more
      effective and equitable social interventions.

PMID- 28577638
TI  - Pediatric Workforce Issues.
AB  - Untreated dental disease remains one of the most prevalent health conditions for
      children, driven in part by disparities in access to care. This article examines
      evidence-based workforce strategies being used to facilitate better access to
      pediatric health services and to improve oral health status and outcomes for
      children. The workforce strategies described in this article include promising
      new models in the dental field, with new and existing providers as well as
      emerging workforce models outside of the dental field. Case studies for some of
      these workforce strategies are also presented. Future directions and health
      policy implications are considered.

PMID- 28577636
TI  - Acculturation and Pediatric Minority Oral Health Interventions.
AB  - Immigrant populations are growing at a fast pace in the United States. Cultural
      variations can have implications on oral health of children from immigrant
      households. Length of stay in the United States and language spoken at home,
      proxies for measuring acculturation, are some of the crucial factors determining
      the level of acculturation in families. Higher acculturation generally has a
      positive impact on oral health utilization. Improving cultural competency of
      dental teams and involving the stakeholders in intervention design and
      implementation are some strategies that may increase the trust of ethnic minority
      patients and reduce barriers to access to care.

PMID- 28577639
TI  - Pediatric Dental-Focused Interprofessional Interventions: Rethinking Early
      Childhood Oral Health Management.
AB  - Evidence of effectiveness for prevention of early childhood caries suggests that
      parent engagement needs to occur perinatally and that unconventional providers,
      helping professionals like social workers and dietitians and lay health workers
      like community health workers, are most effective. This finding, coupled with the
      emergence of population-based accountable care, value-based purchasing with
      global payments, understanding of common risk factors for multiple conditions,
      and social determinants of health behaviors, calls for a rethinking of early
      childhood oral health care. A population-based model that incorporates
      unconventional providers is suggested together with research needed to achieve
      caries reductions in at-risk families.

PMID- 28577640
TI  - Parent Refusal of Topical Fluoride for Their Children: Clinical Strategies and
      Future Research Priorities to Improve Evidence-Based Pediatric Dental Practice.
AB  - A growing number of parents are refusing topical fluoride for their children
      during preventive dental and medical visits. This nascent clinical and public
      health problem warrants attention from dental professionals and the scientific
      community. Clinical and community-based strategies are available to improve
      fluoride-related communications with parents and the public. In terms of future
      research priorities, there is a need to develop screening tools to identify
      parents who are likely to refuse topical fluoride and diagnostic instruments to
      uncover the reasons for topical fluoride refusal. This knowledge will lead to
      evidence-based strategies that can be widely disseminated into clinical practice.

PMID- 28577641
TI  - Precision Dentistry in Early Childhood: The Central Role of Genomics.
AB  - Pediatric oral health is determined by the interaction of environmental factors
      and genetic influences. This is the case for early childhood caries, the most
      common disease of childhood. The complexity of exogenous-environmental factors
      interacting with innate biological predispositions results in a continuum of
      normal variation, as well as oral health and disease outcomes. Optimal oral
      health and care or precision dentistry warrants comprehensive understanding of
      these influences and tools enabling intervention on modifiable factors. This
      article reviews the current knowledge of the genomic basis of pediatric oral
      health and highlights known and postulated mechanistic pathways of action
      relevant to early childhood caries.

PMID- 28577643
TI  - The Science and Art of Evidence-Based Pediatric Dentistry.

PMID- 28577642
TI  - Research Evidence Use in Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment
      Dental Medicaid Class Action Lawsuits.
AB  - Little is known about research evidence use in dental Medicaid class action
      lawsuits. This qualitative study develops a conceptual model to understand the
      role of dentists and how research evidence was used. Archival analyses were
      conducted and 15 key informants interviewed. Dentists had key roles requiring
      scientific expertise or clinical experience serving vulnerable populations. Most
      evidence was newly generated, not based on existing sources. Dentists were
      involved in all phases of the lawsuits. Future research should identify
      conditions fostering research evidence use in dental Medicaid lawsuits and
      whether high-quality research evidence use improves child health outcomes.

PMID- 28577644
TI  - Tides within ourselves: how posture can affect blood volume, blood cells and
      clinical reasoning.

PMID- 28577645
TI  - Seroprevalence, cost per donation and reduction in blood supply due to positive
      and indeterminate results for infectious markers in a blood bank in Lima, Peru.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Safety in Transfusion Medicine is subject to regulations and
      government legislation within a total quality framework. The aim of this study
      was to evaluate the impact of seroprevalence and indeterminate results on lost
      units and cost per donation. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was
      performed in the Blood Bank and Transfusion Therapy Department of the Hospital
      Central de la Policia Nacional del Peru in Lima, Peru. All completed donations
      (replacement/voluntary) without complications were included in this study. Every
      donation met the institutional requirements and quality criteria of Programa
      Nacional de Hemoterapia y Bancos de Sangre (PRONAHEBAS). Data analysis was
      achieved using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. RESULTS: A total
      of 7723 donations were evaluated during 2014 and 2015 with 493 being seropositive
      (overall prevalence 5.25%) and 502 having indeterminate results (overall
      prevalence 5.35%). Thus total loss was 995units, 437.8L of blood and 49,750 US
      dollars. The most common seropositive infectious markers were the core antibody
      of hepatitis B virus (2.82%) and syphilis (1.02%), and the most common
      indeterminate results were Chagas disease (1.27%) and the core antibody of
      hepatitis B virus (1.26%). There was no significant change in the prevalence of
      seropositivity (p-value=0.243) or indeterminate results (p-value=0.227) over the
      two-year period of the study. A statistical correlation was found between the
      cost per lost donation and the most prevalent markers (rho=0.848; p
      value=<0.001). CONCLUSION: Seroprevalence was lower than the regional mean, but
      the prevalence of indeterminate results was elevated causing a great impact on
      blood supply and economic losses to this institution.

PMID- 28577646
TI  - Interleukin-10 haplotypes are not associated with acute cerebral ischemia or high
      risk transcranial Doppler in a newborn cohort of 395 children with sickle cell
      anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The etiology of stroke, a severe complication of sickle cell anemia,
      involves inflammatory processes. However, the pathogenetic mechanisms are
      unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of interleukin-10
      polymorphisms and haplotypes on the risk of acute cerebral ischemia and high-risk
      transcranial Doppler in 395 children with sickle cell anemia from the state of
      Minas Gerais, Brazil. METHODS: Interleukin-10 haplotypes were determined by
      polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and
      sequencing. The outcomes studied were acute cerebral ischemia and high-risk
      transcranial Doppler. Clinical data were retrieved from the children's records.
      RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in the frequencies of
      polymorphisms and haplotypes between children with and without acute cerebral
      ischemia or children with or without high-risk transcranial Doppler. These data
      are consistent with a previous report that showed an absence of association
      between interleukin-10 plasma levels and high-risk transcranial Doppler velocity
      in children with sickle cell anemia. CONCLUSION: Interleukin-10 haplotypes were
      not associated with the risk of acute cerebral ischemia or high-risk transcranial
      Doppler velocity in children with sickle cell anemia from the state of Minas
      Gerais, Brazil.

PMID- 28577647
TI  - Foxo3 gene expression and oxidative status in beta-thalassemia minor subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress may aggravate symptoms of hemolytic anemias such as
      beta-thalassemia. FoxO3 activation results in resistance to oxidative stress in
      fibroblasts and neuronal cell cultures. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research
      was to study FoxO3 gene expression and oxidative status in beta-thalassemia minor
      individuals. METHODS: Sixty-three subjects (42 apparently healthy individuals and
      21 with beta-thalassemia minor) were analyzed at the Universidad Nacional de
      Tucuman, Argentina, between September 2013 and June 2014. A complete blood count,
      hemoglobin electrophoresis in alkaline pH and hemoglobin A2 levels were
      quantified. Moreover, thiobarbituric acid reactive species, erythrocyte catalase
      activity and iron status were evaluated. Beta-thalassemia mutations were
      determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. FoxO3 gene expression was
      investigated by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction using
      mononuclear cells from peripheral blood. RESULTS: Subjects were grouped as
      children (<=12 years), and adult women and men. The analysis of erythrocyte
      catalase activity/hemoglobin ratio revealed a significant difference (p-value
      <0.05) between healthy and beta-thalassemia minor adults, but no significant
      difference was observed in the thiobarbituric acid reactive species levels and
      FoxO3 gene expression (p-value >0.05). Thiobarbituric acid reactive species and
      the erythrocyte catalase activity/hemoglobin ratio were not significantly
      different on comparing the type of beta-thalassemia mutation (beta0 or beta+)
      present in carriers. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of systemic oxidative imbalance
      demonstrated by thiobarbituric acid reactive species is correlated to the
      observation of normal FoxO3 gene expression in mononuclear cells of peripheral
      blood. However, an imbalanced antioxidant state was shown by the erythrocyte
      catalase activity/hemoglobin ratio in beta-thalassemia minor carriers. It would
      be necessary to study FoxO3 gene expression in reticulocytes to elucidate the
      role of FoxO3 in this pathology.

PMID- 28577648
TI  - Molecular typing of human platelet antigens in immune thrombocytopenia patients
      in northern Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immune thrombocytopenia is an immune disease characterized by
      thrombocytopenia and bleeding due to platelet antibodies against platelet
      membrane glycoproteins. Human platelet antigens are derived from polymorphisms of
      these glycoproteins. The aim of this study was to investigate human platelet
      antigen frequencies in immune thrombocytopenia patients from the state of
      Amazonas, Brazil and investigate the potential association between specific
      antigens and risk for immune thrombocytopenia. METHOD: Human platelet antigen
      typing was performed by BeadChip technology to determine allelic variants of 11
      systems (HPA-1 to HPA-9, HPA-11 and HPA-15). Thirty-six patients (8 male and 28
      female) with a median age of 34 years (range: 9-69 years) were evaluated and
      compared with data from Amazonas blood donors. RESULTS: Platelet counts varied
      from 3 to 98*109/L. The allele frequencies were 0.944 for HPA-1a, 0.056 for HPA
      1b, 0.847 for HPA-2a, 0.153 for HPA-2b, 0.555 for HPA-3a, 0.444 for HPA-3b, 0.805
      for HPA-5a, 0.222 for HPA-5b, 0.9975 for HPA-9a, 0.025 for HPA-9b, 0.486 for HPA
      15a and 0.513 for HPA-15b. Among immune thrombocytopenia individuals, no b allele
      of the HPA-4, -6, -7, -8 and -11 were found. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest HPA
      1a, HPA-3b and HPA-5b are immune thrombocytopenia-specific autoepitopes.

PMID- 28577649
TI  - Patient posture for blood collection by venipuncture: recall for standardization
      after 28 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although data about the effect of posture on routine hematological
      testing were published 28 years ago, this pre-analytical issue has not been
      standardized so far. This study was planned to evaluate whether postural changes
      influence the results of hematology testing. METHODS: A complete blood count was
      performed in 19 healthy volunteers after 25min in the supine position, 20min in a
      sitting position and 20min stationary standing in an upright position. RESULTS:
      The change from supine to sitting position caused clinically significant
      increases in the hemoglobin, hematocrit and red blood cell count. Furthermore,
      the change from supine to standing caused clinically significant increases in the
      hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cell, leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte,
      basophil and platelet counts, and mean platelet volume, and that from sitting to
      standing caused clinically significant increases in hemoglobin, hematocrit, and
      red blood cell, leukocyte, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts. CONCLUSION: The
      results of this investigation provide further support to the notion that effort
      should be made to achieve widespread standardization in the practice of
      phlebotomy, including patient posture.

PMID- 28577650
TI  - Physical activity level and performance in the six-minute walk test of children
      and adolescents with sickle cell anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To establish determinants of maximum walking distance in the 6-minute
      walk test of children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia, and to compare the
      performance in this test with physical activity level between patients and
      healthy controls. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed in which the
      participants answered the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children and
      Adolescents, and completed the 6-minute walk test. MAIN RESULTS: Fifty-seven
      patients and 58 controls were studied. By univariate analysis of the patients,
      age (p<0.0001) and indirect bilirubin (p=0.008) were associated with maximum
      walking distance in the 6-minute walk test. In multivariate analysis, age was
      positively associated (p<0.0001; beta: 0.75), while body mass index was inversely
      associated with distance walked (p=0.047; beta: -0.32). This yields the following
      equation: maximum distance walked=487.7 (age*18.3)-(12*body mass index) meters.
      Patients reported a lower physical activity level however there was no
      significant difference in the distance walked in six minutes between patients
      (500.6+/-88.7m) and controls (536.3+/-94m). CONCLUSION: The determinants for the
      6-minute walk test in children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia were age
      and body mass index. There was no significant difference in the 6-minute walk
      test but patients with sickle cell anemia had a lower physical activity level
      compared to healthy controls.

PMID- 28577651
TI  - Telomere length correlates with disease severity and inflammation in sickle cell
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Telomeres, the ends of linear chromosomes, shorten during mitotic
      cell division and erosion may be aggravated by inflammation or proliferative and
      oxidative stress. As the bone marrow is under hyperproliferative pressure in
      sickle cell disease and several tissues are submitted to chronic inflammation,
      this study sought to determine the telomere length of patients with sickle cell
      disease. METHODS: The mean telomere length was measured in peripheral blood
      leukocytes by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The age-adjusted telomere
      to single copy gene ratio was compared between 91 adult sickle cell disease
      patients and 188 controls. RESULTS: Sickle cell disease patients had
      significantly shorter telomeres than the controls (p-value<0.0001). Moreover,
      among sickle cell disease genotypes, Hb SS patients had significantly shorter
      telomeres compared to Hb SC and Hb Sbeta patients (p-value<0.0001). Patients on
      hydroxyurea also had shorter telomeres in comparison to those off the drug (p
      value=0.02). A positive correlation was observed between telomere length and
      hemoglobin level (r=0.3; p-value=0.004), whereas negative correlations were
      detected between telomere length and lymphocyte count (r=-0.3; p-value=0.005) and
      interleukin-8 serum levels (r=-0.4; p-value=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of
      this study indicate that telomeres are short in sickle cell disease patients and
      that telomere erosion directly correlates with disease genotype, inflammation
      markers, and the use of hydroxyurea.

PMID- 28577652
TI  - Splenic marginal zone lymphoma: a literature review of diagnostic and therapeutic
      challenges.
AB  - Splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) is a low-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's
      lymphoma characterized by massive splenomegaly, moderate lymphocytosis with or
      without villous lymphocytes, rare involvement of peripheral lymph nodes and
      indolent clinical course. As a rare disease, with no randomized prospective
      trials, there is no standard of care for SMZL so far. Splenectomy has been done
      for many years as an attempt to control disease, but nowadays it has not been
      encouraged as first line because of new advances in therapy as rituximab, that
      are as effective with minimal toxicity. Facing these controversies, this review
      highlights advances in the literature regarding diagnosis, prognostic factors,
      treatment indications and therapeutic options.

PMID- 28577653
TI  - Nutritional status and hyperglycemia in the peritransplant period: a review of
      associations with parenteral nutrition and clinical outcomes.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is an established treatment option for
      various hematological diseases. This therapy involves complex procedures and is
      associated with several systemic complications. Due to the toxic effects of the
      conditioning regimen used in allogeneic transplantations, patients frequently
      suffer from severe gastrointestinal complications and are unable to feed
      themselves properly. This complex clinical scenario often requires specialized
      nutritional support, and despite the increasing number of studies available, many
      questions remain regarding the best way to feed these patients. Parenteral
      nutrition has been traditionally indicated when the effects on gastrointestinal
      mucosa are significant; however, the true benefits of this type of nutrition in
      reducing clinical complications have been questioned. Hyperglycemia is a common
      consequence of parenteral nutrition that seems to be correlated to poor
      transplantation outcomes and a higher risk of infections. Additionally, nutrition
      related pre-transplantation risk factors are being studied, such as impaired
      nutritional status, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus and obesity. This review
      aims to discuss some of these recent issues. A real case of allogeneic transplant
      was used to illustrate the scenario and to highlight the most important topics
      that motivated this literature review.

PMID- 28577654
TI  - Sickle cell intrahepatic cholestasis unresponsive to exchange blood transfusion:
      a case report.

PMID- 28577655
TI  - Concomitant chronic myeloid leukemia and monoclonal B cell lymphocytosis - a very
      rare condition.

PMID- 28577656
TI  - Idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome with 20 years of diagnostic delay.

PMID- 28577657
TI  - Oral lesions associated with Fanconi anemia.

PMID- 28577658
TI  - Bone marrow transplant donor recruitment strategies to maximize, optimize, and
      equalize recipient chances of an acceptable match.

PMID- 28577659
TI  - Presence of atypical beta globin (HBB) gene cluster haplotypes in sickle cell
      anemia patients of India.

PMID- 28577660
TI  - Stathmin 1 expression in plasma cell neoplasms.

PMID- 28577661
TI  - Erratum to "Alloimmunization screening after transfusion of red blood cells in a
      prospective study" [Rev Bras Hematol Hemoter. 2012;34(3):206-211].

PMID- 28577662
TI  - Human platelet antigens and primary immune thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28577663
TI  - Stressed ends: telomere attrition in chronic diseases.

PMID- 28577664
TI  - Feasibility of exercise stress echocardiography and myocardial response in
      patients with repaired congenital heart disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) can unmask ventricular
      dysfunction in asymptomatic patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), but its
      acquisition and interpretation is often challenging, and the method has not been
      validated in CHD. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of ESE using
      Doppler imaging and to assess myocardial response to exercise in patients with
      biventricular (BiV) and univentricular (UniV) circulation after CHD repair.
      METHODS: In this single-center prospective study, we recruited 55 participants
      (17 females), median age 14 years (8-22 years). Our analysis categorized
      participants in these three groups: with structurally normal hearts as controls
      (n=21), with BiV circulation (n=20) and with UniV circulation (n=14). We acquired
      ESE images of the systemic ventricle including pulsed-wave flow and spectral
      tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) of lateral free wall before and immediately after
      standard, symptom-limited exercise tests on an electronically braked cycle
      ergometer. RESULTS: During ESE we obtained inflow E-wave and TDI systolic (S')
      and early diastolic (E') velocities in 93% to 100% of participants at rest and in
      90% to 100% of participants post exercise. Feasibility to obtain Doppler imaging
      parameter was the same across study groups. The myocardial response to exercise
      was increase in heart rate (HR), S' and inflow E-wave velocity in all
      participants. Patients with BiV circulation had preserved ventricular function at
      rest. While patients with UniV circulation had low S', E', and E-wave velocities
      at rest in comparison to controls and to BiV group (all P<.001), both patients
      with BiV and UniV circulation showed significant increases in HR, S' velocity and
      inflow E-wave velocity post exercise, with magnitudes of these increases higher
      in controls than in the BiV and UniV group. The S' and E' velocities were
      strongly associated with lower percent predicted peak oxygen consumption VO2
      (rs=0.614 and rs=0.64, respectively, both P<.001). CONCLUSION: ESE with Doppler
      imaging is a practical noninvasive diagnostic method and sufficiently robust for
      the assessment of morphologic LV/systemic ventricles under exercise in patients
      after biventricular and univentricular CHD repair. Although patients with BiV and
      UniV circulation had both preserved myocardial response to exercise, the
      magnitude of this response was the lowest in patients with UniV circulation.

PMID- 28577665
TI  - Rationale, design, and baseline characteristics of the Salt Substitute and Stroke
      Study (SSaSS)-A large-scale cluster randomized controlled trial.
AB  - Lowering sodium intake with a reduced-sodium, added potassium salt substitute has
      been proved to lower blood pressure levels. Whether the same strategy will also
      reduce the risks of vascular outcomes is uncertain and controversial. The SSaSS
      has been designed to test whether sodium reduction achieved with a salt
      substitute can reduce the risk of vascular disease. The study is a large-scale,
      open, cluster-randomized controlled trial done in 600 villages across 5 provinces
      in China. Participants have either a history of stroke or an elevated risk of
      stroke based on age and blood pressure level at entry. Villages were randomized
      in a 1:1 ratio to intervention or continued usual care. Salt substitute is
      provided free of charge to participants in villages assigned to the intervention
      group. Follow-up is scheduled every 6months for 5years, and all potential
      endpoints are reviewed by a masked adjudication committee. The primary end point
      is fatal and nonfatal stroke, and the 2 secondary endpoints are total major
      cardiovascular events and total mortality. The study has been designed to provide
      90% statistical power (with 2-sided alpha = .05) to detect a 13% or greater
      relative risk reduction for stroke. The power estimate assumes a primary outcome
      event rate of 3.5% per year and a systolic blood pressure difference of 3.0mm Hg
      between randomized groups. Recruitment is complete and there are 20,996
      participants (about 35 per village) that have been enrolled. Mean age is 65years
      and 49% are female. There were 73% enrolled on the basis of a history of stroke.
      The trial is well placed to describe the effects of salt substitution on the
      risks of vascular disease and death and will provide important policy-relevant
      data.

PMID- 28577666
TI  - A prospective, randomized, open-label trial of 6-month versus 12-month dual
      antiplatelet therapy after drug-eluting stent implantation in ST-elevation
      myocardial infarction: Rationale and design of the "DAPT-STEMI trial".
AB  - BACKGROUND: The optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after
      percutaneous coronary intervention with second-generation drug eluting stents
      (DESs) is unclear. Because prolonged DAPT is associated with higher bleeding risk
      and health care costs, establishing optimal DAPT duration is of paramount
      importance. No other randomized controlled trials have evaluated the safety of
      shorter DAPT duration in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients
      treated with second-generation DESs and latest P2Y12 platelet receptor
      inhibitors. HYPOTHESIS: Six months of DAPT after Resolute Integrity stent
      implantation in STEMI patients is not inferior to 12 months of DAPT in clinical
      outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: The Dual Antiplatelet Therapy After Drug-Eluting Stent
      Implantation In ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (DAPT-STEMI) trial is a
      randomized, multicenter, international, open-label trial designed to examine the
      safety (noninferiority) of 6-month DAPT after Resolute Integrity stent
      implantation in STEMI patients compared with 12-month DAPT. Event-free patients
      on DAPT at 6month will be randomized (1:1 fashion) between single (aspirin only)
      versus DAPT for an additional 6 months and followed until 2 years after primary
      percutaneous coronary intervention. The primary end point is a patient-oriented
      composite endpoint of all-cause mortality, any myocardial infarction, any
      revascularization, stroke, and major bleeding (net adverse clinical events
      [NACE]) at 18 months after randomization. To achieve a power of 85% for a
      noninferiority limit of 1.66, a total of 1100 enrolled patients are required.
      SUMMARY: The DAPT-STEMI trial aims to assess in STEMI patients treated with
      second-generation DESs whether discontinuation of DAPT after 6 months of event
      free survival is noninferior to routine 12-month DAPT.

PMID- 28577667
TI  - Clinical SYNTAX score predicts outcomes of patients undergoing coronary artery
      bypass grafting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The SYNTAX score (SS) is a determinant of outcome in patients
      undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. In addition, it has been recently
      shown that the clinical SYNTAX score (cSS), obtained by adding clinical variables
      to the SS, improves the predictive power of the resulting risk model. We assessed
      the hypothesis that the use of the cSS may predict outcomes of patients
      undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS: We measured the
      SYNTAX score in 874 patients undergoing isolated first time on-pump CABG. The
      clinical SYNTAX score was calculated at the time of the study using age,
      creatinine clearance and ejection fraction, the modified ACEF score, and analyses
      performed for major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and all
      cause mortality at 3-year follow-up. RESULTS: The mean age of the study
      population was 70.9 +/- 8.1 years, and the median cSS 14.2 (range 2.1-286.5). The
      ROC curve analysis showed that a cSS >14.5 (81.4% sensitivity and 67.8%
      specificity) was a reliable tool in discrimination of patients for the occurrence
      of MACCE (AUC 0.78) and all-cause mortality (AUC 0.74). Kaplan-Meier survival
      analysis confirmed that patients belonging to higher cSS quartiles have poorer 3
      year survival (P = .0001) and MACCE-free survival (P = .0001), with respect to
      those with lower cSS. CONCLUSIONS: This observational study has shown that the
      clinical SYNTAX score, incorporating the lesion-based SS and clinical-based ACEF
      score, predicted mid-term adverse outcomes of patients undergoing CABG and may
      play an important role in the risk stratification of this population. Further
      studies are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28577668
TI  - Characterization of hemodynamically stable acute heart failure patients requiring
      a critical care unit admission: Derivation, validation, and refinement of a risk
      score.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most patients with acute heart failure (AHF) admitted to critical
      care units (CCUs) are low acuity and do not require CCU-specific therapies,
      suggesting that they could be managed in a lower-cost ward environment. This
      study identified the predictors of clinical events and the need for CCU-specific
      therapies in patients with AHF. METHODS: Model derivation was performed using
      data from patients in the ASCEND-HF trial cohort (n=7,141), and the Acute Heart
      Failure Emergency Management community-based registry (n=666) was used to
      externally validate the model and to test the incremental prognostic utility of 4
      variables (heart failure etiology, troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide [BNP],
      ejection fraction) using net reclassification index and integrated discrimination
      improvement. The primary outcome was an in-hospital composite of the requirement
      for CCU-specific therapies or clinical events. RESULTS: The primary composite
      outcome occurred in 545 (11.4%) derivation cohort participants (n=4,767) and 7
      variables were predictors of the primary composite outcome: body mass index,
      chronic respiratory disease, respiratory rate, resting dyspnea, hemoglobin,
      sodium, and blood urea nitrogen (c index=0.633, Hosmer-Lemeshow P=.823). In the
      validation cohort (n=666), 87 (13.1%) events occurred (c index=0.629, Hosmer
      Lemeshow P=.386) and adding ischemic heart failure, troponin, and B-type
      natriuretic peptide improved model performance (net reclassification index 0.79,
      95% CI 0.046-0.512; integrated discrimination improvement 0.014, 95% CI 0.005
      0.0238). The final 10-variable clinical prediction model demonstrated modest
      discrimination (c index=0.702) and good calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow P=.547).
      CONCLUSIONS: We derived, validated, and improved upon a clinical prediction model
      in an international trial and a community-based cohort of AHF. The model has
      modest discrimination; however, these findings deserve further exploration
      because they may provide a more accurate means of triaging level of care for
      patients with AHF who need admission.

PMID- 28577669
TI  - Diastolic dysfunction revisited: A new, feasible, and unambiguous
      echocardiographic classification predicts major cardiovascular events.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic classification of DDF has been widely discussed.
      The aim of this study was to investigate the independent prognostic value of
      established echocardiographic measures in a community-based population and create
      a new classification of DDF. METHODS: Within the Copenhagen City Heart Study, a
      prospective, community-based study, 1851 participants were examined by
      echocardiography including Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) in 2001 to 2003 and
      followed with regard to MACE (median, 10.9 years). RESULTS: We found that persons
      with impaired myocardial relaxation as defined by low peak early diastolic mitral
      annular velocity e' by TDI had higher incidence of clinical and echocardiographic
      markers of cardiac dysfunction and increased risk of MACE. Among persons with
      impaired relaxation, only echocardiographic indices of increased filling
      pressures such as LAVi>=34 mL/m2 (HR 1.97 (1.13-3.45, P=.017), E/e' >= 17 (HR
      1.89 (1.34-2.65), P<.001), and E/A>2 (HR 5.24 (1.91-14.42), P=.001) provided
      additional and independent prognostic information on MACE. Based on these
      findings, we created a new classification of DDF where all grades were
      significant predictors of MACE independently of age, sex, and cardiac clinical
      risk markers (Mild DDF: HR 1.99 (1.23-3.21), P=.005; Moderate DDF: HR 3.11 (1.81
      5.34), P<.001; Severe DDF: HR 4.20 (1.81-9.73), P<.001). Increasing severity of
      DDF was linearly associated with increasing plasma proBNP concentrations.
      CONCLUSIONS: In the general population, the presence of echocardiographic markers
      of elevated filling pressures in persons with impaired relaxation increased the
      risk of MACE significantly. Based on this, we present a new, feasible, and
      unambiguous classification of DDF capable of accurate risk prediction in the
      community.

PMID- 28577670
TI  - Cangrelor reduces the risk of ischemic complications in patients with single
      vessel and multi-vessel disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention:
      Insights from the CHAMPION PHOENIX trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the safety and efficacy of cangrelor in patients with
      single-vessel disease (SVD) and multi-vessel disease (MVD). BACKGROUND:
      Cangrelor, an intravenous, rapidly acting P2Y12 inhibitor, is superior to
      clopidogrel in reducing ischemic events among patients receiving percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: We studied a modified intention to treat
      population of patients with SVD and MVD from the CHAMPION PHOENIX trial. The
      primary efficacy outcome was the composite of death, myocardial infarction (MI),
      ischemia-driven revascularization (IDR), and stent thrombosis (ST) at 48hours.
      The key safety outcome was non-coronary artery bypass grafting GUSTO severe
      bleeding at 48hours. RESULTS: Among 10,921 patients, 5,220 (48%) had SVD and
      5,701 (52%) had MVD. MVD patients were older and more often had diabetes,
      hyperlipidemia, hypertension, prior stroke, and prior MI. After adjustment, MVD
      patients had similar rates of 48-hour death/MI/IDR/ST (6.3% vs 4.2%, adjusted
      odds ratio [OR] 1.6 [95% CI 0.42-6.06]) and GUSTO severe bleeding (0.1% vs 0.2%,
      P=.67) compared with SVD patients. Consistent with overall trial findings,
      cangrelor use reduced ischemic complications in patients with both SVD (3.9% vs
      4.5%; OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.65-1.12) and MVD (5.5% vs 7.2%; OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.6-0.92,
      P-interaction=.43). GUSTO severe bleeding outcomes were not significantly
      increased with cangrelor or clopidogrel in either SVD or MVD patients.
      CONCLUSION: In the CHAMPION PHOENIX trial, MVD and SVD patients had similar
      ischemic outcomes at 48hours and 30days. Cangrelor consistently reduced ischemic
      complications in both SVD and MVD patients without a significant increase in
      GUSTO severe bleeding. CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES.

PMID- 28577671
TI  - Dual antiplatelet therapy in patients with diabetes and acute coronary syndromes
      managed without revascularization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) presenting with acute coronary
      syndrome (ACS) and undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) derived
      enhanced benefit with dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with prasugrel vs.
      clopidogrel. The risk profile and treatment response to DAPT for medically
      managed ACS patients with DM remains uncertain. METHODS: The TRILOGY ACS trial
      compared aspirin + prasugrel vs. aspirin + clopidogrel for up to 30months in non
      ST-segment elevation (NSTE) ACS patients managed medically without
      revascularization. We compared treatment-related outcomes among 3539 patients
      with DM vs. 5767 patients without DM. The primary endpoint was a composite of
      cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. RESULTS: Patients with
      vs. without DM were younger, more commonly female, heavier, and more often had
      revascularization prior to the index ACS event. The frequency of the primary
      endpoint through 30months was higher among patients with vs. without DM (24.8%
      vs. 16.3%), with a higher risk for those patients with DM treated with insulin
      vs. those treated without insulin (35.3% vs. 19.9%). There was no significant
      difference in the frequency of the primary endpoint by treatment with prasugrel
      vs. clopiodgrel in those with or without DM (Pint=0.82) and with or without
      insulin treatment among those with DM (Pint=0.304). CONCLUSIONS: Among NSTE ACS
      patients managed medically without revascularization, patients with DM had a
      higher risk of ischemic events that was amplified among those treated with
      insulin. There was no differential treatment effect with a more potent DAPT
      regimen of aspirin + prasugrel vs. aspirin + clopidogrel.

PMID- 28577672
TI  - A randomized double-blind trial of an interventional device treatment of
      functional mitral regurgitation in patients with symptomatic congestive heart
      failure-Trial design of the REDUCE FMR study.
AB  - The Carillon Mitral Contour System has been studied in 3 nonrandomized trials in
      patients with symptomatic congestive heart failure and functional mitral
      regurgitation. The REDUCE FMR study is a uniquely designed, double-blind trial
      evaluating the impact of the Carillon device on reducing regurgitant volume, as
      well as assessing the safety and clinical efficacy of this device. Carillon is a
      coronary sinus-based indirect annuloplasty device. Eligible patients undergo an
      invasive venogram to assess coronary sinus vein suitability for the Carillon
      device. If the venous dimensions are suitable, they are randomized on a 3:1 basis
      to receive a device or not. Patients and assessors are blinded to the treatment
      assignment. The primary end point is the difference in regurgitant volume at 1
      year between the implanted and nonimplanted groups. Other comparisons include
      clinical parameters such as heart failure hospitalizations, 6-minute walk test,
      Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), and other echocardiographic
      parameters. An exercise echo substudy will also be included.

PMID- 28577675
TI  - Prognostication on the spot! The evolving importance of urinary creatinine in
      heart failure.

PMID- 28577674
TI  - Relationship between therapeutic effects on infarct size in acute myocardial
      infarction and therapeutic effects on 1-year outcomes: A patient-level analysis
      of randomized clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While infarct size in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI) has been generally associated with long-term prognosis,
      whether a therapeutic effect on infarct size has a corresponding therapeutic
      effect on long-term outcomes is unknown. METHODS: Using combined patient-level
      data from 10 randomized trials of primary percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI) for STEMI, we created multivariable Cox proportional hazard models for one
      year heart failure hospitalization and all-cause mortality, which included
      clinical features and a variable representing treatment effect on infarct size.
      The trials included 2679 participants; infarct size was measured at a median 4
      days post infarction. RESULTS: Mean infarct size among the control groups ranged
      from 16% to 35% of the left ventricle, and from 12% to 36% among treatment
      groups. There was a significant relationship between treatment effect on infarct
      size and treatment effect on 1-year heart failure hospitalization (HR 0.85, 95%
      CI 0.77-0.93, P=.0006), but not on one-year mortality (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.89
      1.06). The treatment effect between infarct size and heart failure
      hospitalization was stable in sensitivity analyses adjusting for time from STEMI
      onset to infarct size assessment, and when considering heart failure as the main
      outcome and death as a competing risk. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that early
      treatment-induced effects on infarct size are related in direction and magnitude
      to treatment effects on heart failure hospitalizations. This finding enables
      consideration of using infarct size as a valid surrogate outcome measure in
      assessing new STEMI treatments.

PMID- 28577673
TI  - Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care for cardiovascular risk
      reduction: Rationale and design of the BIGPIC study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality
      worldwide, with >80% of CVD deaths occurring in low and middle income countries
      (LMICs). Diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes are risk factors for CVD, and CVD is
      the major cause of morbidity and mortality among individuals with DM. There is a
      critical period now during which reducing CVD risk among individuals with
      diabetes and pre-diabetes may have a major impact. Cost-effective, culturally
      appropriate, and context-specific approaches are required. Two promising
      strategies to improve health outcomes are group medical visits and microfinance.
      METHODS/DESIGN: This study tests whether group medical visits integrated into
      microfinance groups are effective and cost-effective in reducing CVD risk among
      individuals with diabetes or at increased risk for diabetes in western Kenya. An
      initial phase of qualitative inquiry will assess contextual factors,
      facilitators, and barriers that may impact integration of group medical visits
      and microfinance for CVD risk reduction. Subsequently, we will conduct a four-arm
      cluster randomized trial comparing: (1) usual clinical care, (2) usual clinical
      care plus microfinance groups only, (3) group medical visits only, and (4) group
      medical visits integrated into microfinance groups. The primary outcome measure
      will be 1-year change in systolic blood pressure, and a key secondary outcome
      measure is 1-year change in overall CVD risk as measured by the QRISK2 score. We
      will conduct mediation analysis to evaluate the influence of changes in social
      network characteristics on intervention outcomes, as well as moderation analysis
      to evaluate the influence of baseline social network characteristics on
      effectiveness of the interventions. Cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted
      in terms of cost per unit change in systolic blood pressure, percent change in
      CVD risk score, and per disability-adjusted life year saved. DISCUSSION: This
      study will provide evidence regarding effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of
      interventions to reduce CVD risk. We aim to produce generalizable methods and
      results that can provide a model for adoption in low-resource settings worldwide.

PMID- 28577677
TI  - Corrigendum to 'Association of Standard Clinical and Laboratory Variables with
      Red Blood Cell Distribution Width (RDW)'[Am. Heart J. (2016) 22-28].

PMID- 28577676
TI  - Clinical and prognostic value of spot urinary creatinine in chronic heart failure
      An analysis from GISSI-HF.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify patient characteristics associated with
      low urinary creatinine in morning spot urine and investigate its association with
      clinical outcome. BACKGROUND: Twenty-four-hour creatinine excretion is an
      established marker of muscle mass in heart failure and other populations. Spot
      urine creatinine might be an easy obtainable, cheap marker of muscle wasting and
      prognosis in heart failure (HF) patients. METHODS: Spot urine creatinine
      concentration was measured in 2130 patients included in the GISSI-HF trial. We
      evaluated the prognostic value of urinary creatinine and its relation with
      clinical variables. RESULTS: Median spot urinary creatinine was 0.80 (IQR 0.50
      1.10) g/L. Lower spot urinary creatinine was associated with older age, smaller
      height and weight, higher NYHA class, worse renal function and more frequent
      spironolactone and diuretic use (all P<.02). During a median follow-up of 2.8
      years, 655 patients (31%) experienced the combined endpoint of all-cause
      mortality or HF hospitalization. Lower urinary creatinine was independently
      associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization
      (HR, 1.59 [1.21-2.08] per log decrease, P=.001), and all-cause mortality (HR,
      1.75 [1.25-2.45] per log decrease, P=.001). CONCLUSION: Lower urinary creatinine,
      measured in morning spot urine in patients with chronic HF, is associated with
      worse renal function, smaller body size, more severe HF and is independently
      associated with an increased risk of all-cause death and HF hospitalization.

PMID- 28577678
TI  - Does perceived stress increase the risk of atrial fibrillation? A population
      based cohort study in Denmark.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychological stress is associated with increased risk of acute
      cardiovascular diseases, as myocardial infarction. We recently found a higher
      risk of atrial fibrillation following an acute stressful life event, but it
      remains unknown whether this also applies to common and less acute stress
      exposures. METHODS: We investigated the risk of incident atrial fibrillation in
      people with high levels of perceived stress by following a population-based
      cohort of 114,337 participants from the Danish National Health Survey from 2010
      to 2014. The survey holds information on lifestyle factors and perceived stress
      measured by Cohen's 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). We obtained information
      on atrial fibrillation, comorbidities and socioeconomic status from Danish
      nationwide registers. We identified 2172 persons with a first episode of atrial
      fibrillation during 424,839 person-years of follow-up. The hazard ratio (HR) of
      atrial fibrillation with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated with Cox
      proportional hazard model. RESULTS: The risk of atrial fibrillation increased
      with increasing PSS score; persons in the highest perceived stress quintile had
      28% (95% CI, 12%-46%) higher risk of atrial fibrillation compared with persons in
      the lowest perceived stress quintile. However, the association disappeared when
      adjusting for comorbidities, socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors; HR was
      1.01 (95% CI, 0.88-1.16) when comparing persons in the highest and the lowest
      perceived stress quintile. CONCLUSIONS: This large population-based cohort study
      did not reveal a higher risk of atrial fibrillation among persons with a high
      degree of perceived stress after adjustment for participants' baseline
      characteristics.

PMID- 28577679
TI  - The effects of sacubitril/valsartan on coronary outcomes in PARADIGM-HF.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), are beneficial both
      in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HF-REF) and after myocardial
      infarction (MI). We examined the effects of the angiotensin-receptor neprilysin
      inhibitor sacubitril/valsartan, compared with the ACE-I enalapril, on coronary
      outcomes in PARADIGM-HF. METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the effect of
      sacubitril/valsartan compared with enalapril on the following outcomes: i) the
      primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular (CV) death or HF hospitalization,
      ii) a pre-defined broader composite including, in addition, MI, stroke, and
      resuscitated sudden death, and iii) a post hoc coronary composite of CV-death,
      non-fatal MI, angina hospitalization or coronary revascularization. At baseline,
      of 8399 patients, 3634 (43.3%) had a prior MI and 4796 (57.1%) had a history of
      any coronary artery disease. Among all patients, compared with enalapril,
      sacubitril/valsartan reduced the risk of the primary outcome (HR 0.80 [0.73
      0.87], P<.001), the broader composite (HR 0.83 [0.76-0.90], P<.001) and the
      coronary composite (HR 0.83 [0.75-0.92], P<.001). Although each of the components
      of the coronary composite occurred less frequently in the sacubitril/valsartan
      group, compared with the enalapril group, only CV death was reduced
      significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with enalapril, sacubitril/valsartan reduced
      the risk of both the primary endpoint and a coronary composite outcome in
      PARADIGM-HF. Additional studies on the effect of sacubitril/valsartan on
      atherothrombotic outcomes in high-risk patients are merited.

PMID- 28577681
TI  - A laboratory association between hemoglobin and VerifyNow P2Y12 reaction unit: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: VerifyNow P2Y12 assay is used widely to evaluate residual platelet
      reactivity in patients taking P2Y12 receptor antagonists. However, a laboratory
      association between VerifyNow P2Y12 reaction unit (PRU) and hemoglobin, which
      might lead to wrong interpretation of the data, is reported. We performed these
      systematic review and meta-analysis to clearly define the relationship between
      PRU and hemoglobin and to elucidate whether the relationship, if any, is a true
      biological association or is just a laboratory error. METHODS: Through a
      comprehensive electronic and manual search, 10 studies were selected for the
      cohort level meta-analysis. Among 10 studies, we were able to retrieve the raw
      data of 5 studies, and a patient-level meta-analysis was performed. Potential
      publication bias was searched by funnel plot analysis and was actively adjusted,
      if present, by trim and fill method. RESULTS: The pooled analysis revealed a
      significant inverse correlation between PRU and hemoglobin (r=-0.349; P<.001; 10
      studies with 4,793 patients). VerifyNow P2Y12 base unit, which reflects off-drug
      platelet reactivity, was also inversely correlated with hemoglobin (r=-0.526;
      P<.001; 8 studies with 4,395 patients). % Inhibition (r=0.081; P=.059; 6 studies
      with 3,832 patients) and DeltaPRU (r=-0.037; P=.188; 5 studies with 3,521
      patients) were not associated with hemoglobin. A significant inverse association
      between PRU and hemoglobin was also observed in the patient-level meta-analysis
      (3,533 patients pooled from 5 studies; r=-0.335; P<.001). Light transmission
      aggregometry (r=0.160; P=.072; 4 studies with 1,144 patients) and multiple
      electrode platelet aggregometry (r=-0.029; P=.394; 3 studies with 7,645 patients)
      showed no significant association with hemoglobin. CONCLUSIONS: A significant
      inverse association was observed between PRU and hemoglobin which is likely to be
      a laboratory error. Clinicians should be aware that this association might lead
      to wrong interpretation of the data.

PMID- 28577680
TI  - Results of a phase I/II multi-center investigation of udenafil in adolescents
      after fontan palliation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Fontan operation results in a circulation that is dependent on
      low pulmonary vascular resistance to maintain an adequate cardiac output. Medical
      therapies that lower pulmonary vascular resistance may augment cardiac output and
      improve long-term outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This phase I/II clinical trial conducted
      by the Pediatric Heart Network was designed to evaluate short-term safety,
      pharmacokinetics (PK), and preliminary efficacy of udenafil in adolescents
      following Fontan. METHODS: A 5-day dose-escalation trial was conducted in five
      study cohorts of six subjects each (37.5, 87.5, and 125 mg daily, 37.5 and 87.5
      mg by mouth twice daily). A control cohort with 6 subjects underwent exercise
      testing only. Adverse events (AEs) were recorded, PK samples were collected on
      study days six through eight, and clinical testing was performed at baseline and
      day five. RESULTS: The trial enrolled 36 subjects; mean age 15.8 years (58%
      male). There were no significant differences in subject characteristics between
      cohorts. No drug-related serious AEs were reported during the study period; 24
      subjects had AEs possibly or probably related to study drug. Headache was the
      most common AE, occurring in 20 of 30 subjects. The 87.5 mg bid cohort was well
      tolerated, achieved the highest maximal concentration (506 ng/mL) and the highest
      average concentration over the dosing interval (279 ng/mL), and was associated
      with a suggestion of improvement in myocardial performance. Exercise performance
      did not improve in any of the dosing cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Udenafil was well
      tolerated at all dosing levels. The 87.5 mg bid cohort achieved the highest
      plasma drug level and was associated with a suggestion of improvement in
      myocardial performance. These data suggest that the 87.5 mg bid regimen may be
      the most appropriate for a Phase III clinical trial.

PMID- 28577682
TI  - Digital health intervention during cardiac rehabilitation: A randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Digital health interventions (DHI) have been shown to improve
      intermediates of cardiovascular health, but their impact on cardiovascular (CV)
      outcomes has not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to determine
      whether DHI administered during cardiac rehabilitation (CR) would reduce CV
      related emergency department (ED) visits and rehospitalizations in patients after
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
      METHODS: We randomized patients undergoing CR following ACS and PCI to standard
      CR (n=40) or CR+DHI (n=40) for 3 months with 3 patients withdrawing from CR prior
      to initiation in the treatment arm and 6 in the control group. The DHI
      incorporated an online and smartphone-based CR platform asking the patients to
      report of dietary and exercise habits throughout CR as well as educational
      information toward patients' healthy lifestyles. We obtained data regarding ED
      visits and rehospitalizations at 180 days, as well as other metrics of secondary
      CV prevention at baseline and 90 days. RESULTS: Baseline demographics were
      similar between the groups. The DHI+CR group had improved weight loss compared to
      the control group (-5.1+/-6.5 kg vs. -0.8+/-3.8 kg, respectively, P=.02). Those
      in the DHI+CR group also showed a non-significant reduction in CV-related
      rehospitalizations plus ED visits compared to the control group at 180 days (8.1%
      vs 26.6%; RR 0.30, 95% CI 0.08-1.10, P=.054). CONCLUSIONS: The current study
      demonstrated that complementary DHI significantly improves weight loss, and might
      offer a method to reduce CV-related ED visits plus rehospitalizations in patients
      after ACS undergoing CR. The study suggests a role for DHI as an adjunct to CR to
      improve secondary prevention of CV disease. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is
      registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01883050).

PMID- 28577683
TI  - Use of prasugrel vs clopidogrel and outcomes in patients with acute coronary
      syndrome undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in contemporary clinical
      practice: Results from the PROMETHEUS study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine the frequency of use and
      association between prasugrel and outcomes in acute coronary syndrome patients
      undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in clinical practice.
      METHODS: PROMETHEUS was a multicenter observational registry of acute coronary
      syndrome patients undergoing PCI from 8 centers in the United States that
      maintained a prospective PCI registry for patient outcomes. The primary end
      points were major adverse cardiovascular events at 90days, a composite of all
      cause death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, or unplanned
      revascularization. Major bleeding was defined as any bleeding requiring
      hospitalization or blood transfusion. Hazard ratios (HRs) were generated using
      multivariable Cox regression and stratified by the propensity to treat with
      prasugrel. RESULTS: Of 19,914 patients (mean age 64.4years, 32% female), 4,058
      received prasugrel (20%) and 15,856 received clopidogrel (80%). Prasugrel-treated
      patients were younger with fewer comorbid risk factors compared with their
      counterparts receiving clopidogrel. At 90days, there was a significant
      association between prasugrel use and lower major adverse cardiovascular event
      (5.7% vs 9.6%, HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.50-0.67, P<.0001) and bleeding (1.9% vs 2.9%, HR
      0.65, 95% CI 0.51-0.83, P<.001). After propensity stratification, associations
      were attenuated and no longer significant for either outcome. Results remained
      consistent using different approaches to adjusting for potential confounders.
      CONCLUSIONS: In contemporary clinical practice, patients receiving prasugrel tend
      to have a lower-risk profile compared with those receiving clopidogrel. The lower
      ischemic and bleeding events associated with prasugrel use were no longer evident
      after accounting for these baseline differences.

PMID- 28577684
TI  - Electronically self-assessed functional capacity and exercise testing: A
      comparison of the Duke Activity Status Index and Patient-Reported Outcomes
      Measurement Information System tools.
AB  - PURPOSE: Electronic screening tools, such as Patient-Reported Outcomes
      Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function Short-Form 12a (PF
      SF12a), may aid in the assessment of functional capacity. However, PROMIS PF
      SF12a has not been validated against exercise capacity, or compared with
      established questionnaires, including the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI). We
      compared the DASI and PROMIS PF-SF12a to the maximum metabolic equivalents (METs)
      achieved during exercise stress testing. METHODS: DASI and PROMIS PF-SF12a were
      electronically administered to 100 adult patients (median age 56years, 61% male)
      immediately before exercise stress testing. DASI-predicted METs and PROMIS T
      score were calculated. Correlations with exercise METs with and without age
      adjustment were examined. Linear regression lines were derived and adjusted r2
      statistic was calculated. We compared models with the Davidson-Mackinnon J test.
      RESULTS: The median (interquartile range) DASI-predicted METs, PROMIS Tscore, and
      exercise METs were 8.97 (7.61-9.89), 47.90 (43.33-52.40), and 10.10 (10.10
      12.80), respectively. In unadjusted correlation analyses, PROMIS accounted for
      26% of the variance in exercise METs compared with 38% with DASI. With age
      adjustment, the r2values increased to 0.36 (PROMIS) and 0.46 (DASI). In both
      unadjusted and age-adjusted analyses, inclusion of DASI improved prediction of
      exercise METs beyond PROMIS T score (P<.0001). In contrast, PROMIS T score did
      not improve exercise MET prediction compared with DASI alone (P>.10). CONCLUSION:
      Among patients undergoing clinically indicated exercise stress testing, DASI
      outperformed PROMIS PF-SF12a as a predictor of exercise METs.

PMID- 28577686
TI  - Atrial fibrillation incrementally increases dementia risk across all CHADS2 and
      CHA2DS2VASc strata in patients receiving long-term warfarin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are at higher risk for
      developing dementia. Warfarin is a common therapy for the prevention of
      thromboembolism in AF, valve replacement, and thrombosis patients. The extent to
      which AF itself increases dementia risk remains unknown. METHODS: A total 6030
      patients with no history of dementia and chronically anticoagulated with warfarin
      were studied. Warfarin management was provided through a Clinical Pharmacy
      Anticoagulation Service. Patients were stratified by warfarin indication of AF
      (n=3015) and non-AF (n=3015) and matched by propensity score (+/-0.01). Patients
      were stratified by the congestive heart failure, hypertension, age >75 years,
      diabetes, stroke (CHADS2) score calculated at the time of warfarin initiation and
      followed for incident dementia. RESULTS: The average age of the AF cohort was
      69.3+/-11.2 years, and 52.7% were male; average age of non-AF cohort was 69.3+/
      10.9 years, and 51.5% were male. Increasing CHADS2 score was associated with
      increased dementia incidence, P trend=.004. When stratified by warfarin
      indication, AF patients had an increased risk of dementia incidence. After
      multivariable adjustment, AF patients continued to display a significantly
      increased risk of dementia when compared with non-AF patients across all CHADS2
      scores strata. CONCLUSIONS: In patients receiving long-term warfarin therapy,
      dementia risk increased with increasing CHADS2 scores. However, the presence of
      AF was associated with higher rates of dementia across all CHADS2 score strata.
      These data suggest that AF contributes to the risk of dementia and that this risk
      is not solely attributable to anticoagulant use. Dementia may be an end
      manifestation of a systemic disease state, and AF likely contributes to its
      progression.

PMID- 28577685
TI  - Lisinopril or Coreg CR in reducing cardiotoxicity in women with breast cancer
      receiving trastuzumab: A rationale and design of a randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trastuzumab (TZB) is an established therapy for HER2-positive breast
      cancer. The use of TZB is commonly associated with cardiotoxicity manifesting as
      asymptomatic decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) or overt heart
      failure. Several studies demonstrated favorable effects of angiotensin-converting
      enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and beta-blockers (BBs) in the prevention of chemotherapy
      induced cardiotoxicity. We hypothesize that patients, randomized to receive an
      ACE inhibitor or a BB during trastuzumab therapy for breast cancer, will maintain
      a higher LVEF than patients randomized to placebo. METHODS AND RESULTS: We
      designed a prospective, multicenter, randomized, phase II placebo-controlled
      clinical trial to evaluate the effects of an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril) and a BB
      (carvedilol phosphate-extended release) on cardiotoxicity in patients with breast
      cancer who are receiving adjuvant or neoadjuvant TZB therapy. The primary
      objectives include (1) comparison of incidence of cardiotoxicity and (2)
      comparison of LVEF as a continuous variable in between the arms. Cardiotoxicity
      was defined as an absolute decrease in LVEF from baseline of >=10% at follow-up
      or an absolute decrease of >=5% in LVEF from baseline for individuals with <50%
      LVEF at follow-up. The target accrual is 468 participants, representing patients
      both with and without anthracycline exposure. The enrollment is completed. The
      trial is co-sponsored by University of South Florida and National Cancer
      Institute. The LVEF is being evaluated by echocardiography or multigated
      acquisition scan. CONCLUSIONS: If we can demonstrate that the use of an ACE
      inhibitor or a BB can reduce the degree of TZB-induced cardiotoxicity, it is
      hoped that patients will receive complete and uninterrupted TZB therapy for
      breast cancer without compromising cardiac function.

PMID- 28577687
TI  - True rate of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists-related hyperkalemia in
      placebo-controlled trials: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) improve survival in
      heart failure with reduced ejection fraction but are often underused, mostly due
      to concerns of hyperkalemia. Because hyperkalemia occurs also on placebo, we
      aimed to determine the truly MRA-related rate of hyperkalemia. METHODS: We
      performed a meta-analysis including randomized, placebo-controlled trials
      reporting hyperkalemia on MRAs in patients after myocardial infarction or with
      chronic heart failure. We evaluated the truly MRA-related rate of hyperkalemia
      that represents hyperkalemia on MRA, corrected for hyperkalemia on placebo (Pla),
      according to the equation: True MRA (%)=(MRA (%) - Pla (%))/MRA (%). RESULTS: A
      total number of 16,065 patients from 7 trials were analyzed. Hyperkalemia was
      more frequently observed on MRA (9.3%) vs placebo (4.3%) (risk ratio 2.17, 95% CI
      1.92-2.45, P<.0001). Truly MRA-related hyperkalemia was 54%, whereas 46% were non
      MRA related. In trials using eplerenone, hyperkalemia was documented in 5.0% on
      eplerenone and in 2.6% on placebo (P<.0001). In spironolactone trials,
      hyperkalemia was documented in 17.5% and in 7.5% of patients on placebo
      (P=.0001). Hypokalemia occurred less frequently in patients on MRA (9.3%)
      compared with placebo (14.8%) (risk ratio 0.58, CI 0.47-0.72, P<.0001).
      CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis shows that in clinical trials, 54% of hyperkalemia
      cases were specifically related to the MRA treatment and 46% to other reasons.
      Therefore, non-MRA-related rises in potassium levels might be underestimated and
      should be rigorously explored before cessation of the evidence-based therapy with
      MRAs.

PMID- 28577689
TI  - The Association between Depression and Medication Nonpersistence in New Users of
      Antidiabetic Drugs.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To measure the association between depression and nonpersistence with
      antidiabetic drugs (ADs) among new users of oral ADs and to estimate factors
      associated with nonpersistence among these new users with depression. METHODS: We
      used administrative claims data to identify an adult cohort (>=18 years) of new
      oral AD users who were free of depression. We followed the patients from AD
      initiation until either discontinuation, ineligibility for the public drug plan,
      death, or the end of the study. A proportional hazard Cox regression model with
      depression as a time-dependent variable was used to compute the adjusted hazard
      ratio of nonpersistence. A proportional hazard Cox regression model was also used
      to identify factors associated with nonpersistence in the subcohort of patients
      with depression. RESULTS: We identified 114,366 new oral AD users, of whom 4,808
      were diagnosed with depression during the follow-up. A greater proportion (55.4%)
      of patients with depression (vs. 42.5% without depression) discontinued their
      treatment during the follow-up. The adjusted hazard ratio of nonpersistence with
      ADs was 1.52 (95% confidence interval 1.41-1.63). Among patients with depression,
      independent factors associated with nonpersistence included younger age at oral
      AD initiation (<45 years) and starting treatment with drugs other than metformin
      (especially polytherapy with insulin). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with depression are
      more likely to discontinue their treatment. Health care professionals should pay
      attention to patients on AD therapy who also suffer from depression, especially
      if the patients are young or are using insulin because these patients are at an
      increased risk of nonpersistence.

PMID- 28577690
TI  - Value of Comprehensive HCV Treatment among Vulnerable, High-Risk Populations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to explore the trade-offs society and
      payers make when expanding treatment access to patients with chronic hepatitis C
      virus (HCV) infection in early stages of disease as well as to vulnerable, high
      risk populations, such as people who inject drugs (PWID) and HIV-infected men who
      have sex with men (MSM-HIV). METHODS: A discrete time Markov model simulated HCV
      progression and treatment over 20 years. Population cohorts were defined by
      behaviors that influence the risk of HCV exposure: PWID, MSM-HIV, an overlap
      cohort of individuals who are both PWID and MSM-HIV, and all other adults. Six
      different treatment scenarios were modeled, with varying degrees of access to
      treatment at different fibrosis stages and to different risk cohorts. Benefits
      were measured as quality-adjusted life-years and a $150,000/quality-adjusted life
      year valuation was used to assess social benefits. RESULTS: Compared with
      limiting treatment to METAVIR fibrosis stages F3 or F4 and excluding PWID,
      expanding treatment to patients in all fibrosis stages and including PWID reduces
      cumulative new infections by 55% over a 20-year horizon and reduces the
      prevalence of HCV by 93%. We find that treating all HCV-infected individuals is
      cost saving and net social benefits are over $500 billion greater compared with
      limiting treatment. Including PWID in treatment access saves 12,900 to 41,200
      lives. CONCLUSIONS: Increased access to treatment brings substantial value to
      society and over the long-term reduces costs for payers, as the benefits accrued
      from long-term reduction in prevalent and incident cases, mortality, and medical
      costs outweigh the cost of treatment.

PMID- 28577691
TI  - Economic Evaluation of Complete Revascularization for Patients with Multivessel
      Disease Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the cost-effectiveness of complete revascularization at
      index admission compared with infarct-related artery (IRA) treatment only, in
      patients with multivessel disease undergoing primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention (P-PCI) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. METHODS: An
      economic evaluation of a multicenter randomized trial was conducted, comparing
      complete revascularization at index admission to IRA-only P-PCI in patients with
      multivessel disease (12-month follow-up). Overall hospital costs (costs for P-PCI
      procedure(s), hospital length of stay, and any subsequent re-admissions) were
      estimated. Outcomes were major adverse cardiac events (MACEs, a composite of all
      cause death, recurrent myocardial infarction, heart failure, and ischemia-driven
      revascularization) and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) derived from the three
      level EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire. Multiple imputation was undertaken.
      The mean incremental cost and effect, with associated 95% confidence intervals,
      the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, and the cost-effectiveness
      acceptability curve were estimated. RESULTS: On the basis of 296 patients, the
      mean incremental overall hospital cost for complete revascularization was
      estimated to be -L215.96 (-L1390.20 to L958.29), compared with IRA-only, with a
      per-patient mean reduction in MACEs of 0.170 (0.044 to 0.296) and a QALY gain of
      0.011 (-0.019 to 0.041). According to the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve,
      the probability of complete revascularization being cost-effective was estimated
      to be 72.0% at a willingness-to-pay threshold value of L20,000 per QALY.
      CONCLUSIONS: Complete revascularization at index admission was estimated to be
      more effective (in terms of MACEs and QALYs) and cost-effective (overall costs
      were estimated to be lower and complete revascularization thereby dominated IRA
      only). There was, however, some uncertainty associated with this decision.

PMID- 28577692
TI  - Ulcerative Colitis Treatment Patterns and Cost of Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine treatment patterns, dosing, health care resource
      utilization, and cost of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), adalimumab
      (ADA) and infliximab (IFX), among patients enrolled in US Humana insurance plans
      who have been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: This retrospective
      cohort study identified the first pharmacy or medical claim for ADA or IFX (from
      January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2014) in patients with continuous enrollment for
      6 months or more preindex and 12 months or more postindex, with one or more UC
      diagnosis claim 6 months pre- or postindex. TNFi discontinuation was defined as a
      therapy gap of 56 days or more for ADA and 112 days or more for IFX. TNFi switch
      was defined as nonindex TNFi initiation. Health care resource utilization and
      costs were characterized quarterly according to treatment patterns. RESULTS: The
      study population comprised 295 patients: mean age 50.9 years, 50.5% females, and
      61.7% in southern United States. At the index date, 17% of patients received ADA
      and 83% received IFX. Treatment discontinuation was observed in 52% of ADA and
      45% of IFX users through 12 months postindex (mean time 19 and 22 weeks,
      respectively). Among discontinuers, 46% of ADA and 68% of IFX users did not
      restart/switch TNFi. ADA and IFX showed mean times to switch of 18 and 30 weeks,
      respectively. TNFi discontinuers had the lowest mean quarterly total health care
      cost ($3,935) versus patients who initiated/switched TNFi ($15,004).
      Nevertheless, discontinuers had higher UC-related hospitalization versus patients
      receiving therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of ADA and IFX users
      discontinued, with approximately half of discontinuers not restarting/switching
      therapies. Further investigation of treatment patterns and outcomes after TNFi
      discontinuation is required.

PMID- 28577693
TI  - Economic Consequences and Potentially Preventable Costs Related to Osteoporosis
      in the Netherlands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis often does not involve symptoms, and so the actual
      number of patients with osteoporosis is higher than the number of diagnosed
      individuals. This underdiagnosis results in a treatment gap. OBJECTIVES: To
      estimate the total health care resource use and costs related to osteoporosis in
      the Netherlands, explicitly including fractures, and to estimate the proportion
      of fracture costs that are linked to the treatment gap and might therefore be
      potentially preventable; to also formulate, on the basis of these findings,
      strategies to optimize osteoporosis care and treatment and reduce its related
      costs. METHODS: In this retrospective study, data of the Achmea Health Database
      representing 4.2 million Dutch inhabitants were used to investigate the economic
      consequence of osteoporosis in the Netherlands in 2010. Specific cohorts were
      created to identify osteoporosis-related fractures and their costs. Besides,
      costs of pharmaceutical treatment regarding osteoporosis were included. Using
      data from the literature, the treatment gap was estimated. Sensitivity analysis
      was performed on the base-case results. RESULTS: A total of 108,013 individuals
      with a history of fractures were included in this study. In this population,
      59,193 patients were using anti-osteoporotic medication and 86,776 patients were
      using preventive supplements. A total number of 3,039 osteoporosis-related
      fractures occurred. The estimated total costs were ?465 million. On the basis of
      data presented in the literature, the treatment gap in our study population was
      estimated to vary from 60% to 72%. CONCLUSIONS: The estimated total costs
      corrected for treatment gap were ?1.15 to ?1.64 billion. These results indicate
      room for improvement in the health care policy against osteoporosis.

PMID- 28577694
TI  - Manual Compression versus Vascular Closing Device for Closing Access Puncture
      Site in Femoral Left-Heart Catheterization and Percutaneous Coronary
      Interventions: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Comparison of Costs and Effects in
      Inpatient Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare complication rates, length of hospital stay, and resulting
      costs between the use of manual compression and a vascular closing device (VCD)
      in both diagnostic and interventional catheterization in a German university
      hospital setting. METHODS: A stratified analysis according to risk profiles was
      used to compare the risk of complications in a retrospective cross-sectional
      single-center study. Differences in costs and length of hospital stay were
      calculated using the recycled predictions method, based on regression
      coefficients from generalized linear models with gamma distribution. All models
      were adjusted for propensity score and possible confounders, such as age, sex,
      and comorbidities. The analysis was performed separately for diagnostic and
      interventional catheterization. RESULTS: The unadjusted relative risk (RR) of
      complications was not significantly different in diagnostic catheterization when
      a VCD was used (RR = 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.22-2.16) but
      significantly lower in interventional catheterization (RR = 0.44; 95% CI 0.21
      0.93). Costs were on average ?275 lower in the diagnostic group (95% CI -?478.0
      to -?64.9; P = 0.006) and around ?373 lower in the interventional group (95% CI 
      ?630.0 to -?104.2; P = 0.014) when a VCD was used. The adjusted estimated average
      length of stay did not differ significantly between the use of a VCD and manual
      compression in both types of catheterization. CONCLUSIONS: In interventional
      catheterization, VCDs significantly reduced unadjusted complication rates, as
      well as costs. A significant reduction in costs also supports their usage in
      diagnostic catheterization on a larger scale.

PMID- 28577695
TI  - Mind the Gap: Hospitalizations from Multiple Sources in a Longitudinal Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medicare claims and prospective studies with self-reported
      utilization are important sources of hospitalization data for epidemiologic and
      outcomes research. OBJECTIVES: To assess the concordance of Medicare claims
      merged with interview-based surveillance data to determine factors associated
      with source completeness. METHODS: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC)
      study recruited 15,792 cohort participants aged 45 to 64 years in the period 1987
      to 1989 from four communities. Hospitalization records obtained through cohort
      report and hospital record abstraction were matched to Medicare inpatient records
      (MedPAR) from 2006 to 2011. Factors associated with concordance were assessed
      graphically and using multinomial logit regression. RESULTS: Among fee-for
      service enrollees, MedPAR and ARIC hospitalizations matched approximately 67% of
      the time. For Medicare Advantage enrollees, completeness increased after
      initiation of hospital financial incentives in 2008 to submit shadow bills for
      Medicare Advantage enrollees. Concordance varied by geographic site, age, veteran
      status, proximity to death, study attrition, and whether hospitalizations were
      within ARIC catchment areas. CONCLUSIONS: ARIC and MedPAR records had good
      concordance among fee-for-service enrollees, but many hospitalizations were
      available from only one source. MedPAR hospital records may be missing for
      veterans or observation stays. Maintaining study participation increases stay
      completeness, but new sources such as electronic health records may be more
      efficient than surveillance for mobile elderly populations.

PMID- 28577697
TI  - Economic Impacts of the Generic Drug User Fee Act Fee Structure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Generic Drug User system,
      Generic Drug User Fee Amendment of 2012 (GDUFA), started October 1, 2012, and has
      been in place for over 3 years. There is controversy about the GDUFA fee
      structure but no analysis of GDUFA data that we could find. OBJECTIVE: To look at
      the economic impact of the GDUFA fee structure. METHODS: We compared the
      structure of GDUFA with that of other FDA Human Drug User fees. We then, using
      FDA-published information, analyzed where GDUFA facility and Drug Master File
      fees are coming from. We used the Orange Book to identify the sponsors of all
      approved Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) and the S&P Capital IQ
      database to find the ultimate parent companies of sponsors of approved ANDAs.
      RESULTS: The key differences between the previous structure for Human Drug User
      fees and the GDUFA are as follows: GDUFA has no approved product fee and no first
      time or small business fee exemptions and GDUFA charges facility fees from the
      time of filing and charges a foreign facility levy. Most GDUFA fees are paid by
      or on behalf of foreign entities. The top 10 companies hold nearly 50% of all
      approved ANDAs but pay about 14% of GDUFA facility fees. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude
      that the regressive nature of the GDUFA fee structure penalizes small, new, and
      foreign firms while benefiting the large established firms. A progressive fee
      structure in line with other human drug user fees is needed to ensure a healthy
      generic drug industry.

PMID- 28577696
TI  - The Type and Impact of Evidence Review Group Exploratory Analyses in the NICE
      Single Technology Appraisal Process.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As part of the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
      (NICE) single technology appraisal process, independent evidence review groups
      (ERGs) critically appraise a company's submission relating to a specific
      technology and indication. OBJECTIVES: To explore the type of additional
      exploratory analyses conducted by ERGs and their impact on the recommendations
      made by NICE. METHODS: The 100 most recently completed single technology
      appraisals with published guidance were selected for inclusion. A content
      analysis of relevant documents was undertaken to identify and extract relevant
      data, and narrative synthesis was used to rationalize and present these data.
      RESULTS: The types of exploratory analysis conducted in relation to companies'
      models were fixing errors, addressing violations, addressing matters of judgment,
      and the provision of a new, ERG-preferred base case. Ninety-three of the 100 ERG
      reports contained at least one of these analyses. The most frequently reported
      type of analysis in these 93 ERG reports related to the category "Matters of
      judgment," which was reported in 83 reports (89%). At least one of the
      exploratory analyses conducted and reported by an ERG is mentioned in 97% of NICE
      appraisal consultation documents and 94% of NICE final appraisal determinations,
      and had a clear influence on recommendations in 72% of appraisal consultation
      documents and 47% of final appraisal determinations. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      suggest that the additional analyses undertaken by ERGs in the appraisal of
      company submissions are highly influential in the policy-making and decision
      making process.

PMID- 28577698
TI  - Eliciting Preferences for Clinical Follow-Up in Patients with Head and Neck
      Cancer Using Best-Worst Scaling.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There are no commonly accepted standards for monitoring patients
      treated for head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to assess patients'
      preferences for different aspects of follow-up. METHODS: A best-worst survey was
      conducted in a sample of head and neck cancer patients in clinical follow-up at
      the National Cancer Institute (Milan, Italy). Conditional logit regression with
      choice as the dependent variable was run to analyse the data. A covariate
      adjusted analysis was performed in order to identify socio-demographic and
      clinical factors related to the selection of best-worst items. The participants
      were asked to report any difficulties encountered during the survey. RESULTS: A
      total of 143 patients, predominantly male (74%) and with a mean age of 58 years
      were enrolled in the survey. The strongest positive preference was expressed for
      a hospital-based program of physical examinations with frequency decreasing over
      time. Conversely, the lowest valued item was not performing any positron emission
      tomography (PET) scan during follow-up. Patients with high educational levels
      were more likely to value attending a primary care-based program and undergoing
      intensive radiological investigations. Other patient-specific variables
      significantly associated with the choice of items were employment and living
      status, time already spent in follow-up and number of treatments received.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall, patients were more likely to choose an intensive follow-up
      scheme broadly consistent with the program currently administered by the
      hospital. There is little evidence of preference heterogeneity that might justify
      customized programs based on demographics. The best-worst scaling task appeared
      feasible for most participants.

PMID- 28577699
TI  - Budget Impact Analysis of Against Colorectal Cancer In Our Neighborhoods
      (ACCION): A Successful Community-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Program for a
      Medically Underserved Minority Population.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Given the uncertain cost of delivering community-based cancer
      screening programs, we developed a Markov simulation model to project the budget
      impact of implementing a comprehensive colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention program
      compared with the status quo. METHODS: The study modeled the impacts on the costs
      of clinical services, materials, and staff expenditures for recruitment,
      education, fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), colonoscopy, follow-up,
      navigation, and initial treatment. We used data from the Against Colorectal
      Cancer In Our Neighborhoods comprehensive CRC prevention program implemented in
      El Paso, Texas, since 2012. We projected the 3-year financial consequences of the
      presence and absence of the CRC prevention program for a hypothetical population
      cohort of 10,000 Hispanic medically underserved individuals. RESULTS: The
      intervention cohort experienced a 23.4% higher test completion rate for CRC
      prevention, 8 additional CRC diagnoses, and 84 adenomas. The incremental 3-year
      cost was $1.74 million compared with the status quo. The program cost per person
      was $261 compared with $86 for the status quo. The costs were sensitive to the
      proportion of high-risk participants and the frequency of colonoscopy screening
      and diagnostic procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The budget impact mainly derived from
      colonoscopy-related costs incurred for the high-risk group. The effectiveness of
      FIT to detect CRC was critically dependent on follow-up after positive FIT.
      Community cancer prevention programs need reliable estimates of the cost of CRC
      screening promotion and the added budget impact of screening with colonoscopy.

PMID- 28577700
TI  - Value for Money in H1N1 Influenza: A Systematic Review of the Cost-Effectiveness
      of Pandemic Interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic generated additional data and
      triggered new studies that opened debate over the optimal strategy for handling a
      pandemic. The lessons-learned documents from the World Health Organization show
      the need for a cost estimation of the pandemic response during the risk
      assessment phase. Several years after the crisis, what conclusions can we draw
      from this field of research? OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this article was to
      provide an analysis of the studies that present cost-effectiveness or cost
      benefit analyses for A/H1N1 pandemic interventions since 2009 and to identify
      which measures seem most cost-effective. METHODS: We reviewed 18 academic
      articles that provide cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analyses for A/H1N1
      pandemic interventions since 2009. Our review converts the studies' results into
      a cost-utility measure (cost per disability-adjusted life-year or quality
      adjusted life-year) and presents the contexts of severity and fatality. RESULTS:
      The existing studies suggest that hospital quarantine, vaccination, and usage of
      the antiviral stockpile are highly cost-effective, even for mild pandemics.
      However, school closures, antiviral treatments, and social distancing may not
      qualify as efficient measures, for a virus like 2009's H1N1 and a willingness-to
      pay threshold of $45,000 per disability-adjusted life-year. Such interventions
      may become cost-effective for severe crises. CONCLUSIONS: This study helps to
      shed light on the cost-utility of various interventions, and may support decision
      making, among other criteria, for future pandemics. Nonetheless, one should
      consider these results carefully, considering these may not apply to a specific
      crisis or country, and a dedicated cost-effectiveness assessment should be
      conducted at the time.

PMID- 28577701
TI  - Challenges of Developing an Observable Parent-Reported Measure: A Qualitative
      Study of Functional Impact of ADHD in Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Informant-reported outcome measures, usually completed by parents,
      are often administered in pediatric clinical trials with the intention of
      collecting data to support claims in a medical product label. Recently, there has
      been an emphasis on limiting these measures to observable content, as recommended
      in the US Food and Drug Administration guidance on patient-reported outcomes.
      This qualitative study explores the concept of observability using the example of
      childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Concept
      elicitation interviews were conducted with children (aged 6-12 years) diagnosed
      with ADHD and parents of children with ADHD to identify concepts for a potential
      parent-reported measure of functional impact of childhood ADHD. The observability
      of each concept was considered. RESULTS: Of the 30 parents (90% females; mean age
      = 42.0 years), 24 had a child who was also interviewed (87.5% males; mean age =
      9.6 years). Areas of functional impact reported by parents and/or children
      included the following: 1) functioning within the home/family, 2) academic
      performance, 3) school behavior, 4) social functioning, 5) emotional functioning,
      and 6) decreased self-efficacy. Parents cited many examples of direct observation
      at home, but opportunities for observation of some important areas of impact
      (e.g., school behavior and peer relationships) were limited. CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings illustrate the substantial functional impairment associated with
      childhood ADHD while highlighting the challenges of developing informant-reported
      outcome measures limited to observable content. Because ADHD has an impact on
      children's functioning in a wide range of contexts, a parent-report measure that
      includes only observable content may fail to capture important aspects of
      functional impairment. Approaches for addressing this observability challenge are
      discussed.

PMID- 28577702
TI  - The Role of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Value-Based Payment Reform.
AB  - The U.S. health care system is currently experiencing profound change. Pressure
      to improve the quality of patient care and control costs have caused a rapid
      shift from traditional volume-driven fee-for-service reimbursement to value-based
      payment models. Under the 2015 Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance
      Program Reauthorization Act, providers will be evaluated on the basis of quality
      and cost efficiency and ultimately receive adjusted reimbursement as per their
      performance. Although current performance metrics do not incorporate patient
      reported outcome measures (PROMs), many wonder whether and how PROMs will
      eventually fit into value-based payment reform. On November 17, 2016, the second
      annual Patient-Reported Outcomes in Healthcare Conference brought together
      international stakeholders across all health care disciplines to discuss the
      potential role of PROs in value-based health care reform. The purpose of this
      article was to summarize the findings from this conference in the context of
      recent literature and guidelines to inform implementation of PROs in value-based
      payment models. Recommendations for evaluating key perspectives and measurement
      goals are made to facilitate appropriate use of PROMs to best benefit and amplify
      the voice of our patients.

PMID- 28577704
TI  - Imaging of Cartilage in the Athlete.
AB  - MRI remains the optimal imaging modality to evaluate cartilage injuries in the
      athlete. As these injuries have no intrinsic healing capacity, early and accurate
      noninvasive diagnosis remains integral to determining the most appropriate
      treatment option in this class of patients. Although surgical success depends
      primarily on clinical outcomes, MRI evaluation can provide pertinent information
      regarding the status of the surgical repair and the progression of cartilage
      disease.

PMID- 28577703
TI  - Basic Science of Articular Cartilage.
AB  - The most challenging aspects in treating articular cartilage injury include
      identifying the cellular and molecular mechanism(s) that lead to matrix changes
      and the differentiation and dedifferentiation behavior of chondrocytes, and
      understanding how they affect the structural integrity of the articular cartilage
      and tissue remodeling. Several treatment strategies have been proposed. A better
      understanding of the signaling pathways and growth and transcription factors for
      genes responsible for chondrogenesis is an important component in the development
      of new therapies to prevent cartilage degeneration or promote repair to replicate
      the physiologic and functional properties of the original cartilage.

PMID- 28577705
TI  - Nonoperative Options for Management of Articular Cartilage Disease.
AB  - Nonoperative options for articular cartilage injury are pervasive but have not
      shown to be curative. Recommendations for low-impact exercise and weight loss
      provide benefit and are a foundation for the treatment of osteoarthritis.
      Judicious use of NSAIDs and acetaminophen can be appropriate for pain management.
      Topical NSAIDs may be a treatment option with fewer side effects than its oral
      counterpart. Additionally, viscosupplementation injections are useful for mild to
      moderate knee osteoarthritis, whereas short-term pain relief is provided by intra
      articular corticosteroid injections. Future studies to individualize treatment
      options based on patient phenotype and genotype may hold promise.

PMID- 28577707
TI  - Management of Osteochondritis Dissecans Lesions of the Knee, Elbow and Ankle.
AB  - Although osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) has been a recognized condition for more
      than 100 years, our understanding of the etiology, natural history, and treatment
      remains poorly characterized. OCD most commonly affects the knee, followed by the
      elbow and ankle. Adolescents and young adults are most commonly affected.
      Patients present with vague, often intermittent symptoms and generally have no
      history of acute injury. Although diagnosis can be made with plain radiographs,
      treatment decisions are generally based on MRI. Skeletal maturity and stability
      of the OCD lesion determine treatment. Treatments range from immobilization and
      activity restriction to operative therapies. Clinical indications are discussed.

PMID- 28577706
TI  - Biologic Options for Articular Cartilage Wear (Platelet-Rich Plasma, Stem Cells,
      Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate).
AB  - Biological treatments for articular cartilage repair have gained in popularity in
      the past decade. Advantages of these therapies include minimal invasiveness,
      improved healing time, and faster recovery. Biological therapies for cartilage
      repair include platelet-rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate concentrate, and cell
      based therapies. These methods have the added benefit of containing growth
      factors and/or stem cells that aid in recovery and regeneration. The purpose of
      this article is to review the current cartilage treatment options and the
      existing literature on outcomes, complications, and safety profile of these
      products for use in the knee and hip joints.

PMID- 28577709
TI  - Microfracture and Microfracture Plus.
AB  - Articular cartilage damage remains a significant cause for early osteoarthritis
      in adolescents and young adults. After chondroplasty alone, the mainstay
      procedure for cartilage injuries is microfracture. Although in small lesions this
      may be successful long-term, positive results of treating larger lesions this way
      are less certain. This inconsistency in outcomes has led to augmentation of these
      defects with scaffolding for autograft regeneration or for allograft cartilage to
      fill the defect with a hyaline cartilage. This discussion includes current
      techniques for the addition of scaffolding to the microfracture defect for larger
      lesions, the rationale, and preliminary results.

PMID- 28577708
TI  - Osteochondral Autologous Transplantation.
AB  - Osteochondral autologous transplantation (OAT) is a treatment strategy for small
      and medium sized focal articular cartilage defects in the knee. This article
      reviews the indications, surgical techniques, outcomes, and limitations of OAT
      for the management of symptomatic chondral and osteochondral lesions in the knee
      joint.

PMID- 28577710
TI  - Allografts: Osteochondral, Shell, and Paste.
AB  - There is an increasing need for articular cartilage restoration procedures.
      Hyaline cartilage lacks intrinsic healing capacity. Persistent osteochondral
      defects can lead to early and rapid degenerative changes. Microfracture and
      autologous chondrocyte implantation provide reasonable outcomes for smaller
      defects without bone loss. However, these techniques have limited effectiveness
      for lesions greater than 4 cm2 or with significant bony involvement. Ostochondral
      allografts provide an option for these lesions. This article reviews
      osteochondral allografts for articular defects. Emerging options provide
      different approaches to difficult cartilage defects. We discuss current
      screening, procurement, and storage methods, surgical techniques, outcomes, and
      bacterial/viral transmission.

PMID- 28577711
TI  - Autologous Chondrocytes and Next-Generation Matrix-Based Autologous Chondrocyte
      Implantation.
AB  - Focal chondral defects of the knee are common and can significantly impair
      quality of life. The autologous chondrocyte implantation technique has evolved
      over the past 20 years; the newest third-generation technique is matrix-induced
      autologous chondrocyte implantation. Physical examination is important to
      characterize location and source of pain and identify associated injuries.
      Imaging studies allow characterization of the lesions, identification of
      associated lesions, and alignment. Conservative measures should be exhausted
      before proceeding with surgical treatment. Steps of surgical treatment are
      diagnostic arthroscopy and biopsy, chondrocyte culture, and chondrocyte
      implantation. The techniques and their outcomes are discussed in this article.

PMID- 28577712
TI  - Management and Surgical Options for Articular Defects in the Shoulder.
AB  - Isolated, full-thickness chondral lesions of the glenohumeral joint are a
      significant pathology encountered by laborers, athletes, and the elderly. A
      thorough history should be obtained in any patient presenting to the office with
      shoulder pain and concern for the etiology being an articular cartilage defect.
      The first-line imaging should include plain radiographs of the glenohumeral
      joint; MRI and CT can be ordered as necessary to provide greater detail.
      Typically, the initial treatment of glenohumeral chondral disease is nonsurgical;
      however, many surgical treatment options have been refined to provide pain
      relief, create reparative tissue, or restore the articular surface.

PMID- 28577713
TI  - A Critical Review: Management and Surgical Options for Articular Defects in the
      Hip.
AB  - Patients with articular cartilage lesions of the hip may present with pain and
      symptoms that may be vague in nature and onset. Therefore, a thorough history and
      physical examination should be performed for every patient presenting with hip
      pain and/or disability. The management may be operative or nonoperative.
      Nonoperative management includes a trial of rest and/or activity modification,
      along with anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, and biologic
      injections. Operative treatment in the form of arthroscopic techniques continues
      to decrease morbidity and offer innovative solutions and new applications for
      microfracture, ACT, and AMIC.

PMID- 28577714
TI  - The Early Osteoarthritic Knee: Implications for Cartilage Repair.
AB  - Patients with early osteoarthritis (OA) have been reported to have inferior
      outcomes with an increased prevalence of early failure after cartilage
      procedures. The underlying reasons for this failure are likely multifactorial,
      including a chronic synovial and chondrogenic process, which is confounded by
      persistent muscle weakness and altered pain processing for those with increased
      preoperative symptom duration. Pain, radiographic changes, patient-reported
      outcomes, and macroscopic changes on arthroscopic evaluation or MRI can assist
      clinicians in identifying the early OA knee to both aid in clinical decision
      making and create realistic postoperative expectations for patients.

PMID- 28577715
TI  - Articular Cartilage.

PMID- 28577716
TI  - Articular Cartilage: The Search for the Holy Grail of Treatment and Restoration.

PMID- 28577717
TI  - Contemporary reappraisal of the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in resected
      retroperitoneal sarcoma: Evidence from a nationwide clinical oncology database
      and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While margin-negative resection remains the cornerstone of therapy
      for retroperitoneal sarcoma (RPS), the impact of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) on
      overall survival (OS) remains poorly understood. METHODS: The National Cancer
      Data Base was queried for patients undergoing curative-intent resection of
      primary non-metastatic RPS (2004-2013). Multivariable modeling identified factors
      associated with AC receipt. Cox regression identified covariates associated with
      OS, and AC and surgery alone (SA) cohorts were matched 1:1 by propensity scores
      based on these covariates. In the propensity-score matched cohort, OS was
      compared by Kaplan-Meier estimates. Results from this analysis were presented in
      the context of a review of the existing literature on the impact of AC in
      resected RPS. RESULTS: Of 3892 resected RPS patients, 90.0% and 10.0% received SA
      and AC, respectively. Predictors of AC receipt included younger age, non
      Caucasian race, hospital location, histologic grade, adjacent organ invasion, and
      histologic subtype. The propensity score-matched cohort comprised 767 patients
      (SA n = 377; AC n = 390); at a median follow-up of 59.2 (IQR 35.0-85.3) months,
      median OS of the propensity-matched cohort was 53.6 (IQR 22.4-119.5) months.
      Utilization of AC was associated with significantly worse long-term survival
      (median OS: 47.8 vs. 68.9 months, p = 0.017; HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.05-1.61). AC was
      not associated with improved OS in margin-positive (R1/R2) resection, high-grade
      (G2/G3) and larger (>10 cm) tumors, or in any histologic subtype. Albeit not
      statistically significant, there was a trend toward improved OS with AC in
      spindle cell (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.10-1.38), giant cell (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.32-2.13),
      and synovial (HR 0.26, 95% CI 0.05-1.33) sarcoma. CONCLUSIONS: Data from a large
      nationwide oncology database and review of the existing literature do not support
      adjuvant chemotherapy regimens following curative-intent resection of RPS, even
      in subgroups at high risk of failure (e.g., R1/R2 resection, high-grade or large
      tumors). The possible benefit of conventional adjuvant regimens in spindle cell,
      giant cell, and synovial sarcoma should be explored in prospective studies.

PMID- 28577718
TI  - Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Molecular markers for diagnosis and prognosis.
AB  - Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is the second most common primary liver
      tumor with increasing incidence worldwide. The outcome of patients with iCCA is
      dismal owing to tumor's aggressiveness, late diagnosis and lack of effective
      treatment options. Detection of the tumor at early stages may make surgical
      resection, as only potential curative treatment, more feasible. Unfortunately,
      despite recent developments in imaging modalities and laboratory tests, the
      diagnosis of iCCA remains challenging and patients often present in advanced
      stages when surgery cannot be offered. Moreover, accurate assessment of disease
      burden is critical to optimize management strategy, including the use of adjuvant
      therapies and clinical trials. Identifying iCCA specific diagnostic and
      prognostic biomarkers has been a focus of interest among many investigators with
      a progressive increase in data on iCCA related to advances in "omics"
      technologies. We herein summarize iCCA biomarkers and define the molecular
      mechanisms underlying iCCA carcinogenesis, as well as highlight potential
      diagnostic and prognostic application of molecular biomarkers.

PMID- 28577719
TI  - Personalized therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma: Molecular markers of prognosis
      and therapeutic response.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a growing worldwide health crisis with
      rising incidence, limited effective therapies and persistently poor prognosis.
      Five-year survival remains less than 20% despite decades of research. One
      byproduct of research efforts is the identification of numerous biomarkers of
      disease. From prognosis to therapeutic response, biomarker identification
      parallels a deeper molecular understanding of the disease that to date has
      generated limited gain in clinical outcomes. As one example, the classical
      prognostic biomarkers of tumor Ki-67 protein expression and TP53 gene mutation
      have been repeatedly demonstrated to correlate with poor prognosis. There have
      been several studies throughout the past two decades identifying other gene-based
      biomarkers of prognosis. Critically, translation into the clinic has been slow
      and focus has shifted to a search for markers of therapeutic response in hopes of
      generating novel approaches to the disease. With this focus, many of the
      correlates are based on retrospective review of sorafenib effectiveness.
      Sorafenib, an oral targeted multi-kinase inhibitor, is currently the standard of
      care systemic agent for non-resectable disease. The Wnt-pathway, particularly
      when activated, is the most commonly cited molecular marker of sorafenib
      responsiveness. Additional work has identified a profile of genes involved in
      drug absorption, processing, and elimination that also appears to increase
      responsiveness. Overall, despite promising clinical data the use of biomarkers in
      the clinic for HCC is limited. In this piece, progress and opportunities for
      future work "beyond the genome" are highlighted, including metabolomic,
      epigenetic, and non-coding RNA studies. Additionally, barriers to the
      implementation of personalized therapeutic selection in HCC are reviewed.

PMID- 28577720
TI  - Multidisciplinary management of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Current
      approaches.
AB  - Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a common primary hepatic tumor. However,
      its outcomes are usually worse than those of hepatocellular carcinoma owing to
      its non-specific presentation and detection at an advanced stage. The most widely
      used serum marker, carbohydrate antigen 19-9, is non-specific. Furthermore,
      imaging studies rarely identify any pathognomonic features. Surgery is the only
      treatment option that offers a chance of long-term survival. However, the
      resectability rate is low owing to the high frequencies of intrahepatic
      metastases, peritoneal carcinomatosis, or extrahepatic metastases. Surgical
      treatment should be tailored according to the macroscopic classification of ICC
      (e.g. mass-forming, periductal infiltrating, and intraductal growth types)
      because it reflects the tumor's dissemination pattern. Although lymph node
      metastasis is a negative prognostic factor, the importance and extent of lymph
      node dissection is still controversial. To improve patient survival, liver
      transplantation is considered in some patients with unresectable ICC, especially
      in those with an insufficient remnant liver volume. Minimally invasive
      procedures, including laparoscopic and robotic liver resection, have been tested
      and achieved comparable outcomes to conventional surgery in preliminary studies.
      No randomized trials have confirmed the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in ICC,
      and several trials have evaluated molecular-targeted agents as monotherapy or in
      combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Multidisciplinary approaches are
      necessary to improve the outcomes of ICC.

PMID- 28577721
TI  - SGM-101: An innovative near-infrared dye-antibody conjugate that targets CEA for
      fluorescence-guided surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) provides surgeons with new
      opportunities to improve real-time cancer nodule detection and tumor margin
      visualization. Currently, the most important challenge in this field is the
      development of fluorescent dyes that specifically target tumors. We developed,
      characterized and evaluated SGM-101, an innovative antibody-dye conjugate in
      which the fluorochrome BM104, which has an absorbance band centered at 700 nm, is
      coupled to a chimeric monoclonal antibody (mAb) against carcinoembryonic antigen
      (CEA). METHODS: The dye to mAb ratio, binding to CEA and photobleaching of SGM
      101 were determined. FGS was performed and results analyzed using different mouse
      models of human digestive tumors. RESULTS: SGM-101 allowed the detection of tumor
      nodules in three different colon cancer models: LS174T human colorectal
      adenocarcinoma cell-induced peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) and liver metastases,
      and orthotopic grafts of HT29 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. In the PC
      model, submillimeter-sized nodules were detected during SGM-101-based FGS and SGM
      101 predictive positive values ranged from 99.04% to 90.24% for tumor nodules >10
      mg and nodules <1 mg, respectively. Similarly, in the orthotopic model of
      pancreatic cancer using BxPC3 (pancreas adenocarcinoma) cells, SGM-101 could
      clearly delineate tumors in vivo with a tumor-to-background ratio of 3.5, and
      penetrated in tumor nodules, as demonstrated by histological analysis. Free BM105
      dye (BM104 with an activated ester for conjugation to the antibody) and an
      irrelevant conjugate did not induce any NIR fluorescence. CONCLUSION: These
      preclinical data indicate that SGM-101 is an attractive candidate for FGS of CEA
      expressing tumors and is currently assessed in clinical trials.

PMID- 28577723
TI  - Postoperative infections after limb-sparing surgery for primary bone tumors of
      the pelvis: Incidence, characterization and functional impact.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Surgical site infections (SSI) represent the most common
      postoperative complication after limb sparing surgery for primary malignant bone
      tumors, with incidence ranging from 10 to 47%. There is no consensus concerning
      about the optimal surgical strategy, or the adequate antibiotic prophylaxis in
      pelvic resections. A greater knowledge of these infections and their surgical
      trajectories seem essential to obtain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      studied 45 cases of pelvic resection, including at least the periacetabular zone
      2 of Enneking, performed between 1989 and 2013 in the same center. Infection
      rate, risk factors and surgical trajectories were analyzed. The impact of a
      postoperative infection on the quality of life and functional recovery was
      evaluated by the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society scoring system (MSTS). RESULTS:
      Sixteen patients presented a SSI in the first post-operative year (35.6%). We
      found as risk factors the pre-operative ASA score, the age at surgery and the
      number of packed red cells transfused during surgery. In case of failure of an
      initial washout, an iterative procedure is responsible for a high failure rate of
      88.9%. Irrespective of the type of reconstruction, our functional results show
      that this surgery is often a source of handicap with a MSTS score of 13.77 in
      infected patients versus 17.70 in non-infected patients, at two-year follow-up.
      DISCUSSION: In case of failure of an initial wash, prosthetic material must be
      removed and a hip transposition procedure should be preferred to a second-look
      surgery. Concerning prophylactic antibiotherapy, a dual therapy for at least 48 h
      after surgery should probably be preferred.

PMID- 28577722
TI  - Minimal impact of postmastectomy radiation therapy on locoregional recurrence for
      breast cancer patients with 1 to 3 positive lymph nodes in the modern treatment
      era.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Given modern treatment strategies, controversy remains regarding
      whether postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) is necessary for breast cancer
      patients with 1-3 positive axillary lymph nodes (ALN). Our aim was to assess the
      significance of PMRT in the modern treatment era for these patients. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We have conducted the retrospective multicenter study and identified 658
      patients with 1-3 positive ALN who were treated with mastectomy and ALN
      dissection between 1999 and 2012. Propensity score weighting was used to minimize
      the influence of confounding factors between the PMRT and no-PMRT groups. The
      variables including tumor size, lymph nodes status, skin and/or muscle invasion,
      histological grade, lymphovascular invasion and ER positivity which were
      statistically unbalanced between the groups were used to define the propensity
      scores. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 7.3 years. In the modern era (2006
      2012), no significant difference in locoregional recurrence (LRR)-free survival
      was noted between the PMRT and no-PMRT groups (P = 0.3625). The 8-year LRR-free
      survival rates of the PMRT and no-PMRT groups were 98.2% and 95.3%, respectively.
      After matching patients by propensity scores, the PMRT group, compared to the no
      PMRT group, exhibited significantly better locoregional control (P = 0.0366) in
      the entire cohort. The 10-year LRR-free survival rates were 97.8% and 88.4% in
      the PMRT and no-PMRT groups, respectively. In contrast, no significant difference
      in LRR-free survival was noted between the PMRT and no-PMRT groups in the modern
      era (P = 0.5298). The 8-year LRR-free survival rates of patients treated in the
      modern era were approximately the same between the groups (98.0% and 95.7% in the
      PMRT and no-PMRT groups, respectively). Particularly, LRR-free survival of HER2
      positive breast cancer significantly improved in the modern treatment era,
      compared with that of the old treatment era (P = 0.0349). CONCLUSION: PMRT had
      minimal impact on LRR for breast cancer patients with 1-3 positive ALN in the
      modern treatment era.

PMID- 28577724
TI  - Identification of the resection severity index as a significant independent
      prognostic factor for early mortality and observed survival >5 and >10 years
      after liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates predictive factors for observed
      long-term survival of more than 5 and 10 years for patients after liver resection
      for hepatocellular carcinoma and compares their life expectancy to the normal
      national population matched for sex, year of birth and age at resection. METHODS:
      230 patients after primary liver resection for HCC (01.01.1995-31.12.2004) were
      analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models were determined based on Cox
      regression results and their prognostic capability evaluated with areas under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROCs). RESULTS: Life years after
      surgery in deceased patients compared to the normal national population matched
      for sex, year of birth and age at resection was reduced by median 21.7 years.
      Independent predictive factors for 10-year survival were age at resection (p <
      0.001; OR = 0.898; 95%-CI: 0.846-0.954), UICC 7 tumor staging (p = 0.003; OR =
      0.344; 95%-CI: 0.126-0.941) and ASAT (GOT) in U/l divided by Quick in percent
      multiplied by the extent of liver resection graded in points labelled as the
      resection severity index (p < 0.001; OR = 0.136; 95%-CI: 0.022-0.843) enabling
      prediction of 10-year survival with an AUROC of 0.884. The same factors plus
      revision surgery (yes/no) predict 5-year survival (AUROC 0.736). CONCLUSIONS:
      Liver resection enables predictable long-term survival >5 and > 10 years. The
      proposed resection severity index quantifies the prognostic relevance of liver
      cellular damage, synthesis and loss of parenchyma for long-term survival.

PMID- 28577725
TI  - Postoperative liver volume was accurately predicted by a medical image three
      dimensional visualization system in hepatectomy for liver cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death
      worldwide. The hepatectomy is the most effective and the only potentially
      curative treatment for patients with resectable neoplasm. Precisely preoperative
      assessment of remnant liver volume is essential in preventing postoperative liver
      failure. The aim of our study is to report our experience of using a medical
      image three dimensional (3D) visualization system (MI-3DVS), which was developed
      by our team, in assisting hepatectomy for patients with liver cancer. METHODS:
      Between January 2010 and June 2016, 69 patients with liver cancer underwent
      hepatic resection based on the MI-3DVS were enrolled in this study. All patients
      underwent CT scan 5 days before the surgery and within 5 days after resection. CT
      images were reconstructed with the MI-3DVS to assist to perform hepatectomy.
      Simple linear regression, intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland
      Altman analysis were used to evaluate the relationship and agreement between
      actual excisional liver volume (AELV) and predicted excisional liver volume
      (PELV). RESULTS: Among 69 patients in this study, 62(89.85%) of them were
      diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma by histopathologic examination, and
      41(59.42%) underwent major hepatectomy. The average AELV was 330.13 cm3 and the
      average PELV was 287.67 cm3. The simple regression equation is AELV = 1.016 *
      PELV+30.39(r = 0.966; p < 0.0003). PELV (ICC = 0.964) achieved an excellent
      agreement with AELV with statistical significance (p < 0.001). 65 of 69 dots are
      in the range of 95% confidence interval in Bland-Altman analyses. CONCLUSIONS:
      The MI-3DVS has advantages of simple usage and convenient hold. It is accurate in
      assessment of postoperative liver volume and improve safety in liver resection.

PMID- 28577726
TI  - Updates in hepatic oncology imaging.
AB  - The utilization of advanced imaging modalities play an important role in the
      detection and differentiation of benign and malignant hepatic lesions. Imaging
      characteristics of hepatic tumors can sometimes be atypical, often leading to
      diagnostic challenges. Recent technical improvements in contrast enhanced
      ultrasound (CEUS), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      have helped to better characterize hepatic lesions. For example, contrast agents
      used in US can now better delineate liver lesions, while the ability to reliably
      produce multiplanar and 3-D reconstructions through the use of MDCT provides an
      additional advantage in the context of therapeutic decision making for patients
      with hepatic lesions. In addition, modern MR that includes the use of biliary
      excreted contrast material, various post-processing techniques like multiplanar
      reformation (MPR), as well as volume rendering (VR) allow detailed evaluation of
      the biliary tract, hepatic vasculature, and better characterization of hepatic
      tumors. As the imaging technologies available continue to evolve and advance,
      understanding how to effectively utilize these modalities is key to clinical
      practice. We herein provide a review of the various hepatic oncologic imaging
      modalities with a focus on how advancements and novel techniques within the
      different fields may be utilized in the diagnosis, treatment and management of
      different benign and malignant hepatic lesions.

PMID- 28577727
TI  - Spleen-preserving lymphadenectomy versus splenectomy in laparoscopic total
      gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate the optimal approach for laparoscopic splenic hilum
      lymph node dissection in proximal advanced gastric cancer, we compared the
      operative outcomes between laparoscopic spleen-preserving total gastrectomy (sp
      LTG) and laparoscopic total gastrectomy with splenectomy (sr-LTG). METHODS: A
      retrospective case-cohort study was conducted between February 2006 and December
      2012. The operative outcomes, the number of retrieved splenic hilum lymph node,
      complication, and patients' survivals were analyzed. RESULTS: 112 patients who
      underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy with or without splenectomy for advanced
      gastric cancer were enrolled (68 sp-LTGs and 44 sr-LTGs). The mean operation time
      (227 min vs. 224 min, p = 0.762), estimated blood loss (157 ml vs. 164 ml, p =
      0.817), and complication rate (17.6% vs. 13.6%, p = 0.572) were not different
      between two groups. Regarding splenic lymph node dissection, there were
      significantly differences in the mean number of retrieved lymph nodes between sp
      LTG and sr-LTG (LN no.10; 1.78 vs. 3.21, p = 0.033, LN no.11d; 1.41 vs. 2.76, p =
      0.004). The 5-year survivals were 77.3% in sp-LTG and 65.9% in sr-LTG (p =
      0.240). The hazard ratio of splenectomy was 1.139 (95% confidence interval 0.514
      2.526, p = 0.748). CONCLUSION: In laparoscopic total gastrectomy for proximal
      advanced gastric cancer, spleen-preserving hilar dissection showed comparable
      short-term and long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28577728
TI  - Socioeconomic and gender disparities in anal cancer diagnosis and treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether receipt of radiation in
      patients with anal carcinoma is related to income level and other demographic
      factors. METHODS: The SEER database (1988-2011) was queried and linked to the
      Area Health Resources File (AHRF). We used logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier
      analyses to correlate receipt of radiation and overall and cancer-specific
      survival with tumor stage, age, gender, and income. RESULTS: Of 28,028 patients
      with anal cancer, 14,783 (53%) received radiation. Patients in the lowest
      quartile for median household income were significantly more likely to present at
      higher stages, were 1.87 times more likely to receive radiation (95% CI 1.74
      2.00, p < 0.001), and 1.27 times more likely to die of anal cancer (95% CI 1.18
      1.33, p < 0.001) than those in the highest income quartile. Within most stages,
      however, the wealthiest patients were more likely to receive radiation therapy
      than the poorest patients. Additionally, we found that women presented at higher
      stages (p < 0.001), were 2.67 times more likely to receive radiation (95% CI 2.55
      2.81, p < 0.001), and were 1.25 times more likely to die of anal cancer than men
      (95% CI 1.17-1.32, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Women and poorer patients present
      with more advanced stages of anal cancer, more commonly receive radiation, and
      are more likely to die of anal cancer than men and wealthier patients,
      respectively.

PMID- 28577729
TI  - [Acute obstructive nephropathy: A pathophysiological view].
AB  - Obstructive acute renal failure is a heterogeneous entity as the pathophysiology
      of intratubular obstruction is quite different from upper tract obstruction. In
      the former case, tubules are dilated due to a high hydrostatic pressure whereas
      pressures are normal in urinary upper tract. In the latter case, a high pressure
      above the ureteral obstacle is responsible for dilated renal cavities leading to
      extrinsic compression with no or only few dilated tubules though high hydrostatic
      pressure are recorded within tubules. Obstruction within tubules may be related
      to crystal formation, exfoliated cells, cellular debris and/or protein gels
      altogether with cell proliferation, proliferating cells, and recruitment of
      inflammatory cells. Though fibrosis may develop, the occurrence of atubular
      glomeruli in several nephrons due to an initial loss of tubular patency
      highlights the critical importance of maintaining a fluid flow within tubules in
      order to avoid uncontrolled tubular cell proliferation. The onset of tubular
      obstruction in few tubules, especially in crystal nephropathy is underestimated
      especially in chronic kidney disease patients, thus suggesting that some
      macromolecular solubilizing factors may be potential relevant therapy to prevent
      (and/or reverse) chronic kidney disease progression or decrease acute renal
      failure sequelae.

PMID- 28577730
TI  - [Sucroferric oxyhydroxide, a novel iron-based phosphate binder. Which current use
      in dialysis patients?]
AB  - International guidelines suggest lowering elevated phosphorus level to the normal
      range in patients on dialysis. Among the phosphate-lowering strategies, phosphate
      binder is frequently used in addition to dietary phosphate restriction and an
      adequate dialysis strategy. However, serum phosphate concentration higher than
      1.78mmol/L is observed in more than 40% of patients justifying the quest for new
      drugs. Sucroferric oxyhydroxide is one of the new iron-based agents and is
      available in France since May 2016. A recent international multicentre study
      showed this new drug to be as efficacious and non-inferior to sevelamer carbonate
      in magnitude of serum phosphate control. The serum phosphorus-lowering effect was
      maintained over 1year. When compared to carbonate sevelamer, the pill-burden was
      half with sucroferric oxyhydroxide because of its high phosphate binding
      capacity. As previously shown by experimental studies, no risk of iron
      accumulation was observed since iron absorption is negligible. Discolored feces
      and diarrhea were fairly frequent side effects. When diarrhea subsides, the
      tolerability of this new phosphate binder is excellent on a long-term basis.

PMID- 28577731
TI  - Thrombotic microangiopathies and antineoplastic agents.
AB  - Thrombotic microangiopathy is a well-described complication of cancer treatment.
      Its incidence has increased these last decades, as a result of a better awareness
      of this complication in cancer patients in one hand, but also of a larger array
      of therapeutic compounds including anti-vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF)
      drugs. It is therefore mandatory to recognize these conditions since they have a
      significant impact in thrombotic microangiopathies management and prognosis.
      Practitioners should be aware of the more classical antineoplastic agents
      associated with thrombotic microangiopathies, the mechanisms by which they induce
      them, and the resulting management and prognosis. Since malignancy itself can
      induce thrombotic microangiopathies, it is also mandatory to know how to
      distinguish rapidly those caused by antineoplastic agents from those associated
      with cancer, for an adapted management. Thrombotic microangiopathies associated
      with chemotherapy remain of dismal prognosis. A better understanding of
      pathophysiology in these forms of thrombotic microangiopathies, in association
      with a more empirical approach through the use of new therapeutic agents that can
      also help in the understanding on new mechanisms a posteriori, should improve
      their prognosis. The preliminary encouraging results reported with complement
      blockers in this field could represent a convincing example.

PMID- 28577732
TI  - [Prospective: How will renal, prostatic and urothelial tumours be treated in 10
      years?]
AB  - Forward thinking does not seek to predict the future, to unveil it as if it were
      already in existence, rather, its aim is to help us to construct it. Although
      today's epidemiological and therapeutic situations for urogenital tumours can
      evolve over the next 10 years, diagnostic and therapeutic methods, as well as the
      treatment and implementation of innovations, are already rapidly changing. Rather
      than reducing our prospective thinking to the therapeutic treatment of cancer
      only, we will aim at proposing a global sanitary vision that includes diagnosis,
      therapies, prevention, routine utilisation of technomedicine, genomics and even
      nanomedicine. This journey into the near future of tomorrow's cancerology holds
      the promise of being better adapted to the evolution of the medical thinking
      process. Imagining the way we will be treating renal, prostatic and urothelial
      tumours in 10 years' time is as much an introspection into our present day
      treatment system as a projection into its hoped for future evolution.

PMID- 28577733
TI  - [Transplant tolerance through mixed chimerism].
AB  - Three pilot studies have offered proof-of-concept that operational tolerance can
      be induced through mixed chimerism in recipients of combined kidney and
      hematopoietic cell transplants from the same donor. In two studies, sustained
      mixed chimerism was induced allowing safe and rejection-free immunosuppression
      withdrawal. However, this success came at heavy toll, requiring harsh
      cytoreductive regimen and a balance tipped toward graft-versus-host reactivity.
      Hence, achievement of durable chimerism in humans is not devoid of a significant
      risk of graft-versus-host disease. In contrast, transient mixed chimerism can be
      induced with non-myeloablative and a less cytotoxic regimen, leading to
      transplant tolerance, whose underpinning mechanisms are more complex, involving T
      cell exhaustion, peripheral deletion and suppression.

PMID- 28577734
TI  - [Renal replacement therapy for acute kidney injury in the intensive care unit].
AB  - Renal replacement therapy for acute kidney injury has been used for more than 60
      years. Except when life-threatening metabolic complications such as severe
      hyperkalaemia are present, renal replacement therapy initiation criteria are the
      subject of intense debate. Significant progress has been made with the
      publication of the AKIKI multicenter trial, which showed that a delayed renal
      replacement therapy initiation strategy (in the absence of life-threatening
      metabolic complications) was not associated with a difference in mortality
      compared to an early renal replacement therapy initiation strategy. In addition,
      this delayed strategy obviated the need for renal replacement therapy in almost
      50% of cases was associated with a more rapid renal function recovery and with a
      lower incidence of catheter-bloodstream related infections. Research on renal
      replacement therapy modalities (continuous vs. intermittent renal replacement
      therapy, citrate vs. heparin anticoagulation, jugular vs. femoral
      catheterization) did not show any obvious superiority of one modality over
      another. Thus, the choice depends mainly on local considerations (patient
      recruitment, availability of modalities, staff experience). The criteria for
      renal replacement therapy discontinuation are still unclear due to difficulties
      in assessing renal function recovery. Urine output remains the main criteria in
      the decision to wean from renal replacement therapy. Pending the confirmation of
      AKIKI trial by similar studies in progress, it seems reasonable to choose a
      delayed renal replacement therapy initiation strategy under watchful surveillance
      in case of severe acute kidney injury in the absence of life-threatening
      metabolic complications.

PMID- 28577735
TI  - [New scores in renal transplantation: How can we use them?]
AB  - In renal transplant medicine, several scores have been recently developed in
      order to help decision-making in clinical practice. The aim of this update is to
      focus on these new scores that allow to better estimate the quality of the renal
      transplant, to refine the allocation policy, to help registration of old
      recipients on the waiting list, or to evaluate the risk to develop end-stage
      renal failure after living donation.

PMID- 28577736
TI  - [Post-transplantation diabetes mellitus in kidney recipients].
AB  - Post-transplantation diabetes mellitus is defined as diabetes that is diagnosed
      in grafted patients. It affects 20 to 30 % of kidney transplant recipients, with
      a high incidence in the first year. The increasing age at transplantation and the
      rising incidence of obesity may increase its prevalence in the next years. Post
      transplantation diabetes mellitus is associated with poor outcomes, such as
      mortality, cardiovascular events or graft dysfunction. Its occurrence is mainly
      related to immunosuppressive agents, affecting both insulin secretion and
      sensibility. Immunosuppressants may be iatrogenic, and as such, induce an early
      and transient diabetes. They may also precociously determine a permanent
      diabetes, acting here as a promoting factor in patients proned to the development
      of type 2 diabetes. Lastly, they may behave, far from transplantation, as an
      additional risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The screening, management and
      prognosis of these different subtypes of post-transplantation diabetes mellitus
      will be different.

PMID- 28577737
TI  - [Screening and management of intracranial aneurisms in patients with autosomal
      dominant polycystic kidney disease].
AB  - Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is the most frequent hereditary
      kidney disease. Intracranial aneurysm prevalence in this population is four to
      five times higher than the prevalence in the general population. The most
      frequent complication of intracranial aneurysms is rupture with subarachnoidal
      hemorrhage, which is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. The only
      identified risk factor for unruptured intracranial aneurysm is a family history
      of intracranial aneurysm. However, most cases of aneurysm rupture occur without
      any family history of intracranial aneurysm. Magnetic resonance angiography
      without contrast medium injection facilitates screening, and progress have been
      made in preventive (endovascular or neurosurgical) treatment of intracranial
      aneurysm. Recommendations have recently been published concerning intracranial
      aneurysm screening, and suggest screening patients with autosomal dominant
      polycystic kidney disease and a family history of intracranial aneurysm, those
      who have an at-risk activity and those who request screening despite adequate
      information. Conflicting opinions exist, however, in the literature. Furthermore,
      a study of practice was conducted among French-speaking nephrologists in Europe
      and showed that approximately a third of the participants were in favor of
      systematic screening for intracranial aneurysm in all patients with autosomal
      dominant polycystic kidney disease. Beyond intracranial aneurysm prevalence, it
      is necessary to better define rupture rates in the autosomal dominant polycystic
      kidney disease population, with and without familial history of intracranial
      aneurysm. This would allow optimizing intracranial aneurysm screening practices
      in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

PMID- 28577738
TI  - [PIK3CA-related overgrowth syndrome (PROS)].
AB  - This review presents an overview of a recently characterized spectrum of
      overgrowth syndrome: phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)-related overgrowth spectrum
      (PROS). This spectrum encompasses overgrowth syndromes associated with somatic
      mosaic activating PIK3CA mutations such as megalencephaly-capillary malformation
      (MCAP) syndrome, dysplatic megalencephaly (DMEG), congenital lipomatous
      asymmetric overgrowth of the trunk, lymphatic, capillary, venous, and combined
      type vascular malformations, epidermal nevi, skeletal and spinal anomalies
      (CLOVES) syndrome, hemihyperplasia-multiple lipomatosis (HHML), fibroadipose
      overgrowth and Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome. Mosaic gain of function mutation in
      PIK3CA gene leads to abnormal AKT-mTOR pathway activation and is responsible of
      the clinical manifestations. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on this
      disorder.

PMID- 28577739
TI  - Mitochondrial cytopathies and the kidney.
AB  - Mitochondrial cytopathies include a heterogeneous group of diseases that are
      characterized by impaired oxidative phosphorylation. Current evidence suggests
      that renal involvement is probably more frequent than originally suspected but
      remains subclinical in a significant number of patients or is underestimated due
      to the severity of other clinical manifestations. Until recently, these diseases
      were thought to develop primarily in pediatric patients but patients that become
      symptomatic only in adulthood are now well recognized. From a renal standpoint,
      many patients with severe systemic disease and several patients with oligo
      symptomatic clinical pictures have tubular defects, ranging from isolated tubular
      wasting of electrolytes to complete forms of renal Fanconi syndrome. Aside from
      rare cases of tubulo-interstitial and cystic diseases, other patients present
      with glomerular diseases that correspond in the majority of cases to focal
      segmental glomerulosclerosis lesions. Two specific entities should be singled
      out, namely the 3243 A>G mutation in the gene encoding for the mitochondrial
      leucine tRNA because it represents the most frequent form of mitochondrial
      glomerulopathy, and defects in the biosynthesis of coenzyme Q10 because they
      represent one of the few treatable forms of mitochondrial cytopathies.

PMID- 28577740
TI  - Oxygen sensors as therapeutic targets in kidney disease.
AB  - Hypoxia is a common clinical problem that has profound effects on renal
      homeostasis. Prolyl-4-hydroxylases PHD1, 2 and 3 function as oxygen sensors and
      control the activity of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), an oxygen-sensitive
      transcription factor that regulates a multitude of hypoxia responses, which help
      cells and tissues to adapt to low oxygen environments. This review provides an
      overview of the molecular mechanisms that govern these hypoxia responses and
      discusses clinical experience with compounds that inhibit prolyl-4-hydroxylases
      to harness HIF responses for therapy in nephrology.

PMID- 28577741
TI  - [Role of the kidneys in glucose homeostasis. Implication of sodium-glucose
      cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) in diabetes mellitus treatment].
AB  - Kidney plays an important role in glucose homeostasis, both in the post
      absorptive and postprandial period. Kidney produces glucose by gluconeogenesis in
      the renal cortex and uses glucose for covering energy needs of the medulla.
      Kidney participates also to the reabsorption of filtered glucose in order the
      terminal urine was devoided of glucose, as long as blood glucose did not exceed
      180mg/dL. Reabsorption of glucose is mediated by sodium-glucose cotransporters
      (SGLT1 et SGLT2) expressed in S1 and S3 segments of proximal tubule. SGLT2 is the
      main sodium-glucose cotransporter responsible for 90% of glucose reabsorption. In
      type 2 diabetics, renal gluconeogenesis and glucose utilisation are increased by
      30%. Surprisingly, renal glucose reabsorption is increased, participating to
      worsening of hyperglycemia. This results from the increase in the renal
      threshhold of glucose reabsorption (220mg/dL) and from an overexpression of SGLT2
      in response to hyperglycemia and of cytokine secretion. The administration of
      SGLT2 inhibitors to type 2 diabetic patients induced a decreased in the renal
      threshhold of glucose reabsorption (80mg/dL) and strongly reduced kidney glucose
      reabsorption. The inhibitors of SGLT2 are the only antidiabetic molecules able to
      correct the excessive renal glucose reabsorption in type 2 diabetics and thus to
      contribute, by an original mechanism, to the lowering of blood glucose level.

PMID- 28577742
TI  - Dual renin-angiotensin system blockade for nephroprotection.
AB  - In experimental diabetic and nondiabetic chronic kidney disease, angiotensin
      converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB)
      combination therapy reduce proteinuria and prevent structural lesions more
      effectively than either drug alone. Consistently, in humans, a multidrug
      individually tailored antiproteinuric treatment based on combination therapy with
      maximum tolerated doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and
      angiotensin receptor blockers ("Remission Clinic") reduced proteinuria and
      prevented end-stage renal disease more effectively than angiotensin-converting
      enzyme/angiotensin receptor blockers monotherapy, in particular in subjects with
      nondiabetic chronic kidney disease. Fixed doses of an angiotensin-converting
      enzyme inhibitor or renin inhibitor added-on losartan failed to exert any
      additional renoprotective effect as compared with losartan monotherapy in
      patients with type 2 diabetes and overt nephropathy. However, the VA NEPHRON D
      study found that losartan and lisinopril combination therapy reduced by 34 % the
      risk of pre-defined reductions in estimated glomerular filtration rate, end-stage
      renal disease or death as compared to losartan in 1448 type 2 diabetes patients
      with overt nephropathy. Unfortunately, treatment effect failed to achieve the
      nominal significance (P=0.07) because of premature trial interruption. Thus, the
      Remission Clinic protocol is the most powerful tool to prevent progression to end
      stage renal disease in nondiabetic proteinuric chronic kidney disease. Results of
      the ongoing VALID trial will show whether this approach can be safely extended to
      type 2 diabetes patients.

PMID- 28577743
TI  - Renin-angiotensin system blockade: Finerenone.
AB  - Finerenone is a novel selective nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor
      antagonist. Results in preclinical studies showed that lower doses of finerenone
      were needed to achieve similar cardiorenal protective effects compared to both
      spironolactone and eplerenone and phase II studies in finerenone in patients with
      heart failure, type-2 diabetes mellitus and/or chronic kidney disease are
      encouraging as the drug is effective and safe in patients on renin-angiotensin
      system inhibitors (significant reduction in albuminuria and a low rate of
      hyperkalemia), but the primary end points were "soft" end points (serum
      potassium, estimated glomerular filtration rate, albuminuria, N-terminal
      prohormone B-type natriuretic peptide levels). Thus, further, large-scale, long
      term phase III trials are needed to confirm whether the greater affinity and
      selectivity is translated into improved clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28577744
TI  - Orthostatic hypotension: A review.
AB  - Orthostatic hypotension, defined by a drop in blood pressure of at least 20mmHg
      for systolic blood pressure and at least 10mmHg for diastolic blood pressure
      within 3minutes of standing up, is a frequent finding, particularly in elderly
      patients. It is associated with a significant increase in morbidity and
      mortality. Although it is often multifactorial, the first favoring factor is
      medications. Other etiologies are divided in neurogenic orthostatic hypotension,
      characterized by autonomic failure due to central or peripheral nervous system
      disorders, and non-neurogenic orthostatic hypotension, mainly favoured by
      hypovolemia. Treatment always requires education of the patient regarding
      triggering situations and physiological countermanoeuvers. Pharmacological
      treatment may sometimes be necessary and mainly relies on volume expansion by
      fludrocortisone and/or a vasopressor agents such as midodrine. There is no
      predefined blood pressure target, the goal of therapy being the relief of
      symptoms and fall prevention.

PMID- 28577745
TI  - [Blood pressure targets in nephrology in 2017].
AB  - Epidemiological data clearly show that high blood pressure is associated with
      cardiovascular mortality and progression of chronic kidney disease. Although
      several randomized controlled trials performed over the last decades have
      demonstrated a cardiovascular benefit of reducing blood pressure in hypertensive
      patients, solid evidence for general and specific blood pressure targets,
      especially in the population with chronic kidney disease, is lacking. In this
      context, recently published trials have provided novel insights in the management
      of hypertension. Here, we review and discuss the existing evidence and the
      current guidelines on blood pressure targets in both the general and the
      population with chronic kidney disease.

PMID- 28577746
TI  - [Non-dialytic treatment of acute kidney injury].
AB  - Acute kidney injury is frequently encountered in patients in intensive care units
      and is associated with higher risk of mortality and chronic renal failure. Even
      small increases in serum creatinine are associated with adverse outcomes. Many
      interventions have been proposed to prevent or treat acute kidney injury in
      patients in intensive care units. However, no intervention has proved its
      efficacy in large randomized control trials. This review presents the various
      attempts aiming at acute kidney injury improvement in patients in intensive care
      units published over the recent years: hemodynamic interventions, "usual" drugs
      used in intensive care units, modulation of inflammation and hemostasis, remote
      ischemic conditioning, drugs specifically dedicated for acute kidney injury, and
      stimulation of renal recovery.

PMID- 28577747
TI  - [Membranous nephropathy: Pathophysiology and natural history].
AB  - Membranous nephropathy is a major cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults, with
      various etiologies and outcomes. One third of patients enter spontaneous
      remission with blockade of the renin-angiotensin system, one third develop a
      persistent nephrotic syndrome, while another third of patients develop end-stage
      kidney disease and 40% of them relapse after kidney transplantation. Treatment of
      membranous nephropathy remains controversial. Immunosuppressive therapy is only
      recommended in case of renal function deterioration or persistent nephrotic
      syndrome after 6months of renin-angiotensin system blockade. Therefore, delayed
      immunosuppressive treatments may lead to significant and potentially irreversible
      complications. For long, no biological markers could predict clinical outcome and
      guide therapy. The discovery of autoantibodies to the phospholipase A2 receptor
      (PLA2R1) in 2009, and to the thrombospondin type 1 domain containing 7A (THSD7A)
      in 2014 in respectively 70 and 5% of patients with membranous nephropathy were
      major breakthroughs. The passive infusion of human anti-THSD7A antibodies in
      mouse induces proteinuria and membranous nephropathy. The identification of these
      antigens has allowed developing diagnostic and prognostic tests. High anti-PLA2R1
      titers at time of diagnosis predict a poor renal outcome. Anti-PLA2R1 antibodies
      can bind at least three different domains of PLA2R1. Epitope spreading with
      binding of two or three of these antigenic domains is associated with active
      membranous nephropathy and poor renal survival. These new tools could help us to
      monitor disease severity and to predict renal prognosis for a better selection of
      patients that should benefit of early immunosuppressive therapy.

PMID- 28577748
TI  - [Membranous nephropathy: New insights in therapeutic approach].
AB  - Membranous nephropathy is one of the leading causes of nephrotic syndrome in
      adults, evolving to 30 % end-stage renal disease after 10 years, in the absence
      of specific treatment. In 2009, the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R), a
      podocyte membrane glycoprotein, was identified as the first autoantigen involved
      in more than 70 % of primitive membranous nephropathy. Many studies have reported
      that high titers of PLA2R antibodies are correlated with a lower risk of
      spontaneous or immunosuppressant-induced remission, a higher risk of nephrotic
      syndrome and of progression to end-stage renal disease. Treatment is still
      challenging and controversial because of potential toxicity and lack of a
      reliable prognosis marker. In the past, the 2012 Kidney Disease: Improving Global
      Outcomes (KDIGO) clinical practice guidelines recommended immunosuppressive
      therapies as steroids and alkylating agents or cyclosporine in patients with
      persistent nephrotic syndrome or impaired renal function. Recent studies and one
      multicentric randomised controlled trial brought clear evidence to support the
      use of rituximab in these patients: rituximab regimen induces immunological and
      clinical remission in patients with membranous nephropathy, with a high safety
      profile. However, they have provided important data on the impact of PLA2R
      antibodies assessment as a prognostic biomarker in patients with membranous
      nephropathy. The next step will be the integration of this biomarker in KDIGO
      guidelines and the recommendation of rituximab as a first line immunosuppressive
      therapy in patient with persistent nephrotic syndrome due to membranous
      nephropathy.

PMID- 28577749
TI  - [Modelling of phosphorus transfers during haemodialysis].
AB  - Chronic kidney disease causes hyperphosphatemia, which is associated with
      increased cardiovascular risk and mortality. In patients with end-stage renal
      disease, haemodialysis allows the control of hyperphosphatemia. During a 4-h
      haemodialysis session, between 600 and 700mg of phosphate are extracted from the
      plasma, whereas the latter contains only 90mg of inorganic phosphate. The precise
      origin of phosphates remains unknown. The modelling of phosphorus transfers
      allows to predict the outcome after changes in dialysis prescription (duration,
      frequency) with simple two-compartment models and to describe the transfers
      between the different body compartments with more complex models. Work using 31P
      nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy performed in animals showed an increase
      in intracellular phosphate concentration and a decrease in intracellular ATP
      during a haemodialysis session suggesting an intracellular origin of phosphates.

PMID- 28577750
TI  - [Strategies aiming to control hyperphosphatemia in chronic kidney disease].
AB  - Chronic kidney disease is known to be associated with phosphate retention. The
      mechanisms are complex and the early increase in serum phosphate levels in
      chronic kidney disease is not strictly related to the dietary phosphate load or
      to the degree of phosphate retention. It also implicates the activity of
      intestinal sodium-phosphate cotransporters, the degree of bone turnover and the
      retention and/or phosphate release from the skeleton, and the feedback mechanisms
      regulating the phosphaturia. Indeed, the increase in serum phosphate levels is
      only a reflection of underlying complex mechanisms, and many important factors
      play a role including parathyroid hormone, vitamin D, fibroblast growth factor 23
      (FGF23), and others. Hyperphosphatemia increases the risk of cardiovascular
      morbidity and mortality in chronic kidney disease as well as in subjects with
      normal renal function. Oral phosphate binders are prescribed in patients with
      chronic kidney disease and in those treated by dialysis, to prevent intestinal
      absorption of dietary phosphate and reduce serum phosphate. In prospective
      observational studies, they have been shown to decrease all-cause and
      cardiovascular mortality risk. However, different problems have been associated
      with currently available phosphate binders including the induction of a positive
      calcium balance and impaired outcomes with calcium-based phosphate binders or
      increased costs with non-calcium-based phosphate binders. Iron-based phosphate
      binders represent a new class of phosphate binders. The aim of this article is to
      provide an update review of the pathophysiological mechanisms leading and
      maintaining elevated serum phosphate levels in patients with chronic kidney
      disease and patients in dialysis, and the educational, nutritional, and
      therapeutic strategies that can be undertaken to control the hyperphosphatemia.

PMID- 28577751
TI  - Association Between Local Bipolar Voltage and Conduction Gap Along the Left
      Atrial Linear Ablation Lesion in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - A bipolar voltage reflects a thick musculature where formation of a transmural
      lesion may be hard to achieve. The purpose of this study was to explore the
      association between local bipolar voltage and conduction gap in patients with
      persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) who underwent atrial roof or septal linear
      ablation. This prospective observational study included 42 and 36 consecutive
      patients with persistent AF who underwent roof or septal linear ablations,
      respectively. After pulmonary vein isolation, left atrial linear ablations were
      performed, and conduction gap sites were identified and ablated after first-touch
      radiofrequency application. Conduction gap(s) after the first-touch roof and
      septal linear ablation were observed in 13 (32%) and 19 patients (53%),
      respectively. Roof and septal area voltages were higher in patients with
      conduction gap(s) than in those without (roof, 1.23 +/- 0.77 vs 0.73 +/- 0.42 mV,
      p = 0.010; septal, 0.96 +/- 0.43 vs 0.54 +/- 0.18 mV, p = 0.001). Trisected
      regional analyses revealed that the voltage was higher at the region with a
      conduction gap than at the region without. Complete conduction block across the
      roof and septal lines was not achieved in 3 (7%) and 6 patients (17%),
      respectively. Patients in whom a linear conduction block could not be achieved
      demonstrated higher ablation area voltage than those with a successful conduction
      block (roof, 1.91 +/- 0.74 vs 0.81 +/- 0.51 mV, p = 0.001; septal, 1.15 +/- 0.56
      vs 0.69 +/- 0.31 mV, p = 0.006). In conclusion, a high regional bipolar voltage
      predicts failure to achieve conduction block after left atrial roof or septal
      linear ablation. In addition, the conduction gap was located at the preserved
      voltage area.

PMID- 28577752
TI  - Usefulness of a Gentle and Short Hemostasis Using the Transradial Band Device
      after Transradial Access for Percutaneous Coronary Angiography and Interventions
      to Reduce the Radial Artery Occlusion Rate (from the Prospective and Randomized
      CRASOC I, II, and III Studies).
AB  - The study sought to evaluate the benefit of the reduction in intensity and
      duration of the hemostasis obtained with the transradial (TR) Band compression
      device on the radial artery occlusion (RAO) rate. RAO is the most frequent
      complication of TR access for cardiac catheterization and limits future use of
      this safe route. Its occurrence must be minimized. Between 2009 and 2016, 3,616
      TR accesses were randomized to TR Band hemostasis during 3 consecutive protocols:
      CRASOC I (Compression of Radial ArterieS without Occlusion): 13 versus 10 cc of
      air into the TR Band and for 4 hours of continuous compression; CRASOC II: 10 cc
      of air for 3 hours versus 2 hours of compression; and CRASOC III: 10 cc of air
      for 2 hours versus 1.5 hours of compression and virtual 4F introducer as default
      sheath (both arms). Radial artery patency was assessed by plethysmography at 24
      hours, using Doppler for doubtful or negative plethysmography. The primary end
      point, 24 hours of RAO, was markedly reduced when hemostasis was soft (10 cc of
      air) and short (1.5 hours) and resulted in a 2.3% rate of RAO versus 9.4% for 13
      cc, 4 hours. Hemostasis was obtained in 89% of patients with only 10 cc of air
      and in 97% of patients with less than the recommended 13 cc. About 8% of patients
      required more than the 1.5 hours of hemostasis time. In conclusion, short and
      soft hemostasis with the TR Band device leads to a low RAO rate.

PMID- 28577754
TI  - A review on the mechanical and thermodynamic robustness of superhydrophobic
      surfaces.
AB  - Advancements in the fabrication and study of superhydrophobic surfaces have been
      significant over the past 10years, and some 20years after the discovery of the
      lotus effect, the study of special wettability surfaces can be considered
      mainstream. While the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces is well advanced
      and the physical properties of superhydrophobic surfaces well-understood, the
      robustness of these surfaces, both in terms of mechanical and thermodynamic
      properties, are only recently getting attention in the literature. In this review
      we cover publications that appeared over the past ten years on the thermodynamic
      and mechanical robustness of superhydrophobic surfaces, by which we mean the long
      term stability under conditions of wear, shear and pressure. The review is
      divided into two parts, the first dedicated to thermodynamic robustness and the
      second dedicated to mechanical robustness of these complex surfaces. Our work is
      intended as an introductory review for researchers interested in addressing
      longevity and stability of superhydrophobic surfaces, and provides an outlook on
      outstanding aspects of investigation.

PMID- 28577755
TI  - Regeneration of Photoreceptor Outer Segments After Scleral Buckling Surgery for
      Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment.

PMID- 28577756
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28577753
TI  - Cocaine-Induced Chromatin Modifications Associate With Increased Expression and
      Three-Dimensional Looping of Auts2.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to drugs of abuse alters the epigenetic landscape of the
      brain's reward regions, such as the nucleus accumbens. We investigated how
      combinations of chromatin modifications affect genes that regulate responses to
      cocaine. We focused on Auts2, a gene linked to human evolution and cognitive
      disorders, which displays strong clustering of cocaine-induced chromatin
      modifications in this brain region. METHODS: We combined chromosome conformation
      capture, circularized chromosome conformation capture, and related approaches
      with behavioral paradigms relevant to cocaine phenotypes. Cell type-specific
      functions were assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and viral-mediated
      overexpression in Cre-dependent mouse lines. RESULTS: We observed that Auts2 gene
      expression is increased by repeated cocaine administration specifically in D2
      type medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens, an effect seen in male but
      not female mice. Auts2 messenger RNA expression was also upregulated postmortem
      in the nucleus accumbens of male human cocaine addicts. We obtained evidence that
      chromosomal looping, bypassing 1524 kb of linear genome, connects Auts2 to the
      Caln1 gene locus under baseline conditions. This looping was disrupted after
      repeated cocaine exposure, resulting in increased expression of both genes in D2
      type medium spiny neurons. Cocaine exposure reduces binding of CCCTC-binding
      factor, a chromosomal scaffolding protein, and increases histone and DNA
      methylation at the Auts-Caln1 loop base in the nucleus accumbens. Cell type
      specific overexpression of Auts2 or Caln1 in D2-type medium spiny neurons
      demonstrated that both genes promote cocaine reward. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      suggest that cocaine-induced alterations of neuronal three-dimensional genome
      organization destabilize higher order chromatin at specific loci that regulate
      responses to the drug.

PMID- 28577757
TI  - Robust statistical methods: A primer for clinical psychology and experimental
      psychopathology researchers.
AB  - This paper reviews and offers tutorials on robust statistical methods relevant to
      clinical and experimental psychopathology researchers. We review the assumptions
      of one of the most commonly applied models in this journal (the general linear
      model, GLM) and the effects of violating them. We then present evidence that
      psychological data are more likely than not to violate these assumptions. Next,
      we overview some methods for correcting for violations of model assumptions. The
      final part of the paper presents 8 tutorials of robust statistical methods using
      R that cover a range of variants of the GLM (t-tests, ANOVA, multiple regression,
      multilevel models, latent growth models). We conclude with recommendations that
      set the expectations for what methods researchers submitting to the journal
      should apply and what they should report.

PMID- 28577758
TI  - Diagnosis of recurrent venous thromboembolism.
AB  - The diagnostic management of suspected recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) is
      challenging for four main reasons. First, clinical decision rules are less useful
      to identity patients with a low pre-test probability. Second, the diagnostic
      performance of D-dimer tests is decreased. Together, these two point lead to a
      clearly lower proportion of patients in whom recurrent VTE can be ruled out
      without performing imaging tests. Third, recurrent thrombi may be difficult to
      differentiate from residual thrombi, which may be often identified in patients
      with a history of VTE. Fourth and lastly, the prevalence of VTE in patients with
      suspected recurrent disease is higher than in patients with suspected first VTE.
      As a consequence, the failure rates of the algorithms in patients with suspected
      recurrent VTE are higher as well, underling the relevance of accurate diagnostic
      management of this specific patient population. There is a lack of large well
      designed diagnostic studies that focus mainly on patients with prior VTE. Even
      so, available evidence suggests that diagnostic algorithms validated for first
      VTE are also largely applicable to suspected recurrent VTE. Emerging imaging
      techniques such as magnetic resonance direct thrombus imaging (MRDTI) are likely
      to improve the accuracy of the algorithms in the near future.

PMID- 28577759
TI  - pIP40a, a type 1 IncC plasmid from 1969 carries the integrative element GIsul2
      and a novel class II mercury resistance transposon.
AB  - The 167.5kb sequence of the conjugative IncC plasmid pIP40a, isolated from a
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 1969, was analysed. pIP40a confers resistance to
      kanamycin, neomycin, ampicillin, sulphonamides and mercuric ions, and several
      insertions in a type 1 IncC backbone were found, including copies of IS3, Tn1000
      and a novel mercury resistance transposon, Tn6182. The antibiotic resistance
      genes were in two locations. Tn6023, containing the aphA1 kanamycin and neomycin
      resistance gene, is in a partial copy of Tn1/Tn2/Tn3 (blaTEM, ampicillin
      resistance) in the kfrA gene, and the sul2 sulphonamide resistance gene is in the
      integrative element GIsul2 in the position of ARI-B islands. The 11.5kb class II
      transposon Tn6182 is only distantly related to other class II transposons, with
      at most 33% identity between the TnpA of Tn6182 and TnpA of other group members.
      In addition, the inverted repeats are 37bp rather than 38bp, and the likely
      resolution enzyme is a tyrosine recombinase (TnpI). Re-annotation of GIsul2
      revealed genes predicted to confer resistance to arsenate and arsenite, but
      resistance was not detected. The location of GIsul2 confirms it as the progenitor
      of the ARI-B configurations seen in many IncC plasmids isolated more recently.
      However, GIsul2 has integrated at the same site in type 1 and type 2 IncC
      plasmids, indicating that it targets this site. Analysis of the distribution of
      GIsul2 revealed that it in addition to its chromosomal integration site at the 3'
      end of the guaA gene, it has also integrated into other plasmids, increasing its
      mobility.

PMID- 28577761
TI  - The Troublesome Epidemiology of Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal
      Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma diagnoses have increased
      markedly in recent decades. Recent research with patients diagnosed with
      Barrett's esophagus (the only known precursor for esophageal adenocarcinoma) and
      esophageal adenocarcinoma has identified several modifiable and nonmodifiable
      potential risk factors. Consistent risk factors for both disorders include
      increasing age, male sex, white non-Hispanic race/ethnicity, gastroesophageal
      reflux disease, lack of infection with Helicobacter pylori, smoking, abdominal
      obesity, and a Western diet. The authors present detailed discussions of these
      risk factors along with possible explanations for some apparent discrepancies and
      ideas for future study.

PMID- 28577760
TI  - The occurrence of three D-J-C clusters within the dromedary TRB locus highlights
      a shared evolution in Tylopoda, Ruminantia and Suina.
AB  - The alphabeta T cells are important components of the adaptive immune system and
      can recognize a vast array of peptides presented by MHC molecules. The ability of
      these T cells to recognize the complex depends on the diversity of the alphabeta
      TR, which is generated by a recombination of specific Variable, Diversity and
      Joining genes for the beta chain, and Variable and Joining genes for the alpha
      chain. In this study, we analysed the genomic structure and the gene content of
      the TRB locus in Camelus dromedarius, which is a species belonging to the
      Tylopoda suborder. The most noteworthy result is the presence of three in tandem
      TRBD-J-C clusters in the dromedary TRB locus, which is similar to clusters found
      in sheep, cattle and pigs and suggests a common duplication event occurred prior
      to the Tylopoda/Ruminantia/Suina divergence. Conversely, a significant
      contraction of the dromedary TRBV genes, which was previously found in the TRG
      and TRD loci, was observed with respect to the other artiodactyl species.

PMID- 28577762
TI  - Who Deserves Endoscopic Screening for Esophageal Neoplasia?
AB  - Despite the availability of safe and effective endoscopic treatment of Barrett's
      esophagus (BE)-related dysplasia and neoplasia, the incidence and mortality from
      esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) have continued to increase. This likely stems
      from the large population of patients that develop EAC outside of a BE screening
      and surveillance program. Identification of BE with screening followed by
      enrollment in an appropriate surveillance/risk stratification program could be a
      strategy to address both the incidence of and mortality from EAC. This article
      summarizes the rationale and challenges for BE screening, the risk factors for
      BE, and the currently described BE risk assessment tools.

PMID- 28577764
TI  - Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Endoscopic Screening and Surveillance.
AB  - Guidelines for the screening and surveillance of Barrett's esophagus continue to
      evolve as the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma increases, identification of
      individuals at highest risk for cancer improves, and management of dysplasia
      evolves. This article reviews related studies and economic analyses. Advances in
      diagnosis offer promising strategies to help focus screening efforts on those
      individuals who are most likely to develop esophageal adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28577763
TI  - Alternatives to Traditional Per-Oral Endoscopy for Screening.
AB  - Barrett's esophagus (BE) predisposes patients to esophageal adenocarcinoma. 3 to
      6% of individuals with gastro-esophageal reflux disease are estimated to have BE
      but only 20 to 25% of BE patients are currently diagnosed. The current gold
      standard for diagnosis of BE is per-oral upper GI endoscopy. As this is not
      suitable for large-scale screening, a number of alternative methods are currently
      being investigated: transnasal and video capsule endoscopy, endomicroscopy, cell
      collection devices like the cytosponge and biomarkers. Some of these are
      promising, however, well powered studies carried out in relevant screening
      populations are needed.

PMID- 28577765
TI  - The Role of Adjunct Imaging in Endoscopic Detection of Dysplasia in Barrett's
      Esophagus.
AB  - Advances in imaging technologies have demonstrated promise in early detection of
      dysplasia and cancer in Barrett's esophagus (BE). Optical chromoendoscopy, dye
      based chromoendoscopy, and novel technologies have provided the opportunity to
      visualize the cellular and subcellular structures. Only narrow-band imaging and
      acetic acid chromoendoscopy have reached benchmarks for clinical use. Volumetric
      laser endomicroscopy and molecular imaging are not established for routine use.
      Best practice in management of BE should be focused on careful endoscopic
      examination, resection, or ablation of the entire abnormal lesion, as well as the
      use of available imaging technique that has good diagnostic accuracy.

PMID- 28577767
TI  - Management of Nodular Neoplasia in Barrett's Esophagus: Endoscopic Mucosal
      Resection and Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection.
AB  - Endoscopic resection has proven highly effective and safe in the removal of focal
      early neoplastic lesions in Barrett's esophagus and is considered the cornerstone
      of endoscopic treatment. Several techniques are available for endoscopic
      resection in Barrett's esophagus. The most widely used technique for piecemeal
      resection of early Barrett's neoplasia is the ligate-and-cut technique. Newer
      techniques such as endoscopic submucosal dissection may also play a role in the
      treatment of neoplastic Barrett's esophagus. Treatment of early Barrett's
      neoplasia should be centralized and limited to expert centers with a high-volume
      load and sufficient expertise in the detection and treatment of esophageal
      neoplasia.

PMID- 28577766
TI  - Beyond Dysplasia Grade: The Role of Biomarkers in Stratifying Risk.
AB  - Gastroenterology society guidelines recommend endoscopic surveillance as a means
      to detect early stage cancer in Barrett's esophagus. However, the incidence of
      esophageal adenocarcinoma in Western countries continues to increase, suggesting
      that this strategy may be inadequate. Current surveillance methods rely on the
      endoscopist's ability to identify suspicious areas of Barrett's esophagus to
      biopsy, random biopsies, and on the histopathologic diagnosis of dysplasia. This
      review highlights the challenges of using dysplasia to stratify cancer risk and
      addresses the development and use of molecular biomarkers and in vivo molecular
      imaging to detect early neoplasia in Barrett's esophagus.

PMID- 28577768
TI  - The Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound in the Management of Patients with Barrett's
      Esophagus and Superficial Neoplasia.
AB  - Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a minimally invasive advanced imaging procedure
      using high-frequency sound waves to produce detailed images of the esophageal
      wall with fine-needle aspiration to biopsy adjacent lymph nodes. The role of EUS
      is well established in patients with locally advanced Barrett esophagus
      neoplasia. The utility of EUS in the evaluation of Barrett esophagus patients is
      controversial. This is a review of the evidence using EUS in BE patients. The
      assessment is that EUS may be a powerful tool in managing patients with BE
      neoplasia.

PMID- 28577769
TI  - Radiofrequency Ablation of Barrett's Esophagus: Patient Selection, Preparation,
      and Performance.
AB  - Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe and effective thermal ablative therapy
      for dysplastic Barrett's esophagus (BE) and, to a lesser extent, nondysplastic
      BE. Before the utilization of RFA, there must be an appropriate indication,
      assessment of potential contraindications, discussion of risks and benefits with
      patients, and careful endoscopic planning. The ease of performance of the
      procedure along with its efficacy and low rate of adverse events have established
      RFA as a reliable technique for endoscopic management of dysplastic BE.

PMID- 28577770
TI  - Radiofrequency Ablation of Barrett's Esophagus: Efficacy, Complications, and
      Durability.
AB  - In the last decade, radiofrequency ablation in combination with endoscopic
      mucosal resection has simplified and improved the treatment of Barrett's
      esophagus. These treatments not only reduced the progression of dysplastic
      Barrett's esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma but also decreased treatment
      related complications. More recent data from larger series with extended follow
      up periods are emerging to refine expectations in patients treated with
      radiofrequency ablation. Although most patients achieve eradication of neoplasia
      and intestinal metaplasia, in the long-term a substantial portion of patients
      develop recurrent disease. This article provides an updated review of
      radiofrequency ablation efficacy, complications, and durability.

PMID- 28577771
TI  - Cryotherapy for Barrett's Esophagus.
AB  - Cryotherapy or cryoablation involves the freezing of tissues to destroy unwanted
      tissue or to control bleeding. Endoscopic cryotherapy has been developed for
      gastrointestinal application by through-the-scope noncontact delivery of
      compressed carbon dioxide gas or liquid nitrogen (cryospray) or contact balloon
      cryoablation. The mechanism of cryotherapy ablative effects includes immediate
      injury as well as coagulation necrosis occurring over several hours and days,
      unlike heat-based thermal ablation. This article reviews the basis, technique,
      safety, efficacy, and durability for the use of endoscopic cryotherapy in
      Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28577772
TI  - Care of the Postablation Patient: Surveillance, Acid Suppression, and Treatment
      of Recurrence.
AB  - Endoscopic eradication therapy is effective and durable for the treatment of
      Barrett's esophagus (BE), with low rates of recurrence of dysplasia but
      significant rates of recurrence of intestinal metaplasia. Identified risk factors
      for recurrence include age and length of BE before treatment and may also include
      presence of a large hiatal hernia, higher grade of dysplasia before treatment,
      and history of smoking. Current guidelines for surveillance following ablation
      are limited, with recommendations based on low-quality evidence and expert
      opinion. New modalities including optical coherence tomography and wide-area
      tissue sampling with computer-assisted analysis show promise as adjunctive
      surveillance modalities.

PMID- 28577773
TI  - Esophagectomy for Superficial Esophageal Neoplasia.
AB  - Endoscopic therapies have become the standard of care for most cases of Barrett's
      esophagus with high-grade dysplasia or intramucosal adenocarcinoma. Despite a
      rapid and dramatic evolution in treatment paradigms, esophagectomy continues to
      occupy a place in the therapeutic armamentarium for superficial esophageal
      neoplasia. The managing physician must remain cognizant of the limitations of
      endoscopic approaches and consider surgical resection when they are exceeded.
      Esophagectomy, performed at experienced centers for appropriately selected
      patients with early-stage disease can be undertaken with the expectation of cure
      as well as low mortality, acceptable morbidity, and good long-term quality of
      life.

PMID- 28577774
TI  - Barrett's Esophagus and the Prevention of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28577775
TI  - New Directions in Barrett's Esophagus.

PMID- 28577776
TI  - Does Prior Cartilage Restoration Impact Outcomes Following Knee Arthroplasty?
AB  - This study compared patients who failed a cartilage restoration procedure and
      underwent ipsilateral knee arthroplasty with matched control subjects undergoing
      knee arthroplasty without prior cartilage restoration. Although patients with a
      failed cartilage procedure derived benefit from knee arthroplasty, their
      magnitude of improvement and final outcomes scores were lower than the matched
      control subjects. In this cohort, the cartilage patients also experienced little
      to no benefit from cartilage restoration, suggesting that unmeasured shared
      patient characteristics may play a role. This information can be used to counsel
      this difficult patient population on expected outcomes following arthroplasty
      procedures. Further research identifying characteristics of responders to
      treatment remains critical to refine clinical decision-making for this difficult
      patient group.

PMID- 28577777
TI  - Applications of Tissue Engineering in Joint Arthroplasty: Current Concepts
      Update.
AB  - Research in tissue engineering has undoubtedly achieved significant milestones in
      recent years. Although it is being applied in several disciplines, tissue
      engineering's application is particularly advanced in orthopedic surgery and in
      degenerative joint diseases. The literature is full of remarkable findings and
      trials using tissue engineering in articular cartilage disease. With the vast and
      expanding knowledge, and with the variety of techniques available at hand, the
      authors aimed to review the current concepts and advances in the use of cell
      sources in articular cartilage tissue engineering.

PMID- 28577778
TI  - Bone Substitute Materials and Minimally Invasive Surgery: A Convergence of
      Fracture Treatment for Compromised Bone.
AB  - This article focuses on the understanding of the biochemistry and surgical
      application of bone substitute materials (BSMs) and particularly the newer
      calcium phosphate materials that can form a structural orthobiologic matrix
      within the metaphyseal components of the periarticular bone. Six characteristics
      of BSMs are detailed that can be used as a guide for the proper selection and
      application of the optimal BSM type for periarticular fracture repair. These 6
      characteristics of BSMs are divided into 2 pillars. One pillar details the 3
      biochemical features of BSMs and the other pillar details the 3 surgical
      application properties.

PMID- 28577779
TI  - Bone Morphogenetic Protein: Is There Still a Role in Orthopedic Trauma in 2017?
AB  - Approximately 10 years ago bone morphogenic protein (BMP) was seen as a
      miraculous adjuvant to assist with bone growth. However, in the face of an
      increasing number of complications and a lack of understanding its long-term
      effects, it is unclear what role BMP has in the current treatment of orthopedic
      trauma patients. This article reviews the current recommendations, trends, and
      associated complications of BMP use in fracture care.

PMID- 28577780
TI  - Role of Bone Marrow Aspirate in Orthopedic Trauma.
AB  - Bone marrow aspirate grafting entails mesenchymal stem cell-containing bone
      marrow harvesting and injection into a fracture site to promote bone formation.
      Although the use of bone marrow aspirate in orthopedic trauma is not widespread,
      an increasing number of studies are reporting clinical success. Advantages of
      using bone marrow aspirate are that it is readily obtainable, has low harvest
      morbidity, and can be easily and quickly injected. However, no universally
      accepted role for its use exists. Future studies directly comparing bone marrow
      aspirate with conventional techniques are needed to define its role in the
      treatment of orthopedic trauma patients.

PMID- 28577781
TI  - Orthobiologics in Pediatric Orthopedics.
AB  - Orthobiologics are biologic devices or products used in orthopedic surgery to
      augment or enhance bone formation. The use of orthobiologics in pediatric
      orthopedics is less frequent than in other orthopedic subspecialties, mainly due
      to the naturally abundant healing potential and bone formation in children
      compared with adults. However, orthobiologics are used in certain situations in
      pediatric orthopedics, particularly in spine and foot surgery. Other uses have
      been reported in conjunction with specific procedures involving the tibia and
      pelvis. The use of bioabsorable implants to stabilize children's fractures is an
      emerging concept but has limited supporting data.

PMID- 28577782
TI  - Orthobiologics in Pediatric Sports Medicine.
AB  - Orthobiologics are biological substances that allow injured muscles, tendons,
      ligaments, and bone to heal more quickly. They are found naturally in the body;
      at higher concentrations they can aid in the healing process. These substances
      include autograft bone, allograft bone, demineralized bone matrix, bone
      morphogenic proteins, growth factors, stem cells, plasma-rich protein, and
      ceramic grafts. Their use in sports medicine has exploded in efforts to increase
      graft incorporation, stimulate healing, and get athletes back to sport with
      problems including anterior cruciate ligament ruptures, tendon ruptures,
      cartilage injuries, and fractures. This article reviews orthobiologics and their
      applications in pediatric sports medicine.

PMID- 28577784
TI  - Autologous Blood and Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections for Treatment of Lateral
      Epicondylitis.
AB  - Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) is a frequent cause of elbow pain; most
      patients (80%-90%) are successfully treated with standard nonoperative methods
      (rest, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, bracing, and physical therapy).
      Autologous blood injections and platelet-rich plasma injections are the two most
      frequently used orthobiologic techniques in the treatment of lateral
      epicondylitis. Studies of the effectiveness of autologous blood injections and
      platelet-rich plasma report varying outcomes, some citing significant clinical
      relief and others reporting no beneficial effect. More research is needed to
      determine how to best use orthobiologics in the treatment of lateral
      epicondylitis.

PMID- 28577783
TI  - Biologic Approaches to Problems of the Hand and Wrist.
AB  - Orthobiologics are not used as frequently in the hand and wrist as in other
      sites. The most frequently reported is the use of bone morphogenetic protein for
      the treatment of Kienbock disease. Animal studies have described improved tendon
      healing with the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), but no clinical studies have
      confirmed these results. PRP has been reported to produce improvements in the
      outcomes of distal radial fractures and osteoarthritis of the trapeziometacarpal
      in small numbers of patients. The use of orthobiologics in the hand and wrist are
      promising, but clinical trials are necessary to establish efficacy and safety.

PMID- 28577785
TI  - Osseous Healing in Foot and Ankle Surgery with Autograft, Allograft, and Other
      Orthobiologics.
AB  - In the surgical treatment of foot and ankle abnormality, many problems require
      bone grafting for successful osseous union. Nonunion, reconstruction, and
      arthrodesis procedures pose specific challenges due to bony defects secondary to
      trauma, malunions, or previous surgery. Nonunion in foot and ankle arthrodesis is
      a significant risk and is well documented in recent literature. This article is a
      review of the recent literature regarding the use of bone graft and
      orthobiologics in foot and ankle surgery.

PMID- 28577787
TI  - Orthobiologics.

PMID- 28577786
TI  - Restorative Tissue Transplantation Options for Osteochondral Lesions of the
      Talus: A Review.
AB  - Symptomatic osteochondral lesions of the talus remain a challenging problem due
      to inability for cartilage lesions to heal. Numerous treatment options exist,
      including nonoperative management, marrow stimulating techniques, and autograft
      allograft. Arthroscopic marrow stimulation forms fibrocartilage that has been
      shown to be biomechanically weaker than hyaline cartilage. Restorative tissue
      transplantation options are being used more for larger and cystic lesions. Newer
      biologics and particulated juvenile cartilage are currently under investigation
      for possible clinical efficacy. This article provides an evidenced-based summary
      of available literature on the use of biologics for treatment of osteochondral
      lesions of the talus.

PMID- 28577788
TI  - A posteriori healthy dietary patterns may decrease the risk of central obesity:
      findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Central obesity is a pivotal component of metabolic syndrome, and several studies
      have investigated the association of dietary patterns and central obesity.
      However, findings of studies are inconclusive. Therefore, we aimed to conduct the
      present study to summarize the available data regarding the association of a
      posteriori dietary patterns and central obesity in adults to test the hypothesis
      of whether a highly healthy dietary pattern is associated with decreased risk of
      central obesity. We searched all published English studies to identify related
      articles in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases up to December 2015.
      The meta-analysis was conducted on 13 studies including 12 cross-sectional
      studies and 1 case-control study that reported odds ratios (ORs), relative risks,
      or hazard ratios for risk of central obesity. The between-study variance was
      assessed using Cochran Q test and I2. Subgroup analysis was applied to define
      possible sources of heterogeneity. The highest category of healthy/prudent
      patterns compared with those in the lowest category resulted in significant
      decrease in the risk of central obesity (pooled OR was 0.81 [95% confidence
      interval 0.66-0.96]). Pooled results indicated a higher nonsignificant increase
      in the risk of central obesity (OR was 1.16 [95% confidence interval 0.96-1.35])
      in the highest category of Unhealthy/Western pattern compared with those in the
      lowest category. There was also a significant heterogeneity in the observed
      associations. We found that sex, country, and continent were the potential
      sources of heterogeneity. The results of the present meta-analysis showed that a
      posteriori healthy dietary patterns may decrease the risk of central obesity,
      whereas no significant association was found between unhealthy dietary patterns
      and central obesity. Together, the results highlight the need for well-designed
      and carefully carried out clinical trials based on dietary patterns in future
      research.

PMID- 28577789
TI  - Nutritional modulation of age-related changes in the immune system and risk of
      infection.
AB  - The immune system undergoes some adverse alterations during aging, many of which
      have been implicated in the increased morbidity and mortality associated with
      infection in the elderly. In addition to intrinsic changes to the immune system
      with aging, the elderly are more likely to have poor nutritional status, which
      further impacts the already impaired immune function. Although the elderly often
      have low zinc serum levels, several manifestations commonly observed during zinc
      deficiency are similar to the changes in immune function with aging. In the case
      of vitamin E, although its deficiency is rare, the intake above recommended
      levels is shown to enhance immune functions in the elderly and to reduce the risk
      of acquiring upper respiratory infections in nursing home residents. Vitamin D is
      a critical vitamin in bone metabolism, and its deficiency is far more common,
      which has been linked to increased risk of infection as demonstrated in a number
      of observational studies including those in the elderly. In this review, we focus
      on zinc, vitamin E, and vitamin D, the 3 nutrients which are relatively well
      documented for their roles in impacting immune function and infection in the
      elderly, to discuss the findings in this context reported in both the
      observational studies and interventional clinical trials. A perspective will be
      provided based on the analysis of information under review.

PMID- 28577790
TI  - Impact of Provider Characteristics on Outcomes of Carotid Endarterectomy for
      Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis in New York State.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of surgeon
      characteristics (including annual volume, specialty, and years in practice) on
      outcomes of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis
      in New York State. METHODS: The New York Statewide Planning and Cooperation
      System database was utilized to identify patients undergoing CEA from 2004 to
      2011. Provider characteristics were determined by linkage to the New York Office
      of Professions and National Provider Identification databases. Provider-level
      factors were characterized by defining 5 quintiles of equal size for each factor.
      Hierarchical logistic regression models were created to evaluate the impact of
      provider characteristics on outcome. RESULTS: In total, 36,495 patients underwent
      CEA for asymptomatic disease performed by vascular (75.7%), general (16.1%),
      cardiac (6%), and neuro (2.1%) surgeons. Outcomes of interest included in
      hospital mortality (0.26%), stroke (0.45%), and the composite end point of
      mortality, stroke, or cardiac complication (2.2%). Unadjusted outcomes improved
      with increasing surgeon annual CEA volume. Mid-career surgeons had lower
      mortality and stroke rates than early or late-career surgeons. Odds of mortality
      were increased when surgery was performed by the lowest volume providers
      (quintile 1; 0-11 CEA/year) (odds ratio [OR] 2.62, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      1.3-5.28) or a nonspecialty trained (general) surgeon (OR 1.64, 95% 1.01-2.67).
      After adjustment for all patient-level factors, provider volume remained an
      independent predictor of outcome, with significantly increased odds of mortality
      for volume quintile 1 (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.27-5.23) and quintile 2 (12-22 CEA/year)
      (0.30%; OR 2.07, 95% CI 1-4.27) surgeons. CONCLUSIONS: Adverse events after CEA
      for asymptomatic disease are comparatively rare. However, surgeon characteristics
      impact outcome, with the best results offered by high-volume, mid-career,
      specialty-trained surgeons. Efforts to define the optimal treatment of
      asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis must account for the impact of surgeon
      characteristics on patient outcomes.

PMID- 28577791
TI  - PlanTEnrichment: A tool for enrichment analysis of transposable elements in
      plants.
AB  - Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA sequences that play roles in gene
      regulation, and have a potential to influence the expression of nearby genes by
      functioning as cis-regulatory sequences. However, bioinformatics tools
      facilitating analysis of the associations between TEs and nearby genes in plants
      are still lacking. We therefore reanalyzed the comprehensive annotation data of
      gene models and TEs of 11 plant species available in Ensembl Plants database, and
      built an up-to-date, unique tool called PlanTEnrichment, enabling enrichment
      analysis of TEs located within the upstream regions of a given gene list.
      PlanTEnrichment takes, for example, a group of differentially expressed genes
      under a particular biological condition as input and returns the list of TEs
      associated with those genes, along with their calculated enrichment scores and
      statistical significances. PlanTEnrichment is freely available at
      http://tools.ibg.deu.edu.tr/plantenrichment/ and is likely to substantially
      enhance our understanding of the role of TEs in diverse biological processes.

PMID- 28577792
TI  - Genome-wide analysis of gene expression of EMS-induced short fiber mutant Ligon
      lintless-y (liy) in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.).
AB  - In this work we describe a chemically-induced short fiber mutant cotton line,
      Ligon-lintless-y (liy), which is controlled by a single recessive locus and
      affects multiple traits, including height of the plant, and length and maturity
      of fiber. An RNAseq analysis was used to evaluate global transcriptional changes
      during cotton fiber development at 3, 8 and 16days post anthesis. We found that
      613, 2629 and 3397 genes were significantly down-regulated, while 2700, 477 and
      3260 were significantly up-regulated in liy at 3, 8 and 16 DPA. Gene set
      enrichment analysis revealed that many metabolic pathways, including
      carbohydrate, cell wall, hormone metabolism and transport were substantially
      altered in liy developing fibers. We discuss perturbed expression of genes
      involved in signal transduction and biosynthesis of phytohormones, such as auxin,
      abscisic acid, gibberellin and ethylene. The results of this study provide new
      insights into transcriptional regulation of cotton fiber development.

PMID- 28577793
TI  - If Only the Doctor Will Let Me Go Home: Same Day Discharge after PCI.

PMID- 28577794
TI  - CRT 2017 late-breaking trials.

PMID- 28577795
TI  - FDA Town Hall at CRT 2017: Current status and future endeavors in cardiovascular
      devices.

PMID- 28577796
TI  - How to Define Atopic Dermatitis?
AB  - Although atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common skin disorder, there remains
      an ongoing debate on this denomination, its definition and the binary view based
      on immunoglobulin E measurement. The wide spectrum of the clinical phenotype of
      AD reflects the complex genetic and pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying the
      disease. The diagnostic criteria have to be reconsidered and adapted to different
      ethnic populations. There is an urgent need for biomarker discovery further
      supporting the clinical diagnostic criteria as well as the precision medicine
      approach on a global level.

PMID- 28577797
TI  - Public Health Burden and Epidemiology of Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder with significant
      morbidity and quality-of-life impairment. The epidemiology of AD is complex and
      challenging to study. The 1-year US prevalence of AD was 12.98% in children in
      2007-2008 and 7.2%-10.2% in adults in 2010-2012. There is considerable statewide
      and countrywide variation of AD prevalence and severity. The prevalence of
      childhood AD dramatically increased over the past few decades but may be leveling
      off in developed nations. AD is associated with increased direct and indirect
      costs to payers and patients, thereby contributing toward a considerable public
      health burden.

PMID- 28577799
TI  - Adult-Onset Atopic Dermatitis: Fact or Fancy?
AB  - Atopic dermatitis therapy can be a challenge in many cases. Persistence into
      adulthood often reflects the more severe cases and such patients have the added
      problems of hand eczema and thick nummular lesions that resist topical
      medications. Within this group are patients labeled as having adult-onset atopic
      dermatitis, a designation that is hard to define and probably represents those
      whose childhood eczema was simply forgotten. Management is difficult for most
      adult cases and should not be diverted by questionable labels.

PMID- 28577798
TI  - The Long-Term Course of Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing condition, meaning that the
      intensity of symptoms usually fluctuates over time. Changes in skin physiology
      may be evident from birth, suggesting that AD may be a lifelong condition marked
      by intermittent symptoms/disease activity. Methodological considerations for
      studying the long-term course of AD are reviewed in detail. Improved measurement
      of the frequency and duration of active disease periods can help to elucidate
      more about the clinical course AD and the role of treatment in long-term
      outcomes.

PMID- 28577800
TI  - Patient Burden of Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis is associated with significant patient burden, with impacts
      from symptoms and visible physical manifestations of the disease. Consequences
      include detrimental effects on quality of life (QoL), sleep, self-esteem,
      interpersonal relationships, participation in leisure and sports, and attendance
      or performance at school or work. Patients also spend a significant amount of
      time on treatments and care. Worsening severity of disease appears to be
      associated with a higher risk of impaired QoL, and pharmacologic and educational
      interventions that improve disease severity appear to, for the most part,
      simultaneously improve QoL.

PMID- 28577801
TI  - An Update on the Pathophysiology of Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is increasingly recognized as a complex, inflammatory skin
      disease involving interplay of multiple elements. This article notes key advances
      in understanding of immune dysregulation, skin barrier dysfunction,
      environmental, genetic, and microbial influences orchestrating disease
      pathogenesis, and the relevance of therapeutic interventions in each area.
      Accumulating evidence and the discovery of new T-cell subsets has matured AD as a
      multiple-cytokine-axes-driven disorder, evolved from the widely held belief of it
      being a biphasic Th1/Th2 disease. These new insights have led to active trials
      testing multiple, targeted therapeutics with better efficacy and safety-profiles.

PMID- 28577802
TI  - The Role of Interleukins 4 and/or 13 in the Pathophysiology and Treatment of
      Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD) can be debilitating and often requires
      use of systemic immunosuppressant therapy to achieve adequate disease control.
      There are currently no US Food and Drug Administration-approved systemic agents
      for the long-term treatment of AD. Recent insight has identified the T helper 2
      cytokines, interleukins 4 and 13, as playing a major role in the pathogenesis of
      AD. There are multiple novel biologic agents in development that target
      interleukins 4 and/or 13 for the treatment of moderate to severe AD. The age of
      targeted biologics for AD has arrived.

PMID- 28577803
TI  - Long-Term Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Many patients with mild to moderate atopic dermatitis (AD) are managed by
      identifying and avoiding allergens and irritants, ensuring skin moisturization,
      and graded use of topical corticosteroids and/or calcineurin inhibitors. There is
      little consensus on the next step. Most systemic therapies are "off label" in the
      United States and include phototherapy, cyclosporine, mycophenolic acid
      precursors, azathioprine, and methotrexate. The decision to use these therapies
      should be based on efficacy and safety readouts from well designed, long-term
      trials. This article reviews the long-term randomized, controlled trials
      examining safety and/or efficacy of interventions recommended for patients with
      mild to severe AD.

PMID- 28577804
TI  - Special Considerations for Therapy of Pediatric Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis is the leading cause of pediatric dermatology visits in
      developed nations. Recurrent, itchy rashes in typical locations and a
      family/personal history of atopy helps to identify children with disease. Most
      cases (85%) are diagnosed by age 5 years. Some comorbidities are age-based and
      may affect disease course. Topical corticosteroids are the mainstay of therapy;
      corticosteroidphobia and side effects complicate use. Topical calcineurin
      inhibitors are alternatives to corticosteroids, especially in sensitive
      locations. Systemic therapies include antihistamines, immune suppressive agents,
      and phototherapy, with specific pediatric modifications. This article reviews the
      nuances and caveats of pediatric atopic dermatitis diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28577805
TI  - Management of Atopic Hand Dermatitis.
AB  - This article provides an overview of clinical aspects of hand eczema in patients
      with atopic dermatitis. Hand eczema can be a part of atopic dermatitis itself or
      a comorbidity, for example, as irritant or allergic contact dermatitis. When
      managing hand eczema, it is important to first categorize the subtype and
      identify potential culprit allergens or irritants. First-line therapy should be a
      combination of emollients and topical corticosteroids; possible alternatives
      include topical calcineurin inhibitors or coal tar. Second-line therapy includes
      UV therapy and systemic therapy, including azathioprine, cyclosporine,
      methotrexate, and mycophenolate. Prednisolone should only be very infrequently
      used.

PMID- 28577806
TI  - Adjunctive Management of Itch in Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Itch, or pruritus, is a hallmark feature of atopic dermatitis (AD). The impact of
      AD-related pruritus can range from mildly distressing or distracting to
      completely disabling. Traditionally, management of itch in AD patients has
      focused on restoring the altered skin barrier with topical emollients and/or
      reducing inflammation. A growing emphasis has been placed on directly targeting
      the neural transmission pathways that mediate itch signaling. Off-label use of
      neuromodulatory agents has helped reduce this aggravating symptom in atopic
      patients. This article reviews the current literature on the use of
      neuromodulatory agents and nonpharmacologic alternative therapies used to treat
      AD-related pruritus.

PMID- 28577807
TI  - Atopic Dermatitis: Racial and Ethnic Differences.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common, chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting
      up to 20% of children and 3% of adults worldwide. There is wide variation in the
      prevalence of AD among different countries. Although the frequency of AD is
      increasing in developing countries, it seems to have stabilized in developed
      countries, affecting approximately 1 in 5 schoolchildren. Adult-onset AD is not
      uncommon and is significantly higher, affecting between 11% and 13% of adults in
      some countries, for example, Singapore, Malaysia, and Sweden. AD is thus
      associated with significant health care economic burden in all age groups.

PMID- 28577809
TI  - The Wisdom of a Legend Lives On.

PMID- 28577808
TI  - Atopic Dermatitis: A Heterogeneous Disorder.

PMID- 28577810
TI  - Findings From the INANE Survey on Student Papers Submitted to Nursing Journals.
AB  - Nursing students are often encouraged or required to submit scholarly work for
      consideration for publication but most manuscripts or course assignment papers do
      not meet journal standards and consume valuable resources from editors and peer
      reviewers. The International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) is a group of
      nurse editors and publishers dedicated to promoting best practices in publishing
      in the nursing literature. In August 2014, editors at INANE's annual meeting
      voiced frustrations over multiple queries, poorly written student papers, and
      lack of proper behavior in following through. This article describes the findings
      of a survey distributed to INANE members to seek feedback about submissions by
      students. Fifty-three (53) members responded to an online anonymous survey
      developed by the INANE Student Papers Work Group. Data were analyzed using
      descriptive statistics for Likert-type questions and content analysis of open
      ended questions. Quantitative data revealed that most editors reported problems
      with student papers across all levels of graduate programs. Six themes emerged
      from the qualitative data: submissions fail to follow author guidelines;
      characteristics of student submissions; lack of professional behavior from
      students; lack of professional behavior from faculty; editor responses to student
      submissions; and faculty as mentors. These themes formed the basis for
      recommendations and strategies to improve student scholarly writing. Overall,
      editors endorsed supporting new scholars in the publication process but faculty
      engagement was integral to student success.

PMID- 28577811
TI  - Lessons Learned: Answering the Call to Increase the BSN Workforce.
AB  - Academic institutions across the United States are responding to the national
      call to action to raise the educational preparation of the nursing workforce.
      North Carolina has responded with the Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses
      program, which provides a seamless, economically sound pathway for attainment of
      a baccalaureate degree in nursing by using an academic partnership model between
      community colleges and a collaborating university. This article describes the
      accomplishments made and the lessons learned over the first 5 years of
      implementation of this educational pathway. Implications for research and
      educational practice are discussed.

PMID- 28577812
TI  - Re-Envisioning a DNP Program for Quality and Sustainability.
AB  - When the University of Washington, School of Nursing determined that its post-BSN
      DNP degree program, with multiple specialty tracks and programs of study, was not
      sustainable, the curriculum was re-envisioned. The revised program is consistent
      with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials of
      Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice and the national Licensure
      Accreditation, Certification, and Education (LACE) model. The re-envisioned
      program was conceptualized as a single degree in which students preparing for any
      specialty would have the same number of required credits with the majority of
      courses (DNP core) required for all students. Two major pathways, 1) advanced
      practice registered nursing and 2) advanced systems and population health were
      identified. The model allows for specialties to be added or discontinued without
      major disruption to the core curriculum. The consolidated curriculum reduced
      instructional costs to the school by approximately 26% and reduced and made more
      equitable the tuition costs for the majority of students. The revised
      consolidated program is innovative, maintains quality, attracts students, and
      aligns with resources. This article discusses how we achieved revision and
      consolidation of a post-BSN DNP program with multiple specialty tracks that is
      innovative, high quality, sustainable, and replicable by other schools of
      nursing.

PMID- 28577813
TI  - A Power Experience: A Phenomenological Study of Interprofessional Education.
AB  - The purpose of this supplementary analysis of a hermeneutic phenomenological
      study of the experience of interprofessional collaboration for nursing and
      medical students was to explore the experience of power that was threaded
      throughout the original study. Seventeen students participated in guided, face-to
      face conversations in the original study (Prentice, Engel, Taplay, & Stobbe,
      2014). Through the processes of deductive analysis and inductive reasoning, 2
      themes of power emerged from these research conversations: (a) complicated
      knowledge is power and (b) the power and silence of intimidation. These themes
      suggest that power and power differentials are significant factors in student
      interactions in interprofessional learning and have the potential to adversely
      affect these interactions. Students' perceptions of power need to be taken into
      account and addressed when planning and implementing interprofessional education
      events.

PMID- 28577814
TI  - A Scoping Review Examining Nursing Student Peer Mentorship.
AB  - This paper outlines a scoping review and thematic analysis which was conducted on
      the topic of nursing student peer mentorship programs. This paper outlines the
      reasons for conducting a scoping review, includes a description of the scoping
      review model used for this review, documents the actual scoping review process
      undertaken, and details the results of the scoping review and thematic analysis
      on the topic of nursing student peer mentorship. The results of this scoping
      review and thematic analysis review revealed the following themes related to
      nursing student peer mentorship: support, dialog, connections, meanings, and a
      process of socialized learning. Finally, this paper outlines limitations of this
      scoping review and thematic analysis and offers suggestions for future research.

PMID- 28577815
TI  - Standardized Testing Practices: Effect on Graduation and NCLEX(r) Pass Rates.
AB  - The use standardized testing in pre-licensure nursing programs has been
      accompanied by conflicting reports of effective practices. The purpose of this
      project was to describe standardized testing practices in one states' nursing
      programs and discover if the use of a cut score or oversight of remediation had
      any effect on (a) first time NCLEX(r) pass rates, (b) on-time graduation (OTG) or
      (c) the combination of (a) and (b). Administrators of 38 nursing programs in one
      Southwest state were sent surveys; surveys were returned by 34 programs (89%).
      Survey responses were compared to each program's NCLEX pass rate and on-time
      graduation rate; t-tests were conducted for significant differences associated
      with a required minimum score (cut score) and oversight of remediation. There
      were no significant differences in NCLEX pass or on-time graduation rates related
      to establishment of a cut score. There was a significant difference when the
      NCLEX pass rate and on-time graduation rate were combined (Outcome Index "OI")
      with significantly higher program outcomes (P=.02.) for programs without cut
      scores. There were no differences associated with faculty oversight of
      remediation. The results of this study do not support establishment of a cut
      score when implementing a standardized testing.

PMID- 28577816
TI  - Academic and Demographic Predictors of NCLEX-RN Pass Rates in First- and Second
      Degree Accelerated BSN Programs.
AB  - Relatively few studies have addressed predictors of first-attempt outcomes (pass
      fail) on the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN)
      for accelerated BSN programs. The purpose of this study was to compare potential
      predictors of NCLEX outcomes in graduates of first-degree accelerated (FDA; n=62)
      and second-degree accelerated (SDA; n=173) BSN programs sharing a common nursing
      curriculum. In this retrospective study, bivariate analyses and multiple logistic
      regression assessed significance of selected demographic and academic
      characteristics as predictors of NCLEX-RN outcomes. FDA graduates were more
      likely than SDA graduates to fail the NCLEX-RN (P=.0013). FDA graduates were more
      likely to speak English as a second or additional language (P<.0001), have lower
      end-of-program GPA and HESI Exit Exam scores (both P<.0001), and have a higher
      proportions of grades <= C (P=.0023). All four variables were significant
      predictors of NCLEX-RN outcomes within both FDA and SDA programs. The only
      significant predictors in adjusted logistic regression of NCLEX-RN outcome for
      the pooled FDA+SDA graduate sample were proportion of grades <= C (a predictor of
      NCLEX-RN failure) and HESI Exit Exam score (a predictor of passing NCLEX-RN).
      Grades of C or lower on any course may indicate inadequate mastery of critical
      NCLEX-RN content and increased risk of NCLEX-RN failure.

PMID- 28577817
TI  - Iranian Nursing Students' Experiences of Case-Based Learning: A Qualitative
      Study.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate nursing
      students of the implementation of case-based learning in an emergency nursing
      course. The present qualitative study was conducted using the qualitative content
      analysis method. Participants consisted of 18 third year undergraduate nursing
      students selected through purposive sampling, which continued until the
      saturation of the data. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and
      were analyzed concurrently with their collection through the constant comparison
      method. The process of data analysis led to the emergence of 4 main themes,
      including "the continuum of knowledge from production to transfer competence," "a
      positive atmosphere of interaction," "the process of stress relieving," "the
      sense of role-playing in professional life," and the emergence of 12 subthemes
      signifying participants' experiences and perceptions with regard to the
      implementation of case-based learning (CBL) in teaching the emergency nursing
      course. The results of the present study showed that CBL is a stressful but
      pleasant and empowering experience for Iranian nursing students that develops
      critical thinking and stress management skills, reinforces peers' potentials,
      improves diagnostic abilities, and helps acquire professional competencies for
      use in future practices through the creation of a positive environment.

PMID- 28577819
TI  - Nutritional support for critically ill children: A Cochrane review summary.

PMID- 28577818
TI  - Iranian Nursing Students' Experience of Stressors in Their First Clinical
      Experience.
AB  - The first clinical experience is a turning point in the educational journey of
      nursing students as it marks the beginning of their professional development.
      This experience is often stressful for students. This study was conducted mainly
      to research, describe and interpret nursing students' perceptions of stressors in
      the clinical environment in their first clinical experience. The present
      phenomenological study selected seven nursing students through purposive and snow
      balling sampling and questioned them in semi-structured interviews. The data
      acquired were analyzed by Colaizzi's method. The following themes emerged in this
      study: 1- the sense of inadequacy, 2- being ignored, 3- ineffective
      communication, 4- prevailing sadness and 5- ambiguity. The results of the present
      study showed that nursing students experience several sources of stress in their
      first clinical experiences. Hence nursing administrators should diligently
      evaluate and rectify nursing students' clinical stressors.

PMID- 28577820
TI  - Cognitive rehabilitation for memory deficits after stroke: A Cochrane review
      summary.

PMID- 28577821
TI  - Vitamin D for the management of asthma: A Cochrane Review Summary.

PMID- 28577823
TI  - The effectiveness of Penumbra 400 micro-coils in the embolization of large
      cerebral aneurysms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this work is to analyze the effectiveness of
      Penumbra 400 micro-coils in the embolization of large cerebral aneurysms.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis has been conducted in a group of
      32 patients at the average age of 54.5 years (30-84) for whose embolization the
      P400 micro-coils (P400) have been used. A control group consisted of 44 patients
      at the average age of 52.7 years (24-82) in whose aneurysm embolization the 18
      micro-coils (MC) have been utilized. RESULTS: The respective percentages of micro
      coil packing density in aneurysm sacs were 31.5% for P400 and 29% for MC. The
      average P400 fluoroscopy time was 21min, and 34min in case of MC. The average
      number of used micro-coils was 3.9 for P400 and 5.6 for MC. The radiation dose
      received by a patient was 1.7Gy/2.2Gy, respectively. The recanalization of P400
      has occurred in 14/31 cases (45%), and for MC it has occurred in 23/44 (52%)
      patients. One patient died due to early recanalization after P400 aneurysm
      embolization. CONCLUSION: Procedures with use of the P400 demonstrate minimally
      higher effectiveness of large aneurysms embolization in comparison with the MS
      with a not much shorter duration and reduction of a radiation dose that a patient
      receives.

PMID- 28577824
TI  - [False positive results or what's the probability that a significant P-value
      indicates a true effect?]
AB  - The use of statistical test is central in the clinical trial. At the statistical
      level, obtaining a P<0.05 allows to claim the effectiveness of the new studied
      treatment. However, given its underlying mathematical logic the concept of "P
      value" is often misinterpreted. It is often assimilated, mistakenly, to the
      likelihood that treatment is ineffective. Actually the "P value" gives an
      indirect information about the plausibility of the existence of treatment effect.
      With "P<0.05", the probability that the treatment is effective may vary depending
      on other statistical parameters which are the alpha level of risk, the power of
      the study and especially the a priori probability of the existence of treatment
      effect. A "P<0.05" does not always produce the same degree of certainty. Thus
      there exist situations where the risk of a result "P<0.05" is in reality a false
      positive is very high. This is the case if the power is low, if there is an
      inflation of the alpha risk or if the result is exploratory or chance
      discoveries. This possibility is important to take into consideration when
      interpreting the results of clinical trials in order to avoid pushing ahead
      significant results in appearance, but which are likely to be actually false
      positive results.

PMID- 28577825
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28577826
TI  - Safety Considerations in Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.
AB  - Although many error pathways are common to both stereotactic body radiation
      therapy (SBRT) and conventional radiation therapy, SBRT presents a special set of
      challenges including short treatment courses and high-doses, an enhanced reliance
      on imaging, technical challenges associated with commissioning, special resource
      requirements for staff and training, and workflow differences. Emerging data also
      suggest that errors occur at a higher rate in SBRT treatments. Furthermore, when
      errors do occur they often have a greater effect on SBRT treatments. Given these
      challenges, it is important to understand and employ systematic approaches to
      ensure the quality and safety of SBRT treatment. Here, we outline the pathways by
      which error can occur in SBRT, illustrated through a series of case studies, and
      highlight 9 specific well-established tools to either reduce error or minimize
      its effect to the patient or both.

PMID- 28577822
TI  - Genome-wide association study of language performance in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Language impairment is common in prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and
      progresses over time. However, the genetic architecture underlying language
      performance is poorly understood. To identify novel genetic variants associated
      with language performance, we analyzed brain MRI and performed a genome-wide
      association study (GWAS) using a composite measure of language performance from
      the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; n=1560). The language
      composite score was associated with brain atrophy on MRI in language and semantic
      areas. GWAS identified GLI3 (GLI family zinc finger 3) as significantly
      associated with language performance (p<5*10-8). Enrichment of GWAS association
      was identified in pathways related to nervous system development and glutamate
      receptor function and trafficking. Our results, which warrant further
      investigation in independent and larger cohorts, implicate GLI3, a developmental
      transcription factor involved in patterning brain structures, as a putative gene
      associated with language dysfunction in AD.

PMID- 28577827
TI  - Normal Tissue Constraints for Abdominal and Thoracic Stereotactic Body
      Radiotherapy.
AB  - Although stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) or stereotactic ablative
      radiotherapy has become an established standard of care for the treatment of a
      variety of malignancies, our understanding of normal tissue dose tolerance with
      extreme hypofractionation remains immature. Since Timmerman initially proposed
      normal tissue dose constraints for SBRT in the 2008 issue of Seminars of
      Radiation Oncology, experience with SBRT has grown, and more long-term clinical
      outcome data have been reported. This article reviews the modern toxicity
      literature and provides updated clinically practical and useful recommendations
      of SBRT dose constraints for extracranial sites. We focus on the major organs of
      the thoracic and upper abdomen, specifically the liver and the lung.

PMID- 28577828
TI  - Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Spinal Metastases.
AB  - Patients with metastatic disease including polymetastatic, oligometastatic, and
      oligorecurrent spinal lesions have extended life expectancy secondary to
      improvements in systemic agents, and thus require durable local control of spine
      metastases. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), which uses highly conformal
      treatment planning techniques coupled with image-guided technology, has enabled
      the safe delivery of tumor-ablative doses of radiotherapy. The NOMS decision
      framework has been developed as a tool to aid in the determination of the optimal
      treatment of spinal metastases, incorporating radiosurgery, separation surgery,
      stabilization techniques, and conventional radiation. Tumor radiosensitivity is
      critical in determining appropriateness of radiosurgery. In general, higher
      radiation doses provide significant, more durable tumor control, whether single
      fraction or hypofractionated regimens are used. Spine SBRT can provide a high
      likelihood of durable tumor control with very low rates of serious toxicity, and
      careful attention should be given to dose constraints of organs at risk. Here, we
      review the indications for spine SBRT via the NOMS decision framework and provide
      practical information to the radiation oncologist regarding spine radiosurgery.

PMID- 28577829
TI  - Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for Early-Stage Lung Cancer.
AB  - The rising incidence of early-stage lung cancer, particularly in medically
      inoperable patients, is anticipated because of the implementation of early
      detection strategies and population aging in the United States and worldwide.
      This mandates the development of noninvasive curative treatment approaches for
      this disease. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has recently emerged as a
      standard of care for early-stage lung cancer in medically inoperable patients who
      cannot safely tolerate surgical lobectomy, the established standard for operable
      patients. Further experience has demonstrated key principles with this highly
      conformal and dose-intensive radiation technique, including the need for
      sufficiently high biologically effective dose to achieve optimal local control,
      dose-fractionation modifications needed to treat centrally located tumors safely,
      and individualization of treatment based on tumor size, location, and other
      factors. SABR requires particular technical expertise including a nuanced
      understanding of dose prescription and calculation and appropriate management of
      tumor and organ motion. Progress continues as increasing experience with and data
      on SABR in selected cohorts of medically operable patients suggest comparable
      oncologic outcomes and a more favorable toxicity profile that challenges the
      historical standard of care for broader patient populations.

PMID- 28577830
TI  - Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy for Lung Metastases: Where is the
      Evidence and What are We Doing With It?
AB  - This review provides an overview of the use of stereotactic ablative body
      radiotherapy (SABR) for pulmonary metastases. The local control rates after SABR
      are generally >90%. Whether this also translates into a significant improvement
      in overall survival is the subject of ongoing studies. New exciting opportunities
      including the integration of SABR with targeted and immune therapies as well as
      some competing treatment strategies are discussed.

PMID- 28577831
TI  - Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Liver Metastases.
AB  - Many cancers can spread to the liver, often as the sole site of metastatic
      disease. For properly selected patients with limited hepatic disease and good
      performance status, an aggressive strategy involving radical local therapy to the
      site(s) of metastasis offers a chance for extended disease-free survivorship. The
      development of stereotactic body radiotherapy has inserted radiation therapy into
      the arsenal of valuable treatment options in this clinical setting. This article
      summarizes the latest advancements in the use of stereotactic body radiotherapy
      to treat liver metastases.

PMID- 28577832
TI  - Advances in Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) is an emerging effective treatment for
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with acceptable rates of toxicity in
      appropriately selected patients. Despite often being reserved for patients
      unsuitable for other local treatments, prospective and retrospective studies have
      demonstrated excellent long-term control. SBRT may be used as a stand-alone
      treatment, or as an adjunct to other HCC therapies. Based on available data, SBRT
      appears to complement existing local liver therapies. Randomized and
      nonrandomized comparative studies are required to better determine the optimal
      role of SBRT in HCC treatment.

PMID- 28577833
TI  - Integration of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy into the Multidisciplinary
      Management of Pancreatic Cancer.
AB  - Although most patients with pancreatic cancer die of metastatic disease, an
      autopsy study showed that up to one-third of patients die of predominantly local
      disease. This patient population stands to benefit the most from radiation,
      surgery, or both. Unfortunately, however, single-agent chemotherapy has had
      minimal benefit in pancreatic cancer, and most patients progress distantly before
      receiving radiation therapy (RT). With the addition of multiagent chemotherapy,
      patients are living longer, and RT has emerged as an important modality in
      preventing local progression. Standard chemoradiation delivered over 5-6 weeks
      has been shown to improve local control, but this approach delays full-dose
      systemic therapy and increases toxicity when compared to chemotherapy alone.
      Stereotactic body RT (SBRT) delivered in 3-5 fractions can be used to accurately
      target the pancreatic tumor with small margins and limited acute treatment
      related toxicity. Given the favorable toxicity profile, SBRT can easily be
      integrated with other therapies in all stages of pancreatic cancer. However,
      future studies are necessary to determine optimal dose or fractionation regimens
      and sequencing with targeted therapies and immunotherapy. The purpose of this
      review is to discuss our current understanding of SBRT in the multidisciplinary
      management of patients with pancreatic cancer and future implications.

PMID- 28577834
TI  - Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Low- and Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer.
AB  - With over a decade's worth of clinical experience to guide stereotactic body
      radiotherapy (SBRT) for the treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer
      (PCa), sufficient data exist for robust conclusions to be made regarding its
      efficacy and the toxicities associated with this treatment. We briefly review the
      fundamental radiobiological basis of SBRT for PCa and provide a comprehensive
      synthesis of the medical literature to date, focusing on clinical outcomes and
      toxicities. When possible, we draw comparisons to comparable data for
      conventionally fractionated radiotherapy. Finally, a brief overview of technical
      considerations is presented. Although randomized clinical trials comparing SBRT
      with conventionally fractionated radiotherapy are underway, the current body of
      evidence supports the efficacy and safety of SBRT for PCa.

PMID- 28577835
TI  - New Techniques for Irradiating Early Stage Breast Cancer: Stereotactic Partial
      Breast Irradiation.
AB  - Several improvements in breast cancer radiation delivery have been realized using
      new techniques over the past several decades. As an example, for early stage
      disease, there has been active investigation of partial breast irradiation (PBI)
      vs whole breast irradiation. Although still investigational, PBI reduces the
      treatment volumes, doses to organs at risk, and may improve cosmesis. Over the
      past 2 decades PBI has been delivered via interstitial brachytherapy,
      intracavitary brachytherapy, intraoperative radiation therapy, or 3-dimensional
      external beam radiation therapy. More recently, there has been growing evidence
      that supports stereotactic body radiation therapy as a safe and effective new
      treatment for early stage breast cancer. This article describes this new
      treatment opportunity and reviews the emerging data of stereotactic partial
      breast irradiation.

PMID- 28577836
TI  - Radiation and Immune Checkpoint Blockade: From Bench to Clinic.
AB  - Immune escape of malignant cells is an important hallmark of cancer, necessary
      for tumor formation and progression. Accordingly, in recent years, therapies that
      enhance the immune system have had remarkable success in treating a myriad of
      malignancies. Particularly successful has been immune checkpoint blockade (ICB),
      which is a therapy that targets T-cell inhibitory receptors, or immune
      checkpoints. Despite these encouraging clinical results, most patients do not
      respond to such agents. Therefore, determining methods to better target and
      enhance the therapeutic efficacy of ICB is of paramount importance. One appealing
      approach is to use standard anticancer therapies, such as radiation,
      chemotherapy, and targeted biologics, to favorably modulate the immune system and
      enhance the anticancer immune response. For example, although radiation therapy
      has classically been thought of as a local therapy, there is significant
      potential for combining radiation therapy with ICB to both optimize local control
      and to treat metastatic disease. This concept is supported by numerous
      preclinical studies and clinical case reports and has since led to many early and
      ongoing clinical trials. However, it is still unclear how to optimally combine
      radiation and ICB to maximize the therapeutic effect. In this review, we
      highlight relevant preclinical and clinical studies in the field of radiation and
      ICB and discuss optimal strategies for combination therapies moving forward.

PMID- 28577837
TI  - MiR-375 delivered by lipid-coated doxorubicin-calcium carbonate nanoparticles
      overcomes chemoresistance in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent and lethal disease that is
      characterized by drug resistance. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used
      chemotherapeutic drug and miR-375 has been shown to be a tumor suppressor in HCC.
      Here, we reported that miR-375 and DOX co-loaded into lipid-coated calcium
      carbonate nanoparticles (LCC-DOX/miR-375 NPs), enhanced the anti-tumor effects
      through combination therapy, and were highly effective in reversing drug
      resistance in HCC. LCC-DOX/miR-375 NPs were prepared by a reverse microemulsions
      method. In vitro, LCC-DOX/miR-375 NPs exhibited enhanced intracellular
      accumulation, pH-sensitive DOX release and potent cytotoxicity. In vivo, LCC
      DOX/miR-375 NPs showed efficient antitumor effect both in xenograft and primary
      HCC murine models. Our results showed that the LCC-DOX/miR-375 nanoparticles
      provide a novel strategy to overcome the drug resistance and promote addictive
      effect between miR-375 and DOX in HCC.

PMID- 28577838
TI  - Reply to the Editor - High-Degree Atrioventricular Block in a 77-Year-Old Man.

PMID- 28577839
TI  - Letter to the Editor- High-degree atrioventricular block in a 77-year-old man.

PMID- 28577840
TI  - Efficacy and safety of left atrial appendage closure with WATCHMAN in patients
      with or without contraindication to oral anticoagulation: 1-Year follow-up
      outcome data of the EWOLUTION trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion with WATCHMAN has emerged as
      viable alternative to vitamin K antagonists in randomized controlled trials.
      OBJECTIVE: EWOLUTION was designed to provide data in routine practice from a
      prospective multicenter registry. METHODS: A total of 1025 patients scheduled for
      a WATCHMAN implant were prospectively and sequentially enrolled at 47 centers.
      Indication for LAA closure was based on European Society of Cardiology
      guidelines. Follow-up and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) were performed
      per local practice. RESULTS: The baseline CHA2DS2-VASc score was 4.5 +/- 1.6; the
      mean age was 73.4 +/- 9 years; previous transient ischemic attack/ischemic stroke
      was present in 312 (30.5%), 155 (15.1%) had previous hemorrhagic stroke, and 320
      (31.3%) had a history of major bleeding; and 750 (73%) were deemed unsuitable for
      oral anticoagulation therapy. WATCHMAN implant succeeded in 1005 (98.5%) of
      patients, without leaks >5 mm in 1002 (99.7%) with at least 1 TEE follow-up in
      875 patients (87%). Antiplatelet therapy was used in 784 (83%), while vitamin K
      antagonists were used in only 75 (8%). At 1 year, mortality was 98 (9.8%),
      reflecting the advanced age and comorbidities in this population. Device thrombus
      was observed in 28 patients at routine TEE (3.7%) and was not correlated with the
      drug regimen (P = .14). Ischemic stroke rate was 1.1% (relative risk 84% vs
      estimated historical data); the major bleeding rate was 2.6% and was
      predominantly (2.3%) nonprocedure/device related. CONCLUSION: LAA closure with
      the WATCHMAN device has a high implant and sealing success. This method of stroke
      risk reduction appears to be safe and effective with an ischemic stroke rate as
      low as 1.1%, even though 73% of patients had a contraindication to and were not
      using oral anticoagulation.

PMID- 28577841
TI  - Aortic Atheroma Increases the Risk of Long-Term Mortality in 20,000 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between long-term survival and aortic atheroma in
      cardiac surgical patients has not been comprehensively investigated. In this
      study we determine the relation between grade of atheroma and the risk of long
      term mortality in a retrospective cohort of more than 20,000 patients undergoing
      cardiac operation during a 20-year period. METHODS: We included 22,304
      consecutive intraoperative transesophageal and epiaortic ultrasound examinations
      performed at Brigham and Women's Hospital between 1995 and 2014, with long-term
      follow-up. The extent of atheromatous disease recorded in each examination was
      used for analysis. Mortality data were obtained from our institution's data
      registry. Mortality analyses were done using Cox proportional hazard regression
      models with follow-up as a time scale. We repeated the analysis in a subgroup of
      14,728 patients with more detailed demographic characteristics, including
      postoperative stroke, queried from the institutional Society of Thoracic Surgeons
      database. RESULTS: A total of 7,722 mortality events and 872 stroke events
      occurred. Patients with atheromatous disease demonstrated a significant increase
      in mortality across all grades of severity, both for the ascending and descending
      aorta. This relation remained unchanged after adjusting for additional
      covariates. Adjustments for postoperative stroke resulted in only minimal
      attenuation in the risk of postoperative mortality related to aortic atheroma.
      CONCLUSIONS: Aortic atheromatous disease of any grade in the ascending and
      descending aorta is a significant long-term risk of long-term, all-cause
      mortality in cardiac operation patients. This association remains independent of
      other conventional risk factors and is not related to postoperative
      cerebrovascular accidents.

PMID- 28577842
TI  - A Nationwide Rise in the Use of Stents for Benign Esophageal Perforation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical repair or drainage is the standard treatment for benign
      esophageal perforation. The United States Food and Drug Administration has
      approved the use of esophageal stents for the management of malignant esophageal
      stricture or fistula, or both. We hypothesize that increasing enthusiasm and
      experience with esophageal stents has led to greater use of stents for the
      management of benign esophageal perforation. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective cohort study (2007 to 2014) of patients with benign esophageal
      perforation using MarketScan (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY), a commercial claims
      database. Patients had 6 months of follow-up. Regression was used for risk
      adjustment. RESULTS: Benign esophageal perforation was treated in 659 patients
      (mean age, 49 years; 41% women), comprising surgical repair in 449 (69%),
      surgical drainage in 110 (17%), and stent in 100 (15%). Stent use increased from
      7% in 2007 to 30% in 2014 (p < 0.001 for trend). Over the same period, surgical
      repair decreased from 71% to 53% (p = 0.001 for trend), but surgical drainage did
      not change (p = 0.24). After adjustment for other factors that could vary over
      time, stent use increased by 28% per year (incidence rate ratio, 1.28; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.17 to 1.39). Changes in risk-adjusted deaths, discharges
      home, readmissions, or costs over the same period were not significant (all p >
      0.05 for trend). CONCLUSIONS: The use of stents for the management of benign
      esophageal perforation has increased by over fourfold in just 8 years, but short
      term outcomes have not changed over time for this population of patients. A
      national registry for off-label use of esophageal stents may clarify the
      indications for and risks and benefits of stenting benign esophageal
      perforations.

PMID- 28577843
TI  - Glutaraldehyde Treatment of Allografts and Aortic Outcomes Post-Norwood:
      Challenging Surgical Decision.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glutaraldehyde (GA) treatment of allografts used for arch
      reconstruction prevents the immunologic sensitization that occurs with untreated
      allografts, but its use may cause tissue changes that predispose to recurrent
      obstruction. The objective was to determine whether GA treatment of allografts
      used in Norwood procedures increases the risk of recurrent aortic obstruction.
      METHODS: All infants who underwent a Norwood procedure between 2000 and 2015 were
      included. Cryopreserved pulmonary allografts were used for all arch
      reconstructions; starting in 2005 all were treated with GA before use. Complete
      follow-up was obtained, including survival, transplantation, and all repeat
      procedures. Competing risks analyses were used to assess for differences in
      aortic reintervention over time. RESULTS: Two hundred six infants (132 male) were
      included. There were 60 deaths and 14 transplantations; 5-year transplantation
      free survival was 71.9%. GA treatment of patches (n = 142, 68.9%) was not
      predictive of death (hazard ratio [HR] 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.61
      to 3.08). Fifty-five patients had at least one aortic reintervention and 31
      patients (15.0%) required surgical aortic reintervention. At 1-year, freedom from
      all aortic reintervention was similar between patients with and without treated
      patches, but freedom from surgical aortic reintervention was lower in the treated
      group (87.6% versus 95.3%, p = 0.0256). GA treatment was not associated with the
      combined end point of catheter-based or surgical reintervention but was
      associated with specific need for surgical reintervention (HR 4.05, 95% CI: 1.19
      to 13.77). CONCLUSIONS: GA treatment is associated with increased late surgical
      aortic reintervention. The advantages of decreased sensitization with GA
      treatment need to be balanced against the risk of aortic reobstruction.

PMID- 28577844
TI  - Preoperative Staphylococcus Aureus Screening and Targeted Decolonization in
      Cardiac Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We assessed the impact of preoperative Staphylococcus aureus
      screening and targeted decolonization on the incidence of postoperative
      methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) colonization, intensive care unit MRSA
      transmission, and surgical site infections in cardiac surgery patients. METHODS:
      We reviewed medical records for all adult patients during two periods:
      preintervention (January 2007 to April 2010) and intervention (January 2011 to
      December 2014). In the intervention period, we performed nasal screening for
      methicillin-sensitive S aureus and MRSA using polymerase chain reaction within 30
      days of the operation. Colonized patients received intranasal mupirocin twice
      daily and chlorhexidine baths daily for 5 days; patients colonized with MRSA also
      received prophylactic vancomycin plus cefazolin with contact isolation
      precautions. Nasal surveillance for MRSA was performed on intensive care unit
      admission and weekly thereafter. Multivariable logistic regression models were
      constructed to determine risk factors for postoperative MRSA colonization, and
      surgical site infections and the impact of our screening program was assessed in
      these models. Poisson regression was used to assess MRSA transmission. RESULTS:
      Comparing 2,826 preintervention and 4,038 intervention patients, cases differed
      in age, diabetes mellitus, preoperative infection, preoperative length of stay,
      and bypass time (all p <= 0.03). Intervention patients had risk-adjusted
      reductions in MRSA colonization (odds ratio 0.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]:
      0.37 to 0.76, p < 0.001), transmission (incidence rate ratio 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13
      to 0.65, p = 0.002), and surgical site infections (odds ratio 0.58, 95% CI: 0.40
      to 0.86, p = 0.007). Increased duration of preoperative decolonization therapy
      was associated with decreased postoperative MRSA colonization (odds ratio 0.73,
      95% CI: 0.53 to 1.00, p = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative S aureus screening
      with targeted decolonization was associated with reduced MRSA colonization,
      transmission, and surgical site infections. Duration of preoperative therapy
      correlated with decreased frequency of postoperative MRSA colonization.

PMID- 28577845
TI  - Ninety-Day Mortality After Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy: Incidence and
      Risk Factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the incidence and risk factors of 90-day mortality rate
      after video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy. METHODS: Retrospective
      analysis on 733 VATS lobectomies or segmentectomies (January 2012 to February
      2016), including 66 operations converted to open operation. Several patient
      related and surgical variables were tested to verify their association with 90
      day mortality using univariable and logistic regression analyses. A score was
      assigned to each variable in the final model by proportionally weighting the
      regression odds ratios (ORs) and assigning 1 point to the smallest one. A total
      score was generated for each patient by adding the individual points. The
      patients were finally grouped into classes of risk. RESULTS: In-hospital/30-day
      mortality rate was 1.9% (14 patients). Additionally, 4 patients died after
      discharge between 30 and 90 days. Total 90-day mortality rate was 2.5% (18
      patients). Regression analysis showed that factors significantly associated with
      90-day mortality were male sex (OR 12, p = 0.001), carbon monoxide lung diffusion
      capacity (Dlco) less than 60% (OR 4.8, p =0.001), and operative time longer than
      150 minutes (OR 4.2, p = 0.03). A score was developed assigning 1 point to the
      variables Dlco and operative time and 3 points to the variable male sex. The
      total score ranged from 0 (155 patients) to 5 points (32 patients). Patients were
      grouped into five risk classes showing an incremental 90-day mortality rate
      (class A, 0; class B, 0.38%; class C, 0.93%; class D, 5.65%; class E, 18.75%, p <
      0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results represent important information to be shared
      with the patients during surgical counseling. It can also assist
      multidisciplinary tumor board discussion about treatment selection.

PMID- 28577846
TI  - Surgical Outcome and Prognostic Stratification for Pulmonary Metastasis From
      Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated recent clinical outcomes and prognostic
      factors of metastasectomy for pulmonary metastasis (PM) from colorectal cancer.
      METHODS: Data for 785 patients with PM from colorectal cancer who underwent
      curative resection, including 376 patients treated with postmetastasectomy
      adjuvant chemotherapy, between 2004 and 2008, were collected from 46 Japanese
      hospitals. Disease-free and overall survival was analyzed. Potential prognostic
      factors were assessed. RESULTS: The 5-year disease-free and overall survival
      rates (95% confidence interval) of all patients were 37.1% (33.7% to 40.9%) and
      68.1% (64.6% to 71.8%), respectively, over a median follow-up of 65 months. On
      multivariable analysis, no survival benefit for postmetastasectomy adjuvant
      chemotherapy was observed (hazard ratio, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.65 to
      1.12; p = 0.25), and the independent poor prognostic factors for overall survival
      (hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval) were age 70 years and older (1.50, 1.15
      to 1.97), disease-free interval of less than 2 years (1.76, 1.31 to 2.35),
      extrathoracic metastatic lesion treated curatively before PM resection (1.35,
      1.01 to 1.79), abnormal carcinoembryonic antigen level (1.99, 1.53 to 2.58), and
      three or more PMs (1.72, 1.20 to 2.45). The 5-year overall survival rates (95%
      confidence interval) of the low-risk (no prognostic factor, n = 87), moderate
      risk (1 to 2 factors, n = 539), and high-risk (>=3 factors, n = 159) groups were
      89.4% (82.2% to 98.2%), 72.5% (68.3% to 76.8%), and 48.9% (41.7% to 57.3%),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Metastasectomy of PM from colorectal cancer was
      associated with a favorable prognosis. Patients could be classified into three
      risk groups using five prognostic factors. This grouping may be useful for
      identifying an optimal treatment strategy according to risk in future studies.

PMID- 28577847
TI  - Short-Term and Midterm Follow-Up of Transthoracic Device Closure of Atrial Septal
      Defect in Infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to outline the safety and feasibility
      of transthoracic device closure of an atrial septal defect (ASD) with a domestic
      occluder in infants. METHODS: Sixty-eight infants underwent transthoracic device
      closure of an ASD at Union Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
      from January 2010 to January 2015. All relevant clinical data were recorded and
      analyzed. All patients were invited to undergo contrast transthoracic
      echocardiography for 12 to 60 months after ASD closure, and telephone interviews
      were conducted with the infants' parents to evaluate the patients' clinical
      status further. RESULTS: All patients had successful ASD occlusion using this
      approach. The most frequent complication was transient cardiac arrhythmia, which
      was easily treated or automatically recovered during the perioperative period.
      During the follow-up period, no recurrence, thrombosis, device embolization,
      valve damage, device failure, or death was reported. The total occlusion rate was
      100% in the 12 months of follow-up, and all patients showed significant
      improvement in their clinical status. From transthoracic echocardiographic data,
      intracardiac structure and cardiac function were significantly improved at follow
      up. CONCLUSIONS: Transthoracic device closure of an ASD with a domestic occluder
      in infants is a safe and feasible technique. The short- and medium-term follow-up
      results were satisfactory, but long-term follow-up is required to assess the
      safety and feasibility of this method in infants more accurately.

PMID- 28577848
TI  - Does Surgical Ablation Energy Source Affect Long-Term Success of the Concomitant
      Cox Maze Procedure?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Cox maze (CM) procedure is routinely performed using surgical
      ablation technology. Reports are scarce on long-term outcomes of CM, especially
      for a large series of patients. This study examined the potential impact of
      surgical ablation energy source on safety and long-term efficacy of concomitant
      CM procedures. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 709 concomitant CM-treated
      patients operated on with cryothermal energy only (group 1; n = 386) or
      combination of cryothermal and bipolar radiofrequency (group 2; n = 323). Data
      were collected prospectively on perioperative outcomes, rhythm status, survival,
      and clinical events. Propensity score matching conducted by energy source
      resulted in 298 patients per group. RESULTS: Perioperative outcomes included
      stroke (n = 4), reoperation for bleeding (n = 23), renal failure requiring
      temporary dialysis (n = 18), readmissions before 30 days (n = 86), and operative
      death before 30 days (n = 16; ratio of observed to expected mortality [O/E
      ratio], 0.50). Independent predictors for 1-year and 5-year rhythm success were a
      shorter history of atrial fibrillation (1-year odds ratio [OR], 0.93, p = 0.001;
      5-year OR, 0.93, p = 0.042) and cryothermia alone (1-year OR=1.77, p = 0.020; 5
      year OR = 2.29, p = 0.009). After matching, group 1 had significantly higher
      sinus rhythm without antiarrhythmic drugs at 6 months (79% vs 70%; p = 0.016), 36
      months (81% vs 69%; p = 0.010), and 60 months (75% vs 57%; p = 0.008). Stroke
      incidence was lower for group 1 (0.7% vs 3%; p = 0.033), with no difference in
      major bleeding (10% vs 11%; p = 0.597). Groups had similar survival rates (log
      rank, 0.6; p = 0.452). CONCLUSIONS: Concomitant CM procedures performed with
      cryothermal energy alone or combined with bipolar radiofrequency ablation are
      safe and exceedingly effective. The association of cryothermal energy alone with
      higher rates of sinus rhythm and stroke reduction should be investigated further.

PMID- 28577849
TI  - The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database: 2017 Update on
      Research.
AB  - Containing more than 6 million cumulative operative records and accounting for
      90% to 95% of adult cardiac surgery performed in the United States, The Society
      of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database is an invaluable resource for
      performance assessment, quality improvement, and clinical research. This article
      reviews the seven major research efforts published in 2016 that utilized the
      Adult Cardiac Surgery Database. Two studies evaluated national trends in clinical
      practice, three assessed the effect of several risk factors on postoperative
      morbidity and mortality, and two developed new models to evaluate quality of
      care. The findings of these studies have enhanced clinical practice and
      delineated areas for future quality improvement research.

PMID- 28577850
TI  - Chronic Myocardial Ischemia Leads to Loss of Maximal Oxygen Consumption and
      Complex I Dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiomyocytes rely heavily on mitochondrial energy production
      through oxidative phosphorylation. Chronic myocardial ischemia may cause
      mitochondrial dysfunction and affect ATP formation. Metabolic changes due to
      ischemia alters cardiac bioenergetics and hence myocardial function and overall
      bioenergetic state. Here, we evaluate differences in functional status of
      respiratory complexes in mitochondrial isolates extracted from left atrial
      appendage tissue (LAA) from patients undergoing cardiac surgery, with and without
      chronic ischemia. METHODS: Mitochondrial isolates were extracted from LAA in
      ischemic coronary artery bypass grafting patients (n = 8) and non-ischemic
      control patients (n = 6) undergoing other cardiac surgery (valve
      repair/replacement). Coupling and electron transport chain assays were performed
      using Seahorse XFe 96 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) analyzer. Oxygen
      consumption rates were measured to calculate respiration states. RESULTS:
      Respiratory control rate (RCR) in ischemic patients was significantly lower than
      control patients (6.17 +/- 0.27 vs 7.11 +/- 0.31, respectively; p < 0.05). This
      is the result of minimal, non-significant state 3ADP and state 4O changes in
      chronic ischemia. Complex I respiration is diminished in ischemic tissue (99.1 +/
      14.9 vs 257.8 +/- 65.2 in control; p < 0.01). Maximal complex I/II respiration
      ratio was significantly lower in ischemic patients (58.9% +/- 5.5% vs 90.9% +/-
      8.8%; p < 0.05), a difference that was also seen in complex I/IV ratios (p <
      0.05). There was no significant difference in complex II/IV ratios between
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Ischemic patients have aberrant mitochondrial function,
      highlighted by a lowered RCR. All ratios involving complex I were affected,
      suggesting that the insufficient ATP formation is predominantly due to complex I
      dysfunction. Complex II and IV respiration may be impaired as well, but to a
      lesser extent.

PMID- 28577851
TI  - Impact of Liver Indicators on Clinical Outcome in Patients Undergoing
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver dysfunction increases death and morbidity after cardiac
      operations. There are currently no data evaluating liver function in patients
      undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We aimed therefore to
      evaluate our TAVR results in regard to liver function. METHODS: A total of 640
      consecutive TAVR patients were evaluated. Of those, 11 patients presented with
      chronic liver disease before TAVR. The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score
      was used to measure liver function in these patients. The primary study end point
      was 30-day mortality in patients presenting with liver dysfunction. Secondary
      study end point was liver enzymes after TAVR. RESULTS: The mean Model for End
      Stage Liver Disease score in patients with chronic liver disease was 16.8 +/- 6.2
      (median, 18; range, 7 to 26). The 30-day mortality was 9.1% (57 of 629) in
      patients presenting without liver disease and 9.1% (1 of 11) in patients with
      liver disease (p = 1.00). Patients with chronic liver disease showed
      significantly higher preoperative levels of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (p <
      0.001). After TAVR, we observed a significant increase in alanine
      aminotransferase on postoperative day 3 compared with preoperative values (p <
      0.001), accompanied by a decrease in albumin (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Liver
      cirrhosis per se is not considered as a contraindication for cardiac operations.
      In the present study, we did not observe a higher 30-day mortality rate in liver
      cirrhotic patients undergoing TAVR, suggesting TAVR as a feasible alternative
      with acceptable outcomes in patients with chronic liver disease. Moreover, the
      present study is the first to evaluate liver variables in patients undergoing
      TAVR.

PMID- 28577852
TI  - Fascia Temporalis Free Flap for Cricotracheal Reconstruction: A Novel Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of tracheal reconstruction is to provide an airtight and
      noncollapsible airway covered with a suitable epithelial lining. To date, no
      ideal treatment is available for large tracheal defects. METHODS: We report 4
      patients who underwent one-stage reconstruction for a cricotracheal stenosis with
      a free temporoparietal fascia flap and costal cartilage grafts. RESULTS: Closure
      of tracheostoma was achieved for all patients. The main advantage of this flap
      compared with the free radial forearm flap is that it supplies a more suitable
      lining allowing the reepithelialization process with respiratory epithelium.
      CONCLUSIONS: This one-stage procedure provides a reliable construct to substitute
      for large tracheal defects, even in areas previously exposed to an operation or
      radiotherapy.

PMID- 28577854
TI  - Diabetes with early kidney involvement may shorten life expectancy by 16 years.
AB  - This study aimed to identify the excess risks associated with diabetic patients
      with early kidney involvement (early diabetic kidney disease). The mortality
      risks of early diabetic kidney disease, defined as diabetes in early stages 1-3
      chronic kidney disease (CKD), were assessed from a cohort of 512,700 adults in
      Taiwan participating in a health surveillance program from 1994-2008. Three
      related groups were identified and compared: diabetes without CKD, early diabetic
      kidney disease, and early CKD without diabetes. Deaths were ascertained through
      the National Death Registry. One-third of diabetics had early kidney disease, and
      approximately two-thirds of patients were classified with early CKD due to
      proteinuria. Patients with early diabetic kidney disease had more lifestyle risks
      such as inactivity or obesity, which characteristically amplified excess
      mortality by up to five times. The three-fold increase in all-cause mortality
      (hazard ratio 3.16) and a 16-year loss in life expectancy made early diabetic
      kidney disease a serious and yet often overlooked disease, with most patients
      unaware of their kidney involvement. Mortality for early diabetic kidney disease
      was nearly twice as high as that for early CKD (hazard ratio 2.01) or diabetes
      without CKD (hazard ratio 1.79). The 16-year life span loss is much worse than
      individually from early CKD (six years) or diabetes (ten years). Thus,
      identifying early proteinuria among diabetic patients and realizing the
      importance of reducing lifestyle risks like inactivity is a clinical challenge,
      but can save lives.

PMID- 28577853
TI  - Loss of transcriptional activation of the potassium channel Kir5.1 by HNF1beta
      drives autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease.
AB  - Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox B (HNF1beta) is an essential transcription
      factor for the development and functioning of the kidney. Mutations in HNF1beta
      cause autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease characterized by renal
      cysts and maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY). Moreover, these patients
      suffer from a severe electrolyte phenotype consisting of hypomagnesemia and
      hypokalemia. Until now, genes that are regulated by HNF1beta are only partially
      known and do not fully explain the phenotype of the patients. Therefore, we
      performed chIP-seq in the immortalized mouse kidney cell line mpkDCT to identify
      HNF1beta binding sites on a genome-wide scale. In total 7,421 HNF1beta-binding
      sites were identified, including several genes involved in electrolyte transport
      and diabetes. A highly specific and conserved HNF1beta site was identified in the
      promoter of Kcnj16 that encodes the potassium channel Kir5.1. Luciferase-promoter
      assays showed a 2.2-fold increase in Kcnj16 expression when HNF1beta was present.
      Expression of the Hnf1beta p.Lys156Glu mutant, previously identified in a patient
      with autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease, did not activate
      Kcnj16 expression. Knockdown of Hnf1beta in mpkDCT cells significantly reduced
      the appearance of Kcnj16 (Kir5.1) and Kcnj10 (Kir4.1) by 38% and 37%,
      respectively. These results were confirmed in a HNF1beta renal knockout mouse
      which exhibited downregulation of Kcnj16, Kcnj10 and Slc12a3 transcripts in the
      kidney by 78%, 83% and 76%, respectively, compared to HNF1beta wild-type mice.
      Thus, HNF1beta is a transcriptional activator of Kcnj16. Hence, patients with
      HNF1beta mutations may have reduced Kir5.1 activity in the kidney, resulting in
      hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia.

PMID- 28577855
TI  - Quantitative analyses reveal distinct sensitivities of the capture of HIV-1
      primary viruses and pseudoviruses to broadly neutralizing antibodies.
AB  - Development of vaccines capable of eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies
      (bNAbs) is a key goal to controlling the global AIDS epidemic. To be effective,
      bNAbs must block the capture of HIV-1 to prevent viral acquisition and
      establishment of reservoirs. However, the role of bNAbs, particularly during
      initial exposure of primary viruses to host cells, has not been fully examined.
      Using a sensitive, quantitative, and high-throughput qRT-PCR assay, we found that
      primary viruses were captured by host cells and converted into a trypsin
      resistant form in less than five minutes. We discovered, unexpectedly, that bNAbs
      did not block primary virus capture, although they inhibited the capture of
      pseudoviruses/IMCs and production of progeny viruses at 48h. Further, viruses
      escaped bNAb inhibition unless the bNAbs were present in the initial minutes of
      exposure of virus to host cells. These findings will have important implications
      for HIV-1 vaccine design and determination of vaccine efficacy.

PMID- 28577857
TI  - A wrong electrode placement.

PMID- 28577858
TI  - Effectiveness of Surgical and Postsurgical Interventions for Carpal Tunnel
      Syndrome-A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To present an evidence-based overview of the effectiveness of surgical
      and postsurgical interventions for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). DATA SOURCES:
      The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PEDro were searched for
      relevant systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) up to April
      8, 2016. STUDY SELECTION: Two reviewers independently applied the inclusion
      criteria to select potential studies. DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers
      independently extracted the data and assessed the methodologic quality. DATA
      SYNTHESIS: A best-evidence synthesis was performed to summarize the results. Four
      systematic reviews and 33 RCTs were included. Surgery versus nonsurgical
      interventions, timing of surgery, and various surgical techniques and
      postoperative interventions were studied. Corticosteroid injection was more
      effective than surgery (strong evidence, short-term). Surgery was more effective
      than splinting or anti-inflammatory drugs plus hand therapy (moderate evidence,
      midterm and long-term). Manual therapy was more effective than surgical treatment
      (moderate evidence, short-term and midterm). Within surgery, corticosteroid
      irrigation of the median nerve before skin closure as additive to CTS release or
      the direct vision plus tunneling technique was more effective than standard open
      CTS release (moderate evidence, short-term). Furthermore, short was more
      effective than long bulky dressings, and a sensory retraining program was more
      effective than no program after surgery (moderate evidence, short-term). For all
      other interventions only conflicting, limited, or no evidence was found.
      CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment seems to be more effective than splinting or anti
      inflammatory drugs plus hand therapy in the short-term, midterm, and/or long-term
      to treat CTS. However there is strong evidence that a local corticosteroid
      injection is more effective than surgery in the short-term, and moderate evidence
      that manual therapy is more effective than surgery in the short-term and midterm.
      There is no unequivocal evidence that suggests one surgical treatment is more
      effective than the other. Postsurgical, a short- (2-3 days) favored a long
      duration (9-14 days) bulky dressing and a sensory retraining program seems to be
      more effective than no program in short-term. More research regarding the optimal
      timing of surgery for CTS is needed.

PMID- 28577859
TI  - Fenethylline-Induced Psychosis, Fenethylline-Themed Paranoid Delusions, or Both?

PMID- 28577856
TI  - Glycosylation and oligomeric state of envelope protein might influence HIV-1
      virion capture by alpha4beta7 integrin.
AB  - The alpha4beta7 integrin present on host cells recognizes the V1V2 domain of the
      HIV-1 envelope protein. This interaction might be involved in virus transmission.
      Administration of alpha4beta7-specific antibodies inhibit acquisition of SIV in a
      macaque challenge model. But the molecular details of V1V2: alpha4beta7
      interaction are unknown and its importance in HIV-1 infection remains
      controversial. Our biochemical and mutational analyses show that glycosylation is
      a key modulator of V1V2 conformation and binding to alpha4beta7. Partially
      glycosylated, but not fully glycosylated, envelope proteins are preferred
      substrates for alpha4beta7 binding. Surprisingly, monomers of the envelope
      protein bound strongly to alpha4beta7 whereas trimers bound poorly. Our results
      suggest that a conformationally flexible V1V2 domain allows binding of the HIV-1
      virion to the alpha4beta7 integrin, which might impart selectivity for the poorly
      glycosylated HIV-1 envelope containing monomers to be more efficiently captured
      by alpha4beta7 integrin present on mucosal cells at the time of HIV-1
      transmission.

PMID- 28577860
TI  - Glaucoma.
AB  - Glaucoma is a heterogeneous group of diseases characterised by cupping of the
      optic nerve head and visual-field damage. It is the most frequent cause of
      irreversible blindness worldwide. Progression usually stops if the intraocular
      pressure is lowered by 30-50% from baseline. Its worldwide age-standardised
      prevalence in the population aged 40 years or older is about 3.5%. Chronic forms
      of glaucoma are painless and symptomatic visual-field defects occur late. Early
      detection by ophthalmological examination is mandatory. Risk factors for primary
      open-angle glaucoma-the most common form of glaucoma-include older age, elevated
      intraocular pressure, sub-Saharan African ethnic origin, positive family history,
      and high myopia. Older age, hyperopia, and east Asian ethnic origin are the main
      risk factors for primary angle-closure glaucoma. Glaucoma is diagnosed using
      ophthalmoscopy, tonometry, and perimetry. Treatment to lower intraocular pressure
      is based on topical drugs, laser therapy, and surgical intervention if other
      therapeutic modalities fail to prevent progression.

PMID- 28577861
TI  - Diagnostic preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks.
AB  - Diagnostics are crucial in mitigating the effect of disease outbreaks. Because
      diagnostic development and validation are time consuming, they should be carried
      out in anticipation of epidemics rather than in response to them. The diagnostic
      response to the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, although ultimately effective, was slow
      and expensive. If a focused mechanism had existed with the technical and
      financial resources to drive its development ahead of the outbreak, point-of-care
      Ebola tests supporting a less costly and more mobile response could have been
      available early on in the diagnosis process. A new partnering model could drive
      rapid development of tests and surveillance strategies for novel pathogens that
      emerge in future outbreaks. We look at lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak
      and propose specific solutions to improve the speed of new assay development and
      ensure their effective deployment.

PMID- 28577862
TI  - Role of Adaptive Immunity in the Development and Progression of Heart Failure:
      New Evidence.
AB  - Heart failure (HF) is considered the endpoint of a variety of cardiac diseases,
      which are the leading cause of death in adults and considered a growing pandemic
      worldwide. Independent of the initial form of cardiac injury, there is evidence
      linking the involvement of the immune system. In HF there is evidence of the
      participation of TH1, and TH17 cells, which account for sustained pathological
      chronic inflammation, cell migration, and the induction of specific pathological
      phenotypes of mononuclear cells. Of equal or even higher relevance are the B
      lymphocyte activation mechanisms that include production of pro-inflammatory
      cytokines, chemokines, and cardiac autoantibodies with or without activation of
      the complement proteins. Both of these unbalanced T- and B-cell pathways of the
      adaptive immune system are associated with cardiomyocyte death and tissue
      remodeling by fibrosis leading to a dysfunctional heart. At this time, therapy
      with neutralizing antibodies and the use of anti-cytokine immunomodulators to
      counteract the immune system effects have reached a plateau of mixed results in
      clinical trials. Nevertheless, recent evidence showed promising results in animal
      models that suggest that modulation of the adaptive immune system cells more than
      some of their effector molecules could have benefits in HF patients. This review
      summarizes the role of the adaptive immunity cells in HF, considering the
      sustained activation of adaptive immune system as a potential contributor to
      disease progression in humans and experimental models where its regulation
      provides a new therapeutic target.

PMID- 28577863
TI  - Association Study of MMP-9 -1562C/T Gene Polymorphism with Susceptibility to
      Multiple Autoimmune Diseases: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) -1562 C/T gene
      polymorphism has been identified as a susceptible gene for multiple autoimmune
      diseases (ADs), but studies are inconsistent. The aim of this study was to assess
      the overall association between MMP-9 gene polymorphism and multiple ADs using a
      meta-analysis. METHODS: Databases of Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science updated to
      March 1, 2016 were retrieved. Odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence
      intervals (95% CIs) as effect size were calculated by fixed-effect or random
      effect model on the basis of heterogeneity. RESULTS: A total of 12 relevant
      studies containing 2,034 cases and 1,861 controls were included in this meta
      analysis. A significant association between MMP-9 -1562 T allele and AD
      susceptibility was found in the overall population (OR = 1.269, 95% CI = 1.114
      1.444, p <0.001) and the Caucasian populations (OR = 1.222, 95% CI = 1.051-1.422,
      p = 0.009), but not in the Asian populations (OR = 1.337, 95% CI = 0.989-0.808, p
      = 0.059). Stratified by disease type, we detected a significant association in
      other ADs (OR = 1.501, 95% CI = 1.212-1.859, p <0.001), but not in patients with
      multiple sclerosis (OR = 1.150, 95% CI = 0.977-1.354, p = 0.092). No publication
      bias was detected in the current meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Data from the
      present study suggest that the MMP-9 -1562 C/T polymorphism may be associated
      with multiple AD susceptibility, especially in the Caucasian populations and
      other ADs. Further epidemiological studies with a larger sample size are needed
      to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28577864
TI  - Cigarette Smoking, Alcohol Consumption and Overweight in Multiple Sclerosis:
      Disability Progression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rate at which disability progresses in multiple sclerosis (MS),
      and its severity, have been associated with modifiable lifestyle habits.
      OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of disability progression in MS patients
      according to tobacco and alcohol consumption and to the presence of overweight.
      METHODS: This was a follow-up of MS cases from a concluded case-control study
      (National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Mexico 2010-2013). The
      evolution in EDSS (Expanded Disability Scale Score) units was followed through a
      medical record review. Kaplan Meier statistics and multivariate Cox regression
      analysis were performed. RESULTS: Of 181 cases, 63.5% were women and 82.5% had
      relapsing remitting MS. Study duration was 19.95 +/- 15.24 months. The disease
      progressed faster in daily smokers than in non-smokers (p = 0.0168). In
      overweight patients, disability progressed faster than in normal weight patients
      (p = 0.0249). Ex-consumers of alcohol had lower risk of progression than current
      consumers (HR = 0.33 CI 95% = 0.14-0.83, p = 0.019) and both daily and ex-smokers
      presented higher risk of progression than non-smokers (HR = 2.32 CI 95% = 1.14
      4.72, p = 0.020 and HR = 3.56, CI 95% = 1.21-10.46, p = 0.021). Stratifying by
      gender, the effects of smoking and overweight were only found in men.
      CONCLUSIONS: Smoking is associated with rapid disability progression in MS. Our
      results suggest that cessation of tobacco and alcohol consumption could be
      clinically beneficial. Although there is association between overweight and
      disability progression in men, a further exploration of gender differences is
      necessary to corroborate this finding.

PMID- 28577865
TI  - Atherosclerosis and Cancer; A Resemblance with Far-reaching Implications.
AB  - Atherosclerosis and cancer are chronic diseases considered two of the main causes
      of death all over the world. Taking into account that both diseases are
      multifactorial, they share not only several important molecular pathways but also
      many ethiological and mechanistical processes from the very early stages of
      development up to the advanced forms in both pathologies. Factors involved in
      their progression comprise genetic alterations, inflammatory processes,
      uncontrolled cell proliferation and oxidative stress, as the most important ones.
      The fact that external effectors such as an infective process or a chemical
      insult have been proposed to initiate the transformation of cells in the artery
      wall and the process of atherogenesis, emphasizes many similarities with the
      progression of the neoplastic process in cancer. Deregulation of cell
      proliferation and therefore cell cycle progression, changes in the synthesis of
      important transcription factors as well as adhesion molecules, an alteration in
      the control of angiogenesis and the molecular similarities that follow chronic
      inflammation, are just a few of the processes that become part of the phenomena
      that closely correlates atherosclerosis and cancer. The aim of the present study
      is therefore, to provide new evidence as well as to discuss new approaches that
      might promote the identification of closer molecular ties between these two
      pathologies that would permit the recognition of atherosclerosis as a
      pathological process with a very close resemblance to the way a neoplastic
      process develops, that might eventually lead to novel ways of treatment.

PMID- 28577866
TI  - Multimorbidity Patterns in Older Adults: An Approach to the Complex
      Interrelationships Among Chronic Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is a growing need for evidence based answers to
      multimorbidity, especially in primary care settings. The aim was estimate the
      prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in a Mexican population of public
      health institution users >=60 years old. METHODS: Observational and multicenter
      study was carried out in four family medicine units in Mexico City; included
      older men and women who attended at least one consultation with their family
      doctor during 2013. The most common diseases were grouped into 11 domains. The
      observed and expected rates, as well as the prevalence ratios, were calculated
      for the pairs of the more common domains. Logistic regression models were
      developed to estimate the magnitude of the association. Cluster and principal
      components analyses were performed to identify multimorbidity patterns. RESULTS:
      Half of all of the patients who were >=60 years old and treated by a family
      doctor had multimorbidity. The most common disease domains were hypertensive and
      endocrine diseases. The highest prevalence of multimorbidity concerned the renal
      domain. The domain pairs with the strongest associations were endocrine + renal
      and hypertension + cardiac. The cluster and principal components analyses
      revealed five consistent patterns of multimorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: The domains
      grouped into five patterns could establish the framework for developing treatment
      guides, deepen the knowledge of multimorbidity, develop strategies to prevent it,
      decrease its burden, and align health services to the care needs that doctors
      face in daily practice.

PMID- 28577867
TI  - Effects of miR-29a and miR-101a Expression on Myocardial Interstitial Collagen
      Generation After Aerobic Exercise in Myocardial-infarcted Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Myocardial infarction (MI) is accompanied by increased
      collagen deposition, cell necrosis and angiogenesis in cardiac tissue, which
      results in reduced ventricular compliance. Both microRNA-29a (miR-29a) and
      microRNA-101a (miR-101a) target the mRNAs encoding collagens and other proteins
      involved in fibrosis. METHODS: We assessed the effects of intermittent aerobic
      exercise on the expression of cardiac miR-29a and miR-101a and following effects
      on the TGFbeta, fos, Smad2/3, COL1A1 and COL3A1 in MI model of rats. Intermittent
      aerobic exercise for MI rats was begun from the second week and ended at the
      ninth week postsurgery. Expressions of microRNAs (miRNAs) and fibrosis-associated
      genes were detected from the infarction adjacent region located in the left
      ventricle. The heart coefficient (HC = heart weight/body weight) and hemodynamics
      assay were used to evaluate cardiac function level. RESULTS: Intermittent aerobic
      exercise inhibited myocardial interstitial collagen deposition and significantly
      improved cardiac function of MI rats. The results of real-time PCR and Western
      blot indicate that intermittent aerobic exercise enhanced the expression of miR
      29a and miR-101a and inhibited TGFbeta pathway in the MI rats. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results suggest that controlled intermittent aerobic exercise can inhibit TGFbeta
      pathway via up-regulation to the expression of miR-29a and miR-101a and finally
      cause a reduced fibrosis and scar formation in cardiac tissue. We believe that
      controlled intermittent aerobic exercise is beneficial to the healing and
      discovery of damaged cardiac tissues and their function after MI.

PMID- 28577868
TI  - Prenatal Food Restriction with Postweaning High-fat Diet Alters Glucose Metabolic
      Function in Adult Rat Offspring.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The present study was designed to investigate the effects of
      prenatal food restriction (PFR) with postweaning high-fat diet (HFD) on glucose
      metabolic function in adult offspring. METHODS: Pregnant Wistar rats were given
      PFR treatment from gestational day 11 to spontaneous delivery. All pups were fed
      by HFD after weaning. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was conducted at
      postnatal week (PW) 20. Rats were decapitated in PW24 to collect liver and
      pancreas, and expression of hepatic insulin signaling genes were then quantified.
      RESULTS: Body weight from PW4 to PW24 in PFR males was lower than those in
      control males, whereas there was no distinct difference between females. However,
      body weight gain rates were higher from PW16 to PW24 in PFR males and females.
      Fasting serum glucose presented no changes, whereas fasting serum insulin
      decreased in PW20 in PFR pups. Moreover, glucose intolerance only appeared in PFR
      males, whereas no changes were shown in PFR females in relative values. Serum
      insulin increased in both PFR groups after OGTT. Remarkable pathological changes
      were also found in islets from PFR rats. There was an increase in the hepatic
      mRNA expression of IR in PFR females and of Glut2 in PFR males. CONCLUSION: PFR
      with postweaning HFD induced a catch-up growth in body weight, especially in PFR
      females. Serum insulin decreased in both PFR groups in fasting status. Insulin
      resistance after OGTT only existed in PFR males, whereas PFR females showed no
      obvious changes in glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28577869
TI  - Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Differentially Modulate Cell Proliferation and
      Endocannabinoid System in Two Human Cancer Lines.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Evidence suggests that quantity and quality of dietary
      polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play a role in the development of cancer.
      However, the mechanisms involved in this interaction(s) are not clear.
      Endocannabinoids are lipid metabolites known to have growth modulatory actions.
      We studied the effect of supplementation with PUFAs omega-6 and omega-3
      (essential fatty acids, EFAs), saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids (non
      EFAs) on the growth of tumor cells and modifications in their endocannabinoid
      content. METHODS: Cell cultures of human glioblastoma (T98G) and breast cancer
      (MCF7) were supplemented with 50 or 100 mmol EFAs and non-EFAs for 72 h. Cell
      proliferation was then determined by MTT, anandamide (AEA) levels by HPLC, total
      fatty acids profiles by GLC, CB1 receptor expression by WB and FAAH activity by
      spectrophotometric method. RESULTS: Fatty acids profile reflected the
      incorporation of the lipids supplemented in each assay. Arachidonic acid (EFA
      omega-6) supplementation increased AEA levels and inhibited the growth of T98G,
      whereas palmitic acid (non-EFA) enhanced their proliferation. In breast cancer
      (MCF7) cells, eicosapentaenoic acid (EFA omega-3) reduced and oleic acid (non
      EFA) enhanced their proliferation. CB1 expression was higher in T98G and no
      differences were observed in FAAH activity. CONCLUSIONS: The growth of tumor
      cells can be differentially modulated by fatty acids and, at least in part, can
      be attributed to their ability to act on the components of the endocannabinoid
      system.

PMID- 28577870
TI  - Mitochondria As the Target for the Modulatory Effect of Curcumin in Oxaliplatin
      induced Toxicity in Isolated Rat Liver Mitochondria.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To explore hepatoprotective action of curcumin (CMN, a
      bioflavonoid) on oxaliplatin (Oxa)-triggered mitochondrial oxidative stress and
      respiratory chain complexes in liver of rats. Oxa is a ubiquitously utilized
      platinum-based chemotherapeutic agent commonly used for the treatment of
      colorectal cancer. Mitochondria have recently emerged as targets for anticancer
      drugs in several kinds of toxicity including hepatotoxicity that can lead to
      neoplastic disease. There is a dearth of evidence involving the role of
      mitochondria in mediating Oxa-evoked hepatotoxicity and its underlying mechanism
      is still debatable. METHODS: The study was performed in mitochondria isolated
      from liver of Wistar rats. Oxa (200 MUg/mL) and CMN (5 MUmol) were incubated
      under in vitro conditions. RESULTS: Oxa evoked a significant increase in the
      membrane lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels, protein carbonyl (PC) contents,
      decrease in reduced glutathione (GSH) and nonprotein thiol (NP-SH) levels. Oxa
      also caused a marked decline in the activities of enzymatic antioxidants and
      respiratory chain enzymes (I, II, III and V) in liver mitochondria. CMN pre
      treatment significantly prevented the activities of enzymatic antioxidants and
      mitochondrial respiratory chain enzymes. CMN also restored the LPO and PC
      contents, GSH and NP-SH levels in liver mitochondria. CONCLUSION: CMN intake
      might be effective in regulation of Oxa-evoked mitotoxicity during chemotherapy.
      Moreover, it is included in the armamentarium for anticancer agent-induced
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28577871
TI  - Loperamide-induced Cardiac Depression Is Enhanced by Hyperglycemia: Evidence
      Relevant to Loperamide Abuse.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cardiac dysryhthmias and death are reported after loperamide
      abuse. The mechanism of death is not clear and cardiac depression may play a role
      in this mechanism. Loperamide is widely used as an agonist of the MU-opioid
      receptor (MOR) in clinical practice. In skeletal muscle, an increase in MOR in
      response to hyperglycemia is largely attributable to higher expression of the
      transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), which binds to the promoter
      of the MOR genes. Therefore, we investigated the changes in cardiac MOR caused by
      hyperglycemia both in vivo and in vitro. METHODS: Streptozotocin-induced type 1
      like diabetic rats (STZ rats) were used to estimate cardiac performance and
      changes in cardiac MOR under the influence of loperamide. STAT3 was measured in
      cultured cardiomyocytes under high glucose (HG) to mimic the in vivo changes.
      RESULTS: Loperamide-induced reduction of cardiac performance was more marked in
      STZ rats than in normal rats. The increased MOR in the hearts of STZ rats was
      reversed by the reduction of hyperglycemia. Higher MOR expression paralleled the
      increase in STAT3 in cardiomyocytes under HG and was reversed by siRNA of STAT3.
      Stattic at a dose sufficient to inhibit STAT3 reduced MOR both in vivo and in
      vitro. CONCLUSION: Cardiac depression induced by loperamide is enhanced by
      hyperglycemia due to higher MOR expression, which is associated with higher
      expression of STAT3 in the heart. These results suggest that loperamide abuse is
      particularly dangerous for individuals with hyperglycemia.

PMID- 28577872
TI  - Association of Adiponectin with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in a Mexican-Mestizo
      Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Adiponectin (ADPN) is a cardioprotective adipocytokine, and
      its association with atherosclerosis development is controversial. The aim of the
      present study was to assess the association of low ADPN plasma levels with the
      presence of subclinical atherosclerosis in a Mexican-Mestizo population without
      history of diabetes or coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: In 818 subjects
      (53.4 +/- 9 years; 49.9% women) anthropometry, subcutaneous and visceral adipose
      tissue, lipids, glucose, C-reactive protein (CRP), insulin, and ADPN levels were
      determined. Carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) was measured with
      ultrasound in B mode and the sex-age specific value higher than 75th percentile
      defined the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis. Low ADPN was considered when
      plasma concentrations were lower than 25th percentile (8.67 MUg/mL in women, 5.30
      MUg/mL in men). RESULTS: Prevalence of low ADPN was 43.6% (42.9% in women and
      44.4% in men; p = 0.66) and elevated CIMT (eCIMT) was 23.8% (25.8% in women and
      21.9% in men; p = 0.184). In addition to their higher prevalence of low ADPN,
      subjects with eCIMT had higher values of body mass index, blood pressure, total
      cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, and CRP. Multivariate analysis
      revealed that independent of these factors, low ADPN was associated with eCIMT
      (OR [95% CI]: 1.505 [1.051-2.153]). CONCLUSIONS: In the studied population, low
      adiponectin concentrations are associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical
      atherosclerosis, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

PMID- 28577873
TI  - Increased Circulating Autoantibodies Levels of IgG, IgA, IgM Against Cytokeratin
      18 and Cytokeratin 19 in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Autoimmune processes are involved in the progression of
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Autoantibodies against cytokeratin
      18 (CK18) and cytokeratin 19 (CK19) could be associated with lung injury. We
      undertook this study to investigate the role of these autoantibodies against CK18
      and CK19 in the development of COPD. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used blood samples
      from 228 COPD patients or 136 healthy controls and male C57BL/6j mice as
      experimental subjects to analyze the serum autoantibody levels against CK18 or
      CK19 autoantigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found that the
      circulating autoantibody levels of IgG, IgA, IgM against CK18 and CK19 were
      elevated in patients with COPD compared with healthy controls, which were
      increased gradually as the severity of the disease increases, especially in GOLD
      III and GOLD IV with the exception of anti-CK19 IgG and anti-CK18 IgA
      autoantibodies. Moreover, we observed that the serum levels of anti-CK18 and anti
      CK19 IgG autoantibodies were higher in mice exposed to cigarette smoke compared
      with mice exposed to room air for 6 months and 9 months. Additionally, we
      identified the distribution of antibodies and the presence of autoantibodies
      (IgG) against CK18 and CK19 in the damaged lung tissues of mice. CONCLUSIONS:
      Increased circulating autoantibodies against CK18 and CK19 are closely related to
      the progression of COPD, which play an important role in the process of lung
      injury in COPD, suggesting that it is promising for anti-CK18 and anti-CK19
      autoantibodies to serve as a tool to monitor lung damage and guide treatment.

PMID- 28577874
TI  - RAS Genetic Variants in Interaction with ACE Inhibitors Drugs Influences
      Essential Hypertension Control.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Essential Hypertension (EH) is a common disorder associated
      with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in Malaysia. To investigate
      how genetic polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS)
      influence EH control with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor drugs (ACEI).
      METHODS: A case-control, cross-sectional population-based nested study (n = 142)
      included hypertensive subjects treated with ACEI drugs, either lisinopril or
      enalapril (20 mg, once daily) as monotherapy for 24 weeks. In total seven
      possible polymorphisms of RAS genes were genotyped. The association between those
      polymorphisms and the changes in blood pressure were observed in the 24 week
      treatment. RESULTS: Statistically significant associations of I, G, T, M and G
      alleles of ACE (I/D, G2350A), AGT (M235T, T175M and G-6A) respectively were
      observed in essential hypertensive subjects. The decrease in systolic blood
      pressure and diastolic blood pressure after 24 weeks of treatment of the patients
      carrying II, GG, and TT genotypes were greater than the groups carrying DD, AA,
      MM, MM and GG of I/D, G2350A, M235T, T174M and G-6A genotypes respectively. In
      contrast, No significant difference was observed between renin gene polymorphisms
      (Bg/I and MboI) and hypertensives. CONCLUSIONS: Although this study shows a
      possible association of polymorphisms of RAS genes with the risk of non-control
      of HT in ACEI-treated patients and indicates the importance of all this system's
      components in regulating HT, it needs to be replicated in other data sources.

PMID- 28577875
TI  - Circulating miR-150, miR-192, miR-200b, and miR-423-3p as Non-invasive Biomarkers
      of Chronic Allograft Dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Chronic allograft dysfunction (CAD) is the major cause of
      renal allograft loss and can only be diagnosed by invasive histological
      examinations. The current study aimed to determine whether or not the circulating
      miR-125a, miR-150, miR-192, miR-200b, miR-423-3p and miR-433 could serve as
      predictors of graft outcome in the renal transplant recipients with CAD. METHODS:
      To evaluate the expression levels of miRNAs, we used quantitative real-time PCR
      (qPCR) and analyzed the plasma samples of 53 renal transplant recipients,
      including: 27 recipients with stable graft function (SGF), 26 recipients with
      biopsy-proven interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IFTA) and 15 healthy
      controls. Possible correlation between the clinicopathological parameters and the
      studied circulating miRNAs was also evaluated. RESULTS: miR-150 (p <0.001), miR
      192 (p = 0.003), miR-200b (p = 0.048) and miR-423-3p (p <0.001) were
      differentially expressed between IFTA and SGF plasma samples. Creatinine
      correlated with miR-192 (r = 0.414, p = 0.036) and miR-423-3p (r = -0.431, p =
      0.028). Moreover, the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) significantly
      correlated with the circulating miR-192 (r = -0.390, p = 0.049) and miR-423 (r =
      0.432, p = 0.028). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated
      that four miRNAs possessed the best diagnostic value for discriminating IFTA from
      SGF recipients with the areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.87 and high sensitivity
      and specificity values of 78% and 91%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      suggest that aberrant plasma levels of these miRNAs are associated with the renal
      allograft dysfunction. Therefore, they are proposed to be considered as potential
      diagnostic biomarkers for monitoring of renal graft function.

PMID- 28577876
TI  - A preliminary study on the neural oscillatory characteristics of motor
      preparation prior to dysfluent and fluent utterances in adults who stutter.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recent literature on speech production in adults who stutter (AWS) has
      begun to investigate the neural mechanisms characterizing speech-motor
      preparation prior to speech onset. Compelling evidence has suggested that
      stuttering is associated with atypical processing within cortical and sub
      cortical motor networks, particularly in the beta frequency range, that is
      effective before speech production even begins. Due to low stuttering frequency
      in experimental settings, however, the literature has so far predominantly
      reported on fluent speech production in AWS. Consequently, we have limited
      understanding of the way in which fluent speech processing in AWS is disturbed
      leading to a dysfluency. This preliminary study aims to characterize neural motor
      preparation prior to stuttered utterances in AWS. METHODS: Eight AWS participated
      in the study. A total of 336 stuttered utterances were compared to the
      participants' own fluent utterance productions. Beta oscillatory activity was
      analyzed with magnetoencephalography (MEG) and localized using minimum-variance
      beamforming. RESULTS: Preparation for speech production induced beta suppression
      in the bilateral premotor and motor cortex prior to speech onset. Although the
      data revealed some interesting trends, no significant differences between fluent
      and stuttered utterances were present. This may be due to a relatively low and
      variable number of stuttered trials analyzed in individual subjects. CONCLUSION:
      While the lack of significant differences may have resulted from the relatively
      low numbers of stuttered utterances across subjects, the observed trends
      demonstrated that the proposed methodology and experimental paradigm is a
      promising approach for future studies aiming to characterize differences between
      stuttered and fluent speech.

PMID- 28577877
TI  - Hardiness Mediates Stress and Impact Level in ED Nurses Who Experienced a Violent
      Event.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This secondary analysis examined the mediating effect of hardiness
      between stress and impact level in ED nurses who experienced a violent event.
      METHOD: This correlational study was conducted from June to August 2014. We used
      the visual analog scale to measure stress level, the Impact of Event Scale
      Revised to measure impact level after the violent event, and the Dispositional
      Resilience Scale to measure hardiness. We then analyzed mediating effects with
      the Sobel test. Data were collected in 31 emergency medical centers located in B
      city in Korea. Data from 321 ED nurses who experienced a violent event were
      analyzed. Most nurses (91.9%) were women, with a mean age of 28.73 years. The
      main outcome measure was the mediating effect of hardiness between stress and
      impact level after ED nurses experienced violence. RESULTS: We found that both
      violence-related stress (B = 0.22, P < .001) and hardiness (B = -0.33, P = .037)
      were significant predictors of impact level from a violent event. Based on
      results of a Sobel test, hardiness partially mediated the relationship between
      violence-related stress and impact level from a violent event (Z = 2.03, P =
      .044). DISCUSSION: Hardiness had an effect on reducing the impact level of ED
      nurses who had experienced a violent event and had a mediating role in mitigating
      their stress. Therefore, we recommend the development of an intervention program
      that emphasizes the improvement of hardiness in ED nurses.

PMID- 28577878
TI  - Nurses leading change to advance health.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The article includes a review of selected past and current leadership
      initiatives as well as a summary of three leadership meetings convened by The
      Center to Champion Nursing in America, a partnership of the Robert Wood Johnson
      Foundation (RWJF), AARP and the AARP Foundation. PURPOSE: These "Leadership in
      Action" meetings were designed to address the Campaign for Action's (CFA) goal to
      increase the number of nurse leaders in health- and health care-related
      boardrooms at the local, state and national levels. METHODS: RWJF supported key
      nursing organizations in initial discussions around integrating state and
      national efforts to get more nurses onto boards leading to a active vibrant
      coalition making significant progress. CONCLUSION: This article concludes with a
      call to action encouraging all nurses to consider board service as an essential
      component of improving health and health care and to do their part to help build
      a Culture of Health in the United States.

PMID- 28577880
TI  - Shadows in the light of reason.

PMID- 28577881
TI  - Gene-enriched draft genome of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus: assembly
      by the hybrid Pacific Biosciences/Illumina approach enabled analysis of the
      highly repetitive genome.
AB  - The genome of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus, an ectoparasite with
      global distribution, is estimated to be 7.1Gbp in length and consists of
      approximately 70% repetitive DNA. We report the draft assembly of a tick genome
      that utilized a hybrid sequencing and assembly approach to capture the repetitive
      fractions of the genome. Our hybrid approach produced an assembly consisting of
      2.0Gbp represented in 195,170 scaffolds with a N50 of 60,284bp. The Rmi v2.0
      assembly is 51.46% repetitive with a large fraction of unclassified repeats,
      short interspersed elements, long interspersed elements and long terminal
      repeats. We identified 38,827 putative R. microplus gene loci, of which 24,758
      were protein coding genes (>=100 amino acids). OrthoMCL comparative analysis
      against 11 selected species including insects and vertebrates identified 10,835
      and 3,423 protein coding gene loci that are unique to R. microplus or common to
      both R. microplus and Ixodes scapularis ticks, respectively. We identified 191
      microRNA loci, of which 168 have similarity to known miRNAs and 23 represent
      novel miRNA families. We identified the genomic loci of several highly divergent
      R. microplus esterases with sequence similarity to acetylcholinesterase.
      Additionally we report the finding of a novel cytochrome P450 CYP41 homolog that
      shows similar protein folding structures to known CYP41 proteins known to be
      involved in acaricide resistance.

PMID- 28577883
TI  - Corrigendum to "comparison of outcomes for MR-guided versus CT-guided high-dose
      rate interstitial brachytherapy in women with locally advanced carcinoma of the
      cervix" [Gynecol. Oncol. 145 (2017) 284-290].

PMID- 28577882
TI  - Heritable genetic transformation of Strongyloides stercoralis by microinjection
      of plasmid DNA constructs into the male germline.
AB  - Heretofore, transgenesis in the parasitic nematode genus Strongyloides has relied
      on microinjecting transgene constructs into gonadal syncytia of free-living
      females. We now report transgenesis in Strongyloides stercoralis by
      microinjecting constructs into the syncytial testes of free-living males. Crosses
      of individual males microinjected with a construct encoding GFP with cohorts of
      12 non-injected females produced a mean of 7.28+/-2.09 transgenic progeny.
      Progeny of males and females microinjected with distinct reporter constructs
      comprised 2.6%+/-0.7% of individuals expressing both paternal and maternal
      transgenes. Implications of this finding for deployment of CRISPR/Cas9
      mutagenesis in Strongyloides spp. are discussed.

PMID- 28577884
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of opportunistic salpingectomy for ovarian cancer prevention.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Data suggesting a link between the fallopian tube and ovarian cancer
      have led to an increase in rates of salpingectomy at the time of pelvic surgery,
      a practice known as opportunistic salpingectomy (OS). However, the potential
      benefits, risks and costs for this new practice are not well established. Our
      objective was to assess the cost-effectiveness of opportunistic salpingectomy at
      the time of laparoscopic permanent contraception or hysterectomy for benign
      indications. METHODS: We created two models to compare the cost-effectiveness of
      salpingectomy versus usual care. The hypothetical study population is 50,000
      women aged 45 undergoing laparoscopic hysterectomy with ovarian preservation for
      benign indications, and 300,000 women aged 35 undergoing laparoscopic permanent
      contraception. SEER data were used for probabilities of ovarian cancer cases and
      deaths. The ovarian cancer risk reduction, complication rates, utilities and
      associated costs were obtained from published literature. Sensitivity analyses
      and Monte Carlo simulation were performed, and incremental cost-effectiveness
      ratios (ICERs) were calculated to determine the cost per quality adjusted life
      year (QALY) gained. RESULTS: In the laparoscopic hysterectomy cohort, OS is cost
      saving and would yield $23.9 million in health care dollars saved. In the
      laparoscopic permanent contraception cohort, OS is cost-effective with an ICER of
      $31,432/QALY compared to tubal ligation, and remains cost-effective as long as it
      reduces ovarian cancer risk by 54%. Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated cost
      effectiveness with hysterectomy and permanent contraception in 62.3% and 55% of
      trials, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunistic salpingectomy for low-risk women
      undergoing pelvic surgery may be a cost-effective strategy for decreasing ovarian
      cancer risk at time of hysterectomy or permanent contraception. In our model,
      salpingectomy was cost-effective with both procedures, but the advantage greater
      at time of hysterectomy.

PMID- 28577885
TI  - Isolated tumor cells identified by sentinel lymph node mapping in endometrial
      cancer: Does adjuvant treatment matter?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcome and the role of adjuvant treatment in the
      management of patients with endometrial cancer and isolated tumor cells (ITCs)
      identified by SLN mapping. METHODS: This single center study identified all
      patients undergoing hysterectomy, salpingo-oophorectomy, lymphadenectomy and SLN
      mapping for endometrial cancer between November 2010 and December 2015. Data was
      prospectively collected. Progression-free survival was analyzed according to the
      Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. RESULTS: A total of 519
      patients were included. Overall, 85 patients (16.4%) were found to have SLN
      metastases of which 43 (51%) were macrometastasis, 11 (13%) micrometastasis (MM)
      and 31 (36%) ITC. Eleven (35%) of patients with ITCs received adjuvant
      chemotherapy+/-whole pelvic radiation therapy (WPRT), 10 (32%) received WPRT, and
      10 (32%) received either no adjuvant treatment or vault brachytherapy (VBT) only.
      ITC patients received significantly less chemotherapy (p=0.0001) and WPRT
      (p=0.007) compared to patients with macrometastasis. Of note, ITC were not
      considered node positive in our study. With a median follow-up of 29months
      (range: 0-67), the progression free survival (PFS) at 3-years for the ITC
      patients was 95.5%, similar to node negative (87.6%) and micrometastasis patients
      (85.5%), but statistically better than patients with macrometastasis (58.5%)
      (p=0.0012). Only 1/31 patient with ITC recurred (IB, 7cm carcinosarcoma) despite
      adjuvant treatments. None of the ITC patients with endometrioid histology
      recurred (0/28) and none of the ITC patients who did not receive adjuvant
      treatment or VBT recurred (0/10). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with endometrial cancer
      found to have SLN ITCs have an excellent outcome. The use of adjuvant treatment
      should be tailored to uterine factors and histology and not solely based on the
      presence of ITCs. Patients with ITCs and otherwise low-risk uterine disease
      probably derive little benefit from receiving additional treatments. More studies
      are needed to confirm our results.

PMID- 28577879
TI  - Developmental psychoneuroendocrine and psychoneuroimmune pathways from childhood
      adversity to disease.
AB  - Childhood adversity has been repeatedly and robustly linked to physical and
      mental illness across the lifespan. Yet, the biological pathways through which
      this occurs remain unclear. Functioning of the inflammatory arm of the immune
      system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis are both hypothesized
      pathways through which childhood adversity leads to disease. This review provides
      a novel developmental framework for examining the role of adversity type and
      timing in inflammatory and HPA-axis functioning. In particular, we identify
      elements of childhood adversity that are salient to the developing organism:
      physical threat, disrupted caregiving, and unpredictable environmental
      conditions. We propose that existing, well-characterized animal models may be
      useful in differentiating the effects of these adversity elements and review both
      the animal and human literature that supports these ideas. To support these
      hypotheses, we also provide a detailed description of the development and
      structure of both the HPA-axis and the inflammatory arm of the immune system, as
      well as recent methodological advances in their measurement. Recommendations for
      future basic, developmental, translational, and clinical research are discussed.

PMID- 28577887
TI  - The contribution of coping related variables and cardiac vagal activity on the
      performance of a dart throwing task under pressure.
AB  - The aims of this study were 1) to assess the predictive role of coping related
      variables (CRV) on cardiac vagal activity (derived from heart rate variability),
      and 2) to investigate the influence of CRV (including cardiac vagal activity) on
      a dart throwing task under low pressure (LP) and high pressure (HP) conditions.
      Participants (n=51) completed trait CRV questionnaires: Decision Specific
      Reinvestment Scale, Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale and Trait Emotional
      Intelligence Questionnaire. They competed in a dart throwing task under LP and HP
      conditions. Cardiac vagal activity measurements were taken at resting, task and
      during recovery for 5min. Self-reported ratings of stress were recorded at three
      time points via a visual analogue scale. Upon completion of the task, self-report
      measures of motivation, stress appraisal, attention, perceived pressure and dart
      throwing experience were completed. Results indicated that resting cardiac vagal
      activity had no predictors. Task cardiac vagal activity was predicted by resting
      cardiac vagal activity in both pressure conditions with the addition of a trait
      CRV in HP. Post task cardiac vagal activity was predicted by resting cardiac
      vagal activity in both conditions with the addition of a trait CRV in HP. Cardiac
      vagal reactivity (difference from resting to task) was predicted by a trait CRV
      in HP conditions. Cardiac vagal recovery (difference from task to post task) was
      predicted by a state CRV only in LP. Dart throwing task performance was predicted
      by a combination of both CRV and cardiac vagal activity. The current research
      suggests that coping related variables and cardiac vagal activity influence dart
      throwing task performance differently dependent on pressure condition.

PMID- 28577886
TI  - Investigating physiological glucose excursions before, during, and after Ramadan
      in adults without diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIM: The study aimed to investigate physiological effects of Ramadan fasting on
      continuously monitored glucose levels in relation to Ramadan in young non
      diabetic adults. METHODS: Continuous glucose monitoring was employed to measure
      interstitial glucose for several days 1-2weeks before Ramadan, in the middle of
      Ramadan, and 4-6weeks after Ramadan to assess glucose exposure and glucose
      variability. RESULTS: A total of 34,182 accurate glucose sensor readings and 438
      capillary blood glucose values [mean absolute difference median (interquartile
      range) 8.5 (6.9-11.1)%] were obtained from 18 non-diabetic adults [13 females;
      aged 24 (21-27) years; baseline body mass index 23.9 (20.6-28.9) kg/m2]. The
      continuous glucose monitoring profiles showed an increase in the hyperglycemic
      (above 140mg/dL) area under the curve after Ramadan compared to both before
      (P=0.004) and during Ramadan (P=0.003), along with an increased glucose
      variability after Ramadan (P=0.014). Both the area under the interstitial glucose
      concentration curve for the entire day and the average glucose were positively
      associated with body mass index during (P=0.004 and P=0.005, respectively) and
      after Ramadan (P=0.013 and P=0.01, respectively). Atypical continuous glucose
      patterns were recognized in 11% of subjects, distinguished by a prolonged
      increased glucose exposure, particularly in response to a meal. CONCLUSION: The
      time-point 4-6weeks after Ramadan was distinguished by greater glucose exposure
      and wider glucose variability that may reflect ongoing changes in insulin
      sensitivity in response to altering lifestyle patterns in non-diabetic young
      adults across the spectrum of body weight.

PMID- 28577889
TI  - Nitric oxide associated protein 1 is associated with chloroplast perturbation and
      disease symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana infected with South African cassava
      mosaic virus.
AB  - Nitric oxide associated 1 (NOA1) in plants is a cyclic GTPase involved in protein
      translation in the chloroplast and has been indirectly linked to nitric oxide
      (NO) accumulation and response to biotic stress. The association between NOA1 and
      NO accumulation in Arabidopsis noa1 mutants has been linked to the inability of
      noa1 mutants to accumulate carbon reserves such as fumarate, leading to
      chloroplast dysfunction and a pale green leaf phenotype. To understand the role
      played by NOA1 in response to South African cassava mosaic virus infection in
      Nicotiana benthamiana, the expression of NbNOA1 and the accumulation of NO in
      leaf samples was compared between south african cassava mosaic (SACMV)-infected
      and mock-infected plants at 14 and 28 dpi. Real-time qPCR was used to measure
      SACMV viral load which increased significantly by 20% from 14 to 28 dpi as
      chlorosis and symptom severity progressed. At 14 and 28 dpi, NbNOA1 expression
      was significantly lower than mock inoculated plants (2-fold lower at 14 dpi, p
      value=0.01 and 5-fold lower at 28, p-value=0.00). At 14 dpi, NO accumulation
      remained unchanged in infected leaf tissue compared to mock inoculated, while at
      28 dpi, NO accumulation was 40% lower (p-value=0.01). At 28 dpi, the decrease in
      NbNOA1 expression and NO accumulation was accompanied by chloroplast dysfunction,
      evident from the significant reduction in chlorophylls a and b and carotenoids in
      SACMV-infected leaves. Furthermore, the expression of chloroplast translation
      factors (chloroplast RNA binding, chloroplast elongation factor G, translation
      elongation factor Tu, translation initiation factor 3-2, plastid-specific
      ribosomal protein 6 and plastid ribosome recycling factor) were found to be
      repressed in infected N. benthamiana. GC-MS analysis showed a decrease in
      fumarate and an increase in glucose in SACMV-infected N. benthamiana in
      comparison to mock samples suggesting a decrease in carbon stores. Collectively,
      these results provide evidence that in response to SACMV infection, a decrease in
      photopigments and carbon stores, accompanied by an increase in glucose and
      decrease in fumarate, leads to a decline in NbNOA1expression and NO levels. This
      is manifested by suppressed translation factors and disruption of chloroplast
      function, thereby contributing to chlorotic disease symptoms.

PMID- 28577890
TI  - Exercise training protects against aging-induced mitochondrial fragmentation in
      mouse skeletal muscle in a PGC-1alpha dependent manner.
AB  - Aging is associated with impaired mitochondrial function, whereas exercise
      training enhances mitochondrial content and function in part through activation
      of PGC-1alpha. Mitochondria form dynamic networks regulated by fission and fusion
      with profound effects on mitochondrial functions, yet the effects of aging and
      exercise training on mitochondrial network structure remain unclear. This study
      examined the effects of aging and exercise training on mitochondrial network
      structure using confocal microscopy on mitochondria-specific stains in single
      muscle fibers from PGC-1alpha KO and WT mice. Hyperfragmentation of mitochondrial
      networks was observed in aged relative to young animals while exercise training
      normalized mitochondrial network structure in WT, but not in PGC-1alpha KO.
      Mitochondrial fission protein content (FIS1 and DRP1) relative to mitochondrial
      content was increased with aging in both WT and PGC-1alpha KO mice, while
      exercise training lowered mitochondrial fission protein content relative to
      mitochondrial content only in WT. Mitochondrial fusion protein content (MFN1/2
      and OPA1) was unaffected by aging and lifelong exercise training in both PGC
      1alpha KO and WT mice. The present results provide evidence that exercise
      training rescues aging-induced mitochondrial fragmentation in skeletal muscle by
      suppressing mitochondrial fission protein expression in a PGC-1alpha dependent
      manner.

PMID- 28577891
TI  - Treatment of posterior cruciate ligament tibial avulsion by a minimally-invasive
      open posterior approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the surgical technique and report the outcomes following
      fixation of PCL bony avulsions through mini-invasive posterior knee approach as
      described by Burks and Schaffer. METHODS: From June 2012 to July 2015, 27
      patients enrolled in the study (21 males and 6 females). Fixation of tibial PCL
      avulsion fractures was done with one or two cannulated screws, or sutures through
      Burks and Schaffer's approach. The mean interval before surgery was 16days (1-70)
      .Patients was followed up for an average of 51 weeks. The outcome measures
      evaluated at final follow-up were (1) clinical stability as assessed by posterior
      drawer test, (2) radiologic union, (3) functional assessment by Lysholm score,
      and (4) gastrocnemius muscle strength as a measure of morbidity. RESULTS: Average
      operative time was 43min. Improvement of both subjective Lysholm score (mean 93)
      and objective stability testing by posterior drawer test (returns to normal in
      81.1% of patients) at the final follow-up. Good radiographic union at average of
      5.6 weeks. No morbidity of the gastrocnemius with few complications. CONCLUSIONS:
      The approach was fast and safe with excellent visualization. It allows surgeons
      to address other injuries in the same setting. It can be considered as a
      minimally-invasive open surgery without surgery-related morbidity. It is a
      reproducible technique that can be done at any trauma centre by surgeons with
      average experience. The subjective and objective results of the technique are
      excellent and comparable to the arthroscopic procedures that needs more specific
      centres with well-trained surgeons.

PMID- 28577892
TI  - Effects of EDC crosslinking on the stiffness of dentin hybrid layers evaluated by
      nanoDMA over time.
AB  - : Application of collagen cross-linkers to demineralized dentin improves bond
      durability. While the benefits of cross-linking treatments to bond strength and
      fatigue resistance have been explored, changes in hybrid layer stiffness with
      aging have not been examined. OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of a cross
      linking treatment using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) on
      hybrid layer stiffness of resin-dentin adhesive bonds, using spatially-resolved
      nanoscopic Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (nanoDMA). METHODS: Bonded interface
      specimens were prepared using a two-step (SB) or three-step (SBMP) etch-and-rinse
      adhesive. Adhesive bonding of the treated groups was preceded by a 1min
      application of an experimental EDC conditioner to the acid-etched dentin. Control
      specimens did not receive EDC treatment. The bonded interfaces were evaluated
      using nanoDMA to determine the dynamic mechanical properties after storage in
      artificial saliva at 37 degrees C for 0, 3 and 6 months. RESULTS: The EDC
      treatment had no influence on the dynamic mechanical properties of the hybrid
      layer immediately after bonding. There was also no reduction in the hybrid layer
      stiffness after 3 and 6 months aging as defined by the complex modulus and
      storage modulus. However, there was a significant reduction in the loss modulus
      and tandelta components (i.e. viscous behavior) of the hybrid layers with aging.
      Degradation occurred to both adhesive systems with storage, but was greatest for
      SB. Without EDC treatment, the reduction in tandelta of the hybrid layer prepared
      with SB exceeded 80% in 6 months. SIGNIFICANCE: The application of EDC to acid
      etched dentin helps maintain the viscoelasticity of hybrid layers.

PMID- 28577893
TI  - Academy of Dental Materials guidance-Resin composites: Part I-Mechanical
      properties.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this project, which was initiated from the Academy of
      Dental Materials, was to review and critically appraise methods to determine
      fracture, deformation and wear resistance of dental resin composites, in an
      attempt to provide guidance for investigators endeavoring to study these
      properties for these materials. METHODS: Test methods have been ranked in the
      priority of the specific property being tested, as well as of the specific test
      methods for evaluating that property. Focus was placed on the tests that are
      considered to be of the highest priority in terms of being the most useful,
      applicable, supported by the literature, and which show a correlation with
      clinical findings. Others are mentioned briefly for the purpose of being
      inclusive. When a standard test method exists, including those used in other
      fields, these have been identified in the beginning of each section. Also, some
      examples from the resin composite literature are included for each test method.
      RESULTS: The properties for evaluating resin composites were ranked in the
      priority of measurement as following: (1) Strength, Elastic Modulus, Fracture
      toughness, Fatigue, Indentation Hardness, Wear-abrasion (third body) and Wear
      attrition (contact/two body), (2) Toughness, Edge strength (chipping) and (3)
      Wear determined by toothbrush. SIGNIFICANCE: The following guidance is meant to
      aid the researcher in choosing the proper method to assess key properties of
      dental resin composites with regard to their fracture, deformation and wear
      resistance.

PMID- 28577894
TI  - Proteolytic control of regulated necrosis.
AB  - Proteases control most of the physiological processes that occur in a cell. This
      particularly applies to apoptosis, the most well-studied form of cell death,
      where proteolysis by cysteine-aspartic proteases (caspases) is the primary
      mechanism for both initiation and execution of cell suicide. In contrast, the
      impact of proteolysis on other, non-apoptotic cell death pathways (summarized
      under the term "regulated necrosis", RN) has long been enigmatic, but has clearly
      been confirmed by a number of recent groundbreaking discoveries. Here, we review
      these discoveries and provide an overview on the role of proteolysis in known
      forms of RN, with a particular focus on necroptosis and pyroptosis, and their
      regulation by deubiquitinases, apoptotic and inflammatory caspases. This article
      is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteolysis as a Regulatory Event in
      Pathophysiology edited by Stefan Rose-John.

PMID- 28577896
TI  - Review of TCE cardiac defects data by Makris et al. is not systematic.

PMID- 28577895
TI  - Sox2 regulates Muller glia reprogramming and proliferation in the regenerating
      zebrafish retina via Lin28 and Ascl1a.
AB  - Sox2 is a well-established neuronal stem cell-associated transcription factor
      that regulates neural development and adult neurogenesis in vertebrates, and is
      one of the critical genes used to reprogram differentiated cells into induced
      pluripotent stem cells. We examined if Sox2 was involved in the early
      reprogramming-like events that Muller glia undergo as they upregulate many
      pluripotency- and neural stem cell-associated genes required for proliferation in
      light-damaged adult zebrafish retinas. In the undamaged adult zebrafish retina,
      Sox2 is expressed in Muller glia and a subset of amacrine cells, similar to other
      vertebrates. Following 31 h of light damage, Sox2 expression significantly
      increased in proliferating Muller glia. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of Sox2
      expression resulted in decreased numbers of proliferating Muller glia, while
      induced overexpression of Sox2 stimulated Muller glia proliferation in the
      absence of retinal damage. Thus, Sox2 is necessary and sufficient for Muller glia
      proliferation. We investigated the role of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, which is a
      known regulator of sox2 expression during vertebrate retinal development. While
      beta-catenin 2, but not beta-catenin 1, was necessary for Muller glia
      proliferation, neither beta-catenin paralog was required for sox2 expression
      following retinal damage. Sox2 expression was also necessary for ascl1a
      (neurogenic) and lin28a (reprogramming) expression, but not stat3 expression
      following retinal damage. Furthermore, Sox2 was required for Muller glial-derived
      neuronal progenitor cell amplification and expression of the pro-neural marker
      Tg(atoh7:EGFP). Finally, loss of Sox2 expression prevented complete regeneration
      of cone photoreceptors. This study is the first to identify a functional role for
      Sox2 during Muller glial-based regeneration of the vertebrate retina.

PMID- 28577897
TI  - Time as tyrant: The minute, hour and day make a difference for corticosterone
      concentrations in wild nestlings.
AB  - The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been studied extensively in
      adults, but the HPA axis in early life is not well characterized, and there is an
      immense amount of unexplained variation in glucocorticoid levels during early
      life, especially in wild animals. To characterize population-wide natural
      variation in early-life HPA axis function, we compared plasma corticosterone
      levels (at baseline and after 30min acute restraint-stress) from seven-day-old
      nestlings (n=123) from a free-living, marked population of Savannah sparrows
      (Passerculus sandwichensis). We found a surprising sensitivity of the HPA axis to
      timing of sample collection across time scales. Even within the accepted 3-min
      framework to collect baseline samples, time to collect blood had a significant
      effect on baseline corticosterone concentrations. Daily rhythms also influenced
      baseline levels, which increased significantly during the relatively short window
      of sample collection (1100 and 1600). On a broader timeframe, there was a strong
      effect of hatch date (over a 2month period) on HPA axis responsiveness, where
      nestlings hatched later in the breeding season had lower stress-induced
      corticosterone levels than those hatched earlier. The ecophysiological mechanisms
      and implications of these patterns warrant future investigation; meanwhile this
      study highlights the critical need to consider, and potentially restrict, time
      across scales when collecting blood samples from wild birds to assess stress
      physiology.

PMID- 28577898
TI  - The nexus of hair corticosterone level, immunocompetence, metabolic rates and
      overwinter survival in the root vole, Microtus oeconomus.
AB  - Although corticosterone (CORT) regulates many physiological mechanisms, the
      associations between CORT levels, immunocompetence, energy expenditures and
      overwinter survival have not been examined. Here, we studied individual variation
      in CORT level extracted from hair, immunocompetence quantified as the neutrophil
      to-lymphocyte (N/L) ratio, total white blood cells (WBC) and natural antibody
      levels (NAbs), along with the resting (RMR) and peak metabolic rates (PMR) and
      mortality during three consecutive winter seasons in a natural population of the
      root vole, Microtus oeconomus. In early winter, hair CORT level was strongly
      positively associated with body mass and inversely related to voles' ability to
      survive. We suggest that the observed association between hair CORT level and
      body mass may be the key component of the physiological nexus driving the
      survivorship of individual rodents. Additionally, hair CORT was a significant
      predictor of variation of the whole body RMR, which in turn enhanced overwinter
      survival in the studied population. On the other hand, hair CORT was not
      significantly associated with changes in the blood indices. Interestingly, the
      analysis carried out only during the first year of study (2008), which was
      characterized by a high population density and prevalence of infestation with a
      blood protozoan, Babesia spp., showed that the intensity of the infestation was
      negatively correlated with both the hair CORT level and the N/L ratio. Because
      CORT is often considered immunosuppressive, we expected a positive association
      between its level and the N/L ratio. However, hair CORT did not significantly
      correlate with the N/L ratio. We suggest that the lack of an association between
      hair CORT and the N/L ratio resulted from a small inter-individual variation in
      the N/L ratio in 2008, which was much higher and less variable than in the other
      years of our study.

PMID- 28577899
TI  - Development of a novel and highly efficient method of isolating bacteriophages
      from water.
AB  - Bacteriophages are widely used to the treatment of drug-resistant bacteria and
      the improvement of food safety through bacterial lysis. However, the limited
      investigations on bacteriophage restrict their further application. In this
      study, a novel and highly efficient method was developed for isolating
      bacteriophage from water based on the electropositive silica gel particles (ESPs)
      method. To optimize the ESPs method, we evaluated the eluent type, flow rate, pH,
      temperature, and inoculation concentration of bacteriophage using bacteriophage
      f2. The quantitative detection reported that the recovery of the ESPs method
      reached over 90%. The qualitative detection demonstrated that the ESPs method
      effectively isolated 70% of extremely low-concentration bacteriophage (100
      PFU/100L). Based on the host bacteria composed of 33 standard strains and 10
      isolated strains, the bacteriophages in 18 water samples collected from the three
      sites in the Tianjin Haihe River Basin were isolated by the ESPs and traditional
      methods. Results showed that the ESPs method was significantly superior to the
      traditional method. The ESPs method isolated 32 strains of bacteriophage, whereas
      the traditional method isolated 15 strains. The sample isolation efficiency and
      bacteriophage isolation efficiency of the ESPs method were 3.28 and 2.13 times
      higher than those of the traditional method. The developed ESPs method was
      characterized by high isolation efficiency, efficient handling of large water
      sample size and low requirement on water quality.

PMID- 28577900
TI  - A novel prophylaxis with C1-inhibitor concentrate in hereditary angioedema during
      erythema marginatum.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hereditary angioedema with C1-inhibitor deficiency (C1-INH-HAE) is a
      rare, autosomal dominant disorder. The characteristic episodes of
      subcutaneous/submucosal edema formation may be preceded by erythema marginatum
      (EM) - the occurrence of a 'map-like' pattern on the skin. EM can occur as an
      isolated finding or accompanying a hereditary angiooedema (HAE) attack as well.
      Nevertheless, it is unknown whether a HAE attack can be prevented by the proper
      prophylactic treatment during EM. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to assess the
      prevalence of EM in the Hungarian C1-INH-HAE population and to introduce a safe
      and effective novel prophylactic treatment during EM in patients who's HAE
      attacks are preceded by EM in a considerable proportion of the cases. RESULTS:
      Based on the data of the Hungarian HAE Registry, 49 among 173 C1-INH-HAE patients
      (28.3%) from 32 families had EM in their life. According to the clinical data and
      the patient's HAE diaries, two patients (Patient #1, Patient #2) were selected
      who frequently had EM as a prodromal symptom. Both patients were instructed to
      administer plasma-derived C1-inhibitor concentrate (pdC1-INH) as soon as possible
      after the onset of EM, in order to prevent the development of HAE attack.
      Interestingly, HAE attacks never developed if pdC1-INH was administered within 6h
      from the occurrence of EM in both patients. In contrast, without pdC1-INH
      treatment, in Patient 1 and Patient 2, 97.0% and 44.3% of the EM were followed by
      a HAE attack, respectively (p<0.0001, Fisher's exact test). CONCLUSIONS: As a
      novel prophylaxis in C1-INH-HAE, intravenous administration of pdC1-INH
      concentrate during EM might be an effective, individual therapeutic strategy in
      those patients who's HAE attacks are often preceded by EM. Besides it can improve
      the quality of life of these selected patients, pdC1-INH administration during EM
      provides the lowest effective dose for the prophylaxis of their HAE attacks.

PMID- 28577901
TI  - Functional studies of chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cells expressing beta2
      integrin type complement receptors CR3 and CR4.
AB  - The expression and role of CR3 (CD11b/CD18) and CR4 (CD11c/CD18) in B cells are
      not yet explored in contrast to myeloid cells, where these beta2-integrin type
      receptors are known to participate in various cellular functions, including
      phagocytosis, adherence and migration. Here we aimed to reveal the expression and
      role of CR3 and CR4 in human B cells. In B cells of healthy donors CR3 and CR4
      are scarcely expressed. However, two patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia
      (CLL) characterized by a peculiar immune-phenotype containing both CD5-positive
      and CD5-negative B cell populations made possible to study these molecules in
      distinct B cell subsets. We found that CD11b and CD11c were expressed on both CD5
      positive and CD5-negative B cells, albeit to different extents. Our data suggest
      that these receptors are involved in spreading, since this activity of CpG
      activated B cells on fibrinogen could be partially blocked by monoclonal
      antibodies specific for CD11b or CD11c. CpG-stimulation lead to proliferation of
      both CD5-positive and CD5-negative B cells of the patients with a less pronounced
      effect on the CD5-positive cells. In contrast to normal B cells, CLL B cells of
      both patients reacted to CpG-stimulation with robust IL-10 production. The
      concomitant, suboptimal stimulus via the BCR and TLR9 exerted either a
      synergistic enhancing effect or resulted in inhibition of proliferation and IL-10
      production of patients' B cells. Our data obtained studying B cells of leukemic
      patients point to the role of CR3 and probably CR4 in the interaction of tumor
      cells with the microenvironment and suggest the involvement of IL-10 producing B
      cells in the pathologic process.

PMID- 28577902
TI  - Directional sensitivity of anomalous diffusion in human brain assessed by
      tensorial fractional motion model.
AB  - Anisotropic diffusion in the nervous system is most commonly modeled by apparent
      diffusion tensor, which is based on regular diffusion theory. However, the
      departure of diffusion-induced signal attenuation from a mono-exponential form
      implies that there is anomalous diffusion. Recently, a novel diffusion NMR theory
      based on the fractional motion (FM) model, which is an anomalous diffusion model,
      has been proposed. While the FM model has been applied to both healthy subjects
      and tumor patients, its anisotropy in the nervous system remains elusive. In this
      study, this issue was addressed by measuring the FM-related parameters in 12 non
      collinear directions. A metric to quantify the directional deviation was derived.
      Furthermore, the FM-related parameters were modeled as tensors and analyzed in
      analogy with the conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Experimental
      results, which were obtained for 15 healthy subjects at 3T, exhibited pronounced
      anisotropy of the FM-related parameters, although the effects were smaller than
      the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). The tensorial nature for alpha, which
      is the Noah exponent in the FM model, showed behavior similar to the ADC,
      especially the principal eigenvector for alpha aligned with the dominant white
      matter fiber directions. The Hurst exponent H in the FM model, however, showed no
      correlation with the major fiber directions. The anisotropy of the FM model may
      provide complementary information to DTI and may have potential for tractography
      and detecting brain abnormalities.

PMID- 28577903
TI  - The role of adhesion junctions in the biomechanical behaviour and osteogenic
      differentiation of 3D mesenchymal stem cell spheroids.
AB  - Osteogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can be regulated by the mechanical
      environment. MSCs grown in 3D spheroids (mesenspheres) have preserved multi
      lineage potential, improved differentiation efficiency, and exhibit enhanced
      osteogenic gene expression and matrix composition in comparison to MSCs grown in
      2D culture. Within 3D mesenspheres, mechanical cues are primarily in the form of
      cell-cell contraction, mediated by adhesion junctions, and as such adhesion
      junctions are likely to play an important role in the osteogenic differentiation
      of mesenspheres. However the precise role of N- and OB-cadherin on the
      biomechanical behaviour of mesenspheres remains unknown. Here we have
      mechanically tested mesenspheres cultured in suspension using parallel plate
      compression to assess the influence of N-cadherin and OB-cadherin adhesion
      junctions on the viscoelastic properties of the mesenspheres during osteogenesis.
      Our results demonstrate that N-cadherin and OB-cadherin have different effects on
      mesensphere viscoelastic behaviour and osteogenesis. When OB-cadherin was
      silenced, the viscosity, initial and long term Young's moduli and actin stress
      fibre formation of the mesenspheres increased in comparison to N-cadherin
      silenced mesenspheres and mesenspheres treated with a scrambled siRNA (Scram) at
      day 2. Additionally, the increased viscoelastic material properties correlate
      with evidence of calcification at an earlier time point (day 7) of OB-cadherin
      silenced mesenspheres but not Scram. Interestingly, both N-cadherin and OB
      cadherin silenced mesenspheres had higher BSP2 expression than Scram at day 14.
      Taken together, these results indicate that N-cadherin and OB-cadherin both
      influence mesensphere biomechanics and osteogenesis, but play different roles.

PMID- 28577905
TI  - Influence of rapidly successive head impacts on brain strain in the vicinity of
      bridging veins.
AB  - Acute subdural hematoma due to a bridging vein rupture is a devastating but rare
      injury. There has to date been no satisfactory biomechanical explanation for this
      infrequent but costly injury. We surmise that it may be associated with multiple
      head impacts. Though numerical models have been used to estimate vein strains in
      single impact events, none to date have examined the influence on localized brain
      strain of rapidly consecutive impacts. Using the Simulated Injury Monitor, we
      investigated the hypothesis that such double impacts can increase strain beyond
      that created by any single impact. Input to our parametric study comprised
      hypothetical biphasic rotational head accelerations producing a maximum angular
      velocity of 40rad./s. In each of 19 simulations, two identical angular inputs are
      applied at right angles to each other but with time separations varying from 0 to
      40ms. For these double impacts, it has been generally found that strain in the
      region of the bridging veins is different, than what would be associated with any
      corresponding single impact. In some cases, the effect is to actually reduce the
      tissue strain. In others, the strain in the region of the bridging veins is
      increased markedly. The mechanistic explanation for the strain increase is that
      the tissue strain from the first impact has not diminished fully when strain from
      the second impact is initiated. Rapidly consecutive impacts could be a potential
      mechanism leading to vein rupture that warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28577904
TI  - Merging computational fluid dynamics and 4D Flow MRI using proper orthogonal
      decomposition and ridge regression.
AB  - Time resolved phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging 4D-PCMR (also called 4D
      Flow MRI) data while capable of non-invasively measuring blood velocities, can be
      affected by acquisition noise, flow artifacts, and resolution limits. In this
      paper, we present a novel method for merging 4D Flow MRI with computational fluid
      dynamics (CFD) to address these limitations and to reconstruct de-noised,
      divergence-free high-resolution flow-fields. Proper orthogonal decomposition
      (POD) is used to construct the orthonormal basis of the local sampling of the
      space of all possible solutions to the flow equations both at the low-resolution
      level of the 4D Flow MRI grid and the high-level resolution of the CFD mesh. Low
      resolution, de-noised flow is obtained by projecting in vivo 4D Flow MRI data
      onto the low-resolution basis vectors. Ridge regression is then used to
      reconstruct high-resolution de-noised divergence-free solution. The effects of 4D
      Flow MRI grid resolution, and noise levels on the resulting velocity fields are
      further investigated. A numerical phantom of the flow through a cerebral aneurysm
      was used to compare the results obtained using the POD method with those obtained
      with the state-of-the-art de-noising methods. At the 4D Flow MRI grid resolution,
      the POD method was shown to preserve the small flow structures better than the
      other methods, while eliminating noise. Furthermore, the method was shown to
      successfully reconstruct details at the CFD mesh resolution not discernible at
      the 4D Flow MRI grid resolution. This method will improve the accuracy of the
      clinically relevant flow-derived parameters, such as pressure gradients and wall
      shear stresses, computed from in vivo 4D Flow MRI data.

PMID- 28577906
TI  - Dynamic head-neck stabilization and modulation with perturbation bandwidth
      investigated using a multisegment neuromuscular model.
AB  - The human head-neck system requires continuous stabilization in the presence of
      gravity and trunk motion. We investigated contributions of the vestibulocollic
      reflex (VCR), the cervicocollic reflex (CCR), and neck muscle co-contraction to
      head-in-space and head-on-trunk stabilization, and investigated modulation of the
      stabilization strategy with the frequency content of trunk perturbations and the
      presence of visual feedback. We developed a multisegment cervical spine model
      where reflex gains (VCR and CCR) and neck muscle co-contraction were estimated by
      fitting the model to the response of young healthy subjects, seated and exposed
      to anterior-posterior trunk motion, with frequency content from 0.3 up to 1, 2, 4
      and 8Hz, with and without visual feedback. The VCR contributed to head-in-space
      stabilization with a strong reduction of head rotation (<8Hz) and a moderate
      reduction of head translation (>1Hz). The CCR contributed to head-on-trunk
      stabilization with a reduction of head rotation and head translation relative to
      the trunk (<2Hz). The CCR also proved essential to stabilize the individual
      intervertebral joints and prevent neck buckling. Co-contraction was estimated to
      be of minor relevance. Control strategies employed during low bandwidth
      perturbations most effectively reduced head rotation and head relative
      displacement up to 3Hz while control strategies employed during high bandwidth
      perturbations reduced head global translation between 1 and 4Hz. This indicates a
      shift from minimizing head-on-trunk rotation and translation during low bandwidth
      perturbations to minimizing head-in-space translation during high bandwidth
      perturbations. Presence of visual feedback had limited effects suggesting
      increased usage of vestibular feedback.

PMID- 28577907
TI  - Assessment of the lower limb soft tissue artefact at marker-cluster level with a
      high-density marker set during walking.
AB  - The estimation of joint kinematics from skin markers is hindered by the soft
      tissue artefact (STA), a well-known phenomenon although not fully characterized.
      While most assessments of the STA have been performed based on the individual
      skin markers displacements, recent assessments were based on the marker-cluster
      geometrical transformations using, e.g., principal component or modal analysis.
      However, these marker-clusters were generally made of 4-6 markers and the current
      findings on the STA could have been biased by the limited number of skin makers
      analysed. The objective of the present study was therefore to confirm them with a
      high-density marker set, i.e. 40 markers placed on the segments. A larger number
      of modes than found in the literature was required to describe the STA.
      Nevertheless, translations and rotations of the marker-cluster remained the main
      STA modes, archetypally the translation along the proximal-distal and anterior
      posterior axes for the shank and the translation along the proximal-distal axis
      and the rotation about the medial-lateral axis for the thigh. High correlations
      were also found between the knee flexion angle and the amplitude of these modes
      for the thigh whereas moderate ones were found for the shank. These findings
      support the current re-orientation of the STA compensation methods, from bone
      pose estimators which typically address the non-rigid components of the marker
      cluster to kinematic-driven rigid-component STA models.

PMID- 28577908
TI  - New phenalenone derivatives from Pinellia ternata tubers derived Aspergillus sp.
AB  - Nine new phenalenone derivatives (1-9), along with two known analogues (10-11)
      have been isolated from the solid cultures of an endophytic fungus Aspergillus
      sp. which was obtained from Pinellia ternate. Their structures were established
      through interpretations of spectroscopic evidence, and some of their absolute
      configurations were determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and
      Mo2(OCOCH3)4 induced ECD. All of the phenalenones are unusual acyclic diterpenoid
      adducts, which are diversely oxidized and partly epoxidized to form different
      heterocycles. In addition, compound 10 exhibited significant antimicrobial
      activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus
      subtilis with MIC50 values of 1.87, 2.77, and 4.80MUg/mL, respectively.

PMID- 28577909
TI  - SOX7 expression is critically required in FLK1-expressing cells for
      vasculogenesis and angiogenesis during mouse embryonic development.
AB  - The transcriptional program that regulates the differentiation of endothelial
      precursor cells into a highly organized vascular network is still poorly
      understood. Here we explore the role of SOX7 during this process, performing a
      detailed analysis of the vascular defects resulting from either a complete
      deficiency in Sox7 expression or from the conditional deletion of Sox7 in FLK1
      expressing cells. We analysed the consequence of Sox7 deficiency from E7.5 onward
      to determine from which stage of development the effect of Sox7 deficiency can be
      observed. We show that while Sox7 is expressed at the onset of endothelial
      specification from mesoderm, Sox7 deficiency does not impact the emergence of the
      first endothelial progenitors. However, by E8.5, clear signs of defective
      vascular development are already observed with the presence of highly unorganised
      endothelial cords rather than distinct paired dorsal aorta. By E10.5, both Sox7
      complete knockout and FLK1-specific deletion of Sox7 lead to widespread vascular
      defects. In contrast, while SOX7 is expressed in the earliest specified blood
      progenitors, the VAV-specific deletion of Sox7 does not affect the hematopoietic
      system. Together, our data reveal the unique role of SOX7 in vasculogenesis and
      angiogenesis during embryonic development.

PMID- 28577911
TI  - A singular mutation in the hemagglutinin of the 1918 pandemic virus.
AB  - The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed at least 50 million people. The
      reasons why this pandemic was so deadly remain largely unknown [9]. However, It
      has been shown that the 1918 viral hemagglutinin allows to reproduce the
      hallmarks of the illness observed during the original pandemic [11]. Thanks to
      the wealth of hemagglutinin sequences accumulated over the last decades, amino
      acid substitutions that are found in the 1918-1919 sequences but rare otherwise
      can be identified with high confidence. Noteworthy, Gly 188, which is located
      within a key motif of the receptor binding site, has never been observed again in
      sequences of human viruses of subtype H1. Monitoring this singular mutation in
      viral sequences may help prevent another dramatic pandemic.

PMID- 28577910
TI  - The type II isopentenyl Diphosphate:Dimethylallyl diphosphate isomerase (IDI-2):
      A model for acid/base chemistry in flavoenzyme catalysis.
AB  - The chemical versatility of the flavin coenzyme is nearly unparalleled in enzyme
      catalysis. An interesting illustration of this versatility can be found in the
      reaction catalyzed by the type II isopentenyl diphosphate:dimethylallyl
      diphosphate isomerase (IDI-2) - an enzyme that interconverts the two essential
      isoprene units (isopentenyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate) that
      are needed to initiate the biosynthesis of all isoprenoids. Over the past decade,
      a variety of biochemical, spectroscopic, structural and mechanistic studies of
      IDI-2 have provided mounting evidence that the flavin coenzyme of IDI-2 acts in a
      most unusual manner - as an acid/base catalyst to mediate a 1,3-proton
      addition/elimination reaction. While not entirely without precedent, IDI-2 is by
      far the most extensively studied flavoenzyme that employs flavin-mediated
      acid/base catalysis. Thus, IDI-2 serves as an important mechanistic model for
      understanding this often overlooked, but potentially widespread reactivity of
      flavin coenzymes. This review details the most pertinent studies that have
      contributed to the development of mechanistic proposals for this highly unusual
      flavoenzyme, and discusses future experiments that may be able to clarify
      remaining uncertainties in the chemical mechanism of IDI-2.

PMID- 28577912
TI  - Targeting survivin for therapeutic discovery: past, present, and future promises.
AB  - Survivin, the smallest member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family,
      is overexpressed in cells of almost all cancers but not in most normal tissues in
      adults. Survivin expression is required for cancer cell survival and knocking
      down its expression or inhibiting its function using molecular approaches results
      in spontaneous apoptosis. Thus, survivin is an attractive and perhaps ideal
      target for cancer drug discovery. However, a US Food and Drug Administration
      (FDA)-approved drug targeting survivin has yet to emerge. In this Foundation
      Review, we examine and evaluate various strategies that have been used to target
      survivin and the stages of each survivin inhibitor to help understand this lack
      of success. We also provide future perspectives moving forward in targeting
      survivin for drug discovery.

PMID- 28577913
TI  - Anticonvulsant activity of resveratrol-loaded liposomes in vivo.
AB  - Resveratrol (3,5,4'-stilbenetriol), a natural polyphenol produced by various
      plants, has attracted attention over the past decade because of its multiple
      beneficial properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and
      chemopreventive, yet, there is limited information about its antiepileptic
      effects. Moreover, its poor solubility in water and low bioavailability are the
      challenging issues. In the present study, we aimed to investigate effects of free
      resveratrol and resveratrol delivered in amphipathic liposomal delivery system,
      which has a high blood-brain barrier crossing potential, on penicillin-induced
      epileptic seizure model. For this purpose, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were
      divided into four groups as saline (Control), liposome (LIP), free resveratrol
      (RES) and resveratrol+liposome (RES+LIP). Penicillin-induced epileptic activity
      was recorded for 120 min by electrocorticography. Glutathione S-transferase
      (GST), Glutathione (GSH), Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Malondialdehyde (MDA)
      assays were performed in brain tissues collected. Our results showed that RES+LIP
      was the most effective anticonvulsant treatment on penicillin-induced epileptic
      seizures when compared to control, as RES+LIP immediately decreased the number of
      spikes per minute. GST and SOD activity, as well as the GSH levels, were
      significantly increased in the RES+LIP group as compared with the control group.
      Also, the MDA levels were significantly higher in the RES+LIP compared to RES and
      control groups. In conclusion, RES+LIP treatment was more effective on the
      decrease in spike frequency and spike amplitudes than other treatments. Our
      results suggest that the RES+LIP is more effective than RES on penicillin-induced
      epileptiform activity.

PMID- 28577914
TI  - Genetic characterization of enterovirus strains identified in Hand, Foot and
      Mouth Disease (HFMD): Emergence of B1c, C1 subgenotypes, E2 sublineage of CVA16,
      EV71 and CVA6 strains in India.
AB  - Hand, Foot and Mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood disease and caused due
      to Enterovirus-A (EV-A), EV-B and EV-C species worldwide. Cases of HFMD were
      reported from, Ahmedabad (Gujarat, 2012) and Pune (Maharashtra, 2013-2014) in
      India. The present study highlights the identification of EV strains (CVA16,
      CVA6, CVA4 and Echo12), characterization of subgenotypes of CVA16, CVA6 strains
      during 2012-14 and CVA16, CVA6, EV71 strains reported from the earlier study
      (2009-10) in HFMD cases from India. A total 158 clinical specimens collected from
      64 HFMD cases (2012-2014) were included in the study. EV detection was carried
      out by 5'NCR based RT-PCR, molecular typing and subgenotyping was by VP1/2A
      junction or VP1, full VP1 gene amplification respectively followed by
      phylogenetic analysis. The present study reports 63.92% (101/158) EV positivity
      by RT-PCR. Ninety four of the 101 (93.06%) EV positive strains were amplified by
      VP1/2A junction or VP1 regions. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of CVA16
      (61.7%), CVA6 (34.04%), CVA4 and Echo12 (4.3%). A total of 114 EV positive
      strains were genotyped using full and partial VP1 region. All CVA16 Indian
      strains (n=70) clustered with rarely reported B1c subgenotype, CVA6 (n=43) and
      EV71 (n=1) strains clustered with sub-lineage E2 and C1 subgenotypes
      respectively. In summary, the study reports genetic characterization of CVA16,
      CVA6, CVA4 and Echo12 strains in HFMD cases from India. Circulation of B1c
      subgenotype of CVA16, E2 sub-lineage of CVA6 and C1 subgenotype of EV 71 strains
      in HFMD cases were reported for the first time from India. This study helps to
      understand the genotype distribution, genetic diversity of EV strains associated
      with HFMD from Eastern, Western and Southern regions in India.

PMID- 28577916
TI  - Complete genome sequence of Bacillus sp. 275, producing extracellular
      cellulolytic, xylanolytic and ligninolytic enzymes.
AB  - Technologies for degradation of three major components of lignocellulose (e.g.
      cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) are needed to efficiently utilize
      lignocellulose. Here, we report Bacillus sp. 275 isolated from a mudflat
      exhibiting various lignocellulolytic activities including cellulase, xylanase,
      laccase and peroxidase in the cell culture supernatant. The complete genome of
      Bacillus sp. 275 strain contains 3832 protein cording sequences and an average
      G+C content of 46.32% on one chromosome (4045,581bp) and one plasmid (6389bp).
      The genes encoding enzymes related to the degradation of cellulose, xylan and
      lignin were detected in the Bacillus sp. 275 genome. In addition, the genes
      encoding glucosidases that hydrolyze starch, mannan, galactoside and arabinan
      were also found in the genome, implying that Bacillus sp. 275 has potentially a
      wide range of uses in the degradation of polysaccharide in lignocellulosic
      biomasses.

PMID- 28577917
TI  - Sequential congenital and acquired presentation of bilateral Brown syndrome.

PMID- 28577915
TI  - Histo-blood group carbohydrates as facilitators for infection by Helicobacter
      pylori.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori infect millions of people around the world. It occupies a
      niche in the human gastrointestinal tract characterized by high expression of a
      repertoire of carbohydrates. ABO and Lewis histo-blood group systems are
      controlled by genes coding for functional glycosyltransferases which synthesize
      great diversity of related fucosylated carbohydrate in different tissues,
      including gastrointestinal mucosa, and exocrine secretions. The structural
      diversity of histo-blood group carbohydrates is highly complex and depends on
      epistatic interactions among gene-encoding glycosyltransferases. The histo-blood
      group glycosyltransferases act in the glycosylation of proteins and lipids in the
      human gastrointestinal tract allowing the expression of a variety of potential
      receptors in which H. pylori can adhere. These oligosaccharide molecules are part
      of the gastrointestinal repertoire of carbohydrates which act as potential
      receptors for microorganisms, including H. pylori. This Gram-negative bacillus is
      one of the main causes of the gastrointestinal diseases such as chronic active
      gastritis, peptic ulcer, and cancer of stomach. Previous reports showed that some
      H. pylori strains use carbohydrates as receptors to adhere to the gastric and
      duodenal mucosa. Since some histo-blood group carbohydrates are highly expressed
      in one but not in others histo-blood group phenotypes it has pointed out that
      quantitative differences among them influence the susceptibility to diseases
      caused by H. pylori. Additionally, some experiments using animal model are
      helping us to understand how this bacillus explore histo-blood group
      carbohydrates as potential receptors, offering possibility to explore new
      strategies of management of infection, disease treatment, and prevention. This
      text highlights the importance of structural diversity of ABO and Lewis histo
      blood group carbohydrates as facilitators for H. pylori infection.

PMID- 28577918
TI  - The neuropeptidome of the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish, Acanthaster planci.
AB  - : Outbreaks of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS; Acanthaster planci) are a major
      cause of destruction of coral communities on the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
      While factors relating to population explosions and the social interactions of
      COTS have been well studied, little is known about the neural mechanisms
      underlying COTS physiology and behaviour. One of the major classes of chemical
      messengers that regulate physiological and behavioural processes in animals is
      the neuropeptides. Here, we have analysed COTS genome and transcriptome sequence
      data to identify neuropeptide precursor proteins in this species. A total of 48
      neuropeptide precursors were identified, including homologs of neuropeptides that
      are evolutionarily conserved throughout the Bilateria, and others that are novel.
      Proteomic mass spectrometry was employed to confirm the presence of neuropeptides
      in extracts of radial nerve cords. These transcriptomic and proteomic resources
      provide a foundation for functional studies that will enable a better
      understanding of COTS physiology and behaviour, and may facilitate development of
      novel population biocontrol methods. SIGNIFICANCE: The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish
      (COTS) is one of the primary factors leading to coral loss on the Great Barrier
      Reef, Australia. Our combined gene and proteomic findings of this study reveal
      the COTS neuropeptidome, including both echinoderm-like neuropeptides and novel
      putative neuropeptides. This represents the most comprehensive neuropeptidome for
      an echinoderm, contributing to the evolving knowledge of the COTS molecular
      neurobiology that may assist towards the development of biocontrol methods.

PMID- 28577919
TI  - Immunization of Tg-APPswe/PSEN1dE9 mice with Abeta3-10-KLH vaccine prevents
      synaptic deficits of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The amyloid cascade hypothesis is widely accepted by researchers as the mechanism
      of Alzheimer's disease. Active immunization to eliminate Abeta depositions has
      been used in preclinical and clinical studies. Abeta3-10-KLH is a vaccine of the
      Abeta3-10 peptide combined with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). We immunized 2.5
      month-old Tg-APPswe/PSEN1dE9 mice with Abeta3-10-KLH peptide and Abeta1-42
      peptide to eliminate Abeta deposits in the brains of these transgenic mice. The
      results of immunohistochemical staining and transmission electron microscopy
      detection indicated that our new vaccine was more advantageous in protecting
      synaptic function and structure than the Abeta1-42 peptide. Abeta3-10-KLH peptide
      is an effective vaccine in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28577920
TI  - The MAM-E17 schizophrenia rat model: Comprehensive behavioral analysis of pre
      pubertal, pubertal and adult rats.
AB  - The MAM-E17 model is one of the most accepted schizophrenia rat models, which
      follows the neurodevelopmental theory of the disease. While symptoms of MAM-E17
      rats were studied extensively, their examinations were usually restricted to
      adulthood and in a few cases to prepuberty. It is well known, however, that
      schizophrenia symptoms often start at puberty or early adulthood. Therefore the
      purpose of this study was to investigate the behavioral characteristics of MAM
      E17 rats in various tests throughout three different age-periods, namely in
      prepuberty, late puberty and adulthood. In open field test, MAM-E17 rats
      displayed increased locomotor activity, elevated sniffing frequency and, as
      tendency, enhanced rearing activity. The elevated activity turned up in late
      puberty and remained there in adulthood, too. There was also a deficient prepulse
      inhibition (PPI) of startle response in late puberty and adulthood, but not
      before puberty. In rotarod task, MAM-treated rats performed better than control
      rats. The enhanced performance on rotarod was only present in late puberty and
      adulthood. In elevated plus maze test MAM-treated rats displayed diminished
      anxiety mostly in prepuberty. Histological analysis revealed reduced volume and
      cell disarray in the dorsal hippocampus. This is the first comprehensive study
      about symptoms of MAM-E17 rats manifested in behavioral tests carried out in
      prepuberty, late puberty and adulthood. Results display the age-dependent
      appearance of schizophrenia symptoms in the same rats. The present findings
      provide basic information to accomplish the schizophrenia related animal
      research, as well as can also confer further data to develop preventive treatment
      for human patients.

PMID- 28577921
TI  - Parent-of-origin effects on schizophrenia-relevant behaviours of type III
      neuregulin 1 mutant mice.
AB  - A robust, disease-relevant phenotype is paramount to the validity of genetic
      mouse models, which are an important tool in understanding complex diseases.
      Recent evidence from genome-wide association studies suggests the genetic
      contribution of parents to offspring is not equivalent. Despite this, few studies
      to date have examined the potential impact of parent genotype (i.e. origin of
      mutation) on the offspring of disease-relevant genetic mouse models. To elucidate
      the potential impact of the sex of the mutant parent on offspring phenotype, we
      characterized male and female offspring of an established schizophrenia mouse
      model, which had been generated using two different breeding schemes, in a range
      of disease-relevant behaviours. We compared heterozygous type III neuregulin 1
      mutant (type III Nrg1+/-) and wild type-like control (WT) offspring from mutant
      father x WT mother pairings with offspring from mutant mother x WT father
      pairings. Offspring were tested in schizophrenia-relevant paradigms including the
      elevated plus maze (EPM), fear conditioning (FC), prepulse inhibition (PPI),
      social interaction (SI), and open field (OF). We found type III Nrg1+/- males
      from mutant fathers, but not mutant mothers, showed deficits in contextual fear
      associated memory and exhibited increased social interaction, compared to their
      WT littermates. Type III Nrg1+/- females across breeding colonies only exhibited
      a subtle change to their acoustic startle response and sensorimotor gating. These
      results suggest a paternal-dependent transmission of genetically induced
      behavioural characteristics. Though the mechanisms governing this phenomenon are
      unclear, our results show that parental origin of mutation can alter the
      behavioural phenotype of genetic mouse models. Thus, researchers should carefully
      consider their breeding scheme when dealing with genetic mouse models of diseases
      such as schizophrenia.

PMID- 28577922
TI  - Role of silver nitrate in the efficacy of hydrogen peroxide aerial
      decontamination systems.

PMID- 28577923
TI  - Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence to validate decontamination of endoscopes.
AB  - The reports of outbreaks involving carbapenemase-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
      (CRE) associated with gastrointestinal endoscopy prompted a review and study of a
      novel method of assessing cleaning. This study assessed adenosine triphosphate
      (ATP) bioluminescence to demonstrate cleanliness prior to endoscopy. ATP testing
      was compared with microbiological monitoring for 127 endoscopes. Samples were
      taken after cleaning, reprocessing and storage, but immediately before the
      endoscopy procedure. We recommend implementing ATP testing prior to endoscopy
      procedures as an alternative to microbiological testing at periodic intervals.
      ATP testing provides a convenient assessment of endoscopy hygiene to demonstrate
      safety and quality assurance.

PMID- 28577924
TI  - Forceful patterning in mouse preimplantation embryos.
AB  - The generation of a functional organism from a single, fertilized ovum requires
      the spatially coordinated regulation of diverse cell identities. The
      establishment and precise arrangement of differentiated cells in developing
      embryos has, historically, been extensively studied by geneticists and
      developmental biologists. While chemical gradients and genetic regulatory
      networks are widely acknowledged to play significant roles in embryo patterning,
      recent studies have highlighted that mechanical forces generated by, and exerted
      on, embryos are also crucial for the proper control of cell differentiation and
      morphogenesis. Here we review the most recent findings in murine preimplantation
      embryogenesis on the roles of cortical tension in the coupling of cell-fate
      determination and cell positioning in 8-16-cell-stage embryos. These basic
      principles of mechanochemical coupling in mouse embryos can be applied to other
      pattern formation phenomena that rely on localized modifications of cell polarity
      proteins and actin cytoskeletal components and activities.

PMID- 28577926
TI  - MACF1, versatility in tissue-specific function and in human disease.
AB  - Spectraplakins are a family of evolutionarily conserved gigantic proteins and
      play critical roles in many cytoskeleton-related processes. Microtubule actin
      crosslinking factor 1 (MACF1) is one of the most versatile spectraplakin with
      multiple isoforms. As a broadly expressed mammalian spectraplakin, MACF1 is
      important in maintaining normal functions of many tissues. The loss-of-function
      studies using knockout mouse models reveal the pivotal roles of MACF1 in embryo
      development, skin integrity maintenance, neural development, bone formation, and
      colonic paracellular permeability. Mutation in the human MACF1 gene causes a
      novel myopathy genetic disease. In addition, abnormal expression of MACF1 is
      associated with schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, cancer and osteoporosis. This
      demonstrates the crucial roles of MACF1 in physiology and pathology. Here, we
      review the research advances of MACF1's roles in specific tissue and in human
      diseases, providing the perspectives of MACF1 for future studies.

PMID- 28577927
TI  - Deletion of the Bombyx mori odorant receptor co-receptor (BmOrco) impairs
      olfactory sensitivity in silkworms.
AB  - Olfaction plays an essential role in many important insect behaviors such as
      feeding and reproduction. To detect olfactory stimuli, an odorant receptor co
      receptor (Orco) is required. In this study, we deleted the Orco gene in the
      Lepidopteran model insect, Bombyx mori, using a binary transgene-based clustered
      regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system. We
      initially generated somatic mutations in two targeted sites, from which we
      obtained homozygous mutants with deletion of a 866 base pair sequence. Because of
      the flight inability of B. mori, we developed a novel method to examine the adult
      mating behavior. Considering the specialization in larval feeding, we examined
      food selection behavior in Orco somatic mutants by the walking trail analysis of
      silkworm position over time. Single sensillum recordings indicated that the
      antenna of the homozygous mutant was unable to respond to either of the two sex
      pheromones, bombykol or bombykal. An adult mating behavior assay revealed that
      the Orco mutant displayed a significantly impaired mating selection behavior in
      response to natural pheromone released by a wild-type female moth as well as an
      11:1 mixture of bombykol/bombykal. The mutants also exhibited a decreased
      response to bombykol and, similar to wild-type moths, they displayed no response
      to bombykal. A larval feeding behavior assay revealed that the Orco mutant
      displayed defective selection for mulberry leaves and different concentrations of
      the volatile compound cis-jasmone found in mulberry leaves. Deletion of BmOrco
      severely disrupts the olfactory system, suggesting that BmOrco is indispensable
      in the olfactory pathway. The approach used for generating somatic and homozygous
      mutations also highlights a novel method for mutagenesis. This study on BmOrco
      function provides insights into the insect olfactory system and also provides a
      paradigm for agroforestry pest control.

PMID- 28577925
TI  - Molecular and cytoskeletal regulations in epidermal development.
AB  - At the surface of the body, the epidermis covers great depth in its developmental
      regulation. While many genes have been shown to be important for skin development
      through their associations with disease phenotypes in mice and human, it is in
      the past decade that the intricate interplay between various molecules become
      gradually revealed through sophisticated genetic models and imaging analyses. In
      particular, there is increasing evidence suggesting that cytoskeleton-associated
      proteins, including adhesion proteins and the crosslinker proteins may play
      critical roles in regulating epidermis development. We here provide a broad
      overview of the various molecules involved in epidermal development with special
      emphasis on the cytoskeletal components.

PMID- 28577928
TI  - Renal Tuberculosis Following Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin for High-grade
      Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.
AB  - A 47-year-old man presented to the urology department with visible hematuria. He
      was found to have a high-grade non-muscle-invasive transitional cell carcinoma of
      the bladder and was subsequently treated with intravesical Bacillus Calmette
      Guerin instillations. On routine surveillance computed tomography scan following
      treatment, he was found to have multiple rounded areas of low density in the
      right kidney, suspicious for renal malignancy. He underwent renal biopsy that
      revealed necrotizing granulomatous inflammation suggestive of mycobacterial
      infection. He was successfully treated with antituberculosis therapy.

PMID- 28577929
TI  - MRP-1 and BCRP Promote the Externalization of Phosphatidylserine in Oxalate
      treated Renal Epithelial Cells: Implications for Calcium Oxalate Urolithiasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible involvement of multidrug resistance
      associated protein 1 (MRP-1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in the
      oxalate-induced redistribution of phosphatidylserine (PS) in renal epithelial
      cell membranes. METHODS: A western blot analysis was used to examine the MRP-1
      and BCRP expression levels. Surface-expressed PS was detected by the annexin V
      binding assay. The cell-permeable fluorogenic probe 2,7-dichlorofluorescein
      diacetate was used to measure the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      level. A rat model of hyperoxaluria was obtained using 0.5% ethylene glycol and
      1.0% ammonium chloride. In addition, certain animals received verapamil (50 mg/kg
      body weight), which is a common inhibitor of MRP-1 and BCRP. The degree of
      nephrolithiasis was assessed histomorphometrically using sections stained by
      Pizzolato method and by measuring the calcium oxalate crystal content in the
      renal tissue. RESULTS: Oxalate produced a concentration-dependent increase in the
      synthesis of MRP-1 and BCRP. Treatment with MK571 and Ko143 (MRP-1- and BCRP
      specific inhibitors, respectively) significantly attenuated the oxalate-induced
      PS externalization. Adding the antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine significantly
      reduced MRP-1 and BCRP expression. In vivo, markedly decreased nephrocalcinosis
      was observed compared with that in the rat model of hyperoxaluria without
      verapamil treatment. CONCLUSION: Oxalate induces the upregulation of MRP-1 and
      BCRP, which act as phospholipid floppases causing PS externalization in the renal
      epithelial cell membrane. The process is mediated by intracellular ROS
      production. The ROS-mediated increase in the synthesis of MRP-1 and BCRP can play
      an important role in hyperoxaluria-promoted calcium oxalate urolithiasis by
      facilitating phosphatidylserine redistribution in renal epithelial cells.

PMID- 28577931
TI  - When the Gold Standard Proves to Be Fool's Gold-Blue-light Cystoscopy in a Case
      of High-risk Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.

PMID- 28577930
TI  - Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Benign Prostate Hyperplasia Features Among Male
      BRCA Mutation Carriers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze lower urinary tract symptoms and benign prostate
      hyperplasia features among male BRCA1 and 2 carriers and an age-matched control
      group. METHODS: Male BRCA carriers and noncarriers aged 40-70 years were enrolled
      in our cross-sectional study. Relevant clinical data were collected, and patients
      filled the International Prostate Symptom Score. Patients also underwent prostate
      specific antigen (PSA) blood testing, digital rectal examination, uroflowmetry,
      and post-void residual ultrasound examination. As part of their routine follow
      up, BRCA carriers underwent prostate magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS:
      Overall, 87 carriers and 30 noncarriers were enrolled. The median age, mean body
      mass index, and comorbidities in both groups were similar. Maximal flow (QMAX)
      was higher in the noncarrier group (16.9 mL/s vs 12 mL/s, P = .01). Mean prostate
      volume among all BRCA carriers was 38.8 cc (19.7), but BRCA1 patients had larger
      glands with higher mean PSA and PSA density than BRCA2 patients (41.8 cc vs 33.1
      cc, P = .047, 1.84 ng/mL vs 1.07 ng/mL, P = .006, and .044 vs .032, P = .042,
      respectively). Multivariate analysis demonstrated age being the sole significant
      predictor of PSA density in BRCA2 patients. CONCLUSION: Male carrying BRCA
      mutations have significantly lower QMAX than healthy men. BRCA1 patients have on
      average larger prostate glands and higher PSA than BRCA2 patients. Further
      research is required to decipher the association of lower urinary tract symptoms
      or benign prostate hyperplasia with BRCA carriers.

PMID- 28577932
TI  - In-vitro activity of several antimicrobial agents against methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates expressing aminoglycoside-modifying
      enzymes: potency of plazomicin alone and in combination with other agents.
AB  - This study investigated the in-vitro activity of clinically relevant
      aminoglycosides and new antimicrobial agents-plazomicin, ceftobiprole and
      dalbavancin-against 55 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
      isolates producing aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs). The checkerboard
      method was used to assess synergism between plazomicin and four antibiotics
      (fosfomycin, ceftobiprole, cefoxitin and meropenem), and time-kill assays were
      performed for the most active combinations. Among the aminoglycosides tested,
      plazomicin was the most active agent against MRSA, with >90% of isolates being
      inhibited at a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of <=1 mg/L. MIC50 and
      MIC90 values for ceftobiprole and dalbavancin were 2 and 4 mg/L, and 0.125 and
      0.125 mg/L, respectively. The most prevalent AME gene was aac(6')Ie-aph(2")Ia
      (87.3%), followed by ant(4')Ia (52.7%) and aph(3')IIIa (52.7%). Plazomicin
      activity was not affected by the type or number of enzymes detected. In
      checkerboard and time-kill assays, indifference was the most common result
      achieved for the antibiotic combinations. Notably, no antagonism was observed
      with any combination tested. Overall, plazomicin in combination with meropenem
      had the highest synergistic effect, demonstrating synergy against seven isolates
      in the checkerboard assay and three isolates in time-kill curves. In conclusion,
      plazomicin showed potent activity against aminoglycoside-resistant MRSA isolates,
      regardless of the number and type of AMEs present. These findings indicate the
      potential utility of plazomicin in combination with meropenem for the treatment
      of MRSA infections.

PMID- 28577933
TI  - Impact of selective reporting of antibiotic susceptibility test results on the
      appropriateness of antibiotics chosen by French general practitioners in urinary
      tract infections: a randomised controlled case-vignette study.
AB  - Selective reporting of antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) results is a
      potential intervention for laboratory-based antibiotic stewardship. The aim of
      this study was to assess the impact of AST reporting on the appropriateness of
      antibiotics selected by French general practitioners for urinary tract infections
      (UTIs). A randomised controlled case-vignette study in a region of northeast
      France surveyed general practitioners between July and October 2015 on treatment
      of four clinical cases of community-acquired Escherichia coli UTIs (two cases of
      complicated cystitis, one of acute pyelonephritis and one male UTI). In Group A,
      selective reporting of AST results was used for the first two cases and complete
      reporting for the other two cases; these were reversed in Group B. The overall
      participation rate was 131/198 (66.2%). Provision of selective AST results
      significantly increased the rate of adherence to national guidelines for first
      line antibiotic treatment in Cases 1, 3 and 4 by 22.4% (55.2% vs. 32.8%, P =
      0.01), 67.5% (75.0% vs. 7.5%, P <0.001) and 36.3% (45.3% vs. 9.0%, P <0.001),
      respectively. The improvement in compliance was not significant for Case 2.
      Prescriptions of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins
      decreased by 25.0% to 45.0%, depending on the clinical vignette. Most (106/131,
      81.0%) participants favoured the routine use of selective reporting of AST
      results. In conclusion, selective reporting of AST results seems to improve
      antibiotic prescribing practices in primary care, and may be considered a key
      element of antimicrobial stewardship programmes.

PMID- 28577934
TI  - Assessing mRNA nuclear export in mammalian cells by microinjection.
AB  - The nuclear export of mRNAs is an important yet little understood part of
      eukaryotic gene expression. One of the easiest methods for monitoring mRNA export
      in mammalian tissue culture cells is through the microinjection of DNA plasmids
      into the nucleus and monitoring the distribution of the transcribed product over
      time. Here we describe how to setup a microscope equipped with a micromanipulator
      used in cell microinjections, and we explain how to perform a nuclear mRNA export
      assay and obtain the nuclear export rate for any given mRNA.

PMID- 28577935
TI  - Co-expression analysis among microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and messenger RNAs
      to understand the pathogenesis and progression of diabetic kidney disease at the
      genetic level.
AB  - Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a serious disease that presents a major health
      problem worldwide. There is a desperate need to explore novel biomarkers to
      further facilitate the early diagnosis and effective treatment in DKD patients,
      thus preventing them from developing end-stage renal disease (ESRD). However,
      most regulation mechanisms at the genetic level in DKD still remain unclear. In
      this paper, we describe our innovative methodologies that integrate biological,
      computational, and statistical approaches to investigate important roles
      performed by regulations among microRNAs (miRs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs),
      and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in DKD. We conducted fully transparent, rigorously
      designed experiments. Our robust and reproducible results identified hsa-miR-223
      3p as a candidate novel biomarker performing important roles in DKD disease
      process.

PMID- 28577936
TI  - Association between DNA methylation and coronary heart disease or other
      atherosclerotic events: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of
      the association between DNA methylation and coronary heart disease (CHD) or
      related atherosclerotic traits. METHODS: A systematic review was designed. The
      condition of interest was DNA methylation, and the outcome was CHD or other
      atherosclerosis-related traits. Three DNA methylation approaches were considered:
      global methylation, candidate-gene, and epigenome-wide association studies
      (EWAS). A functional analysis was undertaken using the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis
      software. RESULTS: In total, 51 articles were included in the analysis: 12 global
      methylation, 34 candidate-gene and 11 EWAS, with six studies using more than one
      approach. The results of the global methylation studies were inconsistent. The
      candidate-gene results were consistent for some genes, suggesting that
      hypermethylation in ESRalpha, ABCG1 and FOXP3 and hypomethylation in IL-6 were
      associated with CHD. The EWAS identified 84 genes showing differential
      methylation associated with CHD in more than one study. The probability of these
      findings was <1.37.10-5. One third of these genes have been related to obesity in
      genome-wide association studies. The functional analysis identified several
      diseases and functions related to these set of genes: inflammatory, metabolic and
      cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSIONS: Global DNA methylation seems to be not
      associated with CHD. The evidence from candidate-gene studies was limited. The
      EWAS identified a set of 84 genes highlighting the relevance of obesity,
      inflammation, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in CHD. This set of genes could
      be prioritized in future studies assessing the role of DNA methylation in CHD.

PMID- 28577937
TI  - Therapy-induced E-cadherin downregulation alters expression of programmed death
      ligand-1 in lung cancer cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Immunotherapy that targets the programmed death-1/programmed death
      ligand 1 (PD-L1) axis has been approved for treatment of non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC) patients in many countries. However, our current understanding of
      the role of immunotherapies on NSCLC patients with epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) mutation, following acquisition of resistance to EGFR tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors (TKIs), is so far unclear. Especially, there is little data on
      if each acquired resistance mechanism to EGFR-TKIs alters PD-L1 expression status
      which is employed as an important predictive biomarker for PD-1/PD-L1 targeting
      agents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Lung cancer cell lines (HCC827, HCC4006, PC9,
      H1975, H358, SW900, and H647) and their daughter cells that acquired resistance
      to EGFR-TKIs or cytotoxic drugs (cisplatin or vinorelbine) were examined. PD-L1
      expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, and/or
      fluorescent imaging. Published microarray data were also employed to evaluate our
      findings. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We found correlations between therapy-induced E
      cadherin downregulation and decreased PD-L1 expression using our cell lines and
      published microarray data. ShRNA mediated E-cadherin knockdown decreased PD-L1
      expression in parental cells, and dual immunofluorescent staining of E-cadherin
      and PD-L1 suggests co-localization of both molecules. We also observed marked
      downregulation of PD-L1 in cells with E-cadherin downregulation after chronic
      treatment with vinorelbine. These results indicate a correlation between therapy
      induced E-cadherin downregulation and decreased PD-L1 expression, highlighting
      the importance of re-biopsy after acquisition of resistance to EGFR-TKIs, not
      only for the evaluation of resistance mechanisms but also for the determination
      of PD-L1 expression status.

PMID- 28577938
TI  - Evaluation of the VeriStrat(r) serum protein test in patients with advanced
      squamous cell carcinoma of the lung treated with second-line afatinib or
      erlotinib in the phase III LUX-Lung 8 study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Identification of biomarkers associated with clinical benefit may be
      crucial in establishing optimal treatment choice for patients with squamous cell
      carcinoma (SCC) of the lung after first-line chemotherapy. In this study, the
      ability of the VeriStrat serum protein test to predict differential clinical
      benefit with afatinib versus erlotinib, and the association of VeriStrat status
      with clinical outcomes irrespective of EGFR-TKI used, was assessed in a
      retrospective analysis of the phase III LUX-Lung 8 trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Pretreatment plasma samples were analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption
      ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Spectra were evaluated to assign a
      VeriStrat 'Good' (VS-G) or VeriStrat 'Poor' (VS-P) classification. Overall
      survival (OS), progression-free survival, and other endpoints were assessed with
      respect to pretreatment VeriStrat status; OS was the primary efficacy variable.
      Outcomes with other efficacy endpoints were similar. RESULTS: Of 795 patients
      randomized in LUX-Lung 8, 675 were classified (VS-G: 412; VS-P: 263). In the VS-G
      group, OS was significantly longer with afatinib versus erlotinib (HR 0.79 [95%
      CI: 0.63-0.98]). In the VS-P group, there was no significant difference in OS
      between afatinib and erlotinib (HR 0.90 [0.70-1.16]). However, there was no
      interaction between VeriStrat classification and treatment group for OS
      (pinteraction=0.5303). OS was significantly longer in VS-G versus VS-P patients,
      both in the overall VeriStrat-classified population (HR 0.41 [0.35-0.49]) and
      afatinib-treated patients (HR 0.40 [0.31-0.51]). Multivariate analysis showed
      that VeriStrat was an independent predictor of OS in afatinib-treated patients,
      regardless of ECOG PS or best response to first-line chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: VS
      G classification is strongly associated with favorable survival outcomes with
      either afatinib or erlotinib compared with VS-P classification. In VS-G patients,
      survival outcomes with afatinib are superior to those with erlotinib. VeriStrat
      classification may guide treatment decisions in patients with SCC of the lung.
      ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT01523587.

PMID- 28577939
TI  - Cigarette smoke extract induces EGFR-TKI resistance via promoting EGFR signaling
      pathway and ROS generation in NSCLC cell lines.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) somatic-mutated non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with smoking history always show a poor
      response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). The aim of the study is
      to explore the molecular mechanism of EGFR-TKI resistance induced by cigarette
      smoke extract and investigate the novel anti-resistance strategies. METHODS: The
      effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on gefitinib sensitivity, EGFR signaling,
      apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were detected in vitro by MTT
      assays, western blot, flow cytometry and laser scanning confocal microscope,
      respectively. RESULTS: MTT assays presented that CSE claimed antagonistic effect
      on gefitinib sensitivity via the up-regulated half maximal inhibitory
      concentration (IC50) values, western blot showed that CSE instigated EGFR, AKT
      phosphorylation, while N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine (NAC) could alleviate gefitinib
      resistance and abort the aberrant phosphorylation in both PC-9 and A549 cells.
      Confocal microscope and flow cytometry displayed that ROS generation increased
      after CSE exposure in NSCLC cells and this change could be inhibited by NAC.
      CONCLUSION: Cigarette smoke extract induces EGFR-TKI resistance via promoting
      EGFR signaling and ROS generation in NSCLC cell lines which could be suppressed
      by NAC. Alternatively, combined NAC with EGFR-TKIs to treat EGFR mutated NSCLC
      patients with smoking history may be a potential choice in clinical setting.

PMID- 28577940
TI  - Trends, practice patterns and underuse of surgery in the treatment of early stage
      small cell lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Practice guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
      and the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommend pathologic mediastinal
      staging and surgical resection for patients with clinically node-negative T1/T2
      small cell lung cancer (SCLC), but the extent to which surgery is used is
      unknown. We sought to assess trends and practice patterns in the use of surgery
      for SCLC. METHODS: T1 or T2N0M0 SCLC cases were identified in the National Cancer
      Database (NCDB), 2004-2013. Characteristics of patients undergoing resection were
      analyzed. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to identify individual and
      hospital-level predictors of receipt of surgery, adjusting for clinical,
      demographic and facility characteristics. Trends in resection rates were analyzed
      over the study period. FINDINGS: 9740 patients were identified with clinical T1
      or T2 N0M0 SCLC. Of these, 2210 underwent surgery (22.7%), with 1421 (64.3%)
      undergoing lobectomy, 739 (33.4%) sublobar resections and 50 (2.3%)
      pneumonectomies. After adjustment, Medicaid patients were less likely to receive
      surgery (OR0.65 95% CI 0.48-0.89, p=0.006), as were those with T2 tumors (OR0.25
      CI0.22-0.29, p<0.0001). Academic facilities were more likely to resect eligible
      patients (OR 1.90 CI1.45-2.49, p<0.0001). Between 2004 and 2013, resection rates
      more than doubled from 9.1% to 21.7%. Overall, 68.7% of patients were not offered
      surgery despite having no identifiable contraindication. In patients not
      receiving surgery, only 7% underwent pathologic mediastinal staging.
      INTERPRETATION: Rates of resection are increasing, but two thirds of potentially
      eligible patients fail to undergo surgery. Further study is required to address
      the lack of concordance between guidelines and practice.

PMID- 28577941
TI  - Quantitative cell-free circulating EGFR mutation concentration is correlated with
      tumor burden in advanced NSCLC patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) has shown
      sufficient concordance in detecting plasma epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) status in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), compared to tumor tissues.
      However, the clinical significance of the quantitative plasma mutated EGFR
      concentration remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore the
      relationship of plasma mutated EGFR concentration with tumor burden in advanced
      NSCLC patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using ddPCR, plasma DNA samples prior to
      administration of therapies from 113 consecutive NSCLC patients were analyzed for
      EGFR L858R substitution and deletion of exon19 (ex19del). Plasma EGFR status was
      compared to tumor EGFR status to determine concordance. Then, we assessed the
      correlation of plasma mutated EGFR concentrations with tumor burden and other
      tumor characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared to tumor EGFR, the
      concordance rate of plasma and tissue EGFR status was 86.73%. Of the 64 patients
      who harbored tumor EGFR mutation, plasma mutated EGFR concentrations
      significantly correlated with number of metastatic sites (Spearman's r=0.4954,
      p<0.0001), number of lesions (Spearman's r=0.4484, p=0.0002), and sum of
      measurable lesions' diameters (Spearman's r=0.3539, p=0.0048). Number of
      metastatic sites was independently associated with mutated EGFR concentration in
      multiple linear regression. Besides, plasma mutated EGFR concentrations were
      significantly higher in those with extensive tumor burden (median concentration,
      386.9 vs. 13.4copies/mL; p<0.0001) and stage IV disease (median concentration,
      244.2 vs. 0copies/mL; p=0.0252). In conclusion, mutated plasma EGFR concentration
      determined by ddPCR analysis significantly correlated with tumor burden.

PMID- 28577942
TI  - The components of somatostatin and ghrelin systems are altered in neuroendocrine
      lung carcinoids and associated to clinical-histological features.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung carcinoids (LCs) are rare tumors that comprise 1-5% of lung
      malignancies but represent 20-30% of neuroendocrine tumors. Their incidence is
      progressively increasing and a better characterization of these tumors is
      required. Alterations in somatostatin (SST)/cortistatin (CORT) and ghrelin
      systems have been associated to development/progression of various endocrine
      related cancers, wherein they may become useful diagnostic, prognostic and
      therapeutic biomarkers. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the expression levels of
      ghrelin and SST/CORT system components in LCs, as well as to explore their
      putative relationship with histological/clinical characteristics. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: An observational retrospective study was performed; 75 LC patients with
      clinical/histological characteristics were included. Samples from 46 patients
      were processed to isolate mRNA from tumor and adjacent non-tumor region, and the
      expression levels of SST/CORT and ghrelin systems components, determined by
      quantitative-PCR, were compared to those of 7 normal lung tissues. RESULTS:
      Patient cohort was characterized by mean age 53+/-15 years, 48% males, 34% with
      tobacco exposure; 71.4/28.6% typical/atypical carcinoids, 21.7% incidental
      tumors, 4.3% functioning tumors, 17.7% with metastasis. SST/CORT and ghrelin
      system components were expressed at variable levels in a high proportion of
      tumors, as well as in adjacent non-tumor tissues, while a lower proportion of
      normal lung samples also expressed these molecules. A gradation was observed from
      normal non-neoplastic lung tissues, non-tumor adjacent tissue and LCs, being SST,
      sst4, sst5, GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b overexpressed in tumor tissue compared to normal
      tissue. Importantly, several SST/CORT and ghrelin system components displayed
      significant correlations with relevant clinical parameters, such as necrosis,
      peritumoral and vascular invasion, or metastasis. CONCLUSION: Altogether, these
      data reveal a prominent, widespread expression of key SST/CORT/ghrelin system
      components in LCs, where they display clinical-histological correlations, which
      could provide novel, valuable markers for NET patient management.

PMID- 28577943
TI  - Uncommon EGFR mutations in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - Molecular profiling in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has allowed
      for the detection of actionable mutations, which has revolutionized the treatment
      paradigm in this highly fatal disease. Mutations involving the epidermal growth
      factor receptor (EGFR) gene are most common and the 'classical mutations', exon
      19 deletions and the point mutation L858R at exon 21, predict response to EGFR
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). The 'uncommon' EGFR mutations account for 10
      18% of all EGFR mutations and primarily consist of exon 20 insertions, exon 18
      point mutations and complex mutations. Improved detection techniques have
      broadened the spectrum of reported aberrations within the 'uncommon group' but
      response to TKIs is variable and not fully elucidated. This review provides an
      overview of the biology and incidence of uncommon EGFR mutations and summarizes
      reported outcomes when treated with EGFR-TKIs.

PMID- 28577944
TI  - Growth pattern-based grading of pulmonary adenocarcinoma-Analysis of 534 cases
      with comparison between observers and survival analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The 2015 WHO classification of pulmonary adenocarcinoma recommends
      recording observed architectural growth patterns in 5% increments for resected
      tumors, and determining the predominant growth pattern, which seems to be
      prognostic. There is debate over the best way to implement pattern-based grading,
      and whether such systems are reproducible. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 534 resected
      adenocarcinomas were reviewed by 2 pulmonary pathologists to determine
      predominant pattern and percentages of all observed patterns. Three different
      grading schemes were applied based on predicted prognosis scores: score 1
      (lepidic), score 2 (acinar/papillary), and score 3
      (solid/micropapillary/cribriform). Mucinous tumors were separately evaluated as
      both scores 2 and 3 since their prognosis is more ambiguous. The first grading
      scheme used the score of the predominant pattern; the second used the worst
      observed pattern score; and the third scored tumors with >=80% lepidic growth as
      1, tumors with >=20% of any score 3 pattern(s) as 3, and all remaining as 2.
      RESULTS: The predominant pattern assigned by each observer was an exact match in
      51.7% of cases, a "close match" in 27.3% (same prognosis score), and a mismatch
      in 21%. Predominant pattern determined by both observers showed significant
      stratification of overall and progression-free survival (OS and PFS,
      respectively). All 3 grading schemes showed a significant difference in OS and
      PFS determined by both observers; but the worst score scheme provided suboptimal
      results, likely due to a very small score 1 group, and this scheme did not
      maintain significance on multivariable analysis. Survival differences for all
      grading schemes maintained significance whether mucinous was considered score 2
      or 3, but mucinous tumors trended towards poor survival. CONCLUSION: Pattern
      based grading has prognostic significance in pulmonary adenocarcinoma.
      Interobserver variation is present, but two observers were able to predict
      significant differences in OS and PFS using various pattern-based grading
      schemes.

PMID- 28577945
TI  - Systematic identification of cancer-related long noncoding RNAs and aberrant
      alternative splicing of quintuple-negative lung adenocarcinoma through RNA-Seq.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a common subtype of non-small cell lung
      cancer prevalent in Asia. There is a dearth of understanding regarding the
      transcriptome landscape of LUAD without primary known driver mutations. In this
      study, LUAD samples without well-known driver mutations occurring in EGFR, KRAS,
      ALK, ROS1 or RET (quintuple-negative) were used for transcriptome study with a
      focus on long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), alternative splicing and gene fusions.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: 24 pairs of LUAD and adjacent normal samples and 13 tumor
      only samples derived from 37 quintuple-negative patients were used.
      Differentially expressed lncRNA transcripts were detected by paired t-test and
      were validated by qPCR. Functions of lncRNAs were predicted by co-expressed
      mRNAs. Aberrant splicing events in LUAD were identified using MISO. In addition,
      gene fusions were screened by SOAPfuse. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In total, 90 and
      153 up- or down-regulated lncRNA transcripts were detected in LUAD samples in
      comparison with the adjacent normal samples. The most significantly
      differentially expressed lncRNA transcript was ENST00000598996.1 (FENDRR) down
      regulated in LUAD. By lncRNA-mRNA co-expression analysis, functions of 14 lncRNAs
      were predicted. The predicted functions included vasculature development, immune
      response, cell cycle and respiratory gaseous exchange. Furthermore, six co
      expressed pairs of lncRNAs and their nearby protein coding genes were identified
      as associated with lung development. This study also identified two highly
      recurrent (22 in 24) differential exon skipping events occurring in MYH14 and
      ESYT2 with exon including isoforms of both genes up-regulated in isoform
      percentage in LUAD samples. On the other hand, two out of 24 LUAD samples
      possessed the driver mutation exon 14 skipping of MET. The transcriptional
      alterations of LUAD samples without well-known driver mutations identified in the
      study can be used as references for future research. The translational values of
      these transcriptional changes are also worthy of further investigation.

PMID- 28577947
TI  - Indications for invasive mediastinal staging in patients with early non-small
      cell lung cancer staged with PET-CT.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S): Appropriate use of invasive mediastinal staging in patients
      with clinically node-negative NSCLC staged by PET-CT is critical in selecting
      patients for curative-intent therapy such as surgery or SBRT, but little data
      exists to guide this decision-making. We examined a large population of patients
      with clinical stage I NSCLC referred for mediastinoscopy or EBUS to find risk
      factors for occult N2 lymph nodes and determine which patients benefit from
      invasive staging. MATERIALS/METHODS: We identified consecutive clinical T1-2N0
      NSCLC patients being evaluated for curative-intent therapy between 2011 and 2015.
      None had evidence of nodal disease by PET-CT; the endpoint was pathologic
      confirmation of occult N2 disease by EBUS or mediastinoscopy. Tumor size,
      location, histology, SUVmax, and radiographic appearance were evaluated as
      determinants of occult N2 disease. Two group comparisons of continuous variables
      were done with independent t-tests and categorical variables were compared with
      chi2 or Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: In 284 patients with PET-CT-staged clinical
      T1-2N0 disease, the prevalence of occult N2 metastases was 7.0%. The negative
      predictive value of PET-CT was 92.9% and the negative predictive value of
      mediastinoscopy/EBUS was 96.3%. T2 tumors were more likely to have occult N2
      disease than T1 tumors (11.8% v 3.6% p=0.009). Pure solid tumors had greater
      involvement of N2 nodes than tumors with any ground glass component (12.6% v
      3.1%, p<0.001). 17.5% of central tumor cases were found to have occult N2
      metastases while 4.4% of patients with peripheral tumors (P<0.001). 33.3% of
      patients with solid central T2 tumors had occult N2 metastases whereas 2.0% of
      patients with peripheral T2 tumors with a ground glass component, 1.2% of
      patients with peripheral T1 tumors with a ground glass component and 3.6% of
      patients with peripheral T1 solid tumors had N2 metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Invasive
      mediastinal staging should be strongly encouraged in central tumors and solid T2
      tumors because the risk of occult nodal involvement is greater than 10% in these
      cohorts. However, for patients with peripheral T1 tumors or peripheral T2 tumors
      with a significant ground glass component, the yield of invasive staging after a
      negative PET-CT is very low and invasive staging may not be warranted.

PMID- 28577948
TI  - Vitiligo in a patient with lung adenocarcinoma treated with nivolumab: A case
      report.
AB  - Nivolumab, an anti-programmed cell death-1 protein monoclonal antibody, is
      effective for treating patients with late-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.
      Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as nivolumab induce various kinds of immune
      related adverse events, including vitiligo. Vitiligo has been reported in
      patients with melanoma but not lung cancer. We describe a 75-year-old man with
      lung adenocarcinoma, stage 4 with pleural and pericardial effusion, that
      progressed after first-line chemotherapy. Subsequently, he was treated with
      nivolumab as second-line therapy. After 6days of administering nivolumab, he
      developed vitiligo suddenly on the trunk of his body. Except for vitiligo, his
      physical examination was normal, and treatment with nivolumab was well tolerated.
      Therefore, this treatment was continued without further development or expansion
      of vitiligo. A computed tomography scan showed a reduction in the size of the
      lung nodule and stabilization of the pleural and pericardial effusion. This is
      the first case of vitiligo associated with the use of nivolumab in a patient with
      lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28577946
TI  - Reduced Smad4 expression and DNA topoisomerase inhibitor chemosensitivity in non
      small cell lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Smad4 is a tumor suppressor that transduces transforming growth factor
      beta signaling and regulates genomic stability. We previously found that Smad4
      knockdown in vitro inhibited DNA repair and increased sensitivity to DNA
      topoisomerase inhibitors. In this study, we assessed the association between
      reduced Smad4 expression and DNA topoisomerase inhibitor sensitivity in human non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and evaluated the relationship between
      genomic alterations of Smad4 and molecular alterations in DNA repair molecules.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified NSCLC patients who received
      etoposide or gemcitabine. Chemotherapeutic response was quantified by RECIST 1.1
      criteria and Smad4 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Relationships
      between Smad4 mutation and DNA repair molecule mutations were evaluated using
      publically available datasets. RESULTS: We identified 28 individuals who received
      30 treatments with gemcitabine or etoposide containing regimens for NSCLC.
      Reduced Smad4 expression was seen in 13/28 patients and was not associated with
      significant differences in clinical or pathologic parameters. Patients with
      reduced Smad4 expression had a larger response to DNA topoisomerase inhibitor
      containing regimens then patients with high Smad4 expression (-25.7% vs. -6.8% in
      lesion size, p=0.03); this relationship was more pronounced with gemcitabine
      containing regimens. The overall treatment response was higher in patients with
      reduced Smad4 expression (8/14 vs 2/16 p=0.02). Analysis of data from The Cancer
      Genome Atlas revealed that Smad4 mutation or homozygous loss was mutually
      exclusive with genomic alterations in DNA repair molecules. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced
      Smad4 expression may predict responsiveness to regimens that contain DNA
      topoisomerase inhibitors. That Smad4 signaling alterations are mutually exclusive
      with alterations in DNA repair machinery is consistent with an important role of
      Smad4 in regulating DNA repair.

PMID- 28577949
TI  - Clinical and pathological characteristics of EGFR mutation in operable early
      stage lung adenocarcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Over the past decade, the biological and clinical characteristics of
      lung cancer with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation have been well
      studied. However, most studies have focused on advanced inoperable cancer, and
      not on resected early-stage lung adenocarcinoma. We aimed to elucidate the
      differences in the clinicopathological characteristics and postoperative
      prognosis according to the EGFR mutation status in early-stage lung
      adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively collected clinical and
      pathological data from 369 patients with pathological stage I or II lung
      adenocarcinoma who underwent complete resection. Clinicopathological
      characteristics and postoperative prognosis were compared depending on the EGFR
      mutation status, using the Chi-squared test and the log-rank test, respectively.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Of the 369 patients, 160 (43.3%) had EGFR mutation, of
      which 64 (40.0%) were exon 19 deletion (Del-19) and 90 (56.3%) were exon 21 point
      mutation L858R. Although there was no difference in overall survival (OS) between
      patients with and without EGFR mutation (p=0.086), tumors with EGFR mutation were
      associated with a lower consolidation to tumor ratio (CTR) (p <0.001) and a
      higher incidence of a lepidic growth pattern by pathological evaluation (p
      <0.001) compared to those without EGFR mutation. Among tumors with EGFR mutation,
      there was no difference in OS (p=0.140) between Del-19 and L858R. Tumors with
      L858R were associated with a lower CTR (p=0.046), and tended to have a higher
      incidence of a lepidic growth pattern by pathological evaluation (p=0.073)
      compared to those with Del-19. In conclusion, although EGFR mutation status was
      not a prognostic indicator after surgery in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma,
      L858R and Del-19 had different radiological and pathological features.

PMID- 28577950
TI  - Association of MTH1 expression with the tumor malignant potential and poor
      prognosis in patients with resected lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The oxidized purine nucleoside triphosphatase, mutT homolog 1 (MTH1),
      physiologically sanitizes 8-oxo-dGTP in the nucleotide pool. Previous studies
      indicated that MTH1 is associated with tumor proliferation and invasion in non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines; however, the role of MTH1 in patients
      with NSCLC remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two patient cohorts that
      underwent surgery for NSCLC in our institution were investigated retrospectively.
      In one cohort consisting of 197 patients, the associations between MTH1
      expression and clinicopathological factors or prognosis were analyzed. In another
      cohort consisting of 41 patients, the relationship between MTH1 expression in the
      tumors and serum oxidative stress levels (evaluated by the diacron-reactive
      oxygen metabolites [d-ROMs] test) or antioxidant capacity in the patients
      (evaluated by the biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test) was analyzed. A
      total of 238 patients were assessed for MTH1 protein levels using
      immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Among the 197 patients in the former cohort, 111
      (56.3%) exhibited high MTH1 expression, while 86 (43.7%) exhibited low MTH1
      expression. Male sex, smoking habit of >=20 pack-years, squamous cell carcinoma,
      pathological stage >= II, tumor diameter >=30mm, lymph node metastases, pleural
      invasion, lymphatic permeation and vascular infiltration were significantly
      associated with high MTH1 expression (p<0.05). The high MTH1 expression group had
      a significantly worse prognosis than that of the low MTH1 expression group (5
      year overall survival: 81.6% vs. 92.3%, p=0.0011; 5-year disease-free survival:
      55.0% vs. 83.7%, p=0.0002). d-ROMs and BAP test values were significantly higher
      in the high than in the low MTH1 expression group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: This
      study showed that MTH1 protein expression was closely related to factors
      associated with a high malignant potential and poor patient survival. MTH1 may be
      a novel therapeutic target for NSCLC.

PMID- 28577952
TI  - Stereotactic body radiotherapy for operable early-stage non-small cell lung
      cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze outcomes of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for
      operable patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to
      evaluate factors associated with outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed
      operable patients with NSCLC, staged as cT1-2N0M0, treated with SBRT between 2006
      and 2015. Both biopsy-proven and clinically diagnosed NSCLC were included. Local
      control and survival rates were calculated and compared between subsets of
      patients. We investigated factors associated with outcomes. RESULTS: We
      identified 88 operable patients among 661 patients with cT1-2N0M0 NSCLC. The
      median age was 79 years (range: 55-88). The median follow-up time after SBRT was
      40 months (range: 4-121). Fifty-nine patients had been pathologically diagnosed
      and the other 29 had been clinically diagnosed as having NSCLC. Local control,
      cause-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) at 3 years were 91%, 97%
      and 90% for T1, and 100%, 82% and 74% for T2, respectively. The CSS and OS at 3
      years were 100% and 100% for GGO and 83% and 59% for solid tumors, respectively
      (p=0.005). On univariate analysis, age and T stage were significantly associated
      with CSS, and age, the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and opacity were
      significantly associated with OS. On multivariate analysis, age and CCI were
      significantly associated with OS. As for toxicities, Grades 0, 1, 2 and 3
      radiation pneumonitis occurred in 37.5%, 47.7%, 13.6% and 1.1% of patients,
      respectively. No Grade 4 or 5 radiation pneumonitis occurred, and no other
      toxicities of Grade 2 or above were observed. CONCLUSION: Outcomes of SBRT for
      operable early stage NSCLC were as good as previous SBRT and surgery studies.
      Further investigation for selecting good SBRT candidates is warranted in high
      risk operable patients.

PMID- 28577951
TI  - Aprepitant for refractory nivolumab-induced pruritus.
AB  - Although substantial progress has been made in the treatment of non-small-cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), severe
      immune-related adverse events (irAEs) sometimes occur. Here, we report a case of
      severe refractory pruritus after Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) in a patient with
      NSCLC treated with nivolumab. The patient was a 76-year-old Japanese woman with
      advanced NSCLC treated with nivolumab. After the second dose, she experienced
      severe rash with mucous involvement. We diagnosed SJS and started 50mg of oral
      prednisolone (1mg/kg). The rash completely resolved after prednisolone was
      started, but we could not manage the severe pruritus with emollients,
      antihistamines, and steroids. Finally, we administered aprepitant, an oral
      neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, for her refractory pruritus. Her symptoms
      improved within 5days. Severe refractory pruritus can arise from ICIs, and
      aprepitant may be a useful treatment.

PMID- 28577953
TI  - The impact of preoperative elevated serum C-reactive protein on postoperative
      morbidity and mortality after anatomic resection for lung cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine whether preoperative
      elevated serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is an independent risk factor of
      postoperative morbidity and mortality after pulmonary resection for lung cancer.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on
      1414 consecutive patients that underwent an anatomic resection for lung cancer
      was performed. Patients' characteristics, operative procedures and the
      postoperative outcome were assessed with a standardised data entry form.
      Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify factors that
      affect morbidity and mortality. RESULTS: Postoperative complications occurred in
      35.5% of the patients. The mortality rate was 3.2%. Patients with preoperative C
      reactive protein above 40mg/l showed more overall complications and a higher
      mortality than patients below this limit. Patients with a CRP level between 3mg/l
      and 40mg/l had no significant increase in morbidity and mortality compared to
      patients with values below the detection limit (< 3mg/l). CONCLUSIONS:
      Preoperative serum C-reactive protein level is an independent and significant
      indicator for elevated morbidity and mortality after pulmonary resection. We
      propose the evaluation of CRP levels as a preoperative diagnostic modality of
      risk assessment in addition to standardised functional testing.

PMID- 28577954
TI  - Recurrent dysphasia due to nivolumab-induced encephalopathy with presence of Hu
      autoantibody.
AB  - A 58-year-old man was being treated for squamous non-small-cell lung cancer with
      nivolumab. At the 17th of biweekly administrations he presented with global
      dysphasia, dysarthria and myoclonus in the right upper extremity. MRI showed
      multiple T2/FLAIR hyperintense lesions in the left hemisphere; lumbar puncture
      showed lymphocytic pleiocytosis in the CSF without identifiable pathogens. Hu
      antibodies were present in serum and CSF. Nivolumab was discontinued and
      corticosteroids were administered. The neurological symptoms gradually improved;
      MRI showed complete remission of cerebral lesions. After rechallenge with
      nivolumab his symptoms and cerebral lesions recurred, proving the causal
      relationship with nivolumab. After tapering of corticosteroids, a second relapse
      occurred.

PMID- 28577955
TI  - Surgery Versus Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy For Early and Locally Advanced Small
      Cell Lung Cancer: A Propensity-Matched Analysis of Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of surgery in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is
      controversial. Survival outcomes for resection of stage I-IIIA SCLC compared to
      chemotherapy-based non-surgical treatment (NST) were examined using propensity
      matching. METHODS: 29,994 clinical stage I-IIIA SCLC patients, including 2,619
      undergoing surgery, were identified in the National Cancer Database. Stage
      specific propensity scores for receipt of surgery were created. Resected patients
      were matched 1:1 to those undergoing NST. Overall survival (OS) was assessed
      using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox models. A separate match was performed
      comparing Stage I/II patients aged <85 with a Charlson score of 0 who underwent
      lobectomy with adjuvant chemotherapy (and radiotherapy if node positive) to those
      treated with multiagent chemotherapy and concurrent chest radiotherapy (CRT) of
      at least 40 gray. RESULTS: 2,089 patients were matched, and cohorts were well
      balanced. Surgery was associated with longer survival for Stage I (median OS 38.6
      months vs. 22.9 months, HR 0.62 95%CI 0.57-0.69, p<0.0001), but survival
      differences were attenuated for Stage II (median OS 23.4 months vs. 20.7 months,
      HR 0.84 95%CI 0.70-1.01, p=0.06) and IIIA (median OS 21.7 vs. 16.0 months, HR
      0.71 95%CI 0.60-0.83, p <0.0001). In analyses by T and N stage, longer OS was
      observed in resected patients with stage T3/T4 N0 (median OS 33.0 vs. 16.8
      months, p=0.008) and node positivity(N1+ 24.4 vs. 18.3 months p=0.03; N2+ 20.1
      vs. 14.6 months p=0.007). In the subgroup analysis, 507 stage I/II patients
      receiving lobectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy were matched to patients receiving
      concurrent CRT. In this cohort, lobectomy with adjuvant chemotherapy was
      associated with significantly longer survival (median OS 48.6 vs. 28.7 months,
      p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Surgical resection is associated with significantly
      longer survival for early SCLC. New randomized trials should assess trimodality
      therapy in stages I/II, and in node negative disease.

PMID- 28577956
TI  - Clinical outcomes of platinum-based chemotherapy according to T790M mutation
      status in EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer patients after initial EGFR
      TKI failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emergence of the T790M point mutation in exon 20 of epidermal growth
      factor receptor (EGFR) is the most common mechanism of resistance to EGFR
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). It remains unclear whether the efficacy
      of platinum-doublet chemotherapy is impacted by the presence of the T790M
      mutation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of platinum-doublet
      chemotherapy after initial EGFR-TKI failure according to the EGFR T790M in
      patients with advanced EGFR-mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 50 patients with advanced NSCLC
      harboring EGFR mutations who underwent rebiopsy to evaluate their T790M mutation
      status after development of resistance to first-line EGFR-TKIs (gefitinib,
      erlotinib, or afatinib) and were subsequently treated with second-line platinum
      based chemotherapy. RESULTS: The median age of patients was 63 years (range, 35
      77 years), and 15 (30%) patients were male. Histological examination revealed
      that all patients had adenocarcinoma, 39 (78%) had stage IV disease, and 11 (22%)
      patients had postoperative recurrence. Of all, 17 patients (34%) had the T790M
      mutation by rebiopsy after initial EGFR-TKI failure. The overall response rate
      (ORR) of platinum-doublet chemotherapy was 24% for both T790M-positive and T790M
      negative patients. There was no significant difference in the progression-free
      survival (PFS) in T790M-positive and T790M-negative patients (median PFS, 6.0
      months vs. 5.1 months; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1-11.9 vs. 4.4-5.8; hazard
      ratio [HR], 0.90 [95%CI, 0.49-1.66]; P=0.7210). None of the factors were
      predictive of platinum-doublet chemotherapy efficacy by the multivariate
      analysis. CONCLUSION: There were no differences in clinical outcomes of platinum
      based chemotherapy according to the T790M status of NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28577957
TI  - EGFR T790M mutation testing within the osimertinib AURA Phase I study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Reliable epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation testing
      techniques are required to identify eligible patients with EGFR mutation/T790M
      positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), for treatment with
      osimertinib (AZD9291), an oral, potent, irreversible EGFR tyrosine kinase
      inhibitor (TKI) selective for EGFR-TKI-sensitizing and T790M resistance mutations
      over wild-type EGFR. There is no current consensus regarding the best method to
      detect EGFR T790M mutations. The aim of this study was to describe the
      concordance between local testing, which used a variety of methods, and central
      testing, using the cobas(r) EGFR Mutation Test, for EGFR-sensitizing mutations
      and the T790M resistance mutation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tumor samples were
      obtained from all patients screened for inclusion onto the osimertinib Phase I
      expansion component of the AURA Phase I/II study (NCT01802632). Samples underwent
      central laboratory testing for EGFR-sensitizing mutations and T790M resistance
      mutation using the cobas(r) EGFR Mutation Test. Results were compared with local
      laboratory test results, based on other testing methodologies including Sanger
      sequencing, therascreen(r), PNAClampTM, and Sequenom MassARRAY(r). RESULTS:
      Central laboratory testing was successful in 99% of samples passing
      histopathology review and testing success rates were comparable across the three
      central laboratories. Concordance between central and local testing for common
      sensitizing mutations was high (>98%) and concordance for the T790M mutation was
      also high (>90%). Tumor heterogeneity, along with other technical factors may
      have influenced this result. CONCLUSIONS: Within the osimertinib AURA Phase I
      study, EGFR mutation testing across three centralized laboratories using the
      cobas(r) EGFR Mutation Test was feasible and successful, with strong concordance
      between local and central laboratory results, including for T790M. The cobas(r)
      EGFR Mutation Test has subsequently been approved as the companion diagnostic
      test for osimertinib in the USA and Japan.

PMID- 28577958
TI  - Lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma and invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma of the
      lung exhibit specific mucin expression in relation with oncogenic drivers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate MUC1, MUC2, MUC5B, MUC5AC, and MUC6 expression in
      invasive lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma (LPA) and invasive mucinous
      adenocarcinoma (IMA) of the lung, and the impact of oncogenic drivers. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: MUC1, MUC2, MUC5B, MUC5AC, MUC6, TTF1 and Hnf4alpha
      immunohistochemistry was performed on surgical samples from 52 patients with IMA
      (n=25) or LPA (n=27). We searched for EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, and HER2 mutations and
      ALK, ROS1, and NRG1 rearrangements. RESULTS: MUC1, MUC2, MUC5B, MUC5AC, and MUC6
      expression was detected in tumor cells in 77%, 2%, 63%, 36%, and 21% of cases,
      respectively. MUC1 was significantly more overexpressed in LPA. MUC5B, MUC5AC,
      and MUC6 were typically detected in goblet cells and overexpressed in IMA.
      Hnf4alpha-positive IMA (n=11) were TTF1-negative and typically did not expressed
      MUC1 and expressed MUC5AC and MUC6. Hnf4alpha-negative IMA (n=14) showed a
      reverse profile of mucins expression, with MUC1 expression and a lack of MUC5AC
      and MUC6 expression. EGFR-positive status was significantly associated with LPA,
      MUC1 expression, and no MUC5B, MUC5AC, or MUC6 expression. KRAS-positive status
      was significantly associated with IMA and MUC5B and MUC5AC expression.
      CONCLUSIONS: LPA and IMA exhibit specific mucin expression profiles, with MUC1
      being associated with LPA, while MUC5B, MUC5AC, and MUC6 were associated with
      IMA. Hnf4alpha expression and EGFR and KRAS mutations may play a role in mucin
      expression profiles of these lung adenocarcinoma subtypes.

PMID- 28577959
TI  - Impact of blood sample collection methods on blood protein profiling studies.
AB  - Pre-analytical factors have a significant impact on the integrity of blood
      samples used for qualitative and quantitative protein profiling. Important
      factors are the type of the blood collection tube and the anticoagulant used.
      Only a few studies have been performed to assess these variables by comparing
      only serum and EDTA plasma collection tubes with some target proteins or
      peptides. In this study, we investigated the protein profile of blood samples
      collected in serum, EDTA-, heparin-, and citrate plasma tubes. Furthermore, we
      compared the depletion efficiency of 6 high abundant proteins, the detectable
      blood protein profile, the variance, and the coverage of the detectable protein
      sets. The largest differences were found between serum and plasma samples with
      respect to the peptide number and the occurrence of classical blood proteins. The
      heparin plasma evidenced a high number of detectable proteins, low global
      variance and a high similarity to EDTA- and citrate plasma and may therefore be
      also a useful test tube for blood protein profiling. In addition, a core set of
      blood proteins were described and the portions and compositions of sampling
      specific proteins were disclosed. Therefore, pre-analytical issues such as the
      sample collection method should be considered for protein profiling studies.

PMID- 28577960
TI  - Diagnostic value of interferon-gamma-induced protein of 10kDa for tuberculous
      pleurisy: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The accurate diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy is still a clinical
      challenge. Many studies reported that interferon-gamma-induced protein of 10kDa
      (IP-10) plays a role in diagnosing tuberculous pleurisy, but with considerable
      variance of results. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the overall diagnostic
      accuracy of IP-10 for tuberculous pleurisy. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, and other
      databases were searched for studies examining accuracy of pleural IP-10 for
      diagnosing tuberculous pleurisy. Related data were extracted and
      sensitivity/specificity, positive/negative likelihood ratio (PLR/NLR), and
      diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were pooled. Summary receiver operating
      characteristic curve and area under the curve (AUC) were performed and calculated
      to summarize the overall test performance. RESULTS: Fourteen studies involving
      1382 subjects met inclusion criteria, including 715 cases of tuberculous pleurisy
      and 667 controls. Summary estimates of the diagnostic performance of the IP-10
      for tuberculous pleurisy were listed as follows: sensitivity, 0.84 (95%CI 0.81 to
      0.87); specificity, 0.90 (95% CI 0.88 to 0.92); PLR, 7.96 (95% CI 5.59 to 11.32);
      NLR, 0.19 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.24); DOR, 49.82 (95% CI 28.08 to 88.38); and AUC
      0.94. No publication bias was detected. CONCLUSION: Pleural IP-10 is a useful
      diagnostic marker for tuberculous pleurisy. Nevertheless, its result should be
      interpreted together with the results of conventional test and clinical
      information of patients.

PMID- 28577962
TI  - Free Active Chlorine in Sodium Hypochlorite Solutions Admixed with Octenidine,
      SmearOFF, Chlorhexidine, and EDTA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The therapeutic effects of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solutions
      are dependent on the levels of free available chlorine (FAC). Mixing these
      solutions with irrigants can result in significant reductions in FAC. Although
      the effect of some irrigants on FAC is known, the effect of other commonly used
      irrigants is not. Thus, the therapeutic ramifications of the concurrent use of
      these on the efficiency of NaOCl solutions is not known. METHODS: Aliquots of
      5.2% (w/v) NaOCl solutions were admixed in proportions of 90:10, 80:20, and 50:50
      with the following irrigants: octenidine dihydrochloride (OCT); SmearOFF (Vista
      Dental Products, Racine, WI), 17% EDTA; and 0.2%, 2%, and 5% chlorhexidine (CHX)
      solutions. Changes in FAC were measured by iodometric titration. Statistical
      differences between means were determined using a post hoc Tukey analysis test
      after an analysis of variance. RESULTS: OCT appeared not to affect FAC and was
      significantly different than all other irrigants, except for 90:10 and 80:20
      mixtures of low concentration (0.2%) CHX. CHX solutions showed a marked
      concentration- and mixture proportion-dependent detrimental effect on FAC. The
      reduction of FAC between different concentrations of CHX was statistically
      significant in 80:20 and 50:50 proportions, with 50:50 mixtures of 5% CHX having
      the greatest influence. Mixtures containing even small proportions of SmearOFF or
      EDTA exhibited significant losses in FAC. CONCLUSIONS: OCT has little effect on
      FAC and can be used concurrently with NaOCl solutions. Higher concentrations of
      CHX significantly affect FAC. Their combined use with NaOCl solutions should be
      avoided. EDTA and SmearOFF should not be mixed with NaOCl solutions.

PMID- 28577961
TI  - Histologic Evaluation of Regenerative Endodontic Procedures with the Use of
      Chitosan Scaffolds in Immature Dog Teeth with Apical Periodontitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate histologically the newly
      formed tissues after regenerative endodontic procedures (REPs) in dogs using
      either a blood clot (BC) or 2 different formulations of a chitosan hydrogel as
      scaffolds. METHODS: Apical periodontitis was induced by inoculating immature
      teeth with oral plaque in 4 beagle dogs. Teeth (n = 96) were divided into 2
      control (n = 20) and 4 test groups (n = 76) according to the treatment:
      apexification and REPs with BC, sodium hyaluronate:chitosan (HA:CS) scaffolds, or
      pectin:chitosan (P:CS) scaffolds. All root canals were disinfected with 2.5%
      sodium hypochlorite and a triple antibiotic paste intracanal medicament before
      evoked bleeding, clot formation, or scaffold placement. Thirteen weeks after
      treatment, the animals were sacrificed and the jaw blocks harvested for
      histologic processing, histomorphometric analysis, and statistical analysis.
      RESULTS: The lumens of the root canals were completely filled with mineral
      trioxide aggregate with evidence of a mineralized apical bridge between the root
      canal walls in 83% of the samples in the apexification group. Vital vascularized
      tissue was found in the REP groups; apical closure happened in 66.7% of these
      treatments, and root growth was detected more often as an increase in thickness
      (85.6%) than in length (45.6%). The greatest amount of mineralized tissue inside
      the canal was observed in the BC group, with statistical significance compared
      with the HA:CS and P:CS groups (P < .05). Further histologic evaluation revealed
      the presence of apical papilla. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of chitosan scaffolds
      to blood in regenerative procedures in dogs did not improve the formation of new
      mineralized tissues along the root canal walls or the histologic evidence of the
      regeneration of a pulp-dentin complex.

PMID- 28577963
TI  - Physiological and pathological processes of synaptic plasticity and memory in
      drug discovery: Do not forget the dose-response curve.
AB  - The response of a biological system to an endogenous or exogenous molecule
      depends upon the dose. For this reason, performing dose-response curves is
      crucial to understand physiological and pathophysiological phenomena, and to
      predict the effect of a drug. Most of the studies in pharmacological research
      have been performed according to the classical threshold model, focusing on
      higher doses able to ensure a biological effect. However, recent evidences
      pointed out the need to investigate the effect of low doses. Indeed, several
      molecules behave in a hormetic fashion, i.e. low-doses stimulate whereas high
      doses inhibit a biological response. This is particularly interesting in CNS,
      where several physiological molecules involved in neuronal transmission during
      learning and memory have shown a biphasic effect that might represent the link
      between physiology and pathology. In this review we will focus on cholinergic,
      glutamatergic and nitrinergic transmission, because of their central role in
      learning and memory and their impairment in neurodegenerative disorders such as
      Alzheimer's disease. Pre-clinical studies performed on healthy adult animals and
      aged animals, as well as transgenic animal models of AD, have suggested a
      biphasic DR for acetylcholine, glutamate and nitric oxide. This stresses the
      relevance to perform DR curves when studying the mechanisms underlying synaptic
      plasticity and memory, the pharmacological profile of cognitive-enhancing drugs
      acting on these systems, and the possibility to combine low/ineffective doses of
      drugs that might have additive/synergistic effects, reducing the unwanted side
      effects associated to the high doses.

PMID- 28577964
TI  - RP5063, a novel, multimodal, serotonin receptor modulator, prevents monocrotaline
      induced pulmonary arterial hypertension in rats.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a condition characterized by pulmonary
      vasculature constriction and remodeling, involves dysregulation of the serotonin
      (5-HT) receptors 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B. A rat model of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced
      PAH was used to examine the potential beneficial effects of RP5063, a 5-HT
      receptor modulator. After a single 60mg/kg dose of MCT, rats were gavaged twice
      daily (b.i.d.) with vehicle, RP5063 (1, 3, or 10mg/kg), or sildenafil (50mg/kg)
      for 28 days. RP5063 at a dose as low as 1mg/kg, b.i.d. reduced pulmonary
      resistance and increased systemic blood oxygen saturation. The highest dose of
      RP5063 (10mg/kg, b.i.d.) reduced diastolic, systolic, and mean pulmonary
      pressure, right systolic ventricular pressure, ventilatory pressure, and Fulton's
      index (ratio of right to left ventricular weight). Doses as low as 3mg/kg RP5063,
      b.i.d. also increased weight gain and body temperature, suggesting an improvement
      in overall health of MCT-treated animals. Similar reductions in pulmonary, right
      ventricular, and ventilatory pressure, pulmonary resistance, and Fulton's index
      as well as increased systemic blood oxygen saturation were observed in animals
      treated with the reference agent sildenafil at a higher dose (50mg/kg, b.i.d.).
      Histological examination revealed that RP5063 produced dose-dependent reductions
      in pulmonary blood vessel wall thickness and proportion of muscular vessels,
      similar to sildenafil. RP5063 completely blocked MCT-induced increases in the
      plasma cytokines TNFalpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 at all doses. In summary, RP5063
      improved pulmonary vascular pathology and hemodynamics, right ventricular
      pressure and hypertrophy, systemic oxygen saturation, and overall health of rats
      treated with MCT.

PMID- 28577965
TI  - Estrogen and Alzheimer's disease: Still an attractive topic despite
      disappointment from early clinical results.
AB  - Since publication of the results of the Women Health Initiative Memory Study
      demonstrating that hormone therapy initiated late after menopause increases the
      risk of dementia in women, attempts have been made to identify a "critical window
      of intervention". In the meantime, basic research carried out in the last 10-15
      years has reinforced the concept of a strong impact of estrogen in
      neuroprotection, moving also into novel directions that include characterization
      of estrogen's effect on non-neuronal cells, mitochondrial function, miRNA
      production and novel targets for their action in the central nervous system
      (CNS). All these findings, together with a list of recent animal models of
      Alzheimer's Disease that appear feasible for the study of estrogen's CNS effect
      are here summarized and accompanied by the most recent data from clinical trials
      in which hormone therapy was initiated early after menopause.

PMID- 28577966
TI  - Efficacy of carbosilane dendrimers with an antiretroviral combination against HIV
      1 in the presence of semen-derived enhancer of viral infection.
AB  - Amyloid fibrils, which are present in semen, were considered to be a cause of
      topical vaginal gel ineffectiveness in vivo after microbicides failed as HIV-1
      prophylaxis. Therefore, it was necessary to determine whether a dendrimer was
      suitable for further evaluation in an in vitro model of semen-enhanced viral
      infection (SEVI). We demonstrated that SEVI in TZM.bl cell cultures increased the
      infectivity of R5-HIV-1NL(AD8), pTHRO.c and pCH058.c isolates, causing higher
      IC50 values for two polyanionic carbosilane dendrimers, G2-STE16 and G3-S16.
      However, both dendrimers maintained protection rates of 90% at non-toxic
      concentrations. When dendrimers were combined with Tenofovir/Maraviroc (TDF/MVC),
      the anti-HIV-1 effect remained at a minimum IC50 increase between 1- and 7-fold
      in the presence of amyloid fibrils. In peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC),
      IC50 values were slightly influenced by the presence of semen. In brief,
      dendrimers combined with antiretrovirals showed a synergistic effect. This result
      plays a crucial role in new microbicide formulations, as it overcomes the
      negative effects of amyloid fibrils.

PMID- 28577967
TI  - The underexplored question of beta-amyloid monomers.
AB  - Conceived more than 25 years ago, the amyloid cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer's
      disease has evolved to accommodate new findings, namely different forms of beta
      amyloid aggregates and downstream dysfunctions. Yet, the cascade does not mention
      its very beginning, the beta-amyloid monomer. Here, I will discuss the monomer
      from a functional evolutionary perspective, highlighting the potential advantages
      of a native unfolded state that, however, involves an amyloidogenic risk.
      Finally, I will make a summary of what is known about its functional role in the
      brain and discuss the implications of its conceivable shortage in the development
      of Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28577968
TI  - Antibacterial and antifungal properties of dendronized silver and gold
      nanoparticles with cationic carbosilane dendrons.
AB  - Water soluble silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) capped with cationic carbosilane
      dendrons have been synthesized by direct reaction in water of dendrons, silver
      precursor and a reducing agent. These nanoparticles have been characterized by
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic
      light scattering (DLS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), ultraviolet
      spectroscopy (UV), elemental analysis, and zeta potential (ZP). The antibacterial
      and antifungal properties of the cationic dendrons and dendronized AgNPs and
      AuNPs with these dendrons have been evaluated against Gram-negative and Gram
      positive bacterial -including resistant strains- and yeast strains, respectively.
      The results stand out for the activity of AgNPs covered with first generation
      dendron compared with this free dendron and corresponding dendronized AuNPs.

PMID- 28577969
TI  - Lipid/alginate nanoparticle-loaded in situ gelling system tailored for
      dexamethasone nasal delivery.
AB  - In this study, we suggest the development of nanoparticle loaded in situ gelling
      system suitable for corticosteroid nasal delivery. We propose lipid/alginate
      nanoparticles (size 252.3+/-2.4nm, polydispersity index 0.241, zeta-potential 
      31.7+/-1.0mV, dexamethasone (Dex) content 255+/-7MUgml-1) dispersed in pectin
      solution (5mgml-1) that undergoes a sol-gel phase transition triggered by Ca2+
      present in nasal mucosa. The viscoelasticity of gel obtained by mixing
      nanoparticle suspension in pectin continuous phase with simulated nasal fluid
      (1:1V/V) is characterised by a log-linear shear thinning viscosity behaviour.
      Observed viscosity corresponds to the range of viscosities of nasal mucus at
      physiological as well as under disease conditions. Nanoparticle-loaded gel was
      biocompatible with the selected epithelial cell model and, in comparison to
      dexamethasone solution, provided reduction in Dex release (t50% 2.1h and 0.6h,
      respectively) and moderated transepithelial permeation in vitro (Papp 7.88+/-0.15
      and 9.73+/-0.57*10-6cms-1, respectively). In conclusion, this study showed the
      potential of the proposed system to provide local therapeutic effect upon
      administration of a lower corticosteroid dose and minimize the possibility for
      adverse effects as it can be easily sprayed as solution and delivered beyond
      nasal valve, ensure prolonged contact time with nasal mucosa upon gelation, and
      moderate corticosteroid release and permeation.

PMID- 28577970
TI  - Development and evaluation of a dimensionless mechanistic pan coating model for
      the prediction of coated tablet appearance.
AB  - A mathematical, mechanistic tablet film-coating model has been developed for
      pharmaceutical pan coating systems based on the mechanisms of atomisation, tablet
      bed movement and droplet drying with the main purpose of predicting tablet
      appearance quality. Two dimensionless quantities were used to characterise the
      product properties and operating parameters: the dimensionless Spray Flux
      (relating to area coverage of the spray droplets) and the Niblett Number
      (relating to the time available for drying of coating droplets). The Niblett
      Number is the ratio between the time a droplet needs to dry under given
      thermodynamic conditions and the time available for the droplet while on the
      surface of the tablet bed. The time available for drying on the tablet bed
      surface is critical for appearance quality. These two dimensionless quantities
      were used to select process parameters for a set of 22 coating experiments,
      performed over a wide range of multivariate process parameters. The dimensionless
      Regime Map created can be used to visualise the effect of interacting process
      parameters on overall tablet appearance quality and defects such as picking and
      logo bridging.

PMID- 28577971
TI  - Prevalence of food allergies and intolerances documented in electronic health
      records.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food allergy prevalence is reported to be increasing, but
      epidemiological data using patients' electronic health records (EHRs) remain
      sparse. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the prevalence of food allergy and
      intolerance documented in the EHR allergy module. METHODS: Using allergy data
      from a large health care organization's EHR between 2000 and 2013, we determined
      the prevalence of food allergy and intolerance by sex, racial/ethnic group, and
      allergen group. We examined the prevalence of reactions that were potentially IgE
      mediated and anaphylactic. Data were validated using radioallergosorbent test and
      ImmunoCAP results, when available, for patients with reported peanut allergy.
      RESULTS: Among 2.7 million patients, we identified 97,482 patients (3.6%) with 1
      or more food allergies or intolerances (mean, 1.4 +/- 0.1). The prevalence of
      food allergy and intolerance was higher in females (4.2% vs 2.9%; P < .001) and
      Asians (4.3% vs 3.6%; P < .001). The most common food allergen groups were
      shellfish (0.9%), fruit or vegetable (0.7%), dairy (0.5%), and peanut (0.5%). Of
      the 103,659 identified reactions to foods, 48.1% were potentially IgE-mediated
      (affecting 50.8% of food allergy or intolerance patients) and 15.9% were
      anaphylactic. About 20% of patients with reported peanut allergy had a
      radioallergosorbent test/ImmunoCAP performed, of which 57.3% had an IgE level of
      grade 3 or higher. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with previously
      validated methods for studying food allergy, suggesting that the EHR's allergy
      module has the potential to be used for clinical and epidemiological research.
      The spectrum of severity observed with food allergy highlights the critical need
      for more allergy evaluations.

PMID- 28577973
TI  - Membrane-lipid therapy: A historical perspective of membrane-targeted therapies -
      From lipid bilayer structure to the pathophysiological regulation of cells.
AB  - Our current understanding of membrane lipid composition, structure and functions
      has led to the investigation of their role in cell signaling, both in healthy and
      pathological cells. As a consequence, therapies based on the regulation of
      membrane lipid composition and structure have been recently developed. This novel
      field, known as Membrane Lipid Therapy, is growing and evolving rapidly,
      providing treatments that are now in use or that are being studied for their
      application to oncological disorders, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury,
      stroke, diabetes, obesity, and neuropathic pain. This field has arisen from
      relevant discoveries on the behavior of membranes in recent decades, and it paves
      the way to adopt new approaches in modern pharmacology and nutrition. This
      innovative area will promote further investigation into membranes and the
      development of new therapies with molecules that target the cell membrane. Due to
      the prominent roles of membranes in the cells' physiology and the paucity of
      therapeutic approaches based on the regulation of the lipids they contain, it is
      expected that membrane lipid therapy will provide new treatments for numerous
      pathologies. The first on-purpose rationally designed molecule in this field,
      minerval, is currently being tested in clinical trials and it is expected to
      enter the market around 2020. However, it seems feasible that during the next few
      decades other membrane regulators will also be marketed for the treatment of
      human pathologies. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Membrane
      Lipid Therapy: Drugs Targeting Biomembranes edited by Pablo V. Escriba.

PMID- 28577974
TI  - Sliding mode controller with modified sliding function for DC-DC Buck Converter.
AB  - This article presents design of Sliding Mode Controller with proportional
      integral type sliding function for DC-DC Buck Converter for the controlled power
      supply. The converter with conventional sliding mode controller results in a
      steady state error in load voltage. The proposed modified sliding function
      improves the steady state and dynamic performance of the Convertor and
      facilitates better choices of controller tuning parameters. The conditions for
      existence of sliding modes for proposed control scheme are derived. The stability
      of the closed loop system with proposed sliding mode control is proved and
      improvement in steady state performance is exemplified. The idea of adaptive
      tuning for the proposed controller to compensate load variations is outlined. The
      comparative study of conventional and proposed control strategy is presented. The
      efficacy of the proposed strategy is endowed by the simulation and experimental
      results.

PMID- 28577976
TI  - Dual function of MAZ mediated by FOXF2 in basal-like breast cancer: Promotion of
      proliferation and suppression of progression.
AB  - Myc-associated zinc finger protein (MAZ) is a transcription factor with C2H2-type
      zinc-finger motifs that can bind GC-rich cis-elements. MAZ activates the
      transcription of some cancer-related genes and represses that of others,
      suggesting that changes in MAZ expression may play different roles in the
      development and progression of different types or subtypes of cancers depending
      on its target genes. However, the functions and mechanisms of MAZ in regulating
      the carcinogenesis and progression of breast cancer have remained unclear. In the
      current study, we show that MAZ performs dual function in basal-like breast
      cancer (BLBC): suppression of aggressiveness and promotion of proliferation.
      Forkhead box F2 (FOXF2) is a novel transcription target of MAZ and mediates the
      functions of MAZ. The MAZ mRNA level, particularly in combination with the FOXF2
      mRNA level, may serve as a prognostic marker for BLBC patients. Our results
      indicate that the dual function of the MAZ-FOXF2 axis reflect the pleiotropic
      nature of multifunctional transcription factors in regulating the different
      stages of cancer development and progression, which could lead to the complexity
      of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28577975
TI  - Zic2 promotes tumor growth and metastasis via PAK4 in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - The dysregulation of transcription factors contributes to the unlimited growth of
      cancer cells. Zic2 has been shown to be crucial to the progression of human
      cancers. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Our
      data showed that Zic2 expression gradually increased from normal to cancer to
      metastatic tissues. Zic2 overexpression promoted, whereas Zic2 knockdown
      inhibited, cell proliferation and migration in vitro as well as tumor growth and
      metastasis in vivo. Gene microarray results indicated that PAK4 was a potential
      target of Zic2. The knockdown of Zic2 decreased, whereas Zic2 re-expression
      increased, the expression of PAK4. ChIP and luciferase assays indicated that Zic2
      directly bound to the PAK4 promoter and modulated its activity. PAK4 interference
      attenuated Zic2-mediated cell growth via modulating the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway. In a
      cohort of 615 patients, Zic2 was positively correlated with PAK4 and associated
      with worse overall and disease-free survival. Multivariate analyses revealed that
      Zic2 and PAK4 were independent indicators of a poor outcome in HCC. In addition,
      Zic2 expression was inversely correlated with miR-1271 expression. Re
      introduction of miR-1271 attenuated Zic2-promoted cell proliferation and
      migration. Taken together, our findings suggest that the newly identified miR
      1271/Zic2/PAK4 axis plays an important role in HCC progression and may serve as a
      potential therapeutic target for HCC.

PMID- 28577978
TI  - Social memory engram in the hippocampus.
AB  - Social memory is one of the crucial components of episodic memories. Gregarious
      animals living in societies utilize social memory to exhibit the appropriate
      social behaviors such as aggression, avoidance, cooperative behavior, and even
      mating behavior. However, the neural mechanisms underlying social memory in the
      hippocampus remains mysterious. Here, I review some evidence from work done in
      rodents and primates on the brain region(s) and circuits encoding and/or
      retrieving social memory, as well as a storage for social memory (i.e. social
      memory engram neurons). Based on our recent findings that neural ensemble in
      ventral CA1 sub-region of the hippocampus possesses social memory engram, I would
      discuss the neural network for social information processing in order to encode
      social memory; and its evolutionary conservation between rodents and human.

PMID- 28577977
TI  - Zonisamide ameliorates levodopa-induced dyskinesia and reduces expression of
      striatal genes in Parkinson model rats.
AB  - To investigate the difference in results according to the mode of levodopa
      administration and the effect of zonisamide (ZNS), we analyzed the mRNA
      expression of dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic receptors in the striatum of
      Parkinson model rats in relation to the development of levodopa-induced
      dyskinesia (LID). Unilateral Parkinson model rats were subdivided into 4 groups
      and treated as follows: no medication (group N), continuous levodopa infusion
      (group C), intermittent levodopa injection (group I), and intermittent levodopa
      and ZNS injection (group Z). Two weeks after the treatment, LID was observed in
      group I and Z, but less severe in group Z. The level of both D1 and D2 receptor
      mRNAs was elevated in groups I and Z, but only D2 receptor mRNA expression was
      elevated in group C. Adenosine A2A receptor mRNA showed increased expression only
      in group I. The level of endocannabinoid CB1 receptor mRNA was elevated in groups
      N, C, and I, but not in group Z. Intermittent injection of levodopa caused LID,
      in association with elevated expression of D1 and A2A receptors. ZNS ameliorated
      the development of LID and inhibited up-regulation of A2A and CB1 receptors.
      Modulation of these receptors may lead to therapeutic approaches for dyskinesia.

PMID- 28577979
TI  - Effects of multicomponent training of cognitive control on cognitive function and
      brain activation in older adults.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in cognitive functions and
      brain activation after multicomponent training of cognitive control in non
      demented older adults, utilizing neuropsychological tests and fMRI. We developed
      and implemented a computerized Multicomponent Training of Cognitive Control
      (MTCC), characterized by task variability and adaptive procedures, in order to
      maximize training effects in cognitive control and transfer to other cognitive
      domains. Twenty-seven community-dwelling adults, aged 64-77 years, without any
      history of neurological or psychiatric problems, participated in this study (14
      in the training group and 13 in the control group). The MTCC was administered to
      the participants assigned to the training group for 8 weeks, while those in the
      control group received no training. Neuropsychological tests and fMRI were
      administered prior to and after the training. Trained participants showed
      improvements in cognitive control, recognition memory and general cognitive
      functioning. Furthermore, the MTCC led to an increased brain activation of the
      regions adjacent to the baseline cognitive control-related areas in the
      frontoparietal network. Future studies are necessary to confirm our hypothesis
      that MTCC improves cognitive functioning of healthy elderly individuals by
      expanding their frontoparietal network that is involved in cognitive control.

PMID- 28577980
TI  - Physicochemical properties of pectin from green jelly leaf (Cyclea barbata
      Miers).
AB  - The water extract of Green Jelly leaves (GJL) obtained by crushing the leaves in
      water (1:40) was capable of forming a gel at room temperature. The composition of
      GJL consisted mainly of carbohydrate (~70w/w), protein (~13% w/w) and minerals
      (~6% w/w). The mineral portion consisted of mainly calcium (~1.2% w/w), zinc
      (~0.12% w/w) and magnesium (~0.11% w/w). The isolated polysaccharide fraction
      (~42.6% w/w) consisted of mainly galacturonic acid (~35.8% w/w) and neutral
      sugars (~6.8% w/w), with a weight-average molecular weight of ~4.4*105g/mol. The
      results obtained by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) showed that GJL
      polysaccharide fraction had a fairly similar FTIR fingerprint as the commercial
      low-methoxyl pectin (LMP). The degree of esterification of the polysaccharide
      changed drastically (from 97% to 10%) depending on the temperature used during
      the extraction process. The zeta potential of the extracted polysaccharide showed
      high negative charged as compared to the commercial LMP but close to sodium
      alginate. The study showed that the gelation was divalent cation-mediated and
      probably facilitated by the low degree of esterification which reduced steric
      hindrance from the methyl ester groups.

PMID- 28577972
TI  - Electrical synapses in mammalian CNS: Past eras, present focus and future
      directions.
AB  - Gap junctions provide the basis for electrical synapses between neurons. Early
      studies in well-defined circuits in lower vertebrates laid the foundation for
      understanding various properties conferred by electrical synaptic transmission.
      Knowledge surrounding electrical synapses in mammalian systems unfolded first
      with evidence indicating the presence of gap junctions between neurons in various
      brain regions, but with little appreciation of their functional roles. Beginning
      at about the turn of this century, new approaches were applied to scrutinize
      electrical synapses, revealing the prevalence of neuronal gap junctions, the
      connexin protein composition of many of those junctions, and the myriad diverse
      neural systems in which they occur in the mammalian CNS. Subsequent progress
      indicated that electrical synapses constitute key elements in synaptic circuitry,
      govern the collective activity of ensembles of electrically coupled neurons, and
      in part orchestrate the synchronized neuronal network activity and rhythmic
      oscillations that underlie fundamental integrative processes. This article is
      part of a Special Issue entitled: Gap Junction Proteins edited by Jean Claude
      Herve.

PMID- 28577981
TI  - Thrombin-loaded alginate-calcium microspheres: A novel hemostatic embolic
      material for transcatheter arterial embolization.
AB  - Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) is the best non-laparotomy choice for
      solid visceral organs rupture and bleeding nowadays. In our previous study, a new
      biodegradable macromolecule material thrombin-loaded alginate-calcium microsphere
      (TACM) was prepared and its characteristics were investigated preliminarily. In
      this study, we further investigated the biocompatibility of TACMs, as well as
      physical characteristic, application method and effect of TACMs with thrombus
      (embolic agent). The in vivo results attested that TACMs were non-irritating and
      non-genotoxic with desired biocompatibility, although brought about a slight and
      temporary inflammation. Application research showed that the function of thrombin
      was inhibited by common contrast agents, and it was impracticable to add contrast
      agents in TACMs with thrombus for tracing under X-rays in TAE. Then, a novel
      delivery method was developed. In addition, stress resistance test indicated that
      the TACMs with thrombus was significantly stronger than single autologous
      thrombus, the optimized ratio of TACMs to whole blood was 2:3 for forming mixed
      thrombus. Finally, large animal experiment revealed that the novel embolic agent 
      TACMs mixed thrombus was effective and safe in treating hemorrhage of solid
      abdominal viscera by TAE.

PMID- 28577982
TI  - Purification, characterization and biological activities of a polysaccharide from
      Lepidium meyenii leaves.
AB  - The characteristics and biological activities of a novel polysaccharide from
      Lepidium meyenii leaves (LMLP) were investigated. LMLP was purified using DEAE-52
      cellulose chromatography followed by SephadexG-100 chromatography. The average
      molecule weight of LMLP was 58.43kDa and it was composed of galactose, arabinose,
      rhamnose, glucose and mannose with a relative molar ratio of
      5.51:4.05:1.15:0.77:0.01. Antioxidant activity results showed that LMLP presented
      an EC50 of 3.72mg/mL in scavenging 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical,
      and it also had reducing power (OD700nm being 0.079 at 1mg/mL). Moreover, LMLP
      possessed the potential on stimulating immune response of RAW264.7 cells. It
      could promote proliferation, strengthen phagocytosis function, enhance the
      expression of CD80, and increase the secretion of nitric oxide (NO) in a dose
      dependent manner. All of these results suggested that LMLP could be used as a
      natural ingredient for functional food.

PMID- 28577983
TI  - Monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity of methoxy-substituted chalcones.
AB  - The MAO-B inhibitory activity of chalcone (1, 3- diphenyl-2-propen-1-one) based
      compounds arise from its structural similarity with 1, 4-diphenyl-2-butene, a
      known MAO-B inhibitor. Based on our previous report, the methoxy-substituted with
      fluorine containing chalcones are promising reversible MAO-B inhibitors, while in
      the present study, a series of methoxylated chalcones (C1-C9) bearing
      substitution on the para position of ring B was synthesized and evaluated for
      their human monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity. With the exception of (2E)-1
      (4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (C7), which is a nonselective
      inhibitor, the chalcones exhibited competitive, selective, and reversible
      inhibition of hMAO-B. The most potent compound, (2E)-3-[4-(dimethylamino) phenyl]
      1-(4-methoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (C5), showed the best inhibitory activity
      towards hMAO-B (IC50=0.29+/-0.011MUM;Ki=0.14+/-0.001MUM). The reversibility of
      MAO-B inhibition by compound C5 was demonstrated by the recovery of enzyme
      activity after dialysis of mixtures containing enzyme and inhibitor. The
      reversiblity of C5 was 25.38+/-1.40 and 92.00+/-3.87% before and after dialysis,
      respectively. PAMPA was carried out to evaluate the blood-brain barrier effects
      of the designated compounds. Moreover, the most potent MAO-B inhibitor, C5, was
      found to be nontoxic towards cultured hepatic cells at 5 and 25MUM, with 97 and
      90% viability. Molecular docking study was performed against hMAO-B to observe
      the binding site interactions of the lead compound.

PMID- 28577985
TI  - 3D reconstruction of brain section images for creating axonal projection maps in
      marmosets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The brain of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is becoming a
      popular non-human primate model in neuroscience research. Because its brain fiber
      connectivity is still poorly understood, it is necessary to collect and present
      connection and trajectory data using tracers to establish a marmoset brain
      connectivity database. NEW METHOD: To visualize projections and trajectories of
      axons, brain section images were reconstructed in 3D by registering them to the
      corresponding block-face brain images taken during brain sectioning. During
      preprocessing, autofluorescence of the tissue was reduced by applying independent
      component analysis to a set of fluorescent images taken using different filters.
      RESULTS: The method was applied to a marmoset dataset after a tracer had been
      injected into an auditory belt area to fluorescently label axonal projections.
      Cortical and subcortical connections were clearly reconstructed in 3D. The
      registration error was estimated to be smaller than 200 MUm. Evaluation tests on
      ICA-based autofluorescence reduction showed a significant improvement in signal
      and background separation. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: Regarding the 3D
      reconstruction error, the present study shows an accuracy comparable to previous
      studies using MRI and block-face images. Compared to serial section two-photon
      tomography, an advantage of the proposed method is that it can be combined with
      standard histological techniques. The images of differently processed brain
      sections can be integrated into the original ex vivo brain shape. CONCLUSIONS:
      The proposed method allows creating 3D axonal projection maps overlaid with brain
      area annotations based on the histological staining results of the same animal.

PMID- 28577987
TI  - ALCAR promote adult hippocampal neurogenesis by regulating cell-survival and cell
      death-related signals in rat model of Parkinson's disease like-phenotypes.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic
      neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway that leading to progressive motor and
      nonmotor symptoms. The formation of newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus is
      affected by many factors such as anxiety, depression and impairment in learning
      and memory that are commonly observed nonmotor symptoms in PD, indicating the
      role of adult neurogenesis in PD pathophysiology. Acetyl-l-carnitine (ALCAR),
      regulate mitochondrial metabolism and has been reported to improve cognitive
      functions in different neurodegenerative disorders through an unknown mechanism.
      For the first time, we investigated the effect of ALCAR on adult neurogenesis in
      the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) induced rat model of PD-like phenotypes and also
      explored the possible underlying mechanism of action. A single unilateral
      administration of 6-OHDA into the medial forebrain bundle reduced neural
      progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation, long-term survival and neuronal
      differentiation in the hippocampus. Interestingly, chronic treatment with ALCAR
      (100 mg/kg/day, i.p) potentially enhanced proliferation, long term survival and
      neuronal differentiation of NPCs in rat model of PD-like phenotypes. ALCAR
      treatment stimulates cell survival related signals (AKT and BCL-2) by inhibiting
      cell death related cues (GSK-3beta and BAX) which might be responsible for a
      neuroprotective effect of ALCAR in rat model of PD-like phenotypes. We conclude
      that ALCAR exerts neuroprotective effects against 6-OHDA-induced impairment in
      hippocampal neurogenesis by regulating cell survival and cell death-related
      signals.

PMID- 28577986
TI  - Automated analysis of brain activity for seizure detection in zebrafish models of
      epilepsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition, with over 30% of cases
      unresponsive to treatment. Zebrafish larvae show great potential to serve as an
      animal model of epilepsy in drug discovery. Thanks to their high fecundity and
      relatively low cost, they are amenable to high-throughput screening. However, the
      assessment of seizure occurrences in zebrafish larvae remains a bottleneck, as
      visual analysis is subjective and time-consuming. NEW METHOD: For the first time,
      we present an automated algorithm to detect epileptic discharges in single
      channel local field potential (LFP) recordings in zebrafish. First, candidate
      seizure segments are selected based on their energy and length. Afterwards,
      discriminative features are extracted from each segment. Using a labeled dataset,
      a support vector machine (SVM) classifier is trained to learn an optimal feature
      mapping. Finally, this SVM classifier is used to detect seizure segments in new
      signals. RESULTS: We tested the proposed algorithm both in a chemically-induced
      seizure model and a genetic epilepsy model. In both cases, the algorithm
      delivered similar results to visual analysis and found a significant difference
      in number of seizures between the epileptic and control group. COMPARISON WITH
      EXISTING METHODS: Direct comparison with multichannel techniques or methods
      developed for different animal models is not feasible. Nevertheless, a literature
      review shows that our algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in terms
      of accuracy, precision and specificity, while maintaining a reasonable
      sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Our seizure detection system is a generic, time-saving
      and objective method to analyze zebrafish LPF, which can replace visual analysis
      and facilitate true high-throughput studies.

PMID- 28577988
TI  - Nexus between mitochondrial function, iron, copper and glutathione in Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease is neuropathologically characterised by loss of catecholamine
      neurons in vulnerable brain regions including substantia nigra pars compacta and
      locus coeruleus. This review discusses how the susceptibility of these regions is
      defined by their shared biochemical characteristics that differentiate them from
      other neurons. Parkinson's disease is biochemically characterised by
      mitochondrial dysfunction, accumulation of iron, diminished copper content and
      depleted glutathione levels in these regions. This review also discusses this
      neuropathology, and provides evidence for how these pathological features are
      mechanistically linked to each other. This leads to the conclusion that
      disruption of mitochondrial function, or iron, copper or glutathione metabolism
      in isolation provokes the pathological impairment of them all. This creates a
      vicious cycle that drives pathology leading to mitochondrial failure and neuronal
      cell death in vulnerable brain regions.

PMID- 28577989
TI  - Hemicholinium-3 sensitive choline transport in human T lymphocytes: Evidence for
      use as a proxy for brain choline transporter (CHT) capacity.
AB  - The synaptic uptake of choline via the high-affinity, hemicholinium-3-dependent
      choline transporter (CHT) strongly influences the capacity of cholinergic neurons
      to sustain acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and release. To advance research on the
      impact of CHT capacity in humans, we established the presence of the neuronal CHT
      protein in human T lymphocytes. Next, we demonstrated CHT-mediated choline
      transport in human T cells. To address the validity of T cell-based choline
      uptake as a proxy for brain CHT capacity, we isolated T cells from the spleen,
      and synaptosomes from cortex and striatum, of wild type and CHT-overexpressing
      mice (CHT-OXP). Choline uptake capacity in T cells from CHT-OXP mice was two-fold
      higher than in wild type mice, mirroring the impact of CHT over-expression on
      synaptosomal CHT-mediated choline uptake. Monitoring T lymphocyte CHT protein and
      activity may be useful for estimating human CNS cholinergic capacity and for
      testing hypotheses concerning the contribution of CHT and, more generally, ACh
      signaling in cognition, neuroinflammation and disease.

PMID- 28577990
TI  - The regulation of corticosteroid receptors in response to chronic social defeat.
AB  - Our previous studies demonstrated that chronic social defeat (CSD) up-regulated
      expression of the serotonin transporter (SERT) and norepinephrine transporter
      (NET) in the brain, which was mediated by corticosteroid receptors. In the
      present study we first analyzed the alterations of corticosteroid receptors in
      different brain regions after the CSD paradigm. The results showed that CSD
      significantly reduced glucocorticoid receptor (GR) protein levels in the CA1 and
      dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, as well as in central and basolateral nuclei of
      the amygdala, which was accompanied by the translocation of GR from cytoplasm to
      nuclei. CSD also markedly reduced GR mRNA levels and MR immunoreactivity in the
      CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus areas of the hippocampus. Conversely, CSD pronouncedly
      enhanced GR mRNA and protein levels in the dorsal raphe nucleus and locus
      coeruleus relative to the control. As an extension of our previous studies, in
      situ hybridization and immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that CSD regimen
      caused a notable increase of SERT mRNA levels in the dorsal raphe nucleus and
      increased SERT immunoreactivities in CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampus, as well as
      those in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala. Likewise, CSD regimen resulted
      in an evident enhancement of NET immunoreactivity in the CA1 of the hippocampus
      and in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala. Our current findings suggest that
      GR expressional alterations in response to CSD are complex and brain region
      specific, which may correspond to their different functions in these regions.

PMID- 28577984
TI  - Protein kinase D signaling in cancer: A friend or foe?
AB  - Protein kinase D is a family of evolutionarily conserved serine/threonine kinases
      that belongs to the Ca++/Calmodulin-dependent kinase superfamily. Signal
      transduction pathways mediated by PKD can be triggered by a variety of stimuli
      including G protein-coupled receptor agonists, growth factors, hormones, and
      cellular stresses. The regulatory mechanisms and physiological roles of PKD have
      been well documented including cell proliferation, survival, migration,
      angiogenesis, regulation of gene expression, and protein/membrane trafficking.
      However, its precise roles in disease progression, especially in cancer, remain
      elusive. A plethora of studies documented the cell- and tissue-specific
      expressions and functions of PKD in various cancer-associated biological
      processes, while the causes of the differential effects of PKD have not been
      thoroughly investigated. In this review, we have discussed the structural
      functional properties, activation mechanisms, signaling pathways and
      physiological functions of PKD in the context of human cancer. Additionally, we
      have provided a comprehensive review of the reported tumor promoting or tumor
      suppressive functions of PKD in several major cancer types and discussed the
      discrepancies that have been raised on PKD as a major regulator of malignant
      transformation.

PMID- 28577992
TI  - Simultaneous detection of 4 prototypic rat parvoviruses using the luminex xTAG
      assay in laboratory animal health monitoring.
AB  - There are currently four rat parvoviruses including Kilham rat virus (KRV),
      Toolans H-1 parvovirus (H-1virus), rat parvovirus type 1a (RPV-1a) and rat minute
      virus (RMV). Virus detection methods are commonly based on conventional PCR -
      agarose gel electrophoresis or serological assay methods These methods are both
      time-consuming and lack specificity. In this study, we developed a bead array
      xTAG assay for the simultaneous detection and discrimination of four rat
      parvoviruses. The detection limits ranged from 100 to 1000 copies/MUL of input
      purified plasmid DNA. We examined 50 clinical specimens and 15 facal samples by
      xTAG assay and conventional PCR. The results showed a high consistency except for
      several weak positive infections. It demonstrated that the xTAG-multiplex PCR
      method is specific, sensitive and suitable for high throughput platforms for rat
      parvovirus screening of clinical samples and contaminated biological materials.

PMID- 28577991
TI  - Inhibition of Na+-K+-2Cl- cotransporter attenuates blood-brain-barrier disruption
      in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to long-term motor and cognitive
      dysfunction, which can be at least partly attributed to blood-brain barrier (BBB)
      disruption. The mechanisms underlying post-TBI BBB disruption, however, are
      poorly understood thus far. Na+-K+-2Cl- cotransporter isoform 1 (NKCC1) is a
      universally expressed ion transporter that maintains intracellular ion
      homeostasis by increasing intracellular K+ and Cl-. Having been characterized in
      stroke models, NKCC1 is activated in various cell types in the ischemic brain,
      and is thought to mediate BBB disruption, brain edema, and neuronal cell death.
      In this study, we tested the hypothesis that inhibition of NKCC1 may improve
      neurological outcomes via protecting against BBB disruption in a TBI mouse model.
      Adult male C57BL/6 J mice or NKCC1 deficient mice were subjected to controlled
      cortical impact (CCI). As an alternative to the genetic-based NKCC1 depletion,
      bumetanide, a selective NKCC1 inhibitor, was administrated (25 mg/kg, i.p.) 15
      min after CCI and then every 6 h up to 48 h. Short-term sensorimotor function
      recovery was determined by rotarod, cylinder test, grid walking and foot fault
      test. BBB integrity was examined at 48 h post-CCI by measuring Evans blue
      extravasation, brain water content, and expression levels of tight junction
      proteins. Our results revealed that administration of bumetanide or genetic
      depletion of NKCC1 improved short-term neurological recovery against TBI.
      Bumetanide treatment markedly decreased brain water content and BBB leakage,
      correlated with reduction of MMP-9 expression and preventing the degradation of
      tight junction proteins. These findings suggest an important role of NKCC1
      activation in mediating BBB disruption after TBI. Thus, NKCC1 inhibition may
      offer the potential for improving neurological outcomes in clinical TBI.

PMID- 28577993
TI  - Fluorescence detection of the transglycosylation activity of amylosucrase.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the novel fluorescence-based assay
      for the transglycosylation activity of amylosucrase (ASase). The
      transglycosylation activity of ASase from Deinococcus geothermalis (DGAS), ASase
      from Neisseria polysaccharea (NPAS), and DGAS-B (chimeric ASase wherein the B
      domain from DGAS was exchanged with the B domain of NPAS in a DGAS background)
      was applied to modify 4-methlylumberlliferone (MU) to 4-methylumberlliferone
      glucoside (MUG) using MU as an acceptor and sucrose as a glucoside donor. The
      result of HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) show that the
      bioconversion of MUG with ASases was successfully accomplished using sucrose and
      MU. Kinetic studies of ASases were performed to determine kinetic parameter for
      sucrose and MU. The order of overall performance (kcat/Km) of transglycosylation
      activity for MU among DGAS, DGAS-B and NPAS was as follows: DGAS-B (8.1) > DGAS
      (5.0) > NPAS (0.4). The fluorescence-based transglycosylation assay using MU has
      a potential to be used as the detection of transglycosylation activity of ASase
      and to screen novel ASase variants, which may be improved in their
      transglycosylation activities.

PMID- 28577996
TI  - Albumin micro/nanoparticles entrapping liposomes for itraconazole green
      formulation.
AB  - Itraconazole-loaded micro/nanoparticles containing albumin and liposomes were
      prepared by a technological process that avoids the use of organic solvents and
      crosslinker agents. The particles were characterized, lyophilized and formulated
      as tablets. Dynamic light scattering was used to determine the hydrodynamic
      diameter and zeta potential of the particles; optical and scanning-electron
      microscopy was used to evaluate their morphology. Spherical shaped particles of
      different sizes and zeta potential were obtained. An exponential relationship
      between the zeta potential and the albumin/cationic lipid molar ratio was
      established. Drug entrapment efficiency values were in the range of 51-68%, with
      no statistical differences among albumin feeding concentrations. Mannitol was
      used as lyophilization additive and the freeze-dried cake was directly compressed
      into tablets, suitable for vaginal administration. The results from the in vitro
      drug delivery assay show the influence of albumin on the itraconazole delivery
      profile; a rapid release was observed for particles with higher albumin amount
      compared to those with lower protein content. According to the results of this
      study, albumin particles entrapping liposomes prove to be a green pharmaceutical
      vehicle with a high potential for delivery of hydrophobic and highly albumin
      bound drugs.

PMID- 28577995
TI  - Equilibrium solubility measurement of compounds with low dissolution rate by
      Higuchi's Facilitated Dissolution Method. A validation study.
AB  - Incubation time plays a critical role in the accurate measurement of equilibrium
      solubility of compounds. Substances which dissolve very slowly generally need
      long incubation times (days or weeks) to reach equilibrium. However, long times
      may pose several problems, such as decomposition of solute, molding of buffer,
      and drifting of pH. Higuchi in 1979 proposed the Facilitated Dissolution Method
      (FDM) to dramatically reduce incubation time. It employs a small volume of water
      immiscible organic solvent to partly solubilize the sample and thereby increase
      the surface area available for dissolution. The method has been used only rarely.
      In this study we performed a systematic validation of FDM using progesterone as
      model compound. The reference solubility value, 7.95+/-0.21MUg/mL (p<0.05, n=5),
      was determined in Britton-Robinson buffer solution (pH7.4) at 25.0 degrees C by
      the standardized protocol of Saturation Shake-Flask (SSF) method. Also, the
      solubility was measured by the FDM approach under varied experimental conditions
      (e.g., type and volume of organic solvent, time of agitation, and amount of solid
      excess), and compared to the reference value. It was demonstrated that the small
      amount of organic solvent used in the FDM does not impact the measured
      solubility, compared to the reference value. Additionally, four compounds of low
      dissolution rate (dexamethasone, digoxin, haloperidol and cosalane) were used to
      demonstrate that FDM can reduce the long equilibration time to the standardized
      24h (6h stirring and 18h sedimentation). The time dependence of solubility
      equilibrium was measured by SSF, and the results were compared with those
      obtained by FDM. Our study, based on >200 solubility experiments, supports the
      validity of Higuchi's method. In this study we propose a standardized protocol
      for the FDM, where 1% v/v of organic solvent is used. Octane (or isooctane) was
      found to be suitable for highly hydrophobic compounds. Alternatively, octanol or
      1,2-dichloroethane can be used for less lipophilic compounds.

PMID- 28577994
TI  - Comparison between two population-based hepatitis B serosurveys with an 8-year
      interval in Shandong Province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tremendous progress has been made in hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      prevention and control in the last 30 years in China, but it continues to be a
      major public health problem. The most recently reported population-based
      seroepidemiological survey on HBV in Shandong Province in China was published in
      2006, and an updated baseline for HBV prevalence was badly needed in the province
      to identify the change in HBV epidemiology in the last decade. METHODS: Two
      population-based cross-sectional serosurveys were performed among the population
      aged 1-59 years in the same sample areas in Shandong Province, China in 2006 and
      2014, respectively. Data on demographic characteristics were collected. A blood
      sample was obtained from each person and was tested for hepatitis B surface
      antigen (HBsAg), antibody against HBsAg (anti-HBs), and antibody against
      hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence rates of
      HBsAg, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc were 3.39% (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.51
      4.26), 44.96% (95% CI 41.34-48.57), and 24.45% (95% CI 22.19-26.71),
      respectively, among the population aged 1-59 years in the 2006 serovsurvey; the
      corresponding prevalence rates were 2.49% (95% CI 1.81-3.17), 48.27% (95% CI
      45.63-50.92), and 22.56% (95% CI 20.14-24.97), respectively, in 2014. The
      prevalence rates of HBsAg and anti-HBc were lower in 2014 than in 2006.
      Conversely, the prevalence of anti-HBs showed an increase. However, none of these
      differences were statistically significant (all p>0.05). The prevalence of HBsAg
      showed an increase among persons aged 20-24 years in 2014 (3.83%) compared with
      2006 (2.98%) (t=0.45, p=0.67). Among all occupation groups, the prevalence of
      HBsAg was lower in 2014 than in 2006, while the prevalence of anti-HBc showed
      moderate increases in students and farmers (all p>0.05). The prevalence of HBsAg
      decreased more obviously in urban areas (65.49%) than rural areas (7.07%) from
      2006 to 2014. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiology of HBV infection has changed in
      Shandong Province, China over the last decade. More attention should be paid to
      HBV infection among students and farmers.

PMID- 28577997
TI  - Interfacial interaction track of amorphous solid dispersions established by water
      soluble polymer and indometacin.
AB  - The present work studied interfacial interactions of amorphous solid dispersions
      matrix of indometacin (IMC) that established using PVP K30 (PVP) and PEG 6000
      (PEG) by focusing on their interaction forces and wetting process. Infrared
      spectroscopy (IR), raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectra and contact
      angle instrument were used throughout the study. Hydrogen bond energy formed
      between PEG and IMC were stronger than that of PVP and IMC evidenced by molecular
      modeling measurement. The blue shift of raman spectroscopy confirmed that
      hydrogen bonding forces were formed between IMC and two polymers. The contact
      angle study can be used as an easy method to determine the dissolution mechanism
      of amorphous solid dispersions through fitting the profile of contact angle of
      water on a series of tablets. It is believed that the track of interfacial
      interactions will certainly become powerful tools to for designing and evaluating
      amorphous solid dispersions.

PMID- 28577998
TI  - Involvement of the prelimbic cortex in contextual fear conditioning with temporal
      and spatial discontinuity.
AB  - Time plays an important role in conditioning, it is not only possible to
      associate stimuli with events that overlap, as in delay fear conditioning, but it
      is also possible to associate stimuli that are discontinuous in time, as shown in
      trace conditioning for a discrete stimuli. The environment itself can be a
      powerful conditioned stimulus (CS) and be associated to unconditioned stimulus
      (US). Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the parameters in which
      contextual fear conditioning occurs by the maintenance of a contextual
      representation over short and long time intervals. The results showed that a
      contextual representation can be maintained and associated after 5s, even in the
      absence of a 15s re-exposure to the training context before US delivery. The same
      effect was not observed with a 24h interval of discontinuity. Furthermore,
      optimal conditioned response with a 5s interval is produced only when the
      contexts (of pre-exposure and shock) match. As the pre-limbic cortex (PL) is
      necessary for the maintenance of a continuous representation of a stimulus, the
      involvement of the PL in this temporal and contextual processing was
      investigated. The reversible inactivation of the PL by muscimol infusion impaired
      the acquisition of contextual fear conditioning with a 5s interval, but not with
      a 24h interval, and did not impair delay fear conditioning. The data provided
      evidence that short and long intervals of discontinuity have different
      mechanisms, thus contributing to a better understanding of PL involvement in
      contextual fear conditioning and providing a model that considers both temporal
      and contextual factors in fear conditioning.

PMID- 28577999
TI  - Ketamine induces brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression via phosphorylation
      of histone deacetylase 5 in rats.
AB  - Ketamine shows promise as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of depression.
      The increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been
      associated with the antidepressant-like effects of ketamine, but the mechanism of
      BDNF induction is not well understood. In the current study, we demonstrate that
      the treatment of rats with ketamine results in the dose-dependent rapid
      upregulation of Bdnf promoter IV activity and expression of Bdnf exon IV mRNAs in
      rat hippocampal neurons. Transfection of histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) into rat
      hippocampal neurons similarly induces Bdnf mRNA expression in response to
      ketamine, whereas transfection of a HDAC5 phosphorylation-defective mutant
      (Ser259 and Ser498 replaced by Ala259 and Ala498), results in the suppression of
      ketamine-mediated BDNF promoter IV transcriptional activity. Viral-mediated
      hippocampal knockdown of HDAC5 induces Bdnf mRNA and protein expression, and
      blocks the enhancing effects of ketamine on BDNF expression in both unstressed
      and stressed rats, and thereby providing evidence for the role of HDAC5 in the
      regulation of Bdnf expression. Taken together, our findings implicate HDAC5 in
      the ketamine-induced transcriptional regulation of Bdnf, and suggest that the
      phosphorylation of HDAC5 regulates the therapeutic actions of ketamine.

PMID- 28578000
TI  - Centrosomal MCM7 strengthens the Cep68-VHL interaction and excessive MCM7 leads
      to centrosome splitting resulting from increase in Cep68 ubiquitination and
      proteasomal degradation.
AB  - We have recently reported that Rootletin prevents Cep68 from VHL-mediated
      proteasomal degradation to maintain centrosome cohesion, unveiling the first
      underlying mechanism of a linker protein required for maintenance of centrosome
      cohesion. The minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins 2-7 have long been
      noticed to localize to centrosomes, but their functions at the centrosome are
      presently unknown. Here, we show that MCM7 directly binds to the centrosomal
      linker protein Cep68 in vitro and complexes with Cep68 and VHL in vivo. Absence
      of MCM7 weakened the interaction between Cep68 and VHL, whereas MCM7
      overexpression facilitated the Cep68-VHL association. As a result of MCM7
      overexpression, Cep68 was targeted for ubiquitination and proteasomal
      degradation, thereby rendering centrosome splitting. We propose that Cep68
      protein level needs to be fine-tuned in order to ensure that its direct
      interactors, such as the microcephaly protein Cep215 and PCNT, function properly.

PMID- 28578001
TI  - 1alpha,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 enhances TRPV6 transcription through p38 MAPK
      activation and GADD45 expression.
AB  - The active form of vitamin D, 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3], acts
      as a ligand for the vitamin D receptor (VDR), and regulates various physiological
      processes, including calcium and bone metabolism, cellular growth and
      differentiation, immunity and cardiovascular function. A number of vitamin D
      derivatives have been synthesized for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory
      disease, but the adverse effect of hypercalcemic activity due to intestinal
      calcium absorption has limited wide clinical application. The VDR target gene
      product TRPV6 is essential for intestinal calcium absorption. Our prior study has
      demonstrated that 1,25(OH)2D3 induces TRPV6 mRNA expression at lower
      concentrations than for induction of CYP24A1, a VDR target gene involved in
      vitamin D inactivation, in intestinal SW480 cells, suggesting an additional
      mechanism for vitamin D signaling on TRPV6 induction. By searching for a signal
      transduction pathway involved in 1,25(OH)2D3-induced expression of TRPV6, we
      found that a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor reduces the
      expression of TRPV6 but not CYP24A1 in 1,25(OH)2D3-treated SW480 cells. Knockdown
      experiments showed that p38alpha is involved in 1,25(OH)2D3-induced expression of
      TRPV6 but not CYP24A1. Treatment with a de novo protein synthesis inhibitor
      suppressed 1,25(OH)2D3-induced TRPV6 expression. Finally, we found that
      1,25(OH)2D3 treatment induced expression of GADD45A, which encodes the
      GADD45alpha MAPK kinase kinase activator, earlier than TRPV6 expression and that
      GADD45A knockdown reduced TRPV6 induction by 1,25(OH)2D3. These findings indicate
      that p38alpha and GADD45alpha are involved in an enhanced vitamin D signaling on
      TRPV6 expression.

PMID- 28578002
TI  - MiR-124 contributes to glucocorticoid resistance in acute lymphoblastic leukemia
      by promoting proliferation, inhibiting apoptosis and targeting the glucocorticoid
      receptor.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterized by the accumulation of
      abnormal lymphoblasts in the bone marrow and blood. Though great progress has
      been made for improvement in clinical treatment during the past decades, some
      children with ALL still relapsed. Glucocorticoid (GC) resistance is an important
      clinical problem for ALL treatment failure. Therefore, further understanding of
      the mechanism of GC resistance and exploring novel therapeutic strategies are
      crucial for improving treatment outcome. The reported involvement of microRNAs
      (miRNAs) in drug resistance implied that deregulated miRNA expression might
      contribute to GC treatment response of ALL. However, individual miRNAs and their
      functional mechanisms potentially involved in the GC response are still largely
      unknown. In the present study, we found that miR-124 was up-regulated in
      prednisone insensitive human ALL cell line and prednisone-poor response ALL
      patients. Furthermore, it was found that miR-124 might contribute to GC
      resistance by promoting proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis of ALL cells.
      Importantly, we validated that miR-124, targeted and decreased the expression of
      glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1), prevented the inhibitory effect of GC in ALL.
      These findings strongly suggest that miR-124 is critical in poor GC response and
      may serve as a potential therapeutic target in ALL with poor GC resistance.

PMID- 28578003
TI  - Generating level-dependent models of cervical and thoracic spinal cord injury:
      Exploring the interplay of neuroanatomy, physiology, and function.
AB  - The majority of spinal cord injuries (SCI) occur at the cervical level, which
      results in significant impairment. Neurologic level and severity of injury are
      primary endpoints in clinical trials; however, how level-specific damages relate
      to behavioural performance in cervical injury is incompletely understood. We
      hypothesized that ascending level of injury leads to worsening forelimb
      performance, and correlates with loss of neural tissue and muscle-specific neuron
      pools. A direct comparison of multiple models was made with injury realized at
      the C5, C6, C7 and T7 vertebral levels using clip compression with sham-operated
      controls. Animals were assessed for 10weeks post-injury with numerous (40)
      outcome measures, including: classic behavioural tests, CatWalk, non-invasive
      MRI, electrophysiology, histologic lesion morphometry, neuron counts, and motor
      compartment quantification, and multivariate statistics on the total dataset.
      Histologic staining and T1-weighted MR imaging revealed similar structural
      changes and distinct tissue loss with cystic cavitation across all injuries.
      Forelimb tests, including grip strength, F-WARP motor scale, Inclined Plane, and
      forelimb ladder walk, exhibited stratification between all groups and marked
      impairment with C5 and C6 injuries. Classic hindlimb tests including BBB,
      hindlimb ladder walk, bladder recovery, and mortality were not different between
      cervical and thoracic injuries. CatWalk multivariate gait analysis showed
      reciprocal and progressive changes forelimb and hindlimb function with ascending
      level of injury. Electrophysiology revealed poor forelimb axonal conduction in
      cervical C5 and C6 groups alone. The cervical enlargement (C5-T2) showed
      progressive ventral horn atrophy and loss of specific motor neuron populations
      with ascending injury. Multivariate statistics revealed a robust dataset, rank
      order contribution of outcomes, and allowed prediction of injury level with
      single-level discrimination using forelimb performance and neuron counts. Level
      dependent models were generated using clip-compression SCI, with marked and
      reliable differences in forelimb performance and specific neuron pool loss.

PMID- 28578004
TI  - Alterations of striatal indirect pathway neurons precede motor deficits in two
      mouse models of Huntington's disease.
AB  - Striatal neurons forming the indirect pathway (iSPNs) are particularly vulnerable
      in Huntington's disease (HD). In this study we set out to investigate
      morphological and physiological alterations of iSPNs in two mouse models of HD
      with relatively slow disease progression (long CAG repeat R6/2 and zQ175-KI).
      Both were crossed with a transgenic mouse line expressing eGFP in iSPNs. Using
      the open-field and rotarod tests, we first defined two time points in relation to
      the occurrence of motor deficits in each model. Then, we investigated
      electrophysiological and morphological properties of iSPNs at both ages. Both HD
      models exhibited increased iSPN excitability already before the onset of motor
      deficits, associated with a reduced number of primary dendrites and decreased
      function of Kir- and voltage-gated potassium channels. Alterations that
      specifically occurred at symptomatic ages included increased calcium release by
      back-propagating action potentials in proximal dendrites, due to enhanced
      engagement of intracellular calcium stores. Moreover, motorically impaired mice
      of both HD models showed a reduction in iSPN spine density and progressive
      formation of huntingtin (Htt) aggregates in the striatum. Our study therefore
      reports iSPN-specific alterations relative to the development of a motor
      phenotype in two different mouse models of HD. While some alterations occur early
      and are partly non-progressive, others potentially provide a pathophysiological
      marker of an overt disease state.

PMID- 28578005
TI  - Isolation, characterization, and differentiation of multipotent neural progenitor
      cells from human cerebrospinal fluid in fetal cystic myelomeningocele.
AB  - Despite benefits of prenatal in utero repair of myelomeningocele, a severe type
      of spina bifida aperta, many of these patients will still suffer mild to severe
      impairment. One potential source of stem cells for new regenerative medicine
      based therapeutic approaches for spinal cord injury repair is neural progenitor
      cells (NPCs) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). To this aim, we extracted CSF from the
      cyst surrounding the exposed neural placode during the surgical repair of
      myelomeningocele in 6 fetuses (20 to 26weeks of gestation). In primary cultured
      CSF-derived cells, neurogenic properties were confirmed by in vitro
      differentiation into various neural lineage cell types, and NPC markers
      expression (TBR2, CD15, SOX2) were detected by immunofluorescence and RT-PCR
      analysis. Differentiation into three neural lineages was corroborated by
      arbitrary differentiation (depletion of growths factors) or explicit
      differentiation as neuronal, astrocyte, or oligodendrocyte cell types using
      specific induction mediums. Differentiated cells showed the specific expression
      of neural differentiation markers (betaIII-tubulin, GFAP, CNPase, oligo-O1). In
      myelomeningocele patients, CSF-derived cells could become a potential source of
      NPCs with neurogenic capacity. Our findings support the development of innovative
      stem-cell-based therapeutics by autologous transplantation of CSF-derived NPCs in
      damaged spinal cords, such as myelomeningocele, thus promoting neural tissue
      regeneration in fetuses.

PMID- 28578006
TI  - Increased Sat2 expression is associated with busulfan-induced testicular Sertoli
      cell injury.
AB  - Busulfan is a chemotherapeutic agent used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia
      and other myeloproliferative disorders. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that
      busulfan may induce testicular dysfunction by targeting genes that are expressed
      in the testis. Here, we showed that spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase 2
      (Sat2) was present in testicular Sertoli cells, and its expression was
      significantly increased by busulfan treatment. To investigate the implications of
      Sat2 upregulation for cell growth and function, a Sat2-overexpressing TM4 Sertoli
      cell model was established. Increased Sat2 expression led to inhibited cell
      proliferation and arrested cell cycle. Based on iTRAQ proteomics analysis, we
      revealed that Sat2 overexpression is detrimental to cell cycle progression and
      cell communication, and notably, Sat2 may disturb protein metabolic processes by
      altering translation regulation and protein complex subunit organization. In
      summary, the present study provides evidence that Sat2 upregulation induces
      alterations in the growth and function of Sertoli cells. In testis tissue
      subjected to busulfan, increased expression of Sat2 can cause cellular injury and
      subsequent organ damage, which could lead to male infertility. Therefore, Sat2
      may be a novel molecular target for treating busulfan-induced testicular
      toxicity.

PMID- 28578008
TI  - An adventure with Don.

PMID- 28578007
TI  - Sensitivity of hiPSC-derived neural stem cells (NSC) to Pyrroloquinoline quinone
      depends on their developmental stage.
AB  - Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is a factor influencing on the mitochondrial
      biogenesis. In this study the PQQ effect on viability, total cell number,
      antioxidant capacity, mitochondrial biogenesis and differentiation potential was
      investigated in human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) - derived: neural
      stem cells (NSC), early neural progenitors (eNP) and neural progenitors (NP).
      Here we demonstrated that sensitivity to PQQ is dependent upon its dose and
      neural stage of development. Induction of the mitochondrial biogenesis by PQQ at
      three stages of neural differentiation was evaluated at mtDNA, mRNA and protein
      level. Changes in NRF1, TFAM and PPARGC1A gene expression were observed at all
      developmental stages, but only at eNP were correlated with the statistically
      significant increase in the mtDNA copy numbers and enhancement of SDHA, COX-1
      protein level. Thus, the "developmental window" of eNP for PQQ-evoked
      mitochondrial biogenesis is proposed. This effect was independent of high
      antioxidant capacity of PQQ, which was confirmed in all tested cell populations,
      regardless of the stage of hiPSC neural differentiation. Furthermore, a strong
      induction of GFAP, with down regulation of MAP2 gene expression upon PQQ
      treatment was observed. This indicates a possibility of shifting the balance of
      cell differentiation in the favor of astroglia, but more research is needed at
      this point.

PMID- 28578009
TI  - Lessons Learned from Early Experiences with Vedolizumab for Steroid-Refractory
      Acute Graft- versus-Host Disease with Gastrointestinal Involvement.

PMID- 28578010
TI  - Unrelated Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease Following
      Reduced-Intensity Conditioning: Results of a Phase I Trial.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from HLA-matched sibling donors results
      in disease-free survival of >90% in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD);
      however, only approximately 18% of these patients have suitable donors available.
      Unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT) is one way to expand donor options
      for patients with severe SCD, but historically has been associated with high
      graft rejection rates (50% to 62%). We hypothesized that the addition of thiotepa
      to a previously tested reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen would support
      engraftment after UCBT in patients with SCD. Nine children (age 3 to 10 years)
      with cerebrovascular complications of SCD underwent 5-6/6 HLA-matched (A, B, and
      DRB1 loci) UCBT after conditioning with hydroxyurea, alemtuzumab, fludarabine,
      thiotepa, and melphalan. A calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate mofetil were
      used for graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. With median follow up of
      2.1 years (range, 1 to 4.2 years), 7 patients had sustained donor cell
      engraftment and are free of SCD, and 2 patients had autologous recovery. Acute
      GVHD (grade II-IV) and mild and moderate chronic GVHD developed in 3 patients, 2
      patients, and 1 patient, respectively. At >2 years post-UCBT, 4 of 5 patients
      discontinued systemic immunosuppression. Seven patients had viral infections
      (cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, respiratory syncytial virus, or adenovirus)
      and recovered. The 1-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were
      100% and 78%, respectively. Thus, this RIC regimen was able to achieve donor
      engraftment in the majority of patients. Future efforts will focus on further
      reducing rates of acute GVHD and viral infection.

PMID- 28578011
TI  - Homology modeling and in silico prediction of Ulcerative colitis associated
      polymorphisms of NOD1.
AB  - Cytosolic pattern recognition receptors play key roles in innate immune response.
      Nucleotide binding and oligomerisation domain containing protein 1 (NOD1)
      belonging to the Nod-like receptor C (NLRC) sub-family of Nod-like receptors
      (NLRs) is important for detection and clearance of intra-cellular Gram negative
      bacteria. NOD1 is involved in activation of pro-inflammatory pathways. Limited
      structural data is available for NOD1. Using different templates for each domain
      of NOD1, we determined the full-length homology model of NOD1. ADP binding amino
      acids within the nucleotide binding domain (NBD) of NOD1 were also predicted. Key
      residues in inter-domain interaction were identified by sequence comparison with
      Oryctolagus cuniculus NOD2, a related protein. Interactions between NBD and
      winged helix domain (WHD) were found to be conserved in NOD1. Functional and
      structural effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms within the NOD1 NBD domain
      associated with susceptibility risk to Ulcerative colitis (UC), an inflammatory
      disorder of the colon was evaluated by in silico studies. Mutations W219R and
      L349P were predicted to be damaging and disease associated by prediction programs
      SIFT, PolyPhen2, PANTHER, SNP&GO, PhD SNP and SNAP2. We further validated the
      effect of W219R and L349P mutation on NOD1 function in vitro. Elevated mRNA
      expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL8 and IL-1beta was seen as compared to
      the wild type NOD1 in intestinal epithelial cell line HT29 when stimulated with
      NOD1 ligand. Thus, these mutations may indeed have a bearing on pathogenesis of
      inflammation during UC.

PMID- 28578012
TI  - SMAD1/5 mediates bone morphogenetic protein 2-induced up-regulation of BAMBI
      expression in human granulosa-lutein cells.
AB  - Bone morphogenetic protein and activin membrane-bound inhibitor (BAMBI) is a
      transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) type I receptor antagonist that
      negatively regulates TGF-beta and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling.
      BAMBI has been shown to be regulated by TGF-beta signaling; however, whether
      BAMBI can be regulated by BMP signaling remains to be determined. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the effect of BMP2 on the regulation of BAMBI expression
      in human granulosa-lutein cells and the underlying mechanisms. Both primary and
      immortalized human granulosa-lutein cells were used as research models. Using
      dual inhibition approaches, our results showed that BMP2 activated SMAD1/5/8
      phosphorylation and up-regulated BAMBI mRNA levels, which was reversed by the BMP
      type I receptor inhibitors, DMH-1 and dorsomorphin, but not by SB431542
      (activin/TGF-beta type I receptor inhibitor). Moreover, the combined knockdown of
      SMAD1 and SMAD5 completely abolished the BMP2-induced up-regulation of BAMBI.
      Similarly, knockdown of SMAD4 reversed the BMP2-induced up-regulation of BAMBI.
      Pre-treatment with BMP2 inhibited the TGF-beta1-induced phosphorylation of
      SMAD2/3 and up-regulation of MMP2, and these inhibitory effects were reversed by
      knockdown of endogenous BAMBI. Our findings indicate that BAMBI is a BMP
      responsive gene and that BAMBI participates in the negative feedback regulation
      of TGF-beta signaling in the human ovary.

PMID- 28578015
TI  - Therapeutic pro-fibrogenic signaling pathways in fibroblasts.
AB  - Myofibroblasts (MFs) play a critical role in the progression of chronic
      inflammatory and fibroproliferative diseases in different tissues/organs,
      whatever the etiology. Fibrosis is preceded and sustained by persistent injury
      and inflammatory response in a profibrogenic scenario involving mutual
      interactions, operated by several mediators and pathways, of MFs and related
      precursor cells with innate immunity cells and virtually any cell type in a
      defined tissue. These interactions, mediators and related signaling pathways are
      critical in initiating and perpetuating the differentiation of precursor cells
      into MFs that in different tissues share peculiar traits and phenotypic
      responses, including the ability to proliferate, produce ECM components, migrate
      and contribute to the modulation of inflammatory response and tissue
      angiogenesis. Literature studies related to liver, lung and kidney fibrosis have
      outlined a number of MF-related core regulatory fibrogenic signaling pathways
      conserved across these different organs and potentially targetable in order to
      develop effective antifibrotic therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28578014
TI  - Carbon monoxide protects against hepatic steatosis in mice by inducing sestrin-2
      via the PERK-eIF2alpha-ATF4 pathway.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the hepatic manifestation of the
      metabolic syndrome, has emerged as one of the most common causes of chronic liver
      disease in developed countries over the last decade. NAFLD comprises a spectrum
      of pathological hepatic changes, including steatosis, steatohepatitis, advanced
      fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Autophagy, a homeostatic process for protein and
      organelle turnover, is decreased in the liver during the development of NAFLD.
      Previously, we have shown that carbon monoxide (CO), a reaction product of heme
      oxygenase (HO) activity, can confer protection in NAFLD, though the molecular
      mechanisms remain unclear. We therefore investigated the mechanisms underlying
      the protective effect of CO on methionine/choline-deficient (MCD) diet-induced
      hepatic steatosis. We found that CO induced sestrin-2 (SESN2) expression through
      enhanced mitochondrial ROS production and protected against MCD-induced NAFLD
      progression through activation of autophagy. SESN2 expression was increased by CO
      or CO-releasing molecule (CORM2), in a manner dependent on signaling through the
      protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), eukaryotic initiation
      factor-2 alpha (eIF2alpha)/ activating transcription factor-4 (ATF4)-dependent
      pathway. CO-induced SESN2 upregulation in hepatocytes contributed to autophagy
      induction through activation of 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and
      inhibition of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex I (mTORC1).
      Furthermore, we demonstrate that CO significantly induced the expression of SESN2
      and enhanced autophagy in the livers of MCD-fed mice or in MCD-media treated
      hepatocytes. Conversely, knockdown of SESN2 abrogated autophagy activation and
      mTOR inhibition in response to CO. We conclude that CO ameliorates hepatic
      steatosis through the autophagy pathway induced by SESN2 upregulation.

PMID- 28578016
TI  - Engineering in vitro models of hepatofibrogenesis.
AB  - Chronic liver disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide
      marked by chronic inflammation and fibrosis/scarring, resulting in end-stage
      liver disease and its complications. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are a dominant
      contributor to liver fibrosis by producing excessive extracellular matrix (ECM),
      irrespective of the underlying disease aetiologies, and for many decades research
      has focused on the development of a number of anti-fibrotic strategies targeting
      this cell. Despite major improvements in two-dimensional systems (2D) by using a
      variety of cell culture models of different complexity, an efficient anti
      fibrogenic therapy has yet to be developed. The development of well-defined three
      dimensional (3D) in vitro models, which mimic ECM structures as found in vivo,
      have demonstrated the importance of cell-matrix bio-mechanics, the complex
      interactions between HSCs and hepatocytes and other non-parenchymal cells, and
      this to improve and promote liver cell-specific functions. Henceforth, refinement
      of these 3D in vitro models, which reproduce the liver microenvironment, will
      lead to new objectives and to a possible new era in the search for antifibrogenic
      compounds.

PMID- 28578017
TI  - Functional polymorphism at the miR-502-binding site in the 3' untranslated region
      of the SETD8 gene increased the risk of prostate cancer in a sample of Iranian
      population.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of non-coding RNAs, bind to the 3' untranslated
      regions (3'-UTRs) of target mRNAs and regulate gene expression. Genetic
      variations in miRNA binding domains influence the susceptibility to several
      diseases such as cancer. Several studies investigated the impact of single
      nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs16917496 T>C within the 3'-UTR of SETD8 on cancer
      susceptibility, but the results were controversial. In addition, no study has
      been conducted to inspect the impact of this SNP in prostate cancer (PCa). Thus,
      the present study aimed to find out the possible association between rs16917496
      polymorphism at the 3'UTR of SETD8 and PCa risk. This case-control study was done
      on 169 patients with pathologically confirmed PCa and 182 benign prostatic
      hyperplasia (BPH). Genotyping was done using PCR-RFLP method. The findings
      revealed that rs16917496 variant significantly increased the risk of PCa in
      codominant (OR=2.54, 95%CI=1.50-4.30, p<0.001, TC VS TT and OR=3.03, 95%CI=1.63
      5.66, p<0.001, CC vs TT), dominant (OR=2.86, 95%CI=1.62-4.43, p<0.001, p<0.001).
      The C allele significantly increased the risk of PCa (OR=1.72, 95%CI=1.28-2.33,
      p<0.001) compared to T allele. In conclusion, the findings indicated that
      rs16917496 polymorphism may be a risk for predisposition to PCa in an Iranian
      population. Further studies with larger sample sizes and different ethnicities
      are required to confirm our findings.

PMID- 28578018
TI  - Rice gene SDL/RNRS1, encoding the small subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, is
      required for chlorophyll synthesis and plant growth development.
AB  - A new mutant named sdl (stripe and drooping leaf) was characterized from indica
      cultivar Zhenong 34 by ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis. The mutant sdl
      exhibited development defects including stripe and drooping leaf, dwarfism and
      deformed floral organs. The gene SDL was found allelic to RNRS1 by map-based
      cloning, which was homologous to Arabidopsis TSO2 encoding the small subunit of
      ribonucleotide reductase. The gDNA sequencing results of sdl in mutant showed
      that there was a repetitive sequence insertion of 138-bp at the 475th bp in the
      exon. The redundant sequence was conserved in SDL homologous proteins, which
      contained the active site (tyrosine), as well as two amino acids glutamate and
      histidine involved in the binding of iron. There were fewer chloroplasts and
      grana lamellas in sdl leaf compared with those of wild-type. Additionally, the
      stripe leaves of sdl seedlings were highly sensitive to temperature, since the
      chlorophyll content was increased with the temperature rising. The drooping leaf
      of sdl might be resulted from the disappearance of vascular bundles and mesophyll
      cells in both leaf midrib and lateral veins. Fittingly to the phenotypes of
      mutant sdl, the expression levels of genes associated with photosynthesis and
      chlorophyll synthesis were found to be down- or up-regulated at different
      temperatures in mutant sdl. Also, the transcriptional levels of genes related to
      plant height and floral organ formation showed obvious differences between wild
      type and sdl. The "SDL/RNRS1" was, hence, required for the chlorophyll
      biosynthesis and also played pleiotropic roles in the regulation of plant
      development.

PMID- 28578019
TI  - Functional characterization of two bZIP transcription factors in Verticillium
      dahliae.
AB  - bZIP transcription factors play various biological roles in stress responses,
      conidiation, and pathogenicity in pathogenic fungi. Here, we report two bZIP
      transcription factors (VDAG_08640 and VDAG_08676) of Verticillium dahliae, which
      were differentially expressed during microsclerotia development and induced by
      hydrogen peroxide as well. We find that deletion of either gene does not affect
      microsclerotia formation and the sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide; however, the
      mutants manifest decreased activity of extracellular peroxidase and laccase.
      Other phenotypic characterization reveals that VDAG_08676 disruption results in
      significant reduction of conidial production and virulence, while VDAG_08640
      disruption does not lead to observable phenotypic variances compared with the
      wild-type strain. To elucidate whether they exhibit functional redundancy, double
      deletion mutants were generated. The double deletion mutants show remarkably
      increased sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide stress, whereas the two genes are not
      involved in microsclerotia formation. Taken together, our data demonstrate that a
      bZIP transcription factor gene VDAG_08676 is involved in the conidial production,
      oxidative stress response and virulence which may lay a foundation for further
      analysis of other bZIP transcription factors in V. dahliae.

PMID- 28578020
TI  - Pathogenicity analysis of novel variations in Chinese Han patients with
      polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Locus and allellic heterogeneity in polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is
      a great challenge in precision diagnosis. We aim to establish comprehensive
      methods to distinguish the pathogenic mutations from the variations in PKD1, PKD2
      and PKHD1 genes in a limited time and lay the foundation for precisely prenatal
      diagnosis, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and presymptom diagnosis of PKD.
      METHODS: Nested PCR combined with direct DNA sequencing were used to screen
      variations in PKD1, PKD2 and PKHD1 genes. The pathogenicity of de novel
      variations was assessed by the comprehensive methods including clinic data and
      literature review, databases query, analysis of co-segregation of the variants
      with the disease, variant frequency screening in the population, evolution
      conservation comparison, protein structure analysis and splice sites predictions.
      RESULTS: 17 novel mutations from 15 Chinese Han families were clarified including
      10 mutations in PKD1 gene and 7 mutations in PKHD1 gene. The novel mutations were
      classified as 4 definite pathogenic, 2 highly likely pathogenic, 4 likely
      pathogenic, 7 indeterminate by the comprehensive analysis. The results were
      verified the truth by the follow-up visits. CONCLUSIONS: The comprehensive
      methods may be useful in distinguishing the pathogenic mutations from the
      variations in PKD1, PKD2 and PKHD1 genes for prenatal diagnosis and presymptom
      diagnosis of PKD. Our results also enriched PKD genes mutation spectrum and
      evolved possible genotype-phenotype correlations of Chinese Han population.

PMID- 28578013
TI  - Paradoxical roles of dual oxidases in cancer biology.
AB  - Dysregulated oxidative metabolism is a well-recognized aspect of cancer biology,
      and many therapeutic strategies are based on targeting cancers by altering
      cellular redox pathways. The NADPH oxidases (NOXes) present an important
      enzymatic source of biological oxidants, and the expression and activation of
      several NOX isoforms are frequently dysregulated in many cancers. Cell-based
      studies have demonstrated a role for several NOX isozymes in controlling cell
      proliferation and/or cell migration, further supporting a potential contributing
      role for NOX in promoting cancer. While various NOX isoforms are often
      upregulated in cancers, paradoxical recent findings indicate that dual oxidases
      (DUOXes), normally prominently expressed in epithelial lineages, are frequently
      suppressed in epithelial-derived cancers by epigenetic mechanisms, although the
      functional relevance of such DUOX silencing has remained unclear. This review
      will briefly summarize our current understanding regarding the importance of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and NOXes in cancer biology, and focus on recent
      observations indicating the unique and seemingly opposing roles of DUOX enzymes
      in cancer biology. We will discuss current knowledge regarding the functional
      properties of DUOX, and recent studies highlighting mechanistic consequences of
      DUOX1 loss in lung cancer, and its consequences for tumor invasiveness and
      current anticancer therapy. Finally, we will also discuss potentially unique
      roles for the DUOX maturation factors. Overall, a better understanding of
      mechanisms that regulate DUOX and the functional consequences of DUOX silencing
      in cancer may offer valuable new diagnostic insights and novel therapeutic
      opportunities.

PMID- 28578021
TI  - Transcriptome profiling of the floral buds and discovery of genes related to sex
      differentiation in the dioecious cucurbit Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt.
AB  - Dioecious species offer an inclusive structure to study the molecular basis of
      sexual dimorphism in angiosperms. Despite having a small genome and heteromorphic
      sex chromosomes, Coccinia grandis is a highly neglected dioecious species with
      little information available on its physical state, genetic orientation and key
      sex-defining elements. In the present study, we performed RNA-Seq and DGE
      analysis of male (MB) and female (FB) buds in C. grandis to gain insights into
      the molecular basis of sex determination in this plant. De novo assembly of 75
      million clean reads resulted in 72,479 unigenes for male library and 63,308
      unigenes for female library with a mean length of 736bp. 61,458 (85.57%) unigenes
      displayed significant similarity with protein sequences from publicly available
      databases. Comparative transcriptome analyses revealed 1410 unigenes as
      differentially expressed (DEGs) between MB and FB samples. A consistent
      correlation between the expression levels of DEGs was observed for the RNA-Seq
      pattern and qRT-PCR validation. Functional annotation showed high enrichment of
      DEGs involved in phytohormone biosynthesis, hormone signaling and transduction,
      transcriptional regulation and methyltransferase activity. High induction of
      hormone responsive genes such as ARF6, ACC synthase1, SNRK2 and BRI1-associated
      receptor kinase 1 (BAK1) suggest that multiple phytohormones and their signaling
      crosstalk play crucial role in sex determination in this species. Beside, the
      transcription factors such as zinc fingers, homeodomain leucine zippers and MYBs
      were identified as major determinants of male specific expression. Moreover, the
      detection of multiple DEGs as the miRNA target site implies that a small RNA
      mediated gene silencing cascade may also be regulating gender differentiation in
      C. grandis. Overall, the present transcriptome resources provide us a large
      number of DEGs involved in sex expression and could form the groundwork for
      unravelling the molecular mechanism of sex determination in C. grandis.

PMID- 28578022
TI  - Comprehensive molecular characterization of a transgenic pig expressing hCD46
      gene.
AB  - Molecular characterization of transgenic animals is crucial for the phenotype
      analysis, unintended effects prediction, commercial and economic requirements. In
      this study, a comprehensive molecular characterization of a transgenic pig, which
      expressed hCD46 gene, was verified using next-generation sequencing (NGS). One
      complete and one incomplete sequence of pBSCD46-neo and multiple backbone
      fragments were inserted into the host genome. The whole insertion sequence was
      28,243bp, and 12bp sequence on the genome was deleted during the transgene. The
      cost of NGS is higher than other molecular methods, in order to reduce the cost
      and to make the sequencing strategy more economically effective, we carried out a
      computer simulation to identify the smallest amount of data that could meet the
      requirements of the molecular characterization analysis. 15* depth of coverage
      was shown to be sufficient with good accuracy, while 3* might be effective, 20*
      was recommended. The obtained molecular characterization information would
      provide a stronger foundation for the safety evaluation of the GM animals.
      Meanwhile, the gene integrity of the porcine pathogen PERV was analyzed using the
      same procedure. No complete sequence of the PERV subtype was observed in the
      porcine genome, which was the same as the previous research. In consequence, NGS
      combined bioinformatics analysis is a reliable and accurate approach for the
      molecular characterization of GMOs, even for the safety evaluation.

PMID- 28578023
TI  - A novel germline gain-of-function variant in PIK3CD.

PMID- 28578024
TI  - Hexamerization-enhanced CD20 antibody mediates complement-dependent cytotoxicity
      in serum genetically deficient in C9.
AB  - We examined complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) by hexamer formation-enhanced
      CD20 mAb Hx-7D8 of patient-derived chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells that
      are relatively resistant to CDC. CDC was analyzed in normal human serum (NHS) and
      serum from an individual genetically deficient for C9. Hx-7D8 was able to kill up
      to 80% of CLL cells in complete absence of C9. We conclude that the narrow C5b-8
      pores formed without C9 are sufficient for CDC due to efficient antibody-mediated
      hexamer formation. In the absence of C9, we observed transient intracellular
      increases of Ca2+ during CDC (as assessed with FLUO-4) that were extended in
      time. This suggests that small C5b-8 pores allow Ca2+ to enter the cell, while
      dissipation of the fluorescent signal accompanying cell disintegration is
      delayed. The Ca2+ signal is retained concomitantly with TOPRO-3 (viability dye)
      staining, thereby confirming that Ca2+ influx represents the most proximate
      mediator of cell death by CDC.

PMID- 28578025
TI  - Multimarker risk stratification approach at multiple sclerosis onset.
AB  - Delay in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) stems from the lack of specific
      clinical and analytical markers to assist in the early diagnosis and prediction
      of progressive course. We propose a decision-tree model that better defines early
      at onset MS patients and those with the progressive form by analysing a 12
      biomarkers panel in serum and CSF samples of patients with MS, other neurological
      diseases (OND) and healthy contols. Thus, patients at onset of neurological
      disease were first classified by serum IL-7 levels <141pg/ml (OR=6.51, p<0.001).
      Combination of IL-7 and CXCL10 indicated risk for a specific MS clinical form,
      where IL-7<141 and CXCL10<570pg/ml were associated with the highest risk for PP
      MS (OR=22, p=0.01). Unexpectedly, both PP-MS and RR-MS patients shared
      significantly decreased prototypical biomarkers of inflammation and tissue
      regeneration in CSF than OND suggesting a defective intrinsic immune response
      playing a role at the beginning of the disease.

PMID- 28578026
TI  - alpha-Pyrrolidinononanophenone provokes apoptosis of neuronal cells through
      alterations in antioxidant properties.
AB  - In this study, we found that exposure to alpha-pyrrolidinononanophenone (alpha
      PNP), a highly lipophilic synthetic cathinone, provokes apoptosis of human
      neuronal SK-N-SH cells. The drug sensitivity of the cells (50% lethal
      concentration of 12MUM) was similar to those of aortic endothelial and smooth
      muscle cells, and was higher than those of cells derived from colon, liver, lung
      and kidney, suggesting that alpha-PNP overdose and abuse cause serious damage in
      central nervous and vascular systems. SK-N-SH cell treatment with lethal
      concentrations (20 and 50MUM) of alpha-PNP facilitated the reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) production. The treatment also prompted elevation of Bax/Bcl-2
      ratio, lowering of mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome-c into
      cytosol, and resultant activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. The apoptotic
      events (caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation) were abolished by
      pretreatment with antioxidants, N-acetyl-l-cysteine and polyethyleneglycol
      conjugated catalase. These results suggest that ROS production, mitochondrial
      dysfunction and caspase activation are potential events in the mechanism
      underlying the alpha-PNP-triggered neuronal cell apoptosis. Intriguingly, the
      alpha-PNP treatment of SK-N-SH cells was found to promote formation of 4
      hydroxynonenal, a reactive aldehyde generated from lipid peroxidation. The alpha
      PNP treatment also decreased cellular levels of total and reduced glutathiones,
      expression of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase mRNA and glutathione reductase
      activity. Furthermore, the alpha-PNP treatment resulted in both decrease in
      proteasomal activities and increase in expression of autophagy-related factors,
      which were significantly prevented by pretreating with N-acetyl-l-cysteine.
      Therefore, the ROS formation by alpha-PNP treatment may be ascribable to the
      decrease in glutathione level through its consumption during 4-hydroxynonenal
      detoxification and dysfunction of both de novo synthesis and regeneration of
      glutathione, in addition to impairments in proteasomal and autophagic systems
      that degrade cellular oxidized components.

PMID- 28578027
TI  - Agomelatine, a MT1/MT2 melatonergic receptor agonist with serotonin 5-HT2C
      receptor antagonistic properties, suppresses Prevotella intermedia
      lipopolysaccharide-induced production of proinflammatory mediators in murine
      macrophages.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study was performed in an attempt to examine the influence of
      agomelatine in mitigating the generation of proinflammatory mediators in RAW264.7
      murine macrophages exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) obtained from Prevotella
      intermedia, a gram-negative anaerobic bacterium that is related with various
      types of periodontal diseases, and the molecular mechanisms behind its effects.
      DESIGN: LPS from P. intermedia strain ATCC 25611 was prepared employing the
      conventional phenol-water procedure. Conditioned culture media were analyzed for
      the levels of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and IL-6. Real-time
      PCR analysis was carried out to determine the mRNA levels of inducible NO
      synthase (iNOS), IL-1beta, IL-6 and SOCS1. Protein expression levels were
      evaluated by immunoblot test. NF-kappaB-dependent SEAP reporter assay was
      performed using a reporter cell line. DNA-binding activities of NF-kappaB
      subunits were analyzed utilizing the ELISA-based kits. RESULTS: Agomelatine was
      found to down-regulate significantly the generation of iNOS-derived NO, IL-1beta
      and IL-6 as well as the expression of their mRNAs in cells activated with P.
      intermedia LPS. Agomelatine decreased NF-kappaB-dependent SEAP release caused by
      P. intermedia LPS. Agomelatine did not inhibit NF-kappaB transcription induced by
      LPS at the level of IkappaB-alpha degradation. Instead, LPS-induced nuclear
      translocation and DNA binding of NF-kappaB p50 subunit was blocked by
      agomelatine. P. intermedia LPS-elicited activation of STAT1 and STAT3 was reduced
      notably by co-treatment with agomelatine. Agomelatine showed a tendency to
      enhance mRNA level of SOCS1 in LPS-activated cells as well. CONCLUSIONS:
      Agomelatine merits further evaluation to reveal its usefulness on the host
      modulation of periodontal disease.

PMID- 28578029
TI  - Investigation of the interaction for three Citrus flavonoids and alpha-amylase by
      surface plasmon resonance.
AB  - Flavonoids, a class of natural drugs with broad biological activity, exhibit
      inhibitory effect on alpha-amylase. Citrus peel is a good source of flavonoids.
      The real-time interactions between three Citrus flavonoids (naringin,
      neohesperidin, hesperidin) and alpha-amylase were investigated by surface plasmon
      resonance biosensor, and were compared with the alpha-amylase inhibitors,
      acarbose. These results showed the binding affinities of naringin, neohesperidin
      and hesperidin with alpha-amylase reach the highest at pH6 with KD values of
      2.27+/-0.18mM, 3.09+/-0.20mM and 3.51+/-0.09mM, and can be reinforced with 0.2M
      NaCl and 0.1M CaCl2, respectively. The results of 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl
      radical assay indicate that the antioxidant activities of naringin, neohesperidin
      and hesperidin are significantly inhibited by interacting with alpha-amylase, and
      the inhibition percentage are 47.61+/-0.034%, 22.81+/-0.037% and 21.01+/-0.051%,
      respectively. Additionally, it is found that both the number and the position of
      hydroxyl group play an important role in the interaction of three Citrus
      flavonoids and alpha-amylase. These results provide useful information for rapid
      screening inhibitors of alpha-amylase from plant-based food.

PMID- 28578028
TI  - Differential expression of transcription factors NF-kappaB and STAT3 in
      periodontal ligament fibroblasts and gingiva of healthy and diseased individuals.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pathogens and host mediators can activate transcription factors in
      periodontal cells to bring about gene level alterations, thereby accentuating the
      periodontal disease process. Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) and signal
      transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) are two pivotal
      transcription factors implicated in chronic inflammatory diseases. But their
      importance in periodontal pathogenesis has not been investigated in detail. The
      aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression of activated
      transcription factors and their target genes in healthy and diseased
      periodontium. DESIGN: Primary culture of periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PDLF)
      were established from healthy and diseased periodontium using explant culture
      methods. NF-kappaB and STAT3 activation in these cells by Porphyromonas
      gingivalis LPS (lipopolysaccharide) was demonstrated using confocal microscopy
      and mRNA expression of target genes were evaluated by quantitative real time PCR.
      NF-kappaB and STAT3 expression in diseased and healthy gingival tissues were
      analyzed using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: A basal upregulation of
      transcription factors and their target genes were noted in diseased PDLF compared
      to healthy ones. LPS challenge induced differential expression of NF-kappaB and
      STAT3 and their target genes in diseased PDLF compared to healthy ones.
      Immunohistochemical analysis revealed significant activation of transcription
      factors in diseased gingival tissues. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present
      study reveal the role of transcription factors NF-kappaB and STAT3 in periodontal
      pathogenesis and disease susceptibility of fibroblast subpopulations in
      periodontal disease could be mediated through activation of NF-kappaB and STAT3.
      Since genetic factors are nonmodifyable, transcription factors are promising
      targets for future host modulation therapy.

PMID- 28578030
TI  - Behaviour of non-oxidized and oxidized flaxseed oils, as models of omega-3 rich
      lipids, during in vitro digestion. Occurrence of epoxidation reactions.
AB  - Fresh and partially oxidized flaxseed oil, as models of omega-3 rich lipids, were
      submitted to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. Hydrolysis level, lipid
      composition and oxidative status of the samples before and after digestion were
      studied by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) and Solid Phase
      Microextraction-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS). Although a
      great degree of lipolysis was reached in both kinds of samples after digestion,
      it was somewhat lower in the digests of oxidized flaxseed oil. The occurrence of
      lipid oxidation during digestion was evidenced by decreased unsaturated lipids
      and increased primary and secondary oxidation products, especially in oxidized
      samples. In these latter, linolenic-derived monoepoxy-octadecadienoates were the
      main oxidation products generated. SPME-GC/MS study showed the highest abundances
      of highly reactive alkadienals (C5-C10), alkatrienals (C9-C10) and linolenic
      derived 4,5-epoxy-2-heptenals in the headspace of oxidized flaxseed oil digests.
      Volatile markers of Maillard-type reactions were also detected.

PMID- 28578031
TI  - Biophysical evaluation of milk-clotting enzymes processed by high pressure.
AB  - High pressure processing (HPP) is able to promote changes in enzymes structure.
      This study evaluated the effect of HP on the structural changes in milk-clotting
      enzymes processed under activation conditions for recombinant camel chymosin
      (212MPa/5min/10 degrees C), calf rennet (280MPa/20min/25 degrees C), bovine
      rennet (222MPa/5min/23 degrees C), and porcine pepsin (50MPa/5min/20 degrees C)
      and under inactivation conditions for all enzymes (600MPa/10min/25 degrees C)
      including the protease from Rhizomucor miehei. In general, it was found that the
      HPP at activation conditions was able to increase the intrinsic fluorescence of
      samples with high pepsin concentration (porcine pepsin and bovine rennet),
      increase significantly the surface hydrophobicity and induce changes in secondary
      structure of all enzymes. Under inactivation conditions, increases in surface
      hydrophobicity and a reduction of intrinsic fluorescence were observed,
      suggesting a higher exposure of hydrophobic sites followed by water quenching of
      Trp residues. Moreover, changes in secondary structure were observed (with minor
      changes seen in Rhizomucor miehei protease). In conclusion, HPP was able to
      unfold milk-clotting enzymes even under activation conditions, and the porcine
      pepsin and bovine rennet were more sensitive to HPP.

PMID- 28578032
TI  - Processing & rheological properties of wheat flour dough and bread containing
      high levels of soluble dietary fibres blends.
AB  - Wheat flour doughs were processed with soluble dietary fibres (DF) added up to
      40% (w/w flour). DF were made of a ternary mixture of maltodextrins (MT, 3/5),
      pectins (PE, 1/5) and inulin (IN, 1/5). The addition of DF decreased the specific
      mechanical energy developed by the mixer, mainly because of water addition. It
      increased the ratio of storage moduli and the elongational viscosity of the
      dough, but decreased the strain hardening index. Energy input and rheological
      changes at mixing largely explained the decreases of porosity characteristic time
      and stability time during fermentation. It was possible to add up to 30% DF with
      a moderate increase of bread density, and 20%, with little change of crumb
      cellular structure. Hence, the changes of bread crumb texture were not mainly due
      to bread density, but rather likely to the changes of properties of the intrinsic
      material. Results obtained by addition of single fibre source, especially inulin,
      deviated from the main trends observed for texture and rheological properties.
      These results provide a good basis to design breads with increased dietary fibre
      content.

PMID- 28578033
TI  - Influence of omega-3 PUFAs on the metabolism of proanthocyanidins in rats.
AB  - Studies of the bioavailability of proanthocyanidins usually consider them
      independently of other dietary constituents, while there is a tendency in the
      field of functional foods towards the combination of different bioactive
      compounds in a single product. This study examined the long-term effects of omega
      3 polyunsaturated fatty acids of marine origin on the metabolic fate of grape
      proanthocyanidins. For this, female adult Wistar-Kyoto rats were fed (18weeks)
      with a standard diet supplemented or not with eicosapentaenoic
      acid/docosahexaenoic acid (1:1, 16.6g/kg feed), proanthocyanidin-rich grape seed
      extract (0.8g/kg feed) or both. A total of 39 microbial-derived metabolites and
      16 conjugated metabolites were detected by HPLC-MS/MS either in urine or in the
      aqueous fraction of feces. An unexpected significant increase in many
      proanthocyanidin metabolites in urine and feces was observed in the group
      supplemented with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids group as compared to the
      animals fed a standard diet, which contains a small amount of polyphenols.
      However, proanthocyanidin metabolites in rats given omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty
      acids and grape seed extract did not significantly differ from those in the group
      supplemented only with grape seed extract. It was concluded that omega-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acids collaborate in the metabolism of polyphenols when
      present at low doses in the feed matrix, while the capacity of omega-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acids to induce microbiota transformations when
      proanthocyanidins are present at high doses is not relevant compared to that of
      polyphenols themselves.

PMID- 28578034
TI  - Determination of the phenolic content, profile, and antioxidant activity of seeds
      from nine tree peony (Paeonia section Moutan DC.) species native to China.
AB  - As an important resource of functional food, the seeds of tree peony are rich in
      phenolic compounds, which are associated with antioxidant activity. However, so
      far there has not been systematic study on phenolic compositions and antioxidant
      activity of the seeds from wild tree peony species. The aim of this study was to
      determine the phenolic content, antioxidant compounds and antioxidant activity of
      seeds from nine tree peony species native to China. Among the seed samples,
      Paeonia rockii had the highest total flavonoid content, strongest DPPH and ABTS
      radical scavenging activities, and strongest cupric reducing capacity; P.
      decomposita subsp. rotundiloba had the highest total phenolic and flavanol
      contents, as well as the strongest hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. Sixteen
      individual phenolic compounds were quantitatively measured, with (+)-catechin
      being the most abundant component. The content of the phenolic compounds
      luteolin, paeonol, and the total flavonoid content were significantly correlated
      with four antioxidant activities. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that P.
      rockii and P. decomposita subsp. rotundiloba could be clustered in a group having
      a high phenolic content and strong antioxidant activity. These results suggest P.
      rockii and P. decomposita subsp. rotundiloba are the most promising candidates as
      useful sources of natural antioxidants.

PMID- 28578035
TI  - Spontaneous variation regarding grape berry skin color: A comprehensive study of
      berry development by means of biochemical and molecular markers.
AB  - : Understanding grape berry development and the metabolism of different classes
      of compounds responsible for traits like berry's color is imperative to control
      and improve quality aspects of grapes. A colorimetric, biochemical and molecular
      characterization allowed the comprehensive description of the pigment-related
      characteristics of nine berry skin color somatic variants, belonging to four
      different varieties. Although the observed berry skin color variability was not
      fully explained by MybA locus, the phenolic profiles allowed inferring about
      specific interferences among the biosynthetic pathways. Data were consistent
      concerning that grapes showing cyanidin-3-O-glucoside as the major anthocyanin
      and flavonols with two substituent groups in the lateral B-ring are generally
      originated by a white ancestor. After retro-mutation, these grapes seem to keep
      the dysfunction on flavonoid hydroxylases enzymes, which negatively affect the
      synthesis of both flavonols and anthocyanins with three substituent groups in the
      lateral B-ring. Overall, the obtained results indicate that the color differences
      observed between somatic variants are not solely the result of the total amount
      of compounds synthesized, but rather reflect a different dynamics of the phenolic
      pathway among the different color variants of the same variety. CHEMICAL
      COMPOUNDS: Gallic acid (PubChem CID: 370); Caftaric acid (PubChem CID:
      6,440,397); Catechin (PubChem CID: 73,160); Epigallocatechin gallate (PubChem
      CID: 65,064); Quercetin-3-O-galactoside (PubChem CID: 5,281,643); Quercetin-3-O
      glucoside (PubChem CID: 25,203,368); Malvidin-3-O-glucoside (PubChem CID:
      443,652); Peonidin-3-O-p-coumaroylglucoside (PubChem CID: 44,256,849); Malvidin-3
      O-p-coumaroylglucoside (PubChem CID: 44,256,988); Resveratrol-3-O-glucoside
      (PubChem CID: 25,579,167).

PMID- 28578036
TI  - Phenolic compounds profile and antioxidant properties of six sweet cherry (Prunus
      avium) cultivars.
AB  - Sweet cherry (Prunus avium) fruits are a nutritionally important food rich in
      dietary phenolic compounds. The aim of this study was to investigate the phenolic
      profile and chemometric discrimination of fruits from six cherry cultivars using
      a quantitative metabolomics approach, which combine non-targeted mass
      spectrometry and chemometric analysis. The assessment of the phenolic fingerprint
      of cherries allowed the tentative identification of 86 compounds. A total of 40
      chlorogenic acids were identified in cherry fruit, which pointed out
      hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives as the main class of phenolics by number of
      compounds. Among the compounds detected, 40 have been reported for the first time
      in sweet cherry fruit. Hydroxycinnamic acids are also the quantitatively most
      represented class of phenolic compounds in the cherry cultivars with the
      exception of Lapins and Durone della Marca where the most representative class of
      phenolic compounds were anthocyanins and flavan-3-ols, respectively. This non
      targeted approach allowed the tentative identification of the cultivar-compound
      relationships of these six cherry cultivars. Both anthocyanins and colorless
      phenolic compounds profile appeared to be cultivar-dependent. In detail,
      anthocyanins and flavonols patterns have the potential to be used for the
      determination of a varietal assignment of cherries.

PMID- 28578037
TI  - Bioaccessibility of calcium, iron and magnesium in residues of citrus and
      characterization of macronutrients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to estimate bioaccessibility of Ca, Fe and Mg in
      residues of orange, lime, and their mixture, in order to evaluate the effects of
      cooking in water on mineral bioaccessibility and also to determine the
      composition of macronutrients and myo-inositol phosphate content. The citrus
      samples contained on average 9.53g/100 g moisture, 6.09g/100 g protein,
      3.23g/100g ash, 3.15g/100g lipids, 34.26g/100g insoluble fiber, 27.88g/100g
      soluble fiber and 25.64g/100g carbohydrates. The percentage of soluble and
      dialyzable minerals ranged from 19.36 to 77.33% and from 5.59 to 69.06% for Fe,
      from 33.34 to 60.84% and 14.71 to -26.13% for Ca, and from 29.95 to 94.20% and
      34.42 to 62.51%, for Mg, respectively. It was verified that cooking influenced
      the minerals bioaccessibility and increased the dialyzable fraction of Fe and Mg,
      but decreased the fraction of Ca dialysate, except to orange. No myoinositol
      phosphate esters were detected. The Principal Component Analysis allowed the
      separation of different types of citrus residues, but did not discriminate the
      raw and cooked samples. This study pointed the potential of citrus residue to be
      used for human consumption and contribute to the necessary dietary minerals and
      macronutrients, with high content of soluble and insoluble fibers.

PMID- 28578038
TI  - Particle formation induced by sonication during yogurt fermentation - Impact of
      exopolysaccharide-producing starter cultures on physical properties.
AB  - Two major quality defects of yogurt are syneresis and the presence of large
      particles, and several reasons have been extensively discussed. Vibrations during
      fermentation, particularly generated by pumps, must be considered as a further
      cause as latest research showed that both ultrasound and low frequencies induced
      visible particles. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of
      sonication during fermentation with starter cultures differing in
      exopolysaccharide (EPS) synthesis on the physical properties of set (syneresis,
      firmness) and stirred yogurt (large particles, laser diffraction, rheology). Skim
      milk was fermented with starter cultures YC-471 (low EPS) or YF-L 901 (high EPS)
      (Chr. Hansen) and sonicated for 5min at pH5.2. Sonicated set gels exhibited
      syneresis and were softer than respective controls. The mechanical treatment was
      adjusted to quantify visible particles (d>=0.9mm) in stirred yogurts properly.
      Sonication significantly increased particle numbers, however, the effect was less
      pronounced when YF-L 901 was used, indicating EPS as a tool to reduce syneresis
      and particle formation due to vibrations. Rheological parameters and size of
      microgel particles were rather influenced by starter cultures than by sonication.

PMID- 28578039
TI  - Kinetics of aflatoxin degradation during peanut roasting.
AB  - This study investigated aflatoxin degradation during peanut roasting. First,
      peanuts contaminated with three initial aflatoxin concentrations (35, 332 and
      695MUg/kg) were roasted at 180 degrees C for up to 20min. The percentage of
      aflatoxin degradation after 20min were 55, 64 and 81% for peanuts contaminated
      with aflatoxin at 35, 332 and 695MUg/kg, respectively. This difference was
      statistically significant (p<0.05), showing that initial concentration influences
      aflatoxin reduction. Thereafter, peanut samples contaminated with an initial
      aflatoxin concentration of 85MUg/kg were roasted at 160, 180 and 200 degrees C
      for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25min, then residual concentrations of aflatoxin were
      determined. Roasting at 160, 180 and 200 degrees C resulted in an aflatoxin
      reduction of 61.6, 83.6 and 89.7%, respectively. This study has provided
      quantitative data reinforcing the fact that roasting alone is not enough to
      control aflatoxins in peanuts.

PMID- 28578040
TI  - The performance of probiotic fermented sheep milk and ice cream sheep milk in
      inhibiting enamel mineral loss.
AB  - The study aimed to evaluate the effects of two different sheep milk-based food
      matrices - fermented sheep milk and ice cream - with added probiotic bacteria
      (Lactobacillus casei 431) on dental enamel subjected to an in vitro highly
      cariogenic challenge. Sixty enamel blocks were selected and randomly allocated
      into five treatment groups (n=12): conventional fermented sheep milk (CFSM),
      probiotic fermented sheep milk (PFSM), conventional sheep milk ice cream (CSMIC),
      probiotic sheep milk ice cream (PSMIC) and control using deionized water. The
      blocks were subjected to highly cariogenic pH cycling and the products were
      applied (5min), in a blinded way, once a day to simulate a daily use for 8
      consecutive days. A microhardness test was performed before and after the
      treatment to estimate the percentage of microhardness surface loss (% SML).
      Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) was performed to confirm the mineral loss.
      All groups had lost microhardness after the experiment. However, CFSM and PFSM
      exhibited the most positive findings when compared to the control in both ice
      creams. Scanning electron microscopy showed less mineral loss in CFSM and PFSM
      compared with CSMIC, PSMIC and control after the cariogenic challenge. Overall,
      fermented milk decreased mineral loss from enamel subjected to a highly
      cariogenic challenge, regardless of the presence of probiotics in their
      composition, which had a higher efficacy compared to ice cream.

PMID- 28578041
TI  - Microbiota source impact in vitro metabolite colonic production and anti
      proliferative effect of spent coffee grounds on human colon cancer cells (HT-29).
AB  - Human gut flora-mediated non-digestible fraction of spent coffee grounds (hgf
      NDSCG) was evaluated for its chemopreventive effect and molecular mechanisms
      involved on human colon adenocarcinoma HT-29 cell survival using two different
      microbiota source [lean (L) and overweight (OW)]. The source of human gut flora
      (hgf) (L or OW) affected the pH of hgf-NDSCG only minimally, but linearly reduced
      those of hgf-inulin. The variability between lean and overweight microbiota was
      characterized by the metabolism and/or bioaccessibility of different phenolic
      metabolites, their intermediate and end products as well as by variable time
      courses. Apoptosis of colon cancer HT-29 cells depended on the microbiota source
      with the lean microbiota expressing a low lethal concentration 50 (LC50/L-hgf
      NDSCG=13.5%). We demonstrate that NDSCG and its colonic metabolite from lean
      microbiota induced HT-29 cell apoptosis by reducing catalase and 8-iso
      prostaglandin F2alpha as biomarkers of in vivo oxidative stress as the primary
      mechanism underlying its overall chemoprotection against colon cancer.

PMID- 28578042
TI  - Visual attention to food cues is differentially modulated by gustatory-hedonic
      and post-ingestive attributes.
AB  - Although attentional biases towards food cues may play a critical role in food
      choices and eating behaviours, it remains largely unexplored which specific food
      attribute governs visual attentional deployment. The allocation of visual
      attention might be modulated by anticipatory postingestive consequences, from
      taste sensations derived from eating itself, or both. Therefore, in order to
      obtain a comprehensive understanding of the attentional mechanisms involved in
      the processing of food-related cues, we recorded the eye movements to five
      categories of well-standardised pictures: neutral non-food, high-calorie, good
      taste, distaste and dangerous food. In particular, forty-four healthy adults of
      both sexes were assessed with an antisaccade paradigm (which requires the
      generation of a voluntary saccade and the suppression of a reflex one) and a free
      viewing paradigm (which implies the free visual exploration of two images). The
      results showed that observers directed their initial fixations more often and
      faster on items with high survival relevance such as nutrient and possible
      dangers; although an increase in antisaccade error rates was only detected for
      high-calorie items. We also found longer prosaccade fixation duration and initial
      fixation duration bias score related to maintained attention towards high
      calorie, good taste and danger categories; while shorter reaction times to
      correct an incorrect prosaccade related to less difficulties in inhibiting
      distasteful images. Altogether, these findings suggest that visual attention is
      differentially modulated by both the accepted and rejected food attributes, but
      also that normal-weight, non-eating disordered individuals exhibit enhanced
      approach to food's postingestive effects and avoidance of distasteful items (such
      as bitter vegetables or pungent products).

PMID- 28578043
TI  - Moisture content during extrusion of oats impacts the initial fermentation
      metabolites and probiotic bacteria during extended fermentation by human fecal
      microbiota.
AB  - Extrusion exposes flour components to high pressure and shear during processing,
      which may affect the dietary fiber fermentability by human fecal microbiota. The
      objective of this study was to determine the effect of flour moisture content
      during extrusion on in vitro fermentation properties of whole grain oats.
      Extrudates were processed at three moisture levels (15%, 18%, and 21%) at fixed
      screw speed (300rpm) and temperature (130 degrees C). The extrudates were then
      subjected to in vitro digestion and fermentation. Extrusion moisture
      significantly affected water-extractable beta-glucan (WE-BG) in the extrudates,
      with samples processed at 15% moisture (lowest) and 21% moisture (highest) having
      the highest concentration of WE-BG. After the first 8h of fermentation, more WE
      BG remained in fermentation media in samples processed at 15% moisture compared
      with the other conditions. Also, extrusion moisture significantly affected the
      production of acetate, butyrate, and total SCFA by the microbiota during the
      first 8h of fermentation. Microbiota grown on extrudates processed at 18%
      moisture had the highest production of acetate and total SCFA, whereas bacteria
      grown on extrudates processed at 15% and 18% moisture had the highest butyrate
      production. After 24h of fermentation, samples processed at 15% moisture
      supported lower Bifidobacterium counts than those produced at other conditions,
      but had among the highest Lactobacillus counts. Thus, moisture content during
      extrusion significantly affects production of fermentation metabolites by the gut
      microbiota during the initial stages of fermentation, while also affecting
      probiotic bacteria counts during extended fermentation.

PMID- 28578044
TI  - Comparison of static and dynamic sensory product characterizations based on check
      all-that-apply questions with consumers.
AB  - The aim of the present work was to compare static and dynamic sensory product
      characterizations based on check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions with consumers.
      Three studies involving a total of 310 consumers were carried out. In each study,
      a between-subjects experimental design was used to compare static sensory
      characterizations obtained using CATA questions with dynamic characterizations
      over a relatively short time period using temporal CATA (TCATA). Three different
      product categories were evaluated (orange juice, strawberry yogurt, and vanilla
      milk desserts) using 6-11 sensory terms. TCATA data were analysed as CATA
      considering fixed time periods throughout the evaluation. CATA and TCATA were
      compared in terms of frequency of use of the terms, sample discrimination, and
      sample and term configurations. Asking consumers to continuously select the
      attributes that applied to describe a product and to deselect those that no
      longer applied during the evaluation period did not substantially modify the
      average citation proportion of terms or the maximum citation proportion for
      individual terms for liquid and semi-solid products with a relatively fast oral
      preparatory phase. Although both methodologies provided similar information,
      additional insights on how similarities and differences among samples evolved
      during consumption were obtained with TCATA in the case of products that
      experience large temporal changes or attributes with strong time-dependency. CATA
      provided similar information as TCATA for sensory attributes that did not change
      substantially during the evaluation period. Results from the present work suggest
      that static and dynamic product sensory characterizations using CATA questions
      with consumers provide complementary information about consumer experiences with
      food products.

PMID- 28578045
TI  - Impact of laccase on the colour stability of structured oil-in-water emulsions.
AB  - The optical properties of food emulsions play a key role in determining their
      perceived quality because they are the first sensory cue that many consumers
      receive. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of a
      cross-linking enzyme (laccase) on the appearance of structured oil-in-water
      emulsions containing a lipophilic model colorant (Nile red). A layer-by-layer
      electrostatic deposition approach was used to prepare oil-in-water emulsions
      stabilized by interfacial protein-pectin complexes under acidic conditions
      (pH3.5, 10mM citrate buffer). Laccase (an oxidoreductase) was then added to the
      system, since this enzyme is often used to covalently cross-link interfacial
      biopolymer layers. The optical properties of the emulsions were monitored during
      storage using spectral reflectance to determine the L*a*b values, while the
      physical properties were monitored by measuring changes in droplet surface charge
      and particle size distribution. No changes in the size or charge of the droplets
      were observed during storage, indicating that the emulsions had good physical
      stability. In the absence of laccase, the emulsions were stable to colour fading,
      but in the presence of laccase rapid colour changes occurred (red to blue to
      white). These results have important implications for the formation of structured
      food emulsions containing certain types of food dyes.

PMID- 28578046
TI  - The influence of proteases on the browning of dried squid products processed by
      air-drying.
AB  - To clarify why mantle meat from Japanese common squid (Todarodes pacificus) dried
      products discolor dramatically when processed by air-drying, the role of
      endogenous protease(s) on browning during the processing of dried squid products
      was studied. The involvement of endogenous protease(s) in the generation of Free
      Amino Acids (FAAs) participating in the Maillard reaction was characterized. The
      browning and myosin heavy chain degradation during air-drying were obviously
      mitigated by the addition of metalloprotease inhibitors, especially EGTA and 1,10
      phenanthroline, followed by serine proteinase inhibitor, especially PMSF. The
      amount of total FAAs in dried products increased by only 0.17% with the addition
      of 1,10-phenanthroline and 5.0% with added EGTA. In autolysis models, protein
      autolysis was almost completely inhibited by 1,10-phenanthroline. The addition
      of, 1,10-phenanthroline inhibited the increase in total FAAs including arginine
      (Arg), followed by EGTA and PMSF. The results indicated that endogenous
      metalloproteases and serine proteases might influence the generation of FAAs
      including Arg, and contribute to product discoloration during air-drying.

PMID- 28578047
TI  - Betalains and phenolic compounds of leaves and stems of Alternanthera brasiliana
      and Alternanthera tenella.
AB  - Betacyanins and phenolic compounds from acetonitrile:acidified water extracts of
      Alternanthera brasiliana and Alternanthera tenella were characterized and
      quantified using a high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled with
      diode array and electrospray mass spectrometry detection. Four betacyanins
      (amaranthine, isoamaranthine, betanin and isobetanin) were tentatively identified
      and quantified. Twenty eight phenolic compounds of four different families
      (hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids, flavones and flavonols) were separated
      and characterized on the basis of their accurate MS and MS/MS information out of
      which ten compounds were confirmed by authentic standards. These plant species
      could be considered as an especially rich source of natural bioactive compounds
      and potential food colorants. A. brasiliana showed the highest betacyanin and
      polyphenols content (89MUg/g and 35,243MUg/g, respectively). Among polyphenols,
      flavonols were the more abundant (kaempferol-glucoside, kaempferol-rutinoside and
      kaempferol-rhamnosyl-rhamnosyl-glycoside). Meanwhile, A. tenella showed a
      different polyphenols profile with flavones as major compounds (glucopyranosil
      vitexin and vitexin). As a novelty, pentosyl-vitexin and pentosyl-isovitexin were
      detected for the first time in Alternanthera plants. Both A. brasiliana and A.
      tenella leaves showed high total polyphenol content and in vitro antioxidant
      activity (FRAP). These results provide an analytical base concerning the phenolic
      and betalains composition and the antioxidant properties of two members of the
      promising Alternanthera gender, for subsequent applications, such as functional
      food ingredients.

PMID- 28578048
TI  - Microencapsulation of functional strains by high pressure homogenization for a
      potential use in fermented milk.
AB  - This study was aimed to evaluate the potential of high pressure homogenization
      for the microencapsulation of two probiotic lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus
      paracasei A13 and Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salivarius CET 4063 to produce
      functional fermented milks. Microcapsules of the considered functional
      microorganisms were obtained by HPH treatments at 50MPa in the presence of sodium
      alginate and vegetable oil. The microencapsulated microorganisms were then
      inoculated as adjuncts to produce fermented milks. As controls were used
      fermented milks in which the two probiotic lactobacilli were inoculated without
      encapsulation. The viability of the strains was monitored during almost 2months
      of refrigerated storage. The survival of lactic acid bacteria after the gastric
      duodenal simulated test was determined. Fermented milk texture parameters, the
      presence of exo-polysaccharides and the production of volatile molecules were
      also evaluated over storage. The microcapsules, for both the considered probiotic
      strains, were homogeneous and with a size<100MUM and therefore did not adversely
      affect the sensory properties of the fermented milks. The encapsulation decreased
      the hyperacidity phenomena generally related to the inclusion of probiotic
      microorganisms in fermented milks. The lower acidity of the products due to the
      microencapsulation was fundamental for the improvement of the viability of the
      starter culture and the sensory characteristics of the products. The
      microencapsulation conditions increased the resistance to the simulated digestion
      processes, although the strain Lb. paracasei A13 generally showed a higher
      resistance to the gastric barrier respect to Lb. salivarius CECT 4063. By
      contrast, the data obtained showed a reduction of EPS production by the
      microencapsulation. The volatile profiles showed specific profiles in relation to
      the probiotic strain used and microencapsulation process. In conclusion, the
      results of this study underlined the applicative potential of HPH
      microencapsulation of probiotic microorganisms to produce fermented milk with
      improved functionality and with enhanced sensory properties.

PMID- 28578049
TI  - Phytoglycogen to increase lutein solubility and its permeation through Caco-2
      monolayer.
AB  - Increasing the solubility of poorly water-soluble bioactives is essential to
      enhancing their bioavailability. The objective of this study was to evaluate the
      impact of phytoglycogen (PG) on water solubility of lutein and its
      transepithelial permeation across Caco-2 cell monolayers. Solid PG-LT complexes
      were prepared by combining an acetone solution of LT with an aqueous solution of
      PG under sonication, followed by centrifugation and vacuum drying of the
      supernatant as well as a further purification procedure. X-ray powder diffraction
      and differential scanning calorimetry showed negligible crystalline structure of
      LT in the PG-LT complex tested. The maximal water solubility of LT (130.65MUg/mL)
      occurred at the PG/LT combination ratio of 53.3/1, which was significantly higher
      than that of LT alone (0.56MUg/mL). Remarkably, LT, when complexed with PG,
      exhibited much-enhanced permeation through Caco-2 monolayer than LT alone,
      suggesting a potential role of PG to improve LT bioavailability. This study
      indicated that PG could be applied for the delivery of LT and possibly other
      hydrophobic ingredients.

PMID- 28578050
TI  - Cognitive decision strategies adopted by consumers in reminder difference tests:
      Influence of the authenticity test.
AB  - Discrimination tests are used in food companies to quantify small differences
      between products. Within the diversity of methods available, some are quicker to
      conduct, whereas others are more sensitive or statistically powerful. One class
      of methods includes the reminder tasks in which the reference product is given
      before tasting the actual test stimuli. During the task, such a 'reminder' can be
      compared directly to each test stimulus, or alternatively, only serve to prime
      the memory of the judge without being taken into account in decision-making.
      Previous research with trained judges provided evidence for the latter process
      while research with untrained consumers has provided some evidence for the former
      process. Two studies were conducted with untrained consumers using the A Not-AR
      and 2-AFCR reminder tasks. Objectives were to determine the decision strategies
      used in, and the relative sensitivity of the tasks. In addition, the use of an
      "authenticity test" was explored to see if this has a positive effect on test
      performance. In the first study, mayonnaise and ice tea with small stimulus
      differences (d'<1) were used in A Not-AR and 2-AFCR. Results were compared to
      those from A Not-A and 2-AFC tasks, with and without an authenticity test. It was
      difficult to draw clear conclusions on the decision strategy used, though the use
      of an authenticity test increased the sensitivity for these small differences, as
      it improved the performance of 6 out of 8 tests. In the second study, ice teas
      with larger stimulus differences (at two levels) were tested using the A Not-AR
      and 2-AFCR tasks, in comparison to the same-different task. The results showed
      that consumers use the less optimal strategies and that the authenticity test
      decreases performance, which is contradictory to the results of the first study.
      It seems that for very small stimulus differences the authenticity test can
      improve performance, but with larger differences the authenticity test decreases
      performance; it seems to confuse the judges.

PMID- 28578051
TI  - Will seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) quality change in a warmer ocean?
AB  - The impacts of climate change on seafood quality, safety and human health are
      still unknown. The present study investigated the effect of warming on fatty
      acids and elements content in two tissues (muscle and liver) of the relevant
      commercial seabass species (Dicentrarchus labrax). After exposing fish to
      increased seawater temperature for a period of 60days, higher saturated fatty
      acid (SFA) levels were observed in fish muscle (2.16% increase); whereas lower
      SFA levels were observed in fish liver (5.42% decrease). On the other hand,
      monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)
      contents decreased in both muscle (1.77% and 0.39%, respectively) and liver
      (10.54% and 8.11%, respectively) of fish subjected to warmer conditions.
      Additionally, warming promoted changes in fish elemental profiles, leading to
      significantly higher levels of Cl in the muscle and lower levels of Rb in the
      liver. Overall, data showed that fatty acids and elemental contents were affected
      by temperature, though representing small implications to human health. Moreover,
      this preliminary study highlights the importance of conducting further seafood
      risk-benefit assessments under climate change contexts.

PMID- 28578052
TI  - Arginine prevents thermal aggregation of hen egg white proteins.
AB  - The control of aggregation and solubilization of hen egg white protein (HEWP) is
      an important issue for industrial applications of one of the most familiar food
      protein sources. Here, we investigated the effects of edible amino acids on heat
      induced aggregation of HEWP. The addition of 0.6M arginine (Arg) completely
      suppressed the formation of insoluble aggregates of 1mgmL-1 HEWP following heat
      treatment, even at 90 degrees C for 20min. In contrast, lysine (Lys), glycine
      (Gly), and sodium chloride (NaCl) did little to suppress the aggregation of HEWP
      under the same conditions. SDS-PAGE indicated that Arg suppresses the thermal
      aggregation of almost all types of HEWP at 1mgmL-1. However, Arg did not suppress
      the thermal aggregation of HEWP at concentrations >=10mgmL-1 and prompted the
      formation of aggregates. Transmission electron micrographs revealed a high
      density structure of unfolded proteins in the presence of Arg. These results
      indicate that Arg exerts a greater suppressive effect on a protein mixture, such
      as HEWP, than on a single model protein. These observations may propose Arg as a
      safe and reasonable additive to HEWP for the elimination of microorganisms by
      allowing an increase in sterilization temperature.

PMID- 28578053
TI  - Bactericidal effect of 266 to 279nm wavelength UVC-LEDs for inactivation of Gram
      positive and Gram negative foodborne pathogenic bacteria and yeasts.
AB  - Recently, UVC-LED technology has been validated as an alternative to irradiation
      with conventional mercury UV lamps. In this study, we sought to determine primary
      factors affecting reduction trends shown in several microorganisms. Four major
      foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp. Listeria
      monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus) and spoilage yeasts (Saccharomyces
      pastorianus, Pichia membranaefaciens), important to the brewing industry, were
      inoculated onto selective and non-selective media in order to investigate
      reduction tendencies at 4 different peak wavelengths (266 to 279nm). As
      irradiation dose increased, inactivation levels for every microorganism were
      enhanced, but there were different UV-sensitivities in Gram positive bacteria
      (GP), Gram negative bacteria (GN), and yeasts (Y). Loss of membrane integrity
      measured by propidium iodide (PI) increased as peak wavelength increased for
      every microorganism studied. Similar results were observed in membrane potential
      measured by DiBAC4(3). However, there were contrasting results which showed that
      greater DNA damage occurred at a lower peak wavelength as measured by Hoechst
      33,258. The level of DNA damage was strongly related to trends of microbial
      inactivation. This study showed that even though membrane damage was present in
      every microorganism studied, DNA damage was the primary factor for inactivating
      microorganisms through UVC-LED treatment.

PMID- 28578054
TI  - Formation of tyramine in yoghurt during fermentation - Interaction between
      yoghurt starter bacteria and Lactobacillus plantarum.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the formation of tyramine during yoghurt
      fermentation with the focus on interaction between Streptococcus thermophilus
      RSKK 04082, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DSM 20081 and
      Lactobacillus plantarum RSKK 02030. These microorganisms were used in the yoghurt
      fermentation as single strains or mixed cultures containing double or triple
      strains. The interactions between microorganisms have been also revealed by
      determining total free amino acids and the pH of the medium together with the
      microbial count of the strains. It was observed that L. delbrueckii subsp.
      bulgaricus DSM 20081 did not produce tyramine while S. thermophilus RSKK 04082
      and L. plantarum RSKK 02030 could produce tyramine depending on the fermentation
      conditions. Synergistic interactions between S. thermophilus RSKK 04082 and L.
      delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DSM 20081 and, between L. delbrueckii subsp.
      bulgaricus DSM 20081 and L. plantarum RSKK 02030 were found in terms of tyramine
      production. It was observed in this study that L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
      DSM 20081 had indirect effect on accumulation of tyramine in the yoghurts.

PMID- 28578055
TI  - Effect of cooking and in vitro digestion on the antioxidant activity of dry-cured
      ham by-products.
AB  - Dry-cured ham by-products have been traditionally used in Mediterranean household
      cooking of broths and stews. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of
      cooking treatments and in vitro gastrointestinal digestion on the antioxidant
      activity of natural peptides found in bones from Spanish dry-cured hams. The
      antioxidant activity was tested using five different assays and results
      demonstrated that cooking using conventional household methods increased the
      antioxidant activity of ham by-products when assessed using different antioxidant
      assays with the exception of the ABTS radical scavenging measurement assay.
      Simulated gastrointestinal digestion showed no significant effect on the
      antioxidant activity of ham by-products and antioxidant activity decreased when
      assessed using the ORAC and beta-carotene bleaching assays. Analysis by MALDI-TOF
      MS revealed a considerable breakdown of peptides due to the action of
      gastrointestinal enzymes, mainly in samples cooked at 100 degrees C for 1h. In
      addition, 459 peptides derived from 57 proteins were identified and quantified
      using mass spectrometry in tandem, evidencing that peptides derived from collagen
      protein were responsible for the differences in antioxidant activities observed
      between the uncooked and cooked samples after digestion. The results show the
      potential of dry-cured ham bones as a source of antioxidant peptides that retain
      their bioactivity after household cooking preparations and gastrointestinal
      digestion.

PMID- 28578056
TI  - Advances in edible oleogel technologies - A decade in review.
AB  - Trans and saturated fat replacers/substitutes have been a tremendously active
      area of research for the food industry. Unlike polymers used for hydrogels,
      oleogels utilize small, amphiphilic molecules that self-assemble via highly
      specific, non-covalent interactions entrapping liquid oil via capillary forces.
      Edible applications of oleogels have replaced the need for trans unsaturated and
      saturated fatty acids to structure processed foods. These innovations mitigate
      the use of hardstock fats that are associated with deleterious health risks and
      negative consumer perception. Over the past decade, oleogels have made
      significant strides towards emulating desired sensory traits while maintaining
      healthy nutritional profile of the oil. Due to the rapid advancements in the past
      decade, the most promising technologies will be reviewed.

PMID- 28578057
TI  - Landmarks in the historical development of twenty first century food processing
      technologies.
AB  - Over a course of centuries, various food processing technologies have been
      explored and implemented to provide safe, fresher-tasting and nutritive food
      products. Among these technologies, application of emerging food processes (e.g.,
      cold plasma, pressurized fluids, pulsed electric fields, ohmic heating,
      radiofrequency electric fields, ultrasonics and megasonics, high hydrostatic
      pressure, high pressure homogenization, hyperbaric storage, and negative pressure
      cavitation extraction) have attracted much attention in the past decades. This is
      because, compared to their conventional counterparts, novel food processes allow
      a significant reduction in the overall processing times with savings in energy
      consumption, while ensuring food safety, and ample benefits for the industry.
      Noteworthily, industry and university teams have made extensive efforts for the
      development of novel technologies, with sound scientific knowledge of their
      effects on different food materials. The main objective of this review is to
      provide a historical account of the extensive efforts and inventions in the field
      of emerging food processing technologies since their inception to present day.

PMID- 28578058
TI  - Toralactone glycoside in Cassia obtusifolia mediates hepatoprotection via an Nrf2
      dependent anti-oxidative mechanism.
AB  - Cassia obtusifolia L. (Leguminosae) seeds are a well-known medicinal food in East
      Asia and are used to clear liver heat, sharpen vision, lubricate the intestines,
      and promote bowel movement. The aims of the present study were to identify the
      hepatoprotective components of C. obtusifolia seeds by bioactivity-guided
      isolation and to elucidate their mechanisms of action. Ten phenolic glycosides
      were isolated from the most active ethyl acetate fraction, and their chemical
      structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses. Among the isolated
      compounds, toralactone 9-O-gentiobioside (5) had the highest hepatoprotective
      efficacy against tert-butylhydroperoxide-induced cell death in HepG2 cells.
      Immunoblotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed that the
      hepatoprotective effects were exerted through nuclear factor erythroid-2-related
      factor 2 (Nrf2)-dependent antioxidative signaling. Together, these results
      provide insights into the effects of this medicinal plant as well as a basis for
      developing hepatoprotective agents as pharmaceuticals and/or nutraceuticals.

PMID- 28578059
TI  - Phenolic profile and content of sorghum grains under different irrigation
      managements.
AB  - Sorghum grain is widely consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, as a staple food
      due to its adaptation to harsh environments. The impact of irrigation regime:
      full irrigation (100%); deficit irrigation (50%); and severe deficit irrigation
      (25%) on phenolic profile and content of six sorghum grain genotypes was
      investigated by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array
      detection and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS). A
      total of 25 individual polyphenols were unequivocally or tentatively identified.
      Compared to the colored-grain genotypes, the white grained sorghum var. Liberty
      had a simpler polyphenol profile. The concentrations of the sorghum-specific 3
      deoxyanthocyanidins luteolinidin and apigeninidin, were higher under deficit
      irrigation compared to the other two regimes in all genotypes. These findings
      will be valuable for the selection of sorghum genotypes for grain production as
      human food under water deficit conditions, since polyphenol levels can affect the
      grain's nutritional value and health properties.

PMID- 28578060
TI  - The impact of fruit and soybean by-products and amaranth on the growth of
      probiotic and starter microorganisms.
AB  - The ability of different fruit by-products, okara, and amaranth flour, to support
      the growth of probiotic and non-probiotic strains was evaluated. The tests were
      conducted with three commercial starter cultures (Streptococcus thermophilus),
      ten probiotic strains (seven Lactobacillus spp. and three Bifidobacterium spp.
      strains), and two harmful bacteria representative of the intestinal microbiota
      (Escherichia coli and Clostridium perfringens). In vitro fermentability assays
      were performed using a modified MRS broth supplemented with different fruits
      (acerola, orange, passion fruit, and mango), and soy (okara) by-products or
      amaranth flour. Orange and passion-fruit by-products were the substrates that
      most promoted the growth of bacterial populations, including pathogenic strains.
      On the other hand, the acerola by-product was the substrate that showed the
      highest selectivity for beneficial bacteria, since the E. coli and Cl.
      perfringens populations were lower in the presence of this fruit by-product.
      Although the passion fruit by-product, okara, and amaranth stimulated the
      probiotic strains, the growth of the pathogenic strains studied was higher
      compared to other substrates. Different growth profiles were verified for each
      substrate when the different strains were compared. Although pure culture models
      do not reflect bacterial interaction in the host, this study reinforces the fact
      that the ability to metabolize different substrates is strain-dependent, and
      acerola, mango, and orange by-products are the substrates with the greatest
      potential to be used as prebiotic ingredients.

PMID- 28578061
TI  - Effects of the combination of omega-3 PUFAs and proanthocyanidins on the gut
      microbiota of healthy rats.
AB  - omega-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) reduce risk factors for
      cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and other pathologies that involve low-grade
      inflammation. They have recently been shown to exert complementary functional
      effects with proanthocyanidins. As the reduction of health-promoting gut bacteria
      such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria has been linked to a number of
      alterations in the host, the aim of this study was to determine whether PUFAs and
      proanthocyanidins also cooperate in maintaining well-balanced microbiota. To this
      end, rats were supplemented for 6months with eicosapentaenoic acid
      (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) 1:1 (16.6g/kg feed); proanthocyanidin-rich grape
      seed extract (GSE, 0.8g/kg feed); or both. Plasma adiponectin, cholesterol, and
      urine nitrites were measured. Gut bacterial subgroups were evaluated in fecal DNA
      by qRT-PCR. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were determined in feces by gas
      chromatography. Body and adipose tissue weights were found to be higher in the
      animals given omega-3 PUFAs, while their energy intake was lower. Plasma
      cholesterol was lower in omega-3 PUFA supplemented groups, while adiponectin and
      urine nitrites were higher. omega-3 PUFAs reduced the population of
      Lactobacillales and L. acidophilus after 6months of supplementation. GSE
      significantly reduced L. plantarum and B. longum. The combination of omega-3
      PUFAs and GSE maintained the health-promoting bacteria at levels similar to those
      of the control group. Acetic acid was increased by the omega-3 PUFA individual
      supplementation, while the combination with GSE kept this value similar to the
      control value. In conclusion, while individual supplementations with omega-3
      PUFAs or GSE modify the populations of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and
      microbial products (SCFAs), their combination maintains the standard proportions
      of these bacterial subgroups and their function while also providing the
      cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 PUFAs.

PMID- 28578062
TI  - Biotransformed citrus extract as a source of anti-inflammatory polyphenols:
      Effects in macrophages and adipocytes.
AB  - Chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity are preceded by increased
      macrophage infiltration in adipose tissue and greater secretion of pro
      inflammatory cytokines. We evaluated the anti-inflammatory potential of
      Biotransformed extract, and two control extracts: In Natura and Autoclaved. The
      assays were performed using a cellular model with RAW264.7, 3T3-L1 cells, and
      RAW264.7 and 3T3-L1 co-culture. The innovation of the study was the use of
      Biotransformed extract, a unique phenolic extract of a bioprocessed citrus
      residue. LPS stimulated RAW264.7 cells treated with the Biotransformed extract
      exhibited lower secretion of TNF-alpha and NO and lower protein expression of
      NFkappaB. In RAW264.7 and 3T3-L1 co-culture, treatment with 1.0mg/mL of the
      Biotransformed extract reduced secretion of TNF-alpha (30.7%) and IL-6 (43.4%).
      Still, the Biotransformed extract caused higher increase in adiponectin in
      relation to control extracts. When the co-culture received a LPS stimulus, the
      Autoclaved extract at 1.0mg/mL reduced IL-6 and TNF-alpha concentrations, and
      raised adiponectin. However, it was noteworthy that the Biotransformed extract
      was also able to significantly reduce IL-6 concentration while the Natural
      extract was not. The Biotransformed citrus extract evaluated in this study showed
      anti-inflammatory activity in macrophages and in co-culture, indicating that
      bioprocess of citrus residue can contribute to new product development with anti
      inflammatory potential.

PMID- 28578063
TI  - Aroma-related cross-modal interactions for sugar reduction in milk desserts:
      Influence on consumer perception.
AB  - Reformulation of industrialized products has been regarded as one of the most
      cost-effective strategies to reduce sugar intake. Although non-nutritive
      sweeteners have been extensively used to reduce the added sugar content of these
      products, increasing evidence about the existence of compensatory energy intake
      mechanisms makes it necessary to develop alternative strategies to achieve rapid
      sugar reductions. In this context, the aim of the present work was to evaluate
      aroma-related cross modal interactions for sugar reduction in vanilla milk
      desserts. In particular, the influence of increasing vanilla concentration and
      the joint increase of vanilla and starch concentration on consumer sensory and
      hedonic perception was assessed. Two studies with 100 consumers each were
      conducted, in which a total of 15 samples were evaluated. For each sample,
      consumers rated their overall liking and answered a check-all-that-apply (CATA)
      question comprising 12 flavour and texture terms. Sugar reduction caused
      significant changes in the flavour and texture characteristics of the desserts.
      An increase in vanilla concentration had a minor effect on their sensory
      characteristics. However, increasing both vanilla and starch concentration led to
      an increase in vanilla flavour and sweetness perception and reduced changes in
      consumer hedonic perception. These results showed the potential of aroma-related
      cross modal interactions for minimizing the sensory changes caused by sugar
      reduction. These strategies could contribute to product reformulation without the
      need to use non-nutritive sweeteners.

PMID- 28578064
TI  - Effect of liquid smoking on lipid hydrolysis and oxidation reactions during in
      vitro gastrointestinal digestion of European sea bass.
AB  - The effect of smoking using liquid smoke flavourings on the hydrolysis and
      oxidation of European sea bass lipids during in vitro digestion was investigated.
      The techniques used were 1H NMR and SPME-GC/MS. The former proved that liquid
      smoking does not influence the extent of lipolysis, but prevents those lipid
      oxidation reactions that occur during in vitro digestion of unsmoked samples,
      giving rise to cis,trans-conjugated dienes associated with hydroperoxy/hydroxy
      groups. SPME-GC/MS corroborated the results obtained by 1H NMR in relation to the
      antioxidant effect of smoking under gastrointestinal conditions. Smoked sea bass
      digests showed lower abundances of volatile oxidation markers derived from omega
      3 and omega-6 lipids than unsmoked ones. Moreover, the lowest values were found
      in the digests of sea bass samples smoked with the flavouring showing the highest
      phenolic content. For the first time, the bioaccessibility of smoke flavouring
      components was evidenced, some of them well-known for displaying antioxidant
      activity.

PMID- 28578065
TI  - Effect of salt content and type on emulsifying properties of hull soy soluble
      polysaccharides at acidic pH.
AB  - Hull soluble polysaccharide (HSPS) is a novel product consisting in a mixture of
      polysaccharides and proteins extracted from soy hulls by using a methodology
      based on the extraction of citric pectins. In this work we studied the effect of
      the addition of two different salts (NaCl and CaCl2) on the emulsifying
      properties of HSPS at acidic conditions. Low and high homogenization energies
      were used, obtaining coarse and fine emulsions, respectively. Mean droplet size,
      the stability against destabilizing processes (creaming, flocculation and
      coalescence) and the rheological properties of the emulsions were analyzed. Also,
      the rheology of the O/W interface was studied by using du Nouy ring geometry.
      Coarse HSPS emulsions were unstable to creaming, being more stable in the
      presence of salts. In contrast, fine HSPS emulsions showed long-term creaming
      stability similar to those performed with commercial citric pectin (CCP),
      although they differ in particle size distribution and flocculation degree. The
      presence of CaCl2 reduced the mean size of droplets in fine HSPS emulsions and
      improved their stability to flocculation and coalescence. Significant differences
      were observed in the rheological behavior of O/W emulsions and interfaces of HSPS
      and CCP with respect to the salt addition. Our results indicate that HSPS can be
      used in the formulation and stabilization of acidic O/W emulsions. Besides, HSPS
      generates emulsions with different characteristics than those obtained with
      citric pectins. The use of HSPS provides a suitable alternative in food
      engineering contributing to the exploitation and valorization of soy hulls, which
      represents an important waste material in soybean processing.

PMID- 28578066
TI  - Microbial metabolites profile during in vitro human colonic fermentation of
      breakfast menus consumed by Mexican school children.
AB  - The nutrition transition promotes the development of childhood obesity.
      Currently, Mexico is affected by this serious public health problem. The
      nutritional and functional characterization of a whole menu has a number of
      advantages over the study of single nutrients. Since breakfast is considered the
      most important meal of the day, this study aimed to evaluate the metabolite
      profile produced by in vitro human colonic fermentation of the isolated
      indigestible fraction (IF) from three different Mexican breakfast (M-B) menus
      (Modified "MM-B", traditional "TM-B", and alternative "AM-B"), previously
      identified as commonly consumed by Mexican schoolchildren in Nayarit State,
      Mexico. The M-B's consist of egg, corn tortilla, beans (higher in TM-B), sugar
      and chocolate powder (higher in AM-B) and milk, combined in different
      proportions. The IF in all breakfasts was about 4.7-5.6g/100g FW, with a
      relatively high content of protein (~21%), which might have negative
      physiological implications. Fermentation of IF from TM-B resulted in the largest
      pH decrease after 72h (pH=6.07), with a low short chain fatty acid (SCFA)
      production (0.75 to 47.23mmol/L), but greater relative concentration of other
      fatty acids (FA) (C7, C8, C9). Besides, 55 volatile compounds were detected in
      the fermentation media by SPME-GC-MS and three principal components (PC) were
      identified. PC1 was influenced by SCFA production, low FA esters production
      (<8C), and low volatile organic acids production. PC2 was influenced by the
      decrease in pH and an increase in antioxidant capacity (p<0.0001). These results
      suggest that the production of different metabolites in the luminal medium may
      affect the pH and antioxidant status in the colon. Fermentation of IF from TM-M,
      assessed after 48 and 72h, showed the highest correlation for PC2; the metabolic
      pattern registered for this IF maybe considered beneficial.

PMID- 28578067
TI  - In vitro uptake and immune functionality of digested Rosemary extract delivered
      through food grade vehicles.
AB  - The digestion, absorption, uptake and bioavailability of a rosemary supercritical
      fluid extract encapsulated in oil in water emulsion were studied. Two emulsions
      with opposite surface charge were prepared, containing 7% canola oil, and either
      2% lactoferrin or whey protein isolate. When absorption and uptake of carnosic
      acid and carnosol were followed on Caco-2 cell monolayers, there were no
      differences with protein type. However, when co-cultures of HT-29 MTX were
      employed, the presence of mucus caused a higher retention of carnosic acid in the
      apical layer for lactoferrin emulsions. The immune activity of the bioavailable
      fractions collected from cell absorption experiments was tested ex vivo on murine
      splenocytes. Although transport through the intestinal barrier models was low,
      the bioavailable fractions showed a significant effect on splenocytes
      proliferation. These results demonstrated the potential of using rosemary
      supercritical extract through protein stabilized oil in water emulsions, as a
      food with immunomodulatory functionality.

PMID- 28578068
TI  - Phenolic profile and fermentation patterns of different commercial gluten-free
      pasta during in vitro large intestine fermentation.
AB  - The fate of phenolic compounds, along with short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)
      production kinetics, was evaluated on six different commercial gluten-free (GF)
      pasta samples varying in ingredient compositions, focussing on the in vitro
      faecal fermentation after the gastrointestinal digestion. A general reduction of
      both total phenolics and reducing power was observed in all samples, together
      with a substantial change in phenolic profile over 24h of faecal fermentation,
      with differences among GF pasta samples. Flavonoids, hydroxycinnamics and lignans
      degraded over time, with a concurrent increase in low-molecular-weight phenolic
      acids (hydroxybenzoic acids), alkylphenols, hydroxybenzoketones and tyrosols.
      Interestingly, discriminant analysis also identified several alkyl derivatives of
      resorcinol as markers of the changes in phenolic profile during in vitro
      fermentation. Furthermore, degradation pathways of phenolics by intestinal
      microbiota have been proposed. Considering the total SCFAs and butyrate
      production during the in vitro fermentation, different fermentation kinetics were
      observed among GF pasta post-hydrolysis residues.

PMID- 28578069
TI  - Model studies on the formation of volatile compounds generated by a thermal
      treatment of steryl esters with different fatty acid moieties.
AB  - The consumption of plant sterols is reported to have a beneficial effects on
      human health, i.e. phytosterols are known for their cholesterol-lowering
      properties. Whereas, they are prone to oxidation and currently there is ongoing
      worldwide research aimed at the biological effect of phytosterol oxides. In this
      study volatile compounds formed during thermal degradation of stigmasteryl esters
      were identified. The research was conducted using standards of stigmasterol,
      fatty acids and stigmasteryl esters as well as fat enriched with stigmasteryl
      esters which were thermally treated at 60 degrees C and 180 degrees C for 12h.
      Volatile compounds were characterised by SPME-GC-MS. Among the volatiles formed
      during heating of stigmasteryl esters aldehydes, ketones, alcohols and
      hydrocarbons were found. The mechanism of the formation of volatile compounds
      from sterol esters was related to oxidation of steryl and fatty acid moieties. In
      particular, 2-methyl-3-pentanone and 5-ethyl-6-methyl-3-hepten-2-one were
      identified as unique degradation products formed from degradation of the steryl
      moiety specifically, and a mechanism of their formation was suggested. Both
      volatiles could be a good indicator of thermo-oxidative degradation of functional
      food products enriched in phytosterols and their esters.

PMID- 28578070
TI  - Comprehensive characterization of bioactive peptides from Buffalo (Bubalus
      bubalis) colostrum and milk fat globule membrane proteins.
AB  - Milk fat is dispersed in milk as small spherical globules stabilized in the form
      of emulsion by its surrounding membrane, often referred to as fat globule
      membrane (FGM). Buffalo, a major milking mammal of Asia and second most milking
      mammal across the globe presents physicochemical features different from that of
      other ruminant species containing higher content of lipids and proteins. The
      present study describes characterization of FGM proteins isolated from both
      buffalo milk and colostrum. A detailed proteomic analysis of peptides generated
      by in vitro gastrointestinal simulation digestion of buffalo milk and colostrum
      FGM fractions was performed by nLC-ESI MS/MS. The peptide based clustering of FGM
      proteins unravelled association of membrane proteins in fat transport, enzymatic
      activity, general transport, defence, cell signalling, membrane/protein
      trafficking protein synthesis/binding/folding including unknown functions. Gene
      annotation, STRING and YLoc analyses provided putative insights into major
      secretory pathways in milk and colostrum FGM peptides, interactive protein
      networks including their sub cellular localization. The peptides of milk and
      colostrum FGM offered cellular protection as powerful antioxidants indicated
      their promising perspectives in commercial formulations and nutraceuticals.

PMID- 28578071
TI  - Generalized dispersion analysis of arbitrarily cut monoclinic crystals.
AB  - Dispersion analysis is applicable to arbitrarily cut monoclinic crystals of
      unknown orientation in order to find the symmetry axis. By this it is possible to
      differentiate between the transition moments oriented parallel and normal to the
      b-axis and to determine the dielectric tensor functions of those two principal
      directions. Dispersion analysis of arbitrarily cut monoclinic crystals is based
      on an extension of the evaluation scheme developed for arbitrarily cut
      orthorhombic crystals. We present dispersion analysis of monoclinic crystals
      exemplarily on spodumene (LiAl(SiO3)2) and yttrium orthosilicate (Y2SiO5).

PMID- 28578072
TI  - Meal time behavior difficulties but not nutritional deficiencies correlate with
      sensory processing in children with autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food aversion and nutritional difficulties are common in children
      with autism spectrum disorder. AIM: To compare meal time behavior of children
      with autism to their typically developing siblings and to typical controls and to
      examine if sensory profiles can predict meal time behavior or nutritional
      deficiencies in the autism group.

PMID- 28578074
TI  - Ethics and subsequent use of electronic health record data.
AB  - The digital health landscape in the United States is evolving and electronic
      health record data hold great promise for improving health and health equity.
      Like many scientific and technological advances in health and medicine, there
      exists an exciting narrative about what we can do with the new technology, as
      well as reflection about what we should do with it based on what we value.
      Ethical reflections about the use of EHR data for research and quality
      improvement have considered the important issues of privacy and informed consent
      for subsequent use of data. Additional ethical aspects are important in the
      conversation, including data validity, patient obligation to participate in the
      learning health system, and ethics integration into training for all personnel
      who interact with personal health data. Attention to these ethical issues is
      paramount to our realizing the benefits of electronic health data.

PMID- 28578073
TI  - Identification of endocrine disrupting chemicals acting on human aromatase.
AB  - Human aromatase is the cytochrome P450 catalysing the conversion of androgens
      into estrogens playing a key role in the endocrine system. Due to this role, it
      is likely to be a target of the so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals, a
      series of compounds able to interfere with the hormone system with toxic effects.
      If on one side the toxicity of some compounds such as bisphenol A is well known,
      on the other side the toxic concentrations of such compounds as well as the
      effect of the many other molecules that are in contact with us in everyday life
      still need a deep investigation. The availability of biological assays able to
      detect the interaction of chemicals with key molecular targets of the endocrine
      system represents a possible solution to identify potential endocrine disrupting
      chemicals. Here the so-called alkali assay previously developed in our laboratory
      is applied to test the effect of different compounds on the activity of human
      aromatase. The assay is based on the detection of the alkali product that forms
      upon strong alkali treatment of the NADP+ released upon enzyme turnover. Here it
      is applied on human aromatase and validated using anastrozole and sildenafil as
      known aromatase inhibitors. Out of the small library of compounds tested,
      resveratrol and ketoconazole resulted to inhibit aromatase activity, while
      bisphenol A and nicotine were found to exert an inhibitory effect at relatively
      high concentrations (100MUM), and other molecules such as lindane and four
      plasticizers did not show any significant effect. These data are confirmed by
      quantification of the product estrone in the same reaction mixtures through
      ELISA. Overall, the results show that the alkali assay is suitable to screen for
      molecules that interfere with aromatase activity. As a consequence it can also be
      applied to other molecular targets of EDCs that use NAD(P)H for catalysis in a
      high throughput format for the fast screening of many different compounds as
      endocrine disrupting chemicals. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled:
      Cytochrome P450 biodiversity and biotechnology, edited by Erika Plettner,
      Gianfranco Gilardi, Luet Wong, Vlada Urlacher, Jared Goldstone.

PMID- 28578075
TI  - From evidence-based to hope-based medicine? Ethical aspects on conditional market
      authorization of and early access to new cancer drugs.
AB  - There is a strong patient demand for early access to potentially beneficial
      cancer drugs. In line with this authorization agencies like the European
      Medicines Agency are providing drugs with conditional market authorisation based
      on positive interim analyses. This implies that drugs are used with insecure
      evidence of efficacy and adverse side-effects. Several authors have pointed to
      ethical problems with such a system but up to date no indepth ethical analysis of
      this system is found which is the aim of this article. Drawing of the four
      generally accepted principles of medical ethics: beneficence, nonmaleficence,
      respect for autonomy and justice the ethical pros and cons of conditional market
      authorisation are analysed. From the perspective of beneficence and non
      maleficence it is found that the main problem is not risk of adverse side-effects
      to patients, but rather risk of less beneficial outcomes than what can be
      expected which could change incentives for patients' choice of treatment. This is
      also related to the extent to which patients might make an autonomous choice,
      especially taking into account problematic psychological attitudes and biases in
      medical decision-making. However, the main problem is related to justice and an
      equitable distribution of scarce health-care resources given the opportunity cost
      of drugs treatment. When using resources on cancer treatments which later might
      be found to be less efficacious than was first expected, other patients (in and
      outside the cancer field) are deprived of potentially more beneficial treatments
      even though their needs might be equally or more severe. At the same time,
      demanding more evidence has an ethical cost to patients in terms of depriving
      them of potential benefits in terms of reduced mortality and morbidity. In order
      to handle these ethical conflicts further research and analyses are required and
      it is suggested that pricing strategies and information requirements are
      alternatives to be further explored.

PMID- 28578076
TI  - beta1- and beta2-adrenergic receptor stimulation differ in their effects on PGC
      1alpha and atrogin-1/MAFbx gene expression in chick skeletal muscle.
AB  - Adrenaline changes expression of the genes encoding peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1alpha), which is known as a
      regulator of muscle size, and atrogin-1/muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx), which is a
      muscle-specific ubiquitin ligase. However, the subtype of beta-adrenergic
      receptor (beta-AR) involved in regulating these genes in skeletal muscle is not
      yet well defined. In this study, the effects of intraperitoneal injection of
      adrenaline and three beta1-3-AR selective agonists on chick skeletal muscle
      metabolism were examined, to evaluate the functions of beta-AR subtypes.
      Adrenaline decreased atrogin-1/MAFbx mRNA levels accompanied by an increase in
      PGC-1alpha mRNA and protein levels. However, among the three selective agonists,
      only the beta1-AR agonist, dobutamine, increased PGC-1alpha mRNA and protein
      levels, while the beta2-AR agonist, clenbuterol, suppressed atrogin-1/MAFbx mRNA
      levels. In addition, preinjection of the beta1-AR antagonist, acebutolol, and the
      beta2-AR antagonist, butoxamine, inhibited the adrenaline-induced increase in PGC
      1alpha mRNA levels and the decrease in atrogin-1/MAFbx mRNA levels, respectively.
      Compared with adrenaline administration, the beta3-AR agonist, BRL37344,
      decreased PGC-1alpha mRNA levels and increased atrogin-1/MAFbx mRNA levels. These
      results suggest that, in chick skeletal muscle, PGC-1alpha is induced via the
      beta1-AR, while atrogin-1/MAFbx is suppressed via the beta2-AR.

PMID- 28578077
TI  - Oral rehabilitation with implant-supported fixed dental prostheses of a patient
      with cleidocranial dysplasia.
AB  - This clinical report describes the oral rehabilitation with implant-supported
      fixed dental prostheses in the maxilla and mandible of a patient with
      cleidocranial dysplasia. Cone-beam computed tomography and a tilted implant
      protocol in the mandible helped to establish a conservative approach for bone
      preservation, prevent surgical complications, enable proper implant positioning
      to avoid anatomic structures, and support the fixed dental prostheses.

PMID- 28578078
TI  - Use it responsibly.

PMID- 28578079
TI  - Fielding questions of age and experience: Honesty is the best policy.

PMID- 28578080
TI  - Nitrogen-source preference in blueberry (Vaccinium sp.): Enhanced shoot nitrogen
      assimilation in response to direct supply of nitrate.
AB  - Blueberry (Vaccinium sp.) is thought to display a preference for the ammonium
      (NH4+) form over the nitrate (NO3-) form of inorganic nitrogen (N). This N-source
      preference has been associated with a generally low capacity to assimilate the
      NO3- form of N, especially within the shoot tissues. Nitrate assimilation is
      mediated by nitrate reductase (NR), a rate limiting enzyme that converts NO3- to
      nitrite (NO2-). We investigated potential limitations of NO3- assimilation in two
      blueberry species, rabbiteye (Vaccinium ashei) and southern highbush (Vaccinium
      corymbosum) by supplying NO3- to the roots, leaf surface, or through the cut
      stem. Both species displayed relatively low but similar root uptake rates for
      both forms of inorganic N. Nitrate uptake through the roots transiently increased
      NR activity by up to 3.3-fold and root NR gene expression by up to 4-fold.
      However, supplying NO3- to the roots did not increase its transport in the xylem,
      nor did it increase NR activity in the leaves, indicating that the acquired N was
      largely assimilated or stored within the roots. Foliar application of NO3-
      increased leaf NR activity by up to 3.5-fold, but did not alter NO3- metabolism
      related gene expression, suggesting that blueberries are capable of post
      translational regulation of NR activity in the shoots. Additionally, supplying
      NO3- to the cut ends of stems resulted in around a 5-fold increase in NR
      activity, a 10-fold increase in NR transcript accumulation, and up to a 195-fold
      increase in transcript accumulation of NITRITE REDUCTASE (NiR1) which codes for
      the enzyme catalyzing the conversion of NO2- to NH4+. These data indicate that
      blueberry shoots are capable of assimilating NO3- when it is directly supplied to
      these tissues. Together, these data suggest that limitations in the uptake and
      translocation of NO3- to the shoots may limit overall NO3- assimilation capacity
      in blueberry.

PMID- 28578081
TI  - Expectant management of gallbladder stones after endoscopic removal of common
      bile duct stones.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wait-and-see policy after endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) for common
      bile duct (CBD) stones in patients with concomitant gallbladder stones may lead
      to recurrent biliary complications. The aim of this study was to assess the short
      and long-term results of wait-and-see policy in patients with intact gallbladder
      after endoscopic clearance of CBD stones. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January
      1999 to December 2014 a total of 181 consecutive patients with intact gallbladder
      underwent ES for CBD stones. The main measures of outcome were long-term biliary
      complications, biliary related mortality, CBD stone recurrence and need for
      surgical interventions. Secondary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day
      morbidity. Clinical data were retrospectively collected from hospital records and
      from the National Registry of Death. RESULTS: During the median follow-up of 3.9
      years (IQR 1.6-6.6) late biliary complications were observed in 24 (13.8%)
      patients. Cumulative biliary related morbidity at 3 and 5 years was 7.6% and
      10.8%, respectively. CBD stone recurrence was observed in 9 (5.2%) patients. On
      demand cholecystectomy was performed in 6 (3.3%) patients. 30-day mortality was
      3.9% and 30-day morbidity 9.4%. Overall cumulative mortality rate at 3 and 5
      years after ES was 31.4% and 49.7%, respectively. Long-term biliary related
      mortality was 1.7%. No significant difference in long term complications or
      biliary mortality was observed between patients< 75 or >=75 years of age.
      CONCLUSION: Prophylactic cholecystectomy after ES has been shown to reduce
      mortality even in high-risk patients. In our series late biliary related
      mortality and morbidity were relatively low, because a considerable number of
      patients died from non-biliary related causes.However, most biliary-related
      events seem to occur evenly during the follow-up after ES. A prompt risk
      assesment and consideration of surgical treatment during index admission may
      prevent late biliary -related complications.

PMID- 28578082
TI  - An updated comparison of high- and low-viscosity cement vertebroplasty in the
      treatment of osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral compression fractures: A
      retrospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study mainly aimed to evaluate complications of cement leakage
      for osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral compression fractures by PVP using HVC,
      and access the clinical efficacy. METHODS: Between May 2013 and June 2015, 66
      patients with osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral compression fractures, who
      underwent PVP (36 HVC and 30 LVC) in our hospital, were enrolled. Cement leakage,
      Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), refracture of the
      cemented vertebrae, and adjacent vertebral fractures were evaluated. The follow
      up time was 1 year. RESULTS: The overall cement leakage rate was 30.55% in the
      HVC group, lower than 77.77% obtained in the LVC group (P = 0.00). The incidence
      rates of cement leakage into paravertebral area (P = 0.02) and vein (P = 0.04) in
      the HVC group were significantly lower than those of the LVC group; however, no
      differences were found for disc space (P = 0.72) and intraspinal space (P =
      0.58). There were no differences in VAS, ODI, refracture of cemented vertebrae,
      and adjacent vertebral fracture between the two groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      PVP using HVC not only can reduce cement leakage, especially in the paravertebral
      area and peripheral vein, but also has satisfactory clinical effect.

PMID- 28578083
TI  - Lasagna plots to visualize results in surgical studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A lasagna plot is a graphical tool that can display multiple
      longitudinal outcomes. To our knowledge, lasagna plots have not been used in
      publications of surgical studies before. The objective of this study was to
      demonstrate the results of surgical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with
      lasagna plots in order to assess whether this can lead to new observations of the
      data presented in the original studies. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Lasagna plots were
      created with R for an RCT comparing endovascular and open repair for patients
      with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AJAX trial), an RCT comparing
      laparoscopy or open surgery combined with either fast track or standard care for
      patients with colon cancer (LAFA trial) and an RCT comparing preoperative biliary
      drainage and early surgery for patients with pancreatic cancer (DROP trial).
      RESULTS: Regarding the AJAX trial, the original article had reported the rate of
      outcomes at 30 days after repair in two tables. The plots additionally
      demonstrated the moments of occurrence, increase and decrease of multiple
      outcomes such as renal replacement therapy and occurrence of death within one
      plot. These observations were not presented in the original article. The lasagna
      plots of the LAFA and DROP trial revealed similar new observations on multiple
      longitudinal outcomes. CONCLUSION: By revealing new observations of the
      previously published data, lasagna plots generate new hypotheses and theories
      regarding the outcomes. As such, lasagna plots may be a useful addition to
      traditional tables and figures and could improve the interpretation of results.

PMID- 28578084
TI  - A novel surgical strategy for secondary hyperparathyroidism: Purge
      parathyroidectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study was intended to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of
      purge parathyroidectomy (PPTX) for patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism
      (SHPT). METHODS: The "seed, environment, and soil" medical hypothesis was first
      raised, following review of the literatures, to demonstrate the possible causes
      of persistence or recurrence of SHPT after parathyroidectomy. Subsequently, the
      novel surgical strategy of PPTX was proposed, which involves comprehensive
      resection of the fibro-fatty tissues, including visible or invisible parathyroid,
      within the region surrounded by the thyroid cartilage, bilateral carotid artery
      sheath, and the brachiocephalic artery. The perioperative information and
      clinical outcomes of patients who underwent PPTX from June 2016 to December 2016
      were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, PPTX was performed safely in nine patients with
      SHPT from June 2016 to December 2016. The operative time for PPTX ranged from 95
      to 135 min, and blood loss ranged from 20 to 40 mL. No patients with
      perioperative death, bleeding, convulsions, or recurrent laryngeal nerve injury
      were reported. The preoperative concentration of PTH ranged from 1062 to 2879
      pg/mL, and from 12.35 to 72.69 pg/mL on the first day after surgery. In total, 37
      parathyroid glands were resected. The postoperative pathologic examination showed
      that supernumerary or ectopic parathyroid tissues were found within the "non
      parathyroid" tissues in three patients. No cases encountered persistence or
      recurrence of SHPT, or severe hypocalcemia during the follow-up period.
      CONCLUSION: PPTX involves comprehensive resection of supernumerary and ectopic
      parathyroid tissues, which may provide a more permanent means of reducing PTH
      levels.

PMID- 28578085
TI  - Assault in children admitted to trauma centers: Injury patterns and outcomes from
      a 5-year review of the national trauma data bank.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: While assault is commonly reported or suspected in children with
      traumatic wounds, a recent overview of these injuries, especially those requiring
      trauma surgery consultation is lacking in the literature. OBJECTIVES: Explore the
      incidence, demographics and injury patterns of children presenting to trauma
      centers following an assault. DESIGN: Retrospective review of the National Trauma
      Data Bank 2007 to 2011. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Subjects up to 18 years old
      with "assault" reported as the intent of injury. Patients were divided into
      infants (<2 years), young children (2-5 years), children (6-11 years), and
      adolescents (12-18 years). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Mechanism of injury,
      injury severity and mortality based on age groups and race. RESULTS: Of 609,207
      children, 58,299 (9.6%) were victims of an assault. The median age was 16 years
      and 81% were male, with a median injury severity score (ISS) of 8. The majority
      of patients were adolescents (76%), followed by infants (17%) and young children
      (4%). There was a stepwise increase in the proportion of assaulted Black children
      with increasing age (23.2% for infants and up to 46.7% for adolescents, trend p <
      0.01, effect size: 0.175) while the opposite applied for White children (46.0%
      for infants and down to 19.5% for adolescents, trend p < 0.01, effect size: 
      0.230). With increasing age, White subjects had the highest trend of being
      assaulted during an unarmed fight or brawl (p < 0.01, effect size: 0.393), while
      for Black victims the highest trend was noted for assault with a firearm (p <
      0.01, effect size: 0.323). Almost 2 out of 3 infants sustained severe head trauma
      (59%). The overall mortality was 8%, highest among young children, where it
      reached 16% (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Up to 10% of children admitted following
      trauma are victims of assault with traumatic brain injuries predominant in
      infants and firearm injuries predominant in adolescents. Injury patterns largely
      correlate to age and race. Assault in children is associated with a high
      mortality risk. These data highlight the magnitude of the problem and calls for
      further involvement of trauma surgeons to improve outcomes, bring awareness and
      promote preventative strategies to eliminate assault in children.

PMID- 28578086
TI  - Is intramedullary fixation of displaced midshaft clavicle fracture superior to
      plate fixation? Evidence from a systematic review of discordant meta-analyses.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An increasing number of meta-analyses comparing intramedullary
      fixation (IF) with plate fixation (PF) for displaced midshaft clavicle fracture
      have been reported, but the inconsistent results obtained might confuse decision
      making. We systematically reviewed discordant meta-analyses for assisting the
      decision-maker in interpreting and selecting amongst discordant meta-analyses and
      providing surgical recommendations for displaced midshaft clavicle fracture
      according to currently best available evidence. METHODS: Meta-analyses on IF and
      PF for displaced midshaft clavicle fracture were identified by searching PubMed,
      Emabase and the Cochrane Library. A review of meta-analysis quality and data
      extraction was individually conducted by two reviewers. The meta-analysis
      providing the best available evidence was identified using the Jadad decision
      algorithm. RESULTS: Nine studies were included, five of which were of Level-II
      evidence and four of which were of Level-III evidence. These meta-analyses scored
      from 6 to 10 according to the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews
      instrument. With respect to the Jadad decision algorithm, the best meta-analysis
      was chosen depending upon publication characteristics and methodology of primary
      studies, language restrictions, and whether data on individual patients were
      analysed. A meta-analysis incorporating more randomised controlled trials was
      eventually selected. The best available evidence indicated that the differences
      between IF and PF were not significant in terms of shoulder function or the rate
      of treatment failure. However, IF significantly decreased the operative time and
      the rate of non-operative complications, especially the rate of infection.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on the best available evidence, IF may be superior to PF for
      treating displaced midshaft clavicle fracture.

PMID- 28578087
TI  - Role of antioxidant defence, renal toxicity markers and inflammatory cascade in
      disease progression of acute pyelonephritis in experimental rat model.
AB  - Urinary tract infections are the most common bacterial infections affecting
      millions of people each year worldwide. The animal model provides an excellent
      and suitable system for studying cystitis and pyelonephritis caused by
      Escherichia coli and other uropathogens. Using this established model, we
      evaluate the role of antioxidant defence system, renal injury markers, and blood
      parameters in the diseases progression during Escherichia coli infection on 0th
      day, 12h and 7th day. The antioxidant enzymes like SOD, CAT, GSH, GPx, GR levels
      were evaluated. The blood parameters like AST, ALT, ALP, Total protein, BUN,
      creatinine level were estimated in infection model. The relative organ weights,
      anti microbial status of kidney, CRP, WBC count were done for the evaluation of
      inflammatory response associated with the infection. The oxidative stress marker
      like MDA was also evaluated. Histopathological analysis of renal tissue provides
      direct vision to tissue damage. The antioxidant status of renal tissue was
      decreased during the 7th day of infection. Likewise, renal toxicity markers were
      significantly increased during bacterial infection. The inflammatory markers like
      CRP, WBC count and oxidative stress marker like MDA were significantly increased
      by the infection on 7th day. The histopathology of renal tissue also reveals the
      inflammation and tissue damage associated with acute pyelonephritis.

PMID- 28578088
TI  - Immune response in bovine neosporosis: Protection or contribution to the
      pathogenesis of abortion.
AB  - Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite with a preference for cattle and dogs as
      hosts. When N. caninum infection occurs in cattle it induces abortion, bovine
      neosporosis being a main cause of abortion worldwide. In dairy cattle, the
      economic burden of neosporosis-associated abortion is so great that it might
      results in closure of a farm. However, not all infected cows abort and it is not
      yet understood why this occurs. At present there is no effective treatment or
      vaccine. This review provides insights on how immune response against the
      parasite determines protection or contribution to abortion. Aspects on markers of
      risk of abortion are also discussed. Humoral immune responses are not protective
      against N. caninum but seropositivity and antibody level can be good markers for
      a diagnosis of bovine neosporosis and its associated abortion risk. In addition,
      humoral mechanisms against N. caninum infection and abortion differ in pure-breed
      and cross-breed pregnant dairy and beef cattle. Concentrations of Pregnancy
      Associated glycoprotein -2 (PAG-2) can also be used to predict abortion. A
      partially protective immune response encompasses increased IFN-gamma expression,
      which has to be counterbalanced by other cytokines such as IL-12 and IL-10,
      especially towards the end of pregnancy. Although IFN-gamma is required to limit
      parasite proliferation a critical threshold of the IFN-gamma response is also
      required to limit adverse effects on pregnancy. In clinical terms, it may be
      stated that IFN-gamma production and cross-breed pregnancy can protect Neospora
      infected dairy cows against abortion.

PMID- 28578089
TI  - Virulence genes, Shiga toxin subtypes, major O-serogroups, and phylogenetic
      background of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains isolated from cattle
      in Iran.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the virulence potential of the isolated
      bovine STEC for humans in Iran. In this study a collection of STEC strains (n =
      50) had been provided via four stages, including sampling from feces of cattle,
      E. coli isolation, molecular screening of Shiga toxin (stx) genes, and saving the
      STEC strains from various geographical areas in Iran. The STEC isolates were
      subjected to stx-subtyping, O-serogrouping, and phylo-grouping by conventional
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Occurrence of stx1 (52%) and stx2 (64%) was not
      significantly different (p = 0.1), and 16% of isolates carried both stx1 and
      stx2, simultaneously. In addition, 36% and 80% of the isolates were positive for
      eae and ehxA, respectively. Molecular subtyping showed that stx1a (52%), stx2a
      (44%), stx2c (44%), and stx2d (30%) were the most prevalent subtypes; two
      combinations stx2a/stx2c and stx2c/stx2d coexisted in 18% and 10% of STEC
      strains, respectively. Three important non-O157 serogroups, including O113 (20%),
      O26 (12%), and O111 (10%), were predominant, and none of the isolates belonged to
      O157. Importantly, one O26 isolate carried stx1, stx2, eae and ehxA and revealed
      highly virulent stx subtypes. Moreover, all the 21 serogrouped strains belonged
      to the B1 phylo-type. Our study highlights the significance of non-O157 STEC
      strains carrying highly pathogenic virulence genes in cattle population as the
      source of this pathogen in Iran. Since non-O157 STEC strains are not routinely
      tried in most diagnostic laboratories, majority of the STEC-associated human
      infections appear to be overlooked in the clinical settings.

PMID- 28578090
TI  - Genotyping, antimicrobial resistance and virulence factor gene profiles of
      vancomycin resistance Enterococcus faecalis isolated from blood culture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enterococcus spp. is the common of intestinal micro flora in humans
      but nowadays this gram-positive bacterium causes the variety of nosocomial
      infections. Resistance to antibiotic and also, presence of different virulence
      genes in the enterococcus spp. can change it to problematic microorganisms in the
      health care centers. The aim of this study was determined the genotyping,
      antimicrobial resistance and virulence factor gene profiles of vancomycin
      resistance Enterococcus faecalis isolated from blood culture. METHODS: In this
      study, enterococcus isolated from BACTEC was collected and antibiotic
      susceptibility testing was done according to CLSI recommendation. Important
      virulence genes and vancomyci resistance genes were detected by PCR and molecular
      typing was performed by RAPD PCR assay. RESULTS: Nine enterococcus collected from
      194 positive BACTEC and seven out of nine were vancomycin-resistant enterococcus
      (VRE). vanA gene observed in all VRE and none of strains carried vanB and vanC
      genes. efbaA and gelE virulence factors have been detected in all strains. ace,
      esp, and cyl virulence factors genes harbored in two, seven and eight isolates
      respectively. asaI was not detected in any strains. All seven VRE isolates were
      related to the one specific molecular type and two different molecular types
      observed in the two vancomycin susceptible enterococci according to molecular
      epidemiology results. CONCLUSION: More prevalence of the VRE in enterococcus
      isolated from BACTEC is so important and on the other hand high genetic
      relationship in the isolated VRE can be very considerable for nosocomial
      infection committee in the hospital.

PMID- 28578091
TI  - In vitro assessment of Argemone mexicana, Taraxacum officinale, Ruta chalepensis
      and Tagetes filifolia against Haemonchus contortus nematode eggs and infective
      (L3) larvae.
AB  - Argemone mexicana, Taraxacum officinale, Ruta chalepensis and Tagetes filifolia
      are plants with deworming potential. The purpose of this study was to evaluate
      methanolic extracts of aerial parts of these plants against Haemonchus contortus
      eggs and infective larvae (L3) and identify compounds responsible for the
      anthelmintic activity. In vitro probes were performed to identify the
      anthelmintic activity of plant extracts: egg hatching inhibition (EHI) and larvae
      mortality. Open column Chromatography was used to bio-guided fractionation of the
      extract, which shows the best anthelmintic effect. The lethal concentration to
      inhibit 50% of H. contortus egg hatching or larvae mortality (LC50) was
      calculated using a Probit analysis. Bio-guided procedure led to the recognition
      of an active fraction (TF11) mainly composed by 1) quercetagitrin, 2) methyl
      chlorogenate and chlorogenic acid. Quercetagitrin (1) and methyl chlorogenate (2)
      did not show an important EHI activity (3-14%) (p < 0.05); however, chlorogenic
      acid (3) showed 100% of EHI (LC50 248 MUg/mL) (p < 0.05). Chlorogenic acid is
      responsible of the ovicidal activity and it seems that, this compound is reported
      for the first time with anthelmintic activity against a parasite of importance in
      sheep industry.

PMID- 28578092
TI  - Construction of human MASP-2-CCP1/2SP, CCP2SP, SP plasmid DNA nanolipoplexes and
      the effects on tuberculosis in BCG-infected mice.
AB  - The lectin pathway, one of the complement cascade systems, provides the primary
      line of defense against invading pathogens. The serine protease of MASP-2 plays
      an essential role in complement activation of the lectin pathway. The C-terminal
      segment of MASP-2 is comprised of the CCP1-CCP2-SP domains, and is the crucial
      catalytic segment. However, what is the effect of CCP1-CCP2-SP domains in
      controlling chronic infection is unknown. In order to evaluate the potential
      impact of CCP1-CCP2-SP domains on tuberculosis, we constructed the human MASP-2
      CCP1/2SP, CCP2SP and SP recombinant plasmids, and delivered these plasmids by DNA
      DOTAP:cholesterol cationic nanolipoplexes to BCG-infected mice. After 21 days
      post DNA-DOTAP:chol nanolipoplexes application, we analyzed bacteria loads of
      pulmonary, pathology of granuloma, lymphocyte subpopulations. The C3a, C4a and
      MASP-2 levels in serum were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
      Compared to the control group that received GFP DNA-DOTAP:chol nanolipoplexes,
      MASP-2 CCP1/2SP DNA-DOTAP:chol nanolipoplexes treated group showed significantly
      enlarged pulmonary granulomas lesion (P < 0.05) and did not reduce bacteria loads
      in the lung tissue (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the levels of C3a in serum were
      decreased (P < 0.05), the number and percentage of PD1+ and Tim3+ cells subgroups
      were increased in BCG-infected mice after treated with MASP-2 CCP1/2SP DNA
      DOTAP:chol nanolipoplexes (P < 0.05). But, there was no statistical difference in
      the serum C4a and MASP-2 level among DNA nanolipoplexes treated groups (P >
      0.05). These findings provided experimental evidence that MASP-2 CCP1/2SP DNA
      nanolipoplexes shown the negative efficacy in controlling Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis infection, and displayed a potential role of down-regulating T-cell
      mediated immunity in tuberculosis.

PMID- 28578094
TI  - Salmonella Heidelberg: Genetic profile of its antimicrobial resistance related to
      extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs).
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the phenotypic and genotypic profile
      of antimicrobial susceptibility and the possible involvement of extended spectrum
      beta-lactamases (ESBLs) in the resistance profile of Salmonella Heidelberg (SH)
      isolated from chicken meat. We used 18 SH isolates from chicken meat produced in
      2013 in the state of Parana, Southern Brazil. The isolates were submitted to disk
      diffusion tests and from these results it was possible to determine the number of
      isolates considered multiresistant and the index of multiple antimicrobial
      resistance (IRMA) against ten antimicrobials routinely used in human and
      veterinary medicine. It was considered multidrug resistant the isolate that
      showed resistance to three or more classes of antibiotics. Another test performed
      was the disc-approximation in order to investigate interposed zones of
      inhibition, indicative of ESBLs production. In the isolates that presented
      multidrug resistance (18/18), a search of resistance genes involved in the
      production of ESBLs was performed using PCR: blaCMY-2, blaSHV-1, blaTEM-1, blaCTX
      M2, blaOXA-1, blaPSE-1 and AmpC. The overall antimicrobial resistance was 80.55%.
      The highest levels of resistance were observed for nalidixic acid and ceftiofur
      (100%). The most commonly resistance pattern found (42.1%) was A (penicillin
      cephalosporin-quinolone-tetracycline). The results were negative for ghost zone
      formation, indicative of ESBLs. However, PCR technique was able to detect
      resistance genes via ESBLs where the blaTEM-1 gene showed the highest
      amplification (83.33%), and the second most prevalent genes were blaCMY-2
      (38.88%) and AmpC gene (38.88%). The blaOXA-1 and blaPSE-1 genes were not
      detected. These results are certainly of concern since SH is becoming more
      prevalent in the South of Brazil and able to cause severe disease in immune
      compromised individuals, showing high antimicrobial resistance to those drugs
      routinely used in the treatment and control of human and animal salmonellosis.

PMID- 28578093
TI  - Direct bacterial loop-mediated isothermal amplification detection on the
      pathogenic features of the nosocomial pathogen - Methicillin resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus strains with respiratory origins.
AB  - Loop-mediated isothermal amplification based detection assays using bacterial
      culture or colony for direct detection of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus(MRSA) had been developed and evaluated, followed by its extensive
      application on a large scale of clinical MRSA isolated from respiratory origins,
      including nasal swabs and sputums. Six primers, including outer primers, inner
      primers and loop primers, were specifically designed for recognizing eight
      distinct sequences on four targets: 16SrRNA, femA, mecA and orfX. Twenty-seven
      reference strains were used to develop, evaluate and optimize this assay. Then, a
      total of 532 clinical MRSA isolates were employed for each detected targets. And
      the results were determined through both visual observation of the color change
      by naked eye and electrophoresis. The specific of each primer had been confirmed,
      and the optimal amplification was obtained under 65  degrees C for 40 min. The
      limit of detections (LOD) of bacteria culture LAMP assays were determined to be
      104 CFU/ml for 16S rRNA, femA, as well as orfX and 105 CFU/ml for mecA,
      respectively. The established novel assays on MRSA detection may provide new
      strategies for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens.

PMID- 28578095
TI  - Pseudohypophosphatemia associated with high-dose liposomal amphotericin B
      therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypophosphatemia is commonly observed in critically ill patients.
      Inorganic phosphorus is quantified by spectrophotometric measurement of a
      phosphomolybdate complex, a method with multiple documented interferents. Our
      clinical laboratory was contacted to investigate a case of asymptomatic
      hypophosphatemia in a patient receiving high-dose liposomal amphotericin B
      therapy (L-AMB). METHODS: In vitro experiments were performed by spiking L-AMB
      into residual plasma specimens. Phosphate was measured on the Beckman Coulter AU
      and Ortho Diagnostics Vitros instruments. RESULTS: When measured on the AU,
      phosphate in plasma with approximately 250mcg/mL of L-AMB demonstrated a median
      negative bias of 3.45mg/dL relative to unspiked samples. In contrast, Vitros
      phosphate measurements demonstrated excellent agreement for specimens with and
      without L-AMB (median bias -0.2mg/dL). CONCLUSIONS: High L-AMB concentrations
      induced a significant negative bias on phosphate measured by the AU assay, but
      did not affect the Vitros assay. Laboratorians and clinicians should be aware of
      this phenomenon in patients receiving L-AMB who develop unexplained
      hypophosphatemia.

PMID- 28578096
TI  - Total hip arthroplasty revision by dual-mobility acetabular cup cemented in a
      metal reinforcement: A 62 case series at a minimum 5 years' follow-up.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) requires bone reconstruction in case
      of severe acetabular injury, with risk of dislocation, especially
      postoperatively. Dual-mobility cups have proved effective in preventing
      dislocation in THA revision for instability, but their behavior when cemented in
      a metal reinforcement has been little studied. OBJECTIVES: The present study
      assessed results for a dual-mobility cup cemented in a metal reinforcement, in
      terms of aseptic loosening and postoperative instability. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      single-center continuous series of 62 patients receiving such an assembly in THA
      revision was assessed retrospectively at a minimum 5 years' follow-up. Failure
      due to aseptic loosening or instability and implant survival at last follow-up
      were analyzed. RESULTS: Radiological and clinical analysis was performed at a
      mean 77 months' follow-up. Mean Merle-d'Aubigne-Postel score was 14, Harris score
      73 and Oxford-12 score 23.9 at last follow-up. Complications comprised 5 cases of
      loosening and 2 of dislocation. Loosening risk was significantly greater in case
      of<2mm cement thickness between cup and reinforcement. Eight-year infection-free
      survival was 91.9%. DISCUSSION: The present clinical results were comparable to
      those in series using the same kind of assembly; the dislocation rate was low,
      but the rate of aseptic loosening was higher than reported elsewhere. Cement
      thickness between cup and reinforcement was a determining factor for stability.
      Cup design may also be relevant to loosening. This technique seemed to be a good
      option in THA revision with severe bone loss. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV,
      retrospective study.

PMID- 28578097
TI  - The concept of a waiting period for preoperative patient consent: Prospective
      study of 51 shoulder arthroscopy cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The French Code of Public Health (CSP) does not explicitly require
      that patients should be given a certain amount of time to think about a
      procedure, except for cosmetic surgery, where 15 days is required (Art. L 6322-2
      CSP). We hypothesized that patients require a waiting period during their
      decision-making process for scheduled shoulder arthroscopy procedure. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: This prospective observational study of 51 patients analysed the
      concept of a waiting period based on a 10-item questionnaire. A comparative
      statistical approach was used and the P values were calculated using a paired
      Wilcoxon rank-sum test. RESULTS: Of the 51 patients, 42 (82%) rejected the
      concept of a waiting period before the procedure and 37 patients (73%) did not
      want a mandatory waiting period imposed by law. DISCUSSION: This study looked at
      the decision-making process during scheduled orthopaedic surgery and
      differentiated between the conscious and unconscious approach corresponding to an
      active and passive waiting period. A waiting period does not allow patients to
      make a conceptually deliberative decision that conforms to the criteria defined
      by the French Health Authority. This study rejects the need for a mandatory
      waiting period imposed on surgeons and patients as it does not integrate itself
      into the informative model of ethical decision-making for scheduled shoulder
      arthroscopy. TYPE OF STUDY: Prospective, observational; level of evidence IV.

PMID- 28578098
TI  - Hip-spine syndrome: A cadaveric analysis between osteoarthritis of the lumbar
      spine and hip joints.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Authors have recently proposed the concept of "hip-spine syndrome",
      however there exists limited evidence available to differentiate whether these
      concomitant arthritides are due to anatomic/structural causes, or
      systemic/metabolic effects. Exploring this relationship has important
      implications during the evaluation and treatment of both spine and hip disorders
      a common clinical presentation of many patients. The purpose of this experiment
      was to investigate the individual contribution of hip arthritis towards the
      development of spine arthritis, with knee arthritis also being analyzed as a
      negative (systemic) control. HYPOTHESIS: Hip and spine arthritis are caused by
      both metabolic and anatomic causes. METHODS: A large, well-organized osteological
      database was queried, and osteoarthritis of the spine, hip, and knee joints was
      quantified using a validated scoring criteria. Six hundred and twenty-five
      specimens were chosen for analysis. Multivariate linear regression models were
      created to quantify the independent contributions of age, gender, race, height,
      and arthritis of the spine and hip joints. RESULTS: Age was the strongest
      predictor of arthritis at each site (standardized betas>0.281, P<0.001 for all).
      Hip arthritis was a stronger predictor of spine arthritis than was knee arthritis
      (standardized betas 0.215 and 0.155, respectively, P<0.001 for both). Spine
      arthritis was also a stronger predictor of hip arthritis than was knee arthritis
      (standardized betas 0.232 and 0.173, P<0.001 for both). CONCLUSIONS:
      Anatomic/structural influences about the lumbosacral-pelvic junction contribute
      towards the development of arthritis that is separate from any systemic/metabolic
      effects. Surgeons performing total hip arthroplasty should remain aware of these
      relationships, although future research is necessary regarding optimal surgical
      treatment of these patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A (cadaveric study).

PMID- 28578100
TI  - Risk factors associated to bilateral rotator cuff tears.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Overuse, micro-traumas, and impingement, isolated or combined, are
      the more common etiological factors for rotator cuff tears. Metabolic disorders
      (diabetes, adiposity, hypercholesterolemia), hypertension, cigarette smoking and
      a genetic predisposition are considered risk factors. However, no study has
      compared the prevalence of these risk factors in subjects with bilateral and
      monolateral tears. HYPOTHESIS: Controlateral tears can be observed in patients
      with symptomatic monolateral rotator cuff lesions, especially in those with
      comorbidities. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In patients with symptomatic rotator cuff
      tear, the controlateral shoulders were evaluated by means of ultrasound imaging.
      Age, BMI, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, cigarette smoking, work
      habits were registered. Risk factors in subjects with bilateral tears were
      compared with those with monolateral lesions. RESULTS: Of the 180 subjects
      recruited, 69 had a tear in the controlateral shoulder. Higher age and BMI
      values, heavy repetitive work and diabetes were significantly prevalent in these
      patients. At multivariate analysis, these factors were independently related to a
      higher probability to detect bilateral tears. DISCUSSION: Metabolic risk factors
      are more heavily involved in presence of bilateral rotator cuff tears, in
      comparison to monolateral. TYPE OF STUDY: Original study. LEVEL OF PROOF: IV.

PMID- 28578101
TI  - Nanoengineered silica: Properties, applications and toxicity.
AB  - Silica nanoparticles are widely used for biomedical purposes, but also in
      cosmetic products, food, the car industry, paints, etc. Considering their mega
      production, one should not ignore their potential hazardous effects on humans,
      flora and fauna. Human exposure to nanosilica can occur unintentionally in daily
      life and in industrial settings. Here, we review the common methods of silica
      nanoparticle production and its applications in biomedical investigations and
      nanotoxicology. The use of silica nanoparticles in biomedicine is discussed in
      terms of drug delivery, their responsiveness to different stimuli, theranostic
      applications and their uses in the food and cosmetic industries. Advantages and
      limitations of silica nanoparticles are presented and the effects of these
      nanoparticles are discussed in relation to their route of entry and impact on
      biochemical and epigenetic processes in human and animal cells.

PMID- 28578099
TI  - Free vascularised fibular flap harvesting in children: An analysis of donor-site
      morbidity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The free vascularised fibular flap (FVFF) is widely used to treat
      bone defects, although it must be harvested from a healthy site. The objective of
      this study was to assess clinical morbidity and radiological changes at the FVFF
      donor site in children. HYPOTHESIS: Distal fibular stabilisation using a tibial
      strut decreases the prevalence of valgus ankle deformity. MATERIAL AND METHOD:
      Thirty-one children managed at two centres between 1994 and 2014 were included.
      Mean age was 8.9 years (range, 2-14 years) and mean follow-up was 6.6 years
      (range, 2-21 years). Early and delayed complications were evaluated. RESULTS: Of
      the 17 early complications, 82.4% resolved fully within 7 months. Valgus ankle
      deformity developed in 6 (19.4%) patients. Age-residual fibula index under 16 was
      not significantly associated with valgus ankle deformity, although the P-value
      was borderline (P<0.058). Residual distal fibula length did not predict valgus
      ankle deformity. Three techniques were used for fibular reconstruction:
      syndesmotic screw, tibial strut, and both. None of these techniques prevented the
      occurrence of valgus ankle deformity. DISCUSSION: Clinical donor-site morbidity
      after FVFF harvesting, although noticeable, usually resolved promptly. Taken
      alone, an age-residual fibula index under 16 did not predict valgus ankle
      deformity. We recommend a distal tibio-fibular quadricortical syndesmotic screw
      or combined syndesmotic screw-tibial strut fixation to prevent valgus ankle
      deformity, which is common when a tibial strut is used alone. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      IV.

PMID- 28578105
TI  - Aberrant expression of beta-catenin in CD4+ T cells isolated from primary
      progressive multiple sclerosis patients.
AB  - Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PP-MS) is a less common progressive form
      of MS in approximately 10% of patients that manifest increasingly neurological
      disability from disease onset. To date, there are no approved treatments for the
      progressive stage. Therefore, identifying new therapeutic targets could open a
      new opportunity for PP-MS management. Several lines of evidence suggest the
      critical role of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in immune-mediated diseases, like
      MS. This study was aimed to investigate whether aberrant expression of beta
      catenin is involved in PP-MS progression. By western blot analysis the expression
      of beta-catenin was evaluated in CD4+ cells purified from peripheral blood of PP
      MS patients. Specifically, nuclear expression of beta-catenin was detected in
      CD4+ T cells purified from peripheral blood lymphocytes of PP-MS, and not of
      other neuromuscular diseases. In addition, no relevant expression of Wnt-1 was
      found in PP-MS patients, suggesting that the increase in nuclear beta-catenin
      expression in these cells could be independent from canonical Wnt pathway. Taken
      together, our observations demonstrate that the deregulation of the beta-catenin
      expression is involved in CD4+ T cells of PP-MS patients. Therefore, inhibitors
      of beta-catenin pathway could be proposed as a promising candidate strategy for
      PP-MS cure.

PMID- 28578104
TI  - Assessing food allergy risks from residual peanut protein in highly refined
      vegetable oil.
AB  - Refined vegetable oils including refined peanut oil are widely used in foods. Due
      to shared production processes, refined non-peanut vegetable oils can contain
      residual peanut proteins. We estimated the predicted number of allergic reactions
      to residual peanut proteins using probabilistic risk assessment applied to
      several scenarios involving food products made with vegetable oils. Variables
      considered were: a) the estimated production scale of refined peanut oil, b)
      estimated cross-contact between refined vegetable oils during production, c) the
      proportion of fat in representative food products and d) the peanut protein
      concentration in refined peanut oil. For all products examined the predicted risk
      of objective allergic reactions in peanut-allergic users of the food products was
      extremely low. The number of predicted reactions ranged depending on the model
      from a high of 3 per 1000 eating occasions (Weibull) to no reactions (LogNormal).
      Significantly, all reactions were predicted for allergen intakes well below the
      amounts reported for the most sensitive individual described in the clinical
      literature. We conclude that the health risk from cross-contact between vegetable
      oils and refined peanut oil is negligible. None of the food products would
      warrant precautionary labelling for peanut according to the VITAL(r) programme of
      the Allergen Bureau.

PMID- 28578103
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, .alpha.-methylcyclohexylmethyl
      acetate, CAS Registry Number 13487-27-9.

PMID- 28578106
TI  - Investigating peri-limb interaction between nociception and vision using spatial
      depth.
AB  - In order to adapt behavior to a potentially body damaging threat, it is crucial
      to coordinate the perception of the location of the threat in external space and
      that of the location of the potential damage on the body surface. Such ability
      presupposes interactions between nociceptive stimuli and visual stimuli occurring
      close to the body. We hypothesized that these interactions would rely on
      multisensory representations of each limb itself, extending its boundaries
      slightly into external space, with less influence of the global representation of
      the body as a whole. In most studies investigating such representations, spatial
      organization of the somatic and extra-somatic stimuli is made according to an
      egocentric frame of reference centered on the main axes of the participant's
      whole body (e.g. the trunk), dissociating the left vs. the right side of space.
      Here, the contribution of such a body-centered frame was minimized, by placing
      participants' hands in front of them along their anteroposterior body axis, one
      at a proximal, the other at a distal location. They performed a temporal order
      judgment task on pairs of visual stimuli, one delivered close to each hand.
      Visual stimuli were preceded by nociceptive stimuli applied either on one hand,
      or on both hands simultaneously (control condition). Results showed that, as
      compared to the control condition, participants' judgements were biased in favor
      of the visual stimuli the closest to the stimulated hand, irrespective of their
      distance from the trunk. This finding supports the idea that the mechanisms
      underlying nociceptive-visual interactions are based on spatial representations
      that primarily use the stimulated limb rather than the whole body as a coordinate
      system.

PMID- 28578102
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, 2-tert-butylcyclohexanol, CAS
      Registry Number 13491-79-7.

PMID- 28578108
TI  - An interpenetrating, microstructurable and covalently attached conducting polymer
      hydrogel for neural interfaces.
AB  - : This study presents a new conducting polymer hydrogel (CPH) system, consisting
      of the synthetic hydrogel P(DMAA-co-5%MABP-co-2,5%SSNa) and the conducting
      polymer (CP) poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), intended as coating
      material for neural interfaces. The composite material can be covalently attached
      to the surface electrode, can be patterned by a photolithographic process to
      influence selected electrode sites only and forms an interpenetrating network.
      The hybrid material was characterized using cyclic voltammetry (CV), impedance
      spectroscopy (EIS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which confirmed a
      homogeneous distribution of PEDOT throughout all CPH layers. The CPH exhibited a
      2,5 times higher charge storage capacity (CSC) and a reduced impedance when
      compared to the bare hydrogel. Electrochemical stability was proven over at least
      1000 redox cycles. Non-toxicity was confirmed using an elution toxicity test
      together with a neuroblastoma cell-line. The described material shows great
      promise for surface modification of neural probes making it possible to combine
      the beneficial properties of the hydrogel with the excellent electronic
      properties necessary for high quality neural microelectrodes. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: Conductive polymer hydrogels have emerged as a promising new class
      of materials to functionalize electrode surfaces for enhanced neural interfaces
      and drug delivery. Common weaknesses of such systems are delamination from the
      connection surface, and the lack of suitable patterning methods for confining the
      gel to the selected electrode site. Various studies have reported on conductive
      polymer hydrogels addressing one of these challenges. In this study we present a
      new composite material which offers, for the first time, the unique combination
      of properties: it can be covalently attached to the substrate, forms an
      interpenetrating network, shows excellent electrical properties and can be
      patterned via UV-irradiation through a structured mask.

PMID- 28578109
TI  - Reconstruction of Thoracic Spine Using a Personalized 3D-Printed Vertebral Body
      in Adolescent with T9 Primary Bone Tumor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery and spine surgery have the potential to benefit from the
      use of 3-dimensional printing (3DP) technology due to complex anatomic
      considerations and the delicate nature of surrounding structures. We report a
      procedure that uses a 3D-printed titanium T9 vertebral body implant post T9
      vertebrectomy for a primary bone tumor. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 14-year-old female
      presented with progressive kyphoscoliosis and a pathologic fracture of the T9
      vertebra with sagittal and coronal deformity due to a destructive primary bone
      tumor. Surgical resection and reconstruction was performed in combination with a
      3D-printed, patient-specific implant. Custom design features included porous
      titanium end plates, corrective angulation of the implant to restore sagittal
      balance, and pedicle screw holes in the 3D implant to assist with insertion of
      the device. In addition, attachment of the anterior column construct to the
      posterior pedicle screw construct was possible due to the customized features of
      the patient-specific implant. CONCLUSIONS: An advantage of 3DP is the ability to
      manufacture patient-specific implants, as in the current case example.
      Additionally, the use of 3DP has been able to reduce operative time
      significantly. Surgical procedures can be preplanned using 3DP patient-specific
      models. Surgeons can train before performing complex procedures, which enhances
      their presurgical planning in order to maximize patient outcomes. When
      considering implants and prostheses, the use of 3DP allows a superior anatomic
      fit for the patient, with the potential to improve restoration of anatomy.

PMID- 28578107
TI  - Simultaneous delivery of hydrophobic small molecules and siRNA using Sterosomes
      to direct mesenchymal stem cell differentiation for bone repair.
AB  - : The use of small molecular drugs with gene manipulation offers synergistic
      therapeutic efficacy by targeting multiple signaling pathways for combined
      treatment. Stimulation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with osteoinductive small
      molecule phenamil combined with suppression of noggin is a promising therapeutic
      strategy that increases bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and bone
      repair. Our cationic Sterosome formulated with stearylamine (SA) and cholesterol
      (Chol) is an attractive co-delivery system that not only forms stable complexes
      with small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules but also solubilizes hydrophobic
      small molecules in a single vehicle, for directing stem cell differentiation.
      Herein, we demonstrate the ability of SA/Chol Sterosomes to simultaneously
      deliver hydrophobic small molecule phenamil and noggin-directed siRNA to enhance
      osteogenic differentiation of MSCs both in in vitro two- and three-dimensional
      settings as well as in a mouse calvarial defect model. These results suggest a
      novel liposomal platform to simultaneously deliver therapeutic genes and small
      molecules for combined therapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Application of
      phenamil, a small molecular bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) stimulator, combined
      with suppression of natural BMP antagonists such as noggin is a promising
      therapeutic strategy to enhance bone regeneration. Here, we present a novel
      strategy to co-deliver hydrophobic small molecule phenamil and noggin-targeted
      siRNA via cationic Sterosomes formed with stearylamine (SA) and high content of
      cholesterol (Chol) to enhance osteogenesis and bone repair. SA/Chol Sterosomes
      demonstrated high phenamil encapsulation efficiency, supported sustained release
      of encapsulated drugs, and significantly reduced drug dose requirements to induce
      osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Simultaneous deliver
      of phenamil and noggin siRNA in a single vehicle synergistically enhanced MSC
      osteogenesis and calvarial bone repair. This study suggests a new non
      phospholipid liposomal formulation to simultaneously deliver small molecules and
      therapeutic genes for combined treatment.

PMID- 28578110
TI  - Effects of Dexamethasone in the Treatment of Recurrent Chronic Subdural Hematoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recurrent chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is not rare. Some studies
      have demonstrated the role of dexamethasone in the medical management of chronic
      subdural hematoma. However, no systematic study in the treatment of recurrent
      CSDH has been published. The aim of our study is to evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of dexamethasone in patients with recurrent CSDH. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed medical records of consecutive patients from July 2010
      to September 2014. A total of 27 patients with symptomatic recurrent CSDH were
      included in the analysis. Follow-up for each patient consisted of computed
      tomography or magnetic resonance imaging every 28 days from admission to the
      resolution of hematoma. Data were collected on hematoma volume, complications,
      and outcome. RESULTS: Among the 27 patients, 3 patients with recurrent CSDH were
      only treated by burr hole surgery. Of the other 24 patients who primarily
      underwent dexamethasone treatment, 17 (70.8%) patients were treated successfully
      with medical treatment, whereas 7 patients required reoperation. Complications
      were noted in 3 (12.5%) patients (1 hyperglycemia, 1 urinary tract infection, and
      1 pneumonia). There was 1 mortality (4.2%) for massive brain infarction. Twenty
      one of the 24 patients (87.5%) recovered to their previous functional levels.
      There was no statistical significance in Fisher text between surgery and
      dexamethasone regarding success, complication, and functional recovery rate.
      CONCLUSIONS: Patients with recurrent CSDH can be treated successfully and safely
      with the nonsurgical medical treatment of dexamethasone. By use of this method,
      reoperation may be avoided.

PMID- 28578111
TI  - Surgical Evacuation of Spontaneous Supratentorial Lobar Intracerebral Hemorrhage:
      Comparison of Safety and Efficacy of Stereotactic Aspiration, Endoscopic Surgery,
      and Craniotomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The safety and efficacy of craniotomy, endoscopic surgery, and
      stereotactic aspiration for surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial
      lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is yet uncertain. The present study analyzed
      the clinical and radiographic data from 99 patients with spontaneous
      supratentorial lobar ICH, retrospectively, to address this issue. METHODS:
      Patients who underwent craniotomy, endoscopy surgery, or stereotactic aspiration
      were assigned to the craniotomy group (n = 31), endoscopy surgery group (n = 32),
      or stereotactic aspiration group (n = 36), respectively. The characteristics of
      all the enrolled patients at the time of admission were assimilated. Also, the
      therapeutic effects of the three surgical procedures were evaluated based on
      short-term outcomes within 30 days and long-term outcomes at 6 months after the
      ictus. RESULTS: The results showed that stereotactic aspiration and endoscopic
      surgery were associated with a superior clinical therapeutic effect in both short
      term and long-term outcomes than craniotomy for the treatment of spontaneous
      supratentorial lobar ICH. Notably, severely affected patients with hematoma
      volume > 60 mL or Glasgow Coma Scale score 4-8 may benefit more from endoscopic
      surgery than the two other surgical procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings
      demonstrate that both stereotactic aspiration and endoscopic surgery possess an
      apparent advantage over craniotomy for the evacuation of spontaneous
      supratentorial lobar ICH. The endoscopic surgery might be more safe and effective
      with higher evacuation rate, better functional neurological outcomes, and lower
      complication and mortality rates.

PMID- 28578112
TI  - The Neurosurgery Match: A Bibliometric Analysis of 206 First-Year Residents.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: An important component of the residency application for
      neurosurgery is research experience and the subsequent number of produced
      publications. Bibliometrics research has been developed to establish quantitative
      methods for the standardization of publishing impactful research. This study aims
      to quantify the research productivity of medical students who successfully
      matriculated into a Neurosurgery residency program. METHODS: We initially
      identified first-year neurosurgery residents for the 2016-2017 academic year of
      all U.S. neurosurgical residency programs through departmental websites. The
      Scopus database was then queried for all articles published in the years 2006 to
      2015 by first-year residents and bibliometric variables, such as publication
      count, journal impact factors, and author h-index, were extracted. The main
      outcome measured was residency program, tiered 1-5 by total departmental faculty
      research output. RESULTS: Two hundred six (206) Scopus records for first-year
      neurosurgery residents were identified in 99 programs nationwide. Multivariate
      ordinal regression demonstrated that only h-index was independently associated
      with tier of matriculation (P = 0.043). H-index was observed to strongly
      correlate with the number of original research articles (P = 0.005), years since
      first publication (P < 0.0001), and journal impact factor (P = 0.048) as assessed
      by multiple linear regression. Notably, h-index was observed to increase by
      approximately 1 point with every 3 original research articles (B = 0.368) and 4
      years since first publication (B = 0.257). CONCLUSIONS: H-index is a powerful
      research predictor of matching into neurosurgical research institutions and can
      be improved by starting research early, targeting high impact journals, and
      participating in original clinical and laboratory investigations.

PMID- 28578114
TI  - Inside Vietnam's Largest Neurosurgery Department.
AB  - Cho Ray Hospital is the premier tertiary care center in Ho Chi Minh City,
      Vietnam's most populous city. The neurosurgical department was founded in 1958
      and is currently one of the busiest in the world. Last year the department was
      responsible for more than 10,000 neurosurgical operations, excluding
      neuroendovascular cases. Most of the elective cases are craniotomies for complex
      lesions such as aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, skull base tumors,
      gliomas, and meningiomas. Although the neurosurgeons within the department are
      technically gifted, doing more with less predominates as the mantra at Cho Ray
      Hospital. The necessity to minimize costs and the scarcity of resources creates
      many unique circumstances, some of which lag decades behind the rest of the
      world. Nonetheless, the progress and trajectory of the department has been
      impressive as the neurosurgical care provided to the Vietnamese public continues
      to improve. This article describes the current state and future direction of The
      Department of Neurological Surgery at Cho Ray Hospital.

PMID- 28578113
TI  - Safety of Percutaneous Dilatational Tracheostomy in Patients with Acute Brain
      Injury and Reduced PaO2/FiO2 Ratio-Retrospective Analysis of 54 Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is a commonly performed
      method in neurocritical care, and its safety has been proven in numerous studies.
      Nevertheless, data regarding the application in patients with acute brain injury
      and poor respiratory function are poor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate
      the incidence of hypoxemia and hypercapnia during PDT in those patients. METHODS:
      In a retrospective analysis, we acquired data from 54 patients with an acute
      brain injury (ABI) and a reduced PaO2/FiO2 ratio (PaO2/FiO2 < 300 mm Hg). In all
      cases, blood gas analyses before, during, and approximately 12 hours after PDT
      were available. We reviewed the patients' ventilator settings, results of gas
      exchange, and radiographic signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
      Patients with ARDS were defined using the Berlin criteria. RESULTS: We observed 2
      cases (3.6%) of intraoperative hypoxemia (PaO2 < 60 mm Hg) and 4 cases (7.4%) of
      intraoperative hypercapnia (PaCO2 > 55 mm Hg). Twenty patients fulfilled the
      Berlin criteria for ARDS. While mean PaO2 did not differ significantly between
      ARDS and non-ARDS patients, intraoperative hypoxemia only occurred in the ARDS
      group (2/20). Mean PaCO2 was similar in the ARDS and non-ARDS groups, and cases
      of hypercapnia were apparent in both groups. The mean PaO2/FiO2 ratio of all
      patients improved from 229.1 mm Hg before PDT to 255.3 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS:
      Regarding the intraoperative gas exchange, indication of PDT in patients with ABI
      and ARDS should be considered carefully. However, PDT in ABI patients with
      reduced PaO2/FiO2 ratio alone appears to be a safe procedure.

PMID- 28578115
TI  - Two-Dimensional High Definition Versus Three-Dimensional Endoscopy in Endonasal
      Skull Base Surgery: A Comparative Preclinical Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Three-dimensional (3D) endoscopy has been recently
      introduced in endonasal skull base surgery. Only a relatively limited number of
      studies have compared it to 2-dimensional, high definition technology. The
      objective was to compare, in a preclinical setting for endonasal endoscopic
      surgery, the surgical maneuverability of 2-dimensional, high definition and 3D
      endoscopy. METHODS: A group of 68 volunteers, novice and experienced surgeons,
      were asked to perform 2 tasks, namely simulating grasping and dissection surgical
      maneuvers, in a model of the nasal cavities. Time to complete the tasks was
      recorded. A questionnaire to investigate subjective feelings during tasks was
      filled by each participant. In 25 subjects, the surgeons' movements were
      continuously tracked by a magnetic-based neuronavigator coupled with dedicated
      software (ApproachViewer, part of GTx-UHN) and the recorded trajectories were
      analyzed by comparing jitter, sum of square differences, and funnel index.
      RESULTS: Total execution time was significantly lower with 3D technology (P <
      0.05) in beginners and experts. Questionnaires showed that beginners preferred 3D
      endoscopy more frequently than experts. A minority (14%) of beginners experienced
      discomfort with 3D endoscopy. Analysis of jitter showed a trend toward increased
      effectiveness of surgical maneuvers with 3D endoscopy. Sum of square differences
      and funnel index analyses documented better values with 3D endoscopy in experts.
      CONCLUSIONS: In a preclinical setting for endonasal skull base surgery, 3D
      technology appears to confer an advantage in terms of time of execution and
      precision of surgical maneuvers.

PMID- 28578116
TI  - The Timed Up and Go Test as a Diagnostic Criterion in Normal Pressure
      Hydrocephalus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a disease characterized by
      gait disturbance, urinary incontinence, and dementia. Our objectives were to
      define an average value of the test for the population, check the specificity and
      test sensitivity as evaluation criteria and diagnostic testing, and correlate
      with other already used more frequently. METHODS: A study conducted at the
      Neurosurgery Division of the Hospital do Servidor Publico Estadual de Sao Paulo
      in which a group of 30 patients with NPH was submitted to the Mini-Mental State
      Test Examination, Time Up and Go (TUG), test and Japanese scale for NPH before
      the Tap Test 3 hours and 72 hours after the Tap Test. After being subjected to
      ventriculoperitoneal shunt, patients were evaluated 3 months, 6 months, and 12
      months after surgery. A control group was used composed of 30 individuals of the
      same age and who had no diagnosis of NPH who were submitted to the TUG test to
      determine an average, which was compared with that of patients with NPH. RESULTS:
      TUG did not show good correlation with other tests used, but there was excellent
      specificity (0.967) and sensitivity (0.933) for cut-off value of 16.5 seconds for
      the diagnosis of NPH. CONCLUSIONS: TUG is a good test for the diagnosis of NPH
      because there is very good specificity and sensitivity, with a mean value of 16.5
      seconds as the cut-off.

PMID- 28578117
TI  - Pipeline Embolization Device in Treatment of 50 Unruptured Large and Giant
      Aneurysms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Treatment of large (>=20 mm) and giant (>=25 mm) intracranial
      aneurysms is challenging and can be associated with a high rate of morbidity and
      mortality. The Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) has been used effectively for
      the treatment of intracranial aneurysms achieving a high rate of complete
      occlusion. However, its safety and efficacy in treatment of large and giant
      aneurysms has not been evaluated fully. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of
      consecutive aneurysms treated with PED between 2009 and 2016 at 3 academic
      institutions within the United States was performed. Large (>=20 mm) and giant
      aneurysms (>=25 mm) were selected for evaluation of occlusion and complication
      rates following treatment with PED. RESULTS: A total of 50 large and giant
      aneurysms were individually treated using PED. Aneurysms were fusiform (74%) or
      saccular (26%) in morphology. PED alone was used for treating 78% of the
      aneurysms, whereas PED with adjunctive coiling was used for treating 22%. The
      median length of angiographic follow-up was 13 months (mean follow up 20.4
      months). At last follow-up, complete or near-complete occlusion (90-100%) was
      achieved in 76.9% of aneurysms. Symptomatic thromboembolic complications were
      encountered in 12% of procedures and symptomatic hemorrhagic complications in 8%.
      CONCLUSIONS: The use of PED for the treatment of large and giant intracranial
      aneurysms is associated with good occlusion rates, but also a greater
      complication rate compared to aneurysms of smaller size. There was no significant
      difference in occlusion rate based on aneurysm shape or size, number of PEDs
      placed, or adjunctive coiling.

PMID- 28578118
TI  - Clinical and Radiologic Outcomes After Fenestration and Partial Wall Excision of
      Idiopathic Intradural Spinal Arachnoid Cysts Presenting with Myelopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intradural spinal arachnoid cysts (ISACs) with associated neurologic
      deficits are encountered infrequently. Various management strategies have been
      proposed with minimal data on comparative outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We describe the
      clinical and radiologic presentation as well as the outcomes of 14 surgically
      managed patients who presented with an ISAC and associated myelopathy. METHODS:
      We retrospectively reviewed the clinical course of consecutive patients
      presenting with neurologic deficits associated with idiopathic ISACs at our
      institution. The diagnoses were based on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging
      studies followed by intraoperative and histopathological confirmation. RESULTS: A
      total of 14 consecutive patients with ISACs (1 cervicothoracic, 12 thoracic, and
      1 thoracolumbar) and associated myelopathy were identified. Syringomyelia was
      noted in 8 patients. All ISACs were treated with cyst fenestration and partial
      wall resection through a posterior approach. Preoperative neurologic symptoms
      were noted to be stable or improved in all patients starting at 6-week
      postoperative follow-up. The median (interquartile range) preoperative mJOA score
      was 13 (12.0-14.8), whereas the postoperative median score at a mean follow-up of
      22 months (range 6-50 months) was 16 (14.0-17.0), which represents a median
      improvement (DeltamJOA) of 2.0 (1.3-3.0) (P < 0.001). Comparison of DeltamJOA
      scores between cases without and with associated syrinxes did not reveal a
      significant difference (P = 0.23). Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging scans
      revealed spinal cord re-expansion at the level of the ISAC in all cases and
      either complete or partial syrinx resolution in 7 of 8 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Early
      treatment with fenestration and partial wall resection allows for cord
      decompression, syrinx resolution, and gradual resolution of myelopathic symptoms
      in most cases.

PMID- 28578119
TI  - Intracranial Aneurysm in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracranial aneurysm in patients with sickle cell disease is rare,
      but with an increased incidence in the recent years. This type of intracranial
      aneurysm possesses distinctive characteristics, and it has been the subject of
      case reports and series. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We systematically searched
      relevant publications through PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar
      up to December 21, 2016. We extracted data about clinical features and outcomes
      and then conducted a descriptive analysis. RESULTS: We identified 46 related
      publications, comprising 111 patients and 218 aneurysms. The mean age was 27
      years (range, 5-54 years), and the male:female ratio was 0.96 (52:54). A male
      predominance existed in children, whereas a female predominance in adults. Age
      distribution approximated normal distribution, with peak phase between 21 and 30
      years. In the child cohort, 13 of 31 (41.9%) aneurysms ruptured, whereas 62 of 79
      (78.5%) aneurysms rupturing in the adult cohort. Aneurysms tended to be multiple
      (45.0%), small (85.6%), and saccular type (90.8%) and they exhibited a preference
      for posterior circulation (31.7%). Conservation and clipping became the main
      treatment in children and adults, respectively, but children had more good
      outcomes (80%) than adults did (67.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Intracranial aneurysms
      related to sickle cell disease mainly affected patients in their 20s, with a
      contradictory sex ratio in children and adults. Aneurysms manifested
      predisposition for multiplicity and posterior circulation. There was no
      difference between children and adults regarding shape and location of aneurysms.
      However, children with lower aneurysm rupturing rates had better outcomes than
      their adult counterparts did.

PMID- 28578120
TI  - Intraspinal Pressure Monitoring and Extensive Duroplasty in the Acute Phase of
      Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The prognosis in cervical spinal cord injury is poor, and surgical and
      neurointensive care management need further improvement. Monitoring of the
      intraspinal pressure (ISP) at an early stage after traumatic spinal cord injury
      (tSCI) is useful clinically. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Obtaining continuous spinal
      cord perfusion pressure (SCPP) measurements based on the difference between mean
      arterial pressure and ISP allows offering best medical and surgical treatment
      during this critical phase of tSCI. A search was carried out with PubMed, Embase,
      and Google Scholar up to January 10, 2017. Articles resulting from these searches
      and relevant references cited in those articles were reviewed. RESULTS: The
      optimal SCPP was found to be between 90 and 100 mm Hg and mean arterial pressure
      of 110-130. Laminectomy alone was found to be ineffective in the reduction of ISP
      because it does not lower the pressure exerted by dura on the swollen spinal
      cord. Therefore, bony decompression with durotomy or duroplasty seems to be the
      procedure of choice to reduce the ISP less than 20 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS: A
      randomized controlled trial is required to determine whether laminectomy with
      durotomy and monitoring of ISP with SCPP optimization improve neurological
      recovery after tSCI.

PMID- 28578122
TI  - Hemimasticatory Spasm with a Single Venous Compression Treated with Microvascular
      Decompression of the Trigeminal Motor Rootlet.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemimasticatory spasm is a very rare disorder of the trigeminal motor
      rootlet that is characterized by a paroxysmal involuntary contraction of the jaw
      closing muscles. The mechanisms for hemimasticatory spasm remain unclear, and an
      efficient treatment strategy still needs to be developed. CASE DESCRIPTION: We
      report a case of a successful treatment of hemimasticatory spasm with single
      venous compression via microvascular decompression of the trigeminal motor
      rootlet. CONCLUSIONS: Our report shows that a single venous compression may be
      also responsible for idiopathic hemimasticatory spasm which can be cured by
      microvascular decompression. This is the first report on hemimasticatory
      compressed by a single vein in the world.

PMID- 28578121
TI  - Requirements for a Stable Long-Term Result in Surgical Reduction of Vertebral
      Fragility Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are one of the major health problems
      in the world. Minimally invasive surgical treatment has great advantages compared
      with conservative treatment in treating these fractures, because it eliminates
      pain and functional disability. The percutaneous intravertebral expandable
      titanium device SpineJack (Vexim SA, Balma, France) is beneficial compared with
      other kyphoplasty devices, showing results that are maintained over time and a
      reduction in complications. However, controversy exists about the minimum amount
      of cement that should be used to achieve long-term restoration and which is
      essential to minimize complications. We reviewed publications studying the
      maintenance of long-term restoration using this percutaneous expandable titanium
      device in cadavers. In this study, we show the first long-term work with patients
      treated with percutaneous expandable titanium device, describing precise
      indications concerning the minimum amount of cement that should be used. METHODS:
      Results were evaluated from a clinical study including 178 patient outcomes with
      long-term follow-up results performed by our team. RESULTS: The mean total
      quantity of cement injected was 4.4 mL (25% vertebral body filling). The leakage
      rate was 12.9%, and all of these occurrences were asymptomatic. The mean follow
      up time was 77 months (60-96 months). All clinical scales improved significantly
      after the procedure. A recollapse of the treated vertebra was observed in 3 cases
      (1.6%), and the adjacent fracture rate was 2.2%. CONCLUSIONS: From the results of
      our study and review of the literature, cement equivalent to 25% of the vertebral
      body filling volume, when combined with the titanium expandable device, seems to
      be sufficient to prevent recollapse in osteoporotic and type A.3 fractures.

PMID- 28578123
TI  - Outcome Evaluation of Patients with Limited Brain Metastasis From Malignant
      Melanoma, Treated with Surgery, Radiation Therapy, and Targeted Therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The incidence of brain metastases from melanoma is increasing. Several
      effective treatment options are now available but what can be considered the
      optimal therapeutic strategy is not yet defined. We evaluated the outcome of
      patients with brain metastatic melanoma in terms of local control rate, brain
      distant progression, and overall survival. METHODS: The present retrospective
      study includes only patients with limited brain metastases (<=4) who underwent
      surgery plus stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), or SRS alone. Surgical resection
      was performed in patients with good Karnofsky performance score, single large
      brain lesions, controlled extracranial disease, and SRS alone in all other cases.
      Supramargical resection was performed in all patients. The prescribed
      radiotherapy doses were 24 Gy/1 fraction and 30 Gy in 3-5 fractions for lesions
      >2.5 cm. Clinical outcome was evaluated by brain magnetic resonance imaging
      performed 2 months after radiotherapy and then every 3 months. RESULTS: From
      April 2011 to October 2015, 53 patients were treated. The median age was 54 years
      (range, 29-82 years). Most of patients had 1-2 brain metastases (86.8%). Twelve
      patients (22.6%) underwent surgical resection followed by SRS on the tumor bed,
      and 41 (77.4%) received SRS alone. The median follow-up time was 20.9 months
      (range, 5.7-61.3 months). The median, 1-, 2-, 3-year overall survival were 11.8
      months, 47.2%, 28%, and 21.8%, respectively. Factors recorded as influencing
      survival were the number of brain metastases, the melanoma-specific graded
      prognostic assessment score, and BRAF mutated status. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      identifier a subset of patients with a more favorable outcome who could take
      advantage of a more aggressive local approach followed by targeted therapy.

PMID- 28578124
TI  - Influence of photodynamic therapy on peripheral immune cell populations and
      cytokine concentrations in head and neck cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) represents a palliative treatment option
      for a selected group of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
      (HNSCC). PDT induces a local inflammatory reaction with the potential to initiate
      antitumor immune responses. However, the systemic impact on peripheral immune
      cells has not been described so far. METHODS: HNSCC patients (n=9) were treated
      with PDT in a palliative setting. All patients had previously undergone several
      oncologic treatment regimens. Blood samples were taken before, during and after
      PDT. Age-matched healthy donors served as control group (NC, n=15). The frequency
      and absolute number of T- and B-lymphocytes, CD4+CD39+ regulatory T-cells (Treg)
      and NK-cells were measured by 10-color flow cytometry. Serum concentrations of T
      cell related cytokine panel, including HMGB1, IL-6, IL-10 and perforin were
      measured by bead array and ELISA. RESULTS: In heavily pretreated HNSCC patients,
      the number and frequency of Treg and NK-cells were increased as compared to NC.
      PDT induced a further increase of the frequency of Treg and NK-cells in the
      peripheral blood. Additionally, the serum concentrations of HMGB1, IL-6 and IL-10
      showed a significant elevation after treatment with simultaneously decreased
      perforin levels. CONCLUSION: Although PDT is a local treatment regimen, a
      systemic inflammatory response with altered peripheral immune cell populations
      and cytokine concentrations is visible. The increased Treg and NK cell numbers
      after PDT support the hypothesis that PDT may successfully be combined with NK
      cell or T cell activating immune checkpoint modulators in HNSCC patients to
      improve HNSCC specific immunity.

PMID- 28578125
TI  - Efficient fluorescence detection of protoporphyrin IX in metastatic lymph nodes
      of murine colorectal cancer stained with indigo carmine.
AB  - Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), a biochemical converted from 5-aminolevulinc acid (5
      ALA) in living cells, is useful for intraoperative fluorescent detection of
      cancer metastasis in lymph nodes (LNs). However, unknown is whether the
      fluorescence of PpIX can be detected in the LNs when they coexist with indigo
      carmine, a blue dye commonly used for identification of sentinel LNs during
      surgery. To address this issue, we sought to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness
      of PpIX fluorescence in the presence of indigo carmine in a mouse LN metastasis
      model of rectal cancer after administration of 5-ALA. Spectral analysis of pure
      chemicals revealed that the absorption spectrum of indigo carmine widely
      overlapped with the fluorescence spectrum of PpIX specifically at the peak of
      632nm, a common emission wavelength for detecting PpIX, but not at the other peak
      of 700nm. Due to such spectral overlap, the PpIX fluorescence intensity was
      significantly attenuated by mixture with indigo carmine at 632nm, but not at
      700nm. Accordingly, fluorescent measurements of the mouse metastatic LN revealed
      more intense presentation of PpIX at 700nm than at 632nm, indicating that the
      diagnostic usefulness is greater at 700nm than at 632nm for the indigo carmine
      dyed LNs after administration of 5-ALA. From these observations, we propose that
      the fluorescence measurement is more efficient at 700nm than at 632nm for
      detection of PpIX in metastatic LNs stained with indigo carmine.

PMID- 28578126
TI  - Ultradeformable liposome loaded with zinc phthalocyanine and
      [Ru(NH.NHq)(tpy)NO]3+ for photodynamic therapy by topical application.
AB  - Ultradeformable liposomes (UDLs) as a drug delivery system (DDS), prepared from
      the unsaturated phospholipid, dioleylphosphocholine (DOPC), and containing the
      non-ionic surfactant Tween 20 as edge activator, have been explored as topical
      vehicles for zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and the nitrosyl ruthenium complex
      [Ru(NH.NHq)(tpy)NO]3+ (RuNO) as a photosensitizers for co-generation of 1O2 and
      NO as reactive species, respectively. However, in order to ensure that ZnPc was
      present in the UDLs in its monomeric form - essential for maximal ZnPc
      photophysical properties - it was necessary to replace 40wt% of the DOPC with the
      saturated phospholipid, dimyristoylphosphocholine (DMPC). The resultant ZnPc and
      complex [Ru(NH.NHq)(tpy)NO]3+ containing UDLs were stable for at least a month
      when stored at 4 degrees C, six times more elastic/deformable than conventional
      liposome (c-Ls), i.e. liposome prepared using the same weight ratio of lipids but
      in the absence of Tween 20, and to significantly enhance the in vitro permeation
      of ZnPc across fresh pig ear skin. The UDLs DDS incorporating ZnPc and
      [Ru(NH.NHq)(tpy)NO]3+ were toxic (by the MTT assay) towards B16-F10 melanoma
      cells when irradiated with visible light at 670nm, the maximum absorption of
      ZnPc, and at a dose of 3.18J/cm2, but not when applied in the absence of light as
      expected. Based on these results it is proposed that the novel topical UDLs
      formulation developed is a suitable delivery vehicle for photodynamic therapy.

PMID- 28578127
TI  - Effects of Cordyceps militaris spent mushroom substrate on mucosal and serum
      immune parameters, disease resistance and growth performance of Nile tilapia,
      (Oreochromis niloticus).
AB  - The aim of present study was determination effects of dietary administration of
      C. militaris spent mushroom substrate (SMS) on mucosal and serum immune
      parameters, disease resistance, and growth performance of Nile tilapia
      (Oreochromis niloticus). Two hundred twenty five fish of similar weight (37.28 +/
      0.10 g) were assigned to the following diets [0 (T1- Control), 5 (T2), 10 (T3),
      20 (T4) and 40 g kg-1 (T5) SMS]. After 60 days of feeding trial, growth
      performance, skin mucus lysozyme and peroxidase activities as well as serum
      innate immune were measured. In addition, survival rate and innate immune
      responses were calculated after challenge test (15 days) against Streptococcus
      agalactiae. The results revealed that regardless of inclusion levels, feeding
      Nile tilapia with SMS supplemented diets significantly increased skin mucus
      lysozyme and peroxidase activities as well as serum immune parameters (SL, ACH50,
      PI, RB, and RB) compared control group (P < 0.05). The highest increment of
      immune parameters was observed in fish fed 10 g kg-1 SMS which was significantly
      higher than other treatments (P < 0.05). Also, the relative percent survival
      (RSP) in T2, T3, T4, and T5 was 61.11%, 88.89%, 66.67, and 55.56%, respectively.
      Among the supplemented groups, fish fed 10 g kg-1 SMS showed significant higher
      RPS and resistance to S. agalactiae than other groups (P < 0.05). Regarding the
      growth performance, SGR, WG, FW, and FCR were remarkably improved (P < 0.05) in
      SMS groups; the highest improvement observed in 10 g kg-1 SMS treatment.
      According to these finding, administration of 10 g kg-1 SMS is suggested in
      tilapia to improve growth performance and health status.

PMID- 28578128
TI  - An ontologically consistent MRI-based atlas of the mouse diencephalon.
AB  - In topological terms, the diencephalon lies between the hypothalamus and the
      midbrain. It is made up of three segments, prosomere 1 (pretectum), prosomere 2
      (thalamus), and prosomere 3 (the prethalamus). A number of MRI-based atlases of
      different parts of the mouse brain have already been published, but none of them
      displays the segments the diencephalon and their component nuclei. In this study
      we present a new volumetric atlas identifying 89 structures in the diencephalon
      of the male C57BL/6J 12 week mouse. This atlas is based on an average of MR scans
      of 18 mouse brains imaged with a 16.4T scanner. This atlas is available for
      download at www.imaging.org.au/AMBMC. Additionally, we have created an FSL
      package to enable nonlinear registration of novel data sets to the AMBMC model
      and subsequent automatic segmentation.

PMID- 28578129
TI  - Assessing dynamic functional connectivity in heterogeneous samples.
AB  - Several methods have been developed to measure dynamic functional connectivity
      (dFC) in fMRI data. These methods are often based on a sliding-window analysis,
      which aims to capture how the brain's functional organization varies over the
      course of a scan. The aim of many studies is to compare dFC across groups, such
      as younger versus older people. However, spurious group differences in measured
      dFC may be caused by other sources of heterogeneity between people. For example,
      the shape of the haemodynamic response function (HRF) and levels of measurement
      noise have been found to vary with age. We use a generic simulation framework for
      fMRI data to investigate the effect of such heterogeneity on estimates of dFC.
      Our findings show that, despite no differences in true dFC, individual
      differences in measured dFC can result from other (non-dynamic) features of the
      data, such as differences in neural autocorrelation, HRF shape, connectivity
      strength and measurement noise. We also find that common dFC methods such as k
      means and multilayer modularity approaches can detect spurious group differences
      in dynamic connectivity due to inappropriate setting of their hyperparameters.
      fMRI studies therefore need to consider alternative sources of heterogeneity
      across individuals before concluding differences in dFC.

PMID- 28578132
TI  - Effect of electro-activated aqueous solutions, nisin and moderate heat treatment
      on the inactivation of Clostridium sporogenes PA 3679 spores in green beans puree
      and whole green beans.
AB  - In this work, the synergistic effect of electro-activated solutions (EAS) of
      potassium acetate and potassium citrate, nisin and moderate heat treatment to
      inactivate C. sporogenes PA 3679 spores was evaluated in green beans puree and
      whole green beans. Electro-activated solutions (EAS) of potassium acetate and
      potassium citrate were generated under 400 mA during 60 min. They were
      characterized by an oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and pH values ranged from
      +300 to +1090 mV and 2.8 to 3.67, respectively. Moreover, the EAS were combined
      with a bacteriocin nisin at concentrations of 250, 500, 750 and 1000 IU/mL and
      the targeted sporicidal effect was evaluated under moderate heat treatment. The
      inoculated mixtures were subjected to temperatures of 95, 105 and 115  degrees C
      for exposure times of 5, 15 and 30 min. After plate counting, the synergistic
      effect of the hurdle principle composed of electro-activated solutions, nisin and
      moderate temperatures was demonstrated. The obtained results showed that the
      synergistic effect of the used hurdle was able to achieve an inactivation
      efficacy of 5.9-6.1 log CFU/mL. Furthermore, experiments carried out with whole
      green beans showed that spore inactivation level was significantly higher and
      reach 6.5 log CFU/mL. Moreover, spore morphology was examined by transmission
      electron microscopy and the obtained micrographs showed important damages in all
      of the treated spores.

PMID- 28578131
TI  - Predicting behavior change from persuasive messages using neural representational
      similarity and social network analyses.
AB  - Neural activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), identified as engaging in
      self-related processing, predicts later health behavior change. However, it is
      unknown to what extent individual differences in neural representation of content
      and lived experience influence this brain-behavior relationship. We examined
      whether the strength of content-specific representations during persuasive
      messaging relates to later behavior change, and whether these relationships
      change as a function of individuals' social network composition. In our study,
      smokers viewed anti-smoking messages while undergoing fMRI and we measured
      changes in their smoking behavior one month later. Using representational
      similarity analyses, we found that the degree to which message content (i.e.
      health, social, or valence information) was represented in a self-related
      processing MPFC region was associated with later smoking behavior, with increased
      representations of negatively valenced (risk) information corresponding to
      greater message-consistent behavior change. Furthermore, the relationship between
      representations and behavior change depended on social network composition:
      smokers who had proportionally fewer smokers in their network showed increases in
      smoking behavior when social or health content was strongly represented in MPFC,
      whereas message-consistent behavior (i.e., less smoking) was more likely for
      those with proportionally more smokers in their social network who represented
      social or health consequences more strongly. These results highlight the dynamic
      relationship between representations in MPFC and key outcomes such as health
      behavior change; a complete understanding of the role of MPFC in motivation and
      action should take into account individual differences in neural representation
      of stimulus attributes and social context variables such as social network
      composition.

PMID- 28578130
TI  - Optimal use of EEG recordings to target active brain areas with transcranial
      electrical stimulation.
AB  - To demonstrate causal relationships between brain and behavior, investigators
      would like to guide brain stimulation using measurements of neural activity.
      Particularly promising in this context are electroencephalography (EEG) and
      transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), as they are linked by a reciprocity
      principle which, despite being known for decades, has not led to a formalism for
      relating EEG recordings to optimal stimulation parameters. Here we derive a
      closed-form expression for the TES configuration that optimally stimulates (i.e.,
      targets) the sources of recorded EEG, without making assumptions about source
      location or distribution. We also derive a duality between TES targeting and EEG
      source localization, and demonstrate that in cases where source localization
      fails, so does the proposed targeting. Numerical simulations with multiple head
      models confirm these theoretical predictions and quantify the achieved
      stimulation in terms of focality and intensity. We show that constraining the
      stimulation currents automatically selects optimal montages that involve only a
      few (4-7) electrodes, with only incremental loss in performance when targeting
      focal activations. The proposed technique allows brain scientists and clinicians
      to rationally target the sources of observed EEG and thus overcomes a major
      obstacle to the realization of individualized or closed-loop brain stimulation.

PMID- 28578134
TI  - Investigation of copy number variation in subjects with major depression based on
      whole-genome sequencing data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite recent intensive research using genome-wide association
      studies, the underlying biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) still
      remains unknown. In contrast to genotyping platforms which identify specific
      variations, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) allows us to detect all private genetic
      variations within an individual. So far there have been no studies investigating
      copy number variations (CNVs) in subjects with MDD using WGS data. METHODS: We
      obtained complete WGS paired-end reads data of 15 MDD patients and 10 ethnically
      matched healthy controls. We performed alignments for the sequencing reads and
      used GASV package to call CNVs including deletion, inversion, translocation and
      divergence for those subjects. RESULTS: Our results show that, in the Mexican
      American sample, deletion CNVs were significantly richer in MDD cases than
      healthy controls on each of 23 chromosomes. However, other types of CNVs failed
      to reach any significance. In the Australian sample, there was no statistically
      significant difference of CNVs between MDD cases and controls. Furthermore, we
      found that the Australian group had significantly more deletion CNVs than the
      Mexican-American group. LIMITATIONS: High quality WGS costs limited obtaining
      larger datasets. The GASV package does not currently support duplication or
      insertion CNVs. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge this is the first time that CNVs
      detected by WGS data are used to study major depression. The conclusion that
      deletion CNVs are significantly richer in MDD cases than healthy controls is
      consistent with the previous finding about recurrent depressive disorder by
      genome-wide association analysis of CNVs on a large genotyping microarray data.

PMID- 28578133
TI  - Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection due to a ribotype different from
      that isolated from the feces of the patient: A case report.
AB  - Extraintestinal infections due to Clostridium difficile are uncommon. When such
      infections occur, extraintestinal C. difficile isolates are usually identical to
      fecal isolates. We present a rare case of a large postoperative abscess caused by
      C. difficile infection, in which different C. difficile strains were isolated
      from the abscess and from feces of the patient. An 82-year-old woman with
      cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa developed pain, skin ulcers, and extensive
      necrosis of the right leg. Above-knee amputation was performed without stopping
      antiplatelet therapy, leading to postoperative hematoma. Six weeks after surgery,
      a large femoral abscess was detected and C. difficile was isolated. Repeat
      amputation of the thigh was required to remove the abscess. C. difficile was also
      cultured from feces despite the lack of intestinal symptoms. However, genetic
      analysis confirmed that the C. difficile isolates from the abscess and feces were
      different strains. Thus, C. difficile can cause postoperative infection of a
      hematoma and the extraintestinal and fecal C. difficile isolates are not
      necessarily identical in the same patient.

PMID- 28578136
TI  - Interval setting selection affects ambulatory activity outputs in children with
      cerebral palsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Accelerometer based devices have been widely used to assess the
      ambulatory activity of children with and without functional disabilities. Many
      researchers who utilize the StepWatch Activity Monitor (SAM) collect at a
      60second (60sec) interval setting. The purpose of this study was to assess the
      effect of SAM interval settings on ambulatory activity outputs in children with
      cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing youth. METHODS: Participants wore a
      SAM which recorded the number of strides every 10seconds (10s) for one week. Raw
      10s data was downsampled to combine strides into 60sec intervals. Strides were
      ensembled into walking bouts with the Intensity/Duration calculated as a
      percentage of Total Ambulatory Time (TAT). RESULTS: Twenty-eight children with CP
      (14 boys; avg. 12 yrs. 4 mths.; GMFCS Level I n=4, Level II n=19, Level III n=5)
      completed testing and 28 age matched typically developing youth (14 boys; avg. 12
      yrs. 6 mths.) were included. Using the 10sec interval, ~80% of walking bouts in
      both groups were less than or equal to 60s. Data recorded at 60sec intervals had
      higher daily TAT but fewer walking bouts. In children with CP, daily steps were
      higher using the 60sec interval. At the Easy intensity, the 60sec interval
      reported an increased volume of Long duration walking, and it rarely identified
      any Moderate+ intensity activity. CONCLUSIONS: 60sec interval data overestimated
      low intensity and long duration ambulatory activity. It is imperative that
      investigators choose a finer interval setting (10sec) to maximize the detection
      of gait transitions and rest periods which are critical in describing community
      ambulation of patients with cerebral palsy.

PMID- 28578135
TI  - Oxylipin mediated stress response of a miraculin-like protease inhibitor in
      Hexanoic acid primed eggplant plants infested by Colorado potato beetle.
AB  - Insect-plant interactions are governed by a complex equilibrium between the
      mechanisms through which plant recognize insect attack and orchestrate downstream
      signaling events that trigger plant defense responses, and the mechanisms by
      which insects overcome plant defenses. Due to this tight and dynamic interplay,
      insight into the nature of the plant defense response can be gained by analyzing
      changes in the insect herbivores digestive system upon plant feeding. In this
      work we have identified a Solanum melongena miraculin-like protease inhibitor in
      the midgut juice of Colorado potato larvae feeding on eggplant plants treated
      with the natural inducer of plant defenses hexanoic acid. We analyzed the
      corresponding gene expression by qRT-PCR and our results showed that this
      eggplant miraculin-like gene enhanced induction contributes to the hexanoic acid
      priming effect in this Solanaceae species. Moreover, our data evidencing that
      OPDA might be involved in this gene regulation highlights its potential as
      biomarker in eggplant plant responses to stress mediated this oxylipin signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28578137
TI  - A pilot study of physical activity and sedentary behavior distribution patterns
      in older women.
AB  - The study aims were to investigate free-living physical activity and sedentary
      behavior distribution patterns in a group of older women, and assess the cross
      sectional associations with body mass index (BMI). Eleven older women (mean (SD)
      age: 77 (9) yrs) wore custom-built activity monitors, each containing a tri-axial
      accelerometer (+/-16g, 100Hz), on the waist and ankle for lab-based walking
      trials and 4 days in free-living. Daily active time, step counts, cadence, and
      sedentary break number were estimated from acceleration data. The sedentary bout
      length distribution and sedentary time accumulation pattern, using the Gini
      index, were investigated. Associations of the parameters' total daily values and
      coefficients of variation (CVs) of their hourly values with BMI were assessed
      using linear regression. The algorithm demonstrated median sensitivity, positive
      predictive value, and agreement values >98% and <1% mean error in cadence
      calculations with video identification during lab trials. Participants' sedentary
      bouts were found to be power law distributed with 56% of their sedentary time
      occurring in 20min bouts or longer. Meaningful associations were detectable in
      the relationships of total active time, step count, sedentary break number and
      their CVs with BMI. Active time and step counts had moderate negative
      associations with BMI while sedentary break number had a strong negative
      association. Active time, step count and sedentary break number CVs also had
      strong positive associations with BMI. The results highlight the importance of
      measuring sedentary behavior and suggest a more even distribution of physical
      activity throughout the day is associated with lower BMI.

PMID- 28578138
TI  - Static and dynamic validation of inertial measurement units.
AB  - Optical motion capture systems are used to assess human motion. While these
      systems provide a reliable analysis, they limit collection to a laboratory based
      setting. Devices such as Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) have been developed as
      alternative tools. Commercially available IMUs are utilized for a variety of
      applications; however limited work has been done to determine the reliability of
      these devices. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy and
      precision of a commercially available IMU, containing tri-axial accelerometers,
      gyroscopes, and magnetometers, under controlled static and dynamic conditions.
      The sensor output was validated against the gold standard measures of custom made
      mechanical testing apparatuses. The IMUs provide an accurate (within 0.6 degrees
      ) and precise (within 0.1 degrees ) measurement of static sensor orientation and
      an accurate (within 4.4 degrees  per second) and precise (within 0.2 degrees  per
      second) representation of angular velocity. The sensors are more accurate at
      lower velocities, but the percent error remains relatively constant across all
      angular velocities. Inclusion of IMUs as an appropriate measurement tool should
      be based on the application, specific demands and necessary reliability.

PMID- 28578139
TI  - Altered leverage around the ankle in people with diabetes: A natural strategy to
      modify the muscular contribution during walking?
AB  - Diabetes patients display gait alterations compared to controls including a
      higher metabolic cost of walking. This study aimed to investigate whether
      differences in external moment arm (ExtMA) and effective mechanical advantage
      (EMA) at the ankle in diabetes patients could partly explain the increased cost
      of walking compared to controls. Thirty one non-diabetic controls (Ctrl); 22
      diabetes patients without peripheral neuropathy (DM) and 14 patients with
      moderate/severe diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) underwent gait analysis
      using a motion analysis system and force plates. The internal Achilles tendon
      moment arm length was determined using magnetic resonance imaging during weight
      bearing and ExtMA was calculated using gait analysis. A greater value (P<0.01)
      for the EMA at the ankle was found in the DPN (0.488) and DM (0.46) groups
      compared to Ctrl (0.448). The increased EMA was mainly caused by a smaller ExtMA
      in the DPN (9.63cm; P<0.01) and DM (10.31cm) groups compared to Ctrl (10.42cm)
      These findings indicate that the ankle plantarflexor muscles would need to
      generate lower forces to overcome the external resistance during walking compared
      to controls. Our findings do not explain the previously observedhigher metabolic
      cost of walking in the DM and DPN groups, but uncover a new mechanism through
      which patients with diabetes and particularly those with DPN reduce the joint
      moment at the ankle during walking: by applying the ground reaction force more
      proximally on the foot, or at an angle directed more towards the ankle, thereby
      increasing the EMA and reducing the ankle joint moment.

PMID- 28578140
TI  - Effectiveness of an innovative hip energy storage walking orthosis for improving
      paraplegic walking: A pilot randomized controlled study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The high energy cost of paraplegic walking using a reciprocating gait
      orthosis (RGO) is attributed to limited hip motion and excessive upper limb
      loading for support. To address the limitation, we designed the hip energy
      storage walking orthosis (HESWO) which uses a spring assembly on the pelvic shell
      to store energy from the movements of the healthy upper limbs and flexion
      extension of the lumbar spine and hip and returns this energy to lift the pelvis
      and lower limb to assist with the swing and stance components of a stride. Our
      aim was to evaluate gait and energy cost indices for the HESWO compared to the
      RGO in patients with paraplegia. METHODS: The cross-over design was used in the
      pilot study. Twelve patients with a complete T4-L5 chronic spinal cord injury
      underwent gait training using the HESWO and RGO. Gait performance (continuous
      walking distance, as well as the maximum and comfortable walking speeds) and
      energy expenditure (at a walking speed of 3.3m/min on a treadmill) were measured
      at the end of the 4-week training session. RESULTS: Compared to the RGO, the
      HESWO increased continuous walking distance by 24.7% (P<0.05), maximum walking
      speed by 20.4% (P<0.05) and the comfortable walking speed by 15.3% (P<0.05), as
      well as decreasing energy expenditure by 13.9% (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our
      preliminary results provide support for the use of the HESWO as an alternative
      support for paraplegic walking.

PMID- 28578141
TI  - Physiologic correlates of intraoperative blood transfusion among patients
      undergoing major gastrointestinal operations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guidelines for transfusion focus on nadir levels of hemoglobin.
      Hemoglobin triggers may not be helpful, however, in defining appropriate
      intraoperative use of packed red blood cells. We sought to define the use of
      intraoperative packed red blood cells relative to quantitative physiologic
      factors at the time of operation. METHODS: Prospective intraoperative data on
      patients undergoing a major gastrointestinal operation between 2010 and 2014 were
      analyzed. Risk of intraoperative transfusion was assessed with multivariable
      extended Cox models using baseline clinical covariates and time-varying
      intraoperative covariates. RESULTS: Among 2,316 patients, the mean preoperative
      hemoglobin was 12.6 g/dL (standard deviation = 2.0 g/dL), while the median
      estimated blood loss was 200 mL (interquartile range: 100-55 mL). Overall, 357
      (15.4%) patients received a transfusion intraoperatively. A greater hazard of
      transfusion was associated with a greater American Society of Anesthesiologists
      class (ref: American Society of Anesthesiologists class I-II; American Society of
      Anesthesiologists class III-IV; hazard ratio = 1.44, 95% confidence interval,
      1.18-1.77, P < .001), and a lesser preoperative hemoglobin level (per 1 g/dL
      increase; hazard ratio = 0.70, 95% confidence interval, 0.65-0.74, P < .001). In
      addition, an increase in heart rate of 10 beats/min above the cumulative average
      at any measurement was associated with up to a 30% increased probability of
      transfusion (hazard ratio = 1.30, 95% confidence interval, 1.15-1.47, P < .001);
      similarly, an increase in mean arterial pressure of 10 mm Hg was associated with
      an 8% decreased likelihood of transfusion (hazard ratio = 0.92, 95% confidence
      interval, 87-0.99, P = .017). In contrast, nadir hemoglobin was not associated
      with the risk of receiving a transfusion (hazard ratio = 1.10, 95% confidence
      interval, 0.97-1.23, P = .129). Among patients who received an intraoperative
      transfusion, 9.2% (n = 33) never had a hemoglobin nadir below 10 g/dL, nor an
      average mean arterial pressure less than 65 mm Hg or a heart rate greater than
      100 beats/min around the time of transfusion. CONCLUSION: Among the
      intraoperative factors, heart rate, and mean arterial pressure were strongly
      associated with the likelihood of receiving a transfusion, despite the
      observation that 9.2% of patients never had a physiologic indicator for
      transfusion or a nadir hemoglobin below 10 g/dL, suggesting a subset of patients
      could benefit from a decrease in intraoperative rate of transfusion.

PMID- 28578143
TI  - Effect of seasonality and Cr(VI) on starch-sucrose partitioning and related
      enzymes in floating leaves of Salvinia minima.
AB  - Effects of seasonality and increasing Cr(VI) concentrations on leaf starch
      sucrose partitioning, sucrose- and starch-related enzyme activities, and carbon
      allocation toward leaf development were analyzed in fronds (floating leaves) of
      the floating fern Salvinia minima. Carbohydrates and enzyme activities of Cr
      exposed fronds showed different patterns in winter and summer. Total soluble
      sugars, starch, glucose and fructose increased in winter fronds, while sucrose
      was higher in summer ones. Starch and soluble carbohydrates, except glucose,
      increased under increasing Cr(VI) concentrations in winter fronds, while in
      summer ones only sucrose increased under Cr(VI) treatment. In summer fronds
      starch, total soluble sugars, fructose and glucose practically stayed without
      changes in all assayed Cr(VI) concentrations. Enzyme activities related to starch
      and sucrose metabolisms (e.g. ADPGase, SPS, SS and AI) were higher in winter
      fronds than in summer ones. Total amylase and cFBPase activities were higher in
      summer fronds. Cr(VI) treatment increased enzyme activities, except ADPGase, in
      both winter and summer fronds but no clear pattern changes were observed. Data of
      this study show clearly that carbohydrate metabolism is differently perturbed by
      both seasonality and Cr(VI) treatment in summer and winter fronds, which affects
      leaf starch-sucrose partitioning and specific leaf area (SLA) in terms of carbon
      investment.

PMID- 28578142
TI  - Impact of lymph node ratio in selecting patients with resected gastric cancer for
      adjuvant therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of adjuvant chemotherapy and chemo-radiation therapy in
      the treatment of resectable gastric cancer remains varied. We sought to define
      the clinical impact of lymph node ratio on the relative benefit of adjuvant
      chemotherapy or chemo-radiation therapy among patients having undergone curative
      intent resection for gastric cancer. METHODS: Using the multi-institutional US
      Gastric Cancer Collaborative database, 719 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma
      who underwent curative-intent resection between 2000 and 2013 were identified.
      Patients with metastasis or an R2 margin were excluded. The impact of lymph node
      ratio on overall survival among patients who received chemotherapy or chemo
      radiation therapy was evaluated. RESULTS: Median patient age was 65 years, and
      the majority of patients were male (56.2%). The majority of patients underwent
      either subtotal (40.6%) or total gastrectomy (41.0%), with the remainder
      undergoing distal gastrectomy or wedge resection (18.4%). On pathology, median
      tumor size was 4 cm; most patients had a T3 (33.0%) or T4 (27.9%) lesion with
      lymph node metastasis (59.7%). Margin status was R0 in 92.5% of patients. A total
      of 325 (45.2%) patients underwent resection alone, 253 (35.2%) patients received
      5-FU or capecitabine-based chemo-radiation therapy, whereas the remaining 141
      (19.6%) received chemotherapy. Median overall survival was 40.9 months, and 5
      year overall survival was 40.3%. According to lymph node ratio categories, 5-year
      overall survival for patients with a lymph node ratio of 0, 0.01-0.10, >0.10
      0.25, >0.25 were 54.1%, 53.1 %, 49.1 % and 19.8 %, respectively. Factors
      associated with worse overall survival included involvement of the
      gastroesophageal junction (hazard ratio 1.8), T-stage (3-4: hazard ratio 2.1),
      lymphovascular invasion (hazard ratio 1.4), and lymph node ratio (>0.25: hazard
      ratio 2.3; all P < .05). In contrast, receipt of adjuvant chemo-radiation therapy
      was associated with an improved overall survival in the multivariable model
      (versus resection alone: hazard ratio 0.40; versus chemotherapy: hazard ratio
      0.45, both P < .001). The benefit of chemo-radiation therapy for resected gastric
      cancer was noted only among patients with lymph node ratio >0.25 (versus
      resection alone: hazard ratio R 0.34; versus chemotherapy: hazard ratio 0.45,
      both P < .001). In contrast, there was no noted overall survival benefit of
      chemotherapy or chemo-radiation therapy among patients with lymph node ratio
      <=0.25 (all P > .05). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant chemotherapy or chemo-radiation
      therapy was utilized in more than one-half of patients undergoing curative-intent
      resection for gastric cancer. Lymph node ratio may be a useful tool to select
      patients for adjuvant chemo-radiation therapy, because the benefit of chemo
      radiation therapy was isolated to patients with greater degrees of lymphatic
      spread (ie, lymph node ratio >0.25).

PMID- 28578144
TI  - Role of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in DBP-induced apoptosis of testicular
      sertoli cells in vitro.
AB  - Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) has significant male reproductive toxicity, and the
      Sertoli cells are the target cells of DBP. This study was to investigate the
      injury effect induced by DBP on rat testicular Sertoli cells in vitro. MTT
      results showed that DBP can significantly reduce the survival rate of Sertoli
      cells; Hoechst staining results showed that the Sertoli cells treated with DBP
      emerged with typical morphological characteristics of apoptosis, nuclear
      condensation and chromatin condensation; flow cytometry results showed that DBP
      significantly increased the apoptotic rate of Sertoli cells, and dose-dependent;
      Western blotting showed that the expression of PTEN protein in Sertoli cells was
      significantly higher than that in the control group after treated with different
      concentrations of DBP for 24h, while the expression of p-PI3K1, p-AKT, p70S6K and
      4E-BP1 protein in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signal pathway were significantly decreased.
      It is speculated that PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway plays an important
      role in DBP-induced apoptosis of testicular Sertoli cells in rats.

PMID- 28578145
TI  - Contraceptive prescriptions for US servicewomen, 2008-2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion and characteristics of US servicewomen who
      were prescribed contraception between 2008 and 2013 and to estimate the
      prevalence of contraceptive utilization among women who deployed during the
      surveillance period. STUDY DESIGN: This is a descriptive study of all
      servicewomen of child-bearing potential serving in the active component of the US
      armed forces at any time between 2008 and 2013. We estimated contraceptive
      utilization status using pharmacy, procedural and diagnostic codes as recorded in
      the Defense Medical Surveillance System and Pharmacy Data Transaction Service.
      Estimates of contraceptive utilization were compared by demographic and military
      variables, including deployment status. Poisson regression with robust error
      variance was used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and 95% confidence
      intervals. RESULTS: Among eligible servicewomen (N=375,847), 68.7% received at
      least one form of contraception during the surveillance period. Contraceptive
      methods included short acting only (55.6%), long-acting (11.9%), permanent (1.0%)
      and barrier methods (0.2%). An additional 8.2% received counseling services only
      without an associated procedure or prescription. After adjusting by several
      demographic variables, receipt of contraception was highest among women aged 25
      29 years and lowest among those aged 17-19 and 45-49 years. Receipt of any
      contraception was similar across racial/ethnic groups, although Hispanic and
      black, non-Hispanic women were more likely to receive long-acting reversible
      contraception. Of those who deployed (N=131,597), 53.6% received contraception
      before or during their deployment, with 7.9% using long-acting contraception.
      CONCLUSION: US servicewomen utilize contraception at high levels, with few
      demographic disparities. Gaps still exist, especially among the youngest women
      and around the time of deployment. IMPLICATIONS: US servicewomen are prescribed
      contraception at high levels, but utilization is lower in the youngest
      servicewomen and around the time of deployment. Such data provide opportunities
      for development and evaluation of interventions designed to improve access to
      contraceptive services for all servicewomen and to reduce the rate of unintended
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28578146
TI  - Use of clinical performance measures for contraceptive care in Iowa, 2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess feasibility of calculating clinical performance measures
      for contraceptive care for National Quality Forum submission: the percentage of
      women aged 15-44 years provided the following: (1) a most or moderately effective
      contraceptive method (MME) and (2) a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC)
      method. METHODS: We used 2013 Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) Title X and
      Iowa Medicaid data. We stratified Title X data by age and Medicaid data by age
      and benefit type (family planning waiver (FPW) vs. general Medicaid), and
      examined variation by residence, public health region and health plan based on
      program interest. FINDINGS: Among women attending IDPH Title X clinics in 2013
      (N=11,584), 86% of women aged 15-20years and 83% of women aged 21-44years were
      provided MME; and 20% of women aged 15-20years and 20% of women aged 21-44years
      were provided LARC. Estimates varied across Title X subrecipient agencies, which
      receive federal funds from IDPH. Among Medicaid FPW clients (N=30,013), 79% of
      women aged 15-20years and 73% of women aged 21-44years were provided MME; and 12%
      of women aged 15-20years and 11% of women aged 21-44years were provided LARC.
      Among general Medicaid clients (N=14,737), 40% of women aged 15-20years and 28%
      of women aged 21-44years were provided MME; and 5% of women aged 15-20years and
      5% of women aged 21-44years were provided LARC. CONCLUSION: A high percentage of
      IDPH Title X and FPW clients were provided an MME method. No reporting entity had
      a LARC percentage less than 1%-2%. IMPLICATIONS: Measure calculation using Title
      X and Medicaid data is feasible and can potentially be used to identify ways to
      increase access to contraceptive methods.

PMID- 28578147
TI  - "I wish they could hold on a little longer": physicians' experiences with
      requests for early IUD removal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study describes the perceptions and experiences of family
      physicians when women request early intrauterine device (IUD) removal. STUDY
      DESIGN: This qualitative study included semistructured individual interviews with
      12 physicians who encountered patients seeking early IUD removal. We identified
      eligible participants via chart review. We analyzed interviews using deductive
      and inductive techniques to identify content and themes. RESULTS: Physicians
      consistently referred to IUDs as the "best" or their "favorite" method, and
      several joked that they tried to "sell" the IUD during contraceptive counseling.
      Most reported having mixed or negative feelings when patients opted to remove the
      IUD. Most encouraged their patients to continue the IUD, hoping to delay removal
      until symptoms resolved so that removal was not needed. Some physicians reported
      feeling guilty or as if they had "failed" when a patient wanted the IUD removed.
      Many providers reported a conflict between valuing patient autonomy and feeling
      that early removal was not in the patient's best interest. CONCLUSIONS:
      Physicians have complex and contradictory feelings about early IUD removal. While
      most providers acknowledged the need for patient autonomy, they still reported
      encouraging IUD continuation based on their own opinion about the IUD.
      IMPLICATIONS: While IUDs are highly effective and well-liked contraceptives,
      providers' responses to IUD removal requests have implications for both
      reproductive autonomy as well as the doctor-patient relationship. More work is
      needed to ensure that providers remove a patient's IUD when requested.

PMID- 28578148
TI  - Contraception and reproductive counseling in women with peripartum
      cardiomyopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pregnancies following a diagnosis of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM)
      are associated with increased risk for maternal morbidity and mortality. Yet
      patterns of contraceptive use and reproductive counseling have received little
      attention. This nationwide registry-based study sought to evaluate patterns and
      clinical characteristics associated with contraceptive use, and examine the
      prevalence of contraceptive counseling in women with PPCM. METHODS: From December
      2015 to June 2016, 177 PPCM patients (mean age of 34.8+/-5.7years, median time
      since diagnosis of 3.0+/-4.3years) completed questionnaires about contraceptive
      use and counseling at registry enrollment. T Tests, chi-square and logistic
      regression were used to compare demographic and clinical characteristics among
      women who reported contraceptive use vs. nonuse. RESULTS: Tubal ligation (24.3%),
      condoms (22.0%) and intrauterine devices (IUDs; 16.4%) were the most common forms
      of contraception. Among sexually active women, 28.9% reported contraceptive
      nonuse. Contraceptive users had a lower body mass index higher education, and
      were less likely to be in a dating relationship, have hypertension, wear an
      external cardioverter-defibrillator, and use antihypertensive medications
      compared with nonusers (all p<0.05). Two-thirds of women received counseling
      about risks of subsequent pregnancies and contraceptive strategies. CONCLUSIONS:
      This preliminary study indicates that 1 in 4 PPCM patients are sexually active
      and are not using contraception to prevent PPCM reoccurrence. Although a majority
      of women did receive reproductive counseling, as many as 25% of patients reported
      no discussion of contraceptive strategies to prevent unintended pregnancy and
      heart failure relapse.

PMID- 28578149
TI  - Abortion and contemporary hip-hop: a thematic analysis of lyrics from 1990-2015.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the representation of abortion in contemporary hip-hop
      music, gaining insight into the myriad of attitudes of abortion in the black
      community. STUDY DESIGN: We used Genius, an online storehouse for lyrical
      content, to identify songs by querying the database for search terms related to
      family planning, including slang terms. We then cross-referenced identified songs
      using an online list of songs about abortion. We analyzed eligible songs using
      grounded theory in order to identify key themes. RESULTS: Of 6577 songs
      available, a total of 101 songs performed by 122 individual artists met inclusion
      criteria. The majority of artists were Black men; five artists were Black women.
      Key themes were: use of abortion as braggadocio; equating abortion with sin,
      genocide, or murder; male pressure for women to seek abortion; and the specific
      association of Planned Parenthood services with abortion. CONCLUSIONS: The moral
      and ethical themes surrounding abortion in hip-hop lyrics reveal a unique
      perspective within a marginalized community. The overall negative context of
      abortion in hip-hop lyrics needs to be reconciled with the gendered, economic,
      historical, political, racial and ethnic background of hip-hop and rap music in
      America. IMPLICATIONS: This study is the first to evaluate lyrical content from
      contemporary popular music in relation to abortion and family planning. Examining
      the intersection of reproductive rights and popular culture can provide a unique
      insight into the limited knowledge of the perspectives of abortion in the black
      community.

PMID- 28578150
TI  - Standardizing the classification of abortion incidents: the Procedural Abortion
      Incident Reporting and Surveillance (PAIRS) Framework.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate standardized criteria for assessing abortion
      related incidents (adverse events, morbidities, near misses) for first-trimester
      aspiration abortion procedures and to demonstrate the utility of a standardized
      framework [the Procedural Abortion Incident Reporting & Surveillance (PAIRS)
      Framework] for estimating serious abortion-related adverse events. STUDY DESIGN:
      As part of a California-based study of early aspiration abortion provision
      conducted between 2007 and 2013, we developed and validated a standardized
      framework for defining and monitoring first-trimester (<=14weeks) aspiration
      abortion morbidity and adverse events using multiple methods: a literature
      review, framework criteria testing with empirical data, repeated expert reviews
      and data-based revisions to the framework. RESULTS: The final framework
      distinguishes incidents resulting from procedural abortion care (adverse events)
      from morbidity related to pregnancy, the abortion process and other nonabortion
      related conditions. It further classifies incidents by diagnosis (confirmatory
      data, etiology, risk factors), management (treatment type and location), timing
      (immediate or delayed), seriousness (minor or major) and outcome. Empirical
      validation of the framework using data from 19,673 women receiving aspiration
      abortions revealed almost an equal proportion of total adverse events (n=205,
      1.04%) and total abortion- or pregnancy-related morbidity (n=194, 0.99%). The
      majority of adverse events were due to retained products of conception (0.37%),
      failed attempted abortion (0.15%) and postabortion infection (0.17%). Serious or
      major adverse events were rare (n=11, 0.06%). CONCLUSIONS: Distinguishing
      morbidity diagnoses from adverse events using a standardized, empirically tested
      framework confirms the very low frequency of serious adverse events related to
      clinic-based abortion care. IMPLICATIONS: The PAIRS Framework provides a useful
      set of tools to systematically classify and monitor abortion-related incidents
      for first-trimester aspiration abortion procedures. Standardization will assist
      healthcare providers, researchers and policymakers to anticipate morbidity and
      prevent abortion adverse events, improve care metrics and enhance abortion
      quality.

PMID- 28578151
TI  - An updated assessment of postpartum sterilization fulfillment after vaginal
      delivery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe sterilization completion rates after vaginal delivery and
      indications for unfulfilled procedures. STUDY DESIGN: We used labor and delivery
      operating room and delivery logs to identify all women over 20years of age with a
      completed live vaginal birth beyond 24weeks gestation over a 33-month period
      (March 1, 2012 to November 30, 2014). We reviewed the electronic medical records
      of all of these patients and identified those who requested a sterilization
      procedure as indicated in a physician's admission note or antenatal record.
      RESULTS: We identified 3514 live vaginal births beyond 24weeks gestation during
      the study period of which 219 requested postpartum sterilization. Sterilization
      occurred in 114 (52%). The most common reason for unfulfilled procedures was lack
      of valid federally mandated consent (n=46 [44%]). Fifty-nine percent (27 of 46)
      of these women had little or no prenatal care. Only one (0.5%) woman had
      documented completion of consent with the required time elapsed prior to delivery
      and no consent form available. Of the women with valid consent documentation, the
      most common indication for an unfulfilled procedure was patient refusal (n=30
      [51%]). Body mass index was an independent predictor of an unfulfilled procedure
      (p<.001) among women with adequate consent. CONCLUSIONS: Inability to complete
      federally mandated consent is a principal cause of unfulfilled postpartum
      sterilization and primarily affects women desiring sterilization who lack
      sufficient prenatal care. Of women who meet consent criteria, the primary reason
      women eligible for sterilization did not undergo the procedure was due to
      withdrawing their request. IMPLICATIONS: Because women commonly do not undergo a
      requested sterilization after vaginal deliveries, antepartum counseling should
      include alternate contraception choices. Documented consent that fulfills all
      federally mandated criteria remains the most common barrier to requested
      sterilization after vaginal delivery; providers and policymakers should work
      together to help unburden women from this mandate.

PMID- 28578153
TI  - Racial injustice and family planning: an open letter to our community.

PMID- 28578154
TI  - Species limits, phylogeography and reproductive mode in the Metarhizium
      anisopliae complex.
AB  - An essential first step to elucidating the ecology and life histories of
      Metarhizium anisopliae-group species as entomopathogens, endophytes and soil
      adapted fungi is the ability to define species limits and confidently infer a
      species phylogeny. In a multilocus phylogeny of the core Metarhizium anisopliae
      species complex, the majority of isolates sampled herein group within the
      currently defined limits of M. pingshaense, M. anisopliae, M. robertsii and M.
      brunneum, designated informally as the "PARB" clade. Multilocus phylogenetic
      analyses reveal pervasive congruent hierarchical structure among the genomic
      regions analyzed, which suggest that current PARB species delimitations likely
      encompass additional cryptic complexes. Further, the interpolation of isolates
      from different continents throughout each species lineage indicates periodic
      inter-continental dispersals. Although no PARB species has yet been confirmed to
      produce a sexual state, we demonstrate the mutually exclusive incidence of the
      MAT1 and MAT2 mating type idiomorphs among individuals in all PARB species. This
      configuration of mating type is diagnostic of a heterothallic, obligately
      outcrossing mating system, indicating the conservation of and ongoing potential
      for sexual reproduction in all PARB species. As one example of the utility of IGS
      markers, the commercially registered M. anisopliae strain F52, which is widely
      used for pest control in North America, Canada and Europe, is shown to be a
      member of the M. brunneum complex. While current PARB species delimitations
      evidently encompass cryptic partitions, formal recognition of segregate species
      should be approached cautiously until further evidence of their phylogenetic
      exclusivity, ecological distinctiveness or other unique attributes is
      demonstrated. Nevertheless, acknowledgment of these intraspecific partitions will
      provide a useful conceptual framework to guide future investigations of the
      community structure, phylogeography, population genetics, ecology and
      reproductive biology of this recent species radiation.

PMID- 28578152
TI  - Examining intendedness among pregnancies ending in spontaneous abortion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Spontaneous abortion (SAB) affects over 1 million US women each year,
      yet little is known about the intendedness of these pregnancies. We examined
      prevalence and correlates of unintended and unwanted pregnancies ending in SAB.
      STUDY DESIGN: We used nationally-representative cross-sectional data of US women
      aged 15-44 from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth to examine
      pregnancies ending in SAB. We used modified Poisson regression models to evaluate
      associations between demographic and pregnancy characteristics with unintended
      and unwanted pregnancy. RESULTS: Among 1351 pregnancies ending in SAB, 44.5% were
      unintended (i.e. unwanted or occurring sooner than desired). Younger women with
      SAB were more likely to report unintended pregnancies than women 30-44 years, and
      women 15-19 years reported unintended pregnancy most often [adjusted relative
      risk (aRR)=3.0; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.2-4.1]. Unintended pregnancy was
      two times more likely among unmarried than married women [never married: aRR=2.2;
      95% CI: 1.7-2.7; previously married: aRR=2.2; 95% CI: 1.7-3.0]. Other factors
      associated with unintended pregnancy were multiparity compared to nulliparity
      [aRR=2.6; 95% CI: 1.7-4.1 for >=3 children; aRR=1.8; 95% CI: 1.3-2.5 for 2
      children] and inter-pregnancy interval <=12 months compared to >12 months
      [aRR=1.4; 95% CI: 1.2-1.7]. We found similar associations with unwanted
      pregnancies ending in SAB (15.3% of pregnancies). Neither race/ethnicity nor
      socioeconomic indicators were independently associated with unintended or
      unwanted pregnancy ending in SAB. CONCLUSIONS: Many pregnancies ending in
      spontaneous abortion are unintended and/or unwanted. Women with pregnancy loss,
      like all reproductive-aged women, should receive comprehensive counseling about
      reproductive planning and contraception. IMPLICATIONS: Similar to all
      pregnancies, nearly half of pregnancies ending in spontaneous abortion are
      unintended and/or unwanted, suggesting that many women experiencing spontaneous
      abortion may benefit from a review of family planning desires and the provision
      of reproductive planning counseling and effective contraception to prevent future
      undesired pregnancy.

PMID- 28578155
TI  - Prefrontal-parietal effective connectivity during working memory in older adults.
AB  - Theoretical models and preceding studies have described age-related alterations
      in neuronal activation of frontoparietal regions in a working memory (WM) load
      dependent manner. However, to date, underlying neuronal mechanisms of these WM
      load-dependent activation changes in aging remain poorly understood. The aim of
      this study was to investigate these mechanisms in terms of effective connectivity
      by application of dynamic causal modeling with Bayesian Model Selection. Eighteen
      healthy younger (age: 20-32 years) and 32 older (60-75 years) participants
      performed an n-back task with 3 WM load levels during functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (fMRI). Behavioral and conventional fMRI results replicated age
      group by WM load interactions. Importantly, the analysis of effective
      connectivity derived from dynamic causal modeling, indicated an age- and
      performance-related reduction in WM load-dependent modulation of connectivity
      from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to inferior parietal lobule. This finding
      provides evidence for the proposal that age-related WM decline manifests as
      deficient WM load-dependent modulation of neuronal top-down control and can
      integrate implications from theoretical models and previous studies of functional
      changes in the aging brain.

PMID- 28578157
TI  - Carbon Dioxide Fluctuations Are Associated with Changes in Cerebral Oxygenation
      and Electrical Activity in Infants Born Preterm.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of acute arterial carbon dioxide partial
      pressure changes on cerebral oxygenation and electrical activity in infants born
      preterm. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective observational study included ventilated
      infants born preterm with acute fluctuations of continuous end-tidal CO2 (etCO2)
      as a surrogate marker for arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure, during the
      first 72 hours of life. Regional cerebral oxygen saturation and fractional tissue
      oxygen extraction were monitored with near-infrared spectroscopy. Brain activity
      was monitored with 2-channel electroencephalography. Spontaneous activity
      transients (SATs) rate (SATs/minute) and interval between SATs (in seconds) were
      calculated. Ten-minute periods were selected for analysis: before, during, and
      after etCO2 fluctuations of >=5  mm Hg. RESULTS: Thirty-eight patients (mean +/-
      SD gestational age of 29 +/- 1.8 weeks) were included, with 60 episodes of etCO2
      increase and 70 episodes of etCO2 decrease. During etCO2 increases, brain
      oxygenation increased (regional cerebral oxygen saturation increased, fractional
      tissue oxygen extraction decreased; P < .01) and electrical activity decreased
      (SATs/minute decreased, interval between SATs increased; P < .01). All measures
      recovered when etCO2 returned to baseline. During etCO2 decreases, brain
      oxygenation decreased (regional cerebral oxygen saturation decreased, fractional
      tissue oxygen extraction decreased; P < .01) and brain activity increased
      (SATs/minute increased, P < .05), also with recovery after return of etCO2 to
      baseline. CONCLUSION: An acute increase in etCO2 is associated with increased
      cerebral oxygenation and decreased brain activity, whereas an acute decrease is
      associated with decreased cerebral oxygenation and slightly increased brain
      activity. Combining continuous CO2 monitoring with near-infrared spectroscopy may
      enable the detection of otherwise undetected fluctuations in arterial carbon
      dioxide partial pressure that may be harmful to the neonatal brain.

PMID- 28578158
TI  - Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome.

PMID- 28578156
TI  - ApoE influences regional white-matter axonal density loss in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Mechanisms underlying phenotypic heterogeneity in young onset Alzheimer disease
      (YOAD) are poorly understood. We used diffusion tensor imaging and neurite
      orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) with tract-based spatial
      statistics to investigate apolipoprotein (APOE) epsilon4 modulation of white
      matter damage in 37 patients with YOAD (22, 59% APOE epsilon4 positive) and 23
      age-matched controls. Correlation between neurite density index (NDI) and
      neuropsychological performance was assessed in 4 white-matter regions of
      interest. White-matter disruption was more widespread in epsilon4+ individuals
      but more focal (posterior predominant) in the absence of an epsilon4 allele.
      NODDI metrics indicate fractional anisotropy changes are underpinned by
      combinations of axonal loss and morphological change. Regional NDI in parieto
      occipital white matter correlated with visual object and spatial perception
      battery performance (right and left, both p = 0.02), and performance (nonverbal)
      intelligence (WASI matrices, right, p = 0.04). NODDI provides tissue-specific
      microstructural metrics of white-matter tract damage in YOAD, including NDI which
      correlates with focal cognitive deficits, and APOEepsilon4 status is associated
      with different patterns of white-matter neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28578159
TI  - Low Retinol-Binding Protein and Vitamin D Levels Are Associated with Severe
      Outcomes in Children Hospitalized with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection and
      Respiratory Syncytial Virus or Human Metapneumovirus Detection.
AB  - Retinol binding protein and vitamin D were measured in children aged <5 years
      hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infection and respiratory syncytial
      virus and/or human metapneumovirus detections. Low vitamin levels were observed
      in 50% of the children and were associated with significantly elevated risk of
      the need for intensive care unit admission and invasive mechanical ventilation.

PMID- 28578160
TI  - Fertility Treatment Is Associated with Stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
      and Respiratory Support in Late Preterm Infants.
AB  - Late preterm infants are at risk for short-term morbidities. We report that late
      preterm singletons conceived with fertility treatment have increased risk for
      admission to the neonatal intensive care unit and respiratory support compared
      with spontaneously conceived infants. Fertility treatment may be a risk factor to
      consider in managing late preterm infants.

PMID- 28578161
TI  - Examining the intersection between splicing, nuclear export and small RNA
      pathways.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nuclear Argonaute/small RNA pathways in a variety of eukaryotic
      species are generally known to regulate gene expression via chromatin modulation
      and transcription attenuation in a process known as transcriptional gene
      silencing (TGS). However, recent data, including genetic screens, phylogenetic
      profiling, and molecular mechanistic studies, also point to a novel and emerging
      intersection between the splicing and nuclear export machinery with nuclear
      Argonaute/small RNA pathways in many organisms. SCOPE OF REVIEW: In this review,
      we summarize the field's current understanding regarding the relationship between
      splicing, export and small RNA pathways, and consider the biological implications
      for coordinated regulation of transcripts by these pathways. We also address the
      importance and available approaches for understanding the RNA regulatory logic
      generated by the intersection of these particular pathways in the context of
      synthetic biology. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: The interactions between various eukaryotic
      RNA regulatory pathways, particularly splicing, nuclear export and small RNA
      pathways provide a type of combinatorial code that informs the identity ("self"
      versus "non-self") and dictates the fate of each transcript in a cell. Although
      the molecular mechanisms for how splicing and nuclear export impact small RNA
      pathways are not entirely clear at this early stage, the links between these
      pathways are widespread across eukaryotic phyla. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The link
      between splicing, nuclear export, and small RNA pathways is emerging and
      establishes a new frontier for understanding the combinatorial logic of gene
      regulation across species that could someday be harnessed for therapeutic,
      biotechnology and agricultural applications. This article is part of a Special
      Issue entitled "Biochemistry of Synthetic Biology - Recent Developments" Guest
      Editor: Dr. Ilka Heinemann and Dr. Patrick O'Donoghue.

PMID- 28578162
TI  - Rapid convergence of optimal control in NMR using numerically-constructed
      toggling frames.
AB  - We present a numerical method for rapidly solving the Bloch equation for an
      arbitrary time-varying spin-1/2 Hamiltonian. The method relies on fast,
      vectorized computations such as summation and quaternion multiplication, rather
      than slow computations such as matrix exponentiation. A toggling frame is
      constructed in which the Hamiltonian is time-invariant, and therefore has a
      simple analytical solution. The key insight is that constructing this frame is
      faster than solving the system dynamics in the original frame. Rapidly solving
      the Bloch equations for an arbitrary Hamiltonian is particularly useful in the
      context of NMR optimal control. Optimal control theory can be used to design
      pulse shapes for a range of tasks in NMR spectroscopy. However, it requires
      multiple simulations of the Bloch equations at each stage of the algorithm, and
      for each relevant set of parameters (e.g. chemical shift frequencies). This is
      typically time consuming. We demonstrate that by working in an appropriate
      toggling frame, optimal control pulses can be generated much faster. We present a
      new alternative to the well-known GRAPE algorithm to continuously update the
      toggling-frame as the optimal pulse is generated, and demonstrate that this
      approach is extremely fast. The use and benefit of rapid optimal pulse generation
      is demonstrated for 19F fragment screening experiments.

PMID- 28578164
TI  - Discriminative ability of commonly used indices to predict adverse outcomes after
      poster lumbar fusion: a comparison of demographics, ASA, the modified Charlson
      Comorbidity Index, and the modified Frailty Index.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: As research tools, the American Society of Anesthesiologists
      (ASA) physical status classification system, the modified Charlson Comorbidity
      Index (mCCI), and the modified Frailty Index (mFI) have been associated with
      complications following spine procedures. However, with respect to clinical use
      for various adverse outcomes, no known study has compared the predictive
      performance of these indices specifically following posterior lumbar fusion
      (PLF). PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the discriminative ability of ASA,
      mCCI, and mFI, as well as demographic factors including age, body mass index, and
      gender for perioperative adverse outcomes following PLF. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A
      retrospective review of prospectively collected data was performed. PATIENT
      SAMPLE: Patients undergoing elective PLF with or without interbody fusion were
      extracted from the 2011-2014 American College of Surgeons National Surgical
      Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). OUTCOME MEASURES: Perioperative adverse
      outcome variables assessed included the occurrence of minor adverse events,
      severe adverse events, infectious adverse events, any adverse event, extended
      length of hospital stay, and discharge to higher-level care. METHODS: Patient
      comorbidity indices and characteristics were delineated and assessed for
      discriminative ability in predicting perioperative adverse outcomes using an area
      under the curve analysis from the receiver operating characteristics curves.
      RESULTS: In total, 16,495 patients were identified who met the inclusion
      criteria. The most predictive comorbidity index was ASA and demographic factor
      was age. Of these two factors, age had the larger discriminative ability for
      three out of the six adverse outcomes and ASA was the most predictive for one out
      of six adverse outcomes. A combination of the most predictive demographic factor
      and comorbidity index resulted in improvements in discriminative ability over the
      individual components for five of the six outcome variables. CONCLUSION: For PLF,
      easily obtained patient ASA and age have overall similar or better discriminative
      abilities for perioperative adverse outcomes than numerically tabulated indices
      that have multiple inputs and are harder to implement in clinical practice.

PMID- 28578165
TI  - Antihypertensive and vasorelaxant effects of aqueous extract of Artemisia
      campestris L. from Eastern Morocco.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Artemisia campestris L. (Asteraceae) has many
      traditional uses, among which treatment of diabetes and hypertension. AIM OF THE
      STUDY: This study was conducted in order to confirm the antihypertensive and
      hypotensive effects of A. campestris L. aqueous extract (AcAE) and to explore the
      underlying mechanism of action of its vasorelaxant effect, besides the acute
      toxicity. Also, the chemical composition of AcAE was investigated. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: the chemical content of AcAE was determined by using HPLC and NMR
      techniques. The antihypertensive effect was assessed indirectly by tail-cuff
      method on L-NAME induced hypertensive rats, while the hypotensive action was
      monitored intravenously by invasive method on normotensive rats. The vasorelaxant
      effect and vascular mechanism of action were studied in the presence of
      antagonists and blockers on aorta isolated from normotensive rats. On the other
      side, the acute toxicity was studied by oral feeding of extract to the mice.
      RESULTS: The global phytochemical profile of AcAE reveals the presence of several
      polyphenols as main components. A. campestris L. infusion was characterized by
      mono- and di-cinnamoyl compounds, with 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic (isochlorogenic A)
      acid being the main compound, followed by 5-caffeoylquinic (chlorogenic) acid.
      Vicenin-2 (apigenin 6,8-di-C-glucoside) appeared to be the most abundant compound
      among flavonoids. The daily treatment with AcAE at 150mg/kg/day prevented the
      installation of hypertension on L-NAME hypertensive rats, and reduced SBP from
      172mmHg up to 144mmHg. At the dose 40mg/kg, AcAE provoked reduction of systolic
      (SBP), diastolic (DBP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP), without affecting the
      heart rate. Also, AcAE (10-2-2mg/ml) relaxed the precontracted aorta by 95.8+/
      1.3%. The denudation and preincubation of aorta with atropine, calmidazolium, L
      NAME, hydroxycobalamin, ODQ, 8-RP-Br-PET-cGMP, thapsigargin and verapamil
      attenuated the vasorelaxant response, while the pre-treatment with 4-AP, TEA,
      glibenclamide and BaCl2 did not alter this effect. The oral administration of
      AcAE (0-6g/kg) reveals no mortality or toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: our study proved
      that AcAE possess an important antihypertensive, hypotensive and vasorelaxant
      effect, which is mediated via calmodulin-NO-cGC-PKG pathway, and via inhibition
      of calcium influx through voltage-operated calcium channels and activation of
      intracellular calcium mobilization into sarcoplasmic reticulum. Therefore, our
      findings give first evidence about the traditional use of A. campestris L. as
      antihypertensive plant.

PMID- 28578163
TI  - Efficacy and safety of urinary catheters with silver alloy coating in patients
      with spinal cord injury: a multicentric pragmatic randomized controlled trial.
      The ESCALE trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) who carry indwelling urinary
      catheters have an increased risk of urinary tract infection (UTI). Antiseptic
      silver alloy-coated (SAC) silicone urinary catheters prove to be a promising
      intervention to reduce UTIs; however, current evidence cannot be extrapolated to
      patients with SCI. PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of SAC
      urinary catheters for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
      DESIGN/SETTING: This is an open-label, multicenter (developed in Spain, Portugal,
      Chile, Turkey, and Italy), randomized clinical trial conducted in 14 hospitals
      from November 2012 to December 2015. PATIENT SAMPLE: Eligible patients were men
      or women with traumatic or medical SCI, aged >=18 years, requiring an indwelling
      urinary catheter for at least 7 days. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was
      the incidence of symptomatic UTIs. The secondary outcome included bacteremia in
      the urinary tract and adverse events. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients were
      randomized to receive a SAC urinary catheter (experimental group) or a standard
      catheter (control group) for at least 7 days. Data were compared using chi
      squared test and also calculating the absolute risk difference with a 95%
      confidence interval. An adjusted analysis including different risk factors of UTI
      was performed. This study was mainly funded by La Marato de TV3 Foundation (grant
      number # 112210) and the European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network
      organization. The funders had no role in the interpretation or reporting of
      results. RESULTS: A total of 489 patients were included in the study, aged 55
      years in the experimental group and aged 57 in the control group (p=.870); 72%
      were men; 43% were hospitalized patients, and 57% were outpatients (p=1.0). The
      most frequent cause of SCI was traumatic (73.75%), and the localization was
      mainly the cervical spine (42.74%). Most of the patients had an A score (complete
      spinal injury and no motor and sensory is preserved) on the ASIA scale (62.37%).
      The median time of urethral catheterization was 27 days in the experimental group
      and 28 days in the control group (p=.202). Eighteen patients (7.41%) in the
      experimental group and 19 in the control (7.72%) group had a symptomatic UTI
      (odds ratio [OR] 0.96 [0.49-1.87]). The adjusted analysis revealed no change in
      the results. Only three patients in the experimental group had bacteremia within
      the urinary tract. The experimental group presented more adverse events related
      to the use of a catheter than the control group (OR 0.03 [0.00-0.06]).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study do not support the routine use of
      indwelling antiseptic SAC silicone urinary catheters in patients with SCI.
      However, UTIs associated to long-term urinary catheter use remain a challenge and
      further investigations are still needed.

PMID- 28578167
TI  - Novel label-free and high-throughput microchip electrophoresis platform for
      multiplex antibiotic residues detection based on aptamer probes and target
      catalyzed hairpin assembly for signal amplification.
AB  - Novel label-free and multiplex aptasensors have been developed for simultaneous
      detection of several antibiotics based on a microchip electrophoresis (MCE)
      platform and target catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA) for signal amplification.
      Kanamycin (Kana) and oxytetracycline (OTC) were employed as models for testing
      the system. These aptasensors contained six DNA strands termed as Kana aptamer
      catalysis strand (Kana apt-C), Kana inhibit strand (Kana inh), OTC aptamer
      catalysis strand (OTC apt-C), OTC inhibit strand (OTC inh), hairpin structures H1
      and H2 which were partially complementary. Upon the addition of Kana or OTC, the
      binding event of aptamer and target triggered the self-assembly between H1 and
      H2, resulting in the formation of many H1-H2 complexes. They could show strong
      signals which represented the concentration of Kana or OTC respectively in the
      MCE system. With the help of the well-designed and high-quality CHA
      amplification, the assay could yield 300-fold amplified signal comparing that
      from non-amplified system. Under optimal conditions, this assay exhibited a
      linear correlation in the ranges from 0.001ngmL-1 to 10ngmL-1, with the detection
      limits of 0.7pgmL-1 and 0.9pgmL-1 (S/N=3) toward Kana and OTC, respectively. The
      platform has the following advantages: firstly, the aptamer probes can be
      fabricated easily without labeling signal tags for MCE detection; Secondly, the
      targets can just react with probes and produce the amplified signal in one-pot.
      Finally, the targets can be simultaneously detected within 10min in different
      channels, thus high-throughput measurement can be achieved. Based on this work,
      it is estimated that this detection platform will be universally served as a
      simple, sensitive and portable platform for antibiotic contaminants detection in
      biological and environmental samples.

PMID- 28578166
TI  - Effect of cervical sympathetic ganglionectomy on facial nerve reconstruction
      using polyglycolic acid-collagen tubes.
AB  - A polyglycolic acid-collagen (PGA-c) tube was used as an artificial nerve guide
      during facial nerve reconstruction performed in a canine model of stellate
      ganglion block (SGB). The model was generated using a cervical sympathetic
      ganglionectomy. We evaluated the effects of blood flow on nerve regeneration.
      First, we resected the left cervical sympathetic ganglion in beagles (n=6). We
      assessed buccal mucosal blood flow and nasal skin temperatures once per week for
      12weeks and Horner's sign 2, 4, and 6months after resection. We compared these
      values to those measured prior to resection. Blood flow was increased for 6
      11weeks, but sympathetic control remained blocked after 6months. Second, we
      divided beagles into 3 groups: resection models (negative control), from which
      7mm of the left facial nerve buccal branch was resected (n=5); reconstruction
      models, which underwent nerve reconstruction using PGA-c tubes (n=6); and
      SGB+reconstruction models, which underwent a left cervical sympathetic
      ganglionectomy immediately after reconstruction (n=6). The right side of the face
      served as control (n=17). Nerve regeneration was significantly greater in the
      SGB+reconstruction model dogs than in the reconstruction model dogs, as measured
      by both electrophysiological and morphological analyses at postoperative week 12.
      In particular, motor nerve conduction velocity was increased approximately 2-fold
      (p=0.018). We were able to generate an SGB model with long-term increased blood
      flow facilitated by the promotion of facial nerve regeneration by PGA-c tubes.

PMID- 28578168
TI  - Neonatal outcomes in fetuses with cardiac anomalies and the impact of delivery
      route.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital fetal cardiac anomalies compromise the most common group
      of fetal structural anomalies. Several previous reports analyzed all types of
      fetal cardiac anomalies together without individualized neonatal morbidity
      outcomes based on cardiac defect. Mode of delivery in cases of fetal cardiac
      anomalies varies greatly as optimal mode of delivery in these complex cases is
      unknown. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine rates of neonatal outcomes for fetal
      cardiac anomalies and examine the role of attempted route of delivery on neonatal
      morbidity. STUDY DESIGN: Gravidas with fetal cardiac anomalies and delivery >34
      weeks, excluding stillbirths and aneuploidies (n = 2166 neonates, n = 2701
      cardiac anomalies), were analyzed from the Consortium on Safe Labor, a
      retrospective cohort study of electronic medical records. Cardiac anomalies were
      determined using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes
      and organized based on morphology. Neonates were assigned to each cardiac anomaly
      classification based on the most severe cardiac defect present. Neonatal outcomes
      were determined for each fetal cardiac anomaly. Composite neonatal morbidity
      (serious respiratory morbidity, sepsis, birth trauma, hypoxic ischemic
      encephalopathy, and neonatal death) was compared between attempted vaginal
      delivery and planned cesarean delivery for prenatal and postnatal diagnosis. We
      used multivariate logistic regression to calculate adjusted odds ratio for
      composite neonatal morbidity controlling for race, parity, body mass index,
      insurance, gestational age, maternal disease, single or multiple anomalies, and
      maternal drug use. RESULTS: Most cardiac anomalies were diagnosed postnatally
      except hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which had a higher prenatal than
      postnatal detection rate. Neonatal death occurred in 8.4% of 107 neonates with
      conotruncal defects. Serious respiratory morbidity occurred in 54.2% of 83
      neonates with left ventricular outflow tract defects. Overall, 76.3% of
      pregnancies with fetal cardiac anomalies underwent attempted vaginal delivery.
      Among patients who underwent attempted vaginal delivery, 66.1% had a successful
      vaginal delivery. Women with a fetal cardiac anomaly diagnosed prenatally were
      more likely to have a planned cesarean delivery than women with a postnatal
      diagnosis (31.7 vs 22.8%; P < .001). Planned cesarean delivery compared to
      attempted vaginal delivery was not associated with decreased composite neonatal
      morbidity for all prenatally diagnosed (adjusted odds ratio, 1.67; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.85-3.30) or postnatally diagnosed (adjusted odds ratio, 0.99; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.77-1.27) cardiac anomalies. CONCLUSION: Most fetal cardiac
      anomalies were diagnosed postnatally and associated with increased rates of
      neonatal morbidity. Planned cesarean delivery for prenatally diagnosed cardiac
      anomalies was not associated with less neonatal morbidity.

PMID- 28578169
TI  - Maternal race and intergenerational preterm birth recurrence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is a complex disorder with a heritable genetic
      component. Studies of primarily White women born preterm show that they have an
      increased risk of subsequently delivering preterm. This risk of intergenerational
      preterm birth is poorly defined among Black women. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was
      to evaluate and compare intergenerational preterm birth risk among non-Hispanic
      Black and non-Hispanic White mothers. STUDY DESIGN: This was a population-based
      retrospective cohort study, using the Virginia Intergenerational Linked Birth
      File. All non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White mothers born in Virginia 1960
      through 1996 who delivered their first live-born, nonanomalous, singleton infant
      >=20 weeks from 2005 through 2009 were included. We assessed the overall
      gestational age distribution between non-Hispanic Black and White mothers born
      term and preterm (<37 weeks) and their infants born term and preterm (<37 weeks)
      using Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survivor functions. Mothers were grouped by
      maternal gestational age at delivery (term, >=37 completed weeks; late preterm
      birth, 34-36 weeks; and early preterm birth, <34 weeks). The primary outcomes
      were: (1) preterm birth among all eligible births; and (2) suspected spontaneous
      preterm birth among births to women with medical complications (eg, diabetes,
      hypertension, preeclampsia and thus higher risk for a medically indicated preterm
      birth). Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odds of preterm
      birth and spontaneous preterm birth by maternal race and maternal gestational age
      after adjusting for confounders including maternal education, maternal age,
      smoking, drug/alcohol use, and infant gender. RESULTS: Of 173,822 deliveries
      captured in the intergenerational birth cohort, 71,676 (41.2%) women met
      inclusion criteria for this study. Of the entire cohort, 30.0% (n = 21,467) were
      non-Hispanic Black and 70.0% were non-Hispanic White mothers. Compared to non
      Hispanic White mothers, non-Hispanic Black mothers were more likely to have been
      born late preterm (6.8% vs 3.7%) or early preterm (2.8 vs 1.0%), P < .001. Non
      Hispanic White mothers who were born (early or late) preterm were not at an
      increased risk of early or late preterm delivery compared to non-Hispanic White
      mothers born term. The risk of early preterm birth was most pronounced for Black
      mothers who were born early preterm (adjusted odds ratio, 3.26; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.77-6.02) compared to non-Hispanic White mothers. CONCLUSION: We found
      an intergenerational effect of preterm birth among non-Hispanic Black mothers but
      not non-Hispanic White mothers. Black mothers born <34 weeks carry the highest
      risk of delivering their first child very preterm. Future studies should
      elucidate the underlying pathways leading to this racial disparity.

PMID- 28578170
TI  - Can venous cord gas values predict fetal acidemia?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Umbilical cord arterial blood gas values are used to diagnose fetal
      acidemia; however, arterial cord blood specimens are frequently not available.
      OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess whether umbilical cord venous blood gas values can
      be used to reliably predict fetal acidemia. STUDY DESIGN: This is an
      observational study of women with a singleton gestation at a single tertiary care
      hospital who delivered from September 2010 through August 2015 and had both
      umbilical cord arterial and venous blood gas samples measured. Fetal acidemia was
      defined in 2 ways: (1) umbilical cord arterial pH <7.0, and (2) umbilical cord
      arterial base deficit >=12 mEq/L. Receiver operating characteristic curves for
      fetal acidemia were generated using umbilical cord venous blood gas values and
      the areas under the curve were calculated. Umbilical cord venous blood gas
      cutoffs associated with <1%, <5%, <10%, and <50% probability of acidemia were
      calculated. RESULTS: Of the 36,325 women who met inclusion criteria, 563 (1.5%)
      had an umbilical cord arterial pH <7.0 and 1535 (4.2%) had an umbilical cord
      arterial base deficit >=12 mEq/L. Umbilical cord venous pH was highly predictive
      of umbilical cord arterial pH <7.0 (area under the curve, 0.955; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.946-0.965). Similarly, umbilical cord venous base deficit was highly
      predictive of umbilical cord arterial base deficit >=12 mEq/L (area under the
      curve, 0.967; 95% confidence interval, 0.963-0.971). While the combination of
      venous pH and base deficit was statistically significantly more predictive of
      umbilical cord arterial pH <7.0 (area under the curve, 0.961; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.952-0.969; P < .001), this difference has negligible clinical
      meaning. Similarly, the combination of venous pH and base deficit (area under the
      curve, 0.967; 95% confidence interval, 0.962-0.971) was no more predictive than
      venous base deficit alone in the prediction of umbilical cord arterial base
      deficit >=12 mEq (P = .622). The likelihood of an arterial cord venous pH <7.0
      was <1%, <5%, <10%, and <50% with cord venous pH of 7.22, 7.16, 7.14, and 7.07,
      respectively. The likelihood of an arterial cord base deficit >=12 mEq/L was <1%,
      <5%, <10%, and <50% with cord venous base deficit of 7.0, 8.5, 9.2, and 11.3,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Umbilical cord venous pH and base deficit are each
      highly predictive of fetal acidemia, and can be used to evaluate the likelihood
      of fetal acidemia in the absence of umbilical cord arterial blood gas values.

PMID- 28578171
TI  - Nonmedically indicated induction in morbidly obese women is not associated with
      an increased risk of cesarean delivery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of morbid obesity (body mass index >=40 kg/m2) in
      women aged 20-39 years was 7.5% in 2009 through 2010. Morbid obesity is
      associated with an increased risk of stillbirth compared with normal body mass
      index, especially >39 weeks' gestation. The data regarding increased risk of
      cesarean delivery associated with nonmedically indicated induction of labor
      compared to expectant management in morbidly obese women are limited. OBJECTIVE:
      We sought to compare the cesarean delivery rate of nonmedically indicated
      induction of labor with expectant management in morbidly obese women without
      other comorbidity. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study from the
      Consortium on Safe Labor of morbidly obese women with singleton, cephalic
      gestations without previous cesarean, chronic hypertension, or gestational or
      pregestational diabetes between 37 0/7 and 41 6/7 weeks' gestation. We examined
      maternal outcomes including cesarean delivery, operative delivery, third- or
      fourth-degree laceration, postpartum hemorrhage, and composite maternal outcome
      (any of: transfusion, intensive care unit admission, venous thromboembolism). We
      also examined neonatal outcomes including shoulder dystocia, macrosomia (>4000
      g), neonatal intensive care unit admission, and composite neonatal outcome (5-min
      Apgar score <5, stillbirth, neonatal death, or asphyxia or hypoxic-ischemic
      encephalopathy). Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were
      calculated, controlling for maternal characteristics, hospital type, and
      simplified Bishop score. Analyses were conducted at early and full term (37 0/7
      to 38 6/7 and 39 0/7 to 40 6/7 weeks' gestation, respectively). Women who
      delivered between 41 0/7 and 41 6/7 weeks' gestation were included as expectant
      management group. RESULTS: Of 1894 nulliparous and 2455 multiparous morbidly
      obese women, 429 (22.7%) and 791 (32.2%) had nonmedically indicated induction,
      respectively. In nulliparas, nonmedically indicated induction was not associated
      with increased risks of cesarean delivery and was associated with decreased risks
      of macrosomia (2.2% vs 11.0%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.24; 95% confidence interval,
      0.05-0.70) at early term and decreased neonatal intensive care unit admission
      (5.1% vs 8.9%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.98) at
      full term compared with expectant management. In multiparas, nonmedically
      indicated induction compared with expectant management was associated with a
      decreased risk of macrosomia at early term (4.2% vs 14.3%; adjusted odds ratio,
      0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.13-0.60), cesarean delivery at full term (5.4%
      vs 7.9%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.98), and
      composite neonatal outcome (0% vs 0.6%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.10; 95% confidence
      interval, <.01-0.89) at full term. CONCLUSION: In morbidly obese women without
      other comorbidity, nonmedically indicated induction was not associated with an
      increased risk of cesarean delivery.

PMID- 28578172
TI  - Major postoperative complications following surgical procedures for pelvic organ
      prolapse: a secondary database analysis of the American College of Surgeons
      National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical approaches to the correction of pelvic organ prolapse
      include abdominal, vaginal, and obliterative approaches. These approaches require
      vastly different anatomical dissections, surgical techniques, and operative times
      and are often selected by the patient and surgeon to match preoperative
      multimorbidity and ability of the patient to tolerate the stress of surgery.
      OBJECTIVE: We sought to describe the occurrence of postoperative complications
      occurring after 3 different surgical approaches to treat pelvic organ prolapse:
      vaginal, abdominal, and obliterative. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a secondary
      database analysis of the 2006 through 2014 American College of Surgeons National
      Surgical Quality Improvement Program participant use data files to analyze
      patients undergoing procedures for pelvic organ prolapse based on Current
      Procedural Terminology codes. Women were categorized into 3 surgical approaches
      to prolapse: vaginal, abdominal, and obliterative. Concomitant hysterectomy and
      sling were also examined. The primary outcome was a composite of 30-day major
      postoperative complications. RESULTS: A total of 33,416 women were included in
      our final analysis: 24,928 vaginal procedures, 6834 abdominal (4461 minimally
      invasive) procedures, and 1654 obliterative procedures. Concomitant
      hysterectomies and slings were performed in 17,380 (52.0%) and 10,896 (32.6%) of
      prolapse procedures. The overall prevalence of composite 30-day major
      postoperative complications was 3.1% (n/N = 1028/33,416). There were 13
      perioperative deaths (0.04%) with no difference in the surgical approaches (P =
      .55). There were no differences in major postoperative complications between
      vaginal and abdominal procedures (3.0% vs 3.0%; P = .71). Women undergoing
      obliterative procedures had an occurrence of major postoperative complications of
      5.0% (n/N = 83/1654), P < .001. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of major postoperative
      complications after prolapse surgery is rare. We did not find a significant
      difference in major postoperative complications between vaginal and abdominal
      surgeries for pelvic organ prolapse. In this well-characterized cohort of
      patients who self-selected surgical approach, women undergoing obliterative
      surgery had more postoperative complications, likely attributed to increased age
      and multimorbidity.

PMID- 28578173
TI  - The first-trimester fetal central nervous system: a novel ultrasonographic
      perspective.

PMID- 28578174
TI  - Maternal marijuana use, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal morbidity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and
      Human Development Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network previously
      demonstrated an association between stillbirth and maternal marijuana use as
      defined by the presence of 11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid
      in the umbilical cord homogenate. However, the relationship between marijuana use
      and perinatal complications in live births is uncertain. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was
      to examine if maternal marijuana use is associated with increased odds of adverse
      pregnancy outcomes and neonatal morbidity among live-born controls in the
      Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network cohort. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a
      secondary analysis of singleton, live-born controls in the Stillbirth
      Collaborative Research Network data set. Marijuana use was measured by self
      report and/or the presence of 11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic
      acid in umbilical cord homogenate. Tobacco use was measured by self-report and/or
      presence of any cotinine in maternal serum. Adverse pregnancy outcome was a
      composite of small for gestational age, spontaneous preterm birth resulting from
      preterm labor with or without intact membranes, and hypertensive disorders of
      pregnancy. Neonatal morbidity included neonatal intensive care unit admission and
      composite neonatal morbidity (pulmonary morbidity, necrotizing enterocolitis,
      seizures, retinopathy of prematurity, infection morbidity, anemia requiring blood
      transfusion, neonatal surgery, hyperbilirubinemia, neurological morbidity, or
      death prior to hospital discharge). Effect of maternal marijuana use on the
      probability of an adverse outcome was estimated using weighted methodology to
      account for oversampling in the original study. 11-nor-delta-9
      tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid cord homogenate analysis was performed in
      the subset of women for whom biospecimens were available. Comparisons using
      logistic modeling, chi2, and t tests were weighted to account for oversampling of
      preterm births and non-Hispanic blacks. Results are reported as weighted percent
      and unweighted frequencies. RESULTS: Maternal marijuana use was identified in
      2.7% (unweighted frequency 48/1610) of live births. Use was self-reported by 1.6%
      (34/1610) and detected by 11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid
      in cord homogenate for 1.9% (17/897), n = 3 overlapping. Rate of tobacco use was
      12.9% (217/1610), with 10.7% (167/1607) by self-report and 9.5% (141/1313) by
      serum cotinine. The composite adverse pregnancy outcome was not significantly
      increased in women with marijuana use compared to nonusers (31.2% vs 21.2%; P =
      .14). After adjustment for tobacco, clinical, and socioeconomic factors,
      marijuana use was not associated with the composite adverse pregnancy outcome
      (adjusted odds ratio, 1.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.56-2.96). Similarly, among
      women with umbilical cord homogenate and serum cotinine data (n = 765), marijuana
      use was not associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes (adjusted odds ratio,
      1.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.18-5.66). Neonatal intensive care unit admission
      rates were not statistically different between groups (16.9% users vs 9.5%
      nonusers, P = .12). Composite neonatal morbidity or death was more frequent among
      neonates of mothers with marijuana use compared to nonusers (14.1% vs 4.5%; P =
      .002). In univariate comparisons, the components of the composite outcome that
      were more frequent in neonates of marijuana users were infection morbidity (9.8%
      vs 2.4%; P < .001) and neurologic morbidity (1.4% vs 0.3%; P = .002). After
      adjustment for tobacco, race, and other illicit drug use, marijuana use was still
      associated with composite neonatal morbidity or death (adjusted odds ratio, 3.11;
      95% confidence interval, 1.40-6.91). CONCLUSION: Maternal marijuana use was not
      associated with a composite of small for gestational age, spontaneous preterm
      birth, or hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. However, it was associated with an
      increased risk of neonatal morbidity.

PMID- 28578175
TI  - Trends in hysterectomy rates among women veterans in the US Department of
      Veterans Affairs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prior studies demonstrate a higher prevalence of hysterectomy among
      veterans compared with nonveterans. While studies identify overall decreasing
      hysterectomy rates in the United States, none report rates of hysterectomy among
      women veterans. Given the increasing numbers of women veterans using Veterans
      Affairs health care, there is an ongoing need to ensure high-quality gynecology
      care. Therefore, it is important to examine current hysterectomy trends,
      including proportion of minimally invasive surgeries, among veterans using
      Veterans Affairs health care. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to describe
      hysterectomy trends and utilization of minimally invasive hysterectomy in the
      Veterans Affairs healthcare system. STUDY DESIGN: This longitudinal study used
      Veterans Affairs clinical and administrative data from fiscal year 2008 to 2014
      to identify hysterectomies provided or paid for by Veterans Affairs. Crude and
      age-adjusted hysterectomy rates were calculated by indication (benign or
      malignant), mode (abdominal, laparoscopic, vaginal, robotic assisted,
      unspecified), and source of care (provided vs paid for by Veterans Affairs). Mode
      and indication for hysterectomy were classified using International
      Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, codes. The distribution of
      hysterectomy mode in each year was calculated by indication and source of care.
      RESULTS: Between fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2014, the total hysterectomy
      rate decreased from 4.0 per 1000 to 2.6 per 1000 unique women veteran Veterans
      Affairs users. Age-adjusted rates of abdominal hysterectomy for benign
      indications decreased over the study period from 1.54 per 1000 (95% confidence
      interval, 1.40-1.69) to 0.77 per 1000 (95% confidence interval, 0.69-0.85) for
      procedures provided by Veterans Affairs and 0.77 per 1,000 (95% confidence
      interval, 0.69-0.85) to 0.29 per 1,000 (95% confidence interval, 0.23-0.34) for
      those paid for by Veterans Affairs. Among hysterectomies for benign indications
      provided by (n = 5296) or paid for (n = 2610) by Veterans Affairs, the percentage
      of hysterectomies performed abdominally decreased from 67.2% to 46.8% and from
      68.9% to 57.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that gynecology
      care provided within Veterans Affairs has kept pace with national trends in
      reducing hysterectomy rates and increasing utilization of minimally invasive
      surgical techniques.

PMID- 28578177
TI  - The impact of uterine immaturity on obstetrical syndromes during adolescence.
AB  - Pregnant nulliparous adolescents are at increased risk, inversely proportional to
      their age, of major obstetric syndromes, including preeclampsia, fetal growth
      restriction, and preterm birth. Emerging evidence indicates that biological
      immaturity of the uterus accounts for the increased incidence of obstetrical
      disorders in very young mothers, possibly compounded by sociodemographic factors
      associated with teenage pregnancy. The endometrium in most newborns is
      intrinsically resistant to progesterone signaling, and the rate of transition to
      a fully responsive tissue likely determines pregnancy outcome during adolescence.
      In addition to ontogenetic progesterone resistance, other factors appear
      important for the transition of the immature uterus to a functional organ,
      including estrogen-dependent growth and tissue-specific conditioning of uterine
      natural killer cells, which plays a critical role in vascular adaptation during
      pregnancy. The perivascular space around the spiral arteries is rich in
      endometrial mesenchymal stem-like cells, and dynamic changes in this niche are
      essential to accommodate endovascular trophoblast invasion and deep placentation.
      Here we evaluate the intrinsic (uterine-specific) mechanisms that predispose
      adolescent mothers to the great obstetrical syndromes and discuss the convergence
      of extrinsic risk factors that may be amenable to intervention.

PMID- 28578176
TI  - Research standardization tools: pregnancy measures in the PhenX Toolkit.
AB  - Only through concerted and well-executed research endeavors can we gain the
      requisite knowledge to advance pregnancy care and have a positive impact on
      maternal and newborn health. Yet the heterogeneity inherent in individual studies
      limits our ability to compare and synthesize study results, thus impeding the
      capacity to draw meaningful conclusions that can be trusted to inform clinical
      care. The PhenX Toolkit (http://www.phenxtoolkit.org), supported since 2007 by
      the National Institutes of Health, is a web-based catalog of standardized
      protocols for measuring phenotypes and exposures relevant for clinical research.
      In 2016, a working group of pregnancy experts recommended 15 measures for the
      PhenX Toolkit that are highly relevant to pregnancy research. The working group
      followed the established PhenX consensus process to recommend protocols that are
      broadly validated, well established, nonproprietary, and have a relatively low
      burden for investigators and participants. The working group considered input
      from the pregnancy experts and the broader research community and included
      measures addressing the mode of conception, gestational age, fetal growth
      assessment, prenatal care, the mode of delivery, gestational diabetes, behavioral
      and mental health, and environmental exposure biomarkers. These pregnancy
      measures complement the existing measures for other established domains in the
      PhenX Toolkit, including reproductive health, anthropometrics, demographic
      characteristics, and alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. The preceding
      domains influence a woman's health during pregnancy. For each measure, the PhenX
      Toolkit includes data dictionaries and data collection worksheets that facilitate
      incorporation of the protocol into new or existing studies. The measures within
      the pregnancy domain offer a valuable resource to investigators and clinicians
      and are well poised to facilitate collaborative pregnancy research with the goal
      to improve patient care. To achieve this aim, investigators whose work includes
      the perinatal population are encouraged to utilize the PhenX Toolkit in the
      design and implementation of their studies, thus potentially reducing
      heterogeneity in data measures across studies. Such an effort will enhance the
      overall impact of individual studies, increasing the ability to draw more
      meaningful conclusions that can then be translated into clinical practice.

PMID- 28578178
TI  - Frequency and correlates of anticholinergic use among patients with schizophrenia
      in Denmark: A Nation-wide pharmacoepidemiological study.
AB  - Anticholinergic medications are used to treat extrapyramidal adverse effects
      induced by antipsychotics. Anticholinergics are associated with adverse effects:
      constipation, dry mouth and worsening of cognitive function. Anticholinergics
      have potential for abuse and are not recommended for long term-treatment. We
      aimed to investigate the use of anticholinergics in patients with schizophrenia.
      The national health registers in Denmark were used to examine: The prevalence of
      anticholinergics in 1996-2012 using a cross-sectional design; geographic
      variations in the prescription of anticholinergics in 2012; correlates of
      treatment with anticholinergics. The proportion of patients using
      anticholinergics decreased significantly from 11.7% in 1996 to 5.7% in 2012. The
      prescription pattern varied considerably between national regions in 2012,
      ranging from 4.0% in the Capital Region to 8.1% in the Northern Denmark Region.
      Long-term use of anticholinergics was predicted by older age, age at debut of
      schizophrenia, receiving early retirement pension, typical antipsychotic use,
      antipsychotic polypharmacy, typical + atypical antipsychotics, antidepressant
      treatment, high doses of antipsychotics measured in defined-daily-dose, physical
      comorbidity and psychiatrists' greater caseload. Use of anticholinergics declined
      during the study period, and showed substantial variation across the regions in
      2012. Long-term use was linked to typical antipsychotic use and variables that
      are associated with greater illness severity.

PMID- 28578179
TI  - Internet use and psychosocial health of school aged children.
AB  - This study was carried out to determine the internet use and psychosocial health
      of school aged children. Children in grades 4-7 and their parents were invited to
      participate. The study group consisted of 737 children. Data were collected using
      a descriptive form and Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17. Majority of children used
      internet, one of each five children had psychosocial problem risk. Risk of
      psychosocial problem was higher in males, children who have 'not working father',
      use internet 5 years and over, use internet for 3h and over per day. These
      results suggest that families should be informed about associations between
      internet use and psychosocial problems that measures should be taken for
      providing controlled internet use for children.

PMID- 28578180
TI  - "With a little help from my friends" social predictors of clinical recovery in
      first-episode psychosis.
AB  - Social functioning is a conglomerate of factors central to clinical recovery
      after a first-episode psychosis. There is a lack of studies investigating the
      relative impact of factors related to social interaction. Disentangling these
      could facilitate improvement of psychosocial interventions. This study aims to
      investigate the impact of social interactions on two-year clinical recovery in
      first-episode psychosis, by examining frequency and satisfaction of relationships
      with family and friends. A baseline sample of 178 first-episode psychosis
      individuals were followed up over two years regarding social functioning and
      clinical status. We longitudinally compared those who were to those who were not
      recovered using generalized estimating equations analyses. Our results showed
      that frequency of social interactions with friends was a significant positive
      predictor of clinical recovery over a two-year period. Perceived satisfaction
      with relationships, and frequency of family interaction did not show significant
      effects. We conclude that interaction with friends is a malleable factor that
      could be targeted for early intervention. This would facilitate protective
      factors through the preservation of existing social networks and thus reduce the
      risk of disability associated with long-term psychosis. Findings indicate that
      even individuals with an inclination towards social withdrawal and isolation
      could benefit from this type of intervention.

PMID- 28578181
TI  - Catatonia in an inpatient gerontopsychiatric population.
AB  - There are limited data on the prevalence of catatonia in the elderly. The aim of
      this study was to determine the prevalence of catatonia in elderly patients (=/>
      65 years) acutely admitted to the psychiatric unit of a general hospital. All
      patients aged 65 years and above admitted to a general hospital psychiatric unit
      over a 4-month period were screened for catatonia with the 14-item Bush-Francis
      Catatonia Screening Instrument (BFCSI). Patients with a minimum of 2 symptoms on
      the BFCSI were rated with the 23-item Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale
      (BFCRS). Catatonia was simultaneously evaluated according to DSM-5 criteria.
      Clinical diagnoses were established using the validated Hungarian versions of the
      Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, the Mini Mental State
      Examination and the Clock Drawing Test. Ninety-eight (28.1%) of the 342 patients
      admitted to the psychiatric unit during the study period were above 65 years of
      age; 11 (11.22%) and 6 (6.12%) patients were classified as having catatonia
      according to the BFCRS and DSM-5 criteria, respectively. The majority of the
      patients had catatonia due to a medical condition. A significant minority of
      gerontopsychiatric inpatients present with catatonia. Dementia was not a risk
      factor for catatonia.

PMID- 28578182
TI  - A confirmatory factor analysis of the PTSD checklist 5 in veteran and college
      student samples.
AB  - An important change in the conceptualization of posttraumatic stress disorder
      (PTSD) has been the shift from a three-factor model used in the DSM-IV-TR to the
      current four-factor model used in DSM-5. Early research initially supported the
      three-factor model, but most recent data suggest a four-factor model provides the
      best fit. Still other research has examined evidence for a five-factor model that
      would include depression sequelae. By way of a confirmatory factor analysis, we
      demonstrate the reliability of DSM-5 PTSD criteria clustering in a sample of 124
      OEF/OIF/OND Veterans treated at a VAMC (49% white, 89% men) and a sample of 737
      college students (48% white, 78% women). All participants were trauma-exposed,
      and completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. The current study shows both samples
      best support a five-factor model over two four factor models considered for the
      DSM-5, though none provided better than moderate fit. Implications of the current
      findings regarding the reliability of the new DSM-5 criteria of PTSD will be
      discussed.

PMID- 28578183
TI  - Central Precocious Puberty Secondary to Adrenocortical Adenoma in a Female Child:
      Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric adrenocortical tumors are rare but significant causes of
      virilization and peripheral precocious puberty (PPP). CASE: A 4-year-old girl
      presented with development of breast, pubic hair, and facial acne. Her bone age
      was advanced, and her gonadotropin level did not elevate in a gonadotropin
      releasing hormone (GnRH) test. High levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate,
      estradiol, and testosterone, and detection of a tumor in the left adrenal gland
      of the abdomen using computed tomography led to a diagnosis of PPP due to adrenal
      tumor. Adrenal adenoma was diagnosed with pathology after the tumor was removed.
      Ultrasonography detected multicystic ovaries before surgery. Although the
      androgen levels decreased, high estrogen levels persisted after complete tumor
      resection. Approximately 1 year after the surgery, the patient's breast
      development persisted, bone age progressed rapidly, and gonadotropin levels
      increased in a GnRH test. Central precocious puberty was diagnosed, and treatment
      with GnRH analogues was started. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Adrenal adenoma might
      present with isosexual PPP as well as virilization in girls. The ovaries should
      be carefully assessed in these patients. Prolonged exposure to androgen and
      estrogen might cause ovarian multicysts leading to persistence of high estrogen
      levels and initiation of central precocious puberty.

PMID- 28578184
TI  - Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Vagina in an Adolescent Girl.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gynecologic neoplasms are rare in children and represent only less
      than 5% of all childhood tumors. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) of the female genital
      tract of children accounts for only 3.5% of the cases. CASE: A 16-year-old
      adolescent presented with a proliferating growth and foul smelling discharge from
      her vagina, which, on biopsy was diagnosed as RMS. She received chemotherapy and
      radiation to the primary site. She is alive in remission at 8 years, and with
      normal menstrual function. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: RMS of the vagina is a rare,
      but highly curable tumor in adolescent girls. Any abnormal vaginal bleeding in
      girls should be promptly investigated using pelvic examination and appropriate
      imaging. An organ-preserving approach should be considered in these patients.

PMID- 28578186
TI  - Revealing allele-specific gene expression by single-cell transcriptomics.
AB  - Single-cell sequencing has emerged as a revolutionary method that reveals
      biological processes with unprecedented resolution and scale, and has already
      greatly impacted biology and medicine. To investigate processes such as
      alternative splicing, novel exon detection and allele-specific expression (ASE),
      full-length based single-cell RNA-seq methods are required for broad sequence
      coverage and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) identification. In this review,
      we revisit recent achievements from studies that used single-cell RNA-seq to
      advance our understanding of ASE in the context of both autosomal and X
      chromosome genes. We also recapitulate useful bioinformatic tools developed to
      identify haplotype phase.

PMID- 28578185
TI  - Management of Low-Grade Cervical Mullerian Adenosarcoma in a 14-Year-Old Girl.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mullerian adenosarcomas of the cervix are composed of benign
      epithelial and malignant stromal components. The purpose of this report is to
      describe the clinical and histologic difficulties in diagnosis and to propose
      fertility-preserving management of low-grade lesions. CASE: A 14-year-old girl
      presented with a friable lesion found to originate from the anterior cervical
      lip. Initially, clinical suspicion was for sarcoma botryoides, however,
      pathologic evaluation revealed a low-grade cervical Mullerian adenosarcoma. Cold
      knife conization was performed, and the mass was resected with clear margins.
      SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Mullerian adenosarcoma of the cervix is difficult to
      diagnose in adolescents because of features more commonly associated with
      alternative diagnoses. For patients with low-grade lesions desiring future
      fertility, local excision with close follow-up is reasonable.

PMID- 28578187
TI  - Pupillometric and saccadic measures of affective and executive processing in
      anxiety.
AB  - Anxious individuals report hyper-arousal and sensitivity to environmental
      stimuli, difficulties concentrating, performing tasks efficiently and inhibiting
      unwanted thoughts and distraction. We used pupillometry and eye-movement measures
      to compare high vs. low anxious individuals hyper-reactivity to emotional stimuli
      (facial expressions) and subsequent attentional biases in a memory-guided pro-
      and antisaccade task during conditions of low and high cognitive load (short vs.
      long delay). High anxious individuals produced larger and slower pupillary
      responses to face stimuli, and more erroneous eye-movements, particularly
      following long delay. Low anxious individuals' pupillary responses were sensitive
      to task demand (reduced during short delay), whereas high anxious individuals'
      were not. These findings provide evidence in anxiety of enhanced, sustained and
      inflexible patterns of pupil responding during affective stimulus processing and
      cognitive load that precede deficits in task performance.

PMID- 28578188
TI  - Children's cortisol and externalizing stress symptoms are predictors of
      adiponectin evolution over two years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adiponectin is an anti-inflammatory, insulin-sensitizing and energy
      regulating adipocytokine. Consequently, the link between psychosocial stress and
      inflammatory diseases like the metabolic syndrome might be partially explained by
      lower adiponectin levels in stress. Nevertheless, the stress-adiponectin
      association has seldom been tested and no clarity exists about the
      directionality. METHODS: In the Belgian ChiBS study, serum adiponectin and stress
      levels were measured in 348 children (5-10y) at baseline and in 168 of them after
      2-year follow-up. Psychosocial stress was reported with the Strengths and
      Difficulties Questionnaire (parental report on emotional, peer, and conduct
      problems), negative emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety) and negative events. In
      addition, salivary cortisol diurnal patterns were available from 2days with each
      4 samples. Longitudinal linear regression analyses were performed including step
      wise adjustment for age, sex, socio-economic status, body fat%, physical activity
      and snack frequency. RESULTS: Despite some positive cross-sectional associations,
      high daily cortisol output (beta=-0.285), anger (beta=-0.233) and conduct
      problems (beta=-0.182) were associated with less adiponectin increase over time,
      in most cases independent of the tested confounders. The other directionality was
      not significant: no longitudinal prediction of stress by adiponectin. CONCLUSION:
      In healthy children, daily cortisol output and externalizing stress symptoms were
      negative predictors of adiponectin evolution. These findings highlight the health
      compromising effects of psychosocial stress.

PMID- 28578190
TI  - Correlation between Dynamic Light Scattering and Size Exclusion High Performance
      Liquid Chromatography for Monitoring the Effect of pH on Stability of
      Biopharmaceuticals.
AB  - Aggregate formation is a major problem affecting both safety and efficacy of
      biopharmaceuticals and is associated with protein immunogenicity. Size exclusion
      high performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC) has always been the gold
      standard technique for detection and determination of protein aggregates.
      However, large protein aggregates may be filtered off and build up on top of the
      column leading to deterioration in column performance. Moreover, low-affinity
      protein aggregates may dissociate during analysis and thus not detected. On the
      other hand, dynamic light scattering (DLS) is a simple and non-destructive
      technique that can detect high molecular weight physical and chemical aggregates
      in their native environment. Here, three model biopharmaceutical proteins of
      different physicochemical properties were selected; quadrivalent human
      papillomavirus virus like particles vaccine (HPV VLP, physically assembled
      subunit vaccine, 55kDa), pegylated Interferon (PegIFN, pegylated non-glycosylated
      protein, 31.3kDa) and Pegylated Erythropoietin (PegEPO, pegylated and
      glycosylated protein, 60kDa). Samples were subjected to forced degradation
      conditions previously shown to lead to aggregate formation (pH 4.0, 8.0 and 10.0,
      at 37 degrees C for 24h) and samples were analyzed using DLS and SE-HPLC.
      Generally, good agreement between the results of DLS and SE-HPLC was noted,
      regardless of the differences in physicochemical properties of the studied
      biopharmaceuticals. Results showed that aggregate formation was not detected in
      some cases by SE-HPLC and the decrease in the concentration of the monomeric
      forms indicated that such aggregates might have been filtered off the column.
      Although no single techniques can reveal all aspects of protein stability, DLS
      can serve as a screening tool to detect aggregate formation and cross-validate SE
      HPLC results during batch release testing. Owing to its simplicity and low-sample
      volume requirements, DLS can be used even by hospital pharmacists to confirm
      absence of protein aggregates immediately before drug administration.

PMID- 28578189
TI  - Photoactivatable fluorescent probes reveal heterogeneous nanoparticle permeation
      through biological gels at multiple scales.
AB  - Diffusion through biological gels is crucial for effective drug delivery using
      nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate a new method to measure diffusivity over a
      large range of length scales - from tens of nanometers to tens of micrometers -
      using photoactivatable fluorescent nanoparticle probes. We have applied this
      method to investigate the length-scale dependent mobility of nanoparticles in
      fibrin gels and in sputum from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Nanoparticles
      composed of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), with polyethylene glycol coatings to
      resist bioadhesion, were internally labeled with caged rhodamine to make the
      particles photoactivatable. We activated particles within a region of sample
      using brief, targeted exposure to UV light, uncaging the rhodamine and causing
      the particles in that region to become fluorescent. We imaged the subsequent
      spatiotemporal evolution in fluorescence intensity and observed the collective
      particle diffusion over tens of minutes and tens of micrometers. We also
      performed complementary multiple particle tracking experiments on the same
      particles, extending significantly the range over which particle motion and its
      heterogeneity can be observed. In fibrin gels, both methods showed an immobile
      fraction of particles and a mobile fraction that diffused over all measured
      length scales. In the CF sputum, particle diffusion was spatially heterogeneous
      and locally anisotropic but nevertheless typically led to unbounded transport
      extending tens of micrometers within tens of minutes. These findings provide
      insight into the mesoscale architecture of these gels and its role in setting
      their permeability on physiologically relevant length scales, pointing toward
      strategies for improving nanoparticle drug delivery.

PMID- 28578191
TI  - Determination of quetiapine in human plasma by LC-MS/MS and its application in a
      bioequivalence study.
AB  - A selective, sensitive and simple high performance liquid chromatography tandem
      mass spectrometric (HPLC-MS/MS) method for determining quetiapine in human plasma
      was developed and validated. One-step protein precipitation with acetonitrile was
      used to pretreat plasma samples. Carbamazepine was used as internal standard. An
      automated liquid handling workstation with 96-well protein precipitate plate was
      used to facilitate the process. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a
      Waters Xbridge C18 column (3.5MUm, 2.1mm*50mm). Gradient elution was set with a
      mobile phase of acetonitrile/water (containing 10mM ammonium acetate and 0.1%
      formic acid).The flow rate was 0.4mL/min and total analytical run time was 3min.
      The analysis was conducted using a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer
      with an electrospray ionization source operating in positive ion mode. The
      multiple reaction monitoring of transition were m/z 384.2->253.1 for quetiapine
      and m/z 237.0->194.0 for carbamazepine, respectively. The linear concentration
      range for the standard curve of quetiapine was 0.5-400ng/mL for a 5MUL injection
      of the pretreated sample (original plasma sample, 50MUL). The intra-day and inter
      day accuracy and precision were all less than 15%. The method was successfully
      used in a bioequivalence study comparing two quetiapine extended-release tablets
      in Chinese volunteers.

PMID- 28578192
TI  - Cross-platform metabolomics investigating the intracellular metabolic alterations
      of HaCaT cells exposed to phenanthrene.
AB  - Phenanthrene (Phe) is one of the most abundant Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      (PAHs) contamination from various ambient sources, which has a tremendous impact
      on public health. However, our knowledge regarding its effects on skin remains
      limited. In this study, we investigated the metabolite profiling of the human
      keratinocytes HaCaT cells after Phe exposure to understand the toxic effects of
      Phe exposure on skin. To obtain a broad picture of metabolome with various
      hydrophilicity, a cross-platform approach with GC-MS and UHPLC-QTOF-MS has been
      employed. Data were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis and samples
      were separated successfully using supervised PLS-DA models. It was shown that the
      impacts of Phe exposure on HaCaT cells were both dose-related and time-related. A
      total of 48 Phe-regulated metabolites were identified and among which 19 were
      confirmed by reference standards. By pathway analysis, amino acid metabolism,
      glutathione metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism were highlighted as the
      major metabolic pathways disturbed by Phe. Furthermore, it was found that the
      mechanisms included a reduced amino pool and a reduced antioxidant status.
      Overall, these results aid in improving understanding of the dermal toxicology
      related to Phe, and demonstrate this cross-platform approach is suitable for
      metabolomics researches on HaCaT cells.

PMID- 28578193
TI  - Measurement of soil lead bioavailability and influence of soil types and
      properties: A review.
AB  - Lead (Pb) is a widespread heavy metal which is harmful to human health,
      especially to young children. To provide a human health risk assessment that is
      more relevant to real conditions, Pb bioavailability in soils is increasingly
      employed in the assessment procedure. Both in vivo and in vitro measurements for
      lead bioavailability are available. In vivo models are time- consuming and
      expensive, while in vitro models are rapid, economic, reproducible, and reliable
      while involving more uncertainties. Uncertainties in various measurements create
      difficulties in accurately predicting Pb bioavailability, resulting in the
      unnecessary remediation of sites. In this critical review, we utilised available
      data from in vivo and in vitro studies to identify the key parameters influencing
      the in vitro measurements, and presented uncertainties existing in Pb
      bioavailability measurements. Soil type, properties and metal content are
      reported to influence lead bioavailability; however, the differences in methods
      for assessing bioavailability and the differences in Pb source limit one's
      ability to conduct statistical analyses on influences of soil factors on Pb
      bioavailability. The information provided in the review is fundamentally useful
      for the measurement of bioavailability and risk assessment practices.

PMID- 28578194
TI  - Advances in bioelectrochemical systems.

PMID- 28578195
TI  - Intensive epidermal adsorption and specific venous deposition of carboxyl quantum
      dots in zebrafish early-life stages.
AB  - To properly assess the environmental risk of quantum dots (QDs), it is necessary
      to determine their fate in living organisms, including adsorption, distribution
      and bioaccumulation under representative environmental or physiological
      conditions. We comprehensively investigated the fate of QDs with carboxyl
      terminal functional groups (carboxyl-QDs) in zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo and
      larvae subjected to either waterborne exposure or cardiovascular system
      microinjection. On waterborne exposure, carboxyl-QDs exhibited an intensive
      adsorption and accumulation in the chorion of embryos, and their predominate
      target organs were the gill and intestinal tract in larvae. On microinjection,
      carboxyl-QDs were rapidly delivered into the cardiovascular system and
      specifically deposited in veins and the capillary network system of zebrafish
      larvae, but not in the arterial system. Taken together, we found that the exact
      tissue condition including epidermal structures, mucus secretion and vascular
      microstructures strongly affected the adsorption, uptake and distribution of
      carboxyl-QDs in zebrafish. This work highlights the intensive tissue epidermal
      adsorption and accumulation of carboxyl-QDs and their specific vein and capillary
      deposition in the cardiovascular system in zebrafish early-life stages.

PMID- 28578196
TI  - Organic compounds stimulate horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in
      mixed wastewater treatment systems.
AB  - Domestic wastewater treatment plants as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance
      genes (ARGs) have received much attention, but the effect of dyes on the
      propagation of ARGs has rarely been investigated. In this study, we investigated
      the differences in distributions of ARGs and microbial communities using high
      throughput qPCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, respectively, between mixed (dyeing
      and domestic) wastewater and domestic sewage. The relative abundance of ARGs in
      inflows of mixed wastewater (IW2 and IW3) was higher than that of domestic
      wastewater (IW1). The relative abundance of mobile genetic elements in the inflow
      of textile dyeing wastewater (IDW3) was 3- to 13-fold higher than that in other
      samples. Moreover, in IDW3, some distinct high abundance ARGs, particularly
      operons encoding efflux pumps (such as acrR-01, acrB-01 and acrF), were
      significantly correlated with Streptococcus of the Firmicutes. To explore why the
      abundance of ARGs was relatively high in mixed wastewater, six representative
      types of organic compounds in textile dyeing wastewater were used to test the
      effect on plasmid-based conjugative transfer from E. coli HB101 to E. coli
      NK5449. These six compounds all facilitated the transfer of resistance-carrying
      RP4 plasmid, and the highest transfer frequency (approximately 10-5-10-3) was
      over 4- to 200-fold higher than that in the control group (approximately 10-6-10
      5). These results illustrated that the six common residual compounds,
      particularly low-dose substances in IDW3, could facilitate the dissemination of
      ARGs in aquatic environments. More importantly, this study revealed for the first
      time that dyeing contaminants influenced horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of ARGs.

PMID- 28578197
TI  - Instability of chlorophyll in yellow lupin seedlings grown in soil contaminated
      with ciprofloxacin and tetracycline.
AB  - With increasing soil concentrations of ciprofloxacin and tetracycline a decrease
      of leaf chlorophyll content was observed. Tetracycline was more detrimental than
      ciprofloxacin. The chlorophyll content in plants growing for ten days on a
      tetracycline containing soil decreased by 68%. The decrease of chlorophyll
      concentration was even sharper in new leaves that formed after application of the
      antibiotic (up to 81% drop). The comparison of absorption spectra of commercial,
      reagent grade chlorophyll, alone and incubated with antibiotics, has shown that
      ciprofloxacin and tetracycline can react directly with chlorophyll and decrease
      its concentration by 47.7% and 48.5%, respectively. The changes in fluorescence
      spectra confirmed the formation of chlorophyll degradation product. The
      chlorophyll decay was a second order reaction and depended on antibiotic
      concentration and duration of exposure. Reaction rate constants differed with
      antibiotics and their soil concentrations. With increasing contents of
      antibiotics in soil the constant of chlorophyll degradation rate in lupin plants
      increased from k = 870 M-1day-1 for 3 mg ciprofloxacin to k = 2490 M-1day-1 for
      90 mg ciprofloxacin, and in the case of tetracycline the reaction rate constant
      increased from k = 1330 M-1day-1 to k = 2910 M-1day-1. The sensitivity of
      chlorophyll to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline was confirmed by determining EC and
      TU indices.

PMID- 28578198
TI  - Synthesis of (+/-)-myo-inositol 4-methylenephosphonate via Rh-Catalyzed
      hydrogenation of vinylphosphonate.
AB  - Phosphatidylinositol phosphate (PIP) synthetase is a promising target for the
      development of new anti-mycobacterium compounds. We previously reported that myo
      inositol 1-methylenephosphonate showed inhibitory activity against PIP
      synthetase. Herein, we report the synthesis of unprotected myo-inositol 4
      methylenephosphonate, a constitutional isomer of myo-inositol 1
      methylenephosphonate and found that the stereoselective hydrogenation of
      vinylphosphonate proceeded via Rh catalysis.

PMID- 28578200
TI  - The effects of diatom pore-size on the structures and extensibilities of single
      mucilage molecules.
AB  - Diatoms secrete extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), or mucilage, around the
      cell wall that may serve to aid in motility and form a discrete layer that may
      help maintain thicker layers of EPS that have a greater role in adhesion.
      Mucilage molecules adhere to the diatom frustules, which are biosilica skeletons
      that develop from the diatom cell walls. Here, molecular dynamics methods were
      used to determine the characteristics of mucilage molecules as a function of pore
      size; notably 1,4-alpha-D-galacturonic acid, 1,4-beta-glucuronic acid and 1,4
      beta-D-mannuronic acid. These uronic acids differ from each other in structure
      and extensibility as a function of their folding characteristics. Here, we find
      that when overlain upon a pore, mucilage molecules try to return to their native
      folded states but are restrained by their interactions with the silica surfaces.
      Furthermore, the extensibility of mucilage molecules over pore spaces affects the
      extent of mechanical energy required to straighten them. As such, different EPS
      molecules will affect sliding, friction and adhesion to subsequent layers of EPS
      in different ways. We conclude that higher EPS extensibility is homonymous with
      higher adhesive or frictive resistance since the molecules will be able to strain
      more before they reach the most extended (and thus rigid) conformation. The
      research herein is applicable to modern engineering as it yields insight into the
      biomimetic design of molecules and surfaces for improved adhesion or motility.

PMID- 28578199
TI  - Structures of the K35 and K15 capsular polysaccharides of Acinetobacter baumannii
      LUH5535 and LUH5554 containing amino and diamino uronic acids.
AB  - Capsular polysaccharides were isolated from A. baumannii LUH5535 (K35 CPS) and
      LUH5554 (K15 CPS) and studied by 1D and 2D 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The CPSs
      were found to consist of linear tetrasaccharide repeats (K units) containing 2
      acetamido-2-deoxy-d-galacturonic acid (K35) or 2,3-diacetamido-2,3-deoxy-d
      glucuronic acid (K15) and 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxy-d-glucose (both CPSs).
      The K35 unit includes three O-acetyl groups on different GalNAcA residues. A.
      baumannii LUH5535 and LUH5554 carry the KL35 and KL15 gene clusters,
      respectively, and putatively assigned functions of genes in these clusters were
      consistent with the CPS structures established.

PMID- 28578201
TI  - Correlated evolutionary rates across genomic compartments in Annonaceae.
AB  - The molecular clock hypothesis is an important concept in biology. Deviations
      from a constant rate of nucleotide substitution have been found widely among
      lineages, genomes, genes and individual sites. Phylogenetic research can
      accommodate for these differences in applying specific models of evolution.
      Lineage-specific rate heterogeneity however can generate bi- or multimodal
      distributions of substitution rates across the branches of a tree and this may
      mislead phylogenetic inferences with currently available models. The plant family
      Annonaceae is an excellent case to study lineage-specific rate heterogeneity. The
      two major sister subfamilies, Annonoideae and Malmeoideae, have shown great
      discrepancies in branch lengths. We used high-throughput sequencing data of 72
      genes, 99 spacers and 16 introns from 24 chloroplast genomes and nuclear
      ribosomal DNA of 23 species to study the molecular rate of evolution in
      Annonaceae. In all analyses, longer branch lengths and/or higher substitution
      rates were found for the Annonoideae compared to the Malmeoideae. The Annonaceae
      had wide variability in chloroplast length, ranging from minimal 175,684bp to
      201,723 for Annonoideae and minimal 152,357 to 170,985bp in Malmeoideae, mostly
      reflecting variation in inverted-repeat length. The Annonoideae showed a higher
      GC-content in the conserved parts of the chloroplast genome and higher omega
      (dN/dS)-ratios than the Malmeoideae, which could indicate less stringent
      purifying selection, a pattern that has been found in groups with small
      population sizes. This study generates new insights into the processes causing
      lineage-specific rate heterogeneity, which could lead to improved phylogenetic
      methods.

PMID- 28578202
TI  - Management of atypical polypoid adenomyomas. A case series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Atypical polypoid adenomyomas (APAs) are endometrial, non-malignant,
      focal, and non-invasive lesions that are intriguing for their histological
      resemblence to invasive endometrioid adenocarcinoma or malignant mixed Mullerian
      tumor. The aim of this study was to present our clinical experience, regarding
      the reproductive outcome, the recurrence rate, and the association with
      hyperplasia and cancer, in a small series of patients with APA. STUDY DESIGN:
      Retrospective case series of patients treated for APA in a single private
      hospital setting from 1998 to 2016. All patients underwent diagnostic
      hysteroscopy and hysteroscopic removal of the lesion. Follow-up was performed
      annually with endovaginal ultrasonography and hysteroscopy when necessary.
      RESULTS: Nine patients (mean age: 37.9 years-old +/-8.3years) were treated
      because of menorrhagia, infertility, and incidental asymptomatic endometrial
      lesions with operative hysteroscopy. Mean follow-up was 10.0 years (+/-5.8years).
      Three patients intended for pregnancy and 2 of them had achieved a full term
      delivery. There were 2 recurrences (22.2%), two cases of atypical endometrial
      hyperplasia (22.2%), and 2 patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma (22.2%), all
      within the first 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that APAs exhibit a significant
      recurrence rate and they may be related both to atypical endometrial hyperplasia
      and endometrial adenocarcinoma; therefore, clinicians should be aware of these
      lesions in order to individualize treatment according to the patent's age and
      fertility history.

PMID- 28578203
TI  - What next? Preferably development of drugs that are no longer transported by the
      ABCB1 and ABCG2 efflux transporters.

PMID- 28578204
TI  - Pericytes and cardiac stem cells: Common features and peculiarities.
AB  - Clinical data and basic research indicate that the structural and functional
      alterations that characterize the evolution of cardiac disease towards heart
      failure may be, at least in part, reversed. This paradigm shift is due to the
      accumulation of evidence indicating that, in peculiar settings, cardiomyocytes
      may be replenished. Moving from the consideration that cardiomyocytes are rapidly
      withdrawn from the cell cycle after birth, independent laboratories have tested
      the hypothesis that cardiac resident stem/progenitor cells resided in mammalian
      hearts and were important for myocardial repair. After almost two decades of
      intensive investigation, several (but partially overlapping) cardiac resident
      stem/progenitor cell populations have been identified. These primitive cells are
      characterized by mesenchymal features, unique properties that distinguish them
      from mesodermal progenitors residing in other tissues, and heterogeneous
      embryological origins (that include the neural crest and the epicardium). A
      further layer of complexity is related to the nature, in vivo localization and
      properties of mesodermal progenitors residing in adult tissues. Intriguingly,
      these latter, whose possible perivascular pericyte/mural cell origin has been
      shown, have been identified in human hearts too. However, their exact anatomical
      localization, pathophysiological role, and their relationship with cardiac
      stem/progenitor cells are emerging only recently. Therefore, aim of this review
      is to discuss the different origin, the distinct nature, and the complementary
      effect of cardiac stem cells and pericytes supporting regenerative strategies
      based on the combined use of both myogenic and angiogenic factors.

PMID- 28578205
TI  - Salicylic acid seed priming instigates defense mechanism by inducing PR-Proteins
      in Solanum melongena L. upon infection with Verticillium dahliae Kleb.
AB  - Salicylic acid (SA) is a hormone connected with various cellular functions
      including the fight against invading pathogens. Priming of seeds pre-sowing is a
      very simple method to the farmers' to produce better growth, yield and manage the
      pathogens. The present study was aimed to determine the growth and disease
      resistance ability in brinjal seeds primed with different concentrations (0.25,
      0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 mM) of SA under greenhouse conditions. Priming of seeds with SA
      significantly increased seed germination and seedling vigor with a maximum of 84%
      and 859.18, respectively at 0.5 mM concentration. Seed priming with SA also
      reduced Verticillium wilt incidence to 39.25% (at 0.5 mM) under greenhouse
      conditions and also enhanced the vegetative growth parameters of the plant
      compared to control. The induced resistance obtained with SA was in line with
      higher expression of PR-protein (beta-1,3-glucanase and chitinase) related
      defense enzymes. Further, an increase of 1.7, 2.9, 2.1, 2.5 and 2-fold increase
      in gene expression of IAA27, MPK1, GPX, chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase,
      respectively were observed in SA primed challenge inoculated seedlings than non
      primed susceptible inoculated controls. The higher expression of IAA27, MPK1,
      GPX, chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase correlates with the plant growth promoting
      and disease protection studies as these genes are vital for increasing plant
      growth and inducing resistance during host-pathogen interaction. Enhanced
      activation of defense-related activities in plants upon priming with SA suggests
      that it alters plant physiology which in turn is useful for production and
      protection of brinjal.

PMID- 28578206
TI  - Is Internet addiction transitory or persistent? Incidence and prospective
      predictors of remission of Internet addiction among Chinese secondary school
      students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Internet addiction (IA) is prevalent among adolescents but it is
      potentially revertible. Only three Taiwan adolescent studies reported IA
      remission and a few related factors. We investigated incidence and predictors of
      remission among Hong Kong Chinese secondary school students with a 12-month
      longitudinal study. METHODS: IA was defined as Chen Internet Addiction Scale
      (CIAS) score>63. Validated measures were used to assess students' psychosocial
      wellbeing at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: Of 1545 students with IA at
      baseline, 1296 (83.9%) provided matched baseline/12-month follow-up data; their
      data were analyzed. Incidence of remission (CIAS<=63 at follow-up) was 59.29/100
      person-years. Significant predictors included: 1) baseline CIAS score (ORa=.95),
      2) baseline health belief model (HBM) constructs [perception of having severe IA
      (ORa=.34), perceived susceptibility to IA (ORa=0.82), perceived barrier
      (ORa=0.95), cue to action from parents (ORa=0.82), and self-efficacy for reducing
      Internet use (ORa=1.13)], and 3) baseline psychosocial health measures [self
      esteem (ORa=1.03), severe depression (ORa=0.72) and social anxiety (ORa=0.96)]
      and their changes over time [depression (ORa=.95), anxiety (ORa=.94), loneliness
      (ORa=.93), self-esteem (ORa=1.07), positive affect (ORa=1.10) and family support
      (ORa=1.03)]. Two-thirds (64.3%) of the remission group presented reduced CIAS
      score>1.5 SD, and recorded larger improvements in psychosocial status over time
      than the non-remission group. CONCLUSION: Without noticeable interventions,
      incidence of remission was high and related to improvements in psychosocial
      health. Most of the HBM constructs, and baseline/changes in psychosocial measures
      predicted remission. Interventions to increase remission should modify these
      factors.

PMID- 28578207
TI  - Schizophrenia: A review of potential biomarkers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Understanding the biological process and progression of schizophrenia
      is the first step to developing novel approaches and new interventions. Research
      on new biomarkers is extremely important when the goal is an early diagnosis
      (prediction) and precise theranostics. The objective of this review is to
      understand the research on biomarkers and their effects in schizophrenia to
      synthesize the role of these new advances. METHODS: In this review, we search and
      review publications in databases in accordance with established limits and
      specific objectives. We look at particular endpoints such as the category of
      biomarkers, laboratory techniques and the results/conclusions of the selected
      publications. RESULTS: The investigation of biomarkers and their potential as a
      predictor, diagnosis instrument and therapeutic orientation, requires an
      appropriate methodological strategy. In this review, we found different
      laboratory techniques to identify biomarkers and their function in schizophrenia.
      CONCLUSION: The consolidation of this information will provide a large-scale
      application network of schizophrenia biomarkers.

PMID- 28578208
TI  - BDNF Val66Met and childhood adversity on response to physical exercise and
      internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy in depressed Swedish adults.
AB  - The genetic effect of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on treatment
      response in depression is not consistent in the literature. Childhood adversity
      is a known risk factor for depression which has been reported to increase
      depression susceptibility by interacting with BDNF genetic variation. We aimed to
      explore whether the BDNF variation Val66Met and childhood adversity (CA)
      predicted the treatment response to a 12-week intervention with physical exercise
      (PE) or internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) when compared with
      treatment as usual (TAU). A prospective cohort study nested within a randomised
      control trial was conducted using data from 547 participants with mild to
      moderate depression. Depression severity at baseline and follow-up was measured
      using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Met allele carriers without
      exposure to CA and current antidepressant use showed higher treatment response to
      PE than Val homozygotes. There was no evidence to support that BDNF Val66Met or
      CA alone predicted treatment response to PE and ICBT. The Met carriers had higher
      serum mature BDNF level. These data suggest that Met allele carriers benefit more
      from PE treatment but only if they are not exposed to early adversity.

PMID- 28578209
TI  - A method for understanding generic procurement of HIV medicines by developing
      countries with patent protection.
AB  - Patent protection on medicines may frustrate access by blocking generic
      competition. Nevertheless, circumstances may still allow for generic procurement
      to occur anyway, especially for humanitarian cause. But to what extent does this
      occur? And which legal flexibilities may facilitate such procurement? We
      attempted to design a replicable methodology that involved linking antiretroviral
      (ARV) patent data (1260 patents for 12 medicines) from a World Intellectual
      Property Organization patent study on the 2013 World Health Organization's (WHO)
      Model List of Essential Medicines to all available matching procurement records
      in the WHO's Global Price Reporting Mechanism. We then cross-referenced these
      with lists of legal flexibilities which facilitate generic access where patents
      have been granted (e.g., supplier companies' patent non-enforcement policies,
      voluntary and compulsory licenses) to estimate plausible relevance. The patent
      data corresponded to 1924 generic procurement transactions (1.34 billion units)
      from 85 countries. While patents were relatively less common in these countries
      (the median coverage was 20%), over half (53%) of the generic procurements
      nevertheless aligned with patent protection in the exporting and/or importing
      country. The disproportionately high relevance of patents despite their lower
      numbers can be explained by their presence in key medicine-exporting countries
      and/or those with larger populations. We noted, however, that developing
      countries still seemed able to buy generic versions of these essential ARVs. A
      combination of legal flexibilities may have played important roles, but voluntary
      licensing agreements (VLs) between originator companies and generic ones appeared
      to align with the largest volumes of generic procurement where we estimated
      patent protection. If true, VLs may warrant proportionate attention from
      observers as a heavily relied upon international mechanism for facilitating
      generic access so that the implications can be better understood; however, we
      hope others repeat similar studies to investigate whether these results hold with
      different methodologies and samples of patented medicines, contexts, and
      timeframes.

PMID- 28578210
TI  - Public attitudes toward child undervaccination: A randomized experiment on
      evaluations, stigmatizing orientations, and support for policies.
AB  - Child undervaccination is a complex public health problem and a contentious
      social and political issue. Efforts to increase vaccination coverage require
      understanding how the public evaluates different reasons for child
      undervaccination, which may influence attitudes, stigmatizing behaviors, and
      support for vaccination policies. We conducted a vignette experiment with a
      United States national online sample (n = 1469) to investigate how and why
      different undervaccination actions shape evaluations (blame, anger, sympathy,
      differentness, credibility, dangerousness), stigmatizing orientations (social
      distance, discrimination), and support for particular policies (e.g., research
      funding, belief exemptions, fines). Each participant was randomly assigned to
      read one of four vignettes that described a mother who either refused vaccines,
      delayed vaccines, encountered social barriers to obtaining vaccines, or was up-to
      date on vaccines for her child. Compared to the up-to-date condition, each
      undervaccination action predicted significantly more negative evaluations and
      stigmatizing orientations. Vaccine refusal was the most negatively appraised.
      Differences in social distance and discrimination were explained by negative
      evaluations about the parent. These evaluations and orientations predicted
      support for a range of policies. Negative parental evaluations were associated
      with increased support for more severe policies. We discuss the implications of
      these findings for addressing undervaccination and informing health scholarship
      on stigma.

PMID- 28578211
TI  - Confined to a tokenistic status: Social scientists in leadership roles in a
      national health research funding agency.
AB  - The idea of interdisciplinarity has been taken up by academic and governmental
      organisations around the world and enacted through science policies, funding
      programs and higher education institutions. In Canada, interdisciplinarity led to
      a major transformation in health research funding. In 2000, the federal
      government closed the Medical Research Council (MRC) and created the Canadian
      Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). From the outset, CIHR's vision and goals
      were innovative, as it sought to include the social sciences within its purview
      alongside more traditional health research sectors. The extent to which it has
      been successful in this endeavour, however, remains unknown. The aim of our study
      was to examine how CIHR's intentions to foster inclusiveness and cooperation
      across disciplines were implemented in the agency's own organisational structure.
      We focused on social scientists' representation on committees and among decision
      makers between 2000 and 2015, one of the key mandates of CIHR being to include
      the social sciences within its remit and support research in this area. We
      examined the composition of the Governing Council, the Institute Scientific
      Directors, the Chairs of the College of Reviewers, and two International Review
      Panels invited by CIHR. We targeted these committees and decision-makers since
      they hold the power to influence the field of Canadian health research through
      the decisions they make. Our findings show that, while CIHR was created with the
      mandate to support the entire spectrum of health-related research-including the
      social sciences-this call for inclusiveness has not yet been materialized in the
      agency's organisational structure. Social scientists, as well as researchers from
      neighbouring disciplines such as social epidemiology, health promotion and the
      humanities, are still confined to low levels of representation within CIHR's
      highest echelons. This imbalance limits social scientists' input into health
      research in Canada and undermines CIHR's interdisciplinary ambition.

PMID- 28578212
TI  - Contributions of risk preference, time orientation and perceptions to breast
      cancer screening regularity.
AB  - Disparities in breast cancer screening are often explained by socioeconomic
      factors, although a growing body of papers show that risk preference, time
      orientation and perceptions may explain mammography use. The aim of this paper is
      to estimate the relative contribution of socioeconomic factors, risk preference,
      time orientation and perceptions to disparities in breast cancer screening
      regularity. These determinants are elicited in an experimental laboratory from
      178 women aged between 50 and 75 years in France in 2013. The results reveal that
      risk aversion accounts for 30% of the variance in screening regularity, which is
      greater than that attributable to socioeconomic determinants (20%), perceptions
      (11.5%) or time orientation (2%). These results suggest that further
      investigation on the relationship between risk aversion and screening behaviors
      is needed to design more comprehensive public health interventions.

PMID- 28578213
TI  - Influence of broadleaf forest vegetation on atmospheric deposition of airborne
      radionuclides.
AB  - The activities of airborne radionuclides 7Be and unsupported 210Pb (210Pbus) were
      measured in moss samples taken from 17 different locations. The objective was to
      estimate the influence of the broadleaf forest vegetation on atmospheric
      deposition of airborne radionuclides attached to aerosols. Two moss samples were
      collected at each location: within the forest stand (inside the area of the tree
      canopy projection) and within forest openings (outside the area of the tree
      canopy projection). Samples were taken in the spring season, before the leaves of
      trees came forth and in the autumn season, right before fall defoliation. A
      measurement indicates an absence of variation in 210Pbus concentration, however
      spring/autumn ratios of 7Be concentrations in mosses showed the expected seasonal
      difference in 7Be deposition. It was also noted that atmospheric deposition of
      7Be at the forest openings was about two times higher than deposition in the
      forest. Using very simplified models, these measurements can be used to get
      estimation at how long 7Be and aerosols can reside on the leaves before
      precipitation eventually wash it to the ground mosses. It was estimated that the
      mean residence time of aerosols in the leaves was up to 50 days.

PMID- 28578214
TI  - Biomarker responses to environmental contamination in estuaries: A comparative
      multi-taxa approach.
AB  - Estuaries are highly productive ecosystems subjected to numerous anthropogenic
      pressures with consequent environmental quality degradation. In this study,
      multiple biomarker responses [superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT),
      ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST)
      activities, as well as lipid peroxidation (LPO) and DNA damage (DNAd)] were
      determined in two fish (Dicentrarchus labrax and Pomatoschistus microps) and four
      macroinvertebrate species (Carcinus maenas, Crangon crangon, Hediste diversicolor
      and Scrobicularia plana) from the Ria de Aveiro and Tejo estuaries over distinct
      months. Two sites per estuarine system were selected based on anthropogenic
      pressures and magnitude of environmental contamination. Antioxidant enzyme
      activities in fish species suggested a ubiquitous response to oxidative stress,
      while biotransformation and effect biomarkers exhibited higher spatial and
      temporal variation. In invertebrate species, biotransformation enzyme activity
      was clearly less variable than in fish evidencing lower xenobiotic transformation
      capability. Overall, largest biomarker responses were found in the most
      contaminated sites (Tejo), yet species-specific patterns were evident. These
      should be factored in multi-taxa approaches, considering that the differential
      functional traits of species, such as habitat use, life-stage, feeding or
      physiology can influence exposure routes and biomarker responses. The Integrated
      Biomarker Response index highlighted patterns in biomarker responses which were
      not immediately evident when analyzing biomarkers individually. Overall, results
      provided insights into the complexity of species responses to contamination in
      naturally varying estuarine environments. Ultimately, multi-taxa and multi
      biomarker approaches provide a comprehensive and complementary view of ecosystem
      health, encompassing diverse forms of biological integration and exposure routes,
      and allow the validation of results among markers and species.

PMID- 28578215
TI  - Effects of agomelatine on pentylenetetrazole-induced kindling, kindling
      associated oxidative stress, and behavioral despair in mice and modulation of its
      actions by luzindole and 1-(m-chlorophenyl) piperazine.
AB  - In view of well-evidenced antiepileptic effects of melatonin and few reports of
      anticonvulsant action of agomelatine, the present study investigated whether
      agomelatine protects against pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced kindling in mice
      and kindling-associated oxidative stress, depression, and impairment of spatial
      memory. In order to explore whether effects are mediated by melatonergic or
      serotonergic mechanisms, 1-(m-chlorophenyl) piperazine (mCPP), selective 5HT2c
      receptor agonist and luzindole, melatonergic receptor antagonist, were taken as
      pharmacological tools. In view of few hepatotoxic reports on agomelatine, the
      study evaluated effects on hepatic enzyme levels. Swiss strain albino mice were
      injected with PTZ (25mg/kg, i.p.) once every two days for 5weeks to induce
      kindling. The effects of agomelatine (10mg/kg, p.o.) alone and in combination
      with luzindole (2.5mg/kg, i.p.) or mCPP (7mg/kg, i.p.) on seizure severity during
      induction and % incidence of animals kindled at the end of 5weeks were recorded.
      Modified forced swim test was used for studying depression-like behavior while
      spontaneous alternation behavior was used for studying effects on spatial memory.
      Serum AST and ALT concentrations, cortical and hippocampal malondialdehyde, and
      reduced glutathione were measured. Agomelatine 10mg/kg, p.o. effectively delayed
      development of kindling, reduced seizure severity, and decreased % incidence.
      Luzindole reversed the protective effects of agomelatine while mCPP failed to
      show such a reversal, indicating melatonergic (and not serotonergic) mechanisms
      in the observed effects. Agomelatine also showed antioxidant effects that can
      partially contribute to its anticonvulsant action. In addition, it alleviated PTZ
      kindling-associated behavioral despair and favorably modulated liver enzymes. Its
      effects on improvement of kindling-associated spatial memory could possibly be
      related to its effects on locomotor activity. Agomelatine, thus, could be
      explored as an adjunct to antiepileptic drugs for seizure control and for
      alleviating epilepsy-associated depression.

PMID- 28578216
TI  - Barriers to access to education for young people with epilepsy in Northern
      Tanzania: A qualitative interview and focus group study involving teachers,
      parents and young people with epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Educational outcomes for young people with epilepsy (YPE) in Hai
      District, Tanzania, are poor, as is commonly observed elsewhere in Sub-Saharan
      Africa. The reasons for this finding are not well understood, though stigma
      arising from supernatural concepts of epilepsy is frequently cited as a barrier
      to YPE accessing education. In this study, we aimed to explore the reasons why
      many YPE in Tanzania experience poor access to education, and elicit ways in
      which education could be improved for YPE according to teachers, parents and YPE.
      METHODS: Ten focus group discussions with teachers were organized in Hai schools
      between March and May 2016. The themes arising from these discussions were
      identified, coded, analyzed and tested in semi-structured interviews with 19 YPE
      and 17 parents identified from a prevalent cohort of YPE identified in 2009.
      RESULTS: Behavioral problems and learning difficulties were cited as the main
      barriers to education for YPE. Other barriers included parental stigmatization,
      teachers' inadequate seizure management, and limited access to specialist
      schools. Teachers perceived that parents and YPE believe in spiritual etiology
      and traditional management for epilepsy. However, the majority of teachers,
      parents, and YPE cited biological etiology and management options, although
      understanding of epilepsy etiology and management could be improved amongst all
      groups. SIGNIFICANCE: A multidimensional approach is needed to improve
      educational access, and hence outcomes, for YPE. Widespread community education
      is needed to improve knowledge of epilepsy etiology and management. Teachers
      require seizure management training, and parents need help to recognize YPE's
      right to education. Educational needs assessments would help to identify YPE
      requiring specialist schooling, and access to this could be improved. These
      interventions will likely reduce stigma, ensure appropriate academic and pastoral
      care at school, and thus enable YPE to attend, and succeed, in education.

PMID- 28578218
TI  - Has the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) lost
      its way?

PMID- 28578217
TI  - Still "at risk": An examination of how street-involved young people understand,
      experience, and engage with "harm reduction" in Vancouver's inner city.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vancouver is an international leader in implementing interventions to
      reduce harms related to drug use. However, street-involved young people who use
      drugs continue to be vulnerable to overdose death, hepatitis C (HCV) infection,
      and high rates of syringe sharing. To better understand this in the context of
      the intensive public health response, we examined how young people, who are
      involved in the 'street drug scene', understood, experienced and engaged with
      harm reduction. METHODS: Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2013
      with 13 young people (ages 17-28) recruited from the At-Risk Youth Study, a
      prospective cohort of street-involved and drug-using young people. These
      interviews were embedded within a larger, eight-year program of ethnographic
      research and explored participants' understandings of harm reduction, their use
      of specific services, and their ideas about improving their day-to-day lives.
      Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis was performed.
      RESULTS: Young peoples' ideas about harm reduction were diverse and expansive.
      They articulated the limitations of existing programs, indicating that while they
      are positioned to reduce the risk of HIV and HCV transmission, they offer little
      meaningful support to improve young peoples' broader life chances. Young people
      described strategies to mitigate risk and harm in their own lives, including
      transitioning to drugs deemed less harmful and attempting to gain access to drug
      treatment. Finally, young people indicated that spatial considerations (e.g.,
      distance from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside) strongly determined access to
      services. CONCLUSIONS: In Vancouver, a large, well established harm reduction
      infrastructure seeks to reduce HIV and HCV transmission among street-involved
      young people. However, young peoples' multiple understandings, experiences and
      engagements with harm reduction in this setting illustrate the limitations of the
      existing infrastructure in improving their broader life chances.

PMID- 28578220
TI  - Development of disposable membrane hydrophones for a frequency range from 1MHz to
      10MHz.
AB  - A method for fabricating disposable membrane hydrophones is presented. The
      disposable hydrophones are intended for onetime use in such damaging environments
      as chemically contaminating fluids and high-amplitude (peak amplitude ~100MPa)
      shock wave fields, where the use of commercial membrane hydrophones is not
      recommended. Fabrication of a hydrophone is done using only off-the-shelf
      components and hand tools, which translates into ease of fabrication and orders
      of-magnitude reduction in unit cost. In particular, poling and sputtering, the
      two processes that are chiefly responsible for the cost and difficulty associated
      with the conventional fabrication method, are replaced with the use of pre-poled
      polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-coated
      aluminum foils, respectively. Despite the seemingly crude construction, these
      disposable hydrophones can exhibit voltage sensitivity response that compares
      favorably with that of commercial hydrophones. For example, one prototype having
      a 2mm*2mm active element shows the end-of-cable voltage sensitivity of -270 (+/
      1.9) dB re 1V/MUPa over the frequency range of 1-10MHz.

PMID- 28578219
TI  - Identification of new antigen candidates for the early diagnosis of Mycobacterium
      avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in goats.
AB  - Currently Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection is
      diagnosed through indirect tests based on the immune response induced by the
      infection. The antigens commonly used in IFN-gamma release assays (IGRA) are
      purified protein derivative tuberculins (PPD). However, PPDs, lack both
      specificity (Sp) and sensitivity (Se) in the early phase of infection. This study
      investigated the potential of 16 MAP recombinant proteins and five lipids to
      elicit the release of IFN-gamma in goats from herds with or without a history of
      paratuberculosis. Ten recombinant proteins were selected as potential candidates
      for the detection of MAP infection in young goats. They were found to detect 25
      to 75% of infected shedder (IS) and infected non-shedder (INS) kids younger than
      10months of age. In comparison, PPD was shown to detect only 10% of INS and no IS
      kids. For seven antigens, Se (21-33%) and Sp (>=90%) of IGRA were shown to be
      comparable with PPD at 20months old. Only three antigens were suitable candidates
      to detect IS adult goats, although Se was lower than that obtained with PPD. In
      paratuberculosis-free herds, IGRA results were negative in 97% of indoor goats
      and 86% of outdoor goats using the 10 antigens. However, 22 to 44% of one-year
      old outdoor goats were positive suggesting that they may be infected. In
      conclusion, this study showed that ten MAP recombinant proteins are potential
      candidates for early detection of MAP infected goats. Combining these antigens
      could form a possible set of MAP antigens to optimize the Se of caprine IGRA.

PMID- 28578221
TI  - Dynamic acousto-elastic testing of concrete with a coda-wave probe: comparison
      with standard linear and nonlinear ultrasonic techniques.
AB  - The use of nonlinear acoustic techniques in solids consists in measuring wave
      distortion arising from compliant features such as cracks, soft intergrain bonds
      and dislocations. As such, they provide very powerful nondestructive tools to
      monitor the onset of damage within materials. In particular, a recent technique
      called dynamic acousto-elasticity testing (DAET) gives unprecedented details on
      the nonlinear elastic response of materials (classical and non-classical
      nonlinear features including hysteresis, transient elastic softening and slow
      relaxation). Here, we provide a comprehensive set of linear and nonlinear
      acoustic responses on two prismatic concrete specimens; one intact and one pre
      compressed to about 70% of its ultimate strength. The two linear techniques used
      are Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) and Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS),
      while the nonlinear ones include DAET (fast and slow dynamics) as well as
      Nonlinear Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy (NRUS). In addition, the DAET results
      correspond to a configuration where the (incoherent) coda portion of the
      ultrasonic record is used to probe the samples, as opposed to a (coherent) first
      arrival wave in standard DAET tests. We find that the two visually identical
      specimens are indistinguishable based on parameters measured by linear techniques
      (UPV and RUS). On the contrary, the extracted nonlinear parameters from NRUS and
      DAET are consistent and orders of magnitude greater for the damaged specimen than
      those for the intact one. This compiled set of linear and nonlinear ultrasonic
      testing data including the most advanced technique (DAET) provides a benchmark
      comparison for their use in the field of material characterization.

PMID- 28578222
TI  - Using prosody to infer discourse prominence in cochlear-implant users and normal
      hearing listeners.
AB  - Cochlear implants (CIs) provide speech perception to adults with severe-to
      profound hearing loss, but the acoustic signal remains severely degraded. Limited
      access to pitch cues is thought to decrease sensitivity to prosody in CI users,
      but co-occurring changes in intensity and duration may provide redundant cues.
      The current study investigates how listeners use these cues to infer discourse
      prominence. CI users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners were presented with
      sentences varying in prosody (accented vs. unaccented words) while their eye
      movements were measured to referents varying in discourse status (given vs. new
      categories). In Experiment 1, all listeners inferred prominence when prosody on
      nouns distinguished categories ("SANDWICH"->not sandals). In Experiment 2, CI
      users and NH listeners presented with natural speech inferred prominence when
      prosody on adjectives implied contrast across both categories and properties
      ("PINK horse"->not the orange horse). In contrast, NH listeners presented with
      simulated CI (vocoded) speech were sensitive to acoustic differences in prosody,
      but did not use these cues to infer discourse status. Together, this suggests
      that exploiting redundant cues for comprehension varies with the demands of
      language processing and prior experience with the degraded signal.

PMID- 28578224
TI  - Development and validation of a Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital (BARC-10)
      for alcohol and drug use disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been long established that achieving recovery from an alcohol
      or other drug use disorder is associated with increased biobehavioral stress. To
      enhance the chances of recovery, a variety of psychological, physical, social,
      and environmental resources, known as "recovery capital", are deemed important as
      they can help mitigate this high stress burden. A 50-item measure of recovery
      capital was developed (Assessment of Recovery Capital [ARC]), with 10 subscales;
      however, a briefer version could enhance further deployment in research and busy
      clinical/recovery support service settings. To help increase utility of the
      measure, the goal of the current study was to create a shorter version using Item
      Response Theory models. METHOD: Items were pooled from the original treatment
      samples from Scotland and Australia (N=450) for scale reduction. A reduced
      version was tested in an independent sample (N=123), and a Receiver Operating
      Characteristic Curve was constructed to determine optimal cut-off for sustained
      remission (>12months abstinence). RESULTS: An abbreviated 10-item measure of
      recovery capital captured item representation from all 10 original subscales, was
      invariant across participant's locality and gender, had high internal consistency
      (alpha=.90), concurrent validity with the original measure (rpb=.90), and
      predictive validity with sustained remission using a cut-off score of 47.
      CONCLUSION: The brief assessment of recovery capital 10-item version (BARC-10)
      concisely measures a single unified dimension of recovery capital that may have
      utility for researchers, clinicians, and recovery support services.

PMID- 28578223
TI  - SERPINB2 is regulated by dynamic interactions with pause-release proteins and
      enhancer RNAs.
AB  - The SERPINB2 gene is strongly upregulated in inflammatory states. In monocytes,
      it can constitute up to 1% of total cellular protein. It functions in protection
      from proteotoxic stress and plays a role in angioedema. The purpose of this study
      was to define the roles of enhancer RNAs embedded in the SERPIN gene complex. We
      found that the upstream enhancer RNAs upregulated SERPINB2 and the enhancer RNAs
      were expressed prior to those of SERPINB2 mRNA. Studies of the SERPINB2 promoter
      demonstrated the presence of an RNA polymerase II pause-inducing protein, NELF.
      Stimulation with LPS led to recruitment of the pause-releasing kinase P-TEFb and
      departure of the pause-inducing protein NELF. RNA immunoprecipitation revealed
      that NELF and the CDK9 component of P-TEFb bound to the enhancer RNAs after
      stimulation with distinct kinetics. Knock-down of the enhancer RNAs compromised
      stimulus induction of promoter and enhancer chromatin changes. Conversely, over
      expression was associated with enhanced recruitment of c-JUN and increased
      expression of SERPINB2 mRNA expression. This study is the first to associate
      enhancer RNAs with SERPINB2 and is the first demonstration of acquisition of NELF
      binding by enhancer RNAs on chromatin.

PMID- 28578225
TI  - Progression to established patterns of cigarette smoking among young adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As tobacco control policies have been implemented across the U.S.
      over the past decade, patterns of smoking cigarettes have significantly changed,
      particularly among young adults. For many users, the typical daily use pattern of
      smoking several packs of cigarettes per day has been supplanted by a variety of
      use patterns, often referred to as light, intermittent, and occasional smoking.
      METHODS: The aim of this study was to examine progression to established smoking
      patterns among a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of young adults
      (n=9791). Using repeated measures latent class techniques (RMLCA), we modeled the
      distribution of cigarette smoking intensity over time and latent class
      categories. RESULTS: Findings demonstrate that young adults fall into three
      discrete classes that reflect probabilities for never to low use, daily use, and
      variable cigarette use for progression to established use of cigarettes: 79.3%
      fall into the class of "never or ever users" of cigarettes (no current use of
      cigarettes), 11.3% fall into the class of "rapid escalators" or daily users of
      cigarettes, and 9.4% fall into the "dabbler" class. Smoking patterns were found
      to be stable by the age of 21. CONCLUSIONS: Intervening prior to age 21 has the
      potential to disrupt progression to established smoking and reduce the long-term
      health consequences of smoking in this age group.

PMID- 28578226
TI  - Cocaine use may modify HIV/ART-associated myocardial steatosis and hepatic
      steatosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been recognized that myocardial and hepatic steatosis may be
      more prevalent in HIV-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART);
      however, factors associated with these conditions have not been thoroughly
      investigated. The goals of this study were (1) to identify the risk factors for
      myocardial and hepatic steatosis in HIV-infected African Americans (AAs) and
      explore whether ART use is independently associated with myocardial and hepatic
      steatosis, and (2) to examine whether and how cocaine use influences any
      associations of ART use with myocardial and hepatic steatosis. METHODS: Between
      June 2010 and December 2013, 220 HIV-infected AAs in Baltimore, Maryland, were
      enrolled in a study investigating HIV/ART-associated myocardial and hepatic
      damage. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed to quantify
      myocardial and hepatic triglyceride contents. Sociodemographic, medical and
      laboratory data were also obtained. Robust regression model was employed to
      perform primary statistical analysis. RESULTS: Robust regression analyses showed
      that (1) duration of protease inhibitor (PI) use was independently associated
      with myocardial and hepatic triglyceride contents, (2) duration of PI use was
      independently associated with myocardial triglyceride in cocaine users (p=0.025),
      but not in cocaine never-users (p=0.84), and (3) duration of PI use was
      independently associated with hepatic triglyceride in cocaine users, but not in
      cocaine never-users (p=0.52). CONCLUSIONS: Cocaine use may trigger/exacerbate the
      toxicity of PI in ART-associated myocardial and hepatic steatosis, suggesting
      that cocaine abstinence/reduced use may retard these ART-associated
      comorbidities. Clinical trials should be conducted to examine whether reduced
      cocaine use improves HIV/AIDS-associated myocardial and hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28578227
TI  - Evaluating the feasibility of fermentation starter inoculated with Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens for improving acetoin and tetramethylpyrazine in Baoning bran
      vinegar.
AB  - Fermentation starters (Daqu) used in present study included traditional herb Daqu
      (C Daqu), modified Daqu without herbs (M Daqu) and S Daqu fermented by
      inoculating acetoin and tetramethylpyrazine high-producing bacterium Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens into M Daqu. To evaluate the feasibility of S Daqu combined
      with M Daqu applied for improving contents of acetoin and tetramethylpyrazine in
      Baoning bran vinegar without remarkably changing the original microbial community
      and the other volatiles contents compared with C Daqu, vinegar Pei C, M, M1, M2
      and S were correspondingly prepared in lab scale using C Daqu, M Daqu, M1 Daqu (S
      Daqu: M Daqu=1:9, w/w), M2 Daqu (S Daqu: M Daqu=5:5) and S Daqu. PCR-DGGE
      suggested that Bacillus, Lactobacillus, Oceanobacillus, Acetobacter, Pichia,
      Geotrichum and Trichoderma were dominant microbes. Microbial community of M were
      similar with M1, while that of the others were similar. Differences in
      physicochemical properties among samples may be ascribed to different enzymes
      activities of Daqu and bioactivities of microbial metabolism during fermentation.
      Moreover, total contents of organic acids in M, M1, M2 and S increased by 33.10%,
      25.77%, 4.32% and 7.74% relative to C, respectively. Volatiles and PLS-DA
      analysis suggested that volatile profiles of M were similar with M1, that of M2
      were similar with C, while that of S were significantly different with the
      others. Both M2 Daqu and S Daqu facilitated the formation of acetoin and
      tetramethylpyrazine. However, M2 Daqu was more efficient for enhancing acetoin
      and tetramethylpyrazine contents by 191.84% and 123.17% respectively, without
      significantly changing the other volatiles contents.

PMID- 28578228
TI  - Keeping it cool: Survival of Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts on lettuce
      leaves.
AB  - Fresh produce has been recognized as a vehicle for transmission of protozoan
      parasites for many years, and there are numerous publications regarding their
      occurrence on such foodstuffs, indicating their potential importance as foodborne
      parasites. Nevertheless, few studies have been published regarding the
      effectiveness of this transmission route, and whether contamination is likely to
      result in transmission. The purpose of this study was to assess the viability of
      Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts, two protozoa associated with both
      waterborne and foodborne transmission, by spiking fresh produce (lettuce leaves)
      with viable transmission stages and determining changes in viability. These
      investigations were performed under different conditions and over time spans that
      may be used in a regular household; a fridge at 4 degrees C, under ambient
      temperatures exposed to natural cycles of light during night and day, and inside
      a cupboard to ensure no light exposure, for a duration of up to two weeks, or as
      long as the produce remained visually palatable. The major finding from this
      study is that whereas both Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts survive well
      when kept moist and refrigerated, survival of Giardia cysts was abrogated on
      lettuce at room temperature. Indeed, almost 50% die-off of Giardia cysts was
      recorded within the first 24h. Cryptosporidium oocysts had a stable viability
      throughout the experiment under all the conditions investigated, indicating that
      fresh produce is a suitable transmission vehicle for Cryptosporidium, even if
      contamination occurs on-farm and the parasites are exposed to non-favourable
      storage conditions, as may be common in developing countries. Giardia cysts were
      not as robust as Cryptosporidium oocysts, and would be probably unlikely to
      survive under ambient storage conditions on-farm, during sale, or at home.
      However, if kept refrigerated, then some contaminating Giardia cysts may remain
      viable and therefore may pose a threat to the consumer. Thus, as the cold chain
      for transport and storage of fresh produce improves, it is important that similar
      improvements are implemented to reduce the contamination of fresh produce with
      parasite transmission stages.

PMID- 28578229
TI  - Preparation of pompon-like ZnO-PANI heterostructure and its applications for the
      treatment of typical water pollutants under visible light.
AB  - Until now, the treatment of multiple water pollutants by using one simple
      material has still been a challenge. Pompon-like ZnO-Polyaniline heterostructures
      with different content of Polyaniline as out-layer were synthesized by
      hydrothermal method and hybridization. Their several applications were
      subsequently investigated for water pollutants treatment including photo
      degradation of organic pollutants, photo-induced adsorption of heavy metal ions
      (Hg(II), Cr(VI)) and inactivation of Pathogenic bacteria (E. coli bacteria and
      staphylococcus aureus) under visible light. The results indicate that the
      aforementioned pollutants can be effectively removed by Pompon-like ZnO
      Polyaniline heterostructure. The enhanced photochemical performance is attributed
      to: (1) the improved monodispersity and relative large specific surface area of
      pompon-like ZnO-PANI enhance the production of photo-induced OH and O2-; (2) the
      high separation efficiency of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, which comes
      from the synergistic effect of P-N type heterojunction.

PMID- 28578230
TI  - Corrugated stainless-steel mesh as a simple engineerable electrode module in bio
      electrochemical system: Hydrodynamics and the effects on decolorization
      performance.
AB  - The application of bio-electrochemical system (BESs) is strongly depended on the
      development of the engineering applicable electrode. Here we described an
      economical and readily processable electrode module with three-dimensional
      structure, the corrugated stainless-steel mesh electrode module (c-SMEM). This
      novel developed electrode module was demonstrated to provide a good hydrodynamic
      characteristic and significantly enhanced the decolorization performance of the
      BES when serving for treating azo dye (acid orange 7, AO7) containing wastewater.
      Compared to the conventional planar electrodes module (p-SMEM), c-SMEM was found
      to prolong the mean residence time (MRTtheta) of AO7 and change the flow pattern
      closer to the plug flow. As a result, the maximum enhancement of the volumetric
      decolorization rate (vDR) can reach to 255%, even when the c-SMEM and p-SMEM have
      the same electrode surface area. In addition, a techno-economic analysis model
      was established to elucidated the effects of the decolorization performance and
      the material cost on the initial capital cost, which revealed the BES with c-SMEM
      could be economically comparable to or even better than the traditional bio
      decolorization technologies. These results suggest c-SMEM holds great potential
      for engineering application, which may help paving the way of applying BES at
      large-scale.

PMID- 28578231
TI  - Removal of thallium from aqueous solutions using Fe-Mn binary oxides.
AB  - In this study, Fe-Mn binary oxides, which harbor the strong oxidative power of
      manganese dioxide and the high adsorption capacity of iron oxides, were
      synthesized for Tl(I) removal using a concurrent chemical oxidation and
      precipitation method. The adsorption of Tl onto the Fe-Mn adsorbent was fast,
      effective, and selective, with equilibrium sorption reaching over 95% under a
      broad operating pH (3-12), and high ionic strength (0.1-0.5mol/L). The adsorption
      can be well fitted with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, and the kinetics
      can be well described by the pseudo-second-order model. Fourier transform
      infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra suggest that
      surface complexation, oxidation and precipitation were the main mechanisms for
      the removal of Tl. This study shows that the Fe-Mn binary oxides could be a
      promising adsorbent for Tl removal.

PMID- 28578233
TI  - PropS-SH/SiO2 nanocomposite coatings for pyrite oxidation inhibition to control
      acid mine drainage at the source.
AB  - To control acid mine drainage (AMD) at the source, a novel nanocomposite coating,
      based on SiO2 nanoparticles as nanofiller embedded in gamma
      mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (PropS-SH) coating is introduced in this paper.
      The performance of the PropS-SH/SiO2 (PSS) nanocomposite coatings with a
      different content of SiO2 nanoparticles on pyrite oxidation inhibition was
      evaluated by electrochemical measurements and chemical leaching testing. The
      results of the investigations revealed that the addition of appropriate SiO2
      nanoparticles could greatly enhance the passivation efficiency of PropS-SH
      coating. The best coating was obtained from 3% (v/v) of PropS-SH solution with
      2wt% SiO2 nanoparticles as this coating decreased pyrite oxidation by 81.1%
      (based on Fe release). In addition, the coating mechanism of PSS coatings on
      pyrite surfaces is presented in this paper.

PMID- 28578232
TI  - The comparison of Se(IV) and Se(VI) sequestration by nanoscale zero-valent iron
      in aqueous solutions: The roles of solution chemistry.
AB  - The sequestration of Se(IV) and Se(VI) by nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI)
      particles were compared under different solution conditions. Firstly, the
      comparison was conducted at three pH values (4.0, 6.0 and 8.0) in deionized
      water. Generally, the removal of Se(IV)/Se(VI) by NZVI was more rapid under
      acidic conditions and the removal efficiency of Se(IV) was much higher than that
      of Se(VI). Moreover, the pH variation exhibited much larger influence on the
      sequestration of Se(VI) than that of Se(IV) by NZVI. The spectroscopic analysis
      showed that both the Se(IV) and Se(VI) were reduced to Se0 and Se2-, while NZVI
      was transformed into iron (hydr)oxides. When the selenium-NZVI reactions occurred
      in synthetic groundwater, all the reaction systems were inhibited in varying
      degrees. The individual effects of humic acid (HA) and typical inorganic ions
      were also examined. It seems that HA could substantially hinder the sequestration
      of Se(IV) compared with that in deionized water, while sulfate (SO42-) and
      bicarbonate (HCO3-) inhibited the Se(VI) removal significantly. Notably, the
      presence of cations (i.e., Na+ or Ca2+) ions did not cause obvious interference
      to the Se(IV)/Se(VI) removal by NZVI, while the presence of Ca2+ could alleviate
      the adverse effect of HA on Se(IV) removal to some degree.

PMID- 28578234
TI  - The sky is falling III: The effect of deposition from static solid rocket motor
      tests on juvenile crops.
AB  - A mixture of combustion products (mainly hydrogen chloride, aluminum oxide, and
      water) and entrained soil, referred to as Test Fire Soil (TFS), can be deposited
      on crops during static solid rocket motor tests. The impact of a reported worst
      case event was previously evaluated by exposing corn and alfalfa to 3200-gTFS/m2
      at 54days after emergence. Exposures via soil and leaves were evaluated
      separately. Reduced growth (soil exposure) and leaf "scorch" (leaf exposure) were
      attributed mainly to the high chloride concentrations in the TFS (56,000mg/kg). A
      follow-up study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a typical deposition
      event (70-gTFS/m2, estimated by radar during several tests) and exposure (soil
      and leaves simultaneously) on juvenile corn, alfalfa, and winter wheat. Younger
      crops were used to examine potential age sensitivity differences. Impact was
      evaluated by comparing the growth, elemental composition, and leaf chlorophyll
      content of treated and untreated plants. The relationship between deposition
      exposure and response was also addressed. Growth of corn, alfalfa, and winter
      wheat exposed to a typical TFS loading was not impacted, although slightly
      elevated concentrations of aluminum and iron were found in the leaves. At the
      highest loadings used for the exposure-response experiment, concentrations of
      chloride and calcium were higher in TFS-exposed corn leaves than in the untreated
      leaves. Overall results indicate that exposure to a typical deposition event does
      not adversely impact juvenile crops and that younger plants may be less
      vulnerable to TFS. However, higher TFS loadings can cause leaf scorch and
      increase the leaf concentrations of some elements.

PMID- 28578235
TI  - Simultaneous use of caustic and oxygen for efficient sulfide control in sewers.
AB  - Periodic caustic shock-loading is a commonly used method for sulfide control in
      sewers. Caustic shock-loading relies on the elevation of the sewage pH to >=10.5
      for several hours, thereby removing sewer pipe biofilms as well as deactivating
      SRB activity in the remaining biofilm. Although a widely used method, SRB
      activity is often not completely inhibited, and as such sulfide is still being
      generated. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an innovative approach
      which combines caustic with oxygen, another commonly used method, as a dosing
      strategy for overcoming the drawbacks of caustic shock-loading. Six laboratory
      scale rising main reactors were subjected to three dosing schemes over a period
      of three months, namely (i) simultaneous caustic and oxygen addition, (ii)
      caustic addition and (iii) no chemical addition. Our results showed that the
      combination of caustic and oxygen achieved efficient sulfide control, leading to
      a prolonged biofilm recovery period in between caustic shocks. In addition,
      methane emissions were reduced to a negligible level compared to caustic
      treatment only. To translate the findings to real-life application, the key
      parameters obtained during the long-term lab-scale experiments were subjected to
      extensive simulation studies using the SeweX model under a wide range of
      conditions commonly found in sewers. Overall, this study highlights the potential
      of periodic shock-loading and intermittent oxygen injection as combined dosing
      strategy for efficient sulfide control in sewers.

PMID- 28578236
TI  - Litter decomposition in hyper-arid deserts: Photodegradation is still important.
AB  - Photodegradation due to litter exposure to solar UV radiation is presumed to
      contribute to the surprisingly fast decomposition in some arid and semi-arid
      regions; however, few studies have directly examined photodegradation effects in
      hyper-arid regions (annual precipitation <150mm) and its dependence on
      precipitation. Three litters with different initial qualities (low vs high C:N)
      were decomposed under full spectrum sunlight (UV radiation) and UV filtering from
      solar radiation at three sites with contrasting precipitation amounts (144mm,
      76mm and 16mm) for 2.5years. UV radiation increased mass loss and litter
      decomposition rates by 23-70%. UV photodegradation effects (UVE) on litter
      decomposition rate differed among experimental sites, with significantly stronger
      effects in less arid sites (144mm and 76mm) than more arid site (16mm). High
      quality litter (low C:N ratio) showed the fastest decomposition rate, and UVE was
      also affected by litter quality, but no consistent trend was observed. Litter N
      loss was greatest in full sunlight and the linear relationships between C and N
      contents was not changed by UV filtering over time. UV radiation increased C loss
      of all fractions, and hemicellulose and cell solubles showed significant
      contributions to litter mass loss. Our findings suggest that UV photodegradation
      can increase mass loss and nutrient release by the positive priming effects on
      microbial decomposition in hyper-arid regions, although UVE differed among three
      sites with contrasting precipitation amounts.

PMID- 28578237
TI  - Ecotoxicity of the antihistaminic drug cetirizine to Ruditapes philippinarum
      clams.
AB  - Cetirizine (CTZ) is an antihistaminic drug present in the aquatic environment,
      with limited information on its toxicity to organisms inhabiting this system.
      This study intended to evaluate the effects of CTZ on oxidative stress and energy
      metabolism biomarkers in the edible clam Ruditapes philippinarum after a 28days
      exposure to environmentally relevant CTZ concentrations (0.0, 0.3, 3.0, 6.0 and
      12.0MUg/L). The results obtained showed that CTZ was accumulated by clams
      reaching maximum concentrations (up to ~22ng/g FW) at the highest CTZ exposure
      concentrations (6.0 and 12.0MUg/L). The bioconcentration factor (average maximum
      values of ~5) decreased at 12.0MUg/L reflecting a reduction in clams uptake or
      increase of excretion capacity at this condition. The present study revealed
      that, in general, clams decreased the metabolic potential after exposure to CTZ
      (decrease in electron transport system activity), a response that led to the
      maintenance of glycogen content in organisms exposed to CTZ in comparison to
      control values. Our findings also showed that, CTZ did not exert significant
      levels of oxidative injury to clams. However, comparing the control with the
      highest exposure concentrations (6.0 and 12.0MUg/L) a significant increase of the
      antioxidant enzyme superoxide activity (~53 and ~44%) was observed in clams
      exposed to CTZ. Moreover, a tendency to increase lipid peroxidation (~14 and ~9%)
      and carbonyl groups on proteins (~11 and ~3%) was observed in clams exposed to
      CTZ (6.0 and 12.0MUg/L) compared to control condition. Overall the present study
      suggests that toxic impacts may be induced in R. philippinarum if exposed for
      longer periods or higher CTZ concentrations.

PMID- 28578238
TI  - Combined effects of environmental disturbance and climate warming on insect
      herbivory in mountain birch in subarctic forests: Results of 26-year monitoring.
AB  - Both pollution and climate affect insect-plant interactions, but the combined
      effects of these two abiotic drivers of global change on insect herbivory remain
      almost unexplored. From 1991 to 2016, we monitored the population densities of 25
      species or species groups of insects feeding on mountain birch (Betula pubescens
      ssp. czerepanovii) in 29 sites and recorded leaf damage by insects in 21 sites in
      subarctic forests around the nickel-copper smelter at Monchegorsk, north-western
      Russia. The leaf-eating insects demonstrated variable, and sometimes opposite,
      responses to pollution-induced forest disturbance and to climate variations.
      Consequently, we did not discover any general trend in herbivory along the
      disturbance gradient. Densities of eight species/species groups correlated with
      environmental disturbance, but these correlations weakened from 1991 to 2016,
      presumably due to the fivefold decrease in emissions of sulphur dioxide and heavy
      metals from the smelter. The densities of externally feeding defoliators
      decreased from 1991 to 2016 and the densities of leafminers increased, while the
      leaf roller densities remained unchanged. Consequently, no overall temporal trend
      in the abundance of birch-feeding insects emerged despite a 2-3 degrees C
      elevation in spring temperatures. Damage to birch leaves by insects decreased
      during the observation period in heavily disturbed forests, did not change in
      moderately disturbed forests and tended to increase in pristine forests. The
      temporal stability of insect-plant interactions, quantified by the inverse of the
      coefficient of among-year variations of herbivore population densities and of
      birch foliar damage, showed a negative correlation with forest disturbance. We
      conclude that climate differently affects insect herbivory in heavily stressed
      versus pristine forests, and that herbivorous insects demonstrate diverse
      responses to environmental disturbance and climate variations. This diversity of
      responses, in combination with the decreased stability of insect-plant
      interactions, increases the uncertainty in predictions on the impacts of global
      change on forest damage by insects.

PMID- 28578239
TI  - Bioaccumulation of pharmaceutically active compounds and endocrine disrupting
      chemicals in aquatic macrophytes: Results of hydroponic experiments with
      Echinodorus horemanii and Eichhornia crassipes.
AB  - Information regarding the bioaccumulation behaviour of pharmaceutically active
      compounds (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in aquatic plants is
      limited. The present study involved controlled hydroponic experiments to assess
      uptake and elimination rate constants (ku, ke), bioconcentration factors (BCFs)
      and translocation factors (TFs) of several PhACs and EDCs in two aquatic
      macrophyte species, including one submerged species (Echinodorus horemanii) and
      one free-floating species (Eichhornia crassipes). The results revealed that the
      studied compounds are readily taken up in these aquatic plants. While
      bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and translocation factors (TFs) of the test
      compounds varied substantially, no discernible relationship with physicochemical
      properties such as octanol-water distribution coefficient (Dow), membrane-water
      distribution coefficient (Dmw) and organic carbon-water partition coefficient
      (Koc). Diphenhydramine and triclosan exhibited the highest degree of uptake and
      bioaccumulation potential. For example, the whole-plant BCF of triclosan in E.
      horemanii was 4390L/kg, while the whole-plant BCF of diphenhydramine in E.
      crassipes was 6130L/kg. BCFs of 17beta-estradiol (E2), 17alpha-ethinylestradiol
      (EE2), estrone (E1) and bisphenol A (BPA) were relatively low (2-150L/kg). BCFs
      were generally higher in free-floating aquatic macrophyte species compared to the
      submerged species. For the free-floating species, E. crassipes, the majority of
      PhACs and EDCs were more allocated in roots compared to leaves, with TFs<1.
      However, some compounds such as caffeine, atrazine, diphenhydramine, E2 and
      carbamazepine were more allocated in leaf tissue (TFs>1). The study findings may
      be useful for design and implementation of phytoremediation systems, as well as
      aid future modeling and risk assessment initiatives for these emerging organic
      contaminants.

PMID- 28578240
TI  - Spatio-temporal topsoil organic carbon mapping of a semi-arid Mediterranean
      region: The role of land use, soil texture, topographic indices and the influence
      of remote sensing data to modelling.
AB  - SOC is the most important indicator of soil fertility and monitoring its space
      time changes is a prerequisite to establish strategies to reduce soil loss and
      preserve its quality. Here we modelled the topsoil (0-0.3m) SOC concentration of
      the cultivated area of Sicily in 1993 and 2008. Sicily is an extremely variable
      region with a high number of ecosystems, soils, and microclimates. We studied the
      role of time and land use in the modelling of SOC, and assessed the role of
      remote sensing (RS) covariates in the boosted regression trees modelling. The
      models obtained showed a high pseudo-R2 (0.63-0.69) and low uncertainty
      (s.d.<0.76gCkg-1 with RS, and <1.25gCkg-1 without RS). These outputs allowed
      depicting a time variation of SOC at 1arcsec. SOC estimation strongly depended on
      the soil texture, land use, rainfall and topographic indices related to erosion
      and deposition. RS indices captured one fifth of the total variance explained,
      slightly changed the ranking of variance explained by the non-RS predictors, and
      reduced the variability of the model replicates. During the study period, SOC
      decreased in the areas with relatively high initial SOC, and increased in the
      area with high temperature and low rainfall, dominated by arables. This was
      likely due to the compulsory application of some Good Agricultural and
      Environmental practices. These results confirm that the importance of texture and
      land use in short-term SOC variation is comparable to climate. The present
      results call for agronomic and policy intervention at the district level to
      maintain fertility and yield potential. In addition, the present results suggest
      that the application of RS covariates enhanced the modelling performance.

PMID- 28578241
TI  - Distribution of organic and inorganic substances in the sediments of the "Great
      Backa Canal", a European environmental hotspot.
AB  - The Great Backa Canal in Serbia is one of the most polluted waterways in Europe.
      Surface sediments from the canal were subject to systematic annual monitoring
      between 2007 and 2014 at 33 representative sampling sites. Eight heavy metals
      (Ni, Zn, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, As and Hg), mineral oils, 16 EPA PAHs and selected
      pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) were monitored. This study aims to
      evaluate the quality of the sediments and determine the potential ecological
      risks in order to establish pollutants of interest. The spatial and temporal
      influence of different and intense sources of pollution are investigated. The
      analysis includes multivariate statistical methods (factor analysis of principal
      component analysis (PCA/FA)) in order to assess the extent and origin
      (anthropogenic or natural, geogenic sources) of the contaminants detected in the
      sediment samples and the risks the present to the environment. Various sources,
      predominantly the food industry, were found to be responsible for most of the
      contamination by Cd, Cu, Cr and Zn, the mineral oils and PAHs
      (dibenzo[a,h]anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene contributed 86.0% of the total between
      2007 and 2014). In contrast, the As was convincingly of geogenic origin, and the
      Hg, Pb and Ni present exhibit dual origins. Cd and Cu significantly raise the
      levels of potential ecological risk at all sampling locations, demonstrating the
      long-term effects of bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Significantly, the
      results of this work indicate that Cu, As and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene should be
      added to the EU watch list of emerging contaminants. This is supported by
      significant national and similar environmental data from countries in the region.

PMID- 28578242
TI  - Removal of antibiotics (sulfamethazine, tetracycline and chloramphenicol) from
      aqueous solution by raw and nitrogen plasma modified steel shavings.
AB  - The removal of sulfamethazine (SMT), tetracycline (TC) and chloramphenicol (CP)
      from synthetic wastewater by raw (M3) and nitrogen plasma modified steel shavings
      (M3-plN2) was investigated using batch experiments. The adsorption kinetics could
      be expressed by both pseudo-first-order kinetic (PFO) and pseudo-second-order
      kinetic (PSO) models, where correlation coefficient r2 values were high. The
      values of PFO rate constant k1p and PSO rate constant k2p decreased as SMT-M3>SMT
      M3-plN2>TC-M3-plN2>TC-M3>CP-M3>CP-M3-plN2 and SMT-M3>SMT-M3-plN2>TC-M3>TC-M3
      plN2>CP-M3>CP-M3-plN2, respectively. Solution pH, adsorbent dose and temperature
      exerted great influences on the adsorption process. The plasma modification with
      nitrogen gas cleaned and enhanced 1.7-fold the surface area and 1.4-fold the pore
      volume of steel shavings. Consequently, the removal capacity of SMT, TC, CP on
      the adsorbent rose from 2519.98 to 2702.55, 1720.20 to 2158.36, and 2772.81 to
      2920.11MUg/g, respectively. Typical chemical states of iron (XPS in Fe2p3 region)
      in the adsorbents which are mainly responsible for removing antibiotics through
      hydrogen bonding, electrostatic and non- electrostatic interactions and redox
      reaction were as follows: Fe3O4/Fe2+, Fe3O4/Fe3+, FeO/Fe2+ and Fe2O3/Fe3+.

PMID- 28578243
TI  - Comparative study on pharmaceuticals adsorption in reclaimed water desalination
      concentrate using biochar: Impact of salts and organic matter.
AB  - The synergistic impact of salts and organic matter on adsorption of ibuprofen and
      sulfamethoxazole by three types of biochar and an activated carbon was
      investigated using reclaimed water reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate and synthetic
      solutions spiked with target organic compounds and non-target water constituents
      (e.g., Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, alkalinity, humic acid (HA), and bovine
      serum albumin (BSA)). Kinetic modeling was used to better understand the
      adsorption process between the carbon adsorbents and pharmaceuticals and to
      elucidate the impact of water chemistry on pharmaceuticals adsorption. The
      adsorption capacity of pharmaceuticals by biochar was affected by their
      physicochemical properties including ash content, specific surface area, charge,
      pore volume, as well as hydrophobicity, pi-energy, and speciation of
      pharmaceuticals. The adsorption of pharmaceuticals in concentrate was pH
      dependent, the kinetic rate constant increased with deceasing pH due to the
      electrical interactions between pharmaceutical molecules and adsorbents. High
      salinity and electrolyte ions in RO concentrate improved adsorption, whereas the
      presence of carbonate species, HA, and BSA hindered the removal of ibuprofen and
      sulfamethoxazole. This study revealed the correlation of concentrate water
      quality on adsorption of pharmaceuticals by biochar and activated carbon. Biochar
      provides a promising alternative to activated carbon for removal of organic
      contaminants of emerging concerns in various wastewater and concentrate streams.

PMID- 28578244
TI  - Performance of Raphidocelis subcapitata exposed to heavy metal mixtures.
AB  - Microalgae growth inhibition assays are candidates for referent ecotoxicological
      assays, and are a fundamental part in the strategy to reduce the use of fish and
      other animal models in aquatic toxicology. In the present work, the performance
      of Raphidocelis subcapitata exposed to heavy metals following standardized growth
      inhibition assays has been assessed in three different scenarios: 1) dilutions of
      single heavy metals, 2) artificial mixture of heavy metals at similar levels than
      those found in natural rivers and, 3) natural samples containing known mixtures
      of contaminants (heavy metals). Chemical speciation of heavy metals has been
      estimated with Eh-pH diagram and Visual MINTEQ software; heavy metal and free
      heavy metal ion concentrations were used as input data, together with microalgae
      growth inhibition, for Dr. Fit software. The final goal was to assess the
      suitability of the ecotoxicological test based on the growth inhibition of
      microalgae cultures, and the mathematic models based on these results, for
      regulatory and decision-making purposes. The toxicity of a given heavy metal is
      not only determined by its chemical speciation; other chemical and biological
      interaction play an important role in the final toxicity. Raphidocelis
      subcapitata 48h-h-EC50 for tested heavy metals (especially Cu and Zn) were in
      agreement with previous studies, when ion metal bioavailability was assumed to be
      100%. Nevertheless, the calculated growth inhibition was not in agreement with
      the obtained inhibition when exposed to the artificial mixture of heavy metals or
      the natural sample. Interactions between heavy metal ions and the compounds of
      the culture media and/or the natural sample determine heavy metal
      bioavailability, and eventually their toxicity. More research is needed for
      facing the challenge posed by pollutant mixtures as they are present in natural
      environments, and make microalgae-based assays suitable for pollution management
      and regulatory purposes.

PMID- 28578245
TI  - Development of between-trial response strategy adjustments in a continuous action
      control task: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - Response strategies are constantly adjusted in ever-changing environments.
      According to many researchers, this involves executive control. This study
      examined how children (aged 4-11years) and young adults (aged 18-21years)
      adjusted response strategies in a continuous action control task. Participants
      needed to move a stimulus to a target location, but on a minority of the trials
      (change trials) the target location changed. When this happened, participants
      needed to change their movement. We examined how performance was influenced by
      the properties of the previous trial. We found that no-change performance was
      impaired, but change performance was improved, when a change signal was presented
      on the previous trial. Extra analyses revealed that the between-trial effects on
      no-change trials were not influenced by the repetition of the previous stimulus.
      Combined, these findings provide support for the idea that response strategies
      were adjusted on a trial-by-trial basis. Importantly, we observed large age
      related differences in overall change and no-change latencies but observed no
      differences in response strategy adjustments. This is consistent with findings
      obtained with other paradigms and suggests that adjustment mechanisms mature at a
      faster rate than other "executive" action control mechanisms.

PMID- 28578246
TI  - Appendiceal ganglioneuroma in neurofibromatosis type 2.
AB  - Here we report the case of a 30-year-old woman with a history of
      neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) who presented with an incidentally discovered
      pelvic mass on an ultrasound. The identity of the mass remained indeterminate
      following a CT and MRI, although appendiceal pathology was suspected. An elective
      laparoscopy and appendectomy were performed without complication and pathology on
      the specimen demonstrated an appendiceal ganglioneuroma. To our knowledge, there
      has been no prior documented case of an appendiceal ganglioneuroma in a patient
      with NF2. Furthermore, the current case is the first to report the MR
      characteristics of appendiceal ganglioneuromas.

PMID- 28578247
TI  - Microvascular thrombosis in sepsis: An autopsy study.

PMID- 28578248
TI  - Gender differences in social anxiety disorder: A review.
AB  - Gender differences in social anxiety disorder (SAD) have not received much
      empirical attention despite the large body of research on the disorder, and in
      contrast to significant literature about gender differences in other disorders
      such as depression or posttraumatic stress disorder. To address this gap, we
      comprehensively reviewed the literature regarding gender differences in eight
      domains of SAD: prevalence, clinical presentation, functioning and impairment,
      comorbidity, course, treatment seeking, physiological arousal, and the oxytocin
      system. Findings from the present review indicate that women are more likely to
      have SAD and report greater clinical severity. Notwithstanding, men with the
      disorder may seek treatment to a greater extent. According to the present review,
      the course of SAD seems to be similar for men and women, and findings regarding
      gender differences in functional impairment and comorbidity are inconclusive. We
      highlight areas requiring future research and discuss the findings in the context
      of a number of theoretical perspectives. We believe that further research and
      integration of scientific findings with existing theories is essential in order
      to increase our understanding and awareness of gender differences in SAD, thus
      facilitating gender-sensitive and specifically-tailored interventions for both
      men and women with the disorder.

PMID- 28578251
TI  - Cutting-edge platforms in cardiac tissue engineering.
AB  - As cardiac disease takes a higher toll with each passing year, the need for new
      therapies to deal with the scarcity in heart donors becomes ever more pressing.
      Cardiac tissue engineering holds the promise of creating functional replacement
      tissues to repair heart tissue damage. In an attempt to bridge the gap between
      the lab and clinical realization, the field has made major strides. In this
      review, we will discuss state of the art technologies such as layer-by-layer
      assembly, bioprinting and bionic tissue engineering, all developed to overcome
      some of the major hurdles faced in the field.

PMID- 28578249
TI  - Effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions for family carers of people with
      psychosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Psychoeducational interventions for family carers of people with psychosis are
      effective for improving compliance and preventing relapse. Whether carers benefit
      from these interventions has been little explored. This systematic review
      investigated the effectiveness of psychoeducation for improving carers' outcomes,
      and potential treatment moderators. We searched for randomised controlled trials
      (RCTs) published in English or Chinese in eight databases. Carers' outcomes
      included wellbeing, quality of life, global morbidities, burden, and expressed
      emotion. Thirty-two RCTs were included, examining 2858 carers. Intervention
      duration ranged from 4 to 52weeks, and contact times ranged from 6 to 42hours. At
      post intervention, findings were equivocal for carers' wellbeing (SMD 0.103, 95%
      CI -0.186 to 0.392). Conversely, psychoeducation was superior in reducing carers'
      global morbidities (SMD -0.230, 95% CI -0.386 to -0.075), perceived burden (SMD 
      0.434, 95% CI -0.567 to -0.31), negative caregiving experiences (SMD -0.210, 95%
      CI -0.396 to -0.025) and expressed emotion (SMD -0.161, 95% CI -0.367 to -0.045).
      The lack of available data precluded meta-analysis of outcomes beyond short-term
      follow-up. Meta-regression revealed no significant associations between
      intervention modality, duration, or contact time and outcomes. Further research
      should focus on improving carers' outcomes in the longer-term and identifying
      factors to optimise intervention design.

PMID- 28578252
TI  - Stretching position can affect levator scapular muscle activity, length, and
      cervical range of motion in people with a shortened levator scapulae.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Levator scapulae (LS) muscle stretching exercises are a common method
      of lengthening a shortened muscle; however, the appropriate stretching position
      for lengthening the LS in people with a shortened LS remains unclear. The purpose
      of this study was to compare the effects of different stretching exercise
      positions on the LS and introduce effective stretching exercise methods to
      clinicians. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four university students (12 men, 12 women) with
      a shortened LS were recruited. METHODS: LS muscle activity, LS index (LSI), and
      cervical range of motion (ROM) were measured pre (baseline) and post three
      different stretching exercise positions (sitting, quadruped, and prone). RESULTS:
      The LSI and cervical ROM exceeded the minimal detectable change and had
      significant changes. The LSI was greater in the sitting position than at the
      baseline (p = 0.01), quadruped position (p < 0.01); the LSI in the prone position
      presented a higher increase than the quadruped position (p = 0.01). The cervical
      ROM increased in the sitting position when compared to the baseline (p < 0.01)
      and quadruped position (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Stretching the LS in the sitting
      position was the most effective exercise for improving LS muscle length and
      cervical ROM.

PMID- 28578253
TI  - Proton dissociation properties of arylphosphonates: Determination of accurate
      Hammett equation parameters.
AB  - Determination of the proton dissociation constants of several arylphosphonic acid
      derivatives was carried out to investigate the accuracy of the Hammett equations
      available for this family of compounds. For the measurement of the pKa values
      modern, accurate methods, such as the differential potentiometric titration and
      NMR-pH titration were used. We found our results significantly different from the
      pKa values reported before (pKa1: MAE = 0.16 pKa2: MAE=0.59). Based on our
      recently measured pKa values, refined Hammett equations were determined that
      might be used for predicting highly accurate ionization constants of newly
      synthesized compounds (pKa1=1.70-0.894sigma, pKa2=6.92-0.934sigma).

PMID- 28578250
TI  - Increases in synthetic cannabinoids-related harms: Results from a longitudinal
      web-based content analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists (SCRA), also known as "K2" or
      "Spice," have drawn considerable attention due to their potential of abuse and
      harmful consequences. More research is needed to understand user experiences of
      SCRA-related effects. We use semi-automated information processing techniques
      through eDrugTrends platform to examine SCRA-related effects and their variations
      through a longitudinal content analysis of web-forum data. METHOD: English
      language posts from three drug-focused web-forums were extracted and analyzed
      between January 1st 2008 and September 30th 2015. Search terms are based on the
      Drug Use Ontology (DAO) created for this study (189 SCRA-related and 501 effect
      related terms). EDrugTrends NLP-based text processing tools were used to extract
      posts mentioning SCRA and their effects. Generalized linear regression was used
      to fit restricted cubic spline functions of time to test whether the proportion
      of drug-related posts that mention SCRA (and no other drug) and the proportion of
      these "SCRA-only" posts that mention SCRA effects have changed over time, with an
      adjustment for multiple testing. RESULTS: 19,052 SCRA-related posts (Bluelight
      (n=2782), Forum A (n=3882), and Forum B (n=12,388)) posted by 2543 international
      users were extracted. The most frequently mentioned effects were "getting high"
      (44.0%), "hallucinations" (10.8%), and "anxiety" (10.2%). The frequency of SCRA
      only posts declined steadily over the study period. The proportions of SCRA-only
      posts mentioning positive effects (e.g., "High" and "Euphoria") steadily
      decreased, while the proportions of SCRA-only posts mentioning negative effects
      (e.g., "Anxiety," 'Nausea," "Overdose") increased over the same period.
      CONCLUSION: This study's findings indicate that the proportion of negative
      effects mentioned in web forum posts and linked to SCRA has increased over time,
      suggesting that recent generations of SCRA generate more harms. This is also one
      of the first studies to conduct automated content analysis of web forum data
      related to illicit drug use.

PMID- 28578256
TI  - Overexpression of long non-coding RNA GHET1 promotes the development of multidrug
      resistance in gastric cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AMID: Multidrug resistance (MDR) is the main obstacle to
      successful chemotherapy for patients with gastric cancer (GC). The GHET1 affects
      a variety of cancer development, and increased GHET1 promotes gastric carcinoma
      cell proliferation. This study amid to investigate the effect of GHET1 on the
      development of MDR in gastric cancer cells. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study,
      we observed an increased expression levels of GHET1 in drug-resistant gastric
      cancer patients and cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer cell lines (BGC823/DPP and
      SGC7901/DDP cell line). Next, the two cell lines were used to in vitro validation
      of the effect of GHET1 expression on the MDR development. Silence of GHET1 in the
      two cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer cell lines inhibited the MDR with rising
      inhibition rate tested by MTT (methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium) assay. The apoptotic
      cell rate was analyzed by staining with Annexin V/PI. The results showed that the
      IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) of the two cisplatin-resistant
      gastric cancer cell lines transfected with si-GHET1 were significantly reduced.
      Contrary to inhibition of GHET1 in the two cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer
      cell lines, we found that overexpression of GHET1 reduced sensitivity of BGC823
      and SGC7901 cells to cisplatin with decreased inhibition rate and apoptotic cell
      rate and increased IC50. Furthermore, the qRT-PCR and western blot results showed
      that overexpression of GHET1 downregulated Bax expression and upregulated Bcl-2,
      MDR1 and MRP1 expression in BGC823 and SGC7901 cells. CONCLUSION: Highly
      expressing GHET1 promoted the development of MDR which was related to the Bax,
      Bcl-2, MDR1 and MRP1 genes expression in gastric cancer cells.

PMID- 28578254
TI  - Therapeutic drug monitoring of beta-lactam antibiotics - Influence of sample
      stability on the analysis of piperacillin, meropenem, ceftazidime and
      flucloxacillin by HPLC-UV.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a useful tool to optimize
      antibiotic therapy. Increasing interest in alternative dosing strategies of beta
      lactam antibiotics, e.g. continuous or prolonged infusion, require a feasible
      analytical method for quantification of these antimicrobial agents. However, pre
      analytical issues including sample handling and stability are to be considered to
      provide valuable analytical results. METHODS: For the simultaneous determination
      of piperacillin, meropenem, ceftazidime and flucloxacillin, a high performance
      liquid chromatography (HPLC) method including protein precipitation was
      established utilizing ertapenem as internal standard. Long-term stability of
      stock solutions and plasma samples were monitored. Furthermore, whole blood
      stability of the analytes in heparinized blood tubes was investigated comparing
      storage under ambient conditions and 2-8 degrees C. RESULTS: A calibration range
      of 5-200MUg/ml (piperacillin, ceftazidime, flucloxacillin) and 2-200MUg/ml
      (meropenem) was linear with r2>0.999, precision and inaccuracy were <9% and <11%,
      respectively. The successfully validated HPLC assay was applied to clinical
      samples and stability investigations. At -80 degrees C, plasma samples were
      stable for 9 months (piperacillin, meropenem) or 13 months (ceftazidime,
      flucloxacillin). Concentrations of the four beta-lactam antibiotics in whole
      blood tubes were found to remain within specifications for 8h when stored at 2-8
      degrees C but not at room temperature. CONCLUSIONS: The presented method is a
      rapid and simple option for routine TDM of piperacillin, meropenem, ceftazidime
      and flucloxacillin. Whereas long-term storage of beta-lactam samples at -80
      degrees C is possible for at least 9 months, whole blood tubes are recommended to
      be kept refrigerated until analysis.

PMID- 28578255
TI  - Development and validation of an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry method for quantification of SR1001, an inverse agonist of
      retinoid-related orphan receptors, and its application to pharmacokinetic studies
      in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice.
AB  - Retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptors (RORs) play critical roles in the
      onset and progression of type I diabetes, an autoimmune disease characterized by
      the destruction of pancreatic beta-cells. SR1001, an ROR inverse agonist, has
      been proven to be an effective diabetes treatment in the non-obese diabetic (NOD)
      mouse model. However, optimization of this treatment is challenging because
      knowledge of SR1001 pharmacokinetic (PK) behaviors in type I diabetic animals is
      limited. The aim of our study was to develop and validate a specific and
      sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (UPLC
      MS/MS) method to measure the concentrations of SR1001 in plasma and biological
      samples. Using the developed UPLC-MS/MS method, SR1001 linearity ranges in
      biological matrices were determined to be 5-1000ng/mL, with correlation
      coefficients of >0.99. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification
      (LOQ) values of SR1001 were 1 and 5ng/mL, respectively. And the intra-day and
      inter-day variances were less than 10%, and accuracy was within 90%-110%. The
      extraction recoveries of SR1001 were >=80%, and no significant matrix effect was
      observed. Using the validated UPLC-MS/MS method, levels of SR1001 in plasma and
      six major organs (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and brain) were determined
      in streptozotocin (STZ) -induced diabetic mice. The PK parameters of SR1001 were
      also calculated. The SR1001 drug concentration-time curves for organs and plasma
      showed similar trends, and the elimination half-lives of SR1001 in diabetic mice
      were about 12h. SR1001 was highly bound to plasma protein, resulting in a much
      higher maximum concentration (Cmax=144394ng/mL) and area under the concentration
      time curve (AUC0-t=2728258ng/mL*h), but a low tissue/plasma partition coefficient
      (Kp) value of <0.3.

PMID- 28578258
TI  - Alternative treatment strategies for neuropathic pain: Role of Indian medicinal
      plants and compounds of plant origin-A review.
AB  - Neuropathic pain is a complex, chronic pain state accompanied by tissue injury
      and nerve damage. This important health issue constitutes a challenge for the
      modern medicine worldwide. The management of neuropathic pain remains a major
      clinical challenge, pertaining to an inadequate understanding of
      pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropathic pain. Various classes of drugs have
      been reported effective for the management of neuropathic pain viz. opiates,
      tricyclic antidepressants, and antiepileptic agents. However, association of
      adverse effects with these drugs hinders their confident prescription in people
      with neuropathic pain. Recently, various medicinal plants have been reported
      effective for the management of neuropathic pain. So, it may be prudent to look
      beyond synthetic drugs pertaining to their unprecedented pharmacotherapeutic
      effects with lesser adverse effects. The extensive literature review has been
      carried out from databases such as Science direct, Scifinder, Wiley online
      library, PubMed, Research gate, Google scholar and Chemical Abstracts. The list
      of Traditional Indian Medicinal plants (TIMPs) and isolated compounds have been
      compiled which have been reported effective as an alternative therapy for the
      management of neuropathic pain. This helps the researchers to discover some novel
      therapeutic agents against neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28578257
TI  - Melatonin supplementation plus exercise behavior ameliorate insulin resistance,
      hypertension and fatigue in a rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective was to investigate the effects of melatonin and
      exercise on insulin resistance (IR), hypertension and fatigue syndrome in a rat
      model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were
      divided into 5 groups namely normal control (NC), T2DM control group (DC),
      diabetes plus exercise (DE), diabetes plus oral melatonin supplement (DM) and
      diabetes plus melatonin and exercise (DME) groups. Melatonin was administered
      orally 5mg/kg twice daily and 40min swimming/day 5days/week were regimented after
      diabetes induction. RESULTS: Blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, insulin, IR,
      serum leptin, lipid profiles, inflammatory cytokines, lipid peroxidation
      increased significantly (P<0.01) while serum adiponectin, antioxidant activities
      (superoxide dismutase, glutathione), exercise performance significantly decreased
      (P<0.001) in the DC group compared with the control group. Combined effects of
      exercise and melatonin ameliorated markedly hypertension, IR, biochemical
      alteration induced by diabetes and significantly increased exercise performance
      (P<0.01). The expression glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) mitochondrial
      biogenesis related proteins such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
      gamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC-1 alpha), nuclear respiratory factor (NRFs) and
      mitochondrial transcription factor-A were up-regulated skeletal and cardiac
      muscle in the DME group. CONCLUSION: Melatonin supplementation in combination
      with exercise behavior may ameliorate IR, hypertension and exercise performance
      or fatigue possibly by improving antioxidative activities, hyperlipidemia,
      inflammatory cytokines via up-regulation of GLUT4, PGC-1 alpha and mitochondrial
      biogenesis in T2DM rats.

PMID- 28578260
TI  - Visualizing glycans on single cells and tissues-Visualizing glycans on single
      cells and tissues.
AB  - Metabolic oligosaccharide engineering and chemoenzymatic glycan labeling have
      provided powerful tools to study glycans in living systems and tissue samples. In
      this review article, we summarize recent advances in this field with a focus on
      innovative approaches for glycan imaging. The presented applications demonstrate
      that several of the leading imaging methods, which have revolutionized
      quantitative cell biology, can be adapted to imaging glycans on single cells and
      tissues.

PMID- 28578261
TI  - Quantification of cystatin-C in human serum by stable isotope dilution liquid
      chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Cystatin C (CysC)-based estimated glomerular filtration rate is an excellent
      marker for early diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Particle-enhanced
      nephelometric immunoassay (PENIA) and particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay
      (PETIA) are commonly used methods for CysC quantification in clinical testing.
      However, both of them lack of specificity which mass spectrometry offers. In this
      paper, an isotope dilution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (ID-LC
      MS/MS) method was established for quantification of CysC in human serum. After
      CysC denaturation, reduction and alkylation of cysteine residues, trypsin was
      added for proteolytic digestion of CysC. Specific peptide ALDFAVGEYNK was
      selected as surrogates for intact CysC protein, then quantified CysC by stable
      isotope-labelled internal standard peptide A[13C615N]LDFAVGEYNK based on
      calibration curve method. The calibration curves were y=0.1565x-1.6715 (R2=0.988)
      and y=1.8785x-2.2497 (R2=0.991) for y9 and y6, respectively. The linear range was
      0.1-10mg/L and 0.5-15mg/L for y9 and y6, respectively. The limit of
      quantification (LOQ) was 0.052mg/L. At different concentrations of CysC, the
      recoveries were in the range of 80.5%-93.7%, the intraday precisions were in the
      range of 0.3%-2.2%, and the inter-day precisions were in the range of 0.2%-2.8%.
      The results show that ID-LC-MS/MS and PETIA methods have higher consistency
      (y=0.8021x+0.6611, p=0.14), and the mean difference of the two methods was 
      0.29mg/L, and 95% of the individual difference values were in the range of 
      0.91mg/L-0.33mg/L.

PMID- 28578259
TI  - The protective effects of compatibility of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and
      Zingiberis Rhizoma on rats with heart failure by enhancing mitochondrial
      biogenesis via Sirt1/PGC-1alpha pathway.
AB  - Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata ("Fuzi" in Chinese) in combination with
      Zingiberis Rhizoma ("Ganjiang" in Chinese) is commonly applied for the treatment
      of heart failure for thousands of years in China. However, its therapeutic
      mechanism is still poorly defined. This study aimed to investigate whether the
      compatibility of Fuzi and Ganjiang can protect rats with acute heart failure by
      enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis via Sirt1/PGC-1alpha signaling pathway.
      Hemodynamic parameters, including heart rate and left ventricular maximal rate of
      pressure rise and decline, were recorded in rats with acute heart failure induced
      by Propafenone hydrochloride. The serum levels of cardiac enzymes, including
      creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, brain natriuretic peptide and cardiac
      troponin T, were also determined. The gene and protein levels of Sirtuin 1
      (Sirt1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1alpha (PGC
      1alpha) and their downstream transcription factors were measured as well. The
      results indicated that Fuzi-Ganjiang herbal couple provided more significant
      benefits by restoring the left ventricular function and cardiac enzyme activities
      in comparison with their single use. Moreover, this herbal couple possessed a
      significant cardio-protection by increasing both gene and protein levels of Sirt1
      and PGC-1alpha. In conclusion, the compatibility of Fuzi and Ganjiang had better
      therapeutic effect than their single use against failing heart, and the
      underlying mechanisms were partially through increasing mitochondrial biogenesis
      via Sirt1/PGC-1alpha pathway.

PMID- 28578262
TI  - Exposure to Deepwater Horizon oil and Corexit 9500 at low concentrations induces
      transcriptional changes and alters immune transcriptional pathways in sheepshead
      minnows.
AB  - The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill caused the release of 4.9 million
      barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, followed by the application of 2.9
      million L of the dispersant, CorexitTM to mitigate the spread of oil. The spill
      resulted in substantial shoreline oiling, potentially exposing coastal organisms
      to polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and dispersant contaminants. To investigate
      molecular effects in fish following exposure to environmentally relevant
      concentrations of DWH oil and dispersants, we exposed adult sheepshead minnows
      (Cyprinodon variegatus) to two concentrations of high-energy water-accommodated
      fraction (HEWAF), chemically enhanced water-accommodated fraction (CEWAF) or
      Corexit 9500TM for 7 and 14days. Resulting changes in hepatic gene expression
      were measured using 8*15K microarrays. Analytical chemistry confirmed PAH
      concentrations in HEWAF and CEWAF treatments were low (ranging from 0.26 to
      5.98MUg/L), and likely representative of post-spill environmental concentrations.
      We observed significant changes to gene expression in all treatments (relative to
      controls), with Corexit and CEWAF having a greater effect on expression patterns
      in the liver than HEWAF treatments. Sub-network enrichment analysis of biological
      pathways revealed that the greatest number of altered pathways in high dose HEWAF
      and CEWAF treatments occurred following a 7-day exposure. Pathways related to
      immunity comprised the majority of pathways affected in each treatment, followed
      by pathways related to blood and circulation processes. Our results indicate that
      oil composition, concentration, and exposure duration all affect molecular
      responses in exposed fish, and suggest that low-concentration exposures may
      result in sub-lethal adverse effects.

PMID- 28578263
TI  - Inorganic phosphorus fertilizer ameliorates maize growth by reducing metal
      uptake, improving soil enzyme activity and microbial community structure.
AB  - Recently, several studies have showed that both organic and inorganic fertilizers
      are effective in immobilizing heavy metals at low cost, in comparison to other
      remediation strategies for heavy metal-contaminated farmlands. A pot trial was
      conducted in this study to examine the effects of inorganic P fertilizer and
      organic fertilizer, in single application or in combination, on growth of maize,
      heavy metal availabilities, enzyme activities, and microbial community structure
      in metal-contaminated soils from an electronic waste recycling region. Results
      showed that biomass of maize shoot and root from the inorganic P fertilizer
      treatments were respectively 17.8 and 10.0 folds higher than the un-amended
      treatments (CK), while the biomass in the organic fertilizer treatments was only
      comparable to the CK. In addition, there were decreases of 85.0% in Cd, 74.3% in
      Pb, 66.3% in Cu, and 91.9% in Zn concentrations in the roots of maize grown in
      inorganic P fertilizer amended soil. Consistently, urease and catalase activities
      in the inorganic P fertilizer amended soil were 3.3 and 2.0 times higher than the
      CK, whereas no enhancement was observed in the organic fertilizer amended soil.
      Moreover, microbial community structure was improved by the application of
      inorganic P fertilizer, but not by organic fertilizer; the beneficial microbial
      groups such as Kaistobacter and Koribacter were most frequently detected in the
      inorganic P fertilizer amended soil. The negligible effect from the organic
      fertilizer might be ascribed to the decreased pH value in soils. The results
      suggest that the application of inorganic P fertilizer (or in combination with
      organic fertilizer) might be a promising strategy for the remediation of heavy
      metals contaminated soils in electronic waste recycling region.

PMID- 28578264
TI  - Aflatoxin B1 inhibition in Aspergillus flavus by Aspergillus niger through down
      regulating expression of major biosynthetic genes and AFB1 degradation by
      atoxigenic A. flavus.
AB  - Twenty Aspergillus niger strains were isolated from peanuts and 14 strains were
      able to completely inhibit AFB1 production with co-cultivation. By using a Spin-X
      centrifuge system, it was confirmed that there are some soluble signal molecules
      or antibiotics involved in the inhibition by A. niger, although they are absent
      during the initial 24h of A. flavus growth when it is sensitive to inhibition. In
      A. flavus, 19 of 20 aflatoxin biosynthetic genes were down-regulated by A. niger.
      Importantly, the expression of aflS was significantly down-regulated, resulting
      in a reduction of AflS/AflR ratio. The results suggest that A. niger could
      directly inhibit AFB1 biosynthesis through reducing the abundance of aflS to aflR
      mRNAs. Interestingly, atoxigenic A. flavus JZ2 and GZ15 effectively degrade AFB1.
      Two new metabolites were identified and the key toxic lactone and furofuran rings
      both were destroyed and hydrogenated, meaning that lactonase and reductase might
      be involved in the degradation process.

PMID- 28578266
TI  - Next generation sequencing-based multigene panel for high throughput detection of
      food-borne pathogens.
AB  - Contamination of food by chemicals or pathogenic bacteria may cause particular
      illnesses that are linked to food consumption, commonly referred to as foodborne
      diseases. Bacteria are present in/on various foods products, such as fruits,
      vegetables and ready-to-eat products. Bacteria that cause foodborne diseases are
      known as foodborne pathogens (FBPs). Accurate detection methods that are able to
      reveal the presence of FBPs in food matrices are in constant demand, in order to
      ensure safe foods with a minimal risk of causing foodborne diseases. Here, a
      multiplex PCR-based Illumina sequencing method for FBP detection in food matrices
      was developed. Starting from 25 bacterial targets and 49 selected PCR primer
      pairs, a primer collection called foodborne pathogen - panel (FPP) consisting of
      12 oligonucleotide pairs was developed. The FPP allows a more rapid and reliable
      identification of FBPs compared to classical cultivation methods. Furthermore,
      FPP permits sensitive and specific FBP detection in about two days from food
      sample acquisition to bioinformatics-based identification. The FPP is able to
      simultaneously identify eight different bacterial pathogens, i.e. Listeria
      monocytogenes, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Salmonella enterica
      subsp. enterica serovar enteritidis, Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei,
      Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica, in a given food matrix at a
      threshold contamination level of 101cell/g. Moreover, this novel detection method
      may represent an alternative and/or a complementary approach to PCR-based
      techniques, which are routinely used for FBP detection, and could be implemented
      in (parts of) the food chain as a quality check.

PMID- 28578267
TI  - Influence of settings management and protection status on recreational uses and
      pressures in marine protected areas.
AB  - Coastal populations and tourism are growing worldwide. Consequently outdoor
      recreational activity is increasing and diversifying. While Marine Protected
      Areas (MPAs) are valuable for mitigating anthropogenic impacts, recreational uses
      are rarely monitored and studied, resulting in a lack of knowledge on users'
      practices, motivation and impacts. Based on boat counts and interview data
      collected in New Caledonia, we i) explored factors affecting user practices and
      motivations, ii) constructed fine-scale pressure indices covering activities and
      associated behaviors, and iii) assessed the relationships between user practices
      and site selection. User practices were found to depend on protection status,
      boat type and user characteristics. Pressure indices were higher within no-take
      MPAs, except for fishing. We found significant relationships between user
      practices and settings characteristics. In the context of increasing recreational
      uses, these results highlight options for managing such uses through settings
      management without jeopardizing the social acceptance of MPAs or the attainment
      of conservation goals.

PMID- 28578265
TI  - Lactic acid bacteria involved in cocoa beans fermentation from Ivory Coast:
      Species diversity and citrate lyase production.
AB  - Microbial fermentation is an indispensable process for high quality chocolate
      from cocoa bean raw material. lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are among the major
      microorganisms responsible for cocoa fermentation but their exact role remains to
      be elucidated. In this study, we analyzed the diversity of LAB in six cocoa
      producing regions of Ivory Coast. Ribosomal 16S gene sequence analysis showed
      that Lactobacillus plantarum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides are the dominant LAB
      species in these six regions. In addition, other species were identified as the
      minor microbial population, namely Lactobacillus curieae, Enterococcus faecium,
      Fructobacillus pseudoficulneus, Lactobacillus casei, Weissella paramesenteroides
      and Weissella cibaria. However, in each region, the LAB microbial population was
      composed of a restricted number of species (maximum 5 species), which varied
      between the different regions. LAB implication in the breakdown of citric acid
      was investigated as a fundamental property for a successful cocoa fermentation
      process. High citrate lyase producer strains were characterized by rapid citric
      acid consumption, as revealed by a 4-fold decrease in citric acid concentration
      in the growth medium within 12h, concomitant with an increase in acetic acid and
      lactic acid concentration. The production of citrate lyase was strongly dependent
      on environmental conditions, with optimum production at acidic pH (pH<5), and
      moderate temperature (30-40 degrees C), which corresponds to conditions
      prevailing in the early stage of natural cocoa fermentation. This study reveals
      that one of the major roles of LAB in the cocoa fermentation process involves the
      breakdown of citric acid during the early stage of cocoa fermentation through the
      activity of citrate lyase.

PMID- 28578268
TI  - Carbon emission allowance allocation with a mixed mechanism in air passenger
      transport.
AB  - Air passenger transport carbon emissions have become a great challenge for both
      governments and airlines because of rapid developments in the aviation industry
      in recent decades. In this paper, a mixed mechanism composed of a cap-and-trade
      mechanism and a carbon tax mechanism is developed to assist governments in
      allocating carbon emission allowances to airlines operating on the routes.
      Combined this mixed mechanism with an equilibrium strategy, a bi-level multi
      objective model is proposed for an air passenger transport carbon emission
      allowance allocation problem, in which a government is considered as a leader and
      the airlines as the followers. An interactive solution approach integrating a
      genetic algorithm and an interactive evolutionary mechanism is designed to search
      for satisfactory solutions of the proposed model. A case study is then presented
      to show its practicality and efficiency in mitigating carbon emissions.
      Sensitivity analyses under different tradable and taxable levels are also
      conducted, which can give the government insights as to the tradeoffs between
      lowering carbon intensity and improving airlines' operations. The computational
      results demonstrate that the mixed mechanism can assist greatly in carbon
      emission mitigation for air passenger transport and therefore, it should be
      established as part of air passenger transport carbon emission policies.

PMID- 28578269
TI  - Preparation of chitosan/tripolyphosphate nanoparticles with highly tunable size
      and low polydispersity.
AB  - Nanoparticles prepared through the ionotropic gelation of chitosan with
      tripolyphosphate (TPP) have been extensively studied as vehicles for drug and
      gene delivery. Though a number of these works have focused on preparing particles
      with narrow size distributions, the monodisperse particles produced by these
      methods have been limited to narrow size ranges (where the average particle size
      was not varied by more than twofold). Here we show how, by tuning the NaCl
      concentration in the parent chitosan and TPP solutions, low-polydispersity
      particles with z-average diameters ranging between roughly 100 and 900nm can be
      prepared. Further, we explore how the size of these particles depends on the
      method by which the TPP is mixed into the chitosan solution, specifically
      comparing: (1) single-shot mixing; (2) dropwise addition; and (3) a dilution
      technique, where chitosan and TPP are codissolved at a high (gelation-inhibiting)
      ionic strength and then diluted to lower ionic strengths to trigger gelation.
      Though the particle size increases sigmoidally with the NaCl concentration for
      all three mixing methods, the dilution method delivers the most uniform/gradual
      size increase - i.e., it provides the most precise control. Also investigated are
      the effects of mixture composition and mixing procedure on the particle yield.
      These reveal the particle yield to increase with the chitosan/TPP concentration,
      decrease with the NaCl concentration, and vary only weakly with the mixing
      protocol; thus, at elevated NaCl concentrations, it may be beneficial to increase
      chitosan and TPP concentrations to ensure high particle yields. Finally, possible
      pitfalls of the salt-assisted size control strategy (and their solutions) are
      discussed. Taken together, these findings provide a simple and reliable method
      for extensively tuning chitosan/TPP particle size while maintaining narrow size
      distributions.

PMID- 28578270
TI  - Magnetic nanoparticle incorporated oleogel as iontophoretic drug delivery system.
AB  - In this article, we validated the use of electric current as an external stimulus
      to induce an enhancement of drug release from magnetic nanoparticle (MNP)
      incorporated organogels (magnetogel) under iontophoretic conditions. For this
      purpose, we adopted a simple, two-step synthesis route to incorporate magnetic
      (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (MNP) and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride within the network of
      a soybean oil-based oleogel using stearic acid as gelator. We fabricated a series
      of MNP incorporated oleogels by varying the wt% of MNPs while keeping a constant
      weight ratio of soybean oil:stearic acid. The microstructures of the magnetogels
      were analyzed in MNP concentration-dependent manner by optical microscopy, powder
      X-ray diffraction, FTIR, mechanical, and electrical studies. Detailed analysis of
      the electrical properties revealed that the gel sample with a maximum proportion
      of MNP (S4) allowed the maximum passage of current through it among all the
      compositions. Under the iontophoretic environment of the active condition, we
      observed nearly 2.5 fold increase in cumulative drug release in case of sample S4
      compared to the corresponding passive condition. These observations suggested
      that in future, our magnetogel formulation can be further developed as AC field
      induced 'remote controlled' agent for therapeutic application.

PMID- 28578271
TI  - A gold nanoparticle coated porcine cholecyst-derived bioscaffold for cardiac
      tissue engineering.
AB  - Extracellular matrices of xenogeneic origin have been extensively used for
      biomedical applications, despite the possibility of heterogeneity in structure.
      Surface modification of biologically derived biomaterials using nanoparticles is
      an emerging strategy for improving topographical homogeneity when employing these
      scaffolds for sophisticated tissue engineering applications. Recently, as a
      tissue engineering scaffold, cholecyst derived extracellular matrix (C-ECM) has
      been shown to have several advantages over extracellular matrices derived from
      other organs such as jejunum and urinary bladder. This study explored the
      possibility of adding gold nanoparticles, which have a large surface area to
      volume ratio on C-ECM for achieving homogeneity in surface architecture, a
      requirement for cardiac tissue engineering. In the current study, gold
      nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized and functionalised for conjugating with a
      porcine cholecystic extracellular matrix scaffold. The conjugation of
      nanoparticles to C-ECM was achieved by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)
      carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide chemistry and further characterized by Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy,
      energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The physical
      properties of the modified scaffold were similar to the original C-ECM.
      Biological properties were evaluated by using H9c2 cells, a cardiomyoblast cell
      line commonly used for cellular and molecular studies of cardiac cells. The
      modified scaffold was found to be a suitable substrate for the growth and
      proliferation of the cardiomyoblasts. Further, the non-cytotoxic nature of the
      modified scaffold was established by direct contact cytotoxicity testing and
      live/dead staining. Thus, the modified C-ECM appears to be a potential
      biomaterial for cardiac tissue engineering.

PMID- 28578272
TI  - Biomolecules at the amorphous silica/water interface: Binding and fluorescence
      anisotropy of peptides.
AB  - We investigate binding of the tripeptides Lys-Trp-Lys (KWK) and Glu-Trp-Glu (EWE)
      to the amorphous silica surface using atomistic simulations. These peptides were
      chosen because they were previously utilized in experiments measuring binding
      affinity and steady-state fluorescence anisotropy from the indole chromophore of
      the tryptophan residue. Our simulations were performed using silica with surface
      change density of -0.8 elementary charges per square nanometer, which is expected
      at neutral pH. Even though positive charged KWK binds more strongly to the
      negatively charged silica surface, EWE also forms bound complexes with the
      surface that are stable for at least 15ns of simulation, in agreement with the
      experiments which revealed evidence for binding of both KWK and EWE to silica.
      Binding mechanisms include a wide variety of electrostatic interactions, as well
      as hydrophobic interactions between the indole group and hydrophobic areas of the
      heterogeneous silica surface. The long-time limit of the fluorescence anisotropy
      of tryptophan is calculated from the simulations in order to help interpret the
      recent experiments. We identify several factors which control the magnitude of
      the fluorescence anisotropy for each binding configuration.

PMID- 28578273
TI  - Biomimetic mineralized hierarchical hybrid scaffolds based on in situ synthesis
      of nano-hydroxyapatite/chitosan/chondroitin sulfate/hyaluronic acid for bone
      tissue engineering.
AB  - Biomimetic mineralized hybrid scaffolds are widely used as natural bone
      substitute materials in tissue engineering by mimicking vital characters of
      extracellular matrix (ECM). However, the fabrication of hybrid scaffolds with
      suitable mechanical properties and good biocompatibility remains a challenge. To
      solve the problems mentioned above, biomimetic calcium phosphate mineralized
      organic-inorganic hybrid scaffold composed of nano hydroxyapatite (nHAP),
      Chitosan (CS), Chondroitin sulfate (CSA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) with
      hierarchical micro/nano structures was successfully developed. In this process,
      an efficient and easy-to-accomplish method combining in situ biomimetic synthesis
      with freeze-drying technology was applied. The chemical structure of the
      scaffolds was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X
      ray diffraction (XRD). Surface morphology of scaffolds was characterized by
      Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nHAP/CS/CSA/HA hybrid scaffolds with a
      well-distributed pore size showed suitable mechanical strength which is not only
      due to the addition of the nHAP but also the interaction between the positively
      charged CS and the negatively charged CSA and HA. Simultaneously, the
      biocompatibility was evaluated by the MTT cytotoxicity assay, alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) activity, Hoechst 33258 fluorescence staining. All those
      results proved that the scaffolds possess good biocompatibility and the
      components added have enhanced the proliferation and differentiation of
      osteoblast. Thus, it can be anticipated that the in situ biomimetic mineralized
      nHAP/CS/CAS/HA hybrid scaffolds will be promising candidates for bone tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28578274
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of a novel organic nitrate NDHP: Role of xanthine
      oxidoreductase-mediated nitric oxide formation.
AB  - In this report, we describe the synthesis and characterization of 1,3
      bis(hexyloxy)propan-2-yl nitrate (NDHP), a novel organic mono nitrate. Using
      purified xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR), chemiluminescence and electron
      paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, we found that XOR catalyzes nitric
      oxide (NO) generation from NDHP under anaerobic conditions, and that thiols are
      not involved or required in this process. Further mechanistic studies revealed
      that NDHP could be reduced to NO at both the FAD and the molybdenum sites of XOR,
      but that the FAD site required an unoccupied molybdenum site. Conversely, the
      molybdenum site was able to reduce NDHP independently of an active FAD site.
      Moreover, using isolated vessels in a myograph, we demonstrate that NDHP dilates
      pre-constricted mesenteric arteries from rats and mice. These effects were
      diminished when XOR was blocked using the selective inhibitor febuxostat.
      Finally, we demonstrate that NDHP, in contrast to glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), is
      not subject to development of tolerance in isolated mesenteric arteries.

PMID- 28578277
TI  - Synergistic enzymatic saccharification and fermentation of agar for biohydrogen
      production.
AB  - Nowadays, marine biomass is gradually considered as another utilizable material
      for the sustainable bioenergy development. In the present study, galactose, the
      main component of agar polysaccharide, was utilized for the biohydrogen
      production by Enterobacter sp. CN1. The highest hydrogen yield of 303.2mL/g was
      obtained in the cultivation media containing 5.87g/L of galactose, together with
      initial pH of 7.3 and incubation temperature of 36 degrees C, after the response
      surface methodology (RSM) analysis. After the saccharification process by the
      agarase (AgaXa) and neoagarobiose hydrolase (NH852), the agar hydrolysate
      obtained was further applied to generate biohydrogen by strain CN1. Under the
      synergistic enzymatic saccharification and fermentation process, the production
      of biohydrogen was obtained to be 5047+/-228mL/L from 50g/L of agar, resulting in
      3.86-fold higher than the control without enzymatic pretreatment.

PMID- 28578279
TI  - Microbial stratification structure within cathodic biofilm of the microbial fuel
      cell using the freezing microtome method.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial stratification structure
      within cathodic biofilm of the microbial fuel cell (MFC) using the freezing
      microtome method. Experiments were conducted in a single-chamber air-cathode MFC
      with 0.8g/L maltodextrin as substrate for ~30d operation. The maximum power
      density was 945+/-10mW/m2 in the MFC. Maltodextrin resulted in the relative
      abundance of Candidatus Saccharibacteria of 37.0% in the anodic biofilm.
      Different bacterial communities were identified in different layers within the
      cathodic biofilm. The relative abundance of Enterococcus was 3.7%, 10.5%, and
      1.6% in the top (100-150MUm), middle (50-100MUm), and bottom (0-50MUm) layers,
      respectively. Higher bacterial viability was observed within the top and bottom
      layers of the cathodic biofilm. Understanding the stratification of bacterial
      community in cathodic biofilm should be important to control the cathodic biofilm
      in the MFC.

PMID- 28578278
TI  - Fungal community and cellulose-degrading genes in the composting process of
      Chinese medicinal herbal residues.
AB  - The fungal community and the population of 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA and cellulose
      degrading genes during the 30-day composting process of Chinese medicinal herbal
      residues were investigated using Illumina MiSeq and quantitative real-time PCR.
      An obvious succession of fungal communities occurred during the composting
      process. Unidentified fungi predominated in the raw materials. As composting
      progressed, Ascomycota became the most dominant phylum, with Aspergillus being
      the most dominant genus, and Aspergillus fumigatus making up 99.65% of that
      genus. Because of the inoculation of cellulolytic fungi in the mature stage, the
      cellulose degradation rate in inoculation groups was faster and the relative
      abundances of Aspergillus and the glycoside hydrolase family 7 genes were
      significantly higher than those in the control groups. These indicated that the
      fungal inoculants facilitated the degradation of cellulose, increased
      cellulolytic fungi and optimized the community structure.

PMID- 28578276
TI  - Decoding NADPH oxidase 4 expression in human tumors.
AB  - NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) is a redox active, membrane-associated protein that
      contributes to genomic instability, redox signaling, and radiation sensitivity in
      human cancers based on its capacity to generate H2O2 constitutively. Most studies
      of NOX4 in malignancy have focused on the evaluation of a small number of tumor
      cell lines and not on human tumor specimens themselves; furthermore, these
      studies have often employed immunological tools that have not been well
      characterized. To determine the prevalence of NOX4 expression across a broad
      range of solid tumors, we developed a novel monoclonal antibody that recognizes a
      specific extracellular region of the human NOX4 protein, and that does not cross
      react with any of the other six members of the NOX gene family. Evaluation of 20
      sets of epithelial tumors revealed, for the first time, high levels of NOX4
      expression in carcinomas of the head and neck (15/19 patients), esophagus (12/18
      patients), bladder (10/19 patients), ovary (6/17 patients), and prostate (7/19
      patients), as well as malignant melanoma (7/15 patients) when these tumors were
      compared to histologically-uninvolved specimens from the same organs. Detection
      of NOX4 protein upregulation by low levels of TGF-beta1 demonstrated the
      sensitivity of this new probe; and immunofluorescence experiments found that high
      levels of endogenous NOX4 expression in ovarian cancer cells were only
      demonstrable associated with perinuclear membranes. These studies suggest that
      NOX4 expression is upregulated, compared to normal tissues, in a well-defined,
      and specific group of human carcinomas, and that its expression is localized on
      intracellular membranes in a fashion that could modulate oxidative DNA damage.

PMID- 28578280
TI  - A facile approach to fabricate an immobilized-phosphate zirconium-based metal
      organic framework composite (UiO-66-P) and its activity in the adsorption and
      separation of organic dyes.
AB  - A novel immobilized-phosphate zirconium-based metal-organic framework composite,
      denoted as UiO-66-P, was synthesized by a solvothermal method using UiO-66
      nanoparticles and Na3PO4 ligands. The products were characterized by powder X-ray
      diffraction, energy dispersive spectrometry, field emission scanning electron
      microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy, zeta potential
      analysis, and gas adsorption measurements. The UiO-66-P nanocrystals, which
      comprised negatively charged frameworks, exhibited high stability, excellent
      porosity, and efficient charge-selective capture and separation of the cationic
      dye Methylene Blue (MB). An uptake capacity of 91.1mgg-1 was achieved at room
      temperature over 24h when 5mg of UiO-66-P was immersed in 40mL of a 500mgL-1MB
      solution. This capacity is much higher than that of UiO-66 (24.5mgg-1). The
      adsorption capability of UiO-66-P for MB was improved by 272% compared to that of
      pristine UiO-66. The effects of variables such as initial pH, MB concentration,
      and contact time were investigated. In addition, the as-obtained UiO-66
      nanocrystals exhibited excellent adsorption capability for the anionic dyes Congo
      Red, Acid Chrome Blue K, and Methyl Orange.

PMID- 28578281
TI  - In situ one-step synthesis of Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe) core-shells for adsorption of
      methylene blue from water.
AB  - A new route for Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe) core-shells is proposed via in situ one-step
      hydrothermal strategy, in which Fe3O4 microspheres not only serve as magnetic
      cores but also provide Fe(III) for MIL-100(Fe) synthesis. The MIL-100(Fe) is
      uniformly grown as a shell on the surface of Fe3O4, and the shell thickness can
      be fine-tuned from 73.5 to 148nm by simply controlling the reaction time.
      Compared with Fe3O4, the surface area and pore volume of the Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe)
      are significantly increased while the magnetism is barely affected. The
      application of Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe) in adsorption was tested using several dyes as
      model analytes, and showed high adsorption capacity (221mgg-1) towards methylene
      blue (MB), which is based on electrostatic interactions and size filter effect.
      The MB adsorption isotherm follows Langmuir model and pseudo second-order kinetic
      model. Intra-particle diffusion model reveals that both film and pore diffusions
      are involved in the rate limiting steps. The adsorption is controlled by enthalpy
      change rather than entropy effect. DeltaH, DeltaS and DeltaG values indicated
      that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Simple synthesis
      procedure, immense magnetism, high adsorption capacity and excellent reusability
      of Fe3O4@MIL-100(Fe) make it an attractive candidate for application of MB
      removal from polluted environmental samples.

PMID- 28578282
TI  - Transition from double to single diffusive behavior with increase in polymer
      concentration for oppositely charged guest - host systems of green fluorescent
      protein diffusing inside poly-l-lysine solutions.
AB  - The effect of crowding, background and probe charges and chain flexibility on
      probe dynamics of Green Fluorescent Protein in polyelectrolyte solutions of poly
      l-lysine was investigated using Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching
      (FRAP). An interesting double diffusive behavior in FRAP recovery curve was
      observed at low polymer concentration resulting in two relaxation modes, which
      disappears with rise in polymer concentration. The fast relaxation mode
      attributes to diffusion of free protein molecules alone, where as slow mode is
      credited to polymer adsorbed protein molecules. Absence of double diffusive
      behavior at higher polymer concentration is argued in terms of varying host chain
      conformation and the only relaxation mode present is due to movement of free
      probes alone rather than that of adsorbed proteins. We noticed only a marginal
      decrease in diffusion coefficient with rise in salt concentration and the trend
      is reversed when variation in sample viscosity with salt is taken into account.
      In addition a small but systematic decrease in diffusion coefficient is seen with
      increase in magnitude of probe charge. Comparison of results with ideal Stoke -
      Einstein relation brings out the importance of polyelectrolyte effect and
      indicates ~200 - fold positive deviations from predicted value for both variation
      in ionic strength and solution pH.

PMID- 28578275
TI  - Mitochondria-meditated pathways of organ failure upon inflammation.
AB  - Liver failure induced by systemic inflammatory response (SIRS) is often
      associated with mitochondrial dysfunction but the mechanism linking SIRS and
      mitochondria-mediated liver failure is still a matter of discussion. Current
      hypotheses suggest that causative events could be a drop in ATP synthesis,
      opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore, specific changes in
      mitochondrial morphology, impaired Ca2+ uptake, generation of mitochondrial
      reactive oxygen species (mtROS), turnover of mitochondria and imbalance in
      electron supply to the respiratory chain. The aim of this review is to critically
      analyze existing hypotheses, in order to highlight the most promising research
      lines helping to prevent liver failure induced by SIRS. Evaluation of the
      literature shows that there is no consistent support that impaired Ca++
      metabolism, electron transport chain function and ultrastructure of mitochondria
      substantially contribute to liver failure. Moreover, our analysis suggests that
      the drop in ATP levels has protective rather than a deleterious character. Recent
      data suggest that the most critical mitochondrial event occurring upon SIRS is
      the release of mtROS in cytoplasm, which can activate two specific intracellular
      signaling cascades. The first is the mtROS-mediated activation of NADPH-oxidase
      in liver macrophages and endothelial cells; the second is the acceleration of the
      expression of inflammatory genes in hepatocytes. The signaling action of mtROS is
      strictly controlled in mitochondria at three points, (i) at the site of ROS
      generation at complex I, (ii) the site of mtROS release in cytoplasm via
      permeability transition pore, and (iii) interaction with specific kinases in
      cytoplasm. The systems controlling mtROS-signaling include pro- and anti
      inflammatory mediators, nitric oxide, Ca2+ and NADPH-oxidase. Analysis of the
      literature suggests that further research should be focused on the impact of
      mtROS on organ failure induced by inflammation and simultaneously providing a new
      theoretical basis for a targeted therapy of overwhelmed inflammatory response.

PMID- 28578283
TI  - In-situ growth of ZIF-8 on layered double hydroxide: Effect of Zn/Al molar ratios
      on their structural, morphological and adsorption properties.
AB  - In-situ growth of Zeolite imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) on layered double
      hydroxides (LDHs) to form porous composites is a promising and challenging
      strategy to develop materials for separation application. Herein, the Zn-Al LDH
      with different Zn/Al molar ratios was prepared and used as matrix for the growth
      of ZIF-8 on its surface. The resulting composites were characterized by X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N2 physisorption,
      thermogravimetric (TG), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and elemental analysis
      followed by testing for AsV removal from aqueous solution. Results showed that
      ZIF-8 could form on the surface of LDH with different Zn/Al molar ratios. At low
      Zn/Al molar ratios, the morphology and surface area of the ZIF/LDH composites and
      the content of ZIF-8 in the composites were little affected by the Zn/Al molar
      ratio. With increasing Zn/Al molar ratio, ZIF-8/LDH exhibited a lower surface
      area, which resulted from reduced content of ZIF-8 caused by impurities generated
      in the LDH matrix. All ZIF-8/LDH samples showed high AsV adsorption capacity,
      which was significantly higher than that of pure LDH or ZIF-8.

PMID- 28578284
TI  - Enhancement of corrosion resistance of polypyrrole using metal oxide
      nanoparticles: Potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study.
AB  - We introduce a simple and facile strategy for dispersing of nanoparticles within
      a p-type conducting polymer matrix by in situ electropolymerization using oxalic
      acid as the supporting electrolyte. Coatings prepared from polypyrrole-nano-metal
      oxide particles synthesized by in situ polymerization were found to exhibit
      excellent corrosion resistance much superior to polypyrrole (Ppy) in aggressive
      environments. The anti-corrosion behavior of polypyrrole films in different
      states and the presence of TiO2, Mn2O3 and ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by
      electropolymerization on Al electrodes have been investigated in corrosive
      solutions using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance
      spectroscopy. The electrochemical response of the coated electrodes in polymer
      and nanocomposite state was compared with bare electrodes. The use of TiO2
      nanoparticles has proved to be a great improvement in the performances of
      polypyrrole films for corrosion protection of Al samples. The polypyrrole
      synthesized in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles coated electrodes offered a
      noticeable enhancement of protection against corrosion processes. The exceptional
      improvement of performance of these coatings has been associated with the
      increase in barrier to diffusion, prevention of charge transport by the nanosize
      TiO2, redox properties of polypyrrole as well as very large surface area
      available for the liberation of dopant due to nano-size additive.

PMID- 28578286
TI  - Enhanced ethanol electro-oxidation reaction on carbon supported Pd-metal oxide
      electrocatalysts.
AB  - Various Pd-metal oxide/C electrocatalysts were fabricated using ethylene glycol
      as a reducing agent in modified microwave-assisted polyol process. The crystal
      structure and surface morphology were studied using X-ray diffraction and
      transmission electron microscopy. All prepared Pd-metal oxide/C electrocatalysts
      exhibited a shift of Pd diffraction planes in the positive direction in relation
      to that of Pd/C. Highly dispersed palladium nanoparticles were formed on
      different metal oxide/C supports. The electrocatalytic performance of these
      electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation was examined in NaOH solution using cyclic
      voltammetry, chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. An
      improvement in electrochemical parameters including onset potential, oxidation
      current density and If/Ib values was recorded at different Pd-metal oxide/C
      electrocatalysts, especially Pd-NiO/C. Three folds increment in steady state
      oxidation current density value was also displayed by investigated Pd-metal
      oxide/C electrocatalysts when contrasted to that of Pd/C to reflect their
      enhanced stability behavior.

PMID- 28578285
TI  - Bioinspired catecholic activation of marine chitin for immobilization of Ag
      nanoparticles as recyclable pollutant nanocatalysts.
AB  - Being one type of the most abundant marine polysaccharides in nature, chitin has
      inert chemical properties and thus prolonged been hindered for high-value
      utilization. A mussel-inspired catecholic chemistry was found to be able to
      confer nature-derived mesoporous chitin aerogels with high and tunable surface
      activities. When further combining with their high porosity, high specific
      surface area, mechanical toughness and unique nanofibrous architecture, these
      catechol-activated chitin aerogels could be used as a unique supporting matrix to
      immobilize Ag nanoparticles. Besides the mild synthesis conditions and the merits
      inherited from pristine chitin, the resultant chitin-Ag hybrid aerogels further
      exhibited high catalytic activity, excellent recyclability, super solvent
      endurance and fast regeneration ability. Their high mechanic properties and
      porous structures also enabled a convenient membrane process to remove organic
      dyes from water.

PMID- 28578287
TI  - Sulfur doped-copper oxide nanoclusters synthesized through a facile
      electroplating process assisted by thiourea for selective photoelectrocatalytic
      reduction of CO2.
AB  - Development of effective methods for conversion of CO2 to useful chemicals is
      considered to be a prospective way in terms of energy economy and chemical
      industry. Due to the thermodynamic stability of CO2, the application of the low
      cost eco-friendly catalyst or photocatalyts for CO2 reduction with high
      efficiency is a challenge. Herein, we report a simple template-free
      electrochemical approach for the preparation of sulfur doped copper oxide
      nanoclusters directly on the copper disc electrode using thiourea (TU) as sulfur
      precursor. The prepared Cu2O/CuO hybrid structures without TU exhibits
      photoelectrocatalytic fitness for CO2 reduction, while the catalytic activity and
      stability are significantly improved after sulfur substitution. Surface study by
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals an
      improved surface roughness alongside the formation and distribution of uniform
      nanoclusters of sulfur-substituted copper oxide. Also, optical analyses show a
      little increasing of band gap from 1.95eV to 2.05eV after sulfur substitution.
      Based on the experimental results, methanol and acetone are the main CO2
      reduction products where, the overpotential of methanol and acetone evolution is
      in good agreement with the conduction band position of prepared nanoclusters.
      This work has a high competitive advantage of new sight to develop the novel
      doped materials via a simple way for high-performance photoelectrocatalysts for
      energy conversion.

PMID- 28578288
TI  - Nonlinear thermal radiation and cubic autocatalysis chemical reaction effects on
      the flow of stretched nanofluid under rotational oscillations.
AB  - Combined effects of nonlinear thermal radiation and cubic autocatalysis chemical
      reaction on the three dimensional flow of stretched nanofluid along a rotating
      sheet have been investigated in this paper. The flow field is assumed to be
      suspended with magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). Hamilton-Crosser model
      is applied to measure effective thermal conductivity of nanofluid. Rosseland
      approximation is employed to obtain the nonlinear radiative heat flux. For
      novelty and practical point of view, influence of fluctuating surface velocity
      and periodic surface temperature constraints are incorporated into the governing
      equations which in turn are made dimension free by employing suitable
      transformations. For numerical solutions, an explicit finite difference scheme
      has been proposed under the restrictions of derived stability conditions.

PMID- 28578289
TI  - Differential interaction behaviors of an alkaloid drug berberine with various
      bile salts.
AB  - The present study reports a meticulous characterization of the interaction of a
      potent anti-cancer drug, berberine chloride (BR) with a series of bile salt
      aggregates having varying hydrophobicity (sodium deoxycholate (NaDC), sodium
      cholate (NaC), and sodium taurocholate (NaTC)). The absorption spectrum of BR
      reveals a complex profile comprised of four distinct peaks. Analysis of the
      modulations of the absorption spectral properties of BR following interaction
      with the bile salts raising deeper questions unveils a critical insight into the
      mode of interaction of the cationic drug (BR) with the bile salts; a greater
      degree of perturbation of the microenvironment of the isoquinolinic part of BR
      compared to the benzenoid part. The remarkable modulation of the fluorescence
      profile of BR with added bile salts provides a sensitive indicator for monitoring
      the interaction scenario. However, an intriguing observation in this context
      reveals differential fluorescence behavior of BR in various bile salt aggregates,
      that is, similar observations in NaDC and NaC (which are legitimately interpreted
      according to the 'two-step association model') in comparison to NaTC. Such
      contrasting behavior of BR in NaTC aggregates has been rationalized on the basis
      of the possibility of formation of dye aggregate facilitated because of the
      proximity of the cationic drug molecules to the anionic headgroup of NaTC bile
      salt. Surprisingly, our spectroscopic results evidence for binding location of
      the drug at the interfacial region in all the bile salt aggregates. To this end,
      the time-resolved fluorescence decay behavior of the drug within various bile
      salt aggregates has been meticulously studied. The fluorescence decay results are
      found to be highly sensitive to the structure and size of the bile salt
      aggregates eventually leading to characterization of the interaction of the drug
      with the bile salts in excellent corroboration with the steady-state data.
      Furthermore, the time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy decay measurements yielded
      insight into the modulation of rotational dynamical behavior of the drug within
      the bile salt aggregates.

PMID- 28578290
TI  - 131I-labeled chitosan hydrogels for radioembolization: A preclinical study in
      small animals.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the study was to examine potential of 131I-labeled
      chitosan hydrogels (Chi) for treatment of liver cancer. METHODS: Orthotopic
      hepatoma was induced by McA-RH7777-fLuc cells (1*107) that were injected into the
      left hepatic lobe of rats. Ten days later, tumor-bearing rats evidenced by
      bioluminescence received 125I-labeled Chi with left hepatic artery access.
      Pharmacokinetics and excretion (n=8) and biodistribution (n=6/time point) were
      studied after injection. To examine therapeutic potential, animals (n=8/group)
      were also treated with Chi labeled with or without 131I. Changes in tumor volume
      by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging were studied. RESULTS: The rate of tumor
      induction assessed by bioluminescence imaging was 72% (68/95). Gamma counter and
      scintigraphy imaging analyses showed accumulation of 125I-labeled Chi dominantly
      in the liver. A small fraction of 125I-labeled Chi was detected in the stomach
      (2.02+/-3.07%ID) and muscle (1.37+/-1.48%ID) at 2 d post-treatment. Blood sample
      analysis showed the maximum blood concentration of 0.09+/-0.03%ID/mL, which
      peaked at 0.60+/-0.45 d. Over a 4-week period, 31.22+/-8.16%ID were excreted in
      the urine and 3.5+/-1.3% in the feces. Treatment of Chi (median, 876mm3; IQR,
      496mm3-1413mm3) markedly reduced the extent of tumor growth, compared to controls
      (median, 12,085mm3; IQR, 7786mm3-25,832mm3; P<0.05 vs control). 131I Chi (median,
      80mm3; IQR, 35mm3-172mm3; P<0.05 vs control) induced a greater tumor-suppressing
      effect, compared to Chi alone. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we have characterized
      a new radioembolization device, 131I Chi, in vivo and provided evidence for its
      therapeutic potential. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: Transarterial embolization is a
      conceivable treatment option for patients with inoperable liver cancer to
      mitigate the disease progression. Recently, we have developed chitosan-based
      hydrogel microparticles. In the present study, the hydrogel microparticles were
      radiolabeled with 131I for treatment of liver cancer. Our results demonstrated
      that a hepatic arterial injection of 125I-labeled Chi resulted in substantial
      liver accumulation, which was accompanied by virtually no extrahepatic
      deposition. The results of the present study also showed that administration of
      131I Chi markedly suppressed tumor growth, compared to controls and to animals
      receiving unlabeled Chi. 131I-labeled chitosan hydrogel microparticles represent
      a new therapeutic approach for treatment of liver cancer.

PMID- 28578292
TI  - WITHDRAWN: Fungal diversity is negatively affected by habitat fragmentation: a
      meta-analysis.
AB  - This article that has already been published in <Current Opinion in Microbiology,
      37, June 2017 61-66>, 10.1016/j.mib.2017.03.015 has been withdrawn at the request
      of the editor and publisher. The publisher regrets that an error occurred which
      led to the premature publication of this paper. This error bears no reflection on
      the article or its authors. The publisher apologizes to the authors and the
      readers for this unfortunate error". The full Elsevier Policy on Article
      Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our
      business/policies/article-withdrawal.

PMID- 28578291
TI  - Feasibility of bidirectional text messages in evaluating a text-based nutrition
      education program for low-income parents: Results from the Text2BHealthy program.
AB  - Text messages are increasingly used in the delivery of health education programs.
      One appealing aspect of this approach is the possibility of remotely collecting
      participant data to use in program tailoring or evaluation. The purpose of the
      present study is to test the feasibility of using text messages to collect
      participant data. Using data from 33 texted evaluation questions sent through the
      Text2BHealthy nutrition education program for low-income parents (n=108-1521)
      response rates under different incentive and prompting strategies were examined.
      Response rates are generally low across a pilot year and three program years,
      ranging from 10-55%. While incentives seemed to be ineffective at improving
      response rates, results indicate that prompting participants to respond may
      increase response rates. Individuals who respond to an initial question are
      highly likely to respond to a follow-up question (88-99%) and to report positive
      behaviors (68-100%). Responses received through text may be unrepresentative and
      positively biased. Text messages may be a supplemental data collection strategy
      in nutrition education programs, but low response rates and response bias
      undermine data quality.

PMID- 28578294
TI  - Suppressing mosaicism by Au nanowire injector-driven direct delivery of plasmids
      into mouse embryos.
AB  - Transgenic animals have become key tools in a variety of biomedical research
      areas. However, microinjection commonly used for producing transgenic animals has
      several challenges such as physical and chemical damage to the embryos due to
      microinjector with buffer, and low transgene integration rates with frequent
      mosaicism. Here, we report direct delivery of plasmids into mouse embryos using a
      Au nanowire injector (NWI) that significantly improved transgene integration
      efficiency and suppressed mosaicism. The Au NWI could deliver plasmid into the
      pronucleus (PN) of a mouse zygote without buffer and rapidly release it with
      electric pulse. Because zygote, which is a fertilized 1-cell stage embryo, has
      two physical barriers (cytoplasmic membrane and zona pellucida), direct delivery
      of plasmids into PN of zygote is more difficult than into a normal cell type. To
      penetrate the two physical barriers with minimal disruption of the embryo, we
      optimized the diameter and length of Au NWI. The mosaicism is more reduced in the
      Au NWI injected embryos than in micropipette injected embryos, which was
      determined by the expression of transgene in a blastocyst stage. We suggest that
      Au NWI can increase the efficiency of gene delivery into zygote with suppressed
      mosaicism and become a useful alternative.

PMID- 28578293
TI  - Bio-inspired crosslinking and matrix-drug interactions for advanced wound
      dressings with long-term antimicrobial activity.
AB  - There is a growing demand for durable advanced wound dressings for the management
      of persistent infections after deep burn injuries. Herein, we demonstrated the
      preparation of durable antimicrobial nanofiber mats, by taking advantage of
      strong interfacial interactions between polyhydroxy antibiotics (with varying
      number of OH groups) and gelatin and their in-situ crosslinking with polydopamine
      (pDA) using ammonium carbonate diffusion method. Polydopamine crosslinking did
      not interfere with the antimicrobial efficacy of the loaded antibiotics.
      Interestingly, incorporation of antibiotics containing more number of alcoholic
      OH groups (NOH >= 5) delayed the release kinetics with complete retention of
      antimicrobial activity for an extended period of time (20 days). The
      antimicrobials-loaded mats displayed superior mechanical and thermal properties
      than gelatin or pDA-crosslinked gelatin mats. Mats containing polyhydroxy
      antifungals showed enhanced aqueous stability and retained nanofibrous morphology
      under aqueous environment for more than 4 weeks. This approach can be expanded to
      produce mats with broad spectrum antimicrobial properties by incorporating the
      combination of antibacterial and antifungal drugs. Direct electrospinning of
      vancomycin-loaded electrospun nanofibers onto a bandage gauze and subsequent
      crosslinking produced non-adherent durable advanced wound dressings that could be
      easily applied to the injured sites and readily detached after treatment. In a
      partial thickness burn injury model in piglets, the drug-loaded mats displayed
      comparable wound closure to commercially available silver-based dressings. This
      prototype wound dressing designed for easy handling and with long-lasting
      antimicrobial properties represents an effective option for treating life
      threatening microbial infections due to thermal injuries.

PMID- 28578295
TI  - Assessment of neutralizing interleukin-4 effect on CD133 gene expression in colon
      cancer cell line.
AB  - Colorectal cancer may be maintained by cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) that express
      the cell surface marker CD133. CSCs (CD133+cells) exhibits greater resistance to
      the chemotherapy and this resistance may be mediated in part by an autocrine
      response to IL4. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of anti-IL4
      antibody alone or in combination with chemotherapy on the CD133 expression andthe
      tumor growth. We used Caco cell line in our experiments and the samples were as
      the following; untreated colorectal cell line, cells treated by chemotherapy,
      cells treated by anti-IL4 antibody in 3doses (2.5, 5, 10MUg/ml), cells treatedby
      combination of chemotherapy and anti-IL4 antibody in 3 doses. Results of our in
      vitro studies demonstrated that anti-IL4 inhibited growth of Caco cell line in a
      dose-dependent manner revealing a 32.11% inhibition at the highest concentration
      (10ug/ml). There was further significant inhibition by combination of anti IL4
      and chemotherapy in a dose response manner when compared to group treated by
      chemotherapy only. These effects were associated with decreased expression of
      CD133 in tumor cells also. Lastly, anti-IL4 antibody stimulated apoptosis. Our
      study suggested that neutralizing of IL4 by anti IL4 antibody affect the CD133+
      cells may be by increasing their apoptosis. The effects of anti IL4 antibody
      either, alone or in combination with chemotherapy, inhibited the tumor growth and
      decreased the viable tumor cells. Furthermore, neutralizing of IL4 increased the
      efficacy of chemotherapy treatment.

PMID- 28578296
TI  - Attentional interference is modulated by salience not sentience.
AB  - Spatial cueing of attention occurs when attention is oriented by the onset of a
      stimulus or by other information that creates a bias towards a particular
      location. The presence of a cue that orients attention can also interfere with
      participants' reporting of what they see. It has been suggested that this type of
      interference is stronger in the presence of socially-relevant cues, such as human
      faces or avatars, and is therefore indicative of a specialised role for
      perspective calculation within the social domain. However, there is also evidence
      that the effect is a domain-general form of processing that is elicited equally
      with non-social directional cues. The current paper comprises four experiments
      that systematically manipulated the social factors believed necessary to elicit
      the effect. The results show that interference persists when all social
      components are removed, and that visual processes are sufficient to explain this
      type of interference, thus supporting a domain-general perceptual interpretation
      of interference.

PMID- 28578299
TI  - Preferred diffusion paths for copper electromigration by in situ transmission
      electron microscopy.
AB  - Ionic transport in the reverse direction of an electric field is caused by
      momentum transfer from free electrons to metal ions, i.e., electromigration (EM),
      which is a critical factor leading to copper (Cu) interconnect failure in
      integrated circuits under extreme operating conditions. We investigated Cu self
      diffusion paths under electrical bias using in situ transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM). An electric current was applied to multigrain Cu lines in the
      TEM instrument for durations of up to the order of 104s to trace EM-induced Cu
      movement around voids and hillocks. Combining this approach with scanning
      nanobeam diffraction, we observed that high-angle grain boundaries exposed to the
      free surface are the most favored paths for Cu EM, rather than a specific
      orientation within the grain. On hillocks of accumulated Cu atoms, we directly
      observed grain growth, accompanied by the formation of Sigma7 high-mobile and
      Sigma3 twin coincidence site lattice boundaries for effective growth. This study
      provides insight into the EM mechanism to improve the reliability of metal
      interconnect design.

PMID- 28578297
TI  - Targeting and destroying tumor vasculature with a near-infrared laser-activated
      "nanobomb" for efficient tumor ablation.
AB  - Attacking the supportive vasculature network of a tumor offers an important new
      avenue for cancer therapy. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) laser-activated
      "nanobomb" was developed as a noninvasive and targeted physical therapeutic
      strategy to effectively disrupt tumor neovasculature in an accurate and
      expeditious manner. This "nanobomb" was rationally fabricated via the
      encapsulation of vinyl azide (VA) into c(RGDfE) peptide-functionalized, hollow
      copper sulfide (HCuS) nanoparticles. The resulting RGD@HCuS(VA) was selectively
      internalized into integrin alphavbeta3-expressing tumor vasculature endothelial
      cells and dramatically increased the photoacoustic signals from the tumor
      neovasculature, achieving a maximum signal-to-noise ratio at 4 h post-injection.
      Upon NIR irradiation, the local temperature increase triggered VA to release N2
      bubbles rapidly. Subsequently, these N2 bubbles could instantly explode to
      destroy the neovasculature and further induce necrosis of the surrounding tumor
      cells. A single-dose injection of RGD@HCuS(VA) led to complete tumor regression
      after laser irradiation, with no tumor regrowth for 30 days. More importantly,
      high-resolution photoacoustic angiography, combined with excellent
      biodegradability, facilitated the precise destruction of tumor neovasculature by
      RGD@HCuS(VA) without damaging normal tissues. These results demonstrate the great
      potential of this "nanobomb" for clinical translation to treat cancer patients
      with NIR laser-accessible orthotopic tumors.

PMID- 28578298
TI  - Traditional folk beliefs on epilepsy in Norway and Sweden.
AB  - In Norway and Sweden, epilepsy has for many centuries been considered a strange
      and mysterious disease. The explanations of its causes have been many and
      imaginative. One being that epilepsy was caused by the hidden people inhabiting
      the woods and the mountains. To avoid the disease, these hidden people should not
      be annoyed. One commonly used treatment principle was to try to place the disease
      back to the ground, or passing the diseased through a hole or an opening in the
      nature. Fresh blood from criminals was also considered to have strong
      antiepileptic properties. In the Scandinavian countries, some of these folk
      beliefs have been very tenacious.

PMID- 28578300
TI  - Optimized pre-thinning procedures of ion-beam thinning for TEM sample preparation
      by magnetorheological polishing.
AB  - Ion-beam-thinning is a well-established sample preparation technique for
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM), but tedious procedures and labor
      consuming pre-thinning could seriously reduce its efficiency. In this work, we
      present a simple pre-thinning technique by using magnetorheological (MR)
      polishing to replace manual lapping and dimpling, and demonstrate the successful
      preparation of electron-transparent single crystal silicon samples after MR
      polishing and single-sided ion milling. Dimples pre-thinned to less than 30
      microns and with little mechanical surface damage were repeatedly produced under
      optimized MR polishing conditions. Samples pre-thinned by both MR polishing and
      traditional technique were ion-beam thinned from the rear side until perforation,
      and then observed by optical microscopy and TEM. The results show that the
      specimen pre-thinned by MR technique was free from dimpling related defects,
      which were still residual in sample pre-thinned by conventional technique. Nice
      high-resolution TEM images could be acquired after MR polishing and one side ion
      thinning. MR polishing promises to be an adaptable and efficient method for pre
      thinning in preparation of TEM specimens, especially for brittle ceramics.

PMID- 28578303
TI  - Mobilising or standing still?A narrative review of Surgical Safety Checklist
      knowledge as developed in 25 highly cited papers from 2009 to 2016.

PMID- 28578304
TI  - Digitalisation of medicines: artefact, architecture and time.

PMID- 28578302
TI  - Fungal dysbiosis in cirrhosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cirrhotics have a high rate of infections, which are increasingly
      fungal or culture-negative in nature. While infected cirrhotics have bacterial
      dysbiosis, the role of fungi is unclear. We aimed to evaluate gut bacterial and
      fungal dysbiosis in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of outpatient and
      inpatient cirrhotics and prediction of hospitalisations. METHODS: Cross
      sectional: Age-matched controls, outpatients (with/without antibiotics) and
      hospitalised uninfected, culture-negative and culture-positive cirrhotics were
      included and followed for 90 days. Longitudinal: Three studies were conducted:
      (1) cirrhotics followed over 6 months, (2) outpatient cirrhotics administered
      antibiotics per standard of care for 5 days and (3) cirrhotics and controls
      administered omeprazole over 14 days. In all studies, stool bacterial/fungal
      profiles were analysed. RESULTS: Cross-sectional: In 143 cirrhotics and 26
      controls, bacterial and fungal diversities were significantly linked. Outpatients
      on antibiotics and patients with culture-positive infections had the lowest
      diversities. Bacterial and fungal correlations were complex in uninfected,
      outpatient and control groups but were markedly skewed in infected patients. 21%
      were admitted on 90-day follow-up. A lower Bacteroidetes/Ascomycota ratio was
      associated with lower hospitalisations. Longitudinal: Fungal and bacterial
      profiles were stable on follow-up (5 days and 6 months). After antibiotics, a
      significantly reduced bacterial and fungal diversity, higher Candida and lower
      autochthonous bacterial relative abundance were seen. After omeprazole, changes
      in bacterial diversity and composition were seen but fungal metrics remained
      stable. CONCLUSION: There is a significant fungal dysbiosis in cirrhosis, which
      changes differentially with antibiotics and proton pump inhibitor use, but is
      otherwise stable over time. A combined bacterial-fungal dysbiosis metric,
      Bacteroidetes/Ascomycota ratio, can independently predict 90-day hospitalisations
      in patients with cirrhosis. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: NCT01458990.

PMID- 28578305
TI  - Multiple supratentorial subependymomas causing obstructive hydrocephalus.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Subependymomas are benign intraventricular tumours that most often
      occur asymptomatically and are found incidentally on autopsy. Symptomatic
      examples requiring surgical intervention are exceedingly rare. CASE PRESENTATION:
      A 55-year-old man with no history of neurological symptoms presented with
      multiple episodes of loss of consciousness and increasing headaches. MRI revealed
      a lobulated intraventricular mass centred at the right Foramen of Monro.
      Obstructive hydrocephalus with localised midline shift and a second lesion were
      noted. Right frontal craniotomy with total removal via transcortical resection
      was performed. DISCUSSION: Symptomatic subependymomas generally present with
      signs of hydrocephalus due to obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid pathways. There
      is only one other reported case of multifocal subependymomas in a symptomatic
      patient. An example of multiple supratentorial subependymomas causing obstructive
      hydrocephalus has not been previously reported. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple
      subependymomas are rare. Judicious surgical management with full excision led to
      symptomatic improvement in our patient.

PMID- 28578301
TI  - Diurnal cortisol slopes and mental and physical health outcomes: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Changes in levels of the stress-sensitive hormone cortisol from morning to
      evening are referred to as diurnal cortisol slopes. Flatter diurnal cortisol
      slopes have been proposed as a mediator between chronic psychosocial stress and
      poor mental and physical health outcomes in past theory and research.
      Surprisingly, neither a systematic nor a meta-analytic review of associations
      between diurnal cortisol slopes and health has been conducted to date, despite
      extensive literature on the topic. The current systematic review and meta
      analysis examined associations between diurnal cortisol slopes and physical and
      mental health outcomes. Analyses were based on 179 associations from 80 studies
      for the time period up to January 31, 2015. Results indicated a significant
      association between flatter diurnal cortisol slopes and poorer health across all
      studies (average effect size, r=0.147). Further, flatter diurnal cortisol slopes
      were associated with poorer health in 10 out of 12 subtypes of emotional and
      physical health outcomes examined. Among these subtypes, the effect size was
      largest for immune/inflammation outcomes (r=0.288). Potential moderators of the
      associations between diurnal cortisol slopes and health outcomes were examined,
      including type of slope measure and study quality indices. The possible roles of
      flatter slopes as either a marker or a mechanism for disease etiology are
      discussed. We argue that flatter diurnal cortisol slopes may both reflect and
      contribute to stress-related dysregulation of central and peripheral circadian
      mechanisms, with corresponding downstream effects on multiple aspects of biology,
      behavior, and health.

PMID- 28578307
TI  - A 15-year-old Nepali boy with metastasised colorectal cancer.
AB  - Nepal suffers from vast inequalities in modern healthcare. The low-income country
      wrestles with far-reaching insufficiencies in minimal preventative medicine,
      health awareness, limited infrastructure and difficult topography-all of which
      contribute to poor access and poor care-seeking behaviour. Our patient came from
      rural Nepal, where primary healthcare outposts are frequently understaffed and
      underequipped. He received supportive treatment in his village from the time
      symptoms presented until he was diagnosed 2 years later, at a tertiary medical
      centre, with colorectal cancer. An examination of the relevant literature
      indicates that younger patients often present in later stages of the disease due
      to initial misdiagnosis or overlooking colorectal cancer as a possibility. Beyond
      the rarity of the patient's condition, the logistical and financial obstacles he
      faced in Nepal, particularly outside of the capital of Kathmandu, deterred his
      access to a higher level of care and delayed his correct diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28578306
TI  - Multiple recurrent ischaemic strokes in a patient with cancer: is there a role
      for the initiation of anticoagulation therapy for secondary stroke prevention?
AB  - A 52-year-old woman with a medical history of cervical and thyroid cancer,
      hypertension, dyslipidaemia, uncontrolled diabetes and heavy smoking was
      diagnosed with a new metastatic cholangiocarcinoma. While undergoing palliative
      chemotherapy, she developed dysarthria and left-sided weakness. Imaging studies
      showed multiple bilateral ischaemic strokes. On hospital days 2 and 5, she
      developed worsening neurological symptoms and imaging studies revealed new areas
      of ischaemia on respective days. Subsequent workup did not revealed a clear
      aetiology for the multiple ischaemic events and hypercoagulability studies were
      only significant for a mildly elevated serum D-dimer level. Although guidelines
      are unclear, full-dose anticoagulation with low molecular weight heparin was
      initiated given her high risk of stroke recurrence. She was discharged to acute
      rehabilitation but, within a month, she experienced complications of her
      malignant disease progression and a new pulmonary thromboembolism. The patient
      died soon after being discharged home with hospice care.

PMID- 28578308
TI  - An unusual position of retromandibular vein: a surgical challenge in parotid
      surgeries.
AB  - A 44-year-old man presented with swelling in the left parotid region. The
      swelling was firm and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology report proved pleomorphic
      adenoma. In the CT scan, the tumour was confined to the superficial lobe of
      parotid. So, left superficial parotidectomy was planned. Modified Wilson Blair's
      incision was used. On course of identifying the facial nerve, a large calibre
      vein was identified running vertically through the parotid substance. Assuming it
      as retromandibular vein, further dissection was carried out more meticulously.
      Marginal mandibularbranch of facial nerve was identified near the angle of
      mandible and retrograde dissection showed the cervicofacial division running
      medial to retromandibular vein with the main facial nerve trunk lying unusually
      medial and posterior to it. Adding to it, the temporofacial division was found
      'forked' between the branches of retromandibular vein. These variations in head
      and neck venous channels are not that rare as we believe. All these variations
      have an embryological basis. Therefore, knowledge and understanding of this
      complex anatomy will help us preventing devastating complications like bleeding
      and facial nerve injury in such cases.

PMID- 28578309
TI  - Two-staged en bloc excision of a retinal haemangioma.
AB  - A 31-year-old man presented to us with diminution of vision in the right eye
      which he noticed since 10 days, with a visual acuity of hand motions only. On
      examination, festooned pupil and a complicated cataract were noted with no view
      of the retina. Ultrasonography of the right eye showed retinal detachment in all
      quadrants with suspected areas of traction and membranes in the vitreous. Left
      eye examination revealed a normal anterior and posterior segment.
      Intraoperatively, he underwent a pars plana lensectomy following which an
      inferior large retinal haemangioma was noted with dilated and tortuous feeder
      artery and draining vein. The haemangioma was managed by a two-staged procedure
      including ligature of the feeder artery in the first surgery and the en bloc
      excision of the angioma at the time of the second procedure after significant
      shrinkage in size of the tumour.

PMID- 28578310
TI  - Corticosteroid treatment for traumatic acute subdural haematoma, maybe not such a
      good idea.

PMID- 28578311
TI  - Orbital myositis presenting with only unilateral orbital pain.

PMID- 28578313
TI  - High-intensity exercise offers no additional benefit to moderate-intensity
      exercise in reducing liver fat in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease.

PMID- 28578312
TI  - A Next-Generation TRK Kinase Inhibitor Overcomes Acquired Resistance to Prior TRK
      Kinase Inhibition in Patients with TRK Fusion-Positive Solid Tumors.
AB  - Larotrectinib, a selective TRK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), has demonstrated
      histology-agnostic efficacy in patients with TRK fusion-positive cancers.
      Although responses to TRK inhibition can be dramatic and durable, duration of
      response may eventually be limited by acquired resistance. LOXO-195 is a
      selective TRK TKI designed to overcome acquired resistance mediated by recurrent
      kinase domain (solvent front and xDFG) mutations identified in multiple patients
      who have developed resistance to TRK TKIs. Activity against these acquired
      mutations was confirmed in enzyme and cell-based assays and in vivo tumor models.
      As clinical proof of concept, the first 2 patients with TRK fusion-positive
      cancers who developed acquired resistance mutations on larotrectinib were treated
      with LOXO-195 on a first-in-human basis, utilizing rapid dose titration guided by
      pharmacokinetic assessments. This approach led to rapid tumor responses and
      extended the overall duration of disease control achieved with TRK inhibition in
      both patients.Significance: LOXO-195 abrogated resistance in TRK fusion-positive
      cancers that acquired kinase domain mutations, a shared liability with all
      existing TRK TKIs. This establishes a role for sequential treatment by
      demonstrating continued TRK dependence and validates a paradigm for the
      accelerated development of next-generation inhibitors against validated oncogenic
      targets. Cancer Discov; 7(9); 963-72. (c)2017 AACR.See related commentary by
      Parikh and Corcoran, p. 934This article is highlighted in the In This Issue
      feature, p. 920.

PMID- 28578314
TI  - Functional and phylogenetic evidence of a bacterial origin for the first enzyme
      in sphingolipid biosynthesis in a phylum of eukaryotic protozoan parasites.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate, intracellular eukaryotic apicomplexan protozoan
      parasite that can cause fetal damage and abortion in both animals and humans.
      Sphingolipids are essential and ubiquitous components of eukaryotic membranes
      that are both synthesized and scavenged by the Apicomplexa. Here we report the
      identification, isolation, and analyses of the Toxoplasma serine
      palmitoyltransferase, an enzyme catalyzing the first and rate-limiting step in
      sphingolipid biosynthesis: the condensation of serine and palmitoyl-CoA. In all
      eukaryotes analyzed to date, serine palmitoyltransferase is a highly conserved
      heterodimeric enzyme complex. However, biochemical and structural analyses
      demonstrated the apicomplexan orthologue to be a functional, homodimeric serine
      palmitoyltransferase localized to the endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore,
      phylogenetic studies indicated that it was evolutionarily related to the
      prokaryotic serine palmitoyltransferase, identified in the Sphingomonadaceae as a
      soluble homodimeric enzyme. Therefore this enzyme, conserved throughout the
      Apicomplexa, is likely to have been obtained via lateral gene transfer from a
      prokaryote.

PMID- 28578315
TI  - Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase 3 tunes the membrane status of germ cells
      by incorporating docosahexaenoic acid during spermatogenesis.
AB  - Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is one of the essential omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty
      acids with a wide range of physiological roles important for human health. For
      example, DHA renders cell membranes more flexible and is therefore important for
      cellular function, but information on the mechanisms that control DHA levels in
      membranes is limited. Specifically, it is unclear which factors determine DHA
      incorporation into cell membranes and how DHA exerts biological effects. We found
      that lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase 3 (LPAAT3) is required for producing
      DHA-containing phospholipids in various tissues, such as the testes and retina.
      In this study, we report that LPAAT3-KO mice display severe male infertility with
      abnormal sperm morphology. During germ cell differentiation, the expression of
      LPAAT3 was induced, and germ cells obtained more DHA-containing phospholipids.
      Loss of LPAAT3 caused drastic reduction of DHA-containing phospholipids in
      spermatids that led to excess cytoplasm around its head, which is normally
      removed by surrounding Sertoli cells via endocytosis at the final stage of
      spermatogenesis. In vitro liposome filtration assay raised the possibility that
      DHA in phospholipids promotes membrane deformation that is required for the rapid
      endocytosis. These data suggest that decreased membrane flexibility in LPAAT3-KO
      sperm impaired the efficient removal of sperm content through endocytosis. We
      conclude that LPAAT3-mediated enrichment of cell membranes with DHA-containing
      phospholipids endows these membranes with physicochemical properties needed for
      normal cellular processes, as exemplified by spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28578317
TI  - Collagen type VI-related myopathy.

PMID- 28578318
TI  - Recurrent brain ischaemia and deep vein thrombosis: the clot thickens.
AB  - A 65-year-old man presented with two transient ischaemic attacks, and was then
      found to have a deep vein thrombosis. He later had recurrent ischaemic strokes.
      After thorough investigation, the only cause we identified was a previously
      undiagnosed metastatic pancreatic cancer. We describe the assessment of this
      presentation and discuss the causes and management of cancer-related stroke.

PMID- 28578316
TI  - Docosahexaenoic acid preserves visual function by maintaining correct disc
      morphology in retinal photoreceptor cells.
AB  - Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has essential roles in photoreceptor cells in the
      retina and is therefore crucial to healthy vision. Although the influence of
      dietary DHA on visual acuity is well known and the retina has an abundance of DHA
      containing phospholipids (PL-DHA), the mechanisms associated with DHA's effects
      on visual function are unknown. We previously identified lysophosphatidic acid
      acyltransferase 3 (LPAAT3) as a PL-DHA biosynthetic enzyme. Here, using
      comprehensive phospholipid analyses and imaging mass spectroscopy, we found that
      LPAAT3 is expressed in the inner segment of photoreceptor cells and that PL-DHA
      disappears from the outer segment in the LPAAT3-knock-out mice. Dynamic light
      scattering analysis of liposomes and molecular dynamics simulations revealed that
      the physical characteristics of DHA reduced membrane-bending rigidity. Following
      loss of PL-DHA, LPAAT3-knock-out mice exhibited abnormalities in the retinal
      layers, such as incomplete elongation of the outer segment and decreased
      thickness of the outer nuclear layers and impaired visual function, as well as
      disordered disc morphology in photoreceptor cells. Our results indicate that PL
      DHA contributes to visual function by maintaining the disc shape in photoreceptor
      cells and that this is a function of DHA in the retina. This study thus provides
      the reason why DHA is required for visual acuity and may help inform approaches
      for overcoming retinal disorders associated with DHA deficiency or dysfunction.

PMID- 28578319
TI  - Familial progressive bilateral facial paralysis in Finnish type hereditary
      amyloidosis.

PMID- 28578320
TI  - Utility of an app-based system to improve feedback following workplace-based
      assessment.
AB  - Objectives: To determine whether an app-based software system to support
      production and storage of assessment feedback summaries makes workplace-based
      assessment easier for clinical tutors and enhances the educational impact on
      medical students. Methods: We monitored our workplace assessor app's usage by
      Year 3 to 5 medical students in 2014-15 and conducted focus groups with Year 4
      medical students and interviews with clinical tutors who had used the apps.
      Analysis was by constant comparison using a framework based on elements of van
      der Vleuten's utility index. Results: The app may enhance the content of feedback
      for students. Using a screen may be distracting if the app is used during
      feedback discussions.    Educational impact was reduced by students' perceptions
      that an easy-to-produce feedback summary is less valuable than one requiring more
      tutor time and effort. Tutors' typing, dictation skills and their familiarity
      with mobile devices varied. This influenced their willingness to use the
      assessment and feedback mobile app rather than the equivalent web app. Electronic
      feedback summaries had more real and perceived uses than anticipated both for
      tutors and students including perceptions that they were for the school rather
      than the student. Conclusions: Electronic workplace-based assessment systems can
      be acceptable to tutors and can make giving detailed written feedback more
      practical but can interrupt the social interaction required for the feedback
      conversation. Tutor training and flexible systems will be required to minimise
      unwanted consequences. The educational impact on both tutors and students of
      providing pre-formulated advice within the app is worth further study.

PMID- 28578321
TI  - BCMab1-Ra, a novel immunotoxin that BCMab1 antibody coupled to Ricin A chain, can
      eliminate bladder tumor.
AB  - Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignancies. However, there is no ideal
      therapy to cure bladder cancer so far, especially invasive carcinoma. Here, we
      developed a new antibody-based drug BCMab1-Ra, which was generated by conjugation
      of BCMab1 (a new monoclonal antibody that specifically recognized the aberrantly
      glycosylated Integrin a3b1 in bladder cancer) with the ricin A chain (Ra). A
      patient with multiple bladder cancer received intravescical administration of
      BCMab1-Ra treatment as a volunteer. After 30 weeks of treatment, no tumor was
      observed by cystoscope examination. We did not observe any local or systemic side
      effects. Human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA) was not detectable in the circulation.
      Results follow-up showed no tumor had been found in every half year review in 3
      years.

PMID- 28578322
TI  - Suppression of STAT3 Signaling by Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) Induces
      Trophoblast Dysfunction.
AB  - AIMS: Marijuana is a widely used illicit drug and its consumption during
      pregnancy has been associated with adverse reproductive outcomes. The purpose of
      this study was to determine the effects of chronic intake of Delta9
      tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major component of marijuana, on trophoblast
      function, placental development, and birth outcomes. METHODS: The pathological
      characteristics and distribution of cannabinoid receptors in placenta were
      observed by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Cell migration in response to THC
      was measured by transwell assays. The levels of cannabinoid receptors and Signal
      Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) were detected by western
      blot. RESULTS: We found the placenta expressed two main cannabinoid receptors,
      suggesting that THC induced biological responses in placental cells. Supporting
      this hypothesis, we observed dramatic alterations of placental morphology in
      marijuana users. Using THC and inhibitors of cannabinoid receptors, we
      demonstrated that THC impaired trophoblast cell migration and invasion partly via
      cannabinoid receptors. Additionally, pregnant mice injected with THC showed
      adverse reproductive events including reduced number of fetuses, lower maternal
      and placental weights. Mechanistically, STAT3 signaling pathway was involved in
      the THC-induced suppression of trophoblast cell motility and pregnancy outcomes.
      CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that the STAT3 signaling pathway plays a critical
      role in THC-induced trophoblast dysfunction.

PMID- 28578323
TI  - Oxytetracycline Inhibits Mucus Secretion and Inflammation in Human Airway
      Epithelial Cells.
AB  - Oxytetracycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, but its nonantibacterial effects
      in the human respiratory tract are unknown. In this study, the effects of
      oxytetracycline on mucus secretion and inflammation were examined by PCR and
      ELISA in the human airway epithelial cell line NCI-H292. Oxytetracycline (10
      MUg/mL) significantly inhibited TNF-alpha-induced MUC5AC gene expression and
      MUC5AC protein levels in NCI-H292 cells. It also downregulated IL-8 and IL-1beta
      gene expression and IL-1beta protein levels. Our findings demonstrated that
      oxytetracycline suppressed mucus production and inflammation in human respiratory
      epithelial cells, providing further evidence for the usefulness of
      oxytetracycline for human airway inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28578324
TI  - Eppikajutsuto Protects against Food Allergy Induced by Ovalbumin in a Murine
      Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, there are no efficient medications available for the
      prevention and treatment of food allergy (FA). Herbal medicines, including
      traditional Japanese Kampo medicines (TJKMs), are promising therapeutic drugs.
      METHODS: We screened 18 TJKMs for treatment of FA symptoms in a mouse FA model
      induced by ovalbumin (OVA). BALB/c mice were sensitized intraperitoneally by an
      OVA/aluminum hydroxide gel mixture followed by 4 booster doses of oral OVA and FA
      symptom induction by 50 mg of OVA. TJKMs were orally administered for 28 days
      from the day of sensitization to the day before FA symptom induction. Evaluated
      FA symptoms included a decrease in body temperature and allergic diarrhea.
      Allergic sensitization was determined by plasma OVA-specific IgE levels. Cytokine
      mRNA levels in mesenteric lymph nodes, plasma mouse mast cell protease-1, and the
      number of mast cells in the small and large intestines were analyzed.
      Additionally, the therapeutic effect of the TJKM eppikajutsuto (EJT) on mast cell
      degranulation was determined in active anaphylaxis and passive cutaneous
      anaphylaxis models. RESULTS: EJT effectively prevented FA symptoms. Although OVA
      specific IgE levels and the intestinal mast cell numbers were not different
      between the EJT-treated and untreated FA mice, plasma mMcpt1 and IL-4 levels were
      lower in EJT-treated FA mice than untreated FA mice. EJT could alleviate symptoms
      in both active and passive anaphylaxis models. CONCLUSION: EJT prevented OVA
      induced FA symptoms in a mouse model, suggesting that EJT might exert its
      therapeutic activity via IL-4 suppression and the inhibition of mucosal mast cell
      degranulation.

PMID- 28578325
TI  - Survey of Techniques Utilized to Access Ventricular Shunts and Reservoirs.
AB  - AIMS: This study assessed variations in pediatric neurosurgical technique when
      accessing shunts and ventricular access devices (VADs). METHODS: A 12-question
      survey was developed and sent to members of the American Association of
      Neurological Surgeons (AANS) whose self-identified subspecialty was pediatric
      neurosurgery. RESULTS: Four hundred and twenty surveys were sent out, and 149
      responses were received (35.5% response rate); 95.3% of respondents always use
      sterile gloves, 55.0% never use a sterile gown, and 69.8% always have a member of
      the neurosurgery team perform the procedure. The majority of respondents answered
      "sometimes" for use of a facemask (38.3%), sterile drapes (39.6%), site shaving
      (45.6%), having an attending present (68.5%), and having an assistant hold the
      patient's head (78.5%). The majority reported using a 23- or 25-gauge butterfly
      needle for site entry (96.6%), and betadine or ChloraPrepTM as the preferred
      antiseptic solution (64.4%). The frequency in which CSF is sent for analysis is
      not standardized in 31.5% of respondents, and wait time for the antiseptic
      solution to dry is not standardized in 62.4%. CONCLUSIONS: There is great
      variation in the technique for accessing shunts and VADs. Future studies are
      needed to assess whether these discrepancies affect infection rates.

PMID- 28578326
TI  - Targeting Jurkat T Lymphocyte Leukemia Cells by an Engineered Interferon-Alpha
      Hybrid Molecule.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a very aggressive T cell
      malignancy that carries a poor prognosis, primarily due to its resistance to
      chemotherapy and to life-threatening infectious complications. Interferon-alpha
      (IFNalpha) has been used in combination with the anti-retroviral drug zidovudine
      to treat patients with ATL. However, the efficacy of long-term therapy is
      significantly limited due to the systemic toxicity of IFNalpha. METHODS: We
      utilized phage display library screening to identify short peptides that
      specifically bind to Jurkat T lymphocyte leukemia cells. By fusing the Jurkat
      binding peptide to the C-terminus of IFNalpha, we constructed an engineered
      chimeric IFNalpha molecule (IFNP) for the treatment of ATL. RESULTS: We found
      that IFNP exhibited significantly higher activity than wild type IFNalpha in
      inhibiting the growth of leukemia cells and inducing cell blockage at the G0/G1
      phase. The synthetic IFNP molecule exerted its antitumor activity by upregulating
      the downstream genes involved in the STAT1 pathway and in apoptosis. Using a cell
      receptor binding assay, we showed that this Jurkat-binding peptide facilitated
      the binding affinity of IFNalpha to the cell surface type I IFN receptor.
      CONCLUSION: The isolated Jurkat-binding peptide significantly potentiates the
      therapeutic activity of IFNalpha in T lymphocyte leukemia cells. The engineered
      IFNP molecule may prove to a novel antitumor approach in the treatment of
      patients with ATL.

PMID- 28578328
TI  - Gene and Cell Doping: The New Frontier - Beyond Myth or Reality.
AB  - The advent of gene transfer technologies in clinical studies aroused concerns
      that these technologies will be misused for performance-enhancing purposes in
      sports. However, during the last 2 decades, the field of gene therapy has taken a
      long and winding road with just a few gene therapeutic drugs demonstrating
      clinical benefits in humans. The current state of gene therapy is that viral
      vector-mediated gene transfer shows the now long-awaited initial success for
      safe, and in some cases efficient, gene transfer in clinical trials.
      Additionally, the use of small interfering RNA promises an efficient therapy
      through gene silencing, even though a number of safety concerns remain. More
      recently, the development of the molecular biological CRISPR/Cas9 system opened
      new possibilities for efficient and highly targeted genome editing. This chapter
      aims to define and consequently demystify the term "gene doping" and discuss the
      current reality concerning gene- and cell-based physical enhancement strategies.
      The technological progress in the field of gene therapy will be illustrated, and
      the recent clinical progress as well as technological difficulties will be
      highlighted. Comparing the attractiveness of these technologies with conventional
      doping practices reveals that current gene therapy technologies remain
      unattractive for doping purposes and unlikely to outperform conventional doping.
      However, future technological advances may raise the attractiveness of gene
      doping, thus making it easier to develop detection strategies. Currently
      available detection strategies are introduced in this chapter showing that many
      forms of genetic manipulation can already be detected in principle.

PMID- 28578327
TI  - Genetic Predictors of >=5% Weight Loss by Multidisciplinary Advice to Severely
      Obese Subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Weight loss success is determined by genetic factors, which may
      differ according to treatment strategy. METHODS: From a multidisciplinary obesity
      treatment program involving dietary advice, psychological counseling, and
      increased physical activity, 587 subjects (68% female; 46.1 +/- 12.4 years; BMI
      39.9 +/- 6.3) were recruited. At baseline, a blood sample was drawn for DNA
      isolation. Genotypes were determined for 30 polymorphisms in 25 candidate genes.
      The association between genotypes and weight loss was assessed after 3 months
      (short-term) and after 12 months of treatment (long-term). Weight loss was
      categorized as >=5% or <5% of initial weight. RESULTS: The G/G genotype of PLIN1
      (rs2289487) and PLIN1 (rs2304795), the T/T genotype of PLIN1 (rs1052700), and the
      C/C genotype of MMP2 predicted >=5% weight loss in the first 3 months. The C/G
      G/G genotype of PPARgamma (rs1801282) and the T/C genotype of TIMP4 (rs3755724)
      predicted >=5% weight loss after 12 months. Subjects with the combination of
      PPARgamma (rs1801282) C/G-G/G and TIMP4 (rs3755724) T/C lost even more weight.
      CONCLUSION: Polymorphisms in genes related to regulation of fat storage and
      structural adaptation of the adipocytes are predictors for weight loss success
      with different genes being relevant for short-term and long-term weight loss
      success.

PMID- 28578329
TI  - The Athlete Biological Passport: How to Personalize Anti-Doping Testing across an
      Athlete's Career?
AB  - For decades, drug testing has been the main instrument at the disposal of anti
      doping authorities. The availability in the 1980s of substances identical to
      those produced by the human body, including the "big 3" (erythropoietin,
      testosterone, and growth hormone), necessitated a new paradigm in anti-doping.
      The athlete biological passport (ABP) is a new paradigm, complementary to
      traditional drug testing, based on the personalized monitoring of doping
      biomarkers. Athletes who abuse doping substances do so to trigger physiological
      changes that provide performance enhancement. The ABP aims to detect these
      changes through its 3 hematological, steroidal, and endocrine modules. Any
      deviation of a biomarker from what is expected in a healthy physiological
      condition can be attributable to doping or a medical condition, which,
      interestingly, is also the criterion used to define a banned substance. Recent
      advances in proteomics and metabolomics offer immense opportunities to enhance
      the ABP. The ABP shares multiple aspects with the present customization of health
      care and personalized medicine.

PMID- 28578330
TI  - The Efficacy of High-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for
      Improving Apathy in Chronic Stroke Patients.
AB  - Although repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for hemiparesis is
      beneficial, so far no study has examined the usefulness of rTMS for apathy.
      Thirteen patients with chronic stroke were assigned randomly to 2 groups: rTMS
      group (n = 7) and sham stimulation group (n = 6). The patients received 5
      sessions of either high-frequency rTMS over the region spanning from the dorsal
      anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) to medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or sham
      stimulation for 5 days. The severity of apathy was evaluated using the Apathy
      Scale (AS) and the severity of depression was evaluated using the Quick Inventory
      of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) serially before and after the 5-day protocol.
      The AS and QIDS scores were significantly improved in the rTMS group, although
      they were not changed in the sham stimulation group. The degree of change in the
      AS score was significantly greater in the rTMS group than that in the sham
      stimulation group. The degree of change in the QIDS score was greater in the rTMS
      group than that in the sham stimulation group, although the difference was not
      statistically significant. The application of high frequency rTMS over the dACC
      and mPFC may be a useful intervention for apathy due to stroke.

PMID- 28578332
TI  - Editorial Board / Contents / Imprint.

PMID- 28578333
TI  - PharmaForum.

PMID- 28578331
TI  - Whole Genome Sequence Identified a Rare Homozygous Pathogenic Mutation of the
      DSG2 Gene in a Familial Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Involving Both Ventricles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was designed to identify the pathogenic mutation in a
      Chinese family with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia
      (ARVC/D) using whole genome sequencing (WGS). METHODS AND RESULTS: Probands II:1
      and II:2 underwent routine examinations for diagnosis. Genomic DNA was extracted
      from the peripheral blood of family members and analyzed using WGS. A total of
      60,285 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and 13,918 insertions/deletions
      (InDel) occurring in the exonic regions of genes and predisposing to
      cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias were identified. When filtered using the 1000
      Genomes Project (2014 version), NHLBI ESP6500, and ExAC databases, 12 missense
      SNP and 2 InDel in exonic regions remained, the allele frequencies of which were
      <0.01 or unknown. The potentially pathogenic mutations that occurred in the genes
      DSG2, PKP4, PRKAG2, FOXD4, CTTN, and DMD, which were identified by SIFT or
      PolyPhen-2 software as "damaging," were validated using Sanger sequencing.
      Probands II:1 and II:2 shared an extremely rare homozygous mutation in the DSG2
      (p.F531C) gene, which was also demonstrated using intersection analysis of WGS
      data from probands II:1 and II:2. Electron microscopy and histological staining
      of myocardial biopsies showed widened and destroyed intercalated discs, and
      interrupted, atrophic, and disarranged myocardial fibers, and hyperplastic
      interstitial fibers, collagen fibers, and adipocytes were infiltrated and
      invaded. CONCLUSIONS: A homozygous mutation of DSG2 p.F531C was identified as the
      pathogenic mutation in patients with ARVC/D involving both ventricles, as a
      result of widened and impaired intercalated discs, interrupted myocardial fibers,
      and abnormally hyperplastic interstitial fibers, collagen fibers, and adipocytes.

PMID- 28578334
TI  - PharmaForum.

PMID- 28578335
TI  - PharmaForum.

PMID- 28578337
TI  - PharmaNews.

PMID- 28578336
TI  - PharmaNews.

PMID- 28578338
TI  - PharmaNews.

PMID- 28578340
TI  - MicroRNA-30b Regulates High Phosphorus Level-Induced Autophagy in Vascular Smooth
      Muscle Cells by Targeting BECN1.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that affects
      the survival and functions of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). We explored
      the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating autophagy in VSMCs exposed to high
      phosphorus (Pi) levels. METHODS: VSMCs were isolated from the thoracic aorta of
      rats and were cultured primarily. Real-time PCR was used to measure the mRNA
      expression of indicated genes. Western blotting was performed to detect the
      protein expression of autophagy-related markers. RESULTS: We found that treatment
      with high Pi levels (1 and 3 mM) activated LC3II expression and promoted
      autophagic flux in VSMCs. Conversely, treatment with an autophagy inhibitor
      decreased LC3II expression. Pi stimulation dysregulated the expression of several
      miRNAs such as miR-18a, miR-21, miR-23a, miR-30b, and miR-31a. However, miR-30b
      overexpression decreased Pi-induced expression of autophagy-related marker genes
      such as BECN1, ATG5, and LC3b, whereas miR-30b downregulation increased Pi
      induced expression of these genes. In addition, we found that miR-30b directly
      targeted BECN1. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that miR-30b plays an important
      role in the regulation of high Pi level-induced autophagy in VSMCs by targeting
      BECN1.

PMID- 28578339
TI  - Erythrocyte Sodium Sensitivity and Eryptosis in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: In hemodialysis (HD) patients the endothelial and erythrocyte
      glycocalyx is impaired which in turn correlates with elevated erythrocyte sodium
      sensitivity (ESS). Additionally, apoptotic erythrocyte death (eryptosis),
      characterized by phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure on the cell surface, is
      increased in this population. We aimed to explore the relationship of ESS and
      eryptosis. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 11 healthy controls and 20
      chronic HD patients before and after midweek HD. ESS was quantified by the salt
      blood test. PS-exposure, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) of
      erythrocytes and reticulocytes were assessed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Compared
      to controls ESS was significantly higher in HD patients preHD and did not change
      during treatment. The percentage of eryptotic cells did not differ between
      controls and patients preHD. However, eryptosis decreased during HD. ESS and
      eryptosis were uncorrelated, while eryptosis was positively correlated with
      intracellular ROS and percent reticulocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Higher ESS levels in HD
      patients indicate a pathologic glycocalyx. ESS and eryptosis were not correlated.
      The decreased eryptosis postHD may possibly be related to dialytic uremic toxin
      removal, but is likely multifactorial. The relationship between eryptosis and
      intracellular ROS warrants further research.

PMID- 28578341
TI  - Association Between Periodontitis and Low-Grade Albuminuria in Non-Diabetic
      Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical
      association between periodontitis and a high urinary albumin/creatinine ratio
      (UACR) in individuals without diabetes mellitus. METHODS: Data from the Korean
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for this analysis. A
      high UACR was defined as UACR>=3.9 mg/g for men and UACR>=7.5 mg/g for women. The
      WHO community periodontal index (CPI) was used to define periodontitis and assess
      its severity. RESULTS: The numbers of participants without and with periodontitis
      were 3,046 and 8,571, respectively. The UACR values were higher in participants
      with periodontitis than in those without periodontitis. Logistic regression
      showed that the OR for a high UACR with the presence of periodontitis was 1.14
      (P=0.044) on multivariate analysis. CPI score was positively associated with
      UACR. CONCLUSIONS: Periodontitis was associated with UACR in the non-diabetic
      participants in this study. Therefore, participants with periodontitis should be
      closely monitored for UACR, which can function as an early marker for renal
      injury.

PMID- 28578342
TI  - Astragaloside-IV Protects Against Heat-induced Apoptosis by Inhibiting Excessive
      Activation of Mitochondrial Ca2+ Uniporter.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heat causes airway damage during inhalation injury because of
      bronchial epithelial cell damage. Accumulating evidence shows that mitochondrial
      uniporter (MCU) is involved in cell damage. We investigated the MCU activity
      after heat treatment and assessed whether Astragaloside-IV (AS-IV) suppresses
      heat-induced apoptosis in bronchial epithelial cells by inhibiting the activation
      of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU), mitochondrial depolarisation and
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. METHODS: The bronchial epithelial cell
      line 16HBE14o- was heat treated, and cell apoptosis was induced in vitro and in
      vivo. AS-IV was inorganically administered to Wistar rats twice a day after
      thermal inhalation injury, and 16HBE140- cells were treated with AS-IV after
      incubation at 47 degrees C for 5 min. Protein expression was determined using
      Western blotting and commercial kits, apoptosis with TUNEL staining,
      mitochondrial channel activity by patch clamp, reactive oxygen species by
      MitoSOXTM fluorescence, ATP levels and enzyme activities by commercial kits as
      well as mitochondrial respiration and calcium by fluorescence. RESULTS: AS-IV
      markedly inhibited heat-induced apoptosis, as indicated by the increased
      expression of the pro-apoptotic genes Bak, Bik and Bmf and increased expression
      of the apoptosis markers Bax, cleaved parp, cleaved caspase3 and cytochrome C. We
      found that MCU activation promoted mitochondrial Ca2+ overload, ATP depletion,
      mitochondrial ROS production and cytochrome c release and rapidly induced
      apoptosis. However, AS-IV treatment reduced excessive MCU activation and led to
      resistance against mitochondrial Ca2+ overload and excessive cytochrome C
      release; these effects were blocked by the MCU activator spermine. AS-IV
      treatment elevated ATP production and decreased ROS activity. CONCLUSIONS: MCU
      plays crucial roles in heat-induced mitochondrial apoptosis in 16HBE140- cells,
      suggesting a potential target for AS-IV treatment.

PMID- 28578343
TI  - Filter Size Not the Anticoagulation Method is the Decisive Factor in Continuous
      Renal Replacement Therapy Circuit Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: As continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) has emerged as a
      standard therapy in pediatric intensive care units (PICU), many related issues
      that may have an impact on circuit survival have gained in importance. Objective
      of the study was an evaluation of factors associated with circuit survival,
      including anticoagulation (ACG). METHODS: Retrospective study that included 40
      patients, who in total received 7636 hours of CRRT during 150 sessions (84
      filters, 4260 hours with heparin anticoagulation (Hep-ACG); 66 filters, 3376
      hours with regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA)). RESULTS: The Kaplan-Meier
      analysis of the total circuit survival time depending on the type of ACG did not
      demonstrate a significant difference between Hep-ACG and RCA. The percentage of
      clotted filters was significantly higher in case of smaller filters (HF20: 58.8%;
      ST60: 29.5%; ST100: 15.8%), and their lifetime was significantly lower regardless
      of ACG (the mean and median lifetime for HF20: 38.7/27.0 h; for ST60: 54.1/72.0
      h., for ST100: 62.1/72.0 h, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Irrespectively of filter
      size, filter clotting occurs within the first 24 hours after the initiation of
      CRRT. Most commonly, clotting affects small filters, and their lifetime is
      significantly shorter as compared to larger filters regardless of the type of the
      ACG.

PMID- 28578344
TI  - Comparison of Procalcitonin Guidance-Administered Antibiotics with Standard
      Guidelines on Antibiotic Therapy in Children with Lower Respiratory Tract
      Infections: A Retrospective Study in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish the efficacy of an algorithm based on the biomarker
      procalcitonin (PCT) to reduce antibiotic exposure in pediatric patients with
      lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical
      data of 357 patients (<14 years of age) who were discharged home with LRTI from
      January 1, 2010 to July 31, 2016 were analyzed. Antibiotic exposure, antibiotic
      prescription rate, length of hospital stay, and antibiotic-associated adverse
      effects were compared between the PCT group (n = 183) and the standard group (n =
      174) using SAS 9.1.3 software. RESULTS: The overall adverse effect rates were
      similar in both the PCT and standard groups: 42 (22.95%) and 51 (29.31%),
      respectively. The length of hospital stay was not significantly different between
      the PCT (9.96 +/- 5.81 days) and standard groups (10.58 +/- 4.24 days)
      (difference: -0.62%; 95% CI: -1.68 to 0.43). Antibiotic prescribing rates were
      significantly different in the PCT group compared to the standard group: 54.64%
      versus 83.91% (difference: -29.26%; 95% CI: -38.31, -20.22; p = 0.23). Mean
      duration of antibiotic exposure in the PCT group (3.98 +/- 2.17 days) was lower
      than the standard groups (6.66 +/- 5.59 days) (difference: -2.68%; 95% CI: -3.21
      to -2.16). CONCLUSION: This study showed that PCT guidance of antibiotic
      treatment in children and adolescents with LRTI reduced the duration of
      antibiotic exposure and antibiotic prescribing rates, but did not affect the
      adverse effect rate and length of hospital stay.

PMID- 28578345
TI  - Calcium Channel Opening Rather than the Release of ATP Causes the Apoptosis of
      Osteoblasts Induced by Overloaded Mechanical Stimulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stress fracture is one of the most common overuse injuries in
      athletes. Overloaded mechanical stimulation is an important factor affecting
      stress fractures, but the mechanism is unclear. METHODS: MC3T3-E1 cells and a
      polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold were co-cultured, and finite element analysis
      (FEA) was used to analyze the load-carrying capability. Cell proliferation was
      investigated with CCK-8 assays. An alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activity assay was
      used to evaluate cell differentiation. Cell apoptosis was analyzed using Hoechst/
      PI double-labeling, Caspase-3 activity and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity
      assays. Realtime PCR and Western blotting were used to examine the gene and
      protein expression, respectively, of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9. Assays of the
      intracellular calcium with fluorescent probe technique and extracellular ATP with
      fluorometric assay kit were used to analyze the changes in the intracellular
      calcium concentration induced by calcium channel opening and the release of ATP,
      respectively, at different operation times. RESULTS: When the apparent strain
      reached 10000 uepsilon, the strain scope of fber at levels greater than 4000
      uepsilon was 60%. Overloading for 4 days and operation times of 0.5 h and 2 h
      increased the cell number and AKP secretion. However, apoptosis genes were
      activated at the same time, and the operation time of 2 h had a significantly
      greater effect than 0.5 h. At 8 days, the cell numbers were greater for the
      operation time of 0.5 h than for 2 h, and the 2-h groups had the fastest
      apoptosis rate. Overloading for 1 day increased intracellular calcium levels and
      ATP release. The increase in intracellular calcium could be blocked by the
      addition of N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) or Hank's medium. Overloading for 8 days
      increased intracellular calcium levels but decreased extracellular ATP, and
      verapamil blocked the increase in intracellular calcium. CONCLUSION: We found
      that a simultaneous 'double effect' on osteoblasts was induced by overloading,
      which promoted cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Short-term
      overloading could open the cell membrane calcium channels and release calcium
      stores to elevate intracellular calcium levels, thereby promoting the
      proliferation and differentiation of cells to a greater extent than the effect of
      apoptosis. For long-term overloading, calcium channel opening in the membrane
      could lead to overloading of intracellular calcium levels, inducing an apoptosis
      effect that is greater than the effect on proliferation and differentiation.

PMID- 28578346
TI  - A New Approach to Developing Birth Weight Reference Charts: A Retrospective
      Observational Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Birth weight reference charts based on historical infant birth
      weights have significant bias at preterm gestations because many preterm births
      are associated with abnormal growth. This study aims to determine whether more
      accurate birth weight charts can be constructed using data only from births that
      follow spontaneous onset of labour. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a
      single-centre retrospective observational study of 115,712 singleton live births.
      Births were classified as spontaneous or iatrogenic. Quantile regression was used
      to model the relationship between gestational age, sex, labour onset, and birth
      weight. Comparison was made of birth weights in the spontaneous and iatrogenic
      cohorts by gestation, and to existing ultrasound-based charts. RESULTS: Birth
      weights of spontaneous and iatrogenic births were significantly different for
      gestational age at the median and 10th centiles. Iatrogenic preterm infants
      weighed less than their spontaneous preterm counterparts. Median and 10th centile
      birth weights derived from the spontaneous birth cohort closely approximate
      previous ultrasound-based curves. DISCUSSION: Iatrogenic births are more likely
      to be associated with pre-existing growth disturbance. Inclusion of these data
      has significant impact on centile charts. Birth weight charts derived from only
      spontaneous births may offer a more accurate reference for clinicians.

PMID- 28578347
TI  - Consumption of a Mango Fruit Powder Protects Mice from High-Fat Induced Insulin
      Resistance and Hepatic Fat Accumulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to gain more insight into the
      beneficial effects of mango fruit powder on the early metabolic adverse effects
      of a high-fat diet. METHODS: The progressive dose-response effects of mango fruit
      powder on body composition, circulating parameters, and the expression of genes
      related to fatty acid oxidation and insulin sensitivity in key tissues were
      studied in mice fed a moderate (45%) high-fat diet. RESULTS: Findings suggest
      that mango fruit powder exerts physiological protective effects in the initial
      steps of insulin resistance and hepatic lipid accumulation induced by a high-fat
      diet in mice. Moreover, AMPK and SIRT1 appear as key regulators of the observed
      improvement in fatty acid oxidation capacity, as well as of the improved insulin
      sensitivity and the increased glucose uptake and metabolism through the
      glycolytic pathway capacity in liver and skeletal muscle. CONCLUSION: In summary,
      this study provides evidence that the functional food ingredient (CarelessTM)
      from mango fruit prevents early metabolic alterations caused by a high-fat diet
      in the initial stages of the metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28578348
TI  - TLR4 Influences Hepatitis B Virus Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Regulating
      the Wnt/beta-Catenin Pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated the correlation between toll-like receptor 4
      (TLR4) and beta-catenin for disclosing the potential pathogenesis of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Immunohistochemical toolkit was
      implemented to measure the expression of TLR4 and beta-catenin in 98 cases of HCC
      tissues and adjacent tissues. After setting up the HepG2.2.15 hepatitis B virus
      (HBV) related HCC cell line, we divided the cells into the control group, TLR4
      siRNA group, beta-catenin siRNA group, and pcDNA.3.1 TLR4 + beta-catenin siRNA
      group. Western blot, CCK-8 method, Transwell and flow cytometry were used to
      detect protein expression, cell proliferation, cell migration and invasion as
      well as cell apoptosis, respectively. Nude mice tumor model was established to
      observe the effects of TLR4 and beta-catenin on the progression of HBV-related
      HCC in vivo. RESULTS: The positive rates of TLR4 and beta-catenin were higher in
      HCC tissues compared with normal tissues. Both the TLR4 siRNA group and beta
      catenin siRNA group exhibited a decreased expression of beta-catenin. The
      proliferation, migration and invasion of tumor cells in the above two groups were
      suppressed, while the cell apoptosis appeared to be stimulated. As suggested by
      the results from in vivo and in vitro experiments, the up-regulation of TLR4
      could antagonize the corresponding effect of beta-catenin siRNA. CONCLUSIONS:
      TLR4 can affect the expression of beta-catenin and hence influence the
      progression of HBV-related HCC.

PMID- 28578349
TI  - PTPRO Promotes Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein Induced Oxidative Stress and Cell
      Apoptosis through Toll-Like Receptor 4/Nuclear Factor kappaB Pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Critical roles of phosphatase receptor type O (PTPRO) and toll
      like receptor 4 (TLR4) have been implicated in inflammation. However, little is
      known about their functional effects on atherosclerosis (AS). We aim to study
      their potential function in AS. METHODS: An oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox
      LDL) induced AS model constructed with PTPRO over-expressing RAW264.7 cells and
      PTPRO knockout macrophages. Cell apoptosis was assayed by flow cytometry and
      fatty accumulation was evaluated by oil red staining. The production of ROS
      (reactive oxygen species), SOD (superoxide dismutase), MDA (malondialdehyde), TC
      (Triglyceride), and TG (total cholesterol) was evaluated. Western blot was
      performed to detect the expression of CD36, TLR4 and nuclear factor kB (NF
      kappaB). RESULTS: PTPRO expression was promoted in a dose-dependent and time
      dependent manner following ox-LDL challenging. In PTPRO-over-expressing cells,
      CD36 expression and the level of oil-red staining, TC and TG were increased; ROS
      production, MDA and level of cell apoptosis were improved, but SOD was reduced.
      However, in PTPRO knockout cells opposite results were found. TLR4 and NF
      kappaB/p65 phosphorylation was significantly enhanced in PTPRO over-expressing
      cells, while significantly down-regulated in PTPRO knockout cells. CONCLUSION:
      PTPRO plays ital roles in AS via promoting ox-LDL induced oxidative stress and
      cell apoptosis through TLR4/NF-kappaB pathway.

PMID- 28578350
TI  - Ex utero Intrapartum Treatment to Ventricular Pacing: A Novel Delivery Strategy
      for Complete Atrioventricular Block with Severe Bradycardia.
AB  - Fetuses with anti-SSA-mediated complete atrioventricular block (CAVB) are at high
      risk for perinatal death if they present at <20 weeks of gestation and develop
      ventricular rates of <55 beats per minute (bpm), cardiac dysfunction, or hydrops
      [Izmirly et al.: Circulation 2011;124:1927-1935; Jaeggi et al.: J Am Coll Cardiol
      2002;39:130-137; Eliasson et al.: Circulation 2011;124:1919-1926]. After our
      experience with two such fetuses who died with pulseless electrical activity
      despite being paced within 30 min of birth, we performed an ex utero intrapartum
      treatment procedure to ventricular pacing on a 36-week CAVB fetus with cardiac
      dysfunction, mild hydrops, and a ventricular rate of 46 bpm. While still on
      placental bypass, temporary epicardial ventricular pacing leads were successfully
      placed; the infant was delivered and made a successful transition to postnatal
      life. This approach can improve the 11-fold increase in mortality for the preterm
      fetus with long-standing CAVB, severe bradycardia, and heart failure.

PMID- 28578351
TI  - Protective Effects of MicroRNA-126 on Human Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial
      Cells Against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Induced Injury and Inflammatory Response by
      Activating PI3K/Akt/eNOS Signaling Pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study explored the protective effects of the microRNA-126 (miR
      126)-mediated PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathway on human cardiac microvascular
      endothelial cells (HCMECs) against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced injury and
      the inflammatory response. METHODS: Untreated HCMECs were selected for the
      control group. After H/R treatment and cell transfection, the HCMECs were
      assigned to the H/R, miR-126 mimic, mimic-negative control (NC), miR-126
      inhibitor, inhibitor-NC, wortmannin (an inhibitor of PI3K) and miR-126 mimic +
      wortmannin groups. Super oxide dismutase (SOD), nitric oxide (NO), vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured
      utilizing commercial kits. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT
      PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed to detect miR
      126 expression and the mRNA and protein expression of inflammatory factors.
      Western blotting was used to determine the expression of key members in the
      PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathway. ACCK-8 assay and flow cytometry were employed to
      examine cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. The angiogenic ability in
      each group was detected by the lumen formation test. RESULTS: Compared to the
      control group, p/t-PI3K, p/t-Akt and p/t-eNOS expression, NO, VEGF and SOD
      levels, cell proliferation and in vitro lumen formation ability were decreased,
      while the ROS content, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)
      alpha expression and cell apoptosis were significantly increased in the H/R,
      mimic-NC, miR-126 inhibitor, inhibitor-NC, wortmannin and miR-126 mimic +
      wortmannin groups. Additionally, in comparison with the H/R group, the miR-126
      mimic group had elevated p/t-PI3K, p/t-Akt and p/t-eNOS expression, increased NO,
      VEGF and SOD contents, and strengthened cell proliferation and lumen formation
      abilities but also exhibited decreased ROS content, reduced IL-6, IL-10 and TNF
      alpha expressions, and weakened cell apoptosis, while the miR-126 inhibitor and
      wortmannin group exhibited the opposite results. Furthermore, decreased p/t-PI3K,
      p/t-Akt and p/t-eNOS expressions, decreased NO, VEGF and SOD contents, cell
      proliferation and lumen formation abilities, as well as increased ROS content,
      increased IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-alpha expression, and increased cell apoptosis were
      observed in the miR-126 mimic + wortmannin group compared to themiR-126 mimic
      group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicated that miR-126 protects HCMECs from
      H/R-induced injury and inflammatory response by activating the PI3K/Akt/ eNOS
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28578352
TI  - Endogenous Parathyroid Hormone Promotes Fracture Healing by Increasing Expression
      of BMPR2 through cAMP/PKA/CREB Pathway in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Endogenous parathyroid hormone (PTH) plays an important role in
      fracture healing. This study investigated whether endogenous PTH regulates
      fracture healing by bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and/or the transforming
      growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) signaling pathway. METHODS: Eight-week-old wild
      type (WT) and PTH-knockout (PTH KO) male mice were selected, and models of open
      right-femoral fracture were constructed. Fracture healing and callus
      characteristics of mice in the two groups were compared by X-ray, micro-computed
      tomography, histological, and immunohistochemical examinations. Bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) of 8-week-old WT and PTHKO male mice were
      obtained and induced into osteoblasts and chondrocytes. RESULTS: We found that
      expression levels of Runt-related transcription factor (RUNX2), bone
      morphogenetic protein-receptor-type II (BMPR2), phosphorylated Smad 1/5/8, and
      phosphorylated cyclic adenosine monophosphate-responsive element binding protein
      (CREB) in the callus of PTHKO mice were significantly decreased, whereas no
      significant difference in expression of SOX9, TGF-betaR2,or pSMAD2/3 was observed
      between PTHKO and WT mice. Additionally, the activity of osteoblast alkaline
      phosphatase was low at 7 days post-induction, and was upregulated by addition of
      PTH or dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate (dbcAMP) to the cell culture.
      Furthermore, H89 (protein kinase A inhibitor)eliminated the simulating effects of
      PTH and dbcAMP, and a low concentration of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)
      was observed in PTHKO mouse BMMSCs. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that
      endogenous PTH enhanced BMPR2 expression by a cAMP/PKA/CREB pathway in
      osteoblasts, and increased RUNX2 expression through transduction of the
      BMP/pSMAD1/5/8 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28578353
TI  - PI3Kbeta Plays a Key Role in Apolipoprotein A-I-Induced Endothelial Cell
      Proliferation Through Activation of the Ecto-F1-ATPase/P2Y1 Receptors.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: High-density lipoproteins (HDL) exert multiple cardioprotective
      functions on the arterial wall, including the promotion of endothelial cell
      survival and proliferation. Among mechanism contributing to endothelial
      protection, it has been reported that apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), the major
      protein in HDL, binds and activates the endothelial ecto-F1-ATPase receptor. This
      generates extracellular ADP, which in turn promotes endothelial cell survival. In
      this study we aimed to further investigate the signaling pathway involved
      downstream of apoA-I-induced ecto-F1-ATPase activation. METHODS: In human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), pharmacological and gene silencing
      approaches were used to study pathways involved downstream ecto-F1-ATPase
      activation by apoA-I. RESULTS: ApoA-I and HDL both induced Akt phosphorylation.
      F1-ATPase inhibitors such as inhibitory factor 1 and oligomycin completely
      blocked apoA-I-induced Akt phosphorylaton and significantly blocked HDL-induced
      phosphorylation, indicating that this signaling pathway is dependent on ecto-F1
      ATPase activation by apoA-I. Further, we were able to specify roles for the P2Y1
      ADPreceptor and the PI3Kbeta isoform in this pathway since pharmacological
      inhibition and silencing of these proteins dramatically inhibited apoA-I-induced
      Akt phosphorylation and cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: Altogether, these data
      highlight a key role of the P2Y1/PI3Kbeta axis in endothelial cell proliferation
      downstream of ecto-F1-ATPase activation by apoA-I. Pharmacological targeting of
      this pathway could represent a promising approach to enhance vascular endothelial
      protection.

PMID- 28578354
TI  - Concurrent CCR7 Overexpression and RelB Knockdown in Immature Dendritic Cells
      Induces Immune Tolerance and Improves Skin-Graft Survival in a Murine Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Skin transplantation aims to cover skin defects but often fails
      due to immune rejection of the transplantated tissue. Immature dendritic cells
      (imDCs) induce immune tolerance but have a low migration rate. After stimulation,
      imDCs transform into mature DCs, which activate immune rejection. Thus, inducing
      imDC to obtain a high migration counteracts development of immune tolerance.
      METHODS & RESULTS: We transfected imDCs with a recombinant adenovirus carrying
      the CCR7 gene (Ad-CCR7) and a small interfering RNA targeting RelB (RelB-siRNA)
      to concurrently overexpress CCR7 and downregulate RelB expression. Functionally,
      such cells showed a significantly enhanced migration rate in the chemotactic
      assay and decreased T-cell proliferation after lipopolysaccharide stimulation in
      mixed lymphocyte reactions. Cotransfected cells showed an increased ability to
      induce immune tolerance by upregulating T regulatory (Treg) cells and shifting
      the Th1/Th2 ratio. Cotransfection of Ad-CCR7 and RelB-siRNA endowed imDCs with
      resistance to apoptosis and cell death. CCR7 overexpression and RelB knockdown
      (KD) in imDCs improve skin-graft survival in a murine skin-transplantation model.
      CONCLUSION: Transfection with Ad-CCR7 and RelB KD in imDCs may be an effective
      approach inducing immune tolerance, thus being potentially valuable for
      inhibiting allograft rejection.

PMID- 28578356
TI  - The relationship between thyroid antibody titer and levothyroxine dose in
      patients with overt primary hypothyroidism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both excess and insufficient thyroid hormone replacement may produce
      adverse effects in various target tissues; therefore, understanding factors that
      affect achievement of target TSH levels is crucial. OBJECTIVE: Investigate the
      relationship between antibody titers and levothyroxine dose. DESIGN:
      Retrospective, review of data in medical records. SETTING: Thyroid center of
      Fatih Sultan Mehmet Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: The study population consisted of patients that had been diagnosed
      as having overt primary hypothyroidism and were taking levothyroxine for at least
      one year. The serum TSH level for an euthyroid state was between 0.5-4 mIU/L. The
      levels of anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPOAb) considered positive for antibodies were
      < 5.6 IU/mL and for anti-thyroglobulin (TgAb) autoantibodies < 4.10 IU/ mL. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE: Daily levothyroxine doses of antibody-positive and negative
      patients and association of daily drug requirement with antibody titers. RESULTS:
      The study population consisted of the 303 patients (273 females and 30 males with
      the mean [SD] age of 46.6 [13.2] years). In the antibody-positive group (n=210)
      average daily levothyroxine dose was statistically significantly higher than in
      the antibody-negative group (n=93) (mean of 78.8 [36.7] vs 64.2 [27.1] mg/day,
      P=.001, respectively). There was a low but statistically significant positive
      relationship between the TPOAb (r=0.217, P < .01) and TgAb levels (r=0.158, P <
      .05) and levothyroxine doses in the antibody-positive group. CONCLUSION: Antibody
      titers are positively associated with larger levothyroxine (LT-4) replacement
      dosing in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. LIMITATION: Unknown antibody
      titers before starting levothyroxine use.

PMID- 28578355
TI  - Synergistic effect of energy drinks and overweight/obesity on cardiac autonomic
      testing using the Valsalva maneuver in university students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and caffeine consumption may lead to autonomic disturbances
      that can result in a wide range of cardiovascular disorders. OBJECTIVES: To
      determine autonomic disturbances produced by the synergistic effects of
      overweight or obesity (OW/OB) and energy drinks. DESIGN: Cross-sectional,
      analytical. SETTING: Physiology department at a university in Saudi Arabia.
      SUBJECTS AND METHODS: University students, 18-22 years of age, of normal weight
      (NW) and OW/OB were recruited by convenience sampling. Autonomic testing by the
      Valsalva ratio (VR) along with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse
      pressure, and mean arterial blood pressure were measured at baseline (0 minute)
      and 60 minutes after energy drink consumption. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Autonomic
      disturbance, hemodynamic changes. RESULTS: In 50 (27 males and 23 females)
      subjects, 21 NW and 29 OW/OB, a significant decrease in VR was observed in OW/OB
      subjects and in NW and OW/OB females at 60 minutes after energy drink
      consumption. Values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure and
      mean arterial blood pressure were also significantly higher in OW/OB and in
      females as compared to NW and males. BMI was negatively correlated with VR and
      diastolic blood pressure at 60 minutes. CONCLUSION: Obesity and energy drinks
      alter autonomic functions. In some individuals, OW/OB may augment these effects.
      LIMITATIONS: Due to time and resource restraints, only the acute effects of
      energy drinks were examined.

PMID- 28578357
TI  - Is survival after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer in Saudi patients
      different from that of Western patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although radical cystectomy (RC) is considered the gold standard
      treatment of muscle invasive bladder cancer, nearly half of patients develop
      metastases and ultimately die within 2 years. OBJECTIVE: To assess survival,
      evaluate different prognostic factors that may affect disease-free survival (DFS)
      in Saudi patients after RC for carcinoma of the bladder and to compare our
      results with those of Western countries. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review.
      SETTING: A tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      collected data on patients who underwent RC for bladder cancer in the period
      between 1979 and 2014. Demographic, clinical and pathological variables and the
      application of perioperative chemotherapy were reviewed. Univariate and
      multivariate analyses were done with DFS as the end point. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
      Disease-specific survival. RESULTS: On 328 patients for whom data was available,
      the median follow up was 23 months (range, 2 month-28 years) and median age was
      58 years (range, 21-90). Of these patients, 268 were males (81.7%), 235 (71.7%)
      had urothelial carcinoma (UC), 79 (24.1%) had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and
      208 (63.4%) had pathological tumor stage 3 or more. The 5-year overall survival
      (OS) and DFS were 52% and 48%, respectively. There was no statistically
      significant difference in DFS of patients with UC and pure SCC. On univariate
      analysis, lymph node status and pathological tumor stage were significant
      predictors of DFS. Both variables sustained statistical significance in a
      multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Survival following RC is almost the same as
      others. Moreover, pathological tumor stage and lymph node metastasis were the
      only independent predictors for survival following RC. Future cooperative
      prospective studies are required to gain data on our region. LIMITATIONS:
      Relatively small sample size and retrospective.

PMID- 28578358
TI  - Incidence and outcome of acute kidney injury by the pRIFLE criteria for children
      receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation after heart surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in patients treated with
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The RIFLE criteria demonstrate
      clinical relevance for diagnosing AKI and classifying its severity. OBJECTIVES:
      To systematically define the incidence, clinical course and outcome of AKI using
      the pediatric pRIFLE criteria. DESIGN: Retrospective, medical records review.
      SETTINGS: Pediatric cardiac surgical intensive care units at a tertiary care
      hospital in Riyadh. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of all
      pediatric patients that underwent cardiac surgery and required ECMO
      postoperatively between 1 January 2011 and 1 January 2016. AKI was classified
      according to the pRIFLE criteria 48 hours after ECMO initiation. Demographics and
      concomitant therapies for all patients were collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):
      Outcome was assessed by recovery from AKI at time of discharge, ICU stay and
      mortality. RESULTS: Fifty-nine patients needed ECMO after cardiac surgery during
      the study period. Their mean (SD) age and weight was 11.0 (16.5) month and 5.5
      (3.6) kg, respectively. All patients had a central venoarterial ECMO inserted.
      Fifty-three patients (90%) developed AKI after ECMO initiation. The majority of
      patients (57%) were categorized as pRIFLE-Failure, having a higher mortality rate
      (28/34 patients, 82%) in comparison to the pRIFLE-Injury and pRIFLE-Risk groups.
      Twenty-nine patients (49%) required either peritoneal dialysis (PD), or renal
      replacement therapy (RRT) or both. For AKI vs non-AKI patients, there was a
      statistically significant difference between mean (SD) ECMO duration (9.0 [8.00]
      vs 6.0 [2.0] days; P=.02) and ICU stay (37.0 [41.0] vs 21.0 [5.0] days; P=.03),
      respectively. The overall mortality rate was 58%, with a significant difference
      (P=.03) between AKI and non-AKI groups. All the patients who survived had normal
      creatinine clearance at hospital discharge. CONCLUSION: There is a high incidence
      of AKI in pediatric patients requiring ECMO after cardiac surgery, and it is
      associated with higher mortality, increased ECMO duration, and increased
      ventilator days. LIMITATIONS: Single-center retrospective analysis and the small
      sample size limited the precision of our estimates in sub-populations.

PMID- 28578359
TI  - Common nasal deformities among rhinoplasty patients in a university hospital in
      Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rhinoplasty has become one of the most common aesthetic procedures in
      the world. Few studies from the Middle East have described rhinoplasty patients
      in the region. OBJECTIVE: To investigate common nasal deformities in individuals
      seeking rhinoplasty at a single institution in Saudi Arabia. DESIGN:
      Retrospective study and chart review. SETTING: King Abdulaziz University
      Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All patients seeking
      primary rhinoplasty who were 15 years of age and older were included. The types
      of external nasal deformities were compared by gender and age groups. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE: Types of external nasal deformities. RESULTS: Of the 248
      patients investigated, 113 were male and 135 female. The most common external
      nasal deformity was a broad dorsum (n=163; 65.7%), followed by a bulbous
      columella (n=154; 62.1%), and deviation (n=150; 60.5%). Upward columella was most
      common in older patients, and deviation decreased with age. CONCLUSION: The most
      common deformity among the study population of Saudis was a wide nasal dorsum,
      bulbous nasal tip and deviated nose. Studying nasal deformity in some ethnic
      groups has an influence in selecting and practicing specific rhinoplasty
      approaches. LIMITATIONS: Study conducted in one hospital and may not be
      generalizable.

PMID- 28578360
TI  - Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in Saudi Arabia: retrospective single-center review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is an uncommon disease with various
      clinical presentations. The hypopigmented type is more common in individuals with
      a dark skin complexion. Moreover, childhood CTCL is more common in Mediterranean
      populations in comparison to the West. OBJECTIVE: To describe CTCL in the Saudi
      population. DESIGN: A retrospective collection of data on all cases of CTCL from
      2010-2016. SETTING: Dermatology clinic at a tertiary center in Riyadh, Saudi
      Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We collected data on all cases of CTCL diagnosed
      clinically and confirmed pathologically. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The number of
      cases of CTCL, gender, age at diagnosis and clinical subtypes. RESULTS: The most
      common presentation among 125 patients was the classic type (patches and plaques)
      followed by the hypopigmented and poikilodermatous variants. Males were 58% of
      the population (n=72). The median age at diagnosis was 41 years and the range was
      5 to 86 years. Thirteen percent were younger than 20 years of age. CONCLUSION:
      Hypopigmented and poikilodermatous types of CTCL are more common in our
      population than in the West. LIMITATION: Retrospective, single-center data may
      not be generalizable since difficult cases are more likely to be referred to a
      tertiary center.

PMID- 28578361
TI  - Current umbilical cord clamping practices and attitudes of obstetricians and
      midwives toward delayed cord clamping in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Saudi Arabia, as in many countries, there is usually no clear
      definition of the timing of umbilical cord clamping (UCC) in the policies and
      procedures used by hospitals. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends
      delayed cord clamping (DCC) ( > 1 minute after birth) as it can significantly
      improve hemodynamics and long-term neurodevelopment. OBJECTIVE: To investigate
      current practices of healthcare professionals on the timing of UCC in Saudi
      Arabia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Five tertiary hospitals in
      Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during May to October 2016. SUBJECTS AND METHODS:
      Obstetricians and midwives completed a widely-used questionnaire on UCC
      practices. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Current UCC practices and attitudes of
      obstetricians and midwives toward DCC. RESULTS: Eighty-two obstetricians and 75
      midwives completed the questionnaire for a response rate of 80%. The majority of
      respondents were aged 30 years or older (81%) and 84% were females. Most
      respondents were non-Saudi (66%) and had an educational level of bachelor's
      degree or higher (72%). Only 42% of respondents reported the existence of UCC
      guidelines in their practice; 38% reported the existence of a set time for UCC
      when the neonate was term and healthy, and only 32% had a set time for UCC in
      preterm neonates. While lower levels of agreement were reported among
      obstetricians and midwives on the benefits of DCC for babies requiring positive
      pressure ventilation, the majority of respondents (69-71%) thought that DCC was
      generally good for both term and preterm babies and that its benefits extend
      beyond the neonatal period. CONCLUSIONS: While the majority of obstetricians and
      midwives that participated in this study had a positive perception toward DCC,
      this did not translate to their daily practice as most of these professionals
      reported a lack of existing UCC guidelines in their institutions. Further studies
      are warranted to confirm these findings. LIMITATIONS: Participant selection by
      convenience sampling.

PMID- 28578362
TI  - Student perception of the educational environment in regular and bridging nursing
      programs in Saudi Arabia using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Taibah University offers regular nursing (RNP) and nursing bridging
      (NBP) bachelor programs. We evaluated student perception of the learning
      environment as one means of quality assurance. OBJECTIVES: To assess nursing
      student perception of their educational environment, to compare the perceptions
      of regular and bridging students, and to compare the perceptions of students in
      the old and new curricula. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: College of
      Nursing at Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The
      Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) instrument was distributed
      to over 714 nursing students to assess perception of the educational environment.
      Independent samples t test and Pearson's chi square were used to compare the
      programs and curricula. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The DREEM inventory score. RESULTS:
      Of 714 students, 271 (38%) were RNP students and 443 (62%) were NBP students. The
      mean (standard deviation) DREEM score was 111 (25). No significant differences
      were observed between the programs except for the domain "academic self
      perceptions" being higher in RNP students (P < .001). Higher mean DREEM scores
      were observed among students studying the new curriculum in the RNP (P < .001)
      and NBP (P > .05). CONCLUSION: Nursing students generally perceived their
      learning environment as more positive than negative. Regular students were more
      positive than bridging students. Students who experienced the new curriculum were
      more positive towards learning. LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional design and
      unequal gender and study level distributions may limit generalizability of the
      results. Longitudinal, large-scale studies with more even distributions of
      participant characteristics are needed.

PMID- 28578363
TI  - Etiology of optic atrophy: a prospective observational study from Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Optic atrophy (OA) represents permanent retinal ganglion cell loss
      warranting study to establish etiology. OBJECTIVES: To describe neurogenic causes
      of OA. DESIGN: Prospective, observational. SETTING: Tertiary care center, Riyadh,
      Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included consecutive patients of all ages
      with OA caused by lesions affecting the visual pathways who were referred over a
      9-month period (November 2013 to July 2014). Diagnosis was based on visual
      acuity, ophthalmoscopic features and ancillary tests. Patient demographics,
      results of a clinical examination, test data and etiology were recorded. For each
      cause of OA, both gender and age group were analyzed as potential risk factors
      using simple univariate logistic regression. OA associated with glaucoma and
      retinal diseases was excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Description of causes of OA.
      RESULTS: Two hundred and four patients and 353 eyes met inclusion criteria. The
      median age was 27 years (range 3 months-77 years; interquartile range, 27 years)
      among 111(54.4%) females and 93(45.6%) males, with no statistically significant
      difference in age of presentation between the genders. The majority of lesions
      were bilateral (n=151, 74%). Tumors were the most common cause, accounting for
      127 (62.2%) cases. These occurred mostly in adults (72.4%) compared to the
      pediatric group (OR=3.3, 95% CI: 1.79-6.03; P < .001). Hereditary neoplasia
      (OR=5.55; 95% CI: 1.67-18.42; P=.005) and metabolic diseases (OR=17.57; 95% CI:
      2.15-143.62; P=.007) were more common causes in the pediatric group. There were
      no significant associations between gender or visual acuity and etiology of OA.
      In developed nations, OA is frequently the result of ischemia and neuritis. We
      found many other causes, especially orbital and intracranial tumors. CONCLUSIONS:
      The frequency of tumors as the cause of OA may represent a higher incidence of
      aggressive tumors coupled with poor recognition/acknowledgement of symptoms and
      limited access, resulting in late presentations. LIMITATIONS: These findings may
      reflect bias from selective referrals to a tertiary center and may not represent
      all of Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28578364
TI  - Xeroderma pigmentosum at a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder
      caused by defective DNA repair that results in extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet
      (UV) rays. Depending on the type of XP, the disease may affect the skin, eyes and
      nervous system. OBJECTIVES: Describe the dermatologic manifestations in patients
      suffering from XP. DESIGN: Retrospective, descriptive review of medical records.
      SETTING: Dermatology clinic at tertiary care center in Riyadh. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This study included Saudi patients with clinically confirmed XP. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Demographic and clinical data including pathology and
      associated conditions and outcomes. RESULTS: Of 21 patients with XP, the most
      common manifestation was lentigines, affecting 18 patients (86%). The most common
      skin cancer was basal cell carcinoma followed by squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
      affecting 15 (71.4%) and 9 (42.8%), respectively. Other skin findings included
      neurofibroma, trichilemmoma and seborrheic keratosis. Ocular involvement included
      photophobia, which was the most common finding followed by dryness and ocular
      malignancies. Two patients showed neurological involvement, which correlated with
      the type of mutation. CONCLUSION: Considering that XP is a rare genetic disease,
      this description of our patient population will aid in early recognition and
      diagnosis. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective and small number of patients. Genetic
      analyses were done for only 5 of the 21 patients.

PMID- 28578365
TI  - Self-inflicted eye injury.
AB  - : Individuals with a factitious ocular disorder feign or exaggerate having an eye
      injury or intentionally produce an eye injury so as to assume the role of a sick
      person. We report two cases of self-inflicted ocular injury using needle-like
      foreign bodies and razor that represent possible diagnoses of Munchausen
      syndrome. Both patients presented with different clinical pictures that misguided
      the clinical diagnosis and delayed proper management. Although self-inflicted
      ocular injuries are rare, ophthalmologists should be aware of the possibility of
      their existence, particularly when caring for patients with psychiatric
      conditions. SIMILAR CASES PUBLISHED: 13.

PMID- 28578366
TI  - Soft tissue calcium deposits.

PMID- 28578367
TI  - Accuracy of cotinine serum test to detect the smoking habit and its association
      with periodontal disease in a multicenter study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The validity of the surveys on self-reported smoking status is often
      questioned because smokers underestimate cigarette use and deny the habit. It has
      been suggested that self-report should be accompanied by cotinine test. This
      report evaluates the usefulness of serum cotinine test to assess the association
      between smoking and periodontal status in a study with a large sample population
      to be used in studies with other serum markers in epidemiologic and periodontal
      medicine researches. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 578 patients who were part of a
      multicenter study on blood biomarkers were evaluated about smoking and its
      relation to periodontal disease. Severity of periodontal disease was determinate
      using clinical attachment loss (CAL). Smoking was assessed by a questionnaire and
      a blood sample drawn for serum cotinine determination. RESULTS: The optimal cut
      off point for serum cotinine was 10 ng/ml. Serum cotinine showed greater
      association with severity of CAL than self-report for mild-moderate CAL [OR 2.03
      (CI95% 1.16-3.53) vs. OR 1.08 (CI95% 0.62-1.87) ] advanced periodontitis [OR 2.36
      (CI95% 1.30- 4.31) vs. OR 2.06 (CI95% 0.97-4.38) ] and extension of CAL > 3 mm [
      OR 1.78 (CI95% 1.16-1.71) vs. 1.37 (CI95% 0.89-2.11)]. When the two tests were
      evaluated together were not shown to be better than serum cotinine test.
      CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported smoking and serum cotinine test >= 10ng/ml are
      accurate ,complementary and more reliable methods to assess the patient's smoking
      status and could be used in studies evaluating serum samples in large population
      and multicenter studies. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The serum cotinine level is more
      reliable to make associations with the patient's periodontal status than self
      report questionnaire and could be used in multicenter and periodontal medicine
      studies.

PMID- 28578368
TI  - Effect of pre-operatory low-level laser therapy on pain, swelling, and trismus
      associated with third-molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The extraction of impacted third molars is commonly associated to
      pain, edema, trismus, limited jaw opening and movements. The aim of this
      retrospective study is to verify if pre-surgical low-level laser therapy (LLLT)
      associated with the extraction of impacted lower third molars could add benefits
      to the postoperative symptoms respect LLLT performed only after surgery. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: Data from 45 patients subjected to a surgical extraction of lower
      third molars were pooled and divided into three groups. Patients that received
      only routine management were inserted in the control group. Group 1, were
      patients that received LLLT immediately after surgery and at 24 hours. In group 2
      were included patients treated with LLLT immediately before the extraction and
      immediately after the end of the procedure. Data were analyzed using linear
      regression and descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Both laser-treated groups were
      characterized by minor events of post-surgery complications of pain, edema,
      trismus. The use of NSAIDs in the first 24 hours was significantly inferior in
      Group 2. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-surgical LLLT treatment seems to increase the analgesic
      effect of LLLT. However, trismus and edema were reduced in both laser treated
      groups, independently from the period of irradiation.

PMID- 28578369
TI  - What is the frequency of anatomical variations and pathological findings in
      maxillary sinuses among patients subjected to maxillofacial cone beam computed
      tomography? A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When considering dental implant rehabilitation in atrophic posterior
      sectors, the maxillary sinuses must be evaluated in detail. Knowledge of the
      anatomical variations and of the potential lesions found in these structures
      conditions the outcome of sinus lift procedures and therefore of the dental
      implants. A systematic review is made to determine the frequency of anatomical
      variations and pathological findings in maxillary sinuses among patients
      subjected to cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A PubMed
      (MEDLINE) literature search was made of articles published up until 20 December
      2015. The systematic review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items
      for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA). The quality of the studies
      included in the review was assessed using the Methodological Index for
      Nonrandomized Studies (MINORS). RESULTS: The combinations of search terms
      resulted in a list of 3482 titles. Twenty-three studies finally met the inclusion
      criteria and were entered in the systematic review, comprising a total of 11,971
      patients. The most common anatomical variations were pneumatization and sinus
      septa. The prevalence of maxillary sinus disease ranged from 7.5% to 66%. The
      most common pathological findings of the maxillary sinus were mucosal thickening,
      sinusitis and sinus opacification. CONCLUSIONS: Although the main indication of
      CBCT of the maxillary sinus in dentistry is sinus floor elevation/treatment
      planning and evaluation prior to dental implant placement, this imaging modality
      is increasingly also used for endodontic and periodontal purposes. There is no
      consensus regarding the cutoff point beyond which mucosal thickening of the
      maxillary sinus should be regarded as pathological, and the definition of
      maxillary sinusitis moreover varies greatly in the scientific literature. In this
      regard, international consensus is required in relation to these concepts, with a
      clear distinction between healthy and diseased maxillary sinuses.

PMID- 28578370
TI  - Uncommon oral manifestation of lichen sclerosus: critical analysis of cases
      reported from 1957 to 2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lichen sclerosus is a mucocutaneous autoimmune disease which might be
      initiated by infectious pathogens as Borrelia Bugrdorferi and HPV. This disease
      shows destructive potential and is rarely diagnosed in oral mucosa. The purpose
      of this paper is to evaluate the characteristics of cases described in literature
      from 1957 to 2016, looking to provide valuable evidence about clinicopathologic
      features of this disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A MedLine search was performed
      aiming to find oral lichen sclerosus cases in literature and discuss its
      demographical and pathological characteristics as well as treatment methods
      performed for these cases. RESULTS: 34 oral lichen sclerosus cases with
      histological confirmation and one clinicopathologic study linked with this
      disease were found in literature. Oral lichen sclerosus affected most commonly
      female patients, were asymptomatic and not associated to skin or genital lesions.
      Furthermore, affected patients in a range of 7 - 70-years old (Average age =
      31.81). CONCLUSIONS: Oral lichen sclerosus is a rare pathologic process with
      slight predilection for prepubertal girls, for which topical corticosterois have
      demonstrated satisfactory therapeutic value.

PMID- 28578371
TI  - Oral health and systemic inflammatory, cardiac and nitroxid biomarkers in
      hemodialysis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Periodontal diseases have systemic inflammatory effects and have been
      adversely associated with cardiovascular diseases, which are also the most
      frequent cause of death in the end-stage renal disease. The aim of this cross
      sectional study was to investigate the oral health and serum biomarkers among the
      hemodialysis (HD) patients in Slovenia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 111 HD patients
      were periodontally examined and their sera were assayed for C reactive protein
      (CRP), cardiac troponin T (TnT), nitrite/nitrate (NOx) and antibody levels to A.
      actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis. The association of oral health with
      systemic response was analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis test, Fisher's exact test and
      multivariate linear regression. RESULTS: Bleeding on probing without periodontal
      pockets was present in 5.2%, calculus without periodontal pockets in 42.1%,
      shallow periodontal pockets in 39.5% and deep periodontal pockets in 13.2% of
      dentate patients. There were 28.8% edentulous participants. 63.1% of the patients
      had CRP levels higher than 3 mg/L and 34.2% higher than 10 mg/L. TnT was
      detectable in all participants, with 25.2% exhibiting levels higher than 100
      ng/L. The median level of NOx was 43.1 umol/L. Participants with higher CRP were
      more likely to be edentulous and have higher TnT levels. A direct association of
      oral health with TnT or NOx was not detected. CONCLUSIONS: HD patients in
      Slovenia have compromised oral health and increased serum inflammatory and
      cardiac biomarkers. Edentulousness was an independent predictor for the increased
      CRP, indicating a need for improved dental care to retain the teeth as long as
      possible.

PMID- 28578372
TI  - Mandibular advancement devices vs nasal-continuous positive airway pressure in
      the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common disorder that may affect
      at least 2 to 4% of the adult population. Nasal-Continuous Positive Airway
      Pressure (N-CPAP) is today considered the gold standard for the treatment of OSA.
      The development of oral appliances (OAs) represents a new approach for the
      management of this pathology. The aim of this systematic review is to compare the
      efficacy of OAs and N-CPAP in the treatment of patients with mild to severe OSA.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A PubMed-MEDLINE and Cochrane databases search of articles
      published between 1982 and 2016 comparing the effect of N-CPAP and OAs in OSA
      patients was conducted during July 2016. The studies were selected and stratified
      according to PRISMA and SORT criteria. The main outcome measure was post
      treatment Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI) while secondary outcomes included post
      treatment Epworth Score Scale (ESS) score and lowest Oxygen Saturation level.
      RESULTS: N-CPAP was significantly more effective in suppressing AHI than OA.
      Moreover, N- CPAP was significantly more effective in increasing post-treatment
      lowest Oxygen Saturation level than OA. However, no significant different in
      decreasing ESS values was found between the two treatments. CONCLUSIONS: On the
      basis of evidence in this review it would appear appropriate to offer OA therapy
      to those who are unwilling or unable to persist with CPAP therapy. N-CPAP still
      must be considered the gold standard treatment for OSA and, therefore, OAs may be
      included in the list of alternative options.

PMID- 28578373
TI  - Assessment of time intervals in the pathway to oral cancer diagnosis in north
      westerm Spain. Relative contribution of patient interval.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite continuous advances in diagnosis and therapy, oral cancers
      are mostly diagnosed at advanced stages with minor survival improvements in the
      last two decades. Both phenomena have been attributed to delays in the diagnosis.
      This study aims at quantifying the time elapsed until definitive diagnosis in
      these patients and the patient interval's contribution. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      hospital-based, ambispective, observational study was undertaken on incident
      cases with a pathological diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma recruited
      during 2015 at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery services of CHUAC (A Coruna)
      and POVISA (Vigo) hospitals. RESULTS: 74 consecutive oral cancer patients (59.5%
      males; median age: 65.0 years (IQ:57-74)) were studied. Most cases (52.7%; n=39)
      were at advanced stages (TNM III-IV) at diagnosis. The period since first
      sign/symptom until the patient seeks health care was the longest interval in the
      pathway to diagnosis and treatment (median: 31.5 days; IQR= 7.0 - 61.0) and
      represents >60% of the interval since symptom onset until referral to specialised
      care (pre-referral interval). The average interval assigned to the patient
      resulted to be relatively larger than the time elapsed since the patient is seen
      at primary care until a definitive diagnosis is reached (diagnostic interval).
      Median of the referral interval for primary care professionals: 6.5 days (IQR=
      0.0 - 49.2) and accounts for 35% (19% - 51%) of the diagnostic interval.
      CONCLUSIONS: The patient interval is the main component of the pathway to
      treatment since the detection of a bodily change until the definitive diagnosis.
      Therefore, strategies focused on risk groups to shorten this interval should be
      implemented in order to ease an early diagnosis of symptomatic oral cancer.

PMID- 28578374
TI  - In vitro comparison of primary stability of two implant designs in D3 bone.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary stability (PS) is a key factor for implant survival rate and
      depends on implant design or bone quality. The aim of this study was to compare
      different thread designs implants, evaluating PS with periotest values (PV) and
      implant stability quotient (ISQ) values through resonance frequency analysis
      (RFA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 60 implants (Radhex(r), Inmet-Garnick
      S.A., Guadalajara, Spain) were placed in freshly bovine ribs in vitro. Two
      designs were used: 30 tapered body with single thread design (PHI) and 30 tapered
      body with double thread design implants (PHIA). Both designs were 4mm wide and
      12mm long. Implants were placed according to manufacturer's guidelines. OsstellTM
      and Periotest(r) devices were used to evaluate PS by a blinded independent
      observer. Computed tomographies (CTs) of the ribs were made (BrightSpeed Series
      CT systems, GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) and bone quality surrounding each
      implant was evaluated in Hounsfield Units (HU) using Ez3D Plus software (Vatech
      Co., Korea). Bone quality was classified according to Misch and Kircos in D1, D2,
      D3 or D4. RESULTS: All implants were mechanically stable. Only implants placed in
      D3 bone (350-850 HU) were selected for the study: 28 PHI and 26 PHIA. The one way
      ANOVA showed significant difference (p < 0.005) among two implants designs in ISQ
      values (61,55 +/- 6,67 in PHI and 68,94 +/- 5,82 in PHIA). No significant
      difference (p = 0,171) was shown in PV between two designs (-4,47 +/- 1,39 in PHI
      and -4,77 +/- 0,87 in PHIA). CONCLUSIONS: Higher PS was found using OsstellTM
      device in implants with double thread design (PHIA) in comparison to implants
      with single thread design (PHI) in D3 bone.

PMID- 28578376
TI  - Letter to Editor: Support to the Spanish language, from Oral Medicine.
AB  - In the form of a letter to the director, the author provides linguistic comments
      related to Spanish. He draws attention to some often misused words and suggests
      some expressions that may improve the use of the Spanish language in scientific
      texts.

PMID- 28578375
TI  - Knowledge, aptitudes, and preferences in implant dentistry teaching/training
      among undergraduate dental students at the University of Barcelona.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral implant rehabilitation should be considered a treatment option
      for any edentulous patient and Implant Dentistry is currently a discipline taught
      in the undergraduate formation. The level of knowledge acquired and how the
      students perceive the quality of training in Implant Dentistry could assess to
      know if it is necessary to improve the syllabus. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      questionnaire was developed with 11 questions: Basic knowledge (7); Perception of
      training received (2); Ways in which students would receive training (2). To be
      responded anonymously and voluntarily for undergraduates students in the Faculty
      of Dentistry (University of Barcelona, Spain). RESULTS: One hundred and seven
      students, 76 third year (Group A) and 31 fourth year (Group B) answered the
      questionnaire. In Group A, 98.68% of students and in Group B 93.54% believed they
      were poorly informed; 100% of both groups would prefer to receive more training
      as part of the degree or as postgraduate training through modular courses
      imparted by experts (A: 71,05%, B: 70,96%) Training through postgraduate programs
      or training given by private businesses were the least desirable options (A: 42%,
      B: 64.51%). Questions about basic knowledge acquired received varying responses,
      which might indicate a certain level of confusion in this area. CONCLUSIONS: The
      undergraduate syllabus must be revised to include sufficient content and training
      to allow the student to indicate implant-based treatments based on evidence.
      Students would prefer training to be included in the undergraduate syllabus.

PMID- 28578377
TI  - Association of Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Levels with Microvascular
      Complications in Type 2 Diabetes Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is typically featured by elevated
      serum concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). This study aimed to
      determine the relationship between TSH levels and microvascular complications in
      type 2 diabetes patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 860 type 2 diabetes
      patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Subjects were evaluated for
      anthropometric measurements, thyroid function, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic
      kidney disease. TSH was divided into 3 levels: 0.27-2.49 mU/l, 2.5-4.2 mU/l, and
      >4.2 mU/l. RESULTS Among the participants, 76 subjects (8.8%) were diagnosed with
      subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) (male: 6.6% and female: 11.8%). The prevalence
      of diabetic retinopathy did not differ among the groups (P=0.259). Of the 860
      type 2 diabetic subjects, we further excluded invalid or missing data. Therefore,
      800 and 860 subjects were included in our study of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and
      diabetic kidney disease (DKD), respectively. The frequencies of microalbuminuria
      and macroalbuminuria differed significantly among the different groups. The
      frequency of DKD was significantly different among the 3 groups (P=0.001) and was
      higher in subjects with higher TSH levels. After an adjustment for confounding
      variables, TSH levels were significantly associated with DKD (P<0.001). When
      compared with subjects with TSH 0.27-2.49 mU/l, the frequency of DKD was higher
      in subjects with TSH >4.20 mU/l (OR 1.531, 95% CI 1.174-1.997) and with TSH 2.50
      4.20 mU/l (OR 1.579, 95% CI 1.098-2.270). However, TSH levels was not
      significantly correlated with DR (P=0.126). CONCLUSIONS Type 2 diabetic patients
      with higher TSH values had a higher prevalence of DKD.

PMID- 28578378
TI  - Genome-Wide Profiling of miRNA and mRNA Expression in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND Our study aimed to identify key differentially expressed genes (DEGs)
      and miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) which can serve as potential biomarkers for diagnosis and
      therapy of Alzheimer's disease (AD). MATERIAL AND METHODS We performed miRNA and
      mRNA integrated analysis (MMIA) to identify DEGs and DEmiRNAs of AD. The AD
      specific DEmiRNAs-targets interaction network was contrasted. Gene ontology (GO)
      and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis
      were performed. Q-RT-PCR was used to verify the expression of selected DEGs and
      DEmiRNAs. RESULTS We conducted MMIA of AD based on 1 miRNA dataset and 3 mRNA
      datasets derived from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database; 1759 DEGs and
      12 DEmiRNAs were obtained. DEGs of AD were significantly enriched in Huntington's
      disease and AD. LRP1, CDK5R1, PLCb2, NDUFA4, and DLG4 were 5 DEGs regulated by 4
      DEmiRNAs, including miR-26b-5p, miR-26a-5p, miR-107, and miR-103a-3p. These 4
      miRNAs were the top 4 miRNAs covering most DEGs. According to the qRT-PCR
      results, the expression of PLCbeta2, NDUFA4, DLG4, miR-107, and miR-103a-3p was
      consistent with our integrated analysis. CONCLUSIONS We concluded that LRP1,
      CDK5R1, PLCbeta2, NDUFA4, and DLG4 may play a role in AD regulated by miR-26b-5p,
      miR-26a-5p, miR-107, and miR-103a-3p. Our findings will contribute to
      identification of biomarkers and new strategies for drug design for AD treatment.

PMID- 28578380
TI  - The zebrafish ventricle: A hub of cardiac endothelial cells for in vitro cell
      behavior studies.
AB  - Despite our increasing understanding of zebrafish heart development and
      regeneration, there is limited information about the distribution of endothelial
      cells (ECs) in the adult zebrafish heart. Here, we investigate and compare the
      distribution of cardiac ECs (cECs) in adult mouse and zebrafish ventricles.
      Surprisingly, we find that (i) active coronary vessel growth is present in adult
      zebrafish, (ii) ~37 and ~39% of cells in the zebrafish heart are ECs and
      cardiomyocytes, respectively, a composition similar to that seen in mouse.
      However, we find that in zebrafish, ~36% of the ventricular tissue is covered
      with ECs, i.e., a substantially larger proportion than in mouse. Capitalising on
      the high abundance of cECs in zebrafish, we established a protocol to isolate
      them with high purity using fluorescent transgenic lines. Our approach eliminates
      side-effects due to antibody utilisation. Moreover, the isolated cECs maintained
      a high proliferation index even after three passages and were amenable to
      pharmacological treatments to study cEC migration in vitro. Such primary cultures
      will be a useful tool for supplementary in vitro studies on the accumulating
      zebrafish mutant lines as well as the screening of small molecule libraries on
      cardiac specific endothelial cells.

PMID- 28578379
TI  - Social cognition in autism: Face tuning.
AB  - Faces convey valuable information for social cognition, effective interpersonal
      interaction, and non-verbal communication. Face perception is believed to be
      atypical in autism, but the origin of this deficit is controversial. Dominant
      featural face encoding is suggested to be responsible for face tuning scarcity.
      Here we used a recently developed Face-n-Food paradigm for studying face tuning
      in individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). The key benefit of these
      images is that single components do not explicitly trigger face processing. In a
      spontaneous recognition task, adolescents with autism and typically developing
      matched controls were presented with a set of Face-n-Food images in different
      degree resembling a face (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style).
      The set of images was shown in a predetermined order from the least to most
      resembling a face. Thresholds for recognition of the Face-n-Food images as a face
      in ASD individuals were substantially higher than in typically developing
      controls: they did not report seeing a face on the images, which controls easily
      recognized as a face, and gave overall fewer face responses. This outcome not
      only lends support to atypical face tuning, but provides novel insights into the
      origin of face encoding deficits in autism.

PMID- 28578382
TI  - Astragaloside IV alleviates heart failure via activating PPARalpha to switch
      glycolysis to fatty acid beta-oxidation.
AB  - In heart failure (HF), energy metabolism pathway in cardiac muscle changes from
      fatty acid beta-oxidation to glycolysis. However, the exact mechanism is unknown.
      Sarcoendoplasmic reticulum Ca2+alpha ATPase (SERCA) expression is downregulated
      and mitochondrial function is reduced in HF, perhaps partly due to a
      substantially reduced energy supply for excitation-contraction coupling resulting
      from a lower fatty acid beta-oxidation rate. We investigated whether
      Astragaloside IV can activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha
      (PPARalpha) to stimulate fatty acid beta-oxidation and increase cardiac energy
      production, improving mitochondrial function and the efficiency of SERCA in HF.
      In pressure overload-induced HF mice and isolated hypertrophic myocardial cells,
      fatty acid beta-oxidation and heart function were substantially strengthened
      following Astragaloside IV treatment, as demonstrated by the increased expression
      of PPARalpha and SERCA2a. In vitro, Astragaloside IV regulated energy metabolism
      by increasing ATP production and enhancing mitochondrial function, attributable
      to increased oxygen consumption and slightly increased mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake.
      In HF, Astragaloside IV switched glycolysis to fatty acid beta-oxidation, as
      confirmed by reduced anaerobic glycolysis and an increased oxygen consumption
      ratio. These results suggest that Astragaloside IV can stimulate fatty acid beta
      oxidation and improve mitochondrial function, which may present a novel
      cardioprotective treatment that inhibits the progress of HF.

PMID- 28578383
TI  - Cumulative impacts: thermally bleached corals have reduced capacity to clear
      deposited sediment.
AB  - The interaction between local, anthropogenic stressors, and larger scale
      regional/global stressors, is often used to explain the current poor condition of
      many corals reefs. This form of cumulative pressure is clearly manifested by
      situations where dredging projects happen to coincide with marine heatwaves that
      have caused coral bleaching. A key pressure associated with dredging is elevated
      sedimentation. In this study, 3 coral species (Acropora millepora, Porites spp.
      and Turbinaria reniformis), representing three common morphologies (branching,
      massive and foliose respectively), were experimentally induced to bleach by
      exposure to a temperature of 31  degrees C for 21 d. The corals were then
      subjected to a range of sedimentation rates (0, 11, 22 and 40 mg cm-2 d-1), and
      their sediment-rejection ability quantified after 1 and 7 successive sediment
      deposition events. Bleached corals were less capable of removing sediments from
      their surfaces, and sediment accumulated 3 to 4-fold more than on normally
      pigmented corals. Repeated deposition resulted in a ~3-fold increase in the
      amount of sediment remaining on the corals, regardless of bleaching status. These
      results suggest that adaptive management practices need to be developed to reduce
      the impacts of future dredging projects that follow or coincide with elevated sea
      surface temperatures and coral bleaching events.

PMID- 28578385
TI  - beta-lapachone suppresses tumour progression by inhibiting epithelial-to
      mesenchymal transition in NQO1-positive breast cancers.
AB  - NQO1 is a FAD-binding protein that can form homodimers and reduce quinones to
      hydroquinones, and a growing body of evidence currently suggests that NQO1 is
      dramatically elevated in solid cancers. Here, we demonstrated that NQO1 was
      elevated in breast cancer and that its expression level was positively correlated
      with invasion and reduced disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS)
      rates. Next, we found that beta-lapachone exerted significant anti-proliferation
      and anti-metastasis effects in breast cancer cell lines due to its effects on
      NQO1 expression. Moreover, we revealed that the anti-cancer effects of beta
      lapachone were mediated by the inactivation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. In
      conclusion, these results demonstrated that NQO1 could be a useful prognostic
      biomarker for patients with breast cancer, and its bioactivatable drug, beta
      lapachone represented a promising new development and an effective strategy for
      indicating the progression of NQO1-positive breast cancers.

PMID- 28578386
TI  - Injectable in situ cross-linking chitosan-hyaluronic acid based hydrogels for
      abdominal tissue regeneration.
AB  - Abdominal wall defect caused by open abdomen (OA) or abdominal trauma is a
      serious issue since it induces several clinical problems. Although a variety of
      prosthetic materials are commonly employed, complications occur including host
      soft tissue response, fistula formation and chronic patient discomfort. Recently,
      abundant natural polymers have been used for injectable hydrogel synthesis in
      tissue regeneration. In this study, we produced the chitosan - hyaluronic acid
      (CS/HA) hydrogel and investigated its effects on abdominal tissue regeneration.
      The physical and biological properties of the hydrogel were demonstrated to be
      suitable for application in abdominal wounds. In a rat model simulating open
      abdomen and large abdominal wall defect, rapid cellular response, sufficient ECM
      deposition and marked neovascularization were found after the application of the
      hydrogel, compared to the control group and fibrin gel group. Further, the
      possible mechanism of these findings was studied. Cytokines involved in
      angiogenesis and cellular response were increased and the skew toward M2
      macrophages credited with the functions of anti-inflammation and tissue repair
      was showed in CS/HA hydrogel group. These findings suggested that CS/HA hydrogel
      could prevent the complications and was promising for abdominal tissue
      regeneration.

PMID- 28578387
TI  - Metabolic responses of a phototrophic sponge to sedimentation supports
      transitions to sponge-dominated reefs.
AB  - Declines in coral abundance have been linked to increased sedimentation at many
      locations across the world and at some of these locations there have been
      subsequent increases in sponge abundance. These shifts appear counterintuitive as
      sponges are suspension feeders and many rely on photosymbionts for carbon. At a
      sedimented reef in Indonesia (Wakatobi) corals have declined and the
      photoautotrophic sponge Lamellodysidea herbacea is now abundant. We hypothesise
      that this is partly due to L. herbacea's ability to clear its tissues of high
      levels of settled-sediment and compensate for associated metabolic demands by
      altering its respiration rate. Negligible detrimental effects to sponge tissue
      were observed after treatments up to five times the sedimentation rate of the
      highly sedimented reef. Rapid sediment clearance occurred that was potentially
      aided by mucus production. Finally, high sediment exposure caused an immediate
      reduction in respiration rate, likely due to reduced pumping to prevent clogging,
      whereas sustained high sedimentation caused an increase in respiration rate,
      potentially due to the energetic cost of mucus production. Our study provides
      evidence that some sponges can tolerate environments that appear unsuitable to
      many corals and with increased sedimentation this acclimation may support further
      transitions to sponge dominated reefs in the future.

PMID- 28578384
TI  - Alternative splicing shapes transcriptome but not proteome diversity in
      Physcomitrella patens.
AB  - Alternative splicing (AS) can significantly impact the transcriptome and proteome
      of a eukaryotic cell. Here, using transcriptome and proteome profiling data, we
      analyzed AS in two life forms of the model moss Physcomitrella patens, namely
      protonemata and gametophores, as well as in protoplasts. We identified 12 043
      genes subject to alternative splicing and analyzed the extent to which AS
      contributes to proteome diversity. We could distinguish a few examples that
      unambiguously indicated the presence of two or more splice isoforms from the same
      locus at the proteomic level. Our results indicate that alternative isoforms have
      a small effect on proteome diversity. We also revealed that mRNAs and pre-mRNAs
      have thousands of complementary binding sites for long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)
      that may lead to potential interactions in transcriptome. This finding points to
      an additional level of gene expression and AS regulation by non-coding
      transcripts in Physcomitrella patens. Among the differentially expressed and
      spliced genes we found serine/arginine-rich (SR) genes, which are known to
      regulate AS in cells. We found that treatment with abscisic (ABA) and methyl
      jasmonic acids (MeJA) led to an isoform-specific response and suggested that ABA
      in gametophores and MeJA in protoplasts regulate AS and the transcription of SR
      genes.

PMID- 28578391
TI  - Nanoscale spheroidized cementite induced ultrahigh strength-ductility combination
      in innovatively processed ultrafine-grained low alloy medium-carbon steel.
AB  - We describe here innovative processing of low alloy medium-carbon steel with a
      duplex microstructure composed of nanoscale spheroidized cementite (Fe3C) in an
      ultrafine-grained (UFG) ferritic steel. After multi-pass rolling and intermittent
      annealing at 550  degrees C for 300 s, the obtained UFG-1 steel showed an average
      ferrite grain size of ~430 nm, containing nanoscale spheroidized cementite (Fe3C)
      particles with an average size of ~70 nm. On annealing at 600  degrees C for 300
      s, the average size of ferritic grains was increased to ~680 nm and the average
      size of spheroidized Fe3C particles increased to ~90 nm, referred as UFG-2 steel.
      Tensile tests indicated that UFG-1 steel had high yield strength (sigma y) of
      1260 MPa, and ultimate tensile strength (sigma UTS) of 1400 MPa. These values are
      higher than that of UFG-2 steel (sigma y = 1080 MPa and sigma UTS = 1200 MPa),
      suggesting that the strengthening contribution is a cumulative effect of decrease
      in ferrite grain size and nanoscale cementite. The incoherent interfaces between
      nanosized particles and the matrix acted as a strong barrier to dislocation
      motion. The study underscores that nanosized precipitates not only provide
      strength but also contribute to ductility, which is very encouraging for
      improving the ductility of medium-carbon steels.

PMID- 28578388
TI  - Antibody blockade of CLEC12A delays EAE onset and attenuates disease severity by
      impairing myeloid cell CNS infiltration and restoring positive immunity.
AB  - The mechanism of dendritic cells (DCs) recruitment across the blood brain barrier
      (BBB) during neuroinflammation has been the least explored amongst all
      leukocytes. For cells of myeloid origin, while integrins function at the level of
      adhesion, the importance of lectins remains unknown. Here, we identified
      functions of one C-type lectin receptor, CLEC12A, in facilitating DC binding and
      transmigration across the BBB in response to CCL2 chemotaxis. To test function of
      CLEC12A in an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), we administered blocking
      antibody to CLEC12A that significantly ameliorated disease scores in MOG35-55
      induced progressive, as well as PLP138-151-induced relapsing-remitting
      experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice. The decline in both
      progression and relapse of EAE occurred as a result of reduced demyelination and
      myeloid cell infiltration into the CNS tissue. DC numbers were restored in the
      spleen of C57BL/6 and peripheral blood of SJL/J mice along with a decreased TH17
      phenotype within CD4+ T-cells. The effects of CLEC12A blocking were further
      validated using CLEC12A knockout (KO) animals wherein EAE disease induction was
      delayed and reduced disease severity was observed. These studies reveal the
      utility of a DC-specific mechanism in designing new therapeutics for MS.

PMID- 28578390
TI  - A proof-of-concept study for developing integrated two-photon microscopic and
      magnetic resonance imaging modality at ultrahigh field of 16.4 tesla.
AB  - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood oxygen level
      dependent (BOLD) contrast has gained a prominent position in neuroscience for
      imaging neuronal activity and studying effective brain connectivity under working
      state and functional connectivity at resting state. However, the fundamental
      questions in regards to fMRI technology: how the BOLD signal inferences the
      underlying microscopic neuronal activity and physiological changes and what is
      the ultimate specificity of fMRI for functional mapping of microcircuits, remain
      unanswered. The capability of simultaneous fMRI measurement and functional
      microscopic imaging in a live brain thus holds the key to link the microscopic
      and mesoscopic neural dynamics to the macroscopic brain activity at the central
      nervous system level. Here we report the first demonstration to integrate high
      resolution two-photon fluorescence microscopy (TPM) with a 16.4 tesla MRI system,
      which proves the concept and feasibility for performing simultaneous high
      resolution fMRI and TPM imaging at ultrahigh magnetic field.

PMID- 28578392
TI  - An appropriate Wnt/beta-catenin expression level during the remodeling phase is
      required for improved bone fracture healing in mice.
AB  - Accumulating evidence demonstrates that the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway
      plays a dominant role in bone repair. However, the role of Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling in the remodeling phase during bone fracture healing is currently
      unknown. In the present study, beta-catenin was activated at different levels or
      deleted in mice at the late stage of fracture healing, and the effects on healing
      quality were investigated. Deletion of beta-catenin disturbed bone remodeling, as
      confirmed by increased bone resorption and decreased bone formation, and
      significantly decreased bone strength compared with wildtype mice. In addition,
      the constitutive activation of beta-catenin significantly increased the bone mass
      and delayed the bone remodeling process, resulting in slightly impaired bone
      strength. In contrast, a slight activation of beta-catenin significantly
      increased bone formation and slightly hindered bone resorption. These effects
      lead to improved bone fracture healing quality compared with wildtype mice. In
      summary, the present study provides the first demonstration showing that Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling should be maintained at a slightly activated level during the
      late stage of fracture healing to ensure better bone fracture repair.

PMID- 28578393
TI  - MTI-101 treatment inducing activation of Stim1 and TRPC1 expression is a
      determinant of response in multiple myeloma.
AB  - The emergence of drug resistance continues to be a major hurdle towards improving
      patient outcomes for the treatment of Multiple Myeloma. MTI-101 is a first-in
      class peptidomimetic that binds a CD44/ITGA4 containing complex and triggers
      necrotic cell death in multiple myeloma cell lines. In this report, we show that
      acquisition of resistance to MTI-101 correlates with changes in expression of
      genes predicted to attenuate Ca2+ flux. Consistent with the acquired resistant
      genotype, MTI-101 treatment induces a rapid and robust increase in intracellular
      Ca2+ levels in the parental cells; a finding that was attenuated in the acquired
      drug resistant cell line. Mechanistically, we show that pharmacological
      inhibition of store operated channels or reduction in the expression of a
      component of the store operated Ca2+ channel, TRPC1 blocks MTI-101 induced cell
      death. Importantly, MTI-101 is more potent in specimens obtained from relapsed
      myeloma patients, suggesting that relapse may occur at a cost for increased
      sensitivity to Ca2+ overload mediated cell death. Finally, we demonstrate that
      MTI-101 is synergistic when combined with bortezomib, using both myeloma cell
      lines and primary myeloma patient specimens. Together, these data continue to
      support the development of this novel class of compounds for the treatment of
      relapsed myeloma.

PMID- 28578394
TI  - Integrated proteomic and metabolomic analysis reveals that rhodomyrtone reduces
      the capsule in Streptococcus pneumoniae.
AB  - The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria is a healthcare problem
      worldwide. We evaluated the antimicrobial activity of rhodomyrtone, an
      acylphloroglucinol present in Rhodomyrtus tomentosa leaves, against the human
      Gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. The compound exhibited
      pronounced anti-pneumococcal activity against a broad collection of clinical
      isolates. We studied the effects at the molecular level by integrated proteomic
      and metabolomic analysis. The results revealed alterations in enzymes and
      metabolites involved in several metabolic pathways including amino acid
      biosynthesis, nucleic acid biosynthesis, glucid, and lipid metabolism. Notably,
      the levels of two enzymes (glycosyltransferase and UTP-glucose-1-phosphate
      uridylyltransferase) and three metabolites (UDP-glucose, UDP-glucuronic acid and
      UDP-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine) participating in the synthesis of the pneumococcal
      capsule clearly diminished in the bacterial cells exposed to rhodomyrtone.
      Rhodomyrtone-treated pneumococci significantly possessed less amount of capsule,
      as measured by a colorimetric assay and visualized by electron microscopy. These
      findings reveal the utility of combining proteomic and metabolomic analyses to
      provide insight into phenotypic features of S. pneumoniae treated with this
      potential novel antibiotic. This can lead to an alternative antibiotic for the
      treatment of S. pneumoniae infections, because of the growing concern regarding
      antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28578395
TI  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Chinese forest soils: profile
      composition, spatial variations and source apportionment.
AB  - Previous studies reported that forest ecosystems can play a vital role in
      scavenging anthropogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and act as
      primary reservoirs of these environmental pollutants. The present study aimed to
      investigate the occurrence, spatial pattern and source apportionment of PAHs
      across Chinese background forest soils (O- & A-horizons). The 143 soils collected
      from 30 mountains showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher levels of ?15PAHs (ng g
      1 dw) in O-horizon (222 +/- 182) than A-horizon (168 +/- 161). A progressive
      increase in the levels of lighter PAHs was observed along altitudinal gradient,
      however heavier PAHs did not show any variations. Carbon contents (TOC & BC) of
      forest soils were found weakly correlated (p < 0.01) with low molecular weight
      (LMW)-PAHs but showed no relation with high molecular weight (HMW)-PAHs. Source
      apportionment results using PMF and PCA revealed that PAHs in forest soils mainly
      come from local biomass burning and/or coal combustion and attributed that forest
      soils may become a potential sink for PAHs in the region.

PMID- 28578397
TI  - Donor and recipient contribution to phenotypic traits and the expression of
      biomineralisation genes in the pearl oyster model Pinctada margaritifera.
AB  - Grafting associates two distinct genotypes, each of which maintains its own
      genetic identity throughout the life of the grafted organism. Grafting technology
      is well documented in the plant kingdom, but much less so in animals. The pearl
      oyster, Pinctada margaritifera, produces valuable pearls as a result of the
      biomineralisation process of a mantle graft from a donor inserted together with a
      nucleus into the gonad of a recipient oyster. To explore the respective roles of
      donor and recipient in pearl formation, a uniform experimental graft was designed
      using donor and recipient oysters monitored for their growth traits. At the same
      time, phenotypic parameters corresponding to pearl size and quality traits were
      recorded. Phenotypic interaction analysis demonstrated: 1) a positive correlation
      between recipient shell biometric parameters and pearl size, 2) an individual
      donor effect on cultured pearl quality traits. Furthermore, the expressions of
      biomineralisation biomarkers encoding proteins in the aragonite or prismatic
      layer showed: 1) higher gene expression levels of aragonite-related genes in the
      large donor phenotype in the graft tissue, and 2) correlation of gene expression
      in the pearl sac tissue with pearl quality traits and recipient biometric
      parameters. These results emphasize that pearl size is mainly driven by the
      recipient and that pearl quality traits are mainly driven by the donor.

PMID- 28578396
TI  - Neonicotinoid-induced pathogen susceptibility is mitigated by Lactobacillus
      plantarum immune stimulation in a Drosophila melanogaster model.
AB  - Pesticides are used extensively in food production to maximize crop yields.
      However, neonicotinoid insecticides exert unintentional toxicity to honey bees
      (Apis mellifera) that may partially be associated with massive population
      declines referred to as colony collapse disorder. We hypothesized that
      imidacloprid (common neonicotinoid; IMI) exposure would make Drosophila
      melanogaster (an insect model for the honey bee) more susceptible to bacterial
      pathogens, heat stress, and intestinal dysbiosis. Our results suggested that the
      immune deficiency (Imd) pathway is necessary for D. melanogaster survival in
      response to IMI toxicity. IMI exposure induced alterations in the host-microbiota
      as noted by increased indigenous Acetobacter and Lactobacillus spp. Furthermore,
      sub-lethal exposure to IMI resulted in decreased D. melanogaster survival when
      simultaneously exposed to bacterial infection and heat stress (37  degrees C).
      This coincided with exacerbated increases in TotA and Dpt (Imd downstream pro
      survival and antimicrobial genes, respectively) expression compared to controls.
      Supplementation of IMI-exposed D. melanogaster with Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC
      14917 mitigated survival deficits following Serratia marcescens (bacterial
      pathogen) septic infection. These findings support the insidious toxicity of
      neonicotinoid pesticides and potential for probiotic lactobacilli to reduce IMI
      induced susceptibility to infection.

PMID- 28578398
TI  - Oscillations in networks of networks stem from adaptive nodes with memory.
AB  - We present an analytical framework that allows the quantitative study of
      statistical dynamic properties of networks with adaptive nodes that have memory
      and is used to examine the emergence of oscillations in networks with response
      failures. The frequency of the oscillations was quantitatively found to increase
      with the excitability of the nodes and with the average degree of the network and
      to decrease with delays between nodes. For networks of networks, diverse cluster
      oscillation modes were found as a function of the topology. Analytical results
      are in agreement with large-scale simulations and open the horizon for
      understanding network dynamics composed of finite memory nodes as well as their
      different phases of activity.

PMID- 28578400
TI  - Lipid Droplet-Associated Hydrolase Promotes Lipid Droplet Fusion and Enhances
      ATGL Degradation and Triglyceride Accumulation.
AB  - Lipid droplet (LD)-associated hydrolase (LDAH) is a newly identified LD protein
      abundantly expressed in tissues that predominantly store triacylglycerol (TAG).
      However, how LDAH regulates TAG metabolism remains unknown. We found that upon
      oleic acid loading LDAH translocalizes from the ER to newly formed LDs, and
      induces LD coalescence in a tubulin-dependent manner. LDAH overexpression and
      downregulation in HEK293 cells increase and decrease, respectively, TAG levels.
      Pulse and chase experiments show that LDAH enhances TAG biogenesis, but also
      decreases TAG turnover and fatty acid release from cells. Mutations in predicted
      catalytic and acyltransferase motifs do not influence TAG levels, suggesting that
      the effect is independent of LDAH's enzymatic activity. However, a LDAH
      alternative-splicing variant missing 90 amino acids at C-terminus does not
      promote LD fusion or TAG accumulation, while it still localizes to LDs.
      Interestingly, LDAH enhances polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of
      adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), a rate limiting enzyme of TAG hydrolysis. Co
      expression of ATGL reverses the changes in LD phenotype induced by LDAH, and both
      proteins counterbalance their effects on TAG stores. Together, these studies
      support that under conditions of TAG storage in LDs LDAH plays a primarily
      lipogenic role, inducing LD growth and enhancing degradation of ATGL.

PMID- 28578399
TI  - Transcription Factor Forkhead Regulates Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in
      the Tobacco Hornworm, Manduca sexta.
AB  - Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in defense against microbial
      infections in insects. Expression of AMPs is regulated mainly by NF-kappaB
      factors Dorsal, Dif and Relish. Our previous study showed that both NF-kappaB and
      GATA-1 factors are required for activation of moricin promoter in the tobacco
      hornworm, Manduca sexta, and a 140-bp region in the moricin promoter contains
      binding sites for additional transcription factors. In this study, we identified
      three forkhead (Fkh)-binding sites in the 140-bp region of the moricin promoter
      and several Fkh-binding sites in the lysozyme promoter, and demonstrated that Fkh
      binding sites are required for activation of both moricin and lysozyme promoters
      by Fkh factors. In addition, we found that Fkh mRNA was undetectable in
      Drosophila S2 cells, and M. sexta Fkh (MsFkh) interacted with Relish-Rel-homology
      domain (RHD) but not with Dorsal-RHD. Dual luciferase assays with moricin mutant
      promoters showed that co-expression of MsFkh with Relish-RHD did not have an
      additive effect on the activity of moricin promoter, suggesting that MsFkh and
      Relish regulate moricin activation independently. Our results suggest that insect
      AMPs can be activated by Fkh factors under non-infectious conditions, which may
      be important for protection of insects from microbial infection during molting
      and metamorphosis.

PMID- 28578401
TI  - RNAseq analysis reveals pathways and candidate genes associated with salinity
      tolerance in a spaceflight-induced wheat mutant.
AB  - Salinity stress has become an increasing threat to food security worldwide and
      elucidation of the mechanism for salinity tolerance is of great significance.
      Induced mutation, especially spaceflight mutagenesis, is one important method for
      crop breeding. In this study, we show that a spaceflight-induced wheat mutant,
      named salinity tolerance 1 (st1), is a salinity-tolerant line. We report the
      characteristics of transcriptomic sequence variation induced by spaceflight, and
      show that mutations in genes associated with sodium ion transport may directly
      contribute to salinity tolerance in st1. Furthermore, GO and KEGG enrichment
      analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between salinity-treated st1
      and wild type suggested that the homeostasis of oxidation-reduction process is
      important for salt tolerance in st1. Through KEGG pathway analysis, "Butanoate
      metabolism" was identified as a new pathway for salinity responses. Additionally,
      key genes for salinity tolerance, such as genes encoding arginine decarboxylase,
      polyamine oxidase, hormones-related, were not only salt-induced in st1 but also
      showed higher expression in salt-treated st1 compared with salt-treated WT,
      indicating that these genes may play important roles in salinity tolerance in
      st1. This study presents valuable genetic resources for studies on transcriptome
      variation caused by induced mutation and the identification of salt tolerance
      genes in crops.

PMID- 28578402
TI  - Using bamboo biochar with compost for the stabilization and phytotoxicity
      reduction of heavy metals in mine-contaminated soils of China.
AB  - Anthropogenic activities have transformed the global geochemical cycling of heavy
      metals (HMs). Many physical, chemical and biological methods are used to reduce
      the toxicity of HMs to humans, plants and environment. This study aimed to
      investigate the immobilization and phytotoxicity reduction of HMs after
      application of bamboo biochar (BB) in mine-polluted soil in Feng county (FC) and
      Tongguan (TG). The results showed that BB application to contaminated soil
      immobilized HMs (Zn, Pb, Cd and Cu). The soil pH and EC increased and the
      bioavailability of HMs decreased in FC and TG, whereas Pb and Cu increased in TG
      soil. The addition of BB reduced HMs uptake in the shoot/root of Brassica juncea.
      Physiological responses showed that BB application improved the shoot/root
      growth, dry biomass, and enhanced the chlorophyll (a and b) and carotenoid
      concentrations in Brassica. The incorporation of BB improved the soil health and
      accelerated enzymatic activities (beta-glucosidase, alkaline phosphatase and
      urease) in HMs polluted soils. Antioxidant activities (POD, PPO, CAT and SOD)
      were also used as biomarkers to determine the negative effects of HMs on the
      growth of Brassica. Overall, the immobilization potential and phytotoxicity
      reduction of HMs were confirmed by BCF, TF and MEA for both soils.

PMID- 28578403
TI  - Fair Topologies: Community Structures and Network Hubs Drive Emergence of
      Fairness Norms.
AB  - Fairness has long been argued to govern human behavior in a wide range of social,
      economic, and organizational activities. The sense of fairness, although
      universal, varies across different societies. In this study, using a
      computational model, we test the hypothesis that the topology of social
      interaction can causally explain some of the cross-societal variations in
      fairness norms. We show that two network parameters, namely, community structure,
      as measured by the modularity index, and network hubiness, represented by the
      skewness of degree distribution, have the most significant impact on emergence of
      collective fair behavior. These two parameters can explain much of the variations
      in fairness norms across societies and can also be linked to hypotheses suggested
      by earlier empirical studies in social and organizational sciences. We devised a
      multi-layered model that combines local agent interactions with social learning,
      thus enables both strategic behavior as well as diffusion of successful
      strategies. By applying multivariate statistics on the results, we obtain the
      relation between network structural features and the collective fair behavior.

PMID- 28578404
TI  - A simple and rapid LC-MS/MS method for therapeutic drug monitoring of cetuximab:
      a GPCO-UNICANCER proof of concept study in head-and-neck cancer patients.
AB  - Administration of first-in-class anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody cetuximab is
      contingent upon extensive pharmacogenomic testing. However in addition to tumor
      genomics, drug exposure levels could play a critical, yet largely underestimated
      role, because several reports have demonstrated that cetuximab pharmacokinetic
      parameters, in particular clearance values, were associated with survival in
      patients. Here, we have developed an original bioanalytical method based upon the
      use of LC-MS/MS technology and a simplified sample preparation procedure to assay
      cetuximab in plasma samples from patients, thus meeting the requirements of
      standard Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in routine clinical practice. When tested
      prospectively in a pilot study in 25 head-and-neck cancer patients, this method
      showed that patients with clinical benefit had cetixumab residual concentrations
      higher than non-responding patients (i.e., 49 +/- 16.3 ug/ml VS. 25.8 +/- 17
      ug/ml, p < 0.01 t test). Further ROC analysis showed that 33.8 ug/ml was the Cmin
      threshold predictive of response with an acceptable sensitivity (87%) and
      specificity (78%). Mass spectrometry-based therapeutic drug monitoring of
      cetuximab in head-and-neck cancer patients could therefore help to rapidly
      predict cetuximab efficacy and to adapt dosing if required.

PMID- 28578406
TI  - Ancestral protein resurrection and engineering opportunities of the mamba
      aminergic toxins.
AB  - Mamba venoms contain a multiplicity of three-finger fold aminergic toxins known
      to interact with various alpha-adrenergic, muscarinic and dopaminergic receptors
      with different pharmacological profiles. In order to generate novel functions on
      this structural scaffold and to avoid the daunting task of producing and
      screening an overwhelming number of variants generated by a classical protein
      engineering strategy, we accepted the challenge of resurrecting ancestral
      proteins, likely to have possessed functional properties. This innovative
      approach that exploits molecular evolution models to efficiently guide protein
      engineering, has allowed us to generate a small library of six ancestral toxin
      (AncTx) variants and associate their pharmacological profiles to key functional
      substitutions. Among these variants, we identified AncTx1 as the most alpha1A
      adrenoceptor selective peptide known to date and AncTx5 as the most potent
      inhibitor of the three alpha2 adrenoceptor subtypes. Three positions in the rho
      Da1a evolutionary pathway, positions 28, 38 and 43 have been identified as key
      modulators of the affinities for the alpha1 and alpha2C adrenoceptor subtypes.
      Here, we present a first attempt at rational engineering of the aminergic toxins,
      revealing an epistasis phenomenon.

PMID- 28578407
TI  - RNAi Screen and Proteomics Reveal NXF1 as a Novel Regulator of IRF5 Signaling.
AB  - Interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) is a key transcription factor of innate
      immunity, which plays an important role in host restriction to viral infection
      and inflammation. Genome-wide association studies have implied the association of
      IRF5 with several autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus
      (SLE), Sjogren's syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.
      However, the regulation of IRF5-mediated immunity is not well understood. To
      uncover new regulators in IRF5 pathway, we used two "omics" approaches: affinity
      purification coupled with mass spectrometry and a high throughput RNAi screen.
      Proteomics identified 16 new IRF5 interactors while RNAi-mediated knockdown found
      43 regulators of the TLR7-dependent IRF5 signaling pathway. NXF1 was identified
      in both screens. Stimulation with TLR7 ligand enhances formation of IRF5-NXF1
      protein complexes. Gain or loss-of-function experiments revealed NXF1 selectively
      regulates TLR7-driven IRF5 transcriptional activity, suggesting a new role for
      NXF1 in the IRF5 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28578408
TI  - Seed mass of angiosperm woody plants better explained by life history traits than
      climate across China.
AB  - Seed mass is a basic trait in studies of functional ecology. Examining how seed
      mass is affected by biotic and abiotic factors could improve our understanding of
      ecological strategies in plants. Here we examined the relationships of seed mass
      with 13 climate variables and seven life history traits, and partitioned the
      relative effects of life history traits vs. climate, based on seed mass data for
      1265 woody angiosperm species in China. Our results showed that seed mass
      decreased with latitude, and most climate variables were positively correlated
      with seed mass. Geographic seed mass pattern was affected by both energy and
      water availability in the growing season, but the effect of energy availability
      was more important. Seed mass was also significantly related to other traits such
      as growth form, fruit type, dispersal mode, breeding system, leaf habit, fruit
      development time, and minimum juvenile period, with growth form and dispersal
      mode being the most closely related traits. Our results showed that climate
      explained much less variation in seed mass than life history traits, and that
      phylogeny played an important role in shaping the large-scale patterns of seed
      mass.

PMID- 28578409
TI  - Synchrotron phase-contrast microtomography of coprolites generates novel
      palaeobiological data.
AB  - Coprolites (fossil faeces) reveal clues to ancient trophic relations, and contain
      inclusions representing organisms that are rarely preserved elsewhere. However,
      much information is lost by classical techniques of investigation, which cannot
      find and image the inclusions in an adequate manner. We demonstrate that
      propagation phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SRMUCT) permits high
      quality virtual 3D-reconstruction of coprolite inclusions, exemplified by two
      coprolites from the Upper Triassic locality Krasiejow, Poland; one of the
      coprolites contains delicate beetle remains, and the other one a partly
      articulated fish and fragments of bivalves.

PMID- 28578410
TI  - Resveratrol Pretreatment Attenuates Concanavalin A-induced Hepatitis through
      Reverse of Aberration in the Immune Response and Regenerative Capacity in Aged
      Mice.
AB  - Loss of regenerative capacity plays a critical role in age-related autoimmune
      hepatitis. Evidence implicates SIRT1 and p66shc in cell senescence, apoptosis,
      oxidative stress, and proliferation. This study investigated the effect of
      resveratrol on concanavalin A (Con A)-induced hepatitis in aged mice and the
      roles of SIRT1 and p66shc. Aged mice were administrated resveratrol (30 mg/kg
      orally) seven times at an interval of 12 h before a single intravenous injection
      of Con A (20 mg/kg). Results showed that the cytokines, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IFN
      gamma, and MCP-1, as well as infiltration of macrophages, neutrophils, and T
      lymphocytes in liver were dramatically enhanced in the mice given only Con A. The
      aged mouse livers showed markedly raised oxidative stress and cell apoptosis.
      This oxidative stress further aggravated regenerative dysfunction as indicated by
      the decreased levels of Ki67, PCNA, Cyclin D1, and Cdk2. Conversely, these
      phenomena were attenuated by pretreatment with resveratrol. Moreover, resveratrol
      suppressed the elevation of p66shc in the liver by reversing Con-A-mediated
      downregulation of SIRT1. The findings suggest that resveratrol protected against
      Con A-induced hepatitis in aged mice by attenuating an aberration of immune
      response and liver regeneration, partially via the mechanism of SIRT1-mediated
      repression of p66shc expression.

PMID- 28578411
TI  - Red cell distribution width as a significant indicator of medication and
      prognosis in type 2 diabetic patients.
AB  - Whether red cell distribution width (RDW) can be a potential indicator for
      diabetic nephropathy (DN) is unknown. A total of 809 type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2D) patients were divided into 4 groups according to the quartiles (Q) of the
      RDW (%): Q1 <= 12.4 (n = 229), 12.4 < Q2 <= 12.9 (n = 202), 12.9 < Q3 < 13.5 (n =
      168), Q4 >= 13.5 (n = 210). Results showed that the levels in Q4 group was higher
      in age, disease duration, systolic blood pressure, blood urea nitrogen,
      creatinine, uric acid and proteinuria but lower in hemoglobin, serum albumin and
      glycosylated hemoglobin compared to Q1 group. Furthermore, the incidences of DN,
      diabetic peripheral neuropathy, hypertension and coronary heart disease in the Q3
      or Q4 group were higher compared to Q1 group. Medications including calcium
      channel blockers and antiplatelet therapy also showed higher frequencies in Q3 or
      Q4 group compared to Q1. Logistic regression indicated that the antiplatelet
      therapy (OR = 2.065), hypertension (OR = 2.819), creatinine (OR = 4.473) and
      proteinuria (OR = 2.085) were positively associated with level of Q4 group, but
      higher hemoglobin (OR = 0.021) and serum Ca2+ (OR = 0.178) were negatively
      associated with Q4. This data suggest that high level of RDW in T2D patients
      indicates a higher risk and a poor prognosis for DN.

PMID- 28578414
TI  - A high-throughput assay for quantitative measurement of PCR errors.
AB  - The accuracy with which DNA polymerase can replicate a template DNA sequence is
      an extremely important property that can vary by an order of magnitude from one
      enzyme to another. The rate of nucleotide misincorporation is shaped by multiple
      factors, including PCR conditions and proofreading capabilities, and proper
      assessment of polymerase error rate is essential for a wide range of sensitive
      PCR-based assays. In this paper, we describe a method for studying polymerase
      errors with exceptional resolution, which combines unique molecular identifier
      tagging and high-throughput sequencing. Our protocol is less laborious than
      commonly-used methods, and is also scalable, robust and accurate. In a series of
      nine PCR assays, we have measured a range of polymerase accuracies that is in
      line with previous observations. However, we were also able to comprehensively
      describe individual errors introduced by each polymerase after either 20 PCR
      cycles or a linear amplification, revealing specific substitution preferences and
      the diversity of PCR error frequency profiles. We also demonstrate that the
      detected high-frequency PCR errors are highly recurrent and that the position in
      the template sequence and polymerase-specific substitution preferences are among
      the major factors influencing the observed PCR error rate.

PMID- 28578415
TI  - Modulation of Peptide Based Nano-Assemblies with Electric and Magnetic Fields.
AB  - Peptide based nano-assemblies with their self-organizing ability has shown lot of
      promise due to their high degree of thermal and chemical stability, for
      biomaterial fabrication. Developing an effective way to control the organization
      of these structures is important for fabricating application-oriented materials
      at the molecular level. The present study reports the impact of electric and
      magnetic field-mediated perturbation of the self-assembly phenomenon, upon the
      chemical and structural properties of diphenylalanine assembly. Our studies show
      that, electric field effectively arrests aggregation and self-assembly formation,
      while the molecule is allowed to anneal in the presence of applied electric
      fields of varying magnitudes, both AC and DC. The electric field exposure also
      modulated the morphology of the self-assembled structures without affecting the
      overall chemical constitution of the material. Our results on the modulatory
      effect of the electric field are in good agreement with theoretical studies based
      on molecular dynamics reported earlier on amyloid forming molecular systems.
      Furthermore, we demonstrate that the self-assemblies formed post electric-field
      exposure, showed difference in their crystal habit. Modulation of nano-level
      architecture of peptide based model systems with external stimulus, points to a
      potentially rewarding strategy to re-work proven nano-materials to expand their
      application spectrum.

PMID- 28578412
TI  - Hsp70 facilitates trans-membrane transport of bacterial ADP-ribosylating toxins
      into the cytosol of mammalian cells.
AB  - Binary enterotoxins Clostridium (C.) botulinum C2 toxin, C. perfringens iota
      toxin and C. difficile toxin CDT are composed of a transport (B) and a separate
      non-linked enzyme (A) component. Their B-components mediate endocytic uptake into
      mammalian cells and subsequently transport of the A-components from acidic
      endosomes into the cytosol, where the latter ADP-ribosylate G-actin resulting in
      cell rounding and cell death causing clinical symptoms. Protein folding enzymes,
      including Hsp90 and peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases facilitate transport of
      the A-components across endosomal membranes. Here, we identified Hsp70 as a novel
      host cell factor specifically interacting with A-components of C2, iota and CDT
      toxins to facilitate their transport into the cell cytosol. Pharmacological Hsp70
      inhibition specifically prevented pH-dependent trans-membrane transport of A
      components into the cytosol thereby protecting living cells and stem cell-derived
      human miniguts from intoxication. Thus, Hsp70-inhibition might lead to
      development of novel therapeutic strategies to treat diseases associated with
      bacterial ADP-ribosylating toxins.

PMID- 28578417
TI  - Wide-angle scanning planar array with quasi-hemispherical-pattern elements.
AB  - A compact quasi-hemispherical-pattern antenna, two linear wide-angle scanning
      arrays, and a planar wide-angle scanning array are proposed. To increase the
      field-of-view scanning range of arrays, a compact low-profile antenna with a
      quasi-hemispherical pattern is introduced firstly. When the ground is infinite,
      the proposed antenna has a quasi-hemispherical pattern, i.e., an approximately
      uniform radiation in the upper half space. Afterward, two linear arrays arranged
      along the length and width of the proposed antenna's radiation patch are
      presented. The main beams of the two arrays with 16 active elements can scan from
      less than -75 degrees  to more than +75 degrees . When the linear array element
      number is 128, the maximum scanning angle can reach 86 degrees . At last, a
      planar array with 16 * 16 active elements is proposed. In two special planes, xz
      plane and yz plane, the main beams of the planar array can scan from less than 
      77 degrees  to more than +77 degrees  with a gain fluctuation less than 5 dB and
      a maximum side lobe level (SLL) less than -10 dB. An excellent wide-angle
      scanning performance both in linear and planar arrays can be obtained using the
      proposed method.

PMID- 28578416
TI  - Monocyclic beta-lactams loaded on hydroxyapatite: new biomaterials with enhanced
      antibacterial activity against resistant strains.
AB  - The development of biomaterials able to act against a wide range of bacteria,
      including antibiotic resistant bacteria, is of great importance since bacterial
      colonization is one of the main causes of implant failure. In this work, we
      explored the possibility to functionalize hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocrystals with
      some monocyclic N-thio-substituted beta-lactams. To this aim, a series of non
      polar azetidinones have been synthesized and characterized. The amount of
      azetidinones loaded on HA could be properly controlled on changing the polarity
      of the loading solution and it can reach values up to 17 wt%. Data on cumulative
      release in aqueous solution show different trends which can be related to the
      lipophilicity of the molecules and can be modulated by suitable groups on the
      azetidinone. The examined beta-lactams-HA composites display good antibacterial
      activity against reference Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. However, the
      results of citotoxicity and antibacterial tests indicate that HA loaded with 4
      acetoxy-1-(methylthio)-azetidin-2-one displays the best performance. In fact,
      this material strongly inhibited the bacterial growth of both methicillin
      resistant and methicillin susceptible clinical isolates of S. aureus from
      surgical bone biopsies, showing to be a very good candidate as a new functional
      biomaterial with enhanced antibacterial activity.

PMID- 28578418
TI  - One-Step Fabrication of Pyranine Modified- Reduced Graphene Oxide with Ultrafast
      and Ultrahigh Humidity Response.
AB  - A facile one-step supramolecular assembly method is adopted to modify reduced
      graphene oxide (rGO) with functional organic molecule pyranine for achieving
      comprehensive humidity sensing performance. The fabricated humidity sensor based
      on pyranine modified-reduced graphene oxide (Pyr-rGO) exhibits excellent sensing
      performance with ultrafast (<2 s) and ultrahigh response of IL/IH = 6000 as
      relative humidity (RH) consecutively changes between 11% and 95%; small
      hysteresis of 8% RH; reliable repeatability and stability. In addition, a
      detailed mechanism analysis is performed to investigate the difference in water
      adsorption and ions transfer under various RH levels. Notably, the one-step
      supramolecular assembly method to prepare Pyr-rGO provides a new insight into
      developing novel functional humidity sensing materials with enhanced device
      performance.

PMID- 28578420
TI  - A decadal analysis of bioeroding sponge cover on the inshore Great Barrier Reef.
AB  - Decreasing coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) may provide opportunities
      for rapid growth and expansion of other taxa. The bioeroding sponges Cliona spp.
      are strong competitors for space and may take advantage of coral bleaching,
      damage, and mortality. Benthic surveys of the inshore GBR (2005-2014) revealed
      that the percent cover of the most abundant bioeroding sponge species, Cliona
      orientalis, has not increased. However, considerable variation in C. orientalis
      cover, and change in cover over time, was evident between survey locations. We
      assessed whether biotic or environmental characteristics were associated with
      variation in C. orientalis distribution and abundance. The proportion of fine
      particles in the sediments was negatively associated with the presence-absence
      and the percent cover of C. orientalis, indicating that the sponge requires
      exposed habitat. The cover of corals and other sponges explained little variation
      in C. orientalis cover or distribution. The fastest increases in C. orientalis
      cover coincided with the lowest macroalgal cover and chlorophyll a concentration,
      highlighting the importance of macroalgal competition and local environmental
      conditions for this bioeroding sponge. Given the observed distribution and
      habitat preferences of C. orientalis, bioeroding sponges likely represent site
      specific - rather than regional - threats to corals and reef accretion.

PMID- 28578421
TI  - Aetiology and Outcomes of Suspected Infections of the Central Nervous System in
      Children in Mbarara, Uganda.
AB  - Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) are severe conditions, leading to
      neurological sequelae or death. Knowledge of the causative agents is essential to
      develop guidelines for case management in resource-limited settings. Between
      August 2009 and October 2012, we conducted a prospective descriptive study of the
      aetiology of suspected CNS infections in children two months to 12 years old,
      with fever and at least one sign of CNS involvement in Mbarara Hospital, Uganda.
      Children were clinically evaluated on admission and discharge, and followed-up
      for 6 months for neurological sequelae. Pathogens were identified from
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood using microbiological and molecular methods.
      We enrolled 459 children. Plasmodium falciparum (36.2%) and bacteria in CSF
      (13.3%) or blood (3.3%) were the most detected pathogens. Viruses were found in
      27 (5.9%) children. No pathogen was isolated in 207 (45.1%) children. Patterns
      varied by age and HIV status. Eighty-three (18.1%) children died during
      hospitalisation, and 23 (5.0%) during follow-up. Forty-one (13.5%) children had
      neurological sequelae at the last visit. While malaria remains the main aetiology
      in children with suspected CNS infections, no pathogen was isolated in many
      children. The high mortality and high rate of neurological sequelae highlight the
      need for efficient diagnosis.

PMID- 28578422
TI  - Three-Dimensional Anisotropic Metamaterials as Triaxial Optical Inclinometers.
AB  - Split-ring resonators (SRRs) present an attractive avenue for the development of
      micro/nano scale inclinometers for applications like medical microbots, military
      hardware, and nanosatellite systems. However, the 180 degrees  isotropy of their
      two-dimensional structure presents a major hurdle. In this paper, we present the
      design of a three-dimensional (3D) anisotropic SRR functioning as a microscale
      inclinometer enabling it to remotely sense rotations from 0 degrees  to 360
      degrees  along all three axes (X, Y, and Z), by employing the geometric property
      of a 3D structure. The completely polymeric composition of the cubic structure
      renders it transparent to the Terahertz (THz) light, providing a transmission
      response of the tilted SRRs patterned on its surface that is free of any
      distortion, coupling, and does not converge to a single point for two different
      angular positions. Fabrication, simulation, and measurement data have been
      presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the 3D micro devices.

PMID- 28578423
TI  - Chicken IFN Kappa: A Novel Cytokine with Antiviral Activities.
AB  - Interferons (IFNs) are essential components of the host innate immune system and
      define first-line of defence against pathogens. In mammals, several type I IFNs
      are identified, however, only limited data is available on the repertoire of IFNs
      in avian species. Here we report the characterization of chicken IFN-kappa (chIFN
      kappa) near the type I IFN locus on the sex-determining Z chromosome. Genetic,
      evolutionary and syntenic analyses indicate that chIFN-kappa is a type I IFN with
      conserved genetic features and promoter binding sites. chIFN-kappa regulated the
      IFN-stimulated response element signalling pathways and activated a panel of IFN
      regulated genes, antiviral mediators and transcriptional regulators. Priming of
      chicken primary fibroblasts and tracheal organ cultures with chIFN-kappa imparted
      cellular protections against viral infections both in vitro and ex vivo. To
      determine whether chIFN-kappa defines the antiviral state in developing chicken
      embryos, we used replication-competent retroviral RCAS vector system to generate
      transgenic chicken embryos that constitutively and stably expressed chIFN-kappa.
      We could demonstrate that chIFN-kappa markedly inhibited the replication of avian
      RNA viruses in ovo. Collectively, these results shed the light on the repertoire
      of IFNs in avian species and provide functional data on the interaction of the
      chIFN-kappa with RNA viruses of poultry and public health importance.

PMID- 28578424
TI  - Aminophylline restores glucocorticoid sensitivity in a guinea pig model of sudden
      sensorineural hearing loss induced by lipopolysaccharide.
AB  - Glucocorticoids have been used to treat hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction
      for many years. However, some reports have indicated that a subset of patients
      with these disorders exhibit glucocorticoid insensitivity or resistance. A
      reduction in histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) activity and expression has been
      reported to play a critical role in glucocorticoid resistance. Here, we
      investigated the protective effects of aminophylline on HDAC2 expression and
      glucocorticoid sensitivity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sudden
      sensorineural hearing loss in guinea pigs. We assessed hearing recovery in LPS
      applied guinea pigs, which were either left untreated or were systemically
      treated with either dexamethasone, aminophylline, or a combination of the two. We
      utilized fluorescence microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to analyze
      the distribution patterns of HDAC2 and detect its levels in the cochlea. We used
      hematoxylin-eosin staining to examine cochlear histopathological changes. In the
      absence of treatment, significant hearing loss was detected in LPS-exposed
      animals. A synergistic effect was observed between aminophylline and
      dexamethasone in maintaining HDAC2 expression levels, preventing hearing loss in
      LPS-exposed animals and reducing cochlear damage. This study indicates that
      aminophylline can restore glucocorticoid sensitivity, which provides a new
      approach to treating patients with hearing disorders who are refractory to
      glucocorticoids.

PMID- 28578425
TI  - Lethal effect of blue light on strawberry leaf beetle, Galerucella grisescens
      (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).
AB  - In a previous study, we found that blue-light irradiation kills insects such as
      fruit flies, mosquitos, and flour beetles. However, the lethal effects of blue
      light on coleopteran field crop pests have not been investigated. Chrysomelidae,
      a major family in phytophagous beetles, includes many species of crop pests. We
      investigated the lethal effect of blue light on chrysomelid beetles by examining
      the mortality of the strawberry leaf beetle Galerucella grisescens irradiated
      with different wavelengths of blue light during the non-mobile egg or pupal stage
      by using light-emitting diodes. Fifty to seventy percent of beetles irradiated
      with 407, 417, 438, or 465-nm lights at 15 * 1018 photons.m-2.s-1 during the egg
      stage died before hatching; ca. 90% of hatchlings irradiated with 438-nm light
      during the egg stage died before eclosion; and 35-55% of beetles irradiated with
      407, 417, 454, and 465-nm lights at the same intensity during the pupal stage
      died before eclosion. Field crop pests are considered to have high tolerance to
      blue light because they are usually exposed to sunlight in their natural
      habitats. However, this study suggests that blue light can kill some field crop
      as well as household insect pests.

PMID- 28578427
TI  - Influences of glutamine administration on response selection and sequence
      learning: a randomized-controlled trial.
AB  - Precursors of neurotransmitters are increasingly often investigated as potential,
      easily-accessible methods of neuromodulation. However, the amino-acid glutamine,
      precursor to the brain's main excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters
      glutamate and GABA, remains notably little investigated. The current double
      blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study provides first evidence 2.0 g
      glutamine administration in healthy adults affects response selection but not
      motor sequence learning in a serial reaction time task. Specifically, glutamine
      increased response selection errors when the current target response required a
      different hand than the directly preceding target response, which might indicate
      enhanced cortical excitability via a presumed increase in glutamate levels. These
      results suggest glutamine can alter cortical excitability but, despite the
      critical roles of glutamate and GABA in motor learning, at its current dose
      glutamine does not affect sequence learning.

PMID- 28578428
TI  - Surface modification of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane via radiation
      grafting: novel mechanisms underlying the interesting enhanced membrane
      performance.
AB  - This study provided the first attempt of grafting hydrophobic polyvinylidene
      fluoride (PVDF) membrane with hydrophilic hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) monomer via
      a radiation grafting method. This grafted membrane showed an enhanced
      hydrophilicity (10 degrees  decrease of water contact angle), water content
      ratio, settling ability and wettability compared to the control membrane.
      Interestingly, filtration tests showed an improved dependence of water flux of
      the grafted membrane on the solution pH in the acidic stage. Atomic force
      microscopy (AFM) analysis provided in-situ evidence that the reduced surface pore
      size of the grafted membrane with the solution pH governed such a dependence. It
      was proposed that, the reduced surface pore size was caused by the swelling of
      the grafted chain matrix, with the pH increase due to the chemical potential
      change. It was found that the grafted membrane showed a lower relative flux
      decreasing rate than the control membrane. Moreover, flux of the bovine serum
      albumin (BSA) solution was noticeably larger than that of pure water for the
      grafted membrane. Higher BSA flux than water flux can be explained by the effects
      of electric double layer compression on the polymeric swelling. This study not
      only provided a pH-sensitive PVDF membrane potentially useful for various
      applications, but also proposed novel mechanisms underlying the enhanced
      performance of the grafted membrane.

PMID- 28578426
TI  - Prevalence of chronic kidney disease markers: Evidence from a three-million
      married population with fertility desire in rural China.
AB  - We aimed to assess the prevalence of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) markers among
      the married residents with fertility desire in rural China. Demographic and
      clinical data were collected from the National Free Pre-Conception Health
      Examination Project. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60
      mL/min//1.73 m2, proteinuria, and hematuria were defined as markers of CKD. GFR
      was evaluated by using serum creatinine level and the Asian-modified CKD
      epidemiology collaboration equation. Automated urine dry chemical and microscopic
      analyses were employed to identify proteinuria and hematuria. The prevalence of
      CKD markers was 2.92% in the 3,091,379 participants. eGFR < 60 mL/min//1.73 m2,
      hematuria and proteinuria was observed in 0.85%, 1.41% and 0.71%, respectively.
      The prevalence of CKD markers varied greatly across different geographical
      locations, which was the highest in the Eastern Region (3.86%; 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 3.81-3.91%), moderate in the Central Region (2.80%; 95% CI: 2.77
      2.82%), and lowest in the Western Region (2.62%; 95% CI: 2.59-2.65%).
      Hypertension, obesity, positive hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), age
      (increased by every 5 years), female gender, and living area were potential risk
      factors for CKD. In rural China, the prevalence of CKD markers in the married
      couples with fertility desire is low.

PMID- 28578429
TI  - A Potential Role of Esophageal Cancer Related Gene-4 for Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - Epidemiological studies have shown a strong correlation between tumor and AF.
      However, the molecular link between tumor and AF remains unknown. ECRG4, a tumor
      suppressor gene that is expressed in the A-V node and in sporadic ventricular
      myocytes, inhibits tumorigenesis and monitors tissue homeostasis by functioning
      as a 'sentinel' molecule gauging inflammatory and cell proliferative responses.
      To explore the potential physiological function of Ecrg4 in heart, we evaluated
      its distribution in heart, analyzed its expression in patients with persistent AF
      and in a canine AF model, and dissected the molecular events downstream of Ecrg4.
      The results showed that the level of Ecrg4 expression is homogenously high in
      atria and the conduction systems and in sporadic ventricular myocytes.
      Importantly, the expression of Ecrg4 was significantly decreased in atrial
      appendages of AF patients than patients with SR. Moreover, in rapid pacing canine
      AF models, the expression of ECRG4 in atria was significantly decreased compared
      to that of the controls. Mechanistically, knockdown ECRG4 in atrial myocytes
      significantly shortened the APDs, inhibited the expression of Gja1, and activated
      pro-inflammatory cascades and genes involved in cardiac remodeling. These results
      suggest that Ecrg4 may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AF.

PMID- 28578430
TI  - Expression profiles of cholesterol metabolism-related genes are altered during
      development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in the rat spinal cord.
AB  - Increased evidence suggests that dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism may be a
      key event contributing to progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). Using an
      experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS we revealed specific
      changes in the mRNA and protein expression of key molecules involved in the
      maintaining of cholesterol homeostasis in the rat spinal cord: 3-hydroxy-3
      methylglutaryl-coenzyme-A reductase (HMGCR), apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and
      cholesterol 24-hydroxylase (CYP46A1) during the course of disease. The presence
      of myelin lipid debris was seen only at the peak of EAE in demyelination loci
      being efficiently removed during the recovery period. Since CYP46A1 is
      responsible for removal of cholesterol excess, we performed a detailed profiling
      of CYP46A1 expression and revealed regional and temporal specificities in its
      distribution. Double immunofluorescence staining demonstrated CYP46A1
      localization with neurons, infiltrated macrophages, microglia and astrocytes in
      the areas of demyelination, suggesting that these cells play a role in
      cholesterol turnover in EAE. We propose that alterations in the regulation of
      cholesterol metabolism at the onset and peak of EAE may add to the progression of
      disease, while during the recovery period may have beneficial effects
      contributing to the regeneration of myelin sheath and restoration of neuronal
      function.

PMID- 28578431
TI  - Antibodies against a beta-glucan-protein complex of Candida albicans and its
      potential as indicator of protective immunity in candidemic patients.
AB  - Sera from candidemic and non-candidemic subjects were examined for antibodies
      against the cell wall beta1,3- and beta1,6-glucans, as well as the beta-glucan
      associated protein MP65 of Candida species. Although antibodies against each of
      the above components were detected in all subjects, candidemic patients had lower
      antibody titers against beta1,3-glucan, but higher antibody titers against
      beta1,6-glucan and MP65, than non-candidemic subjects. The elevated levels of
      anti-beta1,6-glucan and -MP65 antibodies found in candidemic patients were
      independent on the patient risk category, APACHE II score, presence of co
      morbidities, beta1,3-glucanemia level, Candida isolate, and antifungal treatment.
      Interestingly, however, the anti-MP65, but not the anti-beta1,6-glucan
      antibodies, of candidemic patients had higher titers in survivors than in non
      survivors, particularly in those subject categories with the highest mortality
      (>65-years old, diabetic, or septic shock patients). Thus, candidemic patients
      are capable of boosting anti-Candida immune responses upon infection, and some of
      these responses might be associated to the generation of protective immunity in
      patients with candidemia.

PMID- 28578433
TI  - Pelvic Floor Reconstruction After Radical Prostatectomy: A Systematic Review and
      Meta-analysis of Different Surgical Techniques.
AB  - Radical prostatectomy (RP) is the gold standard for the treatment of localized
      PCa. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of different techniques
      of pelvic floor reconstruction on urinary continence. A comprehensive search was
      made for trials that evaluated the efficacy of pelvic floor reconstruction.
      Relevant databases included PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Ovid, Web of Science
      databases and relevant trials from the references. Random-effects model was used
      to estimate risk ratios (RRs) statistics. Pooled results of patients treated with
      posterior reconstruction (PR) demonstrated complete urinary continence improved
      at 1-4, 28-42, 90, 180 and 360 days following catheter removal. Anterior
      suspension (AS) was associated with improvement only at 28-42 days. The anterior
      reconstruction (AR) + PR was associated with urinary continence at 1-4, 90 and
      180 days. AS + PR was not associated with any benefit. And PR improved social
      urinary continence at 7-14 and 28-42 days. No benefit was associated with AS. AR
      + PR had better outcomes at 90 and 180 days. AS + PR was significant improved at
      28-42 and 90 days. Patients who underwent RP and PR had the least urinary
      incontinence. No significant benefit was observed after AS. AR + PR and AS + PR
      had little benefit in the post-operative period.

PMID- 28578434
TI  - Artificial enamel induced by phase transformation of amorphous nanoparticles.
AB  - Human tooth enamel has tightly packed c-axis-oriented hydroxyapatite (HAP:
      Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) nanorods with high elastic modulus. Fabrication of an enamel
      architecture in vitro supports the repair of teeth using HAP; however, existing
      methods require complex and laborious steps to form an enamel-like structure.
      Here we present a very simple and effective technique for forming artificial
      enamel in near-physiological solution using a substrate composed of amorphous
      calcium phosphate (ACP) nanoparticles. Without any functionalized modification of
      the substrate surface, faint dissolution and successive phase transformation
      automatically induce formation of an intermediate layer of low-crystalline HAP
      nanoparticles, on which highly oriented HAP nanorods grow by geometrical
      selection. We also show that an enamel structure forms on a substrate of
      amorphous calcium carbonate when the surface nanoparticles react so as to form an
      intermediate layer similar to that in ACP. Our results demonstrate that there is
      a wide range of substrate choices for nanorod array formation. Contrary to
      current understanding, a stable surface designed in nanoscale is not essential
      for the growth of arranged guest crystals. Reactive amorphous nanoparticles and
      their transformation efficiently induce a nanorod array structure.

PMID- 28578435
TI  - High serum uric acid levels may increase mortality and major adverse
      cardiovascular events in patients with acute myocardial infarction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the validity of uric acid as a potential prognostic
      marker for long-term outcomes of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI)
      and those with AMI undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods:
      Systematic review and meta-analysis were performed. We retrieved data from
      retrospective and prospective cohort studies that investigated whether serum uric
      acid (SUA) level affects the prognosis of patients with AMI. RESULTS: Thirteen
      studies involving 9371 patients were included. High serum uric acid (HSUA) level
      increased mid/long-term mortality (risk ratio (RR)=2.32, 95% confidence intervals
      (CI): 2.00-2.70) and had higher short-term mortality (RR=3.09, 95% CI: 2.58
      3.71), higher mid/long-term major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) risk
      (RR=1.70, 95% CI: 1.54-1.88), and higher short-term MACE risk (RR=2.47, 95% CI:
      2.08-2.92) for patients with AMI. In the PCI subgroup, the HSUA level also
      increased mid/long-term mortality (RR=2.33, 95% CI: 1.89 to 2.87) and had higher
      mid/long-term MACE risk (RR=1.64, 95% CI: 1.48-1.82), and higher short-term MACE
      risk (RR 2.43, 95% CI: 2.02-2.93) for patients who were treated with PCI after
      AMI. Particularly in the PCI subgroup, a higher short-term mortality (RR=6.70,
      95% CI: 3.14-14.31) was presented in the group with lower HSUA cut-off level, and
      the mortality was higher than the group with higher HSUA cut-off level (RR=2.69,
      95% CI: 2.09-3.46). Conclusion: The HSUA level significantly increased the
      mortality and MACE risk of patients with AMI. Mild elevation of SUA levels
      (normal range) have started to have a significant impact on the short-term
      mortality of patients who underwent PCI, and has not received the attention of
      previous studies. However, this condition should be further investigated.

PMID- 28578436
TI  - Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist triggering with concomitant administration
      of low doses of human chorionic gonadotropin or a freeze-all strategy in high
      responders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the live birth rates and moderate/severe ovarian
      hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) rates of 2 different approaches using
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist triggering in high responder women.
      Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed to evaluate intracytoplasmic
      sperm injection (ICSI) and embryo transfer (ET) outcomes in high responder women
      who underwent ovulation induction with a GnRH antagonist protocol between April
      2011 and March 2015. In group 1 (n=74), GnRH agonist was used for ovulation
      triggering with the concomitant use of 1500 IU of urinary human chorionic
      gonadotropin (hCG) immediately after oocyte retrieval followed by fresh ET and
      standard luteal support. In group 2 (n=48), GnRH agonist was used for triggering
      after freezing all embryos and subsequent frozen/thawed embryo transfer (FET);
      this approach is considered the "freeze-all" approach. Results: Baseline
      characteristics were similar between the groups. The clinical pregnancy rates for
      group 1 was 45.9% and group 2 was 43.8% (p=0.812, chi-squared test) and live
      birth rates for group 1 was 40.5% and for group 2 41.7% (p=0.902, chi-squared
      test) were comparable between groups. In group 1, late-onset OHSS was observed
      (one severe case and one moderate case) in 2 patients (2.7%). In group 2, none of
      the patients experienced moderate/severe OHSS. Conclusion: The live birth rate
      with GnRH agonist triggering and concomitant use of 1500 IU of hCG immediately
      after oocyte retrieval was similar to that obtained with the freeze-all approach
      and FET in a subsequent cycle. The administration of a low dose of hCG in GnRH
      agonist trigger cycles caused moderate/severe OHSS in 2.7% of the patients.

PMID- 28578437
TI  - Clinical value of combining transvaginal contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with
      serum human epididymisprotein-4 and the resistance index for early-stage
      epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To increase accuracy of the detection and differential diagnosis of
      the early epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with transvaginal contrast-enhanced
      ultrasonography (TVCEUS) combining serum human epididymisprotein 4 (HE4), and
      resistance index (RI). Methods: This retrospectively case-control study of 230
      patients with ovarian tumors were reviewed at the Department of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China between June 2008
      and September 2015. Before the operation of 110 cases with EOC (Group A) and 120
      cases of patients with benign ovarian tumor (Group B), we observe and calculate
      both Groups' tumor vascular contrast-enhanced ultrasonography morphology scores
      (U), time-intensity curve (TIC) of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, HE4, and
      RI. Results were compared with the histopathological analysis results. Results:
      The ultrasonography morphology scores, peak intensity (PI) enhancement rate (ER)
      with the parameters of the TIC and HE4 are higher in Group A compared with
      patients in Group B and the RI was lower than Group B. The detection rates for
      all indexes in the benign and malignant groups and their comparisons to the
      histopathological results were determined. The detection rate differences for HE4
      (p=0.001), RI (p=0.001), U (p=0.001), PI (p=0.001), and ER (p=0.001) were all
      statistically significant (p less than 0.05).  Conclusion: The high clinical
      value through combined TVCEUS, HE4, and RI detection can increase the sensitivity
      of the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the early EOC.

PMID- 28578438
TI  - Predictors of blood transfusion following total knee replacement at a tertiary
      care center in Central Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the incidence and predictors of blood transfusion
      following total knee replacement (TKR). Methods: A retrospective study on 462
      patients of primary TKR at National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi
      Arabia. Descriptive statistics were compared by blood transfusion status and
      significant variables were further included in the multivariable model. Results:
      Overall transfusion rate following TKR was 35.3%. Regression analyses identified
      bilateral surgery, low preoperative hemoglobin (Hb) level, and high amount of
      blood loss as predictors of blood transfusion.  Conclusion: Correction of Hb
      level prior to surgery, careful hemostasis, and avoiding bilateral surgery may
      reduce the rate of blood transfusion following TKR.

PMID- 28578439
TI  - Long-term use of bisphosphonates in osteoporosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To report and describe the management and response to treatment of
      patients referred to the osteoporosis clinic after prolonged use of
      bisphosphonate BPs) (4 years and more) with and without new fracture (any site)
      or any other new skeletal symptoms.  Methods: This is a single center
      observational retrospective cohort study conducted from January 2009 to May 2016
      in a tertiary center. We describe cause of referral, X-rays findings, management,
      and response to treatment. Results: Thirty-four patients, aged 46-89 years, were
      collected. Reason for referral included review of therapy (11 patients), recent
      low trauma fracture (21 patients), or chronic severe thigh pain (2 patients) of
      unknown etiology. All patients with fracture or thigh pain (23/34 patients) were
      treated with teriparatide 20 mcg daily. Sixteen of them (16/23) completed
      teriparatide course (18-24 months), 11 patients had complete healing of fracture
      at the end of the course, and 5 remained with nonunion of fracture, the remaining
      5 patients were lost to follow up.  Conclusion: Prolonged use of bisphosphonates
      can lead to atypical femoral fracture that may involve sites other than femoral
      shaft or rarely chronic thigh pain without fracture. Teriparatide may facilitates
      fracture healing and improve thigh pain.

PMID- 28578440
TI  - Adherence to surviving sepsis guidelines among pediatric intensivists. A national
      survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the compliance with the 2006 American College of Critical
      Care-Pediatric Advanced Life Support (ACCM-PALS) guidelines for sepsis
      management, and the 2012 surviving sepsis campaign (SSC), for the management of
      pediatric patients with sepsis and to identify the main barriers to adherence to
      these guidelines. Methods: In November 2015, a prospective cohort study in which
      a web based electronic survey using a case scenario to explore the usual
      management of a child with severe sepsis was designed and sent to all consultant
      pediatric intensivists practicing in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Adherences to
      2012 SSC guidelines and to 4 algorithmic time-specific goals outlined in the ACCM
      PALS guidelines were measured. Results: Sixty-one (76%) of 80 consultant
      pediatric intensivists working in KSA responded to the survey. Of the 61
      respondents, 94% reported administering antibiotics within one hour of the child
      presentation, 98% reported starting resuscitation by giving fluid boluses, 93%
      reported starting vasopressor if the patient remained hypotensive despite fluid
      resuscitation, and 86% reported they would start hydrocortisone in case of
      catecholamine refractory shock. In total, 80% of the intensivists reported full
      adherence to all of the 4 components in the ACCM-PALS bundle; 50% reported that
      the absence of a locally written protocol was the main barrier to adherence to
      the SSC guidelines. Conclusion: Pediatric intensivists reported good adherence to
      the 2006 ACCM-PALS guidelines and 2012 SSC guidelines with some variability in
      interpretation of the recommendations. The absence of a written protocol was the
      main reported barrier to adherence to these guidelines.

PMID- 28578442
TI  - Depression and anxiety among hypertensive and diabetic primary health care
      patients. Could patients' perception of their diseases control be used as a
      screening tool?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To measure the frequency and identify risk factors of depression and
      anxiety among diabetic and hypertensive primary health care (PHC) patients. Also
      to assess whether patients' perception of their chronic diseases control and
      sleep disturbance could serve as screening tools for depression and anxiety.
      Methods: This cross-sectional study of 368 PHC patients was conducted in AlKhobar
      city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between April and May 2015. Patient Health
      Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 were used as diagnostic tools
      for depression and anxiety. Results: Frequencies, cross-tabulations and logistic
      regression tests were performed. Patient's perception of chronic diseases control
      was significantly associated with the presence of depression and anxiety, while
      it was not seen in the tested disease control (glycated hemoglobin less than 7%
      and blood pressure less than 140/90 mm Hg). Sleep disturbance has a high
      specificity (98.9%) in screening for depression. Overall prevalence of depression
      or anxiety was 57.3% and detected cases was 23%. Depression comprise 48.7% (39.8%
      mild, 7.1% moderate, 1.8% severe). Anxiety comprise 38.4% (25.1% mild, 8.8%
      moderate, 4.4% severe). Co-existence of both disorders was 29.5%. Sleep
      disturbance, weight change, and low income had an independent significant effect
      on depression and anxiety. Conclusion: Having no sleep disturbance can rule out
      98.9% of depression and anxiety cases.  Patient's feelings should be considered
      in chronic diseases health care plans. Depression or anxiety among diabetic and
      hypertensive patients have a high morbidity, but with low detection rate.

PMID- 28578441
TI  - Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in children with sickle cell disease at a
      tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in Saudi children
      with sickle cell disease at a tertiary hospital in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
      using nocturnal polysomnography. Methods: A prospective cross-section study was
      conducted between 2012 and 2016 in 65 children aged between 2-14 years at Prince
      Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, KSA with sickle cell disease. Patients
      answered a pediatric sleep questionnaire with the help of an accompanying
      caregiver and underwent polysomnography in the same night. Results: The final
      sample included 65 children. Median age was 8.1 years. There were 32 boys (49.2%)
      and 33 girls (50.8%). Mean hemoglobin was 8.6 (p=0.37) and mean body mass index
      was 15.6 (p=0.36). The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea was 80% (52
      patients) using an apnea hypopnea index cutoff of >=1 and 7.7% (5 patients) using
      an apnea hypopnea index cutoff of >=5. Results from the pediatric sleep
      questionnaire were snoring (73.8%), apnea (32.8%), and bedwetting (46%).
      Conclusion: Obstructive sleep apnea is common in children with sickle cell
      disease.

PMID- 28578443
TI  - Learning environment of the Saudi psychiatry board training program.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the learning environment of the Saudi psychiatry board
      program using the Dutch Residency Educational Climate Test (D-RECT) and to
      explore residents' perception of different domains of the learning environment.
      Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The D-RECT instrument was
      distributed to all residents at all training sites of the Saudi psychiatry
      training program. It is a reliable and valid instrument to measure educational
      environment at the postgraduate level. Mean scores are presented, t-tests,
      analysis of variance, and post hoc analysis were used to compare subgroups and
      pearson's correlation was used to assess relationships. Results: Seventy-eight
      out of 96 residents responded (81.25%), one third of them were female. Overall D
      RECT score was 2.76+/-0.55. The supervision subscale scored 2.83+/-0.83, coaching
      and assessment scored 2.60+/-0.73, feedback scored 2.00+/-0.85, team work scored
      2.81+/-0.86, peer collaboration scored 3.54+/-0.84, professional relations
      between consultants scored 2.71+/-0.95, work is adapted to residents' competence
      scored 2.71+/-0.86, consultants' attitudes scored 2.71+/-0.86, formal education
      scored 2.68+/-0.72, and patient handover subscales scored 3.25+/-1.06. Female
      residents scored significantly higher than their male counterparts and there were
      no statistical significant difference between years of residency. Cronbach's
      alpha was 0.936. Conclusion: Most of the learning climate domains scored poorly,
      which necessitates a rigorous plan for reevaluation and improvement. Furthermore,
      D-RECT proved to be a reliable instrument and could help in evaluation and
      improvement of postgraduate training programs.

PMID- 28578444
TI  - Development of a Saudi Food Frequency Questionnaire and testing its reliability
      and validity.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To create a food frequency questionnaire specifically designed to
      capture the dietary habits of Saudis and test its validity and reliability.
      Methods: This investigation is a longitudinal, test-retest study conducted in
      King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between December 2015 and
      March 2016. A list of 140 food items was included in the questionnaire where a
      closed-ended and open-ended approach was used. Regarding past   year food
      frequency consumption and 24 hours dietary recall, body weight and height were
      collected. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, completeness of the
      food list, and criterion validity were assessed. Results: One-hundred and thirty
      eight participants were interviewed to complete the 24 hours dietary recall and
      the constructed questionnaire. Approximately 85% of the food items reported in
      the dietary recall were covered in the food frequency questionnaire. The
      association of body mass index with meats (regression coefficients: 2.28) and
      dairy products consumption frequency was statistically significant (regression
      coefficients: 2.31). A high overall reproducibility rate of the questionnaire was
      detected (Pearsons' correlation coefficient: 0.78 p less than 0.001). 
      Conclusion: The developed questionnaire has a high reliability and reasonable
      validity, and suitable for use in nutritional epidemiological investigations in
      Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28578445
TI  - Knowledge of health insurance benefits among male expatriates in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To measure expatriates' knowledge of health insurance benefits with
      respect to outpatient, inpatient, prescription drug, and dental services, and to
      link this knowledge to sociodemographic and employment characteristic.  Methods:
      Cross-sectional, face-to-face interviews were conducted from March 2015 to
      February 2016 with a stratified random sample of 3,398 male insured expatriate
      workers in the private sector of Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive
      analysis, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression were used to interpret data. Data
      on knowledge of health insurance benefits was compiled by adding the scores of
      the 4 service category items (outpatient, inpatient, prescription drug, and
      dental services) to those of the 5 objective knowledge items on copayments.
      Results: More than 87% of the participants reported knowledge on their health
      insurance benefits coverage for outpatient, 62% for the inpatient, 86% for the
      prescription drug and 62% for the dental services. However, 7.5% knew the correct
      copayments for general practitioner, 64% for the outpatient (inclusive), 13% for
      the inpatient visits, 15% for the prescription drugs and 9.6% for the dental
      care. Most personal and job characteristics had associations with knowledge
      measures. A total of 55% of the overall knowledge variance was explained by the
      independent variables (R2=0.55), suggesting that other factors also influence
      knowledge. Conclusion: Expatriates' knowledge of their health insurance benefits
      is very limited, which indicates the importance of developing a policy for
      increasing this knowledge among expatriates in Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28578446
TI  - Unilateral adrenal infarction in pregnancy secondary to elevated factor VIII.
AB  - Adrenal infarction in pregnancy is an extremely rare event. We report a case of a
      29-year-old pregnant woman at the twenty-fourth week of gestation that presented
      with an acute episode of severe localized right upper quadrant pain. Her
      preliminary blood investigations and abdominal ultrasonography were essentially
      unremarkable. A diagnosis of right adrenal infarction was subsequently
      established on the basis of a non-enhanced swollen right adrenal gland on CT
      scanning of the abdomen with contrast, consistent with the clinical presentation.
      She was treated with subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) until 2
      weeks postpartum. A thrombophilia screen post-partum revealed a significantly
      elevated factor VIII level and a hypercoagulable state that justified prolonged
      anticoagulation. This case highlights the importance of a high index of suspicion
      for adrenal infarction in pregnancy on the clinical grounds of otherwise
      unexplained acute abdominal pain accompanied by suggestive radiological findings,
      especially in the presence of thrombophilia.

PMID- 28578447
TI  - Maternal and neonatal outcomes in twin and triplet gestations in Western Saudi
      Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Tocompare maternal and neonatal complications in twin and triplet
      gestations at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods:
      Retrospective medical records of 165 women with 144 twin and 21 triplet
      pregnancies from 2004 to 2011 were analyzed. Comparisons were carried out for
      maternal complications, gestational age at birth, neonatal birth weight, and
      neonatal intensive care admission. Results: Most common complications were
      preterm birth (49%), gestational diabetes mellitus (13.3%), and premature rupture
      of membrane (4.8%). All triplet pregnancies and 42% twin pregnancies terminated
      in preterm birth. Gestational length was longer (p less than 0.001) in twin
      births (36.0 +/- 3.05 weeks) than for triplet births (32 +/- 3.81 weeks). Rates
      for in vitro fertilization, ovulation induction, and cesareans were higher in
      women with triplets than in those with twins. Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
      admission was higher (p less than 0.001) for triplets (76.2%) than for twins
      (23.6%). The mean weight of twins was 2333.83 +/- 558.69 grams and triplets was
      1553.41 +/- 569.73 grams. Hyaline membrane disease, neonatal jaundice, and
      neonatal sepsis were most common neonatal complications. Conclusion: Neonates
      from triplet pregnancies were preterm, had low birth weight and needed more often
      NICU admission in comparison to those from twin pregnancies.

PMID- 28578449
TI  - A profile of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Northern Emirates, United Arab
      Emirates.
AB  - [No Abstract Available].

PMID- 28578448
TI  - Topical corticosteroids knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary care
      physicians.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary care
      physicians (PCPs) toward topical corticosteroids (TCs). Methods: A cross
      sectional, 53-item questionnaire based study on TCs was conducted among PCPs in
      Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January and March 2015. A maximum score
      of 30 was calculated for the knowledge portion. Results: Out of 420 PCPs, 336
      responded (80%). Most participants (89.6%) reported prescribing TCs. The mean
      knowledge score was 17.14 (SD=5.48). Only 39% PCPs correctly identified that
      there are 7 or 4 TCs potency groups (2 different classification systems). The
      MBBS/MD and diploma-certified physicians scored lower than board-qualified PCPs
      (p less than 0.05). Family medicine physicians scored higher than general
      practitioners (GPs) (p less than 0.05). Hospital-based PCPs scored better than
      private practice PCPs (p less than 0.05). Moreover, those who felt somewhat
      comfortable (32.5%) in treating dermatology patients were more knowledgeable (p
      less than 0.05). Lastly, 76.5% of physicians were interested in attending courses
      on dermatologic therapies.  Conclusion: Knowledge of TCs among PCPs was
      inadequate. Targeted educational interventions delivered by dermatologists are
      recommended.

PMID- 28578450
TI  - Serologic evidence of Toxoplasma gondii infection among cancer patients. A
      prospective study from Qassim region, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - [No Abstract Available].

PMID- 28578451
TI  - Erratum to: Global skin colour prediction from DNA.

PMID- 28578452
TI  - Multilevel mutation-selection systems and set-valued duals.
AB  - A class of measure-valued processes which model multilevel multitype populations
      undergoing mutation, selection, genetic drift and spatial migration is
      considered. We investigate the qualitative behaviour of models with multilevel
      selection and the interaction between the different levels of selection. The
      basic tools in our analysis include the martingale problem formulation for
      measure-valued processes and a generalization of the function-valued and set
      valued dual representations introduced in Dawson-Greven (Spatial Fleming-Viot
      models with selection and mutation. Lecture notes in mathematics, vol 2092.
      Springer, Cham, 2014). The dual is a powerful tool for the analysis of the long
      time behaviour of these processes and the study of evolutionary systems which
      model phenomena including altruism, the emergence of cooperation and more complex
      interactions.

PMID- 28578453
TI  - Prenatal care: associations with prenatal depressive symptoms and social support
      in low-income urban women.
AB  - We examined associations of depressive symptoms and social support with late and
      inadequate prenatal care in a low-income urban population. The sample was
      prenatal care patients at five community health centers. Measures of depressive
      symptoms, social support, and covariates were collected at prenatal care entry.
      Prenatal care entry and adequacy came from birth certificates. We examined
      outcomes of late prenatal care and less than adequate care in multivariable
      models. Among 2341 study participants, 16% had elevated depressive symptoms, 70%
      had moderate/poor social support, 21% had no/low partner support, 37% had late
      prenatal care, and 29% had less than adequate prenatal care. Women with both
      no/low partner support and elevated depressive symptoms were at highest risk of
      late care (AOR 1.85, CI 1.31, 2.60, p < 0.001) compared to women with both good
      partner support and low depressive symptoms. Those with good partner support and
      elevated depressive symptoms were less likely to have late care (AOR 0.74, CI
      0.54, 1.10, p = 0.051). Women with moderate/high depressive symptoms were less
      likely to experience less than adequate care compared to women with low symptoms
      (AOR 0.73, CI 0.56, 0.96, p = 0.022). Social support and partner support were
      negatively associated with indices of prenatal care use. Partner support was
      identified as protective for women with depressive symptoms with regard to late
      care. Study findings support public health initiatives focused on promoting
      models of care that address preconception and reproductive life planning.
      Practice-based implications include possible screening for social support and
      depression in preconception contexts.

PMID- 28578454
TI  - Determinants of levothyroxine dose required to achieve euthyroidism in pediatric
      population-a hospital-based prospective follow-up study.
AB  - : We analyzed the relation of pretreatment anthropometric measures and serum
      thyrotropin (TSH) with the levothyroxine requirement. Children (3-18 years)
      brought to endocrine clinic with newly diagnosed acquired primary hypothyroidism
      were enrolled consecutively and prospectively with follow-up (July 2014 to April
      2016). Children were started on levothyroxine, and dose was adjusted at regular
      intervals until achieved euthyroidism (serum TSH 0.4 to 4.5 mIU/L). The
      relationship of age, gender, height, weight, and serum TSH with levothyroxine
      dose was analyzed by univariate and multivariate regression analysis. Data of 51
      children (42 girls and 9 boys) was used for the analysis. Age, weight, height,
      and serum TSH had significant correlation with levothyroxine daily dose based on
      weight (D/W) and dose based on BSA (D/BSA). Log10 TSH and gender explained ~60%
      absolute levothyroxine daily requirement. The final model built with height and
      serum TSH predicted ~85% of D/W and ~80% of D/BSA. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment
      height and serum TSH can be used to determine levothyroxine dose needed to
      achieve euthyroidism in a newly diagnosed acquired primary hypothyroidism in
      children. What is Known: * The starting dose of levothyroxine is currently
      recommended based on the age of children. What is New: * In pediatric population,
      the effect of age on levothyroxine daily dose requirements can be explained by
      pretreatment height. * Pretreatment serum TSH level is an important predictor of
      levothyroxine daily dose in children with newly diagnosed primary hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28578455
TI  - Stem cells: from biomedical research towards clinical applications.

PMID- 28578457
TI  - Non-seminomatous mediastinal germ cell tumor and acute megakaryoblastic leukemia.
AB  - The association between mediastinal germ cell tumors (MGCT) and acute
      megakaryoblastic (M7) leukemia has been known for many years. We hereby present
      this review to better characterize the coexistence of these entities as well as
      the salient features, the treatment options, and the overall prognosis. A search
      of PUBMED, Medline, and EMBASE databases via OVID engine for primary articles and
      case reports under keywords "germ cell tumors" and "acute myeloid leukemia"
      revealed a total of 26 cases in English that reported MGCT and M7 leukemia. The
      median age at diagnosis of MGCT was 24 (13-36) years. All cases were stage III.
      All cases of MGCT were of non-seminomatous origin and one case was unclassified.
      MGCT occurred prior to the diagnosis of leukemia in 46% of cases and
      concomitantly in 31% of cases. M7 leukemia was never reported prior to the
      appearance of MGCT. Complex cytogenetics and hyperdiploidy were the most commonly
      reported cytogenetic abnormalities. In the 23 cases where the treatment regimen
      was available, platinum-based chemotherapy directed towards management of the
      germ cell tumors was used initially in 21 cases and leukemia-directed treatment
      was used initially in 2 cases only. The median time from diagnosis of MGCT to
      development of M7 leukemia was 5 (2.25-39) months. Median time to death from the
      initial diagnosis of MGCT was 6 (0.5-60) months. Patients with a history of MGCT
      are at higher risk of developing M7 leukemia. They need long-term follow-up with
      a particular attention to the development of hematological malignancies. The
      overall prognosis remains poor.

PMID- 28578456
TI  - Sequential combination of docetaxel with a SHP-1 agonist enhanced suppression of
      p-STAT3 signaling and apoptosis in triple negative breast cancer cells.
AB  - : Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive cancer for which
      prognosis remains poor. Combination therapy is a promising strategy for enhancing
      treatment efficacy. Blockade of STAT3 signaling may enhance the response of
      cancer cells to conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Here we used a SHP-1
      agonist SC-43 to dephosphorylate STAT3 thereby suppressing oncogenic STAT3
      signaling and tested it in combination with docetaxel in TNBC cells. We first
      analyzed messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of SHP-1 gene (PTPN6) in a public TNBC
      dataset (TCGA) and found that higher SHP-1 mRNA expression is associated with
      better overall survival in TNBC patients. Sequential combination of docetaxel and
      SC-43 in vitro showed enhanced anti-proliferation and apoptosis associated with
      decreased p-STAT3 and decreased STAT3-downstream effector cyclin D1 in the TNBC
      cell lines MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, and HCC-1937. Ectopic expression of STAT3
      reduced the increased cytotoxicity induced by the combination therapy. In
      addition, this sequential combination showed enhanced SHP-1 activity compared to
      SC-43 alone. Furthermore, the combination treatment-induced apoptosis was
      attenuated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) against SHP-1 or by ectopic
      expression of SHP-1 mutants that caused SC-43 to lose its SHP-1 agonist
      capability. Moreover, combination of docetaxel and SC-43 showed enhanced tumor
      growth inhibition compared to single-agent therapy in mice bearing MDA-MB-231
      tumor xenografts. Our results suggest that the novel SHP-1 agonist SC-43 enhanced
      docetaxel-induced cytotoxicity by SHP-1 dependent STAT3 inhibition in human
      triple negative breast cancer cells. TNBC patients with high SHP-1 expressions
      show better survival. Docetaxel combined with SC-43 enhances cell apoptosis and
      reduces p-STAT3. SHP-1 inhibition reduces the enhanced effect of docetaxel-SC-43
      combination. Docetaxel-SC-43 combination suppresses xenograft tumor growth and
      reduces p-STAT3. KEY MESSAGES: TNBC patients with high SHP-1 expressions show
      better survival. Docetaxel combined with SC-43 enhances cell apoptosis and
      reduces p-STAT3. SHP-1 inhibition reduces the enhanced effect of docetaxel-SC-43
      combination. Docetaxel-SC-43 combination suppresses xenograft tumor growth and
      reduces p-STAT3.

PMID- 28578459
TI  - Late versus early reduction in traumatic hip dislocations: a meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Traumatic hip dislocations are considered orthopaedic emergencies that are
      treated with urgent reduction to decrease the rate of osteonecrosis of the
      femoral head. The aim of our study was to systematically review the literature
      that compares late (>6 h from the time of injury) to early (<6 h from the time of
      injury) reduction in all traumatic hip dislocations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      searched five databases from 1951 to 2016 for studies that evaluated timing of
      reduction and osteonecrosis of the femoral head in all traumatic hip
      dislocations. We performed a meta-analysis using a random-effects model to pool
      odds ratios (ORs) for a comparison of osteonecrosis of the femoral head between
      patients undergoing late versus early hip reduction. We also investigated the
      osteonecrosis rate in low- and high-grade traumatic hip dislocations.
      Descriptive, quantitative and qualitative data were extracted. RESULTS: Of the 13
      articles identified, five studies (retrospective cohort studies) were eligible
      for the meta-analysis, encompassing a total of 236 traumatic hip dislocations.
      The pooled odds ratio for osteonecrosis of the femoral head between late and
      early reduction was in favour of early hip reduction and statistically
      significant (OR = 5.00, 95% CI: 1.30, 19.29). No significant difference in the
      rate of osteonecrosis of the femoral head was detected between low- and high
      grade traumatic hip dislocations according to the time threshold (OR = 1.71, 95%
      CI: 0.22, 13.22). CONCLUSIONS: The cumulative evidence at present does indicate
      an association between late hip reduction and higher rate of osteonecrosis of the
      femoral head in all traumatic hip dislocations. Hence, all traumatic hip
      dislocations should be reduced as soon as possible to decrease the rate of
      osteonecrosis of the femoral head. However, the evidence does not indicate an
      association between the grade of dislocation and rate of osteonecrosis of the
      femoral head. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28578458
TI  - Coronal plane trunk asymmetry is associated with whole-body sagittal alignment in
      healthy young adolescents before pubertal peak growth.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate coronal plane trunk asymmetry (TA) and its association
      with sagittal postural alignment in healthy subjects before pubertal peak growth.
      METHODS: In this cross-sectional baseline study, 1190 healthy pre-peak growth
      velocity subjects were included. Coronal plane TA was evaluated using back
      surface topography. Whole-body sagittal alignment (previously validated and
      objectively classified as neutral, sway-back or leaning-forward) and sagittal
      spinopelvic profile (trunk lean, lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, sacral
      inclination and length of the posteriorly inclined thoracolumbar segment) were
      determined, as were height, proportion of trunk to body length, body mass index,
      generalized joint laxity, and handedness. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis
      yielded overall sagittal posture class to be independently associated with
      coronal plane TA: having a leaning-forward posture associated with a nearly three
      times higher odds of coronal TA (p < 0.001) compared to neutrals. A sway-back was
      2.2 times more likely to show TA (p = 0.016) than a neutral, yet only in boys.
      Significant associations with coronal TA were also found for trunk lean, thoracic
      kyphosis and body mass index. These correlations, however, were gender and
      posture class specific. The spinal region where asymmetry is seen, varies
      according to the whole-body sagittal alignment type: primary thoracic curves were
      the most frequent in leaning-forwards, whereas primary curves in the lumbar or
      declive thoracolumbar segment were the most common in sway-backs. CONCLUSIONS: In
      immature spines without known scoliosis, coronal plane TA is associated with
      whole-body sagittal alignment. It is more often seen in non-neutral than neutral
      sagittal posture types. Whether adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is related with
      postural characteristics before pubertal growth peak, should be addressed in
      future prospective studies.

PMID- 28578460
TI  - Genetic variation in potential Giardia vaccine candidates cyst wall protein 2 and
      alpha1-giardin.
AB  - Giardia is a prevalent intestinal parasitic infection. The trophozoite structural
      protein a1-giardin (a1-g) and the cyst protein cyst wall protein 2 (CWP2) have
      shown promise as Giardia vaccine antigen candidates in murine models. The present
      study assesses the genetic diversity of a1-g and CWP2 between and within
      assemblages A and B in human clinical isolates. a1-g and CWP2 sequences were
      acquired from 15 Norwegian isolates by PCR amplification and 20 sequences from
      German cultured isolates by whole genome sequencing. Sequences were aligned to
      reference genomes from assemblage A2 and B to identify genetic variance. Genetic
      diversity was found between assemblage A and B reference sequences for both a1-g
      (90.8% nucleotide identity) and CWP2 (82.5% nucleotide identity). However, for a1
      g, this translated into only 3 amino acid (aa) substitutions, while for CWP2
      there were 41 aa substitutions, and also one aa deletion. Genetic diversity
      within assemblage B was larger; nucleotide identity 92.0% for a1-g and 94.3% for
      CWP2, than within assemblage A (nucleotide identity 99.0% for a1-g and 99.7% for
      CWP2). For CWP2, the diversity on both nucleotide and protein level was higher in
      the C-terminal end. Predicted antigenic epitopes were not affected for a1-g, but
      partially for CWP2. Despite genetic diversity in a1-g, we found aa sequence,
      characteristics, and antigenicity to be well preserved. CWP2 showed more aa
      variance and potential antigenic differences. Several CWP2 antigens might be
      necessary in a future Giardia vaccine to provide cross protection against both
      Giardia assemblages infecting humans.

PMID- 28578461
TI  - Seroprevalence and risk factors of Toxoplasma gondii infection in invasive
      raccoons (Procyon lotor) in Central Europe.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan that causes
      toxoplasmosis in warm-blooded animals. Most mammals, including humans, can become
      intermediate host, resulting in subclinical infection or even death. Generally,
      there is limited information on the epidemiology of T. gondii of game species in
      Germany. As omnivores, raccoons, which are particularly widespread and abundant
      in Germany, are particularly exposed to infection the parasite. Here, we report
      the seroprevalence of T. gondii antibodies from 15 study sites located in
      Luxembourg and Germany. Using the indirect modified agglutination test (MAT), 170
      (37.4%; 95% CI: 33.0-41.9) out of 454 raccoons were surveyed to be T. gondii
      seropositive. While values ranged from 19.0% to 53.3%, there was no significant
      difference in seroprevalence between study areas. Animal weight had a strong
      influence on the presence of T. gondii antibodies in raccoon sera, with heavier
      animals more likely to be seropositive. Our results show that T. gondii infection
      is widespread in central European raccoons, suggesting a high degree of ecosystem
      circulation of the parasite.

PMID- 28578462
TI  - aMMP-8 in correlation to caries and periodontal condition in adolescents-results
      of the epidemiologic LIFE child study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The suitability of a chairside aMMP-8 test in determination of
      periodontal inflammation and caries in adolescents was assessed. Secondly, the
      influence of orthodontic treatment on aMMP-8 test result was analyzed. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Within the LIFE Child study, 434 adolescents (10 to 18 years) were
      included. Clinical dental examinations comprised caries experience (DMF/T-Index),
      signs of periodontal inflammation (probing pocket depth, PPD; community
      periodontal index of treatment needs; CPITN) at six index teeth and oral hygiene
      (OH). Information about orthodontic appliances (OA) and socioeconomic status
      (SES) were obtained by validated questionnaires. Test's sensitivity and
      specificity to detect periodontal inflammation and carious lesions were
      evaluated. The influence of OA on the test result was analyzed (multivariate
      model). RESULTS: No associations between age, gender, SES or OH, and test outcome
      were found (p > 0.05). Positive test results correlated to periodontal findings
      (CPITN, mean PPD; p < 0.001). However, for the detection of >= 1 site(s) with PPD
      >= 4 mm, the test's sensitivity and specificity were found to be 61 and 69%,
      respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed a higher probability for a positive
      test result in cases of fixed OA (odds ratio 5.02, 95% confidence interval 1.90
      13.19). The test had no diagnostic value considering carious lesions.
      CONCLUSIONS: The chairside aMMP-8 test does not reliably identify adolescents
      with periodontal inflammation. Positive test results were more frequent in case
      of OA. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The chairside aMMP-8 test is no appropriate tool to
      screen children and adolescents neither for periodontal inflammation nor for
      carious lesions.

PMID- 28578463
TI  - Low personal exposure to benzene and 1,3-butadiene in the Swedish petroleum
      refinery industry.
AB  - PURPOSE: Petroleum refinery workers are exposed to the carcinogens benzene and
      1,3-butadiene. Declining exposures have been reported internationally but
      information on current exposure in the Swedish refinery industry is limited. The
      aim was to examine refinery workers' personal exposure to benzene and 1,3
      butadiene and increase awareness of exposure conditions by collaboration with
      involved refineries. METHODS: Altogether 505 repeated personal exposure
      measurements were performed among workers at two refineries. Full-shift
      measurements were conducted in different exposure groups using Perkin Elmer
      diffusive samplers filled with Carbopack X. Mean levels were calculated using
      mixed-effects models. A large fraction of measurements below the limit of
      detection (LOD) required imputation of computer-generated data. RESULTS: Mean
      benzene exposure among process technicians was 15.3 ug/m3 (95% CI 10.4-22.5
      ug/m3) and 13.7 ug/m3 (95% CI 8.3-22.7 ug/m3) for Refinery 1 and 2, respectively.
      Process technicians working outdoors had higher exposure than maintenance workers
      (20.7 versus 5.9 ug/m3, p < 0.01). Working in the harbour and tank park (Refinery
      1), compared with the process area, was associated with higher exposure. The 1,3
      butadiene exposure was low, 5.4 and 1.8 ug/m3, respectively. The total variation
      was generally attributed to within-worker variability. CONCLUSIONS: Low benzene
      and 1,3-butadiene levels were found among refinery workers. Mean benzene exposure
      was about 1% of the Swedish occupational limit (1500 ug/m3) and for 1,3
      butadiene, exposure was even lower. A large fraction of values below the LOD can
      be managed by carefully modelled, computer-generated data.

PMID- 28578464
TI  - Efficient modelling of foliage distribution and crown dynamics in monolayer tree
      species.
AB  - In response to the computational limitations of individual leaf-based tree growth
      models, this article presents a new approach for the efficient characterisation
      of the spatial distribution of foliage in monolayered trees in terms of 2D
      foliage surfaces. Much like the recently introduced 3D leaf area density, this
      concept accommodates local crown plasticity, which is a common weak point in
      large-scale growth models. Recognizing phototropism as the predominant driver of
      spatial crown expansion, we define the local light gradient on foliage surfaces.
      We consider the partial differential equation describing the evolution of a curve
      expanding along the light gradient and present an explicit solution. The article
      concludes with an illustration of the incorporation of foliage surfaces in a
      simple tree growth model for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), and discusses
      perspectives for applications in functional-structural models.

PMID- 28578465
TI  - Perspectives and Practices of Athletic Trainers and Team Physicians Implementing
      the 2010 NCAA Sickle Cell Trait Screening Policy.
AB  - Sickle cell trait (SCT) is usually benign. However, there are some conditions
      that may lead to SCT-related problems and put athletes with the trait at
      particular risk. In 2010 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
      issued a policy that required all Division I (DI) student-athletes to confirm
      their SCT status or sign a liability waiver to opt out of testing. Athletic
      trainers and team physicians play key roles in the policy implementation and we
      examined their perceptions and practices. Between December 2013 and March 2014 we
      interviewed 13 head athletic trainers and team physicians at NCAA Division I
      colleges and universities in North Carolina. We used an interview guide with open
      ended questions covering knowledge of SCT, historical screening and education
      practices, current implementation, and policy benefits and challenges.
      Participants were knowledgeable about SCT and thought the policy was beneficial
      in providing SCT health information to and for student-athletes. Schools varied
      in provision of genetic counseling, offering the waiver, SCT tests administered,
      and other aspects. Challenges included: insufficient guidance from the NCAA;
      financial considerations; and misunderstanding of the relationships of race and
      ancestry to SCT risk. Athletic staff found the policy valuable, but felt it needs
      clarity and standardization.

PMID- 28578468
TI  - Penetrating cardiac injuries: predictive model for outcomes based on 2016
      patients from the National Trauma Data Bank.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Penetrating cardiac injuries are uncommon and lethal. The objectives
      of this study are to examine the national profile of cardiac injuries, identify
      independent predictors of outcome, generate, compare and validate previous
      predictive models for outcomes. We hypothesized that National Trauma Data Bank
      (NTDB) given its large number of patients, would validate these models. METHODS:
      The NTDB was queried for data on cardiac injuries, using survival as the main
      outcome measure. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing univariate and
      stepwise logistic regression. The stepwise logistic regression model was then
      compared with other predictive models of outcome. RESULTS: There were 2016
      patients with penetrating cardiac injuries identified from 1,310,720 patients.
      Incidence: 0.16%. Mechanism of injury: GSWs-1264 (63%), SWs-716 (36%),
      Shotgun/impalement-19/16 (1%). Mean RTS 1.75, mean ISS 27 +/- 23. Overall
      survival 675 (33%). 830 patients (41%) underwent ED thoracotomy, 47 survived
      (6%). Survival stratified by mechanism: GSWs 114/1264 (10%), SWs 564/717 (76%).
      Predictors of outcome for mortality-univariate analysis: vital signs, RTS, ISS,
      GCS: Field CPR, ED intubation, ED thoracotomy and aortic cross-clamping (p <
      0.001). Stepwise logistic regression identified cardiac GSW's (p < 0.001; AOR
      26.85; 95% CI 17.21-41.89), field CPR (p = 0.003; AOR 3.65; 95% CI 1.53-8.69),
      the absence of spontaneous ventilation (p = 0.008; AOR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.14),
      the presence of an associated abdominal GSW (p = 0.009; AOR 2.58, 95% CI 1.26
      5.26) need for ED airway (p = 0.0003 AOR 1386.30; 95% CI 126.0-15251.71) and
      aortic cross-clamping (p = 0.0003 AOR 0.18; 95% CI 0.11-0.28) as independent
      predictors for mortality. Overall predictive power of model-93%. CONCLUSION:
      Predictors of outcome were identified. Overall survival rates are lower than
      prospective studies report. Predictive model from NTDB generated larger number of
      strong independent predictors of outcomes, correlated and validated previous
      predictive models.

PMID- 28578467
TI  - Demonstration of impaired neurovascular coupling responses in TG2576 mouse model
      of Alzheimer's disease using functional laser speckle contrast imaging.
AB  - Increasing evidence from epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies
      indicates that cerebromicrovascular dysfunction and microcirculatory damage play
      critical roles in the pathogenesis of many types of dementia in the elderly,
      including both vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and Alzheimer's disease.
      Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) include
      impairment of neurovascular coupling responses/functional hyperemia
      ("neurovascular uncoupling"). Due to the growing interest in understanding and
      pharmacologically targeting pathophysiological mechanisms of VCID, there is an
      increasing need for sensitive, easy-to-establish methods to assess neurovascular
      coupling responses. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is a technique that
      allows rapid and minimally invasive visualization of changes in regional
      cerebromicrovascular blood perfusion. This type of imaging technique combines
      high resolution and speed to provide great spatiotemporal accuracy to measure
      moment-to-moment changes in cerebral blood flow induced by neuronal activation.
      Here, we provide detailed protocols for the successful measurement in
      neurovascular coupling responses in anesthetized mice equipped with a thinned
      skull cranial window using LSCI. This method can be used to evaluate the effects
      of anti-aging or anti-AD treatments on cerebromicrovascular health.

PMID- 28578469
TI  - Brief Report: Is Impaired Classification of Subtle Facial Expressions in Children
      with Autism Spectrum Disorders Related to Atypical Emotion Category Boundaries?
AB  - Impairments in recognizing subtle facial expressions, in individuals with autism
      spectrum disorder (ASD), may relate to difficulties in constructing prototypes of
      these expressions. Eighteen children with predominantly intellectual low
      functioning ASD (LFA, IQ <80) and two control groups (mental and chronological
      age matched), were assessed for their ability to classify emotional faces, of
      high, medium and low intensities, as happy or angry. For anger, the LFA group
      made more errors for lower intensity expressions than the control groups,
      classifications did not differ for happiness. This is the first study to find
      that the LFA group made more across-valence errors than controls. These data are
      consistent with atypical facial expression processing in ASD being associated
      with differences in the structure of emotion categories.

PMID- 28578470
TI  - Which immobilization is better for distal radius fracture? A prospective
      randomized trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine whether an above-elbow cast
      (AEC) is better than a below-elbow cast (BEC) at maintaining the initial
      reduction in the orthopaedic management of a distal radius fracture (DRF).
      METHODS: It is a prospective randomized study carried out in a single emergency
      trauma department. There were 72 patients older than 55 years of age (55-96) with
      a distal radius fracture treated orthopaedically. They were randomized into two
      groups: group B (AEC 32 patients) and group A (BEC 40 patients). Randomization
      was done by a computer program. Four subgroups were constituted according to the
      instability criteria: subgroup 4 the most instable fractures. Main outcome was
      reduction loss from initial reduction to cast removal: it was measured using the
      volar tilt, radial tilt and radial length on plain radiographs. RESULTS: No
      differences were observed between group A and B when analysed globally (volar
      tilt loss p = 0.89 radial tilt loss p = 0.08 ulnar variance p = 0.19). Subgroups
      analysis revealed less radial tilt reduction loss in group A in patients within
      subgroup 3 (p = 0.02) and 4 (p = 0.003). DISCUSSION: Results are in contrast to
      what was expected. Limiting prono-supination AEC is supposed to better maintain
      initial fracture reduction. Effect of pronation and supination as well as
      distraction of brachioradialis muscle could have been overestimated until now.
      CONCLUSION: The above-elbow cast is not better than the below-elbow cast in terms
      of loss reduction. However, the below-elbow cast more efficiently controls radial
      tilt reduction.

PMID- 28578466
TI  - Dopaminergic Regulation of Innate Immunity: a Review.
AB  - Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system as well as in
      peripheral tissues. Emerging evidence however points to DA also as a key
      transmitter between the nervous system and the immune system as well as a
      mediator produced and released by immune cells themselves. Dopaminergic pathways
      have received so far extensive attention in the adaptive branch of the immune
      system, where they play a role in health and disease such as multiple sclerosis,
      rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and Parkinson's disease. Comparatively little is
      known about DA and the innate immune response, although DA may affect innate
      immune system cells such as dendritic cells, macrophages, microglia, and
      neutrophils. The present review aims at providing a complete and exhaustive
      summary of currently available evidence about DA and innate immunity, and to
      become a reference for anyone potentially interested in the fields of immunology,
      neurosciences and pharmacology. A wide array of dopaminergic drugs is used in
      therapeutics for non-immune indications, such as Parkinson's disease,
      hyperprolactinemia, shock, hypertension, with a usually favorable therapeutic
      index, and they might be relatively easily repurposed for immune-mediated
      disease, thus leading to innovative treatments at low price, with benefit for
      patients as well as for the healthcare systems.

PMID- 28578471
TI  - Retrieval evidence of impingement at the third articulation in contemporary dual
      mobility cups for total hip arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to assess polyethylene liners of retrieved hips of one design
      of a dual mobility (DM) cup liner and two designs of femoral stems to better
      understand the role of femoral stem design on polyethylene impingement. METHODS:
      This was a case-control study involving 70 retrieved highly cross-linked
      polyethylene (X3) liners used with ABGII (n = 35) and Rejuvenate (n = 35) stems
      (Stryker). All polyethylene liners were assessed for evidence of rim deformation
      and the damage quantified using metrology methods. RESULTS: A total of 80% of
      polyethylene liners paired with ABGII necks had macroscopic evidence of neck
      impingement resulting in a raised lip whilst 23% of liners paired with Rejuvenate
      necks had evidence of a raised lip (p < 0.0001). The height of the raised rims of
      the DM cups paired with ABGII necks had a median (range) of 139 MUm (72-255). The
      height of the raised rims of the DM cups paired with Rejuvenate necks had a
      median (range) of 52 MUm (45-90) (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our new findings from
      retrieved dual mobility bearings showed that polyethylene liner rim deformation
      resulting from impingement with the femoral neck occurs in early in-human
      function, is circumferential in distribution, and is affected by the stem neck
      design. We recommend the use of highly polished and non-edged neck designs when
      used in conjunction with DM cups.

PMID- 28578472
TI  - Cutaneous Manifestations of ANCA-Associated Small Vessels Vasculitis.
AB  - Skin lesions are frequent manifestations of underlying systemic conditions,
      including systemic autoimmune vasculitis. In particular, anti-neutrophil
      cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) are associated with distinct forms of vasculitis
      characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration of the walls of small and medium
      sized vessels leading to vascular destruction and tissue necrosis. ANCA
      associated vasculitis is rare and systemic diseases, which can be classified
      based on different distribution of vascular inflammation and presence or absence
      of granulomatosis and asthma. Despite their diversities, ANCA-associated
      vasculitis, namely microscopic polyangiitis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis and
      eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, can all display a broad variety of
      cutaneous manifestations, which can appear during the course of the disease or
      even as first sign at the time of onset. Different skin manifestations might
      coexist in the same patient and occur in different occasions during the course of
      the vasculitis. Thus, a deep knowledge of the spectrum of skin lesions as part of
      ANCA-associated vasculitis is mandatory for a correct diagnostic process,
      whenever cutaneous vasculitis is suspected. Due to this broad variety of
      manifestations, the diagnosis of skin involvement in ANCA-associated vasculitis
      is very challenging and it must be supported by a detailed medical history,
      accurate physical examination, specific histopathological analysis of skin biopsy
      and the presence of ANCA serology. In this review, we focus on the cutaneous
      manifestations that can develop in the context of ANCA-associated vasculitis,
      detailing the clinical features, the histopathological aspects as well as the
      direct immunofluorescence studies for each of the three conditions. Moreover, we
      acknowledged the differential diagnoses that must be ruled out in the diagnostic
      process and the main therapeutic approaches available for treatment of ANCA
      associated vasculitis.

PMID- 28578474
TI  - Differentiating perforated from non-perforated appendicitis on contrast-enhanced
      magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in pediatric
      appendicitis is increasing; MRI findings predictive of appendiceal perforation
      have not been specifically evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of MRI
      in differentiating perforated from non-perforated appendicitis. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A retrospective review of pediatric patients undergoing contrast
      enhanced MRI and subsequent appendectomy was performed, with surgicopathological
      confirmation of perforation. Appendiceal diameter and the following 10 MRI
      findings were assessed: appendiceal restricted diffusion, wall defect,
      appendicolith, periappendiceal free fluid, remote free fluid, restricted
      diffusion within free fluid, abscess, peritoneal enhancement, ileocecal wall
      thickening and ileus. Two-sample t-test and chi-square tests were used to analyze
      continuous and discrete data, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for
      individual MRI findings were calculated and optimal thresholds for measures of
      accuracy were selected. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients (mean age: 12.2 years)
      with appendicitis were included, of whom 22 had perforation. The perforated group
      had a larger mean appendiceal diameter and mean number of MRI findings than the
      non-perforated group (12.3 mm vs. 8.6 mm; 5.0 vs. 2.0, respectively). Abscess,
      wall defect and restricted diffusion within free fluid had the greatest
      specificity for perforation (1.00, 1.00 and 0.96, respectively) but low
      sensitivity (0.36, 0.25 and 0.32, respectively). The receiver operator
      characteristic curve for total number of MRI findings had an area under the curve
      of 0.92, with an optimal threshold of 3.5. A threshold of any 4 findings had the
      best ability to accurately discriminate between perforated and non-perforated
      cases, with a sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 85%. CONCLUSION: Contrast
      enhanced MRI can differentiate perforated from non-perforated appendicitis. The
      presence of multiple findings increases diagnostic accuracy, with a threshold of
      any four findings optimally discriminating between perforated and non-perforated
      cases. These results may help guide management decisions as MRI assumes a greater
      role in the work-up of pediatric appendicitis.

PMID- 28578475
TI  - Intussusception reduction: Effect of air vs. liquid enema on radiation dose.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both air and radiopaque liquid contrast are used to reduce ileocolic
      intussusception under fluoroscopy. Some suggest air lowers radiation dose due to
      shorter procedure times. However, air enema likely lowers radiation dose
      regardless of fluoroscopy time due to less density over the automatic exposure
      control cells. OBJECTIVES: We test the hypothesis that air enema reduction of
      ileocolic intussusception results in lower radiation dose than liquid contrast
      enema independent of fluoroscopy time. We describe a role for automatic exposure
      control in this dose difference. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      evaluated air and liquid intussusception reductions performed on a single digital
      fluoroscopic unit during a 26-month period. We compared patient age, weight,
      gender, exam time of day and year, performing radiologist(s), radiographic image
      acquisitions, grid and magnification use, fluoroscopy time and dose area product.
      We compared categorical and continuous variables statistically using chi-square
      and Mann-Whitney U tests, respectively. RESULTS: The mean dose area product was
      2.7-fold lower for air enema, 1.3 +/- 0.9 dGy.cm2, than for liquid, 3.5 +/- 2.5
      dGy.cm2 (P<0.005). The mean fluoroscopy time was similar between techniques. The
      mean dose area product/min was 2.3-fold lower for air, 0.6 +/- 0.2 dGy.cm2/min,
      than for liquid, 1.4 +/- 0.5 dGy.cm2/min (P<0.001). No group differences were
      identified in other measured dose parameters. CONCLUSION: Fluoroscopic
      intussusception reduction using air enema uses less than half the radiation dose
      of liquid contrast enema. Dose savings are independent of fluoroscopy time and
      are likely due to automatic exposure control interaction.

PMID- 28578477
TI  - Prevalence of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia in patients operated for
      cerebral abscess: a retrospective cohort analysis.
AB  - It is well described that patients with pulmonary arteriovenous malformations
      (PAVMs) and Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) have an increased risk of
      cerebral abscess (CA). However, as both CA and HHT are rare, the proportion of
      patients with CA who are diagnosed with HHT has not been previously described. A
      retrospective study was carried out of all patients treated surgically for CA
      between January 1995 and September 2014 at the Department of Neurosurgery, Odense
      University Hospital. The cases were then cross-referenced with the Danish HHT
      database. Eighty patients aged 5-79 years were included. The incidence of CA was
      0.33/100,000/year. Two patients (2.5%) were registered as having HHT. Bacterial
      pathogens were identified in 70% of all cases, most frequently streptococci
      species (46.3%). The most common predisposing condition was odontogenic infection
      (20%), followed by post-operative infection (13.8%) and post-trauma (6.3%).
      Patients undergoing a full diagnostic program to determine predisposing
      conditions causing CA increased over the 20-year period from 11.8% to 65.2%. The
      3-month and 1-year mortality rates were 7.5% and 11.25%, respectively. There is
      an overrepresentation of HHT patients in a cohort of patients with CA, and HHT
      should be investigated as the cause of the CA if no other apparent cause can be
      identified.

PMID- 28578476
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide Downregulates Kruppel-Like Factor 2 (KLF2) via Inducing DNMT1
      Mediated Hypermethylation in Endothelial Cells.
AB  - KLF2 plays a protective role in antiinflammation and endothelial function, and
      can be regulated by promoter methylation alteration. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is
      a mediator of inflammatory responses, which causes epigenetic change of certain
      genes in host cells. We thus aimed to determine whether LPS could control the
      KLF2 expression by inducing methylation in promoter region. DNA methylation of 16
      CpG sites within KLF2 promoter region was detected by bisulfite sequencing PCR.
      Results showed that methylation at 12 CpG sites were significantly increased in
      HUVECs after exposure to LPS among the total 16 sites, and the average level was
      increased by 57%. The KLF2 expressions assessed by reverse transcription
      quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot were significantly downregulated
      compared that without LPS simulation. Moreover, both messenger RNA and protein
      levels of KLF2 in HUVEC co-treated with LPS and DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) 1
      small interfering RNA were dramatically higher than that treated with LPS only.
      Similar result was obtained when the cells were incubated in combination with LPS
      and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (AZA), suggesting that the reduction of KLF2
      expression induced by LPS can be reversed by DNMT1 inhibition. Finally, the
      presence of AZA changed the expression of genes that depends on KLF2 in LPS
      stimulated HUVECs, which downregulated the E-selectin and VCAM and increased the
      eNOS and thrombomodulin expression. Our data demonstrated that LPS exposure
      resulted in hypermethylation in KLF2 promoter in HUVECs, which subsequently led
      to downregulation of the KLF2 expression. The study suggested that epigenetic
      alteration is involved in LPS-induced inflammatory response and provided a new
      insight into atherogenesis.

PMID- 28578473
TI  - Geoepidemiology and Immunologic Features of Autoinflammatory Diseases: a
      Comprehensive Review.
AB  - The knowledge on systemic autoinflammatory disorders (SAID) is expanding rapidly
      and new signalling pathways are being decrypted. The concept of autoinflammation
      has been proposed since 1999, to define a group of diseases with abnormal innate
      immunity activation. Since then, more than 30 monogenic SAID have been described.
      In this review, we first describe inflammasomopathies and SAID related to the
      interleukin-1 pathway. Recent insights into the pathogenesis of familial
      Mediterranean fever and the function of Pyrin are detailed. In addition, complex
      or polygenic SAID, such as Still's disease or PFAPA syndrome, are also discussed.
      Then, major players driving autoinflammation, such as type-1 interferonopathies
      (including the recently described haploinsuffiency in A20 and otulipenia), TNF
      associated periodic syndromes, defects in ubiquitination, and SAID with
      overlapping features of autoimmunity or immunodeficiency. Discoveries of the
      pathogenic role of mosaicism, intronic defects coupled to the likelihood to
      identify digenic or polygenic diseases are providing new challenges for
      physicians and geneticists. This comprehensive review depicts the various SAID,
      presenting them according to their predominant pathophysiological mechanism, with
      a particular emphasis on recent findings. Epidemiologic data are also presented.
      Finally, we propose a practical diagnostic approach to the most common monogenic
      SAID, based on the most characteristic clinical presentation of these disorders.

PMID- 28578478
TI  - Smooth pursuits decrease balance control during locomotion in young and older
      healthy females.
AB  - Dynamic balance control-characterised as movement of the trunk and lower limbs
      was assessed during fixation of a fixed target, smooth pursuits and saccadic eye
      movements in ten young (22.9 +/- 1.5 years) and ten older (72.1 +/- 8.2 years)
      healthy females walking overground. Participants were presented with visual
      stimuli to initiate eye movements, and posture and gaze were assessed with motion
      analysis and eye tracking equipment. The results showed an increase in
      medial/lateral (ML) trunk movement (C7: p = 0.012; sacrum: p = 0.009) and step
      width variability (p = 0.052) during smooth pursuits compared to a fixed target,
      with no changes for saccades compared to a fixed target. The elders demonstrated
      greater ML trunk movement (sacrum: p = 0.037) and step-width variability (p =
      0.037) than the younger adults throughout, although this did not interact with
      the eye movements. The findings showed that smooth pursuits decreased balance
      control in young and older adults similarly, which was likely a consequence of
      more complicated retinal flow. Since healthy elders are typically already at a
      postural disadvantage, further decreases in balance caused by smooth pursuits are
      undesirable.

PMID- 28578479
TI  - Vulnerability associated with "symptoms similar to those of mercury poisoning" in
      communities from Xingu River, Amazon basin.
AB  - The Brazilian Amazon is known to be a region with high levels of mercury (Hg) in
      the environment and studies point to an association between high levels of
      natural mercury in the mother rock and the vast number of clandestine gold mines.
      Other studies already report the contamination of fish in this region, as well as
      high levels of Hg in biological material from environmentally exposed
      populations. On the other hand, this is one of the least developed regions of the
      planet and it is necessary to understand the vulnerability factors in these
      populations that may be intoxicated by this element. The purpose of the present
      study was to investigate the vulnerability factors in communities from Xingu
      River-Amazon basin probably exposed to Hg. A cross-selection study in two cities
      localized in Xingu River was conducted, and the sample contained was 268
      individuals. sociodemographic questions, lifestyle, diet habits and health
      conditions were collated. The majority of the sample was female, between 30 and
      59 years old, had less than 3 years of educational level and lived in the local
      of study more than 240 months. There was regular fish consumption (95.9%),
      principally carnivorous species (80.5%). The visual problem has a highest
      prevalence (43.3%) between the health problems and about the symptoms of Hg
      intoxication, memory loss (42.9%), weakness (35.1%), fatigue (34.3%), mood
      changes (28.7%) and difficulties in concentration (27.2%) was most reported. The
      female sex, age over 60, educational level below 3 years of study, did not had
      flush toilet, smoke and least one chronic non-communicable disease represent
      higher probability to had symptoms of Hg intoxication. Lack of access to health
      services, low education level and income evidence the susceptibility of this
      community to diseases and injuries. The vulnerable groups identified in this
      study should be a priority in public health and environmental health policies.

PMID- 28578481
TI  - The association of air temperature with cardiac arrhythmias.
AB  - The body response to meteorological influences may activate pathophysiological
      mechanisms facilitating the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias in susceptible
      patients. Putative underlying mechanisms include changes in systemic vascular
      resistance and blood pressure, as well as a network of proinflammatory and
      procoagulant processes. Such a chain reaction probably occurs within the time
      window of several hours, so use of daily average values of meteorological
      elements do not seem appropriate for investigation in this area. In addition,
      overall synoptic situation, and season-specific combinations of meteorological
      elements and air pollutant levels probably cause the overall effect rather than a
      single atmospheric element. Particularly strong interrelations have been
      described among wind speed, air pressure and temperature, relative air humidity,
      and suspended particulate matter. This may be the main reason why studies
      examining the association between temperature and ventricular arrhythmias have
      found linear positive, negative, J-shaped or no association. Further
      understanding of the pathophysiological adaptation to atmospheric environment may
      help in providing recommendations for protective measures during "bad" weather
      conditions in patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

PMID- 28578484
TI  - Valbenazine: First Global Approval.
AB  - Valbenazine (IngrezzaTM) is an orally bioavailable, selective, vesicular
      monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitor being developed by Neurocrine
      Biosciences for the treatment of various central nervous system disorders.
      Valbenazine has been approved in the USA for the treatment of adults with tardive
      dyskinesia (TD), is at various stages of development in other countries for TD
      and is in phase 2 development in the USA for Tourette syndrome. This article
      summarizes the milestones in the development of valbenazine leading to its first
      global approval in the USA for the treatment of adults with TD.

PMID- 28578480
TI  - Acute Neuroinflammation Promotes Cell Responses to 1800 MHz GSM Electromagnetic
      Fields in the Rat Cerebral Cortex.
AB  - Mobile phone communications are conveyed by radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic
      fields, including pulse-modulated global system for mobile communications (GSM)
      1800 MHz, whose effects on the CNS affected by pathological states remain to be
      specified. Here, we investigated whether a 2-h head-only exposure to GSM-1800 MHz
      could impact on a neuroinflammatory reaction triggered by lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS) in 2-week-old or adult rats. We focused on the cerebral cortex in which the
      specific absorption rate (SAR) of RF averaged 2.9 W/kg. In developing rats, 24 h
      after GSM exposure, the levels of cortical interleukin-1beta (IL1beta) or NOX2
      NADPH oxidase transcripts were reduced by 50 to 60%, in comparison with sham
      exposed animals (SAR = 0), as assessed by RT-qPCR. Adult rats exposed to GSM also
      showed a 50% reduction in the level of IL1beta mRNA, but they differed from
      developing rats by the lack of NOX2 gene suppression and by displaying a
      significant growth response of microglial cell processes imaged in anti-Iba1
      stained cortical sections. As neuroinflammation is often associated with changes
      in excitatory neurotransmission, we evaluated changes in expression and
      phosphorylation of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid
      (AMPA) receptors in the adult cerebral cortex by Western blot analyses. We found
      that GSM exposure decreased phosphorylation at two residues on the GluA1 AMPAR
      subunit (serine 831 and 845). The GSM-induced changes in gene expressions,
      microglia, and GluA1 phosphorylation did not persist 72 h after RF exposure and
      were not observed in the absence of LPS pretreatment. Together, our data provide
      evidence that GSM-1800 MHz can modulate CNS cell responses triggered by an acute
      neuroinflammatory state.

PMID- 28578483
TI  - SAND: a Screening for Aphasia in NeuroDegeneration. Development and normative
      data.
AB  - Language assessment has a critical role in the clinical diagnosis of
      neurodegenerative diseases, in particular, in the case of Primary Progressive
      Aphasia (PPA). The current diagnostic criteria (Gorno-Tempini et al., 2011)
      identify three main variants on the basis of clinical features and patterns of
      brain atrophy. Widely accepted tools to diagnose, clinically classify, and follow
      up the heterogeneous language profiles of PPA are still lacking. In this study,
      we develop a screening battery, composed of nine tests (picture naming, word and
      sentence comprehension, word and sentence repetition, reading, semantic
      association, writing and picture description), following the recommendations of
      current diagnostic guidelines and taking into account recent research on the
      topic. All tasks were developed with consideration of the psycholinguistic
      factors that can affect performance, with the aim of achieving sensitivity to the
      language deficit to which each task was relevant, and to allow identification of
      the selective characteristic impairments of each PPA variant. Normative data on
      134 Italian subjects pooled across homogeneous subgroups for age, sex, and
      education are reported. Although further work is still needed, this battery
      represents a first step towards a concise multilingual standard language
      examination, a fast and simple tool to help clinicians and researchers in the
      diagnosis of PPA.

PMID- 28578485
TI  - Thoughts on the importance of government regulated Chinese medicine terminology
      standardization.
AB  - The applications of a standardized Chinese medicine (CM) terminology are
      ultimately the translation and publication of literature, education, as well as
      scholarly and legal communication. Over the past 20-30 years the amount of
      published CM literature, including clinical and experimental research, has
      increased exponentially. In addition, the numbers of professionally trained
      Western CM scholars and clinicians have been continuously rising, and they are
      now forming a considerable academic force that should be taken seriously. Because
      of the continuous advancements of CM abroad, there is a strong demand for the
      application of a "common official language" to facilitate this progress and the
      future developments in the field. A standard to be applied within China is also a
      necessary work needed for the uniform transmission of the indigenous medical
      system abroad.

PMID- 28578482
TI  - High frequencies of circulating Tfh-Th17 cells in myasthenia gravis patients.
AB  - Recent studies show that the frequencies of circulating follicullar helper T
      (cTfh) cells are significantly higher in myasthenia gravis (MG) patients compared
      with healthy controls (HC). And, they are positively correlated with levels of
      serum anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody (anti-AchR Ab). It is unclear whether
      cTfh cell subset frequencies are altered and what role they play in MG patients.
      In order to clarify this, we examined the frequencies of cTfh cell counterparts,
      their subsets, and circulating plasmablasts in MG patients by flow cytometry. We
      determined the concentrations of serum anti-AChR Ab by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We assayed the function of cTfh cell subsets by flow
      cytometry and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We found higher
      frequencies of cTfh cell counterparts, cTfh-Th17 cells, and plasmablasts in MG
      patients compared with HC. The frequencies of cTfh cell counterparts and cTfh
      Th17 cells were positively correlated with the frequencies of plasmablasts and
      the concentrations of anti-AChR Ab in MG patients. Functional assays showed that
      activated cTfh-Th17 cells highly expressed key molecular features of Tfh cells
      including ICOS, PD-1, and IL-21. Results indicate that, just like cTfh cell
      counterparts, cTfh-Th17 cells may play a role in the immunopathogenesis and the
      production of anti-AChR Ab of MG.

PMID- 28578486
TI  - Angelica tenuissima Nakai Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment and Promotes
      Neurogenesis in Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To research Angelica tenuissima Nakai (ATN) for use in novel
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapeutics. METHODS: The effect of a 30% ethanol
      extract of ATN (KH032) on AD-like cognitive impairment and neuropathological and
      neuroinflammatory changes induced by bilateral intracerebroventricular injections
      of beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide (Abeta1-42) was investigated. Male C57Bl/6 mice
      were randomly divided into 4 groups, 10 in each group. KH032-treated groups were
      administrated with a low or high dose of KH032 (50 and 200 mg/kg, respectively),
      intragastrically for 16 days; distilled water was applied in the sham and
      negative groups. Open fifield test, Y maze and Morris water maze test were used
      for behavior test and cognitive ability. In addition, the neuroprotective effects
      of KH032 in Abeta1-42-infused mice on the histopathological markers
      [neuronspecific nuclear protein (NeuN), Abeta1-42] of neurodegeneration were
      examined. The levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), NeuN,
      phosphorylation extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/ERK, brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF), phosphorylation cAMP response element-binding
      (CREB)/CREB protein expression were measured by Western blot. RESULTS: KH032
      treatment ameliorated cognitive impairments, reduced the overexpression of Abeta1
      42, and inhibited neuronal loss and neuroinflammatory response in the Abeta1-42
      infused mice. Moreover, KH032 treatment enhanced BDNF expression levels in the
      hippocampus. Finally, KH032 treatment increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and
      CREB, vital for ERK-CREB signaling. CONCLUSIONS: KH032 attenuated cognitive
      defificits in the Abeta1-42-infused mice by increasing BDNF expression and ERK1/2
      and CREB phosphorylation and inhibiting neuronal loss and neuroinflflammatory
      response, suggesting that KH032 has therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative
      disorders such as AD.

PMID- 28578487
TI  - Gambogic Acid Induces Cell Apoptosis and Inhibits MAPK Pathway in PTEN-/-/p53-/-
      Prostate Cancer Cells In Vitro and Ex Vivo.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of gambogic acid (GA) on the growth and cell
      death of castrate resistant prostate cancer (PC) with phosphate and tension
      homology (PTEN) and p53 genes deleted in vitro and ex vivo, and elucidate the
      underlying possible molecular mechanisms. METHODS: PTEN-/-/p53-/- PC cells and
      Los Angeles prostate cancer-4 (LAPC-4) cells were treated with GA for 24 h and 48
      h, then cell viability was determined by cell proliferation assay. PTEN-/-/p53-/-
      PC cells organoids number was calculated under GA treatment for 1 week. In
      addition, cell titer glo assay was performed to analyze 3 dimensional cell
      viability of patients derived xenografts (PDX) 170.2 organoids. Flow cytometry
      was used to detect apoptotic cells treated with GA. And confocal image was
      performed to detect the apoptotic mitochondrial morphological changes. Apoptotic
      cell death related protein levels were measured through Western blot (WB) in GA
      treated cells and organoids. The expression levels of mitogen-activated protein
      kinases (MAPKs) pathway related ribonucleic acid (RNAs) and proteins were
      analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and WB,
      respectively. RESULTS: The treatment of GA significantly reduced cell viability
      of PTEN-/-/p53-/- PC cells and LAPC-4 in a time- and concentration-dependent
      manner. In organoids, GA showed strong inhibition towards organoids' numbers and
      diameters and continuously led to a complete organoids inhibition with GA 150
      nmol/L. Ex vivo results validated that GA 1 MUmol/L inhibited 44.6% PDX170.2
      organoids growth. As for mechanism, flow cytometry detected continuously
      increased apoptotic portion under GA treatment from 1.98% to 11.78% (6 h) and
      29.94% (8 h, P<0.05). In addition, mitochondrial fragmentation emerged in GA
      treated cells indicated the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway might be involved.
      Furthermore, WB detected caspases-3, -9 activation and light chain (LC)-3
      conversion with GA treatment. WB revealed decreased activity of MAPK pathway and
      down-regulation of downstream c-fos oncogene RNA level was detected by RT-PCR
      before undergoing apoptosis (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: GA was a potent anti-tumor
      compound as for PTEN-/-/p53-/- PC, which contributed to cell apoptosis via
      inhibition of the MAPK pathway and c-fos.

PMID- 28578488
TI  - 17beta-Estradiol Increases Non-CpG Methylation in Exon 1 of the Rainbow Trout
      (Oncorhynchus mykiss) MyoD Gene.
AB  - MyoD is an important myogenic transcription factor necessary for the
      differentiation of myogenic precursor cells (MPC) to form mature myotubes, a
      process essential for muscle growth. Epigenetic markers such as CpH methylation
      are known gene regulators that are important for the differentiation process. In
      this study, we investigated whether DNA methylation is a potential mechanism
      associated with the ability of 17beta-estradiol (E2) to reduce MyoD gene
      expression and muscle growth in rainbow trout. Rainbow trout received a single
      intraperitoneal injection of E2 or the injection vehicle (control). Skeletal
      muscle was collected 24 h post injection and analyzed for DNA methylation within
      the MyoD gene and the expression of DNA methyltransferases. CpG islands of the
      MyoD gene were predicted using MethPrimer software, and these regions were PCR
      amplified and analyzed using bisulfite sequencing. The percent methylation of the
      targeted CpG did not differ between control and E2-treated fish. However, percent
      CpH methylation in the MyoD exon 1 region was elevated with E2 treatment. Two of
      the methylated CpH sites were located in conserved transcription factor binding
      motifs, estrogen response element (ERE), and Myc binding site. Quantitative real
      time PCR analysis revealed a significant increase in expression of DNA
      methyltransferases, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, in E2-treated muscle, suggesting an
      increased genome methylation. Differential CpH methylation in MyoD gene of
      control and E2-treated fish suggests an epigenetic mechanism through which E2
      decreases MyoD gene expression and contributes to reduced muscle growth.

PMID- 28578489
TI  - Downregulation of lncRNA TUBA4B is Associated with Poor Prognosis for Epithelial
      Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - A host of studies have revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are
      critically involved in the development and progression of epithelial ovarian
      cancer. LncRNA TUBA4B is recently identified to be a critical mediator in non
      small cell lung cancer. However, the clinical roles and biological functions of
      lncRNA TUBA4B in epithelial ovarian cancer have yet to be fully clarified. The
      present study was conducted to explore the expression of lncRNA TUBA4B in human
      epithelial ovarian cancer tissues and potential roles of lncRNA TUBA4B in ovarian
      cancer cells. The matched epithelial ovarian cancer specimens and adjacent normal
      tissues were employed to detect the expression of lncRNA TUBA4B. The prognostic
      value of lncRNA TUBA4B for tumor progression and survival rate was investigated.
      The effects of lncRNA TUBA4B on ovarian cancer cell proliferation and migration
      were also explored. The expression of lncRNA TUBA4B was significantly decreased
      in epithelial ovarian cancer tissue specimens. The low lncRNA TUBA4B level was
      closely related with pathological grade, FIGO stage and lymph node metastases,
      and serum CA125 level. Enforced expression of lncRNA TUBA4B obviously reduced the
      proliferation of SKOV3 cells, and attenuated the activation of ERK and Akt
      signaling pathways. Our data demonstrate for the first time that lower lncRNA
      TUBA4B may be a novel independent prognostic biomarker for overall survival of
      epithelial ovarian cancer. Overexpression of lncRNA TUBA4B inhibits the
      proliferation of ovarian cancer cells. LncRNA TUBA4B may be an important target
      for therapeutic intervention in ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28578490
TI  - The effect of tumor necrosis factor antagonists on functional aortic stiffening.

PMID- 28578491
TI  - Vitamin D deficiency in systemic sclerosis: a possible role of subclinical liver
      fibrosis? Retrospective analysis from an Italian cohort.

PMID- 28578492
TI  - Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA): diagnostic performance of automated anti-CCP-2 and anti-CCP-3 antibodies
      assays.
AB  - This study compares the diagnostic performance of a second generation anti-cyclic
      citrullinated peptide antibody (CCP2) with a third generation anti-CCP antibodies
      assay (CCP3), as well as the combination of both tests. Serum samples of 127
      patients were analyzed. IgG anti-CCP 2 and IgM rheumatoid factor were determined
      by EliATM technique on a Phadia 250 instrument (Thermo Fisher Scientific), anti
      CCP3 by the Quanta FlashTM anti-CCP3 IgG kit, BIO-FLASH Rapid Response
      Chemiluminscence Analyzer (INOVA Diagnostics). Diagnostic performance was
      compared using ROC-curves, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and
      predictive values. Logistic regressions were used to investigate whether using
      both tests (anti-CCP2 and anti-CCP3) gives a better prediction of rheumatoid
      arthritis. At the manufacturer's cut-offs sensitivity and specificity were 79.4
      and 61.0% for CCP3 and 80.9 and 69.5% for CCP2. No significant differences could
      be observed regarding the areas under the curve (AUC) of both ROC-curves. The
      optimal cut-off point for CCP2 was 10.5 U/ml (sensitivity of 75.0% and
      specificity of 80.0%) and 5.6 U/ml for CCP3 (sensitivity of 86.9% and specificity
      of 61.0%). Binary logistic regressions indicated that the likelihood of having
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is significantly higher when testing positive on both
      CCP2 and CCP3 compared to CCP2 or CCP3 alone. In our cohort, comparable
      performance was found between the two CCP assays. Positivity for both CCP2 and
      CCP3 resulted in the most specific identification of RA patients. In patients
      with joint complaints suspected of having RA and with a weakly positive CCP 2
      (>=7 and <=16 U/ml) CCP3 testing could be of additive value for diagnosing RA.

PMID- 28578494
TI  - Colonization and Gut Flora Modulation of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens ZW3 in the
      Intestinal Tract of Mice.
AB  - This study evaluated the distribution and colonization of Lactobacillus
      kefiranofaciens ZW3 and determined its capacity to modulate the gut microbiota in
      an animal model. Based on (1) fluorescence imaging, (2) flow cytometry, and (3)
      qPCR, we found that ZW3 successfully adhered to mouse mucous tissue and colonized
      the mouse ileum. Gut microbiota profiling was performed using high-throughput
      sequencing. After continuous intubation with ZW3 for 1 week, the proportion of
      Lachnospiraceae, a family of butyric acid-producing bacteria, increased at day 7
      (11.9% at day 0 versus 18.4% at day 7). In addition, Lactobacillaceae showed an
      increasing trend (4% at day 0 versus 13% at day 7) that was accompanied by an
      observable decline in the Rikenellaceae family (1.58% at day 7, 0.14% at day 14,
      and 0.75% at day 21) in the tested mouse. The results demonstrate that ZW3 could
      successfully adhere to and colonize the mouse gut throughout the course of the
      experiment. The profiling analysis of the gut microbiota also provided evidence
      supporting the function of ZW3 in improving the intestinal flora of mice.

PMID- 28578493
TI  - Nailfold videocapillaroscopy results in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - We aimed to analyse the nailfold capillaryscopy findings morphologically and
      examine their relationship with disease activity and demographic characteristics
      in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In accordance with the 2010 ACR/EULAR
      classification criteria, 201 patients diagnosed with Romatoiad artrit (RA) and 50
      healthy controls were included. We analysed capillaroscopic abnormalities such
      asmegacapillaries, haemorrhages, ramifications and avascular areas in patients
      affected with rheumatoid arthritis. The findings in our study are as follows: in
      45.77% of the RA patients, there were nonspecific capillaryscopy findings. When
      compared to control group, the incidence of tortuosity, dilated capillary and
      bushy capillary was higher in RA patients (p values, respectively, 0.110, 0.330,
      0.440 and 0.516). In RA patients with Raynaud's phenomenon, the incidence of
      nonspecific capillaryscopy findings was higher. While there is a weak
      relationship between tortuosity and the duration of disease, no significant
      relation was detected between capillaryscopy findings and parameters such as RF,
      anti-CCP positivity and disease activity score (DAS28). When compared to
      controls, we have detected that RA patients have more nonspecific capillaryscopic
      findings. We could not find a relationship between nonspecific capillaryscopic
      findings and RA'a clinical findings and laboratory parameters. There is a need
      for a long-term wider-scale follow-up study to investigate whether there is a
      capillaryscopic pattern that can be correlated with RA's clinical findings.

PMID- 28578495
TI  - Timeline of Intestinal Adaptation After Malabsortive Surgery: Effect of Luminal
      Nutrients, Biliopancreatic Secretion, and Glutamine Supplementation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to study the process of intestinal
      adaptation in the three limbs of the small intestine after malabsorptive
      bariatric surgery: the biliopancreatic limb, the alimentary limb, and the common
      channel. These limbs are exposed to different stimuli, namely, gastrointestinal
      transit and nutrients in the alimentary limb, biliopancreatic secretions in the
      biliopancreatic limb, and a mix of both in the common channel. We also wished to
      investigate the effect of glutamine supplementation on the adaptation process.
      METHODS: Three types of surgery were performed using a porcine model:
      biliopancreatic bypass (BPBP), massive (75%) short bowel resection as the
      positive control, and a sham operation (transection) as the negative control. We
      measured the height and width of intestinal villi, histidine decarboxylase (HDC)
      activity, and amount of HDC messenger RNA (mRNA) (standard diet or a diet
      supplemented with glutamine). RESULTS: An increase in HDC activity and mRNA
      expression was observed in the BPBP group. This increase coincided with an
      increase in the height and width of the intestinal villi. The increase in villus
      height was observed immediately after surgery and peaked at 2 weeks. Levels
      remained higher than those observed in sham-operated pigs for a further 4 weeks.
      CONCLUSIONS: The intestinal adaptation process in animals that underwent BPBP was
      less intense than in those that underwent massive short bowel resection and more
      intense than in those that underwent transection only. Supplementation with
      glutamine did not improve any of the parameters studied, although it did appear
      to accelerate the adaptive process.

PMID- 28578496
TI  - ThDof1.4 and ThZFP1 constitute a transcriptional regulatory cascade involved in
      salt or osmotic stress in Tamarix hispida.
AB  - Identification of the upstream regulators of a gene is important to characterize
      the transcriptional pathway and the function of the gene. Previously, we found
      that a zinc finger protein (ThZFP1) is involved in abiotic stress tolerance of
      Tamarix hispida. In the present study, we further investigated the
      transcriptional pathway of ThZFP1. Dof motifs are abundant in the ThZFP1
      promoter; therefore, we used them to screen for transcriptional regulators of
      ThZFP1. A Dof protein, ThDof1.4, binds to the Dof motif specifically, and was
      hypothesized as the upstream regulator of ThZFP1. Further study showed that
      overexpression of ThDof1.4 in T. hispida activated the expression of GUS
      controlled by the ThZFP1 promoter. In T. hispida, transient overexpression of
      ThDof1.4 increased the transcripts of ThZFP1; conversely, transient RNAi
      silencing of ThDof1.4 reduced the expression of ThZFP1. Chromatin
      immunoprecipitation indicated that ThDof1.4 binds to the ThZFP1 promoter.
      Additionally, ThDof1.4 and ThZFP1 share similar expression patterns in response
      to salt or drought stress. Furthermore, like ThZFP1, ThDof1.4 could increase the
      proline level and enhance ROS scavenging capability to improve salt and osmotic
      stress tolerance. Together, these results suggested that ThDof1.4 and ThZFP1 form
      a transcriptional regulatory cascade involved in abiotic stress resistance in T.
      hispida.

PMID- 28578497
TI  - Authors' Reply to Luft: "Measuring the Volume-Outcome Relation for Complex
      Hospital Surgery".

PMID- 28578498
TI  - CORR Insights(r): Knee Abduction Affects Greater Magnitude of Change in ACL and
      MCL Strains Than Matched Internal Tibial Rotation In Vitro.

PMID- 28578500
TI  - Real-World Impact of Cardiovascular Disease and Anemia on Quality of Life and
      Productivity in Patients with Non-Dialysis-Dependent Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk
      of comorbid conditions, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Anemia is
      prevalent in the CKD population and worsens as kidney function declines,
      resulting in a diminished quality of life and increased morbidity/mortality. The
      purpose of this secondary analysis was to determine the real-world prevalence of
      CVD among patients with non-dialysis-dependent CKD (NDD-CKD), with and without
      comorbid anemia, and to assess the impact of these conditions on quality of life
      (QoL) and work productivity. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Adelphi CKD
      Disease-Specific Programme, conducted in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the
      UK (2012). Anonymized data were collected via patient record forms and patient
      completed questionnaires. Patient data were stratified by anemic status and the
      presence of CVD comorbidity. RESULTS: Data were collected by physicians for 1993
      patients, of whom 867 completed a patient-completed questionnaire. A total of
      61.4% of patients had anemia, and the prevalence of anemia increased with CKD
      stage. Patients with anemia had a higher mean number of cardiovascular
      comorbidities than non-anemic patients (1.27 vs 0.95, respectively; P < 0.001).
      The presence of cardiovascular conditions was associated with a significantly
      reduced QoL (EuroQol EQ-5D-3L visual analog scale: coefficient, -5.68 in anemic
      patients; P = 0.028) and work productivity and activity impairment (WPAI activity
      impairment: coefficient, +8.04 in anemic patients; P = 0.032), particularly among
      anemic patients. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of anemia in this cohort of NDD-CKD
      patients was high. The presence of concomitant cardiovascular conditions was more
      common in NDD-CKD patients with comorbid anemia, and was associated with reduced
      QoL and work productivity outcomes.

PMID- 28578499
TI  - Thermal treatment of luteolin-7-O-beta-glucoside improves its immunomodulatory
      and antioxidant potencies.
AB  - Phytochemicals extracted from flowers, roots and bark, leaves, and other plant
      sources have been used extensively throughout human history with varying levels
      of efficacy in prevention and treatment of disease. Recently, advanced methods
      for characterization and clinical use of these materials have allowed modern
      understanding of their properties to be used as immunomodulatory agents that act
      by enhancement of endogenous cytoprotective mechanisms, avoiding interference
      with normal physiologic signaling and highly effective medical treatment with
      minimal adverse side effects. Simple methods have been identified for improving
      their biological effects, such as thermal conditioning by heating or freezing
      prominent example being heat treatment of lycopene and tetrahydrocannabinol. The
      present investigation shows improvement of the ability of heat to augment
      splenocyte proliferation, natural killer (NK) cell activities, and antioxidant
      capacity of the flavonoid luteolin-7-O-beta-glucoside (L7G) in comparison with
      the native (non heat-treated) molecule, while further demonstrating that both the
      native and the heat-treated variants exhibit comparable antioxidant properties,
      as evidenced by their effects in macrophages by inhibition of nitric oxide
      production and lysosomal enzyme activity in experiments that strengthen lysosomal
      membrane integrity. Outcomes of these studies suggest that heat-treated L7G shows
      promise for use in immunotherapy, including anti-cancer regimens, as shown by its
      improvement of NK cell cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28578501
TI  - Monitoring for and Characterizing Crizotinib Progression: A Chart Review of ALK
      Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Crizotinib is recommended as first-line therapy for ALK-positive
      non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but within a year of treatment initiation
      many patients develop resistance. With the recent approval of second-generation
      ALK inhibitors, this study assessed how physicians monitor for and diagnose
      progression and how they alter treatment following progression on crizotinib.
      METHODS: A panel of oncologists from the United States were surveyed regarding
      their monitoring practices and criteria for diagnosing progression on crizotinib.
      The physicians also retrospectively provided data (March-June 2016) from the
      medical charts of their adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic ALK
      positive NSCLC who progressed on crizotinib after the approval (April 2014) of
      the first second-generation ALK inhibitor, ceritinib. RESULTS: A total of 28
      physicians responded to the survey. Data was abstracted on 74 patients. In the
      physician survey, most physicians (71%) reported monitoring for radiographic
      progression every 3-4 months. When new lesions were detected, physician response
      varied. Following a symptomatic isolated lesion, most physicians (75%) would add
      local therapy and resume crizotinib. Following multiple symptomatic lesions, 96%
      and 64% of physicians would switch to a new therapy depending on whether the
      lesions were extracranial or isolated to the brain, respectively. For the patient
      cohort, physician-defined progression on crizotinib was diagnosed after a median
      of 10 months, and within 30 days of diagnosis, 86% of patients discontinued
      crizotinib. Among all patients who discontinued crizotinib, 77% switched to
      ceritinib, 14% to chemotherapy, and 1% to alectinib. The remaining 7% did not
      receive additional systemic antineoplastic therapy. CONCLUSION: The findings from
      this physician survey and retrospective chart review study suggest that physician
      response to the development of new lesions in crizotinib-treated ALK-positive
      NSCLC patients varies with location and extent of the lesions. Once patients were
      considered to have progressed, most of them were immediately switched to
      ceritinib. FUNDING: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

PMID- 28578502
TI  - Promotor analysis of ESR1 in endometrial cancer cell lines, endometrial and
      endometriotic tissue.
AB  - PURPOSE: The nuclear hormone receptor estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) is
      pivotal for numerous processes in the cell. As a transcription factor, it
      regulates eukaryotic gene expression and affects cellular proliferation and
      differentiation in target tissues. Moreover, ERalpha is known for its influence
      on various gynecological diseases and carcinogenesis. Since its expression is
      often altered in diseased tissues and this alteration was found to be caused by
      hypermethylation of the ESR1 promotor region in cancer, including breast and
      colorectal cancer, the aim of this study is to elucidate if the expression of
      ERalpha is also regulated epigenetically in endometriosis and endometrial cancer.
      METHODS: Using real-time methylation-specific PCR (rt-MSP), we examined
      endometrial and endometriotic tissues as well as five endometrial cancer cell
      lines and compared the methylation status with the actual expression of ERalpha.
      RESULTS: The results of our study indicate that, though its expression is altered
      in endometrial and endometriotic tissue, ERalpha is not regulated by methylation
      of the promotor region in endometriosis. In contrast, three of the five
      endometrial cancer cell lines are methylated in the promotor region of ESR1.
      CONCLUSIONS: Thus, further investigation of the connection between ERalpha and
      endometrial cancer will be the next step.

PMID- 28578503
TI  - Journal impact factor and methodological quality of surgical randomized
      controlled trials: an empirical study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The journal impact factor (IF) is often used as a surrogate marker for
      methodological quality. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relation
      between the journal IF and methodological quality of surgical randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS: Surgical RCTs published in PubMed in 1999 and
      2009 were identified. According to IF, RCTs were divided into groups of low (<2),
      median (2-3) and high IF (>3), as well as into top-10 vs all other journals.
      Methodological quality characteristics and factors concerning funding, ethical
      approval and statistical significance of outcomes were extracted and compared
      between the IF groups. Additionally, a multivariate regression was performed.
      RESULTS: The median IF was 2.2 (IQR 2.37). The percentage of 'low-risk of bias'
      RCTs was 13% for top-10 journals vs 4% for other journals in 1999 (P < 0.02), and
      30 vs 12% in 2009 (P < 0.02). Similar results were observed for high vs low IF
      groups. The presence of sample-size calculation, adequate generation of
      allocation and intention-to-treat analysis were independently associated with
      publication in higher IF journals; as were multicentre trials and multiple
      authors. CONCLUSION: Publication of RCTs in high IF journals is associated with
      moderate improvement in methodological quality compared to RCTs published in
      lower IF journals. RCTs with adequate sample-size calculation, generation of
      allocation or intention-to-treat analysis were associated with publication in a
      high IF journal. On the other hand, reporting a statistically significant outcome
      and being industry funded were not independently associated with publication in a
      higher IF journal.

PMID- 28578504
TI  - Focus on O-phosphohydroxylysine, O-phosphohydroxyproline, N 1-phosphotryptophan
      and S-phosphocysteine.
AB  - The synthesis and chemistry of the lesser-known phosphoamino acids, O
      phosphohydroxylysine, O-phosphohydroxyproline, N 1-phosphotryptophan and S
      phosphocysteine are described in detail. In addition, where anything at all is
      known, the biological synthesis, occurrence and functions of these phosphoamino
      acids are described. Of these phosphoamino acids, only N 1-phosphotryptophan has
      not been reported to occur in proteins; however, apart from the roles of S
      phosphocysteine in the sugar transporter component (EII) and in catalysis by
      protein phosphotyrosine phosphatase, little is currently known about the
      biological roles of the phosphoamino acids when they occur as post-translational
      modifications.

PMID- 28578505
TI  - Family history and risk of breast cancer: an analysis accounting for family
      structure.
AB  - PURPOSE: Family history is an important risk factor for breast cancer incidence,
      but the parameters conventionally used to categorize it are based solely on
      numbers and/or ages of breast cancer cases in the family and take no account of
      the size and age-structure of the woman's family. METHODS: Using data from the
      Generations Study, a cohort of over 113,000 women from the general UK population,
      we analyzed breast cancer risk in relation to first-degree family history using a
      family history score (FHS) that takes account of the expected number of family
      cases based on the family's age-structure and national cancer incidence rates.
      RESULTS: Breast cancer risk increased significantly (P trend < 0.0001) with
      greater FHS. There was a 3.5-fold (95% CI 2.56-4.79) range of risk between the
      lowest and highest FHS groups, whereas women who had two or more relatives with
      breast cancer, the strongest conventional familial risk factor, had a 2.5-fold
      (95% CI 1.83-3.47) increase in risk. Using likelihood ratio tests, the best model
      for determining breast cancer risk due to family history was that combining FHS
      and age of relative at diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: A family history score based on
      expected as well as observed breast cancers in a family can give greater risk
      discrimination on breast cancer incidence than conventional parameters based
      solely on cases in affected relatives. Our modeling suggests that a yet stronger
      predictor of risk might be a combination of this score and age at diagnosis in
      relatives.

PMID- 28578506
TI  - First international consensus conference on standardization of oncoplastic breast
      conserving surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: To obtain consensus recommendations for the standardization of
      oncoplastic breast conserving surgery (OPS) from an international panel of
      experts in breast surgery including delegates from the German, Austrian and Swiss
      societies of senology. METHODS: A total of 52 questions were addressed by
      electronic voting. The panel's recommendations were put into context with current
      evidence and the report was circled in an iterative open email process until
      consensus was obtained. RESULTS: The panelists considered OPS safe and effective
      for improving aesthetic outcomes and broadening the indication for breast
      conserving surgery (BCS) towards larger tumors. A slim majority believed that OPS
      reduces the rate of positive margins; however, there was consensus that OPS is
      associated with an increased risk of complications compared to conventional BCS.
      The panel strongly endorsed patient-reported outcomes measurement, and
      recommended selected scales of the Breast-QTM-Breast Conserving Therapy Module
      for that purpose. The Clough bi-level classification was recommended for standard
      use in clinical practice for indicating, planning and performing OPS, and the
      Hoffmann classification for surgical reports and billing purposes. Mastopexy and
      reduction mammoplasty were the only two recognized OPS procedure categories
      supported by a majority of the panel. Finally, the experts unanimously supported
      the statement that every OPS procedure should be tailored to each individual
      patient. CONCLUSIONS: When implemented into clinical practice, the panel
      recommendations may improve safety and effectiveness of OPS. The attendees agreed
      that there is a need for prospective multicenter studies to optimize patient
      selection and for standardized criteria to qualify and accredit OPS training
      centers.

PMID- 28578508
TI  - Editorial comment to article: Pediatric Thoracic SCIWORA After Back Bend During
      Dance Practice: A Retrospective Case Series and Analysis of Trauma Mechanisms.

PMID- 28578507
TI  - Breast cancer electron intraoperative radiotherapy: assessment of preoperative
      selection factors from a retrospective analysis of 758 patients and review of
      literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report our experience with full-dose 21 Gy IORT in early breast
      cancer patients after breast-conserving surgery to define most important
      selection factors. METHODS: Seven hundred and fifty eight patients, subjected to
      conserving surgery and IORT, were retrospectively analyzed evaluating most
      important clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Median follow up was 5.2 years. Results
      from Cox analyses defined 2 groups of patients, "suitable" (age > 50 years, non
      lobular histology, tumour size <= 2 cm, pN0 or pNmic, ki67 <= 20%, non triple
      negative receptor status and G1-G2) and "unsuitable" for IORT, with a higher rate
      of breast related events moving from "suitable" to "unsuitable" group. The 5 year
      rate of IBR is 1.8% in suitable group with significant differences versus
      unsuitable (1.8 vs. 11.6%, p < 0.005). Same differences between two groups were
      evidenced in true local relapse (0.6 vs. 6.9%, p < 0.005) and in new ipsilateral
      BC (1.1 vs. 4.7%, p < 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: In our current practice we consider
      the following preoperative factors to select patients suitable for IORT: age > 50
      years, absence of lobular histology, tumor size <= 2 cm, pN0 or pNmic, according
      to APBI consensus statement, including also ki67 <= 20%, non triple negative
      receptor status and G1-G2.

PMID- 28578509
TI  - A case of awake craniotomy surgery in an 8-year-old girl.

PMID- 28578510
TI  - Trans-falcine and contralateral sub-frontal electrode placement in pediatric
      epilepsy surgery: technical note.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Phase II monitoring with intracranial electroencephalography
      (ICEEG) occasionally requires bilateral placement of subdural (SD) strips, grids,
      and/or depth electrodes. While phase I monitoring often demonstrates a
      preponderance of unilateral findings, individual studies (video EEG, single
      photon emission computed tomography [SPECT], and positron emission tomography
      [PET]) can suggest or fail to exclude a contralateral epileptogenic onset zone.
      This study describes previously unreported techniques of trans-falcine and sub
      frontal insertion of contralateral SD grids and depth electrodes for phase II
      monitoring in pediatric epilepsy surgery patients when concern about bilateral
      abnormalities has been elicited during phase I monitoring. METHODS: Pediatric
      patients with medically refractory epilepsy undergoing stage I surgery for phase
      II monitoring involving sub-frontal and/or trans-falcine insertion of SD grids
      and/or depth electrodes at the senior author's institution were retrospectively
      reviewed. Intra-operative technical details of sub-frontal and trans-falcine
      approaches were studied, while intra-operative complications or events were
      noted. Operative techniques included gentle subfrontal retraction and elevation
      of the olfactory tracts (while preserving the relationship between the olfactory
      bulb and cribriform plate) to insert SD grids across the midline for coverage of
      the contralateral orbito-frontal regions. Trans-falcine approaches involved
      accessing the inter-hemispheric space, bipolar cauterization of the anterior falx
      cerebri below the superior sagittal sinus, and sharp dissection using a blunt
      elevator and small blade scalpel. The falcine window allowed contralateral SD
      strip, grid, and depth electrodes to be inserted for coverage of the
      contralateral frontal regions. RESULTS: The study cohort included seven patients
      undergoing sub-frontal and/or trans-falcine insertion of contralateral SD strip,
      grid, and/or depth electrodes from February 2012 through June 2015. Five patients
      (71%) experienced no intra-operative events related to contralateral ICEEG
      electrode insertion. Intra-operative events of frontal territory venous
      engorgement (1/7, 14%) due to sacrifice of anterior bridging veins draining into
      the SSS and avulsion of a contralateral bridging vein (1/7, 14%), probably due to
      prior anterior corpus callosotomy, each occurred in one patient. There were no
      intra-operative or peri-operative complications in any of the patients studied.
      Two patients required additional surgery for supplemental SD strip and/or depth
      electrodes via burr hole craniectomy to enhance phase II monitoring. All patients
      proceeded to stage II surgery for resection of ipsilateral epileptogenic onset
      zones without adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Trans-falcine and sub-frontal
      insertion of contralateral SD strip, grid, and depth electrodes are previously
      unreported techniques for achieving bilateral frontal coverage in phase II
      monitoring in pediatric epilepsy surgery. This technique obviates the need for
      contralateral craniotomy and parenchymal exposure with limited, remediable risks.
      Larger case series using the method described herein are now necessary.

PMID- 28578511
TI  - Cranial ultrasound is a reliable first step imaging in children with suspected
      craniosynostosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Skull radiography (SR) and Computed Tomography (CT) are still proposed
      as the first-line imaging choice for the diagnosis of craniosynostosis (CS) in
      children with abnormal head shape, but both techniques expose infants to ionizing
      radiation. Several studies shown that ultrasound may play an important role in
      the diagnosis of craniosynostosis. The aim of our study is to assess the
      diagnostic accuracy of cranial ultrasound scan (CUS) and confirm if it is a
      reliable first step imaging evaluation for the diagnosis of craniosynostosis in
      newborn. METHOD: A cohort of 196 infants (122/74 males/females), with a mean age
      of 4 months, clinically suspected to have abnormal closure of cranial sutures,
      were firstly examined by CUS and then referred to neuroradiologists to perform
      volumetric CT scan if the suspicion of stenosis was ecographically confirmed;
      otherwise, a routine follow-up and physical treatment was performed, to observe
      the evolution of the head shape. RESULTS: Of the 196 children studied by CUS,
      only two had inconclusive studies due to age limitation (>12 months). Thirty
      children were diagnosed with cranial synostosis at CUS and verified by CT; all
      the CUS results were confirmed, except two cases, that were revealed as false
      positives in the starting phase of the study. Twelve patients with very prominent
      head deformity and negative CUS underwent CT, which confirmed the CUS results in
      all of them; one case of closure of both temporal sutures, not studied by CUS,
      was documented by CT. All the 148 children with poor clinical suspicion and
      negative CUS underwent just a prolonged clinical follow-up. In all of them, a
      progressive normalization of head shape was observed, and the craniosynostosis
      was excluded on a clinical base. CONCLUSIONS: CUS is a highly specific and
      sensitive imaging technique. In referral centers, expert hands can use it as a
      reliable first-step screening for infants younger than 1 year, suspected to have
      a craniosynostosis, thus avoiding unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation. The
      "golden age" to obtain the best CUS results is under 6 months of life. Because
      the method is operator-dependent and there is a learning curve, a case
      centralization is advisable.

PMID- 28578512
TI  - Infected colloid cyst.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Colloid cysts are the most common pathologic lesions of the third
      ventricle. Although they are histologically benign, they may grow and can cause
      the hydrocephalus. A 5-year-old male patient underwent to surgery with the
      diagnosis of colloid cyst. In operation, after the anterior transcallosal
      approach, the cyst was punctured by syringe and obviously pus aspirated.
      CONCLUSION: Colloid cysts mostly remain silent and detected incidentally.
      Although it is rarely defined, rhinorrhea, hypopituitarism, diabetes insipidus,
      spasmodic torticollis, drop attack, aseptic meningitis, and coexistence with
      neurocysticercosis have been reported, but this is the first reported case of an
      infected colloid cyst.

PMID- 28578513
TI  - The role of FV 1691G>A, FII 20210G>A mutations and MTHFR 677C>T; 1298A>C and
      103G>T FXIII gene polymorphisms in pathogenesis of intraventricular hemorrhage in
      infants born before 32 weeks of gestation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital thrombophilia is associated with an increased
      intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) risk among newborns, but it may also play a
      protective role. The role of genetic polymorphisms involved in the coagulation
      pathway of IVH pathogenesis is probably a consequence of an increased risk of
      thrombosis in the fine blood vessels in the germinal matrix region. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible relationship between
      Factor V (FV) 1691G>A, Factor II (FII) 20210G>A mutations and
      methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677C>T; 1298A>C and Factor XIII
      (FXIII) 103G>T gene polymorphisms and the occurrence of IVH in 100 infants born
      from 24 + 0 to 32 + 0 weeks of gestation, born from singleton pregnancy, before
      32 + 0 weeks of gestation, exposed to antenatal steroid therapy, and without
      congenital abnormalities. RESULTS: IVH developed 45 (45%) infants, including 15
      (33.33%) diagnosed with IVH stage I, 20 (42.22%) with stage II, 8 (17.77%) with
      stage III, and 3 (6.66%) with stage IV. Analysis showed a prevalence 4.5 times
      higher of IVH stages II to IV in infants with the genotype CC (OR 4511 (1147
      17.75); p = 0.026) of MTHFR 1298A>C gene polymorphism. Our investigation did not
      confirm any significant prevalence of IVH development in other studied
      mutations/polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed that the MTHFR 1298A>C
      polymorphism is associated with the risk of IVH. IVH is a significant problem for
      preterm infants. In addition to little progress in preventing IVH in preterm
      babies, substantial research that is focused on understanding the etiology,
      mechanism, and risk factors for IVH is imperative. In the era of personalized
      medicine, identification of genetic risk factors creates opportunities to
      generate preventative strategies.

PMID- 28578515
TI  - Blood assessment of the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9)
      and its natural inhibitor, TIMP1 genes in Iranian schizophrenic patients.
AB  - Schizophrenia (SCZ) is the most severe chronic mental disorder characterized by
      abnormal social behavior and disrupted emotions and thought. Like other complex
      neuropsychological disease, SCZ is caused by a combination of genetic and
      environmental factors but with a high concordance rate. So far, different genetic
      factors are revealed to be associated with increased risk of developing SCZ. One
      of the best ways to investigate the genetic basis of the complex disease is to
      discover the genetic underlying mechanisms of the defective clinical aspects of
      the patients. In this regard, genes involved in the developmental mechanisms of
      the brain such as long-term potentiation (LTP) process that is the basis of
      synaptic plasticity, memory and learning are considered as strong candidates for
      SCZ. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression levels of two
      genes that are involved in the LTP regulation in the developing and adult brain,
      Matrix metallopeptidase9 (MMP9) and TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 (TIMP1)
      genes in a blood assessment of schizophrenic patients in comparison to healthy
      controls by means of quantitative real time PCR. The results of the study showed
      a significant difference in MMP9/TIPM1 ratio between SCZ patients and healthy
      controls (P = 0.01). However, no significant difference was detected in the
      expression level of individual MMP9 and TIMP1 genes in SCZ patients versus
      healthy controls either in total numbers of subject or in sex based subgroups.
      Considering the relatively small sample size of the current study, there is a
      need to replicate this study with further investigations about the mechanism of
      association of these genes and their functions in the pathogenesis of the SCZ.

PMID- 28578516
TI  - Risk Perception, Sexual Behaviors, and PrEP Adherence Among Substance-Using Men
      Who Have Sex with Men: a Qualitative Study.
AB  - The antiretroviral drug combination emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil
      fumarate (TDF/FTC) taken as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is effective in
      preventing HIV infection, yet it also requires adherence and potentially
      decreases condom use. This study sought to examine these issues among a key
      population at risk of HIV infection, substance-using men who have sex with men
      (MSM). We conducted semi-structured interviews with an ethnically diverse sample
      of 30 young (aged 20-35) MSM prescribed PrEP within a large integrated healthcare
      system in San Francisco, who had reported recent drug use or hazardous drinking
      and one or more missed doses of PrEP. We explored participants' risk perception
      and sexual risk behavior, drug and alcohol use, and PrEP adherence in the context
      of substance use. Interviews were transcribed and coded using a directed content
      analysis approach to identify key categories and commonalities, and differences
      across participants. Salient subcategories included positive psychological
      effects of being on PrEP (e.g., decreased anxiety, feelings of empowerment),
      social effects (e.g., reduced HIV stigma), and reduction in overall perceptions
      of HIV risk. While overall reported use of condoms went down and many reported a
      brief period of increased condomless sex following PrEP initiation, others
      continued condom use with most of their sexual partners. Contextual factors
      influencing their decision to engage in condomless sex included how well they
      knew the partner and whether the partner was on PrEP or HIV antiretroviral
      treatment. Factors associated with poor adherence included disruptions in daily
      routine and use of alcohol and methamphetamine. PrEP-prescribing clinicians
      should support their patients in making informed decisions about condom use and
      identifying strategies to maximize adherence in the context of substance use.

PMID- 28578517
TI  - Phosphate Transporters Expression in Patients with Primary Familial Brain
      Calcifications.
AB  - Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC), formerly known as Fahr disease, is a
      rare neurological disorder characterized by extensive calcification deposits in
      the brain. So far, four genes have been reported with variations associated with
      PFBC, SLC20A2, PDGFbeta, PDGFRbeta, and XPR1. Using real-time qPCR, we analyzed
      the expression of three inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporters (SLC20A1, SLC20A2,
      and XPR1) in patients with PFBC. Our results showed a significant reduction
      (~40%) of SLC20A2 expression in the patients carrying mutation whereas no
      significant change was observed within the patients without known mutations. No
      difference was detected in SLC20A1 and XPR1 expression between the groups
      compared to control. The results suggest that mutations in SLC20A2 gene by itself
      play an import role by reducing its expression in blood of PFBC patients. At the
      same time, we could not demonstrate a direct co-regulation between the three Pi
      transporters at mRNA level, once their expression did not change among the
      groups.

PMID- 28578518
TI  - Using Simulated Data to Assess Case-Crossover Designs for Studying Less Transient
      Effects of Drugs.

PMID- 28578519
TI  - Validation of the Short Gambling Harm Screen (SGHS): A Tool for Assessment of
      Harms from Gambling.
AB  - It is common for jurisdictions tasked with minimising gambling-related harm to
      conduct problem gambling prevalence studies for the purpose of monitoring the
      impact of gambling on the community. However, given that both public health
      theory and empirical findings suggest that harms can occur without individuals
      satisfying clinical criteria of addiction, there is a recognized conceptual
      disconnect between the prevalence of clinical problem gamblers, and aggregate
      harm to the community. Starting with an initial item pool of 72 specific harms
      caused by problematic gambling, our aim was to develop a short gambling harms
      scale (SGHS) to screen for the presence and degree of harm caused by gambling. An
      Internet panel of 1524 individuals who had gambled in the last year completed a
      72-item checklist, along with the Personal Wellbeing Index, the PGSI, and other
      measures. We selected 10 items for the SGHS, with the goals of maximising
      sensitivity and construct coverage. Psychometric analysis suggests very strong
      reliability, homogeneity and unidimensionality. Non-zero responses on the SGHS
      were associated with a large decrease in personal wellbeing, with wellbeing
      decreasing linearly with the number of harms indicated. We conclude that weighted
      SGHS scores can be aggregated at the population level to yield a sensitive and
      valid measure of gambling harm.

PMID- 28578514
TI  - The beneficial effects of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors in the processes of
      neurodegeneration.
AB  - Statins, cholesterol lowering drugs, have been demonstrated to exert beneficial
      effects in other conditions such as primary and progressing neurodegenerative
      diseases beyond their original role. Observation that statins ameliorate the
      neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease
      (AD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral ischemic stroke, the neuroprotective
      effects of these drugs are thought to be linked to their anti-inflammatory, anti
      oxidative, and anti-excitotoxic properties. Despite the voluminous literature on
      the clinical advantages of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Co-enzyme A reductase
      (HMGCR) inhibitors (statins) in cardiovascular system, the neuroprotective
      effects and the underlying mechanisms are little understood. Hence, the present
      review tries to provide a critical overview on the statin-induced
      neuroprotection, which are presumed to be associated with the ability to reduce
      cholesterol, Amyloid-beta and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) levels, decrease reactive
      oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) formation, inhibit excitotoxicity,
      modulate matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), stimulate endothelial nitric oxide
      synthase (eNOS), and increase cerebral blood perfusion. This review is also aimed
      to illustrate that statins protect neurons against the neuro-inflammatory
      processes through balancing pro-inflammatory/anti-inflammatory cytokines.
      Ultimately, the beneficial role of statins in ameliorating the development of PD,
      AD, MS and cerebral ischemic stroke has been separately reviewed.

PMID- 28578520
TI  - Episodic and Binge Gambling: An Exploration and Preliminary Quantitative Study.
AB  - The DSM-5 includes provisions for episodic forms of gambling disorder, with such
      changes aligned with earlier accounts of potential binge gambling behaviours.
      However, there is little research that indicates the utility of these
      classifications of episodic or binge gambling, and this study considered their
      characteristics in a clinical sample. It involved administration of a new binge
      gambling screening tool, along with routine measures, to n = 214 patients
      entering a specialist treatment clinic for gambling problems. Results indicated
      that episodic gambling was common in this clinical context, with 28 and 32% of
      patients reporting gambling episodes that were (a) regular and alternating, and
      (b) irregular and intermittent, respectively. These patterns were distinguished
      by factors including associations with covariates that indicated differences from
      continuous gamblers. For example, the irregular episodic gamblers, but not the
      regular pattern, demonstrated lower levels of problem gambling severity and
      comorbidity. Rates of potential binge gambling, which was defined in terms of
      additional criteria, were around 4% and numbers were insufficient for comparable
      analyses. The findings support inclusion of episodic forms of gambling disorder
      in the DSM-5, but highlight the need for improved recognition and research on
      heterogeneous forms of episodic gambling.

PMID- 28578521
TI  - miR-138 promotes migration and tube formation of human cytomegalovirus-infected
      endothelial cells through the SIRT1/p-STAT3 pathway.
AB  - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has been reported to be linked to vascular disease
      through the induction of neovessel formation. We have previously reported that
      microRNA (miR)-217 and miR-199a-5p enhance endothelial angiogenesis via
      inhibition of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) in HCMV-infected human umbilical vein endothelial
      cells (HUVECs). Here, we found that miR-138 also suppressed the expression of the
      SIRT1 protein and stimulated phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator
      of transcription 3 (p-STAT3). Moreover, the regulation of p-STAT3 expression
      mediated by SIRT1 was found to promote HCMV-induced angiogenesis. These findings
      revealed that miR-138 might promote angiogenesis of HCMV-infected HUVECs by
      activating the SIRT1-mediated p-STAT3 pathway, and this could provide novel
      insights into HCMV-induced angiogenesis.

PMID- 28578522
TI  - Evaluation of the oncolytic potential of R2B Mukteshwar vaccine strain of
      Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in a colon cancer cell line (SW-620).
AB  - Virotherapy is emerging as an alternative treatment of cancer. Among the
      candidate oncolytic viruses (OVs), Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has emerged as a
      promising non-engineered OV. In the present communication, we explored the
      oncolytic potential of R2B Mukteshwar strain of NDV using SW-620 colon cancer
      cells. SW-620 cells were xenografted in nude mice and after evaluation of the
      safety profile, 1 x 107 plaque forming units (PFU) of NDV were inoculated as
      virotherapeutic agent via the intratumoral (I/T) and intravenous (I/V) route.
      Tumor growth inhibition was compared with their respective control groups by
      gross volume and histopathological evaluation. Antibody titer and virus survival
      were measured by hemagglutination inhibition (HI)/serum neutralization test (SNT)
      and real-time PCR, respectively. During the safety trial, the test strain did not
      produce any abnormal symptoms nor weight loss in BALB/c mice. Significant tumor
      lytic activity was evident when viruses were injected via the I/T route. There
      was a 43 and 57% tumor growth inhibition on absolute and relative tumor volume
      basis, respectively, compared with mock control. On the same basis, the I/V route
      treatment resulted in 40 and 16% of inhibition, respectively. Histopathological
      examination revealed that the virus caused apoptosis, followed by necrosis, but
      immune cell infiltration was not remarkable. The virus survived in 2/2 mice until
      day 10 and in 3/6 mice by day 19, with both routes of administration. Anti-NDV
      antibodies were generated at moderate level and the titer reached a maximum of
      1:32 and 1:64 via the I/T and I/V routes, respectively. In conclusion, the test
      NDV strain was found to be safe and showed oncolytic activity against the SW-620
      cell line in mice.

PMID- 28578523
TI  - Genetic analysis of porcine circovirus type 2 in China.
AB  - Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the cause of postweaning multisystemic
      wasting syndrome (PMWS), which encompasses several distinct symptoms in pigs.
      PCV2 infection and clinical incidence of PMWS have increased in recent years,
      possibly due to shifts in viral populations and mutations. In this study, we
      identified PVC2 strains currently afflicting pig populations in mainland China,
      because this is a prerequisite for developing a specific vaccine to control the
      spread of PMWS. We collected 235 tissue samples from 16 provinces between 2014
      and 2016. Of these, 152 samples were positive for PCV2. We compared the sequences
      we obtained for the PVC2 capsid gene, ORF2, to those of the Chinese PCV2
      sequences deposited in GenBank between 2002 and 2016 (n = 648). Phylogenetic
      analyses demonstrated that the PCV2d genotype was the most prevalent strain in
      the sample population included in GenBank and among the positive samples from
      this study. We also found one PCV2c strain among the GenBank sequences.
      Furthermore, PCV2a-2F was the predominant genotype in the PCV2a cluster. Amino
      acid sequence comparisons demonstrated 70.8-100% identity within PCV ORF2 and
      several consistent mutations in ORF2. More interestingly, six isolates were
      classified as recombinant strains. Cumulatively, this study represents the first
      comprehensive description of PCV2 strains distribution, including recent samples,
      in Chinese porcine populations. We demonstrate the existence of high genetic
      variability among PVC2 strains and the ability of this virus to rapidly evolve.

PMID- 28578524
TI  - The role of feedback delay in dual-task performance.
AB  - Doing two things at once is hard, and it is probably hard for various reasons.
      Here we aim to demonstrate that one so far barely considered reason is the
      monitoring of sensory action feedback, which detracts from processing of other
      concurrent tasks. To demonstrate this, we engaged participants in a psychological
      refractory period paradigm. The responses in the two tasks produced visual action
      effects. These effects occurred either immediately or they were delayed for the
      first of the two responses. We assumed that delaying these effects would engage a
      process of monitoring visual feedback longer, and delay a concurrent task more,
      as compared to immediate effects. This prediction was confirmed in two
      experiments. We discuss the reasons for feedback monitoring and its possible
      contribution to dual tasking.

PMID- 28578525
TI  - Emerging features of modality mappings in task switching: modality compatibility
      requires variability at the level of both stimulus and response modality.
AB  - The term modality compatibility refers to the similarity between the stimulus
      modality and the modality of response-related sensory consequences. Previous
      research showed evidence for modality compatibility benefits in task switching,
      when participants switch either between two modality compatible tasks (auditory
      vocal and visual-manual) or between two modality incompatible tasks (auditory
      manual and visual-vocal). However, it remained unclear whether there is also a
      modality compatibility benefit when participants switch between a modality
      compatible and an incompatible task. To this end, in Experiment 1, we kept the
      same design as in earlier studies, so participants had to switch either between
      modality compatible or modality incompatible spatial discrimination tasks, but in
      Experiment 2A, participants switched at the response level (manual/vocal) while
      we kept the stimulus modality constant across tasks, and in Experiment 2B, they
      switched at the stimulus level (visual/auditory) while we kept the response
      modality constant across tasks. We found increased switch costs in modality
      incompatible tasks in Experiment 1, but no such a difference between modality
      compatible and incompatible tasks in Experiment 2A and 2B, supporting the idea
      that modality incompatible tasks increase crosstalk, due to the response-based
      priming of the competing task, but this crosstalk is reduced if the competing
      task involves either the same stimulus modality or the same response modality. We
      conclude that a significant impact of modality compatibility in task switching
      requires variability at the level of both stimulus and response modality.

PMID- 28578526
TI  - The rising root sign: the magnetic resonance appearances of post-operative spinal
      subdural extra-arachnoid collections.
AB  - We present a case series of symptomatic post-operative spinal subdural extra
      arachnoid collections that displace the cauda equina roots anteriorly. This is
      described as the "rising root sign".

PMID- 28578527
TI  - Tuberous sclerosis and its rare association with macrodactyly and fibrous
      hamartomas.
AB  - Tuberous sclerosis complex is a genetic disease that results in abnormal cellular
      proliferation and hamartoma growths in multiple organ systems. However,
      macrodactyly and subcutaneous fibrous harmatomas are very uncommon associations
      with this disease. We see these rare manifestations in our case report of a 16
      year-old female with tuberous sclerosis complex and discuss the imaging findings
      and pathogenetics of these manifestations. Through this, our report aims to
      expand the known clinical spectrum of features seen in tuberous sclerosis and aid
      in its diagnosis.

PMID- 28578528
TI  - Update on operative treatment of scapholunate (SL) instability for radiologists:
      part 1-SL ligament repair, dorsal capsulodesis and SL ligament reconstruction.
AB  - Scapholunate instability is the most common form of carpal instability. Imaging
      (especially radiography) plays an important role in the staging, management and
      post-operative follow-up of scapholunate (SL) instability. The goals of this
      article are to review the pre-operative staging of SL instability, the surgical
      options for repair and reconstruction of the SL ligament, along with the normal
      postoperative imaging findings as well as complications associated with these
      surgical options.

PMID- 28578529
TI  - Particulate matter air pollution: individual choices for improving
      cardiometabolic well-being.
AB  - Exposure to small particulate matter (PM2.5) has become the 5th highest ranking
      risk factor for death, responsible for 4.2 million deaths worldwide. PM pollution
      is also associated with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and may
      contribute to deteriorate the already poor cardiometabolic outlook of the
      diabetic patient. Although most sources of outdoor air pollution are well beyond
      the control of individuals, there is still room for personal action. Health
      behaviors (smoking cessation, avoiding obesity, and increasing physical activity)
      may increase the poor life expectancy of individuals in the lowest income
      quartile of the Western population; moreover, a favorable lifestyle, (no current
      smoking, no obesity, physical activity at least once weekly, and a healthy diet
      pattern), may cut by nearly 50% the risk of coronary heart disease among people
      at high genetic risk. Things seem not immutable, as individual healthy choices do
      matter.

PMID- 28578530
TI  - Long lasting prophylaxis of iodine deficiency after a successful information
      campaign for iodized salt consumption.

PMID- 28578531
TI  - Discovery and molecular characterization of a novel enamovirus, Grapevine
      enamovirus-1.
AB  - In this study, we describe a novel putative Enamovirus member, Grapevine
      enamovirus-1 (GEV-1), discovered by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). A limited
      survey using HTS of 17 grapevines (Vitis spp.) from the south, southeast, and
      northeast regions of Brazil led to the detection of GEV-1 exclusively on southern
      plants, infecting four grapevine cultivars (Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon, CG
      90450, and Cabernet franc) with a remarkable identity of around 99% at the
      nucleotide level. This novel virus was only detected in multiple-virus infected
      plants exhibiting viral-like symptoms. GEV-1 was also detected on a cv. Malvasia
      Longa by RT-PCR. We performed graft-transmissibility assays on GEV-1. The
      organization, products, and cis-acting regulatory elements of GEV-1 genome are
      also discussed here. The near complete genome sequence of GEV-1 was obtained
      during the course of this study, lacking only part of the 3' untranslated
      terminal region. This is the first report of a virus in the family Luteoviridae
      infecting grapevines. Based on its genomic properties and phylogenetic analyses,
      GEV-1 should be classified as a new member of the genus Enamovirus.

PMID- 28578532
TI  - New insights on the systematics, palaeoecology and palaeobiology of a
      plesiosaurian with soft tissue preservation from the Toarcian of Holzmaden,
      Germany.
AB  - The Posidonienschiefer Formation (Toarcian) of Holzmaden, Baden-Wurttemberg in
      southwestern Germany has yielded several excellently preserved plesiosaurian
      specimens and received considerable research attention. The plesiosaurians found
      within these deposits are always significantly outnumbered by ichthyosaurs, and
      close examination of these rare specimens is crucial to a better understanding of
      the diversity and palaeoecology of Plesiosauria in this very peculiar ecosystem.
      The plesiosaurian specimen SMNS 51945 found in this area is a juvenile individual
      consisting of a partial, crushed skull and an exquisitely preserved post-cranial
      skeleton. Its anatomical characters seem to differ from the long-necked
      plesiosauroids Microcleidus brachypterygius and Seeleyosaurus guilelmiimperatoris
      that are the most abundant taxa within the plesiosaurian assemblage. The post
      cranial skeleton preserves very likely soft tissues composed of buff-coloured and
      dark-coloured structures around the vertebral column and hindlimb of the animal.
      A network of buff-coloured fibres located posterior to the hindlimb most likely
      represents phosphatised collagen fibres as already found in some ichthyosaur
      specimens, confirming that wing area in plesiosaurians was much larger than that
      suggested by skeletal remains alone. The specimen also contains gastroliths (sand
      sized grains mainly composed of quartz) in the stomach cavity suggesting the
      animal spent at least some of its time in shallow coastal waters, tens or
      hundreds of kilometres from the final place of burial.

PMID- 28578533
TI  - Unusually high-pitched neonate distress calls of the open-habitat Mongolian
      gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and their anatomical and hormonal predictors.
AB  - In neonate ruminants, the acoustic structure of vocalizations may depend on sex,
      vocal anatomy, hormonal profiles and body mass and on environmental factors. In
      neonate wild-living Mongolian gazelles Procapra gutturosa, hand-captured during
      biomedical monitoring in the Daurian steppes at the Russian-Mongolian border, we
      spectrographically analysed distress calls and measured body mass of 22
      individuals (6 males, 16 females). For 20 (5 male, 15 female) of these
      individuals, serum testosterone levels were also analysed. In addition, we
      measured relevant dimensions of the vocal apparatus (larynx, vocal folds, vocal
      tract) in one stillborn male Mongolian gazelle specimen. Neonate distress calls
      of either sex were high in maximum fundamental frequency (800-900 Hz), but the
      beginning and minimum fundamental frequencies were significantly lower in males
      than in females. Body mass was larger in males than in females. The levels of
      serum testosterone were marginally higher in males. No correlations were found
      between either body mass or serum testosterone values and any acoustic variable
      for males and females analysed together or separately. We discuss that the high
      frequency calls of neonate Mongolian gazelles are more typical for closed-habitat
      neonate ruminants, whereas other open-habitat neonate ruminants (goitred gazelle
      Gazella subgutturosa, saiga antelope Saiga tatarica and reindeer Rangifer
      tarandus) produce low-frequency (<200 Hz) distress calls. Proximate cause for the
      high fundamental frequency of distress calls of neonate Mongolian gazelles is
      their very short, atypical vocal folds (4 mm) compared to the 7-mm vocal folds of
      neonate goitred gazelles, producing distress calls as low as 120 Hz.

PMID- 28578534
TI  - Instruments to measure anxiety in children, adolescents, and young adults with
      cancer: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary objective was to describe anxiety measurement instruments
      used in children and adolescents with cancer or undergoing hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation (HSCT) and summarize their content and psychometric
      properties. METHODS: We conducted searches of MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, HAPI,
      and CINAHL. We included studies that used at least one instrument to measure
      anxiety quantitatively in children or adolescents with cancer or undergoing HSCT.
      Two authors independently identified studies and abstracted study demographics
      and instrument characteristics. RESULTS: Twenty-seven instruments, 14 multi-item
      and 13 single-item, were used between 78 studies. The most commonly used
      instrument was the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory in 46 studies. Three multi-item
      instruments (Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale-Mandarin version, PROMIS Pediatric
      Anxiety Short Form, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and two single-item
      instruments (Faces Pain Scale-Revised and 10-cm Visual Analogue Scale, both
      adapted for anxiety) were found to be reliable and valid in children with cancer.
      CONCLUSIONS: We identified 14 different multi-item and 13 different single-item
      anxiety measurement instruments that have been used in pediatric cancer or HSCT.
      Only three multi-item and two single-item instruments were identified as being
      reliable and valid among pediatric cancer or HSCT patients and would therefore be
      appropriate to measure anxiety in this population.

PMID- 28578535
TI  - Effect of increased water intake on plasma copeptin in healthy adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: Inter-individual variation in median plasma copeptin is associated with
      incident type 2 diabetes mellitus, progression of chronic kidney disease, and
      cardiovascular events. In this study, we examined whether 24-h urine osmolality
      was associated with plasma copeptin and whether increasing daily water intake
      could impact circulating plasma copeptin. METHODS: This trial was a prospective
      study conducted at a single investigating center. Eighty-two healthy adults (age
      23.6 +/- 2.9 years, BMI 22.2 +/- 1.5 kg/m2, 50% female) were stratified based
      upon habitual daily fluid intake volumes: arm A (50-80% of EFSA dietary reference
      values), arm B (81-120%), and arm C (121-200%). Following a baseline visit, arms
      A and B increased their water intake to match arm C for a period of 6 consecutive
      weeks. RESULTS: At baseline, plasma copeptin was positively and significantly
      associated with 24-h urine osmolality (p = 0.002) and 24-h urine specific gravity
      (p = 0.003) but not with plasma osmolality (p = 0.18), 24-h urine creatinine (p =
      0.09), and total fluid intake (p = 0.52). Over the 6-week follow-up, copeptin
      decreased significantly from 5.18 (3.3;7.4) to 3.90 (2.7;5.7) pmol/L (p = 0.012),
      while urine osmolality and urine specific gravity decreased from 591 +/- 206 to
      364 +/- 117 mOsm/kg (p < 0.001) and from 1.016 +/- 0.005 to 1.010 +/- 0.004 (p <
      0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: At baseline, circulating levels of copeptin
      were positively associated with 24-h urine concentration in healthy young
      subjects with various fluid intakes. Moreover, this study shows, for the first
      time, that increased water intake over 6 weeks results in an attenuation of
      circulating copeptin. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02044679.

PMID- 28578536
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic and Exposure-Response Analyses of Prasugrel in
      Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Prasugrel, a P2Y12 adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor
      antagonist, inhibits ADP-mediated platelet activation and aggregation in patients
      with sickle cell anemia (SCA). We developed a population pharmacokinetic (popPK)
      model in pediatric patients from 2 to <18 years of age with SCA, and performed
      exposure-response evaluations to characterize the effects of prasugrel in a
      subset of these patients who weighed 19 kg or more and experienced at least two
      episodes of vaso-occlusive crises (VOC) in the past year. METHODS: A three
      compartment popPK model adapted from that used in adults with acute coronary
      syndrome was used to describe the relationship between plasma concentrations of
      prasugrel's active metabolite (Pras-AM) and time using data from phase II and III
      clinical studies in children. A VOC event rate model was developed from the phase
      III study to explore the exposure-response relationship between Pras-AM exposure
      and VOC, and included evaluation of covariates. RESULTS: The final popPK model
      for children with SCA provided a reasonable fit to Pras-AM plasma concentrations
      over time, with estimates of apparent clearance (CL/F) (172 L/h) and apparent
      volume of distribution (Vd/F) (51.7 L) that were comparable to previous studies
      in adults. The final model included weight as a covariate on both CL/F and Vd/F,
      and age as a covariate on CL/F. Analyses of safety (bleeding events requiring
      medical intervention) and efficacy (VOC event rate) variables showed no apparent
      relationship to model-predicted Pras-AM exposure quartiles, and no statistically
      significant effects of intrinsic or extrinsic factors on the VOC event rate were
      identified in the VOC event rate model. The effect of post hoc exposures on the
      VOC event rate did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: A popPK model
      was developed that provided reasonable parameter estimates, goodness-of-fit
      diagnostics, and visual predictive checks when applied to Pras-AM plasma
      concentrations in pediatric patients with SCA. Post hoc exposures obtained from
      this model did not correlate with measures of VOC or bleeding events in this
      population.

PMID- 28578538
TI  - Phospholipids of New Zealand Edible Brown Algae.
AB  - Edible brown algae have attracted interest as a source of beneficial allenic
      carotenoid fucoxanthin, and glyco- and phospholipids enriched in polyunsaturated
      fatty acids. Unlike green algae, brown algae contain no or little
      phosphatidylserine, possessing an unusual aminophospholipid, phosphatidyl-O-[N-(2
      hydroxyethyl) glycine], PHEG, instead. When our routinely used technique of 31P
      NMR analysis of phospholipids was applied to the samples of edible New Zealand
      brown algae, a number of signals corresponding to unidentified phosphorus
      containing compounds were observed in total lipids. NI (negative ion) ESI QToF MS
      spectra confirmed the presence of more familiar phospholipids, and also suggested
      the presence of PHEG or its isomers. The structure of PHEG was confirmed by
      comparison with a synthetic standard. An unusual MS fragmentation pattern that
      was also observed prompted us to synthesise a number of possible candidates, and
      was found to follow that of phosphatidylhydroxyethyl methylcarbamate, likely an
      extraction artefact. An unexpected outcome was the finding of
      ceramidephosphoinositol that has not been reported previously as occurring in
      brown algae. An uncommon arsenic-containing phospholipid has also been observed
      and quantified, and its TLC behaviour studied, along with that of the newly
      synthesised lipids.

PMID- 28578537
TI  - Identification and Characterization of a Novel Thermophilic, Organic Solvent
      Stable Lipase of Bacillus from a Hot Spring.
AB  - A novel lipase gene lip256 was cloned and identified from the genomic library of
      hot spring strain Bacillus sp. HT19. The deduced amino acid sequence of lip256
      has less than 32% identity to a predicted esterase (Cog1752) from Photobacterium
      leiognathi lrivu.4.1 and contains a novel motif (GTSAG) that differs from other
      clusters in the lipase superfamily. Following purification, a single band was
      obtained with a molecular mass of 33 kDa by SDS-PAGE, and the optimal temperature
      and pH for lipolytic activity of Lip25 were 70  degrees C and 9.0, respectively.
      Lip256 exhibited high activity at high temperatures, with 40% maximum activity at
      80  degrees C and good stability at temperatures ranges between 50 and 80 
      degrees C. Additionally, the enzyme was highly stable in the presence of butyl
      alcohol, glycerol, acetonitrile, pyridine, and urea. However, the presence of
      acetone, methanol, trichloromethane, petroleum ether, hexane, tert-butanol,
      isopropanol, dithiothreitol, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, polyhexamethylene
      biguanide, dimethyl sulfoxide, benzene, Triton X-100, Tween-20, Tween-80, and
      sodium dodecyl sulfate suppressed or absolutely inhibited enzyme activity.
      Furthermore, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Cu2+ suppressed enzyme activity, whereas Na+, Fe3+,
      K+, Fe2+, and Sr2+ enhanced enzyme activity. The unique characteristics of novel
      lipase Lip256, including its thermo-alkaliphilic performance, high tolerance
      toward metal ions, inhibitors, and detergents, and high stability in organic
      solvents, implied that this enzyme might be an interesting candidate for
      industrial processes.

PMID- 28578539
TI  - Fibroblast contributes for osteoblastic phenotype in a MAPK-ERK and sonic
      hedgehog signaling-independent manner.
AB  - We hypothesized that a crosstalk between osteoblast and fibroblast (FB) exists,
      which contributes to bone as a dynamic tissue. Cell-free supernatants were
      harvested from fibroblast cultures and later subject pre-osteoblasts to
      investigate there capacity to modulate cell viability and differentiation
      mechanisms, reporting the possible involvement of Shh signaling as a paracrine
      mechanism. By exploring immunoblotting technology, we have shown that FB-released
      factors interfere with osteoblast metabolism by up-regulating the phosphorylation
      of FAK and Rac-1 proteins at the early stage and later contribute to osteoblast
      differentiation by up-modulating alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and in vitro
      mineralization. We also found that Shh signaling was not required during
      osteoblastic differentiation promoted by the FB-released factors as well as MAPK
      ERK phosphorylation, while pre-osteoblast cultures subjected to osteogenic medium
      (O.M.) require downstream transducers of Shh, such as Patched and Gli-1, and MAPK
      ERK. Altogether, our results indicate for the first time a possible mechanism
      involved in the crosstalk between fibroblasts and osteoblasts, as it was possible
      to observe trophic factors released by fibroblasts interfering decisively in
      osteoblast metabolism in a Shh-independent manner. This study collaborates the
      body of work that indicates paracrine signaling molecules participate in the
      crosstalk among bone-resident cells and explains, at least partially, the
      biological mechanisms responsible for bone tissue dynamism, opening new avenues
      to understand etiologies of bone diseases.

PMID- 28578540
TI  - Application of chemometric techniques in studies of toxicity of selected
      commercially available products for infants and children.
AB  - The goal of the present study is to assess the impact of the experimental
      conditions for extraction procedures (time of extraction, thermal treatment and
      type of extraction media) as applied to several baby and infant products checked
      for their possible ecotoxicological response when tested by various ecotoxicity
      tests (Microtox(r), Ostracodtoxkit FTM and Xenoscreen YES/YASTM). The systems
      under consideration are multidimensional by nature and, therefore, the
      appropriate assessment approach was intelligent data analysis (chemometrics).
      Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were
      selected as reliable data mining methods for the interpretation of the
      ecotoxicity data. We show that the different experimental conditions have a
      significant impact on the ecotoxicity levels observed, especially those measured
      by Microtox(r) and Ostracodtoxkit FTM tests. The time of contact proves to be a
      very significant factor for all extraction media and ecotoxicity test procedures.
      The present study is a pioneering effort to offer a specific expert approach for
      analysing links between the type of test measurement methodology and imposed
      experimental conditions to mimic real-life circumstances in the use of baby and
      infant products.

PMID- 28578542
TI  - Citrate versus heparin anticoagulation in continuous renal replacement therapy in
      small children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Citrate is preferred over heparin as an anticoagulant in adult
      continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). However, its potential adverse
      effects and data on use in CRRT in infants and toddlers is limited. We conducted
      a prospective study on using citrate in CRRT in critically ill small children.
      METHODS: Children who underwent CRRT with the smallest filter in our PICU between
      November 2011 and November 2016 were included. Both heparin and citrate were
      applied according to a strict protocol. Our primary outcome was circuit survival
      time. Secondary outcomes were alkalosis, citrate toxicity, and number of red
      blood cell transfusions. RESULTS: Heparin was used in six patients (121 circuits,
      total CRRT time 3723 h). Citrate was used in 14 patients (105 circuits, total
      CRRT time 4530 h). Median circuit survival time with heparin was 21 h (IQR 14.5
      27.5) compared to 45.2 h (IQR 37.5-52.8) with citrate (p < 0.001). Actual
      administered effluent dose compared to prescribed dose was 85% (IQR 69-98%) with
      heparin compared to 92% (IQR 88-98%) with citrate (p = 0.31). No patient treated
      with citrate developed citrate toxicity. No other differences in electrolytes
      were found between the two CRRT regimes. In the heparin group, a median of 6.5
      units of red blood cells (IQR 1.5-23.8) were given during CRRT, compared to three
      in the citrate group (IQR 2.0-5.0, p = 0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Use of regional
      citrate significantly prolongs circuit survival time and thereby should increase
      CRRT efficiency when compared to heparin. In addition, citrate appears safe for
      CRRT in critically ill small children.

PMID- 28578541
TI  - Anthropometric and Physical Qualities of Elite Male Youth Rugby League Players.
AB  - Rugby league is a collision team sport played at junior and senior levels
      worldwide, whereby players require highly developed anthropometric and physical
      qualities (i.e. speed, change-of-direction speed, aerobic capacity, muscular
      strength and power). Within junior levels, professional clubs and national
      governing bodies implement talent identification and development programmes to
      support the development of youth (i.e. 13-20 years) rugby league players into
      professional athletes. This review presents and critically appraises the
      anthropometric and physical qualities of elite male youth rugby league players
      aged between 13 and 20 years, by age category, playing standard and playing
      position. Height, body mass, body composition, linear speed, change-of-direction
      speed, aerobic capacity, muscular strength and power characteristics are
      presented and demonstrate that qualities develop with age and differentiate
      between playing standard and playing position. This highlights the importance of
      anthropometric and physical qualities for the identification and development of
      youth rugby league players. However, factors such as maturity status, variability
      in development, longitudinal monitoring and career attainment should be
      considered to help understand, identify and develop the physical qualities of
      youth players. Further extensive research is required into the anthropometric and
      physical qualities of youth rugby league players, specifically considering
      national standardised testing batteries, links between physical qualities and
      match performance, together with intervention studies, to inform the physical
      development of youth rugby league players for talent identification and
      development purposes.

PMID- 28578543
TI  - Lessons Learned From the Implementation of Seek, Test, Treat, Retain
      Interventions Using Mobile Phones and Text Messaging to Improve Engagement in HIV
      Care for Vulnerable Populations in the United States.
AB  - In the United States, little is known about interventions that rely on mobile
      phones and/or text messaging to improve engagement in HIV care for vulnerable
      populations. Domestic studies using these technologies as part of the National
      Institute on Drug Abuse "Seek, Test, Treat, Retain" research initiative were
      queried regarding intervention components, implementation issues, participant
      characteristics, and descriptive statistics of mobile phone service delivery.
      Across five studies with 1,135 predominantly male, minority participants,
      implementation challenges occurred in three categories: (1) service
      interruptions; (2) billing/overage issues, and; (3) the participant user
      experience. Response rules for automated text messages frequently frustrated
      participants. The inability to reload minutes/texting capacity remotely was a
      significant barrier to intervention delivery. No study encountered
      confidentiality breaches. Service interruption was common, even if studies
      provided mobile phones and plans. Future studies should attend to the type of
      mobile phone and service, the participant user experience, and human subjects
      concerns.

PMID- 28578545
TI  - Modifiable lifestyle factors associated with osteoporosis in Korean men: a case
      control study.
AB  - : The prevention, education, and treatment of osteoporosis are all recognized as
      important components in men as well as women. This study revealed that the
      lifestyle factors associated with male osteoporosis included being underweight
      and being a current smoker. Being overweight or obese and having a regular
      exercise habit were negatively associated with male osteoporosis. PURPOSE:
      Osteoporosis is a significant health problem in Korea and worldwide. Although
      osteoporosis is less prevalent in males than in females, the fracture-related
      mortality rate is higher in males than in females. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the relationship of modifiable lifestyle factors in males with
      osteoporosis. METHODS: A case-control study was performed in men who visited a
      single university hospital for a medical check-up between August 2003 and July
      2016. Patients were classified in the case group according to the World Health
      Organization (WHO) Osteoporosis Criteria. The control group was created by
      matching patients according to age and check-up date. Lifestyle factors were
      evaluated by a self-assessment questionnaire. Multivariate conditional logistic
      regression was used to examine the association between lifestyle factors and male
      osteoporosis with age stratification at 50 years. RESULTS: A total of 1304
      subjects were included in this analysis, 326 of whom were in the case group and
      978 of whom were in the control group. Within their age group, subjects with
      osteoporosis were more often underweight (odds ratio [OR] = 2.35, 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.11-4.98) or more often current smokers (2.22, 1.50-3.28) than
      control subjects. The subjects who were overweight (0.45, 0.32-0.64), obese
      (0.19, 0.13-0.27), had an irregular exercise habit (0.64, 0.43-0.94), or had a
      regular exercise habit (0.40, 0.28-0.57) were more likely to have normal bone
      status. Alcohol drinking habit had no significant association with male
      osteoporosis. CONCLUSIONS: Several modifiable lifestyle factors were associated
      with male osteoporosis. Current smokers at any age and underweight men below age
      50 were more likely to have osteoporosis, whereas men who were overweight, obese,
      or had a regular exercise habit were more likely to have normal bone status,
      regardless of age.

PMID- 28578544
TI  - Effects of Minimal Versus Intensive Intervention to Enhance Motivational
      Interviewing in HIV Care.
AB  - We conducted a randomized trial comparing the effect of two different levels of
      motivational interviewing training on clinician communication behaviors and
      patient experiences. We enrolled 12 HIV clinicians who attended a one-day MI
      workshop focusing on behavior change counseling skills. We then randomized
      clinicians to receive (or not) 3-5 rounds of personalized feedback from the MI
      trainer. We compared outcomes before and after the interventions and between the
      intervention groups. We tested time-by-study arm interactions to determine if one
      group improved more than the other. For all analyses, we used generalized
      estimating equations to account for clustering of patients within clinicians,
      with Gaussian or negative binomial distributions as appropriate. Patients of
      clinicians in both intervention groups rated their visits as more MI consistent
      (6.86 vs. 6.65, p = 0.005) and audio-recording analysis revealed that visits were
      more patient-centered (1.34 vs. 0.96, p = 0.003) with a more positive patient
      affect (22.36 vs. 20.84, p < 0.001) after versus before the intervention, without
      differences between intervention arms. Several specific clinician behaviors such
      as empathic statements, asking patient opinions and open-ended questions improved
      more in the workshop+feedback versus the workshop-only intervention arm. A few
      specific communication behaviors increased (total and complex reflections) after
      versus before the intervention, without differences between intervention arms.
      The workshop alone was as effective as the workshop plus feedback in improving
      patient experiences and overall communication measures. Certain communication
      behaviors improved more with the more intensive intervention, but these
      additional benefits may not warrant the extra financial and logistical resources
      required.

PMID- 28578546
TI  - Bread and Butter.

PMID- 28578547
TI  - Controversies and Evolving Concepts in Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia.

PMID- 28578548
TI  - Using Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Rates as a Health Care Quality Indicator: A
      Contentious Concept.
AB  - Pneumonia is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, although reported
      rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) have been declining in recent
      years. A multifaceted infection prevention approach, using a "ventilator bundle,"
      has been shown to reduce the frequency of VAP, while improving other patient
      outcomes. Because of difficulties in defining VAP, the Center for Medicare and
      Medicaid Service introduced a new streamlined ventilator-associated event (VAE)
      definition in 2013 for the surveillance of complications in mechanically
      ventilated patients. VAE measures are increasingly being measured by institutions
      in the United States in place of VAP rates and as a potential measure of the
      quality of intensive care unit (ICU) care. However, there is increased
      recognition that the streamlined definitions identify a different subset of
      patients than those identified by traditional VAP surveillance and that VAP
      prevention strategies may not impact all the causes of VAE. Also, VAP and VAE
      rates may not always reflect the quality of care in a given ICU, especially since
      patient factors, beyond the control of the hospital, may impact the rates of VAP
      and VAE. In this review, we discuss the issues related to VAP as a quality
      measure and the areas of uncertainty related to the new VAE definitions.

PMID- 28578549
TI  - Should We Immediately Start Antibiotics in Every Patient with a Clinical
      Suspicion of HAP/VAP?
AB  - Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
      remain two of the most commonly diagnosed nosocomial infections. Both are
      responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. The
      development of HAP and VAP is related to bacterial colonization of the oropharynx
      (and endotracheal tube in VAP) with subsequent microaspiration and development of
      clinical infection. Diagnosis is made based on the clinical presentation and can
      be confirmed by obtaining either noninvasive or invasive microbiology culture
      specimens. Decisions addressing initiation of antimicrobial therapy can be
      divided into clinical and bacteriological strategies. These strategies differ in
      the criteria used to determine the timing of empiric therapy, with the clinical
      strategy basing the decision on radiographic evidence of infection plus clinical
      signs and symptoms and the bacteriological strategy requiring growth of pathogens
      above a certain threshold from invasively obtained culture specimens. Despite the
      delineated pathways, these decisions remain multifactorial and should also
      include consideration of patient-related factors, such as immunocompetence, the
      risk of multidrug-resistant infection, and overall clinical condition. Patients
      with risk factors or signs of clinical decompensation should have empiric therapy
      initiated at a lower threshold. However, when possible, therapy should be
      directed at a confirmed infection following a positive culture result. Decisions
      regarding specific empiric regimens should be based on the local prevalence of
      infectious microorganisms along with their associated antimicrobial
      susceptibilities. Patients deemed at risk of infection with multidrug-resistant
      pathogens merit broader spectrum therapy, and immunosuppressed patients should
      have consideration of antifungal coverage.

PMID- 28578550
TI  - Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: The Role of Emerging Diagnostic Technologies.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance has emerged as a key determinant of outcome in patients
      with serious infections along with the virulence of the underlying pathogen.
      Within the intensive care unit (ICU) setting, ventilator-associated pneumonia
      (VAP) is a common nosocomial infection that is frequently caused by multidrug
      resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing challenge in the care
      of critically ill patients. Escalating rates of antibiotic resistance add
      substantially to the morbidity, mortality, and cost related to infection in the
      ICU. Both gram-positive organisms, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus, and gram-negative bacteria,
      including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter species, carbapenem-resistant
      Enterobacteriaceae, such as the Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase-producing
      bacteria, and extended spectrum beta-lactamase organisms, have contributed to the
      escalating rates of resistance seen in VAP and other nosocomial infections. The
      rising rates of antimicrobial resistance have led to the routine empiric
      administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics even when bacterial infection is not
      documented. Moreover, there are several new broader-spectrum antibiotics that
      have recently become available and others scheduled for approval in the near
      future. The challenge to ICU clinicians is how to most effectively utilize these
      agents to maximize patient benefits while minimizing further emergence of
      resistance. Use of rapid diagnostics may hold the key for achieving this
      important balance. There is an urgent need for integrating the administration of
      new and existing antibiotics with the emerging rapid diagnostic technologies in a
      way that is both cost-effective and sustainable for the long run.

PMID- 28578551
TI  - Should We Treat Ventilator-Associated Tracheobronchitis with Antibiotics?
AB  - Patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) often require lung organ
      support. The use of mechanical ventilation, while lifesaving can be associated
      with subsequent complications. The most common complication in patients under
      mechanical ventilation is the development of ventilator-associated lower
      respiratory tract infections (VA-LRTIs). Before the development of VA-LRTI, there
      is a continuum process that ranges from airway colonization to ventilator
      associated pneumonia (VAP). There is an intermediate process called ventilator
      associated tracheobronchitis (VAT). Contemporary treatment of VA-LRTI emphasizes
      the importance of prompt broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy. Previous studies
      reported prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay in patients
      with VAT. This negative impact on outcome is related to increased inflammation of
      the lower respiratory tract, sputum production, and higher rates of VAP.
      Extubation failure and difficult weaning have been reported to be associated with
      increased sputum volume in mechanically ventilated patients. Antibiotic treatment
      for VAT patients is still a matter for debate. Observational studies suggested a
      beneficial effect of antimicrobial treatment in VAT patients, including a reduced
      duration of mechanical ventilation and lower rates of subsequent VAP. Previous
      studies demonstrated beneficial effects of systemic and aerosolized antibiotics
      in preventing VAP in critically ill patients. However, antibiotic treatment is a
      recognized risk factor for the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria.
      Infections related to these bacteria are associated with increased morbidity,
      mortality, and cost. Therefore, a large well-designed study is warranted to
      determine whether patients with VAT should receive antimicrobials. Furthermore, a
      short course of antimicrobials could be sufficient in these patients.

PMID- 28578552
TI  - Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamics-Optimized Antimicrobial Therapy in Patients with
      Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia.
AB  - Hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia continue to cause
      significant morbidity and mortality. With increasing rates of antimicrobial
      resistance, the importance of optimizing antibiotic treatment is key to maximize
      treatment outcomes. This is especially important in critically ill patients in
      intensive care units, in whom the infection is usually caused by less susceptible
      organisms. In addition, the marked physiological changes that can occur in these
      patients can cause serious changes in antibiotic pharmacokinetics which in turn
      alter the attainment of therapeutic drug exposures. This article reviews the
      various aspects of the pharmacokinetic changes that can occur in the critically
      ill patients, the barriers to achieving therapeutic drug exposures in pneumonia
      for systemically delivered antibiotics, the optimization for commonly used
      antibiotics in hospital- and ventilator-associated pneumonia, the agents that
      should be avoided in the treatment regimen, as well as the use of adjunctive
      therapy in the form of nebulized antibiotics.

PMID- 28578553
TI  - How Should We Treat Hospital-Acquired and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Caused
      by Extended-Spectrum beta-Lactamase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae?
AB  - Hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia (HAP/VAP) due to extended
      spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-PE) represent a
      growing problem. Indeed, ESBL-PE is endemic in many countries, and 5 to 25% of
      intensive care unit (ICU) patients are ESBL-PE carrier on ICU admission. ESBL-PE
      HAP/VAP is associated with a higher mortality than HAP/VAP due to susceptible
      Enterobacteriaceae because the resistance profile decreases the adequacy rate of
      empiric therapy. ESBL-PE should be considered in the empirical treatment in case
      of the high burden of ESBL-PE in the unit, in the case of previous ESBL-PE
      colonization, when the HAP/VAP occurs late, and in patients with shock. A
      negative active systematic surveillance culture on rectal swab reduced the risk
      of ESBL-PE VAP to less than 1%. Rapid diagnostic tests are now able to confirm
      the presence of ESBL-PE in VAP within 24 hours; new molecular methods will
      provide results within few hours.Adequate treatment usually required carbapenems.
      The alternative beta-lactams such as beta-lactams/beta-lactamases inhibitor
      combinations could be proposed as a step-down therapy according to the antibiotic
      susceptibility result. Optimization of pharmacokinetics requires high dosage and
      continuous or prolonged infusions for beta-lactams. When the patient is
      stabilized, a therapy of duration 7 to 8 days is recommended.

PMID- 28578554
TI  - How Should We Treat HAP/VAP Caused by Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae?
AB  - Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
      represent a common problem in hospital setting worldwide. Infections caused by
      carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are an emergent problem due to the
      lack of therapeutic options available, leading to significant increases in
      morbidity and mortality. CRE have frequently been reported both in HAP/VAP, but
      limited data regarding the optimal treatment strategy in this setting are
      available. This review focuses on the current epidemiology of CRE, with a
      specific focus on HAP/VAP. Moreover, we will suggest a possible strategy for the
      empiric and targeted treatment of HAP and VAP in which the involvement of CRE is
      suspected or is confirmed.

PMID- 28578555
TI  - Infections Due to Acinetobacter baumannii in the ICU: Treatment Options.
AB  - Bacteria within the genus Acinetobacter (principally A. baumannii-calcoaceticus
      complex [ABC]) are gram-negative coccobacilli that may cause nosocomial
      infections in critically ill or debilitated patients (particularly ventilator
      associated pneumonia and infections of the bloodstream, urinary tract, and
      wounds). Treatment of Acinetobacter infections is difficult, as Acinetobacter
      spp. are intrinsically resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents, and have a
      remarkable ability to acquire new resistance determinants via mechanisms that
      include plasmids, transposons, integrons, and resistance islands. Since the
      1990s, global resistance to antimicrobials has escalated dramatically among ABC.
      Global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR)-A. baumannii strains reflects
      dissemination of a few clones between hospitals, geographic regions, and
      continents; excessive use of antibiotics amplifies this spread. Many isolates are
      resistant to all antimicrobials except colistin (polymyxin E) and tigecycline,
      and some infections are untreatable with existing antimicrobial agents.
      Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to treat or prevent infections
      due to ABC. Strategies to curtail environmental colonization with MDR-ABD will
      require aggressive infection control efforts and cohorting of infected patients.
      Thoughtful antibiotic strategies are essential to limit the spread of MDR-ABC.
      Optimal therapy will likely require combination antimicrobial therapy of existing
      antibiotics as well as development of novel antibiotic classes.

PMID- 28578556
TI  - Emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Implications
      for Therapy.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), a nonlactose fermenting gram-negative bacillus, is a
      common cause of nosocomial infections in critically ill or debilitated patients,
      particularly ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and infections of
      bloodstream, urinary tract, intra-abdominal, wounds/skin/soft tissue. PA rarely
      affects healthy individuals, but may cause serious infections in patients with
      chronic structural lung disease, comorbidities, advanced age, impaired immune
      defenses, or with medical devices (e.g., urinary or intravascular catheters,
      foreign bodies). Treatment of pseudomonal infections is difficult, as PA is
      intrinsically resistant to multiple antimicrobials, and may acquire new
      resistance determinants even while on antimicrobial therapy. Mortality associated
      with pseudomonal VAP or bacteremias is high (> 35%) and optimal therapy is
      controversial. Over the past three decades, antimicrobial resistance among PA has
      escalated globally, via dissemination of several international multidrug
      resistant "epidemic" clones. We review the emergence of antimicrobial resistance
      to this pathogen, and discuss approaches to therapy (both empirical and
      definitive).

PMID- 28578557
TI  - New Strategies Targeting Virulence Factors of Staphylococcus aureus and
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Morbidity, mortality, and economic burden of nosocomial pneumonia caused by
      Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa remain high in mechanically
      ventilated and hospitalized patients despite the use of empirical antibiotic
      therapy or antibiotics against specific classes of pathogens and procedures to
      reduce nosocomial infections in hospital settings. Newer agents that neutralize
      or inhibit specific S. aureus or P. aeruginosa virulence factors may eliminate or
      reduce the risk for developing pneumonia before or during mechanical ventilation
      and may improve patient outcomes through mechanisms that differ from those of
      antibiotics. In this article, we review the types, mechanisms of action,
      potential advantages, and stage of development of antivirulence agents (AVAs)
      that hold promise as alternative preventive or interventional therapies against
      S. aureus- and P. aeruginosa-associated nosocomial pneumonias. We also present
      and discuss challenges to the effective utilization of AVAs separately from or in
      addition to antibiotics and the design of clinical trials and meaningful study
      end points.

PMID- 28578558
TI  - Is There a Role for Inhaled Antibiotics in the Treatment of Ventilator-Associated
      Infections?
AB  - The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant organisms creates a therapeutic
      challenge for physicians treating ventilator-associated respiratory infections.
      As the production of new systemic antibiotics lags far behind the emergence of
      worsening antibiotic resistance, intensivists are turning to inhaled antibiotics
      to use as adjunctive therapy. When given properly, these drugs can provide high
      concentrations of drug in the lung that could not be achieved with intravenous
      antibiotics without significant systemic toxicity. This review summarizes current
      evidence describing the use of inhaled antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial
      ventilator-associated infections. Inhaled adjunctive therapy has been described
      in numerous small nonrandomized studies and in six recent randomized placebo
      controlled trials. Inhaled therapy has also been used to treat ventilator
      associated tracheobronchitis. These preliminary data suggest aerosolized delivery
      of antimicrobials may effectively treat resistant pathogens with high minimum
      inhibitory concentrations when used in time-limited protocols and delivered with
      devices known to deposit antibiotics in the area of infection. Large, multisite,
      clinical, randomized placebo-controlled studies are needed to confirm these data.

PMID- 28578559
TI  - Body Position and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Prevention.
AB  - Seminal studies have demonstrated that tracheally intubated, mechanically
      ventilated patients, positioned in supine horizontal position, are at a high risk
      of developing ventilator-associated pneumonia, through aspiration of gastric
      pathogens. In the 1990s, innovative clinical findings promoted a radical change
      in practice, through the use of the semirecumbent position in all mechanically
      ventilated patients. Here, we critically review the main indications, pulmonary
      effects, and controversies on the use of the semirecumbent position. Also, we
      will depict potential roles of prone and lateral positions in the prevention of
      ventilator-associated pneumonia. Our review will span from preclinical
      experimental insights to clinical evidence, and we will discuss potential
      controversies on the use of the semirecumbent position as the standard of care.
      We will also detail potential alternatives to ultimately improve outcomes of
      tracheally intubated and mechanically ventilated patients.

PMID- 28578560
TI  - Oropharyngeal Decontamination with Antiseptics to Prevent Ventilator-Associated
      Pneumonia: Rethinking the Benefits of Chlorhexidine.
AB  - Daily oral care with chlorhexidine for mechanically ventilated patients is
      ubiquitous in contemporary intensive care practice. The practice is predicated
      upon meta-analyses suggesting that adding chlorhexidine to daily oral care
      regimens can reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) rates by up to 40%.
      Close analysis, however, raises three concerns: (1) the meta-analyses are
      dominated by studies in cardiac surgery patients in whom average duration of
      mechanical ventilation is < 1 day and thus their risk of VAP is very different
      from other populations, (2) diagnosing VAP is subjective and nonspecific yet the
      meta-analyses gave equal weight to blinded and nonblinded studies, potentially
      biasing them in favor of chlorhexidine, and (3) there is circularity between
      diagnostic criteria for VAP and chlorhexidine; as an antiseptic, chlorhexidine
      may decrease the frequency of positive respiratory cultures but fewer cultures
      does not necessarily mean fewer pneumonias. It is therefore important to look at
      other outcomes for corollary evidence on whether or not oral chlorhexidine
      benefits patients. An updated meta-analysis restricted to double-blinded studies
      in noncardiac surgery patients showed no impact on VAP rates, duration of
      mechanical ventilation, or intensive care unit length of stay. Instead, there was
      a possible signal that oral chlorhexidine may increase mortality rates.
      Observational data have raised similar concerns. This article will review the
      theoretical basis for adding chlorhexidine to oral care regimens, delineate
      potential biases in randomized controlled trials comparing oral care regimens
      with and without chlorhexidine, explore the unexpected mortality signal
      associated with oral chlorhexidine, and provide practical recommendations.

PMID- 28578561
TI  - Continental impacts of water development on waterbirds, contrasting two
      Australian river basins: Global implications for sustainable water use.
AB  - The world's freshwater biotas are declining in diversity, range and abundance,
      more than in other realms, with human appropriation of water. Despite
      considerable data on the distribution of dams and their hydrological effects on
      river systems, there are few expansive and long analyses of impacts on freshwater
      biota. We investigated trends in waterbird communities over 32 years, (1983
      2014), at three spatial scales in two similarly sized large river basins, with
      contrasting levels of water resource development, representing almost a third
      (29%) of Australia: the Murray-Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre Basin. The Murray
      Darling Basin is Australia's most developed river basin (240 dams storing 29,893
      GL) while the Lake Eyre Basin is one of the less developed basins (1 dam storing
      14 GL). We compared the long-term responses of waterbird communities in the two
      river basins at river basin, catchment and major wetland scales. Waterbird
      abundances were strongly related to river flows and rainfall. For the developed
      Murray-Darling Basin, we identified significant long-term declines in total
      abundances, functional response groups (e.g., piscivores) and individual species
      of waterbird (n = 50), associated with reductions in cumulative annual flow.
      These trends indicated ecosystem level changes. Contrastingly, we found no
      evidence of waterbird declines in the undeveloped Lake Eyre Basin. We also
      modelled the effects of the Australian Government buying up water rights and
      returning these to the riverine environment, at a substantial cost (>3.1 AUD
      billion) which were projected to partly (18% improvement) restore waterbird
      abundances, but projected climate change effects could reduce these benefits
      considerably to only a 1% or 4% improvement, with respective annual recovery of
      environmental flows of 2,800 GL or 3,200 GL. Our unique large temporal and
      spatial scale analyses demonstrated severe long-term ecological impact of water
      resource development on prominent freshwater animals, with implications for
      global management of water resources.

PMID- 28578563
TI  - Greetings from the new Editor-in-Chief of Digestive Endoscopy.

PMID- 28578562
TI  - Development and Initial Validation of the Alcohol Expectancy Task.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although studies have shown that alcohol expectancies are prominent
      predictors of alcohol initiation and subsequent drinking levels, the
      questionnaires used to assess these expectancies among young adolescents have
      been criticized as being time-intensive, biased, and inappropriate. METHODS: In
      response, we developed the Alcohol Expectancy Task (AET), in which 8 scenarios
      featuring adults in everyday situations and in different emotional states,
      accompanied by photographs of a range of beverages (4 alcoholic, 8 nonalcoholic),
      are displayed on a tablet screen, and participants are then asked to tap on the
      beverage they think the given person had been drinking. RESULTS: In a first study
      among 184 adults (75.1% women; mean age = 37.8, SD = 12.2), results from a
      repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a strong correspondence between
      the emotions depicted in the scenarios and how the participants interpreted them.
      In a second study, this time among 283 third and fourth graders (50.2% girls;
      mean age = 10.6, SD = 0.69), a confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 4
      factor structure of the AET. The results from a logistic regression analysis
      showed that the more often young adolescents assigned alcohol to the adults in an
      arousal-positive mood than to those in a sedation-negative mood, the more likely
      they were to have already consumed alcohol more than twice. Questionnaire
      assessed expectancies were unrelated to adolescents' drinking and did not affect
      the associations of the AET. CONCLUSIONS: The AET has the advantage of being time
      efficient and convenient and could overcome certain limitations associated with
      questionnaire-based assessments of alcohol expectancy.

PMID- 28578564
TI  - Balloon Expulsion Test Does Not Seem to Be Useful for Screening or Exclusion of
      Dyssynergic Defecation as a Single Test.
AB  - Background/Aims: Balloon expulsion test (BET) is regarded as a screening tool of
      dyssynergic defecation (DD). However, some patients with normal BET results may
      be treated effectively by biofeedback training. This study aims to validate BET
      as a single screening test. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-two patients who were
      diagnosed with functional constipation or irritable bowel syndrome with
      constipation who underwent anorectal manometry (ARM) and BET at Seoul National
      University Hospital were enrolled. We evaluated the validity of BET based on ARM
      and electromyography (EMG) during biofeedback training. Results: If BET <= 1
      minute was defined as normal, sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) of
      BET in predicting paradoxical contraction based on ARM findings were 71.4% and
      13.9%. If BET <= 3 minutes was defined as normal, sensitivity and NPV were 35.2%
      and 6.6%. Specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of BET <= 3 minutes
      criteria were 84.8% and 93.3%. Same analysis was conducted in 107 patients who
      underwent EMG during biofeedback training. With 1-minute criteria, sensitivity
      and NPV of BET were 70.3% and 14.3%. With 3 minutes criteria, sensitivity and NPV
      of BET was 38.6% and 8.8%. Specificity and positive predictive values were both
      100.0%. Conclusions: Based on either ARM or EMG during biofeedback training,
      sensitivity was at most 71.4% and NPV was less than 15.0% irrespective of whether
      BET was within 1minute or within 3 minutes. BET seems to have a limitation as
      both a screening test for dyssynergic defecation and a simple assessment to rule
      out the necessity of biofeedback training.

PMID- 28578565
TI  - Conditional Network Assembly and Targeted Protein Retention via Environmentally
      Responsive, Engineered beta-Roll Peptides.
AB  - Stimulus-responsive biomaterials have applications in many areas of
      biotechnology, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and
      bioelectrocatalysis. The intrinsically disordered repeat-in-toxin (RTX) domain is
      a conformationally dynamic peptide that gains beta-roll secondary structure when
      bound to calcium ions. A smart hydrogel platform was constructed by genetically
      fusing two rationally designed mutant RTX domains: first, a mutant peptide with
      hydrophobic interfaces capable of calcium-dependent network assembly, and second,
      another mutant that conditionally binds the model target protein lysozyme. In
      this way, the calcium-induced control over the secondary structure of the beta
      roll peptide was exploited to regulate both the cross-linking and lysozyme
      binding functionalities. The constructed biomaterial exhibited calcium-dependent
      gelation and target molecule retention, and erosion experiments showed that beta
      roll peptides with a higher affinity for lysozyme produced more robust hydrogel
      networks. This work demonstrates the use of RTX domains for introducing two
      useful features simultaneously, network cross-linking and target protein binding,
      and that the calcium-dependent regulation of these systems can be useful for
      controlling bulk self-assembly and controlled release capabilities.

PMID- 28578566
TI  - Enhanced Accessibility of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and
      Heterocyclic PAHs in Industrially Contaminated Soil after Passive Dosing of a
      Competitive Sorbate.
AB  - To assess the exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) it is important
      to understand the binding mechanisms between specific soil constituents and the
      organic pollutant. In this study, sorptive bioaccessibility extraction (SBE) was
      applied to quantify the accessible PAH fraction in industrially contaminated soil
      with and without passive dosing of a competitive sorbate. SBE experiments
      revealed an accessible PAH fraction of 41 +/- 1% (?16 US EPA PAHs + 5 further
      PAHs). The passive dosing of toluene below its saturation level revealed
      competitive binding and resulted in an average increase of the accessible
      fraction to 49 +/- 2%, whereby primarily the accessibility of higher molecular
      weight PAHs (log Kow > 6) was affected. Competitive binding was verified using
      the same soil with only desorption-resistant PAHs present. In this experiment,
      passive dosing of toluene resulted in desorption of 13 +/- 0.4% PAH. We explain
      increased PAH desorption after addition of toluene by competitive adsorption to
      high-affinity sorption sites while acknowledging that toluene could additionally
      have increased PAH mobility within the soil matrix. Findings suggest that the
      presence of copollutants at contaminated sites deserves specific considerations
      as these may increase accessibility and thereby exposure and mobility of PAHs.

PMID- 28578567
TI  - Quantitative Profiling of Endogenous Fat-Soluble Vitamins and Carotenoids in
      Human Plasma Using an Improved UHPSFC-ESI-MS Interface.
AB  - Analytical solutions enabling the quantification of circulating levels of
      liposoluble micronutrients such as vitamins and carotenoids are currently limited
      to either single or a reduced panel of analytes. The requirement to use multiple
      approaches hampers the investigation of the biological variability on a large
      number of samples in a time and cost efficient manner. With the goal to develop
      high-throughput and robust quantitative methods for the profiling of
      micronutrients in human plasma, we introduce a novel, validated workflow for the
      determination of 14 fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids in a single run.
      Automated supported liquid extraction was optimized and implemented to
      simultaneously parallelize 48 samples in 1 h, and the analytes were measured
      using ultrahigh-performance supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to tandem
      mass spectrometry in less than 8 min. An improved mass spectrometry interface
      hardware was built up to minimize the post-decompression volume and to allow
      better control of the chromatographic effluent density on its route toward and
      into the ion source. In addition, a specific make-up solvent condition was
      developed to ensure both analytes and matrix constituents solubility after mobile
      phase decompression. The optimized interface resulted in improved spray plume
      stability and conserved matrix compounds solubility leading to enhanced
      hyphenation robustness while ensuring both suitable analytical repeatability and
      improved the detection sensitivity. The overall developed methodology gives
      recoveries within 85-115%, as well as within and between-day coefficient of
      variation of 2 and 14%, respectively.

PMID- 28578568
TI  - Calcium l-Lactate Frameworks as Naturally Degradable Carriers for Pesticides.
AB  - Two porous, chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), Ca14(l
      lactate)20(acetate)8(C2H5OH)(H2O) (MOF-1201) and Ca6(l-lactate)3(acetate)9(H2O)
      (MOF-1203), are constructed from Ca2+ ions and l-lactate [CH3CH(OH)COO-], where
      Ca2+ ions are bridged by the carboxylate and hydroxyl groups of lactate and the
      carboxylate group of acetate to give a three-dimensional arrangement of Ca(-COO, 
      OH) polyhedra supporting one-dimensional pores with apertures and internal
      diameters of 7.8 and 9.6 A (MOF-1201) and 4.6 and 5.6 A (MOF-1203), respectively.
      These MOFs represent the first examples of extended porous structures based on
      Ca2+ and lactate. They show permanent porosity of 430 and 160 m2 g-1,
      respectively, and can encapsulate an agriculturally important fumigant, cis-1,3
      dichloropropene. MOF-1201 shows a 100 times lower release rate compared with
      liquid cis-1,3-dichloropropene under the same test conditions (25  degrees C, air
      flow rate of 1 cm3 min-1). The hydrolysis of MOF-1201 in water makes it the first
      example of a degradable porous solid carrier for such fumigants.

PMID- 28578569
TI  - Thermally Stable Metallic Nanoparticles Prepared via Core-Cross-linked Block
      Copolymer Micellar Nanoreactors.
AB  - Thermally stable metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) are highly desirable for the melt
      processing of polymer nanocomposites. However, due to the high surface energy
      penalty and decreased melting temperature, MNPs are easy to agglomerate and lose
      their unique properties if there is no protection or confinement layer. In this
      work, we report a facile and efficient way to synthesize thermally stable MNPs
      using core-cross-linked polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) reverse
      micelles as nanoreactors. From infrared results, gold, silver, and palladium ions
      exhibited distinctive coordination to the 4VP groups with varying chelation
      strengths. Compared to the non-cross-linked micelles, 1,4-dibromobutane (DBB)
      cross-linking of the P4VP cores provided several advantages. First, it prevented
      severe swelling of the P4VP cores caused by the reducing agents and subsequent
      merger of swollen micelles. Second, the quaternized P4VP with hydrophilicity
      enhanced the uptake speed of precursor metal ions into the cores. Third, the
      cross-linked cores greatly stabilized the MNPs against the high-temperature
      environment (e.g., 110  degrees C for 40 h in toluene). In addition, the
      solubility of the reducing agents also played an important role. Anhydrous
      hydrazine could swell the P4VP cores and concentric core-shell particle
      morphology was obtained. On the contrary, triethylsilane could not swell the P4VP
      cores and thus eccentric core-shell particle morphology was observed. Only the
      concentric core-shell MNPs exhibited good thermal stability, whereas the
      eccentric core-shell MNPs did not. This work suggested that these thermally
      stable MNPs could be good candidates for the melt processing of functional
      polymer nanocomposites.

PMID- 28578570
TI  - Superconductivity in Alkaline Earth Metal-Filled Skutterudites BaxIr4X12 (X = As,
      P).
AB  - We report superconductive iridium pnictides BaxIr4X12 (X = As and P) with a
      filled skutterudite structure, demonstrating that Ba filling dramatically alters
      their electronic properties and induces a nonmetal-to-metal transition with
      increasing the Ba content x. The highest superconducting transition temperatures
      are 4.8 and 5.6 K observed for BaxIr4As12 and BaxIr4P12, respectively. The
      superconductivity in BaxIr4X12 can be classified into the Bardeen-Cooper
      Schrieffer type with intermediate coupling.

PMID- 28578571
TI  - Hypervalent-Iodine-Mediated Formation of Epoxides from Carbon(sp2)-Carbon(sp3)
      Single Bonds.
AB  - We have developed an efficient method for direct formation of epoxide groups from
      carbon(sp2)-carbon(sp3) single bonds of beta-keto esters; the reaction is
      mediated by the water-soluble hypervalent iodine(V) reagent AIBX (5
      trimethylammonio-1,3-dioxo-1,3-dihydro-1lambda5-benzo[d][1,2]iodoxol-1-ol anion).
      On the basis of the results of density functional theory calculations and
      experimental studies, we propose that the reaction proceeds by a two-stage
      mechanism involving dehydrogenation of the beta-keto ester substrates and
      epoxidation of the resulting enone intermediates. The rate-limiting step is
      abstraction of the beta'-C-H (calculated free energy of activation, 24.5
      kcal/mol).

PMID- 28578572
TI  - The Origins of Dramatic Differences in Five-Membered vs Six-Membered Chelation of
      Pd(II) on Efficiency of C(sp3)-H Bond Activation.
AB  - The origin of the unique effectiveness of six-membered chelates on the beta
      methylene C(sp3)-H activation reactions by Pd(II) catalyst was explained with
      density functional theory. The Pd(II) catalysts that involve five-membered
      chelates are inactive in this transformation. Computational studies suggest that
      the C(sp3)-H bond activation is the rate-limiting step in both cases. The C(sp3)
      H bond activation with a five-membered chelate is unfavorable by 7.7 kcal/mol
      compared to the corresponding six-membered chelate with Pd(II). Two factors cause
      the difference: (1) the dimeric Pd species with five-membered chelation square
      planar structure is more stable than that with six-membered chelation by 2.0
      kcal/mol; (2) steric repulsion between the ArF group of the substrate and the
      quinoline group of the acetyl-protected aminomethyl quinoline ligand destabilizes
      the five-membered chelate transition structure by 5.7 kcal/mol. The six-membered
      chelate of Pd(II) with an acetyl-protected aminoethyl quinoline ligand orients
      the ligand away from the ArF group of the substrate and alleviates the steric
      repulsion.

PMID- 28578573
TI  - Antifungal and Antiviral Cyclic Peptides from the Deep-Sea-Derived Fungus
      Simplicillium obclavatum EIODSF 020.
AB  - A new linear peptide simplicilliumtide I (1) and four new cyclic peptides
      simplicilliumtides J-M (2-5) together with known analogues verlamelins A and B (6
      and 7) were isolated from the deep-sea-derived fungal strain Simplicillium
      obclavatum EIODSF 020. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic
      analysis, and their absolute configurations were further confirmed by chemical
      structural modification, Marfey's and Mosher's methods. Compounds 2, 6, and 7
      showed significant antifungal activity toward Aspergillus versicolor and
      Curvularia australiensis and also had obvious antiviral activity toward HSV-1
      with IC50 values of 14.0, 16.7, and 15.6 MUM, respectively. The structure
      bioactivity relationship of this type of cyclic peptide was also discussed. This
      is the first time to discuss the effects of the lactone linkage and the
      substituent group of the fatty acid chain fragment on the bioactivity of this
      type of cyclic peptides. This is also the first time to report the antiviral
      activity of these cyclic peptides.

PMID- 28578574
TI  - Alternating 5,5-Dimethylcyclopentadiene and Diketopyrrolopyrrole Copolymer
      Prepared at Room Temperature for High Performance Organic Thin-Film Transistors.
AB  - We report that the inclusion of nonaromatic 5,5-dimethylcyclopentadiene monomer
      into a conjugated backbone is an attractive strategy to high performance
      semiconducting polymers. The use of this monomer enables a room temperature
      Suzuki copolymerization with a diketopyrrolopyrrole comonomer to afford a highly
      soluble, high molecular weight material. The resulting low band gap polymer
      exhibits excellent photo and thermal stability, and despite a large pi-pi
      stacking distance of 4.26 A, it demonstrates excellent performance in thin-film
      transistor devices.

PMID- 28578575
TI  - Mercury Temporal Trends in Top Predator Fish of the Laurentian Great Lakes from
      2004 to 2015: Are Concentrations Still Decreasing?
AB  - Mercury (Hg) concentration trends in top predator fish (lake trout and walleye)
      of the Great Lakes (GL) from 2004 to 2015 were determined by Kendall-Theil robust
      regression with a cluster-based age normalization method to control for the
      effect of changes in lake trophic status. When data from the GLs (except Lake
      Erie) are combined, a significant decreasing trend in the lake trout Hg
      concentrations was found between 2004 and 2015 with an annual decrease of 4.1%
      per year, consistent with the decline in regional atmospheric Hg emissions and
      water Hg concentrations. However, a breakpoint was detected with a significant
      decreasing slope (-8.1% per year) before the breakpoint (2010), and no trend
      after the breakpoint. When the lakes are examined individually, Lakes Superior
      and Huron, which are dominated by atmospheric Hg inputs and are more likely than
      the lower lakes to respond to declining emissions from areas surrounding the GL,
      have significant decreasing trends with rates between 5.2 and 7.8% per year from
      2004 to 2015. These declining trends appear to be driven by decreasing regional
      atmospheric Hg emissions although they may be partly counterbalanced by other
      factors, including increasing local emissions, food web changes, eutrophication,
      and responses to global climate change. Lakes Michigan, Erie and Ontario may have
      been more impacted by these other factors and their trends changed from
      decreasing to non-decreasing or increasing in recent years.

PMID- 28578576
TI  - Potential-Induced Aggregation of Anionic Porphyrins at Liquid|Liquid Interfaces.
AB  - The adsorption and self-aggregation of anionic porphyrins were studied at the
      polarized water|1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface by polarization-modulation
      total internal reflection fluorescence (PM-TIRF) spectroscopy. 5,10,15,20
      Tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin diacid (H4TPPS2-) and protoporphyrin IX
      (H2PP2-) exhibited high surface activities at the interface. The selective
      excitation of interfacial species in PM-TIRF measurements elucidated the
      potential-induced aggregation mechanism of the porphyrins. The J-aggregates of
      H4TPPS2- were reversibly formed only at the water|DCE interface by applying
      appropriate potentials even when the porphyrins exist as monomers in the aqueous
      and organic solutions. In the H2PP2- system, the slow aggregation process was
      found in the negative potential region. The spectral characteristics and the
      signal phase of PM-TIRF indicated that the H2PP2- monomers were adsorbed with
      relatively standing orientation and that the long axis of the J-aggregates was
      nearly in plane of the interface. H2PP2- was also investigated at the biomimetic
      phospholipid-adsorbed water|DCE interface. The competitive adsorption of neutral
      glycerophospholipids effectively inhibited the potential-dependent adsorption and
      interfacial aggregation processes of H2PP2-. The results demonstrated that the
      aggregation state of the charged species can reversibly be controlled at
      liquid|liquid interfaces as a function of externally applied potential.

PMID- 28578577
TI  - Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework Nanosheets: Preparation and
      Application in Highly Sensitive and Selective DNA Detection.
AB  - The ability to prepare ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) covalent organic framework
      (COF) nanosheets (NSs) in high yield is of great importance for the further
      exploration of their unique properties and potential applications. Herein, by
      elaborately designing and choosing two flexible molecules with C3v molecular
      symmetry as building units, a novel imine-linked COF, namely, TPA-COF, with a
      hexagonal layered structure and sheet-like morphology, is synthesized. Since the
      flexible building units are integrated into the COF skeletons, the interlayer
      stacking becomes weak, resulting in the easy exfoliation of TPA-COF into
      ultrathin 2D NSs. Impressively, for the first time, the detailed structural
      information, i.e., the pore channels and individual building units in the NSs, is
      clearly visualized by using the recently developed low-dose imaging technique of
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As a proof-of-concept application, the
      obtained ultrathin COF NSs are used as a novel fluorescence sensing platform for
      the highly sensitive and selective detection of DNA.

PMID- 28578578
TI  - Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles from Au(I) Ions That Shuttle To Solidify:
      Application on the Sensor Array Design.
AB  - Metal-mediated interlocking rings won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The
      metal-directed interlocking rings in macromolecular systems (e.g., proteins) may
      be similar to the form of Maxwell's electromagnetic waves; the metal ions may
      shuttle among the rings in the special environment. To verify this hypothesis, we
      designed a general approach to synthesize the multicolored gold nanoparticles
      (GNPs) mediated by Au(I)-directed interlocking rings in proteins. The Au(I) ions
      shuttled among these interlocking rings in the strong alkaline solution. Through
      the rapid nucleation method, the multicolored GNPs of different morphology and
      sizes were synthesized in the multiple honeycombed templates. On the basis of the
      "three-color" principle of Thomas Young, we extracted the red, green, and blue
      (RGB) alterations of GNPs to fabricate a visual sensor array for protein
      discrimination. The fingerprints (DeltaRGB) were obtained from the target
      proteins and fed into computer programs. The proposed sensing platform was also
      applied to detect lysozyme in human tears with satisfactory results. Importantly,
      we forecasted that lysozyme could be the effective drug for curing dacryocystitis
      and nasolacrimal duct obstruction diseases.

PMID- 28578579
TI  - Simple and Efficient Generation of Aryl Radicals from Aryl Triflates: Synthesis
      of Aryl Boronates and Aryl Iodides at Room Temperature.
AB  - Despite the wide use of aryl radicals in organic synthesis, current methods to
      prepare them from aryl halides, carboxylic acids, boronic acids, and diazonium
      salts suffer from limitations. Aryl triflates, easily obtained from phenols, are
      promising aryl radical progenitors but remain elusive in this regard. Inspired by
      the single electron transfer process for aryl halides to access aryl radicals, we
      developed a simple and efficient protocol to convert aryl triflates to aryl
      radicals. Our success lies in exploiting sodium iodide as the soft electron donor
      assisted by light. This strategy enables the scalable synthesis of two types of
      important organic molecules, i.e., aryl boronates and aryl iodides, in good to
      high yields, with broad functional group compatibility in a transition-metal-free
      manner at room temperature. This protocol is anticipated to find potential
      applications in other aryl-radical-involved reactions by using aryl triflates as
      aryl radical precursors.

PMID- 28578580
TI  - Meroterpenoids with Antitumor Activities from Guava (Psidium guajava).
AB  - Psidium guajava L., a species native to South America, has been widely cultivated
      in the tropical and subtropical areas of China for its popular fruits. The
      preliminary analysis by liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (LC-UV) indicated the
      presence of meroterpenoids in the fruits of P. guajava (guava). Subsequent
      fractionation of the petroleum ether extract resulted in the identification of
      two new meroterpenoids, psiguajavadials A (1) and B (2), together with 14
      previously described meroterpenoids (3-16). Their structures were fully
      elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic techniques and theoretical
      calculations. All of the meroterpenoids showed cytotoxicities against five human
      cancer cell lines, with guajadial B (12) being the most effective having an IC50
      value of 150 nM toward A549 cells. Furthermore, biochemical topoisomerase I
      (Top1) assay revealed that psiguajavadial A (1), psiguajavadial B (2), guajadial
      B (12), guajadial C (14), and guajadial F (16) acted as Top1 catalytic inhibitors
      and delayed Top1 poison-mediated DNA damage. The flow cytometric analysis
      indicated that the new meroterpenoids psiguajavadials A (1) and B (2) could
      induce apoptosis of HCT116 cells. These data suggest that meroterpenoids from
      guava fruit could be used for the development of antitumor agents.

PMID- 28578581
TI  - Kinetically Controlled Coassembly of Multichromophoric Peptide Hydrogelators and
      the Impacts on Energy Transport.
AB  - We report a peptide-based multichromophoric hydrogelator system, wherein pi
      electron units with different inherent spectral energies are spatially controlled
      within peptidic 1-D nanostructures to create localized energy gradients in
      aqueous environments. This is accomplished by mixing different pi-conjugated
      peptides prior to initiating self-assembly through solution acidification. We can
      vary the kinetics of the assembly and the degree of self-sorting through the
      choice of the assembly trigger, which changes the kinetics of acidification. The
      hydrolysis of glucono-delta-lactone (GdL) provides a slow pH drop that allows for
      stepwise triggering of peptide components into essentially self-sorted
      nanostructures based on subtle pKa differences, whereas HCl addition leads to a
      rapid formation of mixed components within a nanostructure. Using 1H NMR
      spectroscopy and fiber X-ray diffraction, we determine the conditions and peptide
      mixtures that favor self-sorting or intimate comixing. Photophysical
      investigations in the solution phase provide insight into the correlation of
      energy-transport processes occurring within the assemblies to the structural
      organization of the pi-systems.

PMID- 28578582
TI  - High-Yield Functional Molecular Electronic Devices.
AB  - An ultimate goal of molecular electronics, which seeks to incorporate molecular
      components into electronic circuit units, is to generate functional molecular
      electronic devices using individual or ensemble molecules to fulfill the
      increasing technical demands of the miniaturization of traditional silicon-based
      electronics. This review article presents a summary of recent efforts to pursue
      this ultimate aim, covering the development of reliable device platforms for high
      yield ensemble molecular junctions and their utilization in functional molecular
      electronic devices, in which distinctive electronic functionalities are observed
      due to the functional molecules. In addition, other aspects pertaining to the
      practical application of molecular devices such as manufacturing compatibility
      with existing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, their
      integration, and flexible device applications are also discussed. These advances
      may contribute to a deeper understanding of charge transport characteristics
      through functional molecular junctions and provide a desirable roadmap for future
      practical molecular electronics applications.

PMID- 28578583
TI  - Alkyne-Bridged Multi[Copper(II) Porphyrin] Structures: Nuances of Orbital
      Symmetry in Long-Range, Through-Bond Mediated, Isotropic Spin Exchange
      Interactions.
AB  - Spin and conformational dynamics in symmetric alkyne-bridged multi[copper(II)
      porphyrin] structures have been studied in toluene solution at variable
      temperature using steady-state electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)
      spectroscopy. Comparison of the dimer EPR spectra to those of Cu porphyrin
      monomers shows evidence of an isotropic exchange interaction (Javg) in these
      biradicaloid structures, manifested by a significant line broadening in the dimer
      spectra. The extent line broadening depends on molecular structure and
      temperature, suggesting Javg is modulated by conformational dynamics that impact
      the torsional angle distribution between the porphyrin-porphyrin least-squares
      planes. Computational simulation of the experimental EPR spectra, using a
      developed algorithm for J modulation in flexible organic biradicals, supports
      this hypothesis. Comparison of ethyne and butadiyne alkyne bridges reveals
      remarkable sensitivity to orbital interactions between the spacer and the metal,
      reflected in measurements of Javg as a function of temperature. The results
      suggest orbital symmetry relationships may be more important than recognized in
      design of optimized molecular spintronic devices.

PMID- 28578585
TI  - High-Resolution Air Pollution Mapping with Google Street View Cars: Exploiting
      Big Data.
AB  - Air pollution affects billions of people worldwide, yet ambient pollution
      measurements are limited for much of the world. Urban air pollution
      concentrations vary sharply over short distances (?1 km) owing to unevenly
      distributed emission sources, dilution, and physicochemical transformations.
      Accordingly, even where present, conventional fixed-site pollution monitoring
      methods lack the spatial resolution needed to characterize heterogeneous human
      exposures and localized pollution hotspots. Here, we demonstrate a measurement
      approach to reveal urban air pollution patterns at 4-5 orders of magnitude
      greater spatial precision than possible with current central-site ambient
      monitoring. We equipped Google Street View vehicles with a fast-response
      pollution measurement platform and repeatedly sampled every street in a 30-km2
      area of Oakland, CA, developing the largest urban air quality data set of its
      type. Resulting maps of annual daytime NO, NO2, and black carbon at 30 m-scale
      reveal stable, persistent pollution patterns with surprisingly sharp small-scale
      variability attributable to local sources, up to 5-8* within individual city
      blocks. Since local variation in air quality profoundly impacts public health and
      environmental equity, our results have important implications for how air
      pollution is measured and managed. If validated elsewhere, this readily scalable
      measurement approach could address major air quality data gaps worldwide.

PMID- 28578584
TI  - Long-Term Dietary Supplementation with Selenium-Enriched Yeast Improves Cognitive
      Impairment, Reverses Synaptic Deficits, and Mitigates Tau Pathology in a Triple
      Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder
      characterized by multiple histopathological changes in the brain and by
      impairments in memory and cognitive function. Currently, there is no effective
      treatment that can halt or reverse the progression of this disease. Here, we
      explored the effects of 3 months of treatment with selenium-enriched yeast (Se
      yeast), which is commonly used as a source of organic selenium (Se) for
      nutrition, on cognitive dysfunction and neuropathology in the triple transgenic
      mouse model of AD (3*Tg-AD mice). As the results revealed that Se-yeast
      significantly improved the spatial learning and memory retention of 3*Tg-AD mice,
      promoted neuronal activity, attenuated the activation of astrocytes and
      microglia, mitigated synaptic deficits, and reduced the levels of total tau and
      phosphorylated tau though inhibiting the activity of GSK-3beta, dietary
      supplementation with Se-yeast exerted multiple beneficial effects on the
      prevention or treatment of AD. These findings provide evidence of a potentially
      viable compound for AD treatment.

PMID- 28578586
TI  - Origin of Somatic Mutations in beta-Catenin versus Adenomatous Polyposis Coli in
      Colon Cancer: Random Mutagenesis in Animal Models versus Nonrandom Mutagenesis in
      Humans.
AB  - Wnt signaling is compromised early in the development of human colorectal cancer
      (CRC) due to truncating nonsense mutations in adenomatous polyposis coli (APC).
      CRC induced by chemical carcinogens, such as heterocyclic aromatic amines and
      azoxymethane, in mice also involves dysregulation of Wnt signaling but via
      activating missense mutations in the beta-catenin oncogene despite the fact that
      genetically modified mice harboring an inactive APC allele efficiently develop
      CRC. In contrast, activating mutations in beta-catenin are rarely observed in
      human CRC. Dysregulation of the Wnt signaling pathway by the two distinct
      mechanisms reveals insights into the etiology of human CRC. On the basis of
      calculations related to DNA adduct levels produced in mouse CRC models using
      mutagens, and the number of stem cells in the mouse colon, we show that two
      nonsense mutations required for biallelic disruption of APC are statistically
      unlikely to produce CRC in experiments using small numbers of mice. We calculate
      that an activating mutation in one allele near the critical GSK3beta
      phosphorylation site on beta-catenin is >105-times more likely to produce CRC by
      random mutagenesis due to chemicals than inactivating two alleles in APC, yet it
      does not occur in humans. Therefore, the mutagenesis mechanism in human CRC
      cannot be random. We explain that nonsense APC mutations predominate in human CRC
      because of deamination at 5-methylcytosine at CGA and CAG codons, coupled with
      the number of human colonic stem cells and lifespan. Our analyses, including a
      comparison of mutation type and age at CRC diagnosis in U.S. and Chinese
      patients, also indicate that APC mutations in CRC are not due to environmental
      mutagens that randomly damage DNA.

PMID- 28578587
TI  - Next-Generation Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents.

PMID- 28578588
TI  - Commentary on: The Journal's concerns about suicide.

PMID- 28578590
TI  - The Impact of Prior Activity History on the Influence of Restricted Repetitive
      Behaviors on Socialization for Children With High-Functioning Autism.
AB  - Research has demonstrated that incorporating restricted interests of an
      individual with autism into recess activities is effective at increasing
      socialization with typically developing peers. However, certain activity contexts
      may alter the reinforcing influence of the restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs)
      depending on an individual's history in that activity. Using an alternating
      treatment design, this study examined whether an individual's history with an
      activity affected socialization. RRBs were embedded into activities with a
      reported positive history (i.e., prior history of positive experiences) and
      activities with a reported negative history (i.e., prior history of aversive
      experiences) for participants. Data indicated that socialization increased and
      remained above baseline levels when RRBs were introduced during activities with a
      positive history, whereas socialization was minimal when RRBs were introduced in
      activities with a negative history. Social significance and implications for
      designing activities that incorporate a child's RRBs are discussed.

PMID- 28578591
TI  - Post-Doctoral Mentorship Award - have you considered applying?

PMID- 28578593
TI  - Commentary on Snowdon: 'The Journal's concerns about suicide'.

PMID- 28578592
TI  - Adjunctive minocycline treatment for major depressive disorder: A proof of
      concept trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Conventional antidepressant treatments result in symptom remission in
      30% of those treated for major depressive disorder, raising the need for
      effective adjunctive therapies. Inflammation has an established role in the
      pathophysiology of major depressive disorder, and minocycline has been shown to
      modify the immune-inflammatory processes and also reduce oxidative stress and
      promote neuronal growth. This double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial
      examined adjunctive minocycline (200 mg/day, in addition to treatment as usual)
      for major depressive disorder. This double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled
      trial investigated 200 mg/day adjunctive minocycline (in addition to treatment as
      usual) for major depressive disorder. METHODS: A total of 71 adults with major
      depressive disorder ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
      Fourth Edition) were randomised to this 12-week trial. Outcome measures included
      the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (primary outcome), Clinical Global
      Impression-Improvement and Clinical Global Impression-Severity, Hamilton Anxiety
      Rating Scale, Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire, Social
      and Occupational Functioning Scale and the Range of Impaired Functioning Tool.
      The study was registered on the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials
      Register: www.anzctr.org.au , #ACTRN12612000283875. RESULTS: Based on mixed
      methods repeated measures analysis of variance at week 12, there was no
      significant difference in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores
      between groups. However, there were significant differences, favouring the
      minocycline group at week 12 for Clinical Global Impression-Improvement score -
      effect size (95% confidence interval) = -0.62 [-1.8, -0.3], p = 0.02; Quality of
      Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire score - effect size (confidence
      interval) = -0.12 [0.0, 0.2], p < 0.001; and Social and Occupational Functioning
      Scale and the Range of Impaired Functioning Tool score - 0.79 [-4.5, -1.4], p <
      0.001. These effects remained at follow-up (week 16), and Patient Global
      Impression also became significant, effect size (confidence interval) = 0.57 [
      1.7, -0.4], p = 0.017. CONCLUSION: While the primary outcome was not significant,
      the improvements in other comprehensive clinical measures suggest that
      minocycline may be a useful adjunct to improve global experience, functioning and
      quality of life in people with major depressive disorder. Further studies are
      warranted to confirm the potential of this accessible agent to optimise treatment
      outcomes.

PMID- 28578595
TI  - Thymic Hyperplasia Associated with Graves' Disease: Pathophysiology and Proposed
      Management Algorithm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between Graves' disease (GD) and thymic hyperplasia
      (TH) was first described in 1912 and has been reported numerous times thereafter.
      TH associated with GD presents as an incidental mediastinal mass on chest X-ray
      or computed tomography (CT). The pathogenesis of TH in the setting of GD is
      unclear but seems to involve a complex interplay of hormonal and immunological
      mechanisms. SUMMARY: Here, the effect that thyroid hormones and autoimmunity have
      on thymic growth and size is reviewed. The authors' experience, along with a
      review of published case reports, reveals that general physicians may be
      unfamiliar with this association. This lack of familiarity may result in an
      aggressive management course, including surgical intervention, along with its
      associated risks and costs. The differential diagnosis and diagnostic workup of
      thymic enlargement associated with GD is discussed in light of the available
      clinical evidence. CONCLUSION: Recent literature confirms the generally benign
      nature of TH associated with GD, and supports a conservative approach for the
      diagnostic workup and initial management. Practical management recommendations
      for thymic enlargement associated with GD have been formulated and are presented
      here.

PMID- 28578594
TI  - Novel Somatic RET Mutation Questioning the Causality of the RET I852M Germline
      Sequence Variant in Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia 2A.

PMID- 28578596
TI  - High-resolution melting analysis of gyrA codon 84 and grlA codon 80 mutations
      conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones in Staphylococcus pseudintermedius
      isolates from canine clinical samples.
AB  - Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is an opportunistic pathogen of dogs and cats. A
      high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) protocol was designed and tested on 42
      clinical isolates with known fluoroquinolone (FQ) susceptibility and gyrA codon
      84 and grlA codon 80 mutation status. The HRMA approach was able to discriminate
      between FQ-sensitive and FQ-resistant strains and confirmed previous reports that
      the main mutation site associated with FQ resistance in S. pseudintermedius is
      located at position 251 (Ser84Leu) of gyrA. Routine, HRMA-based FQ susceptibility
      profiles may be a valuable tool to guide therapy. The FQ resistance-predictive
      power of the assay should be tested in a significantly larger number of isolates.

PMID- 28578599
TI  - Influence of Chemotherapy Within 30 Days Before ICU Admission on Mortality in
      Critically Ill Medical Patients With Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The main objective was to determine whether the administration of
      chemotherapy (CT) during the month before intensive care unit (ICU) admission of
      medical patients with cancer influences the survival rate. The design was a
      single-institution observational cohort study in an ICU of a tertiary university
      hospital. METHODS: Our cohort included 248 oncology patients admitted to the ICU
      from 2005 to 2014 due to nonsurgical problems. Seventy-six (30.6%) patients had
      received CT in the month before admission (CT group) and 172 did not receive CT
      (control group). The main outcome measures were ICU, hospital, 30-day, 90-day,
      and 1-year mortalities. We performed survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier
      estimator, comparing both groups using the log-rank test, and multivariate
      analysis using Cox regression adjusted for gender, age, maximum Sequential Organ
      Failure Assessment (SOFA), and delta maximum SOFA to calculate the hazard ratios
      (HRs) and their respective 95% confidence intervals. This association was also
      evaluated by a graphic representation of survival. RESULTS: The CT group
      presented an ICU mortality rate of 27.6% versus 25.5% in the control group. The
      multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, and delta maximum SOFA showed
      significant differences between the groups (HR: 2.12; P = .009). The hospital
      mortality rate was 55.3% in the CT group compared to 45.4% in the control group
      (adjusted HR: 1.81; P = .003). At 30 days, the mortality rate was 56.6% in the CT
      group compared to 46.5% in the control group (adjusted HR: 1.69; P = .008).
      Mortality at 90 days was 65.8% in the CT group versus 59.9% in the control group
      (adjusted HR: 1.47; P = .03). One-year mortality was also higher in the CT group
      (79% vs 72.7%, adjusted HR: 1.44; P = .02). CONCLUSION: The administration of CT
      in the month before ICU admission in patients with cancer was associated with
      higher mortality in the ICU, in the hospital, and 30 and 90 days after admission
      when adjusted for the increase in organ failure measured by delta maximum SOFA.
      We provide useful new information for decision-making about ICU management of
      patients with cancer.

PMID- 28578597
TI  - Optimization of Methods for Articular Cartilage Surface Tissue Engineering: Cell
      Density and Transforming Growth Factor Beta Are Critical for Self-Assembly and
      Lubricin Secretion.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Lubricin/superficial zone protein (SZP)/proteoglycan4 (PRG4) plays an
      important role in boundary lubrication in articular cartilage. Lubricin is
      secreted by superficial zone chondrocytes and synoviocytes of the synovium. The
      specific objective of this investigation is to optimize the methods for tissue
      engineering of articular cartilage surface. The aim of this study is to
      investigate the effect of cell density on the self-assembly of superficial zone
      chondrocytes and lubricin secretion as a functional assessment. DESIGN:
      Superficial zone chondrocytes were cultivated as a monolayer at low, medium, and
      high densities. Chondrocytes at the three different densities were treated with
      transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta)1 twice a week or daily, and the
      accumulated lubricin in the culture medium was analyzed by immunoblots and
      quantitated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Cell numbers
      in low and medium densities were increased by TGF-beta1; whereas cell numbers in
      high-density cell cultures were decreased by twice-a-week treatment of TGF-beta1.
      On the other hand, the cell numbers were maintained by daily TGF-beta treatment.
      Immunoblots and quantitation of lubricin by ELISA analysis indicated that TGF
      beta1 stimulated lubricin secretion by superficial zone chondrocytes at all
      densities with twice-a-week TGF-beta treatment. It is noteworthy that the daily
      treatment of TGF-beta1 increased lubricin much higher compared with twice-a-week
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that daily treatment is optimal
      for the TGF-beta1 response in a higher density of monolayer cultures. These
      findings have implications for self-assembly of surface zone chondrocytes of
      articular cartilage for application in tissue engineering of articular cartilage
      surface.

PMID- 28578598
TI  - Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, and Cause-Specific Mortality in a Large Cohort
      of Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism is 0.5-4% in
      iodine-replete communities, but it is 5-10 times higher in women than in men.
      Those conditions are associated with a broad range of metabolic disorders and
      cardiovascular diseases. Biological evidence of a role of thyroid hormones in
      carcinogenesis also exists. However, the association between thyroid dysfunction
      and cardiovascular disease or cancer mortality risk remains controversial. In a
      large cohort of women, the associations of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism
      with cause-specific mortality were evaluated after nearly 30 years of follow-up.
      METHODS: The prospective study included 75,076 women aged 20-89 years who were
      certified as radiologic technologists in the United States in 1926-1982,
      completed baseline questionnaires in 1983-1998 from which medical history was
      ascertained, and reported no malignant disease or benign thyroid disease except
      thyroid dysfunction. A passive follow-up of this cohort was performed through the
      Social Security Administration database and the National Death Index-Plus. Cause
      specific mortality risks were compared according to self-reported thyroid status,
      with proportional hazards models adjusted for baseline year and age,
      race/ethnicity, body mass index, family history of breast cancer, and life-style
      and reproductive factors. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 28 years, 2609
      cancer, 1789 cardiovascular or cerebrovascular, and 2442 other non-cancer deaths
      were recorded. Women with hyperthyroidism had an elevated risk of breast cancer
      mortality after 60 years of age (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.04 [confidence interval
      (CI) 1.16-3.60], 13 cases in hyperthyroid women) compared to women without
      thyroid disease. Hypothyroid women had increased mortality risks for diabetes
      mellitus (HR = 1.58 [CI 1.03-2.41], 27 cases in hypothyroid women),
      cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.20 [CI 1.01-1.42], 179 cases), and cerebrovascular
      disease (HR = 1.45 [CI 1.01-2.08], 35 cases, when restricting the follow-up to
      >=10 years after baseline). Other causes of death were not associated with
      hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, though there was a suggestion of an elevated
      risk of ovarian cancer mortality in hyperthyroid women based on very few cases.
      CONCLUSION: The excess mortality risks observed in a large, prospective 30-year
      follow-up of patients with thyroid dysfunction require confirmation, and, if
      replicated, further investigation will be needed because of the clinical
      implications.

PMID- 28578600
TI  - Maternal anxiety associated with in vitro fertilisation (IVF)/intracytoplasmic
      sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes and risk of difficult toddler temperament: A
      three-year case-control study.

PMID- 28578601
TI  - Olaparib for Metastatic Breast Cancer in Patients with a Germline BRCA Mutation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Olaparib is an oral poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase
      inhibitor that has promising antitumor activity in patients with metastatic
      breast cancer and a germline BRCA mutation. METHODS: We conducted a randomized,
      open-label, phase 3 trial in which olaparib monotherapy was compared with
      standard therapy in patients with a germline BRCA mutation and human epidermal
      growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer who had
      received no more than two previous chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease.
      Patients were randomly assigned, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive olaparib tablets (300
      mg twice daily) or standard therapy with single-agent chemotherapy of the
      physician's choice (capecitabine, eribulin, or vinorelbine in 21-day cycles). The
      primary end point was progression-free survival, which was assessed by blinded
      independent central review and was analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis.
      RESULTS: Of the 302 patients who underwent randomization, 205 were assigned to
      receive olaparib and 97 were assigned to receive standard therapy. Median
      progression-free survival was significantly longer in the olaparib group than in
      the standard-therapy group (7.0 months vs. 4.2 months; hazard ratio for disease
      progression or death, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.43 to 0.80; P<0.001). The
      response rate was 59.9% in the olaparib group and 28.8% in the standard-therapy
      group. The rate of grade 3 or higher adverse events was 36.6% in the olaparib
      group and 50.5% in the standard-therapy group, and the rate of treatment
      discontinuation due to toxic effects was 4.9% and 7.7%, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and a
      germline BRCA mutation, olaparib monotherapy provided a significant benefit over
      standard therapy; median progression-free survival was 2.8 months longer and the
      risk of disease progression or death was 42% lower with olaparib monotherapy than
      with standard therapy. (Funded by AstraZeneca; OlympiAD ClinicalTrials.gov
      number, NCT02000622 .).

PMID- 28578602
TI  - Why Do Promising Therapies Stall in Development and How Can We Move Them Forward?
AB  - There are many reasons that molecules fail to progress to market and various
      principles of risk-benefit decisions that can help drive the molecule through
      development. This symposium included discussions on global strategies involved in
      pushing promising molecules to market, what to do when a molecule stalls in its
      progress to market, and options for rescuing the molecule and pushing it forward
      again. Innovative partnerships that bring stalled drugs back into clinical
      development were also addressed. A regulatory perspective on common reasons for a
      molecule to fail in its forward progress was presented. In addition, situations
      arise when a third-party advisory committee can provide input to help overcome
      issues identified by a regulatory agency. Using examples from the private and
      public domain, presentations centered on how to repurpose a molecule and when
      more science is needed.

PMID- 28578604
TI  - Does palliative chemotherapy provide a palliative effect on symptoms in late
      palliative stages? An interview study with oncologists.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The possible chemotherapy effects on symptoms in late stages of
      palliative chemotherapy are seldom registered in clinical practice or
      investigated as primary outcomes. The aim was therefore to study physicians'
      opinions and experiences about chemotherapy effects on symptoms. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Thirty-five physicians (mainly oncologists) with variation as regards
      age, gender and experience were included in a qualitative study with semi
      structured interviews. A qualitative content analysis was used for the 30-60 min
      long interviews. RESULTS: According to all the informants, symptoms were possible
      to control in successful cases but the chances reduce rapidly with the number of
      chemotherapy lines. Symptoms possible to control included various types of pain
      (bone pain, neuropathic cranial as well as meningeal nerve pain, colic pain,
      "liver" pain, headache and pain from cutaneous metastases); nausea and vomiting
      caused by obstruction; dyspnoea due to pleural effusions or bronchial
      obstructions. Also fatigue and B-symptoms were possible targets, as were
      diagnosis-specific symptom clusters (e.g., liver metastasis causing pain, nausea,
      tumour fever and night sweats; or head-neck cancers resulting in nerve pain,
      ulcerations, odour, dysphagia and impaired breathing). Some of the oncologists
      discussed whether the effects were related to chemotherapy treatment only or
      partly to premedication with steroids. Despite the claimed effects, the
      physicians did not keep record on symptoms, they did not evaluate them with
      validated instruments. CONCLUSIONS: Palliative chemotherapy has a substantial
      potential to reduce agonizing symptoms especially in first line treatments, but
      the effect is limited in late stages. The actual awareness of and knowledge about
      situations where the treatment has a reasonable potential, should be improved and
      symptoms should be monitored during treatment.

PMID- 28578603
TI  - AAV Gene Therapy for Alcoholism: Inhibition of Mitochondrial Aldehyde
      Dehydrogenase Enzyme Expression in Hepatoma Cells.
AB  - Most ethanol is broken down in the liver in two steps by alcohol dehydrogenase
      (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) enzymes, which metabolize down ethanol
      into acetaldehyde and then acetate. Some individuals from the Asian population
      who carry a mutation in the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene (ALDH2*2) cannot
      metabolize acetaldehyde as efficiently, producing strong effects, including
      facial flushing, dizziness, hypotension, and palpitations. This results in an
      aversion to alcohol intake and protection against alcoholism. The large
      prevalence of this mutation in the human population strongly suggests that
      modulation of ALDH2 expression by genetic technologies could result in a similar
      phenotype. scAAV2 vectors encoding ALDH2 small hairpin RNA (shRNA) were utilized
      to validate this hypothesis by silencing ALDH2 gene expression in human cell
      lines. Human cell lines HEK-293 and HepG2 were transduced with scAAV2/shRNA,
      showing a reduction in ALDH2 RNA and protein expression with the two viral
      concentration assayed (1 * 104 and 1 * 105 vg/cell) at two different time points.
      In both cell lines, ALDH2 RNA levels were reduced by 90% and protein expression
      was inhibited by 90% and 52%, respectively, 5 days post infection. Transduced
      HepG2 VL17A cells (ADH+) exposed to ethanol resulted in a 50% increase in
      acetaldehyde levels. These results suggest that gene therapy could be a useful
      tool for the treatment of alcoholism by knocking down ALDH2 expression using
      shRNA technology delivered by AAV vectors.

PMID- 28578605
TI  - Mortality Differences Between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage: A Risk
      Adjusted Assessment Using Claims Data.
AB  - Medicare Advantage (MA) has grown rapidly since the Affordable Care Act; nearly
      one-third of Medicare beneficiaries now choose MA. An assessment of the
      comparative value of the 2 options is confounded by an apparent selection bias
      favoring MA, as reflected in mortality differences. Previous assessments have
      been hampered by lack of access to claims diagnosis data for the MA population.
      An indirect comparison of mortality as an outcome variable was conducted by
      modeling mortality on a traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare data set,
      applying the model to an MA data set, and then evaluating the ratio of actual-to
      predicted mortality in the MA data set. The mortality model adjusted for clinical
      conditions and demographic factors. Model development considered the effect of
      potentially greater coding intensity in the MA population. Further analysis
      calculated ratios for subpopulations. Predicted, risk-adjusted mortality was
      lower in the MA population than in FFS Medicare. However, the ratio of actual-to
      predicted mortality (0.80) suggested that the individuals in the MA data set were
      less likely to die than would be predicted had those individuals been enrolled in
      FFS Medicare. Differences between actual and predicted mortality were
      particularly pronounced in low income (dual eligibility), nonwhite race, high
      morbidity, and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) subgroups. After controlling
      for baseline clinical risk as represented by claims diagnosis data, mortality
      differences favoring MA over FFS Medicare persisted, particularly in vulnerable
      subgroups and HMO plans. These findings suggest that differences in morbidity do
      not fully explain differences in mortality between the 2 programs.

PMID- 28578606
TI  - Community Health Workers and Use of mHealth: Improving Identification of
      Pregnancy Complications and Access to Care in the Dominican Republic.
AB  - This article presents the feasibility and acceptability of using mobile health
      technology by community health workers (CHWs) in San Juan Province, Dominican
      Republic, to improve identification of pregnancy complications and access to care
      for pregnant women. Although most women in the Dominican Republic receive four
      antenatal care visits, poor women and adolescents in remote areas are more likely
      to have only one initial prenatal visit to verify the pregnancy. This community
      based research began when community leaders raised concern about the numbers of
      their mothers who died in childbirth annually; San Juan's maternal mortality rate
      is 144/100,000 compared to the Caribbean rate of 85/100,000. Eight CHWs in three
      communities were taught to provide third-trimester antenatal assessment, upload
      the data on a mobile phone application, send the data to the local physician who
      monitored data for "red flags," and call directly if a mother had an urgent
      problem. Fifty-two pregnant women enrolled, 38 were followed to delivery, 95
      antenatal care postintake were provided, 2 urgent complications required CHW home
      management of mothers, and there were 0 deaths. Stakeholders endorsed
      acceptability of intervention. Preliminary data suggest CHWs using mobile health
      technology is feasible, linking underserved and formal health care systems with
      provision of primary care in mothers' homes.

PMID- 28578609
TI  - An unusual agent for an unusual localization of infective endocarditis.
AB  - We report on a 32-year-old male patient with acute left-hemispheric stroke caused
      by embolism due to infective endocarditis affected from the HACEK group.
      Additionally, atypical findings from the transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)
      which showed fluttering structures belonging to the papillary muscle could be
      proven as infectious agents with the help of a glucose positron emission
      tomography (PET) scan. TEE controls showed increasing vegetation involving the
      mitral valve so that surgery became necessary. The current work reflects, in
      detail, the emergent clinical course of this young patient, suffering from both
      an unusual localization and an infrequent cause of endocarditis and focuses on an
      actual view to the literature.

PMID- 28578610
TI  - A Pilot Study of Tobacco Screening and Referral for Smoking Cessation Program
      among HIV-Infected Patients in France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of tobacco smoking is high among patients living with
      HIV, supporting the need for effective targeted interventions. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: All current smokers at our outpatient HIV clinic were invited to
      participate in a smoking cessation program. RESULTS: Of the 716 patients living
      with HIV, 280 (39%) reported active smoking and were younger, more recently HIV
      infected and more frequently infected due to intravenous drug use (IDU). One
      hundred forty-seven (53%) smokers agreed to participate in the smoking cessation
      program and had a higher Fagerstrom score and were less likely IDU. During follow
      up, 41 (28%) smokers withdrew from the program. After 6 months, 60 (57%) of the
      106 smokers who completed the intervention had stopped tobacco smoking and were
      more likely to use varenicline, adjusting for a history of depression.
      CONCLUSION: Our smoking cessation program was feasible. However, strategies to
      reach and retain in smoking cessation program specific groups such as IDU are
      needed to improve the smoking cessation cascade.

PMID- 28578608
TI  - Do Gender-Predominant Primary Health Care Organizations Have an Impact on Patient
      Experience of Care, Use of Services, and Unmet Needs?
AB  - Physicians' gender can have an impact on many aspects of patient experience of
      care. Organization processes through which the influence of gender is exerted
      have not been fully explored. The aim of this article is to compare primary
      health care (PHC) organizations in which female or male doctors are predominant
      regarding organization and patient characteristics, and to assess their influence
      on experience of care, preventive care delivery, use of services, and unmet
      needs. In 2010, we conducted surveys of a population stratified sample (N = 9180)
      and of all PHC organizations (N = 606) in 2 regions of the province of Quebec,
      Canada. Patient and organization variables were entered sequentially into
      multilevel regression analyses to measure the impact of gender predominance.
      Female-predominant organizations had younger doctors and nurses with more
      expanded role; they collaborated more with other PHC practices, used more tools
      for prevention, and allotted more time to patient visits. However, doctors spent
      fewer hours a week at the practice in female-predominant organizations. Patients
      of these organizations reported lower accessibility. Conversely, they reported
      better comprehensiveness, responsiveness, counseling, and screening, but these
      effects were mainly attributable to doctors' younger age. Their reporting unmet
      needs and emergency department attendance tended to decrease when controlling for
      patient and organization variables other than doctors' age. Except for
      accessibility, female-predominant PHC organizations are comparable with their
      male counterparts. Mean age of doctors was an important confounding variable that
      mitigated differences, whereas other organization variables enhanced them. These
      findings deserve consideration to better understand and assess the impacts of the
      growing number of female-predominant PHC organizations on the health care system.

PMID- 28578611
TI  - Psychiatric Symptoms and Barriers to Care in HIV-Infected Individuals Who Are
      Lost to Care.
AB  - Past studies of barriers to HIV care have not comprehensively assessed
      psychiatric symptoms, and few have assessed barriers to care among people living
      with HIV (PLWH) who are lost to care (LTC). We examined psychiatric symptoms,
      barriers to HIV care, and immune functioning in PLWH who were retained in care
      (RIC; n = 21) or LTC (n = 21). Participants completed diagnostic interviews for
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric disorders, self-report
      measures of HIV risk behaviors and psychiatric symptoms, and a blood draw to
      assess viral load. Compared to RIC participants, LTC participants met criteria
      for a greater number of psychiatric disorders and reported greater depressive
      symptoms and more barriers to HIV care. There were no group differences in PTSD
      severity, risk behaviors, or viral load, suggesting that LTC individuals
      experience greater psychiatric problems and perceive more barriers to care than
      RIC participants, but are not less likely to have achieved viral suppression.

PMID- 28578612
TI  - The effect of progressive resistance training on aerobic fitness and strength in
      adults with coronary heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of
      randomised controlled trials.
AB  - Design We aimed to evaluate the effect of progressive resistance training on
      cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular strength in coronary heart disease, when
      compared to control or aerobic training, and when combined with aerobic training.
      Secondary aims were to evaluate the safety and efficacy of progressive resistance
      training on other physiological and clinical outcomes. Methods and results
      Electronic databases were searched from inception until July 2016. Designs
      included progressive resistance training vs control, progressive resistance
      training vs aerobic training, and combined training vs aerobic training. From
      268,778 titles, 34 studies were included (1940 participants; 71.9% male; age 60
      +/- 7 years). Progressive resistance training was more effective than control for
      lower (standardized mean difference 0.57, 95% confidence interval (0.17-0.96))
      and upper (1.43 (0.73-2.13)) body strength. Aerobic fitness improved similarly
      after progressive resistance training (16.9%) or aerobic training (21.0%);
      (standardized mean difference -0.13, 95% confidence interval (-0.35-0.08)).
      Combined training was more effective than aerobic training for aerobic fitness
      (0.21 (0.09-0.34), lower (0.62 (0.32-0.92)) and upper (0.51 (0.27-0.74)) body
      strength. Twenty studies reported adverse event information, with five reporting
      64 cardiovascular complications, 63 during aerobic training. Conclusion Isolated
      progressive resistance training resulted in an increase in lower and upper body
      strength, and improved aerobic fitness to a similar degree as aerobic training in
      coronary heart disease cohorts. Importantly, when progressive resistance training
      was added to aerobic training, effects on both fitness and strength were enhanced
      compared to aerobic training alone. Reporting of adverse events was poor, and
      clinical gaps were identified for women, older adults, high intensity progressive
      resistance training and long-term outcomes, warranting future trials to confirm
      safety and effectiveness.

PMID- 28578614
TI  - The correlation between direction and amount of retrusive movement and condyle
      position and joint space.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The direction and amount of retrusive movement may be correlated with
      the amount of joint space and the maximum intercuspal position of the condyle.
      The aim of this study was to identify any such correlation using an ultrasonic
      jaw motion analyzer and digital volumetric tomographic (DVT) scans. METHODS:
      Thirty-five dental students were selected as subjects. DVT scans were obtained
      using a next-generation i-CAT CBCT unit, and the direction and amount of
      retrusive movement were measured with a 3-D analyzer. RESULTS: Spearman Rho
      correlation tests showed no correlation between the amount of retrusive movement
      and the condyle position and joint space on either the right or left side.
      DISCUSSION: There is sufficient reason to suggest that retrusive movement of the
      condyle does not occur in isolation but is influenced by glenoid fossa bone
      morphology.

PMID- 28578613
TI  - Suboptimal primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention in HIV
      positive individuals on antiretroviral therapy.
AB  - Background We aimed to identify the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors,
      and investigate preventive cardiovascular medication use and achievement of
      targets as per Dutch cardiovascular risk management guidelines among human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and HIV-negative individuals. Design The
      design was a cross-sectional analysis within an ongoing cohort study. Methods
      Data on medication use and cardiovascular disease prevalence were available for
      528 HIV-positive and 521 HIV-negative participants. We identified cardiovascular
      risk factors and applied cardiovascular risk management guidelines, mainly
      focusing on individuals eligible for (a) primary prevention because of high a
      priori cardiovascular risk, or for (b) secondary prevention. Results One hundred
      and three (20%) HIV-positive and 77 (15%) HIV-negative participants were
      classified as having high cardiovascular risk; 53 (10%) HIV-positive and 27 (5%)
      HIV-negative participants were eligible for secondary prevention. Of HIV-positive
      individuals 57% at high cardiovascular risk and 42% of HIV-positive individuals
      eligible for secondary prevention had systolic blood pressures above guideline
      recommended thresholds. Cholesterol levels were above guideline-recommended
      thresholds in 81% of HIV-positive individuals at high cardiovascular risk and 57%
      of HIV-positive individuals eligible for secondary prevention. No statistically
      significant differences were observed between HIV-positive and HIV-negative
      participants regarding achievement of targets, except for glycaemic control
      (glycated haemoglobin <= 53 mmol/mol) among individuals using diabetes medication
      (90% vs 50%, p = 0.017) and antiplatelet/anticoagulant use for secondary
      prevention (85% vs 63%, p = 0.045), which were both superior among HIV-positive
      participants. Conclusions Cardiovascular risk management is suboptimal in both
      HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals and should be improved.

PMID- 28578607
TI  - Abiraterone plus Prednisone in Metastatic, Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abiraterone acetate, a drug that blocks endogenous androgen
      synthesis, plus prednisone is indicated for metastatic castration-resistant
      prostate cancer. We evaluated the clinical benefit of abiraterone acetate plus
      prednisone with androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with newly diagnosed,
      metastatic, castration-sensitive prostate cancer. METHODS: In this double-blind,
      placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned 1199 patients to receive
      either androgen-deprivation therapy plus abiraterone acetate (1000 mg daily,
      given once daily as four 250-mg tablets) plus prednisone (5 mg daily) (the
      abiraterone group) or androgen-deprivation therapy plus dual placebos (the
      placebo group). The two primary end points were overall survival and radiographic
      progression-free survival. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 30.4 months at a
      planned interim analysis (after 406 patients had died), the median overall
      survival was significantly longer in the abiraterone group than in the placebo
      group (not reached vs. 34.7 months) (hazard ratio for death, 0.62; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 0.51 to 0.76; P<0.001). The median length of radiographic
      progression-free survival was 33.0 months in the abiraterone group and 14.8
      months in the placebo group (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.47;
      95% CI, 0.39 to 0.55; P<0.001). Significantly better outcomes in all secondary
      end points were observed in the abiraterone group, including the time until pain
      progression, next subsequent therapy for prostate cancer, initiation of
      chemotherapy, and prostate-specific antigen progression (P<0.001 for all
      comparisons), along with next symptomatic skeletal events (P=0.009). These
      findings led to the unanimous recommendation by the independent data and safety
      monitoring committee that the trial be unblinded and crossover be allowed for
      patients in the placebo group to receive abiraterone. Rates of grade 3
      hypertension and hypokalemia were higher in the abiraterone group. CONCLUSIONS:
      The addition of abiraterone acetate and prednisone to androgen-deprivation
      therapy significantly increased overall survival and radiographic progression
      free survival in men with newly diagnosed, metastatic, castration-sensitive
      prostate cancer. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; LATITUDE
      ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01715285 .).

PMID- 28578616
TI  - Integration of informal recycling sector in Brazil and the case of Sorocaba City.
AB  - Catadores are people who collect and sell materials that can be recycled. This
      activity has been done informally in many countries for years. Recently, a
      recognition process has begun for the informal recycling sector, with public and
      private initiatives. In Brazil, catadores started out associating with each other
      in co-operatives in the 1980s. In 2010, the Solid Waste National Policy was
      approved, promoting the inclusion of theses co-operatives in the formal waste
      management system. However, only in 25 out of 5670 Brazilian municipalities have
      hired co-operatives as Private Service Providers. The integration of the informal
      sector has contributed with social, economic and environmental benefits; income
      generation, reduction of poverty and resource preservation are highlights.
      Although there was a legal progress, there are great challenges for various
      actors involved. This paper aims to diagnose the informal recycling sector,
      emphasizing the integration process that has happened in Brazil. For this, a
      substantial literature review and a case study were conducted, applying the tool
      'InteRa' to the case of Sorocaba. The case showed that it is possible to improve
      the integration of catadores in the formal waste management system. The co
      operatives achieve recycling rates of 2%, higher than the official national rate
      of 1%. However, we estimate that autonomous pickers increase total recycling in
      Sorocaba to 9%, still short of the 25% target via source segregation. Therefore,
      continuing the integration process will benefit both the pickers, and also the
      municipality through savings on landfill costs.

PMID- 28578615
TI  - Predictors of public and private healthcare utilization and associated health
      system responsiveness among older adults in Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies investigating factors associated with healthcare
      utilization by older Ghanaians lack distinction between public and private health
      services. The present study examined factors associated with public and private
      healthcare service use, and the resulting perceived health system responsiveness.
      OBJECTIVES: To identify factors associated with public and private healthcare
      utilization among older adults aged 50 and older in Ghana; and to compare
      perceived differences in health system responsiveness between the private and
      public sectors. METHODS: Cross-sectional data was analyzed from the World Health
      Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave 1 in Ghana.
      Using Andersen's conceptual framework, public and private outpatient care
      utilization was examined using multinomial logistic regression to estimate and
      identify predictor variables associated with the type of outpatient healthcare
      facility accessed. Health system responsiveness was compared using chi-square
      tests. RESULTS: Of 2517 respondents who used outpatient care in the 12 months
      preceding interview, 51.7% of respondents used a public facility, 17.8% a private
      facility, and 30.5% used other facilities. Older age group, higher education and
      higher wealth were associated with the use of private outpatient healthcare
      services. Using public outpatient care facilities was associated with having
      health insurance. Respondents with two or more chronic conditions were more
      likely to use public and private outpatient care than other facilities. Perceived
      health system responsiveness was better in private for-profit than in public and
      private not-for-profit healthcare facilities. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested
      that higher wealth and multimorbidity were significant predictors of public and
      private outpatient healthcare utilization; however, health insurance was a
      predictor only for the use of public facilities. Future mixed-method studies
      could further elucidate factors influencing the choice of public and private
      outpatient healthcare use.

PMID- 28578617
TI  - A serologic survey of Mycoplasma spp. in farmed bison ( Bison bison) herds in
      western Canada.
AB  - Mycoplasma bovis is emerging as an important pathogen of farmed bison in North
      America and is associated with high morbidity and mortality in affected herds. We
      developed an in-house ELISA to detect antibodies against Mycoplasma spp. in bison
      sera. The aims of the study were to estimate the seroprevalence against
      Mycoplasma spp. in bison herds with or without past history of M. bovis
      associated disease, and to determine potential risk factors for seropositivity to
      Mycoplasma spp. in farmed bison in western Canada. A total of 858 serum samples
      were collected from bison >1 y of age from 19 bison herds. The individual and
      herd-level seroprevalence of Mycoplasma spp. was 12% and 79%, respectively. The
      proportion of seropositive animals was 0-41% and 0-9% for herds with or without a
      history of M. bovis-associated disease, respectively. Mycoplasma spp. appear to
      be widespread in bison in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Eight of 11 herds
      with no history of M. bovis-associated disease were seropositive for Mycoplasma
      spp., which suggests that bison can be subclinically infected with Mycoplasma
      spp., or that infection may be underdiagnosed. Although not specific to M. bovis,
      the in-house ELISA developed to detect antibodies against Mycoplasma spp. may
      prove to be a valuable herd-level screening tool, providing insight needed for
      the development of appropriate prevention and control measures for Mycoplasma
      related disease in bison herds.

PMID- 28578618
TI  - Retroperitoneal extragastrointestinal giant stromal tumour: A case report.

PMID- 28578619
TI  - A Meta-Analysis of Outcomes After In Situ Reconstructions for Aortic Graft
      Infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To confirm the advantage of in situ reconstruction (ISR) over extra
      anatomic reconstruction (EAR) for aortic graft infection and determine the most
      appropriate conduit including autogenous veins, cryopreserved allografts, and
      synthetic prosthesis (standard, rifampicin of silver polyesters). METHODS: A meta
      analysis was conducted with rate of mortality, graft occlusion, amputation, and
      reinfection. A meta-regression was performed with 4 factors: patients' age,
      presence of prosthetic-duodenal fistula (PDF), virulent organisms, or nonvirulent
      organisms. RESULTS: In situ reconstruction over EAR seems to favor all events.
      For the 5 conduits used for ISR, according to operative mortality, age of the
      patients looks to have a positive correlation only for silver polyester and no
      conduit present any advantage in the presence of PDF. Reinfection seems to be not
      significantly different for the 5 conduits, and only autogenous veins appear to
      have a positive correlation with infecting organisms. CONCLUSION: In situ
      reconstruction may be considered as first-line treatment. Our results suggest
      that silver polyesters appear to be most appropriate for older patients, and in
      order to limit reinfection, autogenous veins are probably the most suitable
      conduit.

PMID- 28578620
TI  - Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of clients seeking assisted
      conception at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Nigeria.
AB  - The socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of 246 consecutive couples
      seeking assisted conception in a university teaching hospital in Nigeria from
      inception in 2011 till 2014 were reviewed restrospectively. Eighty-five (34.5%)
      were in the 35-40 years age group. The body mass index of the women showed that
      111 (45.1%) were overweight. One hundred and ninety five (88%) were referred on
      account of secondary infertility. The mean duration of infertility was 9.6 +/-
      4.8 years. Major factors identified were male factor 128 (52%), ovarian/age
      related decline in fertility 107 (43.5%), tubal 83 (33.7%) and combined
      male/female factor 71 (28.9%). One hundred and ninety (77.2%) clients seeking
      assisted conception were Christians at advanced age (greater than 35 years) with
      a longstanding duration of infertility of more than 10 years. Government, private
      and religious organisations need to raise public awareness about the availability
      of in-vitro fertilisation services as well as encourage early resort to assisted
      reproductive technologies. Impact statement What we already know: Secondary
      infertility due mainly to tubal factor is reported to be the commonest cause of
      infertility in developing countries like Nigeria and clients affected seek
      assisted reproductive techniques late. What the results of this study add: Male
      factor infertility is more common amongst infertile couples seeking in vitro
      fertilisation in LASUTH. The implications of the findings for practice and/or
      further research: A thorough examination of the male partner followed by
      investigation is vital at the initial visit so that they can be referred early
      for assisted conception.

PMID- 28578622
TI  - Modular minimal invasive extracorporeal circuits: another step toward universal
      applicability?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Safety concerns have been one of the main reasons opposing a wider
      acceptance of minimal invasive extracorporeal circuits (MiECC). Following an
      extensive experience and a multitude of modifications, we have set out to employ
      a modular MiECC as a universal extracorporeal circuit. METHODS: A total of 129
      cardiac surgical procedures were performed by a single surgeon in 2013. Excluding
      procedures done under circulatory arrest or with the potential need of such, the
      MiECC was utilized in almost 90% of surgeries. Of sixty-two (simple procedures)
      patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), aortic valve
      replacement (AVR) or CABG + AVR, 82% were non-elective, 10% had a left
      ventricular ejection fraction (EF) <30% and most had an impaired renal function.
      Thirty-eight patients had more complex surgeries (complex procedures), 37% of
      which were urgent, 15% had an EF <30% and the majority had renal dysfunction.
      RESULTS: The 30-day mortality was 5% in simple procedures and 2.5% in complex
      procedures. The incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was 13% and 16%,
      respectively. Optimum outcome was defined as a freedom from all complications and
      blood transfusions and was achieved in 52% and 42%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      This report shows that modular MiECC can be employed with a high safety margin in
      cardiac surgery. Furthermore, it emphasizes the impact that minimal invasive
      philosophy could have in improving patient care.

PMID- 28578621
TI  - Drug-resistant tuberculosis in Zhejiang Province, China: an updated analysis of
      time trends, 1999-2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug
      resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) hinder the progress of TB control. OBJECTIVE: To
      track the trend of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) prevalence in Zhejiang
      Province from 1999 to 2013, and identify risk factors of resistance to second
      line drugs among MDR-TB patients. DESIGN: Four DR-TB surveys had been done in
      Zhejiang Province in 1999, 2004, 2008 and 2013 through questionnaires, in which
      demographic and epidemiological items were included. After questionnaires, drug
      susceptibility testing (DST) targeted at four first-line drugs was done for all
      TB patients and DST targeted at six second-line drugs (only in 2008 and 2013) for
      MDR-TB patients. The drug resistance trend over time was analyzed using the
      Cochran-Armitage test. The factors associated with resistance to second-line
      drugs among MDR-TB patients were examined by a multivariate logistic regression
      model. RESULTS: Of 936 patients enrolled, 27 (3.21%) and 20 (21.28%) MDR-TB cases
      were registered as new and previously treated cases, respectively. MDR-TB showed
      a decreasing trend (Z = -3.31, p < 0.01) while resistance to any first-line drugs
      showed an increasing trend (Z = 5.22, p < 0.001), from 1999 to 2013. The highest
      resistance rate was shown to ofloxacin among MDR-TB patients both in 2008 (28.8%)
      and in 2013 (27.7%), while resistance to para-aminosalicylate decreased
      significantly (Z = -2.06, p = 0.04) between 2008 and 2013. MDR-TB patients aged
      45-65 years (OR = 5.00, p = 0.02) were more likely to be resistant to any second
      line drugs. CONCLUSIONS: DR-TB including MDR-TB remains a major public health
      problem in Zhejiang Province. Further efforts on MDR-TB control should be
      conducted to hinder drug resistance, including critical clinical use of anti-TB
      antibiotics and preventing transmission.

PMID- 28578623
TI  - Definition of Type II Endoleak Risk Based on Preoperative Anatomical
      Characteristics.
AB  - PURPOSE: To define the risk for type II endoleak (EII) after endovascular
      aneurysm repair (EVAR) based on preoperative anatomical characteristics. METHODS:
      Between January 2008 and December 2015, 189 patients (mean age 78.4+/-7.6 years;
      165 men) underwent standard EVAR. Mean aneurysm diameter was 5.7+/-0.7 cm and
      mean volume 125.2+/-45.8 cm3. Patients were assigned to the "at-risk" group
      (n=123, 65%) when at least one of the following criteria was present: patency of
      a >3-mm inferior mesenteric artery (IMA), patency of at least 3 pairs of lumbar
      arteries, or patency of 2 pairs of lumbar arteries and a sacral artery or
      accessory renal artery or any diameter patent IMA; otherwise, patients were
      entered in the "low-risk" group (n=66, 35%). EII rates and freedom from EII
      reintervention were compared using Kaplan-Meier curves. Preoperative clinical and
      anatomical characteristics were evaluated for their association with EII and EII
      reinterventions using multiple logistic regression analysis; results are
      presented as the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS:
      Freedom from endoleak was lower in the at-risk group compared with the low-risk
      group at 36 months after EVAR (p=0.04). Freedom from EII-related reinterventions
      was significantly lower in the at-risk group (80% vs 100%, p=0.001) at 48 months.
      Based on the multiple regression analysis, the at-risk group had a higher
      likelihood of both EII (OR 9.91, 95% CI 2.92 to 33.72, p<0.001) and EII-related
      reinterventions (OR 9.11, 95% CI 1.06 to 78.44, p=0.04). These criteria had 89.4%
      (95% CI 83.9% to 93.2%) sensitivity and 48.0% (95% CI 40.7% to 55.3%) specificity
      for EII; sensitivity and specificity for EII reintervention were 100% (95% CI
      93.8% to 100%) and 38.8% (95% CI 31.9% to 46.2%). Within the at-risk group, a sac
      thrombus volume <35% was an additional predictor for both EII (OR 5.21, 95% CI
      1.75 to 15.47, p=0.003) and EII-related reinterventions (OR 8.33, 95% CI 2.20 to
      31.51, p<0.002). CONCLUSION: The selection criteria effectively discriminated
      between low-risk patients and patients at risk for EII and associated
      reinterventions. A thrombus volume <35% was an additional predictor for EII and
      EII-related reintervention among patients at risk. These criteria may be useful
      for preemptively selecting patients who may benefit from EII prevention
      procedures or a more aggressive surveillance protocol.

PMID- 28578624
TI  - Outcomes After Endovascular Revascularization in Octogenarians and Non
      Octogenarians With Critical Limb Ischemia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the outcome and periprocedural risk of endovascular
      revascularization in octogenarians with critical limb ischemia (CLI) compared
      with their younger counterparts. METHODS: The multicenter, prospective registry
      for First-line Treatments in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia (CRITISCH)
      enrolled 642 patients treated with endovascular techniques ( ClinicalTrials.gov
      identifier NCT01877252). The patients were dichotomized according to age <80
      years (n=421; mean age 69 years, 292 men; group 1) or >=80 years (n=221; mean age
      85 years, 113 men; group 2). The groups had similar distributions in Rutherford
      categories 4 to 6, but group 1 had more men, smokers, diabetics, and patients on
      dialysis. The primary composite endpoint of the study was amputation and/or
      death. Key secondary endpoints were in-hospital mortality and major amputation,
      as well as major adverse limb events (MALE; any reintervention or major
      amputation involving the index limb) at 1 year. RESULTS: The in-hospital
      mortality was 1% in group 1 and 2% in group 2 (p=0.204) and the major amputation
      rates were 4% and 2% (p=0.169), respectively. Amputation-free survival at 1 year
      was 75% in group 1 and 77% in group 2 (p=0.340), whereas freedom from MALE was
      significantly different between the groups [62% group 1 vs 72% group 2; hazard
      ratio (HR) 1.45, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09 to 1.93, p=0.016). Limb
      salvage was 90% in group 1 and 95% in group 2 (HR 2.16, 95% CI 1.27 to 3.69,
      p=0.01). CONCLUSION: Octogenarians with CLI treated by endovascular means showed
      comparable early and 1-year amputation-free survival rates vs their younger
      counterparts, and limb salvage and freedom from MALE rates were even higher in
      octogenarians. APPENDIX: The CRITISCH collaborators are Farzin Adili, MD
      (Darmstadt), Kai  Balzer, MD (Bonn), Arend Billing, MD (Offenbach), Dittmar
      Bockler, MD (Heidelberg), Daniel Brixner, MD (Offenbach), Sebastian E. Debus, MD
      (Hamburg), Hans-Henning Eckstein, MD (Munchen), Hans-Joachim  Florek,  MD 
      (Freital),  Asimakis  Gkremoutis,  MD (Frankfurt),  Reinhardt  Grundmann,  MD 
      (Bad  Krozingen),  Thomas   Hupp, MD (Stuttgart), Se-Won Hwang, MD (Muenster),
      Tobias Keck, MD (Lubeck), Wojciech, Klonek, MD  (Cloppenburg),  Werner  Lang,  MD
      (Erlangen),  Bjorn  May (Freital), Alexander Meyer, MD (Erlangen), Bernhard
      Muhling,   MD   (Biberach),   Alexander   Oberhuber,   MD   (Dusseldorf),  Holger
      Reinecke,  MD  (Munster),  Christian  Reinhold,  MD  (Monchengladbach),  Ralf
      Gerhard  Ritter,  MD   (Bielefeld),   Hubert   Schelzig,   MD   (Dusseldorf),
      Christian  Schlensack,  MD  (Tubingen),  Thomas  Schmitz-Rixen, MD (Frankfurt),
      Karl-Ludwig Schulte, MD (Berlin), Matthias Spohn, MD (Bamberg), Konstantinos
      Stavroulakis, MD  (Munster),  Martin  Storck,  MD  (Karlsruhe),  Matthias  Trede,
      MD     (Bremen),     Barbara     Weis-Muller,     MD (Monchengladbach),  
      Heiner   Wenk   (Bremen),   Thomas  Zeller, MD (Bad Krozingen), Sven Zhorzel, MD
      (Munich), and Alexander Zimmermann, MD (Munich).

PMID- 28578626
TI  - The Pathologist 2.0: An Update on Digital Pathology in Veterinary Medicine.
AB  - Using light microscopy to describe the microarchitecture of normal and diseased
      tissues has changed very little since the middle of the 19th century. While the
      premise of histologic analysis remains intact, our relationship with the
      microscope is changing dramatically. Digital pathology offers new forms of
      visualization, and delivery of images is facilitated in unprecedented ways. This
      new technology can untether us entirely from our light microscopes, with many
      pathologists already performing their jobs using virtual microscopy. Several
      veterinary colleges have integrated virtual microscopy in their curriculum, and
      some diagnostic histopathology labs are switching to virtual microscopy as their
      main tool for the assessment of histologic specimens. Considering recent
      technical advancements of slide scanner and viewing software, digital pathology
      should now be considered a serious alternative to traditional light microscopy.
      This review therefore intends to give an overview of the current digital
      pathology technologies and their potential in all fields of veterinary pathology
      (ie, research, diagnostic service, and education). A future integration of
      digital pathology in the veterinary pathologist's workflow seems to be
      inevitable, and therefore it is proposed that trainees should be taught in
      digital pathology to keep up with the unavoidable digitization of the profession.

PMID- 28578625
TI  - Glomerular Lipidosis in Dogs.
AB  - Glomerular lipidosis (GL) is characterized by dilated glomerular capillary loops
      containing lipid-laden cells (foam cells). Previously, GL was considered to be an
      incidental finding because affected dogs were typically not azotemic. However,
      the International Renal Interest Society staging system for canine chronic kidney
      disease has increased the awareness of other clinical parameters (eg, proteinuria
      and hypertension) that should be included in the assessment of renal function. As
      such, the aim of this study was to determine clinical abnormalities and
      concurrent renal lesions in dogs with GL. GL was identified in renal biopsies
      from 46 dogs evaluated by the International Veterinary Renal Pathology Service.
      GL was the sole diagnosis in 5 of 46 cases (11%), all of which were proteinuric.
      All 5 dogs had at least 1 additional clinicopathologic abnormality consistent
      with renal disease, including hypertension (4), azotemia (3), and/or
      hypoalbuminemia (2). The remaining 41 dogs had GL in combination with other
      glomerular lesions, the most common being focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (16,
      35%), lesions consistent with juvenile nephropathy (8, 17%), and glomerular
      amyloidosis (5, 11%). Overall, dogs with severe GL were younger than were those
      with mild GL ( P < .001). The percentage of glomeruli affected by GL differed by
      concurrent diagnoses ( P = .034), with the highest percentage of affected
      glomeruli in dogs with GL alone or those with concurrent juvenile nephropathy.
      These findings suggest that GL should be a recognized histologic phenotype of
      glomerular injury associated with clinical renal dysfunction and/or juvenile
      nephropathies.

PMID- 28578627
TI  - Coati Bodies: Cytoplasmic Hyaline Globules in the Ganglionic Neurons of Aging
      Captive Coatis.
AB  - Intensely eosinophilic and glassy intracytoplasmic inclusions were present in the
      neurons of the peripheral autonomic ganglia, Meissner's and Auerbach's plexus,
      and spinal ganglia in 20 aged white-nosed coatis ( Nasua narica, 7-19 years old)
      and in 4 of 7 brown-nosed coatis ( Nasua nasua, 2-21 years old) from multiple
      zoological institutions. Inclusions were single to numerous, sometimes distorting
      the cell. Pheochromocytomas were present in 5 of 16 white-nosed and 2 of 6 brown
      nosed coatis, although no inclusions were present in the adrenal glands.
      Histochemically, immunohistochemically, and ultrastructurally, these inclusions
      were consistent with dense neurosecretory granules. Although similar inclusions
      have been reported sporadically in the adrenal medulla of humans and several
      other mammalian species as both incidental and pathologic findings, ganglionic
      inclusions reported herein appear to be unique and related to age in these
      species.

PMID- 28578628
TI  - Relationship Between Immunoglobulin Deposition and Early Lesions of Progressive
      Glomerulonephropathy in Young Common Marmosets.
AB  - The authors previously investigated progressive glomerulonephropathy in 2- to 11
      year-old common marmosets and characterized age-related changes of the renal
      glomeruli and development of tubulointerstitial lesions. In this study,
      immunoglobulin deposition and ultrastructural changes of the glomeruli were
      investigated in 5 young marmosets from 6 months to 3 years of age with pre-onset
      or early glomerulonephropathy. In all animals, the foot processes of podocytes
      were effaced, and IgM was deposited into the glomeruli. In glomeruli without
      glomerular basement membrane (GBM) alteration, IgM was the only immunoglobulin
      type deposited in the glomeruli. In cases with more advanced lesions of
      reticulation and thickening of GBM, IgA and IgG deposits were also observed.
      Therefore, the authors conclude that IgM may be the primary or earliest
      immunoglobulin deposited in this nephropathy, whereas IgA and IgG deposition may
      be connected to the progression of the glomerular lesions. IgM deposition and
      foot process effacement of podocytes occur early in the life of affected
      marmosets.

PMID- 28578629
TI  - Chaetomiaceae Fungi, Novel Pathogens of Equine Neurotropic Phaeohyphomycosis.
AB  - Many previously unrecognized fungi are emerging as potential pathogens. One such
      group is dematiaceous fungi of the Chaetomiaceae family (phylum Ascomycota, class
      Sordariomycetes). These fungi are rare causes of opportunistic, neurotropic
      phaeohyphomycosis in humans but are not known to cause similar infections in
      animals. The aims of this study were to investigate equine hyphal mycotic
      encephalitis, characterize key histopathologic features, and classify causative
      organisms with molecular diagnostic techniques. Seven cases were evaluated by
      histopathology. Panfungal PCR targeting the ribosomal RNA large subunit coding
      region and the noncoding internal transcribed spacer-2 region was performed on
      DNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of affected brain,
      and the resulting sequences were queried against published fungal genomes.
      Affected animals ranged from 8 to 22 years of age and presented with neurologic
      signs. Macroscopic lesions within affected brains included multifocal hemorrhage,
      focal swelling of the thalamus with red and yellow discoloration, and focal
      cerebral malacia. Major histologic findings included multifocal discrete foci of
      necrosis, neutrophilic to granulomatous inflammation, vasculitis, and
      intralesional fungal hyphae variably affecting the cerebrum, thalamus, and
      brainstem. DNA sequences in 4 cases showed > 98% homology with species within the
      Chaetomiaceae family, including Acrophialophora fusispora, Acrophialophora levis,
      and Chaetomium strumarium. Histomorphologically, Chaetomiaceae fungi were 7 to 10
      MUm wide, septate, parallel walled, and nonpigmented, with dichotomous branching
      in affected horses. This case series is the first report of equine mycotic
      encephalitis caused by members of the Chaetomiaceae family, previously reported
      as rare emerging pathogens in humans.

PMID- 28578630
TI  - Neuroaxonal Dystrophy and Cavitating Leukoencephalopathy of Chihuahua Dogs.
AB  - A novel form of neuroaxonal dystrophy is described in 3 Chihuahua pups, 2 of
      which were from the same litter. It was characterized not only by accumulation of
      numerous and widely distributed axonal swellings (spheroids) but also by a severe
      cavitating leukoencephalopathy. The dogs presented with progressive neurological
      signs, including gait abnormalities and postural reaction deficits. Magnetic
      resonance images and gross examination at necropsy revealed dilation of lateral
      ventricles and cerebral atrophy, accompanied by cavitation of the subcortical
      white matter. Histopathologically, severe axonal degeneration with formation of
      large spheroids was found in the cerebral and cerebellar white matter, thalamus,
      and brainstem nuclei. Small-caliber spheroids were observed in the cerebral and
      cerebellar gray matter. The telencephalic white matter had severe myelin loss and
      cavitation with relative sparing of the U-fibers. Different from previously
      reported cases of canine neuroaxonal dystrophy, in these Chihuahuas the spheroid
      distribution predominantly involved the white matter with secondary severe
      leukoencephalopathy.

PMID- 28578631
TI  - Surfactant Protein A and Napsin A in the Immunohistochemical Characterization of
      Canine Pulmonary Carcinomas: Comparison With Thyroid Transcription Factor-1.
AB  - Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) is a specific and sensitive marker for
      canine pulmonary tumors but is also expressed in thyroid carcinomas, which
      commonly metastasize to lung. Napsin A and surfactant protein A (SP-A) are used
      in the histologic diagnosis of non-small-cell lung cancer in humans but have not
      been thoroughly evaluated in neoplasms of dogs. The objective of this study was
      to compare the efficacy of immunohistochemistry for SP-A, napsin A, and TTF-1 in
      the diagnosis of canine pulmonary carcinomas. TTF-1, napsin A, and SP-A
      antibodies were applied to 67 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded canine pulmonary
      tumors. Although each marker had good sensitivity, only 3% (2/67) of lung tumors
      were negative for SP-A compared with 7% (5/67) and 9% (6/67) for napsin A and TTF
      1, respectively. Each antigen was detected in a greater percentage of cells of
      tumors with acinar or papillary patterns compared with those with squamous
      differentiation. SP-A immunoreactivity was absent in all 113 nonpulmonary tumors
      tested. Of 108 normal tissues, SP-A was detected only in lung and in 1 of 6
      adrenal, 1 of 3 endometrial, and 1 of 4 hepatic sections. Based on these
      findings, SP-A and napsin A are useful markers of canine lung epithelial
      neoplasia. Of these, SP-A is the most sensitive and specific (a possible pitfall
      is the need to distinguish entrapped normal pulmonary epithelial cells or
      alveolar macrophages from neoplastic cells) and can be used in combination with
      TTF-1 or napsin A to improve detection and differentiation of pulmonary
      carcinomas from metastatic tumors in the canine lung.

PMID- 28578632
TI  - The Impact of Social Support on Self-care of Patients With Diabetes: What Is the
      Effect of Diabetes Type? Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Purpose This meta-analysis examined relationships between social support and self
      care in type 1 (T1DM) and 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods We searched for
      published and unpublished studies using the following databases: PubMed, Embase,
      PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and Medline. MeSH search terms included "diabetes
      mellitus," "social support," "caregiver," "self-care," "self-management," "self
      care skills," and "coping behavior." Studies reporting correlations between
      social support and self-care were included. Results Initially, 2 095 studies were
      extracted. After eliminating duplicate and irrelevant studies, 28 studies
      involving 5 242 patients with diabetes were included. Of these, 22 studies
      examined T2DM subjects. Social support was significantly associated with self
      care ( k = 28, r = .28, 95% CI: .21-.34, P < .001). Among the diabetes self-care
      types, the strongest effect was found for glucose monitoring ( k = 6, r = .21,
      95% CI: .08-.33). The relationship between social support and self-care was
      stronger in T2DM ( k = 22, r = .30, 95% CI: .22-.37), relative to T1DM, samples (
      k = 5, r = .22, 95% CI: .02-.38). Conclusion It was concluded that the overall
      effect size for social support on self-care was moderate, and its strength
      differed by ethnic majority within the sample, type of social support measures,
      and publication status.

PMID- 28578633
TI  - Early pulmonary compliance increase during cardiac surgery predicted post
      operative lung dysfunction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Lung dysfunction following cardiac surgery is currently viewed as
      the consequence of atelectasis and lung injury. While the mechanism of
      atelectasis has been largely detailed, the pathogenesis of lung injury after
      cardiopulmonary bypass is still unclear. Based upon clinical and experimental
      studies, we hypothesized that lungs could be injured through a mechanical
      phenomenon. METHODS: We recorded pulmonary compliance at six key moments of a
      heart operation in 62 adult patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. We
      focused on the period lasting from anesthetic induction to aorta unclamping. We
      calculated the variation of static and dynamic pulmonary compliance caused by
      thorax opening; DeltaCstat1 and DeltaCdyn1 and that caused by cardiopulmonary
      bypass, DeltaCstat2 and DeltaCdyn2. Blood gases were performed under standardized
      ventilation after anesthetic induction and after surgical closure. The PaO2/FiO2
      ratio was calculated. ?PaO2/FiO2 was the criterion for lung dysfunction. We
      compared DeltaCstat1 and DeltaCdyn1 with both ?PaO2/FiO2 and, respectively,
      DeltaCstat2 and DeltaCdyn2. RESULTS: Static and dynamic compliance increased with
      the opening of the thorax and decreased with the start of cardiopulmonary bypass.
      The PaO2/FiO2 ratio diminished after surgery. DeltaCstat1 and DeltaCdyn1 were
      negatively correlated with both ?PaO2/FiO2 (r=-0.42; p<0.001 and r=-0.44;
      p<0.001) and, respectively, with DeltaCstat2 and DeltaCdyn2 (r=-0.59; p<0.001 and
      r=-0.53; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Increased pulmonary compliance induced by the
      opening of the thorax is correlated with worsened intrapulmonary shunt after
      cardiopulmonary bypass. A mechanical phenomenon could be partly responsible for
      post-operative hypoxemia.

PMID- 28578634
TI  - Determinants of attending antenatal care at least four times in rural Ghana:
      analysis of a cross-sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improving maternal health is a global challenge. In Ghana, maternal
      morbidity and mortality rates remain high, particularly in rural areas. Antenatal
      care (ANC) attendance is known to improve maternal health. However, few studies
      have updated current knowledge regarding determinants of ANC attendance.
      OBJECTIVE: This study examined factors associated with ANC attendance in
      predominantly rural Ghana. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study at three
      sites (i.e. Navrongo, Kintampo, and Dodowa) in Ghana between August and September
      2013. We selected 1500 women who had delivered within the two years preceding the
      survey (500 from each site) using two-stage random sampling. Data concerning 1497
      women's sociodemographic characteristics and antenatal care attendance were
      collected and analyzed, and factors associated with attending ANC at least four
      times were identified using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 1497
      participants, 86% reported attending ANC at least four times, which was
      positively associated with possession of national health insurance (AOR 1.64, 95%
      CI: 1.14-2.38) and having a partner with a high educational level (AOR 1.64, 95%
      CI: 1.02-2.64) and negatively associated with being single (AOR 0.39, 95% CI:
      0.22-0.69) and cohabiting (AOR 0.57, 95% CI: 0.34-0.97). In site-specific
      analyses, factors associated with ANC attendance included marital status in
      Navrongo; marital status, possession of national health insurance, partners'
      educational level, and wealth in Kintampo; and preferred pregnancy timing in
      Dodowa. In the youngest, least educated, and poorest women and women whose
      partners were uneducated, those with health insurance were more likely to report
      at least four ANC attendances relative to those who did not have insurance.
      CONCLUSIONS: Ghanaian women with low socioeconomic status were less likely to
      report at least four ANC attendances during pregnancy if they did not possess
      health insurance. The national health insurance scheme should include a higher
      number of deprived women in predominantly rural communities.

PMID- 28578636
TI  - Knowledge of Deaths in Hotel Rooms Diminishes Perceived Value and Elicits Guest
      Aversion.
AB  - Guest deaths are an inevitable aspect of the hospitality industry. In Study 1,
      participants read a vignette in which the previous guest died of natural causes,
      suicide, or homicide. Those who learned of a death (a) saw the room as less
      valuable, (b) opted to stay in a more basic room in which no death occurred,
      despite both rooms being offered for free, and (c) anticipated feeling uneasy
      when imagining an overnight stay. In Study 2, we investigated the persistence of
      this bias. Perceived room value and anticipatory well-being can be expected to
      return to baseline levels only many years after the death event. Similar to
      "stigmatized properties" in real estate, these data confirm an irrational and
      recalcitrant cognitive bias surrounding consumers' views of death-affected hotel
      rooms.

PMID- 28578635
TI  - Maternal Hypertension and Mortality in Small for Gestational Age 22- to 29-Week
      Infants.
AB  - Infants born before 30 weeks gestational age (GA) to mothers with hypertension
      (HTN) experience lower rates of mortality and serious morbidities when corrected
      for maternal and infant characteristics. Growth restriction and maternal HTN are
      often associated. We sought to determine if small for gestational age (SGA)
      infants have similarly decreased mortality risk when born to mothers with HTN. We
      identified 6897 singleton SGA, 22 + 0 to 29 + 6 weeks GA infants born between
      2008 and 2011, cared for at 578 North American centers in the Vermont Oxford
      Network. Chromosomal abnormalities and birth defects were excluded. Mortality
      rates prior to discharge were compared between 4317 HTN and 2580 comparison
      infants. Logistic regression was used to adjust for birth weight, infant sex,
      maternal race, inborn/outborn, antenatal steroid exposure, prenatal care, and GA.
      Small for gestational age HTN infants were older (mean: 26.9 [1.9] vs 26.6 [2.2]
      weeks; P < .001) and larger (HTN = 584 [159] g vs 562 [156] g; P < .001) than
      comparison infants. Death prior to discharge occurred in 29% of HTN and 43% of
      comparison infants. Univariate analyses revealed lower mortality for HTN infants
      (odds ratio [OR] = 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48-0.60). After
      adjustment, mortality remained lower when compared to non-HTN infants (OR = 0.60,
      95% CI: 0.52-0.69). Extremely preterm SGA infants face high rates of mortality.
      Although maternal HTN is associated with SGA, SGA infants born to mothers with
      HTN have decreased risk of mortality compared to non-HTN SGA infants, prior to
      and after adjustment for antenatal and maternal characteristics. This may reflect
      detrimental physiologic effects associated with alternative mechanisms for fetal
      growth restriction and is important for parental counseling.

PMID- 28578637
TI  - Parental Grief After Offspring Suicide and Adaptation to the Loss in Japan.
AB  - Several reports have indicated that grief and mental health outcomes of people
      bereaved by suicide vary by their relationship to the deceased. Parents who have
      lost offspring experience higher levels of distress than those with other
      relationships to the deceased. However, there are limited studies investigating
      the experience of parental bereavement by suicide, and further research is
      needed. The present study aimed to clarify the differences in grief reactions
      between bereaved parents and those with other relationships to the deceased in
      Japan and explore a statistical model of adaptation to the loss. In total, 105
      bereaved participants completed a questionnaire covering grief reaction, meaning
      reconstruction, mental health, social context, and demographic variables. Parents
      scored higher on several grief reaction items and lower in sense-making than
      those with other relationships. In addition, path analysis showed that sense
      making acted as a moderator in the experience of loss of offspring and grief
      reaction.

PMID- 28578638
TI  - Temporal processing deficit leads to impaired multisensory binding in
      schizophrenia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia has been characterised by neurodevelopmental
      dysconnectivity resulting in cognitive and perceptual dysmetria. Hence patients
      with schizophrenia may be impaired to detect the temporal relationship between
      stimuli in different sensory modalities. However, only a few studies described
      deficit in perception of temporally asynchronous multisensory stimuli in
      schizophrenia. METHODS: We examined the perceptual bias and the processing time
      of synchronous and delayed sounds in the streaming-bouncing illusion in 16
      patients with schizophrenia and a matched control group of 18 participants.
      RESULTS: Equal for patients and controls, the synchronous sound biased the
      percept of two moving squares towards bouncing as opposed to the more frequent
      streaming percept in the condition without sound. In healthy controls, a delay of
      the sound presentation significantly reduced the bias and led to prolonged
      processing time whereas patients with schizophrenia did not differentiate between
      this condition and the condition with synchronous sound. CONCLUSION:
      Schizophrenia leads to a prolonged window of simultaneity for audiovisual
      stimuli. Therefore, temporal processing deficit in schizophrenia can lead to
      hyperintegration of temporally unmatched multisensory stimuli.

PMID- 28578640
TI  - Inorganic and metal nanoparticles and their antimicrobial activity in food
      packaging applications.
AB  - Nanotechnology has revolutionized almost all the fields of science and
      technology, particularly the food packaging industry. Accordingly, some
      nanoparticles can be used in food contact materials to preserve food products for
      longer periods. To date, many inorganic and metal nanoparticles have been
      implemented to synthesize active food packaging materials and to extend the shelf
      life of foods. Packaging with nanocomposites containing these nanoparticles
      offers advantages, such as reduction in the usage of preservatives and higher
      rate of reactions to inhibit the microbial growth. Nevertheless, the safety
      issues of employing the metal and inorganic nanoparticles in food packaging are
      still a major concern and more studies along with clinical trials need to be
      carried out prior to the mass production of these promising food containers. In
      this review, we have evaluated recent studies plus the applications of inorganic
      and metal nanoparticles mostly in food packaging applications along with their
      antimicrobial properties and reaction mechanisms. Many examples have been
      provided with the aim of opening new horizons for researchers to implement
      inorganic and metal nanoparticles in active food packaging field.

PMID- 28578642
TI  - Studies on Solubility Enhancement of Poorly Soluble NSAID Using Dual Approach of
      Micro-environmental pH Modulation and Melt Granulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present work describes the role of melt granulation and
      microenviron-mental pH modulation technique in solubility enhancement of a poorly
      water soluble NSAID, Aceclofenac (ACL). ACL is a BCS Class II drug showing
      dissolution rate limited absorption and pH dependent solubility, with higher
      solubility at alkaline pH. The limited solubility of ACL affects drug absorption
      and hence, therapeutic effect as the drug is indicated in conditions of pain
      where rapid onset of action is desired. METHODS: Solubility enhancement of ACL
      was carried out by melt granulation technique using Gelucire 50/13 as molten
      carrier. The solubility of ACL was improved further by incorporating sodium
      hydrogen carbonate as pH modifier. The granules of ACL thus developed, were
      compressed into tablets using adsorbing carriers and other tableting excipients.
      RESULTS: This dual approach not only enhanced ACL solubility but also aided in
      achieving a pH independent release. The developed tablets exhibited pH
      independent release as well as enhanced rate of dissolution which is indicated by
      in vitro dissolution studies and ex-vivo intestinal permeation studies. The pH
      independent release would ensure absorption of drug throughout the
      gastrointestinal tract. The solubility enhancement of ACL was further confirmed
      by characterization studies such as DSC and XRD. CONCLUSION: Thus, the dual
      approach of melt granulation and micro-environmental pH modulation can be simple
      and scalable method for solubility enhancement of poorly soluble drugs showing pH
      dependent dissolution rate limited absorption.

PMID- 28578641
TI  - Emollient Acceptability in Childhood Atopic Dermatitis: Not All Emollients are
      Equal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eczema or Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic relapsing skin
      disease associated with impaired quality of life. Regular usage of
      moisturizer/emollient is the mainstay of management but acceptability of
      emollient is often suboptimal. We investigated if emollient acceptability is
      influenced by various clinical factors in AD. METHODS: A survey on frequency of
      emollient usage, brands, clinical factors including disease severity (Nottingham
      Eczema Severity Score, NESS), quality of life (Children Dermatology Life Quality
      Index, CDLQI), Transpidermal Water Loss (TEWL), and Skin Hydration (SH) was
      performed. Acceptability was classified as very good, good, fair or poor.
      RESULTS: We evaluated 128 AD patients. NESS correlated with CDLQI and the
      treatment domain of CDLQI. Emollient usage is elementary for AD treatment. 89.1%
      of patients reported that doctor's recommendation was the major source of advice
      when choosing an emollient. Aqueous cream (AQ) and petroleum-derived products
      were among the commonly used emollients. More aqueous cream users reported
      fair/poor acceptability (p=0.017) and lower SH (p<0.05). Linear regression showed
      that patients who thought their emollient as fair or poor were currently using AQ
      (p=0.003), their emollient not recommended by a doctor (p=0.035), with more
      severe disease (p=0.04), and had lower emollient usage in winter (p=0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Physicians play a pivotal role in assisting patients to select an
      emollient that they will accept and use consistently. The studied emollients are
      generally acceptable by over 80% patients. However, aqueous cream is least
      acceptable by patients, making it the least favorable emollient to recommend to
      patients.

PMID- 28578643
TI  - Glioblastoma Targeted Gene Therapy Based on pEGFP/p53-Loaded Superparamagnetic
      Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Blood-brain barrier (BBB) separates the neural tissue from
      circulating blood because of its high selectivity. This study focused on the in
      vitro application of magnetic nanoparticles to deliver Tp53 as a gene of interest
      to glioblastoma (U87) cells across a simulated BBB model that comprised KB cells.
      MATERIAL AND METHOD: After magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles were
      internalized by KB cells, their location in these cells was examined by
      transmission electron microscopy. Transfection efficiency of DNA to U87 cells was
      evaluated by fluorescence microscopy, real time PCR, flowcytometry, and Western
      immuno-blotting. When a magnetic field was applied, a large number of magnetic
      nanoparticles accumulated in KB cells, appearing as black dots scattered in the
      cytoplasm of cells. Fluorescence microscope examination showed that transfection
      of the DNA to U87 target cells was highest in cells treated with magnetic
      nanoparticles and exposed to a magnetic field. Also it was reflected in
      significantly increased mRNA level while the p53 protein level was decreased.
      CONCLUSION: It could be concluded that a significant increase in total apoptosis
      was induced in cells by magnetic nanoparticles, coupled with exposure to a
      magnetic force (p <=0.01) as compared with cells that were not exposed to
      magnetism.

PMID- 28578639
TI  - Abiraterone for Prostate Cancer Not Previously Treated with Hormone Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone improves survival in men with
      relapsed prostate cancer. We assessed the effect of this combination in men
      starting long-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), using a multigroup,
      multistage trial design. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients in a 1:1 ratio to
      receive ADT alone or ADT plus abiraterone acetate (1000 mg daily) and
      prednisolone (5 mg daily) (combination therapy). Local radiotherapy was mandated
      for patients with node-negative, nonmetastatic disease and encouraged for those
      with positive nodes. For patients with nonmetastatic disease with no radiotherapy
      planned and for patients with metastatic disease, treatment continued until
      radiologic, clinical, or prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression; otherwise,
      treatment was to continue for 2 years or until any type of progression, whichever
      came first. The primary outcome measure was overall survival. The intermediate
      primary outcome was failure-free survival (treatment failure was defined as
      radiologic, clinical, or PSA progression or death from prostate cancer). RESULTS:
      A total of 1917 patients underwent randomization from November 2011 through
      January 2014. The median age was 67 years, and the median PSA level was 53 ng per
      milliliter. A total of 52% of the patients had metastatic disease, 20% had node
      positive or node-indeterminate nonmetastatic disease, and 28% had node-negative,
      nonmetastatic disease; 95% had newly diagnosed disease. The median follow-up was
      40 months. There were 184 deaths in the combination group as compared with 262 in
      the ADT-alone group (hazard ratio, 0.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52 to
      0.76; P<0.001); the hazard ratio was 0.75 in patients with nonmetastatic disease
      and 0.61 in those with metastatic disease. There were 248 treatment-failure
      events in the combination group as compared with 535 in the ADT-alone group
      (hazard ratio, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.34; P<0.001); the hazard ratio was 0.21 in
      patients with nonmetastatic disease and 0.31 in those with metastatic disease.
      Grade 3 to 5 adverse events occurred in 47% of the patients in the combination
      group (with nine grade 5 events) and in 33% of the patients in the ADT-alone
      group (with three grade 5 events). CONCLUSIONS: Among men with locally advanced
      or metastatic prostate cancer, ADT plus abiraterone and prednisolone was
      associated with significantly higher rates of overall and failure-free survival
      than ADT alone. (Funded by Cancer Research U.K. and others; STAMPEDE
      ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00268476 , and Current Controlled Trials number,
      ISRCTN78818544 .).

PMID- 28578644
TI  - MicroRNA Regulation in Osteogenic and Adipogenic Differentiation of Bone
      Mesenchymal Stem Cells and its Application in Bone Regeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are multipotent stromal cells
      providing a useful cell source for treating bone diseases and metabolic
      disorders. BMSCs fate determination and lineage progression are controlled by
      multiple cytokines, transcriptional factors, signaling pathways, and microRNAs
      (miRNAs). MiRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that inhibit the posttranscriptional
      gene expression or degrade their targets. They are closely involved in
      controlling the key steps of osteogenesis and adipogenesis of BMSCs. OBJECTIVE:
      We aim to summarize the roles of miRNAs and their pathways in regulating
      osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of BMSCs, and sketch its preliminary
      applications in bone regeneration. METHOD: We reviewed the published literature
      about the microRNA regulation in osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of
      BMSCs. RESULTS: Most of miRNAs are expressed in BMSCs, perform as negative
      regulators of osteogenesis and have bidirectional effects on adipogenesis. Runx2
      and PPARgamma are two key transcriptional factors in osteogenesis and
      adipogenesis, respectively. CONCLUSION: Anti-miRNAs or miRNA mimics is potential
      therapeutic strategy to repress pathological miRNAs for cellular therapies to
      bone diseases. The preliminary applications of miRNAs in BMSCs strongly suggested
      their bright future in bone regeneration.

PMID- 28578645
TI  - The Anti-Migraine Effects of M2000 (beta-D-Mannuronic Acid) on a Patient with
      Rheumatoid Arthritis: Case Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and migraine are both common disorders
      which are caused by a faulty immune system and autonomic nervous system
      dysfunction, respectively. Although current treatment outlook has shown a great
      improvement in these two diseases, however many side effects have been reported.
      CASE REPORT: We reported a case of 43-years-female that has suffered from
      rheumatoid arthritis for 3 years with a 6 years history of migraine. She had used
      different types of medication for both rheumatoid arthritis and migraine but
      during these 6 years no improvement had been observed and even migraine
      progression in this patient became worse. She was admitted to the hospital for 12
      weeks follow-up to evaluate the effect of beta-D-mannuronic acid (M2000) on her
      RA disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During 12 weeks of M2000 therapy, the signs
      and symptoms of migraine along with RA indices including Disease Activity Score
      (DAS28), simple disease activity index (SDAI) and C-reactive protein (CRP),
      erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic
      citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) and blood determinants were measured.
      RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The patient achieved a strong clinical improvement after
      12 weeks of M2000 therapy in DAS28, SDAI and laboratory parameters. Moreover,
      M2000 showed a significant effect on the severity and the duration of migraine
      pain as well as times of migraine attack. In the present case, both rheumatoid
      arthritis and migraine as two different inflammatory diseases were diagnosed.
      Therefore, reducing the inflammation could be a valuable target to decrease the
      signs and symptoms of migraine and rheumatoid arthritis and help to the treatment
      process. CONCLUSION: M2000 as a novel designed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
      drug (NSAID) with immunosuppressive property is able to treat migraine in
      addition to its potent efficacy on treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28578646
TI  - Clonidine, but not Dexamethasone, Prolongs Ropivacaine-Induced Supraclavicular
      Brachial Plexus Nerve Block Duration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block (USSB)
      provides excellent postoperative analgesia after upper extremity surgery.
      Dexamethasone and clonidine have been added to local anesthetics to enhance and
      prolong the duration of analgesia. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this randomized
      prospective study is to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone, clonidine, or
      combination of both as adjuvants to ropivacaine on the duration of USSB for
      postoperative analgesia. METHODS: Patients receiving USSB for postoperative pain
      control for upper extremity surgery were randomized to one of four groups;
      ropivacaine 0.5%, ropivacaine 0.5% with 4 mg dexamethasone, ropivacaine 0.5% with
      100 mcg clonidine , or ropivacaine 0.5% with 4 mg dexamethasone and 100 mcg
      clonidine. Pain scores, sensory and motor function were evaluated at post
      anesthesia care unit (PACU), discharge and at 24 h postoperatively. RESULTS: The
      duration of sensory and motor blocks was significantly longer in clonidine groups
      when compared to ropivacaine alone [Sensorial analgesia: ropivacaine alone 13.4+/
      6, Ropivacaine- Clonidine 17.4+/-6; Ropivacaine-Dexamethasone-Clonidine 18.8+/
      6.2; Motor blocks: Ropivacaine 12+/-5, Ropivacaine-Clonidine 16.8+/-5.2,
      Ropivacaine-Dexamethasone-Clonidine 18.2+/-5.7]. In clonidine groups, there was
      significant prolongation of motor and sensory block when compared to ropivacaine
      group alone. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that clonidine significantly
      prolongs the duration of ropivacaine effects for the postoperative analgesia in
      patient underwent upper arm surgeries.

PMID- 28578647
TI  - Iodine Prophylaxis in the Case of Nuclear Accident.
AB  - BACKGROUND: On 26th April, 1986 the greatest accident of nuclear plant in
      Czernobyl occured and isotopes with high percentage of release were erupted: 33
      Xe, 131-I, 132-Te, 134-Cs and 137-Cs. The radioactivity of the isotopes was very
      high - for instance: 33-Xe 6500 PBq, 131-I 1760 PBq. Rest of the 15 isotopes
      represented similar radioactivity with shorter percentage of release. The most
      exposed group of people were 237 liquidators, and 11600 people living around had
      to be evacuated when the limit dose for a person (5mSv) was crossed. Ionizing
      radiation on the molecular level produces high energy radicals, water radiolysis
      and ionization of the atoms leading to damage of the enzymes activity centers and
      receptors, cell membranes DNA, intracellular lysosomes, and especially important
      for ATP synthesis - mitochondria. These destructions lead to tissue and organs
      damage. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is the presentation of the protective
      property of iodine application in the case of nuclear accident. METHODS: In
      Poland at that time, effective iodine prophylaxis did not exist. In the face of
      such exposition, a special Governement Commission was appointed. When
      permissioned maximal dose for children and adolescents 50mSv appeared in some
      areas of the country, the Commission made a decision about obligatory
      administration of a single pharmacological dose of potassium iodide for all
      children and adolescents till age 16. No relevant recent patents were available
      for this WHO report. RESULTS: In this way, the dose of 131-I to thyroid for
      inhabitants in high, moderated, and low contaminated regions were reduced by
      about 45%. However, from 1987 to 1997 increase in prevalence of the
      differentiated thyroid cancer in adults in Polish population especially in women
      over 40 years old in the southern part of Poland was observed. CONCLUSION:
      Actually in European countries work 185 nuclear power plants and to 2045 another
      100 is planned. In 1999, WHO issued recommendations on iodine prophylaxis in the
      case of nuclear accident.

PMID- 28578648
TI  - Synthetic Peptide Drugs for Targeting Skin Cancer: Malignant Melanoma and
      Melanotic Lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peptides play decisive roles in the skin, ranging from host defense
      responses to various forms of neuroendocrine regulation of cell and organelle
      function. Synthetic peptides conjugated to radionuclides or photosensitizers may
      serve to identify and treat skin tumors and their metastatic forms in other
      organs of the body. In the introductory part of this review, the role and
      interplay of the different peptides in the skin are briefly summarized, including
      their potential application for the management of frequently occurring skin
      cancers. Special emphasis is given to different targeting options for the
      treatment of melanoma and melanotic lesions. Radionuclide Targeting: alpha
      Melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) is the most prominent peptide for
      targeting of melanoma tumors via the G protein-coupled melanocortin-1 receptor
      that is (over-)expressed by melanoma cells and melanocytes. More than 100
      different linear and cyclic analogs of alpha-MSH containing chelators for 111In,
      67/68Ga, 64Cu, 90Y, 212Pb, 99mTc, 188Re were synthesized and examined with
      experimental animals and in a few clinical studies. Linear Ac-Nle-Asp-His-D-Phe
      Arg-Trp-Gly-Lys-NH2 (NAP-amide) and Re-cyclized Cys- Cys-Glu-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp
      Cys-Arg-Pro-Val-NH2 (Re[Arg11]CCMSH) containing different chelators at the N- or
      C-terminus served as lead compounds for peptide drugs with further optimized
      characteristics. Alternatively, melanoma may be targeted with radiopeptides that
      bind to melanin granules occurring extracellularly in these tumors.
      Photosensitizer targeting: A more recent approach is the application of
      photosensitizers attached to the MSH molecule for targeted photodynamic therapy
      using LED or coherent laser light that specifically activates the
      photosensitizer. Experimental studies have demonstrated the feasibility of this
      approach as a more gentle and convenient alternative compared to radionuclides.

PMID- 28578649
TI  - Peptides Against Autoimmune Neurodegeneration.
AB  - The mammalian immune system is a nearly perfect defensive system polished by a
      hundred million years of evolution. Unique flexibility and adaptivity have
      created a virtually impenetrable barrier to numerous exogenous pathogens that are
      assaulting us every moment. Unfortunately, triggers that remain mostly enigmatic
      will sometimes persuade the immune system to retarget against self-antigens. This
      civil war remains underway, showing no mercy and taking no captives, eventually
      leading to irreversible pathological changes in the human body. Research that has
      emerged during the last two decades has given us hope that we may have a chance
      to overcome autoimmune diseases using a variety of techniques to "reset" the
      immune system. In this report, we summarize recent advances in utilizing short
      polypeptides - mostly fragments of autoantigens - in the treatment of autoimmune
      neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28578650
TI  - Snake Venom: From Deadly Toxins to Life-saving Therapeutics.
AB  - Snakes are fascinating creatures and have been residents of this planet well
      before ancient humans dwelled the earth. Venomous snakes have been a figure of
      fear, and cause notable mortality throughout the world. The venom constitutes
      families of proteins and peptides with various isoforms that make it a cocktail
      of diverse molecules. These biomolecules are responsible for the disturbance in
      fundamental physiological systems of the envenomed victim, leading to morbidity
      which can lead to death if left untreated. Researchers have turned these life
      threatening toxins into life-saving therapeutics via technological advancements.
      Since the development of captopril, the first drug that was derived from
      bradykininpotentiating peptide of Bothrops jararaca, to the disintegrins that
      have potent activity against certain types of cancers, snake venom components
      have shown great potential for the development of lead compounds for new drugs.
      There is a continuous development of new drugs from snake venom for coagulopathy
      and hemostasis to anti-cancer agents. In this review, we have focused on
      different snake venom proteins / peptides derived drugs that are in clinical use
      or in developmental stages till to date. Also, some commonly used snake venom
      derived diagnostic tools along with the recent updates in this exciting field are
      discussed.

PMID- 28578651
TI  - Immunomodulatory Effect of G2013 (alpha-L-Guluronic Acid) on the TLR2 and TLR4 in
      Human Mononuclear Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhibition of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) signaling has been
      established as a new method for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs
      instead of NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs). Since the
      immunomodulatory role of G2013 (alpha-L-Guluronic acid) was reported in some
      recent experiments, we decided to assess the effects of G2013 on the protein
      expression of TLR2 and TLR4, their downstream signaling cascade, and the
      secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in human peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (PBMCs). METHODS: After blood sampling from 16 healthy donors, PBMCs were
      isolated and treated with/without lipopolysaccharide (LPS), lipopolyteichoic acid
      (LTA), and G2013. Flow cytometry was done for detecting the protein expression of
      TLR2 and TLR4. MyD88, IkappaB, Tollip, and NF-kappaB mRNA expression were
      assessed by realtime PCR. ELISA was performed for assessing the concentration of
      IL-1beta and IL-6. RESULTS: G2013 at a concentration of 25 ug/mL (high dose)
      significantly downregulated NF-kappaB, IkappaB and MyD88 mRNA expression and
      suppressed the secretion of IL-1beta by PBMCs. The findings indicate that G2013
      may exert its regulatory effect under normal condition via Tollip in a dose
      dependence pathway. Our results demonstrated that G2013 had no profound impact on
      the protein expression of TLR2 and TLR4. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our findings
      point to the immunomodulatory effect of G2013 on the TLR2 and TLR4 signaling
      cascade and cytokine production by PBMCs. These findings could lead to an
      establishment of new safe anti-inflammatory drugs in the future.

PMID- 28578653
TI  - Chemotherapy-induced Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several chemotherapy molecules, monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors, have been linked to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC). CASE
      PRESENTATION: In this article, we describe the case of a 45-year-old woman who
      developed TC after receiving an intra-arterial and intra-venous polychemotherapy
      for locally advanced epidermoid carcinoma of the anal canal. This is the first
      described case of TC associated with intra-arterial chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: A
      review of the literature points to 5-fluorouracil as the most common molecule
      associated with TC and highlights the potential risk associated with
      rechallenging patient with the same drug.

PMID- 28578652
TI  - ICORG 10-14: NEOadjuvant trial in Adenocarcinoma of the oEsophagus and
      oesophagoGastric junction International Study (Neo-AEGIS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant therapy is increasingly the standard of care in the
      management of locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus and junction
      (AEG). In randomised controlled trials (RCTs), the MAGIC regimen of pre- and
      postoperative chemotherapy, and the CROSS regimen of preoperative chemotherapy
      combined with radiation, were superior to surgery only in RCTs that included AEG
      but were not powered on this cohort. No completed RCT has directly compared
      neoadjuvant or perioperative chemotherapy and neoadjuvant chemoradiation. The Neo
      AEGIS trial, uniquely powered on AEG, and including comprehensive modern staging,
      compares both these regimens. METHODS: This open label, multicentre, phase III
      RCT randomises patients (cT2-3, N0-3, M0) in a 1:1 fashion to receive CROSS
      protocol (Carboplatin and Paclitaxel with concurrent radiotherapy, 41.4Gy/23Fr,
      over 5 weeks). The power calculation is a 10% difference in favour of CROSS,
      powered at 80%, two-sided alpha level of 0.05, requiring 540 patients to be
      evaluable, 594 to be recruited if a 10% dropout is included (297 in each group).
      The primary endpoint is overall survival, with a minimum 3-year follow up.
      Secondary endpoints include: disease free survival, recurrence rates, clinical
      and pathological response rates, toxicities of induction regimens, post-operative
      pathology and tumour regression grade, operative in-hospital complications, and
      health-related quality of life. The trial also affords opportunities for
      establishing a bio-resource of pre-treatment and resected tumour, and
      translational research. DISCUSSION: This RCT directly compares two established
      treatment regimens, and addresses whether radiation therapy positively impacts on
      overall survival compared with a standard perioperative chemotherapy regimen
      Sponsor: Irish Clinical Research Group (ICORG). TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01726452 .
      Protocol 10-14. Date of registration 06/11/2012.

PMID- 28578654
TI  - Progressive resistance training in head and neck cancer patients during
      concomitant chemoradiotherapy -- design of the DAHANCA 31 randomized trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Head and neck cancer patients undergoing concomitant
      chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) frequently experience loss of muscle mass and reduced
      functional performance. Positive effects of exercise training are reported for
      many cancer types but biological mechanisms need further elucidation. This
      randomized study investigates whether progressive resistance training (PRT) may
      attenuate loss of muscle mass and functional performance. Furthermore,
      biochemical markers and muscle biopsies will be investigated trying to link
      biological mechanisms to training effects. METHODS: At the Departments of
      Oncology at Herlev and Aarhus University Hospitals, patients with stage III/IV
      squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, scheduled for CCRT are randomized
      1:1 to either a 12-week PRT program or control group, both with 1 year follow-up.
      Planned enrollment is 72 patients, and stratification variables are study site,
      sex, p16-status, and body mass index. Primary endpoint is difference in change in
      lean body mass (LBM) after 12 weeks of PRT, assessed by dual-energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DXA). The hypothesis is that 12 weeks of PRT can attenuate the
      loss of LBM by at least 25%. Secondary endpoints include training adherence,
      changes in body composition, muscle strength, functional performance, weight,
      adverse events, dietary intake, self-reported physical activity, quality of life,
      labor market affiliation, blood biochemistry, plasma cytokine concentrations, NK
      cell frequency in blood, sarcomeric protein content in muscles, as well as muscle
      fiber type and fiber size in muscle biopsies. Muscle biopsies are optional.
      DISCUSSION: This randomized study investigates the impact of a 12-week
      progressive resistance training program on lean body mass and several other
      physiological endpoints, as well as impact on adverse events and quality of life.
      Furthermore, a translational approach is integrated with extensive biological
      sampling and exploration into cytokines and mechanisms involved. The current
      paper discusses decisions and methods behind exercise in head and neck cancer
      patients undergoing concomitant chemoradiotherapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Approved
      by the Regional Ethics Committee for the Capital Region of Denmark (protocol id:
      H-15003725) and registered retrospectively at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT02557529 )
      September 11th 2015.

PMID- 28578655
TI  - Potential mechanisms of resistance to venetoclax and strategies to circumvent it.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Venetoclax (ABT-199), a first-in-class orally bioavailable BCL-2
      selective inhibitor, was recently approved by the FDA for use in patients with
      17p-deleted chronic lymphocytic leukemia who have received prior therapy. It is
      also being evaluated in numerous clinical trials for treating patients with
      various hematologic malignancies. As with any targeted cancer therapy, it is
      critically important to identify potential mechanisms of resistance, both for
      patient stratification and developing strategies to overcome resistance, either
      before it develops or as it emerges. METHODS: In order to gain a more
      comprehensive insight into the nature of venetoclax resistance mechanisms, we
      evaluated the changes in the BCL-2 family members at the genetic and expression
      levels in seven different venetoclax-resistant derived leukemia and lymphoma cell
      lines. RESULTS: Gene and protein expression analyses identified a number of
      different alterations in the expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family
      members. In the resistant derived cells, an increase in either or both the anti
      apoptotic proteins BCL-XL or MCL-1, which are not targeted by venetoclax was
      observed, and either concomitant or exclusive with a decrease in one or more pro
      apoptotic proteins. In addition, mutational analysis also revealed a mutation in
      the BH3 binding groove (F104L) that could potentially interfere with venetoclax
      binding. Not all changes may be causally related to venetoclax resistance and may
      only be an epiphenomenon. For resistant cell lines showing elevations in BCL-XL
      or MCL-1, strong synergistic cell killing was observed when venetoclax was
      combined with either BCL-XL- or MCL-1-selective inhibitors, respectively. This
      highlights the importance of BCL-XL- and MCL-1 as causally contributing to
      venetoclax resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Overall our study identified numerous changes
      in multiple resistant lines; the changes were neither mutually exclusive nor
      universal across the cell lines tested, thus exemplifying the complexity and
      heterogeneity of potential resistance mechanisms. Identifying and evaluating
      their contribution has important implications for both patient selection and the
      rational development of strategies to overcome resistance.

PMID- 28578656
TI  - Treatment patterns and real world clinical outcomes in ER+/HER2- post-menopausal
      metastatic breast cancer patients in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With several new therapies becoming available, treatment of
      metastatic breast cancer (mBC) is evolving. The objective of this study is to
      describe patient characteristics, treatment patterns and real-world clinical
      outcomes in post-menopausal women with ER+, HER2- mBC and to obtain insight into
      patient outcomes and potential unmet needs with current therapies. METHODS: The
      current study is a physician survey followed by a retrospective chart review of
      patient medical records by physicians in the US between March and April 2015. One
      hundred three physicians were asked to complete an online survey aiming to
      understand their satisfaction and expectations with current available treatments
      and potential areas of unmet need for mBC patients. Medical records from 178
      females were extracted for the chart review. Using these data from medical
      records, patient characteristics and treatment patterns were analyzed
      descriptively. Time to progression (TTP) on first line, and progression-free
      survival (PFS) on second and third line of therapy were analyzed using the Kaplan
      Meier method. RESULTS: Sixty-seven percent (n = 119) of patients had metastatic
      disease at initial diagnosis of breast cancer. Mean age at chart data extraction
      was 65.8 (SD: 9.4) years. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) were prescribed for 58% and
      around 13% of patients in first line and second line, respectively. Chemotherapy
      was prescribed to 14% in first line and 31% in second line. Median TTP on first
      line therapy was 12 months for patients receiving AIs as compared to 7.9 months
      for patients receiving chemotherapy. Across all treatment lines, bone pain and
      fatigue were reported as the main symptoms associated with disease progression
      which had an impact on patient quality of life. Physicians expressed that
      prolonging life was deemed the most important treatment goal, followed by
      preservation or improvement of quality of life. CONCLUSION: In this study the
      majority of patients received endocrine therapy as first line treatment and
      current therapies still resulted in a short time to progression in first line.
      Results from the chart review and the physician survey highlight a quantitative
      unmet need for more effective treatments which delay disease progression and
      improve survival outcomes while maintaining quality of life.

PMID- 28578658
TI  - Identification of the sequence determinants of protein N-terminal acetylation
      through a decision tree approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: N-terminal acetylation is one of the most common protein
      modifications in eukaryotes and occurs co-translationally when the N-terminus of
      the nascent polypeptide is still attached to the ribosome. This modification has
      been shown to be involved in a wide range of biological phenomena such as protein
      half-life regulation, protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions, and
      protein subcellular localization. Thus, accurately predicting which proteins
      receive an acetyl group based on their protein sequence is expected to facilitate
      the functional study of this modification. As the occurrence of N-terminal
      acetylation strongly depends on the context of protein sequences, attempts to
      understand the sequence determinants of N-terminal acetylation were conducted
      initially by simply examining the N-terminal sequences of many acetylated and
      unacetylated proteins and more recently by machine learning approaches. However,
      a complete understanding of the sequence determinants of this modification
      remains to be elucidated. RESULTS: We obtained curated N-terminally acetylated
      and unacetylated sequences from the UniProt database and employed a decision tree
      algorithm to identify the sequence determinants of N-terminal acetylation for
      proteins whose initiator methionine (iMet) residues have been removed. The
      results suggested that the main determinants of N-terminal acetylation are
      contained within the first five residues following iMet and that the first and
      second positions are the most important discriminator for the occurrence of this
      phenomenon. The results also indicated the existence of position-specific
      preferred and inhibitory residues that determine the occurrence of N-terminal
      acetylation. The developed predictor software, termed NT-AcPredictor, accurately
      predicted the N-terminal acetylation, with an overall performance comparable or
      superior to those of preceding predictors incorporating machine learning
      algorithms. CONCLUSION: Our machine learning approach based on a decision tree
      algorithm successfully provided several sequence determinants of N-terminal
      acetylation for proteins lacking iMet, some of which have not previously been
      described. Although these sequence determinants remain insufficient to
      comprehensively predict the occurrence of this modification, indicating that
      further work on this topic is still required, the developed predictor, NT
      AcPredictor, can be used to predict N-terminal acetylation with an accuracy of
      more than 80%.

PMID- 28578657
TI  - In vivo screening reveals interactions between Drosophila Manf and genes involved
      in the mitochondria and the ubiquinone synthesis pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mesencephalic Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF) and
      Cerebral Dopamine Neurotrophic Factor (CDNF) form an evolutionarily conserved
      family of neurotrophic factors. Orthologues for MANF/CDNF are the only
      neurotrophic factors as yet identified in invertebrates with conserved amino acid
      sequence. Previous studies indicate that mammalian MANF and CDNF support and
      protect brain dopaminergic system in non-cell-autonomous manner. However, MANF
      has also been shown to function intracellularly in the endoplasmic reticulum. To
      date, the knowledge on the interacting partners of MANF/CDNF and signaling
      pathways they activate is rudimentary. Here, we have employed the Drosophila
      genetics to screen for potential interaction partners of Drosophila Manf (DmManf)
      in vivo. RESULTS: We first show that DmManf plays a role in the development of
      Drosophila wing. We exploited this function by using Drosophila UAS-RNAi lines
      and discovered novel genetic interactions of DmManf with genes known to function
      in the mitochondria. We also found evidence of an interaction between DmManf and
      the Drosophila homologue encoding Ku70, the closest structural homologue of SAP
      domain of mammalian MANF. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the previously known
      functions of MANF/CDNF protein family, DmManf also interacts with mitochondria
      related genes. Our data supports the functional importance of these
      evolutionarily significant proteins and provides new insights for the future
      studies.

PMID- 28578660
TI  - Simple adjustment of the sequence weight algorithm remarkably enhances PSI-BLAST
      performance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: PSI-BLAST, an extremely popular tool for sequence similarity search,
      features the utilization of Position-Specific Scoring Matrix (PSSM) constructed
      from a multiple sequence alignment (MSA). PSSM allows the detection of more
      distant homologs than a general amino acid substitution matrix does. An accurate
      estimation of the weights for sequences in an MSA is crucially important for PSSM
      construction. PSI-BLAST divides a given MSA into multiple blocks, for which
      sequence weights are calculated. When the block width becomes very narrow, the
      sequence weight calculation can be odd. RESULTS: We demonstrate that PSI-BLAST
      indeed generates a significant fraction of blocks having width less than 5,
      thereby degrading the PSI-BLAST performance. We revised the code of PSI-BLAST to
      prevent the blocks from being narrower than a given minimum block width (MBW). We
      designate the modified application of PSI-BLAST as PSI-BLASTexB. When MBW is 25,
      PSI-BLASTexB notably outperforms PSI-BLAST consistently for three independent
      benchmark sets. The performance boost is even more drastic when an MSA, instead
      of a sequence, is used as a query. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that the
      generation of narrow-width blocks during the sequence weight calculation is a
      critically important factor that restricts the PSI-BLAST search performance. By
      preventing narrow blocks, PSI-BLASTexB upgrades the PSI-BLAST performance
      remarkably. Binaries and source codes of PSI-BLASTexB (MBW = 25) are available at
      https://github.com/kyungtaekLIM/PSI-BLASTexB .

PMID- 28578661
TI  - Parallel tiled Nussinov RNA folding loop nest generated using both dependence
      graph transitive closure and loop skewing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: RNA secondary structure prediction is a compute intensive task that
      lies at the core of several search algorithms in bioinformatics. Fortunately, the
      RNA folding approaches, such as the Nussinov base pair maximization, involve
      mathematical operations over affine control loops whose iteration space can be
      represented by the polyhedral model. Polyhedral compilation techniques have
      proven to be a powerful tool for optimization of dense array codes. However,
      classical affine loop nest transformations used with these techniques do not
      optimize effectively codes of dynamic programming of RNA structure predictions.
      RESULTS: The purpose of this paper is to present a novel approach allowing for
      generation of a parallel tiled Nussinov RNA loop nest exposing significantly
      higher performance than that of known related code. This effect is achieved due
      to improving code locality and calculation parallelization. In order to improve
      code locality, we apply our previously published technique of automatic loop nest
      tiling to all the three loops of the Nussinov loop nest. This approach first
      forms original rectangular 3D tiles and then corrects them to establish their
      validity by means of applying the transitive closure of a dependence graph. To
      produce parallel code, we apply the loop skewing technique to a tiled Nussinov
      loop nest. CONCLUSIONS: The technique is implemented as a part of the publicly
      available polyhedral source-to-source TRACO compiler. Generated code was run on
      modern Intel multi-core processors and coprocessors. We present the speed-up
      factor of generated Nussinov RNA parallel code and demonstrate that it is
      considerably faster than related codes in which only the two outer loops of the
      Nussinov loop nest are tiled.

PMID- 28578659
TI  - Rapamycin (mTORC1 inhibitor) reduces the production of lactate and 2
      hydroxyglutarate oncometabolites in IDH1 mutant fibrosarcoma cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple studies concluded that oncometabolites (e.g. D-2
      hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) related to mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase 1/2 (IDH1/2)
      and lactate) have tumour promoting potential. Regulatory mechanisms implicated in
      the maintenance of oncometabolite production have great interest. mTOR (mammalian
      target of rapamycin) orchestrates different pathways, influences cellular growth
      and metabolism. Considering hyperactivation of mTOR in several malignancies, the
      question has been addressed whether mTOR operates through controlling of
      oncometabolite accumulation in metabolic reprogramming. METHODS: HT-1080 cells -
      carrying originally endogenous IDH1 mutation - were used in vitro and in vivo.
      Anti-tumour effects of rapamycin were studied using different assays. The main
      sources and productions of the oncometabolites (2-HG and lactate) were analysed
      by 13C-labeled substrates. Alterations at protein and metabolite levels were
      followed by Western blot, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and liquid
      chromatography mass spectrometry using rapamycin, PP242 and different glutaminase
      inhibitors, as well. RESULTS: Rapamycin (mTORC1 inhibitor) inhibited
      proliferation, migration and altered the metabolic activity of IDH1 mutant HT
      1080 cells. Rapamycin reduced the level of 2-HG sourced mainly from glutamine and
      glucose derived lactate which correlated to the decreased incorporation of 13C
      atoms from 13C-substrates. Additionally, decreased expressions of lactate
      dehydrogenase A and glutaminase were also observed both in vitro and in vivo.
      CONCLUSIONS: Considering the role of lactate and 2-HG in regulatory network and
      in metabolic symbiosis it could be assumed that mTOR inhibitors have additional
      effects besides their anti-proliferative effects in tumours with glycolytic
      phenotype, especially in case of IDH1 mutation (e.g. acute myeloid leukemias,
      gliomas, chondrosarcomas). Based on our new results, we suggest targeting mTOR
      activity depending on the metabolic and besides molecular genetic phenotype of
      tumours to increase the success of therapies.

PMID- 28578662
TI  - Possible contribution of quantum-like correlations to the placebo effect:
      consequences on blind trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Factors that participate in the biological changes associated with a
      placebo are not completely understood. Natural evolution, mean regression,
      concomitant procedures and other non specific effects are well-known factors that
      contribute to the "placebo effect". In this article, we suggest that quantum-like
      correlations predicted by a probabilistic modeling could also play a role.
      RESULTS: An elementary experiment in biology or medicine comparing the biological
      changes associated with two placebos is modeled. The originality of this modeling
      is that experimenters, biological system and their interactions are described
      together from the standpoint of a participant who is uninvolved in the
      measurement process. Moreover, the small random probability fluctuations of a
      "real" experiment are also taken into account. If both placebos are inert (with
      only different labels), common sense suggests that the biological changes
      associated with the two placebos should be comparable. However, the consequence
      of this modeling is the possibility for two placebos to be associated with
      different outcomes due to the emergence of quantum-like correlations. CONCLUSION:
      The association of two placebos with different outcomes is counterintuitive and
      this modeling could give a framework for some unexplained observations where mere
      placebos are compared (in some alternative medicines for example). This
      hypothesis can be tested in blind trials by comparing local vs. remote assessment
      of correlations.

PMID- 28578663
TI  - Cross-border spread, lineage displacement and evolutionary rate estimation of
      rabies virus in Yunnan Province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rabies is an important but underestimated threat to public health,
      with most cases reported in Asia. Since 2000, a new epidemic wave of rabies has
      emerged in Yunnan Province, southwestern China, which borders three countries in
      Southeast Asia. METHOD: We estimated gene-specific evolutionary rates for rabies
      virus using available data in GenBank, then used this information to calibrate
      the timescale of rabies virus (RABV) spread in Asia. We used 452 publicly
      available geo-referenced complete nucleoprotein (N) gene sequences, including 52
      RABV sequences that were recently generated from samples collected in Yunnan
      between 2008 and 2012. RESULTS: The RABV N gene evolutionary rate was estimated
      to be 1.88 * 10-4 (1.37-2.41 * 10-4, 95% Bayesian credible interval, BCI)
      substitutions per site per year. Phylogenetic reconstructions show that the
      currently circulating RABV lineages in Yunnan result from at least seven
      independent introductions (95% BCI: 6-9 introductions) and represent each of the
      three main Asian RABV lineages, SEA-1, -2 and -3. We find that Yunnan is a sink
      location for the domestic spread of RABV and connects RABV epidemics in North
      China, South China, and Southeast Asia. Cross-border spread from southeast Asia
      (SEA) into South China, and intermixing of the North and South China epidemics is
      also well supported. The influx of RABV into Yunnan from SEA was not well
      supported, likely due to the poor sampling of SEA RABV diversity. We found
      evidence for a lineage displacement of the Yunnan SEA-2 and -3 lineages by Yunnan
      SEA-1 strains, and considered whether this could be attributed to fitness
      differences. CONCLUSION: Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding
      of the spread of RABV that could facilitate future rabies virus control and
      prevention efforts.

PMID- 28578664
TI  - Macrophage migration inhibitory factor promoter polymorphisms (-794 CATT5-8):
      Relationship with soluble MIF levels in coronary atherosclerotic disease
      subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We analyzed the relationship of -794 CATT5-8 MIF polymorphisms with
      soluble MIF in Coronary Atherosclerotic Disease (CAD) patients. METHODS: A total
      of 256 patients selected, on which 186 normal-coronary and 70 Coronary artery
      disease subjects, were recruited in the study (Retrospectively registered).
      Genotyping of -794 CATT5-8 polymorphisms were performed by PCR and DNA
      sequencing. Serum MIF levels were measured using an ELISA kit. Patients were
      classified by coronary angiogram, and CAD based on Gensini's integral degree
      (angiographic scoring system). RESULTS: The allele frequency and genotype
      frequency of -794 CATT5-8 did not show any differences in normal-coronary
      subjects and CAD subjects. In CAD patients, serum MIF levels was lower in CATT
      (5) subjects than in CATT (7) subjects, while the genotype of -794 CATT5-8 did
      not show differences in serum MIF levels. In addition, we found a decrease in
      serum MIF levels in carriers of the (5/5) genotypes the -794 CATT5-8 MIF
      polymorphisms, although it was not significant. There was no relationship of CAD
      class and the allele frequency of -794 CATT5-8. CONCLUSIONS: This study found no
      association between CAD class and -794 CATT5-8 MIF polymorphisms with soluble MIF
      levels in CAD Subjects. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01750502 (November 2012,
      Retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28578665
TI  - Risk factors for dementia in the ninth decade of life and beyond: a study of the
      Lothian birth cohort 1921.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With increasing numbers of people surviving beyond eighty years, this
      section of the population demands attention to reduce the impact of dementia. In
      order to develop effective preventative strategies, it is essential to understand
      age-specific risk factor profiles for dementia: do risk factors for dementia in
      those in their sixties and seventies persist into oldest age? The aims of this
      study were to determine incident dementia and to investigate the risk profile for
      dementia from age 79 to 95 years in a well-characterised cohort. METHODS:
      Participants underwent intelligence testing at age 11 and were followed-up from
      at 79 years of age. Variables included: age, sex, age 11 IQ, APOE E4, education,
      diabetes, hypertension, statin use, physical activity at leisure and in
      occupation, symptoms of depression, height, number of teeth, body mass index,
      blood pressure, cholesterol and HbA1c. Dementia cases were ascertained from death
      certificates, electronic patient records and clinical reviews. Logistic
      regression analysis determined the degree of risk for dementia associated with
      each variable. Analyses were completed both with and without the physical
      activity variables due to the significant number of missing data for these
      variables. RESULTS: Of the eligible cohort, n = 410 participants remained
      dementia-free and n = 110 had developed probable dementia. When logistic
      regression analyses contained all variables, complete data was available for n =
      234 (n = 48 with dementia). Results demonstrated that positive APOE E4 carrier
      status (OR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.04, 4.42) and greater lifetime physical activity (OR:
      1.14, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.28) increased the risk for dementia. A reduction in risk
      for dementia was seen for hypertension (OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.23, 0.98). When
      physical activity variables were excluded, the number with complete data
      increased to n = 377 (n = 80 with dementia). APOE E4 remained significant (OR:
      2.37; 95% CI: 1.37, 4.07), as did hypertension (OR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.93).
      CONCLUSIONS: Dementia incidence was consistent with expected rates. The risk
      profile for dementia in this cohort of participants aged 79-95 confirmed previous
      findings that risk factors differ for those over 79 years. Further evidence is
      recommended in order that the risk profile for this age group can be accurately
      determined.

PMID- 28578666
TI  - Affected family members' experience of, and coping with, aggression and violence
      within the context of problematic substance use: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Families have an important role supporting a family member with
      problematic substance use (PSU), although this can often be challenging and
      confronting. Previous research has identified high rates of family aggression and
      violence within the context of PSU, although few studies have examined this issue
      from the perspective of affected family members (AFMs) supporting a member with
      PSU. The aims of the current study were to understand AFMs' experience of
      aggression and violence while supporting a member with PSU, and to explicate the
      strategies they used to prevent and cope with this behaviour. METHODS: Semi
      structured, audio-recorded qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 AFMs
      from the state of Victoria in Australia. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
      was used to guide data collection and analysis. RESULTS: Almost 70% of
      participants experienced PSU-related family aggression and/or violence. Two main
      themes and related sub-themes were abstracted from the data capturing their
      experiences of this behaviour and the strategies they used to try to prevent and
      cope in this situation. Aggression and/or violence were variable, changeable and
      unpredictable; and aggression and/or violence altering social interactions and
      family dynamics. As a consequence, it was upsetting, stressful and emotionally
      exhausting to AFMs. In response to this experience, and largely through trial and
      error, they used several direct strategies to try to prevent and cope with the
      behaviour; however, most continued to struggle in these circumstances. They also
      highlighted additional indirect measures, which, if adopted, would enhance their
      existing direct strategies. CONCLUSIONS: More effective primary, secondary and
      tertiary preventive measures are needed to address family aggression and violence
      within the context of PSU. More support is needed for family members affected by
      PSU to enable them to 'stand up to,' to prevent and cope effectively with this
      behaviour, and to increase their help-seeking and access to specialist services
      and support groups. More appropriate policies and social services are needed to
      meet the needs of AFMs.

PMID- 28578668
TI  - A retrospective analysis of the risk factors for surgical site infections and
      long-term follow-up after transpalpebral enucleation in horses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implants are often used to improve the cosmetic appearance of horses
      after enucleation of the eye. When surgical site infection (SSI) occurs, the
      implant will almost always be lost. The aim of this study is to collect data on
      the risk factors for SSIs and report long-term follow-up (cosmetic results and
      return to work) after transpalpebral enucleations. In this retrospective study,
      records of horses undergoing transpalpebral enucleation were reviewed (2007-2014)
      and telephone interviews were used to obtain long term follow-up. The potential
      risk factors for SSIs (indication for enucleation, use of an implant, standing
      procedures, duration of surgery, opening of the conjunctival sac and prolonged
      use of antimicrobials) were analysed for their association with the outcome
      measure 'SSI' vs 'no SSI' by multivariable binary logistic regression testing.
      Indications for enucleation were grouped as follows: Group 1 (clean) included
      equine recurrent uveitis, too small or too large globes, and intraocular tumours,
      Group 2 (non-clean) included corneal perforation/rupture and infected ulcers and
      Group 3 (tumour) included extraocular tumours. RESULTS: One hundred and seven
      cases of enucleation were evaluated. An implant was used in 49 horses. The
      overall number of SSIs was 8 (7.5%). Multivariable logistic regression testing
      showed implants (OR 7.5, P = 0.04) and standing procedures (OR 12.1; P = 0.03)
      were significantly associated with the percentage of SSIs and increased the risk
      of SSI. The eyes of horses in Groups 2 and 3 trended towards a larger risk for
      developing SSIs (OR 4.9; P = 0.09 and OR 5.9; P = 0.1, respectively). Prolonged
      use of antimicrobials, long surgery times and the opening of the conjunctival sac
      during dissection did not show significant associations with SSI risk.
      CONCLUSIONS: The risk of SSI after enucleation is low in clean eyes and when no
      implant is used. Placing an implant or performing a standing enucleation
      significantly increases the risk of SSIs. Although implants can be used for eyes
      that fall into Groups 2 and 3, 17% of the horses in these two groups developed an
      SSI leading to loss of the implant.

PMID- 28578667
TI  - Molecular characterization of Anopheline (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes from
      eight geographical locations of Sri Lanka.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genus Anopheles is a major mosquito group of interest in Sri Lanka as
      it includes vectors of malaria and its members exist as species complexes.
      Taxonomy of the group is mainly based on morphological features, which are not
      conclusive and can be easily erased while handling the specimens. A combined
      effort, using morphology and DNA barcoding (using the markers cytochrome c
      oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region, was
      made during the present study to recognize anophelines collected from eight
      districts of Sri Lanka for the first time. METHODS: Cytochrome c oxidase subunit
      I and ITS2 regions of morphologically identified anopheline mosquitoes from Sri
      Lanka were sequenced. These sequences together with GenBank sequences were used
      in phylogenetic tree construction and molecular characterization of mosquitoes.
      RESULTS: According to morphological identification, the field-collected adult
      mosquitoes belonged to 15 species, i.e., Anopheles aconitus, Anopheles annularis,
      Anopheles barbirostris, Anopheles culicifacies, Anopheles jamesii, Anopheles
      karwari, Anopheles maculatus, Anopheles nigerrimus, Anopheles pallidus, Anopheles
      peditaeniatus, Anopheles pseudojamesi, Anopheles subpictus, Anopheles
      tessellatus, Anopheles vagus, and Anopheles varuna. However, analysis of 123 COI
      sequences (445 bp) (16 clades supported by strong bootstrap value in the
      neighbour joining tree and inter-specific distances of >3%) showed that there are
      16 distinct species. Identity of the morphologically identified species, except
      An. subpictus, was comparable with the DNA barcoding results. COI sequence
      analysis showed that morphologically identified An. subpictus is composed of two
      genetic entities: An. subpictus species A and species B (inter-specific K2P
      distance 0.128). All the four haplotypes of An. culicifacies discovered during
      the present study belonged to a single species. ITS2 sequences (542 bp) were
      obtained for all the species except for An. barbirostris, An. subpictus species
      B, An. tessellatus, and An. varuna. Each of these sequences was represented by a
      single species-specific haplotype. CONCLUSIONS: The present study reflects the
      importance and feasibility of COI and ITS2 genetic markers in identifying
      anophelines and their sibling species, and the significance of integrated
      systematic approach in mosquito taxonomy. Wide distribution of malaria vectors in
      the country perhaps indicates the potential for re-emergence of malaria in the
      country.

PMID- 28578669
TI  - VEGF isoforms have differential effects on permeability of human pulmonary
      microvascular endothelial cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alternative splicing of Vascular endothelial growth factor-A mRNA
      transcripts (commonly referred as VEGF) leads to the generation of functionally
      differing isoforms, the relative amounts of which have potentially significant
      physiological outcomes in conditions such as acute respiratory distress syndrome
      (ARDS). The effect of such isoforms on pulmonary vascular permeability is
      unknown. We hypothesised that VEGF165a and VEGF165b isoforms would have differing
      effects on pulmonary vascular permeability caused by differential activation of
      intercellular signal transduction pathways. METHOD: To test this hypothesis we
      investigated the physiological effect of VEGF165a and VEGF165b on Human Pulmonary
      Microvascular Endothelial Cell (HPMEC) permeability using three different
      methods: trans-endothelial electrical resistance (TEER), Electric cell-substrate
      impedance sensing (ECIS) and FITC-BSA passage. In addition, potential downstream
      signalling pathways of the VEGF isoforms were investigated by Western blotting
      and the use of specific signalling inhibitors. RESULTS: VEGF165a increased HPMEC
      permeability using all three methods (paracellular and transcellular) and led to
      associated VE-cadherin and actin stress fibre changes. In contrast, VEGF165b
      decreased paracellular permeability and did not induce changes in VE-cadherin
      cell distribution. Furthermore, VEGF165a and VEGF165b had differing effects on
      both the phosphorylation of VEGF receptors and downstream signalling proteins
      pMEK, p42/44MAPK, p38 MAPK, pAKT and peNOS. Interestingly specific inhibition of
      the pMEK, p38 MAPK, PI3 kinase and eNOS pathways blocked the effects of both
      VEGF165a and VEGF165b on paracellular permeability and the effect of VEGF165a on
      proliferation/migration, suggesting that this difference in cellular response is
      mediated by an as yet unidentified signalling pathway(s). CONCLUSION: This study
      demonstrates that the novel isoform VEGF165a and VEGF165b induce differing
      effects on permeability in pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells.

PMID- 28578670
TI  - "Location is surprisingly a lot more important than you think": a critical
      thematic analysis of push and pull factor messaging used on Caribbean offshore
      medical school websites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Offshore medical schools are for-profit, private enterprises located
      in the Caribbean that provide undergraduate medical education to students who
      must leave the region for postgraduate training and also typically to practice.
      This growing industry attracts many medical students from the US and Canada who
      wish to return home to practice medicine. After graduation, international medical
      graduates can encounter challenges obtaining residency placements and can face
      other barriers related to practice. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative thematic
      analysis to discern the dominant messages found on offshore medical school
      websites. Dominant messages included frequent references to push and pull factors
      intended to encourage potential applicants to consider attending an offshore
      medical school. We reviewed 38 English-language Caribbean offshore medical school
      websites in order to extract and record content pertaining to push and pull
      factors. RESULTS: We found two push and four pull factors present across most
      offshore medical school websites. Push factors include the: shortages of
      physicians in the US and Canada that require new medical trainees; and low
      acceptance rates at medical schools in intended students' home countries. Pull
      factors include the: financial benefits of attending an offshore medical school;
      geographic location and environment of training in the Caribbean; training
      quality and effectiveness; and the potential to practice medicine in one's home
      country. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis contributes to our understanding of some of
      the factors behind students' decisions to attend an offshore medical school.
      Importantly, push and pull factors do not address the barriers faced by offshore
      medical school graduates in finding postgraduate residency placements and
      ultimately practicing elsewhere. It is clear from push and pull factors that
      these medical schools heavily focus messaging and marketing towards students from
      the US and Canada, which raises questions about who benefits from this offshoring
      practice.

PMID- 28578671
TI  - Serious child and adolescent behaviour disorders; a valuation study by
      professionals, youth and parents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In child and youth care, quantitative estimates of the impact of
      serious behaviour problems have not yet been made. Such input is needed to
      support decision making on investments in treatment. The aim of this paper was to
      elicit valuations of social and conduct disorders in children and adolescents
      from three different perspectives: professionals, youth, and parents. METHODS: We
      obtained valuations from 25 youth care professionals, 50 children (age 9-10)
      without serious behaviour problems and 36 adolescents (age 16-17) with and
      without serious behaviour disorders, and 46 parents with children in the
      aforementioned age categories. Valuations were estimated from 18 descriptions of
      behaviour disorders in youth aged 9 and 15 years. Descriptions included
      Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and Disruptive
      Behaviour Disorder (DBD). Comorbid conditions were Attention Deficit
      Hyperactivity Disorder and substance abuse. Valuations were obtained with the
      EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D-3 L) and a visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS:
      Valuations were generally severe; problems were by and large reported to worsen
      quality of life by 50% compared to being fully healthy. Professionals regarded
      DBD with substance abuse as most severe (VAS values 0.41 for children, and 0.43
      for adolescents, i.e. less than half of normal). They rated ODD as least severe
      (VAS values 0.58 for children, 0.59 for adolescents). Children, adolescents and
      parents gave lower valuations than professionals, and had a wider range of
      scores, particularly at the lower end of the scale. CONCLUSIONS: Behaviour
      disorders pose a formidable burden from the perspectives of professionals as well
      as children, adolescents and parents. These results may support medical decision
      making to set priorities with regard to prevention and treatment based on
      perceived severity.

PMID- 28578672
TI  - Sake lees extract improves hepatic lipid accumulation in high fat diet-fed mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing worldwide as
      one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease. Sake lees (SL) are secondary
      products of sake manufacturing and are considered to have beneficial effects on
      human health. To investigate these effects, we used high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice
      treated with or without the SL extract. METHOD: Mice were the HFD ad libitum for
      8 weeks and were administered 500 MUL of distilled water with or without the SL
      extract (350 mg/mL) by a feeding needle daily for the last 4 weeks. Food intake,
      body weight, and liver weight were measured. Triacylglycerol content and the mRNA
      and protein expression levels of various lipid and glucose metabolism-related
      genes were determined in liver tissues. The levels of triglyceride, free fatty
      acids, glucose, insulin, and liver cell damage markers were determined in serum.
      Fatty acid-induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells was assessed in the presence
      or absence of the SL extract. RESULTS: Mice fed a HFD and treated with the SL
      extract demonstrated a significant reduction in hepatic lipid accumulation and
      mRNA and protein levels of peroxidome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
      (PPARgamma), PPARalpha, CD36, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 in the
      liver, while the SL extract did not affect body weight and food intake. Moreover,
      insulin resistance and hepatic inflammation in HFD-fed mice improved after
      administration of the SL extract. In HepG2 cells, the SL extract suppressed fatty
      acid-induced intracellular lipid accumulation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      suggest that treatment with the SL extract could potentially reduce the risk of
      NAFLD development, and that the SL extract may be clinically useful for the
      treatment of NAFLD.

PMID- 28578673
TI  - Team social cohesion, professionalism, and patient-centeredness: Gendered care
      work, with special reference to elderly care - a mixed methods study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Healthcare organisations are facing large demands in recruiting
      employees with adequate competency to care for the increasing numbers of elderly.
      High degrees of turnover and dissatisfaction with working conditions are common.
      The gendered notion of care work as 'women's work', in combination with low
      salaries and status, may contribute to negative work experiences. There is
      abundant information about the negative aspects of elderly care health services,
      but little is known about positive aspects of this work. The study aim was to
      investigate work satisfaction from a gender perspective among Swedish registered
      nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists, focusing specifically on
      healthcare services for the elderly. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was
      adopted in which we combined statistics and open-ended responses from a national
      survey with qualitative research interviews with healthcare professionals in
      elderly care organisations. The survey was administered to a random sample of
      1578 registered nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists.
      Qualitative interviews with 17 professionals were conducted in six elderly care
      facilities. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses, chi2 and
      constructivist grounded theory were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: There was
      a statistically significant difference in overall work satisfaction between those
      who worked in elderly care and those who did not (64 and 74,4% respectively, p
      <0.001). Nine themes were derived from open-ended responses in the questionnaire.
      The qualitative interviews revealed four prominent storylines: 'Team social
      cohesion', 'Career development and autonomy', 'Client-centeredness', and
      'Invisible and ignored power structures'. CONCLUSIONS: The results show the
      complexity of elderly care work and describe several aspects that are important
      for work satisfaction among health professionals. The results reveal that work
      satisfaction is dependent on social interrelations and cohesion in the work team,
      in possibilities to use humour and to have fun together, and in the ability to
      work as professionals to provide client-centered elderly care. Power relations
      such as gendered hierarchies were less visible or even ignored aspects of work
      satisfaction. The storylines are clearly linked to the two central discourses of
      professionalism and gender equality.

PMID- 28578675
TI  - A case report of bicornis bicollis uterus with unilateral cervical atresia: an
      unusual aetiology of chronic debilitating pelvic pain in a Cameroonian teenager.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital uterine anomalies like bicornis or bicornuate uterus are
      relatively rare in sub-Saharan Africa. They are associated with an increased rate
      of spontaneous abortion, preterm delivery, and infertility. The occurrence of
      bicornis bicollis uterus with unilateral cervical atresia is exceptional and its
      management is controversial. We hereby report a rare cause of chronic pelvic pain
      in a Cameroonian teenager due to unilateral obstructive hematometra and
      hematosalpinx in the non-communicating horn of a bicornis bicollis uterus. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 13-year-old premenarchal non-virgin female presented with chronic
      and severe cyclical crampy pelvic pain. On clinical examination, she had a
      perforated hymen, a single vagina, and one uterine cervix. A two-dimensional
      pelvic ultrasonography revealed hematometra but missed out the underlying
      anomaly. Failure to drain the hematometra by serial cervical dilatations prompted
      an exploratory laparotomy which revealed: bicornis bicollis uterus with a right
      rudimentary uterine horn communicating with the vagina and a left non
      communicating uterine horn distended by hematometra due to a homolateral cervical
      atresia. She underwent utero-vaginal canalization and a left hemi-hysterotomy
      with drainage of the hematometra. The postoperative period was uneventful.
      Regular cyclic menses occurred thereafter beginning at the first postoperative
      month. She had complete resolution of symptoms without recurrence after six
      months. CONCLUSION: Due to the risk of compromised fertility from bicornis uterus
      and the diagnostic challenges akin to resource-limited settings, we highlight the
      need for a high index of suspicion by healthcare providers when faced with
      chronic pelvic pain in premenarchal adolescents.

PMID- 28578674
TI  - Space-time patterns in maternal and mother mortality in a rural South African
      population with high HIV prevalence (2000-2014): results from a population-based
      cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: International organs such as, the African Union and the South African
      Government view maternal health as a dominant health prerogative. Even though
      most countries are making progress, maternal mortality in South Africa (SA)
      significantly increased between 1990 and 2015, and prevented the country from
      achieving Millennium Development Goal 5. Elucidating the space-time patterns and
      risk factors of maternal mortality in a rural South African population could help
      target limited resources and policy guidelines to high-risk areas for the
      greatest impact, as more generalized interventions are costly and often less
      effective. METHODS: Population-based mortality data from 2000 to 2014 for women
      aged 15-49 years from the Africa Centre Demographic Information System located in
      the Umkhanyakude district of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa were analysed.
      Our outcome was classified into two definitions: Maternal mortality; the death of
      a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of cessation of pregnancy, regardless of
      the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or exacerbated
      by the pregnancy or its management but not from unexpected or incidental causes;
      and 'Mother death'; death of a mother whilst child is less than 5 years of age.
      Both the Kulldorff and Tango spatial scan statistics for regular and irregular
      shaped cluster detection respectively were used to identify clusters of maternal
      mortality events in both space and time. RESULTS: The overall maternal mortality
      ratio was 650 per 100,000 live births, and 1204 mothers died while their child
      was less than or equal to 5 years of age, of a mortality rate of 370 per 100,000
      children. Maternal mortality declined over the study period from approximately
      600 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 400 per 100,000 live births in 2014. There
      was no strong evidence of spatial clustering for maternal mortality in this rural
      population. However, the study identified a significant spatial cluster of mother
      deaths in childhood (p = 0.022) in a peri-urban community near the national road.
      Based on our multivariable logistic regression model, HIV positive status
      (Adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.5, CI 95%: [1.5-4.2]; primary education or less
      (aOR = 1.97, CI 95%: [1.04-3.74]) and parity (aOR = 1.42, CI 95%: [1.24-1.63])
      were significant predictors of maternal mortality. CONCLUSIONS: There has been an
      overall decrease in maternal and mother death between 2000 and 2014. The
      identification of a clear cluster of mother deaths shows the possibility of
      targeting intervention programs in vulnerable communities, as population-wide
      interventions may be ineffective and too costly to implement.

PMID- 28578676
TI  - Effects of optical diameter of intraocular lenses with intrascleral fixation on
      higher-order aberrations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intrascleral fixation of an intraocular lens (IOL) is used in eyes
      that lack capsular support. The aim of the study is to determine whether a larger
      optical diameter IOL will decrease the higher-order aberrations (HOAs) when the
      haptics are extended for intrascleral fixation than a smaller diameter IOL.
      METHODS: Three-piece acrylic IOLs with 6.0 mm optics (X-60, VA-60BBR) and 7.0 mm
      optics (X-70, VA-70 AD) were fixed at lengths of 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17 mm. A
      wavefront analyzer was used to measure the HOAs within the central 3.0 and 5.2 mm
      optic diameter. RESULTS: The astigmatic aberration within the central 5.2 mm was
      greater than that within the central 3.0 mm for all IOLs. The HOAs increased
      significantly with an extension of the IOLs with both optical diameters (P <
      0.001). The coma aberration within the central 5.2 mm was greater than that
      within the central 3.0 mm but it did not increase with an extension of the
      haptics. The astigmatic aberration of the X-60 IOL was significantly greater than
      that of the X-70 only at an extension of 17 mm. The astigmatic aberration of the
      VA-70 AD was not significantly different from that of the VA-60BBR. The
      cylindrical power changed from 0.047 D in the X-60 to 0.118 D in the VA-70 AD
      when the IOLs were extended from 13 to 17 mm. CONCLUSION: When three-piece IOLs
      are highly extended for intrascleral fixation, the astigmatic aberration
      increases significantly. However, IOLs with 7 mm optics do not have less
      astigmatic and coma aberrations than IOLs with 6 mm optics.

PMID- 28578677
TI  - Description of Culicoides (Culicoides) bysta n. sp., a new member of the
      Pulicaris group (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from Slovakia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Species of the genus Culicoides Latreille, 1809 (Diptera:
      Ceratopogonidae) are mainly known as vectors of arboviruses such as bluetongue
      (BTV) and Schmallenberg (SBV). Among the known vectors, few species within the
      subgenus Culicoides Latreille, 1809 have been implicated in the transmission of
      BTV and SBV. Nevertheless, phylogenetic studies had revealed the presence of
      cryptic and undescribed species in Europe, raising questions about their
      vectorial role. A previous integrative study, associating morphology and barcode
      data, raised the hypothesis of the presence of undescribed species in Slovakia.
      The present study, combining morphological and molecular approaches, is aimed to
      support the hypothesis and a description of Culicoides bysta n. sp. is provided.
      METHODS: Series of male and female specimens were dissected and several of them
      were sequenced for the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase
      subunit 1 gene (cox1). Bayesian inference phylogenetic analyses based on 72 cox1
      sequences of the species belonging to the Pulicaris group of the subgenus
      Culicoides, were carried out and the frequencies of intra/interspecific
      variations were analyzed. The morphology of abundant material of the new species
      (31 females and 12 males) was examined and compared with the paratypes of
      Culicoides boyi Nielsen, Kristensen & Pape, 2015 and with specimens of Culicoides
      pulicaris Linnaeus, 1758. For females, suture distances on the eyes were newly
      evaluated as a diagnostic character and for males we assessed a new measurement
      on the ninth tergite and on the apicolateral processes. RESULTS: Both
      phylogenetic analysis and barcode distances supported the distinct status of the
      new species, Culicoides bysta n. sp. described as a member of the Pulicaris group
      based on the morphology of males and females. The new species is closely related
      to C. boyi and C. pulicaris but can be distinguished on the basis of the wing
      pattern and the ratio between the two eye sutures. Both newly evaluated
      characters, i.e. eyes in females and male genitalia appeared to be diagnostic for
      distinguishing the new species described herein. CONCLUSIONS: The vector
      potential of the recently described species C. boyi and C. bysta n. sp. to
      transmit arboviruses, such as BTV and SBV, is unknown. When considering these two
      species as being close to C. pulicaris, the previous data, such as the vector
      implication for C. pulicaris in BTV transmission, should be revaluated in future.

PMID- 28578678
TI  - Changes in the neuropeptide content of Biomphalaria ganglia nervous system
      following Schistosoma infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Molluscs, including snails, are prone to parasite infection, which
      can lead to massive physiological and behavioural changes, yet many of the
      molecular components involved remain unresolved. Central to this point is the
      neural system that in snails consists of several ganglia that regulate the
      animals' physiology and behaviour patterns. The availability of a genomic
      resource for the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata provides a mean towards
      the high throughput analysis of changes in the central nervous system (CNS)
      following infection with Schistosoma miracidia. RESULTS: In this study, we
      performed a proteomic analysis of the B. glabrata CNS at pre-patent infection,
      providing a list of proteins that were further used within a protein-protein
      interaction (PPI) framework against S. mansoni proteins. A hub with most
      connections for both non-infected and infected Biomphalaria includes leucine
      aminopeptidase 2 (LAP2), which interacts with numerous miracidia proteins that
      together belong to the immunoglobulin family of cell adhesion related molecules.
      We additionally reveal the presence of at least 165 neuropeptides derived from
      the precursors of buccalin, enterin, FMRF, FVRI, pedal peptide 1, 2, 3 and 4,
      RYamide, RFamide, pleurin and others. Many of these were present at significantly
      reduced levels in the snail's CNS post-infection, such as the egg laying hormone,
      a neuropeptide required to initiate egg laying in gastropod molluscs.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis demonstrates that LAP2 may be a key component that
      regulates parasite infection physiology, as well as establishing that parasite
      induced reproductive castration may be facilitated by significant reductions in
      reproduction-associated neuropeptides. This work helps in our understanding of
      molluscan neuropeptides and further stimulates advances in parasite-host
      interactions.

PMID- 28578679
TI  - Effectiveness of additional trunk exercises on gait performance: study protocol
      for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence is lacking concerning the effect of additional trunk
      rehabilitation on gait performance. Investigating gait performance by both
      clinical and biomechanical outcome measures might lead to new scientific insights
      into the importance of the trunk during gait rehabilitation in people suffering
      from stroke. This protocol was written according to the SPIRIT 2013 Statement.
      METHODS AND DESIGN: An assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial will be
      conducted in patients with impaired trunk control after stroke. A total of 60
      patients will be randomly allocated to the control or the experimental group by
      means of sealed opaque envelopes. They will receive either 16 h of additional
      trunk exercises (experimental group) or cognitive exercises (controls) for 1 h a
      day, 4 days a week for 4 weeks. Patients will also receive 2 h of standard care
      consisting of physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Gait performance will be
      assessed clinically by the Tinetti Test and biomechanically by means of a full
      body gait analysis. In addition, the effect of the exercise protocol on the trunk
      itself and trunk activities of daily living will be assessed by the Trunk
      Impairment Scale and the Barthel Index. DISCUSSION: Despite the evidence
      demonstrating the importance of trunk control after stroke, studies about the
      effects of trunk rehabilitation on gait performance are inconsistent. In the
      current study, a more sophisticated treatment protocol will be used to enlarge
      therapeutic improvements, the relationship between clinical and biomechanical
      measures of gait performance can be investigated, and the sustainability of the
      effects of trunk exercises over time will be examined. Since clinical
      improvements are of greater importance to patients and physiotherapists, clinical
      assessment scales will be used as primary outcome measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02708888 . Registered on 2 March 2016.

PMID- 28578680
TI  - Survival analysis of under-five mortality using Cox and frailty models in
      Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk of a child dying before reaching 5 years of age is highest
      in sub-Saharan African countries. But in Ethiopia, under-five mortality rates
      have shown a substantial decline. METHODS: For this study, the Cox regression
      model for fixed and time-dependent explanatory variables was studied for under
      five mortality in Ethiopia. We adapted survival analysis using the Cox regression
      model with 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data. RESULTS: From the
      results, it was found that under-five children who live in Addis Ababa had a
      lower hazard (risk) of death (p value = 0.048). This could be as a result of
      higher health facilities and living standards in Addis Ababa, compared to other
      regions. Under-five children who lived in rural areas had a higher hazard (risk)
      of death compared to those living in urban areas. In addition, under-five
      children who lived in rural areas had 18% (p value = 0.01) more hazard (risk) of
      death than those living in urban areas. Furthermore, with older mothers, the
      chance of a child dying before reaching the age of 5 is lower. CONCLUSION: The
      chances of a child dying before reaching the age of 5 are less if the mother does
      not become pregnant again before the child reaches the age of 5. Therefore,
      giving birth when older and not becoming pregnant again before the child reaches
      the age of 5 is one means of reducing under-five mortality.

PMID- 28578681
TI  - Dysregulation of lysophosphatidic acids in multiple sclerosis and autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis.
AB  - Bioactive lipids contribute to the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis. Here,
      we show that lysophosphatidic acids (LPAs) are dysregulated in multiple sclerosis
      (MS) and are functionally relevant in this disease. LPAs and autotaxin, the major
      enzyme producing extracellular LPAs, were analyzed in serum and cerebrospinal
      fluid in a cross-sectional population of MS patients and were compared with
      respective data from mice in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)
      model, spontaneous EAE in TCR1640 mice, and EAE in Lpar2 -/- mice. Serum LPAs
      were reduced in MS and EAE whereas spinal cord LPAs in TCR1640 mice increased
      during the 'symptom-free' intervals, i.e. on resolution of inflammation during
      recovery hence possibly pointing to positive effects of brain LPAs during
      remyelination as suggested in previous studies. Peripheral LPAs mildly re-raised
      during relapses but further dropped in refractory relapses. The peripheral loss
      led to a redistribution of immune cells from the spleen to the spinal cord,
      suggesting defects of lymphocyte homing. In support, LPAR2 positive T-cells were
      reduced in EAE and the disease was intensified in Lpar2 deficient mice. Further,
      treatment with an LPAR2 agonist reduced clinical signs of relapsing-remitting EAE
      suggesting that the LPAR2 agonist partially compensated the endogenous loss of
      LPAs and implicating LPA signaling as a novel treatment approach. Graphical
      summary of lysophosphatidic signaling in multiple sclerosis.

PMID- 28578682
TI  - Secondary distress in violence researchers: a randomised trial of the
      effectiveness of group debriefings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secondary distress including emotional distress, vicarious trauma
      (VT) and secondary traumatic stress (STS) due to exposure to primary trauma
      victims have been described in helping professionals and in violence researchers.
      To our knowledge, there are few prevalence studies, and no tailored interventions
      have been tested to reduce secondary distress in violence researchers. The study
      aims to (1) describe the epidemiology of secondary distress experienced by
      violence researchers; to (2) assess the effectiveness of group debriefings in
      mitigating secondary distress; to (3) assess risk and protective factors.
      METHODS: We conducted an un-blinded, individually randomised trial with parallel
      assignment. Eligible participants were 59 Ugandan researchers employed by the
      Good Schools Study to interview children who experienced violence in a district
      of Uganda. Fifty-three researchers agreed to participate and were randomly
      allocated. The intervention group (n = 26) participated in three group
      debriefings and the control group (n = 27) in three leisure sessions (film
      viewings). The primary outcome was change in levels of emotional distress (SRQ
      20); secondary outcomes were levels of VT and STS at end-line. A paired t-test
      assessed the difference in mean baseline and end-line emotional distress. Un
      paired t-tests compared the change in mean emotional distress (baseline vs. end
      line), and compared levels of VT and STS at end-line. Separate logistic
      regression models tested the association between end-line emotional distress and
      a-priori risk or protective factors. RESULTS: Baseline and end-line levels of
      emotional distress were similar in control (p = 0.47) and intervention (p = 0.59)
      groups. The superiority of group debriefing over leisure activities in lowering
      levels of emotional distress in the intervention group (n = 26; difference in SRQ
      20 = 0.23 [SD = 2.18]) compared to the control group (n = 26; difference in SRQ
      20 = 0.23 [SD = 1.63]) could not be detected (p = 1). In regression analysis (n =
      48), baseline distress increased the odds of end-line distress (OR = 16.1, 95%CI
      2.82 to 92.7, p = 0.002). Perceived organisational support (OR = 0.09, 95%CI 0.01
      to 0.69, p = 0.02) and belief in God (OR = 0.21, 95%CI 0.03 to 1.26, p = 09) was
      protective against end-line distress. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence that
      violence researchers experienced elevated emotional distress after doing violence
      research. There was no difference between group debriefings and leisure
      activities in reducing distress in our sample. However, the hypotheses presented
      should not be ruled out in other violence research settings. Our findings suggest
      that organisational support is a significant protective factor and belief in God
      may be an important coping mechanism. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials
      NCT02390778 . Retrospectively registered 19 March 2015. The Good Schools Trial
      was registered at ( NCT01678846 ), on August 24, 2012.

PMID- 28578684
TI  - Metal-on-metal hip resurfacing in patients younger than 50 years: a retrospective
      analysis : 1285 cases, 12-year survivorship.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Nordic registry reports patients under 50 years old with total
      hip replacements realize only 83% 10-year implant survivorship. These results do
      not meet the 95% 10-year survivorship guideline posed by the UK's National
      Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2014. METHODS: The purpose of
      this study is threefold: First, we evaluate if metal-on-metal hip resurfacing
      arthroplasty meets these high standards in younger patients. Next, we compare
      outcomes between age groups to determine if younger patients are at higher risk
      for revision or complication. Lastly, we assess how outcomes between sexes
      changed over time. From January 2001 to August 2013, a single surgeon performed
      1285 metal-on-metal hip resurfacings in patients younger than 50 years old. We
      compared these to an older cohort matched by sex and BMI. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier
      implant survivorship was 96.5% at 10 years and 96.3% at 12 years; this did not
      differ from implant survivorship for older patients. Implant survivorship at 12
      years was 98 and 93% for younger men and women, respectively; survivorship for
      women improved from 93 to 97% by using exclusively Biomet implants. There were
      four (0.3%) adverse wear-related failures, with no instances of wear or
      problematic ion levels since 2009. Activity scores improved from 5.4 +/- 2.3
      preoperatively to 7.6 +/- 1.9 postoperatively (p < 0.0001), with 43% of patients
      reporting a UCLA activity score of 9 or 10. CONCLUSIONS: Hip resurfacing exceeds
      the stricter 2014 NICE survivorship criteria independently in men and women even
      when performed on patients under 50 years old.

PMID- 28578683
TI  - Preoperative Prognostic Nutritional Index is a Significant Predictor of Survival
      with Bladder Cancer after Radical Cystectomy: a retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To explore the prognostic significance of preoperative prognostic
      nutritional index (PNI) in bladder cancer after radical cystectomy and compare
      the prognostic ability of inflammation-based indices. METHODS: We retrospectively
      analyzed data for 516 patients with bladder cancer who underwent radical
      cystectomy in our institution between 2006 to 2012. Clinicopathologic
      characteristics and inflammation-based indices (PNI, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio
      [NLR], platelet/lymphocyte ratio [PLR], lymphocyte/monocyte ratio [LMR]) were
      evaluated by pre-treatment measurements. Overall survival (OS) and progression
      free survival (PFS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log
      rank test. Multivariate analysis with a Cox proportional hazards model was used
      to confirm predictors identified on univariate analysis. The association between
      clinicopathological characteristics and PNI or NLR was tested. RESULTS: Among the
      516 patients, the median follow-up was 37 months (interquartile range 20 to 56).
      On multivariate analysis, PNI and NLR independently predicted OS (PNI: hazard
      ratio [HR] = 1.668, 95% CI: 1.147-2.425, P = 0.007; NLR: HR = 1.416, 95% CI:1.094
      2.016, P = 0.0149) and PFS (PNI: HR = 1.680, 95% CI:1.092-2.005, P = 0.015; NLR:
      HR = 1.550, 95% CI:1.140-2.388, P = 0.008). Low PNI predicted worse OS for all
      pathological stages and PFS for T1 and T2 stages. Low PNI was associated with
      older age (>65 years), muscle-invasive bladder cancer, high American Society of
      Anesthesiologists grade and anemia. CONCLUSION: PNI and NLR were independent
      predictors of OS and PFS for patients with bladder cancer after radical
      cystectomy and PNI might be a novel reliable biomarker for bladder cancer.

PMID- 28578685
TI  - Being in limbo: Women's lived experiences of pregnancy at 41 weeks of gestation
      and beyond - A phenomenological study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally, the prevalence of post term pregnancy (PTP) is about 5-10%,
      but the rate varies considerably between and within countries. PTP is defined as
      a pregnancy >=294 days, but the definition is arbitrary. Many studies focusing on
      the prevalence, risks and management of PTP include pregnancies >=41 gestational
      weeks (GW). However, qualitative interview studies concerning women's experiences
      of PTP are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe women's
      lived experiences of a pregnancy >=41 GW. METHOD: The study has a lifeworld
      research approach. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted from August 2013
      to September 2014 with 10 healthy women with an expected normal pregnancy at GW
      41 + 1-6 days in Gothenburg, Sweden. Interviews were conducted at the antenatal
      clinic or in the woman's home, depending on her preference. Data were analysed
      with a phenomenological reflective lifeworld approach. RESULT: The essence of
      women's experiences of a pregnancy at GW >= 41 was described as being in limbo, a
      void characterised by contradictions related to time, giving birth and the
      condition. Exceeding the estimated date of childbirth implied a period of up to 2
      weeks that was not expected. The contradictory aspect was the notion that time
      passed both slowly and quickly. Negative feelings dominated and increased over
      time. The women experienced difficulty due to not being in complete control,
      while at the same time finding it a beneficial experience. Health care
      professionals focused solely on the due date, while the women felt neither seen
      nor acknowledged. Lack of information led to searches in social media.
      Previously, they had trusted the body's ability to give birth, but this trust
      diminished after GW 41 + 0. In this state of limbo, the women became more easily
      influenced by people around them, while in turn influencing others. CONCLUSIONS:
      Being in limbo represents a contradictory state related to time and process of
      giving birth, when women need to be listened to by healthcare professionals. An
      understanding of the importance of different information sources, such as family
      and friends, is necessary. It is vital that women are seen and acknowledged by
      midwives at the antenatal clinics. In addition, they should be asked how they
      experience waiting for the birth in order to create a sense of trust and
      confidence in the process.

PMID- 28578687
TI  - Target weight achievement and ultrafiltration rate thresholds: potential patient
      implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Higher ultrafiltration (UF) rates and extracellular hypo- and
      hypervolemia are associated with adverse outcomes among maintenance hemodialysis
      patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently considered UF
      rate and target weight achievement measures for ESRD Quality Incentive Program
      inclusion. The dual measures were intended to promote balance between too
      aggressive and too conservative fluid removal. The National Quality Forum
      endorsed the UF rate measure but not the target weight measure. We examined the
      proposed target weight measure and quantified weight gains if UF rate thresholds
      were applied without treatment time (TT) extension or interdialytic weight gain
      (IDWG) reduction. METHODS: Data were taken from the 2012 database of a large
      dialysis organization. Analyses considered 152,196 United States hemodialysis
      patients. We described monthly patient and dialysis facility target weight
      achievement patterns and examined differences in patient characteristics across
      target weight achievement status and differences in facilities across target
      weight measure scores. We computed the cumulative, theoretical 1-month fluid
      related weight gain that would occur if UF rates were capped at 13 mL/h/kg
      without concurrent TT extension or IDWG reduction. RESULTS: Target weight
      achievement patterns were stable over the year. Patients who did not achieve
      target weight (post-dialysis weight >= 1 kg above or below target weight) tended
      to be younger, black and dialyze via catheter, and had shorter dialysis vintage,
      greater body weight, higher UF rate and more missed treatments compared with
      patients who achieved target weight. Facilities had, on average, 27.1 +/- 9.7% of
      patients with average post-dialysis weight >= 1 kg above or below the prescribed
      target weight. In adjusted analyses, facilities located in the midwest and south
      and facilities with higher proportions of black and Hispanic patients and higher
      proportions of patients with shorter TTs were more likely to have unfavorable
      facility target weight measure scores. Without TT extension or IDWG reduction, UF
      rate threshold (13 mL/h/kg) implementation led to an average theoretical 1-month,
      fluid-related weight gain of 1.4 +/- 3.0 kg. CONCLUSIONS: Target weight
      achievement patterns vary across clinical subgroups. Implementation of a maximum
      UF rate threshold without adequate attention to extracellular volume status may
      lead to fluid-related weight gain.

PMID- 28578686
TI  - Challenges and opportunities of optimal breastfeeding in the context of HIV
      option B+ guidelines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2013, the World Health Organization released a new set of
      guidelines widely known as Option B+. Prior to that there were guidelines
      released in 2010. Option B+ recommends lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all
      pregnant and breastfeeding women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The
      study aimed at investigating challenges and opportunities in implementing Infant
      and Young Child Feeding in the context of Prevention of Mother To Child
      Transmission (PMTCT) guidelines among HIV positive mothers of children aged 0-24
      months. The study also examined implications presented by implementing the 2013
      PMTCT consolidated guidelines in the transition phase from the 2010 approach in
      Zambia. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was employed in the descriptive cross
      sectional study utilizing semi structured questionnaires and Focused Group
      Discussions. Further, data was captured from the Health Information Management
      System. RESULTS: During the PMTCT transition, associated needs and challenges in
      institutionalizing the enhanced guidelines from option A and B to option B+ were
      observed. Nonetheless, there was a decline in Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT)
      of HIV rates with an average of 4%. Mothers faced challenges in complying with
      optimal breastfeeding practices owing to lack of community support systems and
      breast infections due to poor breast feeding occasioned by infants' oral health
      challenges. Moreover, some mothers were hesitant of lifelong ARVs. Health workers
      faced programmatic and operational challenges such as compromised counseling
      services. CONCLUSION: Despite the ambitious timelines for PMTCT transition, the
      need to inculcate new knowledge and vary known practice among mothers and the
      shift in counseling content for health workers, the consolidated guidelines for
      PMTCT proved effective. Some mothers were hesitant of lifelong ARVs,
      rationalizing the debated paradigm that prolonged chemotherapy/polypharmacy may
      be a future challenge in the success of ART in PMTCT. Conflicting breast feeding
      practices was a common observation across mothers thus underpinning the need to
      strongly invigorate Infant and Young Child Feeding information sharing across the
      continuum of heath care from facility level to community and up to the family;
      for cultural norms, practices and attitudes enshrined within communities play a
      vital role in child care.

PMID- 28578688
TI  - The ticking time bomb in lifestyle-related diseases among women in the Gulf
      Cooperation Council countries; review of systematic reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to review all published systematic reviews on the
      prevalence of modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors among women from the
      Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC). This is the first review of other
      systematic reviews that concentrates on lifestyle related diseases among women in
      GCC countries only. METHOD: Literature searches were carried out in three
      electronic databases for all published systematic reviews on the prevalence of
      cardiovascular disease risk factors in the GCC countries between January 2000 and
      February 2016. RESULTS: Eleven systematic reviews were identified and selected
      for our review. Common reported risk factors for cardiovascular disease were
      obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and hypertension. In
      GCC countries, obesity among the female population ranges from 29 to 45.7%, which
      is one of the highest rates globally, and it is linked with physical inactivity,
      ranging from 45 to 98.7%. The prevalence of diabetes is listed as one of the top
      ten factors globally, and was reported with an average of 21%. Hypertension
      ranged from 20.9 to 53%. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of lifestyle-related
      diseases among women population in GCC is a ticking time bomb and is reaching
      alarming levels, and require a fundamental social and political changes. These
      findings highlight the need for comprehensive work among the GCC to strengthen
      the regulatory framework to decrease and control the prevalence of these factors.

PMID- 28578689
TI  - Race and nativity are major determinants of tuberculosis in the U.S.: evidence of
      health disparities in tuberculosis incidence in Michigan, 2004-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of TB in Michigan was 1.5 per 100,000 people in 2012,
      roughly half the U.S. incidence. Despite successes in TB control, disparities in
      TB still exist in Michigan, particularly by race, age, and nativity. A major
      challenge in understanding disparities in TB burden is distinguishing between TB
      cases resulting from recent transmission and those resulting from reactivation of
      latent TB infection, information critical to tailoring control strategies. We
      examined nine-year trends in tuberculosis (TB) incidence patterns for the entire
      population of Michigan, and within demographic subgroups. METHODS: Using a cross
      sectional study of TB surveillance data, we analyzed 1254 TB cases reported in
      Michigan during 2004-2012. Cases included were those for whom both spoligotyping
      and 12-locus-MIRU-VNTR results were available. Using a combination of the
      genotyping information and time of diagnosis, we then classified cases as
      resulting from either recent transmission or reactivation of latent TB infection.
      We used multivariable negative binomial regression models to study trends in the
      TB incidence rate for the entire population and by race, nativity, gender, and
      age. RESULTS: Overall, the incidence rate of TB declined by an average of 8% per
      year-11% among recently transmitted cases, and 9% among reactivation cases. For
      recently transmitted disease, Blacks had an average incidence rate 25 times
      greater than Whites, after controlling for nativity, gender, and age. For disease
      resulting from latent TB infection Asians had an average incidence rate 24 times
      greater than Whites, after controlling for nativity, gender, and age.
      CONCLUSIONS: Disparities in incidence persist despite ongoing TB control efforts.
      Greater disparities were observed by race and nativity demonstrating some of the
      ways that TB incidence is socially patterned. Reducing these disparities will
      require a multi-faceted approach encompassing the social and environmental
      contexts of high-risk populations.

PMID- 28578690
TI  - Evaluation of treatment response and resistance in metastatic renal cell cancer
      (mRCC) using integrated 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission
      tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI); The REMAP study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are the first line standard of care for
      treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Accurate response assessment
      in the setting of antiangiogenic therapies remains suboptimal as standard size
      related response criteria do not necessarily accurately reflect clinical benefit,
      as they may be less pronounced or occur later in therapy than devascularisation.
      The challenge for imaging is providing timely assessment of disease status
      allowing therapies to be tailored to ensure ongoing clinical benefit. We propose
      that combined assessment of morphological, physiological and metabolic imaging
      parameters using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic
      resonance imaging (18F-FDG PET/MRI) will better reflect disease behaviour,
      improving assessment of response/non-response/relapse. METHODS/DESIGN: The REMAP
      study is a single-centre prospective observational study. Eligible patients with
      metastatic renal cell carcinoma, planned for systemic therapy, with at least 2
      lesions will undergo an integrated 18F-FDG PET and MRI whole body imaging with
      diffusion weighted and contrast-enhanced multiphasic as well as standard
      anatomical MRI sequences at baseline, 12 weeks and 24 weeks of systemic therapy
      allowing 18F-FDG standardised uptake value (SUV), apparent diffusion co-efficient
      (ADC) and normalised signal intensity (SI) parameters to be obtained. Standard of
      care contrast-enhanced computed tomography CT scans will be performed at
      equivalent time-points. CT response categorisation will be performed using RECIST
      1.1 and alternative (modified)Choi and MASS criteria. The reference standard for
      disease status will be by consensus panel taking into account clinical,
      biochemical and conventional imaging parameters. Intra- and inter-tumoural
      heterogeneity in vascular, diffusion and metabolic response/non-response will be
      assessed by image texture analysis. Imaging will also inform the development of
      computational methods for automated disease status categorisation. DISCUSSION:
      The REMAP study will demonstrate the ability of integrated 18F-FDG PET-MRI to
      provide a more personalised approach to therapy. We suggest that 18F-FDG PET/MRI
      will provide superior sensitivity and specificity in early response/non-response
      categorisation when compared to standard CT (using RECIST 1.1 and alternative
      (modified)Choi or MASS criteria) thus facilitating more timely and better
      informed treatment decisions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is approved by the
      Southeast London Research Ethics Committee reference 16/LO/1499 and registered on
      the NIHR clinical research network portfolio ISRCTN12114913 .

PMID- 28578691
TI  - Acute and chronic effects of aerobic exercise on blood pressure in resistant
      hypertension: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Resistant hypertension is a specific condition that affects
      approximately 10% of subjects with hypertension, and is characterized by
      persistently high blood pressure levels even using therapy of three or more
      antihypertensive agents or with blood pressure control using therapy with four or
      more antihypertensive agents. Changes in lifestyle, such as physical exercise,
      are indicated for controlling blood pressure. However, investigating studies
      about this therapy in individuals with resistant hypertension are few.
      METHODS/DESIGN: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial. Forty-eight
      patients with resistant hypertension will be submitted to perform four short-term
      interventions: aerobic exercise sessions (mild-, moderate- and high-intensity)
      and control session, in random order and on separate days. After the short-term
      sessions, the patients will be randomly allocated into four groups for 8 weeks of
      follow-up: mild-, moderate- and high-intensity aerobic exercise, and a control
      group. The primary outcome is the occurrence of blood pressure reduction (office
      and ambulatory analysis, and acute and chronic effects). Secondary outcomes are
      autonomic and hemodynamic mechanisms: cardiac and vasomotor autonomic modulation,
      spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity, forearm blood flow and vascular resistance.
      DISCUSSION: The importance of exercise for hypertension has been known for
      decades, but little is known about the effects on patients with resistant
      hypertension. This study will help to understand whether different aerobic
      exercise intensities can induce different responses, as well as by what
      mechanisms adjustments in blood pressure levels may occur. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02670681 . Registered on 28 January 2016 (first
      version); Brazilian Registry Platform Clinical Trials: protocol RBR-5q24zh .
      Registered on 24 June 2015.

PMID- 28578693
TI  - CDK4/6 inhibitor-SHR6390 exerts potent antitumor activity in esophageal squamous
      cell carcinoma by inhibiting phosphorylated Rb and inducing G1 cell cycle arrest.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cell cycle dysregulation is common in human malignancies, and CDK4/6
      inhibitors targeting cell cycle have potential antitumor activity. SHR6390 is a
      novel small molecule inhibitor specifically targeting the CDK4/6 pathway.
      However, the role of SHR6390 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains
      unknown, which will be investigated in our study. METHODS: Eca 109, Eca 9706, and
      KYSE-510 ESCC cell lines were chosen for further analysis. The effect of SHR6390
      on cell viability, cell cycle and cell apoptosis, the status of kinases in Cyclin
      D1-CDK4/6-Rb pathway were determined by MTS assay, flow cytometry, and western
      blotting, respectively. Cell-derived and patient-derived xenografts were
      established to investigate the effects of drugs in vivo. RESULTS: SHR6390 could
      suppress cell proliferation in vitro cell lines and inhibit tumor growth in vivo
      PDX models with different drug susceptibility. The effective treatment of SHR6390
      induced the inhibition of phosphorylated Rb and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase
      both in cell lines and in xenografts. SHR6390 combined with paclitaxel or
      cisplatin offered synergistic inhibitory effects in cell-derived xenografts
      especially in Eca 9706 xenografts which showed relative lower sensitivity of
      SHR6390 single. Moreover, low expression of CDK6 and/or high expression of Cyclin
      D1 might be associated with high sensitivity of SHR6390, which would be validated
      in the future. CONCLUSIONS: CDK4/6 inhibitor-SHR6390 exerted potential antitumor
      activity against ESCC cell lines and xenografts, and evaluation of CDK6 and
      Cyclin D1 expressions might be helpful to select patients beneficial from
      SHR6390, which provided evidences for future clinical trials.

PMID- 28578692
TI  - Comprehensive DNA methylation study identifies novel progression-related and
      prognostic markers for cutaneous melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer, with an increasing
      incidence and mortality rate. Currently, staging of patients with primary
      melanoma is performed using histological biomarkers such as tumor thickness and
      ulceration. As disruption of the epigenomic landscape is recognized as a
      widespread feature inherent in tumor development and progression, we aimed to
      identify novel biomarkers providing additional clinical information over current
      factors using unbiased genome-wide DNA methylation analyses. METHODS: We
      performed a comprehensive DNA methylation analysis during all progression stages
      of melanoma using Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips on a discovery cohort of
      benign nevi (n = 14) and malignant melanoma from both primary (n = 33) and
      metastatic (n = 28) sites, integrating the DNA methylome with gene expression
      data. We validated the discovered biomarkers in three independent validation
      cohorts by pyrosequencing and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: We identified and
      validated biomarkers for, and pathways involved in, melanoma development (e.g.,
      HOXA9 DNA methylation) and tumor progression (e.g., TBC1D16 DNA methylation). In
      addition, we determined a prognostic signature with potential clinical
      applicability and validated PON3 DNA methylation and OVOL1 protein expression as
      biomarkers with prognostic information independent of tumor thickness and
      ulceration. CONCLUSIONS: Our data underscores the importance of epigenomic
      regulation in triggering metastatic dissemination through the inactivation of
      central cancer-related pathways. Inactivation of cell-adhesion and
      differentiation unleashes dissemination, and subsequent activation of
      inflammatory and immune system programs impairs anti-tumoral defense pathways.
      Moreover, we identify several markers of tumor development and progression
      previously unrelated to melanoma, and determined a prognostic signature with
      potential clinical utility.

PMID- 28578695
TI  - SIRT1 ameliorates oxidative stress induced neural cell death and is down
      regulated in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sirtuins (SIRTs) are NAD+ dependent lysine deacetylases which are
      conserved from bacteria to humans and have been associated with longevity and
      lifespan extension. SIRT1, the best studied mammalian SIRT is involved in many
      physiological and pathological processes and changes in SIRT1 have been
      implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, with SIRT1 having a suggested
      protective role in Parkinson's disease. In this study, we determined the effect
      of SIRT1 on cell survival and alpha-synuclein aggregate formation in SH-SY5Y
      cells following oxidative stress. RESULTS: Over-expression of SIRT1 protected SH
      SY5Y cells from toxin induced cell death and the protection conferred by SIRT1
      was partially independent of its deacetylase activity, which was associated with
      the repression of NF-kB and cPARP expression. SIRT1 reduced the formation of
      alpha-synuclein aggregates but showed minimal co-localisation with alpha
      synuclein. In post-mortem brain tissue obtained from patients with Parkinson's
      disease, Parkinson's disease with dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and
      Alzheimer's disease, the activity of SIRT1 was observed to be down-regulated.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggests a negative effect of oxidative stress in
      neurodegenerative disorders and possibly explain the reduced activity of SIRT1 in
      neurodegenerative disorders. Our study shows that SIRT1 is a pro-survival protein
      that is downregulated under cellular stress.

PMID- 28578694
TI  - Worldwide legislative challenges related to psychoactive drugs.
AB  - The discovery of a "new" psychoactive substance is a relatively exceptional
      event, while the regulatory response usually involved the assessment of risks to
      public health and inclusion of the novel substance in the national list of
      controlled substances. However, in recent years we have witnessed the rapid
      emergence of new chemical substances, which elude international control and pose
      a challenge to existing processes and a threat to the credibility of control
      systems. We currently review and present characteristics of these legal and
      illegal new substances and issues regarding their global monitoring and
      regulatory measures already taken, or in the process of being taken, for their
      control. The concept of prohibition applied in active substance-related
      legislation is rather hazard ridden as balance is required between the ban on
      substances of potential therapeutic use and the access on the market of high-risk
      substances. Current and future laws regarding psychoactive compounds.

PMID- 28578696
TI  - Nasal delivery of nanoliposome-encapsulated ferric ammonium citrate can increase
      the iron content of rat brain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency in children can have significant neurological
      consequences, and iron supplementation is an effective treatment of choice.
      However, traditional routes of iron supplementation do not allow efficient iron
      delivery to the brain due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier. So an
      easily delivered iron formulation with high absorption efficiency potentially
      could find widespread application in iron deficient infants. RESULTS: In this
      study, we have developed and characterized a nanovesicular formulation of ferric
      ammonium citrate (ferric ammonium citrate nanoliposomes, FAC-LIP) and have shown
      that it can increase brain iron levels in rats following nasal administration.
      FAC was incorporated into liposomes with high efficiency (97%) and the liposomes
      were small (40 nm) and stable. Following intranasal delivery in rats, FAC-LIP
      significantly increased the iron content in the olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex,
      striatum, cerebellum and hippocampus, and was more efficient at doing so than FAC
      alone. No signs of apoptosis or abnormal cell morphology were observed in the
      brain following FAC-LIP administration, and there were no significant changes in
      the levels of SOD and MDA, except in the cerebellum and hippocampus. No obvious
      morphological changes were observed in lung epithelial cells or tracheal mucosa
      after nasal delivery, suggesting that the formulation was not overtly toxic.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this study, nanoscale FAC-LIP proved an effective system
      delivering iron to the brain, with high encapsulation efficiency and low toxicity
      in rats. Our studies provide the foundation for more detailed investigations into
      the applications of niosomal nasal delivery of liposomal formulations of iron as
      a simple and safe therapy for iron deficiency anemia. Graphical abstract The
      diagrammatic sketch of "Nasal delivery of nanoliposome-encapsulated ferric
      ammonium citrate can increase the iron content of rat brain". Nanoliposome
      encapsulated ferric ammonium citrate (FAC-LIP) was successfully prepared and
      intranasal administration of FAC-LIP increased both the total iron contents and
      iron storage protein (FTL) expression in rat olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex,
      striatum and hippocampus, compared with those of FAC groups. Moreover, there was
      not overtly toxic affects to brain, lung epithelial cells and tracheal mucosa.

PMID- 28578697
TI  - Contrasting impacts of ocean acidification and warming on the molecular responses
      of CO2-resilient oysters.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study characterises the molecular processes altered by both
      elevated CO2 and increasing temperature in oysters. Differences in resilience of
      marine organisms against the environmental stressors associated with climate
      change will have significant implications for the sustainability of coastal
      ecosystems worldwide. Some evidence suggests that climate change resilience can
      differ between populations within a species. B2 oysters represent a unique
      genetic resource because of their capacity to better withstand the impacts of
      elevated CO2 at the physiological level, compared to non-selected oysters from
      the same species (Saccostrea glomerata). Here, we used proteomic and
      transcriptomic analysis of gill tissue to evaluate whether the differential
      response of B2 oysters to elevated CO2 also extends to increased temperature.
      RESULTS: Substantial and distinctive effects on protein concentrations and gene
      expression were evident among B2 oysters responding to elevated CO2 or elevated
      temperature. The combination of both stressors also altered oyster gill proteomes
      and gene expression. However, the impacts of elevated CO2 and temperature were
      not additive or synergistic, and may be antagonistic. CONCLUSIONS: The data
      suggest that the simultaneous exposure of CO2-resilient oysters to near-future
      projected ocean pH and temperature results in complex changes in molecular
      processes in order to prevent stress-induced cellular damage. The differential
      response of B2 oysters to the combined stressors also indicates that the addition
      of thermal stress may impair the resilience of these oysters to decreased pH.
      Overall, this study reveals the intracellular mechanisms that might enable marine
      calcifiers to endure the emergent, adverse seawater conditions resulting from
      climate change.

PMID- 28578698
TI  - dictyExpress: a web-based platform for sequence data management and analytics in
      Dictyostelium and beyond.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dictyostelium discoideum, a soil-dwelling social amoeba, is a model
      for the study of numerous biological processes. Research in the field has
      benefited mightily from the adoption of next-generation sequencing for genomics
      and transcriptomics. Dictyostelium biologists now face the widespread challenges
      of analyzing and exploring high dimensional data sets to generate hypotheses and
      discovering novel insights. RESULTS: We present dictyExpress (2.0), a web
      application designed for exploratory analysis of gene expression data, as well as
      data from related experiments such as Chromatin Immunoprecipitation sequencing
      (ChIP-Seq). The application features visualization modules that include time
      course expression profiles, clustering, gene ontology enrichment analysis,
      differential expression analysis and comparison of experiments. All
      visualizations are interactive and interconnected, such that the selection of
      genes in one module propagates instantly to visualizations in other modules.
      dictyExpress currently stores the data from over 800 Dictyostelium experiments
      and is embedded within a general-purpose software framework for management of
      next-generation sequencing data. dictyExpress allows users to explore their data
      in a broader context by reciprocal linking with dictyBase-a repository of
      Dictyostelium genomic data. In addition, we introduce a companion application
      called GenBoard, an intuitive graphic user interface for data management and
      bioinformatics analysis. CONCLUSIONS: dictyExpress and GenBoard enable broad
      adoption of next generation sequencing based inquiries by the Dictyostelium
      research community. Labs without the means to undertake deep sequencing projects
      can mine the data available to the public. The entire information flow, from raw
      sequence data to hypothesis testing, can be accomplished in an efficient
      workspace. The software framework is generalizable and represents a useful
      approach for any research community. To encourage more wide usage, the backend is
      open-source, available for extension and further development by bioinformaticians
      and data scientists.

PMID- 28578699
TI  - Treating lung cancer with dynamic conformal arc therapy: a dosimetric study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung cancer patients are often in poor physical condition, and a
      shorter treatment time would reduce their discomfort. Dynamic conformal arc
      therapy (DCAT) offers a shorter treatment time than conventional 3D conformal
      radiotherapy (3D CRT) and is usually available even in departments without
      inverse planning possibilities. We examined its suitability as a treatment
      modality for lung cancer patients. METHODS: On a cohort of 35 lung cancer
      patients, relevant dosimetric parameters were compared in respective DCAT and 3D
      CRT treatment plans. Radiochromic film dosimetry in an anthropomorphic phantom
      was used to compare both DCAT and 3D CRT dose distributions against their planned
      counterparts. RESULTS: In comparison with their 3D CRT counterparts, DCAT plans
      equal or exceed the agreement between the calculated dose and the dose measured
      using film dosimetry. In dosimetric comparison, DCAT performed significantly
      better than 3D CRT in dose conformity to PTV and the number of monitor units used
      per plan, and significantly worse in dose homogeneity, mean lung dose and lung
      volume exposed to 5 Gy or more (V5Gy). No significant difference was found in the
      V20Gy value to lung, dose to 1 cm3 of spinal cord, and the mean dose to
      oesophagus. Improvements in V20Gy and V5Gy were found to be negatively
      correlated. DCAT plans differ from 3D CRT by exhibiting a moderate negative
      correlation between target volume sphericity and dose homogeneity. CONCLUSIONS:
      With respect to the agreement between the planned and the irradiated dose
      distribution, DCAT appears at least as reliable as 3D CRT. In specific conditions
      concerning the patient anatomy and treatment prescription, DCAT may yield more
      favourable dosimetric parameters. On average, however, conventional 3D CRT
      usually obtains better dosimetric parameters. We can thus only recommend DCAT as
      a complementary technique to the conventional 3D CRT.

PMID- 28578700
TI  - A rare presentation of an acute abdomen: an ileal diverticular perforation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This case report highlights the value of prompt intervention of
      diagnostic laparoscopy in a patient suspects of having an acute abdomen due to an
      intestinal perforation, where there is a limitation of performing Contrast
      Enhanced Computed Tomography of abdomen. A previously healthy young adult
      presenting with an acute abdomen due to a spontaneous ileal perforation, without
      any associated risk factors is a rare clinical entity in a developing country.
      Therefore, entertaining an early diagnosis will possibly prevent a fatal
      consequence. CASE PRESENTATION: A male patient, 29 years old, recently diagnosed
      as a young hypertensive without any associated factors, currently on
      antihypertensive treatment, was admitted to our hospital presenting with an acute
      severe abdominal pain. During initial assessment, the patient was febrile (101 
      degrees F), ill looking, tachycardic (pulse rate 121 bpm) with rapid shallow
      breathing. Abdominal examination reviled diffuse guarding and rigidity, more
      severe on right iliac fossa. Following history and clinical examination probable
      clinical diagnosis was made as an acute appendicitis with perforation. However,
      ultrasonography was found to have normal appendix. Contrast Enhanced Computed
      Tomography was not performed as a subsequent investigation because of the
      impairment of renal functions of this patient. Though, non-contrast CT would have
      been ascertained more diagnostic yield, given the critically ill status of this
      patient we decided to perform urgent diagnostic laparoscopy. It reviled pus in
      several abdominal cavities and dense adhesions. Therefore, the procedure was
      converted to a laparotomy and found to have an ileal perforation with diffuse
      peritoneal contamination. Diseased ileal segment was resected and anastomosed.
      Followed by peritoneal lavage. CONCLUSION: Ileal perforation due to diverticular
      disease in a healthy young adult is rare. This case report highlights the
      importance of considering this clinical entity as a differential diagnosis, the
      value of early diagnostic laparoscopy, especially in clinical settings with
      limitations to CT scan, since late diagnosis can give rise to fatal outcome.

PMID- 28578701
TI  - Distinct pathophysiological cytokine profiles for discrimination between
      autoimmune pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Discriminating between autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP), chronic
      pancreatitis (CP), and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) can be
      challenging. In this retrospective study, levels of serum and tissue cytokines
      were analyzed as part of the clinical strategy for the preoperative
      differentiation between AIP and PDAC. The identification of differential cytokine
      profiles may help to prevent unnecessary surgical resection and allow optimal
      treatment of these pathologies. METHODS: To compare the cytokine profiles of AIP,
      CP, and PDAC patients, serum and pancreatic tissue homogenates were subjected to
      multiplex analysis of 17 inflammatory mediators. In total, serum from 73
      patients, composed of 29 AIP (14 AIP-1 and 15 AIP-2), 17 CP, and 27 PDAC, and
      pancreatic tissue from 36 patients, including 12 AIP (six AIP-1 and six AIP-2),
      12 CP, and 12 PDAC, were analyzed. RESULTS: Comparing AIP and PDAC patients'
      serum, significantly higher concentrations were found in AIP for interleukins IL
      1beta, IL-7, IL-13, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). G-CSF also
      allowed discrimination of AIP from CP. Furthermore, once AIP was divided into
      subtypes, significantly higher serum levels for IL-7 and G-CSF were measured in
      both subtypes of AIP and in AIP-2 for IL-1beta when compared to PDAC. G-CSF and
      TNF-alpha were also significantly differentially expressed in tissue homogenates
      between AIP-2 and PDAC. CONCLUSIONS: The cytokines IL-1beta, IL-7, and G-CSF can
      be routinely measured in patients' serum, providing an elegant and non-invasive
      approach for differential diagnosis. G-CSF is a good candidate to supplement the
      currently known serum markers in predictive tests for AIP and represents a basis
      for a combined blood test to differentiate AIP and particularly AIP-2 from PDAC,
      enhancing the possibility of appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28578702
TI  - Supplementation of Syzygium cumini seed powder prevented obesity, glucose
      intolerance, hyperlipidemia and oxidative stress in high carbohydrate high fat
      diet induced obese rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and related complications have now became epidemic both in
      developed and developing countries. Cafeteria type diet mainly composed of high
      fat high carbohydrate components which plays a significant role in the
      development of obesity and metabolic syndrome. This study investigated the effect
      of Syzygium cumini seed powder on fat accumulation and dyslipidemia in high
      carbohydrate high fat diet (HCHF) induced obese rats. METHOD: Male Wistar rats
      were fed with HCHF diet ad libitum, and the rats on HCHF diet were supplemented
      with Syzygium cumini seed powder for 56 days (2.5% w/w of diet). Oral glucose
      tolerance test, lipid parameters, liver marker enzymes (AST, ALT and ALP) and
      lipid peroxidation products were analyzed at the end of 56 days. Moreover,
      antioxidant enzyme activities were also measured in all groups of rats. RESULTS:
      Supplementation with Syzygium cumini seed powder significantly reduced body
      weight gain, white adipose tissue (WAT) weights, blood glucose, serum insulin,
      and plasma lipids such as total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL and HDL
      concentration. Syzygium cumini seed powder supplementation in HCHF rats improved
      serum aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT), and
      alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities. Syzygium cumini seed powder
      supplementation also reduced the hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances
      (TBARS) and elevated the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
      catalase (CAT) activities as well as increased glutathione (GSH) concentration.
      In addition, histological assessment showed that Syzygium cumini seed powder
      supplementation prevented inflammatory cell infiltration; fatty droplet
      deposition and fibrosis in liver of HCHFD fed rats. CONCLUSION: Our investigation
      suggests that Syzygium cumini seed powder supplementation prevents oxidative
      stress and showed anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic activity in liver of HCHF
      diet fed rats. In addition, Syzygium cumini seed powder may be beneficial in
      ameliorating insulin resistance and dyslipidemia probably by increasing lipid
      metabolism in liver of HCHF diet fed rats.

PMID- 28578703
TI  - Effects of platelet rich plasma (PRP) on human gingival fibroblast, osteoblast
      and periodontal ligament cell behaviour.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of platelet rich plasma (PRP, GLO) has been used as an
      adjunct to various regenerative dental procedures. The aim of the present study
      was to characterize the influence of PRP on human gingival fibroblasts,
      periodontal ligament (PDL) cells and osteoblast cell behavior in vitro. METHODS:
      Human gingival fibroblasts, PDL cells and osteoblasts were cultured with
      conditioned media from PRP and investigated for cell migration, proliferation and
      collagen1 (COL1) immunostaining. Furthermore, gingival fibroblasts were tested
      for genes encoding TGF-beta, PDGF and COL1a whereas PDL cells and osteoblasts
      were additionally tested for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, alizarin red
      staining and mRNA levels of osteoblast differentiation markers including Runx2,
      COL1a2, ALP and osteocalcin (OCN). RESULTS: It was first found that PRP
      significantly increased cell migration of all cells up to 4 fold. Furthermore,
      PRP increased cell proliferation at 3 and 5 days of gingival fibroblasts, and at
      3 days for PDL cells, whereas no effect was observed on osteoblasts. Gingival
      fibroblasts cultured with PRP increased TGF-beta, PDGF-B and COL1 mRNA levels at
      7 days and further increased over 3-fold COL1 staining at 14 days. PDL cells
      cultured with PRP increased Runx2 mRNA levels but significantly down-regulated
      OCN mRNA levels at 3 days. No differences in COL1 staining or ALP staining were
      observed in PDL cells. Furthermore, PRP decreased mineralization of PDL cells at
      14 days post seeding as assessed by alizarin red staining. In osteoblasts, PRP
      increased COL1 staining at 14 days, increased COL1 and ALP at 3 days, as well as
      increased ALP staining at 14 days. No significant differences were observed for
      alizarin red staining of osteoblasts following culture with PRP. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results demonstrate that PRP promoted gingival fibroblast migration,
      proliferation and mRNA expression of pro-wound healing molecules. While PRP
      induced PDL cells and osteoblast migration and proliferation, it tended to have
      little to no effect on osteoblast differentiation. Therefore, while the effects
      seem to favor soft tissue regeneration, the additional effects of PRP on hard
      tissue formation of PDL cells and osteoblasts could not be fully confirmed in the
      present in vitro culture system.

PMID- 28578704
TI  - Dietary supplementation with n-3-fatty acids in patients with pancreatic cancer
      and cachexia: marine phospholipids versus fish oil - a randomized controlled
      double-blind trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Like many other cancer patients, most pancreatic carcinoma patients
      suffer from severe weight loss. As shown in numerous studies with fish oil (FO)
      supplementation, a minimum daily intake of 1.5 g n-3-fatty acids (n-3-FA)
      contributes to weight stabilization and improvement of quality of life (QoL) of
      cancer patients. Given n-3-FA not as triglycerides (FO), but mainly bound to
      marine phospholipids (MPL), weight stabilization and improvement of QoL has
      already been seen at much lower doses of n-3-FA (0,3 g), and MPL were much better
      tolerated. The objective of this double-blind randomized controlled trial was to
      compare low dose MPL and FO formulations, which had the same n-3-FA amount and
      composition, on weight and appetite stabilization, global health enhancement
      (QoL), and plasma FA-profiles in patients suffering from pancreatic cancer.
      METHODS: Sixty pancreatic cancer patients were included into the study and
      randomized to take either FO- or MPL supplementation. Patients were treated with
      0.3 g of n-3-fatty acids per day over six weeks. Since the n-3-FA content of FO
      is usually higher than that of MPL, FO was diluted with 40% of medium chain
      triglycerides (MCT) to achieve the same capsule size in both intervention groups
      and therefore assure blinding. Routine blood parameters, lipid profiles, body
      weight, and appetite were measured before and after intervention. Patient
      compliance was assessed through a patient diary. Quality of life and nutritional
      habits were assessed with validated questionnaires (EORTC-QLQ-C30, PAN26). Thirty
      one patients finalized the study protocol and were analyzed (per-protocol
      analysis). RESULTS: Intervention with low dose n-3-FAs, either as FO or MPL
      supplementation, resulted in similar and promising weight and appetite
      stabilization in pancreatic cancer patients. MPL capsules were slightly better
      tolerated and showed fewer side effects, when compared to FO supplementation.
      CONCLUSION: The similar effects between both interventions were unexpected but
      reliable, since the MPL and FO formulations caused identical increases of n-3-FAs
      in plasma lipids of included patients after supplementation. The effects of FO
      with very low n-3-FA content might be explained by the addition of MCT. The
      results of this study suggest the need for further investigations of marine
      phospholipids for the improvement of QoL of cancer patients, optionally in
      combination with MCT.

PMID- 28578706
TI  - Nutritional status of preschool children attending kindergartens in Kosovo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is very limited data on malnutrition of preschool children in
      Kosovo. The main objective of the study is to provide a nutritional status
      profile of preschool children attending kindergartens in Kosovo. METHODS: Cross
      sectional study of children aged 12-59 months (n = 352 children) and children
      aged 60-83 months (n = 134) enrolled in public and private kindergartens of
      Kosovo. Anthropometric measurements used for this study are weight and height of
      the preschoolers (12-83 months). A measuring board was used for measuring the
      length/height of children younger than 2 years, while digital weight and height
      scale Seca 763 was used for measuring of preschool children taller than 110 and
      Seca 213 was used for measuring the height for children who were shorter than 110
      cm. Statistical analyses of underweight and overweight trends across sex and age
      groups as well as between children from public and private kindergartens were
      carried out. Qualitative variables were tested with a chi-square test. The
      differences between groups were assessed with a Student t test for normally
      distributed variables and a Mann-Whitney test for abnormally distributed
      numerical variables. RESULTS: The mean z-scores for weight-for-age, height-for
      age, weight-for-height, and BMI-for-age largely fell within 0.0 and 1.0. The
      percentage of stunted children is 3%, whereas child wasting is 1.9%. The overall
      percentage of obese children is 2.3%; furthermore, 8.9% are overweight and 27.3%
      have a possible risk of being overweight. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of children
      underweight is slightly decreasing. The prevalence of overweight and obese
      children in sample chosen is evident.

PMID- 28578705
TI  - Prediction of long-term clinical outcomes using simple functional exercise
      performance tests in patients with COPD: a 5-year prospective cohort study.
AB  - The 1-min sit-to-stand (1-min STS) test and handgrip strength test have been
      proposed as simple tests of functional exercise performance in chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. We assessed the long-term (5-year)
      predictive performance of the 1-min sit-to-stand and handgrip strength tests for
      mortality, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and exacerbations in COPD
      patients. In 409 primary care patients, we found the 1-min STS test to be
      strongly associated with long-term morality (hazard ratio per 3 more repetitions:
      0.81, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.86) and moderately associated with long-term HRQoL.
      Neither test was associated with exacerbations. Our results suggest that the 1
      min STS test may be useful for assessing the health status and long-term
      prognosis of COPD patients. This study was registered at
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ (NCT00706602, 25 June 2008).

PMID- 28578707
TI  - Meristem culture and subsequent micropropagation of Chilean strawberry (Fragaria
      chiloensis (L.) Duch.).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vegetative propagation of Fragaria sp. is traditionally carried out
      using stolons. This system of propagation, in addition to being slow, can spread
      plant diseases, particularly serious being viral. In vitro culture of meristems
      and the establishment of micropropagation protocols are important tools for
      solving these problems. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to
      develop in vitro propagation of the commercial strawberry in order to produce
      virus-free plants of high quality. These previous results can serve as the basis
      for developing in vitro-based propagation technologies in the less studied
      species Fragaria chiloensis. RESULTS: In this context, we studied the cultivation
      of meristems and establishment of a micropropagation protocol for F. chiloensis.
      The addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) improved the meristem regeneration
      efficiency of F. chiloensis accessions. Similarly, the use of 6-benzylaminopurine
      (BAP) in the culture media increased the average rate of multiplication to 3-6
      shoots per plant. In addition, the use of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), had low
      levels (near zero) of explant losses due to oxidation. However, plant height as
      well as number of leaves and roots were higher in media without growth
      regulators, with average values of 0.5 cm, 9 leaves and 4 roots per plant.
      CONCLUSIONS: For the first time in Chilean strawberry, meristem culture
      demonstrated to be an efficient tool for eliminating virus from infected plants,
      giving the possibility to produce disease free propagation material. Also, the
      addition of PVP into the basal MS medium improved the efficiency of plant
      recovery from isolated meristems. Farmers can now access to high quality plant
      material produced by biotech tools which will improve their technological
      practices.

PMID- 28578708
TI  - Effects of neurally adjusted ventilatory assist on air distribution and dead
      space in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) could improve patient
      ventilator interaction; its effects on ventilation distribution and dead space
      are still unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of varying
      levels of assist during NAVA and pressure support ventilation (PSV) on
      ventilation distribution and dead space in patients with acute exacerbation of
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). METHODS: Fifteen mechanically
      ventilated patients with AECOPD were included in the study. The initial PSV
      levels were set to 10 cmH2O for 10 min. Thereafter, the ventilator mode was
      changed to NAVA for another 10 min with the same electrical activity of the
      diaphragm as during PSV. Furthermore, the ventilation mode was switched between
      PSV and NAVA every 10 min in the following order: PSV 5 cmH2O; NAVA 50%; PSV 15
      cmH2O; and NAVA 150% (relative to the initial NAVA support level). Ventilation
      distribution in the lung was evaluated in percentages in regions of interest
      (ROI) of four anteroposterior segments of equal height (ROI1 to ROI4 represents
      ventral, mid-ventral, mid-dorsal, and dorsal, respectively). Blood gases,
      ventilation distribution (electrical impedance tomography), diaphragm activity (B
      mode ultrasonography), and dead space fraction (PeCO2 and PaCO2) were measured.
      RESULTS: The trigger and cycle delays were lower during NAVA than during PSV. The
      work of trigger was significantly lower during NAVA compared to PSV. The
      diaphragm activities based on ultrasonography were higher during NAVA compared to
      the same support level during PSV. The ventilation distribution in ROI4 increased
      significantly (P < 0.05) during NAVA compared to PSV (except for a support level
      of 50%). Similar results were found in ROI3 + 4. NAVA reduced dead space fraction
      compared to the corresponding support level of PSV. CONCLUSIONS: NAVA was
      superior to PSV in AECOPD for increasing ventilation distribution in ROI4 and
      reducing dead space. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02289573 .
      Registered on 12 November 2014.

PMID- 28578709
TI  - Genetic diversity of Plasmodium Vivax revealed by the merozoite surface protein-1
      icb5-6 fragment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Plasmodium vivax remains a potential cause of morbidity and mortality
      for people living in its endemic areas. Understanding the genetic diversity of P.
      vivax from different regions is valuable for studying population dynamics and
      tracing the origins of parasites. The PvMSP-1 gene is highly polymorphic and has
      been used as a marker in many P. vivax population studies. The aim of this study
      was to investigate the genetic diversity of the PvMSP-1 gene icb5-6 fragment and
      to provide more genetic polymorphism data for further studies on P. vivax
      population structure and tracking of the origin of clinical cases. METHODS:
      Nested PCR and sequencing of the PvMSP-1 icb5-6 marker were performed to obtain
      the nucleotide sequences of 95 P. vivax isolates collected from Zhejiang
      province, China. To investigate the genetic diversity of PvMSP-1, the 95
      nucleotide sequences of the PvMSP-1 icb5-6 fragment were genotyped and analyzed
      using DnaSP v5, MEGA software. RESULTS: The 95 P. vivax isolates collected from
      Zhejiang province were either indigenous cases or imported cases from different
      regions around the world. A total of 95 sequences ranging from 390 to 460 bp were
      obtained. The 95 sequences were genotyped into four allele-types (Sal I, Belem, R
      III and R-IV) and 17 unique haplotypes. R-III and Sal I were the predominant
      allele-types. The haplotype diversity (Hd) and nucleotide diversity (Pi) were
      estimated to be 0.729 and 0.062, indicating that the PvMSP-1 icb5-6 fragment had
      the highest level of polymorphism due to frequent recombination processes and
      single nucleotide polymorphism. The values of dN/dS and Tajima's D both suggested
      neutral selection for the PvMSP-1icb5-6 fragment. In addition, a rare recombinant
      style of R-IV type was identified. CONCLUSIONS: This study presented high genetic
      diversity in the PvMSP-1 marker among P. vivax strains from around the world. The
      genetic data is valuable for expanding the polymorphism information on P. vivax,
      which could be helpful for further study on population dynamics and tracking the
      origin of P. vivax.

PMID- 28578710
TI  - Compliance with Clostridium difficile treatment guidelines: effect on patient
      outcomes.
AB  - Guidelines for the severity classification and treatment of Clostridium difficile
      infection (CDI) were published by Infectious Diseases Society of America
      (IDSA)/Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) in 2010; however,
      compliance and efficacy of these guidelines has not been widely investigated.
      This present study assessed compliance with guidelines and its effect on CDI
      patient outcomes as compared with before these recommendations. A retrospective
      study included all adult inpatients with an initial episode of CDI treated in a
      single academic center from January 2009 to August 2014. Patients after guideline
      publication were compared with patients treated in 2009-2010. Demographic,
      clinical, and laboratory data were collected to stratify for disease severity.
      Outcome measures included compliance with guidelines, mortality, length of stay
      (LOS), and surgical intervention for CDI. A total of 1021 patients with CDI were
      included. Based upon the 2010 guidelines, 42 (28.8%) of 146 patients treated in
      2009 would have been considered undertreated, and treatment progressively
      improved over time, as inadequate treatment decreased to 10.0% (15/148 patients)
      in 2014 (P = 0.0005). Overall, patient outcomes with guideline-adherent treatment
      decreased CDI attributable mortality twofold (P = 0.006) and CDI-related LOS by
      1.9 days (P = 0.0009) when compared with undertreated patients. Compliance with
      IDSA/SHEA guidelines was associated with a decreased risk of mortality and LOS in
      hospitalized patients with CDI.

PMID- 28578711
TI  - HOSPITAL-BASED HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT FOR THE ADOPTION OF INNOVATIVE
      MEDICAL DEVICES WITHIN FRENCH HOSPITALS: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR
      INDUSTRY.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Within French university hospitals, some internal committees are in
      charge of conducting hospital-based health technology assessment (Hb-HTA) to
      support managerial decisions regarding the adoption of innovations. For
      manufacturers, hospitals are usually the entry point for new and innovative
      medical devices, which cannot be accessed without the Hb-HTA committees'
      approval. Thus, the main objective of this pilot survey was to explore
      manufacturers' insights into Hb-HTA processes. METHODS: A two-step pilot survey
      was conducted in 2014. First, semi-structured phone interviews were carried out
      to capture manufacturers' feedback on the Hb-HTA procedure. Second, a prospective
      and iterative questionnaire designed to explore manufacturers' market access
      strategies was administered. RESULTS: Eight manufacturers from the medical device
      industry completed the retrospective phone interviews, and five of them
      participated in the prospective survey. According to the overall feedback, the Hb
      HTA process timeline and transparency are major issues, and the expectations of
      internal committees, especially in terms of clinical evidence, remain difficult
      to understand. However, despite this and due to the complexity of reimbursement
      processes at the national level, manufacturers are increasingly considering
      hospital adoption through Hb-HTA submission as a viable market access and
      coverage opportunity. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reaffirms the primary role of
      hospitals in the diffusion of innovative medical devices. However, to ensure
      efficient and broad access to innovation, cooperation between local and national
      HTA bodies is critical and should be promoted.

PMID- 28578712
TI  - PHARMACOECONOMIC STUDIES IN WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
      COUNTRIES: REPORTING COMPLETENESS.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of reporting
      necessary information in published health economic research in World Health
      Organization Eastern Mediterranean Countries (WHO EMC). METHODS: A systematic
      literature search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar to identify
      pharmacoeconomic studies conducted in WHO EMC. The inclusion criteria for the
      studies were: (i) original studies, (ii) compared pharmaceutical services or
      drugs, (iii) conducted in WHO EMC, (iv) manuscript published in English. The
      articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers using the Consolidated Health
      Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) checklist. RESULTS: A total of
      seventeen studies were included, each of which were published in seventeen
      different journals. The mean CHEERS checklist score was 16 +/- 4. Most studies
      were published in journals outside WHO EMC (n = 12; 71 percent). Cost
      effectiveness (n = 5; 29 percent) and cost-utility analyses (n = 5; 29 percent)
      were the most frequently used methods of economic evaluation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Pharmacoeconomic studies in WHO EMC are limited and sometimes incomplete.
      Economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals should be encouraged in WHO EMC to ensure
      the appropriate allocation of healthcare resources.

PMID- 28578714
TI  - INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN INDIA: THE MODERATING
      INFLUENCE OF CONFLICTING FERTILITY PREFERENCES AND CONTRACEPTIVE INTENTIONS.
AB  - Several studies report that women exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are
      less likely to use contraception, but the evidence that violence consistently
      constrains contraceptive use is inconclusive. One plausible explanation for this
      ambiguity is that the effects of violence on contraceptive use depend on whether
      couples are likely to have conflicting attitudes to it. In particular, although
      some men may engage in violence to prevent their partners from using
      contraception, they are only likely to do so if they have reason to oppose its
      use. Using a longitudinal follow-up to the Indian National Family Health Survey
      (NFHS-2), conducted among a sample of rural, married women of childbearing age,
      this study investigated whether the relationship between IPV and contraceptive
      use is contingent on whether women's contraceptive intentions contradict men's
      fertility preferences. Results indicate that women experiencing IPV are less
      likely to undergo sterilization, but only if they intended to use contraception
      and their partners wanted more children (Average Marginal Effect (AME)=-0.06; CI=
      0.10, -0.01). Violence had no effect on sterilization among women who did not
      plan to use contraception (AME=-0.02; CI=-0.06, 0.03) or whose spouses did not
      want more children (AME=-0.01; CI=-0.9, 0.06). These results imply that violence
      enables some men to resolve disagreements over the use of contraception by
      imposing their fertility preferences on their partners. They also indicate that
      unmet need for contraception could be an intended consequence of violence.

PMID- 28578713
TI  - Delayed-onset haematoma formation after cochlear implantation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper presents our experience on delayed-onset haematoma
      formation after cochlear implantation, a topic which has not been well discussed
      in the literature. METHOD: Retrospective case review study. RESULTS: Five
      children who had undergone cochlear implant surgery at 1.5 to 4 years of age
      (median, 2.5 years) were studied. The haematoma episodes occurred 2-12 years
      (median, 6 years) after cochlear implantation. Two patients had recurrent
      episodes. Two of the seven haematoma episodes were managed by needle aspiration
      alone, four by incision and drainage alone, and one by both needle aspiration and
      incision and drainage. Other than one patient with coagulopathy, there were no
      obvious predisposing factors, including trauma. CONCLUSION: The majority of
      delayed-onset haematomas occurred without obvious predisposing factors. Needle
      aspiration can differentiate a haematoma from an abscess or cerebrospinal fluid
      leakage, and it provides an effective immediate therapeutic solution. However,
      aseptic techniques are emphasised to minimise the chances of an uncomplicated
      haematoma converting into a septic one.

PMID- 28578715
TI  - MEDIATION MODELS OF PREGNANCY DESIRES AND UNPLANNED PREGNANCY IN YOUNG, UNMARRIED
      WOMEN.
AB  - SummaryThis paper examines the proposition that sexual and contraceptive
      behaviours mediate the relationship between the pregnancy desires of young,
      unmarried women and their having an unplanned pregnancy. The sample consisted of
      854 18- to 19-year-old women living in Michigan, USA. First, the positive and
      negative pregnancy desires of these women were measured, as were the women's
      perceptions of the positive and negative desires of their sexual partners. Then
      the extent to which these four types of desires, as well as several types of
      interactions between them, prospectively predicted the occurrence of subsequent
      pregnancies were tested with logistic regression analyses, initially alone and
      then after the addition of several types of sexual and contraceptive mediator
      variables. The results demonstrated that four of the ten significant motivational
      predictors became non-significant following the introduction of the contraceptive
      mediator variables and that the predictive strength of the other six significant
      motivational predictors was substantially reduced by their introduction. A number
      of factors that may account for only a partial mediational effect in some models
      are discussed.

PMID- 28578717
TI  - Biological traits and the complex of parasitoids of the elm pest Orchestes
      steppensis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Xinjiang, China.
AB  - The flee-weevil Orchestes steppensis Korotyaev (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a
      steppe eastern Palaearctic species, notable as a serious pest of elms (Ulmus
      spp., Ulmaceae), by feeding on the leaves (adults) or mining them heavily
      (larvae), especially of Ulmus pumila L. in Xinjiang, China. We have corrected the
      previous misidentifications of this weevil in China as O. alni (L.) or O.
      mutabilis Boheman and demonstrated that it is likely to be an invasive species in
      Xinjiang. Prior to this study, natural enemies of O. steppensis were unknown in
      Xinjiang. Resulting from field investigation and rearing in the laboratory during
      2013-2016, seven parasitoid species were found to be primary and solitary,
      attacking larval and pupal stages of the host weevil. Pteromalus sp. 2 is the
      dominant species and also is the most competitive among the seven parasitoids,
      which could considered to be a perspective biological control agent of O.
      steppensis. Yet, the current control of this pest by the local natural enemies in
      Xinjiang is still currently inefficient, even though in 2016 parasitism was about
      36% on U. pumila in Urumqi, so the potential for a classical biological control
      program against it needs to be further investigated, including an assessment of
      its parasitoids and other natural enemies in the native range of O. steppensis.
      The presented information on the natural enemies of this weevil can be also
      important for a potential classical biological control program against it in
      North America (Canada and USA), where it is a highly damaging and rapidly
      spreading invasive species.

PMID- 28578716
TI  - Univariate and multivariate models for the prediction of life-threatening
      complications in 586 cases of deep neck space infections: retrospective multi
      institutional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify deep neck infection factors related to life-threatening
      complications. METHODS: This retrospective multi-institutional study comprised
      586 patients treated for deep neck infections between 2002 and 2012. The
      statistical significance of variables associated with life-threatening
      complications of deep neck infections was assessed. RESULTS: During treatment,
      life-threatening complications occurred in 60 out of 586 cases. On univariate
      analysis, life-threatening complications were linked to: dyspnoea, neck movement
      disturbance and dysphonia (all p < 0.001); and parapharyngeal, anterior visceral
      or pretracheal deep neck involvement (all p < 0.002). Aetiology was significantly
      linked to tonsils (p < 0.001). Regarding infection type, fasciitis was a
      significant factor (p < 0.001). Candida albicans was a significant bacterial
      culture (p < 0.001). A multivariate step-wise model disclosed fewer significant
      variables: retropharyngeal space (p = 0.005) and major blood vessels area (p =
      0.006) involvement, and bacterial culture C albicans (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It
      can be predicted that patients with deep neck infections, with neck movement
      disturbances, dysphonia, dyspnoea and swelling of the external neck, accompanied
      by severe pain, and inflammatory changes in the retropharyngeal space and large
      vessel areas, with culture-confirmed infection of C albicans, are likely to
      develop life-threatening complications.

PMID- 28578719
TI  - Stress sensitivity in paranoia: poor-me paranoia protects against the unpleasant
      effects of social stress.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The attributional theory of paranoia suggests that paranoid beliefs
      may protect individuals from low self-esteem and distress (Bentall et al. 2001).
      The current study tested this theory by investigating a hypothesis that paranoid
      beliefs in combination with low perceived deservedness of persecution (poor-me
      beliefs) confer protection against the distress caused by social but not activity
      related stress. METHODS: Paranoid symptoms, perceived deservedness of
      persecution, self-esteem, mood, and stress levels of individuals diagnosed with
      schizophrenia spectrum disorders (N = 91) and healthy controls (N = 52) were
      assessed in the context of daily life using the experience sampling method.
      RESULTS: Individuals holding poor-me beliefs (poor-me individuals) showed blunted
      sensitivity to social but not activity stress. In contrast, individuals holding
      paranoid beliefs in combination with high perceived deservedness of persecution
      (bad-me individuals) showed heightened sensitivity to social stress. No
      consistent differences in reactions to activity stress emerged. Although both
      poor-me and bad-me individuals reported low self-esteem, this disturbance was
      particularly characteristic of bad-me individuals. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      suggest that poor-me paranoid beliefs may protect individuals against the
      distress associated with unpleasant social situations. The specificity of
      reactions to social stress is discussed in the context of wider literature.
      Future directions for research are suggested.

PMID- 28578718
TI  - Prokaryotic functional expression and activity comparison of three CYP9A genes
      from the polyphagous pest Helicoverpa armigera.
AB  - Cytochrome P450s (CYPs or P450s) have been long recognized as very important
      enzymes in the metabolism of xenobiotic and endogenous compounds, but only a few
      CYPs have been functionally characterized in insects. The effort in functional
      characterization of insect P450s is heavily hindered by technical difficulties in
      preparing active, individual P450 enzymes directly from the target insect. In
      this paper, we describe the functional expression of two additional pyrethroid
      resistance-associated CYP9A genes (CYP9A12 and CYP9A17) from the polyphagous pest
      Helicoverpa armigera in the facile Escherichia coli. The functionality of E. coli
      produced CYP9A12, CYP9A14, and CYP9A17 was investigated and activities of these
      CYP9As were compared against three probe substrates after reconstitution with
      NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 reductase. The results showed that active forms
      of CYP9A12 and CYP9A17 were expressed in E. coli with a content of about 1.0-1.5
      nmol mg-1 protein in membrane preparations. In vitro assays showed that CYP9A14
      was capable of catalyzing O-dealkylation of methoxyresorufin (MROD),
      ethoxyresorufin (EROD), and benzyloxyresorufin (BROD), while CYP9A12 and CYP9A17
      exhibited only MROD and EROD activities. Kinetic studies demonstrated that
      CYP9A14 had the greatest k cat/K m value for MROD, and CYP9A17 for EROD, while
      the lowest k cat/K m values for both MROD and EROD were observed for CYP9A12. The
      distinct biochemical traits suggest that the three paralogous CYP9As may play
      different roles in xenobiotic metabolism in this important pest.

PMID- 28578720
TI  - Cochrane Review Summary: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for the detection
      of dementia in clinically unevaluated people aged 65 and over in community and
      primary care populations.

PMID- 28578721
TI  - Energy and protein requirements of Santa Ines lambs, a breed of hair sheep.
AB  - An experiment was carried to evaluate the energy and protein requirements for the
      growth and maintenance of lambs of different sex classes. In all, 38 hair lambs
      (13.0+/-1.49 kg initial BW and 2 months old) were allocated in a factorial design
      with diet restriction levels (ad libitum, 30% and 60% feed restriction) and sex
      classes (castrated and non-castrated males). Four animals from each sex class
      were slaughtered at the beginning of the trial as a reference group to estimate
      the initial empty BW and body composition. The remaining lambs were weighed
      weekly to calculate BW gain (BWG), and when the animals fed ad libitum reached an
      average BW of 30 kg, all of the experimental animals were slaughtered. Before
      slaughter, fasted BW (FBW) was determined after 18 h without feed and water. Feed
      restriction induced reductions in body fat and energy concentration, whereas
      water restriction showed the opposite effect, and the protein concentration was
      not affected. The increase in BW promoted increases in body fat and energy
      content, and these increases were greater in castrated lambs, whereas the protein
      content was similar between classes tending to stabilize. The net energy required
      for gain (NEg) and the net protein required for gain (NPg) were not affected by
      sex class; therefore, an equation was generated for the combined results of both
      castrated and non-castrated lambs. The NEg varied from 1.13 to 2.01 MJ/day for
      lambs with BW of 15 and 30 kg and BWG of 200 g. The NPg varied from 24.57 to
      16.33 g/day for lambs with BW of 15 and 30 kg and BWG of 200 g. The metabolizable
      energy efficiency for gain (k g) was 0.37, and the metabolizable protein
      efficiency for gain (k pg) was 0.28. The net energy required for maintenance
      (NEm) and the net requirement of protein for maintenance (NPm) did not differ
      between castrated and non-castrated lambs, with values of 0.241 MJ/kg FBW0.75 per
      day and 1.30 g/kg FBW0.75 per day, respectively. The metabolizable energy
      efficiency for maintenance (k m) was 0.60, and the efficiency of metabolizable
      protein use for maintenance (k pm) was 0.57. Nutritional requirements for growth
      and maintenance did not differ between castrated and non-castrated lambs. This
      study emphasizes the importance of updating the tables of international
      committees and of including data obtained from studies with sheep breeds raised
      in tropical conditions, with the purpose of improving the productive efficiency
      of the animals.

PMID- 28578722
TI  - A Comprehensive Approach Towards Optimizing the Xenon Plasma Focused Ion Beam
      Instrument for Semiconductor Failure Analysis Applications.
AB  - The xenon plasma focused ion beam instrument (PFIB), holds significant promise in
      expanding the applications of focused ion beams in new technology thrust areas.
      In this paper, we have explored the operational characteristics of a Tescan FERA3
      XMH PFIB instrument with the aim of meeting current and future challenges in the
      semiconductor industry. A two part approach, with the first part aimed at
      optimizing the ion column and the second optimizing specimen preparation, has
      been undertaken. Detailed studies characterizing the ion column, optimizing for
      high-current/high mill rate activities, have been described to support a better
      understanding of the PFIB. In addition, a novel single-crystal sacrificial mask
      method has been developed and implemented for use in the PFIB. Using this
      combined approach, we have achieved high-quality images with minimal artifacts,
      while retaining the shorter throughput times of the PFIB. Although the work
      presented in this paper has been performed on a specific instrument, the authors
      hope that these studies will provide general insight to direct further
      improvement of PFIB design and applications.

PMID- 28578723
TI  - Pertussis diagnosis in Belgium: results of the National Reference Centre for
      Bordetella anno 2015.
AB  - In 2015, the Belgian National Reference Centre for Bordetella analyzed 4110
      respiratory samples by qPCR and 4877 serum samples by serology. Whereas about 50%
      of respiratory samples were from infants and children below the age of five,
      serum samples were distributed among all age categories. A total of 394 (9.6%)
      cases was diagnosed as positive for Bordetella pertussis by qPCR and 844 (17.3%)
      cases were diagnosed as acute infection by serology (anti-pertussis toxin (PT)
      IgG > 125 IU/ml). Another 1042 (21.4%) sera had anti-PT IgG between 55 and 125
      IU/ml reflecting a vaccination or pertussis infection during the last 1-2 years.
      Seventy per cent of the pertussis cases diagnosed by qPRC were in infants and
      children younger than 14 years old, whereas the highest number of sera with anti
      PT levels >125 IU/ml was in the age group of 10-14 years old. Based on the
      limited data of the last vaccination (reported for only 15% of the samples),
      recent booster vaccination in the teenager group may have contributed only
      minimally to these elevated anti-PT levels. The highest number of sera with anti
      PT titers between 55 and 125 IU/ml was found in the age category 50-59 years old.
      It is clear that pertussis continues to be a problem in Belgium and that other
      vaccination strategies (maternal vaccination, cocoon vaccination) and ultimately
      better vaccines will be needed to control this highly infectious respiratory
      disease.

PMID- 28578724
TI  - Association between gestational diabetes and perinatal depressive symptoms:
      evidence from a Greek cohort study.
AB  - : Aim The aim of the present study was to assess the association of gestational
      diabetes mellitus (GDM) with prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms in a
      sample of pregnant women in Greece. BACKGROUND: Earlier research supports a
      relationship between depression and diabetes, but only a few studies have
      examined the relationship between GDM and perinatal depressive symptomatology.
      METHODS: A total of 117 women in their third trimester of pregnancy participated
      in the study. Demographic and obstetric history data were recorded during women's
      third trimester of pregnancy. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the
      validated Greek version of the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at two
      time points: on the third trimester of pregnancy and on the first week
      postpartum. Findings Prevalence of GDM was 14.5%. Probable diagnosis of
      depression occurred for 12% of the sample during the antenatal assessment and
      15.1% in the postpartum assessment. In the first week postpartum, women with GDM
      had significantly higher postpartum (but no antenatal) EPDS scores compared with
      the non-GDM cohort. In conclusion, GDM appears to be associated with depressive
      symptoms in the first week postpartum. Clinical implications and recommendations
      for future research are discussed, emphasizing the importance of closely
      monitoring women with GDM who seem more vulnerable to developing depressive
      symptomatology during the postnatal period.

PMID- 28578725
TI  - Possible Associations between Subitizing, Estimation and Visuospatial Working
      Memory (VSWM) in Children.
AB  - Researchers have focused on identifying the mechanisms involved in subitizing and
      its differences with estimation. Some suggest that subitizing relies on a visual
      indexing system in charge of the simultaneous individuation of objects that is
      also used by visuospatial working memory (VSWM). In adults, studies found
      associations between subitizing and VSWM, in the absence of correlation between
      VSWM and estimation. The present study analyzed the performance of 120 4 and 6
      year-old children in three tasks: dot enumeration to measure subitizing capacity,
      quantity discrimination for estimation, and Corsi Block-tapping task for VSWM. In
      the enumeration task RTs (F(9, 1062)=720.59, MSE=734394, p<.001, eta2=.86) and
      errors (F(9, 1062)=42.15, MSE=.194, p<.001, eta2=.26.) increased with the array,
      but this growth was statistically significant only from 4 dots onward. Each
      subject's subitizing range was estimated by fitting RTs with a sigmoid function
      of number of dots and obtaining the bend point of the curve. Data fit (age 4: R 2
      = .88; SD = .08; age 6: R 2 = .91, SD = .08) showed a mean subitizing range of
      2.79 (SD = .66) for 4 year-olds and of 3.11 (SD = .64) for 6 year-olds.
      Subitizing ranges and average RTs showed low association with storage (r = .274;
      p < .05; r = -.398; p < .001) and average RTs with concurrent processing (r = 
      .412; p < .001) in VSWM. Subitizing range and speed showed no association with
      estimation speed and a poor association with accuracy (r = .234, p < .01; r = 
      .398, p < .001), which suggests independent systems for small and large
      quantities. Subitizing and estimation measures correlated with VSWM (p < .01),
      which suggests that both processes may require VSWM resources.

PMID- 28578727
TI  - Focused Ion Beam Preparation of Specimens for Micro-Electro-Mechanical System
      based Transmission Electron Microscopy Heating Experiments.
AB  - Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based heating holders offer exceptional
      control of temperature and heating/cooling rates for transmission electron
      microscopy experiments. The use of such devices is relatively straightforward for
      nano-particulate samples, but the preparation of specimens from bulk samples by
      focused ion beam (FIB) milling presents significant challenges. These include:
      poor mechanical integrity and site selectivity of the specimen, ion beam damage
      to the specimen and/or MEMS device during thinning, and difficulties in
      transferring the specimen onto the MEMS device. Here, we describe a novel FIB
      protocol for the preparation and transfer of specimens from bulk samples, which
      involves a specimen geometry that provides mechanical support to the electron
      transparent region, while maximizing the area of that region and the contact area
      with the heater plate on the MEMS chip. The method utilizes an inclined stage
      block that minimizes exposure of the chip to the ion beam during milling. This
      block also allows for accurate and gentle placement of the FIB-cut specimen onto
      the chip by using simultaneous electron and ion beam imaging during transfer.
      Preliminary data from Si and Ag on Si samples are presented to demonstrate the
      quality of the specimens that can be obtained and their stability during in situ
      heating experiments.

PMID- 28578726
TI  - Statistically Derived Subtypes and Associations with Cerebrospinal Fluid and
      Genetic Biomarkers in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Latent Profile Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research demonstrates heterogeneous neuropsychological profiles among
      individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, few studies have
      included visuoconstructional ability or used latent mixture modeling to
      statistically identify MCI subtypes. Therefore, we examined whether unique
      neuropsychological MCI profiles could be ascertained using latent profile
      analysis (LPA), and subsequently investigated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      biomarkers, genotype, and longitudinal clinical outcomes between the empirically
      derived classes. METHODS: A total of 806 participants diagnosed by means of the
      Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) MCI criteria received a
      comprehensive neuropsychological battery assessing visuoconstructional ability,
      language, attention/executive function, and episodic memory. Test scores were
      adjusted for demographic characteristics using standardized regression
      coefficients based on "robust" normal control performance (n=260). Calculated Z
      scores were subsequently used in the LPA, and CSF-derived biomarkers, genotype,
      and longitudinal clinical outcome were evaluated between the LPA-derived MCI
      classes. RESULTS: Statistical fit indices suggested a 3-class model was the
      optimal LPA solution. The three-class LPA consisted of a mixed impairment MCI
      class (n=106), an amnestic MCI class (n=455), and an LPA-derived normal class
      (n=245). Additionally, the amnestic and mixed classes were more likely to be
      apolipoprotein e4+ and have worse Alzheimer's disease CSF biomarkers than LPA
      derived normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports significant
      heterogeneity in MCI neuropsychological profiles using LPA and extends prior work
      (Edmonds et al., 2015) by demonstrating a lower rate of progression in the
      approximately one-third of ADNI MCI individuals who may represent "false
      positive" diagnoses. Our results underscore the importance of using sensitive,
      actuarial methods for diagnosing MCI, as current diagnostic methods may be over
      inclusive. (JINS, 2017, 23, 564-576).

PMID- 28578728
TI  - China's Public Safety Events: A Call to Action.

PMID- 28578729
TI  - Drivers of dietary behaviours in women living in urban Africa: a systematic
      mapping review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To (i) systematically review the literature to determine the factors
      influencing diet and dietary behaviour in women living in urban Africa; (ii)
      present these in a visual map; and (iii) utilize this to identify potentially
      important areas for future research. DESIGN: Systematic mapping review. The
      review protocol was registered at PROSPERO (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/;
      registration number CRD42015017749). Six databases were systematically searched,
      followed by reference and citation searching. Eligibility criteria included women
      aged 18-70 years living in urban Africa, any design/methodology, exploring any
      driver, using any measure of dietary behaviour. Quality appraisal occurred
      parallel with data extraction. Twelve predominantly cross-sectional quantitative
      studies were included; reported in seventeen publications. Determinants were
      synthesized narratively and compiled into a map adapted from an existing
      ecological model based on research in high-income countries. SETTING: Urban
      Africa. SUBJECTS: African women aged 18-70 years. RESULTS: Determinants
      significantly associated with unhealthy dietary behaviour ranged from the
      individual to macro level, comprising negative body image perception, perceptions
      of insufficient food quantity and poorer quality, poorer food knowledge, skipping
      meals, snacking less, higher alcohol consumption, unhealthy overall lifestyle,
      older age, higher socio-economic status, having an education, lower household
      food expenditure, frequent eating outside the home and media influence. Marital
      status and strong cultural and religious beliefs were also identified as possible
      determinants. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies have investigated drivers of dietary
      behaviours in urban African settings. Predominantly individual-level factors were
      reported. Gaps in the literature identified a need for research into the
      neglected areas: social, physical and macro-level drivers of food choice.

PMID- 28578730
TI  - Eating frequency and weight and body composition: a systematic review of
      observational studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present review aimed to examine the association of eating
      frequency with body weight or body composition in adults of both sexes. DESIGN:
      PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus databases were searched. PRISMA and MOOSE protocols
      were followed. Observational studies published up to August 2016 were included.
      The methodological quality of the studies was assessed with the Downs and Black
      checklist. SETTING: A systematic review of the literature. SUBJECTS: Adults (n
      136 052); the majority of studies were developed in the USA and Europe. RESULTS:
      Thirty-one articles were included in the review: two prospective and twenty-nine
      cross-sectional studies. Thirteen per cent of the studies received quality scores
      above 80 %. The assessment of eating frequency and body composition or body
      weight varied widely across the studies. Potential confounders were included in
      73 % of the studies. Fourteen studies reported an inverse association between
      eating frequency and body weight or body composition, and seven studies found a
      positive association. The majority of studies applied multiple analyses adjusted
      for potential confounders, such as sex, age, education, income, smoking, physical
      activity and alcohol intake. Six studies took into account under-reporting of
      eating frequency and/or energy intake in the analysis, and one investigated the
      mediation effect of energy intake. CONCLUSIONS: There is not sufficient evidence
      confirming the association between eating frequency and body weight or body
      composition when misreporting bias is taken into account. However, in men, a
      potential protective effect of high eating frequency was observed on BMI and
      visceral obesity.

PMID- 28578731
TI  - Bacterial Infections in Neonates Following Mupirocin-Based MRSA Decolonization: A
      Multicenter Cohort Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE To characterize the risk of infection after MRSA decolonization with
      intranasal mupirocin. DESIGN Multicenter, retrospective cohort study. SETTING
      Tertiary care neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) from 3 urban hospitals in the
      United States ranging in size from 45 to 100 beds. METHODS MRSA-colonized
      neonates were identified from NICU admissions occurring from January 2007 to
      December 2014, during which a targeted decolonization strategy was used for MRSA
      control. In 2 time-to-event analyses, MRSA-colonized neonates were observed from
      the date of the first MRSA-positive surveillance screen until (1) the first
      occurrence of novel gram-positive cocci in sterile culture or discharge or (2)
      the first occurrence of novel gram-negative bacilli in sterile culture or
      discharge. Mupirocin exposure was treated as time varying. RESULTS A total of 522
      MRSA-colonized neonates were identified from 16,144 neonates admitted to site
      NICUs. Of the MRSA-colonized neonates, 384 (74%) received mupirocin. Average time
      from positive culture to mupirocin treatment was 3.5 days (standard deviation,
      7.2 days). The adjusted hazard of gram-positive cocci infection was 64% lower
      among mupirocin-exposed versus mupirocin-unexposed neonates (hazard ratio, 0.36;
      95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17-0.76), whereas the adjusted hazard ratio of
      gram-negative bacilli infection comparing mupirocin-exposed and -unexposed
      neonates was 1.05 (95% CI, 0.42-2.62). CONCLUSIONS In this multicentered cohort
      of MRSA-colonized neonates, mupirocin-based decolonization treatment appeared to
      decrease the risk of infection with select gram-positive organisms as intended,
      and the treatment was not significantly associated with risk of subsequent
      infections with organisms not covered by mupirocin's spectrum of activity. Infect
      Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:930-936.

PMID- 28578732
TI  - Thirty years of human infections caused by Yersinia enterocolitica in northern
      Spain: 1985-2014.
AB  - Yersinia enterocolitica infection is a zoonosis with worldwide distribution,
      gastroenteritis being by far the most common clinical manifestation of human
      infection. In Gipuzkoa, northern Spain, human Y. enterocolitica infections
      increased from the mid-1980s to the beginning of the 21st century (from 7.9 to
      23.2 annual episodes per 100 000 population) to decrease to 7.2 annual episodes
      per 100 000 population in the last years of the study. The hospital admission
      rate due to yersiniosis during the last 15 years of the study was 7.3%. More than
      99% of isolates were serotype O:3. Infection affected mainly children under 5
      years of age (average rate: 140 episodes per 100 000 population). The incidence
      in adults was low but hospitalisation increased with age, exceeding 50% in people
      over 64 years old.

PMID- 28578733
TI  - Seed treatments with thiamine reduce the performance of generalist and specialist
      aphids on crop plants.
AB  - Thiamine is a vitamin that has been shown to act as a trigger to activate plant
      defence and reduce pathogen and nematode infection as well as aphid settling and
      reproduction. We have here investigated whether thiamine treatments of seeds
      (i.e. seed dressing) would increase plant resistance against aphids and whether
      this would have different effects on a generalist than on specialist aphids.
      Seeds of wheat, barley, oat and pea were treated with thiamine alone or in
      combination with the biocontrol bacteria Pseudomonas chlororaphis MA 342 (MA
      342). Plants were grown in climate chambers. The effects of seed treatment on
      fecundity, host acceptance and life span were studied on specialist aphids bird
      cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) and pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum
      Harris) and on the generalist green peach aphid (Myzus persicae, Sulzer).
      Thiamine seed treatments reduced reproduction and host acceptance of all three
      aphid species. The number of days to reproduction, the length of the reproductive
      life, the fecundity and the intrinsic rate of increase were found reduced for
      bird cherry-oat aphid after thiamine treatment of the cereal seeds. MA 342 did
      not have any effect in any of the plant-aphid combinations, except a weak
      decrease of pea aphid reproduction on pea. The results show that there are no
      differential effects of either thiamine or MA 342 seed treatments on specialist
      and generalist aphids and suggest that seed treatments with thiamine has a
      potential in aphid pest management.

PMID- 28578734
TI  - Genetic and environmental aspects in the association between attention-deficit
      hyperactivity disorder symptoms and binge-eating behavior in adults: a twin
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prior research demonstrated that attention-deficit hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD) is associated with binge-eating behavior, binge-eating disorder
      (BED), and bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of this study was to investigate these
      associations in an adult twin population, and to determine the extent to which
      ADHD symptoms and binge-eating behavior share genetic and environmental factors.
      METHODS: We used self-reports of current ADHD symptoms and lifetime binge-eating
      behavior and associated characteristics from a sample of over 18 000 adult twins
      aged 20-46 years, from the population-based Swedish Twin Registry. Mixed-effects
      logistic regression was used to examine the association between ADHD and lifetime
      binge-eating behavior, BED, and BN. Structural equation modeling was used in 13
      773 female twins to determine the relative contribution of genetic and
      environmental factors to the association between ADHD symptoms and binge-eating
      behavior in female adult twins. RESULTS: ADHD symptoms were significantly
      associated with lifetime binge-eating behavior, BED, and BN. The heritability
      estimate for current ADHD symptoms was 0.42 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41
      0.44], and for lifetime binge-eating behavior 0.65 (95% CI 0.54-0.74). The
      genetic correlation was estimated as 0.35 (95% CI 0.25-0.46) and the covariance
      between ADHD and binge-eating behavior was primarily explained by genetic factors
      (91%). Non-shared environmental factors explained the remaining part of the
      covariance. CONCLUSIONS: The association between adult ADHD symptoms and binge
      eating behavior in females is largely explained by shared genetic risk factors.

PMID- 28578735
TI  - DEVELOPMENTS IN VALUE FRAMEWORKS TO INFORM THE ALLOCATION OF HEALTHCARE
      RESOURCES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been a surge in the development of
      frameworks to assess the value of different types of health technologies to
      inform healthcare resource allocation. The reasons for, and the potential of,
      these value frameworks were discussed during the 2017 Health Technology
      Assessment International (HTAi) Policy Forum Meeting. METHODS: This study
      reflects the discussion, drawing on presentations from invited experts and Policy
      Forum members, as well as a background paper. RESULTS: The reasons given for a
      proliferation of value frameworks included: rising healthcare costs; more complex
      health technology; perceived disconnect between price and value in some cases;
      changes in societal values; the need for inclusion of additional considerations,
      such as ethical issues; and greater empowerment of clinicians and patients in
      defining and using value frameworks. Many Policy Forum participants recommended
      learning from existing frameworks. Furthermore, there was a desire to agree on
      the core components of value frameworks, defining the additional value elements
      as necessary and considering how they might be measured and used in practice.
      Furthermore, adherence to the principles of transparency, predictability, broad
      stakeholder involvement, and accountability were widely supported, along with
      being forward looking, explicit, and consistent across decisions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Value frameworks continue to evolve with significant implications for global
      incentives for innovation and access to health technologies. There is a role for
      the HTA community to address some of the key areas discussed during the meeting,
      such as defining the core components for assessing the value of a health
      technology.

PMID- 28578736
TI  - Perception v. actual intakes of junk food and sugar-sweetened beverages in
      Australian young adults: assessed using the mobile food record.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine perception v. actual intakes of energy-dense nutrient
      poor 'junk food' (JF) and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) in young adults, using
      the mobile food record (mFR). DESIGN: Before-and-after eating images using a 4 d
      mFR were assessed for standardised 600 kJ (143 kcal) servings of JF and SSB
      (excluding diet drinks). Participants reported their concern about the health
      aspects of their diet, perceptions and intentions regarding JF and SSB. SETTING:
      Perth, Western Australia. SUBJECTS: Adults (n 246) aged 18-30 years. RESULTS: The
      mean (sd) intake of JF+SSB was 3.7 (2.0) servings/d. Women thinking about
      drinking less SSB consumed more SSB servings/d (1.5 (1.2)) than men (0.7 (0.5);
      P<0.05) who were thinking about drinking less. Men not thinking about cutting
      down JF consumed more servings/d (4.6 (2.4)) than women (2.5 (0.7); P<0.01) who
      were not thinking about cutting down. Those who paid a lot of attention to the
      health aspects of their diet consumed less JF+SSB than those who took only a bit
      of notice (P<0.001), were not really thinking much about it (P<0.001) or who
      didn't think at all about the health aspects of food (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Perceptions and attitudes regarding JF and SSB were associated with level of
      consumption. Those not thinking about cutting down their intake of these foods
      represent an important target group as they consume more than their peers.
      Further research is needed to identify how amenable young adults are to changing
      their intake, particularly given the lack of attention paid to the health aspects
      of their diet.

PMID- 28578737
TI  - Effects of light-emitting diode light v. fluorescent light on growing
      performance, activity levels and well-being of non-beak-trimmed W-36 pullets.
AB  - More energy-efficient, readily dimmable, long-lasting and more affordable light
      emitting diode (LED) lights are increasingly finding applications in poultry
      production facilities. Despite anecdotal evidence about the benefits of such
      lighting on bird performance and behavior, concrete research data were lacking.
      In this study, a commercial poultry-specific LED light (dim-to-blue, controllable
      correlated color temperature (CCT) from 4500 to 5300 K) and a typical compact
      fluorescent light (CFL) (soft white, CCT=2700 K) were compared with regards to
      their effects on growing performance, activity levels, and feather and comb
      conditions of non-beak-trimmed W-36 pullets during a 14-week rearing period. A
      total of 1280-day-old pullets in two successive batches, 640 birds each, were
      used in the study. For each batch, pullets were randomly assigned to four
      identical litter-floor rooms equipped with perches, two rooms per light regimen,
      160 birds per room. Body weight, BW uniformity (BWU), BW gain (BWG) and
      cumulative mortality rate (CMR) of the pullets were determined every 2 weeks from
      day-old to 14 weeks of age (WOA). Activity levels of the pullets at 5 to 14 WOA
      were delineated by movement index. Results revealed that pullets under the LED
      and CFL lights had comparable BW (1140+/-5 g v. 1135+/-5 g, P=0.41), BWU (90.8+/
      1.0% v. 91.9+/-1.0%, P=0.48) and CMR (1.3+/-0.6% v. 2.7+/-0.6%, P=0.18) at 14 WOA
      despite some varying BWG during the rearing. Circadian activity levels of the
      pullets were higher under the LED light than under the CFL light, possibly
      resulting from differences in spectrum and/or perceived light intensity between
      the two lights. No feather damage or comb wound was apparent in either light
      regimen at the end of the rearing period. The results contribute to understanding
      the impact of emerging LED lights on pullets rearing which is a critical
      component of egg production.

PMID- 28578738
TI  - SHAPING QUALITY THROUGH VISION, STRUCTURE, AND MONITORING OF PERFORMANCE AND
      QUALITY INDICATORS: IMPACT STORY FROM THE QUEBEC TRAUMA NETWORK.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Quebec Trauma Care Continuum (TCC) was initiated in 1991 with the
      objective of providing accessible, continuous, efficient, and high quality
      services for all injury cases in the province. METHODS: The TCC design relied on
      three key components: (i) the designation of a network of acute care and
      rehabilitation facilities with specific mandates and responsibilities; (ii) the
      elaboration of transfer protocols, standing agreements, and governing structures
      to ensure fluid and optimal patient flow; and (iii) the close monitoring of
      several indicators to facilitate the continuous evaluation and improvement of the
      network. RESULTS: Between 1992 and 2002, in-hospital mortality following major
      trauma decreased from 51.8 percent to 8.6 percent, followed by an additional 24
      percent drop between 1999 and 2012. We also observed a 16 percent decrease in
      average LOS but no change in the incidence of complications or unplanned
      readmissions. These changes translate into 186 lives saved per year and cost
      savings, due to shorter LOS, of 6.3 million CD$ per year. The risk-adjusted
      incidence of in-hospital mortality following major injury between 2006 and 2012
      (7 percent) was the lowest of all Canadian provinces. CONCLUSIONS: Strategic
      transformation of a network's structure and processes, supported by continuous
      monitoring of validated quality indicators, can lead to significant and
      sustainable improvements in clinical outcomes. It is hoped that the Quebec trauma
      story will inspire other jurisdictions and other healthcare sectors.

PMID- 28578740
TI  - Application of network methods for understanding mental disorders: pitfalls and
      promise.
AB  - Galvanized with the availability of sophisticated statistical techniques and
      large datasets, network medicine has emerged as an active area of investigation.
      Following this trend, network methods have been utilized to understand the
      interplay between symptoms of mental disorders. This realistic approach that may
      provide an improved framework into understanding mental conditions and underlying
      mechanisms is certainly to be welcomed. However, we have noticed that symptom
      network studies tend to lose sight of the fundamentals, overlook major
      limitations embedded in study designs, and make inferences that are difficult to
      justify with current findings. There is concern that disregarding these flaws may
      halt the progress of the network approach in psychiatry. Therefore, in this
      paper, we first attempt to identify the pitfalls: (1) a reductionist
      understanding of medicine and psychiatry, thereby inadvertently reintroducing the
      dichotomy of medicine (lung cancer) and psychiatry (depression), (2) a
      shortsighted view of signs and symptoms, (3) overlooking the limitations of
      available datasets based on scales with embedded latent class structures, (4)
      overestimating the importance of the current findings beyond what is supported by
      the study design. By addressing current issues, the hope is to navigate this
      rapidly growing field to a more methodologically sound and reproducible path that
      will contribute to our understanding of mental disorders and its underlying
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28578739
TI  - Improving team-based care for children: shared well child care involving family
      practice nurses.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Well child care (WCC) is the provision of routine preventative care
      and vaccinations to infants and children. In Canada, physicians provide the
      majority of this type of care, whereas in other developed countries, nurses
      provide most WCC. New models of shared care between nurses and family physicians
      should be explored. OBJECTIVE: This pilot project aimed to evaluate the
      feasibility and acceptability of shared nurse-physician WCC for a cohort of
      healthy children. METHODS: A total of 20 participants had nurse-physician
      alternating WCC visits, which were compared with physician-provided WCC visits.
      The feasibility was evaluated through chart audits and the acceptability was
      evaluated through interviews with the physicians, nurses, and the patients'
      parents. RESULTS: The results showed that physicians and nurses discuss a similar
      percentage of Rourke Baby Record topics, and that families and clinic staff were
      accepting of this new model of care. CONCLUSION: This intervention could liberate
      time for Canadian family physicians, thereby improving access to care.

PMID- 28578741
TI  - Antipsychotic combinations in schizophrenia.
AB  - In the treatment of resistant schizophrenia, a number of meta-analyses attempted
      to quantify the efficacy and tolerability of antipsychotic (AP) polypharmacy v.
      monotherapy with contradictory results. Recently, a systematic review and meta
      analysis of randomised controlled trials investigated the efficacy and
      tolerability of AP combination v. monotherapy in schizophrenia. It included 31
      studies: 21 double-blind (considered high-quality studies) and 10 open-label
      (considered low-quality studies). The meta-analysis showed that, overall, the
      combination of two APs was more effective than monotherapy in terms of symptom
      reduction (standardised mean difference (SMD) = -0.53, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) -0.87 to -0.19); however, this result was confirmed only in the subgroup of
      low-quality studies. Negative symptoms improved when combining a D2 antagonist
      with a D2 partial agonist (SMD = -0.41, 95% CI -0.79 to -0.03) both in double
      blind and open-label studies. In the present commentary, the results of this
      systematic review are critically discussed in terms of their clinical and
      research implications.

PMID- 28578743
TI  - TO WHAT EXTENT DO COUPLES' PRE-MARITAL COMMUNICATIONS AFFECT THEIR POST-MARITAL
      FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR IN INDIA?
AB  - SummaryReproduction in India is mainly confined to within marriage. The fertility
      preferences of spouses will not necessarily be the same, but discussion between
      couples creates scope for understanding between spouses after marriage. Knowing
      each other's opinions facilitates decision-making on sensitive matters such as
      contraception use and desired family size. This study used data from the India
      Human Development Survey-II (2011-12), and was based on a sample of 31,276
      currently married women. The aim was to understand the role of pre-marital
      communication, studied through the choosing of husbands, mutual communication
      before marriage and duration of time spouses knew each other before marriage on
      the fertility preferences of couples post-marriage. These preferences included
      contraception use, who has most say on the number of children and the gap between
      desired and actual number of offspring. The results showed that wives who knew
      their husbands or who had any kind of communication with them before marriage had
      a greater chance of being involved in fertility decisions. However, most
      fertility decisions were found to be male-driven. Wives who knew their husbands
      for more than a month before marriage took more decisions on number of children
      (27%) than those who only knew their husbands from the day of their wedding
      (20%). Wives were less likely to have more children/sons/daughters than desired
      if they had some communication with their husbands before marriage. A better
      understanding of fertility preferences between spouses might help to curb
      unwanted births through delaying or limiting births by contraception use.
      Families in India could encourage couples to interact before marriage so they can
      make collective decisions on contraception use and/or the number of children they
      have.

PMID- 28578742
TI  - Applicability of plant-based products in the treatment of Trypanosoma cruzi and
      Trypanosoma brucei infections: a systematic review of preclinical in vivo
      evidence.
AB  - Chagas disease and sleeping sickness are neglected tropical diseases closely
      related to poverty, for which the development of plant-derived treatments has not
      been a promising prospect. Thus, we systematicaly review the preclinical in vivo
      evidence on the applicability of plant-based products in the treatment of
      Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma brucei infections. Characteristics such as
      disease models, treatments, toxicological safety and methodological bias were
      analysed. We recovered 66 full text articles from 16 countries investigating 91
      plant species. The disease models and treatments were highly variable. Most
      studies used native (n = 36, 54.54%) or exotic (n = 30, 45.46%) plants with
      ethnodirected indication (n = 45, 68.18%) for trypanosomiasis treatment. Complete
      phytochemical screening and toxicity assays were reported in only 15 (22.73%) and
      32 (48.49%) studies, respectively. The currently available preclinical evidence
      is at high risk of bias. The absence of or incomplete characterization of animal
      models, treatment protocols, and phytochemical/toxicity analyses impaired the
      internal validity of the individual studies. Contradictory results of a same
      plant species compromise the external validity of the evidence, making it
      difficult determine the effectiveness, safety and biotechnological potential of
      plant-derived products in the development of new anti-infective agents to treat
      T. cruzi and T. brucei infections.

PMID- 28578745
TI  - Exploratory analysis of meal composition in Australia: meat and accompanying
      foods.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study of meal patterns and overall diet in relation to health
      outcomes may be more important than focusing on single nutrients or food groups.
      The present study aimed to explore the composition of main meals and snacks in
      the Australian population and examine associations between meat/poultry/fish and
      other foods. DESIGN: The study utilised 24 h recalls. Meal composition was
      defined based on average intakes of food groups per meal disaggregated from all
      food sources. SETTING: 2011-12 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey.
      SUBJECTS: Australian people (n12153) aged 2 years or above. RESULTS: Overall,
      breakfast was the smallest meal of the day, typically consisting of grains, dairy
      products and fruit. Lunch was the second largest meal, consisting mostly of
      grains, non-starchy vegetables and meat/poultry/fish. The largest meal was
      dinner, comprising meat/poultry/fish, vegetables (starchy and non-starchy),
      grains and often including discretionary beverages (children) or alcohol
      (adults). The main food groups consumed at snacking occasions were dairy, fruit,
      discretionary foods and beverages (including alcohol for adults). The most
      frequently consumed meat types were beef and chicken at dinner and ham at lunch.
      Non-starchy vegetables were accompanying foods for red meat, poultry and
      fish/seafood consumed in varying portion sizes, but did not accompany processed
      meat. CONCLUSIONS: The present study considered meat, poultry and fish as the
      meal centre and their accompaniments of other food groups at different eating
      occasions. These findings expand the background evidence for health professionals
      developing meal-based framework/guidelines and public health messages.

PMID- 28578744
TI  - A corner store intervention to improve access to fruits and vegetables in two
      Latino communities.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Investments have been made to alter the food environment of
      neighbourhoods that have a disproportionate number of unhealthy food venues.
      Corner store conversions are one strategy to increase access to fruits and
      vegetables (F&V). Although the literature shows modest success, the effectiveness
      of these interventions remains equivocal. The present paper reports on the
      evaluation of Proyecto MercadoFRESCO, a corner store conversion intervention in
      two Latino communities. DESIGN: A repeated cross-sectional design was employed.
      Data were stratified by intervention arm and bivariate tests assessed changes
      over time. Logistic and multiple regression models with intervention arm, time
      and the interaction of intervention and time were conducted. Supplementary
      analyses account for clustering of patrons within stores and staggering of store
      conversions. SETTING: Three stores were converted and five stores served as
      comparisons in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, California, USA. SUBJECTS:
      Store patrons were interviewed before (n550) and after (n407) the intervention.
      RESULTS: Relative to patrons of comparison stores, patrons of intervention stores
      demonstrated more favourable perceptions of corner stores and increased
      purchasing of F&V during that store visit. Changes were not detected in store
      patronage, percentage of weekly dollars spent on food for F&V or daily
      consumption of F&V. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with some extant food environment
      literature, findings demonstrate limited effects. Investments should be made in
      multilevel, comprehensive interventions that target a variety retail food outlets
      rather than focusing on corner stores exclusively. Complementary policies
      limiting the availability, affordability and marketing of energy-dense, nutrient
      poor foods should also be pursued.

PMID- 28578746
TI  - Heat stress effects on Holstein dairy cows' rumination.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between
      temperature-humidity index (THI) and rumination time (RT) in order to possibly
      exploit it as a useful tool for animal welfare improvement. During summer 2015 (1
      June to 31 August), data from an Italian Holstein dairy farm located in the North
      of Italy were collected along with environmental data (i.e. ambient temperature
      and relative humidity) recorded with a weather station installed inside the barn.
      Rumination data were collected through the Heatime(r) HR system (SCR Engineers
      Ltd., Hadarim, Netanya, Israel), an automatic system composed of a neck collar
      with a Tag that records the RT and activity of each cow. A significant negative
      correlation was observed between RT and THI. Mixed linear models were fitted,
      including animal and test day as random effects, and parity, milk production
      level and date of last calving as fixed effects. A statistically significant
      effect of THI on RT was identified, with RT decreasing as THI increased.

PMID- 28578747
TI  - The Decomposition of Shared Environmental Influences on Externalizing Syndromes
      in the Swedish Population: A Multivariate Study.
AB  - Using information from Swedish population registries, we attempt to decompose the
      shared environment (C) into four subcomponents: close family, family, household,
      and community. Among pairs differing in their genetic and geographical/household
      relationships, we examine three externalizing syndromes: drug abuse (DA),
      criminal behavior (CB), and alcohol use disorders (AUD). The best-fitting common
      pathway model suggested that total estimates for C were higher for DA (21% for
      males and 18% for females) than for AUD (16% and 14%) and CB (17% and 10%).
      Concerning syndrome-specific influences in males, close family effects were
      stronger for CB and AUD, while community effects were stronger for DA. The two C
      components in between community experiences and close family experiences (family
      and household) were estimated to almost entirely derive from the common latent
      factor. In females, among the four components of C, the community experiences
      were just slightly above zero, while the C components referred to as the
      household effect were almost zero. The total close family experiences were
      similar and most important across syndromes were also divided into common and
      specific components. For all syndromes, for both males and females, the effects
      of additive genetic factors were 2-4 times the size of the total effect of the
      shared environment. Applying standard methods to novel relationships, we expand
      our understanding of how the shared environment contributes to individual
      differences in three externalizing syndromes.

PMID- 28578748
TI  - Epidemiological Effectiveness and Cost of a Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Response
      in New River Valley, Virginia: Local Health Department and Clinical Perspectives.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effectiveness and cost of a fungal meningitis
      outbreak response in the New River Valley of Virginia during 2012-2013 from the
      perspective of the local public health department and clinical facilities. The
      fungal meningitis outbreak affected 23 states in the United States with 751 cases
      and 64 deaths in 20 states; there were 56 cases and 5 deaths in Virginia.
      METHODS: We conducted a partial economic evaluation of the fungal meningitis
      outbreak response in New River Valley. We collected costs associated with the
      local health department and clinical facilities in the outbreak response and
      estimated the epidemiological effectiveness by using disability-adjusted life
      years (DALYs) averted. RESULTS: We estimated the epidemiological effectiveness of
      this outbreak response to be 153 DALYs averted among the patients, and the costs
      incurred by the local health department and clinical facilities to be $30,413 and
      $39,580, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We estimated the incremental cost
      effectiveness ratio of $198 per DALY averted and $258 per DALY averted from the
      local health department and clinical perspectives, respectively, thereby
      assisting in impact evaluation of the outbreak response by the local health
      department and clinical facilities. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness.
      2018;12:38-46).

PMID- 28578750
TI  - USING THE HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT TOOLBOX TO FACILITATE PROCUREMENT: THE
      CASE OF SMART PUMPS IN A CANADIAN HOSPITAL.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to present the experience of a Canadian
      hospital-based health technology assessment (HTA) unit that performed the
      traditional functions of the HTA process along with many other activities to
      facilitate the choice of smart pumps. METHODS: A rapid literature review was
      initiated, but little evidence was found. Moreover, the evidence provided was too
      far from our hospital context. To help our decision makers, we offered them a
      list of various services based on the skills of our HTA unit staff. RESULTS: To
      involve our HTA unit in the choice of the new smart pumps led to a strong
      collaboration between hospital services. After a rapid review on smart pumps, we
      proceeded to establish the clinical needs, followed by an evaluation of technical
      features. To ascertain clinical needs, we participated in the establishment of a
      conformity list for the tender, a failure and mode-effect analysis, an audit on
      the use of actual smart pumps, and simulation exercises with nurses and doctors
      to evaluate the ease of use and ergonomics. With regard to technical tests, these
      were mainly conducted to identify potential dysfunction and to assess the
      efficiency of the pump. This experience with smart pumps was useful for evidence
      based procurement and led to the formulation of a nine-step process to guide
      future work. CONCLUSIONS: HTA units and agencies are faced with rapid development
      of new technologies that may not be supported by sufficient amount of pertinent
      published evidence. Under these circumstances, approaches other than evidence
      based selection might provide useful information. Because these activities may be
      different from those related to classic HTA, this widens the scope of what can be
      done in HTA to support decision making.

PMID- 28578749
TI  - Differential prevalence and correlates of whole blood Epstein-Barr virus DNA
      between HIV-positive and HIV-negative men who have sex with men in Shanghai,
      China.
AB  - This cross-sectional study aimed to examine and compare prevalence and correlates
      of whole blood Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA between HIV-positive and HIV-negative
      men who have sex with men (MSM). Five hundred and four HIV-positive MSM and 504
      age-matched HIV-negative MSM were recruited from an HIV counseling and testing
      clinic in Shanghai, China from November 2014 to November 2015 and were
      administered with a face-to-face questionnaire interview. Whole blood EBV DNA was
      tested by nested polymerase chain reaction assays on EBNA-1, EBNA-2, and LMP-1
      genes. The prevalence of whole blood EBV DNA was 56.0% (95% CI 51.7-60.3%) among
      HIV-positive MSM and 26.0% (95% CI 22.4-30.0%) among HIV-negative MSM. Whole
      blood EBV DNA positivity was significantly associated with HIV infection
      (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.43, 95% CI 2.58-4.57) and frequent intake of
      pickled, smoked, or salty food (aOR 1.71, 95% CI 1.02-2.86) in the whole sample,
      and with <200 cells/MUl CD4 cell counts (aOR 1.79, 95% CI 1.05-3.05) and pickled,
      smoked, or salty food intake (aOR 3.14, 95% CI 1.39-7.08) in HIV-positive group.
      HIV-infected MSM are at higher risk of active EBV replication than HIV-uninfected
      MSM, underscoring needs of surveillance and research on EBV-related
      carcinogenesis in this population.

PMID- 28578752
TI  - TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT IN HOSPITALS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM AN EMPIRICAL EXPERIMENT.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Hospital Based Health Technology Assessment (HBHTA) practices, to
      inform decision making at the hospital level, emerged as urgent priority for
      policy makers, hospital managers, and professionals. The present study
      crystallized the results achieved by the testing of an original framework for
      HBHTA, developed within Lombardy Region: the IMPlementation of A Quick hospital
      based HTA (IMPAQHTA). The study tested: (i) the HBHTA framework efficiency, (ii)
      feasibility, (iii) the tool utility and completeness, considering dimensions and
      sub-dimensions. METHODS: The IMPAQHTA framework deployed the Regional HTA
      program, activated in 2008 in Lombardy, at the hospital level. The relevance and
      feasibility of the framework were tested over a 3-year period through a large
      scale empirical experiment, involving seventy-four healthcare professionals
      organized in different HBHTA teams for assessing thirty-two different
      technologies within twenty-two different hospitals. Semi-structured interviews
      and self-reported questionnaires were used to collect data regarding the
      relevance and feasibility of the IMPAQHTA framework. RESULTS: The proposed HBHTA
      framework proved to be suitable for application at the hospital level, in the
      Italian context, permitting a quick assessment (11 working days) and providing
      hospital decision makers with relevant and quantitative information. Performances
      in terms of feasibility, utility, completeness, and easiness proved to be
      satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: The IMPAQHTA was considered to be a complete and
      feasible HBHTA framework, as well as being replicable to different technologies
      within any hospital settings, thus demonstrating the capability of a hospital to
      develop a complete HTA, if supported by adequate and well defined tools and
      quantitative metrics.

PMID- 28578751
TI  - 25-Hydroxyvitamin D supplementation and health-service utilization for upper
      respiratory tract infection in young children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the most common and
      costly condition of childhood. Low vitamin D levels have been hypothesized as a
      risk factor for URTI. The primary objective was to determine if serum vitamin D
      levels were associated with health-service utilization (HSU) for URTI including
      hospital admission, emergency department visits and outpatient sick visits. The
      secondary objectives were to determine whether oral vitamin D supplementation in
      pregnancy or childhood was associated with HSU for URTI. DESIGN: Cohort study.
      HSU was determined by linking each child's provincial health insurance number to
      health administrative databases. Multivariable quasi Poisson regression was used
      to evaluate the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D, vitamin D
      supplementation and HSU for URTI. SETTING: Toronto, Canada. SUBJECTS: Children
      participating in the TARGet Kids! network between 2008 and 2013. RESULTS: Healthy
      children aged 0-5 years (n 4962) were included; 52 % were male and mean 25
      hydroxyvitamin D was 84 nmol/l (range 11-355 nmol/l). There were 105 (2 %), 721
      (15 %) and 3218 (65 %) children with at least one hospital admission, emergency
      department visit or outpatient sick visit for URTI, respectively. There were no
      statistically significant associations between 25-hydroxyvitamin D or vitamin D
      supplementation and HSU for URTI. CONCLUSIONS: A clinically meaningful
      association between vitamin D (continuously and dichotomized at <50 and <75
      nmol/l) and HSU for URTI was not identified. While vitamin D may have other
      benefits for health, reducing HSU for URTI does not appear to be one of them.

PMID- 28578753
TI  - Grandmothers' knowledge positively influences maternal knowledge and infant and
      young child feeding practices.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between grandmothers' knowledge and infant and
      young child feeding (IYCF) practices and to test whether the associations are
      independent of or operate via maternal knowledge. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      household survey data from households with a child under 5 years (n 4080). We
      used multivariate regression analyses, adjusted for child, maternal, grandmother
      and household characteristics, and district-level clustering, to test
      associations between grandmothers' knowledge and IYCF practices for children aged
      6-24 months living with a grandmother. We used causal mediation to formally test
      the direct effect of grandmothers' knowledge on IYCF practices v. maternal
      knowledge mediating these associations. SETTING: Two hundred and forty rural
      communities, sixteen districts of Nepal. SUBJECTS: Children aged 6-24 months
      (n1399), including those living with grandmothers (n 748). RESULTS: We found that
      the odds of optimal breast-feeding practices were higher (early breast-feeding
      initiation: 2.2 times, P=0.002; colostrum feeding: 4.2 times, P<0.001) in
      households where grandmothers had correct knowledge v. those with incorrect
      knowledge. The same pattern was found for correct timing of introduction of water
      (2.6), milk (2.4), semi-solids (3.2), solids (2.9), eggs (2.6) and meat (2.5
      times; all P<0.001). For the two pathways we were able to test, mothers' correct
      knowledge mediated these associations between grandmothers' knowledge and IYCF
      practices: colostrum feeding (b=10.91, P<0.001) and the introduction of
      complementary foods (b=5.18, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Grandmothers' correct
      knowledge translated into mothers' correct knowledge and, therefore, optimal IYCF
      practices. Given grandmothers' influence in childcare, engagement of grandmothers
      in health and nutrition interventions could improve mothers' knowledge and
      facilitate better child feeding.

PMID- 28578754
TI  - Internet images of the speech pathology profession.
AB  - Objective The Internet provides the general public with information about speech
      pathology services, including client groups and service delivery models, as well
      as the professionals providing the services. Although this information assists
      the general public and other professionals to both access and understand speech
      pathology services, it also potentially provides information about speech
      pathology as a prospective career, including the types of people who are speech
      pathologists (i.e. demographics). The aim of the present study was to collect
      baseline data on how the speech pathology profession was presented via images on
      the Internet.Methods A pilot prospective observational study using content
      analysis methodology was conducted to analyse publicly available Internet images
      related to the speech pathology profession. The terms 'Speech Pathology' and
      'speech pathologist' to represent both the profession and the professional were
      used, resulting in the identification of 200 images. These images were considered
      across a range of areas, including who was in the image (e.g. professional,
      client, significant other), the technology used and the types of
      intervention.Results The majority of images showed both a client and a
      professional (i.e. speech pathologist). While the professional was predominantly
      presented as female, the gender of the client was more evenly distributed. The
      clients were more likely to be preschool or school aged, however male speech
      pathologists were presented as providing therapy to selected age groups (i.e.
      school aged and younger adults). Images were predominantly of individual therapy
      and the few group images that were presented were all paediatric.Conclusion
      Current images of speech pathology continue to portray narrow professional
      demographics and client groups (e.g. paediatrics). Promoting images of wider
      scope to fully represent the depth and breadth of speech pathology professional
      practice may assist in attracting a more diverse group of people into the
      profession in the future.What is known about the topic? To date, research has not
      considered the promotional profile of allied health professionals on the
      Internet. There has been a lack of consideration of whether the way in which the
      professions are promoted may affect clients accessing allied health services or
      people entering careers.What does this paper add? This paper raises awareness of
      the lack of promotion of a diverse workforce in speech pathology and considers
      how this may affect changing the professional demographics in the future. It also
      provides a starting point for documentation in the form of a baseline for
      tracking future changes. It allows consideration of the fact that when designing
      health promotional and educational materials, it is crucial that diversity is
      displayed in the professional role, the client role and the setting in order to
      provide information and education to the general public about the health services
      provided.What are the implications for practitioners? The presentation of narrow
      demographics of both the professional and client may potentially affect people
      considering speech pathology as a future career. The appearance of narrow client
      demographics and diagnosis groups may also deter people from accessing services.
      For example, if the demonstrated images do not show older people accessing speech
      pathology services, then this may suggest that services are only for children.
      The results from the present case example are transferrable to other health
      professions with similar professional demographic profiles (e.g. occupational
      therapy). Consideration of the need to display a diverse client profile is
      relevant to all health and medical services, and demonstrates steps towards
      inclusiveness and increasing engagement of clients who may be currently less
      likely to access health services (including people who are Aboriginal or from a
      culturally and linguistically diverse background).

PMID- 28578755
TI  - Enhancing national data to align with policy objectives: Aboriginal and Torres
      Strait Islander smoking prevalence at finer geographic levels.
AB  - Objectives The aim of the study was to assess the utility of national Aboriginal
      survey data in a regional geospatial analysis of daily smoking prevalence for
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and discuss the appropriateness
      of this analysis for policy and program impact assessment. Methods Data from the
      last two Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) national surveys of Aboriginal and
      Torres Strait Islander people, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      Social Survey 2014-15 (n=7022 adults) and the National Aboriginal and Torres
      Strait Islander Health Survey 2012-13 (n=10896 adults), were used to map the
      prevalence of smoking by Indigenous regions. Results Daily smoking prevalence in
      2014-15 at Indigenous regions ranges from 27.1% (95%CI 18.9-35.3) in the
      Toowoomba region in Queensland to 68.0% (95%CI 58.1-77.9) in the Katherine region
      in the Northern Territory. The confidence intervals are wide and there is no
      significant difference in daily smoking prevalence between the two time periods
      for any region. Conclusion There are significant limitations with analysing
      national survey data at finer geographical scales. Given the national program for
      Indigenous tobacco control is a regional model, evaluation requires finer
      geographical analysis of smoking prevalence to inform public health progress,
      policy and program effects. Options to improve the data currently collected
      include increasing national survey sample sizes, implementing a smoking status
      question in census surveys, investing in current cohort studies focused on this
      population or implementing localised surveys. What is known about the topic? The
      last geospatial analysis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking
      prevalence was undertaken in 1997. Current national survey data have not been
      analysed geospatially. What does this paper add? This paper provides new insights
      into the use of national survey data for understanding regional patterns and
      prevalence levels of smoking in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      populations. What are the implications for practitioners? The findings of the
      study suggest caution when interpreting prevalence maps and highlight the need
      for greater sample sizes in national survey data. The analysis is also an
      opportunity to assess the use of national survey data in evaluating the policy
      impact of programs targeted at a regional level.

PMID- 28578756
TI  - Sexual risk behaviours associated with unlicensed driving among young adults in
      Miami's electronic dance music nightclub scene.
AB  - Literature indicates that unlicensed driving (UD) offenders report substance use
      risk behaviours, yet data related to sexual risk behaviours is unknown. This
      study examined sexual and other risk behaviours among young adults in Miami,
      Florida, comparing UD and non-UD offenders (n=498). Compared with others, UD
      offenders were more likely to report group sex history, being high for sex half
      the time or more, purchasing sex and sexually transmissible infection history.
      Results suggest that locating sexual risk reduction interventions inside of the
      justice system would benefit UD offenders.

PMID- 28578757
TI  - Decision-making under pressure: medical errors in uncertain and dynamic
      environments.
AB  - Objective This paper provides a narrative overview of the literature concerning
      clinical decision-making processes when staff come under pressure, particularly
      in uncertain, dynamic and emergency situations.Methods Studies between 1980 and
      2015 were analysed using a six-phase thematic analysis framework to achieve an in
      depth understanding of the complex origins of medical errors that occur when
      people and systems are under pressure and how work pressure affects clinical
      performance and patient outcomes. Literature searches were conducted using a
      Summons Search Service platform; search criteria included a variety of
      methodologies, resulting in the identification of 95 papers relevant to the
      present review.Results Six themes emerged in the present narrative review using
      thematic analysis: organisational systems, workload, time pressure, teamwork,
      individual human factors and case complexity. This analysis highlights that
      clinical outcomes in emergency situations are the result of a variety of
      interconnecting factors. These factors may affect the ability of clinical staff
      in emergency situations to provide quality, safe care in a timely
      manner.Conclusions The challenge for researchers is to build the body of
      knowledge concerning the safe management of patients, particularly where
      clinicians are working under pressure. This understanding is important for
      developing pathways that optimise clinical decision making in uncertain and
      dynamic environments.What is known about the topic? Emergency departments (EDs)
      are characterised by high complexity, high throughput and greater uncertainty
      compared with routine hospital wards or out-patient situations, and the ED is
      therefore prone to unpredictable workflows and non-replicable conditions when
      presented with unique and complex cases.What does this paper add? Clinical
      decision making can be affected by pressures with complex origins, including
      organisational systems, workload, time constraints, teamwork, human factors and
      case complexity. Interactions between these factors at different levels of the
      decision-making process can increase the complexity of problems and the resulting
      decisions to be made.What are the implications for practitioners? The findings of
      the present study provide further evidence that consideration of medical errors
      should be seen primarily from a 'whole-of-system' perspective rather than as
      being primarily the responsibility of individuals. Although there are strategies
      in place in healthcare organisations to eliminate errors, they still occur. In
      order to achieve a better understanding of medical errors in clinical practice in
      times of uncertainty, it is necessary to identify how diverse pressures can
      affect clinical decisions, and how these interact to influence clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28578758
TI  - The primary health care of transgender adults.
AB  - Gender dysphoria is associated with significant health disparity. Gender services
      perform specialised activities such as diagnosis, endocrine management and
      liaison with surgical services. Although providing these specialised transition
      services appears to be safe and improves well-being, significant health disparity
      remains. Engaging primary care providers is an important part of any strategy to
      improve the health care of transgender people. The relationships between gender
      dysphoria and a range of primary care issues such as mental health,
      cardiovascular disease and cancer are explored.

PMID- 28578759
TI  - Cost savings from a teledentistry model for school dental screening: an
      Australian health system perspective.
AB  - Objective The aim of the present study was to compare the costs of teledentistry
      and traditional dental screening approaches in Australian school children.Methods
      A cost-minimisation analysis was performed from the perspective of the oral
      health system, comparing the cost of dental screening in school children using a
      traditional visual examination approach with the cost of mid-level dental
      practitioners (MLDPs), such as dental therapists, screening the same cohort of
      children remotely using teledentistry. A model was developed to simulate the
      costs (over a 12-month period) of the two models of dental screening for all
      school children (2.7million children) aged 5-14 years across all Australian
      states and territories. The fixed costs and the variable costs, including staff
      salary, travel and accommodation costs, and cost of supply were calculated. All
      costs are given in Australian dollars.Results The total estimated cost of the
      teledentistry model was $50million. The fixed cost of teledentistry was $1million
      and that of staff salaries (tele-assistants, charters and their supervisors, as
      well as information technology support was estimated to be $49million. The
      estimated staff salary saved with the teledentistry model was $56million, and the
      estimated travel allowance and supply expenses avoided were $16million and
      $14million respectively; an annual reduction of $85million in total.Conclusions
      The present study shows that the teledentistry model of dental screening can
      minimise costs. The estimated savings were due primarily to the low salaries of
      dental therapists and the avoidance of travel and accommodation costs. Such
      savings could be redistributed to improve infrastructure and oral health services
      in rural or other underserved areas.What is known about the topic? Caries is a
      preventable disease, which, if it remains untreated, can cause significant
      morbidity requiring costly treatment. Regular dental screening and oral health
      education have the great potential to improve oral health and save significant
      resources. The use of role substitution, such as using MLDPs to provide oral care
      has been well acknowledged worldwide because of their ability to provide safe and
      effective care. The teledentistry approach for dental screening offers a
      comparable diagnostic performance to the traditional visual approach.What does
      this paper add? The results of the present study suggest that teledentistry is a
      practical and economically viable approach for mass dental screening not only for
      isolated communities, but also for underserved urban communities. The costs of
      the teledentistry model were substantially lower than the costs associated with a
      conventional, face-to-face approach to dental screening in both remote and urban
      areas. The primary driver of net savings is the low salary of MLDPs and avoidance
      of travel and overnight accommodation by MLDPs.What are the implications for
      practitioners? The use of lower-cost MLDPs and a teledentistry model for dental
      screening has the potential to save significant economic and human resources that
      can be redirected to improve infrastructure and oral care services in underserved
      regions. In the absence of evidence of the economic usefulness of teledentistry,
      studies such as the present one can increase the acceptance of this technology
      among dental care providers and guide future decisions on whether or not to
      implement teledentistry services.

PMID- 28578760
TI  - [Bacillus thuringiensis: New applications for an old acquaintance?]

PMID- 28578761
TI  - Research Pearls: The Significance of Statistics and Perils of Pooling.
AB  - A series of articles on statistics are intended for an audience of clinicians, as
      well as statisticians and authors. Statistical significance is different than
      clinical significance. Understanding of clinical outcomes, value, quality, or
      generalizability requires critical analysis of medical research literature to
      ensure that statistical analyses have been properly applied and interpreted.

PMID- 28578762
TI  - Editorial Commentary: All-Suture Anchors, Foam Blocks, and Biomechanical Testing.
AB  - Barber's biomechanical work is well known to Arthroscopy's readers as thorough,
      comprehensive, and inclusive of new designs as they become available. In "All
      Suture Anchors: Biomechanical Analysis of Pullout Strength, Displacement, and
      Failure Mode," the latest iteration, Barber and Herbert test all-suture anchors
      in both porcine femurs and biphasic foam. While we await in vivo clinical trials
      that compare all-suture anchors to currently used anchors, Barber and Herbert
      have provided data to inform anchor choice, and using their biomechanical data at
      time zero from all-suture anchor trials in an animal model, we can determine the
      anchors' feasibility for human clinical investigations.

PMID- 28578763
TI  - Editorial Commentary: To Move or Not to Move the Shoulder, That Is the Question.
AB  - Whether to use an immediate range of motion exercise protocol or, rather, to
      delay the initiation of rehabilitation exercises for patients after arthroscopic
      rotator cuff repair presents a significant dilemma for the treating surgeon. The
      study "The Effect of Early Range of Motion on Quality of Life, Clinical Outcome,
      and Repair Integrity After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair" by Mazzocca,
      Arciero, Shea, Apostolakos, Solovyova, Gomlinski, Wojcik, Tafuto, Stock, and Cote
      reveals that no differences in quality of life scores or rotator cuff healing
      were identified after comparing 2 groups of patients undergoing either immediate
      (within 3 days) or delayed (after 28 days) postoperative rehabilitation
      protocols. These results underscore the fact that little data has been published
      to date that demonstrates an optimum time period for initiating postoperative
      rehabilitation after rotator cuff repair.

PMID- 28578764
TI  - Editorial Commentary: With New Technology Comes New Responsibility: Do the
      Complications of Hip Arthroscopy See Us More Often Than We See Them?
AB  - A database study of the codes for hip arthroscopy reports a rate of major and
      minor complications that is higher than previously reported in the literature.
      The relative risk of conversion to hip replacement or a subsequent fracture or
      dislocation is greater than in the general population.

PMID- 28578765
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Not All Cortical Suspensory Fixation Devices Are Created
      Equal.
AB  - Fixed-loop and adjustable-loop cortical suspensory fixation devices are both
      available as graft fixation options for surgeons. Fixed devices require
      facilities to manage various available sizes in the inventory, whereas adjustable
      devices are a true one-size-fits-all device requiring one inventory item for all
      cases. Adjustable-loop devices are also the only device that allows for
      postfixation tightening that may be advantageous for the surgeon who desires to
      tighten and retighten the graft construct once again before the case is
      completed.

PMID- 28578766
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Elbow Lateral Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow) Surgery Works,
      but Is Not Often Indicated.
AB  - In the small percentage of patients who do not respond to nonoperative approaches
      to tennis elbow, surgery-whether it is open, arthroscopic, or percutaneous
      provides near 90% satisfaction rates.

PMID- 28578767
TI  - Electronic Communication of Protected Health Information: Privacy, Security, and
      HIPAA Compliance.
AB  - PURPOSE: Technology has enhanced modern health care delivery, particularly
      through accessibility to health information and ease of communication with tools
      like mobile device messaging (texting). However, text messaging has created new
      risks for breach of protected health information (PHI). In the current study, we
      sought to evaluate hand surgeons' knowledge and compliance with privacy and
      security standards for electronic communication by text message. METHODS: A cross
      sectional survey of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand membership was
      conducted in March and April 2016. Descriptive and inferential statistical
      analyses were performed of composite results as well as relevant subgroup
      analyses. RESULTS: A total of 409 responses were obtained (11% response rate).
      Although 63% of surgeons reported that they believe that text messaging does not
      meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 security
      standards, only 37% reported they do not use text messages to communicate PHI.
      Younger surgeons and respondents who believed that their texting was compliant
      were statistically significantly more like to report messaging of PHI (odds
      ratio, 1.59 and 1.22, respectively). DISCUSSION: A majority of hand surgeons in
      this study reported the use of text messaging to communicate PHI. Of note,
      neither the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 statute
      nor US Department of Health and Human Services specifically prohibits this form
      of electronic communication. To be compliant, surgeons, practices, and
      institutions need to take reasonable security precautions to prevent breach of
      privacy with electronic communication. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Communication of
      clinical information by text message is not prohibited under Health Insurance
      Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, but surgeons should use appropriate
      safeguards to prevent breach when using this form of communication.

PMID- 28578768
TI  - Commentary on "Electronic Communication of Protected Health Information: Privacy,
      Security, and HIPAA Compliance".

PMID- 28578769
TI  - Compressive Neuropathy of the Ulnar Nerve: A Perspective on History and Current
      Controversies.
AB  - The untoward effects resulting from compression of the ulnar nerve have been
      recognized for almost 2 centuries. Initial treatment of cubital tunnel syndrome
      focused on complete transection of the nerve at the level of the elbow, resulting
      in initial alleviation of pain but significant functional morbidity. A number of
      subsequent techniques have been described including in situ decompression,
      subcutaneous transposition, submuscular transposition, and most recently,
      endoscopic release. This manuscript focuses on the historical aspects of each of
      these treatments and our current understanding of their efficacy.

PMID- 28578770
TI  - Commentary on "Compressive Neuropathy of the Ulnar Nerve: A Perspective on
      History and Current Controversies".

PMID- 28578771
TI  - Letter Regarding "Cost of Immediate Surgery Versus Nonoperative Treatment for
      Trigger Finger in Diabetic Patients".

PMID- 28578772
TI  - ?

PMID- 28578773
TI  - [The economic burden of cancer and the access to innovation should boost the use
      of real world data].

PMID- 28578774
TI  - Editorial foreword-SI: Blue growth.

PMID- 28578775
TI  - Corrigendum to "Functional and immunohistochemical characterization of CCEae3a, a
      carboxylesterase associated with temephos resistance in the major arbovirus
      vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus" [Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 74 (July
      2016) 61-67].

PMID- 28578777
TI  - In Reply I-Prescribing More Stringent Design of Randomized Clinical Trials of
      Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids.

PMID- 28578778
TI  - In Reply II-Prescribing More Stringent Design of Randomized Clinical Trials of
      Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids.

PMID- 28578776
TI  - Prescribing More Stringent Design of Randomized Clinical Trials of Omega-3
      Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids.

PMID- 28578779
TI  - An Accident Waiting to Happen: Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm.

PMID- 28578780
TI  - An Editor's Walk With Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 1999-2017: Promises, Aspirations,
      and Reflections.

PMID- 28578781
TI  - Differences Between Alcoholic and Nonalcoholic Patients With Wernicke
      Encephalopathy: A Multicenter Observational Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the differences in characteristics and prognosis between
      alcoholic and nonalcoholic patients with Wernicke encephalopathy (WE). PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: A retrospective observational cohort of 468 patients diagnosed with
      WE with at least 2 Caine criteria was selected from all patients discharged with
      a diagnosis of WE from 21 medical centers in Spain from January 1, 2000, through
      December 31, 2012. Demographic, clinical, and outcome variables were described.
      RESULTS: Among the 468 patients, the most common risk factor was alcoholism
      (n=434 [92.7%]). More than one-third of patients (n=181 [38.7%]) had the classic
      WE triad of symptoms (ocular signs, cerebellar dysfunction, and confusion). Among
      252 patients for whom magnetic resonance imaging data were available, 135 (53.6%)
      had WE-related lesions and 42 (16.7%) had cerebellar lesions. Of the 468
      patients, 25 (5.3%) died during hospitalization. Alcoholic patients presented
      more frequently than nonalcoholic patients with cerebellar signs (P=.01) but less
      frequently with ocular signs (P=.02). Alcoholic patients had a significantly
      higher frequency of hyponatremia (P=.04) and decreased platelet count (P=.005)
      compared with nonalcoholics. Alcoholic patients were diagnosed earlier than
      nonalcoholics (median time to diagnosis, 1 vs 4 days; P=.001) and had shorter
      hospitalizations (13 vs 23 days; P=.002). CONCLUSION: Compared with nonalcoholic
      patients, alcoholic patients with WE are more likely to present with cerebellar
      signs and less likely to have ocular signs. Diagnosis may be delayed in
      nonalcoholic patients. Mortality in the present series was lower than described
      previously.

PMID- 28578782
TI  - Associations Between Anthropometric Measurements and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors
      in White European and South Asian Adults in the United Kingdom.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of 4 anthropometric measurements with
      cardiometabolic risk factors in a UK biethnic sample of South Asians (SAs) and
      white Europeans (WEs). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Baseline data were collected from
      adults of WE and SA origin participating in the Leicester arm of the Anglo-Danish
      Dutch Study of Intensive Treatment in People with Screen Detected Diabetes in
      Primary Care (ADDITION-Leicester) study between August 2004 and December 2007.
      Overall, 6268 WE and SA adults had measures of body mass index, waist
      circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist-to-height ratio assessed between
      June 18, 2004, and December 4, 2007. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, and dysglycemia
      were established from venous blood samples using standard definitions. Crude and
      adjusted (covariates used were age, sex, ethnicity, smoking, and alcohol
      consumption) odds ratios were calculated using multivariate logistic regression.
      Receiver operating characteristic curves and the area under the curve were used
      to calculate optimal cut points for the whole cohort and for both ethnic groups.
      RESULTS: Increases in all anthropometric measurements resulted in a higher odds
      ratio for each of the risk factors in both the crude and adjusted models
      (P<.001). The adjusted odds ratios for dyslipidemia, hypertension, and
      dysglygemia ranged from 1.30 to 1.35, from 1.36 to 1.52, and from 1.62 to 1.75
      (P<.001 for all), respectively, in WEs. The adjusted odds ratio for dyslipidemia,
      hypertension, and dysglygemia ranged from 1.50 to 1.65 (P<.01), from 1.40 to 1.60
      (P<.01), and from 1.96 to 2.11 (P<.001 for all), respectively, in SAs. The areas
      under the receiver operating characteristic curves for all the anthropometric
      measurements had low accuracy (P<.70) for the whole cohort and when stratified by
      ethnicity and sex. CONCLUSION: There is insufficient evidence to recommend
      replacing body mass index with another anthropometric measurement for the
      ethnically diverse population in the United Kingdom. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00318032.

PMID- 28578783
TI  - Biology and Treatment of Aggressive Fibromatosis or Desmoid Tumor.
AB  - Aggressive fibromatosis, also known as desmoid-type fibromatosis (DTF) or desmoid
      tumor, is an uncommon locally invasive tumor. Because of its low incidence and
      variable behavior, DTF is often first seen by physicians who are not familiar
      with it, and recent advances in understanding this disease have led to changes in
      treatment approaches. The Wnt (beta-catenin) pathway appears to play a key role
      in DTF pathogenesis, and recent studies of DTF biology suggest a possible model
      of DTF pathogenesis. Histologically, DTF shows a poorly circumscribed
      proliferation of myofibroblast-like cells with variable collagen deposition,
      similar to the proliferative phase of wound healing, and DTF has been associated
      with trauma and pregnancy. Desmoid-type fibromatosis may be a useful model of the
      tumor stroma in carcinomas as well as other fibrosing diseases such as
      progressive pulmonary fibrosis. The clinical course of DTF can vary greatly among
      patients, complicating the determination of the optimal treatment approach.
      Treatment options include surgery, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with or
      without hormonal manipulation, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other forms
      of local therapy. Many treatments have been used, but these are not without
      toxicities. Because of the variable nature of the disease and the potential
      morbidity of treatment, some cases of DTF may do better without treatment; simple
      observation is often the best initial treatment. This review used a PubMed search
      from January 1, 1980, through October 31, 2016, using the terms fibromatosis and
      desmoid and discusses DTF disease characteristics, pathophysiology, and treatment
      options as well as examines several cases illustrating key points in the biology
      and treatment of this heterogeneous disease.

PMID- 28578784
TI  - Making Dysphagia Easier to Swallow: A Review for the Practicing Clinician.
AB  - Evaluating a patient with dysphagia can be a complex and daunting task. In this
      article, we present a practical approach to the evaluation, physical examination,
      and subsequent work-up of dysphagia that is applicable to practicing physicians.

PMID- 28578787
TI  - Gastric Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma.

PMID- 28578786
TI  - Treatment of Glioma in the 21st Century: An Exciting Decade of Postsurgical
      Treatment Advances in the Molecular Era.
AB  - The past decade has brought about major changes in the way we classify and have
      begun to approach patients with high-grade glioma. As we trend toward
      personalized medicine, we are now able to utilize the molecular characteristics
      of each individual's tumor in order to tailor their treatment, particularly if
      the patient is elderly or has a poor performance status at baseline. We address
      the state of the practice as of 2016 in regard to chemotherapy, immunotherapy,
      and tumor-treating fields. The goal of this review is to enhance readers'
      understanding of the nuances that are allowing clinicians to tailor the treatment
      of high-grade glioma more specifically.

PMID- 28578788
TI  - African Mask by Danillo Zanella.
AB  - Recognizing the contribution art has had in the Mayo Clinic environment since the
      original Mayo Clinic Building was finished in 1914, Mayo Clinic Proceedings
      features some of the numerous works of art displayed throughout the buildings and
      grounds on Mayo Clinic campuses as interpreted by the author.

PMID- 28578785
TI  - Alzheimer Disease: Scientific Breakthroughs and Translational Challenges.
AB  - Alzheimer disease (AD) was originally conceived as a rare disease that caused
      presenile dementia but has come to be understood as the most prevalent cause of
      dementia at any age worldwide. It has an extended preclinical phase characterized
      by sequential changes in imaging and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers with subtle
      memory decline beginning more than a decade before the emergence of symptomatic
      memory loss heralding the beginning of the mild cognitive impairment stage. The
      apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele is a prevalent and potent risk factor for AD
      that has facilitated research into its preclinical phase. Cerebral Abeta levels
      build from preclinical through early dementia stages followed by
      hyperphosphorylated tau-related pathology, the latter driving cognitive deficits
      and dementia severity. Structural and molecular imaging can now recapitulate the
      neuropathology of AD antemortem. Autosomal dominant forms of early-onset familial
      AD gave rise to the amyloid hypothesis of AD, which, in turn, has led to
      therapeutic trials of immunotherapy designed to clear cerebral amyloid, but to
      date results have been disappointing. Genome-wide association studies have
      identified multiple additional risk factors, but to date none have yielded an
      effective alternate therapeutic target. Current and future trials aimed at
      presymptomatic individuals either harboring cerebral amyloid or at genetically
      high risk offer the hope that earlier intervention might yet succeed where trials
      in patients with established dementia have failed. A major looming challenge will
      be that of expensive, incompletely effective disease-modifying therapy: who and
      when to treat, and how to pay for it.

PMID- 28578792
TI  - Functional and clinical outcomes of total ankle arthroplasty in elderly compared
      to younger patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) is becoming an increasingly utilized
      procedure for the management of end-stage ankle arthritis. Elderly patients are
      the fastest growing segment of the population in the western world, creating a
      unique challenge to the health economics of our era. Determining if elderly
      patients with end-stage ankle arthritis demonstrate the same improvements in
      clinical outcomes and functional measures of gait following TAA would be
      valuable. This can aid to evaluate the utilization of TAA in this enlarging
      cohort of our population. METHODS: Consecutive series of twenty-one patients over
      the age of 70, who underwent TAA for end-stage ankle arthritis, was prospectively
      compared to a series of twenty-one patients aged 50-60, who underwent the same
      procedure by single surgeon during same time period. Clinical outcomes were
      measured with outcome scores including VAS pain score, AOFAS Ankle and Hindfoot
      Score, and the SF-36. Three-dimensional gait analysis was performed
      preoperatively and at a minimum of one year postoperatively, to measure temporal
      spatial, kinematic, and kinetic parameters of gait. Mixed model multivariate
      statistical analysis was used to evaluate and compare the independent
      contributions to outcomes of the surgical intervention over time; of patient age;
      and of time-plus-age interaction, as these influenced both the clinical outcomes
      and the functional gait outcomes. RESULTS: Statistically significant improvements
      in VAS pain scores, AOFAS ankle/hindfoot scores, and SF-36 scores were
      demonstrated in both age groups. Following surgery, there were improvements in
      all parameters of gait, including temporal-spatial parameters as step length and
      walking velocity; kinematic parameters, including, increase in total range of
      motion to a total of 17-19 degrees ; and kinetic parameters, including increase
      in ankle power and moment. The improvements both in clinical and gait outcomes
      were equivalent in the two age groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this comparative study, it
      is shown that both elderly patients over the age of 70 and younger patients aged
      50-60 demonstrated equivalent improvements clinical and gait outcomes following
      ankle arthroplasty. This may be important data both for clinical decision-making
      and the health economics for our ageing population.

PMID- 28578791
TI  - Letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, reduces post-peak age-related regression of
      rooster reproductive performance.
AB  - This study was designed to evaluate orally administrated Letrozole (Lz) on
      reproductive performance, plasma testosterone and estradiol concentrations and
      relative abundance of mRNA of GnRH, FSH and LH in roosters. Ross 308 roosters
      (n=32) that were 40-weeks of age were individually housed and received a basal
      standard diet supplemented different amounts of capsulated Lz [0 (Lz-0), 0.5 (Lz
      0.5), 1 (Lz-1) or 1.5 (Lz-1.5), mg Lz/bird/day] for 12 weeks. Sperm quality
      variables and plasma testosterone and estradiol concentrations were assessed from
      the first to the tenth week of the treatment period. Semen samples from the 11th
      to 12th week were used for artificial insemination and eggs were collected and
      allotted to assess fertility and hatchability rates. Relative abundance of
      hypothalamic and pituitary GnRH, LH and FSH mRNA was evaluated at the end of 12th
      week. The results indicated that total and forward sperm motility as well as egg
      hatchability rate were greater in the Lz-0.5 group. Greater sperm concentrations,
      ejaculate volume, sperm plasma membrane integrity, testis index and fertility
      rates were recorded for both Lz-0.5 and Lz-1 groups compared with the Lz-0 group
      (P<0.05). Body weight, percentage of sperm abnormalities, and sperm plasma
      membrane functionality were not affected by treatment. Testosterone and estradiol
      concentrations were negatively related with greater testosterone concentrations
      in the Lz-1.5 group which had lesser estradiol concentrations. Relative mRNA
      transcript abundance for GnRH, LH and FSH was Lz dose responsive being greater in
      the treated groups; however, this trend plateaued for GnRH and for the relative
      abundance of both LH and FSH mRNA was less in the Lz-1.5 group than the other
      treatment groups. It is concluded that Lz may be an effective treatment to
      improve age related post-peak reproductive performance of roosters.

PMID- 28578790
TI  - The Role of Interneurons in Autism and Tourette Syndrome.
AB  - The brain includes multiple types of interconnected excitatory and inhibitory
      neurons that together allow us to move, think, feel, and interact with the
      environment. Inhibitory interneurons (INs) comprise a small, heterogeneous
      fraction, but they exert a powerful and tight control over neuronal activity and
      consequently modulate the magnitude of neuronal output and, ultimately,
      information processing. IN abnormalities are linked to two pediatric psychiatric
      disorders with high comorbidity: autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Tourette
      syndrome (TS). Studies probing the basis of this link have been contradictory
      regarding whether the causative mechanism is a reduction in number, dysfunction,
      or gene aberrant expression (or a combination thereof). Here, we integrate
      different theories into a more comprehensive view of INs as responsible for the
      symptomatology observed in these disorders.

PMID- 28578789
TI  - Unravelling and Exploiting Astrocyte Dysfunction in Huntington's Disease.
AB  - Astrocytes are abundant within mature neural circuits and are involved in brain
      disorders. Here, we summarize our current understanding of astrocytes and
      Huntington's disease (HD), with a focus on correlative and causative dysfunctions
      of ion homeostasis, calcium signaling, and neurotransmitter clearance, as well as
      on the use of transplanted astrocytes to produce therapeutic benefit in mouse
      models of HD. Overall, the data suggest that astrocyte dysfunction is an
      important contributor to the onset and progression of some HD symptoms in mice.
      Additional exploration of astrocytes in HD mouse models and humans is needed and
      may provide new therapeutic opportunities to explore in conjunction with neuronal
      rescue and repair strategies.

PMID- 28578793
TI  - Medium to long-term results of 130 Ankle Evolutive System total ankle
      replacements-Inferior survival due to peri-implant osteolysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study reports the medium to long-term results of 130 Ankle
      Evolutive System total ankle replacements operated at a single-centre. Previously
      high amount of peri-implant osteolysis was reported from the same material.
      METHODS: Between 2002 and 2008 one hundred and thirty consecutive ankles replaced
      with AES ankle prosthesis were followed both radiologically and clinically.
      RESULTS: The five-year survival was 87.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) 80.0
      92.0%), and ten-year survival 74.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) 65.4-82.2%) at
      a median follow-up time of 96 months (range 2-161; 8 years). Peri-implant
      osteolysis was found in 91 (70%) ankles, marked in 78 (60%). 44 ankles (34%) have
      been revised by filling of the cavities, 24 (18%) by fusion, and 6 by further
      replacement, resulting in the revision rate of 58%. Osteolysis was the main
      reason for all revisions. The improvement of the Kofoed Score and pain points was
      significant (all p<0.0001), and the subjective patient satisfaction was good.
      CONCLUSIONS: Outcome of the current study was seriously affected by osteolysis
      and is inferior compared to previous reports.

PMID- 28578794
TI  - Results at a minimum follow-up of 5 years of a ligaments-compatible total ankle
      replacement design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A new design of 3-part ankle replacement was developed to achieve
      compatibility with the natural ligaments by allowing certain fibers to remain
      isometric during passive motion. METHODS: We evaluate 75 ankle prostheses
      implanted from July 2003 to December 2008, at a mean follow-up 6.5+/-1.1years
      (range 5-9 years). The mean age at surgery was 62+/-13years (range 29-82).
      RESULTS: The mean AOFAS scores achieved at pre-op and at last follow-up were
      respectively 37+/-5 (23-45) and 78+/-8 (64-98). (p<0.001). Clinical range of
      motion of the ankle measured by goniometer pre op was 1 degrees +/-2 of
      dorsiflexion and 12 degrees +/-4 degrees  of plantarflexion; at last follow-up
      range of motion increased to 6 degrees +/-5 degrees  in dorsiflexion (p<0.01) and
      18 degrees +/-7 degrees  in plantarflexion (p<0.05). Radiographs showed no
      loosening and little signs of radiolucency. Two revisions necessitated component
      removal, neither for implant loosening. The overall survival rate was 97.3%.
      CONCLUSIONS: Function and Range-of-motion showed significant improvements. These
      results demonstrate that ligaments-compatible shaped talar and tibial components,
      with a fully conforming interposed meniscal bearing, can provide satisfactory
      survival rates and clinical outcomes in the middle term.

PMID- 28578795
TI  - Heterotopic ossification after total ankle replacement: The role of prosthesis
      alignment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aetiology of heterotopic ossifications (HO) after total ankle
      arthroplasty (TAR) remains controversial. The aim of the study was to evaluate
      the prevalence and localisation of HO and the effect of alignment. METHODS: 88
      TARs with a series of radiological controls and follow-up of 36 months were
      evaluated. Frontal and sagittal alignment parameters (alfa and beta angle defined
      by Hintermann) and tibial coverage were evaluated. RESULTS: The prevalence and
      grading of HO increased over time, mostly in the posterior gutter. Varus
      alignment correlated with HO increase in the ventral and lateral gutters the
      first year. A dorsally located rotational centre correlated with total HO growth
      and HO in the posterior gutter. These correlations were not detected after 3
      years, as HO were seen in all prostheses, regardless of alignment. CONCLUSIONS:
      HO grow over time with a prevalence up to 100% after 3 years. TAR alignment
      correlates with gutter-specific HO formation within the first year.

PMID- 28578797
TI  - Editorial for the special issue "total ankle replacement".

PMID- 28578796
TI  - Are periprosthetic osteolytic lesions in ankle worth bone grafting?
AB  - BACKGROUND: We retrospectively evaluated the medium-term follow-up of bone
      grafting due to periprosthetic osteolytic lesions in ankles. METHODS: 34 ankles
      (32 patients) with total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) underwent re operation.
      Indications were large periprosthetic osteolytic lesions or continuous growing of
      the lesions. The osteolytic lesions were imaged by CT before reoperation and once
      a year after that. The mean CT follow-up after re operation was 3.8 years (range,
      2-6.2 years). Patient's clinical outcome was also monitored. RESULTS: Osteolysis
      continued to progress in 44 bone grafted lesions (68%) in CT follow-up. Pain
      (p=0.04) and location of the lesion (p=0.03) were associated with progression of
      osteolysis. In 18 bone grafted osteolytic lesions (28%) the radiological survival
      remained excellent. 25 out of 34 ankles showed improvement of the function after
      bone grafting. CONCLUSIONS: There is no established treatment protocol for
      osteolysis around TAA. Bone grafting is one alternative in the treatment of
      osteolytic lesions.

PMID- 28578798
TI  - Identifying the learning curve for total ankle replacement using a mobile bearing
      prosthesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total ankle arthroplasty remains a technically demanding surgery
      highly influenced by the operator experience. However, no consensus exists
      regarding the ideal number of cases that need to be performed before a surgeon is
      considered proficient. The aim of this study was to identify the learning curve
      of a specific replacement system with regards to intraoperative and postoperative
      outcomes. METHODS: The first 31 patients undergoing total ankle arthroplasty were
      examined. No additional procedures were performed at the time of the TAA.
      Intraoperative characteristics, postoperative complications, as well as clinical
      and radiologic outcomes were assessed with 24-month follow-up. Learning curves,
      examining the relationship between surgeon experience and patient outcomes, were
      determined using the Moving Average Method. RESULTS: The operatory time, and the
      risk of intraoperative fractures decreased with increasing surgeon experience
      with the learning curve stabilizing after the 14th and 24th patient,
      respectively. Furthermore, there appeared to be a learning curve associated with
      most of the important clinical and radiological outcomes. The number of patients
      required to stabilize the learning curve for the VAS, ROM, and AOFAS was 11, 14
      and 28, respectively. Radiographically, there appeared to be a learning curve of
      22 patients required to stabilize the tibio-talar ratio. There was no learning
      curve associated with the SF-12 PCS and MCS as well as the alpha-, beta-, and
      gamma-angle. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that a surgical learning curve
      does indeed exist when performing TAA. Most of the operative variables as well as
      clinical and radiological outcomes stabilize after a surgeon has performed 28
      cases.

PMID- 28578799
TI  - Tibial slope in total ankle arthroplasty: Anterior or lateral approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A new total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) system performed through a
      lateral approach provides direct visualization of the centre of rotation,
      allowing for accurate reconstruction of the joint alignment and less bone
      resection. Radiographic references are needed to describe deformities and plan
      the surgical procedures. The tibial slope is an important factor when treating
      malalignment. The aim of this study is to show if there is any difference
      regarding the post-operative tibial slope (beta angle) measurement comparing a
      fixed-bearing TAA through a lateral approach and a mobile-bearing TAA through an
      anterior approach. METHODS: The study included 217 ankles. Between May 2011 and
      April 2015, 77 patients underwent a TAA with a mobile-bearing implant through an
      anterior approach and 45 with a fixed-bearing implant through a lateral approach:
      in these patients the beta angle was measured 2 and 12 months postoperatively. 95
      subjects with unilateral post-traumatic ankle arthritis composed the control
      group: in these patients we measured the anterior distal tibial angle (ADTA) of
      the controlateral, non arthritic tibiotalar joint. RESULTS: In the mobile-bearing
      group, the mean beta angle at 2 and 12 months postoperatively was 86.4+/-3.1 and
      86.8+/-3.1 (p-value=0.12). In the fixed-bearing group, the mean beta angle at 2
      and 12 months postoperatively was 83.1+/-5.4 and 83.9+/-6.5 (p-value=0.26). A
      statistically significant difference was found between the beta angle of the two
      groups. In the control group the mean ADTA was 84.9+/-2.5. A non-statistically
      significant difference was observed only between beta angle of the fixed-bearing
      group and the ADTA of the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Regarding the tibial slope,
      fixed-bearing TAA through a lateral approach showed a more anatomic placement. In
      contrast, beta angle in mobile-bearing group appeared more reproducible than
      fixed-bearing group.

PMID- 28578800
TI  - Geometric analysis of the talus and development of a generic talar prosthetic.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trauma to the talus can result in fracture, avascular necrosis and
      structural collapse. Treatment has been limited to surgical fusion and total
      ankle arthroplasty. Total ankle arthroplasty may not be an appropriate treatment
      for avascular necrosis while surgical fusion of the joint limits mobility. Custom
      made implants have recently been used to address these limitations but have
      lengthy delays between injury and surgery and higher associated costs. A generic
      talar prosthesis available in various sizes may serve as a suitable alternative.
      METHODS: The geometric variation between shapes of individual tali was determined
      using 3D geometric models of 91 tali created from CT-scan data. Comparisons were
      done to determine if tali are one shape. The best shape was determined for each
      sex, and was compared to determine if a unisex implant would be possible. A
      geometric template for the implant in multiple sizes was created and compared to
      the models. RESULTS: The average of the average deviation between tali after
      volume scaling was found to be less than 1mm on the main articulating surfaces.
      One shape group was found for the talus. The female and male tali were found to
      be similar and a unisex implant template was created. CONCLUSIONS: Ten generic
      talar implant sizes were determined to be sufficient to match the size and shape
      of the 91 tali examined in this study.

PMID- 28578801
TI  - Sagittal tibiotalar translation and clinical outcomes in mobile and fixed-bearing
      total ankle replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sagittal implant malalignment after total ankle replacement (TAR) has
      been considered to be a possible cause for premature implant failure. In a prior
      study, the change over time of the tibiotalar ratio (T-T ratio), which is the
      ratio between the posterior longitudinal talar length and the full longitudinal
      talar length, was assessed in 66 TARs where an unconstrained, mobile-bearing
      implant was implanted. The analysis documented an increase in the T-T ratio
      between 2 and 6 months post-surgery (on average from 34.6% to 37.2%). We
      hypothesized that this change might have been related to the presence of a mobile
      bearing insert. In order to test our hypothesis, we designed a study to compare
      the translation of the talus in TARs performed with an unconstrained, mobile
      bearing implant (designated the "Mobile ankle") and those performed with a semi
      constrained, fixed-bearing implant (designated the "Fixed ankle"). METHODS: The
      study included 71 consecutive patients (71 ankles) who underwent TAR with the
      Mobile ankle and 24 consecutive patients (24 ankles) who received the Fixed ankle
      from May 2011 to December 2014. Patients were assessed clinically and
      radiologically preoperatively (T0), at 6 months (T2) and 12 months (T3) post
      surgery. There was also a radiological assessment at 2 months post-surgery (T1).
      RESULTS: The comparison of the T-T ratio between the two implant groups and over
      time indicated an interaction between time and group, therefore the changes of
      the T-T ratio over time were affected by the implant type factor (P<0.001). The
      changes of the postoperative T-T ratio over time were not significant in the
      Fixed ankle group (35.7+/-6.7% at T1, T2, and T3; P=1.0 for each pairwise
      comparison). In the Mobile ankle group, the T-T ratio at 2 months (34.4+/-5.5%)
      was significantly different to the T-T ratio at 6 months (37.0+/-5.8%; P<0.001;
      i.e. there was a significant posterior translation of the talus). The AOFAS score
      increased from preop to 12 months post-surgery in both the Mobile ankle (72.7+/
      12.8 at 12 months; P<0.001) and the Fixed ankle (85.0+/-9.7 at 12 months;
      P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The significant posterior translation of the talus from 2
      to 6 months documented only in the Mobile ankle group may have been associated
      with the presence of the mobile bearing interface.

PMID- 28578802
TI  - Spontaneous resolution of posterior ankle joint loose bodies after total ankle
      replacement: A case report.
AB  - Late stage ankle osteoarthritis often presents with debilitating pain. It is
      common to find osteophytes and loose body formation around the joint. Total ankle
      arthroplasty can preserve joint mobility and pain relieve for such patient.
      However, when trying to remove the osteophytes and loose bodies at the posterior
      ankle joint, there is risk of damaging posterior structures such as the
      neurovascular bundle during the procedure. We are presenting a case where the
      posterior loose bodies remained untouched during the operation, and patient
      showed spontaneous resolution of the lesions with time. Patient enjoyed good
      function outcome after the surgery.

PMID- 28578803
TI  - Head and neck cancer cell radiosensitization upon dual targeting of c-Abl and
      beta1-integrin.
AB  - Integrin-mediated cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) critically
      contributes to cancer cell therapy resistance and DNA double strand break (DSB)
      repair. c-Abl tyrosine kinase has been linked to both of these processes. Based
      on our previous findings indicating c-Abl hyperphosphorylation on tyrosine (Y)
      412 and threonine (T) 735 upon beta1-integrin inhibition, we hypothesized c-Abl
      tyrosine kinase as an important mediator of beta1-integrin signaling for
      radioresistance. In a panel of 8 cell lines from different solid cancer types
      grown in 3D laminin-rich ECM cultures, we targeted beta1 integrin with AIIB2
      (mAb) and c-Abl with Imatinib with and without X-ray irradiation and subsequently
      examined clonogenic survival, residual DSBs, protein expression and
      phosphorylation. Single or combined treatment with AIIB2 and Imatinib resulted in
      cell line-dependent cytotoxicity. Intriguingly, we identified a subgroup of this
      cell line panel that responded with a higher degree of radiosensitization to
      AIIB2/Imatinib relative to both single treatments. In this subgroup, we observed
      a non-statistically significant trend between the radioresponse and phospho-c-Abl
      Y412. Mechanistically, impairment of DNA repair seems to be associated with
      radiosensitization upon AIIB2/Imatinib and AIIB2/Imatinib-related
      radiosensitization could be reduced by exogenous overexpression of either
      wildtype or constitutively active c-Abl forms relative to controls. Our data
      generated in more physiological 3D cancer cell culture models suggest c-Abl as
      further determinant of radioresistance and DNA repair downstream of beta1
      integrin. For solid cancers, c-Abl phosphorylation status might be an indicator
      for reasonable Imatinib application as adjuvant for conventional
      radio(chemo)therapy.

PMID- 28578804
TI  - Human anterolateral entorhinal cortex volumes are associated with cognitive
      decline in aging prior to clinical diagnosis.
AB  - We investigated whether older adults without subjective memory complaints, but
      who present with cognitive decline in the laboratory, demonstrate atrophy in
      medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions associated with Alzheimer's disease. Forty
      community-dwelling older adults were categorized based on Montreal Cognitive
      Assessment (MoCA) performance. Total gray/white matter, cerebrospinal fluid, and
      white matter hyperintensity load were quantified from whole-brain T1-weighted and
      fluid-attenuated inversion recovery magnetic resonance imaging scans, whereas
      hippocampal subfields and MTL cortical subregion volumes (CA1, dentate
      gyrus/CA2/3, subiculum, anterolateral and posteromedial entorhinal, perirhinal,
      and parahippocampal cortices) were quantified using high-resolution T2-weighted
      scans. Cognitive status was evaluated using standard neuropsychological
      assessments. No significant differences were found in the whole-brain measures.
      However, MTL volumetry revealed that anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC)
      volume-the same region in which Alzheimer's pathology originates-was strongly
      associated with MoCA performance. This is the first study to demonstrate that
      alERC volume is related to cognitive decline in undiagnosed community-dwelling
      older adults.

PMID- 28578805
TI  - Expression system for heterologous protein expression in the filamentous fungus
      Aspergillus unguis.
AB  - Heterologous protein expression in filamentous fungi is advantageous, especially
      in the context of large scale production of high volume low value recombinant
      proteins. However, such systems are rare and not available in public domain. A
      novel filamentous fungus - Aspergillus unguis NII 08123 was used as host for
      developing a protein expression system. An expression cassette was assembled
      using A. nidulans glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (Pgapd),
      tryptophan synthase transcription terminator (TtrpC) and hygromycin resistance
      gene (hph) as selection marker. The enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene
      from Aequorea victoria was used as the model test protein for the evaluation of
      the expression system. The genetic transformation of this novel fungus was
      optimized through electroporation. Use of heterologous signal peptides resulted
      in high levels of secreted expression. The fungal host-expression system
      combination was tested successfully for the expression of the recombinant
      therapeutic protein-human interferon beta (HuIFNbeta).

PMID- 28578806
TI  - Bio-mining the forest ecosystem of North East India for identification of
      antimicrobial metabolites from fungi through submerged fermentation.
AB  - In this study, fungi isolated from less explored forest soil ecosystem of
      Northeast India were studied for the production of potential antimicrobial
      metabolites (AMM). Out of the 68 fungi isolated from forest soil of Manipur, 7 of
      them showed AMA against the test pathogens. Among them, Aspergillus terreus (IBSD
      F4) showed the most significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC
      25923), Bacillus anthracis (IBSD-C370), Pseudomonas fluorescens (ATCC-13525),
      Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC-14028), Escherichia coli (ATCC-25922) and Candida
      albicans (ATCC-10231). The active metabolite was harvested from the fermentation
      broth of Aspergillus terreus and purified by column chromatography and semi
      preparative-HPLC. The compound was identified as 'Sclerotionigrin A' on the basis
      of UV-vis spectra, MS and NMR analyses. This compound was reported for the first
      time from A. terreus. The study highlights, the importance of exploring microbes
      from forest soil for identification of bioactive metabolites for future drug
      development.

PMID- 28578807
TI  - Bio-oil from fast pyrolysis of lignin: Effects of process and upgrading
      parameters.
AB  - Effects of process parameters on the yield and chemical profile of bio-oil from
      fast pyrolysis of lignin and the processes for lignin-derived bio-oil upgrading
      were reviewed. Various process parameters including pyrolysis temperature,
      reactor types, lignin characteristics, residence time, and feeding rate were
      discussed and the optimal parameter conditions for improved bio-oil yield and
      quality were concluded. In terms of lignin-derived bio-oil upgrading, three
      routes including pretreatment of lignin, catalytic upgrading, and co-pyrolysis of
      hydrogen-rich materials have been investigated. Zeolite cracking and
      hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) treatment are two main methods for catalytic upgrading
      of lignin-derived bio-oil. Factors affecting zeolite activity and the main
      zeolite catalytic mechanisms for lignin conversion were analyzed. Noble metal
      based catalysts and metal sulfide catalysts are normally used as the HDO
      catalysts and the conversion mechanisms associated with a series of reactions
      have been proposed.

PMID- 28578808
TI  - Real-time monitoring of intracellular redox changes in Methylococcus capsulatus
      (Bath) for efficient bioconversion of methane to methanol.
AB  - This study aimed to develop a novel method for real-time monitoring of the
      intracellular redox states in a methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus, using
      Peredox as a genetically encoded fluorescent sensor of the NADH:NAD+ ratio. As
      expected, the fluorescence derived from the Peredox-expressing M. capsulatus
      transformant increased by supplementation of electron donor compounds (methane
      and formate), while it decreased by specifically inhibiting the methanol
      oxidation reaction. Electrochemical measurements confirmed that the Peredox
      fluorescence reliably represents the intracellular redox changes. This study is
      the first to construct a reliable redox-monitoring method for methanotrophs,
      which will facilitate to develop more efficient methane-to-methanol bioconversion
      processes.

PMID- 28578809
TI  - Formulation and utilisation of spent anaerobic digestate fluids for the growth
      and product formation of single cell algal cultures in heterotrophic and
      autotrophic conditions.
AB  - Spent anaerobically digested effluents of agricultural origin were collected and
      treated using membrane filtration to achieve three-large particle free-nutrient
      streams of N:P ratios of 16.53, 3.78 and 14.22. Three algal species were grown on
      these streams, achieving good levels of bioremediation of digester fluids
      simultaneously with biomass and associated end product formation. Nannochloropsis
      oceanica and Scenedesmus quadricuada, where proven highly effective in
      remediating the streams achieving ammonia and phosphate reduction over 60% while
      for Schizochytrium limacinum SR21 these serve as an ideal production medium for
      lipids and biomass reaching 16.70w/w% and 1.42gL-1 correspondingly. These
      processes thus provide treatment of sludge, avoiding the disposal problems by
      land spreading. The solid components are nutrient depleted but rich in organic
      matter as a soil enhancer, while the fluids rich in nutrients can be efficiently
      utilised for growth to generate high value materials of microalgae facilitating
      water reclamation.

PMID- 28578810
TI  - Imaging Intra-abdominal Burkitt's Lymphoma: From Discrete Bowel Wall Thickening
      to Diffuse Soft Tissue Infiltration.
AB  - Burkitt's lymphoma is a highly aggressive non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma, which
      often presents with intra-abdominal involvement. The purpose of this pictorial
      review is to illustrate the various intra-abdominal imaging findings of Burkitt's
      lymphoma. Extranodal disease at presentation is common, including involvement of
      the bowel, stomach, pancreas, spleen, and mesentery.

PMID- 28578811
TI  - Clinical Decision Support in Computerized Providers' Order Entry for Imaging
      Tests in Canada.

PMID- 28578812
TI  - Determinants of duration of untreated psychosis among first-episode psychosis
      patients in Denmark: A nationwide register-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Information on determinants of duration of untreated psychosis (DUP)
      is still needed to inform campaigns targeting people with first episode psychosis
      (FEP). This nation-wide study analysed the association between demographic
      factors (age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, and geographic area), premorbid and
      illness-related factors (global functional level, substance misuse, and contact
      to police), healthcare factors (referral source and first FEP contact) and DUP.
      METHOD: The study population of 1266 patients aged 15-25years diagnosed with FEP
      (ICD10 F20.0-F20.99) was drawn from the Danish National Indicator Project during
      2009-2011. The study population was combined with data from national
      administrative registers. A multinomial regression model was estimated to analyse
      the impact of demographic, premorbid and illness-related, and healthcare factors
      on DUP. RESULTS: One third of the population had a DUP below 6months. DUP longer
      than 12months was associated with older age at onset, being female, having
      cannabis misuse, and living in peripheral municipalities. Being charged by the
      criminal authorities during one year before FEP was associated with a DUP over
      6months. CONCLUSION: DUP is related to a number of demographic, premorbid and
      healthcare factors. These findings suggest that future information campaigns
      should focus on increasing the awareness of early signs of psychosis not only
      among mental health professionals but also other professionals in contact with
      adolescents such as the police. It may also be useful to consider how to target
      information campaigns towards persons living in peripheral areas.

PMID- 28578813
TI  - Multiclass method for the determination of pharmaceuticals and personal care
      products in compost from sewage sludge using ultrasound and salt-assisted liquid
      liquid extraction followed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry analysis.
AB  - An analytical method for the analysis of 16 pharmaceuticals and personal care
      products in compost from sewage sludge is successfully validated. Ultrasound
      assisted extraction with a mixture of acetonitrile:ethyl acetate (1:1, v/v)
      containing 10% (v/v) of acetic acid was carried out. Two cycles of extraction of
      10min were applied. A clean-up of the extracts using salt-assisted liquid-liquid
      extraction (SALLE) was also included. Experimental design was used for the
      optimization of the main parameters involved in the extraction and cleaned-up
      steps. The chromatographic separation was carried out by ultrahigh performance
      liquid chromatography using a mobile phase gradient mixture of a 13mM buffer
      ammonium formate solution (pH 9.25) (solvent A) and methanol (solvent B). An
      ACQUITY UPLC(r) BEH C18 column (1.7MUm; 2.1*50mm) column was used. Analytes were
      separated in less than 11min. The compounds were detected and quantified using
      single reaction monitoring electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. The limits of
      detection calculated ranged from 0.5 to 4ngg-1d.w., and the limits of
      quantification from 2 to 13ngg-1d.w. Recoveries from 93% to 111%, with relative
      standar deviations lower than 11% in all cases, were obtained. The method was
      applied to natural compost samples. High concentrations of some analytes were
      found. Ketoprofen (510ngg-1d.w.), methylparaben (240ngg-1d.w.), diclofenac
      (175ngg-1d.w.) and flufenamic acid (128ngg-1d.w.) were the most abundant.

PMID- 28578814
TI  - Cardiac involvement in Fukuyama muscular dystrophy is less severe than in
      Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the main complications in patients with muscular dystrophies
      is cardiac dysfunction. The literature on cardiac involvement in patients with
      Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD) is limited. AIM: To compare cardiac
      involvement between patients with FCMD and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
      METHODS: We compared cardiac involvement between 30 patients with FCMD and 181
      patients with DMD using echocardiography and serum biomarkers. All patients were
      receiving regular checkups at Kobe University Hospital. We used single regression
      analysis to compare echocardiographic parameters, age, and serum biomarkers.
      RESULTS: Almost all clinical and echocardiographic parameters were lower in
      patients with FCMD than DMD. The brain natriuretic peptide concentration in
      patients with FCMD showed no correlation with age or left ventricular ejection
      fraction (r=0.231, p=0.22 and r=0.058, p=0.76, respectively). A log-rank test
      revealed that the risk of left ventricular systolic dysfunction was lower in
      patients with FCMD than DMD (p=0.046, hazard ratio=0.348). CONCLUSION: The
      clinical progression of cardiac dysfunction is significantly milder in patients
      with FCMD than DMD, while skeletal muscle involvement is significantly worse in
      patients with FCMD. These data suggest that the pathophysiological findings of
      FCMD can be explained by less severe cardiac dysfunction in FCMD than DMD.

PMID- 28578815
TI  - Three years' experience with the first pediatric hospice in Asia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pediatric hospice has been the adoption of several service provision
      models in highly developed countries such as UK, Germany, Australia or Canada for
      a few decades, yet it has seldom been the case in the Asian Continent. This study
      aimed to evaluate the newest challenge for the children with Life-threatening
      illness (LTI) and described the characteristic of pediatric palliative care at
      the first pediatric hospice in Japan. METHODS: A retrospective review of all
      patients at our pediatric hospice in these three years was conducted. Of the 294
      cases reviewed, 269 cases were eligible for analysis. RESULTS: We reviewed 269
      patients admitted during the first three years. Most patients required intensive
      medical intervention. Patients were hospitalized in our pediatric hospice not
      only for end-of-life care (EOL), but also for respite care. Only 7% of the
      patients were with cancer. To support children and family to make the most of
      their time together, we provided a range of medical and recreational care. It is
      expected that the pediatric hospice will extend and establish cooperation with
      other hospitals or community services. CONCLUSION: Three years' experience of
      pediatric palliative care at the first pediatric hospice in the Asian Continent
      is encouraging. Further experience and improved communication with other
      pediatric service providers as well as their education in palliative care will
      enhance the recognition of the capacity of our hospice and support the needs of
      more children. Furthermore, we would like to introduce the idea of pediatric
      hospice and spread it throughout the Asian Continent in the future.

PMID- 28578816
TI  - Characteristics of headaches in Japanese elementary and junior high school
      students: A school-based questionnaire survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: Few studies have investigated pediatric headaches in Japan. Thus, we
      examined the lifetime prevalence and characteristics of headaches among
      elementary and junior high school students in Japan. METHODS: In this school
      based study, children aged 6-15years completed a questionnaire based on the
      diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Headache Disorders
      3beta to assess headache characteristics and related disability. RESULTS: Of the
      3285 respondents, 1623 (49.4%) experienced headaches. Migraine and tension-type
      headaches (TTH) were reported by 3.5% and 5.4% of elementary school students,
      respectively, and by 5.0% and 11.2% of junior high school students. Primary
      headaches increased with age. Compared with TTH sufferers, the dominant triggers
      in migraine sufferers were hunger (odds ratio=4.7), sunny weather (3.3), and
      katakori (neck and shoulder pain) (2.5). Compared with TTH, migraine caused
      higher headache-related frustration (P=0.010) as well as difficulty concentrating
      (P=0.017). Migraine-related disability was greater among junior high school
      students (feeling fed up or irritated, P=0.028; difficulty concentrating,
      P=0.016). TTH-related disability was also greater among junior high school
      students (feeling fed up or irritated, P=0.035). Approximately half of the
      students who complained of headache-related disability were not receiving medical
      treatment. CONCLUSION: This is the first detailed study of headaches in Japanese
      children to include elementary school students. Nearly 50% of the school children
      reported headaches and the disruption of daily activities caused by migraine was
      higher among junior high students than elementary school students.

PMID- 28578817
TI  - Childhood idiopathic spinal cord infarction: Description of 7 cases and review of
      the literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the clinical course, neuroimaging findings and functional
      outcome of idiopathic spinal cord infarction (SCI) in adolescents. METHODS:
      Retrospective and descriptive analyses of seven patients with idiopathic SCI and
      50 additional cases from the literature were included. Data collected concerned
      clinical presentation, MRI findings, initial diagnosis, treatments and functional
      outcome at the last medical visit. RESULTS: Mean age at presentation was
      13.2years (range 13-15). All patients presented a sudden and painful acute
      myelopathy with <24h time to maximal symptoms manifestation. A suspected trigger
      related to a minor effort was reported in 3/7 cases. Six patients presented with
      paraplegia, one with paraparesis. All had bladder dysfunction needing
      catheterization. Three patients had an initial misdiagnosis. Initial MRI was
      considered as normal in 2 cases. In the 5 other cases, T2-weighted-MR images
      showed hyperintensity within the thoracolumbar spinal cord, affecting mostly the
      anterior spinal artery territory. Evidence for associated spinal growth dystrophy
      were present in 6/7 cases. Mean follow-up time was 27.4months (range 3-46): 2
      patients recovered autonomous ambulation, 4 patients regained walking ability
      with aids and one child (the shortest follow-up) remained wheelchair-dependent. A
      neurogenic bladder was still reported in 6/7 children at the last visit.
      Complementary analyses with literature cases were consistent with the findings
      obtained in our cohort. CONCLUSION: Idiopathic SCI typically occurs in
      adolescence with a rapid onset and painful acute myelopathy. The MRI shows a T2
      hyperintense signal within the spinal cord and provides evidence for an ischemic
      mechanism. Etiology remains unclear in most cases even though some specific risk
      factors for this age must play an important role in the pathogenesis, such as
      mechanical constraints on the immature spine.

PMID- 28578818
TI  - Clinical milestones in Parkinson's disease: A 7-year population-based incident
      cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Clinical staging of Parkinson's disease (PD) is important for
      patient management and prognosis. The non-motor and functional features visual
      hallucinations, recurrent falls, dementia and nursing home placement are
      currently not included in clinical staging schemes, but have been suggested as
      clinical milestones with important prognostic implications in advanced PD. In
      this study, we sought to evaluate the potential of these four milestone events
      for clinical staging and prognosis during the early years of the disease.
      METHODS: We recruited 185 patients with incident PD and monitored prospectively
      every six months through seven years for emergence and consequences of four
      clinical milestones. RESULTS: One or more milestones were reached in 53.0%. Of
      the patients who reached the milestones, visual hallucinations appeared after a
      median of 3.3 (interquartile range 1.3-4.9) years from diagnosis, recurrent falls
      after 3.8 (2.8-5.2) years, dementia after 4.0 (2.1-4.8) years and nursing home
      placement after 5.4 (3.9-6.7) years. Presence of any milestone was associated
      with occurrence of other milestones (relative risks 1.9-6.3; all p <= 0.001).
      Experiencing two or more milestones increased the risk of death during the study
      (relative risk 2.7, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: In early PD, visual hallucinations,
      recurrent falls, dementia and nursing home placement appear closely interrelated,
      possibly reflecting a shared neuropathological disease stage. All events convey
      important and sinister information on PD status and prognosis and are relatively
      easily accessible during routine clinical consultations. Therefore, they appear
      highly useful as clinical PD milestones and could possibly be incorporated into a
      novel disease rating scale.

PMID- 28578819
TI  - Home based training for dexterity in Parkinson's disease: A randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with Parkinson's disease exhibit disturbed manual dexterity.
      This impairment leads to difficulties in activities of daily living, such as
      buttoning a shirt or hand-writing. The aim of the present study was to
      investigate the effectiveness of a home-based dexterity program on fine motor
      skills in a single-blinded, randomized controlled trial, in patients with
      Parkinson's disease. METHODS: One hundred and three patients with Parkinson's
      disease (aged between 48 and 80 years, Hoehn & Yahr stage I-IV) were randomized
      to either a home-based dexterity program (HOMEDEXT) or Thera-band program. All
      patients trained over a period of 4 weeks, 5 times/week, 30 min for each session.
      A baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment (12 weeks later, time
      period without intervention) were done. The primary outcome measure was dexterity
      as measured with the Nine Hole peg test (9-HPT). Secondary outcome measures
      included strength, motor parkinsonian symptoms, dexterity-related activities of
      daily living (ADL) and Health-related Quality of Life (HrQoL). RESULTS: There was
      a significant difference in favor of the HOMEDEXT group as compared to the Thera
      band group on the primary outcome 9-HPT (p = 0.006) and dexterity-related ADL (p
      = 0.02) at post intervention. No significant differences were found for the other
      outcomes, nor at follow-up. CONCLUSION: This is the first randomized controlled
      trial showing that an intensive, task specific home-based dexterity program
      significantly improved fine motor skills in Parkinson's disease. The effect
      generalized to dexterity-related ADL functions. As these improvements did not
      sustain, the finding suggest that continuous training is required to maintain the
      benefit.

PMID- 28578820
TI  - Formulas for Calculated Osmolarity and Osmolal Gap: A Study of Diagnostic
      Accuracy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The osmolal gap has been used for decades to screen for exposure to
      toxic alcohols. However, several issues may affect its reliability. We aimed to
      develop equations to calculate osmolarity with improved performance when used to
      screen for intoxication to toxic alcohols. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort
      study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: 7,525 patients undergoing simultaneous
      measurements of osmolality, sodium, potassium, urea, glucose, and ethanol or
      undergoing similar measurements performed within 30 minutes of a measurement of
      toxic alcohol levels at a single tertiary-care center from April 2001 to June
      2016. Patients with detectable toxic alcohols were excluded. INDEX TEST:
      Equations to calculate osmolarity using multiple linear regression. OUTCOMES: The
      performance of new equations compared with published equations developed to
      calculate osmolarity, and to diagnose toxic alcohol intoxications more
      accurately. RESULTS: We obtained 7,525 measurements, including 100 with
      undetectable toxic alcohols. Among them, 3,875 had undetectable and 3,650 had
      detectable ethanol levels. In the entire cohort, the best equation to calculate
      osmolarity was 2.006*Na + 1.228*Urea + 1.387*Glucose + 1.207*Ethanol (values in
      mmol/L, R2=0.96). A simplified equation, 2.0*Na + 1.2*Urea + 1.4*Glucose +
      1.2*Ethanol, had a similar R2 with 95% of osmolal gap values between -10.9 and
      13.8. In patients with undetectable ethanol concentrations, the range of 95% of
      osmolal gap values was narrower than previous published formulas, and in patients
      with detectable ethanol concentrations, the range was narrower or similar. We
      performed a subanalysis of 138 cases for which both the toxic alcohol
      concentration could be measured and the osmolal gap could be calculated. Our
      simplified equation had superior diagnostic accuracy for toxic alcohol exposure.
      LIMITATIONS: Single center, no external validation, limited number of cases with
      detectable toxic alcohols. CONCLUSIONS: In a large cohort, coefficients from
      regression analyses estimating the contribution of glucose, urea, and ethanol
      were higher than 1.0. Our simplified formula to precisely calculate osmolarity
      yielded improved diagnostic accuracy for suspected toxic alcohol exposures than
      previously published formulas.

PMID- 28578821
TI  - Zika Virus: Mechanisms of Infection During Pregnancy.
AB  - Immune status changes during pregnancy, with pro-inflammatory and anti
      inflammatory contexts at different stages, making pregnant women potentially more
      susceptible to various infections. Infection by Zika virus during pregnancy can
      cause developmental damage to the fetus, and the altered immune response during
      pregnancy could contribute to disease during Zika infection.

PMID- 28578822
TI  - Survival time with pacemaker implantation for dogs diagnosed with persistent
      atrial standstill.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate survival time in dogs with persistent atrial standstill
      after pacemaker implantation and to compare the survival times for cardiac
      related vs. non-cardiac deaths. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the effects
      of breed and the presence of congestive heart failure (CHF) at the time of
      diagnosis on survival time. ANIMALS: Twenty dogs with persistent atrial
      standstill and pacemaker implantation. METHODS: Medical records were searched to
      identify dogs diagnosed with persistent atrial standstill based on
      electrocardiogram that underwent pacemaker implantation. Survival after pacemaker
      implantation was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: The median
      survival time after pacemaker implantation for all-cause mortality was 866 days.
      There was no significant difference (p=0.573) in median survival time for cardiac
      (506 days) vs. non-cardiac deaths (400 days). The presence of CHF at the time of
      diagnosis did not affect the survival time (P=0.854). No difference in median
      survival time was noted between breeds (P=0.126). CONCLUSIONS: Dogs with
      persistent atrial standstill have a median survival time of 866 days with
      pacemaker implantation, though a wide range of survival times was observed. There
      was no difference in the median survival time for dogs with cardiac-related
      deaths and those without. Patient breed and the presence of CHF before pacemaker
      implantation did not affect median survival time.

PMID- 28578823
TI  - [Chemotherapy for colorectal cancer: Pragmatic assessment of prescription changes
      and relative dose intensity].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chemotherapy induced toxicities can generate changes in prescribing
      and relative dose intensity which have an impact on therapeutic efficacy. METHOD:
      This is a prospective observational study performed in hepato-gastroenterology
      department for 6 months. All patients treated for colorectal cancer and beginning
      a protocol with at least one parenteral drug have been included. RESULTS: Among
      the 48 patients enrolled, 85.4% of them had at least one prescription change,
      which concerned 30.3% of 238 cycles. Of the 766 analyzed prescription lines,
      16.6% of them were postponed and/or 6.7% had modified dosage and/or 5.6% were
      stopped prematurely. Grades 2 to 4 adverse reactions were responsible for at
      least one change prescribing to 64.6% of patients and 17.6% of cycles. Toxicity
      induced prescription changes were mainly due to clinical toxicities (79.3%). The
      rate of patients with a relative dose intensity greater than 70% was 92.9% in
      adjuvant state, 66.7% and 62.5% in metastatic state first line and second and
      subsequent line. CONCLUSION: High-grade clinical toxicities are the main
      chemotherapy prescription change pattern in colorectal cancer. Knowledge of
      toxicities before the patient's arrival is expected to target patients for which
      the drug preparation can be anticipated and for which a cycle postponement, dose
      adjustment or discontinuation is necessary.

PMID- 28578824
TI  - Improving the malaria transmission-blocking activity of a Plasmodium falciparum
      48/45 based vaccine antigen by SpyTag/SpyCatcher mediated virus-like display.
AB  - Malaria is a devastating disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, resulting in
      almost 0.5 million deaths per year. The Pfs48/45 protein exposed on the P.
      falciparum sexual stages is one of the most advanced antigen candidates for a
      transmission-blocking (TB) vaccine in the clinical pipeline. However, it remains
      essential to identify an optimal vaccine formulation that can facilitate
      induction of a long-lasting TB anti-Pfs48/45 response. Here we report on the
      development and evaluation of two Pfs48/45-based virus-like particle (VLP)
      vaccines generated using the AP205 SpyTag/Catcher VLP system. Two different
      recombinant proteins (SpyCatcher-R0.6C and SpyCatcher-6C), comprising the
      Pfs48/45-6C region, were covalently attached to the surface of Spy-tagged
      Acinetobacter phage AP205 VLPs. Resulting Pfs48/45-VLP complexes appeared as non
      aggregated particles of ~30nm, each displaying an average of 216 (R0.6C) or 291
      (6C) copies of the antigens. Both R0.6C and 6C VLP conjugates were strongly
      reactive with a monoclonal antibody (mAb45.1) targeting a conformational TB
      Pfs48/45 epitope, suggesting that the TB epitope is accessible for immune
      recognition on the particles. To select the most suitable vaccine formulation for
      downstream clinical studies the two VLP vaccines were tested in CD1 mice using
      different adjuvant formulations. The study demonstrates that VLP-display of R0.6C
      and 6C significantly increases antigen immunogenicity when using Montanide ISA
      720 VG as extrinsic adjuvant.

PMID- 28578826
TI  - Estimating the number of children in formal alternative care: Challenges and
      results.
AB  - Given the relatively large body of literature documenting the adverse impacts of
      institutionalization on children's developmental outcomes and well-being, it is
      essential that countries work towards reducing the number of children in
      alternative care (particularly institutional care), and, when possible, reunite
      children with their families. In order to do so, reliable estimates of the
      numbers of children living in such settings are essential. However, many
      countries still lack functional administrative systems for enumerating children
      living outside of family care. The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot
      of the availability and coverage of data on children living in residential and
      foster care from some 142 countries covering more than 80 per cent of the world's
      children. Utilizing these country-level figures, it is estimated that
      approximately 2.7 million children between the ages of 0 and 17 years could be
      living in institutional care worldwide. Where possible, the article also presents
      regional estimates of the number of children living in residential and foster
      care. This work represents an important step to systematically identify and
      compile sources of data on children in alternative care and provides updated
      global and regional estimates on the magnitude of the issue. Its findings
      contribute to raising awareness of the urgent need to strengthen the capacity of
      countries to improve national systems for counting, monitoring and reporting on
      these vulnerable children.

PMID- 28578825
TI  - The impact of a clinical pathway on patient postoperative recovery following
      pancreaticoduodenectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreaticoduodenectomies (PD) are complex surgical procedures.
      Clinical pathways (CPW) are surgical process improvement tools that guide
      postoperative recovery and are associated with high quality care. Our objective
      was to report the quality of surgical care following implementation of a CPW.
      METHODS: We developed and implemented a CPW for patients undergoing PD at a
      single high volume hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) centre. Patient outcomes were
      collected prospectively during the implementation period. A comparator cohort was
      selected by identifying patients that underwent a PD prior to CPW development.
      RESULTS: 122 patients underwent a PD during the CPW implementation period; 83
      patients were initiated on the CPW. 74 patients underwent PD during the 12-month
      period prior to the CPW. The median hospital stay decreased after the
      implementation of the CPW (11 vs 8 days, p < 0.01) with no significant changes to
      mortality, morbidity, reoperation, or readmission rates. In-hospital
      complications were significantly higher in patients that were not initiated on
      the CPW (54% vs 74%, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Results suggest the CPW reduced
      variability and allowed a greater proportion of patients to receive all elements
      of care, resulting in improved quality and efficiency of care based on current
      best evidence recommendations.

PMID- 28578827
TI  - A phylogenetic framework for the kingdom Fungi based on 18S rRNA gene sequences.
AB  - The usage of molecular phylogenetic approaches is critical to advance the
      understanding of systematics and community processes in the kingdom Fungi. Among
      the possible phylogenetic markers (or combinations of them), the 18S rRNA gene
      appears currently as the most prominent candidate due to its large availability
      in public databases and informative content. The purpose of this work was the
      creation of a reference phylogenetic framework that can serve as ready-to-use
      package for its application on fungal classification and community analysis. The
      current database contains 9329 representative 18S rRNA gene sequences covering
      the whole fungal kingdom, a manually curated alignment, an annotated and revised
      phylogenetic tree with all the sequence entries, updated information on current
      taxonomy, and recommendations of use. Out of 201 total fungal taxa with more than
      two sequences in the dataset, 179 were monophyletic. From another perspective,
      66% of the entries had a tree-derived classification identical to that obtained
      from the NCBI taxonomy, whereas 34% differed in one or the other rank. Most of
      the differences were associated to missing taxonomic assignments in NCBI
      taxonomy, or the unexpected position of sequences that positioned out of their
      theoretically corresponding clades. The strong correlation observed with current
      fungal taxonomy evidences that 18S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenies are
      adequate to reflect genealogy of Fungi at the levels of order and above, and
      justify their further usage and exploration.

PMID- 28578828
TI  - Complete resection of locally advanced ovarian carcinoma fixed to the pelvic
      sidewall and involving external and internal iliac vessels.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Locally advanced ovarian carcinomas may be fixed to the pelvic
      sidewall, and although these often involve the internal iliac vessels, they
      rarely involve the external iliac vessels. Such tumors are mostly considered
      inoperable. We present a surgical technique for complete resection of locally
      advanced ovarian carcinoma fixed to the pelvic sidewall and involving external
      and internal iliac vessels. METHODS: A 69-year-old woman presented with ovarian
      carcinoma fixed to the right pelvic sidewall, which involved the right external
      and internal iliac arteries and veins and the right lower ureter, rectum, and
      vagina. We cut the external iliac artery and vein at the bifurcation and at the
      inguinal ligament to resect the external artery and vein. Then, we reconstructed
      the arterial and venous supplies of the right external artery and vein with
      grafts. After creating a wide space immediately inside of the sacral plexus to
      allow the tumor fixed to pelvic sidewall with the internal iliac vessels to move
      medially, we performed total internal iliac vessel resection. RESULTS: We
      achieved complete en bloc tumor resection with the right external and internal
      artery and vein, right ureter, vagina, and rectum adhering to the tumor. There
      were no intra- or postoperative complications, such as bleeding, graft occlusion,
      infection, or limb edema. CONCLUSION: Exfoliation from the sacral plexus and
      total resection with external and internal iliac vessels enables complete
      resection of the tumor fixed to the pelvic sidewall.

PMID- 28578829
TI  - Understanding and Improving Recruitment to Randomised Controlled Trials:
      Qualitative Research Approaches.
AB  - CONTEXT: The importance of evidence from randomised trials is now widely
      recognised, although recruitment is often difficult. Qualitative research has
      shown promise in identifying the key barriers to recruitment, and interventions
      have been developed to reduce organisational difficulties and support clinicians
      undertaking recruitment. OBJECTIVE: This article provides an introduction to
      qualitative research techniques and explains how this approach can be used to
      understand-and subsequently improve-recruitment and informed consent within a
      range of clinical trials. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A literature search was performed
      using Medline, Embase, and CINAHL. All studies with qualitative research methods
      that focused on the recruitment activity of clinicians were included in the
      review. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: The majority of studies reported that organisational
      difficulties and lack of time for clinical staff were key barriers to
      recruitment. However, a synthesis of qualitative studies highlighted the
      intellectual and emotional challenges that arise when combining research with
      clinical roles, particularly in relation to equipoise and patient eligibility. To
      support recruiters to become more comfortable with the design and principles of
      randomised controlled trials, interventions have been developed, including the
      QuinteT Recruitment Intervention, which comprises in-depth investigation of
      recruitment obstacles in real time, followed by implementation of tailored
      strategies to address these challenges as the trial proceeds. CONCLUSIONS:
      Qualitative research can provide important insights into the complexities of
      recruitment to trials and inform the development of interventions, and provide
      support and training initiatives as required. Investigators should consider
      implementing such methods in trials expected to be challenging or recruiting
      below target. PATIENT SUMMARY: Qualitative research is a term used to describe a
      range of methods that can be implemented to understand participants' perspectives
      and behaviours. Data are gathered from interviews, focus groups, or observations.
      In this review, we demonstrate how this approach can be used to understand-and
      improve-recruitment to clinical trials. Taken together, our review suggests that
      healthcare professionals can find recruiting to trials challenging and require
      support with this process.

PMID- 28578830
TI  - Understanding perspectives on major system change: A comparative case study of
      public engagement and the implementation of urgent and emergency care system
      reconfiguration.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Major changes have been made to how emergency care services are
      configured in several regions in the Republic of Ireland. This study investigated
      the hypothesis that engagement activities undertaken prior to these changes
      influenced stakeholder perspectives on the proposed changes and impacted on the
      success of implementation. METHODS: A comparative case-study approach was used to
      explore the changes in three regions. These regions were chosen for the case
      study as the nature of the proposals to reconfigure care provision were broadly
      similar but implementation outcomes varied considerably. Documentary analysis of
      reconfiguration planning reports was used to identify planned public engagement
      activities. Semi-structured interviews with 74 purposively-sampled stakeholders
      explored their perspectives on reconfiguration, engagement activities and public
      responses to reconfiguration. Framework analysis was used, integrating inductive
      and deductive approaches. RESULTS: Approaches to public engagement and success of
      implementation differed considerably across the three cases. Regions that
      presented the public with the reconfiguration plan alone reported greater public
      opposition and difficulty in implementing changes. Engagement activities that
      included a range of stakeholders and continued throughout the reconfiguration
      process appeared to largely address public concerns, contributing to smoother
      implementation. CONCLUSIONS: The presentation of reconfiguration reports alone is
      not enough to convince communities of the case for change. Genuine, ongoing and
      inclusive engagement offers the best opportunity to address community concerns
      about reconfiguration.

PMID- 28578831
TI  - Dependence on acyl chain length of energy and volume parameters of the gel to
      liquid-crystalline transition of 1,2-diacylphosphatidylcholines. Theoretical
      consideration.
AB  - The effect of acyl chain length on energy and volume parameters of gel to liquid
      crystal transitions in phospholipids is analyzed. It is demonstrated that simple
      structural and thermodynamic considerations allow predicting some thermodynamic
      and volume characteristics of transitions and their dependencies on the acyl
      chains length.

PMID- 28578832
TI  - A biophysical approach to quantify skeletal stem cells trans-differentiation as a
      model for the study of osteoporosis.
AB  - The stroma of human bone marrow contains a population of skeletal stem cells (hBM
      MSC) which are common ancestors, among the others, of osteoblasts and adipocytes.
      It has been proposed that the imbalance between hBM-MSC osteogenesis and
      adipogenesis, which naturally accompanies bone marrow senescence, may contribute
      to the development of bone-associated diseases, like osteoporosis. The
      possibility to reproduce this mechanism in vitro has been demonstrated, providing
      a good model to disclose the details of the complex bone-fat generation
      homeostasis. Nevertheless, the lack of a simple approach to quantitatively assess
      the actual stage of a cellular population hindered the adoption of this in vitro
      model. In this work, the direct differentiation of hBM-MSCs towards a single
      (osteo or adipo) lineage was characterized using quantitative biophysical and
      biological approaches, together with the parallel process of trans
      differentiation from one lineage to the other. The results confirm that the
      original plasticity of hBM-MSCs is maintained along the initial stages of the
      differentiation, showing that in vitro conversion of pre-osteoblasts into
      adipocytes and, vice versa, of pre-adipocytes into osteoblasts is extremely
      efficient, comparable with the direct differentiation. Moreover, a method based
      on digital holography is proposed, providing a quantitative indication of the
      phenotype stage along differentiation.

PMID- 28578833
TI  - Life values of elderly people suffering from incurable cancer: A literature
      review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Due to aging Western societies, older patients suffering from
      incurable cancer will present themselves more often to health care professionals.
      To be of service to these severely ill elderly patients, more knowledge is needed
      on which life values are guiding them through their last phases of life. This
      review aims to describe which life values play an important part in the lives of
      elderly people suffering from incurable cancer. METHODS: We conducted a
      literature review with a structured search to identify empirical studies (January
      1950-February 2016) using six databases. RESULTS: The analysis of thirty articles
      resulted in the extensive description of eight life values: comfort, continuity,
      humility, dignity, honesty, optimism, hope and preparedness. CONCLUSION: Elderly
      patients suffering from incurable cancer use the abovementioned life values to
      give meaning to a life interrupted by disease. Furthermore, these values will
      play a role in communication and decision-making. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
      Knowledge about life values can help professionals discuss and clarify personal
      preferences with elderly patients suffering from incurable cancer, contributing
      to more personalized care and treatment. Communication should focus on to what
      extent patient empowerment, life-prolonging treatment and the involvement of the
      patient's supporting systems suit the wishes of these patients.

PMID- 28578834
TI  - The Joy of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.

PMID- 28578835
TI  - The Link Between Radiation Optimization and Quality.

PMID- 28578836
TI  - [Contribution of histopathology in the diagnosis of mycetoma in a Cameroonian
      trader and possibility of an urban contamination].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycetoma are rare cutaneous affections caused by pathogens such as
      fungi or bacteria. They settle preferentially on limb extremities. We are going
      to talk about an original case of mycetoma in a young Cameroonian trader.
      OBSERVATION: A cutaneous mass with multiple draining sinuses was received at the
      anatomy and cytopathology laboratory. That mass was from a 30-year-old male
      trader, with no particular medical history and living in Yaounde, who was
      received for a lesion at the sole of the foot, which appeared some months before.
      This lesion started like a tough and painless nodule, which later showed draining
      sinuses to the skin. The surgical resection of the tissue mass was performed. The
      histopathological analysis with special staining procedures, which was later on
      performed, revealed mycetoma caused by fungi. DISCUSSION: This observation
      describes an original case of fungal mycetoma, which occured in a Cameroonian
      trader living in an urban milieu away from any mycetoma endemic zone. This case
      confirms the undeniable or undisputable contribution of histopathology in
      diagnosis of certainty. To our knowledge and according to available data, it is a
      premiere to find a case of mycetoma described in an urban milieu in Cameroon.

PMID- 28578838
TI  - Coffee and tea breaks for liver health.

PMID- 28578837
TI  - Coffee and herbal tea consumption is associated with lower liver stiffness in the
      general population: The Rotterdam study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Coffee and tea have been proposed to limit the progression of
      liver fibrosis in established liver disease, but it is unknown if this is also
      true for subclinical fibrosis. We therefore aimed to evaluate whether coffee and
      tea consumption are associated with liver stiffness in the general population.
      METHODS: The Rotterdam Study is an ongoing prospective population-based cohort.
      We included participants who underwent transient elastography, ultrasound and
      completed a food frequency questionnaire. Coffee and tea consumption were
      categorized into no, moderate (>0-3), or frequent (?3) intake (cups/day), and tea
      further into green, black and herbal tea (no/any). Significant fibrosis was
      defined as liver stiffness measurements (LSM) ?8.0kPa. We performed regression
      analyses relating coffee and tea intake with fibrosis, steatosis and log
      transformed LSM and adjusted for energy, sugar and creamer intake, age, gender,
      BMI, steatosis/LSM, HOMA-IR, ALT, alcohol, smoking, soda, healthy diet index and
      physical activity. RESULTS: We included 2,424 participants (age 66.5+/-7.4; 43%
      male) of whom 5.2% had LSM ?8.0kPa and 34.6% steatosis. Proportion of LSM ?8.0kPa
      decreased with higher coffee consumption (7.8%, 6.9% and 4.1% for no, moderate
      and frequent respectively; Ptrend=0.006). This inverse association was confirmed
      in multivariable regression (ORmod 0.75, 95% CI 0.33-1.67; ORfreq 0.39, 95% CI
      0.18-0.86; p=0.005). Amongst tea consumers, only herbal tea consumers (36.3%) had
      lower log-transformed LSM after adjustment (Beta-0.05, 95% CI-0.08;-0.02,
      p=0.001). Subtypes of tea were associated with steatosis in univariate but not
      multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In the general population, frequent coffee
      and herbal tea consumption were inversely related with liver stiffness but not
      steatosis. Longitudinal analyses, as well as studies validating and unravelling
      underlying mechanisms are needed. LAY SUMMARY: The Rotterdam Study is a large
      ongoing population study of suburban inhabitants of Rotterdam in whom data on
      liver stiffness, as proxy for liver fibrosis, presence of fatty liver on
      ultrasound and detailed information on coffee and tea consumption were obtained
      in 2,424 participants. The consumption of herbal tea and daily consumption of
      three or more cups of coffee was related to the presence of lower liver
      stiffness, independent of a great number of other lifestyle and environmental
      factors. Previous studies have found a protective effect of coffee on established
      liver disease and we now show for the first time that this effect is already
      measurable in the general population.

PMID- 28578839
TI  - The Combination of Preoperative Bone Marrow Lesions and Partial-Thickness
      Cartilage Loss Did Not Result in Inferior Outcomes After Medial Unicompartmental
      Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to compare patient-reported outcomes and
      revision rates between medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) patients
      based on the presence of medial bone marrow lesions (BMLs) and/or partial- vs
      full-thickness cartilage loss. METHODS: BMLs were graded on preoperative magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) findings from 174 UKAs performed between 2009 and 2013
      using the MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score criteria by a single evaluator blinded to
      the patient's outcome. A second evaluator blinded to the MRI findings and
      postoperative outcomes assessed medial joint space present on both weight-bearing
      and valgus stress radiographs. Preoperative and postoperative Knee Society Knee
      Scores, Pain Scores, and Function Scores were then compared between 4 groups of
      patients: patients with BML with either partial- or full-thickness cartilage
      loss, and patients without BML with either partial- or full-thickness cartilage
      loss. RESULTS: In total, 152 of 174 (87%) patients had minimum 2-year follow-up.
      One patient in the no BML/full-thickness loss group was converted to total knee
      arthroplasty secondary to arthrofibrosis; however, there were no statistical
      differences in revision rate between the 4 groups as no other revisions were
      performed (P = .61). Similarly, preoperative and postoperative Knee Society Knee
      Scores, Pain Scores, and Function Scores did not differ between groups, nor did
      postoperative University of California, Los Angeles activity scores. CONCLUSION:
      Medial tibial BMLs were not associated with inferior outcomes, either in patients
      with partial- or full-thickness cartilage loss. Although the current results do
      not allow for the presence of preoperative BML to be considered an indication for
      UKA, these results definitively support that BMLs are not a contraindication for
      medial UKA.

PMID- 28578840
TI  - Acute Kidney Injury After First-Stage Joint Revision for Infection: Risk Factors
      and the Impact of Antibiotic Dosing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Scarce literature exists regarding risk factors associated with
      postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) after first-stage revision procedures.
      The purpose of this study was to determine risk factors for AKI and the efficacy
      of intra-articular antibiotics in infection eradication. METHODS: We
      retrospectively identified 247 patients who underwent a 2-stage revision
      procedure for the treatment of hip or knee periprosthetic joint infection. We
      applied previously published diagnostic criteria for AKI to determine its
      incidence and risk factors for its development. RESULTS: A 26% incidence of AKI
      was found after first-stage joint revision for infection. Higher body mass index
      (odds ratio [OR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.13; P = .02), lower
      baseline hemoglobin level (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.96; P = .03), and existence
      of a comorbid condition (OR, 2.67; 95% CI, 1.26-5.64; P = .01) were significant
      risk factors for AKI. Neither a higher dose of vancomycin (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.88
      1.11; P = .83) nor tobramycin (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.77-1.04; P = .15) used in the
      cement spacer increased the risk of AKI. Each unit increase in vancomycin dose in
      the cement spacer decreased the odds of failing to clear the infection at 1 and 2
      years by a factor of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.70-0.95; P = .01). CONCLUSION: AKI after
      first-stage revision procedures for periprosthetic joint infection occurs more
      commonly than previously reported. Patients with identified risk factors should
      be managed carefully with attention paid to hemoglobin levels, to avoid AKI after
      this procedure. Further research is needed to determine the optimal local
      antibiotic type and dosing to maximize infection clearance and minimize potential
      side effects.

PMID- 28578841
TI  - Povidone-Iodine-Based Solutions for Decolonization of Nasal Staphylococcus
      aureus: A Randomized, Prospective, Placebo-Controlled Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nasal Staphylococcus aureus decolonization reduces the risk of
      surgical site infections after orthopedic procedures. Povidone-iodine (PI)-based
      solutions have shown promising results in bacteria decolonization. The unique
      physiology of the nose may pose challenges for the bioactivity profiles of PI
      solutions. This study compared the antibacterial efficacy of an off-the-shelf PI
      product with a specifically manufactured PI-based skin and nasal antiseptic
      (SNA). METHODS: This randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted at a
      single institution between April 2014 and July 2015. Four hundred and twenty-nine
      patients undergoing primary or revision total joint arthroplasty,
      femoroacetabular osteoplasty, pelvic osteotomy, or total shoulder arthroplasty
      were included. 10% off-the-shelf PI, 5% PI-based SNA, or saline (placebo) were
      used for nasal decolonization. Baseline cultures were taken immediately
      preoperatively, followed by treatment of both nares twice for 2 minutes with 4
      applicators. Reculturing of the right nostril occurred at 4 hours and the left at
      24 hours. RESULTS: Ninety-five of the 429 patients (22.1%) had a positive culture
      result for S. aureus; 13 (3.03%) were methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Of these
      95, 29 were treated with off-the-shelf PI, 34 with SNA, and 32 with saline swabs.
      At 4 hours post-treatment, S. aureus culture was positive in 52% off-the-shelf PI
      patients, 21% SNA patients, and 59% saline patients. After 24 hours
      posttreatment, S. aureus culture was positive in 72% off-the-shelf PI patients,
      59% SNA patients, and 69% saline group. SNA was significantly more effective at
      decolonizing S. aureus over the 4-hour time interval (P = .003); no significant
      difference was observed over the 24-hour time interval between the 3 groups.
      CONCLUSION: A single application of PI-based SNA before surgery may be effective
      in eliminating nasal S. aureus in over two-thirds of patients. Off-the-shelf PI
      swabs were not as effective at 4 hours as the specifically manufactured product
      for S. aureus decolonization.

PMID- 28578842
TI  - What is the Impact of a Spinal Fusion on Acetabular Implant Orientation in
      Functional Standing and Sitting Positions?
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study used EOS imaging of primary total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      patients, with and without predating spinal fusion, to investigate (1) the impact
      of spinal fusion on acetabular implant anteversion and inclination, and (2)
      whether more extensive spinal fusion (fusion starting above the thoracolumbar
      junction or extension of fusion to the sacrum) affects acetabular implant
      orientation differently than lumbar only spinal fusion. METHODS: Ninety-three
      patients had spinal fusion (case group), and 150 patients were without spinal
      fusion (controls). None of the patients experienced dislocation. The change in
      sacral slope (SS) and cup orientation from standing to sitting was measured.
      RESULTS: Mean SS change from the standing to sitting positions was -7.9 degrees
      in the fusion group vs -18.4 degrees in controls (P = .0001). Mean change in cup
      inclination from the standing to sitting positions was 4.9 degrees in the fusion
      group vs 10.2 degrees in controls (P = .0001). Mean change in cup anteversion
      from standing to sitting positions was 7.1 degrees in the fusion group vs 12.1
      degrees in controls (P = .0001). For each additional level of spinal fusion, the
      change in SS from standing to sitting positions decreased by 1.6(95% confidence
      interval [CI], 2.2073-1.0741), the change in cup inclination decreased by 0.8(95%
      CI, 0.380-1.203), and the change in cup anteversion decreased by 0.9(95% CI,
      0.518-1.352; P < .001 in all cases). CONCLUSION: Patients with spinal fusion
      demonstrated less adaptability of the lumbosacral junction. Longer spinal fusion
      or inclusion of the pelvis in the fusion critically impacts hip-spine
      biomechanics and significantly affects the ability to compensate in the standing
      to-sitting transition.

PMID- 28578843
TI  - Total Hip Arthroplasty in Patients With Multifactorial Perceived Limb Length
      Discrepancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced hip arthritis can present with multifactorial
      limb length discrepancies (LLDs) owing to bony shortening from growth arrest,
      proximal hip migration, soft-tissue contractures, and pelvic obliquity. The
      patient perceives an LLD that is a combination of true LLD and apparent LLD.
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 7 cases with multifactorial mean perceived
      LLD of 7.7 cm (range, 3.6-11 cm) that underwent primary total hip arthroplasty
      and auxiliary soft-tissue procedures. Perceived LLD, true LLD, and apparent LLD
      were defined and were compared before and after surgery in this cohort of
      patients with a mean follow-up of 57.4 months. RESULTS: The mean perceived LLD at
      final follow-up was 1.0 +/- 0.9 cm compared with that of 7.7 +/- 2.6 cm
      preoperatively (P < .05). Postoperative true LLD was 0.7 +/- 0.8 cm compared with
      that of 3.2 +/- 0.8 cm preoperatively (P < .05). At final follow-up, all 7
      patients were ambulating without any assistive devices and were satisfied with
      their surgical outcome. CONCLUSION: With careful preoperative clinical and
      radiographic assessments as well as planning for multifactorial perceived LLD,
      this can be adequately corrected with primary total hip arthroplasty and
      auxiliary soft-tissue procedures resulting in good radiologic and functional
      outcomes.

PMID- 28578844
TI  - Does the Dual-Mobility Hip Prosthesis Produce Better Joint Kinematics During
      Extreme Hip Flexion Task?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) using dual-mobility (DM) design permits
      larger hip range of motion. However, it is unclear how it benefits the patients
      during activities of daily living. The purpose was to compare kinematic variables
      of the operated limb between THA patients using either DM or single-bearing (SB)
      implants during a squat task. METHODS: Twenty-four THA patients were randomly
      assigned to either a DM or SB implant and matched to 12 healthy controls (CTRLs).
      They underwent 3-dimensional squat motion analysis before and 9 months after
      surgery. Sagittal and frontal plane angles of the pelvis and the hip were
      analyzed using statistical parametric mapping. Paired analyses compared
      presurgery and postsurgery squat depth. RESULTS: Peak sagittal pelvis angle of DM
      was closer to normal compared with that of SB. Both implant groups had similar
      hip angle patterns and magnitude but significantly lower than the CTRLs. SB
      reached a much large hip abduction compared with the other groups. Both surgical
      groups had significantly worst squat depth than the CTRLs. CONCLUSION: Neither
      THA implant groups were able to return pelvis and hip kinematics to the level of
      CTRLs. The deficit of DM implants at the pelvis combined with the poorer
      functional scores should caution clinicians to use this implant design in active
      patients. SB design causes a larger hip abduction to reach their maximum squat
      depth. Post-THA rehabilitation should focus on improving joint range of motion
      and strength.

PMID- 28578845
TI  - How Do Preoperative Medications Influence Outcomes After Total Joint
      Arthroplasty?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent health care policy changes require hospitals and physicians to
      demonstrate improved quality. In 2012, a prospective database was formed with the
      Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan to improve quality of care. The purpose of
      this study was to analyze patient preoperative medication as predictors of
      outcomes after total joint arthroplasty. METHODS: Data were collected on
      patient's preoperative medications from 2012 to 2015 using a total joint
      arthroplasty database. Medications were categorized as antiplatelet,
      antimicrobial, anticoagulant, narcotic, steroid, insulin, or oral diabetes
      medication. Outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS), discharge
      disposition/destination, and 90-day readmission. Univariate and multivariate
      regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: A total of 3959 patients were
      studied. Eighty percent (3163 patients) were discharged home. The remainder (795)
      went to an extended-care facility (ECF). Patients discharged to an ECF were
      taking more medications (1.13 vs 0.80 in total knee arthroplasty; 1.18 vs 0.83 in
      total hip arthroplasty; P <.001). Patients who were readmitted took more
      medications (1.0 vs 0.85; P <.01). There were more discharges to an ECF in
      narcotic, steroid, and diabetes medication users. Patients taking anticoagulants,
      narcotics, insulin, and antiplatelets had greater readmission rates. There was a
      significant correlation between the number of medications and an increased LOS.
      CONCLUSION: Patients taking more medications were more frequently discharged to
      an ECF and had increased LOS and readmission rates. Narcotics and diabetic
      medications had the greatest influence. Category and quantity of preoperative
      medications can be used as predictors of outcomes after arthroplasty surgery.

PMID- 28578846
TI  - WITHDRAWN: The Congruence and Joint Space Width of the Lateral Compartment Can Be
      Restored After Medial Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor.
      The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier
      Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our
      business/policies/article-withdrawal.

PMID- 28578847
TI  - A prospective study to validate the Polish language version of the European
      Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Colorectal Liver
      Metastases (QLQ-LMC21) module.
AB  - PURPOSE: This validation study was designed to assess the psychometric validity
      and quality of the Polish translation of the EORTC QLQ-LMC21 questionnaire in
      Polish colorectal patients suffering with liver metastases. METHODS: Patients
      with either histopathological or imaging confirmation of colorectal cancer with
      liver metastases, with a minimum of three months survival, were eligible for this
      study. These patients completed the Polish version of the EORTC core QLQ-C30, the
      QLQ-LMC21 module, and a demographic data questionnaire. The questionnaires were
      completed twice, once before undergoing either hepatectomy (n = 63) or palliative
      treatment (n = 97) and three months after the primary treatment. Standardized
      analyses of validity and reliability were performed. RESULTS: One hundred and
      sixty patients were enrolled in this study with the mean age of the hepatectomy
      group 64.3 +/- 14.1 and 66.1 +/- 12.7 for the palliative treatment group. The QLQ
      LMC21 exhibited positive internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha coefficients
      ranging from 0.72 to 0.90. The multi-trait scaling analysis demonstrated adequate
      convergent and discriminant validity. Test-retest reliability was undertaken with
      40 patients (25%) with the ICCs for each item ranging from 0.64 to 0.88. The
      hepatectomy group had a significantly greater Karnofsky Performance Score than
      the palliative treatment group (p.<0.001). Overall there were weak correlations
      between the two questionnaires which confirm that the QLQ-LMC21 addresses health
      issues not assessed in the QLQ-C30. CONCLUSION: The Polish version of the QLQ
      LMC21 proved to be a valid and reliable questionnaire to use in conjunction with
      the QLQ-C30 core questionnaire.

PMID- 28578848
TI  - Study on pharmacokinetics and bioequivalence of Vonoprazan pyroglutamate in rats
      by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Vonoprazan Fumarate (TAK-438F) is a new and effective drug approved in Japan in
      2014 for treatment and prevention of acid-related diseases (ARDs), which exhibits
      many advantages compared with traditional proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). However,
      the clinical applications of TAK0-438F suffers limitation due to the lack of
      injection dosage form. Efforts to overcome this limitation lead to the systhesis
      of Vonoprazan pyroglutamate (TAK-438P) for its high water solubility and more
      potent antisecretory effect. This was the first report to establish and validate
      a reliable and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the quantification of TAK-438P in
      rat plasma and tissues (heart, liver, spleen, liver, kidney, rain, stomach and
      small intestine). All the features of the developed method suggested it was
      within bioanalytical criteria recommended by regulatory authorities. Furthermore,
      the developed method was applied to the exploration of the bioequivalence between
      TAK-438P and TAK-438F, as well as the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of
      TAK-438P. The results showed that there was no significant differences between
      TAK-438P and TAK-438F after oral administration of the same dose. Besides, TAK
      438P was rapidly absorbed and eliminated in rat plasma. And it was widely
      distributed and there was no long-term accumulation in most tissues. Notably,
      more than 2000ng/mL was observed in stomach 12h after oral administration. The
      high accumulation revealed that stomach was likely to be the target organs of TAK
      438P.

PMID- 28578849
TI  - Effectiveness of training final-year undergraduate nutritionists in motivational
      interviewing.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of a motivational interviewing (MI) training
      programme on trainee nutritionists. METHODS: A repeated measures design was
      applied to assess clinician behaviours in a 'helping' conversation. Participants
      were 32 nutrition students, assessed at baseline and one-month follow-up.
      RESULTS: The training significantly reduced the use of closed questions and MI
      non-adherent behaviours (MINA) (P for both=<0.001). Trainees significantly
      increased reflections, affirmations, summaries (P for all=<0.001) and the use of
      open questions (P=<0.013) which are all key indicators of MI beginner-competence.
      The talk-time ratio of the nutritionists also changed significantly, in favour of
      the client which serves as an indication of MI being used effectively. There were
      also significant increases in 'global' scores for empathy, direction,
      autonomy/support, collaboration and evocation. CONCLUSIONS: Newly trained
      nutritionists 1 month post-training have a consultation style which suggested
      positive outcomes for clients. The trainees' scores at the one month post
      training assessment were verifiable as 'beginning proficiency'. PRACTICE
      IMPLICATIONS: Behaviour change counselling skills for nutritionists were
      enhanced, at one month post-training. MI training workshops with video feedback
      enhances communication skills which are likely to lead to positive consultation
      behaviour changes in the trainee nutritionists.

PMID- 28578850
TI  - Time-Resolved Proteomics Extends Ribosome Profiling-Based Measurements of Protein
      Synthesis Dynamics.
AB  - Ribosome profiling is a widespread tool for studying translational dynamics in
      human cells. Its central assumption is that ribosome footprint density on a
      transcript quantitatively reflects protein synthesis. Here, we test this
      assumption using pulsed-SILAC (pSILAC) high-accuracy targeted proteomics. We
      focus on multiple myeloma cells exposed to bortezomib, a first-line chemotherapy
      and proteasome inhibitor. In the absence of drug effects, we found that direct
      measurement of protein synthesis by pSILAC correlated well with indirect
      measurement of synthesis from ribosome footprint density. This correlation,
      however, broke down under bortezomib-induced stress. By developing a statistical
      model integrating longitudinal proteomic and mRNA-sequencing measurements, we
      found that proteomics could directly detect global alterations in translational
      rate caused by bortezomib; these changes are not detectable by ribosomal
      profiling alone. Further, by incorporating pSILAC data into a gene expression
      model, we predict cell-stress specific proteome remodeling events. These results
      demonstrate that pSILAC provides an important complement to ribosome profiling in
      measuring proteome dynamics.

PMID- 28578851
TI  - Cold tolerance and biochemical response of unfed Dermacentor silvarum ticks to
      low temperature.
AB  - The important pathogen vector Dermacentor silvarum is widely distributed in
      China. However, the tick's adaptation to low winter temperatures remains poorly
      understood. We therefore investigated the cold hardiness and physiological and
      biochemical responses of D. silvarum ticks exposed to low temperatures. The
      results indicated that the lower lethal temperatures (LT50s) for larvae, nymphs,
      females and males were -16.9 degrees C, -15.8 degrees C, -20.0 degrees C and 
      20.1 degrees C, respectively. The discriminating temperatures (resulting in 20%
      survival) for larvae, nymphs, females and males were -18.5 degrees C, -20.0
      degrees C, -21.7 degrees C and -22.6 degrees C, respectively. The supercooling
      temperature points (at which body fluids spontaneously freeze) of larvae, nymphs,
      females and males averaged -20.0 degrees C, -23.5 degrees C, -24.2 degrees C and 
      23.9 degrees C, respectively. These results indicate that adult ticks are more
      tolerant to cold than the immatures. Low-temperature stress can enhance adult
      cold hardiness and trigger decreases in glycogen and protein in both females and
      males, whereas nymphs displayed different biochemical responses, including an
      increase in water and total fat content. An increase of glycerol observed in
      nymphs and females suggests that glycerol is important for cold hardiness. The
      findings of this study will help to define the dispersal limits for D. silvarum
      and thus inform the need for tick control efforts.

PMID- 28578853
TI  - Environmental consequences of the flooding of the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant
      during Superstorm Sandy.
AB  - Failure of the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) during Superstorm Sandy led
      to adverse effects in the waters of Hempstead Bay, Long Island, NY. These appear
      to be related to large discharges of partially treated sewage through its primary
      and auxiliary outfalls. Modeled dilution discharges indicate that sewage
      infiltrated the bay, remaining up to 10days. Water column impacts included
      salinity and dissolved oxygen declines, and biological oxygen demand and nitrogen
      concentration increases. While the STP does not appear to have released fecal
      coliform, there were elevated levels of enterococci within the bay for a
      considerable period following the storm, probably from multiple sources. The
      STP's reduced functioning and associated environmental impacts, even with
      resilience upgrades, are not conducive to removing the bay from the list of
      Impaired Water Bodies. The results reinforce the need to transfer the discharge
      from the existing outfall to the ocean.

PMID- 28578854
TI  - Evaluating Dancing With Parkinson's: Reflections from the perspective of a
      community organization.
AB  - In 2015, Dancing With Parkinson's (DWP), a Toronto-based community organization,
      participated in the Ontario Brain Institute's (OBI) newly launched Evaluation
      Support Program. This paper reflects on that experience. In particular, we
      identify the key lessons derived from the OBI initiative, discuss how these
      lessons have informed DWP practice going forward, and highlight what we consider
      to be the most valuable aspects of the Evaluation Support Program. While we now
      recognize the need to establish an evaluation culture within DWP, we find that
      there are significant challenges associated with both building and sustaining
      evaluation capacity in the context of a small community-based organization.
      Whereas DWP has built considerable strengths in terms of informal evaluation
      capacity, on its own, such capacity is insufficient to, for example, demonstrate
      DWP's impact to outside audiences or successfully scale up the program.

PMID- 28578852
TI  - Radioactive iodine therapy, molecular imaging and serum biomarkers for
      differentiated thyroid cancer: 2017 guidelines of the French Societies of Nuclear
      Medicine, Endocrinology, Pathology, Biology, Endocrine Surgery and Head and Neck
      Surgery.

PMID- 28578855
TI  - Experiments in evaluation capacity building: Enhancing brain disorders research
      impact in Ontario.
AB  - This paper is the introductory paper on a forum on evaluation capacity building
      for enhancing impacts of research on brain disorders. It describes challenges and
      opportunities of building evaluation capacity among community-based organizations
      in Ontario involved in enhancing brain health and supporting people living with a
      brain disorder. Using an example of a capacity building program called the
      "Evaluation Support Program", which is run by the Ontario Brain Institute, this
      forum discusses multiple themes including evaluation capacity building,
      evaluation culture and evaluation methodologies appropriate for evaluating
      complex community interventions. The goal of the Evaluation Support Program is to
      help community-based organizations build the capacity to demonstrate the value
      that they offer in order to improve, sustain, and spread their programs and
      activities. One of the features of this forum is that perspectives on the
      Evaluation Support Program are provided by multiple stakeholders, including the
      community-based organizations, evaluation team members involved in capacity
      building, thought leaders in the fields of evaluation capacity building and
      evaluation culture, and the funders.

PMID- 28578856
TI  - Environmental performances of different configurations of a material recovery
      facility in a life cycle perspective.
AB  - The study evaluated the environmental performances of an integrated material
      recovery facility (MRF) able to treat 32kt/y of unsorted mixed waste, made of
      residuals from household source separation and separate collection. The facility
      includes a mechanical sorting platform for the production of a solid recovered
      fuel (SRF) utilized in an external waste-to-energy plant, bio-cells for tunnel
      composting of organic fraction, and a sanitary landfill for the safe disposal of
      ultimate waste. All the MRF sub-units have been analysed in depth in order to
      acquire reliable data for a life cycle assessment study, focused on the
      environmental performances of different configurations of the facility. The study
      investigated a "past" configuration, including just mechanical sorting,
      landfilling and biogas combustion in a gas engine, and the "present" one, which
      includes also a composting unit. Two possible "future" configurations, having a
      gasifier inside the MRF battery limits, have been also analysed, assessing the
      performances of two fluidized bed reactors of different size, able to gasify only
      the residues generated by the sorting platform or the whole amount of produced
      SRF, respectively. The analysis evaluated the contributions of each unit in the
      different configurations and allowed a reliable assessment of the technological
      evolution of the facility. The results quantified the positive effect of the
      inclusion of an aerobic treatment of the waste organic fraction. The SRF
      gasification in situ appears to improve the MRF environmental performances in all
      the impact categories, with the exclusion of that of global warming.

PMID- 28578857
TI  - Surface treatment with Fenton for separation of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene
      and polyvinylchloride waste plastics by flotation.
AB  - Surface treatment with Fenton was applied to flotation separation of
      acrylonitrile-butadienestyrene (ABS) and polyvinylchloride (PVC). After
      treatment, the floatability of ABS has a dramatic decrease, while the
      floatability of PVC is not affected. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT
      IR) spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra were recorded to
      ascertain the mechanism of Fenton treatment. FT-IR and XPS analysis confirms that
      the introduction of oxygen-containing group occurs on the surface of ABS. The
      optimum conditions are molar ration (H2O2:Fe2+) 10000, H2O2 concentration 0.4M/L,
      pH 5.8, treatment time 2min and temperature 25 degrees C, frother concentration
      15mg/L and flotation time 3min. Particle sizes and mixing ratios were also
      investigated. Plastic mixtures of ABS and PVC with different particle sizes and
      mixing ratios can be effectively separated. The purity of ABS and PVC are up to
      100% and 99.78%, respectively; the recovery of ABS and PVC are up to 99.89% and
      100%, respectively. A practical, environmentally friendly and effective reagent,
      namely Fenton, was originally applied to surface treatment of ABS and PVC waste
      plastics for flotation separation of their mixtures.

PMID- 28578858
TI  - Long chain fatty acids (LCFA) evolution for inhibition forecasting during
      anaerobic treatment of lipid-rich wastes: Case of milk-fed veal slaughterhouse
      waste.
AB  - A detailed study of a solid slaughterhouse waste (SHW) anaerobic treatment is
      presented. The waste used in this study is rich in lipids and proteins residue.
      Long chain fatty acids (LCFA), coming from the hydrolysis of lipids were
      inhibitory to anaerobic processes at different degrees. Acetogenesis and
      methanogenesis processes were mainly affected by inhibition whereas
      disintegration and hydrolysis processes did not seem to be affected by high LCFA
      concentrations. Nevertheless, because of the high energy content, this kind of
      waste is very suitable for anaerobic digestion but strict control of operating
      conditions is required to prevent inhibition. For that, two inhibition indicators
      were identified in this study. Those two indicators, LCFA dynamics and
      LCFA/VSbiomass ratio proved to be useful to predict and to estimate the process
      inhibition degree.

PMID- 28578859
TI  - A two-stage treatment for Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) bottom ash to
      remove agglomerated fine particles and leachable contaminants.
AB  - In this lab study, a two-stage treatment was investigated to achieve the
      valorization of a municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash fraction
      below 4mm. This fraction of MSWI bottom ash (BA) is the most contaminated one,
      containing potentially toxic elements (Cu, Cr, Mo and Sb), chlorides and
      sulfates. The BA was treated for recycling by separating agglomerated fine
      particles (<=125um) and soluble contaminants by using a sequence of sieving and
      washing. Initially, dry sieving was performed to obtain BA-S (<=125um), BA-M
      (0.125-1mm) and BA-L (1-4mm) fractions from the original sample. The complete
      separation of fine particles cannot be achieved by conventional sieving, because
      they are bound in a cementitious matrix around larger BA grains. Subsequently, a
      washing treatment was performed to enhance the liberation of the agglomerated
      fine particles from the BA-M and BA-L fractions. These fine particles were found
      to be similar to the particles of BA-S fraction in term of chemical composition.
      Furthermore, the leaching behavior of Cr, Mo Sb, chlorides and sulfates was
      investigated using various washing parameters. The proposed treatment for the
      separation of agglomerated fine particles with dry sieving and washing (L/S 3,
      60min) was successful in bringing the leaching of contaminants under the legal
      limit established by the Dutch environmental norms.

PMID- 28578860
TI  - Assessment on the leakage hazard of landfill leachate using three-dimensional
      excitation-emission fluorescence and parallel factor analysis method.
AB  - A large number of simple and informal landfills exist in developing countries,
      which pose as tremendous soil and groundwater pollution threats. Early warning
      and monitoring of landfill leachate pollution status is of great importance.
      However, there is a shortage of affordable and effective tools and methods. In
      this study, a soil column experiment was performed to simulate the pollution
      status of leachate using three-dimensional excitation-emission fluorescence (3D
      EEMF) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) models. Sum of squared residuals
      (SSR) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to determine the optimal
      components for PARAFAC. A one-way analysis of variance showed that the component
      scores of the soil column leachate were significant influenced by landfill
      leachate (p<0.05). Therefore, the ratio of the component scores of the soil under
      the landfill to that of natural soil could be used to evaluate the leakage status
      of landfill leachate. Furthermore, a hazard index (HI) and a hazard evaluation
      standard were established. A case study of Kaifeng landfill indicated a low
      hazard (level 5) by the use of HI. In summation, HI is presented as a tool to
      evaluate landfill pollution status and for the guidance of municipal solid waste
      management.

PMID- 28578861
TI  - Recovery of zinc and cadmium from spent batteries using Cyphos IL 102 via solvent
      extraction route and synthesis of Zn and Cd oxide nanoparticles.
AB  - The overall aim of this study is to separate and recover zinc and cadmium from
      spent batteries. For this purpose Cyphos IL 102 diluted in toluene was employed
      for the extraction and recovery of Zn and Cd from Zn-C and Ni-Cd batteries leach
      liquor. The influence of extractant concentration for the leach liquors of Zn-C
      (0.01-0.05mol/L) and Ni-Cd (0.04-0.20mol/L) batteries has been investigated.
      Composition of the leach liquor obtained from Zn-C/Ni-Cd spent batteries is Zn -
      2.18g/L, Mn - 4.59g/L, Fe - 4.0*10-3g/L, Ni - 0.2*10-3g/L/Cd - 4.28g/L, Ni -
      0.896*10-1g/L, Fe - 0.148g/L, Co - 3.77*10-3g/L, respectively. Two stage counter
      current extraction at A/O 1:1 and 3:2 with 0.04mol/L and 0.2mol/L Cyphos IL 102
      for Zn and Cd, respectively provide more than 99.0% extraction of both the metal
      ions with almost negligible extraction of associated metal ions. A stripping
      efficiency of around 99.0% for Zn and Cd was obtained at O/A 1:1 using 1.0mol/L
      HNO3 in two and three counter current stages, respectively. ZnO and CdO were also
      synthesized using the loaded organic phase and characterized using XRD, FE-SEM
      and EDX techniques. XRD peaks of ZnO and CdO correspond to zincite and
      monteponite, respectively. The average particle size was ~27.0nm and ~37.0nm for
      ZnO and CdO, respectively. The EDX analysis of ZnO and CdO shows almost 1:1
      atomic percentage.

PMID- 28578862
TI  - Stenotrophomonas maltophilia: A rare cause of peritonitis in capd patients.

PMID- 28578863
TI  - Estimating the cascade of hepatitis C testing, care and treatment among people
      who inject drugs in Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is endemic among people who inject
      drugs (PWID) globally. Despite high prevalence, treatment uptake is low, with
      cumulative uptake <10% in most settings. This study aimed to populate the cascade
      of HCV testing, care and treatment among PWID using data collected in Australia
      prior to the introduction of broadly accessible interferon-free direct-acting
      antiviral (DAA) therapies in March 2016. METHODS: The Australian Needle and
      Syringe Program Survey is a cross-sectional surveillance system that recruits
      ~2300 PWID annually and collects behavioural data and dried blood samples (DBS).
      HCV antibody and ribonucleic acid (RNA) test results from DBS collected in 2015
      were combined with data on HCV diagnostic testing, care and treatment to populate
      the HCV cascade among Australian PWID. RESULTS: Among an estimated 93,000 PWID in
      Australia in 2015, the majority (89%) had a lifetime history of HCV antibody
      testing. More than half (57%) of PWID tested HCV antibody positive and of these,
      79% had detectable HCV RNA consistent with active infection. Less than half (46%)
      of HCV antibody positive PWID had received confirmatory HCV RNA testing. Among
      the estimated 43,201 PWID with active infection or chronic infection that had
      been successfully treated, 31% had received specialist HCV assessment, 8% had
      received antiviral treatment and 3% were cured. CONCLUSION: This study provides
      baseline estimates of the cascade of HCV testing, care and treatment among PWID
      through enhancement of a well-established surveillance mechanism.
      Characterisation of the HCV cascade among PWID will be crucial to evaluating and
      monitoring the roll out of direct-acting antiviral therapies in Australia,
      including assessing potential HCV treatment as prevention benefits.

PMID- 28578864
TI  - Exposure to fentanyl-contaminated heroin and overdose risk among illicit opioid
      users in Rhode Island: A mixed methods study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Illicit fentanyl use has become wide spread in the US, causing high
      rates of overdose deaths among people who use drugs. This study describes
      patterns and perceptions of fentanyl exposure among opioid users in Rhode Island.
      METHODS: A mixed methods study was conducted via questionnaire with a convenience
      sample of 149 individuals using illicit opioids or misusing prescription opioids
      in Rhode Island between January and November 2016. Of these, 121 knew of fentanyl
      and reported known or suspected exposure to fentanyl in the past year. Semi
      structured interviews were conducted with the first 47 participants. RESULTS:
      Study participants were predominantly male (64%) and white (61%). Demographic
      variables were similar across sample strata. Heroin was the most frequently
      reported drug of choice (72%). Self-reported exposure to illicit fentanyl in the
      past year was common (50.4%, n=61). In multivariate models, regular (at least
      weekly) heroin use was independently associated with known or suspected fentanyl
      exposure in the past year (adjusted prevalence ratio (APR)=4.07, 95% CI: 1.24
      13.3, p=0.020). In interviews, users described fentanyl as unpleasant,
      potentially deadly, and to be avoided. Participants reporting fentanyl exposure
      routinely experienced or encountered non-fatal overdose. Heroin users reported
      limited ability to identify fentanyl in their drugs. Harm reduction strategies
      used to protect themselves from fentanyl exposure and overdose, included test
      hits, seeking prescription opioids in lieu of heroin, and seeking treatment with
      combination buprenorphine/naloxone. Participants were often unsuccessful in
      accessing structured treatment programs. CONCLUSION: Among illicit opioid users
      in Rhode Island, known or suspected fentanyl exposure is common, yet demand for
      fentanyl is low. Fentanyl-contaminated drugs are generating user interest in
      effective risk mitigation strategies, including treatment. Responses to the
      fentanyl epidemic should be informed by the perceptions and experiences of local
      users. The rapid scale-up of buprenorphine/naloxone provision may slow the rate
      of fentanyl-involved overdose deaths.

PMID- 28578867
TI  - Impact of a self-control promotion program on nursing students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of positive mental health in nursing
      students, and to determine the impact of a self-control promotion program.
      METHOD: A quasi-experimental controlled trial including 72 second-year of Vitoria
      Gasteiz University Nursing School. RESULTS: The lowest scores in every
      measurement were for the self-control factor (F3). There were no statistically
      significant differences in self-control (F3) between the groups. CONCLUSION: This
      program shows higher scores in inter-personal relationship skills.

PMID- 28578865
TI  - Initiating HCV treatment with direct acting agents in opioid agonist treatment:
      When to start for people co-infected with HIV?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Direct acting antivirals (DAA) raise the possibility of eliminating
      Hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs (PWID). However, concerns
      regarding treatment retention and reinfection challenge implementation efforts.
      Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) provides an opportunity to engage HCV-positive
      PWID into DAA-based treatment. Our objective was to identify when OAT adherence
      sufficiently improved to inform DAA initiation in OAT settings, assuming
      continuous OAT retention for at least twelve weeks is necessary to complete the
      DAA treatment course. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of HCV/HIV
      co-infected PWID from a population-level linked administrative database of people
      diagnosed and living with HIV in British Columbia, Canada between 01/1996 and
      12/2013. We used monthly follow-up data after initial OAT entry and considered
      the effects of demographics, disease severity, and HIV and OAT treatment
      characteristics over time on the probability of subsequent OAT retention of >=12
      weeks, and >=8 weeks for sensitivity analysis. We fit a generalized linear mixed
      model to the overall study population, and on stratified samples of those
      continuously engaged on combination antiretroviral therapy (>=95% ART adherence).
      A set of monthly indicator variables (months 1, ..., 7, >7) were included to
      fulfil the study objective. RESULTS: Our study included 1427 HCV/HIV co-infected
      PWID (39.0% female, 68.8% OAT-naive). The odds of subsequent twelve-week
      retention in OAT were statistically significantly greater in month 3 versus month
      1 (adjusted odds ratio: 1.18; 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 1.37); and the odds
      of subsequent 8-week retention in OAT were statistically significantly greater in
      month 2 versus month 1 (1.15, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.31). Among continuously ART
      adherent individuals, the odds of subsequent twelve-week retention were not
      statistically significantly greater than in month 1 (month 2: 1.12 (0.82, 1.51);
      month 3: 1.08 (0.79, 1.47); month 4: 1.24 (0.91, 1.71)). CONCLUSION: We provide
      evidence that among HCV/HIV co-infected PWID, those retained in OAT for three or
      more months had higher odds of completing an additional twelve weeks of OAT,
      compared to no difference in those already receiving ART. These data may have
      implications for adherence to DAA therapy and further studies are needed to
      understand the optimal timing of DAA therapy in PWID receiving and not receiving
      OAT.

PMID- 28578866
TI  - Nitrogen losses to the environment following food-based digestate and compost
      applications to agricultural land.
AB  - The anaerobic digestion of food waste for energy recovery produces a nutrient
      rich digestate which is a valuable source of crop available nitrogen (N). As with
      any 'new' material being recycled to agricultural land it is important to develop
      best management practices that maximise crop available N supply, whilst
      minimising emissions to the environment. In this study, ammonia (NH3) and nitrous
      oxide (N2O) emissions to air and nitrate (NO3-) leaching losses to water
      following digestate, compost and livestock manure applications to agricultural
      land were measured at 3 sites in England and Wales. Ammonia emissions were
      greater from applications of food-based digestate (c.40% of total N applied) than
      from livestock slurry (c.30% of total N applied) due to its higher ammonium-N
      content (mean 5.6 kg/t compared with 1-2 kg/t for slurry) and elevated pH (mean
      8.3 compared with 7.7 for slurry). Whilst bandspreading was effective at reducing
      NH3 emissions from slurry compared with surface broadcasting it was not found to
      be an effective mitigation option for food-based digestate in this study. The
      majority of the NH3 losses occurred within 6 h of spreading highlighting the
      importance of rapid soil incorporation as a method for reducing NH3 emissions.
      Nitrous oxide losses from food-based digestates were low, with emission factors
      all less than the IPCC default value of 1% (mean 0.45 +/- 0.15%). Overwinter NO3-
      leaching losses from food-based digestate were similar to those from pig slurry,
      but much greater than from pig farmyard manure or compost. Both gaseous N losses
      and NO3- leaching from green and green/food composts were low, indicating that,
      in these terms, compost can be considered as an 'environmentally benign'
      material. These findings have been used in the development of best practice
      guidelines which provide a framework for the responsible use of digestates and
      composts in agriculture.

PMID- 28578868
TI  - Not unusual, just different! Chemistry, biology and applications of G-quadruplex
      nucleic acids.

PMID- 28578869
TI  - Social interaction facilitates word learning in preverbal infants: Word-object
      mapping and word segmentation.
AB  - In natural settings, infants learn spoken language with the aid of a caregiver
      who explicitly provides social signals. Although previous studies have
      demonstrated that young infants are sensitive to these signals that facilitate
      language development, the impact of real-life interactions on early word
      segmentation and word-object mapping remains elusive. We tested whether infants
      aged 5-6 months and 9-10 months could segment a word from continuous speech and
      acquire a word-object relation in an ecologically valid setting. In Experiment 1,
      infants were exposed to a live tutor, while in Experiment 2, another group of
      infants were exposed to a televised tutor. Results indicate that both younger and
      older infants were capable of segmenting a word and learning a word-object
      association only when the stimuli were derived from a live tutor in a natural
      manner, suggesting that real-life interaction enhances the learning of spoken
      words in preverbal infants.

PMID- 28578870
TI  - The essential oil of Allium sativum as an alternative agent against Candida
      isolated from dental prostheses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The colonization of the surfaces of dental prostheses by Candida
      albicans is associated with the development of denture stomatitis. In this
      context, the use of fluconazole has been proposed, but its disadvantage is
      microbial resistance. Meanwhile, the oil of Allium sativum has shown an effect in
      controlling biofilm formation by C. albicans. AIMS: The objective of this study
      was to determine the antifungal activities of the essential oil of A. sativum and
      fluconazole against clinical isolates of Candida species obtained from rigid,
      acrylic-based partial or total dentures and to compare these agents' effects on
      both biofilm and planktonic cells. METHODS: A total of 48 clinical isolates
      obtained from the acrylic surface of partial or complete dentures were examined,
      and the following species were identified: C. albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida
      tropicalis, and Candida krusei. For each isolate, the antifungal activities of
      the essential oil of A. sativum and fluconazole against both biofilm and
      planktonic cells were evaluated using the Clinical & Laboratory Standards
      Institute (CLSI) M27-A3 method. The isolates were also evaluated by
      semiquantitative XTT reduction. RESULTS: All planktonic Candida isolates were
      susceptible to the essential oil of A. sativum, whereas 4.2% were resistant to
      fluconazole. Regarding susceptibilities in biofilms, 43.8% of biofilms were
      resistant to A. sativum oil, and 91.7% were resistant to fluconazole.
      CONCLUSIONS: All planktonic cells of the different Candida species tested are
      susceptible to <1mg/ml A. sativum oil, and the majority are susceptible to
      fluconazole. Susceptibility decreases in biofilm cells, with increased resistance
      to fluconazole compared with A. sativum oil. The essential oil of A. sativum is
      thus active against clinical isolates of Candida species obtained from dentures,
      with effects on both biofilm and planktonic cells in vitro.

PMID- 28578871
TI  - Subclassification of pN3 staging systems for penile cancer: Proposal for
      modification of the current TNM classification.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate the clinical and prognostic significance of our proposed
      pN3 subclassification in penile cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis of 509 patients with penile cancer undergoing partial, total penectomy
      or inguinal lymphadenectomy or pelvic lymphadenectomy at Sun Yat-sen University
      Cancer Center was reevaluated by pathologists. pN3 stage was subclassified into
      pN3a (extranodal extension of any inguinal lymph node [LN] metastasis only) and
      pN3b (pelvic LN metastasis). The t test and chi-square test were applied to
      assess the comparability of pN3a and pN3b with clinicopathologic features.
      Univariable and multivariable statistical analyses were used to evaluate
      prognostic effect with cancer-specific survival. RESULTS: Among 509 patients, 71
      patients with pN3 stage cancer were divided into 39 with pN3a and 32 with pN3b.
      The median number of LNs removed and the number of positive LNs were 27 and 3,
      respectively. The 3-year cancer-specific survival in pN3a and pN3b groups was
      significantly different at 47.9% and 28.6% (P = 0.003). In multivariable
      analysis, pN3 subclassification was an independent predictor for cancer-specific
      mortality (hazard ratio = 2.77; 95% CI: 1.170-6.558; P = 0.02). Adding pN3
      subclassification to a multivariable model including pT stage, tumor grade, side
      involvement, lymphovascular invasion, number of positive LNs, and adjuvant
      therapy increased predictive accuracy for cancer-specific mortality from 0.665 to
      0.695 (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Subclassification helps better distinguish patients
      with pN3 penile cancer with increased risk of disease progression and cancer
      related mortality.

PMID- 28578872
TI  - An Atlas of beta-Glucuronidases in the Human Intestinal Microbiome.
AB  - Microbiome-encoded beta-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes play important roles in human
      health by metabolizing drugs in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The numbers,
      types, and diversity of these proteins in the human GI microbiome, however,
      remain undefined. We present an atlas of GUS enzymes comprehensive for the Human
      Microbiome Project GI database. We identify 3,013 total and 279 unique microbiome
      encoded GUS proteins clustered into six unique structural categories. We assign
      their taxonomy, assess cellular localization, reveal the inter-individual
      variability within the 139 individuals sampled, and discover 112 novel microbial
      GUS enzymes. A representative in vitro panel of the most common GUS proteins by
      read abundances highlights structural and functional variabilities within the
      family, including their differential processing of smaller glucuronides and
      larger carbohydrates. These data provide a sequencing-to-molecular roadmap for
      examining microbiome-encoded enzymes essential to human health.

PMID- 28578873
TI  - Mechanism-Informed Refinement Reveals Altered Substrate-Binding Mode for
      Catalytically Competent Nitroreductase.
AB  - Nitroreductase (NR) from Enterobacter cloacae reduces diverse nitroaromatics
      including herbicides, explosives, and prodrugs, and holds promise for
      bioremediation, prodrug activation, and enzyme-assisted synthesis. We solved
      crystal structures of NR complexes with bound substrate or analog for each of its
      two half-reactions. We complemented these with kinetic isotope effect (KIE)
      measurements elucidating H-transfer steps essential to each half-reaction. KIEs
      indicate hydride transfer from NADH to the flavin consistent with our structure
      of NR with the NADH analog nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide (NAAD). The KIE on
      reduction of p-nitrobenzoic acid (p-NBA) also indicates hydride transfer, and
      requires revision of prior computational mechanisms. Our mechanistic information
      provided a structural restraint for the orientation of bound substrate, placing
      the nitro group closer to the flavin N5 in the pocket that binds the amide of
      NADH. KIEs show that solvent provides a proton, enabling accommodation of
      different nitro group placements, consistent with the broad repertoire of NR.

PMID- 28578874
TI  - Dissecting the Specificity of Adenosyl Sulfamate Inhibitors Targeting the
      Ubiquitin-Activating Enzyme.
AB  - Targeting the activating enzymes (E1) of ubiquitin (Ub) and ubiquitin-like
      modifiers (Ubls) has emerged as a promising anti-cancer strategy, possibly
      overcoming the ineffectiveness of proteasome inhibitors against solid tumors.
      Here, we report crystal structures of the yeast ubiquitin E1 (Uba1) with three
      adenosyl sulfamate inhibitors exhibiting different E1 specificities, which are
      all covalently linked to ubiquitin. The structures illustrate how the chemically
      diverse inhibitors are accommodated within the adenylation active site. When
      compared with the previously reported structures of various E1 enzymes, our
      structures provide the basis of the preferences of these inhibitors for different
      Ub/Ubl-activating enzymes. In vitro inhibition assays and molecular dynamics
      simulations validated the specificities of the inhibitors as deduced from the
      structures. Taken together, the structures establish a framework for the
      development of additional compounds targeting E1 enzymes, which will display
      higher potency and selectivity.

PMID- 28578875
TI  - Structural and Dynamics Characterization of the MerR Family Metalloregulator CueR
      in its Repression and Activation States.
AB  - CueR (Cu export regulator) is a metalloregulator protein that "senses" Cu(I) ions
      with very high affinity, thereby stimulating DNA binding and the transcription
      activation of two other metalloregulator proteins. The crystal structures of CueR
      when unbound or bound to DNA and a metal ion are very similar to each other, and
      the role of CueR and Cu(I) in initiating the transcription has not been fully
      understood yet. Using double electron-electron resonance (DEER) measurements and
      structure modeling, we investigate the conformational changes that CueR undergoes
      upon binding Cu(I) and DNA in solution. We observe three distinct conformations,
      corresponding to apo-CueR, DNA-bound CueR in the absence of Cu(I) (the
      "repression" state), and CueR-Cu(I)-DNA (the "activation" state). We propose a
      detailed structural mechanism underlying CueR's regulation of the transcription
      process. The mechanism explicitly shows the dependence of CueR activity on
      copper, thereby revealing the important negative feedback mechanism essential for
      regulating the intracellular copper concentration.

PMID- 28578876
TI  - Noise and pitch interact during the cortical segregation of concurrent speech.
AB  - Behavioral studies reveal listeners exploit intrinsic differences in voice
      fundamental frequency (F0) to segregate concurrent speech sounds-the so-called
      "F0-benefit." More favorable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the environment, an
      extrinsic acoustic factor, similarly benefits the parsing of simultaneous speech.
      Here, we examined the neurobiological substrates of these two cues in the
      perceptual segregation of concurrent speech mixtures. We recorded event-related
      brain potentials (ERPs) while listeners performed a speeded double-vowel
      identification task. Listeners heard two concurrent vowels whose F0 differed by
      zero or four semitones presented in either clean (no noise) or noise-degraded (+5
      dB SNR) conditions. Behaviorally, listeners were more accurate in correctly
      identifying both vowels for larger F0 separations but F0-benefit was more
      pronounced at more favorable SNRs (i.e., pitch * SNR interaction). Analysis of
      the ERPs revealed that only the P2 wave (~200 ms) showed a similar F0 x SNR
      interaction as behavior and was correlated with listeners' perceptual F0-benefit.
      Neural classifiers applied to the ERPs further suggested that speech sounds are
      segregated neurally within 200 ms based on SNR whereas segregation based on pitch
      occurs later in time (400-700 ms). The earlier timing of extrinsic SNR compared
      to intrinsic F0-based segregation implies that the cortical extraction of speech
      from noise is more efficient than differentiating speech based on pitch cues
      alone, which may recruit additional cortical processes. Findings indicate that
      noise and pitch differences interact relatively early in cerebral cortex and that
      the brain arrives at the identities of concurrent speech mixtures as early as
      ~200 ms.

PMID- 28578878
TI  - Abdominal aneurysm: An uncommon cause of low back pain.

PMID- 28578877
TI  - Progression of changes in the sensorial elements of the cochlear and peripheral
      vestibular systems: The otitis media continuum.
AB  - Our study aimed to evaluate pathologic changes in the cochlear (inner and outer
      hair cells and stria vascularis) and vestibular (vestibular hair cells, dark, and
      transitional cells) sensorial elements in temporal bones from donors who had
      otitis media. We studied 40 temporal bones from such donors, which were
      categorized in serous otitis media (SOM), serous-purulent otitis media (SPOM),
      mucoid/mucoid-purulent otitis media (MOM/MPOM), and chronic otitis media (COM);
      control group comprised 10 nondiseased temporal bones. We found significant loss
      of inner and outer cochlear hair cells in the basal turn of the SPOM, MOM/MPOM
      and COM groups; significant loss of vestibular hair cells was observed in the
      MOM/MPOM and COM groups. All otitis media groups had smaller mean area of the
      stria vascularis in the basal turn of the cochlea when compared to controls. In
      conclusion, our study demonstrated more severe pathologic changes in the later
      stages of the continuum of otitis media (MOM/MPOM and COM). Those changes seem to
      progress from the basal turn of the cochlea (stria vascularis, then inner and
      outer hair cells) to the middle turn of the cochlea and to the saccule and
      utricle in the MOM/MPOM and COM stages.

PMID- 28578879
TI  - Diaphragmatic paralysis in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

PMID- 28578881
TI  - Increased Myogenic and Protein Turnover Signaling in Skeletal Muscle of Chronic
      Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients With Sarcopenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia was recently recognized as an independent condition by an
      International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification
      code, and is a frequently observed comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease (COPD). Muscle mass is primarily dictated by the balance between protein
      degradation and synthesis, but their relative contribution to sarcopenia is
      unclear. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess potential differential molecular
      regulation of protein degradation and synthesis, as well as myogenesis, in the
      skeletal muscle of COPD patients with and without sarcopenia. METHODS: Muscle
      biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis muscle. Patients with COPD were
      clustered based on sarcopenia defined by low appendicular skeletal muscle mass
      index (nonsarcopenic COPD, n = 53; sarcopenic COPD, n = 39), and compared with
      healthy nonsarcopenic controls (n = 13). The mRNA and protein expression of
      regulators and mediators of ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), autophagy-lysosome
      system (autophagy), and protein synthesis were analyzed. Furthermore, mRNA
      expression of myogenesis markers was assessed. RESULTS: UPS signaling was
      unaltered, whereas indices of UPS regulation (eg, FOXO1 protein; p-FOXO3/FOXO3),
      autophagy signaling (eg, LC3BII/I; p-ULK1[Ser757]/ULK1), and protein synthesis
      signaling (eg, AKT1; p-GSK3B/GSK3B; p-4E-BP1/4E-BP1) were increased in COPD.
      These alterations were even more pronounced in COPD patients with sarcopenia (eg,
      FOXO1 protein; p-FOXO1/FOXO1; LC3BII/I; p-ULK(Ser555); p-AKT1/AKT1; AKT1; p-4E
      BP1). Furthermore, myogenic signaling (eg, MYOG) was increased in COPD despite a
      concomitant increase of myostatin (MSTN) mRNA expression, with no difference
      between sarcopenic and nonsarcopenic COPD patients. CONCLUSION: Together with
      elevated myogenic signaling, the increase in muscle protein turnover signaling in
      COPD, which is even more prominent in COPD patients with sarcopenia, reflects
      molecular alterations associated with muscle repair and remodeling.

PMID- 28578880
TI  - Quality of Care In Nursing Homes In Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is an increased demand for nursing homes (NHs) in middle-income
      countries such as Brazil. To monitor the quality of NHs, there is a need for
      reliable instruments to assess the extent to which the care provided meets the
      expectations and rights of residents and their families. PURPOSE: To evaluate the
      reliability, applicability, and measurement results of an instrument for
      assessing the quality of NH care assessment. METHODS: We conducted a cross
      sectional study in 31 NHs, applying the Observable Indicators of Nursing Home
      Care Quality Instrument (OINHQ) adapted to the Brazilian context. The instrument
      includes 30 infrastructure and process indicators measured by direct observation
      grouped into seven domains: Communication; Care Delivery; Grooming; Odors;
      Environment-Basic; Environment-Access; and Environment-Homelike. To assess
      feasibility and reliability, 3 pairs of raters with different profiles (health
      professionals, health inspectors, and potential residents) were independently
      involved in data collection. We calculated Cronbach alpha for internal
      consistency of the instrument, Overall Agreement Index (OAI), and Prevalence
      Adjusted Bias-Adjusted Kappa (PABAkappa) for interrater reliability and analyzed
      the baseline NH quality through individual indicators, dimensions, and
      facilities. RESULTS: The OINHQ was in general reliable, with good internal
      consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.93) and interrater agreement (mean OAI = 75%;
      PABAkappa = 0.49). NH quality is not homogeneous (overall mean = 2.9, ranging by
      facility between 1.9 and 3.7, on a scale of 1-5). Process-related indicators
      (mean = 2.7) are generally worse than structure-related indicators (mean = 3.5).
      The best domains were associated with Odors (mean = 4.1) and Grooming (mean =
      3.9), whereas the priority domains for receiving improvement interventions were
      Care Delivery (mean = 2.0) and Environment-Homelike (mean = 2.5). CONCLUSIONS:
      Baseline evaluation of NH quality shows remarkable variability among facilities
      and ample room for improvement.

PMID- 28578882
TI  - Exercise for Disease Prevention and Management: A Precision Medicine Approach.

PMID- 28578883
TI  - Hospital-at-home Integrated Care Program for Older Patients With Orthopedic
      Processes: An Efficient Alternative to Usual Hospital-Based Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes and costs for patients with orthogeriatric
      conditions in a home-based integrated care program versus conventional hospital
      based care. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental longitudinal study. SETTING: An acute care
      hospital, an intermediate care hospital, and the community of an urban area in
      the North of Barcelona, in Southern Europe. PARTICIPANTS: In a 2-year period, we
      recruited 367 older patients attended at an orthopedic/traumatology unit in an
      acute hospital for fractures and/or arthroplasty. INTERVENTION: Patients were
      referred to a hospital-at-home integrated care unit or to standard hospital-based
      postacute orthogeriatric unit, based on their social support and availability of
      the resource. MEASUREMENTS: We compared home-based care versus hospital-based
      care for Relative Functional Gain (gain/loss of function measured by the Barthel
      Index), mean direct costs, and potential savings in terms of reduction of stay in
      the acute care hospital. RESULTS: No differences were found in Relative
      Functional Gain, median (Q25-Q75) = 0.92 (0.64-1.09) in the home-based group
      versus 0.93 (0.59-1) in the hospital-based group, P =.333. Total health service
      direct cost [mean (standard deviation)] was significantly lower for patients
      receiving home-based care: ?7120 (3381) versus ?12,149 (6322), P < .001. Length
      of acute hospital stay was significantly shorter in patients discharged to home
      based care [10.1 (7)] than in patients discharged to the postacute orthogeriatric
      hospital-based unit [15.3 (12) days, P < .001]. CONCLUSION: The hospital-at-home
      integrated care program was suitable for managing older patients with orthopedic
      conditions who have good social support for home care. It provided clinical care
      comparable to the hospital-based model, and it seems to enable earlier acute
      hospital discharge and lower direct costs.

PMID- 28578885
TI  - Endodontic Board Certification: A Review of Factors Affecting the Certification
      Rate.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Board certification identifies clinicians who possess advanced
      proficiency and expertise within their field. Only 23% of endodontists are board
      certified (the lowest among all dental specialties). The aim of this study was to
      determine the factors that influence endodontists' decisions regarding the
      completion of board certification. METHODS: A 16-question survey was e-mailed to
      5073 US endodontists and residents who are American Association of Endodontists
      members. RESULTS: A total of 1603 endodontists and residents responded,
      corresponding to an overall response rate of 31.6%. Of those respondents, 73.8%
      felt board certification was important. Among endodontists, 32% were board
      certified, 24.4% had plans of becoming board certified, and 43.6% had no plans to
      become board certified. The most common reasons for not pursuing board
      certification were "graduated too long ago," "don't have time," "process is too
      long," and "not required to become an endodontist." Board-certified endodontists
      were more likely to believe board certification was important compared with their
      non-board-certified counterparts (97.5% vs 60.3%, P < .0001), and were more
      likely to have received training at programs that encouraged and provided
      assistance in completion of the certification process. Residents were more likely
      to plan on becoming certified compared with non-board-certified endodontists
      (89.6% vs 35.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Despite widespread agreement regarding the
      importance of board certification, a strikingly low percentage of endodontists
      are board certified. Views provided by endodontists and endodontic residents
      provide insight that may be used to guide changes that will effectively increase
      the percentage of board-certified endodontists.

PMID- 28578884
TI  - MicroRNA-335-5p Plays Dual Roles in Periapical Lesions by Complex Regulation
      Pathways.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: MicroRNA-335-5p has been reported to regulate osteogenic and
      chondrogenic differentiations of mesenchymal stem cells. The aim of this study
      was to explore the function and regulation mechanism of miR-335-5p in apical
      periodontitis (AP). METHODS: Total RNAs were extracted from human periodontal
      ligament fibroblasts (HPDLFs), 10 AP tissues, and 6 healthy periodontal ligament
      tissues using lysis buffer. Gene expression was detected using real-time
      polymerase chain reaction. The Dual Luciferase Assay (Promega, Madison, WI) was
      used to test miR-335-5p directly targeted urokinase-type plasminogen activator
      receptor (uPAR) and the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand
      (RANKL). Western Blot was used to detect protein expressions of RANKL, uPAR, and
      the fragile X-related 1 gene (FXR1). The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was
      used to detect the secretions of interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and
      RANKL. Data were analyzed using the Student t test. RESULTS: miR-335-5p acted as
      a positive mediator in HPDLF inflammation (P < .05). Two targets of miR-335-5p,
      uPAR and RANKL, were identified. Interestingly, uPAR was repressed by miR-335-5p
      at the basal level, but it can be relieved from miR-335-5p-mediated repression,
      which is called derepression, when HPDLFs were subjected to lipopolysaccharide
      stimulation. miR-335-5p promoted RANKL in HPDLFs regardless of whether or not it
      was under inflammatory conditions (P < .05). We proved FXR1 was responsible for
      the derepression of uPAR from miR-335-5p (P < .01). Both FXR1 and uPAR were
      positive mediators in HPDLF inflammation (P < .05). miR-335-5p, uPAR, RANKL, and
      FXR1 had the same expression profiles in HPDLF inflammation and AP tissues (P <
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data showed that miR-335-5p may play dual roles in AP, and
      it might be considered as a target for therapeutic potency in clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28578886
TI  - Antibacterial Properties of Chitosan Nanoparticles and Propolis Associated with
      Calcium Hydroxide against Single- and Multispecies Biofilms: An In Vitro and In
      Situ Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of chitosan
      nanoparticles (CNPs) and ethanolic propolis extract (EPE) incorporated into a
      calcium hydroxide paste (Ca[OH]2) to kill bacterial biofilms. METHODS: Human root
      canal dentin was infected with Enterococcus faecalis for 21 days and also
      intraorally for 48 hours followed by incubation in brain-heart infusion for 48
      hours to standardize biofilm growth. Ca(OH)2 pastes associated or not with CNPs
      or EPE were tested on biofilms for 7 and 14 days. Distilled water was used for
      control purposes. After the treatment procedures, microbiological analysis was
      performed to determine the reduction in E. faecalis colonies. Confocal microscopy
      was used to determine the percentage of cell viability in polymicrobial biofilms
      before and after the exposure to the experimental intracanal medications.
      RESULTS: All experimental pastes were able to significantly reduce the E.
      faecalis colony-forming units (CFU) after 7 or 14 days (P < .05). However, the
      CFU reduction was significantly improved when CNPs were incorporated into the
      Ca(OH)2 paste (P < .05). The multispecies biofilms treated with Ca(OH)2 showed
      similar percentages of bacterial viability to the control regardless of the
      exposure time (P > .05). The viable cell count significantly dropped in the
      Ca(OH)2/CNPs groups for both 7 and 14 days (P < .05), whereas the Ca(OH)2/EPE
      groups were only effective in eliminating bacteria during the first 7 days of
      treatment (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Incorporating CNPs into pastes of Ca(OH)2 could
      potentially be beneficial when using interappointment intracanal medications
      because of their ability to kill bacteria in short- and long-term exposure.

PMID- 28578887
TI  - A Retrospective, Radiographic Outcomes Assessment of 1960 Initial Posterior Root
      Canal Treatments Performed by Endodontists and Dentists.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Air Force Dental Service has established evidence-based
      treatment standards for endodontics, including 3-dimensional filling of the canal
      system, cuspal coverage restoration of endodontically treated posterior teeth,
      and use of rubber dam. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine
      the effect of these standards on outcomes of initial posterior root canal
      treatments (RCTs) completed by Air Force (AF) and civilian dentists with and
      without accredited postgraduate training. METHODS: Treatment and follow-up
      radiographs of AF members who had an initial posterior RCT completed in 2011 were
      evaluated. A survey of all radiographs was performed to determine the (1) RCT
      obturation quality, (2) healing of periapical pathosis, and (3) presence and
      quality of cuspal coverage restorations. RESULTS: A total of 2262 RCTs were
      examined, with 1960 RCTs meeting inclusion criteria for at least 1 evaluation
      category. For RCT obturation quality, 1810 RCTs were evaluated, and 96.0% were
      considered adequate. For cuspal coverage restorations, 1856 RCTs were evaluated,
      and of these 2.7% were inadequately restored. Healing of periapical pathosis was
      91.5% and 85.7% for AF and referred civilian providers, respectively.
      Survivability was 94.4% for endodontists, 95.3% for AF general dentists with
      additional training, 87.9% for AF general dentists without additional training,
      and 78.4% for civilian general dentists. Overall, survivability was 94.1% for a
      follow-up period ranging up to 47 months, with a mean of 27 months. CONCLUSIONS:
      In this retrospective, radiographic analysis, evidence-based practices as
      followed in the Air Force Dental Service and accredited postgraduate training
      resulted in improved treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28578888
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Chemotactic Factor Effect on Migration and
      Differentiation of Stem Cells of the Apical Papilla.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cell homing strategies could potentially be used in regenerative
      endodontic procedures (REPs) to promote the progressive coronal migration of stem
      cells, including stem cells of the apical papilla (SCAPs), along with formation
      of a new vascular network without the need for intentional apical trauma and
      intracanal bleeding. Although many chemotactic factors have been investigated for
      different mesenchymal stem cells, their effect on SCAP migration and
      differentiation is not fully understood. This study aimed to comparatively
      evaluate the effect of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1), transforming growth
      factor beta 1 (TGF-beta1), platelet-derived growth factor, granulocyte colony
      stimulating factor (G-CSF), or fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) on the
      migration and differentiation of SCAPs. METHODS: A characterized SCAP cell line
      was fluorescently labeled with Vybrant DiO dye (Life Technologies, Grand Island,
      NY) and used in transwell migration assays. Cells were subjected to 1, 10, or 100
      ng/mL of each factor or a combination of factors followed by detection in a
      fluorescent plate reader. Lastly, SCAP differentiation into a mineralizing
      phenotype was evaluated in the presence or absence of the tested factors by
      quantitative alizarin red staining and alkaline phosphatase activity. Data were
      analyzed with 1-way analysis of variance with the Tukey post hoc test. RESULTS:
      Maximum migration was observed with G-CSF or FGF-2, which was significantly
      greater than the effects observed by the other tested factors. A combination of G
      CSF with TGF-beta1 significantly augmented both migration and differentiation
      into a mineralizing phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: G-CSF appears to be well suited to be
      further investigated as a key chemotactic factor in cell homing-based
      regenerative endodontic procedures.

PMID- 28578889
TI  - Telescopic Dental Needles versus Conventional Dental Needles: Comparison of Pain
      and Anxiety in Adult Dental Patients of Kerman University of Medical Sciences-A
      Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pain felt during dental injections is dependent on dental anxiety.
      Patients feel increased pain if anxiety in the treatment environment is high, and
      therefore it is important to reduce anxiety during treatment to reduce pain. The
      purpose of this study was to compare pain and anxiety levels experienced during
      injections using a newly invented telescopic-coated dental needle that covers the
      conventional needle and also has the capability of applying topical anesthesia
      through its unique design with the conventional dental injection needle. METHODS:
      Dental injection anxiety questionnaires were completed by 60 adult patients who
      were randomly assigned to either the telescopic (a newly invented telescopic
      coated dental needle that covers the needles) or the conventional group. Patients
      also completed visual analog scales to rate their pain perception during
      injection, their overall experience, and their future anticipated anxiety.
      Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, and Student t tests were used for statistical analysis.
      Statistical significance was defined as P < .05. RESULTS: A total of 25 men and
      35 women with an age range of 19-55 years (mean age of 38.7 +/- 2.31 years)
      participated in this study. Pain levels reported during the injection using the
      telescopic-coated needle (4.13 +/- 1.37) were significantly lower than those
      using the conventional needle (5.63 +/- 1.57), with statistically significant
      differences between the 2 groups (P < .05). Patients experienced significantly
      lower overall postinjection anxiety (P < .05) and had more positive overall
      experience ratings with the telescopic-coated needles. CONCLUSIONS: A new
      telescopic-coated dental needle was superior to a conventional injection system
      in pain perception and in reducing postinjection dental anxiety.

PMID- 28578890
TI  - Dynamic Torsional and Cyclic Fracture Behavior of ProFile Rotary Instruments at
      Continuous or Reciprocating Rotation as Visualized with High-speed Digital Video
      Imaging.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study examined the dynamic fracture behavior of nickel
      titanium rotary instruments in torsional or cyclic loading at continuous or
      reciprocating rotation by means of high-speed digital video imaging. METHODS: The
      ProFile instruments (size 30, 0.06 taper; Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues,
      Switzerland) were categorized into 4 groups (n = 7 in each group) as follows:
      torsional/continuous (TC), torsional/reciprocating (TR), cyclic/continuous (CC),
      and cyclic/reciprocating (CR). Torsional loading was performed by rotating the
      instruments by holding the tip with a vise. For cyclic loading, a custom-made
      device with a 38 degrees  curvature was used. Dynamic fracture behavior was
      observed with a high-speed camera. The time to fracture was recorded, and the
      fractured surface was examined with scanning electron microscopy. RESULTS: The TC
      group initially exhibited necking of the file followed by the development of an
      initial crack line. The TR group demonstrated opening and closing of a crack
      according to its rotation in the cutting and noncutting directions, respectively.
      The CC group separated without any detectable signs of deformation. In the CR
      group, initial crack formation was recognized in 5 of 7 samples. The
      reciprocating rotation exhibited a longer time to fracture in both torsional and
      cyclic fatigue testing (P < .05). The scanning electron microscopic images showed
      a severely deformed surface in the TR group. CONCLUSIONS: The dynamic fracture
      behavior of NiTi rotary instruments, as visualized with high-speed digital video
      imaging, varied between the different modes of rotation and different fatigue
      testing. Reciprocating rotation induced a slower crack propagation and conferred
      higher fatigue resistance than continuous rotation in both torsional and cyclic
      loads.

PMID- 28578891
TI  - Autotransplantation of Mandibular Third Molar with Buccal Cortical Plate to
      Replace Vertically Fractured Mandibular Second Molar: A Novel Technique.
AB  - Tooth replacement often leads to inadequate vertical volume in the recipient site
      bone when a tooth has been extracted because of a vertical root fracture (VRF).
      This case report presents the autotransplantation of a mandibular third molar
      (tooth #32) with the attached buccal cortical plate to replace a mandibular
      second molar (tooth #31) diagnosed with a VRF. After extraction of tooth #31, the
      recipient socket was prepared based on the size measured in advance with cone
      beam computed tomographic imaging. The precise and calculated osteotomy of the
      cortical bone of tooth #32 allowed for the exact placement of the donor tooth in
      the position of tooth #31. The total extraoral time was only 25 minutes. The
      block was fixed to the recipient socket with an osteosynthesis screw and splinted
      with a double resin wire for 8 weeks. At the 6-month follow-up, the screw was
      removed, and the stability of the tooth and the regeneration obtained throughout
      the vestibular area were confirmed. At the 2-year follow-up, the transplanted
      tooth was asymptomatic and maintained a normal bone level. Advantages of
      autotransplantation over dental implants include maintenance of proprioception,
      possible orthodontic movements, and a relatively low cost. This case report
      demonstrates that an autotransplantation of a third molar attached to its buccal
      cortical plate is a viable option to replace teeth with a VRF.

PMID- 28578892
TI  - Proteome Expression in Human Periodontal Ligament after Delayed Hypothermic
      Preservation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous occasional successes after delayed replantation suggest
      that the presence of viable cells may not be the only factor for successful
      periodontal regeneration in delayed replantation. Various other factors such as
      proteins or the extracellular matrix (ECM) may play a role in this process. The
      purpose of this study was to characterize changes in the proteome components of
      periodontal ligament (PDL) tissue after hypothermic preservation of the tooth.
      METHODS: Extracted teeth were divided into 4 groups: immediate sampling, sampling
      after 1 week of preservation at 4 degrees C, sampling after 2 weeks of
      preservation at 4 degrees C, and sampling after 1 week of dry storage at room
      temperature as a negative control. PDL tissues were collected from the root and
      stored immediately in liquid nitrogen. The tissues were subjected to 2
      dimensional gel electrophoresis, and spot selection was executed. Selected spots
      that maintained the protein volume were then processed with matrix-assisted laser
      desorption and ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify the nature
      of the proteins. RESULTS: Thirty-five selected spots were analyzed. Sixteen spots
      were identified as vimentin, and 3 spots were type VI collagen. The size of the
      16 vimentin spots decreased gradually with increasing storage time, from 0 to 2
      weeks, and decreased rapidly after dry storage. However, only the dry storage
      group differed significantly from the immediately sampled group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Vimentin was the most prominent protein followed by type VI collagen in
      volumetrically maintained protein spots. Although these proteins are known to be
      closely related with ECM integrity, the role of these proteins in delayed
      replantation is beyond the scope of this study. Further studies are needed to
      elucidate the possible role of these proteins for periodontal healing of delayed
      replantation.

PMID- 28578893
TI  - Long-term Success of Nonvital, Immature Permanent Incisors Treated With a Mineral
      Trioxide Aggregate Plug and Adhesive Restorations: A Case Series from a Private
      Endodontic Practice.
AB  - This case series evaluated the long-term clinical outcome of nonvital immature
      teeth treated with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) as an apical barrier and an
      adhesive restoration with or without a fiber post. Eighty-three teeth in 72
      patients were treated by the first author with an apical MTA plug and an adhesive
      restoration of composite resin and in 45 of the 83 teeth 1 or more fiber posts.
      All of the patients had been referred to the first author's private endodontic
      practice with at least 1 immature tooth with signs of pulpal necrosis and
      subsequent apical periodontitis that had been caused by a variety of traumatic
      dental injuries. Three teeth presented had dens invaginatus. Of 83 teeth, 69
      teeth in 60 patients were available for follow-up after 5 to 15 years (recall
      rate = 83%). The mean follow-up time was 8.29 years. No teeth were lost because
      of a root fracture. Ninety-six percent (66/69) of the recalled teeth were
      characterized as healed. Based on periapical radiographs and clinical
      examination, 96% of teeth treated with the MTA barrier technique and adhesive
      restorations were characterized as "healed" and were in function after 5 to 15
      years (mean = 8.29 years). These results indicate that this is a viable and
      predictable treatment approach for the long-term success of nonvital immature
      teeth.

PMID- 28578894
TI  - Assessment of a Cavity to Optimize Ultrasonic Efficiency to Remove Intraradicular
      Posts.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The study assessed an in vitro protocol for the removal of cast
      metal posts using ultrasonic vibration in multirooted teeth by drilling a cavity
      in the coronal portion of the post followed by ultrasound application in the
      cavity. METHOD: Forty endodontically treated molars received intraradicular cast
      posts and were divided into 4 groups according to the removal protocol: the
      control group, no cavity and no ultrasonic vibration; the ultrasonic group, no
      cavity and ultrasonic vibration in the coronal portion of the core; the cavity
      group, a cavity in the core and no ultrasonic vibration; and the cavity
      ultrasonic group, a cavity in the core and ultrasonic vibration inside the
      cavity. The traction test was performed on all samples using a universal testing
      machine (EMIC DL-2000; EMIC Equipamentos e Sistemas de Ensaio LTDA, Sao Jose dos
      Pinhais, PR, Brazil) at a speed of 1 mm/min, obtaining values in Newtons. The
      data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance and the Tukey-Kramer
      test (P < .05). RESULTS: The results showed statistically significant differences
      between the tested groups (control group = 322.74 N, ultrasonic group = 283.09 N,
      cavity group = 244.00 N, and cavity ultrasonic group = 237.69 N). The lowest mean
      strength was found in the group that received ultrasonic vibration inside the
      cavity. CONCLUSIONS: Preparing a cavity in the coronal core followed by
      ultrasonic vibration reduces the traction force required for removal. The removal
      protocol was effective for removing posts in multirooted teeth cemented with zinc
      phosphate.

PMID- 28578895
TI  - CDC-reported assisted reproductive technology live-birth rates may mislead the
      public.
AB  - The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publicly reports assisted
      reproductive technology live-birth rates (LBR) for each US fertility clinic under
      legal mandate. The 2014 CDC report excluded 35,406 of 184,527 (19.2%) autologous
      assisted reproductive technology cycles that involved embryo or oocyte banking
      from LBR calculations. This study calculated 2014 total clinic LBR for all
      patients utilizing autologous oocytes two ways: including all initiated assisted
      reproductive technology cycles or excluding banking cycles, as done by the CDC.
      The main limitation of this analysis is the CDC report did not differentiate
      between cycles involving long-term banking of embryos or oocytes for fertility
      preservation from cycles involving short-term embryo banking. Twenty-seven of 458
      (6%) clinics reported over 40% of autologous cycles involved banking,
      collectively performing 12% of all US assisted reproductive technology cycles.
      LBR in these outlier clinics calculated by the CDC method, was higher than the
      other 94% of clinics (33.1% versus 31.1%). However, recalculated LBR including
      banking cycles in the outlier clinics was lower than the other 94% of clinics
      (15.5% versus 26.6%). LBR calculated by the two methods increasingly diverged
      based on proportion of banking cycles performed by each clinic reaching 4.5-fold,
      thereby, potentially misleading the public.

PMID- 28578896
TI  - Severe aortic stenosis in dextrocardia with situs invertus and anomalous single
      coronary ostium treated with transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
AB  - Dextrocardia with situs inversus presents a unique anatomy with right-sided
      vascular system that may be associated with a number of additional cardiac and
      vascular malformations. A rare association is the presence of a single coronary
      artery ostium. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of transcatheter
      aortic valve replacement using Edwards SAPIEN S3 valve in Dextrocardia patient
      with single coronary artery take off.

PMID- 28578897
TI  - Inadvertent anastomosis of the left internal mammary artery to the great cardiac
      vein.
AB  - We present an uncommon and underreported complication of coronary artery bypass
      graft surgery: erroneous anastomosis of the left internal mammary artery to the
      great cardiac vein. The iatrogenic aorto-coronary arteriovenous fistula with left
      to-right shunting resulted in dilation of the coronary sinus, a supporting
      secondary finding. Factors predisposing to this inadvertent anastomosis include
      an intramyocardial segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery,
      demonstrated in this case, as well as epicardial fat and potentially fibrosis of
      the underlying myocardium.

PMID- 28578898
TI  - Reimagining the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
      Children Career Ladder as Requirements Change for Registered Dietitian
      Nutritionists.

PMID- 28578899
TI  - 2015 Evidence Analysis Library Evidence-Based Nutrition Practice Guideline for
      the Management of Hypertension in Adults.
AB  - Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure (BP) is among the most prevalent forms
      of cardiovascular disease and occurs in approximately one of every three adults
      in the United States. The purpose of this Evidence Analysis Library (EAL)
      guideline is to provide an evidence-based summary of nutrition therapy for the
      management of HTN in adults aged 18 years or older. Implementation of this
      guideline aims to promote evidence-based practice decisions by registered
      dietitian nutritionists (RDNs), and other collaborating health professionals to
      decrease or manage HTN in adults while enhancing patient quality of life and
      taking into account individual preferences. The systematic review and guideline
      development methodology of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics were applied. A
      total of 70 research studies were included, analyzed, and rated for quality by
      trained evidence analysts (literature review dates ranged between 2004 and 2015).
      Evaluation and synthesis of related evidence resulted in the development of nine
      recommendations. To reduce BP in adults with HTN, there is strong evidence to
      recommend provision of medical nutrition therapy by an RDN, adoption of the
      Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension dietary pattern, calcium supplementation,
      physical activity as a component of a healthy lifestyle, reduction in dietary
      sodium intake, and reduction of alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers. Increased
      intake of dietary potassium and calcium as well as supplementation with potassium
      and magnesium for lowering BP are also recommended (fair evidence). Finally,
      recommendations related to lowering BP were formulated on vitamin D, magnesium,
      and the putative role of alcohol consumption in moderate drinkers (weak
      evidence). In conclusion, the present evidence-based nutrition practice guideline
      describes the most current recommendations on the dietary management of HTN in
      adults intended to support the practice of RDNs and other health professionals.

PMID- 28578901
TI  - Pharmacological treatments and risk of readmission to hospital for unipolar
      depression in Finland: a nationwide cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the comparative effectiveness of long-term
      pharmacological treatments for severe unipolar depression. We aimed to study the
      effectiveness of pharmacological treatments in relapse prevention in a nationwide
      cohort of patients who had been admitted to hospital at least once as a result of
      unipolar depression. METHODS: Our nationwide cohort study investigated the risk
      of readmission to hospital in 1996-2012 in all patients in Finland who had been
      admitted to hospital at least once for unipolar depression (without a diagnosis
      of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) in Finland between Jan 1, 1987, and Dec 31,
      2012. We used nationwide databases to obtain data for hospital admission,
      mortality, and dispensed medications. Exposure and non-exposure periods for
      medications were established using the PRE2DUP method. The primary analysis was
      within-individual analysis of readmission to hospital in the total cohort, in
      which each individual was used as his or her own control to eliminate selection
      bias. Putative survival and protopathic biases were controlled in sensitivity
      analyses. Since 33 independent statistical comparisons were done for specific
      medications, the level of statistical significance was set at p<0.0015. FINDINGS:
      Data from 123 712 patients were included in the total cohort, with a mean follow
      up time of 7.9 years (SD 5.3). Lithium use was associated with a lower risk of re
      admission to hospital for mental illness than was no lithium use (hazard ratio
      [HR] 0.47 [95% CI 0.40-0.55]; p<0.0001), whereas the groups of antidepressants
      (HR 1.10 [1.06-1.13]; p<0.0001) and antipsychotics (HR 1.16 [1.12-1.20];
      p<0.0001) were not associated with a reduced risk of readmission to hospital.
      Risk of hospital readmission was lower during lithium therapy alone (HR 0.31
      [0.21-0.47]; p<0.0001) than during use of lithium with antidepressants (HR 0.50
      [0.43-0.59]; p<0.0001). After lithium, clozapine (HR 0.65 [0.46-0.90]; p=0.010)
      and amitriptyline (HR 0.75 [0.70-0.81]; p<0.0001) were the specific agents
      associated with the next lowest risk of readmission. In the sensitivity analyses
      controlling for survival and protopathic biases, all drugs were associated with
      lower rates of readmission to hospital than they were in the primary analysis,
      showing the same rank order in comparative effectiveness. The lowest mortality
      was observed during antidepressant use (HR 0.56 [0.54-0.58]; p<0.0001).
      INTERPRETATION: Our results indicate that lithium, especially without concomitant
      antidepressant use, is the pharmacological treatment associated with the lowest
      risk of hospital readmission for mental illness in patients with severe unipolar
      depression, and the outcomes for this measure related to antidepressants and
      antipsychotics are poorer than lithium. Lithium treatment should be considered
      for a wider population of severely depressed patients than those currently
      considered, taking into account its potential risks and side-effects. FUNDING:
      The Finnish Ministry of Health.

PMID- 28578902
TI  - Lithium for long-term treatment of unipolar depression.

PMID- 28578900
TI  - Family Home Food Environment and Nutrition-Related Parent and Child Personal and
      Behavioral Outcomes of the Healthy Home Offerings via the Mealtime Environment
      (HOME) Plus Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research has demonstrated a significant positive association between
      frequent family meals and children's dietary intake; however, the promotion of
      healthful family meals has not been rigorously tested for key food environment
      and nutrition-related behavioral outcomes in a randomized trial. OBJECTIVE: To
      describe family home food environment and nutrition-related parent and child
      personal and behavioral outcomes of the Healthy Home Offerings via the Mealtime
      Environment Plus program, the first rigorously tested family meals intervention
      targeting childhood obesity prevention. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial.
      Baseline, postintervention (12 months, 93% retention), and follow-up (21 months,
      89% retention) data (surveys and dietary recalls) were collected.
      PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Children aged 8 to 12 years (N=160) and their parents were
      randomized to intervention (n=81) or control (n=79) groups. INTERVENTION: The
      intervention included five parent goal-setting calls and 10 monthly sessions
      delivered to families in community settings that focused on experiential
      nutrition activities and education, meal planning, cooking skill development, and
      reducing screen time. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Family home food environment
      outcomes and nutrition-related child and parent personal and behavioral outcomes.
      STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Analyses used generalized linear mixed models.
      Primary comparisons were contrasts between intervention and control groups at
      postintervention and follow-up, with adjustments for child age and parent
      education. RESULTS: Compared with control parents, intervention parents showed
      greater improvement over time in scores of self-efficacy for identifying
      appropriate portion sizes, with significant differences in adjusted means at both
      post-intervention (P=0.002) and follow-up (P=0.01). Intervention children were
      less likely to consume at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily at post
      intervention than control children (P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The Healthy Home
      Offerings via the Mealtime Environment Plus program involved the entire family
      and targeted personal, behavioral, and environment factors important for
      healthful changes in the home food environment and children's dietary intake. The
      intervention improved two nutrition-related behaviors and this may inform the
      design of future family meal interventions.

PMID- 28578903
TI  - Intrinsic capabilities of Leptospermum javanicum in inducing apoptosis and
      suppressing the metastatic potential of human lung carcinoma cells.
AB  - The active isolate of LF1 in Leptospermum javanicum was further looked into its
      capabilities in provoking an apoptotic reaction and suppressing the metastasis
      process in treated non-small lung cancer cells. LF1 underwent isolation and
      purification to yield a white powder which was identified as Betulinic acid (BA)
      via NMR, LCMS and IR spectroscopy. The isolate, BA, which produced an encouraging
      cytotoxic effect against non-small lung cancer cells (A549 and NCI-H1299) through
      the MTT assay, was further assessed with TUNEL, Sub-G1 population quantification,
      acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining as well as activated caspase-3
      detection. The results pointed towards the induction of apoptosis as a result of
      increasing doses of BA, regardless of the p53 status in both cell lines.
      Treatment with BA also prevented an effective attachment of the invasive A549
      cells onto a new culture surface in addition to diminishing the migratory
      potential of treated cells across a porous membrane. Further investigation
      through the ELISA detection and gelatin zymography showed an adverse effect to
      production of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) while the levels of matrix
      metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) were not negatively affected. The findings from this
      study validate the potential of L. javanicum as a potential anti-cancer treatment
      as stated in our previous study. The isolate, BA not only showed a capacity in
      inducing apoptotic cell death in non-small lung cancer cells, but managed to
      distort the ability of the cancer cells in effectively undergoing the metastasis
      process.

PMID- 28578904
TI  - Role of RAS/Wnt/beta-catenin axis activation in the pathogenesis of podocyte
      injury and tubulo-interstitial nephropathy.
AB  - Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a key role in the development and
      progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recent studies have demonstrated
      activation of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway by RAS in CKD. However, the underlying
      mechanisms of RAS and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling interaction and their
      contribution to the pathogenesis of CKD have not been fully elucidated. Present
      study is designed to investigate the role of RAS/Wnt/beta-catenin axis activation
      in tubulo-interstitial fibrosis and glomerulosclerosis by the cultured HK-2 and
      podocytes. HK-2 cells and podocytes are treated by angiotensin II (Ang II). Ang
      II up-regulates expression of various Wnt mRNA and active beta-catenin protein in
      HK-2 cells and podocytes in the time- and dose-dependent manners. In addition,
      Ang II induces injury, oxidative stress and inflammation and impaired Nrf2
      activation in HK-2 cells and podocytes. This was accompanied by up-regulations of
      RAS components as well as Wnt1, activated beta-catenin and its target proteins.
      RAS/Wnt/beta-catenin axis activation results in epithelial-to-mesenchymal
      transition in HK-2 cells and injuries podocytes. The effect of Ang II is
      inhibited by losartan and ICG-001, a Wnt/beta-catenin inhibitor. We further found
      that treatment with natural products, ergone, alisol B 23-acetate and pachymic
      acid B inhibit extracellular matrix accumulation in HK-2 cells and attenuated
      podocyte injury, in part, by inhibiting Ang II induced RAS/Wnt/beta-catenin axis
      activation. In summary, activation of RAS/Wnt/beta-catenin axis results in
      podocytes and tubular epithelial cell, injury and up-regulations of oxidative,
      inflammatory and fibrotic pathways. These adverse effects are ameliorated by
      ergone, alisol B 23-acetate and pachymic acid B. Therefore, these natural
      products could be considered as novel Wnt/beta-catenin signaling inhibitors and
      anti-fibrotic agents.

PMID- 28578906
TI  - Corrigendum to "Quantitative proteomics and integrative network analysis
      identified novel genes and pathways related to osteoporosis" [J. Proteomics 142
      (16 June 2016) 45-52].

PMID- 28578905
TI  - Attentional resources modulate error processing-related brain electrical
      activity: Evidence from a dual-task design.
AB  - Attention plays an important role in the processing of error, but only a few
      studies have explored the relationship between them. The current study used a
      dual-task paradigm, combining the classic flanker task with a working memory load
      task, to explore how changes in the amount of attentional resources modulate
      error negativity (Ne) and error positivity (Pe). The results showed that the
      reduction of attentional resources overall caused a decrease in Pe amplitude,
      especially in the late stage of Pe, which had a significant diminution in
      amplitude. However, changes in the amount of attentional resources did not cause
      significant changes in the Ne amplitude. These results suggest that the early
      stage of error processing in the Ne time window is less affected by attention,
      but the Pe stage is regulated by attentional resources, especially in the late Pe
      stage.

PMID- 28578907
TI  - Eosinophilic esophagitis induced by aeroallergen sublingual immunotherapy in an
      enteral feeding tube-dependent pediatric patient.

PMID- 28578908
TI  - Prospective evaluation of electronic medical record penicillin allergy
      documentation at a tertiary community teaching hospital.

PMID- 28578909
TI  - Editorial overview: A feast of structural glycobiology.

PMID- 28578910
TI  - E6AP inhibits G-CSFR turnover and functions by promoting its ubiquitin-dependent
      proteasome degradation.
AB  - Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor (G-CSFR) plays a crucial role in
      regulating myeloid cell survival, proliferation, and neutrophilic granulocyte
      precursor cells maturation. Previously, we demonstrated that Fbw7alpha negatively
      regulates G-CSFR and its downstream signaling through ubiquitin-proteasome
      mediated degradation. However, whether additional ubiquitin ligases for G-CSFR
      exist is not known. Identifying multiple E3 ubiquitin ligases for G-CSFR shall
      improve our understanding of activation and subsequent attenuation of G-CSFR
      signaling required for differentiation and proliferation. Here, for the first
      time we demonstrate that E6 associated protein (E6AP), an E3 ubiquitin ligase
      physically associates with G-CSFR and targets it for ubiquitin-mediated
      proteasome degradation and thereby attenuates its functions. We further show that
      E6AP promoted G-CSFR degradation leads to reduced phosphorylation of signal
      transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) which is required for G-CSF
      dependent granulocytic differentiation. More importantly, our finding shows that
      E6AP also targets mutant form of G-SCFR (G-CSFR-T718), frequently observed in
      severe congenital neutropenia (SCN) patients that very often culminate to AML,
      however, at a quite slower rate than wild type G-CSFR. In addition, our data
      showed that knockdown of E6AP restores G-CSFR and its signaling thereby promoting
      granulocytic differentiation. Collectively, our data demonstrates that E6AP
      facilitates ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of G-CSFR leading to
      attenuation of its downstream signaling and inhibition of granulocytic
      differentiation.

PMID- 28578912
TI  - Advance Care Planning in Cardiology.

PMID- 28578911
TI  - Metalloproteinases in extracellular vesicles.
AB  - Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as pivotal mediators of intercellular
      communications in local and distant microenvironments under patho/physiological
      conditions. EVs contain bioactive materials such as proteins, RNA transcripts,
      microRNAs and even DNAs, and recent work on their protein profiles has revealed
      the existence of metalloproteinases including the cell surface-anchored sheddases
      ADAMs (a disintegrin and metalloproteinases) and soluble ADAMTSs (ADAMs with
      thrombospondin motifs) as well as cell surface-bound and soluble MMPs (matrix
      metalloproteinases) from various cell types and body fluids. EV-associated
      metalloproteinases can alter the make-up of EVs by ectodomain shedding, exert a
      shedding activity after being taken up by target cells, or directly contribute to
      degradation of extracellular matrix surrounding cells. In addition,
      metalloproteinase-loaded EV cargoes sometimes stimulate critical signaling
      pathways, actively participating in tumor progression. This review focuses on
      recent findings and knowledge about metalloproteinases in EV biology, and we
      discuss their potential involvement in human diseases, highlighting the context
      of tumor cells and their microenvironment. This article is part of a Special
      Issue entitled: Matrix Metalloproteinases edited by Rafael Fridman.

PMID- 28578913
TI  - Cardiac Troponin and Exercise; Still Much to Learn.

PMID- 28578914
TI  - The future of 'addiction': Critique and composition.

PMID- 28578916
TI  - Telling different stories, making new realities: The ontological politics of
      'addiction' biographies.
AB  - Personal narratives of alcohol and other drug addiction circulate widely in
      popular culture and they also have currency in professional therapeutic settings.
      Despite this, relatively little research has explored the conventions operating
      in these narratives and how they shape people's experiences and identities. While
      research in this area often proceeds on the premise that addiction biographies
      are straightforwardly 'true' accounts, in this paper we draw on the insights of
      critical alcohol and other drug scholarship, and the concept of 'ontological
      politics' to argue that biographies produce normative ideas about addiction and
      those said to be experiencing it. Our analysis compares traditional addiction
      narratives with the biographies we reconstructed from qualitative interviews with
      60 people in Australia who describe themselves as having an 'addiction',
      'dependence' or drug 'habit'. We track how addiction is variously enacted in
      these accounts and comment on the effects of particular enactments. By attending
      to the ways in which people cope, even thrive, with the kind of consumption that
      would attract a diagnosis of addiction or dependence, the biographies we produced
      disrupt the classic narrative of increasing drug use, decline and eventual
      collapse. Doing so allows for consideration of the benefits of consumption, as
      well as the ways that people carefully regulate it to minimise harms. It also
      constitutes individuals as active in managing consumption-an important move that
      challenges dominant understandings of addiction as a disorder of compulsivity. We
      conclude by considering the implications of our attempt to provide an alternative
      range of narratives, which resonate with people's diverse experiences.

PMID- 28578915
TI  - Iterating 'addiction': Residential relocation and the spatio-temporal production
      of alcohol and other drug consumption patterns.
AB  - Addiction is generally understood to be characterised by a persistent pattern of
      regular, heavy alcohol and other drug consumption. Current models of addiction
      tend to locate the causes of these patterns within the body or brain of the
      individual, sidelining relational and contextual factors. Where space and place
      are acknowledged as key factors contributing to consumption, they tend to be
      conceived of as static or fixed, which limits their ability to account for the
      fluid production and modulation of consumption patterns over time. In this
      article we query individualised and decontextualised understandings of the causes
      of consumption patterns through an analysis of accounts of residential relocation
      from interviews undertaken for a large research project on experiences of
      addiction in Australia. In conducting our analysis we conceptualise alcohol and
      other drug consumption patterns using Karen Barad's notions of intra-action and
      spatio-temporality, which allow for greater attention to be paid to the spatial
      and temporal dimensions of the material and social processes involved in
      generating consumption patterns. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews conducted with
      people who self-identified as experiencing an alcohol and other drug addiction,
      dependence or habit, our analysis focuses on the ways in which participant
      accounts of moving enacted space and time as significant factors in how patterns
      of consumption were generated, disrupted and maintained. Our analysis explores
      how consumption patterns arose within highly localised relations, demonstrating
      the need for understandings of consumption patterns that acknowledge the
      indivisibility of space and time in their production. In concluding, we argue for
      a move away from static conceptions of place towards a more dynamic conception of
      spatio-temporality, and suggest the need to consider avenues for more effectively
      integrating place and time into strategies for generating preferred consumption
      patterns and initiating and sustaining change where desired.

PMID- 28578918
TI  - Ca2+ signaling, apoptosis and autophagy in the developing cochlea: Milestones to
      hearing acquisition.
AB  - In mammals, the sense of hearing arises through a complex sequence of
      morphogenetic events that drive the sculpting of the auditory sensory epithelium
      into its terminally functional three-dimensional shape. While the majority of the
      underlying mechanisms remain unknown, it has become increasingly clear that Ca2+
      signaling is at center stage and plays numerous fundamental roles both in the
      sensory hair cells and in the matrix of non-sensory, epithelial and supporting
      cells, which embed them and are tightly interconnected by a dense network of gap
      junctions formed by connexin 26 (Cx26) and connexin 30 (Cx30) protein subunits.
      In this review, we discuss the intricate interplay between Ca2+ signaling,
      connexin expression and function, apoptosis and autophagy in the crucial steps
      that lead to hearing acquisition.

PMID- 28578917
TI  - STAT3 inhibition by STA21 increases cell surface expression of MICB and the
      release of soluble MICB by gastric adenocarcinoma cells.
AB  - NKG2D is an activating receptor expressed on NK cells that binds to a variety of
      ligands, including MICA and MICB. These cell surface glycoproteins are
      overexpressed under cellular transformation, thus playing an important role in
      cell-mediated immune response to tumors. STAT3 is a transcription factor that is
      constitutively active in cancer. It negatively regulates MICA expression on
      target cells, while its inhibition enhances NK cell cytotoxicity against tumors.
      In this work, we aimed to describe the effect of STAT3 signaling inhibition by
      STA21 on the regulation of MICB expression in gastric adenocarcinoma cells and
      its effect on the cytotoxic function of NK cells. Treatment of gastric
      adenocarcinoma cells with STA21 induced an increase in MICB expression and
      soluble MICB secretion, as well as a variable pattern on effector cell
      degranulation. Soluble MICB secretion by gastric adenocarcinoma cells was not
      affected by metalloprotease inhibition. We also observed that primary gastric
      adenocarcinoma tissue released soluble MICB into the extracellular milieu.
      Recombinant MICB induced a significant decrease in the levels of NKG2D receptor
      on effector NK and CD8+ T cells, which correlated with an impaired cytotoxic
      function. Altogether, our data provide evidence that STAT3 signaling pathway
      regulates MICB expression on gastric adenocarcinoma cells and that recombinant
      soluble MICB compromises the cytolytic activity of NK cells.

PMID- 28578919
TI  - Opioid consumption and pain in gynecological cancer patients treated with
      interstitial brachytherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Interstitial brachytherapy (ISBT) has advantages over the intracavitary
      techniques in the treatment of gynecological malignancies. The insertion of
      catheters into tumor enables higher dose conformality and normal tissue sparing.
      However ISBT can be associated with pain due its invasiveness. The goal of this
      study is to assess pain and opioid consumption of patients implanted with a
      perineal ISBT applicator. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Forty-eight patients were
      treated with ISBT from September 2014 to April 2016. Mean age was 63.
      Malignancies included 18 cervical cancers, 12 vaginal, 14 recurrent endometrial,
      and four others. Patient characteristics and technical ISBT data were collected.
      Opioid consumption was quantified as oral morphine equivalent per day (OMEq/day)
      from postimplant until removal. Pain score levels were collected by using an 11
      point scoring system. RESULTS: Twenty-three patients had a single ISBT
      implantation, whereas 25 had a second. Twenty-eight patients required IV-patient
      controlled analgesia. Mean OMEq/day for the first insertion was 55 mg. In the
      second insertion, an increase of 22 mg was seen (p = 0.0004). Patients with IV
      patient-controlled analgesia had higher opioid consumption (OMEq/day 69.8 mg vs
      32.1 mg, p = 0.001) and maximum pain scores (5.5 vs 3.4, p = 0.007) as compared
      with patients on oral opioids. Higher levels of pain were detected in the first
      hours postimplant. Previous opioids and age were associated with increased opioid
      consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Pain from perineal-ISBT can be managed with oral
      opioids in a select group of patients. For repeat insertions, there may be an
      increase in opioid consumption. While age and previous opioids affected opioid
      requirements, other factors such as number of needles and insertion depth were
      not associated factors.

PMID- 28578920
TI  - Clinical factors and dosimetry associated with the development of prostate
      brachytherapy-related urethral strictures: A matched case-control study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Urethral strictures are a rare complication of prostate brachytherapy
      (BXT), with prior studies showing radiation dose to the bulbomembranous urethra
      as being associated with stricture formation. This retrospective case-control
      study explored clinical and dosimetric parameters associated with the development
      of BXT-related urethral strictures. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cohort of 34
      patients developed urethral strictures after BXT at our institution for the
      period of 2008-2014. Each case was matched with two controls (68 controls) that
      had not developed a urethral stricture according to similar baseline clinical and
      dosimetric parameters. Stricture development was compared with clinical (i.e.,
      age, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, vascular disease, International
      Prostate Symptom Score, hormones) and dosimetric (i.e., prostate, urethra,
      urethral segments [base, midgland, apex, extraprostatic, and 5 mm margin])
      variables. Statistical modeling approaches such as univariate, multivariate, and
      subset selection methods for risk prediction were applied to identify
      parameter(s) with best predictive ability of toxicity. The performances of models
      were ranked according to Akaike information criterion score. RESULTS: The results
      show that the R2 statistic increases from 6%, when only one parameter is included
      in the model, to almost 33%, when all the parameters are included. The best-fit
      subset of parameters included pretreatment International Prostate Symptom Score
      sum, urethra D30 Gy, urethra D5 Gy, and intraprostatic urethra with 5-mm margin
      V200 at the apex having the highest ability to predict the development of urinary
      strictures. CONCLUSIONS: This study used statistical modeling, a novel approach
      in prostate BXT dosimetric studies, to identify a subset of parameters with
      predictive ability in identifying patients who develop urethral strictures.

PMID- 28578921
TI  - Impaired social cognition in schizophrenia during the Ultimatum Game: An EEG
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia has a core feature of cognitive dysfunctions. Since
      these deficits are predictive for patients' functional outcome, understanding
      their origin is of great importance to improve their daily lives. A specific
      component of the deficit involves social decision-making, which can be studied
      using the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this task, a "proposer" proposes a share of
      money to a "responder", who can either accept or reject this offer. If the
      responder accepts the proposal, both win money. If the responder refuses, both
      players end up with nothing. Therefore, the UG evaluates decision-making
      strategies and social interaction. METHODS: We compared the neuronal bases of
      schizophrenic patients with healthy controls, while performing the UG.
      Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to find differences in the event-related
      potential (ERP) components typical for the UG, namely the P2 and feedback-related
      negativity (FRN). Source reconstruction was further used to define the origin of
      these differences. RESULTS: In the proposer condition, no differences were found
      in amplitude of the P2 and FRN components. In contrast, in the responder
      condition, significant differences were found for the amplitude of the FRN
      (p=0.009). Using source reconstruction, a different activation in a border zone
      of the dorsolateral and the medial prefrontal cortex was revealed in
      schizophrenic patients to underlie this component. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that
      the difference found in the FRN amplitude is associated with difficulties of
      patients in interpreting another's behavior. Although schizophrenic patients
      correctly activate neuronal bases in the proposer condition, they were not able
      to activate the same networks in the responder condition, thereby exposing their
      difficulties in social interaction.

PMID- 28578923
TI  - Acoustic startle response and its modulation in schizophrenia and autism spectrum
      disorder in Asian subjects.
AB  - The acoustic startle response (ASR) and its modulation, including prepulse
      inhibition (PPI), are considered to be promising neurophysiological indices for
      translational research in psychiatry. Impairment of the PPI has been reported in
      several psychiatric disorders, but particularly in schizophrenia, where PPI is
      considered to be a candidate endophenotype of the disorder. Although the profiles
      of the ASR differ between races, recent studies of single ethnicity samples in
      Asia were in accord with a number of studies from Western countries, in reporting
      that patients with schizophrenia exhibit impaired PPI. The PPI of the ASR is
      known to develop before 8years of age, and PPI impairment has only been reported
      in adults (not children) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which involves
      atypical features that are present from early development. Recent Asian studies
      of children with ASD suggest that comprehensive investigation of the ASR and its
      modulation, including the startle response to weak startle stimuli, peak startle
      latency, and PPI, may contribute to an understanding of the impairment of the
      neural circuitry in children with ASD and its comorbid behavioral problems. In
      this review, we review recent findings on the ASR and its modulation from Asian
      countries, and discuss its potential use for studying sensorimotor gating and its
      relationship to schizophrenia and ASD. In conclusion, the ASR and its modulation
      can provide a well-established global neurophysiological index for translational
      research in psychiatric disorders. Future studies investigating the development
      of sensorimotor gating in early development may contribute to prevention of
      psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28578922
TI  - Depression and clinical high-risk states: Baseline presentation of depressed vs.
      non-depressed participants in the NAPLS-2 cohort.
AB  - Depressed mood appears to be highly prevalent in clinical high risk (CHR)
      samples. However, many prior CHR studies utilize modest size samples and do not
      report on the specific impact of depression on CHR symptoms. The aim of the
      current paper is to investigate the prevalence of depressive disorders and the
      impact of lifetime depression on baseline clinical presentation and longitudinal
      outcomes in a large cohort of individuals meeting CHR criteria in the second
      phase of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS-2). Depression was
      assessed both categorically (via DSM-IV-TR diagnoses) and symptomatically (using
      a clinician-rated scale of depressive symptoms) within a sample of 764
      individuals at CHR and 279 controls. Current and lifetime depressive disorders
      were highly prevalent (60%) in this sample. Depression diagnoses were associated
      with more pronounced negative and general symptoms; individuals with remitted
      depression had significantly less severe negative, disorganized, and general
      symptoms and better social and role functioning relative to those with current
      depression. Current mood disturbance, as measured by scores on a clinician-rated
      symptom scale, contributed beyond the impact of positive and negative symptoms to
      impairments in social functioning. Both symptomatic and diagnostic baseline
      depression was significantly associated with decreased likelihood of remission
      from CHR status; however depression did not differentially distinguish persistent
      CHR status from transition to psychosis at follow-up. These findings suggest that
      depressed mood may function as a marker of poor prognosis in CHR, yet effective
      treatment of depression within this population can yield improvements in symptoms
      and functioning.

PMID- 28578924
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Influence of rTMS on smoking in patients with
      schizophrenia.

PMID- 28578925
TI  - Identification of Candida species in vaginal flora using conventional and
      molecular methods.
AB  - Vaginal swab samples were collected both from women with signs of acute
      vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC; n=270) and from healthy controls (n=100). The
      microscopic examination revealed a significant difference in the proportion of
      positive cultures of Candida between the VVC (33%) and control (21%) groups. To
      determine the frequency of different species, positive cultures were analyzed
      using the germ tube test, CHROMagar medium, API 20 AUX System and DNA analysis.
      CHROMagar and API 20 AUX System tests identified 67% of samples as C. albicans.
      Out of these, 42% appeared to be C. dubliniensis when the specific primers in the
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used. We observed the prevalence of Candida
      species isolated from the vagina in descending order as follows: C. albicans (38
      39%), C. glabrata (32-33%), C. dubliniensis (28-29%) and C. tropicalis (0-1%) for
      both the VVC and the control group.

PMID- 28578926
TI  - The use of porcine corrosion casts for teaching human anatomy.
AB  - In teaching and learning human anatomy, anatomical autopsy and prosected
      specimens have always been indispensable. However, alternative methods must often
      be used to demonstrate particularly delicate structures. Corrosion casting of
      porcine organs with Biodur E20(r) Plus is valuable for teaching and learning both
      gross anatomy and, uniquely, the micromorphology of cardiovascular, respiratory,
      digestive, and urogenital systems. Assessments of casts with a stereomicroscope
      and/or scanning electron microscope as well as highlighting cast structures using
      color coding help students to better understand how the structures that they have
      observed as two-dimensional images actually exist in three dimensions, and
      students found using the casts to be highly effective in their learning.
      Reconstructions of cast hollow structures from (micro-)computed tomography scans
      and videos facilitate detailed analyses of branching patterns and spatial
      arrangements in cast structures, aid in the understanding of clinically relevant
      structures and provide innovative visual aids. The casting protocol and teaching
      manual we offer can be adjusted to different technical capabilities and might
      also be found useful for veterinary or other biological science classes.

PMID- 28578927
TI  - Synergistic Signaling by Light and Acetylcholine in Mouse Iris Sphincter Muscle.
AB  - The mammalian pupillary light reflex (PLR) involves a bilateral brain circuit
      whereby afferent light signals in the optic nerve ultimately drive iris-sphincter
      muscle contraction via excitatory cholinergic parasympathetic innervation [1, 2].
      Additionally, the PLR in nocturnal and crepuscular sub-primate mammals has a
      "local" component in the isolated sphincter muscle [3-5], as in amphibians, fish,
      and bird [6-10]. In mouse, this local PLR requires the pigment melanopsin [5],
      originally found in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs)
      [11-19]. However, melanopsin's presence and effector pathway locally in the iris
      remain uncertain. The sphincter muscle itself may express melanopsin [5], or its
      cholinergic parasympathetic innervation may be modulated by suggested intraocular
      axonal collaterals of ipRGCs traveling to the eye's ciliary body or even to the
      iris [20-22]. Here, we show that the muscarinic receptor antagonist, atropine,
      eliminated the effect of acetylcholine (ACh), but not of light, on isolated mouse
      sphincter muscle. Conversely, selective genetic deletion of melanopsin in smooth
      muscle mostly removed the light-induced, but not the ACh-triggered, increase in
      isolated sphincter muscle's tension and largely suppressed the local PLR in vivo.
      Thus, sphincter muscle cells are bona fide, albeit unconventional,
      photoreceptors. We found melanopsin expression in a small subset of mouse iris
      sphincter muscle cells, with the light-induced contractile signal apparently
      spreading through gap junctions into neighboring muscle cells. Light and ACh
      share a common signaling pathway in sphincter muscle. In summary, our experiments
      have provided details of a photosignaling process in the eye occurring entirely
      outside the retina.

PMID- 28578929
TI  - Morphological Diversity of C. elegans Sensory Cilia Instructed by the
      Differential Expression of an Immunoglobulin Domain Protein.
AB  - Cilia on dendritic endings of sensory neurons organize distinct types of sensory
      machinery [1]. Ciliated endings display neuron-type-specific patterns of membrane
      elaborations [1-3], but it is not well understood how such neuron-type-specific
      morphologies are generated and whether they are coupled to the specification of
      other identity aspects of a terminally differentiated sensory neuron. In the
      course of a genome-wide analysis of members of a small family of immunoglobulin
      domain proteins, we found that OIG-8, a previously uncharacterized transmembrane
      protein with a single immunoglobulin (Ig) domain, instructs the distinct, neuron
      type-specific elaboration of ciliated endings of different olfactory neuron types
      in the nematode C. elegans. OIG-8 protein localizes to ciliated endings of these
      sensory neurons, and is transcribed at different levels in distinct olfactory
      neuron types. oig-8 expression levels correlate with the extent of sensory cilia
      growth and branching patterns. Loss of oig-8 leads to a reduction in the
      branching patterns of cilia, whereas raising the levels of oig-8 results in an
      increase in elaborations. Levels of OIG-8 expression are controlled by the
      specific combination of a terminal selector type of transcription factors that
      also specify other identity features of distinct olfactory neuron types.

PMID- 28578928
TI  - Functional Interactions between Newborn and Mature Neurons Leading to Integration
      into Established Neuronal Circuits.
AB  - From development up to adulthood, the vertebrate brain is continuously supplied
      with newborn neurons that integrate into established mature circuits. However,
      how this process is coordinated during development remains unclear. Using two
      photon imaging, GCaMP5 transgenic zebrafish larvae, and sparse electroporation in
      the larva's optic tectum, we monitored spontaneous and induced activity of large
      neuronal populations containing newborn and functionally mature neurons. We
      observed that the maturation of newborn neurons is a 4-day process. Initially,
      newborn neurons showed undeveloped dendritic arbors, no neurotransmitter
      identity, and were unresponsive to visual stimulation, although they displayed
      spontaneous calcium transients. Later on, newborn-labeled neurons began to
      respond to visual stimuli but in a very variable manner. At the end of the
      maturation period, newborn-labeled neurons exhibited visual tuning curves
      (spatial receptive fields and direction selectivity) and spontaneous correlated
      activity with neighboring functionally mature neurons. At this developmental
      stage, newborn-labeled neurons presented complex dendritic arbors and
      neurotransmitter identity (excitatory or inhibitory). Removal of retinal inputs
      significantly perturbed the integration of newborn neurons into the functionally
      mature tectal network. Our results provide a comprehensive description of the
      maturation of newborn neurons during development and shed light on potential
      mechanisms underlying their integration into a functionally mature neuronal
      circuit.

PMID- 28578931
TI  - Artificial Synaptic Rewiring Demonstrates that Distinct Neural Circuit
      Configurations Underlie Homologous Behaviors.
AB  - Behavioral homology is often assumed to involve similarity in underlying neuronal
      mechanisms. Here, we provide a counterexample where homologous behaviors are
      produced by neurons with different synaptic connectivity. The nudibranch molluscs
      Melibe leonina and Dendronotus iris exhibit homologous swimming behaviors,
      consisting of alternating left and right body flexions. The swim central pattern
      generators (CPGs) in both species are composed of bilaterally symmetric
      interneurons, which are individually identified and reciprocally inhibit their
      contralateral counterparts, contributing to left-right burst alternation in the
      swim motor patterns. In Melibe, the swim CPG contains two parts that interact to
      produce stable rhythmic bursting; one part is the primary half-center kernel, and
      the other part, which consists of a bilateral pair of neurons called Si3,
      regulates period length. The Dendronotus swim CPG is simpler, with Si3 being part
      of the primary half-center oscillator. Application of curare (d-tubocurarine)
      selectively blocked the Si3 synapses in both species. In Melibe, curare
      application caused the burst duration of the swim motor pattern to lengthen,
      whereas in Dendronotus, curare halted bursting altogether. In both species,
      replacing the curare-blocked Si3 synapses with artificial synapses using dynamic
      clamp restored the original rhythmic bursting, thereby affirming the roles of
      those synapses. The curare-impaired bursting in Dendronotus was also restored by
      rewiring the homologous neurons into a Melibe-like primary half-center oscillator
      configuration, indicating that the connectivity itself could account for species
      differences in circuit responses to curare. The results suggest that synaptic
      connectivity diverged during evolution while behavior was conserved.

PMID- 28578930
TI  - Meal Timing Regulates the Human Circadian System.
AB  - Circadian rhythms, metabolism, and nutrition are intimately linked [1, 2],
      although effects of meal timing on the human circadian system are poorly
      understood. We investigated the effect of a 5-hr delay in meals on markers of the
      human master clock and multiple peripheral circadian rhythms. Ten healthy young
      men undertook a 13-day laboratory protocol. Three meals (breakfast, lunch,
      dinner) were given at 5-hr intervals, beginning either 0.5 (early) or 5.5 (late)
      hr after wake. Participants were acclimated to early meals and then switched to
      late meals for 6 days. After each meal schedule, participants' circadian rhythms
      were measured in a 37-hr constant routine that removes sleep and environmental
      rhythms while replacing meals with hourly isocaloric snacks. Meal timing did not
      alter actigraphic sleep parameters before circadian rhythm measurement. In
      constant routines, meal timing did not affect rhythms of subjective hunger and
      sleepiness, master clock markers (plasma melatonin and cortisol), plasma
      triglycerides, or clock gene expression in whole blood. Following late meals,
      however, plasma glucose rhythms were delayed by 5.69 +/- 1.29 hr (p < 0.001), and
      average glucose concentration decreased by 0.27 +/- 0.05 mM (p < 0.001). In
      adipose tissue, PER2 mRNA rhythms were delayed by 0.97 +/- 0.29 hr (p < 0.01),
      indicating that human molecular clocks may be regulated by feeding time and could
      underpin plasma glucose changes. Timed meals therefore play a role in
      synchronizing peripheral circadian rhythms in humans and may have particular
      relevance for patients with circadian rhythm disorders, shift workers, and
      transmeridian travelers.

PMID- 28578933
TI  - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, Pulmonary Embolectomy, and Right Ventricular
      Assist Device for Massive Pulmonary Embolism.
AB  - Consensus regarding the management of massive pulmonary embolism (PE) and
      persistent shock after thrombolysis is lacking. A 30-year-old man collapsed with
      massive PE 3 days after an exploratory laparotomy for penetrating trauma, and he
      remained hypoxic and hypotensive despite thrombolytic therapy. Extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was instituted as a bridge to surgical embolectomy,
      and placement of a right ventricular assist device (RVAD) was used to facilitate
      separation from cardiopulmonary bypass. After 48 hours, the RVAD was removed, and
      the patient survived to discharge. ECMO and temporary RVAD to support surgical
      embolectomy are lifesaving therapeutic considerations.

PMID- 28578932
TI  - Ovarian Hormones Organize the Maturation of Inhibitory Neurotransmission in the
      Frontal Cortex at Puberty Onset in Female Mice.
AB  - The frontal cortex matures late in development, showing dramatic changes after
      puberty onset, yet few experiments have directly tested the role of pubertal
      hormones in cortical maturation. One mechanism thought to play a primary role in
      regulating the maturation of the neocortex is an increase in inhibitory
      neurotransmission, which alters the balance of excitation and inhibition. We
      hypothesized that pubertal hormones could regulate maturation of the frontal
      cortex by this mechanism. Here, we report that manipulations of gonadal hormones
      do significantly alter the maturation of inhibitory neurotransmission in the
      cingulate region of the mouse medial frontal cortex, an associative region that
      matures during the pubertal transition and is implicated in decision making,
      learning, and psychopathology. We find that inhibitory neurotransmission, but not
      excitatory neurotransmission, increases onto cingulate pyramidal neurons during
      peri-pubertal development and that this increase can be blocked by pre-pubertal,
      but not post-pubertal, gonadectomy. We next used pre-pubertal hormone treatment
      to model early puberty onset, a phenomenon increasingly observed in girls living
      in developed nations. We find that pre-pubertal hormone treatment drives an early
      increase in inhibitory neurotransmission in the frontal cortex, but not the
      somatosensory cortex, suggesting that earlier puberty can advance cortical
      maturation in a regionally specific manner. Pre-pubertal hormone treatment also
      accelerates maturation of tonic inhibition and performance in a frontal-cortex
      dependent reversal-learning task. These data provide rare evidence of enduring,
      organizational effects of ovarian hormones at puberty and provide a potential
      mechanism by which gonadal hormones could regulate the maturation of the
      associative neocortex.

PMID- 28578936
TI  - A case of esophageal tuberculosis with unusual endoscopic feature.
AB  - A 59-year-old man experienced epigastric pain and an upper gastrointestinal
      endoscopy revealed a bulging lesio n 0.5*0.6cm in size in the middle esophagus.
      EUS showed a homogenous hypoechoic lesion, which interrupted the five layers
      structure of esophageal wall. Biopsies revealed epithelioid granuloma with
      central caseous necrosis and several acid-fast bacilli.

PMID- 28578934
TI  - Reprint of: MicroRNA profiling of human intermediate monocytes.
AB  - Among the three human monocyte subsets, intermediate CD14++CD16+ monocytes have
      been characterized as particularly proinflammatory cells in experimental studies
      and as potential biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in clinical cohorts. To
      further substantiate the distinct role of intermediate monocytes within human
      monocyte heterogeneity, we assessed subset-specific expression of miRNAs as
      central epigenetic regulators of gene expression. We hypothesized that
      intermediate monocytes have a distinct miRNA profile compared to classical and
      non-classical monocytes. By using small RNA-seq we analyzed 662 miRNAs in the
      three monocyte subsets. We identified 38 miRNAs that are differentially expressed
      in intermediate monocytes compared to both classical and non-classical monocytes
      with a p value of <10-10, of which two miRNAs - miR-6087 (upregulated) and miR
      150-5p (downregulated) - differed in their expression more than ten-fold. Pathway
      analysis of the 38 differentially expressed miRNAs linked intermediate monocytes
      to distinct biological processes such as gene regulation, cell differentiation,
      toll-like receptor signaling as well as antigen processing and presentation.
      Moreover, differentially expressed miRNAs were connected to those genes that we
      previously identified as markers of intermediate monocytes. In aggregation, we
      provide first genome-wide miRNA data in the context of monocyte heterogeneity,
      which substantiate the concept of monocyte trichotomy in human immunity. The
      identification of miRNAs that are specific for intermediate monocytes may allow
      to develop strategies, which particularly target this cell population while
      sparing the other two subsets.

PMID- 28578935
TI  - Extracorporeal photochemotherapy in mycosis fungoides.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Extracorporeal photo-chemotherapy (ECP, photopheresis) is an approved
      treatment modality for mycosis fungoides (MF). Our aim is to present our ECP data
      for MF. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 50 MF patients who received ECP for
      clinical activity, toxicity, and response and outcome rates, and we compared
      these with combination therapies. RESULTS: The overall response rate (ORR) was
      42% (21/50), while the median time to response was 11months (range, 3-48months).
      Ten of the responders (48%) had 3 or more treatment lines prior to ECP. Eight
      patients (16%) had adverse events related to ECP. The overall survival (OS) of 50
      patients was 72months (range, 3-211). There was no statistically significant
      difference in the OS in early-stage vs late-stage patients (77 vs 69months,
      P=0.077). The stage 3 and 4 patients received an average of 31 cycles compared to
      55 cycles in stage 1 and 2 patients (P=0.006). The increased extent of ECP was
      not correlated with the response. Combined treatment with ECP significantly
      improved the OS (84months vs 62months, P=0.005). DISCUSSION: A low frequency of
      side effects and improved OS observed in combination therapy makes ECP a
      favorable option for treating MF.

PMID- 28578937
TI  - Active HCV infection is associated with increased circulating levels of
      interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-inducible protein-10 (IP-10), soluble CD163 and
      inflammatory monocytes regardless of liver fibrosis and HIV coinfection.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-inducible protein-10 (IP
      10), soluble (s) CD163 and sCD14 play an important role in the pathogenesis of
      HCV and HIV infection and are involved in inflammation and liver fibrosis. The
      aim of the present study was to evaluate at a single time point, plasma soluble
      biomarkers and inflammatory monocytes subsets in different groups of subjects:
      (i) HIV monoinfected patients on suppressive ART; (ii) HIV/HCV coinfected
      patients on ART, with undetectable HIV viremia (including either subjects who had
      active HCV replication or those who cleared HCV); (iii) HCV monoinfected
      individual with active viral replication. METHODS: Hundred and twenty-nine plasma
      samples were analyzed including HCV and HIV monoinfected patients, HIV/HCV
      coinfected patients, with active HCV infection (AHI) or with HCV viral clearance
      (VHC) and healthy donors (HD). Levels of IP-10, sCD163 and sCD14 were measured by
      ELISA. Absolute cell counts of monocyte subpopulations were enumerated in whole
      blood by using flow cytometric analyses. RESULTS: IP-10 and sCD163 plasma levels
      were higher in HCV monoinfected and in AHI coinfected pts compared to HIV
      monoinfected and HD, whereas sCD14 levels were higher only in HIV monoinfected
      patients. Considering the degree of fibrosis, sCD163 and sCD14 levels positively
      correlated with kPa values (as assessed by fibroscan) and FIB-4 in HCV
      monoinfected group. On the other hand, IP-10 did not correlate with the fibrosis
      stage and it was found increased also in patients with low fibrosis. Moreover, we
      found an increase of the inflammatory NCM subset, in non-cirrhotic HCV subjects,
      while no alterations were observed in HIV, AHI and VHC. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      suggests a scenario in which active HCV infection is associated with a strong pro
      inflammatory state, even in the initial stage of liver fibrosis, regardless the
      presence of HIV coinfection, thus underlying the need of an early anti-HCV
      treatment.

PMID- 28578939
TI  - Clinical significance of C/D box small nucleolar RNA U76 as an oncogene and a
      prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent evidence has suggested novel roles of small nucleolar RNAs
      (snoRNAs) in tumorigenicity. However, the roles of C/D box snoRNA U76 (SNORD76)
      in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. Herein, we
      systematically evaluated dysregulation of snoRNAs in HCC and clarified the
      biomarker potential and biological significance of SNORD76 in HCC. METHODS: We
      performed quantitative analyses of the expression of SNORD76 in 66 HCC specimens
      to compare its expression pattern between tumor tissue and matched non-tumor
      tissue. The effects of SNORD76 on HCC tumorigenicity were investigated in SK-Hep1
      and Huh7 cells as well as in a xenograft nude mouse model. RESULTS: SNORD76
      expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues compared to corresponding
      non-tumor tissues. This upregulation of SNORD76 in HCC tumors was significantly
      associated with poorer patient survival. Furthermore, inhibiting SNORD76
      expression suppressed cell proliferation by inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and
      apoptosis. Low SNORD76 expression also resulted in decreased HCC growth in an
      animal model. Conversely, overexpressing SNORD76 promoted cell proliferation.
      SNORD76 increased HCC cell invasion by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition
      (EMT). Finally, we found that SNORD76 promoted HCC tumorigenicity through
      activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, we
      demonstrated for the first time that SNORD76 may function as a novel tumor
      promoter in HCC and may serve as a promising prognostic biomarker in patients
      with HCC.

PMID- 28578938
TI  - Overexpression of NEDD9 promotes cell invasion and metastasis in hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - Neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally downregulated 9 (NEDD9), is a
      focal adhesion scaffold protein which has been associated with metastasis in
      several cancers. Recent study found that NEDD9 expression was upregulated in HCC.
      However, the precise function of NEDD9 in HCC is still unclear. In the present
      study, we demonstrated that high NEDD9 expression was associated with the
      invasiveness of HCC in clinical samples. Moreover, by gain-and-loss function
      studies, we revealed that silencing of NEDD9 expression inhibited cancer cells
      proliferation, migration and invasion, while upregulated expression of NEDD9
      promoted invasion and metastasis of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. Further
      studies revealed that NEDD9 inversely regulated E-cadherin in HCC cells and HCC
      tissues, which indicated that NEDD9 might promotes the invasion and metastasis of
      HCC cells through the downregulation of E-cadherin, possibly by inducing EMT. On
      the whole, our findings thus indicate that NEDD9 may serve as a metastasis
      promoting gene and potential therapeutic target for the treatment of
      hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28578940
TI  - Complete genome sequence of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus cohnii ssp.
      urealyticus strain SNUDS-2 isolated from farmed duck, Republic of Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Staphylococcus cohnii has become increasingly recognized as a
      potential pathogen of clinically significant nosocomial and farm animal
      infections. This study was designed to determine the genome of a multidrug
      resistant S. cohnii subsp. urealyticus strain SNUDS-2 isolated from a farmed duck
      in Korea. METHODS: Genomic DNA was sequenced using the PacBio RS II system. The
      complete genome was annotated and the presence of antimicrobial resistance and
      virulence genes were identified. RESULTS: The annotated 2,625,703 bp genome
      contained various antimicrobial resistance genes conferring resistance to beta
      lactam, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, phenicols and trimethoprim. The
      virulence-associated three synergistic hemolysins have been identified in the
      strain. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first complete
      genome of S. cohnii, and will provide important insights into the biodiversity of
      CoNS and valuable information for the control of this emerging pathogen.

PMID- 28578942
TI  - Twin-singleton early-life survival in sub-Saharan Africa.

PMID- 28578943
TI  - Efficient synthesis of secondary amines by reductive amination of curdlan
      Staudinger ylides.
AB  - Staudinger-related reactions between azides and phosphines are important in
      organic chemistry due to their chemoselectivity, high efficiency, and mild
      reaction conditions. Staudinger reduction of azides affords highly reactive
      iminophosphorane ylides; the reactivity of the negatively charged ylide nitrogen
      atom has not previously been fully explored in polysaccharide chemistry. Curdlan,
      a natural, biocompatible, and bioactive beta-1,3-glucan with low toxicity, has
      remarkable potential in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Herein we
      describe a new method for preparation of regioselectively iminated/aminated
      curdlan derivatives via a Staudinger ylide. 6-Azido-6-deoxy-2,4-di-O-acyl-curdlan
      was treated with triphenylphosphine to generate the highly nucleophilic
      iminophosphorane intermediate which afforded: i) 6-imino curdlans by reaction
      with several aromatic aldehydes, and ii) 6-monoalkylamino curdlans by reductive
      amination using these aldehydes and NaBH3CN. This new chemistry combined with our
      previous results makes available valuable primary, secondary, and tertiary
      amines, quaternary ammonio derivatives, and amides, all with complete C-6
      regioselectivity for the N-substitution.

PMID- 28578941
TI  - Mortality among twins and singletons in sub-Saharan Africa between 1995 and 2014:
      a pooled analysis of data from 90 Demographic and Health Surveys in 30 countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest under-5 and neonatal
      mortality rates as well as the highest naturally occurring twin rates. Twin
      pregnancies carry high risk for children and mothers. Under-5 mortality has
      declined in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decades. It is unknown whether twins
      have shared in this reduction. METHODS: We pooled data from 90 Demographic and
      Health Surveys for 30 sub-Saharan Africa countries on births reported between
      1995 and 2014. We used information on 1 685 110 singleton and 56 597 twin
      livebirths to compute trends in mortality rates for singletons and twins. We
      examined whether the twin-singleton rate ratio can be attributed to biological,
      socioeconomic, care-related factors, or birth size, and estimated the mortality
      burden among sub-Saharan African twins. FINDINGS: Under-5 mortality among twins
      has declined from 327.7 (95% CI 312.0-343.5) per 1000 livebirths in 1995-2001 to
      213.0 (196.7-229.2) in 2009-14. This decline of 35.0% was much less steep than
      the 50.6% reduction among singletons (from 128.6 [95% CI 126.4-130.8] per 1000
      livebirths in 1995-2001 to 63.5 [61.6-65.3] in 2009-14). Twins account for an
      increasing share of under-5 deaths in sub-Saharan Africa: currently 10.7% of
      under-5 mortality and 15.1% of neonatal mortality. We estimated that about 315
      000 twins (uncertainty interval 289 000-343 000) die in sub-Saharan African each
      year. Excess twin mortality cannot be explained by common risk factors for under
      5 mortality, including birthweight. The difference with singletons was especially
      stark for neonatal mortality (rate ratio 5.0, 95% CI 4.5-5.6). 51.7% of women
      pregnant with twins reported receiving medical assistance at birth.
      INTERPRETATION: The fate of twins in sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind that of
      singletons. An alarming one-fifth of twins in the region dies before age 5 years,
      three times the mortality rate among singletons. Twins account for a substantial
      and growing share of under-5 and neonatal mortality, but they are largely
      neglected in the literature. Coordinated action is required to improve the
      situation of this extremely vulnerable group. FUNDING: None.

PMID- 28578944
TI  - Pullulan: A novel molecule for biomedical applications.
AB  - Pullulan is an imperative natural polymer produced commercially by yeast like
      fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. It is non-toxic, non-immunogenic, non
      carcinogenic and non-mutagenic in nature. The structure of pullulan consist
      unique linkage pattern with two alpha-(1->4) and one alpha-(1->6) glycosidic
      bonds in maltotriose repeating units (G3). Pullulan endows distinctive physical
      traits due to the presence of nine hydroxyl groups on glucopyranose rings of G3
      units. It can be derivatized in various forms by substituting these hydroxyl
      groups to enhance its utility in biomedical applications. Pullulan and its
      derivatives are completely explored for their applications in food and
      pharmaceutical industries. Owing to these special properties, native pullulan and
      its derivatives possess potential application in multiple diagnostics. This
      review presents elaborated discussion on role of pullulan and its derivatives in
      various biomedical applications e.g. drug delivery, gene targeting, tissue
      engineering, vaccination, plasma substitution, chaperone-like activity, medical
      imaging, insulinotropic activity, pharmaceutical dosages formation, coating, etc.

PMID- 28578945
TI  - beta-CD assisted aqueous dissolution of cetylpicolinium dichromates (CPDC)
      Evolution of a class of green water compatible lipopathic Cr(VI) oxidants.
AB  - Water-insoluble lipopathic dichromates have been successfully solubilized in
      aqueous phase by the entrapment of their hydrophobic tails in beta-cyclodextrin
      (beta-CD) non-polar cavity. Aqueous solubility of alpha-, beta-, and gamma-
      cetylpicolinium dichromate (CPDC) molecules, synthesized in our lab, has been
      studied to find their suitability for Cr(VI) oxidation purposes in water medium.
      The analysis of phase solubility shows the existence of a Bs type curve and its
      significance has been fully deciphered through dynamic light scattering (DLS)
      analysis. The limiting concentration of beta-CD up to which it can induce 1:1
      host-guest complexation with the CPDC entities, has been determined and the
      stoichiometry has been confirmed from Job's plot. The binding constant and
      complexation efficiency of the beta-CD-CPDC complexes have been determined and
      temperature effect on these parameters has been discussed through thermodynamic
      calculations. Analyses of viscosity variation of the aqueous solutions of the
      complexes have been done and correlated with the solubilization phenomenon.

PMID- 28578946
TI  - Nanostructure and physical properties of cellulose nanofiber-carbon nanotube
      composite films.
AB  - We studied the nanostructure and physical properties of cellulose nanofiber-multi
      walled carbon nanotube (CNF-MWNT) composite films prepared via MWNT aqueous
      dispersion using 4-O-methyl-alpha-d-glucuronoxylan as a MWNT dispersion aid. The
      composite film had high electrical conductivity (1.05S/cm), good mechanical
      properties (Young's modulus: 10.1GPa, tensile strength: 173.4MPa) and a low
      coefficient of thermal expansion (7ppm/K). FE-SEM imaging showed that the carbon
      nanotubes dispersed homogeneously and made reinforcing networks in the matrix of
      cellulose nanofibers. Improvement in the physical properties of cellulose
      nanofiber film by adding MWNTs is due to this composite structure.

PMID- 28578947
TI  - Structural characterization and immunomodulatory activity of a water soluble
      polysaccharide isolated from Botrychium ternatum.
AB  - As a folk medicine, Botrychium ternatum has been used for thousands of years in
      China. In the present work, a water soluble polysaccharide BTp1 was extracted and
      purified from B. ternatum. Based on the MALDI matrix 3-aminoquinoline-alpha-cyano
      4-hydroxycinnamic acid, the molecular weight of BTp1 was determined to be 11638Da
      directly. Monosaccharide analysis showed that BTp1 was composed of arabinose
      (Ara). Combining enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent MALDI-TOF analysis, a linear
      backbone of BTp1, consisted of (1->5)-linked alpha-l-Araf, was inferred quickly.
      Then according to NMR experiments, the whole structure of BTp1 was established.
      The repeating unit of BTp1 was deduced as a linear backbone with branches at O-2,
      O-3 and its neighboring O-2 positions terminated with (1->)-linked alpha-l-Araf,
      respectively. The immunomodulatory assay exhibited that BTp1 could significantly
      enhance the viability and promote the release of NO in RAW 264.7 cells,
      suggesting that BTp1 could be a potential immunomodulatory agent in
      pharmacological fields.

PMID- 28578948
TI  - Gelation of rhamnogalacturonan I is based on galactan side chain interaction and
      does not involve chemical modifications.
AB  - The article presents the structural principles of microwave-induced formation of
      new gel type from pectic rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I). The backbone of gel-forming
      RG-I does not contain consecutive galacturonic residues and modifying groups that
      can be the cause of junction zone formation as it occurs in course of classical
      ways of pectin gelation. Microwave irradiation does not cause destruction and
      chemical modifications of RG-I. Removal of half of galactan chains from RG-I
      leads to loss of gelling capability pointing out on their leading role in this
      process. Rising of intensity of the bands attributed to galactose and glycosidic
      linkages in RG-I gel comparing to solution where this polymer exists as molecule
      associate indicates that the spatial organization of galactans in gel is changed.
      A model of the RG-I gelation is proposed: being destabilized at volumetric
      microwave heating RG-I associates are repacked forming network where RG-I
      molecules are entangled by galactan chains.

PMID- 28578949
TI  - Surface properties and surface free energy of cellulosic etc mucoadhesive
      polymers.
AB  - The paper presents the sorption and wettability properties for several
      mucoadhesive polymers (Carbopol 974P NF (carbomer polymer; carboxy
      polymethylene), Noveon AA-1, (polycarbophil; acrylic acid polymer crosslinked
      with divinyl glycol) HPMC (hypromellose; cellulose 2-hydroxyethyl methyl ester)
      and HEC (cellulose 2-hydroxyethyl ether) and a film-forming polymer Kollidon VA
      64 (polyvinylpyrrolidone-vinyl acetate copolymer)) commonly used in controlled
      drug delivery systems. Moreover, the surface energy of powders was determined
      using the data obtained according to the three types of experimental
      investigation. The contact angle measurements for powders were performed
      according to the Washburn method and using the capillary rise technique. Whereas
      the sessile drop method was performed on the compressed discs of mucoadhesive
      polymers. For the surface characterization the IGC technique was also applied.
      The results obtained by different methods, for both: wettability and surface
      energies, were compared and correlated. The presented study showed significant
      differences in the morphology and surface properties of mucoadhesion polymers
      considered. It was confirmed that for the accurate quantification of the free
      surface energy (and its components), for mucoadhesive polymers considered, not
      only the IGC in finite concentration, but also the Washburn method should be
      used.

PMID- 28578950
TI  - Characterization of a novel natural cellulosic fiber from Juncus effusus L.
AB  - This study aims to assess the morphology and properties of fibers extracted from
      a wild natural plant largely available in Algeria known as Juncus effusus L.
      (JE). The morphology and diameter of the fiber bundles extracted from the stem of
      the JE plant were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The
      functional groups of the extracted lignocellulosic JE fibers were studied by
      FTIR, their thermal degradation behavior was investigated by TGA and their
      crystallinity was determined using X-ray diffraction technique. In addition,
      mechanical characterization was carried out using tensile tests on the
      lignocellulosic fiber in order to evaluate their strength, strain at break and
      Young's modulus. In view of the dispersion in the obtained experimental results,
      the latter were analyzed using the Weibull statistical laws with two and three
      parameters.

PMID- 28578951
TI  - Bio-stimuli-responsive multi-scale hyaluronic acid nanoparticles for deepened
      tumor penetration and enhanced therapy.
AB  - In this study, we developed bio-stimuli-responsive multi-scale hyaluronic acid
      (HA) nanoparticles encapsulated with polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers as the
      subunits. These HA/PAMAM nanoparticles of large scale (197.10+/-3.00nm) were
      stable during systematic circulation then enriched at the tumor sites; however,
      they were prone to be degraded by the high expressed hyaluronidase (HAase) to
      release inner PAMAM dendrimers and regained a small scale (5.77+/-0.25nm) with
      positive charge. After employing tumor spheroids penetration assay on A549 3D
      tumor spheroids for 8h, the fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labeled multi-scale
      HA/PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles could penetrate deeply into these tumor spheroids
      with the degradation of HAase. Moreover, small animal imaging technology in male
      nude mice bearing H22 tumor showed HA/PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles possess higher
      prolonged systematic circulation compared with both PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles and
      free FITC. In addition, after intravenous administration in mice bearing H22
      tumors, methotrexate (MTX) loaded multi-scale HA/PAMAM-MTX nanoparticles
      exhibited a 2.68-fold greater antitumor activity.

PMID- 28578952
TI  - Chitosan nanoparticles from marine squid protect liver cells against N
      diethylnitrosoamine-induced hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Rationale of this study was framed to investigate the protective effect and anti
      cancer property of nanoparticles based on chitosan isolated from squid,
      Sepioteuthis lessoniana, on hepatic cells in N-Nitrosodiethylamine-induced
      hepatocellular carcinoma in rats. The results conferred that the chitosan
      nanoparticle supplementation had a protective effect on liver cells by reducing
      the levels of marker enzymes and bilirubin and thus increasing the albumin
      levels. The level of reduced glutathione, ascorbic acid and alpha-tocopherol
      significantly increased in both post- and pre-treatment with chitosan
      nanoparticles. The levels of antioxidant enzymes were enhanced and lipid
      peroxidation products were diminished while treating nitrosodiethylamine-induced
      hepatocellular carcinoma with chitosan nanoparticles. Supplementation of chitosan
      nanoparticles had potent anti-hyperlipidemic property that was evidenced by
      monitoring the serum lipid levels and its components. Animals pre-treated with
      chitosan nanoparticles along with nitrosodiethylamine showed a significant
      reduction in the total cholesterol and triglycerides levels with increase in the
      levels of phospholipids and free fatty acids. Chitosan nanoparticles treated rats
      showed significant increment in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and
      reduction in low-density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
      when compared with levels in nitrosodiethylamine-induced hepatocellular
      carcinoma. Nitrosodiethylamine-induced carcinoma changes on circulation and
      hepatic antioxidant defense mechanism were regulated by chitosan nanoparticles,
      concluding that the chitosan nanoparticles have a potent protective effect on
      liver cells which might be due to its robust antioxidant and anti-lipidemic
      property.

PMID- 28578953
TI  - Calcinated tea and cellulose composite films and its dielectric and lead
      adsorption properties.
AB  - In this paper, calcinated tea and cellulose composite (CTCC) films were
      fabricated via solution casting method. Chemical structure, morphology,
      crystallinity and thermal stability of the fabricated films were characterized by
      using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X
      ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. The effect of calcinated tea
      loading on the properties of the prepared CTCC films was studied. The results
      suggest that the prepared CTCC films show higher mechanical properties, thermal
      stability and dielectric constant than the neat cellulose film. In addition, the
      CTCC films adsorb Pb2+ ions and its adsorption performance depends on the
      calcinated tea content and pH level. The CTCC films are useful for sensors,
      flexible capacitor as well as lead adsorption applications.

PMID- 28578954
TI  - Thermal stability increase in metallic nanoparticles-loaded cellulose nanocrystal
      nanocomposites.
AB  - Due to the potential of CNC-based flexible materials for novel industrial
      applications, the aim of this work is to improve the thermal stability of
      cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) films through a straightforward and scalable method.
      Based of nanocomposite approach, five different metallic nanoparticles (ZnO,
      SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3) have been co-assembled in water with CNCs to obtain
      free-standing nanocomposite films. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) reveals an
      increased thermal stability upon nanoparticle. This increase in the thermal
      stability reaches a maximum of 75 degrees C for the nanocomposites having 10wt%
      of Fe2O3 and ZnO. The activation energies of thermodegradation process (Ea)
      determined according to Kissinger and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall methods further confirm
      the delayed degradation of CNC nanocomposites upon heating. Finally, the changes
      induced in the crystalline structure during thermodegradation were followed by
      wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). It is also observed that thermal degradation
      proceeds at higher temperatures for nanocomposites having metallic nanoparticles.
      Overall, experimental findings here showed make nanocomposite approach a simple
      low-cost environmentally-friendly strategy to overcome the relatively poor
      thermal stability of CNCs when extracted via sulfuric acid assisted hydrolysis of
      cellulose.

PMID- 28578955
TI  - Photochemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles on chitosans/montmorillonite
      nanocomposite films and antibacterial activity.
AB  - Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthetized on chitosans/montmorillonite
      nanocomposite films by photochemical method. Nanocomposites were prepared using
      chitosans with different molar masses and deacetylation degrees, as well as
      modified with diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) and dodecyl groups. AgNPs formation on the
      films was followed by the appearance of the plasmon band around 440nm as a
      function of irradiation time. TEM images revealed AgNPs with spherical morphology
      for all nanocomposites. For nanocomposites using modified chitosans, the AgNPs
      synthesis occurred quickly (1.5h) while for the others films it was above 11h.
      The film of modified chitosan with dodecyl and DEAE groups presented smaller and
      more uniform nanoparticles size along mixture of exfoliated and intercalated
      structures. This modified chitosan is an amphiphilic compound that can act
      controlling the size/shape of the AgNPs. The results of antibacterial activity
      suggested that all nanocomposite-AgNPs films inhibited the growth of Escherichia
      coli and Bacillus subtilis.

PMID- 28578957
TI  - Synthesis of graft copolymers based on hyaluronan and poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates).
AB  - This work reports the synthesis and characterisation of new amphiphilic
      hyaluronan (HA) grafted with poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) conjugates.
      Hydrolytic depolymerisation of PHAs was used for the synthesis of defined oligo(3
      hydroxyalkanoates)-containing carboxylic terminal moieties. A kinetic study of
      the depolymerisation was followed to prepare oligomers of required molecular
      weight. PHAs were coupled with hydroxyl groups of HA mediated by N, N'
      carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) or HSTU Tetramethyl-O-(N-succinimidyl) uronium
      hexafluorophosphate. For the first time, the covalent bonding of oligo
      derivatives of P(3-hydroxybutyrate), P(3-hydroxyoctanoate), P(3-hydroxyoctanoate
      co-3-hydroxydecanoate) and P(3-hydroxyoctanoate-co-3-hydroxydecanoate-co-3
      hydroxydodecanoate) and HA was achieved by "grafting to" strategy. Achieved
      grafting degree was a function of hydrophobicity of PHA, Mw and polarity of the
      solvent. The most suitable reaction conditions were observed for oligo (3
      hydroxybutyrate) grafted to HA (grafting degree of 14%). Graft copolymers were
      characterized by FT-IR, NMR, DSC and SEC-MALLS. Graft copolymers can be
      physically loaded with hydrophobic drugs and may serve as drug delivery system.

PMID- 28578956
TI  - Synthesis of xanthan gum graft copolymer and its application for controlled
      release of highly water soluble Levofloxacin drug in aqueous medium.
AB  - Graft copolymers (XG-g-PNVP-1 to XG-g-PNVP-5) of xanthan gum (XG) and poly(N
      vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PNVP) was synthesized by free radical polymerization using
      peroxymonosulphate/thiourea redox pair. The synthesized graft copolymers were
      well characterized by 1H NMR, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TGA/DTA and AFM analyses. The
      optimum conditions for maximum grafting were determined by varying the
      concentrations of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) from 10*10-2 to 18*10-2moldm-3; the
      grafting ratios increases up to 14*10-2moldm-3, while thereafter decreased. Graft
      copolymer (XG-g-PNVP-D) hybrid was prepared to load levofloxacin drug, about 15mg
      drug was loaded; and its release was studied in phosphate buffer solution (PBS)
      at pH 7.4 on 37+/-0.1 degrees C; About 80% drug was released in 36h.

PMID- 28578958
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of alginic acid ester derivatives.
AB  - Esters derivatives of alginic acid (Alg) were prepared in carboxylic
      acid/carboxylic acid anhydrides system by using aqueous perchloric acid as the
      catalyst. Degree of substitution of hydroxyl group of Alg was estimated to be 2,
      showing that the hydroxyl group of Alg was fully esterified. Alg acid esters
      showed the solubility to common organic solvents such as acetone and chloroform.
      In particular, alginic acid hexanoate formed self-standing solvent-cast film,
      although the film showed brittle mechanical behavior. Furthermore, Alg esters
      showed glass transition temperature (Tg) in a temperature range between 100 and
      200 degrees C, that is in the same range as the conventional synthetic amorphous
      polymers. It was also shown that the Tg gradually lowered with the increasing
      acyl side chain length. These results show that Alg esters are plastic materials
      with tunable organosolubility and thermal properties.

PMID- 28578959
TI  - Enzymatic production of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine from crayfish shell wastes
      pretreated via high pressure homogenization.
AB  - This study presents an efficient pretreatment of crayfish shell using high
      pressure homogenization that enables N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (GlcNAc) production
      by chitinase. Firstly, the chitinase from Serratia proteamaculans NJ303 was
      screened for its ability to degrade crayfish shell and produce GlcNAc as the sole
      product. Secondly, high pressure homogenization, which caused the crayfish shell
      to adopt a fluffy netted structure that was characterized by Scanning electron
      microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), was evaluated as the best pretreatment method. In addition,
      the optimal conditions of high pressure homogenization of crayfish shell were
      determined to be five cycles at a pressure of 400bar, which achieved a yield of
      3.9g/L of GlcNAc from 25g/L of crayfish shell in a batch enzymatic reaction over
      1.5h. The results showed high pressure homogenization might be an efficient
      method for direct utilization of crayfish shell for enzymatic production of
      GlcNAc.

PMID- 28578960
TI  - Starch-based nanocapsules fabricated through layer-by-layer assembly for oral
      delivery of protein to lower gastrointestinal tract.
AB  - Anionic carboxymethyl starch (CMS) and cationic quaternary ammonium starch (QAS),
      were used to fabricate nanocapsules through electrostatic layer by layer (LbL)
      alternate deposition onto colloidal BSA particles. An ideal starch-based
      colloidal nanocapsule was achieved by adjusting the degree of substitution (DS)
      and weight average molecular molar mass (Mw) of CMS. The nanocapsules fabricated
      by CMS with lower DS or Mw possessed more compact and stable core-shell
      structure, which favoured the BSA delivery from the upper gastrointestinal tract
      (GIT) to the colon. In particular, CMS/QAS nanocapsules constructed by CMS with
      lower DS and Mw showed better colon-specific delivery and release performance in
      simulated GIT fluid after 7days' storage in different kinds of beverage (33.04%
      46.35% in upper GIT, 52.70%-64.97% in colon, respectively). These findings
      demonstrated that CMS/QAS nanocapsules constructed by CMS with lower DS and Mw
      can be further exploited as a potential oral delivery system for protein to
      colon.

PMID- 28578961
TI  - Novel nano-particulated exopolysaccharide produced by Klebsiella sp. PHRC1.001.
AB  - In recent decades, microbial synthesis of polysaccharides with special functional
      properties has attracted increasing attention. This work reported a novel
      exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing strain, Klebsiella sp. PHRC1.001 isolated from
      activated sludge. Physicochemical, rheological, emulsifying and toxicological
      properties of the obtained EPS were characterized. The EPS was mainly composed of
      d-glucose and l-arabinose, and was found to exist in aqueous solution in a nano
      particulated form (~50nm in diameter) with a strong tendency of aggregation.
      Rheological analysis showed that the EPS aqueous solution was a typical
      pseudoplastic fluid at higher concentration and could form weak gel upon alkaline
      treatment followed by neutralization. The EPS exhibited excellent emulsifying
      properties in stabilizing oil-in-water emulsions presumably by a Pickering
      mechanism owing to its nanoparticle structure. Acute toxicity test showed that
      1.8g EPS per kg of body weight caused no toxic effect on mice. PHRC1.001 EPS has
      the potential to be a novel industrial polysaccharide.

PMID- 28578962
TI  - Curcumin-loaded dual pH- and thermo-responsive magnetic microcarriers based on
      pectin maleate for drug delivery.
AB  - Magnetic microgels with pH- and thermo-responsive properties were developed from
      the pectin maleate, N-isopropyl acrylamide, and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The hybrid
      materials were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron
      microscope coupled with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, wide angle X-ray
      scattering, Zeta potential, and magnetization hysteresis measurements. Curcumin
      (CUR) was loaded into the microgels, and release assays were carried out in
      simulated environments (SGF and SIF) at different conditions of temperature (25
      or 37 degrees C). A slow and sustainability CUR release was achieved under
      external magnetic field influence. Loaded CUR displayed stability,
      bioavailability and greater solubility regarding free CUR. Besides, the
      cytotoxicity assays showed that magnetic microgels without CUR could suppress the
      Caco-2 cells growth. So, the pectin maleate, N-isopropyl acrylamide, and Fe3O4
      could be tailored to elicit hybrid-based materials with satisfactory application
      in the medical arena.

PMID- 28578963
TI  - Response of live Newcastle disease virus encapsulated in N-2-hydroxypropyl
      dimethylethyl ammonium chloride chitosan nanoparticles.
AB  - We have synthesized N-2-hydroxypropyl dimethylethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (N
      2-HFCC) with higher water solubility than chitosan. To evaluate its potential as
      delivery carrier, NDV encapsulated in N-2-HFCC/CMC nanoparticles (NDV/La Sota-N-2
      HFCC/CMC-NPs) with a diameter of 252.2+/-32.68nm, Zeta potential of 41.1+/
      0.89mV, encapsulation efficiency of 96.6+/-0.72% and loading capacity of 53.2+/
      1.11% were prepared. NDV/La Sota-N-2-HFCC/CMC-NPs are a novel type of attenuated
      live vaccine encapsulated in nanoparticles. These nanoparticles displayed lower
      cytotoxicity and higher stability. Their bioactivity was maintained when they
      were stored for three months at the room temperature. Release assay in vitro
      showed that NDV could be sustainably released after an initial burst release. In
      vivo immunization showed that immunization of specific pathogen free chickens
      with NDV/La Sota-N-2-HFCC/CMC-NPs intranasally induced high titers of serum
      antibody, significantly promoted lymphocyte proliferation and caused higher
      levels of interleukine-2 and interference-gamma. These results indicated that N-2
      HFCC/CMC nanoparticles could serve as an efficient and safe delivery vehicle for
      mucosal immunity, and have a great potential in medical applications.

PMID- 28578964
TI  - Biocompatible nanogel derived from functionalized dextrin for targeted delivery
      of doxorubicin hydrochloride to MG 63 cancer cells.
AB  - The present article demonstrates the targeted delivery of doxorubicin
      hydrochloride to human osteosarcoma cancer cell lines (MG 63) using
      functionalized dextrin based crosslinked, pH responsive and biocompatible
      nanogel. The nanogel has been prepared through Michael-type addition reaction
      using dextrin (Dxt), N, N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA, as crosslinker), acrylic
      acid (AA, as monomer) and potassium persulfate (KPS, as initiator). The
      structure, composition, morphology of the nanogel have been explored using FTIR
      and 1H NMR spectroscopy, XRD, TGA, DSC, CHN and AFM analyses. The TEM analysis
      confirmed that the size of nanogel appeared within 100nm, while DLS study
      indicates that the diameter of the nanogel remained between 113 and 126nm. The
      AFM study implied the porous morphology of the synthesized nanogel. The
      rheological study suggests the gel behaviour of the synthesized nanogel at 37+/
      0.1 degrees C. Difference in% swelling at pH 5.5 and 7.4 indicates pH
      responsiveness of the nanogel. The in vitro cytocompatibility results ascertained
      that the nanogel is non-toxic to human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). In vitro
      cellular uptake study confirmed that FITC-loaded nanogel can cross the cellular
      membrane and be well uptake by the cell cytoplasm. The nanogel could efficiently
      encapsulate doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox) with the loading efficiency of 27+/
      0.2% after 72h. The Dox-loaded nanogel demonstrates anti-cancer activity towards
      MG 63 cancer cells and release the encapsulated drug in a controlled way.

PMID- 28578965
TI  - Preparation and evaluation of polyurethane/cellulose nanowhisker bimodal foam
      nanocomposites for osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs.
AB  - Biocompatible and biodegradable polyurethanes (PUs) based on polycaprolactone
      diol (PCL) were prepared and filled with cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) obtained
      from wastepaper. The incorporated polyurethane nanocomposites were used to
      prepare foamed scaffolds with bimodal cell sizes through solvent
      casting/particulate leaching method. Sodium chloride and sugar porogens were also
      prepared to fabricate the scaffolds. The mechanical and thermal properties of
      PU/CNW nanocomposites were investigated. Incorporation of different CNWs resulted
      in various structures with tunable mechanical properties and biodegradability.
      All bimodal foam nanocomposites were biodegradable and also non-cytotoxic as
      revealed by MTT assay using SNL fibroblast cell line. PU/CNW foam scaffolds were
      used for osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs).
      Based on the results, such PU/CNW nanocomposites could support proliferation and
      osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs in three-dimensional synthetic extracellular
      matrix (ECM).

PMID- 28578966
TI  - New findings on green sweet pepper (Capsicum annum) pectins: Rhamnogalacturonan
      and type I and II arabinogalactans.
AB  - Polysaccharides were extracted from sweet pepper (Capsicum annum) with hot water
      and named ANW (9% yield). Starch was precipitated by freeze-thaw treatment, while
      pectic polysaccharides (8% yield) remained soluble and consisted of GalA (67.0%),
      Rha (1.6%), Ara (6.4%), Xyl (0.3%), Gal (6.7%) and Glc (4.4%). A highly
      methoxylated homogalacturonan (HG, degree of methylesterification of 85% and
      degree of acetylation of 5%), and type I and type II arabinogalactans (AG-I and
      AG-II) were observed in NMR analyses. These were fractionated with Fehling's
      solution to give HG (5.5% yield) and AG fractions (0.6% yield). AG-I and AG-II
      were further separated by ultrafiltration. AG-II (0.2% yield) consisted of Ara
      (17.1%), Gal (36.0%), Rha (5.6%) and GalA (12.0%), had a molecular weight of
      5.3*104g/mol and methylation and 1H/13C HSQC-DEPT-NMR analyses showed that it was
      anchored in type I rhamnogalacturonan. This is the first study that reports the
      presence of AG-I and AG-II in sweet pepper fruits.

PMID- 28578968
TI  - Physicochemical characterization and antitumour activity of exopolysaccharides
      produced by Lactobacillus casei SB27 from yak milk.
AB  - Two high molecular weight fractions (LW1 and LW2) of exopolysaccharides (EPSs)
      produced by Lactobacillus casei SB27 were isolated from yak milk obtained from
      the Gansu Tibetan area of China. GC-MS, FTIR spectroscopy, methylation analysis
      and FE-SEM analysis were performed to elucidate the physicochemical
      characterization of these two fractions, and their in vitro antitumour activities
      were also evaluated. The molecular weights (Mws) of LW1 and LW2 as determined by
      HPGPC were 25.10 and 12.34kDa, respectively. Monosaccharide composition analysis
      revealed that LW1 and LW2 were mainly composed of galactose (52.4% and 57.4%,
      mol%) and glucose (29.1% and 22.2%, mol%), respectively. Methylation results
      showed that the main chain of LW1 likely involves (1->4)-linked Galp and (1->4)
      linked Glcp with its side chains being (1->4,6)-linked Galp through the O-6
      position connected to the backbone, whereas the main chain of LW2 likely involves
      (1->4)-linked Galp and (1->4)-linked Glcp with its side chains being (1->3)-Galp
      through the O-6 position of (1->3,6)-Galp linked to the main chain. Evaluation of
      the microcosmic morphology, as revealed by FE-SEM analysis of the two EPS
      fractions, showed a sheet-like appearance with a folded surface and a compact
      structure. The results from in vitro antitumour tests indicated that both LW1 and
      LW2 could significantly inhibit the proliferation of HT-29 colorectal cancer
      cells and up-regulated the expressions of Bad, Bax, Caspase-3 and -8 genes.
      Finally, TEM images revealed the apoptotic morphological changes of HT-29 cells
      induced by LW1 and LW2. Our results suggested that LW1 and LW2 possess potential
      not only for use in functional food products but also as a source of natural
      antitumour drugs.

PMID- 28578967
TI  - Preparation and characterization of antioxidant edible chitosan films
      incorporated with epigallocatechin gallate nanocapsules.
AB  - Antioxidant edible films based on chitosan hydrochloride (CHC) and
      epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)-loaded nanocapsules (NCs) were developed. The CHC
      films incorporated with NCs were prepared by a casting method in three different
      proportions. The obtained films were characterized using the techniques including
      scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray
      diffraction. Meanwhile, the mechanical and color properties, optical
      transmittance, EGCG release profile and antioxidant activity were also
      determined. The addition of NCs to CHC films increased their tensile strength
      (TS) and the percent elongation at break (%E). Lightness was significantly
      decreased in the NCs embedded films compared to controls, which in turn led to
      high antioxidant activity and excellent barrier properties against visible light.
      EGCG was rapidly released into food simulant although the concentration
      fluctuates over time. Therefore, these films can prevent the oxidation of fatty
      food stuffs.

PMID- 28578969
TI  - Nerve growth factor loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds for accelerating peripheral
      nerve regeneration.
AB  - Artificial chitosan scaffolds have been widely investigated for peripheral nerve
      regeneration. However, the effect was not as good as that of autologous grafts
      and therefore could not meet the clinical requirement. In the present study, the
      nerve growth factor (NGF) loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds were fabricated via
      electrostatic interaction for further improving nerve regeneration. The
      physicochemical properties including morphology, wettability and composition were
      measured. The heparin immobilization, NGF loading and release were quantitatively
      and qualitatively characterized, respectively. The effect of NGF loaded
      heparin/chitosan scaffolds on nerve regeneration was evaluated by Schwann cells
      culture for different periods. The results showed that the heparin immobilization
      and NGF loading did not cause the change of bulk properties of chitosan scaffolds
      except for morphology and wettability. The pre-immobilization of heparin in
      chitosan scaffolds could enhance the stability of subsequently loaded NGF. The
      NGF loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds could obviously improve the attachment and
      proliferation of Schwann cells in vitro. More importantly, the NGF loaded
      heparin/chitosan scaffolds could effectively promote the morphology development
      of Schwann cells. The study may provide a useful experimental basis to design and
      develop artificial implants for peripheral nerve regeneration and other tissue
      regeneration.

PMID- 28578970
TI  - Rheological properties of N-[(2-hydroxyl)-propyl-3-trimethyl ammonium] chitosan
      chloride.
AB  - N-[(2-hydroxyl)-propyl-3-trimethyl ammonium] chitosan chloride (HTCC) was
      synthesized using 1-allyl-3-methylimidazole chloride (AmimCl) as a homogeneous
      green reaction media. The effects of polymer concentration, temperature, cation
      valence, anion type and concentration of inorganic salt, and degree of
      substitution (DS) on the rheological properties of HTCC were investigated. The
      apparent viscosity indicated that HTCC solution was a typical pseudoplastic
      fluid, which could be described by Ostwald de Waele and Cross-empirical models.
      The viscoelastic properties showed the formation of gel-like structures.
      Temperature showed slight effect on the apparent viscosity of HTCC solution,
      while the DS of HTCC showed remarkable effect on the apparent viscosity. At a low
      shear rate, the apparent viscosities of HTCC solution increased firstly with an
      increase of cNaCl from 0 to 40mmol/L, and then decreased with further increasing
      cNaCl to 60mmol/L. At a high shear rate, the opposite trends were observed. The
      variation of HTCC molecular construction under different inorganic salt
      conditions was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, meanwhile, the
      variation mechanism was proposed.

PMID- 28578971
TI  - Printing and impact properties of cationised hollow cellulosic fiber based
      polyester/cotton composite.
AB  - Hollow fibers materials have been potentially used and gaining increasing
      attention in recent years. In this study, Egyptian hollow fibers have been
      blended with cotton and polyester wastes at different weft counts using open-end
      spinning. The blended fabrics were subjected for cationisation followed by
      printing with reactive and acid dyes. The performance of impact properties of
      cationised hollow fiber reinforced polyester/cotton hybrid composites was
      studied. The results demonstrated that the physical and color properties of
      blended fabrics are greatly influenced by alkali pretreatment and cationisation
      of hybrid composites as well as the weft counts. The pretreatment decreases the
      resistance of the waxy layer on the surface of hollow fiber and increased
      markedly the efficiency of printing. Besides, the pretreatment supplied for
      hybrid composites accomplished the required color balance that can bring about
      reasonable fastness properties. These studies provided referential knowledge for
      printing of hollow cellulosic-based composite materials.

PMID- 28578973
TI  - Rapid shape memory TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers/polyacrylamide/gelatin
      hydrogels with enhanced mechanical strength.
AB  - TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers/polyacrylamide/gelatin shape memory hydrogels
      were successfully fabricated through a facile in-situ free-radical polymerization
      method, and double network was formed by chemically cross-linked polyacrylamide
      (PAM) network and physically cross-linked gelatin network. TEMPO-oxidized
      cellulose nanofibers (TOCNs) were introduced to improve the mechanical properties
      of the hydrogel. The structure, shape memory behaviors and mechanical properties
      of the resulting composite gels with varied gel compositions were investigated.
      The results obtained from those different studies revealed that TOCNs, gelatin,
      and PAM could mix with each other homogeneously. Due to the thermoreversible
      nature of the gelatin network, the composite hydrogels exhibited attractive
      thermo-induced shape memory properties. In addition, good mechanical properties
      (strength >200kPa, strain >650%) were achieved. Such composite hydrogels with
      good shape memory behavior and enhanced mechanical strength would be an
      attractive candidate for a wide variety of applications.

PMID- 28578972
TI  - Hydrazine treatment improves conductivity of bacterial cellulose/graphene
      nanocomposites obtained by a novel processing method.
AB  - A novel method to prepare BC nanocomposites reinforced with reduced graphene
      oxide (RGO) is reported. A simple hydrazine treatment is shown to in-situ reduce
      the graphene oxide (GO) incorporated to BC films while increasing their
      conductivity. Raman spectroscopy was used to confirm the presence of graphene and
      assess the effect of the hydrazine treatment on its structure. XRD tests revealed
      no changes on BC structure. We hypothesize that this treatment removes the
      hydroxyl and epoxy groups present on the reduced graphene and increases the
      content of nonoxygenated carbon. These changes account for the increase in
      conductivity of the BC-based films, which behaved as an insulating material
      before the hydrazine treatment and reach an average conductivity value of 12S/m
      after such a treatment.

PMID- 28578974
TI  - AOT reverse micelles as versatile reaction media for chitosan nanoparticles
      synthesis.
AB  - It is known that Chitosan (Ch) can be used in several applications, such as
      antimicrobial agent or as drug delivery agent. However, being its water
      dispersibility very low at physiological pH it is necessary to find a way to
      improve it. One attractive strategy is to synthesize Chitosan Nanoparticles (Ch
      NPs). In this work, a versatile method to obtain Ch-NPs with different and
      controlled sizes, that were successfully prepared by cross-linking reaction of
      glutaraldehyde and native chitosan inside of n-heptane/sodium 1,4-bis-2
      ethylhexylsulfosuccinate (AOT)/water reverse micelles (RMs) is presented. Highly
      monodisperse NPs were synthesized as confirmed by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)
      and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques. The particle size was
      dependent on the reactants concentration, cross-linking degree and mainly the
      amount of water inside of the AOT RMs used as nanoreactors. While the cross
      linking is quite difficult to control in bulk water, the reaction inside the RMs
      is more manageable and efficient.

PMID- 28578976
TI  - Rice stubble as a new biopolymer source to produce carboxymethyl cellulose
      blended films.
AB  - Rice stubble is agricultural waste consisting of cellulose which can be converted
      to carboxymethyl cellulose from rice stubble (CMCr) as a potential biomaterial.
      Plasticizer types (glycerol and olive oil) and their contents were investigated
      to provide flexibility for use as food packaging material. Glycerol content
      enhanced extensibility, while olive oil content improved the moisture barrier of
      films. Additionally, CMCr showed potential as a replacement for up to 50% of
      commercial CMC without any changes in mechanical and permeability properties. A
      mixture of plasticizers (10% glycerol and 10% olive oil) provided blended film
      with good water barrier and mechanical properties comparable with 20% individual
      plasticizer. Principle component (PC) analysis with 2 PCs explained approximately
      81% of the total variance, was a useful tool to select a suitable plasticizer
      ratio for blended film production. Therefore, CMCr can be used to form edible
      film and coating as a renewable environmentally friendly packaging material.

PMID- 28578975
TI  - pH-Sensitive drug delivery system based on hydrophobic modified konjac
      glucomannan.
AB  - Amphiphilic aliphatic amines grafted konjac glucomannan (KGM-g-AH8, KGM-g-AH12
      and KGM-g-AH18) micelles were prepared via a simple two-step synthesis with
      Schiff's base as the "switch" to achieve intracellular acid-triggered curcumin
      release. The KGM-g-AH8 self-assembled into spherical nano-micelles (107.6+/
      11.6nm) in an aqueous medium, and presented high curcumin loading capacity as
      well as good physical stability in 28 days. The in vitro curcumin release
      behaviors proved the controlled release property and the endosomal/lysosomal pH
      response of KGM-g-AH8 micelles. The cytotoxicity and cellular uptake studies were
      also investigated to exhibit the intracellular pH-sensitivity, safety and
      biocompatibility of KGM-g-AH8 micelles. This research focuses on the feasibility
      of KGM-based micelles to be extrapolated as promising strategies for cancer
      therapy and offers new potential options for intracellular drug delivery.

PMID- 28578977
TI  - The Dorsal Frontoparietal Network: A Core System for Emulated Action.
AB  - The dorsal frontoparietal network (dFPN) of the human brain assumes a puzzling
      variety of functions, including motor planning and imagery, mental rotation,
      spatial attention, and working memory. How can a single network engage in such a
      diversity of roles? We propose that cognitive computations relying on the dFPN
      can be pinned down to a core function underlying offline motor planning: action
      emulation. Emulation creates a dynamic representation of abstract movement
      kinematics, sustains the internal manipulation of this representation, and
      ensures its maintenance over short time periods. Based on these fundamental
      characteristics, the dFPN has evolved from a pure motor control network into a
      domain-general system supporting various cognitive and motor functions.

PMID- 28578978
TI  - Modality of treatment and potential outcome of Wilson disease in Taiwan: A
      population-based longitudinal study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology, the
      preference of medication, and the potential outcome of Wilson disease in Taiwan.
      We aimed to provide better therapeutic options for patients with Wilson disease
      based on the data generated from this study. METHODS: We utilized the National
      Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), which stores clinical records of
      nearly 99% of Taiwan's residents. The database used is a random sample of two
      million out of 23-million beneficiaries in Taiwan's NHIRD in 2005. The integrated
      medical records of these two-million cases were collected from 2000 to 2011.
      Subjects of Wilson disease were identified as those with International
      Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 275.1 and the specific
      prescription drugs (including d-penicillamine, zinc, and trientine) in either
      outpatient clinic or inpatient records. RESULTS: During the study period, 66
      cases of Wilson disease were identified. The male to female ratio was 1.75. The
      average prevalence rate was 1.81 per 100,000 and the average annual diagnosis
      rate was 0.22 per 100,000. The diagnosis was mostly established at 20-24 and 10
      14 years of age, followed by 25-29 years. Fifty four of all subjects (81.8%)
      started the treatment with d-penicillamine, compared with zinc (12.1%) and
      trientine (6.1%). Among these 66 cases, 27 (40.9%) had liver cirrhosis and three
      (4.5%) underwent liver transplantation due to liver failure. CONCLUSION: d
      penicillamine is still the most popular prescription of Wilson disease, followed
      by zinc monotherapy. Although chronic liver injury cannot be avoided, a favorable
      potential outcome is well demonstrated in this population-based study.

PMID- 28578979
TI  - HIV associated kidney diseases: Clarifying concordance between renal failure in
      HIV infection and histopathologic manifestations at kidney biopsy.
AB  - Patients with HIV infection have a wide spectrum of renal diseases. Some are
      known to be the direct effect of the viral infection while others are renal
      diseases that also occur in uninfected populations. HIV associated nephropathy
      (HIVAN) is considered to be a subtype of primary focal and segmental
      glomerulosclerosis that is distinct in HIV infected patients. It is more frequent
      in the African-American population and associated with mutations of the
      apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene. HIV associated immune complex kidney disease
      (HIVICD) encompasses a spectrum of HIV associated renal diseases characterized by
      the presence of immune complex deposition within glomeruli. Thrombotic
      microangiopathy (TMA) is a complication of HIV infection that presents with
      hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and renal failure. TMA in HIV patients is
      associated with very high mortality. Lastly, the multitude of antiretroviral
      drugs used for treatment of HIV infections can result in nephrotoxicity. Although
      a kidney biopsy may not be the first line study for renal disease, knowledge of
      the different histopathologic features of HIV-associated and unassociated
      diseases is of paramount importance in the treatment and subsequent outcome of
      renal function in HIV infected patients. In this review we will describe the
      histopathologic features and discuss the pathophysiology of the entities
      previously named.

PMID- 28578980
TI  - Clinical Skills Passport: A Method to Increase Participation in Clinical Skills
      by Medical Students During a Surgery Clerkship.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate the effect of introducing a clinical skills
      "passport" on medical students' reporting of their experience with basic clinical
      skills. DESIGN: A prospective longitudinal intervention study was conducted.
      Medical students were administered a questionnaire at the conclusion of their 12
      week surgery clerkship regarding their experience with 15 clinical skills,
      inquiring whether they had "learned on surgery clerkship", "learned before
      surgery clerkship", or "not learned". Preintervention baseline data were obtained
      for 2 consecutive academic years (n = 213 students). In the third year, students
      (n = 124) were given a clinical skills passport to document performance of 8 of
      the 15 skills under the supervision of a surgical resident or faculty member.
      After excluding from analysis those students who learned a skill before their
      surgery clerkship, the fraction of students who reported learning clinical skills
      during their surgery clerkship before and after the introduction of the clinical
      skills passport was compared using Fisher exact test and chi-squared test, where
      appropriate (p <= 0.003 was considered significant; Bonferroni correction for
      multiple comparisons). SETTING: Washington University School of Medicine.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 337 medical students completing the junior surgery
      clerkship over a 3-year period were included in the study. RESULTS: All 337
      students completed a survey. Considering each skill individually, survey response
      rate was 5045/5055 (99.8%). Combining all responses for all skills, the fraction
      of students reporting that skills were learned on the surgery clerkship increased
      after the introduction of the clinical skills passport (1498/1938 [77%]
      preintervention vs. 974/1109 [88%] postintervention, p < 0.0001, chi square).
      After the introduction of the clinical skills passport, the fraction of students
      reporting that a skill was "learned on surgery clerkship" significantly increased
      for the 8 skills listed on the passport (1026/1699 [83%] preintervention vs.
      685/714 [96%] postintervention, p < 0.0001, chi square), but did not increase for
      the 7 skills not listed on the passport (472/695 [68%] preintervention vs.
      289/395 [73%] postintervention, p = 0.08, chi square). Considering each skill
      individually, after the introduction of the clinical skills passport, the
      fraction of students reporting that a skill was "learned on surgery clerkship"
      significantly increased for 4/15 skills (all listed on the clinical passport) and
      decreased for 0/15 skills (p < 0.003, Fisher exact test, 2 tailed). CONCLUSIONS:
      Institution of a clinical skills passport system during a surgery clerkship
      increased medical student reporting of their performance of basic clinical
      skills.

PMID- 28578982
TI  - Are we doing right suggesting a non-operative management for suspected
      appendicitis in children?

PMID- 28578981
TI  - Robotic Pancreatoduodenectomy Biotissue Curriculum has Validity and Improves
      Technical Performance for Surgical Oncology Fellows.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Obtaining the proficiency on the robotic platform necessary to safely
      perform a robotic pancreatoduodenectomy is particularly challenging. We
      hypothesize that by instituting a proficiency-based robotic training curriculum
      we can enhance novice surgeons' skills outside of the operating room, leading to
      a shorter learning curve. DESIGN: A biotissue curriculum was designed consisting
      of sewing artificial organs to simulate a hepaticojejunostomy (HJ),
      gastrojejunostomy (GJ), and pancreaticojejunostomy (PJ). Three master robotic
      surgeons performed each biotissue anastomosis to assess validity. Using video
      review, trainee performance on biotissue drills was evaluated for time, errors
      and objective structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS) by 2 blinded
      graders. SETTING: This study is conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical
      Center (Pittsburgh, PA), a tertiary care academic teaching hospital.
      PARTICIPANTS: In total, 14 surgical oncology fellows completed the biotissue
      curriculum. RESULTS: Fourteen fellows performed 196 anastomotic drills during the
      first year: 66 (HJ), 64 (GJ), and 66 (PJ). The fellows' performances were
      analyzed as a group by attempt. The attendings' first attempt outperformed the
      fellows' first attempt in all metrics for every drill (all p < 0.05). More than 5
      analyzed attempts of the HJ, there was improvement in time, errors, and OSATS
      (all p < 0.01); however, no metric reached attending performance. For the GJ,
      time, errors, and OSATS all improved more than 5 attempts (all p < 0.01), whereas
      only errors and OSATS reached proficiency. For the PJ, errors and OSATS both
      improved over attempts (p < 0.01) and reached proficiency; however, time did not
      statistically improve nor reach proficiency. The graders scoring correlated for
      errors and OSATS (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: A pancreatoduodenectomy biotissue
      curriculum has face and construct validity. The curriculum is feasible and
      improves errors and technical performance. Time is the most difficult technical
      parameter to improve. This curriculum is a valid tool for teaching robotic
      pancreatoduodenectomies with established milestones for reaching optimum
      performance.

PMID- 28578983
TI  - Staff and Redman response to placenta letter by Brosens.

PMID- 28578984
TI  - Comparison of dimensional accuracy of conventionally and digitally manufactured
      intracoronal restorations.
AB  - STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Advances have been made in digital dentistry for the
      fabrication of dental prostheses, but evidence regarding the efficacy of digital
      techniques for the fabrication of intracoronal restorations is lacking. PURPOSE:
      The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the dimensional accuracy of
      intracoronal restorations fabricated with digital and conventional techniques.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A sound mandibular molar tooth received a standard onlay
      preparation, and onlays were fabricated with 1 of 3 fabrication techniques. In
      group CC, the onlays were made after conventional impression and conventional
      fabrication of a resin pattern. In group CP, the onlays were made after
      conventional impression and 3-dimensional (3D) printing of the pattern. In group
      IP, the onlays were made after intraoral scanning, and 3D printing produced the
      resin pattern. Ten specimens in each group (N=30) were evaluated. Glass-ceramic
      restorations were fabricated using the press technique. The replica technique was
      used to assess the marginal fit. Each replica was assessed at 8 points. One-way
      ANOVA was used to compare the marginal discrepancy among the 3 groups. The Tukey
      honest significant differences test was applied for pairwise comparisons of the
      groups (alpha=.05). RESULTS: No significant differences were noted in the
      marginal discrepancy at the gingival margin among the 3 groups (P=.342), but
      significant differences were noted among the 3 groups in the pulpal (P=.025) and
      lingual (P=.031) areas. Comparison of the absolute discrepancy among the 3 groups
      revealed that only groups CC and CP were significantly different (P=.020) from
      each other. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, the
      conventional method yielded more accuracy than the 3D printing method, and no
      differences were found between the methods which used the 3D printer (groups CP
      and IP).

PMID- 28578985
TI  - Attention focus and self-touch in toddlers: The moderating effect of attachment
      security.
AB  - The superior self-regulation and attention-regulation abilities of securely
      attached children have been repeatedly demonstrated. However, the mechanisms that
      allow securely attached children to exhibit higher levels of attention focus than
      insecurely attached (anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant) children need to be
      explored. One possible mechanism that has been hypothesized to play a role in
      focusing attention is self-touch. Previous research has shown that 10-year-old
      children exhibit more bilateral self-touch (i.e., both hands are simultaneously
      moving onto each other or on the body, and both hands are in contact with each
      other or with the body), but not lateral self-touch (i.e., one hand is moving on
      the other hand or on the body, and the hand is in contact with the other hand or
      with the body), when they focus attention on a task. Because bilateral
      coordination is still developing during childhood, we expected that lateral self
      touch, instead of bilateral self-touch, may be associated with attention focus
      for toddlers. The objectives of the present study were to examine whether
      securely attached toddlers exhibit more self-touch, particularly lateral self
      touch, while they focus on a task than while they do not focus on a task. We
      expected to find that the association between lateral self-touch and attention
      focus is not as strong for insecurely attached toddlers. Data from forty-nine
      mother-child dyads were employed for analyses. The attachment classification of
      the children was determined using the Strange Situation. The duration of
      attention focus and self-touch behavior during a reading task were coded. An
      association between lateral self-touch and attention focus was found for children
      of all attachment classifications. This association was particularly strong for
      securely attached children. We discuss the possibility that securely attached
      toddlers may use lateral self-touch to regulate attention.

PMID- 28578986
TI  - Chronic corticosterone-induced impaired cognitive flexibility is not due to
      suppressed adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
AB  - Hippocampal neurogenesis has been implicated in the etiology of depression.
      Recent studies suggest new neurons add flexibility to hippocampal-dependent
      learning and memory. We hypothesized that suppressed hippocampal neurogenesis may
      contribute to impaired cognitive flexibility associated with depression. The
      chronic corticosterone (CORT)-induced animal model of depression was used. In
      Experiment 1, rats received either CORT (40mg/kg) or vehicle injections for
      21days and were subjected to Water maze during the last six days of drug
      treatment. No group differences were found during the spatial learning phase;
      however, cognitive flexibility, measured by reversal training, was significantly
      impaired in the CORT-treated rats. The probe test revealed enhanced memory of the
      new platform location for the CORT-treated rats. Given the time newborn neurons
      require to mature, we presumed if impaired cognitive flexibility seen in
      Experiment 1 were due to suppressed neurogenesis, terminating CORT treatment
      3days prior to behavioural testing should still induce the impairment. Therefore,
      Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1, except that CORT injections were
      terminated 3days prior to behavioural assessment. However, not only was spatial
      learning significantly enhanced in the CORT-treated rats, but there were also no
      group differences during reversal or probe tests. Bromodeoxyruidine, administered
      a day after the first drug treatments in both experiments, was quantified and
      revealed the number of new neurons were the same in both groups in both
      experiments. Results suggest cognitive flexibility is impaired in the CORT
      induced animal model of depression; an effect that is reversible and independent
      of suppressed hippocampal neurogenesis.

PMID- 28578987
TI  - Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion independently exacerbates cognitive impairment
      within the pathopoiesis of Parkinson's disease via microvascular pathologys.
AB  - To date, the role of microvascular pathology and chronic cerebral hypoperfusion
      (CHH) in the development of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD
      MCI) is unclear. Here, we investigated how the combined injury through
      interaction of CHH and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)
      toxicity act as an exacerbating element to damagae cognitive fuction in a mouse
      model. In the present study, C57BL/6 mice underwent MPTP injection. Subjects were
      classified into a PD with normal cognitive performance (PDCN) group or a PD-MCI
      group using the Morris Water Maze test. Further, CHH was induced by stenosis of
      the bilateral common carotid arteries (BCCAs). Consequently, the animals were
      divided into 7 groups: they are control, sham, BCCAs, PDCN, PD-MCI, PDCN+BCCAs
      and PD-MCI+BCCAs. The Morris Water Maze test, open field test, histological
      investigation and western blotting were performed to analyze cerebral
      microvascular impairment in each group. The results showed that CHH and MPTP
      injection caused spatial memory and behavioral impairment, accompanied by
      microvascular impairment and down-regulation of ZO-1 and Occludin at the protein
      level compared to the control group. The above injuries were synergistically
      exacerbated in the PDCN+BCCAs group and the PD-MCI+BCCAs group, which paralleled
      the elevated expression of p-MAPK and p-Akt. In short, our data demonstrate that
      CHH and MPTP caused cognitive and microvascular impairment separately. Moreover,
      CHH may exacerbate cognitive impairment in a mouse model of PD. The study
      provides a new opportunity for understanding the pathogenesis of PD-MCI.

PMID- 28578988
TI  - The effect of hippocampal NMDA receptor blockade by MK-801 on cued fear
      extinction.
AB  - Extinction of conditioned fear has been suggested to be a new form of learning
      instead of erasure of what was originally learned, and the process is NMDA (N
      methyl d-aspartate) receptor (NMDAR) dependent. Most of studies have so far
      revealed the important roles of NMDARs in the amygdala and medial prefrontal
      cortex (mPFC) in cued fear extinction. Although the ventral hippocampus has
      intimately reciprocal connections with the amygdala and mPFC, the role of its
      NMDARs in cued fear extinction remains unclear. The present experiment explored
      the issue by bilateral pre-extinction microinjection of the noncompetitive NMDAR
      antagonist MK-801 into the ventral hippocampus. Four groups of rats were given
      habituation, tone cued fear conditioning, fear extinction training and extinction
      test. Prior to extinction training, rats received bilateral infusions of either
      MK-801 (1.5, 3, or 6MUg/0.5MUl) or saline. Our results showed that MK-801 reduced
      freezing on the first trial of extinction training with no impact on within
      session acquisition of extinction, and that the lower doses of MK-801 resulted in
      increased freezing on the extinction retrieval test. These findings suggest that
      ventral hippocampal NMDARs are necessary for the consolidation of tone cued fear
      extinction.

PMID- 28578989
TI  - [Changing patterns of medication prescription for COPD patients in France. Impact
      of long-acting muscarinic antagonists' availability].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We studied the pattern changes over time of medication
      prescriptions for COPD and their conformity with French and international
      recommendations using data from patients in the prospective French cohort
      "Initiatives BPCO". METHOD: Eight hundred and forty-six patients have been
      included during a first period from August, 2001 till May 2006 (n=425) and a
      second period from June, 2006 till June, 2012 (n=421). The pivotal date was based
      on the tiotropium availability in France. RESULTS: During period 1, we recruited
      older patients (average 65 vs 64 years), less often women (19 vs 26 %) and having
      less severe airflow obstruction (mean FEV1 48 vs 54 %). The ICS prescriptions
      decreased in mild COPD, but there was no change for inhaled long-acting beta-2
      agonist (LABA) (68 %). The use of LABA+LAMA association without ICS increased
      from 0.9 to 7 %, but remained lower than the fixed LABA+ICS association (26 %),
      less often prescribed than the triple association LABA+ICS+LAMA (32.5 % in period
      2). The use of long-acting bronchodilators increased from 68 to 80 % between both
      periods. Vaccinations and rehabilitation remained insufficiently prescribed. LAMA
      had been added but did not appear to replace other drugs.

PMID- 28578990
TI  - Outcomes of Ultrasound-Guided Thrombin Injection of Nongroin Arterial
      Pseudoaneurysms.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate success and complication rates of percutaneous ultrasound
      guided thrombin injection of nongroin pseudoaneurysms (PSAs). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Retrospective review of a prospectively maintained institutional
      database yielded 39 cases of arterial PSAs occurring at nongroin sites that were
      treated with percutaneous ultrasound-guided thrombin injection between 2000 and
      2016 (average patient age 69.2 y +/- 14.0). Of PSAs, 74.4% (29/39) arose in the
      upper extremities, and 92.3% (36/39) were iatrogenic. The brachial artery was the
      most commonly affected vessel (51.3% [20/39]), and arterial access was the most
      common cause (56.4% [22/39]). Average overall PSA size was 2.4 cm (range, 0.5-7.2
      cm); average amount of thrombin injected was 320 IU (range, 50-2,000 IU).
      Technical success was defined as absence of flow within the PSA immediately after
      thrombin injection. Treatment success was defined as sustained thrombosis on
      follow-up imaging obtained at 1-3 days after treatment. RESULTS: Technical and
      treatment success rates of thrombin injections were 100% (39/39) and 84.8%
      (28/33), respectively. Longer term follow-up imaging (average 71 d; range, 12-201
      d) was available for 7 of the treatment successes with 100% (7/7) showing
      sustained thrombosis. Comparing treatment successes and failures, there was no
      significant difference in average PSA size (2.3 cm vs 2.0 cm, P = .51) or average
      amount of thrombin injected (360 IU vs 180 IU, P = .14). There were no
      complications. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound-guided thrombin injection is a safe,
      efficacious treatment option for PSAs arising in nongroin locations.

PMID- 28578991
TI  - Oncolytic VSV Primes Differential Responses to Immuno-oncology Therapy.
AB  - Vesicular stomatitis virus encoding the IFNbeta transgene (VSV-IFNbeta) is a
      mediator of potent oncolytic activity and is undergoing clinical evaluation for
      the treatment of solid tumors. Emerging preclinical and clinical data suggest
      treatment of tumors with oncolytic viruses may sensitize tumors to checkpoint
      inhibitors and increase the anti-tumor immune response. New generations of immuno
      oncology molecules including T cell agonists are entering clinical development
      and could be hypothesized to enhance the activity of oncolytic viruses, including
      VSV-IFNbeta. Here, we show that VSV-IFNbeta exhibits multiple mechanisms of
      action, including direct cell killing, stimulation of an innate immune response,
      recruitment of CD8 T cells, and depletion of T regulatory cells. Moreover, VSV
      IFNbeta promotes the establishment of a CD8 T cell response to endogenous tumor
      antigens. Our data demonstrate a significant enhancement of anti-tumor function
      for VSV-IFNbeta when combined with checkpoint inhibitors, but not OX40 agonists.
      While the addition of checkpoint inhibitors to VSV-IFNbeta generated robust tumor
      growth inhibition, it resulted in no increase in viral replication, transgene
      expression, or immunophenotypic changes beyond treatment with VSV-IFNbeta alone.
      We hypothesize that tumor-specific T cells generated by VSV-IFNbeta retain
      activity due to a lack of immune exhaustion when checkpoint inhibitors were used.

PMID- 28578992
TI  - Reprint of: The impact of fragility fracture and approaches to osteoporosis risk
      assessment worldwide.
AB  - Osteoporosis constitutes a major public health problem, through its association
      with age-related fractures, particularly of the hip, vertebrae, distal forearm
      and humerus. Substantial geographic variation has been noted in the incidence of
      osteoporotic fractures worldwide, with Western populations (North America, Europe
      and Oceania), reporting increases in hip fracture throughout the second half of
      the 20th century, with a stabilisation or decline in the last two decades. In
      developing populations however, particularly in Asia, the rates of osteoporotic
      fracture appears to be increasing. The massive global burden consequent to
      osteoporosis means that fracture risk assessment should be a high priority
      amongst health measures considered by policy makers. The WHO operational
      definition of osteoporosis, based on a measurement of bone mineral density (BMD)
      by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), has been used globally since the mid
      1990s. However, although this definition identifies those at greatest individual
      risk of fracture, in the population overall a greater total number of fractures
      occur in individuals with BMD values above threshold for osteoporosis diagnosis.
      A number of web-based tools to enable the inclusion of clinical risk factors,
      with or without BMD, in fracture prediction algorithms have been developed to
      improve the identification of individuals at high fracture risk, the most
      commonly used globally being FRAX(r). Access to DXA, osteoporosis risk
      assessment, case finding and treatment varies worldwide, but despite such
      advances studies indicate that a minority of men and women at high fracture risk
      receive treatment. Importantly, research is ongoing to demonstrate the clinical
      efficacy and cost-effectiveness of osteoporosis case finding and risk assessment
      strategies worldwide. The huge burden caused by osteoporosis related fractures to
      individuals, healthcare systems and societies should provide a clear impetus for
      the progression of such approaches.

PMID- 28578994
TI  - Synthesis, molecular docking, and biological activity of polyfluoroalkyl
      dihydroazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines as selective carboxylesterase inhibitors.
AB  - To search for effective and selective inhibitors of carboxylesterase (CaE), a
      series of 7-hydroxy-7-polyfluoroalkyl-4,7-dihydroazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines has
      been synthesized. Their inhibitory activity against acetylcholinesterase,
      butyrylcholinesterase, and CaE were investigated using the methods of enzyme
      kinetics and molecular docking. It was shown that the tested compounds are
      reversible selective CaE inhibitors of mixed type. Elongation of the
      polyfluoroalkyl substituent and the presence of an ester, preferably the
      ethoxycarbonyl group, enhance inhibitory activity toward CaE. Furthermore, the
      compounds with a tetrazole ring are more active against CaE than their triazole
      analogues. The obtained kinetic data are well explained by the results of
      molecular docking, according to which there is a similar orientation of triazolo-
      and tetrazolotriazines in the active site of CaE and the opposite one for
      pyrazolotriazines. In the 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)
      (ABTS) assay, all of the studied tetrazolotriazines and some pyrazolotriazines
      demonstrated good antiradical activity comparable with a standard antioxidant,
      Trolox. The leading compounds were nonafluorobutyl substituted tetrazolo- and 7
      phenylpyrazolotriazines, which possess effective and selective CaE inhibitory
      activity as well as additional useful radical-scavenging properties.

PMID- 28578993
TI  - A statistical view of protein chemical synthesis using NCL and extended
      methodologies.
AB  - Native chemical ligation and extended methodologies are the most popular
      chemoselective reactions for protein chemical synthesis. Their combination with
      desulfurization techniques can give access to small or challenging proteins that
      are exploited in a large variety of research areas. In this report, we have
      conducted a statistical review of their use for protein chemical synthesis in
      order to provide a flavor of the recent trends and identify the most popular
      chemical tools used by protein chemists. To this end, a protein chemical
      synthesis (PCS) database (http://pcs-db.fr) was created by collecting a set of
      relevant data from more than 450 publications covering the period 1994-2017. A
      preliminary account of what this database tells us is presented in this report.

PMID- 28578995
TI  - About cardiovascular effects associated with non-insulin antidiabetics:
      importance of patient therapeutic education and spontaneous reporting of adverse
      effects.

PMID- 28578996
TI  - Chain length effect on the structure and stability of antimicrobial peptides of
      the (RW)n series.
AB  - Three peptides containing (RW)n-NH2 units (where n=4, 6, and 8) have been chosen
      to study the effect of the chain length on the structure and stability of the
      peptide using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry
      (DSC) techniques. Their interactions with Escherichia coli (E. coli) membrane
      mimetic vesicles are discussed. Infrared results indicate that addition of (RW)n
      NH2 units increases intermolecular H bonds with antiparallel orientation. TGA and
      DSC results reveal that (RW)6-NH2 shows the optimal chain length in terms of
      stability and all three peptides show a preferential interaction with one of the
      anionic lipids in E. coli membranes. SEM images of (RW)4-NH2 present large
      aggregates while those of (RW)6-NH2 and (RW)8-NH2 present layers of sheet-like
      structure. In the presence of model membranes, (RW)n-NH2 show fibrillar peptide
      superstructures. This study suggests that repeating structures of (RW)n-NH2
      promotes lateral assembly.

PMID- 28578997
TI  - "The human use of human beings": Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and all
      that in biophysics and beyond.
AB  - : Biophysics, just by looking at its name, indicates an interdisciplinary
      scientific activity, although the notion of interdisciplinarity, as such, seems
      to be not widely or specifically discussed by biophysicists. The same seems to
      have happened as well in the early stages of the development of cybernetics,
      notably in Norbert Wiener's writings. This situation seems to contrast with what
      has happened in subsequent developments of cybernetics ideas, notably in general
      system theory and cognitive sciences. After a few general reflections on the
      notion of interdisciplinarity, its sophisticated variants and the path leading to
      the birth of cognitive science, we shall refer to Wiener's thought to extracts
      aspects and indications that could be useful today, also for what concerns the
      social responsibility of scientists, which could be seen as stemming from a very
      general form of interdisciplinarity. HIGHLIGHTS: After a few general reflections
      on the notion of interdisciplinarity, its sophisticated variants and the path
      leading to the birth of cognitive science, we shall refer to Wiener's thought to
      extracts aspects and indications that could be useful today, also for what
      concerns the social responsibility of scientists.

PMID- 28578998
TI  - Comparative analysis on inactivation kinetics of between piezotolerant and
      piezosensitive mutant strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under combinations of
      high hydrostatic pressure and temperature.
AB  - We previously obtained a pressure-tolerant (piezotolerant) and a pressure
      sensitive (piezosensitive) mutant strain, under ambient temperature, from
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain KA31a. The inactivation kinetics of these mutants
      were analyzed at 150 to 250MPa with 4 to 40 degrees C. By a multiple regression
      analysis, the pressure and temperature dependency of the inactivation rate
      constants k values of both mutants, as well as the parent strain KA31a, were well
      approximated with high correlation coefficients (0.92 to 0.95). For both mutants,
      as well as strain KA31a, the lowest k value was shown at a low pressure levels
      with around ambient temperature. The k value approximately increased with
      increase in pressure level, and with increase and decrease in temperature. The
      piezosensitive mutant strain a924E1 showed piezosensitivity at all pressure and
      temperature levels, compared with the parent strain KA31a. In contrast, the
      piezotolerant mutant strain a2568D8 showed piezotolerance at 4 to 20 degrees C,
      but did not show significant piezotolerance at 40 degrees C. These results of the
      variable influence of temperature on pressure inactivation of these strains would
      be important for better understanding of piezosensitive and piezotolerant
      mechanisms, as well as the pressure inactivation mechanism of S. cerevisiae.

PMID- 28578999
TI  - Utility and tolerability of the long-pulsed 1064-nm neodymium:yttrium-aluminum
      garnet (LP Nd:YAG) laser for treatment of symptomatic or disfiguring vascular
      malformations in children and adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vascular malformations manifest with pain, bleeding, disability, and
      disfigurement in a subset of children. There are scant data available on the
      utility and tolerability of laser surgery for symptomatic or disfiguring non-port
      wine stain vascular malformations in children. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study was to determine the utility and tolerability of the 1064-nm long-pulsed
      neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (LP Nd:YAG) laser for treatment of symptomatic
      or disfiguring vascular malformations in children. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective review of 29 pediatric patients with non-port-wine stain vascular
      malformations who were treated with the LP Nd:YAG laser at our institution. We
      report patient characteristics, treatment parameters, outcomes, and
      complications. RESULTS: Blinded assessment of clinical efficacy revealed good to
      excellent results in 66.7% of patients treated and poor to fair results in 25%.
      The overall rate of complications was 27%, with minor skin breakdown and
      blistering being the most common. LIMITATIONS: Our conclusions are limited by
      small sample size, pretreatment and posttreatment photographs in only a subset of
      patients, and lack of long-term follow-up. CONCLUSION: The LP Nd:YAG laser is a
      well-tolerated and effective treatment modality for a variety of non-port-wine
      stain vascular malformations in children.

PMID- 28579000
TI  - Re: Timing of Adverse Prostate Cancer Reclassification on First Surveillance
      Biopsy: Results from the Canary Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance Study: L. C.
      Macleod, W. J. Ellis, L. F. Newcomb, Y. Zheng, J. D. Brooks, P. R. Carroll, M. E.
      Gleave, R. S. Lance, P. S. Nelson, I. M. Thompson, Jr., A. A. Wagner, J. T. Wei
      and D. W. Lin J Urol 2017;197:1026-1033.

PMID- 28579001
TI  - Reply by Authors.

PMID- 28579002
TI  - New flexible endoscopes: Surprising bacterial colonization post-disinfection.

PMID- 28579003
TI  - An unusual cause of massive hematemesis after treatment with terlipressin.

PMID- 28579004
TI  - siRNA delivery system based on magnetic nanovectors: Characterization and
      stability evaluation.
AB  - Gene therapy and particularly small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a promising
      therapeutic method for treatment of various human diseases, especially cancer.
      However the lack of an ideal delivery system limits its clinical applications.
      Effective anticancer drug development represents the key for translation of
      research advances into medicines. Previously we reported, the optimization of
      magnetic siRNA nanovectors (MSN) formulation based on superparamagnetic iron
      oxide nanoparticles (SPION) and chitosan for systemic administration. This work
      aimed at using rational design to further optimize and develop MSN. Therefore,
      formulated MSN were first purified, then their physical and chemical properties
      were studied mainly through capillary electrophoresis. 95% of siRNA was found
      enclosed within the purified MSN (pMSN). pMSN showed colloidal stability at pH
      7.4, effective protection of siRNA against ribonuclease degradation up to 24
      hours and few siRNA release (less than 10%) at pH 7.4. These findings push toward
      further evaluation studies in vitro and/or in vivo, indicating the
      appropriateness of pMSN for cancer theranostics.

PMID- 28579005
TI  - Tadalafil solid dispersion formulations based on PVP/VA S-630: Improving oral
      bioavailability in rats.
AB  - Here, solid dispersion (SD) techniques were utilized to improve the oral
      bioavailability of tadalafil (TDF). Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone-covinyl acetate)
      (PVP/VA S-630; 60% VP and 40% VA; MW 50,000) SD formulations were previously
      found to improve the solubility and dissolution (%) of TDF. The effect of various
      weak acids and bases on SD formulations was also investigated herein. PVP/VA S
      630 SD formulations in combination with weak acids and bases increased the
      apparent solubility of TDF. After 1h, the apparent solubility of PVP/VA S-630 SD
      formulations with MgO, meglumine, and tartaric acid were significantly higher by
      387.0+/-4.17, 376.8+/-9.88, and 308.8+/-4.17MUg/mL, respectively, than those of
      SD formulations without weak acids and bases (166.8+/-0.50MUg/mL). The
      dissolution (%) of SD formulations with weak acids was under 60%; however, the
      dissolution (%) of those containing MgO, meglumine, and NaHCO3 was over 80% in
      distilled water (specifically 85.6%, 89.9%, and 91.6%, respectively). The optimal
      SD formulation contained meglumine (B-2); both its apparent solubility after 24h
      and dissolution (%) were the highest among all SD formulations. The B-2 SD
      formulation showed no toxicity in Caco-2 cells after 24h. The area under the
      concentration-time curve (AUClast) and peak plasma concentration (Cmax) of the
      orally administered B-2 SD formulation was greater than that with Cialis(r)
      powder in rats. We conclude that the B-2 SD formulation significantly improves
      the apparent solubility and dissolution (%) of TDF over that of commercially
      available products (i.e., Cialis(r)). Moreover, the B-2 SD formulation improves
      the relative bioavailability (BA) of TDF (21.9%) over that of Cialis(r).

PMID- 28579006
TI  - Incremental shuttle walk test distance and autonomic dysfunction predict survival
      in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To ensure effective monitoring of pulmonary arterial hypertension
      (PAH), a simple, reliable assessment of exercise capacity applicable over a range
      of disease severity is needed. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of
      the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) to correlate with disease severity,
      measure sensitivity to change, and predict survival in PAH. METHODS: We enrolled
      418 treatment-naive patients with PAH with baseline ISWT within 3 months of
      cardiac catheterization. Clinical validity and prognostic value of ISWT distance
      were assessed at baseline and 1 year. RESULTS: ISWT distance was found to
      correlate at baseline with World Health Organization functional class, Borg
      score, and hemodynamics without a ceiling effect (all p < 0.001). Walking
      distance at baseline and after treatment predicted survival; the area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve for ability of ISWT distance to predict
      mortality was 0.655 (95% confidence interval 0.553-0.757; p = 0.004) at baseline
      and 0.737 (95% confidence interval 0.643-0.827; p < 0.001) at 1 year after
      initiation of treatment. Change in ISWT distance also predicted survival (p =
      0.04). Heart rate (HR) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) parameters reflecting
      autonomic response to exercise (highest HR, change in HR, HR recovery at 1 minute
      >18 beats/min, highest SBP, change in SBP, and 3-minute SBP ratio) were
      significant predictors of survival (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with
      PAH, the ISWT is simple to perform, allows assessment of maximal exercise
      capacity, is sensitive to treatment effect, predicts outcome, and has no ceiling
      effect. Also, measures of autonomic function made post-exercise predict survival
      in PAH.

PMID- 28579008
TI  - Histology and grading are important prognostic factors in synovial sarcoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The diagnosis of synovial sarcoma (SS) is currently based on
      clinical, morphological, immunohistochemical and cytogenetic data. Some of these
      factors such as grade and histology, specific translocations (SS18-SSX1 vs. SS18
      SSX2) and the reduced expression of INI1, were proposed as prognostic variables.
      The aim of this study was to verify whether histological (grading and histology)
      and molecular (type of SSX translocation and INI1 expression) characteristics of
      SS influence the prognosis of the disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively evaluated 196 patients affected by SS of the extremities treated
      at our Institution (Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy). All cases were
      histologically revised and tumor grade was assessed according to the FNLCC
      system. Tissue specimens were retrospectively evaluated to check for SS18-SSX
      fusion type and INI1 expression. RESULTS: Most SS were monophasic, 28% were
      biphasic. Eighty tumors (41%) were grade 3. Sixty percent harbored SSX1
      translocation, 40% SSX2; 51% maintained the expression of INI1. Sarcoma specific
      survival (OS) was 56.6% at 5 years and 46.9% at 10 years. Prognosis was worse in
      those patients monophasic SS (p = 0.011) as in those with a grade 3 tumors (p =
      0.083). No correlation was found neither between SSX fusion type nor INI1
      expression and survival. LR-free survival was 78.9% at 5 years and 75.9% at 10
      years. A higher LR rate was observed in tumors with SSX2 translocation and (p =
      0.049) in grade 3 SS (0 = 0.028). DISCUSSION: Our data confirm that not all cases
      of SS present the same severe outcome. High-risk patients identified on the basis
      of these parameters may qualify for an aggressive treatment approach.

PMID- 28579007
TI  - Association between preoperative characteristics and risk of anaesthesia-related
      death in dogs in small-animal referral hospitals in Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the major risk factors linking preoperative characteristics
      and anaesthesia-related death in dogs in referral hospitals in Japan. STUDY
      DESIGN: Observational cohort study. ANIMALS: From April 1, 2010 to March 31,
      2011, 4323 dogs anaesthetized in 18 referral hospitals in Japan. METHODS:
      Questionnaire forms were collated anonymously. Death occurring within 48 hours
      after extubation was considered as an anaesthesia-related death. Patient outcome
      (alive or dead) was set as the outcome variable. Preoperative general physical
      characteristics, complete blood cell counts, serum biochemical examinations and
      intraoperative complications were set as explanatory variables. The risk factors
      for anaesthesia-related death were evaluated using chi-square test or Fisher's
      exact test, followed by multivariable logistic regression analysis of the data.
      Significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Thirteen dogs that died from surgical
      error or euthanasia were excluded from statistical analysis. The total mortality
      rate in this study was 0.65% [28/4310 dogs; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.41
      0.89]. Furthermore, 75% (95% CI, 55.1-89.3) of anaesthesia-related deaths
      occurred in dogs with pre-existing diseases. Most of the deaths occurred
      postoperatively (23/28; 82.1%; 95% CI, 63.1-93.9). Preoperative serum glucose
      concentration <77 mg dL-1 (6/46; 13.0%; 95% CI, 4.9-26.3), disturbance of
      consciousness (6/50; 12.0%; 95% CI, 4.5-24.3), white cell count >15,200 MUL-1
      (16/499; 3.4%; 95% CI, 1.9-5.5) and American Society of Anesthesiologists grade
      III-V (19/1092; 1.7%; 95% CI, 1.1-2.7) were identified as risk factors for
      anaesthesia-related death. Intraoperative hypoxaemia (8/34; 23.5%; 95% CI, 10.7
      41.2) and tachycardia (4/148; 2.7%; 95% CI, 0.7-6.8) were also risk factors for
      anaesthesia-related death. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results
      revealed that certain preoperative characteristics were associated with increased
      odds of anaesthesia-related death, specifically low serum glucose concentration
      and disturbances of consciousness. Greater attention to correcting preanaesthetic
      patient abnormalities may reduce the risk of anaesthesia-related death.

PMID- 28579010
TI  - [Maxillary, buccal and dental expressions of hyperparathyroidisms].
AB  - States of chronic parathyroid hypersecretion, related to a primitive parathyroid
      abnormality (adenoma, hyperplasia), or to a cause of chronic calcipenia (renal
      failure, vitamin D deficiency...) have a major impact on bone remodeling,
      alveolodental structures. Thinning of the lamina dura, maxillary or mandibular
      brown tumors, giant cell epulis are the most emblematic signs of the primary
      hyperparathyroidism. Other expressions are related to genetic factors such as
      fibrous tumors of the jaw in conjunction with mutations in the gene coding for
      parafibromin.

PMID- 28579009
TI  - Seasonal variation of transcriptomic and biochemical parameters of cockles
      (Cerastoderma edule) related to their infection by trematode parasites.
AB  - Bivalve populations are controlled by several biotic and abiotic factors.
      Parasitism is among the biotic factors but is often neglected. In the present
      study, we focused on the transcriptomic and biochemical responses of Cerastoderma
      edule when parasitized as first intermediate host by the trematode Bucephalus
      minimus (sporocyst, the most damaging stage), and taking into account seasonal
      patterns. In order to test the hypothesis that the presence of B. minimus
      compromises cockle regular gene expression and biochemical performance and
      increases their vulnerability to other parasite species infection, cockles were
      sampled every other month during one year in Arcachon Bay (French Atlantic
      coast). Overall, results showed that B. minimus induced its first intermediate
      host defence mechanism against oxidative stress (mainly at gene level), increased
      host metabolism and energy demand especially in summer (revealed at both gene and
      biochemical level, although without significant differences) and was accompanied
      by a higher metacercariae abundance. Results allowed to accept the posted
      hypothesis and to conclude that transcriptomic and biochemical markers can
      provide additional and ecologically relevant information about parasite effects
      on their hosts, reflecting the invasion effects of pathogens but also the
      environmental conditions that animals experience.

PMID- 28579011
TI  - [Severe neuropsychiatric symptoms due to vitamin b3 deficiency].

PMID- 28579012
TI  - Description of interventions is under-reported in physical therapy clinical
      trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amongst several barriers to the application of quality clinical
      evidence and clinical guidelines into routine daily practice, poor description of
      interventions reported in clinical trials has received less attention. Although
      some studies have investigated the completeness of descriptions of non
      pharmacological interventions in randomized trials, studies that exclusively
      analyzed physical therapy interventions reported in published trials are scarce.
      OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the quality of descriptions of interventions in both
      experimental and control groups in randomized controlled trials published in four
      core physical therapy journals. METHODS: We included all randomized controlled
      trials published from the Physical Therapy Journal, Journal of Physiotherapy,
      Clinical Rehabilitation, and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
      between June 2012 and December 2013. Each randomized controlled trial (RCT) was
      analyzed and coded for description of interventions using the checklist developed
      by Schroter et al. RESULTS: Out of 100 RCTs selected, only 35 RCTs (35%) fully
      described the interventions in both the intervention and control groups. Control
      group interventions were poorly described in the remaining RCTs (65%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Interventions, especially in the control group, are poorly described
      in the clinical trials published in leading physical therapy journals. A complete
      description of the intervention in a published report is crucial for physical
      therapists to be able to use the intervention in clinical practice.

PMID- 28579014
TI  - Executive summary of the consensus document on osteoporosis in HIV-infected
      individuals.
AB  - Osteoporosis has become an emerging comorbid condition in people living with HIV
      (PLWH). The increase in survival and the progressive aging of PLWH will make this
      complication more frequent in the near future. In addition to the traditional
      risk factors affecting the general population, factors directly or indirectly
      associated with HIV infection, including antiretroviral therapy, can increase the
      risk of osteoporosis. The present article is an executive summary of the document
      that updates the previous recommendations on the prevention and treatment of
      osteoporosis in PLWH. This document is intended for all professionals who work in
      clinical practice in the field of HIV infection.

PMID- 28579015
TI  - Erratum to: "An outbreak of acute norovirus gastroenteritis in a boarding school
      in Zamora, Spain" [Enferm Infecc Microbiol Clin 2017;35(4):264-5].

PMID- 28579016
TI  - Executive summary of the GESIDA/National AIDS Plan Consensus Document on
      Antiretroviral Therapy in Adults Infected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
      (Updated January 2017).
AB  - Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is recommended for all patients infected by HIV-1.
      The objective of ART is to achieve an undetectable plasma viral load (PVL).
      Initial ART should be based on a combination of 3 drugs, including 2 nucleoside
      reverse transcriptase inhibitors (tenofovir in either of its two formulations
      plus emtricitabine or abacavir plus lamivudine) and another drug from a different
      family. Four of the recommended regimens, all of which have an integrase
      inhibitor as the third drug (dolutegravir, elvitegravir boosted with cobicistat
      or raltegravir), are considered preferential, whereas a further 3 regimens (based
      on elvitegravir/cobicistat, rilpivirine, or darunavir boosted with cobicistat or
      ritonavir) are considered alternatives. We present the reasons and criteria for
      switching ART in patients with an undetectable PVL and in those who present
      virological failure, in which case salvage ART should include 3 (or at least 2)
      drugs that are fully active against HIV. We also update the criteria for ART in
      specific situations (acute infection, HIV-2 infection, pregnancy) and
      comorbidities (tuberculosis or other opportunistic infections, kidney disease,
      liver disease and cancer).

PMID- 28579013
TI  - Modern pain neuroscience in clinical practice: applied to post-cancer, paediatric
      and sports-related pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the last decade, evidence regarding chronic pain has developed
      exponentially. Numerous studies show that many chronic pain populations show
      specific neuroplastic changes in the peripheral and central nervous system. These
      changes are reflected in clinical manifestations, like a generalized
      hypersensitivity of the somatosensory system. Besides a hypersensitivity of
      bottom-up nociceptive transmission, there is also evidence for top-down
      facilitation of pain due to malfunctioning of the endogenous descending
      nociceptive modulatory systems. These and other aspects of modern pain
      neuroscience are starting to be applied within daily clinical practice. However,
      currently the application of this knowledge is mostly limited to the general
      adult population with musculoskeletal problems, while evidence is getting
      stronger that also in other chronic pain populations these neuroplastic processes
      may contribute to the occurrence and persistence of the pain problem. Therefore,
      this masterclass article aims at giving an overview of the current modern pain
      neuroscience knowledge and its potential application in post-cancer, paediatric
      and sports-related pain problems.

PMID- 28579017
TI  - Whole breast nodal irradiation using supine VMAT and prone 3D planning: A case
      study.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to compare the variations in doses to the
      ipsilateral lung and heart between the supine whole breast and nodal volumetric
      modulated arc therapy (VMAT) technique and the prone 3-dimensional conformal
      radiation therapy (3DCRT) technique. In this study, 3 patients who were simulated
      in the prone and supine positions were planned using supine VMAT and prone 3DCRT
      techniques to compare planning target volume (PTV) coverage as well as dose to
      organs at risk (ORs), including the heart and ipsilateral lung. Although all
      constraints were met, the ideal treatment technique depended on the patient's
      anatomy and lumpectomy location. Supine VMAT provided excellent coverage to the
      target structures but encountered difficulty in limiting dose to the ipsilateral
      lung and heart. When compared with the supine VMAT technique, the prone 3DCRT
      limited dose to the ipsilateral lung and heart but provided less dose coverage to
      the target volumes.

PMID- 28579019
TI  - Laparoscopic extraperitoneal colostomy (with video).

PMID- 28579018
TI  - Does using a polyethylene RM press-fit cup modify the preparation of the
      acetabulum and acetabular offset in primary hip arthroplasty?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: When performing total hip arthroplasty (THA), it is important to
      maintain the femoral and acetabular offsets to ensure good joint stability and to
      restore the function of the hip abductor muscles. In our practice, we mainly use
      a lateralized stem and hollow out the acetabulum to the quadrilateral plate to
      accommodate a press-fit polyethylene cup. However, the repercussions of this
      preparation method, which is driven by the cup's design, are not known. We
      carried out a retrospective study to assess: (1) the changes in the femoral and
      acetabular offset; (2) the height of the center of rotation; and (3) the
      repercussions on wear. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized there would be no significant
      differences between the preoperative and postoperative femoral and acetabular
      offsets. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed 88 primary THA cases performed with
      the RM PressfitTM cup that had a minimum of 5 years' follow-up. A lateralized
      self-locking Muller-type cemented femoral stem was used in 92.0% of cases and a
      standard stem in 8.0%. Measurements were done on plain radiographs with MHPTM and
      Mesurim ProTM software. The average follow-up was 6.5 years (5-8). RESULTS: On
      average, the acetabular offset was reduced by 2.75mm+/-5.9 mm (range: -17.5 to
      +10.6 mm) (P<0.001) and the femoral offset was increased by 0.01mm+/-5.5 mm
      (range: -17.8 to +11.0 mm) (P=0.99). In terms of total offset, medialization of
      2.74mm+/-7 mm (range: -17.7 to +18.2mm) was found (P=0.001). The acetabular
      center of rotation was on average 4.77mm+/-5.1 mm higher (P<0.001). The mean
      annual wear at the more recent follow-up (min.: 5 years) was 0.068mm (range: 0.01
      to 0.25mm) per year. The wear was not impacted by having more than 5mm change in
      offset. DISCUSSION: Measurements of acetabular offset revealed statistically
      significant medialization due to the type of implant used and the surgical
      technique. The anatomical technique consists of positioning the cup in
      subchondral bone without contacting the quadrilateral plate. This preserves bone
      stock, which may be useful later on if the cup is revised, particularly in
      younger patients. Conversely, the femoral offset did not change significantly,
      despite the use of lateralized stems in 92.0% of cases. We measured an annual
      wear rate of 0.068mm per year, which is lower than in other published studies,
      possibly because our patient population was older. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV,
      retrospective study.

PMID- 28579022
TI  - Erratum to "Clinical characteristics of cardioembolic transient ischemic attack:
      Comparison with non-cardioembolic transient ischemic attack": Journal of Stroke &
      Cerebrovascular Diseases 2014:23:82169-82173.

PMID- 28579021
TI  - Utility of the Revised Version of the Ability for Basic Movement Scale in
      Predicting Ambulation during Rehabilitation in Poststroke Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to test the hypothesis that the Revised Version of the
      Ability for Basic Movement Scale (ABMSII) can predict ambulation during
      rehabilitation in poststroke patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study included
      first-ever stroke patients who were admitted to the rehabilitation ward and were
      dependent in walking. ABMSII scores were assessed by physical therapists on
      admission to the hospital. Functional ambulation category (FAC) was assessed
      every 2 weeks during hospitalization. The primary outcome was independent
      ambulation, defined as 4 points or higher on the FAC. RESULTS: After setting the
      inclusion criteria, data of 374 stroke patients (mean age: 70 years, 153 women)
      were eligible for the analysis. Of these, 193 patients achieved independent
      ambulation during hospitalization. The ABMSII score was significantly higher in
      the patients who regained independent walking ability than in those who required
      assistance in walking. Based on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis,
      an ABMSII score of 16 points or higher had a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity
      of 71%. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis after log-rank test demonstrated a
      significantly higher event rate in patients with an ABMSII score of 16 or higher
      compared to those with an ABMSII score lower than 16. Univariate and multivariate
      Cox regression analyses identified the ABMSII score as a significant and
      independent predictor of ambulation during rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Our
      results suggest that the ABMSII score is a potentially useful tool to predict
      ambulation during rehabilitation in poststroke patients.

PMID- 28579020
TI  - Psychosine, a marker of Krabbe phenotype and treatment effect.
AB  - Newborn screening (NBS) for Krabbe disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder
      caused by deficient galactocerebrosidase (GALC) enzyme activity, has recently
      been implemented in a number of US states. However, the spectrum of phenotypic
      manifestations associated with deficient GALC activity complicates the management
      of screen-positive newborns and underscores the need to identify clinically
      relevant biomarkers. Earlier studies with a small number of patients identified
      psychosine, a substrate of the GALC enzyme, as a potential biomarker for Krabbe
      disease. In this study, we provide, for the first time, longitudinal data on
      dried blood spot (DBS) psychosine concentrations in different Krabbe disease
      phenotypes for both untreated patients and those treated with hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation (HSCT). Our cohort included patients previously identified
      by NBS to be at high risk to develop Krabbe disease. Substantially elevated DBS
      psychosine concentration during the newborn period was found to be a highly
      specific marker for infantile Krabbe disease. This finding supports the use of
      DBS psychosine concentration as a second-tier NBS test to aid in the
      identification of patients who require urgent evaluation for HSCT. In addition,
      longitudinal assessments showed that both natural disease progression and
      treatment with HSCT were associated with decreases in DBS psychosine
      concentrations. Based on these findings we provide recommendations for the
      interpretation of psychosine concentrations in DBS specimens collected during the
      first year of life. Future studies should aim to better delineate the
      relationship between DBS psychosine concentration and disease onset in patients
      with later-onset forms of Krabbe disease.

PMID- 28579024
TI  - Longitudinal monitoring of Cryptosporidium species in pre-weaned dairy calves on
      five farms in Shanghai, China.
AB  - In pre-weaned dairy calves, the zoonotic and pathogenic species Cryptosporidium
      parvum is the dominant Cryptosporidium species in most industrialized nations. In
      several studies in China, however, C. bovis has been the dominant one. To further
      examine the distribution of Cryptosporidium species in pre-weaned dairy calves in
      China, 818 fecal specimens were collected from five farms in Shanghai, with
      repeated samplings (up to five times) on each farm. PCR-restriction fragment
      length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the small subunit rRNA gene was used to
      detect and genotype Cryptosporidium spp. Cryptosporidium parvum was subtyped by
      sequence analysis of the 60kDa glycoprotein gene. Cryptosporidium occurrence on
      farms varied between 25.0% (Farm 2) and 55.0% (Farm 4), with a mean infection
      rate of 37.0%. Three Cryptosporidium species were detected, including C. bovis
      (193/303 or 63.7%), C. parvum (72/303 or 23.8%) and C. ryanae (32/303 or 10.6%).
      Concurrent infection of C. bovis and C. ryanae was detected in six (1.9%)
      animals. During the first two samplings, C. bovis was the dominant species on
      four farms and C. parvum was detected on only one farm (Farm 1). One of the study
      farms (Farm 3) started to have C. parvum at the third sampling. C. parvum was
      associated with the occurrence of moderate or watery diarrhea, while C. bovis was
      not. All C. parvum were subtype IIdA19G1, which is dominant in China but rare
      elsewhere. Genotyping and subtyping results indicated that the introduction of C.
      parvum to Farm 3 was caused by brief housing of several bull calves from another
      farm. Data from the study suggest that C. parvum is still uncommon in pre-weaned
      dairy calves in China and measures should be developed to prevent its spread in
      the country.

PMID- 28579023
TI  - Fatal pulmonary cysticercosis caused by Cysticercus longicollis in a captive ring
      tailed lemur (Lemur catta).
AB  - Here we describe fatal pulmonary cysticercosis caused by Cysticercus longicollis,
      the larval stage of Taenia crassiceps in a 15-year-old female ring-tailed lemur
      (Lemur catta) from Sarajevo Zoo. After sudden death, the lemur was subjected to
      necropsy and large multicystic structure, subdivided with fibrous septa and
      filled with numerous translucent, oval to ellipsoid bladder-like cysts
      (cysticerci), almost completely replacing right lung lobe was observed. In
      addition, numerous free and encysted cysticerci were found in the thoracic
      cavity. Histopathology revealed connective tissue outlined cavities that compress
      lung parenchyma. Each cavity contained several thin walled cysticerci with single
      inverted protoscolex, one or more suckers and rostelum with two rows of hooks. In
      many of the cysticerci one or several exogenous buds of daughter cysticerci were
      observed. Based on morphology and microscopic appearance the parasite was
      identified as C. longicollis. Subsequent molecular analysis and sequencing
      confirmed presumptive diagnosis. To our knowledge, this case represents the first
      report of T. crassiceps and cysticercosis caused by C. longicollis in Bosnia and
      Herzegovina.

PMID- 28579026
TI  - A flow cytometric assessment of the lymphocyte immunophenotypes in dogs naturally
      infected with Babesia rossi.
AB  - Immunity to Babesia infection requires both innate and acquired responses,
      including cell mediated- and humoral responses. The aims of this study were to
      investigate the variation in selected peripheral blood lymphocyte phenotypes in
      dogs with virulent babesiosis at presentation and over time after treatment, and
      to determine whether these were correlated with the severity of clinical signs.
      Forty-four dogs naturally infected with B. rossi were studied and 5 healthy dogs
      were included as controls. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein at
      admission, prior to any treatment, and at 24h and 48-72h. Leukocytes were
      incubated with canine specific, fluorochrome conjugated anti-CD3, anti-CD4, anti
      CD8, and anti-B cell markers. Babesia-infected dogs were divided into complicated
      or uncomplicated groups on clinical grounds and in-house laboratory assays. The
      percentage CD3+ lymphocytes in the complicated group was lower compared to the
      controls (P=0.014) and uncomplicated group (P=0.007). The percentage CD4+ T
      lymphocytes in the complicated group was lower compared to the controls (P=0.027)
      and uncomplicated group (P=0.014). Both the complicated as well as the
      uncomplicated groups expressed a lower percentage CD8+ T lymphocytes compared to
      the control group (P<0.001 and P=0.005, respectively). The percentage B
      lymphocytes was higher in the complicated group at 48-72h. These findings could
      indicate the presence of a functional immune suppression secondary to increased
      apoptosis or redistribution of effector lymphocytes and/or a combination of other
      immune modulatory mechanisms induced by B. rossi infection.

PMID- 28579025
TI  - Vector competence of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) for
      Plasmodium gallinaceum infection and transmission.
AB  - Avian malaria caused by Plasmodium gallinaceum is an important mosquito-borne
      disease. Eradication of this disease remains problematic since its competent
      vectors are diverse and widely distributed across the globe. Several mosquito
      species were implicated as competent vectors for this parasite. However, studies
      on vector competence for P. gallinaceum remain limited. In this study, vector
      competence in the two most predominant mosquito vectors in tropical countries,
      Aedes albopictus and Ae. aegypti, was compared. In order to determine their
      infection rates, Ae. albopictus (>F10), Ae. aegypti (>F10), and Ae. aegypti
      (<F10) mosquitoes were equally divided and allowed to feed on infected chickens
      with 15 different gametocyte levels (0.1-5.2%). On day five post blood feeding
      (PBF), 60 mosquitoes from each group were dissected, and the number of oocysts in
      midgut was examined. Infections with P. gallinaceum were observed in all groups,
      but the number of oocysts produced was significantly different. To evaluate the
      transmission ability of these mosquitoes after having been fed on different
      levels of gametocytes, the infected mosquitoes were allowed to feed on naive
      chickens on day 10 PBF, and the chicken bloods were monitored for 21days PBF. All
      groups of mosquitoes demonstrated a high degree of infection rates. The infection
      rates in chickens were 80-100% after having been bitten by infected Ae.
      albopictus (> F10) and Ae. aegypti (> F10) and 40-60% by infected Ae. aegypti
      (<F10). These findings demonstrated that Ae. albopictus (>F10) and Ae. aegypti
      (>F10) were highly competent vectors for P. gallinaceum infections. These
      mosquitoes play a crucial role in the transmission cycle of this parasite in
      nature.

PMID- 28579027
TI  - Molecular detection of Toxoplasma gondii in the slaughter sheep and goats from
      North India.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that infects almost all
      the warm blooded animals, including human beings. The disease usually remains
      asymptomatic but is a serious concern for pregnant women, developing foetus and
      immuno-compromised individuals. We collected 400 cardiac/skeletal muscle tissue
      samples from slaughter sheep (177) and goat (223) intended for human consumption
      from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh states/union territory in North India.
      The samples were pepsin-HCl digested and DNA was extracted from all the digested
      samples. Nested-PCR was carried out to amplify 580bp and 531bp bands with
      external and internal sets of primers specific for B1 gene of T. gondii.
      Molecularly, six (1.5%) isolates of T. gondii were detected. In PCR, T. gondii
      DNA were detected from 1.69% and 1.34% of the sheep and goat samples,
      respectively. Three PCR amplified products were sequenced in both the directions
      and readable sequences were obtained. Due to a low level of polymorphism in the
      targeted B1 gene, the clonal lineages of different isolates could not be
      determined. The results indicate that T. gondii in slaughter sheep and goat
      presents a low food safety risk for public health in North India.

PMID- 28579028
TI  - Cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Acari: Ixodidae):
      Potential control on pastures by the application of urea fertilizer.
AB  - The southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, spends as
      much as 80-90% of its life cycle as a larva questing for a host. Standard control
      methods are limited to on-host applications, leaving a need for methods directed
      at the pasture infesting stages. Reports from Brazil indicate that pasture
      fertilization can reduce tick numbers. Granular urea was tested using standard
      pesticide efficacy methods in both the laboratory and field trials to determine
      if there was a significant impact on adult reproduction and larval survival.
      Under the conditions of this present study, there was no detectable effect on
      either female adults or larval stages. Ammonification in the soil may be a key
      factor limiting the impact of fertilizer treatments.

PMID- 28579029
TI  - Pharmacokinetics and anthelmintic efficacy of injectable eprinomectin in goats.
AB  - The objective of this study was to assess the pharmacokinetics and the
      anthelmintic efficacy of eprinomectin (Eprecis(r) 20mg/mL) following subcutaneous
      administration to goats. Forty non-lactating female Alpine goats aged between one
      and three years and weighing between 32.7 and 59.5kg, were randomly allocated to
      one of the following groups (8 animals per group): two groups were not infected
      and were treated at a dose of either 0.2 or 0.4mg/kg BW of eprinomectin, two
      groups were experimentally infected with nematodes and treated at 0.2 or 0.4mg/kg
      BW of eprinomectin similarly and one group was infected and left untreated
      (control). Infection consisted in a single and simultaneous administration of
      5000 Haemonchus contortus and 12,500 Trichostrongylus colubriformis infective
      larvae. No local or general adverse reaction was visually observed whatever the
      dose rate. The maximal plasma concentrations (Cmax) were 20.68+/-12.85 vs 39.79+/
      17.25MUg/L and the plasma bioavailabilities (AUC) 83.45+/-34.75 vs 169.37+/
      43.44MUg*d/L for 0.2 vs 0.4mg/kg respectively. The efficacy against H. contortus
      and T. colubriformis was 97.8 and 98.7% at 0.2mg/kg and 98.4% and >99.9% at
      0.4mg/kg respectively. The differences in worm burdens between the two dose rates
      were only significant for T. colubriformis. These results indicate that
      injectable eprinomectin is a potent anthelmintic against the two major
      gastrointestinal nematodes in goats. Additional information is needed regarding
      pharmacokinetics in lactating goats and milk residues.

PMID- 28579030
TI  - Broad spectrum anthelmintic resistance of Haemonchus contortus in Northern NSW of
      Australia.
AB  - On a sheep farm in Northern New South Wales (NSW) of Australia a degree of
      anthelmintic resistance was suspected. With noticeable clinical signs of
      infection and sheep not responding to treatment, a faecal egg count reduction
      test was conducted to ascertain the broad spectrum of anthelmintic resistance at
      this farm. A number of classes of anthelmintics were assessed including
      organophosphate, macrocyclic lactone (ML) and in combination an ML,
      benzimidazole, levamisole and salicylanilide. In addition, the more recently
      registered classes of anthelmintics, monepantel (amino-acetonitrile derivative)
      and derquantel/abamectin combination (spiroindole+ML) were included. Ninety
      merino sheep naturally infected with a field strain of Haemonchus contortus were
      randomly allocated to 6 treatment groups (15 animals/group). Sheep were
      subsequently treated based on label recommendations and individual bodyweight.
      Faecal samples were collected post-treatment on Days 7, 14 and 21 to conduct
      faecal egg counts and group bulk larval cultures. Broad spectrum anthelmintic
      resistance was confirmed at this site with treatment efficacies ranging from
      21.3% (monepantel) to 93.8% (derquantel/abamectin combination) against the H.
      contortus strain. Furthermore, resistance to the multi-combination anthelmintic
      containing 4 active ingredients was evident (52.5%). This broad spectrum of
      resistance highlights the need for integration of alternative sustainable methods
      in parasite control in order to slow development of resistance and increase the
      life time effectiveness of anthelmintics.

PMID- 28579031
TI  - The antiparasitic activity of avenacosides against intestinal nematodes.
AB  - Avena sativa L., 1753 (Poaceae) is used as feed for livestock and as a crop
      rotation agent. The purpose of the study was to examine the molecular mechanisms
      behind the antihelminth activity of the oat saponins avenacoside B (AveB) and 26
      desglucoavenacoside B (26DGAveB) by evaluating their effect on Heligmosomoides
      bakeri, a parasitic nematode of mice. The avenacosides AveB and 26DGAveB were
      separated and purified from A. sativa green leaves, and their mycotoxic activity
      was confirmed against the fungus Trichoderma harzianum. The anti-nematode
      activity of the avenacosides was measured by egg hatching assay. In the surviving
      L3 larvae exposed to avenacosides, the expression of CED-9, a protein of the
      apoptosis pathway, was identified by Western blotting. The protein profile of L3
      larvae was monitored by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The action
      of saponins on glycoprotein pump (Pgp) activity in L3 larvae was compared to that
      of the pump blocker Verapamil (VPL). A mouse model was used to measure the
      infectivity of L3 larvae exposed to AveB and 26DGAveB, and the outcome of the
      immune response. Both compounds induced morphological changes in larvae and
      blocked Pgp activity; however, only 26DGAveB provoked expression of CED-9. The
      infected mice displayed changes in the molecular pattern of larval proteins and
      enhanced IL-4 production, indicating that avenacosides reduced the infectivity of
      H. bakeri larvae. In avenacosides, the residue without glucose at the C26
      position demonstrated greater anti-nematode activity. Our findings indicate that
      A. sativa compounds are natural products with anti-parasitic activity.

PMID- 28579032
TI  - Genetic analyses of Chinese isolates of Toxoplasma gondii reveal a new genotype
      with high virulence to murine hosts.
AB  - A great deal of evidence demonstrates that a strongly clonal population structure
      of Toxoplasma gondii strains exists in humans and animals in North America and
      Europe, while the strains from South America are genetically separate and more
      diverse. Potential differences in virulence between different strains mean that
      an understanding of strain diversity is important to human and animal health.
      However, to date, only one predominant genotype, ToxoDB#9 (Chinese I), and a few
      other genotypes, including ToxoDB#205, have been identified in China. By using
      DNA sequence-based phylogenetic analyses, we have re-evaluated the population
      structure of T. gondii strains collected from China and compared them with other
      global strains. Based on phylogenetic analysis of restriction fragment length
      polymorphisms, multilocus sequence typing and intron sequences from T. gondii, we
      propose that the Chinese isolates described as Chinese I are divided into two
      groups called Chinese I and Chinese III. Our results demonstrate that significant
      differences were found in mouse mortality caused by some Chinese strains, and
      also the archetypal I, II, III strains in mice. Furthermore, a comparison of cyst
      loading in the brains of infected rats showed some Chinese strains to be capable
      of a high degree of cyst formation. Furthermore we show that genotyping using
      neutral genetic markers may not be a useful predictor of pathogenic phenotypes.

PMID- 28579034
TI  - NO signaling in retinal bipolar cells.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) is a neuromodulator involved in physiological and pathological
      processes in the retina. In the inner retina, a subgroup of amacrine cells have
      been shown to synthesize NO, but bipolar cells remain controversial as NO
      sources. This study correlates NO synthesis in dark-adapted retinas, through
      labeling with the NO marker DAF-FM, with neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)
      and inducible NOS expression, and presence of the NO receptor soluble guanylate
      cyclase in bipolar cells. NO containing bipolar cells were morphologically
      identified by dialysis of DAF fluorescent cells with intracellular dyes, or by
      DAF labeling followed by immunohistochemistry for nNOS and other cellular
      markers. DAF fluorescence was observed in all types of bipolar cells that could
      be identified, but the most intense DAF fluorescence was observed in bipolar
      cells with severed processes, supporting pathological NO signaling. Among nNOS
      expressing bipolar cells, type 9 was confirmed unequivocally, while types 2, 3a,
      3b, 4, 5, 7, 8 and the rod bipolar cell were devoid of this enzyme. These results
      establish specific bipolar cell types as NO sources in the inner retina, and
      support the involvement of NO signaling in physiological and pathological
      processes in the inner retina.

PMID- 28579033
TI  - Does oxidative stress play any role in diabetic cataract formation? ----Re
      evaluation using a thioltransferase gene knockout mouse model.
AB  - Oxidative stress is a known risk factor in senile cataract formation. In recent
      years, it has been suggested that oxidation may also be associated with cataract
      induced by hyperglycemia, but this concept has not been well examined or
      validated. Since thioltransferase (TTase) is one of the key enzymes that
      regulates redox homeostasis and protects against oxidative stress in the lens, we
      have used TTase gene knockout (KO) mice as a model to examine this new concept.
      Lenses from 4 months old TTase KO and wild-type (WT) mice were incubated in TC199
      culture medium containing 30 mM glucose for 48 h. Each lens was assessed for
      opacity, graded by LOCSII system, and the wet weight was recorded after which it
      was homogenized in lysis buffer and analyzed for water-soluble protein and free
      glutathione (GSH). In vivo studies were carried out using 4 months old TTase KO
      and WT mouse groups. Each mouse received two consecutive days of intraperitoneal
      streptozotozin (STZ) injections to induce diabetes. The lenses were examined
      weekly for 4 weeks using a slit-lamp biomicroscope, and then extracted and
      analyzed for levels of GSH, water-soluble protein, ATP and protein-GSH mixed
      disulfide (PSSG). TTase KO lenses cultured in high glucose developed a mild
      cortical opacity but slightly more than that of the WT lenses. Both groups had
      similar contents of soluble proteins and GSH. Exposure to high glucose did not
      change the soluble protein level but did suppress GSH by 20% in lenses with or
      without TTase. STZ-induced diabetic KO mice also developed a higher degree of
      mild cortical lens opacity compared to that of the diabetic WT controls. Similar
      15-20% losses in lens GSH and ATP were found after one-month induced diabetes in
      WT and KO mice. There was a 20% greater amount of PSSG in the lenses of TTase KO
      than the WT control. Under diabetic condition, both groups displayed more
      glutathionylated proteins in the beta-actin (42 kDa) and lens crystallin proteins
      (18-22 kDa) regions, and some additional modified proteins at 15-17 kDa and 60-70
      kDa, with a total 20-30% PSSG increment in both groups. In conclusion, we have
      found that hyperglycemia induced some oxidative stress-associated biochemical
      changes with mild lens opacity in both WT and KO mice. However, these changes
      were only marginally higher in the TTase KO mouse than that of the WT control,
      suggesting that TTase deletion may only play a minor role in the early stage of
      hyperglycemia-induced cataract formation in the mice.

PMID- 28579035
TI  - Measuring satisfaction with appearance: Validation of the FACE-Q scales for
      double-eyelid blepharoplasty with minor incision in young Asians- retrospective
      study of 200 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Double eye-lid surgery is one of the most popular performed aesthetic
      procedures in young Asians. Reliable measurement of patient reported outcomes is
      crucial for facial aesthetics. The FACE-Q is a new patient-reported outcome tool
      (PRO) composed of numerous independently functioning scales and checklists
      designed to measure outcomes. Here we described FACE-Q scales for double eye-lid
      surgery with minor incision in young Asians. METHODS: 200 patients (400 eyes)
      aged from 21 to 30 years-old were recruited from 2012 to 2014. They underwent
      minor incision procedure for double-eyelid blepharoplasty, epicanthic fold
      correction, excessive orbit fat removal and blepharoptosis correction
      simultaneously. An incision of 1 cm long in the middle of upper eyelid and
      modified Park's Z-plasty for epicanthus correction were designed. Three stitches
      were carried out in levator aponeurosis-inferior dermis procedure. By the middle
      incision in the upper eyelid, blepharoptosis correction and excessive orbit fat
      removal can be executed. Those patients were asked to complete anonymously the
      FACE-Q by e-mail. FACE-Q scores were assessed for each domain (range, 0 to 100),
      with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with appearance or superior
      quality of life. RESULTS: After a mean of 2 years' follow-up, postoperative
      complications included partial or complete loss of the double-eyelid fold in 8
      and 0 cases, respectively, no hypertrophic scar formation, and asymmetric fold in
      four cases. One patient received re-operation on blepharoptosis correction.
      Except hematoma occurring in one female case, no obvious edema was observed.
      Patients demonstrated high levels of satisfaction with eye appearance overall
      (mean +/- SD, 81.7 +/- 18.3). Quality of Life Patients exhibited high levels of
      quality of life, including in social confidence (95.4 +/- 12.6), psychological
      well-being (97.8 +/- 10.3), and early life impact of the procedure (90.2 +/-
      13.4). Patients reported high satisfaction with the decision to undergo and the
      outcome of the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Minimally invasive procedure is a reliable
      tool for correcting disfigurement in double-eyelid blepharoplasty. However, this
      method is not suitable for those cases whose upper eyelids are featured by
      relaxation. Excessive amount of skin must be removed. Patients who responded in
      this study were extremely satisfied with their decision to undergo double-eyelid
      surgery and the outcomes and quality of life following the procedure.

PMID- 28579036
TI  - Analysis of surgical results and of residual postoperative deformities in
      preaxial polydactyly of the hand.
AB  - PURPOSE: Polydactyly is the most common congenital anomaly of the hand. It may
      occur as a separate event or as part of a syndrome, with preaxial polydactyly of
      the hand (or thumb duplication) being the most common among Caucasians. The
      present study analyzed the surgical results and the residual postoperative
      deformities of patients with thumb duplication. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with
      duplicated thumbs were surgically treated from January 2002 to April 2008 and 19
      of them, who had returned during the late postoperative period, were evaluated.
      Each case was typed according to Wassel's classification into seven types and the
      most common category was type IV. Removal of radial component was done in 18
      patients aged on average 51 months. RESULTS: Patients and parents were satisfied
      with both the functional results and the appearance of the reconstructed thumb.
      In the subjective evaluation of residual deformities, axis deviation and residual
      prominence were commonly found. There were coherencies in data between both
      subjective and objective outcomes. The children that had difficulty in holding
      very small objects in the subjective functional result were the same children
      with residual deformities in the objective result. Patient's age at surgery and
      Wassel's type influenced the analysis of residual postoperative deformities.
      There was statistically significant difference in cases of type VII and in
      patients operated at more than three years of age. Correlation between type VII
      and patient's age at time of surgery was found. The children with type VII
      duplication were operated later. CONCLUSIONS: For a better result, surgical
      correction should be performed before three years of age, thus correcting all the
      changes detected, mainly in type VII, in order to reduce the incidence of
      residual deformity. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic IV.

PMID- 28579037
TI  - Risk factors for recurrence of facial basal cell carcinoma after surgical
      excision: A follow-up analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several tumour features and surgical factors have been implicated in
      an increased risk of BCC recurrence after excision; however, there are limited
      data on facial lesions specifically. This study sought to evaluate risk factors
      of facial BCC, which may influence future treatment and follow-up regimes.
      METHODS: Facial BCCs excised from a single surgeon practice over a 2-year period
      were included in the study. Data pertaining to patient demographics, lesion depth
      of invasion, surface area, excision margins, perineural infiltration, location,
      previous history of recurrence, histological subtype and ulceration were
      extracted. A search of recurrence was conducted over the following 70-80 months.
      RESULTS: In total, 331 cases of facial BCC were included, and 10 lesions
      recurrences (3%) were identified within the observation period. Infiltrative (p =
      0.02) and micronodular (p = 0.04) subtypes as well as incomplete or close (within
      1 mm) peripheral (p = 0.01) and deep excision margins (p = 0.04) were
      significantly associated with tumour recurrence. Five of the 10 recurrent lesions
      had been re-excised for a recurrence previously, placing them at much greater
      risk of future recurrence (p = 0.00). CONCLUSIONS: Incomplete and close excision
      margins, infiltrative and micronodular subtypes and previous excision are strong
      risk factors for facial BCC recurrence. Although depth of invasion, perineural
      infiltration, ulceration and surface area may indicate the aggressive nature of a
      lesion, the results suggest that with adequate excision margins, these factors
      may not influence the recurrence rate. The strongest risk factor was a lesion
      having already recurred after previous excision, and it suggested that these
      lesions be treated with particular caution and a closer follow-up regime be
      employed.

PMID- 28579038
TI  - Successful resolution of Epstein-Barr virus-associated hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis during the treatment course of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PMID- 28579039
TI  - Total mismatch of diffusion-weighted imaging and susceptibility-weighted imaging
      in patients with acute cerebral ischemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multiple hypointense vessels (MHV) on susceptibility
      weighted imaging (SWI) is associated with an increased oxygen demand in acute
      cerebral ischemia. Occasionally, some patients exhibit extensive MHV on SWI
      despite of negative diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), which is a phenomenon
      called total mismatch DWI-SWI. We analyzed the clinical characteristics and
      imaging findings in patients with the total DWI-SWI mismatch. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We selected patients with total DWI-SWI mismatch who underwent MRI
      within 12hours from onset. To evaluate the degree of collateral flow, we graded
      vessels on post-contrast time-of-flight MR angiography as 3 groups. Perfusion
      lesion volume was measured using threshold of>6seconds of mean transit time on
      perfusion-weighted imaging. RESULTS: Total DWI-SWI mismatch was found in 10
      (2.7%) out of 370 patients. Four out of 10 patients were excluded due to lack of
      data on perfusion studies. Hence 6 patients were finally selected in the study.
      Two patients with internal carotid artery dissection were treated with emergent
      stenting, one patient with intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy,
      and two patients with drug-induced hypertension. All of the enrolled patients
      exhibited extensive MHV on SWI and good collateral flows. The mean perfusion
      lesion volume was 72.6+/-15.3ml (range 0-325.0ml). Clinical outcome was favorable
      in all of the patients (mRS at 3 months, 0). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate
      that total mismatch of DWI-SWI is associated with good collateral flow and may be
      a predictor of good response to treatment in patients with acute cerebral
      ischemia.

PMID- 28579040
TI  - Autonomy and self-esteem of women who donate to an oocyte cryopreservation bank
      in the Netherlands.
AB  - Worldwide, oocyte donors donate voluntarily or receive varying amounts of money
      for donation. This raises ethical questions regarding the appropriateness of
      financial compensation, and the possibility of undue inducement and exploitation
      of oocyte donors. Are these donors capable of making an independent, well
      considered decision? Regarding this matter, it is important to examine aspects
      such as autonomy-connectedness and self-esteem. In this cross-sectional study,
      demographic characteristics and donation motivations were assessed in 92 women
      who attended the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht as potential oocyte
      donors between June 2012 and July 2016. Demographic characteristics were
      assessed. Motivations were recorded in semi-structured interviews (response rate
      59%). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to assess level of self-esteem.
      The Autonomy-Connectedness Scale was used to measure the level of autonomy
      connectedness. The typical oocyte donor at the UMC Utrecht is a well-educated,
      employed, 31-year-old woman living with her partner in a completed family with
      two children, and donating on altruistic grounds. The donors showed higher
      autonomy-connectedness scores than the average female Dutch population and do not
      lack self-esteem (questionnaire response rate 66%). Concerns regarding
      exploitation and attraction of women with lower socioeconomic status, with
      shortcomings in autonomy-connectedness and self-esteem, could not be confirmed in
      this group.

PMID- 28579041
TI  - Clinical Perspectives of Digital Dermatitis in Dairy and Beef Cattle.
AB  - Digital dermatitis is a polybacterial disease process of dairy and beef cattle.
      Lesions are most commonly identified on the plantar aspect of the interdigital
      cleft of the hind limbs. Treponema spp are routinely present in large numbers of
      active lesions. Lesions are painful to the touch and can result in clinical
      lameness. The infectious nature generally results in endemic infection of cattle
      herds and management requires a comprehensive and integrated multipronged
      approach. This article provides current perspectives regarding management and
      treatment of digital dermatitis on dairy and beef cattle operations and provides
      a review for clinicians dealing with a clinical outbreak.

PMID- 28579042
TI  - Pathogenesis and Treatment of Bovine Foot Rot.
AB  - Bovine foot rot (BFR) is an infectious disease of the interdigital skin and
      subcutaneous tissues of beef and dairy cattle that occurs under a variety of
      management and environmental settings. The anaerobic, gram-negative bacteria
      Fusobacterium necrophorum, Porphyromonas levii, and Prevotella intermedia are
      commonly isolated from lesions. A multitude of host, agent, and environmental
      factors contribute to the development of BFR. Initiation of systemic
      antimicrobial therapy early in the course of disease commonly leads to
      resolution. Delays in treatment may result in extension of infection into deeper
      bone, synovial structures, or ligamentous structures, and the prognosis for
      recovery is reduced.

PMID- 28579043
TI  - Mobility Scoring of Finished Cattle.
AB  - Lameness is among the most important welfare and production issues affecting
      dairy cattle. Recently, it has received significant research emphasis. Certain
      events in 2013 within the cattle industry heightened the focus on mobility issues
      in finished cattle. Scoring systems are needed in the finished cattle industry to
      capture and measure mobility issues at packing facilities. The North American
      Meat Institute Animal Welfare Committee helped facilitate the creation of a
      scoring system to evaluate mobility of cattle at packing plants, providing the
      cattle industry with a tool to benchmark and improve the welfare of finished
      cattle.

PMID- 28579044
TI  - Diagnosis and Prognosis of Common Disorders Involving the Proximal Limb.
AB  - Claw diseases are the principal cause of lameness in cattle. They can be easily
      diagnosed by examining the feet while the animal is in the trimming chute.
      Lameness originating from the proximal limb is more challenging because it is
      less visible. The author describes a systematic approach to diagnose upper limb
      lameness. The most common causes of lameness are reviewed with special emphasis
      on physical examinations and appropriate diagnostic tools.

PMID- 28579045
TI  - Traumatic Lesions of the Sole.
AB  - Traumatic lesions of the sole are a common cause of lameness in beef and dairy
      cattle. This article provides a brief description of traumatically induced
      conditions with specific attention to underlying causes, treatment, and
      prevention. Lameness, traumatic lesions of the sole, sole punctures, thin soles,
      thin sole toe ulcers, toe tip necrosis syndrome, and toe abscesses are discussed.

PMID- 28579046
TI  - Pathogenesis and Treatment of Toe Lesions in Cattle Including "Nonhealing" Toe
      Lesions.
AB  - Toe lesions in cattle include apical white line disease, thin soles, toe ulcers,
      toe necrosis, digital dermatitis-associated toe ulcers/toe necrosis, and fracture
      of the claw capsule and the apex of the distal phalanx. For anatomic reasons, the
      early stages of toe abnormalities (thin sole, apical white line disease, toe
      ulcer) are at risk of developing into a bone infection. The prevalence of toe
      lesions differs in dairy herds and feedlots: it is low at the animal level in
      feedlots and dairies; however, the herd prevalence of toe lesions can reach 50%
      in dairy herds with endemic digital dermatitis infection.

PMID- 28579047
TI  - Surgical Procedures of the Distal Limb for Treatment of Sepsis in Cattle.
AB  - With a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the foot, and basic surgical
      instruments, digit surgery can be performed in field situations. Sepsis of the
      distal interphalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints should be treated
      surgically because conservative treatment is often ineffective. Most of the
      diseases described in this article are chronic and often the animals have been
      suffering for some time. Perioperative analgesia is important to alleviate the
      pain of those animals. All those procedures should be performed under local or
      regional anesthesia.

PMID- 28579048
TI  - A Review of the Relationship Between Hoof Trimming and Dairy Cattle Welfare.
AB  - A narrative integrative review on the evidence for hoof trimming found 16
      articles on efficacy, frequency, and associations with behavior and physiologic
      parameters. Review of these studies revealed (1) hoof trimming is associated with
      behavior and physiologic changes; (2) increasing the frequency of hoof trimming
      seems to decrease the incidence of hoof lesions; (3) there is limited research to
      support any particular technique; and (4) descriptions of the hoof trimming
      techniques used is inadequate in most articles. To increase scientific support
      for hoof trimming practices, current knowledge gaps in technique, timing, and
      frequency of hoof trimming need to be addressed.

PMID- 28579049
TI  - Treatment Options for Lameness Disorders in Organic Dairies.
AB  - Animal welfare is an essential aspect of organic dairying. Consequently, adequate
      lameness control should be a central component of on-farm health monitoring
      programs. The combination of organic management practices, including grazing
      requirements that are combined with different types of housing, results in unique
      features determining the cows' feet and legs health condition. Because the use of
      therapeutic resources is limited, preventive management and early detection of
      lameness is critical in organic dairies. This article discusses the relevant
      aspects of prevention and treatment options of lameness disorders in organic
      dairy farms.

PMID- 28579050
TI  - An Update on the Assessment and Management of Pain Associated with Lameness in
      Cattle.
AB  - Lameness affects the cattle industry via both economic losses and welfare
      considerations. In addition to production deficits, the pain and distress
      associated with lameness have been documented. Evaluation and prevalence of lame
      cattle are among the primary factors in third-party welfare audit programs. Mean
      lameness prevalence in herds has been reported to be as high as 36.8%, although a
      less than 10% prevalence of lame cattle was reported by some producers. Note that
      lameness is usually underreported by producers compared with independent
      observers, potentially because of a decreased sensitivity in detecting lame
      cattle.

PMID- 28579051
TI  - Bovine Lameness.

PMID- 28579052
TI  - An overview of experimental designs in HPLC method development and validation.
AB  - Chemometric approaches have been increasingly viewed as precious complements to
      high performance liquid chromatographic practices, since a large number of
      variables can be simultaneously controlled to achieve the desired separations.
      Moreover, their applications may efficiently identify and optimize the
      significant factors to accomplish competent results through limited experimental
      trials. The present manuscript discusses usefulness of various chemometric
      approaches in high and ultra performance liquid chromatography for (i) methods
      development from dissolution studies and sample preparation to detection,
      considering the progressive substitution of traditional detectors with tandem
      mass spectrometry instruments and the importance of stability indicating assays
      (ii) method validation through screening and optimization designs. Choice of
      appropriate types of experimental designs so as to either screen the most
      influential factors or optimize the selected factors' combination and the
      mathematical models in chemometry have been briefly recalled and the advantages
      of chemometric approaches have been emphasized. The evolution of the design of
      experiments to the Quality by Design paradigm for method development has been
      reviewed and the Six Sigma practice as a quality indicator in chromatography has
      been explained. Chemometric applications and various strategies in
      chromatographic separations have been described.

PMID- 28579054
TI  - Hospital mortality in cirrhotic patients at a tertiary care center in Latin
      America.

PMID- 28579053
TI  - Iron-deficiency anemia as a subclinical celiac disease presentation in an
      Argentinian population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a wide heterogeneity in the reports of celiac disease
      prevalence in iron-deficiency anemia patients. AIM: To determine the prevalence
      of celiac disease in patients with iron-deficiency anemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Adult patients with a diagnosis of iron-deficiency anemia were enrolled for upper
      endoscopy with duodenal biopsies. Healthy volunteers that underwent upper
      endoscopy were enrolled as controls. RESULTS: A total of 135 patients with iron
      deficiency anemia and 133 controls were enrolled. Celiac disease prevalence was
      higher in the iron-deficiency anemia group [11.11 vs. 1.51%, OR: 8.18 (1.83
      36.55), P=.001). Of the celiac disease patients in the iron-deficiency anemia
      group, 73.3% had at least one endoscopic sign suggesting villous atrophy, whereas
      100% of the celiac disease patients in the control group presented with at least
      one endoscopic sign. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with iron-deficiency anemia have an
      increased risk for celiac disease. Up to 25% of these patients may not present
      any endoscopic sign suggesting villous atrophy.

PMID- 28579055
TI  - Jean Lhermitte on Consciousness.

PMID- 28579056
TI  - [Computerized oculomotor training in dyslexia: A randomized, crossover clinical
      trial in pediatric population].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several studies have reported abnormal oculomotor capacities leading
      to reading/writing difficulties among dyslexic children. However, no randomized
      clinical trial has been conducted to determine whether oculomotor training
      improves reading/writing skills of these children. The present study aims to
      evaluate the efficacy of computer-based oculomotor training among dyslexic
      children. METHOD: Crossover randomized trial with enrollment from January 12,
      2015 to July 24, 2015, and follow-up to February 4, 2016. Eleven children (aged 7
      to 12 years old) with dyslexia were included in a French psychiatric unit. The
      computer-based oculomotor training consisted of exercises focused on control of
      saccadic movements (reflexes and voluntary saccades), vergences and visual
      attention and memory. At baseline, 3 and 6 months, participants were assessed on
      reading and writing skills as well as phonological skills, visuo-attentional
      skills and verbal memory using the French batterie analytique du langage ecrit
      (BALE). Saccadic and antisaccadic ocular movements (latencies and gains) were
      recorded using a specific device. Several Anova models were performed to test
      whether oculomotor training improves reading, writing and phonological, verbal
      memory and visuo-attentional skills. Our analyses were considered exploratory
      (alpha at 5%). RESULTS: No effect of oculomotor training was found on reading
      skills. However, oculomotor training was associated with a short-term effect
      (after 3 months of training) on several tests measuring phonological skills
      (syllabic suppression; P-value=0.022), visuo-attentional skills (search of
      anarchic verbal cues; P-value=0.035) and verbal memory (digit span backward; P
      value=0.022) and with a long-term effect (3 months after the end of the 3 months
      of training) on a measure of writing skills (regular words; P-value=0.019).
      Finally, training was associated with an increase of saccadic latencies
      indicating an increase of visuo-attentional skills (P-value=0.026). CONCLUSIONS:
      Our results suggested that computer-based oculomotor training might be effective
      on writing skills and several cognitive skills among dyslexic children, but
      future clinical trials are needed to confirm our results.

PMID- 28579057
TI  - Insulin initiation status of primary care physicians in Turkey, barriers to
      insulin initiation and knowledge levels about insulin therapy: A multicenter
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - AIMS: Our aim was to evaluate the insulin initiation status, barriers to insulin
      initiation and knowledge levels about treatment administered by primary care
      physicians (PCP). METHODS: We conducted our study in accordance with a
      multicenter, cross-sectional design in Turkey, between July 2015 and July 2016. A
      questionnaire inquiring demographic features, status of insulin initiation,
      obstacles to insulin initiation and knowledge about therapy of the PCPs was
      administered during face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: 84 PCPs (19%) (n=446, mean
      age=41.5+/-8.4years, 62.9% male and 90.0% ministry certified family physicians)
      initiated insulin therapy in the past. Most of the stated primary barriers
      (51.9%, n=230) were due to the physicians. The most relevant barrier was "lack of
      clinical experience" with a rate of 19% (n=84 of the total). The average total
      knowledge score was 5.7+/-2.0 for the family medicine specialist, and 3.8+/-2.1
      for the ministry certified family physicians (p=0.000, maximum knowledge score
      could be 10). CONCLUSIONS: The status of insulin initiation in Turkey by the
      primary care physicians is inadequate. Medical education programs and health care
      systems may require restructuring to facilitate insulin initiation in primary
      care.

PMID- 28579060
TI  - Human dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3) deficiency: Novel insights into the
      structural basis and molecular pathomechanism.
AB  - This review summarizes our present view on the molecular pathogenesis of human
      (h) E3-deficiency caused by a variety of genetic alterations with a special
      emphasis on the moonlighting biochemical phenomena related to the affected
      (dihydro)lipoamide dehydrogenase (LADH, E3, gene: dld), in particular the
      generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). E3-deficiency is a rare autosomal
      recessive genetic disorder frequently presenting with a neonatal onset and
      premature death; the highest carrier rate of a single pathogenic dld mutation
      (1:94-1:110) was found among Ashkenazi Jews. Patients usually die during acute
      episodes that generally involve severe metabolic decompensation and lactic
      acidosis leading to neurological, cardiological, and/or hepatological
      manifestations. The disease owes its severity to the fact that LADH is the common
      E3 subunit of the alpha-ketoglutarate (KGDHc), pyruvate (PDHc), and branched
      chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complexes and is also part of the glycine
      cleavage system, hence the malfunctioning of LADH simultaneously incapacitates
      several central metabolic pathways. Nevertheless, the clinical pictures are
      usually not unequivocally portrayed through the loss of LADH activities and imply
      auxiliary mechanisms that exacerbate the symptoms and outcomes of this disorder.
      Enhanced ROS generation by disease-causing hE3 variants as well as by the E1-E2
      subcomplex of the hKGDHc likely contributes to selected pathogeneses of E3
      deficiency, which could be targeted by specific drugs or antioxidants; lipoic
      acid was demonstrated to be a potent inhibitor of ROS generation by hE3 in vitro.
      Flavin supplementation might prove to be beneficial for those mutations
      triggering FAD loss in the hE3 component. Selected pathogenic hE3 variants lose
      their affinity for the E2 component of the hPDHc, a mechanism which warrants
      scrutiny also for other E3-haboring complexes.

PMID- 28579058
TI  - The challenge of living with diabetes in women and younger adults: A structural
      equation model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Attitudes toward diabetes care are different between genders and age
      groups. Furthermore, diabetes related challenges may cause psychosocial problems.
      Therefore, we were to compare the psychosocial status and glycemic control in
      women and men with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in different age-groups. METHODS: 441
      adults with T2D were recruited. Demographic, self-care behavior, resources and
      affective variables as well as the health related quality of life (HRQoL) were
      measured. The median age of 55 was used as the cut-off for the age comparison.
      Structured equation modeling (SEM) investigated the relationship between age,
      gender, psychosocial factors and glycemic control. RESULTS: Finally, 203 women
      and 177 men completed the study (86.1%). There was no significant difference in
      mean duration of T2D, or glycemic control between genders or age-groups. Women,
      especially those below the median age of 55, had significantly higher level of
      diabetes-related distress (2.16+/-0.94 vs. 1.92+/-0.81), depression (9.67+/-5.37
      vs. 7.54+/-5.06), and anxiety (19.81+/-12.04 vs. 12.81+/-9.04, P<0.05 for all
      comparisons), while people above the age of 55 reported better self-management
      and patient-physician relationship. HRQoL was lower in women compared to men
      (0.77+/-0.23 vs. 0.81+/-0.18, P=0.02). The final SEM suggested that the effect
      (standardized beta coefficient) of gender and age on affective variables was 0.25
      and -0.19 (P<0.05), respectively, though psychosocial factors did not directly
      influence HbA1c. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that psychosocial factors are
      associated with age and gender in patients with T2D; with younger women
      demonstrating higher level of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and diabetes-related
      distress independent of status of glycemic control.

PMID- 28579061
TI  - Classification of Fluorescein Breakup Patterns: A Novel Method of Differential
      Diagnosis for Dry Eye.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between fluorescein breakup patterns
      (FBUPs) and clinical manifestations in dry eye cases. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      study. METHODS: In 106 eyes of 106 subjects (19 male, 87 female; mean age: 64.2
      years), FBUPs were categorized into 1 of the following 5 break (B) types: area
      (AB, n = 19); spot (SB, n = 22); line (LB, n = 24); dimple (DB, n = 19); random
      (RB, n = 22 eyes); and dry eye-related symptoms using the visual analog scale
      (VAS, 100 mm = maximum), tear meniscus radius (TMR, mm), tear film lipid layer
      interference grade (IG) (grades 1-5; 1 = best) and spread grade (SG) (grades 1-4;
      1 = best), tear film noninvasive breakup time (NIBUT, seconds), fluorescein
      breakup time (FBUT, seconds), corneal-epithelial damage (CED) score (15 points =
      maximum), ocular surface epithelial damage (OSED) score (9 points = maximum), and
      the Schirmer 1 test (ST1, mm) were examined and compared between each FBUP.
      RESULTS: In each FBUP, eye dryness and fatigue were the severest symptoms.
      Characteristic symptoms were sensitivity to light, heavy eyelids, pain, foreign
      body sensation, difficulty opening the eye, and discharge for AB, heavy eyelids
      for SB, and foreign-body sensation for LB. Statistically significant differences
      were found in TMR (AB-SB, -DB, and -RB; LB-RB), IG (AB-all other FBUP; LB-SB and 
      DB), and SG (AB-all other FBUPs), FBUT (AB-LB, -DB, and -RB; SB-DB and -RB; LB
      RB; DB-RB), and NIBUT (AB-all other FBUPs; SB-DB and-RB, and LB-RB), CED (AB-all
      other FBUPs; LB-SB, -DB, and -RB) and OSED (AB-SB, -LB, and -DB; LB-SB, -DB, and 
      RB), and ST1 (AB-SB, -DB, and -LB) (P < .05 in each comparison). CONCLUSIONS: The
      5 different FBUPs constituted different groups, reflecting different pathophysi
      ologies.

PMID- 28579059
TI  - Neuroketotherapeutics: A modern review of a century-old therapy.
AB  - Neuroketotherapeutics represent a class of bioenergetic medicine therapies that
      feature the induction of ketosis. These therapies include medium-chain
      triglyceride supplements, ketone esters, fasting, strenuous exercise, the
      modified Atkins diet, and the classic ketogenic diet. Extended experience reveals
      persons with epilepsy, especially pediatric epilepsy, benefit from ketogenic
      diets although the mechanisms that underlie its effects remain unclear. Data
      indicate ketotherapeutics enhance mitochondrial respiration, promote neuronal
      long-term potentiation, increase BDNF expression, increase GPR signaling,
      attenuate oxidative stress, reduce inflammation, and alter protein post
      translational modifications via lysine acetylation and beta-hydroxybutyrylation.
      These properties have further downstream implications involving Akt, PLCgamma,
      CREB, Sirtuin, and mTORC pathways. Further studies of neuroketotherapeutics will
      enhance our understanding of ketone body molecular biology, and reveal novel
      central nervous system therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28579062
TI  - Distribution of Nonperfusion Area on Ultra-widefield Fluorescein Angiography in
      Eyes With Diabetic Macular Edema: DAVE Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore the distribution of nonperfusion area (NPA) in eyes with
      diabetic macular edema (DME) and its relationship with the severity of DME.
      DESIGN: Prospective, observational case series. METHODS: Forty eyes of 29
      patients with treatment-naive DME who participated in the DAVE study
      (NCT01552408) were included. Ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography images were
      sent to the Doheny Image Reading Center, where they were montaged and corrected
      using stereographic projection to adjust for peripheral distortion. Two
      experienced, independent/masked certified graders manually segmented the NPA and
      the total visible retinal area (TRA), and computed the NPA and TRA in square
      millimeters (mm2). The ischemic index (ISI) was calculated. The distributions of
      NPA and ISI within different retinal zones were correlated with the severity of
      DME. RESULTS: In 40 eyes with treatment-naive DME (mean age, 55.8 years) visual
      acuity (VA) (mean 59.6 EDTRS letters) was correlated with central macular
      thickness (CMT) (mean 536.9 MUm, R = -0.418, P = .008) and macular volume (MV)
      (mean 11.9 mm3, R = -0.449, P = .004). The NPA and ISI among the different
      retinal zones were significantly different (NPA: P < .001; ISI: P = .005). The
      NPA and ISI in the midperiphery were negatively associated with CMT (NPA: P =
      .04; ISI: P = .02). However, the global NPA and ISI for the entire retina were
      not associated with CMT or MV (P > .05). CONCLUSION: In eyes with DME, the ISI
      increases with increasing distance from the fovea. The severity of DME does not
      appear to correlate with global NPA and ISI.

PMID- 28579063
TI  - Choroidal Changes Associated With Subretinal Drusenoid Deposits in Age-related
      Macular Degeneration Using Swept-source Optical Coherence Tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare choroidal vascular features of eyes with and without
      subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDD), using swept-source optical coherence
      tomography (SS OCT). DESIGN: Multicenter, cross-sectional study. METHODS: We
      prospectively recruited patients with intermediate age-related macular
      degeneration (AMD), without other vitreoretinal pathology. All participants
      underwent complete ophthalmic examination, color fundus photography (used for AMD
      staging), and spectral-domain OCT (to evaluate the presence of SDD). SS OCT was
      used to obtain automatic macular choroidal thickness (CT) maps, according to the
      Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) sectors. For data analysis, we
      considered mean choroidal thickness as the arithmetic mean value of the 9 ETDRS
      sectors. SS OCT en face images of choroidal vasculature were also captured and
      converted to binary images. Choroidal vascular density (CVD) was calculated as a
      percent area occupied by choroidal vessels in a 6-mm-diameter submacular
      circular. Choroidal vessel volume was calculated by multiplying the average CVD
      by macular area and CT. Multilevel mixed linear models (to account for the
      inclusion of 2 eyes of same subject) were performed for analysis. RESULTS: We
      included 186 eyes (n = 118 subjects), 94 (50.5%) presenting SDD. Multiple
      regression analysis revealed that, controlling for age, eyes with SDD presented a
      statistically thinner mean CT (beta = -21.9, P = .006) and CT in all the
      individual ETDRS fields (beta <= -18.79, P <= .026). Mean choroidal vessel volume
      was also significantly reduced in eyes with SDD (beta = -0.003, P = .007). No
      significant associations were observed with mean CVD. CONCLUSION: In subjects
      with intermediate AMD, choroidal thickness and vessel volume are reduced in the
      presence of subretinal drusenoid deposits.

PMID- 28579064
TI  - Practice Patterns Among Eye Care Providers at US Teaching Hospitals With Regard
      to Assessing and Educating Patients About Smoking.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate practice patterns of eye care providers at academic
      medical centers in the United States (US) with regard to assessing patients'
      smoking status and exposure, educating patients regarding ocular risks of
      smoking, and counseling patients about smoking cessation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      survey. METHODS: An anonymous survey including multiple choice and Likert-style
      questions was constructed on http://www.surveymonkey.com and emailed to the
      coordinators of all 113 US ophthalmology residency programs, with a request to
      forward to all faculty, fellows, residents, and optometrists at their
      institution. Main outcome measures include proportion of eye care providers who
      assess patients' smoking status, educate patients regarding ocular risks of
      smoking, and discuss with patients smoking cessation options. RESULTS: Of the 292
      respondents, 229 (78%) "always" or "periodically" ask patients about their
      smoking status, 251 (86%) "seldom" or "never" ask patients about secondhand smoke
      exposure, 245 (84%) "always" or "periodically" educate patients about ocular
      diseases associated with smoking, 142 (49%) "seldom" or "never" ask patients who
      smoke about their willingness to quit smoking, and 249 (85%) "seldom" or "never"
      discuss potential methods and resources to assist with smoking cessation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Most eye care providers assess patients' smoking status and educate
      patients regarding ocular risks of smoking. However, approximately half do not
      ask, or seldom ask, about patients' willingness to quit smoking, and most do not
      discuss smoking cessation options.

PMID- 28579065
TI  - Engineering a sprayable and elastic hydrogel adhesive with antimicrobial
      properties for wound healing.
AB  - Hydrogel-based bioadhesives have emerged as alternatives for sutureless wound
      closure, since they can mimic the composition and physicochemical properties of
      the extracellular matrix. However, they are often associated with poor mechanical
      properties, low adhesion to native tissues, and lack of antimicrobial properties.
      Herein, a new sprayable, elastic, and biocompatible composite hydrogel, with
      broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, for the treatment of chronic wounds is
      reported. The composite hydrogels were engineered using two ECM-derived
      biopolymers, gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and methacryloyl-substituted
      recombinant human tropoelastin (MeTro). MeTro/GelMA composite hydrogel adhesives
      were formed via visible light-induced crosslinking. Additionally, the
      antimicrobial peptide Tet213 was conjugated to the hydrogels, instilling
      antimicrobial activity against Gram (+) and (-) bacteria. The physical properties
      (e.g. porosity, degradability, swellability, mechanical, and adhesive properties)
      of the engineered hydrogel could be fine-tuned by varying the ratio of
      MeTro/GelMA and the final polymer concentration. The hydrogels supported in vitro
      mammalian cellular growth in both two-dimensional and three dimensional cultures.
      The subcutaneous implantation of the hydrogels in rats confirmed their
      biocompatibility and biodegradation in vivo. The engineered MeTro/GelMA-Tet213
      hydrogels can be used for sutureless wound closure strategies to prevent
      infection and promote healing of chronic wounds.

PMID- 28579066
TI  - Renal Transplantation Using Stone-bearing Deceased Donor Kidneys-Experience of a
      Transplant Center in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcomes of transplantation of deceased donor stone
      bearing kidneys. METHODS: A total of 32 patients who received renal
      transplantation at our center from July 2011 to June 2016 were included. Eight
      recipients received kidneys with incidental renal stone(s) (stone group). Twenty
      four recipients received kidneys without renal stones (non-stone group). The
      transplantation outcomes of the 2 groups were compared. RESULTS: There was 1 case
      of postoperative urinary tract infection in the stone group, and 2 cases in the
      non-stone group. No ureteral obstruction or hydronephrosis occurred in either
      group. No significant difference was found in the incidence of complications,
      serum creatinine level, and estimated glomerular filtration rate between the
      groups (all, P >.05). No deaths occurred in either group during the follow-up
      period. One recipient had postoperative calculi recurrence, and 4 recipients had
      residual calculi before transplantation. However, these patients had no
      symptomatic nephrolithiasis or obstruction, and their renal functions were
      normal. CONCLUSION: Transplantation of deceased donor stone-bearing kidneys can
      achieve comparable outcomes of deceased donor non-stone-bearing kidneys.

PMID- 28579069
TI  - Serous Carcinoma of the Testicle and the Paratesticular Tissue: Case Report and
      Literature Review.
AB  - Ovarian-type epithelial lesions of the testicle and the paratesticular tissue are
      uncommon, especially invasive serous adenocarcinoma with only 18 cases reported
      in the literature. Although the majority of these tumors occur in adults with an
      age range from 16 to 87 years, only 1 patient was less than 10 years old. Herein,
      we report only the second case of invasive serous adenocarcinoma occurring in the
      first decade of life, that of a 7-year-old boy. Additionally, clinical
      presentation, imaging, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and clinical follow
      up of invasive serous adenocarcinoma of the testicle are discussed, along with a
      review of the literature.

PMID- 28579068
TI  - The Impact of Age on Urethroplasty Success.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if age is an independent predictor of surgical success in
      patients undergoing urethroplasty. Urethroplasty performed by excision and
      primary anastomosis depends on vascular collateralization. Successful augmented
      urethroplasty depends on graft neovascularization. Older patients have more
      comorbid conditions including peripheral vascular disease associated with reduced
      penile blood flow. METHODS: This is a retrospective review of urethroplasties
      from 11 institutions. Primary outcome was functional success at 1 year from
      surgery, defined as freedom from post-urethroplasty procedures. Secondary outcome
      was freedom from cystoscopic evidence of stricture recurrence at 3 months. Study
      outcomes were compared between 2 age cohorts (<60 years old and >=60 years old).
      Multivariable logistic regression analysis evaluated the influence of patient
      factors on our primary and secondary outcomes, using age as a continuous
      variable. RESULTS: Of 322 urethroplasties, 258 were performed in patients <60
      years and 64 in patients >=60 years. Median follow-up was 1.8 years. The
      following were not significantly different between groups: stricture length or
      location, smoking status, number of previous urethrotomies or dilations, and
      urethroplasty type. The following were more common in patients >=60 years:
      diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery and peripheral vascular
      disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer. There was no
      difference in need for repeat procedures or anatomic recurrence between age
      groups or with increasing age. Stricture length was the only statistically
      significant clinical factor. CONCLUSION: Urethroplasty success may be affected by
      comorbidities but not age. Age alone should not be used as an absolute exclusion
      criterion for men needing urethral reconstruction.

PMID- 28579067
TI  - The Beneficial Effect of Fesoterodine, a Competitive Muscarinic Receptor
      Antagonist on Erectile Dysfunction in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible role of fesoterodine (a competitive
      muscarinic receptor antagonist) on erectile dysfunction in streptozotocin-induced
      diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 16 adult male Sprague-Dawley
      rats were equally divided into control and diabetic groups. Diabetes was induced
      by a single intravenous injection of streptozotocin (25-35 mg/kg). In vivo
      erectile responses were evaluated by the stimulation of cavernosal nerves, and
      measurements were repeated after the intracavernosal injection of fesoterodine (1
      uM) in rats. The relaxation responses to fesoterodine were examined via
      incubation with various inhibitors. The relaxant responses of corpus cavernosum
      (CC) strips were observed in the presence or the absence of fesoterodine (10 uM).
      RESULTS: Intracavernous administration of fesoterodine restored in vivo erectile
      response at 5.0- and 7.5-V levels, except for 2.5 V in diabetic rats. Basal
      intracavernosal pressure (5.4 +/- 0.9 mm Hg) in diabetic rats was markedly
      increased after injection of fesoterodine (33.9 +/- 7.9 mm Hg, P <.001). In bath
      studies, fesoterodine resulted in a relaxation of CC in a concentration-dependent
      manner, which was reduced in diabetic rats. Nifedipine (l-type Ca2+ channel
      blocker) inhibited maximum fesoterodine-induced relaxation by 58%. The
      nonselective K+ channel blocker tetraethylammonium and glibenclamide incubation
      did not change the relaxant response to fesoterodine. The relaxant responses to
      acetylcholine (10 uM), electrical field stimulation (10 Hz), and sodium
      nitroprusside (0.01 uM) in diabetic rats were increased after incubation with
      fesoterodine (10 uM). CONCLUSION: Fesoterodine improved erectile function and
      relaxation of isolated strips of rat CC. The underlying mechanism of fesoterodine
      is likely due to the blocking of l-type calcium channels independent of the
      nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway. Further investigations are
      warranted to fully elucidate the restorative effects of fesoterodine on
      overactive bladder-induced diabetic erectile dysfunction.

PMID- 28579070
TI  - Improving Teamwork: Evaluating Workload of Surgical Team During Robot-assisted
      Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cognitive and physical workload experienced by each
      operating room team member for different types of urologic procedures. METHODS:
      Surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical fellows, bedside assistants, circulating
      nurses, and scrub nurses completed the National Aeronautics and Space
      Administration Task Load Index questionnaire for various urologic robot-assisted
      surgery procedures. A total of 338 questionnaires from 55 unique individuals were
      collected. Workload differences by role, type of procedure, and surgery duration
      were analyzed using analysis of variance for each of the 6 domains of the
      National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index. The effects of
      trainees' participation on their perceived workload and the workloads of the lead
      surgeon and bedside assistant were analyzed with correlation. RESULTS: The role
      of the surgical team was significant for all the scales of workload, and there
      was a main effect type of surgery on temporal demand and frustration. Frustration
      was higher for prostatectomy in comparison to cystectomy for the trainee surgeon.
      On the other hand, it was lower for the anesthesiologist, bedside assistant, and
      the circulating nurse. There was no effect of procedural complexity on workload.
      Regardless of surgical complexity, the trainees performed approximately 40% of
      the procedure without significantly impacting their perceived workload.
      CONCLUSION: This study provides an analysis of variations and contributors to
      workload parameters and serves as a platform to optimize team members' workload
      during robot-assisted surgery.

PMID- 28579071
TI  - Tranylcypromine in mind (Part II): Review of clinical pharmacology and meta
      analysis of controlled studies in depression.
AB  - It has been over 50 years since a review has focused exclusively on the monoamine
      oxidase (MAO) inhibitor tranylcypromine (TCP). A new review has therefore been
      conducted for TCP in two parts which are written to be read preferably in close
      conjunction: part I - pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, drug interactions,
      toxicology; and part II - clinical studies with meta-analysis of controlled
      studies in depression, practice of TCP treatment, place in therapy. The
      irreversible and nonselective MAO-A/B inhibitor TCP has been confirmed as an
      efficacious and safe antidepressant drug. For the first time, a meta-analysis of
      controlled clinical trials in depression demonstrated that TCP is superior to
      placebo (pooled logOR=0.509, 95%CI=0.026 to 0.993, 4 studies) and equal to other
      antidepressants (pooled logOR=0.208, 95%CI=-0.128 to 0.544, 10 studies). In
      treatment resistant depression (TRD) after tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and
      selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), TCP was superior to placebo
      (logOR=2.826, 95%CI=1.494 to 4.158, one study) and non-established
      antidepressants (pooled logOR=1.976, 95%CI=0.907 to 3.045, 4 studies), and was
      equal to other MAO inhibitors and an antidepressant combination (pooled logOR=
      0.366, 95%CI=-0.869 to 0.137, 4 studies). Controlled studies revealed that TCP
      might provide a special advantage in the treatment of atypical depression, which
      was supported by a recent PET study of MAO-A activity in brain. However, TCP
      treatment remains beset with the need for a mandatory tyramine-restricted diet
      and is therefore limited to use as a third-line antidepressant according to
      recent treatment algorithms and guidelines for depression treatment. On the other
      hand, the effort needed to maintain a tyramine-restricted diet may have been
      overestimated in the perception of both doctors and patients, which may have led
      to relative underuse of TCP. Interaction with serotonergic drugs bears the risk
      of severe serotonin toxicity (SST) and combination with indirect sympathomimetic
      drugs may result in hypertensive crisis which both adds to the risks of TCP. At
      the same time, TCP has low to no risks of central anticholinergic, sedative,
      cardiac conduction, body weight, hemostatic effects, or pharmacokinetic drug
      interactions. Neuroprotection by MAO inhibitors due to reduced oxidative stress
      is becoming increasingly studied. Taken together, TCP is being increasingly
      recognized as an important option in systematic treatment approaches for patients
      suffering from severe courses of depression, such as TRD and atypical depression,
      by offering a MAO-related pathophysiological rationale.

PMID- 28579072
TI  - The impact of comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder in patients with major
      depressive disorder on clinical features, pharmacological treatment strategies,
      and treatment outcomes - Results from a cross-sectional European multicenter
      study.
AB  - This international, multicenter, cross-sectional study comprising 1346 adult in-
      and outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) investigated the association
      between MDD as primary diagnosis and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder
      (PTSD). In a cross-sectional data collection process, the presence of comorbid
      PTSD was determined by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI)
      and the patients' socio-demographic, clinical, psychopharmacological, and
      response information were obtained. Clinical features between MDD with and
      without concurrent PTSD were compared using descriptive statistics, analyses of
      covariance (ANCOVA), and binary logistic regression analyses. 1.49% of the MDD
      patients suffered from comorbid PTSD. Significantly more MDD + comorbid PTSD
      patients exhibited atypical features, comorbid anxiety disorders (any comorbid
      anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and social phobia), comorbid
      bulimia nervosa, current suicide risk, and augmentation treatment with low-dose
      antipsychotic drugs. In the binary logistic regression analyses, the presence of
      atypical features (odds ratio (OR) = 4.49, 95%CI:1.01-20.12; p<=.05), any
      comorbid anxiety disorder (OR = 3.89, 95%CI:1.60-9.44; p = .003), comorbid panic
      disorder (OR = 6.45, 95%CI:2.52-16.51; p = .001), comorbid agoraphobia (OR =
      6.51, 95%CI:2.54-16.68; p<=.001), comorbid social phobia (OR = 6.16, 95%CI:1.71
      22.17; p<=.001), comorbid bulimia nervosa (OR = 10.39, 95%CI:1.21-88.64; p =
      .03), current suicide risk (OR = 3.58, 95%CI:1.30-9.91; p = .01), and
      augmentation with low-potency antipsychotics (OR = 6.66, 95%CI:2.50-17.77;
      p<.001) were associated with concurrent PTSD in predominant MDD. Major findings
      of this study were (1.) the much lower prevalence rate of comorbid PTSD in
      predominant MDD compared to the reverse prevalence rates of concurrent MDD in
      primary PTSD, (2.) the high association to comorbid anxiety disorders, and (3.)
      the increased suicide risk due to concurrent PTSD.

PMID- 28579074
TI  - Cytosolic Proteostasis Networks of the Mitochondrial Stress Response.
AB  - Mitochondrial stress requires timely intervention to prevent mitochondrial and
      cellular dysfunction. Re-establishing the correct protein homeostasis is crucial
      for coping with mitochondrial stress and maintaining cellular homeostasis. The
      best-characterized adaptive pathways for mitochondrial stress involve a signal
      originating from stressed mitochondria that triggers a nuclear response. However,
      recent findings have shown that mitochondrial stress also affects a complex
      network of protein homeostasis pathways in the cytosol. We review how
      mitochondrial dysregulation affects cytosolic proteostasis by regulating the
      quantity and quality of protein synthesis, protein stability, and protein
      degradation, leading to an integrated regulation of cellular metabolism and
      proliferation. This mitochondria to cytosol network extends the current model of
      the mitochondrial stress response, with potential applications in the treatment
      of mitochondrial disease.

PMID- 28579075
TI  - Thoughts on public policy to increase family-based care and decrease
      institutional care.
AB  - Many countries are in the earliest stage of reforming the care sector. Reformers
      face challenges as they develop public policy to expand family based care and
      shrink institutional care. To mention a few: installing the keystone component of
      care reform - a system to monitor and support children post-institutionalization;
      enabling children to grow up where they belong, in families; meeting children's
      basic needs where they should live, in their own communities; meeting children's
      basic needs where many actually live, in institutions; strengthening the social
      service workforce; and elevating the political priority of poor and vulnerable
      children through evidence-based advocacy. Care reform must be sold in the
      political marketplace. Evidence-based, tactical advocacy is key to reforming care
      policy and winning the public resources needed to gear-up programs for the care,
      protection and development of vulnerable children.

PMID- 28579077
TI  - Phylogenomic analysis of Lake Malawi cichlid fishes: Further evidence that the
      three-stage model of diversification does not fit.
AB  - Adaptive radiations could often occur in discrete stages. For instance, the
      species flock of ~1000 species of Lake Malawi cichlid fishes might have only
      diverged once between rocky and sandy environments during the initial stage of
      their diversification. All further diversification within the rock-dwelling
      (mbuna) or sand-dwelling (utaka) cichlids would have occurred during a subsequent
      second stage of extensive trophic evolution that was followed by a third stage of
      sexual trait divergence. We provide an improved phylogenetic framework for Malawi
      cichlids to test this three-stage hypothesis based on newly reconstructed
      phylogenetic relationships among 32 taxonomically disparate Malawi cichlids
      species. Using several reconstruction methods and 1037 ultra-conserved element
      (UCE) markers, we recovered a molecular phylogeny that confidently resolved
      relationships among most of the Malawi lineages sampled when a bifurcating
      framework was enforced. These bifurcating reconstructions also indicated that the
      sand-dwelling species Cyathochromis obliquidens was well-nested within the
      primarily rock-dwelling radiation known as the mbuna. In contrast to predictions
      from the three-stage model of vertebrate diversification, the recovered phylogeny
      reveals an initial colonization of rocky reefs, followed by substantial
      diversification of rock-dwelling lineages, and then at least one instance of
      subsequent evolution back into sandy habitats. This repeated evolution into major
      habitat types provides further evidence that the three-stage model of Malawi
      cichlid diversification has numerous exceptions.

PMID- 28579073
TI  - Advances on the Transfer of Lipids by Lipid Transfer Proteins.
AB  - Transfer of lipid across the cytoplasm is an essential process for intracellular
      lipid traffic. Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are defined by highly controlled in
      vitro experiments. The functional relevance of these is supported by evidence for
      the same reactions inside cells. Major advances in the LTP field have come from
      structural bioinformatics identifying new LTPs, and from the development of
      countercurrent models for LTPs. However, the ultimate aim is to unite in vitro
      and in vivo data, and this is where much progress remains to be made. Even where
      in vitro and in vivo experiments align, rates of transfer tend not to match. Here
      we set out some of the advances that might test how LTPs work.

PMID- 28579076
TI  - Resilience in young children involved with child protective services.
AB  - Child maltreatment increases the risk of poor developmental outcomes. However,
      some children display resilience, meaning they are high-functioning despite their
      adverse experiences. To date, few research studies have examined protective
      factors among very young maltreated children. Yet, domains of resilience, and the
      protective factors that promote resilience among maltreated children, are likely
      to differ by developmental stage. Drawing on ecological systems theory and life
      course theory, we examined how protective factors at multiple ecological levels
      across early childhood were related to social and cognitive resilience among very
      young children involved with child protective services. The results demonstrated
      that the buffering effects of protective factors varied by social or cognitive
      resilience and the cumulative effects of protective factors were more
      consistently related to later resilience than protective factors at specific time
      points. In addition, the influence of specific protective factors on resilience
      slightly varied by initial in-home or out-of-home placement. These findings have
      important policy and research implications for promoting optimal development
      among children involved in child protective services.

PMID- 28579079
TI  - Ontogenetic changes in the expression of immune related genes in response to
      immunostimulants and resistance against white spot syndrome virus in Litopenaeus
      vannamei.
AB  - In recent years, researchers have focused on viral and plant immunostimulants
      which could have beneficial effects in disease prevention and control in shrimp
      culture. At present, the application of the recombinant VP28 protein (r-VP28) and
      herbal immunostimulant has been considered as a more effective approach to
      prevent white spot syndrome (WSS) by enhancing the immune response in shrimp. In
      the present study, expression of selected immune related genes in response to r
      VP28 and herbal immunostimulant mix (HIM) were separately studied qualitatively
      and quantitatively by RT-PCR and real time PCR, respectively during ontogenetic
      development from nauplius to juvenile stage in Litopenaeus vannamei. The mRNA
      expression level of immune related genes such as anti-lipopolysaccharides (ALF),
      Lysozyme, cMnSOD, Crustin, Prophenoloxidase, Tumor necrosis factor receptor
      associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and Haemocyanin were found to be up-regulated
      significantly in different ontogenetic development stages of shrimp fed with r
      VP28 and HIM formulated diets. Relative percent survival (RPS) was determined in
      shrimp fed with immunostimulants formulated diets after oral challenge with WSSV.
      The survival of WSSV challenged shrimp was found to be higher in immunostimulants
      treated groups when compared to untreated group. The results of PCR, ELISA and
      real time PCR revealed the absence of WSSV in WSSV-challenged shrimp after 20
      days of treatment with immunostimulants. Among these immunostimulants, HIM was
      found to be more effective when compared to r-VP28. After a survey of literature,
      we are of the opinion that this might be the first report on the expression of
      immune genes during ontogenetic development of L. vannamei in response to
      immunostimulants.

PMID- 28579078
TI  - Developmentally Supportive Care in Congenital Heart Disease: A Concept Analysis.
AB  - THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES: Improved survival of infants and children with congenital
      heart disease experience has led to recognition that up to half of congenital
      heart disease survivors also experience developmental delay. Developmentally
      supportive care is a care model shown in Neonatal Intensive Care Units to be
      associated with improved outcomes, but developmentally supportive practices with
      premature infants may not be equally effective in the cardiac population that
      includes all ages. PHENOMENA ADDRESSED: The purpose of this paper is to present a
      concept analysis using the Walker and Avant method in order to identify and
      define characteristics of developmentally supportive care as it may be applied to
      the population of neonates, infants, and children with congenital heart disease.
      A theoretical definition of developmentally supportive care is presented.
      RESEARCH LINKAGES: This concept analysis will provide nurses and allied health
      professionals with a theoretical basis to implement high quality, family-centered
      care that meets individual developmental needs in a population at high risk for
      developmental sequelae. Nursing implications for developmentally supportive care
      as it applies to infants and children with heart disease are discussed.

PMID- 28579080
TI  - Using spontaneous commentary of nursing home residents to develop resident
      centered measurement tools: A case study.
AB  - Nursing home (NH) residents routinely complete surveys that assess their health,
      well-being, preferences, and care needs. Such surveys reveal important
      information, however, are largely based on the concerns of providers as opposed
      to the concerns of residents. Thus, researchers must enhance efforts to ensure
      that these surveys are guided by the priorities, needs, and concerns of
      residents. We present a case study to demonstrate how spontaneous commentary of
      NH residents holds particular efficacy for ensuring that measurement tools are
      guided by the needs, concerns, and priorities of residents. Spontaneous comments
      from NH residents (N = 370) collected as part of a study developing the
      Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory for NH residents (PELI-NH) were used to
      refine the PELI-NH across key phases of measurement development. This work
      demonstrates how the spontaneous commentary of NH residents may contribute to the
      refinement of NH measurement tools, and allow researchers to base these tools on
      the needs and priorities of NH residents.

PMID- 28579081
TI  - Adverse drug events reported by rural older adults.
AB  - Adverse drug events (ADEs) impact the health and safety of older adults. ADEs may
      lead to unplanned medical visits that influence health and related costs. The
      purpose of this study was to explore ADEs reported by rural, community-dwelling
      older adults. Data were collected on 138 participants' demographics, physical and
      mental health, sleep, medications, and ADEs. One or more ADEs were reported by
      48% of participants, including central nervous symptom disturbances (16%), dry
      mouth (12%), hoarseness, gastrointestinal irritation, and decreased libido (all
      8%). Poor sleep and poor physical health were associated with higher reported
      ADEs (p < 0.05). Older adults (ages 79-99) and those with higher physical health
      were 60% less likely to report ADEs. Those with poorer sleep quality were 50%
      more likely to report ADEs. Viable strategies are needed to monitor and reduce
      ADEs in community-dwelling older adults who use multiple medications to manage
      poor health and poor sleep.

PMID- 28579082
TI  - Validity and reliability of the Polish version of myasthenia gravis - Quality of
      life questionnaire - 15 item.
AB  - AIM: The myasthenia gravis-quality of life questionnaire 15 item (MG-QOL15) is a
      short, and easy to use disease-specific quality of life (QOL) tool in myasthenia
      gravis. The aim of this study was to validate and adapt the Polish version of the
      MG-QOL15. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The total number of 50 patients with MG were
      qualified for the examination. Each patient underwent neurological examination
      and completed the quality of life evaluation questionnaire MQ-QOL 15 after
      translation and back-translation. Additionally, each patient was asked to
      evaluate the quality of his/her life by means of questionnaire SF-36 in Polish
      language version. RESULTS: The MG-QOL15 was found to have high internal
      consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. CONCLUSION: The MG
      QOL15 is accepted to be a valid, reliable, valuable tool for measuring disease
      specific QOL in Polish patients with MG.

PMID- 28579084
TI  - Javea consensus guidelines for the treatment of Candida peritonitis and other
      intra-abdominal fungal infections in non-neutropenic critically ill adult
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the management of the invasive candidiasis has improved in
      the last decade, controversial issues yet remain, especially in the diagnostic
      and therapeutic approaches to Candida peritonitis and other forms of intra
      abdominal fungal infections. AIMS: We sought to identify core clinical knowledge
      about intra-abdominal fungal infections and to achieve high-agreement
      recommendations required to care for critically ill adult patients with Candida
      peritonitis and other forms of intra-abdominal fungal infection. METHODS: A
      biregional Spanish survey, to elucidate the consensus about the already mentioned
      fungal infections by means of the Delphi technique, was conducted anonymously by
      e-mail with 29 multidisciplinary experts in invasive fungal infections from 14
      hospitals in the Valencia and Murcia communities during 2014. Respondents
      included intensivists, anesthesiologists, microbiologists, pharmacologists, and
      infectious disease specialists, who answered 31 questions prepared by a
      coordination group after a strict review of the literature from the 5 previous
      years. The educational objectives spanned 6 categories: epidemiology,
      microbiological diagnosis, clinical diagnosis, antifungal treatment, de
      escalation therapy, and special situations. The agreement required among the
      panelists for each item to be selected had to be higher than 70%. After
      extracting the recommendations from the selected items, a meeting at which the
      experts were asked to validate the previously selected recommendations in a
      second round of scoring took place. RESULTS: After the second round, 36
      recommendations were validated according to the following distribution:
      epidemiology (5), microbiological diagnosis (4), clinical diagnosis (4),
      antifungal treatment (3), de-escalation therapy (4), and special situations (16).
      CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of Candida peritonitis and other forms of intra-abdominal
      fungal infections in ICU patients requires a broad range of knowledge application
      and skills that our recommendations address. Based on the DELPHI methodology,
      these recommendations might help to optimize the therapeutic management of these
      patients in special situations and in various scenarios to improve their outcome.

PMID- 28579085
TI  - Update on the management of intra-abdominal Candida infections.

PMID- 28579083
TI  - [Candida glabrata vaginitis: The great ignored?]

PMID- 28579086
TI  - Effects of exogenous isoprenoid diphosphates on in vivo attachment to
      bacteriochlorophyllide c in the green sulfur photosynthetic bacterium
      Chlorobaculum tepidum.
AB  - Metabolic substitution of the esterifying chain in bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c
      in green photosynthetic bacteria grown by supplementation of exogenous alcohols
      has attracted attentions to study supramolecular structures and biogenesis of
      major antenna complexes chlorosomes in these bacteria as well as BChl pigment
      biosynthesis. Actual substrates in the enzymatic attachment of the esterifying
      moieties to the precursor of BChl c, namely bacteriochlorophyllide (BChlide) c,
      in these bacteria are believed to be diphosphate esters of alcoholic substrates,
      although only intact alcohols have so far been supplemented in the bacterial
      cultures. We report herein BChl c compositions in the green sulfur photosynthetic
      bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum by supplementation with geranyl and
      geranylgeranyl diphosphates. The supplementation of these diphosphates hardly
      produced BChl c derivatives esterified with geraniol and geranylgeraniol in Cba.
      tepidum, whereas these BChl c derivatives were accumulated by supplementation of
      intact geraniol and geranylgeraniol. The sharp contrast of the incorporation
      efficiency of the supplemental isoprenoid moieties in BChl c using the isoprenoid
      diphosphates to that by the isoprenoid alcohols was mainly ascribable to less
      penetration abilities of the diphosphate substrates into Cba. tepidum cells
      because of their anionic and polar diphosphate moiety.

PMID- 28579088
TI  - On-farm conditions that compromise animal welfare that can be monitored at the
      slaughter plant.
AB  - Handling and stunning at slaughter plants has greatly improved through the use of
      numerical scoring. The purpose of this paper is to encourage the use of numerical
      scoring systems at the slaughter plants to assess conditions that compromise
      welfare that occurred either during transport or on the farm. Some of the
      transport problems that can be assessed are bruises, death losses, and injured
      animals. Welfare issues that occurred on the farm that can be assessed at the
      abattoir are body condition, lameness, lesions, injuries, animal cleanliness and
      internal pathology. There are important welfare issues that cannot be assessed at
      slaughter. They are on-farm euthanasia methods, use of analgesics during
      surgeries, and the type of animal housing systems. Welfare evaluations at
      slaughter have the potential to greatly improve welfare.

PMID- 28579087
TI  - The protective role of Helicobacter pylori neutrophil-activating protein in
      childhood asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori quantity and HP-NAP gene expression were
      evaluated in the faeces of healthy and asthmatic children. METHODS: H. pylori
      DNAs and RNAs were isolated from the stool samples of 92 asthmatic children (AC;
      3-8 years) and 88 healthy controls (HC). Quantitative PCR was used to determine
      the quantity of H. pylori and HP-NAP expression relative to the 16S rRNA
      (reference gene). Gene expression was analysed using the delta delta-Ct method.
      RESULTS: H. pylori DNA was detected in the stool samples of 18 (20.4%) of the 88
      HC (p<0.0001, OR=0.79) and none of AC. No meaningful statistical differences were
      found between individuals with positive and negative family histories for asthma
      in AC and HC (p>0.05). H. pylori quantity was higher in seven of 18 H. pylori
      positive samples, but HP-NAP expression levels were low in four of these seven
      samples. Based on a multivariate logistic regression analysis of these three
      variables together, only males displayed a significant difference based on gender
      differences (p<0.02) and it was determined that, based on the OR value of 0.46
      and the 95% CI range of 0.241-0.888, male gender was an independent protective
      factor in asthma. CONCLUSIONS: HP-NAP levels vary to the relative concentrations
      of bacteria in the stationary or late logarithmic phases. Different napA
      expression levels may be caused by different endogenous napA gene expression or
      different environmental conditions.

PMID- 28579089
TI  - Muscle strength and force development in high- and low-functioning elderly men:
      Influence of muscular and neural factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aging leads to a loss of muscle strength and functional capacity
      likely resulting from a combination of neural and muscle alterations. The aim of
      this study was to identify possible disparities in muscle strength and force
      development profiles in high- and low-functioning elderly men and to investigate
      muscular and neurophysiological factors that could explain the differences.
      METHODS: Sixty community-dwelling men in good general health were divided in two
      groups based on a functional capacity (FC) z-score derived from 6 tests of the
      Short Physical Performance Battery and Senior Fitness Test (Normal and fast 4m
      walk tests, normal and fast Timed-up and go, chair and stair tests). Extensor
      strength of the lower limbs (LL) was obtained for concentric (CLES) contraction
      and combined with lean masses of LL (LLLM) to yield concentric (CLES/LLLM) index.
      Similarly, extensor strength of the right Quadriceps Femoris (IKES) was obtained
      during maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) and combined with right
      thigh lean mass (rTLM) to produce an isometric strength (IKES/rTLM) index. A
      muscular profile was obtained from: ascending and descending force slopes during
      the MVC; Vastus Lateralis (VL) muscle twitches parameters (amplitude, contraction
      and 1/2 relaxation times); the knee joint velocity (KV) as well as integrated EMG
      (iEMG) were determined for a sit-to-stand functional evaluation; muscle
      phenotype. A neurophysiological profile was established from: the spinal
      excitability (Hmax/Mmax ratio); motoneuron conduction velocity (CV); the
      completeness of muscle activation (% of force reserve), median power frequency
      (MPF) and mean amplitude (MA) of the VL EMG signal during MVC. RESULTS:
      Coincidently, age did not differ between groups. Strength and force indices,
      descending force slopes for MVC, KV and iEMG during the sit-to-stand evaluation
      and FC parameters were all significantly (p<0.05) lower in the LoFC group than in
      the HiFC group. In contrast, no difference was observed between groups in: LLLM
      and rTLM, Hmax/Mmax ratio, CV, twitch parameters and muscle phenotype.
      CONCLUSION: The lower concentric and isometric strengths found in the LoFC group
      could not be accounted for by muscular factors. Similarly, peripheral nervous
      systems alterations could not explain group differences. It can be suggested that
      modifications within the central nervous system may be responsible for the
      differences in the functional status of healthy elderly individuals. Finally,
      more complex and demanding tasks, such as those requiring greater intensity or
      coordination, may further clarify how healthy elderly individuals with low and
      high functional capacities differ.

PMID- 28579090
TI  - Right ventricular perforation as a complication of fluoroscopy-guided
      pericardiocentesis.

PMID- 28579092
TI  - Coronary artery aneurysm formation following implantation of a bioresorbable
      vascular scaffold for in-stent restenosis.
AB  - Coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) formation is a rare complication of coronary
      intervention that may develop after implantation of bare-metal or drug-eluting
      stents. The etiology of this entity appears to be multifactorial and its
      prognosis is poorly understood, but it has been associated with an increased risk
      of stent thrombosis. To date few cases of CAAs related to bioresorbable vascular
      scaffold (BVS) implantation have been reported, and the development of CAA after
      BVS implantation for the treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) has not been
      previously described. Here we present two cases of CAA formation after BVS, which
      represent the first demonstration of CAA formation after the use of BVS for ISR.

PMID- 28579094
TI  - A special JMR issue: Methodological advances in EPR spectroscopy and imaging.

PMID- 28579091
TI  - Characteristics and outcomes of heart failure hospitalization before
      implementation of a heart failure clinic: The PRECIC study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to characterize patients hospitalized for acute heart
      failure (HF) in an internal medicine department and their one-year mortality and
      rate of rehospitalization for decompensated HF. METHODS: This retrospective
      observational study enrolled all patients discharged in 2012 after
      hospitalization for acute HF. Discharge summaries, clinical records and telephone
      interviews were analysed. The data reports to the year before implementation of a
      heart failure clinic. RESULTS: Four hundred and twenty-nine patients were
      enrolled, with a mean age of 79 years, 62.5% female. The most prevalent
      comorbidity and etiology was hypertension (86.7%) and the most frequent
      decompensation trigger was infection. HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)
      was present in 70.5%. In-hospital mortality was 7.9%. At discharge more than half
      of the patients were prescribed beta-blockers (52.8%) and angiotensin-converting
      enzyme inhibitors (52%). Women presented a significantly higher proportion of
      HFpEF than men (75.3% vs. 62.7%, p=0.01). Patients with diabetes and those with
      ischemic etiology had significantly higher proportions of HF with reduced
      ejection fraction (HFrEF) (34.8% vs. 24.3% in non-diabetic patients, p=0.027, and
      56.2% vs. 15.6% for other etiologies, p<0.001). The HFrEF group were more
      frequently discharged under beta-blockers and spironolactone (75.2% vs. 46.4% in
      the HFpEF group, p<0.001 and 31.2% vs. 12.6% in the HFpEF group, p<0.001,
      respectively). Mortality was 34.3% and rehospitalization for HF was 30.5% in one
      year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The population characterized is an elderly one,
      mainly female and with HFpEF. Nearly a third of patients died and/or were
      rehospitalized in the year following discharge.

PMID- 28579093
TI  - The enduring impact of historical and structural racism on urban violence in
      Philadelphia.
AB  - Public health approaches to crime and injury prevention are increasingly focused
      on the physical places and environments where violence is concentrated. In this
      study, our aim is to explore the association between historic place-based racial
      discrimination captured in the 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of
      Philadelphia and present-day violent crime and firearm injuries. The creators of
      the 1937 HOLC map zoned Philadelphia based in a hierarchical system wherein first
      grade and green color zones were used to indicate areas desirable for government
      backed mortgage lending and economic development, a second-grade or blue zone for
      areas that were already developed and stable, a third-grade or yellow zone for
      areas with evidence of decline and influx of a "low grade population," and fourth
      grade or red zone for areas with dilapidated or informal housing and an
      "undesirable population" of predominately Black residents. We conducted an
      empirical spatial analysis of the concentration of firearm assaults and violent
      crimes in 2013 through 2014 relative to zoning in the 1937 HOLC map. After
      adjusting for socio-demographic factors at the time the map was created from the
      1940 Census, firearm injury rates are highest in historically red-zoned areas of
      Philadelphia. The relationship between HOLC map zones and general violent crime
      is not supported after adjusting for historical Census data. This analysis
      extends historic perspective to the relationship between emplaced structural
      racism and violence, and situates the socio-ecological context in which people
      live at the forefront of this association.

PMID- 28579095
TI  - Recent progress in synchrotron-based frequency-domain Fourier-transform THz-EPR.
AB  - We describe frequency-domain Fourier-transform THz-EPR as a method to assign spin
      coupling parameters of high-spin (S>1/2) systems with very large zero-field
      splittings. The instrumental foundations of synchrotron-based FD-FT THz-EPR are
      presented, alongside with a discussion of frequency-domain EPR simulation
      routines. The capabilities of this approach is demonstrated for selected mono-
      and multinuclear HS systems. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges and give an
      outlook on the future prospects of the technique.

PMID- 28579097
TI  - EPR-based distance measurements at ambient temperature.
AB  - Pulsed dipolar (PD) EPR spectroscopy is a powerful technique allowing for
      distance measurements between spin labels in the range of 2.5-10.0nm. It was
      proposed more than 30years ago, and nowadays is widely used in biophysics and
      materials science. Until recently, PD EPR experiments were limited to cryogenic
      temperatures (T<80K). Recently, application of spin labels with long electron
      spin dephasing time at room temperature such as triarylmethyl radicals and
      nitroxides with bulky substituents at a position close to radical centers enabled
      measurements at room temperature and even at physiologically relevant
      temperatures by PD EPR as well as other approaches based on EPR (e.g., relaxation
      enhancement; RE). In this paper, we review the features of PD EPR and RE at
      ambient temperatures, in particular, requirements on electron spin phase memory
      time, ways of immobilization of biomolecules, the influence of a linker between
      the spin probe and biomolecule, and future opportunities.

PMID- 28579096
TI  - Delocalisation of photoexcited triplet states probed by transient EPR and
      hyperfine spectroscopy.
AB  - Photoexcited triplet states play a crucial role in photochemical mechanisms: long
      known to be of paramount importance in the study of photosynthetic reaction
      centres, they have more recently also been shown to play a major role in a number
      of applications in the field of molecular electronics. Their characterisation is
      crucial for an improved understanding of these processes with a particular focus
      on the determination of the spatial distribution of the triplet state
      wavefunction providing information on charge and energy transfer efficiencies.
      Currently, active research in this field is mostly focussed on the investigation
      of materials for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and organic light emitting diodes
      (OLEDs). As the properties of triplet states and their spatial extent are known
      to have a major impact on device performance, a detailed understanding of the
      factors governing triplet state delocalisation is at the basis of the further
      development and improvement of these devices. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance
      (EPR) has proven a valuable tool in the study of triplet state properties and
      both experimental methods as well as data analysis and interpretation techniques
      have continuously improved over the last few decades. In this review, we discuss
      the theoretical and practical aspects of the investigation of triplet states and
      triplet state delocalisation by transient continuous wave and pulse EPR and
      highlight the advantages and limitations of the presently available techniques
      and the current trends in the field. Application of EPR in the study of triplet
      state delocalisation is illustrated on the example of linear multi-porphyrin
      chains designed as molecular wires.

PMID- 28579100
TI  - High-field/high-pressure ESR.
AB  - We present a historical review of high-pressure ESR systems with emphasis on our
      recent development of a high-pressure, high-field, multi-frequency ESR system.
      Until 2000, the X-band system was almost established using a resonator filled
      with dielectric materials or a combination of the anvil cell and dielectric
      resonators. Recent developments have shifted from that in the low-frequency
      region, such as X-band, to that in multi-frequency region. High-pressure, high
      field, multi-frequency ESR systems are classified into two types. First are the
      systems that use a vector network analyzer or a quasi-optical bridge, which have
      high sensitivity but a limited frequency region; the second are like our system,
      which has a very broad frequency region covering the THz region, but lower
      sensitivity. We will demonstrate the usefulness of our high-pressure ESR system,
      in addition to its experimental limitations. We also discuss the recent progress
      of our system and future plans.

PMID- 28579099
TI  - Rapid-scan EPR imaging.
AB  - In rapid-scan EPR the magnetic field or frequency is repeatedly scanned through
      the spectrum at rates that are much faster than in conventional continuous wave
      EPR. The signal is directly-detected with a mixer at the source frequency. Rapid
      scan EPR is particularly advantageous when the scan rate through resonance is
      fast relative to electron spin relaxation rates. In such scans, there may be
      oscillations on the trailing edge of the spectrum. These oscillations can be
      removed by mathematical deconvolution to recover the slow-scan absorption
      spectrum. In cases of inhomogeneous broadening, the oscillations may interfere
      destructively to the extent that they are not visible. The deconvolution can be
      used even when it is not required, so spectra can be obtained in which some
      portions of the spectrum are in the rapid-scan regime and some are not. The
      technology developed for rapid-scan EPR can be applied generally so long as
      spectra are obtained in the linear response region. The detection of the full
      spectrum in each scan, the ability to use higher microwave power without
      saturation, and the noise filtering inherent in coherent averaging results in
      substantial improvement in signal-to-noise relative to conventional continuous
      wave spectroscopy, which is particularly advantageous for low-frequency EPR
      imaging. This overview describes the principles of rapid-scan EPR and the
      hardware used to generate the spectra. Examples are provided of its application
      to imaging of nitroxide radicals, diradicals, and spin-trapped radicals at a
      Larmor frequency of ca. 250MHz.

PMID- 28579101
TI  - Perspectives of shaped pulses for EPR spectroscopy.
AB  - This article describes current uses of shaped pulses, generated by an arbitrary
      waveform generator, in the field of EPR spectroscopy. We show applications of
      sech/tanh and WURST pulses to dipolar spectroscopy, including new pulse schemes
      and procedures, and discuss the more general concept of optimum-control-based
      pulses for applications in EPR spectroscopy. The article also describes a
      procedure to correct for experimental imperfections, mostly introduced by the
      microwave resonator, and discusses further potential applications and limitations
      of such pulses.

PMID- 28579098
TI  - Membrane remodeling by amyloidogenic and non-amyloidogenic proteins studied by
      EPR.
AB  - The advancement in site-directed spin labeling of proteins has enabled EPR
      studies to expand into newer research areas within the umbrella of protein
      membrane interactions. Recently, membrane remodeling by amyloidogenic and non
      amyloidogenic proteins has gained a substantial interest in relation to driving
      and controlling vital cellular processes such as endocytosis, exocytosis, shaping
      of organelles like endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi and mitochondria, intracellular
      vesicular trafficking, formation of filopedia and multivesicular bodies,
      mitochondrial fusion and fission, and synaptic vesicle fusion and recycling in
      neurotransmission. Misregulation in any of these processes due to an aberrant
      protein (mutation or misfolding) or alteration of lipid metabolism can be
      detrimental to the cell and cause disease. Dissection of the structural basis of
      membrane remodeling by proteins is thus quite necessary for an understanding of
      the underlying mechanisms, but it remains a formidable task due to the
      difficulties of various common biophysical tools in monitoring the dynamic
      process of membrane binding and bending by proteins. This is largely since
      membranes generally complicate protein structure analysis and this problem is
      amplified for structural analysis in the presence of different types of membrane
      curvatures. Recent EPR studies on membrane remodeling by proteins show that a
      significant structural information can be generated to delineate the role of
      different protein modules, domains and individual amino acids in the generation
      of membrane curvature. These studies also show how EPR can complement the data
      obtained by high resolution techniques such as X-ray and NMR. This perspective
      covers the application of EPR in recent studies for understanding membrane
      remodeling by amyloidogenic and non-amyloidogenic proteins that is useful for
      researchers interested in using or complimenting EPR to gain better understanding
      of membrane remodeling. We also discuss how a single protein can generate
      different type of membrane curvatures using specific conformations for specific
      membrane structures and how EPR is a versatile tool well-suited to analyze subtle
      alterations in structures under such modifying conditions which otherwise would
      have been difficult using other biophysical tools.

PMID- 28579102
TI  - Wideband frequency-swept excitation in pulsed EPR spectroscopy.
AB  - Excitation of electron spins with monochromatic rectangular pulses is limited to
      bandwidths that are smaller than the spectral widths of most organic radicals and
      much smaller than the spectral widths of transition and rare earth metal ions.
      With frequency-swept pulses, bandwidths of up to 800MHz have previously been
      attained for excitation and detection of spin packets at frequencies of about
      9.6GHz and bandwidths of up to 2.5GHz in a polarization transfer experiment at
      frequencies of about 34GHz. The remaining limitations, mainly due to resonator
      bandwidth and due to pulse length restrictions are discussed. Flip angles for
      state-space rotations on passage of a transition can generally be computed from
      the critical adiabaticity by the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana expression.
      For hyperbolic secant pulses, the Demkov-Kunike model describes excitation for
      spin packets within and outside the sweep range. Well within the sweep range, the
      Bloch-Siegert phase shift is proportional to critical adiabaticity to a very good
      approximation. Because of the dependence of both flip angle and coherence phase
      on critical adiabaticity, it is advantageous to use pairs of amplitude and
      frequency modulation functions that provide such offset-independent adiabaticity.
      Compensation for the resonator response function should restore offset
      independent adiabaticity. Whereas resonance offsets and Bloch-Siegert phase can
      be refocused at certain pulse length ratios, phase dispersion in coupled spin
      systems cannot generally be refocused. Based on the bandwidth limitations that
      arise from spin dynamics, requirements are derived for a spectrometer that
      achieves precise spin control over wide bands. The design of such a spectrometer
      and hardware characterization by EPR experiments are discussed.

PMID- 28579103
TI  - ELDOR-detected NMR: A general and robust method for electron-nuclear hyperfine
      spectroscopy?
AB  - ELDOR-detected NMR (EDNMR) performed at higher magnetic fields is becoming an
      increasingly popular alternative to conventional ENDOR for the characterization
      of electron-nuclear hyperfine interactions owing to its enhanced sensitivity.
      However there are two key problems that limit its widespread adoption, with
      factors controlling: (i) lineshape distortions and; (ii) overall spectral
      resolution, still largely understood only at a qualitative level. Indeed highly
      anisotropic (dipolar) coupled species are particularly problematic in the EDNMR
      experiment. Nor is it clear as to whether line intensities measured in EDNMR can
      provide quantitative information. Here we describe how all these problems can be
      overcome for a nitroxide radical as model system. We introduce a simulation
      procedure/protocol for the simulation of EDNMR line-shapes collected over a range
      of high turning angle (HTA) pulse lengths. It is shown that spectral line-shapes
      can be robustly reproduced and that the intensities of spectral lines and the
      spin nutation behavior can be quantitatively assessed. This broadens the scope of
      the EDNMR experiment as a generally applicable, quantitative double resonance
      method.

PMID- 28579104
TI  - Understanding heme proteins with hyperfine spectroscopy.
AB  - Heme proteins are versatile proteins that are involved in a large number of
      biological processes. Many spectroscopic methods are used to gain insight into
      the different mechanistic processes governing heme-protein functions. Since many
      (intermediate) states of heme proteins are paramagnetic, electron paramagnetic
      resonance (EPR) methods, such as hyperfine spectroscopy, offer unique tools for
      these investigations. This perspective gives an overview of the use of state-of
      the-art hyperfine spectroscopy in heme research, focusing on the advantages,
      limits and challenges of the different techniques.

PMID- 28579105
TI  - EPR approaches to heterogeneous catalysis. The chemistry of titanium in
      heterogeneous catalysts and photocatalysts.
AB  - Paramagnetic species are often involved in catalytic or photocatalytic reactions
      occurring at the solid-gas interface of heterogeneous catalysts. In this
      contribution we will provide an overview of the wealth and breadth of information
      that can be obtained from EPR in the characterization of paramagnetic species in
      such systems, illustrating the advantages that modern pulsed EPR methodologies
      can offer in monitoring the elementary processes occurring within the
      coordination sphere of surface transition-metal ions. To do so we selected three
      representative systems, where titanium ions in low oxidation states act as active
      catalytic sites, trying to outline the methodological approaches which
      characterize the application of EPR techniques and the questions that can be
      answered and addressed relative to the characterization of heterogeneous
      catalytic materials.

PMID- 28579107
TI  - [Recent dyspnea in an 86-year-old woman].

PMID- 28579108
TI  - [Abnormal nails and chronic cough].

PMID- 28579106
TI  - Pre-pregnancy BMI-specific optimal gestational weight gain for women in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines are the most widely used
      guidelines on gestational weight gain; however, accumulation of evidence that
      body composition in Asians differs from other races has brought concern regarding
      whether their direct application is appropriate. We aimed to study to what extent
      optimal gestational weight gain among women in Japan differs by pre-pregnancy
      body mass index (BMI) and to compare estimated optimal gestational weight gain to
      current Japanese and Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations. METHODS: We
      retrospectively studied 104,070 singleton pregnancies among nulliparous women in
      2005-2011 using the Japanese national perinatal network database. In five pre
      pregnancy BMI sub-groups (17.0-18.4, 18.5-19.9, 20-22.9, 23-24.9, and 25-27.4
      kg/m2), we estimated the association of the rate of gestational weight gain with
      pregnancy outcomes (fetal growth, preterm delivery, and delivery complications)
      using multivariate regression. RESULTS: Weight gain rate associated with the
      lowest risk of adverse outcomes decreased with increasing BMI (12.2 kg, 10.9 kg,
      9.9 kg, 7.7 kg, and 4.3 kg/40 weeks) for the five BMI categories as described
      above, respectively. Current Japanese guidelines were lower than optimal gains,
      with the lowest risk of adverse outcomes for women with BMI below 18.5 kg/m2, and
      current IOM recommendations were higher than optimal gains for women with BMI
      over 23 kg/m2. CONCLUSION: Optimal weight gain during pregnancy varies largely by
      pre-pregnancy BMI, and defining those with BMI over 23 kg/m2 as overweight, as
      proposed by the World Health Organization, may be useful when applying current
      IOM recommendations to Japanese guidelines.

PMID- 28579109
TI  - [Fracture of unusual cause].

PMID- 28579110
TI  - Chest ultrasound versus chest X-rays for detecting pneumonia in children: Why
      compare them each other if together can improve the diagnosis?

PMID- 28579111
TI  - Clinical features and prognosis of infective endocarditis in children: Insights
      from a Tunisian multicentre registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare condition in the paediatric
      setting. No data on the epidemiology and prognosis of IE in children are
      available from North African countries. AIM: To investigate the epidemiological
      profile and prognosis of IE in children in Tunisia. METHODS: All patients
      aged<=18 years presenting with IE in three Tunisian tertiary care centres between
      January 1997 and September 2013 were included. Clinical features and 30-day and 6
      month mortality rates were studied. Factors predictive of death at 6-month follow
      up were determined. RESULTS: A total of 73 patients were included in the present
      study. The mean age was 12+/-4.8 years; 35 (50.7%) patients were male. Rheumatic
      heart disease (RHD) was the underlying heart disease in 17 (23.3%) cases and IE
      occurred in a structurally normal heart in 36 (49.3%) cases. Staphylococcus
      species were isolated in 17 (23.3%) cases. Regarding IE localization, the mitral
      valve was involved in 28 (38.4%) cases and the aortic valve in 14 (19.2%) cases.
      Recourse to surgery was reported in 37 (50.7%) cases. Thirty-day and 6-month
      mortality rates were 13.6% and 19.2%, respectively. Heart failure on admission or
      during the hospital course, acute renal failure and neurological complications
      were significantly associated with death at 6-month follow-up in the univariate
      analysis and after adjustment for age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: In the Tunisian
      context, IE in children is still characterized by the high prevalence of RHD as
      an underlying heart disease. Short- and long-term mortality rates remain high.
      Heart failure, acute renal failure and neurological complications are
      significantly associated with death at 6-month follow-up.

PMID- 28579112
TI  - Early mortality after heart transplantation related to IgA anti-beta2
      glycoprotein I antibodies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The presence of pre-formed IgA anti-beta2-glycoprotein I antibodies
      (IgA-aB2GP1ab) has been related to early graft loss after kidney transplant.
      Because beta2-glycoprotein I is produced in both the kidney and heart, we aimed
      to assess whether the presence of these antibodies may also be associated with
      poor outcomes after heart transplantation (HT). METHODS: A 2-year follow-up
      retrospective analysis of 151 consecutive patients who underwent HT between 2004
      and 2012 was performed to assess the role of this pre-formed antibody type in HT.
      The population was divided into 2 groups according to the presence of IgA: Group
      1 was positive for IgA-aB2GP1ab (47 patients, 31.1%), and Group 2 was negative
      for IgA-Ab2GP1ab (104 patients, 68.9%). RESULTS: Early mortality rates within the
      first 3 months were higher in Group 1 (27.7%) than in Group 2 (9.6%). No
      differences in donor and recipient characteristics or in causes of death were
      observed between groups. Multivariate analysis identified the presence of IgA
      aB2GP1ab, female gender and blood type A as independent risks factors for early
      mortality after HT. A greater incidence of thrombotic events during the first 3
      months post-HT in Group 1 (23.4% vs 5.8%) and a greater presence of risk factors
      for thrombotic events, which may have exacerbated them, were observed. After this
      period, no increase in mortality or in thrombotic events was found when the 2
      groups were compared. CONCLUSION: Pre-transplant presence of IgA-aB2GP1ab is
      associated with both increased early mortality rates and higher thrombotic events
      after HT.

PMID- 28579114
TI  - Potential impact of a shock requirement on adult heart allocation.

PMID- 28579113
TI  - Waiting list outcomes in pediatric lung transplantation: Poor results for
      children listed in adult transplant programs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low case volume has been associated with lower survival after
      pediatric lung transplantation. Our aim was to analyze waitlist outcomes among
      pediatric lung transplant centers in the USA. METHODS: We studied a cohort of
      1,139 pediatric candidates listed in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation
      Network for lung transplantation between 2002 and 2014. Of these candidates, 720
      (63.2%) received a transplant. Candidates were divided into groups according to
      the clinical activity of the center of listing: high-volume pediatric (>=4
      transplants per year); low-volume pediatric (<4 transplants per year); and adult
      (transplant volume predominantly in adults). We used multivariate Cox regression
      analysis to identify independent risk factors for waitlist mortality. We also
      determined the transplant rate-or likelihood of transplant after listing-over the
      study period. RESULTS: Fifty-eight percent of the children and adolescents were
      listed in adult centers where the resultant transplant rate was low-only 42%
      received a transplant compared with 93% in pediatric programs. Listing in an
      adult program was also the most significant risk factor for death on the waiting
      list (hazard ratio 15.6, 95% confidence interval 5.8 to 42.1). CONCLUSIONS: Most
      children (58%) are listed for lung transplantation in adult centers and have a
      reduced rate of transplantation and a greater chance of waitlist mortality.

PMID- 28579115
TI  - Bleeding and thrombosis associated with ventricular assist device therapy.
AB  - Over the past decade, continuous-flow rotary pumps have dramatically improved
      survival for patients with advanced systolic heart failure. Bleeding and
      thrombosis, however, continue to be the Achilles heel of left ventricular assist
      device (LVAD) therapy. There is a dynamic and complex interaction between the
      patient and pump. The net effect of a variety of hematologic derangements, such
      as hemolysis, high-molecular-weight von Willebrand degradation, platelet
      activation and diminished pulsatility, is poorly understood. A combination of
      these factors mediates the common adverse events of gastrointestinal bleeding,
      device thrombosis and stroke. In this review we incorporate information from
      translational investigations in LVAD patients to understand how continuous-flow
      pumps activate the coagulation system and platelets predisposing to thrombosis,
      while, in parallel, degrade high-molecular-weight von Willebrand factor and
      trigger abnormal angiogenesis predisposing to bleeding. Finally, we propose novel
      strategies to develop a personalized approach to anti-thrombotic monitoring and
      titration of anti-coagulants to minimize the bleeding and thrombotic event rates
      of future LVAD recipients.

PMID- 28579116
TI  - SIRT3 prevents angiotensin II-induced renal tubular epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition by ameliorating oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction.
AB  - Silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 3 (SIRT3) is a major
      protective mediator that ameliorates oxidative stress and mitochondrial
      dysfunction, which are associated with the pathogenesis of epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT). The present study was aimed to investigate the potential role
      of SIRT3 in renal tubular EMT both in vitro and in vivo. Firstly, we showed that
      the expression of SIRT3 was repressed in angiotensin II-induced EMT. SIRT3
      deficiency triggered EMT response, while over-expression of SIRT3 attenuated EMT
      response. In addition, over-expression of SIRT3 repressed AngII-induced excessive
      production of mitochondrial superoxide, as well as mitochondrial dysfunction
      evidenced by the maintenance of mitochondrial number and morphology, and the
      stabilization of mitochondrial membrane potential. In conclusion, these findings
      identify a protective role of SIRT3 against angiotensin II-induced EMT in the
      kidney, and suggest SIRT3 upregulation is a potential therapeutic strategy for
      the treatment of renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis.

PMID- 28579117
TI  - Key amino acid residue in Melanocortin-1 receptor (melanocyte alpha-MSH receptor)
      for ligand selectivity.
AB  - The melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) is a subtype of the melanocortin receptor
      family and NDP-alpha-MSH is a non-selective agonist for MC1R. The core sequence
      of NDP-alpha-MSH, His-Phe-Arg-Trp, is important for ligand binding and biological
      activities at the melanocortin receptor subtypes (MCRs). A recent study indicates
      that Trp9 in NDP-alpha-MSH plays an important role in ligand selectivity.
      Deletion of Trp9 in NDP-alpha-MSH (des-Trp9-NDP-alpha-MSH) resulted in loss of
      agonist activity at MC4R, although remains agonist activity at MC1R. The
      molecular basis for this receptor ligand selectivity is unknown. In this study we
      examined what region of the MC1R is responsible for des-NDP-alpha-MSH
      selectivity. Our results indicate that (1) substitution of TM3 of MC4R with the
      corresponding region of MC1R switches des-Trp9-NDP-alpha-MSH from no activity to
      agonist; (2) des-Trp9-NDP-alpha-MSH exhibits agonistic activity at the L133M
      mutation of the MC4R; and (3) substitution of non-conserved amino acid residue
      M128 in TM3 of MC1R significantly reduced des-Trp9-NDP-alpha-MSH agonist
      activity. Our results demonstrate that amino acid residue 128 in TM3 of MC1R, or
      amino acid residue L133 in TM3 of the MC4R, play crucial roles in ligand des-Trp9
      NDP-alpha-MSH selectivity at MC1R or MC4R.

PMID- 28579118
TI  - Targeting post-translational histone modifications for the treatment of non
      medullary thyroid cancer.
AB  - Genomic and epigenetic alterations are now being exploited as molecular targets
      in cancer treatment. Abnormalities involving the post-translational modification
      of histones have been demonstrated in thyroid cancer, and they are regarded as
      promising molecular targets for novel drug treatment of tumors that are resistant
      to conventional therapies. After a brief overview of the histone modifications
      most commonly associated with human malignancies, we will review recently
      published preclinical and clinical findings regarding the use of histone-activity
      modulators in thyroid cancers. Particular attention will be focused on their use
      as re-differentiating or anti-proliferating agents, the differential effects
      observed when they are used alone and in combination with other targeted drugs,
      and current prospects for their use in the treatment of thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28579120
TI  - Vitamin D and the brain: Genomic and non-genomic actions.
AB  - 1,25(OH)2D3 (vitamin D) is well-recognized as a neurosteroid that modulates
      multiple brain functions. A growing body of evidence indicates that vitamin D
      plays a pivotal role in brain development, neurotransmission, neuroprotection and
      immunomodulation. However, the precise molecular mechanisms by which vitamin D
      exerts these functions in the brain are still unclear. Vitamin D signalling
      occurs via the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a zinc-finger protein in the nuclear
      receptor superfamily. Like other nuclear steroids, vitamin D has both genomic and
      non-genomic actions. The transcriptional activity of vitamin D occurs via the
      nuclear VDR. Its faster, non-genomic actions can occur when the VDR is
      distributed outside the nucleus. The VDR is present in the developing and adult
      brain where it mediates the effects of vitamin D on brain development and
      function. The purpose of this review is to summarise the in vitro and in vivo
      work that has been conducted to characterise the genomic and non-genomic actions
      of vitamin D in the brain. Additionally we link these processes to functional
      neurochemical and behavioural outcomes. Elucidation of the precise molecular
      mechanisms underpinning vitamin D signalling in the brain may prove useful in
      understanding the role this steroid plays in brain ontogeny and function.

PMID- 28579121
TI  - Design of potent dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitors by employing a
      strategy to form a salt bridge with Lys554.
AB  - We report a design strategy to obtain potent DPP-4 inhibitors by incorporating
      salt bridge formation with Lys554 in the S1' pocket. By applying the strategy to
      the previously identified templates, quinoline 4 and pyridines 16a, 16b, and 17
      have been identified as subnanomolar or nanomolar inhibitors of human DPP-4.
      Docking studies suggested that a hydrophobic interaction with Tyr547 as well as
      the salt bridge interaction is important for the extremely high potency. The
      design strategy would be useful to explore a novel design for DPP-4 inhibitors
      having a distinct structure with a unique binding mode.

PMID- 28579119
TI  - Function of the vitamin D endocrine system in mammary gland and breast cancer.
AB  - The nuclear receptor for 1alpha,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (1,25D), the active
      form of vitamin D, has anti-tumor actions in many tissues. The vitamin D receptor
      (VDR) is expressed in normal mammary gland and in many human breast cancers
      suggesting it may represent an important tumor suppressor gene in this tissue.
      When activated by 1,25D, VDR modulates multiple cellular pathways including those
      related to energy metabolism, terminal differentiation and inflammation. There is
      compelling pre-clinical evidence that alterations in vitamin D status affect
      breast cancer development and progression, while clinical and epidemiological
      data are suggestive but not entirely consistent. The demonstration that breast
      cells express CYP27B1 (which converts the precursor vitamin D metabolite 25D to
      the active metabolite 1,25D) and CYP24A1 (which degrades both 25D and 1,25D)
      provides insight into the difficulties inherent in using dietary vitamin D, sun
      exposure and/or serum biomarkers of vitamin D status to predict disease outcomes.
      Emerging evidence suggests that the normally tight balance between CYP27B1 and
      CYP24A1 becomes deregulated during cancer development, leading to abrogation of
      the tumor suppressive effects triggered by VDR. Research aimed at understanding
      the mechanisms that govern uptake, storage, metabolism and actions of vitamin D
      steroids in normal and neoplastic breast tissue remain an urgent priority.

PMID- 28579122
TI  - Design, synthesis, in silico and in vitro evaluation of thiophene derivatives: A
      potent tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitor and anticancer activity.
AB  - A series of novel methyl 4-(4-amidoaryl)-3-methoxythiophene-2-carboxylate
      derivatives were designed against the active site of protein tyrosine phosphatise
      1B (PTP1B) enzyme using MOE.2008.10. These molecules are also subjected for in
      silico toxicity prediction studies and considering their corresponding drug
      scores, it implied that, the molecules are promising as anticancer agents. The
      designed compounds were synthesized by using suitable methods and characterized.
      They were subjected to inhibitory activity against PTP1B and in vitro anticancer
      activity by MTT assay. Most of the tested compounds showed potent inhibitory
      activity against PTP1B, among the compounds tested, compound 5b exhibited the
      highest activity (IC50=5.25uM) and remarkable cytotoxic activity at 0.09uM of
      IC50 against the MCF-7 cell line. In addition to this, compound 5c also showed
      potential anticancer activity at 2.22uM of IC50 against MCF-7 and 0.72uM against
      HepG2 cell lines as well as PTP1B inhibitory activity at IC50 of 6.37uM.

PMID- 28579123
TI  - Synthesis and structure-activity relationship study of novel quinazolinone-based
      inhibitors of MurA.
AB  - MurA is an intracellular bacterial enzyme that is essential for peptidoglycan
      biosynthesis, and is therefore an important target for antibacterial drug
      discovery. We report the synthesis, in silico studies and extensive structure
      activity relationships of a series of quinazolinone-based inhibitors of MurA from
      Escherichia coli. 3-Benzyloxyphenylquinazolinones showed promising inhibitory
      potencies against MurA, in the low micromolar range, with an IC50 of 8uM for the
      most potent derivative (58). Furthermore, furan-substituted quinazolinones (38,
      46) showed promising antibacterial activities, with MICs from 1ug/mL to 8ug/mL,
      concomitant with their MurA inhibitory potencies. These data represent an
      important step towards the development of novel antimicrobial agents to combat
      increasing bacterial resistance.

PMID- 28579124
TI  - Sinus Tachycardia With Variable QRS Morphology.
AB  - Wolff-Parkinson-White-type ventricular preexcitation was recognized for the first
      time in a 67-year-old man four days after aortic valve replacement. The
      preexcitation was intermittent.

PMID- 28579125
TI  - Prognostic Implications of Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain in
      Predialysis and Dialysis Patients.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide growing epidemic associated with an
      increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Left ventricular (LV)
      global longitudinal strain (GLS) is a measure of LV systolic function associated
      with prognosis in the general population. However, little is known about the
      association between LV GLS and survival in patients with CKD. The aim of the
      present study was to investigate the prognostic implications of LV GLS in
      predialysis and dialysis patients specifically. LV GLS was measured in a
      retrospective cohort of predialysis and dialysis patients (CKD stage 3b to 5) who
      underwent clinically indicated echocardiography between 2004 and 2015. Patients
      were divided into 4 groups according to quartiles of LV GLS: first quartile (LV
      GLS <=10.6%, worst function), second quartile (LV GLS 10.7% to 15.1%), third
      quartile (LV GLS 15.2% to 17.8%), and fourth quartile (LV GLS >=17.9%, best
      function). The primary end point was all-cause mortality. Of 304 patients (62 +/-
      14 years, 66% male), 65% were in predialysis and 35% in dialysis. During a median
      follow-up of 29 months (interquartile range 16 to 58 months), 34% of patients
      underwent renal transplantation and 36% died. Patients with LV GLS <=10.6% showed
      significantly worse prognosis compared with the other groups (log-rank test, p
      <0.001). LV GLS <=10.6% was significantly associated with increased risk of all
      cause mortality (hazard ratio 2.18, 95% CI 1.17 to 4.06, p = 0.014) after
      correcting for age, gender, albumin levels, atrial fibrillation, and renal
      transplantation. In conclusion, in predialysis and dialysis patients, severely
      impaired LV GLS is independently associated with an increased risk of mortality.

PMID- 28579127
TI  - Peritenolysis and Debridement for Main Body (Mid-Portion) Achilles Tendinopathy
      in Athletic Patients: Results of 107 Procedures.
AB  - Achilles tendinopathy in the main body (mid-portion) of the tendon is a common
      pathologic finding among active and athletic populations and can be debilitating
      without proper and adequate treatment. Numerous surgical approaches for this
      common pathologic finding have been reported, with variable outcomes. We
      evaluated the surgical outcomes of peritenolysis and debridement of main body
      Achilles tendinopathy among athletic populations using the return to activity
      (RTA) and decreased desired activity (DDA) as our primary outcome measures. A
      total of 100 patients underwent 107 procedures by the senior author (A.S.) from
      January 2001 through December 2015 met the inclusion criteria, 65 (65%) of whom
      were runners. The mean follow-up duration was 106.6 +/- 55.5 months from the
      index procedure, and the mean interval necessary to RTA for the entire group was
      10.9 +/- 5.3 weeks. The average RTA after debridement was 14.1 +/- 5.2 weeks and
      after peritenolysis was 7.3 +/- 2.0 weeks (p = .00001). Of the 100 patients, 3
      (3%) had experienced a DDA at the last follow-up visit. With >97% of the patients
      able to return to their desired activities, we have concluded that peritenolysis
      and debridement are favorable surgical techniques for main body Achilles
      tendinopathy.

PMID- 28579126
TI  - Forefoot Adduction Is a Risk Factor for Jones Fracture.
AB  - Jones fractures are among the most common fractures of the foot; however, much
      remains unknown about their etiology. The purpose of the present study was to
      further examine the risk factors of forefoot and hindfoot alignment on Jones
      fractures using an epidemiologic study design. We used a retrospective, matched,
      case-control study design. Cases consisted of patients with acute, isolated Jones
      fractures confirmed on plain film radiographs seen at our institute from January
      2009 to December 2013. Patients presenting with pain unrelated to metatarsal
      fractures served as controls. Controls were matched to cases by age (+/-2 years),
      gender, and year of presentation. Weightbearing foot radiographs were assessed
      for 13 angular relationships by a single rater. Conditional multivariable
      logistic regression was used to identify important risk factors. Fifty patients
      with acute Jones fractures and 200 controls were included. The only significant
      variables in the final multivariable model were the metatarsus adductus angle
      (odds ratio [OR] 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08 to 1.25) and
      fourth/fifth intermetatarsal angle (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.83)-both measures
      of static forefoot adduction. The presence of metatarsus adductus (defined as >15
      degrees ) on foot radiographs was associated with a 2.4 times greater risk of a
      Jones fracture (adjusted OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.8). We have concluded that the
      risk of Jones fracture increases with an adducted forefoot posture. In our
      population, which consisted primarily of patients presenting after a fall (10 of
      50; 20%) or misstep/inversion injury (19 of 50; 38%), the hindfoot alignment
      appeared to be a less important factor.

PMID- 28579128
TI  - The role of hunger state and dieting history in neural response to food cues: An
      event-related potential study.
AB  - A history of dieting to lose weight has been shown to be a robust predictor of
      future weight gain. A potential factor in propensity towards weight gain is the
      nature of people's reactions to the abundance of highly palatable food cues in
      the environment. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) have revealed differences in how
      the brain processes food cues between obese and normal weight individuals, as
      well as between restrained and unrestrained eaters. However, comparisons by
      weight status are not informative regarding whether differences predate or follow
      weight gain in obese individuals and restrained eating has not consistently been
      found to predict future weight gain. The present study compared ERP responses to
      food cues in non-obese historic dieters (HDs) to non-obese never dieters (NDs).
      HDs showed a blunted N1 component relative to NDs overall, and delayed N1 and P2
      components compared to NDs in the hungry state, suggesting that early, perceptual
      processing of food cues differs between these groups, especially when food
      deprived. HDs also showed a more hunger-dependent sustained ERP (LPP) compared to
      NDs. Future research should test ERP-based food cue responsivity as a mediator
      between dieting history and future weight gain to better identify those most at
      risk for weight gain as well as the nature of their vulnerability.

PMID- 28579129
TI  - Theta-gamma coupling in hippocampus during working memory deficits induced by low
      frequency electromagnetic field exposure.
AB  - The dramatically increased use of electricity is raising major concerns as to the
      consequences of the interaction between electromagnetic field (EMF) and
      neurobiology. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of magnetic
      field on working memory in the hippocampal region by analyzing local field
      potentials (LFPs) and spikes pattern in vivo. In present study, mice were exposed
      to EMF (50Hz, 1mT), static magnetic field (SMF, 1mT), or placed in the exposure
      tube but without EMF exposure (SHAM), respectively. During the exposure for 7
      consecutive days, mice were subjected to perform working memory (WM) tasks in Y
      maze, and multichannel electrophysiology signals from hippocampus of mice were
      recorded during the test, from which LFPs, spike firing rates, band power at
      different frequencies, and theta-gamma modulation index (MI) were analyzed in
      details. From our results, correct choice rate during WM task was found
      significantly decreased in EMF group after 3-day exposure, which was consistent
      with noticeable decline in firing rate. Starting from Day 3 after EMF exposure,
      the power of theta (4-12Hz) and gamma (LG, 30-60Hz) before reference point (RP)
      in Y-maze were also found to be descending, together with decrease of oscillatory
      activities of theta and gamma frequencies. The results indicated that MI between
      theta and gamma could play a significant role in modulating the spikes discharge
      and encoding WM. Therefore, the analysis of theta-gamma coupling and its
      oscillation strength may provide a new perspective for mechanistic investigation
      of EMF-induced WM deficits.

PMID- 28579130
TI  - Vascular aging: Molecular mechanisms and potential treatments for vascular
      rejuvenation.
AB  - Aging is the main risk factor contributing to vascular dysfunction and the
      progression of vascular diseases. In this review, we discuss the causes and
      mechanisms of vascular aging at the tissue and cellular level. We focus on
      Endothelial Cell (EC) and Smooth Muscle Cell (SMC) aging due to their critical
      role in mediating the defective vascular phenotype. We elaborate on two
      categories that contribute to cellular dysfunction: cell extrinsic and intrinsic
      factors. Extrinsic factors reflect systemic or environmental changes which alter
      EC and SMC homeostasis compromising vascular function. Intrinsic factors induce
      EC and SMC transformation resulting in cellular senescence. Replenishing or
      rejuvenating the aged/dysfunctional vascular cells is critical to the effective
      repair of the vasculature. As such, this review also elaborates on recent
      findings which indicate that stem cell and gene therapies may restore the
      impaired vascular cell function, reverse vascular aging, and prolong lifespan.

PMID- 28579131
TI  - The Art and Science of Lifelong Singing.

PMID- 28579132
TI  - Optimization of sagittal and coronal planes with robotic-assisted
      unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the anatomic goals of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is
      optimizing in the coronal and sagittal plane. Accurate alignments of both planes
      have been correlated to functional outcome and range of motion. There is a
      paucity of evidence on the accuracy of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA)
      in balancing biplanar knee alignment - specifically sagittal plane alignment.
      Because robotic assisted UKA has an advantage of more accurately manipulating
      sagittal plane for optimal alignment and kinematics based on pre-operative and
      intraoperative CT planning we assessed the accuracy. METHODS: We reviewed the
      clinical and radiographic information of 94 robotic assisted UKA surgeries for
      balancing of sagittal and coronal knee anatomy using radiographic parameters,
      such as posterior condylar offset ratio (PCOR), posterior tibial slope (PTS),
      femoral-tibial angle, and joint line. RESULTS: In the sagittal plane, we found no
      significant difference between pre and postoperative PCOR values. As planned, PTS
      was significantly lower after UKA compared to the native knee (4.91 degrees  vs
      2.28 degrees ; p<0.0001). In the coronal plane, there was no significant
      difference in the joint line however pre and post-operative mechanical axis were
      significantly different (5.43 degrees +/-2.58 of varus vs. 2.76 degrees +/-2.14
      of varus; p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study attempts to quantify sagittal and
      coronal plane alignment after robotic assisted UKA. More attention should be paid
      to the role of sagittal plane alignment after UKA. We believe modifying posterior
      tibial slope, while maintaining PCOR is fundamental in achieving native
      kinematics and optimizing range of motion in the sagittal plane. This may be best
      accomplished using robotic techniques for UKA.

PMID- 28579133
TI  - Two-stage flap repair of severe hypospadias: Usefulness of the tubularized
      incised plate urethroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of flaps in the two-stage repair of posterior hypospadias
      associated with severe chordee has been well established. Despite the almost
      certain guarantee of flap take, complications such as diverticuli are still
      relatively high. While different applications of the tubularized incised plate
      have been described, experience with the application of the technique to the two
      stage flap repair is very limited. A previous local review of 15 cases performed
      at the present institution during the period 1998-2003, using the technique as
      described by Rekit, revealed fistulae and diverticulum rates of 20% and 27%,
      respectively. With the primary objective of improving surgical outcome, the
      midline incision was incorporated into the two-stage flap repair. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Between 2004 and 2015, 35 boys (aged 2-15 years) with severe hypospadias
      that required excision of the urethral plate were operated using the two-stage
      flap technique. The first stage involved mobilization of preputeal or dorsal
      penile skin (if circumcised) to the ventral surface, as described by Retik. After
      a minimum interval of 6 months, the second-stage operation was performed in a way
      similar to the technique of tubularized incised plate urethroplasty, as
      popularized by Snodgrass, and involved a preliminary midline incision on the neo
      urethral plate followed by tubularization and multilayered closure. RESULTS: All
      but one flap took successfully. The outcome was satisfactory in 80% of patients,
      and there was a fistula rate of 14% ( Summary Table). One patient had a complete
      breakdown of the flap and was successfully treated about 12 months later by
      repeating the second stage of the operation. No case of diverticulum or stricture
      was recorded. DISCUSSION: Even though there was a marginal improvement in the
      fistula rate, the most striking observation was the complete absence of
      diverticulum or stricture. With a reported incidence rate of 20-63%, different
      authors have reported diverticulum formation (despite the absence of distal
      obstruction) to be a major problem of the two-stage flap technique. Attempts by
      these authors at reducing the risk of diverticulum by reducing flap size have
      tended to increase the risk of strictures. This has been the main reason given by
      some authors for abandoning the technique. The main limitations of the present
      study included the wide age range of the patients and the small sample size.
      CONCLUSION: The inclusion of a midline incision in a two-stage flap urethroplasty
      for proximal hypospadias appears to prevent the development of diverticulum.

PMID- 28579134
TI  - The impact of obesity on pediatric inpatients with urinary tract infections in
      the United States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are common infectious disorders, and
      obesity is an increasing public health problem worldwide. Several studies have
      suggested that childhood obesity may be associated with the development of UTI.
      However, the potential effects of obesity on the clinical outcomes of UTI in
      children remain unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hospital discharge records for
      patients aged 18 years or younger with a diagnosis of UTI were extracted from the
      2012 Kids' Inpatient Database. We used the International Classification of
      Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes, and classified each
      patient as obese or not. We compared the total hospitalization costs, total
      length of hospital stay in days, and risks of hypertension, acute kidney injury,
      and septicemia between obese and non-obese patients, using propensity score
      matching and stabilized inverse probability weighting methods. RESULTS: Of 51,918
      patients with UTI, 1488 were obese and 50,430 were non-obese. A multivariable
      logistic regression model calculated propensity scores using baseline
      characteristics as dependent variables. One-to-one propensity matching created
      1488 pairs. In the propensity-matched analyses, a significant difference was
      observed between the obese and the non-obese for risks of hypertension (8.1% vs.
      1.8%; risk ratio 4.44; 95% CI 2.95-6.71). The total mean hospitalization cost in
      the obese group was 1.29 times higher than that in the non-obese group (95% CI
      1.13-1.47). The total mean length of hospital stay in the obese group was 1.29
      times longer than that in the non-obese group (95% CI 1.16-1.44). Stabilized
      inverse probability weighting analyses showed similar results to the propensity
      matched analyses (Table), except for a significant result for the risk ratio for
      acute kidney injury (risk ratio 1.64; 95% CI 1.18-2.26. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings indicate that obesity may be an important risk factor for hypertension
      and acute kidney injury among hospitalized children with UTI. Obesity may also be
      an economically complicating factor for their hospitalizations, which indicates
      the importance of the prevention for obesity.

PMID- 28579136
TI  - ACCIDENTAL DUPLICATION: Role of Intralesional Bleomycin in Orbital Lymphangioma:
      A Prospective Study.
AB  - The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an
      article that has already been published,
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaapos.2017.03.007. The duplicate article has
      therefore been withdrawn. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be
      found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.

PMID- 28579135
TI  - Urinary tract infection after voiding cystourethrogram.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reported rates of post-procedural urinary tract infection (ppUTI)
      after voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) are highly variable (0-42%). OBJECTIVE:
      This study aimed to determine the risk of ppUTI after cystogram, and evaluate
      predictors of ppUTI. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study of children
      undergoing VCUG or radionuclide cystogram (henceforth 'cystogram') was conducted.
      Children with neurogenic bladder who underwent cystogram in the operating room
      and without follow-up at the study institution were excluded. Incidence of
      symptomatic ppUTI within 7 days after cystogram was recorded. Predictors of ppUTI
      were evaluated using univariate statistics. RESULTS: A total of 1108 children
      (54% female, median age 1.1 years) underwent 1203 cystograms: 51% were on
      periprocedural antibiotics, 75% had a pre-existing urologic diagnosis (i.e.,
      vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) or hydronephrosis; not UTI alone), and 18% had a
      clinical UTI within 30 days before cystogram. Of the cystograms, 41% had an
      abnormal cystogram and findings included VUR (82%), ureterocele (6%), and
      diverticula (6%). Twelve children had a ppUTI (1.0%; four girls, five
      uncircumcised boys, three circumcised boys; median age 0.9 years). Factors
      significantly associated with diagnosis of a ppUTI (Summary fig.) included: pre
      existing urologic diagnosis prior to cystogram (12/12, 100% of patients with
      ppUTI), abnormal cystogram results (11/12, 92%), and use of periprocedural
      antibiotics (11/12, 92%). All 11 children with an abnormal cystogram had VUR >=
      Grade III. However, among all children with VUR >= Grade III, 4% (11/254) had a
      ppUTI. DISCUSSION: This is the largest study to date that has examined incidence
      and risk factors for ppUTI after cystogram. The retrospective nature of the study
      limited capture of some clinical details. This study demonstrated that the risk
      of ppUTI after a cystogram is very low (1.0% in this cohort). Having a pre
      existing urologic diagnosis such as VUR or hydronephrosis was associated with
      ppUTI; therefore, children with moderate or high-grade VUR on cystogram may be at
      highest risk. Development of ppUTI after cystogram also highlighted the potential
      for a delay in diagnosis or oversight of a healthcare-associated infection due to
      several factors: 1) cystograms may be ordered, performed/interpreted, and
      followed up by multiple different providers; and 2) such infections are not
      captured by traditional healthcare-associated infection surveillance strategies.
      CONCLUSIONS: The risk of ppUTI after a cystogram is very low. Only children with
      pre-existing urologic diagnoses developed ppUTI in this study. This study's
      findings suggest that children undergoing a cystogram should not be given peri
      procedural antibiotic prophylaxis for the sole purpose of ppUTI prevention.

PMID- 28579137
TI  - Golf-related injuries treated in United States emergency departments.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigates unintentional non-fatal golf-related injuries
      in the US using a nationally representative database. METHODS: This study
      analyzed golf-related injuries treated in US hospital emergency departments from
      1990 through 2011 using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System
      database. Injury rates were calculated using golf participation data. RESULTS:
      During 1990 through 2011, an estimated 663,471 (95% CI: 496,370-830,573)
      individuals >=7years old were treated in US emergency departments for golf
      related injuries, averaging 30,158 annually or 12.3 individuals per 10,000 golf
      participants. Patients 18-54years old accounted for 42.2% of injuries, but injury
      rates per 10,000 golf participants were highest among individuals 7-17years old
      (22.1) and >=55years old (21.8) compared with 18-54years old (7.6). Patients
      >=55years old had a hospital admission rate that was 5.01 (95% CI: 4.12-6.09)
      times higher than that of younger patients. Injured by a golf club (23.4%) or
      struck by a golf ball (16.0%) were the most common specified mechanisms of
      injury. The head/neck was the most frequently injured body region (36.2%), and
      sprain/strain (30.6%) was the most common type of injury. Most patients were
      treated and released (93.7%) and 5.9% required hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although golf is a source of injury among all age groups, the frequency and rate
      of injury were higher at the two ends of the age spectrum. Given the higher
      injury and hospital admission rates of patients >=55years, this age group merits
      the special attention of additional research and injury prevention efforts.

PMID- 28579138
TI  - Referrals for CT scans in mild TBI patients can be aided by the use of a brain
      electrical activity biomarker.

PMID- 28579139
TI  - A Phase I Study of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With Nab-Paclitaxel, Doxorubicin, and
      Cyclophosphamide in Patients With Stage II to III Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to assess the safety and tolerability of
      nanoparticle albumin bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel), doxorubicin, and
      cyclophosphamide as combination therapy for breast cancer patients in the
      neoadjuvant setting and to assess the overall clinical response and pathologic
      complete response (pCR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-six women with newly
      diagnosed stage II to III histologically or cytologically proven adenocarcinoma
      of the breast with negative HER2 status were enrolled. Patients were treated with
      nab-paclitaxel 100 mg/m2, doxorubicin 50 mg/m2, and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2 on
      day 1 and nab-paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 on day 8 in a 21-day cycle for 6 cycles total.
      RESULTS: Most adverse events attributed to treatment were decreased white blood
      cell count, neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia, and lymphopenia with a median
      duration of 8 days. Fifteen of 23 (65.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 45.7%
      84.6%) had a complete clinical response and 8 of 23 (34.7%; 95% CI, 15.2%-54.1%)
      had a partial clinical response for an overall clinical response rate of 100%.
      Thirteen of 23 patients (56.5%; 95% CI, 36.2%-76.7%) had a pCR. All 10 triple
      negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients (100%) achieved a pCR. CONCLUSION: The
      regimen of nab-paclitaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy was
      well tolerated and resulted in high clinical as well as pathologic responses,
      particularly in TNBC.

PMID- 28579140
TI  - Alteration of paraoxonase, arylesterase and lactonase activities in people around
      fluoride endemic area of Tamil Nadu, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Toxicity due to excess fluoride concentration in drinking water is of
      great concern in people who rely only on the ground water as their water source
      in many region of the world. METHODS: We collected samples and examined the
      toxicity of fluoride in a population residing at Salem, Dharmapuri and
      Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu, India and measured HDL bound enzyme (PON1),
      erythrocyte membrane bound enzymes (acetylcholinesterase, AChE) and adenosine 5'
      triphosphatase (ATPases), plasma enzyme (butyrylcholinesterase, BChE) and rate
      limiting enzyme in heme biosynthesis (delta aminolevulinic acid dehydratase,
      delta-ALAD) activities. RESULTS: In fluorosis patients, formation of lipid
      peroxidation product was more in erythrocytes than in plasma. The observation
      further revealed that there was 50% reduction in the activity of HDL bound anti
      atherogenic enzyme-paraoxonase (PON1). The activities of membrane bound and
      signaling enzymes (acetylcholinesterase - AChE and adenosine 5' triphosphatase -
      ATPase) of erythrocyte were also diminished. These results suggested that there
      was defectiveness in the signaling and energy metabolism in fluorosis patients.
      Altered isoenzyme pattern of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in fluorosis samples was
      observed. Furthermore, the result suggested that both the heart (LDH 1) and liver
      (LDH 5) were most affected by fluoride toxicity. The study also provided
      reference values for tests which are used to predict the severity of fluoride
      toxicity. CONCLUSION: The toxic effect of fluoride was due to the collective
      effects on vital protective system rather than single factor.

PMID- 28579141
TI  - Diagnostic potential of inflammatory biomarkers in early childhood caries - A
      case control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is most common chronic infectious
      disease of childhood. Diagnosis of dental caries has been limited to clinical,
      visual and radiographic methods but its inflammatory component remained
      unexplored. Hence, this study aims to evaluate salivary levels of inflammatory
      cytokines in children with ECC to assess their potential as non-invasive
      biomarkers. METHODS: 50 subjects were recruited (25 ECC patients and 25 healthy
      children). Saliva samples were taken from all subjects and collected again from
      patients after rehabilitative intervention. Levels of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha
      were determined using ELISA. Cytokines level were statistically correlated with
      each other and with DMF score along with ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: Salivary
      levels of IL-6, IL-8 & TNF-alpha were significantly higher in patients which got
      significantly reduced after rehabilitative intervention. Levels of these
      cytokines were significantly associated with severity of dental caries. These
      cytokines were correlating with each other along with DMF score upon Spearman
      correlation. ROC curve reveals optimum sensitivity and specificity of these
      cytokines for diagnosis in ECC with absolute levels observed for IL-6.
      CONCLUSIONS: Significant elevation of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha with optimum
      sensitivity and specificity might imply their involvement as potential non
      invasive diagnostic/prognostic markers in ECC.

PMID- 28579142
TI  - Stability of lyophilized pooled sera as quality control materials for tumor
      marker assays in external quality assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: External quality assessment (EQA) requires stable quality control
      (QC) materials. We evaluated the stability of QC materials made of lyophilized
      and liquid pooled sera for the tumor markers alpha-fetoprotein, carcinoembryonic
      antigen, carbohydrate antigen 125, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9. METHODS:
      Specimens of the 4 tumor markers were collected from the sera of patients and
      stored at -20 degrees C. After sera collection and pooling, liquid or lyophilized
      samples were stored at -20 degrees C, 5 degrees C, or room temperature. Tumor
      markers were quantified on days 0, 1, 4, 7, 14, 30, and 90 of storage. Internal
      QC results were analyzed, and the effects of heat inactivation and sucrose
      addition were assessed. RESULTS: Heat inactivation lowered tumor marker levels in
      lyophilized pooled sera, whereas sucrose addition had no effect. The coefficients
      of variation of the internal QC results were stable, whereas those of lyophilized
      samples were higher than those of liquid samples. Tumor marker levels were
      significantly lower in lyophilized samples (p<0.05) and did not significantly
      differ according to storage temperature. A declining trend over time was observed
      for all tumor markers. CONCLUSIONS: Lyophilized QC materials are insufficiently
      stable for use in EQA among clinical laboratories.

PMID- 28579143
TI  - Energy from poultry waste: An Aspen Plus-based approach to the thermo-chemical
      processes.
AB  - A particular approach to the task of energy conversion of a residual waste
      material was properly experienced during the implementation of the national
      funded Enerpoll project. This project is a case study developed in the estate of
      a poultry farm that is located in a rural area of central Italy (Umbria Region);
      such a farm was chosen for the research project since it is almost representative
      of many similar small-sized breeding realties of the Italian regional context.
      The purpose of the case study was the disposal of a waste material (i.e. poultry
      manure) and its energy recovery; this task is in agreement with the main
      objectives of the new Energy Union policy. Considering this background, an
      innovative gasification plant (300KW thermal power) was chosen and installed for
      the experimentation. The novelty of the investigated technology is the
      possibility to achieve the production of thermal energy burning just the produced
      syngas and not directly the solid residues. This aspect allows to reduce the
      quantity of nitrogen released in the atmosphere by the exhaust flue gases and
      conveying it into the solid residues (ashes). A critical aspect of the research
      program was the optimization of the pretreatment (reduction of the water content)
      and the dimensional homogenization of the poultry waste before its energy
      recovery. This physical pretreatment allowed the reduction of the complexity of
      the matrix to be energy enhanced. Further to the real scale plant monitoring, a
      complete Aspen Plus v.8.0 model was also elaborated for the prediction of the
      quality of the produced synthesis gas as a function of both the gasification
      temperature and the equivalence ratio (ER). The model is an ideal flowchart using
      as input material just the homogenized and dried material. On the basis of the
      real monitored thermal power (equal to about 200kW average value in an hour) the
      model was used for the estimation of the syngas energy content (i.e. LHV) that
      resulted in the range of 3-5MJ/m3 for an equivalence ratio (ER) equal to 0.2.

PMID- 28579144
TI  - E-waste collection in Italy: Results from an exploratory analysis.
AB  - This study looks at the performance of household electrical and electronic waste
      (WEEE) collection in 20 Italian regions from 2008 to 2015. The impact of several
      explicative variables on the results of e-waste collection is evaluated. The
      independent variables are socio-economic and demographic ones (age, gender,
      household size, education level, migration and income) along with technical
      organisational variables (population density, presence of metropoles, macro
      regions, characteristics of the territory, percentage of household waste
      collected separately and number of e-waste collection points). The results show
      that the presence of collection points, the percentage of household waste
      collected separately and the percentage of females are positively correlated with
      the kg collected per inhabitant per year. For example, a variation of 1% of input
      (presence of collection points) corresponds to a 0.25% variation in the output
      (collection results) while 1% difference in the percentage of females in the
      population corresponds to a 7.549% difference in the collection rate. Population
      density, instead, is negatively correlated. It is interesting to note that there
      is a discrepancy between the Southern regions and the Centre regions (the former
      have an outcome 0.66 times lower than the latter) while the Northern regions
      perform similarly to the Centre ones. Moreover, the first year (2008) had a very
      low performance compared to the following years when the scheme constantly
      improved, mainly due to the additional collection points available. The
      Stochastic Frontier Model allows for the identification of the optimal production
      function among the 20 Italian regions. The best performing region is Tuscany (in
      the Centre), followed by Sardinia and Sicily (in the South).

PMID- 28579145
TI  - How to prepare the patient for robotic surgery: before and during the operation.
AB  - Robotic surgery in the treatment of gynecologic diseases continues to evolve and
      has become accepted over the last decade. The advantages of robotic-assisted
      laparoscopic surgery over conventional laparoscopy are three-dimensional camera
      vision, superior precision and dexterity with EndoWristed instruments,
      elimination of operator tremor, and decreased surgeon fatigue. The drawbacks of
      the technology are bulkiness and lack of tactile feedback. As with other surgical
      platforms, the limitations of robotic surgery must be understood. Patient
      selection and the types of surgical procedures that can be performed through the
      robotic surgical platform are critical to the success of robotic surgery. First,
      patient selection and the indication for gynecologic disease should be
      considered. Discussion with the patient regarding the benefits and potential
      risks of robotic surgery and of complications and alternative treatments is
      mandatory, followed by patient's signature indicating informed consent.
      Appropriate preoperative evaluation-including laboratory and imaging tests-and
      bowel cleansing should be considered depending upon the type of robotic-assisted
      procedure. Unlike other surgical procedures, robotic surgery is equipment
      intensive and requires an appropriate surgical suite to accommodate the patient
      side cart, the vision system, and the surgeon's console. Surgical personnel must
      be properly trained with the robotics technology. Several factors must be
      considered to perform a successful robotic-assisted surgery: the indication and
      type of surgical procedure, the surgical platform, patient position and the
      degree of Trendelenburg, proper port placement configuration, and appropriate
      instrumentation. These factors that must be considered so that patients can be
      appropriately prepared before and during the operation are described.

PMID- 28579146
TI  - Myelin breakdown in human Huntington's disease: Multi-modal evidence from
      diffusion MRI and quantitative magnetization transfer.
AB  - Huntington's disease (HD) leads to white matter (WM) degeneration that may be due
      to an early breakdown in axon myelination but in vivo imaging correlates of
      demyelination remain relatively unexplored in HD compared to other
      neurodegenerative diseases. This study investigated HD-related effects on a
      putative marker of myelin, the macromolecular proton fraction (MMPF) from
      quantitative magnetization transfer and on fractional anisotropy, axial and
      radial diffusivity from diffusion tensor MR-imaging. Microstructural differences
      were studied in WM pathways of the basal ganglia and motor systems known to be
      impaired in HD: the corpus callosum, the cortico-spinal tract, the anterior
      thalamic radiation, fibers between prefrontal cortex and caudate and between
      supplementary motor area and putamen. Principal component analysis was employed
      for dimensionality reduction. Patients showed reductions in a component with high
      loadings on MMPF in all WM pathways and a trend for increases in a component
      loading on axial and radial diffusivities but no differences in a component
      loading on fractional anisotropy. While patients' performance in executive
      functioning was impaired, their working memory span was preserved. Inter
      individual differences in the diffusivity component correlated with patients'
      performance in clinical measures of the United Huntington Disease Rating Scale.
      In summary, HD-related reductions in MMPF suggest that myelin breakdown
      contributes to WM impairment in human HD and emphasize the potential of
      quantitative MRI metrics to inform about disease pathogenesis. Disease severity
      in manifest HD, however, was best captured by non-specific diffusivity metrics
      sensitive to multiple disease and age-related changes.

PMID- 28579147
TI  - Retirements and succession of nursing faculty in 2016-2025.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Faculty retirement has been a growing concern for the nursing
      education community given the impact it may have on preparing the future nursing
      workforce. PURPOSE: To estimate faculty retirements in 2016-2015 and to assess
      the impact of retirements on the faculty workforce. METHOD: The Least-Squares
      Regression and the Cohort Component Methods were used to project retirements.
      DISCUSSION: The study projected that total retirements in 2016-2025 would equal
      one third of faculty in 2015. Retirees are likely to come from current faculty
      aged 60 or older, and faculty aged 50-59 are likely to be their replacements. The
      impact of the retiring faculty on the faculty workforce will be huge given their
      overrepresentation in doctoral attainment, senior rank, and ability for graduate
      level teaching. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest a sense of urgency for the
      nursing education community to address the impending exodus of senior faculty and
      to develop younger faculty for their successful succession.

PMID- 28579148
TI  - Effect of Time of Administration of Teriparatide on Bone Mineral Density in
      Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis.
AB  - Teriparatide (TPTD) (recombinant DNA origin human parathormone [1-34]) is
      approved for the treatment of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIO). There
      are reports of factors that affect the response to TPTD in GIO treatment. This
      work describes the case of a 71-yr-old woman diagnosed with lupus nephropathy
      treated with 40 mg/d of meprednisone, and who suffered multiple vertebral
      fractures. Despite treatment with a single 5 mg dose of zoledronic acid, the
      patient continued to have vertebral fractures. Treatment with 20 ug/d of
      subcutaneous TPTD (PTH1-34, Forteo; Eli Lilly Co., Indianapolis, IN) was
      initiated. Nine months after the onset of treatment, bone mineral density (BMD)
      assessment showed a 5% decrease in lumbar spine BMD. Factors potentially
      affecting the results were analyzed. The patient reported injecting TPTD at night
      and was instructed to inject TPTD in the morning before breakfast. After changing
      the time of TPTD administration and 22 mo after initiating treatment, BMD
      assessment was repeated and showed an 18% increase at the lumbar spine and no new
      vertebral fractures. The time of TPTD administration might affect the response to
      TPTD in GIO treatment.

PMID- 28579149
TI  - Assessment of dyspnea and dynamic hyperinflation in male patients with chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease during a six minute walk test and an incremental
      treadmill cardiorespiratory exercise test.
AB  - : The six minute walk test (6MWT) is a standardized test that provides
      information on exercise capacity in patients with COPD. It is considered a
      submaximal test in opposition to incremental cardiopulmonary exercise tests
      (CPET) that provide valuable information on all the systems involved in exercise.
      OBJECTIVES: 1. To compare the perceptive, physiological responses and degree of
      dynamic hyperinflation during two exercise tests: the 6MWT and the incremental
      CPET on a treadmill. 2. To evaluate how dyspnea is related to dynamic
      hyperinflation (DH) and other functional parameters in both tests. METHODS: 29
      stable COPD male patients, age 68+/-5.8 years, mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 57+/
      11%, were recruited. To evaluate dynamic hyperinflation, inspiratory capacity
      (IC) was measured at rest and upon completing each one of the tests. At the same
      time, perceived dyspnea and leg discomfort were rated on specific modified Borg
      scales. RESULTS: The mean walk distance in 6MWT was 494+/-88m. The Borg scale
      rating for shortness of breath upon completing the test was 4.7+/-2, whilst 2.9+/
      2 for leg discomfort. IC changed from 2.53+/-0.63l before to 2.34+/-0.60l after
      completion of the test. In the treadmill CPET, maximal oxygen consumption
      (VO2max) was 21.8+/-5mL/kg/min with 6.6+/-2 dyspnea and 4.3+/-2 leg discomfort on
      Borg scales. IC changed from 2.17+/-0.53l to 1.20+/-0.43l. CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic
      hyperinflation occurs in male COPD patients during submaximal exercise such as
      the 6MWT. This phenomenon is more pronounced after incremental CPET on a
      treadmill. Despite being dyspnea the dominant limiting symptom for both tests, we
      observed different physiological responses.

PMID- 28579150
TI  - Renewed push to strengthen vector control globally.

PMID- 28579152
TI  - Development of a Spanish Food Exchange List: Application of Statistical Criteria
      to a Rationale Procedure.

PMID- 28579153
TI  - Outcomes of external septorhinoplasty in a Turkish male population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The first and one of the most important steps in facial plastic
      surgery is accurate preoperative facial analysis and recording of data that may
      help the surgeon to check the outcomes of his/her techniques, promoting a
      surgeon's professional development. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the esthetic outcomes
      of external septorhinoplasty relevant to ethnic facial harmony and to investigate
      the relationship of the columellar incision scar with the type of skin and
      columellar incision type in a Turkish population. METHODS: In total, 28
      consecutive adult male patients with a mean age of 32.14+/-10.66 years (range: 18
      61 years) were included the study. Primary outcomes were preoperative and
      postoperative photogrammetric facial analyses of the patients including
      measurement of nasofrontal angle, nasolabial angle and nasal projection ratios
      (Gode) assessed according to the data derived from the Rhinobase program. Results
      were compared to facial proportions of the Turkish population. Columellar
      incision scar scores related to the Fitzpatrick skin type classification of the
      patients and columellar incision types used for the external approach were
      secondary outcomes of the study. RESULTS: Mean preoperative and postoperative
      nasofrontal angles were 148.04 degrees +/-8.18 degrees  and 144.50 degrees +/
      7.15 degrees , respectively, while mean preoperative and postoperative nasolabial
      angles were 87.59 degrees +/-14.01 degrees  and 98.50 degrees +/-9.71 degrees ,
      respectively. Mean preoperative and postoperative nasal tip projection ratios
      were 0.56+/-0.05 and 0.60+/-0.06, respectively. The differences between pre- and
      postoperative measurements were all significantly different and were in
      accordance with Turkish nasal harmony. Columellar inverted "V" incisions were
      performed in 15 (53.6%) patients while "V" incisions were used in 13 (46.4%)
      patients. Fitzpatrick skin Type 4 was seen in 46.42% of the patients, Fitzpatrick
      Type 3 in 46.42% and Fitzpatrick Type 2 in 7.14% of the patients. No significant
      difference was seen between columellar scar scores according to skin type and
      columellar incision type used for external septorhinoplasty. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study demonstrated that outcomes for nasofrontal angle, nasolabial angle and
      nasal tip projection ratios analyzed using the Rhinobase program in patients who
      underwent external septorhinoplasty were similar to reference values for the
      Turkish population.

PMID- 28579154
TI  - The effect of arousal on regulation of negative emotions using cognitive
      reappraisal: An ERP study.
AB  - Because the effectiveness of the emotion regulation strategy cognitive
      reappraisal may vary with emotion intensity, we investigated how stimulus arousal
      affects reappraisal success. Participants up- and down-regulated emotional
      responses using cognitive reappraisal to low and high arousing unpleasant
      pictures while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Up-regulation
      resulted in more negative self-reported valence, while down-regulation resulted
      in less negative self-reported valence regardless of stimulus arousal, suggesting
      that subjective reappraisal success does not vary with emotional intensity.
      Participants felt that down-regulation of emotional responses to low arousing
      unpleasant pictures was easiest, which is in line with previous findings that
      participants showed a greater preference for reappraisal in low than high
      arousing situations. The late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was enhanced by
      down-regulation of high arousing unpleasant pictures. Even though this effect was
      unexpected and is opposite to the typical effect of down-regulation on the LPP,
      it is in line with several previous studies. Potential explanations for LPP
      regulation effects in the unexpected direction, such as strategy selection and
      task design, are evaluated. Suggestions and recommendations for future research
      are discussed, including using trial-by-trial manipulation of regulation
      instructions and studying the effect of stimulus arousal on up- and down
      regulation of positive emotions.

PMID- 28579155
TI  - Corrigendum to "Midwifery continuity of carer in an area of high socio-economic
      disadvantage in London: A retrospective analysis of Albany Midwifery Practice
      outcomes using routine data (1997-2009)" [Midwifery 48 (2017) 1-10].

PMID- 28579151
TI  - Validation of the Association of RECIST Changes With Survival in Men With
      Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Treated on SWOG Study S0421.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phase 2 trials evaluating new agents for metastatic castration
      resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) have relied on bone scan and prostate-specific
      antigen changes to assess activity. Given the increasing detection of measurable
      disease, Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) changes warrant
      consideration to evaluate activity. We validated the association of RECIST 1.0
      changes with survival in men with mCRPC receiving docetaxel. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Data for men with measurable disease from the Southwest Oncology Group
      (SWOG) S0421, a phase 3 trial in men with mCRPC receiving docetaxel and
      prednisone plus placebo or atrasentan, were used. Cox proportional hazards
      regression was used to evaluate the association of RECIST 1.0 outcomes within 120
      days, ie, unconfirmed partial response (uPR), stable disease, and progressive
      disease (PD), with overall survival (OS) from day 120, adjusted for prognostic
      factors. RESULTS: Overall, 326 men were evaluable for landmark analysis, of whom
      23 had PD, 230 stable disease, and 73 uPR. OS beyond day 120 was significantly
      different (P = .004) among these subgroups, with median (95% confidence interval)
      OS of 7.1 (3.5-8.8), 13.4 (11.4-15.6), and 16.3 (10.0-19.6) months for those with
      PD, stable disease, and uPR, respectively. In a multivariable model, the hazard
      ratio (95% confidence interval) for patients with PD was 2.47 (1.42-4.29)
      compared to patients with an uPR (P = .002). CONCLUSION: The association of
      RECIST 1.0 changes with OS in men with mCRPC receiving docetaxel was validated.
      Given limitations of bone scan and prostate-specific antigen alterations,
      improvements in objective RECIST 1.0 changes should be reported in phase 2 trials
      before launching phase 3 trials.

PMID- 28579156
TI  - The type 2 diabetes susceptibility TCF7L2 gene variants affect postprandial
      glucose and fat utilization in non-diabetic subjects.

PMID- 28579158
TI  - Protective Strategies Against Dysphonia in Teachers: Preliminary Results
      Comparing Voice Amplification and 0.9% NaCl Nebulization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the effects of two protective strategies,
      voice amplification (VA) and 0.9% NaCl nebulization (NEB), on teachers' voice in
      the work setting. METHODS: An interventional evaluator-blind study was conducted,
      assigning 53 teachers from two public high schools to one of the two protective
      strategy groups (VA or NEB). Vocal function was assessed in a sound-treated booth
      before and after a 4-week period. Assessment included the severity of voice
      impairment (Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice [CAPE-V]), acoustic
      analysis of fundamental frequency (f0), sound pressure level (SPL), jitter,
      shimmer, glottal-to-noise excitation ratio (GNE), noise (VoxMetria), and the self
      rated Screening Index for Voice Disorder (SIVD). Data were statistically analyzed
      using SPSS Statistics (version 22) with a significance level of P <= 0.05. Effect
      size was calculated using Cohen's d coefficient. RESULTS: There were no
      statistical differences between groups at baseline in terms of age, sex, time of
      teaching, teaching workload, and voice outcomes, except for SPL. During
      postintervention between groups, NEB displayed lower SIVD scores (VA = 3; NEB =
      0; P = 0.018) and VA had lower acoustic irregularity (VA = 3.19; NEB = 3.69; P =
      0.027), with moderate to large effect size. Postintervention within-groups
      decreased CAPE-V for VA (pretest = 31.97; posttest = 28.24; P = 0.021) and SIVD
      for NEB (pretest = 3; posttest = 0; P = 0.001). SPL decreased in both groups, NEB
      decreased in men only, and VA decreased in both men and women. NEB increased f0
      for female participants (P <= 0.001). CONCLUSION: Both VA and NEB may help
      mitigate dysphonia in different pathways, being potential interventions for
      protecting teachers' voices in the work setting. An ongoing study with a control
      group will further support these preliminary results.

PMID- 28579157
TI  - Compound mechanism of fatal neck injury: A case report of a tiger attack in a
      zoo.
AB  - Fatal injuries caused by attacks by large wild cats are extremely rare in
      forensic medical practice in Europe. There are very few cases described in the
      forensic medical literature concerning incidents in zoos similar to the tiger
      attack on a 58-year-old male zoo employee that we present here. While preparing a
      runway for tigers, the man was attacked by a male Sumatran tiger. Another zoo
      employee was an eyewitness to the accident; in his testimony he described the
      sequence of events in detail. The autopsy showed the injuries typical of a tiger
      attack: traces of claws and canine teeth indicating that the victim of the attack
      was knocked down from behind, along with deep and extensive fatal wounds to the
      neck. The injuries were inflicted by means of a compound mechanism: tissues were
      penetrated by the animal's canines, crushed with great force (transfixing
      injury), and violently distended. The skin revealed four characteristic deep
      wounds caused by canines as well as bite marks resulting from the action of six
      incisors. The neck area revealed extensive damage, including torn muscles, the
      esophagus and trachea, large blood vessels of the neck, and fractures of
      vertebrae C2 and C5 with internal channels resulting directly from penetration by
      the animal's canines. The mechanism of distension, as a result of the animal
      jerking its head after biting the victim in the neck, produced a complete tear of
      the spine and the vertebral arteries, as well as an intramural rupture of the
      carotid arteries which has never been described before. In the interests of a
      detailed assessment of bone damage, the cervical spine was macerated. The applied
      autopsy techniques and detailed analysis of injuries enabled us to demonstrate
      the compound mechanism that inflicted them, combining penetration of tissues by
      the canines, crushing, and distension.

PMID- 28579159
TI  - Comparison of Effects Produced by Physiological Versus Traditional Vocal Warm-up
      in Contemporary Commercial Music Singers.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present study aimed to observe whether physiological warm-up and
      traditional singing warm-up differently affect aerodynamic, electroglottographic,
      acoustic, and self-perceived parameters of voice in Contemporary Commercial Music
      singers. METHODS: Thirty subjects were asked to perform a 15-minute session of
      vocal warm-up. They were randomly assigned to one of two types of vocal warm-up:
      physiological (based on semi-occluded exercises) or traditional (singing warm-up
      based on open vowel [a:]). Aerodynamic, electroglottographic, acoustic, and self
      perceived voice quality assessments were carried out before (pre) and after
      (post) warm-up. RESULTS: No significant differences were found when comparing
      both types of vocal warm-up methods, either in subjective or in objective
      measures. Furthermore, the main positive effect observed in both groups when
      comparing pre and post conditions was a better self-reported quality of voice.
      Additionally, significant differences were observed for sound pressure level
      (decrease), glottal airflow (increase), and aerodynamic efficiency (decrease) in
      the traditional warm-up group. CONCLUSION: Both traditional and physiological
      warm-ups produce favorable voice sensations. Moreover, there are no evident
      differences in aerodynamic and electroglottographic variables when comparing both
      types of vocal warm-ups. Some changes after traditional warm-up (decreased
      intensity, increased airflow, and decreased aerodynamic efficiency) could imply
      an early stage of vocal fatigue.

PMID- 28579160
TI  - Complex Energy Metabolic Changes in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection
      Fraction and Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction.
AB  - Alterations in cardiac energy metabolism contribute to the severity of heart
      failure. However, the energy metabolic changes that occur in heart failure are
      complex, and are dependent not only on the severity and type of heart failure
      present, but also on the coexistence of common comorbidities such as obesity and
      type 2 diabetes. In this article we review the cardiac energy metabolic changes
      that occur in heart failure. An emphasis is made on distinguishing the
      differences in cardiac energy metabolism between heart failure with preserved
      ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction
      (HFrEF) and in clarifying the common misconceptions surrounding the fate of fatty
      acids and glucose in the failing heart. The major key points from this article
      are: (1) mitochondrial oxidative capacity is reduced in HFpEF and HFrEF; (2)
      fatty acid oxidation is increased in HFpEF and reduced in HFrEF (however,
      oxidative metabolism of fatty acids in HFrEF still exceeds that of glucose); (3)
      glucose oxidation is decreased in HFpEF and HFrEF; (4) there is an uncoupling
      between glucose uptake and oxidation in HFpEF and HFrEF, resulting in an
      increased rate of glycolysis; (5) ketone body oxidation is increased in HFrEF,
      which might further reduce fatty acid and glucose oxidation; and finally, (6)
      branched chain amino acid oxidation is impaired in HFrEF. The understanding of
      these changes in cardiac energy metabolism in heart failure are essential to
      allow the development of metabolic modulators in the treatment of heart failure.

PMID- 28579162
TI  - Extended Bridge to Heart and Lung Transplantation Using Pumpless Extracorporeal
      Lung Assist.
AB  - In end-stage idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (iPAH), centrally
      cannulated Novalung (Novalung GmbH, Hechingen, Germany) pumpless extracorporeal
      lung assist (pECLA) decompresses the pulmonary artery for bridge to
      transplantation. We report placing a 45-year-old man with end-stage iPAH and
      right heart failure on centrally cannulated pECLA for 82 days as a bridge to
      heart and double-lung transplantation (HLTx). To our knowledge, this is the
      longest reported bridge to transplantation in Canada and the first successful
      bridge to HLTx. We demonstrate how pECLA permits mobility, facilitating
      physiotherapy to ensure fitness for transplantation. Considering the irreversible
      right heart failure, HLTx remains suitable in iPAH.

PMID- 28579161
TI  - Late Self-Apposition With One-Year Persisting Uncoverage of Malapposed
      Bioresorbable Polymeric Struts.

PMID- 28579163
TI  - Use of Two-Dimensional Ultrasonographically Guided Access to Reduce Access
      Related Complications for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major vascular complications have been associated with increased
      mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement (TAVR). Our objective was to compare vascular and bleeding outcomes
      with the routine use of 2-dimensional ultrasonography (2D-US) guided femoral
      artery access in percutaneous transfemoral TAVR compared with traditional
      anatomic landmark palpation with angiographically-guided access. METHODS: This
      single-centre retrospective cohort study was conducted in Ontario, Canada. We
      enrolled patients from January 1, 2012-June 30, 2016. Routine 2D-US was used in
      all transfemoral TAVR after January 1, 2014; before this, all cases were
      performed with angiographic guidance alone. RESULTS: The primary outcome of
      interest was the composite of any access-related red blood cell transfusion or
      vascular/bleeding complications. Definitions were based on the Valve Academic
      Research Consortium (VARC-2) criteria. Fully adjusted multivariable regression
      models were developed to determine the impact of 2D-US. The study cohort included
      387 patients, 109 (28%) of whom underwent femoral artery puncture guided by
      anatomic and angiographic landmarks, whereas 278 (72%) patients had 2D-US
      guidance. After adjusting for baseline differences in our multivariable models,
      we found that 2D-US-guided access was associated with an odds ratio of 0.42 (95%
      confidence interval, 0.25-0.70; P < 0.01) for the composite end point of access
      related vascular or bleeding complications and red blood cell transfusion.
      CONCLUSIONS: The routine use of 2D-US in transfemoral TAVR was associated with
      substantial reductions in access-related vascular and bleeding complications.

PMID- 28579164
TI  - Impact of strut thickness on acute mechanical performance: A comparison study
      using optical coherence tomography between DESolve 150 and DESolve 100.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the acute performance of a novolimus-eluting bioresorbable
      scaffold (BRS) with different strut thickness (DESolve system 150 and 100) using
      optical coherence tomography (OCT) in terms of appropriate scaffold deployment.
      BACKGROUND: Outcome after BRS implantation seen in registries and meta-analyses
      continue to show a higher rate of scaffold thrombosis than those reported with
      DES. Thus, second scaffold generations with lower strut thickness might have
      potential advantages in terms of flow disturbance. However, whether mechanical
      properties are comparable has to be evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fifty-seven
      patients undergoing OCT-guided scaffold implantation were enrolled consecutively
      in this retrospective study. The final pullback after DESolve 150 (n=42) and
      DESolve 100 (n=15) were compared. The following indices were calculated: mean and
      minimum area, residual area stenosis, incomplete strut apposition, tissue
      prolapse, eccentricity and symmetry indexes, strut fracture, and edge dissection.
      Most patients suffered a multi vessel disease. Maximum pre-dilatation balloon
      inflation pressure was 13.5+/-3.2 vs 14.5+/-2.5atm. OCT analysis showed a minimal
      lumen area of 6.1+/-1.9 vs 5.2+/-1.6mm2, p=0.06. Mean residual area stenosis was
      15.3% vs 21.3, p=0.22. Mean eccentricity index did not differ significantly
      (0.8+/-0.1 vs 0.6+/-0.1, p=0.61). Prolapse area was 4.5+/-8.8 vs 5.6+/-9.8mm2.
      CONCLUSION: OCT showed similar post-procedural scaffold geometry and outcome
      indicating that both BRS may be implanted with good acute performance. However,
      the trend towards a smaller MLA and a higher percentage of RAS suggest a
      decreased radial strength for the 100MUm BRS. The attempt to reduce strut
      thickness should not result in loss of radial strength. CONDENSED ABSTRACT: Rates
      of scaffold thrombosis after bioresorbable scaffold (BRS) implantation are
      reported to be higher than after metallic stent (DES) implantation. Thus, second
      scaffold generations with lower strut thickness might have potential advantages
      in terms of flow disturbance. We aimed to evaluate the acute performance of a
      novolimus-eluting BRS with different strut thickness (DESolve system 150 and 100)
      using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in terms of appropriate scaffold
      deployment. OCT showed similar post-procedural scaffold geometry and outcome
      indicating that both BRS may be implanted with good acute performance. However,
      the data suggest a decreased radial strength for the 100MUm BRS.

PMID- 28579165
TI  - Independent influences of excessive body weight and elevated blood pressure from
      childhood on left ventricular geometric remodeling in adulthood.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and hypertension are two risk factors of left ventricular
      hypertrophy (LVH) in adults. We aimed to examine the impacts of body weight and
      blood pressure (BP) from childhood on adult LV geometric remodeling. METHODS: The
      study cohort consisted of 1256 adults aged 27-42years who had 2-10 measurements
      of body mass index (BMI) and BP from childhood in 1987 to adulthood in 2010. We
      calculated the cumulative and incremental values of BMI and BP from childhood to
      adulthood. In adulthood, four LV geometric patterns were defined based on the
      values of left ventricular mass index (g/m2.7) and relative wall thickness:
      normal geometry, concentric remodeling (CR), eccentric hypertrophy (EH) and
      concentric hypertrophy (CH). RESULTS: The prevalence of abnormal LV geometric
      patterns in adults was 26.4% for CR, 2.0% for EH and 2.5% for CH. For childhood
      values, systolic BP (Odds Ratio [OR]=1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.08
      1.47) but not BMI (OR=1.06, 95%CI=0.93-1.18) was associated with adult CR,
      whereas BMI (OR=3.53, 95%CI=2.09-5.98) but not systolic BP (OR=1.04, 95%CI=0.65
      1.66) was associated with adult EH. Both childhood BMI (OR=2.69, 95%CI=1.77-4.09)
      and systolic BP (OR=1.64, 95%CI=1.07-2.51) were independently associated with
      adult CH. For adulthood, cumulative and incremental values, BMI and systolic BP
      were independently associated with adult CR, EH and CH. CONCLUSION: Excessive
      body weight and elevated BP from childhood have independent influences on the
      development of adult LV geometric remodeling.

PMID- 28579166
TI  - Transfemoral aortic valve implantation using a self-expanding transcatheter heart
      valve without pre-dilation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether transfemoral
      implantation of the Acurate neo transcatheter heart valve without pre-dilation is
      feasible. METHODS: Between December 2014 and December 2016, 294 patients were
      treated with the Acurate neo prosthesis at our center. Of these, 72 cases were
      performed without pre-dilation. The decision to omit pre-dilation was at the
      discretion of the operator, preferably in the case of mild to moderate aortic
      valve calcification (AVC). Propensity matching (1:1) resulted in 48 cases in each
      group. Main outcomes of interest were device success according to VARC-2
      criteria, residual aortic regurgitation (AR) >= 2 degrees , and rate of post
      dilation. RESULTS: Median [IQR] age in patients without pre-dilation was 82.7
      years [78.6-85.6], STS score was 4.6% [3.4-6.1], and AVC-score was 1436 AU [1043
      1682] with mild and moderate AVC in 63.9% and 36.1% of cases, respectively.
      Device success was achieved in 94.4% of cases, post-dilation was necessary in
      26.4%, and one (1.4%) patient had moderate AR. In the matched population, there
      were no differences regarding device success, rate of AR >= 2 degrees , need for
      post-dilation, and post-procedural mean gradient, but the group without pre
      dilation had shorter procedure (34.0 min [27.0-38.8] vs. 43.0 min [34.3-52.0]; p
      < 0.001) and fluoroscopy times (7.4 min [5.7-9.0] vs. 9.9 min [7.9-13.5]; p <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: In select patients with mild to moderate AVC, transfemoral
      implantation of the Acurate neo without pre-dilation is feasible and safe. This
      allows for a straightforward procedure that may be performed without rapid pacing
      in the majority of cases.

PMID- 28579167
TI  - Risk and predictors of readmission for heart failure following a myocardial
      infarction between 2004 and 2013: A Swedish nationwide observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data are scarce regarding the risk, temporal trends and predictors of
      late-onset heart failure (LOHF) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We aimed
      at studying the risk and predictors of LOHF and the composite event of LOHF or
      death after AMI. METHODS: AMI patients first entered in the nationwide SWEDEHEART
      registry between 2004 and 2013 were included. Patients with a prior history of
      heart failure (HF) and those who died in-hospital were excluded. Dates and ICD
      codes for LOHF in the national patient and death registries were used to
      determine time to first readmission due to LOHF and/or death. RESULTS: A total of
      150,566 AMI patients were included in the analysis. The 1-year, 2-year and 5-year
      cumulative risk of developing LOHF were 11.4%, 14.6% and 21.8% respectively. The
      risk of LOHF within 2years decreased from 15.5% to 14.4% (2004-2005 vs 2010
      2011), p<0.001. Calendar year was protective of LOHF/death after adjustment (HR
      0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.98, p<0.001). In-hospital HF, age, diabetes mellitus, chronic
      kidney disease, peripheral arterial disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease and atrial fibrillation, were strong predictors of LOHF. Risk profile
      improved and use of evidence based therapies increased during the time period.
      CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of AMI remain at a continued risk of LOHF. However, the
      overall risk of LOHF shows a decreasing trend after an index AMI over time. Lower
      risk of LOHF may relate to decreasing burden of comorbidities and increasing use
      of evidence based treatments.

PMID- 28579169
TI  - Corrigendum to "Transcription factor Reb1 is required for proper transcriptional
      start site usage at the divergently transcribed TFC6-ESC2 locus in Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae" [Gene 594 (2016) 108-116].

PMID- 28579168
TI  - Drug-coated versus bare-metal stents for elderly patients: A predefined sub-study
      of the LEADERS FREE trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The randomized, LEADERS FREE trial showed superior safety and
      efficacy of a polymer-free DCS vs. a bare metal stent in high-bleeding risk
      patients with only one month dual antiplatelet treatment. We report
      characteristics and outcomes of the pre-specified group of elderly patients (aged
      >=75). METHODS: Age >75 was one of the trial's inclusion criteria. The main
      additional criteria were: need for oral anticoagulants, recent bleeding, anemia,
      chronic renal failure and cancer. All patients received 1month DAPT only. Both
      primary endpoints (efficacy: clinically driven TLR and safety: composite of
      cardiac death, MI and stent thrombosis) as well as bleeding were recorded up to
      390days. RESULTS: 1564 elderly patients (63.4% of the population) were enrolled
      with a mean of 2 inclusion criteria/patient. The primary safety endpoint was
      reached less frequently in DCS than BMS patients (10.7 vs. 14.3%, p=0.03), as was
      the primary efficacy endpoint (5.8 vs. 10.8% p=0.0003). Major bleeding rates were
      high and similar in both groups (7.3 vs. 8.2%, p=0.55). For the 562 (23.4%)
      patients with age as sole entry criterion, trends were similar for DCS and BMS
      patients respectively: safety endpoint (7.3%vs.11.4% p=0.10) and Cd TLR (4.7 vs.
      13.2% p=0.0003), but for both groups, major bleeding occurred less frequently
      than for elderly patients with more comorbid conditions (3.6%vs. 2.8%).
      CONCLUSION: Compared to a BMS, use of a DCS together with a short one-month DAPT
      course was associated with significant safety and efficacy benefits for the
      elderly patients enrolled in LEADERS FREE.

PMID- 28579170
TI  - Vaccination coverage in a cohort of HIV-infected patients receiving care at an
      AIDS outpatient clinic in Espirito Santo, Brazil.
AB  - This cross-sectional study assessed the immunization status of human immune
      deficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients receiving care at an outpatient clinic
      in Brazil. The sociodemographic characteristics, CD4 count and HIV viral load of
      281 out of 612 adult outpatients were analyzed. A total of 331 patients were
      excluded because of no availability of vaccination cards. Chi-square or Fisher's
      exact test were used. Immunization coverage was higher for diphtheria/tetanus
      (59.79%) and hepatitis B (56.7%), and lowest for hepatitis A (6.8%) and for
      meningococcal group C (6%). Only 11.74% of the patients had received the
      influenza virus vaccine yearly since their HIV-infection diagnosis. No
      vaccination against influenza (p<0.034) or hepatitis B (p<0.029) were associated
      with CD4 counts <500cells/mL; no vaccination against flu or pneumococcus were
      associated with detectable HIV viral load (p<0.049 and p<0.002, respectively).
      Immunization coverage is still very low among HIV-infected adults in this setting
      despite recommendations and high infection-related mortality.

PMID- 28579171
TI  - The NDR/LATS protein kinases in immunology and cancer biology.
AB  - The NDR (nuclear Dbf2-related)/LATS (large tumour suppressor) family of kinases
      represents a subclass of the AGC (protein kinase A (PKA)/PKG/PKC-like) group of
      serine/threonine protein kinases. Members of the NDR/LATS family are vital
      components of conserved pathways controlling essential cellular processes, such
      as proliferation (cell cycle progression) and cell death. In particular, the
      central involvement of NDR/LATS as YAP/TAZ kinases in the Hippo tissue growth
      control pathway has gained much interest. In this review, we summarise the roles
      of mammalian NDR1/2 (aka STK38/STK38L) and LATS1/2 in immunity and cancer
      biology. We also discuss the activation mechanisms of NDR/LATS involving Ste20
      like kinases and the MOB1 signal transducer, followed by an overview of NDR/LATS
      knockout mouse models. We further review the mutation and expression status of
      NDR/LATS in human cancers and their possible predictive and/or prognostic value
      in cancer treatment.

PMID- 28579172
TI  - Techno-economic analysis of glucosamine and lipid production from marine diatom
      Cyclotella sp.
AB  - A techno-economic analysis (TEA) was performed on glucosamine and lipid
      production from a marine diatom Cyclotella sp. in raceway open pond (RWP) and
      tubular photobioreactor (PBR) cultivation systems. Two PBR operating schemes were
      assessed: one to produce high lipid (HL) content, and another to produce high
      chitin (HC) content. In order to generate 1kg of glucosamine, 9700kg (RWP)/1050kg
      (PBR HL) freshwater, 40kg CO2, 0.70kg nitrogen, 0.18kg phosphorus, and 1.2kg
      silicon nutrients are required for algae cultivation with water and nutrient
      recovery. With a price of $1.5 for lipid as coproduct, the projected selling
      price of glucosamine were $35/kg, $106/kg and $82/kg for RWP, PBR HL, and PBR HC
      systems, respectively. Currently, these prices are not competitive with
      industrial shellfish-derived glucosamine, but can be reduced by technology
      improvements such as producing food grade lipid, increasing algal productivity or
      chitin content.

PMID- 28579173
TI  - Current status on metabolic engineering for the production of l-aspartate family
      amino acids and derivatives.
AB  - The l-aspartate amino acids (AFAAs) are constituted of l-aspartate, l-lysine, l
      methionine, l-threonine and l-isoleucine. Except for l-aspartate, AFAAs are
      essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by humans and most farm animals,
      and thus possess wide applications in food, animal feed, pharmaceutical and
      cosmetics industries. To date, a number of amino acids, including AFAAs have been
      industrially produced by microbial fermentation. However, the overall metabolic
      and regulatory mechanisms of the synthesis of AFAAs and the recent progress on
      strain construction have rarely been reviewed. Aiming to promote the
      establishment of strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli, the
      two industrial amino acids producing bacteria, that are capable of producing high
      titers of AFAAs and derivatives, this paper systematically summarizes the current
      progress on metabolic engineering manipulations in both central metabolic
      pathways and AFAA synthesis pathways based on the category of the five-word
      strain breeding strategies: enter, flow, moderate, block and exit.

PMID- 28579174
TI  - Production of 5-aminovaleric acid in recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum
      strains from a Miscanthus hydrolysate solution prepared by a newly developed
      Miscanthus hydrolysis process.
AB  - This study examined nine expired industrial Corynebacterium glutamicum strains
      with high lysine producing capability for enhanced production of 5-AVA. C.
      glutamicum KCTC 1857 exhibiting the highest lysine production was transformed
      with either original Pseudomonas putida davBA genes, encoding the 5-AVA
      biosynthesis pathway, or C. glutamicum codon-optimized davBA genes. C. glutamicum
      KCTC 1857 expressing the original genes had superior cell viability and 5-AVA
      production capability compared to the other strain. This strain produced 39.93g/L
      of 5-AVA, which is the highest titer reported to date in fed-batch fermentation
      from glucose. Indeed, Miscanthus hydrolysate solution prepared from a novel
      process, comprising pretreatment, hydrolysis, purification, and concentration,
      was used as feedstock for 5-AVA production. A total of 12.51g/L 5-AVA was
      produced from the Miscanthus hydrolysate; this value is 34.7% higher than that
      obtained from glucose in batch fermentation.

PMID- 28579175
TI  - An exopolysaccharide (EPS) from a Lactobacillus plantarum BR2 with potential
      benefits for making functional foods.
AB  - A high molecular weight EPS of glucomannan nature was recovered and purified to
      get an yield of 2.8+/-0.5g/L from Lb. plantarum BR2 and it displayed potent
      antioxidant activity with 29.8% radical scavenging activity and 19% total
      antioxidant capacity. At 100ug/ml concentration, it is capable of inhibiting the
      alpha amylase activity by 10% and at 300ug/ml, it drastically inhibited the alpha
      glucosidase activity by 67% which indicates its antidiabetic potential. More
      interestingly, at a concentration level of 0.1%, it reduced the cholesterol level
      by a margin of 45% in an in vitro assay. The sample didn't reveal any
      cytotoxicity against H9C2 normal cells indicating its potential for safe use as a
      food additive.

PMID- 28579176
TI  - Comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of biogas production from
      marine algae and cattle manure biorefineries.
AB  - The environmental impacts resulting from the cradle-to-grave life cycles of
      Enteromorpha prolifera macroalgae and cattle manure biorefineries are assessed
      and compared. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to evaluate the response of the
      impacts to changes in biogas application by using Simapro 7.3.3. Three scenarios
      are considered in the biorefineries. In the first and second scenarios, the
      biogas produced is considered to be used for electricity production and
      transportation, respectively. In the third scenario, the biogas is considered to
      be recycled back to the systems. Process energy requirements and transportation
      of inputs contribute the largest share of the overall impacts. The cattle manure
      biorefinery is slightly more eco-friendly than the macroalgae biorefinery in
      Scenarios 1 and 2 because it requires more eco-friendly inputs. However, the
      macroalgae biorefinery becomes more eco-friendly than the cattle manure
      biorefinery in Scenario 3 because macroalgae require less energy and water for
      biogas production.

PMID- 28579177
TI  - Greenhouse gas emissions and the links to plant performance in a fixed-film
      activated sludge membrane bioreactor - Pilot plant experimental evidence.
AB  - The present study explores the interlinkages among the operational variables of a
      University of Cape Town (UCT) Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge (IFAS)
      membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot plant. Specifically, dedicated experimental tests
      were carried out with the final aim to find-out a constitutive relationship among
      operational costs (OCs), effluent quality index (EQI), effluent fines (EF).
      Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were also included in the study. Results showed
      that the EQI increases at low flow rate likely due to the dissolved oxygen (DO)
      limitation in the biological processes. Direct GHGs increase with the increasing
      of the air flow due to the anoxic N2O contribution. Irreversible membrane fouling
      reduce from 98% to 85% at the air flow rate of 0.57m3h-1 and 2.56m3h-1,
      respectively. However, the increase of the air flow rate leads to the increase of
      the N2O-N flux emitted from the MBR (from 40% to 80%).

PMID- 28579178
TI  - Waste biorefineries: Enabling circular economies in developing countries.
AB  - This paper aims to examine the potential of waste biorefineries in developing
      countries as a solution to current waste disposal problems and as facilities to
      produce fuels, power, heat, and value-added products. The waste in developing
      countries represents a significant source of biomass, recycled materials,
      chemicals, energy, and revenue if wisely managed and used as a potential
      feedstock in various biorefinery technologies such as fermentation, anaerobic
      digestion (AD), pyrolysis, incineration, and gasification. However, the selection
      or integration of biorefinery technologies in any developing country should be
      based on its waste characterization. Waste biorefineries if developed in
      developing countries could provide energy generation, land savings, new
      businesses and consequent job creation, savings of landfills costs, GHG emissions
      reduction, and savings of natural resources of land, soil, and groundwater. The
      challenges in route to successful implementation of biorefinery concept in the
      developing countries are also presented using life cycle assessment (LCA)
      studies.

PMID- 28579179
TI  - Commentary: Cubital tunnel syndrome caused by intraneural or extraneural ganglion
      cysts-case report and review of the literature: Ulnar nerve ganglion cysts:
      Drawing closer to shore.

PMID- 28579180
TI  - Endoscopic DIEP flap dissection (eDIEP): An experimental cadaveric study.

PMID- 28579182
TI  - Acute Pancreatitis Has a Long-term Deleterious Effect on Physical Health Related
      Quality of Life.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: It is not clear how acute pancreatitis (AP) affects health
      related quality of life (HRQOL). We aimed to determine the long-term independent
      effect of AP on physical and mental HRQOL. METHODS: We analyzed data from 91
      patients (mean 52 years of age, 54% women) admitted with AP to the University of
      Pittsburgh Medical Center from 2011 to 2015 who responded to telephone surveys at
      a median of 14 months after hospital discharge (interquartile range, 12-16
      months). Individuals who did not answer the telephone survey were sent a
      questionnaire by regular mail. Patients answered questions from the 12-Item Short
      Form Survey, and answers were used to calculate mental component summary (MCS)
      and physical component summary (PCS) scores with norm-based scoring (normal
      >=50). HRQOL for these subjects was compared with that of age- and sex-matched
      individuals without pancreatitis (1:2) identified from the North American
      Pancreatitis Study. We controlled for other covariates using multivariable
      regression analysis. RESULTS: At follow-up, individuals with AP had a
      significantly lower PCS score (46.2 +/- 11.8) than did control subjects (51.1 +/-
      9.5; P < .01), but a similar MCS score. A 4-point reduction of the PCS was
      attributed to AP after controlling for sociodemographic factors and medical
      comorbidities. The only pancreatitis-related factor associated with low PCS score
      was multisystem organ failure. Presence of abdominal pain, analgesic use,
      disability, and current smoking at the time of follow-up were also associated
      with lower PCS scores. Etiology of AP, disease severity (by Revised Atlanta
      classification), use of nutritional support, and performance of pancreatic
      interventions did not affect HRQOL at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In a 14-month
      follow-up of patients hospitalized with AP, we found a meaningful, independent,
      and deleterious effect of AP in the physical HRQOL of these patients, compared to
      individuals without AP. Further research is needed to determine the duration of
      this impairment and to evaluate the effects of modifying risk factors.

PMID- 28579181
TI  - Estrogen Replacement Reduces Risk and Increases Survival Times of Women With
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Environmental factors have been identified that affect risk of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but little is known about the effects of sex
      hormones on liver cancer development or outcome. The authors investigated whether
      menopause hormone therapy (MHT) affects risk, age at onset, or outcome of HCC.
      METHODS: We performed a case-control study of 234 female patients treated for HCC
      at a tertiary medical center and with 282 healthy women (controls) from January
      1, 2004 through May 31, 2015. We collected detailed information on environmental
      exposures, ages of menarche and menopause, hysterectomies, and uses of birth
      control and MHT. We performed multivariable logistic and Cox regression analyses
      to determine the independent effects of factors associated with women on risk and
      clinical outcome in HCC. The primary outcomes were effect of MHT on HCC risk, the
      relationship between MHT with hepatitis virus infection on HCC development, and
      effect of MHT on age at HCC onset or survival after diagnosis of HCC. RESULTS:
      The estimated adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for HCC in women who ever used estrogen
      was 0.53 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.32-0.88). This association was
      supported by the older age of HCC onset among estrogen users (mean, 64.5 +/- 0.9
      years) vs nonusers (mean 59.2 +/- 1.1 years; P = .001) and the reduced risk of
      HCC among long-term users (more than 5 years) (AOR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.20-0.63).
      Users of estrogen also had a reduced risk for hepatitis-associated HCC: AOR for
      users, 4.37 (95% CI, 1.67-11.44) vs AOR for nonusers, 17.60 (95% CI, 3.88-79.83).
      Estrogen use reduced risk of death from HCC (hazard ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.40
      0.77; P = .01). Median overall survival times were 33.5 months for estrogen users
      (95% CI, 25.7-41.3 months) and 24.1 months for nonusers (95% CI, 19.02-29.30
      months; P = .008). CONCLUSION: In a case-control study of women with HCC vs
      female control subjects at a single center, we associated use of estrogen MHT
      with reduced risk of HCC and increased overall survival times of patients with
      HCC. Further studies are needed to determine the benefits of estrogen therapy for
      women and patients with HCC, and effects of tumor expression of estrogen
      receptor.

PMID- 28579183
TI  - Confluence of Epidemics of Hepatitis C, Diabetes, Obesity, and Chronic Kidney
      Disease in the United States Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Obesity, kidney disease, and diabetes are common conditions
      that can affect outcomes of patients with chronic hepatitis C. The authors aimed
      to quantify the burden of these comorbid conditions among adults with chronic
      hepatitis C in the United States and to estimate the risk of death among people
      with chronic hepatitis C and comorbidities. METHODS: The authors conducted cross
      sectional and prospective analyses of 13,726 participants in the third National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and 23,691 participants of
      NHANES 1999-2012. Serum samples were analyzed for the presence of antibodies to
      hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV); in samples found to be positive for anti-HCV, the
      authors quantified HCV RNA (viral load). Individuals with anti-HCV and detectable
      HCV RNA were considered to have chronic hepatitis C. Comorbidities were defined
      using self-reported, physical examination, and laboratory data, as available. The
      authors used logistic models and predictive margins to estimate the adjusted
      prevalence of comorbidities in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The authors
      used Poisson regression models to estimate adjusted mortality rates based on
      chronic hepatitis C status, with or without comorbidities. Cox proportional
      hazards regression models to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality
      according to chronic hepatitis C status, with and without comorbidities. RESULTS:
      Among persons with chronic hepatitis C, the demographic-adjusted prevalence
      estimate of diabetes was 17.9% (95% CI, 11.2%-27.5%) and of obesity was 20.9%
      (95% CI, 12.4%-29.5%). Overall, 69.6% of persons with chronic hepatitis C had at
      least 1 major cardiometabolic comorbidity (95% CI, 62.1%-76.2%). Only 38% of
      adults with chronic hepatitis C reported a diagnosis of liver disease. Chronic
      hepatitis C was associated with a substantially increased risk of death (HR,
      2.45), especially in the presence of diabetes (HR, 3.24) or chronic kidney
      disease (HR, 4.39). CONCLUSION: In an analysis of NHANES data, the authors found
      that individuals with chronic hepatitis C have a high burden of major
      cardiometabolic comorbidities. Diabetes and chronic kidney disease, in
      particular, are associated with substantial excess mortality in persons with
      chronic hepatitis C.

PMID- 28579184
TI  - Response from the author on "An Intervention to Improve the Catheter Associated
      Urinary Tract Infection Rate in a Medical Intensive Care Unit: Direct Observation
      of Catheter Insertion Procedure".

PMID- 28579185
TI  - Are dietary reports in a case-control study on thyroid cancer biased by risk
      perception of Chernobyl fallout?
AB  - BACKGROUND: In retrospective case-control studies performed following nuclear
      tests or nuclear accidents, individual thyroid radiation dose reconstructions are
      based on fallout and meteorological data from the residential area, demographic
      characteristics, and lifestyle as well as dietary information. Collecting the
      latter is a controversial step, as dietary declarations may be affected by the
      subjects' beliefs about their risk behavior. This report analyses the potential
      for such bias in a case-control study performed in eastern France. METHODS: The
      study included 765 cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma matched with 831
      controls. Risk perceptions and beliefs of cases and controls were compared using
      Chi2 tests and differences in dietary reports were analyzed using a two-way
      ANOVA. RESULTS: In general, atmospheric pollution and living near a nuclear power
      plant were the two major risks that may influence thyroid cancer occurrence cited
      by cases and controls. When focusing in particular on the consequences of the
      Chernobyl accident, cases were more likely to think that the consequences were
      responsible for thyroid cancer occurrence than controls. Vegetable consumption
      during the two months after the Chernobyl accident was correlated with the status
      of subjects, but not to their beliefs. Conversely, consumption of fresh dairy
      products was not correlated with the status or beliefs of subjects. CONCLUSION:
      We found no evidence of systematic bias in dietary reports according to the
      status or beliefs held by subjects about the link between thyroid cancer
      occurrence and Chernobyl fallout. As such, these dietary reports may be used in
      further studies involving individual dosimetric reconstructions.

PMID- 28579186
TI  - Endocannabinoid modulation of homeostatic and non-homeostatic feeding circuits.
AB  - The endocannabinoid system has emerged as a key player in the control of eating.
      Endocannabinoids, including 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and anandamide (AEA),
      modulate neuronal activity via cannabinoid 1 receptors (CB1Rs) in multiple nuclei
      of the hypothalamus to induce or inhibit food intake depending on nutritional and
      hormonal status, suggesting that endocannabinoids may act in the hypothalamus to
      integrate different types of signals informing about the animal's energy needs.
      In the mesocorticolimbic system, (endo)cannabinoids modulate synaptic
      transmission to promote dopamine release in response to palatable food. In
      addition, (endo)cannabinoids act within the nucleus accumbens to increase food's
      hedonic impact; although this effect depends on activation of CB1Rs at
      excitatory, but not inhibitory inputs in the nucleus accumbens. While
      hyperactivation of the endocannabinoid system is typically associated with
      overeating and obesity, much evidence has emerged in recent years suggesting a
      more complicated system than first thought - endocannabinoids promote or suppress
      feeding depending on cell and input type, or modulation by various neuronal or
      hormonal signals. This review presents our latest knowledge of the
      endocannabinoid system in non-homeostatic and homeostatic feeding circuits. In
      particular, we discuss the functional role and cellular mechanism of action by
      endocannabinoids within the hypothalamus and mesocorticolimbic system, and how
      these are modulated by neuropeptide signals related to feeding. In light of
      recent advances and complexity in the field, we review cannabinoid-based
      therapeutic strategies for the treatment of obesity and how peripheral
      restriction of CB1R antagonists may provide a different mechanism of weight loss
      without the central adverse effects. This article is part of the Special Issue
      entitled "A New Dawn in Cannabinoid Neurobiology".

PMID- 28579188
TI  - Effects of Histamine 2-receptor Antagonists and Proton Pump Inhibitors on the
      Pharmacokinetics of Gefitinib in Patients With Non-small-cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this study, we investigated the degree of drug interactions
      between gefitinib and gastric acid suppressants (ie, histamine 2-receptor
      antagonists [H2RAs] or proton pump inhibitors [PPIs]) with a clinical standard
      dose in Japanese patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. METHODS:
      Retrospectively, 47 patients were divided into 3 groups: gefitinib therapy with a
      PPI (15 patients) or an H2RA (8 patients) or gefitinib therapy alone (24
      patients). On day 15 after beginning gefitinib therapy (administration at 08:00)
      with or without H2RA (administration twice daily at 08:00 and 18:30) or PPI
      (administration once daily at 08:00 or 18:30), whole blood samples were collected
      just prior to and at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours after administration.
      RESULTS: The total area under the observed plasma concentration-time curve (AUC0
      24) and the maximum and trough plasma concentrations of gefitinib with the PPI
      were significantly lower than those without the PPI. The AUC0-24 of gefitinib
      with PPI administration in either the morning or evening were significantly lower
      than those without PPI administration (P = .015 and .049, respectively); however,
      there were no significant differences in gefitinib AUC0-24 between patients
      taking PPI in the morning and evening. No significant differences were observed
      in gefitinib exposure among the 3 CYP2C19 genotypes. The AUC0-24 of gefitinib
      with H2RA tended to be lower than that without H2RA. CONCLUSION: If the plasma
      concentrations of gefitinib cannot be monitored, the combination of gefitinib and
      PPI should be avoided, and an H2RA should also be used carefully.

PMID- 28579187
TI  - Functional MRI BOLD response in sickle mice with hyperalgesia.
AB  - Patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) have abnormal hemoglobin (sickle
      hemoglobin S) leading to the crystallization of hemoglobin chains in red blood
      cells (RBCs), which assume sickle shape and display reduced flexibility. Sickle
      RBCs (sRBCs) adhere to vessel walls and block blood flow, thus preventing oxygen
      delivery to the tissues leading to vaso-occlusive crises (VOC), acute pain and
      organ damage. SCA patients often have chronic pain that can be attributed to
      inflammation, vasculopathy, neuropathy, ischemia-reperfusion injury and organ
      damage. Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) based functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (fMRI) technique that is commonly used for noninvasively
      mapping spontaneous or evoked brain activation in human or animal models has been
      applied in this study to assess abnormal oxygenation change in the brains of mice
      with SCA in response to hypoxia. We found that hyperalgesic HbSS-BERK sickle mice
      with chronic pain display reduced BOLD response to a hypoxia challenge compared
      to their control HbAA-BERK mice. Hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) treated sickle mice
      under acute pain episode exhibit even smaller BOLD signal changes than sickle
      mice without H/R, suggestive of correlations between cerebral BOLD signal changes
      and nociception.

PMID- 28579189
TI  - Identification of intervention categories for aquatic physical therapy in
      pediatrics using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and
      Health-Children and Youth: a global expert survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify intervention categories encountered by physical therapists
      working in aquatic therapy with disabled children, using the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth (ICF-CY).
      METHODS: Aquatic physical therapists were asked to describe concepts related to
      the functioning of disabled children and their contextual factors. Data were
      collected in three rounds using the Delphi technique. All answers were translated
      ('linked') to the ICF-CY and analyzed to determine the degree of consensus.
      RESULTS: Answers were linked and organized into four diagnostic groups. Overall,
      in the four groups, 41 Body Functions, 8 Body Structures, 36 Activities and
      Participation, and 6 Environmental Factors categories were identified as
      intervention targets. In addition, 8 Environmental Factors that influence aquatic
      physical therapy were identified. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the variety
      of intervention categories available to aquatic physical therapists when treating
      children in the water.

PMID- 28579191
TI  - Mentorship of Junior Faculty Members in Academic Radiology.

PMID- 28579192
TI  - "I'm Not Going to Let You Do Anything to Me".

PMID- 28579193
TI  - Relativity Screens for Misvalued Medical Services: Impact on Noninvasive
      Diagnostic Radiology.
AB  - PURPOSE: In 2006, the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee
      (RUC) introduced ongoing relativity screens to identify potentially misvalued
      medical services for payment adjustments. We assess the impact of these screens
      upon the valuation of noninvasive diagnostic radiology services. METHODS: Data
      regarding relativity screens and relative value unit (RVU) changes were obtained
      from the 2016 AMA Relativity Assessment Status Report. All global codes in the
      2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule with associated work RVUs were classified as
      noninvasive diagnostic radiology services versus remaining services. The
      frequency of having ever undergone a screen was compared between the two groups.
      Screened radiology codes were further evaluated regarding the RVU impact of
      subsequent revaluation. RESULTS: Of noninvasive diagnostic radiology codes, 46.0%
      (201 of 437) were screened versus 22.2% (1,460 of 6,575) of remaining codes (P <
      .001). Most common screens for which radiology codes were identified as
      potentially misvalued were (1) high expenditures (27.5%) and (2) high utilization
      (25.6%). The modality and body region most likely to be identified in a screen
      were CT (82.1%) and breast (90.9%), respectively. Among screened radiology codes,
      work RVUs, practice expense RVUs, and nonfacility total RVUs decreased in 20.3%,
      65.9%, and 75.3%, respectively. All screened CT, MRI, brain, and spine codes
      exhibited decreased total RVUs. CONCLUSION: Policymakers' ongoing search for
      potentially misvalued medical services has disproportionately impacted
      noninvasive diagnostic radiology services, risking the introduction of unintended
      or artificial shifts in physician practice.

PMID- 28579194
TI  - Mentoring a New Generation of Leaders for Breast Imaging: The Breast Cancer
      Screening Leadership Group.

PMID- 28579190
TI  - Effect of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) and light-emitting diodes (LEDT) applied
      during combined training on performance and post-exercise recovery: protocol for
      a randomized placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown positive results of phototherapy for
      improving performance and accelerating recovery; however, the effects of
      phototherapy during training and after a primary adaptation remain unclear. The
      aim of this randomized controlled trial is to analyze the effects of phototherapy
      and combined training on clinical, functional, and psychological outcomes and on
      vascular endothelial growth factor. METHODS: This randomized placebo-controlled
      trial by stratified sample will involve 45 healthy male participants. In phase 1,
      the participants will undergo six weeks of combined training (sprints and
      squats). In phase 2, participants will be allocated through stratified
      randomization (based on adaptation capacity) into three groups: active
      phototherapy group (AG), placebo group (PG), and non-treatment control group
      (CG). A new six-week training program will then start and the participants will
      receive the recovery strategy between sprints and squats. The primary outcome
      will be maximal isometric contraction. The secondary outcomes include strength
      and power testing, maximal incremental test, squat jump, sprint test, muscle
      soreness, pain threshold, perceptions of exertion and recovery, psychological
      questionnaire, and vascular endothelial growth factor. CONCLUSIONS: This will be
      the first trial to include phototherapy during training. We believe that this
      strategy will combine the ergogenic and prophylactic effects in the same session.
      Furthermore, an application protocol performed after primary adaptation may
      reflect the real effect of the technique.

PMID- 28579195
TI  - Provider Perspectives of the Complexities of Follow-Up of Abnormal Mammographic
      Findings.

PMID- 28579196
TI  - A Puzzle of Life: Crafting Ribosomal Subunits.
AB  - The biogenesis of eukaryotic ribosomes is a complicated process during which the
      transcription, modification, folding, and processing of the rRNA is coupled with
      the ordered assembly of ~80 ribosomal proteins (r-proteins). Ribosome synthesis
      is catalyzed and coordinated by more than 200 biogenesis factors as the
      preribosomal subunits acquire maturity on their path from the nucleolus to the
      cytoplasm. Several biogenesis factors also interconnect the progression of
      ribosome assembly with quality control of important domains, ensuring that only
      functional subunits engage in translation. With the recent visualization of
      several assembly intermediates by cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM), a structural
      view of ribosome assembly begins to emerge. In this review we integrate these
      first structural insights into an updated overview of the consecutive ribosome
      assembly steps.

PMID- 28579197
TI  - miR-491 inhibits skeletal muscle differentiation through targeting myomaker.
AB  - The myogenesis of skeletal muscle has several stages, including satellite cell
      proliferation, differentiation, fusion and specific muscle formation. Recent
      studies have shown that myomaker, a muscle-specific transmembrane protein, was
      critical for myoblasts fusion. However, the regulatory mechanism of myomaker and
      its effects on myogenesis remain elusive. In this study, miR-491 was identified
      as a post-transcriptional regulator of myomaker, which binds specifically to its
      3' untranslated region leading to its down-regulation. At the end of myotube
      differentiation, the expression levels of miR-491 increased drastically, while
      myomaker was significantly down-regulated, which indicated that miR-491 shut down
      the expression of myomaker. Functional studies showed that miR-491 overexpression
      suppressed muscle cell differentiation and adult muscle regeneration, while the
      inhibition of miR-491 promoted myotube differentiation. Taken together, our
      findings identified miR-491 as a novel negative regulator of myogenic
      differentiation through targeting myomaker.

PMID- 28579198
TI  - Considerations for Initiating a Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 Inhibitor in
      Adults With Type 2 Diabetes Using Insulin.
AB  - In order to meet and maintain glycemic control, pharmacological management of
      individuals with type 2 diabetes typically begins with metformin followed by the
      introduction of other oral antihyperglycemic agents as needed. In some patients,
      the aggressive and progressive degeneration of pancreatic beta cell activity
      means insulin therapy will become a given. The need to routinely monitor blood
      glucose levels coupled with the undesirable effects associated with insulin
      primarily hypoglycemia and weight gain-commonly contribute to physician and
      patient inertia. The new beta-cell-independent sodium-glucose co-transporter 2
      (SGLT2) inhibitors are approved for combination use with all of the currently
      approved oral and injectable antihyperglycemic classes. The addition of SGLT2
      inhibitors to background insulin therapy has the potential to afford many
      benefits and, in some cases, may reduce the incidence of insulin-associated side
      effects. This article reviews the available literature on SGLT2 inhibitor-insulin
      combination therapy and underscores the issues that should be considered prior to
      introducing SGLT2 inhibitors to individuals with type 2 diabetes who are already
      on insulin (with or without other antihyperglycemic agents) to ensure
      individualization of therapy.

PMID- 28579199
TI  - Comorbid Conditions in Canadians Hospitalized Because of Diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The number of hospital discharges involving type 1 or type 2 diabetes
      as the first-listed diagnosis has increased over the past few decades. Such cases
      are commonly associated with various comorbidities. We analyzed data collected
      from hospital separations in Canada to determine the number and proportion of
      comorbid conditions in Canadians hospitalized because of diabetes. METHODS: The
      most responsible diagnosis (MRDx) of diabetes (ICD-10-CA: E10 [type 1 diabetes]
      or E11 [type 2 diabetes]) was identified from acute care hospital separations
      (Discharge Abstract Database) from 2013 to 2014 in all Canadian jurisdictions
      except Quebec. Hospital separations were calculated by 5-year age groups and sex.
      The most common comorbid (secondary) diagnoses were identified for hospital
      separations with diabetes as the MRDx, and the average lengths of stay associated
      with diabetes were determined. RESULTS: The total number of hospital separations
      in 2013-2014 in Canada (excluding Quebec) with diabetes as the MRDx in all ages
      was 30,422, and males represented more than half (58.7%) of the separations. The
      median age group when diabetes is the MRDx is 60 to 64. For all patients
      hospitalized with an MRDx of diabetes, there were 2.2% deaths. Hypertension was
      the most common comorbid diagnosis in patients with diabetes as the MRDx,
      followed by glomerular disorders, peripheral angiopathy and acute renal failure.
      CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalizations resulting from diabetes are associated with
      vascular comorbidities, and hypertension is the most common. Prevention of shared
      predisposing factors should reduce the burden of hospitalizations associated with
      diabetes.

PMID- 28579200
TI  - In sickness and in health: The many roles of the minichromosome maintenance
      proteins.
AB  - Cell division is a tightly-regulated process that involves the contribution of a
      large number of proteins. Before they are able to undergo mitosis, cells must
      first synthesize new DNA, effectively and accurately duplicating their genome.
      This occurs during what is called the S-phase and requires a fine control in
      order to avoid replication errors. The synthesis of new DNA takes place in the
      origin, specific locations in the genome where the double strands of DNA are
      unwound and separated, allowing for the binding of proteins and complexes that
      will build new strands of the genomic material, using the existing ones as molds,
      in what is referred to as semi-conservative process. While the overall flow of
      the DNA synthesis process has been elucidated, its regulation and the exact role
      of its contributors are not yet entirely understood. It is believed that the
      Minichromosome Maintenance (MCM) proteins occupy a central role in DNA synthesis.
      Given their contribution to a central aspect in the conservation of life, further
      studies have been launched to understand how the MCM proteins may affect or be
      affected by pathologies involving cell division, such as neoplasia. In this
      review, we aim to give an overview on the members of the MCM family, what their
      functions are in a healthy environment and how they are altered in cancer.

PMID- 28579201
TI  - Comment on Perioperative analgesic profile of dexmedetomidine infusions in
      morbidly obese undergoing bariatric surgery: A meta-analysis and trial sequential
      analysis.

PMID- 28579203
TI  - Comment on Long-term effects of bariatric surgery on patients with obesity and
      chromosome 19.11-2 microdeletion.

PMID- 28579204
TI  - Is the buckle bursting? - disparity and access to bariatric surgery.

PMID- 28579202
TI  - Use of prescribed opioids before and after bariatric surgery: prospective
      evidence from a U.S. multicenter cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited evidence suggests bariatric surgery may not reduce opioid
      analgesic use, despite improvements in pain. OBJECTIVE: To determine if use of
      prescribed opioid analgesics changes in the short and long term after bariatric
      surgery and to identify factors associated with continued and postsurgery
      initiated use. SETTING: Ten U.S. hospitals. METHODS: The Longitudinal Assessment
      of Bariatric Surgery-2 is an observational cohort study. Assessments were
      conducted presurgery, 6 months postsurgery, and annually postsurgery for up to 7
      years until January 2015. Opioid use was defined as self-reported daily, weekly,
      or "as needed" use of a prescribed medication classified as an opioid analgesic.
      RESULTS: Of 2258 participants with baseline data, 2218 completed follow-up
      assessment(s) (78.7% were female, median body mass index: 46; 70.6% underwent
      Roux-en-Y gastric bypass). Prevalence of opioid use decreased after surgery from
      14.7% (95% CI: 13.3-16.2) at baseline to 12.9% (95% CI: 11.5-14.4) at month 6 but
      then increased to 20.3%, above baseline levels, as time progressed (95% CI: 18.2
      22.5) at year 7. Among participants without baseline opioid use (n = 1892),
      opioid use prevalence increased from 5.8% (95% CI: 4.7-6.9) at month 6 to 14.2%
      (95% CI: 12.2-16.3) at year 7. Public versus private health insurance, more pain
      presurgery, undergoing subsequent surgeries, worsening or less improvement in
      pain, and starting or continuing nonopioid analgesics postsurgery were
      significantly associated with higher risk of postsurgery initiated opioid use.
      CONCLUSION: After bariatric surgery, prevalence of prescribed opioid analgesic
      use initially decreased but then increased to surpass baseline prevalence,
      suggesting the need for alternative methods of pain management in this
      population.

PMID- 28579205
TI  - Surgery-related gastrointestinal symptoms in a prospective study of bariatric
      surgery patients: 3-year follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Having accurate information on bariatric surgery-related
      gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms is critical for patient care. OBJECTIVE: To report
      on surgery-related GI symptoms over the first 3 years following Roux-en-Y gastric
      bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric band. SETTING: Three academic medical
      centers in the United States. METHODS: As a substudy of the Longitudinal
      Assessment of Bariatric Surgery Consortium, 183 participants (pre-surgery median
      body mass index = 45.1 kg/m2; median age = 46 yr; 83.1% female). completed the
      Eating Disorder Examination-Bariatric Surgery Version interview at>=1 annual
      assessment. Patients self-reported frequency of dysphagia, dumping syndrome, and
      spontaneous vomiting. RESULTS: Prevalence of dysphagia at least once weekly
      decreased post-laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery from 43.9% (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 32.2-55.6) in year 1 to 27.5% (95% CI, 15.2-39.9) in
      year 3 (P = .02). Dysphagia and dumping at least once weekly also appeared to
      decrease in years 1-3 post-Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (i.e., from 16.7% [95% CI,
      9.4-24.1] to 10.9% [95% CI, 4.0-17.8] and from 9.9% [95% CI, 4.3-15.5] to 6.3%
      [95% CI, 1.7-10.9], respectively), but power was limited to evaluate trends.
      Vomiting at least once weekly was rare (<6%) in years 1-3 following both
      procedures. Controlling for potential confounders and surgical procedure, loss of
      control eating at least once weekly was associated with higher risk of at least
      once weekly dysphagia (relative risk = 2.01, 95% CI, 1.36-2.99, P = .001).
      CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of bariatric surgery-related GI symptoms appears to
      decrease across follow-up. Symptoms were associated with loss of control eating,
      suggesting a target for clinical intervention.

PMID- 28579206
TI  - Motor neuron disease of very long disease duration or Charcot-Marie-Tooth
      disease? A novel phenotype related to the SOD1 p.E22G variant.

PMID- 28579207
TI  - Peripheral nerve involvement in Fabry's disease: Which investigations? A case
      series and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve system (PNS) involvement is common in Fabry's
      disease (FD), predominantly affecting the small nerve fibers that are difficult
      to investigate with conventional electrophysiological methods. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Eighteen patients followed for Fabry's disease underwent a prospective
      series of electroneurophysiological explorations, including a study of the
      cardiac parasympathetic autonomic nervous system (ANS) and electrochemical skin
      conductance (ESC) tests. Data were compared with those obtained in 18 matched
      healthy controls. RESULTS: All patients had at least one clinical sign suggestive
      of neuropathy: 16 reported an acrosyndrome and 12 had dyshidrosis. Cold
      hypoesthesia was found in 15 patients and heat hypoesthesia in 13.
      Electroneurophysiological investigations and study of the cardiac parasympathetic
      ANS were normal in all patients. The ESC was significantly lower in FD patients
      compared with controls. CONCLUSION: PNS involvement is common in FD and should be
      suspected in patients exhibiting an acrosyndrome, dyshidrosis and/or cold
      hypoesthesia. Conventional electrophysiological investigations are normal. New
      techniques, such as ESC, provide early diagnosis of small fiber involvement that
      currently requires more sophisticated tests difficult to apply in routine
      practice.

PMID- 28579208
TI  - Louis Delasiauve (1804-1893), an alienist at the dawn of epileptology and
      pediatric psychiatry.
AB  - This paper aims to honor the memory of the alienist Louis Delasiauve (1804-1893).
      His classification of the different types of epilepsy based on clinical symptoms
      is still relevant today and made him a precursor of contemporary epileptology. In
      1851, Delasiauve clinically and etiologically isolated 'acute mental confusion'
      (acute confusional state) from all other forms of dementia. Never deviating from
      his republican and progressive ideals, he devoted himself throughout the 19th
      century to treating those insane asylum patients who received the poorest care:
      epileptics and children with intellectual disabilities. Studying functional
      cognitive disability as well as mental disability secondary to congenital
      malformations, Delasiauve developed a novel specific form of pedagogy to deal
      with delays in cognitive development. This made him one of the initiators of
      institutional pediatric psychiatry. His ideas would be carried forward by his
      favorite student, Desire-Magloire Bourneville (1840-1909). Committed to social
      welfare, Delasiauve worked relentlessly to improve access to healthcare for the
      least fortunate throughout France. As a passionate supporter of universal, free
      and secular education, he participated in a major movement away from religious
      establishments that involved opening a public school in every French canton.

PMID- 28579209
TI  - Extended-interval Dosing of Gentamicin in Premature Neonates Born at <32 Weeks'
      Gestation and >7 Days of age.
AB  - PURPOSE: Extended-interval dosing (EID) regimens of gentamicin have been
      validated for treating confirmed or suspected early- and late-onset sepsis in
      preterm infants in the first week of life. Despite the marked changes in volume
      of distribution and renal clearance in preterm infants after the first few days
      of life, few studies have validated EID regimens of gentamicin in this
      population. The objective of the study was to evaluate an EID regimen of
      gentamicin in infants born at <32 weeks' gestational age and aged >7 days.
      METHODS: This observational study of an EID regimen was conducted in 39 infants.
      Dosing interval was based on the serum drug concentration at 22 hours after the
      administration of the first dose of 5 mg/kg. Gentamicin peak (5-12 ug/mL) and
      trough (<2 ug/mL) levels were compared to those in a historical control group of
      39 infants who received traditional-interval dosing (TID) of 2.5 mg/kg of
      gentamicin with dosing intervals of 8, 12, or 24 hours. FINDINGS: There were no
      differences in birthweight, gestational age at birth, postmenstrual age, weight
      at the start of gentamicin administration, postnatal age, small for gestational
      age status, antenatal corticosteroid use, or postnatal indomethacin exposure
      between the 2 groups. In the EID group, dosing intervals were 24 hours in 30
      infants, 36 hours in 6 infants, and 48 hours in 3 infants. Compared with the TID
      group (n = 39), the EID group had a significantly higher peak level (median, 9.0
      vs 4.7 ug/mL) and a significantly lower trough level (median, 0.7 vs 1.1 ug/mL)
      (both, P < 0.001). On regression analysis, the postmenstrual age was correlated
      significantly with trough levels in the EID group. There was no adverse effect on
      renal function in either group. On follow-up, 1 infant in the EID group and 2
      infants in the TID group had evidence of sensorineural hearing loss.
      IMPLICATIONS: In infants born at <32 weeks' gestation and >7 days of age, an EID
      gentamicin regimen, with a dosing interval based on a single concentration
      measurement at 22 hours after the administration of the first dose, achieved
      therapeutic peak and trough levels and performed significantly better than did a
      TID regimen in reaching target peak and trough levels. Larger-scale trials are
      needed for assessing the clinical efficacy (treatment failure/success) of these
      regimens.

PMID- 28579210
TI  - Microcosting Study of Rituximab Subcutaneous Injection Versus Intravenous
      Infusion.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of this study is to identify and compare all direct costs of
      intravenous and subcutaneous rituximab given to patients with diffuse large B
      cell lymphoma in the Netherlands. METHODS: Using a prospective, observational,
      bottom-up microcosting study, we collected primary data on the direct medical
      costs of the preparation, administration, and acquisition of rituximab. Drug
      costs and costs of drug wastage, labor costs, material costs, and outpatient
      costs were identified using standardized forms, structured using prices from
      official pricelists, and compared for the intravenous and subcutaneous forms of
      rituximab. FINDINGS: Measurements were taken on 53 rituximab administrations (33
      intravenous and 20 subcutaneous) and on 13 rituximab preparation (7 intravenous
      and 6 subcutaneous). The mean total costs were ?2176.77 for the intravenous
      infusion and ?1911.09 for the subcutaneous injection. The estimated difference of
      ?265.17 (95% CI, ?231.99-'?298.35) per administration was mainly attributable to
      differences in time spent in the chemotherapy unit, related outpatient costs,
      drug wastage, and drug costs. IMPLICATIONS: Rituximab administered in the form of
      subcutaneous injection is less costly than its intravenous form. With their equal
      effectiveness taken into account, subcutaneous rituximab administration can
      result in significant savings when transferred to the total diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma population in the Netherlands.

PMID- 28579211
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28579212
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28579213
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28579214
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28579215
TI  - [Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease].
AB  - Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease is defined as a severe bilateral, chronic
      granulomatous panuveitis associated with serous retinal detachments, disk edema,
      and vitritis, with central nervous system, auditory, and integumentary
      manifestations. It is an autoimmune inflammatory condition mediated by T cells
      that target melanocytes in individuals genetically susceptible to the disease.
      Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease presents clinically in 4 different phases:
      prodromal, acute inflammatory, chronic, and recurrent, with extraocular
      manifestations including headache, meningitis, hearing loss, poliosis, and
      vitiligo. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows earlier diagnosis of VKH
      disease by revealing heterogeneous exudative detachments of the retina in the
      acute stage and choroidal thickening, and by demonstrating choroidal thinning in
      the chronic stage. Treatment of this disease is initially with intravenous
      corticosteroids, with, if needed, a transition to immunosuppressant drugs for
      long-term control. Patients with VKH disease can have good final visual outcomes
      if treated promptly and aggressively.

PMID- 28579216
TI  - Foveal hypoplasia documented with OCT-Angiography in an albino patient.

PMID- 28579217
TI  - Encephalitis secondary to diethylcarbamazine treatment in a patient with ocular
      loiasis.

PMID- 28579218
TI  - Choroidal nevus or melanoma? Choroidal neovascularisation as a confounder in
      choroidal nevus.

PMID- 28579219
TI  - [Visual outcomes after Descemet's membrane endothelial keratoplasty].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Evaluation and monitoring at 6 months after Descemet's membrane
      endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) in patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy and
      study of factors influencing visual rehabilitation and postoperative quality of
      life. METHODS: Prospective, consecutive, interventional study of 35 eyes of 32
      patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy who underwent surgery from February
      2015 to February 2016 by DMEK. Measurement at D10, M1, M3, M6 of visual acuity,
      graft endothelial cell density, pachymetry, and intraocular pressure, and
      performance at M6 of aberrometry, macular OCT and a quality of life survey (NEI
      VFQ-25). Post-DMEK aberrations are compared to those from control patients
      selected for refractive surgery. RESULTS: Visual acuity improvement at 6 months
      was statistically significant (P<0.0001), as well as pachymetry decrease
      (P<0.0001), endothelial cell loss (P<0.0001) and intraocular pressure increase
      (P=0.003). We observed a statistically significant difference between post-DMEK
      aberrations and those of control subjects for all aberrations from 2nd to 5th
      order. There were no postoperative correlations between visual acuity,
      pachymetry, intraocular pressure, or endothelial cell loss. The global quality of
      life score at six months was 87, corresponding to a good quality of life. We did
      not find a link between the global NEI-VFQ-25 score and visual acuity or visual
      aberrations. Ninety percent of patients surveyed reported a postoperative general
      improvement in quality of life at M6. CONCLUSION: DMEK provides good visual
      rehabilitation and an improvement in quality of life for patients with Fuchs
      endothelial dystrophy. Higher order optical aberrations in these patients,
      although higher than in a healthy population, are negligible and have no impact
      on quality of vision or postoperative quality of life.

PMID- 28579221
TI  - STAT3 in cancer: A double edged sword.
AB  - The transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)
      3 is activated downstream of cytokines, growth factors and oncogenes to mediate
      their functions under both physiological and pathological conditions. In
      particular, aberrant/unrestrained STAT3 activity is detected in a wide variety of
      tumors, driving multiple pro-oncogenic functions. For that, STAT3 is widely
      considered as an oncogene and is the object of intense translational studies. One
      of the distinctive features of this factor is however, its ability to elicit
      different and sometimes contrasting effects under different conditions. In
      particular, STAT3 activities have been shown to be either pro-oncogenic or tumor
      suppressive according to the tumor aetiology/mutational landscape, suggesting
      that the molecular bases underlining its functions are still incompletely
      understood. Here we discuss some of the properties that may provide the bases to
      explain STAT3 heterogeneous functions, and in particular how post-translational
      modifications contribute shaping its sub-cellular localization and activities,
      the cross talk between these activities and cell metabolic conditions, and
      finally how its functions can control the behaviour of both tumor and tumor
      microenvironment cell populations.

PMID- 28579220
TI  - The polymorphism rs17782313 near MC4R gene is related with anthropometric changes
      in women submitted to bariatric surgery over 60 months.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate whether the polymorphism rs17782313 near MC4R gene influences
      long-term outcomes after bariatric surgery. METHODS: The rs16782313 polymorphism
      was genotyped in 217 individuals undergoing bariatric surgery and analyzed in
      detail in 141 women. Data for comorbidities, BMI, excess weight loss (EWL), and
      body composition were obtained before and during 60 months after surgery.
      RESULTS: The risk allele was found in 65 (47%) of the 141 women. Pre-surgical
      body weight and BMI were higher in carriers of the rs17782313 polymorphism (CC +
      CT group) than in non-carriers (TT group) (p = 0.039 and 0.047, respectively).
      The number of women who acquired surgical success (EWL > 50%), was lower in CC +
      CT group compared to TT group (p = 0.015). The minimum BMI seen during the 60
      months of follow-up was higher in CC + CT group compared to TT group (p = 0.028).
      The number of women who presented BMI < 30 kg/m2 (no longer classified as
      obesity) after 24 months of surgery was inferior in CC + CT group (6 out 35
      patients - 17%) than in TT group (19 out 49 patients - 37%, p = 0.043). Moreover,
      the number of patients maintaining BMI > 35 kg/m2 were higher carriers (18 out 35
      patients - 51%) compare to non-carriers (16 out 49 patients - 32%, p = 0.045).
      CONCLUSION: Women with extreme obesity carrying rs17782313 MC4R polymorphism
      present a higher pre-surgical BMI, are more unlikely to reach non-obesity BMI
      (<30 kg/m2) and tend to maintain a BMI > 35 kg/m2 that characterize treatment
      failure.

PMID- 28579222
TI  - Use of the Intermittent Abdominal Pressure Ventilation to guarantee speech in a
      tracheostomized Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patient.

PMID- 28579223
TI  - Tuberculosis, alcohol and tobacco: Dangerous liaisons.

PMID- 28579224
TI  - The frequency of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary hamartomas: An evaluation
      of clinical, radiological, and pathological features and follow-up data of 96
      patients with pulmonary hamartomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the frequency of lung cancer in patients with pulmonary
      hamartomas and to evaluate clinical, radiological, and pathological
      characteristics of pulmonary hamartomas. BASIC PROCEDURES: We reviewed pathology
      records of pulmonary hamartomas diagnosed between 2003 and 2014. Medical records
      and the hospital electronic database were also reviewed for each patient to
      obtain clinical, radiological, and pathological characteristics of pulmonary
      hamartomas and accompanying malignancies. MAIN FINDINGS: Ninety-six patients with
      pulmonary hamartomas were identified. There were 26 females (27%) and 70 males
      (73%), with a mean age of 56.2 years (range 22-87 years). Malignancies were
      detected in 23 patients (24%), which developed previously in five patients (1
      synchronous, 4 metachronous lesions), and concomitantly in 18 patients (with
      origin from the lung in 17 patients and from the pleura in 1 patient). PRINCIPAL
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that patients with pulmonary hamartomas may have
      coexisting lung malignancies.

PMID- 28579226
TI  - Reprising the role of CD4 cell count in HIV programmes.

PMID- 28579225
TI  - Effect of point-of-care CD4 cell count results on linkage to care and
      antiretroviral initiation during a home-based HIV testing campaign: a non
      blinded, cluster-randomised trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV disease staging with referral laboratory-based CD4 cell count
      testing is a key barrier to the initiation of antiretroviral treatment (ART).
      Point-of-care CD4 cell counts can improve linkage to HIV care among people living
      with HIV, but its effect has not been assessed with a randomised controlled trial
      in the context of home-based HIV counselling and testing (HBCT). METHODS: We did
      a two-arm, cluster-randomised, controlled efficacy trial in two districts of
      western Kenya with ongoing HBCT. Housing compounds were randomly assigned (1:1)
      to point-of-care CD4 cell counts (366 compounds with 417 participants) or
      standard-of-care (318 compounds with 353 participants) CD4 cell counts done at
      one of three referral laboratories serving the study catchment area. In each
      compound, we enrolled people with HIV not engaged in care in the previous 6
      months. All participants received post-test counselling and referral for HIV
      care. Point-of-care test participants received additional counselling on the
      result, including ART eligibility if CD4 was less than 350 cells per MUL, the
      cutoff in Kenyan guidelines. Participants were interviewed 6 months after
      enrolment to ascertain whether they sought HIV care, verified through chart
      reviews at 23 local clinics. The prevalence of loss to follow-up at 6 months
      (LTFU) was listed as the main outcome in the study protocol. We analysed linkage
      to care at 6 months (defined as 1-LTFU) as the primary outcome. All analyses were
      by intention to treat. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number
      NCT02515149. FINDINGS: We enrolled 770 participants between July 1, 2013, and Feb
      28, 2014. 692 (90%) had verified linkage to care status and 78 (10%) were lost to
      follow-up. Of 371 participants in the point-of-care group, 215 (58%) had linked
      to care within 6 months versus 108 (34%) of 321 in the standard-of-care group
      (Cox proportional multivariable hazard ratio [HR] 2.14, 95% CI 1.67-2.74; log
      rank p<0.0001). INTERPRETATION: Point-of-care CD4 cell counts in a resource
      limited HBCT setting doubled linkage to care and thereby improved ART initiation.
      Given the substantial economic and logistic hindrances to providing ART for all
      people with HIV in resource-limited settings in the near term, point of care CD4
      cell counts might have a role in prioritising care and improving linkage to care.
      FUNDING: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PMID- 28579227
TI  - D-TGA Combined With Left Arch Atresia of a Double Aortic Arch.
AB  - A three-month-old female underwent an arterial switch operation for transposition
      of the great arteries (TGA) with concomitant ventricular septal defect (VSD).
      After the operation, the patient suffered from stubborn pulmonary infection with
      increased airway resistance, and could not be weaned from a ventilator.
      Multispiral computed tomography (CT) scanning suggested a double aortic arch with
      left arch atresia. The patient underwent a second procedure to resection the left
      aortic arch. The patient gradually recovered and was successfully weaned from the
      ventilator.

PMID- 28579229
TI  - Residential exposure to traffic noise and leisure-time sports - A population
      based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traffic levels have been found a significant environmental predictor
      for physical inactivity. A recent study suggested that traffic noise annoyance
      was associated with lower physical activity. OBJECTIVES: We investigated
      associations between modelled residential traffic noise and leisure-time sports.
      METHODS: In the Diet, Cancer and Health cohort, we performed cross-sectional
      analyses using data from the baseline questionnaire (1993-97), and longitudinal
      analyses of change between baseline and follow-up (2000-02). People reported
      participation (yes/no) and hours of leisure-time sport, from which we calculated
      MET hrs/week. Present and historical addresses from 1987 to 2002 were found in
      national registries, and traffic noise was modelled 1 and 5 years before
      enrolment, and from baseline to follow-up. Analyses were performed using logistic
      and linear regression. RESULTS: Traffic noise exposure 5 years before baseline
      was associated with higher prevalence odds ratio of non-participation in leisure
      time sports; significantly for road traffic noise (odds ratio (OR): 1.10; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.07-1.13) and borderline for railway noise (OR: 1.03;
      95% CI: 0.99-1.07), per 10dB. In longitudinal analyses, a 10dB higher road
      traffic noise was associated with a higher prevalence odds ratio of ceasing (OR:
      1.12; 95% CI: 1.07-1.18) and a lower prevalence odds ratio of initiating (OR:
      0.92; 95% CI: 0.87-0.96) leisure-time sports. Exposure to railway noise was
      negatively associated with baseline MET hrs/week, whereas no association was
      found in longitudinal analyses, or for road traffic noise. CONCLUSION: The study
      suggests that long-term exposure to residential road traffic noise is negatively
      associated with leisure-time sports. Results for railway noise were less
      consistent.

PMID- 28579228
TI  - Association of Systemic Inflammation Score With Atrial Fibrillation: A Case
      Control Study With Propensity Score Matching.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammation plays a key role in the initiation and progression of
      atrial fibrillation (AF). We developed a novel systemic inflammation score (SIS)
      based on integration of biomarkers used routinely in clinical settings. We aim to
      explore the association between SIS and AF. METHODS: A matched case-control study
      with 376 pairs of AF cases and controls was performed using a propensity score
      matching system. The SIS was developed by integrating albumin (ALB), neutrophil
      to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocytes to
      monocytes ratio (LMR). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to
      examine the association of each marker and SIS with AF. RESULTS: The conditional
      multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that elevated levels of ALB and
      LMR were significantly associated with decreased risk of AF with an OR of 0.74
      (95% CI: 0.65, 0.85) and 0.73 (95% CI: 0.64, 0.83), respectively. Patients with
      elevated SIS had a significantly higher risk of AF. Compared to the patients with
      SIS equal to 1, the patients with SIS equal to 3 and 4 had an OR of 2.16 (95% CI:
      1.40 3.32), and 2.55 (95% CI: 1.66, 3.92), respectively. The SIS was positively
      correlated with left atrial diameter and right atrial diameter in patients with
      AF. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study provides further clinical
      epidemiological evidence that systemic inflammatory status was correlated with
      AF. The SIS, as an index to evaluate the intensity of systemic inflammatory
      status, could be useful for early prediction of AF development and understanding
      of AF mechanism.

PMID- 28579230
TI  - Comparative incidence dynamics and serotypes of meningitis, bacteremic pneumonia
      and other-IPD in young children in the PCV era: Insights from Israeli
      surveillance studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Widespread introduction of pneumococcal conjugated vaccines (PCVs)
      impacted on invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). However, IPD reduction may not
      be similar in all outcomes within IPD. We assessed PCV7/PCV13 impact on
      pneumococcal meningitis, bacteremic pneumonia (BP) and other (non-meningitis, non
      pneumonia) IPD episodes in children <5years in Israel. METHODS: A prospective,
      population-based, active nationwide surveillance. All pneumococcal invasive
      episodes with positive blood/CSF cultures, July 2000 through June 2016, were
      included. Three sub-periods were defined: pre-PCV (2000-2008), PCV7 (2009-2011)
      and PCV13 (2014-2016). Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated. RESULTS:
      Overall, 4321 episodes were recorded; 456 (10.6%) meningitis, 1478 (34.2%)
      pneumonia and 2387 (55.2%) other-IPD. In the pre-PCV period, proportion of
      serotypes in PCV13, but not in PCV7 (mainly serotypes 1, 5 and 19A) was higher in
      BP (43.3%) compared with other-IPD episodes (32.8%, p<0.001) and similar to that
      of meningitis (37.6%, p=0.1). The proportion of episodes in children <12months
      was higher in meningitis (52.1%) compared with pneumonia (23.2%) and other-IPD
      episodes (39.5%; p<0.001 for both). The declines of the 3 entities were not
      similar; Meningitis rate non-significantly declined by 24% (IRR=0.76; 95% CI 0.57
      1.01), while BP and other-IPD rates significantly declined by 57% and 70%,
      respectively. In contrast to other entities, BP did not decline significantly
      after PCV7 introduction but started to decline only after PCV13 introduction.
      Rates of meningitis, pneumonia and other-IPD caused by PCV13-serotypes (VT13)
      substantially declined by 88%, 95% and 97%, respectively, comparing PCV13 and the
      pre-PCV periods. However, diseases caused by non-VT13 increased by 256%, 302% in
      meningitis and pneumonia, respectively, but only 116% in other-IPD. CONCLUSIONS:
      Following PCV7/PCV13 introduction, rates of episodes caused by VT13 were
      substantially reduced in all 3 groups. However, differences in age distribution,
      serotype replacement and specific serotype decrease suggest different
      pathogenesis and host susceptibility between the 3 entities.

PMID- 28579231
TI  - Optimized production and purification of Coxsackievirus B1 vaccine and its
      preclinical evaluation in a mouse model.
AB  - Coxsackie B viruses are among the most common enteroviruses, causing a wide range
      of diseases. Recent studies have also suggested that they may contribute to the
      development of type 1 diabetes. Vaccination would provide an effective way to
      prevent CVB infections, and the objective of this study was to develop an
      efficient vaccine production protocol for the generation of novel CVB vaccines.
      Various steps in the production of a formalin-inactivated Coxsackievirus B1
      (CVB1) vaccine were optimized including the Multiplicity Of Infection (MOI) used
      for virus amplification, virus cultivation time, type of cell growth medium,
      virus purification method and formulation of the purified virus. Safety and
      immunogenicity of the formalin inactivated CVB1 vaccine was characterized in a
      mouse model. Two of the developed methods were found to be optimal for virus
      purification: the first employed PEG-precipitation followed by gelatin
      chromatography and sucrose cushion pelleting (three-step protocol), yielding 19
      fold increase in virus concentration (0.06ug/cm2) as compared to gold standard
      method. The second method utilized tandem sucrose pelleting without a PEG
      precipitation step, yielding 83-fold increase in virus concentration
      (0.24ug/cm2), but it was more labor-intensive and cannot be efficiently scaled
      up. Both protocols provide radically higher virus yields compared with
      traditional virus purification protocols involving PEG-precipitation and sucrose
      gradient ultracentrifugation. Formalin inactivation of CVB1 produced a vaccine
      that induced a strong, virus-neutralizing antibody response in vaccinated mice,
      which protected against challenge with CVB1 virus. Altogether, these results
      provide valuable information for the development of new enterovirus vaccines.

PMID- 28579232
TI  - ChAdOx1 and MVA based vaccine candidates against MERS-CoV elicit neutralising
      antibodies and cellular immune responses in mice.
AB  - The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has infected more
      than 1900 humans, since 2012. The syndrome ranges from asymptomatic and mild
      cases to severe pneumonia and death. The virus is believed to be circulating in
      dromedary camels without notable symptoms since the 1980s. Therefore, dromedary
      camels are considered the only animal source of infection. Neither antiviral
      drugs nor vaccines are approved for veterinary or medical use despite active
      research on this area. Here, we developed four vaccine candidates against MERS
      CoV based on ChAdOx1 and MVA viral vectors, two candidates per vector. All
      vaccines contained the full-length spike gene of MERS-CoV; ChAdOx1 MERS vaccines
      were produced with or without the leader sequence of the human tissue plasminogen
      activator gene (tPA) where MVA MERS vaccines were produced with tPA, but either
      the mH5 or F11 promoter driving expression of the spike gene. All vaccine
      candidates were evaluated in a mouse model in prime only or prime-boost regimens.
      ChAdOx1 MERS with tPA induced higher neutralising antibodies than ChAdOx1 MERS
      without tPA. A single dose of ChAdOx1 MERS with tPA elicited cellular immune
      responses as well as neutralising antibodies that were boosted to a significantly
      higher level by MVA MERS. The humoral immunogenicity of a single dose of ChAdOx1
      MERS with tPA was equivalent to two doses of MVA MERS (also with tPA). MVA MERS
      with mH5 or F11 promoter induced similar antibody levels; however, F11 promoter
      enhanced the cellular immunogenicity of MVA MERS to significantly higher
      magnitudes. In conclusion, our study showed that MERS-CoV vaccine candidates
      could be optimized by utilising different viral vectors, various genetic designs
      of the vectors, or different regimens to increase immunogenicity. ChAdOx1 and MVA
      vectored vaccines have been safely evaluated in camels and humans and these MERS
      vaccine candidates should now be tested in camels and in clinical trials.

PMID- 28579234
TI  - Protective immunity against Megalocytivirus infection in rock bream (Oplegnathus
      fasciatus) following CpG ODN administration.
AB  - Rock bream iridovirus (RBIV) disease in rock bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus)
      remains an unsolved problem in Korea aquaculture farms. CpG ODNs are known as
      immunostimulant, can improve the innate immune system of fish providing
      resistance to diseases. In this study, we evaluated the potential of CpG ODNs to
      induce anti-viral status protecting rock bream from different RBIV infection
      conditions. We found that, when administered into rock bream, CpG ODN 1668
      induces better antiviral immune responses compared to other 5 CpG ODNs (2216,
      1826, 2133, 2395 and 1720). All CpG ODN 1668 administered fish (1/5ug) at 2days
      before infection (1.1*107) held at 26 degrees C died even though mortality was
      delayed from 8days (1ug) and 4days (5ug). Similarly, CpG ODN 1668 administered
      (5ug) at 2days before infection (1.2*106) held at 23/20 degrees C had 100%
      mortality; the mortality was delayed from 9days (23 degrees C) and 11days (20
      degrees C). Moreover, when CpG ODN 1668 administered (1/5/10ug) at 2/4/7days
      before infection or virus concentration was decreased to 1.1*104 and held at 20
      degrees C had mortality rates of 20/60/30% (2days), 30/40/60% (4days) and
      60/60/20% (7days), respectively, for the respective administration dose, through
      100 dpi. To investigate the development of a protective immune response,
      survivors were re-infected with RBIV (1.1*107) at 100 and 400 dpi, respectively.
      While 100% of the previously unexposed fish died, 100% of the previously infected
      fish survived. The high survival rate of fish following re-challenge with RBIV
      indicates that protective immunity was established in the surviving rock bream.
      Our results showed the possibility of developing preventive measures against RBIV
      using CpG ODN 1668 by reducing RBIV replication speed (i.e. water temperature of
      20 degrees C and infection dose of 1.1*104).

PMID- 28579233
TI  - A Phase 2 randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging trial of
      aluminum-adjuvanted respiratory syncytial virus F particle vaccine formulations
      in healthy women of childbearing age.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant morbidity and
      mortality in infants. We are developing an RSV fusion (F) protein nanoparticle
      vaccine for immunization of third trimester pregnant women to passively protect
      infants through transfer of RSV-specific maternal antibodies. The present trial
      was performed to assess the immunogenicity and safety of several formulations of
      RSV F vaccine in 1-dose or 2-dose schedules. METHODS: Placebo, or vaccine with
      60MUg or 120MUg RSV F protein and 0.2, 0.4, or 0.8mg aluminum, were administered
      intramuscularly on Days 0 and 28 to healthy women 18-35years old. Immunogenicity
      was assessed from Days 0 through 91 based on anti-F IgG and palivizumab
      competitive antibody (PCA) by ELISA, and RSV A and B neutralizing antibodies by
      microneutralization (MN) assay. Solicited adverse events were collected through
      Day 7 and unsolicited adverse events through Day 91. RESULTS: All formulations
      were well-tolerated, with no treatment-related serious adverse events. Anti-F IgG
      and PCA responses were correlated and increased after both doses, while MN
      increased significantly only after the first dose, then plateaued. The timeliest
      and most robust antibody responses followed one dose of 120MUg RSV F protein and
      0.4mg aluminum, but persistence through 91days was modestly (~25%) superior
      following two doses of 60MUg RSV F protein and 0.8mg aluminum. Western blot
      analysis showed RSV infections in active vaccinees were reduced by 52% overall
      (p=0.009 overall) over the Day 0 through 90 period. CONCLUSIONS: RSV F
      nanoparticle vaccine formulations were well tolerated and immunogenic. The
      optimal combination of convenience and rapid response for immunization in the
      third trimester occurred with 120MUg RSV F and 0.4mg aluminum, which achieved
      peak immune responses in 14days and sufficient persistence through 91days to
      allow for passive transfer of IgG antibodies to the fetus. NCT01960686.

PMID- 28579235
TI  - Haematopoietic TLR4 deletion attenuates perivascular brown adipose tissue
      inflammation in atherosclerotic mice.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate whether haematopoietic TLR4 deletion attenuates perivascular
      brown adipose tissue inflammation in atherosclerotic mice. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Experiments were performed using irradiated LDL receptor-deficient (LDLR-/-) mice
      with marrow from either TLR4-deficient (TLR4-/-) or age-matched wild-type (WT)
      mice. After 12 weeks of being fed a high-cholesterol diet, TLR4-/-->LDLR-/- mice
      developed fewer atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta compared to WT->LDLR-/-
      mice. This effect was associated with an increase in multilocular lipid droplets
      and mitochondria in perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT). Immunofluorescence
      analysis confirmed that there was an increase in capillary density and M2
      macrophage infiltration, accompanied by a decrease in tumour necrosis factor
      (TNF)-alpha expression in the localized PVAT of TLR4-/-->LDLR-/- mice. In vitro
      studies indicated that bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) from WT mice
      demonstrated an M1-like phenotype and expression of inflammatory cytokines
      induced by palmitate. These effects were attenuated in BMDMs isolated from TLR4-/
      mice. Furthermore, brown adipocytes incubated with conditioned medium (CM)
      derived from palmitate-treated BMDMs, exhibited larger and more unilocular lipid
      droplets, and reduced expression of brown adipocyte-specific markers and
      perilipin-1 compared to those observed in brown adipocytes exposed to CM from
      palmitate-treated BMDMs of TLR4-/- mice. This decreased potency was primarily due
      to TNF-alpha, as demonstrated by the capacity of the TNF-alpha neutralizing
      antibody to reverse these effects. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that
      haematopoietic-specific deletion of TLR4 promotes PVAT homeostasis, which is
      involved in reducing macrophage-induced TNF-alpha secretion and increasing
      mitochondrial biogenesis in brown adipocytes.

PMID- 28579237
TI  - Case of Percutaneous Extracorporeal Femoro-Femoral Bypass for Acute Limb Ischemia
      From Large Bore Access.

PMID- 28579236
TI  - Biodegradable Polymer Biolimus-Eluting Stents Versus Durable Polymer Everolimus
      Eluting Stents in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease: Final 5-Year Report From
      the COMPARE II Trial (Abluminal Biodegradable Polymer Biolimus-Eluting Stent
      Versus Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stent).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This analysis investigates the 5-year outcomes of the biodegradable
      polymer biolimus-eluting stent (BP-BES) and durable polymer everolimus-eluting
      stent (DP-EES) in an all-comers population undergoing percutaneous coronary
      intervention. BACKGROUND: Recent 1- and 3-year results from randomized trials
      have indicated similar safety and efficacy outcomes of BP-BES and DP-EES. Whether
      benefits of the biodegradable polymer device arise over longer follow-up is
      unknown. Moreover, in-depth, prospective, long-term follow-up data on metallic
      drug-eluting stents with durable or biodegradable polymers are scarce. METHODS:
      The COMPARE II trial (Abluminal Biodegradable Polymer Biolimus-Eluting Stent
      Versus Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stent) was a prospective, randomized,
      multicenter, all-comers trial in which 2,707 patients were randomly allocated
      (2:1) to BP-BES or DP-EES. The pre-specified endpoint at 5 years was major
      adverse cardiac events, a composite of cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial
      infarction, or target vessel revascularization. RESULTS: Five-year follow-up was
      available in 2,657 patients (98%). At 5 years, major adverse cardiac events
      occurred in 310 patients (17.3%) in the BP-BES group and 142 patients (15.6%) in
      the DP-EES group (p = 0.26). The rate of the combined safety endpoint all-cause
      death or myocardial infarction was 15.0% in the BP-BES group versus 14.8% in the
      DP-EES group (p = 0.90), whereas the efficacy measure target vessel
      revascularization was 10.6% versus 9.0% (p = 0.18), respectively. Interestingly,
      definite stent thrombosis rates did not differ between groups (1.5% for BP-BES
      vs. 0.9% for DP-EES; p = 0.17). CONCLUSIONS: The 5-year analysis comparing
      biodegradable polymer-coated BES and the durable polymer-coated EES confirms the
      initial early- and mid-term results regarding similar safety and efficacy
      outcomes in this all-comers percutaneous coronary intervention population.

PMID- 28579238
TI  - A New Method for Hemostasis of a Pseudoaneurysm Using Autologous Blood.

PMID- 28579239
TI  - Not All Immobile Bioprosthetic Valve Cusps Are Thrombosed.

PMID- 28579240
TI  - First Observation of a "Golden Tube" After Complete Resorption of a Bioresorbable
      Vascular Scaffold in a Transplanted Patient With Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy.

PMID- 28579241
TI  - A Dual-Snare Percutaneous Retrieval of Venous Stent Embolization to the Right
      Heart.

PMID- 28579244
TI  - Setting up a successful special interest study group: five-year reflection.

PMID- 28579243
TI  - Anchors for sutures to fix pedicled flaps to the floor of the mouth in
      reconstructions for cancer.

PMID- 28579245
TI  - Dentigerous cysts associated with impacted third molars in adults after
      decompression: a prospective survey of reduction in volume using computerised
      analysis of cone-beam computed tomographic images.
AB  - We prospectively investigated in adults the decompression of dentigerous cysts
      associated with impacted third molars at high risk of iatrogenic damage during
      extraction. The computerised calculated volumetric postoperative reductions
      measured by cone-beam computed tomography at four and eight months were
      correlated with the duration of treatment, initial volume, and patient's age. We
      prospectively monitored 14 adult patients with 14 dentigerous cysts that were
      associated with impacted third molars, for eight months after decompression. The
      mean (SD) reduction in volume during the first eight months was 71 (14) % (51%
      after the first four months and 20% after the second four months), with a monthly
      reduction rate of 9%. Both the total decrease in volume (a) and the monthly rate
      of reduction (b) were significantly associated (p<0.01) and linearly correlated
      with the duration of decompression [r (a)=-0.89, r (b)=-0.61] and initial volume
      [r (a)=r (b)=0.92], but not with the patient's age (p=0.49) [r (a)=r (b)=0.04].
      The trend towards reduction in volume within a period of eight months of
      treatment allowed us to better understand the duration of decompression required.

PMID- 28579246
TI  - Neocondylar formation after resection of the mandible and reconstruction with a
      vascularised iliac crest free flap: rare case.
AB  - Tumours in the mandible often necessitate the removal of both mandibular and
      condylar bone. A free vascularised bone flap is a common choice for
      reconstruction, but it is rare for adults to form a new condyle after it. We
      describe a patient in whom a new condyle did form after reconstruction with a
      vascularised iliac crest free flap.

PMID- 28579247
TI  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in patients with acute ischemic stroke is
      associated with more severe stroke and worse outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data regarding the association between
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and acute ischemic stroke. Stroke is
      largely preventable, so that knowledge of risk factors is essential to achieve
      reductions in the stroke rate and resulting disease burden. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      the present study was to evaluate the prognostic value of NAFLD on stroke
      severity and outcome. METHODS: We prospectively studied 200 patients who were
      admitted with acute ischemic stroke between September 2013 and August 2015.
      Demographic and vascular risk factors were detailed for all subjects. The
      severity of stroke was assessed with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale
      score at admission. NAFLD was defined as serum alanine aminotransferase and/or
      aspartate aminotransferase levels above the upper limit of normal in the absence
      of other causes of elevated aminotransferase levels. The outcome was assessed
      with the modified Rankin scale score at discharge. RESULTS: NAFLD was found in
      42.5% of the study population. The prevalence of diabetes was significantly
      higher among patients with NAFLD than those without NAFLD (P = .001). Waist
      circumference was significantly higher among patients with NAFLD than those
      without NAFLD (P < .05). Patients with NAFLD had significantly higher glucose,
      Triglycerides, Low density lipoprotein, serum alanine aminotransferase and
      aspartate aminotransferase than those without NAFLD (P < .05 for each
      comparison). National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score at admission and
      modified Rankin scale score at discharge were significantly higher in patients
      with NAFLD than those without NAFLD (P < .05 for each comparison). CONCLUSION:
      NAFLD was found in 42.5% of acute ischemic stroke patients. NAFLD might be
      associated with more severe stroke and worse outcome.

PMID- 28579242
TI  - Mitochonic Acid 5 (MA-5) Facilitates ATP Synthase Oligomerization and Cell
      Survival in Various Mitochondrial Diseases.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction increases oxidative stress and depletes ATP in a
      variety of disorders. Several antioxidant therapies and drugs affecting
      mitochondrial biogenesis are undergoing investigation, although not all of them
      have demonstrated favorable effects in the clinic. We recently reported a
      therapeutic mitochondrial drug mitochonic acid MA-5 (Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2015).
      MA-5 increased ATP, rescued mitochondrial disease fibroblasts and prolonged the
      life span of the disease model "Mitomouse" (JASN, 2016). To investigate the
      potential of MA-5 on various mitochondrial diseases, we collected 25 cases of
      fibroblasts from various genetic mutations and cell protective effect of MA-5 and
      the ATP producing mechanism was examined. 24 out of the 25 patient fibroblasts
      (96%) were responded to MA-5. Under oxidative stress condition, the GDF-15 was
      increased and this increase was significantly abrogated by MA-5. The serum GDF-15
      elevated in Mitomouse was likewise reduced by MA-5. MA-5 facilitates
      mitochondrial ATP production and reduces ROS independent of ETC by facilitating
      ATP synthase oligomerization and supercomplex formation with mitofilin/Mic60. MA
      5 reduced mitochondria fragmentation, restores crista shape and dynamics. MA-5
      has potential as a drug for the treatment of various mitochondrial diseases. The
      diagnostic use of GDF-15 will be also useful in a forthcoming MA-5 clinical
      trial.

PMID- 28579248
TI  - Echocardiography-Derived Left Ventricular Outflow Tract Gradient and Left
      Ventricular Posterior Wall Thickening Are Associated with Outcomes for Anatomic
      Repair in Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries is a rare
      form of congenital heart disease. Management is controversial; options include
      observation, physiologic repair, and anatomic repair. Assessment of morphologic
      left ventricle preparedness is key in timing anatomic repair. This study's
      purpose was to review the modalities used to assess the morphologic left
      ventricle preoperatively and to determine if any echocardiographic variables are
      associated with outcomes. METHODS: A retrospective review of patients with
      congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries eligible for anatomic
      repair at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital from 2000 to 2016 was conducted.
      Inclusion criteria were (1) presurgical echocardiography, magnetic resonance
      imaging, and cardiac catheterization and (2) clinical follow-up information.
      Echocardiographic measurements included left ventricular (LV) single-plane
      Simpson's ejection fraction, LV eccentricity index, LV posterior wall thickening,
      pulmonary artery band (PAB)/LV outflow tract (LVOT) pressure gradient, and LV and
      right ventricular strain. Magnetic resonance imaging measurements included LV
      mass, ejection fraction, eccentricity index, and LV thickening. LV pressure,
      PAB/LVOT gradient, right ventricular pressure, pulmonary vascular resistance, and
      Qp/Qs constituted catheterization data. Outcomes included achieving anatomic
      repair within 1 year of assessment in patients with LVOT obstruction or within 1
      year of pulmonary artery banding and freedom from death, transplantation, or
      heart failure at last follow-up. RESULTS: Forty-one patients met the inclusion
      criteria. PAB/LVOT gradients of 85.2 +/- 23.4 versus 64.0 +/- 32.1 mm Hg (P =
      .0282) by echocardiography and 60.1 +/- 19.4 versus 35.9 +/- 18.9 mm Hg (P =
      .0030) by catheterization were associated with achieving anatomic repair and
      freedom from death, transplantation, and heart failure. Echocardiographic LV
      posterior wall thickening of 35.4 +/- 19.8% versus 20.6 +/- 15.0% (P = .0017) and
      MRI LV septal wall thickening of 37.1 +/- 18.8% versus 19.3 +/- 18.8% (P = .0306)
      were associated with achieving anatomic repair. Inter- and intraobserver
      variability for echocardiographic measurements was very good. CONCLUSIONS:
      PAB/LVOT gradient and LV posterior wall thickening are highly reproducible
      echocardiographic measurements that reflect morphologic LV performance and can be
      used in assessing patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great
      arteries undergoing anatomic repair.

PMID- 28579249
TI  - Response to the letter to the editor regarding an article, "Takotsubo
      cardiomyopathy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis".

PMID- 28579250
TI  - DNA methylation of extracellular matrix remodeling genes in children exposed to
      arsenic.
AB  - Several novel mechanistic findings regarding to arsenic's pathogenesis has been
      reported and some of them suggest that the etiology of some arsenic induced
      diseases are due in part to heritable changes to the genome via epigenetic
      processes such as DNA methylation, histone maintenance, and mRNA expression.
      Recently, we reported that arsenic exposure during in utero and early life was
      associated with impairment in the lung function and abnormal receptor for
      advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and
      tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) sputum levels. Based on
      our results and the reported arsenic impacts on DNA methylation, we designed this
      study in our cohort of children exposed in utero and early childhood to arsenic
      with the aim to associate DNA methylation of MMP9, TIMP1 and RAGE genes with its
      protein sputum levels and with urinary and toenail arsenic levels. The results
      disclosed hypermethylation in MMP9 promotor region in the most exposed children;
      and an increase in the RAGE sputum levels among children with the mid methylation
      level; there were also positive associations between MMP9 DNA methylation with
      arsenic toenail concentrations; RAGE DNA methylation with iAs, and %DMA; and
      finally between TIMP1 DNA methylation with the first arsenic methylation. A
      negative correlation between MMP9 sputum levels with its DNA methylation was
      registered. In conclusion, arsenic levels were positive associated with the DNA
      methylation of extracellular matrix remodeling genes;, which in turn could
      modifies the biological process in which they are involved causing or
      predisposing to lung diseases.

PMID- 28579252
TI  - Biological implications of selenium in adolescent rats exposed to binge drinking:
      Oxidative, immunologic and apoptotic balance.
AB  - Alcohol intermittent binge drinking (BD) during adolescence decreases the levels
      of selenium (Se), a trace element that plays a key biological role against
      oxidative damage in hepatocytes through different selenoproteins such as the
      antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidases (GPx1 and Gpx4) and selenoprotein P
      (SelP). In this context, it has been found that GPx4 has an essential antioxidant
      role in mitochondria modulating the apoptosis and NF-kB activation (a factor
      intimately related to apoptosis and immune function). To further investigate the
      effectiveness of selenium supplementation in oxidative balance, inflammation and
      apoptosis, the present study examined the protective effects of 0.4ppm of dietary
      selenite administrated to adolescent rats exposed to BD. BD consumption depleted
      Se deposits in all the tissues studied. In liver, GPx1 activity and expression
      were decreased leading to protein and lipid hepatic oxidation. Moreover GPx4 and
      NF-kB expression were also decreased in liver, coinciding with an increase in
      caspase-3 expression. This hepatic profile caused general liver damage as shown
      the increased serum transaminases ratio AST/ALT. Proinflammatory serum citokines
      and chemocines were decreased. Se supplementation therapy used restored all these
      values, even AST levels. These findings suggest for first time that Se
      supplementation is a good strategy against BD liver damage during adolescence,
      since it increases GPx1 and GPx4 expression and avoids NF-kB downregulation and
      caspase-3 upregulation, leading to a better oxidative, inflammatory and apoptotic
      liver profile. The therapy proposed could be considered to have a great
      biological efficacy and to be suitable for BD exposed teenagers in order to avoid
      future hepatic complications.

PMID- 28579253
TI  - Molecular evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in patients in Brazilian
      central-western region.
AB  - We aimed to detect DNA of Borrelia burgdorferi in whole blood and serum samples
      of patients with clinical symptoms and epidemiology compatible with Brazilian
      Lyme-like disease. Four patients with positive epidemiological histories were
      recruited for the study. Blood samples were collected, screened by serologic
      testing by ELISA and Western blotting and molecular identification of B.
      burgdorferi by amplifying a fragment of the conserved gene that synthesizes the
      hook flagellar flgE. The results showed positive serology and for the first time,
      the presence of B. burgdorferi sensu lato in humans in the Midwest region of
      Brazil. The resulting sequences were similar to GenBank corresponding sequences
      of B. burgdorferi flgE gene. By neighbor-joining the phylogenetic analysis, the
      flgE sequence of the Brazilian strain clustered in a monophyletic group with the
      sequence of B. burgdorferi sensu lato under 100% bootstrap support. This study
      opens up promising perspectives and reinforces the need for additional studies to
      determine the epidemiological characteristics of the disease, as well as the
      impact of the prevalence of Brazilian borreliosis in Mato Grosso do Sul State,
      Brazil.

PMID- 28579251
TI  - Perinatal exposure to organohalogen pollutants decreases vasopressin content and
      its mRNA expression in magnocellular neuroendocrine cells activated by osmotic
      stress in adult rats.
AB  - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are
      environmental pollutants that produce neurotoxicity and neuroendocrine
      disruption. They affect the vasopressinergic system but their disruptive
      mechanisms are not well understood. Our group reported that rats perinatally
      exposed to Aroclor-1254 (A1254) and DE-71 (commercial mixtures of PCBs and PBDEs)
      decrease somatodendritic vasopressin (AVP) release while increasing plasma AVP
      responses to osmotic activation, potentially emptying AVP reserves required for
      body-water balance. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of
      perinatal exposure to A1254 or DE-71 (30mgkg/day) on AVP transcription and
      protein content in the paraventricular and supraoptic hypothalamic nuclei, of
      male and female rats, by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. cFOS
      mRNA expression was evaluated in order to determine neuroendocrine cells
      activation due to osmotic stimulation. Animal groups were: vehicle (control);
      exposed to either A1254 or DE-71; both, control and exposed, subjected to osmotic
      challenge. The results confirmed a physiological increase in AVP-immunoreactivity
      (AVP-IR) and gene expression in response to osmotic challenge as reported
      elsewhere. In contrast, the exposed groups did not show this response to osmotic
      activation, they showed significant reduction in AVP-IR neurons, and AVP mRNA
      expression as compared to the hyperosmotic controls. cFOS mRNA expression
      increased in A1254 dehydrated groups, suggesting that the AVP-IR decrease was not
      due to a lack of the response to the osmotic activation. Therefore, A1254 may
      interfere with the activation of AVP mRNA transcript levels and protein, causing
      a central dysfunction of vasopressinergic system.

PMID- 28579254
TI  - Comprehensive Mapping of HIV-1 Escape from a Broadly Neutralizing Antibody.
AB  - Precisely defining how viral mutations affect HIV's sensitivity to antibodies is
      vital to develop and evaluate vaccines and antibody immunotherapeutics. Despite
      great effort, a full map of escape mutants has not been delineated for an anti
      HIV antibody. We describe a massively parallel experimental approach to quantify
      how all single amino acid mutations to HIV Envelope (Env) affect neutralizing
      antibody sensitivity in the context of replication-competent virus. We apply this
      approach to PGT151, a broadly neutralizing antibody recognizing a combination of
      Env residues and glycans. We confirm sites previously defined by structural and
      functional studies and reveal additional sites of escape, such as positively
      charged mutations in the antibody-Env interface. Evaluating the effect of each
      amino acid at each site lends insight into biochemical mechanisms of escape
      throughout the epitope, highlighting roles for charge-charge repulsions. Thus,
      comprehensively mapping HIV antibody escape gives a quantitative, mutation-level
      view of Env evasion of neutralization.

PMID- 28579257
TI  - Pregnancy After Fontan-Kreutzer Surgery.

PMID- 28579256
TI  - Marfan Syndrome and Loeys-Dietz Syndrome in Children: A Multidisciplinary Team
      Experience.

PMID- 28579258
TI  - Factors associated with mild cognitive impairment in a population-based cohort.

PMID- 28579255
TI  - Lysosomal Degradation Is Required for Sustained Phagocytosis of Bacteria by
      Macrophages.
AB  - Clearance of bacteria by macrophages involves internalization of the
      microorganisms into phagosomes, which are then delivered to endolysosomes for
      enzymatic degradation. These spatiotemporally segregated processes are not known
      to be functionally coupled. Here, we show that lysosomal degradation of bacteria
      sustains phagocytic uptake. In Drosophila and mammalian macrophages, lysosomal
      dysfunction due to loss of the endolysosomal Cl- transporter ClC-b/CLCN7 delayed
      degradation of internalized bacteria. Unexpectedly, defective lysosomal
      degradation of bacteria also attenuated further phagocytosis, resulting in
      elevated bacterial load. Exogenous application of bacterial peptidoglycans
      restored phagocytic uptake in the lysosomal degradation-defective mutants via a
      pathway requiring cytosolic pattern recognition receptors and NF-kappaB.
      Mammalian macrophages that are unable to degrade internalized bacteria also
      exhibit compromised NF-kappaB activation. Our findings reveal a role for
      phagolysosomal degradation in activating an evolutionarily conserved signaling
      cascade, which ensures that continuous uptake of bacteria is preceded by
      lysosomal degradation of microbes.

PMID- 28579259
TI  - Clinical location of the fourth and fifth intercostal spaces as a percent of the
      length of the sternum.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To verify accurate placement of the precordial ECG leads by
      identifying the 4th and 5th intercostal spaces as a function of the length of the
      sternum. This should decrease the percentage of lead misplacement leading to
      misdiagnoses. METHODS: The population consisted of patients and healthy
      volunteers. The proposed method compared palpation of the 4th and 5th intercostal
      spaces to a percentile of the sternal length. Location of the 4th and 5th
      intercostal space using a simple device was evaluated to assist in proper
      placement of the precordial leads to obtain accurate diagnosis. RESULTS: The
      location of the 4th and 5th intercostal space is related to the length of the
      sternum. It is 77% of the sternal length that measures 15cm for the 4th
      intercostal space. The position of the V1 and V2 electrodes decreases to 57% when
      the sternal length is 26cm. Similar data was obtained to locate the 5th
      intercostal space with proper position of V4-V6 electrodes. Tables are provided
      to facilitate this process. An instrument was designed to measure the 4th and 5th
      intercostal space as a function of the sternal length. CONCLUSIONS: The location
      of the 4th and 5th intercostal space is identified based on the length of the
      sternum.

PMID- 28579260
TI  - Serum cystatin C levels are associated with coronary artery calcification in
      women without chronic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic renal disease (CKD) is a determinant of coronary artery
      calcification (CAC), which is a predictor of cardiovascular events. However, in a
      population without CKD, the association between CAC and renal function is
      unclear. CAC is affected by sex. This study aimed to determine whether serum
      cystatin C, a sensitive marker of kidney function, or sex differences are
      associated with CAC in patients without CKD. METHODS: We evaluated 456
      consecutive patients (61+/-13 years, 42% women) without CKD and evidence of
      coronary artery disease. The CAC (Agatston) score was examined by multidetector
      computed tomography. RESULTS: When patients were categorized into three CAC
      groups based on the Agatston score, mild (<10), moderate (11-399), and severe
      (>=400) in each sex, serum cystatin C levels gradually increased by severity of
      CAC in women, but not men. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis
      showed that, in women, a cut-off value of 0.97mg/l for cystatin C discriminated
      patients with severe CAC with a sensitivity of 71% and specificity of 77% (area
      under the curve, 0.74; 95% CI: 0.62-0.86; p<0.01). Multivariate logistic analysis
      showed that serum cystatin C was not associated with severe CAC in all patients
      and men, but this association was observed in women (OR: 7.80 for cystatin
      C>=0.97mg/l, 95% CI: 1.76-34.6, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Higher serum cystatin C
      levels are associated with greater CAC in women without CKD. Measurement of
      cystatin C may be useful for identifying women who are at high risk for
      cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28579261
TI  - Are axial intervertebral disc biomechanics determined by osmosis?
AB  - The intervertebral disc faces high compressive forces during daily activities.
      Axial compression induces creeping fluid loss and reduction in disc height. With
      degeneration, disc fluids and height are progressively lost, altering
      biomechanics. It is assumed that this reduction of fluids is caused by a decline
      of osmolality within the disc due to proteoglycan depletion. Here we investigate
      the isolated effect of a reduction in osmosis on the biomechanical properties of
      the intervertebral disc. Continuous diurnal loading was applied to healthy
      caprine intervertebral discs in a loaded disc culture system for a total of
      6days. We increased testing bath osmolality with two doses of polyethylene-glycol
      (PEG), thereby reducing the osmotic gradient between the disc and the surrounding
      fluid. This way we could study the isolated effect of reduced osmosis on axial
      creep, without damaging the disc. We evaluated: daily creep and recovery,
      recovery time-constants and compressive stiffness. Additionally, we investigated
      water content. There was a strong dose-dependent effect of PEG concentration on
      water content and axial creep behaviour: disc height, amplitude and rate of creep
      and recovery were all significantly reduced. Axial compressive stiffness of the
      disc was not affected. Reduction of water content and amplitude of creep and
      recovery showed similarity to degenerative disc biomechanics. However, the time
      constants increased, indicating that the hydraulic permeability was reduced, in
      contrast to what happens with degeneration. This suggests that besides the
      osmotic gradient, the permeability of the tissues determines healthy
      intervertebral disc biomechanics.

PMID- 28579264
TI  - Discussion.

PMID- 28579262
TI  - Contact forces in the tibiofemoral joint from soft tissue tensions: Implications
      to soft tissue balancing in total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - Proper tension of the knee's soft tissue envelope is important during total knee
      arthroplasty; incorrect tensioning potentially leads to joint stiffness or
      instability. The latter remains an important trigger for revision surgery. The
      use of sensors quantifying the intra-articular loads, allows surgeons to assess
      the ligament tension at the time of surgery. However, realistic target values are
      missing. In the framework of this paper, eight non-arthritic cadaveric specimens
      were tested and the intra-articular loads transferred by the medial and lateral
      compartment were measured using custom sensor modules. These modules were
      inserted below the articulating surfaces of the proximal tibia, with the
      specimens mounted on a test setup that mimics surgical conditions. For both
      compartments, the highest loads are observed in full extension. While creating
      knee flexion by lifting the femur and flexing the hip, mean values (standard
      deviation) of 114N (71N) and 63N (28N) are observed at 0 degrees  flexion for the
      medial and lateral compartment respectively. Upon flexion, both medial and
      lateral loads decrease with mean values at 90 degrees  flexion of 30N (22N) and
      6N (5N) respectively. The majority of the load is transmitted through the medial
      compartment. These observations are linked to the deformation of the medial and
      lateral collaterals, in addition to the anatomy of the passive soft tissues
      surrounding the knee. In conclusion, these findings provide tangible clinical
      guidance in assessing the soft tissue loads when dealing with anatomically
      designed total knee implants.

PMID- 28579263
TI  - Early and late outcomes with prolonged open chest management after cardiac
      surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Open chest management (OCM) is an important intervention for patients
      who are unable to undergo sternal closure after cardiac surgery. This study
      reviews the factors associated with a prolonged need for this intervention and
      investigates its association with early and late mortality. METHODS: Patients
      undergoing OCM from January 2009 to December 2014 were reviewed. Differences in
      the median duration of OCM when a perioperative variable was present versus its
      absence were determined and variables significant at P <= .1 were analyzed using
      Poisson regression for factors associated with prolonged OCM. Multivariable
      logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models were developed to
      investigate perioperative factors that were associated with early and late
      mortality. RESULTS: A total of 201 patients (5%) required OCM and the overall
      median duration of this intervention was 3 days. The use a temporary assist
      device (median, 7 vs 2 days; P < .001), pneumonias (median, 11 vs 3 days; P <
      .001), sternal re-explorations (median, 6 vs 2 days; P < .001), and renal failure
      (median, 6 vs 3 days; P = .02) were among the factors that were highly associated
      with prolonged OCM using Poisson regression. Thirty-day mortalities occurred in
      32 patients (16%) and were significantly associated with emergency surgery (P =
      .03), sternal re-explorations (P = .001), and OCM duration (median, 6 vs 3 days;
      P = .02). On multivariable logistic regression and Cox analysis, delaying sternal
      closure by 1-day increments increased the risk of early and late mortality by 11%
      (P = .01), and 9% (P < .001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged OCM was
      associated with increasing perioperative morbidity and a higher risk of early and
      late mortality.

PMID- 28579265
TI  - Importance of chewing, saliva, and swallowing function in patients with advanced
      oral cancer undergoing preoperative chemoradiotherapy: a prospective study of
      quality of life.
AB  - The primary objective of this study was to investigate the quality of life (QOL)
      of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) undergoing curative
      neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by radical tumour resection and
      simultaneous oral cavity reconstruction, using two validated questionnaires. A
      secondary objective was to assess clinical variables predicting post-treatment
      dysfunction in chewing, saliva, and swallowing. Thirty-five patients with locally
      advanced OSCC who underwent preoperative chemoradiotherapy were recruited
      prospectively. All patients completed both the University of Washington Quality
      of Life version 4 questionnaire (UW-QOL) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer
      Therapy-Head & Neck version 4 questionnaire (FACT-H&N). UW-QOL and FACT-H&N items
      were associated with clinical variables. Nearly three-quarters of OSCC patients
      perceived good to excellent levels of overall QOL after preoperative
      chemoradiotherapy. Chewing difficulties, decreased salivary function, and
      swallowing dysfunction were the most frequent complaints of OSCC patients. Items
      related to food intake were significantly worse in OSCC patients older than 60
      years and those with T4 tumours, as well as those without alcohol intake.
      Chewing, saliva, and swallowing are the most significant issues in patients with
      OSCC undergoing preoperative chemoradiotherapy. The results of this study may
      help guide treatment decisions for OSCC patients based on more accurate
      expectations of adverse effects of cancer treatment.

PMID- 28579266
TI  - A longitudinal study of changes in psychosocial well-being during orthognathic
      treatment.
AB  - The aim was to evaluate changes in the psychosocial well-being of orthognathic
      surgery patients (n=22) during treatment and to compare results with those of
      adults not requiring orthognathic treatment (n=22). Patient data were collected
      before treatment (T0), after the first orthodontic examination (T1), three times
      during treatment (T2-T4), and 1 year after surgery (T5). In this article, only
      data corresponding to patient stage T5 are reported for the control subjects.
      Participants filled in a structured diary and the modified version of the Secord
      and Jourard body image questionnaire, the Orthognathic Quality of Life
      Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Acceptance and Action
      Questionnaire II. Moreover, patients filled in the Symptom Checklist-90. After
      the placement of orthodontic appliances (T2), orthognathic quality of life, self
      esteem, and psychological flexibility were lower and psychiatric symptoms
      increased. Improvements were observed from T2 to T5 in orthognathic quality of
      life, body image, self-esteem, psychological flexibility, and psychiatric
      symptoms. Treatment resulted in improvements from T0 to T5 in orthognathic
      quality of life, body image, and psychiatric symptoms. At T5, patient
      psychosocial well-being was comparable to or even better than that of control
      subjects. Orthognathic treatment seems to support psychological well-being, but
      the range of individual variation is wide.

PMID- 28579267
TI  - Preliminary Results of a Simplified Breast MRI Protocol to Characterize Breast
      Lesions: Comparison with a Full Diagnostic Protocol and a Review of the Current
      Literature.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate whether a simplified
      breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol consisting of a localizer, one
      precontrast sequence, and three time-point postcontrast sequences (at 28 seconds,
      84 seconds and 252 seconds after the contrast agent administration) is suitable
      for the characterization of breast lesions as compared to a full diagnostic
      protocol (FDP). This study also aimed to review the current literature concerning
      abbreviated breast MRI protocols and offer an alternative protocol. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Breast magnetic resonance (MR) examinations with detected breast lesions
      of 98 patients were retrospectively evaluated. Two expert radiologists in
      consensus reviewed the simplified breast protocol (SBP) first and only thereafter
      the regular FDP, recording a diagnosis for each detected lesion for both
      protocols. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to
      determine the diagnostic performance of the SBP compared to the standard FDP. A
      revision of the previously reported abbreviated breast magnetic resonance
      protocols was also carried out. RESULTS: A total of 180 lesions were identified;
      of these, 110 (61%) were malignant and 70 (39%) were benign. Of the 110 malignant
      lesions, 86 (78%) were invasive ductal carcinoma, 18 (16%) were invasive lobular
      carcinoma, and 6 (6%) were ductal carcinoma in situ. Areas under the curve for
      the receiver operating characteristic curves for the SBP vs the FDP were
      equivalent (0.98 vs 0.99, respectively; P = 0.76). The SBP could be performed in
      approximately 6 minutes and 58 seconds, compared to 14 minutes and 48 seconds for
      the FDP. CONCLUSIONS: An SBP protocol including a late postcontrast time point is
      accurate for the characterization of breast lesions and was comparable to the
      standard FDP protocol, allowing a potential reduction of the total acquisition
      and interpretation times.

PMID- 28579268
TI  - Knowledge and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS among the general population of Jeddah,
      Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In contrast to most regions of the world where a decline of the HIV
      epidemic can be seen, data from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
      suggests increasing incidence among key populations in the region. Accurate data
      collection has long been limited by social, cultural, and religious taboos.
      Understanding knowledge levels and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS is an important
      component to design adequate and culturally appropriate awareness and prevention
      programs. METHODS: A survey was conducted including 3841 participants during a
      series of public HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns from 2013 to 2015 in Jeddah, Saudi
      Arabia. Participants completed a questionnaire including socio-demographic data,
      and questions around knowledge and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. A knowledge score
      was created. Frequencies were calculated for all variables, mean knowledge scores
      were compared using non-parametric tests. Categorical variables were compared
      using Chi-squared test. The mean knowledge score was 5.2 out of 9 possible
      points. Respondents in the age class 19-25, respondents with university degrees,
      and those who know people living with HIV/AIDS had higher scores. Overall the
      attitude toward people living with HIV/AIDS was negative, more than 40% suggested
      that HIV positive people should be isolated and less than 20% would support a
      marriage with an HIV positive person. Negative attitudes were more common among
      people in older age groups, with a lower educational background, and respondents
      that did not know anyone living with HIV/AIDS. CONCLUSION: Knowledge gaps and
      negative attitudes of the general public toward people living with HIV/AIDS have
      been identified and can be used to tailor educational campaigns in Saudi Arabia.

PMID- 28579269
TI  - IRF2-INPP4B axis participates in the development of acute myeloid leukemia by
      regulating cell growth and survival.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous disease, which results in
      the fact that patient management has remained disappointingly uniform. Therefore,
      the molecular mechanism underlying AML needs to be further investigated. Here in
      this study, we identify the interferon-regulatory factor 2 (IRF2) as a novel
      regulator in human AML. We show that IRF2 knockdown inhibits growth, colony
      formation of OCI/AML-2, OCI/AML-3, and THP-1 cells. In addition, IRF2 knockdown
      induces apoptosis of AML cells by regulating the apoptotic effectors Bcl-2, Bax
      and Caspase 3. Further mechanism analysis shows that inositol polyphosphate-4
      phosphatase, type-II (INPP4B) contributes to the effects of IRF2 on apoptosis and
      growth of AML cells. IRF2 binds INPP4B promoter and promotes INPP4B expression in
      AML cells. Restoration of the expression of INPP4B blocks the effects of IRF2
      knockdown on apoptosis and colony formation in OCI/AML-2 and OCI/AML-3 cells. In
      conclusion, IRF2 serves as an important regulator in AML by targeting INPP4B.
      Therefore, IRF2 may be a potential target for AML treatment.

PMID- 28579270
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28579271
TI  - Endoscopy in Pregnant Women With Liver Cirrhosis.

PMID- 28579272
TI  - Endoscopy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease During Pregnancy: Only When There Is a
      Strong Indication.

PMID- 28579273
TI  - Crohn's and a Cough: Connecting the Dots.

PMID- 28579274
TI  - The Need for Appropriate Comparisons: A Response to Ravi et al.

PMID- 28579275
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28579276
TI  - Are public-private partnerships the solution to tackle neglected tropical
      diseases? A systematic review of the literature.
AB  - Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in research and development
      (R&D) of products for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) mainly due to the low
      ability-to-pay of health insurance systems and of potential consumers. The
      available preventive and curative interventions for NTDs mostly rely on old
      technologies and products that are often not adequate. Moreover, NTDs mostly
      affect populations living in remote rural areas and conflict zones, thereby
      hampering access to healthcare. The challenges posed by NTDs have led to the
      proliferation of a variety of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the last
      decades. We conducted a systematic review to assess the functioning and impact of
      these partnerships on the development of and access to better technologies for
      NTDs. Our systematic review revealed a clear lack of empirical assessment of
      PPPs: we could not find any impact evaluation analyses, while these are crucial
      to realize the full potential of PPPs and to progress further towards NTDs
      elimination.

PMID- 28579277
TI  - Autoimmune severe acute fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) during pregnancy.

PMID- 28579278
TI  - Higher 30 Day Mortality in Patients with Familial Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm after
      EVAR.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the influence of a positive family history for aneurysms
      on clinical success and mortality after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR).
      METHODS: From 2009 to 2011, 1262 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA)
      treated by EVAR were enrolled in a prospective, industry sponsored clinical
      registry ENGAGE. Patients were classified into familial and sporadic AAA patients
      according to baseline clinical reports. Clinical characteristics, aneurysm
      morphology, and follow-up were registered. The primary endpoint was clinical
      success after EVAR, a composite of technical success and freedom from the
      following complications: AAA increase >5 mm, type I and III endoleak, rupture,
      conversion, secondary procedures, migration, and occlusion. Secondary endpoints
      were the individual components of clinical success, 30 day mortality, and
      aneurysm related and all cause mortality. RESULTS: Of the 1262 AAA patients
      (89.5% male and mean age 73.1 years), 86 patients (6.8%) reported a positive
      family history and were classified as familial AAA. Duration of follow-up was 4.4
      +/- 1.7 years. Patients with familial AAA were more often female (18.6% vs. 9.9%,
      p = .012). No difference was observed in aneurysm morphology. There was no
      significant difference in clinical success between patients with familial and
      sporadic AAA (72.1% vs. 79.3%, p=.116). Familial AAA patients had a higher 30 day
      mortality after EVAR (4.7% vs. 1.0%, adjusted HR 5.7, 1.8-17.9, p = .003) as well
      as aneurysm related mortality (5.8% vs. 1.3%, adjusted HR 5.4, 1.9-14.9, p =
      .001), while no difference was observed in all cause mortality (19.8% vs. 24.3%,
      adjusted HR 0.8, 0.5-1.4, p = .501). CONCLUSIONS: The current study shows a
      higher 30 day mortality after EVAR in familial AAA patients. Future studies
      should determine the role of family history in AAA treatment, suitability for
      endovascular or open repair, and on adaptation of post-operative surveillance.
      For the time being, patients with familial forms of AAA should be considered at
      higher risk for EVAR and warrant extra vigilance.

PMID- 28579279
TI  - A Fishy Subclavian Artery Pseudoaneurysm.

PMID- 28579280
TI  - Thrombosis of Cross-pubic Collateral Veins After a Long Haul Flight in a Patient
      With Chronic Left Ilio-femoral Venous Obstruction.

PMID- 28579281
TI  - Interfractional variability of respiration-induced esophageal tumor motion
      quantified using fiducial markers and four-dimensional cone-beam computed
      tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the interfractional variability of respiration-induced
      esophageal tumor motion using fiducial markers and four-dimensional cone-beam
      computed tomography (4D-CBCT) and assess if a 4D-CT is sufficient for predicting
      the motion during the treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four patients with
      63 markers visible in the retrospectively reconstructed 4D-CBCTs were included.
      For each marker, we calculated the amplitude and trajectory of the respiration
      induced motion. Possible time trends of the amplitude over the treatment course
      and the interfractional variability of amplitudes and trajectory shapes were
      assessed. Further, the amplitudes measured in the 4D-CT were compared to those in
      the 4D-CBCTs. RESULTS: The amplitude was largest in the cranial-caudal direction
      of the distal esophagus (mean: 7.1mm) and proximal stomach (mean: 7.8mm). No time
      trend was observed in the amplitude over the treatment course. The
      interfractional variability of amplitudes and trajectory shapes was limited
      (mean: <=1.4mm). Moreover, small and insignificant deviation was found between
      the amplitudes quantified in the 4D-CT and in the 4D-CBCT (mean absolute
      difference: <=1.0mm). CONCLUSIONS: The limited interfractional variability of
      amplitudes and trajectory shapes and small amplitude difference between 4D-CT
      based and 4D-CBCT-based measurements imply that a single 4D-CT would be
      sufficient for predicting the respiration-induced esophageal tumor motion during
      the treatment course.

PMID- 28579282
TI  - A radiosensitivity gene signature and PD-L1 status predict clinical outcome of
      patients with invasive breast carcinoma in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
      dataset.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We investigated the link between the radiosensitivity
      gene signature and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status and clinical
      outcome in order to identify a group of patients that would possibly receive
      clinical benefit of radiotherapy (RT) combined with anti-PD1/PD-L1 therapy.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: We validated the identified gene signature related to
      radiosensitivity and analyzed the PD-L1 status of invasive breast cancer in The
      Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. To validate the gene signature, 1045 patients
      were selected and divided into two clusters using a consensus clustering
      algorithm based on their radiosensitive (RS) or radioresistant (RR) designation
      according to their prognosis. Patients were also stratified as PD-L1-high or PD
      L1-low based on the median value of CD274 mRNA expression level as surrogates of
      PD-L1. RESULTS: Patents assigned to the RS group had decreased risk of recurrence
      free survival (RFS) rate than patients in the RR group by univariate analysis (HR
      0.45, 95% CI 0.25-0.81, p=0.008) only when treated with RT. The RS group was
      independently associated with the PD-L1-high group, and CD274 mRNA expression was
      significantly higher in the RS group (p<0.001) than the RR group. In the PD-L1
      high group, the RS group was associated with better RFS compared to the RR group
      (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.16-0.87, p=0.022) in multivariate analysis. The level of PD-L1
      expression may represent the immunogenicity of tumors, and thus, we speculated
      that the PD-L1-high group had more immunogenic tumors, which could be more
      sensitive to radiation-induced immunologic cell death. CONCLUSION: We first
      evaluated the predictive value of the radiosensitivity gene signature and
      described a relationship with this radiosensitivity gene signature and PD-L1. The
      radiosensitivity gene signature and PD-L1 status were important factors for
      prediction of the clinical outcome of RT in patients with invasive breast cancer
      and may be used for selecting patients who will benefit from RT combined with
      anti-PD1/PDL1 therapy.

PMID- 28579283
TI  - Optimizing management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
AB  - Upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) is a rare cancer of the urothelium,
      comprising only a fraction of cases as compared to urothelial tumors of the
      bladder. As a result, systemic treatment approaches in bladder cancer are often
      applied to patients with UTUC. Given the anatomical location of these tumors, the
      age, the comorbid conditions of these patients with UTUC, and the need for
      radical nephroureterectomy for treatment, most patients have substantial
      impairment of renal reserve. There is growing evidence for the benefit of
      perioperative chemotherapy in this disease. Patients with UTUC have high rates of
      microsatellite instability and fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 mutations as
      compared to their bladder counterparts presenting unique, important subsets in
      UTUC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the programmed death receptor 1 and
      ligand have provided a new second-line treatment option for patients with UTUC
      and appear particularly well suited for patients with microsatellite instability.
      More work in understanding the molecular gene signatures and its relationship to
      response to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy is needed to
      continually optimize care for patients with all stages of disease. Advances in
      UTUC are possible, when one accounts for the unique clinical and biological
      features of this disease.

PMID- 28579284
TI  - Mechanism of physical stress-induced inhibition of ovarian estradiol secretion in
      anesthetized rats.
AB  - This study examined the site of main integration center in the physical stress
      induced inhibition of ovarian estradiol secretion because of ovarian sympathetic
      nerve (superior ovarian nerve: SON) activation in anesthetized rats. In central
      nervous system-intact rats, electrical stimulation of the tibial afferent nerve
      at 10V increased the efferent activity of the SON by 39+/-13% and reduced the
      ovarian secretion of estradiol by 34+/-7%. These responses were observed in
      decerebrate rats but were abolished in spinal rats. Thus, the main integration
      center for this ovarian hormonal response is located in the brain stem.

PMID- 28579285
TI  - The Experience of Advanced Practice Nurses in US Emergency Care Settings.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Little information has been published regarding the actual
      practice, training, and validation of basic skills and competencies needed by the
      advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) in the emergency care setting. The
      purpose of this study was to (1) identify skills being performed by APRNs
      practicing in emergency care settings (2); explore types of training; and (3)
      describe competency validation. Additionally, we explored frequency of skill use
      and facilitators and barriers to performing a skill to the full extent of
      training and education. METHODS: An exploratory mixed-methods study was performed
      incorporating a self-report survey and focus group interviews. RESULTS: The
      educational path to advanced practice nursing in emergency care settings is not
      standardized. Few programs incorporate or address the need for APRNs to receive
      acute care training across the life span, which is the hallmark of emergency
      nursing practice. Similarly, training is reported as fragmented, and validation
      of skills for both nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists can vary.
      APRN practice autonomy is affected by the presence of other providers
      (specifically physicians), institutional culture, and state boards of nursing
      that regulate practice. DISCUSSION: Integrated educational and orientation
      programs are needed that address high-acuity patients across the life span.
      Additionally, a more nuanced approach to assessing APRN capabilities as a
      combination of hard (clinical emergency) and soft (communication and
      organizational) skills may be an appropriate framework within which to examine
      the advanced practice role. Future research should continue to evaluate training,
      competency assessment, and outcomes for APRNs in the emergency care setting.

PMID- 28579286
TI  - HIV/AIDS infection: The beginning of the end for today's greatest pandemic?
AB  - Recently, there have been significant advances in the fight against human
      immunodeficiency virus, which have increased the hopes of definitively halting
      its dissemination and of starting the decline of the epidemic it has caused.
      Transmission of the infection was drastically reduced when infected patients were
      given antiretroviral treatments, which boosted the diffusion of treatments to
      middle- and low-income countries. Global therapy coverage has doubled in recent
      years; meanwhile the incidence of new infections has decreased. Various curative
      strategies are also actively being investigated, including those aiming to induce
      cell resistance to the infection through gene therapy and the elimination of
      latent virus reservoirs. This article reviews the current situation and future
      developments in terms of controlling the pandemic and, eventually, curing the
      infection.

PMID- 28579287
TI  - Effect of one- or two-level posterior lumbar interbody fusion on global sagittal
      balance.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Sagittal imbalance is associated with poor clinical outcomes
      in patients with degenerative lumbar disease. However, there is no consensus on
      the impact of posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) on local and global
      sagittal balance. PURPOSE: To reveal the effect of one- or two-level PLIF on
      global sagittal balance. DESIGN/SETTING: A retrospective case-control study.
      PATIENTS SAMPLE: This study included 88 patients who underwent a one- or two
      level PLIF for spinal stenosis with spondylolisthesis. OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical
      and radiological parameters were measured pre- and postoperatively. METHODS: All
      patients were followed up for >2 years. Clinical outcomes included a visual
      analog scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire
      (EQ-5D). Radiological parameters were measured using whole-spine standing lateral
      radiographs. Fusion, loosening, subsidence rates, and adverse events were also
      evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups according to their preoperative
      C7-S1 sagittal vertical axis (SVA): Group N: SVA<=5 cm vs Group I: SVA>5 cm; they
      were also divided according to postoperative changes in C7-S1 SVA. Clinical and
      radiological outcomes were compared between the groups. RESULTS: All clinical
      outcomes and radiological parameters improved postoperatively. C7-S1 SVA improved
      (-1.6 cm) after L3-L5 fusion, but it was compromised (+3.6 cm) after L4-S1 fusion
      (p=.001). Preoperative demographic and clinical data showed no difference except
      in the anxiety or depression domain of EQ-5D. No differences were found in
      postoperative clinical outcomes. Lumbar lordosis, pelvic tilt, and thoracic
      kyphosis slightly improved in Group N, whereas C7-S1 SVA decreased from 9.5 cm to
      3.8 cm (p<.001) in Group I. Furthermore, all sagittal parameters improved in
      Group I. On comparing the postoperative changes in C7-S1 SVA, we found that the
      decreasing trend in the postoperative C7-S1 SVA was related to a larger
      preoperative C7-S1 SVA (p=.030) and a more proximal level fusion (L3-L5 vs L4-S1,
      p=.033). CONCLUSIONS: Global sagittal balance improved after short-level lumbar
      fusion surgery in patients having spinal stenosis with spondylolisthesis who
      showed preoperative sagittal imbalance. Restoration of sagittal balance
      predominantly occurred after L3-L4, L4-L5, or L3-L5 PLIF. However, no such
      restoration was observed after L5-S1 or L4-S1 PLIF. Thus, we could anticipate
      sagittal balance restoration after performing PLIF at L3-L4 or L4-L5 level.
      However, caution is required when planning for L5-S1 fusion if preoperative
      sagittal imbalance is present.

PMID- 28579289
TI  - Effects of anti-somatostatin agents on glucose metabolism.
AB  - The anti-somatostatin agents used to treat acromegaly, Cushing's disease and
      neuroendocrine tumours also have hyperglycaemic effects. This is particularly
      true for pasireotide. Hyperglycaemic events are seen in 57-73% of patients with
      Cushing's treated with pasireotide, with a need to initiate antidiabetic
      treatment in about 50% of these patients. In acromegaly, treatment with
      pasireotide induces hyperglycaemia in 29-61% of patients. Pasireotide-induced
      hyperglycemia occurs early, within the first 3 months of treatment, due to a
      decrease in insulin secretion secondary to a fall in secretion of GLP-1 and GIP,
      and potentially also due to a direct inhibitory effect of pasireotide on beta
      cells. Close monitoring of blood glucose is mandatory in all patients during the
      first 3 months of treatment with pasireotide. Where necessary, antidiabetic
      treatment should be initiated, preferably with a DPP-4 inhibitor or a GLP-1
      receptor agonist, both of which have proven efficacy in the control of
      hyperglycaemia induced by pasireotide.

PMID- 28579288
TI  - Movat Pentachrom stain reveals unexpected high osteogenesis rate in aortic
      valves.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY: Aortic valve (AV) stenosis is the most common
      valvular heart disease with an incidence of 3% for people >= 65years in the
      industrialized world with indication for a surgical or transcatheter valve
      replacement. Researchers suppose osteogenic processes as key mechanisms in
      calcific aortic valve stenosis. Recently, Torre et al. published impressive
      histological analyses and detected osseous and/or chondromatous metaplasia in
      15.6% of 6685 native calcified aortic valves. Therefore one HE section per valve
      originated from the area with the greatest extent of calcification was analyzed.
      Aim of our experimental setup was to identify regions of neo-osteogenesis and to
      determine the rate of specimens with active mineralization in human aortic valve
      tissue by Movat Pentachrom staining of sections of lager tissue segments.
      METHODS: Operational replaced aortic valves of 35 patients, 15 female and 20 male
      with an average age of 66.2 years were formalin fixed and decalcified using
      Osteosoft(r)-solution. Tissue samples were cut and 2MUm specimens were stained
      with Movat Pentachrom to visualize osteogenic regions. Instead of screening a
      large number of sections, tissue samples were cut up to five times with at least
      100MUm space each if no region of osseous and/or chondromatous metaplasia was
      visible. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Using this setup, a region of osseous metaplasia
      was detected in 25 (71.4%) of 35 samples analyzed. In some cases, these regions
      were small sized and only visible due to the bright color of Movat Pentachrom
      stain. This leads to the suggestion that a higher rate of calcified aortic valve
      samples would be classified as cusps with areas of neo-osteogenesis after
      staining with Movat Pentachrom stain and by the systematic analysis of larger
      parts of the tissue blocks.

PMID- 28579290
TI  - Improved outcomes and value in staged hybrid extent II thoracoabdominal aortic
      aneurysm repair.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Complex Crawford extent II thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs)
      can be treated in a hybrid manner with proximal thoracic endovascular aneurysm
      repair, followed by staged distal open thoracoabdominal repair. This study
      evaluated the outcomes and health care-associated value of this new method
      compared with traditional open repair over 10 years. METHODS: A prospectively
      collected database was used to identify all patients with an extent II TAAA
      undergoing repair at a single institution between 2005 and 2015. Patient
      characteristics, postoperative outcomes, and incidence of major adverse events
      (MAEs; renal failure, spinal cord ischemia, death) were compared. After adjusting
      for time since surgery, value was analyzed looking at quality (1/MAE) divided by
      cost (total health system cost). This was multiplied by a constant to set the
      value of open TAAA repair to 100. RESULTS: A total of 113 consecutive patients
      underwent extent II TAAA repairs, of whom 25 (22.1%) had a staged hybrid approach
      with a median of 129 days between procedures. No baseline differences in
      demographic or comorbidity variables existed between groups (P > .05). The hybrid
      group had shorter operative time (255 vs 306 minutes; P = .01), shorter
      postoperative length of stay (10.1 vs 13.3 days; P = .02), and reduced blood loss
      (1300 vs 2600 mL; P = .01) at the time of open operation. Despite higher rates of
      acute kidney injury in the hybrid group (76.0% vs 51.1%; P = .03), there was no
      difference in renal failure (8.0% vs 4.5%; P = .84). The incidence of MAEs was
      lower in the staged hybrid group (20.0% vs 48.9%; P = .01), without a difference
      in hospital mortality (4.0% vs 3.4%; P = .89). Median total cost was higher in
      the hybrid group ($112,920 vs $72,037; P = .003). Value was improved in the
      hybrid group by 56% using mean cost and 178% by median cost. CONCLUSIONS: The 20%
      MAE rate associated with staged hybrid repair of extent II TAAA was significantly
      decreased compared with open repair, with a relative reduction of >50%. Despite
      higher total hospital costs, staged hybrid repair had 56% to 178% higher health
      care-related value compared with standard open repair. In an era of increasing
      focus on costs and quality, staged hybrid repair of extensive TAAAs is associated
      with fewer complications than open TAAA repair, resulting in a good value
      investment from a resource utilization perspective.

PMID- 28579291
TI  - Successful use of partial aneurysmectomy and repair approach for managing
      complications of arteriovenous fistulas and grafts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Arteriovenous fistulas and grafts may often be associated with
      localized complications related to aneurysms/pseudoaneurysms, buttonholes, or
      structural defects that require proper management to ensure continued access
      functionality for hemodialysis. Partial aneurysmectomy and repair (PAR) is a
      targeted surgical approach specifically designed for managing these
      complications. The basic concepts of PAR include resecting unhealthy or excessive
      tissue over an access, reconstructing the vascular access lumen using in situ
      vascular wall or tissue when possible, and closing overlying skin with healthy
      margins to promote reliable healing. This report analyzes the clinical outcomes
      of PAR in a large clinical series. METHODS: The demographic and outcome data of
      patients who underwent PARs at an ambulatory surgery center from 2009 to 2016
      were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 220 PAR operations were
      performed in 209 patients, of which 185 had fistulas and 24 had grafts. In the
      fistula group, 11 patients underwent subsequent staged aneurysm repairs.
      Comparing the fistula group (n = 185) vs the graft group (n = 24): men were 63%
      vs 29%, the mean age was 60.1 +/- 14.8 vs 63.9 +/- 16.0 years, diabetic patients
      were 54% vs 75%, the mean age of the accesses at the time of repair was 5.3 +/-
      3.2 vs 5.0 +/- 4.0 years, the upper arm accesses were 69% vs 88%, the forearm
      accesses were 31% vs 12%, and the mean follow-up was 27.9 +/- 21.9 vs 14.0 +/-
      11.6 months. A pneumatic tourniquet was used during 81% of the fistula and 42% of
      the graft operations. Dialysis catheters were required in 2% of the patients in
      the fistula group and 4% in the graft group to continue hemodialysis. After
      repair operations, the primary patency, assisted primary patency, and secondary
      patency rates of the whole access conduit for the fistula group were 45%, 96%,
      and 98% at 1 year; 28%, 91%, and 96% at 2 years; and 19%, 87%, and 95% at 3
      years, respectively. The same patency rates of the graft group were 31%, 70%, and
      96% at 6 months and 10%, 57%, and 96% at 1 year, respectively. Two fistulas and
      one graft were lost <=30 days postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: PAR is a reliable
      approach for managing localized arteriovenous access complications related to
      aneurysms/pseudoaneurysms, buttonholes, or structural defects. Given its
      simplicity and reliability, we recommend PAR as a first-line choice for managing
      these complications of arteriovenous fistulas and a choice in selected
      arteriovenous graft patients.

PMID- 28579292
TI  - Current practice of thoracic outlet decompression surgery in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) and its management are relatively
      controversial topics. Most of the literature reporting the outcomes of surgical
      decompression for TOS derives from single-center experiences. The objective of
      our study was to describe the current state of TOS surgery among hospitals that
      participate in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Program database. METHODS: Our study sample consisted of patients
      from the 2005 to 2014 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Program database who underwent first or cervical rib resection as
      their index procedure and whose constellation of diagnosis and procedure codes
      identified them as having neurogenic, arterial, or venous TOS. Patient and
      procedure characteristics were determined, as were the 30-day incidence of
      specific complications including nerve injury. Multimodel inference was used for
      multivariable analysis of the composite outcome of readmission or reoperation
      <=30 days. RESULTS: We identified 1431 patients undergoing operation for TOS: 83%
      for neurogenic TOS, 3% for arterial TOS, and 12% for venous TOS. Vascular
      surgeons performed 90% of procedures. Only four patients (0.3%) demonstrated
      evidence of nerve injury. The rate of bleeding complication requiring transfusion
      was also quite low, at 1.4%. The 30-day incidence of readmission or reoperation,
      or both, in our study cohort was 8.6%. The risk of this outcome was increased in
      patients with a higher American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status
      Classification, those whose procedure was for non-neurogenic symptoms, and those
      whose procedure took longer to complete. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of our study
      will provide surgeons who advocate for the surgical management of TOS with
      reassurance that such intervention is associated with an extremely low risk of
      disability resulting from iatrogenic nerve injury and major bleeding events.

PMID- 28579293
TI  - WITHDRAWN: The optimal procedure of modified Rex shunt for the treatment of
      extrahepatic portal hypertension in children.

PMID- 28579294
TI  - Prognosis of septic shock.

PMID- 28579295
TI  - Spontaneous rupture of inferior vena cava.
AB  - Spontaneous ruptures of the inferior vena cava (IVC) are rare. The mortality rate
      is high associated with all IVC injuries despite prompt resuscitation or
      operation. We present a case of 68-year-old women with spontaneous IVC
      dissection, presented as acute chest pain. Chest CT demonstrated a large amount
      of hemopericardium, and dilated inferior vena cava (IVC), suggesting cardiac
      tampon. Subsequently, hypovolemic shock and cardiac arrest occurred. After
      resuscitation, abdomen CT angiography was taken to find bleeding focus. Second CT
      demonstrated massive contrast extravasation to pericardial space due to rupture
      of IVC. Patient expired due to multi-organ failure.

PMID- 28579296
TI  - The challenge of coprescription of antiplatelet therapy and oral anticoagulants.

PMID- 28579297
TI  - Re: Nicola Fossati, Peter-Paul M. Willemse, Thomas Van den Broeck, et al. The
      Benefits and Harms of Different Extents of Lymph Node Dissection During Radical
      Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review. Eur Urol. In Press.
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2016.12.003: Lymphadenectomy and Radical
      Prostatectomy: Science or Pseudoscience?

PMID- 28579298
TI  - Regulation of GSK-3 activity by curcumin, berberine and resveratrol: Potential
      effects on multiple diseases.
AB  - Natural products or nutraceuticals promote anti-aging, anti-cancer and other
      health-enhancing effects. A key target of the effects of natural products may be
      the regulation of the PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway. This review will focus
      on the effects of curcumin (CUR), berberine (BBR) and resveratrol (RES), on the
      PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway, with a special focus on GSK-3. These natural
      products may regulate the pathway by multiple mechanisms including: reactive
      oxygen species (ROS), cytokine receptors, mirco-RNAs (miRs) and many others. CUR
      is present the root of turmeric (Curcuma longa). CUR is used in the treatment of
      many disorders, especially in those involving inflammatory processes which may
      contribute to abnormal proliferation and promote cancer growth. BBR is also
      isolated from various plants (Berberis coptis and others) and is used in
      traditional medicine to treat multiple diseases/conditions including: diabetes,
      hyperlipidemia, cancer and bacterial infections. RES is present in red grapes,
      other fruits and berries such as blueberries and raspberries. RES may have some
      anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects. Understanding the effects of these natural
      products on the PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTORC1/GSK-3 pathway may enhance their usage as
      anti-proliferative agent which may be beneficial for many health problems.

PMID- 28579299
TI  - SGLT2 Inhibition by Empagliflozin Promotes Fat Utilization and Browning and
      Attenuates Inflammation and Insulin Resistance by Polarizing M2 Macrophages in
      Diet-induced Obese Mice.
AB  - Sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) 2 inhibitors increase urinary glucose
      excretion (UGE), leading to blood glucose reductions and weight loss. However,
      the impacts of SGLT2 inhibition on energy homeostasis and obesity-induced insulin
      resistance are less well known. Here, we show that empagliflozin, a SGLT2
      inhibitor, enhanced energy expenditure and attenuated inflammation and insulin
      resistance in high-fat-diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. C57BL/6J mice were pair-fed
      a high-fat diet (HFD) or a HFD with empagliflozin for 16weeks. Empagliflozin
      administration increased UGE in the DIO mice, whereas it suppressed HFD-induced
      weight gain, insulin resistance, and hepatic steatosis. Moreover, empagliflozin
      shifted energy metabolism towards fat utilization, elevated AMP-activated protein
      kinase and acetyl-CoA carbolxylase phosphorylation in skeletal muscle, and
      increased hepatic and plasma fibroblast growth factor 21 levels. Importantly,
      empagliflozin increased energy expenditure, heat production, and the expression
      of uncoupling protein 1 in brown fat and in inguinal and epididymal white adipose
      tissue (WAT). Furthermore, empagliflozin reduced M1-polarized macrophage
      accumulation while inducing the anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype of macrophages
      within WAT and liver, lowering plasma TNFalpha levels and attenuating obesity
      related chronic inflammation. Thus, empagliflozin suppressed weight gain by
      enhancing fat utilization and browning and attenuated obesity-induced
      inflammation and insulin resistance by polarizing M2 macrophages in WAT and
      liver.

PMID- 28579300
TI  - Correcting a Fundamental Flaw in the Paradigm for Antimicrobial Susceptibility
      Testing.
AB  - The emergence and prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an increasing
      cause of death worldwide, resulting in a global 'call to action' to avoid
      receding into an era lacking effective antibiotics. Despite the urgency, the
      healthcare industry still relies on a single in vitro bioassay to determine
      antibiotic efficacy. This assay fails to incorporate environmental factors
      normally present during host-pathogen interactions in vivo that significantly
      impact antibiotic efficacy. Here we report that standard antimicrobial
      susceptibility testing (AST) failed to detect antibiotics that are in fact
      effective in vivo; and frequently identified antibiotics that were instead
      ineffective as further confirmed in mouse models of infection and sepsis.
      Notably, AST performed in media mimicking host environments succeeded in
      identifying specific antibiotics that were effective in bacterial clearance and
      host survival, even though these same antibiotics failed in results using
      standard test media. Similarly, our revised media further identified antibiotics
      that were ineffective in vivo despite passing the AST standard for clinical use.
      Supplementation of AST medium with sodium bicarbonate, an abundant in vivo
      molecule that stimulates global changes in bacterial structure and gene
      expression, was found to be an important factor improving the predictive value of
      AST in the assignment of appropriate therapy. These findings have the potential
      to improve the means by which antibiotics are developed, tested, and prescribed.

PMID- 28579301
TI  - Incidence, presentation and outcome of toxoplasmosis in HIV infected in the
      combination antiretroviral therapy era.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV-associated incidence and prognosis of cerebral toxoplasmosis
      (CTX) is not well established during later years. METHODS: From the Danish HIV
      Cohort Study, we identified 6325 HIV-infected individuals. We assessed incidence,
      mortality, predictive and prognostic factors of CTX during the pre-combination
      antiretroviral therapy (pre-cART; 1995-1996) and cART-era (1997-2014). Adjusted
      incidence rate ratios (aIRR), mortality rate ratios (aMRR) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CI) were assessed using Poisson regression analysis. RESULTS: CTX IR
      was 1.17/1000 PYR (95% CI 0.93-1.47). We observed no change in CTX-risk in the
      first year after HIV-diagnosis, but a substantial reduction in mortality in the
      first 3 months after CTX diagnosis when comparing the cART-era to the pre-cART
      era; {(aIRR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.37-1.72) (aMRR: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.06-0.38)}. For
      individuals surviving the first year after HIV-diagnosis or the first 3 months
      after CTX-diagnosis, IRR and MRR had declined to minimal levels {(aIRR: 0.06; 95%
      CI: 0.03-0.10); (aMRR: 0.02; 95% CI: 0.01-0.05)}. Three years after CTX-diagnosis
      30% of the patients still had neurological deficits. CONCLUSION: Although, CTX
      remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the cART-era, with high
      prevalence of neurological sequelae, incidence and mortality has largely
      declined, especially among those surviving the first year after diagnosis.

PMID- 28579303
TI  - First report of Candida auris in Oman: Clinical and microbiological description
      of five candidemia cases.

PMID- 28579304
TI  - Modelled seasonal influenza mortality shows marked differences in risk by age,
      sex, ethnicity and socioeconomic position in New Zealand.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Influenza is responsible for a large number of deaths which can only
      be estimated using modelling methods. Such methods have rarely been applied to
      describe the major socio-demographic characteristics of this disease burden.
      METHODS: We used quasi Poisson regression models with weekly counts of deaths and
      isolates of influenza A, B and respiratory syncytial virus for the period 1994 to
      2008. RESULTS: The estimated average mortality rate was 13.5 per 100,000 people
      which was 1.8% of all deaths in New Zealand. Influenza mortality differed
      markedly by age, sex, ethnicity and socioeconomic position. Relatively vulnerable
      groups were males aged 65-79 years (Rate ratio (RR) = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.9, 1.9
      compared with females), Maori (RR = 3.6, 95% CI: 3.6, 3.7 compared with
      European/Others aged 65-79 years), Pacific (RR = 2.4, 95% CI: 2.4, 2.4 compared
      with European/Others aged 65-79 years) and those living in the most deprived
      areas (RR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.3, 2.4) for New Zealand Deprivation (NZDep) 9&10 (the
      most deprived) compared with NZDep 1&2 (the least deprived). CONCLUSIONS: These
      results support targeting influenza vaccination and other interventions to the
      most vulnerable groups, in particular Maori and Pacific people and men aged 65-79
      years and those living in the most deprived areas.

PMID- 28579306
TI  - Corrigendum to "A bead-based immunofluorescence-assay on a microfluidic
      dielectrophoresis platform for rapid dengue virus detection" [Biosens.
      Bioelectron. 95 (2017) 174-180].

PMID- 28579305
TI  - Frequent capsule switching in 'ultra-virulent' meningococci - Are we ready for a
      serogroup B ST-11 complex outbreak?
AB  - The meningococcal ST-11 complex (cc11) causes large invasive disease outbreaks
      with high case fatality rates, such as serogroup C (MenC) epidemics in
      industrialised nations in the 1990s and the serogroup W epidemic currently
      expanding globally. Glycoconjugate vaccines are available for serogroups A, C, W
      and Y. Broad coverage protein-based vaccines have recently been licensed against
      serogroup B meningococci (MenB), however, these do not afford universal MenB
      protection. Capsular switching from MenC to MenB among cc11 organisms is
      concerning because a large MenB cc11 (B:cc11) outbreak has the potential to cause
      significant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to assess the potential for
      licensed and developmental non-capsular meningococcal vaccines to protect against
      B:cc11. The population structure and vaccine antigen distribution was determined
      for a panel of >800 geo-temporally diverse, predominantly MenC cc11 and B:cc11
      genomes. The two licensed vaccines potentially protect against many but not all
      B:cc11 meningococci. Furthermore, strain coverage by these vaccines is often due
      to a single vaccine antigen and both vaccines are highly susceptible to vaccine
      escape owing to the apparent dispensability of key proteins used as vaccine
      antigens. cc11 strains with MenB and MenC capsules warrant special consideration
      when formulating future non-capsular meningococcal vaccines.

PMID- 28579307
TI  - Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve
      disease with and without pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) in
      dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) with or without pulmonary
      hypertension (PH) and to study the correlations with clinical and
      echocardiographic parameters. ANIMALS: The study population included 99 dogs with
      MMVD and tricuspid regurgitation. METHODS: This is a prospective clinical study.
      All dogs received a transthoracic echocardiographic evaluation, including 2D, M
      mode, echo-Doppler, and tissue Doppler measurements. The TAPSE was measured from
      the left apical four-chamber view and normalized for the effect of body weight
      (nTAPSE). The dogs were grouped according to the severity of MMVD (American
      College of Veterinary Internal Medicine guidelines) and presence/absence and
      severity of PH. Significant differences between TAPSE or nTAPSE and
      echocardiographic parameters were analyzed among the MMVD and PH severity groups.
      Correlations between TAPSE or nTAPSE and echocardiographic parameters were
      calculated. RESULTS: Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion or nTAPSE were
      not significantly different among dogs of the MMVD or PH severity groups.
      Significant correlations were obtained between TAPSE and body weight, left
      ventricular and atrial dimensions, early diastolic septal and early diastolic and
      systolic tricuspid annulus velocity (p<0.001); nTAPSE was significantly
      correlated with normalized end-diastolic left ventricular dimension and
      fractional shortening (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that neither TAPSE
      nor nTAPSE are reduced in dogs with MMVD with or without PH. It remains unclear
      if the right ventricle function is not reduced or if a reduced right ventricle
      function is masked by the contraction of the left ventricle through ventricular
      interdependence.

PMID- 28579308
TI  - A dual functional peptide-auxiliary conjugate for C-to-N and N-to-C sequential
      native chemical ligation of glycopeptides.
AB  - Long, homogeneously glycosylated peptides and proteins can be assembled from
      multiple segments via sequential chemoselective reactions. The efficiency of the
      synthesis depends on the effectiveness and number of steps and on their
      compatibility with glycosylation methods. Here, we present how the combination of
      auxiliary-mediated native chemical ligation and thioester generation via
      hydrazinolysis from Wang-type resin enables multiple, sequential N-to-C and C-to
      N ligations. The method can be applied to glycosylated peptides and peptide alpha
      thioesters and has the potential to be further extended to sequential
      glycosylation, thus paving the way to the synthesis of complex homogeneous
      glycoproteins. We applied this methodology to the synthesis of long MUC1 variants
      comprising 2, 4 and 6 tandem repeats and three O-glycosylations.

PMID- 28579302
TI  - Direct-acting antiviral treatment against hepatitis C virus infection in HIV
      Infected patients - "En route for eradication"?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) opened a new era in HCV treatment. We
      report the impact of HCV treatment in French HIV-HCV coinfected patients.
      METHODS: All HIV-HCV patients from the Dat'AIDS cohort followed between 2012 and
      2015 were included. HCV status was defined yearly as naive, spontaneous cure,
      sustained virological response (SVR12), failure or reinfection. RESULTS: Among
      32,945 HIV-infected patients, 15.2% were positive for anti-HCV antibodies. From
      2012 to 2015, HCV incidence rate increased from 0.35%PY to 0.69%PY in MSM, while
      median incidence was 0.08%PY in other patients. Median reinfection rate was
      2.56%PY in MSM and 0.22%PY in other patients. HCV treatment initiation rate rose
      from 8.2% in 2012 to 29.6% (48.0% in pre-treated patients vs 22.6% in naive
      patients). SVR12 rate increased from 68.7% to 95.2%. By the end of 2015, 62.7% of
      the patients were cured either spontaneously or following SVR. CONCLUSIONS: HCV
      treatment dramatically increased in HIV-HCV patients in France from 2012 to 2015
      resulting in HCV cure in nearly two-thirds of the patients in this cohort.
      Combined with a declining HCV prevalence, the prevalence of active HCV infection
      among HIV patients will drastically decrease in the forthcoming years.

PMID- 28579309
TI  - Genetic variation in the first-pass metabolism of ethinylestradiol, sex hormone
      binding globulin levels and venous thrombosis risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of ethinylestradiol, one of the active ingredients in combined
      oral contraceptives, affects the incidence of venous thrombosis. To explain why
      some women develop thrombosis when using oral contraceptives and others do not,
      we hypothesized a role for the first-pass metabolism of ethinylestradiol in the
      liver. We set out to determine the association between genetic variation in the
      first-pass metabolism of ethinylestradiol, venous thrombosis risk and the effect
      on Sex-hormone-binding-globulin (SHBG) levels. METHODS: Premenopausal women were
      included from two case-control studies: LETS (103 cases; 159 controls) and MEGA
      (397 cases; 796 controls). Haplotype-tagging SNPs were selected in 11 candidate
      genes; COMT, CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, SULT1A1, SULT1E1, UGT1A1, UGT1A3,
      UGT1A9, UGT2B7. Venous thrombosis risk was expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95%
      confidence intervals (CI). For SHBG levels, mean differences with 95%CI were
      estimated in combined oral contraceptive-using control subjects from the MEGA
      study. RESULTS: Two copies of haplotype D in the UGT2B7 gene increased venous
      thrombosis risk (ORLETS: 3.78; ORMEGA: 2.61) as well as SHBG levels (mean
      difference 27.6nmol/L, 95%CI: -61.7 to 116.9 compared with no copies) in oral
      contraceptive users and not in non-users. In oral contraceptive users, haplotype
      A and B in the CYP3A4 gene were associated with venous thrombosis risk, but not
      in non-users; however, the effect on SHBG levels was not directional with the
      risk. None of the other haplotypes were associated with venous thrombosis.
      CONCLUSION: Genetic variation in the UGT2B7 gene may, in part, explain venous
      thrombosis risk in combined oral contraceptive users.

PMID- 28579310
TI  - A comparative analysis of novel cardiovascular biomarkers in patients with
      chronic heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction remains a major
      therapeutic challenge. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of novel
      cardiovascular biomarkers, i.e. soluble suppression of tumorigenicity (sST2),
      growth-differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), soluble urokinase plasminogen
      activator receptor (suPAR) and heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) in
      patients with ischaemic (ICM) or dilative cardiomyopathy (DCM). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 200 patients were enrolled in this study: 65 were diagnosed
      with DCM and 59 patients suffering from ICM were included. 76 patients without
      coronary artery disease or signs of heart failure were included as controls.
      Plasma samples of all patients were analyzed by use of ELISA. RESULTS: Levels of
      sST2, suPAR and H-FABP were significantly higher in ICM and DCM patients compared
      to the control group (p<0.0001). However, there were no significant differences
      between ICM and DCM in biomarker levels. Ejection fraction correlated inversely
      with cardiac biomarkers (sST2 p<0.0001, GDF-15 p=0.0394, suPAR p=0.0029, H-FABP
      p<0.0001). Similarly, CRP levels also showed a positive correlation with cardiac
      biomarkers. Renal insufficiency (p<0.0001) and diabetes (sST2 p=0.0021, GDF-15
      p=0.0055, suPAR p=0.0339, H-FABP p=0.0010) were significantly associated with a
      rise in cardiac biomarkers. CONCLUSION: Novel cardiovascular biomarkers such as
      ST2, GDF-15, uPAR and H-FABP could offer a great potential for more precise
      diagnostic in ICM and DCM patients. H-FABP was the most promising marker in our
      study, followed by sST2, uPAR and GDF-15. Additional prospective studies will be
      necessary to further evaluate the potential clinical benefits in routine
      treatment of HF.

PMID- 28579311
TI  - Lower cognitive performance among long-term type 1 diabetes survivors: A case
      control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have an increased risk of
      cognitive dysfunction. The cognitive decrement is believed to depend on macro-
      and microvascular complications and long disease duration. Some patients do not
      develop these complications, but still report cognitive symptoms. We examined if
      long-standing T1D without complications is associated with lower cognitive
      performance. METHODS: A group of patients (n=43) with long-standing T1D
      (>30years) without micro- or macro vascular complications was compared with a non
      diabetic control group (n=86) on six cognitive tests which probed episodic
      memory, semantic memory, episodic short-term memory, visual attention and
      psychomotor speed. Each patient was matched with two controls regarding age,
      gender and education. A linear mixed effect model was used to analyze the data.
      RESULTS: The mean age was 57years and mean duration was 41years. Patients with
      diabetes had lower diastolic blood pressure but BMI, waist circumference,
      systolic blood pressure and smoking did not differ between groups. Patients had
      lower results than non-diabetic controls in episodic short-term memory (p<0.001)
      and also lower values on a test that mirrors visual attention and psychomotor
      speed (p=0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Long-standing T1D was associated with lower
      cognitive performance, regardless of other diabetes-related complications.

PMID- 28579312
TI  - Validation of a quick screening instrument for measuring fear of hypoglycaemia in
      persons with diabetes.

PMID- 28579313
TI  - The Impact of Probiotic Soy Milk Consumption on Oxidative Stress Among Type 2
      Diabetic Kidney Disease Patients: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one the most important complications
      of diabetes leading to end-stage renal disease. This study aimed to determine the
      effects of probiotic soy milk consumption on oxidative stress biomarkers in type
      2 DKD patients. METHODS: Forty-eight patients were randomly assigned to consume a
      diet containing 200 mL/day probiotic soy milk in the intervention group or soy
      milk in the control condition. As determinants of oxidative stress,
      malondialdehyde, 8-iso-prostaglandin F2alpha, oxidized glutathione, total
      antioxidant capacity, reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase, and
      glutathione reductase were measured after 8 weeks of intervention according to
      the standard protocol. RESULTS: Between groups analysis showed that DKD patients
      in the probiotic soy milk group had a higher mean value of GSH compared with
      those in the soy milk group. In the final adjusted model, this difference
      remained significant. Consistently, oxidized glutathione concentration was
      significantly reduced among patients in the probiotic soy milk group. Also, for
      activity levels of antioxidant enzymes including glutathione peroxidase and
      glutathione reductase, significant increased levels were observed between 2
      intervention groups in the final adjusted model. However, no significant
      reduction of the serum 8-iso-prostaglandin F2alpha or malondialdehyde and no
      induction of TAC concentrations within and between the 2 groups in the crude and
      adjusted models were detected. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results demonstrate that
      probiotic soy milk consumption could improve some oxidative stress factors among
      DKD patients. Further longitudinal studies with consideration of individual
      variation should be conducted.

PMID- 28579314
TI  - Spot Urine-guided Salt Reduction in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dietary salt restriction is important in patients with chronic kidney
      disease (CKD) to reduce hypertension, cardiovascular events, progression of CKD,
      and mortality. However, recommending salt reduction for patients is difficult
      without knowing their actual sodium intake. This study evaluated the
      effectiveness of spot urine-guided salt reduction in CKD outpatients. DESIGN: A
      prospective cohort study was used. SUBJECTS: This study included a total of 127
      adult outpatients (aged 60 +/- 18 years, 80 males) with CKD. Their baseline
      estimated glomerular filtration rate was 51.4 +/- 25.1 (mL/minute/1.73 m2), and
      64 (50%) of them were with CKD stage 3a or 3b (both 32 [25%]). INTERVENTION: We
      informed the patients of their individual spot urine-estimated salt intake every
      time they visited the outpatient clinic. Based on the data, the nephrologist
      encouraged the patients to achieve their salt restriction goal. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE: The primary outcome was the estimated salt excretion, and the secondary
      outcome was the urinary protein-to-Cr ratio (UPCR). Multiple regression analyses
      were performed to clarify the contributing factors of changes in both outcomes.
      RESULTS: Over a follow-up of 12 months, the median number of patients' visits was
      7 (5-8). The estimated salt intake was significantly reduced from 7.98 +/- 2.49
      g/day to 6.77 +/- 1.77 g/day (P < .0001). The median UPCR was also reduced from
      0.20 (0.10-0.80) to 0.10 (0.10-0.48) (P < .0001). On multiple regression
      analysis, a reduction in UPCR was positively associated with the baseline UPCR
      and a reduction in systolic blood pressure significantly (P < .0001 and P < .01,
      respectively) as well as positively correlated with a reduction in the estimated
      salt intake, with borderline significance (P = .08). CONCLUSIONS: Providing spot
      urine-estimated salt intake feedback effectively motivated CKD patients to reduce
      their salt intake. Spot urine-guided salt reduction may slow CKD progression
      through decreased urinary protein excretion.

PMID- 28579315
TI  - Dementia prevalence, care arrangement, and access to care in Lebanon: A pilot
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In North Africa and the Middle East, studies about dementia
      prevalence are scarce. A pilot study was conducted in Lebanon to assess dementia
      prevalence, using the Arabic-validated 10/66 Dementia Research Group (DRG)
      diagnostic assessment for case ascertainment. The study also examined care
      arrangement and access to care. METHODS: A random sample of 502 persons older
      than 65 years and their informant were recruited from Beirut and Mount Lebanon
      governorates through multistage cluster sampling. RESULTS: The crude and age
      standardized dementia prevalences were 7.4% and 9.0%, respectively. People with
      dementia were mainly cared for by relatives at home. Access to formal care was
      very limited. DISCUSSION: Dementia prevalence in Lebanon ranks high within the
      global range of estimates. These first evidence-based data about disease burden
      and barriers to care serve to raise awareness and call for social and health care
      reform to tackle the dementia epidemic in Lebanon and in North Africa and the
      Middle East.

PMID- 28579316
TI  - Effect of light intensity on ovarian gene expression, reproductive performance
      and body weight of rabbit does.
AB  - The objective of the experiment was to find the minimum light intensity which
      could improve reproduction by examining its effect on ovarian gene expression,
      reproductive performance and body weight of rabbit does with three different
      light intensities: 60 (L), 80 (M), and 100 (H)lx. A total of 144 Rex-rabbits
      submitted to a 49-day reproductive regimen were used in this study. Ovaries were
      collected and relative abundance of mRNA for ovarian proteins of interest was
      examined with real-time PCR. Amount of protein for proteins of interest was
      examined by immunohistochemistry. Reproductive performance and doe bodyweight of
      the first three consecutive reproductive periods after initiation of the light
      intensity treatments were evaluated. The results provided evidence that light
      intensity had no effect on relative abundance of estradiol receptor-alpha (ER
      alpha), follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR), luteinizing hormone
      receptor (LHR), gonadotropin releasing hormone receptor 1 (GnRHR1) and
      progesterone receptor (PGR) mRNA. The relative abundance of growth hormone
      receptor (GHR) mRNA was, however, greater in Group L than M and H (P<0.05). No
      difference was observed for all reproductive indices as a result of submission to
      the three light intensities (P>0.05). The bodyweight of the does in Group L was
      greater than the other two groups at first insemination, second insemination and
      the second postpartum period (P<0.05). There was no difference in bodyweight
      after the second postpartum period (P>0.05). These observations suggest that
      light intensity between 60 and 100lx has no effect on the reproductive
      performance of rabbit does, however, the amounts of GHR mRNA and growth hormone
      (GH) protein were affected and the greater light intensity had a negative effect
      on bodyweight between the time of the first insemination and the second partum
      period.

PMID- 28579317
TI  - Six3 in a small population of progenitors at E8.5 is required for neuroretinal
      specification via regulating cell signaling and survival in mice.
AB  - Neuroretina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) are differentiated from the
      progenitors in optic vesicles, but it is unclear when and how the two lineages
      are segregated. Manipulation of chick embryos reveals that the early
      anteroventral optic vesicle is crucial for neuroretinal development, but the
      molecular mechanism is unclear. Homeodomain transcription factor Six3 is required
      for neuroretinal specification and is dispensable for RPE formation, but the cell
      fates of Six3-deficient progenitors and the origins of remnant RPE are unknown.
      Here, we performed lineage tracing of Six3-Cre positive cells in wild-type and
      Six3-deficient mouse embryos. Six3-Cre positive progenies were found in a
      population of progenitors in the anteroventral optic pits/vesicles starting at
      E8.5, and were found in neuroretina, optic stalk, ventral forebrain, but not RPE,
      at E10.5. Six3-deletion in the small population of progenitors at E8.5 was
      sufficient to cause rostral expansion of Wnt8b and drastic reduction of Fgf8/MAPK
      signaling, ablating neuroretinal specification without affecting RPE. Lineage
      tracing revealed Six3-deficient progenitors at E8.5 were eventually lost and the
      remnant RPE was derived from Six3-Cre negative cells. Thus, Six3 in a small
      population of progenitors expressing Six3-Cre at E8.5 is required for
      neuroretinal specification via regulating cell signaling and survival in mice.

PMID- 28579321
TI  - [An X-ray with a suprise: Osteopoikilosis].

PMID- 28579320
TI  - T Cell Immunity and Zika Virus Vaccine Development.
AB  - The recent Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic has created an urgent need for a safe and
      effective vaccine. There is still a dearth of knowledge about ZIKV immunity, but
      years of investigation into the immunobiology of other flaviviruses has helped to
      accelerate the development of a ZIKV vaccine. Although the humoral immune
      response generates the primary correlate of protection from disease, robust T
      cell responses could enhance ZIKV vaccine efficacy. Additionally, pre-existing
      immunity to related flaviviruses could generate cross-reactive T cells that may
      affect immune responses upon vaccination. In this review, we summarize the key
      discoveries in the area of flavivirus T cell immunity and postulate on how these
      findings can inform ZIKV vaccine strategies for inducing protective immunity.

PMID- 28579319
TI  - Immunological Functions of the Omentum.
AB  - The omentum is a visceral adipose tissue with unique immune functions. Although
      it is primarily an adipose tissue, the omentum also contains lymphoid aggregates,
      called milky spots (MSs), that contribute to peritoneal immunity by collecting
      antigens, particulates, and pathogens from the peritoneal cavity and, depending
      on the stimuli, promoting a variety of immune responses, including inflammation,
      tolerance, or even fibrosis. Reciprocal interactions between cells in the MS and
      adipocytes regulate their immune and metabolic functions. Importantly, the
      omentum collects metastasizing tumor cells and supports tumor growth by
      immunological and metabolic mechanisms. Here we summarize our current knowledge
      about the development, organization, and function of the omentum in peritoneal
      immunity.

PMID- 28579318
TI  - The zebrafish kidney mutant zeppelin reveals that brca2/fancd1 is essential for
      pronephros development.
AB  - The zebrafish kidney is conserved with other vertebrates, making it an excellent
      genetic model to study renal development. The kidney collects metabolic waste
      using a blood filter with specialized epithelial cells known as podocytes.
      Podocyte formation is poorly understood but relevant to many kidney diseases, as
      podocyte injury leads to progressive scarring and organ failure. zeppelin (zep)
      was isolated in a forward screen for kidney mutants and identified as a
      homozygous recessive lethal allele that causes reduced podocyte numbers,
      deficient filtration, and fluid imbalance. Interestingly, zep mutants had a
      larger interrenal gland, the teleostean counterpart of the mammalian adrenal
      gland, which suggested a fate switch with the related podocyte lineage since cell
      proliferation and cell death were unchanged within the shared progenitor field
      from which these two identities arise. Cloning of zep by whole genome sequencing
      (WGS) identified a splicing mutation in breast cancer 2, early onset
      (brca2)/fancd1, which was confirmed by sequencing of individual fish. Several
      independent brca2 morpholinos (MOs) phenocopied zep, causing edema, reduced
      podocyte number, and increased interrenal cell number. Complementation analysis
      between zep and brca2ZM_00057434 -/- zebrafish, which have an insertional
      mutation, revealed that the interrenal lineage was expanded. Importantly,
      overexpression of brca2 rescued podocyte formation in zep mutants, providing
      critical evidence that the brca2 lesion encoded by zep specifically disrupts the
      balance of nephrogenesis. Taken together, these data suggest for the first time
      that brca2/fancd1 is essential for vertebrate kidney ontogeny. Thus, our findings
      impart novel insights into the genetic components that impact renal development,
      and because BRCA2/FANCD1 mutations in humans cause Fanconi anemia and several
      common cancers, this work has identified a new zebrafish model to further study
      brca2/fancd1 in disease.

PMID- 28579322
TI  - ER Membrane Phospholipids and Surface Tension Control Cellular Lipid Droplet
      Formation.
AB  - Cells convert excess energy into neutral lipids that are made in the endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) bilayer. The lipids are then packaged into spherical or budded
      lipid droplets (LDs) covered by a phospholipid monolayer containing proteins. LDs
      play a key role in cellular energy metabolism and homeostasis. A key unanswered
      question in the life of LDs is how they bud off from the ER. Here, we tackle this
      question by studying the budding of artificial LDs from model membranes. We find
      that the bilayer phospholipid composition and surface tension are key parameters
      of LD budding. Phospholipids have differential LD budding aptitudes, and those
      inducing budding decrease the bilayer tension. We observe that decreasing tension
      favors the egress of neutral lipids from the bilayer and LD budding. In cells,
      budding conditions favor the formation of small LDs. Our discovery reveals the
      importance of altering ER physical chemistry for controlled cellular LD
      formation.

PMID- 28579323
TI  - Type I Interferon in Chronic Virus Infection and Cancer.
AB  - Type I interferons (IFN-Is) are emerging as key drivers of inflammation and
      immunosuppression in chronic infection. Control of these infections requires IFN
      I signaling; however, prolonged IFN-I signaling can lead to immune dysfunction.
      IFN-Is are also emerging as double-edged swords in cancer, providing necessary
      inflammatory signals, while initiating feedback suppression in both immune and
      cancer cells. Here, we review the proinflammatory and suppressive mechanisms
      potentiated by IFN-Is during chronic virus infections and discuss the similar,
      newly emerging dichotomy in cancer. We then discuss how this understanding is
      leading to new therapeutic concepts and immunotherapy combinations. We propose
      that, by modulating the immune response at its foundation, it may be possible to
      widely reshape immunity to control these chronic diseases.

PMID- 28579324
TI  - Evolutionary Convergence and Divergence in NLR Function and Structure.
AB  - The recognition of cellular damage caused by either pathogens or abiotic stress
      is essential for host defense in all forms of life in the plant and animal
      kingdoms. The NOD-like receptors (NLRs) represent a large family of multidomain
      proteins that were initially discovered for their role in host defense in plants
      and vertebrates. Over recent years the wide distribution of NLRs among metazoans
      has become apparent and their origins have begun to emerge. Moreover, intense
      study of NLR function has shown that they play essential roles beyond pathogen
      recognition - in the regulation of antigen presentation, cell death,
      inflammation, and even in embryonic development. We summarize here the latest
      insights into NLR biology and discuss examples of converging and diverging
      evolution of NLR function and structure.

PMID- 28579325
TI  - A peptide disrupting the D2R-DAT interaction protects against dopamine
      neurotoxicity.
AB  - Dopamine reuptake from extracellular space to cytosol leads to accumulation of
      dopamine, which triggers neurotoxicity in dopaminergic neurons. Previous studies
      have shown that both dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) and dopamine transporter (DAT)
      are involved in dopamine neurotoxicity. However, blockade of either D2R or DAT
      causes side effects due to antagonism of other physiological functions of these
      two proteins. We previously found that DAT can form a protein complex with D2R
      and its cell surface expression is facilitated via D2R-DAT interaction, which
      regulates dopamine reuptake and intracellular dopamine levels. Here we found that
      an interfering peptide (DAT-S1) disrupting the D2R-DAT interaction protects
      neurons against dopamine neurotoxicity, and this effect is mediated by inhibiting
      DAT cell surface expression and inhibiting both caspase-3 and PARP-1 cleavage.
      This study demonstrates the role of the D2R-DAT complex in dopamine neurotoxicity
      and investigated the potential mechanisms, which might help better understand the
      mechanisms of dopamine neurotoxicity. The peptide may provide some insights to
      improve treatments for dopamine neurotoxicity and related diseases, such as
      Parkinson's disease, as well as methamphetamine- and 3,4-methsylenedioxy
      methamphetamine-induced neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28579326
TI  - RIP1-RIP3-DRP1 pathway regulates NLRP3 inflammasome activation following
      subarachnoid hemorrhage.
AB  - The NLRP3 inflammasome functions as a crucial component of the inflammatory
      response in early brain injury (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).
      However, the mechanisms underlying the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome has not
      been well elucidated. In this study, we hypothesized the RIP1-RIP3-DRP1 pathway
      was involved in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome following SAH. SAH was
      induced by endovascular perforation in rats. Necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) or
      mitochondrial division inhibitor (Mdivi-1) was administered 1h after SAH by
      intraperitoneal injection. SAH grade, neurological function, brain water content,
      Western blot, ROS assay, immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy
      were performed. SAH led to the upregulation of RIP1, RIP3, phosphorylated DRP1
      and NLRP3 inflammasome. Nec-1 treatment reduced RIP1, RIP3, phosphorylated DRP1
      and NLRP3 inflammasome, subsequently alleviated brain edema and neurological
      deficits at 24h following SAH. The treatment with Mdivi-1 inhibited the
      expression of DRP1 protein, attenuated mitochondria damage and the generation of
      ROS, inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome and ameliorated brain edema and neurological
      deficits at 24h after SAH. The activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in EBI after
      SAH was mediated by RIP1-RIP3-DRP1 pathway. Nec-1 and Mdivi-1 can inhibit
      inflammation and improve neurological function after SAH.

PMID- 28579327
TI  - Manipulating cognitive reserve: Pre-injury environmental conditions influence the
      severity of concussion symptomology, gene expression, and response to melatonin
      treatment in rats.
AB  - In an effort to understand the factors that contribute to heterogeneity in
      outcomes often associated with mTBI in youth, this study examined the role of
      premorbid differences in cognitive reserve on post-concussive symptoms (PCS),
      molecular markers, and treatment response. Male and female rats matured in one of
      three environmental conditions (Stress, Enrichment, Control), received a mTBI in
      adolescence, and were randomized to melatonin or placebo treatment. All animals
      underwent a behavioural test battery designed to examine PCS. Using prefrontal
      cortex and hippocampus tissue, expression of 9 genes was assessed in an effort to
      determine how the brain's epigenome was influenced by cognitive reserve, mTBI,
      and melatonin. Enrichment increased cognitive reserve (CR) and prevented
      lingering symptoms. Conversely, stress was associated with progressive worsening
      and manifestation of PCS in the longer-term. Melatonin was able to restore
      baseline function for control and enriched animals, but was ineffective for the
      stress condition. Epigenetic change in the prefrontal cortex was largely driven
      by the injury, while gene expression changes in the hippocampus were dependent
      upon cognitive reserve. The occurrence and severity of PCS is dependent upon a
      complex and multifaceted array of factors that modify behavioural and epigenetic
      responses to mTBI and its treatment.

PMID- 28579328
TI  - The evaluations of 99mTc cyclopentadienyl tricarbonyl triphenyl phosphonium
      cation for multidrug resistance.
AB  - A triphenylphosphonium cation, [99mTc]Technetium cyclopentadienyltricarbonyl-6
      hexanoyl-triphenylphosphonium cation ([99mTc]3) was prepared to target multidrug
      resistance (MDR). The radiotracer was evaluated in the MDR-negative MCF-7 and MDR
      positive MCF-7/ADR cell lines in vitro, as well as animal models in vivo.
      [99mTc]3 was proofed to be a substrate of P-glycoprotein and multidrug resistant
      protein 1, and showed a higher accumulation in the MDR-negative MCF-7 cells
      compared to 99mTc-sestamibi in vitro. The MCF-7 tumor-to-MCF-7/ADR tumor ratio of
      [99mTc]3 was ~3 at 1hp.i. in the biodistribution study. These results
      demonstrated the capability of the radiotracer to detect multidrug resistance in
      tumor cells.

PMID- 28579329
TI  - The synthesis, structure-toxicity relationship of cisplatin derivatives for the
      mechanism research of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.
AB  - Cisplatin is a widely used antineoplastic drug, while its nephrotoxicity limits
      the clinical application. Although several mechanisms contributing to
      nephrotoxicity have been reported, the direct protein targets are unclear. Herein
      we reported the synthesis of 29 cisplatin derivatives and the structure-toxicity
      relationship (STR) of these compounds with MTT assay in human renal proximal
      tubule cells (HK-2) and pig kidney epithelial cells (LLC-PK1). To the best of our
      knowledge, this study represented the first report regarding the structure
      toxicity relationship (STR) of cisplatin derivatives. The potency of biotin
      pyridine conjugated derivative 3 met the requirement for target identification,
      and the preliminary chemical proteomics results suggested that it is a promising
      tool for further target identification of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

PMID- 28579330
TI  - New insights into pradimicin biosynthesis revealed by two O-methyltransferases.
AB  - Pradimicins are a group of antiviral and antifungal natural products from
      Actinomadura hibisca. Two putative O-methyltransferase genes, pdmF and pdmT, are
      present in the pradimicin biosynthetic gene cluster. However, there is only one
      methoxy group (11-OCH3) in pradimicins. Through heterologous expression and in
      vitro reactions with various substrates, PdmF was characterized as the C-11 O
      methyltransferase with a relatively broad substrate specificity. To probe the
      role of PdmT in pradimicin biosynthesis, the corresponding gene was disrupted
      through homologous recombination, leading to the production of pradimicinone II.
      This enzyme was then expressed in Escherichia coli with an N-terminal His6 tag
      and purified by Ni-NTA chromatography. Reaction of pradimicinone II with PdmT
      generated 7-O-methylpradimicinone II, confirming that this enzyme is a C-7 O
      methyltransferase. Characterization of PdmT suggests a novel pathway that leads
      to the "flip" of 7-OH to C-14 in pradimicin biosynthesis.

PMID- 28579331
TI  - Intersectionality: An Understudied Framework for Addressing Weight Stigma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obesity is an ongoing public health concern in the U.S. Weight
      stigma is linked to a number of obesogenic health outcomes, which complicate
      obesity treatment and prevention. Despite higher rates of obesity in female and
      minority populations, little research has examined weight stigma in non-white
      women and men. This study investigated intersectionality in weight stigma and
      health-related coping responses to stigmatizing experiences across racial groups.
      METHODS: In 2015, a total of 2,378 adults completed questionnaires about weight
      stigma, weight bias internalization, and coping strategies. Analyses were
      conducted in 2016. RESULTS: No differences in weight stigma emerged as a function
      of race or gender, but women reported higher weight bias internalization (B=0.19,
      p=0.004). Further, black men and women reported less weight bias internalization
      than white men and women (B=-0.43, p=0.009). Compared with white women, black
      women were less likely to cope with stigma using disordered eating (B=-0.57,
      p=0.001), whereas Hispanic women were more likely to cope with stigma using
      disordered eating (B=0.39, p=0.020). Black men were more likely than white men to
      cope with stigma via eating (B=-0.49, p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight
      that weight stigma is equally present across racial groups, but that groups
      internalize and cope with stigma in different ways, which exacerbate health
      risks. Increased research and policy attention should address stigma as an
      obstacle in prevention and treatment for obesity to reduce weight-based
      inequities in underserved populations.

PMID- 28579333
TI  - "What can I do when he/she doesn't want to eat?": Maternal strategies for ensure
      children's food consumption in early childhood.
AB  - This cross-sectional analysis aimed to analyze the strategies used by mothers of
      children aged 2-3 to ensure their food consumption as well as to investigate the
      maternal and family characteristics associated with using these strategies. Data
      of 463 mothers who use the public health care system in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
      were analyzed. Among these mothers, 58.5% (n = 271) used some type of strategy.
      However, 42.4% (n = 115) of mothers did not identify their behavior as a strategy
      to ensure their children's food consumption. In regard to the type of strategy
      used, 69% (n = 187) were classified as information strategies and 43.2% (n = 117)
      as trading strategies. Maternal age and educational level were inversely
      associated with the use of trading strategies (p < 0.05), indicating that the
      adolescent mothers and mothers with less schooling more often used strategies
      that have been shown by the literature not to be conducive to positive long-term
      results. In 46.9% (n = 123) of the cases, some types of food were involved in the
      mothers' strategies, generally ultra-processed foods (46.3% n = 57). We conclude
      that the use of strategies to promote children's food consumption considered
      appropriate by the mothers is a fairly common practice. Health care professionals
      should consider mothers' perceptions and attitudes about the subject in order to
      conseil them as to the best feeding practices for their children, as the use of
      these strategies can be detrimental to the formation of eating behaviors.

PMID- 28579332
TI  - Structures of RNA Polymerase Closed and Intermediate Complexes Reveal Mechanisms
      of DNA Opening and Transcription Initiation.
AB  - Gene transcription is carried out by RNA polymerases (RNAPs). For transcription
      to occur, the closed promoter complex (RPc), where DNA is double stranded, must
      isomerize into an open promoter complex (RPo), where the DNA is melted out into a
      transcription bubble and the single-stranded template DNA is delivered to the
      RNAP active site. Using a bacterial RNAP containing the alternative sigma54
      factor and cryoelectron microscopy, we determined structures of RPc and the
      activator-bound intermediate complex en route to RPo at 3.8 and 5.8 A. Our
      structures show how RNAP-sigma54 interacts with promoter DNA to initiate the DNA
      distortions required for transcription bubble formation, and how the activator
      interacts with RPc, leading to significant conformational changes in RNAP and
      sigma54 that promote RPo formation. We propose that DNA melting is an active
      process initiated in RPc and that the RNAP conformations of intermediates are
      significantly different from that of RPc and RPo.

PMID- 28579334
TI  - Corrigendum to "Protein-based nanotoxicology assessment strategy" [Nanomed
      Nanotechnol Biol Med. 2017;13(3):1229-1233].

PMID- 28579335
TI  - Identification and functional characterization of the pheromone biosynthesis
      activating neuropeptide receptor isoforms from Mamestra brassicae.
AB  - In most moth species, including Mamestra brassicae, pheromone biosynthesis
      activating neuropeptide (PBAN) regulates pheromone production. Generally, PBAN
      acts directly on the pheromone gland (PG) cells via its specific G protein
      coupled receptor (i.e. PBANR) with Ca2+ as a second messenger. In this study, we
      identified cDNAs encoding three variants (A, B and C) of the M. brassicae PBANR
      (Mambr-PBANR). The full-length coding sequences were transiently expressed in
      cultured Trichoplusia ni cells and Sf9 cells for functional characterization. All
      three isoforms dose-dependently mobilized extracellular Ca2+ in response to PBAN
      analogs with Mambr-PBANR-C exhibiting the greatest sensitivity. Fluorescent
      confocal microscopy imaging studies demonstrated binding of a rhodamine red
      labeled ligand (RR10CPBAN) to all three Mambr-PBANR isoforms. RR10CPBAN binding
      did not trigger ligand-induced internalization in cells expressing PBANR-A, but
      did in cells expressing the PBANR-B and -C isoforms. Furthermore, activation of
      the PBANR-B and -C isoforms with the 18 amino acid Mambr-pheromonotropin resulted
      in co-localization with a Drosophila melanogaster arrestin homolog (Kurtz),
      whereas stimulation with an unrelated peptide had no effect. PCR-based profiling
      of the three transcripts revealed a basal level of expression throughout
      development with a dramatic increase in PG transcripts from the day of adult
      emergence with PBANR-C being the most abundant.

PMID- 28579337
TI  - Cryopreservation of canine sperm using egg yolk and soy bean based extenders.
AB  - Animal protein-based extenders are widely used despite being a potential source
      of bacterial or mycoplasma contamination. Its replacement with vegetal protein
      based extenders could represent an interesting alternative for dog sperm
      cryopreservation. This technique could be further improved by the addition of
      Tris-Glucose-Citric acid (TGC) that could physically protect the spermatozoa and
      improve its homeostasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate a cryopreservation
      protocol for dog spermatozoa using a soybean-based extender (LP1(p)) as well as
      the effects of the addition of (TGC) immediately after the semen collection.
      Eleven ejaculates from purebred adult dogs were collected, centrifuged in the
      absence or presence of TGC and processed as fresh or cryopreserved spermatozoa
      with: egg yolk-based extender (CaniPRO) or LP1(p). Freezing the spermatozoa in
      LP1(p) reduced the amplitude of the lateral head displacement, the percentage of
      spermatozoa that showed the intact acrosome and the mitochondrial function
      (P<0.05). These samples also showed a trend towards increased percentage of
      apoptotic spermatozoa (P<0.05). The addition of TGC before centrifugation did not
      improve the seminal parameters and adversely affected motility (P<0.05) in the
      spermatozoa cryopreserved in CaniPRO. However, TGC did not affect motility and
      increased (P<0.05) the percentage of intact acrosomes in the spermatozoa
      cryopreserved in LP1(p), reaching similar values than those cryopreserved in
      CaniPRO. In conclusion, LP1(r) plus TGC provide the same level of protection to
      dog spermatozoa cryopreservation than the egg yolk based extender CaniPRO when
      comparing standard post-thaw sperm quality parameters.

PMID- 28579336
TI  - Relationship Between Use of Videogames and Sexual Health in Adult Males.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Videogame use is increasingly prevalent in people of all ages, and
      despite the wide amount of scientific evidence proving a role for electronic
      entertainment in human health, there is no evidence about the relation between
      use of videogames and sexual health. AIM: To investigate the association between
      use of videogames and male sexual health. METHODS: We administered the two
      validated questionnaires, the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT) and
      the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15), to men 18 to 50 years old
      recruited through social networks and specific websites. In addition to the
      questionnaires, volunteers were asked to provide information on their gaming
      habit and lifestyle. OUTCOMES: An extended version of the IIEF-15 and PEDT,
      including data about gaming habits and relevant lifestyles. RESULTS: From June
      18, 2014 through July 31, 2014, 599 men 18 to 50 years old completed the
      questionnaires. One hundred ninety-nine men reported no sexual activity during
      the previous 4 weeks; four records were rejected because of inherent errors. The
      remaining 396 questionnaires were analyzed, with 287 "gamers" (playing >1
      hour/day on average) and 109 "non-gamers" providing all the required information.
      We found a lower prevalence of premature ejaculation in gamers compared with non
      gamers (mean PEDT score = 3.57 +/- 3.38 vs 4.52 +/- 3.7, P < .05, respectively).
      Analysis of the IIEF-15 showed no significant differences between gamers and non
      gamers in the domains of erectile function, orgasmic function, and overall
      satisfaction. Median scores for the sexual desire domain were higher for non
      gamers (median score [interquartile range] 9 [8-9] vs 9 [8-10], respectively; P =
      .0227). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: These results support the correlation between
      videogame use and male sexual health. Compared with non-gamers, men playing
      videogames for more than 1 hour/day were less likely to have premature
      ejaculation but more likely to have decreased sexual desire. STRENGTHS AND
      LIMITATIONS: This is the first study aimed to assess male sexual health in
      gamers. We identified an association between PEDT and IIEF scores and videogame
      use; however, these findings require validation through interventional studies.
      Furthermore, volunteers were recruited through social networks, thus increasing
      the risk of recruitment bias. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first
      observational study investigating the link between electronic entertainment and
      male sexuality, specifically for ejaculatory response and sexual desire. Sansone
      A, Sansone M, Proietti M, et al. Relationship Between Use of Videogames and
      Sexual Health in Adult Males. J Sex Med 2017;14:898-903.

PMID- 28579338
TI  - Serine-like proteolytic enzymes from common carp Cyprinus carpio L. seminal
      plasma are able to degrade sperm proteins.
AB  - The application of zymography, with sperm proteins as a substrate, allowed for
      the first time the visualisation of two serine proteinases with a molecular
      weight of 76 and 163kDa from common carp Cyprinus carpio L. seminal plasma.
      Twenty four hours of incubation in a development solution with a pH of 7.5 and
      incubation at 37 degrees C were the best conditions for the visualisation of
      serine proteinase; however, proteolysis was also observed at 4 degrees C. Our
      results indicate that serine proteinase from common carp seminal plasma with a
      molecular weight of 76 and 163kDa may be involved in the degradative mechanism of
      sperm proteins. This mechanism may be responsible for the removal of damaged
      sperms by the digestion of native sperm proteins.

PMID- 28579339
TI  - Prognostic value of alkaline phosphatase in patients with acute coronary
      syndromes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to investigate the association between
      alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity and prognosis of patients with acute coronary
      syndrome (ACS). DESIGN AND METHODS: The study included 2134 patients with ACS
      undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. All included patients had baseline
      AP measurements available. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis
      showed that the best cut-off of AP for mortality prediction was 98.0U/L. Using
      this cut-off, patients were divided into two groups: a group with AP>98.0U/L
      (n=493) and a group with AP<=98.0U/L (n=1641). The primary endpoint was 3-year
      mortality. RESULTS: Overall, there were 229 deaths over the follow-up: 90 deaths
      among patients with an AP >98.0U/L and 139 deaths among patients with an
      AP<=98.0U/L (Kaplan-Meier estimates of 3-year total mortality, 19.5% and 9.3%,
      respectively; adjusted hazard ratio [HR]=1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10
      1.70, P=0.004 for each unit higher log AP). Cardiac deaths occurred in 157
      patients: 66 deaths among patients with an AP>98.0U/L and 91 deaths among
      patients with an AP<=98.0U/L (Kaplan-Meier estimates of 3-year cardiac mortality,
      14.3% and 6.0%, respectively; adjusted HR=1.32 [1.02-1.70], P=0.033, for each
      unit higher log AP). The C-statistic of the multivariable model with baseline
      variables was 0.836 [0.807-0.866] and it increased to 0.842 [0.814-0.874] after
      inclusion of AP (P=0.045). CONCLUSIONS: In patients presenting with an ACS and
      treated with percutaneous coronary intervention, elevated AP activity is
      associated with increased risk of subsequent mortality.

PMID- 28579340
TI  - APRI test and hyaluronic acid as non-invasive diagnostic tools for post HCV liver
      fibrosis: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) accounts for a sizable
      proportion of chronic liver disease cases and represents the most common
      indication for liver transplantation. Precise diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis stage
      is considered a funnel-neck in proper management and follow-up of HCV-infected
      patients. Given the possible complications of liver biopsy, a non-invasive method
      for assessing hepatic fibrosis is needed. This study aimed to evaluate the
      diagnostic accuracy of APRI and hyaluronic acid as non-invasive diagnostic
      assessment tools for post HCV liver fibrosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Systematic
      literature searching identified studies performed on Egyptian territory to
      evaluate APRI and hyaluronic acid as non-invasive tests of fibrosis and using
      liver biopsy as the reference standard. Meta-analysis was performed for areas
      with an adequate number of publications. Validation of meta- analysis on APRI was
      done on a subset of 150 treatment-naive post-hepatitis C patients. RESULTS: Both
      APRI and hyaluronic acid have superior predictive power for hepatic cirrhosis
      (F4) than for significant fibrosis (F2-F3). The pooled estimate for sensitivities
      and specificities of APRI and hyaluronic acid to diagnose F4 were (84% and 82%)
      and (83% and 89%) respectively. In the subgroup of treatment naive post-hepatitis
      C patients, APRI had higher diagnostic performance to diagnose liver cirrhosis
      with 93.8% sensitivity and 72.4% specificity (AUC; 0.908, 95%CI; 0.851-0.965, p
      value; <0.001) compared to its accuracy to diagnose significant hepatic fibrosis
      with 65.1% sensitivity and 77.8% (AUC; 0.685, 95% CI; 0.59-0.78, p-value; 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: APRI score and hyaluronic acid levels are simple and reliable non
      invasive markers to detect advanced fibrosis among post-hepatitis C patients.

PMID- 28579341
TI  - Percutaneous ultrasound-guided fiducial marker placement for liver cancer robotic
      stereotactic radio-surgery treatment: A comparative analysis of three types of
      markers and needles.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Percutaneous placement of fiducial markers is required
      to perform stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for liver neoplastic
      lesions. This prospective trial was designed to evaluate the feasibility and
      safety of percutaneous ultrasound-guided placement of three different types of
      markers in patients with liver cancer referred for SBRT. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Fifty patients underwent percutaneous ultrasound-guided implantation of a
      fiducial marker in the liver. Three sizes of needles were used: 25 gauge (G),
      22G, and 17G. The 25G and 22G needles contained gold anchor markers of 0.28*10mm
      and 0.4 *10mm size, respectively. In contrast, the 17G needle contained a gold
      grain marker of 1*4mm. Each patient received 1-6 markers, depending on lesion
      size and numbers. Technical feasibility and the occurrence of adverse events were
      registered. Computed tomography scans were acquired prior to SBRT to evaluate the
      location, visibility, or complications related to the markers. RESULTS: A total
      of 163 needles were used to deliver 163 markers in 50 patients. No major
      complications occurred. Minor complication occurrence rate was 12%. The total
      complication occurrence for all type of markers was 8.5%. No complications were
      observed with the use of the gold anchor marker of 0.4 *10mm size. Variance
      analysis of the three markers showed a significant difference in the frequency of
      complications amongst the three markers (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Percutaneous
      ultrasound-guided placement of fiducial markers for SBRT of liver neoplastic
      lesions is safe and feasible. In our series, the 22G needle showed some advantage
      in terms of handling and safety when compared with the 25G and 17G needles. In
      addition, the gold anchor marker of 0.4 *10mm size displayed a lower percentage
      of displacement.

PMID- 28579342
TI  - Prevalence of hepatitis C virus genotypes and subtypes in Lebanese population and
      major high risk groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: The prevalence of hepatitis C in Lebanon is low. It is
      estimated at 0.2% of the total population. The aim of our study is to evaluate
      the exact prevalence of each genotype on a large scale population and in each
      potential source of infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed all the data in
      the Ministry of Public Health related to patients who have submitted their file
      for treatment during a period of 9years ranging from January 2005 till December
      2013. RESULTS: The genotype distribution in 1031 Lebanese patients was as
      following: Genotype 1 was the most predominant representing 47% followed by
      genotype 4 representing 34% then genotype 3 representing14%. Concerning sex
      distribution and routes of infection, there was a male predominance in
      intravenous drug users (IVDU), whereas approximately equal distribution was noted
      in haemodialysis and transfusion groups. A female predominance was noted in the
      "unknown" mode of infection. Concerning age distribution and routes of infection,
      a mean age of 27 was noted in the IVDU group, whereas mean age of 60 in the
      transfusion group and 50 in the haemodialysis group. In patients who acquired the
      infection post transfusion or during haemodialysis, genotype 1 was the most
      predominant, whereas in IVDU, genotype 3 was the most predominant. Concerning sub
      genotyping: subtype 1b was the most predominant (84%) in genotype 1. in genotype
      2 subtype b with 75%, all genotype 3 were subtype a, in genotype 4 subtype a
      represents 50% of genotype followed by subtype e in 30%. CONCLUSION: Our data
      concerning Lebanese population demonstrate that genotype 1 is the most prevalent
      genotype followed by genotype 4. In IVU, we noted genotype-3 and -1 being the
      most prevalent in relation to clustering in this high risk group. This
      distribution differs from most surrounding countries and all other Arab
      countries.

PMID- 28579343
TI  - Relationship between liver injury and serum cytokeratin 18 levels in asymptomatic
      hepatitis B virus carriers and in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Apoptosis represents a well-known mechanism of cell
      death involved in most chronic liver injuries. Our aim was to investigate the
      serum fragment level of cytokeratin 18 (CK18), M30, in asymptomatic hepatitis B
      virus (HBV) carriers and patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and to evaluate
      the relationship between serum M30 levels and the severity of hepatic injury.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Asymptomatic HBV carriers (n=169), patients with CHB
      (n=100), and healthy control subjects (n=43) were enrolled in the study. Serum
      CK18 (M30) levels were analysed in all subjects. Liver biopsy for
      histopathological assessment was performed in asymptomatic HBV carriers and in
      patients with CHB infection. RESULTS: Serum CK18 (M30) levels were significantly
      higher in asymptomatic HBV carriers (198.77+/-77.62U/L) than in healthy control
      subjects (146.92+/-40.18U/L). Patients with CHB (283.02+/-147.45U/L) had
      significantly higher CK18 (M30) levels than asymptomatic HBV carriers (p=0.001).
      The diagnostic efficacy of CK18 (M30) levels in distinguishing patients with
      HBeAg-negative CHB from asymptomatic HBV carriers was found to be moderate (c
      statistics: 0.695), and the diagnostic cut-off value of CK18 (M30) was 262U/L
      (specificity: 85%, sensitivity: 48%, positive likelihood ratio: 3.35, and
      negative likelihood ratio: 0.60). There was a positive correlation between serum
      CK18 (M30) levels and histological activity index scores in asymptomatic HBV
      carriers and patients with CHB. CONCLUSIONS: Serum CK18 (M30) levels may be a
      valuable indicator in distinguishing asymptomatic HBV carriers from patients with
      HBeAg-negative CHB when considered together with ALT and HBV-DNA levels.

PMID- 28579344
TI  - Evaluation of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in wheezy infants using 24-h
      oesophageal combined impedance and pH monitoring.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is
      incriminated as a cause of non-asthmatic infantile wheeze. To date, no diagnostic
      test is considered standard for GERD-related airway reflux diagnosis. Oesophageal
      combined multiple channel intraluminal impedance and pH (MII-pH) monitoring is
      proposed to be a sensitive tool for evaluation of all GERD including infantile
      wheeze. We aimed to determine the GERD prevalence amongst wheezy infants in the
      first year of life using combined MII-pH versus pH monitoring alone and evaluate
      the sensitivity and specificity of objective MII-pH monitoring parameters in GERD
      associated infantile wheeze diagnosis compared to those of lipid-laden macrophage
      index (LLMI). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight wheezy infants below 1year of
      age were evaluated for GERD using oesophageal combined MII-pH monitoring and
      LLMI. RESULTS: Totally, 60.5% of cases had abnormal MII-pH; only 7.9% of them had
      abnormal pH monitoring. LLMI was significantly higher in wheezy infants with
      abnormal MII-pH than infants with normal MII-pH monitoring (112+/-88 versus 70+/
      48; P=0.036). The current definitions of abnormal MII-pH study, reflux index>=10%
      and distal reflux episodes>=100, had low sensitivity (23%) but high specificity
      (100% and 96%, respectively) in GERD-related aspiration diagnosis defined by
      LLMI>=100. Using ROC curves, bolus contact time>=2.4% and proximal reflux
      episodes>=46 had 61% and 54% sensitivity and 64% and 76% specificity,
      respectively, in GERD-related aspiration diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Combined MII-pH
      is superior to pH monitoring in reflux-associated infantile wheeze diagnosis.
      Objective data including proximal reflux episodes and bolus contact time should
      be combined with the current parameters used in reflux-associated infantile
      wheeze diagnosis.

PMID- 28579345
TI  - Efficacy and safety of midazolam and ketamine in paediatric upper endoscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIM: Upper endoscopy can be successfully carried out in
      children under deep sedation and anaesthesia. However, the best method of upper
      endoscopy for children who require gastrointestinal intervention has yet to be
      defined. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of the
      sedation induced by intravenous midazolam and ketamine during upper endoscopy in
      children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included patients ages 3-18years who
      had undergone upper endoscopy. All subjects received IV midazolam and ketamine.
      During the intervention, hypoxia, tachycardia, bradycardia, hypertension, and
      hypotension were recorded. After the intervention, euphoria, dysphoria, vertigo,
      visual problems (such as diplopia and nystagmus), and emergencies (such as
      arrhythmia, convulsion, and hallucination), among other findings, were recorded.
      Older children who were capable of expressing themselves were questioned to help
      determine these conditions. RESULTS: The mean age of the study group was was
      11.9+/-3.42years; 54% of the patients were females, and 46% were males. During
      the upper endoscopy, hypoxia occurred in 9% of patients, mild hypertension in
      14%, hypotension in 5%, tachycardia in 23%, bradycardia in 8%, and flushing
      urticaria in 2%. After the upper endoscopy, one of the most common complications
      was sore throat, which occurred in 24% of patients. Vomiting was observed in 14%
      of patients, dizziness in 24%, diplopia in 27%, euphoria in 3% (5 patients),
      dysphoria in 4%, and hallucination in 4%. Of the total patients, 4% required
      oxygen supply with a face mask. CONCLUSION: The results of our study showed that
      the use of IV midazolam and ketamine during upper endoscopy in children was safe
      and effective.

PMID- 28579347
TI  - Concomitant or Staged Transcatheter Treatment for Severe Combined Aortic and
      Mitral Valve Disease.

PMID- 28579346
TI  - Combined spontaneous bacterial empyema and peritonitis in cirrhotic patients with
      ascites and hepatic hydrothorax.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Spontaneous bacterial empyema (SBEM) is an
      underestimated condition in patients with ascites and hepatic hydrothorax with a
      high mortality. This study aimed to find whether spontaneous bacterial
      peritonitis (SBP) is a prerequisite for SBEM. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 3000 HCV
      related cirrhotic patients with ascites and hydrothorax were screened for the
      presence of SBP (ascitic fluid neutrophils >250/mm3) and SBEM (positive pleural
      fluid culture and neutrophils >250/mm3 or negative pleural fluid culture and
      neutrophils >500/mm3 with no evidence of pneumonia/parapneumonic effusion on
      chest radiograph or CT). RESULTS: The prevalence of SBEM in cirrhotic patients
      was 1.2% (36/3000) unlike SBP (1.6%; 48/3000). SBEM was detected in 51.4% of the
      patients with hepatic hydrothorax (36/70). A total of 70 patients had concomitant
      ascites and hydrothorax, namely SBP (n=17), SBEM (n=5), and dual SBP and SBEM
      (n=31), whereas 17 patients had sterile concomitant ascites and hydrothorax. Age,
      sex, liver function, kidney function tests, complete blood count, INR, MELD, MELD
      Na, blood chemistry, and culture/sensitivity for ascitic and pleural fluid were
      statistically not different (p>0.05) between SBP and dual SBP and SBEM patients.
      Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were detected in the culture. From
      univariate analysis, no predictors of dual SBP and SBEM were detected.
      CONCLUSION: SBEM is a part of SBP in cirrhotic patients with ascites and
      hydrothorax.

PMID- 28579348
TI  - Ten-year survival after endoscopic stent placement as a bridge to surgery in
      obstructing colon cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Self-expandable metal stents are used increasingly in the
      treatment of obstructing colorectal cancer (CRC). Although endoscopic colon
      stenting is widely accepted in palliation, disagreement exists about its role in
      a curative setting. This study aims to describe long-term survival data in a
      large patient group treated with colon stenting as a bridge to surgery for CRC.
      METHODS: This prospective study included 97 patients who presented in a Belgian
      hospital between 1998 and 2013 with obstructing, although potentially curable,
      CRC. All patients underwent endoscopic stenting as a bridge to surgery. Procedure
      related adverse events and long-term follow-up data were retrospectively
      collected and compared with the CRC mortality in Belgium in the same time span.
      RESULTS: Overall survival in this observational cohort did not differ
      significantly from survival in all Belgian patients with CRC in the same period
      (P = .14). One-year, 5-year, and 10-year survival rates were similar in both
      groups (95.9% vs 79.0%; 54.7% vs 51.2%; 41.0% vs 35.6%, respectively). The
      technical success rate was 94.8%. Seventy-three patients did not experience any
      adverse event. Stent migration occurred in 9 patients, whereas micro-perforations
      and macro-perforations were observed in 14 patients, without influence on
      survival. Incidence rates of peritoneal metastases did not differ between
      patients with and without any type of perforation (22.2% vs 15.2%, respectively;
      P = .47). The type of stent influenced the overall adverse event risk, mainly
      driven by a significant increase in stent migration in case of Wallstent enteral
      (Boston Scientific Corporation, Natick, Mass). CONCLUSIONS: Colon stenting before
      surgery is effective and did not worsen the survival outcome in patients with
      obstructing CRC who were treated with curative intent, which affirms the role for
      stenting as a bridge to surgery.

PMID- 28579349
TI  - Electromagnetic-guided placement of nasoduodenal feeding tubes versus endoscopic
      placement: a randomized, multicenter trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Electromagnetic-guided placement (EMP) of a nasoduodenal
      feeding tube by trained nurses is an attractive alternative to EGD-guided
      placement (EGDP). We aimed to compare EMP and EGDP in outpatients, ward patients,
      and critically ill patients with normal upper GI anatomy. METHODS: In 3 centers
      with no prior experience in EMP, patients were randomized to placement of a
      single-lumen nasoduodenal feeding tube either with EGDP or EMP. The primary
      endpoint was post-pyloric position of the tube on abdominal radiography. Patients
      were followed for 10 days to assess patency and adverse events. The analyses were
      performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: In total, 160
      patients were randomized to EGDP (N = 76) or EMP (N = 84). Three patients
      withdrew informed consent, and no abdominal radiography was performed in 2
      patients. Thus, 155 patients (59 intensive care unit, 38%) were included in the
      analyses. Rates of post-pyloric tube position between EGDP and EMP were
      comparable (79% vs 82%, odds ratio 1.16; 90% confidence interval, 0.58-2.38; P =
      .72). Adverse events were observed in 4 patients after EMP (hypoxia, GI blood
      loss, atrial fibrillation, abdominal pain) and in 4 after EGDP (epistaxis N = 2,
      GI blood loss, hypoxia). Costs of tube placements were lower for EMP compared
      with EGDP: $519.09 versus $622.49, respectively (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Success
      rates and safety of EMP and EGDP in patients with normal upper GI anatomy were
      comparable. Lower costs and potential logistic advantages may drive centers to
      adopt EMP as their new standard of care. (Clinical trial registration number:
      NTR4286.).

PMID- 28579350
TI  - Azithromycin Modulates 3',5'-cyclic Diguanylic Acid Signaling in Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa.
AB  - Macrolides have been reported to exert a variety of effects on both host
      immunomodulation and repression of bacterial pathogenicity. In this study, we
      report that the 3',5'-cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) signaling system, which
      regulates virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is affected by the macrolide
      azithromycin. Using DNA microarray analysis, we selected a gene encoding PA2567
      related to c-di-GMP metabolism that was significantly affected by azithromycin
      treatment. Expression of the PA2567 gene was significantly repressed by
      azithromycin in a time- and dose-dependent manner, whereas no difference in
      PA2567 gene expression was observed in the absence of azithromycin. In-frame
      deletion of the PA2567 gene affected both virulence factors and the quorum
      sensing system, and significantly decreased total bacteria in a mouse pneumonia
      model compared to the wild-type strain (P < 0.05). These results suggest that
      macrolides possess the ability to modulate c-di-GMP intracellular signaling in P.
      aeruginosa.

PMID- 28579351
TI  - Preclinical abuse liability assessment of ABT-126, an agonist at the alpha7
      nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR).
AB  - ABT-126 is a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonist that is selective
      for the alpha7 subtype of the receptor. nAChRs are thought to play a role in a
      variety of neurocognitive processes and have been a pharmacologic target for
      disorders with cognitive impairment, including schizophrenia and Alzheimer's
      disease. As part of the preclinical safety package for ABT-126, its potential for
      abuse was assessed. While the involvement of the alpha4beta2 subtype of the
      nicotinic receptor in the addictive properties of nicotine has been demonstrated,
      the role of the alpha7 receptor has been studied much less extensively. A number
      of preclinical assays of abuse potential including open-field, drug
      discrimination and self-administration were employed in male rats. ABT-126 had
      modest effects on locomotor activity in the open-field assay. In nicotine and d
      amphetamine drug discrimination assays, ABT-126 administration failed to produce
      appreciable d-amphetamine-like or nicotine-like responding, suggesting that its
      interoceptive effects are distinct from those of these drugs of abuse. In rats
      trained to self-administer cocaine, substitution with ABT-126 was similar to
      substitution with saline, indicating that it lacks reinforcing effects. No
      evidence of physical dependence was noted following subchronic administration.
      Overall, these data suggest that ABT-126 has a low potential for abuse. Together
      with other literature on this drug class, it appears that drugs that selectively
      activate alpha7 nAChRs are not likely to result in abuse or dependence.

PMID- 28579353
TI  - In vitro differentiation of menstrual blood stem cells into keratinocytes: A
      potential approach for management of wound healing.
AB  - The skin wounds caused by insults should be treated immediately to restore the
      functions and integrity. Recent studies suggest that stem cells-based therapies
      may be applicable in wound healing. Newly defined menstrual blood-derived stem
      cells (MenSCs) show high rate of cell proliferation and trans-differentiation
      potency to various cell types. However, MenSCs potential to generate keratinocyte
      for future therapeutic use of skin lesions has been remained to investigate. We
      cultivated MenSCs in the presence of isolated foreskin derived-keratinocytes
      using an indirect co-culture system and evaluated efficiency of this protocol to
      generate keratinocytes using immunofluorescent staining and Real Time PCR
      technique. Our results showed that differentiated keratinocytes express
      epidermal/keratinocytes lineage specific markers such as K14, p63, and involucrin
      at both mRNA and protein levels. Immunofluorescent staining showed the expression
      of involucrin and K14 in differentiated cells in contrast to undifferentiated
      cells. Moreover, mRNA expression levels of K14 (11.1 folds, p = 0.001), p63
      (10.23 folds, p = 0.001), and involucrin (2.94 folds, p = 0.001) were higher in
      differentiated MenSCs compared to non-cocultured cells. Therefore, we firstly
      presented evidence about differentiation capability of MenSCs into
      epidermal/keratinocytes lineage. Considering the advantages of MenSCs such as
      great accessibility, these stem cells are promising for stem cells-based
      therapies of skin defects.

PMID- 28579354
TI  - Factors related to the association of social anxiety disorder and alcohol use
      among adolescents: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the risk factors related to the association between social
      anxiety disorder and alcohol use in adolescents. SOURCE OF DATA: The PICO
      research strategy was used to perform a systematic review in Medline, LILACS,
      Pubmed, IBECS and Cochrane Library databases. DeCS/MeSH: Phobic Disorders,
      Adolescent, Behavior, Ethanol, Risk Factors, and the Boolean operator "AND" were
      used. Inclusion criteria were: cross-sectional, prospective/retrospective cohort,
      and case-control studies, carried out in adolescents (10-19 years), original
      articles on social anxiety disorder and alcohol use published between 2010 and
      2015. Studies that did not report the terms "anxiety disorder" and "alcohol use"
      in the title and abstract were excluded. SYNTHESIS OF DATA: 409 articles were
      retrieved; after the exclusion of 277 repeated articles, the following were
      eligible: 94 in MEDLINE, 68 in Pubmed, 12 in IBCS, and three in LILACS. Titles
      and abstracts were independently read by two examiners, which resulted in the
      selection of eight articles for the analysis. Risk factors associated to the two
      disorders were female gender, age, peer approval and affective problems for
      alcohol use, confrontation situations and/or compliance reasons, frequency of
      alcohol use, and secondary comorbidities, such as depression and generalized
      anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to assess the period of social anxiety
      disorders first symptom onset, as well as the risks for alcohol use in order to
      establish corrective intervention guidelines, especially for socially anxious
      students.

PMID- 28579355
TI  - Expression, purification and characterization of a novel recombinant SVTLE, r
      agkihpin-2, from Gloydius halys Pallas venom gland in Escherichia coli.
AB  - In our previous work, a thrombin-like enzyme (TLE), agkihpin, was successfully
      isolated, purified, cloned and named from the venom of Gloydius halys Pallas,
      having fibrinolytic, fibrinogenolytic and thrombosis-reduced activities,
      attenuating migration of liver cancer cell, and without bleeding risk. To explore
      the possibility of agkihpin as a thrombolytic and/or anti-metastasis agent in the
      future, in this study recombinant agkihpin was expressed and purified in
      Escherichia coli, and its biological activities investigated. Thus, r-agkihpin-2
      was successfully expressed and purified and confirmed by Western blot and peptide
      mass fingerprinting. After purification and renaturation, 46 mg (399 U) of active
      r-agkihpin-2 was obtained from 1 L bacterial culture. The results of the arginine
      esterase activity assay, fibrin plate test fibrinogenolytic activity assay,
      thrombin-induced venous thrombosis assay, Scratch-Wound assay and bleeding assay
      showed that active r-agkihpin-2 had slightly lower TAME hydrolytic, fibrinolytic,
      fibrinogenolytic, thrombus-reduced and migration-attenuated activities than those
      of native agkihpin, and had no bleeding risk. These findings confirmed that,
      active r-agkihpin-2 could be further investigated for thrombolytic and/or anti
      metastasis drug discovery in the future.

PMID- 28579352
TI  - Clinical Features Associated with Delirium Motor Subtypes in Older Inpatients:
      Results of a Multicenter Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To date motor subtypes of delirium have been evaluated in single
      center studies with a limited examination of the relationship between
      predisposing factors and motor profile of delirium. We sought to report the
      prevalence and clinical profile of subtypes of delirium in a multicenter study.
      METHODS: This is a point prevalence study nested in the "Delirium Day 2015",
      which included 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italy. Delirium was
      detected using the 4-AT and motor subtypes were measured with the Delirium Motor
      Subtype Scale (DMSS). A multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the
      factors associated with delirium subtypes. RESULTS: Of 429 patients with
      delirium, the DMSS was completed in 275 (64%), classifying 21.5% of the patients
      with hyperactive delirium, 38.5% with hypoactive, 27.3% with mixed and 12.7% with
      the non-motor subtype. The 4-AT score was higher in the hyperactive subtype,
      similar in the hypoactive, mixed subtypes, while it was lowest in the non-motor
      subtype. Dementia was associated with all three delirium motor subtypes
      (hyperactive, OR 3.3, 95% CI: 1.2-8.7; hypoactive, OR 2.8, 95% CI: 1.2-6.5; mixed
      OR 2.6, 95% CI: 1.1-6.2). Atypical antipsychotics were associated with hypoactive
      delirium (OR 0.23, 95% CI: 0.1-0.7), while intravenous lines were associated with
      mixed delirium (OR 2.9, 95% CI: 1.2-6.9). CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that
      hypoactive delirium is the most common subtype among hospitalized older patients.
      Specific clinical features were associated with different delirium subtypes. The
      use of standardized instruments can help to characterize the phenomenology of
      different motor subtypes of delirium.

PMID- 28579356
TI  - Mutations in matrix protein 1 and nucleoprotein caused human-specific defects in
      nuclear exportation and viral assembly of an avian influenza H7N1 virus.
AB  - Nuclear exportation of influenza ribonucleoprotein is a vital step in viral
      replication cycle. In this study a particular H7N1 (A/ostrich/Zimbabwe/222
      E3/1996) virus showed exclusively nuclear localization of the viral nucleoprotein
      (NP) only in human cell lines but not in cell lines of other species suggesting a
      human-specific nuclear exportation defect. After 10 passages in human lung cells,
      an adapted strain (H7N1:P10) could efficiently replicate and export viral NP in
      human cells. Mutations in the NP and matrix M1 gene at position 297 and 227,
      respectively, were found to rescue the defect. While the NP mutant showed a
      comparable ratio of total to NP-associated negative-sense RNA in the cytoplasm as
      compared to the wild type, the M1 mutant showed an increase in free negative
      sense RNA in the cytoplasm. These indicated that the NP mutation might cause a
      nuclear export defect, whereas the M1 mutation might cause a defect in
      ribonucleoprotein assembly step.

PMID- 28579357
TI  - Indocyanine green fluorescence-guided surgery after IV injection in metastatic
      colorectal cancer: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Indocyanine green fluorescence-guided surgery (ICG-FGS) has emerged as
      a potential new imaging modality for improving the detection of hepatic, lymph
      node (LN), and peritoneal metastases in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The aim
      of this paper is to review the available literature in the clinical setting of
      ICG-FGS for tumoral detection in various fields of metastatic colorectal disease.
      METHODS: PubMed and Medline literature databases were searched for original
      articles on the use of ICG in the setting of clinical studies on colorectal
      cancer. The search terms used were "near-infrared fluorescence", "intraoperative
      imaging", "indocyanine green", "human" and "colorectal cancer". RESULTS: ICG
      fluorescence imaging (ICG-FI) is clearly supported as an intraoperative technique
      that allows the detection of additional superficial hepatic metastases of CRC.
      Data on the role of ICG-FI in the intraoperative detection of peritoneal
      metastases and LN metastases are scarce but encouraging and ICG-FI could
      potentially improve the staging and treatment of these patients. CONCLUSION: ICG
      FI is a promising imaging technique in the detection of small infraclinic LN,
      hepatic, and peritoneal metastatic deposits that may allow better staging and
      more complete surgical resection with a potential prognostic benefit for
      patients.

PMID- 28579358
TI  - The impact of T1 renal tumor characteristics on baseline renal function in
      patients undergoing partial nephrectomy: A renal scan based objective assessment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To objectively assess the impact of renal tumors
      characteristics and other measurable factors on baseline renal function in
      patient undergoing partial nephrectomy (PN). METHODS: Patients who underwent
      laparoscopic PN for a T1 renal mass between 2012 and 2016 and who also had a
      mercapto-acetyltriglycine renal scan prior to surgery were retrieved from a
      single institution prospectively-collected database. Split renal function (SRF)
      and Effective Renal Plasma Flow (ERPF) for both the operated kidney and the
      unaffected contralateral were calculated. Patient demographics and tumor
      characteristics (e.g. size, location and; nephrometry score) were assessed. Renal
      function of both the operated and the unaffected; contralateral kidney were
      compared. Statistical analysis was performed by using Statistica 8.0 (StatSoft).
      RESULTS: 227 patients were deemed eligible and included in the analysis.
      Univariable analysis showed a significant impact of age-adjusted CCI (p = 0.027),
      hypertension (p = 0.031) and age (p < 0.001) on operated kidney ERPF. Gender (p =
      0.011), hypertension (p = 0.042), CCI (both standard and age-adjusted, p = 0.021
      and = 0.003, respectively) and age (p < 0.001) were significantly; associated
      with contralateral unaffected kidney ERPF. Multivariable analysis confirmed age
      (p < 0.001) and hypertension (p < 0.021) as independent factors in both the
      operated and the unaffected kidney. CONCLUSIONS: Characteristics of the renal
      mass (including nephrometry score and size) seem to have no clinically relevant
      impact on baseline renal function in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy for
      cT1 renal tumors. Age, hypertension and co-morbidities confirm to represent un
      modifiable significant factors influencing baseline renal function.

PMID- 28579359
TI  - Evolution in treatment strategy for metastatic spine disease: Presently evolving
      modalities.
AB  - The advent of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in the surgical management
      armamentarium and stereotactic radiosurgery in the domain of radiotherapy, has
      led to a major evolution in treatment of metastatic spine disease (MSD). We
      reviewed the recent literature to discuss evolution from open to MIS approaches
      in MSD and the concurrent evolution in radiotherapy. This will provide a sound
      base for further development and understanding of treatment paradigms in MSD.
      Literature review showed that evolution of surgery can be traced from
      inappropriate open surgery (i.e. laminectomy) to appropriate open (i.e. posterior
      instrumentation and decompression) and further to minimally invasive surgery.
      This transition was concurrent with the introduction of radiotherapy and its
      evolution in management of MSD. Evidence shows that presently, the best clinical
      outcomes are achieved by surgery with timely postoperative radiotherapy. To make
      surgery an appealing choice in MSD, surgical morbidity needs to be minimized when
      planning postoperative oncological treatment. MIS approaches have advantages such
      as early wound healing enabling early introduction of radiotherapy, reduced
      intraoperative blood loss and shortened hospital stay. Pain reduction and
      neurological improvement are comparable to open surgery. A multidisciplinary team
      approach including spinal surgeons, medical & radiation oncologists is mandatory,
      as the treatment options are constantly evolving. Advancement in radiotherapy
      with introduction of MIS can be a game-changer in MSD due to reduced peri
      operative morbidity, allowing earlier postoperative radiotherapy/chemotherapy. We
      also provide our treatment algorithm which relies on clinical presentation and
      radiological appearance of spinal cord compression, providing an overview of
      treatment strategy.

PMID- 28579360
TI  - Complications of long and intermediate term venous catheters in cystic fibrosis
      patients: A multicenter study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Totally implantable venous access devices (TIVADs) or peripherally
      inserted central venous catheters (PICCs) are commonly used in the care of
      patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), but they are associated with various
      complications, including thrombosis, infection, and insertion site symptoms.
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of PICC and TIVAD use in adults and
      children with CF over an 8-year period at 3 accredited care centers. Patient
      attributes included CFTR genotype, comorbidities, lung function, body mass index,
      use of anticoagulation, and respiratory tract microbiology. Catheter data
      included line type, caliber, and lumen number. We assessed practice variation by
      surveying physicians. RESULTS: In a population of 592 CF patients, 851 PICC and
      61 TIVADs were placed between January 1, 2003 and July 1, 2011. Larger catheter
      caliber and increased lumen number were risk factors for PICC complications in
      adults. Patient-related risk factors for PICC complications included poor
      nutritional status, infection with Burkholderia cepacia spp., and having >=5
      lines inserted during the study period. The probability of a PICC complication
      varied across centers (2.6% to 14.1%, p=0.001) and remained significant after
      adjustment for patient-and line-related risk factors. The median complication
      free survival of TIVADs, however, did not vary significantly by center (p=0.85).
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first longitudinal, multicenter assessment of
      complication rates for PICCs and TIVADs in a large cohort of adults and children
      with CF. Specific patient- and catheter-related characteristics were associated
      with increased risk of complications. Center effects on complication rates were
      observed for PICCs.

PMID- 28579361
TI  - Triazolopyrimidines Are Microtubule-Stabilizing Agents that Bind the Vinca
      Inhibitor Site of Tubulin.
AB  - Microtubule-targeting agents (MTAs) are some of the clinically most successful
      anti-cancer drugs. Unfortunately, instances of multidrug resistances to MTA have
      been reported, which highlights the need for developing MTAs with different
      mechanistic properties. One less explored class of MTAs are [1,2,4]triazolo[1,5
      a]pyrimidines (TPs). These cytotoxic compounds are microtubule-stabilizing agents
      that inexplicably bind to vinblastine binding site on tubulin, which is typically
      targeted by microtubule-destabilizing agents. Here we used cellular, biochemical,
      and structural biology approaches to address this apparent discrepancy. Our
      results establish TPs as vinca-site microtubule-stabilizing agents that promote
      longitudinal tubulin contacts in microtubules, in contrast to classical
      microtubule-stabilizing agents that primarily promote lateral contacts.
      Additionally we observe that TPs studied here are not affected by p-glycoprotein
      overexpression, and suggest that TPs are promising ligands against multidrug
      resistant cancer cells.

PMID- 28579362
TI  - Changes in transcranial magnetic stimulation outcome measures in response to
      upper-limb physical training in stroke: A systematic review of randomized
      controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical training is known to be an effective intervention to improve
      sensorimotor impairments after stroke. However, the link between brain plastic
      changes, assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and sensorimotor
      recovery in response to physical training is still misunderstood. We
      systematically reviewed reports of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving
      the use of TMS over the primary motor cortex (M1) to probe brain plasticity after
      upper-limb physical training interventions in people with stroke. METHODS: We
      searched 5 databases for articles published up to October 2016, with additional
      studies identified by hand-searching. RCTs had to investigate pre/post
      intervention changes in at least one TMS outcome measure. Two independent raters
      assessed the eligibility of potential studies and reviewed the selected articles'
      quality by using 2 critical appraisal scales. RESULTS: In total, 14 reports of
      RCTs (pooled participants=358; mean 26+/-12 per study) met the selection
      criteria. Overall, 11 studies detected plastic changes with TMS in the presence
      of clinical improvements after training, and these changes were more often
      detected in the affected hemisphere by using map area and motor evoked potential
      (MEP) latency outcome measures. Plastic changes mostly pointed to increased
      M1/corticospinal excitability and potential interhemispheric rebalancing of M1
      excitability, despite sometimes controversial results among studies. Also, the
      strength of the review observations was affected by heterogeneous TMS methods and
      upper-limb interventions across studies as well as several sources of bias within
      the selected studies. CONCLUSIONS: The current evidence encourages the use of TMS
      outcome measures, especially MEP latency and map area to investigate plastic
      changes in the brain after upper-limb physical training post-stroke. However,
      more studies involving rigorous and standardized TMS procedures are needed to
      validate these observations.

PMID- 28579363
TI  - Current advances on fermentative biobutanol production using third generation
      feedstock.
AB  - Biobutanol is gaining more attention as a potential alternative to ethanol, and
      the demand for fermentative biobutanol production has renewed interest. The main
      challenge faced in biobutanol production is the availability of feedstock. Using
      conventional agricultural biomass as feedstock is controversial and less
      efficient, while microalgae, the third generation feedstock, are considered
      promising feedstock for biobutanol production due to their high growth rate and
      high carbohydrates content. This review is primarily focused on biobutanol
      production by using carbohydrate-rich microalgal feedstock. Key technologies and
      challenges involved in producing butanol from microalgae are discussed in detail
      and future directions are also presented.

PMID- 28579364
TI  - False-positive results in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance.
AB  - False-positive constitute an important issue in scientific research. In the
      domain of drug evaluation, it affects all phases of drug development and
      assessment, from the very early preclinical studies to the late post-marketing
      evaluations. The core concern associated with this false-positive is the lack of
      replicability of the results. Aside from fraud or misconducts, false-positive is
      often envisioned from the statistical angle, which considers them as a price to
      pay for type I error in statistical testing, and its inflation in the context of
      multiple testing. If envisioning this problematic in the context of
      pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance however, that both evaluate drugs in
      an observational settings, information brought by statistical testing and the
      significance of such should only be considered as additional to the estimates
      provided and their confidence interval, in a context where differences have to be
      a clinically meaningful upon everything, and the results appear robust to the
      biases likely to have affected the studies. In the following article, we
      consequently illustrate these biases and their consequences in generating false
      positive results, through studies and associations between drug use and health
      outcomes that have been widely disputed.

PMID- 28579365
TI  - A novel Python program for implementation of quality control in the ELISA.
AB  - The use of semi-quantitative assays such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA) requires stringent quality control of the data. However, such quality
      control is often lacking in academic settings due to unavailability of software
      and knowledge. Therefore, our aim was to develop methods to easily implement
      Levey-Jennings quality control methods. For this purpose, we created a program
      written in Python (a programming language with an open-source license) and tested
      it using a training set of ELISA standard curves quantifying the Fab fragment of
      an anti-cocaine monoclonal antibody in mouse blood. A colorimetric ELISA was
      developed using a goat anti-human anti-Fab capture method. Mouse blood samples
      spiked with the Fab fragment were tested against a standard curve of known
      concentrations of Fab fragment in buffer over a period of 133days stored at 4
      degrees C to assess stability of the Fab fragment and to generate a test dataset
      to assess the program. All standard curves were analyzed using our program to
      batch process the data and to generate Levey-Jennings control charts and
      statistics regarding the datasets. The program was able to identify values
      outside of two standard deviations, and this identification of outliers was
      consistent with the results of a two-way ANOVA. This program is freely available,
      which will help laboratories implement quality control methods, thus improving
      reproducibility within and between labs. We report here successful testing of the
      program with our training set and development of a method for quantification of
      the Fab fragment in mouse blood.

PMID- 28579366
TI  - "Two-in-One" approach for bioassay selection for dual specificity antibodies.
AB  - Dual specific antibodies and bispecific antibodies that recognize two different
      antigen targets are currently being regarded as very effective therapeutics for
      complex human diseases. While effective, designing and developing a bioassay
      strategy for dual specific antibodies that is reflective of the mechanism of
      action (MoA) and also measures the dual activities of antibodies pose unique and
      exciting challenges. An important question asked while developing a bioassay for
      dual specific antibodies is, "How many bioassays will be needed, one bioassay or
      two separate bioassays?" Here we present an approach of using one bioassay for a
      dual specific antibody that targets two receptors in signaling pathways. The
      presented assay is able to measure the antibody effects on both target bindings,
      which would not be achievable using two separate assays. Furthermore, this assay
      can detect changes in the binding of either target, which impact overall efficacy
      of the antibody. Its improved sensitivity enables substituting two binding assays
      with this one bioassay for lot release and stability testing to measure any
      changes on either target binding, ensuring consistency between lots. This is a
      single-bioassay approach for a dual specific antibody that is MoA reflective of
      the intended therapeutic indication. The demonstrated assay development and
      bridging study strategy for this bioassay for a dual specific mAb1 could be
      applicable to the other dual specific, bispecific antibodies, and antibodies used
      for combination therapy.

PMID- 28579367
TI  - Early postnatal handling reduces hippocampal amyloid plaque formation and
      enhances cognitive performance in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice at middle age.
AB  - In rodents, fragmented and low levels of maternal care have been implicated in
      age-related cognitive decline and the incidence and progression of Alzheimer's
      pathology. In contrast, enhancing early postnatal maternal care has been
      associated with improved cognitive function later in life. Here we examined
      whether early postnatal handling of mouse pups from postnatal days 2-9 enhanced
      maternal care and whether this affected cognition and Alzheimer pathology at 5
      and 11months of age in the APPswe/PS1dE9 mouse model for Alzheimer's disease.
      Brief, 15min daily episodes of separating offspring from their dams from
      postnatal days 2-9 (early handling, EH) increased maternal care of the dam
      towards her pups upon reunion. At 11 (but not 5) months of age, EH APPswe/PS1dE1
      mice displayed significantly reduced amyloid plaque pathology in the hippocampus.
      At this age, EH also prevented short-term working memory deficits while restoring
      impairments in contextual fear memory formation in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. EH did not
      modulate amyloid pathology in the amygdala, nor did it affect auditory fear
      conditioning deficits in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. We conclude that increased levels of
      maternal care during the early life period delays amyloid accumulation and
      cognitive decline in an Alzheimer's mouse model, involving the hippocampus, but
      not to the amygdala. These studies highlight the importance of the early
      postnatal period in modulating resilience to develop Alzheimer's pathology later
      in life.

PMID- 28579368
TI  - Letter to the editor - Adverse events associated with the use of cervical spine
      manipulation or mobilization and patient characteristics.

PMID- 28579369
TI  - Getting a Manual Wheelchair Over a Threshold Using the Momentum Method: A
      Descriptive Study of Common Errors.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To (1) document the success of learners' attempts to overcome a
      threshold in a manual wheelchair while using the momentum method; (2) describe
      the frequency and nature of any errors observed; and (3) compare the
      characteristics of participants who were or were not successful on their first
      attempts. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, observational study following Strengthening
      the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines. SETTING:
      Indoor obstacle course in a rehabilitation center. PARTICIPANTS: Able-bodied
      students (N=214) learning the threshold skill. INTERVENTION: Participants
      attempted to get over the Wheelchair Skills Test (WST) threshold (2cm high, 1.5m
      wide, and 10cm in the line of progression) in a manual wheelchair. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: From each participant's video recording of the first attempt, we
      assigned a WST score for the skill and described any errors noted. RESULTS: The
      WST scores for the first attempts were "pass" for 16 (7.5%), "pass with
      difficulty" for 100 (46.7%), and "fail" for 98 (45.8%). Eventually, requiring up
      to 6 attempts, 203 participants (94.9%) were successful (pass or pass with
      difficulty). Twenty-six different error types were identified. With the use of
      logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio of failing on the first attempt for
      women versus men was 2.71 (95% confidence interval, 1.23-6.00) (P=.0138).
      CONCLUSIONS: Only about half of able-bodied people learning the threshold skill
      using the momentum method are successful on their first attempts, although almost
      all are successful with further practice and feedback. During the first attempts,
      there are a wide variety of errors, primarily in the popping phase of the skill.
      Those who are successful on their first attempts are more likely to be men. These
      findings have implications for the assessment and training of the threshold
      skill.

PMID- 28579370
TI  - The blood donor with hemochromatosis: To be or not to be!

PMID- 28579371
TI  - Influence of argon on temperature modulation and neurological outcome in
      hypothermia treated rats following cardiac arrest.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: Combining xenon and mild therapeutic hypothermia (MTH) after
      cardiac arrest (CA) confers a degree of protection that is greater than either of
      the two interventions alone. However, xenon is very costly which might preclude a
      widespread use. We investigated whether the inexpensive gas argon would enhance
      hypothermia induced neurologic recovery in a similar manner. METHODS: Following
      nine minutes of CA and three minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation 21 male
      Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to receive MTH (33 degrees C for 6h), MTH
      plus argon (70% for 1h), or no treatment. A first day condition score assessed
      behaviour, motor activity and overall condition. A neurological deficit score
      (NDS) was calculated daily for seven days following the experiment before the
      animals were killed and the brains harvested for histopathological analysis.
      RESULTS: All animals survived. Animals that received MTH alone showed best
      overall neurologic function. Strikingly, this effect was abolished in the argon
      augmented MTH group, where animals showed worse neurologic outcome being
      significant in the first day condition score and on day one to three and five in
      the NDS in comparison to MTH treated rats. Results were reflected by the
      neurohistopathological analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that argon
      augmented MTH does not improve functional recovery after CA in rats, but may even
      worsen neurologic function in this model.

PMID- 28579372
TI  - Can resuscitation bring positive changes for paramedics? Polish experiences.

PMID- 28579374
TI  - Activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells regulate type 2 innate lymphoid cell
      mediated airway hyperreactivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergic asthma is a prevalent inflammatory disease of the airways
      caused by dysregulated immune balance in the lungs with incompletely understood
      pathogenesis. The recently identified type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) play
      significant roles in the pathogenesis of asthma. Although ILC2-activating factors
      have been identified, the mechanisms that suppress ILC2s remain largely unknown.
      Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are important in antiviral immunity and in
      maintaining tolerance to inert antigens. OBJECTIVE: We sought to address the role
      of pDCs in regulating ILC2 function and ILC2-mediated airway hyperreactivity
      (AHR) and lung inflammation. METHODS: We used several murine models, including
      BDCA-2-diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR) transgenic and IFN-alpha receptor 1
      deficient mice, as well as purified primary ILC2s, to reach our objective. We
      extended and validated our findings to human ILC2s. RESULTS: We show that
      activation of pDCs through Toll-like receptor 7/8 suppresses ILC2-mediated AHR
      and airway inflammation and that depletion of pDCs reverses this suppression. We
      further show that pDCs suppress cytokine production and the proliferation rate
      while increasing the apoptosis rate of ILC2s through IFN-alpha production.
      Transcriptomic analysis of both human and murine ILC2s confirms the activation of
      regulatory pathways in ILC2s by IFN-alpha. CONCLUSION: Activation of pDCs
      alleviates AHR and airway inflammation by suppressing ILC2 function and survival.
      Our findings reveal a novel regulatory pathway in ILC2-mediated pulmonary
      inflammation with important clinical implications.

PMID- 28579373
TI  - Post ROSC pulse-oximetry derived perfusion index and thirty days survival after
      out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. New insights from the Pavia CARe (Pavia Cardiac
      Arrest Registry).

PMID- 28579375
TI  - Assessment of thunderstorm-induced asthma using Google Trends.

PMID- 28579376
TI  - A new measure to assess asthma's effect on quality of life from the patient's
      perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Asthma Impact on Quality of Life Scale (A-IQOLS) assesses the
      negative effect of asthma on quality of life (QoL) from the patient's perspective
      by using dimensions of Flanagan's Quality of Life Scale (QOLS), a measure of
      current QoL. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine and compare the psychometric
      properties of the A-IQOLS and QOLS, including their sensitivities to differences
      and change in asthma status. METHODS: In a test-retest design (3- to 5-week
      interval) adults with persistent asthma underwent spirometry and were
      administered the A-IQOLS, other asthma outcome measures (Asthma Control Test,
      Asthma Symptom Utility Index, and the Marks and Juniper Asthma Quality of Life
      Questionnaires), and the QOLS. RESULTS: Participants' (n = 147) mean age was 49
      years, 76% were white, 12% were Hispanic, and 65% were female. A-IQOLS and QOLS
      scores were significantly correlated with other asthma outcomes scores, except
      FEV1, but shared relatively low common variance with these measures. A-IQOLS but
      not QOLS score changes were significantly correlated with changes in asthma
      outcomes. An A-IQOLS standard error of measurement of 0.27 implies that a within
      person score change of +/-0.73 or greater constitutes a true change. The QOLS
      standard error of measurement was 0.43. CONCLUSIONS: A-IQOLS provides a reliable,
      valid, and unique assessment of the patient-perceived negative effect of asthma
      on QoL that is suitable for use in asthma clinical research and potentially in
      clinical care. Further studies are needed in diverse patient populations. QOLS, a
      measure of current QoL, is less sensitive to disease status changes but might be
      useful in characterizing study populations, in treatment adherence research, and
      as a clinical and research tool in patients with multiple, severe, and/or life
      limiting chronic conditions.

PMID- 28579377
TI  - Dendritic cells conditioned by activin A-induced regulatory T cells exhibit
      enhanced tolerogenic properties and protect against experimental asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previously, we demonstrated that regulatory T (Treg) cells induced by
      the cytokine activin-A suppress TH2-mediated allergic responses and linked airway
      disease. Still, the effects of activin-A-induced regulatory T (Act-A-iTreg) cells
      on the regulation of dendritic cell (DC)-driven allergic inflammation remain
      elusive. OBJECTIVE: Here we investigated whether Act-A-iTreg cells can modulate
      DC responses and endow them with enhanced tolerogenic functions. METHODS: Using
      adoptive cell transfer studies in mouse models of allergic airway disease, we
      examined the effects of Act-A-iTreg cells on DC phenotype, maturation status, and
      TH2 cell priming potential. Genome-wide gene expression profiling characterized
      the transcriptional networks induced in tolerogenic DCs by Act-A-iTreg cells. The
      ability of DCs conditioned by Act-A-iTreg cells (Act-A-iTreg cell-modified DCs)
      to protect against experimental asthma, and the mechanisms involved were also
      explored. RESULTS: Act-A-iTreg cell-modified DCs exhibited a significantly
      impaired capacity to uptake allergen and stimulate naive and TH2 effector
      responses on allergen stimulation in vivo accompanied by markedly attenuated
      inflammatory cytokine release in response to LPS. Gene-profiling studies revealed
      that Act-A-iTreg cells dampened crucial TH2-skewing transcriptional networks in
      DCs. Administration of Act-A-iTreg cell-modified DCs ameliorated cardinal asthma
      manifestations in preventive and therapeutic protocols through generation of
      strongly suppressive forkhead box P3+ Treg cells. Finally, programed death
      protein 1/programmed death ligand 1 signaling pathways were essential in
      potentiating the generation of DCs with tolerogenic properties by Act-A-iTreg
      cells. CONCLUSION: Our studies reveal that Act-A-iTreg cells instruct the
      generation of a highly effective immunoregulatory circuit encompassing
      tolerogenic DCs and forkhead box P3+ Treg cells that could be targeted for the
      design of novel immunotherapies for allergic disorders.

PMID- 28579378
TI  - A systematic survey of the methods literature on the reporting quality and
      optimal methods of handling participants with missing outcome data for continuous
      outcomes in randomized controlled trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct (1) a systematic survey of the reporting quality of
      simulation studies dealing with how to handle missing participant data (MPD) in
      randomized control trials and (2) summarize the findings of these studies. STUDY
      DESIGN AND SETTING: We included simulation studies comparing statistical methods
      dealing with continuous MPD in randomized controlled trials addressing bias,
      precision, coverage, accuracy, power, type-I error, and overall ranking. For the
      reporting of simulation studies, we adapted previously developed criteria for
      reporting quality and applied them to eligible studies. RESULTS: Of 16,446
      identified citations, the 60 eligible generally had important limitations in
      reporting, particularly in reporting simulation procedures. Of the 60 studies, 47
      addressed ignorable and 32 addressed nonignorable data. For ignorable missing
      data, mixed model was most frequently the best on overall ranking (9 times best,
      34.6% of times tested) and bias (10, 55.6%). Multiple imputation was also
      performed well. For nonignorable data, mixed model was most frequently the best
      on overall ranking (7, 46.7%) and bias (8, 57.1%). Mixed model performance varied
      on other criteria. Last observation carried forward (LOCF) was very seldom the
      best performing, and for nonignorable MPD frequently the worst. CONCLUSION:
      Simulation studies addressing methods to deal with MPD suffered from serious
      limitations. The mixed model approach was superior to other methods in terms of
      overall performance and bias. LOCF performed worst.

PMID- 28579381
TI  - Ophthalmic manifestations in hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia (HAAA): Case
      report.

PMID- 28579380
TI  - [Acute spontaneous corneal hydrops in a patient with pellucid marginal corneal
      degeneration].

PMID- 28579379
TI  - Incorporating patients' views in guideline development: a systematic review of
      guidance documents.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess how guidance documents for developing clinical guidelines
      (CGs) address the incorporation of patients' views in CGs. STUDY DESIGN AND
      SETTING: Systematic review to identify the methodology provided in guidance
      documents for incorporating (1) patients or representatives and (2) patients'
      views in the CG development process. The search was performed in 2017 in five
      databases. Two authors selected the studies, and data extraction was double
      checked. RESULTS: We included guidance documents from 56 institutions. Of those,
      40 (71.4%) recommended the inclusion of patients or their representatives, mainly
      for developing recommendations (14/40, 35.0%); reviewing the final version
      (13/40, 32.5%); formulating clinical questions (13/40, 32.5%); defining the scope
      and objectives (10/40, 25.0%); and dissemination and implementation (10/40,
      25.0%). Concrete methods on how to incorporate patients were provided by 47.5%
      (19/40) of institutions. Forty (71.4%) institutions provided additional
      strategies to incorporate patients' views. The majority (30/40, 75.0%) suggested
      sources for obtaining these views (consultation with patients [24/40, 60.0%],
      using panels' judgment [10/40, 25.0%], conducting de novo research [10/40,
      25.0%], or a systematic review [9/40, 22.5%]). CONCLUSION: Although most
      institutions suggest incorporating patients and their views when developing CGs,
      little detail is provided on how to do this. Institutions should provide more
      guidance as this could have a positive impact in guideline applicability.

PMID- 28579382
TI  - [An unusual form of capsular cataract in a diabetic patient].

PMID- 28579383
TI  - Clinical and biological phenotypes of frontotemporal dementia: Perspectives for
      disease modifying therapies.
AB  - Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition which
      encompasses a group of clinically, neuropathologically and genetically
      heterogeneous disorders characterized by selective involvement of the frontal and
      temporal lobes. FTD is characterized by changes in behaviour and personality,
      frontal executive deficits and language dysfunction. Different phenotypes have
      been defined on the basis of presenting clinical symptoms, behavioural variants
      of FTD (bvFTD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), which includes
      nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (avPPA) and semantic variant PPA (svPPA). These
      presentations can overlap with atypical parkinsonian disorders (i.e.,
      corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy) and amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis. Each syndrome can be associated with one or more neuropathological
      hallmark, and in some cases it may be due to autosomal inherited disorder caused
      by mutations in a number of genes. Currently, there is no specific treatment
      available to prevent disease progression. FTD treatment is based on symptomatic
      management, and most therapies lack quality evidence from randomized, placebo
      controlled clinical trials. Recent advances in the understanding of FTD
      pathophysiology and genetics have led to the development of potentially disease
      modifying therapies. In this review, we discussed current knowledge and
      recommendations with regards to symptomatic and disease-modifying therapies.

PMID- 28579384
TI  - Managing molars with severe molar-incisor hypomineralization: A cost
      effectiveness analysis within German healthcare.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Dentists have a range of options for managing molars with severe
      molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH), each with different long-term
      implications. The cost-effectiveness of managing molars with severe MIH was
      assessed. METHODS: A mixed public-private-payer perspective within German
      healthcare was adopted. Individuals with one to four severely MIH-affected molars
      were followed over their lifetime. We compared: (1) removal of the tooth/teeth
      and orthodontic alignment of the second and third molars (Ex/Ortho); (2)
      restoration of the tooth using resin composite (Comp); (3) restoration using an
      indirect metal crown after temporizing it using a preformed metal crown (PMC/IR).
      The health outcome was tooth retention years. Transition probabilities were
      estimated based on the best available evidence. Cost calculations were based on
      German dental fee catalogues. Monte-Carlo microsimulations were performed for
      cost-effectiveness-analysis. RESULTS: If extraction was performed at the optimal
      age (9.5/11 years for maxillary/mandibular molars), Ex/Ortho was most cost
      effective (67 years, 446-938 Euro). Comp (51 years, 1911 Euro) and PMC/IR were
      dominated (50 years, 2033 Euro). This cost-effectiveness ratio was also
      determined when >1 molar was treated. If extraction was performed later, assuming
      no spontaneous alignment, Ex/Ortho was more costly than Comp, at least when only
      1 molar was treated. CONCLUSIONS: For molars with severe MIH, extraction at the
      optimal age and, if needed, orthodontic alignment can be cost-effective,
      especially when >1 molar is affected. For single molars where the chance of
      spontaneous alignment is low, Comp might also be considered. These findings apply
      to German healthcare and within the limitations of this study only. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: When deciding how to manage molars with severe MIH, both tooth
      retention, with lower costs but higher needs for re-treatments, and tooth
      removal, with possible need for orthodontic alignment, can be considered.
      Considering cost-effectiveness, the latter may be preferable, especially if the
      age of extraction is chosen correctly, or several molars are affected.

PMID- 28579386
TI  - MicroRNA and chronic pain: From mechanisms to therapeutic potential.
AB  - Chronic pain is a major public health issue with an incidence of 20-25% worldwide
      that can take different forms like neuropathic, cancer-related or inflammatory
      pain. Chronic pain often limits patients in their daily activities leading to
      despair. Thus, the goal of treatments is to relieve pain sufficiently to enable
      patients to go back to a normal life. Unfortunately, few patients with chronic
      pain obtain complete relief from the analgesics that are currently available. It
      is thus of prime importance to get a better understanding of chronic pain
      mechanisms to design new therapeutic strategies and pain-killers. In this sense,
      the study of microRNA (miRNAs) in chronic pain conditions could lead to a
      breakthrough in pain management. miRNAs have emerged as master regulators of gene
      expression in the nervous system where they contribute to neuronal network
      plasticity. The involvement of miRNAs in the maladaptive plasticity mechanisms of
      chronic pain is now well documented. Here, we review studies conducted in
      different animal models and in patients that screened chronic pain-related miRNAs
      and their targets. Clinical studies suggest that miRNAs expression could reflect
      the high variability among pain patients that could help to categorize patients
      and finally lead to personalized therapies. We also point out the different
      strategies investigated to design miRNA-based analgesics. Finally, we highlight
      the current miRNA-based clinical trials to hypothesize their potential as
      therapeutic tool for chronic pain.

PMID- 28579385
TI  - Response of carious enamel to TiF4 varnish treatment under diverse cariogenic
      activities in situ.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of TiF4 and NaF varnishes on demineralized
      bovine enamel under different cariogenic activities in situ. METHODS: Twenty
      subjects participated of this in situ study with 3 crossover phases (14days
      each), in which they wore palatal appliances containing demineralized bovine
      enamel samples (8 samples/appliance for phase) treated with TiF4, NaF (all with
      2.45% F) or placebo varnish. The samples were subjected to different cariogenic
      conditions (1. absence of biofilm accumulation and sucrose exposure; 2. presence
      of biofilm and absence of sucrose exposure; 3. presence of biofilm and 20%
      sucrose exposure 4*/day; 4. presence of biofilm and 20% sucrose exposure 8*/day).
      All were exposed to fluoride dentifrice (2*/day). The mineral content and lesion
      depth were evaluated using transverse microradiography (TMR) and the data were
      subjected to RM two-way ANOVA/Bonferroni tests (p<0.05). RESULTS: TiF4 varnish
      significantly increased the remineralization of artificial carious lesions
      compared to placebo, regardless of the cariogenic activity. On the other hand,
      the remineralizing effect of NaF varnish was dependent on the cariogenic
      activity. For NaF, remineralization happened only in conditions 1 and 3 compared
      to placebo varnish (p<0.0001). NaF was unable to prevent further demineralization
      under biofilm accumulation and sucrose exposure 8*/day (condition 4). In the
      absence of fluoride treatment, demineralization happened in all conditions,
      except in the condition 1. CONCLUSION: Therefore, 4% TiF4 varnish was the only
      treatment able to improve enamel remineralization regardless of the cariogenic
      activity, while NaF varnish failed in preventing further demineralization under
      high cariogenic activity in situ. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: 4% TiF4 varnish showed
      better remineralizing effect compared to NaF varnish, which was seen regardless
      of the cariogenic activity. This is a promising finding to support the indication
      of TiF4 in the clinic.

PMID- 28579387
TI  - Treatment advances in small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
AB  - Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive tumor characterized by rapid
      doubling time and high propensity for early development of disseminated disease.
      Although most patients respond to initial therapy with a platinum doublet, the
      majority of those with limited stage and virtually all patients with metastatic
      disease eventually develop tumor progression for which there are limited
      treatment options. There have been no recent changes in the treatment of SCLC,
      with platinum plus etoposide and topotecan as the standard first-line and second
      line respectively, neither showing survival benefit over the combination of
      cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and vincristine, which was developed in the 1970s.
      More recently, a new understanding of the biology of SCLC has led to the
      development of novel drugs, of which the most promising are the immune checkpoint
      inhibitors and the antibody drug conjugate rovalpituzumab tesirine.

PMID- 28579388
TI  - Targeting cysteine proteases in trypanosomatid disease drug discovery.
AB  - Chagas disease and human African trypanosomiasis are endemic conditions in Latin
      America and Africa, respectively, for which no effective and safe therapy is
      available. Efforts in drug discovery have focused on several enzymes from these
      protozoans, among which cysteine proteases have been validated as molecular
      targets for pharmacological intervention. These enzymes are expressed during the
      entire life cycle of trypanosomatid parasites and are essential to many
      biological processes, including infectivity to the human host. As a result of
      advances in the knowledge of the structural aspects of cysteine proteases and
      their role in disease physiopathology, inhibition of these enzymes by small
      molecules has been demonstrated to be a worthwhile approach to trypanosomatid
      drug research. This review provides an update on drug discovery strategies
      targeting the cysteine peptidases cruzain from Trypanosoma cruzi and rhodesain
      and cathepsin B from Trypanosoma brucei. Given that current chemotherapy for
      Chagas disease and human African trypanosomiasis has several drawbacks, cysteine
      proteases will continue to be actively pursued as valuable molecular targets in
      trypanosomatid disease drug discovery efforts.

PMID- 28579389
TI  - SCCT President's Page: 2017 - A very productive year setting the stage for future
      success.

PMID- 28579390
TI  - Fluorescent markers of various organelles in the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria
      tritici.
AB  - Development of novel strategies to control fungal plant pathogens requires
      understanding of their cellular organisation and biology. Live cell imaging of
      fluorescent organelle markers has provided valuable insight into various aspects
      of their cell biology, including invasion strategies in plant pathogenic fungi.
      Here, we introduce a set of 17 vectors that encode fluorescent markers to
      visualize the plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), chromosomes, the actin
      cytoskeleton, peroxisomes and autophagosomes in the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria
      tritici. We fused either enhanced green-fluorescent protein (eGFP) or a codon
      optimised version of GFP (ZtGFP) to homologues of a plasma membrane-located Sso1
      like syntaxin, an ER signalling and retention peptide, a histone H1 homologue,
      the LifeAct actin-binding peptide, a mitochondrial acetyl-CoA dehydrogenase, a
      peroxisomal import signal and a homologue of the ubiquitin-like autophagosomal
      protein Atg8. We expressed these markers in wildtype strain IPO323 and confirmed
      the specificity of these markers by counterstaining or physiological experiments.
      This new set of molecular tools will help understanding the cell biology of the
      wheat pathogen Z. tritici.

PMID- 28579391
TI  - A RHO Small GTPase Regulator ABR Secures Mitotic Fidelity in Human Embryonic Stem
      Cells.
AB  - Pluripotent stem cells can undergo repeated self-renewal while retaining genetic
      integrity, but they occasionally acquire aneuploidy during long-term culture,
      which is a practical obstacle for medical applications of human pluripotent stem
      cells. In this study, we explored the biological roles of ABR, a regulator of RHO
      family small GTPases, and found that it has pivotal roles during mitotic
      processes in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Although ABR has been shown to
      be involved in dissociation-induced hESC apoptosis, it does not appear to have
      direct effects on cell survival unless cell-cell contact is impaired. Instead, we
      found that it is important for faithful hESC division. Mechanistically, ABR
      depletion compromised centrosome dynamics and predisposed the cell to chromosome
      misalignment and missegregation, which raised the frequency of aneuploidy. These
      results provide insights into the mechanisms that support the genetic integrity
      of self-renewing hESCs.

PMID- 28579392
TI  - BPTF Maintains Chromatin Accessibility and the Self-Renewal Capacity of Mammary
      Gland Stem Cells.
AB  - Chromatin remodeling is a key requirement for transcriptional control of cellular
      differentiation. However, the factors that alter chromatin architecture in
      mammary stem cells (MaSCs) are poorly understood. Here, we show that BPTF, the
      largest subunit of the NURF chromatin remodeling complex, is essential for MaSC
      self-renewal and differentiation of mammary epithelial cells (MECs). BPTF
      depletion arrests cells at a previously undefined stage of epithelial
      differentiation that is associated with an incapacity to achieve the luminal cell
      fate. Moreover, genome-wide analysis of DNA accessibility following genetic or
      chemical inhibition, suggests a role for BPTF in maintaining the open chromatin
      landscape at enhancers regions in MECs. Collectively, our study implicates BPTF
      in maintaining the unique epigenetic state of MaSCs.

PMID- 28579393
TI  - Long Noncoding RNA Moderates MicroRNA Activity to Maintain Self-Renewal in
      Embryonic Stem Cells.
AB  - Of the thousands of long noncoding RNAs expressed in embryonic stem cells (ESCs),
      few have known roles and fewer have been functionally implicated in the
      regulation of self-renewal and pluripotency, or the reprogramming of somatic
      cells to the pluripotent state. In ESCs, Cyrano is a stably expressed long
      intergenic noncoding RNA with no previously assigned role. We demonstrate that
      Cyrano contributes to ESC maintenance, as its depletion results in the loss of
      hallmarks of self-renewal. Delineation of Cyrano's network through
      transcriptomics revealed widespread effects on signaling pathways and gene
      expression networks that contribute to ESC maintenance. Cyrano shares unique
      sequence complementarity with the differentiation-associated microRNA, mir-7, and
      mir-7 overexpression reduces expression of a key self-renewal factor to a similar
      extent as Cyrano knockdown. This suggests that Cyrano functions to restrain the
      action of mir-7. Altogether, we provide a view into the multifaceted function of
      Cyrano in ESC maintenance.

PMID- 28579395
TI  - Cryopreservation Maintains Functionality of Human iPSC Dopamine Neurons and
      Rescues Parkinsonian Phenotypes In Vivo.
AB  - A major challenge for clinical application of pluripotent stem cell therapy for
      Parkinson's disease (PD) is large-scale manufacturing and cryopreservation of
      neurons that can be efficiently prepared with minimal manipulation. To address
      this obstacle, midbrain dopamine neurons were derived from human induced
      pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-mDA) and cryopreserved in large production lots for
      biochemical and transplantation studies. Cryopreserved, post-mitotic iPSC-mDA
      neurons retained high viability with gene, protein, and electrophysiological
      signatures consistent with midbrain floor-plate lineage. To test therapeutic
      efficacy, cryopreserved iPSC-mDA neurons were transplanted without subculturing
      into the 6-OHDA-lesioned rat and MPTP-lesioned non-human-primate models of PD.
      Grafted neurons retained midbrain lineage with extensive fiber innervation in
      both rodents and monkeys. Behavioral assessment in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats
      demonstrated significant reversal in functional deficits up to 6 months post
      transplantation with reinnervation of the host striatum and no aberrant growth,
      supporting the translational development of pluripotent cell-based therapies in
      PD.

PMID- 28579394
TI  - Primate Primordial Germ Cells Acquire Transplantation Potential by Carnegie Stage
      23.
AB  - Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the earliest embryonic progenitors in the
      germline. Correct formation of PGCs is critical to reproductive health as an
      adult. Recent work has shown that primate PGCs can be differentiated from
      pluripotent stem cells; however, a bioassay that supports their identity as
      transplantable germ cells has not been reported. Here, we adopted a
      xenotransplantation assay by transplanting single-cell suspensions of human and
      nonhuman primate embryonic Macaca mulatta (rhesus macaque) testes containing PGCs
      into the seminiferous tubules of adult busulfan-treated nude mice. We discovered
      that both human and nonhuman primate embryonic testis are xenotransplantable,
      generating colonies while not generating tumors. Taken together, this work
      provides two critical references (molecular and functional) for defining
      transplantable primate PGCs. These results provide a blueprint for
      differentiating pluripotent stem cells to transplantable PGC-like cells in a
      species that is amenable to transplantation and fertility studies.

PMID- 28579397
TI  - Meta-analysis of heparin therapy for preventing venous thromboembolism in acute
      spinal cord injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a frequent complication in patients
      with acute spinal cord injury (SCI) and may have serious consequences. This study
      aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of heparin and low-molecular-weight
      heparin (LMWH) venous thromboprophylaxis in patients with acute SCI. METHODS:
      PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and the Cochrane library were searched from
      January 1980 to August 2016. The primary outcome was the incidence of VTE.
      Secondary outcomes included the incidences of Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT),
      pulmonary embolism (PE) and major bleeding. RESULTS: A total of 11 studies
      including 1605 patients qualified for inclusion. Four studies evaluated the
      efficacy of heparin treatment compared with placebo or no treatment. There were
      significant differences between the two treatments, and the summary RR was 0.35
      (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.15-0.87; P = 0.02). Seven studies compared low
      dose unfractionated heparin (LDUH) with LMWH. The incidence of VTE was not
      significantly different between the two treatments (RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.63-1.89; P
      = 0.76). There were no differences in the incidence of major bleeding with
      unfractionated heparin versus LMWH (summary RR 1.32, 95% CI 0.62-2.84; P = 0.47).
      CONCLUSIONS: In this meta-analysis, heparin exhibited protective effects compared
      with placebo or no treatment with respect to the occurrence of VTE; there were no
      differences between LMWH and unfractionated heparin with ret to thromboembolism
      prophylaxis efficacy. LMWH did not reduce the risk of bleeding compared with
      LDUH.

PMID- 28579396
TI  - THAP1: Role in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Survival and Differentiation.
AB  - THAP1 (THAP [Thanatos-associated protein] domain-containing, apoptosis-associated
      protein 1) is a ubiquitously expressed member of a family of transcription
      factors with highly conserved DNA-binding and protein-interacting regions.
      Mutations in THAP1 cause dystonia, DYT6, a neurologic movement disorder. THAP1
      downstream targets and the mechanism via which it causes dystonia are largely
      unknown. Here, we show that wild-type THAP1 regulates embryonic stem cell (ESC)
      potential, survival, and proliferation. Our findings identify THAP1 as an
      essential factor underlying mouse ESC survival and to some extent,
      differentiation, particularly neuroectodermal. Loss of THAP1 or replacement with
      a disease-causing mutation results in an enhanced rate of cell death, prolongs
      Nanog, Prdm14, and/or Rex1 expression upon differentiation, and results in
      failure to upregulate ectodermal genes. ChIP-Seq reveals that these activities
      are likely due in part to indirect regulation of gene expression.

PMID- 28579398
TI  - Evaluation of the expression level of 12/15 lipoxygenase and the related
      inflammatory factors (CCL5, CCL3) in respiratory syncytial virus infection in
      mice model.
AB  - Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute respiratory
      infection during early childhood and imposes a great burden on patients, parents,
      and society. Disease is thought to be caused, at least partially, by an excessive
      immune response. Pulmonary leukocyte infiltration is the result of a coordinated
      expression of diverse chemokines with distinct cellular specificities.
      Lipoxygenases (LOXs), as a key enzyme catalyzing deoxygenation of poly
      unsaturated fatty acids, regulate inflammation and have been suggested to play an
      important role in the immune response in viral infection. To expand our
      understanding on the possible role of LOX in respiratory viral infection, we
      studied the 12/15- lipoxygenase expression in RSV-related airway inflammation,
      and the related inflammatory chemokines, Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (CCL5)
      and Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3(CC L3) in both lung tissue and Bronchoalveolar
      lavage (BAL) fluid during experimental RSV infection. RSV infection induced mRNA
      expression of CCL5 and CCL3 in both BAL and lung tissue cells. In addition RSV
      infection enhanced expression of 12/15-LOX in both BAL and lung cells. In
      conclusion, we confirm that RSV infection leads to the increased expression of
      12/15 LOX and the related chemokines CCL5 and CCL3 in BAL fluid and lung tissue
      cells suggesting that the 12/15 LOX pathway could serve as a candidate target for
      prevention and treatment of RSV infection.

PMID- 28579399
TI  - Prevention of IcaA regulated poly N-acetyl glucosamine formation in
      Staphylococcus aureus biofilm through new-drug like inhibitors: In silico
      approach and MD simulation study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The effectiveness of various ligands against the protein structure of
      IcaA of the IcaABCD gene locus of Staphylococcus aureus were examined using the
      approach of structure based drug designing in reference with the protein's
      efficiency to form biofilms. RESULTS: Four compounds CID42738592, CID90468752,
      CID24277882, and CID6435208 were secluded from a database of 31,242 inhibitory
      ligands on the justification of the evaluated values falling under the four -
      tier structure based virtual screening. Under this principle value of least
      binding energy, human oral absorption and ADME properties were taken into
      consideration. Using the Glide module of Schrodinger, the above mentioned ligands
      showed an effective action against the protein IcaA which showed reduced activity
      as a glucosaminyl transferase. The complex of protein and ligand with best
      docking score was chosen for simulation studies. CONCLUSIONS: Structure based
      drug designing for the protein IcaA has given us potential leads as anti -
      biofilm agents. These screened out ligands might enable the development of new
      therapeutic strategies aimed at disrupting Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. The
      complex was showing stability towards the end of time for which it has been put
      for simulation. Thus molecule could be considered for making of biofilms.

PMID- 28579400
TI  - Emotion regulation in mood and anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis of fMRI
      cognitive reappraisal studies.
AB  - Emotion regulation by means of cognitive reappraisal has been widely studied with
      functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To date, several meta-analyses of
      studies using cognitive reappraisal tasks in healthy volunteers have been carried
      out, but no meta-analyses have yet been performed on the fMRI data of clinical
      populations with identified alterations in emotion regulation capacity. We
      provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of cognitive reappraisal fMRI studies in
      populations of patients with mood or anxiety disorders, yielding a pooled sample
      of 247 patients and 262 controls from thirteen independent studies. As a
      distinguishing feature of this meta-analysis, original statistical brain maps
      were obtained from six of these studies. Our primary results demonstrated that
      patients with mood and anxiety disorders recruited the regulatory fronto-parietal
      network involved in cognitive reappraisal to a lesser extent in comparison to
      healthy controls. Conversely, they presented increased activation in regions that
      may be associated with the emotional experience (i.e., insula, cerebellum,
      precentral and inferior occipital gyri) and in regions whose activation may be
      the consequence of compensatory mechanisms (i.e., supramarginal gyri and superior
      parietal lobule). Moreover, activations in the left ventrolateral prefrontal
      cortex and the left superior temporal gyrus were associated with reinterpretation
      emotion regulation strategies, whereas medial frontal and parietal activations
      were associated with the deployment of distancing strategies. The regions
      revealed by this meta-analysis conform to a pattern of dysfunctional brain
      activation during cognitive reappraisal common to mood and anxiety disorders. As
      such, this neural pattern may reflect a transdiagnostic feature of these
      disorders.

PMID- 28579401
TI  - Node-based learning of differential networks from multi-platform gene expression
      data.
AB  - Recovering gene regulatory networks and exploring the network rewiring between
      two different disease states are important for revealing the mechanisms behind
      disease progression. The advent of high-throughput experimental techniques has
      enabled the possibility of inferring gene regulatory networks and differential
      networks using computational methods. However, most of existing differential
      network analysis methods are designed for single-platform data analysis and
      assume that differences between networks are driven by individual edges.
      Therefore, they cannot take into account the common information shared across
      different data platforms and may fail in identifying driver genes that lead to
      the change of network. In this study, we develop a node-based multi-view
      differential network analysis model to simultaneously estimate multiple gene
      regulatory networks and their differences from multi-platform gene expression
      data. Our model can leverage the strength across multiple data platforms to
      improve the accuracy of network inference and differential network estimation.
      Simulation studies demonstrate that our model can obtain more accurate
      estimations of gene regulatory networks and differential networks than other
      existing state-of-the-art models. We apply our model on TCGA ovarian cancer
      samples to identify network rewiring associated with drug resistance. We observe
      from our experiments that the hub nodes of our identified differential networks
      include known drug resistance-related genes and potential targets that are useful
      to improve the treatment of drug resistant tumors.

PMID- 28579402
TI  - MIDAS: Mining differentially activated subpaths of KEGG pathways from multi-class
      RNA-seq data.
AB  - : Pathway based analysis of high throughput transcriptome data is a widely used
      approach to investigate biological mechanisms. Since a pathway consists of
      multiple functions, the recent approach is to determine condition specific sub
      pathways or subpaths. However, there are several challenges. First, few existing
      methods utilize explicit gene expression information from RNA-seq. More
      importantly, subpath activity is usually an average of statistical scores, e.g.,
      correlations, of edges in a candidate subpath, which fails to reflect gene
      expression quantity information. In addition, none of existing methods can handle
      multiple phenotypes. To address these technical problems, we designed and
      implemented an algorithm, MIDAS, that determines condition specific subpaths,
      each of which has different activities across multiple phenotypes. MIDAS utilizes
      gene expression quantity information fully and the network centrality information
      to determine condition specific subpaths. To test performance of our tool, we
      used TCGA breast cancer RNA-seq gene expression profiles with five molecular
      subtypes. 36 differentially activate subpaths were determined. The utility of our
      method, MIDAS, was demonstrated in four ways. All 36 subpaths are well supported
      by the literature information. Subsequently, we showed that these subpaths had a
      good discriminant power for five cancer subtype classification and also had a
      prognostic power in terms of survival analysis. Finally, in a performance
      comparison of MIDAS to a recent subpath prediction method, PATHOME, our method
      identified more subpaths and much more genes that are well supported by the
      literature information. AVAILABILITY: http://biohealth.snu.ac.kr/software/MIDAS/.

PMID- 28579403
TI  - CeFra-seq: Systematic mapping of RNA subcellular distribution properties through
      cell fractionation coupled to deep-sequencing.
AB  - The subcellular trafficking of RNA molecules is a conserved feature of eukaryotic
      cells and plays key functions in diverse processes implicating polarised cellular
      activities. Large-scale imaging and subcellular transcriptomic studies suggest
      that regulated RNA localization is a highly prevalent process that appears to be
      disrupted in several neuromuscular disorders. These features underline the
      importance and usefulness of implementing procedures to assess global
      transcriptome subcellular distribution properties. Here, we present a method
      combining biochemical fractionation of cells and high-throughput RNA sequencing
      (CeFra-seq) that enables rapid and efficient systematic mapping of RNA cytotopic
      distributions in cells. The described procedure involves biochemical
      fractionation to derive extracts of nuclear, cytosolic, endomembrane, cytoplasmic
      insoluble and extracellular material from cell culture lines. The RNA content of
      each fraction can then be profiled by deep-sequencing, revealing global
      subcellular signatures. We provide a detailed protocol for the CeFra-seq
      procedure along with relevant validation steps and data analysis guidelines to
      graphically represent RNA spatial distribution features. As a complement to
      imaging approaches, CeFra-seq represents a powerful and scalable tool to
      investigate global alterations in RNA trafficking.

PMID- 28579405
TI  - Human embryo research in Belgium: an overview.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To present an overview of the numbers and types of human embryos used
      in research projects in Belgium from 2007 to 2015. DESIGN: Analysis of all
      research proposals approved by the Federal Commission for Medical and Scientific
      Research on Embryos In Vitro. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Not
      applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Number of embryos used for research, number
      of embryos created for research, and areas of embryo research. RESULT(S): Since
      2007, 15,811 embryos were used for 36 research projects. In total, 10,492 (66%)
      fresh supernumerary embryos (unfit for transfer or freezing) were used, 4,083
      (26%) frozen supernumerary embryos (donated by parents whose child wish was
      completed or abandoned), and 1,236 (8%) embryos created for research. Most
      projects focused on research into embryo development. Fresh supernumerary embryos
      were mainly used for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. Frozen
      supernumerary embryos were almost exclusively used for research into embryo
      development and for hESC research. Embryos created for research were used for
      research into embryo development, oocyte research, research into cryopreservation
      of oocytes, and hESC research. CONCLUSION(S): Having concrete data on embryo
      research is crucial for an informed debate. Moreover, these data are necessary to
      find out trends in research such as the numbers of embryos needed and the areas
      of research. Data collection requires a sufficiently clear definition of
      "research" and "embryo." These conceptual questions frequently reveal lack of
      clarity in legislation.

PMID- 28579404
TI  - Transcriptome-wide measurement of translation by ribosome profiling.
AB  - Translation is one of the fundamental processes of life. It comprises the
      assembly of polypeptides whose amino acid sequence corresponds to the codon
      sequence of an mRNA's ORF. Translation is performed by the ribosome; therefore,
      in order to understand translation and its regulation we must be able to
      determine the numbers and locations of ribosomes on mRNAs in vivo. Furthermore,
      we must be able to examine their redistribution in different physiological
      contexts and in response to experimental manipulations. The ribosome profiling
      method provides us with an opportunity to learn these locations, by sequencing a
      cDNA library derived from the short fragments of mRNA covered by the ribosome.
      Since its original description, the ribosome profiling method has undergone
      continuing development; in this article we describe the method's current state.
      Important improvements include: the incorporation of sample barcodes to enable
      library multiplexing, the incorporation of unique molecular identifiers to enable
      to removal of duplicated sequences, and the replacement of a gel-purification
      step with the enzymatic degradation of unligated linker.

PMID- 28579406
TI  - Revisiting the management of recurrent implantation failure through freeze-all
      policy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a freeze-all policy for in vitro human
      blastocysts improves the ongoing pregnancy rate in patients with recurrent
      implantation failure (RIF). DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Single
      private center. PATIENT(S): A total of 171 women with RIF divided into two
      groups: freeze-all policy group (n = 81) and fresh embryo transfer (ET) group (n
      = 90). INTERVENTION(S): Freeze-all policy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Ongoing
      pregnancy rate. RESULT(S): The clinical pregnancy rate (52% vs. 28%; odds ratio
      [OR] 1.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-2.68) and ongoing pregnancy rate
      (44% vs. 20%; OR 2.2; 95% CI, 1.04-3.45) were statistically significantly higher
      in the freeze-all group than the fresh ET group, respectively. The implantation
      rate was also statistically significant (freeze-all group 44.2% vs. fresh ET
      group 15.8%; OR 2.80; 95% CI, 2.00-3.92). CONCLUSION(S): The freeze-all policy
      statistically significantly improved the ongoing pregnancy and implantation
      rates. Thus, a freeze-all policy is likely to be the new key to helping open the
      black box of RIF. These findings also are useful for further investigating the
      adverse effect of controlled ovarian stimulation on in vitro fertilization
      outcomes.

PMID- 28579408
TI  - Pregnancy outcome of in vitro fertilization after Essure and laparoscopic
      management of hydrosalpinx: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare pregnancy outcomes in hydrosalpinx (HX) patients
      treated by Essure, laparoscopic salpingectomy, and proximal tubal occlusion
      (LPTO) before IVF. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING:
      University-affiliated teaching hospital. PATIENT(S): Women undergoing Essure,
      laparoscopic salpingectomy, and LPTO for HX before IVF. INTERVENTION(S): The
      overall combined risk estimates were calculated by means of fixed- or random
      effects models. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and live
      birth rate (LBR). RESULT(S): In total, 3,065 patients were included in 33
      studies. Thirteen of them were comparative studies among 3 surgical methods and
      no intervention. In the analysis of comparative studies, there were no
      significant differences in implantation rate (IR), CPR, and ongoing pregnancy
      rate/LBR between salpingectomy and LPTO groups. The CPR, IR, and LBR of Essure
      were significantly lower than those of the laparoscopic surgery (salpingectomy
      and LPTO) group, with a CPR of 34.1% vs. 44.0% (relative risk [RR] 0.71; 95%
      confidence interval [CI] [0.51, 0.98]), an IR of 17.3% vs. 38.0% (RR 0.45; 95% CI
      [0.27, 0.74]), and an LBR of 22.2% vs. 37.4% (RR 0.57; 95% CI [0.35, 0.91]).
      CONCLUSION(S): Management of HX by laparoscopic salpingectomy and LPTO yielded
      the same effect on the improvement of the pregnancy outcome after IVF. The
      hysteroscopic placement of Essure devices to treat HX before IVF produces
      inferior pregnancy outcomes compared with those following the laparoscopic
      approach. More multicenter randomized, controlled trials are warranted in future
      research to further examine the conclusion from this meta-analysis.

PMID- 28579407
TI  - Detailed investigation into the cytogenetic constitution and pregnancy outcome of
      replacing mosaic blastocysts detected with the use of high-resolution next
      generation sequencing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the pregnancy outcome potential of mosaic embryos,
      detected by means of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) with the use of next
      generation sequencing (NGS). DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Genetics
      laboratories. PATIENT(S): PGS cycles during which either mosaic or euploid
      embryos were replaced. INTERVENTION(S): Blastocysts were biopsied and processed
      with the use of NGS, followed by frozen embryo transfer. Trophectoderm (TE)
      biopsies were classified as mosaic if they had 20%-80% abnormal cells. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Implantation, miscarriage rates, and ongoing implantation
      rates (OIRs) were compared between euploid and types of mosaic blastocysts.
      RESULT(S): Complex mosaic embryos had a significantly lower OIR (10%) than
      aneuploidy mosaic (50%), double aneuploidy mosaic (45%), and segmental mosaic
      (41%). There was a tendency for mosaics with 40%-80% abnormal cells to have a
      lower OIR than those with <40% (22% vs. 56%). However, few embryos (n = 34) with
      a mosaic error in 40%-80% of the TE sample were replaced. There was no difference
      between monosomic and trisomic mosaics or between entire chromosome mosaicism or
      segmental mosaicism. Implantation rates were significantly higher (70% vs. 53%),
      miscarriage rates lower (10% vs. 25%), and OIRs higher (63% vs. 40%) after
      euploid embryo transfer than after mosaic embryo transfer. CONCLUSION(S): Forty
      one percent of mosaic embryos produced an ongoing implantation. Complex mosaic
      blastocysts had a lower OIR than other mosaics. Mosaic monosomies performed as
      well as mosaic trisomies and mosaic segmental aneuploidies. The results suggest
      that embryos with >40% abnormal cells and those with multiple mosaic
      abnormalities (chaotic mosaics) are likely to have lower OIRs and should be given
      low transfer priority.

PMID- 28579409
TI  - Sclerotherapy in the management of ovarian endometrioma: systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of sclerotherapy for ovarian endometrioma on
      the risk of recurrence, clinical symptoms, and reproductive function. DESIGN:
      Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S):
      Patients who underwent sclerotherapy of ovarian endometrioma. INTERVENTION(S): An
      electronic-based search with the use of Pubmed, Embase, Ovid Medline, Google
      Scholar, Clinicaltrials.gov, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled
      Trials. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Recurrence rate, symptoms relief, fertility
      outcome, and adverse events. RESULT(S): Eighteen studies were included in our
      review. The overall recurrence rates of endometrioma after sclerotherapy ranged
      from 0 to 62.5%. The risk of recurrence was significantly higher in women who
      were treated by means of ethanol washing than by means of ethanol retention. The
      number of oocytes retrieved was higher after endometrioma sclerotherapy compared
      with laparoscopic cystectomy, but clinical pregnancy rates were similar. There
      was no difference in the number of oocytes retrieved and the clinical pregnancy
      rates between the sclerotherapy-treated group with and the untreated group.
      CONCLUSION(S): Sclerotherapy for ovarian endometrioma may be considered in
      symptomatic women who plan to conceive.

PMID- 28579410
TI  - Characterization of hormonal profiles during the luteal phase in regularly
      menstruating women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize the variability of hormonal profiles during the luteal
      phase in normal cycles. DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: Not applicable.
      PATIENT(S): Ninety-nine women contributing 266 menstrual cycles. INTERVENTION(S):
      The women collected first morning urine samples that were analyzed for estrone-3
      glucuronide, pregnanediol-3-alpha-glucuronide (PDG), FSH, and LH. The women had
      serum P tests (twice per cycle) and underwent ultrasonography to identify the day
      of ovulation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The luteal phase was divided into three
      parts: the early luteal phase with increasing PDG (luteinization), the midluteal
      phase with PDG >=10 MUg/mg Cr (progestation), and the late luteal phase
      (luteolysis) when PDG fell below 10 MUg/mg Cr. RESULT(S): Long luteal phases
      begin with long luteinization processes. The early luteal phase is marked by low
      PDG and high LH levels. Long luteinization phases were correlated with low E1G
      and low PDG levels at day 3. The length of the early luteal phase is highly
      variable between cycles of the same woman. The duration and hormonal levels
      during the rest of the luteal phase were less correlated with other
      characteristics of the cycle. CONCLUSION(S): The study showed the presence of a
      prolonged pituitary activity during the luteinization process, which seems to be
      modulated by an interaction between P and LH. This supports a luteal phase model
      with three distinct processes: the first is a modulated luteinization process,
      whereas the second and the third are relatively less modulated processes of
      progestation and luteolysis.

PMID- 28579411
TI  - Freeze-only versus fresh embryo transfer in a multicenter matched cohort study:
      contribution of progesterone and maternal age to success rates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates in freeze-only
      versus fresh transfer cycles. DESIGN: Retrospective matched cohort study.
      SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Women selected using a matching algorithm
      for similar distributions of clinical characteristics for a total of 2,910 cycles
      (1,455 fresh cohort and 1,455 freeze-only cohort). INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates. RESULT(S):
      Implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates were statistically significantly higher
      in the freeze-only transfer cohort than in the matched fresh transfer cohort:
      ongoing pregnancy rate for freeze-only was 52.0% (95% confidence interval [CI],
      49.4-54.6) and for fresh was 45.3% (95% CI, 42.7-47.9), odds ratio (OR) 1.31 (95%
      CI, 1.13-1.51). In a stratified analysis, the odds of ongoing pregnancy after
      freeze-only transfer were statistically significantly higher for women both above
      and below age 35 with progesterone concentration >1.0 ng/mL (age <=35: OR 1.38
      [1.11-1.71]; age >35: OR 1.73 [1.34-2.24]). For women with progesterone
      concentration <=1.0 ng/mL, no statistically significant difference in freeze-only
      odds of ongoing pregnancy was observed in either age group. The sensitivity
      analysis revealed that increasing maternal age alone (regardless of progesterone)
      trended toward a more beneficial effect of freeze-only cycles. A lower
      progesterone concentration was associated with statistically significantly higher
      ongoing pregnancy odds for fresh but not freeze-only cycles. CONCLUSION(S):
      Freeze-only transfer protocols are associated with statistically significantly
      higher ongoing implantation and pregnancy rates compared with fresh transfer
      cycles. This effect is most pronounced for cycles with progesterone >1.0 ng/mL at
      trigger and may also be stronger for older patients.

PMID- 28579413
TI  - Fertility in adult women with classic galactosemia and primary ovarian
      insufficiency.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study pregnancy chance in adult women with classic galactosemia and
      primary ovarian insufficiency. Despite dietary treatment, >90% of women with
      classic galactosemia develop primary ovarian insufficiency, resulting in impaired
      fertility. For many years, chance of spontaneous conception has not been
      considered, leading to counseling for infertility. But an increasing number of
      reports on pregnancies in this group questions whether current counseling
      approaches are correct. DESIGN: Multicenter retrospective observational study.
      SETTING: Metabolic centers. PATIENT(S): Adult women (aged >18 y) with confirmed
      classic galactosemia and primary ovarian insufficiency were included.
      INTERVENTION(S): Participants and medical records were consulted to obtain study
      data in a standardized manner with the use of a questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Conception opportunities, time to pregnancy, pregnancy outcome,
      hormone replacement therapy use, fertility counseling, and the participants'
      vision of fertility were evaluated. Potential predictive factors for increased
      pregnancy chance were explored. RESULT(S): Eighty-five women with classic
      galactosemia and primary ovarian insufficiency participated. Twenty-one women
      actively attempted to conceive or did not take adequate contraceptive
      precautions. Of these 21 women, nine became pregnant spontaneously (42.9%). This
      was higher than reported in primary ovarian insufficiency due to other causes (5%
      10%). After a period of 12 months, a cumulative proportion of 27.8% of couples
      had conceived, which increased to 48.4% after 24 months and 61.3% after 27
      months. Predictive factors could not be identified. A considerable miscarriage
      rate of 30% was observed (6 of 20 pregnancies). Although a substantial proportion
      of women expressed a child-wish (n = 28/53; 52.8%), the vast majority of
      participants (n = 43/57; 75.4%) considered conceiving to be highly unlikely,
      owing to negative counseling in the past. CONCLUSION(S): The pregnancy rate in
      women with classic galactosemia and primary ovarian insufficiency was higher than
      for women with primary ovarian insufficiency of any cause. This shifting paradigm
      carries significant implications for fertility counseling and potential
      application of fertility preservation techniques.

PMID- 28579414
TI  - Recurrent implantation failure is another indication for the freeze-all strategy.

PMID- 28579415
TI  - Elagolix for the management of heavy menstrual bleeding associated with uterine
      fibroids: results from a phase 2a proof-of-concept study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of elagolix vs. placebo and
      elagolix with low-dose E2/progestogen add-back therapy. DESIGN: Proof-of-concept,
      dose-ranging, multiple-cohort study. SETTING: Clinics. PATIENT(S): Premenopausal
      women with fibroids and heavy menstrual bleeding (menstrual blood loss [MBL] >80
      mL per cycle). INTERVENTION(S): Three months' treatment with elagolix alone: 100
      mg twice daily (BID), 200 mg BID, 300 mg BID, 400 mg once daily (QD), or 600 mg
      QD (all but the 600 mg QD arm were placebo controlled); or elagolix plus add-back
      therapy: 200 mg BID plus continuous low-dose E2 0.5 mg/norethindrone acetate 0.1
      mg or elagolix 300 mg BID plus E2 1 mg continuously and cyclical P 200 mg. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Least-squares mean percentage change in MBL; adverse events
      (AEs). RESULT(S): Mean age was 41.8 years; 73.8% were black; mean baseline MBL
      was 267 mL. Of randomized women (elagolix alone, n = 160; placebo, n = 50;
      elagolix with add-back therapy, n = 61), 228 of 271 completed the 3-month
      treatment period. The MBL percentage change from baseline to last 28 days was
      significantly greater with elagolix alone (range, -72% to -98%; dose-dependent
      reduction was highest with 300 mg BID) vs. placebo (range, -8% to -41%); mean
      percentage changes with add-back regimens were -80% to -85%. Overall AEs were
      dose independent (elagolix alone, 70.0%-81.3%) but lower with placebo (56.0%) and
      add-back regimens (55.6%-70.6%). Hot flush was the most common AE (elagolix
      alone, 45.5%-62.5%; placebo, 12.0%; add-back regimens, 18.5%-26.5%).
      CONCLUSION(S): Elagolix significantly reduced heavy menstrual bleeding in women
      with fibroids. Low-dose add-back regimens substantially reduced flushing.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01441635.

PMID- 28579417
TI  - Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender content on reproductive endocrinology and
      infertility clinic websites.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess geographical distribution and practice characteristics of
      fertility clinics inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
      patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S):
      None. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Prevalence and geographical
      distribution of fertility clinic websites with LGBT-specific content, indicated
      by keywords and home page cues specific to the LGBT patient population.
      Assessment of relationship between LGBT-specific content and clinic
      characteristics, including U.S. region, clinic size, private versus academic
      setting, and state-mandated fertility insurance coverage. RESULT(S): Of 379
      websites analyzed, 201 (53%) contained LGBT content. Clinics with the highest
      proportion of LGBT website content were in the Northeast (59/82, 72%) and West
      (63/96, 66%), while the lowest proportion was in the Midwest (29/74, 39%) and
      South (50/127, 39%). Most frequently used terms included lesbian (72%),
      LGBT/LGBTQ (69%), and gay (68%), while less used terms included trans/transgender
      (32%) and bisexual (15%). Larger clinic size was associated with LGBT-specific
      website content (odds ratio, 4.42; 95% confidence interval, 2.07-9.67). Practice
      type and state-mandated fertility insurance coverage were not associated with a
      clinic website having LGBT content. CONCLUSION(S): Over half of Society for
      Assisted Reproductive Technology member fertility clinics included LGBT content
      on their websites, yet those in the Midwest and South were significantly less
      likely to do so. Predictive factors for having LGBT website content included
      location in northeastern and western regions and increasing clinic size. Further
      studies are needed to evaluate whether inclusion of LGBT content on clinic
      websites impacts use of reproductive services by the LGBT patient population.

PMID- 28579416
TI  - Psychological and emotional concomitants of infertility diagnosis in women with
      diminished ovarian reserve or anatomical cause of infertility.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the magnitude and predictors of emotional reactions to an
      infertility diagnosis in two groups of women: those with diminished ovarian
      reserve (DOR), and those clinically diagnosed with an anatomical cause of
      infertility (ACI). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Academic and private
      fertility clinics. PATIENT(S): Women diagnosed with DOR (n = 51) and women
      diagnosed with ACI (n = 51). INTERVENTION(S): Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Fertility Problem Inventory (infertility distress), Rosenberg Self
      Esteem Scale, Health Orientation Scale (emotional reactions to receiving a
      diagnosis). RESULT(S): Women with DOR had statistically significantly higher
      infertility distress scores than women with ACI and higher scores on subscales
      assessing distress from social concerns, sexual concerns, and a need for
      parenthood. In both groups, higher self-esteem was associated with lower
      infertility distress. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that for
      women with DOR and those with ACI lower infertility distress but not self-esteem
      predicted a more positive emotional reaction toward receiving a fertility
      diagnosis. CONCLUSION(S): Women diagnosed with DOR have greater infertility
      distress but similar self-esteem and emotional reactions to their diagnosis
      compared with women who have an anatomical cause of infertility. These results
      suggest that for both groups distress surrounding infertility itself may
      influence the way women respond to learning the cause of their infertility.

PMID- 28579418
TI  - Early genetic restoration of lubricin expression in transgenic mice mitigates
      chondrocyte peroxynitrite release and caspase-3 activation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the ability of endogenous lubricin secretion
      to restore joint health following a brief <21 day, postnatal lubricin-null state,
      in a C57BL/6J Prg4 gene trap (GT) mouse under the control of cre-recombinase.
      Previously we showed that re-expression of lubricin at 21 days was partly
      restorative of joint lubrication. DESIGN: The tibio-femoral joints of adult
      C57BL/6J mice containing lubricin, lacking lubricin, and postnatally lacking
      lubricin until restoration of lubricin expression at 7 days or 14 days of age
      were evaluated ex vivo. At 8-weeks of age, whole joint coefficient of friction
      (COF), and caspase-3 activation were measured and the tibial-femoral joints
      histologically analyzed for degenerative changes, following progressive cyclic
      loading. The peroxynitrite content of femoral head cartilage from these mice
      prior to cyclic loading was measured. RESULTS: Mice that underwent gene
      recombination at 7 and 14 days of age did not reestablish low COF as joint
      cycling time increased and were histopathologically indistinguishable from the
      joints of lubricin-null littermates. However, cartilage from tibio-femoral joints
      that underwent recombination at 7 and 14 days of age had significantly fewer
      caspase-3 positive cells and significantly reduced peroxynitrite content compared
      to lubricin-null littermates. CONCLUSIONS: The biological effects of lubricin,
      which include limiting inflammation via peroxynitrite production and caspase-3
      activation, may be achieved without completely restituting low COF. However,
      fully recapitulating low COF may require undamaged cartilage surfaces or absence
      of biofouling, which may interfere with the activity of lubricin.

PMID- 28579419
TI  - The effect of catheter displacement and anatomical variations on the dose
      distribution in MRI-guided focal HDR brachytherapy for prostate cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of catheter displacement
      and anatomical variations of prostate and organs at risk on dose distribution in
      MRI-guided 19 Gy single fraction focal high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) of
      the prostate. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Seventeen patients with localized prostate
      cancer were enrolled in a prospective trial investigating focal HDR-BT in a 1.5 T
      MRI-HDR-BT facility. The diagnostic MRI delineations were registered with
      intraoperative MR scan, and a single fraction of 19 Gy was applied to the visible
      tumor. Self-anchoring umbrella catheters were used for HDR-BT delivery. A 1.5 T
      MRI was performed directly after ultrasound (US)-guided catheter placement for
      treatment planning. After treatment and before removal of catheters, a
      posttreatment 1.5 T MRI was performed. Regions of interest were also delineated
      on the posttreatment MR images and the catheters of 17 patients were
      reconstructed. The dose plan was constructed for the posttreatment MRI scan to
      assess the influence of catheter migration and anatomical variation on the dose
      delivered to the target and the organs at risk. Also on the posttreatment MRI,
      the complete catheter reconstruction was reassessed, to correct for, for example,
      bending of the catheters. The displacement of catheters between the MRI scans was
      determined by comparing the catheter tip positions on the treatment planning and
      posttreatment 1.5 T MRI scans. RESULTS: The displacements of 241 catheters were
      investigated. Average (range) displacements of the umbrella catheters are 0.6 (0
      2.9) mm in the x-direction, 0.5 (0-2.1) mm in the y-direction, and 0.9 (0-5.5) mm
      in the z-direction. In 3 patients, the displacement was >4 mm and up to 5.5 mm.
      This occurred in respectively 1/13, 1/16, and 1/18 catheters in these patients.
      The dosimetric differences between the intraoperative treatment and the
      posttreatment plans were in most patients less than 1.5 Gy. In 4 patients, a dose
      difference in clinical target volume D95 of >2 Gy up to 5.8 Gy was reported. No
      discrimination can be made between dose differences due to catheter displacement
      and/or organ movement/anatomy changes. CONCLUSIONS: In general, catheter
      displacements were in the order of a mm and differences in dose to the clinical
      target volume and the organs at risk between the treatment and posttreatment
      plans smaller than 1.5 Gy. In some patients, dose differences up to 5.8 Gy were
      determined, due to either individual larger catheter displacement and/or anatomy
      changes. A longer followup is necessary to assess the clinical implications of
      individual large dose differences.

PMID- 28579420
TI  - Dynamic processes in biological membrane mimics revealed by quasielastic neutron
      scattering.
AB  - Neutron scattering is a powerful tool to study relaxation processes in biological
      membrane mimics in space and time. Combining different inelastic and quasielastic
      neutron scattering techniques, a large dynamic range can be covered: from atomic
      to mesoscopic lengths and from femto- to some hundreds of nanoseconds in time.
      This allows studies on e.g. the diffusion of lipids, the membrane undulation
      motions, the dispersion of sound waves in membranes as well as the mutual
      interactions of membrane constituents such as lipids, proteins, and additives. In
      particular, neutron scattering provides a quite direct experimental approach to
      the inter-atomic and inter-molecular potentials on length and time scales which
      are perfectly accessible by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Neutron
      scattering experiments may thus substantially support the further refinement of
      biomolecular force fields for MD simulations by supplying structural and
      dynamical information with high spatial and temporal resolution. In turn, MD
      simulations support the interpretation of neutron scattering data. The
      combination of both, neutron scattering experiments and MD simulations, yields an
      unprecedented insight into the molecular interactions governing the structure and
      dynamics of biological membranes. This review provides an overview of the
      molecular dynamics in biological membrane mimics as revealed by neutron
      scattering. It focuses on the latest findings such as the fundamental molecular
      mechanism of lateral lipid diffusion as well as the influence of additives and
      proteins on the short-time dynamics of lipids. Special emphasis is placed on the
      comparison of recent neutron scattering and MD simulation data with respect to
      molecular membrane dynamics on the pico- to nanosecond time scale.

PMID- 28579421
TI  - An Interactive Ambulatory Nephrology Curriculum for Internal Medicine Interns:
      Design, Implementation, and Participant Feedback.
AB  - While diminishing nephrology fellow recruitment is a known issue, more work is
      needed to evaluate possible interventions to reverse this trend. We designed and
      implemented a curriculum to increase exposure to ambulatory nephrology among
      internal medicine interns. The curriculum focused on key aspects of outpatient
      nephrology practice, including supervised clinic visits, formal themed didactic
      content, and an online interactive forum with assigned evidence-based readings
      and small-group responses to relevant cases. We obtained postcourse surveys from
      all participating interns. Of the 43 interns who took part in the first year of
      the ambulatory nephrology curriculum, 100% reported a positive didactic
      experience and 91% reported a positive interactive online experience. 77%
      reported an improvement in their familiarity with clinical nephrology practice
      (median 2-point increase in familiarity score on a 7-point scale, P<0.001 by
      signed rank testing). Qualitative feedback included praise for the high-yield
      topics covered by the lectures and energizing teachers. In conclusion, we
      successfully implemented an ambulatory nephrology curriculum using a framework
      that integrated formal didactics, interactive online learning, and key clinical
      components of outpatient nephrology care. Future investigation will evaluate
      whether early implementation of this curriculum is associated with increased
      pursuit of nephrology as a career.

PMID- 28579422
TI  - Atazanavir-Associated Crystalline Nephropathy.
AB  - Crystalline nephropathy can occur following treatment with multiple therapeutic
      agents. We describe a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patient treated
      for 2 years with combination antiretroviral therapy including atazanavir (ATV).
      Kidney biopsy revealed a crystalline nephropathy associated with diffuse chronic
      and granulomatous interstitial inflammation. Following the biopsy, treatment with
      ATV was discontinued and kidney function returned to pretreatment baseline
      levels. ATV, which has a well-established association with nephrolithiasis, is a
      rare but important cause of crystalline nephropathy. Recognition of this
      association and prompt withdrawal of the offending agent are critical to optimize
      outcomes.

PMID- 28579424
TI  - Reflections on a Question: "Would You Offer Dialysis?"

PMID- 28579423
TI  - Serum Phosphorus and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, All-Cause Mortality, or
      Graft Failure in Kidney Transplant Recipients: An Ancillary Study of the FAVORIT
      Trial Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mild hyperphosphatemia is a putative risk factor for cardiovascular
      disease [CVD], loss of kidney function, and mortality. Very limited data are
      available from sizable multicenter kidney transplant recipient (KTR) cohorts
      assessing the potential relationships between serum phosphorus levels and the
      development of CVD outcomes, transplant failure, or all-cause mortality. STUDY
      DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: The Folic Acid for Vascular Outcome
      Reduction in Transplantation (FAVORIT) Trial, a large, multicenter, multiethnic,
      controlled clinical trial that provided definitive evidence that high-dose
      vitamin B-based lowering of plasma homocysteine levels did not reduce CVD events,
      transplant failure, or total mortality in stable KTRs. PREDICTOR: Serum
      phosphorus levels were determined in 3,138 FAVORIT trial participants at
      randomization. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 4.0 years, the cohort had
      436 CVD events, 238 transplant failures, and 348 deaths. Proportional hazards
      modeling revealed that each 1-mg/dL higher serum phosphorus level was not
      associated with a significant increase in CVD risk (HR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.92-1.22),
      but increased transplant failure (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.15-1.62) and total
      mortality risk associations (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.04-1.40) when adjusted for
      treatment allocation, traditional CVD risk factors, kidney measures, type of
      kidney transplant, transplant vintage, and use of calcineurin inhibitors,
      steroids, or lipid-lowering drugs. These associations were strengthened in models
      without kidney measures: CVD (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.00-1.31), transplant failure
      (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.46-2.01), and mortality (HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.15-1.54).
      LIMITATIONS: We lacked data for concentrations of parathyroid hormone, fibroblast
      growth factor 23, or vitamin D metabolites. CONCLUSIONS: Serum phosphorus level
      is marginally associated with CVD and more strongly associated with transplant
      failure and total mortality in long-term KTRs. A randomized controlled clinical
      trial in KTRs that assesses the potential impact of phosphorus-lowering therapy
      on these hard outcomes may be warranted.

PMID- 28579425
TI  - Diarrhoeal disease trends in the GBD 2015 study: optimism tempered by scepticism.

PMID- 28579427
TI  - Infections of Wolbachia may destabilize mosquito population dynamics.
AB  - Recent efforts in controlling mosquito-borne diseases focus on biocontrol
      strategies that incapacitate pathogens inside mosquitoes by altering the
      mosquito's microbiome. A case in point is the introduction of Wolbachia into
      natural mosquito populations in order to eliminate Dengue virus. However, whether
      this strategy can successfully control vector-borne diseases is debated;
      particularly, how artificial infection affects population dynamics of hosts
      remains unclear. Here, we show that natural Wolbachia infections are associated
      with unstable mosquito population dynamics by contrasting Wolbachia-infected
      versus uninfected cage populations of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes
      albopictus). By analyzing weekly data of adult mosquito abundances, we found that
      the variability of the infected populations is significantly higher than that of
      the uninfected. The elevated population variability is explained by increased
      instability in dynamics, as quantified by system nonlinearity (i.e., state
      dependence). In addition, predictability of infected populations is substantially
      lower. A mathematical model analysis suggests that Wolbachia may alter mosquito
      population dynamics by modifying larval competition of hosts. These results
      encourage examination for effects of artificial Wolbachia establishment on
      mosquito populations, because an enhancement of population variability with
      reduced predictability could pose challenges in management. Our findings have
      implications for application of microbiome alterations in biocontrol programs.

PMID- 28579428
TI  - Biochanin A enhances RORgamma activity through STAT3-mediated recruitment of
      NCOA1.
AB  - Interleukin (IL)-17-producing T cells play important roles in autoimmunity,
      chronic inflammation and host protection against extracellular bacteria and
      fungi. The retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptors (ROR) alpha and gamma
      are key regulators of the IL-17-producing phenotype. We previously showed that
      the isoflavone biochanin A enhanced ROR-mediated transcriptional activity. Here,
      we investigated the possible mechanisms underlying this ROR activation. Biochanin
      A-treated murine thymoma EL4 and primary splenocytes demonstrated enhanced
      induction of IL-17. Biochanin A also induced tyrosine-phosphorylation of signal
      transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in these cells. Stable
      knockdown of either RORgamma or STAT3 in EL4 cells canceled biochanin A-induced
      upregulation of IL-17 expression. Importantly, biochanin A enhanced complex
      formation between RORgamma and STAT3 or nuclear-receptor coactivator 1 (NCOA1).
      Furthermore, the biochanin A-induced RORgamma-NCOA1 complex was disrupted by a
      dominant negative mutant of STAT3 or by the STAT3 specific inhibitor Stattic.
      These results suggest that biochanin A activates RORgamma-dependent IL-17
      transcription through the enhancement of STAT3 phosphorylation and STAT3-mediated
      recruitment of NCOA1 to RORgamma.

PMID- 28579429
TI  - The EGF receptor inhibits the signaling of dopamine D3 receptor through the
      phosphorylation of GRK2 on tyrosine residues.
AB  - Receptor transactivation or crosstalk are terms referring to instances in which
      the signaling of a given receptor is regulated by a different class of receptor.
      The epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the dopaminergic systems in the brain are
      closely related to schizophrenia with respect to both etiology and treatment.
      Thus, we investigated the functional interactions between the EGF receptor
      (EGFR), which belongs to the receptor tyrosine kinase family, and the dopamine D2
      like receptors (D2R, D3R, and D4R), which are members of the G protein-coupled
      receptor (GPCR) family. Among D2-like receptors, the signaling of D3R was
      selectively inhibited by EGFR stimulation. Moreover loss-of-function assays
      showed that tyrosine-phosphorylated GRK2 mediates this inhibition by acting on
      the second intracellular loop of D3R. Considering that both EGFR and D3R are
      closely related to schizophrenia, this study could provide new molecular insight
      into the etiology of the disorder.

PMID- 28579426
TI  - Estimates of global, regional, and national morbidity, mortality, and aetiologies
      of diarrhoeal diseases: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease
      Study 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015
      (GBD 2015) provides an up-to-date analysis of the burden of diarrhoeal diseases.
      This study assesses cases, deaths, and aetiologies spanning the past 25 years and
      informs the changing picture of diarrhoeal disease worldwide. METHODS: We
      estimated diarrhoeal mortality by age, sex, geography, and year using the Cause
      of Death Ensemble Model (CODEm), a modelling platform shared across most causes
      of death in the GBD 2015 study. We modelled diarrhoeal morbidity, including
      incidence and prevalence, using a meta-regression platform called DisMod-MR. We
      estimated aetiologies for diarrhoeal diseases using a counterfactual approach
      that incorporates the aetiology-specific risk of diarrhoeal disease and the
      prevalence of the aetiology in diarrhoea episodes. We used the Socio-demographic
      Index, a summary indicator derived from measures of income per capita,
      educational attainment, and fertility, to assess trends in diarrhoeal mortality.
      The two leading risk factors for diarrhoea-childhood malnutrition and unsafe
      water, sanitation, and hygiene-were used in a decomposition analysis to establish
      the relative contribution of changes in diarrhoea disability-adjusted life-years
      (DALYs). FINDINGS: Globally, in 2015, we estimate that diarrhoea was a leading
      cause of death among all ages (1.31 million deaths, 95% uncertainty interval [95%
      UI] 1.23 million to 1.39 million), as well as a leading cause of DALYs because of
      its disproportionate impact on young children (71.59 million DALYs, 66.44 million
      to 77.21 million). Diarrhoea was a common cause of death among children under 5
      years old (499 000 deaths, 95% UI 447 000-558 000). The number of deaths due to
      diarrhoea decreased by an estimated 20.8% (95% UI 15.4-26.1) from 2005 to 2015.
      Rotavirus was the leading cause of diarrhoea deaths (199 000, 95% UI 165 000-241
      000), followed by Shigella spp (164 300, 85 000-278 700) and Salmonella spp (90
      300, 95% UI 34 100-183 100). Among children under 5 years old, the three
      aetiologies responsible for the most deaths were rotavirus, Cryptosporidium spp,
      and Shigella spp. Improvements in safe water and sanitation have decreased
      diarrhoeal DALYs by 13.4%, and reductions in childhood undernutrition have
      decreased diarrhoeal DALYs by 10.0% between 2005 and 2015. INTERPRETATION: At the
      global level, deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases have decreased substantially in
      the past 25 years, although progress has been faster in some countries than
      others. Diarrhoea remains a largely preventable disease and cause of death, and
      continued efforts to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and childhood
      nutrition will be important in reducing the global burden of diarrhoea. FUNDING:
      Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

PMID- 28579430
TI  - CRY2 is suppressed by FOXM1 mediated promoter hypermethylation in breast cancer.
AB  - Loss of CRY2 confers aggressive phenotypes to breast cancer. However, the
      mechanism of its downregulation and its prognostic value in breast cancer are
      still not clear. Our data mining in TCGA breast cancer cohort (TCGA-BRCA) showed
      that the luminal A subtype of breast cancer had the highest CRY2 expression,
      while the basal-like subtype had the lowest CRY2 expression. The ER+ group had
      significantly higher CRY2 expression than the ER- group. Demethylation treatment
      using 5-AZA-dC significantly restored CRY2 expression in MDA-MB-231 and BT549
      cells. Co-expression analysis in TCGA-BRCA showed a strong negative correlation
      between CRY2 and FOXM1 (Pearson's r = -0.62). FOXM1 overexpression in MCF-7 cells
      reduced CRY2 expression, while FOXM1 knockdown in MDA-MB-231 cells increased CRY2
      expression. Demethylation significantly abrogated FOXM1 induced CRY2 suppression
      in MCF-7 cells. Bioinformatic scanning predicted a common FOXM1 binding site in
      CRY2 transcript 1 and transcript 2 promoter. The following studies confirmed that
      through binding with DNMT3b, FOXM1 can bind to CRY2 promoter and enhance
      methylation in this region. Univariate analysis based on Cox proportional hazards
      model and the following NPI and AOL adjusted studies in bc-GenExMiner 4.0 showed
      that high CRY2 expression was an independent indicator of reduced risk of
      metastatic relapse (MR) in ER+ breast cancer patients, but not in ER- breast
      cancer. With these findings, we infer that FOXM1 is a negative regulator of CRY2
      in breast cancer via enhancing methylation in CRY2 promoter and its high
      expression is an independent predictor of favorable MR-free survival in ER+
      breast cancer patients.

PMID- 28579431
TI  - Direct interaction between selenoprotein R and Abeta42.
AB  - Amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides have taken a central role in AD research, the
      aggregation of Abeta peptide is involved in the progression of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). The 35th amino acid was methionine (Met) in Abeta peptides and it's
      redox state is critical in determining the biological activity of Abeta. It has
      been suggested that oxidation of Met35 (Met35O) plays a key role in the formation
      of paranuclei and in the control of oligomerization pathway choice. As an
      antioxidative selenoenzyme, Selenoprotein R (SelR) plays important roles in
      reducing the R-form of MetO to Met to maintain intracellular redox balance.
      However, the relationship between SelR and Abeta was little investigated. Here,
      we found that SelR can directly interact with Abeta42, and the interaction
      between SelR and Abeta42 was verified by fluorescence resonance energy transfer
      (FRET), co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP), and pull-down assays. SelR is closely
      related to AD, its biological functions in human brain become a research focus.
      This work implies that SelR makes it capable of modulating Abeta42 aggregation
      and provides a novel avenue for further study on the mechanism of SelR in AD
      prevention.

PMID- 28579433
TI  - Taxifolin enhances osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal
      stem cells partially via NF-kappaB pathway.
AB  - Taxifolin, a flavonoid compound, has been reported to stimulate osteogenic
      differentiation in osteoblasts. The present study investigated whether taxifolin
      affects the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem
      cells (hBMSCs) and the molecular mechanisms involved. The proliferation and
      osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs in the presence of taxifolin were examined
      by CCK-8 assay, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, ALP staining and Alizarin
      red staining. The expression of osteogenic differentiation markers were detected
      by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) analysis and western blot assay. The
      activation of potential related pathways was examined by luciferase reporter
      assay, immunofluorescence and western blot analysis. Taxifolin treatment
      increased osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs without cytotoxicity. Luciferase
      reporter assay showed that taxifolin could not activate estrogen receptor
      pathway, but inhibit TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB signaling pathway activation in
      osteogenic induction condition. Moreover, the nucleus translocation of NF-kappaB
      under TNF-alpha treatment was inhibited by taxifolin treatment. The taxifolin
      induced osteogenic differentiation effects of hBMSCs were abolished by TNF-alpha
      treatment. In conclusion, our results suggested that taxifolin could promote
      osteogenesis of hBMSCs, partially through antagonism of NF-kappaB signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28579432
TI  - Synergistic anti-tumor activity of Nimotuzumab in combination with Trastuzumab in
      HER2-positive breast cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer is characterized with poor prognosis and high recurrence. HER2 is
      highly expressed in breast cancer and is a target for cancer therapy and
      prevention. Here, we investigated the anti-tumor activity of the combination of
      an HER2 inhibitor, trastuzumab with an EGFR-inhibitor, nimotuzumab in HER2
      overexpressing breast cancer. Our data showed that a greater anti-tumor activity
      from the combination of trastuzumab and nimotuzumab than any alone usage of above
      antibody both in vitro and in vivo. Based on the combination index value, our
      data demonstrated that nimotuzumab synergistically enhanced trastuzumab-induced
      cell growth inhibition. Furthermore, we investigated the possible mechanism of
      this synergistic efficacy induced by trastuzumab plus nimotuzumab. Data showed
      that the combination was more potent in reducing the phosphorylation of HER2 and
      ERK1/2. We also found that the synergistic inhibition was partly attributed to
      the ROS generation and repression of NRF2 pathway that is known to promote cell
      growth. These results support the clinical development of this two-drug regimen
      for the treatment of HER2-amplified breast cancer.

PMID- 28579434
TI  - Polyethylene glycol modified PAMAM dendrimer delivery of kartogenin to induce
      chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Partly PEGylated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer was used as the nanocarrier for
      the cytoplasmic delivery of kartogenin (KGN) to induce chondrogenic
      differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Here, KGN was conjugated to the
      surface of PAMAM and the end group of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to obtain PEG
      PAMAM-KGN (PPK) and KGN-PEG-PAMAM (KPP) conjugate, respectively. The effects of
      PPK and KPP on the in vitro chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs were evaluated.
      KPP induced higher expression of chondrogenic markers than PPK and free KGN. In
      particular, after treatment of KPP, CBF beta nuclear localization intensity was
      significantly increased, indicating enhanced efficacy of chondrogenesis. The
      fluorescein labeled PEG-PAMAM was capable to persist in the joint cavity for a
      prolonged time of both healthy and osteoarthritis (OA) rats. Thus, PEG-PAMAM
      could be a useful nanocarrier for intra-articular (IA) delivery of drug to treat
      OA.

PMID- 28579435
TI  - Graphene nanoparticles as osteoinductive and osteoconductive platform for stem
      cell and bone regeneration.
AB  - The potential of graphene-based nanoparticles (GNPs) has recently gained
      significant attention in biomedicine, especially in tissue engineering. In this
      study, we investigated the osteoinductive and osteoconductive effects of low
      oxygen content graphene (LOG) nanoparticles on adult mesenchymal stem cells
      (MSCs) in vitro and in vivo. We showed that adult goat MSCs were viable in the
      presence of 0.1 mg/mL LOG and retained their stem cell properties. A 3D scaffold
      made from agarose was used to encapsulate MSCs and LOG nanoparticles. Scanning
      electron microscopy demonstrated the cell morphology and adherence of MSCs to LOG
      in the 3D form. The LOG and MSCs in the 3D scaffold were xenogenically implanted
      into a rat unicortical tibial bone defect. The combination of MSCs and LOG
      nanoparticles resulted in improved active bone formation and increased
      mineralization. These results strengthen the applicability of LOG nanoparticles
      as an adjunct treatment for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28579436
TI  - Intranasal vaccination with an adjuvanted polyphosphazenes nanoparticle-based
      vaccine formulation stimulates protective immune responses in mice.
AB  - The most promising strategy to sustainably prevent infectious diseases is
      vaccination. However, emerging as well as re-emerging diseases still constitute a
      considerable threat. Furthermore, lack of compliance and logistic constrains
      often result in the failure of vaccination campaigns. To overcome these hurdles,
      novel vaccination strategies need to be developed, which fulfill maximal safety
      requirements, show maximal efficiency and are easy to administer. Mucosal
      vaccines constitute promising non-invasive approaches able to match these
      demands. Here we demonstrate that nanoparticle (polyphosphazenes)-based vaccine
      formulations including c-di-AMP as adjuvant, cationic innate defense regulator
      peptides (IDR) and ovalbumin (OVA) as model antigen were able to stimulate strong
      humoral and cellular immune responses, which conferred protection against the OVA
      expressing influenza strain A/WSN/OVAI (H1N1). The presented results confirm the
      potency of nanoparticle-based vaccine formulations to deliver antigens across the
      mucosal barrier, but also demonstrate the necessity to include adjuvants to
      stimulate efficient antigen-specific immune responses.

PMID- 28579437
TI  - Quality-by-design of nanopharmaceuticals - a state of the art.
AB  - Pharmaceutical Quality-by-Design is a risk-based approach of drug development
      relying on the understanding of both the product and the process. This state of
      the art analyzes 24 studies published during the last ten years. A risk modeling
      of the nanomaterial formulation and manufacturing is firstly presented. After a
      brief history of the QbD approach, its basic components are recalled in a second
      part. The most critical material attributes, process parameters, quality
      variables and measurement technologies are reviewed. Specific deficiencies are
      also emphasized such as the absence of prior risk assessment, production scale
      up, process analytical technology and control strategy. Finally, perspectives and
      development priorities are drawn to improve the implementation of this
      integrative approach of quality and safety in nanomedicine.

PMID- 28579438
TI  - Imiquimod induced ApoE-deficient mice might be a composite animal model for the
      study of psoriasis and dyslipideamia comorbidity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psoriasis patients are at increased risk of developing lipid
      metabolism disturbances. Both psoriasis and dyslipideamia not only closely
      interact in disease development, but occur as mutual side effects in some
      medicine treatment. The interactive mechanism of the two diseases is complicated
      and still unclear. OBJECTIVE: Here, we proposed applying imiquimod on the dorsal
      skin of ApoE-/- mice to establish a composite animal model which formed
      psoriasiform skin lesions under hyperlipidemic condition. METHOD: By comparison
      with corresponding wild-type(C57BL/6) mice, the composite mice model was
      evaluated by skin pathological features, lipid levels, immune inflammatory
      factors in order to clarify the diseases interplay mechanism. In addition, IL-17
      mAb treatment was applied to observe the effect of IL-17 antibody on the
      composite animal model. RESULTS: The results verified that imiquimod-induced ApoE
      /- mice model presented keratinocyte hyperplasia, parakeratosis, inflammatory
      cells infiltration and elevated serum lipid levels, and also reflected the
      complex interaction between inflammation and lipid metabolism. IL-17 mAb could
      inhibit psoriasis skin lesions with lipid accumulation via STAT3 pathway, but no
      influence on elevated serum cholesterol. CONCLUSIONS: Imiquimod-induced ApoE-/-
      mice model presented the pathological features of psoriasis and dyslipideamia,
      which could be an ideal composite animal model for the study of pathogenesis and
      pharmacotherapeutics of psoriasis and dyslipideamia comorbidity.

PMID- 28579439
TI  - Serum Biomarkers of Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic
      Review of Current Literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common complication in patients with
      diabetes mellitus (DM). However, the utility of serum biomarkers as clinical
      surrogates for the development and/or progression of ED is unknown. AIM: To
      summarize the current literature for serum biomarkers for ED in DM and emphasize
      areas for future research. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Human subject data
      demonstrating the utility of serum markers for the development and progression of
      ED in patients with DM. METHODS: We performed a systematic PubMed-Medline search
      in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta
      Analyses (PRISMA) statement using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for articles
      published from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2016 of serum biomarkers for
      development or progression of ED in patients with DM using erectile dysfunction
      [MeSH] AND (biomarkers [MeSH] or inflammation mediators [MeSH] or intercellular
      signaling peptides and proteins [MeSH] or cell adhesion molecules [MeSH]). A
      thorough review of these studies was completed. RESULTS: Of the 327 abstracts
      screened, 12 full-text studies were assessed and 1 study was excluded. Eleven
      studies assessing serum biomarkers for ED in patients with DM were included in
      this review. The most studied serum biomarkers for ED in men with DM included
      endothelial dysfunction markers such as serum E-selectin, endothelial progenitor
      cells, and endothelial microparticles and specific markers of inflammation such
      as interleukin-10, ratio of tumor necrosis factor-alpha to interleukin-10, and
      reactive oxygen species such as nitric oxide and malondialdehyde. Reliable serum
      biomarkers will enable earlier diagnosis and objective monitoring of disease
      progression and responses to treatment in patients with ED. CONCLUSION: Serum
      biomarkers for ED in men with DM are very limited. Future longitudinal studies
      with uniform patient characteristics are needed to evaluate the potential
      clinical use of serum biomarkers in men with DM for the development and
      progression of ED. Patel DP, Craig JR, Myers JB, et al. Serum Biomarkers of
      Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review of Current
      Literature. Sex Med Rev 2017:5:339-348.

PMID- 28579440
TI  - A single tube system for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA using
      gold nanoparticles based FRET assay.
AB  - The global combat against MTB is limited by challenges in accurate affordable
      detection. In this study, a rapid, affordable, single tube system for detection
      of unamplified MTB16s rDNA was developed. Utilizing a AuNP based FRET system,
      this assay achieved a sensitivity and specificity of 98.6% and 90% respectively.

PMID- 28579442
TI  - Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses: A
      clinical curiosity presenting a diagnostic challenge.
AB  - Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor (PMT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm associated
      with tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) and elevated serum FGF-23. Common in
      extremities, PMT rarely occurs in sinonasal region. We report a series of
      sinonasal PMT diagnosed at our institute over a 6-year period. Six cases of
      sinonasal PMT were identified during this period, of which five presented with
      features of TIO. Median age of patients was 45.5 years. All six tumors were
      composed of stellate to spindled cells, with prominent staghorn vasculature in
      four cases. Typical smudgy matrix was seen in all cases, but only focally; grungy
      calcification was absent. Accurate diagnosis of PMTs is imperative, as complete
      excision leads to dramatic resolution of TIO symptoms. Lack of knowledge of this
      entity prevents clinicians from ordering relevant investigations. Absence of
      specific morphological features, like grungy calcification, and presentation at
      atypical locations makes the diagnosis challenging. Awareness of this entity is
      essential in order to suspect PMT in patients presenting with a soft tissue mass
      and features of TIO, however unusual the location may be.

PMID- 28579443
TI  - Value-Based pricing and the end of pharmaceutical pricing as we know it? A case
      study on sorafenib and axitinib.

PMID- 28579444
TI  - Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography Analysis of the Posterior Tibial Slope in
      100 Knees.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The posterior tibial slope (PTS) is an important consideration in
      knee arthroplasty. However, there is still no consensus for the optimal slope.
      The objectives of this study were (1) to reliably determine the native PTS in
      this population using 3-dimensional computed tomography scans and (2) to
      determine the normal reference range for PTS in this population. METHODS: One
      hundred computed tomography scans of disease-free knees were analyzed. A 3
      dimensional reconstructed image of the tibia was generated and aligned to its
      anatomic axis in the coronal and sagittal planes. The tibia was then rotationally
      aligned to the tibial plateau (tibial centroid axis) and PTS was measured from
      best-fit planes on the surface of the proximal tibia and individually for the
      medial and lateral plateaus. This was then repeated with the tibia rotationally
      aligned to the ankle (transmalleolar axis). RESULTS: When rotationally aligned to
      the tibial plateau, the mean PTS, medial PTS, and lateral PTS were 11.2 degrees 
      +/- 3.0 (range, 4.7 degrees -17.7 degrees ), 11.3 degrees  +/- 3.2 (range, 2.7
      degrees -19.7 degrees ), and 10.9 degrees  +/- 3.7 (range, 3.5 degrees -19.4
      degrees ), respectively. When rotationally aligned to the ankle, the mean PTS,
      medial PTS, and lateral PTS were 11.4 degrees  +/- 3.0 (range, 5.3 degrees -19.3
      degrees ), 13.9 degrees  +/- 3.7 (range, 3.1 degrees -24.4 degrees ), and 9.7
      degrees  +/- 3.6 (range, 0.8 degrees -17.7 degrees ), respectively. CONCLUSION:
      The PTS in the normal Asian knee is on average 11 degrees  (mean) with a
      reference range of 5 degrees -17 degrees  (mean +/- 2 standard deviation). This
      has implications to surgery and implant design.

PMID- 28579445
TI  - Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes of Total Hip Arthroplasty With a Specific
      Liner in Small Asian Patients: Influence of Patient-Related, Implant-Related, and
      Surgical Factors on Femoral Head Penetration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the clinical and radiographic outcomes, including
      femoral head penetration, of total hip arthroplasty performed using a specific
      polyethylene (PE) liner in small Asian patients at 10 years after the index
      surgery. In addition, we investigated whether femoral head penetration was
      affected by patient-related, implant-related, and surgical factors. METHODS:
      Between August 2002 and June 2005, for cementless primary total hip arthroplasty,
      we used acetabular PE liners that were manufactured from GUR 1050 resin, machined
      from isostatic compression-molded bar stock, and sterilized with a gamma ray
      irradiation in argon gas. We assessed 82 hips in 78 patients who received these
      liners. RESULTS: The mean Harris hip score improved from 41.0 preoperatively to
      84.5 at 10 years postoperatively. Periprosthetic osteolysis was observed in 7
      hips (9.8%). No acetabular component migration was detected, and no revision
      surgery was performed 10 years postoperatively. The mean steady-state wear rate
      was 0.031 mm/y, which was lower than the wear rate for other conventional PE
      liners of the previous studies. Among the patient-related, implant-related, and
      surgical factors, sex was significantly associated with the mean steady-state
      wear rate, with a higher rate in male patients than in female patients.
      CONCLUSION: PE acetabular liners used in small Asian patients show similar
      clinical outcomes and reduced wear compared with those of other liners. In
      addition, sex is significantly associated with the mean steady-state wear rate,
      and the steady-state wear rate is higher in male patients than in female
      patients.

PMID- 28579446
TI  - Incidence and Risk Factors for Blood Transfusion in Total Joint Arthroplasty:
      Analysis of a Statewide Database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Significant attempts have been made to adopt practices to minimize
      blood transfusion after total joint arthroplasty (TJA) because of transfusion
      cost and potential negative clinical consequences including allergic reactions,
      transfusion-related lung injuries, and immunomodulatory effects. We aimed to
      evaluate risk factors for blood transfusion in a large cohort of TJA patients.
      METHODS: We used the all-payer California Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project
      data from 2006 to 2011 to examine the trends in utilization of blood transfusion
      among arthroplasty patients (n = 320,746). We performed descriptive analyses and
      multivariate logistic regression clustered by hospital, controlling for Deyo
      Charlson comorbidity index, age, insurance type (Medicaid vs others), gender,
      procedure year, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Eighteen percent (n = 59,038) of TJA
      patients underwent blood transfusion during their surgery, from 15% with single
      knee to 45% for bilateral hip arthroplasty. Multivariate analysis indicated that
      compared with the referent category of single knee arthroplasty, single hip had a
      significantly higher odds of blood transfusion (odds ratio [OR], 1.76; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.68-1.83), as did bilateral knee (OR, 3.57; 95% CI,
      3.20-3.98) and bilateral hip arthroplasty (OR, 6.17; 95% CI, 4.85-7.85).
      Increasing age (eg, age >=80 years; OR, 2.99; 95% CI, 2.82-3.17), Medicaid
      insurance (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.27-1.45), higher comorbidity index (eg, score of
      >=3; OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 2.22-2.45), and females (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.70-1.80) all
      had significantly higher odds of blood transfusion after TJA. CONCLUSION: Primary
      hip arthroplasties have significantly greater risk of transfusion than knee
      arthroplasties, and bilateral procedures have even greater risk, especially for
      hips. These factors should be considered when evaluating the risk for blood
      transfusions.

PMID- 28579441
TI  - The role of ticks in the maintenance and transmission of Crimean-Congo
      hemorrhagic fever virus: A review of published field and laboratory studies.
AB  - This manuscript is part of a series of reviews that aim to cover published
      research on Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and its etiological agent,
      CCHF virus (CCHFV). The virus is maintained and transmitted in a vertical and
      horizontal transmission cycle involving a variety of wild and domestic vertebrate
      species that act as amplification hosts, without showing signs of illness. These
      vertebrates have traditionally been considered reservoirs of CCHFV, but in fact
      they develop only a transient viremia, while the virus can persist in ticks for
      their entire lifespan, and can also be transmitted vertically to the next
      generation. As a result, ticks are now considered to be both the vector and the
      reservoir for the virus. CCHFV has been detected in a wide range of tick species,
      but only a few have been proven to be vectors and reservoirs, mainly because most
      published studies have been performed under a broad variety of conditions,
      precluding definitive characterization. This article reviews the published
      literature, summarizes current knowledge of the role of ticks in CCHFV
      maintenance and transmission and provides guidance for how to fill the knowledge
      gaps. Special focus is given to existing data on tick species in which vertical
      passage has been demonstrated under natural or experimental conditions. At the
      same time, we identify earlier reports that used unreliable methods and
      perceptions to ascribe a vector role to some species of ticks, and have
      contributed to confusion regarding viral transmission. We also examine
      epidemiological pathways of CCHFV circulation and discuss priority areas for
      future research.

PMID- 28579447
TI  - Are the Outcomes of Revision Knee Arthroplasty for Flexion Instability the Same
      as for Other Major Failure Mechanisms?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aseptic loosening, infection, and flexion instability have emerged as
      the leading etiologies for revision after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Although
      studies have reported improved outcomes after revision TKA, the relative
      functional and clinical outcomes of patients revised for flexion instability and
      other failure etiologies have not been extensively reported. The aim of the study
      was to compare the functional and patient-reported outcomes of revision TKA for
      the common failure etiologies. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed records of
      228 consecutive cases of revision TKA from 2008 to 2014. Revisions performed for
      aseptic loosening (n = 53), septic revisions (n = 48), and isolated flexion
      instability (n = 45) with a minimum of 18 months follow-up were included for
      analysis. Revision for all other etiologies (n = 82) were excluded. The Modified
      Knee Society Score (KSS), KSS Function, and Western Ontario and McMaster
      Universities Osteoarthritis Index were recorded for all cases. A 7-point Likert
      scale was used to record patient's perception of outcomes after revision surgery
      and analyzed based on etiology. RESULTS: Although all groups showed improvement
      in outcome after revision TKA, the changes in Modified KSS and KSS-Function
      varied according to the etiology of failure of the primary procedure with the
      smallest improvement being reported by the flexion instability group. CONCLUSION:
      Patients undergoing revision for isolated flexion instability have less
      improvement in functional outcome as compared with other etiologies. We
      hypothesize this is due to a higher baseline preoperative knee function in the
      flexion instability group.

PMID- 28579448
TI  - Conversion of Hip Hemiarthroplasty to Total Hip Arthroplasty Utilizing a Dual
      Mobility Construct Compared With Large Femoral Heads.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conversion of hemiarthroplasty to total hip arthroplasty (THA) has a
      historically high, up to 20%, postoperative dislocation rate. As such, dual
      mobility (DM) constructs are an attractive option to mitigate this complication.
      We analyzed survivorship free of revision, complications, and clinical outcomes
      of hemiarthroplasties conversion to THAs utilizing DM constructs compared with
      large femoral heads (>=36 mm). METHODS: Conversion of 16 hemiarthroplasties to
      THAs with a specific DM construct compared with 13 conversions utilizing large
      femoral heads (>=36 mm) from 2011 to 2014 were reviewed. Mean age at conversion
      in the DM group was 75 years (range, 57-93 years); 75% were female. Significantly
      more patients with a dislocated hemiarthroplasty were converted to DM constructs
      compared to large femoral heads (44% vs 0%; P = .01). Mean follow-up was 3 years.
      RESULTS: Survivorship free of revision was 100% in the DM group compared with 92%
      in the large femoral head cohort at 2 years (P = .7). One (8%) patient converted
      to a large femoral head underwent revision to a constrained liner for recurrent
      dislocations while no patients experienced a postoperative dislocation in the DM
      group (P = .4). Harris Hip Scores improved from 54 to 82 (P < .01) in the DM
      group, and from 52 to 86 in the large femoral head group (P < .01). CONCLUSION:
      Larger effective femoral heads used during conversion of hemiarthroplasties to
      THAs resulted in high survivorship free of revision, minimal complications, and
      excellent clinical outcomes at short-term follow-up. In patients at highest risk
      for postoperative dislocation, including those with dislocating
      hemiarthroplasties, DM constructs resulted in no postoperative dislocations.

PMID- 28579449
TI  - Structural dynamics of the nuclear pore complex.
AB  - Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are the sole conduits that facilitate
      macromolecular exchange between the nucleus and cytosol. Recent advancements have
      led to a more highly resolved NPC structure. However, our understanding of the
      NPC modus operandi that facilitates transport selectivity, and speed, of diverse
      cargoes remains incomplete. For the most part, assorted cargo-complexes of
      different sizes traverse the NPC central channel in milliseconds, yet little is
      known about the nanoscopic movements of its barrier-forming Phe-Gly nucleoporins
      (FG Nups) and related sub-structures at transport-relevant time and length
      scales. Here, we discuss how dynamic FG Nup behavior may confer NPCs with an
      effective permeability barrier according to the functional needs of the cell.
      Moreover, we postulate that structural flexibility might resonate throughout the
      NPC framework from the cytoplasmic filaments to the nuclear basket.

PMID- 28579450
TI  - Drosophila Short stop as a paradigm for the role and regulation of
      spectraplakins.
AB  - Spectraplakins are evolutionarily well conserved cytoskeletal linker molecules
      that are true members of three protein families: plakins, spectrins and Gas2-like
      proteins. Spectraplakin genes encode at least 7 characteristic functional domains
      which are combined in a modular fashion into multiple isoforms, and which are
      responsible for an enormous breadth of cellular functions. These functions are
      related to the regulation of actin, microtubules, intermediate filaments,
      intracellular organelles, cell adhesions and signalling processes during the
      development and maintenance of a wide variety of tissues. To gain a deeper
      understanding of this enormous functional diversity, invertebrate genetic model
      organisms, such as the fruit fly Drosophila, can be used to develop concepts and
      mechanistic paradigms that can inform the investigation in higher animals or
      humans. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of our current knowledge of the
      Drosophila spectraplakin Short stop (Shot). We describe its functional domains
      and isoforms and compare them with those of the mammalian spectraplakins dystonin
      and MACF1. We then summarise its roles during the development and maintenance of
      the nervous system, epithelia, oocytes and muscles, taking care to compare and
      contrast mechanistic insights across these functions in the fly, but especially
      also with related functions of dystonin and MACF1 in mostly mammalian contexts.
      We hope that this review will improve the wider appreciation of how work on
      Drosophila Shot can be used as an efficient strategy to promote the fundamental
      concepts and mechanisms that underpin spectraplakin functions, with important
      implications for biomedical research into human disease.

PMID- 28579451
TI  - The fifth sense: Mechanosensory regulation of alpha-actinin-4 and its relevance
      for cancer metastasis.
AB  - Metastatic cancer cells invading through dense tumor stroma experience internal
      and external forces that are sensed through a variety of mechanosensory proteins
      that drive adaptations for specific environments. Alpha-actinin-4 (ACTN4) is a
      member of the alpha-actinin family of actin crosslinking proteins that is
      upregulated in several types of cancers. It shares 86% protein similarity with
      alpha-actinin-1, another non-muscle ACTN isoform, which appears to have a more
      modest role, if any, in cancer progression. While they share regulatory
      mechanisms, such as phosphorylation, calcium binding, phosphatidyl inositol
      binding, and calpain cleavage, alpha-actinin-4 exhibits a unique mechanosensory
      regulation that alpha-actinin-1 does not. This behavior is mediated, at least in
      part, by each protein's actin-binding affinity as well as the catch-slip-bond
      behavior of the actin binding domains. We will discuss currently known modes of
      ACTN4 regulation, their interactions, and how mechanosensation may provide major
      therapeutic targeting potential for cancer metastasis.

PMID- 28579454
TI  - Efficacy of intramuscular moxifloxacin in the treatment of experimental
      osteomyelitis caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Fluoroquinolones have been well studied in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis
      due to their beneficial pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic profiles. The
      purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of intramuscular (IM)
      moxifloxacin administration in the treatment of experimental osteomyelitis by
      methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Following an experimental
      osteomyelitis animal model described previously, three groups of rabbits (A =
      control; B = IM moxifloxacin administration; C = PK study of moxifloxacin
      penetration into bone) were evaluated. Three weeks after bacterial inoculation,
      surgical debridement was performed in all animals and IM treatment commenced for
      Groups B and C. Sacrifice was performed in an A:B group animal ratio of 1:2 at
      weekly intervals from 7th to 42nd day post debridement and from 21st to 56th day
      post debridement for Groups A and B, respectively (including 2-week interval
      without antibiotics for Group B). Cancellous bone was harvested for
      microbiological and histopathological analyses at re-operation and sacrifice for
      Groups A and B. Cortical bone moxifloxacin levels were measured in Group C
      following 7, 14, 35 and 42 days of treatment. In Group A, bacterial growth after
      surgical debridement was significant, whereas high eradication rates were
      observed in Group B. Radiological abnormalities and histopathological findings
      were evaluated. Moxifloxacin bone levels, observed in Group C, were approximately
      43 times higher than the minimum inhibitory concentration, with no difference
      found between infected and healthy tibial bone. The therapeutic protocol was very
      effective in this model of experimental osteomyelitis. However, further
      evaluation of these results in clinical studies is crucial.

PMID- 28579453
TI  - Building dialogues between clinical and biomedical research through cross-species
      collaborations.
AB  - Today, biomedical science is equipped with an impressive array of technologies
      and genetic resources that bolster our basic understanding of fundamental biology
      and enhance the practice of modern medicine by providing clinicians with a
      diverse toolkit to diagnose, prognosticate, and treat a plethora of conditions.
      Many significant advances in our understanding of disease mechanisms and
      therapeutic interventions have arisen from fruitful dialogues between clinicians
      and biomedical research scientists. However, the increasingly specialized
      scientific and medical disciplines, globalization of science and technology, and
      complex datasets often hinder the development of effective interdisciplinary
      collaborations between clinical medicine and biomedical research. The goal of
      this review is to provide examples of diverse strategies to enhance communication
      and collaboration across diverse disciplines. First, we discuss examples of
      efforts to foster interdisciplinary collaborations at institutional and multi
      institutional levels. Second, we explore resources and tools for clinicians and
      research scientists to facilitate effective bi-directional dialogues. Third, we
      use our experiences in neurobiology and human genetics to highlight how
      communication between clinical medicine and biomedical research lead to effective
      implementation of cross-species model organism approaches to uncover the
      biological underpinnings of health and disease.

PMID- 28579452
TI  - The role of MACF1 in nervous system development and maintenance.
AB  - Microtubule-actin crosslinking factor 1 (MACF1), also known as actin crosslinking
      factor 7 (ACF7), is essential for proper modulation of actin and microtubule
      cytoskeletal networks. Most MACF1 isoforms are expressed broadly in the body, but
      some are exclusively found in the nervous system. Consequentially, MACF1 is
      integrally involved in multiple neural processes during development and in
      adulthood, including neurite outgrowth and neuronal migration. Furthermore, MACF1
      participates in several signaling pathways, including the Wnt/beta-catenin and
      GSK-3 signaling pathways, which regulate key cellular processes, such as
      proliferation and cell migration. Genetic mutation or dysregulation of the MACF1
      gene has been associated with neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases,
      specifically schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. MACF1 may also play a part in
      neuromuscular disorders and have a neuroprotective role in the optic nerve. In
      this review, the authors seek to synthesize recent findings relating to the roles
      of MACF1 within the nervous system and explore potential novel functions of MACF1
      not yet examined.

PMID- 28579455
TI  - Killing kinetics of minocycline, doxycycline and tosufloxacin against macrolide
      resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
AB  - Macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MRMP) has emerged and is increasing
      worldwide. In a 2011 outbreak of MRMP infections in Japan, symptoms failed to
      improve in many patients who initially received macrolides; the therapeutic agent
      was then changed to minocycline (MIN), doxycycline (DOX) or tosufloxacin (TFX).
      In this study, the bactericidal effects of these three agents against MRMP were
      evaluated. Time-kill kinetics against MRMP and macrolide-susceptible M.
      pneumoniae (MSMP) were determined for 5 days at concentrations corresponding to
      the respective minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and 2 * MIC, i.e. 1 ug/mL
      and 2 ug/mL for MIN, 0.5 ug/mL and 1 ug/mL for DOX, and 0.5 ug/mL and 1 ug/mL for
      TFX. The post-antibiotic effects (PAE) of these agents in culture against MRMP
      were also examined based on their pharmacokinetic parameters in children.
      Following exposure of MRMP and MSMP to up to twice the respective MICs of MIN,
      DOX and TFX, viable cells initially numbering 106 CFU/mL had decreased similarly
      to 103 CFU/mL after 4 days. Clarithromycin and azithromycin showed good
      bactericidal action against MSMP but not against MRMP. PAEs against MRMP appeared
      superior with MIN and DOX compared with TFX. In infection with M. pneumoniae
      having a generation time exceeding 6 h, a therapeutic agent must be selected in
      consideration of pharmacokinetic parameters, not MICs alone.

PMID- 28579456
TI  - Detection of the plasmid-mediated mcr-1 gene in clinical KPC-2-producing
      Escherichia coli isolates in Brazil.

PMID- 28579458
TI  - Cerium oxide nanoparticles promote HSA fibrillation in vitro.
AB  - Physicochemical characterization of CeO2NPs using UV-vis, FTIR and XRD have
      confirmed the characteristic identity and fluorite phase of their crystalline
      nature. The interaction studies between cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2NPs) and
      HSA were investigated using fluorescence emission and synchronous spectra, UV-vis
      absorbance, FTIR, FT-Raman and Circular Dichroism spectroscopy. Thermodynamic
      parameters and Stern-Volmer plot has conveyed the existence of the ground state
      complex raised due to static quenching. Synchronous and Three-Dimensional
      fluorescence spectra have conveyed the affinity of CeO2NPs towards Trp and Tyr
      residues. Results obtained from the FTIR and FT-Raman studies have evidenced
      minor changes in the amide and amino acid residues band position. Circular
      Dichroism studies have quantified the conformational changes due to the loss in
      their alpha helical contents of the secondary structures. Fibrillation studies
      using Congo red (CR), Thioflavin T (ThT) and Tryptophan emission (Trp) assay have
      suggested the promoting role of CeO2NPs against HSA fibrillation. CD studies have
      shown the enhanced percentage of beta sheet structures in the fibrillar samples
      that reconfirm the increased effect of CeO2NPs during the fibrillation process.

PMID- 28579459
TI  - Utilization of chemically modified pearl millet starches in preparation of
      custards with improved cold storage stability.
AB  - Custards were prepared using five ingredients: milk powder, modified pearl millet
      starch, sugar, vanilla essence and water. The effect of adding hydroxypropylated
      starch (HPS), succinylated starch (SUS), oxidised starch (OXS) and acetylated
      starch (ACS) on cold storage stability, pasting, textural and sensory properties
      was studied and compared to custards containing native pearl millet starch (NS).
      Interestingly, all chemically modified starches reduced syneresis and no water
      weeping was observed in custard sample incorporating hydroxypropylated starch
      (HPC) even after 7days of cold storage. Viscoamylographic analysis revealed that
      custard containing succinylated starch (SUC) had the highest peak viscosity
      (108.8 BU), whereas HPC showed the least set back viscosity (19.0 BU). Sensory
      results suggested that assessors preferred HPC over other custards. Custards are
      preferred for their chewy semi-solid texture. Incorporation of hydroxypropylated
      starch (HPS) increased hardness, gumminess and chewiness which subsequently led
      to higher sensory scores during subjective analysis. Also, no retrogradation peak
      was observed for HPS and acetylated starch (ACS) when rescanned after 14 days.
      Thus, it could be concluded that HPS could be used in custards to confer low
      temperature stability by reducing syneresis.

PMID- 28579457
TI  - Metformin ameliorates gender-and age-dependent hemodynamic instability and
      myocardial injury in murine hemorrhagic shock.
AB  - Severity of multiple organ failure is significantly impacted by age and gender in
      patients with hemorrhagic shock. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the
      enhanced organ injury are not fully understood. AMP-activated protein kinase
      (AMPK) is a pivotal orchestrator of metabolic responses during stress. We
      investigated whether hemorrhage-induced myocardial injury is age and gender
      dependent and whether treatment with metformin, an AMPK activator, affords
      cardioprotective effects. C57/BL6 young (3-5months) and mature (9-12months) male
      and female mice were subjected to hemorrhagic shock by blood withdrawing followed
      by resuscitation with blood and Lactated Ringer's solution. Vehicle-treated young
      and mature mice of both genders had a similar elevation of plasma inflammatory
      cytokines at 3h after resuscitation. However, vehicle-treated male mature mice
      experienced hemodynamic instability and higher myocardial damage than young male
      mice, as evaluated by echocardiography, histology and cardiovascular injury
      biomarkers. There was also a gender-dependent difference in cardiovascular injury
      in the mature group as vehicle-treated male mice exhibited more severe organ
      injury than female mice. At molecular analysis, vehicle-treated mature mice of
      both genders exhibited a marked downregulation of AMPKalpha activation and
      nuclear translocation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma co
      activator alpha when compared with young mice. Treatment with metformin improved
      cardiovascular function and survival in mature animals of both genders. However,
      specific cardioprotective effects of metformin were gender-dependent. Metformin
      did not affect hemodynamic or inflammatory responses in young animals. Thus, our
      data suggest that targeting metabolic recovery with metformin may be a potential
      treatment approach in severe hemorrhage in adult population.

PMID- 28579460
TI  - Structural characterization of an immunostimulating polysaccharide from the stems
      of a new medicinal Dendrobium species: Dendrobium Taiseed Tosnobile.
AB  - Dendrobium Taiseed Tosnobile, a new Dendrobium species developed by crossbreeding
      Dendrobium tosaense and Dendrobium nobile, exhibits the characteristics of high
      mass production and high polysaccharide content. This study investigated the
      structural characterization and immunostimulating effects of a polysaccharide
      isolated from D. Taiseed Tosnobile (DTTPS). DTTPS was fractioned using a DEAE
      650M column to obtain the major neutral polysaccharide (DTTPS-N). The structural
      characteristics of DTTPS-N were investigated through high-performance anion
      exchange chromatography, high-performance size exclusion chromatography, gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In
      the immunostimulating experiment, BALB/c mice were administered DTTPS (100 and
      300mg/kg) daily for 3 weeks. The results revealed that DTTPS-N comprised
      arabinose, galactose, glucose, mannose, and xylose at a ratio of
      1:1.5:3.0:29.9:1.3. DTTPS-N comprised (1->3; 1->4)-Man as the backbone, and its
      average molecular weight was 281kDa. Pharmacological experiments demonstrated
      that DTTPS substantially increased the population of splenic natural killer (NK)
      cells, NK cytotoxicity, macrophage phagocytosis, and cytokine induction. This is
      the first study to demonstrate the structural characteristics and
      immunopharmacological effects of an active polysaccharide derived from D. Taiseed
      Tosnobile.

PMID- 28579461
TI  - Covalently bonded pancreatic lipase onto the dithiocarbamate/chitosan-based
      magnetite: Stepwise fabrication of Fe3O4@CS/NHCS-Lip as a novel and promising
      nanobiocatalyst.
AB  - In the present paper, porcine pancreas lipase (PPL) was immobilized to a new
      version of magnetite via a novel stepwise dithiocarbamate/chitosan-based method
      in alternation to glutaraldehyde. Magnetic chitosan nanocomposite was post
      modified to produce dithiocarbamate moieties on the surface through amine
      functions. Then, immobilization of lipase was successfully achieved on the
      surface of magnetically separable Fe3O4@CS/NHCS2H via a post-modification. Each
      step of immobilization was carefully monitored by characterization and all were
      successfully proved. Comparison of immobilized enzyme with free enzyme showed
      that the method of immobilization is efficient.

PMID- 28579462
TI  - Enhancing the performance of starch-based wood adhesive by silane coupling
      agent(KH570).
AB  - To investigate the improved performance of silane coupling agents on starch-based
      wood adhesive, we prepared adhesive samples using gamma-Methacryloxypropyl
      trimethoxy silane(KH570) as a cross-linking agent.The results found that the
      addition of KH570 resulted in enhanced shear strength and storage stability. The
      addition of KH570 also promoted the thermal stability due to increase the number
      of covalent bonds.Furthermore, the KH570 enhanced the shear-thinning property and
      weakened the pseudoplastic behavior of the adhesive. The characterization of
      copolymers was carried out via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X
      ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and thermal analysis. The performing XPS analysis
      and morphological structures of adhesive were evaluated by X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In conclusion, 6%
      KH570 (KH570:starch, w;w) could be used to prepare starch-based wood adhesives
      with superior performance and stability.

PMID- 28579463
TI  - Modified apple polysaccharide prevents colitis through modulating IL-22 and IL
      22BP expression.
AB  - Chronic intestinal inflammation enhances cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and
      migration, then promotes the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). Many
      ingredients of apples have been proven to have anti-inflammatory properties, and
      show benefits for colitis treatment. In our previous studies, we found modified
      apple polysaccharide (MAP) could prevent colitis associated colorectal
      carcinogenesis effectively. Herein, we further our study to observe the effect of
      MAP on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis and to investigate the
      possible mechanisms. IL-22 has both pathogenic and protective effects during
      intestinal tissue damage. It could be neutralized by the soluble IL-22 receptor,
      known as the IL-22 binding protein (IL-22BP). A DSS-induced colitis mouse model,
      a mouse CRC cell line MCA-38 and a mouse dendritic cell line DC2.4 were treated
      with MAP. Western blot, ELISA, BrdU staining and a co-culture system were used to
      detect the expression of IL-22 and IL-22BP. MAP significantly protected ICR mice
      against DSS-induced colitis, and inhibited the growth of MCA-38 cells. The
      mechanisms may be that MAP down-regulated IL-22 level and up-regulated expression
      of IL-22BP. These data may provide another molecular basis for understanding how
      apples act to prevent colitis and suggest that MAP has a potential to treat
      colitis and prevent CRC.

PMID- 28579464
TI  - Extraction optimization, preliminary characterization and antioxidant activities
      of polysaccharides from Glycine soja.
AB  - Single-factor experiment and Central Composite Design (CCD) was applied to
      optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions of polysaccharides
      from Glycine soja (CGPS), and a preliminary characterization of three
      polysaccharide fractions (CGPS, GPS-1, and GPS-2) and their antioxidant
      activities were investigated. Under the optimal conditions: ratio of liquid to
      solid 42.7mL/g, extraction power 293.7W, extraction temperature 68.9 degrees C,
      and extraction time 34.7min, the experimental CGPS yield was 6.04mg/g. CGPS was
      further purified by DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex-100 chromatography to obtain two
      fractions (GPS-1 and GPS-2), and their monosaccharides compositions were
      characterized by HPLC. Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) indicated the
      chemical structures of them. Moreover, they exhibited high antioxidant activities
      in a concentration-dependent manner in vitro. In summary, the present study
      suggested that UAE was a very effective method to extract polysaccharides from
      Glycine soja and the polysaccharides could be explored as potential antioxidant
      agents for medicine and function food.

PMID- 28579465
TI  - Preparation and characterization of potato starch-thymol dispersion and film as
      potential antioxidant and antibacterial materials.
AB  - The antioxidant/antimicrobial capacity and physical properties of potato starch
      dispersions enriched with polysorbate-thymol micelle were investigated. Results
      showed that potato starch have radical scavenging and antibacterial activities
      only in the presence of polysorbate-thymol but with lower level than polysorbate
      thymol alone. The decrease in the antioxidant and antibacterial activities may be
      attributed to the encapsulation of thymol in the starch chain. Polysorbate-thymol
      caused a decrease in the particle size and viscosity and an increase in the zeta
      potential of the starch dispersions. Futhermore, polysorbate-thymol leads to a
      decrease in the tensile strength, rigidity and swelling, and an increase in the
      flexibility, solubility and water vapour permeability of the starch films. Atomic
      force microscopy revealed polysorbate-thymol micelles in the film matrix enclosed
      by polysaccharide crystal. Scanning electron microscope analysis indicated that
      polysorbate-thymol caused a coarse film microstructure with the distributed crack
      in the film matrix. Based on the results, the antioxidant and antibacterial
      activities of the starch-polysorbate-thymol make starch film suitable for food
      packaging and preservation.

PMID- 28579466
TI  - Zein/caseinate/pectin complex nanoparticles: Formation and characterization.
AB  - In this study, pectin was used as coating material to form zein/caseinate/pectin
      complex nanoparticles through pH adjustment and heating treatment for potential
      oral delivery applications. The preparation conditions were studied by applying
      heating treatment at different pHs, either the isoelectric point of zein (pH 6.2)
      or caseinate (pH 4.6), or consecutively at both pHs. The particulate
      characteristics, including particle size, polydispersity index, and zeta
      potential were monitored for complex nanoparticles formed under different
      preparation conditions. The complex nanoparticles generally exhibited particle
      size smaller than 200nm with narrow distribution, spherical shape, and strong
      negative charge. Fourier transform infrared and fluorescence spectroscopy
      revealed that hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds were involved in the
      formation of complex nanoparticles, in addition to electrostatic interactions.
      Fresh colloidal dispersion and freeze-dried powders varied in their morphology,
      depending on their preparation conditions. Our results suggested that heating pH
      and sequence significantly affected the morphology of complex nanoparticles, and
      pectin coating exerted stabilization effect under simulated gastrointestinal
      conditions. The present study provides insight into the formation of
      protein/polysaccharide complex nanoparticles under different preparation
      conditions.

PMID- 28579468
TI  - Gallic acid induced dose dependent inhibition of lysozyme fibrillation.
AB  - Amyloidosis is primarily characterized by the deposition of misfolded protein
      aggregates. Although the natural polyphenols have long been known as effective
      amyloid inhibitors, the mechanistic details of their inhibitory actions still
      remain unclear. Our present study explores the inhibition mechanism of
      polyphenols by studying the anti-amyloidogenic property of gallic acid (GA), the
      smallest structural unit of tea polyphenols, on hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) at
      physiological pH. Using various spectroscopic techniques such as UV-vis,
      fluorescence, circular dichroism and dynamic light scattering, and microscopic
      techniques such as TEM and FESEM, it has been shown that GA potentially inhibits
      the self-aggregation process in a concentration dependent manner. Gel
      electrophoresis studies suggest that the o-dihydroxy moiety of GA is oxidized
      into the quinone moiety and H2O2 in the system under the experimental conditions.
      The quinone binds near the hydrophobic region of HEWL and restricts hydrophobic
      exposure. Cyclic voltammetry studies reveal that the Met residues of HEWL are
      oxidized by H2O2 to highly polar sulfoxide-modified side chains. The partially
      unfolded intermediates formed under the denaturing conditions employed remain in
      contact with the solvent thus preventing further aggregation.

PMID- 28579467
TI  - Fluorescence switch biosensor based on quantum dots and gold nanoparticles for
      discriminative detection of lysozyme.
AB  - It is important to detect lysozyme (LYZ) in a simple and rapid manner because of
      its potential application in the treatment of diseases and in the food industry.
      In this study, it was observed that the strong fluorescence of LYZ-modified
      Quantum Dots (QDs-LYZ) could be effectively quenched by gold nanoparticle(AuNPs)
      modified with antibodies against LYZ (anti-LYZ) due to fluorescence resonance
      energy transfer (FRET) between QDs-LYZ and anti-LYZ-AuNPs. The fluorescence can
      be reversibly recovered by LYZ (on state) owing to specific competitive
      interactions between LYZ, QDs-LYZ and anti-LYZ-AuNPs. The interaction of QDs-LYZ
      with anti-LYZ-AuNPs was studied by absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Under optimal conditions, LYZ can be
      detected with a linear range of 50-1000ng/mL and a detection limit (LOD) of
      33.43ng/mL. This rapid and selective QD-based sensor was successfully applied for
      quantitation of LYZ in actual egg products. Furthermore, the strategy described
      in this report could be followed conveniently to establish similar immunosensors
      for the rapid detection of other proteins using corresponding antibodies.

PMID- 28579469
TI  - Helicobacter pylori, Its Urease and Carbonic Anhydrases, and Macrophage Nitric
      Oxide Synthase.

PMID- 28579470
TI  - Towards objective hand hygiene technique assessment: validation of the
      ultraviolet-dye-based hand-rubbing quality assessment procedure.
AB  - Ultraviolet spectrum markers are widely used for hand hygiene quality assessment,
      although their microbiological validation has not been established. A
      microbiology-based assessment of the procedure was conducted. Twenty-five
      artificial hand models underwent initial full contamination, then disinfection
      with UV-dyed hand-rub solution, digital imaging under UV-light, microbiological
      sampling and cultivation, and digital imaging of the cultivated flora were
      performed. Paired images of each hand model were registered by a software tool,
      then the UV-marked regions were compared with the pathogen-free sites pixel by
      pixel. Statistical evaluation revealed that the method indicates correctly
      disinfected areas with 95.05% sensitivity and 98.01% specificity.

PMID- 28579472
TI  - Identifying environmental reservoirs of Clostridium difficile with a scent
      detection dog: preliminary evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Prompted by an article describing a dog trained to detect
      Clostridium difficile in patients, our institution evaluated a dog's ability to
      detect C. difficile scent from equipment and surfaces to assist in strategic
      deployment of adjunctive cleaning measures. METHODS: An expert in drug and
      explosives scent dog handling trained a canine to identify odours from pure
      cultures and/or faecal specimens positive for C. difficile. Methods used to
      assess explosive and drug detection dogs were adapted and included evaluation of
      (i) odour recognition, using containers positive and negative for the scent of C.
      difficile, and of (ii) search capability, on a simulation ward with hidden
      scents. After demonstration that the canine could accurately and reliably detect
      the scent of C. difficile, formal assessments of all clinical areas began.
      FINDINGS: Odour recognition (N = 75 containers) had a sensitivity of 100% and
      specificity of 97%. Search capability was 80% sensitive and 92.9% specific after
      removal of results from one room where dog and trainer fatigue influenced
      performance. Both odour recognition and search capability had an overall
      sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 95.4%. The clinical unit sweeps over a
      period of five months revealed a sensitivity of 100% in alerting on positive
      quality control hides. These clinical unit sweeps also resulted in 83 alerts
      during 49 sweep days. CONCLUSION: A dog can be trained to accurately and reliably
      detect C. difficile odour from environmental sources to guide the best deployment
      of adjunctive cleaning measures and can be successfully integrated into a quality
      infection control programme.

PMID- 28579471
TI  - First case of vaccine-strain varicella infection as manifestation of HIV in
      healthcare worker: a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - Live-attenuated varicella vaccination is safe in non-immunocompromised
      populations and is associated with rare non-serious adverse events. A healthcare
      worker (HCW) developed varicella infection, and exposure investigation led to
      immunization against varicella in an exposed non-immune HCW. Subsequently,
      vaccine-strain-induced disseminated varicella and progressive outer retinal
      necrosis in the exposed HCW resulted in identification of undiagnosed human
      immunodeficiency virus infection. This article reviews serious adverse events
      from varicella vaccination, and extreme caution is advised prior to live
      vaccination of HCWs.

PMID- 28579473
TI  - Duodenal gangliocytic paraganglioma: Endoscopy, sonography and F-18 FDG PET/CT
      imaging.

PMID- 28579474
TI  - Cytology brushing of a pancreas cyst wall for the diagnosis of cystic
      neuroendocrine tumor: When FNA fails.

PMID- 28579475
TI  - "Turning the outside in": Bariatric gastroplication.

PMID- 28579476
TI  - Modeling neurodegenerative diseases with patient-derived induced pluripotent
      cells: Possibilities and challenges.
AB  - The rising prevalence of progressive neurodegenerative diseases coupled with
      increasing longevity poses an economic burden at individual and societal levels.
      There is currently no effective cure for the majority of neurodegenerative
      diseases and disease-affected tissues from patients have been difficult to obtain
      for research and drug discovery in pre-clinical settings. While the use of animal
      models has contributed invaluable mechanistic insights and potential therapeutic
      targets, the translational value of animal models could be further enhanced when
      combined with in vitro models derived from patient-specific induced pluripotent
      stem cells (iPSCs) and isogenic controls generated using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated
      genome editing. The iPSCs are self-renewable and capable of being differentiated
      into the cell types affected by the diseases. These in vitro models based on
      patient-derived iPSCs provide the opportunity to model disease development,
      uncover novel mechanisms and test potential therapeutics. Here we review findings
      from iPSC-based modeling of selected neurodegenerative diseases, including
      Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and spinocerebellar ataxia.
      Furthermore, we discuss the possibilities of generating three-dimensional (3D)
      models using the iPSCs-derived cells and compare their advantages and
      disadvantages to conventional two-dimensional (2D) models.

PMID- 28579478
TI  - Absolute venomics: Absolute quantification of intact venom proteins through
      elemental mass spectrometry.
AB  - : We report the application of a hybrid element and molecular MS configuration
      for the parallel absolute quantification of MUHPLC-separated intact sulfur
      containing venom proteins, via ICP triple quadrupole MS and 32S/34S isotope
      dilution analysis, and identification by ESI-QToF-MS of the toxins of the
      medically important African black-necked spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis
      (Tanzania); New Guinea small-eyed snake, Micropechis ikaheka; and Papuan black
      snake, Pseudechis papuanus. The main advantage of this approach is that only one
      generic sulfur-containing standard is required to quantify each and all intact
      Cys- and/or Met-containing toxins of the venom proteome. The results of absolute
      quantification are in reasonably good agreement with previously reported relative
      quantification of the most abundant protein families. However, both datasets
      depart in the quantification of the minor ones, showing a tendency for this set
      of proteins to be underestimated in standard peptide-centric venomics approaches.
      The molecular identity, specific toxic activity, and concentration in the venom,
      are the pillars on which the toxicovenomics-aimed discovery of the most medically
      relevant venom toxins, e.g. those that need to be neutralized by an effective
      therapeutic antivenom, should be based. The pioneering venom proteome-wide
      absolute quantification shown in this paper represents thus a significant advance
      towards this goal. The potential of ICP triple quadrupole MS in proteomics in
      general, and venomics in particular, is critically discussed. BIOLOGICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: Animal venoms provide excellent model systems for investigating
      interactions between predators and prey, and the molecular mechanisms that
      contribute to adaptive protein evolution. On the other hand, numerous cases of
      snake bites occur yearly by encounters of humans and snakes in their shared
      natural environment. Snakebite envenoming is a serious global public health issue
      that affects the most impoverished and geopolitically disadvantaged rural
      communities in many tropical and subtropical countries. Unveiling the temporal
      and spatial patterns of venom variability is of fundamental importance to
      understand the molecular basis of envenoming, a prerequisite for developing
      therapeutic strategies against snakebite envenoming. Research on venoms has been
      continuously enhanced by advances in technology. The combined application of next
      generation transcriptomic and venomic workflows has demonstrated unparalleled
      capabilities for venom characterization in unprecedented detail. However, mass
      spectrometry is not inherently quantitative, and this analytical limitation has
      sparked the development of methods to determine absolute abundance of proteins in
      biological samples. Here we show the potential of a hybrid element and molecular
      MS configuration for the parallel ESI-QToF-MS and ICP-QQQ detection and absolute
      quantification of intact sulfur-containing venom proteins via 32S/34S isotope
      dilution analysis. This configuration has been applied to quantify the toxins of
      the medically important African snake Naja nigricollis (Tanzania), and the Papuan
      species Micropechis ikaheka and Pseudechis papuanus.

PMID- 28579477
TI  - Two highly divergent lineages of exfoliative toxin B-encoding plasmids revealed
      in impetigo strains of Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Exfoliative toxin B (ETB) encoded by some large plasmids plays a crucial role in
      epidermolytic diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureus. We have found as yet
      unknown types of etb gene-positive plasmids isolated from a set of impetigo
      strains implicated in outbreaks of pemphigus neonatorum in Czech maternity
      hospitals. Plasmids from the strains of clonal complex CC121 were related to
      archetypal plasmid pETBTY4. Sharing a 33-kb core sequence including virulence
      genes for ETB, EDIN C, and lantibiotics, they were assigned to a stand-alone
      lineage, named pETBTY4-based plasmids. Differing from each other in the content
      of variable DNA regions, they formed four sequence types. In addition to them, a
      novel unique plasmid pETB608 isolated from a strain of ST130 was described.
      Carrying conjugative cluster genes, as well as new variants of etb and edinA
      genes, pETB608 could be regarded as a source of a new lineage of ETB plasmids. We
      have designed a helpful detection assay, which facilitates the precise
      identification of the all described types of ETB plasmids.

PMID- 28579479
TI  - Anti-obesogenic and hypolipidemic effects of a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor
      agonist derived from the saliva of the Gila monster.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor (R) agonists are a class
      of incretin mimetic drugs that have been used for the treatment of type 2
      diabetes mellitus and also considered strong candidates for the treatment of
      obesity. The original prototypical drug in this class is the exenatide, a
      synthetic peptide with the same structure as the native molecule, exendin-4,
      found in the saliva of the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum suspectum lizard).
      OBJECTIVES: To identify and compare the anti-obesogenic, antidyslipidemic and
      antidiabetogenic effects of agonism in GLP-1R by exenatide on two distinct models
      of obesity: induced by hypothalamic injury (MSG) or high-calorie diet (DIO).
      METHODS: To obtain MSG, neonatal rats were daily subcutaneously injected with 4 g
      monosodium glutamate/kg, for 10 consecutive days. To obtain DIO, 72-75 days old
      rats received hyperlipid food and 30% sucrose for drinking up to 142-145 days
      old. Untreated healthy rats with the same age were used as control. General
      biometric and metabolic parameters were measured. RESULTS: MSG was characterized
      by decreased naso-anal length, food and fluid intake, plasma protein and glucose
      decay rate per minute after insulin administration (KITT), as well as increased
      Lee index (body mass0.33/naso-anal length), mass of retroperitoneal and
      periepididymal fat pads, glycemia, triglycerides (TG), LDL and VLDL. Exenatide
      ameliorated KITT and food and fluid intake, and it also restored glycemia in MSG.
      DIO was characterized by glucose intolerance, increased body mass, Lee index,
      fluid intake, mass of retroperitoneal and periepididymal fat pads, glycemia,
      glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), TG, VLDL and total cholesterol, as well as decreased
      food intake and KITT. Exenatide restored glycemia, HbA1c, TG, VLDL, total
      cholesterol and body mass, and it also ameliorated food and fluid intake, KITT
      and mass of retroperitoneal fat pad in DIO. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothalamic injury
      and the high-calorie diet induce dyslipidemia and glycemic dysregulation in
      addition to obesity in rats. The usual therapeutic dose of exenatide in humans is
      antidiabetogenic in both these obesity models, but is anti-obesogenic and
      hypolipidemic only in diet-induced obesity. Agonists of GLP-1R are promising anti
      obesogenic and antidyslipidemic drugs in the early stages of the obesity, in
      which the integrity of the nervous system was unaffected.

PMID- 28579480
TI  - Sensory reactivity, empathizing and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions and
      sensory processing disorder.
AB  - Although the DSM-5 added sensory symptoms as a criterion for ASC, there is a
      group of children who display sensory symptoms but do not have ASC; children with
      sensory processing disorder (SPD). To be able to differentiate these two
      disorders, our aim was to evaluate whether children with ASC show more sensory
      symptomatology and/or different cognitive styles in empathy and systemizing
      compared to children with SPD and typically developing (TD) children. The study
      included 210 participants: 68 children with ASC, 79 with SPD and 63 TD children.
      The Sensory Processing Scale Inventory was used to measure sensory symptoms, the
      Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to measure autistic traits, and the Empathy
      Quotient (EQ) and Systemizing Quotient (SQ) to measure cognitive styles. Across
      groups, a greater sensory symptomatology was associated with lower empathy.
      Further, both the ASC and SPD groups showed more sensory symptoms than TD
      children. Children with ASC and SPD only differed on sensory under-reactivity.
      The ASD group did, however, show lower empathy and higher systemizing scores than
      the SPD group. Together, this suggest that sensory symptoms alone may not be
      adequate to differentiate children with ASC and SPD but that cognitive style
      measures could be used for differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28579482
TI  - Precuneus degeneration and isolated apathy in patients with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To investigate isolated apathy in a set of consecutively enrolled
      Parkinson's disease (PD) patients without dementia, depression, and significant
      motor response fluctuations, by conducting neuropsychological and neuroimaging
      analyses. METHODS: One hundred twenty-four patients were eligible for inclusion
      in this study. Clinical information and data were collected from a predefined
      neuropsychological test battery, including the mini-mental status examination,
      apathy scale, geriatric depression scale, digit span test, Boston naming test,
      Seoul verbal learning test, controlled oral word association test, go-no-go test,
      and the Rey figure copy test. From matched groups of 10 non-apathetic and 12
      apathetic patients in the initial cohort and 9 healthy controls,
      [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and volumetric magnetic
      resonance images were acquired. RESULTS: Apathy was detected in 59.7% of the
      initial cohort. Apathetic patients had lower scores in the digit span forward,
      digit span backward, and immediate recall of verbal learning tests than did those
      without apathy (p <0.05). The results were unaffected by parkinsonian motor
      severity and medication dose. Neuroimaging analyses revealed precuneus atrophy
      and hypometabolism in patients with isolated apathy. These precuneus changes were
      well-correlated with apathy severity (p <0.001). Apathy severity was also
      positively correlated with gray matter volume in the superior frontal gyrus and
      cerebellar vermis, and with metabolism in the medial frontal and anterior
      cingulate regions (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: PD patients with isolated apathy
      showed attention and working memory dysfunction, and precuneus degeneration might
      be related to this distinctive nonmotor symptom in PD.

PMID- 28579483
TI  - S-nitrosylation of GAD65 is implicated in decreased GAD activity and oxygen
      induced seizures.
AB  - Breathing oxygen at partial pressures >=2.5 atmospheres absolute, which can occur
      in diving and hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy, can rapidly become toxic to the
      central nervous system (CNS). This neurotoxicity culminates in generalized EEG
      epileptiform discharges, tonic-clonic convulsions and ultimately death. Increased
      production of neuronal nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated in eliciting
      hyperoxic seizures by altering the equilibrium between glutamatergic and
      GABAergic synaptic transmission. Inhibition of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)
      activity in HBO2 promotes this imbalance; however, the mechanisms by which this
      occurs is unknown. Therefore, we conducted a series of experiments using mice, a
      species that is highly susceptible to CNS oxygen toxicity, to explore the
      possibility that NO modulates GABA metabolism. Mice were exposed to 100% oxygen
      at 4 ATA for various durations, and brain GAD and GABA transaminase (GABA-T)
      activity, as well as S-nitrosylation of GAD65 and GAD67 were determined. HBO2
      inhibited GAD activity by 50% and this was negatively correlated with S
      nitrosylation of GAD65, whereas GABA-T activity and S-nitrosylation of GAD67 were
      unaltered. These results suggest a new mechanism by which NO alters GABA
      metabolism, leading to neuroexcitation and seizures in HBO2.

PMID- 28579481
TI  - Scientific Advances in Thoracic Oncology 2016.
AB  - Lung cancer care is rapidly changing with advances in genomic testing, the
      development of next-generation targeted kinase inhibitors, and the continued
      broad study of immunotherapy in new settings and potential combinations. The
      International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the Journal of
      Thoracic Oncology publish this annual update to help readers keep pace with these
      important developments. Experts in thoracic cancer and care provide focused
      updates across multiple areas, including prevention and early detection,
      molecular diagnostics, pathology and staging, surgery, adjuvant therapy,
      radiotherapy, molecular targeted therapy, and immunotherapy for NSCLC, SCLC, and
      mesothelioma. Quality and value of care and perspectives on the future of lung
      cancer research and treatment have also been included in this concise review.

PMID- 28579484
TI  - Acylethanolamides and endocannabinoid signaling system in dorsal striatum of rats
      exposed to perinatal asphyxia.
AB  - Endocannabinoids (eCBs) and acylethanolamides (AEs) have lately received more
      attention due to their neuroprotective functions in neurological disorders. Here
      we analyze the alterations induced by perinatal asphyxia (PA) in the main
      metabolic enzymes and receptors of the eCBs/AEs in the dorsal striatum of rats.
      To induce PA, we used a model developed by Bjelke et al. (1991).
      Immunohistochemical techniques were carried out to determine the expression of
      neuronal and glial markers (NeuN and GFAP), eCBs/AEs synthesis and degradation
      enzymes (DAGLalpha, NAPE-PLD and FAAH) and their receptors (CB1 and PPARalpha).
      We found a decrease in NAPE-PLD and PPARalpha expression. Since NAPE-PLD and
      PPARalpha take part in the production and reception of biochemical actions of
      AEs, such as oleoylethanolamide, these results may suggest that PA plays a key
      role in the regulation of this system. These data agree with previous results
      obtained in the hippocampus and encourage us to develop further studies using AEs
      as potential neuroprotective compounds.

PMID- 28579485
TI  - Cerebral metabolic change in Parkinson's disease patients with anxiety: A FDG-PET
      study.
AB  - OBJECT: To detect the cerebral metabolic bases of Parkinson's disease (PD)
      patients with anxiety. METHODS: Totally 28 idiopathic PD patients without
      depression (17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, HAMD score <14) were
      enrolled in our study. All subjects were classified into PD with anxiety (PD-A)
      (n=13) and PD without anxiety (PD-NA) (n=15) by cutoff score of 11 according to
      Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA). Besides, age- and gender- matched healthy
      controls (HCs) (n=15) were selected. A resting-state F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose
      positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan was applied to estimate cerebral
      metabolic activity. All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS
      Statistics V20.0.0 software, while statistical parametric mapping software (SPM)
      was used to analyze the FDG-PET images. RESULTS: PD-A showed decreased glucose
      metabolism in the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC, BA10 and BA11) when
      compared with PD-NA. Significant decrease of cerebral glucose metabolism in the
      bilateral OFC, bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA, BA6), bilateral dorsal
      anterior cingulate cortex (dACC, BA32), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
      (dlPFC, BA9), right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC, BA44), right putamen
      and left caudatum was detected in PD-A compared with HCs. There was significant
      reduced glucose metabolism of the bilateral SMA in PD-NA when compared with HCs
      (uncorrected p<0.005). CONCLUSION: The anxiety of PD was associated with the
      metabolic reductions of PFC and striatal areas. OFC, part of PFC, could be taken
      as a characteristic feature for anxiety in PD. This metabolic pattern suggested
      that deficits of prefrontostriatal pathways might affect anxiety mood in PD.

PMID- 28579486
TI  - No effect of C1473G polymorphism in the tryptophan hydroxylase 2 gene on the
      response of the brain serotonin system to chronic fluoxetine treatment in mice.
AB  - Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are antidepressants that block
      serotonin transporter (SERT) and increase serotonin (5-HT) level in the synaptic
      cleft. The interaction between SERT and the key enzyme of 5-HT synthesis in the
      brain, tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2), is essential to maintain the brain 5-HT
      level. The G allele of C1473G polymorphism in Tph2 gene decreases enzyme activity
      by half in mouse brain. Here we studied effect of C1473G polymorphism on the
      reaction of brain 5-HT system to chronic fluoxetine treatment (120mg/l in
      drinking water, for 3 weeks) in adult males of the congenic B6-1473C and B6-1473G
      mouse lines with high and low enzyme activity, respectively. The polymorphism did
      not affect the levels of 5-HT, its metabolite, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5
      HIAA) and Tph2 gene mRNA in the brain. Fluoxetine significantly attenuated 5-HT
      levels in the cortex and striatum, 5-HIAA concentrations in the cortex,
      hippocampus, striatum and midbrain, and Tph2 gene expression in the midbrain.
      However, we did not observed any effect of the genotype x treatment interaction
      on these neurochemical characteristics. Therefore, C1473G polymorphism does not
      seem to play an essential role in the reaction of the brain 5-HT system to
      chronic fluoxetine treatment.

PMID- 28579488
TI  - Effective cell-free drug screening protocol for protein-protein interaction.
AB  - Specific protein-protein interaction (PPI) is an essential feature of many
      cellular processes however, targeting these interactions by small molecules is
      highly challenging due to the nature of the interaction interface. Thus,
      screening for PPI inhibitors requires enormous number of compounds. Here we
      describe a simple and improved protocol designed for a search of direct PPI
      inhibitors. We engineered a bacterial expression system for the split-Renilla
      luciferase (RL) complementation assay that monitors PPI. This enables production
      of large quantities of the RL fusion proteins in a simple and cost effective
      manner that is suitable for very large screens. Subsequently, inhibitory
      compounds are analyzed in a similar complementation assay in living cultured
      mammalian cells to select for those that can penetrate cells. We applied this
      method to NF-kappaB, a family of dimeric transcription factors that plays central
      roles in immune responses, cell survival and aging, and its dysregulation is
      linked to many pathological states. This strategy led to the identification of
      several direct NF-kappaB inhibitors. As the described protocol is very
      straightforward and robust it may be suitable for many pairs of interacting
      proteins.

PMID- 28579489
TI  - A Novel Protocol for Planning and Navigation in Craniofacial Surgery: A
      Preclinical Surgical Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: In modern craniofacial surgery, the accuracy of osteotomies plays a
      central role in surgical technique. To reach a higher level of accuracy, many
      centers use virtual presurgical planning. In the past decade, some surgeons also
      have applied navigational approaches to craniofacial procedures. In this work, a
      novel protocol for surgical planning and intraoperative navigation is described
      and validated in a preclinical setting to determine its accuracy in guiding
      osteotomies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was based on planning a set of
      osteotomies using 3-dimensional models of computed tomographic images of human
      skulls. The planned osteotomies were reproduced on real skulls using an optical
      infrared navigation system. Positions of the performed osteotomies and planned
      osteotomies were compared. Results were described as the mean positional error
      and as a Lin concordance coefficient. The Bland-Altman interval of agreement also
      was defined to assess a range that could include 95% of possible errors. RESULTS:
      The mean error was 0.044 mm (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.128 to +0.216), the
      Lin concordance interval was 0.999 (95% CI, 0.999-1.000), and the Bland-Altman
      limit of agreement ranged from -1.500 to +1.589 mm. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      show a submillimetric mean error and a very narrow interval of agreement,
      providing preclinical validation of this new protocol and suggesting that it
      could be applied in a clinical setting.

PMID- 28579487
TI  - Intoxication by gamma hydroxybutyrate and related analogues: Clinical
      characteristics and comparison between pure intoxication and that combined with
      other substances of abuse.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the profile of European gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and
      gammabutyrolactone (GBL) intoxication and analyse the differences in the clinical
      manifestations produced by intoxication by GHB/GBL alone and in combination with
      other substances of abuse. METHOD: We prospectively collected data on all the
      patients attended in the Emergency Departments (ED) of the centres participating
      in the Euro-DEN network over 12 months (October 2013 to September 2014) with a
      primary presenting complaint of drug intoxication (excluding ethanol alone) and
      registered the epidemiological and clinical data and outcomes. RESULTS: We
      included 710 cases (83% males, mean age 31 years), representing 12.6% of the
      total cases attended for drug intoxication. Of these, 73.5% arrived at the ED by
      ambulance, predominantly during weekend, and 71.7% consumed GHB/GBL in
      combination with other substances of abuse, the most frequent additional agents
      being ethanol (50%), amphetamine derivatives (36%), cocaine (12%) and cannabis
      (8%). Among 15 clinical features pre-defined in the project database, the 3 most
      frequently identified were altered behaviour (39%), reduced consciousness (34%)
      and anxiety (14%). The severity ranged from mild cases requiring no treatment
      (308 cases, 43.4%) to severe cases requiring admission to intensive care (103
      cases, 14.6%) and mechanical ventilation (49 cases, 6.9%). No deaths were
      reported. In comparison with only GHB/GBL consumption, patients consuming GHB/GBL
      with co-intoxicants presented more vomiting (15% vs. 3%, p<0.001) and
      cardiovascular symptoms (5.3% vs. 1.5%, p<0.05), a greater need for treatment
      (59.8% vs. 48.3%, p<0.01) and a longer ED stay (11.3% vs. 3.6% patients with ED
      stay >12h, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The profile of the typical GHB/GBL-intoxicated
      European is a young male, requiring care for altered behaviour and reduced level
      of consciousness, mainly during the weekend. The clinical features are more
      severe when GHB is consumed in combination with other substances of abuse.

PMID- 28579490
TI  - Habituation is altered in neuropsychiatric disorders-A comprehensive review with
      recommendations for experimental design and analysis.
AB  - Abnormalities in the simplest form of learning, habituation, have been reported
      in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders as etiologically diverse as Autism
      Spectrum Disorder, Fragile X syndrome, Schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease,
      Huntington's Disease, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Tourette's
      Syndrome, and Migraine. Here we provide the first comprehensive review of what is
      known about alterations in this form of non-associative learning in each
      disorder. Across several disorders, abnormal habituation is predictive of symptom
      severity, highlighting the clinical significance of habituation and its
      importance to normal cognitive function. Abnormal habituation is discussed within
      the greater framework of learning theory and how it may relate to disease
      phenotype either as a cause, symptom, or therapy. Important considerations for
      the design and interpretation of habituation experiments are outlined with the
      hope that these will aid both clinicians and basic researchers investigating how
      this simple form of learning is altered in disease.

PMID- 28579491
TI  - Recommendation to reconsider examining cannabis subtypes together due to opposing
      effects on brain, cognition and behavior.
AB  - Cannabis use represents a major public health issue throughout the globe. Yet, we
      still lack the most fundamental knowledge on long-term effects of cannabis on
      neural, cognitive, and behavioral function. Part of this stems from how cannabis
      has been measured historically. To this end, most empirical examinations of
      cannabis have consolidated all types of cannabis collectively. However, this
      approach obscures differences in how cannabinoids operate. In this commentary, we
      address the contrasting properties of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol
      (CBD) and their opposing effects on cognitive function. In addition, we address
      the increase in cannabis potency throughout the past two decades and how that
      impacts generalizability of early data to evaluations of contemporary public
      health. We underscore the urgent need for future research to disaggregate
      examination of THC from CBD, along with the importance of measuring cannabis
      potency to more effectively unravel its influence on cognitive function and other
      health issues.

PMID- 28579493
TI  - Sex-specific effects of leisure-time physical activity on cause-specific
      mortality in NHANES III.
AB  - Associations between leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and all-cause
      mortality seem quite strong, however, less is known about the association of LTPA
      and cause-specific mortality. To examine this association data from the Third
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), including 15,307
      individuals of the non-institutionalized civilian United States population, were
      used. Data were collected from 1988 to 1994 with a mortality follow-up until
      2006. LTPA was assessed during home interviews in which participants specified
      their LTPA and the performed frequency during the past month. Cox proportional
      hazards regression models were applied to analyze the risk of cause-specific
      mortality regarding LTPA. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)
      were computed. An inverse association of LTPA with CVD mortality was observed for
      men and women combined for irregular (HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.51-0.85), and for regular
      activity (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.47-0.72). An inverse association of LTPA with CVD
      mortality was observed only in women for irregular (HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.49-0.84)
      and for regular activity (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.43-0.72). In men, no significant
      associations were seen. For mortality caused by respiratory diseases, a decreased
      mortality was also observed in the combined group (men and women) but after
      separating according to sex a decreased mortality was only observed in women. No
      statistically significant association of LTPA with cancer mortality was observed.
      Our data support an inverse association between LTPA and CVD and respiratory
      disease mortality in women, but not in men, and no associations with cancer.

PMID- 28579492
TI  - Characterizing the course of non-suicidal self-injury: A cognitive neuroscience
      perspective.
AB  - Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has received increasing recognition as a
      clinically significant phenomenon. Although in most individuals who engage in
      NSSI, this behavior is short-lived, for a significant proportion of these
      individuals, NSSI follows a chronic course. There is a need for research
      advancing our understanding of the mechanisms of risk for NSSI, and how these
      mechanisms may change over time to account for the persistence of this behavior.
      In the current paper, a conceptual framework is proposed for characterizing the
      processes underlying the transition from initial engagement in NSSI to a chronic
      trajectory of this behavior. In particular, a case is made for conceptualizing
      NSSI as a habitual behavior as defined within a cognitive neuroscience
      perspective, with support from the existing theoretical and empirical literature.
      Finally, potential mechanisms are articulated for the development of chronic NSSI
      within this conceptual framework and recommendations presented for empirically
      evaluating this conceptualization of NSSI in future research in this area.

PMID- 28579494
TI  - Body height and mortality - mortality follow-up of four Swiss surveys.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adult body height is largely determined by genetics, but also by
      dietary factors, which in turn depend on socioeconomic status and lifestyle. We
      examined the association between adult body height and mortality in Switzerland,
      a country with three main language regions with different cultural background.
      METHODS: We included 16,831 men and 18,654 women, who participated in Swiss
      population-based health surveys conducted 1977-1993 and who were followed up
      until end of 2008. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were computed to
      examine the association of body height with overall, cardiovascular, and cancer
      mortality. RESULTS: We observed a positive association between adult body height
      and all-cause mortality in women (HR=1.34, 95% CI 1.10-1.62, tallest vs. average
      women). In men, mortality risk decreased with increasing height, with shortest
      men tending to have higher (1.06, 0.94-1.19) and tallest men a lower (0.94, 0.77
      1.14) risk compared with men of average height (p-trend 0.0001). Body height was
      associated with cancer mortality in women, such that tallest women had a higher
      risk of dying from cancer than women of average height (1.37, 1.02-1.84), but
      there was no such association in men (0.95, 0.69-1.30). In both sexes, height was
      not associated with cardiovascular mortality in a statistically significant
      manner. CONCLUSION: Our study does not support an inverse association of body
      height with all-cause mortality. On the contrary, our data suggests a higher
      overall risk in taller women, mainly driven by a positive association between
      body height and cancer mortality.

PMID- 28579495
TI  - Healthy lifestyle and glucagon-like peptide-1 in young and healthy adults: A
      population-based study.
AB  - A healthy lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events and
      mortality, but underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The aim of our
      study was to investigate the relationships between a healthy lifestyle and
      glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), an incretin hormone with both glycemic and
      cardiovascular properties. Healthy participants aged 25-41years without
      cardiovascular disease, diabetes or a body mass index (BMI) >35kg/m2 were
      enrolled in a population-based study. The following metrics were used to build a
      lifestyle score ranging from 0 to 7 (a higher score indicating a healthier
      lifestyle): blood pressure (BP) (<120/80mmHg), plasma levels of glycated
      hemoglobin (<5.7%), total cholesterol levels (<200mg/dl), BMI (<25kg/m2), not
      smoking cigarettes, moderate (>=150min/week) or vigorous (>=75min/week) physical
      activity and a healthy diet. Among 2133 participants median age was 36.7years and
      53.3% were female. GLP-1 levels decreased significantly from 39.5 to 30.9ng/l
      (p<0.0001) across increasing lifestyle score categories. This linear relationship
      persisted in multivariable adjusted linear regression models (B for GLP-1 per 1
      unit increase of the lifestyle score -0.06; 95% confidence intervals -0.07, 
      0.04; p<0.0001). Individual health metrics that were significantly associated
      with GLP-1 were a normal BMI (-0.07; -0.12, -0.03; p=0.001), low total
      cholesterol levels (-0.07; -0.12, -0.03; p=0.001), normal BP (-0.05; -0.10, 
      0.00; p=0.047) and not smoking (-0.06; -0.10, -0.01; p=0.01). A healthy lifestyle
      is strongly associated with lower GLP-1 levels in young and healthy adults.

PMID- 28579496
TI  - Prevalence of use and perceptions of risk of novel and other alternative tobacco
      products among sexual minority adults: Results from an online national survey,
      2014-2015.
AB  - Sexual minority (lesbian, gay, and bisexual [LGB]) populations experience
      disparities in cigarette use, but sparse evidence exists about novel and other
      alternative tobacco product use. In this study, we compared rates of novel and
      other alternative tobacco product use, risk perceptions, and worldview between
      LGB and heterosexual (HET) adults. An online survey administered in 2014-2015,
      using a weighted probability sample of 11,525 U.S. adults, assessed awareness of
      tobacco products; ever and current use of e-cigarettes, cigars, little cigars and
      cigarillos, and hookahs; perceptions of e-cigarettes; and worldview
      (individualism vs. communitarianism). Bivariate and adjusted multivariable
      analyses were performed to determine differences between LGB and HET groups. In
      the adjusted analyses, LGB adults were 1.5 times more likely to have ever used e
      cigarettes (95% CI 1.2-1.9) and 1.9 times more likely to have ever used hookahs
      (95% CI 1.5-2.4) as compared to HET adults. A lower percentage of LGB adults, as
      compared to HET adults (16.7% vs. 19.2%), believed that exposure to vapors from e
      cigarettes was "harmful" and reported that they "did not know" of any harm (35.1%
      vs. 39.8%). LGB were 20% less likely than were HET adults to endorse an
      individualistic worldview. These results suggest that a disparity exists, whereby
      LGB adults are more likely to have used e-cigarettes and hookahs. In addition,
      although vapor from e-cigarettes contains nicotine and other chemicals, LGB
      adults are less likely to perceive exposure to secondhand vapor as harmful.
      Tailored awareness campaigns and interventions are needed to convey the risks and
      curb use of these products.

PMID- 28579497
TI  - High-risk human papillomavirus detection in self-sampling compared to physician
      taken smear in a responder population of the Dutch cervical screening: Results of
      the VERA study.
AB  - In 2017 the cervical cancer screening program in The Netherlands will be revised.
      Cervical smears will primarily be tested for the presence of high-risk human
      papillomavirus (hrHPV) instead of cytology, and vaginal self-sampling will be
      offered to non-responders. This includes a potential risk that part of the women
      who would otherwise opt for a cervical smear will wait for self-sampling.
      However, self-sampling for hrHPV in a responder population has never been studied
      yet. The aim of this study was to investigate the applicability and accuracy of
      self-sampling in detecting hrHPV in a screening responder population. A total of
      2049 women, aged 30-60years, participating in the screening program in The
      Netherlands were included from April 2013 to May 2015. After they had their
      cervical smear taken, women self-collected a cervicovaginal sample with a brush
      based device, the Evalyn Brush. Both the cervical smear and self-sample specimen
      were tested with the COBAS 4800 HPV platform. The hrHPV prevalence was 8.0% (95%
      CI 6.9-9.2) among the physician-taken samples, and 10.0% (95% CI 8.7-11.3) among
      the self-samples. There was 96.8% (95% CI 96.0-97.5) concordance of hrHPV
      prevalence between self-samples and physician-taken samples. Women in our study
      evaluated self-sampling as convenient (97.1%), user-friendly (98.5%), and 62.8%
      preferred self-sampling over a physician-taken sampling for the next screening
      round. In conclusion, self-sampling showed high concordance with physician-taken
      sampling for hrHPV detection in a responder screening population and highly
      acceptable to women. Implementation of HPV-self-sampling for the responder
      population as a primary screening tool may be considered.

PMID- 28579498
TI  - Re-evaluating the effect of age on physical activity over the lifespan.
AB  - Advancements in accelerometer analytic and visualization techniques allow
      researchers to more precisely identify and compare critical periods of physical
      activity (PA) decline by age across the lifespan, and describe how daily PA
      patterns may vary across age groups. We used accelerometer data from the 2003
      2006 cohorts of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
      (n=12,529) to quantify total PA as well as PA by intensity across the lifespan
      using sex-stratified, age specific percentile curves constructed using
      generalized additive models. We additionally estimated minute-to-minute diurnal
      PA using smoothed bivariate surfaces. We found that from childhood to adolescence
      (ages 6-19) across sex, PA is sharply lower by age partially due to a later
      initiation of morning PA. Total PA levels, at age 19 are comparable to levels at
      age 60. Contrary to prior evidence, during young adulthood (ages 20-30) total and
      light intensity PA increases by age and then stabilizes during midlife (ages 31
      59) partially due to an earlier initiation of morning PA. We additionally found
      that males compared to females have an earlier lowering in PA by age at midlife
      and lower total PA, higher sedentary behavior, and lower light intensity PA in
      older adulthood; these trends seem to be driven by lower PA in the afternoon
      compared to females. Our results suggest a re-evaluation of how emerging
      adulthood may affect PA levels and the importance of considering time of day and
      sex differences when developing PA interventions.

PMID- 28579499
TI  - Changes in cigarette prices, affordability, and brand-tier consumption after a
      tobacco tax increase in Thailand: Evidence from the Global Adult Tobacco Surveys,
      2009 and 2011.
AB  - Despite the 2009 implementation of a tobacco tax increase in Thailand, smoking
      rates remained unchanged between 2009 and 2011. Prior evidence has linked
      cigarette tax increases to compensatory behaviours aimed at lowering the cost of
      smoking, such as switching to lower-priced cigarette brands. Using data from 2009
      and 2011 Global Adult Tobacco Surveys in Thailand, we estimated unadjusted
      changes in cigarette prices paid, cigarette affordability, and consumption of
      cigarettes in three price categories classified as upper-, middle-, and lower
      priced brand tiers (or price tertiles). We used ordered logit regression to
      analyse the correlates of price-tier choice and to estimate the change in price
      tier consumption adjusted for demographic and region characteristics. Between
      2009 and 2011, real cigarette prices increased, but the affordability of
      cigarettes remained unchanged overall. There was a significant reduction in the
      consumption of cigarette brands in the top price-tier overall, accompanied by
      increases in the consumption of brands in the bottom and middle price-tiers,
      depending on the region. Adjusted estimates from the logit models indicate that,
      on average, the proportion of smokers selecting brands from upper- and middle
      price-tiers decreased while consumption of lower price-tier brands increased
      during the study period. The estimated shifts in consumption from more expensive
      to less expensive cigarette brands and the overall lack of change in cigarette
      affordability in Thailand between 2009 and 2011 are both factors that may have
      contributed to the observed lack of change in smoking rates after the 2009 tax
      increase.

PMID- 28579500
TI  - Balance is key: Exploring the impact of daily self-reported physical activity and
      sedentary behaviours on the subjective health status of older adults.
AB  - Research has identified physical activity and sedentary behaviours as independent
      predictors of successful aging; however, few studies have explored interactions
      between these constructs in relation to older adult health. The present study
      utilized data from the General Social Survey (Cycle 24) to calculate proportion
      of time engaging in sedentary and physically active behaviours during waking
      hours, and examined its impact on self-rated health and physical health
      limitations (e.g., difficulty walking) in older adults (N=3557; >=65years).
      Results suggest this proportion has a significant impact on three health
      measures; as proportion of daily minutes becomes more physically active or less
      sedentary, the better one's health status tends to be. Specifically, the
      proportion was positively associated with self-rated general health (ORPoor
      Excellent=17.57; p<0.05) and self-rated mental health (ORPoor-Excellent=4.68;
      p<0.05). Reporting health limitations was less likely to occur with increases in
      the proportion (OR=0.30; p<0.05). These findings suggest the need for further
      examining daily time-balances between physical activity and sedentary behaviours
      in order to create a comprehensive health profile for older adults.

PMID- 28579501
TI  - The contribution of rising adiposity to the increasing prevalence of diabetes in
      the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We assessed the contribution of increasing adiposity to the rising
      prevalence of diabetes in the United States over the period 1988-2014. RESEARCH
      DESIGN AND METHODS: Data from NHANES III (1988-1994) and continuous waves (1999
      2014) were pooled for the current study. Diabetes status was assessed using data
      on Hemoglobin A1c. We estimated a multivariable logistic regression model that
      predicted the odds of having diabetes as a function of age, sex, racial/ethnic
      group, educational attainment, and period of observation. At a second stage, we
      introduced measures of general and abdominal adiposity into the model. Changes in
      coefficients pertaining to period of observation between the first and second
      models were interpreted as indicating the extent to which adiposity can account
      for trends in the prevalence of diabetes. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to
      investigate how alternative definitions of adiposity and diabetes status would
      affect results. RESULTS: The predicted prevalence of diabetes rose by 2.59%/yr
      between 1988 and 2014 after adjusting for changes in population composition.
      Increasing adiposity explained 72% of the rise in diabetes. Results were
      consistent for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Rising levels of adiposity explained
      the large majority of the rise in diabetes prevalence between 1988 and 2014.

PMID- 28579502
TI  - Sugary beverage taxation in South Africa: Household expenditure, demand system
      elasticities, and policy implications.
AB  - South Africa faces a severe and growing obesity epidemic. Obesity and its co
      morbidities raise public and private expenditures on healthcare. Sugary beverages
      are heavily consumed in South Africa and are linked to the onset of overweight
      and obesity. Excise taxation of sugary beverages has been proposed and adopted in
      other settings as a means to reduce harms from their consumption. A tax on the
      sugar content of non-alcoholic beverages has been proposed for implementation in
      South Africa, however, the public health effects and revenue raising potential of
      this measure hinges on estimates of the targeted beverages own- and cross-price
      elasticities. This study applies demand system methods by combining expenditure
      survey data and sub-national price data to provide the first estimates of price
      and expenditure elasticities for categories of soft drinks that would be subject
      to South Africa's proposed sugary beverage tax. The results suggest that demand
      for these products is sufficiently price-elastic such that a significant
      reduction in consumption may result from a tax.

PMID- 28579503
TI  - Effect of the good school toolkit on school staff mental health, sense of job
      satisfaction and perceptions of school climate: Secondary analysis of a cluster
      randomised trial.
AB  - The Good School Toolkit, a complex behavioural intervention delivered in Ugandan
      primary schools, has been shown to reduce school staff-perpetrated physical
      violence against students. We aimed to assess the effect of this intervention on
      staff members' mental health, sense of job satisfaction and perception of school
      climate. We analysed data from a cluster-randomised trial administered in 42
      primary schools in Luwero district, Uganda. The trial was comprised of cross
      sectional baseline (June/July 2012) and endline (June/July 2014) surveys among
      staff and students. Twenty-one schools were randomly selected to receive the
      Toolkit, whilst 21 schools constituted a wait-listed control group. We generated
      composite measures to assess staff members' perceptions of the school climate and
      job satisfaction. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01678846). No
      schools dropped out of the study and all 591 staff members who completed the
      endline survey were included in the analysis. Staff in schools receiving the
      Toolkit had more positive perspectives of their school climate compared to staff
      in control schools (difference in mean scores 2.19, 95% Confidence Interval 0.92,
      3.39). We did not find any significant differences for job satisfaction and
      mental health. In conclusion, interventions like the Good School Toolkit that
      reduce physical violence by school staff against students can improve staff
      perceptions of the school climate, and could help to build more positive working
      and learning environments in Ugandan schools.

PMID- 28579504
TI  - The Impact and Effectivity of an Inventory Survey for a Stroke Registry in Iwate
      Prefecture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The accuracy of a stroke registration program in Iwate prefecture was
      greatly affected by cooperation from medical facilities and doctors in the field.
      The number of registered cases from noncore hospitals was less, but the accuracy
      of registration was unknown. This report presents the impact and effectivity of
      an inventory survey of the stroke registry. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Details of
      subjects living in coastal and northern regions of Iwate Prefecture who developed
      a cerebrovascular attack between 2012 and 2014 were obtained from the Iwate
      Stroke Registry through an inventory survey. Annual incidence rate from core
      hospitals and noncore hospitals were compared. To evaluate factors registered
      from noncore hospitals, multivariate analyses were performed for sex, age, living
      area, type of stroke, and past history of cerebrovascular diseases. RESULTS:
      Annual crude incidence rate for 100,000 residual populations were 428.8 in men
      and 351.2 in women from core hospitals and 38.5 in men and 43.7 in women from
      noncore hospitals. Ratios of noncore hospitals against all the hospitals were
      8.3% for men and 11.1% for women. Multivariate analyses for age, ischemic type of
      stroke, past history of cerebrovascular diseases, and living in areas without a
      core hospital were significant; however, sex was not a significant factor.
      CONCLUSION: The inventory survey of the stroke registry program in the Iwate
      prefecture was useful to prevent missing data of stroke cases from noncore
      hospitals, including patients who are elderly, with ischemic stroke onset, with a
      past history of stroke, or living in areas without core hospitals.

PMID- 28579505
TI  - Relationship between Post-Thrombolysis Blood Pressure and Outcome in Acute
      Ischemic Stroke Patients Undergoing Thrombolysis Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The management of blood pressure (BP) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS)
      patients undergoing thrombolysis is still under debate. The purpose of this study
      was (1) to explore the association between post-thrombolysis BP and functional
      outcome and (2) to examine whether post-thrombolysis BP can predict functional
      outcome in Chinese AIS patients undergoing thrombolysis therapy. METHODS: From
      December 2012 to November 2016, AIS patients undergoing thrombolysis were
      reviewed retrospectively in the Department of Neurology at Xuanwu Hospital. The
      BP levels were measured before and immediately after thrombolysis. Clinical
      outcomes, which comprised favorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale score 0-2) and
      unfavorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale score 3-6) at 3 months, were analyzed
      by logistic regression model. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used
      to evaluate the predictive value of post-thrombolysis BP. RESULTS: Patients with
      unfavorable outcome at 3 months had a higher post-thrombolysis systolic BP than
      those with favorable outcome (P = .015). Multivariate analysis showed that post
      thrombolysis systolic BP below 159.5 mm Hg was associated with favorable outcome.
      According to the receiver operating characteristic curve, post-thrombolysis
      systolic BP was a predictor of functional outcome with an area under the curve of
      .573 (95% confidence interval = .504-.642). CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that
      post-thrombolysis systolic BP is a predictor of functional outcome for Chinese
      AIS patients undergoing thrombolysis therapy. It is reasonable for AIS patients
      to keep post-thrombolysis systolic BP below 159.5 mm Hg to obtain a favorable
      outcome.

PMID- 28579506
TI  - Does Perturbation Training Prevent Falls after Discharge from Stroke
      Rehabilitation? A Prospective Cohort Study with Historical Control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with stroke fall frequently, and no exercise intervention
      has been shown to prevent falls post stroke. Perturbation-based balance training
      (PBT), which involves practicing reactions to instability, shows promise for
      preventing falls in older adults and individuals with Parkinson's disease. This
      study aimed to determine if PBT during inpatient stroke rehabilitation can
      prevent falls after discharge into the community. METHODS: Individuals with
      subacute stroke completed PBT as part of routine inpatient rehabilitation (n =
      31). Participants reported falls experienced in daily life for up to 6 months
      post discharge. Fall rates were compared to a matched historical control group
      (HIS) who did not complete PBT during inpatient rehabilitation. RESULTS: Five of
      31 PBT participants, compared to 15 of 31 HIS participants, reported at least 1
      fall. PBT participants reported 10 falls (.84 falls per person per year) whereas
      HIS participants reported 31 falls (2.0 falls per person per year). When
      controlled for follow-up duration and motor impairment, fall rates were lower in
      the PBT group than the HIS group (rate ratio: .36 [.15, .79]; P = .016).
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that PBT is promising for reducing falls post
      stroke. While this was not a randomized controlled trial, this study may provide
      sufficient evidence for implementing PBT in stroke rehabilitation practice.

PMID- 28579507
TI  - A Case of Ruptured Vertebrobasilar Junction Aneurysm Associated with Subclavian
      Steal Phenomenon.
AB  - A 77-year-old woman with arteriovenous shunt for hemodialysis in the left forearm
      suffered from subarachnoid hemorrhage due to the rupture of a saccular aneurysm
      located on the left lateral wall of vertebrobasilar junction. Her left subclavian
      artery was severely stenosed and subclavian steal phenomenon was demonstrated on
      the digital subtraction angiography. Embolization of the parent artery including
      the aneurysm using detachable coils resulted in the successful obliteration of
      the aneurysm through the revascularized left subclavian artery. This is the first
      case in which the vertebrobasilar junction aneurysm would be caused by the
      hemodynamic stress due to the subclavian steal phenomenon combined with the shunt
      for hemodialysis in the left forearm.

PMID- 28579508
TI  - Decompressive Hemicraniectomy for Malignant Middle Cerebral Artery Stroke: South
      Asian Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The randomized trials showed improved outcome and reduced mortality
      in malignant middle cerebral artery (MMCA) undergoing Decompressive
      hemicraniectomy (DHC) within 48 hours of stroke onset. Despite high prevalence of
      stroke, especially in younger individuals, high and short-term mortality from
      stroke in South Asian and Middle East, there is little published data on DHC in
      patients with MMCA stroke. METHODS: This is a retrospective, multicenter cross
      sectional study to measure outcome following DHC using the modified Rankin Scale
      (mRS) and dichotomized as favorable (mRS <= 4) or unfavorable (mRS > 4), at 3
      months. RESULTS: In total, 137 patients underwent DHC. At 90 days, mortality was
      16.8%; 61.3% of patients survived with an mRS of 4 or less and 38.7% had an mRS
      greater than 4. Age (55 years), diabetes (P = .004), hypertension (P = .021),
      pupillary abnormality (P = .048), uncal herniation (P = .007), temporal lobe
      involvement (P = .016), additional infarction (MCA + anterior cerebral artery,
      posterior cerebral artery) (P = .001), and infarction growth rates (P = .025)
      were significantly higher in patients with unfavorable prognosis in univariate
      analysis. Multivariate analysis showed age, additional infarction, septum
      pellucidum deviation greater than 1 cm, and uncal herniation to be associated
      with a significantly poor prognosis. Time to surgery had no impact on outcome (P
      = .109). CONCLUSIONS: Similar to the results of the studies from the West, DHC
      Improves functional outcome in predominantly South Asian patients with MMCA
      Stroke.

PMID- 28579509
TI  - Real-Time Distal, Multifocal, Repeated Lenticulostriate Bleeding Points during
      Thrombectomy in a Patient with Acute Variable M1 Occlusion: A Case Report and a
      Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracerebral hemorrhage can be classified as either primary or
      secondary to various conditions such as vascular anomalies or stroke. We present
      a case of real-time incident detected on digital subtraction angiography (DSA)
      during thrombectomy in a patient with acute variable M1 occlusion. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A comprehensive literature search of the PubMed and Scopus databases was
      conducted: this is the first real-time visualization using DSA of a basal ganglia
      hematoma formation secondary to distal multifocal bleeding points just before a
      thrombectomy in a patient with acute variable M1 occlusion. CONCLUSION: We
      suggest that the positions of the clot before and during the procedure be
      compared always.

PMID- 28579510
TI  - An Examination of Stroke Risk and Burden in South Asians.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Asians (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and
      Bhutan) are at a disproportionately higher risk of stroke and heart disease due
      to their cardiometabolic profile. Despite evidence for a strong association
      between diabetes and stroke, and growing stroke risk in this ethnic minority
      notwithstanding reports of higher stroke mortality irrespective of country of
      residence-the explanation for the excess risk of stroke remains unknown. METHODS:
      We have used extensive literature review, epidemiologic studies, morbidity and
      mortality records, and expert opinions to examine the burden of stroke among
      South Asians, and the risk factors identified thus far. RESULTS: We summarize
      existing evidence and indicate gaps in current knowledge of stroke epidemiology
      among South Asian natives and immigrants. CONCLUSIONS: This research focuses
      attention on a looming epidemic of stroke mainly due to modifiable risk factors,
      but also new determinants that might aggravate the effect of vascular risk
      factors in South Asians causing more disabling strokes and death.

PMID- 28579511
TI  - Streamlining Workflow for Endovascular Mechanical Thrombectomy: Lessons Learned
      from a Comprehensive Stroke Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, 5 randomized controlled trials confirmed the superiority of
      endovascular mechanical thrombectomy (EMT) to intravenous thrombolysis in acute
      ischemic stroke with large-vessel occlusion. The implication is that our health
      systems would witness an increasing number of patients treated with EMT. However,
      in-hospital delays, leading to increased time to reperfusion, are associated with
      poor clinical outcomes. This review outlines the in-hospital workflow of the
      treatment of acute ischemic stroke at a comprehensive stroke center and the
      lessons learned in reduction of in-hospital delays. METHODS: The in-hospital
      workflow for acute ischemic stroke was described from prehospital notification to
      femoral arterial puncture in preparation for EMT. Systematic review of literature
      was also performed with PubMed. RESULTS: The implementation of workflow
      streamlining could result in reduction of in-hospital time delays for patients
      who were eligible for EMT. In particular, time-critical measures, including
      prehospital notification, the transfer of patients from door to computed
      tomography (CT) room, initiation of intravenous thrombolysis in the CT room, and
      the mobilization of neurointervention team in parallel with thrombolysis, all
      contributed to reduction in time delays. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified issues
      resulting in in-hospital time delays and have reported possible solutions to
      improve workflow efficiencies. We believe that these measures may help stroke
      centers initiate an EMT service for eligible patients.

PMID- 28579512
TI  - Homocysteine up-regulates endothelin type A receptor in vascular smooth muscle
      cells through Sirt1/ERK1/2 signaling pathway.
AB  - Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) is a longevity gene that has protective effects in
      cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The endothelin type A (ETA) receptor is involved
      in pathogenesis of CVDs. The extracellular signal related kinases 1 and 2
      (ERK1/2) signaling pathway is involved in regulation of the ETA receptor induced
      by some CVD risk factors in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).
      Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor for CVDs. The present
      study was designed to investigate the hypothesis that homocysteine up-regulates
      ETA receptor through the Sirt1/ERK1/2 signaling pathway. In vitro experiments
      were performed in the rat superior mesenteric artery. The rat superior mesenteric
      artery was cultured with or without homocysteine (Hcy) in the presence and
      absence of Resveratrol (Res, a Sirt1 agonist), SRT1720 (a specific Sirt1 agonist)
      or U0126 (an ERK1/2 signaling pathway inhibitor) in serum-free medium for 24h. In
      vivo, the rats received subcutaneous injections of Hcy in the presence of or
      absence of Res or U0126 for 3weeks. The contractile response to ET-1 was studied
      using a sensitive myograph. In addition, the level of protein expression was
      determined using western blotting. Hcy significantly increased the expression of
      ETA receptor and also increased the ETA receptor-mediated contractile response
      induced by ET-1 in vitro. These effects were inhibited by Res, SRT1720 and U0126
      treatment. In addition, Hcy down-regulated the level of Sirt1, and up-regulated
      the level of phosphorylated ERK1/2, which was reversed upon Res or SRT1720
      treatment. In vivo results showed that HHcy results in the up-regulation of ETA
      receptor expression, and elevated blood pressure in rats. However, Res and U0126
      could block these effects, respectively. In conclusion, these results suggest
      that Hcy regulates ETA receptor expression via the Sirt1/ERK1/2 signaling pathway
      in VSMCs.

PMID- 28579513
TI  - MicroRNAs and altered metabolism of clear cell renal cell carcinoma: Potential
      role as aerobic glycolysis biomarkers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Warburg Effect is a metabolic switch that occurs in most of cancer
      cells but its advantages are not fully understood. This switch is known to happen
      in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which is the most common solid cancer of the adult
      kidney. RCC carcinogenesis is related to pVHL loss and Hypoxia Inducible Factor
      (HIF) activation, ultimately leading to the activation of several genes related
      to glycolysis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression at a post
      transcriptional level and are also deregulated in several cancers, including RCC.
      SCOPE OF REVIEW: This review focuses in the miRNAs that direct target enzymes
      involved in glycolysis and that are deregulated in several cancers. It also
      reviews the possible application of miRNAs in the improvement of clinical
      patients' management. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Several miRNAs that direct target
      enzymes involved in glycolysis are downregulated in cancer, strongly influencing
      the Warburg Effect. Due to this strong influence, FDG-PET can possibly benefit
      from measurement of these miRNAs. Restoring their levels can also bring an
      improvement to the current therapies. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Despite being known
      for almost a hundred years, the Warburg Effect is not fully understood. MiRNAs
      are now known to be intrinsically connected with this effect and present an
      opportunity to understand it. They also open a new door to improve current
      diagnosis and prognosis tests as well as to complement current therapies. This is
      urgent for cancers like RCC, mostly due to the lack of an efficient screening
      test for early relapse detection and follow-up and the development of resistance
      to current therapies.

PMID- 28579514
TI  - Recognition of long-range enhancer-promoter interactions by adding genomic
      signatures of segmented regulatory regions.
AB  - Enhancer-promoter interaction (EPI) is an important cis-regulatory mechanism in
      the regulation of tissue-specific gene expression. However, it still has
      limitation to precisely identity these interactions so far. In this paper, using
      diverse genomic features for various regulatory regions, we presented a
      computational approach to predict EPIs with improved accuracies. Meanwhile, we
      comprehensively studied more potential regulatory factors that are important to
      EPIs prediction, such as nucleosome occupancy, enhancer RNA; and found the cell
      line-specificity and region-specificity of the contributions of diverse
      regulatory signatures. By adding genomic signatures of segmented regulatory
      regions, our best accuracies of cross-validation test were about 11%-16% higher
      than the previous results, indicating the location-specificity of genomic
      signatures in a regulatory region for predicting EPIs. Additionally, more
      training samples and related features can provide reliable performances in new
      cell lines. Consequently, our study provided additional insights into the roles
      of diverse signature features for predicting long-range EPIs.

PMID- 28579515
TI  - ChromBiSim: Interactive chromatin biclustering using a simple approach.
AB  - : Combinatorial patterns of histone modifications sketch the epigenomic locale.
      Specific positions of these modifications in the genome are marked by the
      presence of such signals. Various methods highlight such patterns on global scale
      hence missing the local patterns which are the actual hidden combinatorics. We
      present ChromBiSim, an interactive tool for mining subsets of modifications from
      epigenomic profiles. ChromBiSim efficiently extracts biclusters with their
      genomic locations. It is the very first user interface based and multiple cell
      type handling tool for decoding the interplay of subsets of histone modifications
      combinations along their genomic locations. It displays the results in the forms
      of charts and heat maps in accordance with saving them in files which could be
      used for post analysis. ChromBiSim tested on multiple cell types produced in
      total 803 combinatorial patterns. It could be used to highlight variations among
      diseased versus normal cell types of any species. AVAILABILITY: ChromBiSim is
      available at (http://sourceforge.net/projects/chrombisim) in C-sharp and python
      languages.

PMID- 28579516
TI  - A model of differentiation in quantum bioinformatics.
AB  - Differentiation is a universal process found in various phenomena of nature. As
      seen in the example of cell differentiation, the creation diversity on
      individual's character is caused by environmental interactions. In this paper, we
      try to explain its mechanism, which has been discussed mainly in Biology, by
      using the formalism of quantum physics. Our approach known as quantum
      bioinformatics shows that the temporal change of statistical state called
      decoherence fits to describe non-local phenomena like differentiation.

PMID- 28579517
TI  - Early regional wall distension is strongly associated with vulnerability to
      ventricular fibrillation but not arrhythmia triggers following coronary occlusion
      in vivo.
AB  - Wall stress may favor ischemic ventricular arrhythmias, yet its association with
      ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular ectopy has been inconsistent among
      studies and its potential arrhythmogenicity across the cardiac cycle is unclear.
      In 91 open-chest pigs undergoing 40-50 min left anterior descending artery
      occlusion, we assessed the association between diastolic or systolic distension
      of the ischemic area and the incidence of ventricular premature beats (VPBs) and
      VF. End-diastolic segment length (EDL) and systolic bulging ([maximum systolic
      length-EDL] * 100/EDL) were measured by ultrasonic crystals. Fifteen minutes
      after occlusion, EDL increased to 112.7 +/- 5.6% of baseline (P < 0.001) and
      systolic bulging averaged 3.4 +/- 2.2%. Median VPB number was 52 (IQR, 16-110), 2
      (0-7) in phase Ia and 49 (13-94) in phase Ib. VF occurred in 26 animals (28.6%),
      the first episode appearing 24 +/- 6 min after occlusion. EDL increase was
      associated with subsequent VF (115.9 +/- 5.7 and 111.4 +/- 5.1% in animals with
      and without VF, P < 0.001) and with the number of VF episodes (P = 0.001) but not
      with VPB number, overall (r = 0.028, P = 0.801) or in phases Ia or Ib. Systolic
      bulging was related neither to VF occurrence (3.2 +/- 2.2 and 3.5 +/- 2.2%,
      respectively, P = 0.561) nor to VBP number (r = 0.095, P = 0.397). EDL increase
      predicted VF after adjusting for ischemic area size and K+ levels (odds ratio for
      1% increase: 1.17, 95%CI 1.06-1.29, P = 0.001). Thus, diastolic regional
      ventricular distension predicts VF occurrence after coronary occlusion whereas
      neither diastolic nor systolic distension is associated with ventricular ectopy,
      which suggests that distension favors VF by acting on the arrhythmic substrate
      but not on arrhythmia triggers.

PMID- 28579518
TI  - Cognitive impairment in agricultural workers and nearby residents exposed to
      pesticides in the Coquimbo Region of Chile.
AB  - Chronic exposure to organophosphate pesticides is a worldwide public health
      concern associated with several psychiatric disorders and dementia. Most existing
      studies on the effects of pesticides only evaluate agricultural workers.
      Therefore, this study sought to establish if individuals indirectly exposed to
      pesticides, such as residents in agricultural areas, also suffer cognitive
      impairments. Neuropsychological evaluations were carried out on three groups
      (n=102): agricultural workers directly exposed to pesticides (n=32), individuals
      living in agricultural areas indirectly (i.e. environmentally) exposed to
      pesticides (n=32), and an unexposed control group (n=38). The assessed cognitive
      processes included memory, executive functions, attention, language praxis, and
      visuoconstruction. The direct exposure group performed significantly lower in
      executive function, verbal fluency, and visual and auditory memory tests than the
      indirect exposure group, which, in turn, performed worse than the unexposed
      group. Even after adjusting for age, gender, and educational level, both exposure
      groups showed higher rates of cognitive deficit than control individuals. In
      conclusion, both direct and indirect chronic exposure to pesticides affects
      cognitive functioning in adults and, consequently, actions should be taken to
      protect the health of not only agricultural workers, but also of residents in
      agricultural areas.

PMID- 28579519
TI  - Contributions of polygenic risk for obesity to PTSD-related metabolic syndrome
      and cortical thickness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
      associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and that PTSD-associated MetS is
      related to decreased cortical thickness. However, the role of genetic factors in
      these associations is unclear. This study evaluated contributions of polygenic
      obesity risk and PTSD to MetS and of MetS and polygenic obesity risk to cortical
      thickness. METHODS: 196 white, non-Hispanic veterans of the wars in Iraq and
      Afghanistan underwent clinical diagnostic interviews, physiological assessments,
      and genome-wide genotyping; 168 also completed magnetic resonance imaging scans.
      Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for obesity were calculated from results of a prior
      genome-wide association study (Speliotes et al., 2010) and PTSD and MetS severity
      factor scores were obtained. RESULTS: Obesity PRS (beta=0.15, p=0.009) and PTSD
      (beta=0.17, p=0.005) predicted MetS and interacted such that the association
      between PTSD and MetS was stronger in individuals with greater polygenic obesity
      risk (beta=0.13, p=0.02). Whole-brain vertex-wise analyses suggested that obesity
      PRS interacted with MetS to predict decreased cortical thickness in left rostral
      middle frontal gyrus (beta=-0.40, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that
      PTSD, genetic variability, and MetS are related in a transactional fashion
      wherein obesity genetic risk increases stress-related metabolic pathology, and
      compounds the ill health effects of MetS on the brain. Genetic proclivity towards
      MetS should be considered in PTSD patients when prescribing psychotropic
      medications with adverse metabolic profiles. Results are consistent with a
      growing literature suggestive of PTSD-related accelerated aging.

PMID- 28579521
TI  - Evaluation of S100B blood level as a biomarker to avoid computed tomography in
      patients with mild head trauma under antithrombotic medication.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of this prospective study was to analyze the potential of S100B
      protein as a negative predictive marker for intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) after
      mild head trauma (MHT) in patient under antithrombotic medication. METHODS:
      Patients under antithrombotic medication who had MHT were consecutively included
      in this study. S100B blood levels were determined from samples drawn within
      6hours after injury and were analyzed with the results of head CT performed
      within the 24hours after injury. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive
      value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) of S100B levels for the detection
      of ICH, with a cut-off set at 0.105MUg/L, were calculated. RESULTS: A total of
      308 patients (151 men and 157 women) with a mean age of 79.1+/-10.5years (SD)
      were included in the analysis. CT was positive for the presence of ICH in 33
      patients (10.7%; 95% CI: 7.5-14.7%). In the study population, S100B showed a
      sensitivity of 84.8% (95%CI: 68.1-94.9%), a specificity of 30.2% (95% CI: 24.8
      36.0%), a NPV of 94.3% (95% CI: 87.2-98.1%), and a PPV of 12.7% (95% CI: 8.6
      17.9%) for the diagnosis of ICH. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest
      that a S100B serum level<0.105MUg/L has a high NPV for ICH after mild head trauma
      in patients under antithrombotic medication.

PMID- 28579522
TI  - Thermal ablation and immunomodulation: From preclinical experiments to clinical
      trials.
AB  - Accumulating evidence has shown that thermal ablation can induce spontaneous
      distant tumor regression, which is also known as abscopal effect. Abscopal effect
      might depend upon the activation of antitumor immune response. However, such
      responses induced by thermal ablation had been thought to be usually weak and
      that they rarely induce distant tumor regression. Recently, results of several
      preclinical and clinical studies have suggested that thermal ablation can induce
      therapeutically effective systemic antitumor immune response if appropriate
      immunomodulators are combined. To elucidate the mechanisms of these promising
      strategies, effects of thermal ablation on the immune system are overviewed.
      Furthermore, recent promising preclinical and clinical studies examining
      enhancement of systemic antitumor immune response by combining thermal ablation
      and immunomodulation are summarized.

PMID- 28579523
TI  - Efficacy of Spirulina platensis diet supplements on disease resistance and immune
      related gene expression in Cyprinus carpio L. exposed to herbicide atrazine.
AB  - The present study evaluated the immunotoxicological effects of the herbicide
      atrazine (ATZ) at sub-lethal concentrations and the potential ameliorative
      influence of Spirulina platensis (SP) over a sub-chronic exposure period on
      Cyprinus carpio L., also known as common carp. Common carp was sampled after a 40
      days exposure to ATZ (428 MUg/L) and SP (1%), individually or in combination to
      assess the non-specific immune response, changes in mRNA expression of immune
      related genes [lysozyme (LYZ), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and complement component 3
      (C3)] in the spleen, and inflammatory cytokines (interleukins IL-1beta and IL-10)
      in the head kidney using real-time PCR. Additionally, disease resistance to
      Aeromonas sobria was evaluated. The results revealed that ATZ exposure caused a
      significant decline in most of the hematological variables, lymphocyte viability,
      and lysozyme and bactericidal activity. Moreover, ATZ increased the
      susceptibility to disease, reflected by a significantly lower post-challenge
      survival rate of the carp. ATZ may induce dysregulated expression of immune
      related genes leading to downregulation of mRNA levels of IgM and LYZ in the
      spleen. However, expression of C3 remained unaffected. Of the cytokine-related
      genes examined, IL-1B was up-regulated in the head kidney. In contrast, the
      expression of IL-10 gene was down-regulated in the ATZ-exposed group. The SP
      supplementation resulted in a significant improvement in most indices; however,
      these values did not match with that of the controls. These results may conclude
      that ATZ affects both innate and adaptive immune responses through the negative
      transcriptional effect on genes involved in immunity and also due to the
      inflammation of the immune organs. In addition, dietary supplements with SP could
      be useful for modulation of the immunity in response to ATZ exposure, thereby
      presenting a promising feed additive for carps in aquaculture.

PMID- 28579520
TI  - Live imaging of the innate immune response in neonates reveals differential TLR2
      dependent activation patterns in sterile inflammation and infection.
AB  - Activation of microglial cells in response to brain injury and/or immune stimuli
      is associated with a marked induction of Toll-like receptors (TLRs). While in
      adult brain, the contribution of individual TLRs, including TLR2, in
      pathophysiological cascades has been well established, their role and spatial and
      temporal induction patterns in immature brain are far less understood. To examine
      whether infectious stimuli and sterile inflammatory stimuli trigger distinct TLR2
      mediated innate immune responses, we used three models in postnatal day 9 (P9)
      mice, a model of infection induced by systemic endotoxin injection and two models
      of sterile inflammation, intra-cortical IL-1beta injection and transient middle
      cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). We took advantage of a transgenic mouse model
      bearing the dual reporter system luciferase/GFP under transcriptional control of
      a murine TLR2 promoter (TLR2-luc-GFP) to visualize the TLR2 response in the
      living neonatal brain and then determined neuroinflammation, microglial
      activation and leukocyte infiltration. We show that in physiological postnatal
      brain development the in vivo TLR2-luc signal undergoes a marked ~30-fold decline
      and temporal-spatial changes during the second and third postnatal weeks. We then
      show that while endotoxin robustly induces the in vivo TLR2-luc signal in the
      living brain and increases levels of several inflammatory cytokines and
      chemokines, the in vivo TLR2-luc signal is reduced after both IL-1beta and tMCAO
      and the inflammatory response is muted. Immunofluorescence revealed that
      microglial cells are the predominant source of TLR2 production during postnatal
      brain development and in all three neonatal models studied. Flow cytometry
      revealed developmental changes in CD11b+/CD45+ and CD11b+/Ly6C+ cell populations,
      involvement of cells of the monocyte lineage, but lack of Ly6G+ neutrophils or
      CD3+ cells in acutely injured neonatal brains. Cumulatively, our results suggest
      distinct TLR2 induction patterns following PAMP and DAMP - mediated inflammation
      in immature brain.

PMID- 28579524
TI  - Characterization and expression analysis of grouper (Epinephelus coioides) co
      stimulatory molecules CD83 and CD80/86 post Cryptocaryon irritans infection.
AB  - Co-stimulatory molecules (CD83, CD80 and CD86), belong to immunoglobulin
      superfamily, are type I membrane glycoprotein, which express on antigen
      presenting cells and provide the second signal for the activation of T
      lymphocytes. In the present study, we cloned the grouper's CD83 (675 bp) and
      CD80/86 (876 bp). Homology analysis showed that both EcCD83 and EcCD80/86 shares
      the highest amino acid similarity (51% and 47%) for the overall sequence with
      puffer fish (Takifugu rubripes). Some conserved features and important functional
      residues in mammalian CD83, CD80 and CD86 were also identified from these
      molecules of teleosts including grouper, suggesting the function of both
      molecules may be conserved among vertebrates. In transfected HEK293T cells, both
      molecules localized on the membrane surface. Tissue distribution analysis showed
      both EcCD83 and EcCD80/86 mRNAs were mainly expressed in immune organs, and
      EcCD80/86 was extremely higher expressed in mucosal immune tissues including skin
      and gill than systematic immune organs, which indicates these co-stimulatory
      molecules may prime T cell activation in local mucosal tissues. In Cryptocaryon
      irritans infected groupers, the expression level of EcCD83 and EcCD80/86 were
      both seen significant up-regulation in the skin at most tested time points.

PMID- 28579525
TI  - Evolutionary conserved mechanisms pervade structure and transcriptional
      modulation of allograft inflammatory factor-1 from sea anemone Anemonia viridis.
AB  - Gene family encoding allograft inflammatory factor-1 (AIF-1) is well conserved
      among organisms; however, there is limited knowledge in lower organisms. In this
      study, the first AIF-1 homologue from cnidarians was identified and characterised
      in the sea anemone Anemonia viridis. The full-length cDNA of AvAIF-1 was of 913
      bp with a 5' -untranslated region (UTR) of 148 bp, a 3'-UTR of 315 and an open
      reading frame (ORF) of 450 bp encoding a polypeptide with149 amino acid residues
      and predicted molecular weight of about 17 kDa. The predicted protein possesses
      evolutionary conserved EF hand Ca2+ binding motifs, post-transcriptional
      modification sites and a 3D structure which can be superimposed with human
      members of AIF-1 family. The AvAIF-1 transcript was constitutively expressed in
      all tested tissues of unchallenged sea anemone, suggesting that AvAIF-1 could
      serve as a general protective factor under normal physiological conditions.
      Moreover, we profiled the transcriptional activation of AvAIF-1 after challenges
      with different abiotic/biotic stresses showing induction by warming conditions,
      heavy metals exposure and immune stimulation. Thus, mechanisms associated to
      inflammation and immune challenges up-regulated AvAIF-1 mRNA levels. Our results
      suggest its involvement in the inflammatory processes and immune response of A.
      viridis.

PMID- 28579526
TI  - Overview of human genetic susceptibility to malaria: From parasitemia control to
      severe disease.
AB  - Malaria is a life-threatening blood disease caused by the protozoan Plasmodium.
      Infection may lead to several different patterns of symptoms in the host:
      asymptomatic state, uncomplicated disease or severe disease. Severe malaria
      occurs mostly in young children and is a major cause of death. Disease is thought
      to result from the sequestration of parasites in the small blood vessels of the
      brain and the deregulation of key immune system elements. The cellular and
      molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of disease are
      however not fully understood. What is known it is that the genetic determinants
      of the host play an important role in the severity of the disease and the outcome
      of infection. Here we review the most convincing results obtained through genetic
      epidemiology studies concerning the genetic control of malaria in human caused by
      Plasmodium falciparum infection. The identification of genes conferring
      susceptibility or resistance to malaria might improve diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28579527
TI  - Role of IL28B genotype in the liver stiffness increase in untreated patients with
      chronic hepatitis C.
AB  - The role of interleukin (IL)28B has been deepened in the treatment response to
      pegylated-interferon in patients affected by chronic hepatitis C (CHC). However,
      recently the IL28B genotypes were also related to hepatic fibrosis progression in
      untreated patients, using the liver biopsy. The aim of this prospective and
      longitudinal study was to assess the role of different IL28B genotypes in the
      liver stiffness progression in a cohort of untreated subjects affected by CHC. We
      included in this analysis all untreated patients affected by CHC and followed for
      at least 5years with the annual evaluation of liver stiffness using Fibroscan(r).
      All enrolled subjects were genotyped for rs8099917 and rs12979860 IL28B
      polymorphisms. In the study period, 266 patients were considered. After 5years we
      observed the following median stiffness increases: 6.7kPa [5.1-7.8] in TT/CC,
      4.9kPa [4.1-5.0] in TT/TC, 3.4kPa [3.2-3.8] in TG/TC and 1.7kPa [1.2-1.9] in
      GG/TT. These values were statistically significant in all groups (p<0.001). In
      the multivariate analysis resulted as predictive factors of liver stiffness
      progression the following: IL28B TT/CC genotype (OR=4.571; 95%IC=2.381-12.994;
      p<0.001) and IL28B GG/TT genotype (OR=0.510; 95%IC=0.289-0.712; p=0.007). In this
      study we evidenced that IL28B genotypes were associated with a different level of
      liver stiffness increase after 5years and could be used to select the patients
      who should be treated with priority.

PMID- 28579528
TI  - Substance P enhances endogenous neurogenesis to improve functional recovery after
      spinal cord injury.
AB  - Endogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) are the most promising sources for replacing
      cells lost after spinal cord injury (SCI). We have previously shown that
      substance P (SP), a neuropeptide, improves functional recovery after SCI and
      increases the numbers of cells in lesion sites, but how this occurs is unclear.
      Here, we investigate whether SP regulates the neurogenesis of resident NSCs as
      well as exerting a beneficial effect on functional improvement. We found that SP
      (5nmol/kg) treatment markedly improved functional recovery and elicited robust
      activation of endogenous NSCs and boosted the number of EdU+ proliferating cells
      differentiating into neurons, but it reduced astroglial differentiation in the
      lesion sites. Consistently, treatment with SP (10nM) in vitro significantly
      increased the proliferation of NSCs via activating the Erk1/2 signaling pathway
      and promoted neuronal differentiation but not astroglial differentiation. These
      results suggest that SP may represent a potential therapeutic agent for SCI via
      enhancing endogenous neurogenesis.

PMID- 28579529
TI  - Genes directly regulated by NF-kappaB in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2.
AB  - It has been well-known that over activation of NF-kappaB has close relationship
      with hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the complete and
      exact underlying molecular pathways and mechanisms still remain not fully
      understood. By manipulating NF-kappaB activity with its recognized activator
      TNFalpha and using ChIP-seq and RNA-seq techniques, this study identified 699 NF
      kappaB direct target genes (DTGs) in a widely used HCC cell line, HepG2,
      including 399 activated and 300 repressed genes. In these NF-kappaB DTGs, 216
      genes (126 activated and 90 repressed genes) are among the current HCC gene
      signature. In comparison with NF-kappaB target genes identified in LPS-induced
      THP-1 and TNFalpha-induced HeLa cells, only limited numbers (24-46) of genes were
      shared by the two cell lines, indicating the HCC specificity of identified genes.
      Functional annotation revealed that NF-kappaB DTGs in HepG2 cell are mainly
      related with many typical NF-kappaB-related biological processes including immune
      system process, response to stress, response to stimulus, defense response, and
      cell death, and signaling pathways of MAPK, TNF, TGF-beta, Chemokine, NF-kappa B,
      and Toll-like receptor. Some NF-kappaB DTGs are also involved in Hepatitis C and
      B pathways. It was found that 82 NF-kappaB DTGs code secretory proteins, which
      include CCL2 and DKK1 that have already been used as HCC markers. Finally, the NF
      kappaB DTGs were further confirmed by detecting the NF-kappaB binding and
      expression of 14 genes with ChIP-PCR and RT-PCR. This study thus provides a
      useful NF-kappaB DTG list for future studies of NF-kappaB-related molecular
      mechanisms and theranostic biomarkers of HCC.

PMID- 28579531
TI  - Automated extraction of potential migraine biomarkers using a semantic graph.
AB  - PROBLEM: Biomedical literature and databases contain important clues for the
      identification of potential disease biomarkers. However, searching these enormous
      knowledge reservoirs and integrating findings across heterogeneous sources is
      costly and difficult. Here we demonstrate how semantically integrated knowledge,
      extracted from biomedical literature and structured databases, can be used to
      automatically identify potential migraine biomarkers. METHOD: We used a knowledge
      graph containing more than 3.5 million biomedical concepts and 68.4 million
      relationships. Biochemical compound concepts were filtered and ranked by their
      potential as biomarkers based on their connections to a subgraph of migraine
      related concepts. The ranked results were evaluated against the results of a
      systematic literature review that was performed manually by migraine researchers.
      Weight points were assigned to these reference compounds to indicate their
      relative importance. RESULTS: Ranked results automatically generated by the
      knowledge graph were highly consistent with results from the manual literature
      review. Out of 222 reference compounds, 163 (73%) ranked in the top 2000, with
      547 out of the 644 (85%) weight points assigned to the reference compounds. For
      reference compounds that were not in the top of the list, an extensive error
      analysis has been performed. When evaluating the overall performance, we obtained
      a ROC-AUC of 0.974. DISCUSSION: Semantic knowledge graphs composed of information
      integrated from multiple and varying sources can assist researchers in
      identifying potential disease biomarkers.

PMID- 28579530
TI  - Late onset nonsyndromic hearing loss in a Dongxiang Chinese family is associated
      with the 593T>C variant in the mitochondrial tRNAPhe gene.
AB  - We report here the clinical, genetic, molecular and biochemical characterization
      of a four-generation Dongxiang Chinese pedigree with suggestively maternally
      transmitted non-syndromic hearing loss. Five of 10 matrilineal relatives
      exhibited variable severity and age at onset of sensorineural hearing loss. The
      average ages at onset of hearing loss in matrilineal relatives of this family
      were 29years. Molecular analysis of their mitochondrial genomes identified the
      tRNAPhe 593T>C variant belonging to Asian haplogroup G2a2a. The m.593T>C variant
      resided at the position 17 of DHU-loop, where the position is important for the
      structure and function of tRNA. It was anticipated that the m.593T>C variant
      altered the structure and function of tRNAPhe. By using lymphoblastoid cell lines
      derived from the Chinese family, we showed a 46% decreases in the steady-state
      level of tRNAPhe in mutant cell lines. Western blotting analysis showed ~35%
      reduction in the levels of mitochondrial translation in mutant cell lines
      carrying the m.593T>C variant. Impaired mitochondrial translation is apparently a
      primary contributor to the marked reduction in the rate of respiratory capacity.
      The respiratory deficiency lowed mitochondrial ATP production in the mutant cell
      lines. These data provide the evidence that mitochondrial dysfunctions caused by
      the m.593T>C variant lead to late-onset nonsyndromic hearing loss. Thus, our
      findings may provide the new insights into the understanding of pathophysiology
      and valuable information for management and treatment of maternally inherited
      hearing loss.

PMID- 28579532
TI  - Dashboard visualizations: Supporting real-time throughput decision-making.
AB  - Providing timely and effective care in the emergency department (ED) requires the
      management of individual patients as well as the flow and demands of the entire
      department. Strategic changes to work processes, such as adding a flow
      coordination nurse or a physician in triage, have demonstrated improvements in
      throughput times. However, such global strategic changes do not address the real
      time, often opportunistic workflow decisions of individual clinicians in the ED.
      We believe that real-time representation of the status of the entire emergency
      department and each patient within it through information visualizations will
      better support clinical decision-making in-the-moment and provide for rapid
      intervention to improve ED flow. This notion is based on previous work where we
      found that clinicians' workflow decisions were often based on an in-the-moment
      local perspective, rather than a global perspective. Here, we discuss the
      challenges of designing and implementing visualizations for ED through a
      discussion of the development of our prototype Throughput Dashboard and the
      potential it holds for supporting real-time decision-making.

PMID- 28579533
TI  - De-identification of clinical notes via recurrent neural network and conditional
      random field.
AB  - De-identification, identifying information from data, such as protected health
      information (PHI) present in clinical data, is a critical step to enable data to
      be shared or published. The 2016 Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS)
      Neuropsychiatric Genome-scale and RDOC Individualized Domains (N-GRID) clinical
      natural language processing (NLP) challenge contains a de-identification track in
      de-identifying electronic medical records (EMRs) (i.e., track 1). The challenge
      organizers provide 1000 annotated mental health records for this track, 600 out
      of which are used as a training set and 400 as a test set. We develop a hybrid
      system for the de-identification task on the training set. Firstly, four
      individual subsystems, that is, a subsystem based on bidirectional LSTM (long
      short term memory, a variant of recurrent neural network), a subsystem-based on
      bidirectional LSTM with features, a subsystem based on conditional random field
      (CRF) and a rule-based subsystem, are used to identify PHI instances. Then, an
      ensemble learning-based classifiers is deployed to combine all PHI instances
      predicted by above three machine learning-based subsystems. Finally, the results
      of the ensemble learning-based classifier and the rule-based subsystem are merged
      together. Experiments conducted on the official test set show that our system
      achieves the highest micro F1-scores of 93.07%, 91.43% and 95.23% under the
      "token", "strict" and "binary token" criteria respectively, ranking first in the
      2016 CEGS N-GRID NLP challenge. In addition, on the dataset of 2014 i2b2 NLP
      challenge, our system achieves the highest micro F1-scores of 96.98%, 95.11% and
      98.28% under the "token", "strict" and "binary token" criteria respectively,
      outperforming other state-of-the-art systems. All these experiments prove the
      effectiveness of our proposed method.

PMID- 28579534
TI  - Molecular markers of oocyte differentiation in European eel during hormonally
      induced oogenesis.
AB  - Reproduction in captivity is a key study issue in Anguilla anguilla as a possible
      solution for its dwindling population. Understanding the mechanisms controlling
      the production of ribosomal building blocks during artificially induced oocyte
      maturation could be particularly interesting. Transcription levels of ribosomal
      biogenesis associated genes could be used as markers to monitor oogenesis. Eels
      from the Albufera Lagoon were injected with carp pituitary extract for 15weeks
      and ovaries in previtellogenic (PV) stage (non-injected), in early-, mid-, late
      vitellogenesis (EV, MV, LV), as well as in migratory nucleus stage (MN) were
      analysed. 5S rRNA and related genes were highly transcribed in ovaries with PV
      oocytes. As oocytes developed, transcriptional levels of genes related to 5S rRNA
      production (gtf3a), accumulation (gtf3a, 42sp43) and nucleocytoplasmic transport
      (rpl5, rpl11) and the 5S/18S rRNA index decreased (PV>EV>MV>LV>MN). On the
      contrary, 18S rRNA was at its highest at MN stage while ubtf1 in charge of
      activating RNA-polymerase I and synthesising 18S rRNA behaved as 5S related
      genes. Individuals that did not respond (NR) to the treatment showed 5S/18S index
      values similar to PV females, while studied genes showed EV/LV-like transcription
      levels. Therefore, NR females fail to express the largest rRNAs, which could thus
      be taken as markers of successful vitellogenesis progression. In conclusion, we
      have proved that the transcriptional dynamics of ribosomal genes provides useful
      tools to characterize induced ovarian development in European eels. In the
      future, such markers should be studied as putative indicators of response to
      hormonal treatments and of the quality of obtained eel oocytes.

PMID- 28579535
TI  - Distributional shift of urea production site from the extraembryonic yolk sac
      membrane to the embryonic liver during the development of cloudy catshark
      (Scyliorhinus torazame).
AB  - Urea is an essential osmolyte for marine cartilaginous fishes. Adult
      elasmobranchs and holocephalans are known to actively produce urea in the liver,
      muscle and other extrahepatic organs; however, osmoregulatory mechanisms in the
      developing cartilaginous fish embryo with an undeveloped urea-producing organ are
      poorly understood. We recently described the contribution of extraembryonic yolk
      sac membranes (YSM) to embryonic urea synthesis during the early developmental
      period of the oviparous holocephalan elephant fish (Callorhinchus milii). In the
      present study, to test whether urea production in the YSM is a general phenomenon
      among oviparous Chondrichthyes, we investigated gene expression and activities of
      ornithine urea cycle (OUC) enzymes together with urea concentrations in embryos
      of the elasmobranch cloudy catshark (Scyliorhinus torazame). The intracapsular
      fluid, in which the catshark embryo develops, had a similar osmolality to
      seawater, and embryos maintained a high concentration of urea at levels similar
      to that of adult plasma throughout development. Relative mRNA expressions and
      activities of catshark OUC enzymes were significantly higher in YSM than in
      embryos until stage 32. Concomitant with the development of the embryonic liver,
      the expression levels and activities of OUC enzymes were markedly increased in
      the embryo from stage 33, while those of the YSM decreased from stage 32. The
      present study provides further evidence that the YSM contributes to embryonic
      urea homeostasis until the liver and other extrahepatic organs become fully
      functional, and that urea-producing tissue shifts from the YSM to the embryonic
      liver in the late developmental period of oviparous marine cartilaginous fishes.

PMID- 28579537
TI  - Cullen's Sign: Not Always Acute Pancreatitis.

PMID- 28579539
TI  - Preparation of acellular scaffold for corneal tissue engineering by supercritical
      carbon dioxide extraction technology.
AB  - : In this study, we developed a novel method using supercritical carbon dioxide
      (SCCO2) to prepare acellular porcine cornea (APC). Under gentle extraction
      conditions using SCCO2 technology, hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that
      cells were completely lysed, and cell debris, including nuclei, was efficiently
      removed from the porcine cornea. The SCCO2-treated corneas exhibited intact
      stromal structures and appropriate mechanical properties. Moreover, no
      immunological reactions and neovascularization were observed after lamellar
      keratoplasty in rabbits. All transplanted grafts and animals survived without
      complications. The transplanted APCs were opaque after the operation but became
      transparent within 2weeks. Complete re-epithelialization of the transplanted APCs
      was observed within 4weeks. In conclusion, APCs produced by SCCO2 extraction
      technology could be an ideal and useful scaffold for corneal tissue engineering.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: We decellularized the porcine cornea using SCCO2
      extraction technology and investigated the characteristics, mechanical
      properties, and biocompatibility of the decellularized porcine cornea by lamellar
      keratoplasty in rabbits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report
      describing the use of SCCO2 extraction technology for preparation of acellular
      corneal scaffold. We proved that the cellular components of porcine corneas had
      been efficiently removed, and the biomechanical properties of the scaffold were
      well preserved by SCCO2 extraction technology. SCCO2-treated corneas maintained
      optical transparency and exhibited appropriate strength to withstand surgical
      procedures. In vivo, the transplanted corneas showed no evidence of immunological
      reactions and exhibited good biocompatibility and long-term stability. Our
      results suggested that the APCs developed by SCCO2 extraction technology could be
      an ideal and useful scaffold for corneal replacement and corneal tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28579536
TI  - Effects of Dietary Fructose Restriction on Liver Fat, De Novo Lipogenesis, and
      Insulin Kinetics in Children With Obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Consumption of sugar is associated with obesity, type 2
      diabetes mellitus, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease.
      The conversion of fructose to fat in liver (de novo lipogenesis [DNL]) may be a
      modifiable pathogenetic pathway. We determined the effect of 9 days of isocaloric
      fructose restriction on DNL, liver fat, visceral fat (VAT), subcutaneous fat, and
      insulin kinetics in obese Latino and African American children with habitual high
      sugar consumption (fructose intake >50 g/d). METHODS: Children (9-18 years old; n
      = 41) had all meals provided for 9 days with the same energy and macronutrient
      composition as their standard diet, but with starch substituted for sugar,
      yielding a final fructose content of 4% of total kilocalories. Metabolic
      assessments were performed before and after fructose restriction. Liver fat, VAT,
      and subcutaneous fat were determined by magnetic resonance spectroscopy and
      imaging. The fractional DNL area under the curve value was measured using stable
      isotope tracers and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Insulin kinetics were
      calculated from oral glucose tolerance tests. Paired analyses compared change
      from day 0 to day 10 within each child. RESULTS: Compared with baseline, on day
      10, liver fat decreased from a median of 7.2% (interquartile range [IQR], 2.5%
      14.8%) to 3.8% (IQR, 1.7%-15.5%) (P < .001) and VAT decreased from 123 cm3 (IQR,
      85-145 cm3) to 110 cm3 (IQR, 84-134 cm3) (P < .001). The DNL area under the curve
      decreased from 68% (IQR, 46%-83%) to 26% (IQR, 16%-37%) (P < .001). Insulin
      kinetics improved (P < .001). These changes occurred irrespective of baseline
      liver fat. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term (9 days) isocaloric fructose restriction
      decreased liver fat, VAT, and DNL, and improved insulin kinetics in children with
      obesity. These findings support efforts to reduce sugar consumption.
      ClinicalTrials.gov Number: NCT01200043.

PMID- 28579538
TI  - Late Recurrence of Barrett's Esophagus After Complete Eradication of Intestinal
      Metaplasia is Rare: Final Report From Ablation in Intestinal Metaplasia
      Containing Dysplasia Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The goal of treatment for Barrett's esophagus (BE) with
      dysplasia is complete eradication of intestinal metaplasia (CEIM). The long-term
      durability of CEIM has not been well characterized, so the frequency and duration
      of surveillance are unclear. We report results from a 5-year follow-up analysis
      of patients with BE and dysplasia treated by radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the
      randomized controlled Ablation of Intestinal Metaplasia Containing Dysplasia
      (AIM) trial. METHODS: Participants for the AIM Dysplasia trial (18-80 years old)
      were recruited from 19 sites in the United States and had endoscopic evidence of
      non-nodular dysplastic BE <=8 cm in length. Subjects (n = 127) were randomly
      assigned (2:1 ratio) to receive either RFA (entire BE segment ablated
      circumferentially) or a sham endoscopic procedure; patients in the sham group
      were offered RFA treatment 1 year later, and all patients were followed for 5
      years. We collected data on BE recurrence (defined as intestinal metaplasia in
      the tubular esophagus) and dysplastic BE recurrence among patients who achieved
      CEIM. We constructed Kaplan-Meier estimates and applied parametric survival
      analysis to examine proportions of patients without any recurrence and without
      dysplastic recurrence. RESULTS: Of 127 patients in the AIM Dysplasia trial, 119
      received RFA and met inclusion criteria. Of those 119, 110 (92%) achieved CEIM.
      Over 401 person-years of follow-up (mean, 3.6 years per patient; range, 0.2-5.8
      years), 35 of 110 (32%) patients had recurrence of BE or dysplasia, and 19 (17%)
      had dysplasia recurrence. The incidence rate of BE recurrence was 10.8 per 100
      person-years overall (95% CI, 7.8-15.0); 8.3 per 100 person-years among patients
      with baseline low-grade dysplasia (95% CI, 4.9-14.0), and 13.5 per 100 person
      years among patients with baseline high-grade dysplasia (95% CI 8.8-20.7). The
      incidence rate of dysplasia recurrence was 5.2 per 100 person-years overall (95%
      CI 3.3-8.2); 3.3 per 100 person-years among patients with baseline low-grade
      dysplasia (95% CI 1.5-7.2), and 7.3 per 100 person-years among patients with
      baseline high-grade dysplasia (95% CI 4.2-12.5). Neither BE nor dysplasia
      recurred at a constant rate. There was a greater probability of recurrence in the
      first year following CEIM than in the following 4 years combined. CONCLUSIONS: In
      this analysis of prospective cohort data from the AIM Dysplasia trial, we found
      BE to recur after CEIM by RFA in almost one third of patients with baseline
      dysplastic disease; most recurrences occurred during the first year after CEIM.
      However, patients who achieved CEIM and remained BE free at 1 year after RFA had
      a low risk of BE recurrence. Studies are needed to determine when surveillance
      can be decreased or discontinued; our study did not identify any BE or dysplasia
      recurrence after 4 years of surveillance.

PMID- 28579541
TI  - Nanostructured raspberry-like gelatin microspheres for local delivery of multiple
      biomolecules.
AB  - : Multicompartment particles, which are particles composed of smaller building
      units, have gained considerable interest during the past decade to facilitate
      simultaneous and differential delivery of several biomolecules in various
      applications. Supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) processing is an industrial
      technology widely used for large-scale synthesis and processing of materials.
      However, the application of this technology for production of multicompartment
      particles from colloidal particles has not yet been explored. Here, we report the
      formation of raspberry-like gelatin (RLG) microparticles composed of gelatin
      nanoparticles as colloidal building blocks through supercritical CO2 processing.
      We show that these RLG microparticles exhibit a high stability upon dispersion in
      aqueous media without requiring chemical cross-linking. We further demonstrate
      that these microparticles are cytocompatible and facilitate differential release
      of two different model compounds. The strategy presented here can be utilized as
      a cost-effective route for production of various types of multicompartment
      particles using colloidal particles with suitable interparticle interactions.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Multicompartment particles have gained considerable
      interest during the past decade to facilitate simultaneous and differential
      delivery of multiple biomolecules in various biomedical applications.
      Nevertheless, common methods employed for the production of such particles are
      often complex and only offer small-scale production. Here, we report the
      formation of raspberry-like gelatin (RLG) microparticles composed of gelatin
      nanoparticles as colloidal building blocks through supercritical CO2 processing.
      We show that these microparticles are cytocompatible and facilitate differential
      release of two model compounds with different molecular sizes, promising
      successful applications in various biomedical areas. Summarizing, this paper
      presents a novel strategy that can be utilized as a cost-effective route for
      production of various types of multicompartment particles using a wide range of
      colloidal building blocks.

PMID- 28579540
TI  - A multi-defense strategy: Enhancing bactericidal activity of a medical grade
      polymer with a nitric oxide donor and surface-immobilized quaternary ammonium
      compound.
AB  - : Although the use of biomedical devices in hospital-based care is inevitable,
      unfortunately, it is also one of the leading causes of the nosocomial infections,
      and thus demands development of novel antimicrobial materials for medical device
      fabrication. In the current study, a multi-defense mechanism against Gram
      positive and Gram-negative bacteria is demonstrated by combining a nitric oxide
      (NO) releasing agent with a quaternary ammonium antimicrobial that can be
      covalently grafted to medical devices. Antibacterial polymeric composites were
      fabricated by incorporating an NO donor, S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP)
      in CarboSil(r) polymer and top coated with surface immobilized benzophenone based
      quaternary ammonium antimicrobial (BPAM) small molecule. The results suggest that
      SNAP and BPAM individually have a different degree of toxicity towards Gram
      positive and Gram-negative bacteria, while the SNAP-BPAM combination is effective
      in reducing both types of adhered viable bacteria equally well. SNAP-BPAM
      combinations reduced the adhered viable Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 99.0% and
      Staphylococcus aureus by 99.98% as compared to the control CarboSil films. Agar
      diffusion tests demonstrate that the diffusive nature of NO kills bacteria beyond
      the direct point of contact which the non-leaching BPAM cannot achieve alone.
      This is important for potential application in biofilm eradication. The live-dead
      bacteria staining shows that the SNAP-BPAM combination has more attached dead
      bacteria (than live) as compared to the controls. The SNAP-BPAM films have
      increased hydrophilicity and higher NO flux as compared to the SNAP films useful
      for preventing blood protein and bacterial adhesion. Overall the combination of
      SNAP and BPAM imparts different attributes to the polymeric composite that can be
      used in the fabrication of antimicrobial surfaces for various medical device
      applications. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: A significant increase in the biomedical
      device related infections (BDRIs), inability of the currently existing
      antimicrobial strategies to combat them and a proportional rise in the associated
      morbidity demands development of novel antimicrobial surfaces. Some of the major
      challenges associated with the currently used therapeutics are: antibiotic
      resistance and cytotoxicity. In the current study, engineered polymeric
      composites with multi-defense mechanism were fabricated to kill bacteria via both
      active and passive mode. This was done by incorporating a nitric oxide (NO) donor
      S-nitroso-N-acetypenicillamine (SNAP) in a medical grade polymer (CarboSil(r))
      and a benzophenone based quaternary ammonium antimicrobial small molecule (BPAM)
      was surface immobilized as the top layer. The developed biomaterial was tested
      with Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains and was found to be effective
      against both the strains resulting in up to 99.98% reduction in viable bacterial
      count. This preventative strategy can be used to fabricate implantable biomedical
      devices (such as catheters, stents, extracorporeal circuits) to not only
      significantly limit biofilm formation but also to reduce the antibiotic dose
      which are usually given post infections.

PMID- 28579543
TI  - Exenatide-loaded microsphere/thermosensitive hydrogel long-acting delivery system
      with high drug bioactivity.
AB  - A series of mixed hydrogels of PLGA-PEG-PLGA and PCLA-PEG-PCLA were synthesized,
      and investigated in terms of their critical micelle concentration, stability and
      thermosensitive properties. Also, some mixed hydrogel was selected to prepare
      Depot-gel-in-Ms-in-Matrix-gel system for the treatment of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus. Briefly, Exenatide (EXT) loaded hydrogels was encapsulated in PLGA
      microspheres (Ms) and further encapsulated into blank hydrogel. The mechanism of
      Exenatide release involved drug diffusion, hydrogel diffusion, PLGA erosion and
      mixed hydrogel erosion. The results showed that EXT release in vitro was at a
      sustained rate for 46days, because it is controlled by the inner-deport-gel, the
      Ms matrix and the outer-Matrix-gel successively. No burst release or platform was
      observed due to the interception function and control function of the outer
      Matrix-gel. The biological activity of EXT was protected, because the hydrophilic
      EXT molecules tend to distribute in the hydrophilic domain of the mixed hydrogel.
      In vivo, a single injection of Depot-gel-in-Ms-in-Matrix-gel allowed mice to
      maintain a stable blood glucose concentration and well-controlled body weight for
      20days. In addition, results of oral glucose tolerance test and Hematoxylin-Eosin
      staining demonstrated that triple-barrier Depot-gel-in-Ms-in-Matrix-gel was a
      promising hydrophilic protein/polypeptide-loaded long-acting system with high
      drug bioactivity.

PMID- 28579542
TI  - Modeling in the quality by design environment: Regulatory requirements and
      recommendations for design space and control strategy appointment.
AB  - Mathematical models can be used as an integral part of the quality by design
      (QbD) concept throughout the product lifecycle for variety of purposes, including
      appointment of the design space and control strategy, continual improvement and
      risk assessment. Examples of different mathematical modeling techniques
      (mechanistic, empirical and hybrid) in the pharmaceutical development and process
      monitoring or control are provided in the presented review. In the QbD context,
      mathematical models are predominantly used to support design space and/or control
      strategies. Considering their impact to the final product quality, models can be
      divided into the following categories: high, medium and low impact models.
      Although there are regulatory guidelines on the topic of modeling applications,
      review of QbD-based submission containing modeling elements revealed concerns
      regarding the scale-dependency of design spaces and verification of models
      predictions at commercial scale of manufacturing, especially regarding real-time
      release (RTR) models. Authors provide critical overview on the good modeling
      practices and introduce concepts of multiple-unit, adaptive and dynamic design
      space, multivariate specifications and methods for process uncertainty analysis.
      RTR specification with mathematical model and different approaches to
      multivariate statistical process control supporting process analytical
      technologies are also presented.

PMID- 28579544
TI  - Could clinical photochemical internalisation be optimised to avoid neuronal
      toxicity?
AB  - Photochemical Internalisation (PCI) is a novel drug delivery technology in which
      low dose photodynamic therapy (PDT) can selectively rupture endo/lysosomes by
      light activation of membrane-incorporated photosensitisers, facilitating
      intracellular drug release in the treatment of cancer. For PCI to be developed
      further, it is important to understand whether nerve damage is an impending side
      effect when treating cancers within or adjacent to nervous system tissue. Dorsal
      root ganglion (DRG) neurons and their associated satellite glia were subjected to
      PCI treatment in a 3D co-culture system following incubation with
      photosensitisers: meso-tetraphenylporphine (TPPS2a) or tetraphenylchlorin
      disulfonate (TPCS2a) and Bleomycin. Results from the use of 3D co-culture models
      demonstrate that a cancer cell line PCI30 and satellite glia were more sensitive
      to PCI than neurons and mixed glial cells, athough neurite length was affected.
      Neurons in culture survived PCI treatment under conditions sufficient to kill
      tumour cells, suggesting cancers within or adjacent to nervous system tissue
      could be treated with this novel technology.

PMID- 28579545
TI  - Oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species in endothelial dysfunction
      associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are reactive intermediates of molecular oxygen that
      act as important second messengers within the cells; however, an imbalance
      between generation of reactive ROS and antioxidant defense systems represents the
      primary cause of endothelial dysfunction, leading to vascular damage in both
      metabolic and atherosclerotic diseases. Endothelial activation is the first
      alteration observed, and is characterized by an abnormal pro-inflammatory and pro
      thrombotic phenotype of the endothelial cells lining the lumen of blood vessels.
      This ultimately leads to reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, impairment of
      the vascular tone and other endothelial phenotypic changes collectively termed
      endothelial dysfunction(s). This review will focus on the main mechanisms
      involved in the onset of endothelial dysfunction, with particular focus on
      inflammation and aberrant ROS production and on their relationship with classical
      and non-classical cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, metabolic
      disorders, and aging. Furthermore, new mediators of vascular damage, such as
      microRNAs, will be discussed. Understanding mechanisms underlying the development
      of endothelial dysfunction is an important base of knowledge to prevent vascular
      damage in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28579546
TI  - Mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate induces autophagy-dependent apoptosis through
      lysosomal-mitochondrial axis in human endothelial cells.
AB  - Mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), the active metabolite of di(2-ethylhexyl)
      phthalate (DEHP), has been known to have adverse effects on the reproductive
      system, urologic systems, hepatic, developmental toxicities and carcinogenicity.
      However, the effect of MEHP on cardiovascular toxicity remains unclear.
      Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic effects of MEHP and the possible
      molecular mechanism. We found that treatment of EA.hy 926 cells with MEHP induced
      autophagy at earlier time (6 h) in this study. Lysosomal membrane
      permeabilization (LMP) occurred, after treatment with MEHP for 12 h, followed by
      the release of cathepsin B. Autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3MA) attenuated
      MEHP-induced LMP and the release of cathepsin B in EA.hy 926 cells. Additionally,
      MEHP induced collapse of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, which was
      evidenced by JC-1 staining. Addition of 3MA relieved MEHP-induced apoptosis as
      assessed by the expression of caspase 3 and TUNEL assay, indicating that MEHP
      induced apoptosis was autophagy-dependent. Cathepsin B inhibitor, CA-074 Me,
      suppressed MEHP-induced the mitochondria release of cytochrome c and apoptosis as
      well. In summary, our results suggest that MEHP induced autophagy-dependent
      apoptosis in EA.hy 926 cells through the lysosomal-mitochondrial axis. This study
      provides new mechanistic insights into MEHP-induced cardiovascular toxicity.

PMID- 28579547
TI  - Probabilistic assessment method of the non-monotonic dose-responses-Part I:
      Methodological approach.
AB  - More and more studies aim to characterize non-monotonic dose response curves
      (NMDRCs). The greatest difficulty is to assess the statistical plausibility of
      NMDRCs from previously conducted dose response studies. This difficulty is linked
      to the fact that these studies present (i) few doses tested, (ii) a low sample
      size per dose, and (iii) the absence of any raw data. In this study, we propose a
      new methodological approach to probabilistically characterize NMDRCs. The
      methodology is composed of three main steps: (i) sampling from summary data to
      cover all the possibilities that may be presented by the responses measured by
      dose and to obtain a new raw database, (ii) statistical analysis of each sampled
      dose-response curve to characterize the slopes and their signs, and (iii)
      characterization of these dose-response curves according to the variation of the
      sign in the slope. This method allows characterizing all types of dose-response
      curves and can be applied both to continuous data and to discrete data. The aim
      of this study is to present the general principle of this probabilistic method
      which allows to assess the non-monotonic dose responses curves, and to present
      some results.

PMID- 28579548
TI  - Syndecan-1: A Quantitative Marker for the Endotheliopathy of Trauma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endothelial glycocalyx breakdown elicits syndecan-1 shedding and
      endotheliopathy of trauma (EoT). We hypothesized that a cutoff syndecan-1 level
      can identify patients with endothelial dysfunction who would have poorer
      outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a prospective observational study. Trauma
      patients with the highest level of activation admitted from July 2011 through
      September 2013 were eligible. We recorded demographics, injury type/severity
      (Injury Severity Score), physiology and outcomes data, and quantified syndecan-1
      and soluble thrombomodulin from plasma with ELISAs. With receiver operating
      characteristic curve analysis, we defined EoT+ as the syndecan-1 cutoff level
      that maximized the sum of sensitivity and specificity (Youden index) in
      predicting 24-hour in-hospital mortality. We stratified by this cutoff and
      compared both groups. Factors associated with 30-day in-hospital mortality were
      assessed with multivariable logistic regression (adjusted odds ratios and 95% CIs
      reported). RESULTS: From receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (area
      under the curve = 0.71; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.84), we defined EoT+ as syndecan-1 level
      >=40 ng/mL (sensitivity = 0.62, specificity = 0.73). Of the 410 patients
      evaluated, 34% (n = 138) were EoT+ patients, who presented with higher Injury
      Severity Scores (p < 0.001) and blunt trauma frequency (p = 0.016) than EoT-
      patients. Although EoT+ patients had lower systolic blood pressure (median 119 vs
      128 mmHg; p < 0.001), base excess and hemoglobin were similar between groups. The
      proportion of transfused (EoT+ 71.7% vs EoT- 36.4%; p < 0.001) and deceased EoT+
      patients (EoT+ 24.6% vs EoT- 12.1%; p < 0.001) was higher. EoT+ was significantly
      associated with 30-day in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio = 2.23; 95% CI
      1.22 to 4.04). CONCLUSIONS: A syndecan-1 level >=40 ng/mL identified patients
      with significantly worse outcomes, despite admission physiology similar to those
      without the condition.

PMID- 28579549
TI  - The use of microperimetry in assessing visual function in age-related macular
      degeneration.
AB  - Microperimetry is a novel technique for assessing visual function that appears
      particularly suitable for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Compared with
      standard automated perimetry, microperimetry offers several unique features. It
      simultaneously images the fundus, incorporates an eye-tracking system to correct
      the stimulus location for fixation loss, and identifies any preferred retinal
      loci. We identified 52 articles that met the inclusion criteria for a systematic
      review of microperimetry in the assessment of visual function in AMD. We discuss
      microperimetry and AMD in relation to disease severity, structural imaging
      outcomes, other measures of visual function, and evaluation of the efficacy of
      surgical and/or medical therapies in clinical trials. The evidence for the use of
      microperimetry in the functional assessment of AMD is encouraging. Disruptions of
      the ellipsoid zone band and retinal pigment epithelium are clearly associated
      with reduced differential light sensitivity despite the maintenance of good
      visual acuity. Reduced differential light sensitivity is also associated with
      outer segment thinning and retinal pigment epithelium thickening in early AMD and
      with both a thickening and a thinning of the whole retina in choroidal
      neovascularization. Microperimetry, however, lacks the robust diffuse and focal
      loss age-corrected probability analyses associated with standard automated
      perimetry, and the technique is currently limited by this omission.

PMID- 28579550
TI  - The application of optical coherence tomography angiography in retinal diseases.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a new, noninvasive imaging
      technique that generates real-time volumetric data on chorioretinal vasculature
      and its flow pattern. With the advent of high-speed optical coherence tomography,
      established enface chorioretinal segmentation, and efficient algorithms, OCTA
      generates images that resemble an angiogram. The principle of OCTA involves
      determining the change in backscattering between consecutive B-scans and then
      attributing the differences to the flow of erythrocytes through retinal blood
      vessels. OCTA has shown promise in the evaluation of common ophthalmologic
      diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and
      retinal vascular occlusions. It quantifies vascular compromise reflecting the
      severity of diabetic retinopathy. OCTA detects the presence of choroidal
      neovascularization in exudative age-related macular degeneration and maps loss of
      choriocapillaris in nonexudative age-related macular degeneration. We describe
      principles of OCTA and findings in common and some uncommon retinal pathologies.
      Finally, we summarize its potential future applications. Its current limitations
      include a relatively small field of view, inability to show leakage, and a
      tendency for image artifacts. Further larger studies will define OCTAs utility in
      clinical settings and establish if the technology may offer its utility in
      decreasing morbidity through early detection and guide therapeutic interventions
      in retinal diseases.

PMID- 28579551
TI  - Antiproliferative activity against leukemia cells of sesquiterpene lactones from
      the Turkish endemic plant Centaurea drabifolia subsp. detonsa.
AB  - The apolar organic extract obtained from aerial parts of Centaurea drabifolia
      Sibth. & Sm. subsp. detonsa (Bornm.) Wagenitz, growing wild in Turkey, was
      investigated for the first time for its secondary metabolite composition. Seven
      sesquiterpene lactones belonging to the guaiane class (1-7), including the new
      compound 4, along with a fatty acid lactone derivative (8), were isolated. The
      structures of these compounds were established by spectroscopic analysis,
      including 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques, with the stereostructure of the new
      guaiane 4 determined with the help of MTPA derivatization. Cytotoxic activities
      of compounds 1-7 were evaluated against two cancer cell lines, namely acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (CCRF-CEM) and its multidrug-resistant subline
      CEM/ADR5000. Results showed that aguerin B (1) and cynaropicrin (2) showed a
      potent activity on both cell lines revealing interesting details about the
      structure-activity relationships in the class of acylated guaiane sesquiterpenes.

PMID- 28579552
TI  - Sesquiterpene lactones with unusual structure. Their biogenesis and biological
      activity.
AB  - The given review provides data on the new sesquiterpene lactones with unusual
      structure isolated from various natural sources, e.g. fungi, plants, marine
      growth; about their spread, biological activity, and the presumed biogenetic
      pathway of their formation. An attempt was made to biologically justify a wide
      structural formation variety of new sesquiterpene lactones with the unique
      structure.

PMID- 28579553
TI  - New sesquiterpene acid and inositol derivatives from Inula montana L.
AB  - A phytochemical investigation of the ethanol extract of leaves and flowers of
      Inula montana L. led to the isolation of one new sesquiterpene acid called
      Eldarin (1) and four new inositol derivatives, Myoinositol,1,5-diangelate-4,6
      diacetate (2), Myoinositol,1,6-diangelate-4,5-diacetate (3), Myoinositol-1
      angelate-4,5-diacetate-6-(2-methylbutirate) (4), Myoinositol-1-angelate-4,5
      diacetate-6-isovalerate (5) isolated for the first time, along with eleven known
      compounds described for the first time in Inula montana, 1beta-Hydroxyarbusculin
      A (6), Artemorin (7), Santamarin (8), Chrysosplenol C (9), 6-Hydroxykaempferol
      3,7-dimethyl ether (10), Reynosin (11), Calenduladiol-3-palmitate (12),
      Costunolide (13), 4-Hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzenemethanol (14), 9beta
      Hydroxycostunolide (15) and Hispidulin (16). Structural elucidation has been
      carried out by spectral methods, such as 1D and 2D NMR, IR, UV and HR-ESI-MS.
      These compounds have been tested in vitro for anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic
      activity on macrophages RAW 264.7. As a result, compounds 2, 3, 7, 13, 14, 15 and
      16 showed a release of NO with IC50 value <30MUM on macrophages.

PMID- 28579555
TI  - Continuing medical education and sponsorship by the healthcare industry - new
      opportunities and challenges.

PMID- 28579554
TI  - STAT3 gain-of-function mutations associated with autoimmune lymphoproliferative
      syndrome like disease deregulate lymphocyte apoptosis and can be targeted by BH3
      mimetic compounds.
AB  - Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) is typically caused by mutations
      in genes of the extrinsic FAS mediated apoptotic pathway, but for about 30% of
      ALPS-like patients the genetic diagnosis is lacking. We analyzed 30 children with
      ALPS-like disease of unknown cause and identified two dominant gain-of-function
      mutations of the Signal Transducer And Activator Of Transcription 3 (STAT3,
      p.R278H, p.M394T) leading to increased transcriptional activity. Hyperactivity of
      STAT3, a known repressor of FAS, was associated with decreased FAS-mediated
      apoptosis, mimicking ALPS caused by FAS mutations. Expression of BCL2 family
      proteins, further targets of STAT3 and regulators of the intrinsic apoptotic
      pathway, was disturbed. Cells with hyperactive STAT3 were consequently more
      resistant to intrinsic apoptotic stimuli and STAT3 inhibition alleviated this
      effect. Importantly, STAT3-mutant cells were more sensitive to death induced by
      the BCL2-inhibitor ABT-737 indicating a dependence on anti-apoptotic BCL2
      proteins and potential novel therapeutic options.

PMID- 28579556
TI  - Coronary physiological parameters at a crossroads.

PMID- 28579558
TI  - Inflammatory coronary ectasia identified by three-dimensional volume rendering of
      18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT.

PMID- 28579557
TI  - Intravenous beta-blockers in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      treated with primary PCI.

PMID- 28579559
TI  - How should I treat an unexpected deadlock at the time of transcatheter aortic
      valve prosthesis implantation?

PMID- 28579561
TI  - Normal values of offline exhaled and nasal nitric oxide in healthy children and
      teens using chemiluminescence.
AB  - : Nitric oxide (NO) can be used to detect respiratory or ciliary diseases.
      Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurement can reflect ongoing
      eosinophilic airway inflammation and has a diagnostic utility as a test for
      asthma screening and follow-up while nasal nitric oxide (nNO) is a valuable
      screening tool for the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia. The possibility
      of collecting airway gas samples in an offline manner offers the advantage to
      extend these measures and improve the screening and management of these diseases,
      but normal values from healthy children and teens remain sparse. METHODS: Samples
      were consecutively collected using the offline method for eNO and nNO
      chemiluminescence measurement in 88 and 31 healthy children and teens,
      respectively. Offline eNO measurement was also performed in 30 consecutive
      children with naive asthma and/or respiratory allergy. RESULTS: The normal
      offline eNO value was determined by the following regression equation -8.206 +
      0.176 * height. The upper limit of the norm for the offline eNO value was 27.4
      parts per billion (ppb). A separate analysis was performed in children, pre-teens
      and teens, for which offline eNO was 13.6 +/- 4.7 ppb, 16.3 +/- 13.7 ppb and 20.0
      +/- 7.2 ppb, respectively. The optimal cut-off value of the offline eNO to
      predict asthma or respiratory allergies was 23.3 ppb, with a sensitivity and
      specificity of 77% and 91%, respectively. Mean offline nNO was determined at 660
      ppb with the lower limit of the norm at 197 ppb. CONCLUSION: The use of offline
      eNO and nNO normal values should favour the widespread screening of respiratory
      diseases in children of school age in their usual environment.

PMID- 28579560
TI  - Role of intratubular pressure during the ischemic phase in acute kidney injury.
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) induced by clamping of renal vein or pedicle is more
      severe than clamping of artery, but the mechanism has not been clarified. In the
      present study, we tested our hypothesis that increased proximal tubular pressure
      (Pt) during the ischemic phase exacerbates kidney injury and promotes the
      development of AKI. We induced AKI by bilateral clamping of renal arteries,
      pedicles, or veins for 18 min at 37 degrees C, respectively. Pt during the
      ischemic phase was measured with micropuncture. We found that higher Pt was
      associated with more severe AKI. To determine the role of Pt during the ischemic
      phase on the development of AKI, we adjusted the Pt by altering renal artery
      pressure. We induced AKI by bilateral clamping of renal veins, and the Pt was
      changed by adjusting the renal artery pressure during the ischemic phase by
      constriction of aorta and mesenteric artery. When we decreased renal artery
      pressure from 85 +/- 5 to 65 +/- 8 mmHg, Pt decreased from 53.3 +/- 2.7 to 44.7
      +/- 2.0 mmHg. Plasma creatinine decreased from 2.48 +/- 0.23 to 1.91 +/- 0.21
      mg/dl at 24 h after renal ischemia. When we raised renal artery pressure to 103
      +/- 7 mmHg, Pt increased to 67.2 +/- 5.1 mmHg. Plasma creatinine elevated to 3.17
      +/- 0.14 mg.dl.24 h after renal ischemia. Changes in KIM-1, NGAL, and histology
      were in the similar pattern as plasma creatinine. In summary, we found that
      higher Pt during the ischemic phase promoted the development of AKI, while lower
      Pt protected from kidney injury. Pt may be a potential target for treatment of
      AKI.

PMID- 28579562
TI  - Crystal structure and electrostatic properties of prednisolone acetate studied
      using a transferred multipolar atom model.
AB  - Prednisolone acetate {systematic name: 2-[(8S,9S,10R,13S,14S,17R)-11,17-dihydroxy
      10,13-dimethyl-3-oxo-6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17-dodecahydro-3H
      cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-17-yl]-2-oxoethyl acetate}, is an ophthalmic drug that
      belongs to the class of corticosteroids. Its crystal structure was refined using
      the classical independent atom model (IAM) and a transferred multipolar atom
      model using the ELMAM2 database. The results of both refinements have been
      compared. The ELMAM2 refinement was found to be superior in terms of the
      refinement statistics. It has been shown that certain electron-density-derived
      properties can be calculated on the basis of the transferred parameters for
      crystals which diffract to ordinary resolution. The procedure proves helpful in
      understanding the mode of action of the drug molecule.

PMID- 28579563
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of a photochromic magnesium(II) coordination
      polymer based on a naphthalene diimide ligand.
AB  - Naphthalene diimides, which are planar, chemically robust and redox-active, are
      an attractive class of electron-deficient dyes, which can undergo a single
      reversible one-electron reduction to form stable radical anions in the presence
      of electron donors upon irradiation. This makes them excellent candidates for
      organic linkers in the construction of photochromic coordination polymers. Such a
      photochromic one-dimensional linear coordination polymer has been prepared using
      N,N'-bis(3-carboxyphenyl)naphthalene-1,8:4,5-tetracarboximide (H2BBNDI).
      Crystallization of H2BBNDI with magnesium nitrate in an N,N'-dimethylformamide
      (DMF)/ethanol/H2O mixed-solvent system under solvothermal conditions afforded the
      one-dimensional coordination polymer catena-poly[[bis(dimethylformamide
      kappaO)magnesium(II)]-bis[MU-N-(3-carboxylatophenyl)-N'-(3
      carboxylphenyl)naphthalene-1,8:4,5-tetracarboximide-kappa2O:O']],
      [Mg(C28H13N2O8)2(C3H7NO)2]n. The asymmetric unit contains half of a magnesium
      cation, one HBBNDI- ligand and one DMF molecule. Two partially deprotonated
      HBBNDI- ligands bridge two magnesium cations to form a one-dimensional chain.
      Strong inter-chain pi-pi interactions between the naphthalene rings of the HBBNDI
      ligand and the imide rings of adjacent chains provide a two-dimensional
      structure. The supramolecular three-dimensional framework is stabilized by pi-pi
      interactions between naphthalene rings of neighbouring two-dimensional
      supramolecular networks. The complex exhibits a reversible photochromic
      behaviour, which may originate from the photoinduced electron-transfer generation
      of radicals in the HBBNDI- ligand.

PMID- 28579564
TI  - The first-row transition-metal series of tris(ethylenediamine) diacetate
      complexes [M(en)3](OAc)2 (M is Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn).
AB  - The crystal structures of the first-row transition-metal series of
      tris(ethylenediamine-kappa2N,N')metal(II) diacetate, [M(C2H8N2)3](CH3CO2)2, with
      M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn, are reported. The complexes are all
      isostructural, crystallizing in a centrosymmetric triclinic cell and possessing
      an asymmetric unit composed of one [M(en)3]2+ cation and two symmetrically
      independent acetate anions. In the unit cell, the two complex cations are
      inversion-generated enantiomers, possessing the energetically favoured
      Delta(lambdalambdalambda) and Lambda(deltadeltadelta) configurations. The complex
      cations and acetate anions combine through a series of N-H...O hydrogen bonds to
      generate a three-dimensional network in the crystals. The other notable feature
      of the series is a significant Jahn-Teller distortion for the d9 Cu2+ complex.

PMID- 28579565
TI  - Diphenylalanine in tetrahydrofuran: a highly potent candidate for the development
      of novel nanomaterials.
AB  - The peptide di-L-phenylalanine (FF) has emerged as a highly potent candidate for
      the development of novel nanomaterials. The unprotected peptide was dissolved in
      1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan-2-ol (HFIP) mixed with tetrahydrofuran (THF) and
      single crystals of the THF monosolvate, C18H20N2O3.C4H8O, were grown by slow
      evaporation in a 'vial-in-closed-bottle' system. THF is a molecule that can only
      act as a hydrogen-bond acceptor. Thus, the hydrogen-bond patterns observed in the
      crystal structures at 100 and 299 K are different compared to that of crystals
      grown from water and methanol [Mason et al. (2014). ACS Nano. 8, 1243-1253].

PMID- 28579566
TI  - A dihydro-beta-agarofuran sesquiterpene from Maytenus boaria.
AB  - The natural compound (1S,4S,5S,6R,7R,8R,9R,10S)-6-acetoxy-4,9,10-trihydroxy
      2,2,5a,9-tetramethyloctahydro-2H-3,9a-methanobenzo[b]oxepin-5-yl furan-3
      carboxylate, C22H30O9, (I), is a beta-agarofuran sesquiterpene isolated from the
      seeds of Maytenus boaria as part of a study of the secondary metabolites from
      Chilean flora. The compound presents a central structure formed by a decalin
      system esterified with acetate at site 1 and furan-3-carboxylate at site 9. The
      chirality of the skeleton can be described as 1S,4S,5S,6R,7R,8R,9R,10S, which is
      consistent with that suggested by NMR studies. Unlike previously reported
      structures of sesquiterpenes containing a pure dihydro-beta-agarofuran skeleton,
      (I) exhibits a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network.

PMID- 28579567
TI  - Optical properties of (Z)-2-(2-phenylhydrazinylidene)acenaphthen-1(2H)-one: a
      potential electron donor in organic solar cells.
AB  - Electron-donating molecules play an important role in the development of organic
      solar cells. (Z)-2-(2-Phenylhydrazinylidene)acenaphthen-1(2H)-one (PDAK),
      C18H12N2O, was synthesized by a Schiff base reaction. The crystal structure shows
      that the molecules are planar and are linked together forming 'face-to-face'
      assemblies held together by intermolecular C-H...O, pi-pi and C-H...pi
      interactions. PDAK exhibits a broadband UV-Vis absorption (200-648 nm) and a low
      HOMO-LUMO energy gap (1.91 eV; HOMO is the highest occupied molecular orbital and
      LUMO is the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital), while fluorescence quenching
      experiments provide evidence for electron transfer from the excited state of PDAK
      to C60. This suggests that the title molecule may be a suitable donor for use in
      organic solar cells.

PMID- 28579568
TI  - Synthesis and crystal structures of a 3-acetylated (20S,24S)-ocotillol-type
      saponin and its C-24 epimer.
AB  - In order to study the in vivo protective effect on myocardial ischemia, (20S,24R)
      epoxydammarane-12beta,25-diol, (V), and (20S,24S)-epoxydammarane-12beta,25-diol,
      (VI), were synthesized through a novel synthetic route. Two key intermediates,
      namely (20S,24R)-3-acetyl-20,24-epoxydammarane-3beta,12beta,25-triol, (III)
      [obtained as the hemihydrate, C32H54O5.0.5H2O, (IIIa), and the ethanol
      hemisolvate, C32H54O5.0.5C2H5OH, (IIIb), with identical conformations but
      different crystal packings], and (20S,24S)-3-acetyl-20,24-epoxydammarane
      3beta,12beta,25-triol, C32H54O5, (IV), were obtained during the synthesis. The
      structures were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS analyses, and single
      crystal X-ray diffraction. Molecules of (IIIa) are extended into a two
      dimensional network constructed with water molecules linked alternately through
      intermolecular O-H...O hydrogen bonds, which are further stacked into a three
      dimensional network. Compound (IIIb) contains two completely asymmetric
      molecules, which are linked in a disordered manner through intermolecular C-H...O
      hydrogen bonds. While the crystal stacks in compound (IV) are linked via weak C
      H...O hydrogen bonds, the hydrogen-bonded chains extend helically along the
      crystallographic b axis.

PMID- 28579569
TI  - A twofold interpenetrating three-dimensional heterometallic metal-organic
      framework with pcu topology based on 2-methylbiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid.
AB  - The 2-methylbiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylate (mbpdc2-) ligand has versatile
      coordination modes and can be used to construct multinuclear structures. Despite
      this, reports of the synthesis of coordination complexes involving this ligand
      are scarce. The title compound, poly[[triaquadi-MU3-hydroxido-hexakis(MU4-2
      methylbiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylato)calcium(II)hexazinc(II)] monohydrate],
      {[CaZn6(C15H10O4)6(OH)2(H2O)3].H2O}n, has been prepared by the hydrothermal
      assembly of Zn(NO3)2.6H2O, CaCl2 and 2-methylbiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid. Two
      ZnII atoms adopt a four-coordinated distorted tetrahedral geometry by bonding to
      three O atoms from three different 2-methylbiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylate (mbpdc2-)
      dianionic ligands and one bridging hydroxide O atom. For the remaining ZnII atom,
      a five-coordinate environment is completed half the time by one carboxylate O
      atom, and then the same carboxylate O atom and an aqua O atom are present the
      other half of the time, giving a six-coordinate environment. The CaII atom is
      coordinated by six O atoms to give an octahedral coordination geometry. The
      supramolecular secondary building unit (SBU) is a hamburger-like heptanuclear
      unit (Zn6CaO30) and these units are interconnected through mbpdc2- carboxylate
      groups to generate a three-dimensional framework with the pcu topology. The
      single net leaves voids that are filled by mutual interpenetration of an
      independent equivalent framework in a twofold interpenetrating architecture. The
      title compound shows thermal stability up to 673 K. The excitation and
      luminescence data showed the emission of a bright-blue fluorescence.

PMID- 28579570
TI  - A charge-transfer salt composed of methyl viologen and hexacyanidoferrate(II).
AB  - The methyl viologen dication, used under the name Paraquat as an agricultural
      reagent, is a well-known electron-acceptor species that can participate in charge
      transfer (CT) interactions. The determination of the crystal structure of this
      species is important for accessing the CT interaction and CT-based properties.
      The title hydrated salt, bis(1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridine-1,1'-diium)
      hexacyanidoferrate(II) octahydrate, (C12H14N2)2[Fe(CN)6].8H2O or
      (MV)2[Fe(CN)6].8H2O [MV2+ is the 1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridine-1,1'-diium (methyl
      viologen) dication], crystallizes in the space group P21/c with one MV2+ cation,
      half of an [Fe(CN)6]4- anion and four water molecules in the asymmetric unit. The
      FeII atom of the [Fe(CN)6]4- anion lies on an inversion centre and has an
      octahedral coordination sphere defined by six cyanide ligands. The MV2+ cation is
      located on a general position and adopts a noncoplanar structure, with a dihedral
      angle of 40.32 (7) degrees  between the planes of the pyridine rings. In the
      crystal, layers of electron-donor [Fe(CN)6]4- anions and layers of electron
      acceptor MV2+ cations are formed and are stacked in an alternating manner
      parallel to the direction of the -2a + c axis, resulting in an alternate layered
      structure.

PMID- 28579571
TI  - Supramolecular architectures in two 1:1 cocrystals of 5-fluorouracil with 5
      bromothiophene-2-carboxylic acid and thiophene-2-carboxylic acid.
AB  - In solid-state engineering, cocrystallization is a strategy actively pursued for
      pharmaceuticals. Two 1:1 cocrystals of 5-fluorouracil (5FU; systematic name: 5
      fluoro-1,3-dihydropyrimidine-2,4-dione), namely 5-fluorouracil-5-bromothiophene-2
      carboxylic acid (1/1), C5H3BrO2S.C4H3FN2O2, (I), and 5-fluorouracil-thiophene-2
      carboxylic acid (1/1), C4H3FN2O2.C5H4O2S, (II), have been synthesized and
      characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. In both cocrystals,
      carboxylic acid molecules are linked through an acid-acid R22(8) homosynthon (O
      H...O) to form a carboxylic acid dimer and 5FU molecules are connected through
      two types of base pairs [homosynthon, R22(8) motif] via a pair of N-H...O
      hydrogen bonds. The crystal structures are further stabilized by C-H...O
      interactions in (II) and C-Br...O interactions in (I). In both crystal
      structures, pi-pi stacking and C-F...pi interactions are also observed.

PMID- 28579572
TI  - A new phosphorescent heteroleptic cuprous complex with a neutral 2-methylquinolin
      8-ol ligand: synthesis, structure characterization, properties and TD-DFT
      calculations.
AB  - Luminescent CuI complexes have emerged as promising substitutes for
      phosphorescent emitters based on Ir, Pt and Os due to their abundance and low
      cost. The title heteroleptic cuprous complex, [9,9-dimethyl-4,5
      bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-9H-xanthene-kappa2P,P](2-methylquinolin-8-ol
      kappa2N,O)copper(I) hexafluorophosphate, [Cu(C10H9NO)(C39H32OP2)]PF6,
      conventionally abbreviated as [Cu(Xantphos)(8-HOXQ)]PF6, where Xantphos is the
      chelating diphosphine ligand 9,9-dimethyl-4,5-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-9H-xanthene
      and 8-HOXQ is the N,O-chelating ligand 2-methylquinolin-8-ol that remains
      protonated at the hydroxy O atom, is described. In this complex, the asymmetric
      unit consists of a hexafluorophosphate anion and a whole mononuclear cation,
      where the CuI atom is coordinated by two P atoms from the Xantphos ligand and by
      the N and O atoms from the 8-HOXQ ligand, giving rise to a tetrahedral CuP2NO
      coordination geometry. The electronic absorption and photoluminescence properties
      of this complex have been studied on as-synthesized samples, whose purity had
      been determined by powder X-ray diffraction. In the detailed TD-DFT (time
      dependent density functional theory) studies, the yellow emission appears to be
      derived from the inter-ligand charge transfer and metal-to-ligand charge transfer
      (M+L')->LCT excited state (LCT is ligand charge transfer).

PMID- 28579573
TI  - Dinuclear cobalt(II) complexes with double phosphate ester bridges and
      tetradentate ligands having anisole or quinoline appendages.
AB  - Phosphate esters provide a rigid and stable polymeric backbone in nucleic acids.
      Metal complexes with phosphate ester groups have been synthesized as structural
      and spectroscopic models of phosphate-containing enzymes. Dinucleating ligands
      are used extensively to synthesize model complexes since they provide the support
      required to stabilize such complexes. The crystal structures of two dinuclear
      CoII complexes, namely bis(MU-diphenyl phosphato-kappa2O:O')bis({2-methoxy-N,N
      bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl]aniline-kappa4N,N',N'',O}cobalt(II)) bis(perchlorate),
      [Co(C12H10O4P)2(C19H19N3O)2](ClO4)2, and bis(MU-diphenyl phosphato
      kappa2O:O')bis({N,N-bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl]quinolin-8-amine
      kappa4N,N',N'',O}cobalt(II)) bis(perchlorate),
      [Co(C12H10O4P)2(C21H18N4)2](ClO4)2, with tetradentate 2-methoxy-N,N-bis[(pyridin
      2-yl)methyl]aniline (L1) and N,N-bis[(pyridin-2-yl)methyl]quinolin-8-amine (L2)
      ligands are reported. The complexes have similar structures, with distorted
      octahedral geometries around the metal centres. Both are centrosymmetric (Z' =
      0.5), with the CoII centres doubly bridged by diphenyl phosphate ester groups. A
      number of aromatic-aromatic interactions are present and differ between the two
      complexes as the anisole group in L1 is replaced by a quinoline group in L2. A
      detailed study of these interactions is presented.

PMID- 28579574
TI  - A one-dimensional silver(I) coordination polymer based on 5-methyl-1,3,4
      thiadiazol-2-amine and pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylate.
AB  - The bifunctional pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid (H2pdc) ligand has one N atom and
      four O atoms, which could bind more than one AgI centre with diverse binding
      modes. A novel infinite one-dimensional AgI coordination polymer, namely catena
      poly[[silver(I)-(MU2-pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylato-kappa2N:O3)-silver(I)-tris(MU2-5
      methyl-1,3,4-thiodiazol-2-amine-kappa2N:N')] monohydrate ethanol monosolvate],
      {[Ag2(C7H3NO4)(C3H5N3S)3].H2O.C2H5OH}n, has been synthesized using H2pdc and 5
      methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amine (tda), and characterized by single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction. One AgI atom is located in a four-coordinated AgN4 tetrahedral
      geometry and the other AgI atom is in a tetrahedral AgN3O geometry. A dinuclear
      AgI cluster formed by three tda ligands with a paddelwheel configuration is
      bridged by the dianionic pdc2- ligand into a one-dimensional coordination
      polymer. Interchain N-H...O hydrogen bonds extend the one-dimensional chains into
      an undulating two-dimensional sheet. The sheets are further packed into a three
      dimensional supramolecular framework by interchain N-H...O hydrogen bonds.

PMID- 28579575
TI  - Prenatal and early postnatal NOAEL-dose clothianidin exposure leads to a
      reduction of germ cells in juvenile male mice.
AB  - Neonicotinoids are pesticides used worldwide. They bind to insect nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) with high affinity. We previously reported that
      clothianidin (CTD), one of the latest neonicotinoids, reduced antioxidant
      expression and induced germ cell death in the adult testis of vertebrates. Here,
      we investigated the male reproductive toxicity of prenatal and early postnatal
      exposure to CTD, because it is likely that developmental exposure more severely
      affects the testis compared to adults due to the absence of the blood-testis
      barrier. Pregnant C57BL/6 mice were given water gel blended with CTD (0, 10 or 50
      mg/kg/day; no-observed-adverse-effect-level [NOAEL for mice]: 47.2 mg/kg/day)
      between gestational day 1 and 14 days post-partum. We then examined the testes of
      male offspring at postnatal day 14. The testis weights and the numbers of germ
      cells per seminiferous tubule were decreased in the CTD-50 group, and abnormal
      tubules containing no germ cells appeared. Nevertheless, the apoptotic cell
      number and proliferative activity were not significantly different between the
      control and CTD-exposed groups. There were no significant differences in the
      androgen-related parameters, such as the Leydig cell volume per testis, the
      Sertoli cell number and the tubule diameter. The present study is the first
      demonstration that in utero and lactational exposures to CTD at around the NOAEL
      for mice reduce the germ cell number, but our findings suggest that these
      exposures do not affect steroidogenesis in Leydig cells during prenatal or early
      postnatal life.

PMID- 28579576
TI  - Automated Ablation Annotation Algorithm Reduces Re-conduction of Isolated
      Pulmonary Vein and Improves Outcome After Catheter Ablation for Atrial
      Fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Durable pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is critical in reducing
      recurrence after radiofrequency catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF).
      The VISITAG Module, an automatic annotation system that takes account of catheter
      stability and contact force (CF), might be useful in accomplishing this.Methods
      and Results:In 49 patients undergoing VISITAG-guided AF ablation (group A), we
      set the following automatic annotation criteria: catheter stability range of
      motion <=1.5 mm, duration >=5 s, CF >=5 g, time >=25% and tag diameter at 6 mm.
      We used ablation >20 s and force-time integral >150 gs at each site, then moved
      to the next site where a new tag appeared that overlapped with the former tag.
      Results and outcome were retrospectively compared for 42 consecutive patients
      undergoing CF-guided AF ablation without this algorithm (group B). Successful PVI
      at completion of the initial anatomical line was more frequent in group A than B
      (66.3% vs. 36.9%, P=0.0006) while spontaneous PV reconnection was less frequent
      (14.2% vs. 30.9%, P=0.0014) and procedure time was shorter (138+/-35 min vs.
      180+/-44 min, P<0.001). One-year success rate off anti-arrhythmic drugs was
      higher in group A (91.8% vs. 69.1%, log rank P=0.0058). CONCLUSIONS: An automated
      annotation algorithm with an optimal setting reduced acute resumption of left
      atrium-PV conduction, shortened procedure time, and improved AF ablation outcome.

PMID- 28579578
TI  - The T-Box transcription factor 3 in development and cancer.
AB  - T-box factors comprise an archaic family of evolutionary conserved transcription
      factors that regulate patterns of gene expression essential for embryonic
      development. The T-box transcription factor 3 (TBX3), a member of this family, is
      expressed in several tissues and plays critical roles in, among other structures,
      the heart, mammary gland and limbs and haploinsufficiency of the human TBX3 gene
      is the genetic basis for the autosomal dominant disorder, ulnar-mammary syndrome.
      Overexpression of TBX3 on the other hand has been linked to several cancers
      including melanoma, breast, pancreatic, liver, lung, head and neck, ovarian,
      bladder carcinomas and a number of sarcoma subtypes. Furthermore, there is strong
      evidence that TBX3 promotes oncogenesis by impacting proliferation, tumour
      formation, metastasis as well as cell survival and drug resistance. More
      recently, TBX3 was however shown to also have tumour suppressor activity in
      fibrosarcomas and thus its functions in oncogenesis appear to be context
      dependent. Identification of the upstream regulators of TBX3 and the molecular
      mechanism(s) underpinning its oncogenic roles will make valuable contributions to
      cancer biology.

PMID- 28579577
TI  - Evaluation of Venous Drainage Patterns for Skull Base Meningioma Surgery.
AB  - The evaluation of venous drainage patterns prior to surgery for skull base
      meningioma is important owing to their deep location and the vulnerability of
      surrounding vascular structures. In recent years, the microsurgical skull base
      approach has matured as a surgical technique, making it an important option for
      reducing complications related to skull base meningioma surgery. In addition,
      knowledge of the venous anatomy can prevent venous drainage route disturbance and
      potentially life-threatening complications. Hence, this topic review aimed to
      provide an overview of normal venous anatomy as it relates to the microsurgical
      skull base approach, discuss known changes in venous drainage routes that are
      associated with the progression of skull base meningioma and the selection of an
      appropriate operative approach with the highest likelihood of preserving venous
      drainage structures.

PMID- 28579579
TI  - Regulation of zygotic gene activation by chromatin structure and epigenetic
      factors.
AB  - After fertilization, the genomes derived from an oocyte and spermatozoon are in a
      transcriptionally silent state before becoming activated at a species-specific
      time. In mice, the initiation of transcription occurs at the mid-one-cell stage,
      which represents the start of the gene expression program. A recent RNA
      sequencing analysis revealed that the gene expression pattern of one-cell embryos
      is unique and changes dramatically at the two-cell stage. However, the mechanism
      regulating this alteration has not yet been elucidated. It has been shown that
      chromatin structure and epigenetic factors change dynamically between the one-
      and two-cell stages. In this article, we review the characteristics of
      transcription, chromatin structure, and epigenetic factors in one- and two-cell
      mouse embryos and discuss the involvement of chromatin structure and epigenetic
      factors in the alteration of transcription that occurs between these stages.

PMID- 28579580
TI  - Molecular prevalence and genotyping of Chlamydia spp. in wild birds from South
      Korea.
AB  - Wild birds are reservoirs for Chlamydia spp. Of the total 225 samples from wild
      birds during January to September 2016 in Korea, 4 (1.8%) and 2 (0.9%) showed
      positive for Chlamydia psittaci and Chlamydia gallinacea, respectively.
      Phylogenetic analyses and comparisons of sequence identities for outer-membrane
      protein A (ompA) revealed that Korean C. psittaci fall into three previously
      known genotypes; genotype E, 1V and 6N, whereas the Korean C. gallinacea were
      classified as new variants of C. gallinacea. Our study demonstrates that wild
      birds in South Korea carry at least two Chlamydia species: C. psittaci and C.
      gallinacea, and provides new information on the epidemiology of avian
      chlamydiosis in wild birds.

PMID- 28579581
TI  - A nasal osteoma with an acute course in a Japanese Black heifer.
AB  - A 14-month-old Japanese Black heifer presented with unilateral epistaxis and mild
      swelling of the right face. Radiography revealed a mass with increased
      radiopacity on the right side of the nasal bridge, extending to the left side.
      Intranasal endoscopy confirmed a large tumor-like structure protruding into the
      nasal cavity. Following euthanasia, cranial computed tomography (CT) was
      performed, revealing a tumor 24.3 * 17.5 * 14.8 cm in size. The tumor occupied
      the entire right nasal cavity and the frontal and sphenoid sinuses.
      Histopathological examination revealed that the tumor consisted of well
      differentiated trabecular bones and loose connective tissue. Based on these
      findings, a diagnosis of osteoma was established. This report describes a case of
      osteoma with an acute course in a Japanese Black heifer.

PMID- 28579583
TI  - A case of intussusceptions at two parts of the ileum caused by an ileus tube.
AB  - An 87-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for paralytic ileus, and she
      was treated using an ileus tube. Although her symptoms improved, abdominal
      fullness developed again on day 3 after ileus tube insertion. Abdominal computed
      tomography indicated intussusceptions at the ileum and the terminal part of the
      ileum;therefore, an emergency surgery was performed. During the surgery,
      antegrade intussusceptions were found in the ileum 60cm from the ileocecal valve
      and the terminal part of the ileum into the ascending colon. The intussusception
      of the anal side was resolved by manual reduction, but the oral side needed a
      partial resection of small bowel because of the presence of necrosis. There were
      no lesions, such as tumors, at the intussusceptions sites. Therefore, the two
      intussusceptions were thought to be caused by the ileus tube. We diagnosed a rare
      case of intussusceptions in the two parts of the ileum as a complication of the
      placement of an ileus tube.

PMID- 28579582
TI  - Steroidogenic enzyme expression in estrogen production in the goat
      gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the effect of castration.
AB  - Extragonadal tissues are known to produce estrogens. At these sites, the C19
      precursor is important for aromatase expression for the production of estrogen.
      Aromatase expression is tissue-specific and is controlled by hormones. Recent
      studies have shown that rat gastric parietal cells expressed aromatase. Our first
      objective was to investigate steroidogenic enzyme expression in estrogen
      biosynthesis; the second objective was to investigate which site(s) of the GI
      tract expressed steroidogenic enzymes; and the third objective was to assess the
      effects of castration on steroidogenic enzyme expression. CYP19A1, 17beta-HSD3,
      CYP17A1, 3beta-HSD and P450scc were quantified in the GI tract by real-time PCR.
      CYP19A1 was detected mainly in the body and pyloric regions of the abomasum,
      while we detected weak expression of CYP19A1 in other parts of GI tract. In
      addition, the expression of 17beta-HSD3 and CYP17A1 was detected in abomasum.
      3beta-HSD expression was observed in duodenum and jejunum, while P450scc was not
      detectable in any part of GI tract. Immunohistochemical results showed
      immunolocalization of aromatase in parietal cells. Aromatase expression was
      observed to increase after castration. Furthermore, immunohistochemical results
      demonstrated that parietal cells also produced luteinizing hormone receptor
      (LHR). These results indicate steroidogenic enzymes required for the biosynthesis
      of estrogen were expressed, and the abomasum appeared to be the responsible organ
      for estrogen biosynthesis in the goat GI tract. In addition, parietal cells were
      responsible for estrogen production and the expression of LHR. Castration
      increased aromatase expression in abomasum through LH mediation.

PMID- 28579584
TI  - A rapidly growing, large, mature retroperitoneal teratoma in an adult male
      patient.
AB  - A 40-year-old man complaining of abdominal distention was referred to our
      hospital. Computed tomography of the abdomen demonstrated a very large abdominal
      mass with fat and calcification. The size of the mass rapidly increased from 30cm
      to 40cm over two weeks. The tumor was removed and diagnosed by pathological
      examination to be a retroperitoneal mature cystic teratoma that contained a 40-cm
      long, mature intestinal tract-like cyst, together with bone marrow and fat. The
      rapid growth of the tumor may have been caused by an increased secretion in the
      cyst.

PMID- 28579585
TI  - A case of liver abscess caused by appendicitis which was considered to be drained
      from hepatobronchial fistula.
AB  - A 52-year-old man was referred to our hospital complaining of right lower
      abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with appendicitis complicated with a liver
      abscess and underwent an appendectomy. After antibiotic treatment following
      surgery, the liver abscess penetrated the right lung, which was considered to be
      drained from a hepatobronchial fistula. Due to the effect of drainage, the liver
      abscess immediately improved and the patient was subsequently discharged.

PMID- 28579586
TI  - A case of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia-3 with autoimmune pancreatitis.
AB  - We report a case of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia-3 (PanIN-3) with
      autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP). The patient, a 75-year-old man, had been diagnosed
      to have AIP with stenosis of the main pancreatic duct. After six years, computed
      tomography demonstrated dilatation of the main pancreatic duct in the mid
      pancreas. Although we could not confirm the presence of any pancreatic tumor on
      the basis of imaging modalities alone, cytological examination of the pancreatic
      juice obtained by endoscopic retrograde pancreatography revealed atypical cells.
      Therefore, we performed pancreatoduodenectomy and obtained a pathologic diagnosis
      of PanIN-3 with AIP. The present case is informative in the context of pancreatic
      carcinogenesis in AIP.

PMID- 28579587
TI  - Direct-acting antiviral agents improved nephrotic syndrome associated with
      refractory pleural effusion and ascites caused by hepatitis C virus-related
      nephropathy: a case report.
AB  - A 74-year-old man with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related cirrhosis was admitted
      because of dyspnea. Laboratory investigations revealed severe proteinuria
      (4.0g/day), low serum albumin level, and cryoglobulinemia. Computed tomography
      showed massive pleural effusion and ascites. Because these effusions were leaky
      and the hepatic reserve was relatively intact, we thought these were mainly
      caused by nephrotic syndrome. Renal biopsy revealed membranoproliferative
      glomerulonephritis with mesangial proliferation and excessive matrix deposition.
      Based on these histopathological findings and the presence of cryoglobulinemia, a
      diagnosis of HCV-related nephropathy was performed. Therefore, antiviral therapy
      was initiated with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents
      (daclatasvir+asunaprevir). Serum HCV-RNA level was observed to be negative at
      week 8, which was followed by an alleviation of proteinuria and a gradual
      decrease in the pleural effusion and ascites. HCV-related nephropathy should be
      considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with chronic hepatitis C and
      refractory ascites. DAA agents are effective in the treatment of these patients.

PMID- 28579588
TI  - A case of primary amyloidosis with spontaneous hepatic rupture.
AB  - A 79-year-old man was diagnosed to have primary amyloid light-chain (AL)
      amyloidosis with associated liver damage and prominent hepatomegaly. He was
      followed up without any treatment. One year after the diagnosis, he was taken to
      the hospital with a sudden onset of features of shock. Computed tomography
      revealed hepatic rupture, and he was treated by emergent transcutaneous arterial
      embolization. However, the procedure was unable to save his life. AL amyloidosis
      with prominent hepatomegaly is considered to be a risk factor for spontaneous
      liver rupture and intra-abdominal hemorrhage.

PMID- 28579589
TI  - The 58th Congress of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology.

PMID- 28579590
TI  - The history, present status and future perspective of ESD for GI tract cancer.

PMID- 28579591
TI  - Cutting edge of esophageal ESD.

PMID- 28579592
TI  - Recent evidences on endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastric cancer.

PMID- 28579593
TI  - Current status of colorectal ESD and challenge to the limit.

PMID- 28579594
TI  - Exploration of Underlying Mechanism of Anti-adipogenic Activity of Sulfuretin.
AB  - Sulfuretin is a natural flavonoid found in the plant Rhus verniciflua STOKES. The
      plant has been traditionally used as medicinal agent for antiviral, cathartic,
      diaphoretic, anti-rheumatic and sedative activities in East Asia. In this study
      we isolated and identified sulfuretin from R. verniciflua and investigated its
      anti-adipogenic activity against 3T3-L1 preadipocytes cells. We evaluated the
      effects of sulfuretin on the adipogenic transcription factors like peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein
      alpha (C/EBPalpha), fatty acid synthase (FAS), Fabp4, adiponectin and zinc
      fingerprint protein (Zfp) 521 by gene expression (real-time QPCR) and Western
      blot analysis. Sulfuretin treatment at Day 0 and 2 showed significant reduction
      of lipid production in 3T3-L1 cells in concentration dependent manner. Gene
      expression analysis (real-time PCR) revealed that sulfuretin inhibited the both
      major adipogenic factors (C/EBPalpha, C/EBPbeta and PPARgamma) and minor
      adipogenic factors (sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP1c),
      adiponectin, FAS, Fabp4, Zfp423, and Ebf1). Western blot analysis showed the
      increased expression of beta-catenin and suppression of PPARgamma after
      sulfuretin treatment. Overall, sulfuretin is a natural flavonoid having potent
      anti-adipogenic activity through the suppression of major adipogenic factors
      C/EBPalpha, C/EBPbeta and PPARgamma, which initiate adipogenesis.

PMID- 28579595
TI  - Study on the Increased Probability of Detecting Adverse Drug Reactions Based on
      Bayes' Theorem: Evaluation of the Usefulness of Information on the Onset Timing
      of Adverse Drug Reactions.
AB  - In order to avoid adverse drug reactions (ADRs), pharmacists are reconstructing
      ADR-related information based on various types of data gathered from patients,
      and then providing this information to patients. Among the data provided to
      patients is the time-to-onset of ADRs after starting the medication (i.e., ADR
      onset timing information). However, a quantitative evaluation of the effect of
      onset timing information offered by pharmacists on the probability of ADRs
      occurring in patients receiving this information has not been reported to date.
      In this study, we extracted 40 ADR-drug combinations from the data in the
      Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database. By applying Bayes' theorem to these
      combinations, we quantitatively evaluated the usefulness of onset timing
      information as an ADR detection predictor. As a result, when information on days
      after taking medication was added, 54 ADR-drug combinations showed a likelihood
      ratio (LR) in excess of 2. In particular, when considering the ADR-drug
      combination of anaphylactic shock with levofloxacin or loxoprofen, the number of
      days elapsed between start of medication and the onset of the ADR was 0, which
      corresponded to increased likelihood ratios (LRs) of 138.7301 or 58.4516,
      respectively. When information from 1-7 d after starting medication was added to
      the combination of liver disorder and acetaminophen, the LR was 11.1775. The
      results of this study indicate the clinical usefulness of offering information on
      ADR onset timing.

PMID- 28579596
TI  - Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity identifies a subpopulation of canine adipose
      derived stem cells with higher differentiation potential.
AB  - Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are abundant and readily obtained, and have
      been studied for their clinical applicability in regenerative medicine. Some
      surface antigens have been identified as markers of different ADSC subpopulations
      in mice and humans. However, it is unclear whether functionally distinct
      subpopulations exist in dogs. To address this issue, we evaluated aldehyde
      dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity-a widely used stem cell marker in mice and humans
      by flow cytometry. Approximately 20% of bulk ADSCs showed high ALDH activity.
      Compared to cells with low activity (ALDHLo), the high-activity (ALDHHi)
      subpopulation exhibited a higher capacity for adipogenic and osteogenic
      differentiation. This is the first report of distinct ADSC subpopulations in dogs
      that differ in terms of adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation potential.

PMID- 28579597
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of ceftiofur in healthy and lipopolysaccharide-induced
      endotoxemic newborn calves treated with single and combined therapy.
AB  - The aim of this research was to compare plasma pharmacokinetics of ceftiofur
      sodium (CS) in healthy calves, and in calves with experimentally induced
      endotoxemia. Six calves received CS (2.2 mg/kg, IM) 2 hr after intravenous
      administration of 0.9% NaCl (Ceft group). After a washout period, the same 6
      calves received CS 2 hr after intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS+Ceft group). Another group of 6 calves received a combination of drug
      therapies that included CS 2 hr after administration of 0.9% NaCl (Comb group). A
      third group of 6 calves received the same combination therapy regimen 2 hr after
      intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS+Comb group). Plasma
      concentrations of CS and all desfuroylceftiofur-related metabolites were
      determined using HPLC, and its pharmacokinetic properties were determined based
      on a two-compartment model. The peak concentration of CS in the LPS+Comb group
      occurred the earliest, and the clearance rate of CS was the highest in the Comb
      and LPS+Comb groups (P<0.05). The elimination half-life of CS in the LPS+Ceft
      group was longer than that in the Ceft and Comb groups (P<0.05). The results of
      this study indicate that combined therapies and endotoxemic status may alter the
      plasma pharmacokinetics of CS in calves.

PMID- 28579599
TI  - Bilateral Arm Gangrene Associated With Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia After
      Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

PMID- 28579598
TI  - Rabbit models for biomedical research revisited via genome editing approaches.
AB  - Although the laboratory rabbit has long contributed to many paradigmatic studies
      in biology and medicine, it is often considered to be a "classical animal model"
      because in the last 30 years, the laboratory mouse has been more often used,
      thanks to the availability of embryonic stem cells that have allowed the
      generation of gene knockout (KO) animals. However, recent genome-editing
      strategies have changed this unrivaled condition; so far, more than 10 mammalian
      species have been added to the list of KO animals. Among them, the rabbit has
      distinct advantages for application of genome-editing systems, such as easy
      application of superovulation, consistency with fertile natural mating, well
      optimized embryo manipulation techniques, and the short gestation period. The
      rabbit has now returned to the stage of advanced biomedical research.

PMID- 28579600
TI  - Incidence, Management and Short-Term Outcome of Stroke in a General Population of
      1.4 Million Japanese - Shiga Stroke Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study determined the current status of the incidence,
      management, and prognosis of stroke in Japan using a population-based stroke
      registry.Methods and Results:Shiga Stroke Registry is an ongoing population-based
      registry that covers approximately 1.4 million residents of Shiga Prefecture.
      Cases of acute stroke were identified using standard definitions through
      surveillance of both all acute-care hospitals with neurology/neurosurgery
      facilities and death certificates in 2011. A total of 2,956 stroke cases and
      2,176 first-ever stroke cases were identified. The age- and sex-adjusted
      incidence rate for first-ever stroke using the 2013 European Standard Population
      as standard was per 100,000 person-years: 91.3 for ischemic stroke, 36.4 for
      intracerebral hemorrhage, and 13.7 for subarachnoid hemorrhage. It was estimated
      that approximately 220,000 new strokes occurred in 2011 in Japan. Among the 2,956
      cases, most stroke patients underwent neuroimaging, 268 received surgical or
      endovascular treatment, and 2,158 had rehabilitation therapy; 78 patients
      received intravenous thrombolysis. A total of 1,846 stroke patients had died or
      were dependent at hospital discharge, and 390 died within 28 days of onset.
      CONCLUSIONS: Incidence rates of stroke by subtypes were clarified and the total
      number of new strokes in Japan was estimated. More than half of stroke patients
      die or become dependent after a stroke. This study re-emphasized the importance
      of public health measures in reducing the burden of stroke in Japan.

PMID- 28579601
TI  - Efficacy of Intensive Radiofrequency Energy Delivery to the Localized Dense Scar
      Area in Post-Infarction Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation - A Comparative Study
      With Standard Strategy Targeting the Infarcted Border Zone.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several reports have demonstrated the importance of severely low
      voltage areas as arrhythmogenic substrates of ventricular tachycardia (VT).
      However, a comparative study of dense scar-targeted and infarcted border zone
      targeted strategies has not been reported.Methods and Results:We divided 109
      consecutive patients with VT post-infarction from 6 centers into 2 groups
      according to the ablation strategy used: dense scar-targeted ablation (DS
      ablation, 48%) or border zone-targeted ablation (BZ ablation, 52%). During DS
      ablation, we attempted to identify VT isthmuses in the dense scar areas (<=0.6
      mV) using detailed pace mapping, and linear ablation lesions were applied mainly
      to those areas. During BZ ablation, linear ablation of standard low voltage areas
      (0.5-1.5 mV) was performed along with good pace map sites of the clinical VT.
      Acute success was defined as complete success (no VTs inducible) or partial
      success (clinical VT was noninducible). The acute complete success rate was
      significantly higher for DS ablation than for BZ ablation (62% vs. 42%, P=0.043).
      During a median follow-up of 37 months, the VT-free survival rate was
      significantly higher for DS ablation than for BZ ablation (80% vs. 58% at 48
      months; log-rank P=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: DS ablation may be a more effective
      therapy for post-infarction VT than BZ ablation in terms of the acute complete
      success rate and long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28579602
TI  - Lipid-Lowering Therapy With Monoclonal Antibodies to Proprotein Convertase
      Subtilisin-Kexin Type 9 - Lessons From Recent Clinical Trials.

PMID- 28579603
TI  - Rapamycin Treatment for Benign Multicystic Peritoneal Mesothelioma: A Rare
      Disease with a Difficult Management.
AB  - BACKGROUND Benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma (BMPM) is a rare intra
      abdominal tumor. Although considered by many to be benign, this tumor has a high
      local recurrence rate. Because of its rarity, preoperative diagnosis is difficult
      and its origin and pathogenesis are uncertain. There are no evidence-based
      treatment strategies for BMPM. It is agreed that the best treatment strategy for
      BMPM is the combination of surgical cytoreduction and hyperthermic
      intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). An increasing body of evidence supports a
      pivotal role of the cytoplasmic serine/threonine kinase mTOR in the development
      and progression of several neoplastic diseases and specific mTOR inhibitors,
      including rapamycin, have been suggested as potential therapeutic options for
      different cancers. CASE REPORT A 65-year-old male with end-stage renal disease on
      hemodialysis for seven years presented with BMPM. He underwent surgery to remove
      multiple peritoneal cysts, but four months later he experienced a recurrence of
      the disease. Immunohistochemistry of the cysts demonstrated a high level of
      phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase, a downstream mTOR target, and since a target
      therapy that blocks PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway has been shown to have a scientific and
      logical rationale to treat this rare intra-abdominal neoplasia, we started the
      patient on low dose rapamycin therapy, an mTOR inhibitor. Long-term mTOR
      inhibition resulted in a complete and stable remission of BMPM. CONCLUSIONS The
      current case is the first report of BMPM successfully treated with rapamycin,
      which resulted in a long-lasting response to mTOR inhibition.

PMID- 28579604
TI  - Association of Dopamine D1 and D3 Receptor Gene Polymorphisms with Essential
      Hypertension in 3 Ethnic Groups in China.
AB  - Background Material and Methods Results Conclusions.

PMID- 28579605
TI  - Aging Reversal and Healthy Longevity is in Reach: Dependence on Mitochondrial DNA
      Heteroplasmy as a Key Molecular Target.
AB  - Recent trends in biomedical research have highlighted the potential for effecting
      significant extensions in longevity with enhanced quality of life in aging human
      populations. Within this context, any proposed method to achieve enhanced life
      extension must include therapeutic approaches that draw upon essential
      biochemical and molecular regulatory processes found in relatively simple single
      cell organisms that are evolutionarily conserved within complex organ systems of
      higher animals. Current critical thinking has established the primacy of
      mitochondrial function in maintaining good health throughout plant and animal
      phyla. The mitochondrion represents an existentially defined endosymbiotic model
      of complex organelle development driven by evolutionary modification of a
      permanently enslaved primordial bacterium. Cellular mitochondria are
      biochemically and morphologically tailored to provide exponentially enhanced ATP
      dependent energy production accordingly to tissue- and organ-specific
      physiological demands. Thus, individual variations in longevity may then be
      effectively sorted according to age-dependent losses of single-cell metabolic
      integrity functionally linked to impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics within an
      aggregate presentation of compromised complex organ systems. Recent empirical
      studies have focused on the functional role of mitochondrial heteroplasmy in the
      regulation of normative cellular processes and the initiation and persistence of
      pathophysiological states. Accordingly, elucidation of the multifaceted
      functional roles of mitochondrial heteroplasmy in normal aging and enhanced
      longevity will provide both a compelling genetic basis and potential targets for
      therapeutic intervention to effect meaningful life extension in human
      populations.

PMID- 28579606
TI  - Isoniazid Prophylaxis for Latent Tuberculosis Infections in Liver Transplant
      Recipients in a Tuberculosis-Endemic Area.
AB  - BACKGROUND Isoniazid (INH) prophylaxis (Px) has good efficacy for preventing
      tuberculosis (TB) in the general population. However, its use for the treatment
      of latent TB infections (LTBI) in liver transplant (LT) recipients is challenging
      because little is known about INH-induced hepatotoxicity in graft recipients. We
      evaluated the efficacy and safety of INH Px in LT recipients. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS From March 2008 to December 2012, we retrospectively reviewed data on 277
      patients who received LT at a single center. We examined the results of
      tuberculin skin tests and interferon-gamma release assays, use of INH, INH
      induced hepatotoxicity, and post-LT TB occurrence. RESULTS Among 277 recipients,
      7 cases of post-transplant TB were detected (2.52%). Seventeen patients received
      post-transplant INH Px. Among INH Px recipients, post-LT TB infection did not
      occur. Hepatotoxicity after INH Px was significantly lower in the patients who
      received INH Px at an aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level that was less than
      50 U/L than in those who received INH Px at an AST level that was more than 50
      U/L (P=0.046, 0.002). CONCLUSIONS INH is likely to be effective for preventing
      post-LT TB recurrence in LTBI. However, because of INH-induced hepatotoxicity, it
      is better to avoid using it in the early post-LT period and to wait to initiate
      INH Px until liver function is stable in LT recipients.

PMID- 28579607
TI  - Plant genetics: Branching out for crop improvement.

PMID- 28579608
TI  - Genome watch: Klebsiella pneumoniae: when a colonizer turns bad.

PMID- 28579609
TI  - Bacterial evolution: The origins of pathogenic enterococci.

PMID- 28579610
TI  - Bacterial physiology: An inside job on metabolism.

PMID- 28579611
TI  - Anti-trypanosomatid drug discovery: an ongoing challenge and a continuing need.

PMID- 28579612
TI  - Immunology: ACE in neutrophil antibacterial defence.

PMID- 28579613
TI  - Bioengineering: Kidney glomerulus-on-a-chip.

PMID- 28579614
TI  - Cystic kidney disease: A new osmoregulatory role for HNF-1beta.

PMID- 28579616
TI  - Enhancement of endocytic uptake of HIV-1 virions into CD4-negative epithelial
      cells by HIV-1 gp41 via its interaction with POB1.

PMID- 28579615
TI  - Type 3 innate lymphoid cell-derived lymphotoxin prevents microbiota-dependent
      inflammation.
AB  - Splenomegaly is a well-known phenomenon typically associated with inflammation.
      However, the underlying cause of this phenotype has not been well characterized.
      Furthermore, the splenomegaly phenotype seen in lymphotoxin (LT) signaling
      deficient mice is characterized by increased numbers of splenocytes and splenic
      neutrophils. Splenomegaly, as well as the related phenotype of increased
      lymphocyte counts in non-lymphoid tissues, is thought to result from the absence
      of secondary lymphoid tissues in LT-deficient mice. We now present evidence that
      mice deficient in LTalpha1beta2 or LTbetaR develop splenomegaly and increased
      numbers of lymphocytes in non-lymphoid tissues in a microbiota-dependent manner.
      Antibiotic administration to LTalpha1beta2- or LTbetaR-deficient mice reduces
      splenomegaly. Furthermore, re-derived germ-free Ltbr-/- mice do not exhibit
      splenomegaly or increased inflammation in non-lymphoid tissues compared to
      specific pathogen-free Ltbr-/- mice. By using various LTbeta- and LTbetaR
      conditional knockout mice, we demonstrate that retinoic acid-related orphan
      receptor gammaT-positive type 3 innate lymphoid cells provide the required active
      LT signaling to prevent the development of splenomegaly. Thus, this study
      demonstrates the importance of LT-mediated immune responses for the prevention of
      splenomegaly and systemic inflammation induced by microbiota.

PMID- 28579618
TI  - A preference to bond? Male prairie voles form pair bonds even in the presence of
      multiple receptive females.
AB  - Pair bonds are the cornerstone of a monogamous relationship. When individuals of
      the same species engage in monogamy and promiscuity (i.e. alternative
      reproductive tactics) it can be difficult to determine which tactic confers
      greater fitness, as measures of fitness can be difficult to ascertain. However,
      in these circumstances, whether animals preferentially establish pair bonds can
      reveal decisions that presumably reflect the animals' assessment of how to best
      maximize reproductive success. In nature, the majority of prairie voles, Microtus
      ochrogaster, establishes pair bonds and engages in social monogamy while a
      minority of individuals remains single and presumably mates promiscuously. The
      existence of these two tactics raises the interesting question: do bonded male
      prairie voles choose to 'settle' (for just one partner) or are they
      preferentially 'settling down'? To determine which of these two tactics is
      preferred, we provided single male prairie voles simultaneous access to two
      sexually receptive females for 24 h and then subsequently tested males in
      'partner preference tests' with each female independently contrasted with a novel
      female. We aimed to determine whether males would form a pair bond with one, both
      or none of the original females. We found that males formed pair bonds with one
      of the two females. We also investigated male- and female-initiated aggression
      and found that during the bonding process males were more aggressive with females
      that they did not ultimately form a bond with. In the partner preference tests,
      males showed more aggression towards unfamiliar females than towards familiar
      females. Mismatches in male- and female-initiated aggression suggest that
      aggressive interactions may be perpetuated more by males than by females. Taken
      together, our results demonstrate that under conditions that are ideal for
      forgoing bonding and engaging in multiple matings, males choose to establish a
      pair bond, suggesting that selective pressures may have facilitated bonding by
      males.

PMID- 28579617
TI  - HDAC1,2 inhibition and doxorubicin impair Mre11-dependent DNA repair and DISC to
      override BCR-ABL1-driven DSB repair in Philadelphia chromosome-positive B-cell
      precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia (ALL) expressing BCR-ABL1 oncoprotein is a major subclass of ALL with
      poor prognosis. BCR-ABL1-expressing leukemic cells are highly dependent on double
      strand break (DSB) repair signals for their survival. Here we report that a first
      in-class HDAC1,2 selective inhibitor and doxorubicin (a hyper-CVAD chemotherapy
      regimen component) impair DSB repair networks in Ph+ B-cell precursor ALL cells
      using common as well as distinct mechanisms. The HDAC1,2 inhibitor but not
      doxorubicin alters nucleosomal occupancy to impact chromatin structure, as
      revealed by MNase-Seq. Quantitative mass spectrometry of the chromatin proteome
      along with functional assays showed that the HDAC1,2 inhibitor and doxorubicin
      either alone or in combination impair the central hub of DNA repair, the Mre11
      Rad51-DNA ligase 1 axis, involved in BCR-ABL1-specific DSB repair signaling in
      Ph+ B-cell precursor ALL cells. HDAC1,2 inhibitor and doxorubicin interfere with
      DISC (DNA damage-induced transcriptional silencing in cis)) or transcriptional
      silencing program in cis around DSB sites via chromatin remodeler-dependent and 
      independent mechanisms, respectively, to further impair DSB repair. HDAC1,2
      inhibitor either alone or when combined with doxorubicin decreases leukemia
      burden in vivo in refractory Ph+ B-cell precursor ALL patient-derived xenograft
      mouse models. Overall, our novel mechanistic and preclinical studies together
      demonstrate that HDAC1,2 selective inhibition can overcome DSB repair 'addiction'
      and provide an effective therapeutic option for Ph+ B-cell precursor ALL.

PMID- 28579619
TI  - Rates and Routes of Hysterectomy for Benign Indications in Austria 2002 - 2014.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rates and routes of hysterectomy have implications for quality,
      costs and training. This study analyzed rates of benign hysterectomy and surgical
      approaches for benign hysterectomy in Austria from 2002 to 2014. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: This was a population-based retrospective observational study of coding
      data from all acute care hospitals (public and private) in Austria. Main outcome
      measures were numbers of women undergoing hysterectomy for benign indications in
      Austria per year and the route of hysterectomy for benign indications. RESULTS:
      The number of benign hysterectomies performed per year declined from 10 675 in
      2002 to 7747 in 2014, a decline of 27%. The use of vaginal hysterectomy was
      stable (53% and 47%, respectively). Use of laparoscopic techniques increased (5%
      in 2002, 32% in 2014) whereas use of abdominal hysterectomy decreased (41% and
      20%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Numbers of benign hysterectomies performed per
      year in Austria declined substantially between 2002 and 2014. Use of vaginal
      hysterectomy was stable at about 50%, whereas increased use of laparoscopic
      techniques was associated with lower rates of open hysterectomy.

PMID- 28579620
TI  - C-Section Prevalence Among Obese Mothers and Neonatal Hypoglycemia: a Cohort
      Analysis of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University of
      Lubeck.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) demonstrates an
      increasing prevalence of obesity in Western countries. This study investigates
      the influence of obesity on the mode of delivery and the occurrence of
      hypoglycemia in newborns. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of all
      deliveries at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University of
      Lubeck, Germany was conducted over a period of eleven years with the primary
      outcome as non-elective C-sections and hypoglycemia of newborns from obese
      mothers. Patients were divided into six subgroups according to WHO weight
      classifications as follows: control group body mass index (BMI) 18.5 - 24.9 kg/m
      2 , n = 7712; general obesity BMI >= 25 kg/m 2 , n = 4227; overweight BMI 25 -
      29.9 kg/m 2 , n = 2628; obesity I degrees  BMI 30 - 34.9 kg/m 2 , n = 1017;
      obesity II degrees  BMI 35 - 39.9 kg/m 2 , n = 370; obesity III degrees  BMI >=
      40 kg/m 2 , n = 212. RESULTS: Analysis of the primary outcome shows an increased
      incidence of non-elective C-sections with an elevated BMI (general obesity vs.
      control group: 20.5 vs. 15.9%, p < 0.001; OR 1.3; 95% CI 1.2 - 1.4) and elevated
      rates of neonatal hypoglycemia in newborns of obese mothers (general obesity vs.
      control group: 0.6 vs. 0.3%, p < 0.05; OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.0 - 3.0). CONCLUSIONS:
      Obesity is an essential obstetric risk factor. Obese women face an increased risk
      of non-elective C-sections, and newborns of obese mothers suffer from elevated
      rates of hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28579621
TI  - Fetal Pathology of Neural Tube Defects - An Overview of 68 Cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of neural tube defects worldwide is 1 - 2 per 1000
      neonates. Neural tube defects result from a disturbance of neurulation in the 3rd
      or 4th week of development and thus represent the earliest manifestation of organ
      malformation. Neural tube defects (NTD) are classified into cranial dysraphism
      leading to anencephaly or meningoencephalocele and spinal dysraphism with or
      without meningomyelocele. In isolated form they have multifactorial causes, and
      the empirical risk of recurrence in Central Europe is 2%. As associated
      malformations they tend to occur sporadically, and in monogenic syndromes they
      follow Mendelian inheritance patterns with a high risk of recurrence. PATIENTS:
      Autopsies were performed on 68 fetuses following a prenatal diagnosis of NTD and
      induced abortion. RESULTS: The incidence of NTDs in our autopsied fetuses was 8%
      and 11% in fetuses with malformations. The percentage of fetuses with
      anencephaly, encephalocele or spina bifida was 24, 18, and 60%*, respectively.
      Analysis of the sex distribution showed a female preponderance in cranial
      dysraphisms but the sex distribution of spina bifida cases was equal. The extent
      and localization of NTDs varied, with lumbosacral cases clearly predominating.
      The proportion of isolated, associated and syndromic neural tube defects was 56,
      23.5 and 20.6% respectively. In the majority of syndromes, the neural tube defect
      represented a not previously observed syndromic feature. CONCLUSION: The high
      proportion of NTDs with monogenic background underlines the importance of a
      syndrome oriented fetal pathology. At the very least it requires a thourough
      photographic and radiographic documentation of the fetal phenotype to enable the
      genetic counsellor to identify a syndromic disorder. This is necessary to
      determine the risk of recurrence, arrange confirming mutation analyses and offer
      targeted prenatal diagnosis in subsequent pregnancies.

PMID- 28579622
TI  - Physical Exercise During Pregnancy - How Active Are Pregnant Women in Germany and
      How Well Informed?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is sufficient evidence showing the positive effects of
      physical exercise on various aspects of pregnancy. This study evaluates knowledge
      and status of physical exercise among pregnant women. METHODS: The standardised
      paper-pencil questionnaire "Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire" (PPAQ) as
      well as general demographic questions were used to assess the exercise behaviour
      of study participants. 83 questionnaires completed by women presenting to the
      Kiel University Hospital for antenatal assessment were included in the analysis.
      RESULTS: At the time of questionnaire completion 10 women were in the first
      trimester of pregnancy, 64 in the second, and 9 in the third. Just less than 90%
      of participants felt they had been informed "sufficiently" on the topic physical
      exercise during pregnancy, over 50% felt they were "well" or "very well"
      informed. Just less than half of participants received their information from a
      doctor (either their gynaecologist or general practitioner) and none of these
      felt "insufficiently" informed. Almost 80% of participants reported still doing
      no sport or less exercise than before falling pregnant. The maximum proportional
      energy expenditure for recreational activity - just under 20% - was in the third
      trimester. Women who felt they had been well counselled tended to have higher
      activity levels. CONCLUSION: Study participants demonstrated a clear decline in
      physical exercise during pregnancy despite clear evidence of the benefits of
      regular exercise for pregnant women, and despite participants feeling they were
      well informed. Detailed information on the recommendations for physical exertion
      in pregnancy should form an integral part of antenatal counselling.

PMID- 28579624
TI  - Challenges to global control and/or elimination of NTDs: threats of animal
      reservoirs of human infections.

PMID- 28579623
TI  - Reference Curve for the Mean Uterine Artery Pulsatility Index in Singleton
      Pregnancies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Doppler sonography of the uterine artery (UA) is done to monitor
      pregnancies, because the detected flow patterns are useful to draw inferences
      about possible disorders of trophoblast invasion. Increased resistance in the UA
      is associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia and/or intrauterine growth
      restriction (IUGR) and perinatal mortality. In the absence of standardized
      figures, the normal ranges of the various available reference curves sometimes
      differ quite substantially from one another. The causes for this are differences
      in the flow patterns of the UA depending on the position of the pulsed Doppler
      gates as well as branching of the UA. Because of the discrepancies between the
      different reference curves and the practical problems this poses for guideline
      recommendations, we thought it would be useful to create our own reference curves
      for Doppler measurements of the UA obtained from a singleton cohort under
      standardized conditions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study
      was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics of the Charite -
      Universitatsmedizin Berlin, the Department for Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine
      of the University Hospital Halle (Saale) and the Center for Prenatal Diagnostics
      and Human Genetics Kurfurstendamm 199. Available datasets from the three study
      locations were identified and reference curves were generated using the LMS
      method. Measured values were correlated with age of gestation, and a cubic model
      and Box-Cox power transformation (L), the median (M) and the coefficient of
      variation (S) were used to smooth the curves. RESULTS: 103 720 Doppler
      examinations of the UA carried out in singleton pregnancies from the 11th week of
      gestation (10 + 1 GW) were analyzed. The mean pulsatility index (Mean PI) showed
      a continuous decline over the course of pregnancy, dropping to a plateau of
      around 0.84 between the 23rd and 27th GW, after which it decreased again.
      CONCLUSION: Age of gestation, placental position, position of pulsed Doppler
      gates and branching of the UA can all change the flow pattern. The mean
      pulsatility index (Mean PI) showed a continuous decrease over time. There were
      significant differences between our data and alternative reference curves. A
      system of classifying Doppler studies and a reference curve adapted to the
      current technology are urgently required to differentiate better between
      physiological and pathological findings.

PMID- 28579625
TI  - Prevalence of potentially zoonotic gastrointestinal parasites in canine faeces in
      Ibadan, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Humans can get infected through direct or indirect contact with
      infective stages of zoonotic parasites shed to the environment through dog
      faeces. OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to investigate the presence of
      gastrointestinal parasites present in dog faeces shed on the street of Ibadan
      metropolis, one of the largest cities in Africa. METHODS: Twenty-three locations
      were randomly selected using grid-sampling method. A total of 203 faecal samples
      collected from the streets of selected areas were processed for detection of
      helminth eggs and protozoan oocysts using flotation technique. Eggs/oocysts per
      gram of faeces was counted using modified McMaster technique. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites was 43.3% (88/203). Single and multiple
      infections were 69 (78.4%) and 19 (21.6%) respectively. The parasites detected
      were Ancylostoma sp. 24.6% (50/88) Isospora sp. 14.2% (29/88), Toxocara sp. 9.8%
      (20/88), Uncinaria sp. 2.5% (5/88) and Strongyloides sp, 3.9% (8/88). Ancylostoma
      sp. (320 * 102 epg) and Uncinaria sp. (5 * 102 epg) had the highest and least
      intensity respectively. Streets within residential areas having markets had the
      highest number of positive samples. All the genera of parasites detected in this
      study have zoonotic potential. CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of zoonotic
      parasites detected in dog faeces from Ibadan metropolis showed that infected
      stray dogs roam the streets and constitute potential risk to human health. This
      study suggests the need for enforcement of laws restraining roaming or straying
      dogs and proper veterinary care of dogs. FUNDING: None declared.

PMID- 28579626
TI  - A narrative synthesis of illustrative evidence on effects of capitation payment
      for primary care: lessons for Ghana and other low/middle-income countries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse and synthesize available international experiences and
      information on the motivation for, and effects of using capitation as provider
      payment method in country health systems and lessons and implications for
      low/middle-income countries. METHODS: We did narrative review and synthesis of
      the literature on the effects of capitation payment on primary care. RESULTS:
      Eleven articles were reviewed. Capitation payment encourages efficiency: drives
      down cost, serves as critical source of income for providers, promotes adherence
      to guidelines and policies, encourages providers to work better and give health
      education to patients. It, however, induces reduction in the quantity and quality
      of care provided and encourages skimming on inputs, underserving of patients in
      bad state of health, "dumping" of high risk patients and negatively affect
      patient-provider relationship. CONCLUSION: The illustrative evidence adduced from
      the review demonstrates that capitation payment in primary care can create
      positive incentives but could also elicit un-intended effects. However, due to
      differences in country context, policy makers in Ghana and other low/middle
      income countries may only be guided by the illustrative evidence in their design
      of a context-specific capitation payment for primary care. FUNDING: Netherlands
      Fellowship Programme (NFP), Fellowship number: NFP-PhD.12/352.

PMID- 28579628
TI  - A review of Intra-uterine foetal deaths at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.
AB  - AIM: To estimate the rate of IUFD/Stillbirths (SB). STUDY DESIGN: This is a
      retrospective review of delivery suite records from Jan 1 2013 to Dec 31 2014.
      METHODS: Study was undertaken at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) in the
      Central region of Ghana. All pregnant women who had their babies at the delivery
      suite of CCTH have their records hand written in Ghana health service approved
      and distributed delivery records book. We identified all patients with IUFD/SB
      from this delivery suite record book which is kept on the delivery suite. The
      data collected included the age, parity, mode of delivery, total blood loss, sex
      of the foetus and condition of foetus i.e. Macerated stillbirth (MSB) or fresh
      still birth (FSB). Of the 315 IUFDs found in the records book, 26 were
      incompletely filled, and 13 were abortions (<28 weeks) and therefore excluded.
      The analysis is therefore based on 276 completed documentations. The data
      collected from the delivery suite records were analysed using STATA version 11.0.
      RESULTS: Of the 315 IUFD/SBs documented in the delivery suite record book, 13
      were abortions (<28 weeks), leaving 302 IUFD/SBs. Of this number, 26 had
      incomplete data and were excluded from the analysis. The analysis was thus based
      on 276 IUFD/SBs with complete data. Over the study period there were 5176
      deliveries, giving a stillbirth rate of 58.5/1000 deliveries. Majority of the
      IUFD occurred in women 20-35 years of age (74.7%), and who have had two or less
      births (66.7%). The mean maternal age at which IUFD occurred was 29 years.
      CONCLUSION: Our review shows that the SBR of 58.5/1000, over the two years, at
      CCTH is high. We suggest further studies to focus on the reasons for IUFDs and
      what interventions can be applied to reduce it. FUNDING: No internal or external
      funds sourced.

PMID- 28579627
TI  - Carriage of sub-microscopic sexual and asexual Plasmodium falciparum stages in
      the dry season at Navrongo, Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the prevalence of sub-microscopic Plasmodium
      falciparum infections and gametocyte carriage in asymptomatic individuals in
      Navrongo in northern Ghana, an area of seasonal malaria transmission. DESIGN: A
      cross sectional study of 209 randomly selected participants of all age-groups was
      conducted in February and March, 2015. METHODS: Capillary blood samples collected
      from these individuals were used for the detection of both asexual and gametocyte
      stage parasites by microscopy, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
      (RT-PCR) and conventional nested PCR methods. The prevalence data as determined
      by microscopy and molecular methods were compared using chi-square tests.
      RESULTS: Parasitaemia from these asymptomatic infections ranged from 40 to 3,520
      parasites/ul of blood (geometric mean parasitaemia = 732 parasites/ul). The
      prevalence of asymptomatic P. falciparum carriage was 4.8% (10/209) and 13.9%
      (29/209) using microscopy and RT-PCR respectively. The overall prevalence of sub
      microscopic infections in the total number of samples analysed was 9.1% (19/209)
      and 66% (19/29) of the asymptomatic infections. P. falciparum gametocytemia
      detected by microscopy was 1% (2/209) and 3.8% (8/209) by PCR. CONCLUSION: This
      is the first report of sub-microscopic asexual and gametocytes infections in the
      dry season in a seasonal malaria transmission area in Ghana. It has established
      that persistent latent malaria infections occur and that these could supply the
      source of parasites for the next transmission season. The findings highlight the
      presence of sub-microscopic infections and therefore the need for active case
      detection surveillance to eliminate "asymptomatic reservoir" parasites and
      consequently break the transmission of the disease in Ghana. FUNDING: Bill and
      Melinda Gates Foundation grant awarded to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical
      Research Postdoctoral and Postgraduate Training in Infectious Diseases Research
      (Global Health Grant # OPP52155); National Institutes of Health grant (NIH-NIAID
      RO1 # 1RO1AI099623) to MDW; European Developing Countries Clinical Trials
      Partnership (EDCTP)-West African Network of Excellence for Clinical Trials in TB,
      AIDS and Malaria (WANETAM) (Project code CB.07.41700.007).

PMID- 28579629
TI  - Prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in a Nigerian kidney hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine (i) the prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in
      our Centre and, (ii) appraise pharmacists' intervention and correction of
      identified prescription errors. DESIGN: A descriptive, single blinded cross
      sectional study. SETTING: Kidney Care Centre is a public Specialist hospital. The
      monthly patient load averages 60 General Out-patient cases and 17.4 in-patients.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 31 medical doctors (comprising of 2 Consultant
      Nephrologists, 15 Medical Officers, 14 House Officers), 40 nurses and 24 ward
      assistants participated in the study. One pharmacist runs the daily call
      schedule. Prescribers were blinded to the study. Prescriptions containing only
      galenicals were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: An error detection mechanism was set up
      to identify and correct prescription errors. Life-threatening prescriptions were
      discussed with the Quality Assurance Team of the Centre who conveyed such errors
      to the prescriber without revealing the on-going study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Prevalence of prescription errors, pattern of prescription errors, pharmacist's
      intervention. RESULTS: A total of 2,660 (75.0%) combined prescription errors were
      found to have one form of error or the other; illegitimacy 1,388 (52.18%),
      omission 1,221(45.90%), wrong dose 51(1.92%) and no error of style was detected.
      Life-threatening errors were low (1.1-2.2%). Errors were found more commonly
      among junior doctors and non-medical doctors. Only 56 (1.6%) of the errors were
      detected and corrected during the process of dispensing. CONCLUSION: Prescription
      errors related to illegitimacy and omissions were highly prevalent. There is a
      need to improve on patient-to-healthcare giver ratio. A medication quality
      assurance unit is needed in our hospitals. FUNDING: No financial support was
      received by any of the authors for this study.

PMID- 28579630
TI  - Quality of Health Care in Ghana: Mapping of Interventions and the Way Forward.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ghana has made major strides in improving access to health services.
      Despite these improvements, Ghana did not meet the Millennium Development Goals 4
      and 5. Quality of care is a major factor that could explain this shortfall.
      OBJECTIVE: To understand current practice and to identify needs in the area of
      quality of care in Ghana for improving health outcomes and to guide the National
      Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in supporting the care quality
      improvement efforts in Ghana. METHODS: The directory of existing standards,
      guidelines and protocols of the Ghana Health Service was reviewed and sixteen in
      depth interviews were conducted to identify interventions that addressed quality
      of care. Additional information was obtained during a NICE scoping visit to Accra
      followed by a study tour of Ghanaian stakeholders to NICE and to the National
      Health Service. RESULTS: Since 1988, 489 policy interventions have been
      identified that address quality of care. Among them, the development of health
      protocols and guidelines were the most frequent interventions (n=150), followed
      by health policies and strategies (n=106); interventions related to health
      information (n=77); development of training manuals and staff training (n=69);
      development of regulations (n=38) and interventions related to organisation of
      services (n=15). CONCLUSIONS: Ghana has made significant efforts in developing
      guidelines, policies and conducting in-service training. Supervision, monitoring
      and evaluation have also received attention. However, less effort has been made
      in developing processes and systems and involving communities and service users.
      Some recommendations were made to guide the future work on quality of care.
      FUNDING: Rockefeller Foundation.

PMID- 28579631
TI  - Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva: a case report.
AB  - Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva is a rare debilitating disorder of the
      musculoskeletal system affecting one in two million individuals. It is
      characterized by progressive extraskeletal ossification of soft tissues resulting
      in the original skeleton being encased in unyielding new bone leading to
      disability and ultimately death from cardiorespiratory failure. The present case
      brings to light the delays and potential pitfalls in diagnosis as a result of the
      rarity of the condition.

PMID- 28579632
TI  - A Multi-Functional Microelectrode Array Featuring 59760 Electrodes, 2048
      Electrophysiology Channels, Stimulation, Impedance Measurement and
      Neurotransmitter Detection Channels.
AB  - Biological cells are characterized by highly complex phenomena and processes that
      are, to a great extent, interdependent. To gain detailed insights, devices
      designed to study cellular phenomena need to enable tracking and manipulation of
      multiple cell parameters in parallel; they have to provide high signal quality
      and high spatiotemporal resolution. To this end, we have developed a CMOS-based
      microelectrode array system that integrates six measurement and stimulation
      functions, the largest number to date. Moreover, the system features the largest
      active electrode array area to date (4.48*2.43 mm2) to accommodate 59,760
      electrodes, while its power consumption, noise characteristics, and spatial
      resolution (13.5 MUm electrode pitch) are comparable to the best state-of-the-art
      devices. The system includes: 2,048 action-potential (AP, bandwidth: 300 Hz to 10
      kHz) recording units, 32 local-field-potential (LFP, bandwidth: 1 Hz to 300 Hz)
      recording units, 32 current recording units, 32 impedance measurement units, and
      28 neurotransmitter detection units, in addition to the 16 dual-mode voltage-only
      or current/voltage-controlled stimulation units. The electrode array architecture
      is based on a switch matrix, which allows for connecting any
      measurement/stimulation unit to any electrode in the array and for performing
      different measurement/stimulation functions in parallel.

PMID- 28579633
TI  - Rapid and Accurate C-V Measurements.
AB  - We report a new technique for the rapid measurement of full capacitance-voltage
      (C-V) characteristic curves. The displacement current from a 100 MHz applied sine
      wave, which swings from accumulation to strong inversion, is digitized directly
      using an oscilloscope from the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor under
      test. A C-V curve can be constructed directly from this data but is severely
      distorted due to non-ideal behavior of real measurement systems. The key advance
      of this work is to extract the system response function using the same
      measurement set-up and a known MOS capacitor. The system response correction to
      the measured C-V curve of the unknown MOS capacitor can then be done by simple
      deconvolution. No de-skewing and/or leakage current correction is necessary,
      making it a very simple and quick measurement. Excellent agreement between the
      new fast C-V method and C-V measured conventionally by an LCR meter is achieved.
      The total time required for measurement and analysis is approximately 2 seconds,
      which is limited by our equipment.

PMID- 28579634
TI  - Dynamic susceptibility of concentric permalloy rings with opposite chirality
      vortices.
AB  - The high frequency dynamic behaviour of concentric permalloy nanorings with
      vortex domain structures with a thickness of 20 nm, a width in the range of 100
      nm-250 nm, and a separation in the range of 10 nm-600 nm is investigated by
      micromagnetic simulations. The aim is to explore the ferromagnetic resonance of
      the concentric ring structure as a function of geometric parameters of the
      system. The dynamic susceptibility spectrum and spatial localization of the
      ferromagnetic resonance mode are investigated for varying ring widths and
      separations. The frequency of oscillation is significantly impacted by the
      presence of the magnetostatic interaction between each ring and can be modulated
      by a variation in the ring width and separation. The spatial localization of the
      uniform mode is found to vary as a function of ring separation, which corresponds
      to a large variation in amplitude of the real and imaginary components of the
      dynamic susceptibility.

PMID- 28579635
TI  - Investigation of nanoyarn preparation by modified electrospinning setup.
AB  - Higher ordered structures of nanofibers, including nanofiber-based yarns and
      cables, have a variety of potential applications, including wearable health
      monitoring systems, artificial tendons, and medical sutures. In this study,
      twisted assemblies of polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyvinylidene fluoride
      trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE), and polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers were
      fabricated via a modified electrospinning setup, consisting of a rotating cone
      shaped copper collector, two syringe pumps, and two high voltage power supplies.
      The fiber diameters and twist angles varied as a function of the rotary speed of
      the collector. Mechanical testing of the yarns revealed that PVDF-TrFe and PCL
      yarns have a higher strain-to-failure than PAN yarns, reaching 307% for PCL
      nanoyarns. For the first time, the porosity of nanofiber yarns was studied as a
      function of twist angle, showing that PAN nanoyarns are more porous than PCL
      yarns.

PMID- 28579636
TI  - The Changing Nonlinear Relationship between Income and Terrorism.
AB  - This article reinvestigates the relationship between real per capita gross
      domestic product (GDP) and terrorism. We devise a terrorism Lorenz curve to show
      that domestic and transnational terrorist attacks are each more concentrated in
      middle-income countries, thereby suggesting a nonlinear income-terrorism
      relationship. Moreover, this point of concentration shifted to lower income
      countries after the rising influence of the religious fundamentalist and
      nationalist/separatist terrorists in the early 1990s. For transnational terrorist
      attacks, this shift characterized not only the attack venue but also the
      perpetrators' nationality. The article then uses nonlinear smooth transition
      regressions to establish the relationship between real per capita GDP and
      terrorism for eight alternative terrorism samples, accounting for venue,
      perpetrators' nationality, terrorism type, and the period. Our nonlinear
      estimates are shown to be favored over estimates using linear or quadratic income
      determinants of terrorism. These nonlinear estimates are robust to additional
      controls.

PMID- 28579637
TI  - The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence.
AB  - This paper undertakes an assessment of a rapidly growing body of economic
      research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research
      which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital.
      Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well
      as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger
      population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little)
      people know and identify the least financially savvy population subgroups. This
      is followed by an examination of the impact of financial literacy on economic
      decision-making in the United States and elsewhere. While the literature is still
      young, conclusions may be drawn about the effects and consequences of financial
      illiteracy and what works to remedy these gaps. A final section offers thoughts
      on what remains to be learned if researchers are to better inform theoretical and
      empirical models as well as public policy.

PMID- 28579638
TI  - Marriage-Market Constraints and Mate-Selection Behavior: Racial, Ethnic, and
      Gender Differences in Intermarriage.
AB  - Despite theoretical consensus that marriage markets constrain mate selection
      behavior, few studies directly evaluate how local marriage market conditions
      influence intermarriage patterns. Using data from the American Community Survey,
      we examine what aspects of marriage markets influence mate selection; assess
      whether the associations between marriage market conditions and intermarriage are
      uniform by gender and across pan-ethnic groups; and investigate the extent to
      which marriage market conditions account for group differences in intermarriage
      patterns. Relative group size is the most salient and consistent determinant of
      intermarriage patterns across pan-ethnic groups and by gender. Marriage market
      constraints typically explain a larger share of pan-ethnic differences in
      intermarriage rates than individual traits, suggesting that scarcity of co-ethnic
      partners is a key reason behind decisions to intermarry. When faced with market
      constraints, men are more willing or more successful than women in crossing
      racial and ethnic boundaries in marriage.

PMID- 28579639
TI  - The Intergenerational Transmission of Union Instability in Early Adulthood.
AB  - Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce should be expanded to
      incorporate disrupted nonmarital cohabitations. The current study (1) examined
      the transmission of union instability from parents to offspring using Waves I and
      IV of Add Health, (2) replaced the binary variables (divorced versus non
      divorced) typically used in this literature with count variables (number of
      disrupted unions), (3) relied on independent sources for data on parents' and
      offspring's union disruptions to minimize same-source bias, (4) assessed the
      mediating role of 11 theoretically derived variables (many not previously
      considered in this literature), and (5) incorporated information on discord in
      intact parental unions. Parent and offspring union disruptions were positively
      linked, with each parental disruption associated with a 16% increase in the
      number of offspring disruptions, net of controls. The mediators collectively
      accounted for 44% of the estimated intergenerational effect. Parent discord in
      intact unions also was associated with more offspring disruptions.

PMID- 28579641
TI  - Framing and Claiming: How Information-Framing Affects Expected Social Security
      Claiming Behavior.
AB  - This paper provides evidence that Social Security benefit claiming decisions are
      strongly affected by framing and are thus inconsistent with expected utility
      theory. Using a randomized experiment that controls for both observable and
      unobservable differences across individuals, we find that the use of a "breakeven
      analysis" encourages early claiming. Respondents are more likely to delay when
      later claiming is framed as a gain, and the claiming age is anchored at older
      ages. Additionally, the financially less literate, individuals with credit card
      debt, and those with lower earnings are more influenced by framing than others.

PMID- 28579642
TI  - An overview of recent research in marine biological invasions.
AB  - The Topical Collection on Invasive Species includes 50 articles addressing many
      tenets of marine invasion ecology. The collection covers important topics
      relating to propagule pressure associated with transport vectors, species
      characteristics, attributes of recipient ecosystems, invasion genetics, biotic
      interactions, testing of invasion hypotheses, invasion dynamics and spread, and
      impacts of nonindigenous species. This article summarizes some of the
      collection's highlights.

PMID- 28579643
TI  - Necessary but Insufficient: Why Measurement Invariance Tests Need Online Probing
      as a Complementary Tool.
AB  - Cross-national data production in social science research has increased
      dramatically in recent decades. Assessing the comparability of data is necessary
      before drawing substantive conclusions that are based on cross-national data.
      Researchers assessing data comparability typically use either quantitative
      methods such as multigroup confirmatory factor analysis or qualitative methods
      such as online probing. Because both methods have complementary strengths and
      weaknesses, this study applies both multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and
      online probing in a mixed-methods approach to assess the comparability of
      constructive patriotism and nationalism, two important concepts in the study of
      national identity. Previous measurement invariance tests failed to achieve scalar
      measurement invariance, which prohibits a cross-national comparison of latent
      means (Davidov 2009). The arrival of the 2013 ISSP Module on National Identity
      has encouraged a reassessment of both constructs and a push to understand why
      scalar invariance cannot be achieved. Using the example of constructive
      patriotism and nationalism, this study demonstrates how the combination of
      multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and online probing can uncover and
      explain issues related to cross-national comparability.

PMID- 28579645
TI  - Is Science for Us? Black Students' and Parents' Views of Science and Science
      Careers.
AB  - There are widespread policy concerns to improve (widen and increase) science,
      technology, engineering, and mathematics participation, which remains stratified
      by ethnicity, gender, and social class. Despite being interested in and highly
      valuing science, Black students tend to express limited aspirations to careers in
      science and remain underrepresented in post-16 science courses and careers, a
      pattern which is not solely explained by attainment. This paper draws on survey
      data from nationally representative student cohorts and longitudinal interview
      data collected over 4 years from 10 Black African/Caribbean students and their
      parents, who were tracked from age 10-14 (Y6-Y9), as part of a larger study on
      children's science and career aspirations. The paper uses an intersectional
      analysis of the qualitative data to examine why science careers are less
      "thinkable" for Black students. A case study is also presented of two young Black
      women who "bucked the trend" and aspired to science careers. The paper concludes
      with implications for science education policy and practice.

PMID- 28579640
TI  - Comparing fixed and collapsing boundary versions of the diffusion model.
AB  - Optimality studies and studies of decision-making in monkeys have been used to
      support a model in which the decision boundaries used to evaluate evidence
      collapse over time. This article investigates whether a diffusion model with
      collapsing boundaries provides a better account of human data than a model with
      fixed boundaries. We compared the models using data from four new numerosity
      discrimination experiments and two previously published motion discrimination
      experiments. When model selection was based on BIC values, the fixed boundary
      model was preferred over the collapsing boundary model for all of the
      experiments. When model selection was carried out using a parametric bootstrap
      cross-fitting method (PBCM), which takes into account the flexibility of the
      alternative models and the ability of one model to account for data from another
      model, data from 5 of 6 experiments favored either fixed boundaries or boundaries
      with only negligible collapse. We found that the collapsing boundary model
      produces response times distributions with the same shape as those produced by
      the fixed boundary model and that its parameters were not well-identified and
      were difficult to recover from data. Furthermore, the estimated boundaries of the
      best-fitting collapsing boundary model were relatively flat and very similar to
      those of the fixed-boundary model. Overall, a diffusion model with decision
      boundaries that converge over time does not provide an improvement over the
      standard diffusion model for our tasks with human data.

PMID- 28579644
TI  - Complex Organic Molecules tracing shocks along the outflow cavity in the high
      mass protostar IRAS 20126+4104.
AB  - We report on subarcsecond observations of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the
      high-mass protostar IRAS 20126+4104 with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in
      its most extended configurations. In addition to the simple molecules SO, HNCO
      and H213CO, we detect emission from CH3CN, CH3OH, HCOOH, HCOOCH3, CH3OCH3,
      CH3CH2CN, CH3COCH3, NH2CN, and (CH2OH)2. SO and HNCO present a X-shaped
      morphology consistent with tracing the outflow cavity walls. Most of the COMs
      have their peak emission at the putative position of the protostar, but also show
      an extension towards the south(east), coinciding with an H2 knot from the jet at
      about 800-1000 au from the protostar. This is especially clear in the case of
      H213CO and CH3OCH3. We fitted the spectra at representative positions for the
      disc and the outflow, and found that the abundances of most COMs are comparable
      at both positions, suggesting that COMs are enhanced in shocks as a result of the
      passage of the outflow. By coupling a parametric shock model to a large gas-grain
      chemical network including COMs, we find that the observed COMs should survive in
      the gas phase for ~ 2000 yr, comparable to the shock lifetime estimated from the
      water masers at the outflow position. Overall, our data indicate that COMs in
      IRAS 20126+4104 may arise not only from the disc, but also from dense and hot
      regions associated with the outflow.

PMID- 28579646
TI  - Beyond Boys' Bad Behavior: Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in
      Middle Childhood.
AB  - A growing number of American school-aged children have incarcerated or formally
      incarcerated parents necessitating a more comprehensive understanding of the
      intergenerational effects of mass imprisonment. Using the Fragile Families Study,
      I assess whether having an incarcerated father impacts children's cognitive skill
      development into middle childhood. While previous studies have primarily found
      effects for boys' behavior problems, matching models and sensitivity analyses
      demonstrate that experiencing paternal incarceration by age 9 is associated with
      lower cognitive skills for both boys and girls and these negative effects hold
      net of a pre-paternal incarceration measure of child cognitive ability. Moreover,
      I estimate that paternal incarceration explains between 2 and 15 percent of the
      Black-White achievement gap at age 9. These findings represent new outcomes of
      importance and suggest that paternal incarceration may play an even larger role
      in the production of intergenerational inequalities for American children than
      previously documented.

PMID- 28579647
TI  - Carbon nanotube/paraffin/montmorillonite composite phase change material for
      thermal energy storage.
AB  - A composite phase change material (PCM) comprised of organic montmorillonite
      (OMMT)/paraffin/grafted multi-walled nanotube (MWNT) is synthesized via
      ultrasonic dispersion and liquid intercalation. The microstructure of the
      composite PCM has been characterized to determine the phase distribution, and
      thermal properties (latent heat and thermal conductivity) have been measured by
      differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and a thermal constant analyzer. The
      results show that paraffin molecules are intercalated in the montmorillonite
      layers and the grafted MWNTs are dispersed in the montmorillonite layers. The
      latent heat is 47.1 J/g, and the thermal conductivity of the
      OMMT/paraffin/grafted MWNT composites is 34% higher than that of the
      OMMT/paraffin composites and 65% higher than that of paraffin.

PMID- 28579648
TI  - Adenocarcinoma of the Cecum with Rare Splenic Metastasis.
AB  - Isolated splenic metasisis is a rare finding in colorectal carcinoma. We report a
      case of metastatic cecal adenocarcinoma to the spleen. In spring 2011, a 53
      yearold woman underwent en bloc right hemicolectomy with partial omentectomy. The
      tumor was Stage III pT3 pN2a M0. She received four months of modified FOLFOX6
      chemotherapy and one month of capecitabine. In spring 2012, a PET/CT revealed a
      low attenuation focus in the spleen consistent with metastatic adenocarcinoma, so
      she underwent splenectomy. Additional imaging has revealed no disease recurrence.
      There are only a small number of case reports for isolated splenic metastasis;
      thus, no standardized treatment course has been developed.

PMID- 28579649
TI  - A viscoactive constitutive modeling framework with variational updates for the
      myocardium.
AB  - We present a constitutive modeling framework for contractile cardiac mechanics by
      formulating a single variational principle from which incremental stress-strain
      relations and kinetic rate equations for active contraction and relaxation can
      all be derived. The variational framework seamlessly incorporates the
      hyperelastic behavior of the relaxed and contracted tissue along with the rate -
      and length - dependent generation of contractile force. We describe a three
      element, Hill-type model that unifies the active tension and active deformation
      approaches. As in the latter approach, we multiplicatively decompose the total
      deformation gradient into active and elastic parts, with the active deformation
      parametrizing the contractile Hill element. We adopt as internal variables the
      fiber, cross-fiber, and sheet normal stretch ratios. The kinetics of these
      internal variables are modeled via definition of a kinetic potential function
      derived from experimental force-velocity relations. Additionally, we account for
      dissipation during tissue deformation by adding a Newtonian viscous potential. To
      model the force activation, the kinetic equations are coupled with the calcium
      transient obtained from a cardiomyocyte electrophysiology model. We first analyze
      our model at the material point level using stress and strain versus time curves
      for different viscosity values. Subsequently, we couple our constitutive
      framework with the finite element method (FEM) and study the deformation of three
      dimensional tissue slabs with varying cardiac myocyte orientation. Finally, we
      simulate the contraction and relaxation of an ellipsoidal left ventricular model
      and record common kinematic measures, such as ejection fraction, and myocardial
      tissue volume changes.

PMID- 28579650
TI  - IMPROVED Cr II log(gf ) VALUES AND ABUNDANCE DETERMINATIONS IN THE PHOTOSPHERES
      OF THE SUN AND METAL-POOR STAR HD 84937.
AB  - New emission branching fraction (BF) measurements for 183 lines of the second
      spectrum of chromium (Cr II) and new radiative lifetime measurements from laser
      induced fluorescence for 8 levels of Cr+ are reported. The goals of this study
      are to improve transition probability measurements in Cr II and reconcile solar
      and stellar Cr abundance values based on Cr I and Cr II lines. Eighteen spectra
      from three Fourier Transform Spectrometers supplemented with ultraviolet spectra
      from a high-resolution echelle spectrometer are used in the BF measurements.
      Radiative lifetimes from this study and earlier publications are used to convert
      the BFs into absolute transition probabilities. These new laboratory data are
      applied to determine the Cr abundance log epsilon in the Sun and metal-poor star
      HD 84937. The mean result in the Sun is <logepsilon (Cr II)> = 5.624+/-0.009
      compared to <logepsilon(Cr I)> = 5.644 +/- 0.006 on a scale with the hydrogen
      abundance log epsilon(H) = 12 and with the uncertainty representing only line-to
      line scatter. A Saha (ionization balance) test on the photosphere of HD 84937 is
      also performed, yielding <logepsilon(Cr II)> = 3.417 +/- 0.006 and <log
      epsilon(Cr I, lower level excitation potential E. P. >30 eV)> = 3.3743+/-30.011
      for this dwarf star. We find a correlation of Cr with the iron-peak element Ti,
      suggesting an associated nucleosynthetic production. Four iron-peak elements (Cr
      along with Ti, V, and Sc) appear to have a similar (or correlated) production
      history-other iron-peak elements appear not to be associated with Cr.

PMID- 28579651
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Electrophilic Amination of Heteroaromatic and Aromatic C-H Bonds
      via TMPZnCl*LiCl Mediated Metalation.

PMID- 28579652
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of alpha-Bromonitroalkanes for Umpolung Amide
      Synthesis: Preparation of tert-Butyl ((1R)-1-(4-(benzyloxy)phenyl)-2-bromo-2
      nitroethyl)carbamate.

PMID- 28579653
TI  - Housing First, but What Comes Second? A Qualitative Study of Resident, Staff and
      Management Perspectives on Single-Site Housing First Program Enhancement.
AB  - Single-site Housing First (HF) is associated with reduced publicly funded service
      utilization and costs and alcohol-related harm for chronically homeless
      individuals with severe alcohol problems. Many residents, however, continue to
      experience alcohol-related problems after their move into single-site HF. Thus,
      it is necessary to explore areas for program enhancement after individuals move
      into single-site HF. To this end, we collected qualitative data via 30 hours of
      naturalistic observation, staff focus groups (n = 3), and one-on-one interviews
      with single-site HF residents (n = 44), program staff (n = 7), and agency
      management (n = 4). Qualitative analyses were used to construct a conceptual or
      thematic description of residents', staff's, and management's suggestions for
      program enhancement, which comprised 3 areas: (a) enhancing training and support
      for staff, (b) increasing residents' access to meaningful activities, and (c)
      exploring alternate pathways to recovery. Development of programming addressing
      these areas may help residents continue to reduce alcohol-related harm and
      improve health and quality of life after their move into single-site HF.

PMID- 28579654
TI  - Trajectories of Organized Activity Participation Among Urban Adolescents:
      Associations with Young Adult Outcomes.
AB  - Organized activity participation provides opportunities for adolescents to
      develop assets that may support favorable outcomes in young adulthood. Activity
      participation may be especially beneficial for marginalized youth as they are
      likely to face stressors that increase risk of negative outcomes. We used growth
      mixture modeling (GMM) to identify activity participation trajectories among
      African American adolescents in an urban, disadvantaged community (Wave 1: mean
      age=14.86 years, SD=0.64; 49% male, N=681). We also investigated if young adult
      outcomes differed by trajectory subgroups. Our results suggested a three-class
      model best fit the data: low, decreasing (74%), moderate, consistent (21%) and
      moderate, increasing participation subgroups (5%). Adolescents in the increasing
      subgroup reported higher life satisfaction and lower substance use in young
      adulthood compared to the decreasing subgroup. Youth who increase participation
      in activities over time may experience greater opportunities for building assets
      related to positive development that support health and well-being into young
      adulthood.

PMID- 28579655
TI  - Development of tunable miniature piezoelectric-based scanners validated by the
      combination of two scanners in a direct image relay technique.
AB  - Miniature piezoelectric actuators are commonly used as a compact means to relay
      images for numerous endoscopic applications. These scanners normally consist of
      an electrically driven lead zirconate titanate (PZT) tube that oscillates an
      optical fiber at its resonant frequency. The diameter and length of the PZT and
      fiber, the attachment of the fiber to the PZT, as well as the driving signal
      determine the main characteristics of the scan-frequency and amplitude of
      vibration. We present a new, robust, and repeatable method for producing
      miniature PZT actuators. The described technology allows for continuous tuning of
      the scanner mechanical properties during the assembly stage, enabling adjustment
      of resonant frequency and subsequent amplitude of vibration without a priori
      knowledge of the fiber's mechanical properties. The method consists of
      manufacturing high-precision fiber-holding plastic inserts with diamond turning
      lathes that allow for the fiber length to be quickly varied and locked during
      operation in order to meet the preferred performance. This concept of tuned PZTs
      was demonstrated with an imaging technique that combined two scanners oscillating
      in unison at the ends of a single optical fiber to relay images without the need
      to correlate the driving signal with a detector.

PMID- 28579657
TI  - From Elementary School to Midlife: Childhood Personality Predicts Behavior During
      Cognitive Testing over Four Decades Later.
AB  - The current study uses a prospective, longitudinal design and lifespan
      perspective to understand how child personality relates to directly observed
      adult behavior during cognitive testing. Teacher assessments of child Big Five
      personality in elementary school were correlated with directly observed behaviors
      during a videotaped cognitive test four decades later. Past work suggested
      Openness and Conscientiousness may relate to task-relevant academic behaviors.
      Childhood Openness was associated with several behaviors, even after controlling
      for participant's cognitive performance. Childhood Conscientiousness was also
      related to behavior, but not as expected. Other Big Five ratings were not
      reliably related to behavior. The study examined personality stability in a
      unique way and suggests a further examination of how Openness in children
      manifests in later behavior.

PMID- 28579656
TI  - Design and fabrication of a miniature objective consisting of high refractive
      index zinc sulfide lenses for laser surgery.
AB  - A miniature laser ablation probe relying on an optical fiber to deliver light
      requires a high coupling efficiency objective with sufficient magnification in
      order to provide adequate power and field for surgery. A diffraction-limited
      optical design is presented that utilizes high refractive index zinc sulfide to
      meet specifications while reducing the miniature objective down to two lenses.
      The design has a hypercentric conjugate plane on the fiber side and is
      telecentric on the tissue end. Two versions of the objective were built on a
      diamond lathe-a traditional cylindrical design and a custom-tapered mount. Both
      received an antireflective coating. The objectives performed as designed in terms
      of observable resolution and field of view as measured by imaging a 1951 USAF
      resolution target. The slanted edge technique was used to find Strehl ratios of
      0.75 and 0.78, respectively, indicating nearly diffraction-limited performance.
      Finally, preliminary ablation experiments indicated threshold fluence of gold
      film was comparable to similar reported probes.

PMID- 28579658
TI  - Human-Robot Collaboration Dynamic Impact Testing and Calibration Instrument for
      Disposable Robot Safety Artifacts.
AB  - The Dynamic Impact Testing and Calibration Instrument (DITCI) is a simple
      instrument with a significant data collection and analysis capability that is
      used for the testing and calibration of biosimulant human tissue artifacts. These
      artifacts may be used to measure the severity of injuries caused in the case of a
      robot impact with a human. In this paper we describe the DITCI adjustable impact
      and flexible foundation mechanism, which allows the selection of a variety of
      impact force levels and foundation stiffness. The instrument can accommodate
      arrays of a variety of sensors and impact tools, simulating both real
      manufacturing tools and the testing requirements of standards setting
      organizations. A computer data acquisition system may collect a variety of impact
      motion, force, and torque data, which are used to develop a variety of
      mathematical model representations of the artifacts. Finally, we describe the
      fabrication and testing of human abdomen soft tissue artifacts, used to display
      the magnitude of impact tissue deformation. Impact tests were performed at
      various maximum impact force and average pressure levels.

PMID- 28579661
TI  - Identifying technology innovations for marginalized smallholders-A conceptual
      approach.
AB  - This paper adds a contribution in the existing literature in terms of theoretical
      and conceptual background for the identification of idle potentials of marginal
      rural areas and people by means of technological and institutional innovations.
      The approach follows ex-ante assessment for identifying suitable technology and
      institutional innovations for marginalized smallholders in marginal areas-divided
      into three main parts (mapping, surveying and evaluating) and several steps.
      Finally, it contributes to the inclusion of marginalized smallholders by an
      improved way of understanding the interactions between technology needs, farming
      systems, ecological resources and poverty characteristics in the different
      segments of the poor, and to link these insights with productivity enhancing
      technologies.

PMID- 28579662
TI  - Gentrification and Residential Mobility in Philadelphia.
AB  - Gentrification has provoked considerable controversy surrounding its effects on
      residential displacement. Using a unique individual-level, longitudinal data set,
      this study examines mobility rates and residential destinations of residents in
      gentrifying neighborhoods during the recent housing boom and bust in Philadelphia
      for various strata of residents and different types of gentrification. We find
      that vulnerable residents, those with low credit scores and without mortgages,
      are generally no more likely to move from gentrifying neighborhoods compared with
      their counterparts in nongentrifying neighborhoods. When they do move, however,
      they are more likely to move to lower-income neighborhoods. Residents in
      gentrifying neighborhoods at the aggregate level have slightly higher mobility
      rates, but these rates are largely driven by more advantaged residents. These
      findings shed new light on the heterogeneity in mobility patterns across
      residents in gentrifying neighborhoods and suggest that researchers should focus
      more attention on the quality of residential moves and nonmoves for less
      advantaged residents, rather than mobility rates alone.

PMID- 28579659
TI  - Emotion Regulation and the Transdiagnostic Role of Repetitive Negative Thinking
      in Adolescents with Social Anxiety and Depression.
AB  - Social anxiety and depression are common mental health problems among adolescents
      and are frequently comorbid. Primary aims of this study were to (1) elucidate the
      nature of individual differences in specific emotion regulation deficits among
      adolescents with symptoms of social anxiety and depression, and (2) determine
      whether repetitive negative thinking (RNT) functions as a transdiagnostic factor.
      A diverse sample of adolescents (N = 1065) completed measures assessing emotion
      regulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Results indicated that
      adolescents with high levels of social anxiety and depression symptoms reported
      decreased emotional awareness, dysregulated emotion expression, and reduced use
      of emotion management strategies. The hypothesized structural model in which RNT
      functions as a transdiagnostic factor exhibited a better fit than an alternative
      model in which worry and rumination function as separate predictors of
      symptomatology. Findings implicate emotion regulation deficits and RNT in the
      developmental psychopathology of youth anxiety and mood disorders.

PMID- 28579660
TI  - The Effects of Psychotherapy for Major Depressive Disorder on Daily Mood and
      Functioning: A Longitudinal Experience Sampling Study.
AB  - Experience sampling methodology (ESM) was used in a randomized controlled trial
      of short-term therapy to examine changes in daily affect and reactivity to daily
      event appraisals among depressed patients. Fifty-five depressed adults (mean age
      37 years, 80% female) were randomly assigned to one of two therapy conditions.
      Using an interactive voice response system, participants rated activities and
      emotional functioning eight times per day for seven days. Thirty-one participants
      completed treatment and repeated ESM post-treatment. Broad improvements in mood,
      cognition, and physical functioning were similar across treatment conditions,
      with the largest improvements for markers of positive affect. Participants
      demonstrated increased resilience, i.e., diminished reactivity to stressors at
      post-treatment. Changes in reactivity to positive daily situations were minimal.
      Findings underscore the utility of ESM in psychotherapy research and the
      importance of including measures of both positive and negative affect and
      experiences.

PMID- 28579663
TI  - News for assimilation or integration? Examining the functions of news in shaping
      acculturation experiences of immigrants in the Netherlands and Spain.
AB  - This study investigates the functions of news media in shaping acculturation
      experiences of new economic and refugee immigrants in the Netherlands and Spain.
      Focus group data revealed that consumption of host country news media was mainly
      connected to immigrants' deliberate strategies to assimilate the culture,
      politics and language of the host society, while exposure to transnational news
      was viewed in terms of strategies of integration in both countries. We also
      observed that participants' educational background and language skills combined
      with their perceptions of the host country's news have an impact on the use they
      make of news for assimilating and/or integrating into the host society. Finally,
      important sociopolitical conditions of the context influenced the ways
      participants use the news media in their process of acculturation.

PMID- 28579664
TI  - Walking in Two French Neighborhoods: A Study of How Park Numbers and Locations
      Relate to Everyday Walking.
AB  - Research indicates that people are drawn to green spaces with attractive
      amenities. This study extends that finding by comparing walking patterns in two
      neighborhoods with different numbers of parks; parks did not differ in rated
      attractiveness nor did neighborhoods differ substantially in rated walkability.
      Adults, aged 32-86 years (n = 90), drew their 3 most recent walking routes on
      maps of their neighborhood. Analyses showed that participants' round trips were
      longer by 265.5 meters (.16 mile) in the neighborhood with a single, large,
      centrally located park (p < .02). However, participants in the neighborhood with
      multiple, small, more distributed parks, visited more streets, p < .001, more
      streets with green spaces, p < .038, and used more varied routes, p < .012.
      Results suggest there are potential benefits to both layouts. Large centralized
      parks may invite longer walks; smaller, well-distributed parks may invite more
      varied routes suggestive of appropriation and motivation processes. Both layouts
      might be combined in a single neighborhood to attract more walkers.

PMID- 28579666
TI  - Optical design and Initial Results from The National Institute of Standards and
      Technology's AMMT/TEMPS Facility.
AB  - The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Physical Measurement
      and Engineering Laboratories are jointly developing the Additive Manufacturing
      Measurement Testbed (AMMT)/ Temperature and Emittance of Melts, Powders and
      Solids (TEMPS) facilities. These facilities will be co-located on an open
      architecture laser-based powder bed fusion system allowing users full access to
      the system's operation parameters. This will provide users with access to machine
      independent monitoring and control of the powder bed fusion process. In this
      paper there will be emphasis on the AMMT, which incorporates in-line visible
      light collection optics for monitoring and feedback control of the powder bed
      fusion process. We shall present an overview of the AMMT/TEMPS program and its
      goals. The optical and mechanical design of the open architecture powder-bed
      fusion system and the AMMT will also be described. In addition, preliminary
      measurement results from the system along with the current status of the system
      will be described.

PMID- 28579665
TI  - FOXP3-stained image analysis for follicular lymphoma: Optimal adaptive
      thresholding with maximal nucleus coverage.
AB  - Immunohistochemical detection of FOXP3 antigen is a usable marker for detection
      of regulatory T lymphocytes (TR) in formalin fixed and paraffin embedded sections
      of different types of tumor tissue. TR plays a major role in homeostasis of
      normal immune systems where they prevent auto reactivity of the immune system
      towards the host. This beneficial effect of TR is frequently "hijacked" by
      malignant cells where tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells are recruited by the
      malignant nuclei to inhibit the beneficial immune response of the host against
      the tumor cells. In the majority of human solid tumors, an increased number of
      tumor-infiltrating FOXP3 positive TR is associated with worse outcome. However,
      in follicular lymphoma (FL) the impact of the number and distribution of TR on
      the outcome still remains controversial. In this study, we present a novel method
      to detect and enumerate nuclei from FOXP3 stained images of FL biopsies. The
      proposed method defines a new adaptive thresholding procedure, namely the optimal
      adaptive thresholding (OAT) method, which aims to minimize under-segmented and
      over-segmented nuclei for coarse segmentation. Next, we integrate a parameter
      free elliptical arc and line segment detector (ELSD) as additional information to
      refine segmentation results and to split most of the merged nuclei. Finally, we
      utilize a state-of-the-art super-pixel method, Simple Linear Iterative Clustering
      (SLIC) to split the rest of the merged nuclei. Our dataset consists of 13 region
      of-interest images containing 769 negative and 88 positive nuclei. Three expert
      pathologists evaluated the method and reported sensitivity values in detecting
      negative and positive nuclei ranging from 83-100% and 90-95%, and precision
      values of 98-100% and 99-100%, respectively. The proposed solution can be used to
      investigate the impact of FOXP3 positive nuclei on the outcome and prognosis in
      FL.

PMID- 28579667
TI  - Interior Tomography from Differential Phase Contrast Data via Hilbert Transform
      Based on Spline Functions.
AB  - X-ray phase contrast imaging is an important mode due to its sensitivity to
      subtle features of soft biological tissues. Grating-based differential phase
      contrast (DPC) imaging is one of the most promising phase imaging techniques
      because it works with a normal x-ray tube of a large focal spot at a high flux
      rate. However, a main obstacle before this paradigm shift is the fabrication of
      large-area gratings of a small period and a high aspect ratio. Imaging large
      objects with a size-limited grating results in data truncation which is a new
      type of the interior problem. While the interior problem was solved for
      conventional x-ray CT through analytic extension, compressed sensing and
      iterative reconstruction, the difficulty for interior reconstruction from DPC
      data lies in that the implementation of the system matrix requires the
      differential operation on the detector array, which is often inaccurate and
      unstable in the case of noisy data. Here, we propose an iterative method based on
      spline functions. The differential data are first back-projected to the image
      space. Then, a system matrix is calculated whose components are the Hilbert
      transforms of the spline bases. The system matrix takes the whole image as an
      input and outputs the back-projected interior data. Prior information normally
      assumed for compressed sensing is enforced to iteratively solve this inverse
      problem. Our results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can successfully
      reconstruct an interior region of interest (ROI) from the differential phase data
      through the ROI.

PMID- 28579669
TI  - How Important is Parental Education for Child Nutrition?
AB  - Existing evidence on the impacts of parental education on child nutrition is
      plagued by both internal and external validity concerns. In this paper we try to
      address these concerns through a novel econometric analysis of 376,992 preschool
      children from 56 developing countries. We compare a naive least square model to
      specifications that include cluster fixed effects and cohort-based educational
      rankings to reduce biases from omitted variables before gauging sensitivity to
      sub-samples and exploring potential explanations of education-nutrition linkages.
      We find that the estimated nutritional returns to parental education are: (a)
      substantially reduced in models that include fixed effects and cohort rankings;
      (b) larger for mothers than for fathers; (c) generally increasing, and minimal
      for primary education; (d) increasing with household wealth; (e) larger in
      countries/regions with higher burdens of undernutrition; (f) larger in
      countries/regions with higher schooling quality; and (g) highly variable across
      country sub-samples. These results imply substantial uncertainty and variability
      in the returns to education, but results from the more stringent models imply
      that even the achievement of very ambitious education targets would only lead to
      modest reductions in stunting rates in high-burden countries. We speculate that
      education might have more impact on the nutritional status of the next generation
      if school curricula focused on directly improving health and nutritional
      knowledge of future parents.

PMID- 28579668
TI  - Cognitive Attributes of Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading
      Intervention in Middle School.
AB  - No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students
      who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We
      compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders (n
      = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension (n =
      54); (b) fluency (n = 45); and (c) decoding, fluency, and comprehension (DFC; n =
      45). These students received measures of phonological awareness, listening
      comprehension, rapid naming, processing speed, verbal knowledge, and nonverbal
      reasoning. Multivariate comparisons showed a significant Group-by-Task
      interaction: the comprehension-impaired group demonstrated primary difficulties
      with verbal knowledge and listening comprehension, the DFC group with
      phonological awareness, and the fluency-impaired group with phonological
      awareness and rapid naming. A series of regression models investigating whether
      responder status explained unique variation in cognitive skills yielded largely
      null results consistent with a continuum of severity associated with level of
      reading impairment, with no evidence for qualitative differences in the cognitive
      attributes of adequate and inadequate responders.

PMID- 28579670
TI  - Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance (DT) in Maize in
      Rural Zimbabwe.
AB  - Maize plays a leading role in the food security of millions in southern Africa,
      yet it is highly vulnerable to the moisture stress brought about by the erratic
      rainfall patterns that characterize weather systems in the area. Developing and
      making drought-tolerant maize varieties available to farmers in the region has
      thus long been a key goal on the regional development agenda. Farm-level adoption
      of these varieties, however, depends on local perceptions of the value they add,
      along with willingness to pay (WTP) for it. Focusing on Zimbabwe, this research
      aimed at estimating the implicit prices farmers are willing to pay for drought
      tolerance in maize compared to other preferred traits. Using a choice experiment
      framework, we generated 12,600 observations from a random sample of 1,400
      households in communal areas within 14 districts of Zimbabwe. Taste parameters
      and heterogeneities were estimated using the generalized multinomial logit model
      (G-MNL). The results reveal drought tolerance, grain yield, covered cob tip, cob
      size, and semi-flint texture to be the most preferred traits by farm households
      in Zimbabwe. The WTP estimates show that farmers are willing to pay a premium for
      drought tolerance equal to 2.56, 7, 3.2, and 5 times higher than for an
      additional ton of yield per acre, bigger cob size, larger grain size, and covered
      cob tip, respectively. We suggest designing and implementing innovative ways of
      promoting DT maize along with awareness-raising activities to enhance contextual
      understandings of drought and drought risk to speed adoption of new DT maize
      varieties by risk-prone farming communities. Given the high level of rural
      literacy and the high rate of adoption of improved maize, trait-based promotion
      and marketing of varieties constitutes the right strategy.

PMID- 28579672
TI  - A new method for robust mixture regression.
AB  - Finite mixture regression models have been widely used for modelling mixed
      regression relationships arising from a clustered and thus heterogenous
      population. The classical normal mixture model, despite its simplicity and wide
      applicability, may fail in the presence of severe outliers. Using a sparse, case
      specific, and scale-dependent mean-shift mixture model parameterization, we
      propose a robust mixture regression approach for simultaneously conducting
      outlier detection and robust parameter estimation. A penalized likelihood
      approach is adopted to induce sparsity among the mean-shift parameters so that
      the outliers are distinguished from the remainder of the data, and a generalized
      Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is developed to perform stable and
      efficient computation. The proposed approach is shown to have strong connections
      with other robust methods including the trimmed likelihood method and M
      estimation approaches. In contrast to several existing methods, the proposed
      methods show outstanding performance in our simulation studies.

PMID- 28579671
TI  - Losses, inefficiencies and waste in the global food system.
AB  - Losses at every stage in the food system influence the extent to which
      nutritional requirements of a growing global population can be sustainably met.
      Inefficiencies and losses in agricultural production and consumer behaviour all
      play a role. This paper aims to understand better the magnitude of different
      losses and to provide insights into how these influence overall food system
      efficiency. We take a systems view from primary production of agricultural
      biomass through to human food requirements and consumption. Quantities and losses
      over ten stages are calculated and compared in terms of dry mass, wet mass,
      protein and energy. The comparison reveals significant differences between these
      measurements, and the potential for wet mass figures used in previous studies to
      be misleading. The results suggest that due to cumulative losses, the proportion
      of global agricultural dry biomass consumed as food is just 6% (9.0% for energy
      and 7.6% for protein), and 24.8% of harvest biomass (31.9% for energy and 27.8%
      for protein). The highest rates of loss are associated with livestock production,
      although the largest absolute losses of biomass occur prior to harvest. Losses of
      harvested crops were also found to be substantial, with 44.0% of crop dry matter
      (36.9% of energy and 50.1% of protein) lost prior to human consumption. If human
      over-consumption, defined as food consumption in excess of nutritional
      requirements, is included as an additional inefficiency, 48.4% of harvested crops
      were found to be lost (53.2% of energy and 42.3% of protein). Over-eating was
      found to be at least as large a contributor to food system losses as consumer
      food waste. The findings suggest that influencing consumer behaviour, e.g. to eat
      less animal products, or to reduce per capita consumption closer to nutrient
      requirements, offer substantial potential to improve food security for the rising
      global population in a sustainable manner.

PMID- 28579674
TI  - IR Residency: Did Anyone See This Coming?

PMID- 28579673
TI  - Spatial and temporal variations in airborne Ambrosia pollen in Europe.
AB  - The European Commission Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action
      FA1203 "SMARTER" aims to make recommendations for the sustainable management of
      Ambrosia across Europe and for monitoring its efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
      The goal of the present study is to provide a baseline for spatial and temporal
      variations in airborne Ambrosia pollen in Europe that can be used for the
      management and evaluation of this noxious plant. The study covers the full range
      of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. distribution over Europe (39 degrees N-60 degrees
      N; 2 degrees W-45 degrees E). Airborne Ambrosia pollen data for the principal
      flowering period of Ambrosia (August-September) recorded during a 10-year period
      (2004-2013) were obtained from 242 monitoring sites. The mean sum of daily
      average airborne Ambrosia pollen and the number of days that Ambrosia pollen was
      recorded in the air were analysed. The mean and standard deviation (SD) were
      calculated regardless of the number of years included in the study period, while
      trends are based on those time series with 8 or more years of data. Trends were
      considered significant at p < 0.05. There were few significant trends in the
      magnitude and frequency of atmospheric Ambrosia pollen (only 8% for the mean sum
      of daily average Ambrosia pollen concentrations and 14% for the mean number of
      days Ambrosia pollen were recorded in the air). The direction of any trends
      varied locally and reflected changes in sources of the pollen, either in size or
      in distance from the monitoring station. Pollen monitoring is important for
      providing an early warning of the expansion of this invasive and noxious plant.

PMID- 28579675
TI  - Decision Making in Interventional Oncology: Intra-arterial Therapies for
      Metastatic Colorectal Cancer-Y90 and Chemoembolization.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and the
      liver is the most common site of metastatic disease. The presence and extent of
      hepatic metastases are a major prognostic indicator. Although surgical resection
      is the accepted first-line therapy for colorectal liver metastasis, only 20 to
      25% of patients are eligible for resection due to the extent and location of
      disease. This article discusses the current role of transarterial therapies in
      the treatment of colorectal liver metastases.

PMID- 28579676
TI  - Decision Making: Intra-arterial Therapies for Cholangiocarcinoma-TACE and TARE.
AB  - The incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) has been increasing in
      recent years and now represents the second most common primary hepatic cancer in
      the United States. The prognosis is dismal without surgical resection. In
      patients ineligible to receive curative treatments, locoregional therapies
      represent a diverse array of techniques that can stabilize or reverse tumor
      progression to improve overall survival and reduce tumor-related symptoms.
      Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and transarterial radioembolization (TARE)
      have been demonstrated to be efficacious methods for this patient population.
      Deciding between these two options is challenging. This article reviews the
      differences in patient selection, preprocedural evaluation, financial
      considerations and availability, quality of life, and rates of complications and
      overall survival.

PMID- 28579677
TI  - Decision Making for Selection of Transarterial Locoregional Therapy of Metastatic
      Neuroendocrine Tumors.
AB  - Transarterial locoregional therapies (LRTs) are indispensable components of the
      modern interventional oncologic therapy of liver-dominant metastatic
      neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The scope of available LRTs and their nuanced
      differences mandates a thorough understanding of their relative applicability and
      effectiveness in certain clinical circumstances to prescribe appropriate, patient
      specific, image-guided therapy. This article aims to provide an overview of
      transarterial LRT options for liver-dominant metastatic NETs and therapy
      selection by reviewing procedure types, their advantages and disadvantages, and
      comparative efficacy in common case scenarios.

PMID- 28579678
TI  - Transarterial Chemoembolization and Radioembolization across Barcelona Clinic
      Liver Cancer Stages.
AB  - Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a well-established treatment for
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). TACE has a clearly delineated role within the
      Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging framework, and TACE has been shown
      to bridge patients to transplantation and to downsize patients' tumor burden to
      meet transplantation criteria. Radioembolization (RE) also has an evolving role
      in the treatment of HCC. RE has evidence-based applications across the range of
      BCLC stages ranging from segmentectomy for patients with solitary lesions not
      amenable to ablation to lobar therapy for patients with multifocal HCC, and to
      treatment of advanced disease with portal vein thrombosis. This article aims to
      elucidate the evidence behind these therapies and to provide a rationale for
      their utilization across the spectrum of BCLC stages in the treatment of HCC.

PMID- 28579679
TI  - Yttrium-90 Radioembolization for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Outcomes by Number
      of Lines of Therapy.
AB  - Metastatic colorectal cancer represents the most common liver malignancy, and
      imparts a very poor prognosis for those who develop this disease. Unlike primary
      liver tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma, which largely develops in patients
      with underlying cirrhosis, most metastatic liver tumor patients have normal
      underlying liver function. Owing to this, most will succumb to tumoral
      replacement of the liver rather than from underlying liver dysfunction.
      Radioembolization represents a treatment modality that can be used in multiple
      fashions to treat one or both lobes of the liver. Techniques depend on whether
      the procedure is used as first-line, second/third-line, or as salvage therapy.
      Outcomes and complications of radioembolization are presented in this article, as
      well as background information on colorectal cancer and systemic therapies.

PMID- 28579680
TI  - Decision Making: Osteoplasty, Ablation, or Combined Therapy for Spinal
      Metastases.
AB  - Metastatic disease involving the spine and pelvis is common, often resulting in
      significant pain and disability. Several percutaneous interventions have been
      described, including osteoplasty, ablation, and screw fixation, that when used
      alone or in combination can significantly reduce pain and disability from
      metastatic bone disease. Although it is possible to make a significant impact in
      patient care with basic principles and techniques, certain advanced techniques
      can extend the application of percutaneous interventions while minimizing
      morbidity.

PMID- 28579681
TI  - Making the Case: Intra-arterial Therapy for Less Common Metastases.
AB  - Intra-arterial therapies have high antitumor activity for both primary and
      secondary hepatic malignancies. Selective infusions allow increased delivery of
      cytoreductive therapy to the tumor bed while sparing the normal hepatic
      parenchyma. These therapies are now often applied in the outpatient setting or
      with short overnight hospital stays and have a growing role in the treatment of
      liver-dominant disease from metastatic colorectal cancer and from neuroendocrine
      tumors. Less commonly, intra-arterial therapies are applied to treat secondary
      hepatic malignancies from breast cancer, melanoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and
      soft-tissue sarcomas. The available data are limited and generally retrospective
      observational cohort series of single institutions. The purpose of this article
      is to summarize the recent literature on outcomes for intra-arterial therapy in
      nonsurgical patients. Multi-institutional registries and prospective data are
      greatly needed, as intra-arterial therapies are increasingly applied in these
      patients to stop progression of chemorefractory tumors.

PMID- 28579682
TI  - The Intersection of Palliative Care and Interventional Radiology: Enhancing
      Understanding and Collaboration.
AB  - In the treatment of cancer patients, many interventional radiologic procedures
      are palliative in nature. The goal for these therapies is often something other
      than cure, such as prolonged survival or improved quality of life. The goals of
      therapy should be matched with the patient's wishes, and must include open
      communication between the health care provider and the patient. Hospice and
      palliative medicine is its own specialty, and a multidisciplinary approach to the
      care of cancer patients should include discussions with these health care
      specialists. This article will briefly define palliative care in general,
      describe the specialty of hospice and palliative medicine, and discuss how
      hospice differs from palliative care. Finally, it will highlight opportunities
      for interventional radiology specialists to incorporate more deliberately
      palliative care skills and competencies into their own practice and to
      collaborate with palliative care specialists.

PMID- 28579684
TI  - Decision Making: Thermal Ablation Options for Small Renal Masses.
AB  - Renal cell carcinoma is a relatively common tumor, with an estimated 63,000 new
      cases being diagnosed in the United States in 2016. Surgery, be it with partial
      or total nephrectomy, is considered the mainstay of treatment for many patients.
      However, those patients with small renal masses, typically less than 3 to 4 cm in
      size who are deemed unsuitable for surgery, may be suitable for percutaneous
      thermal ablation. We review the various treatment modalities, including
      radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and cryoablation; discuss the
      advantages and disadvantages of each method; and review the latest data
      concerning the performance of the various ablative modalities compared with each
      other, and compared with surgery.

PMID- 28579685
TI  - Decision Making in Interventional Oncology: Ablative Options in the Lung.
AB  - Image-guided ablation is safe and effective for the treatment of both primary and
      metastatic tumors in the lung. This article reviews the three most commonly used
      ablative options: radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and cryoablation.
      We describe the advantages of each ablation modality in the lung and how to
      choose the most appropriate ablation device based on patient and tumor
      characteristics. The optimal technique for lung ablation is discussed and
      technical tips for improving clinical outcome are described.

PMID- 28579683
TI  - Metastatic Liver Disease: Indications for Locoregional Therapy and Supporting
      Data.
AB  - Metastatic liver disease is a major cause of cancer-related morbidity and
      mortality. Surgical resection is considered the only curative treatment, yet only
      a minority is eligible. Patients who present with unresectable disease are
      treated with systemic agents and/or locoregional therapies. The latter include
      thermal ablation and catheter-based transarterial interventions. Thermal ablation
      is reserved for those with limited tumor burden. It is used to downstage the
      disease to enable curative surgical resection, as an adjunct to surgery, or in
      select patients it is potentially curative. Transarterial therapies are indicated
      in those with more diffuse disease. The goals of care are to palliate symptoms
      and prolong survival. The indications and supporting data for thermal ablation
      and transarterial interventions are reviewed, technical and tumor factors that
      need to be considered prior to intervention are outlined, and finally several
      cases are presented.

PMID- 28579686
TI  - Interventional Oncology Service Development.
AB  - Interventional oncology is rapidly expanding its suite of oncologic therapies,
      providing unique proven therapeutic benefits. To grow a practice alongside other
      oncology specialties, knowledge of cancer fundamentals is required. Areas of
      interest include methods to assess disease stage, treatment toxicity, and
      response. Additionally, techniques to leverage opportunities and resources
      available at one's institution toward practice development and efficiency will be
      reviewed.

PMID- 28579688
TI  - Intravascular Ultrasound-Guided Intervention for May-Thurner Syndrome.

PMID- 28579690
TI  - Percutaneous Aortic Fenestration for Symptomatic Type B Aortic Dissection.

PMID- 28579687
TI  - Therapeutic Ultrasound and Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Therapeutic ultrasound approaches including high-intensity focused ultrasound
      (HIFU) are emerging as popular minimally invasive alternative treatments for
      localized, low-to-intermediate risk prostate cancer. FDA approval was recently
      granted for two ultrasound-guided HIFU devices. Clinical trials for devices using
      MRI guidance are ongoing. The current level of evidence for whole-gland
      ultrasound ablation suggests that its clinical efficacy and adverse event rates
      including erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence are similar to current
      definitive therapies such as radical prostatectomy and external-beam
      radiotherapy. Short-term data suggest that more focal therapy could reduce the
      rates of adverse events.

PMID- 28579689
TI  - Overview of Staging Systems for Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Implications for
      Interventional Radiology.

PMID- 28579691
TI  - Does prediction error drive one-shot declarative learning?
AB  - The role of prediction error (PE) in driving learning is well-established in
      fields such as classical and instrumental conditioning, reward learning and
      procedural memory; however, its role in human one-shot declarative encoding is
      less clear. According to one recent hypothesis, PE reflects the divergence
      between two probability distributions: one reflecting the prior probability (from
      previous experiences) and the other reflecting the sensory evidence (from the
      current experience). Assuming unimodal probability distributions, PE can be
      manipulated in three ways: (1) the distance between the mode of the prior and
      evidence, (2) the precision of the prior, and (3) the precision of the evidence.
      We tested these three manipulations across five experiments, in terms of peoples'
      ability to encode a single presentation of a scene-item pairing as a function of
      previous exposures to that scene and/or item. Memory was probed by presenting the
      scene together with three choices for the previously paired item, in which the
      two foil items were from other pairings within the same condition as the target
      item. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the evidence to be either consistent or
      inconsistent with prior expectations, predicting PE to be larger, and hence
      memory better, when the new pairing was inconsistent. In Experiments 2a-c, we
      manipulated the precision of the priors, predicting better memory for a new
      pairing when the (inconsistent) priors were more precise. In Experiment 3, we
      manipulated both visual noise and prior exposure for unfamiliar faces, before
      pairing them with scenes, predicting better memory when the sensory evidence was
      more precise. In all experiments, the PE hypotheses were supported. We discuss
      alternative explanations of individual experiments, and conclude the Predictive
      Interactive Multiple Memory Signals (PIMMS) framework provides the most
      parsimonious account of the full pattern of results.

PMID- 28579692
TI  - Targeted Muscle Reinnervation for the Upper and Lower Extremity.
AB  - Myoelectric devices are controlled by electromyographic signals generated by
      contraction of residual muscles, which thus serve as biological amplifiers of
      neural control signals. Although nerves severed by amputation continue to carry
      motor control information intended for the missing limb, loss of muscle effectors
      due to amputation prevents access to this important control information. Targeted
      Muscle Reinnervation (TMR) was developed as a novel strategy to improve control
      of myoelectric upper limb prostheses. Severed motor nerves are surgically
      transferred to the motor points of denervated target muscles, which, after
      reinnervation, contract in response to neural control signals for the missing
      limb. TMR creates additional control sites, eliminating the need to switch the
      prosthesis between different control modes. In addition, contraction of target
      muscles, and operation of the prosthesis, occurs in reponse to attempts to move
      the missing limb, making control easier and more intuitive. TMR has been
      performed extensively in individuals with high-level upper limb amputations and
      has been shown to improve functional prosthesis control. The benefits of TMR are
      being studied in individuals with transradial amputations and lower limb
      amputations. TMR is also being investigated in an ongoing clinical trial as a
      method to prevent or treat painful amputation neuromas.

PMID- 28579693
TI  - A new sawshark, Pristiophorus laevis, from the Eocene of Antarctica with comments
      on Pristiophorus lanceolatus.
AB  - The highly fossiliferous Eocene deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula are among the
      most productive sites for fossil remains in the Southern Hemisphere and offer
      rare insights into high-latitude faunas during the Palaeogene. Chondrichthyans,
      which are represented by abundant isolated remains, seemingly dominate the marine
      assemblages. Eocene Antarctic sawsharks have only been known from few isolated
      rostral spines up to now, that were assigned to Pristiophorus lanceolatus. Here,
      we present the first oral teeth of a sawshark from the Eocene of Seymour Island
      and a re-evaluation of previously described Pristiophorus remains from Gondwana
      consisting exclusively of rostral spines. The holotype of Pristiophorus
      lanceolatus represents a single, abraded and insufficiently illustrated spine
      from the Oligocene of New Zealand. All other Cenozoic rostral spines assigned to
      this species are morphologically very indistinct and closely resemble those of
      living taxa. Consequently, we regard this species as dubious and introduce a new
      species, Pristiophorus laevis, based on oral teeth. The combination of dental
      characteristics of the new species makes it unique compared to all other
      described species based on oral teeth. Rostral spines from the Eocene of Seymour
      Island are assigned to this new species whereas those from other Cenozoic
      Gondwana localities remain ambiguous.

PMID- 28579695
TI  - Self-powered, autonomous Biological Oxygen Demand biosensor for online water
      quality monitoring.
AB  - Standard Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) analysis requires 5 days to complete. To
      date, microbial fuel cell biosensors used as an alternative method for BOD
      assessment requires external apparatus, which limits their use for on-line
      monitoring in remote, off-grid locations. In this study, a self-powered, floating
      biosensor was developed for online water quality monitoring. This approach
      eliminated the need for external apparatus and maintenance that would otherwise
      be required by other techniques. The biosensor was able to detect urine in
      freshwater and turn ON a visual and sound cues (85 dB). The energy needed to
      operate the biosensor was produced by the system itself with the use of
      electroactive microorganisms, inside microbial fuel cells. The Chemical Oxygen
      Demand (COD) was used as a fast method of biosensor validation. When urine
      concentration exceeded the lower threshold, corresponding to a COD concentration
      of 57.7 +/- 4.8 mgO2 L-1, the biosensor turned the alarm ON. The shortest
      observed actuation time, required to switch ON the alarm was 61 min, when the
      urine concentration was 149.7 +/- 1.7 mgO2 L-1. Once the sensor was switched ON,
      the signal was emitted until the urine organic load decreased to 15.3 +/- 1.9
      mgO2 L-1. When ON, the microbial fuel cell sensor produced a maximum power of 4.3
      mW. When switched OFF, the biosensor produced 25.4 MUW. The frequency of the
      signal was proportional to the concentration of urine. The observed frequencies
      varied between 0.01 and 0.59 Hz. This approach allowed to correlate and
      quantitatively detect the presence of water contamination, based on signal
      frequency. The sensor was operating autonomously for 5 months. This is the first
      report of a self-powered, autonomous device, developed for online water quality
      monitoring.

PMID- 28579694
TI  - Bilingualism Influences Structural Indices of Interhemispheric Organization.
AB  - Bilingualism represents an interesting model of possible experience-dependent
      alterations in brain structure. The current study examines whether
      interhemispheric adaptations in brain structure are associated with bilingualism.
      Corpus callosum volume and cortical thickness asymmetry across 13 regions of
      interest (selected to include critical language and bilingual cognitive control
      areas) were measured in a sample of Spanish-English bilinguals and age- and
      gender-matched monolingual individuals (N = 39 per group). Cortical thickness
      asymmetry of the anterior cingulate region differed across groups, with thicker
      right than left cortex for bilinguals and the reverse for monolinguals. In
      addition, two adjacent regions of the corpus callosum (mid-anterior and central)
      had greater volume in bilinguals. The findings suggest that structural indices of
      interhemispheric organization in a critical cognitive control region are
      sensitive to variations in language experience.

PMID- 28579696
TI  - Unsupported Micellar Palladium Nanoparticles for Biphasic Hydrogenation and
      Isomerization of Hydrophobic Allylic Alcohols in Water.
AB  - This article presents the evaluation of water-soluble palladium nanoparticles
      with hydrophobic active sites that are ideal for the biphasic colloidal catalysis
      of water-insoluble organic substrates in aqueous solution. Palladium
      nanoparticles stabilized with omega-carboxylate-functionalized alkanethiolate are
      first synthesized using omega-carboxylate-S-alkylthiosulfate as their ligand
      precursor. The biphasic catalysis is carried out for the reaction of hydrophobic
      allylic alcohols without using any additional mixing solvent or surfactant, which
      results in the complete consumption of substrates under the atmospheric pressure
      of H2 gas and at room temperature in less than 24 h. Systematic investigations on
      the influence of pH and substrate size are also performed to examine the utility
      of these thiolate-capped palladium nanoparticles as structurally stable and water
      soluble micellar catalysts for the biphasic reaction.

PMID- 28579697
TI  - Hydrodynamically-driven drug release during interstitial flow through hollow
      fibers implanted near lymphatics.
AB  - Current drug delivery devices (DDD) are mainly based on the use of diffusion as
      the main transport process. Diffusion-driven processes can only achieve low
      release rate because diffusion is a slow process. This represents a serious
      obstacle in the realization of recent successes in the suppression of lymphatic
      metastasis and in the prevention of limb and organ transplant rejection.
      Surprisingly, it was overlooked that there is a more favorable drug release mode
      which can be achieved when a special DDD is implanted near lymphatics. This
      opportunity can be realized when the interstitial fluid flow penetrates a drug
      delivery device of proper design and allows such fluid to flow out of it. This
      design is based on hollow fibers loaded with drug and whose hydrodynamic
      permeability is much higher than that of the surrounding tissue. The latter is
      referred to as hollow fiber of high hydrodynamic permeability (HFHP). The
      interstitial flow easily penetrates the hollow fiber membrane as well as its
      lumen with a higher velocity than that in the adjacent tissue. The interstitial
      liquid stream entering the lumen becomes almost saturated with drug as it flows
      out of the HFHP. This is due to the drug powder dissolution in the lumens of HFHP
      which forms a strip of drug solution that crosses the interstitium and finally
      enters the lymphatics. This hydrodynamically-driven release (HDR) may exceed the
      concomitant diffusion-driven release (DDR) by one or even two orders of
      magnitude. The hydrodynamics of the two-compartment media is sufficient for
      developing the HDR theory which is detailed in this paper. Convective diffusion
      theory for two compartments (membrane of hollow fiber and adjacent tissue) is
      required for exact quantification when a small contribution of DDR to
      predominating HDR is present. Hence, modeling is important for HDR which would
      lead to establishing a new branch in physico-chemical hydrodynamics. The release
      rate achieved with the use of HFHP increases proportional to the number of hollow
      fibers in the fabric employed in drug delivery. Based on this contribution, it is
      now possible to simultaneously provide high release rates and long release
      durations, thus overcoming a fundamental limitation in drug delivery. Perhaps
      this breakthrough in long-term drug delivery has potential applications in
      targeting lymphatics and in treating cancer and cancer metastasis without causing
      the serious side effects of systemic drugs.

PMID- 28579699
TI  - Enantioselective synthesis of new oxazolidinylthiazolidines as enzyme inhibitors.
AB  - The synthesis of new oxazolidinylthiazolidines bicycles, oxygen analogues of
      bisthiazolidines, also known as metallo-beta-lactamase inhibitors is described.
      The reaction of beta-aminoalcohols and 2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-dithiane led to
      oxazolidinylthiazolidines and/or dithia-azabicycles as the main products. The
      distribution pattern depends mainly on the aminoalcohol substituents. In a one
      pot reaction, four new bonds are formed in good yields and with high atom
      efficiency. When the oxazolidinylthiazolidines are formed, two stereogenic
      centres are generated with high enantiospecificity. The reaction mechanism is
      discussed based on crystallographic data and interconversion studies. Two
      oxazolidinylthiazolidines were evaluated as inhibitors of the potent lactamase
      NDM-1 and compound 4f displayed competitive inhibition with Ki = 1.6 +/- 0.6 uM.

PMID- 28579698
TI  - Size of nest-cavity entrance influences male attractiveness and paternal
      provisioning in house wrens.
AB  - In altricial birds, parental provisioning is plastic and can respond to a variety
      of environmental stimuli. In this study, we manipulated the size of entrances
      into artificial nest cavities (i.e., nestboxes) in a population of house wrens
      (Troglodytes aedon) as a means of manipulating a male's sexual attractiveness,
      and examined changes in parental provisioning. Nest cavities with large entrances
      are less desirable as nesting sites, and the males at these sites are less
      attractive to females. Therefore, we predicted that males at boxes that had large
      entrances would invest more in parental care (i.e., those that succeeded in
      finding a mate would provision their offspring at a higher rate) than males at
      nestboxes with small entrances. As predicted, males provisioned their offspring
      with food at the highest rates at nestboxes with enlarged entrances, and male
      provisioning effort positively predicted the number of fledglings they produced
      per egg. Males at these boxes provisioned more than their mates and more than
      females and males at nestboxes with small entrances. At nestboxes with small
      entrances, males provisioned at the same rate as females, and female provisioning
      did not differ significantly between treatments, on average. Male and female
      provisioning rates were negatively correlated, such that the increase in
      provisioning by males at nestboxes with enlarged entrances did not enhance
      nestling condition, likely because food delivery by females declined with
      increased provisioning by males. However, the amount of time females spent
      providing warmth for their ectothermic young increased with increases in male
      provisioning, suggesting that levels of male parental care altered the mode, not
      necessarily the extent, of care provided by females. These findings suggest that
      male provisioning is related to sexual attractiveness, and that sexual conflict
      over biparental care may not be as simple as the assessment of food provisioning
      might otherwise suggest.

PMID- 28579700
TI  - Acute intrapelvic cup migration: advantages of adyuvant Stoppa approach for
      implant removal/reconstruction. A case report.

PMID- 28579701
TI  - A novel approach based on preference-based index for interval bilevel linear
      programming problem.
AB  - This paper proposes a new methodology for solving the interval bilevel linear
      programming problem in which all coefficients of both objective functions and
      constraints are considered as interval numbers. In order to keep as much
      uncertainty of the original constraint region as possible, the original problem
      is first converted into an interval bilevel programming problem with interval
      coefficients in both objective functions only through normal variation of
      interval number and chance-constrained programming. With the consideration of
      different preferences of different decision makers, the concept of the preference
      level that the interval objective function is preferred to a target interval is
      defined based on the preference-based index. Then a preference-based
      deterministic bilevel programming problem is constructed in terms of the
      preference level and the order relation [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, the
      concept of a preference delta-optimal solution is given. Subsequently, the
      constructed deterministic nonlinear bilevel problem is solved with the help of
      estimation of distribution algorithm. Finally, several numerical examples are
      provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

PMID- 28579703
TI  - Poisson type inequalities with respect to a cone and their applications.
AB  - In this paper, we establish new Poisson type inequalities with respect to a cone.
      As applications, the integral representations of harmonic functions are also
      obtained.

PMID- 28579702
TI  - A new localization set for generalized eigenvalues.
AB  - A new localization set for generalized eigenvalues is obtained. It is shown that
      the new set is tighter than that in (Numer. Linear Algebra Appl. 16:883-898,
      2009). Numerical examples are given to verify the corresponding results.

PMID- 28579704
TI  - Maternal health Indicators Signal Optimism.

PMID- 28579705
TI  - Attitude and Practice of Birth Attendants Regarding the Presence of Male Partner
      at Delivery in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite increasing request for the male partners' presence at
      delivery in developing countries, the view and practice of birth attendants
      remained poorly understood.This study aimed to evaluate the perception, attitude
      and practice of birth attendants concerning the requests in Nigeria. METHODS: A
      prospective, cross-sectional survey involving consenting birth attendants was
      conducted in six public and six private health facilities in North Central
      Nigeria. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS-version 20.0; p-value <0.05 was
      considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Among 564 participants (24.8%
      male, 75.2% female), 465(82.4%) support the presence of male partners at
      delivery, 409(72.5%) desire to be with their partner at delivery, 434(77.0%) had
      previous request for male partner's presence at delivery while 225(51.8%)
      declined it due to perception that men will disturb. Among the male partners
      allowed at delivery, 92(44.0%) did not disturb the birth attendant while 5(2.4%)
      ended in litigation. Among birth attendants who allowed men at delivery in the
      past, 160(76.6%) will allow men in the future. There was no statistical
      significance regarding the age, gender, cadre or year of service of birth
      attendants and attitude to a protocol change to allow men at delivery. Birth
      attendants who support the presence of men at delivery showed positive attitude
      (OR33.178, 95%CI6.996-157.358; p<0.001) while those who opined that men would
      disturb at delivery had a negative attitude (OR0.306, 95%CI0.124-0.755); p0.010)
      to possible protocol change. CONCLUSION: Despite perceived negative effects of
      allowing male partners at delivery, many birth attendants are willing to allow
      them if necessary structural modifications are instituted.

PMID- 28579706
TI  - Hepatotoxicity Due to Antituberculosis Therapy among Paediatric Patients Seen at
      the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, North Central Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The liver is vulnerable to injury from the first line anti
      tuberculosis drugs. This may result in mortality, long term morbidity and reduced
      compliance to therapy. Nigeria recently introduced fixed drug combinations in the
      treatment of children amid concerns of hepatotoxicity. A 6-year-old boy was
      treated in our unit had fulminant hepatic failure two weeks after completing his
      anti-tuberculosis therapy. This prompted the unit to investigate hepatotoxicity
      due to anti-tuberculosis therapy among children. There is no data on the
      incidence of hepatotoxicity due to antituberculosis therapy among Nigerian
      children, and no uniform guide to monitoring of patients exists. The objective of
      this study was to investigate the incidence of hepatotoxicity among children
      receiving anti-tuberculosis therapy. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted among all 62 cases that completed treatment over a two year period.
      Liver Function Tests was done at baseline and 2 and 5 months of therapy.
      Elevation of Alanine aminotransferase and/or Aspartate aminotransferase above 3
      times the reference values was considered an indication of hepatotoxicity.
      RESULTS: A total of 62 patients aged 3 months -17 years were treated at our unit
      during the study period. Twenty-two (35.5%) had elevated liver enzymes at
      baseline. Four (6.5%) had elevation of alanine aminotransferase of 3 times the
      upper limit at 2 months, but at 5 months, tests were within normal limits in all
      patients. Hepatotoxicity defined as liver enzymes above 3 times upper limit was
      not documented among the 62 cases treated over the period. CONCLUSION:
      Hepatotoxicity due to antituberculosis therapy is uncommon in children, hence
      repeated routine evaluation of liver function may not be necessary in all
      patients receiving anti-TB therapy.

PMID- 28579707
TI  - Barriers to Contraceptive Uptake among Women of Reproductive Age in a Semi-Urban
      Community of Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally, unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections
      (STIs) persist as a significant threat to women's reproductive health. In
      Nigeria, despite huge resources committed to family planning programs by
      stakeholders, contraceptive use has been very low. This study aimed at unraveling
      the barriers to the use of modern contraceptives among women of reproductive age
      (15-49 years) in Ise-Ekiti community, Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria. METHODS:
      This study was a cross sectional study among women aged 15-49 years. A multi
      stage sampling technique was used in the recruitment of respondents from the
      community. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.
      Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15. RESULTS: Although contraceptive
      awareness among respondents was high 496(98.6%), only 254 of the 503 respondents
      were using modern contraceptive methods giving a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate
      (CPR) of 50.5%. Among those not using any form of contraceptives, some
      identifiable barriers to contraceptive use includes desire for more children,
      62(39.5%), partner disapproval, 40(25.5%), and fear of side-effects, 23(14.6%).
      Factors associated with contraceptive uptake include marital status (p=0.028),
      educational level (p=0.041) and religion (p=0.043) with traditional worshippers
      having the least uptake. CONCLUSION: This study showed that awareness to modern
      forms of contraceptives does translate into use. The identified barriers to
      contraceptive uptake suggest the need to improve uptake of contraceptives through
      a community-based and culturally acceptable intervention as doing this will go a
      long way in addressing some of these barriers.

PMID- 28579708
TI  - Field-Based Evidence of Single and Few Doses of Annual Ivermectin Treatment
      Efficacy in Eliminating Skin Microfilaria Load after a Decade of Intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Impact assessment of community-based ivermectin treatment control of
      onchocerciasis is required to determine its effectiveness. This study was
      conducted to evaluate geographic coverage and demographic ivermectin treatment
      compliance. METHODS: The number of village dosage were obtained from the
      community based distributors. Bioclinical data of participants comprising gender,
      age, number of treatment received from inception and dosage were obtained. Each
      participant was subjected to physical examination for palpable nodule and other
      skin clinical signs and symptoms of onchocerciasis. Visual acuity test was done
      using the Snellen illiterate E-chart. Eye examination was performed using touch
      loop and handheld ophthalmoscope. Skin snips from both iliac crests were
      incubated overnight at 28-32 degrees C and emerged micrifilaria enumerated under
      an inverted microscope. The changes in epidemiological indices at post-decade of
      mass drug administration were compared with baseline data. RESULTS: Village
      annual ivermectin treatment doses averaged 62%, ranging between 10-100%.
      Individual treatment compliance rate was generally low with an average of 4
      treatments and a range between 0-10. Despite variations in treatment compliance,
      there were significant improvements in some onchocercal morbidities. These
      include reduced number and severity of itching, visual impairment, papular
      onchodermatitis, onchocercomata (palpable nodules) and leopard skin. Ivermectin
      treatment halted development of new blind cases, except the case of a man who had
      optic nerve disease and became blind 2 years after ivermectin treatment had
      commenced. There was a significant overall reduction in parasite burden with very
      low mean skin microfilaria load of 1.7mf per skin snip and 3.7% skin mf
      prevalence, compared to baseline data of 17.7mf and 37.9% respectively. The
      palpable nodule was also drastically reduced from 14.5% to 6.4%. Outcome of this
      study has practically demonstrated that even a single dose ivermectin treatment
      is capable of clearing skin mf load on a long-term basis. This assertion is
      exemplified by the result obtained from Bomjock village that had taken treatment
      only at inception, and the prevalence rate was reduced from 70% to about 9.0% at
      post-decade of intervention. CONCLUSION: It can be inferred that high demographic
      coverage with annual treatment doses, it is feasible to attain a shorter time
      (within a decade) contrary to the anticipated longer-term projection.

PMID- 28579709
TI  - Timing of First Antenatal Care Visit and its Associated Factors among Pregnant
      Women Attending Public Health Facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early initiation of antenatal care visits is an essential component
      of services to improving maternal and new born health. The Ethiopian Demographic
      and Health Survey conducted in 2011 indicated that only 11% of pregnant women
      start antenatal care in the first trimester. However, detailed study to identify
      factors associated with late initiation of care has not been conducted in Addis
      Ababa where access to health services is almost universal. The aim of this study
      was to assess the level of late first antenatal care visit and the associated
      factors. METHODS: Facility based cross sectional study was conducted in public
      health centers in Addis Ababa. The health centers with experience of at least
      more than two years were selected randomly, one form each sub-city. The study
      subjects were pregnant women visiting the facilities for the first time during
      the index pregnancy. The study health centers were selected randomly from each
      sub-city, and the study women were recruited consecutively until the required
      sample size was achieved. Data were collected using pre-tested questionnaire.
      Logistic regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with late
      ANC initiation. RESULT: A total of 979 women participated in the study;
      411(42.0%; 95% CI of 38.9%, 45.1%) of them came for their first ANC visit late,
      after 16 weeks of gestation. Wrongly perceived ANC initiation schedule was the
      strongest predictor of late initiation. After controlling for basic demographic
      and obstetric factors, the odds of starting the first antenatal care visit late
      was higher for women who did not know the antennal care initiation schedule
      correctly compared to women who knew the schedule correctly (AOR6.6; 95% CI 3.03,
      14.03). CONCLUSION: Over 40% of pregnant women do not initiate ANC visit in the
      first trimester largely due to lack of correct knowledge of the recommended ANC
      schedule.

PMID- 28579710
TI  - Assessment of Knowledge of Acute Kidney Injury among Non-Nephrology Doctors in
      Two Government Hospitals in Ondo City, Southwest, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adequate knowledge of acute kidney injury (AKI) among doctors is
      essential for its prevention, early diagnosis and management. Assessing knowledge
      of AKI among doctors is necessary to identify areas of deficiencies and key areas
      to be emphasized when organizing educational programs aimed at improving AKI
      care. This study determined the knowledge of AKI among non-nephrology doctors in
      Ondo City, Southwest Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional
      descriptive study carried out in two government hospitals in Ondo City using a
      self-administered pretested questionnaire that assessed knowledge of AKI among
      non-nephrology doctors. P-value of < 0.05 was taken as significant. RESULTS:
      Eighty-one doctors participated in the study with a median post-graduation
      experience of 5.5 years. Sixty-one (78.2%) were in surgical specialty while the
      remaining worked in medical specialty. Only 1(1.2%) of the respondents had good
      knowledge of AKI, 56(69.2%) had fair knowledge while the remaining 24 (29.6%) had
      poor knowledge of AKI. Identified areas of deficiencies in knowledge of AKI were
      in mode of presentation, risk factors, potentially nephrotoxic medications,
      criteria for AKI definition and staging, newer AKI biomarkers and indications for
      renal replacement therapy. There was no significant association between knowledge
      of AKI and specialty (p=0.593) or year of practice (p=0.312). CONCLUSION: There
      were significant deficiencies in the knowledge of AKI amongst most non-nephrology
      doctors in Ondo city. We therefore recommend regular in-service training on AKI
      for practicing doctors.

PMID- 28579711
TI  - Nutritional Status and Effect of Maternal Employment among Children Aged 6-59
      Months in Wolayta Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Childhood malnutrition remains common in many parts of the world; the
      magnitude of worldwide stunting, underweight and wasting in children under five
      years of age were 24.7 %, 15.1 % and 7.8 %, respectively. More than 150 million
      children under the age of five years in the developing world are malnourished.
      Ethiopia is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest rates of
      malnutrition. In Ethiopia, 44.4% and 9.7% of children under-five years old were
      stunted and wasted, respectively. This study was aimed to assess nutritional
      status and effect of maternal employment among children aged 6-59 months.
      METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Wolayta Sodo Town, Southern
      Ethiopia. Socio-demographic characteristics, child feeding and healthcare seeking
      practice of mothers, and child's anthropometric status were assessed. Probability
      proportional to size sampling approach was used to select a sample of 316 mothers
      having children aged 6-59 months. The study was ethically approved by
      Institutional Review Board of Health Science College, Hawasa University. RESULT:
      The overall result revealed that the prevalence of stunting was 22.2%, of which
      21.8% and 22.6% were in children of employed and unemployed mothers,
      respectively. Low-weight-for age was 10.8% for children of employed mothers and
      13.4% for children of unemployed mothers. Wasting was 8.8% and 10.8% for children
      of employed and unemployed mothers, respectively. There was no statistically
      significant association between maternal employment and nutritional status of
      their children. However, chronic malnutrition (stunting) was influenced by being
      educated mother (OR: 0.37) child age group of 24-59 months (OR: 0.36) and
      households' fifth wealth quintile (OR: 0.28). CONCLUSION: Low prevalence of
      stunting was observed. Stunting is a public health concern in the study area.
      Furthermore, stunting is significantly influenced by mothers' education,
      household wealth and child age. However, maternal employment was not
      statistically associated with child nutritional status. Thus, nutritional
      intervention initiatives should focus on improving household food security,
      maternal education and agricultural diversification.

PMID- 28579712
TI  - Level of Awareness and Knowledge of Breast Cancer in Nigeria. A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite reports of improved awareness of breast cancer entity and
      seemingly upbeat levels of other awareness subthemes in Nigeria, patients
      continue to present late when treatment is least rewarding. This paradoxical
      trend of both rising awareness and late presentation coupled with reports
      suggesting other competing drivers of late presentation question the "theory of
      poor awareness" as the foremost driver of late presentations. By aggregating
      available data, we aimed to assess what still constitutes poor breast cancer
      awareness in Nigeria in order to suggest how to allocate resources to reverse the
      paradox. METHOD: Studies conducted on Nigerian populace from 2000 to date were
      reviewed systematically. Search was made in PROSPERO, PubMed/MEDLINE, AJOL,
      Cochrane library, GOOGLE, ResearchGate and ACADEMIA. Primary outcome was level of
      awareness about breast cancer entity. RESULT: Fifty-one eligible (48 descriptive
      surveys, 3 interventional ones) studies were reviewed. They included 19,598
      respondents (98.5% females; 43% rural dwellers). 17,086(87.2%) were laypersons in
      various walks of life; 2,512(12.8%) were healthcare professionals. There were
      high levels of awareness of breast cancer entity, BSE, knowledge of fatality and
      benefit of early detection (weighted percentages 80.6%, 60.1%, 73.2% and 73.9%
      respectively). Weighted percentages of knowledge of symptoms/signs was 45.1%.
      Weighted percentages of sense of susceptibility and performance of BSE were low
      26.8% and 22.9% respectively. Generally, rate of performance of screening did not
      vary with changes in the level of awareness/knowledge of concepts. CONCLUSION: In
      general, low awareness of breast cancer may not be the direct and foremost driver
      of persistent late presentation in Nigeria.

PMID- 28579713
TI  - Nutritional Status of Under Five Children in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is the outcome of insufficient food intake and
      recurrent infectious diseases. The baseline levels of undernutrition remain so
      high that Ethiopia still needs to continue substantial investment in
      nutrition.Therefore, the aim of this study was to obtain estimates of over-time
      trends in the prevalence of undernutrition in Ethiopia and to determine risk
      factors for undernutrition among children of under five years of age. METHODS:
      Cross-sectional studies published in English from 1997 to 2015 focusing the
      prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight in children aged 0-5 years (n =
      39,585) in Ethiopia were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. We
      searched in PubMed and Scopus databases and other articles manually. Two review
      authors independently selected studies for inclusion, extracted data and assessed
      the risk of bias in the included studies. The protocol number of the study is
      PROSPERO 2015: CRD42015027940. RESULTS: Eighteen studies were included and the
      overall pooled prevalence estimate of stunting, underweight and wasting was 42.0%
      (95% CI: 37.0, 46.0), 33.0 % (95% CI: 27.0, 39.0) and 15.0% (95% CI: 12.0, 19.0),
      respectively. The sensitivity analyses resulted in the prevalence of stunting,
      40% (95% CI: 32.0, 48.0; I2=99.19%), prevalence of underweight, 33%(95% CI: 24.0,
      42.0; I2=99.34%) and wasting rate equal to 19%(95% CI: 14.0, 24.0; I2=99.19%).
      Cumulative analysis revealed a stabilization trend of stunting and underweight
      (1996-2010) followed by an upward trend (2010-2014). Child age, child sex,
      complementary food, poor dietary diversity, diarrheal diseases, maternal
      education, maternal height, residential area and socio- economic status were
      significant risk factors for undernutrition. CONCLUSION: The result of the meta
      analysis of thes observational studies revealed that the trend of undernutrition
      in Ethiopia indicates that there is an increment of chronic malnutrition cases in
      recent years, and the prevalence of undernutrition remains extremely high. Thus,
      the implementation of policies to reverse child undernutrition should get maximum
      emphasis.

PMID- 28579714
TI  - Neumann's Tumor: A Case Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The congenital granular cell tumour of the newborn, also known as
      congenital epulis or Neumann's tumor, is rare. It occurs on the gingiva of the
      anterior alveolar ridge of the jaws. This lesion behaves in a benign manner and
      no recurrent or metastatic lesions have been reported. CASE REPORT: We are
      reporting a 2-day-old female neonate, who came to our unit with a well defined,
      solitary, firm mass arising from the maxillary anterior region measuring about
      3.5 cms in diameter and causing difficulty in breast feeding but no hindrance to
      the airway. The mass was surgically excised under general anesthesia.
      Postoperative wound healing was uneventful. CONCLUSION: We have shared our
      experience in handling this rare type of tumor. We have presented the clinical
      features and the different modalities of its treatment to spread awareness among
      clinicians for better management of similar tumors.

PMID- 28579715
TI  - Combination of Encephalo-Myo-Pial-Synangiosis and Encephalo-Arterio-Pial
      Synangiosis Procedure in Pediatric Moya-Moya Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Moya-moya disease in children is a cerebrovascular disorder that may
      cause cerebral ischemic or hemorrhage. CASE DETAILS: We report an 8-year-old boy
      that was admitted with the chief complaint of repeated sudden half left body
      paralyze. MRA showed acute thrombotic infarction in the right hemisphere and
      internal carotid artery stenosis in the form of puffs of smokes. Indirect
      revascularization surgical procedure with combination of Encephalo-myo-pial
      synangiosis (EMS) and Encephalo-arterio-pial-synangiosis (EAS) was performed. It
      resulted in a good response. CONCLUSION: Moya-moya disease can lead to permanent
      neurological disability if untreated. Satisfactory outcome was noted following
      combination surgery management with EMS and EAS.

PMID- 28579716
TI  - Clinically Confirmed Congenital Rubella Syndrome: The Role of Echocardiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) affects thousands of children in
      the developing world because rubella vaccination is not routinely available in
      most of these countries. Among its many manifestations, congenital heart disease
      is life threatening. CASE DETAILS: A 9-month-old infant presented with whitish
      lesions over her left eye. She was evaluated with echocardiography that revealed
      peripheral pulmonary stenosis and patent ductus arteriosus. She had severe acute
      malnutrition and clinically confirmed congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). There
      was no available serologic test to confirm the diagnosis. CONCLUSION: This case
      was presented to demonstrate typical dual features of CRS by echocardiography and
      to emphasize the benefit of vaccination to prevent deleterious complications from
      congenital rubella syndrome.

PMID- 28579717
TI  - Thoracic Ectopia Cordis in an Ethiopian Neonate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ectopia Cordis is defined as complete or partial displacement of the
      heart outside the thoracic cavity. It is a rare congenital defect with failure of
      fusion of the sternum with extra thoracic location of the heart. The estimated
      prevalence of this case is 5.5 to 7.9 per million live births. CASE PRESENTATION:
      We had a case of a 16-hour-old male neonate weighing 2.9kg with externally
      visible, beating heart over the chest wall. Initial treatment included covering
      the heart with sterile-saline soaked dressing, starting systemic antibiotics and
      supportive care. A staged surgical approach to this defect with the initial aim
      of replacement of the heart to the thoracic cavity was opted. The neonate died
      twenty minutes after the surgical intervention due to cardiogenic shock despite
      adequate resuscitative measures. CONCLUSION: This case report underscores the
      missed opportunity of antenatal ultra-sonographic diagnosis and the challenge of
      Ectopia Cordis treatment in Ethiopia.

PMID- 28579718
TI  - Constructing Abstraction Hierarchies Using a Skill-Symbol Loop.
AB  - We describe a framework for building abstraction hierarchies whereby an agent
      alternates skill- and representation-construction phases to construct a sequence
      of increasingly abstract Markov decision processes. Our formulation builds on
      recent results showing that the appropriate abstract representation of a problem
      is specified by the agent's skills. We describe how such a hierarchy can be used
      for fast planning, and illustrate the construction of an appropriate hierarchy
      for the Taxi domain.

PMID- 28579719
TI  - Unverified Patient-Reported Errors: A False Alarm Can Have Real Consequences.
AB  - Unverified patient-reported errors can have real consequences.

PMID- 28579720
TI  - Drug Companies Breathe Easier As PDUFA VI Heads for Approval.
AB  - Drug companies breathe easier as PDUFA VI heads for approval.

PMID- 28579721
TI  - Drug and Device News.
AB  - Approvals, new indications, regulatory activities, and more.

PMID- 28579722
TI  - Pharmaceutical Approval Update.
AB  - Ribociclib (Kisqali) for HR+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer in
      postmenopausal women; safinamide (Xadago) as adjunctive treatment for patients
      with Parkinson's disease; and avelumab (Bavencio) for metastatic Merkel cell
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28579724
TI  - Cancer Immunotherapy, Part 1: Current Strategies and Agents.
AB  - This article, the first in a series of three, introduces cancer immunology,
      cancer immunotherapy strategies, and the classes of anticancer therapeutic
      agents.

PMID- 28579723
TI  - Pimavanserin (Nuplazid): A Treatment for Hallucinations and Delusions Associated
      With Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Pimavanserin (Nuplazid) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions
      associated with Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28579725
TI  - Cost-Savings From an Antipsychotic Tablet-Splitting Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Newer atypical antipsychotics such as aripiprazole (Abilify, Otsuka)
      and lurasidone (Latuda, Sunovion) have favorable safety and efficacy profiles,
      but their use is limited by high cost. University Hospitals Richmond Medical
      Center initiated an antipsychotic tablet-splitting program in August 2015 to
      counter the costs based on the identical pricing structure of aripiprazole and
      lurasidone doses. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was completed for all
      patients dispensed aripiprazole or lurasidone oral tablets from May 1, 2015,
      through December 31, 2015, to evaluate the potential cost-savings for our
      facility. Findings were extrapolated to 12 months to estimate an annual cost
      savings from tablet splitting. RESULTS: Two-hundred thirty-five charts were
      reviewed during this eight-month period. Estimated annual savings ranged from
      $3,617 for lurasidone 20-mg tablets to $6,637 for aripiprazole 5-mg tablets. The
      antipsychotic tablet-splitting program for lurasidone and aripiprazole resulted
      in 30% to 50% annual savings for each individual medication strength. Previous
      literature suggests variable percentage of weight deviation in tablet-splitting
      studies; however, small deviations in weight may not be clinically relevant for
      antipsychotic agents based on their mechanism of action. CONCLUSIONS:
      Aripiprazole and lurasidone are optimal agents for tablet splitting. Initiation
      of a tablet-splitting program has the potential to save up to 50% of drug costs
      for an inpatient hospital. Splitting of aripiprazole and lurasidone tablets may
      decrease drug cost and waste while ensuring patient accessibility to treatment.

PMID- 28579726
TI  - Inpatient Antineoplastic Medication Administration And Associated Drug Costs:
      Institution of a Hospital Policy Limiting Inpatient Administration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer treatment costs are increasing; the global cost of
      antineoplastic medications rose to $83.7 billion in 2015. As a result, it is
      imperative for institutions to implement cost-saving strategies and to maximize
      reimbursement for costly medications such as antineoplastic drugs. OBJECTIVES:
      Evaluate the necessity and drug costs of administering antineoplastic medications
      in the inpatient setting and explore savings associated with the 2013
      implementation of an institutional policy that defined criteria necessitating
      inpatient administration of antineoplastic medication. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective chart review of patients receiving inpatient antineoplastic
      medications during January, April, July, and October of 2010, 2012, 2014, and
      2015 at a community teaching hospital. Necessity of chemotherapy administration
      during the hospital admission was determined based on adherence to institutional
      policy. RESULTS: Records of 648 patients admitted for chemotherapy were reviewed.
      The annualized numbers of chemotherapy regimens received during inpatient
      admission in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015 were 537, 618, 369, and 420,
      respectively. Of all regimens administered in the inpatient setting, 80% in 2010,
      78% in 2012, 83% in 2014, and 91% in 2015 met institutional policy criteria for
      inpatient administration (P = 0.005). The annualized average wholesale price of
      antineoplastic medications administered to patients that did not meet criteria
      for inpatient drug administration decreased from $269,049 in 2010 to $105,447 in
      2015. A trend in the chemotherapy regimens administered was apparent; only one
      regimen (carboplatin/paclitaxel), which is relatively inexpensive, was
      administered to more than 5% of patients in 2015, and all patients receiving
      monoclonal antibodies in 2015 met criteria for inpatient administration.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a policy defining the appropriate criteria
      necessitating inpatient administration of antineoplastic medications has the
      potential to decrease the number of inpatient administrations and associated drug
      costs.

PMID- 28579727
TI  - Immunotherapies in Late-Stage Development for Patients With Severe SLE and/or
      Lupus Nephritis.
AB  - We review the immunomodulatory agents in development for systemic lupus
      erythematosus, a relatively uncommon disorder affecting women of childbearing
      age.

PMID- 28579728
TI  - EASL International Liver Congress 2017.
AB  - The latest in hepatology research was presented at this year's European
      Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) International Liver Congress.

PMID- 28579730
TI  - Research Briefs.

PMID- 28579729
TI  - Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.
AB  - Highlights of the AMCP Annual Meeting included marketplace trends, the
      affordability crisis, and the issues facing value-based contracting.

PMID- 28579732
TI  - Impact of E * B shear flow on low-n MHD instabilities.
AB  - Recently, the stationary high confinement operations with improved pedestal
      conditions have been achieved in DIII-D [K. H. Burrell et al., Phys. Plasmas 23,
      056103 (2016)], accompanying the spontaneous transition from the coherent edge
      harmonic oscillation (EHO) to the broadband MHD turbulence state by reducing the
      neutral beam injection torque to zero. It is highly significant for the burning
      plasma devices such as ITER. Simulations about the effects of E * B shear flow on
      the quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) are carried out using the three-field two-fluid
      model in the field-aligned coordinate under the BOUT++ framework. Using the
      shifted circular cross-section equilibriums including bootstrap current, the
      results demonstrate that the E * B shear flow strongly destabilizes low-n peeling
      modes, which are mainly driven by the gradient of parallel current in peeling
      dominant cases and are sensitive to the Er shear. Adopting the much more general
      shape of E * B shear ([Formula: see text]) profiles, the linear and nonlinear
      BOUT++ simulations show qualitative consistence with the experiments. The
      stronger shear flow shifts the most unstable mode to lower-n and narrows the mode
      spectrum. At the meantime, the nonlinear simulations of the QH-mode indicate that
      the shear flow in both co- and counter directions of diamagnetic flow has some
      similar effects. The nonlinear mode interaction is enhanced during the mode
      amplitude saturation phase. These results reveal that the fundamental physics
      mechanism of the QH-mode may be shear flow and are significant for understanding
      the mechanism of EHO and QH-mode.

PMID- 28579731
TI  - Do lesbians overestimate alcohol use norms? Exploring the potential utility of
      personalized normative feedback interventions to reduce high-risk drinking in
      Southern California lesbian communities.
AB  - This study examines the potential utility of social norms-based approaches to
      reduce heavy alcohol use in lesbian community settings. In a sample of 278
      Southern Californian lesbians recruited from social media networks to complete an
      online survey, the majority of participants overestimated the quantity of alcohol
      consumed by their lesbian peers and more frequent lesbian bar attendance was
      associated with elevated perceptions of how much other lesbians drink. Greater
      than 90% of participants expressed interest in receiving personalized normative
      feedback, suggesting that culturally tailored personalized normative feedback
      interventions focused on correcting perceptions of heavy drinking may be
      successful in mitigating the alcohol-related risks of lesbians in Southern
      California, and potentially beyond.

PMID- 28579733
TI  - Foreword to Special Issue: Papers from the 58th Annual Meeting of the APS
      Division of Plasma Physics, October 31-November 4, 2016, San Jose, California,
      USA.

PMID- 28579734
TI  - The basis for cosmic ray feedback: Written on the wind.
AB  - Star formation and supermassive black hole growth in galaxies appear to be self
      limiting. The mechanisms for self-regulation are known as feedback. Cosmic rays,
      the relativistic particle component of interstellar and intergalactic plasma, are
      among the agents of feedback. Because cosmic rays are virtually collisionless in
      the plasma environments of interest, their interaction with the ambient medium is
      primarily mediated by large scale magnetic fields and kinetic scale plasma waves.
      Because kinetic scales are much smaller than global scales, this interaction is
      most conveniently described by fluid models. In this paper, I discuss the kinetic
      theory and the classical theory of cosmic ray hydrodynamics (CCRH) which follows
      from assuming cosmic rays interact only with self-excited waves. I generalize
      CCRH to generalized cosmic ray hydrodynamics, which accommodates interactions
      with extrinsic turbulence, present examples of cosmic ray feedback, and assess
      where progress is needed.

PMID- 28579735
TI  - Barriers and Facilitators to Provision of Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccines in
      Home Health Care Agencies.
AB  - The recommendations for influenza and pneumococcal vaccines are widely known yet
      the rates of both immunizations for home health care patients are 70 percent or
      less. The purpose of this study was to identify the facilitators and barriers to
      immunizations ultimately to improve vaccination rates among home health care
      patients. Using a multi-case study approach with five agencies and one group of
      administrators, facilitators included providing patients with a vaccine "card"
      and using the agency electronic medical record (EMR) for decision
      support/reminders. We determined that there were patient barriers (misperceptions
      about vaccines in general, difficulty in recalling vaccine status) and provider
      barriers (misperceptions about vaccines among health care workers, home health
      care agencies not receiving accurate information from other providers or
      difficulty in determining vaccine status).

PMID- 28579736
TI  - HUMAN CAPITAL GROWTH AND POVERTY: EVIDENCE FROM ETHIOPIA AND PERU.
AB  - In this paper we use high quality data from two developing countries, Ethiopia
      and Peru, to estimate the production functions of human capital from age 1 to age
      15. We characterize the nature of persistence and dynamic complementarities
      between two components of human capital: health and cognition. We also explore
      the implications of different functional form assumptions for the production
      functions. We find that more able and higher income parents invest more,
      particularly at younger ages when investments have the greatest impacts. These
      differences in investments by parental income lead to large gaps in inequality by
      age 8 that persist through age 15.

PMID- 28579737
TI  - Electronic properties of alpha-UH3 stabilized by Zr.
AB  - Pure hydride of the alpha-UH3 type without any beta-UH3 admixture was prepared by
      high-pressure hydrogenation of bcc U stabilized by Zr. Such material,
      characterized by a general formula (UH3)1-x Zr x , is stable in air at ambient
      and elevated temperatures. H release is observed between 400-450  degrees C
      similar to beta-UH3. Its stability allowed to measure magnetic properties,
      specific heat, and electrical resistivity in a wide temperature range. Despite
      rather different crystal structure and inter-U spacing, the electronic properties
      are almost identical to beta-UH3. Its ferromagnetic ground state with Curie
      temperature TC ~ 180 K (weakly and non-monotonously dependent on Zr
      concentration) and U moments of 1.0 MUB indicate why mixtures of alpha- and beta
      UH3 exhibited only one transition. Magnetic ordering leads to a large spontaneous
      magnetostriction omegas = 3.2*10-3, which can be explained by the increase of the
      spin moment between the paramagnetic (Disordered Local Moment) and the
      ferromagnetic state. The role of orbital moments in magnetism is indicated by
      fully relativistic electronic structure calculations.

PMID- 28579739
TI  - Quantitative Study of Thermal Disturbances Due to Nonuniformly Perfused Tumors in
      Peripheral Regions of Women's Breast.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mathematical modeling of biothermal processes is widely used to
      enhance the quantitative understanding of thermoregulation system of human body
      organs. This quantitative knowledge of thermal information of various human body
      organs can be used for developing clinical applications. In the past,
      investigators have studied thermal distribution in hemisphere-shaped human breast
      in the presence of sphere-shaped tumor. The shape and size of the breast as well
      as tumor may also affect thermal distribution which can have serious implications
      in thermography. In this article, a model of thermal disturbances in peripheral
      regions of ellipsoid-shaped human breast involving ellipse-shaped nonuniformly
      perfused tumor has been developed for a 2-dimensional steady-state case. The
      modeling study will provide biomedical scientists vital insights of thermal
      changes occurring due to the shape and size of breast and tumor which can
      influence the development of protocols of thermography for diagnosis of tumors in
      women's breast. METHOD: We have incorporated the significant parameters such as
      blood flow, metabolic activity, and thermal conductivity in the thermal model for
      normal and malignant tissues. The controlled metabolic activity has been
      incorporated for normal tissues, and uncontrolled metabolic activity has been
      incorporated for tumor regions. The peripheral regions of breast are divided into
      3 major layers, namely, epidermis, dermis, and subdermal tissues. An ellipse
      shaped nonuniformly perfused tumor is assumed to be present in dermal layers. The
      nonuniformly perfused tumor is divided into 2 natural components, namely, the
      necrotic core and tumor periphery. The outer surface of the breast is assumed to
      be exposed to the environment, and the heat loss takes place by conduction,
      convection, radiation, and evaporation. The finite element approach is used to
      obtain the solution. The numerical results have been used to study the effect of
      shape and size of tumor on temperature distribution in matured breast of
      different shapes. RESULTS: By selecting appropriate model parameters, we have
      shown the spatial thermal variation in matured breast of different shapes which
      could be replicated by the proposed model. We have also shown the thermal
      disturbances caused by different shapes and sizes of tumors by selecting
      appropriate values of parameters. In addition, the thermal information from our
      model provides us the basis for prediction of shape and size of tumors in terms
      of change of the slope of temperature profiles at the junction of tumor and
      normal tissues and tumor periphery and tumor core. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed
      model was successfully used to study the impact of different sizes and shapes of
      nonuniformly perfused tumor on thermograms in peripheral regions of ellipse
      shaped woman's breast. The proposed model is more realistic in terms of shape and
      size of tumors and woman's breast in comparison with earlier models reported in
      the literature. The finite element discretization of breast into large number of
      triangular ring elements effectively models the heterogeneity of region. The
      changes in slope of the thermal curves at the junctions of various peripheral and
      tumor layers are due to the nonhomogeneous nature of the region. The location of
      major thermal disturbances in the tissues indicates the presence of tumor. The
      change in the slope of the thermal curves gives us idea about the position, type,
      and size of the tumors in the peripheral tissues. This thermal information can be
      exploited for detection of tumors by thermographic techniques.

PMID- 28579738
TI  - A Novel Optical Bioimaging Method for Direct Assessment of Ovarian Cancer
      Chemotherapy Response at Laparoscopy.
AB  - In patients with advanced ovarian cancer (AOC), additional imaging of
      disseminated disease at laparoscopy could complement conventional imaging for
      estimation of chemotherapy response. We developed an image segmentation method
      and evaluated its use in making accurate and objective measurements of peritoneal
      metastases in comparison to Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST)
      criteria. A software tool using a custom ImageJ macro-based approach was employed
      to estimate lesion size by converting image pixels into unit length. The software
      tool was tested as a proof-of-principle in an AOC patient with two isolated
      peritoneal deposits. Image analysis of representative laparoscopic snapshots
      before and after three cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) revealed an
      average tumor nodule response ratio (TNRR) of 40% (partial response), which was
      in concordance with RECIST evaluation by computed tomography (CT). We
      demonstrated the feasibility of using this novel anatomical analysis for direct
      assessment of chemotherapy response in an AOC patient as an adjunct to RECIST
      criteria.

PMID- 28579741
TI  - Time-Based Switching Control of Genetic Regulatory Networks: Toward Sequential
      Drug Intake for Cancer Therapy.
AB  - As cancer growth and development typically involves multiple genes and pathways,
      combination therapy has been touted as the standard of care in the treatment of
      cancer. However, drug toxicity becomes a major concern whenever a patient takes 2
      or more drugs simultaneously at the maximum tolerable dosage. A potential
      solution would be administering the drugs in a sequential or alternating manner
      rather than concurrently. This study therefore examines the feasibility of such
      an approach from a switched system control perspective. Particularly, we study
      how genetic regulatory systems respond to sequential (switched) drug inputs using
      the time-based switching mechanism. The design of the time-driven drug switching
      function guarantees the stability of the genetic regulatory system and the
      repression of the diseased genes. Simulation results using proof-of-concept
      models and the proliferation and survival pathways with sequential drug inputs
      show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

PMID- 28579740
TI  - Applying Multivariate Adaptive Splines to Identify Genes With Expressions Varying
      After Diagnosis in Microarray Experiments.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze a microarray experiment to identify the genes with
      expressions varying after the diagnosis of breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 44
      928 probe sets in an Affymetrix microarray data publicly available on Gene
      Expression Omnibus from 249 patients with breast cancer were analyzed by the
      nonparametric multivariate adaptive splines. Then, the identified genes with
      turning points were grouped by K-means clustering, and their network relationship
      was subsequently analyzed by the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. RESULTS: In total,
      1640 probe sets (genes) were reliably identified to have turning points along
      with the age at diagnosis in their expression profiling, of which 927 expressed
      lower after turning points and 713 expressed higher after the turning points. K
      means clustered them into 3 groups with turning points centering at 54, 62.5, and
      72, respectively. The pathway analysis showed that the identified genes were
      actively involved in various cancer-related functions or networks. CONCLUSIONS:
      In this article, we applied the nonparametric multivariate adaptive splines
      method to a publicly available gene expression data and successfully identified
      genes with expressions varying before and after breast cancer diagnosis.

PMID- 28579742
TI  - Intravitreal use of bone marrow mononuclear fraction containing CD34+ stem cells
      in patients with atrophic age-related macular degeneration.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the therapeutic potential and safety of intravitreal
      injections of bone marrow mononuclear fraction (BMMF) containing CD34+ cells in
      patients with atrophic age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: Ten
      patients with atrophic AMD and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in the worse
      seeing eye of <=20/100 were enrolled in this study. The bone marrow from all
      patients was aspirated and processed for mononuclear cell separation. A 0.1 mL
      suspension of BMMF CD34+ cells was injected into the vitreous cavity of the worse
      seeing eye. Patients were evaluated at Baseline and 1,3,6,9 and 12 months after
      injection. Ophthalmic evaluation included BCVA measurement, microperimetry,
      infrared imaging, fundus autofluorescence and SD-optical coherence tomography at
      all study visits. Fluorescein angiography was performed at Baseline and at 6 and
      12 months after intravitreal therapy. RESULTS: All patients completed the 6-month
      follow-up, and six completed the 12-month follow-up. Prior to the injection, mean
      BCVA was 1.18 logMAR (20/320-1), ranging from 20/125 to 20/640-2, and improved
      significantly at every follow-up visit, including the 12-month one, when BCVA was
      1.0 logMAR (20/200) (P<0.05). Mean sensitivity threshold also improved
      significantly at 6, 9 and 12 months after treatment (P<0.05). Considering the
      area of atrophy identified by fundus autofluorescence, significant mean BCVA and
      mean sensitivity threshold improvement were observed in patients with the
      smallest areas of atrophy. Fluorescein angiography did not identify choroidal new
      vessels or tumor growth. CONCLUSION: The use of intravitreal BMMF injections in
      patients with AMD is safe and is associated with significant improvement in BCVA
      and macular sensitivity threshold. Patients with small areas of atrophy have a
      better response. The paracrine effect of CD34+ cells may explain the functional
      improvement observed; however, larger series of patients are necessary to confirm
      these preliminary findings.

PMID- 28579743
TI  - Novel positioning sensor with real-time feedback for improved postoperative
      positioning: pilot study in control subjects.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Repair of retinal detachment frequently requires use of intraocular
      gas. Patients are instructed to position themselves postoperatively to appose the
      intraocular bubble to the retinal break(s). We developed a novel wearable
      wireless positioning sensor, which provides real-time audiovisual feedback on the
      accuracy of positioning. METHODS: Eight healthy volunteers wore the wireless
      sensor for 3 hours while instructed to maintain their head tilted toward the 2
      o'clock meridian with no audiovisual feedback. Positioning accuracy was recorded.
      The subjects repeated the experiment for 3 hours with the audiovisual feedback
      enabled. RESULTS: With no audiovisual feedback, the percentage of time greater
      than 10 degrees  out of position varied from 8.9% to 93.9%. With audiovisual
      feedback enabled, these percentages ranged from 9.4% to 65%. Three subjects
      showed significant improvement in their time out of position (P<0.01, Fisher's
      exact test). Four subjects demonstrated a nonsignificant improvement, and one
      subject had a significant increase in time out of position with feedback
      (P<0.01). When pooled, all subjects demonstrated a statistically significant
      decrease in degrees out of position (P<0.001, Wilcoxon test) and a statistically
      significant improvement in total time out of position (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The
      novel positioning sensor showed improved positioning compliance in half of the
      healthy volunteers during our short pilot study. Other subjects derived little
      benefit from the feedback. The causes for this observation are unclear. However,
      given the significant improvement as a group, this new technology could be
      beneficial to patients who struggle with postoperative positioning.

PMID- 28579744
TI  - Randomized comparison of in vivo performance of two point-of-care tear film
      osmometers.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the in vivo precision of two commercially available point-of
      care osmometers among normal subjects with no dry eye disease. METHODS: Twenty
      healthy adults with healthy ocular surfaces were evaluated by licensed eye care
      practitioners. All subjects had low Ocular Surface Disease Index score (<5),
      normal tear breakup time (>10 seconds), and no evidence of corneal fluorescein
      staining. Five consecutive measurements of tear osmolarity were measured on each
      eye using each of the two osmometers: the TearLab Osmolarity System (TearLab) and
      the I-Med i-Pen (i-Pen), for a total of 200 measurements per device. Performance
      of the osmometers was determined by specificity, estimated by the percentage of
      osmolarity data at or below the clinical cutoff (308 mOsm/L) and precision, and
      represented by the standard deviation per subject. In addition, to assess
      analytical performance, on each day of patient testing, standardized osmolarity
      quality control solutions (338 mOsm/L) were tested on the TearLab per
      manufacturer instructions. i-Pen manufacturer instructions do not neither provide
      for, nor recommend quality control procedures. RESULTS: The mean age of the 20
      subjects was 27+/-8 years (range: 19-48 years, 16 females, four males). Over 2
      months of testing, the TearLab reported analytical performance on quality control
      solutions of 335.8+/-4.2 mOsm/L with a coefficient of variation of 1.3%. In the
      subject cohort, 90.9% of TearLab measurements were in the normal range <=308
      mOsm/L. The i-Pen reported 37.5% of all measurements in the normal range. The
      average intra-subject osmolarity of the TearLab was 295.4+/-8.6 mOsm/L, which was
      significantly lower and less variable than the i-Pen, which reported an average
      of 319.4+/-20.3 mOsm/L (P<0.001). When the measurements were grouped by subject,
      the TearLab accurately identified 100% of subjects as normal while the i-Pen
      accurately identified only 15% of subjects as normal. CONCLUSION: In this
      randomized comparative study of two point-of-care osmometers among normal,
      healthy non-dry eye subjects, the TearLab Osmolarity System demonstrated
      accuracy, precision, and agreement with clinical interpretation in line with the
      manufacturer claims. The i-Pen lacked sufficient performance to delineate
      subjects with and without dry eye disease.

PMID- 28579745
TI  - Lifitegrast ophthalmic solution in the treatment of signs and symptoms of dry eye
      disease: design, development, and place in therapy.
AB  - A new topical ophthalmic medication, lifitegrast 5%, was recently approved by the
      US Food and Drug Administration for use in dry eye patients. Lifitegrast is an
      integrin antagonist that decreases inflammation on the ocular surface, thereby
      improving dry eye disease (DED). Through a series of prospective, multicenter,
      randomized, masked, placebo-controlled studies in >2,000 patients total,
      lifitegrast was shown to be effective for improvement in both the signs and
      symptoms of DED. A subsequent study focused on the safety profile of lifitegrast
      and demonstrated that the majority of adverse events were mild and resolved over
      time. Lifitegrast is now available for use in clinical practice.

PMID- 28579746
TI  - Psychological morbidity in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy depends on
      phenotypic, social, economic, and genetic factors.

PMID- 28579747
TI  - Prevalence of and risk factors for age-related macular degeneration in Nepal: the
      Bhaktapur Retina Study.
AB  - AIM: This study aimed to explore the prevalence of and risk factors for age
      related macular degeneration (AMD) in an elderly population in Nepal. SUBJECTS
      AND METHODS: This is a population-based, cross-sectional study. A sample size of
      2,100 was calculated. A total of 1,860 (88.6%) subjects aged >60 years were
      enrolled for the study from 30 clusters in the district. Detailed history, visual
      acuity, and anterior segment and posterior segment examinations were performed.
      AMD was graded according to the International ARM Epidemiological Study Group.
      RESULTS: Among the total study population, 659 subjects had any AMD (35.43%; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 33.25-37.65), 484 had mild dry AMD (26.02%; 95% CI:
      24.04-28.08), 143 had intermediate dry AMD (7.69%; 95% CI: 6.52-8.99), 19 had
      geographic atrophy (1.02%; 95% CI: 0.61-1.59), and 13 had wet AMD (0.70%; 95% CI:
      0.37-1.19). The overall prevalence of early and late AMD was 33.71% and 1.72%,
      respectively. Among subjects with dry and wet AMD, 36.53% and 46.1% had visual
      impairment, while 2.78% and 23.08% were blind, respectively. In multivariate
      analysis, AMD was significantly higher in subjects with an increased number of
      cigarettes smoked per day (odds ratio [OR] 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04; P=0.007) and
      in subjects with pseudophakia (OR 1.45, 95% CI: 1.12-1.87; P=0.005). CONCLUSION:
      One-third of the population aged >=60 years have some form of AMD. There was a
      significant association with the number of cigarettes consumed and with previous
      cataract surgery.

PMID- 28579748
TI  - Functional characterization of rs2229094 (T>C) polymorphism in the tumor necrosis
      factor locus and lymphotoxin alpha expression in human retina: the Retina 4
      project.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to determine the expression and
      localization of lymphotoxin alpha (LTA) in human retinas and the functionality of
      one of its polymorphisms rs2229094 (C13R) (T>C), previously associated with
      proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total
      RNA from three healthy human retinas were extracted and subjected to reverse
      transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, using flanking primers
      of LTA cDNA. In addition, three human eyes with retinal detachment (RD) and three
      healthy control eyes were subjected to immunohistochemistry (IHC) with a specific
      antibody against LTA. The functionality of T and C alleles was assessed by using
      pCEFL-Flag expression vector and transient transfection assays in COS-1 cell
      line. In addition, expression analysis by RT-PCR, Western blot and subcellular
      localization of both alleles and by immunofluorescence assay was performed.
      RESULTS: RT-PCR analysis revealed no significant levels of messenger RNA (mRNA)
      LTA in healthy human retinas. Sequential IHC staining showed differences between
      healthy human and RD retinas. No differences in mRNA and protein expression
      levels and in subcellular localization between both alleles were found. Both
      alleles were located in the cytoplasm of COS-1 cells. CONCLUSION: Although
      results suggest lack of functionality, the differences found in IHC study and its
      strong association with PVR and its relationship with tumor necrosis factor
      locus, warrant further studies and could justify the use of this polymorphism as
      a valid biomarker to identify high-risk patients to develop PVR after RD.

PMID- 28579749
TI  - Comprehensive review of visual defects reported with topiramate.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze clinical patterns of visual
      field defects (VFDs) reported with topiramate treatment and assess possible
      mechanism of action (MOA) for antiepileptic drug (AED) associated VFDs. METHODS:
      A comprehensive topiramate database review included preclinical data, sponsor's
      clinical trials database, postmarketing spontaneous reports, and medical
      literature. All treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) suggestive of retinal
      dysfunction/damage were summarized. Relative risk (RR) was computed from
      topiramate double-blind, placebo-controlled trials (DBPCTs) data. RESULTS:
      Preclinical studies and medical literature review suggested that despite sharing
      gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic MOA with other AEDs, topiramate treatment
      was not associated with VFDs. TEAEs suggestive of retinal dysfunction/damage were
      observed in 0.3%-0.7% of adults and pediatric patients with topiramate (N=4,679)
      versus <=0.1% with placebo (N=1,834) in DBPCTs for approved indications (epilepsy
      and migraine prophylaxis); open-label trials (OLTs) and DBPCTs for
      investigational indications had similar incidence. Overall, 88% TEAEs were mild
      or moderate in severity. Serious TEAEs were very rare (DBPCTs: 0%; OLTs: <=0.1%),
      and most were not treatment limiting, and resolved. The most common visual TEAEs
      (approved indications) were VFD, scotoma, and optic atrophy. The incidence of
      TEAEs in DBPCTs (approved and investigational indications) was higher in
      topiramate-treated (N=9,169) versus placebo-treated patients (N=5,023; 0.36% vs
      0.24%), but the RR versus placebo-treated patients was not significant (RR: 1.51
      [95% confidence interval: 0.78, 2.91]). CONCLUSION: VFDs do not appear to be a
      class effect for AEDs with GABA-ergic MOA. The RR for VFDs is not significantly
      different between topiramate and placebo treatment.

PMID- 28579750
TI  - Refractive predictability in eyes with intraocular gas tamponade - results of a
      prospective controlled clinical trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the postoperative refractive error in eyes with intraocular
      gas tamponade in combined phacovitrectomy using a Z-haptic intraocular lens
      (IOL). METHODS: This prospective non-randomized case-control study compared
      patients with combined phacovitrectomy with or without intraocular gas tamponade
      to cataract surgery-only. The main outcome measure was the IOL power prediction
      error (PE). Secondary outcome measures were spherical equivalent, anterior
      chamber depth (ACD), and axial length. RESULTS: Thirty-four patients with
      epiretinal membranes and 18 patients with cataract only were enrolled. There were
      no statistically significant (P>0.05) differences of IOL power PE or
      postoperative ACDs (P=0.952-1.00). Nevertheless, IOL power PE indicated a myopic
      shift in cases with phacovitrectomy independent of gas tamponade (P=1.00). No
      statistically significant between-group differences between secondary outcome
      measures were observed. CONCLUSION: A myopic shift after phacovitrectomy seems to
      be independent of the use of intraocular gas tamponade. When using a Z-haptic
      IOL, aiming for slight residual hyperopia (+0.50 D) is suggested in patients
      having phacovitrectomy.

PMID- 28579751
TI  - Treatment of moderate-to-high hyperopia with the WaveLight Allegretto 400 and
      EX500 excimer laser systems.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of treating patients with +3.00 diopters (D) to
      +6.00 D of hyperopia via laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) with the
      WaveLight Allegretto 400 and EX500 excimer laser systems. SETTING: Private
      clinical ophthalmology practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective
      study of patients undergoing LASIK treatments of +3.00 to +6.00 D on two
      different WaveLight laser systems: 163 eyes on the 400 (Hertz) Hz system and 54
      eyes on the 500 Hz system. The duration of follow-up was 6 months postoperation.
      Data were evaluated for uncorrected distance visual acuity, corrected distance
      visual acuity (CDVA), spherical equivalents (SEQs), and changes in these
      parameters (eg, loss of vision, regression over time). RESULTS: Treatment with
      both lasers was safe and effective, with loss of one line of CDVA in four of 162
      eyes using the 400 Hz laser system, and none of the 54 eyes with the 500 Hz laser
      system. Overall, regression >=0.75 D from goal at 6 months was observed in 11.7%
      (19/163) of eyes in the 400 Hz laser group and 9.26% (5/54) of eyes in the 500 Hz
      laser group (regression >=0.50 D =77.9% [127/163] and 77.8% [42/54],
      respectively). The mean SEQ regressions for all eyes with moderate hyperopia were
      0.10 and 0.18 D for those with high hyperopia. CONCLUSIONS: Both the 400 and 500
      Hz excimer laser systems were safe and effective for the LASIK treatment of
      moderate-to-high hyperopia. The overall rate of regression was low and the amount
      of regression was relatively small with both systems.

PMID- 28579752
TI  - Comparison of visual acuity, refractive outcomes, and satisfaction between LASIK
      performed with a microkeratome and a femto laser.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare refractive outcomes, visual acuities, and satisfaction of
      patients between those treated with laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)
      using a Hansatome microkeratome (HM) and femto-assisted laser (FAL). METHODS:
      This was a retrospective analysis of 1,366 eyes in 687 patients who underwent
      LASIK with an HM (n=1,137) and an FAL (n=229) at the two centers of Hashmanis
      Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Refractive outcomes, including sphere, cylinder, and
      spherical equivalent in diopters (D), and visual acuities were assessed both
      preoperatively and at 1 month follow-up. Patient satisfaction was gauged by
      contacting the patient at the time of chart review. RESULTS: The postoperative
      median sphere, cylinder, and spherical equivalent values for those treated with
      FAL were 0.3+/-0.7 (-5.5-1.8), -0.5+/-0.6 (-5.0-1.0), and 0.0+/-0.7 (-6.0-1.6),
      respectively. For the HM arm, they were 0.0+/-1.28 (-10.8-6.8), -0.5+/-0.5 (-4.5
      1.5), and -0.3+/-1.3 (-11.6-6.8), respectively. All preoperative values were
      statistically insignificant between the groups, while postoperative values were
      significant with P-values <0.001. Predictability and efficacy index was higher
      for the FAL (92.1%, 1.00) than the HM group (82.2%, 0.84). Similarly, patient
      satisfaction was slightly higher for those treated with FAL (93.3%) than HM
      (91.4%). CONCLUSION: Our large retrospective analysis of eyes that have undergone
      LASIK using HM and FAL shows superior refractive outcomes in the latter, with
      special regard to procedural efficacy and predictability.

PMID- 28579753
TI  - Automated retinal imaging and trend analysis - a tool for health monitoring.
AB  - Most current diagnostic devices are expensive, require trained specialists to
      operate and gather static images with sparse data points. This leads to
      preventable diseases going undetected until late stage, resulting in greatly
      narrowed treatment options. This is especially true for retinal imaging. Future
      solutions are low cost, portable, self-administered by the patient, and capable
      of providing multiple data points, population analysis, and trending. This
      enables preventative interventions through mass accessibility, constant
      monitoring, and predictive modeling.

PMID- 28579754
TI  - Paradoxical SAPHO syndrome observed during anti-TNFalpha therapy for Crohn's
      disease.
AB  - Currently, anti-TNFalpha antibodies are used to treat Crohn's disease. We report
      on a 45-year-old Japanese female with Crohn's disease developing SAPHO
      (synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis) syndrome following
      exposure to the anti-TNFalpha antibody adalimumab. Initially, adalimumab induced
      remission, but the patient showed SAPHO syndrome 11 weeks following the start of
      adalimumab therapy for the first time. Cutaneous and articular involvement were
      exacerbating the condition, so adalimumab was discontinued and the patient was
      put on low-dose methotrexate to control her symptoms. To our knowledge, this is
      the first report of SAPHO syndrome occurring during anti-TNF therapy, which is
      thought to be a paradoxical response to adalimumab.

PMID- 28579755
TI  - Past and current perspective on new therapeutic targets for Type-II diabetes.
AB  - Loss of pancreatic beta-cell function is a hallmark of Type-II diabetes mellitus
      (DM). It is a chronic metabolic disorder that results from defects in both
      insulin secretion and insulin action. Recently, United Kingdom Prospective
      Diabetes Study reported that Type-II DM is a progressive disorder. Although, DM
      can be treated initially by monotherapy with oral agent; eventually, it may
      require multiple drugs. Additionally, insulin therapy is needed in many patients
      to achieve glycemic control. Pharmacological approaches are unsatisfactory in
      improving the consequences of insulin resistance. Single therapeutic approach in
      the treatment of Type-II DM is unsuccessful and usually a combination therapy is
      adopted. Increased understanding of biochemical, cellular and pathological
      alterations in Type-II DM has provided new insight in the management of Type-II
      DM. Knowledge of underlying mechanisms of Type-II DM development is essential for
      the exploration of novel therapeutic targets. Present review provides an insight
      into therapeutic targets of Type-II DM and their role in the development of
      insulin resistance. An overview of important signaling pathways and mechanisms in
      Type-II DM is provided for the better understanding of disease pathology. This
      review includes case studies of drugs that are withdrawn from the market. The
      experience gathered from previous studies and knowledge of Type-II DM pathways
      can guide the anti-diabetic drug development toward the discovery of clinically
      viable drugs that are useful in Type-II DM.

PMID- 28579756
TI  - Effect of a food supplement containing berberine, monacolin K, hydroxytyrosol and
      coenzyme Q10 on lipid levels: a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the ability of the new food supplement, Body Lipid (BL),
      containing red yeast rice, berberine, coenzyme Q10 and hydroxytyrosol, to lower
      the LDL-C in patients with mild-to-moderate hypercholesterolemia and to assess
      the overall safety profile of the product. METHODS: In this multicenter,
      randomized, double-blind, placebo and active comparator (the marketed Armolipid
      Plus(r) [AM]) controlled study, 158 hypercholesterolemic patients were randomized
      following a 4-week dietary run-in period. After 4 weeks of treatment with a daily
      oral dose of the new food supplement BL, AM or placebo, plus diet, the main
      outcome was the decrease of LDL-C, total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride
      levels. FINDINGS: The absolute changes of LDL-C and TC levels from baseline, at
      week 4 were: -39.1 mg/dL +/-17.76 and -45.9 mg/dL +/-21.54, respectively in the
      BL group; 5.7 mg/dL +/-14.98 and 2.4 mg/dL +/-18.43, respectively in the placebo
      group. Results were statistically significant. In terms of mean percentage, BL
      was shown to be more effective in lowering LDL-C levels as compared to placebo
      and the active comparator (AM), with a reduction of -26.3%, +4.2%, -18.3%,
      respectively. Five adverse events (AEs) were reported by five patients after the
      initiation of the study treatment: two in the BL group (influence and insomnia),
      two in the AM group (ear pain and rash), and one in the placebo group (back
      pain). All AEs were mild in intensity, except for back pain (severe). The case of
      insomnia in the BL group and the case of rash in the AM group were judged as
      treatment related. The safety review of the laboratory (blood and urine)
      analyses, vital signs and physical findings did not show any clinical effect of
      the study products on any of the parameters. IMPLICATIONS: BL showed a good
      efficacy and safety profile and, for this reason, it can be considered an
      alternative to pharmacological treatment, for patients with mild-to-moderate
      hypercholesterolemia.

PMID- 28579757
TI  - Profile of sarilumab and its potential in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - In recent years the use of biotechnological agents has drastically revolutionized
      the therapeutic approach and the progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In
      particular, interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been demonstrated as a pivotal cytokine in
      the pathogenesis of the disease by contributing to both the innate and the
      adaptive immune system perturbation, and to the production of acute-phase
      proteins involved in the systemic expression of the disorder. The first marketed
      IL-6 blocker was tocilizumab, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor (anti-IL-6R)
      monoclonal antibody. The successful use of tocilizumab in RA has encouraged the
      development of other biologic agents specifically targeting the IL-6 pathway,
      either directed against IL-6 cytokine (sirukumab, olokizumab, and clazakizumab)
      or IL-6 receptor (sarilumab). One Phase II and six Phase III randomized
      controlled trials demonstrated a broad efficacy of sarilumab across all RA
      patient subtypes, ranging from methotrexate (MTX) to tumor necrosis factor
      inhibitor insufficient responders. In particular, sarilumab as monotherapy
      demonstrated a clear head-to-head superiority over adalimumab in MTX-intolerant
      subjects. In addition, compared with tocilizumab, sarilumab showed a similar
      safety profile with significantly higher affinity and longer half-life,
      responsible for a reduction of the frequency of administration (every other week
      instead weekly). All these aspects may be important in defining the strategy for
      positioning sarilumab in the treatment algorithm of RA. Indeed, observational
      data coming from post-marketing real-life studies may provide crucial additional
      information for better understanding the role of sarilumab in the management of
      the disease. This review summarizes both the biological role of IL-6 in RA and
      the clinical data available on sarilumab as an alternative therapeutic option in
      RA patients.

PMID- 28579759
TI  - A randomized trial of individual versus group-format exercise and self-management
      in individuals with Parkinson's disease and comorbid depression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression is common in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), and
      exercise is known to improve depression and PD. However, lack of motivation and
      low self-efficacy can make exercise difficult for people with PD and comorbid
      depression (PD-Dep). A combined group exercise and chronic disease self
      management (CDSM) program may improve the likeli-hood that individuals will
      engage in exercise and will show a reduction in depression symptoms. The purpose
      of this study was to compare changes in depression in PD-Dep between individual
      versus group exercise plus CDSM and to examine participant adherence and
      perception of the interventions. METHODS: Participants (N=30) were randomized to
      either Enhanced EXerCisE thErapy for PD (EXCEED; group CDSM and exercise) or self
      guided CDSM plus exercise. Outcomes were change in depression assessed with the
      Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), cognition, apathy, anxiety,
      sleep, quality of life, motor function, self-efficacy, and patient satisfaction.
      RESULTS: Both groups showed significant improvement in MADRS (P<0.001) with no
      significant group difference. Individuals in EXCEED group enjoyed the group
      dynamics but noted difficulty with the fixed-time sessions. CONCLUSION: Both
      group CDSM plus exercise and self-guided CDSM plus exercise can improve
      depression in PD-Dep. These findings suggest that development of a remotely
      delivered group-based CDSM format plus manualized exercise program could be
      useful for this population.

PMID- 28579760
TI  - Understanding deprescribing of preventive cardiovascular medication: a Q
      methodology study in patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with low cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk potentially use
      preventive cardiovascular medication unnecessarily. Our aim was to identify
      various viewpoints and beliefs concerning the preventive CVD management of
      patients with low CVD risk using preventive cardiovascular medication.
      Furthermore, we investigated whether certain viewpoints were related to a
      preference for deprescription or the continuation of preventive cardiovascular
      medication. METHODS: In 2015, we purposively sampled patients from the
      intervention arm of the Evaluating Cessation of STatins and Antihypertensive
      Treatment In primary Care (ECSTATIC) trial in the Netherlands for this study.
      Participants made Q-sorts by ranking 43 statements concerning preventive CVD
      management from "totally disagree" to "totally agree". These Q-sorts were
      analyzed using PQMethod 2.35 software. A varimax procedure presented the
      distinguishing viewpoints that were favored by our participants. We used group
      discussion quotations to underline our findings. For validation purposes, we
      asked participants how well each viewpoint fitted them. RESULTS: Of 291 invited
      patients, 33 participated. Thirty-one Q-sorts were analyzed. The following three
      viewpoints were found: 1) a controlling viewpoint, in which patients held the
      belief that monitoring blood pressure and cholesterol levels is important (n=13,
      of which seven had their medication deprescribed and six continued their
      medication); 2) an autonomous viewpoint, in which patients showed a dislike of
      medication (n=8, of which seven had their medication deprescribed and one had it
      continued); and 3) an afraid viewpoint, in which patients were fearful of
      developing CVD (n=8, of which two had their medication deprescribed and six had
      it continued). Seventy-four percent of the participants believed that the
      viewpoint to which they were assigned was a good fit. CONCLUSION: Three well
      discriminating viewpoints about preventive CVD management were determined.
      Knowing and recognizing these viewpoints is effective for general practitioners
      when discussing the deprescribing of preventive cardiovascular medications with
      patients and may be used to promote implementation of deprescription.

PMID- 28579758
TI  - Development of antiproliferative long-circulating liposomes co-encapsulating
      doxorubicin and curcumin, through the use of a quality-by-design approach.
AB  - The aim of this work was to use the quality-by-design (QbD) approach in the
      development of long-circulating liposomes co-loaded with curcumin (CUR) and
      doxorubicin (DOX) and to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of these liposomes in
      vitro using C26 murine colon carcinoma cell line. Based on a risk assessment, six
      parameters, namely the phospholipid, CUR and DOX concentrations, the
      phospholipid:cholesterol molar ratio, the temperature during the evaporation and
      hydration steps and the pH of the phosphate buffer, were identified as potential
      risk factors for the quality of the final product. The influence of these
      variables on the critical quality attributes of the co-loaded liposomal CUR and
      DOX was investigated: particle size, zeta potential, drug loading and entrapment
      efficiency. For this, a 26-2 factorial design was employed to establish a proper
      regression model and to generate the contour plots for the responses. The
      obtained data served to establish the design space for which different
      combinations of variables yielded liposomes with characteristics within
      predefined specifications. The validation of the model was carried out by
      preparing two liposomal formulations corresponding to the robust set point from
      within the design space and one outside the design space and calculating the
      percentage bias between the predicted and actual experimental results. The in
      vitro antiproliferative test showed that at higher CUR concentrations, the
      liposomes co-encapsulating CUR and DOX had a greater cytotoxic effect than DOX
      loaded liposomes. Overall, this study showed that QbD is a useful instrument for
      controlling and optimizing the manufacturing process of liposomes co-loaded with
      CUR and DOX and that this nanoparticulate system possesses a great potential for
      use in colon cancer therapy.

PMID- 28579761
TI  - Barriers and facilitators associated with colonoscopy completion in individuals
      with multiple chronic conditions: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A recommendation to undergo a colonoscopy, an invasive procedure that
      requires commitment and motivation, planning (scheduling and finding a driver)
      and preparation (diet restriction and laxative consumption), may be uniquely
      challenging for individuals with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). This
      qualitative study aimed to describe the barriers and facilitators to colonoscopy
      experienced by such patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Semistructured focus groups
      were conducted with male Veterans who were scheduled for outpatient colonoscopy
      and either failed to complete the procedure or completed the examination. Focus
      group recordings were transcribed and analyzed by an inductive grounded approach
      using constant comparative analysis. RESULTS: Forty-four individuals aged 51-83
      years participated in this study (23 adherent and 21 nonadherent). Participants
      had an average of 7.4 chronic conditions (range 2-14). The five most common
      chronic conditions were hypertension (75%), hyperlipidemia (75%),
      osteoarthritis/degenerative joint disease (59%), atherosclerotic heart disease
      (48%), and diabetes mellitus (36%). We identified four unique themes that
      influenced motivation to undergo a colonoscopy: competing medical priorities, low
      perceived benefit, a prior negative colonoscopy experience, and pre-existing
      medical conditions. Additionally, we identified four themes that influenced
      individuals' ability to complete the examination: difficulty with bowel
      cleansing, difficulty with travel, worry about exacerbation of pre-existing
      conditions, and heightened concerns about potential complications. CONCLUSION:
      MCCs are common in individuals referred for colonoscopy and generate unique
      barriers to colonoscopy completion related to medication, dietary changes,
      transportation, preparation processes, symptoms exacerbation, and complication
      concerns. Future research should examine whether tailored interventions that
      include education and support in addressing the unique barriers can enhance
      colonoscopy completion.

PMID- 28579763
TI  - Trends of Dengue Disease Epidemiology.
AB  - Dengue disease is an emerging mosquito-borne viral infection transmitted between
      humans by Aedes spp. that are distributed mainly in the tropical and subtropical
      region along with chikungunya and zika diseases. The distribution of dengue
      disease is influenced by local variation, such as geography, rainfall,
      temperature, and rapid urbanization or migration. The epidemy of mosquito-borne
      infection significantly led to increased number of cases and hyperendemicity
      which induce a more severe form of dengue accompanied by cocirculation of
      chikungunya and zika. The rapid global spreading of dengue disease created public
      health burdens that are presently unfulfilled by the absence of specific therapy,
      simple diagnosis tool for the early phase, and effective and efficient vector
      control system. This review highlights the current situation of dengue
      distribution, epidemiology, and new strategies for early dengue diagnosis and
      risk prediction of severity that can be used to improve oversight and alleviate
      the heavy burden of the disease.

PMID- 28579764
TI  - Is Zika Virus an Emerging TORCH Agent? An Invited Commentary.
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus from the family Flaviviridae,
      which had caused some epidemics since its discovery in 1947 without any
      significant impacts on public health. In 2015, however, a 20-fold increase in
      congenital microcephaly cases in northeastern Brazil was attributed to prenatally
      acquired ZIKV infection. Traditionally, TORCH agents have 4 common
      characteristics including causing a mild illness in infected mother, vertical
      transmission to fetus, developing several anomalies in the affected fetus, and in
      some instances, maternal therapy may not ameliorate fetal prognosis. Prenatal
      ZIKV infection has shown the aforementioned characteristics during the recent
      epidemics in South America and the Caribbean region; therefore, it should be
      considered as an emerging TORCH agent that may seriously threaten public health.
      Fetal ultrasound can be used as a safe, inexpensive, and easy-to-access imaging
      modality for detecting suspicious cases of congenital Zika syndrome in utero and
      suggesting confirmatory diagnostic examinations to these patients.

PMID- 28579762
TI  - Prepartal Energy Intake Alters Blood Polymorphonuclear Leukocyte Transcriptome
      During the Peripartal Period in Holstein Cows.
AB  - In the dairy industry, cow health and farmer profits depend on the balance
      between diet (ie, nutrient composition, daily intake) and metabolism. This is
      especially true during the transition period, where dramatic physiological
      changes foster vulnerability to immunosuppression, negative energy balance, and
      clinical and subclinical disorders. Using an Agilent microarray platform, this
      study examined changes in the transcriptome of bovine polymorphonuclear
      leukocytes (PMNLs) due to prepartal dietary intake. Holstein cows were fed a high
      straw, control-energy diet (CON; NEL = 1.34 Mcal/kg) or overfed a moderate-energy
      diet (OVE; NEL = 1.62 Mcal/kg) during the dry period. Blood for PMNL isolation
      and metabolite analysis was collected at -14 and +7 days relative to parturition.
      At an analysis of variance false discovery rate <0.05, energy intake (OVE vs CON)
      influenced 1806 genes. Dynamic Impact Approach bioinformatics analysis classified
      treatment effects on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, including
      activated oxidative phosphorylation and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids
      and inhibited RNA polymerase, proteasome, and toll-like receptor signaling
      pathway. This analysis indicates that processes critical for energy metabolism
      and cellular and immune function were affected with mixed results. However,
      overall interpretation of the transcriptome data agreed in part with literature
      documenting a potentially detrimental, chronic activation of PMNL in response to
      overfeeding. The widespread, transcriptome-level changes captured here confirm
      the importance of dietary energy adjustments around calving on the immune system.

PMID- 28579767
TI  - Cognitive decline in normal aging and its prevention: a review on non
      pharmacological lifestyle strategies.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the selected non
      pharmacological lifestyle activities on the delay of cognitive decline in normal
      aging. This was done by conducting a literature review in the four acknowledged
      databases Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Springer, and consequently by
      evaluating the findings of the relevant studies. The findings show that physical
      activities, such as walking and aerobic exercises, music therapy, adherence to
      Mediterranean diet, or solving crosswords, seem to be very promising lifestyle
      intervention tools. The results indicate that non-pharmacological lifestyle
      intervention activities should be intense and possibly done simultaneously in
      order to be effective in the prevention of cognitive decline. In addition, more
      longitudinal randomized controlled trials are needed in order to discover the
      most effective types and the duration of these intervention activities in the
      prevention of cognitive decline, typical of aging population groups.

PMID- 28579765
TI  - Effects of a giant exercising board game intervention on ambulatory physical
      activity among nursing home residents: a preliminary study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of a giant (4*3 m) exercising board game
      intervention on ambulatory physical activity (PA) and a broader array of physical
      and psychological outcomes among nursing home residents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      quasi-experimental longitudinal study was carried out in two comparable nursing
      homes. Ten participants (aged 82.5+/-6.3 and comprising 6 women) meeting the
      inclusion criteria took part in the 1-month intervention in one nursing home,
      whereas 11 participants (aged 89.9+/-3.1 with 8 women) were assigned to the
      control group in the other nursing home. The giant exercising board game required
      participants to per-form strength, flexibility, balance and endurance activities.
      The assistance provided by an exercising specialist decreased gradually during
      the intervention in an autonomy-oriented approach based on the self-determination
      theory. The following were assessed at baseline, after the intervention and after
      a follow-up period of 3 months: PA (steps/day and energy expenditure/day with
      ActiGraph), cognitive status (mini mental state examination), quality of life
      (EuroQol 5-dimensions), motivation for PA (Behavioral Regulation in Exercise
      Questionnaire-2), gait and balance (Tinetti and Short Physical Performance
      Battery), functional mobility (timed up and go), and the muscular isometric
      strength of the lower limb muscles. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In the intervention
      group, PA increased from 2,921 steps/day at baseline to 3,358 steps/day after the
      intervention (+14.9%, P=0.04) and 4,083 steps/day (+39.8%, P=0.03) after 3
      months. Energy expenditure/day also increased after the intervention (+110
      kcal/day, +6.3%, P=0.01) and after 3 months (+219 kcal/day, +12.3%, P=0.02).
      Quality of life (P<0.05), balance and gait (P<0.05), and strength of the ankle
      (P<0.05) were also improved after 3 months. Such improvements were not observed
      in the control group. The preliminary results are promising but further
      investigation is required to confirm and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of
      PA interventions in nursing homes.

PMID- 28579766
TI  - Effects of multi-domain interventions in (pre)frail elderly on frailty,
      functional, and cognitive status: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty is an aging syndrome caused by exceeding a threshold of
      decline across multiple organ systems leading to a decreased resistance to
      stressors. Treatment for frailty focuses on multi-domain interventions to target
      multiple affected functions in order to decrease the adverse outcomes of frailty.
      No systematic reviews on the effectiveness of multi-domain interventions exist in
      a well-defined frail population. OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to
      determine the effect of multi-domain compared to mono-domain interventions on
      frailty status and score, cognition, muscle mass, strength and power, functional
      and social outcomes in (pre)frail elderly (>=65 years). It included interventions
      targeting two or more domains (physical exercise, nutritional, pharmacological,
      psychological, or social interventions) in participants defined as (pre)frail by
      an operationalized frailty definition. METHODS: The databases PubMed, EMBASE,
      CINAHL, PEDro, CENTRAL, and the Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials
      were searched from inception until September 14, 2016. Additional articles were
      searched by citation search, author search, and reference lists of relevant
      articles. The protocol for this review was registered on PROSPERO
      (CRD42016032905). RESULTS: Twelve studies were included, reporting a large
      diversity of interventions in terms of content, duration, and follow-up period.
      Overall, multi-domain interventions tended to be more effective than mono-domain
      interventions on frailty status or score, muscle mass and strength, and physical
      functioning. Results were inconclusive for cognitive, functional, and social
      outcomes. Physical exercise seems to play an essential role in the multi-domain
      intervention, whereby additional interventions can lead to further improvement
      (eg, nutritional intervention). CONCLUSION: Evidence of beneficial effects of
      multi-domain compared to mono-domain interventions is limited but increasing.
      Additional studies are needed, focusing on a well-defined frail population and
      with specific attention to the design and the individual contribution of mono
      domain interventions. This will contribute to the development of more effective
      interventions for frail elderly.

PMID- 28579768
TI  - Clinical characteristics of COPD patients with tidal expiratory flow limitation.
AB  - We have used impulse oscillometry to identify COPD patients with tidal expiratory
      flow limitation (EFL), which is a measurement related to small airway disease. We
      report that 37.4% of COPD patients had EFL; these patients had multiple clinical
      characteristics of more severe disease including lower forced expiratory volume
      in 1 second values, greater hyperinflation, reduced exercise performance, and
      increased small airway impairment. We highlight that EFL can be used to identify
      a subgroup of COPD patients with distinct characteristics associated with small
      airway disease.

PMID- 28579769
TI  - Ampicillin resistance in Haemophilus influenzae from COPD patients in the UK.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Haemophilus influenzae is commonly isolated from the airways of COPD
      patients. Antibiotic treatment may cause the emergence of resistant H. influenzae
      strains, particularly ampicillin-resistant strains, including beta-lactamase
      negative ampicillin resistance (BLNAR) strains. Genetic identification using ftsI
      sequencing is the optimum method for identifying mutations within BLNAR strains.
      The prevalence of BLNAR in COPD patients during the stable state has not been
      reported. We investigated the antibiotic resistance patterns of H. influenzae
      present in the sputum of stable COPD patients, focusing on ampicillin resistance;
      the prevalence of enzyme and non-enzyme-mediated ampicillin resistance was
      determined. A subset of patients was followed up longitudinally to study H.
      influenzae strain switching and antibiotic sensitivity changes. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Sputum sampling was performed in 61 COPD patients, with 42 samples
      obtained at baseline; H. influenzae was detected by polymerase chain reaction in
      28 samples. In all, 45 patients completed the follow-up for 2 years; 24 H.
      influenzae isolates were obtained. RESULTS: Disk diffusion showed the highest
      antibiotic resistance in the penicillin antibiotic group (eg, 67% for ampicillin)
      and macrolides (eg, 46% for erythromycin), whereas all isolates were susceptible
      to quinolones. Of the 16 isolates resistant to ampicillin, 9 (56%) were beta
      lactamase positive. The beta-lactamase-negative isolates were further
      investigated; none of these fulfilled the phenotypic BLNAR classification
      criteria of ampicillin minimum inhibitory concentration >1 ug/mL, and only one
      demonstrated an ftsI mutation. Frequent H. influenzae strain switching was
      confirmed using multilocus sequence typing and was associated with changes in the
      antibiotic sensitivity pattern. CONCLUSION: We observed an overidentification of
      ampicillin resistance by disk diffusion. The majority of ampicillin resistance
      was due to enzyme production. H. influenzae strain changes during the stable
      state may be associated with a change in antibiotic sensitivity; this has
      implications for empirical antibiotic prescribing.

PMID- 28579770
TI  - Proteasome activity related with the daily physical activity of COPD patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: COPD is a debilitating disease that affects patients' daily lives.
      One's daily physical activity (DPA) decreases due to multifactorial causes, and
      this decrease is correlated with a poor prognosis in COPD patients. Muscle
      wasting may at least be partly due to increased activity of the ubiquitin
      proteasome pathway and apoptosis. METHODS: This study investigated the
      relationships among DPA, circulating proteasome activity, and protein carbonyl in
      COPD patients and healthy subjects (HSs). This study included 57 participants (42
      patients and 15 healthy subjects). Ambulatory DPA was measured using actigraphy,
      and oxygen saturation was measured with a pulse oximeter. RESULTS: COPD patients
      had lower DPA, lower 6 min walking distance (6MWD), lower delta saturation pulse
      oxygenation (SpO2) during the 6MWT, and lower delta SpO2 during DPA than HSs.
      COPD patients had higher proteasome activity and protein carbonyl than HSs.
      Circulating proteasome activity was significantly negatively correlated with DPA
      (r=-0.568, P<0.05) in COPD patients, whereas delta SpO2 during the 6MWT was
      significantly positively correlated with proteasome activity (r=0.685, P<0.05) in
      HSs. Protein carbonyl was significantly negatively correlated with the body mass
      index (r=-0.318, P<0.05), mid-arm circumference (r=0.350, P<0.05), calf
      circumference (r=0.322, P<0.05), forced expiratory volume in the first second (r=
      0.441, P<0.01), and 6MWD (r=-0.313, P<0.05) in COPD patients. Our results showed
      no significant difference in inflammatory markers (interleukin-6 and tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha) or ubiquitin between the two groups. CONCLUSION: COPD
      patients had lower DPA levels and higher circulating proteasome activity than
      HSs, and a negative correlation of DPA with circulating proteasome activity.

PMID- 28579771
TI  - A cross-sectional survey of current treatment and symptom burden of patients with
      COPD consulting for routine care according to GOLD 2014 classifications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As part of the Respiratory Disease Specific Program (DSP) conducted
      to provide observations of clinical practice from a physician and matched patient
      viewpoint, this study aimed to establish how patients with COPD are treated
      according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD)
      classification system and to quantify the symptom burden. METHODS: Data were
      obtained from the Respiratory DSP, a cross-sectional survey of patients with a
      diagnosis of COPD consulting for routine care in France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
      the UK, and the USA during the third quarter of 2013. Patients' exacerbation risk
      and symptom data were used for classification into GOLD groups A-D based on GOLD
      2014 criteria. Prescribing practices were stratified by physician type and time
      since patient diagnosis. RESULTS: A total of 903 physicians participated in the
      Respiratory DSP, with data from 1,641 patients included in this analysis. Most
      patients were classified into GOLD groups B (n=742; 45.2%) and D (n=704; 42.9%).
      Patients in groups A and D were most likely to be treated in line with GOLD
      recommendations (61.5% and 77.5%, respectively), compared with 40.1% for group B.
      Patients with a diagnosis within the past 12 months were more likely to be
      treated according to recommendations. Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in
      combination with one or more long-acting bronchodilator were prescribed across
      all GOLD groups. Patterns of treatment were, in general, similar for patients
      treated by a primary care physician or a pulmonologist. COPD assessment test
      scores >=10 indicating a high symptom burden were reported for >80% of patients.
      CONCLUSION: This analysis confirmed a high symptom burden among patients with
      COPD and indicates some misalignment of prescribing with GOLD recommendations,
      particularly regarding the role of ICS/long-acting beta2-agonist (LABA) and
      ICS/LABA + long-acting muscarinic antagonist combinations across the different
      GOLD groups.

PMID- 28579772
TI  - Delayed but successful response to noninvasive ventilation in COPD patients with
      acute hypercapnic respiratory failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated a new noninvasive ventilation (NIV) protocol that allows
      the pursuit of NIV in the case of persistent severe respiratory acidosis despite
      a first NIV challenge in COPD patients with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure
      (AHRF). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective observational multicentric pilot
      study was conducted in three tertiary hospitals over a 12-month study period. A
      total of 155 consecutive COPD patients who were admitted for AHRF and treated by
      NIV were enrolled. Delayed response to NIV was defined as a significant clinical
      improvement in the first 48 h following NIV initiation despite a persistent
      severe respiratory acidosis (pH <7.30) after the first 2 h of NIV trial. RESULTS:
      NIV failed in only 10 patients (6.5%). Delayed responders to NIV (n=83, 53%)
      exhibited similar nutritional status, comorbidities, functional status, frailty
      score, dyspnea score, and severity score at admission, compared with early
      responders (n=62, 40%). Only age (66 vs 70 years in early responders; P=0.03) and
      encephalopathy score (3 [2-4] vs 3 [2-4] in early responders; P=0.015) were
      different among the responders. Inhospital mortality did not differ between
      responders to NIV (n=10, 12% for delayed responders vs n=10, 16% for early
      responders, P=0.49). A second episode of AHRF occurred in 20 responders (14%),
      equally distributed among early and delayed responders to NIV (n=9, 14.5% in
      early responders vs n=11, 13% in delayed responders; P=0.83), with a poor
      survival rate (n=1, 5%). CONCLUSION: Most of the COPD patients with AHRF have a
      successful outcome when NIV is pursued despite a persistent severe respiratory
      acidosis after the first NIV trial. The outcome of delayed responders is similar
      to the one of the early responders. On the contrary, the second episode of AHRF
      during the hospital stay carries a poor prognosis.

PMID- 28579773
TI  - Identification of thyroxine-binding globulin as a candidate plasma marker of
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - Biomarkers for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are
      limited. The aim of this study was to explore new plasma biomarkers in patients
      with COPD. Thyroxine-binding globulin (THBG) was initially identified by
      proteomics in a discovery panel and subsequently verified by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay in another verification panel with a 1-year follow-up. THBG
      levels were elevated in patients with COPD (9.2+/-2.3 MUg/mL) compared to those
      of the controls (6.6+/-2.0 MUg/mL). Receiver operating characteristic curves
      suggested that THBG was able to slightly differentiate between patients with COPD
      and controls (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.814) and performed better if combined
      with fibrinogen (AUC: 0.858). THBG was more capable of distinguishing Global
      Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease stages I-III and IV (AUC: 0.851) compared
      with fibrinogen (AUC 0.582). THBG levels were negatively associated with
      predicted percentage forced expiratory volume in 1 s and positively related to
      predicted percentage residual volume, RV/percentage total lung capacity, and
      percentage low-attenuation area. COPD patients with higher baseline THBG levels
      had a greater risk of acute exacerbation (AE) than those with lower THBG levels
      (P=0.014, by Kaplan-Meier curve; hazard ratio: 4.229, by Cox proportional hazards
      model). In summary, THBG is a potential plasma biomarker of COPD and can assist
      in the management of stable stage and AEs in COPD patients.

PMID- 28579774
TI  - ATP synthesis in the energy metabolism pathway: a new perspective for
      manipulating CdSe quantum dots biosynthesized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - Due to a growing trend in their biomedical application, biosynthesized
      nanomaterials are of great interest to researchers nowadays with their
      biocompatible, low-energy consumption, economic, and tunable characteristics. It
      is important to understand the mechanism of biosynthesis in order to achieve more
      efficient applications. Since there are only rare studies on the influences of
      cellular energy levels on biosynthesis, the influence of energy is often
      overlooked. Through determination of the intracellular ATP concentrations during
      the biosynthesis process, significant changes were observed. In addition, ATP
      synthesis deficiency caused great decreases in quantum dots (QDs) biosynthesis in
      the Deltaatp1, Deltaatp2, Deltaatp14, and Deltaatp17 strains. With inductively
      coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and atomic absorption spectroscopy
      analyses, it was found that ATP affected the accumulation of the seleno-precursor
      and helped with the uptake of Cd and the formation of QDs. We successfully
      enhanced the fluorescence intensity 1.5 or 2 times through genetic modification
      to increase ATP or SeAM (the seleno analog of S-adenosylmethionine, the product
      that would accumulate when ATP is accrued). This work explains the mechanism for
      the correlation of the cellular energy level and QDs biosynthesis in living
      cells, demonstrates control of the biosynthesis using this mechanism, and thus
      provides a new manipulation strategy for the biosynthesis of other nanomaterials
      to widen their applications.

PMID- 28579775
TI  - Capsaicin-loaded nanolipoidal carriers for topical application: design,
      characterization, and in vitro/in vivo evaluation.
AB  - Capsaicin has been used in clinical applications for the treatment of pain
      disorders and inflammatory diseases. Given the strong pungency and high oil/water
      partition coefficient of capsaicin, capsaicin-loaded nanolipoidal carriers (NLCs)
      were designed to increase permeation and achieve the analgesic, anti-inflammatory
      effect with lower skin irritation. Capsaicin-loaded NLCs were prepared and later
      optimized by the Box-Behnken design. The physicochemical characterizations,
      morphology, and encapsulation of the capsaicin-loaded NLCs were subsequently
      confirmed. Capsaicin-loaded NLCs and capsaicin-loaded NLCs gel exhibited
      sustained release and no cytotoxicity properties. Also, they could significantly
      enhance the penetration amount, permeation flux, and skin retention amounts of
      capsaicin due to the application of NLCs. To study the topical permeation
      mechanism of capsaicin, 3,3'-dioctadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate (Dio) was
      used as a fluorescent dye. Dio-loaded NLCs and Dio-loaded NLCs gel could
      effectively deliver Dio up to a skin depth of 260 and 210 MUm, respectively,
      primarily through the appendage route on the basis of version skin sections
      compared with Dio solution, which only delivered Dio up to 150 MUm. In vivo
      therapeutic experiments demonstrated that capsaicin-loaded NLCs and capsaicin
      loaded NLCs gel could improve the pain threshold in a dose-dependent manner and
      inhibit inflammation, primarily by reducing the prostaglandin E2 levels in the
      tissue compared with capsaicin cream and capsaicin solution. Meanwhile, skin
      irritation was reduced, indicating that application of NLCs could decrease the
      irritation caused by capsaicin. Overall, NLCs may be a potential carrier for
      topical delivery of capsaicin for useful pain and inflammation therapy.

PMID- 28579776
TI  - Aptamer-conjugated PEGylated quantum dots targeting epidermal growth factor
      receptor variant III for fluorescence imaging of glioma.
AB  - The extent of resection is a significant prognostic factor in glioma patients.
      However, the maximum safe resection level is difficult to determine due to the
      inherent infiltrative character of tumors. Recently, fluorescence-guided surgery
      has emerged as a new technique that allows safe resection of glioma. In this
      study, we constructed a new kind of quantum dot (QD)-labeled aptamer (QD-Apt)
      nanoprobe by conjugating aptamer 32 (A32) to the QDs surface, which can specially
      bind to the tumors. A32 is a single-stranded DNA capable of binding to the
      epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) specially distributed on
      the surface of glioma cells. To detect the expression of EGFRvIII in human brain
      tissues, 120 specimens, including 110 glioma tissues and 10 normal brain tissues,
      were examined by immunohistochemistry, and the results showed that the rate of
      positive expression of EGFRvIII in the glioma tissues was 41.82%, and 0.00% in
      normal brain tissues. Besides, the physiochemical properties of QD-Apt
      nanoparticles (NPs) were thoroughly characterized. Biocompatibility of the NPs
      was evaluated, and the results suggested that the QD-Apt was nontoxic in vivo and
      vitro. Furthermore, the use of the QD-Apt in labeling glioma cell lines and human
      brain glioma tissues, and target gliomas in situ was also investigated. We found
      that not only could QD-Apt specially bind to the U87-EGFRvIII glioma cells but
      also bind to human glioma tissues in vitro. Fluorescence imaging in vivo with
      orthotopic glioma model mice bearing U87-EGFRvIII showed that QD-Apt could
      penetrate the blood-brain barrier and then selectively accumulate in the tumors
      through binding to EGFRvIII, and consequently, generate a strong fluorescence,
      which contributed to the margins of gliomas that were visualized clearly, and
      thus, help the surgeons realize the maximum safe resection of glioma. In
      addition, QD-Apt can also be applied in preoperative diagnosis and postoperative
      examination of glioma. Therefore, these achievements facilitate the use of tumor
      targeted fluorescence imaging in the diagnosis, surgical resection, and
      postoperative examination of glioma.

PMID- 28579777
TI  - Electrohydrodynamic fabrication of core-shell PLGA nanoparticles with controlled
      release of cisplatin for enhanced cancer treatment.
AB  - Increasing the clinical efficacy of toxic chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin
      (CDDP), via targeted drug delivery, is a key area of research in cancer
      treatment. In this study, CDDP-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)
      polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully prepared using
      electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA). The configuration was varied to control
      the distribution of CDDP within the particles, and high encapsulation efficiency
      (>70%) of the drug was achieved. NPs were produced with either a core-shell (CS)
      or a matrix (uniform) structure. It was shown that CS NPs had the most sustained
      release of the 2 formulations, demonstrating a slower linear release post initial
      "burst" and longer duration. The role of particle architecture on the rate of
      drug release in vitro was confirmed by fitting the experimental data with various
      kinetic models. This indicated that the release process was a simple diffusion
      mechanism. The CS NPs were effectively internalized into the endolysosomal
      compartments of cancer cells and demonstrated an increased cytotoxic efficacy
      (concentration of a drug that gives half maximal response [EC50] reaching 6.2 uM)
      compared to free drug (EC50 =9 uM) and uniform CDDP-distributed NPs (EC50 =7.6
      uM) in vitro. Thus, these experiments indicate that engineering the structure of
      PLGA NPs can be exploited to control both the dosage and the release
      characteristics for improved clinical chemotherapy treatment.

PMID- 28579778
TI  - Iron oxide nanoparticles induce cytokine secretion in a complement-dependent
      manner in a human whole blood model.
AB  - Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are promising nanomaterials for biomedical
      applications. However, their inflammatory potential has not been fully
      established. Here, we used a lepirudin anti-coagulated human whole blood model to
      evaluate the potential of 10 nm IONPs to activate the complement system and
      induce cytokine production. Reactive oxygen species and cell death were also
      assessed. The IONPs activated complement, as measured by C3a, C5a and sC5b-9, and
      induced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a particle-dose dependent
      manner, with the strongest response at 10 ug/mL IONPs. Complement inhibitors at
      C3 (compstatin analog Cp40) and C5 (eculizumab) levels completely inhibited
      complement activation and secretion of inflammatory mediators induced by the
      IONPs. Additionally, blockade of complement receptors C3aR and C5aR1
      significantly reduced the levels of various cytokines, indicating that the
      particle-induced secretion of inflammatory mediators is mainly C5a and C3a
      mediated. The IONPs did not induce cell death or reactive oxygen species, which
      further suggests that complement activation alone was responsible for most of the
      particle-induced cytokines. These data suggest that the lepirudin anti-coagulated
      human whole blood model is a valuable ex vivo system to study the inflammatory
      potential of IONPs. We conclude that IONPs induce complement-mediated cytokine
      secretion in human whole blood.

PMID- 28579780
TI  - Aggregation is a critical cause of poor transfer into the brain tissue of
      intravenously administered cationic PAMAM dendrimer nanoparticles.
AB  - Dendrimers have been expected as excellent nanodevices for brain medication. An
      amine-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer (PD), an unmodified plain type of PD,
      has the obvious disadvantage of cytotoxicity, but still serves as an attractive
      molecule because it easily adheres to the cell surface, facilitating easy
      cellular uptake. Single-photon emission computed tomographic imaging of a mouse
      following intravenous injection of a radiolabeled PD failed to reveal any signal
      in the intracranial region. Furthermore, examination of the permeability of PD
      particles across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vitro using a commercially
      available kit revealed poor permeability of the nanoparticles, which was
      suppressed by an inhibitor of caveolae-mediated endocytosis, but not by an
      inhibitor of macropinocytosis. Physicochemical analysis of the PD revealed that
      cationic PDs are likely to aggregate promptly upon mixing with body fluids and
      that this prompt aggregation is probably driven by non-Derjaguin-Landau- Verwey
      Overbeek attractive forces originating from the surrounding divalent ions. Atomic
      force microscopy observation of a freshly cleaved mica plate soaked in dendrimer
      suspension (culture media) confirmed prompt aggregation. Our study revealed poor
      transfer of intravenously administered cationic PDs into the intracranial nervous
      tissue, and the results of our analysis suggested that this was largely
      attributable to the reduced BBB permeability arising from the propensity of the
      particles to promptly aggregate upon mixing with body fluids.

PMID- 28579781
TI  - Investigating the use of curcumin-loaded electrospun filaments for soft tissue
      repair applications.
AB  - Electrospun filaments represent a new generation of medical textiles with
      promising applications in soft tissue repair. A potential strategy to improve
      their design is to combine them with bioactive molecules. Curcumin, a natural
      compound found in turmeric, is particularly attractive for its antioxidant, anti
      inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. However, investigating the range of
      relevant doses of curcumin in materials designed for tissue regeneration has
      remained limited. In this paper, a wide range of curcumin concentrations was
      explored and the potential of the resulting materials for soft tissue repair
      applications was assessed. Polydioxanone (PDO) filaments were prepared with
      various amounts of curcumin: 0%, 0.001%, 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, and 10% (weight to
      weight ratio). The results from the present study showed that, at low doses
      (<=0.1%), the addition of curcumin has no influence on the spinning process or on
      the physicochemical properties of the filaments, whereas higher doses lead to
      smaller fiber diameters and improved mechanical properties. Moreover, filaments
      with 0.001% and 0.01% curcumin stimulate the metabolic activity and proliferation
      of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs) compared with the no-filament control.
      However, this stimulation is not significant when compared to the control
      filaments (0%). Highly dosed filaments induce either the inhibition of
      proliferation (with 1%) or cell apoptosis (with 10%) as a result of the
      concentrations of curcumin found in the medium (9 and 32 MUM, respectively),
      which are near or above the known toxicity threshold of curcumin (~10 MUM).
      Moreover, filaments with 10% curcumin increase the catalase activity and
      glutathione content in NHDFs, indicating an increased production of reactive
      oxygen species resulting from the large concentration of curcumin. Overall, this
      study suggested that PDO electrospun filaments loaded with low amounts of
      curcumin are more promising compared with higher concentrations for stimulating
      tissue repair. This study also highlighted the need to explore lower
      concentrations when using polymers as PDO, such as those with polycaprolactone
      and other degradable polyesters.

PMID- 28579782
TI  - Effect of aripiprazole on non-24-hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder comorbid with
      major depressive disorder: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with non-24-hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder (N24SWD) exhibit
      a sleep pattern that is asynchronous with the external light-dark cycle,
      typically involving a cycling, relapsing-remitting pattern of sleep disturbances,
      including nighttime insomnia and daytime sleepiness. Here, we report the case of
      a patient with N24SWD comorbid with major depressive disorder, who was
      successfully treated with a low dose of aripiprazole. CASE PRESENTATION: A 47
      year-old female presented with an 8-year complaint of difficulty falling asleep
      and waking up in the morning. The patient was diagnosed with major depressive
      disorder at the age of 35 years and was treated with various antidepressants
      since that time. At the age of 40 years, the patient's sleep-wake cycle began to
      extend without exacerbation of depressive symptoms. The patient was diagnosed
      with N24SWD at the age of 43 years. Ramelteon 8 mg/d and then melatonin 1 mg/d
      were administered, but these did not provide effective treatment. In January
      2016, after treatment with aripiprazole 3 mg/d in the morning for 4 weeks, the
      patient's sleep-wake cycle became markedly synchronized to the environmental
      light-dark cycle. Her sleep-wake cycle remained synchronized when the same dose
      of aripiprazole was administered for at least 6 months. CONCLUSION: Treatment
      refractory asynchrony of the sleep-wake cycle in an N24SWD patient with
      depression was successfully treated with aripiprazole. Although the detailed
      mechanism of action is unclear, aripiprazole may be an appropriate treatment for
      patients with circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders.

PMID- 28579779
TI  - Antibacterial properties and toxicity from metallic nanomaterials.
AB  - The era of antibiotic resistance is a cause of increasing concern as bacteria
      continue to develop adaptive countermeasures against current antibiotics at an
      alarming rate. In recent years, studies have reported nanoparticles as a
      promising alternative to antibacterial reagents because of their exhibited
      antibacterial activity in several biomedical applications, including drug and
      gene delivery, tissue engineering, and imaging. Moreover, nanomaterial research
      has led to reports of a possible relationship between the morphological
      characteristics of a nanomaterial and the magnitude of its delivered toxicity.
      However, conventional synthesis of nanoparticles requires harsh chemicals and
      costly energy consumption. Additionally, the exact relationship between toxicity
      and morphology of nanomaterials has not been well established. Here, we review
      the recent advancements in synthesis techniques for silver, gold, copper,
      titanium, zinc oxide, and magnesium oxide nanomaterials and composites, with a
      focus on the toxicity exhibited by nanomaterials of multidimensions. This article
      highlights the benefits of selecting each material or metal-based composite for
      certain applications while also addressing possible setbacks and the toxic
      effects of the nanomaterials on the environment.

PMID- 28579784
TI  - Hirayama disease (monomelic amyotrophy) clinically confused for carpal tunnel
      syndrome.
AB  - Hirayama disease (HD) is a rare motor neuron disorder that involves a single
      upper extremity. It is clinically characterized by weakness and atrophy of the
      muscles of the hand and forearm. This article presents a 19-year-old woman who
      visited the orthopedics outpatient clinic with weakness and atrophy in her right
      hand and was clinically diagnosed with advanced stage carpal tunnel syndrome and
      scheduled for surgical intervention; she was later diagnosed with HD by an
      electrophysiological study. As a result, it has been found that a careful
      electrophysiological study and neurological examination can be used to diagnose
      HD. In this way, advanced stage carpal tunnel syndrome will be ruled out and
      patients will be spared from an unnecessary surgical operation.

PMID- 28579783
TI  - Developmental and behavioral outcomes of uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic
      twins born in the third trimester.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relatively little is known about the neurodevelopmental and
      behavioral outcomes of monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twin pregnancies where
      there are no antenatal complications peculiar to monochorionicity or prematurity.
      METHODS: Twenty-two MCDA twins (44 children) with an average age of 4.3 years,
      and with no antenatal complications detected by 28 weeks of gestation, were
      recruited from a feto-maternal unit database. Parents completed a battery of
      neurodevelopmental and behavioral assessment questionnaires. RESULTS: Eighteen
      children (41%) were identified as having developmental or behavioral concerns,
      predominantly of mild severity, which in turn were associated with a lower birth
      weight of medium effect size (Cohen's d=0.59). CONCLUSION: MCDA twins delivered
      in the third trimester with no antenatal monochorionic complications in the first
      two trimesters appear to be at risk for subtle neurodevelopmental difficulties,
      associated with a lower birth weight. Ongoing developmental surveillance of these
      children during preschool-age is indicated for early identification and
      intervention.

PMID- 28579785
TI  - Dexmedetomidine for the management of postictal agitation after electroconvulsive
      therapy with S-ketamine anesthesia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Postictal agitation (PIA) represents one of the most common
      complications during a modified electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) course. Its
      clinical management can be challenging especially in cases with poor response to
      benzodiazepines. Dexmedetomidine, a highly selective alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonist
      acting predominantly in the locus coeruleus, exerts sedative effects without
      causing relevant respiratory depression. To the best of our knowledge, this is
      the first study that aimed to assess the impact of dexmedetomidine use with S
      ketamine anesthesia on PIA reduction in ECT. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively analyzed 7 patients who underwent 178 ECT sessions with S
      ketamine anesthesia between June 2011 and July 2015 at the Central Institute of
      Mental Health Mannheim. In 101 sessions, the patients received dexmedetomidine in
      combination with S-ketamine anesthesia. The decision for dexmedetomidine use was
      based on individual clinical presentation (patients with positive PIA history). A
      multivariate repeated measurement logistic regression analysis was conducted to
      investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine use on the occurrence of PIA. We
      hypothesized that the use of dexmedetomidine reduced the incidence of PIA also in
      combination with S-ketamine anesthesia. RESULTS: The prevalence of PIA in ECT
      sessions with dexmedetomidine administration was lower (mean per patient, 34% vs
      62%). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, the use of
      dexmedetomidine predicted the non-occurrence of PIA in a highly significant
      manner (P=0.001, z=-3.83, odds ratio =0.011-0.303). CONCLUSION: Adjunctive use of
      dexmedetomidine to S-ketamine anesthesia in ECT seems to be a promising tool for
      the management of intractable PIA syndrome.

PMID- 28579786
TI  - Topiramate add-on treatment associated with normalization of prolactin levels in
      a patient with schizophrenia.
AB  - Topiramate has been used increasingly in the management of psychiatric
      conditions. Clinical trials demonstrated that topiramate augmentation was
      effective in controlling negative symptoms in schizophrenia. This case report
      presents a case of a 38-year-old man with schizophrenia who achieved full
      negative symptom remission upon the adjunctive use of topiramate. However, the
      remarkable finding of this case is the concomitant decrease in the level of
      prolactin when topiramate (50 mg/day) was started and the rebound after
      discontinuation of topiramate. Previous studies stated that topiramate could
      prevent antipsychotic-induced weight gain and adverse metabolic effects. To the
      authors' knowledge, no study has reported that topiramate augmentation could be a
      treatment strategy for antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia. This finding
      could be verified by well-designed clinical trials.

PMID- 28579787
TI  - The impact of comorbid psychiatric disorders on methadone maintenance treatment
      in opioid use disorder: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a significant interindividual variability in treatment
      outcomes in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) for opioid use disorder (OUD).
      This prospective cohort study examines the impact of comorbid psychiatric
      disorders on continued illicit opioid use in patients receiving MMT for OUD.
      METHODS: Data were collected from 935 patients receiving MMT in outpatient
      clinics between June 2011 and June 2015. Using linear regression analysis, we
      evaluated the impact of having a comorbid psychiatric disorder on continued
      illicit opioid use during MMT, adjusting for important confounders. The main
      outcome measure was percentage of opioid-positive urine screens for 6 months. We
      conducted a subgroup analysis to determine the influence of specific comorbid
      psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders, on continued illicit
      opioid use. RESULTS: Approximately 80% of participants had at least one comorbid
      psychiatric disorder in addition to OUD, and 42% of participants had a comorbid
      substance use disorder. There was no significant association between having a
      psychiatric comorbidity and continuing opioid use (P=0.248). Results from
      subgroup analysis, however, suggest that comorbid tranquilizer (beta=20.781,
      P<0.001) and cocaine (beta=6.344, P=0.031) use disorders are associated with
      increased rates of continuing opioid use. CONCLUSION: Results from our study may
      serve to guide future MMT guidelines. Specifically, we find that cocaine or
      tranquilizer use disorder, comorbid with OUD, places patients at high risk for
      poor MMT outcomes. Treatment centers may choose to gear more intensive therapy
      toward such populations.

PMID- 28579788
TI  - Primary angle-closure glaucomas disturb regional spontaneous brain activity in
      the visual pathway: an fMRI study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the underlying regional brain activity deficits in the
      visual cortex in patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) relative to
      normal controls (NCs) using regional homogeneity (ReHo) method, and its
      relationship with behavioral performances. PATIENTS: Twenty PACG patients (10
      females, 10 males; mean age +/- standard deviation [SD]: 54.42+/-9.46 years) and
      20 age-, and sex status-matched NCs (10 females, 10 males; mean age +/- SD:
      53.75+/-9.16 years) were included in this study. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS:
      Compared with NCs, patients with PACG showed significant atrophic peripapillary
      retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) and neuroretinal rim area, increased optic disk
      cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) and optic disk volume (P<0.05), higher ReHo value in the
      left fusiform gyrus, left cerebellum anterior lobe, right frontal-temporal space,
      and right insula, and lower ReHo value in the bilateral middle occipital gyrus,
      left claustrum, and right paracentral lobule lobe. The receiver operating
      characteristic analysis revealed these different areas with high value of area
      under curve, and high degree of sensitivity and specificity. The mean beta values
      of these different areas were extracted. In PACG, the duration of disease showed
      a negative correlation with the mean beta value of left cerebellum anterior lobe
      (r=-0.453, P=0.045) and a positive correlation with right middle occipital gyrus
      (r=0.586, P=0.007); left middle occipital gyrus showed positive correlations with
      duration of disease (r=0.562, P=0.01) and left pRNFL (r=0.49, P=0.028); left
      claustrum had a positive correlation with left CDR (r=0.515, P=0.02); and right
      paracentral lobule lobe demonstrated a positive correlation with left pRNFL
      (r=0.623, P=0.003). CONCLUSION: PACG is involved in abnormal spontaneous brain
      activity in multiple brain areas, and such changes are associated with clinical
      performances, which may reflect the underlying pathologic mechanism and play
      important roles in the initiation and progression of PACG.

PMID- 28579789
TI  - A retrograde y-stenting of the trachea for treatment of mediastinal fistula in an
      unusual situation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stents have been used for quite some time for the treatment of
      benign and malignant airway stenosis. Silicon stents are preferred for benign
      situations, whereas metallic self-expanding stents are preferred for malignant
      comorbidities. PATIENT AND METHODS: In general, stents can be placed in different
      approach directions, although in pulmonary medicine it is logical to apply only
      antegrade techniques - until now. A 63-year-old patient, 168 cm height and 53 kg
      weight on referral, suffered chronical diseases. The patient was diagnosed with a
      papillary thyroid carcinoma in 1989, which was treated by resection and
      radiotherapy. In the following years, she developed a stenosis of the esophagus.
      The decision to try endobronchial stenting was made upon the plan to close that
      fistula with a pedicled omentum majus replacement through the diaphragmal opening
      of the esophagus. This surgical plastic needed an abutment and a secured
      continuous airway replacement above the tracheostoma level. A Freitag stent (FS),
      11 cm in length (110-25-40) and an inner diameter of 13 mm, was placed
      successfully retrograde into the trachea and completely bridged the big fistula.
      Unfortunately the patient passed away due to pulmonary infections after several
      weeks. DISCUSSION: In this case report, a successful but unusual case of
      retrograde stent placement of a modified FS is presented.

PMID- 28579790
TI  - Comparison of the clinical features and outcomes of infective endocarditis
      between hemodialysis and non-hemodialysis patients.
AB  - Hemodialysis (HD) patients are more susceptible to infective endocarditis (IE)
      due to the increased risk of bacterial invasion through intravascular access.
      However, it remains unclear whether the causative organisms and outcomes of IE in
      HD patients differ from those in non-HD patients. This study clarified the
      differences in clinical presentation and outcomes between HD and non-HD patients.
      At our hospital, we performed a retrospective study of 39 HD and 51 non-HD
      patients with echocardiography-confirmed IE between June 2000 and February 2007.
      No differences in sex, intravenous drug use, previous diagnosis of congestive
      heart failure, and previous valvular surgery were observed between these two
      groups. The number of patients with diabetic mellitus in these two groups was
      significantly different (28.2% HD vs 5.9% non-HD patients). The C-reactive
      protein levels in the two groups were not significantly different. By contrast,
      the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was significantly higher in the HD patients
      (HD vs non-HD: 87.2+/-33.32 vs 52.96+/-28.19). The incidence of IE involving the
      mitral valve (MV; 45.1%) or the aortic valve (AV; 43.1%) was similar among the
      non-HD patients, whereas a preference of IE involving the MV (79.5%) over the AV
      (15.4%) was noted among the HD patients. The HD patients had a significantly
      higher Staphylococcus aureus infection rate (HD: 46.2%; non-HD: 27.5%). The
      proportion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA; 83.8%) infection accounting
      for S. aureus IE in the HD group was higher than that (28.6%) in the non-HD
      group. The in-hospital mortality rate did not differ between the two groups. In
      conclusion, compared with non-HD patients, a propensity of IE involving the MV
      and a higher MRSA infection rate were observed in HD patients. The in-hospital
      mortality rate of echocardiography-confirmed IE did not differ between the two
      groups.

PMID- 28579791
TI  - Color M-mode echocardiography-derived propagation velocity of descending aorta
      decreases with aging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness (AS) can be determined by some noninvasive tests
      such as pulse wave velocity (PWV). Atherosclerosis is also detectable by some
      ultrasonographic techniques such as color M-mode-derived propagation velocity
      measured along the origin of the descending aorta (AVP). AIM: The aim of the
      study was to find out a possible relationship between atherosclerosis and AVP and
      whether AVP can be used as a parameter of AS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study
      group was composed of 134 people from routine screening examination who were >=40
      years old, completely healthy, and without any known disease and use of any drug.
      PWV has been determined to show aortic stiffness, and carotid artery intima-
      media thickness (CIMT) was measured for subclinical atherosclerosis. AVP values
      were obtained from all participants, and correlations were calculated between
      these parameters and age. RESULTS: AVP decreased (r=-0.902, P<0.001) and PWV
      increased (r=0.854, P<0.001) significantly with increasing age. CIMT also
      increased with aging (r=0.518, P<0.001). There were significant correlations
      between AVP and PWV (r=-0.832, P<0.001) and AVP and CIMT (r=-0.345, P<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Transthoracic echocardiographic determination of AVP can be used as a
      simple measurement of AS and correlates well with PWV, age, and CIMT in healthy
      people.

PMID- 28579793
TI  - Future challenges for occupational health services can be prevented by proactive
      collaboration with the companies using the services: a participatory and
      reflection project.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is clearly a need for research in the field of occupational
      health service (OHS) for applying new perspectives. Proactive collaboration is
      needed between the OHSs and the companies. The customers of the companies using
      the services should be able to safeguard themselves from the health problems
      caused by the work environment through proactive collaboration with the OHSs.
      OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this interdisciplinary study was to explore how
      the stakeholders reflected to create and agree on core values for future
      challenges in OHS, as seen from the perspectives of OHS professionals and
      customer companies. METHODOLOGY: An action research process was conducted. This
      study was divided into three phases. In phase I, the data were collected from
      interviews and diaries of interdisciplinary occupational health professionals
      (n=12). A focus group that sampled the eight managers of the customer companies
      was also included. In phase II, a questionnaire was developed with 24 questions
      focusing on examining the future challenges for OHS. The questionnaire was sent
      to customer companies (n=116). In phase III, a scoping review was undertaken.
      RESULTS: Three categories emerged from the analysis: "Balancing complex
      situations" clarified the complexity regarding senior employees; "Working with a
      proactive approach" indicated the need for working with a new proactive approach
      supporting sustainable health; and "Collaborate internally and externally" showed
      good relationships between the customer and the OHS, which is a mutual
      responsibility to both the partners. CONCLUSION: The results outlined that it is
      necessary to take action to apply new proactive health promotions, with a focus
      on workplace health promotion. The results also indicated that interventions for
      senior employees are of importance. This study was done in collaboration with the
      stakeholders from the occupational health care service center and the managers
      from the customer companies. The use of a participatory research design,
      including close collaboration with the participants, allows the researchers to
      see the challenges.

PMID- 28579792
TI  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: improving care with a multidisciplinary approach.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease,
      leading to death within an average of 2-3 years. A cure is yet to be found, and a
      single disease-modifying treatment has had a modest effect in slowing disease
      progression. Specialized multidisciplinary ALS care has been shown to extend
      survival and improve patients' quality of life, by providing coordinated
      interprofessional care that seeks to address the complex needs of this patient
      group. This review examines the nature of specialized multidisciplinary care in
      ALS and draws on a broad range of evidence that has shaped current practice. The
      authors explain how multidisciplinary ALS care is delivered. The existing models
      of care, the role of palliative care within multidisciplinary ALS care, and the
      costs of formal and informal care are examined. Critical issues of ALS care are
      then discussed in the context of the support rendered by multidisciplinary-based
      care. The authors situate the patient and family as key stakeholders and decision
      makers in the multidisciplinary care network. Finally, the current challenges to
      the delivery of coordinated interprofessional care in ALS are explored, and the
      future of coordinated interprofessional care for people with ALS and their family
      caregivers is considered.

PMID- 28579795
TI  - Bone Marrow Lesion: Image, Clinical Presentation, and Treatment.
AB  - In this article, the cause, histology, imaging characteristics, clinical
      presentation, and treatment of these lesions are thoroughly discussed. Bone
      marrow edema is the generic term classically used to describe the high-signal
      intensity alterations detected on magnetic resonance fluid-sensitive sequences.
      The significance of bone marrow edema for the patient's clinical condition and
      the prognosis of the affected joint is being increasingly investigated and
      discussed, and situations characterized by subchondral insufficiency are
      receiving increasing attention. More recent studies found some important
      correlations between bone marrow lesions and patient's pain and osteoarthritis
      progression. Conservative treatment is based on anti-inflammatory and analgesic
      uses according to the patient's pain, combined with reduced load on the affected
      limb. Regarding surgical treatment, subchondroplasty is an option still in
      development, albeit with promising initial results.

PMID- 28579794
TI  - Diagnostic Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Based Urinary Metabolomics.
AB  - Metabolomics is a rapidly growing field with potential applications in various
      disciplines. In particular, metabolomics has received special attention in the
      discovery of biomarkers and diagnostics. This is largely due to the fact that
      metabolomics provides critical information related to the downstream products of
      many cellular and metabolic processes which could provide a snapshot of the
      health/disease status of a particular tissue or organ. Many of these cellular
      products eventually find their way to urine; hence, analysis of urine via
      metabolomics has the potential to yield useful diagnostic and prognostic
      information. Although there are a number of analytical platforms that can be used
      for this purpose, this review article will focus on nuclear magnetic resonance
      based metabolomics. Furthermore, although there have been many studies addressing
      different diseases and metabolic disorders, the focus of this review article will
      be in the following specific applications: urinary tract infection, kidney
      transplant rejection, diabetes, some types of cancer, and inborn errors of
      metabolism. A number of methodological considerations that need to be taken into
      account for the development of a clinically useful optimal test are discussed
      briefly.

PMID- 28579796
TI  - The Impact of Injector-Based Contrast Agent Administration on Bolus Shape and
      Magnetic Resonance Angiography Image Quality.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare injector-based contrast agent (CA) administration with hand
      injection in magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). METHODS: Gadobutrol was
      administered in 6 minipigs with 3 protocols: (a) hand injection (one senior
      technician), (b) hand injection (6 less-experienced technicians), and (c) power
      injector administration. The arterial bolus shape was quantified by test bolus
      measurements. A head and neck MRA was performed for quantitative and qualitative
      comparison of signal enhancement. RESULTS: A significantly shorter time to peak
      was observed for protocol C, whereas no significant differences between protocols
      were found for peak height and bolus width. However, for protocol C, these
      parameters showed a much lower variation. The MRA revealed a significantly higher
      signal-to-noise ratio for injector-based administration. A superimposed strong
      contrast of the jugular vein was found in 50% of the hand injections.
      CONCLUSIONS: Injector-based CA administration results in a more standardized
      bolus shape, a higher vascular contrast, and a more robust visualization of
      target vessels.

PMID- 28579797
TI  - Manganese-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Studies of Rat Behavior:
      Transient Motor Deficit in Skilled Reaching, Rears, and Activity in Rats After a
      Single Dose of MnCl2.
AB  - Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) has been suggested to be a
      useful tool to visualize and map behavior-relevant neural populations at large
      scale in freely behaving rodents. A primary concern in MEMRI applications is Mn2+
      toxicity. Although a few studies have specifically examined toxicity on gross
      motor behavior, Mn2+ toxicity on skilled motor behavior was not explored. Thus,
      the objective of this study was to combine manganese as a functional contrast
      agent with comprehensive behavior evaluation. We evaluated Mn2+ effect on skilled
      reach-to-eat action, locomotion, and balance using a single pellet reaching task,
      activity cage, and cylinder test, respectively. The tests used are sensitive to
      the pathophysiology of many neurological and neurodegenerative disorders of the
      motor system. The behavioral testing was done in combination with a moderate dose
      of manganese. Behavior was studied before and after a single, intravenous
      infusion of MnCl2 (48 mg/kg). The rats were imaged at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 days
      following infusion. The results show that MnCl2 infusion resulted in detectable
      abnormalities in skilled reaching, locomotion, and balance that recovered within
      3 days compared with the infusion of saline. Because some tests and behavioral
      measures could not detect motor abnormalities of skilled movements, comprehensive
      evaluation of motor behavior is critical in assessing the effects of MnCl2. The
      relaxation mapping results suggest that the transport of Mn2+ into the brain is
      through the choroid plexus-cerebrospinal fluid system with the primary entry
      point and highest relaxation rates found in the pituitary gland. Relaxation rates
      in the pituitary gland correlated with measures of motor skill, suggesting that
      altered motor ability is related to the level of Mn circulating in the brain.
      Thus, combined MEMRI and behavioral studies that both achieve adequate image
      enhancement and are also free of motor skills deficits are difficult to achieve
      using a single systemic dose of MnCl2.

PMID- 28579799
TI  - Effect of Supplementation With Chitosan on Weight, Cardiometabolic, and Other
      Risk Indices in Wistar Rats Fed Normal and High-Fat/High-Cholesterol Diets Ad
      Libitum.
AB  - The aim was to investigate effect of chitosan on markers of obesity and
      cardiometabolic risk in rats fed normal chow (NC) or high-fat/high-cholesterol
      diet (HF/HCD). Forty male rats were fed NC or HF/HCD for 3 months, then divided
      into 4 groups: group A fed NC, group B: NC + chitosan, group C: HF/HCD, and group
      D: HF/HCD + chitosan. Food intake and weight were recorded, and serum glucose,
      lipid profile, insulin, leptin, gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), and tumor
      necrosis factor alpha were measured at beginning and after 12 weeks. Atherogenic
      index (AI), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol:high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C:HDL-C), and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance
      (HOMA-IR) were calculated. At the end of study, food intake was significantly
      increased in group B; mean values of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-C, LDL
      C:HDL-C, and AI were decreased in group B and group D; mean leptin was increased
      in group A and decreased in group B; and mean values of insulin, HOMA-IR, and GGT
      were increased in group C. The results from this study suggest that chitosan
      improved lipid profile, insulin sensitivity, and oxidative stress caused by
      HF/HCD.

PMID- 28579798
TI  - An Update on Clinical Burden, Diagnostic Tools, and Therapeutic Options of
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen responsible for a variety of
      diseases ranging from mild skin and soft tissue infections, food poisoning to
      highly serious diseases such as osteomyelitis, endocarditis, and toxic shock
      syndrome. Proper diagnosis of pathogen and virulence factors is important for
      providing timely intervention in the therapy. Owing to the invasive nature of
      infections and the limited treatment options due to rampant spread of antibiotic
      resistant strains, the trend for development of vaccines and antibody therapy is
      increasing at rapid rate than development of new antibiotics. In this article, we
      have discussed elaborately about the host-pathogen interactions, clinical burden
      due to S aureus infections, status of diagnostic tools, and treatment options in
      terms of prophylaxis and therapy.

PMID- 28579802
TI  - Association between clinicopathological features and survival in patients with
      primary and paired metastatic colorectal cancer and KRAS mutation.
AB  - The KRAS gene mutation is involved in several types of tumors. However, the
      potential role of the KRAS mutation in human primary and paired metastatic
      colorectal cancer (CRC) among different nationalities is poorly understood. In
      the present study, we assessed the relationship between KRAS mutation status and
      overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in 230 patients with
      primary and paired metastatic CRC. The KRAS mutation rate in primary CRC tissue
      was 43.0% (99/230), which was higher than in paired metastatic CRC, which was
      31.9% (23/72; P<0.001). Clinicopathologically, the KRAS gene mutation rate was
      higher in tumors that had infiltrated more deeply (T3, T4) and in lymph node (LN)
      metastases (N1/N2) (P=0.029 and P=0.010, respectively). The KRAS gene status did
      not differ between the Han and Uyghur nationalities in both primary and
      metastatic CRC. In 72 paired cases, the KRAS mutation rate in primary CRC was
      significantly higher than in metastatic CRC (P<0.001) and in metastatic CRC that
      had infiltrated more deeply (T3, T4) (P=0.034). In the metastatic cases, the KRAS
      gene mutation rate was higher in patients aged over 65 years (P=0.035).
      Specifically, KRAS mutation was correlated with a poorer OS and DFS (P=0.004 and
      P=0.029, respectively). In our study, 35 patients with wild-type KRAS who
      received cetuximab targeted therapy had a better DFS than patients with mutant
      KRAS (P=0.029). The results of the current study demonstrate that the KRAS status
      is significantly associated with infiltrating LN metastases and the TNM stage in
      primary CRC. In addition, the results show that the KRAS mutation is
      significantly more common in primary tumors than in paired metastatic CRC, and
      the KRAS mutation is correlated with a shorter OS and DFS, as patients with wild
      type KRAS who received cetuximab experienced a longer DFS.

PMID- 28579804
TI  - Expression of urinary miRNAs targeting NLRs inflammasomes in bladder cancer.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: Inflammasome, a large complex of NOD-like receptors (NLRs),
      drives tumor growth and progression. The present study aimed at exploring the
      alteration in expression of urinary inflammasome-related microRNAs (miRNAs) in
      bladder cancer (BC). Our previous report demonstrated the up-regulation of NLRs
      genes (NLRP3, NLRP4, NLRP9 and NAIP) in urine sediments of patients harboring BC.
      The expression levels of miRNAs targeting these NLRs (miR-146a-5p, miR-106a-5p,
      miR-17-5p, miR-223-3p, miR-141-3p, miR-19a-3p, miR-145-5p, miR-185-5p) were
      assayed in the same patient cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-six subjects
      affected by BC, 28 healthy controls (CTR0) and 31 subjects with histologically
      confirmed bladder inflammation (CTR1) were recruited. Total RNA was extracted
      from urine sediment and resulting cDNA was used for amplification by real-time
      polymerase chain reaction. MiRNA expression levels were evaluated and compared
      among selected groups. Patients were further stratified according to tumor stage,
      grade and risk of recurrence and progression. Moreover, non-muscle invasive low
      grade and high-grade (HG) BC patients were compared. RESULTS: MiR 141-3p and miR
      19a-3p expression decreased in CTR1 with respect to both BC and CTR0. In
      contrast, miR-146a-5p was up-regulated in BC compared with CTR0. MiR106a-5p,
      miR17-5p and miR19a-5p were significantly up-regulated in HG, high-risk (HR) and
      non-muscle invasive HG BC patients, while miR-185-5p was significantly higher in
      muscle invasive tumors, according to T stage stratification. CONCLUSION: The
      increased expression of miRNAs targeting NLRs in HG and HR BC patients is in
      accordance with the decrease in NLR mRNAs observed in our previous report. These
      data corroborate the direct role of NLR genes and respective regulatory miRNAs in
      BC making these inflammasome-related molecules a reliable non-invasive tool for
      BC diagnosis.

PMID- 28579803
TI  - The prognostic value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio is superior to derived
      neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in advanced gastric cancer treated with preoperative
      chemotherapy and sequential R0 resection: a 5-year follow-up.
AB  - AIM: The role of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and derived neutrophil
      lymphocyte ratio (d-NLR) in outcome prediction is assessed in patients with
      advanced gastric cancer receiving preoperative chemotherapy in a 5-year follow-up
      cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients undergoing preoperative chemotherapy and
      sequential R0 resection for advanced gastric cancer were enrolled from July 2004
      to November 2011. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test was used to evaluate
      the change of peripheral blood parameters. Receiver operating curve was used to
      identify the optimal cutoff values of NLR and d-NLR. Survival function was
      analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS:
      Significant difference was found between baseline and post-chemotherapy blood
      parameters, including leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, NLR and d-NLR (all
      P<0.05). High baseline NLR group (NLR >=2.230) had a significant shorter
      recurrence-free survival (RFS) (hazard ratio [HR] =1.814, 95% confidence interval
      [95% CI]: 1.112-2.960, P=0.015) and shorter overall survival (OS) (HR =1.867, 95%
      CI: 1.129-3.089, P=0.013) than those of the low baseline NLR group (NLR <2.230).
      High baseline d-NLR group (d-NLR >=1.885) also had a shorter RFS (HR =1.805, 95%
      CI: 1.116-2.919, P=0.014) and shorter OS (HR =1.783, 95% CI: 1.091-2.916,
      P=0.019) than those of the low baseline d-NLR group (d-NLR <1.885). However, post
      chemotherapy NLR and d-NLR showed no prognostic significance on RFS and OS (all
      P>0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that higher baseline NLR but not d-NLR was
      identified as an independent factor associated with worse RFS (HR =1.707, 95% CI:
      1.042-2.797, P=0.034) and worse OS (HR =1.758, 95% CI: 1.058-2.919, P=0.029).
      CONCLUSION: Baseline NLR and d-NLR may serve as convenient, easily measured
      prognostic indicators in advanced gastric cancer treated with preoperative
      chemotherapy and sequential R0 resection, especially to baseline NLR, which
      showed independent prognostic significance on RFS and OS, while post-chemotherapy
      NLR and d-NLR lost their usefulness due to the inhibition of bone marrow
      hematopoietic function. Patients with high baseline NLR and d-NLR values need
      multimodal therapy.

PMID- 28579805
TI  - Bisdemethoxycurcumin in combination with alpha-PD-L1 antibody boosts immune
      response against bladder cancer.
AB  - Curcumin was recently discovered to strengthen immune response through multiple
      mechanisms. Cytotoxic CD8+ T-cells play a critical role in modulating anticancer
      immune response, but is severely restricted by T-cell exhaustion. Bladder
      carcinomas express PD-L1 and can abrogate CD8+ T-cell response. Thus, we
      hypothesized that bisdemethoxycurcumin, a natural dimethoxy derivative of
      curcumin, may provide a favorable environment for T-cell response against bladder
      cancer when used in combination with alpha-PD-L1 antibody. Immunocompetent
      C56BL/6 mouse models bearing subcutaneous or lung metastasized MB79 bladder
      cancer were established to validate this conjecture. We found that
      bisdemethoxycurcumin significantly increased intratumoral CD8+ T-cell
      infiltration, elevated the level of IFN-gamma in the blood, and decreased the
      number of intratumoral myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Furthermore, alpha-PD-L1
      antibody protected these amplified CD8+ T-cells from exhaustion, and therefore
      facilitated the secretion of IFN-gamma, granzyme B, and perforin through these
      CD8+ T-cells. As a result, this combination treatment strategy significantly
      prolonged survival of intraperitoneal metastasized bladder cancer bearing mice,
      suggesting that bisdemethoxycurcumin in combination with alpha-PD-L1 antibody may
      be promising for bladder cancer patients.

PMID- 28579800
TI  - Meat and Nicotinamide: A Causal Role in Human Evolution, History, and
      Demographics.
AB  - Hunting for meat was a critical step in all animal and human evolution. A key
      brain-trophic element in meat is vitamin B3 / nicotinamide. The supply of meat
      and nicotinamide steadily increased from the Cambrian origin of animal predators
      ratcheting ever larger brains. This culminated in the 3-million-year evolution of
      Homo sapiens and our overall demographic success. We view human evolution, recent
      history, and agricultural and demographic transitions in the light of meat and
      nicotinamide intake. A biochemical and immunological switch is highlighted that
      affects fertility in the 'de novo' tryptophan-to-kynurenine-nicotinamide 'immune
      tolerance' pathway. Longevity relates to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
      consumer pathways. High meat intake correlates with moderate fertility, high
      intelligence, good health, and longevity with consequent population stability,
      whereas low meat/high cereal intake (short of starvation) correlates with high
      fertility, disease, and population booms and busts. Too high a meat intake and
      fertility falls below replacement levels. Reducing variances in meat consumption
      might help stabilise population growth and improve human capital.

PMID- 28579806
TI  - Ezh2, a novel target in detection and therapy of breast cancer.

PMID- 28579808
TI  - MicroRNA-216a promotes the metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of
      ovarian cancer by suppressing the PTEN/AKT pathway.
AB  - MicroRNAs, a group of posttranscriptional regulators of numerous genes, are
      active participators during the development and progression of ovarian cancer
      (OC). This study confirmed for the first time that miR-216a was gradually
      increased in normal, benign, borderline, and OC tissues and that its expression
      was significantly upregulated in all OC cell lines. Analysis of its clinical
      association demonstrated that elevated expression of miR-216a was associated with
      lymph node metastasis and advanced FIGO stage and was correlated with the poor
      survival of OC patients. Functional experiments showed that miR-216a
      overexpression potentiated the migration and invasion of CAOV3 cells while miR
      216a inhibition reduced the migration and invasion of SKOV-3 cells. Both gain and
      lose of function assay showed that miR-216a promoted epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) of OC cells. Mechanistically, phosphatase and tensin homolog
      (PTEN) was confirmed as a direct downstream target of miR-216a in OC cells.
      Alerting miR-216a expression in OC cells modulated the activity of PTEN/AKT
      pathway in OC cells. Furthermore, this study confirmed that miR-216a exerted its
      promoting effects on the metastatic behaviors and EMT of OC cells by inhibiting
      PTEN/AKT pathway. Taken together, this study demonstrates that miR-216a exerts a
      promoting role in the metastasis of OC and can serve as a promising biomarker and
      an attractive therapeutic target of OC.

PMID- 28579807
TI  - Effects of chemopreventive agents on the incidence of recurrent colorectal
      adenomas: a systematic review with network meta-analysis of randomized controlled
      trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Protective effects of several chemopreventive agents (CPAs) against
      colorectal adenomas have been well documented in randomized controlled trials
      (RCTs); however, there is uncertainty regarding which agents are the most
      effective. METHODS: We searched for RCTs published up until September 2016.
      Retrieved trials were evaluated using risk of bias. We performed both pairwise
      analysis and network meta-analysis (NMA) of RCTs to compare the effects of CPAs
      on the recurrence of colorectal adenomas (primary outcome). Using NMA, we ranked
      CPAs based on efficacy. RESULTS: We identified 20 eligible RCTs enrolling 12,625
      participants with a history of colorectal cancer or adenomas who were randomly
      assigned to receive either a placebo or one of 12 interventions. NMA using all
      trials demonstrated that celecoxib 800 mg/day (relative risk [RR] 0.61, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 0.45-0.83), celecoxib 400 mg/day (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.55
      0.87), low-dose aspirin (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59-0.96) and calcium (RR 0.81, 95% CI
      0.69-0.96) were significantly associated with a reduction in the recurrence of
      any adenomas. NMA results were consistent with those from pairwise meta-analysis.
      The evidence indicated a high (celecoxib), moderate (low-dose aspirin) and low
      (calcium) Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation
      (GRADE) quality. NMA ranking showed that celecoxib 800 mg/day and celecoxib 400
      mg/day were the best CPAs, followed by low-dose aspirin and calcium. Considering
      advanced adenoma recurrence, only celecoxib 800 mg/day and celecoxib 400 mg/day
      were demonstrated to have a protective effect (RR 0.37, 95% CI 0.27-0.52 vs RR
      0.48, 95% CI 0.38-0.60, respectively). CONCLUSION: The available evidence from
      NMA suggests that celecoxib is more effective in reducing the risk of recurrence
      of colorectal adenomas, followed by low-dose aspirin and calcium. Since
      cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors (eg, celecoxib) are associated with important
      cardiovascular events and gastrointestinal harms, more attention is warranted
      toward CPAs with a favorable benefit-to-risk ratio, such as low-dose aspirin and
      calcium.

PMID- 28579801
TI  - Meat Intake and the Dose of Vitamin B3 - Nicotinamide: Cause of the Causes of
      Disease Transitions, Health Divides, and Health Futures?
AB  - Meat and vitamin B3 - nicotinamide - intake was high during hunter-gatherer
      times. Intake then fell and variances increased during and after the Neolithic
      agricultural revolution. Health, height, and IQ deteriorated. Low dietary doses
      are buffered by 'welcoming' gut symbionts and tuberculosis that can supply
      nicotinamide, but this co-evolved homeostatic metagenomic strategy risks
      dysbioses and impaired resistance to pathogens. Vitamin B3 deficiency may now be
      common among the poor billions on a low-meat diet. Disease transitions to non
      communicable inflammatory disorders (but longer lives) may be driven by positive
      'meat transitions'. High doses of nicotinamide lead to reduced regulatory T cells
      and immune intolerance. Loss of no longer needed symbiotic 'old friends'
      compounds immunological over-reactivity to cause allergic and auto-immune
      diseases. Inhibition of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide consumers and loss of
      methyl groups or production of toxins may cause cancers, metabolic toxicity, or
      neurodegeneration. An optimal dosage of vitamin B3 could lead to better health,
      but such a preventive approach needs more equitable meat distribution. Some
      people may require personalised doses depending on genetic make-up or,
      temporarily, when under stress.

PMID- 28579809
TI  - miR-124 suppresses proliferation and invasion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells
      through the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway by targeting Capn4.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated that microRNA 124 (miR-124) acts as
      a tumor suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC); however, the exact
      molecular mechanism by which miR-124 exerts tumor suppression has not been well
      elucidated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed quantitative real-time PCR (qRT
      PCR) to measure the expression of metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma
      transcript 1, miR-124, and calpain small subunit 1 (Capn4) mRNAs in NPC cell
      lines. We also performed western blot analysis to detect the levels of Capn4.
      Furthermore, we performed MTT assay and transwell invasion assay to determine the
      proliferation and invasion ability of two NPC cell lines, namely, HONE1 and CNE2
      cells, respectively. The verification of targets of miR-124 was performed using
      prediction softwares and luciferase reporter analysis. RESULTS: According to our
      results, the expression of Capn4 was found to be elevated, whereas the expression
      of miR-124 was lowered in NPC cell lines compared with normal nasopharyngeal
      cells. When we preformed overexpression of miR-124, it suppressed the
      proliferation and invasion of NPC cells. Moreover, miR-124 suppressed the
      expression of Capn4 by targeting Capn4 in HONE1 and CNE2 cells. When we preformed
      overexpression of Capn4, it reversed the inhibitory effect of miR-124 on the
      proliferation and invasion of NPC cells. Furthermore, miR-124-Capn4 axis
      decreased the levels of beta-catenin, cyclin D1, and c-Myc, the components of the
      Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: The suppression of proliferation
      and invasion of NPC cells by miR-124 were achieved by the regulation of Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling pathway by targeting Capn4. The results of this study revealed
      a novel miR-124-Capn4 regulatory axis in NPC cell lines, providing a better
      understanding of the pathogenesis of NPC and a promising therapeutic target for
      patients with NPC.

PMID- 28579810
TI  - Leucine-rich glioma inactivated 3: integrative analyses support its prognostic
      role in glioma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leucine-rich glioma inactivated 3 (LGI3) is a secreted protein member
      of LGI family. We previously reported that LGI3 was expressed in brain, adipose
      tissues and skin, where it played roles as a multifunctional cytokine. We
      postulated that LGI3 may be involved in cytokine network in cancers. AIM: This
      study aimed to analyze differentially expressed genes in glioma tissues and
      glioma cohort data to investigate the prognostic role of LGI3 and its receptors.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expression microarray data from Gene Expression Omnibus
      and glioma cohort data were analyzed using bioinformatic tools for statistical
      analysis, protein-protein interactions, functional enrichment and pathway
      analyses and prognostic association analysis. RESULTS: We found that LGI3 and its
      receptors, ADAM22 and ADAM23, were significantly downregulated in glioma tissues.
      Eleven upregulated genes and two downregulated genes in glioma tissues were found
      to be the previously reported LGI3-regulated genes. Protein-protein interaction
      network analysis showed that 85% of the LGI3-regulated and glioma-altered genes
      formed a cluster of interaction network. Functional enrichment and Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses revealed the
      association of these genes with hypoxia responses, p53 and Akt signaling and
      various cancer-related pathways including glioma. Analysis of expression
      microarray data of glioma cohorts demonstrated that low expression levels of
      LGI3, ADAM22 and ADAM23 were significantly associated with poor prognosis of
      glioma. CONCLUSION: These results propose that LGI3 and its receptors may play a
      prognostic role in glioma.

PMID- 28579811
TI  - The prognostic value of nodal skip metastasis in resectable thoracic esophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the incidence of nodal skip metastasis
      (NSM) to identify the risk factors that influence NSM and to assess the
      prognostic value of NSM in patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma (ESCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2009 and December 2013,
      285 patients with ESCC with positive lymph nodes who underwent complete resection
      were enrolled. RESULTS: For the entire group, NSM occurred in 32.3% (92/285) of
      patients. The median survival time and 5-year survival rate in the NSM group were
      28 months and 12.0%, respectively, compared with 36.3 months and 25.0%,
      respectively, in the non-NSM group (P=0.008). Both N stage (P=0.001) and T stage
      (P=0.014) were associated with the incidence of NSM. NSM (P=0.008), T stage
      (P=0.000), and N stage (P=0.000) were independent prognostic factors for
      survival. In the NSM group, T stage (P=0.014) and N stage (P=0.000) were
      independent prognostic factors for survival. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that
      NSM is common in ESCC and is associated with poor survival.

PMID- 28579812
TI  - Cost per care of the first year of direct antiviral agents in the Liguria Region:
      a multicenter analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Despite the remarkable efficacy shown in clinical practice, concerns have
      been raised about the costs associated with direct antiviral agent (DAA) therapy.
      This article presents the real-life costs for DAA treatment sustained by the
      Italian National Health Service in the Liguria Region (Northern Italy). METHODS:
      A retrospective analysis of the cost per care sustained for DAA treatment,
      relating to the period from January 1 to December 31, 2015 in five centers in
      Liguria was performed. All patients undergoing DAA-based treatments for hepatitis
      C virus (HCV) infection were enrolled. On-treatment costs included: HCV
      treatment, laboratory test, outpatient services, attended visits, drugs used for
      the management of adverse events (erythropoietin, albumin or red blood cell
      packs) and inpatient service admissions. RESULTS: In total, 327 patients were
      enrolled. No difference in terms of sustained virologic response (SVR) rate among
      different treatments was reported. The majority (85.0%) of patients did not
      report any side effects and only 15 (4.6%) required hospital admission. Forty-two
      patients (12.8%) required high-cost drugs for the management of adverse events.
      The overall cost sustained was ?14,744,433. DAA+/-ribavirin (RBV) accounted for
      the wide majority of this cost (98.9%; ?14,585,123). Genotype (GT) 1, the most
      commonly treated GT, was associated with an average cost of ?43,445 per patient.
      Detailed analysis of the costs for GT 1 showed the treatment based on ritonavir
      boosted paritaprevir/ombitasvir + dasabuvir+/-RBV with an average cost of ?24,978
      (RBV+) and ?25,448 (RBV-) per patient was the most cost-effective. The average
      cost per SVR was ?48,184. Once again, the ritonavir boosted
      paritaprevir/ombitasvir + dasabuvir regimen was associated with the lowest
      cost/SVR (?25,448/SVR [GT 1b] and similar results for other GTs). CONCLUSION:
      Antiviral regimen is the major contributor to costs in the treatment of HCV
      infection. Appropriate regimen selection could result in a major cost saving,
      which can be reinvested to allow more patients to be treated.

PMID- 28579813
TI  - Evaluation of the treatment patterns and economic burden of dysmenorrhea in
      Japanese women, using a claims database.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to describe treatment patterns and estimate health care
      resource utilization and associated costs among Japanese women with dysmenorrhea,
      using a claims database. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis using health
      insurance data from the Japan Medical Data Center, assessing female patients aged
      18-49 years with newly diagnosed primary or secondary dysmenorrhea. Treatment
      pattern analyses focused on hormonal medications, analgesics, hemostatic agents,
      traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and gynecological surgeries. Data were
      collected on health care resource utilization and costs associated with
      medications, imaging procedures, and inpatient and outpatient care in both
      patients and matched controls. RESULTS: The analysis included 6,315 women with
      dysmenorrhea (3,441 primary; 2,874 secondary). The most commonly prescribed
      initial therapies were low-dose estrogen progestins (LEPs, 37.7%) and TCM
      (30.0%), with substantial differences between primary (LEPs: 27.4%, TCM: 38.8%)
      and secondary (LEPs: 50.2%, TCM: 19.5%) dysmenorrhea cohorts. Surgery was
      conducted in <5% of all patients. Both primary and secondary cohorts of
      dysmenorrhea had significantly higher mean total health care costs compared to
      controls within the 1-year period following diagnosis (Case-primary: 191,680 JPY
      [1,916 USD]; secondary: 246,488 JPY [2,465 USD], Control-primary: 83,615 JPY [836
      USD]; secondary: 90,711 JPY [907 USD]) (p<0.0001). After adjusting for baseline
      characteristics, these costs were 2.2 and 2.9 times higher for primary and
      secondary dysmenorrhea cohorts, respectively, compared with matched controls,
      (both p<0.0001). The main driver of these excess costs was outpatient care, with
      eight additional physician visits per year among dysmenorrhea patients compared
      to controls (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Considerable heterogeneity in treatment
      patterns was observed, with relatively low utilization of LEPs in patients with
      primary dysmenorrhea and those treated by internal medicine physicians. Total
      annual health care costs were approximately 2-3 times higher in patients with
      dysmenorrhea compared to women without the condition.

PMID- 28579814
TI  - In-center hemodialysis absenteeism: prevalence and association with outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the rate of missed treatments
      among hemodialysis (HD) patients, and the association between treatment
      nonadherence and clinical outcomes. DATA SOURCE: The data used in this study were
      based on electronic medical records and Medicare claims. STUDY DESIGN: This is a
      retrospective, observational study. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: HD patients miss 9.9% of
      all treatments. Approximately half of the missed treatments are due to observable
      medical events, predominantly hospitalizations, while half result from
      nonadherence ("absence"). A single absence is associated with a 1.4-fold greater
      risk of hospitalization, and a 2.2-fold greater risk of death in the subsequent
      30 days. CONCLUSION: Treatment nonadherence is common among HD patients and is
      associated with adverse outcomes. Interventions that improve adherence may
      improve patient health and reduce costs.

PMID- 28579815
TI  - Pollution and acne: is there a link?
AB  - In recent years, the critical role that inflammation may play in the development
      and progression of acne has become increasingly recognized. The prevalence of
      acne is similar between Asian and Caucasian women, but Asian women have a higher
      prevalence of inflammatory acne. They also report their symptoms exacerbate
      during periods of high air pollution. The objective of this study was to review
      the current evidence that links air pollution to worsening of acne symptoms.
      Firstly, a group of five Asian and three European scientists with expertise in
      Dermatology reviewed the current literature and described current acne treatment
      practices in their countries. During this activity, they identified the need for
      further epidemiological and clinical research. Secondly, additional studies
      ensued which provided evidence that acne symptoms might exacerbate in regions of
      high ambient air pollution. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that
      people with acne should protect the natural barrier function of their skin with
      emollients and ultraviolet (UV)A/UVB protection.

PMID- 28579816
TI  - Tattoo removal with ingenol mebutate.
AB  - An increasing number of people are getting tattoos; however, many regret the
      decision and seek their removal. Lasers are currently the most commonly used
      method for tattoo removal; however, treatment can be lengthy, costly, and
      sometimes ineffective, especially for certain colors. Ingenol mebutate is a
      licensed topical treatment for actinic keratoses. Here, we demonstrate that two
      applications of 0.1% ingenol mebutate can efficiently and consistently remove 2
      week-old tattoos from SKH/hr hairless mice. Treatment was associated with
      relocation of tattoo microspheres from the dermis into the posttreatment eschar.
      The skin lesion resolved about 20 days after treatment initiation, with some
      cicatrix formation evident. The implications for using ingenol mebutate for
      tattoo removal in humans are discussed.

PMID- 28579818
TI  - Healing of Achilles tendon partial tear following focused shockwave: a case
      report and literature review.
AB  - Achilles tendinopathy is a common cause of posterior heel pain and can progress
      to partial tendon tear without adequate treatment. Effects of traditional
      treatments vary, and many recent reports focus on the use of extracorporeal
      shockwave therapy (ESWT) for Achilles tendinopathy but not for Achilles tendon
      partial tear. Here, we report the case of a 64-year-old female suffering from
      severe left heel pain for half a year. All treatment and rehabilitation were less
      effective until ESWT was applied. Each course of focused shockwave therapy
      included 2500 shots with energy flux density from 0.142 mJ/mm2 to 0.341 mJ/mm2.
      The visual analog scale decreased from nine to one degree. High-resolution
      musculoskeletal ultrasonography was performed before and 1 month after the
      treatment, which revealed healing of the torn region and decrease in
      inflammation. ESWT had shown to be an alternative treatment for Achilles tendon
      partial tear under safety procedure and ultrasound observation.

PMID- 28579817
TI  - The impact of internet-based cognitive behavior therapy on work ability in
      patients with depression - a randomized controlled study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to investigate
      the effects of internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) treatment for
      depression compared to treatment-as-usual (TAU) on improving work ability and
      quality of life in patients with mild-to-moderate depression. We also examined
      whether patients treated with ICBT returned to work more rapidly, that is, had
      fewer days of sick leave, than patients treated with TAU. DESIGN: This study is
      based on material from the PRIM-NET RCT that took place between 2010 and 2013.
      SETTING: Primary care centers in Region Vastra Gotaland, Sweden, population about
      1.6 million. PATIENTS: A total of 77 patients with depression randomized to
      either ICBT (46 patients) or TAU (31 patients). Mean age of participants was 35.8
      years, and 67.5% were women. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Work ability was measured
      with the Work Ability Index, depressive symptoms with Montgomery Asberg
      Depression Rating Scale - self-rating version (MADRS-S), quality of life with
      EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D), and number of sick leave days. RESULTS: Both groups showed an
      association between improved work ability and reduction of depressive symptoms
      and between improved work ability and better quality of life. ICBT could not be
      shown to improve work ability more than TAU among patients with mild-to-moderate
      depression. There were no differences between the groups concerning number of
      patients with sick leave or number of sick leave days. CONCLUSION: Our study
      indicates that a high level of work ability has an association with high health
      related quality of life in patients with mild-to-moderate depression, whether
      they are treated with ICBT or TAU. ICBT has previously been found to be cost
      effective and can be seen as a good alternative to TAU. In addition to the ICBT,
      an intervention oriented toward the work place might improve work ability and
      reduce the number of sick leave days among patients with depression.

PMID- 28579819
TI  - Outcomes and prognostic variables of radiofrequency zygapophyseal joint neurotomy
      in Utah workers' compensation patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The prevalence of radiofrequency zygapophyseal joint neurotomy (RFN) has
      increased substantially across the past decade. Limited research exists that has
      examined pre-procedure predictors of RFN outcomes, particularly within workers'
      compensation populations. The purpose of this study was to determine if pre
      procedure biopsychosocial variables are predictive of outcomes in a cohort of
      compensated Utah patients who have undergone RFN. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was
      a retrospective cohort study consisting of a review of pre-procedure medical
      records and a telephone outcome survey. The sample consisted of 101 compensated
      workers from Utah who had undergone RFN. Fifty-six patients (55%) responded to
      the outcome survey. Patients were an average of 46 months post-neurotomy at the
      time of follow-up. Outcome measures included patient satisfaction, disability
      status, Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, Stauffer-Coventry Index, and
      Short-Form Health Survey-36 (v.2). Statistical techniques utilized included
      frequencies, mean comparisons, and logistic and multiple regressions. RESULTS:
      Forty percent of patients were totally disabled at the time of follow-up. Lawyer
      involvement, older age, and a positive history of depression were predictors of
      poor outcomes in logistic and multiple regression equations. CONCLUSION:
      Presurgical biopsychosocial variables were predictive of multidimensional patient
      outcomes, and a high rate of total disability was observed. Additional research
      on the effectiveness of RFN for workers' compensation patients is recommended.

PMID- 28579820
TI  - Cannabis and intractable chronic pain: an explorative retrospective analysis of
      Italian cohort of 614 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite growing interest in the therapeutic use of cannabis to manage
      chronic pain, only limited data that address these issues are available. In
      recent years, a number of nations have introduced specific laws to allow patients
      to use cannabis preparations to treat a variety of medical conditions. In 2015,
      the Italian government authorized the use of cannabis to treat several diseases,
      including chronic pain generally, spasticity in multiple sclerosis, cachexia and
      anorexia among AIDS and cancer patients, glaucoma, Tourette syndrome, and certain
      types of epilepsy. We present the first snapshot of the Italian experience with
      cannabis use for chronic pain over the initial year of its use. METHODS: This is
      a retrospective case series analysis of all chronic pain patients treated with
      oral or vaporized cannabis in six hubs during the initial year following the
      approval of the new Italian law (December 2015 to November 2016). We evaluated
      routes of administration, types of cannabis products utilized, dosing, and
      effectiveness and safety of the treatment. RESULTS: As only one of the six
      centers has extensively used cannabinoids for intractable chronic pain (614
      patients of 659), only the population from Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria
      Pisana (Pisa) was considered. Cannabis tea was the primary mode of delivery, and
      in almost all cases, it was used in association with all the other pain
      treatments. Initial and follow-up cannabinoid concentrations were found to vary
      considerably. At initial follow-up, 76.2% of patients continued the treatment,
      and <15% stopped the treatment due to side effects (none of which were severe).
      CONCLUSION: We present the first analysis of Italian clinical practice of the use
      of cannabinoids for a large variety of chronic pain syndromes. From this initial
      snapshot, we determined that the treatment seems to be effective and safe,
      although more data and subsequent trials are needed to better investigate its
      ideal clinical indication.

PMID- 28579821
TI  - Opioid analgesics-related pharmacokinetic drug interactions: from the
      perspectives of evidence based on randomized controlled trials and clinical risk
      management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity results in complex polypharmacy which may bear a risk
      of drug interactions. A better understanding of opioid analgesics combination
      therapy used for pain management could help warrant medication safety, efficacy,
      and economic relevance. Until now there has been no review summarizing the opioid
      analgesics-related pharmacokinetic drug interactions from the perspective of
      evidence based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHOD: A literature
      search was performed using PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library, using a
      PRISMA flowchart. RESULTS: Fifty-two RCTs were included for data interpretation.
      Forty-two RCTs (80.8%) were conducted in healthy volunteers, whereas 10 RCTs
      (19.2%) enrolled true patients. None of the opioid-drug/herb pairs was listed as
      contraindications of opioids involved in this review. Circumstances in which
      opioid is comedicated as a precipitant drug include morphine-P2Y12 inhibitors,
      morphine-gabapentin, and methadone-zidovudine. Circumstances in which opioid is
      comedicated as an object drug include rifampin-opioids (morphine, tramadol,
      oxycodone, methadone), quinidine-opioids (morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, codeine,
      dihydrocodeine, methadone), antimycotics-opioids (buprenorphine, fentanyl,
      morphine, oxycodone, methadone, tilidine, tramadol), protease inhibitors-opioids
      (ritonavir, ritonavir/lopinavir-oxycodone, ritonavir-fentanyl, ritonavir
      tilidine), grapefruit juice-opioids (oxycodone, fentanyl, methadone),
      antidepressants-opioids (paroxetine-tramadol, paroxetine-hydrocodone, paroxetine
      oxycodone, escitalopram-tramadol), metoclopramide-morphine, amantadine-morphine,
      sumatriptan-butorphanol nasal sprays, ticlopidine-tramadol, St John's wort
      oxycodone, macrolides/ketolides-oxycodone, and levomepromazine-codeine. RCTs
      investigating the same combination, almost unanimously, drew consistent
      conclusions, except two RCTs on amantadine-intravenous morphine combination where
      a different amantadine dose was used and two RCTs on morphine-ticagrelor
      combination where healthy volunteers and true patients were enrolled,
      respectively. RCTs investigating in true patients may reflect a realistic
      clinical scenario and overcome the limitation of RCTs performed in healthy
      volunteers under standardized conditions. Further research opportunities are also
      presented in this review. CONCLUSION: Effective and safe combination therapy of
      opioids can be achieved by promoting the awareness of potential changes in
      therapeutic efficacy and toxicities, prescribing alternatives or changing
      administration strategy, tailoring dose, reviewing the appropriateness of orders,
      and paying attention to medication monitoring.

PMID- 28579822
TI  - Quantitative sensory testing measures individual pain responses in emergency
      department patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Refining and individualizing treatment of acute pain in the emergency
      department (ED) is a high priority, given that painful complaints are the most
      common reasons for ED visits. Few tools exist to objectively measure pain
      perception in the ED setting. We speculated that variation in perception of fixed
      painful stimuli would explain individual variation in reported pain and response
      to treatment among ED patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In three studies, we 1)
      describe performance characteristics of brief quantitative sensory testing (QST)
      in 50 healthy volunteers, 2) test effects of 10 mg oxycodone versus placebo on
      QST measures in 18 healthy volunteers, and 3) measure interindividual differences
      in nociception and treatment responses in 198 ED patients with a painful
      complaint during ED treatment. QST measures adapted for use in the ED included
      pressure sensation threshold, pressure pain threshold (PPT), pressure pain
      response (PPR), and cold pain tolerance (CPT) tests. RESULTS: First, all QST
      measures had high inter-rater reliability and test-retest reproducibility.
      Second, 10 mg oxycodone reduced PPR, increased PPT, and prolonged CPT. Third,
      baseline PPT and PPR revealed hyperalgesia in 31 (16%) ED subjects relative to
      healthy volunteers. In 173 (88%) ED subjects who completed repeat testing 30
      minutes after pain treatment, PPT increased and PPR decreased (Cohen's dz 0.10
      0.19). Verbal pain scores (0-10) for the ED complaint decreased by 2.2 (95%
      confidence intervals [CI]: 1.9, 2.6) (Cohen's dz 0.97) but did not covary with
      the changes in PPT and PPR (r=0.05-0.13). Treatment effects were greatest in ED
      subjects with a history of treatment for anxiety or depression (Cohen's dz 0.26
      0.43) or with baseline hyperalgesia (Cohen's dz 0.40-0.88). CONCLUSION: QST
      reveals individual differences in perception of fixed painful stimuli in ED
      patients, including hyperalgesia. Subgroups of ED patients with hyperalgesia and
      psychiatric history report larger treatment effects on ED pain and QST measures.

PMID- 28579823
TI  - Use of immediate-release opioids as supplemental analgesia during management of
      moderate-to-severe chronic pain with buprenorphine transdermal system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The buprenorphine transdermal system (BTDS) is approved in the US for
      the management of chronic pain. Due to its high affinity for MU-opioid receptors
      with a slow dissociation profile, buprenorphine may potentially displace or
      prevent the binding of competing MU-opioid-receptor agonists, including immediate
      release (IR) opioids, in a dose-dependent manner. Health care professionals may
      assume that the use of IR opioids for supplemental analgesia during BTDS therapy
      is not acceptable. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This post hoc analysis evaluated the
      use of IR opioids as supplemental analgesia during the management of moderate
      severe chronic pain with BTDS at 52 US sites (BUP3015S, NCT01125917). Patients
      were categorized into IR-opioid and no-IR-opioid groups. At each visit of the
      extension phase, adverse events, concomitant medications, and information from
      the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) were recorded. RESULTS: The most common
      supplemental IR opioids prescribed during BTDS treatment (n=354) were hydrocodone
      acetaminophen and oxycodone-acetaminophen. The mean daily dose of IR opioids
      (morphine equivalents) for supplemental analgesia was 22 mg. At baseline, BPI -
      pain intensity and BPI - interference scores were higher for patients in the IR
      opioid group. In both treatment groups, scores improved by week 4, and then were
      maintained throughout 6 months of the open-label extension trial. The incidence
      of treatment-emergent adverse events was similar in both groups. CONCLUSION:
      Patients who were prescribed IR opioids reported lower scores for BPI pain
      intensity and pain interference to levels similar to patients receiving BTDS
      without IR opioids, without increasing the rate or severity of treatment-emergent
      adverse events. Patients prescribed concomitant use of IR opioids with BTDS had
      greater treatment persistence. The results of this post hoc analysis provide
      support for the concomitant use of IR opioids for supplemental analgesia during
      the management of moderate-severe chronic pain with BTDS.

PMID- 28579824
TI  - Tumor necrosis factor alpha modulates sodium-activated potassium channel SLICK in
      rat dorsal horn neurons via p38 MAPK activation pathway.
AB  - The dorsal horn (DH) of the spinal cord is the integrative center that processes
      and transmits pain sensation. Abnormal changes in ion channel expression can
      enhance the excitability of pain-related DH neurons. Sodium-activated potassium
      (KNa) channels are highly expressed particularly in the central nervous system;
      however, information about whether rat DH neurons express the SLICK channel
      protein is lacking, and the direct effects on SLICK in response to inflammation
      and the potential signaling pathway mediating such effects are yet to be
      elucidated. Here, using cultured DH neurons, we have shown that tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha inhibits the total outward potassium current IK and the KNa current
      predominantly as well as induces a progressive loss of firing accommodation.
      However, we found that this change in channel activity is offset by the p38
      inhibitor SB202190, thereby suggesting the modulation of SLICK channel activity
      via the p38 MAPK pathway. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha modulation of KNa channels does not occur at the level of
      SLICK channel gating but arises from possible posttranslational modification.

PMID- 28579825
TI  - Durapain in symptomatic treatment of severe acute pain: a post-marketing,
      prospective, multicenter, observational study - PRIME study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness, overall tolerability, and
      gastrointestinal (GI) tolerability of Durapain (fixed dose combination of
      tramadol hydrochloride immediate release [50 mg] and diclofenac sodium sustained
      release [75 mg]) in symptomatic treatment of severe acute pain in physician's
      routine clinical practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective,
      multicenter, observational, post-marketing study, adult patients (aged 18-60
      years) with severe acute pain were treated with tramadol hydrochloride/diclofenac
      sodium as per approved prescribing information. Evaluation was done at base-line,
      day 2, and day 5. Primary end point was pain intensity difference from baseline
      to day 5. RESULTS: A total of 351 patients (mean age 44.2 years; male 43%; female
      57%) were included. The mean pain score was reduced from 9.2+/-1.09 at baseline
      to 2.8+/-1.73 at day 5 (p<0.0001). The number of patients with severe intensity
      of pain reduced from 100% at baseline to 18.3% at day 2 and 6.96% at day 5.
      According to the patient assessment, 68.36% of patients reported tolerability as
      "very good to good", whereas according to physician's assessment, "very good to
      good" tolerability was reported in 68.27% of patients. Five (1.43 %) patients
      discontinued the study because of adverse drug reaction. Five patients developed
      nine GI-related events of moderate intensity. Two patients developed three
      adverse reactions (burning sensation in urine, giddiness, and urine retention)
      other than GI events. No serious adverse drug reactions were reported during the
      study period. CONCLUSION: Tramadol hydrochloride/diclofenac sodium is an
      effective and well-tolerated treatment in Indian patients with severe acute pain.
      Treatment with tramadol hydrochloride/diclofenac sodium provides significant pain
      relief on day 2 and maintained until day 5 without any serious adverse reactions.

PMID- 28579828
TI  - The Effect of Quercetin on Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokines in a Prenatally
      Stressed Rat Model of Febrile Seizures.
AB  - Febrile seizures are childhood convulsions resulting from an infection that leads
      to an inflammatory response and subsequent convulsions. Prenatal stress has been
      shown to heighten the progression and intensity of febrile seizures. Current
      medications are costly and have adverse effects associated with prolonged use.
      Quercetin flavonoid exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, and anti-stress
      effects. This study was aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of quercetin
      in a prenatally stressed rat model of febrile seizures. We hypothesized that
      quercetin will alleviate the effects of prenatal stress in a febrile seizure rat
      model. On gestational day 13, Sprague-Dawley rat dams were subjected to restraint
      stress for 1 hour/d for 7 days. Febrile seizures were induced on postnatal day 14
      on rat pups by intraperitoneally injecting lipopolysaccharide followed by kainic
      acid and quercetin on seizure onset. Hippocampal tissue was harvested to profile
      cytokine concentrations. Our results show that quercetin suppresses prenatal
      stress-induced pro-inflammatory marker (interleukin 1 beta) levels, subsequently
      attenuating febrile seizures. This shows that quercetin can be therapeutic for
      febrile seizures in prenatally stressed individuals.

PMID- 28579829
TI  - Natural and synthetic progestins enrich cancer stem cell-like cells in hormone
      responsive human breast cancer cell populations in vitro.
AB  - Clinical trials and studies have shown that combination estrogen/progestin
      hormone replacement therapy, but not estrogen therapy alone or placebo, increases
      breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Using animal models, we have
      previously shown that both natural and synthetic progestins (including
      medroxyprogesterone acetate [MPA], a synthetic progestin used widely in the
      clinical setting) accelerate the development of breast tumors in vivo and
      increase their metastasis to lymph nodes. Based on these observations, we have
      hypothesized that progestin-induced breast cancer tumor growth and metastasis may
      be mediated by an enrichment of the cancer stem cell (CSC) pool. In this study,
      we used T47-D and BT-474 hormone-responsive human breast cancer cells to examine
      the effects of progestin on phenotypic and functional markers of CSCs in vitro.
      Both natural and synthetic progestins (10 nM) significantly increased protein
      expression of CD44, an important CSC marker in tumor cells. MPA increased the
      levels of both CD44 variants v3 and v6 associated with stem cell functions. This
      induction of CD44 was blocked by the antiprogestin RU-486, suggesting that this
      process is progesterone receptor (PR) dependent. CD44 induction was chiefly
      progestin dependent. Because RU-486 can bind other steroid receptors, we treated
      PR-negative T47-DCO-Y cells with MPA and found that MPA failed to induce CD44
      protein expression, confirming that PR is essential for progestin-mediated CD44
      induction in T47-D cells. Further, MPA treatment of T47-D cells significantly
      increased the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), another CSC marker.
      Finally, two synthetic progestins, MPA and norethindrone, significantly increased
      the ability of T47-D cells to form mammospheres, suggesting that enrichment of
      the CD44high, ALDHbright subpopulation of cancer cells induced by MPA exposure is
      of functional significance. Based on our observations, we contend that exposure
      of breast cancer cells to synthetic progestins leads to an enrichment of the CSC
      pool, supporting the development of progestin-accelerated tumors in vivo.

PMID- 28579830
TI  - Effect of reduced dietary fat on estradiol, adiponectin, and IGF-1 levels in
      postmenopausal women with breast cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In recent years, epidemiological studies have strongly related
      obesity with an increased risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer. The
      aromatization of fatty tissue increases the levels of estradiol and adiponectin,
      which is correlated with the body mass index (BMI). It is of interest to
      investigate the effect of reducing BMI on estradiol, adiponectin, and IGF-1, as
      reducing BMI could be a new strategy to limit the risk of recurrence during the
      adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to
      investigate the effect of reduced dietary fat on the levels of serum estradiol,
      adiponectin, and IGF-1 among postmenopausal Mexican women with breast cancer.
      METHODS: In this controlled clinical trial, 100 female patients were randomly
      divided into two groups and followed for six months. Group 1 (n = 50) was
      subjected to reduced dietary fat, whereas Group 2 (n = 50) was subjected to a
      control diet. The levels of serum estradiol and testosterone were determined
      using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, whereas the concentrations of
      adiponectin and IGF-1 were determined using a radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: The
      patients subjected to reduced dietary fat showed a significant difference in BMI
      (27.93 +/- 4.45 vs 26.05 +/- 2.65; p = 0.01) and waist circumference (99.92 vs
      91.59 cm; p = 0.0001) after the treatment. Moreover, a significant decrease in
      serum estradiol was observed (21.23 +/- 14.32 vs 16.05 +/- 10.25 ng/mL; p <
      0.001). The adiponectin concentration also decreased significantly (47.53 +/-
      12.19 vs 42.52 +/- 12.34 ug/mL; p = 0.004), while IGF-1 and testosterone did not
      show significant changes (p > 0.05). In addition, BMI had a relationship with
      serum adiponectin (r = -0.27; p = 0.02) and estradiol (r = 0.37; p = 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The current study shows that reducing BMI decreases serum estradiol
      and adiponectin. Large clinical trials are needed to investigate the role of
      adiponectin in breast cancer development in obese women.

PMID- 28579827
TI  - Optogenetic Modulation of Intracellular Signalling and Transcription: Focus on
      Neuronal Plasticity.
AB  - Several fields in neuroscience have been revolutionized by the advent of
      optogenetics, a technique that offers the possibility to modulate neuronal
      physiology in response to light stimulation. This innovative and far-reaching
      tool provided unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution to explore the
      activity of neural circuits underlying cognition and behaviour. With an
      exponential growth in the discovery and synthesis of new photosensitive actuators
      capable of modulating neuronal networks function, other fields in biology are
      experiencing a similar re-evolution. Here, we review the various optogenetic
      toolboxes developed to influence cellular physiology as well as the diverse ways
      in which these can be engineered to precisely modulate intracellular signalling
      and transcription. We also explore the processes required to successfully express
      and stimulate these photo-actuators in vivo before discussing how such tools can
      enlighten our understanding of neuronal plasticity at the systems level.

PMID- 28579831
TI  - The regulation of steroid receptors by epigallocatechin-3-gallate in breast
      cancer cells.
AB  - It has been reported that phytoestrogen epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)
      suppresses cancer cell proliferation and may have antitumor properties. In this
      study, we analyzed the effects of EGCG on estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and
      progesterone receptor in hormone-dependent T-47D breast cancer cells. Western
      blot analysis revealed EGCG induced a concentration-dependent decrease in ERalpha
      protein levels, with a 56% reduction occurring with 60 uM EGCG when compared to
      controls. Downregulation of ERalpha protein levels was observed after 24-hour co
      treatment of T-47D cells with 60 uM EGCG and 10 nM 17beta-estradiol (E2). The
      proliferative effect of E2 on cell viability was reversed when treated in
      combination with EGCG. In contrast, the combination of EGCG with the pure ER
      antagonist, ICI 182, 780, showed no further reduction in cell number as only 5%
      of the cells were viable after 6 days of treatment. These studies may provide
      further understanding of the interactions among flavonoids and steroid receptors
      in breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28579832
TI  - APF530 versus ondansetron, each in a guideline-recommended three-drug regimen,
      for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting due to
      anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide-based highly emetogenic chemotherapy
      regimens: a post hoc subgroup analysis of the Phase III randomized MAGIC trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: APF530, a novel extended-release granisetron injection, was superior
      to ondansetron in a guideline-recommended three-drug regimen in preventing
      delayed-phase chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) among patients
      receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC) in the double-blind Phase III
      Modified Absorption of Granisetron In the prevention of CINV (MAGIC) trial.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This MAGIC post hoc analysis evaluated CINV prevention
      efficacy and safety of APF530 versus ondansetron, each with fosaprepitant and
      dexamethasone, in patient subgroup receiving an anthracycline plus
      cyclophosphamide (AC) regimen. Patients were randomized 1:1 to APF530 500 mg
      subcutaneously (granisetron 10 mg) or ondansetron 0.15 mg/kg intravenously (IV)
      (<=16 mg); stratification was by planned cisplatin >=50 mg/m2 (yes/no). Patients
      were to receive fosaprepitant 150 mg IV and dexamethasone 12 mg IV on day 1, then
      dexamethasone 8 mg orally once daily on day 2 and twice daily on days 3 and 4.
      Patients were mostly younger females (APF530 arm, mean age 54.1 years, female,
      99.3%; ondansetron arm, 53.8 years, female 98.3%). The primary end point was
      delayed-phase (>24-120 hours) complete response (CR). RESULTS: APF530 versus
      ondansetron regimens achieved numerically better CINV control in delayed and
      overall (0-120 hours) phases for CR, complete control, total response, rescue
      medication use, and proportion with no nausea. APF530 trends are consistent with
      the overall population, although not statistically superior given the
      underpowered AC subgroup analysis. The APF530 regimen in this population was
      generally well tolerated, with safety comparable to that of the overall
      population. CONCLUSION: APF530 plus fosaprepitant and dexamethasone effectively
      prevented CINV among patients receiving AC-based HEC, a large subgroup in whom
      CINV control has traditionally been challenging.

PMID- 28579826
TI  - Inflammation and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Pancreatic Ductal
      Adenocarcinoma: Fighting Against Multiple Opponents.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic
      cancer and one of the most lethal human cancers. Inflammation is a critical
      component in PDAC initiation and progression. Inflammation also contributes to
      the aggressiveness of PDAC indirectly via induction of epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT), altogether leading to enhanced resistance to chemotherapy and
      poor survival rates. This review gives an overview of the key pro-inflammatory
      signaling pathways involved in PDAC pathogenesis and discusses the role of
      inflammation in induction of EMT and development of chemoresistance in patients
      with PDAC.

PMID- 28579833
TI  - Multiple myeloma in Niger Delta, Nigeria: complications and the outcome of
      palliative interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple myeloma (MM) is one of the hematological malignancies that
      require palliative care. This is because of the life-threatening nature and the
      suffering associated with the illness. The aim of this study is to bring to the
      fore the complications experienced by people living with MM in the Niger-Delta
      region of Nigeria and the outcome of various palliative interventions. METHODS:
      This was a 10-year multi-center retrospective study of 26 patients diagnosed and
      managed in three major centers in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria from January
      2003 to December 2012. Information on the clinical, laboratory, radiological
      data, and palliative treatment was obtained at presentation and subsequently at
      intervals of 3 months until the patient was lost to follow-up. RESULT: The mean
      duration from onset of symptoms to diagnosis was 13.12 months (95% CI, 6.65
      19.58). A total of 16 (61.5%), eight (30.8%), and two subjects (7.7%) presented
      in Durie-Salmon (DS) stages III, II, and I, respectively. The complications
      presented by patients at diagnoses included bone pain (84.6%), anemia (61.5%),
      nephropathy (23.1%), and hemiplegia (35%). All the patients received analgesics,
      while 50.0% received blood transfusion, 56.7% had surgery performed, 19% had
      hemodialysis, and 3.8% received radiotherapy. A total of 10 (38%) patients
      benefited from bisphosphonates (BPs). A total of 57.6% of patients were on
      melphalan-prednisone (MP) double regimen, while 19% and 8% patients were on MP
      thalidomide and MP-bortezomib triple regimens, respectively. A total of 3.8% of
      patients at DS stage IIIB disease had autologous stem-cell transplantation
      (ASCT). Only 7.6% of the myeloma patients survived up to 5 years post diagnosis.
      The overall mean survival interval was 39.7 months (95% CI, 32.1-47.2).
      CONCLUSION: Late diagnosis and inadequate palliative care account for major
      complications encountered by MM patients in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria.
      This could be responsible for the poor prognostic outcome and low survival
      interval of MM individuals in this region. There is, therefore, a need to improve
      the quality of palliative care received by myeloma patients in this region. This
      is achievable via provision of relevant and affordable health care facilities for
      diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

PMID- 28579834
TI  - Hypoglycemia: a review of definitions used in clinical trials evaluating
      antihyperglycemic drugs for diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the severity and potential impact of heterogeneity in
      definitions of hypoglycemia used in diabetes research, we aimed to review the
      hypoglycemia definitions adopted in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS:
      We reviewed 109 RCTs included in the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies
      in Health reports for the second- and third-line therapy for the patients with
      type 2 diabetes (T2D). RESULTS: Nearly 60% (n=66) of the studies reviewed
      presented the definitions for overall hypoglycemia, and another 20% (n=22) of the
      studies reported the results for hypoglycemia but did not report a definition.
      Among these 66 studies, only 9 (14%) followed the American Diabetes
      Association/European Medicines Agency specified guidelines to define
      hypoglycemia, with an exact threshold of plasma glucose <=3.9 mmol/L. Fifty-two
      of the 66 studies (79%) used a threshold considerably lower than the recommended
      <=3.9 mmol/L, and 16 studies used a threshold between 3.8 and 4.0 mmol/L. The
      proportion of the trials that used a cutoff value of <3.1 mmol/L appeared to be
      slightly similar among the more commonly used non-insulin treatments, GLP-1s (7
      of 18 [39%]), thiazolidinediones (TZDs; 6 of 11 [55%]), DPP-4s (12 of 19 [64%]),
      and sulfonylureas (11 of 20 [55%]). Among trials with intermediate-long-acting
      insulins (neutral protamine Hagedorn insulin, detemir, glargine), 7 of 26 trials
      (27%) used a cutoff of <3.1 mmol/L. The definition of severe hypoglycemia was
      also subject to substantial heterogeneity, in both the utilized threshold and
      accompanying soft definitions. CONCLUSION: This review demonstrates that
      substantial heterogeneity exists in the definition of overall, severe/major, and
      nocturnal hypoglycemia across RCTs investigating T2D interventions.

PMID- 28579835
TI  - Transmission of health care-associated infections from roommates and prior room
      occupants: a systematic review.
AB  - Pathogens that cause health care-associated infections (HAIs) are known to
      survive on surfaces and equipment in health care environments despite routine
      cleaning. As a result, the infection status of prior room occupants and roommates
      may play a role in HAI transmission. We performed a systematic review of the
      literature evaluating the association between patients' exposure to
      infected/colonized hospital roommates or prior room occupants and their risk of
      infection/colonization with the same organism. A PubMed search for English
      articles published in 1990-2014 yielded 330 studies, which were screened by three
      reviewers. Eighteen articles met our inclusion criteria. Multiple studies
      reported positive associations between infection and exposure to roommates with
      influenza and group A streptococcus, but no associations were found for
      Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus,
      Cryptosporidium parvum, or Pseudomonas cepacia; findings were mixed for
      vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Positive associations were found between
      infection/colonization and exposure to rooms previously occupied by patients with
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, but no associations were
      found for resistant Gram-negative organisms; findings were mixed for C.
      difficile, methicillin-resistant S. aureus, and VRE. Although the majority of
      studies suggest a link between exposure to infected/colonized roommates and prior
      room occupants, methodological improvements such as increasing the statistical
      power and conducting universal screening for colonization would provide more
      definitive evidence needed to establish causality.

PMID- 28579838
TI  - Extraordinary and prolonged erlotinib-induced clinical response in a patient with
      EGFR wild-type squamous lung cancer in third-line therapy: a case report.
AB  - Several small molecules, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors (TKIs), such as gefitinib, erlotinib and afatinib, have been
      demonstrated to significantly improve clinical outcomes in patients with advanced
      EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but erlotinib activity in EGFR
      wild-type squamous carcinoma is still highly debated. Here, we describe a
      prolonged and unexpected clinical response to erlotinib in a male former heavy
      cigarette smoker with wild-type EGFR squamous-cell cancer.

PMID- 28579837
TI  - Knowledge about cervical cancer screening and its practice among female health
      care workers in southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality
      among the women in the world. Early screening for cervical cancer is a key
      intervention in reduction of maternal deaths. Health care workers have a
      significant contribution to improve cervical cancer screening practice among
      women. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of cervical
      cancer screening among female health care workers in southern Ethiopia. METHODS:
      Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted during March and April,
      2015. All hospitals in Hawassa city administration and Sidama zone were
      purposively selected. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw the
      health centers. After proportional allocations to their respective health
      facilities, a total of 367 female health workers were selected by simple random
      sampling technique. A structured and pretested questionnaire was used to collect
      the data. Data were entered to SPSS version 20.0 for further analysis. Logistic
      regression analyses were used to see the association of different variables.
      RESULTS: Out of the total respondents, 319 (86.9%) had a good level of knowledge
      on cervical cancer. Similarly, a majority of them, 329 (89.6%), 321 (87.5%), and
      295 (80.4%), knew about the risk factors, symptoms, and outcomes of cervical
      cancer, respectively. More than two thirds of the respondents, 283 (77.1%), knew
      that there is a procedure used to detect premalignant cervical lesions and 138
      (37.6%) of them mentioned visual inspection with acetic acid as a screening
      method. In this study, only 42 (11.4%) of the respondents were screened for
      cervical cancer (confidence interval [CI]: 8.7, 13.9). Being a physician
      (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.12, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.79) and working in a cervical
      cancer screening center (AOR =0.14, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.68) had a lower odds of
      cervical cancer screening practices. CONCLUSIONS: Significant numbers of health
      care workers were knowledgeable on cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening
      among health care workers in southern Ethiopia was found to be low. Being a
      physician and working in a screening center had lower odds of cervical cancer
      screening practice. In spite of having adequate knowledge on cervical cancer the
      reasons for low practice of cervical cancer screening among health care workers
      needs to be investigated.

PMID- 28579839
TI  - Solitary neurofibroma of eyelid masquerading as chalazion.
AB  - Neurofibroma, a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor, usually appears together
      with cafe-au-lait spots, iris nodules, and other tumors within the scope of
      neurofibromatosis von Recklinghausen type 1 tumors. A solitary neurofibroma of
      the eyelid is relatively rare. In this case report, we present a 39-year-old
      woman who had a lesion on the eyelid crease, previously treated as a chalazion.
      Due to persistent wound crusting, the lesion was excised above the tarsus.
      Pathological examination revealed a solitary neurofibroma. The patient did not
      have other clinical symptoms of neurofibromatosis, and there was no recurrence of
      the nodule during the 1-year follow-up.

PMID- 28579836
TI  - Update on the renal toxicity of iodinated contrast drugs used in clinical
      medicine.
AB  - An important side effect of diagnostic contrast drugs is contrast-induced acute
      kidney injury (CI-AKI; a sudden decrease in renal function) occurring 48-72 hours
      after injection of a contrast drug that cannot be attributed to other causes. Its
      existence has recently been challenged, because of some retrospective studies in
      which the incidence of AKI was not different between subjects who received a
      contrast drug and those who did not, even using propensity score matching to
      prevent selection bias. For some authors, only patients with estimated glomerular
      filtration rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 are at significant risk of CI-AKI. Most agree
      that when renal function is normal, there is no CI-AKI risk. Many experimental
      studies, however, are in favor of the existence of CI-AKI. Contrast drugs have
      been shown to cause the following changes: renal vasoconstriction, resulting in a
      rise in intrarenal resistance (decrease in renal blood flow and glomerular
      filtration rate and medullary hypoxia); epithelial vacuolization and dilatation
      and necrosis of proximal tubules; potentiation of angiotensin II effects,
      reducing nitric oxide (NO) and causing direct constriction of descending vasa
      recta, leading to formation of reactive oxygen species in isolated descending
      vasa recta of rats microperfused with a solution of iodixanol; increasing active
      sodium reabsorption in the thick ascending limbs of Henle's loop (increasing O2
      demand and consequently medullary hypoxia); direct cytotoxic effects on
      endothelial and tubular epithelial cells (decrease in release of NO in vasa
      recta); and reducing cell survival, due to decreased activation of Akt and
      ERK1/2, kinases involved in cell survival/proliferation. Prevention is mainly
      based on extracellular volume expansion, statins, and N-acetylcysteine;
      conflicting results have been obtained with nebivolol, furosemide, calcium
      channel blockers, theophylline, and hemodialysis.

PMID- 28579840
TI  - Antecedents of positive self-disclosure online: an empirical study of US college
      students' Facebook usage.
AB  - This study investigates the factors predicting positive self-disclosure on social
      networking sites (SNSs). There is a formidable body of empirical research
      relating to online self-disclosure, but very few studies have assessed the
      antecedents of positive self-disclosure. To address this literature gap, the
      current study tests the effects of self-esteem, life satisfaction, social
      anxiety, privacy concerns, public self-consciousness (SC), and perceived
      collectivism on positive self-disclosure on SNSs. Data were collected online via
      Qualtrics in April 2013. Respondents were undergraduate students from the
      University of Connecticut. Using ordinary least squares regression, the current
      study found that self-esteem and perceived collectivism increased positive self
      disclosure, life satisfaction, and privacy concerns decreased positive self
      disclosure, and the effects of social anxiety and public SC were not significant.

PMID- 28579841
TI  - Handover checklist: testing a standardization process in an Italian hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to standardize and rationalize the handover, a
      critical and essential moment in common health care practices, through the
      realization of an efficient and standardized checklist, which could be used daily
      to ensure complete, thorough and effective handover. The principal purpose of the
      implementation of the handover is to reduce errors due to superficial and
      insufficient communication. METHODS: The "operative group" defined the phases to
      the realization of the delineated aims: at first, the direct observation and the
      consequent realization of a handover checklist model and then, the experimental
      phases (trials). The handover checklist model was used for a month and it was
      daily and duly completed by the doctors who took part in the trial. To prove the
      success of the study, three questionnaires were distributed on different
      occasions. RESULTS: Analyzing the answers to the questionnaires, the importance
      of the handover has come to light and that for the most part, the doctors
      consider it an essential and irreplaceable moment in daily health care work.
      Moreover, it became obvious that the use of the handover checklist guaranteed a
      considerable improvement in the traditional handover in terms of security,
      completeness, care continuity and clarity. The handover checklist was completely
      appreciated by the majority of the participant doctors who agree with the
      definitive introduction of it in their unit. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated the
      consistency of the handover checklist as an instrument to implement the handover
      and, indirectly, to improve the quality of the care.

PMID- 28579843
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomographic Angiography Imaging in Age-Related Macular
      Degeneration.
AB  - Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) is emerging as a rapid,
      noninvasive imaging modality that can provide detailed structural and flow
      information on retinal and choroidal vasculature. This review contains an
      introduction of OCTA and summarizes the studies to date on OCTA imaging in age
      related macular degeneration.

PMID- 28579845
TI  - Factors Affecting the Perceived Effectiveness of Pictorial Health Warnings on
      Cigarette Packages in Gulf Countries: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the perceived effectiveness of pictorial health warning
      (PHW) labels required by the Gulf Cooperation Council, to compare them with the
      Food and Drug Administration-approved PHW labels, and to determine factors
      affecting their perceived effectiveness. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a
      convenience sample of adult smokers and nonsmokers was conducted. The data were
      collected through a self-administered online questionnaire. The perceived
      effectiveness scores of PHW labels were calculated and compared among different
      subgroups using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Dunn multiple comparison test at
      a .05 significance level. RESULTS: Of the 90 people invited to participate in the
      survey, 77 (86%) completed it, with 39 (50%) nonsmokers, 22 (29%) smokers, and 16
      (21%) former smokers. Overall, labels having graphic images of illness or
      pathology are perceived to be most effective. Smokers generally perceived labels
      significantly less effective compared with former smokers and nonsmokers. Also,
      55 respondents (71%) suggested that the presence of a telephone quit-line would
      be effective. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking status and image type had the most effect on
      the perceived effectiveness of the PHW labels on cigarette packs. Pictorial
      health warning labels with graphic images of pathology and a telephone quit-line
      are perceived to be most effective.

PMID- 28579844
TI  - Health Effects of Waterpipe Tobacco Use: Getting the Public Health Message Just
      Right.
AB  - Many public health messages benchmark the harms of waterpipe tobacco against
      those of cigarettes, usually using numerical magnitudes of risk. This approach,
      although well intentioned, could be perceived as alarmist, damaging scientific
      credibility, and giving an unintended impression that one tobacco product is less
      harmful than the other. This commentary makes clear the harm waterpipe tobacco
      smoking poses to public health by describing its mechanism of use, consumption
      uptake, toxicologic profile, and documented health outcomes, as well as challenge
      existing thinking that toxicologic assessments are the most appropriate way to
      frame waterpipe tobacco health promotion messages. How can we describe the health
      effects of waterpipe tobacco without undermining its toxicity nor falling into
      the temptation of alarmist messaging? Several recommendations are provided.

PMID- 28579842
TI  - Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption.
AB  - Sleep plays a vital role in brain function and systemic physiology across many
      body systems. Problems with sleep are widely prevalent and include deficits in
      quantity and quality of sleep; sleep problems that impact the continuity of sleep
      are collectively referred to as sleep disruptions. Numerous factors contribute to
      sleep disruption, ranging from lifestyle and environmental factors to sleep
      disorders and other medical conditions. Sleep disruptions have substantial
      adverse short- and long-term health consequences. A literature search was
      conducted to provide a nonsystematic review of these health consequences (this
      review was designed to be nonsystematic to better focus on the topics of interest
      due to the myriad parameters affected by sleep). Sleep disruption is associated
      with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic effects, changes in circadian rhythms, and
      proinflammatory responses. In otherwise healthy adults, short-term consequences
      of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity, somatic pain, reduced
      quality of life, emotional distress and mood disorders, and cognitive, memory,
      and performance deficits. For adolescents, psychosocial health, school
      performance, and risk-taking behaviors are impacted by sleep disruption.
      Behavioral problems and cognitive functioning are associated with sleep
      disruption in children. Long-term consequences of sleep disruption in otherwise
      healthy individuals include hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease,
      weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and
      colorectal cancer. All-cause mortality is also increased in men with sleep
      disturbances. For those with underlying medical conditions, sleep disruption may
      diminish the health-related quality of life of children and adolescents and may
      worsen the severity of common gastrointestinal disorders. As a result of the
      potential consequences of sleep disruption, health care professionals should be
      cognizant of how managing underlying medical conditions may help to optimize
      sleep continuity and consider prescribing interventions that minimize sleep
      disruption.

PMID- 28579846
TI  - Analysis of blood donor pre-donation deferral in Dubai: characteristics and
      reasons.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To ensure an adequate and safe blood supply, it is crucial to select
      suitable donors according to stringent eligibility criteria. Understanding the
      reasons for donor deferral can help in planning more efficient recruitment
      strategies and evaluating donor selection criteria. This study aims to define
      donor pre-donation deferral rates, causes of deferral, and characteristics of
      deferred donors in Dubai. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was
      conducted on all donors who presented for allogeneic blood donation between
      January 1, 2010, until June 30, 2013, in Dubai Blood Donation Centre, accredited
      by the American Association of Blood Banks. The donation and deferral data were
      analyzed to determine the demographic characteristics of accepted and deferred
      donors, and frequency analyses were also conducted. RESULTS: Among 142,431
      individuals presenting during the study period, 114,827 (80.6%) were accepted for
      donation, and 27,604 (19.4%) were deferred. The overall proportion of deferrals
      was higher among individuals less than 21 years old (35%, P<0.000), females (44%
      were deferred compared to 15% of males, P<0.0001), and first-time donors (22%
      were deferred vs 14% of repeat donors, P<0.0001). The main causes for a temporary
      deferral were low hemoglobin and high blood pressure. DISCUSSION: The deferral
      rate among blood donors in Dubai is relatively high compared to the
      internationally reported rates. This rate was higher among first-time donors and
      females, with low hemoglobin as the major factor leading to a temporary deferral
      of donors. Strategies to mitigate deferral and improve blood donor retention are
      urged in Dubai to avoid additional stress on the blood supply.

PMID- 28579847
TI  - Correlation Between Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Levels and
      Expression on Pancreatic and Rectal Cancer Tissue.
AB  - Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-targeted imaging and therapeutic agents are being
      tested in clinical trials. If CEA overexpression in malignant tissue corresponds
      with elevated serum CEA, serum CEA could assist in selecting patients who may
      benefit from CEA-targeted agents. This study aims to assess the relationship
      between serum CEA and CEA expression in pancreatic (n = 20) and rectal cancer
      tissues (n = 35) using histopathology. According to local laboratory standards, a
      serum CEA >3 ng/mL was considered elevated. In pancreatic cancer patients a
      significant correlation between serum CEA and percentage of CEA-expressing tumor
      cells was observed (P = .04, rho = .47). All 6 patients with homogeneous CEA
      expression in the tumor had a serum CEA >3 ng/mL. Most rectal cancer tissues
      (32/35) showed homogeneous CEA expression, independent of serum CEA levels. This
      study suggests that selection of pancreatic cancer patients for CEA-targeted
      agents via serum CEA appears adequate. For selection of rectal cancer patients,
      serum CEA levels are not informative.

PMID- 28579848
TI  - Gender nonconforming youth: current perspectives.
AB  - Beginning with a case vignette, a discussion follows of the reformulation of
      theories of gender development taking into consideration the recent upsurge of
      gender nonconforming and transgender youth presenting for gender services and
      also in the culture at large. The three predominant models of pediatric gender
      care are reviewed and critiqued, along with a presentation of the recently
      developed interdisciplinary model of gender care optimal in the treatment of
      gender nonconforming youth seeking either puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

PMID- 28579849
TI  - Vulnerable Habitats Alter African Meliponine Bee's (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
      Assemblages in an Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot.
AB  - Habitat degradation has over time formed synergy with other factors to contribute
      to dwindling populations of both fauna and flora by altering their habitats. The
      disturbance of natural habitats affects the diversity of both vertebrates and
      invertebrates by altering both feeding and nesting sites for which organisms are
      known to depend on for survival. Little is known of the extent to which
      vulnerable habitats could shape the diversity of most indigent pollinators such
      as African meliponine bee species in tropical ecosystems. This study was
      conducted to determine how disturbance could shape the natural occurrence of
      African meliponine bee species in different ecological habitats of Taita Hills,
      leading to changes in their diversity. A total of four species depicted by the
      Renyi diversity profile was recorded in five of the six main habitat types
      surveyed, and a further extrapolation with Shannon index (EH) also predicted the
      highest species richness of 4.24 in a deciduous habitat type. These meliponine
      bee species (Hypotrigona gribodoi, Hypotrigona ruspolii, Meliponula ferruginea
      (black), and Plebeina hildebrandti) were observed to be unevenly distributed
      across all habitats, further indicating that mixed deciduous habitat was more
      diverse than acacia-dominated bush lands, grasslands, and exotic forest patches.
      Geometric morphometrics categorized all four meliponine bee species into two
      major clusters-cluster 1 (H gribodoi, H ruspolii, M ferruginea (black)) and
      cluster 2 (P hildebrandti)-and further discriminated populations against the 4
      potential habitats they are likely to persist or survive in. Each habitat
      appeared to consist of a cluster of subpopulations and may possibly reveal
      ecotypes within the four meliponine populations. This has revealed that
      unprecedented conversions of natural habitats to agroecosystems are a key driving
      factor causing increased habitat isolation and vulnerability in this Afromontane
      region which may potentially distort local assemblages of native pollinators,
      such as meliponine bee species.

PMID- 28579850
TI  - Coexisting Sickle Cell Anemia and Sarcoidosis: A Management Conundrum!
AB  - Sickle cell disease and Sarcoidosis are conditions that are more common in the
      African American population. In this report we share an unfortunate patient who
      had hepatic sarcoidosis but could not receive steroids since that precipitated
      acute liver failure. We have discussed potential therapy options but we need more
      options that improve mortality.

PMID- 28579851
TI  - Transformation of Follicular Lymphoma to a High-Grade B-Cell Lymphoma With MYC
      and BCL2 Translocations and Overlapping Features of Burkitt Lymphoma and Acute
      Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Most commonly, histologic transformation (HT) from follicular lymphoma (FL)
      manifests as a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (DLBCL,
      NOS). Less frequently, HT may result in a high-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBL) with
      MYC and B-cell lymphoma protein 2 (BCL2) and/or BCL6 gene rearrangements, also
      known as "double-hit" or "triple-hit" lymphomas. In the 2016 revision of the
      World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lymphoid neoplasms, the
      category B-cell lymphoma, unclassifiable was eliminated due to its vague criteria
      and limiting diagnostic benefit. Instead, the WHO introduced the HGBL category,
      characterized by MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements. Cases that present as
      an intermediate phenotype of DLBCL and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) will fall within
      this HGBL category. Very rarely, HT results in both the intermediate DLBCL and BL
      phenotypes and exhibits lymphoblastic features, in which case the WHO recommends
      that this morphologic appearance should be noted. In comparison with de novo
      patients with DLBCL, NOS, those with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 gene rearrangements
      have a worse prognosis. A 63-year-old woman presented with left neck adenopathy.
      Laboratory assessments, including complete blood count, complete metabolic panel,
      serum lactate dehydrogenase, and beta2-microglobulin, were all normal. A whole
      body computerized tomographic (CT) scan revealed diffuse adenopathy above and
      below the diaphragm. An excisional node biopsy showed grade 3A nodular FL. The
      Ki67 labeling index was 40% to 50%. A bone marrow biopsy showed a small focus of
      paratrabecular CD20+ lymphoid aggregates. She received 6 cycles of bendamustine
      (90 mg/m2 on days +1 and +2) and rituximab (375 mg/m2 on day +2), with each cycle
      delivered every 4 weeks. A follow-up CT scan at completion of therapy showed a
      partial response with resolution of axillary adenopathy and a dramatic shrinkage
      of the large retroperitoneal nodes. After 18 months, she had crampy abdominal
      pain in the absence of B symptoms. Positron emission tomography with 2-deoxy-2
      [fluorine-18] fluoro-d-glucose integrated with CT (18F-FDG PET/CT) scan showed
      widespread adenopathy, diffuse splenic involvement, and substantial marrow
      involvement. Biopsy of a 2.4-cm right axillary node (SUVmax of 16.1) showed
      involvement by grade 3A FL with a predominant nodular pattern of growth. A bone
      marrow biopsy once again showed only a small focus of FL. She received idelalisib
      (150 mg twice daily) and rituximab (375 mg/m2, monthly) beginning May 2015. After
      4 cycles, a repeat CT scan showed a complete radiographic response. Idelalisib
      was subsequently held while she received corticosteroids for immune-mediated
      colitis. A month later, she restarted idelalisib with a 50% dose reduction. After
      2 weeks, she returned to clinic complaining of bilateral hip and low lumbar
      discomfort but no B symptoms. A restaging 18F-FDG PET/CT in January 2016 showed
      dramatic marrow uptake. A bone marrow aspirate showed sheets of tumor cells
      representing a spectrum from intermediate-sized cells with lymphoblastic features
      to very large atypical cells with multiple nucleoli. Two distinct histologies
      were present; one remained consistent with the patient's known FL with a
      predominant nodular pattern and the other consistent with HT (the large atypical
      cells expressed PAX5, CD10, BCL2, and c-MYC and were negative for CD20, MPO,
      CD34, CD30, and BCL6). Focal areas showed faint, heterogeneous expression of
      terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase best seen on the clot section. Ki67
      proliferation index was high (4+/4). Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis
      showed 2 populations with MYC amplification and/or rearrangement and no evidence
      of BCL6 rearrangement; a karyotype analysis showed a complex abnormal female
      karyotype with t(14;18) and multiple structural and numerical abnormalities. She
      started dose-adjusted rituximab, etoposide, prednisone, vincristine,
      cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin with concomitant prophylactic intrathecal
      methotrexate and cytarabine. She had but a short-lived response before dying in
      hospice from progressive lymphoma. Whether idelalisib could provide a
      microenvironment for selection of more aggressive clones needs to be addressed.
      Our patient's clinical course is confounded by the incorporation of idelalisib
      while being further complicated by the complexity of HT and the mechanisms in
      which first-line chemotherapy regimens affect double-hit lymphoma.

PMID- 28579853
TI  - Kasabach-Merritt Phenomenon: Classic Presentation and Management Options.
AB  - Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon (KMP) is a rare consumptive coagulopathy associated
      with specific vascular tumors, kaposiform hemangioendothelioma, and tufted
      angioma. Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon, characterized by profound thrombocytopenia,
      hypofibrinogenemia, elevated fibrin split products, and rapid tumor growth, can
      be life-threatening. Severe symptomatic anemia may also be present. With prompt
      diagnosis and management, KMP can resolve and vascular tumors have been shown to
      regress. This review highlights the clinical presentation, histopathology,
      management, and treatment of KMP associated with kaposiform hemangioendothelioma,
      and less frequently tufted angioma. A classic clinical case is described to
      illustrate the presentation and our management of a patient with KMP.

PMID- 28579852
TI  - Treatment of Myelofibrosis: Old and New Strategies.
AB  - Myelofibrosis (MF) is a BCR-ABL1-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm that is
      mainly characterised by reactive bone marrow fibrosis, extramedullary
      haematopoiesis, anaemia, hepatosplenomegaly, constitutional symptoms, leukaemic
      progression, and shortened survival. As such, this malignancy is still orphan of
      curative treatments; indeed, the only treatment that has a clearly demonstrated
      impact on disease progression is allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation, but only a minority of patients are eligible for such intensive
      therapy. However, more recently, the discovery of JAK2 mutations has also led to
      the development of small-molecule JAK1/2 inhibitors, the first of which,
      ruxolitinib, has been approved for the treatment of MF in the United States and
      Europe. In this article, we report on old and new therapeutic strategies that
      proved effective in early preclinical and clinical trials, and subsequently in
      the daily clinical practice, for patients with MF, particularly concerning the
      topics of anaemia, splenomegaly, iron overload, and allogeneic stem cell
      transplantation.

PMID- 28579854
TI  - Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Inv(16)(p13q22) Associated With Hidden Systemic
      Mastocytosis: Case Report and Review of Literature.
AB  - Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a condition associated with clonal neoplastic
      proliferation of mast cells. In up to 40% of systemic mastocytosis cases, an
      associated clonal hematological disease of non-mast cell lineage, such as acute
      myeloid leukemia (AML), is diagnosed before, simultaneously with, or after the
      diagnosis of SM. Herein, we report a case of a 30-year-old man diagnosed with AML
      with inv(16) (p13;q22) CBFB:MYH11. Associated mastocytosis was not noted at
      diagnosis and was only detected in the bone marrow at time of remission after
      successful chemotherapy. The diagnosis of mastocytosis was based on the
      demonstration of a multifocal dense mast cell infiltrate in the marrow biopsy
      with aberrant immunophenotype, with coexpression of tryptase, CD117, and CD25.
      The mast cells showed atypical morphology mostly with irregular nuclear contour,
      bilobed or multilobed nuclei with cytoplasmic hypogranulation or irregular
      metachromatic granule distribution, and some cells with eccentric nucleus or
      spindle shape. Reexamination of the pretherapeutic bone marrow with immunostain
      for tryptase and CD25 revealed that mastocytosis was present from the start but
      masked by extensive blast proliferation. This case indicates that mast cell
      infiltrates are sometimes underappreciated at the original diagnosis of AML with
      inv(16) and that the concurrent diagnosis of SM with AML requires a high index of
      suspicion supported with comprehensive morphologic and immunohistochemical
      evaluation for a neoplastic mast cell proliferation.

PMID- 28579856
TI  - Estimation of Platelet Counts and Other Hematological Parameters in
      Pseudothrombocytopenia Using Alternative Anticoagulant: Magnesium Sulfate.
AB  - The platelet count, mean platelet volume, and other hematological parameters were
      compared in blood samples anticoagulated with MgSO4 and EDTA. A total of 15
      samples were taken, and the platelet counts were observed to be significantly
      high in MgSO4-anticoagulated blood samples ranging from 53 * 103 to 499 *
      103/MUL, whereas in EDTA-anticoagulated blood samples, the counts ranged from 10
      * 103 to 353 * 103/MUL. This increased platelet count was also statistically
      significant with the P value being .005. The morphology of red blood cells and
      white blood cells in Leishman-stained smears from MgSO4-anticoagulated blood was
      below average. In conclusion, MgSO4 can be used as an alternative anticoagulant
      only to estimate the platelet counts in EDTA-induced pseudothrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28579855
TI  - Thromboprophylaxis With Apixaban in Patients Undergoing Major Orthopedic Surgery:
      Meta-Analysis and Trial-Sequential Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a potentially fatal complication of
      orthopedic surgery, and until recently, few antithrombotic compounds were
      available for postoperative thromboprophylaxis. The introduction of the non
      vitamin K antagonists oral anticoagulants (NOAC), including apixaban, has
      extended the therapeutic armamentarium in this field. Therefore, estimation of
      NOAC net clinical benefit in comparison with the established treatment is needed
      to inform clinical decision making. OBJECTIVES: Systematic review to assess the
      efficacy and safety of apixaban 2.5 mg twice a day versus low-molecular-weight
      heparins (LMWH) for thromboprophylaxis in patients undergoing knee or hip
      replacement. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched from
      inception to September 2016, other systematic reviews, reference lists, and
      experts were consulted. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTION:
      All major orthopedic surgery randomized controlled trials comparing apixaban 2.5
      mg twice daily with LMWH, reporting thrombotic and bleeding events. DATA
      EXTRACTION: Two independent reviewers, using a predetermined form. STUDY
      APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS: The Cochrane tool to assess risk bias was used
      by two independent authors. RevMan software was used to estimate pooled risk
      ratio (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) using random-effects meta
      analysis. Trial sequential analysis (TSA) was performed in statistical
      significant results to evaluate whether cumulative sample size was powered for
      the obtained effect. Overall confidence in cumulative evidence was assessed using
      the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE)
      Working Group methodology. RESULTS: Four studies comparing apixaban 2.5 mg twice
      daily with LMWH were included, with a total of 11.828 patients (55% undergoing
      knee and 45% hip replacement). The overall risk of bias across studies was low.
      In comparison with LMWH (all regimens), apixaban showed a significantly lower
      risk of VTE events and overall mortality combined (RR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.42-0.95,
      I2 = 84%, n = 8346), but not of major VTE events (RR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.32-1.19, I2
      = 63%, n = 9493), or of symptomatic VTE events and VTE-related mortality combined
      (RR: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.68-1.90, I2 = 0%, n = 11 879). Trial sequential analysis
      showed that the risk reduction obtained for VTE and mortality was based on
      underpowered cumulative sample size and effect dimension. Subgroup analysis
      according to LMWH regimens showed that apixaban reduced the risk of VTE events
      and overall mortality, and major VTE events, when compared with LMWH once daily,
      without differences between apixaban and LMWH twice daily. CONCLUSIONS: There is
      low to moderate evidence that in patients undergoing knee or hip replacement,
      apixaban seems equally effective and safe to LMWH twice a day. When compared with
      LMWH once a day, apixaban seems a superior thromboprophylaxis option. However,
      the results are underpowered which precludes definite answers regarding the true
      net clinical benefit of apixaban versus LMWH in this clinical context.

PMID- 28579858
TI  - Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Incremental Value in a Series of 361
      Patients Demonstrating Cost Savings and Clinical Benefits: An Outcome-Based
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the clinical impact and cost
      benefit of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). In the face of
      current health care cost concerns, cardiac imaging modalities have come under
      focused review. Data related to CMR clinical impact and cost-benefit are lacking.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Retrospective review of 361 consecutive patients (pts) who
      underwent CMR exams was conducted. Indications for CMR were tabulated for
      appropriateness criteria. Components of the CMR exam were identified along with
      evidence of clinical impact. The cost of each CMR exam was ascertained along with
      cost savings attributable to the CMR exam for calculation of an incremental cost
      effectiveness ratio. A total of 354 of 361 pts (98%) had diagnostic quality
      studies. Of the 361 pts, 350 (97%) had at least 1 published Appropriateness
      Criterion for CMR. A significant clinical impact attributable to CMR exam results
      was observed in 256 of 361 pts (71%). The CMR exam resulted in a new diagnosis in
      69 of 361 (27%) pts. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging results avoided
      invasive procedures in 38 (11%) pts and prevented additional diagnostic testing
      in 26 (7%) pts. Comparison of health care savings using CMR as opposed to current
      standards of care showed a net cost savings of $833 037, ie, per patient cost
      savings of $2308. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging provides
      diagnostic image quality in >98% of cases. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance
      imaging findings have documentable clinical impact on patient management in 71%
      of pts undergoing the exam, in a cost beneficial manner.

PMID- 28579859
TI  - Clot in Lung, Clot in Heart: A Case Report of Tumor-Like Thrombus in Right
      Atrium.
AB  - Tumor-like formation of thrombus in the right atrial cavity is rare. It may be
      mistaken for a myxoma. The exact pathophysiology of an isolated thrombus in the
      heart is still unclear. Management to prevent complications such as pulmonary
      thromboembolism depends on the clinical judgment of a cardiologist. This report
      describes a 76-year-old woman with right atrial thrombus causing subsequent
      pulmonary thromboembolism in right lung. She initially presented to us with
      pulmonary embolism, and later, an incidental finding of a mass in her right
      atrium revealed an association of thrombus in heart with thrombus in lung. The
      challenging management was to resect this thrombus which was fixed to atrial
      septum, and a trial of anticoagulation did not resolve it. Exact management of
      such incidental findings in right heart cavities is not well established. Some
      cases may benefit from resection of such formed fixed thrombus.

PMID- 28579857
TI  - Toward a Biology-Driven Treatment Strategy for Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma.
AB  - T-cell and natural killer-cell lymphomas are a relatively rare and heterogeneous
      group of diseases that are difficult to treat and usually have poor outcomes. To
      date, therapeutic interventions are of limited efficacy and there is a pressing
      need to find better treatments. In recent years, advances in molecular biology
      have helped to elucidate the underlying genetic complexity of this group of
      diseases and to identify mutations and signaling pathways involved in
      lymphomagenesis. In this review, we highlight the unique biological
      characteristics of some of the different subtypes and discuss how these may be
      targeted to provide more individualized and effective treatment approaches.

PMID- 28579860
TI  - Distinguishing Motor Weakness From Impaired Spatial Awareness: A Helping Hand!
AB  - Our patient, aged 73 years, had background peripheral neuropathy of unknown
      cause, stable for several years, which caused some difficulty in walking on
      uneven ground. He attended for a teaching session but now staggered in, a new
      development. He had apparent weakness of his right arm, but there was difficulty
      in distinguishing motor weakness from impaired spatial awareness suggestive of
      parietal lobe dysfunction. With the patient seated, eyes closed, and left arm
      outstretched, S.A.R. lifted the patient's right arm and asked him to indicate
      when both were level. This confirmed motor weakness. Urgent computed tomographic
      scan confirmed left subdural haematoma and its urgent evacuation rapidly resolved
      the patient's symptoms. Intrigued by our patient's case, we explored further and
      learnt that in rehabilitation medicine, the awareness of limb position is
      commonly viewed in terms of joint position sense. We present recent literature
      evidence indicating that the underlying mechanisms are more subtle.

PMID- 28579861
TI  - Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia With Lung Nodules Secondary to Pulmonary
      Manifestation of Crohn Disease.
AB  - Crohn disease is an immune-mediated inflammatory condition with gastrointestinal
      and extraintestinal manifestations in patients. Pulmonary involvement of Crohn
      disease is one manifestation. There have been case reports which have shown Crohn
      disease and lung nodules which were noted to be histopathological as cryptogenic
      organizing pneumonia (COP). In our case, a 22-year-old woman with Crohn disease
      was seen with complaints of chest pain and cough. Computed tomographic scan of
      chest showed multiple bilateral lung nodules, for which biopsy was done, which
      showed COP. The case study is followed by a deeper discussion of COP and the
      extraintestinal manifestation seen in inflammatory bowel disease.

PMID- 28579862
TI  - Assessment of Hypogonadism in Men With Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study
      From Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A high incidence of hypogonadism in men with type 2
      diabetes (T2D) has been globally reported. This study aimed to determining the
      frequency of hypogonadism and related risk factors among men with T2D in a single
      site hospital in Saudi Arabia. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      performed on 157 men with T2D (between 30 and 70 years of age). Using a
      prestructured questionnaire, the demographic features of these patients were
      gathered and their medical records were referred to gather information regarding
      the duration of the diabetes, smoking habits, and the presence of retinopathy,
      neuropathy, and nephropathy. Besides these, the biochemical parameters, total
      testosterone (TT), free testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin, follicle
      stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, serum lipids, and
      glycosylated hemoglobin were also recorded. All the patients submitted the fully
      completed Androgen Deficiency in Aging Male (ADAM) questionnaire. The combination
      of symptoms (positive ADAM score) plus a TT level ?8 nmol/L constituted the
      condition of hypogonadism. RESULTS: The total frequency of hypogonadism was 22.9%
      (36/157). Of the 157 total patients, 123 (78.3%) were shown to be ADAM positive,
      and of these, 90 (73.2%) exhibited decreased libido, 116 (94.3%) had weak
      erections, and 99 (80.5%) reported more than 3 symptoms of ADAM. Of these
      hypogonadic patients, 22.2% (n = 8) revealed primary hypogonadism, whereas 77.8%
      (n = 28) showed secondary hypogonadism. From the univariate analysis conducted,
      significant relationship was observed between treatment type, body mass index
      (BMI), and hypogonadism. The regression analysis showed BMI acting an independent
      risk factor of hypogonadism. CONCLUSIONS: Saudi men with T2D revealed a high
      incidence of hypogonadism. Body mass index was identified as an independent risk
      factor for hypogonadism.

PMID- 28579863
TI  - Is Tolerance Broken in Autoimmunity?
AB  - Autoimmune diseases are classified into about 80 different types based on their
      specificity related to system, organ and/or tissue. About 5% of the western
      population is affected by this anomaly, but its worldwide incidence is unknown.
      Autoimmune diseases are heterogeneous in nature and clinical manifestations range
      from benign disorders to life-threatening conditions. Autoimmunity strikes at any
      stage of life, but age and/or gender also play role in onset of some of these
      anomalies. The autoimmune pathogenesis is initiated by the origination of
      autoantigens, which leads to the development of autoantibodies followed by auto
      immunogenicity and the ultimate onset of autoimmunity. There is a lack of
      suitable therapies to treat autoimmune diseases, because mechanisms involved in
      the onset of these anomalies were poorly understood. Present therapies are
      limited to symptomatic treatment and come with severe side effects. Here, I
      described the molecular mechanisms and cellular events involved in the initiation
      of autoimmunity and proposed better strategies to modulate such molecular and
      cellular anomalies, which will help in preventing and/or controlling autoimmune
      pathogenesis and ultimately aid in enhancing the quality of life.

PMID- 28579864
TI  - Evaluation of Neonatal Transport in Western Switzerland: A Model of Perinatal
      Regionalization.
AB  - Neonatal transport is an essential part of regionalization for highly specialized
      neonatal intensive care. This retrospective analysis of prospectively collected
      data on neonatal transport activity in a large Swiss perinatal network more than
      1 year, aimed to quantify this activity, to identify the needs for staff, and the
      demands regarding know-how and equipment. Of the 565 admissions to the tertiary
      neonatology clinic, 176 (31.2%) were outborn patients, transported as emergencies
      to the level III unit. In 71.6% of cases, respiratory insufficiency was one of
      the reasons for transfer. Circadian and weekly distribution showed increased
      transport activity on workdays between 8 am and 10 pm, but regular demands for
      emergency transports regardless of the time frame require a neonatal transport
      team available 24/7. This study highlights the importance of neonatal transport
      and unveils several functional and infrastructural insufficiencies, which led to
      suggestions for improvement.

PMID- 28579865
TI  - Adaptation of Maternal-Fetal Physiology to Exercise in Pregnancy: The Basis of
      Guidelines for Physical Activity in Pregnancy.
AB  - Only 50 years ago obstetric care providers and women had many concerns regarding
      whether exercise during pregnancy created a harmful competition for substrate
      resources between the fetus and the mother. Animal and human research in the past
      50 years, which includes acute and chronic aerobic exercise during pregnancy, has
      a reassuring margin of safety throughout gestation in women. Maternal physiology
      adapts to pregnancy changes involving the cardiorespiratory and glucometabolic
      alterations. Due to these changes, pregnant women have slight differences in
      response to acute exercise sessions. Chronic exposure to aerobic exercise before
      and during pregnancy is associated with numerous maternal and neonatal
      adaptations which may have short- and long-term benefits to maternal and child
      health. On the basis of the consistent evidence of safety of exercise during
      pregnancy, multiple nations and health care organizations, including the American
      College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, recommend moderate exercise for 20 to 30
      minutes most days of the week. Despite the 15 to 20 years since the first
      recommendations were made, only 10% to 15% of pregnant women meet this
      recommendation. It seems there may be 2 foci for failure to achieve these
      exercise recommendations: patient specific and culturally driven and/or obstetric
      provider not recommending regular exercise due to lack of knowledge or
      motivation. This article addresses the provider knowledge by a review of the
      normal (at rest) physiologic adaptation to pregnancy. Then, we provide a detailed
      description of the type and intensity of controlled experiments that document the
      safety of exercise during pregnancy. The short- and long-term benefits are
      reviewed, including the safety in moderate-risk women.

PMID- 28579867
TI  - Health Disparities in Women.
AB  - Clinical Medicine Insights: Women's Health is an international, open-access, peer
      reviewed journal which considers manuscripts on all aspects of the diagnosis,
      management, and prevention of disorders specific to women, in addition to related
      genetic, pathophysiological, and epidemiological topics. Clinical Medicine
      Insights: Women's Health aims to provide researchers working in this complex,
      quickly developing field with online, open access to highly relevant scholarly
      articles by leading international researchers. In a field where the literature is
      ever-expanding, researchers increasingly need access to up-to-date, high-quality
      scholarly articles on areas of specific contemporary interest. This supplement is
      on Health Disparities in Women. This supplement aims to address this by
      presenting high-quality articles that allow readers to distinguish the signal
      from the noise. The editor in chief hopes that through this effort, practitioners
      and researchers will be aided in finding answers to some of the most complex and
      pressing issues of our time.

PMID- 28579866
TI  - Prevalence and Predictors of Hypovitaminosis D Among Female University Students
      in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A high hypovitaminosis D prevalence has repeatedly been reported in
      Middle Eastern countries. Previous data regarding the vitamin D status of young
      women in Saudi Arabia and the related hypovitaminosis D risk factors are scarce,
      so this research assessed hypovitaminosis D prevalence and its risk factors among
      apparently healthy female university students in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. METHODS:
      This cross-sectional research used a convenience sample of healthy female
      students (n = 180) aged between 19 and 25 years in May 2016. Information was
      gathered on the participants' sociodemographics, health, lifestyle, dietary
      intakes, anthropometry, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and a logistic
      regression analysis was performed to assess hypovitaminosis D risk factors.
      RESULTS: The sample's hypovitaminosis D prevalence (25(OH)D <30 ng/mL) was 80.6%.
      The main determinants of hypovitaminosis D were as follows: urban residence (odds
      ratio [OR] = 6.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.74-5.63), rare sun exposure
      (OR = 6.14; 95% CI, 2.15-17.55), and insufficient vitamin D intake (OR = 2.50;
      95% CI, 1.07-5.81). CONCLUSIONS: The findings emphasize that despite plentiful
      sunshine, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East face a vitamin D deficiency epidemic.
      Vitamin D status must therefore be assessed at the national level so that
      strategies aimed at boosting vitamin D levels can be instigated.

PMID- 28579868
TI  - Evidence-Based Brief Obsessive-Compulsive Scale.

PMID- 28579870
TI  - Tumor necrosis factor alpha Inhibition for Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) plays a central role in the
      pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Food and Drug Administration
      approved biologic TNF-alpha inhibitors are thus a potential treatment for AD, but
      they do not cross the blood-brain barrier. In this short review, we discuss the
      involvement of TNF-alpha in AD, challenges associated with the development of
      existing biologic TNF-alpha inhibitors for AD, and potential therapeutic
      strategies for targeting TNF-alpha for AD therapy.

PMID- 28579869
TI  - Management of Viral Central Nervous System Infections: A Primer for Clinicians.
AB  - Viruses are a common cause of central nervous system (CNS) infections with many
      host, agent, and environmental factors influencing the expression of viral
      diseases. Viruses can be responsible for CNS disease through a variety of
      mechanisms including direct infection and replication within the CNS resulting in
      encephalitis, infection limited to the meninges, or immune-related processes such
      as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Common pathogens including herpes
      simplex virus, varicella zoster, and enterovirus are responsible for the greatest
      number of cases in immunocompetent hosts. Other herpes viruses (eg,
      cytomegalovirus, John Cunningham virus) are more common in immunocompromised
      hosts. Arboviruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus are
      important pathogens globally, but the prevalence varies significantly by
      geographic region and often season. Early diagnosis from radiographic evidence
      and molecular (eg, rapid) diagnostics is important for targeted therapy.
      Antivirals may be used effectively against some pathogens, although several
      viruses have no effective treatment. This article provides a review of
      epidemiology, diagnostics, and management of common viral pathogens in CNS
      disease.

PMID- 28579872
TI  - Medicons: toward clinical examination diagrams standardization in medical
      documentation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electronic patient records (EPRs) allow efficient and accurate
      medical documentation. Diagrams have traditionally been used to document clinical
      signs in patient notes. The interpretation of these diagrams may vary among
      doctors across a range of specialties, but this has never been tested previously.
      This study investigated how common diagrams were interpreted and explored the use
      of digitalized diagrams - Medicons in creating a common language to be used in
      digital clinical examination proformas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional
      survey utilizing a multiple-choice questionnaire was carried out across London
      hospitals. Seventeen digitalized examination diagrams were included in a multiple
      choice questionnaire to test doctors' perception and explore their opinions of
      diagram usage. The questionnaire was sent to junior doctors in training. RESULTS:
      A total of 206 responses were received from 31 foundation year 1 trainees, 45
      foundation year 2 trainees, 94 core surgical trainees and 36 core medical
      trainees. Diagrams were interpreted correctly, on average, 75% of the time. The
      majority of doctors (94%) felt that diagrams facilitated the understanding of
      clinical examination, documentation of pathologic site (98%) and improved the
      efficiency of documentation (89.8%). All doctors felt that diagrams may benefit
      overall medical care provision. CONCLUSION: Digitalizing signs and symptoms in
      EPR will enhance clinical documentation and may contribute to better patient
      care. New initiatives need to be employed to increase the use of diagrams -
      Medicons, as young doctors perceived these to improve clinical documentation.
      Standardized electronic proformas should be included into EPR to improve the
      efficiency and accuracy of clinical examination documentation.

PMID- 28579871
TI  - Innovative curriculum for second-year Harvard-MIT medical students: practicing
      communication skills with volunteer patients giving immediate feedback.
AB  - PURPOSE: Medical students are expected to develop excellent communication skills.
      The purpose of our study was to create an innovative communication skills
      exercise using real volunteer patients and physician co-teachers for students to
      practice communication skills while receiving immediate feedback. METHOD: This is
      a mixed methods study where second-year medical students participated in the
      communication skills exercise with real patients and physician co-teachers giving
      immediate feedback. Clinical scenarios reflected the patients' actual
      experiences. Students acted out roles as physicians. Physicians co-taught with
      the patients and gave immediate feedback to students. Students completed an
      anonymous written survey at the end of the exercise. Qualitative and quantitative
      responses were recorded. Student feedback from the 2014 surveys was used to
      modify the teaching designs to increase active role play opportunities by having
      only two students in each group and doubling the number of stations with real
      patients. RESULTS: Students rated the overall exercise and the utility of patient
      volunteers in learning how to communicate on a Likert scale of 1-5, where in this
      medical school traditionally 1 is excellent and 5 is poor. In 2014, the exercises
      were rated with a mean score of 1.47 (SD 0.621). In 2015, the exercises were
      rated with a mean score of 1.03 (SD 0.62). In 2016, the exercises were rated with
      a mean score of 1.27 (SD 0.52). ANOVA analysis (p=0.002) and Bonferroni
      corrections indicate a statistically significant difference between combined mean
      scores of the exercise in 2014 and 2015 (p=0.001). No difference was shown
      between 2014 and 2016 or 2015 and 2016. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students rated
      practicing communication skills with real patient volunteers and physician co
      teachers giving immediate feedback in their preclinical years very highly.
      Student feedback indicated that they preferred active roles and increased
      opportunities to practice their communication skills.

PMID- 28579873
TI  - Effect of aqueous extract of black pepper and ajwa seed on liver enzymes in
      alloxan-induced diabetic Wister albino rats.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aqueous extract of
      black pepper and ajwa seed on liver enzymes in alloxan-induced diabetic Wister
      albino rats to show the preventive and ameliorating effects in hyperglycemic
      rats. Rats were divided into 6 groups; normal control rats, diabetic control
      rats, glibenclamide treated rats, black pepper treated rats, ajwa seed treated
      rats and black pepper plus ajwa seed treated rats. Hyperglycemia was induced in
      the treatments groups by a single intraperitoneal injection of alloxan at 150
      mg/kg body weight. The extracts were administered via oral incubation, doses were
      glibenclamide 10 mg/kg, black pepper 50 mg/kg, ajwa seed 500 mg/kg and their
      mixture 500 mg/kg body weight for a period of 8 weeks. Serum glucose, AST, ALT
      and ALP were assayed using spectrophotometric method. Results showed that ajwa
      seed and mixture significantly reduced glucose level. AST level was significantly
      reduced by mixture treated group. No significant difference was observed between
      different aqueous extract treated group in ALT and ALP level. The study indicates
      that black pepper and ajwa seed extract to some extend normalized the glucose and
      liver enzyme activities in alloxanized diabetic rats.

PMID- 28579874
TI  - History of Gumboro (infectious bursal disease) in Pakistan.
AB  - Infectious Bursal Disease is the second important viral disease of poultry which
      affects the young growing pullets. The end fate appears in huge economic losses
      to poultry industry. Throughout the world, cheapest source of animal protein is
      chicken meat. It was initially reported in Europe; soon it spreads worldwide and
      causes drastic losses. In Pakistan, first of all this disease was reported in
      1971. It is the first review to track the IBDV history in Pakistan. It provides
      comprehensive details of forty-six years researchers work in controlling this
      important disease. Different scientists worked to fill the gap areas to achieve
      the goal. Present review covers all the research aspects being explored in
      Pakistan since first report.

PMID- 28579875
TI  - Investigation on the immunomodulatory activities of Sarcodon imbricatus extracts
      in a cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppressanted mouse model.
AB  - Aims: Sarcodon imbricatus, an edible fungus, is widely used in Asian medicine
      because of its significant pharmacological activities. In the present study, we
      investigated the immunomodulatory effects of polysaccharide-enriched S.
      imbricatus extracts (SP) in cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppressed mice.
      Results: Astragalus polysaccharide (AP) was used as a positive control. Compared
      with CTX-induced immunosuppressed mice, thirty-day SP treatment strongly enhanced
      the organ indexes of spleen and thymus and suppressed hind paw swelling. Both AP
      and SP increased the serum levels of immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG, and IgM), and
      suppressed the overproduction of interleukin-2 (IL-2). Moreover, SP reduced
      methane dicarboxylic aldehyde levels, and increased the total antioxidant
      capacity, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase in both serum and
      liver tissues of CTX-induced immunosuppressed mice. Conclusion: S. imbricatus
      extracts significantly improved immune function in CTX-induced immunosuppressed
      mice via modulation of oxidative systems.

PMID- 28579876
TI  - Anti-tumor activity of sulfated polysaccharides from Sargassum fusiforme.
AB  - In this study, our purpose is to discover the correlation between polysaccharides
      sulfated structure and anti-tumor activity. Sulfated polysaccharide from
      Sargassum fusiforme were synthesized with the chlorosulfonic acid pyridine
      method. The inhibitory effect of Sargassum fusiforme polysaccharides and the
      application of MTT assay before and after chemical modification on the
      proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma HepG-2 cells in vitro were studied.
      Sulfated polysaccharide from sargassum fusiforme DS is 0.803. The modified
      polysaccharide has certain inhibitory effect on HepG-2 cells, and its inhibition
      on the cells growth has improved compared with the original SFPs. The sulfated
      polysaccharide from Sargassum fusiforme has the ability to enhance anti-tumor
      activities.

PMID- 28579877
TI  - The application of graphene oxidized combining with decellularized scaffold to
      repair of sciatic nerve injury in rats.
AB  - This paper combined the decellularized scaffold of sciatic nerve of rats with
      graphene oxidized (GO), studied and facilitated the regeneration of sciatic nerve
      of rats, and provided the basis for the clinical application of nanomaterials. GO
      was prepared through improving Hammer's Method. Fourier Infrared Spectrum was
      used to scan and detect the functional groups in GO of sample by using the pellet
      method, the microcosmic morphological appearance of GO was observed by using the
      scanning electron microscope. The GO/decellularized scaffold were prepared and
      operation bridging of injured sciatic nerve was conducted by using the
      oscillation mixing method. BL-420F Biofunctional Experiment System was used to
      detect nerve action potential and the maximum tension value of muscles, and the
      fiber structure of nerve was observed under H-7650 Transmission Electron
      Microscope (TEM). Scanning electron microscope observed that GO presented a
      folded and curly single-layer sheet structure. It was soluble in water through
      ultrasound, brownish, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer detected the
      absorption peaks of carbonyl, hydroxy and carboxy, proving that the surface of GO
      material had many functional groups containing oxygen. Decellularized scaffold
      combining with GO was applied to repair injury of sciatic nerve, the nerve action
      potential, maximum tension value of muscle, wet weight value of gastrocnemius,
      thickness of gastrocnemius, thickness of myelin sheath and diameter of axon of
      the decellularized scaffold combining with GO group were obviously higher than
      the decellularized scaffold group and the self-rotating group, approaching to the
      normal value. All the data were represented by means +/- standard deviation
      ([Formula: see text]) and processed by adopting SPSS 11.0 software. Comparisons
      among groups were analyzed by variance, and the comparison of two means was
      detected by student t. The detection level adopted alpha = 0.05, when P < 0.05,
      it could be considered that there were significant differences. GO could combine
      with the biomaterial-decellularized scaffold to repair the injury of sciatic
      nerve and facilitate the regeneration of injured nerve. This provided new
      thoughts and theoretical & experimental bases for nanomaterials to be applied to
      clinic treatment of repair of nerve injury.

PMID- 28579878
TI  - The effect of different proportions of astragaloside and curcumin on DM model of
      mice.
AB  - This paper aims to study the effects of different proportion of astragaloside and
      curcumin on STZ induced Diabetes Mellitus (DM) model of mice, and to select a
      better proportion of active components. Its ultimate purpose is to lay a basis
      for the follow-up research on astragaloside-curcumin capsule. Increase-decrease
      baseline geometric proportion design method and comprehensive performance
      evaluation utilised to study the effect of different proportion of astragaloside
      and curcumin on DM mice models, which have an intravenous tail injection of STZ.
      The proportions of the two components are 10:0, 8:2, 7:3, 6:4, 5:5, 4:6, 3:7,
      2:8, 0:10 respectively. And we will screen out the optimal composition. Blood
      glycated serum protein (GSP), hepatic glycogen and insulin tested to observe
      pathological changes in the pancreas. The mice DM model was copied successfully.
      Compared with the model group, groups treated with the metformin and with
      different proportions of astragaloside and curcumin help lower the blood glucose
      levels and GSP levels, increase glycogen stores of model mice by different
      degrees, and avoid pathological changes of pancreas in the model mice. The ratio
      of 3:7 was selected as the optimal one, based on the comprehensive performance
      evaluation method, followed by the ratio of 4:6. The optimal proportion of DM
      models is 3:7, followed by 4:6. The ratio of total astragaloside and curcumin can
      lower blood glucose levels, GSP levels, promote the formation of glycogen, and
      improve the pathological changes of pancreas in the model mice.

PMID- 28579879
TI  - Sonographic diagnosis and clinical significance of umbilical arterial atresia.
AB  - To evaluate the feasibility of antenatal sonographic diagnosis of umbilical
      arterial atresia and its clinical significance. Data of 5 cases with umbilical
      arterial atresia diagnosed in our hospital were studied retrospectively. The
      antenatal ultrasonogram of umbilical arterial atresia was obtain, and the
      pathological examination of umbilical cords and the prognosis of neonates were
      analyzed. Among 5 cases with umbilical arterial atresia in this group, 1 case
      with double umbilical arterial atresia was found with dead fetus in uterus, and
      the rest 4 cases with single umbilical arterial atresia were found with survival
      fetuses. In the latter 4 cases with live fetus, once umbilical arterial atresia
      was diagnosed, cesarean section was performed to terminate pregnancy, and the 4
      fetus were all healthy. The chromosome karyotypes and S/D value of umbilical
      arteries were showed normal in all 5 cases. Accurate antenatal diagnosis can be
      made according to the specific ultrasonogram of umbilical arterial atresia.
      Instant intervention should be performed upon observing umbilical arterial
      atresia with live fetus, so as to avoid dead fetus as much as possible.

PMID- 28579880
TI  - Expression of CD44 standard form and variant isoforms in human bone marrow
      stromal cells.
AB  - Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells (hBMSCs) can migrate from bone marrow to injured
      tissues, where they may differentiate into different types of new cells for
      replacement of dysfunctional cells. CD44 plays an important role in stem cell
      movement. The expression distribution of CD44 standard form (CD44S) and CD44
      variants (CD44V) is closely related to cell movement and tissue migration. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the expressions of CD44S and CD44V in hBMSCs.
      The hBMSCs from four human subjects were cultured in vitro. Phenotypic properties
      were analyzed by flow cytometry, and adipocyte and osteoblast differentiations
      were evaluated at passage 4. The expressions of CD44S and CD44V were examined
      using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). Results showed
      that hBMSCs were successfully cultured, with positive expressions of markers of
      mesenchymal cells (CD90, CD73, CD105), and negative expressions of markers of
      hematopoietic cells (CD34, CD45). The cultured hBMSCs can be induced to
      differentiate into adipocytes and osteoblasts. Q-PCR results showed that the
      expression of CD44S was significantly higher than the expressions of different
      CD44V isoforms in different samples. These results revealed significant
      differences in the distributions of CD44S and CD44V gene expressions,
      demonstrating a dominant CD44S expression in hBMCSs.

PMID- 28579881
TI  - Impacts of triamcinolone acetonide on femoral head chondrocytic structures in
      lumbosacral plexus block.
AB  - Objective: To investigate impacts of triamcinolone acetonide (TRI) on femoral
      head chondrocytic (FHC) structures when used for lumbosacral plexus block (LPB).
      Methods: A total of 32 6-month-old New Zealand white rabbits were selected
      (averagely weighing 2.75-3.25 kg) and added TRI into nerve block solution for
      LPB. The rabbit were randomly divided into four groups: group A1: 2.5 ml * 2
      times, group A2 2.5 ml * 4 times, group B1 5 ml * 2 times, and group B2 5 ml * 4
      times; the time interval among the injection was 5 days, and the structural
      changes of FHC were the observed using 50/100/200 light microscope; the modified
      Mankin pathological scoring was also performed for the evaluation. Results: There
      exhibited significant microscopic changes of FHC structures between the rabbits
      performed LPB and the normal rabbits, among which group B2 exhibited the most
      serious FHC damages, and the Mankin pathological score in group B2 was much
      higher than those in the other three groups, and the scores of the experimental
      group were higher than the control group. Conclusions: The addition of TRI in LPB
      can damage the FHC structures, and large-dose (5 ml/once) and long-course (four
      times) will result in more serious injuries.

PMID- 28579883
TI  - The intervention effect of different distribution ratio of Astragalus total
      saponins and curcumin on the DM rats model.
AB  - Through the study of the effect of different ratio of Astragalus Total Saponins
      (ATS) and curcumin on Diabetes Mellitu (DM) model rats, we want to improve the
      screening model of the distribution ratio in Chinese Medicine, screening out the
      optimal proportion of the prevention and control of DM. By injecting
      streptozotocin (STZ) in the tail vein of rats to induct the DM rats model, we
      measured the dynamic change, insulin and insulin antibody (IAA) levels,
      glycosylated serum protein (GSP) content, lipid metabolism and the changes of
      renal pathology in DM model rats. The different distribution ratio of ATS and
      Curcumin can significantly reduce GSP, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG),
      low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL); significantly increased serum insulin
      levels and high density lipoprotein (HDL) content, significantly decreased IAA
      level on the DM rats model induced by STZ. Different proportions of ATS and
      Curcumin have a good therapeutic effect on DM model rats, and 6:4 is the optimal
      proportion for the prevention and treatment of DM.

PMID- 28579882
TI  - The influence of connective tissue growth factor on rabbit ligament injury
      repair.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The injured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is deemed to exhibit an
      impaired healing response and attempts at surgical repair have not been
      successful. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is reported to be associated
      with wound healing, probably through transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF
      beta1). METHODS: A rabbit ACL injury model was used to study the effect of CTGF
      on ligament recovery. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed for detection of
      changes in RNA levels of TGF-beta1, type 1 collagen (COL-I), type 2 collagen (COL
      II), SRY-related high mobility group-box gene9 (Sox9), metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP
      1) as well as matrix metallopeptidase 13 (MMP-13). And expression of related
      proteins was detected by western blotting. RESULTS: The current study showed that
      CTGF could promote the recovery of inured anterior cruciate ligament. It can up
      regulate the mRNA and expression of TGF-beta1, COL-I, COL-II, Sox9, as well as
      the tissue inhibitor of TIMP-1, and down-regulated the mRNA and expression of MMP
      13, suggesting the curative effect of CTGF on injured rabbit ligament is through
      regulating these cellular factors. CONCLUSION: This finding revealed the
      mechanism of CTFG's healing role in injured tissues and provided new
      possibilities of treating injured tissues and wound healing by using CTFG.

PMID- 28579884
TI  - Effect of medicated serum of Curcumae Radix extract on mRNA expression of TIMP-1,
      MMPs-13 and aI-collagen of HSC-T6 cell.
AB  - To study the effect of medicated serum of Curcumae Radix (Yujin) on the mRNA
      expression of Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), Matrix
      metalloproteinases-13 (MMPs-13) and aI-collagen of Hepatic stellate cell-T6 (HSC
      T6) cell. Twenty SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: high dose of Yujin
      group (16.2 g kg-1), medium dose of Yujin group (8.1 g kg-1), low dose of Yujin
      group (4.05 g kg-1) and blank control group (with the same volume of 0.9%
      saline). Yujin extract or 0.9% saline were administered daily by gavage to rats
      for 4d, after once administration of full-day dose for 1 h on the fourth day,
      ether anaesthesia was given, and blood was taken from abdominal aortic in asepsis
      condition for preparation of medicated serum. HSC-T6 cells were divided into 5
      groups: high dose medicated serum of Yujin group, medium dose medicated serum of
      Yujin group, low dose medicated serum of Yujin group, medicated serum of blank
      control group and negative control group (added with the same volume of PBS
      instead of rat serum), after 48 h of simultaneous acting on HSC-T6 cells in all
      groups by the medicated serum with a concentration of 10%, the mRNA expression
      level of TIMP-1, MMPs-13 and aI-collagen was analyzed with RT-PCR. Compared with
      the negative control group, the mRNA expression level of TIMP-1, MMPs-13 and aI
      collagen in all experimental groups increased significantly. Compared with the
      control group, the mRNA expression of aI-collagen and TIMP-1 was obviously
      inhibited in all medicated serum of Yujin groups (P < 0.01), meanwhile, the mRNA
      expression level of MMPs-13 was effectively improved (P < 0.05). The medicated
      serum of Yujin had an effect on the production and degradation of Extracellular
      matrix (ECM) of HSC-T6 cell.

PMID- 28579885
TI  - Effect of Gu Tong Xian capsule on expression level of type I, II collagen and BMP
      2 mRNA in rabbits with fracture during long-distance running.
AB  - The study aims to analyze and investigate the effects of Gu Tong Xian Capsule on
      the expression level of type I, II collagen and BMP-2 mRNA in rabbits with
      fracture during long-distance running. 60 adult healthy rabbits were selected as
      research objects, and then randomly divided into three groups including model
      group, positive control group and treatment group, each containing 20 rabbits.
      The three groups were treated with saline gastric lavage, powder for fracture and
      trauma, and Gu Tong Xian capsule, respectively. The rabbits of the three groups
      were respectively sacrificed at 1st week, 2nd weeks and 4th week after operation
      for sample collection. After that, the expression levels of bone collagen type I,
      II and BMP-2 of three groups were measured and compared with each other. At all
      stages, the transcriptional level of type I collagen mRNA in the treatment group
      were significantly higher than that in the positive control group and model group
      (p < 0.05); Transcriptional level of type II collagen mRNA in the treatment group
      increased significantly in the first week, then gradually declined in the 2nd and
      4th week, with significantly difference to the model group and the positive
      control group (p < 0.05). In addition, the transcriptional level of bone
      morphogenetic protein BMP-2 mRNA at fracture site of the treatment group was
      higher than that of model group and positive control group (p < 0.05). Gu Tong
      Xian Capsule can significantly promote fracture healing of experiment rabbits and
      reduce fracture healing time. Moreover, it can well regulate the expression
      levels of type I, II collagen and transcriptional level ofBMP-2 mRNA in
      experiment rabbits with fracture.

PMID- 28579886
TI  - D-4F decreases the expression of Abeta protein through up-regulating long non
      coding RNA sirt1-as in SAMP8 mice.
AB  - : Cholesterol plays key roles on (Abeta) metabolism and production. D-4F is the
      apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptide which has been revealed a critical role in
      regulation cholesterol. We aimed at identifying the effects of D-4F on Abeta
      production in SAMP8 and the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: SAMP8 mice (n = 15)
      were randomized into three groups for treatment with D-4F given in drinking
      water: high-dose group (0.5 mg/ml), low-dose group (0.3 mg/ml) and control group
      (just drinking water). The heart, kidney, liver and brain were obtained from
      SAMP8 (9 of them included in the analysis). The long non-coding RNA sirt1-as was
      measured in all tissues. The immunohistochemistry, western blot qRT-PCR were
      performed to determine the sirt1-as and the relevant proteins or RNAs levels.
      RESULTS: After treated with D-4F, the sirt1-as has been significantly upregulated
      in brain, rather than heart, kidney or liver. Specially, sirt1-as was
      significantly up-regulated by high dose of D-4F in the hippocampus area (p =
      0.007) compared with control group. Further analysis revealed that D-4F up
      regulates the expression of SIRT1. We also found that D-4F treatment
      significantly increased the reverse cholesterol transport related proteins liver
      X receptor alpha (LXRalpha) and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1, p <
      0.05). Finally, the amyloid beta-protein (Abeta protein) was statistically lower
      than that in the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our observation indicated
      that D-4F decreases the expression of Abeta protein through up-regulating long
      non coding RNA sirt1-as and its downstream proteins which may involve in reverse
      cholesterol transport.

PMID- 28579887
TI  - Optimization extraction and bioactivities of polysaccharide from wild Russula
      griseocarnosa.
AB  - The extraction conditions and biological activities of polysaccharides from wild
      Russula griseocarnosa (PRG) were investigated. Response Surface Methodology (RSM)
      with a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was used to optimize extraction conditions. The
      optimal extraction parameters of PRG were as follows: extracting time 4 h,
      extraction temperature 77.3  degrees C and liquid-solid ratio 42.5 g/L.
      Furthermore, the data demonstrated that PRG exhibited antioxidant activities
      evidenced by reducing power to scavenge the DPPH, ABTS, hydroxyl radical and
      superoxide radical. PRG showed the activity of anti-cervical carcinoma cells Hela
      and Siha. In conclusion this study offered an efficient extraction method of wild
      Russula griseocarnosa polysaccharide, and the results suggested PRG had good
      antioxidant and inhibitory activities against cervical carcinoma cells, and PRG
      could be developed as a novel natural functional food.

PMID- 28579888
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of a liposomal formulation of doxorubicin in rats.
AB  - Background: Measuring free drug concentration following systemic administration
      of a liposomal drug is a crucial aspect of the assessment of its in vivo
      behavior. Therefore we require an efficient method to separate free drug in the
      plasma from encapsulated drug. Objectives: To study the pharmacokinetics of free
      doxorubicin (DOX) released from liposomal doxorubicin (L-DOX) in rats. Methods: L
      DOX was prepared with encapsulation efficiency of 90% and was injected
      intravenously into rats. A solid-phase extraction (SPE) method coupled with UPLC
      MS/MS was used to measure the concentration of F-DOX in rat plasma without
      disrupting the integrity of L-DOX. Results: This method exhibited a linear range
      of F-DOX from 0.2 to 200 ng/mL. Recovery, precision, linearity and accuracy of
      this technique appear satisfactory for pharmacokinetic study. The constituents of
      F-DOX ranged from 5.35% to 14.09% of total DOX in plasma at each time point
      measured after L-DOX administration. Conclusion: SPE method was suitable for
      studying the pharmacokinetics of F-DOX in rats receiving L-DOX.

PMID- 28579889
TI  - Phenylethanoid Glycosides of Cistanche on menopausal syndrome model in mice.
AB  - Cistanche is the traditional and precious Chinese herbal, with two thousand years
      of use history in China. It has the effect on tonifying kidney, strong supplement
      to the liver and kidney, and replenishing essence and blood, known as the "desert
      ginseng". Here, we explored the mechanism of Phenylethanoid Glycosides of
      Cistanche (PGC) to the model mice of menopausal syndrome, as well as the
      therapeutic effect and characteristics of PGC to the menopausal syndrome. In this
      study, KM mice were reproduced by the complete resection of the ovaries on both
      sides of the back to establish the model mice of menopausal syndrome (MPS), and
      received distilled water or drugs, respectively. Model mice received distilled
      water. Mice received 200 mg/(kg day) high doses of Phenylethanoid Glycosides of
      Cistanche (HPGC), and 100 mg/(kg day) medium doses of Phenylethanoid Glycosides
      of Cistanche (MPGC), and 50 mg/(kg day) low doses of Phenylethanoid Glycosides of
      Cistanche (LPGC). After 21 days, it could determine the number of independent
      activities and the number of standing, the latent period of first entering the
      dark room, and the electric number. It also calculated the viscera index of
      uterus, thymus, spleen, measured the levels of estradiol (E2), testosterone (T),
      luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) in the serum.
      Furthermore, it observed the pathological changes of uterus, thymus, spleen and
      pituitary of mice. The results showed that behavioral indicators: Compared with
      the model group (MG), HPGC, MPGC, LPGC could increase the independent activities
      (P < 0.01); HPGC, MPGC could increase the number of standing, the latent period
      of first entering the dark room, and reduce the electric number (P < 0.01); LPGC
      could increase the number of standing (P < 0.05); Viscera index: Compared with
      MG, HPGC, MPGC could increase the viscera index of uterus, thymus, spleen (P <
      0.01); LPGC could increase the viscera index of uterus (P < 0.05); Serum index:
      Compared with MG, all groups could decrease the levels of LH in the serum (P <
      0.01); HPGC, MPGC could improve the levels of E2, T and decrease the levels of
      LH, FSH in the serum (P < 0.01); LPGC could improve the levels of E2 and decrease
      the levels of FSH in the serum (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, it had the trend to improve
      the levels of T in the serum. Pathological changes: Compared with MG, HPGC could
      significant improve the pathological changes of uterus, thymus, spleen and
      pituitary of mice; other groups also has a certain effect. The results indicated
      that PGC could improve the sex hormone disorder of MPS, and restore the function
      of uterus, thymus and spleen, with better therapeutic effect on MPS.

PMID- 28579890
TI  - The first multiplication atom-bond connectivity index of molecular structures in
      drugs.
AB  - In the field of medicine, there are a large number of new drugs synthesis every
      year. Before entering the clinical stage, it needs a lot of work on drug testing
      of the various properties. Due to the lack of a large number of laboratory
      technician, laboratory equipment and reagents, the drug testing of many
      biochemical properties are not completed. Theoretical medicine provides a
      theoretical way for medical researchers to obtain the pharmaceutical properties
      of compounds by calculation tricks. In this paper, the first multiplication atom
      bond connectivity index of several common drugs structure are studied, and the
      accurate expressions are determined. These theoretical conclusions provide
      practical guiding significance for pharmaceutical engineering.

PMID- 28579891
TI  - Protective effect of chlorogenic acid on the focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion
      rat models.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the protective characteristic
      of chlorogenic acid, a natural glucosyl xanthone found in Lonicera Japonica on
      the cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury and the underlying mechanism. METHODS:
      Focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion model was built by blocking the left middle
      cerebral artery in rats by using the suture-occluded method. Before operation,
      the corresponding drugs were given for each group once a day for 7 days. After 1
      h of final administration, the model was built, after operation, reperfusion was
      conducted for 22 h, Before the reperfusion 10 min tail vein injection of large,
      medium and small dose of chlorogenic acid and then mortality was calculated, and
      Neurological deficit score (NDS) was conducted, and serum was collected to
      measure the NSE level; a 2 mm thick brain slice located at the intersection of
      optic nerves was collected for TTC staining, and the percentage of cerebral
      infarction area was calculated; brain homogenate was collected to measure the
      ICAM-1, VCAM-1, EPO and HIF-1alpha levels in brain tissue of cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion rat models; NGF was detected using immunohistochemical method; the
      morphological changes in brain tissue was observed with HE staining. RESULTS: All
      focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion rat models were duplicated successfully.
      Every chlorogenic acid group with different dosage can significantly reduce the
      mortality, NDS and cerebral infarction area of rats, and significantly increase
      the EPO, HIF-1alpha and NGF levels in brain tissue; significantly improve the
      pathological lesions of hippocampus and cortex in brain tissue. CONCLUSION: The
      results showed that chlorogenic acid could protect the focal cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion injury rat models by adjusting the inflammatory factor, hypoxia
      factor and nerve growth factor.

PMID- 28579892
TI  - The effects of low-molecular-weight heparin on lung and pulmonary artery injuries
      in acute pulmonary embolism rat model via platelet-derived growth factor-beta.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of anticoagulant agent (low-molecular-weight
      heparin, LMWH) on the pulmonary artery intima hyperplasia of rats with acute
      pulmonary embolism (APE) by assaying platelet-derived growth factor-beta (PDGF
      beta). METHODS: A total of 90 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned into the
      sham, APE, and LMWH groups with 30 rats in each group. The APE rat models were
      established by injecting autologous blood clots via external jugular veins. In
      each group, six mice were sacrificed at the 1st day (D1), 4th day (D4), 7th day
      (D7), 14th day (D14), and 28th (D28) subsequent to the induction of APE to
      collect the lungs. Right ventricle pressure (RVP) and mean pulmonary arterial
      pressure (mPAP) were measured. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses were used to
      assess PDGF-beta expression at various time points. In addition, changes in lung
      pathology were evaluated using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and electron
      microscope. RESULTS: The overall success rate of establishing APE rat models was
      85.7% (60/70). There was no difference in mPAP between the sham group and the APE
      group at the D1, D4, D7, and D14. However, at the D28, mPAP in the APE group was
      significantly higher than that in the sham group. There was no difference among
      the three groups regarding RVP. PDGF-beta expression were decreased in the LMWH
      group at all time points compared with the sham and APE groups (P < 0.01).
      Furthermore, pulmonary embolism, alveolar wall necrosis and hemorrhage, and
      inflammation were significantly attenuated in the LMWH group compared with the
      sham and APE groups subsequent to the induction of APE. CONCLUSION: LMWH
      attenuates lung and pulmonary artery injuries and improves prognosis. Decreased
      PDGF-beta in the lungs may be the important factor in the effects observed.

PMID- 28579893
TI  - Melatonin alleviates acute spinal cord injury in rats through promoting on
      progenitor cells proliferation.
AB  - The previous studies have shown that melatonin is beneficial for nervous system
      after spinal cord injury (SCI). After SCI, the endogenous neural stem/progenitor
      cells (eNSPCs) proliferate and differentiate into neurons and glial cells. In the
      present study, we examined the effect of melatonin on eNSPCs proliferation and
      differentiation in SCI rat model. SCI rat model was established by dropping a 10
      g rod from the height of 25 mm. Then, the rats were randomly divided into the
      control group, the melatonin treated group, and the G3335 treated group. The
      Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan locomotor rating scale (BBB scale) was used to evaluate
      the recovery of locomotor function after SCI. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate
      eNSPCs proliferation and differentiation. The rats in the melatonin treated group
      demonstrated significantly faster locomotor function recovery and more eNSPCs
      proliferation and differentiation. However, these effects were abolished in the
      G3335 treated group. Melatonin can effectively promote locomotor function
      recovery via improving eNSPCs proliferation and differentiation after SCI.

PMID- 28579894
TI  - Osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells by magnetic
      nanoparticle composite scaffolds under a pulsed electromagnetic field.
AB  - This study was conducted to investigate the effect of magnetic nanoparticle
      composite scaffold under a pulsed electromagnetic field on bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), which was achieved by examining the biological
      behaviors of cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation on the surface of
      the scaffolds. This may provide some experimental evidence for the use of
      magnetic nanoparticles in medical application. The magnetic nanoparticle
      composite scaffolds were evaluated and characterized by the following indexes:
      the cell proliferation was detected by the CCK-8 method, the alkaline phosphatase
      (ALP) activity was examined by a detection kit, and the expression of type I
      collagen and osteocalcin gene were evaluated by RT-PCR. The CCK-8 test showed
      that there was no significant difference in Group A (BMSCs-seeded magnetic
      scaffolds under the electromagnetic field), B (BMSCs-seeded magnetic scaffolds)
      and C (BMSCs cultured alone) (P > 0.05). The value for the ALP activity in Group
      A was higher than the other two groups. In addition, the RT-PCR results showed
      that the expression of type I collagen gene in Group A was enhanced (P < 0.05),
      suggesting that the magnetic nanoparticles combined with the pulsed
      electromagnetic field had a positive effect on the osteogenic differentiation of
      BMSCs. However, the expression of osteocalcin was not significantly different in
      three groups (P > 0.05). To conclude, magnetic nanoparticles may induce the
      osteogenic differentiation with the action of the pulsed electromagnetic field.

PMID- 28579895
TI  - Characteristics studies of molecular structures in drugs.
AB  - In theoretical medicine, topological indices are defined to test the medicine and
      pharmacy characteristics, such as melting point, boiling point, toxicity and
      other biological activities. As basic molecular structures, hexagonal jagged
      rectangle and distance-regular structure are widely appeared in medicine,
      pharmacy and biology engineering. In this paper, we study the chemical properties
      of hexagonal jagged-rectangle from the mathematical point of view. Several vertex
      distance-based indices are determined. Furthermore, the Wiener related indices of
      distance-regular structure are also considered.

PMID- 28579896
TI  - The cytoprotective effects of Delta-17 fatty acid desaturase on injured HUVECs
      and its underlying mechanism.
AB  - Endothelium toxicity has been involved in early endothelial dysfunction to show
      the pathogenesis of multiple cardiovascular disease that shows atherosclerosis
      and its complications. Saturated free fatty acids are the main inducing factors
      of endothelial cell apoptosis and inflammatory cytokines. In humans, stearoyl-CoA
      desaturase 1 (SCD-1) is a restriction step to saturation to unsaturated fatty
      acid desaturation, which plays a beneficial role protecting endothelial cells
      against lipotoxicity. Delta-17 fatty acid desaturase (FAD) is a newly identified
      FAD which shares 55% identity at the amino acid level with SCD-1. Whether Delta
      17 FAD has similar beneficial effect remains poorly understood. Oxidized low
      density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) was used to induce lipotoxicity in human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to establish a model of oxidative injury. Then
      HUVECs were transfected with FAD lentivirus to introduce cytoprotective effects.
      The alterations in cell proliferation and apoptosis, nitric oxide content,
      malonyldialdehyde (MDA) content, SOD enzyme content, LDH content, GSH-PX level,
      vascular growth factor (VEGF) expression were evaluated. Studies showed that ox
      LDL-induced excess HUVEC apoptosis can be abrogated by upregulation of Delta-17
      FAD. The nitric oxide content, GSH-PX content, and SOD enzyme content were
      increased and the activity of MDA was suppressed by upregulation of Delta-17 FAD.
      In addition, upregulation of Delta-17 FAD significantly increased VEGF
      expression. In vitro tube formation assay showed that Delta-17 FAD promoted
      angiogenesis to a significant degree. These results suggest that Delta-17 fatty
      acid desaturase may have beneficial action in the prevention of ox-LDL-induced
      cellular damage.

PMID- 28579897
TI  - TSA protects H9c2 cells against thapsigargin-induced apoptosis related to
      endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated mitochondrial injury.
AB  - : Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) activates an adaptive unfolded protein
      response (UPR) that facilitates cellular repair, however, under prolonged ER
      stress, the UPR can ultimately trigger apoptosis thereby terminating damaged
      cells. Recently, TSA has shown protective effects on ERS and its mechanisms
      related to ER pathway has been previously characterized. However, whether TSA
      exerts its protective role via metabolic events remain largely undefined.
      Objectives: To explore the possible involvement of the metabolic changes during
      ERS and to better understand how TSA influence mitochondrial function to
      facilitate cellular adaptation. Results: TSA is an inhibitor of histone
      deacetylase which could significantly inhibit H9c2 cell apoptosis induced by
      Thapsigargin (TG). It also intervene the decrease of mitochondrial membrane
      potential. By immunofluorescence staining, we have shown that GRP78 was
      concentrated in the perinuclear region and co-localized with ER. However,
      treatments with TG and TSA could let it overlap with the mitochondrial marker
      MitoTracker. Cellular fractionation also confirmed the location of GRP78 in
      mitochondrion. CONCLUSIONS: TSA decreases ERS-induced cell apoptosis and
      mitochondrial injury may related to enhance the location of GRP78 in
      mitochondrion.

PMID- 28579898
TI  - Effect of Motherwort total alkaloids on the prostate hyperplasia mice model of
      pathological changes of related tissue morphology induced by the fetal urogenital
      sinus implants.
AB  - AIM: The research was to study the effect of Motherwort total alkaloids on the
      prostate hyperplasia mice model of pathological changes of related tissue
      morphology. RESULTS: Compared with the model group(MG), Motherwort total alkaloid
      high, medium dose group(HD, MD) could significantly reduced the pathological
      changes of the prostate (P < 0.01); Finasteride(FG) and Motherwort total alkaloid
      low dose group(LD) could significantly reduce the pathological changes of the
      prostate (P < 0.05); Longbishu capsules(LG), Finasteride, Motherwort total
      alkaloid medium dose group could significantly reduce the pathological changes of
      the kidney (P < 0.01); Motherwort total alkaloid low dose group could
      significantly reduce the pathological changes of the kidney (P < 0.05);
      Motherwort total alkaloids could improve the pathological changes of the thymus
      and spleen. CONCLUSION: Motherwort total alkaloid can improve the pathological
      changes of prostatic hyperplasia in mice.

PMID- 28579899
TI  - Effects of the Rabdosia rubescens total flavonoids on focal cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion model in rats.
AB  - The effect of the Rabdosia rubescens total flavonoids on focal cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion model in rats was observed. The model group, nimodipine group,
      cerebral collateral group, and large, medium and small dose group of the Rabdosia
      rubescens total flavonoids were administered with corresponding drugs but sham
      operation group and model group were administered the same volume of 0.5%CMC, 1
      times a day, continuous administration of 7 d. After 1 h at 7 d to medicine, left
      incision in the middle of the neck of rats after anesthesia, we can firstly
      expose and isolate the left common carotid artery (CCA), and then expose external
      carotid artery (ECA) and internal carotid artery (ICA). The common carotid artery
      and the external carotid artery are ligated. Then internal carotid artery with
      arterial clamp is temporarily clipped. Besides, cut the incision of 0.2 mm from 5
      cm of the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. A thread Line bolt is
      inserted with more than 18-20 mm from bifurcation of CCA into the internal
      carotid artery until there is resistance. Then the entrance of the middle
      cerebral artery is blocked and internal carotid artery is ligated (the blank
      group only exposed the left blood vessel without Plugging wire). Finally it is
      gently pulled out the plug line after 2 h. Results: Compared with the model mice,
      Rabdosia rubescens total flavonoids can significantly relieve the injury of brain
      in hippocampus and cortex nerve cells; experimental rat focal cerebral ischemia
      was to improve again perfusion model of nerve function defect score mortality;
      significantly reduce brain homogenate NOS activity and no content, MDA, IL-1, TNF
      a, ICAM-1 content; increase in brain homogenate SOD and ATPase activity (P <
      0.05, P < 0.01); and reduce the serum S-100beta protein content. Each dose group
      of the Rabdosia rubescens total flavonoids has a better Improvement effect on
      focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion model in rats.

PMID- 28579901
TI  - Acitretin modulates HaCaT cells proliferation through STAT1- and STAT3-dependent
      signaling.
AB  - Acitretin has been a valuable option for the treatment of psoriasis, however, the
      molecular events of acitretin leading to the normalization of keratinocytes
      differentiation on psoriasis patients have not been fully explored. To
      investigate whether there were certain relationship between keratinocytes
      proliferation and JAK/STAT signaling pathways in psoriasis, and how acitretin
      modulated the signaling pathways. HaCaT cells, an in vitro immortal human
      keratinocyte cell line, was chosen as a in vitro model of psoriasis. The small
      interfering RNA targeting STAT1 (siRNA-STAT1) and STAT3 (siRNA-STAT3) were
      subsequently transfected into the HaCaT cells which were treated with or without
      acitretin. We found that HaCaT cells proliferation and the expression of STAT1 or
      STAT3 were inhibited by acitretin, siRNA-STAT1 and siRNA-STAT3. Our experimental
      data shows that acitretin might inhibit HaCaT cells proliferation in psoriasis by
      decreasing the expression of STAT- and STAT3-dependent mechanism.

PMID- 28579900
TI  - Imperatorin protects H9c2 cardiomyoblasts cells from hypoxia/reoxygenation
      induced injury through activation of ERK signaling pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Imperatorin is a compound found in plants and has been widely used in
      Chinese medicine for many years. It has many pharmacological effects, including
      the recently reported anti-apoptotic function, however, the mechanism largely
      remains unclear. This study is aimed to elucidate the mechanism of Imperatorin's
      anti-apoptotic function. METHODS: A model of hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R)
      treated h9c2 cardiomyoblasts was successfully constructed. The cells were treated
      with H/R condition, and followed by adding Imperatorin alone, Imperatorin with
      ERK inhibitor and/or ERK inhibitor alone, to examine the cell viability by Cell
      Counting Kit-8 assay, cell apoptosis rate by flow cytometry, and ERK expression
      by Western-blot under different conditions. RESULTS: The results showed that
      imperatorin exerted protective effect on h9c2 cells from H/R injure. It was also
      found that it not only increased cell viability but also reduced the apoptotic
      rate for H/R treated h9c2 cells. The experiments also demonstrated that
      imperatorin could upregulate the expression levels of both ERK1 and ERK2, which
      is a key step in ERK signaling pathway activation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      provided evidence that imperatorin could increase the cell viability and lower
      apoptotic rate in H/R treated h9c2 cells, and could also enhance the expression
      of ERK1/ERK2, demonstrating imperatorin's protective effect on H/R injured h9c2
      cells through ERK signaling pathway.

PMID- 28579902
TI  - Polysaccharide extracted from Chinese white wax scale ameliorates 2,4
      dinitrochlorobenzene-induced atopic dermatitis-like symptoms in BALB/c mice.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disease with high rates of
      morbidity and is associated with erythema, pruritus, scaling of affected areas of
      skin. It is extremely important to introduce a therapeutic agent which has
      significant anti-inflammatory effect with less side-effect for treatment of AD.
      This study evaluated the effect of a natural compound from herbal extracts, the
      crude polysaccharide extracted from the white wax scale (CWPS), on AD-like mice.
      Repeated applications of 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) were performed on ear
      and dorsal skin of BALB/c mice to induce AD-like symptoms and skin lesions. Oral
      administration of CWPS decreased serum IgE level and limited the infiltration of
      mast cells and eosinophils to the dermal tissues in the DNCB-induced AD mice. In
      addition, CWPS reduced Th1 and Th17 responses, leading to an attenuated cutaneous
      inflammatory response. Furthermore, in vitro study also demonstrated that CWPS
      limited T cell activation and cytokines (i.e. IFN-gamma and IL-17) production
      induced by DNCB. We conclude that CWPS attenuates DNCB-induced AD-like skin
      lesion through modulating T cell-elicited immune responses and CD4+ T cell
      polarization, and could be exploited as a new therapeutic approach for AD.

PMID- 28579903
TI  - Study on apoptosis effect of human breast cancer cell MCF-7 induced by lycorine
      hydrochloride via death receptor pathway.
AB  - As research was conducted on the early apoptosis of human breast cancer cell MCF
      7 caused by lycorine hydrochloride and the expression of the related apoptosis
      proteins. The early-period apoptosis rate of human breast cancer cell MCF-7 was
      tested with the AnnexinV/PI double staining and flow cytometry. The Western
      Blotting method was also used to detect the protein expression conditions of Fas,
      FasL, Caspase-8 and Bid. The results showed that the higher the dose, the higher
      the rate of apoptosis and that the rate of apoptosis was dependent on the dose;
      the relative protein activity of Fas, FasL, Caspase-8 and bid gradually rose with
      the increase of lycorine dosage and the activities revealed certain dose
      independence. Results showed that lycorine hydrochloride could induce the
      apoptosis of human breast cancer cell MCF-7 through the death receptor pathway.

PMID- 28579904
TI  - Oridonin inhibits breast cancer growth and metastasis through blocking the Notch
      signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oridonin is a diterpenoid isolated from Rabdosia rubescens with
      potent anticancer activity. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of
      oridonin to inhibit growth and metastasis of human breast cancer cells. METHODS:
      The effect of oridonin on proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay, cell
      migration and invasion were evaluated by transwell migration and invasion assays
      in human breast cancer cells. The inhibitive effect of oridonin in vivo was
      determined by using xenografted nude mice. In addition, the expression of Notch
      receptors (Notch 1-4) was detected by western blot. RESULTS: Oridonin inhibited
      human breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, oridonin
      significantly induced human breast cancer cells apoptosis. Furthermore, the
      oridonin treatment not only inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion, but
      more significantly, decreased the expression of Notch 1-4 protein. CONCLUSION:
      Our results suggest that the inhibitive effect of oridonin is likely to be driven
      by the inhibition of Notch signaling pathway and the resulting increased
      apoptosis.

PMID- 28579905
TI  - Effects of Fuzheng Paidu tablet immunization on AIDS BALB/c mice.
AB  - AIM: To establish a Friend murine leukemia virus (FLV)-induced immunodeficient
      BALB/C mouse model and investigate the effects of Fuzheng Paidu tablets on the
      body weight, thymus, spleen, and CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes of FLV-infected
      mice. FLV was passaged twice in BALB/c mice. The infected mice were divided into
      six groups of ten mice based on their weights. The groups included the normal
      control group; virus control group; AZT group; high- (2.8 g/kg), medium- (1.4
      g/kg), and low-dose (0.7 g/kg) Fuzheng Paidu tablet groups; and Fuzheng Paidu
      decoction (10 g/kg) group. The mice were administered Fuzheng Paidu tablets via
      gavage for 21 days. The body weight and changes in the thymus, spleen, and CD4+
      and CD8+ T lymphocytes of each mouse were measured. RESULTS: The splenic weight
      of the virus control group is significantly higher than that of the normal
      control group, with significant splenomegaly. In addition, the splenic inhibition
      indices of the AZT group and the high- and medium-dose Fuzheng Paidu tablet
      groups were approximately 93.80%, 37.80%, and 28.07%, respectively. Furthermore,
      the high and medium dose Fuzheng Paidu tablets could increase the thymus weights
      of the infected mice. CONCLUSION: Fuzheng Paidu tablets could inhibit
      splenomegaly, lower the splenic indices, and increase the thymic weights and
      thymic indices of FLV-induced immunodeficient mice.

PMID- 28579906
TI  - Dexmedetomidine attenuates neuropathic pain in chronic constriction injury by
      suppressing NR2B, NF-kappaB, and iNOS activation.
AB  - The effective treatment of patients suffering from neuropathic pain remains
      challenging. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) possesses anti-inflammatory activity. However,
      the role of DEX in neuropathic pain is still unclear. The aim of the present
      study was to examine DEX an alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist could improve pain
      hypersensitivity and reduce inflammatory in a chronic constriction injury (CCI)
      model of the sciatic nerve in Sprague-Dawley rats. Dex was intrathecally
      administrated 1-h after operation. The paw mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT)
      and paw withdrawal thermal latency (PWTL) were measured on day 1 before operation
      and on days 1, 7, 14 and 21 after operation, respectively. On day 21, all the
      rats were decapitated to collect the L4-6 segments of the spinal cord to examine
      IL-1, TNF-alpha, IL-6, NR2B, NF-kappaB, and iNOS mRNA levels using RT-PCR. The
      postoperative MWT and PWTL were significantly decreased in CCI, and DEX groups as
      compared to those before surgery and Sham group (P < 0.05). And DEX reversed this
      trend (P < 0.05). Interleukin 1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha),
      IL-6 mRNA expression significantly increased postsurgery in CCI group as compared
      to that of Sham group (P < 0.05); DEX blocked increased IL-1, TNF-alpha, IL-6, N
      methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor 2B (NR2B), nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB),
      and inducible isoform of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA levels (P < 0.05). DEX
      may alleviate neuropathic hypersensitivity and inflammation partially by
      inhibiting NR2B, NF-kappaB, and iNOS expression in the spinal cord of rats with
      neuropathic pain resulting from CCI of the sciatic nerve.

PMID- 28579907
TI  - The comparative study of clinical efficacy and safety of baclofen vs tolperisone
      in spasticity caused by spinal cord injury.
AB  - In the present study we compared the clinical efficacy and safety of baclofen vs
      tolperisone in spasticity caused by spinal cord injury. A total of 150 patients
      were enrolled in the present study and were divided into two groups with 75
      patients in each group, receiving baclofen or tolperisone, respectively. We used
      Modified Ashworth Scale, Medical research council scale, Barthel Index, and
      Coefficient of efficacy to measure clinical efficacy. After 6-week treatment,
      both groups demonstrated significant improvement in muscle tone, muscle strength
      and functional outcome (Group I, 1.55 +/- 0.053, 2.79 +/- 0.032, 59.31 +/- 1.32;
      Group II, 1.57 +/- 0.053, 3.04 +/- 0.032, 73 +/- 1.32 respectively). There was no
      significant difference regarding improvement in muscle tone and muscle strength
      between the two groups (Group I, 1.055 +/- 0.053 vs Group II, 1.57 +/- 0.053;
      Group I, 2.79 +/- 0.032 vs Group II, 3.04 +/- 0.032, p > 0.05). However, the
      improvement in functional outcomes was greater in group II as compared to that in
      group I (Group I, 59.31 +/- 1.32 vs Group II, 73 +/- 1.32, p < 0.05). In
      addition, overall efficacy coefficient was greater for group II as compared to
      group I (Group I, 3.6 vs Group II, 2.3, p < 0.05). Group I had more side effects
      compared to Group II. Compared to baclofen, tolperisone offers greater
      improvement in activities of daily living compared to baclofen.

PMID- 28579908
TI  - Effect of different component ratio of Astragalus total saponins and Verbena
      total glycosides on the cerebral infarction area and serum biochemical indicators
      in the focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion rat model.
AB  - Our purpose is to study the effect of different component ratio of Astragalus
      Total Saponins (ATS) and Verbena Total Glycosides (VTG) on the cerebral
      infarction area and the serum biochemical indicators in the focal cerebral
      ischemia-reperfusion rat model. Compared with the model group, different
      component ratio of ATS and VTG could significantly improve the neurological
      deficit scores to the focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion rat model, and the
      group of 7:3, 6:4, 5:5 got the best results; it could reduce the mortality of rat
      model to a certain extent, and the group of 5:5 group got the best results; it
      can significantly reduce the cerebral infarction area, and the group of 7:3, 5:5,
      4:6 got the best results; it could significantly reduce the content of TNF-alpha,
      and the group of 8:2, 6:4 got the best results; it could significantly reduce the
      content of NO, and the group of 7:3, 5:5 got the best results; it could
      significantly increase the content of SOD, and the group of 6:4, 5:5 got the best
      results. This indicates that different component ratio of ATS and VTG may protect
      the damage of focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion rat model to a certain extent,
      which are compared using the comprehensive weight method and the ratio of 5:5 was
      proved to be the optimal active ratio.

PMID- 28579909
TI  - The alleviative effects of metformin for lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung
      injury rat model and its underlying mechanism.
AB  - For patients who have sepsis, acute lung injury (ALI) causes most of death.
      Metformin (Met) is an anti-hyperglycemic agent and it has extensive
      pharmacological properties. This study aimed to analyze the influence of Met on
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced ALI. Met (1, 2, and 4 mg/kg) were injected and
      LPS was injected 30 min later. The data suggested Met can reduce release of
      inflammatory cytokines and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) protein
      expression, reduce lung wet/dry ratio, and significantly improve LPS-induced lung
      destruction during ALI. In addition, Met inhibits LPS-induced neutrophil and
      macrophage infiltration, reduces MPO activity, and promotes AMPK-alpha1
      expression in lung tissues. Our data suggested that metformin alleviates
      capillary injury during ALI via AMPK-alpha1.

PMID- 28579910
TI  - Influence of biological, experiential and psychological factors in wine
      preference segmentation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: We sought to determine the influence of selected biological,
      experiential and psychological variables on self-reported liking and consumption
      of wine in a sample of 329 Ontario wine consumers. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cluster
      analysis revealed three distinct groups, representing plausible market segments:
      wine lovers; dry table wine likers/sweet dislikers; and sweet wine
      likers/fortified dislikers. These groups differ in level of wine expertise, wine
      adventurousness, alcohol intake, bitterness from 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), and
      several demographic variables. PROP hypo-tasters (n=113) and PROP hyper-tasters
      (n=112) differed in liking scores for nine of the 11 wine styles [ANCOVA,
      P(F)<0.05]. When wines were grouped according to their dominant sensory
      properties (dry, sweet, carbonation and heat), liking scores for PROP hyper
      tasters were higher than those of PROP hypo-tasters for all classes. Scores also
      varied with age, expertise and gender for some products. Effect sizes (eta
      squared) were generally greatest for age, and those for PROP responsiveness were
      of similar magnitude as those for gender. As expected, wine consumption frequency
      was higher for men and experts, and increased with age. CONCLUSIONS: Age is the
      most robust and consistent driver of wine liking and intake of the variables
      examined. Taste phenotype also contributes significantly to variation in wine
      liking. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: Ontario wine consumers fall into one of three
      wine liking clusters, which differ in experiential, biological, psychological and
      demographic features that can be targeted through branding and marketing
      strategies.

PMID- 28579911
TI  - Impact of the Lymphatic Filariasis Control Program towards elimination of
      filariasis in Vanuatu, 1997-2006.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphatic filariasis (LF) occurs when filarial parasites are
      transmitted to humans through mosquitoes. The filarial worms affect the lymphatic
      system which leads to abnormal enlargement of body parts, chronic pain,
      disability, and social discrimination. In 1999, a commitment was made to
      eliminate LF from the Pacific Region by 2010. The Pacific Program to Eliminate LF
      began, with Vanuatu being one of the 16 endemic countries included in this
      program. METHODS: In 1997/1998 a LF prevalence baseline survey was conducted to
      determine the need for mass drug administration (MDA) in Vanuatu. In 1999, the
      Vanuatu Lymphatic Filariasis Control Program was established, and nationwide MDA
      was implemented from 2000 to 2004. LF prevalence was collected during the MDA
      through sentinel site and spot check surveys, and after 5 years of MDA. MDA
      implementation methods included health worker training, social mobilization, and
      culturally appropriate health promotion strategies. RESULTS: LF prevalence at
      baseline was 4.79%; after MDA this declined to 0.16% in 2005/2006. Average MDA
      coverage ranged from 75.5-81.5% across 5 years. All three evaluation units
      surveyed in 2005/2006 were below the 1% threshold required to stop MDA.
      CONCLUSIONS: The LF Control Program between 1997 and 2006 was successful in
      reducing LF prevalence to <1%. High MDA coverage was a critical component of this
      success. This period of the Vanuatu LF Control Program played an important role
      in helping to eliminate LF in Vanuatu.

PMID- 28579912
TI  - Interaction of bilingualism and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in young
      adults.
AB  - One hundred and sixty-eight young adult participants were classified as
      monolingual or bilingual and as having a previously reported clinical diagnosis
      of ADHD or not to create four groups. All participants completed tests of
      language proficiency, ADHD ratings, and executive control. Both bilingualism and
      ADHD are generally associated with poorer vocabulary knowledge, but bilingualism
      and ADHD are associated with opposite effects on executive control. Consistent
      with this literature, bilinguals performed more poorly than monolinguals on the
      vocabulary test but contrary to predictions, the ADHD group performed somewhat
      better on language ability than the non-ADHD group, attesting to their high
      functioning status. For the flanker task, both bilinguals and non-ADHD
      participants showed less cost in performing in the conflict condition than in the
      baseline condition. For the stop-signal task, ADHD status interfered more with
      performance by bilinguals than monolinguals, suggesting a greater burden of ADHD
      on executive function for this group.

PMID- 28579913
TI  - RAS pathway biomarkers for breast cancer prognosis.
AB  - Metastatic breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous, rapidly evolving and
      devastating disease that challenges our ability to find curative therapies. RAS
      pathway activation is an understudied research area in breast cancer. EGFR/RAS
      pathway activation is prevalent in breast cancer with poor prognosis. The
      prognostic RAS pathway biomarkers can be used to identify resistant tumour
      clones, stratify patients and guide therapies.

PMID- 28579915
TI  - Microbiome variation in corals with distinct depth distribution ranges across a
      shallow-mesophotic gradient (15-85 m).
AB  - Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are generally poorly studied, and our
      knowledge of lower MCEs (below 60 m depth) is largely limited to visual surveys.
      Here, we provide a first detailed assessment of the prokaryotic community
      associated with scleractinian corals over a depth gradient to the lower
      mesophotic realm (15-85 m). Specimens of three Caribbean coral species exhibiting
      differences in their depth distribution ranges (Agaricia grahamae, Madracis
      pharensis and Stephanocoenia intersepta) were collected with a manned submersible
      on the island of Curacao, and their prokaryotic communities assessed using 16S
      rRNA gene sequencing analysis. Corals with narrower depth distribution ranges
      (depth-specialists) were associated with a stable prokaryotic community, whereas
      corals with a broader niche range (depth-generalists) revealed a higher
      variability in their prokaryotic community. The observed depth effects match
      previously described patterns in Symbiodinium depth zonation. This highlights the
      contribution of structured microbial communities over depth to the coral's
      ability to colonize a broader depth range.

PMID- 28579914
TI  - Hydrogen generation by reaction of Si nanopowder with neutral water.
AB  - Si and its oxide are nonpoisonous materials, and thus, it can be taken for
      medical effects. We have developed a method of generation of hydrogen by use of
      reactions of Si nanopowder with water in the neutral pH region. Si nanopowder is
      fabricated by the simple bead milling method. Si nanopowder reacts with water to
      generate hydrogen even in cases where pH is set at the neutral region between 7.0
      and 8.6. The hydrogen generation rate strongly depends on pH and in the case of
      pH 8.0, ~55 ml/g hydrogen which corresponds to that contained in approximately 3
      L saturated hydrogen-rich water is generated in 1 h. The reaction rate for
      hydrogen generation greatly increases with pH, indicating that the reacting
      species is hydroxide ions. The change of pH after the hydrogen generation
      reaction is negligibly low compared with that estimated assuming that hydroxide
      ions are consumed by the reaction. From these results, we conclude the following
      reaction mechanism: Si nanopowder reacts with hydroxide ions in the rate
      determining reaction to form hydrogen molecules, SiO2, and electrons in the
      conduction band. Then, generated electrons are accepted by water molecules,
      resulting in production of hydrogen molecules and hydroxide ions. The hydrogen
      generation rate strongly depends on the crystallite size of Si nanopowder, but
      not on the size of aggregates of Si nanopowder. The present study shows a
      possibility to use Si nanopowder for hydrogen generation in the body in order to
      eliminate hydroxyl radicals which cause various diseases.

PMID- 28579916
TI  - Kilonovae.
AB  - The mergers of double neutron star (NS-NS) and black hole (BH)-NS binaries are
      promising gravitational wave (GW) sources for Advanced LIGO and future GW
      detectors. The neutron-rich ejecta from such merger events undergoes rapid
      neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis, enriching our Galaxy with rare heavy
      elements like gold and platinum. The radioactive decay of these unstable nuclei
      also powers a rapidly evolving, supernova-like transient known as a "kilonova"
      (also known as "macronova"). Kilonovae are an approximately isotropic
      electromagnetic counterpart to the GW signal, which also provides a unique and
      direct probe of an important, if not dominant, r-process site. I review the
      history and physics of kilonovae, leading to the current paradigm of week-long
      emission with a spectral peak at near-infrared wavelengths. Using a simple light
      curve model to illustrate the basic physics, I introduce potentially important
      variations on this canonical picture, including: [Formula: see text]day-long
      optical ("blue") emission from lanthanide-free components of the ejecta;
      [Formula: see text]hour-long precursor UV/blue emission, powered by the decay of
      free neutrons in the outermost ejecta layers; and enhanced emission due to energy
      input from a long-lived central engine, such as an accreting BH or millisecond
      magnetar. I assess the prospects of kilonova detection following future GW
      detections of NS-NS/BH-NS mergers in light of the recent follow-up campaign of
      the LIGO binary BH-BH mergers.

PMID- 28579917
TI  - Higgs EFT for 2HDM and beyond.
AB  - We discuss the validity of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SM EFT) as
      the low-energy effective theory for the two-Higgs-doublet Model (2HDM). Using the
      up-to-date Higgs signal strength measurements at the LHC, one can obtain a
      likelihood function for the Wilson coefficients of dimension-6 operators in the
      EFT Lagrangian. Given the matching between the 2HDM and the EFT, the constraints
      on the Wilson coefficients can be translated into constraints on the parameters
      of the 2HDM Lagrangian. We discuss under which conditions such a procedure
      correctly reproduces the true limits on the 2HDM. Finally, we employ the SM EFT
      to identify the pattern of the Higgs boson couplings that are needed to improve
      the fit to the current Higgs data. To this end, one needs, simultaneously, to
      increase the top Yukawa coupling, decrease the bottom Yukawa coupling, and induce
      a new contact interaction of the Higgs boson with gluons. We comment on how these
      modifications can be realized in the 2HDM extended by new colored particles.

PMID- 28579918
TI  - Two-body decays of gluino at full one-loop level in the quark-flavour violating
      MSSM.
AB  - We study the two-body decays of the gluino at full one-loop level in the Minimal
      Supersymmetric Standard Model with quark-flavour violation (QFV) in the squark
      sector. The renormalisation is done in the [Formula: see text] scheme. The gluon
      and photon radiations are included by adding the corresponding three-body decay
      widths. We discuss the dependence of the gluino decay widths on the QFV
      parameters. The main dependence stems from the [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see
      text] mixing in the decays to up-type squarks, and from the [Formula: see text]
      [Formula: see text] mixing in the decays to down-type squarks due to the strong
      constraints from B-physics on the other quark-flavour-mixing parameters. The full
      one-loop corrections to the gluino decay widths are mostly negative and of the
      order of about -10%. The QFV part stays small in the total width but can vary up
      to -8% for the decay width into the lightest [Formula: see text] squark. For the
      corresponding branching ratio the effect is somehow washed out by at least a
      factor of two. The electroweak corrections can be as large as 35% of the SUSY QCD
      corrections.

PMID- 28579925
TI  - Cyber-Physical Human Systems: Putting People in the Loop.
AB  - This article outlines the challenge to understand how to integrate people into a
      new generation of cyber-physical-human systems (CPHSs) and proposes a human
      service capability description model to help.

PMID- 28579926
TI  - Defeating Buffer Overflow: A Trivial but Dangerous Bug.
AB  - The C programming language was invented more than 40 years ago. It is infamous
      for buffer overflows. We have learned a lot about computer science, language
      design, and software engineering since then. Because it is unlikely that we will
      stop using C any time soon, we present some ways to deal with BOF. Many of these
      techniques are also useful for other programing languages and other classes of
      vulnerabilities.

PMID- 28579923
TI  - One rule for the goose, one for the gander? Wrongfulness and harmfulness in
      determining reactions to offenders and victims of crime.
AB  - People's reactions to offenders and victims of crime follow different rationales.
      Whereas the punishment of the offender is primarily determined by the severity of
      the crime (which includes its foreseeable harmful consequences), the actual harm
      that is experienced by the victim drives the need for his or her support and
      assistance. With the introduction of the Victim Impact Statement (VIS), in which
      victims are allowed to express the (harmful) consequences of the crime on their
      lives, the question is raised whether allowing such victim input during criminal
      proceedings would influence the offender's sentence. The main goal of the current
      research is to disentangle how a crime's wrongfulness and harmfulness influence
      people's reactions to offenders and victims. We show that, whereas people's
      perceptions of the offender (and the outcome of the trial) are influenced by the
      severity of the crime, people's judgements related to the victim are more likely
      to be influenced by an interaction between the severity of the crime and the
      experienced harm of the crime. That is, in this study no support was found for
      the argument that the delivery of a VIS would lead to a violation of the
      proportionality principle.

PMID- 28579924
TI  - Income inequality and fear of crime across the European region.
AB  - This paper aims to take a holistic approach to studying fear of crime by testing
      predictors at multiple levels of analyses. Data from the European Social Survey
      (N = 56,752 from 29 countries) were used to test and extend the Income Inequality
      and Sense of Vulnerability Hypotheses. The findings confirm that (1) individuals
      in societies with greater income inequalities are more fearful of crime, and (2)
      older or disabled people as well as women report greater fear of crime. Contrary
      to the hypotheses, ethnic majority and not ethnic minority members report greater
      fear of crime, if they reside in high income inequality countries. It is further
      demonstrated that fear of crime explains the inverse association between income
      inequality and subjective well-being in this particular subsample.

PMID- 28579927
TI  - Identification of Osteoporosis-Associated Protein Biomarkers from Ovariectomized
      Rat Urine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Osteoporotic fracture is one of the most common health risks and
      aggravates the quality of life among postmenopausal women worldwide. In this
      study, osteoporosis-associated protein biomarkers were identified from urine of
      osteoporotic female Sprague-Dawley rats developed by ovariectomy. METHOD: Four
      months after the operation, the bone mineral density of the femur of
      ovariectomized rats was significantly lowered in comparison with that of the sham
      operated rats. The protein profiles of the urine samples collected from the sham,
      ovariectomized (OVX) and 2 month-old non-operated (Young) rats were compared by 2
      D gel and MS spectrometry. RESULTS: Proteins consistently expressed between Young
      and sham but differentially expressed in OVX rats were selected and identified.
      One down-regulated 21 kDa protein, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and 1 up-regulated
      53-54 kDa protein, alph-1-antitrypsin (A1AT), were selected from urine of the
      ovariectomized rats by 2-D gel analysis. Further, a total of 30 with 19 up
      regulated and 11-down-regulated proteins were selected by LC-MS analysis with
      more than 2-fold differences in spectral counts. The fact that SOD and A1AT are
      also listed in the 30 differential proteins suggests that our biomarker isolation
      procedure suitably represents osteoporosis-associated proteins in urine.
      CONCLUSION: Supporting the facts, the differential expressions of SOD and A1AT in
      urine could be validated by Western blotting. These urinary osteoporosis
      associated proteins have high potentials to become candidates for non-invasive
      diagnosis of osteoporosis from urine.

PMID- 28579922
TI  - Solution of an elusive pigment crystal structure from a thin film: a combined X
      ray diffraction and computational study.
AB  - Epindolidione, a hydrogen-bonded derivative of the organic semiconductor
      tetracene, is an organic pigment which has previously been used to produce stable
      OFETs with relatively high hole mobilities. Despite its use as an inkjet pigment
      and organic semiconductor, the crystal structure of epindolidione has proved
      elusive and is currently unknown. In this work, we report a crystal structure
      solution of epindolidione determined from vapor deposited thin films using a
      combined experimental and theoretical approach. The structure is found to be
      similar to one of the previously reported epindolidione derivatives and is most
      likely a surface-mediated polymorph, with a slightly different crystal packing
      compared to the bulk powder. The effect of substrate temperature on film
      morphology and structure is also investigated, where it is found that the
      crystallite orientation can be tuned by deposition at different substrate
      temperatures. The results also illustrate the possibilities for crystal
      structures to be solved from thin films.

PMID- 28579928
TI  - Single cell amperometry reveals curcuminoids modulate the release of
      neurotransmitters during exocytosis from PC12 cells.
AB  - We used single cell amperometry to examine whether curcumin and
      bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC), substances that are suggested to affect learning and
      memory, can modulate monoamine release from PC12 cells. Our results indicate both
      curcumin and BDMC need long-term treatment (72 h in this study) to influence
      exocytosis effectively. By analyzing the parameters calculated from single
      exocytosis events, it can be concluded that curcumin and BDMC affect exocytosis
      through different mechanisms. Curcumin accelerates the event dynamics with no
      significant change of the monoamine amount released from single exocytotic
      events, whereas BDMC attenuates the amount from single exocytotic event with no
      significant change of the event dynamics. This comparison of the effect of
      curcumin and BDMC on exocytosis at the single cell level brings insight into
      their different mechanisms, which might lead to different biological actions. The
      effect of curcumin and BDMC on the opening and closing of the exocytotic fusion
      pore were also investigated. These results might be helpful for understanding the
      improvement of learning and memory and the anti-depression properties of
      curcuminoids.

PMID- 28579929
TI  - Microfabricated, Massive Electrochemical Arrays of Uniform Ultramicroelectrodes.
AB  - We report the preparation and electrochemical characterization of massive
      electrochemical arrays containing as many as 110,000 highly uniform
      ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs). These arrays were microfabricated using conventional
      photolithography techniques on a gold-coated silicon chip in a simple three-step
      method. Photoresist polymer was used as an effective insulating matrix to define
      2 MUm, 3 MUm, and 4 MUm diameter circular UMEs across a 1 * 1 mm2 area. The UME
      arrays are high uniform and contain tens of thousands of active disk-shape UMEs
      slightly recessed in thin films of photoresist. These arrays were tested with
      cyclic voltammetry and copper electrodeposition to assess the adhesion of
      photoresist to the gold surface as well as to examine their electrochemical
      activity. Numerical simulations were performed to further validate their
      electrochemical response. These UME arrays can be a useful platform for
      fundamental understanding molecular transport in uniform electrochemical arrays
      and designing highly-sensitive electroanalytical sensors.

PMID- 28579930
TI  - Protodioscin, Isolated from the Rhizome of Dioscorea tokoro Collected in Northern
      Japan is the Major Antiproliferative Compound to HL-60 ?Leukemic Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rhizome of Oni-dokoro (a wild yam, Dioscorea tokoro) has
      extremely bitter taste and is not generally regarded edible;, however, in
      northern part of Japan, such as Iwate and a part of Aomori, it is used as health
      promoting food. To clarify the reason, we examined the biologically active
      compounds in the rhizome collected at Iwate and compared them from the other area
      in literature. METHODS: The acetonitrile extract from northern part of Japan was
      purified by bioassay-guided separation using antiproliferative activity to human
      leukemia HL-60 cell, and protodioscin (PD) was isolated and identified by
      instrumental analyses as the major active compound. RESULTS: PD known as a
      saponin with four sugar moieties, an inhibitor for platelet aggregation, and a
      low density lipoprotein (LPL) lowering agent, displayed strong growth inhibitory
      effect to HL-60. The literature search suggested that the rhizome from other area
      contained dioscin and other saponins with three sugar moieties as their major
      component. We assume that the edible and health promoting effect of the rhizome
      in the particular area is partially derived from these different components.
      CONCLUSION: We were interested in the differences of utilization in the rhizome
      of wild yam Dioscorea tokoro, and examined the chemical composition in the
      rhizome to find protodioscin as antiproliferative compound to HL-60. In the
      report from other area, the rhizome exhibited dioscin as the major compound. Our
      study indicated that the protodioscin/dioscin composition varied regionally,
      although the reason is still needs to be investigated.

PMID- 28579932
TI  - Oral health-related quality of life and loneliness among older adults.
AB  - Loneliness is a serious concern in aging populations. The key risk factors
      include poor health, depression, poor material circumstances, and low social
      participation and social support. Oral disease and tooth loss have a significant
      negative impact on the quality of life and well-being of older adults. However,
      there is a lack of studies relating oral health to loneliness. This study
      investigated the association between oral health-related quality of life (through
      the use of the oral impact on daily performances-OIDP-measure) and loneliness
      amongst older adults living in England. Data from respondents aged 50 and older
      from the third (2006-2007) and fifth (2010-2011) waves of the English
      Longitudinal Study of Ageing were analyzed. In the cross-sectional logistic
      regression model that adjusted for socio-demographic, socio-economic, health, and
      psychosocial factors, the odds of loneliness were 1.48 (1.16-1.88; p < 0.01)
      higher amongst those who reported at least one oral impact compared to those with
      no oral impact. Similarly, in the fully adjusted longitudinal model, respondents
      who reported an incident oral impact were 1.56 times (1.09-2.25; p < 0.05) more
      likely to become lonely. The association between oral health-related quality of
      life and loneliness was attenuated after adjusting for depressive symptoms, low
      social participation, and social support. Oral health-related quality of life was
      identified as an independent risk factor for loneliness amongst older adults.
      Maintaining good oral health in older age may be a protective factor against
      loneliness.

PMID- 28579931
TI  - The Occurrence of Veterinary Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: A Review.
AB  - It is well known that there is a widespread use of veterinary pharmaceuticals and
      consequent release into different ecosystems such as freshwater bodies and
      groundwater systems. Furthermore, the use of organic fertilizers produced from
      animal waste manure has been also responsible for the occurrence of veterinary
      pharmaceuticals in agricultural soils. This article is a review of different
      studies focused on the detection and quantification of such compounds in
      environmental compartments using different analytical techniques. Furthermore,
      this paper reports the main challenges regarding veterinary pharmaceuticals in
      terms of analytical methods, detection/quantification of parent compounds and
      metabolites, and risks/toxicity to human health and aquatic ecosystems. Based on
      the existing literature, it is clear that only limited data is available
      regarding veterinary compounds and there are still considerable gaps to be
      bridged in order to remediate existing problems and prevent future ones. In terms
      of analytical methods, there are still considerable challenges to overcome
      considering the large number of existing compounds and respective metabolites. A
      number of studies highlight the lack of attention given to the detection and
      quantification of transformation products and metabolites. Furthermore more
      attention needs to be given in relation to the toxic effects and potential risks
      that veterinary compounds pose to environmental and human health. To conclude,
      the more research investigations focused on these subjects take place in the near
      future, more rapidly we will get a better understanding about the behavior of
      these compounds and the real risks they pose to aquatic and terrestrial
      environments and how to properly tackle them.

PMID- 28579934
TI  - Caring too much? Lack of public services to older people reduces attendance at
      work among their children.
AB  - The need to provide care for older people can put a strain on their adult
      children, potentially interfering with their work attendance. We tested the
      hypothesis that public care for older people (nursing homes or home care
      services) would moderate the association between having an older parent in need
      of care and reduced work attendance among the adult children. The analysis used
      data from a survey of Norwegian employees aged 45-65 (N = 529). Institutional
      care for older people in need of care (i.e. nursing homes) was associated with
      improved work attendance among their children-their daughters in particular. Data
      also indicated a moderating effect: the link between the parents' reduced health
      and reduced work attendance among the children was weaker if the parent lived in
      a nursing home. However, the results were very different for home-based care:
      data indicated no positive effects on adult children's work attendance when
      parents received non-institutionalised care of this kind. Overall, the results
      suggest that extending public care service to older people can improve their
      children's ability to combine work with care for parents. However, this effect
      seems to require the high level of care commonly provided by nursing homes. Thus,
      the current trend towards de-institutionalising care in Europe (and Norway in
      particular) might hamper work attendance among care-giving adult children, women
      in particular. Home care services to older people probably need to be extended if
      they are intended as a real alternative to institutional care.

PMID- 28579933
TI  - Changes in admission to long-term care institutions in the Netherlands: comparing
      two cohorts over the period 1996-1999 and 2006-2009.
AB  - Using data from two cohorts, we examine to what extent a decline in institutional
      care in the Netherlands is associated with changes in the need for care and/or
      societal factors. We compared older adults, aged 65-89, who were admitted to a
      long-term care (LTC) institution in the period 1996-1999 and 2006-2009. Using the
      Andersen model, we tested per block of predisposing, enabling and need factors,
      which factors were significant predictors of admission to institutional care.
      With a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition regression, we decomposed the difference in
      admission to an LTC institution between the period 1996-1999 and 2006-2009 into a
      part that is due to differences in health needs and other factors such as effect
      of policy, social values, and technology. Between 1996 and 2006, the percentage
      of co-residing partners and income increased and the average level of loneliness
      decreased significantly. The prevalence of disability, chronic diseases, however,
      increased. Whereas the care by partners declined, the formal care by
      professionals increased. Although the observed decline in the admission rate to
      institutional care was relatively small across the 10 years (from 5.3 % in 1996
      1999 to 4.5 % in 2006-2009, a 15 % decrease), the probability of admission in
      2006-2009 was relatively much lower when accounting for changes in the health and
      social conditions of the participants: the probability was 1.7-2.1 % point lower
      for adults in the period 2006-2009 compared to 1996-1999, a 32-40 % decrease. Our
      results show that the decline in the admission rate to LTC institutions is not
      the result of changes in need. The decline is suggested to be the combined effect
      of changes in policy, technological advances and changes in social norms.

PMID- 28579935
TI  - Smoking cessation among European older adults: the contributions of marital and
      employment transitions by gender.
AB  - Knowledge about the potential effects of stressful events on smoking cessation is
      helpful for the design of health interventions. Previous studies on this topic
      tended to group together adults of all ages and of both genders. We investigate
      the contribution of marital and employment losses on smoking cessation by gender,
      specifically among older adults in Europe. We used panel data from waves 4 (2011)
      and 5 (2013) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for 3345
      male and 3115 female smokers at baseline aged 50 and over from 13 countries. The
      associations between marital and employment losses and smoking cessation were
      derived from logistic regression models for each gender, controlling for age,
      educational attainment, diseases incidence and country of residence. Interactions
      between gender and marital and employment losses were tested. Over the analysed
      period, 119 smokers became widowed or divorced (1.8 %), 318 became retired (4.9
      %) and 100 became unemployed (1.5 %). Becoming widowed or divorced was associated
      with lower probability of smoking cessation among both men (OR 0.36, 95 % CI 0.14
      0.94) and women (OR 0.46, 95 % CI 0.21-0.99). Transitions to unemployment and to
      retirement were not significantly associated with smoking cessation (OR 0.62, 95
      % CI 0.25-1.49; and OR 0.68, 95 % CI 0.43-1.07, respectively). Gender differences
      in the association between marital and employment losses and smoking cessation
      were not statistically significant (p value > 0.05 for all interactions). Health
      interventions should take into account that male and female older adults affected
      by marital loss are at risk of continuing smoking.

PMID- 28579936
TI  - Validation of abridged mini-mental state examination scales using population
      based data from Sweden and USA.
AB  - The objective of this study is to validate two abridged versions of the mini
      mental state examination (MMSE): one intended for use in face-to-face interviews,
      and the other developed for telephonic interviews, using data from Sweden and the
      US to validate the abridged scales against dementia diagnoses as well as to
      compare their performance to that of the full MMSE scale. The abridged versions
      were based on eight domains from the original MMSE scale. The domains included in
      the MMSE-SF were registration, orientation, delayed recall, attention, and visual
      spatial ability. In the MMSE-SF-C, the visual spatial ability item was excluded,
      and instead, one additional orientation item was added. There were 794
      participants from the Swedish HARMONY study [mean age 81.8 (4.8); the proportion
      of cognitively impaired was 51 %] and 576 participants from the US ADAMS study
      [mean age 83.2 (5.7); the proportion of cognitively impaired was 65 %] where it
      was possible to compare abridged MMSE scales to dementia diagnoses and to the
      full MMSE scale. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity levels of the
      abridged tests, using clinical diagnoses as reference. Analyses with both the
      HARMONY and the ADAMS data indicated comparable levels of sensitivity and
      specificity in detecting cognitive impairment for the two abridged scales
      relative to the full MMSE. Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated
      that the two abridged scales corresponded well to those of the full MMSE. The two
      abridged tests have adequate validity and correspond well with the full MMSE. The
      abridged versions could therefore be alternatives to consider in larger
      population studies where interview length is restricted, and the respondent
      burden is high.

PMID- 28579937
TI  - Development of a method for reliable power input measurements in conventional and
      single-use stirred bioreactors at laboratory scale.
AB  - Power input is an important engineering and scale-up/down criterion in stirred
      bioreactors. However, reliably measuring power input in laboratory-scale systems
      is still challenging. Even though torque measurements have proven to be suitable
      in pilot scale systems, sensor accuracy, resolution, and errors from relatively
      high levels of friction inside bearings can become limiting factors at smaller
      scales. An experimental setup for power input measurements was developed in this
      study by focusing on stainless steel and single-use bioreactors in the single
      digit volume range. The friction losses inside the air bearings were effectively
      reduced to less than 0.5% of the measurement range of the torque meter. A
      comparison of dimensionless power numbers determined for a reference Rushton
      turbine stirrer (NP = 4.17 +/- 0.14 for fully turbulent conditions) revealed good
      agreement with literature data. Hence, the power numbers of several reusable and
      single-use bioreactors could be determined over a wide range of Reynolds numbers
      between 100 and >104. Power numbers of between 0.3 and 4.5 (for Re = 104) were
      determined for the different systems. The rigid plastic vessels showed similar
      power characteristics to their reusable counterparts. Thus, it was demonstrated
      that the torque-based technique can be used to reliably measure power input in
      stirred reusable and single-use bioreactors at the laboratory scale.

PMID- 28579938
TI  - The Connected Steady State Model and the Interdependence of the CSF Proteome and
      CSF Flow Characteristics.
AB  - Here we show that the hydrodynamic radii-dependent entry of blood proteins into
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can best be modeled with a diffusional system of
      consecutive interdependent steady states between barrier-restricted molecular
      flux and bulk flow of CSF. The connected steady state model fits precisely to
      experimental results and provides the theoretical backbone to calculate the in
      vivo hydrodynamic radii of blood-derived proteins as well as individual barrier
      characteristics. As the experimental reference set we used a previously published
      large-scale patient cohort of CSF to serum quotient ratios of immunoglobulins in
      relation to the respective albumin quotients. We related the inter-individual
      variances of these quotient relationships to the individual CSF flow time and
      barrier characteristics. We claim that this new concept allows the diagnosis of
      inflammatory processes with Reibergrams derived from population-based thresholds
      to be shifted to individualized judgment, thereby improving diagnostic
      sensitivity. We further use the source-dependent gradient patterns of proteins in
      CSF as intrinsic tracers for CSF flow characteristics. We assume that the
      rostrocaudal gradient of blood-derived proteins is a consequence of CSF bulk
      flow, whereas the slope of the gradient is a consequence of the unidirectional
      bulk flow and bidirectional pulsatile flow of CSF. Unlike blood-derived proteins,
      the influence of CSF flow characteristics on brain-derived proteins in CSF has
      been insufficiently discussed to date. By critically reviewing existing
      experimental data and by reassessing their conformity to CSF flow assumptions we
      conclude that the biomarker potential of brain-derived proteins in CSF can be
      improved by considering individual subproteomic dynamics of the CSF system.

PMID- 28579940
TI  - Comparison of IVA and GIG-ICA in Brain Functional Network Estimation Using fMRI
      Data.
AB  - Spatial group independent component analysis (GICA) methods decompose multiple
      subject functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data into a linear mixture
      of spatially independent components (ICs), some of which are subsequently
      characterized as brain functional networks. Group information guided independent
      component analysis (GIG-ICA) as a variant of GICA has been proposed to improve
      the accuracy of the subject-specific ICs estimation by optimizing their
      independence. Independent vector analysis (IVA) is another method which optimizes
      the independence among each subject's components and the dependence among
      corresponding components of different subjects. Both methods are promising in
      neuroimaging study and showed a better performance than the traditional GICA.
      However, the difference between IVA and GIG-ICA has not been well studied. A
      detailed comparison between them is demanded to provide guidance for functional
      network analyses. In this work, we employed multiple simulations to evaluate the
      performances of the two approaches in estimating subject-specific components and
      time courses under conditions of different data quality and quantity, varied
      number of sources generated and inaccurate number of components used in
      computation, as well as the presence of spatially subject-unique sources. We also
      compared the two methods using healthy subjects' test-retest resting-state fMRI
      data in terms of spatial functional networks and functional network connectivity
      (FNC). Results from simulations support that GIG-ICA showed better recovery
      accuracy of both components and time courses than IVA for those subject-common
      sources, and IVA outperformed GIG-ICA in component and time course estimation for
      the subject-unique sources. Results from real fMRI data suggest that GIG-ICA
      resulted in more reliable spatial functional networks and yielded higher and more
      robust modularity property of FNC, compared to IVA. Taken together, GIG-ICA is
      appropriate for estimating networks which are consistent across subjects, while
      IVA is able to estimate networks with great inter-subject variability or subject
      unique property.

PMID- 28579939
TI  - The Role of Co-chaperones in Synaptic Proteostasis and Neurodegenerative Disease.
AB  - Synapses must be preserved throughout an organism's lifespan to allow for normal
      brain function and behavior. Synapse maintenance is challenging given the long
      distances between the termini and the cell body, reliance on axonal transport for
      delivery of newly synthesized presynaptic proteins, and high rates of synaptic
      vesicle exo- and endocytosis. Hence, synapses rely on efficient proteostasis
      mechanisms to preserve their structure and function. To this end, the synaptic
      compartment has specific chaperones to support its functions. Without proper
      synaptic chaperone activity, local proteostasis imbalances lead to
      neurotransmission deficits, dismantling of synapses, and neurodegeneration. In
      this review, we address the roles of four synaptic chaperones in the maintenance
      of the nerve terminal, as well as their genetic links to neurodegenerative
      disease. Three of these are Hsp40 co-chaperones (DNAJs): Cysteine String Protein
      alpha (CSPalpha; DNAJC5), auxilin (DNAJC6), and Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis 8
      (RME-8; DNAJC13). These co-chaperones contain a conserved J domain through which
      they form a complex with heat shock cognate 70 (Hsc70), enhancing the chaperone's
      ATPase activity. CSPalpha is a synaptic vesicle protein known to chaperone the t
      SNARE SNAP-25 and the endocytic GTPase dynamin-1, thereby regulating synaptic
      vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis. Auxilin binds assembled clathrin cages, and
      through its interactions with Hsc70 leads to the uncoating of clathrin-coated
      vesicles, a process necessary for the regeneration of synaptic vesicles. RME-8 is
      a co-chaperone on endosomes and may have a role in clathrin-coated vesicle
      endocytosis on this organelle. These three co-chaperones maintain client function
      by preserving folding and assembly to prevent client aggregation, but they do not
      break down aggregates that have already formed. The fourth synaptic chaperone we
      will discuss is Heat shock protein 110 (Hsp110), which interacts with Hsc70,
      DNAJAs, and DNAJBs to constitute a disaggregase. Hsp110-related disaggregase
      activity is present at the synapse and is known to protect against aggregation of
      proteins such as alpha-synuclein. Congruent with their importance in the nervous
      system, mutations of these co-chaperones lead to familial neurodegenerative
      disease. CSPalpha mutations cause adult neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, while
      auxilin mutations result in early-onset Parkinson's disease, demonstrating their
      significance in preservation of the nervous system.

PMID- 28579941
TI  - Chronic Ketamine Exposure Causes White Matter Microstructural Abnormalities in
      Adolescent Cynomolgus Monkeys.
AB  - Acute and repeated exposures to ketamine mimic aspects of positive, negative, and
      cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia in humans. Recent studies by our group and
      others have shown that chronicity of ketamine use may be a key element for
      establishing a more valid model of cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. However,
      current understanding on the long-term consequences of ketamine exposure on brain
      circuits has remained incomplete, particularly with regard to microstructural
      changes of white matter tracts that underpin the neuropathology of schizophrenia.
      Thus, the present study aimed to expand on previous investigations by examining
      causal effects of repeated ketamine exposure on white matter integrity in a non
      human primate model. Ketamine or saline (control) was administered intravenously
      for 3 months to male adolescent cynomolgus monkeys (n = 5/group). Diffusion
      tensor imaging (DTI) experiments were performed and tract-based spatial
      statistics (TBSS) was used for data analysis. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was
      quantified across the whole brain. Profoundly reduced FA on the right side of
      sagittal striatum, posterior thalamic radiation (PTR), retrolenticular limb of
      the internal capsule (RLIC) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), and on
      the left side of PTR, middle temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus were
      observed in the ketamine group compared to controls. Diminished white matter
      integrity found in either fronto-thalamo-temporal or striato-thalamic connections
      with tracts including the SLF, PTR, and RLIC lends support to similar findings
      from DTI studies on schizophrenia in humans. This study suggests that chronic
      ketamine exposure is a useful pharmacological paradigm that might provide
      translational insights into the pathophysiology and treatment of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28579942
TI  - Voluntary Exercise Promotes Glymphatic Clearance of Amyloid Beta and Reduces the
      Activation of Astrocytes and Microglia in Aged Mice.
AB  - Age is characterized by chronic inflammation, leading to synaptic dysfunction and
      dementia because the clearance of protein waste is reduced. The clearance of
      proteins depends partly on the permeation of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) or on
      the exchange of water and soluble contents between the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      and the interstitial fluid (ISF). A wealth of evidence indicates that physical
      exercise improves memory and cognition in neurodegenerative diseases during
      aging, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the influence of physical training
      on glymphatic clearance, BBB permeability and neuroinflammation remains unclear.
      In this study, glymphatic clearance and BBB permeability were evaluated in aged
      mice using in vivo two-photon imaging. The mice performed voluntary wheel running
      exercise and their water-maze cognition was assessed; the expression of the
      astrocytic water channel aquaporin 4 (AQP4), astrocyte and microglial activation,
      and the accumulation of amyloid beta (Abeta) were evaluated with
      immunofluorescence or an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); synaptic
      function was investigated with Thy1-green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic
      mice and immunofluorescent staining. Voluntary wheel running significantly
      improved water-maze cognition in the aged mice, accelerated the efficiency of
      glymphatic clearance, but which did not affect BBB permeability. The numbers of
      activated astrocytes and microglia decreased, AQP4 expression increased, and the
      distribution of astrocytic AQP4 was rearranged. Abeta accumulation decreased,
      whereas dendrites, dendritic spines and postsynaptic density protein (PSD95)
      increased. Our study suggests that voluntary wheel running accelerated glymphatic
      clearance but not BBB permeation, improved astrocytic AQP4 expression and
      polarization, attenuated the accumulation of amyloid plaques and
      neuroinflammation, and ultimately protected mice against synaptic dysfunction and
      a decline in spatial cognition. These data suggest possible mechanisms for
      exercise-induced neuroprotection in the aging brain.

PMID- 28579946
TI  - Corrigendum: Reconsidering Tonotopic Maps in the Auditory Cortex and Lemniscal
      Auditory Thalamus in Mice.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 14 in vol. 11, PMID: 28293178.].

PMID- 28579944
TI  - Impaired Spinal Glucocorticoid Receptor Signaling Contributes to the Attenuating
      Effect of Depression on Mechanical Allodynia and Thermal Hyperalgesia in Rats
      with Neuropathic Pain.
AB  - Although depression-induced altered pain perception has been described in several
      laboratory and clinical studies, its neurobiological mechanism in the central
      nervous system (CNS), particularly in the spinal dorsal horn, remains unclear.
      Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify whether nociceptive sensitivity of
      neuropathic pain is altered in the olfactory bulbectomy (OB) model of depression
      and whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is involved in the etio
      pathologic mechanisms of both major depression and neuropathic pain, contributes
      to these processes in the spinal dorsal horn of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The
      results showed that mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by
      spinal nerve ligation (SNL) were attenuated in OB-SNL rats with decreased spinal
      GR expression and nuclear translocation, whereas non-olfactory bulbectomy (NOB)
      SNL rats showed increased spinal GR nuclear translocation. In addition, decreased
      GR nuclear translocation with normal mechanical nociception and hypoalgesia of
      thermal nociception were observed in OB-Sham rats. Intrathecal injection (i.t.)
      of GR agonist dexamethasone (Dex; 4 MUg/rat/day for 1 week) eliminated the
      attenuating effect of depression on nociceptive hypersensitivity in OB-SNL rats
      and aggravated neuropathic pain in NOB-SNL rats, which was associated with the up
      regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), TrkB and NR2B expression
      in the spinal dorsal horn. The present study shows that depression attenuates the
      mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of neuropathic pain and suggests
      that altered spinal GR-BDNF-TrkB signaling may be one of the reasons for
      depression-induced hypoalgesia.

PMID- 28579947
TI  - Commentary: Gene Therapy: A Promising Approach for Neuroprotection in Parkinson's
      Disease?

PMID- 28579945
TI  - LFP Oscillations in the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region during Voluntary
      Locomotion.
AB  - Oscillatory rhythms in local field potentials (LFPs) are thought to coherently
      bind cooperating neuronal ensembles to produce behaviors, including locomotion.
      LFPs recorded from sites that trigger locomotion have been used as a basis for
      identification of appropriate targets for deep brain stimulation (DBS) to enhance
      locomotor recovery in patients with gait disorders. Theta band activity (6-12 Hz)
      is associated with locomotor activity in locomotion-inducing sites in the
      hypothalamus and in the hippocampus, but the LFPs that occur in the functionally
      defined mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) during locomotion have not been
      determined. Here we record the oscillatory activity during treadmill locomotion
      in MLR sites effective for inducing locomotion with electrical stimulation in
      rats. The results show the presence of oscillatory theta rhythms in the LFPs
      recorded from the most effective MLR stimulus sites (at threshold <=60 MUA).
      Theta activity increased at the onset of locomotion, and its power was correlated
      with the speed of locomotion. In animals with higher thresholds (>60 MUA), the
      correlation between locomotor speed and theta LFP oscillations was less robust.
      Changes in the gamma band (previously recorded in vitro in the pedunculopontine
      nucleus (PPN), thought to be a part of the MLR) were relatively small. Controlled
      locomotion was best achieved at 10-20 Hz frequencies of MLR stimulation. Our
      results indicate that theta and not delta or gamma band oscillation is a suitable
      biomarker for identifying the functional MLR sites.

PMID- 28579949
TI  - Commentary: Adenosine A2A Receptor Blockade Prevents Rotenone-Induced Motor
      Impairment in a Rat Model of Parkinsonism.

PMID- 28579950
TI  - Editorial: Impact of Diet on Learning, Memory and Cognition.

PMID- 28579948
TI  - Modulation of Low-Voltage-Activated Inward Current Permeable to Sodium and
      Calcium by DARPP-32 Drives Spontaneous Firing of Insect Octopaminergic
      Neurosecretory Cells.
AB  - Identification of the different intracellular pathways that control
      phosphorylation/dephosphorylation process of ionic channels represents an
      exciting alternative approach for studying the ionic mechanisms underlying
      neuronal pacemaker activity. In the central nervous system of the cockroach
      Periplaneta americana, octopaminergic neurons, called dorsal unpaired median
      (DUM; DUM neurons), generate spontaneous repetitive action potentials. Short-term
      cultured adult DUM neurons isolated from the terminal abdominal ganglion (TAG) of
      the nerve cord were used to study the regulation of a tetrodotoxin-sensitive low
      voltage-activated (LVA) channel permeable to sodium and calcium (Na/Ca), under
      whole cell voltage- and current-clamp conditions. A bell-shaped curve
      illustrating the regulation of the amplitude of the maintained current vs. [ATP]i
      was observed. This suggested the existence of phosphorylation mechanisms. The
      protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor, H89 and elevating [cyclic adenosine 3', 5'
      monophosphate, cAMP]i, increased and decreased the current amplitude,
      respectively. This indicated a regulation of the current via a cAMP/PKA cascade.
      Furthermore, intracellular application of PP2B inhibitors, cyclosporine A, FK506
      and PP1/2A inhibitor, okadaic acid decreased the current amplitude. From these
      results and because octopamine (OA) regulates DUM neuron electrical activity via
      an elevation of [cAMP]i, we wanted to know if, like in vertebrate dopaminergic
      neurons, OA receptor (OAR) stimulation could indirectly affect the current via
      PKA-mediated phosphorylation of Dopamine- and cAMP-regulated Phosphoprotein-32
      (DARPP-32) known to inhibit PP1/2A. Experiments were performed using
      intracellular application of phospho-DARPP-32 and non-phospho-DARPP-32. Phospho
      DARPP-32 strongly reduced the current amplitude whereas non-phospho-DARPP-32 did
      not affect the current. All together, these results confirm that DARPP-32
      mediated inhibition of PP1/2A regulates the maintained sodium/calcium current,
      which contributes to the development of the pre-depolarizing phase of the DUM
      neuron pacemaker activity.

PMID- 28579951
TI  - Communicative-Pragmatic Assessment Is Sensitive and Time-Effective in Measuring
      the Outcome of Aphasia Therapy.
AB  - A range of methods in clinical research aim to assess treatment-induced progress
      in aphasia therapy. Here, we used a crossover randomized controlled design to
      compare the suitability of utterance-centered and dialogue-sensitive outcome
      measures in speech-language testing. Fourteen individuals with post-stroke
      chronic non-fluent aphasia each received two types of intensive training in
      counterbalanced order: conventional confrontation naming, and communicative
      pragmatic speech-language therapy (Intensive Language-Action Therapy, an expanded
      version of Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy). Motivated by linguistic-pragmatic
      theory and neuroscience data, our dependent variables included a newly created
      diagnostic instrument, the Action Communication Test (ACT). This diagnostic
      instrument requires patients to produce target words in two conditions: (i)
      utterance-centered object naming, and (ii) communicative-pragmatic social
      interaction based on verbal requests. In addition, we administered a standardized
      aphasia test battery, the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT). Composite scores on the ACT
      and the AAT revealed similar patterns of changes in language performance over
      time, irrespective of the treatment applied. Changes in language performance were
      relatively consistent with the AAT results also when considering both ACT
      subscales separately from each other. However, only the ACT subscale evaluating
      verbal requests proved to be successful in distinguishing between different types
      of training in our patient sample. Critically, testing duration was substantially
      shorter for the entire ACT (10-20 min) than for the AAT (60-90 min). Taken
      together, the current findings suggest that communicative-pragmatic methods in
      speech-language testing provide a sensitive and time-effective measure to
      determine the outcome of aphasia therapy.

PMID- 28579953
TI  - Corrigendum: Multi-modal, Multi-measure, and Multi-class Discrimination of ADHD
      with Hierarchical Feature Extraction and Extreme Learning Machine Using
      Structural and Functional Brain MRI.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 157 in vol. 11, PMID: 28420972.].

PMID- 28579943
TI  - E3 Ubiquitin Ligases Neurobiological Mechanisms: Development to Degeneration.
AB  - Cells regularly synthesize new proteins to replace old or damaged proteins.
      Deposition of various aberrant proteins in specific brain regions leads to
      neurodegeneration and aging. The cellular protein quality control system develop
      various defense mechanisms against the accumulation of misfolded and aggregated
      proteins. The mechanisms underlying the selective recognition of specific crucial
      protein or misfolded proteins are majorly governed by quality control E3
      ubiquitin ligases mediated through ubiquitin-proteasome system. Few known E3
      ubiquitin ligases have shown prominent neurodevelopmental functions, but their
      interactions with different developmental proteins play critical roles in
      neurodevelopmental disorders. Several questions are yet to be understood
      properly. How E3 ubiquitin ligases determine the specificity and regulate
      degradation of a particular substrate involved in neuronal proliferation and
      differentiation is certainly the one, which needs detailed investigations.
      Another important question is how neurodevelopmental E3 ubiquitin ligases
      specifically differentiate between their versatile range of substrates and timing
      of their functional modulations during different phases of development. The
      premise of this article is to understand how few E3 ubiquitin ligases sense major
      molecular events, which are crucial for human brain development from its early
      embryonic stages to throughout adolescence period. A better understanding of
      these few E3 ubiquitin ligases and their interactions with other potential
      proteins will provide invaluable insight into disease mechanisms to approach
      toward therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28579952
TI  - Brain Network for the Core Deficits of Semantic Dementia: A Neural Network
      Connectivity-Behavior Mapping Study.
AB  - Individuals with semantic dementia (SD) typically suffer from selective semantic
      deficits due to degenerative brain atrophy. Although some brain regions have been
      found to be correlated with the semantic impairments of SD patients, it is
      unclear if the damage is actually responsible for SD patients' semantic disorders
      because these findings were primarily obtained by examining the roles of local
      individual regions themselves without considering the influence of other regions
      that are functionally or structurally connected to the local individual regions.
      To resolve this problem, we investigated, from the brain network perspective, the
      relationship between the brain-network measures of regions and connections with
      semantic performance in 17 SD patients. We found that the severity of semantic
      deficits of SD patients was significantly correlated with the degree centrality
      values of the left anterior hippocampus (aHIP). Moreover, the semantic
      performance of the patients was also significantly correlated with the strength
      of gray matter functional connectivity of this region and two other regions: the
      left temporal pole/insula (TP/INS) and the left middle temporal gyrus. We further
      observed that the strength of the white matter structural connectivity of the
      left aHIP-left TP/INS tract could effectively predict the semantic performance of
      SD patients. When we controlled for a wide range of potential confounding factors
      (e.g., total gray matter volume), the above effects still held well. These
      findings revealed the critical brain network with the left aHIP as the center
      that could be contributing to the semantic impairments of SD.

PMID- 28579954
TI  - Linear Parameter Varying Identification of Dynamic Joint Stiffness during Time
      Varying Voluntary Contractions.
AB  - Dynamic joint stiffness is a dynamic, nonlinear relationship between the position
      of a joint and the torque acting about it, which can be used to describe the
      biomechanics of the joint and associated limb(s). This paper models and
      quantifies changes in ankle dynamic stiffness and its individual elements,
      intrinsic and reflex stiffness, in healthy human subjects during isometric, time
      varying (TV) contractions of the ankle plantarflexor muscles. A subspace, linear
      parameter varying, parallel-cascade (LPV-PC) algorithm was used to identify the
      model from measured input position perturbations and output torque data using
      voluntary torque as the LPV scheduling variable (SV). Monte-Carlo simulations
      demonstrated that the algorithm is accurate, precise, and robust to colored
      measurement noise. The algorithm was then used to examine stiffness changes
      associated with TV isometric contractions. The SV was estimated from the Soleus
      EMG using a Hammerstein model of EMG-torque dynamics identified from unperturbed
      trials. The LPV-PC algorithm identified (i) a non-parametric LPV impulse response
      function (LPV IRF) for intrinsic stiffness and (ii) a LPV-Hammerstein model for
      reflex stiffness consisting of a LPV static nonlinearity followed by a time
      invariant state-space model of reflex dynamics. The results demonstrated that:
      (a) intrinsic stiffness, in particular ankle elasticity, increased significantly
      and monotonically with activation level; (b) the gain of the reflex pathway
      increased from rest to around 10-20% of subject's MVC and then declined; and (c)
      the reflex dynamics were second order. These findings suggest that in healthy
      human ankle, reflex stiffness contributes most at low muscle contraction levels,
      whereas, intrinsic contributions monotonically increase with activation level.

PMID- 28579955
TI  - 10 Hz Amplitude Modulated Sounds Induce Short-Term Tinnitus Suppression.
AB  - Objectives: Acoustic stimulation or sound therapy is proposed as a main treatment
      option for chronic subjective tinnitus. To further probe the field of acoustic
      stimulations for tinnitus therapy, this exploratory study compared 10 Hz
      amplitude modulated (AM) sounds (two pure tones, noise, music, and frequency
      modulated (FM) sounds) and unmodulated sounds (pure tone, noise) regarding their
      temporary suppression of tinnitus loudness. First, it was hypothesized that
      modulated sounds elicit larger temporary loudness suppression (residual
      inhibition) than unmodulated sounds. Second, with manipulation of stimulus
      loudness and duration of the modulated sounds weaker or stronger effects of
      loudness suppression were expected, respectively. Methods: We recruited 29
      participants with chronic tonal tinnitus from the multidisciplinary Tinnitus
      Clinic of the University of Regensburg. Participants underwent audiometric,
      psychometric and tinnitus pitch matching assessments followed by an acoustic
      stimulation experiment with a tinnitus loudness growth paradigm. In a first block
      participants were stimulated with all of the sounds for 3 min each and rated
      their subjective tinnitus loudness to the pre-stimulus loudness every 30 s after
      stimulus offset. The same procedure was deployed in the second block with the
      pure tone AM stimuli matched to the tinnitus frequency, manipulated in length (6
      min), and loudness (reduced by 30 dB and linear fade out). Repeated measures
      mixed model analyses of variance (ANOVA) were calculated to assess differences in
      loudness growth between the stimuli for each block separately. Results: First, we
      found that all sounds elicit a short-term suppression of tinnitus loudness
      (seconds to minutes) with strongest suppression right after stimulus offset [F(6,
      1331) = 3.74, p < 0.01]. Second, similar to previous findings we found that AM
      sounds near the tinnitus frequency produce significantly stronger tinnitus
      loudness suppression than noise [vs. Pink noise: t(27) = -4.22, p < 0.0001].
      Finally, variants of the AM sound matched to the tinnitus frequency reduced in
      sound level resulted in less suppression while there was no significant
      difference observed for a longer stimulation duration. Moreover, feasibility of
      the overall procedure could be confirmed as scores of both tinnitus loudness and
      questionnaires were lower after the experiment [tinnitus loudness: t(27) = 2.77,
      p < 0.01; Tinnitus Questionnaire: t(27) = 2.06, p < 0.05; Tinnitus Handicap
      Inventory: t(27) = 1.92, p = 0.065]. Conclusion: Taken together, these results
      imply that AM sounds, especially in or around the tinnitus frequency, may induce
      larger suppression than unmodulated sounds. Future studies should thus evaluate
      this approach in longitudinal studies and real life settings. Furthermore, the
      putative neural relation of these sound stimuli with a modulation rate in the EEG
      alpha band to the observed tinnitus suppression should be probed with respective
      neurophysiological methods.

PMID- 28579956
TI  - Music Training and Education Slow the Deterioration of Music Perception Produced
      by Presbycusis in the Elderly.
AB  - The perception of music depends on the normal function of the peripheral and
      central auditory system. Aged subjects without hearing loss have altered music
      perception, including pitch and temporal features. Presbycusis or age-related
      hearing loss is a frequent condition in elderly people, produced by
      neurodegenerative processes that affect the cochlear receptor cells and brain
      circuits involved in auditory perception. Clinically, presbycusis patients have
      bilateral high-frequency hearing loss and deteriorated speech intelligibility.
      Music impairments in presbycusis subjects can be attributed to the normal aging
      processes and to presbycusis neuropathological changes. However, whether
      presbycusis further impairs music perception remains controversial. Here, we
      developed a computerized version of the Montreal battery of evaluation of amusia
      (MBEA) and assessed music perception in 175 Chilean adults aged between 18 and 90
      years without hearing complaints and in symptomatic presbycusis patients. We give
      normative data for MBEA performance in a Latin-American population, showing age
      and educational effects. In addition, we found that symptomatic presbycusis was
      the most relevant factor determining global MBEA accuracy in aged subjects.
      Moreover, we show that melodic impairments in presbycusis individuals were
      diminished by music training, while the performance in temporal tasks were
      affected by the educational level and music training. We conclude that music
      training and education are important factors as they can slow the deterioration
      of music perception produced by age-related hearing loss.

PMID- 28579959
TI  - Corrigendum: Current Diagnosis and Management of Immune Related Adverse Events
      (irAEs) Induced by Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 49 in vol. 8, PMID: 28228726.].

PMID- 28579958
TI  - Exploring Pharmacological Mechanisms of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
      Essential Oil on Central Nervous System Targets.
AB  - Lavender essential oil is traditionally used and approved by the European
      Medicines Agency (EMA) as herbal medicine to relieve stress and anxiety. Some
      animal and clinical studies reveal positive results in models of anxiety and
      depression although very little research has been done on molecular mechanisms.
      Our work consisted of evaluating the effects of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
      essential oil on central nervous system well-established targets, such as MAO-A,
      SERT, GABAAand NMDA receptors as well as in vitro models of neurotoxicity. The
      results showed that lavender essential oil and its main components exert affinity
      for the glutamate NMDA-receptor in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of
      0.04 MUl/mL for lavender oil. In addition, lavender and linalool were also able
      to bind the serotonin transporter (SERT) whereas they did not show affinity for
      GABAA-benzodiazepine receptor. In three different models of neurotoxicity,
      lavender did not enhance the neurotoxic insult and improved viability of SH-SY5Y
      cells treated with hydrogen peroxide. According to our data, the anxiolytic and
      antidepressant-like effects attributed to lavender may be due to an antagonism on
      the NMDA-receptor and inhibition of SERT. This study suggests that lavender
      essential oil may exert pharmacological properties via modulating the NMDA
      receptor, the SERT as well as neurotoxicity induced by hydrogen peroxide.

PMID- 28579957
TI  - The Epigenomics of Embryonic Pathway Signaling in Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second-leading cause of cancer death in developed
      countries. While early detection (e.g., colonoscopy) generally yields excellent
      outcomes, metastatic and drug-resistant disease is uniformly fatal, and non
      compliance for screening remains over 25%. Familial CRCs (10% of total cases)
      primarily include mutations in the gene APC. Somatic disease is linked to several
      environmental several risk factors, including mutations in WNT, KRAS, and
      TGFbeta. To reflect the genesis/progression of CRC, a series of five discrete
      stages, from normal colon mucosa to fully invasive carcinoma, each regulated by
      specific "gatekeeper" genes, remains well-accepted after 20 years. However, many
      CRC tumors do not possess those particular mutations, suggesting alternative
      mechanisms. More recently, embryo-like "cancer stem cells" have been proposed to
      undergo self-renewal and drive tumorigenesis (and possibly, metastasis), as
      governed by specific "epigenomic" alterations. Here, we review recent literature
      describing possible mechanisms that underlie these phenotypes, including cancer
      "stemness," believed by many to associate with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT). We further propose that the maintenance of undifferentiated
      phenotypes, by the activity of distinct transcription factors, facilitates
      chromatin remodeling and phenotypic plasticity. With that regard, we support
      recent assertions that EMT is not an "either/or" event, but rather a continuous
      spectrum of mesenchymal vs. epithelial phenotypes (in various degrees of aberrant
      differentiation/undifferentiation). Finally, we discuss possible methods of
      pharmacologically targeting such aberrant epigenomes, with regard to their
      possible relevance toward halting, or even reversing, colorectal cancer
      progression.

PMID- 28579960
TI  - Modeling the Mechanics of Cell Division: Influence of Spontaneous Membrane
      Curvature, Surface Tension, and Osmotic Pressure.
AB  - Many cell division processes have been conserved throughout evolution and are
      being revealed by studies on model organisms such as bacteria, yeasts, and
      protozoa. Cellular membrane constriction is one of these processes, observed
      almost universally during cell division. It happens similarly in all organisms
      through a mechanical pathway synchronized with the sequence of cytokinetic events
      in the cell interior. Arguably, such a mechanical process is mastered by the
      coordinated action of a constriction machinery fueled by biochemical energy in
      conjunction with the passive mechanics of the cellular membrane. Independently of
      the details of the constriction engine, the membrane component responds against
      deformation by minimizing the elastic energy at every constriction state
      following a pathway still unknown. In this paper, we address a theoretical study
      of the mechanics of membrane constriction in a simplified model that describes a
      homogeneous membrane vesicle in the regime where mechanical work due to osmotic
      pressure, surface tension, and bending energy are comparable. We develop a
      general method to find approximate analytical expressions for the main
      descriptors of a symmetrically constricted vesicle. Analytical solutions are
      obtained by combining a perturbative expansion for small deformations with a
      variational approach that was previously demonstrated valid at the reference
      state of an initially spherical vesicle at isotonic conditions. The analytic
      approximate results are compared with the exact solution obtained from numerical
      computations, getting a good agreement for all the computed quantities (energy,
      area, volume, constriction force). We analyze the effects of the spontaneous
      curvature, the surface tension and the osmotic pressure in these quantities,
      focusing especially on the constriction force. The more favorable conditions for
      vesicle constriction are determined, obtaining that smaller constriction forces
      are required for positive spontaneous curvatures, low or negative membrane
      tension and hypertonic media. Conditions for spontaneous constriction at a given
      constriction force are also determined. The implications of these results for
      biological cell division are discussed. This work contributes to a better
      quantitative understanding of the mechanical pathway of cellular division, and
      could assist the design of artificial divisomes in vesicle-based self-actuated
      microsystems obtained from synthetic biology approaches.

PMID- 28579961
TI  - Characterization of Annexin V Fusion with the Superfolder GFP in Liposomes
      Binding and Apoptosis Detection.
AB  - Programed cell death is a critical and unavoidable part of life. One of the most
      widely used markers for dying cells, by apoptosis or pyroptosis, is the
      redistribution of phosphatidylserine (PS) from the inner to the outer plasma
      membrane leaflet. Annexin V protein is a sensitive and specific probe to mark
      this event because of its high affinity to the exposed PS. Beyond that, annexin V
      can bind to any PS-containing phospholipid bilayer of almost all tiny forms of
      membranous vesicles like blood platelets, exosomes, or even nanostructured
      liposomes. In this work, recombinant human annexin V was produced as a fusion
      with a highly fluorescent superfolder derivative of the green fluorescent protein
      (sfGFP) in Escherichia coli. The fusion protein(sfGFP-ANXV, 64 kDa), annexin V
      (ANXV, 40 kDa), and sfGFP (27 kDa) were separately produced after cloning their
      encoding genes in pRSET plasmid, and all proteins were expressed in a soluble
      form, then purified in high yields because of their N-terminal 6* His tag (~150
      mg of pure protein per 1 L culture). Superiority of this fluorescent fusion
      protein over fluorescein-conjugated annexin V was demonstrated in binding to
      phospholipids (and their liposomes), prepared from natural sources (soya bean and
      egg yolk) that have different content of PS, by using different methods including
      ELISA, dot-blotting, surface plasmon resonance, and flow cytometry. We also
      applied fluorescent annexin V in the detection of apoptotic cells by flow
      cytometry and fluorescent microscopy. Interestingly, sfGFP-ANXV fusion was more
      sensitive to early apoptotic stressed HeLa cells than fluorescein-conjugated
      ANXV. This highly expressed and functional sfGFP-ANXV fusion protein provides a
      promising ready-to-use molecular tool for quantifying liposomes (or similarly
      exosomes) and detecting apoptosis in cells.

PMID- 28579963
TI  - Olesoxime Inhibits Cardioplegia-Induced Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury. A Study in
      Langendorff-Perfused Rabbit Hearts.
AB  - Objective: During cardioplegia, which is often used in cardiac surgery, the heart
      is subjected to global ischemia/reperfusion injury, which can result in a post
      operative impairment of cardiac function. Mitochondria permeability transition
      pores (MPTP) play a key role in cardiomyocyte survival after ischemia/reperfusion
      injury. It was shown in clinical settings that blockers of MPTP like cyclosporine
      might have a positive influence on cardiac function after cardioplegic arrest.
      Olesoxime, which is a new drug with MPTP blocking activity, has been introduced
      as a neuroprotective therapeutic agent. This drug has not been investigated on a
      possible positive effect in ischemia/reperfusion injury in hearts. Therefore, the
      aim of our study was to investigate possible effects of olesoxime on cardiac
      recovery after cardioplegic arrest. Methods: We evaluated 14 mature Chinchilla
      bastard rabbits of 1,500-2,000 g. Rabbit hearts were isolated and perfused with
      constant pressure according to Langendorff. After induction of cardioplegic
      arrest (30 ml 4 degrees C cold Custodiol cardioplegia without and with 5 MUmol/L
      olesoxime, n = 7 each) the hearts maintained arrested for 90-min. Thereafter, the
      hearts were re-perfused for 60 min. At the end of each experiment left
      ventricular samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen for ATP measurements.
      Furthermore, heart slices were embedded in paraffin for histological analysis.
      During the entire experiment hemodynamic and functional data such as left
      ventricular pressure (LVP), dp/dt(max) and (min), pressure rate product (PRP),
      coronary flow, pO2, and pCO2 were also assessed. Results: Histological analysis
      revealed that despite the same ischemic burden for both groups markers of
      nitrosative and oxidative stress were significantly lower in the olesoxime group.
      Moreover, hearts of the olesoxime-group showed a significantly faster and better
      hemodynamic recovery during reperfusion. In addition, tissue ATP-levels were
      significantly higher in the olesoxime treated hearts. Conclusions: Olesoxime
      significantly protected the cardiac muscle from ischemia/reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28579966
TI  - Problematic Alcohol Use among University Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol is attributable to many diseases and injury-related health
      conditions, and it is the fifth leading risk factor of premature death globally.
      Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the proportion and associated
      factors of problematic alcohol use among University students. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Cross-sectional study was conducted among 725 randomly selected
      University students from November to December 2015. Data were collected by self
      administered questionnaire, and problematic alcohol use was assessed by Alcohol
      Use Disorder Identification Test. Chi-square test was used to show association of
      problematic use and each variable and major predicators was identified using
      logistic regression with 95% confidence interval (CI); and variables with p-value
      less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: About 83
      (11.4%) of the samples were problematic alcohol users of which 6.8% had medium
      level problems and 4.6% had high level problems. Significantly associated
      variables with problematic alcohol use among students were presence of social
      phobia (AOR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.8), lifetime use of any substance (AOR = 6.9,
      95% CI: 3.8, 12.7), higher score in students cumulative grade point average (AOR
      = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4, 0.9), and having intimate friend who use alcohol (AOR = 2.2,
      95% CI: 1.3, 3.8). CONCLUSION: Problematic alcohol use among university students
      was common and associated with social phobia, poor academic achievement, lifetime
      use of any substance, and peer pressure. Strong legislative control of alcohol in
      universities is important to reduce the burden of alcohol.

PMID- 28579967
TI  - Leader Narcissism and Outcomes in Organizations: A Review at Multiple Levels of
      Analysis and Implications for Future Research.
AB  - Narcissists often pursue leadership and are selected for leadership positions by
      others. At the same time, they act in their own best interest, putting the needs
      and interests of others at risk. While theoretical arguments clearly link
      narcissism and leadership, the question whether leader narcissism is good or bad
      for organizations and their members remains unanswered. Narcissism seems to have
      two sides, a bright and a dark one. This systematic literature review seeks to
      contribute to the ongoing academic discussion about the positive or negative
      impact of leader narcissism in organizations. Forty-five original research
      articles were categorized according to outcomes at three levels of analysis: the
      dyadic level (focusing on leader-follower relationships), the team level
      (focusing on work teams and small groups), and the organizational level. On this
      basis, we first summarized the current state of knowledge about the impact that
      leader narcissism has on outcomes at different levels of analysis. Next, we
      revealed similarities and contradictions between research findings within and
      across levels of analysis, highlighting persistent inconsistencies concerning the
      question whether leader narcissism has positive or negative consequences.
      Finally, we outlined theoretical and methodological implications for future
      studies of leader narcissism. This multi-level perspective ascertains a new,
      systematic view of leader narcissism and its consequences for organizations and
      their stakeholders. The article demonstrates the need for future research in the
      field of leader narcissism and opens up new avenues for inquiry.

PMID- 28579964
TI  - Association between Polymorphisms in MicroRNAs and Risk of Urological Cancer: A
      Meta-Analysis Based on 17,019 Subjects.
AB  - Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that some single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) existing in miRNAs correlate with the susceptibility to urological
      cancers. However, a clear consensus still not reached due to the limited
      statistical power in individual study. Thus, we concluded a meta-analysis to
      systematically evaluate the association between microRNA SNPs and urological
      cancer risk. Eligible studies were collected from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science,
      and CNKI databases. Pooled odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence
      interval (95% CI) were calculated to assess the strength of the relationships
      between three SNPs (miR-196a2, C>T rs11614913; miR-146a, G>C rs2910164; and miR
      499, A>G rs3746444) and the risk of urological cancers. In addition, the
      stability of our analysis was evaluated by publication bias, sensitivity and
      heterogeneity analysis. Overall, a total of 17,019 subjects from 14 studies were
      included in this meta-analysis. We found that CT (miR-196a2, C>T rs11614913) was
      a risk factor for renal cell carcinoma (CT vs. CC: OR = 1.72, 95%CI = 1.05-2.80,
      P = 0.03, I2 = 66%), especially in Asian population (CT vs. CC: OR = 1.17, 95%CI
      = 1.04-1.32, P < 0.01, I2 = 0%). miR-146a G>C rs2910164 was a protective factor
      of urological cancers (C vs. G: OR = 0.87, 95%CI = 0.81-0.93, P < 0.01, I2 = 0%),
      especially for bladder cancer. miR-499 A>G rs3746444 was correlated with an
      increased risk of urological cancers, specifically in Asian population. In
      conclusion, our meta-analysis suggests that polymorphisms in microRNAs, miR
      196a2, C>T rs11614913, miR-146a G>C rs2910164 and miR-499 A>G rs3746444, may be
      associated with the development of urological cancers and the risks mainly exist
      in Asian populations.

PMID- 28579962
TI  - The Crosstalk between the Gut Microbiota and Mitochondria during Exercise.
AB  - Many physiological changes occur in response to endurance exercise in order to
      adapt to the increasing energy needs, mitochondria biogenesis, increased reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) production and acute inflammatory responses. Mitochondria
      are organelles within each cell that are crucial for ATP production and are also
      a major producer of ROS and reactive nitrogen species during intense exercise.
      Recent evidence shows there is a bidirectional interaction between mitochondria
      and microbiota. The gut microbiota have been shown to regulate key
      transcriptional co-activators, transcription factors and enzymes involved in
      mitochondrial biogenesis such as PGC-1alpha, SIRT1, and AMPK genes. Furthermore,
      the gut microbiota and its metabolites, such as short chain fatty acids and
      secondary bile acids, also contribute to host energy production, ROS modulation
      and inflammation in the gut by attenuating TNFalpha- mediated immune responses
      and inflammasomes such as NLRP3. On the other hand, mitochondria, particularly
      mitochondrial ROS production, have a crucial role in regulating the gut
      microbiota via modulating intestinal barrier function and mucosal immune
      responses. Recently, it has also been shown that genetic variants within the
      mitochondrial genome, could affect mitochondrial function and therefore the
      intestinal microbiota composition and activity. Diet is also known to
      dramatically modulate the composition of the gut microbiota. Therefore, studies
      targeting the gut microbiota can be useful for managing mitochondrial related ROS
      production, pro-inflammatory signals and metabolic limits in endurance athletes.

PMID- 28579965
TI  - Neural Correlates of Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress
      Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychiatric disease
      with changes in neural circuitries. Neurobiological models conceptualize the
      symptoms of PTSD as correlates of a dysfunctional stress reaction to traumatic
      events. Functional imaging studies showed an increased amygdala and a decreased
      prefrontal cortex response in PTSD patients. As psychotherapeutic approaches
      represent the gold standard for PTSD treatment, it is important to examine its
      underlying neurobiological correlates. METHODS: Studies published until August
      2016 were selected through systematic literature research in the databases
      PubMed, PsychInfo, and Cochrane Library's Central Register of Controlled Trials
      or were identified manually by searching reference lists of selected articles.
      Search terms were "neural correlates" OR "fMRI" OR "SPECT," AND "therapy" AND
      "PTSD." A total of 19 articles were included in the present review whereof 15
      studies compared pre-to-post-therapy signal changes, six studies related pre
      treatment activity to pre-to-post-symptom improvement, and four studies compared
      neural correlates of responders versus non-responders. The disposed therapy forms
      were cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and
      reprocessing, cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, mindfulness-based
      intervention, brief eclectic psychotherapy, and unspecified therapy. RESULTS:
      Successful psychotherapy of PTSD was repeatedly shown to be accompanied by
      decreased activity in the amygdala and the insula as well as increased activity
      in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and hippocampus. Elevated dACC
      activity prior to treatment was related to subsequent treatment success and a
      positive predictor for treatment response. Elevated amygdala and insula pre
      treatment activities were related to treatment failure. DISCUSSION: Decreased
      activity in limbic brain regions and increased activity in frontal brain areas in
      PTSD patients after successful psychotherapeutic treatment might reflect regained
      top-down control over previously impaired bottom-up processes.

PMID- 28579969
TI  - Ten Years toward Equity: Preliminary Results from a Follow-Up Case Study of
      Academic Computing Culture.
AB  - Just over 10 years ago, we conducted a culture study of the Computer Science
      Department at the flagship University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the
      top five computing departments in the country. The study found that while the
      department placed an emphasis on research, it did so in a way that, in
      conjunction with a lack of communication and transparency, devalued teaching and
      mentoring, and negatively impacted the professional development, education, and
      sense of belonging of the students. As one part of a multi-phase case study
      spanning over a decade, this manuscript presents preliminary findings from our
      latest work at the university. We detail early comparisons between data gathered
      at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana
      Champaign in 2005 and our most recent pilot case study, a follow-up research
      project completed in 2016. Though we have not yet completed the full data
      collection, we find it worthwhile to reflect on the pilot case study data we have
      collected thus far. Our data reveals improvements in the perceptions of
      undergraduate teaching quality and undergraduate peer mentoring networks.
      However, we also found evidence of continuing feelings of isolation, incidents of
      bias, policy opacity, and uneven policy implementation that are areas of concern,
      particularly with respect to historically underrepresented groups. We discuss
      these preliminary follow-up findings, offer research and methodological
      reflections, and share next steps for applied research that aims to create
      positive cultural change in computing.

PMID- 28579970
TI  - Predicting Disability after Ischemic Stroke Based on Comorbidity Index and Stroke
      Severity-From the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive-Acute
      Collaboration.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The availability and access of hospital administrative data
      [coding for Charlson comorbidity index (CCI)] in large data form has resulted in
      a surge of interest in using this information to predict mortality from stroke.
      The aims of this study were to determine the minimum clinical data set to be
      included in models for predicting disability after ischemic stroke adjusting for
      CCI and clinical variables and to evaluate the impact of CCI on prediction of
      outcome. METHOD: We leverage anonymized clinical trial data in the Virtual
      International Stroke Trials Archive. This repository contains prospective data on
      stroke severity and outcome. The inclusion criteria were patients with available
      stroke severity score such as National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS),
      imaging data, and outcome disability score such as 90-day Rankin Scale. We
      calculate CCI based on comorbidity data in this data set. For logistic
      regression, we used these calibration statistics: Nagelkerke generalised R2 and
      Brier score; and for discrimination we used: area under the receiver operating
      characteristics curve (AUC) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). The
      IDI was used to evaluate improvement in disability prediction above baseline
      model containing age, sex, and CCI. RESULTS: The clinical data among 5,206
      patients (55% males) were as follows: mean age 69 +/- 13 years, CCI 4.2 +/- 0.8,
      and median NIHSS of 12 (IQR 8, 17) on admission and 9 (IQR 5, 15) at 24 h. In
      Model 2, adding admission NIHSS to the baseline model improved AUC from 0.67 (95%
      CI 0.65-0.68) to 0.79 (95% CI 0.78-0.81). In Model 3, adding 24-h NIHSS to the
      baseline model resulted in substantial improvement in AUC to 0.90 (95% CI 0.89
      0.91) and increased IDI by 0.23 (95% CI 0.22-0.24). Adding the variable
      recombinant tissue plasminogen activator did not result in a further change in
      AUC or IDI to this regression model. In Model 3, the variable NIHSS at 24 h
      explains 87.3% of the variance of Model 3, follow by age (8.5%), comorbidity
      (3.7%), and male sex (0.5%). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that prediction of
      disability after ischemic stroke should at least include 24-h NIHSS and age. The
      variable CCI is less important for prediction of disability in this data set.

PMID- 28579968
TI  - Problem Gambling among Adolescent Girls in Croatia-The Role of Different
      Psychosocial Predictors.
AB  - Although, compared to boys, adolescent girls gamble less often and less
      problematically, prevalence studies still show significant numbers of at
      risk/problem gamblers among girls. However, girl gambling has been on the
      sidelines of adolescent gambling research. The available studies usually focus
      only on a narrow set of correlates often ignoring that adolescent gambling is a
      complex phenomenon determined by various factors. Also, they often measure
      gambling related consequences with instruments that are not specifically
      developed for use on adolescents. In order to contribute to a better
      understanding of adolescent gambling this study focuses on problem gambling among
      girls. We consider different social, cognitive, motivational and behavioral
      factors as predictors of girl problem gambling. A total of 1,372 high-school
      girls from 7 Croatian cities participated in the study. They provided data on
      their gambling activities, peer gambling, cognitive distortions related to
      gambling, motivation for gambling, and levels of general risky behavior. As the
      only instrument developed specifically for use on adolescents, the Canadian
      Adolescent Gambling Inventory was used to examine adverse gambling consequences.
      Results show 7.4% of girls can be considered regular gamblers, and out of those
      who gambled at least once in their lifetime (n = 862), 11.2% already experience
      mild adverse consequences because of their gambling (at risk gamblers), with 3.2%
      experiencing serious consequences (problem gamblers). In general, girls seem to
      prefer lotto and scratch cards, but sports betting seems to be the preferred game
      of choice among regular girl gamblers. A hierarchical regression model confirmed
      the importance of much the same factors identified as risky for the development
      of problem gambling among adolescent boys-cognitive distortions, motives to earn
      money, to be better at gambling and to relax, the experiences of winning large
      and the drive to continue gambling, together with social factors such as having
      friends who also gamble, being involved in other risky and delinquent behavior
      and higher gambling frequency. Results call into question the importance of the
      motive to feel better for adolescent girls problem gambling. We discuss
      implications of our findings for both universal and indicated youth gambling
      prevention programs.

PMID- 28579972
TI  - Editorial: Vestibular Migraine.

PMID- 28579971
TI  - Altered Default Mode Network on Resting-State fMRI in Children with Infantile
      Spasms.
AB  - Infantile spasms (IS) syndrome is an age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy,
      which occurs in children characterized by spasms, impaired consciousness, and
      hypsarrhythmia. Abnormalities in default mode network (DMN) might contribute to
      the loss of consciousness during seizures and cognitive deficits in children with
      IS. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the changes in DMN with
      functional connectivity (FC) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF),
      the two methods to discover the potential neuronal underpinnings of IS. The
      consistency of the two calculate methods of DMN abnormalities in IS patients was
      also our main focus. To avoid the disturbance of interictal epileptic discharge,
      our testing was performed within the interictal durations without epileptic
      discharges. Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 13 patients with IS and
      35 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. FC analysis with seed in posterior
      cingulate cortex (PCC) was used to compare the differences between two groups. We
      chose PCC as the seed region because PCC is the only node in the DMN that
      directly interacts with virtually all other nodes according to previous studies.
      Furthermore, the ALFF values within the DMN were also calculated and compared
      between the two groups. The FC results showed that IS patients exhibited markedly
      reduced connectivity between posterior seed region and other areas within DMN. In
      addition, part of the brain areas within the DMN showing significant difference
      of FC had significantly lower ALFF signal in the patient group than that in the
      healthy controls. The observed disruption in DMN through the two methods showed
      that the coherence of brain signal fluctuation in DMN during rest was broken in
      IS children. Neuronal functional impairment or altered integration in DMN would
      be one neuroimaging characteristic, which might help us to understand the
      underlying neural mechanism of IS. Further studies are needed to determine
      whether the disturbed FC and ALFF observed in the DMN are related to cognitive
      performance in IS patients.

PMID- 28579973
TI  - Conflicting Role of Mycobacterium Species in Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - Mycobacterium is a genus of aerobic and acid-fast bacteria, which include several
      pathogenic organisms that cause serious diseases in mammals. Previous studies
      have associated the immune response against mycobacteria with multiple sclerosis
      (MS), a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system with unknown
      etiology. The role of mycobacteria in the pathological process has been
      controversial and often conflicting. We provide a detailed review of the
      mycobacteria that have been linked to MS over the last three decades, with a
      focus on Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine for human and oral
      exposure to Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. We will also discuss the
      exposure and genetic susceptibility to mycobacterial infection, the protective
      role of vaccination, as well as the possible mechanisms involved in initiating or
      worsening MS symptoms, with particular emphasis on the molecular mimicry between
      mycobacterial and human proteins. Finally, we will introduce topics such as heat
      shock proteins and recognition by innate immunity, and toll-like receptor
      signaling-mediated responses to Mycobacterium exposure.

PMID- 28579974
TI  - Tracheoesophageal Fistula Caused by Tracheostomy in a Patient with Myasthenia
      Gravis after a Myasthenic Crisis.
AB  - A 57-year-old woman with myasthenia gravis (MG), who had experienced a myasthenic
      crisis, complained of coughing while drinking. At first, this appeared to be a
      sequela of the myasthenic crisis. However, after further investigation, the
      problem was identified as a tracheoesophageal fistula, a complication of
      tracheostomy. Here, we describe this special case in the hope that we can improve
      diagnostic accuracy by providing a reminder for other physicians to consider the
      differences between MG and tracheoesophageal fistula. It is very important to pay
      more attention to such situations in clinical scenarios and administer the most
      appropriate treatment without delay.

PMID- 28579975
TI  - The Eight and a Half Year Journey of Undiagnosed AD: Gene Sequencing and Funding
      of Advanced Genetic Testing Has Led to Hope and New Beginnings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) is one of the most
      prevalent de novo mutated genes in syndromic autism spectrum disorders, driving a
      general interest in the gene and the syndrome. AIM: The aim of this study was to
      provide a detailed developmental case study of ADNP p.Tyr719* mutation toward
      improvements in (1) diagnostic procedures, (2) phenotypic scope, and (3)
      interventions. METHODS: Longitudinal clinical and parental reports. RESULTS: AD
      (currently 11-year-old) had several rare congenital anomalies including
      imperforate anus that was surgically repaired at 2 days of age. Her findings were
      craniofacial asymmetries, global developmental delay, autistic behaviors (loss of
      smile and inability to make eye contact at the age of 15 months), and slow
      thriving as she gradually matures. Comprehensive diagnostic procedures at 3 years
      resulted in no definitive diagnosis. With parental persistence, AD began walking
      at 3.5 years (skipping crawling). At the age of 8.5 years, AD was subjected to
      whole exome sequencing, compared to the parents and diagnosed as carrying an ADNP
      p.Tyr719* mutation, a causal recurring mutation in ADNP (currently ~17/80
      worldwide). Brain magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated mild generalized
      cerebral volume loss with reduced posterior white matter. AD is non-verbal,
      communicating with signs and word approximations. She continues to make slow but
      forward developmental progress, and her case teaches newly diagnosed children
      within the ADNP Kids Research Foundation. CONCLUSION: This case study emphasizes
      the importance of diagnosis and describes, for the first time, early motor
      intervention therapies. Detailed developmental profile of selected cases leads to
      better treatments.

PMID- 28579976
TI  - Microbial Community Dynamics in Soil Depth Profiles Over 120,000 Years of
      Ecosystem Development.
AB  - Along a long-term ecosystem development gradient, soil nutrient contents and
      mineralogical properties change, therefore probably altering soil microbial
      communities. However, knowledge about the dynamics of soil microbial communities
      during long-term ecosystem development including progressive and retrogressive
      stages is limited, especially in mineral soils. Therefore, microbial abundances
      (quantitative PCR) and community composition (pyrosequencing) as well as their
      controlling soil properties were investigated in soil depth profiles along the
      120,000 years old Franz Josef chronosequence (New Zealand). Additionally, in a
      microcosm incubation experiment the effects of particular soil properties, i.e.,
      soil age, soil organic matter fraction (mineral-associated vs. particulate), O2
      status, and carbon and phosphorus additions, on microbial abundances
      (quantitative PCR) and community patterns (T-RFLP) were analyzed. The archaeal to
      bacterial abundance ratio not only increased with soil depth but also with soil
      age along the chronosequence, coinciding with mineralogical changes and
      increasing phosphorus limitation. Results of the incubation experiment indicated
      that archaeal abundances were less impacted by the tested soil parameters
      compared to Bacteria suggesting that Archaea may better cope with mineral-induced
      substrate restrictions in subsoils and older soils. Instead, archaeal communities
      showed a soil age-related compositional shift with the Bathyarchaeota, that were
      frequently detected in nutrient-poor, low-energy environments, being dominant at
      the oldest site. However, bacterial communities remained stable with ongoing soil
      development. In contrast to the abundances, the archaeal compositional shift was
      associated with the mineralogical gradient. Our study revealed, that archaeal and
      bacterial communities in whole soil profiles are differently affected by long
      term soil development with archaeal communities probably being better adapted to
      subsoil conditions, especially in nutrient-depleted old soils.

PMID- 28579977
TI  - In silico Prediction, in vitro Antibacterial Spectrum, and Physicochemical
      Properties of a Putative Bacteriocin Produced by Lactobacillus rhamnosus Strain
      L156.4.
AB  - A bacteriocinogenic Lactobacillus rhamnosus L156.4 strain isolated from the feces
      of NIH mice was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and MALDI-TOF mass
      spectrometry. The entire genome was sequenced using Illumina, annotated in the
      PGAAP, and RAST servers, and deposited. Conserved genes associated with
      bacteriocin synthesis were predicted using BAGEL3, leading to the identification
      of an open reading frame (ORF) that shows homology with the L. rhamnosus GG (ATCC
      53103) prebacteriocin gene. The encoded protein contains a conserved protein
      motif associated a structural gene of the Enterocin A superfamily. We found ORFs
      related to the prebacteriocin, immunity protein, ABC transporter proteins, and
      regulatory genes with 100% identity to those of L. rhamnosus HN001. In this
      study, we provide evidence of a putative bacteriocin produced by L. rhamnosus
      L156.4 that was further confirmed by in vitro assays. The antibacterial activity
      of the substances produced by this strain was evaluated using the deferred agar
      spot and spot-on-the lawn assays, and a wide antimicrobial activity spectrum
      against human and foodborne pathogens was observed. The physicochemical
      characterization of the putative bacteriocin indicated that it was sensitive to
      proteolytic enzymes, heat stable and maintained its antibacterial activity in a
      pH ranging from 3 to 9. The activity against Lactobacillus fermentum, which was
      used as an indicator strain, was detected during bacterial logarithmic growth
      phase, and a positive correlation was confirmed between bacterial growth and
      production of the putative bacteriocin. After a partial purification from cell
      free supernatant by salt precipitation, the putative bacteriocin migrated as a
      diffuse band of approximately 1.0-3.0 kDa by SDS-PAGE. Additional studies are
      being conducted to explore its use in the food industry for controlling bacterial
      growth and for probiotic applications.

PMID- 28579978
TI  - The Highly Conserved Asp23 Family Protein YqhY Plays a Role in Lipid Biosynthesis
      in Bacillus subtilis.
AB  - In most bacteria, fatty acid biosynthesis is an essential process that must be
      controlled by the availability of precursors and by the needs of cell division.
      So far, no mechanisms controlling synthesis of malonyl-coenzyme A (CoA), the
      committed step in fatty acid synthesis, have been identified in the Gram-positive
      model bacterium Bacillus subtilis. We have studied the localization and function
      of two highly expressed proteins of unknown function, YqhY and YloU. Both
      proteins are members of the conserved and widespread Asp23 family. While the
      deletion of yloU had no effect, loss of the yqhY gene induced the rapid
      acquisition of suppressor mutations. The vast majority of these mutations affect
      subunits of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) complex, the enzyme that
      catalyzes the formation of malonyl-CoA. Moreover, lack of yqhY is accompanied by
      the formation of lipophilic clusters in the polar regions of the cells indicating
      an increased activity of ACCase. Our results suggest that YqhY controls the
      activity of ACCase and that this control results in inhibition of ACCase
      activity. Hyperactivity of the enzyme complex in the absence of YqhY does then
      provoke mutations that cause reduced ACCase activity.

PMID- 28579980
TI  - Vaginal Lactobacillus Inhibits HIV-1 Replication in Human Tissues Ex Vivo.
AB  - Lactobacillus species, which dominate vaginal microbiota of healthy reproductive
      age women, lower the risks of sexually transmitted infections, including the risk
      of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition. The exact mechanisms of this
      protection remain to be understood. Here, we investigated these mechanisms in the
      context of human cervico-vaginal and lymphoid tissues ex vivo. We found that all
      six Lactobacillus strains tested in these systems significantly suppressed HIV
      type-1 (HIV-1) infection. We identified at least three factors that mediated this
      suppression: (i) Acidification of the medium. The pH of the undiluted medium
      conditioned by lactobacilli was between 3.8 and 4.6. Acidification of the culture
      medium with hydrochloric acid (HCl) to this pH in control experiments was
      sufficient to abrogate HIV-1 replication. However, the pH of the Lactobacillus
      conditioned medium (CM) diluted fivefold, which reached ~6.9, was also
      suppressive for HIV-1 infection, while in control experiments HIV-1 infection was
      not abrogated when the pH of the medium was brought to 6.9 through the use of
      HCl. This suggested the existence of other factors responsible for HIV-1
      inhibition by lactobacilli. (ii) Lactic acid. There was a correlation between the
      concentration of lactic acid in the Lactobacillus-CM and its ability to suppress
      HIV-1 infection in human tissues ex vivo. Addition of lactic acid isomers D and L
      to tissue culture medium at the concentration that corresponded to their amount
      released by lactobacilli resulted in HIV-1 inhibition. Isomer L was produced in
      higher quantities than isomer D and was mostly responsible for HIV-1 inhibition.
      These results indicate that lactic acid, in particular its L-isomer, inhibits HIV
      1 independently of lowering of the pH. (iii) Virucidal effect. Incubation of HIV
      1 in Lactobacillus-CM significantly suppressed viral infectivity for human
      tissues ex vivo. Finally, lactobacilli adsorb HIV-1, serving as a sink decreasing
      the number of free virions. In summary, we found that lactobacilli inhibit HIV-1
      replication in human tissue ex vivo by multiple mechanisms. Further studies are
      needed to evaluate the potential of altering the spectra of vaginal microbiota as
      an effective strategy to enhance vaginal health. Human tissues ex vivo may serve
      as a test system for these strategies.

PMID- 28579979
TI  - Why Quorum Sensing Controls Private Goods.
AB  - Cell-cell communication, also termed quorum sensing (QS), is a widespread process
      that coordinates gene expression in bacterial populations. The generally accepted
      view is that QS optimizes the cell density-dependent benefit attained from
      cooperative behaviors, often in the form of secreted products referred to as
      "public goods." This view is challenged by an increasing number of cell
      associated products or "private goods" reported to be under QS-control for which
      a collective benefit is not apparent. A prominent example is nucleoside hydrolase
      from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a periplasmic enzyme that catabolizes adenosine.
      Several recent studies have shown that private goods can function to stabilize
      cooperation by co-regulated public goods, seemingly explaining their control by
      QS. Here we argue that this property is a by-product of selection for other
      benefits rather than an adaptation. Emphasizing ecophysiological context, we
      propose alternative explanations for the QS control of private goods. We suggest
      that the benefit attained from private goods is associated with high cell
      density, either because a relevant ecological condition correlates with density,
      or because the private good is, directly or indirectly, involved in cooperative
      behavior. Our analysis helps guide a systems approach to QS, with implications
      for antivirulence drug design and synthetic biology.

PMID- 28579981
TI  - Assessing the Risk of Probiotic Dietary Supplements in the Context of Antibiotic
      Resistance.
AB  - Probiotic bacteria are known to harbor intrinsic and mobile genetic elements that
      confer resistance to a wide variety of antibiotics. Their high amounts in dietary
      supplements can establish a reservoir of antibiotic resistant genes in the human
      gut. These resistant genes can be transferred to pathogens that share the same
      intestinal habitat thus resulting in serious clinical ramifications. While
      antibiotic resistance of probiotic bacteria from food, human and animal sources
      have been well-documented, the resistant profiles of probiotics from dietary
      supplements have only been recently studied. These products are consumed with
      increasing regularity due to their health claims that include the improvement of
      intestinal health and immune response as well as prevention of acute and
      antibiotic-associated diarrhea and cancer; but, a comprehensive risk assessment
      on the spread of resistant genes to human health is lacking. Here, we highlight
      recent reports of antibiotic resistance of probiotic bacteria isolated from
      dietary supplements, and propose complementary strategies that can shed light on
      the risks of consuming such products in the context of a global widespread of
      antibiotic resistance. In concomitant with a broader screening of antibiotic
      resistance in probiotic supplements is the use of computational simulations, live
      imaging and functional genomics to harvest knowledge on the evolutionary
      behavior, adaptations and dynamics of probiotics studied in conditions that best
      represent the human gut including in the presence of antibiotics. The underlying
      goal is to enable the health benefits of probiotics to be exploited in a
      responsible manner and with minimal risk to human health.

PMID- 28579982
TI  - The Role of Ribonucleases and sRNAs in the Virulence of Foodborne Pathogens.
AB  - Contaminated food is the source of many severe infections in humans. Recent
      advances in food science have discovered new foodborne pathogens and progressed
      in characterizing their biology, life cycle, and infection processes. All this
      knowledge has been contributing to prevent food contamination, and to develop new
      therapeutics to treat the infections caused by these pathogens. RNA metabolism is
      a crucial biological process and has an enormous potential to offer new
      strategies to fight foodborne pathogens. In this review, we will summarize what
      is known about the role of bacterial ribonucleases and sRNAs in the virulence of
      several foodborne pathogens and how can we use that knowledge to prevent
      infection.

PMID- 28579983
TI  - Effect of Dietary Minerals on Virulence Attributes of Vibrio cholerae.
AB  - Vibrio cholerae is a water-borne pathogen responsible for causing a toxin
      mediated profuse diarrhea in humans, leading to severe dehydration and death in
      unattended patients. With increasing reports of antibiotic resistance in V.
      cholerae, there is a need for alternate interventional strategies for controlling
      cholera. A potential new strategy for treating infectious diseases involves
      targeting bacterial virulence rather than growth, where a pathogen's specific
      mechanisms critical for causing infection in hosts are inhibited. Since bacterial
      motility, intestinal colonization and cholera toxin are critical components in V.
      cholerae pathogenesis, attenuating these virulence factors could potentially
      control cholera in humans. In this study, the efficacy of sub-inhibitory
      concentration (SIC, highest concentration not inhibiting bacterial growth) of
      essential minerals, zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), and manganese (Mn) in reducing V.
      cholerae motility and adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells (Caco-2), cholera
      toxin production, and toxin binding to the ganglioside receptor (GM1) was
      investigated. Additionally, V. cholerae attachment and toxin production in an ex
      vivo mouse intestine model was determined. Further, the effect of Zn, Se and Mn
      on V. cholerae virulence genes, ctxAB (toxin production), fliA (motility), tcpA
      (intestinal colonization), and toxR (master regulon) was determined using real
      time quantitative PCR. All three minerals significantly reduced V. cholerae
      motility, adhesion to Caco-2 cells, and cholera toxin production in vitro, and
      decreased adhesion and toxin production in mouse intestine ex vivo (P < 0.05). In
      addition, Zn, Se, and Mn down-regulated the transcription of virulence genes,
      ctxAB, fliA, and toxR. Results suggest that Zn, Se, and Mn could be potentially
      used to reduce V. cholerae virulence. However, in vivo studies in an animal model
      are necessary to validate these results.

PMID- 28579984
TI  - Mutations of the Transporter Proteins GlpT and UhpT Confer Fosfomycin Resistance
      in Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - With the increasing spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      worldwide, fosfomycin has begun to be used more often, either alone or in
      combination with other antibiotics, for treating methicillin-resistant S. aureus
      infections, resulting in the emergence of fosfomycin-resistant strains.
      Fosfomycin resistance is reported to be mediated by fosfomycin-modifying enzymes
      (FosA, FosB, FosC, and FosX) and mutations of the target enzyme MurA or the
      membrane transporter proteins UhpT and GlpT. Our previous studies indicated that
      the fos genes might not the major fosfomycin resistance mechanism in S. aureus,
      whereas mutations of glpT and uhpT seemed to be more related to fosfomycin
      resistance. However, the precise role of these two genes in S. aureus fosfomycin
      resistance remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the
      role of glpT and uhpT in S. aureus fosfomycin resistance. Homologous
      recombination was used to knockout the uhpT and glpT genes in S. aureus Newman.
      Gene complementation was generated by the plasmid pRB473 carrying these two
      genes. The fosfomycin minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the strains was
      measured by the E-test to observe the influence of gene deletion on antibiotic
      susceptibility. In addition, growth curves were constructed to determine whether
      the mutations have a significant influence on bacterial growth. Deletion of uhpT,
      glpT, and both of them led to increased fosfomycin MIC 0.5 MUg/ml to 32 MUg/ml, 4
      MUg/ml, and >1024 MUg/ml, respectively. By complementing uhpT and glpT into the
      deletion mutants, the fosfomycin MIC decreased from 32 to 0.5 MUg/ml and from 4
      to 0.25 MUg/ml, respectively. Moreover, the transporter gene-deleted strains
      showed no obvious difference in growth curves compared to the parental strain. In
      summary, our study strongly suggests that mutations of uhpT and glpT lead to
      fosfomycin resistance in S. aureus, and that uhpT mutation may play a more
      important role. The high resistance and low biological fitness cost resulting
      from uhpT and glpT deletion suggest that these strains might have an evolutionary
      advantage in a fosfomycin-rich clinical situation, which should be closely
      monitored.

PMID- 28579985
TI  - Pathogenic Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus Endovascular Infection
      Isolates from Different Clonal Complexes.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of bacteremia and, even with appropriate
      clinical management, causes high morbidity, and mortality due to its involvement
      in endovascular complications and metastatic infections. Through different
      pathogenic in vivo and in vitro models we investigated the behavior of S. aureus
      most relevant clonal complexes (CCs) causing endovascular complications. We
      analyzed 14 S. aureus strains representing CC5, CC8, CC15, CC30, and CC45 that
      caused endovascular complications, including methicillin susceptible and
      resistant isolates and strains with different functionality of the agr global
      regulator. Their adherence to collagen, interaction with the endothelium,
      resistance to immune attack, capacity to form biofilm and virulence in the
      Galleria mellonella model were analyzed. CC30 and CC45 showed greater adhesion to
      collagen and CC8 showed a trend towards higher rate of intracellular persistence
      in endothelial cells. All CCs exhibited similar tolerance to neutrophil
      antimicrobial peptide hNP-1 and were capable of forming biofilms under static
      conditions. The virulence assay in the G. mellonella model demonstrated that CC15
      and CC30 were the most and least virulent, respectively. The analysis of the
      genomic sequences of the most relevant virulence genes identified some CC15
      specific gene patterns (absence of enterotoxins and sak gene) and variants
      (mainly in leucocidins and proteases), but did not reveal any gene or variant
      that could be responsible for the increased virulence detected for CC15 strains.
      Even though all the CCs were capable of causing endovascular complications, our
      results showed that different CCs are likely to produce these complications
      through different mechanisms which, if confirmed in more sophisticated models,
      would indicate the need to more specific management and therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28579986
TI  - HIV Aspartic Peptidase Inhibitors Modulate Surface Molecules and Enzyme
      Activities Involved with Physiopathological Events in Fonsecaea pedrosoi.
AB  - Fonsecaea pedrosoi is the main etiological agent of chromoblastomycosis, a
      recalcitrant disease that is extremely difficult to treat. Therefore, new
      chemotherapeutics to combat this fungal infection are urgently needed. Although
      aspartic peptidase inhibitors (PIs) currently used in the treatment of human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have shown anti-F. pedrosoi activity their exact
      mechanisms of action have not been elucidated. In the present study, we have
      investigated the effects of four HIV-PIs on crucial virulence attributes
      expressed by F. pedrosoi conidial cells, including surface molecules and secreted
      enzymes, both of which are directly involved in the disease development. In all
      the experiments, conidia were treated with indinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir and
      saquinavir (100 MUM) for 24 h, and then fungal cells were used to evaluate the
      effects of HIV-PIs on different virulence attributes expressed by F. pedrosoi. In
      comparison to untreated controls, exposure of F. pedrosoi cells to HIV-PIs caused
      (i) reduction on the conidial granularity; (ii) irreversible surface
      ultrastructural alterations, such as shedding of electron dense and amorphous
      material from the cell wall, undulations/invaginations of the plasma membrane
      with and withdrawal of this membrane from the cell wall; (iii) a decrease in both
      mannose-rich glycoconjugates and melanin molecules and an increase in
      glucosylceramides on the conidial surface; (iv) inhibition of ergosterol and
      lanosterol production; (v) reduction in the secretion of aspartic peptidase,
      esterase and phospholipase; (vi) significant reduction in the viability of non
      pigmented conidia compared to pigmented ones. In summary, HIV-PIs are efficient
      drugs with an ability to block crucial biological processes of F. pedrosoi and
      can be seriously considered as potential compounds for the development of new
      chromoblastomycosis chemotherapeutics.

PMID- 28579988
TI  - An Expanded Role for HLA Genes: HLA-B Encodes a microRNA that Regulates IgA and
      Other Immune Response Transcripts.
AB  - We describe a novel functional role for the HLA-B locus mediated by its intron
      encoded microRNA (miRNA), miR-6891-5p. We show that in vitro inhibition of miR
      6891-5p impacts the expression of nearly 200 transcripts within the B
      lymphoblastoid cell line (B-LCL) COX, affecting a large number of metabolic
      pathways, including various immune response networks. The top affected
      transcripts following miR-6891-5p inhibition are those encoding the heavy chain
      of IgA. We identified a conserved miR-6891-5p target site on the 3'UTR of both
      immunoglobulin heavy chain alpha 1 and 2 (IGHA1 and IGHA2) transcripts and
      demonstrated that this miRNA modulates the expression of IGHA1 and IGHA2. B-LCLs
      from IgA-deficient patients expressed significantly elevated levels of miR-6891
      5p when compared with unaffected family members. Upon inhibition of miR-6891-5p,
      IgA mRNA expression levels were increased, and IgA secretion was restored in the
      B-LCL of an IgA-deficient patient. These findings indicate that miR-6891-5p
      regulates IGHA1 and IGHA2 gene expression at the posttranscriptional level and
      suggest that increase in miR-6891-5p levels may contribute to the etiology of
      selective IgA deficiency.

PMID- 28579987
TI  - Killer Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor Allele Determination Using Next-Generation
      Sequencing Technology.
AB  - The impact of natural killer (NK) cell alloreactivity on hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (HSCT) outcome is still debated due to the complexity of graft
      parameters, HLA class I environment, the nature of killer cell immunoglobulin
      like receptor (KIR)/KIR ligand genetic combinations studied, and KIR+ NK cell
      repertoire size. KIR genes are known to be polymorphic in terms of gene content,
      copy number variation, and number of alleles. These allelic polymorphisms may
      impact both the phenotype and function of KIR+ NK cells. We, therefore, speculate
      that polymorphisms may alter donor KIR+ NK cell phenotype/function thus
      modulating post-HSCT KIR+ NK cell alloreactivity. To investigate KIR allele
      polymorphisms of all KIR genes, we developed a next-generation sequencing (NGS)
      technology on a MiSeq platform. To ensure the reliability and specificity of our
      method, genomic DNA from well-characterized cell lines were used; high-resolution
      KIR typing results obtained were then compared to those previously reported. Two
      different bioinformatic pipelines were used allowing the attribution of
      sequencing reads to specific KIR genes and the assignment of KIR alleles for each
      KIR gene. Our results demonstrated successful long-range KIR gene amplifications
      of all reference samples using intergenic KIR primers. The alignment of reads to
      the human genome reference (hg19) using BiRD pipeline or visualization of data
      using Profiler software demonstrated that all KIR genes were completely sequenced
      with a sufficient read depth (mean 317* for all loci) and a high percentage of
      mapping (mean 93% for all loci). Comparison of high-resolution KIR typing
      obtained to those published data using exome capture resulted in a reported
      concordance rate of 95% for centromeric and telomeric KIR genes. Overall, our
      results suggest that NGS can be used to investigate the broad KIR allelic
      polymorphism. Hence, these data improve our knowledge, not only on KIR+ NK cell
      alloreactivity in HSCT but also on the role of KIR+ NK cell populations in
      control of viral infections and diseases.

PMID- 28579989
TI  - Acute Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Triggers Early and Transient
      Interleukin-7 Production in the Gut, Leading to Enhanced Local Chemokine
      Expression and Intestinal Immune Cell Homing.
AB  - The intestinal barrier, one of the first targets of HIV/simian immunodeficiency
      virus (SIV) is subjected to major physiological changes during acute infection.
      Having previously shown that pharmaceutical injection of interleukin-7 (IL-7)
      triggers chemokine expression in many organs leading to massive T-cell homing, in
      particular to the intestine, we here explored mucosal IL-7 expression as part of
      the cytokine storm occurring during the acute phase of SIV infection in rhesus
      macaques. Quantifying both mRNA and protein in tissues, we demonstrated a
      transient increase of IL-7 expression in the small intestine of SIV-infected
      rhesus macaques, starting with local detection of the virus by day 3 of
      infection. We also observed increased transcription levels of several chemokines
      in the small intestine. In infected macaques, ileal IL-7 expression correlated
      with the transcription of four of these chemokines. Among these chemokines, the
      macrophage and/or T-cell attractant chemokines CCL4, CCL25, and CCL28 also
      demonstrated increased transcription in uninfected IL-7-treated monkeys. Through
      immunohistofluorescence staining and image analysis, we observed increased CD8+ T
      cell numbers and stable CD4+ T-cell counts in the infected lamina propria (LP)
      during hyperacute infection. Concomitantly, circulating CCR9+beta7+ CD4+ and CD8+
      T-cells dropped during acute infection, suggesting augmented intestinal homing of
      gut-imprinted T-cells. Finally, CD4+ macrophages transiently decreased in the
      submucosa and concentrated in the LP during the first days of infection. Overall,
      our study identifies IL-7 as a danger signal in the small intestine of Chinese
      rhesus macaques in response to acute SIV infection. Through stimulation of local
      chemokine expressions, this overexpression of IL-7 triggers immune cell
      recruitment to the gut. These findings suggest a role for IL-7 in the initiation
      of early mucosal immune responses to SIV and HIV infections. However, IL-7
      triggered CD4+ T-cells and macrophages localization at viral replication sites
      could also participate to viral spread and establishment of viral reservoirs.

PMID- 28579990
TI  - The Major Qualitative Characteristics of Olive (Olea europaea L.) Cultivated in
      Southwest China.
AB  - Olive trees, originated from Mediterranean, have been cultivated in China for
      decades and show great adaption to local environment. However, research on this
      topic is limited. In this study, the major qualitative characteristics and
      changes of olive grown in southwest China were investigated. The results showed
      that oil accumulated during fruit development and reached its maximum value when
      fruit had fully ripened. Phenolic and flavonoid contents increase rapidly in the
      early growth stage (0-90 DAFB) and then begin to decrease as fruit ripens.
      Compared with olive from the Mediterranean, olive from China has special
      characteristics: higher moisture content in the fruit combined with lower
      percentages of unsaturated fatty acids and oil content. This is due to southwest
      China's climate which is wetter and cooler compared to the Mediterranean. Our
      study suggests that southwest China's higher annual rainfall might contribute to
      higher fruit moisture content while its low temperatures would be conducive to
      higher unsaturated fatty acid levels in the fruit.

PMID- 28579991
TI  - Population Genetic Structure and Phylogeography of Camellia flavida (Theaceae)
      Based on Chloroplast and Nuclear DNA Sequences.
AB  - Camellia flavida is an endangered species of yellow camellia growing in limestone
      mountains in southwest China. The current classification of C. flavida into two
      varieties, var. flavida and var. patens, is controversial. We conducted a genetic
      analysis of C. flavida to determine its taxonomic structure. A total of 188
      individual plants from 20 populations across the entire distribution range in
      southwest China were analyzed using two DNA fragments: a chloroplast DNA fragment
      from the small single copy region and a single-copy nuclear gene called
      phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL). Sequences from both chloroplast and nuclear
      DNA were highly diverse; with high levels of genetic differentiation and
      restricted gene flow. This result can be attributed to the high habitat
      heterogeneity in limestone karst, which isolates C. flavida populations from each
      other. Our nuclear DNA results demonstrate that there are three differentiated
      groups within C. flavida: var. flavida 1, var. flavida 2, and var. patens. These
      genetic groupings are consistent with the morphological characteristics of the
      plants. We suggest that the samples included in this study constitute three taxa
      and the var. flavida 2 group is the genuine C. flavida. The three groups should
      be recognized as three management units for conservation concerns.

PMID- 28579992
TI  - Determination of Leaf Water Content by Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometry and
      Multivariate Calibration in Miscanthus.
AB  - Leaf water content is one of the most common physiological parameters limiting
      efficiency of photosynthesis and biomass productivity in plants including
      Miscanthus. Therefore, it is of great significance to determine or predict the
      water content quickly and non-destructively. In this study, we explored the
      relationship between leaf water content and diffuse reflectance spectra in
      Miscanthus. Three multivariate calibrations including partial least squares
      (PLS), least squares support vector machine regression (LSSVR), and radial basis
      function (RBF) neural network (NN) were developed for the models of leaf water
      content determination. The non-linear models including RBF_LSSVR and RBF_NN
      showed higher accuracy than the PLS and Lin_LSSVR models. Moreover, 75 sensitive
      wavelengths were identified to be closely associated with the leaf water content
      in Miscanthus. The RBF_LSSVR and RBF_NN models for predicting leaf water content,
      based on 75 characteristic wavelengths, obtained the high determination
      coefficients of 0.9838 and 0.9899, respectively. The results indicated the non
      linear models were more accurate than the linear models using both wavelength
      intervals. These results demonstrated that visible and near-infrared (VIS/NIR)
      spectroscopy combined with RBF_LSSVR or RBF_NN is a useful, non-destructive tool
      for determinations of the leaf water content in Miscanthus, and thus very helpful
      for development of drought-resistant varieties in Miscanthus.

PMID- 28579993
TI  - Selection and Validation of Appropriate Reference Genes for Quantitative Real
      Time PCR Normalization in Staminate and Perfect Flowers of Andromonoecious
      Taihangia rupestris.
AB  - Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)
      is the most commonly used and powerful method for gene expression analysis due to
      its high sensitivity, specificity, and high throughput, and the accuracy of this
      approach depends on the stability of reference genes used for normalization.
      Taihangia rupestris Yu and Li (Rosaceae), an andromonoecious plant, produces both
      bisexual flowers and unisexual male flowers within the same individual. Using qRT
      PCR technique, investigation of the gene expression profiling in staminate and
      perfect flowers would improve our understanding of the molecular mechanism in
      regulation of flower formation and sex differentiation in andromonoecious T.
      rupestris. To accurate normalize the gene expression level in Taihangia flower,
      16 candidate reference genes, including 10 traditional housekeeping genes, and 6
      newly stable genes, were selected based on transcriptome sequence data and
      previous studies. The expressions of these genes were assessed by qRT-PCR
      analysis in 51 samples, including 30 staminate and perfect flower samples across
      developmental stages and 21 different floral tissue samples from mature flowers.
      By using geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and comprehensive RefFinder algorithms,
      ADF3 combined with UFD1 were identified as the optimal reference genes for
      staminate flowers, while the combination of HIS3/ADF3 was the most accurate
      reference genes for perfect floral samples. For floral tissues, HIS3, UFD1, and
      TMP50 were the most suitable reference genes. Furthermore, two target genes,
      TruPI, and TruFBP24, involved in floral organ identity were selected to validate
      the most and least stable reference genes in staminate flowers, perfect flowers,
      and different floral tissues, indicating that the use of inappropriate reference
      genes for normalization will lead to the adverse results. The reference genes
      identified in this study will improve the accuracy of qRT-PCR quantification of
      target gene expression in andromonoecious T. rupestris flowers, and will
      facilitate the functional genomics studies on flower development and sex
      differentiation in the future.

PMID- 28579995
TI  - Live Imaging of Shoot Meristems on an Inverted Confocal Microscope Using an
      Objective Lens Inverter Attachment.
AB  - Live imaging of above ground meristems can lead to new insights in plant
      development not possible from static imaging of fixed tissue. The use of an
      upright confocal microscope offers several technical and biological advantages
      for live imaging floral or shoot meristems. However, many departments and core
      facilities possess only inverted confocal microscopes and lack the funding for an
      additional upright confocal microscope. Here we show that imaging of living
      apical meristems can be performed on existing inverted confocal microscopes with
      the use of an affordable and detachable InverterScope accessory.

PMID- 28579994
TI  - Identification of High-Temperature Tolerant Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)
      Genotypes through Leaf and Pollen Traits.
AB  - Rising temperatures are proving detrimental for various agricultural crops. Cool
      season legumes such as lentil (Lens culunaris Medik.) are sensitive to even small
      increases in temperature during the reproductive stage, hence the need to explore
      the available germplasm for heat tolerance as well as its underlying mechanisms.
      In the present study, a set of 38 core lentil accessions were screened for heat
      stress tolerance by sowing 2 months later (first week of January; max/min
      temperature >32/20 degrees C during the reproductive stage) than the recommended
      date of sowing (first week of November; max/min temperature <32/20 degrees C
      during the reproductive stage). Screening revealed some promising heat-tolerant
      genotypes (IG2507, IG3263, IG3297, IG3312, IG3327, IG3546, IG3330, IG3745,
      IG4258, and FLIP2009) which can be used in a breeding program. Five heat-tolerant
      (HT) genotypes (IG2507, IG3263, IG3745, IG4258, and FLIP2009) and five heat
      sensitive (HS) genotypes (IG2821, IG2849, IG4242, IG3973, IG3964) were selected
      from the screened germplasm and subjected to further analysis by growing them the
      following year under similar conditions to probe the mechanisms associated with
      heat tolerance. Comparative studies on reproductive function revealed
      significantly higher pollen germination, pollen viability, stigmatic function,
      ovular viability, pollen tube growth through the style, and pod set in HT
      genotypes under heat stress. Nodulation was remarkably higher (1.8-22-fold) in HT
      genotypes. Moreover, HT genotypes produced more sucrose in their leaves (65-73%)
      and anthers (35-78%) that HS genotypes, which was associated with superior
      reproductive function and nodulation. Exogenous supplementation of sucrose to in
      vitro-grown pollen grains, collected from heat-stressed plants, enhanced their
      germination ability. Assessment of the leaves of HT genotypes suggested
      significantly less damage to membranes (1.3-1.4-fold), photosynthetic function
      (1.14-1.17-fold) and cellular oxidizing ability (1.1-1.5-fold) than HS genotypes,
      which was linked to higher relative leaf water content (RLWC) and stomatal
      conductance (gS). Consequently, HT genotypes had less oxidative damage (measured
      as malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide concentration), coupled with a higher
      expression of antioxidants, especially those of the ascorbate-glutathione
      pathway. Controlled environment studies on contrasting genotypes further
      supported the impact of heat stress and differentiated the response of HT and HS
      genotypes to varying temperatures. Our studies indicated that temperatures >35/25
      degrees C were highly detrimental for growth and yield in lentil. While HT
      genotypes tolerated temperatures up to 40/30 degrees C by producing fewer pods,
      the HS genotypes failed to do so even at 38/28 degrees C. The findings attributed
      heat tolerance to superior pollen function and higher expression of leaf
      antioxidants.

PMID- 28579996
TI  - Cyanogenic Glucosides and Derivatives in Almond and Sweet Cherry Flower Buds from
      Dormancy to Flowering.
AB  - Almond and sweet cherry are two economically important species of the Prunus
      genus. They both produce the cyanogenic glucosides prunasin and amygdalin. As
      part of a two-component defense system, prunasin and amygdalin release toxic
      hydrogen cyanide upon cell disruption. In this study, we investigated the
      potential role within prunasin and amygdalin and some of its derivatives in
      endodormancy release of these two Prunus species. The content of prunasin and of
      endogenous prunasin turnover products in the course of flower development was
      examined in five almond cultivars - differing from very early to extra-late in
      flowering time - and in one sweet early cherry cultivar. In all cultivars,
      prunasin began to accumulate in the flower buds shortly after dormancy release
      and the levels dropped again just before flowering time. In almond and sweet
      cherry, the turnover of prunasin coincided with increased levels of prunasin
      amide whereas prunasin anitrile pentoside and beta-D-glucose-1-benzoate were
      abundant in almond and cherry flower buds at certain developmental stages. These
      findings indicate a role for the turnover of cyanogenic glucosides in controlling
      flower development in Prunus species.

PMID- 28579997
TI  - Physiological Effect of Cutting Height and High Temperature on Regrowth Vigor in
      Orchardgrass.
AB  - Producers of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) hay in the Mid-Atlantic US have
      experienced a reduction in regrowth vigor and a decline in the persistence of
      their swards. The common management practice for the region is to harvest the
      first growth of hay by cutting at 2.5-7.5 cm height in May or June. We
      hypothesize that high temperature and low cutting height interact to limit the
      regrowth rate. To test this, orchardgrass plants were cut to either 2.5 or 7.5 cm
      and then placed into environmentally controlled chambers with a constant
      temperature of 20 or 35 degrees C. Stubble was harvested on days 0, 1, 3, and 11
      following cutting and subjected to metabolite analysis. Photosynthetic parameters
      were measured in the regrown leaves on days 3 and 11, and regrowth biomass was
      recorded on day 11. Under optimal growth temperature (20 degrees C), vegetative
      regrowth upon defoliation was significantly enhanced when more stubble tissue
      remained. However, this advantage was not observed under heat stress. Defoliation
      generally decreases the abundance of carbohydrate reserves in stubble.
      Interestingly, high temperature stimulated the accumulation of starch and ethanol
      soluble carbohydrates in plants cut to 7.5 cm. The similar trends were also
      observed in protein, amino acids, nitrate, and ammonium. These responses were not
      pronounced in plants cut to 2.5 cm, presumably due to inhibited photosynthesis
      and photosystem II photochemistry. Overall, we anticipated that heat-activated
      metabolite accumulation is part of adaptive response to the stress. However,
      modified allocation of carbohydrate and nitrogen reserves leads to reduced
      vegetative regrowth upon defoliation. These data suggest that cutting height
      management for orchardgrass may be more effective for its regrowth vigor and
      productivity in cool seasons or when cool weather follows hay harvest.

PMID- 28579998
TI  - ABA Represses the Expression of Cell Cycle Genes and May Modulate the Development
      of Endodormancy in Grapevine Buds.
AB  - Recently, the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) has been implicated as a key
      player in the regulation of endodormancy (ED) in grapevine buds (Vitis vinifera
      L). In this study, we show that in the vine, the expression of genes related to
      the biosynthesis of ABA (VvNCED1; VvNCED2) and the content of ABA are
      significantly higher in the latent bud than at the shoot apex, while the
      expression of an ABA catabolic gene (VvA8H3) showed no significant difference
      between either organ. A negative correlation between the content of ABA and
      transcript levels of cell cycle genes (CCG) was found in both tissues. This
      result suggested that ABA may negatively regulate the expression of CCG in
      meristematic tissues of grapevines. To test this proposition, the effect of ABA
      on the expression of CCG was analyzed in two meristematic tissues of the vine:
      somatic embryos and shoot apexes. The results indicated that cell cycle
      progression is repressed by ABA in both organs, since it down-regulated the
      expression of genes encoding cyclin-dependent kinases (VvCDKB1, VvCDKB2) and
      genes encoding cyclins of type A (VvCYCA1, VvCYCA2, VvCYCA3), B (VvCYCB), and D
      (VvCYCD3.2a) and up-regulated the expression of VvICK5, a gene encoding an
      inhibitor of CDKs. During ED, the content of ABA increased, and the expression of
      CCG decreased. Moreover, the dormancy-breaking compound hydrogen cyanamide (HC)
      reduced the content of ABA and up-regulated the expression of CCG, this last
      effect was abolished when HC and ABA were co-applied. Taken together, these
      results suggest that ABA-mediated repression of CCG transcription may be part of
      the mechanism through which ABA modulates the development of ED in grapevine
      buds.

PMID- 28580000
TI  - Phosphorus Over-Fertilization and Nutrient Misbalance of Irrigated Tomato Crops
      in Brazil.
AB  - Over the past 20 years, the use of center-pivot irrigation has increased tomato
      (Solanum lycopersicum L.) yields in Brazil from 42 Mg ha-1 to more than 80 Mg ha
      1. In the absence of field trials to support fertilizer recommendations,
      substantial amounts of phosphorus (P) have been applied to crops. Additional P
      dosing has been based on an equilibrated nutrient P budget adjusted for low-P
      fertilizer-use efficiency in high-P fixing tropical soils. To document nutrient
      requirements and prevent over-fertilization, tissue samples and crop yield data
      can be acquired through crop surveys and fertilizer trials. Nevertheless, most
      tissue diagnostic methods pose numerical difficulties that can be avoided by
      using the nutrient balance concept. The objectives of this study were to model
      the response of irrigated tomato crops to P fertilization in low- and high-P
      soils and to provide tissue diagnostic models for high crop yield. Three P
      trials, arranged in a randomized block design with six P treatments (0-437 kg P
      ha-1) and three or four replications, were established on a low-P soil in 2013
      and high-P soils in 2013 and 2014, totaling 66 plots in all. Together with crop
      yield data, 65 tissue samples were collected from tomato farms. We found no
      significant yield response to P fertilization, despite large differences in soil
      test P (coefficient of variation, 24%). High- and low-yield classes (cutoff: 91
      Mg fruits ha-1) were classified by balance models with 78-81% accuracy using
      logit and Cate-Nelson partitioning models. The critical Mahalanobis distance for
      the partition was 5.31. Tomato yields were apparently not limited by P but were
      limited by calcium. There was no evidence that P fertilization should differ
      between center-pivot-irrigated and rain-fed crops. Use of the P budget method to
      arrive at the P requirement for tomato crops proved to be fallacious, as several
      nutrients should be rebalanced in Brazilian tomato cropping systems.

PMID- 28579999
TI  - Development of Chloroplast and Nuclear DNA Markers for Chinese Oaks (Quercus
      Subgenus Quercus) and Assessment of Their Utility as DNA Barcodes.
AB  - Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is frequently used for species demography, evolution, and
      species discrimination of plants. However, the lack of efficient and universal
      markers often brings particular challenges for genetic studies across different
      plant groups. In this study, chloroplast genomes from two closely related species
      (Quercus rubra and Castanea mollissima) in Fagaceae were compared to explore
      universal cpDNA markers for the Chinese oak species in Quercus subgenus Quercus,
      a diverse species group without sufficient molecular differentiation. With the
      comparison, nine and 14 plastid markers were selected as barcoding and
      phylogeographic candidates for the Chinese oaks. Five (psbA-trnH, matK-trnK, ycf3
      trnS, matK, and ycf1) of the nine plastid candidate barcodes, with the addition
      of newly designed ITS and a single-copy nuclear gene (SAP), were then tested on
      35 Chinese oak species employing four different barcoding approaches (genetic
      distance-, BLAST-, character-, and tree-based methods). The four methods showed
      different species identification powers with character-based method performing
      the best. Of the seven barcodes tested, a barcoding gap was absent in all of them
      across the Chinese oaks, while ITS and psbA-trnH provided the highest species
      resolution (30.30%) with the character- and BLAST-based methods, respectively.
      The six-marker combination (psbA-trnH + matK-trnK + matK + ycf1 + ITS + SAP)
      showed the best species resolution (84.85%) using the character-based method for
      barcoding the Chinese oaks. The barcoding results provided additional
      implications for taxonomy of the Chinese oaks in subg. Quercus, basically
      identifying three major infrageneric clades of the Chinese oaks (corresponding to
      Groups Quercus, Cerris, and Ilex) referenced to previous phylogenetic
      classification of Quercus. While the morphology-based allocations proposed for
      the Chinese oaks in subg. Quercus were challenged. A low variation rate of the
      chloroplast genome, and complex speciation patterns involving incomplete lineage
      sorting, interspecific hybridization and introgression, possibly have negative
      impacts on the species assignment and phylogeny of oak species.

PMID- 28580001
TI  - Eggplant Resistance to the Ralstonia solanacearum Species Complex Involves Both
      Broad-Spectrum and Strain-Specific Quantitative Trait Loci.
AB  - Bacterial wilt (BW) is a major disease of solanaceous crops caused by the
      Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC). Strains are grouped into five
      phylotypes (I, IIA, IIB, III, and IV). Varietal resistance is the most
      sustainable strategy for managing BW. Nevertheless, breeding to improve cultivar
      resistance has been limited by the pathogen's extensive genetic diversity.
      Identifying the genetic bases of specific and non-specific resistance is a
      prerequisite to breed improvement. A major gene (ERs1) was previously mapped in
      eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) using an intraspecific population of recombinant
      inbred lines derived from the cross of susceptible MM738 (S) * resistant AG91-25
      (R). ERs1 was originally found to control three strains from phylotype I, while
      being totally ineffective against a virulent strain from the same phylotype. We
      tested this population against four additional RSSC strains, representing
      phylotypes I, IIA, IIB, and III in order to clarify the action spectrum of ERs1.
      We recorded wilting symptoms and bacterial stem colonization under controlled
      artificial inoculation. We constructed a high-density genetic map of the
      population using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) developed from genotyping
      by-sequencing and added 168 molecular markers [amplified fragment length
      polymorphisms (AFLPs), simple sequence repeats (SSRs), and sequence-related
      amplified polymorphisms (SRAPs)] developed previously. The new linkage map based
      on a total of 1,035 markers was anchored on eggplant, tomato, and potato genomes.
      Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for resistance against a total of eight
      RSSC strains resulted in the detection of one major phylotype-specific QTL and
      two broad-spectrum QTLs. The major QTL, which specifically controls three
      phylotype I strains, was located at the bottom of chromosome 9 and corresponded
      to the previously identified major gene ERs1. Five candidate R-genes were
      underlying this QTL, with different alleles between the parents. The two other
      QTLs detected on chromosomes 2 and 5 were found to be associated with partial
      resistance to strains of phylotypes I, IIA, III and strains of phylotypes IIA and
      III, respectively. Markers closely linked to these three QTLs will be crucial for
      breeding eggplant with broad-spectrum resistance to BW. Furthermore, our study
      provides an important contribution to the molecular characterization of ERs1,
      which was initially considered to be a major resistance gene.

PMID- 28580002
TI  - Nanoparticles Alter Secondary Metabolism in Plants via ROS Burst.
AB  - The particles within the size range of 1 and 100 nm are known as nanoparticles
      (NPs). NP-containing wastes released from household, industrial and medical
      products are emerging as a new threat to the environment. Plants, being fixed to
      the two major environmental sinks where NPs accumulate - namely water and soil,
      cannot escape the impact of nanopollution. Recent studies have shown that plant
      growth, development and physiology are significantly affected by NPs. But, the
      effect of NPs on plant secondary metabolism is still obscure. The induction of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) following interactions with NPs has been observed
      consistently across plant species. Taking into account the existing link between
      ROS and secondary signaling messengers that lead to transcriptional regulation of
      secondary metabolism, in this perspective we put forward the argument that ROS
      induced in plants upon their interaction with NPs will likely interfere with
      plant secondary metabolism. As plant secondary metabolites play vital roles in
      plant performance, communication, and adaptation, a comprehensive understanding
      of plant secondary metabolism in response to NPs is an utmost priority.

PMID- 28580003
TI  - RNA Interference: A Novel Source of Resistance to Combat Plant Parasitic
      Nematodes.
AB  - Plant parasitic nematodes cause severe damage and yield loss in major crops all
      over the world. Available control strategies include use of
      insecticides/nematicides but these have proved detrimental to the environment,
      while other strategies like crop rotation and resistant cultivars have serious
      limitations. This scenario provides an opportunity for the utilization of
      technological advances like RNA interference (RNAi) to engineer resistance
      against these devastating parasites. First demonstrated in the model free living
      nematode, Caenorhabtidis elegans; the phenomenon of RNAi has been successfully
      used to suppress essential genes of plant parasitic nematodes involved in
      parasitism, nematode development and mRNA metabolism. Synthetic neurotransmitants
      mixed with dsRNA solutions are used for in vitro RNAi in plant parasitic
      nematodes with significant success. However, host delivered in planta RNAi has
      proved to be a pioneering phenomenon to deliver dsRNAs to feeding nematodes and
      silence the target genes to achieve resistance. Highly enriched genomic databases
      are exploited to limit off target effects and ensure sequence specific silencing.
      Technological advances like gene stacking and use of nematode inducible and
      tissue specific promoters can further enhance the utility of RNAi based
      transgenics against plant parasitic nematodes.

PMID- 28580004
TI  - Genetic Analysis of NBS-LRR Gene Family in Chickpea and Their Expression Profiles
      in Response to Ascochyta Blight Infection.
AB  - Ascochyta blight is one of the major diseases of chickpea worldwide. The genetic
      resistance to ascochyta blight in chickpea is complex and governed by multiple
      QTLs. However, the molecular mechanism of quantitative disease resistance to
      ascochyta blight and the genes underlying these QTLs are still unknown. Most
      often disease resistance is determined by resistance (R) genes. The most
      predominant R-genes contain nucleotide binding site and leucine rich repeat (NBS
      LRR) domains. A total of 121 NBS-LRR genes were identified in the chickpea
      genome. Ninety-eight of these genes contained all essential conserved domains
      while 23 genes were truncated. The NBS-LRR genes were grouped into eight distinct
      classes based on their domain architecture. Phylogenetic analysis grouped these
      genes into two major clusters based on their structural variation, the first
      cluster with toll or interleukin-1 like receptor (TIR) domain and the second
      cluster either with or without a coiled-coil domain. The NBS-LRR genes are
      distributed unevenly across the eight chickpea chromosomes and nearly 50% of the
      genes are present in clusters. Thirty of the NBS-LRR genes were co-localized with
      nine of the previously reported ascochyta blight QTLs and were tested as
      potential candidate genes for ascochyta blight resistance. Expression pattern of
      these genes was studied in two resistant (CDC Corinne and CDC Luna) and one
      susceptible (ICCV 96029) genotypes at different time points after ascochyta
      blight infection using real-time quantitative PCR. Twenty-seven NBS-LRR genes
      showed differential expression in response to ascochyta blight infection in at
      least one genotype at one time point. Among these 27 genes, the majority of the
      NBS-LRR genes showed differential expression after inoculation in both resistant
      and susceptible genotypes which indicates the involvement of these genes in
      response to ascochyta blight infection. Five NBS-LRR genes showed genotype
      specific expression. Our study provides a new insight of NBS-LRR gene family in
      chickpea and the potential involvement of NBS-LRR genes in response to ascochyta
      blight infection.

PMID- 28580005
TI  - Investigating the Genetic Diversity, Population Differentiation and Population
      Dynamics of Cycas segmentifida (Cycadaceae) Endemic to Southwest China by
      Multiple Molecular Markers.
AB  - Climate change, species dispersal ability and habitat fragmentation are major
      factors influencing species distribution and genetic diversity, especially for
      the range-restricted and threatened taxa. Here, using four sequences of
      chloroplast DNAs (cpDNAs), three nuclear genes (nDNAs) and 12 nuclear
      microsatellites (SSRs), we investigated the genetic diversity, genetic structure,
      divergence time and population dynamics of Cycas segmentifida D. Y. Wang and C.
      Y. Deng, a threatened cycad species endemic to Southwest China. High levels of
      genetic diversity and genetic differentiation were revealed in C. segmentifida.
      Haplotypes of networks showed two evolutionary units in C. segmentifida, with the
      exception of the nuclear gene GTP network. Meanwhile, the UPGMA tree, structure
      and PCoA analyses suggested that 14 populations of C. segmentifida were divided
      into two clades. There was significant effect of isolation by distance (IBD) in
      this species. However, this species did not display a significant phylogeographic
      structure. The divergence time estimation suggested that its haplotypes diverged
      during the Middle Pleistocene. Additionally, the population dynamics inferred
      from different DNA sequences analyses were discordant. Bottleneck analysis showed
      that populations of C. segmentifida did not experience any recent bottleneck
      effect, but rather pointed to a contraction of its effective population size over
      time. Furthermore, our results suggested that the population BM which held an
      intact population structure and occupied undisturbed habitat was at the Hardy
      Weinberg equilibrium, implying that this population is a free-mating system.
      These genetic features provide important information for the sustainable
      management of C. segmentifida.

PMID- 28580006
TI  - Identification of QTL and Qualitative Trait Loci for Agronomic Traits Using SNP
      Markers in the Adzuki Bean.
AB  - The adzuki bean (Vigna angularis) is an important grain legume. Fine mapping of
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) and qualitative trait genes plays an important role
      in gene cloning, molecular-marker-assisted selection (MAS), and trait
      improvement. However, the genetic control of agronomic traits in the adzuki bean
      remains poorly understood. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are invaluable
      in the construction of high-density genetic maps. We mapped 26 agronomic QTLs and
      five qualitative trait genes related to pigmentation using 1,571 polymorphic SNP
      markers from the adzuki bean genome via restriction-site-associated DNA
      sequencing of 150 members of an F2 population derived from a cross between
      cultivated and wild adzuki beans. We mapped 11 QTLs for flowering time and pod
      maturity on chromosomes 4, 7, and 10. Six 100-seed weight (SD100WT) QTLs were
      detected. Two major flowering time QTLs were located on chromosome 4, firstly
      VaFld4.1 (PEVs 71.3%), co-segregating with SNP marker s690-144110, and VaFld4.2
      (PEVs 67.6%) at a 0.974 cM genetic distance from the SNP marker s165-116310.
      Three QTLs for seed number per pod (Snp3.1, Snp3.2, and Snp4.1) were mapped on
      chromosomes 3 and 4. One QTL VaSdt4.1 of seed thickness (SDT) and three QTLs for
      branch number on the main stem were detected on chromosome 4. QTLs for maximum
      leaf width (LFMW) and stem internode length were mapped to chromosomes 2 and 9,
      respectively. Trait genes controlling the color of the seed coat, pod, stem and
      flower were mapped to chromosomes 3 and 1. Three candidate genes, VaAGL, VaPhyE,
      and VaAP2, were identified for flowering time and pod maturity. VaAGL encodes an
      agamous-like MADS-box protein of 379 amino acids. VaPhyE encodes a phytochrome E
      protein of 1,121 amino acids. Four phytochrome genes (VaPhyA1, VaPhyA2, VaPhyB,
      and VaPhyE) were identified in the adzuki bean genome. We found candidate genes
      VaAP2/ERF.81 and VaAP2/ERF.82 of SD100WT, VaAP2-s4 of SDT, and VaAP2/ERF.86 of
      LFMW. A candidate gene VaUGT related to black seed coat color was identified.
      These mapped QTL and qualitative trait genes provide information helpful for
      future adzuki bean candidate gene cloning and MAS breeding to improve cultivars
      with desirable growth periods, yields, and seed coat color types.

PMID- 28580007
TI  - Corrigendum: Earlywood and Latewood Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Variations
      in Two Pine Species in Southwestern China during the Recent Decades.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 2050 in vol. 7, PMID: 28119725.].

PMID- 28580008
TI  - Corrigendum: Salicylic acid and reactive oxygen species interplay in the
      transcriptional control of defense genes expression.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 171 in vol. 6, PMID: 25852720.].

PMID- 28580010
TI  - Molecular and genetic insights into an infantile epileptic encephalopathy - CDKL5
      disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The discovery that mutations in cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5
      (CDKL5) gene are associated with infantile epileptic encephalopathy has
      stimulated world-wide research effort to understand the molecular and genetic
      basis of CDKL5 disorder. Given the large number of literature published thus far,
      this review aims to summarize current genetic studies, draw a consensus on
      proposed molecular functions, and point to gaps of knowledge in CDKL5 research.
      METHODS: A systematic review process was conducted using the PubMed search engine
      focusing on CDKL5 studies in the recent ten years. We analyzed these publications
      and summarized the findings into four sections: genetic studies, CDKL5 expression
      patterns, molecular functions, and animal models. We also discussed challenges
      and future directions in each section. RESULTS: On the clinical side, CDKL5
      disorder is characterized by early onset epileptic seizures, intellectual
      disability, and stereotypical behaviors. On the research side, a series of
      molecular and genetic studies in human patients, cell cultures and animal models
      have established the causality of CDKL5 to the infantile epileptic
      encephalopathy, and pointed to a key role for CDKL5 in regulating neuronal
      function in the brain. Mouse models of CDKL5 disorder have also been developed,
      and notably, manifest behavioral phenotypes, mimicking numerous clinical symptoms
      of CDKL5 disorder and advancing CDKL5 research to the preclinical stage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Given what we have learned thus far, future identification of
      robust, quantitative, and sensitive outcome measures would be the key in animal
      model studies, particularly in heterozygous females. In the meantime, molecular
      and cellular studies of CDKL5 should focus on mechanism-based investigation and
      aim to uncover druggable targets that offer the potential to rescue or ameliorate
      CDKL5 disorder-related phenotypes.

PMID- 28580011
TI  - Bacterial pathogens and health problems of Acipenser gueldenstaedtii and
      Acipenser baerii sturgeons reared in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey.
AB  - Farming sturgeons is an economically important practice in a number of Asian and
      European countries. However, since it is not widely implementedin Turkey,
      fertilized eggs necessary for research and industrial activities are imported
      from Germany. Due to the interest of several fish farms in culturing sturgeon in
      Turkey and the lack of relevant data, this study investigated bacteria related
      health problems of two different sturgeon species, the diamond sturgeon
      (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and the Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii). The
      fungal, parasitic and bacterial pathogens found in these fish were investigated
      until the fish reached about 3 kg of weight (3+ years). A number of bacterial
      disease pathogens (Acinetobacter radioresistens, some Aeromonas and Pseudomonas
      species and Bacillus mycoides) and parasite Trichodina sp. and fungus Saprolegnia
      sp. were identified in the fish. Both phenotypic and molecular characterizations
      of the isolated bacteria were performed. Furthermore, swim bladder and spinal
      problems, cannibalism, tumor growth and mechanical injuries on the external
      surface of the fish were observed during the study period.

PMID- 28580009
TI  - The Emerging Role of the Cytoskeleton in Chromosome Dynamics.
AB  - Chromosomes underlie a dynamic organization that fulfills functional roles in
      processes like transcription, DNA repair, nuclear envelope stability, and cell
      division. Chromosome dynamics depend on chromosome structure and cannot freely
      diffuse. Furthermore, chromosomes interact closely with their surrounding nuclear
      environment, which further constrains chromosome dynamics. Recently, several
      studies enlighten that cytoskeletal proteins regulate dynamic chromosome
      organization. Cytoskeletal polymers that include actin filaments, microtubules
      and intermediate filaments can connect to the nuclear envelope via Linker of the
      Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complexes and transfer forces onto
      chromosomes inside the nucleus. Monomers of these cytoplasmic polymers and
      related proteins can also enter the nucleus and play different roles in the
      interior of the nucleus than they do in the cytoplasm. Nuclear cytoskeletal
      proteins can act as chromatin remodelers alone or in complexes with other nuclear
      proteins. They can also act as transcription factors. Many of these mechanisms
      have been conserved during evolution, indicating that the cytoskeletal regulation
      of chromosome dynamics is an essential process. In this review, we discuss the
      different influences of cytoskeletal proteins on chromosome dynamics by focusing
      on the well-studied model organism budding yeast.

PMID- 28580012
TI  - One-year trajectory analysis for ADHD symptoms and its associated factors in
      community-based children and adolescents in Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several longitudinal studies have shown the partial symptomatic
      persistence of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in clinic-based
      samples. However, little is known about the patterns and trajectories of ADHD
      symptoms in community-based populations. METHODS: To differentiate developmental
      trajectories of ADHD symptoms over 1 year, with a four-wave quarterly follow-up
      in children and adolescents in the community of Taiwan, we conducted this
      prospective study in 1281 students in grade 3, 5, and 8. All the students in the
      regular classes rather than special educational classes were eligible and
      recruited to the study. Inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and opposition
      defiance were rated by parent reports on the Chinese version of the Swanson,
      Nolan, and Pelham Version IV Scale (SNAP-IV). Group-based trajectory modeling and
      multivariable regression analyses were used to explore the individual, family and
      social factors associated with differential trajectories. RESULTS: Trajectories
      were classified as Low (29.9-40.6%), Intermediate (52.5-58.5%) and High (6.9
      12.5%) based on the symptom severity of ADHD symptoms assessed by the SNAP-IV.
      The proportion of children in the high ADHD trajectory might approximately
      reflect the prevalence of ADHD in Taiwan. The following factors differentiated
      High from Low trajectories: male gender, more externalizing problems, fewer
      prosocial behaviors, school dysfunction, more home behavioral problems, and less
      perceived family support. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings that the concurrent
      conditions of emotional or externalizing problems, as well as impaired school and
      home function at baseline, might differentiate the high ADHD symptoms trajectory
      from others could help developing the specific measures for managing high ADHD
      symptoms over time in a school setting.

PMID- 28580014
TI  - Methane potentials of wastewater generated from hydrothermal liquefaction of rice
      straw: focusing on the wastewater characteristics and microbial community
      compositions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) has been well studied for the bio-oil
      production from biomass. However, a large amount of wastewater with high organic
      content is also produced during the HTL process. Therefore, the present study
      investigated the methane potentials of hydrothermal liquefaction wastewater
      (HTLWW) obtained from HTL of rice straw at different temperatures (170-320 
      degrees C) and residence times (0.5-4 h). The characteristics (e.g., total
      organic content, organic species, molecular size distribution, etc.) of the HTLWW
      were studied, and at the same time, microbial community compositions involved in
      AD of HTLWW were analyzed. RESULTS: The highest methane yield of 314 mL CH4/g COD
      was obtained from the sample 200  degrees C-0.5 h (HTL temperature at 200 
      degrees C for 0.5 h), while the lowest methane yield 217 mL CH4/g COD was
      obtained from the sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h. These results were consistent with
      the higher amounts of hard biodegradable organics (furans, phenols, etc.) and
      lower amounts of easily biodegradable organics (sugars and volatile fatty acids)
      present in sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h compared to sample 200  degrees C-0.5 h.
      Size distribution analysis showed that sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h contained more
      organics with molecular size less than 1 kDa (79.5%) compared to sample 200 
      degrees C-0.5 h (66.2%). Further studies showed that hard biodegradable organics
      were present in the organics with molecular size higher than 1 kDa for sample 200
      degrees C-0.5 h. In contrast, those organics were present in both the organics
      with molecular size higher and less than 1 kDa for sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h.
      Microbial community analysis showed that different microbial community
      compositions were established during the AD with different HTLWW samples due to
      the different organic compositions. For instance, Petrimonas, which could degrade
      sugars, had higher abundance in the AD of sample 200  degrees C-0.5 h (20%)
      compared to sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h (7%). The higher abundance of Petrimonas
      was consistent with the higher content of sugars in sample 200  degrees C-0.5 h.
      The higher Petrimonas abundance was consistent with the higher content of sugars
      in sample 200  degrees C-0.5 h. The genus Syntrophorhabdus could degrade phenols
      and its enrichment in the AD of sample 320  degrees C-0.5 h might be related with
      the highest content of phenols in the HTLWW. CONCLUSIONS: HTL parameters like
      temperature and residence time affected the biodegradability of HTLWW obtained
      from HTL of rice straw. More hard biodegradable organics were produced with the
      increase of HTL temperature. The microbial community compositions during the AD
      were also affected by the different organic compositions in HTLWW samples.

PMID- 28580013
TI  - A comparative study of anaerobic fixed film baffled reactor and up-flow anaerobic
      fixed film fixed bed reactor for biological removal of diethyl phthalate from
      wastewater: a performance, kinetic, biogas, and metabolic pathway study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phthalic acid esters, including diethyl phthalate (DEP), which are
      considered as top-priority and hazardous pollutants, have received significant
      attention over the last decades. It is vital for industries to select the best
      treatment technology, especially when the DEP concentration in wastewater is
      high. Meanwhile, anaerobic biofilm-based reactors are considered as a promising
      option. Therefore, in the present study, for the biological removal of DEP from
      synthetic wastewater, two different anaerobic biofilm-based reactors, including
      anaerobic fixed film baffled reactor (AnFFBR) and up-flow anaerobic fixed film
      fixed bed reactor (UAnFFFBR), were compared from kinetic and performance
      standpoints. As in the previous studies, only the kinetic coefficients have been
      calculated and the relationship between kinetic coefficients and their
      interpretation has not been evaluated, the other aim of the present study was to
      fill this research gap. RESULTS: In optimum conditions, 90.31 and 86.91% of COD
      as well as 91.11 and 88.72% of DEP removal were achieved for the AnFFBR and
      UAnFFFBR, respectively. According to kinetic coefficients (except biomass yield),
      the AnFFBR had better performance as it provided a more favorable condition for
      microbial growth. The Grau model was selected as the best mathematical model for
      designing and predicting the bioreactors' performance due to its high
      coefficients of determination (0.97 < R2). With regard to the insignificant
      variations of the calculated Grau kinetic coefficients (KG) when the organic
      loading rate (with constant HRT) increased, it can be concluded that both of the
      bioreactors can tolerate high organic loading rate and their performance is not
      affected by the applied DEP concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: Both the bioreactors
      were capable of treating low-to-high strength DEP wastewater; however, according
      to the experimental results and obtained kinetic coefficients, the AnFFBR
      indicated higher performance. Although the AnFFBR can be considered as a safer
      treatment option than the UAnFFFBR due to its lower DEP concentrations in sludge,
      the UAnFFFBR had lower VSS/TSS ratio and sludge yield, which could make it more
      practical for digestion. Finally, both the bioreactors showed considerable
      methane yield; however, compared to the UAnFFFBR, the AnFFBR had more potential
      for bioenergy production. Although both the selected bioreactors achieved nearly
      90% of DEP removal, they can only be considered as pre-treatment methods
      according to the standard regulations and should be coupled with further
      technology.

PMID- 28580015
TI  - Removal of the product from the culture medium strongly enhances free fatty acid
      production by genetically engineered Synechococcus elongatus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cyanobacterial mutants engineered for production of free fatty acids
      (FFAs) secrete the products to the medium and hence are thought to be useful for
      biofuel production. The dAS1T mutant constructed from Synechococcus elongatus PCC
      7942 has indeed a large capacity of FFA production, which is comparable to that
      of triacylglycerol production in green algae, but the yield of secreted FFAs is
      low because the cells accumulate most of the FFAs intracellularly and eventually
      die of their toxicity. To increase the FFA productivity, enhancement of FFA
      secretion is required. RESULTS: Growth of dAS1T cells but not WT cells was
      inhibited in a liquid medium supplemented with 0.13 g L-1 of palmitic acid. This
      suggested that when FFA accumulates in the medium, it would inhibit the release
      of FFA from the cell, leading to FFA accumulation in the cell to a toxic level.
      To remove FFAs from the medium during cultivation, an aqueous-organic two-phase
      culture system was developed. When the dAS1T culture was overlaid with isopropyl
      myristate (IM), the final cell density, cellular chlorophyll content, and the
      photosynthetic yield of PSII were greatly improved. The total amount of
      extracellular FFA was more than three times larger than that in the control
      culture grown without IM, with most of the secreted FFAs being recovered in the
      IM layer. The cellular FFA content was decreased by more than 85% by the presence
      of the IM layer. Thus, the two-phase culture system effectively facilitated FFA
      secretion out of the cell. An average FFA excretion rate of 1.5 mg L-1 h-1 was
      attained in the 432 h of cultivation, with a total amount of excreted FFA being
      0.64 g L-1 of culture. These figures were more than three times higher than those
      reported previously for the cyanobacteria-based FFA production systems.
      CONCLUSIONS: Removal of FFA from the culture medium is important for improving
      the productivity of the FFA production system using cyanobacteria. Further
      increase in productivity would require an increase in both the rates of FFA
      production in the cell and active FFA export across the plasma membrane.

PMID- 28580016
TI  - Induction of immune gene expression and inflammatory mediator release by commonly
      used surgical suture materials: an experimental in vitro study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgeons have a range of materials to choose from to complete wound
      closure, yet surprisingly very little is still known about the body's immune
      response to the suture materials in current use. The growing literature of
      adverse suture material reactions provided the objective of this study, to use in
      vitro assays to quantify levels of inflammation produced by seven commonly used
      suture materials in surgical procedures. METHODS: Human monocyte/macrophage THP-1
      cells were exposed to suture materials for 1, 3 and 5 days. Gene expression and
      protein secretion of six inflammatory cytokines and two cell surface markers were
      assessed using qPCR and ELISA respectively, with LPS exposure providing a
      positive control. Furthermore, a IL-1beta/IL-1RA marker ratio was assessed to
      determine the balance between pro-/anti-inflammatory expression. RESULTS: The
      findings from our in vitro study suggest that four commonly used suture materials
      cause upregulation of pro-inflammatory markers indicative of an early foreign
      body reaction, with no balance from anti-inflammatory markers. CONCLUSIONS: As
      prolonged early pro-inflammation is known to produce delayed wound healing
      responses, the knowledge produced from this study has potential to improve
      informed surgical decision making and patient safety. This work has the
      capability to reduce suture-related adverse immune reactions, and therefore
      positively affect patient outcomes.

PMID- 28580020
TI  - From the Sylvia Plath Effect to Social Justice: Moving Forward With Creativity.
AB  - The author contrasts an early research passion, creativity and mental illness,
      with his current interest in creativity and social justice. Kaufman's initial
      research revolved around the Sylvia Plath Effect, yet was insensitive to broader
      implications or concerns. As his thinking about creativity has evolved, he is
      currently more focused on a more positive use for creativity - namely, how
      creativity can help issues of fairness and equity.

PMID- 28580017
TI  - Complete genome sequence of Vibrio campbellii strain 20130629003S01 isolated from
      shrimp with acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vibrio campbellii is widely distributed in the marine environment and
      is an important pathogen of aquatic organisms such as shrimp, fish, and mollusks.
      An isolate of V. campbellii carrying the pirABvp gene, causing acute
      hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), has been reported. There are no
      previous reports about the complete genome of V. campbellii causing AHPND
      (VCAHPND). To extend our understanding of the pathogenesis of VCAHPND at the
      genomic level, the genome of V. campbellii 20130629003S01 isolated from a shrimp
      with AHPND was sequenced and analysed. RESULTS: The complete genome sequence of
      V. campbellii 20130629003S01 was generated using the PacBio RSII platform with
      single molecule, real-time sequencing. The 20130629003S01 strain consists of two
      circular chromosomes (3,621,712 bp in chromosome 1 and 2,245,751 bp in chromosome
      2) and four plasmids of 70,066, 204,531, 143,140, and 86,121 bp. The genome
      contains a total of 5855 protein coding genes, 134 tRNA genes and 37 rRNA genes.
      The average nucleotide identity value of 20130629003S01 and other reference V.
      campbellii strains was 97.46%, suggesting that they are closely related.
      CONCLUSIONS: The genome sequence of V. campbellii 20130629003S01 and its
      comparative analysis with other V. campbellii strains that we present here are
      important for a better understanding of the genomic characteristics of VCAHPND.

PMID- 28580019
TI  - Attitudes and interest in technology-based treatment and the remote monitoring of
      smoking among adolescents and emerging adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite the public health relevance of smoking in adolescents and
      emerging adults, this group remains understudied and underserved. High technology
      utilization among this group may be harnessed as a tool for better understanding
      of smoking, yet little is known regarding the acceptability of mobile health
      (mHealth) integration. METHODS: Participants (ages 14-21) enrolled in a smoking
      cessation clinical trial provided feedback on their technology utilization,
      perceptions, and attitudes; and interest in remote monitoring for smoking.
      Characteristics that predicted greater technology acceptability for smoking
      treatment were also explored. RESULTS: Participants (N=87) averaged 19 years old
      and were mostly male (67%). Technology utilization was high for smart phone
      ownership (93%), Internet use (98%), and social media use (94%). Despite this,
      only one-third of participants had ever searched the Internet for cessation tips
      or counseling (33%). Participants showed interest in mHealth-enabled treatment
      (48%) and felt that it could be somewhat helpful (83%). Heavier smokers had more
      favorable attitudes toward technology-based treatment, as did those with
      smartphones and unlimited data. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate high
      technology utilization, favorable attitudes towards technology, and minimal
      concerns. Technology integration among this population should be pursued, though
      in a tailored fashion, to accomplish the goal of providing maximally effective,
      just-in-time interventions.

PMID- 28580018
TI  - The burden of obesity in the current world and the new treatments available:
      focus on liraglutide 3.0 mg.
AB  - The prevalence of obesity increases worldwide. Treating obesity and its
      associated health problems has a significant economic impact on health care
      systems. The unsatisfactory long-term outcomes observed in the obesity treatment
      are due to its complex pathophysiology and the inherent difficulties associated
      with maintenance of lifestyle modifications. Determined by genetic and
      environmental factors, obesity has been officially recognized as a chronic
      disease, an action that allowed the recognition of anti-obesity drugs as
      legitimate therapeutic options to address the growing obesity endemic. Like other
      chronic diseases, obesity requires long-term treatment. Pharmacological
      interventions, when used as an adjunct to lifestyle changes, are useful to
      facilitate clinically meaningful weight loss, which may impact on obesity
      associated comorbid conditions. In the past, medications for weight reduction
      were limited. However, the landscape has changed and new drugs provide additional
      options for weight management. Among the new drugs, liraglutide is the most
      studied, especially regarding its effects on the limbic system. As an adjunct to
      a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, treatment with
      liraglutide 3.0 mg provides a statistically significant and clinically meaningful
      weight loss. Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist
      that shares 97% homology to native GLP-1. Receptor agonists of GLP-1, including
      liraglutide, have emerged as effective therapies for type 2 diabetes and obesity.
      This review will address the major findings concerning the central regulation of
      appetite and the main studies that evaluated new drugs for obesity treatment,
      with a greater focus on liraglutide 3.0 mg.

PMID- 28580022
TI  - Value-Personality Link Measured With Novel Instruments Developed With an Emic
      Perspective.
AB  - The first aim of this study is to investigate whether instruments developed with
      an emic approach in Turkey produce the same trait-value links obtained with
      studies using near universal instruments, and if emic traits and value concepts
      are composed under agency and communal conceptions. So, the first aim of this
      study is to inspect the conceptual similarities in the links between traits and
      values. The second aim is to examine the moderating effect of disposable income
      on the strength of the trait-value relationship. Undergraduate and graduate
      students (N = 595) from six universities in Istanbul responded to the Personality
      Profile Scale (PPS) and the Life Goal Values (LGV) questionnaire. Second order
      factor analysis indicated that indigenous value and trait items were
      representative of communal and agency conceptions. Furthermore, most of the value
      trait links revealed with regression analysis, and the sinusoid relationships
      revealed with Pearson correlation coefficients were consistent with the findings
      measured with near universal instruments. Additionally found relationships
      between traits and especially conservation values can be interpreted as the
      instrumentality of agentic traits for personal as well for social focused values.
      Disposable income had a moderating effect on five trait-value relationships and
      three out of five were weaker in the low-income group.

PMID- 28580021
TI  - A Cognitive Distortions and Deficits Model of Suicide Ideation.
AB  - Although cognitive distortions and deficits are known risk factors for the
      development and escalation of suicide ideation and behaviour, no empirical work
      has examined how these variables interact to predict suicide ideation. The
      current study proposes an integrative model of cognitive distortions
      (hopelessness and negative evaluations of self and future) and deficits (problem
      solving deficits, problem solving avoidance, and cognitive rigidity). To test the
      integrity of this model, a sample of 397 undergraduate students completed
      measures of deficits, distortions, and current suicide ideation. A structural
      equation model demonstrated excellent fit, and findings indicated that only
      distortions have a direct effect on suicidal thinking, whereas cognitive deficits
      may exert their effects on suicide ideation via their reciprocal relation with
      distortions. Findings underscore the importance of both cognitive distortions and
      deficits for understanding suicidality, which may have implications for
      preventative efforts and treatment.

PMID- 28580023
TI  - Do Work Beliefs Moderate the Relationship Between Work Interruptions, Wellbeing
      and Psychosomatic Symptoms?
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore the moderating effects of work beliefs
      in the relationship between work interruptions and general health, wellbeing and
      reports of psychosomatic symptoms. Self-report data were gathered from 310
      employees from different occupational sectors. Results revealed that beliefs in
      hard work and morality ethic moderated the positive appraisal of work
      interruptions and acted as protective factors on impaired general health and
      wellbeing. The relationship was stronger among employees who endorsed strong
      beliefs in hard work and did not have regard for morality/ethics as a value.
      Likewise, beliefs in delay of gratification and morality/ethics moderated
      positive appraisal of work interruptions and reduced psychosomatic complaints.
      More specifically, the relationship was stronger among employees who had strong
      belief in the values of delayed gratification and weaker morality/ethics. These
      findings indicate that organisations should adopt work ideology or practices
      focused on work values particularly of hard work, delay of gratification and
      conformity to morality as protective factors that reduce the impact of work
      interruptions on employees' general health and wellbeing.

PMID- 28580024
TI  - Relationships Between Career Indecision, Search for Work Self-Efficacy, and
      Psychological Well-Being in Italian Never-Employed Young Adults.
AB  - Although different studies have investigated career choices as cognitive acts of
      decision-making, non-cognitive components also play an important role. The study
      tries to develop an empirically based model of career decision-making process
      linking cognitive (search for work self-efficacy - SWSE) and non-cognitive
      (psychological well-being - PWB) components. In particular, the study
      investigates, among 148 never-employed Italian young adults, to what extent the
      relationship between SWSE and career indecision in terms of lack of readiness
      (LoR) can be explained by their common relationship with PWB. Results highlighted
      that SWSE is negatively associated with LoR when considered in absence of PWB.
      However, when PWB was included in one comprehensive model, it was positively
      associated with SWSE and negatively related to LoR. Moreover, the presence of PWB
      nullified the negative association between SWSE and LoR, meaning that PWB shares
      a large extent of variance with these variables. Implications are discussed in
      the light of theoretical expectations and limitations.

PMID- 28580025
TI  - Using a Computer Simulation to Improve Psychological Readiness for Job
      Interviewing in Unemployed Individuals of Pre-Retirement Age.
AB  - Unemployed individuals of pre-retirement age face significant challenges in
      finding a new job. This may be partly due to their lack of psychological
      readiness to go through a job interview. We view psychological readiness as one
      of the psychological attitude components. It is an active conscious readiness to
      interact with a certain aspect of reality, based on previously acquired
      experience. It includes a persons' special competence to manage their activities
      and cope with anxiety. We created Job Interview Simulation Training (JIST) - a
      computer-based simulator, which allowed unemployed job seekers to practice
      interviewing repeatedly in a stress-free environment. We hypothesized that
      completion of JIST would be related to increase in pre-retirement job seekers'
      psychological readiness for job interviewing in real life. Participants were
      randomized into control (n = 18) and experimental (n = 21) conditions. Both
      groups completed pre- and post-intervention job interview role-plays and self
      reporting forms of psychological readiness for job interviewing. JIST consisted
      of 5 sessions of a simulated job interview, and the experimental group found it
      easy to use and navigate as well as helpful to prepare for interviewing. After
      finishing JIST-sessions the experimental group had significant decrease in heart
      rate during the post-intervention role-play and demonstrated significant increase
      in their self-rated psychological readiness, whereas the control group did not
      have changes in these variables. Future research may help clarify whether JIST is
      related to an increase in re-employment of pre-retirement job seekers.

PMID- 28580026
TI  - Can the Factor Structure of Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) Contribute to
      Our Understanding of Parental Acceptance/Rejection, Bullying, Victimization and
      Perceived Well-Being in Greek Early Adolescents?
AB  - Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report instrument designed to measure
      defense mechanisms. Although commonly used, the DSQ-40 has not been validated in
      early adolescent populations. The present study sought to determine the factor
      validity of the DSQ-40 in a sample of Greek primary school students (N = 265).
      Further, it aimed to investigate the relationship between defense mechanisms and
      perceived parental acceptance/rejection, the participation in bullying (either as
      bully or victim) as well as self-reported well being. Participants completed the
      Greek version of DSQ-40, adapted for use by this particular age group as well as
      measures in order to examine its convergent and discriminant validity. The
      findings support a four-factor solution as the most adequate for our data.
      Further, it was found that defense mechanisms are related to perceived parental
      acceptance and rejection. Finally, the results showed that the DSQ-40 can
      effectively discriminate participants with high/low bullying/victimization and
      perceived well-being. Our results indicate that the DSQ-40 is appropriate for use
      in late childhood. Implications for clinical practice and future studies that
      would confirm the appropriateness of the scale's use in younger populations are
      also discussed.

PMID- 28580027
TI  - The Effect of Mortality Salience and Type of Life on Personality Evaluation.
AB  - Mortality salience, or awareness of the inevitability of one's own death,
      generates a state of anxiety that triggers a defense mechanism for the control of
      thinking that affects different human activities and psychological processes.
      This study aims to analyze the effect of mortality salience on the formation of
      impressions. The sample comprised 135 women who made inferences about a woman's
      personality from information about her life (type of life, LT: positive,
      negative), provided through five words, all positive or negative, that appeared
      surrounding a photograph, together with a sixth word that indicated whether she
      was "dead" or "alive" at the time (mortality manipulation, MM: dead, alive). The
      results pointed to a more negative assessment of life (Dead M - Alive M = -1.16,
      SE = .236, p < .001), emotional stability (Dead M - Alive M = -1.13, SE = .431, p
      = .010), and responsibility (Dead M - Alive M = -1.14, SE = .423, p = .008) only
      when the participants had access to negative information about the person
      assessed, and she was known to be dead. We discuss the results within the
      framework of Terror Management Theory, and analyze the different effects that the
      manipulation of mortality has on the formation of impressions depending on the
      type of information available.

PMID- 28580028
TI  - Vignette Research on Messy and Confusing Problems in Primary Mental Healthcare.
AB  - The average primary care psychologist feels an ever-widening gap between
      objective, measurable reality as described and the complex and dynamic reality
      they experience. To obtain a better understanding of this complex dynamic
      reality, we conducted an exploratory mixed-method study of primary care
      psychologists. We asked our participants to write vignettes about messy and
      confusing problems in the complex context of mental healthcare. We then examined
      the data in portions, exposed the patterns in the data, and subsequently analysed
      all in conjunction. The 113 vignettes showed experiences of psychologists dealing
      not only with the patient, but also with the family of the patient and/or
      employers, working together with other healthcare professionals, struggling with
      dilemmas and having mixed feelings. However, using the Cynafin Framework, 36% of
      the vignettes were still rated as simple. Was it because those vignettes
      contained fewer words (p = .006)? Or because it is difficult to grasp complexity
      when cause and effect are intertwined with emotions, norms and values? In the
      discussion, we suggest examining a complex dynamic system in terms of both the
      consistency of its various elements and the dynamics of the system. We also
      discuss how to optimize the system's adaptive self-organizing ability and how to
      challenge ourselves to invent negative feedback loops that can keep the complex
      system in equilibrium.

PMID- 28580029
TI  - How Does Mentoring Contribute to Gen Y Employees' Intention to Stay? An Indian
      Perspective.
AB  - The present study is aimed at investigating the impact of mentoring on intention
      to stay of Gen Y employees working in Indian IT industry. Also, the mediating
      roles of perceived organization support and affective commitment are examined.
      Primary data were collected from a sample of 314 Gen Y employees (born between
      1980-2000) from IT industry in Delhi, NCR India. Data analysis was carried out
      using AMOS and SPSS to test sequential mediation. Findings reveal that mentoring
      has a direct influence on intention to stay of Gen Y employees and perceived
      organization support and affective commitment sequentially mediate the
      relationship between the two. This study contributes to the literature on
      mentoring, perceived organization support, affective commitment, and intention to
      stay.

PMID- 28580030
TI  - Conservation Motivation, Social Equality and Left-Right Ideological Preferences
      in Western and Eastern Europe.
AB  - We investigated how attitudes towards social equality can influence the
      relationship between conservation motivation (or openness) and personal
      ideological preferences on the left-right dimension, and how this relationship
      pattern differs between Western and Central & Eastern European (CEE) respondents.
      Using data from the European Social Survey (2012) we found that individual-level
      of conservation motivation reduces cultural egalitarianism in both the Western
      European and the CEE regions, but its connection with economic egalitarianism is
      only relevant in the CEE region where it fosters economic egalitarianism. Since
      both forms of egalitarianism were related to leftist ideological preferences in
      Western Europe, but in the CEE region only economic egalitarianism was
      ideologically relevant, we concluded that the classic "rigidity of the right"
      phenomenon is strongly related to cultural (anti)egalitarianism in Western
      Europe. At the same time, conservation motivation serves as a basis for the
      "rigidity of the left" in the post-socialist CEE region, in a great part due to
      the conventional egalitarian economic views.

PMID- 28580032
TI  - Psychology's Fragmentation and Neglect of Foundational Assumptions: An Interview
      With Fiona J. Hibberd.

PMID- 28580031
TI  - The Meaning of Voices in Understanding and Treating Psychosis: Moving Towards
      Intervention Informed by Collaborative Formulation.
AB  - From a medical perspective, hearing voices is perceived as a symptom of mental
      illness and their content as largely irrelevant. The effectiveness of
      antipsychotic medication has made it central to the treatment of psychosis.
      However pharmacological treatment alone is rarely sufficient for this disabling
      condition. This review examined the feasibility of formulating an understanding
      of the meaning of voices in psychosis to inform intervention. Examination of the
      literature demonstrated the need for a paradigm shift to a recovery model,
      drawing on biopsychosocial factors in formulating an understanding of the meaning
      of voices in the context of a person's life. Providing the opportunity to talk
      about their experiences may aid the development of an interpersonally coherent
      narrative representing opportunities for psychological growth. Findings have
      implications for treatment planning and assessment of outcome. Collaborative
      formulation regarding the subjective meaning of voices may aid in understanding
      their development and maintenance and guide intervention. Hearing voices with
      reduced negative effects on wellbeing and functioning may reduce distress and
      improve quality of life even in the presence of voices. CFT, CBT, Relating
      Therapy and Open Dialogue may be effective in applying these principles. Findings
      are limited by the lack of controlled studies. Further controlled studies and
      qualitative explorations of individual experiences are recommended.

PMID- 28580033
TI  - Dynamics of blood flow and thrombus formation in a multi-bypass microfluidic
      ladder network.
AB  - The reaction dynamics of a complex mixture of cells and proteins, such as blood,
      in branched circulatory networks within the human microvasculature or
      extravascular therapeutic devices such as extracorporeal oxygenation machine
      (ECMO) remains ill-defined. In this report we utilize a multi-bypass
      microfluidics ladder network design with dimensions mimicking venules to study
      patterns of blood platelet aggregation and fibrin formation under complex shear.
      Complex blood fluid dynamics within multi-bypass networks under flow were modeled
      using COMSOL. Red blood cells and platelets were assumed to be non-interacting
      spherical particles transported by the bulk fluid flow, and convection of the
      activated coagulation factor II, thrombin, was assumed to be governed by mass
      transfer. This model served as the basis for predicting formation of local shear
      rate gradients, stagnation points and recirculation zones as dictated by the
      bypass geometry. Based on the insights from these models, we were able to predict
      the patterns of blood clot formation at specific locations in the device. Our
      experimental data was then used to adjust the model to account for the dynamical
      presence of thrombus formation in the biorheology of blood flow. The model
      predictions were then compared to results from experiments using recalcified
      whole human blood. Microfluidic devices were coated with the extracellular matrix
      protein, fibrillar collagen, and the initiator of the extrinsic pathway of
      coagulation, tissue factor. Blood was perfused through the devices at a flow rate
      of 2 uL/min, translating to physiologically relevant initial shear rates of 300
      and 700 s-1 for main channels and bypasses, respectively. Using fluorescent and
      light microscopy, we observed distinct flow and thrombus formation patterns near
      channel intersections at bypass points, within recirculation zones and at
      stagnation points. Findings from this proof-of-principle ladder network model
      suggest a specific correlation between microvascular geometry and thrombus
      formation dynamics under shear. This model holds potential for use as an
      integrative approach to identify regions susceptible to intravascular thrombus
      formation within the microvasculature as well as extravascular devices such as
      ECMO.

PMID- 28580034
TI  - The Effect of Co0.2Mn0.8Fe2O4 Ferrite Nanoparticles on the C2 Canine Mastocytoma
      Cell Line and Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Stem Cells (ASCs) Cultured
      Under a Static Magnetic Field: Possible Implications in the Treatment of Dog
      Mastocytoma.
AB  - Cobalt manganese ferrite nanoparticles have application potential in the
      biomedical field, however there is limited information concerning the biological
      response. The aim of this work was to investigate the cytotoxic potential of
      cobalt-manganese ferrite nanoparticles in canine mastocytoma tumor cells (C2) and
      adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal stem cells (ASCs) cultured under a static
      magnetic field (MF). In this study, we investigated the viability and
      proliferation rate of ASC and C2 cells cultured with Co0.2Mn0.8Fe2O4
      nanoparticles under 0.5T MF. We observed cells morphology and measured
      intracellular ROS generation. Thermal observations were used to characterize the
      thermotrophic cell behavior in different condition and RNA level of heat shock
      proteins and apoptotic genes was measured. Nanoparticles reduced cell viability,
      caused cell damage, i.e., through the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      and increased transcriptional level of apoptotic genes (Bcl-2, Bax, p53, p21). In
      addition, we have found that C2 mastocytoma cells cultured with metal oxide
      nanoparticles under MF exhibited unexpected biological responses, including
      thermotolerance and apoptotic response induced by the expression of heat shock
      proteins and ROS produced under a MF. Our results suggest that stimulation using
      MF and Co0.2Mn0.8Fe2O4 nanoparticles is involved in mechanisms associated with
      controlling cell proliferative potential signaling events. We can state that
      significant differences between normal and cancer cells in response to
      nanoparticles and MF are apparent. Our results show that nanoparticles and MF
      elevate the temperature in vitro in tumor cells, thereby increasing the
      expression of ROS as well as heat shock proteins.

PMID- 28580035
TI  - Acetic Acid Ketonization over Fe3O4/SiO2 for Pyrolysis Bio-Oil Upgrading.
AB  - A family of silica-supported, magnetite nanoparticle catalysts was synthesised
      and investigated for continuous-flow acetic acid ketonisation as a model
      pyrolysis bio-oil upgrading reaction. The physico-chemical properties of
      Fe3O4/SiO2 catalysts were characterised by using high-resolution transmission
      electron microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photo-electron
      spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy,
      thermogravimetric analysis and porosimetry. The acid site densities were
      inversely proportional to the Fe3O4 particle size, although the acid strength and
      Lewis character were size-invariant, and correlated with the specific activity
      for the vapour-phase acetic ketonisation to acetone. A constant activation energy
      (~110 kJ mol-1), turnover frequency (~13 h-1) and selectivity to acetone of 60 %
      were observed for ketonisation across the catalyst series, which implies that
      Fe3O4 is the principal active component of Red Mud waste.

PMID- 28580036
TI  - Well-Being During Recession in the UK.
AB  - This article explores the impact of the recent recession on the well-being of the
      UK working age population by comparing two measures of well-being. One is a
      measure of evaluative subjective well-being, a measure which previous research
      has shown to be stable in the UK throughout the economic crisis. The second is a
      different but complementary measure of positive psychological health. By
      comparing the trajectories of these two measures using the same sample and
      modelling techniques the analysis examines how different measures may lead to
      different interpretations. Six waves of longitudinal data from Understanding
      Society and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) are used. Latent curve
      models are used to analyse change over time. The results corroborate previous
      research showing that people's evaluative subjective well-being remained
      relatively stable, on average, throughout the economic crisis. In contrast, the
      positive psychological health measure was found to decline significantly during
      the recession period. The paper highlights that what we measure matters. Using
      single measures as summaries of well-being masks the complexity of the term, and
      given their appeal in the social policy arena, single measures of well-being can
      be seen as problematic in some scenarios.

PMID- 28580038
TI  - Design of HIFU transducers to generate specific nonlinear ultrasound fields.
AB  - Various clinical applications of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) have
      different requirements on the pressure level and degree of nonlinear waveform
      distortion at the focus. Applications that utilize nonlinear waves with developed
      shocks are of growing interest, for example, for mechanical disintegration as
      well as for accelerated thermal ablation of tissue. In this work, an inverse
      problem of determining transducer parameters to enable formation of shocks with
      desired amplitude at the focus is solved. The solution was obtained by performing
      multiple direct simulations of the parabolic Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov
      (KZK) equation for various parameters of the source. It is shown that results
      obtained within the parabolic approximation can be used to describe the focal
      region of single element spherical sources as well as complex transducer arrays.
      It is also demonstrated that the focal pressure level at which fully developed
      shocks are formed mainly depends on the focusing angle of the source and only
      slightly depends on its aperture and operating frequency. Using the simulation
      results, a 256-element HIFU array operating at 1.5 MHz frequency was designed for
      a specific application of boiling-histotripsy that relies on the presence of 90
      100 MPa shocks at the focus. The size of the array elements and focusing angle of
      the array were chosen to satisfy technical limitations on the intensity at the
      array elements and desired shock amplitudes in the focal waveform. Focus steering
      capabilities of the array were analysed using an open-source T-Array software
      developed at Moscow State University.

PMID- 28580040
TI  - Pseudo Prune Belly Syndrome: Diagnosis Revealed by Imaging - A Case Report and
      Brief Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prune Belly Syndrome (PBS) is a rare entity, usually found in male
      neonates. It comprises complex urinary tract anomalies, bilateral undescended
      testis and absence of anterior abdominal wall muscles. Patients with unilateral
      abdominal wall deficiency, unilateral undescended testis and female neonates with
      abdominal wall laxity are classified as Pseudo Prune Belly syndrome (PPBS).
      Reports on PPBS do not highlight the radiological and imaging characteristics of
      this syndrome and the current literature on the role of newer imaging modalities,
      such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), remains relatively sparse. We describe
      a new case of PPBS and emphasize the role of imaging, especially ultrasound and
      MRI in the process of diagnosis and briefly review the subject. CASE REPORT: A
      male infant of four months of age was referred for evaluation of left-sided
      cryptorchidism. Clinical examination revealed laxity of the left abdominal wall.
      Ultrasound examination of the abdomen, pelvis and scrotum was performed together
      with routine laboratory tests. Ultrasound examination was followed by intravenous
      urography, voiding cysto-urethrography and MRI of the abdomen. On ultrasound, the
      left testis was located in the inguinal canal, the right kidney was slightly
      enlarged and the left kidney could not be localized. Ultrasound appearances
      suggested chronic obstruction in the urinary bladder. Intravenous urography,
      voiding cysto-urethrography and MRI confirmed the ultrasound diagnosis and also
      revealed a left dysplastic kidney with a dilated, tortuous ureter. Clinical and
      imaging features were consistent with pseudo prune belly syndrome (PPBS).
      CONCLUSIONS: We report a new occurrence of PPBS, a rare entity. The imaging
      approach for a comprehensive evaluation of the renal system in PPBS, especially
      with MRI, is emphasized.

PMID- 28580037
TI  - Anti-Phospholipase A2 Receptor Autoantibody: A New Biomarker for Primary
      Membranous Nephropathy.
AB  - Primary membranous nephropathy (also known as idiopathic membranous nephropathy,
      IMN) is an organ specific autoimmune kidney disease characterized by the
      development of immune complex deposits in the sub-epithelial spaces, podocyte
      effacement and glomerular capillary wall thickening in the later stages. Clinical
      studies have demonstrated that over 70% of patients with IMN possess circulating
      autoimmune antibodies specifically targeting the phospholipase A2 receptor
      (PLA2R) on the surface of podocytes. The autoantibodies only bind to the
      extracellular portion of PLA2R under the non-reducing condition, indicating that
      the epitope in PLA2R is conformational requiring specific disulfide bonds to
      maintain its structure. We recently have successfully located the dominant
      epitope in PLA2R to the extreme N-terminus of the receptor. This finding has
      opened a new direction for understanding the pathogenesis of anti-PLA2R
      autoantibody induced IMN and offered a strong basis for developing sensitive
      clinical assays for IMN diagnosis and prognosis, and potentially, new therapeutic
      approaches for IMN treatment.

PMID- 28580039
TI  - Giemsa-stained pseudo-micronuclei in rat skin treated with vitamin D3 analog,
      pefcalcitol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pefcalcitol, an analog of vitamin D3 (VD3), is an anti-psoriatic drug
      candidate that is designed to achieve much higher pharmacological effects, such
      as keratinocyte differentiation, than those of VD3, with fewer side effects.
      Genotoxicity of the compound was evaluated in a rat skin micronucleus (MN) test.
      RESULTS: In the rat skin MN test, pefcalcitol showed positive when specimens were
      stained with Giemsa, whereas neither an in vitro chromosome aberration test in
      CHL cells nor an in vivo bone marrow MN test in rats indicated clastogenicity. To
      elucidate the causes of the discrepancy, the MN specimens were re-stained with
      acridine orange (AO), a fluorescent dye specific to nucleic acid, and the in vivo
      clastogenicity of the compound in rat skin was re-evaluated. The MN-like granules
      that had been stained by Giemsa were not stained by AO, and AO-stained specimens
      indicated that pefcalcitol did not increase the frequency of micronucleated
      (MNed) cells. Histopathological evaluation suggested that the MN-like granules in
      the epidermis were keratohyalin granules contained in keratinocytes, which had
      highly proliferated after treatment with pefcalcitol. CONCLUSIONS: Pefcalcitol
      was concluded to be negative in the rat skin MN test. The present study
      demonstrated that Giemsa staining gave a misleading positive result in the skin
      MN test, because Giemsa stained keratohyalin granules.

PMID- 28580041
TI  - Imaging Diagnosis of a Rare Presacral Tumour.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary tumors in the presacral (retrorectal) space are extremely
      rare in adults, with an estimated incidence of 0.0025 to 0.014 in large referral
      centers. Congenital varieties are most common and comprise two thirds of these
      tumors. Primary retroperitoneal sarcomas in the pelvic region are extremely rare.
      We report the ultrasound and the corresponding Computed Tomography (CT) features
      of a rare presacral fibrosarcoma in an adult woman, in whom the diagnosis was
      confirmed by a CT-guided biopsy. CASE REPORT: A 54-year-old woman presented with
      a history of lumbar and perineal pain and painful defecation. Rectal examination
      revealed a hard mass in the retrorectal space. The patient was referred for
      imaging and a laboratory evaluation with a clinical diagnosis of a presacral
      mass. An abdominal ultrasound was followed by laboratory evaluation of routine
      hematological and hepato-renal parameters, abdomino-pelvic CT and a CT-guided
      biopsy. The imaging studies showed a presacral solid mass with nodular
      calcifications. There was conspicuous absence of cystic or adipose contents and
      of sacral erosion/destruction. However, hepatic metastasis was present. All
      imaging features suggested a retroperitoneal sarcoma in the pelvic region with
      metastases to the liver. The diagnosis was confirmed by CT-guided biopsy.
      CONCLUSIONS: We are reporting a new case of a very rare entity, a presacral
      fibrosarcoma. The imaging approach and the analysis leading to an appropriate
      differential diagnosis and final diagnosis is highlighted in our case report.

PMID- 28580042
TI  - Role of Computed Tomography (CT) in Localisation and Characterisation of
      Suprahyoid Neck Masses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Suprahyoid neck lesions are difficult to assess only by means of
      clinical inspection and therefore imaging techniques are required to precisely
      evaluate suprahyoid neck spaces. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      distinctive role of computed tomography in the assessment of anatomical source
      and pathological type of masses involving the suprahyoid neck spaces.
      MATERIAL/METHODS: Sixty patients presenting with suprahyoid neck masses underwent
      computed tomography of the neck. The CT findings were correlated with
      histopathological findings and a final diagnosis was made. RESULTS: Overall, male
      preponderance was seen except in the case of parotid space lesions where female
      predominance was seen. The most common aetiology was squamous cell carcinoma and
      the majority of cases (30%) were seen in patients aged 41-50 years. The majority
      of lesions were found in the pharyngeal mucosal space (n=16) with squamous cell
      carcinoma being the most common pathology. In the parotid space, pleomorphic
      adenoma and in the prestyloid parapharyngeal space, squamous cell carcinoma were
      the most common lesions, respectively. In the retropharyngeal space, an equal
      incidence of malignant and inflammatory aetiologies was seen. Abscesses were the
      most common lesions in the prevertebral space. The pleomorphic adenoma was the
      most common benign tumour and was also the second most common tumour in the
      suprahyoid neck spaces. CT had an excellent correlation with histopathological
      findings with sensitivity of 96.4%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive
      value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 91.67%. CONCLUSIONS: Computed
      tomography definitely has a major role to play in the evaluation of suprahyoid
      neck masses as it has an excellent correlation with post-operative
      histopathological diagnosis.

PMID- 28580043
TI  - Delayed Small Bowel Perforation with Findings of Severe Ischemia Following Blunt
      Abdominal Trauma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isolated small bowel perforation following blunt abdominal trauma
      (BAT) is an uncommon situation with high morbidity and mortality rates, and
      delayed small bowel perforation is even rarer. The pathophysiology of this
      condition is not clear in all cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
      first case report of delayed small bowel perforation following BAT with extensive
      portomesenteric vein gas. CASE REPORT: A 33-year-old male patient was admitted to
      the emergency department after a car accident. His initial abdominal CT showed no
      signs of posstraumatic injury. However, follow-up CT, performed after
      deterioration in his general condition, showed jejunal dilatation, intestinal
      intramural gas, portomesenteric vein gas, extensive intraperitoneal gas and
      intraabdominal free fluid. CT findings and emergent laparotomy findings were both
      compatible with small bowel ischemia-necrosis and perforation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Delayed small bowel perforation following BAT is thought to occur secondary to
      mesenteric hematoma formation or mesenteric tear complications. Our patient did
      not have any mesenteric injury or hematoma on initial abdominal CT. We are not
      aware of any other case report of delayed small bowel perforation following BAT
      without signs of intraabdominal injury on initial imaging and extensive
      portomesenteric vein gas on follow-up imaging. Ischemic bowel necrosis was the
      main cause of portomesenteric vein gas in our case. Posttraumatic patients should
      be kept under medical observation and abdominal CT should be preferred for
      imaging in case of a deterioration in the general condition and laboratory
      findings or appearance of new abdominal complaints.

PMID- 28580044
TI  - An intra-droplet particle switch for droplet microfluidics using bulk acoustic
      waves.
AB  - To transfer cell- and bead-assays into droplet-based platforms typically requires
      the use of complex microfluidic circuits, which calls for methods to switch the
      direction of the encapsulated particles. We present a microfluidic chip where the
      combination of acoustic manipulation at two different harmonics and a trident
      shaped droplet-splitter enables direction-switching of microbeads and yeast cells
      in droplet microfluidic circuits. At the first harmonic, the encapsulated
      particles exit the splitter in the center daughter droplets, while at the second
      harmonic, the particles exit in the side daughter droplets. This method holds
      promises for droplet-based assays where particle-positioning needs to be
      selectively controlled.

PMID- 28580045
TI  - Evaluation and comparison of two microfluidic size separation strategies for
      vesicle suspensions.
AB  - Two size-based separation strategies are evaluated for suspensions consisting of
      giant unilamellar vesicles with a broad, continuous distribution of diameters.
      Microfluidic devices were designed to separate an initial suspension into larger
      and smaller particles via either filtration or inertial focusing. These
      separation mechanisms were tested with suspensions of vesicles and suspensions of
      rigid spheres separately to illustrate the effect of deformability on separation
      ability. We define several separation metrics to assess the separation ability
      and to enable comparison between separation strategies. The filtration device
      significantly reduced the polydispersity of the separated vesicle fractions
      relative to the starting suspension and displayed an ability to separate vesicle
      suspensions at high throughputs. The device that utilized inertial focusing
      exhibited adequate polydispersity reduction and performed best with diluted
      vesicle suspensions. The inertial device had fewer issues with debris and trapped
      air, leading to short device preparation times and indicating a potential for
      continuous separation operation.

PMID- 28580046
TI  - Characterization of microfluidic clamps for immobilizing and imaging of
      Drosophila melanogaster larva's central nervous system.
AB  - Drosophila melanogaster is a well-established model organism to understand
      biological processes and study human diseases at the molecular-genetic level. The
      central nervous system (CNS) of Drosophila larvae is widely used as a model to
      study neuron development and network formation. This has been achieved by using
      various genetic manipulation tools such as microinjection to knock down certain
      genes or over-express proteins for visualizing the cellular activities. However,
      visualization of an intact-live neuronal response in larva's Central Nervous
      System (CNS) is challenging due to robust digging/burrowing behaviour that
      impedes neuroimaging. To address this problem, dissection is used to isolate and
      immobilize the CNS from the rest of the body. In order to obtain a true
      physiological response from the Drosophila CNS, it is important to avoid
      dissection, while the larva should be kept immobilized. In this paper, a series
      of microfluidic clamps were investigated for intact immobilization of the larva.
      As a result, an optimized structure for rapid mechanical immobilization of
      Drosophila larvae for CNS imaging was determined. The clamping and immobilization
      processes were characterized by imaging and movement measurement of the CNS
      through the expression of genetically encoded Calcium sensor GCaMP5 in all
      sensory and cholinergic interneurons. The optimal structure that included two 3D
      constrictions inside a narrowed channel considerably reduced the internal CNS
      capsule movements. It restricts the CNS movement to 10% of the motion from a
      glued larva and allows motion of only 10 +/- 30 MUm over 350 s immobilization
      which was sufficient for CNS imaging. These larva-on-a-chip platforms can be
      useful for studying CNS responses to sensory cues such as sound, light,
      chemosensory, tactile, and electric/magnetic fields.

PMID- 28580047
TI  - Quantifying the Spatial Inequality and Temporal Trends in Maternal Smoking Rates
      in Glasgow.
AB  - Maternal smoking is well known to adversely affect birth outcomes, and there is
      considerable spatial variation in the rates of maternal smoking in the city of
      Glasgow, Scotland. This spatial variation is a partial driver of health
      inequalities between rich and poor communities, and it is of interest to
      determine the extent to which these inequalities have changed over time.
      Therefore in this paper we develop a Bayesian hierarchical model for estimating
      the spatio-temporal pattern in smoking incidence across Glasgow between 2000 and
      2013, which can identify the changing geographical extent of clusters of areas
      exhibiting elevated maternal smoking incidences that partially drive health
      inequalities. Additionally, we provide freely available software via the R
      package CARBayesST to allow others to implement the model we have developed. The
      study period includes the introduction of a ban on smoking in public places in
      2006, and the results show an average decline of around 11% in maternal smoking
      rates over the study period.

PMID- 28580048
TI  - Probing Transient Valence Orbital Changes with Picosecond Valence-to-Core X-ray
      Emission Spectroscopy.
AB  - We probe the dynamics of valence electrons in photoexcited [Fe(terpy)2]2+ in
      solution to gain deeper insight into the Fe-ligand bond changes. We use hard X
      ray emission spectroscopy (XES), which combines element specificity and high
      penetration with sensitivity to orbital structure, making it a powerful technique
      for molecular studies in a wide variety of environments. A picosecond-time
      resolved measurement of the complete 1s X-ray emission spectrum captures the
      transient photoinduced changes and includes the weak valence-to-core (vtc)
      emission lines that correspond to transitions from occupied valence orbitals to
      the nascent core-hole. Vtc-XES offers particular insight into the molecular
      orbitals directly involved in the light-driven dynamics; a change in the metal
      ligand orbital overlap results in an intensity reduction and a blue energy shift
      in agreement with our theoretical calculations and more subtle features at the
      highest energies reflect changes in the frontier orbital populations.

PMID- 28580049
TI  - Review Strategies to Recruit and Retain Rural Patient Participating Self
      management Behavioral Trials.
AB  - Self-management plays a vital role in improving health outcomes and reducing
      costs in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated risk factors.
      Based on existing studies, rural residents with CVD and/or risk factors show low
      engagement in self-management behaviors. Due to low participation in behavioral
      intervention trials, the most promising mechanism to promote self-management
      among rural populations is unknown. In turn, the purpose of this article is to
      review the evidence that supports strategies to recruit and retain rural patients
      to participate in behavioral intervention trials aimed to promote self-management
      of CVD and its risk factors. This review is expected to assist researchers in
      identifying effective solutions to overcome barriers in the recruitment and
      retention processes when conducting intervention research studies on the self
      management of CVD in rural communities.

PMID- 28580050
TI  - A new method for determining the optimal lagged ensemble.
AB  - We propose a general methodology for determining the lagged ensemble that
      minimizes the mean square forecast error. The MSE of a lagged ensemble is shown
      to depend only on a quantity called the cross-lead error covariance matrix, which
      can be estimated from a short hindcast data set and parameterized in terms of
      analytic functions of time. The resulting parameterization allows the skill of
      forecasts to be evaluated for an arbitrary ensemble size and initialization
      frequency. Remarkably, the parameterization also can estimate the MSE of a burst
      ensemble simply by taking the limit of an infinitely small interval between
      initialization times. This methodology is applied to forecasts of the Madden
      Julian Oscillation (MJO) from version 2 of the Climate Forecast System version 2
      (CFSv2). For leads greater than a week, little improvement is found in the MJO
      forecast skill when ensembles larger than 5 days are used or initializations
      greater than 4 times per day. We find that if the initialization frequency is too
      infrequent, important structures of the lagged error covariance matrix are lost.
      Lastly, we demonstrate that the forecast error at leads >=10 days can be reduced
      by optimally weighting the lagged ensemble members. The weights are shown to
      depend only on the cross-lead error covariance matrix. While the methodology
      developed here is applied to CFSv2, the technique can be easily adapted to other
      forecast systems.

PMID- 28580051
TI  - Cerebral Misery Perfusion on Susceptibility Weighted Imaging in Acute Carotid
      Dissection.
AB  - The cerebral vasculature incorporates several fail-safes that must be breached
      before an irreversible ischemic event takes place. In particular, when
      autoregulatory vasodilatation fails secondary to falling cerebral perfusion
      pressure (CPP; stage I hemodynamic failure), increases in the oxygen extraction
      fraction work to maintain the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen. Previously,
      failure of this mechanism, stage II hemodynamic failure, or misery perfusion, has
      been imaged via positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT).
      Current susceptibility-weighted sequences (SWI) allow for more efficient imaging
      of this physiology. In this case, we identify an incident of reversible ischemia
      caused by spontaneous carotid artery dissection using a combination of diffusion
      weighted imaging (DWI) and SWI. The level of hemodynamic failure identified by
      the imaging sequences elevated the urgency of neurointervention, expediting the
      patient's arrival to the neurointerventional table and thus avoiding impending
      irreversible ischemia.

PMID- 28580052
TI  - MRI diagnosis of infantile Alexander disease in a 14 month old African boy.
AB  - Alexander disease, also known as fibrinoid leukodystrophy, is a rare
      leukoencephalopathy which occurs due to a mutation in the glial fibrillary acid
      protein (GFAP) gene. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proven to be highly
      sensitive in making the diagnosis. Typical MRI findings, in combination with
      positive genetic blood analysis, confirm the diagnosis.

PMID- 28580053
TI  - Persistent proatlas with additional segmentation of the craniovertebral junction 
      The Tsuang-Goehmann-Malformation.
AB  - Case study description and analysis of a complex craniovertebral dysplasia in an
      8-year-old male patient, in which conventional cervical spine radiographs
      demonstrated a regularly differentiated occipital base, as well as the presence
      of two lateral masses of the proatlas vertebra and two lateral masses of the
      atlas vertebra. Further assessment included computed tomography of the occipital
      base and the upper cervical spine as well as three-dimensional reconstruction.
      Malsegmentation of the fourth occipital vertebra can result in various anomalies
      that are known as 'manifestation of the proatlas'. The occurrence of a persistent
      proatlas with additional segmentation of the craniovertebral junction represents
      an extremely rare dysplasia. To our knowledge, it is the second report concerning
      the persistence of a complete human proatlas vertebra. We consider the
      biomechanical and embryological particularities of this complex dysplasia to
      represent sufficient basis for future differentiation from other malformations of
      the fourth occipital vertebra. Comprehensive literature review and discussion
      about the entity will be provided.

PMID- 28580054
TI  - Percutaneous Cholecystostomy and Hydrodissection in Radiofrequency Ablation of
      Liver Subcapsular Leiomyosarcoma Metastasis Adjacent to the Gallbladder:
      Protective Effect.
AB  - Uterine leiomyosarcoma is an uncommon pathology, predominantly found in aged
      population. Patients with metastatic disease have poor survival and therapy
      mainly consists of palliative systemic chemotherapy. However, more aggressive
      strategies such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) may benefit patients with
      limited secondary disease. RFA is considered a simple and safe modality for
      treatment of hepatic lesions. The benefits related to RFA include low morbidity,
      short hospital stay and the possibility to repeat the procedure when necessary
      due to recurrences. However, minor and major complications related to mechanical
      and thermal damage may occur, especially in cases of tumors adjacent to
      extrahepatic organs and those at subcapsular position. This case report shows a
      successful RFA of two hepatic subcapsular leiomyosarcoma metastases neighbouring
      the gallbladder, without a safe cleavage plane from it. Combined hydrodissection,
      percutaneous cholecystostomy and continuous irrigation were performed as
      effective techniques to prevent thermal injury. Clinical and radiological follow
      up demonstrates no local complication.

PMID- 28580056
TI  - A pictorial review of reconstructive foot and ankle surgery: elective lesser
      forefoot procedures.
AB  - This pictorial review focuses on basic procedures performed within the field of
      podiatric surgery, specifically for elective procedures of the lesser forefoot
      including the correction of hammertoes and lesser metatarsal deformities. Our
      goal is to demonstrate objective radiographic parameters that surgeons utilize to
      initially define the deformity, lead to procedure selection and judge post
      operative outcomes. We hope that radiologists will employ this information to
      improve their assessment of post-operative radiographs following reconstructive
      foot surgeries. First, relevant radiographic measurements are defined and their
      role in procedure selection explained. Second, the specific surgical procedures
      of the digital arthroplasty, digital arthrodesis, lesser metatarsal osteotomy,
      and correction of metatarsus adductus are described in detail. Finally, specific
      plain film radiographic findings that judge post-operative outcomes for each
      procedure are detailed.

PMID- 28580055
TI  - Lipofibromatous Hamartoma of the Median Nerve: A Case Report.
AB  - Lipofibromatous hamartoma is a rare and slow growing benign fibro-fatty tumor. It
      is characterized by the proliferation of mature adipocytes within the epineurium
      and the perineurium of the peripheral nerves. In the upper extremity, it most
      commonly affects the median nerve. Median nerve involvement commonly leads to
      pain, numbness, paresthesia and carpal tunnel syndrome. This article presents a
      case of lipofibromatous hamartoma in an 8-year-old child followed by a discussion
      of the epidemiology, diagnosis, imaging details and treatment options for this
      condition.

PMID- 28580057
TI  - Case of Spigelian hernia with incarcerated appendix.
AB  - Spigelian hernias are uncommon lateral ventral wall hernias with a significant
      rate of incarceration; these hernias often produce nonspecific clinical signs and
      symptoms as well as elusive imaging findings. Although there are reported cases
      of incarcerated appendices within Spigelian hernias, this case specifically
      illustrates the diagnostic difficulty these hernias present to both surgeons and
      radiologists. Additionally, we discuss important anatomy, demographics and risk
      factors, clinical symptoms, imaging pitfalls and recommendations for repair based
      on a review of literature.

PMID- 28580058
TI  - Hydrocele in the Canal of Nuck - CT appearance of a developmental groin anomaly.
AB  - Hydrocele in the Canal of Nuck is a condition of female fetal development. The
      Canal of Nuck is a patent tubular peritoneal fold that travels with the round
      ligament to its attachment on the labia major. Failure of complete obliteration
      of the Canal of Nuck during fetal development predisposes females to development
      of a hydrocele or an inguinal hernia during post-pubertal or adult stages. We
      present a case of a 21 year old female with a tender reducible labial mass
      diagnosed as a Hydrocele in the Canal of Nuck.

PMID- 28580059
TI  - Single coronary artery arising from the right sinus of Valsalva presenting with
      chest pain.
AB  - Single coronary artery is a rare anomaly, with a reported incidence of 0.024%. It
      can be diagnosed on coronary computed tomography angiography, where the presence
      of ostial narrowing and compression between the great vessels must be carefully
      excluded, since these malignant forms can lead to sudden cardiac death and other
      ischemic complications. We describe a case of single coronary artery arising from
      the right sinus of Valsalva presenting with symptoms of ischemic chest pain.

PMID- 28580060
TI  - Amyand's Hernia: A Case Report.
AB  - Amyand's hernia is a rare and atypical hernia characterized by the herniation of
      the appendix into the inguinal sac. This hernia may be present without symptoms
      until inflammation of the appendix may lead to incarceration, strangulation,
      necrosis, perforation or rupture. Early symptoms include tenderness and inguinal
      swelling which may be misdiagnosed as a strangulated hernia. This condition can
      be difficult to diagnose clinically. Ultrasound and Computed Tomography may aid
      in diagnosis. This article presents a rare case of Amyand's hernia followed by a
      discussion of the epidemiology, diagnosis, imaging details and treatment options
      for this condition.

PMID- 28580061
TI  - Disseminated Peritoneal Leiomyomatosis Status Post Laparoscopic Hysterectomy with
      Morcellation.
AB  - Uterine leiomyomas (fibroids) are common benign neoplasms, which develop from the
      muscular tissue of the uterus with an estimated incidence of 20-40% in women of
      reproductive age. In the early nineties, power morcellators were introduced and
      became commonly used during hysterectomy for symptomatic fibroids. However, if
      all fragments are not removed, they may parasitize to other blood supply and
      present as abdominal or pelvic masses. Unfortunate cases have also been reported
      in which uterine sarcomas seeded throughout the abdomen and pelvis secondary to
      morcellation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that 1 in 350
      women undergoing hysterectomy or myomectomy for fibroids is found to have an
      unsuspected uterine sarcoma. As a result, the FDA issued a press release in 2014
      discouraging the use of power morcellators. Recently, the FDA approved a new
      containment device, the PneumoLiner, for use with certain power morcellation
      devices. However, it is unknown if this device will help to reduce the risk of
      seeding fibroids and unsuspected uterine malignancies. We present a case in which
      a patient who underwent morcellation therapy for symptomatic fibroids presented
      with recurrent abdominal and pelvic leiomyomas mimicking malignancy.

PMID- 28580062
TI  - Dermoid of the oral cavity: case report with histopathology correlation and
      review of literature.
AB  - Dermoid cysts are rare masses of the oral cavity derived from ectodermal
      elements. These are benign, slow-growing tumors that are typically asymptomatic
      but cause complications of inflammation or dysphagia, dystonia, and airway
      encroachment due to mass effects. We report the case of a 17 year old female with
      a painless mass in the left side of the oral cavity. Ultrasound findings
      demonstrated non-specific findings of a cystic lesion, and definite diagnosis was
      made with contrast-enhanced CT and intraoperatively with pathologic confirmation.
      This retrospective report highlights the challenges in evaluating masses of the
      oral cavity with imaging and provides a comprehensive discussion on imaging of
      oral masses on various imaging modalities to guide diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28580063
TI  - Imaging Findings of Ulceroglandular Tularemia.
AB  - Francisella tularensis, the causative organism in Tularemia, is a relatively rare
      disease. There are a few radiological clues to elucidate its presence when
      suspicion arises. There should be strong consideration for Tularemia in the
      differential of any patient with its classic symptoms, diffuse cervical
      lymphadenopathy with evidence of necrosis, and enlarged adenoids. Ultrasound may
      demonstrate suppurative lymphadenopathy suggestive of infection, as in the case
      presented. CT often will demonstrate the extent of lymphadenopathy. On chest
      radiography, tularemia pneumonia is often the presenting finding, which may
      demonstrate bilateral or lobar infiltrates. Additionally, hilar lymphadenopathy
      and pleural effusions are often associated findings. Cavitary lesions may be
      present, which are better delineated on CT scan. We present a case of a 7-year
      old male who presented with a painful right-sided palpable neck mass for 9 days,
      who was diagnosed with Tularemia after numerous admissions.

PMID- 28580064
TI  - Spontaneous Rupture of the Uterine Artery in an Otherwise Normal Pregnancy.
AB  - Spontaneous rupture of a uterine artery in pregnancy is associated with a high
      rate of mortality. Although uterine artery rupture has been associated with
      postpartum hemorrhage, it is rarely found during pregnancy. Unfortunately,
      clinical signs and symptoms are usually vague and nonspecific. We report a case
      of a 36-year-old woman at 20 weeks gestation presenting with abdominal pain who
      was found to have a spontaneous uterine artery rupture. To our knowledge, this is
      the first case report demonstrating imaging findings in a patient with this
      condition. Our patient underwent successful ligation of the uterine vessel with
      preservation of both mother and fetus. We will discuss possible etiologies of
      uterine artery rupture during pregnancy, associated imaging findings, and
      management options.

PMID- 28580066
TI  - Honoring our helpers.
AB  - This special issue of the Journal of Radiology Case Reports honors the reviewers
      who donated their time and expertise throughout the year 2016 to the high quality
      and success of this journal.

PMID- 28580065
TI  - Lateral Thoracic Artery Pseudoaneurysm as a Result of Penetrating Chest Trauma.
AB  - Pseudoaneurysms are potentially fatal complications of vascular trauma; however,
      they are rarely seen as the sole complication of penetrating injury. We present a
      case of a pseudoaneurysm with an associated arteriovenous fistula of the left
      lateral thoracic artery as a result of direct trauma from a knife stab. The
      patient presented only with a painful, swollen left pectoralis muscle. Upon
      diagnosis, he was taken to the interventional radiology suite and treated
      successfully with fluoroscopic guided coil embolization. Cases such as these are
      infrequent and should encourage more aggressive use of contrast enhanced computed
      tomography imaging for soft tissue injury, as a missed traumatic pseudoaneurysm
      may result in life-threatening hemorrhage.

PMID- 28580067
TI  - Image-guided Percutaneous Transhepatic Removal of Fish Bone from Liver Abscess.
AB  - We present a case of a woman who was diagnosed with a hepatic abscess secondary
      to a migrated fish bone. As the patient did not improve after percutaneous
      drainage of the abscess, image-guided percutaneous transhepatic removal of the
      fish bone was performed. Fish bones in hepatic abscesses are typically removed
      surgically, with the fish bone left in situ in a number of cases. There has been
      only another reported case of percutaneous transhepatic fish bone removal. We
      conclude that in the rare case of a hepatic abscess complicating fish bone
      migration, image-guided percutaneous transhepatic removal of the offending
      foreign body is a feasible alternative to surgery, especially in high surgical
      risk patients.

PMID- 28580068
TI  - Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the airways in a young adult male.
AB  - Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the airways is a rare entity most often found
      in young patients. We present a case of a 23 year old patient with symptoms of
      pneumonia, which progresses to a pulmonary abscess within a week. Diagnostic work
      up reveals an endobronchial obstruction by a pedunculated low grade MEC. A
      literature review is provided and radiological appearances are described.

PMID- 28580069
TI  - Granulomatous Mastitis in a Transgender Patient.
AB  - Granulomatous mastitis is a rare and benign inflammatory condition of the breast
      most commonly affecting women of child-bearing age as well as patients on oral
      contraceptives. This condition is important to identify due to its diagnostic
      mimicry of malicious entities such as breast carcinoma. Clinical and radiological
      findings are nonspecific and may overlap with breast carcinomas, thus pathologic
      confirmation is often necessary for definitive diagnosis. Although cases of
      granulomatous mastitis have been described in cisgender females, there have been
      no reported cases in the transgender patient, a growing patient population with
      few imaging guidelines. Transgender patients are at risk of developing this
      breast entity due to the use of long-term hormone treatments or presence of
      residual breast tissue. A trial of antibiotics or steroids may be administered.
      However, surgical treatment is often necessary in recurrent or refractory cases.

PMID- 28580070
TI  - Isolated Spongy Urethral Rupture from Abrupt Coital Distractive Force.
AB  - The classic presentation of penile fracture is a cracking or snap sound, with
      sharp pain, immediate detumescence, swelling, deformation and ecchymosis. A
      penile fracture involves rupture of the tunica albuginea of one or both corpora
      cavernosa. Concomitant urethral rupture is reported to occur in 10% to 20% of
      penile fracture cases. Isolated urethral injury without penile fracture is
      extremely rare. We report the first case of isolated pendulous urethral rupture
      from an abrupt coital distractive force. We include a literature review and
      discussion of isolated urethral trauma secondary to sexual intercourse.
      Retrograde urethrography rendered a stunning clinical image which was integral to
      the diagnosis and management of this patient's injury.

PMID- 28580072
TI  - Non-intubated thoracic surgery under thoracic epidural anesthesia.

PMID- 28580071
TI  - Factors to bear in mind regarding the use of dexmedetomidine.

PMID- 28580073
TI  - Anesthetic induced neurotoxicity in children.

PMID- 28580074
TI  - Perioperative lung protection.
AB  - Perioperative pulmonary complications are known to be a major cause of morbidity
      and mortality, and as such, contribute a large burden to the health care system
      globally. Anesthesiologists have an important role during the perioperative
      period to identify patients at risk of these complications and intervene in order
      to reduce them. After describing perioperative pulmonary complications and risk
      factors for such, this article will address preoperative, intraoperative, and
      postoperative lung protective strategies to try and reduce the risk of these
      complications.

PMID- 28580077
TI  - Statistical data presentation.
AB  - Data are usually collected in a raw format and thus the inherent information is
      difficult to understand. Therefore, raw data need to be summarized, processed,
      and analyzed. However, no matter how well manipulated, the information derived
      from the raw data should be presented in an effective format, otherwise, it would
      be a great loss for both authors and readers. In this article, the techniques of
      data and information presentation in textual, tabular, and graphical forms are
      introduced. Text is the principal method for explaining findings, outlining
      trends, and providing contextual information. A table is best suited for
      representing individual information and represents both quantitative and
      qualitative information. A graph is a very effective visual tool as it displays
      data at a glance, facilitates comparison, and can reveal trends and relationships
      within the data such as changes over time, frequency distribution, and
      correlation or relative share of a whole. Text, tables, and graphs for data and
      information presentation are very powerful communication tools. They can make an
      article easy to understand, attract and sustain the interest of readers, and
      efficiently present large amounts of complex information. Moreover, as journal
      editors and reviewers glance at these presentations before reading the whole
      article, their importance cannot be ignored.

PMID- 28580075
TI  - Role of vasopressin in current anesthetic practice.
AB  - Arginine vasopressin (AVP), also known as antidiuretic hormone, is a peptide
      endogenously secreted by the posterior pituitary in response to hyperosmolar
      plasma or systemic hypoperfusion states. When administered intravenously, it
      causes an intense peripheral vasoconstriction through stimulation of V1 receptors
      on the vascular smooth muscle. Patients in refractory shock associated with
      severe sepsis, cardiogenic or vasodilatory shock, or cardiopulmonary bypass have
      inappropriately low plasma levels of AVP ('relative vasopressin deficiency') and
      supersensitivity to exogenously-administered AVP. Low doses of AVP and its
      synthetic analog terlipressin can restore vasomotor tone in conditions that are
      resistant to catecholamines, with preservation of renal blood flow and urine
      output. They are also useful in the treatment of refractory arterial hypotension
      in patients chronically treated with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, cardiac
      arrest, or bleeding esophageal varices. In the perioperative setting, they
      represent attractive adjunct vasopressors in advanced shock states that are
      unresponsive to conventional therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28580078
TI  - Does preoperative anxiety felt by patients requested to participate in clinical
      trials related to general anesthesia before elective surgery depend on
      temperament?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preoperative anxiety may differ according to patient temperament. It
      will be increased when patients are requested to participate in a study involving
      anesthesia. The purpose of this study was to show that the anxiety felt when
      patients are requested to participate may differ according to temperament in both
      patients who agree and disagree to participate. METHODS: Three hundred and twenty
      one patients over age 18 with American Society of Anesthesiologists 1 and 2
      completed a survey questionnaire. The degree of anxiety was measured according to
      patient temperament. It was compared on the basis of the State-Trait Anxiety
      Inventory (STAI) and visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS: In the agreed group,
      the degree of anxiety measured by "usual, present STAI" and VAS in the monitors
      (those who want to know as much as possible about anesthesia and surgery) was
      significantly higher than that in the blunters (those who want to know as little
      as possible) (P = 0.041 for the "usual STAI", 0.017 for "present STAI", and 0.001
      for VAS, respectively). Among patients with a lower educational level, the
      numbers of blunters and monitors were 57 (79%) and 32 (59%), respectively,
      indicating that the ratio of blunters was significantly higher (P = 0.026).
      CONCLUSIONS: Both traits of patients in each group were influenced by
      psychological burdens. The anxiety of the monitors who agreed to participate was
      significantly higher than that of blunters. In addition to temperament, education
      level affects participation. Obtaining consent for participation by understanding
      temperament and considering factors that may reduce the participation rate will
      be required.

PMID- 28580076
TI  - Postoperative acute kidney injury.
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery is a common and serious
      complication. Several definitions of AKI have been proposed recently, and include
      both increases in serum creatinine levels and decreases in urine output as
      diagnostic criteria. The pathophysiology of postoperative AKI is complex and
      involves both ischemic injury and systemic inflammation. Identifying risk
      factors, such as old age, underlying diabetes, heart failure, and obesity, may
      aid in the application of preventative methods for postoperative AKI.
      Additionally, recognizing different risks after different types of surgical
      procedures would be valuable. Novel biomarkers that could detect AKI more
      precisely at an earlier time point are being investigated. Several new biomarkers
      have been assessed in large multi-center studies and are believed to accommodate
      conventional clinical findings in diagnosing postoperative AKI. In high-risk
      patients, preventative measures, such as the maintenance of adequate hemodynamics
      and sufficient fluid resuscitation, could lower the incidence of postoperative
      AKI. Avoiding nephrotoxic agents and optimizing preoperative hemoglobin levels to
      avoid excessive transfusions would also be beneficial. In situations in which
      medical management fails to maintain sufficient urine output and acid-base and
      electrolyte homeostasis, early initiation of renal replacement therapy should be
      considered.

PMID- 28580079
TI  - The effect of triazolam premedication on anxiety, sedation, and amnesia in
      general anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepines have been used preoperatively as part of an
      anesthesia regimen to attenuate the anxiety of patients. In this study, we aimed
      to examine the effect of oral triazolam, a short-acting benzodiazepine, on
      anxiety, sedation, and amnesia. METHODS: Ninety patients, aged 20-55 years, were
      randomly assigned to receive no premedication, or to receive triazolam 0.25 mg or
      0.375 mg 1 h before anesthesia. Anxiety score, sedation score, blood pressure,
      heart rate and psychomotor performance were measured on the evening before
      surgery and on the day of surgery. Additional tests of psychomotor performance
      were performed in the postanesthesia care unit and on the next day of surgery.
      The occurrence of amnesia, bispectral index (BIS), recovery profiles and patient
      satisfaction with overall anesthesia care were also evaluated. RESULTS: Changes
      in the anxiety and sedation scores on the day of surgery were not significantly
      different among groups, whereas the increases in systolic blood pressure and
      heart rate were significantly less in both triazolam groups. The triazolam groups
      both showed a higher incidence of high satisfaction scores (>= 2). The two
      triazolam groups also showed similar outcomes, except for a dose-dependent
      increase in the number of patients with amnesia and BIS values < 90. Delayed
      recovery from general anesthesia and psychomotor impairment were not observed in
      the triazolam groups. CONCLUSIONS: Triazolam 0.25 mg or 0.375 mg reduced the
      hemodynamic changes associated with anxiety, produced potent amnesia, and
      improved patient satisfaction. We suggest that triazolam can be used effectively
      as anesthetic premedication in adults.

PMID- 28580080
TI  - Postoperative nausea and vomiting after thyroidectomy: a comparison between
      dexmedetomidine and remifentanil as part of balanced anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is the major complication
      related to general anesthesia, occurring in 60-80% of patients after
      thyroidectomy. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of an
      intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion with remifentanil, as anesthetic
      adjuvants of balanced anesthesia, on PONV in patients undergoing thyroidectomy.
      METHODS: Eighty patients scheduled for thyroidectomy were randomized into the
      following two groups: 1) The dexmedetomidine group (Group D), who received an
      initial loading dose of dexmedetomidine (1 ug/kg over 10 min) during the
      induction of anesthesia, followed by a continuous infusion at a rate of 0.3-0.5
      ug/kg/h; 2) the remifentanil group (group R), who received remifentanil at an
      initial target effect site concentration of 4 ng/ml during the induction of
      anesthesia, followed by a target effect site concentration of 2-3 ng/ml. PONV was
      assessed during the first 24 hours in 2 time periods (0-2 h and 2-24 h). The pain
      intensity, sedation score, extubation time, and hemodynamics were also assessed.
      RESULTS: During the 2 time periods, the incidence and severity of PONV in group D
      were significantly lower than in group R. In addition, the need for rescue
      antiemetics was significantly lower in group D than in group R. The effect of
      dexmedetomidine on postoperative pain relief (2-24 h) was superior to that of
      remifentanil. The hemodynamics were similar in both groups, whereas eye opening
      and extubation time were delayed in group D. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant use of
      intraoperative dexmedetomidine infusion may be effective for the prevention of
      PONV.

PMID- 28580081
TI  - The prognostic value of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and cholesterol in
      patients with an infection and multiple organ dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To establish the prognostic value of procalcitonin, C-reactive
      protein and cholesterol levels for mortality in patients with an infection and
      multiple organ dysfunction. METHODS: A prospective case-control study was
      performed, including 67 patients admitted to the intensive care unit with an
      infection and multiple organ dysfunction in whom cholesterol, procalcitonin, and
      C-reactive protein levels were measured on admission and during the course of
      treatment. RESULTS: The associations between in-hospital mortality and
      procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and cholesterol levels were analyzed. Logistic
      regression analysis showed that cholesterol (odds ratio [OR], 1.858; 95% CI,
      1.170-2.949; P = 0.009) and C-reactive protein (OR, 4.408; 95% CI, 2.019-9.624; P
      < 0.001) levels were predictors of mortality. A receiver operating characteristic
      curve analysis yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.774 and 95% CI of 0.693
      0.855 (P < 0.001) for C-reactive protein, an AUC of 0.66 and 95% CI of 0.535
      0.784 (P = 0.019) for procalcitonin, and an AUC of 0.654 and 95% CI of 0.593
      0.715 (P < 0.001) for cholesterol as predictors of mortality. When combined with
      the bioscore system for mortality, these markers yielded an AUC of 0.845 and 95%
      CI of 0.770-0.921 (P < 0.001), with sensitivity of 89.1% and specificity of
      83.1%. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and
      cholesterol levels in a single scoring system yielded high predictive value for
      mortality.

PMID- 28580082
TI  - Integration of pain scores, morphine consumption and demand/delivery ratio to
      evaluate patient-controlled analgesia: the C-SIA score.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is used to manage postoperative
      pain. Postoperatively, some patients need to be re-instructed on its correct use.
      This study explores the efficacy of re-instruction and illustrates a
      comprehensive version of the Silverman integrated approach (C-SIA), based on the
      integration of static and dynamic pain scores, morphine consumption, and the
      ratio between demanded and delivered PCA boluses (the DD ratio). METHODS: In
      total, 50 patients operated on for colorectal surgery were studied
      retrospectively. The change in DD ratio after re-instruction was analyzed as the
      primary endpoint. Re-instructed and not re-instructed subjects were compared
      according to DD ratio, pain scores, and morphine consumption. A secondary
      comparison was performed using the SIA and C-SIA scores, to illustrate the
      reliability of the latter tool. Agreement between C-SIA and SIA score was
      assessed using a Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: In re-instructed patients, the
      DD ratio decreased after re-education (P = 0.011). Re-instructed patients had
      higher DD ratios (P = 0.018) and pain scores at rest (P = 0.024) and movement (P
      = 0.012) at 24 h after surgery than not re-instructed subjects. These differences
      disappeared at the 48 h visit. Both the SIA and C-SIA scores reflected these
      findings. C-SIA scores showed a higher coefficient of correlation with the DD
      ratio (r = 0.815; P < 0.001) than SIA scores (r = 0.663; P < 0.001). The C-SIA
      scores, in absolute values, being based on more variables, were, on average, 2.5
      times the SIA score. CONCLUSIONS: Re-instruction is effective for optimizing PCA
      therapy. The C-SIA is an alternative to the SIA score that gives an overall
      measure of PCA therapy efficacy.

PMID- 28580083
TI  - Implementation of clinical practice changes by experienced anesthesiologists
      after simulation-based ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anesthesiologists who have finished formal training and want to learn
      ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) commonly attend 1 day workshops.
      However, it is unclear whether participation actually changes clinical practice.
      We assessed change implementation after completion of a 1 day simulation-based
      UGRA workshop. METHODS: Practicing anesthesiologists who participated in a 1 day
      UGRA course from January 2012 through May 2014 were surveyed. The course
      consisted of clinical observation of UGRA procedures, didactic lectures,
      ultrasound scanning, hands-on perineural catheter placement, and mannequin
      simulation. The primary outcome was the average number of UGRA blocks per month
      reported at follow-up versus baseline. Secondary outcomes included preference for
      ultrasound as the nerve localization technique, ratings of UGRA teaching methods,
      and obstacles to performing UGRA. RESULTS: Survey data from 46 course
      participants (60% response rate) were included for analysis. Participants were
      (median [10th-90th percentile]) 50 (37-63) years old, had been in practice for 17
      (5-30) years, and were surveyed 27 (10-34) months after their UGRA training.
      Participants reported performing 24 (4-90) blocks per month at follow-up compared
      to 10 (2-24) blocks at baseline (P < 0.001). Compared to baseline, more
      participants at follow-up preferred ultrasound for nerve localization. The major
      obstacle to implementing UGRA in clinical practice was time pressure.
      CONCLUSIONS: Participation in a 1 day simulation-based UGRA course may increase
      UGRA procedural volume by practicing anesthesiologists.

PMID- 28580084
TI  - Characteristics of the similarity index in a Korean medical journal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Journal editors have exercised their control over submitted papers
      having a high similarity index. Despite widespread suspicion of possible
      plagiarism on a high similarity index, our study focused on the real effect of
      the similarity index on the value of a scientific paper. METHODS: This research
      examined the percent values of the similarity index from 978 submitted (420
      published) papers in the Korean Journal of Anesthesiology since 2012. Thus, this
      study aimed to identify the correlation between the similarity index and the
      value of a paper. The value of a paper was evaluated in two distinct phases
      (during a peer-review process vs. after publication), and the value of a
      published paper was evaluated in two aspects (academic citation vs. social media
      appearance). RESULTS: Yearly mean values of the similarity index ranged from 16%
      to 19%. There were 254 papers cited at least once and 179 papers appearing at
      least once in social media. The similarity index affected the
      acceptance/rejection of a paper in various ways; although the influence was not
      linear and the cutoff measures were distinctive among the types of papers, both
      extremes were related to a high rate of rejection. After publication, the
      similarity index had no effect on academic citation or social media appearance
      according to the paper. CONCLUSIONS: The finding suggested that the similarity
      index no longer had an influence on academic citation or social media appearance
      according to the paper after publication, while the similarity index affected the
      acceptance/rejection of a submitted paper. Proofreading and intervention for
      finalizing the draft by the editors might play a role in achieving uniform
      quality of the publication.

PMID- 28580086
TI  - Non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery for decortication of empyema under thoracic
      epidural anesthesia: a case report.
AB  - General anesthesia is the main strategy for almost all thoracic surgeries.
      However, a growing body of literature has reported successful cases of non
      intubated thoracic surgery with regional anesthesia. This alternative strategy
      not only prevents complications related to general anesthesia, such as lung
      injury, incomplete re-expansion and intubation related problems, but also accords
      with trends of shorter hospital stay and lower overall costs. We experienced a
      successful case of non-intubated thoracoscopic decortication for a 68-year-old
      man who was diagnosed as empyema while the patient kept spontaneously breathing
      with moderate sedation under thoracic epidural anesthesia. The patient showed a
      fast recovery without concerns of general anesthesia related complications and
      effective postoperative analgesia through thoracic epidural patient-controlled
      analgesia device. This is the first report of non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery
      under thoracic epidural anesthesia in Korea, and we expect that various well
      designed prospective studies will warrant the improvement of outcomes in non
      intubated thoracoscopic surgery.

PMID- 28580085
TI  - Apocynin preserves glutamatergic neurons in the basolateral amygdala in mice with
      neonatal sevoflurane exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal exposure to anesthetics induces neuronal apoptosis and long
      term cognitive dysfunction in rodents. We showed that the nicotinamide adenine
      dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase inhibitor apocynin not only reduces neurotoxicity
      by decreasing superoxide levels and preventing mitochondrial dysfunction but also
      improves long-term memory impairment in neonatal mice exposed to sevoflurane. We
      also found that after the contextual fear conditioning test, glutamatergic
      neurons expressed c-Fos (neural activation) regardless of previous exposure to
      sevoflurane. Moreover, there were fewer c-Fos-expressing glutamatergic neurons in
      the basolateral amygdala (BLA) after exposure to sevoflurane than after exposure
      to carrier gas. In this study, we investigated whether the administration of
      apocynin prior to sevoflurane exposure would preserve glutamatergic neurons in
      the BLA. METHODS: Apocynin (50 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into six-day
      old male mice 30 min before 6 h of exposure to 3% sevoflurane or carrier gas
      only. The mice were allowed to mature and then were subjected to the contextual
      fear conditioning test. The neural activation and neuron population in the BLA
      were investigated 2 h later. RESULTS: Administration of apocynin prior to
      neonatal sevoflurane exposure not only prevented learning deficits but also
      preserved c-Fos-expressing glutamatergic neurons in the BLA. CONCLUSIONS:
      Apocynin mitigates the cognitive impairment induced by neonatal sevoflurane
      exposure and preserves c-Fos-expressing glutamatergic neurons in the basolateral
      amygdala.

PMID- 28580088
TI  - Liver transplantation in Jehovah's Witnesses: two cases report.
AB  - Liver transplantation is especially challenging in patients who are Jehovah's
      Witnesses because their religious beliefs prohibit the receipt of blood products.
      We present two cases of living donor liver transplantation performed in adult
      Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea without the use of blood products. In the
      first case, preoperative erythropoiesisstimulation therapy increased hemoglobin
      levels from 8.1 to 13.1 g/dl after 9 weeks. In the second case, hemoglobin levels
      increased from 7.4 to 10.8 g/dl after 6 months of erythropoiesis-stimulation
      therapy. With the combination of acute normovolemic hemodilution, intraoperative
      cell salvage, and use of transfusion alternatives, liver transplantation was
      successfully performed without transfusion of blood products.

PMID- 28580087
TI  - Successful early application of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to support
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation for a patient suffering from severe malignant
      hyperthermia and cardiac arrest: a case report.
AB  - Malignant hyperthermia (MH) may lead to metabolic crisis of skeletal muscle in
      susceptible individuals following exposure to triggering agents such as volatile
      anesthetics or depolarizing muscle relaxants. MH is a rare and a potentially
      lethal disease, which can lead to cardiac arrest. We report a case of severe MH,
      in which the rapidly evolving signs of hypermetabolism eventually resulted in
      cardiac arrest. Despite conventional treatments following cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation, the patient's vital signs did not improve. Therefore, we applied
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for providing hemodynamic support.

PMID- 28580089
TI  - Anesthetic experience of frontotemporal dementia patient with severe autonomic
      dysfunction: a case report.
AB  - Anesthetic experience in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with severe hypotension
      associated autonomic dysfunction has not yet been reported. Here in case, we
      report on the case of treatment with vasopressin to refractory hypotension in FTD
      patient. A 54-year-old male presented with a ten-year history of FTD with
      frequent syncope. The patient was scheduled to undergo subtotal gastrectomy for
      resection of stomach cancer. During the operation, sudden hypotension occurred
      and it was refractory to fluid and 1 unit of blood resuscitation and did not
      respond to catecholamine. Transesophageal echocardiography showed normal heart
      with adequate volume state. After intravenous administration of arginine
      vasopressin, the patient's vital signs returned to baseline values. Arginine
      vasopressin might be considered as a valuable alternative for treatment of severe
      refractory hypotension in autonomic dysfunction patients with FTD.

PMID- 28580090
TI  - Less explored off-label indications of dexmedetomidine.

PMID- 28580091
TI  - Effects of sugammadex on the coronary circulation: direct effects on coronary
      vessels or hypersensitivity (Kounis syndrome)?

PMID- 28580092
TI  - Corrigendum: A first step toward understanding patient safety.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 429 in vol. 69, PMID: 27703622.].

PMID- 28580094
TI  - An aqueous molecular tube with polyaromatic frameworks capable of binding
      fluorescent dyes.
AB  - An aqueous molecular tube composed of polyaromatic frameworks with peripheral
      hydrophilic groups was prepared. The new tube has a well-defined hydrophobic
      cavity with a diameter of ~1 nm and quantitatively binds two molecules of
      fluorescent coumarin dyes in aqueous solutions. The bound coumarin dimers in a
      stacked fashion exhibit unusual excimer-like emissions in the confined space
      through efficient host-guest energy transfer.

PMID- 28580096
TI  - Hydrogen dangling bonds induce ferromagnetism in two-dimensional metal-free
      graphitic-C3N4 nanosheets.
AB  - Ferromagnetic two-dimensional (2D) ultrathin nanosheets hold great promise for
      next generation electronics. Ferromagnetic metal-free materials that usually
      possess only an s/p electronic configuration with weak spin-orbit coupling and a
      large spin relaxation time, would play an important role in constructing future
      spintronic devices. However, the absence of an intrinsic spin ordering structure
      in most metal-free materials greatly hampers the widening scope of ferromagnetic
      2D nanostructures as well as in-depth understanding of their ferromagnetic
      nature. Herein, the induction of intrinsic ferromagnetism in 2D metal-free g-C3N4
      ultrathin nanosheets has been achieved through a new effective strategy whereby
      hydrogen dangling bonds are introduced. In our case, g-C3N4 ultrathin nanosheets
      with hydrogen dangling bonds showed obvious room temperature ferromagnetic
      behavior that could even be tuned by the concentration of hydrogen. This work
      will pave a new pathway to engineer the properties of 2D nanomaterial systems.

PMID- 28580093
TI  - Photobiomodulation and the brain: a new paradigm.
AB  - Transcranial photobiomodulation (PBM) also known as low level laser therapy
      (tLLLT) relies on the use of red/NIR light to stimulate, preserve and regenerate
      cells and tissues. The mechanism of action involves photon absorption in the
      mitochondria (cytochrome c oxidase), and ion channels in cells leading to
      activation of signaling pathways, up-regulation of transcription factors, and
      increased expression of protective genes. We have studied PBM for treating
      traumatic brain injury (TBI) in mice using a NIR laser spot delivered to the
      head. Mice had improved memory and learning, increased neuroprogenitor cells in
      the dentate gyrus and subventricular zone, increased BDNF and more synaptogenesis
      in the cortex. These highly beneficial effects on the brain suggest that the
      applications of tLLLT are much broader than at first conceived. Other groups have
      studied stroke (animal models and clinical trials), Alzheimer's disease,
      Parkinson's disease, depression, and cognitive enhancement in healthy subjects.

PMID- 28580095
TI  - Macromolecular prodrugs of ribavirin: towards a treatment for co-infection with
      HIV and HCV.
AB  - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) represent
      tremendous healthcare burdens with a large proportion of patients hosting the two
      viruses at the same time. An altered hepatic function and immunity as well as
      cross-interference of drugs make treatment of co-infection increasingly
      challenging. Herein we report the first design of macromolecular prodrugs (MP)
      with concurrent success in fighting HIV and alleviating hepatitis (liver
      inflammation). To achieve this, polymer compositions were systematically screened
      in a broad range of molar mass and content of ribavirin - a broad spectrum
      antiviral agent. For the first time, we report that ribavirin is efficacious in
      fighting HIV and in the form of MP, the treatment is safe, both in terms of lack
      of association of ribavirin with red blood cells and lack of toxicity upon
      cellular internalization. The lead polymer compositions were also potent in anti
      inflammatory assays with relevance to viral hepatitis - thus making up
      formulations with potential for treatment of co-infection with HIV and HCV.

PMID- 28580097
TI  - Visualising the membrane viscosity of porcine eye lens cells using molecular
      rotors.
AB  - The plasma membranes of cells within the eye lens play an important role in
      metabolite transport within the avascular tissue of the lens, maintaining its
      transparency over the entire lifespan of an individual. Here we use viscosity
      sensitive 'molecular rotors' to map the microscopic viscosity within these
      unusual cell membranes, establishing that they are characterised by an
      unprecedentedly high degree of lipid organisation.

PMID- 28580099
TI  - Intra- versus intermolecular electron transfer in radical nucleophilic aromatic
      substitution of dihalo(hetero)arenes - a tool for estimating pi-conjugation in
      aromatic systems.
AB  - In this paper, the application of the double radical nucleophilic aromatic
      substitution (SRN1) in various dihalogenated, mostly diiodinated, pi-conjugated
      systems as a tool for qualitatively estimating their pi-conjugation is described.
      This approach uses electron delocalisation as a measure of pi-conjugation.
      Electron injection into the pi-system is achieved via reaction of an intermediate
      aryl radical, itself generated from a dihalogenated pi-system via SET-reduction
      of the C-I bond and subsequent reaction with a thiolate anion. The generated
      arene radical anion can then further react with the second aryl-halogen moiety
      within the pi-system via an intramolecular electron transfer process. The
      efficiency of this intramolecular electron transfer is related to the pi
      conjugation of the radical anion. If the pi-conjugation within the aromatic unit
      is weak, the arene radical anion reacts via an intermolecular ET with the
      starting dihalide. The intramolecular ET process delivers a product of a double
      SRN1 substitution whereas the intermolecular ET pathway provides a product of a
      mono- SRN1 substitution. By simple product analysis of mono- versus double
      substitution, pi-conjugation can be qualitatively evaluated. This mechanistic
      tool is applied to various dihalogenated pi-conjugated systems and the results
      are discussed within the context of pi-conjugation. The conjugation mode within
      the pi-system and the length of the aromatic system are varied, and the effect of
      relative positioning of the two halides within small pi-systems is also
      addressed.

PMID- 28580098
TI  - Hollow carbon nanobubbles: monocrystalline MOF nanobubbles and their pyrolysis.
AB  - While bulk-sized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) face limits to their utilization
      in various research fields such as energy storage applications,
      nanoarchitectonics is believed to be a possible solution. It is highly
      challenging to realize MOF nanobubbles with monocrystalline frameworks. By a
      spatially controlled etching approach, here, we can achieve the synthesis of
      zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) nanobubbles with a uniform size of less
      than 100 nm. Interestingly, the ZIF-8 nanobubbles possess a monocrystalline
      nanoshell with a thickness of around 10 nm. Under optimal pyrolytic conditions,
      the ZIF-8 nanobubbles can be converted into hollow carbon nanobubbles while
      keeping their original shapes. The structure of the nanobubble enhances the fast
      Na+/K+ ion intercalation performance. Such remarkable improvement cannot be
      realized by conventional MOFs or their derived carbons.

PMID- 28580100
TI  - Mild, visible light-mediated decarboxylation of aryl carboxylic acids to access
      aryl radicals.
AB  - Herein we present the first example of aryl radical formation via the visible
      light-mediated decarboxylation of aryl carboxylic acids using photoredox
      catalysis. This method constitutes a mild protocol for the decarboxylation of
      cheap and abundant aryl carboxylic acids and tolerates both electron-rich
      substrates and those lacking ortho-substitution. The in situ formation of an acyl
      hypobromite is proposed to prevent unproductive hydrogen atom abstraction and
      trapping of the intermediate aroyloxy radical, enabling mild decarboxylation.

PMID- 28580102
TI  - Highly sensitive and multiplexed quantification of mRNA splice variants by the
      direct ligation of DNA probes at the exon junction and universal PCR
      amplification.
AB  - Alternative messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing is a basic mechanism of gene
      regulation. In general, reverse transcription and polymerase based primer
      extension limit the sensitivity and selectivity of the current detection of mRNA
      splice variants, respectively. Here, we show that, using the ligation of two
      properly designed probes at the exon junction combined with universal PCR
      amplification, as little as a single copy of a mRNA splice variant per cell can
      be accurately determined, and the dynamic range covers six orders of magnitude.
      Three mRNA splice variants were measured from total RNA samples derived from
      different cell lines. Moreover, by encoding the ligation probes with different
      lengths, multiplexed mRNA splice variants can be simultaneously detected in one
      tube PCR amplification using electrophoretic separation.

PMID- 28580101
TI  - Highly specific and rapid glycan based amperometric detection of influenza
      viruses.
AB  - Rapid and precise detection of influenza viruses in a point of care setting is
      critical for applying appropriate countermeasures. Current methods such as
      nucleic acid or antibody based techniques are expensive or suffer from low
      sensitivity, respectively. We have developed an assay that uses glucose test
      strips and a handheld potentiostat to detect the influenza virus with high
      specificity. Influenza surface glycoprotein neuraminidase (NA), but not bacterial
      NA, cleaved galactose bearing substrates, 4,7di-OMe N-acetylneuraminic acid
      attached to the 3 or 6 position of galactose, to release galactose. In contrast,
      viral and bacterial NA cleaved the natural substrate, N-acetylneuraminic acid
      attached to the 3 or 6 position of galactose. The released galactose was detected
      amperometrically using a handheld potentiostat and dehydrogenase bearing glucose
      test strips. The specificity for influenza was confirmed using influenza strains
      and different respiratory pathogens that include Streptococcus pneumoniae and
      Haemophilus influenzae; bacteria do not cleave these molecules. The assay was
      also used to detect co-infections caused by influenza and bacterial NA. Viral
      drug susceptibility and testing with human clinical samples was successful in 15
      minutes, indicating that this assay could be used to rapidly detect influenza
      viruses at primary care or resource poor settings using ubiquitous glucose
      meters.

PMID- 28580103
TI  - Controlling superstructural ordering in the clathrate-I Ba8M16P30 (M = Cu, Zn)
      through the formation of metal-metal bonds.
AB  - Order-disorder-order phase transitions in the clathrate-I Ba8Cu16P30 were induced
      and controlled by aliovalent substitutions of Zn into the framework. Unaltered
      Ba8Cu16P30 crystallizes in an ordered orthorhombic (Pbcn) clathrate-I
      superstructure that maintains complete segregation of metal and phosphorus atoms
      over 23 different crystallographic positions in the clathrate framework. The
      driving force for the formation of this Pbcn superstructure is the avoidance of
      Cu-Cu bonds. This superstructure is preserved upon aliovalent substitution of Zn
      for Cu in Ba8Cu16-x Zn x P30 with 0 < x < 1.6 (10% Zn/Mtotal), but vanishes at
      greater substitution concentrations. Higher Zn concentrations (up to 35%
      Zn/Mtotal) resulted in the additional substitution of Zn for P in Ba8M16+y P30-y
      (M = Cu, Zn) with 0 <= y <= 1. This causes the formation of Cu-Zn bonds in the
      framework, leading to a collapse of the orthorhombic superstructure into the more
      common cubic subcell of clathrate-I (Pm3n). In the resulting cubic phases, each
      clathrate framework position is jointly occupied by three different elements: Cu,
      Zn, and P. Detailed structural characterization of the Ba-Cu-Zn-P clathrates-I
      via single crystal X-ray diffraction, joint synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder
      diffractions, pair distribution function analysis, electron diffraction and high
      resolution electron microscopy, along with elemental analysis, indicates that
      local ordering is present in the cubic clathrate framework, suggesting the
      evolution of Cu-Zn bonds. For the compounds with the highest Zn content, a
      disorder-order transformation is detected due to the formation of another
      superstructure with trigonal symmetry and Cu-Zn bonds in the clathrate-I
      framework. It is shown that small changes in the composition, synthesis, and
      crystal structure have significant impacts on the structural and transport
      properties of Zn-substituted Ba8Cu16P30.

PMID- 28580104
TI  - Highly specific imaging of mRNA in single cells by target RNA-initiated rolling
      circle amplification.
AB  - Detection of single-cell gene expression with high spatial and sequence
      resolution is a key challenge in single cell biology. Herein, we propose a robust
      method for the direct detection of mRNA, termed target RNA-initiated rolling
      circle amplification, which enables imaging of mRNA with single-nucleotide and
      near-single-molecule resolution in single cells. By utilizing a Splint R ligase
      capable of efficiently catalyzing the ligation of a padlock probe by the target
      RNA, the method can enable the efficient detection of mRNA without reverse
      transcription (detection efficiency over 20%). Meanwhile, attributed to the
      ligation-based recognition process, the method confers specificity sufficient to
      genotype mRNAs with one-nucleotide variations. The method has enabled the spatial
      mapping and correlation analysis of gene expression in single cells which could
      help us to elucidate the gene functions and regulatory mechanisms. This method
      offers an mRNA profiling ability with high spatial resolution and sequence
      specificity, thus is expected to be a single-cell analysis platform for not only
      investigating gene expression, but also potentially for analyzing single
      nucleotide variants or mRNA alternative splicing at single-cell level.

PMID- 28580106
TI  - Photocurrent of BiVO4 is limited by surface recombination, not surface catalysis.
AB  - Bismuth vanadate is one of the most promising photoanode materials for
      photoelectrochemical water splitting. In order to achieve high photocurrents the
      surface of BiVO4 always has to be modified with water oxidation catalysts, such
      as cobalt phosphate (CoPi), FeOOH, or NiFeO x . While this has generally been
      attributed to the poor intrinsic catalytic activity of BiVO4, detailed insight
      into the fate of the photogenerated charge carriers at the surface is still
      lacking. We used intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) to
      investigate the surface carrier dynamics of bare and CoPi-modified spray
      deposited BiVO4 films. Using a model developed by Peter et al., it was possible
      to distinguish the reaction rate constants for surface recombination and charge
      transfer to the electrolyte. We found that modification with CoPi reduced the
      surface recombination of BiVO4 with a factor of 10-20, without significantly
      influencing the charge transfer kinetics. Control experiments with RuO x , one of
      the best known OER electrocatalysts, did not affect surface recombination and led
      to an actual decrease of the photocurrent. These results show that the main role
      of the CoPi is to passivate the surface of BiVO4 and that, contrary to earlier
      assumptions, the photocurrent of BiVO4 is limited by surface recombination
      instead of charge transfer. The importance of surface recombination is well
      recognized for conventional semiconductors in the field of photovoltaics; these
      findings show that it may also play a crucial role in oxide-based semiconductors
      for photoelectrochemical energy conversion.

PMID- 28580105
TI  - Reversible solvatomagnetic switching in a single-ion magnet from an entatic
      state.
AB  - A vast impact on molecular nanoscience can be achieved using simple transition
      metal complexes as dynamic chemical systems to perform specific and selective
      tasks under the control of an external stimulus that switches "ON" and "OFF"
      their electronic properties. While the interest in single-ion magnets (SIMs) lies
      in their potential applications in information storage and quantum computing, the
      switching of their slow magnetic relaxation associated with host-guest processes
      is insufficiently explored. Herein, we report a unique example of a mononuclear
      cobalt(ii) complex in which geometrical constraints are the cause of easy and
      reversible water coordination and its release. As a result, a reversible and
      selective colour and SIM behaviour switch occurs between a "slow-relaxing" deep
      red anhydrous material (compound 1) and its "fast-relaxing" orange hydrated form
      (compound 2). The combination of this optical and magnetic switching in this new
      class of vapochromic and thermochromic SIMs offers fascinating possibilities for
      designing multifunctional molecular materials.

PMID- 28580108
TI  - Anion-pi catalysis: bicyclic products with four contiguous stereogenic centers
      from otherwise elusive diastereospecific domino reactions on pi-acidic surfaces.
AB  - Anion-pi interactions have been introduced recently to catalysis. The idea of
      stabilizing anionic intermediates and transition states on pi-acidic surfaces is
      a new fundamental concept. By now, examples exist for asymmetric enolate,
      enamine, iminium and transamination chemistry, and the first anion-pi enzyme has
      been created. Delocalized over large aromatic planes, anion-pi interactions
      appear particularly attractive to stabilize extensive long-distance charge
      displacements during domino processes. Moving on from the formation of
      cyclohexane rings with five stereogenic centers in one step on a pi-acidic
      surface, we here focus on asymmetric anion-pi catalysis of domino reactions that
      afford bicyclic products with quaternary stereogenic centers. Catalyst screening
      includes a newly synthesized, better performing anion-pi version of classical
      organocatalysts from cinchona alkaloids, and anion-pi enzymes. We find
      stereoselectivities that are clearly better than the best ones reported with
      conventional catalysts, culminating in unprecedented diastereospecificity.
      Moreover, we describe achiral salts as supramolecular chirality enhancers and
      report the first artificial enzyme that operates in neutral water with anion-pi
      interactions, i.e., interactions that are essentially new to enzymes. Evidence in
      support of contributions of anion-pi interactions to asymmetric catalysis include
      increasing diastereo- and enantioselectivity with increasing rates, i.e.,
      asymmetric transition-state stabilization in the presence of pi-acidic surfaces
      and inhibition with the anion selectivity sequence NO3- > Br- > BF4- > PF6-.

PMID- 28580107
TI  - (Phosphanyl)phosphaketenes as building blocks for novel phosphorus heterocycles.
AB  - Although BH3 simply coordinates the endocyclic P of (phospholidino)phosphaketene
      1Dipp , the bulkier B(C6F5)3 gives rise to a zwitterionic diphosphirenium, which
      is a novel type of 2pi-electron aromatic system as shown by the calculated NICS
      values. While the reaction of 1Dipp with Na[PCO(dioxane) x ] is unselective, the
      same reaction with the sterically bulky (phospholidino)phosphaketene 1Ar** [Ar**
      = 2,6-bis[di(4-tert-butylphenyl)methyl]-4-methylphenyl selectively affords a
      sodium bridged dimer containing a hitherto unknown lambda3,lambda5,lambda3
      triphosphete core. The latter formally results from "P-" addition to a 1,3-P/C
      dipole. Similarly, adamantyl isonitrile adds to 1Dipp giving a 4-membered
      phosphacycle. In contrast to 1, the phosphaketene derived from the electrophilic
      diazaphospholidine-4,5-dione is unstable and reacts with a second molecule of
      Na[PCO(dioxane) x ] to afford a 1,3,4-oxadiphospholonide derivative.

PMID- 28580109
TI  - Photoswitchable interlocked thiodiglycolamide as a cocatalyst of a chalcogeno
      Baylis-Hillman reaction.
AB  - En route to a photoswitchable interlocked catalyst we have proved the ability of
      thiodiglycolamide to act as a template in the formation of hydrogen-bonded
      [2]rotaxanes. X-ray diffraction studies reveal the shielding of the sulfide atom
      by the macrocycle. A series of molecular shuttles are described as having an
      isomerizable fumaramide and thiodiglycolamide binding sites for controlling the
      relative ring position at will. By employing these systems as photoregulated
      catalysts, the TiCl4-mediated chalcogeno-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction is
      tested. In the presence of the maleamide shuttle, in which the sulfide function
      is encapsulated by the macrocycle, a complete loss in control of the geometry of
      the produced aldol is observed. The E-aldol adduct is predominantly obtained when
      the photoisomerized fumaramide shuttle, in which the sulfide function is exposed,
      is used.

PMID- 28580110
TI  - Superconductivity and magnetism in iron sulfides intercalated by metal
      hydroxides.
AB  - Inspired by naturally occurring sulfide minerals, we present a new family of iron
      based superconductors. A metastable form of FeS known as the mineral mackinawite
      forms two-dimensional sheets that can be readily intercalated by various cationic
      guest species. Under hydrothermal conditions using alkali metal hydroxides, we
      prepare three different cation and metal hydroxide-intercalated FeS phases
      including (Li1-x Fe x OH)FeS, [(Na1-x Fe x )(OH)2]FeS, and K x Fe2-y S2. Upon
      successful intercalation of the FeS layer, the superconducting critical
      temperature Tc of mackinawite is enhanced from 5 K to 8 K for the (Li1-x Fe x OH)
      delta+ intercalate. Layered heterostructures of [(Na1-x Fe x )(OH)2]FeS resemble
      the natural mineral tochilinite, which contains an iron square lattice
      interleaved with a hexagonal hydroxide lattice. Whilst heterostructured [(Na1-x
      Fe x )(OH)2]FeS displays long-range magnetic ordering near 15 K, K x Fe2-y S2
      displays short range antiferromagnetism.

PMID- 28580111
TI  - Electronic properties of the boroxine-gold interface: evidence of ultra-fast
      charge delocalization.
AB  - We performed a combined experimental and theoretical study of the assembly of
      phenylboronic acid on the Au(111) surface, which is found to lead to the
      formation of triphenylboroxines by spontaneous condensation of trimers of
      molecules. The interface between the boroxine group and the gold surface has been
      characterized in terms of its electronic properties, revealing the existence of
      an ultra-fast charge delocalization channel in the proximity of the oxygen atoms
      of the heterocyclic group. More specifically, the DFT calculations show the
      presence of an unoccupied electronic state localized on both the oxygen atoms of
      the adsorbed triphenylboroxine and the gold atoms of the topmost layer. By means
      of resonant Auger electron spectroscopy, we demonstrate that this interface state
      represents an ultra-fast charge delocalization channel. Boroxine groups are among
      the most widely adopted building blocks in the synthesis of covalent organic
      frameworks on surfaces. Our findings indicate that such systems, typically
      employed as templates for the growth of organic films, can also act as active
      interlayers that provide an efficient electronic transport channel bridging the
      inorganic substrate and organic overlayer.

PMID- 28580112
TI  - Rh-catalyzed regiodivergent hydrosilylation of acyl aminocyclopropanes controlled
      by monophosphine ligands.
AB  - A Rh-catalyzed regiodivergent hydrosilylation of acyl aminocyclopropanes has been
      developed. Acyl aminocyclopropanes were reacted with hydrosilanes in the presence
      of Rh catalysts to afford ring-opened hydrosilylated adducts through carbon
      carbon (C-C) bond cleavage of the cyclopropane ring. The regioselectivity of the
      addition of silanes (linear or branched) can be switched by changing the
      monophosphine ligand. This C-C bond cleavage/hydrosilylation methodology is
      applicable to the synthesis of silanediol precursors.

PMID- 28580113
TI  - Methyltransferase-directed covalent coupling of fluorophores to DNA.
AB  - We report an assay for determining the number of fluorophores conjugated to
      single plasmid DNA molecules and apply this to compare the efficiency of
      fluorophore coupling strategies for covalent DNA labelling. We compare a copper
      catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction, amine to N-hydroxysuccinimidyl
      ester coupling reaction and strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction
      for fluorescent DNA labelling. We found increased labelling efficiency going from
      the amine to N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester coupling reaction to the copper
      catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition and found the highest degree of DNA
      labelling with the strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. We also
      examined the effect of labelling on the DNA structure using atomic force
      microscopy. We observe no distortions or damage to the DNA that was labeled using
      the amine to N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester and strain-promoted azide-alkyne
      cycloaddition coupling reactions. This was in contrast to the copper-catalyzed
      azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction, which, despite the use of copper
      coordinating ligands in the labelling mixture, leads to some structural DNA
      damage (single-stranded DNA breaks).

PMID- 28580114
TI  - Catalyst displacement assay: a supramolecular approach for the design of smart
      latent catalysts for pollutant monitoring and removal.
AB  - Latent catalysts can be tuned to function smartly by assigning a sensing
      threshold using the displacement approach for targeted analytes. Three cyano
      bridged bimetallic complexes were synthesized as "smart" latent catalysts through
      the supramolecular assembly of different metallic donors [FeII(CN)6]4-,
      [FeII(tBubpy)(CN)4]2-, and FeII(tBubpy)2(CN)2 with a metallic acceptor
      [CuII(dien)]2+. The investigation of both their thermodynamic and kinetic
      properties on binding with toxic pollutants provided insight into their smart off
      on catalytic capabilities, enabling us to establish a threshold-controlled
      catalytic system for the degradation of pollutants such as cyanide and oxalate.
      With these smart latent catalysts, a new catalyst displacement assay (CDA) was
      demonstrated and applied in a real wastewater treatment process to degrade
      cyanide pollutants in both domestic (level I, untreated) and industrial
      wastewater samples collected in Hong Kong, China. The smart system was adjusted
      to be able to initiate the catalytic oxidation of cyanide at a threshold
      concentration of 20 MUM (the World Health Organization's suggested maximum
      allowable level for cyanide in wastewater) to the less harmful cyanate under
      ambient conditions.

PMID- 28580115
TI  - Photoinduced electron transfer from rylenediimide radical anions and dianions to
      Re(bpy)(CO)3 using red and near-infrared light.
AB  - A major goal of artificial photosynthesis research is photosensitizing highly
      reducing metal centers using as much as possible of the solar spectrum reaching
      Earth's surface. The radical anions and dianions of rylenediimide (RDI) dyes,
      which absorb at wavelengths as long as 950 nm, are powerful photoreductants with
      excited state oxidation potentials that rival or exceed those of organometallic
      chromophores. These dyes have been previously incorporated into all-organic donor
      acceptor systems, but have not yet been shown to reduce organometallic centers.
      This study describes a set of dyads in which perylenediimide (PDI) or
      naphthalenediimide (NDI) chromophores are attached to Re(bpy)(CO)3 through either
      the bipyridine ligand or more directly to the Re center via a pyridine ligand.
      The chromophores are reduced with a mild reducing agent, after which excitation
      with long-wavelength red or near-infrared light leads to reduction of the Re
      complex. The kinetics of electron transfer from the photoexcited anions to the Re
      complex are monitored using transient visible/near-IR and mid-IR spectroscopy,
      complemented by theoretical spectroscopic assignments. The photo-driven charge
      shift from the reduced PDI or NDI to the complex occurs in picoseconds regardless
      of whether PDI or NDI is attached to the bipyridine or to the Re center, but back
      electron transfer is found to be three orders of magnitude slower with the
      chromophore attached to the Re center. These results will inform the design of
      future catalytic systems that incorporate RDI anions as chromophores.

PMID- 28580116
TI  - Shape-transformable liquid metal nanoparticles in aqueous solution.
AB  - Stable suspensions of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) liquid metal nanoparticles
      form by probe-sonicating the metal in an aqueous solution. Positively-charged
      molecular or macromolecular surfactants in the solution, such as cetrimonium
      bromide or lysozyme, respectively, stabilize the suspension by interacting with
      the negative charges of the surface oxide that forms on the metal. The liquid
      metal breaks up into nanospheres via sonication, yet can transform into rods of
      gallium oxide monohydroxide (GaOOH) via moderate heating in solution either
      during or after sonication. Whereas heating typically drives phase transitions
      from solid to liquid (via melting), here heating drives the transformation of
      particles from liquid to solid via oxidation. Interestingly, indium nanoparticles
      form during the process of shape transformation due to the selective removal of
      gallium. This dealloying provides a mechanism to create indium nanoparticles at
      temperatures well below the melting point of indium. To demonstrate the
      versatility, we show that it is possible to shape transform and dealloy other
      alloys of gallium including ternary liquid metal alloys. Scanning transmission
      electron microscopy (STEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping,
      and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirm the dealloying and transformation mechanism.

PMID- 28580118
TI  - Total chemical synthesis of SUMO-2-Lys63-linked diubiquitin hybrid chains
      assisted by removable solubilizing tags.
AB  - Small ubiquitin like modifier (SUMO) proteins are known to regulate many
      important cellular processes such as transcription and apoptosis. Recently,
      hybrid SUMO-ubiquitin chains containing SUMO-2 linked to Lys63-di-ubiquitin were
      found to play a major role in DNA repair. Despite some progress in understanding
      the role of these hybrid chains in DNA repair, there are various fundamental
      questions remaining to be answered. To further investigate the importance of
      hybrid SUMO-ubiquitin chains in DNA repair, the homogenous material of these
      chains, and their unique analogues, are needed in workable quantities. By
      applying advanced chemical strategies for protein synthesis, we report the first
      total chemical synthesis of four different SUMO-2-Lys63-linked di-ubiquitin
      hybrid chains, in which the di-ubiquitin is linked to different lysines in SUMO.
      In these syntheses, the usefulness of removable solubilizing tags is
      demonstrated, and two different approaches were examined in terms of reliability
      and efficiency. In the first approach, a poly-Arg tag was attached to the C
      terminus of SUMO via a 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid cleavable linker, whereas in the
      second we attached the tag via a phenylacetamidomethyl linker, which can be
      cleaved by PdCl2. The comparison between these different strategies offers
      guidelines for future scale-up preparation of these analogues and other proteins,
      which currently use synthetic peptide intermediates that are difficult to handle
      and purify. The availability of the SUMO-ubiquitin hybrid chains opens up new
      opportunities for studying the role of these chains in DNA repair and other
      cellular processes.

PMID- 28580117
TI  - Two-photon fluorescent probe for revealing drug-induced hepatotoxicity via
      mapping fluctuation of peroxynitrite.
AB  - Drug-induced injury has attracted increasing attention in public health issues.
      Among them, hepatotoxicity has been regarded as the leading clinical problem
      caused by drug toxicity. However, owing to the complexity of the involved
      pathophysiological mechanisms and the lack of noninvasive, straightforward, and
      real-time tools, drug-induced hepatotoxicity has rarely been predicted
      satisfactorily. In this paper, by utilizing the reactive species peroxynitrite
      (ONOO-) as a biomarker, we present a two-photon fluorescent probe, TP-KA, holding
      rapid response, high specificity and sensitivity towards ONOO-, to investigate
      drug (acetaminophen and tolcapone)-related liver injury and the remediate effect
      of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). With the support of TP-KA, we obtained direct and
      visual evidence of the upregulation of ONOO- during drug challenge both in live
      cells and mice, which was accompanied by liver tissue injury and tyrosine
      nitration. These findings demonstrate that ONOO- is a good and appropriate
      biomarker of hepatotoxicity, and nitrosative stress may be necessary for
      acetaminophen and tolcapone to exert their toxicity. Moreover, TP-KA can be
      employed as a powerful tool to pre-detect drug-induced organism injury and study
      the effect of antidotes.

PMID- 28580119
TI  - Pentavalent lanthanide nitride-oxides: NPrO and NPrO- complexes with N=Pr triple
      bonds.
AB  - The neutral molecule NPrO and its anion NPrO- are produced via co-condensation of
      laser-ablated praseodymium atoms with nitric oxide in a solid neon matrix.
      Combined infrared spectroscopy and state-of-the-art quantum chemical calculations
      confirm that both species are pentavalent praseodymium nitride-oxides with linear
      structures that contain Pr=N triple bonds and Pr=O double bonds. Electronic
      structure studies show that the neutral NPrO molecule features a 4f0 electron
      configuration and a Pr(v) oxidation state similar to that of the isoelectronic
      PrO2+ ion, while its NPrO- anion possesses a 4f1 electron configuration and a
      Pr(iv) oxidation state. The neutral NPrO molecule is thus a rare lanthanide
      nitride-oxide species with a Pr(v) oxidation state, which follows the recent
      identification of the first Pr(v) oxidation state in the PrO2+ and PrO4 complexes
      (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 6896). This finding indicates that lanthanide
      compounds with oxidation states of higher than +IV are richer in chemistry than
      previously recognized.

PMID- 28580120
TI  - Chemical synthesis of a homoserine-mutant of the antibacterial, head-to-tail
      cyclized protein AS-48 by alpha-ketoacid-hydroxylamine (KAHA) ligation.
AB  - An antibacterial cyclic AS-48 protein was chemically synthesized by alpha
      ketoacid-hydroxylamine (KAHA) ligation. Initial challenges associated with the
      exceptionally hydrophobic segments arising from the amphiphilic nature of the
      protein were resolved by the development of bespoke reaction conditions for
      hydrophobic segments, using hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) as a co-solvent. The
      synthetic protein displays similar biological activity and properties to those of
      the native protein. To support the current understanding of its antibacterial
      mode of action, we demonstrate the ability of AS-48 to be incorporated into
      synthetic multilamellar vesicles (MLVs).

PMID- 28580121
TI  - A 2-aza-Cope reactivity-based platform for ratiometric fluorescence imaging of
      formaldehyde in living cells.
AB  - Formaldehyde (FA) is a major reactive carbonyl species (RCS) that is naturally
      produced in living systems through a diverse array of cellular pathways that span
      from epigenetic regulation to the metabolic processing of endogenous metabolites.
      At the same time, however, aberrant elevations in FA levels contribute to
      pathologies ranging from cancer and diabetes to heart, liver, and
      neurodegenerative diseases. Disentangling the complex interplay between FA
      physiology and pathology motivates the development of chemical tools that can
      enable the selective detection of this RCS in biological environments with
      spatial and temporal fidelity. We report the design, synthesis, and biological
      evaluation of ratiometric formaldehyde probe (RFAP) indicators for the excitation
      ratiometric fluorescence imaging of formaldehyde production in living systems.
      RFAP-1 and RFAP-2 utilize FA-dependent aza-Cope reactivity to convert an
      alkylamine-functionalized coumarin platform into its aldehyde congener with a ca.
      50 nm shift in the excitation wavelength. The probes exhibit visible excitation
      and emission profiles, and high selectivity for FA over a variety of RCS and
      related reactive biological analytes, including acetaldehyde, with up to a 6-fold
      change in the fluorescence ratio. The RFAP indicators can be used to monitor
      changes in FA levels in biological samples by live-cell imaging and/or flow
      cytometry. Moreover, RFAP-2 is capable of visualizing differences in the resting
      FA levels between wild-type cells and models with a gene knockout of ADH5, a
      major FA-metabolizing enzyme, establishing the utility of this ratiometric
      detection platform for identifying and probing sources of FA fluxes in biology.

PMID- 28580122
TI  - Insights into the excitonic processes in polymeric photocatalysts.
AB  - Understanding the photoexcitation processes in semiconductors is critical for the
      design of advanced photocatalytic materials. Nevertheless, traditional viewpoints
      focus on photogenerated free charge carriers, which are somehow invalid once the
      many-body effects are taken into account, especially for polymeric
      photocatalysts. Here we systematically investigate the photoexcitation processes
      involved in the polymer matrix of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by combining
      photoluminescence spectroscopy and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy,
      validating the strong excitonic effects in the well-known photocatalyst for the
      first time. The identification of the robust triplet-triplet annihilation
      process, in which two triplet excitons collide to produce a singlet exciton,
      highlights an important nonradiative depopulation pathway of excited species and
      thereby offers potential strategies to regulate the photocatalytic activities of
      polymeric g-C3N4. The work establishes a new understanding of the photocatalytic
      mechanism in the polymeric g-C3N4 matrix, and thus paves the way for designing
      effective polymeric photocatalysts through excitonic engineering.

PMID- 28580123
TI  - Temporal control of i-motif switch lifetimes for autonomous operation of
      transient DNA nanostructures.
AB  - Functional DNA nanotechnology creates increasingly complex behaviors useful for
      sensing, actuation or computation, as enabled via the integration of dynamic and
      responsive structural DNA motifs. However, temporally controlled and dynamic DNA
      structures with programmable lifetimes, that are able to operate autonomously and
      self-revert to the starting state are challenging to achieve due to tedious and
      very system-specific sequence design. Here, we present a straightforward concept
      to program transient lifetimes into DNA duplexes based on the pH-sensitive DNA i
      motif switch. We integrate the i-motif switch with an internal, non-linear pH
      resetting function using a rationally designed chemical reaction framework, by
      which the switch autonomously undergoes a complete "off-on-off"-cycle without the
      use of additional external triggers. The lifetime of the activated "on"-state
      (i.e. the hybridized state) can be systematically programmed over several hours.
      The system can be readily implemented into hybrid DNA structures on larger length
      scales. Focusing on autonomous materials, we demonstrate temporal control of
      transient fluorescence signals and temporary aggregation of gold nanoparticles.

PMID- 28580128
TI  - Imagining tomorrow's university: open science and its impact.
AB  - As part of a recent workshop entitled "Imagining Tomorrow's University", we were
      asked to visualize the future of universities as research becomes increasingly
      data- and computation-driven, and identify a set of principles characterizing
      pertinent opportunities and obstacles presented by this shift. In order to
      establish a holistic view, we take a multilevel approach and examine the impact
      of open science on individual scholars as well as on the university as a whole.
      At the university level, open science presents a double-edged sword: when well
      executed, open science can accelerate the rate of scientific inquiry across the
      institution and beyond; however, haphazard or half-hearted efforts are likely to
      squander valuable resources, diminish university productivity and prestige, and
      potentially do more harm than good. We present our perspective on the role of
      open science at the university.

PMID- 28580127
TI  - Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience.
AB  - Background: Opportunities to use data and information to address challenges in
      international agricultural research and development are expanding rapidly. The
      use of agricultural trial and evaluation data has enormous potential to improve
      crops and management practices. However, for a number of reasons, this potential
      has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the experience of the AgTrials
      initiative, an effort to build an online database of agricultural trials applying
      principles of interoperability and open access. Methods: Our analysis evaluates
      what worked and what did not work in the development of the AgTrials information
      resource. We analyzed data on our users and their interaction with the platform.
      We also surveyed our users to gauge their perceptions of the utility of the
      online database. Results: The study revealed barriers to participation and
      impediments to interaction, opportunities for improving agricultural knowledge
      management and a large potential for the use of trial and evaluation data. 
      Conclusions: Technical and logistical mechanisms for developing interoperable
      online databases are well advanced.  More effort will be needed to advance
      organizational and institutional work for these types of databases to realize
      their potential.

PMID- 28408973
TI  - A multi-scale computational model of the effects of TMS on motor cortex.
AB  - The detailed biophysical mechanisms through which transcranial magnetic
      stimulation (TMS) activates cortical circuits are still not fully understood.
      Here we present a multi-scale computational model to describe and explain the
      activation of different pyramidal cell types in motor cortex due to TMS. Our
      model determines precise electric fields based on an individual head model
      derived from magnetic resonance imaging and calculates how these electric fields
      activate morphologically detailed models of different neuron types. We predict
      neural activation patterns for different coil orientations consistent with
      experimental findings. Beyond this, our model allows us to calculate activation
      thresholds for individual neurons and precise initiation sites of individual
      action potentials on the neurons' complex morphologies. Specifically, our model
      predicts that cortical layer 3 pyramidal neurons are generally easier to
      stimulate than layer 5 pyramidal neurons, thereby explaining the lower
      stimulation thresholds observed for I-waves compared to D-waves. It also shows
      differences in the regions of activated cortical layer 5 and layer 3 pyramidal
      cells depending on coil orientation. Finally, it predicts that under standard
      stimulation conditions, action potentials are mostly generated at the axon
      initial segment of cortical pyramidal cells, with a much less important
      activation site being the part of a layer 5 pyramidal cell axon where it crosses
      the boundary between grey matter and white matter. In conclusion, our
      computational model offers a detailed account of the mechanisms through which TMS
      activates different cortical pyramidal cell types, paving the way for more
      targeted application of TMS based on individual brain morphology in clinical and
      basic research settings.

PMID- 28580126
TI  - Early embryo mortality in natural human reproduction: What the data say.
AB  - It is generally accepted that natural human embryo mortality during pregnancy is
      high - losses of 70% and higher from fertilisation to birth are frequently
      claimed. The first external sign of pregnancy occurs two weeks after
      fertilisation with a missed menstrual period. Establishing the fate of embryos
      before this is challenging, and hampered by a lack of data on the efficiency of
      fertilisation under natural conditions. Four distinct sources are cited to
      justify quantitative claims regarding embryo loss: (i) a hypothesis published by
      Roberts & Lowe in TheLancet  is widely cited but has no quantitative value; (ii)
      life table analyses give consistent assessments of clinical pregnancy loss, but
      cannot illuminate losses at earlier stages of development; (iii) studies that
      measure human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) reveal losses in the second week of
      development and beyond, but not before; and (iv) the classic studies of Hertig
      and Rock offer the only direct insight into the fate of human embryos from
      fertilisation under natural conditions. Re-examination of Hertig's data
      demonstrates that his estimates for fertilisation rate and early embryo loss are
      highly imprecise and casts doubt on the validity of his numerical analysis. A
      recent re-analysis of hCG study data suggests that approximately 40-60% of
      embryos may be lost between fertilisation and birth, although this will vary
      substantially between individual women. In conclusion, it is clear that some
      published estimates of natural embryo mortality are exaggerated. Although
      available data do not provide a precise estimate, natural human embryo mortality
      is lower than is often claimed.

PMID- 28580129
TI  - Case Report: Orbital metastasis as the presenting feature of lung cancer.
AB  - Orbital metastasis from lung cancer as an initial presenting symptom is a rare
      entity, which may paradoxically delay the diagnosis and initiation of correct
      management, due to the confusion of it being primary orbital pathology. Herein we
      report a case of a 58 year old woman, who presented with painful orbital swelling
      along with diminution in her vision. The patient was initially thought to have a
      primary eye lesion; however chest X-ray was suggestive of a lung mass, which was
      confirmed by chest computed topography followed by ultrasound guided fine needle
      aspiration cytology. The patient was then referred to a cancer centre for further
      management. This case report aims to increase the knowledge about this metastasis
      as a probable cause of orbital symptoms in certain subsets of patients, so that
      correct therapeutic decisions may be made in the future.

PMID- 28580124
TI  - Sex-dependent effects of maternal corticosterone and SSRI treatment on
      hippocampal neurogenesis across development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression affects approximately 15% of mothers and
      represents a form of early life adversity for developing offspring. Postpartum
      depression can be treated with prescription antidepressants like fluoxetine
      (FLX). However, FLX can remain active in breast milk, raising concerns about the
      consequences of neonatal FLX exposure. The hippocampus is highly sensitive to
      developmental stress, and males and females respond differently to stress at many
      endpoints, including hippocampal plasticity. However, it is unclear how
      developmental exposure to FLX alters the trajectory of hippocampal development.
      The goal of this study was to examine the long-term effects of maternal
      postpartum corticosterone (CORT, a model of postpartum depression) and concurrent
      FLX on hippocampal neurogenesis in male and female offspring. METHODS: Female
      Sprague-Dawley rat dams were treated daily with either CORT or oil and FLX or
      saline from postpartum days 2-23. Offspring were perfused on postnatal day 31
      (pre-adolescent), postnatal day 42 (adolescent), and postnatal day 69 (adult).
      Tissue was processed for doublecortin (DCX), an endogenous marker of immature
      neurons, in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. RESULTS: Maternal postpartum CORT
      reduced density of DCX-expressing cells in the dorsal hippocampus of pre
      adolescent males and increased it in adolescent males, suggesting that postpartum
      CORT exposure disrupted the typical progression of the density of DCX-expressing
      cells. Further, among offspring of oil-treated dams, pre-adolescent males had
      greater density of DCX-expressing cells than pre-adolescent females, and maternal
      postpartum CORT prevented this sex difference. In pre-adolescent females,
      maternal postpartum FLX decreased the density of DCX-expressing cells in the
      dorsal hippocampus compared to saline. As expected, maternal CORT reduced the
      density of DCX-expressing cells in adult female, but not male, offspring. The
      combination of maternal postpartum CORT/FLX diminished density of DCX-expressing
      cells in dorsal hippocampus regardless of sex or age. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      reveal how modeling treatment of postpartum depression with FLX alters
      hippocampal neurogenesis in developing offspring differently depending on sex,
      predominantly in the dorsal dentate gyrus and earlier in life.

PMID- 28580130
TI  - Cell signaling promoting protein carbonylation does not cause sulfhydryl
      oxidation: Implications to the mechanism of redox signaling.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been recognized as second messengers, however,
      targeting mechanisms for ROS in cell signaling have not been defined. While ROS
      oxidizing protein cysteine thiols has been the most popular proposed mechanism,
      our laboratory proposed that ligand/receptor-mediated cell signaling involves
      protein carbonylation. Peroxiredoxin-6 (Prx6) is one protein that is carbonylated
      at 10 min after the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) stimulation of human
      pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. In the present study, the SulfoBiotics
      Protein Redox State Monitoring Kit Plus (Dojindo Molecular Technologies) was used
      to test if cysteine residues of Prx6 are oxidized in response to the PDGF
      stimulation. Human Prx6 has a molecular weight of 25 kDa and contains two
      cysteine residues. The Dojindo system adds the 15 kDa Protein-SHifter if these
      cysteine residues are reduced in the cells. Results showed that, in untreated
      cells, the Prx6 molecule predominantly exhibited the 55 kDa band, indicating that
      both cysteine residues are reduced in the cells. Treatment of cells with 1 mM H
      2O 2 caused the disappearance of the 55 kDa band and the appearance of a 40 kDa
      band, suggesting that the high concentration of H 2O 2 oxidized one of the two
      cysteine residues in the Prx6 molecule. By contrast, PDGF stimulation had no
      effects on the thiol status of the Prx6 molecule. We concluded that protein
      carbonylation is a more sensitive target of ROS during ligand/receptor-mediated
      cell signaling than sulfhydryl oxidation.

PMID- 28580132
TI  - Case Report: Making a diagnosis of familial renal disease - clinical and patient
      perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A precise molecular genetic diagnosis has become the gold standard
      for the correct identification and management of many inherited renal diseases.
      METHODS: Here we describe a family with familial focal segmental
      glomerulosclerosis, and include a clinical and patient perspective on the
      diagnostic workup and relaying of genetic results following whole exome
      sequencing. RESULTS: Through next generation sequencing approaches, we identified
      a pathogenic mutation in TRPC6, the underlying cause of the phenotype. The
      identification of this mutation had important clinical consequences for the
      family, including allowing a living-unrelated kidney transplant to proceed in the
      index case. There are also wider ranging social and ethical dilemmas presented
      when reaching a genetic diagnosis like this one, which are explored here by both
      physicians and the index case. CONCLUSIONS: Through physician and patient
      perspectives in a family with inherited renal failure we explore the implications
      and the magnitude of a molecular genetic diagnosis.

PMID- 28580131
TI  - Recent insights into the implications of metabolism in plasmacytoid dendritic
      cell innate functions: Potential ways to control these functions.
AB  - There are more and more data concerning the role of cellular metabolism in innate
      immune cells, such as macrophages or conventional dendritic cells. However, few
      data are available currently concerning plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC),
      another type of innate immune cells. These cells are the main type I interferon
      (IFN) producing cells, but they also secrete other pro-inflammatory cytokines
      (e.g., tumor necrosis factor or interleukin [IL]-6) or immunomodulatory factors
      (e.g., IL-10 or transforming growth factor-beta). Through these functions, PDC
      participate in antimicrobial responses or maintenance of immune tolerance, and
      have been implicated in the pathophysiology of several autoimmune diseases.
      Recent data support the idea that the glycolytic pathway (or glycolysis), as well
      as lipid metabolism (including both cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism) may
      impact some innate immune functions of PDC or may be involved in these functions
      after Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7/9 triggering. Some differences may be related to
      the origin of PDC (human versus mouse PDC or blood-sorted versus FLT3 ligand
      stimulated-bone marrow-sorted PDC). The kinetics of glycolysis may differ between
      human and murine PDC. In mouse PDC, metabolism changes promoted by TLR7/9
      activation may depend on an autocrine/paracrine loop, implicating type I IFN and
      its receptor IFNAR, explaining a delayed glycolysis. Moreover, PDC functions can
      be modulated by the metabolism of cholesterol and fatty acids. This may occur via
      the production of lipid ligands that activate nuclear receptors (e.g., liver X
      receptor [LXR]) in PDC or through limiting intracellular cholesterol pool size
      (by statins or LXR agonists) in these cells. Finally, lipid-activated nuclear
      receptors ( i.e., LXR or peroxisome proliferator activated receptor) may also
      directly interact with pro-inflammatory transcription factors, such as NF-kappaB.
      Here, we discuss how glycolysis and lipid metabolism may modulate PDC functions
      and how this may be harnessed in pathological situations where PDC play a
      detrimental role.

PMID- 28580134
TI  - What is open peer review? A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  "Open peer review" (OPR), despite being a major pillar of Open
      Science, has neither a standardized definition nor an agreed schema of its
      features and implementations. The literature reflects this, with a myriad of
      overlapping and often contradictory definitions. While the term is used by some
      to refer to peer review where the identities of both author and reviewer are
      disclosed to each other, for others it signifies systems where reviewer reports
      are published alongside articles. For others it signifies both of these
      conditions, and for yet others it describes systems where not only "invited
      experts" are able to comment. For still others, it includes a variety of
      combinations of these and other novel methods. METHODS:  Recognising the absence
      of a consensus view on what open peer review is, this article undertakes a
      systematic review of definitions of "open peer review" or "open review", to
      create a corpus of 122 definitions. These definitions are then systematically
      analysed to build a coherent typology of the many different innovations in peer
      review signified by the term, and hence provide the precise technical definition
      currently lacking. RESULTS:  This quantifiable data yields rich information on
      the range and extent of differing definitions over time and by broad subject
      area. Quantifying definitions in this way allows us to accurately portray exactly
      how  ambiguously the phrase "open peer review"  has been used thus far, for the
      literature offers a total of 22 distinct configurations of seven traits,
      effectively meaning that there are 22 different definitions of OPR in the
      literature. CONCLUSIONS:  Based on this work, I propose a pragmatic definition of
      open peer review as an umbrella term for a number of overlapping ways that peer
      review models can be adapted in line with the ethos of Open Science, including
      making reviewer and author identities open, publishing review reports and
      enabling greater participation in the peer review process.

PMID- 28580133
TI  - The elephant shark methylome reveals conservation of epigenetic regulation across
      jawed vertebrates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methylation of CG dinucleotides constitutes a critical system of
      epigenetic memory in bony vertebrates, where it modulates gene expression and
      suppresses transposon activity. The genomes of studied vertebrates are
      pervasively hypermethylated, with the exception of regulatory elements such as
      transcription start sites (TSSs), where the presence of methylation is associated
      with gene silencing. This system is not found in the sparsely methylated genomes
      of invertebrates, and establishing how it arose during early vertebrate evolution
      is impeded by a paucity of epigenetic data from basal vertebrates. METHODS:  We
      perform whole-genome bisulfite sequencing to generate the first genome-wide
      methylation profiles of a cartilaginous fish, the elephant shark Callorhinchus
      milii. Employing these to determine the elephant shark methylome structure and
      its relationship with expression, we compare this with higher vertebrates and an
      invertebrate chordate using published methylation and transcriptome data. 
      Results: Like higher vertebrates, the majority of elephant shark CG sites are
      highly methylated, and methylation is abundant across the genome rather than
      patterned in the mosaic configuration of invertebrates. This global
      hypermethylation includes transposable elements and the bodies of genes at all
      expression levels. Significantly, we document an inverse relationship between TSS
      methylation and expression in the elephant shark, supporting the presence of the
      repressive regulatory architecture shared by higher vertebrates. CONCLUSIONS: 
      Our demonstration that methylation patterns in a cartilaginous fish are
      characteristic of higher vertebrates imply the conservation of this epigenetic
      modification system across jawed vertebrates separated by 465 million years of
      evolution. In addition, these findings position the elephant shark as a valuable
      model to explore the evolutionary history and function of vertebrate methylation.

PMID- 28579921
TI  - A search for new phenomena in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] in final
      states with missing transverse momentum and at least one jet using the [Formula:
      see text] variable.
AB  - A search for new phenomena is performed in final states containing one or more
      jets and an imbalance in transverse momentum in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass
      energy of 13[Formula: see text]. The analysed data sample, recorded with the CMS
      detector at the CERN LHC, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.3[Formula:
      see text]. Several kinematic variables are employed to suppress the dominant
      background, multijet production, as well as to discriminate between other
      standard model and new physics processes. The search provides sensitivity to a
      broad range of new-physics models that yield a stable weakly interacting massive
      particle. The number of observed candidate events is found to agree with the
      expected contributions from standard model processes, and the result is
      interpreted in the mass parameter space of fourteen simplified supersymmetric
      models that assume the pair production of gluinos or squarks and a range of decay
      modes. For models that assume gluino pair production, masses up to 1575 and
      975[Formula: see text] are excluded for gluinos and neutralinos, respectively.
      For models involving the pair production of top squarks and compressed mass
      spectra, top squark masses up to 400[Formula: see text] are excluded.

PMID- 28580136
TI  - Acute mechanical circulatory support for cardiogenic shock: the "door to support"
      time.
AB  - Cardiogenic shock (CS) remains a major cause of in-hospital mortality in the
      setting of acute myocardial infarction. CS begins as a hemodynamic problem with
      impaired cardiac output leading to reduced systemic perfusion, increased residual
      volume within the left and right ventricles, and increased cardiac filling
      pressures. A critical step towards the development of future algorithms is a
      clear understanding of the treatment objectives for CS. In this review, we
      introduce the "door to support" time as an emerging target of therapy to improve
      outcomes associated with CS, define four key treatment objectives in the
      management of CS, discuss the importance of early hemodynamic assessment and
      appropriate selection of acute mechanical circulatory support (AMCS) devices for
      CS, and introduce a classification scheme that identifies subtypes of CS based on
      cardiac filling pressures.

PMID- 28580135
TI  - SNP-SNP interactions as risk factors for aggressive prostate cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most significant male health concerns
      worldwide. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are becoming increasingly
      strong candidate biomarkers for identifying susceptibility to PCa. We identified
      a number of SNPs reported in genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) as risk
      factors for aggressive PCa in various European populations, and then defined SNP
      SNP interactions, using PLINK software, with nucleic acid samples from a New
      Zealand cohort. We used this approach to find a gene x environment marker for
      aggressive PCa, as although statistically gene x environment interactions can be
      adjusted for, it is highly impossible in practicality, and thus must be
      incorporated in the search for a reliable biomarker for PCa. We found two
      intronic SNPs statistically significantly interacting with each other as a risk
      for aggressive prostate cancer on being compared to healthy controls in a New
      Zealand population.

PMID- 28580137
TI  - Unusual Blue-Shifted Acid-Responsive Photoluminescence Behavior in 6-Amino-8
      cyanobenzo[1,2-b]indolizines.
AB  - 6-Amino-8-cyanobenzo[1, 2-b]indolizines, a new class of photoluminescent
      materials, exhibit reversible pH-dependent optical properties characterized by an
      uncommon and dramatic blue shift in fluorescence emission when protonated. Acid
      titration and NMR spectroscopy experiments reveal that, rather than the
      anticipated N-protonation, C-protonation and loss of aromaticity is responsible
      for the observed photophysical changes. Efficient synthesis from indole-2
      carboxaldehydes makes variously substituted versions of this nucleus readily
      available to tune optical and pH effects.

PMID- 28580138
TI  - Plasma membrane association facilitates conformational changes in the Marburg
      virus protein VP40 dimer.
AB  - Filovirus infections cause hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates
      that often results in high fatality rates. The Marburg virus is a lipid-enveloped
      virus from the Filoviridae family and is closely related to the Ebola virus. The
      viral matrix layer underneath the lipid envelope is formed by the matrix protein
      VP40 (VP40), which is also involved in other functions during the viral life
      cycle. As in the Ebola virus VP40 (eVP40), the recently determined X-ray crystal
      structure of the Marburg virus VP40 (mVP40) features loops containing cationic
      residues that form a lipid binding basic patch. However, the mVP40 basic patch is
      significantly flatter with a more extended surface than in eVP40, suggesting the
      possibility of differences in the plasma membrane interactions and phospholipid
      specificity between the VP40 dimers. In this paper, we report on molecular
      dynamics simulations that investigate the roles of various residues and lipid
      types in PM association as well as the conformational changes of the mVP40 dimer
      facilitated by membrane association. We compared the structural changes of the
      mVP40 dimer with the mVP40 dimer in both lipid free and membrane associated
      conditions. Despite the significant structural differences in the crystal
      structure, the Marburg VP40 dimer is found to adopt a configuration very similar
      to the Ebola VP40 dimer after associating with the membrane. This conformational
      rearrangement upon lipid binding allows Marburg VP40 to localize and stabilize at
      the membrane surface in a manner similar to the Ebola VP40 dimer. Consideration
      of the structural information in its lipid-interacting condition may be important
      in targeting mVP40 for novel drugs to inhibit viral budding from the plasma
      membrane.

PMID- 28580140
TI  - Analysis of the lifetime and culling reasons for AI boars.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to analyze the lifetime and culling reasons
      for boars used in insemination centers (AI centers). METHODS: The data collected
      from 355 culled boars from 1998 to 2013 included: age at start of semen
      collection, boar herd life, culling reason, daily gain and lean meat content, and
      number of ejaculates not meeting sales requirements after dilution. Culling
      reasons were divided into 7 groups: low semen value (LSV), low or lack of libido
      (LL), leg problems (LP), infectious diseases (ID), old age (OA), reduced demand
      for semen from the given boar (RD), and others (OT). RESULTS: The most common
      culling reasons for boars were LSV (23.7%) and RD (22.5%). It was observed that
      the lowest daily gains were noted in boars culled due to OA. Boars culled due to
      OA and RD were maintained in production for the longest time (over 1000 d), for
      LSV and ID retention was about 700 d, and due to LL below 400 d. The survival
      probability was over 0.9 until 1.5 yr, and just over 0.2 until 4 yr. The highest
      relative frequency was observed in the 36th and 42nd mo of life (over 16%).
      Hazard risk analysis revealed a more than 10 times higher risk of culling in the
      case of LL, ID or OT, in comparison to OA. CONCLUSIONS: The results can be used
      as a direct point of reference for the identification of emerging problems in AI
      boar exploitation and the development of an appropriate culling policy in AI
      centers.

PMID- 28580141
TI  - Factor analysis of the adolescent version of the Eating Disorders Examination
      Questionnaire (EDE-Q): results from Swedish general population and clinical
      samples.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) is
      perhaps the single most widely used self-report measure of eating disorder (ED)
      symptoms, important questions remain about its validity and applicability in
      relation to particular groups of individuals, especially adolescents of both
      genders. METHODS: The present study investigated the factor structure of the
      adolescent version of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) in
      samples of Swedish girls and boys from the general population and girls with a
      diagnosed eating disorder. Girls (N = 239) and boys (N = 248) aged between 13 and
      15 years who were attending school, and girls (N = 570) aged between 12 and 14
      years who were in treatment for an eating disorder at a specialist eating
      disorder clinic were assessed on the adolescent version of the EDE-Q. RESULTS:
      The adolescent version of the EDE-Q demonstrated satisfactory levels of internal
      consistency. However, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) failed to support the
      four-factor model of the EDE-Q. Parallel analysis (PA) and subsequent exploratory
      factor analysis (EFA) suggested that the adolescent version of the EDE-Q
      comprises one underlying factor in young adolescent girls (both clinical and
      general population), centred on Dissatisfaction with Shape and Weight. In boys
      three factors were found: Weight-related Concerns, Body Discomfort and Restraint.
      CONCLUSIONS: The EDE-Q appears to measure different underlying aspects of eating
      disorder psychopathology in young teenagers compared to adults. The dimensions
      underlying disordered eating in young girls may become increasingly
      differentiated with time. There appear to be important gender-based differences
      in the dimensions underlying the EDE-Q in young teenagers. Therapists should be
      alert to beliefs that girls have about the importance of shape and weight, while
      in boys it may be more important to be attentive to how they feel about their
      bodies in relation to weight.

PMID- 28580144
TI  - Oxygen-induced doping on reduced PEDOT.
AB  - The conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) has shown promise
      as air electrode in renewable energy technologies like metal-air batteries and
      fuel cells. PEDOT is based on atomic elements of high abundance and is
      synthesized at low temperature from solution. The mechanism of oxygen reduction
      reaction (ORR) over chemically polymerized PEDOT:Cl still remains controversial
      with eventual role of transition metal impurities. However, regardless of the
      mechanistic route, we here demonstrate yet another key active role of PEDOT in
      the ORR mechanism. Our study demonstrates the decoupling of conductivity
      (intrinsic property) from electrocatalysis (as an extrinsic phenomenon) yielding
      the evidence of doping of the polymer by oxygen during ORR. Hence, the PEDOT
      electrode is electrochemically reduced (undoped) in the voltage range of ORR
      regime, but O2 keeps it conducting; ensuring PEDOT to act as an electrode for the
      ORR. The interaction of oxygen with the polymer electrode is investigated with a
      battery of spectroscopic techniques.

PMID- 28580142
TI  - Enhanced pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties of PZT with aligned porosity
      for energy harvesting applications.
AB  - This paper demonstrates the significant benefits of exploiting highly aligned
      porosity in piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials for improved energy
      harvesting performance. Porous lead zirconate (PZT) ceramics with aligned pore
      channels and varying fractions of porosity were manufactured in a water-based
      suspension using freeze-casting. The aligned porous PZT ceramics were
      characterized in detail for both piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties and
      their energy harvesting performance figures of merit were assessed parallel and
      perpendicular to the freezing direction. As a result of the introduction of
      porosity into the ceramic microstructure, high piezoelectric and pyroelectric
      harvesting figures of merits were achieved for porous freeze-cast PZT compared to
      dense PZT due to the reduced permittivity and volume specific heat capacity.
      Experimental results were compared to parallel and series analytical models with
      good agreement and the PZT with porosity aligned parallel to the freezing
      direction exhibited the highest piezoelectric and pyroelectric harvesting
      response; this was a result of the enhanced interconnectivity of the
      ferroelectric material along the poling direction and reduced fraction of unpoled
      material that leads to a higher polarization. A complete thermal energy
      harvesting system, composed of a parallel-aligned PZT harvester element and an
      AC/DC converter, was successfully demonstrated by charging a storage capacitor.
      The maximum energy density generated by the 60 vol% porous parallel-connected PZT
      when subjected to thermal oscillations was 1653 MUJ cm-3, which was 374% higher
      than that of the dense PZT with an energy density of 446 MUJ cm-3. The results
      are beneficial for the design and manufacture of high performance porous
      pyroelectric and piezoelectric materials in devices for energy harvesting and
      sensor applications.

PMID- 28580139
TI  - Factors predicting the instant effect of motor function after subthalamic nucleus
      deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is an effective
      treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD), the predictive effect of levodopa
      responsiveness on surgical outcomes was confirmed by some studies, however there
      were different conclusions about that through long- and short-term follow-ups. We
      aimed to investigate the factors which influence the predictive value of levodopa
      responsiveness, and discover more predictive factors of surgical outcomes.
      METHODS: Twenty-three PD patients underwent bilateral STN-DBS and completed our
      follow-up. Clinical evaluations were performed 1 week before and 3 months after
      surgery. RESULTS: STN-DBS significantly improved motor function of PD patients
      after 3 months; preoperative levodopa responsiveness and disease subtype
      predicted the effect of DBS on motor function; gender, disease duration and
      duration of motor fluctuations modified the predictive effect of levodopa
      responsiveness on motor improvement; the duration of motor fluctuations and
      severity of preoperative motor symptoms modified the predictive effect of disease
      subtype on motor improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The intensity of levodopa
      responsiveness served as a predictor of motor improvement more accurately in
      female patients, patients with shorter disease duration or shorter motor
      fluctuations; PD patients with dominant axial symptoms benefit less from STN-DBS
      compared to those with limb-predominant symptoms, especially in their later
      disease stage.

PMID- 28580143
TI  - Tunable thermodynamic activity of La x Sr1-x Mn y Al1-y O3-delta (0 <= x <= 1, 0
      <= y <= 1) perovskites for solar thermochemical fuel synthesis.
AB  - Nonstoichiometric metal oxides with variable valence are attractive redox
      materials for thermochemical and electrochemical fuel processing. To guide the
      design of advanced redox materials for solar-driven splitting of CO2 and/or H2O
      to produce CO and/or H2 (syngas), we investigate the equilibrium thermodynamics
      of the La x Sr1-x Mn y Al1-y O3-delta perovskite family (0 <= x <= 1, 0 <= y <=
      1) and La0.6Ca0.4Mn0.8Al0.2O3-delta , and compare them to those of CeO2 as the
      baseline. Oxygen nonstoichiometry measurements from 1573 to 1773 K and from 0.206
      to 180 mbar O2 show a tunable reduction extent, increasing with increasing Sr
      content. Maximal nonstoichiometry of 0.32 is established with
      La0.2Sr0.8Mn0.8Al0.2O3-delta at 1773 K and 2.37 mbar O2. As a trend, we find that
      oxygen capacities are most sensitive to the A-cation composition. Partial molar
      enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy changes for oxide reduction are extracted
      from the experimental data using defect models for Mn4+/Mn3+ and Mn3+/Mn2+ redox
      couples. We find that perovskites exhibit typically decreasing enthalpy changes
      with increasing nonstoichiometries. This desirable characteristic is most
      pronounced by La0.6Sr0.4Mn0.4Al0.6O3-delta , rendering it attractive for CO2 and
      H2O splitting. Generally, perovskites show lower enthalpy and entropy changes
      than ceria, resulting in more favorable reduction but less favorable oxidation
      equilibria. The energy penalties due to larger temperature swings and excess
      oxidants are discussed in particular. Using electronic structure theory, we
      conclude with a practical methodology estimating thermodynamic activity to
      rationally design perovskites with variable stoichiometry and valence.

PMID- 28580146
TI  - Use of physiological knowledge to control the invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon
      marinus) in the Laurentian Great Lakes.
AB  - Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) control in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North
      America is an example of using physiological knowledge to successfully control an
      invasive species and rehabilitate an ecosystem and valuable fishery. The
      parasitic sea lamprey contributed to the devastating collapse of native fish
      communities after invading the Great Lakes during the 1800s and early 1900s.
      Economic tragedy ensued with the loss of the fishery and severe impacts to
      property values and tourism resulting from sea lamprey-induced ecological
      changes. To control the sea lamprey and rehabilitate the once vibrant Great Lakes
      ecosystem and economy, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (Commission) was formed
      by treaty between Canada and the United States in 1955. The Commission has
      developed a sea lamprey control programme based on their physiological
      vulnerabilities, which includes (i) the application of selective pesticides
      (lampricides), which successfully kill sedentary sea lamprey larvae in their
      natal streams; (ii) barriers to spawning migrations and associated traps to
      prevent infestations of upstream habitats and remove adult sea lamprey before
      they reproduce; and (iii) the release of sterilized males to reduce the
      reproductive potential of spawning populations in select streams. Since 1958, the
      application of the sea lamprey control programme has suppressed sea lamprey
      populations by ~90% from peak abundance. Great Lakes fish populations have
      rebounded and the economy is now thriving. In hopes of further enhancing the
      efficacy and selectivity of the sea lamprey control programme, the Commission is
      exploring the use of (i) sea lamprey chemosensory cues (pheromones and alarm
      cues) to manipulate behaviours and physiologies, and (ii) genetics to identify
      and manipulate genes associated with key physiological functions, for control
      purposes. Overall, the Commission capitalizes on the unique physiology of the sea
      lamprey and strives to develop a diverse integrated programme to successfully
      control a once devastating invasive species.

PMID- 28580147
TI  - The quantification of reproductive hormones in the hair of captive adult brown
      bears and their application as indicators of sex and reproductive state.
AB  - Recognizing the potential value of steroid hormone measurements to augment non
      invasive genetic sampling, we developed procedures based on enzyme-linked
      immunoassays to quantify reproductive steroid hormone concentrations in brown
      bear (Ursus arctos) hair. Then, using 94 hair samples collected from eight
      captive adult bears over a 2-year period, we evaluated (i) associations between
      hair concentrations of testosterone, progesterone, estradiol and cortisol; (ii)
      the effect of collecting by shaving vs. plucking; and (iii) the utility of
      reproductive hormone profiles to differentiate sex and reproductive state. Sample
      requirements (125 mg of guard hair) to assay all hormones exceeded amounts
      typically obtained by non-invasive sampling. Thus, broad application of this
      approach will require modification of non-invasive techniques to collect larger
      samples, use of mixed (guard and undercoat) hair samples and/or application of
      more sensitive laboratory procedures. Concentrations of hormones were highly
      correlated suggesting their sequestration in hair reflects underlying
      physiological processes. Marked changes in hair hormone levels during the
      quiescent phase of the hair cycle, coupled with the finding that progesterone
      concentrations, and their association with testosterone levels, differed markedly
      between plucked and shaved hair samples, suggests steroids sequestered in hair
      were likely derived from various sources, including skin. Changes in hair hormone
      concentrations over time, and in conjunction with key reproductive events, were
      similar to what has been reported concerning hormonal changes in the blood serum
      of brown bears. Thus, potential for the measurement of hair reproductive hormone
      levels to augment non-invasive genetic sampling appears compelling. Nonetheless,
      we are conducting additional validation studies on hair collected from free
      ranging bears, representative of all sex, age and reproductive classes, to fully
      evaluate the utility of this approach for brown bear conservation and research.

PMID- 28580148
TI  - Post-tuberculosis mycetoma: bronchoscopic removal.
AB  - A 76-year-old male non-smoker presented to our institution with cough and
      haemoptysis. He had been treated for cavitatory pulmonary Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis of the right upper lobe 10 years previously. Chest radiograph and
      subsequent computed tomography (CT) of the chest demonstrated a right upper
      cavity containing a mass suspicious for mycetoma. Flexible bronchoscopy under
      conscious sedation demonstrated a mass obstructing the anterior segment of the
      right upper lobe. The abnormality was subsequently removed using a flexible
      endobronchial cryoprobe. Histopathological analysis demonstrated abundant fungal
      organisms morphologically consistent with Aspergillus species. Microbiological
      culture of the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from the cavity isolated both
      Aspergillus fumigatus and Staphylococcus aureus. The patient was commenced on the
      anti-fungal drug posaconazole and received a course of flucloxacillin. Three
      months later, there was no endobronchial obstruction and lavage of the affected
      cavity again isolated Staphylococcus aureus without Aspergillus species. Repeat
      thoracic CT and flexible bronchoscopy demonstrated no further re-occurrence of
      the mycetoma at 3 months.

PMID- 28580154
TI  - Parry Romberg syndrome presenting with a giant intracranial aneurysm: a case
      report.
AB  - A giant intracranial aneurysm was diagnosed in a 10-year-old girl when she
      developed a right abducens nerve palsy. The aneurysm was treated successfully.
      Six years later, however, she presented with a progressive en coup de sabre
      deformity, leading to the diagnosis Parry Romberg Syndrome (PRS), a rare
      diagnosis characterized by hemifacial atrophy of skin, subcutaneous tissue,
      skeletal muscle and bones and often associated with various non-specific
      intracerebral abnormalities. In this patient retrospective analysis of computed
      tomography and magnetic resonance imaging imaging indeed revealed intracerebral
      calcifications and aspecific white matter lesions. Remarkably, in this patient
      the giant intracranial aneurysm turned out to be the presenting symptom of PRS
      years before the characteristic facial deformities became apparent.

PMID- 28580152
TI  - Brugada phenocopy in a patient with acute pulmonary embolism presenting with
      recurrent syncope.
AB  - Brugada phenocopy (BrP) refers to a group of clinical conditions that have
      etiologies distinct from Brugada syndrome (BrS). Although both demonstrate
      features of ST-segment elevation in the right precordial leads on the
      electrocardiogram (ECG), one must be distinguished from the other as their
      treatment options are different. We report a male patient who presented with
      recurrent syncope with a Brugada and a S1Q3T3 pattern on the ECG. Acute pulmonary
      embolism (APE) complicated by BrS was suspected. Twenty-four hours Holter
      monitoring did not demonstrate any evidence of ventricular arrhythmias. Computed
      tomography pulmonary angiogram confirmed the presence of an APE. He was treated
      with low molecular weight heparin and a repeat ECG taken the next day showed
      resolution of the Brugada and S1Q3T3 patterns. This case report illustrates that
      APE and BrS can present with similar clinical and electrocardiographic features
      of recurrent syncope and Brugada pattern, respectively.

PMID- 28580149
TI  - Suite of simple metrics reveals common movement syndromes across vertebrate taxa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because empirical studies of animal movement are most-often site- and
      species-specific, we lack understanding of the level of consistency in movement
      patterns across diverse taxa, as well as a framework for quantitatively
      classifying movement patterns. We aim to address this gap by determining the
      extent to which statistical signatures of animal movement patterns recur across
      ecological systems. We assessed a suite of movement metrics derived from GPS
      trajectories of thirteen marine and terrestrial vertebrate species spanning three
      taxonomic classes, orders of magnitude in body size, and modes of movement
      (swimming, flying, walking). Using these metrics, we performed a principal
      components analysis and cluster analysis to determine if individuals organized
      into statistically distinct clusters. Finally, to identify and interpret
      commonalities within clusters, we compared them to computer-simulated idealized
      movement syndromes representing suites of correlated movement traits observed
      across taxa (migration, nomadism, territoriality, and central place foraging).
      RESULTS: Two principal components explained 70% of the variance among the
      movement metrics we evaluated across the thirteen species, and were used for the
      cluster analysis. The resulting analysis revealed four statistically distinct
      clusters. All simulated individuals of each idealized movement syndrome organized
      into separate clusters, suggesting that the four clusters are explained by common
      movement syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Our results offer early indication of widespread
      recurrent patterns in movement ecology that have consistent statistical
      signatures, regardless of taxon, body size, mode of movement, or environment. We
      further show that a simple set of metrics can be used to classify broad-scale
      movement patterns in disparate vertebrate taxa. Our comparative approach provides
      a general framework for quantifying and classifying animal movements, and
      facilitates new inquiries into relationships between movement syndromes and other
      ecological processes.

PMID- 28580145
TI  - Lysosome-oriented, dual-stage pH-responsive polymeric micelles for beta-Lapachone
      delivery.
AB  - beta-Lapachone (beta-lap), a novel anticancer agent, is bioactivated by
      NADP(H):quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), an enzyme over-expressed in numerous
      tumors, including lung, pancreas, breast, and prostate cancers. Fast renal
      clearance and methemaglobinemia / hemolytic side-effects from the clinical
      formulation (beta-lap-hydroxyl propyl-beta-cyclodextrin complex) hindered its
      clinical translation. Here, we investigated a dual model pH responsive polymers
      for beta-lap delivery. Three pH-sensitive linkages, including acylhydrazone,
      ketal and imine bonds for beta-lap prodrug syntheses result in an aryl imine
      linkage the most optimal linkage. The conversion to beta-lap was 2.8%, 4.5% and
      100% at pH 7.4, 6.5 and 5.0 in 8 h, respectively. beta-lap aryl imine prodrug
      conjugated ultra pH-sensitive (UPS) polymer reached high beta-lap loading density
      (8.3%) and exhibited dual-stages responsiveness to pH variation. In pHs under
      pHt, at stage I, micelle immediately dissociation and subsequently entering stage
      II, micelles start quickly release beta-lap. In vitro release study showed that
      the micelles constantly release beta-lap (14.9 +/- 0.1%) at pHs above pHt in 72
      h, whereas boosted release of beta-lap (79.4 +/- 1.2%) at pH 5.0. Micelle
      intracellular distribution predominantly in the lysosome organelle guaranteed
      their pH responsive dissociation and subsequently beta-lap controlled release.
      The M-P micelles retained NQO1-dependent cytotoxicity in A549 lung cancer cells,
      similar to free drug in both efficacy and mechanism of cell death. The lysosome
      oriented dual-stage ultra pH responsive beta-lap prodrug micelles potentially
      offer an alternative nanotherapeutic strategy for lung, as well as other NQO1+
      cancer therapies.

PMID- 28580155
TI  - Intense, flu-like symptoms in women using menstrual devices: always think of
      staphylococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome.

PMID- 28580156
TI  - Castleman's disease with TAFRO syndrome: a case report from Syria.
AB  - Castleman's disease is a rare disorder, yet a rarer newly described syndrome
      called TAFRO syndrome was discovered to accompany it. TAFRO represents the
      constellation of symptoms (Thrombocytopenia, Anasarca, MyeloFibrosis, Renal
      failure, Organomegaly). Most cases were described in Japan. We present the first
      case of TAFRO syndrome in Syria. A 58-year-old Caucasian male with no relevant
      history presented with fatigue, oliguria, decreased platelets, increased
      creatinine level, hepatosplenomegaly, ascites, pitting edema and lymph node
      enlargement. Possible differential diagnoses were excluded by laboratory,
      radiologic and cytologic tests including TB, malignancy and autoimmune diseases.
      A biopsy of a supraclavicular lymph node confirmed Castleman disease. Our patient
      had Catleman's disease, and presented with only four diagnostic criteria for
      TAFRO syndrome (Myelofibrosis was absent) in addition to other minor
      characteristics (microcytic anemia, negative HIV and HHV-8 infections.) which
      make the presentation consistent with TAFRO syndrome described in the Japanese
      cases. The criteria for diagnosing TAFRO syndrome are still changing, and the
      pathophysiology behind it is unclear. We recommend further research to understand
      this syndrome taking into account that its prevalence might be worldwide.

PMID- 28580153
TI  - Complete pathological response of multiple huge liver metastases of colon cancer:
      a case report.
AB  - We report a case of a pathological complete response (pCR) with chemotherapy for
      multiple huge liver metastases from colon cancer. A 59-year-old woman presented
      with anorexia and weight loss. Laboratory tests revealed elevated liver enzyme
      levels and tumor markers. A computed tomography/positron emission tomography
      computed tomography scan revealed a transverse colon tumor and unresectable liver
      masses measuring 9.0 cm in maximum diameter in segments 7 and 8, with another
      mass in segment 6. She underwent laparoscopic colectomy and was administered
      FOLFOX + BV. After 11-cycles of chemotherapy, the liver masses became resectable
      with a partial response, so hepatectomy was performed. On the final
      histopathological analysis, all lesions were fibrotic without any viable cancer
      cells. The patient is alive without recurrence 2 years after resection. We
      believe this is the largest tumor of unresectable colorectal liver metastasis
      (CRLM) that has ever resulted in pCR with chemotherapy. FOLFOX + Bev was thus
      found to be an effective treatment for unresectable CRLM.

PMID- 28580151
TI  - Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of cucumber fruit peels reveal a
      developmental increase in terpenoid glycosides associated with age-related
      resistance to Phytophthora capsici.
AB  - The oomycete, Phytophthora capsici, infects cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit.
      An age-related resistance (ARR) to this pathogen was previously observed in fruit
      of cultivar 'Vlaspik' and shown to be associated with the peel. Young fruits are
      highly susceptible, but develop resistance at ~10-12 days post pollination (dpp).
      Peels from resistant (16 dpp) versus susceptible (8 dpp) age fruit are enriched
      with genes associated with defense, and methanolic extracts from resistant age
      peels inhibit pathogen growth. Here we compared developing fruits from 'Vlaspik'
      with those of 'Gy14', a line that does not exhibit ARR. Transcriptomic analysis
      of peels of the two lines at 8 and 16 dpp identified 80 genes that were
      developmentally upregulated in resistant 'Vlaspik' 16 dpp versus 8 dpp, but not
      in susceptible 'Gy14' at 16 dpp. A large number of these genes are annotated to
      be associated with defense and/or specialized metabolism, including four putative
      resistance (R) genes, and numerous genes involved in flavonoid and terpenoid
      synthesis and decoration. Untargeted metabolomic analysis was performed on
      extracts from 8 and 16 dpp 'Vlaspik' and 'Gy14' fruit peels using Ultra
      Performance Liquid Chromatography and Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass
      Spectrometry. Multivariate analysis of the metabolomes identified 113 ions
      uniquely abundant in resistant 'Vlaspik' 16 dpp peel extracts. The most abundant
      compounds in this group had relative mass defects consistent with terpenoid
      glycosides. Two of the three most abundant ions were annotated as glycosylated
      nor-terpenoid esters. Together, these analyses reveal potential mechanisms by
      which ARR to P. capsici may be conferred.

PMID- 28580150
TI  - Additive QTLs on three chromosomes control flowering time in woodland strawberry
      (Fragaria vesca L.).
AB  - Flowering time is an important trait that affects survival, reproduction and
      yield in both wild and cultivated plants. Therefore, many studies have focused on
      the identification of flowering time quantitative trait locus (QTLs) in different
      crops, and molecular control of this trait has been extensively investigated in
      model species. Here we report the mapping of QTLs for flowering time and
      vegetative traits in a large woodland strawberry mapping population that was
      phenotyped both under field conditions and in a greenhouse after flower induction
      in the field. The greenhouse experiment revealed additive QTLs in three linkage
      groups (LG), two on both LG4 and LG7, and one on LG6 that explain about half of
      the flowering time variance in the population. Three of the QTLs were newly
      identified in this study, and one co-localized with the previously characterized
      FvTFL1 gene. An additional strong QTL corresponding to previously mapped PFRU was
      detected in both field and greenhouse experiments indicating that gene(s) in this
      locus can control the timing of flowering in different environments in addition
      to the duration of flowering and axillary bud differentiation to runners and
      branch crowns. Several putative flowering time genes were identified in these QTL
      regions that await functional validation. Our results indicate that a few major
      QTLs may control flowering time and axillary bud differentiation in strawberries.
      We suggest that the identification of causal genes in the diploid strawberry may
      enable fine tuning of flowering time and vegetative growth in the closely related
      octoploid cultivated strawberry.

PMID- 28580158
TI  - Opana-induced thrombotic microangiopathy masquerading as thrombotic
      thrombocytopenic purpura.
AB  - Opana (oxymorphone) is a powerful semi-synthetic opioid agonist used for chronic
      pain management that is ingested orally. However, improper injection of Opana can
      lead to a rare and fatal blood disorder known as thrombotic microangiopathy.
      Opana-induced thrombotic microangiopathy can be easily mistaken for thrombotic
      thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), leading to the initiation of therapeutic plasma
      exchange. Current literature has conflicting views on the necessity of
      therapeutic plasma exchange for the treatment of Opana-induced thrombotic
      microangiopathy. In our case report, a 47-year-old Caucasian male was admitted
      with a presentation suspicious for TTP then underwent therapeutic plasma exchange
      without clinical improvement. With supportive treatment only, the patient
      eventually improved and later admitted to intravenously abusing oral Opana 1-2
      days prior to becoming ill.

PMID- 28580159
TI  - Azithromycin-induced cholestatic hepatitis.
AB  - Since its introduction >20 years ago, Azithromycin has been widely used owing to
      its broad spectrum and good tolerability, especially when used for <7 days. In
      literature, there are only very few, sporadic reports available of patients
      developing cholestatic hepatitis following treatment with it. The current case
      study describes a 69-year old patient, with a medical history that included
      significant alcohol consumption, who presented with jaundice following a 3-day
      course of Azithromycin. Following a transjugular liver biopsy, he was managed
      with a short course of corticosteroids and his liver function gradually improved
      and finally normalized ~2 months after discontinuation of Azithromycin.

PMID- 28580157
TI  - Incidental finding of a primary thyroid tuberculosis.
AB  - Thyroid tuberculosis (TT) is a very rare condition, even in countries where
      tuberculosis is endemic. However, the prevalence of tuberculosis has increased
      worldwide and thyroid involvement can be a primary manifestation of the disease.
      We present the case of a 43-year-old patient with this diagnosis and perform a
      review of the related literature. After searching for similar case reports in
      Western Europe since 2010 we identified six cases in four countries. TT should be
      considered in the differential diagnosis of a thyroid nodule. Fine-needle
      aspiration cytology and polymerase chain reaction are useful tools as
      preoperative diagnosis. Typical caseous necrotic granulomas are the hallmark in
      biopsy.

PMID- 28580160
TI  - Oxcarbazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome: a pediatric case report.
AB  - Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis are two rare but
      life-threatening diseases characterized by detachment of epidermis, bullous skin
      lesions and mucous membrane erosions. Anti-epileptic drugs are highly suspected
      to be the causative agents. Although carbamazepine (CBZ) is the most associated
      anti-epileptic drug, oxcarbazepine (OXC), which is a monohydrated derivative of
      CBZ, is proposed to be safer because of the different metabolism of the two
      drugs. Herein, we report a case of SJS induced by oxcarbazepine. A 6-year-old boy
      with benign rolandic epilepsy, admitted to our hospital with generalized
      maculopapular rash after starting oxcarbazepine. The diagnosis of SJS was made
      with cytotoxic skin lesions and mucous membrane involvement. After discontinuing
      of the drug and topical corticosteroid initiation, the lesions were improved. We
      report this case to attract attention to the serious side effect of this anti
      epileptic drug.

PMID- 28580163
TI  - What do parents want for their children who are overweight when visiting the
      paediatrician?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether parental
      preferences regarding primary care weight-management strategies differ by child
      age, gender, overweight severity, race/ethnicity or parental agreement that their
      child is overweight. METHODS: A survey was administered to parents of 2- to 18
      year-old children who are overweight at an academic primary-care clinic regarding
      perception of child overweight, helpful/harmfulness of having the child present
      during weight discussions, and dietary-advice preferences. Multivariable analyses
      examined factors associated with preferred weight-management strategies, after
      adjustment for parent/child characteristics. RESULTS: Eighty-three per cent of
      parents agreed that a child's presence during weight discussions is helpful/very
      helpful, 74% that paediatricians should prescribe specific diets, and 55%
      preferred specific vs. general dietary advice only (N = 219). In multivariable
      analyses, characteristics associated with helpfulness of child presence included
      older child age (vs. 2-5 year olds, 6-11 year olds: odds ratio [OR], 4.6; 95% CI,
      1.3-16; 12- to 18-year-olds: OR, 23; 95% CI, 4-136), male gender (OR, 5.0; 95%
      CI, 1.7-10) and obesity (vs. overweight: OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.7-12).
      Characteristics associated with preferring specific diets included Latino
      race/ethnicity (OR, 5.3; 95% CI, 3-12), older age (vs. 2-5 year olds, 6-11 year
      olds: OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.1-7; 12-18 year olds: OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.5-10) and
      agreement that the child is overweight (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.1-5) and, for specific
      dietary advice, older age (vs. 2-5 year olds: OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.1-5) and
      agreement that the child is overweight (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2-4). CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings suggest that weight-management strategies tailored to child age, gender,
      over-weight severity, race/ethnicity and parental agreement that their child is
      overweight may prove useful in improving child weight status.

PMID- 28580161
TI  - Early onset of Fazio-Londe syndrome: the first case report from the Arabian
      Peninsula.
AB  - Fazio-Londe syndrome is a rare neurological disorder presenting with
      sensorineural deafness, bulbar palsy and respiratory compromise that is caused by
      mutation in the SLC52A3 gene, which encodes the intestinal (hRFT2) riboflavin
      transporter. We report a patient with early onset of Fazio-Londe syndrome as the
      first case report in Saudi Arabia with rapid regression to death at 24 months of
      age.

PMID- 28580164
TI  - Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme for depression in people
      with early stages of dementia: study protocol for a randomised controlled
      feasibility study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression and dementia are major public health problems in the UK.
      Depression in early-stage dementia is very common and significantly reduces
      quality of life, speeds cognitive decline and increases functional impairment.
      Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is an effective depression prevention
      programme, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has
      suggested that MBCT is a priority for implementation. Alongside this, there is
      emerging evidence demonstrating promising results in relation to the benefits of
      adapted mindfulness interventions for people with dementia, suggesting that it
      could be beneficial in reducing depressive symptoms and in slowing deterioration
      in cognitive functions such as sustained attention, distraction inhibition and
      task switching. METHODS: The design is a single-blind randomised controlled
      feasibility trial. Participants with mild to moderate depression and early stages
      of dementia will be recruited from the participating memory services.
      Participants will receive either immediate or delayed access to an 8-week MBCT
      programme. Participants will be assessed by a blind assessor and complete
      cognitive and mood-related outcome measures before and after the intervention.
      This feasibility study will test the trial design and assess recruitment,
      retention, acceptability and adherence, as well as providing preliminary efficacy
      data. DISCUSSION: This study will inform the design and sample size for a future
      full randomised controlled trial (RCT), which will be carried out to determine
      the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing depressive symptoms in people
      with early stages of dementia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov
      ISRCTN16382776.

PMID- 28580162
TI  - Role of medical resource level in iodine deficiency disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) refer to a series of diseases
      caused by the human body's insufficient iodine intake. Edible salt became iodized
      in China in 1996, which yielded remarkable results. We have known that IDDs is
      associated with iodine in the human body, but it is not clear whether IDDs is
      related to medical resource level. METHODS: We collected the number of IDDs cases
      and an index for the level of medical resource from 31 provinces, autonomous
      regions and municipalities directly under the central government in China. All
      data came from the China Statistical Yearbook of Health and Family Planning
      issued in 2013 by the Peking Union Medical College Publishing House. Data
      standardization and linear regression analysis were used. RESULTS: The results
      showed that IDDs correlated with the number of beds in medical and health
      institutions, number of medical health personnel, number of medical and health
      institutions, total health expenditure, average health expenditure per capita,
      medical insurance for urban resident and new rural cooperative medical rural
      residents (P < 0.01). In a multiple linear regression, IDDs was most
      significantly associated with the number of beds in hospitals, the number of
      rural health personnel, the number of basic medical and health institutions and
      government health expenditure for these institutions. CONCLUSION: Based on the
      experimental data, we concluded that IDDs had a positive connection with the
      medical resource level, and basic and rural areas had a more significant
      association with IDDs. This analysis provides new and explicit ideas for iodine
      prevention and control work in China.

PMID- 28580165
TI  - Managing challenging behaviour in preschool children post-traumatic brain injury
      with online clinician support: protocol for a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children is associated with a range
      of poor long-term outcomes, including behavioural disturbances. Parents can
      experience high levels of stress and injury-related burden, and evidence suggests
      that distressed parents are less likely to adopt positive parenting styles to
      manage their child's behaviour. The 'Signposts for Building Better Behaviour'
      program is a parenting programme that was originally developed to assist parents
      of children with an intellectual disability in managing their child's behaviour.
      More recently, it has been adapted to include a TBI module, to assist parents in
      managing post-TBI behaviour. However, geographical and financial barriers remain,
      preventing many parents from accessing the programme in the standard face-to-face
      modality. This project aims to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of
      the programme when delivered with clinician support via videoconferencing.
      METHODS/DESIGN: The sample for this feasibility study will be recruited from the
      Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation
      Service. Participants will be the parents of a child who sustained a TBI between
      the ages of 2.0 and 6.11, within the previous 2 years. The parents of 15 children
      will complete the programme, with clinician support via videoconferencing, while
      the parents of a further 15 children will form a treatment as usual wait-list
      control group. Parents complete questionnaires assessing their child's behaviour,
      as well as assessing their own mental health, sense of parenting competency,
      disciplinary style, and family functioning. These will be completed upon
      enrolment in the study regarding their child's pre-injury behaviour and then
      again pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 4 months post
      intervention. Parents who complete the intervention will also complete
      questionnaires assessing their satisfaction with the programme and its delivery.
      Information will be collected on the feasibility, clinical practicality, and
      acceptability of the programme when delivered through this medium. DISCUSSION:
      This study is the first to investigate the feasibility of delivering post-child
      TBI behavioural intervention via videoconferencing in Australia. Preliminary
      findings from this study may support the development of a larger randomised
      controlled trial. It is hoped that programme delivery through this medium would
      facilitate better access to the programme, enabling improved long-term outcomes
      for families. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ANZCTR, ACTRN12616001574437.

PMID- 28580166
TI  - MOF as an evolutionarily conserved histone crotonyltransferase and
      transcriptional activation by histone acetyltransferase-deficient and
      crotonyltransferase-competent CBP/p300.
AB  - Recent studies indicate that histones are subjected to various types of acylation
      including acetylation, propionylation and crotonylation. CBP and p300 have been
      shown to catalyze multiple types of acylation but are not conserved in evolution,
      raising the question as to the existence of other enzymes for histone acylation
      and the functional relationship between well-characterized acetylation and other
      types of acylation. In this study, we focus on enzymes catalyzing histone
      crotonylation and demonstrate that among the known histone acetyltransferases,
      MOF, in addition to CBP and p300, also possesses histone crotonyltransferase
      (HCT) activity and this activity is conserved in evolution. We provide evidence
      that CBP and p300 are the major HCTs in mammalian cells. Furthermore, we have
      generated novel CBP/p300 mutants with deficient histone acetyltransferase but
      competent HCT activity. These CBP/p300 mutants can substitute the endogenous
      CBP/p300 to enhance transcriptional activation in the cell, which correlates with
      enhanced promoter crotonylation and recruitment of DPF2, a selective reader for
      crotonylated histones. Taken together, we have identified MOF as an
      evolutionarily conserved HCT and provide first cellular evidence that CBP/p300
      can facilitate transcriptional activation through histone acylation other than
      acetylation, thus supporting an emerging role for the non-acetylation type of
      histone acylation in transcription and possibly other chromatin-based processes.

PMID- 28580168
TI  - CAML mediates survival of Myc-induced lymphoma cells independent of tail-anchored
      protein insertion.
AB  - Calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand (CAML) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      protein that functions, along with WRB and TRC40, to mediate tail-anchored (TA)
      protein insertion into the ER membrane. Physiologic roles for CAML include
      endocytic trafficking, intracellular calcium signaling, and the survival and
      proliferation of specialized immune cells, recently attributed to its requirement
      for TA protein insertion. To identify a possible role for CAML in cancer cells,
      we generated EMU-Myc transgenic mice that carry a tamoxifen-inducible deletion
      allele of Caml. In multiple B-cell lymphoma cell lines derived from these mice,
      homozygous loss of Caml activated apoptosis. Cell death was blocked by Bcl-2/Bcl
      xL overexpression; however, rescue from apoptosis was insufficient to restore
      proliferation. Tumors established from an EMU-Myc lymphoma cell line completely
      regressed after tamoxifen administration, suggesting that CAML is also required
      for these cancer cells to survive and grow in vivo. Cell cycle analyses of Caml
      deleted lymphoma cells revealed an arrest in G2/M, accompanied by low expression
      of the mitotic marker, phospho-histone H3 (Ser10). Surprisingly, lymphoma cell
      viability did not depend on the domain of CAML required for its interaction with
      TRC40. Furthermore, a small protein fragment consisting of the C-terminal 111
      amino acid residues of CAML, encompassing the WRB-binding domain, was sufficient
      to rescue growth and survival of Caml-deleted lymphoma cells. Critically, this
      minimal region of CAML did not restore TA protein insertion in knockout cells.
      Taken together, these data reveal an essential role for CAML in supporting
      survival and mitotic progression in Myc-driven lymphomas that is independent of
      its TA protein insertion function.

PMID- 28580167
TI  - Sequential EMT-MET induces neuronal conversion through Sox2.
AB  - Direct neuronal conversion can be achieved with combinations of small-molecule
      compounds and growth factors. Here, by studying the first or induction phase of
      the neuronal conversion induced by defined 5C medium, we show that the Sox2
      mediated switch from early epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to late
      mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) within a high proliferation context is
      essential and sufficient for the conversion from mouse embryonic fibroblasts
      (MEFs) to TuJ+ cells. At the early stage, insulin and basic fibroblast growth
      factor (bFGF)-induced cell proliferation, early EMT, the up-regulation of Stat3
      and Sox2, and the subsequent activation of neuron projection. Up-regulated Sox2
      then induced MET and directed cells towards a neuronal fate at the late stage.
      Inhibiting either stage of this sequential EMT-MET impaired the conversion. In
      addition, Sox2 could replace sequential EMT-MET to induce a similar conversion
      within a high proliferation context, and its functions were confirmed with other
      neuronal conversion protocols and MEFs reprogramming. Therefore, the critical
      roles of the sequential EMT-MET were implicated in direct cell fate conversion in
      addition to reprogramming, embryonic development and cancer progression.

PMID- 28580169
TI  - Endogenous miRNA Sponge LincRNA-ROR promotes proliferation, invasion and stem
      cell-like phenotype of pancreatic cancer cells.
AB  - The long intergenic non-coding RNA, regulator of reprogramming (linc-ROR) is an
      oncogene and plays a key role in the embryonic stem cell maintenance and is
      involved in cancer progression. The objective of this study was to analyze linc
      ROR expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and determine the
      regulation effects of linc-ROR on proliferation and invasion of cancer cells, as
      well as properties of cancer stem-like cells (CSLCs). In this study, we found
      that linc-ROR was up-regulated in PDAC tissues and related to poor prognosis.
      Linc-ROR knockdown in pancreatic cancer cells inhibited cell growth and arrested
      in G1 phrase. Suppressed linc-ROR expression also attenuated cancer cell
      migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. We observed that linc
      ROR expression was increased in CSLCs. Importantly, linc-ROR knockdown impaired
      the properties and tumorigenesis of pancreatic CSLCs in vivo. Mechanistically, we
      found that linc-ROR functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to several
      tumor suppressor microRNAs, particularly some members of let-7 family. We
      conclude that, as a crucial oncogene, linc-ROR promotes cell proliferation,
      invasiveness and contributes to stem cell properties of CSLCs in PDAC via acting
      as a ceRNA to regulate function of microRNAs. The linc-ROR is a potential
      therapeutic target for PDAC.

PMID- 28580170
TI  - Cell-free chromatin from dying cancer cells integrate into genomes of bystander
      healthy cells to induce DNA damage and inflammation.
AB  - Bystander cells of the tumor microenvironment show evidence of DNA damage and
      inflammation that can lead to their oncogenic transformation. Mediator(s) of cell
      cell communication that brings about these pro-oncogenic pathologies has not been
      identified. We show here that cell-free chromatin (cfCh) released from dying
      cancer cells are the key mediators that trigger both DNA damage and inflammation
      in the surrounding healthy cells. When dying human cancer cells were cultured
      along with NIH3T3 mouse fibroblast cells, numerous cfCh emerged from them and
      rapidly entered into nuclei of bystander NIH3T3 cells to integrate into their
      genomes. This led to activation of H2AX and inflammatory cytokines NFkappaB, IL
      6, TNFalpha and IFNgamma. Genomic integration of cfCh triggered global
      deregulation of transcription and upregulation of pathways related to
      phagocytosis, DNA damage and inflammation. None of these activities were observed
      when living cancer cells were co-cultivated with NIH3T3 cells. However, upon
      intravenous injection into mice, both dead and live cells were found to be
      active. Living cancer cells are known to undergo extensive cell death when
      injected intravenously, and we observed that cfCh emerging from both types of
      cells integrated into genomes of cells of distant organs and induced DNA damage
      and inflammation. gammaH2AX and NFkappaB were frequently co-expressed in the same
      cells suggesting that DNA damage and inflammation are closely linked pathologies.
      As concurrent DNA damage and inflammation is a potent stimulus for oncogenic
      transformation, our results suggest that cfCh from dying cancer cells can
      transform cells of the microenvironment both locally and in distant organs
      providing a novel mechanism of tumor invasion and metastasis. The afore-described
      pro-oncogenic pathologies could be abrogated by concurrent treatment with
      chromatin neutralizing/degrading agents suggesting therapeutic possibilities.

PMID- 28580171
TI  - In silico analysis of pathways activation landscape in oral squamous cell
      carcinoma and oral leukoplakia.
AB  - A subset of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common
      subtype of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), harbor dysplastic
      lesions (often visually identified as leukoplakia) prior to cancer diagnosis.
      Although evidence suggest that leukoplakia represents an initial step in the
      progression to cancer, signaling networks driving this progression are poorly
      understood. Here, we applied in silico Pathway Activation Network Decomposition
      Analysis (iPANDA), a new bioinformatics software suite for qualitative analysis
      of intracellular signaling pathway activation using transcriptomic data, to
      assess a network of molecular signaling in OSCC and pre-neoplastic oral lesions.
      In tumor samples, our analysis detected major conserved mitogenic and survival
      signaling pathways strongly associated with HNSCC, suggesting that some of the
      pathways identified by our algorithm, but not yet validated as HNSCC related, may
      be attractive targets for future research. While pathways activation landscape in
      the majority of leukoplakias was different from that seen in OSCC, a subset of
      pre-neoplastic lesions has demonstrated some degree of similarity to the
      signaling profile seen in tumors, including dysregulation of the cancer-driving
      pathways related to survival and apoptosis. These results suggest that
      dysregulation of these signaling networks may be the driving force behind the
      early stages of OSCC tumorigenesis. While future studies with larger leukoplakia
      data sets are warranted to further estimate the values of this approach for
      capturing signaling features that characterize relevant lesions that actually
      progress to cancers, our platform proposes a promising new approach for detecting
      cancer-promoting pathways and tailoring the right therapy to prevent
      tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28580172
TI  - RalBP1 and p19-VHL play an oncogenic role, and p30-VHL plays a tumor suppressor
      role during the blebbishield emergency program.
AB  - Cancer stem cells evade apoptotic death by blebbishield emergency program, which
      constructs blebbishields from apoptotic bodies and drives cellular
      transformation. Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) plays both tumor suppressor and oncogenic
      roles, and the reason behind is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that
      dimers and trimers of p19-VHL interact with RalBP1 to construct blebbishields.
      Expression of RalBP1, p19-VHL, and high-molecular weight VHL is required to evade
      apoptosis by blebbishield-mediated transformation. In contrast, p30-VHL plays a
      tumor suppressor role by inhibiting blebbishield-mediated transformation.
      Furthermore, target genes of VHL that suppress oxidative stress were elevated
      during blebbishield-mediated cellular transformation. Thus, RalBP1 and p19-VHL
      play an oncogenic role, whereas p30-VHL plays a tumor suppressor role during the
      blebbishield emergency program by regulating oxidative stress management genes.

PMID- 28580173
TI  - Sesn2 gene ablation enhances susceptibility to gentamicin-induced hair cell death
      via modulation of AMPK/mTOR signaling.
AB  - The process of gentamicin-induced hair cell damage includes the activation of
      oxidative stress processes. Sestrins, as stress-responsive proteins, protect
      cells against oxidative stress. Sestrins, particularly Sestrin-2, suppress
      excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and inhibit mammalian target
      of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Thus, we addressed the role of Sestrin-2 in the
      regulation of sensory hair cell survival after gentamicin exposure. Here, we show
      that Sestrins were expressed in the inner ear tissues, and Sestrin-2
      immunolocalized in sensory hair cells and spiral ganglion (SG). The expression of
      Sestrin-2 was unchanged, and later downregulated, in gentamicin-treated explants
      from wild-type mice in vitro. Compared with wild-type mice, Sestrin-2 knockout
      mice exhibited significantly greater hair cell loss in gentamicin-treated
      cochlear explants. Significant downregulation of phosphorylation of AMP-activated
      protein kinase alpha (AMPKalpha) and upregulation of the 70-kDa ribosomal protein
      S6 kinase (p70S6K) were measured in wild-type cochlear explants exposed to
      gentamicin compared with their untreated controls. Such regulatory effect was not
      observed between explants from untreated and gentamicin-treated knockout mice.
      The gentamicin effect on mTOR signaling was rapamycin-sensitive. Thus, our data
      provide evidence that Sestrin-2 plays an important role in the protection of hair
      cells against gentamicin, and the mTOR signaling pathway appears to be modulated
      by gentamicin during hair cell death.

PMID- 28580174
TI  - Effects of concomitant inactivation of p53 and pRb on response to doxorubicin
      treatment in breast cancer cell lines.
AB  - Loss of TP53 and RB1 function have both been linked to poor response to DNA
      damaging drugs in breast cancer patients. We inactivated TP53 and/or RB1 by siRNA
      mediated knockdown in breast cancer cell lines varying with respect to ER/PgR and
      Her-2 status as well as TP53 and RB1 mutation status (MCF-7, T47D, HTB-122 and
      CRL2324) and determined effects on cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence
      with or without concomitant treatment with doxorubicin. In T47D cells, we found
      the cell cycle phase distribution to be altered when inactivating TP53 (P=0.0003)
      or TP53 and RB1 concomitantly (P<=0.001). No similar changes were observed in MCF
      7, HTB-122 or CRL2324 cells. While no significant change was observed for the
      CRL2324 cells upon doxorubicin treatment, MCF-7, T47D as well as HTB-122 cells
      responded to knockdown of TP53 and RB1 in concert, with a decrease in the
      fraction of cells in G1/G0-phase (P=0.042, 0.021 and 0.027, respectively).
      Inactivation of TP53 and/or RB1 caused no change in induction of apoptosis. Upon
      doxorubicin treatment, inactivation of TP53 or RB1 separately caused no induction
      of apoptosis in MCF-7 and HTB-122 cells; however, concomitant inactivation leads
      to a slightly reduced activation of apoptosis. Interestingly, upon doxorubicin
      treatment, concomitant inactivation of TP53 and RB1 caused a decrease in
      senescence in MCF-7 cells (P=0.027). Comparing the effects of concomitant
      knockdown on apoptosis and senescence, we observed a strong interaction
      (P=0.001). We found concomitant inactivation of TP53 and RB1 to affect various
      routes of response to doxorubicin treatment in breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28580175
TI  - Differential cytokine withdrawal-induced death sensitivity of effector T cells
      derived from distinct human CD8+ memory subsets.
AB  - CD8+ central memory (CM) and effector memory (EM) T-cell subsets exhibit well
      established differences in proliferative and protective capacity after infectious
      challenge. However, their relative sensitivity to apoptosis has been largely
      overlooked, despite the importance of programmed cell death in regulating
      effector T-cell homeostasis. Here we demonstrate that primary human effector T
      cells derived from the CD8+ EM subset exhibit significantly higher sensitivity to
      cytokine withdrawal-induced cell death (CWID), a critical intrinsic apoptosis
      program responsible for culling cells once an infection is cleared and
      interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels diminish. Interestingly, we found no differences in
      the expression of IL-2 or IL-2 receptor components in cells originating from
      either subset. Relative to CM-derived effectors, however, EM-derived T cells
      displayed more mitochondrial instability and greater caspase activity. Indeed, we
      found that heightened CWID sensitivity in EM-derived effectors coincided with
      higher expression of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein BIM, both at steady
      state and with de novo induction following withdrawal of exogenous IL-2. These
      data point to 'imprinted' differences in BIM protein regulation, preserved by
      CD8+ CM and EM progeny, which govern their relative sensitivity to CWID. In
      addition, we detected a burst of autophagy after IL-2 withdrawal, which was
      better maintained in CM-derived T cells. Both subsets showed increased,
      equivalent CWID sensitivity upon treatment with autophagy inhibitors, suggesting
      sustained autophagy could preferentially protect CM-derived T cells from
      apoptosis. These findings offer new insight into how CM CD8+ T cells display
      superior effector cell expansion and more persistent memory responses in vivo
      relative to EM-derived T cells, based in part on decreased CWID sensitivity.

PMID- 28580176
TI  - Engineering affinity agents for the detection of hemi-methylated CpG sites in
      DNA.
AB  - Wild-type methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD) proteins specifically bind
      symmetrically methylated DNA sequences, and assays have been developed that use
      these proteins for profiling DNA methylation. Here, we use directed evolution in
      the yeast surface display format to identify a new protein variant that binds
      hemi-methylated CpG dinucleotides.

PMID- 28580177
TI  - Rapid multistep kinetic model generation from transient flow data.
AB  - Today, the generation of kinetic models is still seen as a resource intensive and
      specialised activity. We report an efficient method of generating reaction
      profiles from transient flows using a state-of-the-art continuous-flow platform.
      Experimental data for multistep aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions are
      collected from an automated linear gradient flow ramp with online HPLC at the
      reactor outlet. Using this approach, we generated 16 profiles, at 3 different
      inlet concentrations and 4 temperatures, in less than 3 hours run time. The
      kinetic parameters, 4 rate constants and 4 activation energies were fitted with
      less than 4% uncertainty. We derived an expression for the error in the observed
      rate constants due to dispersion and showed that such error is 5% or lower. The
      large range of operational conditions prevented the need to isolate individual
      reaction steps. Our approach enables early identification of the sensitivity of
      product quality to parameter changes and early use of unit operation models to
      identify optimal process-equipment combinations in silico, greatly reducing scale
      up risks.

PMID- 28580178
TI  - Antibody Reactivity of B Cells in Lupus Patients with Increased Disease Activity
      and ARID3a Expression.
AB  - Earlier studies showed that the DNA-binding protein, Bright/ARID3a bound to a
      subset of human and mouse immunoglobulin heavy chain promoters where it enhanced
      expression. Indeed, mice with transgenic expression of ARID3a in all B
      lymphocytes have expanded MZ B cells and produce anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs).
      Consistent with our findings in mice, we observed that human systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE) patients had expanded numbers of peripheral blood ARID3a+ B
      cells that were associated with increased disease activity (p = 0.0038). We
      hypothesized that ARID3a+ naive B cells would eventually produce autoantibodies,
      explaining associations between ARID3a expression and disease activity in lupus.
      Unlike healthy controls, ARID3a was expressed in the naive B cell population in
      SLE patients, and we hypothesized that these might represent expansions of
      autoreactive cells. Therefore, monoclonal antibodies were generated from single
      sorted naive B cells derived from patients with normal (ARID3aN) and high
      (ARID3aH) numbers of ARID3a+ B cells. We found that ARID3a expression did not
      correlate with autoantibody expression. Furthermore, measures of antigen
      specificities of autoreactive antibodies did not reveal skewing toward particular
      proteins. These data suggest that the association of increased disease activity
      in SLE with numbers of ARID3a+ B lymphocytes may be mediated by an antibody
      independent mechanism.

PMID- 28580179
TI  - Metal Bioaccumulation by Estuarine Food Webs in New England, USA.
AB  - Evaluating the degree of metal exposure and bioaccumulation in estuarine
      organisms is important for understanding the fate of metals in estuarine food
      webs. We investigated the bioaccumulation of Hg, methylmercury (MeHg), Cd, Se,
      Pb, and As in common intertidal organisms across a watershed urbanization
      gradient of coastal marsh sites in New England to relate metal exposure and
      bioaccumulation in fauna to both chemical and ecological factors. In sediments,
      we measured metal and metalloid concentrations, total organic carbon (TOC) and
      SEM-AVS (Simultaneously extracted metal-acid volatile sulfides). In five
      different functional feeding groups of biota, we measured metal concentrations
      and delta 15N and delta 13C signatures. Concentrations of Hg and Se in biota for
      all sites were always greater than sediment concentrations whereas Pb in biota
      was always lower. There were positive relationships between biota Hg
      concentrations and sediment concentrations, and between biota MeHg concentrations
      and both pelagic feeding mode and trophic level. Bioavailability of all metals
      measured as SEM-AVS or Benthic-Sediment Accumulation Factor was lower in more
      contaminated sites, likely due to biogeochemical factors related to higher levels
      of sulfides and organic carbon in the sediments. Our study demonstrates that for
      most metals and metalloids, bioaccumulation is metal specific and not directly
      related to sediment concentrations or measures of bioavailability such as AVS
      SEM.

PMID- 28580180
TI  - The role of reactive oxygen species in the antimicrobial activity of pyochelin.
AB  - The increase in prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) is currently
      a serious threat, thus there is a need for new antimicrobial compounds to combat
      infections caused by these ARB. An antimicrobial-producing bacterium,
      Burkholderia paludis was recently isolated and was able to produce a type of
      siderophore with antimicrobial properties, later identified as pyochelin. The
      chelating ability of pyochelin has been well-characterized but not for its
      antimicrobial characteristics. It was found that pyochelin had MIC values (MBC
      values) of 3.13 ug/mL (6.26 ug/mL) and 6.26 ug/mL (25.00 ug/mL) against three
      Enterococcus strains and four Staphylococcus strains. Pyochelin was able to
      inhibit E. faecalis ATCC 700802 (a vancomycin-resistant strain) in a time and
      dose dependent manner via killing kinetics assay. It was demonstrated that
      pyochelin enhanced the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      over time, which subsequently caused a significant increase in malondialdehyde
      (MDA) production (a marker for lipid peroxidation) and ultimately led to cell
      death by disrupting the integrity of the bacterial membrane (validated via
      BacLight assay). This study has revealed the mechanism of action of pyochelin as
      an antimicrobial agent for the first time and has shown that pyochelin might be
      able to combat infections caused by E. faecalis in the future.

PMID- 28580181
TI  - Intercellular Adhesion Molecular-5 as Marker in HIV Associated Neurocognitive
      Disorder.
AB  - Despite the use of antiretroviral drugs HIV associated neurocognitive disorders
      (HAND) are still common in HIV-seropositive patients. Identification of HIV
      patients with cognitive impairment in early-stage might benefit a great deal from
      disease progression monitoring and treatment adjustment. Intercellular adhesion
      molecule-5 (ICAM5), characteristically expressed on neuron, may suppress immune
      functions by inhibition of T cell activation in central nervous system. Previous
      studies have shown that ICAM5 could be detected in patients with brain injury. To
      investigate the relationship between cognitive impairment and ICAM5 in HIV
      patients, we compared soluble ICAM5 levels in paired CSF and plasma specimens
      from HIV-infected individuals with or without neurocognitive impairment. sICAM5
      concentrations were measured by ICAM5 ELISA kit. A total of 41 Patients were
      classified into HIV infected with normal cognition (HIV-NC) and impaired
      cognition groups (HIV-CI) based on Memorial Sloan-Kettering Scale. CSF and plasma
      levels of sICAM5 in HIV-CI patients were significantly higher than HIV-NC group
      (p<0.0001, p=0.0054 respectively). sICAM5 concentrations in plasma strongly
      correlated with sICAM5 in CSF (r=0.7250, p<0.0001) and S100B in CSF (r=0.3812,
      p<0.0139). Among 6 follow-up patients we found that sICAM5 levels in CSF and
      plasma might change consistently with HAND progression. In summary, we have shown
      that the expressions of sICAM5 in CSF and plasma may correlate with
      neurocognitive impairment in HIV infected patients. The elevation of sICAM5 in
      plasma were correspond with that in CSF as a consequence of blood-brain barrier
      permeability changes. ICAM5 can serve as a potential and readily accessible
      biomarker to predict HIV associated neurocognitive disorder.

PMID- 28580182
TI  - Cerebral Microvascular Accumulation of Tau Oligomers in Alzheimer's Disease and
      Related Tauopathies.
AB  - The importance of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia
      (VCID) associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative
      diseases is increasingly recognized, however, the underlying mechanisms remain
      obscure. There is growing evidence that in addition to Abeta deposition,
      accumulation of hyperphosphorylated oligomeric tau contributes significantly to
      AD etiology. Tau oligomers are toxic and it has been suggested that they
      propagate in a "prion-like" fashion, inducing endogenous tau misfolding in cells.
      Their role in VCID, however, is not yet understood. The present study was
      designed to determine the severity of vascular deposition of oligomeric tau in
      the brain in patients with AD and related tauopathies, including dementia with
      Lewy bodies (DLB) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Further, we examined
      a potential link between vascular deposition of fibrillar Abeta and that of tau
      oligomers in the Tg2576 mouse model. We found that tau oligomers accumulate in
      cerebral microvasculature of human patients with AD and PSP, in association with
      vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells. Cerebrovascular deposition of tau
      oligomers was also found in DLB patients. We also show that tau oligomers
      accumulate in cerebral microvasculature of Tg2576 mice, partially in association
      with cerebrovascular Abeta deposits. Thus, our findings add to the growing
      evidence for multifaceted microvascular involvement in the pathogenesis of AD and
      other neurodegenerative diseases. Accumulation of tau oligomers may represent a
      potential novel mechanism by which functional and structural integrity of the
      cerebral microvessels is compromised.

PMID- 28580184
TI  - A Fine-Tune Role of Mir-125a-5p on Foxn1 During Age-Associated Changes in the
      Thymus.
AB  - Decline of transcription factor FoxN1, which predominantly regulates thymic
      epithelial cell (TEC) differentiation and homeostasis lifelong, is demonstrated
      to be casually related to age-related thymic involution. Whereas, a global role
      of microRNAs (miRNAs) has also been demonstrated to control and maintain TEC
      constituting thymic microenvironment and to be changed in expression profile in
      the aged thymus. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to build knowledge regarding
      whether and which miRNAs regulate FoxN1 gene in the aged thymus. We primarily
      compared changes in miRNA expression profile between young and aged murine TECs
      with Mus musculus miRBase-V20 arrays (containing 1892 unique probes), and clearly
      identified and validated that at least one miRNA, miR-125a-5p, was increased in
      aged thymus. Applying miR-125a-5p mimics was able to inhibit FoxN1 3'UTR
      luciferase activity in a 293T cell line and to suppress FoxN1 expression in
      murine TEC Z210 cells. Since a single miRNA can play a fine-tuning role to
      regulate expression of multiple genes and a single gene can be regulated by
      multiple miRNAs, our result adds a single miRNA, miR-125a-5p, into the panel of
      FoxN1-regulating miRNAs associated with thymic aging.

PMID- 28580183
TI  - Role of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines and Vitamin D in Probable Alzheimer's Disease
      with Depression.
AB  - Symptoms of depression are present in a significant proportion of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) patients. While epidemiological studies have shown a strong
      association between depression and AD, it has not been established whether
      depression is a risk factor or merely a co-morbidity of AD. It is also uncertain
      if depression affects the pathogenesis of AD. In this paper, we address these
      questions by measuring the serum levels of two common metabolic risk factors of
      AD and depression, inflammatory cytokines (IL 6 and TNF alpha) and serum 25
      hydroxyvitamin D, in a case-control study. We measured the serum levels of IL 6,
      TNF alpha and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in age-matched healthy controls (n= 60) and in
      AD patients without depression (n=26) or AD patients with depression (n=34), and
      statistically analyzed the changes in these parameters among different groups
      under this study. Our results show that in AD there is a significant increase in
      IL 6 and TNF alpha and a marked decrease in 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the peripheral
      circulation compared to age-matched healthy controls. Furthermore, AD patients
      with depression have even significantly higher levels of IL 6 or TNF alpha and a
      lower level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in circulation than in AD patients without
      depression. We also found a strong statistical correlation between the disease
      severity and the serum levels of IL 6, TNF alpha and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in AD
      patients with depression. These results suggest that altered circulating levels
      of common metabolic risk factors lead to the co-existence of depression with AD
      in many patients, and when they co-exist, the depression presumably affects the
      severity of AD presentations through more aggravated changes in these risk
      factors.

PMID- 28580185
TI  - The Soluble VEGF Receptor sFlt-1 Contributes to Impaired Neovascularization in
      Aged Mice.
AB  - The mechanism by which angiogenesis declines with aging is not fully understood.
      Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1) form (sFlt1)
      contributes to endothelial dysfunction in pathological conditions. However, the
      roles of sFlt1 in ischemia-induced neovascularizationof aged animals have not
      been investigated. To study aging-related sFlt1 change and its impact on ischemia
      induced neovascularization, a hindlimb ischemia model was applied to young and
      aged mice. Blood flow imaging assay revealed that the blood flow recovery
      remained impaired throughout the follow-up period. At day 14, immunostaining
      showed lesser capillary formation in the aged mice. An ELISA showed that the aged
      mice had increased plasma sFlt-1 levels at indicated time points after surgery.
      On operative day 4, the aged ischemic muscles had decreased levels of p-VEGFR2
      and p-Akt and increased levels of sFlt-1, Wnt5a, and SC35 genes or/and protein as
      well as increased numbers of inflammatory cells (macrophages and leucocytes) and
      matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity. Immnunofluorescence showed that Flt-1 was co
      localized with CD11b+ macrophages of aged ischemic muscles. Hypoxia stimulated
      sFlt1 expression in CD11b+ cells of aged bone-marrow (BM), and this effect was
      diminished by siWnt5a. The cultured medium of aged mice BM-derived CD11b+ cells
      suppressed human endothelial cell (EC) and endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)
      angiogenic actions induced by VEGF, and these decreases were improved by
      treatment with siWnt5a-conditioned medium. Thus, aging appears to decline
      neovascularization in response to ischemic stress via the VEGFR2/Akt signaling
      inactivation in ECs and ECPs that is mediated by Wnt5a/SC35 axis activated
      macrophages-derived sFlt1 production in advanced age.

PMID- 28580186
TI  - Mash1-dependent Notch Signaling Pathway Regulates GABAergic Neuron-Like
      Differentiation from Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - GABAergic neuronal cell grafting has promise for treating a multitude of
      neurological disorders including epilepsy, age-related memory dysfunction,
      Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. However, identification of an unlimited
      source of GABAergic cells is critical for advancing such therapies. Our previous
      study implied that reprogramming of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells
      (BMSCs) through overexpression of the Achaete-scute homolog 1 (Ascl1, also called
      Mash1) could generate GABAergic neuron-like cells. Here, we investigated
      mechanisms underlying the conversion of BMSCs into GABAergic cells. We inhibited
      gamma-secretase (an enzyme that activates Notch signaling) with N-[N-(3,5
      difluorophenacetyl)-L-alanyl]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester (DAPT) or manipulated
      the expression of Notch signaling components such as the recombination signal
      binding protein for immunoglobulin kappa J region (RBPJ), hairy and enhancer of
      split-1 (Hes1) or Mash1. We demonstrate that inhibition of gamma-secretase
      through DAPT down-regulates RBPJ and Hes1, up-regulates Mash1 and results in an
      enhanced differentiation of BMSCs into GABAergic cells. On the other hand, RBPJ
      knockdown in BMSCs has no effect on Mash1 gene expression whereas Hes1 knockdown
      increases the expression of Mash1. Transduction of Mash1 in BMSCs also increases
      the expression of Hes1 but not RBPJ. Moreover, increased GABAergic
      differentiation in BMSCs occurs with concurrent Mash1 overexpression and Hes1
      silencing. Thus, the Mash1-dependent Notch signaling pathway regulates GABAergic
      neuron-like differentiation of BMSCs. These results also suggest that genetic
      engineering of BMSCs is a useful avenue for obtaining GABAergic neuron-like donor
      cells for the treatment of neurological disorders.

PMID- 28579919
TI  - Electron efficiency measurements with the ATLAS detector using 2012 LHC proton
      proton collision data.
AB  - This paper describes the algorithms for the reconstruction and identification of
      electrons in the central region of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron
      Collider (LHC). These algorithms were used for all ATLAS results with electrons
      in the final state that are based on the 2012 pp collision data produced by the
      LHC at [Formula: see text] = 8 [Formula: see text]. The efficiency of these
      algorithms, together with the charge misidentification rate, is measured in data
      and evaluated in simulated samples using electrons from [Formula: see text],
      [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] decays. For these efficiency
      measurements, the full recorded data set, corresponding to an integrated
      luminosity of 20.3 fb[Formula: see text], is used. Based on a new reconstruction
      algorithm used in 2012, the electron reconstruction efficiency is 97% for
      electrons with [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] and 99% at [Formula: see
      text] [Formula: see text]. Combining this with the efficiency of additional
      selection criteria to reject electrons from background processes or misidentified
      hadrons, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify electrons at the ATLAS
      experiment varies from 65 to 95%, depending on the transverse momentum of the
      electron and background rejection.

PMID- 28580188
TI  - On the Relationship between Energy Metabolism, Proteostasis, Aging and
      Parkinson's Disease: Possible Causative Role of Methylglyoxal and Alleviative
      Potential of Carnosine.
AB  - Recent research shows that energy metabolism can strongly influence proteostasis
      and thereby affect onset of aging and related disease such as Parkinson's disease
      (PD). Changes in glycolytic and proteolytic activities (influenced by diet and
      development) are suggested to synergistically create a self-reinforcing
      deleterious cycle via enhanced formation of triose phosphates (dihydroxyacetone
      phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate) and their decomposition product
      methylglyoxal (MG). It is proposed that triose phosphates and/or MG contribute to
      the development of PD and its attendant pathophysiological symptoms. MG can
      induce many of the macromolecular modifications (e.g. protein glycation) which
      characterise the aged-phenotype. MG can also react with dopamine to generate a
      salsolinol-like product, 1-acetyl-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinaline
      (ADTIQ), which accumulates in the Parkinson's disease (PD) brain and whose
      effects on mitochondria, analogous to MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6
      tetrahydropyridine), closely resemble changes associated with PD. MG can directly
      damage the intracellular proteolytic apparatus and modify proteins into non
      degradable (cross-linked) forms. It is suggested that increased endogenous MG
      formation may result from either, or both, enhanced glycolytic activity and
      decreased proteolytic activity and contribute to the macromolecular changes
      associated with PD. Carnosine, a naturally-occurring dipeptide, may ameliorate MG
      induced effects due, in part, to its carbonyl-scavenging activity. The
      possibility that ingestion of highly glycated proteins could also contribute to
      age-related brain dysfunction is briefly discussed.

PMID- 28580187
TI  - Associations among Metabolism, Circadian Rhythm and Age-Associated Diseases.
AB  - Accumulating epidemiological studies have implicated a strong link between age
      associated metabolic diseases and cancer, though direct and irrefutable evidence
      is missing. In this review, we discuss the connection between Warburg effects and
      tumorigenesis, as well as adaptive responses to environment such as circadian
      rhythms on molecular pathways involved in metabolism. We also review the central
      role of the sirtuin family of proteins in physiological modulation of cellular
      processes and age-associated metabolic diseases. We also provide a macroscopic
      view of how the circadian rhythm affects metabolism and may be involved in cell
      metabolism reprogramming and cancer pathogenesis. The aberrations in metabolism
      and the circadian system may lead to age-associated diseases directly or through
      intermediates. These intermediates may be either mutated or reprogrammed, thus
      becoming responsible for chromatin modification and oncogene transcription.
      Integration of circadian rhythm and metabolic reprogramming in the holistic
      understanding of metabolic diseases and cancer may provide additional insights
      into human diseases.

PMID- 28580192
TI  - Fast Component Pursuit for Large-Scale Inverse Covariance Estimation.
AB  - The maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) for the Gaussian graphical model, which
      is also known as the inverse covariance estimation problem, has gained increasing
      interest recently. Most existing works assume that inverse covariance estimators
      contain sparse structure and then construct models with the l1 regularization. In
      this paper, different from existing works, we study the inverse covariance
      estimation problem from another perspective by efficiently modeling the low-rank
      structure in the inverse covariance, which is assumed to be a combination of a
      low-rank part and a diagonal matrix. One motivation for this assumption is that
      the low-rank structure is common in many applications including the climate and
      financial analysis, and another one is that such assumption can reduce the
      computational complexity when computing its inverse. Specifically, we propose an
      efficient COmponent Pursuit (COP) method to obtain the low-rank part, where each
      component can be sparse. For optimization, the COP method greedily learns a rank
      one component in each iteration by maximizing the log-likelihood. Moreover, the
      COP algorithm enjoys several appealing properties including the existence of an
      efficient solution in each iteration and the theoretical guarantee on the
      convergence of this greedy approach. Experiments on large-scale synthetic and
      real-world datasets including thousands of millions variables show that the COP
      method is faster than the state-of-the-art techniques for the inverse covariance
      estimation problem when achieving comparable log-likelihood on test data.

PMID- 28580194
TI  - Can transposons be the obstacle to identical genetic cloning from somatic cells?

PMID- 28580191
TI  - Motor Imagery-Based Rehabilitation: Potential Neural Correlates and Clinical
      Application for Functional Recovery of Motor Deficits after Stroke.
AB  - Motor imagery (MI), defined as the mental implementation of an action in the
      absence of movement or muscle activation, is a rehabilitation technique that
      offers a means to replace or restore lost motor function in stroke patients when
      used in conjunction with conventional physiotherapy procedures. This article
      briefly reviews the concepts and neural correlates of MI in order to promote
      improved understanding, as well as to enhance the clinical utility of MI-based
      rehabilitation regimens. We specifically highlight the role of the cerebellum and
      basal ganglia, premotor, supplementary motor, and prefrontal areas, primary motor
      cortex, and parietal cortex. Additionally, we examine the recent literature
      related to MI and its potential as a therapeutic technique in both upper and
      lower limb stroke rehabilitation.

PMID- 28580199
TI  - The Role of Systemic Risk Factors in Diabetic Retinopathy.
AB  - Diabetic retinopathy is an increasingly common medical issue in the United
      States. The risk of developing the disease or having the disease progress is
      caused by many systemic health factors. This article examines the existing
      literature on the links between glycemic control, arterial hypertension, high
      cholesterol and hyperlipidemia, obesity, inflammatory markers, sleep-disordered
      breathing, and exercise with risk of diabetic retinopathy development and
      prevention. The literature shows benefit for good glycemic and blood pressure
      control. The effects of cholesterol, and lipid control, inflammatory markers,
      sleep-disordered breathing, obesity, and exercise are less well established.

PMID- 28580196
TI  - Somatizing the transposons action.
AB  - The somatic mobilization of transposable elements is more common than previously
      thought. In this review we discuss how the intensity and the biologic
      consequences of somatic mobilization are dependent on the transposable elements
      landscapes of each genome, and on the "momentum" of each particular TE with
      respect to the mechanisms that control its transposition and the possibility to
      escape this control. Additionally, the biologic consequences of somatic
      mobilization vary among organisms that show an early separation between the
      germline and somatic cells and those organisms that do not exhibit this
      separation or that reproduce asexually. In the former, somatic transposition can
      be involved in phenotypic plasticity, detrimental conditions such as disease, or
      processes such as aging. For the organisms without separation between the germ
      and soma, somatic mobilization can be a source of genetic variability.

PMID- 28580195
TI  - Physical enrichment of transposon mutants from saturation mutant libraries using
      the TraDISort approach.
AB  - Transposon-insertion sequencing methods are finding their way into the molecular
      toolbox of many fields of microbiology. These methods can identify the genomic
      locations and density of transposon insertions in saturated transposon mutant
      libraries and can be used to make inferences on gene function. For example, where
      no insertions or very few insertions are identified within a gene in a mutant
      library grown under permissive conditions, the gene may be essential.
      Furthermore, where mutations are enriched or lost in a gene after passaging the
      library through a selective process, the gene is likely to be involved in
      phenotypes linked to the process. Typically, a fitness based selection such as a
      stress condition is used in these experiments and the processed sequencing data
      are used to identify genes required for fitness under the selection. Our research
      team recently expanded the utility of the transposon directed insertion
      sequencing (TraDIS) method by applying a physical separation of a transposon
      mutant library mediated by fluorescence activated cell sorting, rather than a
      fitness-based selection. This approach, which we have named "TraDISort" is
      significant because it allows the study of phenotypes that are not linked to cell
      survival. The TraDISort approach has a broad range of future applications, in
      drug development, metabolic engineering and in studies of basic bacterial cell
      physiology.

PMID- 28580198
TI  - Depictions of nursing home residents in US newspapers: successful ageing versus
      frailty.
AB  - The media shape both what people consider significant and how people think about
      key issues. This paper explored the cultural beliefs and stereotypes that
      underlie media portrayals of nursing homes. The analysis of texts of 157 articles
      about nursing homes published from 1999 to 2008 on the front pages of four major
      market American newspapers (The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles
      Times and The Washington Post) was conducted using a qualitative approach
      inspired by comparative narrative and critical discourse analysis. Results
      suggest two major themes, each with several narrative components: (a) managing
      disposable lives (bodies outliving bank accounts; making frailty affordable; and
      the economics of triage); and (b) retaining purchasing power as successful ageing
      (consumption as a sign of market participation, spending money as an indicator of
      autonomy; and financial planning as preparation for future decline). Thus, the
      results indicate that nursing home residency in-and-of-itself is not a marker of
      unsuccessful ageing. This, instead, depends, in part, on the extent of choice
      available as a result of the level of financial solvency. This study shines light
      on the betwixt and between zone that distinguishes the Third and Fourth Ages;
      that is, independence versus dependence in old age. If individuals in a nursing
      home retain control over the management of their lives through the maintenance of
      financial independence, even if physically frail, association of nursing home
      residence with the Fourth Age may be ameliorated.

PMID- 28580202
TI  - The "Empty Chairs" Approach to Learning: Simulation-Based Train the Trainer
      Program in Mzuzu, Malawi.
AB  - Together, a group of Canadian colleagues from St. John's, Newfoundland, Calgary,
      Alberta (some via Doha) and London, Ontario introduced the first Train the
      Trainer in Simulation-Based Learning (TTT-SBL) program in Mzuzu Central Hospital
      and Mzuzu University in Malawi. The team led by Elaine Sigalet (Doha) and
      consisting of Ian Wishart (Calgary), Faizal Haji (London) and Adam Dubrowski (St.
      John's) was invited to Malawi by Norman Lufesi to conduct a two-day TTT-SBL
      course for facilitators who teach an Emergency Triage, Assessment and Treatment
      (ETAT) plus Trauma course. The following technical report describes this course. 
      All trainees-facilitators who took part in the first iteration of the TTT-SBL
      course were asked to participate in teaching an ETAT course and modify it to
      include elements of simulation. The new format of ETAT resulted in a reduction of
      time necessary to conduct the course from four days (based on historical data) to
      2.5 days.

PMID- 28580200
TI  - Treatment Outcomes of Rare Retromolar Trigone Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using
      Combined Modalities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retromolar trigone squamous cell carcinoma is relatively uncommon and
      due to its complex anatomy has always remained a challenge in terms of loco
      regional control and survival. Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy as
      combined modalities have been used but high recurrence rates result in poor
      outcome. METHODS: We have retrospectively evaluated records of 62 patients
      treated in Head and Neck Oncology unit of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital
      and Research Centre (SKMCH and RC), Lahore, Pakistan from 2004 to 2014 who were
      included based on the criteria of histopathological proven squamous cell
      carcinoma of retromolar trigone (RMT) treated with radical intent. Diagnostic
      workup for all patients involved clinical examination, imaging modalities usually
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computerized tomography (CT), Orthopantomogram
      (OPG), and chest x-ray (CXR) to evaluate regional and distant metastasis,
      respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to depict survival. RESULTS:
      The study was comprised of 36 male and 26 female patients. Treatment modalities
      used are surgery only (n = 1), radiotherapy alone (n = 13), radiotherapy followed
      by surgery (n = 10), chemoradiotherapy (n = 16), induction chemotherapy followed
      by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (n = 19), induction chemotherapy followed by
      surgery, and radiotherapy (n = 2). Surgical interventions include wide local
      excisions (n = 6), marginal mandibulectomy (n = 4), and segmental mandibulectomy
      (n = 4). Surgical margins were clear in 54%, close in 38%, and involved in 8% of
      patients. AJCC 7th edition showed cT1 8%, cT2 22%, cT3 14%, and cT4 56% while pT1
      2%, pT2 3%, and pT4 8%. During follow-up, 18% patients have come up with local
      recurrence, 22% showed persistent disease while 9% have presented with distant
      metastasis. The five-year and overall survivals are 38% and 22%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Retromolar trigone involvement poses many vital structures at risk of
      involvement. Late presentation results in involvement of masticator space
      compromising both mouth opening and surgical outcomes. Surgery and radiotherapy
      have shown comparable results in disease control. Bone invasion has shown poor
      outcome in terms of loco-regional control and overall survival.

PMID- 28580201
TI  - Bibliometric Assessment of the Global Scientific Production of Nitazoxanide.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nitazoxanide is a member of a new class of drug, thiazolides, and
      it was discovered in 1984 with antimicrobial activity effect against anaerobic
      bacteria, Hepatitis virus, protozoa, and helminths. METHODS: A bibliometric study
      on four databases (1984-2016) - Medline, Scopus, LILACS, and SciELO -
      characterizing the global scientific production of nitazoxanide. We determined
      the quantity, quality (number of citations), and types of studies developed by
      each country, characterizing them by years, international cooperation,
      development, place of publication, authors (with its H-index), and groups with
      higher impact. RESULTS: There were 512 articles in Medline - the higher
      scientific production is from the USA (19.71%), Switzerland (7.51%), and Mexico
      (7.27%). There were 1,440 articles in Scopus - from the USA (8.98%), Mexico
      (2.13%), and India (1.65%). There were 405 articles in LILACS - from Mexico
      (4.69%), the USA (4.2%), and Peru (2.47%). There were 47 articles in SciELO -
      from Brazil (34.04%), Venezuela (21.28%), and Colombia (14.89%). The H-index of
      nitazoxanide is 75 - the USA (26), Egypt (12), and Canada (10) were the countries
      contributing more with that. CONCLUSIONS: Nitazoxanide research has been highly
      important. Nevertheless, it is relatively limited when compared with other drugs.
      Its research has been led by the USA, as revealed in this bibliometric
      assessment. Although some developing countries, where it is used especially for
      protozoa and helminths, probably have its influence, and this explains the fact
      that Mexico and India, among others, are the top countries in the scientific
      production of this anti-infective agent. This bibliometric study evidenced a
      relatively low number of publications, however, it has been increased in recent
      years.

PMID- 28580204
TI  - Post-Transfusion Purpura: A Case Report of an Underdiagnosed Phenomenon.
AB  - Post-transfusion purpura is a rare transfusion-related complication that often
      goes undiagnosed. It is due to alloimmunization against platelet antigens which
      leads to acute profound thrombocytopenia following the transfusion of any
      platelet-containing product (red blood cells or platelets). It is commonly seen
      in multiparous women. Here, we report a case of post-transfusion purpura in a 56
      year-old multiparous woman who developed acute thrombocytopenia seven days
      following a packed red blood cell transfusion. We will discuss the clinical
      presentation, diagnosis, workup and treatment of this rare disease. It is
      important to recognize this entity separately and to include it in the
      differential diagnosis of acute thrombocytopenia after a recent blood
      transfusion. Treatment for this condition consists of intravenous
      immunoglobulins, corticosteroids or plasmapheresis.

PMID- 28580190
TI  - Geroprotectors: A Unified Concept and Screening Approaches.
AB  - Although the geroprotectors discovery is a new biomedicine trend and more than
      200 compounds can slow aging and increase the lifespan of the model organism,
      there are still no geroprotectors on the market. The reasons may be partly
      related to the lack of a unified concept of geroprotector, accepted by the
      scientific community. Such concept as a system of criteria for geroprotector
      identification and classification can form a basis for an analytical model of
      anti-aging drugs, help to consolidate the efforts of various research initiatives
      in this area and compare their results. Here, we review the existing
      classification and characteristics of geroprotectors based on their effect on the
      survival of a group of individuals or pharmaceutics classes, according to the
      proposed mechanism of their geroprotective action or theories of aging. After
      discussing advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, we offer a new
      concept based on the maintenance of homeostatic capacity because aging can be
      considered as exponential shrinkage of homeostatic capacity leading to the onset
      of age-related diseases and death. Besides, we review the most promising current
      screening approaches to finding new geroprotectors. Establishing the
      classification of existing geroprotectors based on physiology and current
      understanding of the nature of aging is essential for putting the existing
      knowledge into a single system. This system could be useful to formulate
      standards for finding and creating new geroprotectors. Standardization, in turn,
      would allow easier comparison and combination of experimental data obtained by
      different research groups.

PMID- 28580203
TI  - Single Fraction Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Retreatment of Skull Base Recurrent
      Head and Neck Malignancies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recurrent head and neck carcinomas are notoriously difficult to
      treat. Salvage surgery, brachytherapy, and repeat external beam radiotherapy have
      all been utilized, achieving modest local control at the expense of elevated
      toxicity. We performed a retrospective review to evaluate the efficacy of single
      fraction stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of recurrent head and
      neck carcinomas. METHODS: Eighteen previously irradiated patients diagnosed with
      a locoregionally recurrent head and neck malignancy and treated with single
      fraction SRS from 2000 to 2016 were analyzed. Actuarial rates for local control
      (LC) and overall survival (OS) were calculated with Kaplan-Meier estimates.
      RESULTS: Median follow-up was 16.1 months and SRS dose was 13.3 Gy. One-year rate
      of LC was 52.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 29%-72%). Median OS was 25.4
      months. Parotid gland primary had an increased risk of progressive disease (PD)
      following SRS (hazard ratio [HR] 4.24, p=0.02). Squamous cell histology was
      negatively associated with OS (HR 3.85, p=0.03). One patient experienced grade 2
      radionecrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Single fraction SRS is an acceptable treatment for
      previously irradiated patients with recurrent head and neck primary malignancies.
      Dose escalation to optimize LC should be examined.

PMID- 28580205
TI  - Solid Variant of an Aneurysmal Bone Cyst of the Thoracic Spine.
AB  - The solid variant of an aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) has been observed very rarely,
      especially those involving the spine. In this case report, we present a very
      unusual tumour of the thoracic spine which was managed by 360 decompression via
      posterior-only approach and stabilization. A 16-year-old boy presented to us with
      a sudden onset of weakness in both lower limbs leading to paraplegia. He also had
      a history of back and chest pain over the past one year. A collapse of the T5
      vertebrae on plain radiograph was observed. The patient was immediately shifted
      to the operation theatre with an initial plan of a total en bloc spondylectomy of
      the T5. However, intraoperatively, histology favored a solid-ABC variant rather
      than a spindle cell tumour or giant cell tumour. Thus, the initial plan was
      revised to a 360 decompression without resecting the body en bloc via a
      posterolateral approach. After surgery, complete resolution of his sensory and
      motor dysfunction was achieved. His chest and back pain also resolved. The
      diseased vertebral body gradually healed and new bone formation was seen at 18
      months postoperatively. This case report concludes that a solid variant of an ABC
      should be considered as a differential diagnosis for tumours involving the spine.
      An intraoperative frozen section procedure should be undertaken, especially
      during emergency situations. Early diagnosis and appropriate surgical management
      play an important role in the successful management of a solid variant of ABC.

PMID- 28580189
TI  - Vitamin D and Chronic Diseases.
AB  - Vitamin D is one of the essential nutrients to sustain the human health. As a
      member of the steroid hormone family, it has a classic role in regulating
      metabolism of calcium and a non-classic role in affecting cell proliferation and
      differentiation. Epidemiological studies have shown that 25OHD deficiency is
      closely associated with common chronic diseases such as bone metabolic disorders,
      tumors, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. 25OHD deficiency is also a risk
      factor for neuropsychiatric disorders and autoimmune diseases. 25OHD deficiency
      is highly prevalent in the world. It is therefore necessary to know the adverse
      health effects of 25OHD deficiency, and to design interventions and early
      treatments for those who are likely to have low levels of 25OHD.

PMID- 28580193
TI  - How the Same Core Catalytic Machinery Catalyzes 17 Different Reactions: the
      Serine-Histidine-Aspartate Catalytic Triad of alpha/beta-Hydrolase Fold Enzymes.
AB  - Enzymes within a family often catalyze different reactions. In some cases, this
      variety stems from different catalytic machinery, but in other cases the
      machinery is identical; nevertheless, the enzymes catalyze different reactions.
      In this review, we examine the subset of alpha/beta-hydrolase fold enzymes that
      contain the serine-histidine-aspartate catalytic triad. In spite of having the
      same protein fold and the same core catalytic machinery, these enzymes catalyze
      seventeen different reaction mechanisms. The most common reactions are hydrolysis
      of C-O, C-N and C-C bonds (Enzyme Classification (EC) group 3), but other enzymes
      are oxidoreductases (EC group 1), acyl transferases (EC group 2), lyases (EC
      group 4) or isomerases (EC group 5). Hydrolysis reactions often follow the
      canonical esterase mechanism, but eight variations occur where either the
      formation or cleavage of the acyl enzyme intermediate differs. The remaining
      eight mechanisms are lyase-type elimination reactions, which do not have an acyl
      enzyme intermediate and, in four cases, do not even require the catalytic serine.
      This diversity of mechanisms from the same catalytic triad stems from the ability
      of the enzymes to bind different substrates, from the requirements for different
      chemical steps imposed by these new substrates and, only in about half of the
      cases, from additional hydrogen bond partners or additional general acids/bases
      in the active site. This detailed analysis shows that binding differences and non
      catalytic residues create new mechanisms and are essential for understanding and
      designing efficient enzymes.

PMID- 28580206
TI  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in East Asian.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare lung disease with a prognosis that
      can be worse than that of many cancers. Recent studies have improved our
      understanding of IPF and new treatment options have become available. However,
      most studies are conducted predominantly in Western countries while few are
      conducted in East Asian countries. The distribution, effectiveness of treatment,
      and prognosis for IPF differ among Westerners and East Asians, but whether the
      heterogeneity of IPF in East Asians is the result of ethnic differences and
      geographic variability is unclear. This study highlights the current prevalence
      of IPF and its characteristics in the East Asian population and it provides
      valuable information to understand the current clinical status of patients with
      IPF in light of recent advances in its diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28580197
TI  - Transposable elements in Drosophila.
AB  - Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that can mobilize within
      host genomes. As TEs comprise more than 40% of the human genome and are linked to
      numerous diseases, understanding their mechanisms of mobilization and regulation
      is important. Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal model organism for the study of
      eukaryotic TEs as its genome contains a diverse array of active TEs. TEs
      universally impact host genome size via transposition and deletion events, but
      may also adopt unique functional roles in host organisms. There are 2 main
      classes of TEs: DNA transposons and retrotransposons. These classes are further
      divided into subgroups of TEs with unique structural and functional
      characteristics, demonstrating the significant variability among these elements.
      Despite this variability, D. melanogaster and other eukaryotic organisms utilize
      conserved mechanisms to regulate TEs. This review focuses on the transposition
      mechanisms and regulatory pathways of TEs, and their functional roles in D.
      melanogaster.

PMID- 28580209
TI  - Surgical management of hepatolithiasis: A minireview.
AB  - Hepatolithiasis is highly prevalent in Asia but rare in Western countries.
      However, the incidence of hepatolithiasis may be increasing in Western countries
      due to the increased rate of immigration from areas where hepatolithiasis is
      prevalent. There are many non-surgical treatments for hepatolithiasis, but
      surgical management remains the best curative treatment for some cases of
      hepatolithiasis. Surgical treatments can remove biliary stones and relieve
      stricture of the bile ducts. This review describes the indications for and the
      outcomes of surgical treatment of hepatolithiasis, including liver resection and
      liver transplantation.

PMID- 28580208
TI  - Heart transplantation in patients with dystrophinopathic cardiomyopathy: Review
      of the literature and personal series.
AB  - Cardiomyopathy associated with dystrophinopathies [Duchenne muscular dystrophy
      (DMD), Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), X-linked dilated cardiomyopathy (XL-dCM)
      and cardiomyopathy of Duchenne/Becker (DMD/BMD) carriers] is an increasing
      recognized manifestation of these neuromuscular disorders and notably contributes
      to their morbidity and mortality. Dystrophinopathic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the
      result of the dystrophin protein deficiency at the myocardium level, parallel to
      the deficiency occurring at the skeletal muscle level. It begins as a
      "presymptomatic" stage in the first decade of life and evolves in a stepwise
      manner toward pictures of overt cardiomyopathy (hypertrophic stage,
      arrhythmogenic stage and dilated cardiomyopathy). The final stage caused by the
      extensive loss of cardiomyocytes results in an irreversible cardiac failure,
      characterized by frequent episodes of acute congestive heart failure (CHF),
      despite a correct pharmacological treatment. The picture of a severe dilated
      cardiomyopathy with intractable heart failure is typical of BMD, XL-dCM and
      cardiomyopathy of DMD/BMD carriers, while it is less frequently observed in
      patients with DMD. Heart transplantation (HT) is the only curative therapy for
      patients with dystrophinopathic end-stage heart failure who remain symptomatic
      despite an optimal medical therapy. However, no definitive figures exist in
      literature concerning the number of patients with DCM transplanted, and their
      outcome. This overview is to summarize the clinical outcomes so far published on
      the topic, to report the personal series of dystrophinopathic patients receiving
      heart transplantation and finally to provide evidence that heart transplantation
      is a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with end-stage DCM.

PMID- 28580207
TI  - Aortic intramural hemorrhage: A distinct disease entity with mystery.
AB  - Aortic intramural hemorrhage (IMH) is one of the disease processes that comprise
      the spectrum of acute aortic syndrome (AAS) with clinical manifestations and a
      mortality rate similar to those of classic aortic dissection (AD). However, IMH
      should be considered as a distinct disease entity rather than a precursor to
      classic dissection because of differences in their pathology, etiology, natural
      history, and imaging findings. Multidetector computed tomography (CT) is
      recommended as the first-line diagnostic imaging modality for IMH, but
      transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are
      also helpful. There is still debate over the appropriate treatment of IMH.
      Medical treatment of type B IMH appears effective and safe, while surgical
      treatment is recommended for type A IMH. Thoracic endovascular aortic repair
      (TEVAR) is a promising treatment for selected patients, and more clinical
      evidence needs to be assembled.

PMID- 28580211
TI  - Dent disease: Same CLCN5 mutation but different phenotypes in two brothers in
      China.
AB  - Dent disease is an X-linked recessive proximal tubular disorder that affects
      mostly male patients in childhood or early adult life, caused by mutations in
      CLCN5 (Dent disease 1) or OCRL (Dent disease 2) genes, respectively. It presents
      mainly with hypercalciuria, low-molecular-weight proteinuria, nephrocalcinosis
      and progressive renal failure. We report here the same CLCN5 mutation but
      different phenotypes in two Chinese brothers, and speculate on the possible
      reasons for the variability of the genotype-phenotype correlations.

PMID- 28580210
TI  - Immunosuppressive medication is not associated with surgical site infection after
      surgery for intractable ulcerative colitis in children.
AB  - Pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) sometimes progresses to an intractable
      condition for medical therapy. The surgical management of UC is challenging
      because of difficult procedures and frequent infectious complications. The aim of
      this study was to survey surgical procedures and infectious complications in
      pediatric patients with UC in Japan and to assess the relationship between
      preoperatively administered immunosuppressive drugs and postoperative surgical
      site infection (SSI). A survey of pediatric patients treated from 2000 to 2012
      was sent to 683 facilities nationwide. Secondary questionnaires were sent to
      physicians who followed up patients with UC who had undergone surgery with the
      aim of assessing the relationships between postoperative SSI and selected
      preoperative patient characteristics, disease severity, medications, and
      operative procedures. Data for 136 patients (77 boys and 59 girls) were assessed.
      Median age at surgery was 14.1 years (range: 2.4-18.9 years). Surgery was
      performed in one stage in 35 cases, two stages in 57 cases, and three stages in
      44 cases. SSI occurred in 36/136 patients (26%). According to multiple logistic
      regression analysis, there were statistically significant associations between
      SSI and staged surgery (three/one, OR: 6.7, 95% CI: 2.1-25.5, p = 0.0007;
      three/two, OR: 3.4, 95% CI: 1.4-8.6, p = 0.0069) and female sex (OR: 2.3, 95% CI:
      1.0-5.4, p = 0.0434). Preoperative medications and incidence of SSI were not
      significantly associated. Preoperative immunosuppressive medication does not
      affect the incidence of SSI. Three-stage surgery and female sex are independent
      predictors of development of postoperative SSIs in pediatric patients with UC.

PMID- 28580212
TI  - Diagnosis of Morquio-A patients in Mexico: How far are we from prompt diagnosis?
AB  - Mucopolysaccharidosis IV A, better known as Morquio-A syndrome, is a rare
      condition with severe skeletal and multiorgan involvement. Sometimes is not easy
      to differentiate from other skeletal dysplasias. Prior to definitive diagnosis,
      patients have been delayed or misdiagnosis due to lack of knowledge of local
      physicians about this disease. The aim of this study is to compare the age of
      onset of clinical manifestations, age of diagnosis, as seen by the parent or
      primary caregiver and compare this age with other population reports worldwide.
      Self-administered questionnaires were conducted to the primary caregiver of
      confirmed patients, collecting information about the onset of symptoms, age,
      previous diagnoses and biological variables (age, gender, sex). Data from 50
      patients, 23 men and 27 women was obtained. Mean age at definitive diagnosis was
      5.6 years, age at onset of signs or symptoms was 4.14 years starting with pigeon
      chest deformity, valgus knees at 4.5 years, stiff hands and increasing mobility
      of wrists to the 5.8 years, followed by limitation to lift shoulders to 7.1
      years. In 78% of patients the diagnosis was by a geneticist. First and subsequent
      observed clinical changes were orthopedic, starting as early as 4.4 years as
      noted by parents. Rise of suspicious may delay 16 months' average to definitive
      diagnosis based on other multi-systemic findings. The most frequent specialist
      aid in diagnosis is a clinical geneticist followed by orthopedic surgeon. The
      diagnosis of Morquio-A disease in Mexico is as early as reports from other
      centers.

PMID- 28580213
TI  - A fatal case of herpes simplex virus hepatitis in a pregnant patient.
AB  - We present a middle aged pregnant woman who developed signs and symptoms of acute
      liver failure and was found to have herpes simplex virus hepatitis. Patient had
      an emergent delivery and was started on antiviral therapy, but unfortunately due
      to the severity of her liver failure, she passed away. The importance of
      reporting this case is to emphasize on the importance of considering herpes
      simplex infection in pregnant women who present with acute liver failure, and the
      importance of early administration of antiviral therapy.

PMID- 28580214
TI  - Anaplastic myxopapillary ependymoma in an infant: Case report and literature
      review.
AB  - A 7-month-old boy presented with gastrointestinal disturbance, mild neurologic
      deficit of the left lower extremity and levo-scoliosis of the thoracic spine.
      Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a large intramedullary lesion involving
      the thoracic spine, from level T1 to T11. Histologic analysis showed a glial
      tumor with fibrillary processes arranged in radial pattern around mucoid
      fibrovascular cores with a high proliferative index (focally up to 80%) and
      prominent vascular endothelial hyperplasia. These findings were consistent with
      an anaplastic myxopapillary ependymoma. Subtotal resection was performed via a T3
      T10 laminoplasty. A ventricular shunt was placed, and the patient subsequently
      received chemoradiation therapy. To date, this is the second case of a
      myxopapillary ependymoma with high-grade anaplastic features and the first case
      in an infant reported in the literature.

PMID- 28580215
TI  - A novel PGK1 mutation associated with neurological dysfunction and the absence of
      episodes of hemolytic anemia or myoglobinuria.
AB  - Phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) deficiency affects three different organs: red
      blood cells (RBC), the central nervous system, and muscles. Next-generation
      sequencing identified a hemizygous PGK1 mutation (p.V217I) in a 16-year-old
      Japanese male patient presenting with intellectual disability and episodes of
      muscle weakness of unknown etiology. Enzymatic analysis demonstrated slightly
      lower RBC-PGK activity and compensatory increases of other glycolysis enzymes.
      This is the first PGK1 mutation found through next-generation sequencing.

PMID- 28580217
TI  - Silence pancreatitis in systemic lupus erythematosus.
AB  - We present here a systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) related biochemically silent
      pancreatitis which was assessed via computed tomography in a 35-year-old woman. A
      patient with a twelve-year history of SLE presented with exacerbation of symptoms
      of the basic disease, with SLE Disease Activity Index > 15. She was referred to
      inpatient care. Dosage of corticosteroid and azathioprine for SLE was increased;
      subclinically and biochemically silent pancreatitis had developed, and was not
      diagnosed within an appropriate time. On the 15th hospital day, the patient died
      due to multisystem organ failure, which was defined as a consequence of
      clinically and biochemically silent pancreatitis in systemic lupus erythematosus.

PMID- 28580216
TI  - Septic thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein, a case of Lemierre's
      syndrome.
AB  - An 18-year-old gentleman with a history of recurrent tonsillitis presented to the
      emergency room complaining of worsening sore throat. He was found to have a
      peritonisillar abscess, and imaging revealed a non-occlusive left internal
      jugular vein thrombosis. Lemierre's syndrome is a rare, potentially fatal
      condition characterized by internal jugular vein thrombosis with septicemia
      following an acute oropharyngeal infection. While anticoagulation is the mainstay
      of treatment of deep venous thromboembolism (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE),
      the use of therapy is controversial in septic thrombophlebitis. This is
      counterintuitive since a common reported complication is pulmonary emboli. Early
      in the course of thrombophlebitis, while the thrombus is firmly attached,
      antibiotics may be all that is necessary to treat the condition.

PMID- 28580218
TI  - Cryotherapy as a conservative treatment modality for gingival enlargement in a
      patient with Sturge-Weber Syndrome.
AB  - This case report describes a case of Sturge-Weber syndrome reported for
      unilateral gingival enlargement and bleeding from gingiva in maxillary left
      region. Initial treatment in the form of scaling and root planing was done but
      recurrence was observed after one year of follow up. Instead of performing
      conventional surgery, an alternative conservative treatment was planned in the
      form of cryotherapy with the help of closed nitrous oxide probe. Seeing the
      satisfactory results obtained, cryotherapy can be suggested as an atraumatic,
      bloodless and effective chair side procedure for treating vascular gingival
      enlargement.

PMID- 28580219
TI  - Defining rare diseases in China.
AB  - China has the world's largest population of people with rare diseases. However,
      defining rare diseases remains a challenge in China. Over the past few decades,
      several definitions have been proposed but they have yet to be agreed to by all
      stakeholders. To overcome this impasse, a list of several rare diseases has
      recently been created. This rare disease list might be used in place of a
      prevalence-based definition, especially in healthcare policy-making.

PMID- 28580220
TI  - Pancreatic lipomatosis in cystic fibrosis: Rare manifestation of an uncommon
      disease.
AB  - Cystic fibrosis is deemed to be uncommon in India. The presentation is usually in
      the childhood although more cases are now being recognized in adolescence and
      adulthood. We report a case of an adolescent male who had been treated for
      recurrent pulmonary infections and received anti-tubercular therapy for a
      possible diagnosis of sputum negative pulmonary tuberculosis and was evaluated
      for steatorrhea. The presence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency along with
      pancreatic lipomatosis suggested the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

PMID- 28580221
TI  - Improving the Resolution of Kendrick Mass Defect Analysis for Polymer Ions with
      Fractional Base Units.
AB  - The concept of a fractional base unit for the Kendrick mass defect (KMD) analysis
      of polymer ions is introduced for the first time. A fraction of the ethylene
      oxide (EO) repeat unit (namely EO/8) has been used for the KMD analysis of a
      poly(ethylene oxide) and found to amplify the variations of KMD between
      monoisotopic and 13C isotopes, producing an isotopically resolved KMD plot at
      full scale when the KMD plot computed with EO is fuzzy. The expansion of the KMD
      dimension using a fractional base unit has then been successfully used to
      unequivocally discriminate all the distributions from a blend of poly(ethylene
      oxide)s in a high resolution KMD plot calculated with EO/3 as base unit.
      Extending the concept of fractional base units to other repeat units, the
      visualization of the co-oligomers from a poly(ethylene oxide-b-propylene oxide-b
      ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer has been dramatically improved using a
      fraction of the propylene oxide repeat unit (namely PO/3) in an oligomer and
      isotope resolved plot. High resolution KMD plots were eventually calculated from
      tandem mass spectra of poly(dimethylsiloxane) ions using a fraction of the
      dimethylsiloxane (DMS) unit (namely DMS/6) with clearer point alignments and a
      discrimination of all the product ion series, out of reach of the KMD analysis
      using DMS. Versatile and producing high resolution KMD plots, the introduction of
      fractional base units is believed to be a major step towards the implementation
      of the KMD analysis as a routine data mining tool for mass spectrometry in
      polymer chemistry.

PMID- 28580222
TI  - Prediction of Hopeless Peptides Unlikely to be Selected for Targeted Proteome
      Analysis.
AB  - In targeted proteomics using liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass
      spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode, selecting
      the best observable or visible peptides is a key step in the development of SRM
      assay methods of target proteins. A direct comparison of signal intensities among
      all candidate peptides by brute-force LC/MS/MS analysis is a concrete approach
      for peptide selection. However, the analysis requires an SRM method with hundreds
      of transitions. This study reports on the development of a method for predicting
      and identifying hopeless peptides to reduce the number of candidate peptides
      needed for brute-force experiments. Hopeless peptides are proteotypic peptides
      that are unlikely to be selected for targets in SRM analysis owing to their poor
      ionization characteristics. Targeted proteomics data from Escherichia coli
      demonstrated that the relative ionization efficiency between two peptides could
      be predicted from sequences of two peptides, when a multivariate regression model
      is used. Validation of the method showed that >20% of the candidate peptides
      could be successfully eliminated as hopeless peptides with a false positive rate
      of less than 2%.

PMID- 28580223
TI  - Carotid cavernous fistula with central retinal artery occlusion and Terson
      syndrome after mid-facial trauma.
AB  - Objectives: To report a rare occurrence combination of central retinal artery
      occlusion (CRAO) and Terson syndrome in a Barrow's type A carotid cavernous
      fistula (CCF) patient. Methods: Observational case report. Results: A twenty-year
      old male patient with a history of road traffic accident presented with
      periorbital swelling and redness in the left eye. Examination revealed a CRAO
      with intraretinal and preretinal hemorrhages. On imaging, type A CCF and
      subarachnoid hemorrhage were detected. He underwent embolization of the fistula
      for cosmetic blemish. The possible mechanisms and clinical implications are
      discussed. Conclusion: Patients with a head injury can have serious ocular
      damage. Posterior segment manifestations of CCFs are varied and at times can
      occur in various rare combinations, making it challenging. Early recognition of
      these rare manifestations and a multi-disciplinary approach are needed in
      patients with head trauma.

PMID- 28580224
TI  - Upper eyelid angiolipoma associated friction in the glide zone.
AB  - A 74-year-old man was examined for a mass in the left upper eyelid. It was
      inconspicuous in inspection. There was no visual restriction, however a feeling
      of friction on the superior orbit during lid movement. Through eyelid crease lid
      incision, a solitary lesion appeared in the preaponeurotic space that orginated
      from the upper tarsal plate. Excisional biopsy revealed adipose proliferation
      with patch form vessels. This case represents the second reported angiolipoma of
      the eyelid in English literature.

PMID- 28580225
TI  - Fracture heuristics: surgical decision for approaches to distal radius fractures.
      A surgeon's perspective.
AB  - Introduction: The aim of the present study is to develop a heuristic that could
      replace the surgeon's analysis for the decision on the operative approach of
      distal radius fractures based on simple fracture characteristics. Patients and
      methods: Five hundred distal radius fractures operated between 2011 and 2014 were
      analyzed for the surgeon's decision on the approach used. The 500 distal radius
      fractures were treated with open reduction and internal fixation through palmar,
      dorsal, and dorsopalmar approaches with 2.4 mm locking plates or underwent
      percutaneous fixation. The parameters that should replace the surgeon's analysis
      were the fractured palmar cortex, and the frontal and the sagittal split of the
      articular surface of the distal radius. Results: The palmar approach was used for
      422 (84.4%) fractures, the dorsal approach for 39 (7.8%), and the combined
      dorsopalmar approach for 30 (6.0%). Nine (1.8%) fractures were treated
      percutaneously. The correlation between the fractured palmar cortex and the used
      palmar approach was moderate (r=0.464; p<0.0001). The correlation between the
      frontal split and the dorsal approach, including the dorsopalmar approach, was
      strong (r=0.715; p<0.0001). The sagittal split had only a weak correlation for
      the dorsal and dorsopalmar approach (r=0.300; p<0.0001). Discussion: The study
      shows that the surgical decision on the preferred approach is dictated through
      two simple factors, even in the case of complex fractures. Conclusion: When the
      palmar cortex is displaced in distal radius fractures, a palmar approach should
      be used. When there is a displaced frontal split of the articular surface, a
      dorsal approach should be used. When both are present, a dorsopalmar approach
      should be used. These two simple parameters could replace the surgeon's analysis
      for the surgical approach.

PMID- 28580226
TI  - Social Network Factors and Addictive Behaviors among College Students.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: To provide an overview of studies within the past five
      years examining the impact of social network factors on addictive behaviors among
      college students, to discuss gaps, limitations, and controversies in the field,
      and to summarize with a discussion of future directions and implications for
      interventions. RECENT FINDINGS: A review of 13 studies indicated that greater
      network exposure, centrality, reciprocated ties, and more tightly interconnected
      networks were associated with greater alcohol use and other addictive behaviors
      among college students. SUMMARY: Greater research is needed that expands beyond
      alcohol use to other addictive behaviors among college students. Additionally,
      more studies are needed that longitudinally study the impact of changes in social
      networks on addictive behaviors and vice versa, as well as studies examining
      sociocentric (whole) networks. Social network approaches offer innovative
      perspectives in understanding social influences on addictive behaviors and novel
      intervention strategies for potentially reducing addictive behaviors among
      college students.

PMID- 28580228
TI  - Food Addiction Beliefs Amongst the Lay Public: What Are the Consequences for
      Eating Behaviour?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The current paper reviews recent research on perceptions of
      food addiction in the lay public. It also examines the potential consequences of
      such beliefs for eating behaviour. RECENT FINDINGS: Surveys suggest that, within
      community samples, the majority of individuals believe that certain foods are
      addictive, and that food addiction causes obesity. Further, many people believe
      themselves to be 'food addicts', and these individuals demonstrate increased
      patterns of aberrant eating. However, there is also initial experimental evidence
      to suggest that believing oneself to be a food addict leads to short-term food
      restriction. SUMMARY: To reconcile these findings, a self-perpetuating
      relationship between food addiction beliefs and aberrant eating is proposed.
      Specifically, in the short term, food addiction beliefs may encourage individuals
      to avoid certain foods. However, attempts at restriction may eventually lead to
      increased cravings and disinhibition, thus reinforcing perceptions of oneself as
      a food addict. These possibilities merit scrutiny in future research.

PMID- 28580227
TI  - Does Cannabis Composition Matter? Differential Effects of Delta-9
      tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol on Human Cognition.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The lack of clarity about the effect of cannabis use on
      cognition may be attributable to the considerable heterogeneity among studies in
      terms of cannabis composition. This article selectively reviews studies examining
      the distinctive effects of cannabinoids on human cognition, particularly those of
      delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). RECENT FINDINGS:
      Research indicates that ?9-THC administration acutely impairs cognition,
      particularly memory and emotional processing. Limited evidence suggests that CBD
      administration might improve cognition in cannabis users but not in individuals
      with neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, studies indicate that some acute
      Delta9-THC-induced cognitive impairments may be prevented if Delta9-THC is
      administered in combination or following CBD treatment. Delta9-THC and CBD have
      also shown opposite effects on cognition-related brain activation, possibly
      reflecting their antagonistic behavioral effects. SUMMARY: Research suggests
      greater cognitive impairments in individuals when exposed to high ?9-THC or low
      CBD cannabis. It is unclear whether at specific concentrations CBD might outweigh
      any harmful effects of Delta9-THC on cognition.

PMID- 28580229
TI  - Mindfulness Reduces Reactivity to Food Cues: Underlying Mechanisms and
      Applications in Daily Life.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mindfulness-based interventions are becoming increasingly
      popular as a means to facilitate healthy eating. We suggest that the decentering
      component of mindfulness, which is the metacognitive insight that all experiences
      are impermanent, plays an especially important role in such interventions. To
      facilitate the application of decentering, we address its psychological mechanism
      to reduce reactivity to food cues, proposing that it makes thoughts and
      simulations in response to food cues less compelling. We discuss supporting
      evidence, applications, and challenges for future research. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Experimental and correlational studies consistently find that the adoption of a
      decentering perspective reduces subjective cravings, physiological reactivity
      such as salivation, and unhealthy eating. SUMMARY: We suggest that the
      decentering perspective can be adopted in any situation to reduce reactivity to
      food cues. Considering people's high exposure to food temptations in daily life,
      this makes it a powerful tool to empower people to eat healthily.

PMID- 28580230
TI  - The Use of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is a mostly chronic mental disorder, and symptomatic relapse is
      frequently observed. It is often associated with social and/or occupational
      decline that can be difficult to reverse. Most patients with the illness need
      long-term pharmacological treatment, and antipsychotic drugs represent the
      mainstay of clinical care. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) are an
      important alternative to oral medication, particularly advantageous in the
      context of compliance management. Several new-generation antipsychotics (NGAs),
      including risperidone, olanzapine, paliperidone, and aripiprazole, have become
      available as long-acting formulations, and new evidence has been accumulating. To
      date, all of the NGA LAIs have demonstrated a statistically and clinically
      significant decrease of relapse rates over placebo. The results of clinical
      trials comparing NGA LAIs with oral antipsychotics (OAPs) are not consistent, as
      being influenced considerably by study design. Superiority of LAIs to OAPs in
      efficacy is most evident in mirror image and cohort studies. New-generation LAIs
      are comparable to their oral mother compounds regarding safety and tolerability
      if one disregards potential injection site complications. There is little
      evidence of efficacy differences between the available LAIs, but they have
      different characteristics in terms of pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic
      profiles, injection interval, cost, requirements for oral supplementation, as
      well as adverse events. Considering these differences is useful for selecting
      LAIs for the treatment of individual patients. There is increasing evidence
      suggesting the use of LAIs in special patient groups, such as first-episode or
      forensic schizophrenia patients. This article reviews data on the use of NGA LAIs
      in schizophrenia and discusses current issues from clinical and methodological
      perspectives.

PMID- 28580232
TI  - Mineralization of a sulfonated textile dye Reactive Red 31 from simulated
      wastewater using pellets of Aspergillus bombycis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reactive Red 31, applied extensively in the commercial textile
      industry, is a hazardous and persistent azo dye compound often present in dye
      manufacturing and textile industrial effluents. Aspergillus bombycis strain was
      isolated from dye contaminated zones of Gujarat Industrial Development
      Corporation, Vatva, Ahmedabad, India. The decolorization potential was monitored
      by the decrease in maximum absorption of the dye using UV-visible spectroscopy.
      Optimization of physicochemical conditions was carried out to achieve maximum
      decolorization of Reactive Red 31 by fungal pellets. RESULTS: Pellets of A.
      bombycis strain were found to decolorize this dye (20 mg/L) under aerobic
      conditions within 12 h. The activity of azoreductase, laccase, phenol oxidase and
      Manganese peroxidase in fungal culture after decolorization was about 8, 7.5, 19
      and 23.7 fold more than before decolorization suggesting that these enzymes might
      be induced by the addition of Reactive Red 31 dye, and thus results in a higher
      decolorization. The lab-scale reactor was developed and mineralization of
      Reactive Red 31 dye by fungal pellets was studied at 6, 12 and 24 h of HRT
      (hydraulic retention time). At 12 h of HRT, decolorization potential, chemical
      oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon reduction (TOC) was 99.02, 94.19,
      and 83.97%, respectively, for 20 mg/L of dye concentration. CONCLUSIONS: Dye
      decolorization potential of A. bombycis culture was influenced by several factors
      such as initial dye concentration, biomass concentration, pH, temperature, and
      required aerated conditions. Induction of azoreductase, laccase, phenol oxidase,
      and Mn-peroxidase enzymes was observed during dye decolorization phase. A.
      bombycis pellets showed potential in mineralization of dye in the aerobic reactor
      system. Isolated fungal strain A. bombycis showed better dye decolorization
      performance in short duration of time (12 h) as compared to other reported fungal
      cultures.Graphical abstractDegradation of RR31 dye in developed aerobic fungal
      pelleted reactor.

PMID- 28580231
TI  - Hormones and Neuropeptide Receptor Heteromers in the Ventral Tegmental Area.
      Targets for the Treatment of Loss of Control of Food Intake and Substance Use
      Disorders.
AB  - Hormones and neuropeptides represent biological correlates of internal
      homeostatic signals detected and integrated in the hypothalamus, which
      establishes a robust functional connection with the ventral tegmental area (VTA).
      The hypothalamus-VTA connection determines the ability of these signals to
      influence central dopaminergic neurotransmission and, therefore, their ability to
      increase responsiveness to their reward-associated stimuli and to establish
      appropriate associative learning. The hypothalamus also provides the main source
      of the multiple neuropeptides that are released in the VTA. With volume
      transmission of neuropeptides and hormones, extrasynaptic receptors within the
      VTA provide a fine-tune mechanism, which depends on the ability of molecularly
      different G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to form heteromers. GPCR heteromer
      is defined as a macromolecular complex composed of at least two different
      receptor units (protomers) with biochemical properties that are demonstrably
      different from those of its individual components. GPCR heteromers can provide
      unique allosteric properties to specific ligands, which provides new avenues for
      drug development. We have identified specific GPCR heteromers in the VTA that
      integrate orexin and CRF neurotransmission and opioid and galanin
      neurotransmission, which play a very significant role in the modulation of
      dopaminergic neuronal activity and which can constitute targets for the treatment
      of loss of control of food intake and substance use disorders.

PMID- 28580233
TI  - Connecting Bone and Fat: The Potential Role for Sclerostin.
AB  - : Sclerostin (SOST), a protein secreted from mature osteocytes in response to
      mechanical unloading and other stimuli, inhibits the osteogenic Wnt/beta-catenin
      pathway in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) impeding their ability to differentiate
      into mineralizing osteoblasts. PURPOSE: This review summarizes the crosstalk
      between adipose tissue and bone. It also reviews the origin, regulation, and role
      of SOST in osteogenesis and brings attention to an emerging role of this protein
      in the regulation of adipogenesis. RECENT FINDINGS: Bone-derived molecules that
      drive MSC adipogenesis have not previously been identified, but recent findings
      suggest that SOST signaling may induce adipogenesis. In vivo SOST acts locally to
      induce changes in bone and, in vitro, increases adipogenesis in 3T3-L1
      preadipocytes. SUMMARY: SOST is able to induce adipogenesis in certain
      preadipocytes, however bone-specific studies are needed to determine the effect
      of local SOST concentrations in healthy and disease models on bone marrow adipose
      tissue.

PMID- 28580234
TI  - GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF MATURATION AND DESISTANCE.
AB  - PURPOSE: With an increase in longitudinal datasets and analyses, scholars have
      made theoretical advances toward understanding desistance, using biological,
      social, and psychological factors. In an effort to integrate the theoretical
      views on desistance, some scholars have argued that each of these views
      represents a piece of adult maturation. Yet to date, research has not empirically
      examined an integrated perspective. The purpose of this study is to conduct an
      exploratory examination of various "domains" of maturation to determine whether
      they explain desistance from crime separately and as a whole. METHODS: Using the
      Rutgers Health and Human Development Project, a longitudinal study spanning ages
      12-31, we develop exploratory measures of maturation in five domains: 1) adult
      social roles, 2) identity/cognitive, 3) psychosocial, 4) civic, and 5)
      neurocognitive. We then utilize growth curve models to examine the relationship
      between these domains and crime over time. RESULTS: Although each of the domains
      is associated with crime at the bivariate level, only three (i.e., psychosocial,
      identity/cognitive transformation, and adult social role) remain significant in
      the growth curve models (2 in within-individual analyses). In addition, a
      combined measure of maturation is related to crime, indicating that greater
      maturation through emerging adulthood has a negative effect on criminal behavior
      and is, therefore, a factor influencing desistance. CONCLUSIONS: Maturation
      emerges as a promising approach to integrating the multiple theoretical views
      that characterize the literature on desistance from crime. Further research
      should develop additional domains and determine the best approach for
      measurement.

PMID- 28580235
TI  - Integrative Health Services in School Health Clinics.
AB  - Objective: Mental health treatment today incorporates neurobiology, genetics,
      neuro-imaging, and pharmacologic mechanisms, offering more options to patients.
      For some, these modern approaches are not viable choices due to reasons such as
      limited access to care, cost, intolerable side effects, and, in the pediatric
      population, fears of potential long-term effects. With the growing prevalence of
      chronic health conditions, concerns for age of onset, (McGorry, Purcell,
      Goldstone, & Amminger, 2011) and a growing population of mental health patients,
      cost-effective and evidence-based treatment options should be evaluated.
      Integrative treatments, also known as complementary and alternative medicine
      (CAM), may offer interventions that meet today's clinical needs. Method: To
      evaluate evidence-based treatment options, we initiated the school-based
      integrative health program (IHP) in January 2011 at three high schools located in
      Massachusetts. Our goal was two-fold: first, to design a holistic treatment
      program and evaluate several integrative modalities, and; second, to determine
      the feasibility of providing a CAM health program through school clinics. Our
      protocol utilized three integrative treatments that addressed stress and anxiety
      conditions. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness affecting over
      40 million adults in the US (Anxiety and Depression Association of America).
      Results: The program has been successfully implemented. Preliminary results
      indicate that this intervention decreased anxiety in these youth. Conclusion:
      Providing integrative techniques to students in the school setting has the
      potential to decrease barriers to accessing care, lowering treatment costs and
      decreasing school absenteeism by instituting care on-site. Offering a holistic
      approach to treatment in schools is feasible. Because utilizing these approaches
      involves their active participation, adolescents can acquire life-long skills
      that improve their ability to cope and confront inevitable life stressors.

PMID- 28580236
TI  - Penicillium citrinum: Opportunistic pathogen or idle bystander? A case analysis
      with demonstration of galactomannan cross-reactivity.
AB  - We present a case of an immunocompromised woman with fever, pulmonary infiltrates
      and multiple bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cultures positive for Penicillium
      citrinum with a concomitant high BAL galactomannan level. We report the results
      of Aspergillus galactomannan testing performed on culture supernatants from her
      P. citrinum strain that confirmed the suspected cross-reactivity. Finally, we
      discuss the clinical significance and antifungal susceptibility of P. citrinum in
      our case and review the literature.

PMID- 28579920
TI  - Measurements of top-quark pair differential cross-sections in the [Formula: see
      text] channel in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] TeV using the ATLAS
      detector.
AB  - This article presents measurements of [Formula: see text] differential cross
      sections in a fiducial phase-space region, using an integrated luminosity of 3.2
      fb[Formula: see text] of proton-proton data at a centre-of-mass energy of
      [Formula: see text] TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015.
      Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum
      and absolute rapidity of the top quark, and of the transverse momentum, absolute
      rapidity and invariant mass of the [Formula: see text] system. The [Formula: see
      text] events are selected by requiring one electron and one muon of opposite
      electric charge, and at least two jets, one of which must be tagged as containing
      a b-hadron. The measured differential cross-sections are compared to predictions
      of next-to-leading order generators matched to parton showers and the
      measurements are found to be consistent with all models within the experimental
      uncertainties with the exception of the Powheg-Box [Formula: see text] Herwig++
      predictions, which differ significantly from the data in both the transverse
      momentum of the top quark and the mass of the [Formula: see text] system.

PMID- 28580238
TI  - Rapid breeding and varietal replacement are critical to adaptation of cropping
      systems in the developing world to climate change.
AB  - Plant breeding is a key mechanism for adaptation of cropping systems to climate
      change. Much discussion of breeding for climate change focuses on genes with
      large effects on heat and drought tolerance, but phenology and stress tolerance
      are highly polygenic. Adaptation will therefore mainly result from continually
      adjusting allele frequencies at many loci through rapid-cycle breeding that
      delivers a steady stream of incrementally improved cultivars. This will require
      access to elite germplasm from other regions, shortened breeding cycles, and
      multi-location testing systems that adequately sample the target population of
      environments. The objective of breeding and seed systems serving smallholder
      farmers should be to ensure that they use varieties developed in the last 10
      years. Rapid varietal turnover must be supported by active dissemination of new
      varieties, and active withdrawal of obsolete ones. Commercial seed systems in
      temperate regions achieve this through competitive seed markets, but in the
      developing world, most crops are not served by competitive commercial seed
      systems, and many varieties date from the end of the Green Revolution (the late
      1970s, when the second generation of modern rice and wheat varieties had been
      widely adopted). These obsolete varieties were developed in a climate different
      than today's, placing farmers at risk. To reduce this risk, a strengthened
      breeding system is needed, with freer international exchange of elite varieties,
      short breeding cycles, high selection intensity, wide-scale phenotyping, and
      accurate selection supported by genomic technology. Governments need to
      incentivize varietal release and dissemination systems to continuously replace
      obsolete varieties.

PMID- 28580237
TI  - Combination liposomal amphotericin B, posaconazole and oral amphotericin B for
      treatment of gastrointestinal Mucorales in an immunocompromised patient.
AB  - Mucormycosis is a life threatening infection caused by fungi in the order
      Mucorales. Mucormycosis can affect any organ system with rhino-orbital-cerebral
      and pulmonary infections being the most predominant infection types.
      Gastrointestinal mucormycosis is rare and accounts for only 4-7% of all cases.
      Here, we present a case of invasive gastrointestinal mucormycosis in an
      immunocompromised host treated with systemic and topical anti-mold therapy.

PMID- 28580239
TI  - Improving nutrition through biofortification: A review of evidence from
      HarvestPlus, 2003 through 2016.
AB  - Biofortification is a feasible and cost-effective means of delivering
      micronutrients to populations that may have limited access to diverse diets and
      other micronutrient interventions. Since 2003, HarvestPlus and its partners have
      demonstrated that this agriculture-based method of addressing micronutrient
      deficiency through plant breeding works. More than 20 million people in farm
      households in developing countries are now growing and consuming biofortified
      crops. This review summarizes key evidence and discusses delivery experiences, as
      well as farmer and consumer adoption. Given the strength of the evidence,
      attention should now shift to an action-oriented agenda for scaling
      biofortification to improve nutrition globally. To reach one billion people by
      2030, there are three key challenges: 1) mainstreaming biofortified traits into
      public plant breeding programs; 2) building consumer demand; and 3) integrating
      biofortification into public and private policies, programs, and investments.
      While many building blocks are in place, institutional leadership is needed to
      continue to drive towards this ambitious goal.

PMID- 28580240
TI  - Endoscopic Fusion of the Accessory Navicular Synchondrosis That Has No Diastasis.
AB  - Accessory navicular bone is a common accessory ossicle of the foot and is present
      in 10% to 14% of normal feet. Less than 1% of the accessory navicular bones are
      symptomatic. Degenerative or traumatic disruption of the accessory navicular
      synchondrosis is one of the main causes of symptomatic accessory navicular. The
      disrupted synchondrosis may or may not be associated with diastasis of the
      synchondrosis. Fusion of the synchondrosis is indicated if the pain fails to
      respond to conservative measures. The purpose of this Technical Note is to
      describe a minimally invasive approach for fusion of the synchondrosis that has
      no diastasis.

PMID- 28580241
TI  - Lateral Capsular Fixation: An Implant-Free Technique to Prevent Meniscal
      Allograft Extrusion.
AB  - Although several surgical techniques have been described to perform meniscal
      allograft transplantation with good clinical results and although different
      methods of capsular stabilization can be found in the literature, there is no
      standard surgical technique to prevent a common complication in the most of
      series: the tendency to a radial displacement or extrusion of the transplanted
      menisci. We present a simple, reproducible, and implant-free technique to perform
      a lateral capsular fixation (capsulodesis) at the time of only the soft-tissue
      fixation technique of meniscal allograft transplantation in an effort to reduce
      or prevent the risk of graft extrusion. Using a minimum of two 2.4-mm tunnels
      drilled from the contralateral side of the tibia with the help of a regular
      tibial anterior cruciate ligament guide, a capsular attachment to the lateral
      tibial plateau is obtained.

PMID- 28580245
TI  - Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Augmentation: Surgical Technique Using Bovine Collagen
      Bioinductive Implant.
AB  - Symptomatic partial-thickness rotator cuff tears and full-thickness tears with
      poor tissue quality often pose a dilemma for orthopaedic surgeons. Despite
      advances in repair techniques and fixation devices, retear rates remain high.
      Progression of partial-thickness tears has been noted to be over 50%, with
      remaining fibers seeing increased strain. Patch augmentation that induces a
      healing response while decreasing peak strain of adjacent tissue is becoming more
      popular among orthopaedic surgeons. Therefore, we present an all-arthroscopic
      technique guide for application of a Food and Drug Administration-approved bovine
      bioinductive patch (Rotation Medical, Plymouth, MN).

PMID- 28580244
TI  - Arthroscopic Technique for Isolated Posterolateral Rotational Instability of the
      Knee.
AB  - Isolated posterolateral corner injury is an uncommon injury that could be a
      source of unexplained knee pain and dysfunction. Most of these patients present
      instability caused by concomitant ligament injuries. Numerous studies have shown
      open approach posterolateral repair or reconstruction surgeries to restore
      posterolateral rotational stability. Still, there is a certain population of
      patients who present posterolateral rotation instability without significant
      injury to the fibular collateral ligament, popliteal fibular ligament, and
      popliteus tendon. The posterolateral capsular ligament is critical to provide
      posterolateral rotation stability. In this Technical Note, with video, we show a
      completely arthroscopic approach to stabilize the posterolateral corner, by
      stabilizing the posterior lateral joint capsule with the lateral meniscus
      attached to the rim of the lateral tibial plateau.

PMID- 28580249
TI  - Endoscopic Adhesiolysis of Flexor Hallucis Longus Muscle.
AB  - Adhesion of the flexor hallucis longus (FHL) muscle to the distal tibia can occur
      after distal tibial fracture, distal fibular fracture, low tibial osteotomy, soft
      tissue injury at the posterior ankle, subclinical compartment syndrome of the
      distal deep posterior compartment of the leg, or Volkmann contracture after deep
      posterior compartment syndrome of the leg. The purpose of this Technical Note is
      to report the endoscopic approach of FHL muscle adhesiolysis. It is indicated in
      patients with symptomatic adhesion of the FHL muscle and contraindicated if there
      is entrapment of the FHL muscle or tendon in the fracture callus or if there is
      extensive fibrosis and contracture of the FHL muscle as a result of Volkmann
      contracture after deep posterior compartment syndrome of the leg.

PMID- 28580243
TI  - Reconstruction of the Popliteomeniscal Fascicles for Treatment of Recurrent
      Subluxation of the Lateral Meniscus.
AB  - Recurrent subluxation of the lateral meniscus is characterized by episodes of
      mechanical locking of the knee joint. To completely preclude the posterior
      segment of the lateral meniscus from undergoing anterior dislocation during deep
      knee flexion, the structures to which it is attached need to be relatively taut.
      The posterosuperior popliteomeniscal fascicle retains its tension during deep
      knee flexion; therefore, reconstruction of the posterosuperior and anteroinferior
      popliteomeniscal fascicles was performed with an autograft harvested from the
      iliotibial band. This technique provides stabilization of the posterior segment
      of the lateral meniscus during deep knee flexion without interfering with the
      normal movement of the lateral meniscus throughout the range of motion of the
      knee joint.

PMID- 28580246
TI  - Endoscopic Resection of Giant Cell Tumor of the Extensor Tendon of the Foot.
AB  - The localized form of giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath is one of the most
      common soft tissue tumors of the foot and ankle region. It is characteristically
      a benign, sharply localized peritendinous fibrous mass in the synovial or
      tendinous spaces. The purpose of this Technical Note is to present the technical
      details of endoscopic resection of giant cell tumor of the extensor tendon of the
      foot with preservation of the tendon. It is indicated in the localized form of
      giant cell tumor of the extensor tendon at the foot dorsum. It is contraindicated
      in cases with a diffuse giant cell tumor, a giant cell tumor of the extensor
      tendon at the phalangeal level, or involvement of the flexor tendon.

PMID- 28580247
TI  - Repair of Proximal Hamstring Tears: A Surgical Technique.
AB  - Proximal hamstring tears are among the most common sports-related injuries. These
      injuries often occur as strains or partial tears at the proximal muscle belly or
      the musculotendinous junction, with avulsion injuries of the proximal attachment
      occurring less frequently. Regardless of the mechanism, they produce functional
      impairment and negatively affect an athlete's performance. Various
      classifications for these injuries are reported in the literature. Early surgical
      treatment is recommended for patients with either a 2-tendon tear/avulsion with
      more than 2 cm retraction or those with complete 3-tendon tears. Surgery can be
      performed in the chronic phase but it is technically demanding because of scar
      formation and tendon retraction. This Technical Note describes a biomechanically
      validated surgical technique for repair of the proximal hamstring tears.

PMID- 28580252
TI  - Arthroscopic Hip Labral Augmentation Technique With Iliotibial Band Graft.
AB  - The importance of the acetabular labrum has been well documented for the function
      and overall health of the hip joint. Several biomechanical studies have shown the
      sealing effect of the acetabular labrum. In the past decade, labral repair
      procedures have gained increased attention, with the literature suggesting that
      the outcomes after hip arthroscopy are directly related to labral preservation.
      However, a primary labral repair can be challenging in cases of hypoplastic,
      ossified, or complex and irreparable labral tears in which there is insufficient
      tissue to perform a primary repair. For these cases, labral reconstruction
      becomes a viable option with good outcomes at short-term and midterm follow-up. A
      subset of these patients may show viable remnants of the labral circumferential
      fibers but, because of the low tissue volume, these remnant fibers are unable to
      maintain the suction seal. In this situation, a labral augmentation may be a
      viable alternative to labral reconstruction while preserving as much native
      labral tissue as possible. The purpose of this Technical Note is to describe an
      arthroscopic hip labral augmentation technique using iliotibial band autograft or
      allograft.

PMID- 28580248
TI  - Management of the Stiff Shoulder With Arthroscopic Circumferential Capsulotomy
      and Axillary Nerve Release.
AB  - Management of the stiff shoulder is a common and frequently daunting clinical
      scenario. Arthroscopic capsular release is usually an option for management of
      severe, chronic glenohumeral joint contractures when conservative treatment
      fails. Technical hurdles including a thickened capsule, reduction in joint
      volume, and difficulty with positioning the shoulder intraoperatively can make
      this procedure challenging. In addition, incomplete release and recalcitrant
      stiffness are frequent issues. We believe a complete release of the capsule
      entails special attention to the axillary pouch and requires identification and
      protection of the axillary nerve. We present a technique for a complete
      arthroscopic circumferential capsulotomy and detail our approach to safely
      dissect and protect the axillary nerve under arthroscopic visualization.

PMID- 28580257
TI  - Posterior Surgical Approach to the Knee.
AB  - Posterior knee approaches are reliable techniques to address the treatment of
      various pathologies of the posterior region of the knee, including Baker cyst
      excision, tibial plateau fracture fixation, posterior cruciate ligament avulsions
      and inlay reconstructions, femoral condyle cartilage procedures, posterior
      meniscal repair and loose body removal among others. Surgery in the posterior
      knee region can be challenging because of the presence of neurovascular
      structures including the tibial nerve, popliteal artery and vein, and common
      peroneal nerve; thus, it is less commonly performed. The purpose of this
      Technical Note is to describe the posteromedial approach to the knee, its
      anatomic considerations, and how to avoid complications related to the surgical
      approach.

PMID- 28580242
TI  - Anatomic Femoral and Tibial Tunnel Placement During Anterior Cruciate Ligament
      Reconstruction: Anteromedial Portal All-Inside and Outside-In Techniques.
AB  - Tunnel malposition is one of the most common technical reasons for anterior
      cruciate ligament reconstruction failure. Small changes in tunnel placement can
      result in significant differences in outcome. More anatomic placement of the
      tunnels can lead to greater knee stability and a more accurate reproduction of
      native knee kinematics. This Technical Note describes 2 tibial tunnel-independent
      methods to obtain anatomic femoral tunnel placement. The all-inside anteromedial
      portal technique requires only minimal surgical incisions but allows precise
      femoral tunnel placement. However, hyperflexion of the knee is required, adequate
      surgical assistance is necessary, and this technique may be susceptible to graft
      tunnel mismatch. The outside-in technique may be more beneficial in obese
      patients, skeletally immature patients, or revision cases. On the downside, it
      does require an additional 2-cm surgical incision. This article also provides
      surgical pearls to fine-tune tibial tunnel placement.

PMID- 28580254
TI  - Use of a Cutting Instrument for Fresh Osteochondral Distal Tibia Allograft
      Preparation: Treatment of Glenoid Bone Loss.
AB  - Glenoid bone loss presents a major risk for glenohumeral instability that has
      been well recognized as a cause of instability recurrence after attempted Bankart
      repair, and although most surgeons consider the Latarjet procedure as the gold
      standard, failures can occur with this technique as well and the search for
      alternative grafts to address glenoid bone loss is a major topic of ongoing
      research in the field. Of these techniques, the distal tibia allograft (DTA) has
      been shown to provide an excellent option to restore glenoid biomechanics, due to
      its congruency with the humeral head, dense bony quality, and the facility of
      harvest. The correct preparation of the DTA is essential to provide the most
      anatomic reconstruction possible and to avoid damage to the graft. The purpose of
      this Technical Note is to present our technique for cutting the DTA in detail,
      using a special workstation to optimize this procedure.

PMID- 28580253
TI  - Arthroscopic Patellar Lateral Facetectomy.
AB  - Isolated patellofemoral osteoarthritis is relatively prevalent, with the lateral
      facet of the patella being the most commonly affected portion. This pathology can
      be a result of a patellar maltracking syndrome, patella instability, or
      idiopathic degenerative changes. A thorough diagnostic work-up with a physical
      examination and imaging studies are mandatory for a proper diagnosis and to rule
      out other causes of patellofemoral knee pain. These patients are often treated
      nonoperatively with exercises for patella mobility, intra-articular injections,
      braces, patellar tracking, quadriceps balance and strength, and activity
      modification. Patients with lateral patellar pain that is refractory to
      nonoperative management, and who have a clear bony deformity on the patella
      overriding the lateral aspect of the trochlea, can benefit from surgical
      intervention. We recommend an arthroscopic lateral patellar facetectomy because
      the joint can be dynamically assessed, treated, and re-evaluated intraoperatively
      to ensure that normal bony contact has been restored.

PMID- 28580251
TI  - Multiligament Reconstruction of the Knee in the Setting of Knee Dislocation With
      a Medial-Sided Injury.
AB  - Multiple ligament knee injuries are complex pathologies that often result from
      traumatic knee dislocations. Both a high level of suspicion and a thorough
      clinical and radiographic examination are mandatory to diagnose and identify all
      injured structures. Reconstruction of all injured ligaments is recommended to aid
      in early mobilization and to avoid joint stiffness or graft failure. For knee
      dislocations involving injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, posterior
      cruciate ligament, and medial-sided structures, a repair and augmentation of the
      medial collateral ligament, together with an anatomic reconstruction of the
      anterior cruciate ligament and double-bundle posterior cruciate ligament, is
      recommended. In the setting of these complex reconstructions, there are several
      technical aspects that require consideration to ensure concise and efficient
      treatment of these injuries. Graft choice, sequence of reconstruction, tunnel
      position and orientation, and graft tensioning all pose surgical challenges, and
      require dedicated preoperative preparation and planning. The purpose of this
      Technical Note is to report a safe, effective, and reproducible surgical
      technique for treatment of multiligament injuries in the setting of a knee
      dislocation with a medial-sided component (classified as KD-III-M in the Schenck
      classification system).

PMID- 28580250
TI  - Combined All-Inside Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction and Minimally
      Invasive Posterolateral Corner Reconstruction Using Ipsilateral Semitendinosus
      and Gracilis Autograft.
AB  - The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most commonly injured knee ligament,
      particularly among adolescents and young adults. Unrecognized posterolateral
      laxity is understood as a major cause of ACL reconstruction failure, and
      concomitant injury to the posterolateral corner (PLC) is prevalent and
      underdetected. We advocate screening all ACL-deficient knees for PLC injury and
      present a technique combining minimally invasive PLC reconstruction with anatomic
      all-inside ACL reconstruction. The combined procedure uses only the ipsilateral
      hamstring tendons representing a major surgical advantage over traditional
      management approaches. The semitendinosus is quadrupled and attached to 2
      adjustable suspensory cortical fixation devices to form the ACL graft. The
      gracilis tendon is looped through the fibula head and secured in a single femoral
      tunnel for the PLC reconstruction via 2 minimally invasive incisions. The use of
      a single femoral PLC tunnel combined with a single femoral ACL socket minimizes
      the risk of tunnel convergence.

PMID- 28580262
TI  - Minimally Invasive Combined Anterior and Anterolateral Stabilization of the Knee
      Using Hamstring Tendons and Adjustable-Loop Suspensory Fixation Device: Surgical
      Technique.
AB  - Despite the numerous techniques described regarding isolated anterior cruciate
      ligament (ACL) reconstruction, many authors have reported that residual knee
      rotational instability is not always eliminated. The combination of lateral extra
      articular knee tenodesis and ACL reconstruction is an alternative surgical
      approach with very promising clinical results. The purpose of this article is to
      describe a reliable and reproducible technique of combined ACL reconstruction and
      lateral extra-articular knee tenodesis using a continuous looped hamstring tendon
      autograft. A 4-strand graft inside the joint and a 2-strand graft for the
      tenodesis are attached to 2 adjustable-loop button suspensory fixation devices.

PMID- 28580256
TI  - Biologic Inlay Osteochondral Reconstruction: Arthroscopic One-Step Osteochondral
      Lesion Repair in the Knee Using Morselized Bone Grafting and Hyaluronic Acid
      Based Scaffold Embedded With Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate.
AB  - Cartilage injury of the knee that is associated with significant subchondral bone
      loss can result in great morbidity, and treatment options that provide durable
      repair are limited. Osteochondral autograft and allograft reconstruction of these
      lesions has been used extensively; however, these techniques often require a more
      invasive surgical exposure, and restoring the natural articular surface radius of
      curvature can be challenging, particularly in larger lesions. Cell-based repair
      of these lesions, using autologous chondrocytes in conjunction with bone
      grafting, has been used with success, although this procedure requires the
      patient to undergo 2 operations, and access is often restricted due to the high
      associated costs. Comparable medium-term clinical outcomes have been shown with
      scaffold-associated mesenchymal stem cell grafting, and this cell-based procedure
      may also be performed arthroscopically to minimize patient morbidity. In cases of
      cartilage injury associated with bone loss, this procedure has great potential to
      repair osteochondral injury when used in conjunction with bone grafting. We
      present the one-step arthroscopic technique of biologic inlay osteochondral
      reconstruction in the knee, using an autologous bone graft and a hyaluronic acid
      based scaffold embedded with bone marrow aspirate concentrate, to treat full
      thickness cartilage lesions associated with significant subchondral bone loss.

PMID- 28580259
TI  - Posterolateral Rotatory Instability of the Elbow: Part I. Mechanism of Injury and
      the Posterolateral Rotatory Drawer Test.
AB  - Posterolateral rotatory instability (PLRI) is the most commonly encountered
      pattern of elbow instability. It is the result of disruption of the lateral
      collateral ligament complex leading to a posterolateral rotatory subluxation of
      the ulna and radial head. A number of examination maneuvers have been described
      to assist in clinical identification of PLRI. Despite this, some inconsistency in
      the description of these techniques remains in the orthopaedic literature. This
      Technical Note details the mechanism of injury and patient presentation, and
      emphasizes the primacy of the posterolateral rotatory drawer test in the
      assessment of PLRI while providing video instruction on how it should be
      performed.

PMID- 28580258
TI  - A Method for Capsular Management and Avoidance of Iatrogenic Instability:
      Minimally Invasive Capsulotomy in Hip Arthroscopy.
AB  - Most surgeons create a T-shaped or interportal capsulotomy to ensure good
      visibility when performing hip arthroscopy. This entails transecting the
      iliofemoral ligament, which may or may not be repaired at the end of the
      procedure. Cases of iatrogenic hip instability and pain after hip arthroscopy
      suggest that the iliofemoral ligament plays a crucial role in the stability of
      the hip joint, and thus preservation should be a goal in hip arthroscopy. We
      describe a minimally invasive iliofemoral ligament-sparing capsulotomy, guided by
      the reflected head of the rectus tendon, that can be easily repaired after
      arthroscopic rim trimming, labral refixation, and offset correction.

PMID- 28580255
TI  - Arthroscopy-Assisted Fabella Excision: Surgical Technique.
AB  - The fabella is an anatomic variant not seen in all individuals and can
      potentially be a source of chronic knee pain due to chondromalacia,
      osteoarthritis, fractures, or biomechanical pressure against the lateral femoral
      condyle. It is situated intra-articular, close to the lateral femoral condyle,
      the lateral gastrocnemius head tendon, and the fabellofibular ligament. Given its
      rarity, the diagnosis of a symptomatic fabella is often overlooked when
      evaluating patients with persistent posterolateral knee pain. However, this
      diagnosis should always be considered, especially in high-performance runners,
      bikers, and triathletes. Although nonoperative management can potentially resolve
      symptoms associated with this condition, fabella excision via arthroscopically
      assisted surgery is a reliable and safe alternative to treat patients who do not
      benefit from nonsurgical treatment. We present our technique detailing fabella
      excision for treatment of posterolateral knee pain, which includes an
      arthroscopic evaluation of the fabella to assess damage to the femoral condyle
      and minimize over-resection and potential damage to surrounding structures.

PMID- 28580261
TI  - All-Arthroscopic Coracoclavicular Ligament Reconstruction Surgical Technique
      Using a Semitendinosus Allograft and Tenodesis Screws.
AB  - Acromioclavicular joint injuries account for 9% of shoulder girdle injuries and
      are most often associated with direct blows to the shoulder or axially directed
      forces onto the ipsilateral extremity. Type IV, V, and VI injuries are generally
      managed surgically, whereas type I and II injuries are treated with sling
      immobilization, early shoulder range of motion, and physical therapy. Type III
      injuries are more controversial but are generally managed surgically in the
      active and high-demand patient. When surgical treatment is indicated, the primary
      goal of a coracoclavicular (CC) ligament reconstruction is to restore anatomic
      reduction of the acromioclavicular joint and reconstruct the biomechanical forces
      of the CC ligaments. Many open surgical techniques are currently used to achieve
      these goals but can increase patient morbidity. We describe a technique for an
      all-arthroscopic CC ligament reconstruction using a semitendinosus allograft and
      BioComposite tenodesis screws (Arthrex) without disruption of the deltoid
      attachment onto the distal clavicle.

PMID- 28580260
TI  - Posterolateral Rotatory Instability of the Elbow: Part II. Supplementary
      Examination and Dynamic Imaging Techniques.
AB  - Currently, a number of examination and imaging techniques exist for diagnosing
      posterolateral rotatory instability of the elbow. Although the posterolateral
      rotatory drawer is the primary examination maneuver, other special tests include
      the lateral pivot-shift test, prone push-up test, chair push-up test, and
      tabletop push-up test. In addition, posterolateral rotatory instability can be
      evaluated using radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, dynamic fluoroscopy, or
      dynamic ultrasound. In this Technical Note, each of these tests is described in
      detail. Video instruction is also provided to further explain the techniques and
      provide examples of positive tests.

PMID- 28580263
TI  - Flexor Hallucis Longus Tenosynovitis and First Metatarsophalangeal Synovitis
      After Penetrating Nail Prick Injury: Treated by Zone 3 Flexor Hallucis Longus
      Tendoscopy and Metatarsosesamoid Arthroscopy.
AB  - Pedal penetrating nail prick injury around the first metatarsal head can result
      in persistent synovitis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint and tenosynovitis
      of the flexor hallucis longus tendon. Exploration and debridement is indicated if
      the condition does not improve with antibiotics. Open surgery requires extensive
      dorsal and plantar incisions. The purpose of this Technical Note is to report the
      combined arthroscopic and tendoscopic approaches to address the first
      metatarsophalangeal joint and flexor hallucis longus tendon pathologies. Because
      it is a result of a pedal injury, the layer-by-layer exploration and debridement
      is from plantar dorsally. It starts with zone 3 flexor hallucis longus
      tendoscopy, followed by arthroscopy of the metatarsosesamoid compartment, and
      finally arthroscopy of the metatarsophalangeal compartment.

PMID- 28580267
TI  - Fatigue Behavior of Nitinol Anterior Cruciate Ligament Graft and Inappropriate
      Femoral Tunnel Placement: Single-Stage Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament
      Reconstruction Surgery.
AB  - Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is the most common ligament injury in the
      knee, and progressive instability and disability may develop in a significant
      number of patients. The incidence of ACL reconstruction is rapidly increasing, as
      is the number of failures. Although ACL reconstruction is a common procedure,
      less than satisfactory outcomes have been reported to occur in up to 25% of
      patients. The reasons for clinical failure after ACL reconstruction are numerous
      but can be broadly separated into 3 categories: technical, biological, and
      mechanical failures. It is generally thought that poor tunnel positioning
      (especially the femoral tunnel) is the most common technical error. Revision ACL
      reconstruction can be performed in 1 or 2 stages. The decision to perform a
      multistage approach is based on the position and size of the original tunnels.
      The varied success rates and associated advantages and disadvantages of each
      method have resulted in controversy as to the best treatment for revision ACL
      surgery. We describe our preferred operative technique to remove a fractured
      nitinol synthetic ACL graft and manage single-stage revision ACL reconstruction
      without bone grafting.

PMID- 28580265
TI  - Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Harvesting and Processing Technique.
AB  - Bone marrow obtained by iliac crest aspiration is a common source for harvesting
      mesenchymal stem cells, other progenitor cells, and associated cytokine/growth
      factors. Recent studies have reported good to excellent outcomes with the use of
      bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) for pain relief in the treatment of focal
      chondral lesions and osteoarthritis of the knee. However, the harvesting and
      processing technique are crucial to achieve satisfactory results. Several studies
      have examined outcomes after BMAC injection, with encouraging results, but there
      is a lack of consensus in terms of the frequency of injection, the amount of BMAC
      that is injected, and the timing of BMAC injections. The purpose of this
      Technical Note was to describe a standardized bone marrow aspiration harvesting
      technique and processing method.

PMID- 28580264
TI  - Correction of Recurred Hallux Valgus Deformity by Endoscopic Distal Soft Tissue
      Procedure.
AB  - The underlying reason for recurrence of hallux valgus deformity after bunion
      surgery is multifactorial and includes surgeon-based and patient-based factors as
      well as original components of deformity initially unaddressed at the index
      procedure. Surgical treatment of a recurred hallux valgus deformity should be
      undertaken using the same guidelines for correction of a primary hallux valgus
      deformity. It requires correction of bony alignment, restoration of joint
      congruity, and achievement of soft tissue balance. The purpose of this Technical
      Note is to describe the details of endoscopic soft tissue procedure to correct a
      recurred hallux valgus deformity. To successfully complete this procedure,
      adequate lateral release to achieve soft tissue balance around the first
      metatarsophalangeal joint with reduction of the sesamoid bones is mandatory.

PMID- 28580268
TI  - Endoscopic Resection of Medial Extra-articular Cysts of the Knee.
AB  - Although most of the parameniscal cysts are very small and asymptomatic, some of
      them can present with a painful mass or snapping knee. Because parameniscal cysts
      are almost always associated with horizontal meniscal tears, arthroscopic partial
      meniscectomy of the involved part of meniscus and intra-articular cyst drainage
      has become the most accepted procedure. However, arthroscopic cyst decompression
      through partial meniscectomy to the meniscocapsular junction to expose the
      communication between the cyst and the knee joint may sacrifice some of the
      healthy parts of the meniscus especially when meniscal tear is peripheral.
      Moreover, internal drainage may not be an adequate treatment for a cyst larger
      than 5 cm in size or a multiloculated cyst. The excision of the cyst is a more
      appropriate treatment option in these situations. The purpose of this Technical
      Note is to describe the details of endoscopic resection of medial extra-articular
      cysts of the knee. This technique is indicated in symptomatic medial extra
      articular cysts of the knee with peripheral or no tear of the medial meniscus,
      especially if the cysts are large and multiloculated.

PMID- 28580266
TI  - Open Patellar Tendon Tenotomy, Debridement, and Repair Technique Augmented With
      Platelet-Rich Plasma for Recalcitrant Patellar Tendinopathy.
AB  - Patellar tendinopathy is a disabling condition that frequently affects the
      athletic population, especially athletes undergoing repetitive impact forces as a
      result of jumping and landing activities. Most cases are initially treated
      conservatively, but if symptoms persist, surgical treatment is warranted. Options
      for surgical treatment include both arthroscopic and open techniques. The purpose
      of this Technical Note is to detail our open patellar tendon tenotomy,
      debridement, and repair technique augmented with platelet-rich plasma.

PMID- 28580270
TI  - Anatomical Glenoid Reconstruction Using Fresh Osteochondral Distal Tibia
      Allograft After Failed Latarjet Procedure.
AB  - In the treatment of recurrent anterior glenohumeral instability, the Latarjet
      procedure has been shown to fail. This results in a need for viable revisional
      procedures for patients who present with this challenging pathology. We report
      our preferred technique for anatomical glenoid reconstruction using a fresh
      osteochondral distal tibia allograft after a failed Latarjet procedure. This bony
      augmentation technique employs a readily available dense, weight-bearing osseous
      tissue source that has excellent conformity, as well as the added benefit of a
      cartilaginous surface to correct chondral deficiencies. Given its effectiveness
      in the Latarjet revision setting and low complication rate, the distal tibia
      allograft is a reasonable treatment option.

PMID- 28580269
TI  - Complete Arthroscopic Synovectomy in Management of Recalcitrant Septic Arthritis
      of the Knee Joint.
AB  - Septic arthritis of the knee is a potentially life-threatening condition and can
      be associated with many late complications. The key of success of management of
      septic arthritis of the knee joint is early aggressive treatment of surgical
      debridement and decompression and antibiotic therapy. In adults, arthroscopic
      drainage with synovectomy is the treatment of choice in septic arthritis of the
      knee, with lower rates of infectious recurrence than needle aspiration and better
      functional results than open surgery. Repeated arthroscopic debridement and
      drainage is needed in case of delayed treatment with an advanced arthroscopic
      stage of the infection, early unfavorable course, or multiresistant germ. In
      these situations, synovectomy should be as complete as possible to maximize the
      reduction of the bacterial burden and avoid the need of further debridement. The
      purpose of this Technical Note is to describe the details of complete
      arthroscopic synovectomy of the knee joint. This includes 2 circles of
      circumferential synovectomy. One circle is in the axial plane and includes the
      intercondylar notch, anterior, posterior, medial, and lateral compartments. The
      other circle is in the coronal plane and includes the supra-patellar pouch,
      medial and lateral recesses, and the anterior compartment.

PMID- 28580271
TI  - Meniscal Allograft Transplantation With Soft Tissue in Bone Socket Fixation:
      Arthroscopic Technique With Technical Pearls.
AB  - Meniscal allograft transplantation may slow the progression of degenerative
      changes in the meniscus-deficient knee. The current literature suggests patients
      can experience good early to mid-term satisfaction and patient-reported outcomes
      with reasonable expectations of return to work. More ambitious applications in
      athletes have also shown good results although long-term data are lacking.
      Traditionally, meniscal allograft transplantation has been considered an open
      procedure with incorporation of bone blocks from the allograft source. However,
      as arthroscopic techniques have advanced, it has become possible to perform this
      procedure through a predominantly arthroscopic approach while securing the soft
      tissue graft in bone tunnels. The current demonstration provides this background
      and technical pearls for success in arthroscopic meniscal allograft
      transplantation.

PMID- 28580272
TI  - Proximal Patellar Tendon Repair: Internal Brace Technique With Unicortical
      Buttons and Suture Tape.
AB  - Patellar tendon ruptures may be considerably limiting, especially in younger and
      highly active patients. These injuries ultimately result in a complete inability
      to maintain extension of the knee, thereby placing strict impediment on physical
      activity. As a result, a durable repair construct via surgery is necessary to
      allow patients to return to their preinjury activity level. Because of the
      inherent difficulty in maintaining patellar tendon position after repair, and to
      avoid failure of the tendon healing to the patella, we recommend using an
      internal brace construct. The construct uses bone tunnels in the patella and also
      cortical buttons on the tibia with suture tape whipstitched through the tendon.
      We feel that this provides an enhanced fixation construct. The purpose of this
      Technical Note is to describe our preferred method for proximal patellar tendon
      repair via an internal brace construct with unicortical buttons and suture tape.

PMID- 28580273
TI  - All-Suture Repair for Compressive Rotator Cuff Tears: Reducing the Traction of
      the Tissue.
AB  - Tears of the rotator cuff are a frequent pathology, but the best surgical
      procedure remains unclear. The arthroscopic approach has become the gold
      standard, but there are many different suture configurations that can be used. We
      describe an all-suture repair system with which the anatomical reduction of the
      rotator cuff is achieved performing traction from the anchor of the lateral row
      to subsequently performing a suture bridge suture from the medial row. The major
      advantage of this technique is that it creates compression forces and minimizing
      tensioning of the tissue.

PMID- 28580274
TI  - Hip Arthroscopy Capsular Closure: The Figure of Eight Technique.
AB  - Hip arthroscopy techniques have continued to evolve for femoroacetabular
      impingement and other intra-articular pathologies. However, there is still debate
      about the importance and technique of routine capsular closure. We present an
      efficient and reliable technique for creating a watertight capsular closure to
      prevent iatrogenic macro and microinstability. This Technical Note details our
      stepwise technique using figure of eight sutures to obtain a complete and secure
      capsular closure.

PMID- 28580275
TI  - Forecasting Trends in Disability in a Super-Aging Society: Adapting the Future
      Elderly Model to Japan.
AB  - Japan has experienced pronounced population aging, and now has the highest
      proportion of elderly adults in the world. Yet few projections of Japan's future
      demography go beyond estimating population by age and sex to forecast the complex
      evolution of the health and functioning of the future elderly. This study
      estimates a new state-transition microsimulation model - the Japanese Future
      Elderly Model (FEM) - for Japan. We use the model to forecast disability and
      health for Japan's future elderly. Our simulation suggests that by 2040, over 27
      percent of Japan's elderly will exhibit 3 or more limitations in IADLs and social
      functioning; almost one in 4 will experience difficulties with 3 or more ADLs;
      and approximately one in 5 will suffer limitations in cognitive or intellectual
      functioning. Since the majority of the increase in disability arises from the
      aging of the Japanese population, prevention efforts that reduce age-specific
      morbidity can help reduce the burden of disability but may have only a limited
      impact on reducing the overall prevalence of disability among Japanese elderly.
      While both age and morbidity contribute to a predicted increase in disability
      burden among elderly Japanese in the future, our simulation results suggest that
      the impact of population aging exceeds the effect of age-specific morbidity on
      increasing disability in Japan's future.

PMID- 28580276
TI  - The dynamics of physical and mental health in the older population.
AB  - Mental and physical aspects are both integral to health but little is known about
      the dynamic relationship between them. We consider the dynamic relationship
      between mental and physical health using a sample of 11,203 individuals in six
      waves (2002-2013) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). We estimate
      conditional linear and non-linear random-effects regression models to identify
      the effects of past physical health, measured by Activities of Daily Living
      (ADL), and past mental health, measured by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies
      Depression (CES-D) scale, on both present physical and mental health. We find
      that both mental and physical health are moderately state-dependent. Better past
      mental health increases present physical health significantly. Better past
      physical health has a larger effect on present mental health. Past mental health
      has stronger effects on present physical health than physical activity or
      education. It explains 2.0% of the unobserved heterogeneity in physical health.
      Past physical health has stronger effects on present mental health than health
      investments, income or education. It explains 0.4% of the unobserved
      heterogeneity in mental health. These cross-effects suggest that health policies
      aimed at specific aspects of health should consider potential spill-over effects.

PMID- 28580277
TI  - Expression and functional assessment of candidate type 2 diabetes susceptibility
      genes identify four new genes contributing to human insulin secretion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >100 loci
      independently contributing to type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk. However, translational
      implications for precision medicine and for the development of novel treatments
      have been disappointing, due to poor knowledge of how these loci impact T2D
      pathophysiology. Here, we aimed to measure the expression of genes located nearby
      T2D associated signals and to assess their effect on insulin secretion from
      pancreatic beta cells. METHODS: The expression of 104 candidate T2D
      susceptibility genes was measured in a human multi-tissue panel, through PCR-free
      expression assay. The effects of the knockdown of beta-cell enriched genes were
      next investigated on insulin secretion from the human EndoC-betaH1 beta-cell
      line. Finally, we performed RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) so as to assess the pathways
      affected by the knockdown of the new genes impacting insulin secretion from EndoC
      betaH1, and we analyzed the expression of the new genes in mouse models with
      altered pancreatic beta-cell function. RESULTS: We found that the candidate T2D
      susceptibility genes' expression is significantly enriched in pancreatic beta
      cells obtained by laser capture microdissection or sorted by flow cytometry and
      in EndoC-betaH1 cells, but not in insulin sensitive tissues. Furthermore, the
      knockdown of seven T2D-susceptibility genes (CDKN2A, GCK, HNF4A, KCNK16, SLC30A8,
      TBC1D4, and TCF19) with already known expression and/or function in beta cells
      changed insulin secretion, supporting our functional approach. We showed first
      evidence for a role in insulin secretion of four candidate T2D-susceptibility
      genes (PRC1, SRR, ZFAND3, and ZFAND6) with no previous knowledge of presence and
      function in beta cells. RNA-seq in EndoC-betaH1 cells with decreased expression
      of PRC1, SRR, ZFAND6, or ZFAND3 identified specific gene networks related to T2D
      pathophysiology. Finally, a positive correlation between the expression of Ins2
      and the expression of Prc1, Srr, Zfand6, and Zfand3 was found in mouse pancreatic
      islets with altered beta-cell function. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the
      ability of post-GWAS functional studies to identify new genes and pathways
      involved in human pancreatic beta-cell function and in T2D pathophysiology.

PMID- 28580278
TI  - FGF21 does not require adipocyte AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) or the
      phosphorylation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) to mediate improvements in whole
      body glucose homeostasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) shows great potential for the
      treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes, as its long-acting analogue reduces
      body weight and improves lipid profiles of participants in clinical studies;
      however, the intracellular mechanisms mediating these effects are poorly
      understood. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important energy sensor of
      the cell and a molecular target for anti-diabetic medications. This work examined
      the role of AMPK in mediating the glucose and lipid-lowering effects of FGF21.
      METHODS: Inducible adipocyte AMPK beta1beta2 knockout mice (ibeta1beta2AKO) and
      littermate controls were fed a high fat diet (HFD) and treated with native FGF21
      or saline for two weeks. Additionally, HFD-fed mice with knock-in mutations on
      the AMPK phosphorylation sites of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC)1 and ACC2 (DKI
      mice) along with wild-type (WT) controls received long-acting FGF21 for two
      weeks. RESULTS: Consistent with previous studies, FGF21 treatment significantly
      reduced body weight, adiposity, and liver lipids in HFD fed mice. To add, FGF21
      improved circulating lipids, glycemic control, and insulin sensitivity. These
      effects were independent of adipocyte AMPK and were not associated with changes
      in browning of white (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). Lastly, we assessed
      whether FGF21 exerted its effects through the AMPK/ACC axis, which is critical in
      the therapeutic benefits of the anti-diabetic medication metformin. ACC DKI mice
      had improved glucose and insulin tolerance and a reduction in body weight, body
      fat and hepatic steatosis similar to WT mice in response to FGF21 administration.
      CONCLUSIONS: These data illustrate that the metabolic improvements upon FGF21
      administration are independent of adipocyte AMPK, and do not require the
      inhibitory action of AMPK on ACC. This is in contrast to the anti-diabetic
      medication metformin and suggests that the treatment of obesity and diabetes with
      the combination of FGF21 and AMPK activators merits consideration.

PMID- 28580280
TI  - Rasal2 deficiency reduces adipogenesis and occurrence of obesity-related
      disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Identification of additional regulatory factors involved in the onset
      of obesity is important to understand the mechanisms underlying this prevailing
      disease and its associated metabolic disorders and to develop therapeutic
      strategies. Through isolation and analysis of a mutant, we aimed to uncover the
      function of a Ras-GAP gene, Rasal2 (Ras protein activator like 2), in the
      development of obesity and related metabolic disorders and to obtain valuable
      insights regarding the mechanism underlying the function. METHODS: An obesity
      based genetic screen was performed to identify an insertional mutation that
      disrupts the expression of Rasal2 (Rasal2PB/PB mice). Important metabolic
      parameters, such as fat mass and glucose tolerance, were measured in Rasal2PB/PB
      mice. The impact of Rasal2 on adipogenesis was evaluated in the mutant mice and
      in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes treated with Rasal2 siRNA. Ras and ERK activities were
      then evaluated in Rasal2-deficient preadipocytes or mice, and their functional
      relationships with Rasal2 on adipogenesis were investigated by employing Ras and
      MEK inhibitors. RESULTS: Rasal2PB/PB mice showed drastic decrease in Rasal2
      expression and a lean phenotype. The mutant mice displayed decreased adiposity
      and resistance to high-fat diet induced metabolic disorders. Further analysis
      indicated that Rasal2 deficiency leads to impaired adipogenesis in vivo and in
      vitro. Moreover, while Rasal2 deficiency resulted in increased activity of both
      Ras and ERK in preadipocytes, reducing Ras, but not ERK, suppressed the impaired
      adipogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Rasal2 promotes adipogenesis, which may critically
      contribute to its role in the development of obesity and related metabolic
      disorders and may do so by repressing Ras activity in an ERK-independent manner.

PMID- 28580279
TI  - Brown adipose tissue (BAT) specific vaspin expression is increased after
      obesogenic diets and cold exposure and linked to acute changes in DNA
      methylation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several studies have demonstrated anti-diabetic and anti-obesogenic
      properties of visceral adipose tissue-derived serine protease inhibitor (vaspin)
      and so evoked its potential use for treatment of obesity-related diseases. The
      aim of the study was to unravel physiological regulators of vaspin expression and
      secretion with a particular focus on its role in brown adipose tissue (BAT)
      biology. METHODS: We analyzed the effects of obesogenic diets and cold exposure
      on vaspin expression in liver and white and brown adipose tissue (AT) and plasma
      levels. Vaspin expression was analyzed in isolated white and brown adipocytes
      during adipogenesis and in response to adrenergic stimuli. DNA-methylation within
      the vaspin promoter was analyzed to investigate acute epigenetic changes after
      cold-exposure in BAT. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate a strong induction of
      vaspin mRNA and protein expression specifically in BAT of both cold-exposed and
      high-fat (HF) or high-sugar (HS) fed mice. While obesogenic diets also
      upregulated hepatic vaspin mRNA levels, cold exposure tended to increase vaspin
      gene expression of inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) depots. Concomitantly,
      vaspin plasma levels were decreased upon obesogenic or thermogenic triggers.
      Vaspin expression was increased during adipogenesis but unaffected by sympathetic
      activation in brown adipocytes. Analysis of vaspin promoter methylation in AT
      revealed lowest methylation levels in BAT, which were acutely reduced after cold
      exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate a novel BAT-specific regulation of
      vaspin gene expression upon physiological stimuli in vivo with acute epigenetic
      changes that may contribute to cold-induced expression in BAT. We conclude that
      these findings indicate functional relevance and potentially beneficial effects
      of vaspin in BAT function.

PMID- 28580281
TI  - Glucagon-like peptide-2 promotes gallbladder refilling via a TGR5-independent,
      GLP-2R-dependent pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Glucagon-like peptides (GLPs) are secreted from enteroendocrine cells
      in response to nutrients and bile acids and control metabolism via actions on
      structurally-related yet distinct G protein coupled receptors. GLP-1 regulates
      gut motility, appetite, islet function, and glucose homeostasis, whereas GLP-2
      enhances intestinal nutrient absorption. GLP-1R agonists are used to treat
      diabetes and obesity, and a GLP-2R agonist is approved to treat short bowel
      syndrome. Unexpectedly, reports of gallbladder disease have been associated with
      the use of both GLP-1R and GLP-2R agonists and after bariatric surgery, although
      the mechanisms remain unknown. METHODS: We investigated whether GLP-1 or GLP-2
      acutely controls gallbladder (GB) volume and whether GLP-2 regulates GB muscle
      activity in mice. The expression of Tgr5, Glp2r, and Glp1r was assessed in mouse
      GB, and the effects of GLP-2 on hepatic bile acid (BA) flow, intestinal and liver
      BA uptake, and GB gene expression were determined. GLP-2 regulation of GB volume
      was assessed in wildtype, Glp2r-/- and Tgr5-/- mice. The effect of GLP-2 on GB
      smooth muscle (GBSM) calcium transients was characterized ex vivo. RESULTS: Acute
      administration of the GLP-1R agonist exendin-4 lowered glucose but had no effect
      on GB volume in mice. In contrast, GLP-2 rapidly enhanced GB filling in a dose
      dependent manner, actions maintained in the presence of cholecystokinin, and
      mediated through the canonical GLP-2R. GLP-2 also rapidly induced immediate early
      gene expression in GB, consistent with detection of the endogenous Glp2r in GB
      RNA. The ability of GLP-2 to increase GB volume was not abrogated by systemic
      administration of hexamethonium, propranolol, a vasoactive peptide receptor
      antagonist or N-Nitroarginine methyl ester, and was maintained in Tgr5-/- mice.
      In contrast, lithocholic acid, a Tgr5 agonist, increased GB filling in Glp2r-/-
      but not in Tgr5-/- mice. GLP-2 had no effect on ileal uptake or hepatic clearance
      of taurocholic acid or on hepatic bile flow, yet reduced the frequency of
      spontaneous calcium transients in murine GBSM ex vivo, in a tetrodotoxin
      sensitive manner. CONCLUSIONS: Our data extend endocrine concepts of regulation
      of GB filling beyond FXR-FGF15/19 and the direct effects of BA via Tgr5, to
      encompass a novel BA-Tgr5-L cell GLP-2 axis providing nutrient-mediated feedback
      from BA to terminate meal-related GB contraction. These findings have
      implications for conditions characterized by elevated circulating levels of GLP-2
      such as after bariatric surgery and the development and use of agents that
      promote Tgr5 activation, L cell secretion, or GLP-2R agonism for the treatment of
      metabolic disease.

PMID- 28580283
TI  - Foxa2 and Pdx1 cooperatively regulate postnatal maturation of pancreatic beta
      cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The transcription factors (TF) Foxa2 and Pdx1 are key regulators of
      beta-cell (beta-cell) development and function. Mutations of these TFs or their
      respective cis-regulatory consensus binding sites have been linked to maturity
      diabetes of the young (MODY), pancreas agenesis, or diabetes susceptibility in
      human. Although Foxa2 has been shown to directly regulate Pdx1 expression during
      mouse embryonic development, the impact of this gene regulatory interaction on
      postnatal beta-cell maturation remains obscure. METHODS: In order to easily
      monitor the expression domains of Foxa2 and Pdx1 and analyze their functional
      interconnection, we generated a novel double knock-in homozygous (FVFPBFDHom)
      fluorescent reporter mouse model by crossing the previously described Foxa2-Venus
      fusion (FVF) with the newly generated Pdx1-BFP (blue fluorescent protein) fusion
      (PBF) mice. RESULTS: Although adult PBF homozygous animals exhibited a reduction
      in expression levels of Pdx1, they are normoglycemic. On the contrary, despite
      normal pancreas and endocrine development, the FVFPBFDHom reporter male animals
      developed hyperglycemia at weaning age and displayed a reduction in Pdx1 levels
      in islets, which coincided with alterations in beta-cell number and islet
      architecture. The failure to establish mature beta-cells resulted in loss of beta
      cell identity and trans-differentiation towards other endocrine cell fates.
      Further analysis suggested that Foxa2 and Pdx1 genetically and functionally
      cooperate to regulate maturation of adult beta-cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show
      that the maturation of pancreatic beta-cells requires the cooperative function of
      Foxa2 and Pdx1. Understanding the postnatal gene regulatory network of beta-cell
      maturation will help to decipher pathomechanisms of diabetes and identify
      triggers to regenerate dedifferentiated beta-cell mass.

PMID- 28580282
TI  - Hepatic gene therapy rescues high-fat diet responses in circadian Clock mutant
      mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Circadian Clock gene mutant mice show dampened 24-h feeding rhythms
      and an increased sensitivity to high-fat diet (HFD) feeding. Restricting HFD
      access to the dark phase counteracts its obesogenic effect in wild-type mice. The
      extent to which altered feeding rhythms are causative for the obesogenic
      phenotype of Clock mutant mice, however, remains unknown. METHODS: Metabolic
      parameters of wild-type (WT) and ClockDelta19 mutant mice (MT) were investigated
      under ad libitum and nighttime restricted HFD feeding. Liver circadian clock
      function was partially rescued by hydrodynamic tail vein delivery of WT-Clock DNA
      vectors in mutant mice and transcriptional, metabolic, endocrine and behavioral
      rhythms studied. RESULTS: Nighttime-restricted feeding restored food intake, but
      not body weight regulation in MT mice under HFD, suggesting Clock-dependent
      metabolic dysregulation downstream of circadian appetite control. Liver-directed
      Clock gene therapy partially restored liver circadian oscillator function and
      transcriptome regulation without affecting centrally controlled circadian
      behaviors. Under HFD, MT mice with partially restored liver clock function (MT
      LR) showed normalized body weight gain, rescued 24-h food intake rhythms, and WT
      like energy expenditure. This was associated with decreased nighttime leptin and
      daytime ghrelin levels, reduced hepatic lipid accumulation, and improved glucose
      tolerance. Transcriptome analysis revealed that hepatic Clock rescue in MT mice
      affected a range of metabolic pathways. CONCLUSION: Liver Clock gene therapy
      improves resistance against HFD-induced metabolic impairments in mice with
      circadian clock disruption. Restoring or stabilizing liver clock function might
      be a promising target for therapeutic interventions in obesity and metabolic
      disorders.

PMID- 28580285
TI  - Opposing effects of prostaglandin E2 receptors EP3 and EP4 on mouse and human
      beta-cell survival and proliferation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hyperglycemia and systemic inflammation, hallmarks of Type 2 Diabetes
      (T2D), can induce the production of the inflammatory signaling molecule
      Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in islets. The effects of PGE2 are mediated by its four
      receptors, E-Prostanoid Receptors 1-4 (EP1-4). EP3 and EP4 play opposing roles in
      many cell types due to signaling through different G proteins, Gi and GS,
      respectively. We previously found that EP3 and EP4 expression are reciprocally
      regulated by activation of the FoxM1 transcription factor, which promotes beta
      cell proliferation and survival. Our goal was to determine if EP3 and EP4
      regulate beta-cell proliferation and survival and, if so, to elucidate the
      downstream signaling mechanisms. METHODS: beta-cell proliferation was assessed in
      mouse and human islets ex vivo treated with selective agonists and antagonists
      for EP3 (sulprostone and DG-041, respectively) and EP4 (CAY10598 and L-161,982,
      respectively). beta-cell survival was measured in mouse and human islets treated
      with the EP3- and EP4-selective ligands in conjunction with a cytokine cocktail
      to induce cell death. Changes in gene expression and protein phosphorylation were
      analyzed in response to modulation of EP3 and EP4 activity in mouse islets.
      RESULTS: Blockade of EP3 enhanced beta-cell proliferation in young, but not old,
      mouse islets in part through phospholipase C (PLC)-gamma1 activity. Blocking EP3
      also increased human beta-cell proliferation. EP4 modulation had no effect on ex
      vivo proliferation alone. However, blockade of EP3 in combination with activation
      of EP4 enhanced human, but not mouse, beta-cell proliferation. In both mouse and
      human islets, EP3 blockade or EP4 activation enhanced beta-cell survival in the
      presence of cytokines. EP4 acts in a protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent manner to
      increase mouse beta-cell survival. In addition, the positive effects of FoxM1
      activation on beta-cell survival are inhibited by EP3 and dependent on EP4
      signaling. CONCLUSIONS: Our results identify EP3 and EP4 as novel regulators of
      beta-cell proliferation and survival in mouse and human islets ex vivo.

PMID- 28580284
TI  - NNT reverse mode of operation mediates glucose control of mitochondrial NADPH and
      glutathione redox state in mouse pancreatic beta-cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The glucose stimulation of insulin secretion (GSIS) by pancreatic beta
      cells critically depends on increased production of metabolic coupling factors,
      including NADPH. Nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (NNT) typically
      produces NADPH at the expense of NADH and DeltapH in energized mitochondria. Its
      spontaneous inactivation in C57BL/6J mice was previously shown to alter ATP
      production, Ca2+ influx, and GSIS, thereby leading to glucose intolerance. Here,
      we tested the role of NNT in the glucose regulation of mitochondrial NADPH and
      glutathione redox state and reinvestigated its role in GSIS coupling events in
      mouse pancreatic islets. METHODS: Islets were isolated from female C57BL/6J mice
      (J-islets), which lack functional NNT, and genetically close C57BL/6N mice (N
      islets). Wild-type mouse NNT was expressed in J-islets by adenoviral infection.
      Mitochondrial and cytosolic glutathione oxidation was measured with glutaredoxin
      1-fused roGFP2 probes targeted or not to the mitochondrial matrix. NADPH and NADH
      redox state was measured biochemically. Insulin secretion and upstream coupling
      events were measured under dynamic or static conditions by standard procedures.
      RESULTS: NNT is largely responsible for the acute glucose-induced rise in islet
      NADPH/NADP+ ratio and decrease in mitochondrial glutathione oxidation, with a
      small impact on cytosolic glutathione. However, contrary to current views on NNT
      in beta-cells, these effects resulted from a glucose-dependent reduction in NADPH
      consumption by NNT reverse mode of operation, rather than from a stimulation of
      its forward mode of operation. Accordingly, the lack of NNT in J-islets decreased
      their sensitivity to exogenous H2O2 at non-stimulating glucose. Surprisingly, the
      lack of NNT did not alter the glucose-stimulation of Ca2+ influx and upstream
      mitochondrial events, but it markedly reduced both phases of GSIS by altering
      Ca2+-induced exocytosis and its metabolic amplification. CONCLUSION: These
      results drastically modify current views on NNT operation and mitochondrial
      function in pancreatic beta-cells.

PMID- 28580287
TI  - Insulin controls food intake and energy balance via NPY neurons.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Insulin signaling in the brain has been implicated in the control of
      satiety, glucose homeostasis and energy balance. However, insulin signaling is
      dispensable in energy homeostasis controlling AgRP or POMC neurons and it is
      unclear which other neurons regulate these effects. Here we describe an ancient
      insulin/NPY neuronal network that governs energy homeostasis across phyla.
      METHODS: To address the role of insulin action specifically in NPY neurons, we
      generated a variety of models by selectively removing insulin signaling in NPY
      neurons in flies and mice and testing the consequences on energy homeostasis.
      RESULTS: By specifically targeting the insulin receptor in both fly and mouse NPY
      expressing neurons, we found NPY-specific insulin signaling controls food intake
      and energy expenditure, and lack of insulin signaling in NPY neurons leads to
      increased energy stores and an obese phenotype. Additionally, the lack of insulin
      signaling in NPY neurons leads to a dysregulation of GH/IGF-1 axis and to altered
      insulin sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results suggest that
      insulin actions in NPY neurons is critical for maintaining energy balance and an
      impairment of this pathway may be causally linked to the development of metabolic
      diseases.

PMID- 28580286
TI  - Role of nutrients and mTOR signaling in the regulation of pancreatic progenitors
      development.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Poor fetal nutrition increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in the
      offspring at least in part by reduced embryonic beta-cell growth and impaired
      function. However, it is not entirely clear how fetal nutrients and growth
      factors impact beta-cells during development to alter glucose homeostasis and
      metabolism later in life. The current experiments aimed to test the impact of
      fetal nutrients and growth factors on endocrine development and how these signals
      acting on mTOR signaling regulate beta-cell mass and glucose homeostasis. METHOD:
      Pancreatic rudiments in culture were used to study the role of glucose, growth
      factors, and amino acids on beta-cell development. The number and proliferation
      of pancreatic and endocrine progenitor were assessed in the presence or absence
      of rapamycin. The impact of mTOR signaling in vivo on pancreas development and
      glucose homeostasis was assessed in models deficient for mTOR or Raptor in Pdx1
      expressing pancreatic progenitors. RESULTS: We found that amino acid
      concentrations, and leucine in particular, enhance the number of pancreatic and
      endocrine progenitors and are essential for growth factor induced proliferation.
      Rapamycin, an mTORC1 complex inhibitor, reduced the number and proliferation of
      pancreatic and endocrine progenitors. Mice lacking mTOR in pancreatic progenitors
      exhibited hyperglycemia in neonates, hypoinsulinemia and pancreatic
      agenesis/hypoplasia with pancreas rudiments containing ductal structures lacking
      differentiated acinar and endocrine cells. In addition, loss of mTORC1 by
      deletion of raptor in pancreatic progenitors reduced pancreas size with reduced
      number of beta-cells. CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that amino
      acids concentrations and in particular leucine modulates growth responses of
      pancreatic and endocrine progenitors and that mTOR signaling is critical for
      these responses. Inactivation of mTOR and raptor in pancreatic progenitors
      suggested that alterations in some of the components of this pathway during
      development could be a cause of pancreatic agenesis/hypoplasia and hyperglycemia.

PMID- 28580288
TI  - Restoration of Lepr in beta cells of Lepr null mice does not prevent
      hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The adipose-derived hormone leptin plays an important role in
      regulating body weight and glucose homeostasis. Leptin receptors are expressed in
      the central nervous system as well as peripheral tissues involved in regulating
      glucose homeostasis, including insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas.
      Previous studies assessing the role of leptin receptors in beta cells used Cre
      loxP to disrupt the leptin receptor gene (Lepr) in beta cells, but variable
      results were obtained. Furthermore, recombination of Lepr was observed in the
      hypothalamus or exocrine pancreas, in addition to the beta cells, and Lepr in non
      beta cells may have compensated for the loss of Lepr in beta cells, thus making
      it difficult to assess the direct effects of Lepr in beta cells. To determine the
      significance of Lepr exclusively in beta cells, we chose to selectively restore
      Lepr in beta cells of Lepr null mice (LeprloxTB/loxTB). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      used a mouse model in which endogenous expression of Lepr was disrupted by a loxP
      flanked transcription blocker (LeprloxTB/loxTB), but was restored by Cre
      recombinase knocked into the Ins1 gene, which is specifically expressed in beta
      cells (Ins1Cre). We bred LeprloxTB/loxTB and Ins1Cre mice to generate
      LeprloxTB/loxTB and LeprloxTB/loxTBIns1Cre mice, as well as Leprwt/wt and
      Leprwt/wtIns1Cre littermate mice. Male and female mice were weighed weekly
      between 6 and 11 weeks of age and fasting blood glucose was measured during this
      time. Oral glucose was administered to mice aged 7-12 weeks to assess glucose
      tolerance and insulin secretion. Relative beta and alpha cell area and islet size
      were also assessed by immunostaining and analysis of pancreas sections of 12-14
      week old mice. RESULTS: Male and female LeprloxTB/loxTB mice, lacking whole-body
      expression of Lepr, had a phenotype similar to db/db mice characterized by
      obesity, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, and impaired glucose stimulated
      insulin secretion. Despite restoring Lepr in beta cells of LeprloxTB/loxTB mice,
      fasting insulin levels, blood glucose levels and body weight were comparable
      between LeprloxTB/loxTBIns1Cre mice and LeprloxTB/loxTB littermates. Furthermore,
      glucose tolerance and insulin secretion in male and female LeprloxTB/loxTBIns1Cre
      mice were similar to that observed in LeprloxTB/loxTB mice. Analysis of
      pancreatic insulin positive area revealed that restoration of Lepr in beta cells
      of LeprloxTB/loxTB mice did not prevent hyperplasia of insulin positive cells nor
      did it rescue Glut-2 expression. CONCLUSION: Collectively, these data suggest
      that direct action of leptin on beta cells is insufficient to restore normal
      insulin secretion and glucose tolerance in mice without leptin receptor signaling
      elsewhere.

PMID- 28580289
TI  - Endocannabinoid-dependent disinhibition of orexinergic neurons:
      Electrophysiological evidence in leptin-knockout obese mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In the ob/ob mouse model of obesity, chronic absence of leptin causes
      a significant increase of orexin (OX) production by hypothalamic neurons and
      excessive food intake. The altered OX level is linked to a dramatic increase of
      the inhibitory innervation of OX producing neurons (OX neurons) and the over
      expression of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) by OX neurons of
      ob/ob mice. Little is known about the function of the excitatory synapses of OX
      neurons in ob/ob mice, and their modulation by 2-AG. In the present study, we
      fill this gap and provide the first evidence of the overall level of activation
      of OX neurons in the ob/ob mice. METHODS: We performed in vitro whole-cell patch
      clamp recordings on OX neurons located in the perifornical area of the lateral
      hypothalamus in acute brain slices of wt and ob/ob mice. We identified OX neurons
      on the basis of their electrophysiological membrane properties, with 96% of
      concordance with immunohistochemisty. RESULTS: We found that OX neurons of ob/ob
      mice are innervated by less efficient and fewer excitatory synapses than wt mice.
      Consequently, ob/ob OX neurons show more negative resting membrane potential and
      lower action potential firing frequency than wt. The bath application of the
      cannabinoid type-1 receptor agonist WIN55,212-2, depresses both the excitatory
      and the inhibitory synapses in ob/ob animals, but only the excitatory synapses in
      wt animals. Finally, the physiologic release of 2-AG induces a prevalent
      depression of inhibition (disinhibition) of OX neurons in ob/ob animals but not
      in wt. CONCLUSIONS: In ob/ob mice, chronic absence of leptin induces a 2-AG
      mediated functional disinhibition of OX neurons. This helps explain the increase
      of OX production and, consequently, the excessive food intake of ob/ob mice.

PMID- 28580290
TI  - FGF21 resistance is not mediated by downregulation of beta-klotho expression in
      white adipose tissue.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is an endocrine hormone that
      regulates metabolic homeostasis. Previous work has suggested that impairment of
      FGF21 signaling in adipose tissue may occur through downregulation of the
      obligate FGF21 co-receptor, beta-klotho, which leads to "FGF21 resistance" during
      the onset of diet-induced obesity. Here, we sought to determine whether
      maintenance of beta-klotho expression in adipose tissue prevents FGF21 resistance
      and whether other mechanisms also contribute to FGF21 resistance in vivo.
      METHODS: We generated adipose-specific beta-klotho transgenic mice to determine
      whether maintenance of beta-klotho expression in adipose tissue prevents FGF21
      resistance in vivo. RESULTS: beta-klotho protein levels are markedly decreased in
      white adipose tissue, but not liver or brown adipose tissue, during diet-induced
      obesity. Maintenance of beta-klotho protein expression in adipose tissue does not
      alleviate impaired FGF21 signaling in white adipose or increase FGF21 sensitivity
      in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: In white adipose tissue, downregulation of beta-klotho
      expression is not the major mechanism contributing to impaired FGF21 signaling in
      white adipose tissue.

PMID- 28580291
TI  - beta3-Adrenergically induced glucose uptake in brown adipose tissue is
      independent of UCP1 presence or activity: Mediation through the mTOR pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Today, the presence and activity of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in
      adult humans is generally equated with the induced accumulation of [2-18F]2
      fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) in adipose tissues, as investigated by
      positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. In reality, PET-FDG is currently the
      only method available for in vivo quantification of BAT activity in adult humans.
      The underlying assumption is that the glucose uptake reflects the thermogenic
      activity of the tissue. METHODS: To examine this basic assumption, we here
      followed [18F]FDG uptake by PET and by tissue [3H]-2-deoxy-d-glucose uptake in
      wildtype and UCP1(-/-) mice, i.e. in mice that do or do not possess the unique
      thermogenic and calorie-consuming ability of BAT. RESULTS: Unexpectedly, we found
      that beta3-adrenergically induced (by CL-316,243) glucose uptake was UCP1
      independent. Thus, whereas PET-FDG scans adequately reflect glucose uptake, this
      acute glucose uptake is not secondary to thermogenesis but is governed by an
      independent cellular signalling, here demonstrated to be mediated via the
      previously described KU-0063794-sensitive mTOR pathway. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, PET
      FDG scans do not exclusively reveal active BAT deposits but rather any tissue
      possessing an adrenergically-mediated glucose uptake pathway. In contrast, we
      found that the marked glucose uptake-ameliorating effect of prolonged beta3
      adrenergic treatment was UCP1 dependent. Thus, therapeutically, UCP1 activity is
      required for any anti-diabetic effect of BAT activation.

PMID- 28580292
TI  - Non-invasive, multimodal analysis of cortical activity, blood volume and
      neurovascular coupling in infantile spasms using EEG-fNIRS monitoring.
AB  - Although infantile spasms can be caused by a variety of etiologies, the clinical
      features are stereotypical. The neuronal and vascular mechanisms that contribute
      to the emergence of infantile spasms are not well understood. We performed a
      multimodal study by simultaneously recording electroencephalogram and functional
      Near-infrared spectroscopy in an intentionally heterogeneous population of six
      children with spasms in clusters. Regardless of the etiology, spasms were
      accompanied by two phases of hemodynamic changes; an initial change in the
      cerebral blood volume (simultaneously with each spasm) followed by a
      neurovascular coupling in all children except for the one with a large
      porencephalic cyst. Changes in cerebral blood volume, like the neurovascular
      coupling, occurred over frontal areas in all patients regardless of any brain
      damage suggesting a diffuse hemodynamic cortical response. The simultaneous motor
      activation and changes in cerebral blood volume might result from the involvement
      of the brainstem. The inconstant neurovascular coupling phase suggests a diffuse
      activation of the brain likely resulting too from the brainstem involvement that
      might trigger diffuse changes in cortical excitability.

PMID- 28580297
TI  - Comparison of natural and artificial odor lures for nilgai (Boselaphus
      tragocamelus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in South Texas:
      Developing treatment for cattle fever tick eradication.
AB  - Cattle fever ticks (CFT), vectors of bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis, were
      eradicated from the United States by 1943, but are frequently reintroduced from
      neighboring border states of Mexico via stray cattle and wildlife hosts including
      white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (WTD) and nilgai antelope (Boselaphus
      tragocamelus). Nilgai antelope are exotic bovids from India that are hosts of
      CFT, have large home ranges as compared to WTD, thus have the potential to spread
      CFT through the landscape. Currently, there are no methods to control CFT on
      nilgai. Odor lures were evaluated to determine if nilgai could be attracted to a
      central point for development of control methods. Four treatments, nilgai offal a
      natural odor lure was used as the positive control; and compared to three
      artificial odors; screw worm lure, volatile fatty acids, citronella oil. Studies
      were conducted on a free-ranging population of nilgai at the East Foundation's
      Santa Rosa Ranch (Kenedy Co., near Riviera, Texas, USA). Game cameras were used
      to document visitation to the lures. In the ten randomly placed transects, 110
      nilgai and 104 WTD were photographed. Offal had significantly more visits by
      nilgai (71% of total visits) than screwworm (15%), VFA (11%), and citronella
      (4%). For WTD, there was no significant difference in visitation at the lure
      treatments.

PMID- 28580293
TI  - Acupuncture modulates the abnormal brainstem activity in migraine without aura
      patients.
AB  - Migraine is a common neurological disease with a high prevalence and
      unsatisfactory treatment options. The specific pathophysiological mechanisms of
      migraine remain unclear, which restricts the development of effective treatments
      for this prevalent disorder. The aims of this study were to 1) compare the
      spontaneous brain activity differences between Migraine without Aura (MwoA)
      patients and healthy controls (HCs), using amplitude of low-frequency
      fluctuations (ALFF) calculation method, and 2) explore how an effective treatment
      (verum acupuncture) could modulate the ALFF of MwoA patients. One hundred MwoA
      patients and forty-six matched HCs were recruited. Patients were randomized to
      four weeks' verum acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and waiting list groups.
      Patients had resting state BOLD-fMRI scan before and after treatment, while HCs
      only had resting state BOLD-fMRI scan at baseline. Headache intensity, headache
      frequency, self-rating anxiety and self-rating depression were used for clinical
      efficacy evaluation. Compared with HCs, MwoA patients showed increased ALFF in
      posterior insula and putamen/caudate, and reduced ALFF in rostral ventromedial
      medulla (RVM)/trigeminocervical complex (TCC). After longitudinal verum
      acupuncture treatment, the decreased ALFF of the RVM/TCC was normalized in
      migraine patients. Verum acupuncture and sham acupuncture have different
      modulation effects on ALFF of RVM/TCC in migraine patients. Our results suggest
      that impairment of the homeostasis of the trigeminovascular nociceptive pathway
      is involved in the neural pathophysiology of migraines. Effective treatments,
      such as verum acupuncture, could help to restore this imbalance.

PMID- 28580294
TI  - Gender differences in the structural connectome of the teenage brain revealed by
      generalized q-sampling MRI.
AB  - The question of whether there are biological differences between male and female
      brains is a fraught one, and political positions and prior expectations seem to
      have a strong influence on the interpretation of scientific data in this field.
      This question is relevant to issues of gender differences in the prevalence of
      psychiatric conditions, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD), Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia, dyslexia, depression, and
      eating disorders. Understanding how gender influences vulnerability to these
      conditions is significant. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) provides a
      non-invasive method to investigate brain microstructure and the integrity of
      anatomical connectivity. Generalized q-sampling imaging (GQI) has been proposed
      to characterize complicated fiber patterns and distinguish fiber orientations,
      providing an opportunity for more accurate, higher-order descriptions through the
      water diffusion process. Therefore, we aimed to investigate differences in the
      brain's structural network between teenage males and females using GQI. This
      study included 59 (i.e., 33 males and 26 females) age- and education-matched
      subjects (age range: 13 to 14 years). The structural connectome was obtained by
      graph theoretical and network-based statistical (NBS) analyses. Our findings show
      that teenage male brains exhibit better intrahemispheric communication, and
      teenage female brains exhibit better interhemispheric communication. Our results
      also suggest that the network organization of teenage male brains is more local,
      more segregated, and more similar to small-world networks than teenage female
      brains. We conclude that the use of an MRI study with a GQI-based structural
      connectomic approach like ours presents novel insights into network-based systems
      of the brain and provides a new piece of the puzzle regarding gender differences.

PMID- 28580298
TI  - Camallanus emydidius n. sp. (Nematoda: Camallanidae) in Trachemys dorbigni
      (Dumeril & Bibron, 1835) (Testudines: Emydidae) from Southern Brazil.
AB  - This paper describes a new species of Camallanus found in the freshwater turtle
      Trachemys dorbigni. Sixty hosts collected in Southern Brazil were examined. All
      hosts (100%) were parasitized by a new species of Camallanus, which was described
      as Camallanus emydidius n. sp. The new species differs from other Camallanus
      species of freshwater turtles mainly because of the morphology of the right
      spicule, the number of male precloacal and postcloacal papillae, and the presence
      of "mucrons" in the female posterior extremity.

PMID- 28580296
TI  - Cortical gyrification is abnormal in children with prenatal alcohol exposure.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) adversely affects early brain
      development. Previous studies have shown a wide range of structural and
      functional abnormalities in children and adolescents with PAE. The current study
      adds to the existing literature specifically on cortical development by examining
      cortical gyrification in a large sample of children with PAE compared to
      controls. Relationships between cortical development and intellectual functioning
      are also examined. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Included were 92 children with PAE and 83
      controls ages 9-16 from four sites in the Collaborative Initiative on FASD
      (CIFASD). All PAE participants had documented heavy PAE. All underwent a formal
      evaluation of physical anomalies and dysmorphic facial features. MRI data were
      collected using modified matched protocols on three platforms (Siemens, GE, and
      Philips). Cortical gyrification was examined using a semi-automated procedure.
      PRINCIPAL OBSERVATIONS: Whole brain group comparisons using Monte Carlo z
      simulation for multiple comparisons showed significantly lower cortical
      gyrification across a large proportion of the cerebral cortex amongst PAE
      compared to controls. Whole brain comparisons and ROI based analyses showed
      strong positive correlations between cortical gyrification and IQ (i.e. less
      developed cortex was associated with lower IQ). CONCLUSIONS: Abnormalities in
      cortical development were seen across the brain in children with PAE compared to
      controls. Cortical gyrification and IQ were strongly correlated, suggesting that
      examining mechanisms by which alcohol disrupts cortical formation may yield
      clinically relevant insights and potential directions for early intervention.

PMID- 28580295
TI  - Regional brain network organization distinguishes the combined and inattentive
      subtypes of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
AB  - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized clinically by
      hyperactive/impulsive and/or inattentive symptoms which determine diagnostic
      subtypes as Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive (ADHD-HI), Predominantly
      Inattentive (ADHD-I), and Combined (ADHD-C). Neuroanatomically though we do not
      yet know if these clinical subtypes reflect distinct aberrations in underlying
      brain organization. We imaged 34 ADHD participants defined using DSM-IV criteria
      as ADHD-I (n = 16) or as ADHD-C (n = 18) and 28 matched typically developing
      controls, aged 8-17 years, using high-resolution T1 MRI. To quantify
      neuroanatomical organization we used graph theoretical analysis to assess
      properties of structural covariance between ADHD subtypes and controls (global
      network measures: path length, clustering coefficient, and regional network
      measures: nodal degree). As a context for interpreting network organization
      differences, we also quantified gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry.
      Each ADHD subtype was distinguished by a different organizational profile of the
      degree to which specific regions were anatomically connected with other regions
      (i.e., in "nodal degree"). For ADHD-I (compared to both ADHD-C and controls) the
      nodal degree was higher in the hippocampus. ADHD-I also had a higher nodal degree
      in the supramarginal gyrus, calcarine sulcus, and superior occipital cortex
      compared to ADHD-C and in the amygdala compared to controls. By contrast, the
      nodal degree was higher in the cerebellum for ADHD-C compared to ADHD-I and in
      the anterior cingulate, middle frontal gyrus and putamen compared to controls.
      ADHD-C also had reduced nodal degree in the rolandic operculum and middle
      temporal pole compared to controls. These regional profiles were observed in the
      context of no differences in gray matter volume or global network organization.
      Our results suggest that the clinical distinction between the Inattentive and
      Combined subtypes of ADHD may also be reflected in distinct aberrations in
      underlying brain organization.

PMID- 28580299
TI  - Whole-genome shotgun sequence of phenazine-producing endophytic Streptomyces
      kebangsaanensis SUK12.
AB  - Streptomyces sp. produces bioactive compounds with a broad spectrum of
      activities. Streptomyces kebangsaanesis SUK12 has been identified as a novel
      endophytic bacteria isolated from ethnomedicinal plant Portulaca olerace, and was
      found to produce the phenazine class of biologically active antimicrobial
      metabolites. The potential use of the phenazines has led to our research interest
      in determining the genome sequence of Streptomyces kebangsaanensis SUK12. This
      Whole Genome Shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the
      accession number PRJNA269542. The raw sequence data are available
      [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/study/?acc=SRP105770].

PMID- 28580300
TI  - Resveratrol attenuates triglyceride accumulation associated with upregulation of
      Sirt1 and lipoprotein lipase in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
AB  - AIM: We aimed to investigate the effect of resveratrol (Rsv) on expression of
      genes regulating triglyceride (TG) accumulation and consumption in differentiated
      3T3-L1 preadipocytes. METHODS: 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were cultured in DMEM
      supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum. Upon reaching confluence, cells were
      induced to differentiate for 4 days, cultured for 10 days for TG accumulation,
      and then incubated with Rsv (0, 25 or 50 MUM) for 3 days. TG accumulation was
      analyzed by Oil Red-O staining. To understand how Rsv regulates TG accumulation
      and consumption, changes in gene and protein expressions of several factors
      associated with free fatty acid (FFA) uptake and beta-oxidation were investigated
      by real-time RT-PCR and Western blot. For further elucidation of underlying
      mechanisms, we also investigated gene expressions using Sirtuin1 (Sirt1) and
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC1alpha)
      siRNA. RESULTS: Rsv dose dependently enhanced Sirt1 expression and reduced TG
      accumulation. Rsv-induced reduction of TG accumulation was abolished by
      inhibition of Sirt1 and PGC1alpha. Rsv also enhanced expressions of genes
      involved in FFA uptake [peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma
      (PPARgamma) and lipoprotein lipase] and in beta-oxidation regulation [PGC1-alpha
      and carnitine palmitoyl-transferase 1a (CPT1a)]. All these effects were abolished
      by Sirt1 inhibition. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that Rsv may augment
      synthesis and oxidation of fatty acid, and possibly increases energy utilization
      efficiency in adipocytes through activation of Sirt1. The present study may
      provide meaningful evidence supporting the efficacy of Rsv in the treatment of
      obesity.

PMID- 28580302
TI  - Comparative study on the degradation of dibutyl phthalate by two newly isolated
      Pseudomonas sp. V21b and Comamonas sp. 51F.
AB  - Dibutyl phthalate is (DBP) the top priority toxicant responsible for
      carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and endocrine disruption. This study demonstrates
      the DBP degradation capability of the two newly isolated bacteria from municipal
      solid waste leachate samples. The isolated bacteria were designated as
      Pseudomonas sp. V21b and Comamonas sp. 51F after scanning electron microscopy,
      transmission electron microscopy, Gram-staining, antibiotic sensitivity tests,
      biochemical characterization, 16S-rRNA gene identification and phylogenetic
      studies. They were able to grow on DBP, benzyl butyl phthalate, monobutyl
      phthalate, diisodecyl phthalate, dioctyl phthalate, and protocatechuate. It was
      observed that Pseudomonas sp. V21b was more efficient in DBP degradation when
      compared with Comamonas sp. 51F. It degraded 57% and 76% of the initial DBP in
      minimal salt medium and in DBP contaminated samples respectively. Kinetics for
      the effects of DBP concentration on Pseudomonas sp. V21b and Comamonas sp. 51F
      growth was also evaluated. Stoichiometry for DBP degradation and biomass
      formation were compared for both the isolates. Two major metabolites diethyl
      phthalate and monobutyl phthalates were identified using GC-MS in the extracts.
      Key genes were amplified from the genomes of Pseudomonas sp. V21b and Comamonas
      sp. 51F. DBP degradation pathway was also proposed.

PMID- 28580301
TI  - Adipose stem cells from obese patients show specific differences in the metabolic
      regulators vitamin D and Gas5.
AB  - Adipose tissue is a significant source of mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative
      therapies; however, caution should be taken as their environmental niche can
      affect their functional properties. We have previously demonstrated the negative
      impact of obesity on the function of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). Here we
      have evaluated other possible properties and targets that are altered by obesity
      such as the recently described long non-coding molecule Gas5, which is involved
      in glucocorticoid resistance. Using ASCs isolated from obese (oASCs) and control
      subjects (cASCs), we have analyzed additional metabolic and inflammatory
      conditions that could be related with their impaired therapeutic potential and
      consequently their possible usefulness in the clinic.

PMID- 28580303
TI  - The Role of Bromodomain Testis-Specific Factor, BRDT, in Cancer: A Biomarker and
      A Possible Therapeutic Target.
AB  - Cancer cells have recently been shown to activate hundreds of normally silent
      tissue-restricted genes, including a specific subset associated with cancer
      progression and poor prognosis. Within these genes, a class of testis-specific
      genes designed as cancer/testis, attracted special attention because of their
      oncogenic roles as well as their potential use in immunotherapy. Here we focus on
      one of these genes encoding the testis-specific member of the bromodomain and
      extra-terminal (BET) family, known as BRDT. Aberrant activation of BRDT was first
      detected in lung cancers. In this study, we report that the frequency of BRDT's
      aberrant activation in lung cancer varies according to the histological subtypes
      and in contrast with other cancer/testis genes, it is rarely expressed in other
      solid tumours. The functional characterization of BRDT in its physiological
      setting in male germ cells is now painting a clear portrait of its normal
      activity and also suggests possible underlying oncogenic activities, when the
      gene is ectopically activated in cancers. Also, these functional studies of BRDT
      point to specific anti-cancer therapeutic strategies that could be used to "high
      jack" BRDT's action and turn it against cancer cells, which express this gene.
      Finally, BRDT's expression could be used as a biomarker for cell sensitivity to
      BET bromodomain inhibitors, which have become newly available as anti-cancer
      drugs.

PMID- 28580305
TI  - Expression of hsa-MIR-204, RUNX2, PPARgamma, and BCL2 in Bone Marrow Derived
      Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Multiple Myeloma Patients and Normal Individuals.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a heterogeneous cytogenetic disorder in which
      clonal plasma cells proliferate in the bone marrow (BM) and cause bone
      destruction. The BM microenvironment plays a crucial role in pathogenesis of this
      disease, and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the key players. Herein, we
      propose to investigate the expressions of hsa-MIR-204, runt-related transcription
      factor 2 (RUNX2), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma),
      and B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) as factors involved in osteogenesis, adipogenesis,
      and MSC survival in BM-MSCs from MM patients and normal individuals. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: In this experimental study, we isolated MSCs from BM aspirates of MM
      patients and healthy donors. Total RNA were extracted before and after co-culture
      with L363 myeloma cells. Gene expressions of RUNX2, PPARgamma, BCL2, and hsa-MIR
      204 were assessed by quantitive real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
      RESULTS: Higher levels of RUNX2, PPARgamma, and hsa-MIR-204 expressions existed
      in MM- MSCs compared to normally derived (ND)-MSCs. BCL2 expression decreased in
      MM- MSCs. We observed different results in the co-culture model. CONCLUSION: In
      general, the MM-MSCs gene expression profile differed compared to ND- MSCs.
      Upregulation of RUNX2, PPARgamma, and hsa-MIR-204 in MM-MSCs compared to ND- MSCs
      would result in formation of bone defects. Downregulation of BCL2 would lead to
      MM-MSC cell death.

PMID- 28580304
TI  - Significance of Inactivated Genes in Leukemia: Pathogenesis and Prognosis.
AB  - Epigenetic and genetic alterations are two mechanisms participating in leukemia,
      which can inactivate genes involved in leukemia pathogenesis or progression. The
      purpose of this review was to introduce various inactivated genes and evaluate
      their possible role in leukemia pathogenesis and prognosis. By searching the mesh
      words "Gene, Silencing AND Leukemia" in PubMed website, relevant English articles
      dealt with human subjects as of 2000 were included in this study. Gene
      inactivation in leukemia is largely mediated by promoter's hypermethylation of
      gene involving in cellular functions such as cell cycle, apoptosis, and gene
      transcription. Inactivated genes, such as ASPP1, TP53, IKZF1 and P15, may
      correlate with poor prognosis in acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphoid
      leukemia (CLL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and acute myeloid leukemia
      (AML), respectively. Gene inactivation may play a considerable role in leukemia
      pathogenesis and prognosis, which can be considered as complementary diagnostic
      tests to differentiate different leukemia types, determine leukemia prognosis,
      and also detect response to therapy. In general, this review showed some genes
      inactivated only in leukemia (with differences between B-ALL, T-ALL, CLL, AML and
      CML). These differences could be of interest as an additional tool to better
      categorize leukemia types. Furthermore; based on inactivated genes, a diverse
      classification of Leukemias could represent a powerful method to address a
      targeted therapy of the patients, in order to minimize side effects of
      conventional therapies and to enhance new drug strategies.

PMID- 28580307
TI  - Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolite Pathway Analyses of
      Myeloma and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study attempted to identify altered metabolism and pathways
      related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and myeloma patients. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this retrospective study, we collected plasma samples from 11
      patients-6 healthy controls with no evidence of any blood cancers and 5 patients
      with either multiple myeloma (n=3) or NHL (n=2) during the preliminary study
      period. Samples were analyzed using quadrupole time-of-flight liquid
      chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Significant features generated after
      statistical analyses were used for metabolomics and pathway analysis. RESULTS:
      Data after false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment at q=0.05 of features showed 136
      for positive and 350 significant features for negative ionization mode in NHL
      patients as well as 262 for positive and 98 features for negative ionization mode
      in myeloma patients. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway
      analysis determined that pathways such as steroid hormone biosynthesis, ABC
      transporters, and arginine and proline metabolism were affected in NHL patients.
      In myeloma patients, pyrimidine metabolism, carbon metabolism, and bile secretion
      pathways were potentially affected by the disease. CONCLUSION: The results have
      shown tremendous differences in the metabolites of healthy individuals compared
      to myeloma and lymphoma patients. Validation through quantitative metabolomics is
      encouraged, especially for the metabolites with significantly expression in blood
      cancer patients.

PMID- 28580306
TI  - Enterolactone Reduces Telomerase Activity and The Level of Its Catalytic Subunit
      in Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a positive correlation between higher serum phytoestrogen
      concentrations and lower risk of breast cancer. The activation of telomerase is
      crucial for the growth of cancer cells; therefore, the aim of this study was to
      examine the effects of enterolactone (ENL) and enterodiol (END) on this enzyme.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this experimental study, we performed the viability
      assay to determine the effects of different concentrations of ENL and END on cell
      viability, and the effective concentrations of these two compounds on cell
      growth. We used western blot analysis to evaluate human telomerase reverse
      transcriptase catalytic subunit (hTERT) expression and polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR)-ELISA based on the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay for
      telomerase activity. RESULTS: Both ENL and END, at 100 MUM concentrations,
      significantly (P<0.05) reduced cell viability. However, only the 100 MUM
      concentration of ENL significantly (P<0.05) decreased hTERT protein levels and
      telomerase activity. Lower concentrations of ENL did not have any significant
      effects on telomerase activity and hTERT protein levels. CONCLUSION: High
      concentration of ENL decreased the viability of MCF-7 breast cancer cells and
      inhibited the expression and activity of telomerase in these cells. Although END
      could reduce breast cancer cell viability, it did not have any effect on
      telomerase expression and activity.

PMID- 28580308
TI  - A Novel Approach on Drug Delivery: Investigation of A New Nano-Formulation of
      Liposomal Doxorubicin and Biological Evaluation of Entrapped Doxorubicin on
      Various Osteosarcoma Cell Lines.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study we prepared a novel formulation of liposomal doxorubicin
      (L- DOX). The drug dose was optimized by analyses of cellular uptake and cell
      viability of osteosarcoma (OS) cell lines upon exposure to nanoliposomes that
      contained varying DOX concentrations. We intended to reduce the cytotoxicity of
      DOX and improve characteristics of the nanosystems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this experimental study, we prepared liposomes by the pH gradient hydration
      method. Various characterization tests that included dynamic light scattering
      (DLS), cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) imaging, and UV- Vis
      spectrophotometry were employed to evaluate the quality of the nanocarriers. In
      addition, the CyQUANT(r) assay and fluorescence microscope imaging were used on
      various OS cell lines (MG-63, U2-OS, SaOS-2, SaOS-LM7) and Human primary
      osteoblasts cells, as novel methods to determine cell viability and in vitro
      transfection efficacy. RESULTS: We observed an entrapment efficiency of 84% for
      DOX within the optimized liposomal formulation (L-DOX) that had a liposomal
      diameter of 96 nm. Less than 37% of DOX released after 48 hours and L-DOX could
      be stored stably for 14 days. L-DOX increased DOX toxicity by 1.8-4.6 times for
      the OS cell lines and only 1.3 times for Human primary osteoblasts cells compared
      to free DOX, which confirmed a higher sensitivity of the OS cell lines versus
      Human primary osteoblasts cells for L-DOX. We deduced that L- DOX passed more
      freely through the cell membrane compared to free DOX. CONCLUSION: We
      successfully synthesized a stealth L-DOX that contained natural phospholipid by
      the pH gradient method, which could encapsulate DOX with 84% efficiency. The
      resulting nanoparticles were round, with a suitable particle size, and stable for
      14 days. These nanoparticles allowed for adequately controlled DOX release,
      increased cell permeability compared to free DOX, and increased tumor cell death.
      L-DOX provided a novel, more effective therapy for OS treatment.

PMID- 28580309
TI  - Up-Regulation of FOXC2 and FOXQ1 Is Associated with The Progression of Gastric
      Type Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Forkhead box (FOX) proteins are important regulators of the epithelial
      to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is the main mechanism of cancer
      metastasis. Different studies have shown their potential involvement in
      progression of cancer in different tissues such as breast, ovary and colorectum.
      In this study, we aimed to analyze the expression of genes encoding two FOX
      proteins in gastric adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this experimental
      case-control study, the expression of FOXC2 and FOXQ1 was examined in 31 gastric
      adenocarcinoma tumors and 31 normal adjacent gastric tissues by reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: The expression of both
      genes was significantly up-regulated in gastric adenocarcinoma tumors compared
      with the normal tissues (P<0.05). The differential expression of these two genes
      was also correlated with the grade of tumors (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: We show that
      up-regulation of FOXC2 and FOXQ1 are likely to be involved in the progression of
      gastric adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28580310
TI  - ANRIL Genetic Variants in Iranian Breast Cancer Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The genetic variants of the long non-coding RNA ANRIL (an antisense
      noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus) as well as its expression have been shown to be
      associated with several human diseases including cancers. The aim of this study
      was to examine the association of ANRIL variants with breast cancer
      susceptibility in Iranian patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control
      study, we genotyped rs1333045, rs4977574, rs1333048 and rs10757278 single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 122 breast can- cer patients as well as in 200
      normal age-matched subjects by tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation
      system polymerase chain reaction (T-ARMS-PCR). RESULTS: The TT genotype at
      rs1333045 was significantly over-represented among pa- tients (P=0.038) but did
      not remain significant after multiple-testing correction. In addi- tion, among
      all observed haplotypes (with SNP order of rs1333045, rs1333048 rs4977574 and
      rs10757278), four haplotypes were shown to be associated with breast cancer risk.
      However, after multiple testing corrections, TCGA was the only haplotype which
      remained significant. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that breast cancer risk
      is significantly associated with ANRIL variants. Future work analyzing the
      expression of different associated ANRIL haplotypes would further shed light on
      the role of ANRIL in this disease.

PMID- 28580311
TI  - Enhanced DNA Damages of Human Prostate Cancer Cells Induced by Radiofrequency
      Capacitive Hyperthermia Pre- and Post X-rays: 6 MV versus 15 MV.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effect of 13.56 MHz radiofrequency
      (RF) capacitive hyperthermia (HT) on radiosensivity of human prostate cancer
      cells pre and post X-ray radiation treatment (RT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      experimental study, the human prostate cancer cell line DU145 was cultured as 300
      um diameter spheroids. We divided the spheroids into group I: control, group II:
      HT at 43C for 30 minutes (HT), group III: 4 Gy irradiation with 6 MV X-ray [RT (6
      MV)], group IV: 4 Gy irradiation with 15 MV X-ray [RT (15 MV)], group V: HT+RT (6
      MV), group VI: HT+RT (15 MV), group VII: RT (6 MV)+HT, and group VIII: RT (15
      MV)+HT. The alkaline comet assay was used to assess DNA damages in terms of tail
      moment (TM). Thermal enhancement factor (TEF) was obtained for the different
      treatment combinations. RESULTS: Mean TM increased with increasing photon energy.
      Group II had significantly greater TM compared to group I. Groups III and IV also
      had significantly higher TM compared to group I. Significant differences in TM
      existed between groups V, VII, and III (P<0.05). We observed significant
      differences in TM between groups VI, VIII, and IV. TEF values demonstrated that
      enhanced response to radiation was more pronounced in group V compared to the
      other combined treatments. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that HT applied before
      RT leads to higher radiosensivity compared to after RT. HT at 43C for 30 minutes
      added to 6 MV X-ray causes higher enhancement of radiation compared to 15 MV X
      ray.

PMID- 28580312
TI  - The Role of Radiofrequency Hyperthermia in The Radiosensitization of A Human
      Prostate Cancer Cell Line.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated enhanced induced DNA damages and apoptosis of a
      spheroid culture of DU145 prostate cancer cells treated by a combination of
      radiofrequency hyperthermia (RF HT) with radiation treatment (RT) from an
      external radiotherapy machine compared to RT alone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this experimental study, DU145 cells were cultured as spheroids until they
      reached 300 um in diameter. We exposed these cultures to either: RF HT for 90
      minutes at 43C originated from a Celsius TCS system, RF HT followed by RT at
      doses of 2 Gy or 4 Gy (15 MV energy) with 15-minute interval, or RT alone at the
      above mentioned doses. The trypan blue exclusion assay, alkaline comet assay, and
      annexin V/PI flow cytometry were performed to measure cell viability, the amount
      of DNA damage in an individual cell as the tail moment, and percentage of induced
      cell apoptosis in response to treatments explained. RESULTS: We calculated the
      thermal enhancement factor (TEF) for the combined treatment regime. RF HT
      followed by the 4 Gy dose of RT resulted in minimum viability (85.33 +/- 1.30%),
      the highest tail moment (1.98 +/- 0.18), and highest percentage of apoptotic
      cells (64.48 +/- 3.40%) compared to the other treatments. The results of the TEF
      assay were 2.54 from the comet assay and 2.33 according to flow cytometry.
      CONCLUSION: The present data suggest that combined treatment of mega voltage X
      rays and RF HT can result in significant radiosensitization of prostate cancer
      cells.

PMID- 28580314
TI  - Continuous or Transient High Level of Glucose Exposure Differentially Increases
      Coronary Artery Endothelial Cell Proliferation and Human Colon Cancer Cell
      Proliferation.
AB  - We studied effect of high glucose levels on coronary artery endothelial cell
      proliferation and human colon cancer cell proliferation. To examine the long-term
      effect of glucose exposure on cell growth, cells were cultured for 14 days in the
      absence or presence of 183 mg/dL D-glucose addition in the culture medium. Short
      effect of elevated glucose levels was examined by addition of 183 mg/dL D-glucose
      addition in the culture medium for just one hour per day followed by changing the
      culture to standard medium (5.5 mM D-glucose) during the next 23-hours period.
      Cell proliferation was estimated by 2,3-Bis (2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H
      tetrazolium-5-carbox-anilide (XTT) assay and phosphor-Erk western blot analysis.
      We found that coronary artery endothelial cell proliferation was significantly
      increased in the culture medium with the acute one-hour addition of 183 mg/dL D
      glucose compared to the absence or chronic presence of 183 mg/dL D-glucose
      addition in the culture medium. In contrast, colon cancer cell proliferation was
      significantly increased in the continuous presence of 183 mg/dL D-glucose
      addition in the culture medium compared to the acute one-hour addition of
      glucose. The extent of Erk2 phosphorylation paralleled with the relative changes
      in cellular proliferation in both cell types. Taken together, these results
      suggested that continuous or transient high level of glucose exposure
      differentially effects coronary artery endothelial and human colon cancer cell
      proliferation.

PMID- 28580313
TI  - The Effect of Inflammatory Status on Butyrate and Folate Uptake by Tumoral (Caco
      2) and Non-Tumoral (IEC-6) Intestinal Epithelial Cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in
      occidental countries. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (crohn's disease and
      ulcerative colitis) is associated with an increased risk for CRC development. The
      aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between inflammatory status
      and absorption of nutrients with a role in CRC pathogenesis. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this experimental study, we evaluated the in vitro effect of tumour
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (IF-gamma), and
      acetylsalicylic acid on 14C-butyrate (14C- BT), 3H-folic acid (3H-FA) uptake, and
      on proliferation, viability and differentiation of Caco-2 and IEC-6 cells in
      culture. RESULTS: The proinflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and INF-gamma were
      found to decrease uptake of a low concentration of 14C-BT (10 uM) by Caco-2
      (tumoral) and IEC-6 (normal) intestinal epithelial cell lines. However, the
      effect of TNF-alpha and INF-gamma in IEC-6 cells is most probably related to a
      cytotoxic and antiproliferative impact. In contrast, INF-gamma increases uptake
      of a high concentration (10 mM) of 14C-BT in Caco-2 cells. The anticarcinogenic
      effect of BT (10 mM) in these cells is not affected by the presence of this
      cytokine. On the other hand, acetylsalicylic acid stimulates 14C-BT uptake by
      Caco-2 cells and potentiates its antiproliferative effect. Finally, both TNF
      alpha and INF-gamma cause a significant decrease in 3H-FA uptake by Caco-2 cells.
      CONCLUSION: The inflammatory status has an impact upon cellular uptake of BT and
      FA, two nutrients with a role in CRC pathogenesis. Moreover, the anti
      inflammatory acetylsalicylic acid potentiates the anticarcinogenic effect of BT
      in Caco-2 cells by increasing its cellular uptake.

PMID- 28580315
TI  - Coexistence of KRAS and BRAF Mutations in Colorectal Cancer: A Case Report
      Supporting The Concept of Tumoral Heterogeneity.
AB  - The detection of KRAS and BRAF mutations is a crucial step for the correct
      therapeutic approach and predicting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      targeted therapy resistance of colorectal carcinomas. The concomitant KRAS and
      BRAF mutations occur rarely in the colorectal cancers (CRCs) with the prevalence
      of less than 0.001% of the cases. In patients with KRAS-mutant tumors, BRAF
      mutations should not regularly be tested unless the patient is participating in a
      clinical trial enriching for the presence of KRAS or BRAF-mutated tumor. The
      current report demonstrates a case with advanced adenocarcinoma of the colon
      showing the coexistence of KRAS and BRAF mutations and may have profound clinical
      implications for disease progression and therapeutic responses.

PMID- 28580316
TI  - Interactome Mapping Guided by Tissue-Specific Phosphorylation in Age-Related
      Macular Degeneration.
AB  - The current study aims to determine the molecular mechanisms of age-related
      macular degeneration (AMD) using the phosphorylation network. Specifically, we
      examined novel biomarkers for oxidative stress by protein interaction mapping
      using in vitro and in vivo models that mimic the complex and progressive
      characteristics of AMD. We hypothesized that the early apoptotic reactions could
      be initiated by protein phosphorylation in region-dependent (peripheral retina
      vs. macular) and tissue-dependent (retinal pigment epithelium vs. retina) manner
      under chronic oxidative stress. The analysis of protein interactome and oxidative
      biomarkers showed the presence of tissue- and region-specific post-translational
      mechanisms that contribute to AMD progression and suggested new therapeutic
      targets that include ubiquitin, erythropoietin, vitronectin, MMP2, crystalline,
      nitric oxide, and prohibitin. Phosphorylation of specific target proteins in RPE
      cells is a central regulatory mechanism as a survival tool under chronic
      oxidative imbalance. The current interactome map demonstrates a positive
      correlation between oxidative stress-mediated phosphorylation and AMD progression
      and provides a basis for understanding oxidative stress-induced cytoskeletal
      changes and the mechanism of aggregate formation induced by protein
      phosphorylation. This information could provide an effective therapeutic approach
      to treat age-related neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28580317
TI  - Altruistic behavior: mapping responses in the brain.
AB  - Altruism is an important social construct related to human relationships and the
      way many interpersonal and economic decisions are made. Recent progress in social
      neuroscience research shows that altruism is associated with a specific pattern
      of brain activity. The tendency to engage in altruistic behaviors is associated
      with greater activity within limbic regions such as the nucleus accumbens and
      anterior cingulate cortex in addition to cortical regions such as the medial
      prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction. Here, we review existing
      theoretical models of altruism as well as recent empirical neuroimaging research
      demonstrating how altruism is processed within the brain. This review not only
      highlights the progress in neuroscience research on altruism but also shows that
      there exist several open questions that remain unexplored.

PMID- 28580318
TI  - Targeting Ongoing DNA Damage in Multiple Myeloma: Effects of DNA Damage Response
      Inhibitors on Plasma Cell Survival.
AB  - Human myeloma cell lines (HMCLs) and a subset of myeloma patients with poor
      prognosis exhibit high levels of replication stress (RS), leading to DNA damage.
      In this study, we confirmed the presence of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in
      several HMCLs by measuring gammaH2AX and RAD51 foci and analyzed the effect of
      various inhibitors of the DNA damage response on MM cell survival. Inhibition of
      ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR), the main kinase mediating
      the response to RS, using the specific inhibitor VE-821 induced more cell death
      in HMCLs than in control lymphoblastoid cells and U266, an HMCL with a low level
      of DNA damage. The absence of ATR was partially compensated by ataxia
      telangiectasia-mutated protein (ATM), since chemical inhibition of both kinases
      using VE-821 and KU-55933 significantly increased the death of MM cells with DNA
      damage. We found that ATM and ATR are involved in DSB repair by homologous
      recombination (HR) in MM. Inhibition of both kinases resulted in a stronger
      inhibition that may underlie cell death induction, since abolition of HR using
      two different inhibitors severely reduced survival of HMCLs that exhibit DNA
      damage. On the other hand, inhibition of the other route involved in DSB repair,
      non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), using the DNA-PK inhibitor NU7441, did not
      affect MM cell viability. Interestingly, we found that NHEJ inhibition did not
      increase cell death when HR was simultaneously inhibited with the RAD51 inhibitor
      B02, but it clearly increased the level of cell death when HR was inhibited with
      the MRE11 inhibitor mirin, which interferes with recombination before DNA
      resection takes place. Taken together, our results demonstrate for the first time
      that MM cells with ongoing DNA damage rely on an intact HR pathway, which thereby
      suggests therapeutic opportunities. We also show that inhibition of HR after the
      initial step of end resection might be more appropriate for inducing MM cell
      death, since it prevents the occurrence of a compensatory NHEJ repair mechanism.
      These preclinical observations provide the rationale for its clinical evaluation.

PMID- 28580320
TI  - Who will perform my autopsy?

PMID- 28580319
TI  - The Association of OASL and Type I Interferons in the Pathogenesis and Survival
      of Intracellular Replicating Bacterial Species.
AB  - The type I IFN response quickly became associated with its role in the innate
      immune response to viral infection. The past few years have seen the significance
      of IFNs expand in breadth to include non-viral pathogens. Previous work has
      identified that following viral infection, type I IFN signaling induces the
      production of the 2'-5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) family, which include
      OAS1, OAS2, OAS3, and OAS-like (OASL) protein. OASL was identified to be strongly
      induced following viral infection through engaging the RNA sensor RIG-I and
      increasing signaling through this pathway to enhance the anti-viral type I IFN
      response. Surprisingly, infection with viral dsDNA revealed an IFN inhibitory
      role and therefore pro-viral function of OASL through the inhibition of the cGAS
      cytosolic DNA sensing mechanism. Intracellular bacteria are able to activate the
      cytosolic DNA sensing pathway, however the role of OASL during bacterial
      infection is largely unknown. Vacuolar pathogenic microbes such as mycobacteria
      induce OASL early post infection, where it functions in a prosurvival fashion by
      inhibiting autophagic mechanisms and antimicrobial peptide expression. This
      suggests an underestimated role of OASL in the innate immune response to
      infection with a variety of pathogens and points to OASL-associated modulation of
      the type I IFN response. OASL may therefore play a critical role in defining the
      outcome of infection. We provide a brief update on the recent developments of the
      OAS family of proteins in response to DNA and RNA virus infections, as well as
      discuss evidence of Oasl expression in response to a number of cytosolic and
      vacuolar replicating bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28580321
TI  - Clostridium difficile infection.

PMID- 28580322
TI  - Bone marrow necrosis and fat embolism: an autopsy report of a severe complication
      of hemoglobin SC disease.
AB  - Sickle Cell Disease encompasses a group of disorders related with the hemoglobin
      S and other hemoglobin genotypes. The clinical manifestation and the severity of
      symptoms are dependent on the specific genotype. In this setting, homozygous
      genotype (HbSS) presents an early onset of symptoms and a low expectancy of
      lifetime. However, the SC genotype (HbSC), which apparently shows a less severe
      clinical course, may exhibit the same complications of HbSS. These complications
      are usually manifested late in the course of life, when compared with the HbSS
      patients. It is noteworthy that HbSC may present a normal hematocrit, and
      therefore stays unknown until the first complication, that may be disastrous. The
      authors report a case of an African-Descendant woman, aging 65 years, with no
      previous diagnosis of anemia who sought medical attention because of a thoracic
      back pain followed by fever and altered mental status. The clinical picture
      deteriorated very fast with multiple organ failure and death. The autopsy
      findings concluded by generalized vaso-occlusive crisis, bone marrow necrosis and
      bone marrow and fat embolism, mainly to the lungs and kidney. The authors call
      attention for the knowledge of this severe life threatening complication, mainly
      in a country with a high Afro-Descendant population.

PMID- 28580323
TI  - Dicephalus dipus dibrachius twins: report of an autopsy case.
AB  - Dicephalus dipus dibrachius twins are a rare form of conjoined twins. An autopsy
      of conjoined dicephalus twins is reported. The diagnosis was performed during the
      pregnancy and the family received a judicial authorization for termination of
      pregnancy. The preterm newborn progressed to cardiac arrest and died following a
      court order to terminate the pregnancy. The conceptus presented two arms, two
      legs, a trunk, two heads, and a single umbilical cord. The two spinal columns
      presented vertebral fusion in the sacral region. The heart exhibited complex
      malformations. The external genitalia were female; and cytogenetic analysis
      confirmed female sex (46, XX). This analysis also corroborated the etiopathogenic
      hypotheses described for this abnormality, which proposes failures in embryonic
      formation rather than specific chromosomal alterations. Current identification of
      cases by ultrasound permits medical management and multidisciplinary action with
      the family, enabling the legal termination of pregnancy.

PMID- 28580324
TI  - Metastatic congenital neuroblastoma associated with in situ neuroblastoma: case
      report and review of literature.
AB  - Although neonatal tumors are rare, neuroblastoma is the most common neoplasia
      among them. These tumors, which usually involve children in early infancy, are
      derived from neural crest cells of adrenal gland medulla or sympathetic ganglia.
      Even though congenital metastatic neuroblastoma presents a favorable prognosis,
      it may lead to death if not recognized and treated early on. The authors report
      the case of a 2-month-old child who was born from in vitro fertilization, and
      whose diagnosis was made after birth. The form of presentation of this case as a
      metastatic disease concerning this age group is noteworthy.

PMID- 28580325
TI  - Thanatophoric dysplasia: case report of an autopsy complemented by postmortem
      computed tomographic study.
AB  - Thanatophoric dysplasia (TD) is one of the most common lethal skeletal
      dysplasias, which was first designated as thanatophoric dwarfism and described in
      1967. The authors report a case of a Caucasian girl with TD, born to a 31-year
      old woman without comorbidities. The newborn presented respiratory distress
      immediately after delivery, progressing to death in less than 2 hours. An autopsy
      was carried out after postmortem tomographic examination. The autopsy findings
      depicted extensive malformations of the skeletal system and the brain. The aim of
      this report is to discuss the pathogenesis and correlate the morphologic features
      of TD that were disclosed at the tomography and the autopsy.

PMID- 28580326
TI  - Cat-scratch disease presenting as multiple hepatic lesions: case report and
      literature review.
AB  - Although infectious diseases are the most prevalent cause of fevers of unknown
      origin (FUO), this diagnosis remains challenging in some pediatric patients.
      Imaging exams, such as computed tomography (CT) are frequently required during
      the diagnostic processes. The presence of multiple hypoattenuating scattered
      images throughout the liver associated with the history of cohabitation with cats
      should raise the suspicion of the diagnosis of cat-scratch disease (CSD),
      although the main etiologic agent of liver abscesses in childhood is
      Staphylococcus aureus. Differential diagnosis by clinical and epidemiological
      data with Bartonella henselae is often advisable. The authors report the case of
      a boy aged 2 years and 9 months with 16-day history of daily fever accompanied by
      intermittent abdominal pain. Physical examination was unremarkable. Abdominal
      ultrasound performed in the initial work up was unrevealing, but an abdominal CT
      that was performed afterwards disclosed multiple hypoattenuating hepatic images
      compatible with the diagnosis of micro abscesses. Initial antibiotic regimen
      included cefotaxime, metronidazole, and oxacillin. Due to the epidemiology of
      close contact with kittens, diagnosis of CSD was considered and confirmed by
      serologic tests. Therefore, the initial antibiotics were replaced by
      clarithromycin orally for 14 days followed by fever defervescence and clinical
      improvement. The authors call attention to this uncommon diagnosis in a child
      presenting with FUO and multiple hepatic images suggestive of micro abscesses.

PMID- 28580328
TI  - Ovarian adenosarcoma simulating a simple cyst in a young patient.
AB  - Mullerian adenosarcoma is a rare, mixed tumor that can occur throughout the
      female genital tract, but is most commonly found in the uterus. Ovarian
      adenosarcoma is rarer and has a poorer prognosis than uterine adenosarcoma. Data
      on the clinicopathological features of ovarian adenosarcoma are limited, and, due
      to its rarity, the management is controversial. The authors report a case of a 25
      year-old patient who presented with recurrent abdominal pain. Sonography and
      laparotomy showed an ovarian cyst, and pathologic examination confirmed the
      diagnosis of cystic low-grade adenosarcoma. The patient remains free of
      recurrence 6 months after diagnosis. The authors call attention to the
      differential diagnosis of ovarian masses, especially in young patients, and to
      the lack of evidence on the management of this neoplasm in the literature.

PMID- 28580327
TI  - Early stage primary gastric diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in a young HIV-positive
      patient.
AB  - HIV infection is known to be associated with the development of a wide range of
      neoplasia. About 25 to 40% of HIV-positive patients will present some kind of
      malignancy in the course of the disease; among them 10% are non-Hodgkin lymphomas
      (NHL) and 20% of these are represented by the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. HIV
      positive patients have a relative risk of 110 times higher to develop neoplasia,
      than the non-infected population. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the most
      frequent extranodal site of involvement. However, the primary GI lymphoma is
      rare. The authors present a case of a 31-year-old male patient with a 16-year
      history of HIV infection, who deliberately withdrew the Highly Active
      Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) regimen and was hospitalized because of a
      respiratory infection. Because of a long-term complaint of dyspepsia, an upper
      gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed disclosing a large elevated and
      ulcerated gastric lesion, which biopsy revealed a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
      Clinical, imaging and laboratory tests showed an early stage diagnosis: Lugano
      stage I. Although not frequent, the authors alert to considering this neoplasia
      in all HIV-positive patients with dyspeptic symptoms.

PMID- 28580330
TI  - Analysis of Relative Biological Effectiveness of Proton Beams and Iso-effective
      Dose Profiles Using Geant4.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The assessment of RBE quantity in the treatment of cancer tumors with
      proton beams in treatment planning systems (TPS) is of high significance. Given
      the significance of the issue and the studies conducted in the literature, this
      quantity is fixed and is taken as equal to 1.1. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of
      this study was to assess RBE quantity of proton beams and their variations in
      different depths of the tumor. This dependency makes RBE values used in TPS no
      longer be fixed as they depend on the depth of the tumor and therefore this
      dependency causes some changes in the physical dose profile. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The energy spectrum of protons was measured at various depths of the
      tumor using proton beam simulations and well as the complete simulation of a cell
      to a pair of DNA bases through Monte Carlo GEANT4. The resulting energy spectrum
      was used to estimate the number of double-strand breaks generated in cells.
      Finally, RBE values were calculated in terms of the penetration depth in the
      tumor. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The simulation results show that the RBE value not
      fixed terms of the depth of the tumor and it differs from the clinical value of
      1.1 at the end of the dose profile and this will lead to a non-uniform absorbed
      dose profile. Therefore, to create a uniform impact dose area, deep-finishing
      systems need to be designed by taking into account deep RBE values.

PMID- 28580329
TI  - Takotsubo cardiomyopathy: an overlooked cause of chest pain.
AB  - Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC), also known as apical ballooning syndrome, broken
      heart syndrome, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy, is defined as a transient
      disturbance of the left ventricle, which is quite often associated with
      electrocardiographic abnormalities that may mimic acute myocardial infarction.
      The syndrome is also characterized by a mild alteration of cardiac biomarkers in
      absence of coronary blood flow obstruction on the coronariography. Clinical
      presentation is often manifested by angina, dyspnea, syncope, and arrhythmias.
      Peculiarly, the left ventricle takes the form of "tako-tsubo" (a Japanese word
      for "octopus trap") on the imaging workup. The authors report the case of a post
      menopausal, hypertensive, dyslipidemic and type-II diabetic woman admitted at the
      emergency service with acute chest pain post physical exertion. Electrocardiogram
      showed signs of ischemia and myocardial necrosis markers were mildly increased.
      Echocardiography and ventriculography showed apical and mid-ventricular akinesia,
      with mild atherosclerotic coronary lesions. Thus diagnostic workup and the
      outcome followed the diagnostic criteria for TTC. The authors called attention to
      the potential of overlooking this diagnosis, since this syndrome is still not
      widely recognized.

PMID- 28580331
TI  - Beam Collimation during Lumbar Spine Radiography: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Collimating the primary beam to the area of diagnostic interest
      (ADI) has been strongly recommended as an effective method to reduce patient's
      radiation dose and to improve image quality during radiology practice. Lack or
      inadequate collimation results in excessive radiation dose to patients and
      deterioration image quality. OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of beam collimation
      during lumbar spine radiography at two general hospitals in Ahvaz, Iran.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 830 digital antero-posterior
      (AP) lumbar spine radiographs in term of beam collimation. For each radiograph,
      the distance between current and optimal collimation was calculated (in cm). The
      area of ADI and total field size for each radiograph were also calculated (in
      cm2). RESULTS: The total mean ADI and irradiated region outside ADI for each
      radiograph were estimated 360 and 454 cm2, respectively. The total irradiated
      region outside ADI was 1.26 times more than ADI. In contrast to cranial regions
      outside ADI, caudal regions were more commonly included inside the primary beam
      (12% vs. 24.4%; P-value <0.005). At least in 62% of radiographs evaluated,
      ovaries were included in the primary beam. CONCLUSION: Radiographers should make
      considerable effort to limit the primary beam to the ADI to reduce patient's
      exposure and to increase image quality.

PMID- 28580332
TI  - Enhancement of Toxic Substances Clearance from Blood Equvalent Solution and Human
      Whole Blood through High Flux Dialyzer by 1 MHz Ultrasound.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis is a process of removing waste and excess fluid from
      blood when kidneys cannot function efficiently. It often involves diverting blood
      to the filter of the dialysis machin to be cleared of toxic substances. Fouling
      of pores in dialysis membrane caused by adhesion of plasma protein and other
      toxins will reduce the efficacy of the filtre. OBJECTIVE: In This study, the
      influence of pulsed ultrasound waves on diffusion and the prevention of fouling
      in the filter membrane were investigated. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Pulsed ultrasound
      waves with frequency of 1 MHz at an intensity of 1 W/cm2 was applied to the high
      flux (PES 130) filter. Blood and blood equivalent solutions were passed through
      the filter in separate experimental setups. The amount of Creatinine, Urea and
      Inulin cleared from both blood equvalent solution and human whole blood passed
      through High Flux (PES 130) filter were measured in the presence and absence of
      ultrasound irradiation. Samples were taken from the outlet of the dialyzer every
      five minutes and the clearance of each constituent was calculated. RESULTS:
      Statistical analysis of the blood equvalent solution and whole blood indicated
      the clearance of Urea and Inulin in the presence of ultrasound increased
      (p<0.05), while no significant effects were observed for Creatinine. CONCLUSION:
      It may be concluded that ultrasound, as a mechanical force, can increase the rate
      of clearance of some toxins (such as middle and large molecules) in the
      hemodialysis process.

PMID- 28580333
TI  - Oral Administration of Vitamin C, Cimetidine and Famotidine on Micronuclei
      Induced by Low Dose Radiation in Mouse Bone Marrow Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In many studies, chemicals and natural materials were tested to
      reduce the harmful effects of radiation. It is known that Famotidine and vitamin
      C reduce DNA damage. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      radioprotective effect of vitamin C, Cimetidine and Famotidine on gamma-radiation
      induced damage on mouse bone marrow. METHODS: Six-to-seven week male NMRI mice
      (28 g +/-3) were randomly divided into fourteen groups: control, 2Gy irradiation,
      six group drugs without irradition (Famotidine, Cimetidine, vitaminC, Fam-Cim,
      Fam-Vit, Cim-Vit), six groups received drugs and 2Gy radiation with a 60Co
      |gamma|-ray source at room temperature 22 +/- 2  degrees C. The mice were killed
      48 hours after irradiation by cervical dislocation. Slides were prepared from
      bone marrow cells and stained in May-Granwald and Giemsa. Finally, the cells were
      counted with microscope, frequencies of polychromatic erythrocyte (PCE),
      normochoromatic erythrocyte (NCE) and their micronuclated cell were recorded. PCE
      / PCE + NCE were calculated. RESULTS: There were significant differences of
      MNPCE/1000PCE, MNNCE/1000NCE and PCE/PCE+NCE among different groups with similar
      radiation doses (p<=0.01). Moreover, there were significant differences of
      MNPCE/1000PCE and PCE/PCE+NCE among different doses of radiation (p<=0.01). While
      considering MNNCE/1000NCE, there were no significant differences among silimar
      groups with radiation dose (p?0.05). CONCLUSION: Oral administration of
      Famotidine, vitamin C and Cimetidine demonstrate reliable and similar
      radioprotective effects. Additionally, the protective effect of single use of
      these drugs was similar to the combination form. Thus, the oral use of
      combination, 48 hours after irradiation cannot induce more radioprotective
      effect.

PMID- 28580334
TI  - Melatonin Role in Ameliorating Radiation-induced Skin Damage: From Theory to
      Practice (A Review of Literature).
AB  - Normal skin is composed of epidermis and dermis. Skin is susceptible to radiation
      damage because it is a continuously renewing organ containing rapidly
      proliferating mature cells. Radiation burn is a damage to the skin or other
      biological tissues caused by exposure to radiofrequency energy or ionizing
      radiation. Acute skin reaction is the most frequently occurring side effect of
      radiation therapy. Generally, any chemical/biological agent given before or at
      the time of irradiation to prevent or ameliorate damage to normal tissues is
      called a radioprotector. Melatonin is a highly lipophilic substance that easily
      penetrates organic membranes and therefore is able to protect important
      intracellular structures including mitochondria and DNA against oxidative damage
      directly at the sites where such a kind of damage would occur. Melatonin leads to
      an increase in the molecular level of some important antioxidative enzymes such
      as superoxide, dismotase and glutation-peroxidase, and also a reduction in
      synthetic activity of nitric oxide. There is a large body of evidence which
      proves the efficacy of Melatonin in ameliorating UV and X ray-induced skin
      damage. We propose that, in the future, Melatonin would improve the therapeutic
      ratio in radiation oncology and ameliorate skin damage more effectively when
      administered in optimal and non-toxic doses.

PMID- 28580335
TI  - Adaptive Response Induced by Pre-Exposure to 915 MHz Radiofrequency: A Possible
      Role for Antioxidant Enzyme Activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over the past few years, the rapid use of high frequency
      electromagnetic fields like mobile phones has raised global concerns about the
      negative health effects of its use. Adaptive response is the ability of a cell or
      tissue to better resist stress damage by prior exposure to a lesser amount of
      stress. This study aimed to assess whether radiofrequency radiation can induce
      adaptive response by changing the antioxidant balance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      order to assess RF-induced adaptive response in tissues, we evaluated the level
      of GSH and the activity of GR in liver. 50 rats were divided into 5 groups. Three
      groups were pre-exposed to 915 MHz RF radiation, 4 hours per day for one week at
      different powers, as low, medium and high. 24 hours after the last exposure to
      radiation, they were exposed to 4 Gy sublethal dose of gamma radiation and then
      sacrificed after 5 hours. Their livers were removed, washed and were kept at -80o
      C until used. RESULTS: Our finding showed that pre-exposure to 915 MHz
      radiofrequency radiation with specific power could induce adaptive response in
      liver by inducing changes in the activity and level of antioxidant enzymes.
      CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that pre-exposure to microwave radiation could
      increase the level of GSH and the activity of GR enzyme, although these increases
      were seen just in low power group, and the GR activity was indicated in medium
      power group. This increase protects tissue from oxidative damage induced by
      sublethal dose of gamma radiation.

PMID- 28580336
TI  - Simulation study of Hemodynamic in Bifurcations for Cerebral Arteriovenous
      Malformation using Electrical Analogy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation (CAVM) hemodynamic
      is disease condition, results changes in the flow and pressure level in cerebral
      blood vessels. Measuring flow and pressure without catheter intervention along
      the vessel is big challenge due to vessel bifurcations/complex bifurcations in
      Arteriovenous Malformation patients. The vessel geometry in CAVM patients are
      complex, composed of varying diameters, lengths, and bifurcations of various
      angles. The variations in the vessel diameter and bifurcation angle complicate
      the measurement and analysis of blood flow features invasively or non-invasively.
      METHODS: In this paper, we proposed a lumped model for the bifurcation for
      symmetrical and asymmetrical networks in CAVM patients. The models are created
      using MATLAB Simulation software for various bifurcation angles. Each bifurcation
      angle created using electrical network- RLC. The segmentation and pre-processing
      of bifurcation vessels are implemented using adaptive segmentation. The proposed
      network address clinicians problem by measuring hemodynamic non-invasively. The
      method is applicable for any types of bifurcation networks with different
      bifurcation angles in CAVM patients. RESULTS: In this work, we constructed a
      mathematical model, measured hemodynamic for 23 patients (actual and simulated
      cases) with 60 vessel bifurcation angles variations. The results indicate that
      comparisons evidenced highly significant correlations between values computed by
      the lumped model and simulated mechanical model for both networks with p <
      0.0001. A P value of less than 0.05 considered statistically significant.
      CONCLUSION: In this paper, we have modelled different bifurcation types and
      automatically display pressure and flow non-invasively at different node and at
      different angles of bifurcation in the complex vessel with help of bifurcation
      parameters, using lumped parameter model. We have simulated for different
      bifurcation angles and diameters of vessel for various imaging modality and model
      extend for different organs. This will help clinicians to measure haemodynamic
      parameters noninvasively at various bifurcations, where even catheter cannot be
      reached.

PMID- 28580337
TI  - Neural Network-Based Learning Kernel for Automatic Segmentation of Multiple
      Sclerosis Lesions on Magnetic Resonance Images.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative disease of central nervous
      system. MS patients have some dead tissues in their brains called MS lesions. MRI
      is an imaging technique sensitive to soft tissues such as brain that shows MS
      lesions as hyper-intense or hypo-intense signals. Since manual segmentation of
      these lesions is a laborious and time consuming task, automatic segmentation is a
      need. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to segment MS lesions, a method based on
      learning kernels has been proposed. The proposed method has three main steps
      namely; pre-processing, sub-region extraction and segmentation. The segmentation
      is performed by a kernel. This kernel is trained using a modified version of a
      special type of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) called Massive Training ANN
      (MTANN). The kernel incorporates surrounding pixel information as features for
      classification of middle pixel of kernel. The materials of this study include a
      part of MICCAI 2008 MS lesion segmentation grand challenge data-set. RESULTS:
      Both qualitative and quantitative results show promising results. Similarity
      index of 70 percent in some cases is considered convincing. These results are
      obtained from information of only one MRI channel rather than multi-channel MRIs.
      CONCLUSION: This study shows the potential of surrounding pixel information to be
      incorporated in segmentation by learning kernels. The performance of proposed
      method will be improved using a special pre-processing pipeline and also a post
      processing step for reducing false positives/negatives. An important advantage of
      proposed model is that it uses just FLAIR MRI that reduces computational time and
      brings comfort to patients.

PMID- 28580338
TI  - Exposure to Visible Light Emitted from Smartphones and Tablets Increases the
      Proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus: Can this be Linked to Acne?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to rapid advances in modern technologies such as
      telecommunication technology, the world has witnessed an exponential growth in
      the use of digital handheld devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets). This drastic
      growth has resulted in increased global concerns about the safety of these
      devices. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other digital screens emit high
      levels of short-wavelength visible light (i.e. blue color region in the visible
      light spectrum). MATERIAL AND METHODS: At a dark environment, Staphylococcus
      aureus bacteria were exposed to the light emitted from common
      tablets/smartphones. The control samples were exposed to the same intensity of
      light generated by a conventional incandescent light bulb. The growth rate of
      bacteria was examined by measuring the optical density (OD) at 625 nm by using a
      spectrophotometer before the light exposure and after 30 to 330 minutes of light
      exposure. RESULTS: The growth rates of bacteria in both smartphone and tablet
      groups were higher than that of the control group and the maximum
      smartphone/control and tablet/control growth ratios were observed in samples
      exposed to digital screens' light for 300 min (ratios of 3.71 and 3.95,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study
      that investigates the effect of exposure to light emitted from digital screens on
      the proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus and its association with acne
      pathogenesis. Our findings show that exposure to short-wavelength visible light
      emitted from smartphones and tablets can increase the proliferation of
      Staphylococcus aureus.

PMID- 28580339
TI  - Can Evolutionary-based Brain Map Be Used as a Complementary Diagnostic Tool with
      fMRI, CT and PET for Schizophrenic Patients?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this research, a new approach termed as "evolutionary-based brain
      map" is presented as a diagnostic tool to classify schizophrenic and control
      subjects by distinguishing their electroencephalogram (EEG) features. METHODS:
      Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed to find discriminative frequency
      bands from different EEG channels. By deploying the energy of those selected
      frequency bands from different channels within each time frame (window) on the
      scalp geometry, a sort of two dimensional points along with their values are
      created; by applying Lagrange interpolation, an image can be constructed.
      Finally, by averaging the images belonging to successive time frames, an
      evolutionary-based brain map is created. RESULTS: In this study, twenty subjects
      from each group voluntarily participated and their EEG signals were caught from
      20 channels. The energy of selected bands for different channels are arranged in
      a feature vector for each time frame and applied to Fisher linear discriminant
      analysis (FLDA) resulting in 83.74% diagnostic accuracy between the two groups.
      The achieved result by the proposed method was much higher than applying the
      energy of standard EEG bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma) to the same
      classifier which just provided 77.04% accuracy. Applying T-test to the achieved
      results supports the supremacy of the proposed method as an automatic powerful
      diagnostic tool. CONCLUSION: The proposed brain map is capable of highlighting
      the same physiological and anatomical changes which are observed in fMRI, PET and
      CT as differentiable indicators between controls and schizophrenic patients.

PMID- 28580340
TI  - A System for Continuous Estimating and Monitoring Cardiac Output via Arterial
      Waveform Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac output (CO) is the total volume of blood pumped by the heart
      per minute and is a function of heart rate and stroke volume. CO is one of the
      most important parameters for monitoring cardiac function, estimating global
      oxygen delivery and understanding the causes of high blood pressure. Hence,
      measuring CO has always been a matter of interest to researchers and clinicians.
      Several methods have been developed for this purpose, but a majority of them are
      either invasive, too expensive or need special expertise and experience. Besides,
      they are not usually risk free and have consequences. OBJECTIVE: Here, a semi
      invasive system was designed and developed for continuous CO measurement via
      analyzing and processing arterial pulse waves. RESULTS: Quantitative evaluation
      of developed CO estimation system was performed using 7 signals. It showed that
      it has an acceptable average error of (6.5%) in estimating CO. In addition, this
      system has the ability to consistently estimate this parameter and to provide a
      CO versus time curve that assists in tracking changes of CO. Moreover, the system
      provides such curve for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure,
      average blood pressure, heart rate and stroke volume. CONCLUSION: Evaluation of
      the results showed that the developed system is capable of accurately estimating
      CO. The curves which the system provides for important parameters may be valuable
      in monitoring hemodynamic status of high-risk surgical patients and critically
      ill patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Therefore, it could be a suitable
      system for monitoring hemodynamic status of critically ill patients.

PMID- 28580341
TI  - Targeting innate immunity to downmodulate adaptive immunity and reverse type 1
      diabetes.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by specific destruction of pancreatic
      insulin-producing beta cells accompanied by evidence of beta-cell-directed
      autoimmunity such as autoreactive T cells and islet autoantibodies (IAAs).
      Currently, T1D cannot be prevented or reversed in humans. T1D is easy to prevent
      in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) spontaneous mouse model but reversing new-onset
      T1D in mice is more difficult. Since the discovery of the T-cell receptor in the
      1980s and the subsequent identification of autoreactive T cells directed toward
      beta-cell antigens (eg, insulin, glutamic acid decarboxylase), the dream of
      antigen-specific immunotherapy has dominated the field with its promise of
      specificity and limited side effects. While such approaches have worked in the
      NOD mouse, however, dozens of human trials have failed. Broader immunosuppressive
      approaches (originally cyclosporine, subsequently anti-CD3 antibody) have shown
      partial successes (e.g., prolonged C peptide preservation) but no major
      therapeutic efficacy or disease reversal. Human prevention trials have failed,
      despite the ease of such approaches in the NOD mouse. In the past 50 years, the
      incidence of T1D has increased dramatically, and one explanation is the "hygiene
      hypothesis", which suggests that decreased exposure of the innate immune system
      to environmental immune stimulants (e.g., bacterial products such as Toll-like
      receptor (TLR) 4-stimulating lipopolysaccharide [LPS]) dramatically affects the
      adaptive immune system and increases subsequent autoimmunity. We have tested the
      role of innate immunity in autoimmune T1D by treating acute-onset T1D in NOD mice
      with anti-TLR4/MD-2 agonistic antibodies and have shown a high rate of disease
      reversal. The TLR4 antibodies do not directly stimulate T cells but induce
      tolerogenic antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that mediate decreased adaptive T
      cell responses. Here, we review our current knowledge and suggest future
      prospects for targeting innate immunity in T1D immunotherapy.

PMID- 28580342
TI  - A simple rat model of in situ reversible obstructive jaundice in situ reversible
      obstructive jaundice model.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a simple and reliable rat model of in situ reversible
      obstructive jaundice with low morbidity and mortality rates. METHODS: Rats were
      divided into 4 groups with 8 rats each: the sham-operated (SH) group only
      underwent laparotomy, the control internal drainage (ID-C) group underwent
      choledochoduodenostomy, the new internal drainage (ID-N) group and the long-term
      internal drainage (ID-L) group underwent choledochocholedochostomy. Common bile
      duct ligation was performed in all the drainage groups 7 days before reversal
      procedures. All rats were sacrificed for samples 7 days after the last operation
      except rats of the ID-L group that survived 28 days before sacrifice. Body
      weight, liver function, histopathological changes, morbidity and mortality were
      assessed. RESULTS: One rat died and 2 rats had complications with tube blockage
      in the ID-C group. No death or complications occurred in the ID-N and ID-L
      groups. The drainage tube remained patent in the long-term observation ID-L
      group. Body weight showed no significant difference between the ID-C and ID-N
      groups after 7 days drainage. Liver function was not fully recovered in the ID-C
      and ID-N groups after 7 days drainage, but statistical differences were only
      observed in the ID-C group compared with the SH and ID-L groups. Periportal
      inflammation and bile duct proliferation showed severer in the ID-C group than in
      the ID-N group. CONCLUSION: The present study provided an efficient, simple, and
      reliable rat model that is especially suitable for long-term or consecutive
      studies of reversible obstructive jaundice.

PMID- 28580343
TI  - Effectiveness of thymoquinone, zeolite, and platelet-rich plasma in model of
      corrosive oesophagitis induced in rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: The effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), thymoquinone, and
      zeolite in corrosive esophageal burns was investigated in a rat model. METHODS:
      Four groups were comprised as containing 10 rats in each group. For group I,
      oesophagitis was induced and no other procedure was performed (control group).
      For group II, oesophagitis was induced and thymoquinone was administered for 1
      week via oral gavage once a day (thymoquinone group). For group III, oesophagitis
      was induced for 1 week via oral gavage once a day (PRP group). For group IV,
      oesophagitis was induced and zeolite was administered for 1 week via oral gavage
      once a day (zeolite group). On the 10th day, the rats were sacrificed under
      anaesthesia and venous blood sampling was performed from the vena portae. The
      oesophaguses were totally excised. Biochemically, interleukin (IL)-1B, IL-6, TNF
      alpha, and MCP-1 were examined from venous blood. Inflammation score was
      evaluated histopathologically in oesophageal tissue that was collected. RESULTS:
      There was a statistically significant difference among groups in terms of IL-1,
      IL-6, MCP levels, compared to the control group; median IL-1, IL-6, MCP levels of
      thymoquinone, PRP, and zeolite groups were statistically significantly lower.
      There was a statistically significant difference among groups in terms of
      inflammation scores, compared to group I; median inflammation scores of groups
      II, III and IV were statistically significantly lower thymoquinone. CONCLUSION:
      PRP, and zeolite exhibited positive effect on recovery in oesophagitis by
      reducing inflammation in the involved segment.

PMID- 28580344
TI  - Comparison of effects of the tacrolimus and cyclosporine A on the colon
      anastomosis recovery of rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to examine and compare the effects of immunosuppressant
      cyclosporine A (CsA) and tacrolimus (TAC) on colon anastomosis recovery. METHODS:
      Forty rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. The 4 groups were determined as
      follows: control group; sham group, given %0.09 NaCl; TAC group, given 0.5
      mg/kg/day tacrolimus; and CsA group, given 5 mg/kg/day CsA. A 6-cm midabdomen
      incision was performed on the rats. An incision of all layers on the right colon
      was performed. Then anastomosis was undertaken. Laparotomy was performed on the
      seventh day postoperation. The colon bursting pressures were evaluated,
      histopathological examinations were undertaken, and E-cadherin expression and
      tissue hydroxyproline levels were evaluated. RESULTS: Statistically significant
      differences were observed among bursting pressures of the groups (P < 0.001). The
      value was significantly low in TAC and CsA groups when compared to control and
      sham groups (P < 0.05). The tissue hydroxyproline levels were significantly low
      in TAC group compared to control group (P = 0.03). Fibroblast density and
      neovascularization were significantly greater in the control group compared to
      the TAC group (P < 0.05). Levels of collagen had decreased significantly in TAC
      group compared to other groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that TAC
      may have a negative effect of colon anastomosis recovery. The lowest anastomosis
      bursting pressure was detected in TAC group. Also, collagen, hydroxyproline,
      fibroblast, neovascularization and E-Cadherin levels were comparatively lower in
      TAC group. CsA did not cause any significant changes to tissue hydroxyproline,
      collagen, fibroblast, and E-Cadherin levels.

PMID- 28580346
TI  - Prospective, double center, 1-year results of adjustable gastric banding with
      MIDBAND (gastro-gastric suture vs. non-gastro-gastric suture).
AB  - PURPOSE: Although laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is a popular
      bariatric procedure, few comprehensive studies have been investigated on the use
      of non-gastro-gastric sutures (NGGSs) for decreasing postoperative complications.
      This study aimed to assess and compare the safety and effectiveness of MIDBAND
      with or without gastro-gastric sutures (GGSs). METHODS: Between February 2013 and
      March 2014, 41 severely obese patients underwent primary LAGB using pars flaccid
      technique at double center in South Korea. Excess weight loss, operative time and
      postoperative complications were assessed and compared between a GGS group (group
      1) and a NGGS group (group 2), and patients were followed monthly for 1 year.
      RESULTS: Mean body mass indices in groups 1 and 2 were 38.4 +/- 4.7 and 38.9 +/-
      5.0 kg/m2, respectively, and mean percentage excess weight losses (%EWLs) were
      59.9% +/- 28.4% and 50.9% +/- 20.0%, respectively, at 6 months, and 75.8% +/-
      26.6% and 72.5% +/- 27.5%, respectively, at 12 months, and these intergroup
      differences of %EWL were not significant (P = 0.256 and P = 0.704, respectively).
      Mean operative time (57.2 minutes) was shorter in group 2 than in group 1 (79.2
      minutes) (P < 0.001). In terms of complications, pouch dilatation rates were
      similar in the 2 groups, and no case of gastric band erosion was encountered.
      CONCLUSION: Operative time was shorter in the NGGS group, and pouch dilatation
      rates and %EWL were similar in the 2 groups. We conclude NGGS using MIDBAND is
      both straightforward and effective. A long-term prospective comparative study is
      needed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of NGGS.

PMID- 28580345
TI  - Extended versus peripancreatic lymph node dissection for the treatment of left
      sided pancreatic cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The pathways of lymphatic metastases differ according to the tumor
      location in pancreatic cancer patients. However, it is unclear whether extended
      lymph node dissection (LND) is essential for all left-sided pancreatic cancer.
      The aim of this study is to evaluate the survival outcomes according to the
      extent of LND and tumor location in patients with left-sided pancreatic cancer.
      METHODS: January 2005 to December 2013, we retrospectively identified 107
      patients who underwent curative intent surgery for left-sided pancreatic cancer.
      The left-sided pancreatic cancer was defined as a tumor located in pancreatic
      body or tail. The extent of LND was divided into 2 groups: extended LND and
      peripancreatic LND. The extended LND group included celiac and superior
      mesenteric LNs. RESULTS: We included 107 patients with left-sided pancreatic
      cancer; 59 patients with pancreatic body cancer and 48 patients with pancreatic
      tail cancer. The median follow-up period was 17 months (range, 3-110 months).
      Fifty patients with pancreatic body cancer and 30 patients with pancreatic tail
      cancer underwent extended LND. In patients with pancreatic body cancer, extended
      LND was associated with improved disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.010) and
      overall survival (P = 0.014). However, extended LND was not associated with DFS
      in patients with pancreatic tail cancer. CONCLUSION: Extended LND could improve
      survival in patients with pancreatic body cancer. However, extended LND had no
      survival benefit for the treatment of pancreatic tail cancer.

PMID- 28580347
TI  - Laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer in patients over 80 years of age: the
      morbidity outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes between patients under
      60 years of age and older patients over 80 years of age who underwent
      laparoscopic colorectal surgery with colorectal cancer. METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis of 519 colorectal patients who underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery
      for colorectal adenocarcinoma between January 2007 and December 2012 was
      collected and categorized into 2 groups of patients, those under 60 years of age
      (n = 404) and those over 80 years of age (n = 115). RESULTS: The group of
      patients over 80 years of age had a significantly higher ASA physical status
      classification (P < 0.001), more preoperative comorbidities (P < 0.001), had a
      tendency towards more tumors in a colonic location (P = 0.034), and more advanced
      American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM stage (P = 0.001). A higher proportion of
      right hemicolectomy and abdominoperineal resection was performed and more
      transfusions were required in the group of patients over 80 years of age (P =
      0.002 and P = 0.001, respectively). There were no significant differences in
      operative time, conversion rate, resection margins, and numbers of harvested
      lymph nodes, hospital stay, and morbidity between the 2 groups. No postoperative
      mortality was found in the present study. The 3-year DFS for over 80 years age
      group and under 60 years age group were 73.5% and 73.9%, respectively (P =
      0.770). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic colorectal surgery was effective and safe for
      elderly patients over 80 years of age and resulted in postoperative outcomes
      similar to those in younger patients. The postoperative morbidity after
      laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery was not increased in over 80 years of age.

PMID- 28580348
TI  - Impact of high-grade obstruction on outcomes in patients with appendiceal
      inflammatory masses managed by nonoperative treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To retrospectively assess the impact of high-grade obstructions
      identified on initial CT on outcomes of patients with appendiceal inflammatory
      masses managed by nonoperative treatment. METHODS: Institutional Review Boards
      approved this retrospective study and informed consent was waived. Included were
      52 consecutive patients diagnosed with appendiceal inflammatory masses by CT scan
      and managed by nonoperative treatment. The main outcome measure was treatment
      failure and secondary outcomes were complications and initial and total hospital
      stay. Patient demographics, inflammatory markers, and CT findings for presence of
      an appendiceal inflammatory mass and high-grade obstruction were assessed.
      Patients with and without high-grade obstruction were compared for patient
      characteristics and outcomes using Fisher exact test and Student t-test. RESULTS:
      Among 52 patients, 14 (27%) had high-grade obstruction on CT examination at
      presentation. No significant differences were observed in patient characteristics
      (P > 0.05), treatment failure (P = 0.33), complications (P = 0.29), or initial (P
      = 0.73) or total (P = 0.72) hospitalization between patients with and without
      high-grade obstruction. CONCLUSION: For patients who were managed by nonoperative
      treatment for appendiceal inflammatory masses, the presence of high-grade
      obstruction identified on initial CT scan did not significantly affect outcomes
      of treatment failure, complications, and initial and total hospitalization.

PMID- 28580349
TI  - Ultrasound fusion imaging with real-time navigation for the surveillance after
      endovascular aortic aneurysm repair.
AB  - Ultrasound can be an effective alternative to computed tomography for
      surveillance following endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Recently, ultrasound
      fusion imaging with the real-time navigation system was introduced. Here we
      described 3 patients who underwent post-EVAR surveillance using this novel
      technique. Complete coregistration was achieved in all patients. The origin of
      left renal artery was selected for the target of coregistration. Ultrasound
      fusion imaging was useful to differentiate the confusing lesion and to evaluate
      the complete resolution of endoleak and newly developed delayed endoleak.
      Ultrasound fusion image with real-time navigation system can be a feasible
      imaging tool for post-EVAR surveillance.

PMID- 28580350
TI  - Colon perforation due to embolization coil for internal iliac aneurysm.
AB  - Coil migration is an extremely rare but hazardous complication of aneurysmal coil
      embolization. Only 1 case report has described coil migration following
      endovascular exclusion to gastrointestinal (GI) tract. We report the experience
      of a case of colon penetration caused by embolization coil placed for internal
      iliac aneurysm. A 66-year-old man visited the Emergency Department for
      hematochezia that had persisted for 3 months. Stent insertion and coil
      embolization of left internal iliac artery aneurysm had been performed on the
      patient 18 months ago. Colonoscopy was performed. It suggested penetration of
      sigmoid colon by embolization coil and diverticulum. Angiography revealed
      extravasation of contrast media at left internal iliac artery. Covered stent
      deployment was done in the left internal iliac artery. One week after the stent
      insertion, the patient underwent anterior resection, aneurysm resection, and coil
      removal. The patient recovered without complications. He was discharged at 2
      weeks after the operation.

PMID- 28580351
TI  - Transition in Patients with Congenital Heart Disease in Germany: Results of a
      Nationwide Patient Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A growing number of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) pose
      a particular challenge for health care systems across the world. Upon turning
      into 18 years, under the German national health care system, ACHD patients are
      required to switch from a pediatric to an adult cardiologist or an ACHD-certified
      provider. To date, reliable data investigating the treatment situation of ACHD
      patients in Germany are not available. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online survey
      was conducted in collaboration with patient organizations to address the life
      situation and the conditions of health care provision for ACHD patients in
      Germany. ACHD patients were recruited from the database of the National Register
      for Congenital Heart Defects (NRCHD) and informed about the survey via email,
      websites, and social networks. A total of 1,828 ACHD patients (1,051 females)
      participated in this study. The mean age was 31.7 +/- 11.7 years. Participants
      were surveyed about treating physicians and the institution mainly involved in
      the treatment of their CHD. In addition, participants were asked questions to
      assess the level of trust toward their treating physician and their familiarity
      with the term "ACHD-certified provider." RESULTS: Among the surveyed patients,
      25.4% stated that they attended a specific ACHD clinic at a heart center
      regularly, 32.7% were treated in a private practice setting by a pediatric
      cardiologist, 32.4% in a private practice (adult) cardiology setting, and 9.5%
      were treated by an "other physician." Only 24.4% of the male and 29.7% of the
      female ACHD patients were familiar with the term "ACHD-certified provider."
      CONCLUSION: The transfer from pediatric cardiology to ACHD care requires further
      attention as many adult patients have not transferred to certified ACHD
      providers. The question of whether ACHD patients in Germany are offered
      consistent and adequate care should also be investigated in more detail. The
      answers regarding the ACHD certification are particularly disappointing and
      indicative of a large information gap and inadequate education in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28580352
TI  - Recent Spatiotemporal Patterns of US Lung Cancer by Histologic Type.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After a period of increasing rates, lung cancer incidence is
      declining in the US for men and women. We investigated lung cancer rate patterns
      by gender, geographic location, and histologic subtype, and for total lung cancer
      (TLC), for the entire study period, and for 2000-2011 from 17 surveillance,
      epidemiology, and end results areas. METHODS: For each gender-histologic type
      combination, time trend plots and maps of age-adjusted rates are presented. Time
      trend significance was tested by joinpoint regression analysis. Spatial random
      effects models were applied to examine effects of sociodemographic factors,
      health insurance coverage, smoking, and physician density at the county level.
      Linked micromap plots illustrate patterns for important model predictors.
      RESULTS: Declining incidence trends occurred for TLC (p < 0.05, entire period).
      Squamous cell carcinoma trends increased for females only (p < 0.05). Small cell
      carcinoma trends declined overall, p < 0.05, but recently increased faster for
      females than males. Adenocarcinoma rates initially declined, but were
      significantly increasing by 2004, p < 0.05. Counties with higher current smoking
      and family poverty were strongly associated with higher risk for all gender
      histologic types (p < 0.0001, for both variables). County socioeconomic status
      was associated with higher risk for all lung cancer subtypes for females, p <
      0.02. Counties with more diagnostic radiologists were associated with higher TLC
      rates (p < 0.03); counties with greater primary care physician access were
      associated with lower TLC rates (p < 0.03). TLC incidence rates were higher in
      eastern and southern states than western areas. Male rates were higher than
      female rates along the West Coast. Males and females had similar small cell rate
      patterns, with higher rates in the Midwest and southeast. Squamous cell carcinoma
      and adenocarcinoma rate patterns were similar to TLC patterns, except for
      relatively higher female adenocarcinoma rates in the northeast and northwest.
      CONCLUSION: Geographic patterns and declining time trends for incident lung
      cancer are consistent with previous mortality patterns. Male-female time trend
      and geographic pattern differences occur by histologic type. Time trends remain
      significant, even after adjustment for significant covariates. Knowledge of the
      variation of lung cancer incidence by region and histologic type is useful for
      surveillance and for implementing lung cancer control efforts.

PMID- 28580353
TI  - Development and Validation of a Novel Real-time Assay for the Detection and
      Quantification of Vibrio cholerae.
AB  - Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 has been known for its ability to cause epidemics.
      These strains produce cholera toxin which is the main cause of secretory
      diarrhea. V. cholerae non-O1 and non-O139 strains are also capable of causing
      gastroenteritis as well as septicemia and peritonitis. It has been proven that
      virulence factors such as T6SS, hapA, rtxA, and hlyA are present in almost all V.
      cholerae strains. It is imperative that viable but non-culturable cells of V.
      cholerae are also detected since they are also known to cause diarrhea. Thus, the
      aim of this study was to develop an assay that detects all V. cholerae regardless
      of their serotype, culturable state, and virulence genes present, by targeting
      the species specific conserved ompW sequence. The developed assay meets these
      goals with 100% specificity and is capable of detecting as low as 5.46 copy
      number of V. cholerae. Detection is rapid since neither lengthy incubation period
      nor electrophoresis is required. The assay had excellent repeatability (CV%: 0.24
      1.32) and remarkable reproducibility (CV%: 1.08-3.7). Amplification efficiencies
      in the 89-100% range were observed. The assay is more economical than Taqman
      based multiplex real-time PCR assays. Compared to other real-time assays, the
      ompW assay is specific and sensitive, has better repeatability and
      reproducibility, and is more economical.

PMID- 28580354
TI  - How a Training Program Is Transforming the Role of Traditional Birth Attendants
      from Cultural Practitioners to Unique Health-care Providers: A Community Case
      Study in Rural Guatemala.
AB  - In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the rates of maternal
      mortality continue to be inappropriately high, there has been recognition of the
      importance of training traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to help improve
      outcomes during pregnancy and childbirth. In Guatemala, there is no national
      comprehensive training program in place despite the fact that the majority of
      women rely on TBAs during pregnancy and childbirth. This community case study
      presents a unique education program led by TBAs for TBAs in rural Guatemala.
      Discussion of this training program focuses on programming implementation,
      curriculum development, sustainable methodology, and how an educational
      partnership with the current national health-care system can increase access to
      health care for women in LMICs. Recent modifications to this training model are
      also discussed including how a change in the clinical curriculum is further
      integrating TBAs into the national health infrastructure. The training program
      has demonstrated that Guatemalan TBAs are able to improve their basic obstetrical
      knowledge, are capable of identifying and referring early complications of
      pregnancy and labor, and can deliver basic prenatal care that would otherwise not
      be provided. This training model is helping transform the role of the TBA from a
      sole cultural practitioner to a validated health-care provider within the health
      care infrastructure of Guatemala and has the potential to do the same in other
      LMICs.

PMID- 28580355
TI  - Adults Experiencing Homelessness in the US-Mexico Border Region: A Photovoice
      Project.
AB  - Homelessness is a social, economic, and political crisis in the United States. In
      particular, the US-Mexico Border region has seen a surge of homelessness,
      specifically among veterans, women victims of intimate partner violence, and
      immigrants. In 2014, 12 persons in El Paso, TX, with experience of being homeless
      used the photovoice methodology to participate in a project titled, "The Voices
      and Images of the Residents of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless: A Visual
      Project on the Identity and Challenges Homeless Adults Face on the Border
      Region." The project was led by faculty from the Department of Social Work and
      facilitated by graduate students from the Departments of Social Work, Sociology,
      and Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso. In partnership with the
      Opportunity Center for the Homeless, a community-based organization, a gallery of
      photographs with respective narratives was produced along with a video
      documentary. The participants identified four themes: broken systems,
      invisibility, opportunities and what works, and growth and determination. These
      themes represent participants' life experiences with homelessness and their
      aspirations. In addition to the photo gallery, participants supported the
      development of a Call to Action asking the community, policy, and decision makers
      to commit to changing the current social, economic, and political conditions
      affecting individuals experiencing homelessness. The gallery, Call to Action, and
      overall participant experiences with photovoice were shared during local,
      regional, and national conferences and events, including three State of the
      Homeless Conferences led by the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in
      partnership with the university.

PMID- 28580356
TI  - Fungal Histidine Phosphotransferase Plays a Crucial Role in Photomorphogenesis
      and Pathogenesis in Magnaporthe oryzae.
AB  - Two-component signal transduction (TCST) pathways play crucial roles in many
      cellular functions such as stress responses, biofilm formation, and sporulation.
      The histidine phosphotransferase (HPt), which is an intermediate phosphotransfer
      protein in a two-component system, transfers a phosphate group to a
      phosphorylatable aspartate residue in the target protein(s), and up-regulates
      stress-activated MAP kinase cascades. Most fungal genomes carry a single copy of
      the gene coding for HPt, which are potential antifungal targets. However, unlike
      the histidine kinases (HK) or the downstream response regulators (RR) in two
      component system, the HPts have not been well-studied in phytopathogenic fungi.
      In this study, we investigated the role of HPt in the model rice-blast fungal
      pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. We found that in M. oryzae an additional isoform of
      the HPT gene YPD1 was expressed specifically in response to light. Further, the
      expression of light-regulated genes such as those encoding envoy and blue-light
      harvesting protein, and PAS domain containing HKs was significantly reduced upon
      down-regulation of YPD1 in M. oryzae. Importantly, down-regulation of YPD1 led to
      a significant decrease in the ability to penetrate the host cuticle and in light
      dependent conidiation in M. oryzae. Thus, our results indicate that Ypd1 plays an
      important role in asexual development and host invasion, and suggest that YPD1
      isoforms likely have distinct roles to play in the rice-blast pathogen M. oryzae.

PMID- 28580357
TI  - Impact of Compression Stockings vs. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on
      Overnight Fluid Shift and Obstructive Sleep Apnea among Patients on Hemodialysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in edematous states,
      notably in hemodialysis patients. In this population, overnight fluid shift can
      play an important role on the pathogenesis of OSA. The effect of compression
      stockings (CS) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on fluid shift is
      barely known. We compared the effects of CS and CPAP on fluid dynamics in a
      sample of patients with OSA in hemodialysis, through a randomized crossover
      study. METHODS: Each participant performed polysomnography (PSG) at baseline,
      during CPAP titration, and after 1 week of wearing CS. Neck circumference (NC)
      and segmental bioelectrical impedance were done before and after PSG. RESULTS:
      Fourteen patients were studied (53 +/- 9 years; 57% men; body mass index 29.7 +/-
      6.8 kg/m2). Apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) decreased from 20.8 (14.2; 39.6) at
      baseline to 7.9 (2.8; 25.4) during CPAP titration and to 16.7 (3.5; 28.9)
      events/h after wearing CS (CPAP vs. baseline, p = 0.004; CS vs. baseline, p =
      0.017; and CPAP vs. CS, p = 0.017). Nocturnal intracellular trunk water was
      higher after wearing CS in comparison to baseline and CPAP (p = 0.03). CS reduced
      the fluid accumulated in lower limbs during the day, although not significantly.
      Overnight fluid shift at baseline, CPAP, and CS was -183 +/- 72, -343 +/- 220,
      and -290 +/- 213 ml, respectively (p = 0.006). Overnight NC increased at baseline
      (0.7 +/- 0.4 cm), decreased after CPAP (-1.0 +/- 0.4 cm), and while wearing CS (
      0.4 +/- 0.8 cm) (CPAP vs. baseline, p < 0.0001; CS vs. baseline, p = 0.001; CPAP
      vs. CS, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: CS reduced AHI by avoiding fluid retention in the
      legs, favoring accumulation of water in the intracellular component of the trunk,
      thus avoiding fluid shift to reach the neck. CPAP improved OSA by exerting local
      pressure on upper airway, with no impact on fluid redistribution. CPAP performed
      significantly better than CS for both reduction of AHI and overnight reduction of
      NC. Complementary studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms by which CPAP
      and CS reduce NC.

PMID- 28580358
TI  - Belatacept As an Alternative to Calcineurin Inhibitors in Patients with Solid
      Organ Transplants.
AB  - The goal of immunosuppression in transplantation has shifted to improving long
      term outcomes, reducing drug-induced toxicities while preserving the already
      excellent short-term outcomes. Long-term gains in solid organ transplantation
      have been limited at least partly due to the nephrotoxicity and metabolic side
      effects of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs). The alloimmune response requires
      activation of the costimulatory pathway for T cell proliferation and
      amplification. Belatacept is a molecule that selectively blocks T cell
      costimulation. In June 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it
      for maintenance immunosuppression in kidney transplantation based on two open
      label, randomized, phase III trials. Since its introduction, belatacept has shown
      promise in both short- and long-term renal transplant outcomes in several other
      trials. It exhibits a superior side effect profile compared to CNIs with a
      comparable efficacy. Across all solid organ transplants, the burden of chronic
      kidney disease, its associated cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, and inferior
      patient/allograft survival is a well-documented problem. In this review, we aim
      to discuss the evidence behind the use of belatacept in solid organ transplants
      as an effective alternative to CNIs for renal rescue in patients with acute
      and/or chronic kidney injury.

PMID- 28580360
TI  - Complete Cranial Iliac Osteotomy to Approach the Lumbosacral Foramen.
AB  - An approach using a complete cranial iliac osteotomy (CCIO) to access the
      lumbosacral (LS) foramen in dogs from lateral was developed using cadavers and
      applied in a clinical patient with degenerative lumbosacral stenosis (DLSS). The
      foraminal enlargement in the cadavers and the patient was documented on
      postoperative CT scans. The preoperative CT scan of the patient showed moderate
      cranial telescoping of the sacral roof and a moderate central disk protrusion,
      leading to moderate to severe compression of the cauda equina. In addition, there
      was lateral spondylosis with consequential stenosis of the right LS foramen. The
      right L7 nerve had lost its fat attenuation and appeared thickened. After a
      routine L7S1 dorsal laminectomy with a partial discectomy, a CCIO was performed,
      providing good access to the LS foramen and the adhesions around the proximal L7
      nerve caudoventral to the foramen. The osteotomy was stabilized with a locking
      plate and a cerclage wire. The dog recovered well from the procedures and after
      36 h, the dog walked normally and was discharged from the hospital. Eight and 16
      weeks later, the signs of the DLSS had markedly improved. From these data, it can
      be concluded that the CCIO is a useful approach to the LS foramen and
      intervertebral disk in selected patients with DLSS, giving good access to the
      structures around the LS foramen.

PMID- 28580361
TI  - Neuroprotection via RNA-binding protein RBM3 expression is regulated by
      hypothermia but not by hypoxia in human SK-N-SH neurons.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Therapeutic hypothermia is an established treatment for perinatal
      asphyxia. Yet, many term infants continue to die or suffer from
      neurodevelopmental disability. Several experimental studies have demonstrated a
      beneficial effect of mild-to-moderate hypothermia after hypoxic injury, but the
      understanding of hypothermia-induced neuroprotection remains incomplete. In
      general, global protein synthesis is attenuated by hypothermia, but a small group
      of RNA-binding proteins including the RNA-binding motif 3 (RBM3) is upregulated
      in response to cooling. The aim of this study was to establish an in vitro model
      to investigate the effects of hypoxia and hypothermia on neuronal cell survival,
      as well as to examine the kinetics of concurrent cold-shock protein RBM3 gene
      expression. METHODS: Experiments were performed by using human SK-N-SH neurons
      exposed to different oxygen concentrations (21%, 8%, or 0.2% O2) for 24 hours
      followed by moderate hypothermia (33.5 degrees C) or normothermia for 24, 48, or
      72 hours. Cell death was determined by quantification of lactate dehydrogenase
      and neuron-specific enolase releases into the cell cultured medium, and cell
      morphology was assessed by using immunofluorescence staining. The regulation of
      RBM3 gene expression was assessed by reverse transcriptase-quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Exposure to hypoxia
      (0.2% O2) for 24 hours resulted in significantly increased cell death in SK-N-SH
      neurons, whereas exposure to 8% O2 had no significant impact on cell viability.
      Post-hypoxia treatment with moderate hypothermia for 48 or 72 hours rescued the
      neurons from hypoxia-induced cell death. Moreover, exposure to severe hypoxia led
      to observable cell swelling, which was also attenuated by moderate hypothermia.
      Finally, moderate hypothermia but not hypoxia led to the induction of RBM3
      expression on both transcriptional and translational levels. CONCLUSION: Moderate
      hypothermia protects neurons from hypoxia-induced cell death. The expression of
      the cold-shock protein RBM3 is induced by moderate hypothermia and could be one
      possible mediator of hypothermia-induced neuroprotection.

PMID- 28580363
TI  - Targeted metabolomics in colorectal cancer: a strategic approach using
      standardized laboratory tests of the blood and urine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glycolytic markers have been detected in colorectal cancer (CRC)
      using advanced analytical methods. METHODS: Using commercially available assays,
      by-products of anaerobic metabolism were prospectively measured in the blood and
      urine of 20 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) and 20 patients
      with local disease. Twenty-four-hour urine citrate, plasma lactate, ketones,
      venous blood gas, anion gap, and osmolar gap were investigated. Results of
      patients with metastatic and local CRC were compared using two-sample t-tests or
      equivalent nonparametric tests. In addition, plasma total CO2 concentrations in
      our local hospital (5,931 inpatients and 1,783 outpatients) were compared
      retrospectively with those in our dedicated cancer center (1,825 outpatients)
      over 1 year. RESULTS: The average venous pCO2 was higher in patients with mCRC
      (50.2 mmHg; standard deviation [SD]=9.36) compared with those with local disease
      (42.8 mmHg; SD=8.98), p=0.045. Calculated serum osmolarity was higher in mCRC and
      attributed to concomitant sodium and urea elevations. In our retrospective
      analysis, plasma total CO2 concentrations (median=27 mmol/L) were higher in
      cancer patients compared to both hospital inpatients (median=23 mmol/L) and
      outpatients (median=24 mmol/L), p<0.0001. CONCLUSION: Patients with mCRC had
      higher venous pCO2 levels than those with local disease. Although causation
      cannot be established, we hypothesize that pCO2 elevation may stem from a
      perturbed metabolism in mCRC.

PMID- 28580364
TI  - Modelling lexical access in speech production as a ballistic process.

PMID- 28580362
TI  - KEMTUB012-NI2, a novel potent tubulysin analog that selectively targets hypoxic
      cancer cells and is potentiated by cytochrome p450 reductase downregulation.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is an urgent need to develop effective therapies and treatment
      strategies to treat hypoxic tumors, which have a very poor prognosis and do not
      respond well to existing therapies. METHODS: A novel hypoxia-targeting agent,
      KEMTUB012-NI2, was synthesized by conjugating a 2-nitroimidazole hypoxia
      targeting moiety to a synthetic tubulysin, a very potent antimitotic. Its hypoxic
      selectivity and mode of action were studied in breast cancer cell lines. RESULTS:
      KEMTUB012-NI2 exhibited a similar selectivity for hypoxic cells to that of
      tirapazamine, a well-established hypoxia-targeting agent, but was >1,000 times
      more potent in cell cytotoxicity assays. The hypoxia-targeting mechanism for both
      KEMTUB012-NI2 and tirapazamine was selective and mediated by one-electron
      reductases. However, while cytochrome p450 reductase (POR) downregulation could
      inhibit tirapazamine cytotoxicity, it actually sensitized hypoxic cells to
      KEMTUB012-NI2. CONCLUSION: KEMTUB012-NI2 is a potent new agent that can
      selectively target hypoxic cancer cells. The hypoxia selectivity of KEMTUB012-NI2
      and tirapazamine appears to be differentially activated by reductases. Since
      reductases are heterogeneously expressed in tumors, the different activation
      mechanisms will allow these agents to complement each other. Combining POR
      downregulation with KEMTUB012-NI2 treatment could be a new treatment strategy
      that maximizes efficacy toward hypoxic tumor cells while limiting systemic
      toxicity.

PMID- 28580359
TI  - The Diverse AAA+ Machines that Repair Inhibited Rubisco Active Sites.
AB  - Gaseous carbon dioxide enters the biosphere almost exclusively via the active
      site of the enzyme ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco).
      This highly conserved catalyst has an almost universal propensity to non
      productively interact with its substrate ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate, leading to
      the formation of dead-end inhibited complexes. In diverse autotrophic organisms
      this tendency has been counteracted by the recruitment of dedicated AAA+ (ATPases
      associated with various cellular activities) proteins that all use the energy of
      ATP hydrolysis to remodel inhibited Rubisco active sites leading to release of
      the inhibitor. Three evolutionarily distinct classes of these Rubisco activases
      (Rcas) have been discovered so far. Green and red-type Rca are mostly found in
      photosynthetic eukaryotes of the green and red plastid lineage respectively,
      whereas CbbQO is associated with chemoautotrophic bacteria. Ongoing mechanistic
      studies are elucidating how the various motors are utilizing both similar and
      contrasting strategies to ultimately perform their common function of cracking
      the inhibited Rubisco active site. The best studied mechanism utilized by red
      type Rca appears to involve transient threading of the Rubisco large subunit C
      terminal peptide, reminiscent of the action performed by Clp proteases. As well
      as providing a fascinating example of convergent molecular evolution, Rca
      proteins can be considered promising crop-improvement targets. Approaches aiming
      to replace Rubisco in plants with improved enzymes will need to ensure the
      presence of a compatible Rca protein. The thermolability of the Rca protein found
      in crop plants provides an opportunity to fortify photosynthesis against high
      temperature stress. Photosynthesis also appears to be limited by Rca when light
      conditions are fluctuating. Synthetic biology strategies aiming to enhance the
      autotrophic CO2 fixation machinery will need to take into consideration the
      requirement for Rubisco activases as well as their properties.

PMID- 28580365
TI  - Low-Quality Housing Is Associated With Increased Risk of Malaria Infection: A
      National Population-Based Study From the Low Transmission Setting of Swaziland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low-quality housing may confer risk of malaria infection, but
      evidence in low transmission settings is limited. METHODS: To examine the
      relationship between individual level housing quality and locally acquired
      infection in children and adults, a population-based cross-sectional analysis was
      performed using existing surveillance data from the low transmission setting of
      Swaziland. From 2012 to 2015, cases were identified through standard diagnostics
      in health facilities and by loop-mediated isothermal amplification in active
      surveillance, with uninfected subjects being household members and neighbors.
      Housing was visually assessed in a home visit and then classified as low, high,
      or medium quality, based on housing components being traditional, modern, or
      both, respectively. RESULTS: Overall, 11426 individuals were included in the
      study: 10960 uninfected and 466 infected (301 symptomatic and 165 asymptomatic).
      Six percent resided in low-quality houses, 26% in medium-quality houses, and 68%
      in high-quality houses. In adjusted models, low- and medium-quality construction
      was associated with increased risk of malaria compared with high-quality
      construction (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.11 and 95% confidence interval [CI],
      1.26-3.53 for low vs high; AOR, 1.56 and 95% CI, 1.15-2.11 for medium vs high).
      The relationship was independent of vector control, which also conferred a
      protective effect (AOR, 0.67; 95% CI, .50-.90) for sleeping under an insecticide
      treated bed net or a sprayed structure compared with neither. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study adds to the limited literature on housing quality and malaria risk from low
      transmission settings. Housing improvements may offer an attractive and
      sustainable additional strategy to support countries in malaria elimination.

PMID- 28580367
TI  - Improving temporal resolution of ultrafast electron diffraction by eliminating
      arrival time jitter induced by radiofrequency bunch compression cavities.
AB  - The temporal resolution of sub-relativistic ultrafast electron diffraction (UED)
      is generally limited by the radio frequency (RF) phase and amplitude jitter of
      the RF lenses that are used to compress the electron pulses. We theoretically
      show how to circumvent this limitation by using a combination of several RF
      compression cavities. We show that if powered by the same RF source and with a
      proper choice of RF field strengths, RF phases, and distances between the
      cavities, the combined arrival time jitter due to RF phase jitter of the cavities
      is cancelled at the compression point. We also show that the effect of RF
      amplitude jitter on the temporal resolution is negligible when passing through
      the cavity at a RF phase optimal for (de)compression. This will allow improvement
      of the temporal resolution in UED experiments to well below 100 fs.

PMID- 28580366
TI  - Nanotip-based photoelectron microgun for ultrafast LEED.
AB  - We present the design and fabrication of a micrometer-scale electron gun for the
      implementation of ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction from surfaces. A
      multi-step process involving photolithography and focused-ion-beam
      nanostructuring is used to assemble and electrically contact the photoelectron
      gun, which consists of a nanotip photocathode in a Schottky geometry and an
      einzel lens for beam collimation. We characterize the low-energy electron pulses
      by a transient electric field effect and achieve pulse durations of 1.3 ps at an
      electron energy of 80 eV. First diffraction images in a backscattering geometry
      (at 50 eV electron energy) are shown.

PMID- 28580368
TI  - Monitoring nonadiabatic avoided crossing dynamics in molecules by ultrafast X-ray
      diffraction.
AB  - We examine time-resolved X-ray diffraction from molecules in the gas phase which
      undergo nonadiabatic avoided-crossing dynamics involving strongly coupled
      electrons and nuclei. Several contributions to the signal are identified,
      representing (in decreasing strength) elastic scattering, contributions of the
      electronic coherences created by nonadiabatic couplings in the avoided crossing
      regime, and inelastic scattering. The former probes the charge density and
      delivers direct information on the evolving molecular geometry. The latter two
      contributions are weaker and carry spatial information through the transition
      charge densities (off-diagonal elements of the charge-density operator).
      Simulations are presented for the nonadiabatic harpooning process in the excited
      state of sodium fluoride.

PMID- 28580369
TI  - Transient process spectroscopy for the direct observation of inter-molecular
      photo-dissociation.
AB  - Transient process spectroscopy has previously been thought to be applicable only
      to the analysis of intra-molecular processes. Two metal ion bridges used in the
      present work have allowed us to visualize real-time variations of the molecular
      vibration frequencies during photo-disproportionation inside bimolecule
      aggregates, which directly shows transient inter-molecular reactions.

PMID- 28580370
TI  - Robotic Assist-As-Needed as an Alternative to Therapist-Assisted Gait
      Rehabilitation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Body Weight Supported Treadmill Training (BWSTT) with therapists'
      assistance is often used for gait rehabilitation post-stroke. However, this
      training method is labor-intensive, requiring at least one or as many as three
      therapists at once for manual assistance. Previously, we demonstrated that
      providing movement guidance using a performance-based robot-aided gait training
      (RAGT) that applies a compliant, assist-as-needed force-field improves gait
      pattern and functional walking ability in people post-stroke. In the current
      study, we compared the effects of assist-as-needed RAGT combined with functional
      electrical stimulation and visual feedback with BWSTT to determine if RAGT could
      serve as an alternative for locomotor training. METHODS: Twelve stroke survivors
      were randomly assigned to one of the two groups, either receiving BWSTT with
      manual assistance or RAGT with functional electrical stimulation and visual
      feedback. All subjects received fifteen 40-minutes training sessions. RESULTS:
      Clinical measures, kinematic data, and EMG data were collected before and
      immediately after the training for fifteen sessions. Subjects receiving RAGT
      demonstrated significant improvements in their self-selected over-ground walking
      speed, Functional Gait Assessment, Timed Up and Go scores, swing-phase peak knee
      flexion angle, and muscle coordination pattern. Subjects receiving BWSTT
      demonstrated significant improvements in the Six-minute walk test. However, there
      was an overall trend toward improvement in most measures with both interventions,
      thus there were no significant between-group differences in the improvements
      following training. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that RAGT worked at
      least as well as BWSTT and thus may be used as an alternative rehabilitation
      method to improve gait pattern post-stroke as it requires less physical effort
      from the therapists compared to BWSTT.

PMID- 28580372
TI  - INFLUENCE OF THE CIVIC COMMUNITY RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENT ON FAMILY POVERTY: A
      MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS.
AB  - This study integrates research in the civic community tradition and structuralist
      and individualist perspectives on poverty to assess the relationship between
      religious-based civic community structures and family poverty in the United
      States. Using multilevel analyses of 2006-2008 American Community Survey, 2000
      Census of Population and Housing, and 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership
      Survey data, results demonstrate that the presence of Mainline Protestant and
      Catholics adherents within communities - measured as the percentage of a
      community's population comprised of Mainline Protestant and Catholic adherents -
      is significantly and negatively associated with family poverty risks, net of
      other family and community factors. That is, in communities with a greater
      presence of Mainline Protestants and Catholics, there were also lower risks of
      families being in poverty. These findings suggest the importance of the ecology
      of religion within communities in understanding poverty outcomes for families.

PMID- 28580371
TI  - Kinase modulation of androgen receptor signaling: implications for prostate
      cancer.
AB  - Androgens and androgen receptors play essential roles in the development and
      progression of prostate cancer, a disease that claims roughly 28,000 lives
      annually. In addition to androgen biding, androgen receptor activity can be
      regulated via several post-translational modifications such as ubiquitination,
      acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation & SUMO-ylation. Off these
      modifications, phosphorylation has been the most extensively studied.
      Modification by phosphorylation can alter androgen receptor localization, protein
      stability and transcriptional activity, ultimately leading to changes in the
      biology of cancer cells and cancer progression. Understanding, role of
      phosphorylated androgen receptor species holds the key to identifying a potential
      therapeutic drug target for patients with prostate cancer and castrate resistant
      prostate cancer. Here, we present a brief review of recently discovered protein
      kinases phosphorylating AR, focusing on the functional role of phosphorylated
      androgen receptor species in prostate cancer and castrate resistant prostate
      cancer.

PMID- 28580373
TI  - Acousto-optic modulation and opto-acoustic gating in piezo-optomechanical
      circuits.
AB  - Acoustic wave devices provide a promising chip-scale platform for efficiently
      coupling radio frequency (RF) and optical fields. Here, we use an integrated
      piezo-optomechanical circuit platform that exploits both the piezoelectric and
      photoelastic coupling mechanisms to link 2.4 GHz RF waves to 194 THz (1550 nm)
      optical waves, through coupling to propagating and localized 2.4 GHz acoustic
      waves. We demonstrate acousto-optic modulation, resonant in both the optical and
      mechanical domains, in which waveforms encoded on the RF carrier are mapped to
      the optical field. We also show opto-acoustic gating, in which the application of
      modulated optical pulses interferometrically gates the transmission of
      propagating acoustic pulses. The time-domain characteristics of this system under
      both pulsed RF and pulsed optical excitation are considered in the context of the
      different physical pathways involved in driving the acoustic waves, and modelled
      through the coupled mode equations of cavity optomechanics.

PMID- 28580374
TI  - Non-Hermitian engineering of synthetic saturable absorbers for applications in
      photonics.
AB  - We introduce a new type of synthetic saturable absorber based on quantum-inspired
      Jx photonic arrays. We demonstrate that the interplay between optical Kerr
      nonlinearity, interference effects and non-Hermiticity through radiation loss
      leads to a nonlinear optical filtering response with two distinct regimes of
      small and large optical transmissions. More interestingly, we show that the
      boundary between these two regimes can be very sharp. The threshold optical
      intensity that marks this abrupt "phase transition" and its steepness can be
      engineered by varying the number of the guiding elements. The practical
      feasibility of these structures as well as their potential applications in laser
      systems and optical signal processing are also discussed.

PMID- 28580375
TI  - RNA-protein UV-crosslinking Assay.
AB  - RNA-protein interactions play a crucial role in every aspect of RNA metabolism,
      and also plays a major role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. RNA-binding
      proteins have been implicated in viral gene expression (Ray and Das, 2002) and
      microRNA-mediated gene regulation (Poria et al., 2016). Here we have described
      the protocol which (1) covalently links transiently interacting RNA-protein
      complexes by UV crosslinking, (2) removes the unprotected RNA by RNase digestion
      and (3) detects the RNA-protein complexes by SDS-PAGE analysis. This protocol
      provides a rapid and reliable means to directly assay RNA-protein interactions
      and their kinetics using purified proteins and also help in identifying novel RNA
      protein interactions.

PMID- 28580376
TI  - Reversible Cryo-arrests of Living Cells to Pause Molecular Movements for High
      resolution Imaging.
AB  - Fluorescence live-cell imaging by single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM)
      or fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) in principle allows for the
      spatio-temporal observation of molecular patterns in individual, living cells.
      However, the dynamics of molecules within cells hamper their precise observation.
      We present here a detailed protocol for consecutive cycles of reversible cryo
      arrest of living cells on a microscope that allows for a precise determination of
      the evolution of molecular patterns within individual living cells. The
      usefulness of this approach has been demonstrated by observing ligand-induced
      clustering of receptor tyrosine kinases as well as their activity patterns by
      SMLM and FLIM (Masip et al., 2016).

PMID- 28580377
TI  - Optimization of Curvilinear Needle Trajectories for Transforamenal
      Hippocampotomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The recent development of MRI-guided laser-induced thermal therapy
      (LITT) offers a minimally invasive alternative to craniotomies performed for
      tumor resection or for amygdalohippocampectomy to control seizure disorders.
      Current LITT therapies rely on linear stereotactic trajectories that mandate
      twist-drill entry into the skull and potentially long approaches traversing
      healthy brain. The use of robotically-driven, telescoping, curved needles has the
      potential to reduce procedure invasiveness by tailoring trajectories to the
      curved shape of the ablated structure and by enabling access through natural
      orifices. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of using a concentric tube
      robot to access the hippocampus through the foramen ovale to deliver thermal
      therapy and thereby provide a percutaneous treatment for epilepsy without
      drilling the skull. METHODS: The skull and both hippocampi were segmented from
      dual CT/MR image volumes for 10 patients. For each of the 20 hippocampi, a
      concentric tube robot was designed and optimized to traverse a trajectory from
      the foramen ovale to and through the hippocampus from head to tail. RESULTS:
      Across all 20 cases, the mean distances (error) between hippocampus medial axis
      and backbone of the needle were 0.55 mm, 1.11 mm, and 1.66 mm for best, mean, and
      worst case, respectively. CONCLUSION: These curvilinear trajectories would
      provide accurate transforamenal delivery of an ablation probe to typical
      hippocampus volumes. This strategy has the potential to both decrease the
      invasiveness of the procedure and increase the completeness of hippocampal
      ablation.

PMID- 28580379
TI  - Synthesis of 2-Oxo-1, 2-Dihydroquinoline Chemotype with Multiple Attachment
      Points as Novel Screening Compounds for Drug Discovery.
AB  - The 2-oxo-1, 2-dihydroquinoline Chemotype is well represented among screening
      compound collection. However, the chemical space of 2-oxo-1, 2-dihydroquinoline
      has not been thoroughly investigated. In this work we report the synthesis of a
      small but novel 2-oxo-1, 2-dihydroquinoline compound array for screening
      purposes, especially in drug discovery, possessing three convenient point of
      diversity.

PMID- 28580378
TI  - Behavioral Economic Laboratory Research in Tobacco Regulatory Science.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research that can provide a scientific foundation for the United
      States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tobacco policy decisions is needed to
      inform tobacco regulatory policy. One factor that affects the impact of a tobacco
      product on public health is its intensity of use, which is determined, in part,
      by its abuse liability or reinforcing efficacy. Behavioral economic tasks have
      considerable utility for assessing the reinforcing efficacy of current and
      emerging tobacco products. METHODS: This paper provides a narrative review of
      several behavioral economic laboratory tasks and identifies important
      applications to tobacco regulatory science. RESULTS: Behavioral economic
      laboratory assessments, including operant self-administration, choice tasks and
      purchase tasks, can be used generate behavioral economic data on the effect of
      price and other constraints on tobacco product consumption. These tasks could
      provide an expedited simulation of the effects of various tobacco control
      policies across populations of interest to the FDA. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco
      regulatory research questions that can be addressed with behavioral economic
      tasks include assessments of the impact of product characteristics on product
      demand, assessments of the abuse liability of novel and potential modified risk
      tobacco products (MRTPs), and assessments of the impact of conventional and novel
      products in vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28580380
TI  - Recurrent Dislocation of the Proximal Interphalangeal Joint of the Finger: A Rare
      Issue in Hand Surgery.
AB  - Recurrent dislocation is not common in small joints. This report presents a
      recurrent dislocation of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the ring finger in
      a 23-years-old man. Recurrent dislocation was addressed successfully by repairing
      the avulsed volar plate to the base of the middle phalanx, followed by 6 weeks of
      splint immobilization.

PMID- 28580381
TI  - A Conceptual Framework for Barriers to the Recruitment and Retention of Rural CVD
      Participants in Behavior Intervention Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rural residents diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or with
      CVD-related risks are underrepresented in behavioral intervention trials based on
      an extensive review of published studies. The low participation rate of rural
      residents weakens both the internal and external validity of published studies.
      Moreover, compared to urban residents, limited research exists to describe the
      unique barriers that limit the participation of rural residents in behavioral
      intervention trials. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this review is to identify a
      conceptual framework (CF) underpinning common barriers faced by rural CVD
      patients to enroll in behavioral intervention trials. METHODS: We conducted a
      literature review using several electronic databases to obtain a representative
      sample of research articles, synthesized the evidence, and developed a CF to
      explain the barriers that may affect the research participation rate of rural
      residents with CVD or related risks. RESULTS: We found our evidence-based CF well
      explained the barriers for rural CVD patients to take part in behavioral
      intervention trials. Besides contextual factors (i.e. patient, community and
      research levels), other common factors impacting rural patients' intent to enroll
      are lack of awareness and understanding about behavioral trials, limited support
      from their healthcare providers and social circles, unfavorable attitudes, and
      the lack of opportunity to participating research. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION OF
      RESULT: The findings demonstrate the evidence-based model consisting of
      interlinked multi-level factors may help our understanding of the barriers
      encountered by rural CVD patients participating interventions to promote
      behavioral change. The implication for researchers is that identifying and
      developing strategies to overcome the barriers precedes conducting studies in
      rural communities.

PMID- 28580382
TI  - Differences in the Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Comparing the
      Primary Care Physician and the Urologist.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a prevalent chronic condition with
      expenditures exceeding $1 billion each year. Little is known about management of
      patients by primary care physicians compared to urologists. We assessed changes
      in management after medication initiation in these two settings. METHODS: From
      the Chronic Condition Warehouse 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries linked to
      Medicare Part D data, we defined a cohort of men, 66 to 90 years old, with
      initial prescriptions for alpha-blocker, 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5-ARI), or
      both. We assessed the initial change in therapy for up to four years after
      medication initiation: add a medication, switch medication, stop medication, or
      have surgery/retention. We estimated the cumulative incidence functions from
      competing risks data, and tested equality across groups (primary care physician
      vs. urologist). RESULTS: 5714 men started medication with a primary care
      physician, 1970 with a urologist. The most common change in treatment after
      medication initiation across all groups was medication discontinuation (55% alpha
      blocker; 46% 5-ARI; 30% combination therapy cumulative incidence at 3 years).
      Patients who started with primary care physicians were more likely to discontinue
      BPH-related medications, than patients with urologists (HR 1.19; 95% CI 1.09 -
      1.29). The majority of patients who stopped alpha blocker therapy did not have
      further BPH therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Men given combination therapy are most likely
      to have continued medication use. Surgical therapy and retention are relatively
      rare events. Patients who initiate care with urologists are more likely to
      continue medical therapy than patients with care initiated by primary care
      providers.

PMID- 28580383
TI  - Resection of granulomatous tissue resolves silicone induced hypercalcemia.
AB  - Because of the increasing trend of body contour enhancements with injections,
      implants, and fillers, clinicians should be on high alert for the possibility of
      silicone-induced hypercalcemia as one of the differential diagnoses in a patient
      with history of silicone use. Hypercalcemia as a result of silicone injections
      has been reported, and there is concern that there will be more cases given the
      popularity of cosmetic silicone. Cases involved a mother and daughter (70 & 55
      years) who presented in 2013 with hypercalcemia after cosmetic silicone
      injections in 2007. Evaluation showed 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D-mediated
      hypercalcemia and progressive renal dysfunction; lymph node biopsy showed
      granulomatous silicone lymphadenitis. MRI of the pelvis revealed abnormal signal
      enhancement within the subcutaneous gluteal adipose tissue and enlarged inguinal
      lymph nodes. For persistent hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria, surgical resection
      of silicone material and granulomas is a successful approach to normalize the
      serum calcium level.

PMID- 28580384
TI  - Genetic risk score based on the prevalence of vertebral fracture in Japanese
      women with osteoporosis.
AB  - A genetic risk score (GRS) was developed for predicting fracture risk based on
      the prevalence of vertebral fractures in 441 Japanese females with osteoporosis.
      A total of 979 (858 nonsynonymous and 121 silent) single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) located in 74 osteoporosis-susceptibility genes were genotyped and
      evaluated for their association with fracture prevalence. Four SNPs (protein
      kinase domain containing, cytoplasmic [PKDCC; rs4952590], CDK5-regulatory subunit
      associated protein 1-like 1 [CDKAL1; rs4712556], wingless-type MMTV-integration
      site family member 16 [WNT16; rs2707466], and G-patch domain-containing gene 1
      [GPATCH1; rs10416265]) showed a significant association (p < 0.05) with the
      fracture, in which the minor allele of the former two SNPs was the protective
      allele and that of the latter two SNPs was the risk allele. Applying a dominant
      genetic model, we allotted - 1 point each to the protective-allele carriers and 1
      point each to the risk-allele carriers, and GRS values were calculated as the sum
      of the points. The receiver-operating characteristic curves showed that GRS
      adequately predicted vertebral fracture. For the model predicted by the GRS with
      and without the effect of age, areas under the curves were 0.788 (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.736-0.840) and 0.667 (95% CI: 0.599-0.735), respectively.
      Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds ratio for the
      association between fracture prevalence and GRS was 3.27 (95% CI: 1.36-7.87, p =
      0.008) for scores of - 1 to 0 (n = 303) and 12.12 (95% CI: 4.19-35.07, p < 0.001)
      for scores of 1 to 2 (n = 35) relative to a score of - 2 (n = 103). The GRS based
      on the four SNPs could help identify at-risk individuals and enable
      implementation of preventive measures for vertebral fracture.

PMID- 28580385
TI  - Modeling and remodeling effects of intermittent administration of teriparatide
      (parathyroid hormone 1-34) on bone morphogenetic protein-induced bone in a rat
      spinal fusion model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-based tissue engineering has focused
      on inducing new bone efficiently. However, modeling and remodeling of BMP-induced
      bone have rarely been discussed. Teriparatide (parathyroid hormone [PTH] 1-34)
      administration initially increases markers of bone formation, followed by an
      increase in bone resorption markers. This unique activity would be expected to
      accelerate the modeling and remodeling of new BMP-induced bone. METHODS: Male
      Sprague-Dawley rats underwent posterolateral spinal fusion surgery and
      implantation of collagen sponge containing either 50 MUg recombinant human
      (rh)BMP-2 or saline. PTH 1-34 (60 MUg/kg, 3 times/week) or saline injections were
      continued from preoperative week 2 week to postoperative week 12. The volume and
      quality of newly formed bone were monitored by in vivo micro-computed tomography
      and analyses of bone histomorphometry and serum bone metabolism markers were
      conducted at postoperative week 12. RESULTS: Microstructural indices of the newly
      formed bone were significantly improved by PTH 1-34 administration, which
      significantly decreased the tissue volumes of the fusion mass at postoperative
      week 12 compared to that at postoperative week 2. Bone histomorphometry and serum
      analyses showed that PTH administration significantly increased both bone
      formation and resorption markers. Analysis of the histomorphometry of cortical
      bone identified predominant periosteal bone resorption and endosteal bone
      formation. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term intermittent administration of PTH 1-34
      significantly accelerated the modeling and remodeling of new BMP-induced bone.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Our results suggest that the combined administration of rhBMP
      2 and PTH 1-34 facilitates qualitative and quantitative improvements in bone
      regeneration, by accelerating bone modeling and remodeling.

PMID- 28580386
TI  - Hospitalizations for osteoporosis-related fractures: Economic costs and clinical
      outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporotic fractures frequently require inpatient care, and are
      associated with elevated risks of morbidity, mortality, and re-hospitalization. A
      comprehensive evaluation of healthcare costs, resource utilization, and outcomes
      associated with osteoporosis (OP)-related fractures treated in US hospitals was
      undertaken. METHODS: A retrospective analysis using the Premier Perspective
      Database (2010 - 2013) was conducted. Study population comprised patients aged >=
      50 years hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of a closed or pathologic
      fracture commonly associated with OP; the first qualifying hospitalization was
      designated the "index admission". Patients with evidence of major trauma,
      malignancy, or other non-OP conditions that may lead to pathologic fracture
      during the index admission were excluded. Study measures included healthcare
      costs (in 2013 USD), length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) use, and
      mortality during the index admission, as well as 60-day fracture-related
      readmission. RESULTS: A total of 268,477 patients were admitted to hospital (n =
      548 hospitals) with a principal diagnosis of an OP-related fracture; mean (SD)
      age was 78 (11) years, 75% were female, 69% had >= 2 comorbidities, and 82% of
      patients had a diagnostic code for accidental fall. Among all OP-related fracture
      admissions, mean (95% CI) hospital cost was $12,839 (12,784-12,893) and LOS was
      5.1 (5.1-5.1) days; during the admission, ICU use was 7.4% (7.3-7.5) and
      mortality was 1.5% (1.5-1.6), and during the 60-day post-discharge period,
      fracture-related readmission was 2.3% (2.2-2.4). CONCLUSIONS: Hospital costs
      associated with the acute treatment of OP-related fractures are substantial,
      especially among patients with fractures of the hip, femur, and spine. Among
      patients with vertebral fractures-the second most common reason for admission
      mortality and ICU use were notably high, and costs and LOS were higher than among
      those with non-vertebral fractures (excluding hip). Interventions that are
      effective in reducing fracture risk have the potential to yield substantial cost
      savings.

PMID- 28580388
TI  - Association of gastrointestinal events with osteoporosis treatment initiation and
      treatment compliance in Germany: An observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal (GI) events are common in postmenopausal women
      treated for osteoporosis. The influence of GI events on treatment initiation and
      treatment compliance is the subject of ongoing research. OBJECTIVE: The
      objectives of this study were (i) to determine the association of GI events with
      receipt of treatment in patients newly diagnosed with osteoporosis, and (ii)
      among treated patients, to determine the association of GI events with treatment
      compliance. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of claims data carried out
      in Germany using the Mediplus database. Data were collected from January 1992
      through December 2010. The dual-objective study design required two distinct
      cohorts. Cohort 1 comprised women aged >= 55 with a diagnosis of osteoporosis. GI
      events were recorded for the 12 month periods before and after the date of
      diagnosis. Time-varying Cox regression and discrete choice models were used,
      respectively, to assess the association of post-diagnosis GI events with the
      initiation of pharmacologic treatment (yes versus no) and the type of treatment
      initiated (bisphosphonates versus non-bisphosphonates). Cohort 2 comprised women
      aged >= 55 who initiated an oral bisphosphonate (alendronate, ibandronate, or
      risedronate). GI events were recorded for the 12 month periods before and after
      the date of bisphosphonate initiation, and a logistic regression model was
      employed to determine if pre-treatment or post-treatment GI events were
      associated with patient compliance, defined as a medication possession ratio
      (MPR) of >= 60%, with sensitivity analyses at MPR >= 80%. RESULTS: In cohort 1 (N
      = 18,813), 13.8% of patients had GI events in the pre-diagnosis period, and 14.8%
      had GI events in the post-diagnosis period. Among the patients with post
      diagnosis GI events, 93.2% remained untreated during the post-index year, 6.2%
      were treated with bisphosphonates, and 0.6% received non-bisphosphonates. The
      respective percentages in patients without post-diagnosis GI events were 81.3%,
      16.7%, and 1.9%. A post-diagnosis GI event decreased the likelihood of receiving
      any osteoporosis treatment (versus no treatment) by 83% (HR 0.17, 95% CI 0.14
      0.20) and also decreased the likelihood of receiving a bisphosphonate (versus a
      non-bisphosphonate) by 39% (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.54-0.68). In cohort 2 (N = 6040),
      17.1% of patients had GI events in the year before treatment initiation, and
      19.1% had GI events in the year after treatment initiation. At 12 months post
      treatment initiation, GI events were more frequent in patients with pre-treatment
      GI events (53.2%) than in those without pre-treatment GI events (12.0%). Post
      treatment GI events decreased the likelihood of attaining compliance defined as
      an MPR >= 60% (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.73-0.97) but not an MPR >= 80% (OR 0.91, 95% CI
      0.79-1.06). CONCLUSIONS: In German women newly diagnosed with osteoporosis, GI
      events decreased the likelihood of receiving treatment and were associated with
      the choice of treatment. In women initiating oral bisphosphonates, post-treatment
      GI events were associated with reduced patient compliance.

PMID- 28580387
TI  - Impaired glucose tolerance attenuates bone accrual by promoting the maturation of
      osteoblasts: Role of Beclin1-mediated autophagy.
AB  - Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) experience a 1.5-3.5 fold increase
      in fracture risk, but the mechanisms responsible for these alterations in bone
      biomechanical properties remain elusive. Macroautophagy, often referred to as
      autophagy, is regulated by signaling downstream of the insulin receptor.
      Metabolic changes associated with the progression of glucose intolerance have
      been shown to alter autophagy in various tissues, but limited information is
      available in relation to bone cells. The aim of this study was to (a) investigate
      whether autophagy is altered in bone tissue during impaired glucose tolerance,
      and (b) determine how autophagy impacts osteoblast differentiation, activity, and
      maturation. Four-week-old, male C57BL/6 mice were fed a control (Con) or high fat
      (HF) diet for 2, 8, or 16 wks. Mice on the HF diet demonstrated elevated fasting
      blood glucose and impaired glucose tolerance. Reduced trabecular bone in the
      femoral neck was evident in the mice on the HF diet by 8 wks compared to Con
      mice. Histological evaluation of the tibia suggested that the high fat diet
      promoted terminal differentiation of the osteoblast to an osteocyte. This shift
      of the osteoblasts towards a non-mineralizing, osteocyte phenotype appears to be
      coordinated by Beclin1-mediated autophagy. Consistent with these changes in the
      osteoblast in vivo, the induction of autophagy was able to direct MC3T3-E1 cells
      towards a more mature osteoblast phenotype. Although these data are somewhat
      observational, further investigation is warranted to determine if Beclin1
      mediated autophagy is essential for the terminal differentiation of the
      osteoblasts and whether autophagy is having a protective or deleterious effect on
      bone in T2DM.

PMID- 28580389
TI  - The F-actin modulator SWAP-70 controls podosome patterning in osteoclasts.
AB  - Osteoclasts are bone resorbing cells acting as key mediators of bone disorders.
      Upon adhesion to bone, osteoclasts polarize and reorganize their cytoskeleton to
      generate a ring-like F-actin-rich structure, the sealing zone, wherein the
      osteoclast's resorptive organelle, the ruffled border, is formed. The dynamic
      self-organization of actin-rich adhesive structures, the podosomes, from clusters
      to belts is crucial for osteoclast-mediated bone degradation. Mice lacking the
      protein SWAP-70 display an osteopetrotic phenotype due to defective bone
      resorption caused by impaired actin ring formation in Swap-70-/- osteoclasts. To
      further elucidate the mechanisms underlying this defect, we investigated the
      specific function of SWAP-70 in the organization and dynamics of podosomes. These
      detailed studies show that the transition from podosome clusters to rings is
      impaired in Swap-70-/- osteoclasts. Live cell imaging of dynamic F-actin turnover
      and SWAP-70 localization during podosome patterning indicate that SWAP-70 is
      dispensable for cluster formation but plays a key role in F-actin ring
      generation. Our data provide insights in the role of SWAP-70's F-actin binding
      domain and pleckstrin homology (PH) domain in the proper localization of SWAP-70
      and formation of a peripheral podosome belt, respectively. Ex vivo bone analyses
      revealed that SWAP-70-deficient osteoclasts exhibit defective ruffled border
      formation and V-ATPase expression. Our findings suggest an important role of
      membrane binding of SWAP-70 for the regulation of actin dynamics, which is
      essential for podosome patterning, and thus for the resorptive activity of
      osteoclasts.

PMID- 28580390
TI  - Glucocorticoid receptor-mediated cis-repression of osteogenic genes requires BRM
      SWI/SNF.
AB  - Glucocorticoids are an effective therapy for a variety of severe inflammatory and
      autoimmune disorders; however, the therapeutic use of glucocorticoids is severely
      limited by their negative side effects, particularly on osteogenesis.
      Glucocorticoids regulate transcription by binding to the glucocorticoid receptor
      (GR), which then binds the promoters of target genes to induce either activation
      or repression. The gene activation effects of nuclear hormone receptors broadly
      require the cooperation of the chromatin remodeling complex known as SWI/SNF,
      which is powered by an ATPase core. The well-studied SWI/SNF ATPase, BRG1, is
      required for gene activation by a spectrum of nuclear hormone receptors including
      GR. However, glucocorticoid-induced side effects specifically related to impaired
      osteogenesis are mostly linked with GR-mediated repression. We have considered
      whether cis-repression of osteogenic genes by GR may be mediated by a distinct
      subclass of SWI/SNF powered by the alternative ATPase, BRM. BRM does not have an
      essential role in mammalian development, but plays a repressor role in osteoblast
      differentiation and favors adipogenic lineage selection over osteoblast
      commitment, effects that mirror the repressor effects of GR. The studies reported
      here examine three key GR cis-repression gene targets, and show that GR
      association with these promoters is sharply reduced in BRM deficient cells. Each
      of these GR-targeted genes act in a different way. Bglap encodes osteocalcin,
      which contributes to normal maturation of osteoblasts from committed pre
      osteoblasts. The Per3 gene product acts in uncommitted mesenchymal stem cells to
      influence the osteoblast/adipocyte lineage selection point. Fas ligand, encoded
      by FasL, is a means by which osteoblasts can modulate bone degradation by
      osteoclasts. Repression of each of these genes by glucocorticoid favors bone
      loss. The essential role of BRM in cooperation with GR at each of these control
      points offers a novel mechanistic understanding of the role of GR in bone loss.

PMID- 28580391
TI  - Case series: Odontohypophosphatasia or missed diagnosis of childhood/adult-onset
      hypophosphatasia? - Call for a long-term follow-up of premature loss of primary
      teeth.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hypophosphatasia, a metabolic bone disease caused by a tissue
      nonspecific alkaline phosphatase deficiency, leads to undermineralization of bone
      and/or teeth, impaired vitamin B6 metabolism, and a spectrum of disease
      presentation. At the mild end of the spectrum, it presents as pathologic
      fractures in later adulthood. Patients with isolated dental manifestations,
      typically presenting as premature loss of primary teeth, are classified as having
      odontohypophosphatasia (odontoHPP). A subset of patients diagnosed with odontoHPP
      in childhood can later develop extra-dental manifestations that constitute
      childhood- or adult-onset hypophosphatasia. CASE REPORTS METHODS/RESULTS:
      Retrospective data related to onset, detailed clinical course, and method of
      diagnosis were collected as part of a natural history of adult patients with
      hypophosphatasia. Of 9 initial patients, all had low serum alkaline phosphatase
      levels for their age and gender at adult presentation (Table 2). The majority
      (8/9) demonstrated childhood dental signs of hypophosphatasia as the initial
      clinical manifestation: premature loss of primary teeth (7/9), absent primary
      teeth (1/9), and delayed loss of primary teeth (1/9). Despite childhood dental
      presentation and/or other signs/symptoms, diagnosis of hypophosphatasia was
      delayed 20-54 years (median = 46) since the primary tooth problems and 8-45 years
      (median = 27) since the first fracture or onset of a major adult tooth problem.
      CONCLUSION: Patients with primary tooth loss in childhood were often diagnosed
      with hypophosphatasia later in life. Pediatric patients classified as having
      odontoHPP under present practice can manifest significant disease burden later in
      life.

PMID- 28580393
TI  - Estrogen depletion and drug treatment alter the microstructure of type I collagen
      in bone.
AB  - The impact of estrogen depletion and drug treatment on type I collagen fibril
      nanomorphology and collagen fibril packing (microstructure) was evaluated by
      atomic force microscopy (AFM) using an ovariectomized (OVX) rabbit model of
      estrogen deficiency induced bone loss. Nine month-old New Zealand white female
      rabbits were treated as follows: sham-operated (Sham; n = 11), OVX + vehicle (OVX
      + Veh; n = 12), OVX + alendronate (ALN, 600 MUg/kg/wk., s.c.; n = 12), and OVX +
      cathepsin-K inhibitor L-235 (CatKI, 10 mg/kg, daily, p.o.; n = 13) in prevention
      mode for 27 weeks. Samples from the cortical femur and trabecular lumbar
      vertebrae were polished, demineralized, and imaged using AFM. Auto-correlation of
      image patches was used to generate a vector field for each image that
      mathematically approximated the collagen fibril alignment. This vector field was
      used to compute an information-theoretic entropy that was employed as a
      quantitative fibril alignment parameter (FAP) to allow image-to-image and sample
      to-sample comparison. For all samples, no change was observed in the average FAP
      values; however significant differences in the distribution of FAP values were
      observed. In particular, OVX + Veh lumbar vertebrae samples contained a tail of
      lower FAP values representing regions of greater fibril alignment. OVX + ALN
      treatment resulted in a FAP distribution with a tail indicating greater alignment
      for cortical femur and less alignment for trabecular lumbar vertebrae. OVX +
      CatKI treatment gave a distribution of FAP values with a tail indicating less
      alignment for cortical femur and no change for trabecular lumbar vertebrae.
      Fibril alignment was also evaluated by considering when a fibril was part of
      discrete bundles or sheets (classified as parallel) or not (classified as
      oblique). For this analysis, the percentage of parallel fibrils in cortical femur
      for the OVX group was 17% lower than the Sham group. OVX + ALN treatment
      partially prevented the proportion of parallel fibrils from decreasing and OVX +
      CatKI treatment completely prevented a change. In trabecular lumbar vertebrae,
      there was no difference in the percentage of parallel fibrils between Sham and
      any of the other treatment groups.

PMID- 28580392
TI  - A genome-wide association study meta-analysis of clinical fracture in 10,012
      African American women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a major public health problem associated with excess
      disability and mortality. It is estimated that 50-70% of the variation in
      osteoporotic fracture risk is attributable to genetic factors. The purpose of
      this hypothesis-generating study was to identify possible genetic determinants of
      fracture among African American (AA) women in a GWAS meta-analysis. METHODS: Data
      on clinical fractures (all fractures except fingers, toes, face, skull or
      sternum) were analyzed among AA female participants in the Women's Health
      Initiative (WHI) (N = 8155), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (N = 504), BioVU
      (N = 704), Health ABC (N = 651), and the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project
      (JoCoOA) (N = 291). Affymetrix (WHI) and Illumina (Health ABC, JoCoOA, BioVU,
      CHS) GWAS panels were used for genotyping, and a 1:1 ratio of YRI:CEU HapMap
      haplotypes was used as an imputation reference panel. We used Cox proportional
      hazard models or logistic regression to evaluate the association of ~ 2.5 million
      SNPs with fracture risk, adjusting for ancestry, age, and geographic region where
      applicable. We conducted a fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted meta
      analysis. Genome-wide significance was set at P < 5 * 10- 8. RESULTS: One SNP,
      rs12775980 in an intron of SVIL on chromosome 10p11.2, reached genome-wide
      significance (P = 4.0 * 10- 8). Although this SNP has a low minor allele
      frequency (0.03), there was no evidence for heterogeneity of effects across the
      studies (I2 = 0). This locus was not reported in any previous osteoporosis
      related GWA studies. We also interrogated previously reported GWA-significant
      loci associated with fracture or bone mineral density in our data. One locus
      (SMOC1) generalized, but overall there was not substantial evidence of
      generalization. Possible reasons for the lack of generalization are discussed.
      CONCLUSION: This GWAS meta-analysis of fractures in African American women
      identified a potentially novel locus in the supervillin gene, which encodes a
      platelet-associated factor and was previously associated with platelet thrombus
      formation in African Americans. If validated in other populations of African
      descent, these findings suggest potential new mechanisms involved in fracture
      that may be particularly important among African Americans.

PMID- 28580394
TI  - Intraskeletal variation in human cortical osteocyte lacunar density: Implications
      for bone quality assessment.
AB  - Osteocytes and their lacunocanalicular network have been identified as the
      regulator of bone quality and function by exerting extensive influence over
      metabolic processes, mechanical adaptation, and mineral homeostasis. Recent
      research has shown that osteocyte apoptosis leads to a decrease in bone quality
      and increase in bone fragility mediated through its effects on remodeling. The
      purpose of this study is to investigate variation in cortical bone osteocyte
      lacunar density with respect to major factors including sex, age, and
      intracortical porosity to establish both regional and systemic trends. Samples
      from the midshaft femur, midshaft rib and distal one-third diaphysis of the
      radius were recovered from 30 modern cadaveric individuals (15 males and 15
      females) ranging from 49 to 100 years old. Thick ground undecalcified
      histological (80 MUm) cross-sections were made and imaged under bright field
      microscopy. Osteocyte lacunar density (Ot.Lc.N/B.Ar) and intracortical porosity
      (%Po.Ar) were quantified. No significant sex differences in Ot.Lc.N/B.Ar or
      %Po.Ar were found in any element. Linear regressions demonstrated a significant
      decrease in osteocyte lacunar density (Ot.Lc.N/B.Ar) and increase in
      intracortical porosity (%Po.Ar) with age for the sex-pooled sample in the femur
      (R2 = 0.208, 0.297 respectively) and radius (R2 = 0.108, 0.545 respectively). Age
      was unable to significantly predict osteocyte lacunar density or intracortical
      porosity in the rib (R2 = 0.058, 0.114 respectively). Comparisons of regression
      coefficients demonstrated a systemic trend in the decrease in osteocyte lacunar
      density (Ot.Lc.N/B.Ar) and increase in intracortical porosity (%Po.Ar) with age.
      In each element, intracortical porosity was significantly negatively correlated
      with lacunar density for which the radius demonstrated the strongest relationship
      (r = - 0.746). Using pore number (Po.N) as a proxy for available vascularity to
      support the osteocyte population, Po.N was able to predict 61.8% of variation in
      osteocyte lacunar number (Ot.Lc.N) in the rib. The femur and radius also
      demonstrated significant relationships between these variables (R2 = 0.560 and
      0.397 respectively). The results from this study indicate that although the
      femur, radius and rib may be experiencing systemically influenced declines in
      osteocyte lacunar density, there may be differential effects at each anatomical
      site potentially due to age related changes in mechanical loading. With
      decreasing osteocyte lacunar density in each element, intracortical porosity
      increased with likely direct impacts on gross bone strength. This study provides
      a foundation upon which to build interpretations of osteocyte lacunar density
      values and their effect on differential fracture risk for aging individuals.

PMID- 28580396
TI  - Combined aerobic and resistance training improves bone health of female cancer
      survivors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cancer pathogenesis and resulting treatment may lead to bone loss
      and poor skeletal health in survivorship. The purpose of this investigation was
      to evaluate the influence of 26 weeks of combined aerobic and resistance-training
      (CART) exercise on bone mineral density (BMD) in a multi-racial sample of female
      cancer survivors. METHODS: Twenty-six female cancer survivors volunteered to
      undergo CART for 1 h/day, 3 days/week, for 26 weeks. The Improving Physical
      Activity After Cancer Treatment (IMPAACT) Program involves supervised group
      exercise sessions including 20 min of cardiorespiratory training, 25 min of
      circuit-style resistance-training, and 15 min of abdominal exercises and
      stretching. BMD at the spine, hip, and whole body was assessed using dual-energy
      X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) before and after the intervention. Serum markers of
      bone metabolism (procollagen-type I N-terminal propeptide, P1NP, and C-terminal
      telopeptides, CTX) were measured at baseline, 13 weeks, and at study completion.
      RESULTS: Eighteen participants, with the average age of 63.0 +/- 10.3 years,
      completed the program. Mean duration since completion of cancer treatment was 6.2
      +/- 10.6 years. Paired t-tests revealed significant improvements in BMD of the
      spine (0.971 +/- 0.218 g/cm2 vs. 0.995 +/- 0.218 g/cm2, p = 0.012), hip (0.860 +/
      0.184 g/cm2 vs. 0.875 +/- 0.191 g/cm2, p = 0.048), and whole body (1.002 +/-
      0.153 g/cm2 vs. 1.022 +/- 0.159 g/cm2, p = 0.002). P1NP declined 22% at 13 weeks
      and 28% at 26 weeks in comparison to baseline (p < 0.01) while CTX showed a non
      significant decrease of 8% and 18% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We report
      significant improvements in BMD at the spine, hip, and whole body for female
      cancer survivors who completed 26 weeks of CART. This investigation demonstrates
      the possible effectiveness of CART at improving bone health and reducing risk of
      osteoporosis for women who have completed cancer treatment. The IMPAACT Program
      appears to be a safe and feasible way for women to improve health after cancer
      treatment.

PMID- 28580395
TI  - Effects of total flavonoids from Drynariae Rhizoma prevent bone loss in vivo and
      in vitro.
AB  - Estrogen deficiency is one of the major causes of osteoporosis in postmenopausal
      women. Drynariae Rhizoma is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine for the
      treatment of bone diseases. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic
      effects of the total Drynariae Rhizoma flavonoids (DRTF) on estrogen deficiency
      induced bone loss using an ovariectomized rat model and osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1
      cells. Our results indicated that DRTF produced osteo-protective effects on the
      ovariectomized rats in terms of bone loss reduction, including decreased levels
      of bone turnover markers, enhanced biomechanical femur strength and trabecular
      bone microarchitecture deterioration prevention. In vitro experiments revealed
      that the actions of DRTF on regulating osteoblastic activities were mediated by
      the estrogen receptor (ER) dependent pathway. Our data also demonstrated that
      DRTF inhibited osteoclastogenesis via up-regulating osteoprotegrin (OPG), as well
      as down-regulating receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL) expression. In
      conclusion, this study indicated that DRTF treatment effectively suppressed bone
      mass loss in an ovariectomized rat model, and in vitro evidence suggested that
      the effects were exerted through actions on both osteoblasts and osteoclasts.

PMID- 28580397
TI  - Imaging and mapping of mouse bone using MALDI-imaging mass spectrometry.
AB  - Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS)
      is an advanced method used globally to analyze the distribution of biomolecules
      on tissue cryosections without any probes. In bones, however, hydroxyapatite
      crystals make it difficult to determine the distribution of biomolecules using
      MALDI-IMS. Additionally, there is limited information regarding the use of this
      method to analyze bone tissues. To determine whether MALDI-IMS analysis of bone
      tissues can facilitate comprehensive mapping of biomolecules in mouse bone, we
      first dissected femurs and tibiae from 8-week-old male mice and characterized the
      quality of multiple fixation and decalcification methods for preparation of the
      samples. Cryosections were mounted on indium tin oxide-coated glass slides,
      dried, and then a matrix solution was sprayed on the tissue surface. Images were
      acquired using an iMScope at a mass-to-charge range of 100-1000. Hematoxylin
      eosin, Alcian blue, Azan, and periodic acid-Schiff staining of adjacent sections
      was used to evaluate histological and histochemical features. Among the various
      fixation and decalcification conditions, sections from trichloroacetic acid
      treated samples were most suitable to examine both histology and comprehensive MS
      images. However, histotypic MS signals were detected in all sections. In addition
      to the MS images, phosphocholine was identified as a candidate metabolite. These
      results indicate successful detection of biomolecules in bone using MALDI-IMS.
      Although analytical procedures and compositional adjustment regarding the
      performance of the device still require further development, IMS appears to be a
      powerful tool to determine the distribution of biomolecules in bone tissues.

PMID- 28580398
TI  - Histomorphometric analysis of minimodeling in the vertebrae in postmenopausal
      patients treated with anti-osteoporotic agents.
AB  - Minimodeling is a type of focal bone formation that is characterized by the lack
      of precedent bone erosion by osteoclasts. Although this form of bone formation
      has been described for more than a decade, how anti-osteoporotic agents that are
      currently used in clinical practice affect the kinetics of minimodeling is not
      fully understood. We performed a bone morphometric analysis using human vertebral
      specimens collected from postmenopausal patients who underwent spinal surgery.
      Patients were divided into three groups according to osteoporosis medication; non
      treated, Eldecalcitol (ELD, a vitamin D derivative that has recently been
      approved to treat patients with osteoporosis in Japan)-treated, and
      bisphosphonate-treated groups. Five to six patients were enrolled in each group.
      There was a trend toward enhanced minimodeling in ELD-treated patients and
      suppressed of it in bisphosphonate-treated patients compared with untreated
      patients. The differences of minimodeling activity between ELD-treated and
      bisphosphonate-treated patients were statistically significant. The present study
      suggests that ELD and bisphosphonates have opposite effects on minimodeling from
      one another, and show that minimodeling also takes place in vertebrae as has been
      described for the ilium and femoral head in humans.

PMID- 28580399
TI  - Does pamidronate enhance the osteogenesis in mesenchymal stem cells derived from
      fibrous hamartoma in congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia?
AB  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a commonly occurring genetic disorder in
      children. Mutation in the NF1 gene has its implication in poor osteoblastic
      capabilities. We hypothesised that pamidronate will enhance the osteoblastic
      potential of the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from lipofibromatosis
      tissue of children with congenital pseudarthrosis tibia (CPT) associated with
      NF1. In this study, bone marrow MSCs (BM MSCs) and CPT MSCs were obtained from
      three patients undergoing salvage surgeries/bone grafting (healthy controls) and
      those undergoing excision of the hamartoma and corrective surgeries respectively.
      The effects of pamidronate (0, 10 nM, 100 nM and 1 MUM) on cell proliferation,
      toxicity and differentiation potential were assessed and the outcome was measured
      by staining and gene expression. Our outcome showed that CPT MSCs had more
      proliferation rate as compared to BM MSCs. All 3 doses of pamidronate did not
      cause any toxicity to the cells in both the groups. The CPT MSCs showed less
      differentiation with pamidronate compared to the healthy control MSCs. This was
      quantitated by staining and gene expression analysis. Therefore, supplementation
      with pamidronate alone will not aid in bone formation in patients diagnosed with
      CPT. An additional stimulus is required to enhance bone formation.

PMID- 28580401
TI  - Transient osteoporosis: Not just the hip to worry about.
AB  - Transient osteoporosis (TO) is a clinical syndrome characterized by joint pain
      and the presence of bone marrow edema on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), both
      of which spontaneously resolve over time. Transient osteoporosis most commonly
      affects the hip, but also may involve other lower extremity sites. TO likely
      represents a disorder that may be monoarticular or "migratory" with involvement
      of two or more lower extremity sites sequentially affected over a number of
      months. We report on two cases of transient osteoporosis, one involving the knee
      and one involving the hip, demonstrating the utility of serial bone mineral
      density measurements at both sites. Additionally, we are able to report on the
      microarchitectural changes seen at the distal femur on ultra-high resolution (7
      T) MRI. Case #1 describes a recurrence of transient osteoporosis of the hip three
      years after a similar presentation at the contralateral hip and highlights the
      findings of rapidly changing bone mineral density in this clinical syndrome. In
      contrast to the spine, hip and forearm, peripheral bone density measurements at
      the knee are rarely reported and to our knowledge Case #2 represents the first
      report of transient osteoporosis of the knee demonstrating bone density findings
      similar to that seen in the hip. We postulate that transient osteoporosis of the
      knee is part of a clinical spectrum most commonly seen in the hip and one that is
      marked by lower extremity joint pain, bone marrow edema on MRI and transient
      decreases in bone mineral density all of which spontaneously resolve without
      sequelae.

PMID- 28580400
TI  - Replacement of daily load attenuates but does not prevent changes to the
      musculoskeletal system during bed rest.
AB  - The dose-response effects of exercise in reduced gravity on musculoskeletal
      health have not been well documented. It is not known whether or not
      individualized exercise prescriptions can be effective in preventing the
      substantial loss in bone mineral density and muscle function that have been
      observed in space flight and in bed rest. In this study, typical daily loads to
      the lower extremities were quantified in free-living subjects who were then
      randomly assigned to control or exercise groups. Subjects were confined to 6
      degree head-down bed rest for 84 days. The exercise group performed individually
      prescribed 1 g loaded locomotor exercise to replace their free-living daily load.
      Eleven subjects (5 exercise, 6 control) completed the protocol. Volumetric bone
      mineral density results from quantitative computed tomography demonstrated that
      control subjects lost significant amounts of bone in the intertrochanteric and
      total hip regions (p < 0.0125), whereas the exercise group showed no significant
      change from baseline in any region (p > 0.0125). Pre-and post-bed rest muscle
      volumes were calculated from analysis of magnetic resonance imaging data. The
      exercise group retained a larger percentage of their total quadriceps and
      gastrocnemius muscle volume (- 7.2% +/- 5.9, - 13.8% +/- 6.1, respectively) than
      their control counterparts (- 23.3% +/- 5.9, - 33.0 +/- 8.2, respectively; p <
      0.01). Both groups significantly lost strength in several measured activities (p
      < 0.05). The declines in peak torque during repeated exertions of knee flexion
      and knee extension were significantly less in the exercise group than in the
      control group (p < 0.05) but work done was not significantly different between
      groups (p > 0.05). The decline in VO2max was 17% +/- 18 in exercising subjects (p
      < 0.05) and 31% +/- 13 in control subjects (p = 0.003; difference between groups
      was not significant p = 0.26). Changes in blood and urine measures showed trends
      but no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). In summary, the decline
      in a number of important measures of musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health
      was attenuated but not eliminated by a subject-specific program of locomotor
      exercise designed to replace daily load accumulated during free living. We
      conclude that single daily bouts of exposure to locomotor exercise can play a
      role in a countermeasures program during bed rest, and perhaps space flight, but
      are not sufficient in their own right to ensure musculoskeletal or cardiovascular
      health.

PMID- 28580403
TI  - Damage accumulation of bovine bone under variable amplitude loads.
AB  - Stress fractures, a painful injury, are caused by excessive fatigue in bone. This
      study on damage accumulation in bone sought to determine if the Palmgren-Miner
      rule (PMR), a well-known linear damage accumulation hypothesis, is predictive of
      fatigue failure in bone. An electromagnetic shaker apparatus was constructed to
      conduct cyclic and variable amplitude tests on bovine bone specimens. Three
      distinct damage regimes were observed following fracture. Fractures due to a low
      cyclic amplitude loading appeared ductile ( 4000 MUepsilon), brittle due to high
      cyclic amplitude loading (> 9000 MUepsilon), and a combination of ductile and
      brittle from mid-range cyclic amplitude loading (6500 -6750 MUepsilon). Brittle
      and ductile fracture mechanisms were isolated and mixed, in a controlled way,
      into variable amplitude loading tests. PMR predictions of cycles to failure
      consistently over-predicted fatigue life when mixing isolated fracture
      mechanisms. However, PMR was not proven ineffective when used with a single
      damage mechanism.

PMID- 28580402
TI  - Bone microstructure in men assessed by HR-pQCT: Associations with risk factors
      and differences between men with normal, low, and osteoporosis-range areal BMD.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary objective of this study was to analyze the relationships
      between bone microstructure and strength, and male osteoporosis risk factors
      including age, body mass index, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level, and testosterone
      level. A secondary objective was to compare microstructural and strength
      parameters between men with normal, low, and osteoporosis-range areal bone
      mineral density (aBMD). METHODS: Seventy-eight healthy male volunteers (mean age
      62.4 +/- 7.8 years, range 50-84 years) were recruited. The participants underwent
      dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and high-resolution peripheral
      quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) of the ultra-distal radius and tibia.
      From the HR-pQCT images, volumetric bone mineral density (BMD) and cortical and
      trabecular bone microstructure were evaluated, and bone strength and cortical
      load fraction (Ct.LF) were estimated using micro-finite element analysis (MUFEA).
      RESULTS: Age was more strongly correlated with bone microstructure than other
      risk factors. Age had significant positive correlations with cortical porosity at
      both ultra-distal radius and tibia (r = 0.36, p = 0.001, and r = 0.47, p < 0.001,
      respectively). At the tibia, age was negatively correlated with cortical BMD,
      whereas it was positively correlated with trabecular BMD. In MUFEA, age was
      negatively correlated with Ct.LF, although not with bone strength. Compared with
      men with normal aBMD, men with low or osteoporosis-range aBMD had significantly
      poor trabecular bone microstructure and lower bone strength at the both sites,
      while there was no significant difference in cortical bone. CONCLUSIONS: Cortical
      bone microstructure was negatively affected by aging, and there was a suggestion
      that the influence of aging may be particularly important at the weight-bearing
      sites.

PMID- 28580404
TI  - The associations of exposure to combined hormonal contraceptive use on bone
      mineral content and areal bone mineral density accrual from adolescence to young
      adulthood: A longitudinal study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association of long term combined hormone based contraceptives
      (CHC) use on bone mineral content (BMC) and areal bone mineral density (aBMD)
      development remains controversial, as it appears that the relationship may be age
      dependent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term
      associations of CHC exposure on the accrual of bone parameters from adolescence
      into young-adulthood. METHODS: 110 women (67 exposed to CHC) were drawn from the
      Pediatric Bone Mineral Accrual Study (PBMAS). Serial measures of total body (TB),
      lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) BMC and aBMD were assessed by DXA (a
      total of 950 scans) and aligned by biological age (BA, years from peak height
      velocity [PHV]). Multilevel random effects models were constructed to assess the
      time dependent associations between annual CHC exposure and the development of
      bone parameters. RESULTS: After BA, height, lean tissue mass, fat mass, calcium
      and vitamin D intake, and physical activity were controlled, it was observed that
      those individuals exposed to CHC 6-years post PHV developed significantly less (
      0.00986 +/- 0.00422 g/cm2) TB aBMD than their non CHC exposed peers.
      Additionally, there were significant BA by CHC exposure interactions, where CHC
      exposure 6-years or more post PHV resulted in developing less TB BMC (-4.94 +/-
      2.41 g), LS BMC (-0.29 +/- 0.11 g) and LS aBMD (-0.00307 +/- 0.00109 g/cm2). One
      year after the attainment of PHV, CHC users were predicted to have 1.2% more TB
      BMC, 3.8% more LS BMC and 1.7% more LS aBMD than non-users. At 9-years post PHV
      the predicted differences showed that CHC users had 0.9% less TB BMC and 2.7%
      less LS BMC and 1.6% less LS BMD than those not exposed to CHC. CONCLUSIONS: CHC
      may not hinder the development of BMC or aBMD during adolescence; however,
      exposure 6-years or more after PHV may be detrimental.

PMID- 28580405
TI  - Exploration of solar radiation data from three geo-political zones in Nigeria.
AB  - In this paper, readings of solar radiation received at three meteorological sites
      in Nigeria were analysed. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical test was
      carried out on the data set to observe the significant differences on radiations
      for each quarter of the specified years. The data were obtained in raw form from
      Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Oshodi, Lagos. In order to get a clear
      description and visualization of the fluctuations of the radiation data, each
      year were considered independently, where it was discovered that for the 3rd
      quarter of each year, there is a great fall in the intensity of the solar
      radiation to as low as 73.27 (W/m2), 101.66 (W/m2), 158.51 (W/m2) for Ibadan,
      Port-Harcourt and Sokoto respectively. A detailed data description is available
      for the averages across months for each quarter. The data can provide insights on
      the health implications of exposure to solar radiation and the effect of solar
      radiation on climate change, food production, rainfall and flood patterns.

PMID- 28580406
TI  - The Consumer Motivation Scale: A detailed review of item generation, exploration,
      confirmation, and validation procedures.
AB  - This data article offers a detailed description of analyses pertaining to the
      development of the Consumer Motivation Scale (CMS), from item generation and the
      extraction of factors, to confirmation of the factor structure and validation of
      the emergent dimensions. The established goal structure - consisting of the sub
      goals Value for Money, Quality, Safety, Stimulation, Comfort, Ethics, and Social
      Acceptance - is shown to be related to a variety of consumption behaviors in
      different contexts and for different products, and should thereby prove useful in
      standard marketing research, as well as in the development of tailored marketing
      strategies, and the segmentation of consumer groups, settings, brands, and
      products.

PMID- 28580407
TI  - MC3T3 osteoblast-like cells cultured at alkaline pH: Microarray data (Affymetrix
      GeneChip Mouse 2.0 ST).
AB  - It is well known that pH plays a pivotal role in the control of bone remodeling.
      However, no comprehensive gene expression data are available for the effects of
      alkaline pH on osteoblasts. We cultured differentiating MC3T3-E1 osteoblast-like
      cells at pH 7.4, 7.8, and 8.4 for 14 days. To identify differential gene
      expression, microarray data were collected with Affymetrix GeneChips. The data
      were validated by real-time PCRs for five genes that were found to be greatly
      regulated in the GeneChip-experiments (DMP1, FABP4, SFRP2 and TNFRSF19) or
      considered relevant for the terminal function of osteoblasts (DMP1 and ATF4). All
      the data are available from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO accession:
      GSE84907). Here, we provide pathway analyses of known protein coding genes that
      were down-regulated or up-regulated by greater than 2.0-fold. The regulation
      datasets obtained from comparisons of pH 7.8 and 7.4, as well as pH 8.4 and 7.4
      share a high number of differentially expressed genes. When comparing pH 8.4 and
      7.8, other genes mainly emerge, suggesting not only a simple amplification of the
      effects at pH 8.4 that were already induced at pH 7.8 but also the induction of
      different pathways. For a more detailed analysis, different mammalian functional
      gene networks were assigned to each dataset. After merging and manual
      optimization of the network graphs, three combined functional gene networks were
      obtained that reflected distinct pH-dependent cellular responses. A common
      feature of the networks was the central role of p38 MAP kinase. The microarray
      data presented here are related to the research article
      doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2017.02.001 (Galow et al., 2017) [1].

PMID- 28580409
TI  - Data from proteome analysis of Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Botryosphaeriaceae).
AB  - Trunk disease fungi are a global problem affecting many economically important
      fruiting trees. The Botryosphaeriaceae are a family of trunk disease fungi that
      require detailed biochemical characterization in order to gain insight into their
      pathogenicity. The application of a modified Folch extraction to protein
      extraction from the Botryosphaeriaceae Lasiodiplodia theobromae generated an
      unprecedented data set of protein identifications from fragmentation analysis and
      de novo peptide sequencing of its proteome. This article contains data from
      protein identifications obtained from a database-dependent fragmentation analysis
      using three different proteomics algorithms (MSGF, Comet and X! Tandem via the
      SearchGUI proteomics pipeline program) and de novo peptide sequencing. Included
      are data sets of gene ontology annotations using an all-Uniprot ontology
      database, as well as a Saccharomyces cerevisiae-only and a Candida albicans-only
      ontology database, in order to discern between those proteins involved in common
      functions with S. cerevisiae and those in common with the pathogenic yeast C.
      albicans. Our results reveal the proteome of L. theobromae contains more
      ontological categories in common to C. albicans, yet possesses a much wider
      metabolic repertoire than any of the yeasts studied in this work. Many novel
      proteins of interest were identified for further biochemical characterization and
      annotation efforts, as further discussed in the article referencing this article
      (1). Interactive Cytoscape networks of molecular functions of identified peptides
      using an all-Uniprot ontological database are included. Data, including raw data,
      are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD005283.

PMID- 28580410
TI  - Systemic tacrolimus in the treatment of recalcitrant mucosal lichen planus.

PMID- 28580408
TI  - Data on the association of the nuclear envelope protein Sun1 with nucleoli.
AB  - SUN proteins participate in diverse cellular activities, many of which are
      connected to the nuclear envelope. Recently, the family member SUN1 has been
      linked to novel biological activities. These include the regulation of nucleoli,
      intranuclear compartments that assemble ribosomal subunits. We show that SUN1
      associates with nucleoli in several mammalian epithelial cell lines. This
      nucleolar localization is not shared by all cell types, as SUN1 concentrates at
      the nuclear envelope in ganglionic neurons and non-neuronal satellite cells.
      Database analyses and Western blotting emphasize the complexity of SUN1 protein
      profiles in different mammalian cells. We constructed a STRING network which
      identifies SUN1-related proteins as part of a larger network that includes
      several nucleolar proteins. Taken together, the current data highlight the
      diversity of SUN1 proteins and emphasize the possible links between SUN1 and
      nucleoli.

PMID- 28580411
TI  - Recurrent halo nevus: Dermoscopy and confocal microscopy features.

PMID- 28580412
TI  - Metastatic cutaneous apocrine carcinoma: Multidisciplinary approach achieving
      complete response with adjuvant chemoradiation.

PMID- 28580413
TI  - Eosinophilic folliculitis in association with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A
      clinicopathologic series.

PMID- 28580414
TI  - Anomaly in the education-health gradient: Biomarker profiles among adults with
      subbaccalaureate attainment levels.
AB  - This Short Communication builds on recent findings that documented an anomaly in
      the education-health gradient: adults who attended college but did not earn a BA
      (the subbaccalaureate group) reported an equal or higher level of health problems
      than adults with high school (HS) diploma. Our aim is to test whether this
      anomaly holds when we eliminate potential reporting differences, by examining
      biomarker levels in the subbaccalaureate vs HS groups. Using the restricted 1999
      2012 NHANES, we estimate models of biomarkers for cardiovascular and metabolic
      diseases as a function of educational attainment, including three
      subbaccalaureate levels: "some college", vocational associate degree (AA), and
      academic AA. The data show that adults with "some college" or vocational AA have
      no systematic advantage over HS graduates in most biomarker indices while
      academic AA is associated with a significantly better risk profile compared to
      HS. The findings indicate that the adults with some college and vocational AA
      degrees do not benefit from their college experience in terms of improved
      physiological risk profile. This pattern underscores the need to understand and
      explain the anomalous health pattern that concerns 28% of American adults in the
      subbaccalaureate group among whom many reap little health payoffs to
      postsecondary schooling.

PMID- 28580415
TI  - KID Project: an internet-based digital video atlas of capsule endoscopy for
      research purposes.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS:  Capsule endoscopy (CE) has revolutionized small-bowel (SB)
      investigation. Computational methods can enhance diagnostic yield (DY); however,
      incorporating machine learning algorithms (MLAs) into CE reading is difficult as
      large amounts of image annotations are required for training. Current databases
      lack graphic annotations of pathologies and cannot be used. A novel database,
      KID, aims to provide a reference for research and development of medical decision
      support systems (MDSS) for CE. METHODS:  Open-source software was used for the
      KID database. Clinicians contribute anonymized, annotated CE images and videos.
      Graphic annotations are supported by an open-access annotation tool (Ratsnake).
      We detail an experiment based on the KID database, examining differences in SB
      lesion measurement between human readers and a MLA. The Jaccard Index (JI) was
      used to evaluate similarity between annotations by the MLA and human readers.
      RESULTS:  The MLA performed best in measuring lymphangiectasias with a JI of 81
      +/- 6 %. The other lesion types were: angioectasias (JI 64 +/- 11 %), aphthae (JI
      64 +/- 8 %), chylous cysts (JI 70 +/- 14 %), polypoid lesions (JI 75 +/- 21 %),
      and ulcers (JI 56 +/- 9 %). CONCLUSION:  MLA can perform as well as human readers
      in the measurement of SB angioectasias in white light (WL). Automated lesion
      measurement is therefore feasible. KID is currently the only open-source CE
      database developed specifically to aid development of MDSS. Our experiment
      demonstrates this potential.

PMID- 28580416
TI  - GluA2-Lacking AMPA Receptors and Nitric Oxide Signaling Gate Spike-Timing
      Dependent Potentiation of Glutamate Synapses in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus.
AB  - The dorsal raphe nucleus (DRn) receives glutamatergic inputs from numerous brain
      areas that control the function of DRn serotonin (5-HT) neurons. By integrating
      these synaptic inputs, 5-HT neurons modulate a plethora of behaviors and
      physiological functions. However, it remains unknown whether the excitatory
      inputs onto DRn 5-HT neurons can undergo activity-dependent change of strength,
      as well as the mechanisms that control their plasticity. Here, we describe a
      novel form of spike-timing-dependent long-term potentiation (tLTP) of glutamate
      synapses onto rat DRn 5-HT neurons. This form of synaptic plasticity is initiated
      by an increase in postsynaptic intracellular calcium but is maintained by a
      persistent increase in the probability of glutamate release. The tLTP of
      glutamate synapses onto DRn 5-HT is independent of NMDA receptors but requires
      the activation of calcium-permeable AMPA receptors and voltage-dependent calcium
      channels. The presynaptic expression of the tLTP is mediated by the retrograde
      messenger nitric oxide (NO) and activation of cGMP/PKG pathways. Collectively,
      these results indicate that glutamate synapses in the DRn undergo activity
      dependent synaptic plasticity gated by NO signaling and unravel a previously
      unsuspected role of NO in controlling synaptic function and plasticity in the
      DRn.

PMID- 28580418
TI  - Human-induced changes in the distribution of rainfall.
AB  - A likely consequence of global warming will be the redistribution of Earth's rain
      belts, affecting water availability for many of Earth's inhabitants. We consider
      three ways in which planetary warming might influence the global distribution of
      precipitation. The first possibility is that rainfall in the tropics will
      increase and that the subtropics and mid-latitudes will become more arid. A
      second possibility is that Earth's thermal equator, around which the planet's
      rain belts and dry zones are organized, will migrate northward. This northward
      shift will be a consequence of the Northern Hemisphere, with its large
      continental area, warming faster than the Southern Hemisphere, with its large
      oceanic area. A third possibility is that both of these scenarios will play out
      simultaneously. We review paleoclimate evidence suggesting that (i) the middle
      latitudes were wetter during the last glacial maximum, (ii) a northward shift of
      the thermal equator attended the abrupt Bolling-Allerod climatic transition ~14.6
      thousand years ago, and (iii) a southward shift occurred during the more recent
      Little Ice Age. We also inspect trends in seasonal surface heating between the
      hemispheres over the past several decades. From these clues, we predict that
      there will be a seasonally dependent response in rainfall patterns to global
      warming. During boreal summer, in which the rate of recent warming has been
      relatively uniform between the hemispheres, wet areas will get wetter and dry
      regions will become drier. During boreal winter, rain belts and drylands will
      expand northward in response to differential heating between the hemispheres.

PMID- 28580419
TI  - Light penetration structures the deep acoustic scattering layers in the global
      ocean.
AB  - The deep scattering layer (DSL) is a ubiquitous acoustic signature found across
      all oceans and arguably the dominant feature structuring the pelagic open ocean
      ecosystem. It is formed by mesopelagic fishes and pelagic invertebrates. The DSL
      animals are an important food source for marine megafauna and contribute to the
      biological carbon pump through the active flux of organic carbon transported in
      their daily vertical migrations. They occupy depths from 200 to 1000 m at daytime
      and migrate to a varying degree into surface waters at nighttime. Their daytime
      depth, which determines the migration amplitude, varies across the global ocean
      in concert with water mass properties, in particular the oxygen regime, but the
      causal underpinning of these correlations has been unclear. We present evidence
      that the broad variability in the oceanic DSL daytime depth observed during the
      Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition is governed by variation in light
      penetration. We find that the DSL depth distribution conforms to a common optical
      depth layer across the global ocean and that a correlation between dissolved
      oxygen and light penetration provides a parsimonious explanation for the
      association of shallow DSL distributions with hypoxic waters. In enhancing
      understanding of this phenomenon, our results should improve the ability to
      predict and model the dynamics of one of the largest animal biomass components on
      earth, with key roles in the oceanic biological carbon pump and food web.

PMID- 28580417
TI  - Impact of Early Consumption of High-Fat Diet on the Mesolimbic Dopaminergic
      System.
AB  - Increasing evidence suggest that consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) can impact
      the maturation of brain circuits, such as during adolescence, which could account
      for behavioral alterations associated with obesity. In the present study, we used
      behavioral sensitization to amphetamine to investigate the effect of
      periadolescent HFD exposure (pHFD) in rats on the functionality of the dopamine
      (DA) system, a central actor in food reward processing. pHFD does not affect
      responding to an acute injection, however, a single exposure to amphetamine is
      sufficient to induce locomotor sensitization in pHFD rats. This is paralleled by
      rapid neurobiological adaptations within the DA system. In pHFD-exposed animals,
      a single amphetamine exposure induces an increase in bursting activity of DA
      cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) as well as higher DA release and
      greater expression of (tyrosine hydroxylase, TH) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc).
      Post-synaptically, pHFD animals display an increase in NAc D2 receptors and c-Fos
      expression after amphetamine injection. These findings highlight the
      vulnerability of DA system to the consumption of HFD during adolescence that may
      support deficits in reward-related processes observed in obesity.

PMID- 28580420
TI  - A pressure-induced topological phase with large Berry curvature in Pb1-x Sn x Te.
AB  - The picture of how a gap closes in a semiconductor has been radically transformed
      by topological concepts. Instead of the gap closing and immediately reopening,
      topological arguments predict that, in the absence of inversion symmetry, a
      metallic phase protected by Weyl nodes persists over a finite interval of the
      tuning parameter (for example, pressure P). The gap reappears when the Weyl nodes
      mutually annihilate. We report evidence that Pb1-x Sn x Te exhibits this
      topological metallic phase. Using pressure to tune the gap, we have tracked the
      nucleation of a Fermi surface droplet that rapidly grows in volume with P. In the
      metallic state, we observe a large Berry curvature, which dominates the Hall
      effect. Moreover, a giant negative magnetoresistance is observed in the
      insulating side of phase boundaries, in accord with ab initio calculations. The
      results confirm the existence of a topological metallic phase over a finite
      pressure interval.

PMID- 28580422
TI  - HSP105 prevents depression-like behavior by increasing hippocampal brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor levels in mice.
AB  - Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are stress-induced chaperones that are involved in
      neurological disease. Although increasingly implicated in behavioral disorders,
      the mechanisms of HSP action, and the relevant functional pathways, are still
      unclear. We examined whether oral administration of geranylgeranylacetone (GGA),
      a known HSP inducer, produced an antidepressant effect in a social defeat stress
      model of depression in mice. We also investigated the possible molecular
      mechanisms involved, particularly focusing on hippocampal neurogenesis and
      neurotrophic factor expression. In stressed mice, hippocampal HSP105 expression
      decreased. However, administration of GGA increased HSP105 expression and
      improved depression-like behavior, induced hippocampal cell proliferation, and
      elevated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in mouse hippocampus. Co
      treatment with GGA and the BDNF receptor inhibitor K252a suppressed the
      antidepressant effects of GGA. HSP105 knockdown decreased BDNF mRNA levels in
      HT22 hippocampal cell lines and hippocampal tissue and inhibited the GGA-mediated
      antidepressant effect. These observations suggest that GGA administration is a
      therapeutic candidate for depressive diseases by increasing hippocampal BDNF
      levels via HSP105 expression.

PMID- 28580421
TI  - Compliant substratum guides endothelial commitment from human pluripotent stem
      cells.
AB  - The role of mechanical regulation in driving human induced pluripotent stem cell
      (hiPSC) differentiation has been minimally explored. Although endothelial cell
      (EC) fate from hiPSCs has been demonstrated using small molecules to drive
      mesoderm induction, the effects of substrate stiffness with regard to EC
      differentiation efficiency have yet to be elucidated. We hypothesized that
      substrate compliance can modulate mesoderm differentiation kinetics from hiPSCs
      and affect downstream EC commitment. To this end, we used polydimethylsiloxane
      (PDMS)-a transparent, biocompatible elastomeric material-as a substrate to study
      EC commitment of hiPSCs using a stepwise differentiation scheme. Using
      physiologically stiff (1.7 MPa) and soft (3 kPa) PDMS substrates, compared to
      polystyrene plates (3 GPa), we demonstrate that mechanical priming during
      mesoderm induction activates the Yes-associated protein and drives Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling. When mesoderm differentiation was induced on compliant PDMS
      substrates in both serum and serum-free E6 medium, mesodermal genetic signatures
      (T, KDR, MESP-1, GATA-2, and SNAIL-1) were enhanced. Furthermore, examination of
      EC fate following stiffness priming revealed that compliant substrates robustly
      improve EC commitment through VECad, CD31, vWF, and eNOS marker expression.
      Overall, we show that substrate compliance guides EC fate by enhancing mesoderm
      induction through Wnt activation without the addition of small molecules. These
      findings are the first to show that the mechanical context of the differentiation
      niche can be as potent as chemical cues in driving EC identity from hiPSCs.

PMID- 28580423
TI  - Van der Waals engineering of ferromagnetic semiconductor heterostructures for
      spin and valleytronics.
AB  - The integration of magnetic material with semiconductors has been fertile ground
      for fundamental science as well as of great practical interest toward the
      seamless integration of information processing and storage. We create van der
      Waals heterostructures formed by an ultrathin ferromagnetic semiconductor CrI3
      and a monolayer of WSe2. We observe unprecedented control of the spin and valley
      pseudospin in WSe2, where we detect a large magnetic exchange field of nearly 13
      T and rapid switching of the WSe2 valley splitting and polarization via flipping
      of the CrI3 magnetization. The WSe2 photoluminescence intensity strongly depends
      on the relative alignment between photoexcited spins in WSe2 and the CrI3
      magnetization, because of ultrafast spin-dependent charge hopping across the
      heterostructure interface. The photoluminescence detection of valley pseudospin
      provides a simple and sensitive method to probe the intriguing domain dynamics in
      the ultrathin magnet, as well as the rich spin interactions within the
      heterostructure.

PMID- 28580424
TI  - How and when does an anticancer drug leave its binding site?
AB  - Obtaining atomistic resolution of drug unbinding from a protein is a much sought
      after experimental and computational challenge. We report the unbinding dynamics
      of the anticancer drug dasatinib from c-Src kinase in full atomistic resolution
      using enhanced sampling molecular dynamics simulations. We obtain multiple
      unbinding trajectories and determine a residence time in agreement with
      experiments. We observe coupled protein-water movement through multiple
      metastable intermediates. The water molecules form a hydrogen bond bridge,
      elongating a specific, evolutionarily preserved salt bridge and enabling
      conformation changes essential to ligand unbinding. This water insertion in the
      salt bridge acts as a molecular switch that controls unbinding. Our findings
      provide a mechanistic rationale for why it might be difficult to engineer drugs
      targeting certain specific c-Src kinase conformations to have longer residence
      times.

PMID- 28580425
TI  - Ultrastretchable, transparent triboelectric nanogenerator as electronic skin for
      biomechanical energy harvesting and tactile sensing.
AB  - Rapid advancements in stretchable and multifunctional electronics impose the
      challenge on corresponding power devices that they should have comparable
      stretchability and functionality. We report a soft skin-like triboelectric
      nanogenerator (STENG) that enables both biomechanical energy harvesting and
      tactile sensing by hybridizing elastomer and ionic hydrogel as the
      electrification layer and electrode, respectively. For the first time, ultrahigh
      stretchability (uniaxial strain, 1160%) and transparency (average transmittance,
      96.2% for visible light) are achieved simultaneously for an energy-harvesting
      device. The soft TENG is capable of outputting alternative electricity with an
      instantaneous peak power density of 35 mW m-2 and driving wearable electronics
      (for example, an electronic watch) with energy converted from human motions,
      whereas the STENG is pressure-sensitive, enabling its application as artificial
      electronic skin for touch/pressure perception. Our work provides new
      opportunities for multifunctional power sources and potential applications in
      soft/wearable electronics.

PMID- 28580427
TI  - Incidental finding of low brown adipose tissue activity in endurance-trained
      individuals: Methodological considerations for positron emission tomography.
AB  - Brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adults has been shown to have a meaningful impact
      on energy expenditure and cold-induced thermogenesis. Data from rodent research
      have suggested that exercise may be a promising method of increasing BAT
      activity, with potential applications to the treatment and prevention of obesity
      and diabetes. However, emerging human research using positron emission tomography
      (PET) with [18F] Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has identified lower BAT activity in
      endurance-trained athletes compared to sedentary controls, despite similar
      metabolic rate responses to cold exposure. Here we report a similar incidental
      finding in a pilot study that included a sample of 2 endurance athletes and 10
      untrained individuals. This incidental finding motivated a retrospective analysis
      of the data aimed at assessing the potential confounding influence of muscle FDG
      uptake on BAT estimation. Results indicated that athletes skewed the relationship
      between body mass index (BMI) and supraclavicular fat (sFAT) FDG uptake, while a
      non-significant inverse relationship between muscle FDG uptake and sFAT FDG
      uptake was also observed. The current retrospective analysis provides preliminary
      evidence suggesting that BAT estimation may be biased in endurance-trained
      individuals, which may relate to skeletal muscle FDG uptake. These results point
      to important methodological considerations for estimating BAT activity via FDG
      uptake, for which we propose potential solutions that facilitate unbiased
      estimation of BAT activity in groups that differ in terms of lean body mass and
      physical activity level.

PMID- 28580426
TI  - Methylmercury uptake and degradation by methanotrophs.
AB  - Methylmercury (CH3Hg+) is a potent neurotoxin produced by certain anaerobic
      microorganisms in natural environments. Although numerous studies have
      characterized the basis of mercury (Hg) methylation, no studies have examined
      CH3Hg+ degradation by methanotrophs, despite their ubiquitous presence in the
      environment. We report that some methanotrophs, such as Methylosinus
      trichosporium OB3b, can take up and degrade CH3Hg+ rapidly, whereas others, such
      as Methylococcus capsulatus Bath, can take up but not degrade CH3Hg+.
      Demethylation by M. trichosporium OB3b increases with increasing CH3Hg+
      concentrations but was abolished in mutants deficient in the synthesis of
      methanobactin, a metal-binding compound used by some methanotrophs, such as M.
      trichosporium OB3b. Furthermore, addition of methanol (>5 mM) as a competing one
      carbon (C1) substrate inhibits demethylation, suggesting that CH3Hg+ degradation
      by methanotrophs may involve an initial bonding of CH3Hg+ by methanobactin
      followed by cleavage of the C-Hg bond in CH3Hg+ by the methanol dehydrogenase.
      This new demethylation pathway by methanotrophs indicates possible broader
      involvement of C1-metabolizing aerobes in the degradation and cycling of toxic
      CH3Hg+ in the environment.

PMID- 28580429
TI  - Specific targeting of the deubiquitinase and E3 ligase families with engineered
      ubiquitin variants.
AB  - The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) has garnered much attention due to its
      potential for the development of therapeutics. Following a successful clinical
      application of general proteasome inhibitors much effort has been devoted to
      targeting individual UPS components including E3 enzymes and deubiquitinases that
      control specificity of ubiquitination. Our group has developed a novel approach
      for targeting the UPS proteins using engineered ubiquitin variants (Ubvs). These
      drug-like proteins can serve as valuable tools to study biological function of
      UPS components and assist in the development of small molecules for clinical use.
      In this review, we summarize studies of Ubvs targeting members of three major
      families, including deubiquitinases, HECT E3 ligases, and CRL E3 ligases. In
      particular, we focus on Ubv binding mechanisms, structural studies, and effects
      on enzyme function. Furthermore, new insights gained from the Ubvs are discussed
      in the context of small molecule studies.

PMID- 28580428
TI  - Peptide-Mediated Nanopore Detection of Uranyl Ions in Aqueous Media.
AB  - Uranium is one of the most common radioactive contaminants in the environment. As
      a major nuclear material in production, environmental samples (like soil and
      groundwater) can provide signatures on uranium production activity inside the
      facility. Thus, developing a new and portable analytical technology for uranium
      in aqueous media is significant not only for environmental monitoring, but also
      for nonproliferation. In this work, a label-free method for the detection of
      uranyl (UO22+) ions is developed by monitoring the translocation of a peptide
      probe in a nanopore. Based on the difference in the number of peptide events in
      the absence and presence of uranyl ions, nanomolar concentration of UO22+ ions
      could be detected in minutes. The method is highly selective; micromolar
      concentrations of Cd2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Hg2+, Th4+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ would
      not interfere with the detection of UO22+ ions. In addition, simulated water
      samples were successfully analyzed.

PMID- 28580431
TI  - Sperm and sex peptide stimulate aggression in female Drosophila.
AB  - Female aggression towards other females is associated with reproduction in many
      taxa, and traditionally thought to be related to the protection or provisioning
      of offspring, such as through increased resource acquisition. However, the
      underlying reproductive factors causing aggressive behaviour in females remain
      unknown. Here we show that female aggression in the fruit fly Drosophila
      melanogaster is strongly stimulated by the receipt of sperm at mating, and in
      part by an associated seminal fluid protein, the sex peptide. We further show
      that the post-mating increase in female aggression is decoupled from the costs of
      egg production and from post-mating decreases in sexual receptivity. Our results
      suggest that male ejaculates can have a surprisingly direct influence on
      aggression in recipient females. Male ejaculate traits thus influence the female
      social competitive environment with potentially far-reaching ecological and
      evolutionary consequences.

PMID- 28580432
TI  - Random sequences are an abundant source of bioactive RNAs or peptides.
AB  - It is generally assumed that new genes arise through duplication and/or
      recombination of existing genes. The probability that a new functional gene could
      arise out of random non-coding DNA is so far considered to be negligible, since
      it seems unlikely that such a RNA or protein sequence could have an initial
      function that influences the fitness of an organism. We have here tested this
      question systematically, by expressing clones with random sequences in E . coli
      and subjecting them to competitive growth. Contrary to expectations, we find that
      random sequences with bioactivity are not rare. In our experiments we find that
      up to 25% of the evaluated clones enhance the growth rate of their cells and up
      to 52% inhibit growth. Testing of individual clones in competition assays
      confirms their activity and provides an indication that their activity could be
      exerted either by the transcribed RNA or the translated peptide. This suggests
      that transcribed and translated random parts of the genome could indeed have a
      high potential to become functional. The results also suggest that random
      sequences may become an effective new source of molecules for studying cellular
      functions, as well as for pharmacological activity screening.

PMID- 28580430
TI  - The evolution and population diversity of human-specific segmental duplications.
AB  - Segmental duplications contribute to human evolution, adaptation and genomic
      instability but are often poorly characterized. We investigate the evolution,
      genetic variation and coding potential of human-specific segmental duplications
      (HSDs). We identify 218 HSDs based on analysis of 322 deeply sequenced archaic
      and contemporary hominid genomes. We sequence 550 human and nonhuman primate
      genomic clones to reconstruct the evolution of the largest, most complex regions
      with protein-coding potential (n=80 genes/33 gene families). We show that HSDs
      are non-randomly organized, associate preferentially with ancestral ape
      duplications termed "core duplicons", and evolved primarily in an interspersed
      inverted orientation. In addition to Homo sapiens-specific gene expansions (e.g.,
      TCAF1/2), we highlight ten gene families (e.g., ARHGAP11B and SRGAP2C) where copy
      number never returns to the ancestral state, there is evidence of mRNA splicing,
      and no common gene-disruptive mutations are observed in the general population.
      Such duplicates are candidates for the evolution of human-specific adaptive
      traits.

PMID- 28580433
TI  - Limited impact of neonatal or early infant schedules of 7-valent pneumococcal
      conjugate vaccination on nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in
      Papua New Guinean children: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of pneumonia, the most common cause
      of childhood death. Papua New Guinean children experience high rates of
      nasopharyngeal pneumococcal colonization within weeks of birth, predisposing them
      to pneumococcal disease. In a trial to determine the safety and immunogenicity of
      early infant vaccination with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV), we
      investigated the impact of early schedules on pneumococcal carriage. Infants were
      randomized at birth to receive 7vPCV in a 0-1-2-month (n = 101) or a 1-2-3-month
      (n = 105) schedule or no 7vPCV (n = 106). All children received 23-valent
      pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine at age 9 months. We cultured nasopharyngeal
      swabs (NPS) collected at ages 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks and 3, 9, 18 months, and middle
      ear discharge if present. Pneumococcal serotypes were identified by the Quellung
      reaction. A total of 1761 NPS were cultured. The prevalence of pneumococcal
      carriage was 22% at 1 week of age, rising to 80% by age 3 months and remained
      >70% thereafter, with high-density carriage in 42% of pneumococcus-positive
      samples. We identified 63 different serotypes; 43% of isolates from controls were
      13vPCV serotypes. There were no significant differences in 7vPCV serotype
      carriage between 7vPCV recipients and controls at any age (22% vs. 31% at 9
      months, p = 0.2). At age 9 months the prevalence of non-7vPCV carriage was 17%
      higher in 7vPCV recipients (48%) than in controls (25%, p = 0.02). More non-7vPCV
      serotypes were isolated from ear discharge in 16 7vPCV recipients than from 4
      controls (48% vs. 25%, p = 0.13). The limited impact of neonatal or accelerated
      infant 7vPCV schedules on vaccine serotype carriage is probably due to the early
      onset of dense carriage of a broad range of pneumococcal serotypes. While
      serotype-independent pneumococcal vaccines are needed in high-risk populations,
      the underlying environmental factors and sources of infection must be
      investigated. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00219401.

PMID- 28580435
TI  - The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Small Business Program: A
      Comprehensive Ecosystem for Biomedical Product Development.
AB  - Small companies working to develop products in the cardiovascular space face
      numerous challenges, from regulatory, intellectual property, and reimbursement
      barriers to securing funds to keep the lights on and reach the next development
      milestone. Most small companies that spin out from universities have the
      scientific knowledge, but product development expertise and business acumen are
      also needed to be successful. Other challenges include reduced interest in early
      stage technologies (Pharma & Biotech 2015 in Review, EP Vantage) and limited deal
      flow for cardiovascular products (Gormley B., Wall Street Journal, September 15,
      2014). The NHLBI small business program is a comprehensive ecosystem designed to
      address these critical challenges and to provide resources and expertise to
      assist early stage companies developing cardiovascular and other products within
      the institute's mission. This article describes steps that NHLBI has taken to
      enhance our small business program to more effectively translate basic
      discoveries into commercial products to benefit patients and public health,
      including enhancing internal expertise and developing non-financial resources to
      assist small businesses as they develop their products and seek private sector
      investment and partnership.

PMID- 28580436
TI  - TELEHEALTH ALLOWS FOR CLINICAL TRIAL PARTICIPATION AND MULTIMODALITY THERAPY IN A
      RURAL PATIENT WITH STAGE 4 NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER.
AB  - Oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a poor prognosis for rural
      patients with traditional therapies. Implementation of multi-modality systemic
      therapy in conjunction with surgical resection can dramatically improve overall
      survival, leading to clinical complete remission. The currently accepted
      indications for resection in oligometastatic NSCLC include brain and adrenal
      metastases. Rural populations are known to have disparities in care of complex
      malignancies and the use of telehealth has been shown to improve outcomes. We
      present a case of a rural patient with stage IV NSCLC, who was able to
      participate in two clinical trials, undergo trimodality therapy, and remain
      disease-free for 18 months, whose care was facilitated via telehealth video
      conferencing with a tertiary care center.

PMID- 28580434
TI  - The Promise and Challenge of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Cardiovascular
      Applications.
AB  - The recent discovery of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has
      revolutionized the field of stem cells. iPSCs have demonstrated that biological
      development is not an irreversible process and that mature adult somatic cells
      can be induced to become pluripotent. This breakthrough is projected to advance
      our current understanding of many disease processes and revolutionize the
      approach to effective therapeutics. Despite the great promise of iPSCs, many
      translational challenges still remain. In this article, we review the basic
      concept of induction of pluripotency as a novel approach to understand cardiac
      regeneration, cardiovascular disease modeling and drug discovery. We critically
      reflect on the current results of preclinical and clinical studies using iPSCs
      for these applications with appropriate emphasis on the challenges facing
      clinical translation.

PMID- 28580437
TI  - Lower Baseline Germinal Center Activity and Preserved Th1 Immunity Are Associated
      With Hepatitis B Vaccine Response in Treated HIV Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Why HIV-infected individuals have poor responses to standard dose and
      schedule hepatitis B virus immunization is not well understood. METHODS: We
      compared the serologic and cellular immune profiles of treated HIV-infected
      individuals with similar durations of infection and preserved CD4 counts (> 350
      cells/microliter) by hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) response before and after
      vaccination. RESULTS: Similar levels of immune activation and plasma cytokine
      profile were found between non-responders and responders. The baseline plasma
      levels of CXCL-13, a surrogate of germinal center reactivity, were significantly
      lower in HBV responders compared to HBV non-responders and were a predictor of
      both vaccine response and titer. Furthermore, response to HBV vaccination was
      associated with a significantly higher frequency of circulating IgGhigh memory B
      cells post vaccination and preserved Th1 antigen-specific T-cell responses.
      CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data suggest that preserved Th1 responses are
      associated with hepatitis B vaccine response in treated HIV infection.

PMID- 28580438
TI  - Discovery of a Diaminopyrimidine FLT3 Inhibitor Active against Acute Myeloid
      Leukemia.
AB  - Profiling of the kinase-binding capabilities of an aminopyrimidine analogue
      detected in a cellular screen of the St. Jude small-molecule collection led to
      the identification of a novel series of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)
      inhibitors. Structure-activity relationship studies led to the development of
      compounds exhibiting good potency against MV4-11 and MOLM13 acute myelogenous
      leukemia cells driven by FLT3, regardless of their FLT3 mutation status. In vitro
      pharmacological profiling demonstrated that compound 5e shows characteristics
      suitable for further preclinical development.

PMID- 28580439
TI  - Deviation from van't Hoff Behavior of Solids at Low Temperature.
AB  - As a sequel to results obtained on the low-temperature behavior of liquids, a
      similar study is presented for solids. A molecule in a solid interacts with the
      other molecules of the crystal so that it is subjected to a specific
      multimolecular potential, kT0. At temperature T < T0, the molecules are
      localized, and at T > T0, they can participate in processes like self-diffusion
      and evaporation. As a consequence, the van't Hoff equation is disobeyed at a low
      temperature and properties like vapor pressure, diffusion rate, or reactivity are
      zero below the specific temperature, T0, which here can be interpreted as a
      temperature of thermal stability of the solid. To account for this view, the
      van't Hoff equation, represented by the green curve in the figure, is extended
      with a suitable pre-exponential factor, leading to the red curve. Three examples,
      taken from the literature, are analyzed to demonstrate its applicability. These
      examples are: the thermal dissociation of calcium carbonate, the sublimation
      equilibrium pressure of naphthalene, and that of ice. For some other solids,
      equilibria and dynamic properties, X(T), are examined by means of extrapolations
      in the X(T) versus T domain, showing the presence of an arrest temperature, which
      coincides, within experimental accuracy, with the T0 value obtained from the
      corresponding vapor pressure. As with liquids, kT0 is found to be proportional to
      the molecular pair potential.

PMID- 28580440
TI  - Exploiting a host-commensal interaction to promote intestinal barrier function
      and enteric pathogen tolerance.
AB  - Commensal intestinal bacteria can prevent pathogenic infection; however, limited
      knowledge of the mechanisms by which individual bacterial species contribute to
      pathogen resistance has restricted their potential for therapeutic application.
      Here, we examined how colonization of mice with a human commensal Enterococcus
      faecium protects against enteric infections. We show that E. faecium improves
      host intestinal epithelial defense programs to limit Salmonella enterica serotype
      Typhimurium pathogenesis in vivo in multiple models of susceptibility. E. faecium
      protection is mediated by a unique peptidoglycan hydrolase, SagA, and requires
      epithelial expression of pattern recognition receptor components and
      antimicrobial peptides. Ectopic expression of SagA in non-protective and
      probiotic bacteria is sufficient to enhance intestinal barrier function and
      confer resistance against S. Typhimurium and Clostridium difficile pathogenesis.
      These studies demonstrate that specific factors from commensal bacteria can be
      used to improve host barrier function and limit the pathogenesis of distinct
      enteric infections.

PMID- 28580442
TI  - Cation Exchange in the Presence of Oil in Porous Media.
AB  - Cation exchange is an interfacial process during which cations on a clay surface
      are replaced by other cations. This study investigates the effect of oil type and
      composition on cation exchange on rock surfaces, relevant for a variety of oil
      recovery processes. We perform experiments in which brine with a different
      composition than that of the in situ brine is injected into cores with and
      without remaining oil saturation. The cation-exchange capacity (CEC) of the rocks
      was calculated using PHREEQC software (coupled to a multipurpose transport
      simulator) with the ionic composition of the effluent histories as input
      parameters. We observe that in the presence of crude oil, ion exchange is a
      kinetically controlled process and its rate depends on residence time of the oil
      in the pore, the temperature, and kinetic rate of adsorption of the polar groups
      on the rock surface. The cation-exchange process occurs in two stages during two
      phase flow in porous media. Initially, the charged sites of the internal surface
      of the clays establish a new equilibrium by exchanging cations with the aqueous
      phase. At later stages, the components of the aqueous and oleic phases compete
      for the charged sites on the external surface or edges of the clays. When there
      is sufficient time for crude oil to interact with the rock (i.e., when the core
      is aged with crude oil), a fraction of the charged sites are neutralized by the
      charged components stemming from crude oil. Moreover, the positively charged
      calcite and dolomite surfaces (at the prevailing pH environment of our
      experiments) are covered with the negatively charged components of the crude oil
      and therefore less mineral dissolution takes place when oil is present in porous
      media.

PMID- 28580441
TI  - Impact of Subclinical Hypothyroidism on Cardiometabolic Biomarkers in Women.
AB  - CONTEXT: Whether subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is associated with
      cardiometabolic abnormalities is uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To examine diverse
      cardiometabolic biomarkers across euthyroid, SCH, and overt hypothyroidism (HT)
      in women free of cardiovascular disease (CVD). DESIGN: Cross-sectional adjusted
      associations for lipids, lipoprotein subclasses, lipoprotein insulin resistance
      score, inflammatory, coagulation, and glycemic biomarkers by ANCOVA for thyroid
      categories or TSH quintiles on a Women's Health Study subcohort. SETTING:
      Outpatient. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Randomly sampled 3,914 middle-aged
      and older women for thyroid function analysis (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH],
      free T4), of whom 3,321 were not on lipid lowering therapy. INTERVENTION: None.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Associations of SCH and HT with cardiometabolic markers.
      RESULTS: Going from euthyroid to HT, the lipoprotein subclasse profiles were
      indicative of insulin resistance [respective values and p for trend]: larger VLDL
      size (nm)[51.5 (95%CI51.2, 51.8) to 52.9 (51.8, 54.1) p=0.001]; higher LDL
      particles concentration (nmol/L)[1283 (95%CI1267, 1299) to 1358 (1298, 1418)
      p=0.004] and smaller LDL size. There was worsening lipoprotein insulin resistance
      score from euthyroid 49.2 (95%CI 48.3, 50.2) to SCH 52.1 (95%CI 50.1, 54.0), and
      HT 52.1 (95%CI 48.6, 55.6), p for trend 0.008. Of the other biomarkers, SCH and
      HT were associated with higher hs-CRP and HbA1c. For increasing TSH quintiles
      results were overall similar. CONCLUSIONS: In apparently healthy women, SCH
      cardiometabolic profiles indicated worsening insulin resistance and higher CVD
      risk markers compared with euthyroid individuals, despite similar LDL and total
      cholesterol. These findings suggest that cardiometabolic risk may increase early
      in the progression towards SCH and OH.

PMID- 28580443
TI  - Reduced Prothrombinase Inhibition by Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor Contributes
      to the Factor V Leiden Hypercoagulable State.
AB  - Activated factor V (FVa) and factor X (FXa) form prothrombinase, which converts
      prothrombin to thrombin. The alpha isoform of tissue factor (TF) pathway
      inhibitor (TFPI) dampens early procoagulant events, partly by interacting with
      FV. FV Leiden (FVL) is the most common genetic thrombophilia in Caucasians.
      Thrombosis risk is particularly elevated in women with FVL taking oral
      contraceptives, which produce acquired TFPIalpha deficiency. In mice, FVL
      combined with 50% reduction in TFPI causes severe thrombosis and perinatal
      lethality. However, a possible interaction between FVL and TFPIalpha has not been
      defined in humans. Here, we examined this interaction using samples from patients
      with FVL in thrombin generation and fibrin formation assays. In dilute TF- or FXa
      initiated reactions, these studies exposed a TFPI-dependent activation threshold
      for coagulation initiation that was greatly reduced by FVL. The reduced threshold
      was progressively overcome with higher concentrations of TF or FXa. Plasma assays
      using anti-TFPI antibodies or a TFPI peptide that binds and inhibits FVa
      demonstrated that the decreased activation threshold resulted from reduced
      TFPIalpha inhibition of prothrombinase. In assays using purified proteins,
      TFPIalpha was a 1.7-fold weaker inhibitor of prothrombinase assembled with FVL
      than with FV. Thus, FVL reduces the threshold for initiating coagulation, and
      this threshold is further reduced in situations of low TFPIalpha concentration.
      Individuals with FVL are likely prone to thrombosis in response to weak
      procoagulant stimuli that would not initiate blood clot formation in individuals
      with FV.

PMID- 28580445
TI  - Association of maternal and umbilical cord blood leptin concentrations and
      abnormal color Doppler indices of umbilical artery with fetal growth restriction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a condition with heterogeneous
      pathophysiology which characterized by fetal weight less than the tenth
      percentile for gestational age. Several factors have impact on maternal,
      placental and fetal due to growth restriction. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to investigate the relationship between levels of leptin in the cord, and
      serum leptin of mothers also abnormal color Doppler indices of umbilical artery
      with fetal growth restriction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross sectional
      study conducted in Isfahan, Iran, 2015-2016. We recruited 40 women with singleton
      pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction (Group I) and 40 pregnant
      women with normal fetal growth (Group II) with matched age. Maternal serum and
      umbilical artery leptin levels were determined with Enzyme-Linked immunosorben
      method. Also, color Doppler ultrasound of umbilical artery was performed.
      RESULTS: Mean maternal and fetal leptin levels were lower in the FGR group
      compared to the normal group (36.58+/-(20.99) and 7.42 +/-(4.08)vs. 47.32+/
      (22.50) and 30.49+/-(14.50) respectively). Also, mean fetal leptin level was
      lower in the group with abnormal color Doppler sonographic indices compared to
      the normal group (7. 40 +/-(4.10)vs 27.06+/-(15.80), respectively). CONCLUSION:
      This study indicated that maternal and fetal leptin levels are correlated with
      FGR originating from damaged placental function; also fetal leptin level can
      indicate changes in color Doppler sonographic indices.

PMID- 28580444
TI  - Maternal Anemia during pregnancy and infant low birth weight: A systematic review
      and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infant low birth weight is one of the major problems in different
      societies. Different reports have provided different results regarding the
      relationship between maternal anemia and infant low birth weight in different
      months of pregnancy. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the
      relationship between maternal anemia during pregnancy and infant low birth
      weight. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This systematic review was conducted using related
      keywords in national (Sid, Iran.doc, Iran medex and Magiran) and international
      (PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Springer,
      Embase, Google scholar) databases. Relative risks and confidence intervals were
      extracted from each study. The results were combined using random-effects model
      for meta-analysis. The I2 index was also used to measure heterogeneity between
      the studies. RESULTS: Overall, 17 studies with a total sample size of 245407
      entered the final meta-analysis and demonstrated that the relative risk for
      maternal anemia in the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy were 1.26
      (95% CI: 1.03-1.55), 0.97 (95% CI: 0.57-1.65), and 1.21 (95% CI: 0.84-1.76),
      respectively. The relationship between maternal anemia and infant low birth
      weight in the first trimester of pregnancy was significant. CONCLUSION: Maternal
      anemia, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy, can be considered as
      a risk factor for pregnancy outcomes. Therefore, one needs to take the necessary
      steps to cure this disease in order to reduce the incidence of infant low birth
      weight.

PMID- 28580446
TI  - Protective effects of melatonin on testis histology following acute torsion
      detorsion in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Testicular damage due to spermatic cord torsion may lead to
      infertility. It is probably because of changes in oxidative stress factors such
      as malondialdehyde. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the protective effect of melatonin
      (MLT), as an antioxidant, on testicular damage induced by acute unilateral
      spermatic cord torsion and detorsion (T/D) in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this experimental study, 48 adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into
      three groups (8 rats/group): sham group underwent right scrotal surgery only.,
      the T/D group underwent right testicular torsion (for 1 hr) and detorsion, and
      the melatonin group underwent right testicular torsion, received 25 ug/kg
      melatonin intraperitoneally immediately after surgery of T/D. Then the
      histological parameters and malondialdehyde (MDA) changes were evaluated.
      RESULTS: Torsion and detorsion decreased the diameter of the tubules
      significantly compared to controls (p=0.003). Melatonin could increase the
      diameter, but it was not significant (p=0.26). The heights of the epithelium were
      constant in sham, T/D, and melatonin groups without any significant difference
      between groups (p=0.98). Based on Johnsen's score, spermatogenesis was normal in
      the sham group. The torsion significantly injured all lineage cells (p<0.001).
      There was no any spermatid or sperm in the seminiferous tubules. Melatonin
      improved the spermatogenesis significantly (p=0.02), but could not improve MDA
      level significantly (p=0.99). CONCLUSION: Severe degenerative changes of testis
      were induced by acute unilateral spermatic cord torsion and detorsion in rats,
      but it had no effect on MDA level.

PMID- 28580447
TI  - Association of regional disparity of obstetrics and gynecologic services with
      children and infants mortality rates: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Equity in distribution of resources is considered as an important
      priority in health care systems. Equitable distribution of obstetrics and
      gynecology (Ob/Gyn) services in the country level is critical in maternal and
      neonatal health for qualitative promotion of maternal care in pregnancy,
      delivery, and post-delivery periods. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed at
      determining regional disparity of obstetrics and gynecology services and its
      association with children and infants mortality rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2015 to investigate
      distribution of Ob/Gyn services using three indicators of number of nursing and
      midwifery personnel, total Ob/Gyn specialists, and total delivery beds among 30
      provinces of the country. Equity criteria in the present study included
      population, normal vaginal deliveries, cesarean sections, and total deliveries.
      Data were gathered using a researcher-made form and Stata 12 was used to
      calculate Gini coefficient. The association of Ob/Gyn services with children and
      infant mortality rates was investigated using SPSS package and linear regression
      test. RESULTS: The lowest Gini coefficient was observed in distribution of
      nursing and midwifery personnel in delivery wards in terms of vaginal delivery
      (0.38 from 1) and the highest value was related to distribution of Ob/Gyn
      specialists in terms of vaginal delivery (0.73 from 1). Infant mortality was
      significantly associated with number of nursing and midwifery personnel in
      delivery wards, and total number of Ob/Gyn specialists. CONCLUSION: Considering
      new population policies in Iran and increased fertility rate, it is recommended
      to facilitate accessibility of the required services for the women, particularly
      those of reproductive age.

PMID- 28580448
TI  - Serum ferritin concentration in early pregnancy and risk of subsequent
      development of gestational diabetes: A prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated serum ferritin concentration is associated with insulin
      resistance and diabetes. Recently it has also been described in gestational
      diabetes mellitus (GDM). OBJECTIVE: A prospective study was done to determine
      whether there was a relationship between serum ferritin concentration in early
      pregnancy and the risk of GDM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A study was performed on
      1,384 pregnant women with gestational age of 12-16 weeks. A blood sample was
      obtained for measurement of ferritin in the first trimester. Diagnosis of GDM was
      done by 75 gr oral glucose tolerance test between 24-28 wk. RESULTS: Women who
      developed GDM had a higher concentration of serum ferritin than women who did not
      develop GDM (p=0.01). A ferritin concentration of 45 ng/ml was calculated to be
      the 75th percentile for healthy pregnant women. Considering this level 32% in the
      GDM group and 25.2%of normal subjects exhibited high ferritin levels (p=0.01).
      The risk of GDM with these high levels of ferritin was 1.4-fold higher than that
      for subjects with lower concentrations. The Odds Ratio was 1.4 (95% CI= 1-1.87)
      (p=0.01). After adjusted for age Odds Ratio was 1.38 (95% CI=1.02-1.86) (p=0.03)
      and after adjustment for pre-pregnancy Body Mass index, the adjusted odds ratio
      was 1.31 (CI= 0.96-1.79) (p=0.08). After multivariable adjustment (age and body
      mass index), the adjusted odds ratio was 1.3 (0.95-1.8) (p=0.09). CONCLUSION:
      High serum ferritin can be regarded as a significant risk factor for the
      development of gestational diabetes.

PMID- 28580449
TI  - Administration of high dose of methamphetamine has detrimental effects on sperm
      parameters and DNA integrity in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methamphetamine (MA) was shown to have harmful effects on male
      reproductive system. OBJECTIVE: To investigate probable effects of daily
      administration of MA on sperm parameters and chromatin/DNA integrity in mouse.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-five NMRI male mice were divided into five groups
      including low, medium, and high dosage groups which were injected
      intraperitoneally with 4, 8 and 15 mg/kg/day for 35 days, respectively. Normal
      saline was injected in sham group and no medications were used in control group.
      Then, the mice were killed and caudal epididymis of each animal was cut and
      placed in Ham's F10 medium for sperm retrieval. To evaluate sperm chromatin
      abnormalities, the aniline blue, toluidine blue and chromomycine A3 were used.
      For sperm DNA integrity and apoptosis, the acridine orange, sperm chromatin
      dispersion, and TUNEL assay were applied. For sperm morphology, Papanicolaou
      staining was done. RESULTS: Normal morphology and progressive motility of
      spermatozoa decreased in medium and high dosage groups in comparison with the
      control group (p=0.035). There was a significant increase in rate of aniline
      blue, toluidine blue, and chromomycine A3 positive spermatozoa in high dosage
      group. In a similar manner, there was an increase in rates of acridine orange,
      TUNEL and sperm chromatin dispersion positive sperm cells in high dosage group
      with respect to others. CONCLUSION: MA abuse in a dose-dependent manner could
      have detrimental effects on male reproductive indices including sperm parameters
      and sperm chromatin/DNA integrity in mice.

PMID- 28580450
TI  - Expression of placental growth factor mRNA in preeclampsia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious complication of pregnancy with
      hallmarks of incomplete placentation, placental ischemia and endothelial
      dysfunction. Imbalance between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF),
      placenta growth factor (PlGF) and their receptors play important role in
      pathophysiology of PE. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to asses PlGF mRNA
      expression in placenta of women affected with PE. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this
      cross-sectional study, expression of PlGF mRNA was evaluated in 26 mild PE cases,
      15 severe preeclamptic women and 20 normotensive controls. Patients were sub
      classified as early onset PE (9) and late onset (32). After RNA extraction, PlGF
      expression was quantified with qRT-PCR. RESULTS: The results of PlGF mRNA
      expression between mild-severe, and early-late onset PE patients showed no
      statistically significant difference compared with the control group (p=0.661,
      p=0.205 respectively). CONCLUSION: Despite we found no distinct differential
      expression of PlGF mRNA in placental tissue of PE patients compared with control
      women, but according to decreased level of this angiogenic factor in PE even
      before clinical onset of the disease, determining molecular mechanisms related to
      reduced secretion of PlGF into the maternal circulation may be useful for future
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28580451
TI  - A Case with late onset of ambiguous genitalia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ambiguous genitalia is an uncommon situation that happens between 1
      and 2 per every 1000 live births and falls under the umbrella diagnosis of
      disorders of sexual development. CASE: In this article, we report a case of male
      pseudohermaphroditism with ambiguous genitalia. The proband was a 12 yr old girl
      without any uterus or ovarian tissues. Karyotype of the case is 46, XY. Genes
      involved in sexual differentiation such as AR, SRD5A2, LH, LHR, FSH, 17 B HSD and
      SRY genes were sequenced in both directions. No mutations were found in these
      genes either. CONCLUSION: It seems advisable to be cautious in similar cases, and
      revise protocol for tracing the genes involved in the patients.

PMID- 28580452
TI  - Effects of simultaneous prenatal exposures to organophosphate and synthetic
      pyrethroid insecticides on infant neurodevelopment at three months of age.
AB  - Both prenatal organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid (PYRE) insecticide exposures
      have been inconsistently linked with poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes. However,
      given that neither exposure occurs in isolation, and both classes are neurotoxic,
      it is important to consider both classes when evaluating these outcomes.
      Employing biomarkers of pesticide exposure, this research describes the effects
      of prenatal urinary metabolite levels of PYRE and OP insecticides, measured in
      both the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and postnatal urinary
      metabolite levels measured at 2 months of age, on child neurodevelopment at three
      months of age. Neurodevelopmental data were obtained by administration of the
      Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II). Generalized linear models using
      maximum likelihood estimation were used to evaluate the relationship between the
      indicators of motor and mental neurobehavioral development obtained for 118
      infants and prenatal insecticide exposure, accounting for the concurrent infant
      insecticide exposure. Urinary measures of the PYRE metabolites 3-phenoxybenzoic
      acid (3PBA) and trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2 dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic
      acid (trans-DCCA) in the third trimester of pregnancy had significant, albeit
      opposite, effects on mental functioning at three months of age. We observed no
      significant (p < 0.05) effects on motor development. These results were robust to
      second month infant urine measures of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (metabolite of
      OP chlorpyrifos), which independently had a significant and negative influence on
      mental functioning. Prenatal PYRE exposures exert heterogeneous effects by class
      on mental, but not motor, functioning at three months of age.

PMID- 28580453
TI  - Reactive Oxygen Species in HIV Infection.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a family of oxygen molecules with an unpaired
      electron and play an important role in homeostasis and pathogenesis. The reactive
      molecules modify lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, and modulate a wide range of
      cellular functions. The importance of ROS in infection has been established
      through clinical and in vitro studies. Here we review the role of oxidative
      stress in HIV pathogenesis, the impact of ROS on immune responses in HIV
      patients, and ROS-mediated regulation of HIV infection. Future studies on the
      interplay between ROS and HIV infection may offer a new strategy for prevention
      and treatment.

PMID- 28580454
TI  - A Discontinuous Potential Model for Protein-Protein Interactions.
AB  - Protein-protein interactions play an important role in many biologic and
      industrial processes. In this work, we develop a two-bead-per-residue model that
      enables us to account for protein-protein interactions in a multi-protein system
      using discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations. This model deploys
      discontinuous potentials to describe the non-bonded interactions and virtual
      bonds to keep proteins in their native state. The geometric and energetic
      parameters are derived from the potentials of mean force between sidechain
      sidechain, sidechain-backbone, and backbone-backbone pairs. The energetic
      parameters are scaled with the aim of matching the second virial coefficient of
      lysozyme reported in experiment. We also investigate the performance of several
      bond-building strategies.

PMID- 28580455
TI  - Detection of Nuclei in H&E Stained Sections Using Convolutional Neural Networks.
AB  - Detection of nuclei is an important step in phenotypic profiling of histology
      sections that are usually imaged in bright field. However, nuclei can have
      multiple phenotypes, which are difficult to model. It is shown that convolutional
      neural networks (CNN)s can learn different phenotypic signatures for nuclear
      detection, and that the performance is improved with the feature-based
      representation of the original image. The feature-based representation utilizes
      Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) filter, which accentuates blob-shape objects. Several
      combinations of input data representations are evaluated to show that by LoG
      representation, detection of nuclei is advanced. In addition, the efficacy of CNN
      for vesicular and hyperchromatic nuclei is evaluated. In particular, the
      frequency of detection of nuclei with the vesicular and apoptotic phenotypes is
      increased. The overall system has been evaluated against manually annotated
      nuclei and the F-Scores for alternative representations have been reported.

PMID- 28580456
TI  - Predictors of Adherence to Nicotine Replacement Therapy (Nicotine Patch) Among
      Homeless Persons Enrolled in a Randomized Controlled Trial Targeting Smoking
      Cessation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adherence to smoking cessation treatment is generally low,
      especially among socio-economically disadvantaged groups including individuals
      experiencing homelessness and those with mental illnesses. Despite the high
      smoking rates in homeless populations (~70%) no study to date has systematically
      examined predictors of adherence to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in this
      population. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this secondary analysis was to identify
      predictors of adherence to NRT in a smoking cessation trial conducted among
      homeless smokers. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from a randomized
      controlled trial enrolling 430 persons who were homeless and current cigarette
      smokers. Participants were assigned to one of the two study conditions to enhance
      smoking cessation: Motivational Interviewing (MI; 6 sessions of MI + 8 weeks of
      NRT) or Standard Care (Brief advice to quit+ 8 weeks of NRT). The primary outcome
      for the current analysis was adherence to NRT at end of treatment (8 weeks
      following randomization). Adherence was defined as a total score of zero on a
      modified Morisky adherence scale). Demographic and baseline psychosocial, tobacco
      related, and substance abuse measures were compared between those who did and did
      not adhere to NRT. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders, smokers who were
      depressed at baseline (OR=0.58, 95% CI, 0.38-0.87, p=0.01), had lower confidence
      to quit (OR=1.10, 95% CI, 1.01-1.19, p=0.04), were less motivated to adhere
      (OR=1.04, 95% CI, 1.00-1.07, p=0.04), and were less likely to be adherent to NRT.
      Further, age of initial smoking was positively associated with adherence status
      (OR= 0.83, 95% CI, 0.69-0.99, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that
      smoking cessation programs conducted in this population may target increased
      adherence to NRT by addressing both depression and motivation to quit. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00786149.

PMID- 28580458
TI  - Structured Sparse Kernel Learning for Imaging Genetics Based Alzheimer's Disease
      Diagnosis.
AB  - A kernel-learning based method is proposed to integrate multimodal imaging and
      genetic data for Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis. To facilitate structured
      feature learning in kernel space, we represent each feature with a kernel and
      then group kernels according to modalities. In view of the highly redundant
      features within each modality and also the complementary information across
      modalities, we introduce a novel structured sparsity regularizer for feature
      selection and fusion, which is different from conventional lasso and group lasso
      based methods. Specifically, we enforce a penalty on kernel weights to
      simultaneously select features sparsely within each modality and densely combine
      different modalities. We have evaluated the proposed method using magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), and single
      nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data of subjects from Alzheimer's Disease
      Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. The effectiveness of our method is
      demonstrated by both the clearly improved prediction accuracy and the discovered
      brain regions and SNPs relevant to AD.

PMID- 28580459
TI  - Cultural Shift or Linguistic Drift? Comparing Two Computational Measures of
      Semantic Change.
AB  - Words shift in meaning for many reasons, including cultural factors like new
      technologies and regular linguistic processes like subjectification.
      Understanding the evolution of language and culture requires disentangling these
      underlying causes. Here we show how two different distributional measures can be
      used to detect two different types of semantic change. The first measure, which
      has been used in many previous works, analyzes global shifts in a word's
      distributional semantics; it is sensitive to changes due to regular processes of
      linguistic drift, such as the semantic generalization of promise ("I promise."
      "It promised to be exciting."). The second measure, which we develop here,
      focuses on local changes to a word's nearest semantic neighbors; it is more
      sensitive to cultural shifts, such as the change in the meaning of cell ("prison
      cell" "cell phone"). Comparing measurements made by these two methods allows
      researchers to determine whether changes are more cultural or linguistic in
      nature, a distinction that is essential for work in the digital humanities and
      historical linguistics.

PMID- 28580457
TI  - A Liver Index and its Relationship to Indices of HCC Aggressiveness.
AB  - A Hepatocellular (HCC) Aggressiveness Index was recently constructed, consisting
      of the sum of the scores for the 4 clinical parameters of maximum tumor size,
      multifocality, presence of portal vein thrombus and blood alphafetoprotein
      levels. It was observed that there was an association with several liver function
      tests. We have now formed a Liver Index from the 4 liver parameters with the
      highest hazard ratios with respect to HCC aggressiveness, namely: blood total
      bilirubin, gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP), albumin and platelet levels
      (cirrhosis surrogate). We found that the scores for the Liver Index related
      significantly to survival, but also to the Aggressiveness Index and to its
      individual HCC components as well as showing significant trends with the
      components. These results support the hypothesis that liver function is not only
      an important prognostic factor in HCC patients, but may also be involved in HCC
      biology and aggressiveness. Blood albumin, GGTP, albumin and platelet levels were
      used to create a Liver Index that related significantly to parameters of HCC
      aggressiveness.

PMID- 28580460
TI  - State Estimation with Sensor Recalibrations and Asynchronous Measurements for MPC
      of an Artificial Pancreas to Treat T1DM.
AB  - A novel state estimation scheme is proposed for use in Model Predictive Control
      (MPC) of an artificial pancreas based on Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)
      feedback, for treating type 1 diabetes mellitus. The performance of MPC
      strategies heavily depends on the initial condition of the predictions, typically
      characterized by a state estimator. Commonly employed Luenberger-observers and
      Kalman-filters are effective much of the time, but suffer limitations. Three
      particular limitations are tackled by the proposed approach. First, CGM
      recalibrations, step changes that cause highly dynamic responses in recursive
      state estimators, are accommodated in a graceful manner. Second, the proposed
      strategy is not affected by CGM measurements that are asynchronous, i.e., neither
      of fixed sample-period, nor of a sample-period that is equal to the controller's.
      Third, the proposal suffers no offsets due to plant-model mismatches. The
      proposed approach is based on moving-horizon optimization.

PMID- 28580461
TI  - Bonding Durability of a Self-etch Adhesive to Normal Versus Smear-layer
      Deproteinized Dentin: Effect of a Reducing Agent and Plant-extract Antioxidant.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of a reducing agent and plant-extract antioxidant
      on the bonding durability of a self-etch adhesive to normal and NaOCl-treated,
      smear-layer-deproteinized dentin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Flat smear-layer-covered
      dentin surfaces from 60 extracted human molars were prepared by removing the
      occlusal enamel. The teeth were divided into two groups with or without NaOCl
      deproteinizing treatment for 30 s, and further divided into three subgroups as
      follows: no application of antioxidant, application of Accel (p-toluenesulfinic
      acid sodium salt solution) for 5 s, or application of rosmarinic acid solution
      for 5 s. All treated dentin surfaces were bonded with a two-step self-etch
      adhesive (Clearfil SE Bond) and restored with composite (Clearfil AP-X). The
      bonded teeth were sectioned into a hourglass-shaped sticks with a composite
      dentin bonded interface area of 1.0 mm2. After storage in artificial saliva for
      24 h or 1 year, the specimens were subjected to the microtensile bond strength
      test (n = 15). Data were statistically analyzed with three-way ANOVA, Tukey's
      post-hoc test, and the t-test (p < 0.05). RESULTS: Without an antioxidant, 1-year
      storage significantly reduced the bond strengths of the self-etch adhesive to
      normal and smear-layer-deproteinized dentin compared with those after 24-h
      storage (p < 0.05). Application of Accel and rosmarinic acid restored the
      compromised initial bond strengths to smear-layer-deproteinized dentin (p <
      0.05), and prevented long-term deterioration of bond strengths to both normal and
      smear-layer-deproteinized dentin (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Application of Accel and
      rosmarinic acid improved bonding durability of the self-etch adhesive to both
      normal and smear-layer-deproteinized dentin.

PMID- 28580462
TI  - Does Tack Curing Luting Cements Affect the Final Cure?
AB  - PURPOSE: Short initial light curing or "tack curing" is used to create a semi-gel
      state in luting cements for easier excess material cleanup. The effect of tack
      curing on the final cure of luting cements was measured in terms of hardness.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three cement types were tested: two dual-curing composite
      cements (RelyX Unicem 2; Maxcem Elite); three light-curing veneer cements (Choice
      2; Variolink Esthetic LC; RelyX Veneer); and two self-curing resin-modified glass
      ionomer (RMGI) luting cements (RelyX Luting Plus; Nexus RMGI). Cements were
      placed in 1.5 * 2 * 8 mm plaster slots covered with orange glass during curing
      and were cured from one end. Tack curing was performed for 2 to 5 s using an LED
      curing light, followed 2 min later by 10-40 s final light curing or self-curing,
      as per manufacturer instructions (n = 10). Control groups received only final
      light curing or self-curing. After 24 h storage (37 degrees C, 100% humidity),
      Vickers hardness was measured in 0.5-mm depth increments. Results were analyzed
      using two-way ANOVA and pairwise comparisons (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: The
      hardness of dual-curing and light-curing cements significantly decreased with
      increasing depth (p = 0.0001). Tack curing of dual-curing and light-curing
      cements tended to increase hardness at all depths, except near the surface for
      light-curing veneer cements. Self-curing cements showed no hardness reduction
      with depth and no effect from tack curing. CONCLUSION: Although a slight surface
      hardness reduction may occur in light-curing veneer cements, the overall effect
      on three luting cement types was insignificant or resulted in only a slight
      increase in depth-of-cure.

PMID- 28580463
TI  - Effect of Cavity Contamination by Blood and Hemostatic Agents on Marginal
      Adaptation of Composite Restorations.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the effects of contamination of tooth cavities by
      hemostatic agents applied after blood contamination on marginal adaptation of
      composite restorations bonded with etch-and-rinse and self-etch adhesives.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cervical cavities (n = 10 per group) were contaminated
      with blood and subsequently treated with aluminum chloride (Racestyptine) or
      ferric sulfate (Astringedent, ViscoStat) hemostatic agents. After water rinsing,
      composite restorations were placed using either an etch-and-rinse (OptiBond FL)
      or self-etch (OptiBond All-in-One) adhesive. EDS-based elemental surface analysis
      was performed, and marginal integrity was evaluated using SEM both before and
      after thermomechanical loading. The percentage of continuous margins in enamel
      (%CEM) and dentin (%CDM) was statistically analyzed (p < 0.05). RESULTS: No
      statistically significant differences in %CEM and %CDM were observed between
      hemostatic-contaminated groups and uncontaminated controls after thermomechanical
      loading, irrespective of the adhesive used. Specimens contaminated with aluminum
      chloride-based Racestyptine showed a significantly higher final %CEM when the
      etch-and-rinse adhesive was applied (OptiBond FL) than with the self-etch
      adhesive (OptiBond All-in-One). CONCLUSION: Cavity contamination with hemostatic
      agents, applied after blood contamination and removed with water spray, does not
      compromise marginal adaptation in enamel and dentin. In the case of contamination
      by an aluminum-chloride hemostatic agent, the tested etch-and-rinse approach
      resulted in a higher percentage of continuous enamel margins of composite
      restorations than did the self-etch approach.

PMID- 28580464
TI  - Addition of Na2CO3 Improves the Shelf Life of Experimental 4-META Self-etch
      Primer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess the influence of the addition
      of Na2CO3 on the shelf life and bond strength of 4-META self-etch primer.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two 4-META self-etch primers were experimentally
      formulated with and without the addition of Na2CO3 (primer A and primer B,
      respectively). The primers were stored at 37 degrees C for several periods of
      time after formulation. Clearfil SE Bond Primer (Kuraray Noritake Dental) was
      used as a control. A composite was bonded to bovine dentin using a combination of
      the primer and a bonding agent (Clearfil SE Bond), and the shear bond strengths
      were measured. Changes in the pH of the experimental primers were monitored and
      macroscopic observations were made as a function of the storage periods. RESULTS:
      With 0-day storage, the bond strength of primer A was equivalent to that of
      primer B and significantly lower than that of Clearfil SE Primer. The bond
      strengths of primer A were stable during 90-day storage; by contrast, the bond
      strengths of primer B significantly decreased during 7-day storage. primer A
      exhibited stable pH values during 180-day storage; primer B exhibited
      significantly lower pH than primer A with 0-day storage and discolored gelation
      during 7-day storage. CONCLUSION: By adding Na2CO3, the shelf life of the 4-META
      self-etch primer was obviously improved without significant deterioration in
      dentin bond strength. Adjusting the pH to around 4.5 was effective for obtaining
      sufficient bond strength and hydrolytic stability of the primer.

PMID- 28580465
TI  - Effect of MDP-containing Silane and Adhesive Used Alone or in Combination on the
      Long-term Bond Strength and Chemical Interaction with Lithium Disilicate
      Ceramics.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of a silane and an adhesive containing MDP, used
      alone or combined in the same solution, on the microshear bond strength (MUSBS)
      to lithium disilicate ceramics immediately and after 1-year water storage, and
      compare the bond strength results with the Raman spectra of the treated lithium
      disilicate surfaces. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 30 CAD/CAM blocks of
      lithium disilicate (LD; IPS e.max CAD) were cut into four square sections (6 x 6
      x 6 mm; n = 60 per group) and processed as recommended by the manufacturer. The
      LD specimens were divided into 12 groups according to the following independent
      variables: silane coupling agent (no silane; silane without 10-MDP [MBS, Monobond
      S]; silane with 10-MDP [MB+, Monobond Plus]) and adhesive + luting composite (no
      adhesive + Enforce; no adhesive + RelyX Ultimate; Prime & Bond Elect [PBE], a
      silane- and MDP-free universal adhesive + Enforce; Scotchbond Universal Adhesive
      [SBU], a silane- and MDP-containing universal adhesive + RelyX Ultimate). After
      each treatment, cylindrical, transparent matrices were filled with a luting
      composite and light cured. Specimens were stored in water (37 degrees C for 24 h
      or 1 year) and submitted to the microshear bond strength (MUSBS) test. The
      failure pattern and MUSBS were statistically evaluated (alpha = 0.05). In
      addition, specimens were examined for chemical interaction using Raman
      spectroscopy. RESULTS: The use of the adhesive PBE alone showed higher mean MUSBS
      compared with both groups with silane (MSB or MB+) without PBE (p < 0.001) at 24
      h. The use of the SBU adhesive or MBS silane alone, as well as MB+ associated
      with SBU, showed higher mean MUSBS (p < 0.001) at 24 h. After 1-year water
      storage, all groups showed a significant decrease in mean MUSBS. However, the
      application of PBE or SBU associated with MB+ silane showed higher 1-year mean
      MUSBS (p < 0.001). In terms of chemical interaction, when silane (MSB or MB+) was
      applied, only a slight decrease of Si-O peaks occurred. Otherwise, when PBE or
      SBU adhesives were applied, methacrylate peaks were only observed in the SBU
      groups. CONCLUSION: The best results in terms of bond strength after water
      storage were obtained when an MDP-containing silane was associated with a
      universal adhesive. The use of a simplified bonding protocol that includes either
      a silane or a universal adhesive is not recommended.

PMID- 28580466
TI  - Optical sensing of mechanical pressure based on diffusion measurement in
      polyacrylamide cell-like barometers.
AB  - Diffusion and transport of small molecules within hydrogel networks are of high
      interest for biomedical and pharmaceutical research. Herein, using fluorescence
      correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we experimentally showed that the diffusion time
      in the hydrogel was directly related to the mechanical state (compression or
      swelling) and thus to the volume fraction of the gel. Following this observation,
      we developed cell-like barometers in the form of PAA microbeads, which when
      incorporated between cells and combined with a diffusion-based optical readout
      could serve as the first biosensors to measure the local pressure inside the
      growing biological tissues. To illustrate the potential of the present method, we
      used multicellular spheroids (MCS) as a tissue model, and it was observed that
      the growth-associated tissue stress was lower than 1 kPa, but significantly
      increased when an external compressive stress was applied.

PMID- 28580467
TI  - A novel singlet oxygen involved peroxymonosulfate activation mechanism for
      degradation of ofloxacin and phenol in water.
AB  - This study proposed a new and previously unconsidered reaction mechanism in the
      activation of peroxymonosulfate. We report that singlet oxygen (1O2) rather than
      OH or SO4- was the dominant reactive oxygen species towards the efficient
      degradation of ofloxacin and phenol, demonstrating a promising application in
      real wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28580468
TI  - GaS0.5Te0.5 monolayer as an efficient water splitting photocatalyst.
AB  - Herein, two-dimensional materials for photocatalytic water splitting are drawing
      more attention due to the larger surface areas for photocatalytic reactions and
      shorter migration distances for photogenerated carriers. In this present study,
      we systematically investigated the fundamental electronic properties of GaS1-xTex
      monolayers (x = 0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.875, and 1) for water splitting
      based on density functional theory (DFT) using the HSE06 functional. The
      simulation of the defect formation energy under each experimental synthetic
      condition shows that the Te substitutional impurity in GaS can be relatively
      easily realized under Ga-rich conditions. Our results show that the GaS0.5Te0.5
      monolayer is a direct band gap (2.09 eV) semiconductor, which is attributed to
      the elevation of Te px/py states at the Gamma point by the strain effect.
      Moreover, the GaS0.5Te0.5 monolayer has appropriate band edge alignment with
      respect to the water redox potentials in both acidic and neutral environments.
      Additionally, the carrier effective mass of the GaS0.5Te0.5 monolayer along the
      direction of Gamma -> K is smaller than those of pristine GaS and GaTe
      monolayers, which can cause the carriers to quickly transfer from the
      photogenerated center to the surface of the photocatalyst. These results imply
      that the GaS0.5Te0.5 monolayer is a promising candidate as a visible-light water
      splitting photocatalyst, which should be properly synthesized and tested in
      further experimental investigations.

PMID- 28580469
TI  - Photoprotection: extending lessons learned from studying natural sunscreens to
      the design of artificial sunscreen constituents.
AB  - Evolution has ensured that plants and animals have developed effective protection
      mechanisms against the potentially harmful effects of incident ultraviolet
      radiation (UVR). Tanning is one such mechanism in humans, but tanning only occurs
      post-exposure to UVR. Hence, there is ever growing use of commercial sunscreens
      to pre-empt overexposure to UVR. Key requirements for any chemical filter
      molecule used in such a photoprotective capacity include a large absorption cross
      section in the UV-A and UV-B spectral regions and the availability of one or more
      mechanisms whereby the absorbed photon energy can be dissipated without loss of
      the molecular integrity of the chemical filter. Here we summarise recent
      experimental (mostly ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy studies) and computational
      progress towards unravelling various excited state decay mechanisms that afford
      the necessary photostability in chemical filters found in nature and those used
      in commercial sunscreens. We also outline ways in which a better understanding of
      the photophysics and photochemistry of sunscreen molecules selected by nature
      could aid the design of new and improved commercial sunscreen formulations.

PMID- 28580470
TI  - New insights into the chemistry of ionic alkylorganic carbonates: a computational
      study.
AB  - A library of hydrogenated, perfluorinated aliphatic and aromatic (p-substituted)
      alcohols are selected together with a combination of superbases (SBs) and metal
      hydrides (MHs) to understand the thermodynamic parameters of the binary mixtures
      once serving as sorbents for the capture of CO2via ionic organic alkyl-carbonate
      (RCO3-) formation. Data are obtained using density functional theory (DFT)
      calculations with the B3LYP/6-31+G* level of theory and compared with the
      experimental results acquired from the literature using different spectroscopic
      techniques. It is found that the capturing process has a favourable enthalpic
      contribution and an unfavourable entropic penalty regardless the identity of the
      base, where the enthalpy values of alcohol/MH binary mixtures are almost two-fold
      higher compared to their SB-based mixtures. The utilisation of perfluorinated
      aliphatic alcohols instead of hydrogenated alcohols shows a negative impact on
      the formation of carbonate adducts, due to the less reactive alkoxide anion along
      the carbon skeleton, which is attributed to the low charge density of the
      nucleophilic oxygen atom. While perfluorinated phenol shows a higher reactivity
      than the parent phenol. The calculations indicate that the reactivity of phenolic
      compounds is highly affected by the electronic nature of the substituting groups,
      in which p-substituted phenols are more reactive towards CO2 capturing when
      electron releasing groups are utilised. A pronounced solvent effect is observed,
      in which the alkylcarbonate salts (RCO3- SBH+) are stabilized in solvents with
      high dielectric constant (e.g., DMSO and MeCN). Simulated NMR and IR spectra of
      RCO3- are consistent with those reported for the affiliated systems, which
      fortifies the results obtained for the unexplored substrate/MH mixtures, filling
      a gap in the literature of CO2 sequestration using CO2 binding organic liquids
      (CO2BOLs) and enabling a fair/quick prediction of potential substrates to be used
      as CO2 sorbents.

PMID- 28580471
TI  - A metal-organic framework as a flask: photophysics of confined chromophores with
      a benzylidene imidazolinone core.
AB  - Photophysics and dynamics of chromophores with a benzylidene imidazolinone core,
      responsible for emission of green fluorescent protein variants, were studied as a
      function of host topology by three approaches. Coordinative, non-coordinative,
      and "fastened" immobilization were utilized to study chromophore emission.
      Variable-temperature quadrupolar spin-echo 2H NMR spectra are reported.

PMID- 28580472
TI  - Staged phase separation in the I-I-N tri-phase region of platelet-sphere
      mixtures.
AB  - Mixtures of colloids with different sizes or shapes are ubiquitous in nature and
      extensively applied in industries. Phase transition pathways and kinetics in this
      model system should be investigated because of the difficulty in observing tri
      phase coexistence in colloidal platelet-sphere mixtures. Similar to the polymer
      sphere mixtures, the phase transition pathway has three main categories.
      Analytical results show a staged phase transition process in which the mixture
      first separates into one or two metastable phases, then further separates, and
      subsequently reaches tri-phase equilibrium. Unique to our system, and different
      from the gas-liquid-crystal coexistence in colloid-polymer mixtures, the platelet
      sphere mixture reached a gas-liquid-liquid crystal (nematic) coexistence. Thus,
      the different phases are easy to distinguish using the birefringence of the
      liquid crystals. In addition, the volume fraction of the liquid crystal formation
      in the ZrP platelet suspensions is much lower than for the crystal formation in
      hard spheres.

PMID- 28580473
TI  - Concise synthesis of oxacyclic compounds using highly discriminative two-way
      transformations of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters in the presence of enones.
AB  - Highly discriminative transformation of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters in the
      presence of enones using two types of phosphonium salts, and their application to
      the synthesis of oxacyclic compounds in six steps in one pot have been achieved.

PMID- 28580474
TI  - Total synthesis of (+/-)-20S-hydroxy-1,2-dehydro-pseudoaspidospermidine via a C-H
      activation/transannular cyclization strategy.
AB  - A total synthesis to the pseudoaspidospermidine family via a C-H
      activation/transannular cyclization strategy has been accomplished. The
      applicability of this approach is showcased in the concise synthesis (ten steps)
      of (+/-)-20S-hydroxy-1,2-dehydro-pseudoaspidospermidine (4) starting from
      literature known compound 11. Via a joint synthetic sequence we were also able to
      address the related iboga alkaloid (+/-)-isovelbanamine (7) in nine steps. Key
      features of this synthesis are a transannular cyclization to generate the
      pseudoaspidospermidine skeleton (C-H activation) and a Witkop photocyclization
      reaction providing a 9-membered lactam. It is also worth mentioning that the
      joint synthetic sequence can be carried out on a multigram scale.

PMID- 28580475
TI  - Controlling the spin and valley degeneracy splitting in monolayer MnPSe3 by atom
      doping.
AB  - Monolayer manganese chalcogenophosphates MnPSe3 possess a pair of non-degenerate
      energy valleys in the vicinities of the vertices of the hexagonal Brillouin zone,
      which exhibit fascinating optical valley polarization. However, the spin is still
      degenerate due to antiferromagnetic coupling between Mn ions. In this paper we
      propose a strategy to realize simultaneously the spin and valley degeneracy
      splitting by the doping-induced Zeeman effect in monolayer MnPSe3. Using first
      principles calculations we demonstrate that in Zn-doped monolayer MnPSe3 a valley
      splitting of larger than 20 meV and a spin splitting of larger than 100 meV can
      be achieved simultaneously. The doping-induced spin and valley splitting is
      attractive for spintronics and valleytronics as it creates differences in various
      energy scales between valleys and between spins, which will facilitate the access
      and manipulation of the valley and spin degrees of freedom by electrical gating
      in addition to optical pumping.

PMID- 28580476
TI  - A square-planar nickel dithiolate complex as an efficient molecular catalyst for
      the electro- and photoreduction of protons.
AB  - A square-planar nickel(ii) dithiolate complex is an active molecular catalyst for
      both photoreduction of protons from water with a turnover number (>1500) and
      electroreduction of protons from weakly acidic solutions with remarkable turnover
      frequencies (5575 s-1 at -1.92 V and 1441 s-1 at -1.61 V vs. SCE). DFT
      calculations provide in-depth insight into the catalytic cycle of the
      electrochemical reaction, suggesting that the sulfur atoms play crucial roles in
      proton exchange and hydrogen formation.

PMID- 28580477
TI  - [11C]Cyanation of arylboronic acids in aqueous solutions.
AB  - A copper-mediated 11C-cyanation method employing arylboronic acids and [11C]HCN
      has been developed. This method was applied to the radiochemical synthesis of a
      wide range of aromatic 11C-nitriles in aqueous solutions. The use of readily
      accessible arylboronic acids as precursors makes this method complementary to the
      well-established 11C-cyanation methods that utilize aryl halide precursors.

PMID- 28580478
TI  - Organotin-based receptors for anions and ion pairs.
AB  - The field of anion recognition has developed into an area of tremendous
      significance over the recent decades due to the role of anions in biological and
      environmental systems, contributing significantly to the more general domain of
      supramolecular chemistry. So far, a number of receptors have been designed for
      anion recognition, synthesized and evaluated, most involving hydrogen bonding
      donors (urea, amide, pyrrole, imidazolium and hydroxyl groups), pi-acidic aryl
      rings, Lewis acidic metals (boron, tin, aluminium, mercury and uranium) and
      positively charged polyammonium moieties. With the rapid progress in this field,
      the role of counterions in modulating the binding strength and selectivity of a
      specific ion has been recognized, leading to the design and discovery of more
      robust ion pair receptors. Among various recognition strategies that are
      presently available for anions and ion pairs, the development of Lewis acidic
      element-based receptors offers an attractive alternative to the hydrogen bond
      donor-based receptors, by which both anion and Lewis base recognition can be
      achieved. Consequently, researchers have focused a great deal of attention on
      such receptors and this sub-branch of recognition chemistry is expanding rapidly.
      In recent years, the desired selectivity and binding strength have been achieved
      for various anions by tuning the Lewis acidity through variation of substituents
      about the metal center. The easy access, rich molecular diversity and strong
      Lewis acidity of organotin compounds led to the development of organotin-based
      molecular receptors for anions and ion pairs. This feature article highlights the
      advances in the design, synthesis and applications of organotin-based receptors,
      mainly focusing on our group's contributions.

PMID- 28580479
TI  - Highly sensitive novel cathodic electrochemiluminescence of tris(2,2'
      bipyridine)ruthenium(ii) using glutathione as a co-reactant.
AB  - Herein, glutathione was used as a co-reactant for the first time to generate a
      novel, highly stable, and enhanced cathodic electrochemiluminescence (ECL) on a
      simple bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface using the Ru(bpy)32+ molecule
      in an alkaline pH phosphate buffer solution (PBS).

PMID- 28580480
TI  - Modeling of diameter-dependent Fe and Co ultrathin nanowires from first
      principles calculations.
AB  - We present the electronic, magnetic, thermoelectric and optical properties of
      ferromagnetic metal nanowires (NWs) made of iron (Fe) and cobalt (Co) atoms using
      a first principles approach. Each property has been investigated as a function of
      atomic arrangement and nanowire diameter. Magnetic anisotropy is predicted
      originating from the spin-orbit coupling. Significant delocalization of
      electronic charge density is found in Fe nanowires with the increase in nanowire
      diameter, while the charge distribution anisotropy manifests in all the studied
      nanowire configurations. The thermoelectric properties exhibit strong coupling to
      the nanowire configuration and diameter. Thermal conductivity shows large
      divergence from the bulk iron and cobalt. The optical properties show the
      strongest increase for nanowires with large diameters. The theoretical modeling
      of configuration- and diameter-dependent nanowire properties serves as a
      cornerstone for future utilization of nanowire films in a variety of
      applications.

PMID- 28580482
TI  - Particles with selective wetting affect spinodal decomposition microstructures.
AB  - We have used mesoscale simulations to study the effect of immobile particles on
      microstructure formation during spinodal decomposition in ternary mixtures such
      as polymer blends. Specifically, we have explored a regime of interparticle
      spacings (which are a few times the characteristic spinodal length scale) in
      which we might expect interesting new effects arising from interactions among
      wetting, spinodal decomposition and coarsening. In this paper, we report three
      new effects for systems in which the particle phase has a strong preference for
      being wetted by one of the components (say, A). In the presence of particles,
      microstructures are not bicontinuous in a symmetric mixture. An asymmetric
      mixture, on the other hand, first forms a non-bicontinuous microstructure which
      then evolves into a bicontinuous one at intermediate times. Moreover, while
      wetting of the particle phase by the preferred component (A) creates alternating
      A-rich and B-rich layers around the particles, curvature-driven coarsening leads
      to shrinking and disappearance of the first A-rich layer, leaving a layer of the
      non-preferred component in contact with the particle. At late simulation times,
      domains of the matrix components coarsen following the Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner
      law, R1(t) ~ t1/3.

PMID- 28580481
TI  - Mode coupling theory for nonequilibrium glassy dynamics of thermal self-propelled
      particles.
AB  - We present a mode coupling theory study for the relaxation and glassy dynamics of
      a system of strongly interacting self-propelled particles, wherein the self
      propulsion force is described by Ornstein-Uhlenbeck colored noise and thermal
      noises are included. Our starting point is an effective Smoluchowski equation
      governing the distribution function of particle positions, from which we derive a
      memory function equation for the time dependence of density fluctuations in
      nonequilibrium steady states. With the basic assumption of the absence of
      macroscopic currents and standard mode coupling approximation, we can obtain
      expressions for the irreducible memory function and other relevant dynamic terms,
      wherein the nonequilibrium character of the active system is manifested through
      an averaged diffusion coefficient D[combining macron] and a nontrivial structural
      function S2(q) with q being the magnitude of wave vector q. D[combining macron]
      and S2(q) enter the frequency term and the vertex term for the memory function,
      and thus influence both the short time and the long time dynamics of the system.
      With these equations obtained, we study the glassy dynamics of this thermal self
      propelled particle system by investigating the Debye-Waller factor fq and
      relaxation time taualpha as functions of the persistence time taup of self
      propulsion, the single particle effective temperature Teff as well as the number
      density rho. Consequently, we find the critical density rhoc for given taup
      shifts to larger values with increasing magnitude of propulsion force or
      effective temperature, in good accordance with previously reported simulation
      work. In addition, the theory facilitates us to study the critical effective
      temperature T for fixed rho as well as its dependence on taup. We find that T
      increases with taup and in the limit taup -> 0, it approaches the value for a
      simple passive Brownian system as expected. Our theory also well recovers the
      results for passive systems and can be easily extended to more complex systems
      such as active-passive mixtures.

PMID- 28580483
TI  - Copper-catalyzed construction of eight-membered rings via oxidative ring
      expansion and intermolecular cyclization sequencing of indoles with amidines:
      efficient synthesis of benzo[1,3,5]triazocin-6(5H)-ones.
AB  - Novel and efficient synthesis of eight-membered nitrogen heterocycles in one pot
      by copper-catalyzed oxidative ring expansion and intermolecular cyclization
      sequencing of indoles with amidines has been described. This protocol features
      easily available substrates and high step-economy. More importantly, dioxygen as
      the most ideal oxidant was employed under mild reaction conditions. A variety of
      valuable benzo[1,3,5]triazocin-6(5H)-one derivatives bearing functional groups
      were assembled in middle to good yields.

PMID- 28580484
TI  - Catalytic asymmetric [2+2] cycloaddition between quinones and fulvenes and a
      subsequent stereoselective isomerization to 2,3-dihydrobenzofurans.
AB  - The catalytic enantioselective [2+2] cycloaddition between quinones and fulvenes
      was achieved, for the first time, by the use of a chiral copper(ii) complex
      catalyst. The transformation afforded a series of enantiomerically enriched
      [6,4,5]-tricyclic cyclobutane derivatives in good yields with excellent regio-
      and stereoselectivities. Furthermore, the [2+2] adducts could be easily converted
      into formal [3+2] adducts efficiently and stereoselectively.

PMID- 28580485
TI  - Modeling soft, permeable matter with the proper generalized decomposition (PGD)
      approach, and verification by means of nanoindentation.
AB  - Understanding sliding and load-bearing mechanisms of biphasic soft matter is
      crucial for designing synthetic replacements of cartilage, contact-lens materials
      or coatings for medical instruments. Interstitial fluid pressurization is
      believed to be the intrinsic load-carrying phenomenon governing the frictional
      properties. In this study, we have characterized permeability and identified the
      fluid contribution to the support of load during Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
      nanoindentation of soft polymer brushes in aqueous environments, by means of the
      Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD) approach. First, rate-dependent AFM
      nanoindentation was performed on a poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) brush in an aqueous
      environment, to probe the purely elastic as well as poro-viscoelastic properties.
      Second, a biphasic model decoupling the fluid and solid load contributions was
      proposed, using Darcy's equation for liquid flow in porous media. Using realistic
      time-dependent simulations requires many direct solutions of the 3D partial
      differential equation, making modeling very time-consuming. To efficiently
      alleviate the time-consumption of multi-dimensional modeling, we used PGD to
      solve a Darcy model defined in a 7D domain, considering all the unknowns and
      material properties as extra coordinates of the problem. The obtained 7D
      simulation results were compared to the experimental results by using a direct
      Newton algorithm, since all sensitivities with respect to the model parameters
      are readily available. Thus, a simulation-based solution for depth- and rate
      dependent permeability can be obtained. From the PGD-based model permeability is
      calculated, and the velocity- and pressure-fields in the material can be obtained
      in real-time in 3D by adjusting the parameters to the experimental values. The
      result is a step forward in understanding the fluid flow, permeability and fluid
      contributions to the load support of biphasic soft matter.

PMID- 28580486
TI  - The Role of Endogenous Opioid System in the Regulation of Heart Tolerance to
      Stress-Induced Damage.
AB  - In Wistar rats, stress was modeled by 24-h immobilization in a supine posture and
      stress-induced damage to the heart was assessed by accumulation of 99mTc
      pyrophosphate in the myocardium. The intensity of stress reaction was measured by
      serum levels of cortisol and insulin. Both stressinduced damage to the heart and
      intensity of stress reaction were examined under control conditions and in rats
      treated with opioid receptor antagonists naltrexone, methylnaltrexone bromide,
      MR2266, and ICI174.864. Activation of central MU-opioid receptors with endogenous
      opioids aggravated stress-induced cardiomyopathy, while stimulation of peripheral
      MU-opioid receptors produced a cardioprotective effect. The stress-induced damage
      to the heart was not directly related to up-regulation of cortisol secretion in
      response to 24-h immobilization. Blockade of the central opioid receptors
      promoted a decrease in cortisol level in stressed rats.

PMID- 28580487
TI  - Role of Cyclic Nucleotides in the Effect of Hydrogen Sulfide on Contractions of
      Rat Jejunum.
AB  - We studied the role of cyclic nucleotides in the influence of hydrogen sulfide
      (H2S) donor, sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS, 200 MUM), on motor activity of rat
      jejunum. NaHS reduced spontaneous and carbachol-induced contractions of rat
      jejunum segment, which suggests that H2S can act through mechanisms involving
      muscarinic receptor activation. Against the background of a membrane-penetrating
      non-hydrolyzable cAMP analogue or under conditions of adenylate cyclase blockade,
      the inhibitory effect of NaHS on the carbachol-induced contractions was
      maintained. Against the background of elevated cGMP concentration or guanylate
      cyclase inhibition, the reduction of carbachol-induced contractions upon exposure
      to NaHS was less pronounced than in control. It was hypothesized that H2S induces
      relaxation of carbachol-induced jejunum contractions, affecting protein kinase G
      targets or activating cGMP synthesis.

PMID- 28580488
TI  - Internalization of Vectorized Liposomes Loaded with Plasmid DNA in C6 Glioma
      Cells.
AB  - We studied internalization of vector nanocarriers loaded with plasmid DNA into C6
      glioma cells. For improving selectivity of plasmid delivery, the liposomes were
      conjugated with monoclonal antibodies to VEGF and its receptor VEGFR2. Flow
      cytofluorometry and laser scanning confocal microscopy showed more intensive
      (more than 2-fold) internalization and accumulation of antibody-vectorized
      liposomes in C6 glioma cells in comparison with the control (liposomes conjugated
      with non-specific antibodies and non-vectorized liposomes). Using quantitative
      analysis of fluorescent signal, we showed that cationic immunoliposomes
      significantly more effective delivered pCop-Green-N plasmid DNA and ensured
      effective transfection of C6 glioma cells.

PMID- 28580489
TI  - Features of Blood Supply to Axillary Lymph Nodes in Breast Cancer Patients.
AB  - Numerical density of vessels in axillary lymph node structures in breast cancer
      patients was studied by light microscopy with antibodies to CD34. The correlation
      between the stage of breast cancer and vascularization of lymph nodes was
      analyzed. The development of breast cancer was followed by rapid and significant
      increase in the number of blood vessel in axillary lymph nodes in general and in
      all their specific areas, especially in the paracortex and medullary substance.
      Strong or very strong positive correlation between the stage of tumor process and
      parameters of vascularization was observed in various areas of the axillary lymph
      nodes. No significant differences in node vascularization were observed between
      women without breast cancer and women with stage I breast cancer; the differences
      were found only starting from stage II. Considerable vascularization of lymph
      nodes can be a symptom of malignant tumor growth in the area of lymph collection.
      The duration of the tumor process and the size of the tumor can be indirectly
      evaluated by the increase in vessel number in lymph nodes.

PMID- 28580490
TI  - Estimation of Expression of Oral Fluid Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of Pretumor
      Diseases of Oral Mucosa.
AB  - Complex clinical, dental, and morphological investigation, and ELISA of levels of
      MMP-2, 8, 9, and TIMP-1 and 2 in the saliva was performed during primary
      examination of patients with premalignant lesions of maxillofacial area and
      practically healthy volunteers. Levels of all study MMP in the saliva
      significantly differed (p<=0.05) in patients with premalignant lesions and the
      control. These patients were also characterized by a significant (0.1<=p<=0.05)
      changes in TIMP concentrations (toward pathological pattern) comparing to the
      control. Pattern of correlations between parameters of MMP-2 expression might be
      a marker for early diagnostics of a premalignant lesion independently on the
      dental health. Observed features of biomarker expression in patients with
      premalignant lesions might reflect the appearance of a cascade of biochemical
      reactions followed by the activation of production of proteinases and their
      inhibitors as a response to the exposure to etiological factors. Clinical and
      morphological diagnosis of a premalignant lesion in the maxillofacial area was
      confirmed by the immunological analysis of biomarker expression in the saliva,
      which can be used for monitoring and screening of population.

PMID- 28580491
TI  - Effect of Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells on the Density of Pial
      Microvascular Network in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats of Different Age.
AB  - Using a TV device for studying microcirculation (*40), we analyzed the density of
      the whole microvascular network and the density of arterioles in the pia mater of
      the sensorimotor cortex in SHR rats of different ages (3-4 and 12 months) after
      intracerebral transplantation of human mesenchymal stem cells. We found that the
      density of pial microvascular network in SHR rats receiving transplantation of
      human mesenchymal stem cells increased to a level observed in young Wistar-Kyoto
      rats.

PMID- 28580492
TI  - Effect of Concentration of Collagen Gel on Functional Activity of Bone Marrow
      Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.
AB  - Collagen I gels with protein concentrations of 1, 2, and 3.5 mg/ml were prepared
      and embedded in a porous polylactide scaffold to reduce their contraction.
      Concentration of the gel did not affect its degradation. Collagen gels promoted
      the formation of cell networks. The cells in the collagen gel with a
      concentration of 1 mg/ml embedded in polylactide scaffold had elongated spindle
      like shape, in contrast to flattened cells in collagen gel of the same
      concentration not embedded in the scaffold. Stabilization of the collagen gel in
      the polylactide scaffold promoted active synthesis of laminin and fibronectin by
      cells as soon as on day 5 of culturing in comparison with that in free collagen
      substrate.

PMID- 28580493
TI  - Cytokine Production in Mixed Cultures of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells from Wharton's
      Jelly and Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes.
AB  - We compared the production of 19 humoral factors in mixed cultures of mesenchymal
      stromal cells from Wharton's jelly and allogenic peripheral blood lymphocytes.
      For evaluation of the specificity of immunosuppressive activity of mesenchymal
      stromal cells, comparative analysis of the production of these humoral factors in
      mixed cultures of lymphocytes and epithelial BxPC-3 cells was conducted. The
      production of soluble factors in both mono- and mixed cultures significantly
      correlated (p<0.05). The maximum production was found for proinflammatory
      chemokine IP-10 and IFN-gamma and anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. The major
      difference of mesenchymal stromal cells from epithelial BxPC-3 cells was 7-fold
      higher production of IL-10, which can explain the immunosuppressive effect of
      mesenchymal stromal cells.

PMID- 28580494
TI  - Efficacy of low-level laser therapy in carpal tunnel syndrome management: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - We performed this meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy of low-level laser
      therapy (LLLT), a physiotherapy modality with anti-inflammatory and analgesic
      effects, in the management of mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). We
      searched PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Cochrane Central, and Virtual Health
      Library for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the effects of LLLT
      with or without splinting versus placebo on functional and electromyographic
      outcomes in CTS. All outcomes were pooled as mean differences (MD) under the
      inverse variance or random effects model, using the statistical add-in (MetaXL,
      version 5.0). Eight RCTs (473 patients/631 wrists) were eligible for the final
      analysis. The overall effect estimates did not favor LLLT therapy group over
      placebo in all primary outcomes: visual analogue scale (MD -1.11, 95% CI [-2.58,
      0.35]), symptom severity scale score (MD -1.41, 95% CI [-5.12, 2.29]), and
      functional status scale score (MD -1.33, 95% CI [-3.27, 0.61]). However, LLLT was
      superior to placebo in terms of grip strength (MD 2.19, 95% CI [1.63, 2.76]) and
      inferior to placebo in terms of sensory nerve action potential (MD -2.74, 95% CI
      [-3.66, -1.82]). Laser therapy is superior to placebo in terms of improving the
      grip strength; however, no significant difference was found between both groups
      in terms of functional status improvement, pain reduction, or motor
      electrodiagnostic evaluations. Further high-quality trials with longer follow-up
      periods are required to establish the efficacy of LLLT for CTS treatment.

PMID- 28580495
TI  - Factors associated with sexual quality of life among midlife women in Serbia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess factors associated with better sexual quality of life (QOL) in
      midlife period among women who are and are not sexually active. METHODS:
      Participants were 500 women aged 40-65 years from Belgrade, Serbia. Data were
      collected through general questionnaire (regarding socio-demographic
      characteristics, lifestyle habits, general medical, and gynecological history) in
      which one item investigated having partnered sexual activity (heterosexual
      intercourses). The sexual domain of the Utian Quality of Life Scale was used to
      assess the sexual QOL. The sexual QOL consisted of reflections on the
      satisfaction with frequency of sexual interactions, as well as sexual and
      romantic life in general. Higher scores indicated better sexual QOL. RESULTS:
      Most women were sexually active in midlife (81.6%). The mean sexual QOL score for
      the overall sample was 9.99 (range 3-15). The level of sexual QOL did not differ
      between sexually active and non-active women. Factors associated with better
      sexual QOL in sexually active menopausal women were being married or coupled,
      being physically active, having more children, having hot flushes, and not having
      tachycardia. Factors associated with better sexual QOL in sexually inactive
      menopausal women were drinking alcohol, being physically active, not having
      insomnia or skin rash. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual QOL among Serbian urban midlife women
      was good and did not differ between women who were sexually active and those who
      were not. Further studies are needed to determine in what manner women who are
      not sexually active in midlife achieve high level of satisfaction with their
      sexual QOL.

PMID- 28580497
TI  - Fatal and non-fatal drowning in rivers.

PMID- 28580496
TI  - Concurrent midurethral sling excision or lysis at the time of repeat sling for
      treatment of recurrent or persistent stress urinary incontinence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Limited evidence guides operative technique in
      primary midurethral sling (MUS) lysis or excision at the time of repeat sling
      placement for persistent or recurrent stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Our
      objective is to compare subjective improvement in patients undergoing repeat MUS
      placement with and without concurrent primary sling lysis or removal. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective cohort study with a prospective survey of patients who
      underwent two MUS placements for SUI at a single institution from January 1996 to
      December 2015. After patient identification, the electronic record was queried
      for demographic and perioperative data. Subjects then completed the Urogenital
      Distress Index, (UDI-6), Incontinence Severity Index (ISI), and the Incontinence
      Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7). Subjects were also asked if they would choose to
      undergo repeat MUS surgery again. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients were included. 17
      out of 61 (28%) underwent concomitant primary sling lysis or excision, and 44 out
      of 61 (72%) did not. Fifty-seven percent (n = 35) completed the survey. Of the
      respondents, the median ISI score was 4 (1-8), with no difference between groups;
      14 out of 35 (40%) reported the presence of bothersome urge incontinence, 11 out
      of 35 (31%) reported bothersome stress urinary incontinence, and 8 out of 35
      (23%) reported symptoms of voiding dysfunction, with no difference between
      groups. 57% of patients (20 out of 35) would undergo repeat MUS placement again.
      CONCLUSIONS: In a small cohort, concurrent excision of the primary sling at the
      time of repeat MUS did not improve subjective outcomes. Many patients reported
      urinary urgency and voiding symptoms, and only about half of patients would
      choose to undergo the surgery again if given the choice.

PMID- 28580498
TI  - Falls-Related Drug Use and Risk of Falls Among Older Adults: A Study in a US
      Medicare Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately one-third of community-dwelling older adults fall each
      year, and approximately 10% have falls requiring medical services. Among other
      factors, research studies have linked certain medications with an increased risk
      of falls. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the risk of falls
      relative to use patterns among new and continuing falls-related drug (FRD) users.
      METHODS: A 10% random sample, insured in AARP(r) Medicare Supplement and AARP
      Medicare Part D Rx plans, was utilized to define new and continuing FRD users.
      New users had a 12-month pre-period without FRD use, whereas continuing users had
      at least one FRD in the pre-period. Both groups had 12-month follow-up after
      initiating or continuing FRD use. Characteristics associated with the risk of
      falls for new and continuing users were determined using multivariate logistic
      regression models. RESULTS: Among insureds, 44% used at least one of the FRD
      classes. Of these, 29% were new users (N = 35,340) and 71% were continuing users
      (N = 121,488). Fall rates for the two subgroups were similar at 7 and 8%,
      respectively. Characteristics associated with the risk of falls were previous
      injurious fall, use of two or more classes of FRDs, older age, poorer health, and
      being female. New users were at higher risk than continuing users. CONCLUSION:
      New users of FRDs were at highest risk of falls, and continuing users were at
      increased risk, especially with higher numbers of FRD classes. Both groups could
      benefit from falls awareness and prevention programs.

PMID- 28580500
TI  - Vascular calcifications on the preoperative radiograph: harbinger of tourniquet
      failure in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Vascular calcifications on the preoperative radiograph of patients
      scheduled for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) often give rise to concern, as their
      clinical relevance remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate
      whether these vascular calcifications-especially medial artery calcifications
      (MACs), which increase arterial stiffness-were associated with tourniquet failure
      and thus with increased intraoperative blood loss. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total
      of 765 patients who underwent primary TKA with a tourniquet (cuff pressure 350
      mmHg) between 2009 and 2011 were screened for vascular calcifications on the
      preoperative radiograph. Vascular calcifications were classified into intimal and
      medial artery calcifications. Intraoperative blood loss of patients with and
      without MAC was compared, and a mixed linear regression model was used to adjust
      for the presence of several confounding factors (e.g., obesity, operating time).
      RESULTS: None of the 50 (6.5%) patients with MAC showed signs of tourniquet
      failure. Intraoperative blood loss of patients with MAC was not significantly
      elevated compared to the overall study group (p = 0.592) even when corrected for
      the presence of several confounding factors. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence
      that vascular calcifications seen on the preoperative radiograph might be
      associated with tourniquet failure. However, surgeons should be aware of this
      possibility as tourniquet failure might become more common considering the
      ongoing trend toward minimizing cuff pressures.

PMID- 28580502
TI  - In Vitro Bioavailability of Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, and Copper from
      Gluten-Free Breads Supplemented with Natural Additives.
AB  - The aim of this study was to measure the content of calcium, magnesium, iron,
      zinc, and copper and determine the bioavailability of these ingredients in gluten
      free breads fortified with milk and selected seeds. Due to the increasing
      prevalence of celiac disease and mineral deficiencies, it has become necessary to
      produce food with higher nutritional values which maintains the appropriate
      product characteristics. This study was designed for gluten-free breads fortified
      with milk and seeds such as flax, poppy, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or nuts,
      and flour with amaranth. Subsequently, digestion was performed in vitro and the
      potential bioavailability of the minerals was measured. In the case of calcium,
      magnesium, iron, and copper, higher bioavailability was observed in rice bread,
      and, in the case of copper and zinc, in buckwheat bread. This demonstrated a
      clear increase in bioavailability of all the minerals when the bread were
      enriched. However, satisfactory results are obtained only for the individual
      micronutrients.

PMID- 28580503
TI  - Indian Pediatric Postgraduate's Perspective on Future Career Intentions:
      Correspondence.

PMID- 28580504
TI  - Emotion-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Youth with Anxiety Disorders: A
      Randomized Trial.
AB  - Difficulties with emotion regulation are a core feature of anxiety disorders
      (ADs) in children and adults. Interventions with a specific focus on emotion
      regulation are gaining empirical support. Yet, no studies to date have compared
      the relative efficacy of such interventions to existing evidence-based
      treatments. Such comparisons are necessary to determine whether emotion-focused
      treatments might be more effective for youth exhibiting broad emotion-regulation
      difficulties at pretreatment. This study examined an emotion-focused cognitive
      behavioral therapy (ECBT) protocol in comparison to traditional cognitive
      behavioral therapy (CBT) in a sample of children with a primary anxiety disorder
      diagnosis. Moderation analyses examined whether children with higher levels of
      emotion dysregulation at pretreatment would show greater levels of improvement in
      ECBT than CBT. Ninety-two youth ages 7 to 12 years (58% male) with a primary
      diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or social
      phobia were included. Participants were randomly assigned to ECBT or CBT. Results
      showed that youth in both conditions demonstrated similar improvements in emotion
      regulation and that pretreatment levels of emotion dysregulation did not moderate
      treatment outcomes. Additional analyses showed that ECBT and CBT were similarly
      effective on diagnostic, severity, and improvement measures. Future work is
      needed to further explore the ways that emotion regulation is related to
      treatment outcome for anxious youth.

PMID- 28580501
TI  - Predispositions to Leukemia in Down Syndrome and Other Hereditary Disorders.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Leukemia is the most common pediatric cancer and accounts for
      approximately one third of childhood malignancies. There are germline genetic
      alterations that significantly increase the risk of developing hematopoietic
      malignancies in childhood. In this review, we describe a number of these
      hereditary disorders and their clinical features. These predispositions to cancer
      syndromes can be attributed to DNA repair/genetic instability, RAS pathway
      dysfunction, bone marrow failure, telomeropathies, immunodeficiencies,
      transcription factor abnormalities, pure familial leukemia, and aneuploidy. We
      focus especially on acute myeloid leukemia associated with Down syndrome, but
      also include other hereditary syndromes in this review. Recent advances in high
      throughput genotyping technology have identified new genetic variations prone to
      human leukemia. Understanding of the mechanism of leukemia development in these
      hereditary syndromes allows us to gain insight into leukemogenesis in general and
      suggests therapeutic strategies based on these findings.

PMID- 28580505
TI  - Photophysical Properties of a Novel and Biologically Active 3(2H)-Pyridazinone
      Derivative Using Solvatochromic Approach.
AB  - Herein, we report photophysical properties of a novel and biologically active
      3(2H)-pyridazinone derivative 5-(4-chloro-2-hydoxy-phenyl)-2-phenyl-2H-pyridazin
      3-one [CHP] molecule using solvatochromic approaches. Absorption and fluorescence
      spectra of CHP molecule have been measured at room temperature in various
      solvents of different polarities. From this, it is observed that the positions,
      intensities and shapes of the absorption and emission bands are usually modified.
      Experimentally, the ground and excited state dipole moments are estimated using
      solvatochromic shift method which involves Lippert's, Bakshiev's and Kawski
      Chamma-Viallet's equations. Theoretically, the ground state dipole moment was
      estimated using the Gaussian-09 program. The value of ground state dipole moment
      estimated using experimental and theoretical methods are well correlated. This
      inference that the molecular geometry is taken for CHP molecule under theoretical
      and experimental methods are similar. Further, we observed that the excited state
      dipole moment (MU e ) is greater than the ground state dipole moment (MU g )
      which indicates that the excited state is more polar than the ground state.
      Furthermore, we have estimated an angle between the ground and excited state
      dipole moments. In addition, we have estimated the fluorescence quantum yield of
      CHP molecule using Rhodamine B as a standard reference in different solvents.

PMID- 28580506
TI  - Prolonged Overall Treatment Time and Lack of Skin Rash Negatively Impact Overall
      Survival in Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer Patients Treated with
      Radiotherapy and Concomitant Cetuximab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cetuximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody against EGFR sensitizes
      tumors to radiotherapy (RT), but is associated with skin and mucosal toxicity.
      OBJECTIVE: We report outcomes and tolerance of definitive RT in association with
      cetuximab in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma (LASCC) of
      the head and neck. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 2006 and 2011, 92 consecutive
      patients with LASCC of the head and neck were treated with RT and concomitant
      weekly cetuximab. Median age was 61.7 years. Most patients presented with
      oropharyngeal tumors (52.2%) and stage IV disease (77.2%). RESULTS: Sixty-nine
      patients received at least 7 cycles of cetuximab. Cetuximab was stopped at the
      first infusion following allergic reactions in four patients. During RT, 37% of
      patients developed grade >= 3 dermatitis; grade >= 2 cetuximab-induced rash
      occurred in 43 patients (46.7%). Severe mucositis (grade >= 3) affected 57.6% of
      patients. Ten percent of patients did not receive the full course of RT, and
      temporary discontinuation due to acute toxicity was frequent and affected 37
      patients (53%). The median RT overall treatment time (OTT) in patients with
      interrupted RT was 56 days (47-75) compared to 51 days (47-65) in patients who
      did not require toxicity-related radiation interruptions (p < 0.05). After a
      median follow-up of 17.5 months (1.3-107.6) for all patients, median overall
      survival was 17.9 months (95% CI: 12.7-23.2), and loco-regional control (LRC) was
      9.2 months (95% CI: 3.9-14.4). On multivariate analysis, hemoglobin concentration
      and occurrence of rash grade >= 2 were independent prognostic factors for LRC (p
      = 0.023 and p = 0.006, respectively). Lack of rash and extended OTT negatively
      impacted overall survival (p = 0.048 and 0.052, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Skin
      and mucosal toxicity remains an issue in patients with LASCC of the head and neck
      treated with concomitant cetuximab and RT. Severe toxicity leads to treatment
      interruptions and prolonged overall treatment time, with consequent decreased
      overall survival in these patients.

PMID- 28580507
TI  - Retrospective Evaluation of Thromboembolism Risk in Ovarian Cancer Patients
      Treated with Bevacizumab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab is used in addition to standard, platinum-based
      chemotherapy to treat advanced-stage ovarian cancer patients. Thrombosis is a
      well-documented adverse effect of bevacizumab. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to identify predictive parameters for thromboembolic events in ovarian cancer
      patients and to explain how bevacizumab increases the risk of these events.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-seven FIGO stage III ovarian cancer patients who
      underwent cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy were identified and included in
      this retrospective study. Twenty-six patients were treated with carboplatin and
      paclitaxel (CP) only (control group), and 31 patients received CP with
      bevacizumab (study group). The two groups were compared with regard to thrombosis
      risk factors and laboratory parameters (total leukocytes, platelet count,
      hemoglobin, APTT, prothrombin time, INR, fibrinogen levels, D-dimer
      concentration) before treatment, after each course of chemotherapy, and during
      thromboembolic events. RESULTS: Only patients in the group receiving bevacizumab
      experienced venous thromboembolism (VTE) (p=0.03, chi2 test). VTE occurred on
      average at the 13th cycle of chemotherapy. Patients who experienced VTE had
      increased BMI before chemotherapy as compared to patients with no thromboembolic
      event (27.2 vs. 23.3, p=0.005, Mann-Whitney test). D-dimer concentration before
      treatment was also elevated more in patients affected by VTE (3132.5) than in the
      non-VTE group (956.43) (p=0.0007, Mann-Whitney test). During the first four
      administrations of chemotherapy in patients with future VTE, there was a
      reduction in D-dimer concentration and an extension of APTT. A D-Dimer level
      higher than 485 ng/mL prior to first chemotherapy indicates for a risk of VTE
      with 94% sensitivity and 36% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: An elevated D-dimer level
      and high BMI before chemotherapy are risk factors for VTE in ovarian cancer
      patients receiving bevacizumab. Bevacizumab possibly increases the risk for VTE.

PMID- 28580509
TI  - Erratum to: Perfusion index and left ventricular output correlation in healthy
      term infants.

PMID- 28580508
TI  - Economics of Early Warning Scores for identifying clinical deterioration-a
      systematic review.
AB  - AIM: In 2013, a National Early Warning System (EWS) was implemented in Ireland.
      Whilst evidence exists to support the clinical effectiveness of EWS in the acute
      health care setting, there is a paucity of information on their cost and cost
      effectiveness. The objective of this systematic literature review was to
      critically evaluate the economic literature on the use of EWS in adult patients
      in acute health care settings for the timely detection of physiological
      deterioration. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted to
      accumulate the economic evidence on the use of EWS in adult patients in acute
      health care settings. RESULTS: The search yielded one health technology
      assessment, two budget impact analyses and two cost descriptions. Three of the
      studies were Irish, and considered the national EWS system. A Dutch study
      reported financial consequences of a single parameter EWS, as part of a rapid
      response system, in a surgical ward. The fifth study examined an advanced triage
      system in a medical emergency admission unit in Wales. CONCLUSIONS: The economic
      evidence on the use of EWS amongst adult patients in acute health care settings
      for the timely detection of physiological deterioration is limited. Further
      research is required to investigate the cost effectiveness of EWS, and the
      appropriateness of using standard methods to do so. The recent implementation of
      a national EWS in Ireland offers a unique opportunity to bridge this gap in the
      literature to examine the costs and cost effectiveness of a nationally
      implemented EWS system.

PMID- 28580510
TI  - Bone mineral density at femoral neck and lumbar spine in adults with type 1
      diabetes: a meta-analysis and review of the literature.
AB  - : We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the femoral neck and lumbar spine bone
      mineral density (BMD) in adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) compared with
      controls. Adults with T1D have modestly lower BMD at femoral neck and lumbar
      spine than adults without diabetes. INTRODUCTION: Fracture risk is four to
      sixfold higher in adults with T1D. Since BMD is one of the major contributors for
      fracture risk, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate differences in femoral
      neck and lumbar spine BMD between adults with T1D and controls. METHODS: MEDLINE,
      Ovid, and the Cochrane library and abstracts from various scientific meetings
      were searched. Studies reporting the femoral neck and/or lumbar spine BMD in
      adults (age > 20 years) with T1D in comparison with people without diabetes were
      selected. General linear mixed models were used to assess differences in BMD at
      femoral neck and lumbar spine between subjects with T1D and controls adjusting
      for age, sex, and dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) instruments. RESULTS: Sixteen
      studies met the inclusion criteria. The femoral neck BMD was modestly lower in
      adults with T1D compared to controls (-0.055 g/cm2; 95% CI: -0.065, -0.045).
      There were no differences in lumbar spine BMD between adults with T1D and
      controls (0.0062 g/cm2; 95% CI -0.04, 0.016). However, in a sensitivity analysis,
      lumbar spine BMD was modestly lower in adults with T1D compared to controls (
      0.035 g/cm2; -0.049, -0.02). Studies using Lunar DXA instruments have reported
      higher lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD compared to studies using Hologic DXA
      instruments. CONCLUSION: Femoral neck and lumbar spine BMD were modestly lower in
      adults with T1D compared to controls. However, this modest reduction in femoral
      neck and lumbar spine BMD cannot explain much higher observed fracture risk in
      adults with T1D.

PMID- 28580511
TI  - Effect of recent spinal cord injury on the OPG/RANKL system and its relationship
      with bone loss and the response to denosumab therapy.
AB  - : There is marked bone loss after spinal cord injury (SCI); however, its
      pathogenesis and clinical management remain unclear. The increased circulating
      levels of receptor activator of nuclear factor kB ligand (RANKL) associated with
      bone loss shortly after SCI and the prevention of bone loss with denosumab
      treatment suggest a contributory role of RANKL in SCI-induced osteoporosis.
      INTRODUCTION: Bone turnover and bone loss are markedly increased shortly after
      SCI. However, the pathogenesis and clinical management of this process remain
      unclear, especially the role of the osteoprotegerin (OPG)/RANKL system in this
      disorder. The aim of this study was to analyze serum levels of OPG and RANKL in
      bone loss associated with recent SCI and the effect of denosumab treatment on
      these mediators. METHODS: Twenty-three males with recent complete SCI were
      prospectively included. Serum OPG and RANKL levels, bone turnover markers (PINP,
      bone ALP, CTX), and bone mineral density (BMD) were assessed at baseline, at 6
      months of follow-up, prior to initiating denosumab, and 6 months after treatment.
      The results were compared with a healthy control group. RESULTS: At baseline, SCI
      patients showed higher RANKL levels vs. controls which were correlated with days
      since-SCI and total hip BMD loss at 6 months. OPG levels were similar to controls
      at baseline. After denosumab treatment, OPG showed no changes, whereas RANKL
      levels became undetectable in 67% of patients. Patients with undetectable RANKL
      during treatment showed better response in femoral BMD and bone markers vs.
      patients with detectable RANKL at 6 months of denosumab. Increased parathormone
      (PTH) levels during treatment were negatively correlated with RANKL changes.
      CONCLUSIONS: RANKL levels are increased after SCI and related to BMD loss at the
      proximal femur, becoming undetectable after denosumab treatment. The effect of
      denosumab on preventing sublesional bone loss, especially in patients with
      undetectable levels during treatment, suggests a contributory role of RANKL in
      this process.

PMID- 28580512
TI  - Comparative Effect of Calcium Channel Blockers on Glomerular Function in
      Hypertensive Patients with Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate and compare the
      longitudinal effect of monotherapy with L-, L/T-, L/N-, and L/N/T-type calcium
      channel blockers (CCBs) on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and to
      investigate the association of treatment duration with eGFR in diabetic patients
      with hypertension. METHODS: Using a clinical database, we identified new users of
      five CCBs, i.e. amlodipine (L-type, n = 693), nifedipine (L-type, n = 189),
      azelnidipine (L/T-type, n = 91), benidipine (L/N/T-type, n = 183), and
      cilnidipine (L/N-type, n = 61). We used a multivariable regression model to
      evaluate and compare the effects of these drugs on eGFR and serum creatinine, up
      to 12 months after initiation of study drug administration. RESULTS: There was no
      significant association between treatment duration and both eGFR and serum
      creatinine level with all CCB types. In addition, there was no significant
      difference in mean change in eGFR among the five CCBs, with any treatment
      duration. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that monotherapy with an L-, L/T-,
      L/N/T-, or L/N-type CCB may have little influence on renal function parameters
      and may be safely used in hypertensive patients with diabetes.

PMID- 28580513
TI  - Cumulative live birth and surplus embryo incidence after frozen-thaw cycles in
      PCOS: how many oocytes do we need?
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the cumulative live birth rate (CLBR) and
      surplus embryo rate of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) patients during in
      vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) treatment. METHODS: In this
      retrospective cohort study, we analyzed 1142 PCOS patients who underwent first
      IVF in our institution between January 2011 and December 2014. All patients were
      categorized into five groups according to the number of oocytes retrieved. Main
      outcomes include CLBR and surplus embryo rate. RESULTS: A strong correlation was
      observed between number of oocytes retrieved and CLBR as well as surplus embryo
      rate in PCOS patients. CLBR was elevated with the increasing number of oocytes
      and plateaued when oocyte number was up to ten, whereas the surplus embryo rate
      steadily increased in line with the increase of oocyte number. Patients
      transferred with frozen embryos showed higher CLBR and LBR during first ET than
      patients transferred with fresh embryos. CONCLUSIONS: For PCOS patients,
      retrieving more than ten oocytes leads to no significant benefit to CLBR but
      generates surplus embryos. Thus, moderate ovarian stimulation should be
      reconsidered during IVF treatment.

PMID- 28580514
TI  - Complete protection against cryodamage of cryopreserved whole bovine and human
      ovaries using DMSO as a cryoprotectant.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to determine the optimal cryopreservation protocol for
      whole ovaries intended for preservation of fertility in women. METHODS: We
      investigated the optimal cryopreservation procedure for whole ovaries in a bovine
      model. The following parameters were investigated to determine their effect on
      ovarian tissue viability: type of cryoprotectant, administration route of the
      cryoprotectant (perfusion and/or submersion), and the maximum tolerable interval
      between death of the animal and start of the cryopreservation process. The
      resulting optimal cryopreservation procedure for bovine ovaries was subsequently
      tested on human ovaries. In vitro glucose uptake, histology, and
      immunohistochemistry were used to assess the integrity of the ovarian tissue.
      RESULTS: Starting the cryopreservation procedure (including perfusion with and
      submersion in DMSO) within 10-15 min after death of the animal proved critical,
      resulting in a 90-100% protection level against cryodamage. When cryopreserving
      human ovaries using the same protocol, over 95% protection against cryodamage was
      observed on all tissue levels. In addition, no apparent morphological damage to
      either the follicles or the vascular endothelium was observed. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings suggest that using the optimized protocol presented in this paper allows
      good cryopreservation of whole human ovaries and represents an important step in
      considering whole ovary autotransplantation for clinically applied fertility
      preservation.

PMID- 28580515
TI  - Dabigatran reduces thrombin-induced platelet aggregation and activation in a dose
      dependent manner.
AB  - Dabigatran is an oral anticoagulant and a reversible inhibitor of thrombin.
      Further, dabigatran might affect platelet function through a direct effect on
      platelet thrombin receptors. The aim was to investigate the effect of dabigatran
      on platelet activation and platelet aggregation. Healthy donor blood was
      incubated with dabigatran 0, 50, 500 ng/mL, corresponding to the therapeutic
      range of dabigatran peak plasma concentrations, and 10,000 ng/mL comprising a
      supra-therapeutic dabigatran plasma level. Platelet aggregation was tested with
      96-well aggregometry. Flow cytometry was used to test platelet activation and
      platelet thrombin receptor expression (SPAN-12 and WEDE-15 expression). Agonists
      were thrombin, thrombin receptor-activating peptide, protease-activated receptor
      4 agonist, collagen, collagen-related peptide, arachidonic acid, and adenosine
      diphosphate. All concentrations of dabigatran fully inhibited platelet
      aggregation for thrombin up to 2 IU/mL, while dabigatran did not affect platelet
      aggregation by other agonists. Platelet activation (percentage of platelets
      positive for activated GPIIb/IIIa, CD63, P-selectin) was reduced after thrombin
      stimulation in samples with dabigatran levels >=500 ng/mL. After stimulation with
      thrombin, the percentage of activated GPIIb/IIIa-positive platelets was 99.8 +/-
      0.2% without dabigatran, 14.7 +/- 4.7% with 500 ng/mL dabigatran, and 4.2 +/-
      0.2% with 10,000 ng/mL dabigatran, both p < 0.001 when compared to samples
      without dabigatran. Also, the receptor expression of GPIIb/IIIa, CD63, and P
      selectin were reduced after dabigatran treatment. The expression of thrombin
      receptors was reduced at dabigatran on >= 500 ng/mL. In conclusion, dabigatran
      exclusively inhibits thrombin-induced platelet activation and aggregation with a
      dose-dependent response. Platelet stimulation with other agonists was not
      affected by dabigatran.

PMID- 28580516
TI  - Indian girls have higher bone mineral content per unit of lean body than boys
      through puberty.
AB  - Our aim is to describe changes in the muscle-bone unit assessed as a ratio of
      bone mineral content (BMC) to lean body mass (LBM) through puberty at total body
      and various skeletal sites in Indian boys and girls. A cross-sectional study was
      conducted (888 children, 480 boys, aged 5-17 years) in Pune, India. Pubertal
      staging was assessed. BMC, LBM and fat percentage at the arms, legs, android,
      gynoid and total body (less the head) were assessed by dual energy X-ray
      absorptiometry. The amount of BMC per unit LBM (BMC/LBM) was computed. Changes in
      mean BMC/LBM at 5 Tanner (pubertal) stages after adjustment for age and fat
      percentage were calculated. In boys, adjusted BMC/LBM was significantly higher
      with successive Tanner stages [legs (TS-II vs TS-I), android (TS-III vs TS-II, TS
      IV vs TS-III) and gynoid region (TS-III vs TS-II and TS-II vs TS-I) (p < 0.05)].
      In girls, adjusted BMC/LBM was significantly higher with successive Tanner stages
      at total body, legs and gynoid (TS-III vs TS-II; TS-II vs TS-I; TS-V vs TS-IV),
      arms (TS-I to TS-V) and android regions (TS-V vs TS-IV) (p < 0.05). Boys had
      significantly higher adjusted BMC/LBM than girls at earlier Tanner stages (TS-I
      to TS-III), whereas girls had significantly higher adjusted BMC/LBM than boys at
      later Tanner stages (TS-IV, TS-V) (p < 0.05). Indian boys and girls showed higher
      total and regional body, and age- and fat percentage-adjusted BMC/LBM with
      successive pubertal stages. Girls had higher BMC/LBM than boys which may possibly
      act as a reservoir for later demands of pregnancy and lactation.

PMID- 28580517
TI  - Regulation of Primary Polymerization of Fibrin by Blood Anticoagulant System
      Components.
AB  - Experimental data on the involvement of the blood anticoagulant system components
      (heparin complex compounds, short regulatory peptides) in fibrin formation
      processes are presented. Inhibition of thrombin activity and interactions of
      short glyproline peptides and their heparin complexes with fibrin monomer
      molecules are demonstrated. Peptides and their heparin complexes prevent the
      formation of primary polymeric fibrin and exhibit fibrin-depolymerizing activity
      on the formed polymeric fibrin. The mechanisms underlying the effects of heparin
      complexes on degradation of fibrin not stabilized with factor XIIIa is discussed
      on the basis of the results of spectral analysis and coagulation tests.

PMID- 28580518
TI  - The Role of Free Radical Oxidation in the Development of Experimental Urate
      Nephropathy.
AB  - We studied the dynamics of activity of antioxidant enzymes under conditions of
      experimental urate kidney damage in rats. Combined administration of uric (0.145
      g) and oxonium (0.3 g) acids to laboratory animals modulated free radical
      oxidation in the kidneys, and especially, in the blood. During the week 1,
      activity of free radical processes decreased, which was probably determined by
      the antioxidant effect of increasing blood concentration of uric acid. After 2-3
      weeks of experimental pathology, the development of oxidative stress was
      observed, probably due to predominance of prooxidant activity of uric acid.

PMID- 28580519
TI  - Psychopharmacological Effects of JNK Inhibitor in Posthypoxic Encephalopathy and
      Mechanisms of Their Development.
AB  - Psychopharmacological effects of JNK inhibitor were studied using a mouse model
      of posthypoxic encephalopathy. The preparation exhibited a pronounced
      cerebroprotective effect manifested in normalization of orientation and
      exploratory behavior and conditioned responses in posthypoxic mice. These effects
      were accompanied by marked elevation of neural stem cell content in the
      paraventricular region of the brain.

PMID- 28580520
TI  - Enzyme Immunoassay of Antibodies to Endogenous Bioregulators for Evaluating the
      Risk of Heart Disease.
AB  - The levels of natural antibodies to beta-endorphin, bradykinin, histamine,
      dopamine, and serotonin were measured in 271 cardiological patients in order to
      evaluate the severity of their clinical status. The patients were distributed
      into groups differing by the course of the pathological process. The levels of
      natural antibodies to all antigens were maximum in patients with cardiosclerosis:
      the content of antibodies to beta-endorphin surpassed the control by 46%, to
      histamine by 62%, to bradykinin by 36%, to dopamine by 49%, and to serotonin by
      65%.

PMID- 28580522
TI  - Antiangiogenic Effects of Nerve Growth Factor Loop 4 Monomeric Dipeptide Mimetic.
AB  - The effects of GK-1, a monomeric dipeptide mimetic of nerve growth factor (NGF)
      loop 4, on angiogenesis were studied in vitro and in vivo. Experiments on human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells HUVEC showed that the test compound did not
      affect tubulogenesis (initial stage of angiogenesis) and prevented realization of
      the angiogenic effect of NGF and its dimeric dipeptide mimetic GK-2. Experiments
      on rat hind limb ischemia model demonstrated that GK-1 (1 mg/kg/day
      intraperitoneally over 14 days) significantly reduced the density of the
      capillary network in ischemic tissue and increased the number and area of Zenker
      necrosis in comparison with the control. These data suggest that GK-1 exhibits a
      pronounced antiangiogenic activity.

PMID- 28580523
TI  - Effects of Combined Transplantation of Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal and
      Hemopoietic Stem Cells on Regeneration of the Hemopoietic Tissue.
AB  - The effect of allogenic combined transplantation of placental multipotent
      mesenchymal stromal and hemopoietic stem cells on regeneration of the myeloid
      tissue and spleen after acute blood loss was studied in laboratory mice. Combined
      transplantation of these cells did not change the content of cytogenetically
      modified cells in the bone marrow under normal conditions, but reduced their
      levels after acute blood loss. Combined transplantation of multipotent
      mesenchymal stromal and hemopoietic stem cells promoted activation of
      erythropoiesis and granulocytopoiesis. The major morphometric and cytological
      parameters of the white pulp of the spleen decreased, presumably due to
      immunosuppressive effect of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells.

PMID- 28580521
TI  - Effects of Nitrosyl Iron Complexes with Thiocarbamide and Its Aliphatic
      Derivatives on Activities of Ca2+-ATPase of Sarcoplasmic Reticulum and cGMP
      Phosphodiesterase.
AB  - We studied the effects of water-soluble cationic dinitrosyl iron complexes with
      thiocarbamide and its aliphatic derivatives, new synthetic analogs of natural NO
      donors, active centers of nitrosyl [1Fe-2S]proteins, on activities of Ca2+-ATPase
      of sarcoplasmic reticulum and cGMP phosphodiesterase. Nitrosyl iron complexes
      [Fe(C3N2H8S)Cl(NO)2]0[Fe(NO)2(C3N2H8S)2]+Cl- (I), [Fe(SC(N(CH3)2)2(NO)2]Cl (II),
      [Fe(SC(NH2)2)2(NO)2Cl*H2O (III), and [Fe(SC(NH2)2)2(NO)2]2SO4*H2O (IV) in a
      concentration of 10-4 M completely inhibited the transporting and hydrolytic
      functions of Ca2+-ATPase. In a concentration of 10-5 M, they inhibited active
      Ca2+ transport by 57+/-6, 75+/-8, 80+/-8, and 85+/-9% and ATP hydrolysis by 0,
      40+/-4, 48+/-5, and 38+/-4%, respectively. Complex II reversibly and
      noncompetitively inhibited the hydrolytic function of Ca2+-ATPase (Ki=1.7*10-6
      M). All the studied iron-sulphur complexes in a concentration of 10-4 M inhibited
      cGMP phosphodiesterase function. These data suggest that the studied complexes
      can exhibit antimetastatic, antiaggregation, vasodilatatory, and antihypertensive
      activities.

PMID- 28580524
TI  - Experimental Verification of the Bernstein Effect "Repetition without
      Repetition".
AB  - The necessity of studying the Bernstein effect "repetition without repetition" is
      dictated by the absence of quantitative description of this effect and models
      that could describe such unique phenomena as repeated limb movements in a person
      in various mental states. In 30 nominally healthy volunteers (15 men, 15 women
      aged 24-25 years), tappingrams and tremorograms were recorded using an eddy
      current sensor with an oscillatory circuit (1 MHz) and an amplifier with
      recording frequency 0-1000 Hz and minimum amplitude of 0.01 mm. The results were
      recorded as files, processed as matrices of paired comparisons of samples, the
      number of matching sample pairs was determined (significance level p>0.05), and
      phase trajectories of finger movement were plotted. The effect was observed for
      both tapping and tremor and it is advisable to calculate the parameters of quasi
      attractors that changed upon shifts in homeostasis.

PMID- 28580525
TI  - Effects of Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules with Different Surface Charge on
      Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate.
AB  - Relationship between changes in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate in rats and
      concentration and charge of polyelectrolyte microcapsules was studied by the
      Panchenkov method. Positively charged microcapsules reduced erythrocyte
      sedimentation rate in a concentrationdependent manner. This effect was related to
      a decrease in the content of high-molecularweight proteins in the plasma due to
      their adsorption in positively charged microcapsules with polyacrylamide surface
      layer.

PMID- 28580526
TI  - Deformable appearance pyramids for anatomy representation, landmark detection and
      pathology classification.
AB  - PURPOSE: Representation of anatomy appearance is one of the key problems in
      medical image analysis. An appearance model represents the anatomies with
      parametric forms, which are then vectorised for prior learning, segmentation and
      classification tasks. METHODS: We propose a part-based parametric appearance
      model we refer to as a deformable appearance pyramid (DAP). The parts are
      delineated by multi-scale local feature pyramids extracted from an image pyramid.
      Each anatomy is represented by an appearance pyramid, with the variability within
      a population approximated by local translations of the multi-scale parts and
      linear appearance variations in the assembly of the parts. We introduce DAPs
      built on two types of image pyramids, namely Gaussian and wavelet pyramids, and
      present two approaches to model the prior and fit the model, one explicitly using
      a subspace Lucas-Kanade algorithm and the other implicitly using the supervised
      descent method (SDM). RESULTS: We validate the performance of the DAP instances
      with difference configurations on the problem of lumbar spinal stenosis for
      localising the landmarks and classifying the pathologies. We also compare them
      with classic methods such as active shape models, active appearance models and
      constrained local models. Experimental results show that the DAP built on wavelet
      pyramids and fitted with SDM gives the best results in both landmark localisation
      and classification. CONCLUSION: A new appearance model is introduced with several
      configurations presented and evaluated. The DAPs can be readily applied for other
      clinical problems for the tasks of prior learning, landmark detection and
      pathology classification.

PMID- 28580527
TI  - Non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia in a patient with left ventricular assist
      device implantation.
AB  - Non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI) is a devastating complication after
      cardiac surgery. Once patients develop NOMI, intra-mesenteric infusion of
      vasodilators and/or emergent laparotomy is usually required, but the mortality is
      extraordinarily high even with intensive treatment. We present a case of salvage
      of a patient with NOMI complicated with severe right ventricular dysfunction
      after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation using maximum treatment
      with emergent laparotomy and temporary right ventricular assist device
      implantation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful salvage
      case of NOMI in a LVAD patient. We believe that hemodynamic optimization using
      maximum treatment is critically important to achieve salvage.

PMID- 28580528
TI  - Retraction Note to: Genome Shuffling Enhances Lipase Production of Thermophilic
      Geobacillus Sp.

PMID- 28580529
TI  - Abnormal baseline brain activity in Alzheimer's disease patients with depression:
      a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
AB  - PURPOSE: As one of the most common mental disorders and the most important
      precursor of suicide in Alzheimer's disease (AD), depression is associated with a
      decline in both well-being and daily functioning. At present, the diagnosis of AD
      patients with depression (D-AD) is largely dependent on clinical signs and
      symptoms, and the precise neural correlate underlying D-AD is still not fully
      understood. METHODS: The current study sought to investigate low-frequency
      oscillations at the voxel level in D-AD patients based on the amplitude of low
      frequency fluctuations (ALFF) measured using resting-state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging. We examined 22 D-AD patients and 21 non-depressed AD (nD-AD)
      patients. RESULTS: The results revealed that D-AD patients exhibited increased
      ALFF values in the left caudate and thalamus and decreased ALFF values in the
      left middle temporal pole compared with nD-AD patients. CONCLUSION: These
      findings may provide further insight into the underlying neuropathophysiology of
      AD with depression.

PMID- 28580530
TI  - Endovascular treatment in patients with carotid artery dissection and
      intracranial occlusion: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recently, multiple randomised controlled trials showed efficacy of
      endovascular treatment over traditional care in patients with acute ischemic
      stroke due to an intracranial anterior circulation occlusion. Internal carotid
      artery (ICA) dissection with a concomitant intracranial occlusion is a rare but
      important cause of severe acute ischemic stroke. Although this subtype of acute
      ischemic stroke is mostly treated with endovascular treatment, treatment outcomes
      are still sparsely studied. This study assesses the clinical outcome and
      reperfusion rates by means of a systematic review. METHODS: Electronic databases
      of PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science were searched up to October 1, 2016 for
      articles describing endovascular treatment in patients with intracranial artery
      occlusion and ICA dissection. RESULTS: Sixteen studies were included in the
      analysis. Most studies showed favourable outcome and successful reperfusion.
      However, most included studies had a high risk of bias. CONCLUSION: In the
      reviewed studies, endovascular treatment in patients with ICA dissection and
      concomitant proximal intracranial occlusion was associated with favourable
      outcome. This could point in the direction of endovascular treatment being a
      beneficial treatment method for these patients. However, this review has only
      taken data of a limited group of patients into account. A pooled analysis of
      patients from recently published endovascular treatment trials and running
      registries is therefore recommended.

PMID- 28580531
TI  - Age-related changes of white matter association tracts in normal children
      throughout adulthood: a diffusion tensor tractography study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to study the age, gender and lateral asymmetry
      related white matter changes of long association tracts throughout late childhood
      and adolescence into adulthood using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).
      METHODS: DTT was performed in 44 healthy subjects aged 7-45 years. Fractional
      anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), axial diffusivity (AD), Trace, density
      and volume were calculated for long association tracts, namely the inferior
      fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF),
      uncinate fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and its arcuate
      fibres. FA and diffusivity indices were correlated as function of age using
      Pearson correlation test. Comparison between males and females, and comparison
      between both hemispheres among all participants were also performed. A p value
      less than .01 was considered significant. RESULTS: The majority of the examined
      tracts (SLF and IFOF of both hemispheres, and the arcuate fasciculus, uncinate
      fasciculus, and ILF of the left hemisphere) followed a common pattern of metric
      changes with age. This pattern was characterized by significant FA increase
      accompanied by reduction in RD, Trace without significant AD changes. The right
      arcuate fasciculus showed similar pattern but without significant FA changes. The
      right uncinate and right ILF fasciculus demonstrated significant reduction in RD,
      Trace and AD, with and without significant FA increase, respectively. Left
      hemispheric dominance regarding the FA and diffusivity indices was demonstrated
      in uncinate fasciculus with no significant gender-related differences.
      CONCLUSION: Significant microstructural tract-specific maturation processes
      continue throughout late childhood into adulthood. These processes may represent
      stages in a cascade of age-related maturation in white matter microstructure.

PMID- 28580532
TI  - Follow-up CT and CT angiography after intracranial aneurysm clipping and coiling
      improved image quality by iterative metal artifact reduction.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper aims to evaluate a new iterative metal artifact reduction
      algorithm for post-interventional evaluation of brain tissue and intracranial
      arteries. METHODS: The data of 20 patients that underwent follow-up cranial CT
      and cranial CT angiography after clipping or coiling of an intracranial aneurysm
      was retrospectively analyzed. After the images were processed using a novel
      iterative metal artifact reduction algorithm, images with and without metal
      artifact reduction were qualitatively evaluated by two readers, using a five
      point Likert scale. Moreover, artifact strength was quantitatively assessed in
      terms of CT attenuation and standard deviation alterations. RESULTS: The
      qualitative analysis yielded a significant increase in image quality (p = 0.0057)
      in iteratively processed images with substantial inter-observer agreement (K =
      0.72), while the CTA image quality did not differ (p = 0.864) and even showed
      vessel contrast reduction in six cases (30%). The mean relative attenuation
      difference was 27% without metal artifact reduction vs. 11% for iterative metal
      artifact reduction images (p = 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: The new iterative metal
      artifact reduction algorithm enhances non-enhanced CT image quality after
      clipping or coiling, but in CT-angiography images, the contrast of adjacent
      vessels can be compromised.

PMID- 28580533
TI  - Quantitative assessment on blood-brain barrier permeability of acute spontaneous
      intracerebral hemorrhage in basal ganglia: a CT perfusion study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage aggravates perihematomal edema, and
      edema volume predicts prognosis independently. But the BBB permeability at the
      late stage of acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients is uncertain. We
      aimed to assess the BBB permeability of spontaneous basal ganglia ICH using
      computed tomographic perfusion (CTP) and investigates its relationship with
      hematoma and perihematomal edema volume. METHODS: We performed CTP on 54
      consecutive ICH patients within 24 to 72 h after symptom onset. Permeability
      surface area product (PS) derived from CTP imaging was measured in hematoma,
      "high-PS spot," perihematoma, normal-appearing, hemispheric, and contralateral
      regions. Hematoma and edema volumes were calculated from non-contrast CT.
      RESULTS: "High-PS spot" and perihematoma regions had higher PS than the
      contralateral regions (p < 0.001). Hematoma PS was lower than that in the
      contralateral regions (p < 0.001). Perihematoma PS of the large-hematoma group
      was higher than that of the small-hematoma group (p = 0.011). Perihematomal edema
      volume correlated positively with hematoma volume (beta = 0.864, p < 0.001) and
      perihematoma PS (beta = 0.478, p < 0.001). Perihematoma PS correlated positively
      with hematoma volume (beta = 0.373, p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Locally elevated
      perihematoma PS was found in most spontaneous basal ganglia ICH patients within
      24 to 72 h after symptom onset. Perihematoma PS was higher in larger hematomas
      and was associated with larger edema volume. At this period, BBB leakage is
      likely to be an important factor in edema formation.

PMID- 28580534
TI  - Fatal Pulmonary Mucormycosis due to Rhizopus homothallicus.
AB  - We report here a case of cavitary pneumonia due to Rhizopus homothallicus in a
      diabetic patient. This is the first proven case of R. homothallicus infection in
      Western countries and the third case described worldwide. The organism was
      isolated from lung biopsy and identified after amplification and sequencing of
      the internal transcribed spacer region.

PMID- 28580535
TI  - Metabolically inactive insulin: friend or foe in the prevention of autoimmune
      diabetes?
AB  - About 20 years ago an American study suggested that daily subcutaneous injections
      of a metabolically inactive insulin analogue with a single amino acid
      substitution (aspartic acid instead of phenylalanine) at position 25 of the B
      chain was as effective as intact insulin in preventing autoimmune diabetes in NOD
      mice. In this issue of Diabetologia Gronholm et al (DOI: 10.1007/s00125-017-4276
      5 ) report that parenteral administration of the same insulin analogue has no
      preventive effect whatsoever on the development of diabetes in NOD mice; in fact,
      high doses of the metabolically inactive insulin accelerated disease development.
      The authors were also unable to show any tolerogenic effect of an insulin peptide
      mimetope given via a subcutaneous osmotic pump. These data do not support the use
      of metabolically inactive insulin for the prevention of autoimmune diabetes and
      question whether insulin alone, intact or inactivated has any role in preventing
      progression to symptomatic diabetes. Future and ongoing intervention trials in
      humans with preclinical type 1 diabetes should indicate whether the
      administration of oral insulin has any protective, neutral or even predisposing
      effects on the development of symptomatic diabetes.

PMID- 28580537
TI  - CT imaging spectrum of infiltrative renal diseases.
AB  - Most renal lesions replace the renal parenchyma as a focal space-occupying mass
      with borders distinguishing the mass from normal parenchyma. However, some renal
      lesions exhibit interstitial infiltration-a process that permeates the renal
      parenchyma by using the normal renal architecture for growth. These infiltrative
      lesions frequently show nonspecific patterns that lead to little or no contour
      deformity and have ill-defined borders on CT, making detection and diagnosis
      challenging. The purpose of this pictorial essay is to describe the CT imaging
      findings of various conditions that may manifest as infiltrative renal lesions.

PMID- 28580538
TI  - LI-RADS M (LR-M): definite or probable malignancy, not specific for
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - LI-RADS v2017 introduces major changes to the diagnostic criteria for LR-M
      observations to better guide radiologists in the use of this malignant category
      designation. LR-M is intended to preserve the specificity of the LI-RADS
      algorithm for diagnosis of HCC while not losing sensitivity for diagnosis of
      malignancy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief background on LR-M,
      discuss the diagnostic criteria new to v2017, special considerations for its
      application, and management implications.

PMID- 28580539
TI  - The light bulb sign in pheochromocytoma.

PMID- 28580536
TI  - Annexin A2 Plus Low-Dose Tissue Plasminogen Activator Combination Attenuates
      Cerebrovascular Dysfunction After Focal Embolic Stroke of Rats.
AB  - Previous studies showed recombinant annexin A2 (rA2) in combination with low-dose
      tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) improved thrombolytic efficacy and long
      term neurological outcomes after embolic focal ischemia in rats. The objective of
      this study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of the combination in
      early BBB integrity and cerebrovascular patency in the rat focal embolic stroke
      model. Ischemic brain infarct volume and hemorrhagic transformation were
      quantified at 24 h after stroke. At an earlier time point, 16 h after stroke, BBB
      integrity was evaluated by IgG extravasation, and the involved mechanisms were
      assessed for tight junction ZO-1 and adhesion junction ve-cadherin protein
      expression, matrix metalloproteinase activation, extracellular matrix collagen IV
      and endothelial barrier antigen expression, and activation of
      microglia/macrophages and astrocytes. While at the same time point,
      cerebrovascular patency was assessed by intravascular fibrin and platelet
      depositions. At 24 h after stroke, the combination showed significant reduction
      in brain infarction and intracerebral hemorrhage. At 16 h after stroke onset, the
      combination therapy significantly reduced BBB disruption, and improved
      preservation of the junction proteins ZO-1 and ve-cadherin, decreased activation
      of matrix metalloproteinase, inhibited degradation of extracellular matrix
      collagen IV and endothelial barrier antigen, and reduced microglia/macrophage and
      astrocytes activations. Meanwhile, the combination also significantly improved
      cerebrovascular patency by reducing intravascular fibrin and platelet depositions
      in the peri-infarct brain tissues. These results suggest the beneficial effects
      of the rA2 plus low-dose tPA combination may be mediated in part by the
      amelioration of BBB disruption and improvement of cerebrovascular patency.

PMID- 28580540
TI  - Updates for the radiologist in non-muscle-invasive, muscle-invasive, and
      metastatic bladder cancer.
AB  - Urothelial bladder cancer is a common malignancy requiring a multidisciplinary
      approach to treatment. Significant recent advances have been made in terms of the
      genetic and molecular characterization of bladder cancer subtypes, and novel
      treatment approaches are being investigated and approved. Given the important
      role of imaging in the diagnosis, staging, and follow-up of this disease, it is
      necessary for radiologists to remain up-to-date in terms of nomenclature and
      standards of care. In this review, recent developments in bladder cancer
      characterization and treatment will be discussed, with reference to the
      contributions of imaging in non-muscle-invasive, muscle-invasive, and metastatic
      settings.

PMID- 28580542
TI  - Comparison of surgical and non-surgical orthodontic treatment approaches on
      occlusal and cephalometric outcomes in patients with Class II Division I
      malocclusions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine end-of-treatment outcomes of severe Class
      II Division I malocclusion patients treated with surgical or non-surgical
      approaches. This study tests the hypotheses that occlusal outcomes (ABO-OGS) and
      cephalometric outcomes differ between these groups. METHODS: A total of 60
      patients were included: 20 of which underwent surgical correction and 40 of which
      did not. Cast grading of initial and final study models was performed and
      information was gathered from pre- to post-treatment cephalometric radiographs.
      The end-of-treatment ABO-OGS and cephalometric outcomes were compared to Mann
      Whitney U tests and multivariable linear regression models. RESULTS: Following
      adjustment for multiple confounders (age, gender, complexity of case, and
      skeletal patterns), the final deband score (ABO-OGS) was similar for both groups
      (23.8 for surgical group versus 22.5 for non-surgical group). Those treated
      surgically had a significantly larger reduction in ANB angle, 3.4 degrees 
      reduction versus 1.5 degrees  reduction in the non-surgical group (p = 0.002).
      The surgical group also showed increased maxillary incisor proclination (p =
      0.001) compared to the non-surgical group. This might be attributed to
      retroclination of maxillary incisors during treatment selection in the non
      surgical group-namely, extraction of premolars to mask the discrepancy.
      CONCLUSIONS: Those treated surgically had a significantly larger reduction in ANB
      angle and increased maxillary incisor proclination compared to those treated non
      surgically with no significant changes in occlusal outcomes.

PMID- 28580541
TI  - Decalcification prevention around orthodontic brackets bonded to bleached enamel
      using different topical agents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different
      topical agents utilized for prevention of enamel decalcification around
      orthodontic brackets bonded to bleached and non-bleached enamel. METHODS: Human
      maxillary premolars (n = 120) were divided into two equal groups. Teeth in group
      I were left without bleaching while those in group II were bleached with
      Vivastyle gel. Metal brackets were bonded to all the teeth using light-cured
      adhesive. Each group was divided into six equal subgroups (A, B, C, D, E, and F).
      In subgroup A, no material was applied (control). In subgroups B, C, D, E, and F,
      the following materials were applied respectively: Profluorid varnish, Enamel Pro
      Varnish, Ortho-Choice Ortho-Coat, GC Tooth Mousse, and GC MI Paste Plus. All
      teeth were cycled in a demineralization solution/artificial saliva for 15 days.
      Laser fluorescence was used to measure the level of enamel mineralization. The
      data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Regarding the non-bleaching subgroups,
      all studied material revealed significant demineralization reduction in
      comparison to the control subgroup (P < 0.05). Ortho-Choice Ortho-Coat revealed
      the highest significant effect while GC Tooth Mousse showed the least effect. In
      bleached subgroups, Profluorid varnish, Enamel Pro Varnish, and Ortho-Choice
      Ortho-Coat significantly reduced demineralization (P < 0.05) while either GC MI
      Paste Plus or GC Tooth Mousse had no significant effects (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Ortho-Choice Ortho-Coat, and Profluorid and Enamel Pro varnishes could be
      utilized successfully to reduce enamel demineralization around brackets bonded to
      either bleached or non-bleached enamel. GC MI Paste Plus and GC Tooth Mousse were
      effective only in non-bleached enamel.

PMID- 28580543
TI  - Assessment of alternatives to environmental toxic formalin for DNA conservation
      in biological specimens.
AB  - One essential step of museum and clinical specimen preservation is immersion in a
      fixative fluid to prevent degradation. Formalin is the most largely used
      fixative, but its benefit is balanced with its toxic and carcinogenic status.
      Moreover, because formalin-fixation impairs nucleic acids recovery and quality,
      current museum wet collections and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded clinical
      samples do not represent optimal tanks of molecular information. Our study has
      been developed to compare formalin to two alternative fixatives (RCL2(r) and
      ethanol) in a context of molecular exploitation. Based on a unique protocol, we
      created mammalian fixed collections, simulated the impact of time on preservation
      using an artificial ageing treatment and followed the evolution of specimens' DNA
      quality. DNA extraction yield, purity, visual integrity and qualitative and
      quantitative ability to amplify the Cox1 gene were assessed. Our results show
      that both RCL2 and ethanol exhibit better performances than formalin. They do not
      impair DNA extraction yield, and more importantly, DNA alteration is delayed over
      the preservation step. The use of RCL2 or ethanol as fixative in biological
      collections may insure a better exploitation of the genetic resources they
      propose.

PMID- 28580544
TI  - Impact of regulation on English and Welsh water-only companies: an input-distance
      function approach.
AB  - The assessment of productivity change over time and its drivers is of great
      significance for water companies and regulators when setting urban water tariffs.
      This issue is even more relevant in privatized water industries, such as those in
      England and Wales, where the price-cap regulation is adopted. In this paper, an
      input-distance function is used to estimate productivity change and its
      determinants for the English and Welsh water-only companies (WoCs) over the
      period of 1993-2009. The impacts of several exogenous variables on companies'
      efficiencies are also explored. From a policy perspective, this study describes
      how regulators can use this type of modeling and results to calculate
      illustrative X factors for the WoCs. The results indicate that the 1994 and 1999
      price reviews stimulated technical change, and there were small efficiency gains.
      However, the 2004 price review did not accelerate efficiency change or improve
      technical change. The results also indicated that during the whole period of
      study, the excessive scale of the WoCs contributed negatively to productivity
      growth. On average, WoCs reported relatively high efficiency levels, which
      suggests that they had already been investing in technologies that reduce long
      term input requirements with respect to exogenous and service-quality variables.
      Finally, an average WoC needs to improve its productivity toward that of the best
      company by 1.58%. The methodology and results of this study are of great interest
      to both regulators and water-company managers for evaluating the effectiveness of
      regulation and making informed decisions.

PMID- 28580546
TI  - Dye removal of AR27 with enhanced degradation and power generation in a microbial
      fuel cell using bioanode of treated clinoptilolite-modified graphite felt.
AB  - This work studied the performance of a laboratory-scale microbial fuel cell (MFC)
      using a bioanode that consisted of treated clinoptilolite fine powder coated onto
      graphite felt (TC-MGF). The results were compared with another similar MFC that
      used a bare graphite felt (BGF) bioanode. The anode surfaces provided active
      sites for the adhesion of the bacterial consortium (NAR-2) and the biodegradation
      of mono azo dye C.I. Acid Red 27. As a result, bioelectricity was generated in
      both MFCs. A 98% decolourisation rate was achieved using the TC-MGF bioanode
      under a fed-batch operation mode. Maximum power densities for BGF and TC-MGF
      bioanodes were 458.8 +/- 5.0 and 940.3 +/- 4.2 mW m-2, respectively. GC-MS
      analyses showed that the dye was readily degraded in the presence of the TC-MGF
      bioanode. The MFC using the TC-MGF bioanode showed a stable biofilm with no
      biomass leached out for more than 300 h operation. In general, MFC performance
      was substantially improved by the fabricated TC-MGF bioanode. It was also found
      that the TC-MGF bioanode with the stable biofilm presented the nature of
      exopolysaccharide (EPS) structure, which is suitable for the biodegradation of
      the azo dye. In fact, the EPS facilitated the shuttling of electrons to the
      bioanode for the generation of bioelectricity.

PMID- 28580547
TI  - A dynamic modelling of nutrient metabolism in a cyclic activated sludge
      technology (CAST) for treating low carbon source wastewater.
AB  - A new mathematical model incorporating biopolymer kinetics and the process of the
      simultaneous storage and growth are established for the treatment of low carbon
      source wastewater with a high effluent quality and energy efficiency. A set of
      initial parameter values was assigned as a combination of estimated values,
      literature-based values, and fitted values to simulate a cyclic activated sludge
      technology (CAST) system effectively. Compared with experimental data from the
      CAST system, the calibrated model demonstrated a good performance. Model
      simulations indicated that the recommended condition for a CAST fed with low
      carbon source wastewater was a volume ratio of the anoxic zone to the aerobic
      zone of 7/28. Moreover, using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing not only
      characterised the microbial communities in the CAST reactors operated under two
      feeding ratios but also indirectly validated the model predictions.

PMID- 28580545
TI  - Polymer nanoparticles containing essential oils: new options for mosquito
      control.
AB  - Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are vectors of important parasites and pathogens
      causing death, poverty and social disability worldwide. The overuse of synthetic
      insecticides to control mosquito vectors lead to resistance, adverse
      environmental effects and high operational costs. Therefore, the development of
      eco-friendly control tools is an important public health challenge. In this
      study, two different essential oils (EO) (geranium, Geranium maculatum, and
      bergamot, Citrus bergamia) loaded polymeric nanoparticle (PN) were elaborated
      using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and chitosan (Qx) as the polymeric
      matrix/coating. In addition, the mosquito larvicidal acute and residual activity
      of the PN was evaluated on Culex pipiens pipiens. The physicochemical
      characterization of PN revealed that PEG-PN had sizes <255 nm and encapsulation
      efficiency between 68 and 77%; Qx-PN showed sizes <535 nm and encapsulation
      efficiency between 22 and 38%. From the toxicological test, it was observed that
      Qx-PN produced higher acute and residual activity than PEG-PN. Overall, this
      study highlights that polymer nanoparticles containing essential oil are a
      promising source of eco-friendly mosquito larvicidal products.

PMID- 28580548
TI  - Development of an eco-friendly mosquitocidal agent from Alangium salvifolium
      against the dengue vector Aedes aegypti and its biosafety on the aquatic
      predator.
AB  - Plant extracts with their enriched chemical constituents have established
      potential alternative mosquito control agents. In this research, we developed an
      eco-friendly mosquitocidal agent from Alangium salvifolium leaves against the
      dengue and Zika virus vector Aedes aegypti and we investigated its biosafety on
      the mosquito aquatic predator Toxorhynchites splendens. Results showed that the
      methanolic extract of A. salvifolium leaves was composed by eight main compounds,
      with major peak area for hexadecenoic acid (21.74%). LC50 and LC90 values
      calculated on Ae. aegypti fourth instar larvae were 104.80 and 269.15 ppm
      respectively. The methanolic extract tested at 100 ppm decreased the alpha-beta
      carboxylesterase and SOD ratio significantly and upregulated the GST and CYP450
      level. The A. salvifolium methanolic extract displayed significant repellent and
      adulticidal activity at 100 and 400 ppm respectively. The treatment with 100 ppm
      of the methanolic extract led to 210 min of protection from Ae. aegypti bites.
      Four hundred parts per million of the extract showed 98% adult mortality within
      30 min from the treatment. Lastly, biosafety assays on the mosquito aquatic
      predator Tx. splendens showed that the toxicity of the A. salvifolium extract was
      significantly lower if compared to the cypermethrin-based treatments. The
      methanolic extract of A. salvifolium showed a maximum of 47.3% mortality rate at
      the concentration of 1000 ppm, while 0.7 ppm of cypermethrin achieved 91.3%
      mortality rate on Tx. splendens. Overall, our study enhances basic knowledge on
      how to improve natural larvicidal agents against dengue and Zika virus mosquito
      vector with harmless responses on non-target aquatic predators.

PMID- 28580549
TI  - Experimental study on the stability of the ClHgSO3- in desulfurization
      wastewater.
AB  - Wet flue gas desulfurization technologies have received much concern for their
      superior performance on co-controlling the acid gases and mercury. However, high
      concentrations of mercury-containing desulfurization wastewater, which discharge
      from wet flue gas desulfurization system regularly, have received researchers'
      attention since it might generate the risk of secondary pollution. In this paper,
      the species of mercuric complexes in the desulfurization wastewater was
      investigated. It speculated that ClHgSO3- might determine the residual rate of
      Hg2+ in the desulfurization wastewater. Besides, the stability of ClHgSO3- on the
      condition of various wastewater features was also evaluated. The experiment
      revealed that the high temperature and high pH level promoted the decomposition
      of ClHgSO3-. SO32- could restrain the decomposition of ClHgSO3- gently; the Hg2+
      residual rate was determined by the new mercury complexes which compounded by
      Hg2+ and SO32-. The decrease of SO42- and increase of Ca2+ concentrations could
      also stimulate the stability of ClHgSO3- in wastewater. Cu2+ and Fe2+ disturbed
      the stability of complexes for their catalysis and reduction activities. The
      study proposed that the ClHgSO3- probably decomposes and releases Hg0 in two
      pathways. Furthermore, changes of the water's features could disturb the balance
      of Hg2+-Cl--SO32- systems, which might stimulate the decomposition of ClHgSO3.

PMID- 28580550
TI  - Magnetic signature, geochemistry, and oral bioaccessibility of "technogenic"
      metals in contaminated industrial soils from Sindos Industrial Area, Northern
      Greece.
AB  - The objective of this study was to assess the contamination level of potentially
      harmful elements (PHEs) in industrial soils and how this relates to environmental
      magnetism. Moreover, emphasis was given to the determination of the potential
      mobile fractions of typically "technogenic" metals. Therefore, magnetic and
      geochemical parameters were determined in topsoils (0-20 cm) collected around a
      chemical industry in Sindos Industrial Area, Thessaloniki, Greece. Soil samples
      were presented significantly enriched in "technogenic" metals such Cd, Pb, and
      Zn, while cases of severe soil contamination were observed in sampling sites
      north-west of the industrial unit. Contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Mo, Sb, Sn,
      and Zn in soils and pollution load index (PLI) were highly correlated with mass
      specific magnetic susceptibility (chi lf). Similarly, enrichment factor (EF) and
      geoaccumulation index (I geo) for "technogenic" Pb and Zn exhibited high positive
      correlation factors with chi lf. Principal component analysis (PCA) classified
      PHEs along with the magnetic variable (chi lf) into a common group indicating
      anthropogenic influence. The water extractable concentrations were substantially
      low, while the descending order of UBM (Unified BARGE Method) extractable
      concentrations in the gastric phase was Zn > Pb > As > Cd, yet Cd showed the
      highest bioaccessibility (almost 95%).

PMID- 28580551
TI  - Investigating the relationship between lead speciation and bioaccessibility of
      mining impacted soils and dusts.
AB  - Lead (Pb) bioaccessibility measurements have been the subject of much research in
      recent years, given the desire to develop a cost-effective and reliable
      alternative method to estimate its bioavailability from soils and dusts. This
      study investigates the relationship between Pb bioaccessibility estimated using
      the Relative Bioavailability Leaching Procedure (RBALP) and solid phase
      speciation of Pb using mining impacted soils and associated dusts. Solid phase
      speciation was conducted prior to and after RBALP extractions. The average Pb
      concentrations were 59, 67, and 385 mg/kg for top soil, sub-soil, and house dust
      samples, respectively. Lead bioaccessibility in selected top soils and dusts
      ranged from 16.7 to 57.3% and 8.9 to 98.1%, respectively. Solid phase speciation
      of Pb in <250 MUm residues prior to and after RBALP extraction revealed 83%
      decrease in Pb bound to carbonate fraction after RBALP extraction. This accounts
      for 69% of RBALP-extractable Pb. Besides contribution from carbonate bound Pb,
      76.6 and 53.2% of Pb bound to Mn oxyhydroxides and amorphous Fe and Al
      oxyhydroxides contributed to bioaccessible Pb, respectively. However, Pb bound to
      Mn oxyhydroxides and amorphous Fe and Al oxyhydroxides account for only 13.8 and
      20.0% of total RBALP-extractable Pb, respectively. Both non-specifically bound
      and easily exchangeable fractions and strongly bound inner-sphere complexes were
      also part of bioaccessible Pb. The present study demonstrates that bioaccessible
      Pb is released from both soil solution phase Pb as well as that from all soil
      solid phase with the most contribution being from Pb bound to carbonate mineral
      phase.

PMID- 28580553
TI  - [The Development of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing in Taiwan: Reflection
      From the Perspective of Recovery].
AB  - Evidence-based nursing science has identified psychological recovery,
      partnership, and medication adherence as factors that have influenced the
      development of mental health care. This article discusses the process by which
      mental health care has developed from a medical / rehabilitation-focused model to
      a model that focuses on patient empowerment. The current model aims to assist
      patients to achieve self-awareness and to develop coping skills that enhance
      their motivation to transform. Medical advances have improved the control of
      psychiatric symptoms. Following the introduction of 2nd generation
      antipsychotics, patients were invited to establish decisions related to these
      prescription medications. Under the principles of patient-centered service,
      Taiwanese mental health professionals have changed their relationship with
      patients from a therapeutic model to a mutual-partnership model. Furthermore,
      investigations of the therapeutic care of patients with mental illness have used
      the needs of patients as their starting point and emphasized various aspects of
      patient and caregiver needs. Taiwanese mental health professionals are searching
      for a model of mental health care that is superior to the traditional operative
      framework of medical authority.

PMID- 28580552
TI  - Ability of T1 Lipase to Degrade Amorphous P(3HB): Structural and Functional
      Study.
AB  - An enzyme with broad substrate specificity would be an asset for industrial
      application. T1 lipase apparently has the same active site residues as
      polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) depolymerase. Sequences of both enzymes were studied
      and compared, and a conserved lipase box pentapeptide region around the
      nucleophilic serine was detected. The alignment of 3-D structures for both
      enzymes showed their active site residues were well aligned with an RMSD value of
      1.981 A despite their sequence similarity of only 53.8%. Docking of T1 lipase
      with P(3HB) gave forth high binding energy of 5.4 kcal/mol, with the distance of
      4.05 A between serine hydroxyl (OH) group of TI lipase to the carbonyl carbon of
      the substrate, similar to the native PhaZ7 Pl . This suggests the possible
      ability of T1 lipase to bind P(3HB) in its active site. The ability of T1 lipase
      in degrading amorphous P(3HB) was investigated on 0.2% (w/v) P(3HB) plate. Halo
      zone was observed around the colony containing the enzyme which confirms that T1
      lipase is indeed able to degrade amorphous P(3HB). Results obtained in this study
      highlight the fact that T1 lipase is a versatile hydrolase enzyme which does not
      only record triglyceride degradation activity but amorphous P(3HB) degradation
      activity as well.

PMID- 28580554
TI  - [Self-Awareness of Disease Stigma: Reflections of Healthcare Professionals].
AB  - People who suffer from disease frequently experience disease-related stigmas.
      Stigma presents in daily life during normal human interactions. The stereotypes
      promoted by the media often impact public opinion significantly. Moreover,
      healthcare professionals may exacerbate stigmatization due to their
      misunderstanding of patients and their disease issues. Therefore, the reflection
      on stigma of healthcare professionals cannot be ignored. The present article
      illustrates the issue of stigmas held by healthcare professionals, their related
      stigmas, and their self-awareness. It is hoped that all healthcare professionals
      may cooperate to develop an anti-stigma strategy and to become true spokespersons
      for their patients.

PMID- 28580555
TI  - [Care of Individuals With Bipolar Disorders].
AB  - Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe mental illness that is characterized by
      chronicity, pervasive instability, and relatively high rates of recurrence and
      suicide. Current evidence supports that adverse circles among hereditary and
      genetic factors, neuroinflamation, and social rhythm constitute a crucial
      etiology. Pharmacological treatment is the first priority for BD patients during
      the acute stage. Pharmacological and psychosocial treatments should be combined
      during the maintenance stage in order to help patients self-manage medication,
      effectively control mood swings, enhance disease self-management and social
      functions, decrease the risks of relapse and re-hospitalization, and stabilize
      overall health. The present article firstly introduces the characteristics and
      etiological assumptions related to BD, the related evidence-based care models and
      their effects, and the early development of an evidence-based care model, the
      BalancingMySwing group, for BD patients in Taiwan. This article provides updated
      information to clinicians who are involved in caring for this population.
      Moreover, the existing data related to biological and psychosocial factors for BD
      in Taiwan is insufficient and developing individual-tailored psychosocial
      intervention is urgently needed. The authors hope that this article will elicit
      greater concern for this issue from policy decision-makers and healthcare
      providers.

PMID- 28580556
TI  - [The Application of Body-Mind-Spirit Integrated Psychotherapy in Nursing
      Practice].
AB  - Body-mind-spirit integrated psychotherapy reflects the core value of nursing by
      emphasizing the inseparable concept of body, mind, and spirit and caring for the
      holistic needs of the patient. Body-mind-spirit integrated psychotherapy was
      developed based on Western psychotherapy (positive psychology and forgiveness
      therapy), traditional Chinese medicine, and the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism,
      Taoism, and Confucianism. The present paper describes the holistic concepts that
      underpin this therapeutic approach. Physical health is sustained through proper
      nutrition, physical relaxation, and harmonized breathing; psychological well
      being helps maintain inner peace and harmony in interpersonal relationships; and
      spiritual well-being helps develop an optimistic and meaningful life. We report
      on several cases in which body-mind-spirit integrated psychotherapy was applied
      to the care of clients with depressive disorders and of breast cancer survivors
      and their partners as well as the related efficacy of this intervention in these
      cases. Finally, we discuss the potential for culturally-enriched psychotherapy to
      help clients transform illness suffering into life-growth experiences.

PMID- 28580557
TI  - [Localization Establishment of an Interdisciplinary Intervention Model to Prevent
      Post-Operative Delirium in Older Patients Based on 'Hospital Elder Life
      Program'].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative delirium is a significant complication in elderly
      patients. The occurrence of delirium may increase the related physical and
      psychological risks, delay the length of hospital stays, and even lead to death.
      According to the current evidence-based model, the application of
      interdisciplinary intervention may effectively prevent delirium, shorten the
      length of hospital stays, and save costs. PURPOSE: To establish a culturally
      appropriate interdisciplinary intervention model for preventing postoperative
      delirium in older Chinese patients. METHODS: The authors adapted the original
      version of the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP(c)) from the Hebrew Senior Life
      Institute for Aging Research of Harvard University by localizing the content
      using additional medical resources and translating the modified instrument into
      Chinese. Furthermore, the final version of this interdisciplinary intervention
      model for postoperative delirium was developed in accordance with the "guideline
      of delirium: diagnosis, prevention and management produced by the National
      Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in 2010" and the "clinical practice
      guideline for postoperative delirium in older adults" produced by American
      geriatrics society in 2014. Finally, the translated instrument was revised and
      improved using discussions, consultations, and pilot study. RESULTS: The
      abovementioned procedure generated an interdisciplinary intervention model for
      preventing postoperative delirium that is applicable to the Chinese medical
      environment. The content addresses personnel structure and assignment of
      responsibility; details of interdisciplinary intervention protocols and
      implementation procedures; and required personnel training. CONCLUSIONS: The
      revised model is expected to decrease the occurrence of post-operative delirium
      and other complications in elderly patients, to help them maintain and improve
      their function, to shorten the length of their hospital stays, and to facilitate
      recovery.

PMID- 28580558
TI  - [The Determinants of Dysphagia in Patients With Stroke During Hospitalized
      Rehabilitation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke was the third leading cause of death in Taiwan in 2014. A
      study found that 53.61% of stroke patients suffered from dysphagia disorder
      during the rehabilitation phase, which may result in lung aspiration and death.
      The determinants of dysphagia among nationally hospitalized-rehabilitation stroke
      patients have not been explored comprehensively. PURPOSE: To explore the
      incidence of dysphagia among hospitalized-rehabilitation stroke patients and the
      related determinants of dysphagia. METHODS: This descriptive and correlational
      research design employed a convenience sample of 130 hospitalized stroke patients
      from rehabilitation wards at a northern regional hospital in Taiwan. A
      questionnaire and functional assessment were used to collect data. Instruments
      used included personal and clinical characteristics data questionnaire, the
      National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Barthel Index, Mini-Mental
      State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Standardization
      Swallowing Assessment (SSA), and Acute Stroke Dysphagia Screening (ASDS). Data
      analyses contained descriptive statistics and logistic regression. RESULTS: The
      incidence of stroke dysphagia was 63.8% (SSA) and 64.6% (ASDS), respectively.
      Age, marital status, stroke site, stroke severity (NIHSS), and cognitive status
      (MMSE) were identified as significant determinants of dysphagia in bivariate
      logistic regression, whereas stroke severity and cognitive status were identified
      as significant independent determinants of dysphagia in multivariate logistic
      regression. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Two-thirds of the
      participant sample were affected by dysphagia, for which NIHSS and cognitive
      status were identified as significant determinants. Thus, nurses may conduct
      early screening for high risk populations based on patients' clinical
      characteristics in order to reduce aspiration pneumonia problems and to improve
      the quality of clinical care for dysphagia patients.

PMID- 28580559
TI  - [Translation and Development of the Chinese-Version Patient Privacy Scale].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The unauthorized releasing of confidential patient information is a
      serious problem worldwide. Nurses, the healthcare professionals who are in most
      frequent contact with patients, have access to a significant amount of
      confidential patient information and play a key role in protecting patient
      privacy. However, currently, there is no proper tool to measure the level to
      which clinical nurses protect the privacy of their patients in China. PURPOSE: To
      translate the patient privacy scale (PPS) into Chinese and to test the
      reliability and validity of this Chinese version. METHODS: The original scale was
      developed by Ozturk, Bahcecik, and Ozcelik (2014) to identify whether nurses
      protect or violate patient privacy in the workplace. This study used the "back
      translation" method to translate the scale. A total of 616 nurses in two tertiary
      hospitals in the Western region of China were enrolled to test the internal
      consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of the translated
      scale. RESULTS: The Cronbach's coefficients of the total scale and its 5 factors
      ranged from .84 to .94; the split half reliability was .91; the test-retest
      reliability was .82; and the content validity index was .95. Explanatory factor
      analysis revealed that the 5 factors explained 64.98% of the total variance.
      CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the PPS is reliable and valid, and may be
      used to reliably assess the behaviors of nurses with regard to protecting the
      privacy of their patients. The scale may also be used to evaluate the effects of
      training on patient privacy protection.

PMID- 28580560
TI  - [A Symbol of Connectedness Between the Self and the Tribal Home: Betel Quid in
      the Lives of Indigenous Taiwanese].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Betel quid chewing plays a significant role in the development of
      oral cancer, yet the high prevalence of betel quid use remains a serious health
      problem in Taiwan, especially among indigenous Taiwanese. PURPOSE: The present
      study aimed to understand the reasons behind betel-quid chewing among indigenous
      Taiwanese people by examining the larger context of their culture and traditions.
      METHODS: This descriptive, qualitative study recruited ten regular betel quid
      indigenous chewers using purposive and snowball sampling. Four of the
      participants were interviewed individually and the remaining six comprised a
      focus group. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with semi-structured
      guidelines and analyzed using qualitative content analysis following the process
      of open coding, identifying codes, giving meaningful names to codes, putting
      similar codes in categories, and grouping categories into themes. RESULTS: Most
      of the participants associated betel quid with significant aspects of life, with
      betel quid symbolizing social belonging. In indigenous cultures, betel nut
      embodies the enduring companionship of lifelong friends. For the study
      participants, chewing betel quid was associated with symbolic meanings associated
      with the following five themes: betel quid chewing helps reinforce self-identity
      and sense of belonging; betel quid is considered a traditional symbol of love and
      marriage; betel quid reflects the celebration of simple abundance in indigenous
      life; betel quid represents an attitude toward life that accentuates the
      importance of learning to live in everlasting harmony with the environment and
      nature; and betel quid chewing is used to cure physical ailments and mitigate
      dental problems. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Beliefs related to
      chewing betel quid deeply impact the attitudes of indigenous people toward this
      behavior. Because chewing betel quid is an essential part of Taiwanese indigenous
      community life, the cultural and symbolic meanings of this practice must be taken
      into consideration when drafting related policies and developing cessation
      programs in order to help indigenous betel-quid chewers effectively reduce the
      risk of developing oral cancers.

PMID- 28580561
TI  - [Using Interdisciplinary Cooperation to Improve the Rate of Proper Performance of
      a Hand Exercise Among Hemodialysis Patients With Arteriovenous Fistula
      Construction].
AB  - BACKGROUND & PROBLEMS: Patients who undergo new arteriovenous fistula (AVF)
      construction as part of their hemodialysis treatment program are required to
      perform hand exercises properly in order to maintain AVF function. However, poor
      performance of these hand exercises currently results in the failure of many
      patients to preserve AVF function. PURPOSE: To increase the rate of performing
      this hand exercise properly from 55% to 80%. RESOLUTION: A comprehensive
      investigation identified the following five main problems: (a) Insufficient
      muscular endurance; (b) Resistance was not labeled on the ball; (c) Difficulties
      with maintaining a grip on the ball during the exercise; (d) Lack of standardized
      education procedures; and (e) Nurses lack latest knowledge on the hand exercise.
      The strategies used to improve the situation included: (a) Interdisciplinary team
      cooperation with physiotherapists to design individualized resistance training
      regimens; (b) Exercise tool improvement; (c) Standardized AVF care; (d)
      Continuous education for nursing staffs; and (e) Seed teacher program for hand
      exercise. RESULTS: The rate of proper hand exercise performance increased from
      55% to 93%. CONCLUSIONS: This nursing project involved an interdisciplinary team
      that included physiotherapists in order to successfully improve the rate at which
      the hand exercise was performed properly. This positive experience may be applied
      to other hemodialysis departments in the treatment of patients with AVF.

PMID- 28580562
TI  - [Applying Team Resource Management to Accelerate Rewarming Among Patients
      Undergoing General Anesthesia].
AB  - BACKGROUND & PROBLEMS : Hypothermia is the cause of multiple problems such as
      delayed awaking from anesthesia, feelings of discomfort, increased oxygen
      consumption, and increased risks of surgical wound infection and complications. A
      review of the record of post-operative patients receiving general anesthesia (GA)
      revealed that only 74% of the patients in our post-anesthesia room (PAR) had
      restored their body temperature to 36C after 60 minutes. Through situation
      analysis, several causes were identified, including insufficient warming
      facilities, lack of standard procedures and an audit system, lack of knowledge
      regarding hyperthermia among nurses, and the incompleteness of perioperative
      warming interventions performed by the healthcare team. PURPOSE: The aim of the
      present project was to apply team resource management (TRM) to raise the rate of
      body temperature restoration to 36 degrees C after 60 minutes in our post
      anesthesia room (PAR) from 74% to 100%. RESOLUTION: Several strategies were
      implemented to accelerate the post-operative rewarming for patients receiving GA,
      including: establishment of standard operating procedures for warming, conducting
      routine audits, purchasing warming facilities, conducting in-service education,
      applying TRM, and cooperating with nurses in operating rooms on executing the
      warming plan. RESULT: After implementing these strategies, our PAR achieved a
      100% success rate in raising the body temperature of postoperative patients to 36
      degrees C after 60 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: The result demonstrates that hypothermia
      may be effectively avoided and that the quality of post-operative care may be
      effectively improved through transdisciplinary teamwork.

PMID- 28580563
TI  - [New Treatment for Vascular Thrombosis Prevention in Patients With Atrial
      Fibrillation: Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion].
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common type of arrhythmia that increases
      significantly the risk of blood clots in the heart and of stroke. Therefore,
      stroke prevention is a key goal of AF treatment. In the past, patients were
      required to take anticoagulants for the remainder of their life, to regularly the
      monitor international normalized ratio (INR) of prothrombin time (PT), and to
      avoid possible negative interactions with various drugs and foods. Left atrial
      appendage occlusion (LAAO), a novel device and technique, was thus developed for
      AF patients with contraindications to anticoagulants and a high risk of bleeding.
      When using this technique, the occluder is placed on the left atrial appendage in
      order to effectively prevent blood stasis and thrombi accumulation.
      Transesophageal echocardiogram and computed tomography are conducted prior to the
      LAAO procedure, which is similar to the procedure used for cardiac
      catheterization. After the LAAO procedure, the patient remains in the intensive
      care unit (ICU), where vital signs, bleeding at the puncture site, and
      pericardial tamponade complications are monitored. Health education on daily
      activities, anticoagulant use, and regular follow-up should be given prior to
      hospital discharge. While LAAO may not reduce the incidence of stroke, the
      benefits of this procedure include a significant reduction in bleeding
      complications as compared to procedures that use oral anticoagulants. Further
      studies including long-term follow up and in-depth examinations of this procedure
      are necessary. The present article offers a reference for clinical staffs who are
      responsible for the care of patients treated using the LAAO procedure.

PMID- 28580564
TI  - [Using the FOCUS Family Intervention in Caring for a Patient-Spouse Dyad With
      Advanced Colorectal Cancer].
AB  - The care-related burdens of the spouses of advanced cancer patients often impact
      negatively on their physical health, emotional well-being, social functioning,
      and quality of life. Thus, dyad interventions have been created to meet the
      demands of advanced cancer patients and their spouses. However, the application
      of dyadic care in clinical settings is currently rather limited in Taiwan. The
      present case study involved a patient with advanced colorectal cancer and
      malignant bowel obstruction whose disease-related demands had eroded the
      patient's physical, psychological, and spiritual health. The patient's condition
      placed overwhelming stress on the spouse, jeopardizing the relationship of the
      dyad. This article elaborates the implementation of the FOCUS program with the
      goal of helping the dyad achieve better disease adjustment through family
      involvement, optimistic attitude, effective coping, better symptom management,
      and uncertainty reduction. Through this delineated experience, the authors hope
      to help healthcare providers achieve a higher quality of care while caring for
      patient-family dyads with colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28580565
TI  - [Reducing the Care-Related Burdens of a Family Caregiver of a Person With Mild
      Cognitive Impairment: A Home-Based Case Management Program].
AB  - The long-term care of cognitively impaired patients with concomitant behavioral
      problems brings great stress and burdens to family caregivers. The present
      article describes a family caregiver with multiple chronic diseases who
      concurrently shouldered primary care responsibilities for her husband, a patient
      with mild cognitive impairment, problematic behaviors, and medication non
      adherence issues. The period of care was between September 23rd and December
      29th, 2015. Data on physiological, psychological, and social burdens were
      collected based on a stress process model for family caregiving. We then applied
      a home-based, individually tailored intervention, which included nursing
      education, skills training, listening/counseling, and resource connecting, that
      effectively helped the family caregiver reduce her burdens. Our assessment
      identified nursing-care-related problems as the primary source of caregiver
      burden in this case, with identified stressors including a lack of knowledge
      regarding patient care, medication management problems, sleep disorders, and
      inadequate social resources. Using continuous care interactions, we established a
      trust relationship with the family caregiver, prioritized her needs, and provided
      dementia care knowledge and skills, which gradually improved her caregiving
      competence. Our instruction included increasing caregiver understanding of the
      disease course of dementia, related problematic behaviors, and medication
      management. Our intervention enhanced the disease awareness of the caregiver and
      helped her become more positive about her caregiving tasks. Therefore, the
      negative impacts on her family were reduced. Social support and long-term care
      resources further reduced her burden and improved her quality of life.

PMID- 28580567
TI  - Cytohistological discrepancies of cervico-vaginal smears and HPV status.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Discrepancies between abnormal cervical cytology or high-risk human
      papillomavirus (HR-HPV) status (cytolo-gy negative/HPV positive) and subsequent
      histological findings are a common occurrence. After using co-testing, the dis
      crepancies between the HR-HPV status and cervical cytology have become an issue.
      In this study, we aimed to determine the characteristics of women with a
      discrepancy between histology and cytology/HR-HPV status, in terms of diagnosis,
      review and identification. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 52 women, patients of
      the University Hospital between 2013-2015, with cytohistologi-cal or HR-HPV
      status discrepancy were recruited for the study and retrospectively analyzed. The
      cytological samples were liquid-based Pap smears, classified according to the
      2001 Bethesda system. The HR-HPV status was identified using the Hybrid Capture 2
      HR-HPV DNA assay. The histological samples were obtained by cervical biopsy as
      well as large loop exci-sion of the transformation zone (LLETZ). RESULTS: A
      cytohistological discrepancy was demonstrated in patients with (-)cytology/HR
      HPV(+), ASCUS, LSIL, ASC-H, HSIL, AGC-NOS: 17.3%, 23.07%, 26.9%, 9.5%, 17.3% and
      5.7%, respectively. When the degree of atypia in cytology increases, the
      concurrency of cervical cytology with biopsy also increases. A positive HR-HPV co
      test result (19/24, 79.1%) was observed in nearly all CIN2 >= (+) cases. Our
      study emphasizes the significance of HR-HPV testing to determine CIN2 >= (+)
      cases, even in the presence of a normal cytological result. CONCLUSIONS: In case
      of cytohistological or HR-HPV discrepancies, a careful review of the HR-HPV
      status and the degree of cytological atypia should be performed before further
      intervention.

PMID- 28580568
TI  - Causes and frequency of tocophobia - own experiences.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The phenomenon of tocophobia (pathological fear of labor) has not
      been fully explored. Currently, there are no diagnostic criteria that would
      enable its detection or make it recognizable as a disease entity. The aim of
      study was to determine the degree of anxiety/tocophobia as well as to learn about
      and analyze the causes of this phenomenon in Polish pregnant women. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The prospective study included 120 pregnant women in the third trimester
      of gestation from February to May 2016. The study was performed with the use of a
      standardized and revised version of the Labor Anxi-ety Questionnaire (KLP II)
      designed by Putynski and Paciorek (1997) as well as a proprietary interview
      questionnaire and structured data documentation form. RESULTS: In 6.7% of the
      subjects, the level of labor anxiety was very high (> 18 in KLP II). It was the
      highest in women over 30 years of age (Pearson's chi squared test = 0.00422; p <
      0.05). It has been shown that successive childbirths have an im-pact on the
      degree of anxiety (p = 0.04217).The highest level of anxiety was noted in
      primiparous women. In 85% of the subjects, anxiety was caused by fear of labor
      pain. 56.7% of the tested women did not use any professional help in the
      preparation for childbirth and motherhood. CONCLUSIONS: Primiparas and women over
      30 years of age experience very high levels of fear significantly more
      frequently. The lack of proper preparation for childbirth determines the
      occurrence of tocophobia. Ante-natal classes and prenatal education based on
      standards of obstetric care should be promoted in order to reduce or eliminate
      fear of natural labor.

PMID- 28580566
TI  - Animal models for disc degeneration-an update.
AB  - Intervertebral disc degeneration is considered a major cause of back pain that
      places a heavy burden on society, both because of its effect on the physiology of
      individuals and its consequences on the world economy. During the past few
      decades, research findings in the pre-clinical setting have led to a significant
      increase in the understanding of intervertebral disc degeneration, although many
      aspects of the disease remain unclear. The goal of this review is to summarize
      existing animal models for disc degeneration studies and the difficulties that
      are associated with the use of such models. A firm understanding of the cellular
      and molecular events that ensue as a result of injuries, as well as environmental
      factors, could be instrumental in the development of targeted therapies for the
      treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration.

PMID- 28580569
TI  - Gestational diabetes mellitus/hyperglycaemia during pregnancy in Poland in the
      years 2010-2012 based on the data from the National Health Fund.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The incidence of gestational diabetes varies depending on a country
      and it is extremely difficult to analyse. The aim of the study was to assess the
      incidence of gestational diabetes in Polish population. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Based on the data from the National Health Fund (NHF) the authors analysed
      reports regarding deliveries performed and then, determined the rates of
      gestational diabetes/hyperglycaemia during pregnancy and pregestational diabetes
      in Poland in the years 2010-2012. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In Poland, the
      incidence of gestational diabetes was estimated to be 4.665% in 2010, 6.918% in
      2011 and 7.489% in 2012. The incidence of pregestational diabetes was 1.067% in
      2010, 1.116% in 2011 and 0.932% in 2012.

PMID- 28580570
TI  - IL16 and IL18 gene polymorphisms in women with gestational diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Gestational diabetes mellitus is a carbohydrate intolerance that
      occurs during pregnancy. Various inflammatory mediators are considered to be risk
      factors leading to GDM development. Among them are pro-inflammatory cytokines,
      such as IL16 and IL18. The aim of this study was to examine the association
      between IL16 and IL18 polymorphisms and GDM. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study
      included 204 pregnant women with GDM and 207 pregnant women with normal glucose
      tolerance (NGT). All samples were genotyped in duplicate using allelic
      discrimination assays with TaqMan(r) probes. RESULTS: We observed that there was
      a decreased frequency of IL16 rs4778889 CC genotype carriers among women with GDM
      (CC vs. CT + TT: OR = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.02-1.15; p = 0.034). However, there was no
      significant difference in the distri-bution of alleles (C vs. T: OR = 0.81; 95%
      CI = 0.54-1.21; p = 0.30). There was a decreased frequency of the IL18 rs187238 G
      allele among GDM women (G vs. C: OR = 0.71; 95% CI = 0.53-0.96; p = 0.027). We
      also observed a decreased frequency of the IL18 rs1946518 T allele among women
      with GDM; however, this difference had only borderline statistical significance.
      We observed an association between IL18 rs187238, rs1946518 and BMI in pregnant
      women. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that IL18 rs187238 and
      rs1946518 polymorphisms may be associated with an increased risk of GDM as well
      as with BMI in pregnant women.

PMID- 28580571
TI  - Ultrasound guided balloon catheterisation: a new method of fetal lower urinary
      tract obstruction management.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fetal lower urinary tract obstruction (LUTO), most often associated
      with presence of posterior urethral valves, poses high risk of perinatal
      mortality or postnatal renal failure. Looking for a method of causative treatment
      we have devel-oped a technique of fetal urethroplasty with a coronary angioplasty
      balloon catheter inserted under an ultrasonographic guidance via an 18-gauge
      needle introduced transabdominally to fetal bladder. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We
      have used this procedure in three women with singleton pregnancies (two
      primiparas and one multipara, 32-35 years of age), diagnosed with fetal
      megacystis at 12-16 weeks of gestation. Urethral catheterization was carried out
      at 16-18 weeks and an unobstructed urine flow was achieved in all three cases
      immediately after the procedure, followed by a resolution of megacystis and
      normalization of amniotic fluid volume. RESULTS: In all three cases, the post
      procedure period was uneventful. In the first two fetuses, amniotic fluid volume
      re-mained normal until 30 weeks of gestation when a gradual development of
      oligohydramnios and some signs of renal cystic dysplasia were observed.
      Nevertheless, both pregnancies were continued till term (37 and 39 weeks,
      respectively) and two boys without signs of pulmonary hypoplasia were delivered.
      The third patient is currently 25 weeks pregnant; volume of amniotic fluid in her
      fetus is normal and no signs of urinary flow obstruction or renal dysplasia have
      been recorded thus far. CONCLUSIONS: Although some technical aspects of the
      procedure still need to be established, it seems worth consideration as a form of
      potentially least traumatic intrauterine intervention in fetuses with lower
      urinary tract obstruction.

PMID- 28580572
TI  - The impact of low molecular weight heparin on obstetric outcomes among
      unexplained recurrent miscarriages complicated with methylenetetrahydrofolate
      reductase gene polymorphism.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The association between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene
      polymorphisms and unexplained recurrent miscarriage is elusive. The
      recommendations for improving pregnancy outcomes in these patients keep changing
      based on the available evidence. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact
      of low molecular weight heparin on obstetric outcomes of recurrent miscarriage
      patients complicated with methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphism.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 121 patients with a history
      of recurrent miscarriage complicated by methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene
      polymorphisms, retrospectively. From among them, 68 patients were treated only
      with folic acid and iron. The remaining 53 patients were treated with folic acid,
      iron and prophylactic doses of low molecular weight heparin. The subsequent
      pregnancy outcomes of these patients were noted. RESULTS: The live birth rate was
      higher in patients with anticoagulant therapy than in patients without
      anticoagulant therapy (48.5% vs. 69.8%, respectively, p: 0.015) and the
      congenital anomaly rate was lower in anticoagulant therapy group (17.6% vs. 3.8%,
      respectively, p: 0.022). The other obstetric outcomes were found to be similar
      between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated that low
      molecular weight heparin improved the live birth rates among unex-plained
      recurrent miscarriage patients complicated with methylenetetrahydrofolate
      reductase gene polymorphisms. How-ever, the routine use of low molecular weight
      heparin did not improve the late pregnancy complications in these selected
      patients in the eastern region of our country. Further studies are needed to
      discriminate the effect of anticoagulation on the live birth rate of each of
      methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphism type.

PMID- 28580573
TI  - Fetal neck tumors - antenatal and intrapartum management.
AB  - In this review article we describe the ante- and perinatal management of fetal
      neck tumors. Although there are rare congenital anomalies, the clinical
      consequences for the fetus may be fatal and include airways obstruction, heart
      insufficiency, pulmonary hypoplasia and cosmetic effect. The right management
      allows to decrease the fetal and neonatal mortality and morbidity associated with
      the disease. It includes intrauterine therapy in some cases, mostly in a goitrus
      hypothyroidism of the fetus, but firstly, an assessment of the fetal airways
      patency with a subsequent, eventual Ex-Utero Intrapartum Treatment (EXIT).

PMID- 28580574
TI  - Primary hyperparathyroidism in pregnancy - a review of literature.
AB  - Hyperparathyroidism during pregnancy is diagnosed in 0.5-1.4% women and poses a
      serious challenge. Symptoms of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP), namely fatigue,
      lethargy and proximal muscle weakness, are unspecific and could be mistaken as
      complaints naturally present during pregnancy. Thus, diagnosis is usually
      delayed. Moreover, the complications of PHP are very common. They occur in 67% of
      mothers and even in up to 80% of progeny. Appropriate management is a matter of
      debate. According to clinical symptoms, biochemical evaluation and trimester of
      pregnancy an operation or conservative management should be introduced. The
      recognition and understanding of the illness is therefore vital. Due to the lack
      of unequivocal guidelines concerning pregnancy and PHP, in this review we will
      analyze recent findings to facilitate proper proceedings.

PMID- 28580575
TI  - Favourable pregnancy outcome in a woman with secondary pulmonary hypertension
      complicating mitral stenosis.
AB  - Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare condition with a high incidence of maternal
      and perinatal mortality (30-56% and 10-13%, respectively). Pulmonary hypertension
      is a contraindication to pregnancy because of high risk of maternal death,
      therefore the World Health Organisation (WHO) advises to discuss a termination in
      the event of pregnancy with women suffering from PH.

PMID- 28580576
TI  - Managing epilepsy in women of childbearing age - Polish Society of Epileptology
      and Polish Gynecological Society Guidelines.

PMID- 28580577
TI  - Comparison of induction of labour regimes for termination of pregnancy, with and
      without mifepristone, from 20 to 41 weeks gestation.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the efficacy of mifepristone for induction of labour in
      pregnancies at 20-41 weeks' gestation, by comparing the outcomes of length of
      labour and duration of admission in women with and without mifepristone
      pretreatment. METHOD: In this retrospective cohort study, all women who underwent
      a medical termination of a singleton pregnancy between 20 and 41 weeks gestation
      for either a fetal abnormality or fetal death in utero between 1 January, 2009
      and 1 January, 2014 were identified. Women who went into spontaneous labour,
      required a primary surgical delivery or had a multiple pregnancy were not
      included. RESULTS: The total number of women included in the study was 147: 63 in
      the mifepristone treatment and 84 in the no mifepristone treatment. In the group
      of women induced after mifepristone pre-treatment there was a 38% reduction in
      the median duration of labour, with 2.5 h in the group treated with mifepristone
      versus 4.0 h in women induced without (P = 0.001). We also found a 50% reduction
      in the number of days admitted to hospital with the length of admission being 1
      day versus 2 days (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: This study supports the hypothesis
      that in pregnancies greater than 20 weeks, the duration of labour and length of
      admission are reduced when induction of labour for termination of pregnancy is
      preceded by treatment with mifepristone.

PMID- 28580578
TI  - Cervical cancer in women under 25 years of age in Queensland, Australia: To what
      extent is the diagnosis made by screening cytology?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The current Australian National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP)
      involves biennial, cytology-based screening of women from the age of 18 years.
      From December, 2017 this will change to a five-yearly human papilloma virus-based
      screening commencing at age 25. There is some concern that the new program may
      delay the opportunistic detection of cervical cancers in women under 25 years.
      AIM: (1) To review all cases of invasive cervical cancer in Queensland women
      under the age of 25 over the last 28 years. (2) To determine symptoms and
      screening history prior to diagnosis. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was
      undertaken at the Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer (QCGC) and the
      Queensland Cancer Registry (QCR) of all women aged between 13 and 25 years
      diagnosed with cervical cancer in Queensland between 1984 and 2012. Demographic
      data and symptoms prior to diagnosis were extracted from the QCGC and QCR
      databases. RESULTS: A total of 56 women aged 13-25, were diagnosed with cervical
      cancer and treated at the QCGC between 1984 and 2012. The commonest reason for
      the diagnosis of cancer was investigation of abnormal symptoms (n = 22, 39%)
      rather than routine Pap smear abnormalities (n = 15, 26%). CONCLUSIONS:
      Consistent with the world literature, there is a very low incidence of cervical
      cancer in women under 25 years of age, irrespective of the age of commencement of
      screening, or the screening interval. Our study lends some support to the
      proposed commencement age of 25 years in the new NCSP.

PMID- 28580579
TI  - Secukinumab sustains good efficacy and favourable safety in moderate-to-severe
      psoriasis after up to 3 years of treatment: results from a double-blind extension
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secukinumab has demonstrated significant efficacy with a good safety
      profile through 1 year in plaque psoriasis. Given the chronic nature of this
      disease, long-term follow-up is needed to evaluate psoriasis therapies fully.
      OBJECTIVES: To determine the long-term (3-year) efficacy and safety of
      secukinumab in moderate-to-severe psoriasis. METHODS: Patients completing 52
      weeks of secukinumab treatment in the SCULPTURE core study entered an extension
      in which they continued the same double-blind regimens. Dosing regimens included
      a fixed-interval schedule (FI; every 4 weeks) and retreatment as needed (RAN), in
      which patients were withdrawn from secukinumab and received placebo until the
      start of relapse, at which time secukinumab every 4 weeks was reinitiated. The
      study was registered with number NCT01640951. RESULTS: In total 168 patients
      receiving secukinumab 300 mg FI and 172 receiving secukinumab 300 mg RAN entered
      the extension. Secukinumab 300 mg FI sustained high efficacy: at the end of year
      3, the proportion of responders achieving >= 90% improvement in Psoriasis Area
      and Severity Index (PASI 90) was 63.8%, and of PASI 100 responders it was 42.6%.
      The mean absolute PASI remained low (2-4) from week 52 to week 152 with 300 mg
      FI, with approximately two-thirds of patients reporting no impact of skin disease
      on their lives (Dermatology Life Quality Index of 0 or 1). Improvements in
      overall and subscale scores on all quality-of-life instruments were well
      sustained. As in the core study, FI dosing was consistently more efficacious than
      RAN. No new safety signals were identified to year 3. CONCLUSIONS: Secukinumab
      300 mg FI sustained high responses and improved quality of life with no new
      safety concerns through 3 years.

PMID- 28580580
TI  - Illicit Drug Delivery Via Administration of Human Blood.
AB  - The physiological, psychological, and social consequences associated with illicit
      drug use are well documented. In addition to the effects directly related to the
      drug(s), the delivery mechanism can precipitate other serious health conditions.
      A case is reported where an individual stopped by law enforcement was discovered
      to be in possession of a vial containing a red-colored fluid, which the person
      stated was blood and contained fentanyl. Analysis by headspace GC, ELISA, and LC
      TOF/MS screening in with mass spectral confirmation revealed the presence of
      several substances, including ethanol, methamphetamine, amphetamine, MDA, 6
      monoacetylmorphine, codeine, morphine, alprazolam, delta-9 THC, ephedrine,
      pseudoephedrine, and norpseudoephedrine; serology testing verified the fluid was
      consistent with human blood. Methamphetamine was present at a dosage form amount
      (11 mg). The purpose of this study was to detail the analytical findings,
      interpret their meaning, and discuss the public health concerns associated with
      the drug delivery by the administration of human blood.

PMID- 28580581
TI  - Comparison of partial least squares and random forests for evaluating
      relationship between phenolics and bioactivities of Neptunia oleracea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neptunia oleracea is a plant consumed as a vegetable and which has
      been used as a folk remedy for several diseases. Herein, two regression models
      (partial least squares, PLS; and random forest, RF) in a metabolomics approach
      were compared and applied to the evaluation of the relationship between phenolics
      and bioactivities of N. oleracea. In addition, the effects of different
      extraction conditions on the phenolic constituents were assessed by pattern
      recognition analysis. RESULTS: Comparison of the PLS and RF showed that RF
      exhibited poorer generalization and hence poorer predictive performance. Both the
      regression coefficient of PLS and the variable importance of RF revealed that
      quercetin and kaempferol derivatives, caffeic acid and vitexin-2-O-rhamnoside
      were significant towards the tested bioactivities. Furthermore, principal
      component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)
      results showed that sonication and absolute ethanol are the preferable extraction
      method and ethanol ratio, respectively, to produce N. oleracea extracts with high
      phenolic levels and therefore high DPPH scavenging and alpha-glucosidase
      inhibitory activities. CONCLUSION: Both PLS and RF are useful regression models
      in metabolomics studies. This work provides insight into the performance of
      different multivariate data analysis tools and the effects of different
      extraction conditions on the extraction of desired phenolics from plants. (c)
      2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580582
TI  - Modulating inflammation and neuroprotection in multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder of the central nervous system
      with a presentation and disease course that is largely unpredictable. MS can
      cause loss of balance, impaired vision or speech, weakness and paralysis,
      fatigue, depression, and cognitive impairment. Immunomodulation is a major target
      given the appearance of focal demyelinating lesions in myelin-rich white matter,
      yet progression and an increasing appreciation for gray matter involvement, even
      during the earliest phases of the disease, highlights the need to afford
      neuroprotection and limit neurodegenerative processes that correlate with
      disability. This review summarizes key aspects of MS pathophysiology and
      histopathology with a focus on neuroimmune interactions in MS, which may
      facilitate neurodegeneration through both direct and indirect mechanisms. There
      is a focus on processes thought to influence disease progression and the role of
      oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in MS. The goals and efficacy of
      current disease-modifying therapies and those in the pipeline are discussed,
      highlighting recent advances in our understanding of pathways mediating disease
      progression to identify and translate both immunomodulatory and neuroprotective
      therapeutics from the bench to the clinic.

PMID- 28580584
TI  - Nitrato-Functionalized Task-Specific Ionic Liquids as Attractive Hypergolic
      Rocket Fuels.
AB  - Hypergolic ionic liquids (HILs) as potential replacements for hydrazine
      derivatives have attracted increasing interest over the last decade. Previous
      studies on HILs have mostly concentrated on the anionic innovations of ionic
      liquids to shorten the ignition delay (ID) time, but little attention has been
      paid to cationic modifications and their structure-property relationships. In
      this work, we present a new strategy of cationic functionalization by introducing
      the energetic nitrato group into the cationic units of HILs. Interestingly, the
      introduction of oxygen-rich nitrato groups into the cationic structure
      significantly improved the combustion performance of HILs with larger flame
      diameters and duration times. The density-specific impulse (rhoIsp ) of these
      novel HILs are all above 279.0 s g cm-3 , much higher than that of UDMH (215.7 s
      g cm-3 ). In addition, the densities of these HILs are in the range of 1.22-1.39
      g cm-3 , which is much higher than that of UDMH (0.79 g cm-3 ), showing their
      higher loading capacity than hydrazine-derived fuels in a propellant tank. This
      promising strategy of introducing nitrato groups into the cationic structures has
      provided a new platform for developing high-performing HILs with improved
      combustion properties.

PMID- 28580585
TI  - Effect of sequential comparison on active processing of sound duration.
AB  - Previous studies on active duration processing on sounds showed opposing results
      regarding the predominant involvement of the left or right hemisphere. Duration
      of an acoustic event is normally judged relative to other sounds. This requires
      sequential comparison as auditory events unfold over time. We hypothesized that
      increasing the demand on sequential comparison in a task increases the
      involvement of the left auditory cortex. With the current fMRI study, we
      investigated the effect of sequential comparison in active duration
      discrimination by comparing a categorical with a comparative task. During the
      categorical task, the participant had to categorize the tones according to their
      duration (short vs long). During the comparative task, they had to decide for
      each tone whether its length matched the tone presented before. We used the
      contralateral noise procedure to reveal the degree of participation of the left
      and right auditory cortex during these tasks. We found that both tasks more
      strongly involve the left than the right auditory cortex. Furthermore, the left
      auditory cortex was more strongly involved during comparison than during
      categorization. Together with previous studies, this suggests that additional
      demand for sequential comparison during processing of different basic acoustic
      parameters leads to an increased recruitment of the left auditory cortex. In
      addition, the comparison task more strongly involved several brain areas outside
      the auditory cortex, which may also be related to the demand for additional
      cognitive resources as compared to the more efficient categorization of sounds.
      Hum Brain Mapp 38:4459-4469, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580586
TI  - The Plight of Veterans.

PMID- 28580583
TI  - Simultaneous multislice imaging for native myocardial T1 mapping: Improved
      spatial coverage in a single breath-hold.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a saturation recovery myocardial T1 mapping method for the
      simultaneous multislice acquisition of three slices. METHODS: Saturation pulse
      prepared heart rate independent inversion recovery (SAPPHIRE) T1 mapping was
      implemented with simultaneous multislice imaging using FLASH readouts for faster
      coverage of the myocardium. Controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) was
      used to achieve minimal noise amplification in three slices. Multiband
      reconstruction was performed using three linear reconstruction methods: Slice-
      and in-plane GRAPPA, CG-SENSE, and Tikhonov-regularized CG-SENSE. Accuracy,
      spatial variability, and interslice leakage were compared with single-band T1
      mapping in a phantom and in six healthy subjects. RESULTS: Multiband phantom T1
      times showed good agreement with single-band T1 mapping for all three
      reconstruction methods (normalized root mean square error <1.0%). The increase in
      spatial variability compared with single-band imaging was lowest for GRAPPA (1.29
      fold), with higher penalties for Tikhonov-regularized CG-SENSE (1.47-fold) and CG
      SENSE (1.52-fold). In vivo multiband T1 times showed no significant difference
      compared with single-band (T1 time +/- intersegmental variability: single-band,
      1580 +/- 119 ms; GRAPPA, 1572 +/- 145 ms; CG-SENSE, 1579 +/- 159 ms; Tikhonov,
      1586 +/- 150 ms [analysis of variance; P = 0.86]). Interslice leakage was
      smallest for GRAPPA (5.4%) and higher for CG-SENSE (6.2%) and Tikhonov
      regularized CG-SENSE (7.9%). CONCLUSION: Multiband accelerated myocardial T1
      mapping demonstrated the potential for single-breath-hold T1 quantification in 16
      American Heart Association segments over three slices. A 1.2- to 1.4-fold higher
      in vivo spatial variability was observed, where GRAPPA-based reconstruction
      showed the highest homogeneity and the least interslice leakage. Magn Reson Med
      78:462-471, 2017. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in
      Medicine.

PMID- 28580588
TI  - Response to "Relationships between Acute and Postacute Care Providers:
      Measurement and Estimation".

PMID- 28580587
TI  - Heme oxygenase-1 directly binds STAT3 to control the generation of pathogenic
      Th17 cells during neutrophilic airway inflammation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Specific JAK/STAT pathways play a critical role in the functional
      differentiation of distinct Th subsets. Previously, we showed that HO-1, a stress
      inducible protein, inhibits Th17 cell differentiation and alleviates neutrophilic
      airway inflammation, but the responsible molecular basis remains unclear.
      METHODS: We employed Th17-skewing differentiation and NEA mouse models to study
      the role of HO-1 in regulating IL-6-STAT3-RORgammat/SOCS3 signaling pathway to
      control Th17 cell-mediated neutrophilic airway inflammation. The levels of
      cytokines and expressions of relative signaling molecules were measured by ELISA,
      western blot, and qPCR, respectively. Frequency of CD4+ IL-17A+ , CD4+ IL-6R+ ,
      and CD4+ IL-23R+ cells was analyzed by FCM. The interaction between HO-1 and
      signaling pathway-related proteins was determined by co-immunoprecipitation and
      western blot. RESULTS: Here, we show that hemin-induced HO-1 overexpression is
      required to mediate this process. Specifically, HO-1 decreased STAT3
      phosphorylation but not IL-6R/IL-23R expression or JAK1/JAK2 activation in CD4+ T
      cells. The effect was accompanied by co-inhibition of SOCS3, a negative feedback
      factor of STAT3 activation. HO-1 bound to three domains on STAT3 (DNA-binding,
      linker, and transactivation domains) to directly regulate STAT3 activation.
      Conversely, either forced expression of a constitutively active STAT3 mutant or
      application of small-interfering RNA (siRNA) for HO-1 reversed these effects.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that HO-1 exerts its inhibitory effect on Th17 cell
      differentiation by directly associating and blocking STAT3 phosphorylation. We
      speculate that hemin may be a potential therapeutic candidate for the treatment
      of other types of immune and pulmonary inflammatory-related diseases.

PMID- 28580589
TI  - Pancake Bond Orders of a Series of pi-Stacked Triangulene Radicals.
AB  - Conjugated radicals are capable of forming pi-stacking "pancake-bonded" dimers.
      Members of the family of triangulene hydrocarbons, non-Kekule neutral
      multiradicals, can utilize more than one singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO)
      to form multiple pancake-bonded dimers with formal bond orders of up to five. The
      resulting dimer binding energies can be quite high and the intermolecular
      contacts rather small compared to the respective van der Waals values. The
      preferred configurations are driven by the large stabilization energy of
      overlapping SOMOs.

PMID- 28580590
TI  - Severe postwar malnutrition did not have a negative impact on the earnings and
      subsequent pensions of German men born in 1945-1948.
AB  - AIM: Poverty has often been associated with malnutrition, stunted growth,
      impaired cognitive development and poor earnings. We studied whether these
      associations were found in German men born and raised shortly after World War II
      during severe and long-standing nationwide malnutrition. METHODS: We analysed
      German old-age pension payments, as a rough measure of lifetime earnings, in
      German men born from 1932 to 1960 and compared the at-risk-of-poverty rates of
      German men born in 1945-1948 versus 1935-1938 and 1955-1958. RESULTS:
      Substantially fewer women worked during this period and their longer life
      expectancy makes their pension payments difficult to interpret. We therefore
      limited our analysis to men. Men born in the 1930s received the highest monthly
      old-age pensions and these declined slightly in men born from 1945 to 1948,
      indicating a minute impairment in work-related income in cohorts born shortly
      after the war. We also found that there was no evidence for increased at-risk-of
      poverty rates in men born in 1945-1948 versus those born in 1935-1938 and in 1955
      1958. CONCLUSION: Being born and raised following World War II was associated
      with a minute work and pension impairment that was not visible in the at-risk-of
      poverty rates. These findings question statements associating early childhood
      nutrition and future lifetime earnings.

PMID- 28580591
TI  - The human guanylate-binding proteins hGBP-1 and hGBP-5 cycle between monomers and
      dimers only.
AB  - Belonging to the dynamin superfamily of large GTPases, human guanylate-binding
      proteins (hGBPs) comprise a family of seven isoforms (hGBP-1 to hGBP-7) that are
      strongly upregulated in response to interferon-gamma and other cytokines.
      Accordingly, several hGBPs are found to exhibit various cellular functions
      encompassing inhibitory effects on cell proliferation, tumor suppression as well
      as antiviral and antibacterial activity; however, their mechanism of action is
      only poorly understood. Often, cellular functions of dynamin-related proteins are
      closely linked to their ability to form nucleotide-dependent oligomers, a feature
      that also applies to hGBP-1 and hGBP-5. hGBPs are described as monomers, dimers,
      tetramers, and higher oligomeric species, the function of which is not clearly
      established. Therefore, this work focused on the oligomerization capability of
      hGBP-1 and hGBP-5, which are reported to assemble to homodimers and
      homotetramers. Employing independent methods such as size-exclusion
      chromatography, which relies on the hydrodynamic radius, and multiangle light
      scattering, which relies on the mass of the protein, revealed that previous
      interpretations regarding the size of the proteins and their complexes have to be
      revised. Additional studies using inter- and intramolecular Forster resonance
      energy transfer demonstrated that nucleotide-triggered intramolecular structural
      changes lead to a more extended shape of hGBP-1 being responsible for the
      appearance of larger oligomeric species. Thus, previously reported tetrameric and
      dimeric species of hGBP-1 and hGBP-5 were unmasked as dimers and monomers,
      respectively, with their shapes depending on both the bound nucleotide and the
      ionic strength of the solution.

PMID- 28580593
TI  - Refining the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Patient-Reported
      Outcome (PEDI-PRO) item candidates: interpretation of a self-reported outcome
      measure of functional performance by young people with neurodevelopmental
      disabilities.
AB  - AIM: This study examined the item interpretability and rating scale use of the
      Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Patient-Reported Outcome (PEDI-PRO)
      by young people with developmental disabilities. The PEDI-PRO assesses the
      functional performance of discrete functional tasks in the context of everyday
      life situations. METHOD: A two-phase cognitive interview design was implemented
      with a convenience sample of 37 young people (mean age 19y, SD 2y 5mo; 13 males
      and 24 females; 68% with intellectual disability) with developmental
      disabilities. In phase I, 182 item candidates were each reviewed by an average of
      four young people. In phase II, 103 items were carried forward or revised and
      each reviewed by an average of seven additional young people. Two raters coded
      responses for intended item interpretation and performance quality; codes were
      analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative analysis explored young
      people's self-evaluation process. RESULTS: Items were interpreted as intended by
      most young people (mean 86%). Young people can use PEDI-PRO response categories
      appropriately to describe their performance: 94% of positive performance
      descriptions coincided with a positive response category choice; 73% of negative
      descriptions coincided with a negative response category choice. Young people
      interpreted items in a literal manner, and their self-evaluation incorporated the
      use of supports that facilitate functional performance. INTERPRETATION: The PEDI
      PRO's measurement framework appears to support the self-evaluation of functional
      performance of young people with developmental disabilities.

PMID- 28580592
TI  - Shape-Controlled Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Multifunctional
      Capping for In Vitro Cancer Treatment.
AB  - A series of multifunctional shape-controlled nonspherical hollow mesoporous
      silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) drug carriers have been prepared by employing Fe2 O3
      with four morphologies (capsule, cube, rice, and rhombus) as a sacrificial
      template and a multifunctional cap as the encapsulating shell. The resulting
      shape-controlled nonspherical HMSNs perfectly replicate the original morphology
      of the Fe2 O3 templates, which possess a high specific surface area, good
      monodispersity, perpendicular mesoporous channels, and excellent
      biocompatibility. After modification of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and folic acid
      (FA), the shape-controlled HMSN core and functional shell can then be integrated
      into a single device (HMSNs-PEG-FA) to provide an efficient and tumor-cell
      selective drug-delivery system. The shape-controlled HMSNs and HMSNs-PEG-FA all
      show controlled pH-responsive release behavior for the anticancer drug
      doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX). The in vitro results indicate that HMSNs-PEG-FA
      is biocompatible and selectively targets HeLa cells (overexpressed folate
      receptors). Fluorescence images show that desirable surface modification and the
      nonspherical shape effectively facilitate cellular internalization of HMSNs. It
      is expected that the construction of these unique nanomaterials with controlled
      morphology through the hard-templating technique may also provide useful
      information for the design of nanoscale multifunctional systems.

PMID- 28580594
TI  - Multiple single nucleotide polymorphism analysis and association of specific
      genotypes in FHIT, SAMD4A, and ANKRD17 in Indian patients with oral cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral cancer has a high incidence primarily because of tobacco chewing
      habits. However, a small proportion of habitues develop oral cancer, implying a
      role for genomic variants in its susceptibility. METHODS: Thirteen single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in an Indian cohort comprising patients with oral
      cancer (n = 500) and healthy controls (n = 500) were genotyped using allelic
      discrimination real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Prevalence of
      SNPs rs11130760, rs1957358, rs2306058, rs4883543, rs12637722, rs1457115,
      rs2353292, rs709821, rs2194861, rs4789378, rs3827538, rs2667552, and rs2886093
      was determined in the Indian cohort. A significant association of rs11130760 GG
      (odds ratio [OR] 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-1.84) and rs1957358 TT
      (OR 1.44; 95% CI 1.10-1.90) indicated increased risk; whereas rs1957358 TC (OR
      0.67; 95% CI 0.53-0.87) and rs2306058 CT (OR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56-0.93) reflected
      decreased risk. The SNP rs11130760 wild-type (WT) allele G indicated an increased
      risk for oral cancer (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.09-1.73), whereas SNP allele T indicated
      a decreased risk (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.58-0.92) for oral cancer. CONCLUSION: Our
      study identified SNPs with susceptibility to oral cancer in high-risk
      populations.

PMID- 28580595
TI  - Mutation screening of 10 cancer susceptibility genes in unselected breast cancer
      patients.
AB  - Variants of cancer susceptibility genes other than BRCA1/2 have been proved to be
      associated with increased risks of breast cancer. This study was performed to
      investigate the spectrum and prevalence of mutations in 10 cancer susceptibility
      genes in paired tumor/normal tissues of 292 unselected Chinese breast cancer
      patients. We performed an analysis of germline and somatic variants in ATM, CDH1,
      CHEK2, ESR1, GATA3, MAP3K1, MSH2, PALB2, RB1 and STK11 genes by integrating
      microfluidic PCR-based target enrichment and next-generation sequencing
      technologies. In total, 3 germline and 25 somatic deleterious mutations were
      found among 27 patients (9.25%), and 17 of them were novel mutations. Most
      deleterious mutations were prevalent in luminal A invasive breast cancer (P =
      .014). We also observed 83 variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in 100
      patients (34.25%), 23 of which were predicted to be deleterious by in silico
      prediction programs (MetaSVM and MetaLR). VUS carriers had higher positive rate
      of lymph node metastasis than non-carriers (P = .008) and were predominantly
      present in ER+ tumors (P = .018). Our findings would enhance the understanding of
      the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer in Chinese population.

PMID- 28580596
TI  - Cervical cancer screening in a low-resource setting: a pilot study on an HPV
      based screen-and-treat approach.
AB  - Cervical cancer (CC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in
      sub-Saharan Africa, primarily because of limited access to effective screening
      and preventive treatment. Our aim was to assess the feasibility of a human
      papillomavirus (HPV)-based CC screen-and-treat approach in a low-resource
      context. We recruited 1012 women aged 30-49 years through a CC screening campaign
      conducted in the District Hospital of Dschang, Cameroon. Participants performed
      HPV self-sampling, which was tested for high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) DNA using the
      point-of-care Xpert HPV assay. All HPV-positive women were invited for visual
      inspection with acetic acid and Lugol's iodine (VIA/VILI) to exclude CC or enable
      triage. A cervical sample for histological analysis was also collected. Women
      positive for HPV 16/18/45 and for other HR-HPV with pathological VIA/VILI were
      selected to undergo treatment with thermocoagulation. The HPV prevalence in the
      study population was 18.5% (n = 187); of these cases, 20 (10.6%), 42 (22.3%) and
      140 (74.9%) were positive for HPV16, HPV18/45 and other HR-HPV types,
      respectively. Overall, 107/185 (57.8%) VIA/VILI examinations were classified as
      pathological and 78 (42.2%) as normal. Women positive for HPV16/18/45 were 4.2
      times more likely to harbor cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse
      (CIN2+) than those with other HPV types. The specificity of HPV 16/18/45
      genotypes for detection of high-grade lesions among HR-HPV positive women was
      higher than that of VIA/VILI in all age groups. The sensitivity and specificity
      of VIA/VILI in detecting CIN2+ among HPV positive women were 80% and 44%,
      respectively. Overall, 110/121 screen-positive women (90.9%) were eligible for,
      and were treated with, thermocoagulation. An HPV-based screen-and-treat approach
      is feasible in a low-resource context and may contribute to improving the
      effectiveness of CC prevention programs. Immediate thermocoagulation treatment
      for women who are HPV16- and/or HPV18/45-positive is a practical approach for the
      treatment of CIN2+. The combination of HPV-testing and VIA/VILI for CC screening
      might reduce overtreatment.

PMID- 28580598
TI  - Transforming Social Regularities in a Multicomponent Community-Based
      Intervention: A Case Study of Professionals' Adaptability to Better Support
      Parents to Meet Their Children's Needs.
AB  - This paper presents an in-depth case study of the dynamic processes of mutual
      adjustment that occurred between two professional teams participating in a
      multicomponent community-based intervention (CBI). Drawing on the concept of
      social regularities, we focus on patterns of social interaction within and across
      the two microsystems involved in delivering the intervention. Two research
      strategies, narrative analysis and structural network analysis, were used to
      reveal the social regularities linking the two microsystems. Results document
      strategies and actions undertaken by the professionals responsible for the
      intervention to modify intersetting social regularities to deal with a problem
      situation that arose during the course of one intervention cycle. The results
      illustrate how key social regularities were modified in order to resolve the
      problem situation and allow the intervention to continue to function smoothly. We
      propose that these changes represent a transition to a new state of the
      ecological intervention system. This transformation appeared to be the result of
      certain key intervening mechanisms: changing key role relationships, boundary
      spanning, and synergy. The transformation also appeared to be linked to positive
      setting-level and individual-level outcomes: confidence of key team members,
      joint planning, decision-making and intervention activities, and the achievement
      of desired intervention objectives.

PMID- 28580597
TI  - False fMRI activation after motion correction.
AB  - Motion correction of echo-planar imaging (EPI) data used in functional MRI (fMRI)
      is an essential preprocessing step performed prior to statistical analysis. At
      ultra-high resolution fMRI, current requirements regarding translational and
      rotational motion may no longer be acceptable. This prompts the need for a
      systematic investigation of the effects of motion correction procedures with in
      vivo fMRI data. Here we systematically evaluated the effect of retrospective
      motion correction with freely available fMRI analysis software packages (FSL,
      AFNI, and SPM) on activation maps using fMRI data acquired with prospective
      motion detection, to identify and quantify confounding effects of retrospective
      motion correction, and to evaluate its dependence on spatial resolution and
      motion correction algorithms. Brain activation maps were obtained for two
      different resolutions, an ultrahigh, that is, 0.653 mm3 , and a more widely used
      2.03 mm3 isotropic resolutions at 7 T. The EPI data were acquired using
      simultaneous non-image-based optical moire phase tracking (MPT) of physical
      motion. The results showed that image-based motion detection, performed by SPM8
      software package, may be erroneous in high-field fMRI data with partial brain
      coverage and can introduce spurious motion leading to false-positive and false
      negative activation. Further analyses demonstrated that limited acquisition field
      of view has the dominant influence on the effect. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4497-4510,
      2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580599
TI  - The two faces of avoidance: Time-frequency correlates of motivational disposition
      in blood phobia.
AB  - Contrary to other phobias, individuals with blood phobia do not show a clear-cut
      withdrawal disposition from the feared stimulus. The study of response inhibition
      provides insights into reduced action disposition in blood phobia. Twenty
      individuals with and 20 without blood phobia completed an emotional go/no-go task
      including phobia-related pictures, as well as phobia-unrelated unpleasant,
      neutral, and pleasant stimuli. Behavioral results did not indicate a phobia
      specific reduced action disposition in the phobic group. Time-frequency
      decomposition of event-related EEG data showed a reduction of right prefrontal
      activity, as indexed by an increase in alpha power (200 ms), for no-go mutilation
      trials in the phobic group but not in controls. Moreover, theta power (300 ms)
      increased specifically for phobia-related pictures in individuals with, but not
      without, blood phobia, irrespective of go or no-go trial types. Passive avoidance
      of phobia-related stimuli subtended by the increased alpha in the right
      prefrontal cortex, associated with increased emotional salience indexed by theta
      synchronization, represents a possible neurophysiological correlate of the
      conflicting motivational response in blood phobia. Through the novel use of time
      frequency decomposition in an emotional go/no-go task, the present study
      contributed to clarifying the neurophysiological correlates of the overlapping
      motivational tendencies in blood phobia.

PMID- 28580600
TI  - Secretory diarrhea and hypokalemia associated with colonic pseudo-obstruction: A
      case study and systematic analysis of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colonic pseudo-obstruction (CPO) is characterized by colonic
      distention in the absence of mechanical obstruction or toxic megacolon.
      Concomitant secretory diarrhea (SD) with hypokalemia (SD-CPO) due to
      gastrointestinal (GI) loss requires further characterization. AIM: To perform a
      systematic review of SD-CPO, report a case study, and compare SD-CPO with
      classical CPO (C-CPO). METHODS: We performed a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE,
      Cochrane, and Scopus for reports based on a priori criteria for CPO, SD and GI
      loss of potassium. An additional case at Mayo Clinic was included. RESULTS: Nine
      publications met inclusion criteria, with a total of 14 cases. Six studies had
      high, three moderate, and our case high methodological quality. Median age was 74
      years (66-97), with 2:1 male/female ratio. Kidney disease was present in 6/14
      patients. Diarrhea was described as profuse, watery, or viscous in 10 patients.
      Median serum, stool, and urine potassium concentrations (mmol/L) were 2.4 (range:
      1.9-3.1), 137 (100-180), and 17 (8-40), respectively. Maximal diameter of colon
      and cecum (median) were 10.2 cm and 10.5 cm, respectively. Conservative therapy
      alone was effective in five out of 14 patients. Median potassium supplementation
      was 124 mEq/d (40-300). Colonic decompression was effective in three out of six
      patients; one had a total colectomy; three out of 14 had died. The main
      differences between SD-CPO and C-CPO were lower responses to treatments:
      conservative measures (35.7% vs 73.6%, P=.01), neostigmine (17% vs 89.2%,
      P<.001), and colonic decompression (50% vs 82.4%, P=.02). CONCLUSION: SD-CPO is a
      rare phenotype associated with increased fecal potassium and is more difficult to
      treat than C-CPO.

PMID- 28580601
TI  - Morphological and chemical variation of Stemona tuberosa from southern China -
      Evidence for heterogeneity of this medicinal plant species.
AB  - The occurrence of bioactive alkaloids and tocopherols was studied in 15 different
      provenances of Stemona tuberosa Lour. collected in southern China, to examine
      chemical variation of individuals that show notable differences in flower
      characteristics. Morphological variations stimulated examination of chemical
      characteristics of these individuals. Methanolic root extracts of 15 individuals
      of S. tuberosa were comparatively assessed with HPLC-UV-DAD/ELSD. Five of seven
      compounds were co-chromatographically identified. Two compounds were isolated and
      their structure elucidated using NMR and MS. Amounts of alkaloids and tocopherols
      were determined using HPLC-UV-DAD/ELSD with the external standard method. Five
      alkaloids, tuberostemonine (1), tuberostemonine A (2), neotuberostemonine (3),
      tuberostemonine N (4), stemoninine (5) and two 3,4-dehydrotocopherol derivatives
      were identified. Within S. tuberosa alkaloid accumulation tends either towards
      tuberostemonine (1) or stemoninine (5). All individuals show a notable co
      occurrence of compounds 1 or 5 and 3,4-dehydro-delta-tocopherol (6). These
      results coincide with differences in flower morphology of S. tuberosa. Stemona
      tuberosa, as defined in the Flora of China, shows a remarkable variation in
      flower morphology and additionally in the accumulation of alkaloids. The obtained
      data show the need for future species delimitation to either species or
      subspecies level.

PMID- 28580602
TI  - Randomised study showed that recorded maternal voices reduced pain in preterm
      infants undergoing heel lance procedures in a neonatal intensive care unit.
AB  - AIM: Alleviating pain in neonates should be the goal of all caregivers. We
      evaluated whether recorded maternal voices were safe and effective in limiting
      pain in preterm infants undergoing heel lance procedures in the neonatal
      intensive care unit of an Italian children's hospital. METHODS: This prospective,
      controlled study took place from December 2013 to December 2015. We enrolled 40
      preterm infants, born at a 26-34 weeks of gestation, at a corrected gestational
      age 29-36 weeks and randomised them to listen or not listen to a recording of
      their mother's voice during a painful, routine heel lance for blood collection.
      Changes in the infants' Premature Infant Pain Profile, heart rate, oxygen
      saturation and blood pressure during the procedure were compared by analysis of
      variance. Possible side effects, of apnoea, bradycardia, seizures and vomiting,
      were also recorded. RESULTS: Both groups showed a marked increase in PIPP scores
      and decrease in oxygen saturation during the procedure, but infants in the
      treatment group had significantly lower PIPP scores (p = 0.00002) and lower
      decreases in oxygen saturation (p = 0.0283). No significant side effects were
      observed. CONCLUSION: Using recorded maternal voices to limit pain in preterm
      infants undergoing heel lance procedures appeared safe and effective.

PMID- 28580603
TI  - Enhancement of high glucose-induced PINK1 expression by melatonin stimulates
      neuronal cell survival: Involvement of MT2 /Akt/NF-kappaB pathway.
AB  - Hyperglycemia is a representative hallmark and risk factor for diabetes mellitus
      (DM) and is closely linked to DM-associated neuronal cell death. Previous
      investigators reported on a genome-wide association study and showed
      relationships between DM and melatonin receptor (MT), highlighting the role of MT
      signaling by assessing melatonin in DM. However, the role of MT signaling in DM
      pathogenesis is unclear. Therefore, we investigated the role of mitophagy
      regulators in high glucose-induced neuronal cell death and the effect of
      melatonin against high glucose-induced mitophagy regulators in neuronal cells. In
      our results, high glucose significantly increased PTEN-induced putative kinase 1
      (PINK1) and LC-3B expressions; as well it decreased cytochrome c oxidase subunit
      4 expression and MitotrackerTM fluorescence intensity. Silencing of PINK1 induced
      mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and mitochondrial
      membrane potential impairment, increased expressions of cleaved caspases, and
      increased the number of annexin V-positive cells. In addition, high glucose
      stimulated melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) mRNA and PINK1 expressions were
      reversed by ROS scavenger N-acetyl cysteine pretreatment. Upregulation of PINK1
      expression in neuronal cells is suppressed by pretreatment with MT2 receptor
      specific inhibitor 4-P-PDOT. We further showed melatonin stimulated Akt
      phosphorylation, which was followed by nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer
      of activated B cells (NF-kappaB) phosphorylation and nuclear translocation.
      Silencing of PINK1 expression abolished melatonin-regulated mitochondrial ROS
      production, cleaved caspase-3 and caspase-9 expressions, and the number of
      annexin V-positive cells. In conclusion, we have demonstrated the melatonin
      stimulates PINK1 expression via an MT2 /Akt/NF-kappaB pathway, and such
      stimulation is important for the prevention of neuronal cell apoptosis under high
      glucose conditions.

PMID- 28580604
TI  - Challenges in educating patients and parents about differences in sex
      development.
AB  - This article reviews practical approaches to talking with parents and youth about
      Differences in Sex Development (DSD) which are conditions that affect
      chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sexual development, one of the most personal,
      and in our society, private areas of life. Talking with parents and patients
      about these conditions can be challenging given the complexity of sexual
      development and the sensitive nature of the information being shared. Changing
      approaches to disclosing or communicating information about conditions, such as
      DSD are reviewed as well as factors leading to revision in the diagnostic
      nomenclature. Building on these developments, strategies used by an established
      DSD team to enhance shared decision making and partnership with families and
      patients are presented followed by examples of how some particularly challenging,
      but not uncommon clinical situations were approached. The paper concludes by
      endorsing the importance of understanding the social and cultural needs and
      beliefs of the parents and patients with DSD to set the stage for effective
      disclosure of medical facts. To be most useful to parents and youth, medical
      disclosure needs to include discussion of practical implications and strategies
      to help families and patients digest, understand, and work with the information
      provided.

PMID- 28580605
TI  - Morphologic and topographic radiologic features of human papillomavirus-related
      and -unrelated oropharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the clinicoradiologic
      characteristics of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related (HPV-positive) and HPV
      unrelated (HPV-negative) oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPC). METHODS: Primary tumor
      and lymph node features of HPV-positive and HPV-negative OPCs from 2008 to 2013
      were compared on pretreatment CT/MRI. Intrarater/interrater concordance was
      assessed. Multivariable analyses identified factors associated with HPV
      positivity to be used in nomogram construction. RESULTS: Compared to HPV-negative
      (n = 194), HPV-positive (n = 488) tumors were more exophytic (73% vs 63%; p =
      .02) with well-defined border (58% vs 47%; p = .033) and smaller axial
      dimensions; lymph node involvement predominated (89% vs 69%; p < .001) with
      cystic appearance (45% vs 32%; p = .009) but similar topography.
      Intrarater/interrater concordance varied (fair to excellent). Nomograms combining
      clinical (age, sex, smoking pack-years, subsite, T/N classification) and/or
      radiologic (nonnecrotic tumor and cystic lymph node) features were used to weigh
      the likelihood of HPV-driven tumors (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.84).
      CONCLUSION: HPV-positive OPC has different radiologic tumor (exophytic/well
      defined border/smaller axial dimension) and lymph node (cystic) features but
      similar lymph node topography.

PMID- 28580607
TI  - Chromatin accessibility and guide sequence secondary structure affect CRISPR-Cas9
      gene editing efficiency.
AB  - Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-associated
      protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) systems have emerged as the method of choice for genome
      editing, but large variations in on-target efficiencies continue to limit their
      applicability. Here, we investigate the effect of chromatin accessibility on Cas9
      mediated gene editing efficiency for 20 gRNAs targeting 10 genomic loci in
      HEK293T cells using both SpCas9 and the eSpCas9(1.1) variant. Our study indicates
      that gene editing is more efficient in euchromatin than in heterochromatin, and
      we validate this finding in HeLa cells and in human fibroblasts. Furthermore, we
      investigate the gRNA sequence determinants of CRISPR-Cas9 activity using a
      surrogate reporter system and find that the efficiency of Cas9-mediated gene
      editing is dependent on guide sequence secondary structure formation. This
      knowledge can aid in the further improvement of tools for gRNA design.

PMID- 28580608
TI  - Improving the quality of transition and transfer of care in young adults with
      congenital heart disease.
AB  - The transition and transfer from pediatric to adult care is becoming increasingly
      important as improvements in the diagnosis and management of congenital heart
      disease allow patients to live longer. Transition is a complex and continuous
      process that requires careful planning. Inadequate transition has adverse effects
      on patients, their families and healthcare delivery systems. Currently,
      significant gaps exist in patient care as adolescents transfer to adult care and
      there are little data to drive the informed management of transition and transfer
      of care in adolescent congenital heart disease patients. Appropriate congenital
      heart disease care has been shown to decrease mortality in the adult population.
      This paper reviews the transition and transfer of care processes and outlines
      current congenital heart disease specific guidelines in the United States and
      compares these recommendations to Canadian and European guidelines. It then
      reviews perceived and real barriers to successful transition and identifies
      predictors of success during transfer to adult congenital heart disease care.
      Lastly, it explores how disease-specific markers of outcomes and quality
      indicators are being utilized to guide transition and transfer of care in other
      chronic childhood illnesses, and identifies existing knowledge gaps and
      structural impediments to improving the management of transition and transfer
      among congenital heart disease patients.

PMID- 28580609
TI  - Speaking to children and their families about congenital heart disease: Ushering
      in a new era of healthcare literacy.

PMID- 28580606
TI  - Combating multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
AB  - Over the past 50 years, Plasmodium falciparum has developed resistance against
      all antimalarial drugs used against it: chloroquine, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine,
      quinine, piperaquine and mefloquine. More recently, resistance to the artemisinin
      derivatives and the resulting failure of artemisinin-based combination therapy
      (ACT) are threatening all major gains made in malaria control. Each time
      resistance has developed progressively, with delayed clearance of parasites first
      emerging only in a few regions, increasing in prevalence and geographic range,
      and then ultimately resulting in the complete failure of that antimalarial.
      Drawing from this repeated historical chain of events, this article presents
      context-specific approaches for combating drug-resistant P. falciparum malaria.
      The approaches begin with a context of drug-sensitive parasites and focus on the
      prevention of the emergence of drug resistance. Next, the approaches address a
      scenario in which resistance has emerged and is increasing in prevalence and
      geographic extent, with interventions focused on disrupting transmission through
      vector control, early diagnosis and treatment, and the use of new combination
      therapies. Elimination is also presented as an approach for addressing the
      imminent failure of all available antimalarials. The final drug resistance
      context presented is one in which all available antimalarials have failed;
      leaving only personal protection and the use of new antimalarials (or new
      combinations of antimalarials) as a viable strategy for dealing with complete
      resistance. All effective strategies and contexts require a multipronged,
      holistic approach.

PMID- 28580610
TI  - Acute and long-term effects of endovascular debanding of pulmonary arteries in a
      swine model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to demonstrate that pulmonary
      artery (PA) debanding via cardiac catheterization using balloon angioplasty is
      feasible and safe in swine. The secondary objectives were to determine the acute
      and long-term effects of this therapy. DESIGN: This is a chronic survival
      experimental study in newborn swine. BACKGROUND: PA bands are used in infants for
      transient palliation of congenital heart defects with excessive pulmonary blood
      flow. Although rare, if these defects should close spontaneously or become
      hemodynamically insignificant, a sternotomy and occasionally cardiopulmonary
      bypass may still be required for band removal. Alternatively, debanding could be
      accomplished through less invasive methods. INTERVENTIONS: The main pulmonary
      artery was banded in three piglets, and the left pulmonary artery in five piglets
      via mini-thoracotomy at a mean weight of 2.5 kg. Following a threefold increase
      in weight, the piglets underwent PA debanding via balloon angioplasty. Four
      piglets were sacrificed to evaluate the acute effects. The remainder were
      followed to evaluate long-term effects. Histopathology was performed on all
      piglets. OUTCOME MEASURES: Reintervention rates. Histopathologic consequences of
      high pressure balloon angioplasty used for PA debanding acutely and after
      reinterventions. RESULTS: Debanding was performed at a mean weight of 8.1 +/-
      2.23 kg. The median preintervention gradient across the band was 18 mm Hg.
      Debanding was successful in all piglets. The median postintervention gradient was
      3.5 mm Hg. All piglets in the long-term model required re-interventions for
      recurrent stenosis at mean weights of 26 +/- 1.6 and 61 +/- 3.2 kg.
      Histopathology demonstrated vessel wall injury in only one piglet. CONCLUSIONS:
      Endovascular PA debanding can be safely achieved in a swine model. Angioplasty
      following debanding may be necessary for recurrent stenosis. This catheter-based
      therapy may provide a less-invasive alternative to surgery.

PMID- 28580611
TI  - Isolated pulmonary regurgitation causes decreased right ventricular longitudinal
      function and compensatory increased septal pumping in a porcine model.
AB  - AIM: Longitudinal ventricular contraction is a parameter of cardiac performance
      with predictive power. Right ventricular (RV) longitudinal function is impaired
      in patients with free pulmonary regurgitation (PR) following corrective surgery
      for Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). It remains unclear whether this is a consequence
      of the surgical repair, or whether it is inherent to PR. The aim of this study
      was to assess the relationship between longitudinal, lateral and septal pumping
      in a porcine model of isolated PR. METHODS: Piglets were divided into a control
      (n = 8) group and a treatment (n = 12) group, which received a stent in the
      pulmonary valve orifice, inducing PR. After 2-3 months, animals were subjected to
      cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. A subset of animals (n = 6) then underwent
      percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement (PPVR) with follow-up 1 month later.
      Longitudinal, lateral and septal contributions to stroke volume (SV) were
      quantified by measuring volumetric displacements from end-diastole to end-systole
      in the cardiac short axis and long axis. RESULTS: PR resulted in a lower
      longitudinal contribution to RV stroke volume, compared to controls (60.0 +/-
      2.6% vs. 73.6 +/- 3.8%; P = 0.012). Furthermore, a compensatory increase in
      septal contribution to RVSV was observed (11.0 +/- 1.6% vs. -3.1 +/- 1.5%; P <
      0.0001). The left ventricle (LV) showed counter-regulation with an increased
      longitudinal LVSV. Changes in RV longitudinal function were reversed by PPVR.
      CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that PR contributes to decreased RV
      longitudinal function in the absence of scarring from cardiac surgery.
      Measurement of longitudinal RVSV may aid risk stratification and timing for
      interventional correction of PR in TOF patients.

PMID- 28580612
TI  - Utility of basophil activation testing to assess perioperative anaphylactic
      reactions in real-world practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Perioperative anaphylactic reactions due to drugs and substances
      associated with general anesthesia can potentially be life-threatening. The
      objective of this study was to investigate the significance of the basophil
      activation test (BAT) for allergy diagnosis work up. METHODS: A total of 14
      patients (5 men, 9 women; mean age: 57.8 years) with clinical records of
      anaphylactic reactions under general anesthesia were studied by means of
      anesthesia records, skin and serological tests. Eleven healthy subjects without
      any history of allergic sensitization to anaesthetic drugs served as controls.
      BATs based on stimulation of whole blood cells measuring CD63 activation of
      basophils and using CCR3 as basophil marker by flow cytometry (Flow CAST(r),
      BUHLMANN Laboratories AG, Schonenbuch, Switzerland) were performed with the
      following substances (in dependence on the history and the skin tests of the
      patient): analgesics (acetylsalicylic acid, celecoxib, diclofenac, ibuprofen,
      indometacin, metamizole, paracetamol, propyphenazone, tramadol), antibiotics (PPL
      (benzylpenicilloyl polylysine), MDM (minor determinant mixture), amoxicillin,
      cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, erythromycin, roxithromycin,
      sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim), local anesthetics (articaine, bupivacaine,
      lidocaine, prilocaine, procaine, methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate), narcotics and NMBA
      (atracurium, cisatracurium, etomidate, neostigmine, midazolam, mivacurium,
      pancuronium, propofol, pyridostigmine, succinylcholine, sufentanil, thiopental,
      vecuronium), and other individual substances. RESULTS: Three patients showed
      positive results in the BAT: One to metamizole, one to PPL, and one to
      pancuronium. BATs with these substances were negative in controls. CONCLUSIONS:
      The BAT should be used complementary to skin tests, especially if IgE-mediated
      mechanisms are presumed and skin tests are inconclusive. A positive reaction in
      BAT identifies the culprit agent with high probability.

PMID- 28580613
TI  - Update of the ATTRACT force field for the prediction of protein-protein binding
      affinity.
AB  - Determining the protein-protein interactions is still a major challenge for
      molecular biology. Docking protocols has come of age in predicting the structure
      of macromolecular complexes. However, they still lack accuracy to estimate the
      binding affinities, the thermodynamic quantity that drives the formation of a
      complex. Here, an updated version of the protein-protein ATTRACT force field
      aiming at predicting experimental binding affinities is reported. It has been
      designed on a dataset of 218 protein-protein complexes. The correlation between
      the experimental and predicted affinities reaches 0.6, outperforming most of the
      available protocols. Focusing on a subset of rigid and flexible complexes, the
      performance raises to 0.76 and 0.69, respectively. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28580614
TI  - Instrumentalisation of the health system: An examination of the impact on nursing
      practice and patient autonomy.
AB  - Most current management systems of healthcare institutions correspond to a model
      of market ethics with its demands of competitiveness. This approach has been
      called managerialism and is couched in terms of much-needed efficiencies and
      effective management of budgetary constraints. The aim of this study was to
      analyse the decision-making of nurses through the impact of health institution
      management models on clinical practice. Based on Foucault's ethical theory, a
      qualitative study was conducted through a discourse analysis of the nursing
      records in a hospital unit. The results revealed that the health institution
      standardises health care practice, which has an impact on professional and
      patient autonomy as it pertains to decision-making. The results of this research
      indicate that resistance strategies in the internal structures of health
      organisations can replace the normalisation and instrumentalisation of
      professional practice aimed at promoting patient self-determination.

PMID- 28580615
TI  - Angiopoietin-2 acts as a survival factor for chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cells
      throughout Tie-2 receptor engagement.

PMID- 28580616
TI  - Deceased organ donors with central nervous system neoplasm.

PMID- 28580617
TI  - PCPF-M model for simulating the fate and transport of pesticides and their
      metabolites in rice paddy field.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The PCPF-1 model was improved for forecasting the fate and transport
      of metabolites in addition to parent compounds in rice paddies. In the new PCPF-M
      model, metabolites are generated from the dissipation of pesticide applied in
      rice paddies through hydrolysis, photolysis and biological degradations. The
      methodology to parameterize the model was illustrated using two scenarios for
      which uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were also conducted. RESULTS: In a
      batch degradation experiment, the hourly forecasted concentrations of fipronil
      and its metabolites in paddy water were very accurate. In a field-scale
      experiment, the hourly forecasted concentrations of fipronil in paddy water and
      paddy soil were accurate while the corresponding daily forecasted concentrations
      of metabolites were adequate. The major contributors to the variation of the
      forecasted metabolite concentrations in paddy water and paddy soil were the
      formation fractions of the metabolites. The influence of uncertainty included in
      input parameters on the forecasted metabolite concentration was high during the
      peak concentration of metabolite in paddy water. In contrast, in paddy soil, the
      metabolite concentrations forecasted several days after the initial pesticide
      application were sensitive to the uncertainty incorporated in the input
      parameters. CONCLUSION: The PCPF-M model simultaneously forecasts the
      concentrations of a parent pesticide and up to three metabolites. The model was
      validated using fipronil and two of its metabolites in paddy water and paddy
      soil. The model can be used in the early stage of the pesticide registration
      process and in risk assessment analysis for the evaluation of pesticide exposure.
      (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580618
TI  - Bovine thyroglobulin gene polymorphisms and their association with sexual
      precocity in Guzerat bulls.
AB  - Puberty is a stage of sexual development determined by the interaction of
      environmental factors and genetic mechanisms. Among them, thyroid function plays
      a key role in sexual development and spermatogenic function and is under the
      control of several genes, including the well-described thyroglobulin gene (TG).
      Previous reports have shown genetic association between thyroid function and
      selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in taurine cattle. Therefore, the
      identification of genetic mechanisms involved in the regulation of this trait can
      assist with the selection for early pubertal bulls, thus improving genetic
      progress in livestock breeding. The aim of this study was to validate the
      association between TG SNPs and age at puberty in zebuine bulls. Three SNPs
      (rs110406764, rs109662686, rs109057985) were genotyped in 159 Guzerat animals
      using SEQUENOM technology. Results showed a significant association (p < .05)
      between the studied SNPs and puberty age, in agreement with our previous reports
      in a taurine breed. Interestingly, allele frequencies were different from those
      already reported, being GAT the most favourable allele for age at puberty in
      Guzerat (94.4 days lower). Overall, our findings corroborate previous reports and
      reinforce the importance of genetic influence in the regulation of sexual
      development and puberty through a thyroid pathway in zebuine cattle.

PMID- 28580619
TI  - Impact of microvascular obstruction on left ventricular local remodeling after
      reperfused myocardial infarction.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the impact of
      microvascular obstruction (MVO) on regional left ventricular (LV) wall
      characteristics and local remodeling after acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 114 AMI patients underwent cardiac MRI at 3T
      within 2-4 days (baseline) and at 6 months (follow-up) after reperfusion. Late
      gadolinium enhancement and cine sequences were performed. The impact of MVO (ie,
      presence and extent) on regional wall thickening (WT, %), end-diastolic wall
      thickness (EDWT, mm), and local cavity change (mm) of LV were quantitatively
      analyzed. Local cavity change, calculated as surface-to-surface distance from
      registered endocardial surface meshes of cine imaging datasets acquired initially
      and at follow-up, was used to assess local remodeling. RESULTS: MVO was detected
      in 69 patients (60.5%). WT was significantly lower when MVO was present (P <
      0.05); and it was inversely related to MVO transmural extent (P < 0.0001). WT
      improvement was significantly worsened when MVO was present in segments with
      infarct transmural extent exceeding 50%. Significant wall thinning occurred at
      follow-up in segments with infarct transmural extent >75% with further thinning
      by MVO presence; and EDWT decreased with increasing MVO transmural extent (P <
      0.0001). LV cavity shrank in patients without MVO, whereas it dilated in those
      with MVO. Local cavity changes were not significantly different by a region-to
      region analysis throughout the LV within each group (P = 0.57 and 0.74,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: MVO has a significant adverse effect on LV wall
      characteristics and LV remodeling. Postinfarct remodeling seems to be globally
      mediated rather than locally mediated during the first 6 months. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:499-510.

PMID- 28580620
TI  - Adjuvant chemotherapy in resectable synovial sarcoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The role of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for synovial sarcoma (SS) is
      controversial. Using a large national dataset we evaluate the impact of AC on
      overall survival (OS) following curative-intent resection of SS. METHODS:
      Patients with stage I-III SS 2004-2012 undergoing resection were identified in
      the National Cancer Data Base. Clinicopathologic factors associated with OS were
      identified using Cox proportional-hazard modeling, adjusting for factors
      associated with receipt of AC. RESULTS: Among 544 patients, 131 received AC.
      Median age of the cohort was 42 years; 269 were female. AC was not associated
      with OS in univariate analysis in the overall cohort. After stratification by
      stage, AC was associated with prolonged OS in univariate analysis in stage III
      patients only (P = 0.028), which remained significant in multivariable analysis
      (P = 0.033). Other factors associated with OS in stage III patients were age >55
      years, (P = 0.001), positive margins (P = 0.037), biphasic histology (P = 0.013),
      and adjuvant radiation (P < 0.001). The association between AC and OS remained
      significant after adjustment for factors predictive of receipt of AC.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this national cohort, AC was associated with prolonged OS for SS
      for stage III patients but not in lower stages. Less restricted use of this
      therapy may be warranted in this population.

PMID- 28580621
TI  - Functional outcomes of fasciocutaneous free flap and pectoralis major flap for
      salvage total laryngectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pectoralis major muscle flaps (PMMFs) and fasciocutaneous free flaps
      (FFFs) are commonly used for reconstruction of the surgical defect after salvage
      total laryngectomy. This study compared swallowing function in patients who
      underwent reconstruction with either PMMF or FFF. METHODS: This study was based
      on a retrospective cohort of patients treated at the CHU de Quebec between
      January 2000 and March 2015. Demographics, chemoradiation data, surgical
      protocol, pathologic results, complications, evolution, esophageal dilation, diet
      intake, and feeding tube dependence were documented. RESULTS: A total of 126
      patients were analyzed (93 PMMFs and 33 FFFs). Of the patients who received
      PMMFs, 38.7% had a limited oral intake compared to 15.2% of patients who received
      FFFs (odds ratio [OR] 3.54; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.25-9.99; P = .02). The
      need for esophageal dilation tended to be greater for PMMF patients (25% vs 9%;
      OR 3.38; 95% CI 0.94-12.13; P = .06). Complication rates were similar.
      CONCLUSION: The FFF reconstruction led to better results in terms of swallowing
      function than PMMF reconstruction.

PMID- 28580623
TI  - The relationship of circulating relaxin-2 concentrations with short-term
      prognosis in patients with acute heart failure: the RELAHF study.

PMID- 28580624
TI  - Coupled effects of wind-storms and drought on tree mortality across 115 forest
      stands from the Western Alps and the Jura mountains.
AB  - Damage due to wind-storms and droughts is increasing in many temperate forests,
      yet little is known about the long-term roles of these key climatic factors in
      forest dynamics and in the carbon budget. The objective of this study was to
      estimate individual and coupled effects of droughts and wind-storms on adult tree
      mortality across a 31-year period in 115 managed, mixed coniferous forest stands
      from the Western Alps and the Jura mountains. For each stand, yearly mortality
      was inferred from management records, yearly drought from interpolated fields of
      monthly temperature, precipitation and soil water holding capacity, and wind
      storms from interpolated fields of daily maximum wind speed. We performed a
      thorough model selection based on a leave-one-out cross-validation of the time
      series. We compared different critical wind speeds (CWSs) for damage, wind-storm,
      and stand variables and statistical models. We found that a model including stand
      characteristics, drought, and storm strength using a CWS of 25 ms-1 performed the
      best across most stands. Using this best model, we found that drought increased
      damage risk only in the most southerly forests, and its effect is generally
      maintained for up to 2 years. Storm strength increased damage risk in all forests
      in a relatively uniform way. In some stands, we found positive interaction
      between drought and storm strength most likely because drought weakens trees, and
      they became more prone to stem breakage under wind-loading. In other stands, we
      found negative interaction between drought and storm strength, where excessive
      rain likely leads to soil water saturation making trees more susceptible to
      overturning in a wind-storm. Our results stress that temporal data are essential
      to make valid inferences about ecological impacts of disturbance events, and that
      making inferences about disturbance agents separately can be of limited validity.
      Under projected future climatic conditions, the direction and strength of these
      ecological interactions could also change.

PMID- 28580622
TI  - Heightened amygdala responsiveness in s-carriers of 5-HTTLPR genetic polymorphism
      reflects enhanced cortical rather than subcortical inputs: An MEG study.
AB  - Short allele carriers (S-carriers) of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR)
      show an elevated amygdala response to emotional stimuli relative to long allele
      carriers (LL-homozygous). However, whether this reflects increased responsiveness
      of the amygdala generally or interactions between the amygdala and the specific
      input systems remains unknown. It is argued that the amygdala receives input via
      a quick subcortical and a slower cortical pathway. If the elevated amygdala
      response in S-carriers reflects generally increased amygdala responding, then
      group differences in amygdala should be seen across the amygdala response time
      course. However, if the difference is a secondary consequence of enhanced
      amygdala-cortical interactions, then group differences might only be present
      later in the amygdala response. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found an
      enhanced amygdala response to fearful expressions starting 40-50 ms poststimulus.
      However, group differences in the amygdala were only seen 190-200 ms
      poststimulus, preceded by increased superior temporal sulcus (STS) responses in S
      carriers from 130 to 140 ms poststimulus. An enhanced amygdala response to angry
      expressions started 260-270 ms poststimulus with group differences in the
      amygdala starting at 160-170 ms poststimulus onset, preceded by increased STS
      responses in S-carriers from 150 to 160 ms poststimulus. These suggest that
      enhanced amygdala responses in S-carriers might reflect enhanced STS-amygdala
      connectivity in S-carriers. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4313-4321, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580625
TI  - Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist pattern of use in heart failure with
      reduced ejection fraction: findings from BIOSTAT-CHF.
AB  - AIMS: Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) are recommended (unless
      contraindicated) to all patients with heart failure with reduced ejection
      fraction (HFrEF). However, MRAs are still largely underused in routine clinical
      practice. This study aims to describe the determinants and pattern of use of MRAs
      in HFrEF. METHODS AND RESULTS: BIOSTAT-CHF is a European multicentre, prospective
      study which enrolled patients suboptimally treated with angiotensin-converting
      enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEi/ARBs) and/or beta-blockers,
      with the aim of optimizing guideline-based use of these agents. From the original
      2516 subjects, this retrospective post hoc analysis included the 1325 patients
      with an indication for MRA therapy (i.e. left ventricular ejection fraction
      <=35%, estimated glomerular filtration rate >=30 mL/min/1.73 m2 , K+ <=5.0
      mmol/L). The mean age was 66.1 +/- 12.2 years. At baseline an MRA was prescribed
      to 741 (56%) patients. Patients who were prescribed MRAs at baseline were
      younger, more often male, had higher body mass index, lower sodium, higher
      proportion of hypertension history and ACEi/ARB prescription (all P < 0.05). Of
      the 1049 patients who completed the baseline plus the 9 month visit, 585 (56%)
      had an MRA prescribed at baseline and 662 (63%) had an MRA prescribed at 9
      months. Among the 585 patients with MRA at baseline, 91 (16%) had discontinued
      therapy and among the 461 (44%) patients without MRA at baseline 168 (36%) had
      initiated therapy subsequently. MRA discontinuation was more likely in subjects
      with higher left ventricular ejection fraction and NYHA class III/IV (P < 0.05
      for both). MRA prescription both at baseline and 9 months was not associated with
      the outcome of death or heart failure hospitalization (adjusted hazard ratio
      1.02, 95% confidence interval 0.66-1.58; P = 0.93). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      prospective observational study across Europe, MRAs were largely under-prescribed
      and frequently discontinued. Owing to these dynamic changes, outcome inferences
      are inconclusive.

PMID- 28580626
TI  - Gender-specific differences in the molecular signatures of adult Eosinophilic
      Oesophagitis.

PMID- 28580629
TI  - Three-dimensional patterning in biomedicine: Importance and applications in
      neuropharmacology.
AB  - Nature manufactures biological systems in three dimensions with precisely
      controlled spatiotemporal profiles on hierarchical length and time scales. In
      this article, we review 3D patterning of biological systems on synthetic
      platforms for neuropharmacological applications. We briefly describe 3D versus 2D
      chemical and topographical patterning methods and their limitations.
      Subsequently, an overview of introducing a third dimension in
      neuropharmacological research with delineation of chemical and topographical
      roles is presented. Finally, toward the end of this article, an explanation of
      how 3D patterning has played a pivotal role in relevant fields of
      neuropharmacology to understand neurophysiology during development, normal
      health, and disease conditions is described. The future prospects of organs-on-a-
      like devices to mimic patterned blood-brain barrier in the context of
      neurotherapeutic discovery and development for the prioritization of lead
      candidates, membrane potential, and toxicity testing are also described. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1369
      1382, 2018.

PMID- 28580628
TI  - Mortality in the Waikato Hospital Systemic Sclerosis Cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize the causes of mortality and standardised mortality
      ratio in a cohort of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: A cohort of
      132 patients enrolled at the Waikato Systemic Sclerosis Clinic was prospectively
      followed from 2005 to 2016. Patient demographics, diagnoses and laboratory
      reports were used to assess risk of mortality and generate standardised mortality
      ratios (SMR). Survival was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier methods. RESULTS: Of the
      cohort of 132 patients, 20 (15%) were deceased by the end of the study period.
      The median age of diagnosis and death was 52 years (range 13-86) and 71 years
      (range 42-87) respectively. Seventy percent of deaths were SSc related and the
      leading causes of death were due to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH),
      interstitial lung disease (ILD) and scleroderma renal crisis (SRC). Patients
      diagnosed after the age of 60 had renal or cardiac manifestations and were
      associated with a significantly increased risk of mortality. The overall SMR was
      2.59 (95% CI 1.67-4.01) and was higher in those with diffuse versus limited SSc
      (6.46, 95% CI 3.08-13.54 vs. 1.93, 95% CI 1.10-3.41) and males (4.17, 95% CI 1.74
      10.02 vs. 2.30, 95% CI 1.39-3.81). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated an
      increased risk of mortality in patients with SSc relative to that of the general
      population. An excess in risk was observed particularly in those with diffuse SSc
      and in males. Renal and cardiac involvement were found to be significant
      indicators of mortality and reinforces the necessity of screening for these
      complications.

PMID- 28580627
TI  - Age-related modulation of angiogenesis-regulating factors in the swine meniscus.
AB  - An in-depth knowledge of the native meniscus morphology and biomechanics in its
      different areas is essential to develop an engineered tissue. Meniscus is
      characterized by a great regional variation in extracellular matrix components
      and in vascularization. Then, the aim of this work was to characterize the
      expression of factors involved in angiogenesis in different areas during meniscus
      maturation in pigs. The menisci were removed from the knee joints of neonatal,
      young and adult pigs, and they were divided into the inner, intermediate and
      outer areas. Vascular characterization and meniscal maturation were evaluated by
      immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. In particular, expression of the
      angiogenic factor Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and the anti
      angiogenic marker Endostatin (ENDO) was analysed, as well as the vascular
      endothelial cadherin (Ve-CAD). In addition, expression of Collagen II (COLL II)
      and SOX9 was examined, as markers of the fibro-cartilaginous differentiation.
      Expression of VEGF and Ve-CAD had a similar pattern in all animals, with a
      significant increase from the inner to the outer part of the meniscus. Pooling
      the zones, expression of both proteins was significantly higher in the neonatal
      meniscus than in young and adult menisci. Conversely, the young meniscus revealed
      a significantly higher expression of ENDO compared to the neonatal and adult
      ones. Analysis of tissue maturation markers showed an increase in COLL II and a
      decrease in SOX9 expression with age. These preliminary data highlight some of
      the changes that occur in the swine meniscus during growth, in particular the
      ensemble of regulatory factors involved in angiogenesis.

PMID- 28580630
TI  - The midgut microbiota plays an essential role in sand fly vector competence for
      Leishmania major.
AB  - For many arthropod vectors, the diverse bacteria and fungi that inhabit the gut
      can negatively impact pathogen colonization. Our attempts to exploit antibiotic
      treatment of colonized Phlebotomus duboscqi sand flies in order to improve their
      vector competency for Leishmania major resulted instead in flies that were
      refractory to the development of transmissible infections due to the inability of
      the parasite to survive and to colonize the anterior midgut with infective,
      metacyclic stage promastigotes. The parasite survival and development defect
      could be overcome by feeding the flies on different symbiont bacteria but not by
      feeding them on bacterial supernatants or replete medium. The inhibitory effect
      of the dysbiosis was moderated by lowering the concentration of sucrose (<30%
      w/v) used in the sugar feeds to maintain the colony. Exposure of promastigotes to
      30% sucrose was lethal to the parasite in vitro. Confocal imaging revealed that
      the killing in vivo was confined to promastigotes that had migrated to the
      anterior plug region, corresponding to the highest concentrations of sucrose. The
      data suggest that sucrose utilization by the microbiota is essential to promote
      the appropriate osmotic conditions required for the survival of infective stage
      promastigotes in vivo.

PMID- 28580632
TI  - Mortality review as a teaching tool in the tropics.

PMID- 28580631
TI  - Kawasaki disease: Medical therapies.
AB  - Medical therapies in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) are administered to
      reduce the prevalence of coronary aneurysms, reduce systemic inflammation, and
      prevent coronary thrombosis. All patients with acute KD should be treated with
      intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) 2 g/kg, generally administered over 10-12
      hours. Aspirin has never been shown to prevent aneurysms, but is given for its
      anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects until the patient has been afebrile for
      ~2 days, then lowered to an antiplatelet dose. Adjunctive therapy with a longer
      course of corticosteroids, together with IVIG and aspirin, may be considered for
      primary treatment in patients at high risk for development of aneurysms. For
      patients who have persistent or recrudescent fever after IVIG treatment without
      other explanation, adjunctive therapies include retreatment with IVIG, a tapering
      course of corticosteroids, infliximab, cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, and other
      immunomodulatory therapies. Antithrombotic therapies are tailored to the risk of
      thrombosis, and range from aspirin alone for 4-6 weeks in children without
      aneurysms to a combination of anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy for those
      with giant aneurysms.

PMID- 28580633
TI  - Smad7 positively regulates keratinocyte proliferation in psoriasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 exerts inhibitory effects on
      keratinocyte proliferation. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether Smad7, a known
      inhibitor of TGF-beta1 signalling, is involved in psoriasis-associated
      keratinocyte hyperproliferation. METHODS: Smad7 was evaluated in skin sections of
      patients with psoriasis and healthy controls and in mice with Aldara-induced skin
      pathology by real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. To
      assess whether Smad7 positively regulates in vivo keratinocyte growth, mice
      treated with Aldara received daily cutaneous administration of Smad7 antisense
      oligonucleotide (AS). Keratin (K)6 and K16, cell-cycle-associated factors, cell
      cycle and cell proliferation were evaluated in HaCaT cells either treated with
      Smad7 AS or transfected with Smad7 plasmid and in mice given Smad7 AS. RESULTS:
      Smad7 was highly expressed in keratinocytes of patients with psoriasis and of
      mice treated with Aldara. In HaCaT cells, Smad7 knockdown inhibited cell growth,
      reduced K6 and K16 expression and promoted accumulation of cells in the S-phase
      of the cell cycle. Smad7-deficient keratinocytes exhibited reduced levels of
      CDC25A protein, a phosphatase that facilitates progression of cells through the S
      phase, and hyperphosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2)alpha, a
      negative regulator of CDC25 protein translation. Consistently, Smad7
      overexpression in HaCaT cells was followed by induction of K6 and K16 and
      increased cell proliferation. Topical application of Smad7 AS to Aldara-treated
      mice reduced epidermal thickness. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that Smad7 is
      overexpressed in human and murine psoriasis and suggest a key role of this
      molecule in the control of keratinocyte proliferation.

PMID- 28580634
TI  - New by-products rich in bioactive substances from the olive oil mill processing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Olive oil extraction generates a large amount of residue consisting
      mainly of the pomace and leaves when using a two-phase centrifugation system. The
      aim of this study was to assess the content of phenolic and triterpene compounds
      in the by-products produced in Spanish olive oil mills. RESULTS: Olive pomace had
      concentrations of phenolic and triterpene substances lower than 2 and 3 g kg-1 ,
      respectively. The leaves contained a high concentration of these substances,
      although those collected from ground-picked olives had lost most of their
      phenolic compounds. Moreover, the sediment from the bottom of the olive oil
      storage tanks did not have a significant amount of these substances. By contrast,
      a new by-product called olive pomace skin has been revealed as a very rich source
      of triterpenic acids, the content of which can reach up to 120 g kg-1 in this
      waste product, maslinic acid comprising around 70% of total triterpenics.
      CONCLUSION: Among the by-products generated during extraction of olive oil, olive
      pomace skin has been discovered to be a very rich source of triterpenic acids,
      which can reach up to 120 g kg-1 of the waste. These results will contribute to
      the valorization of olive oil by-products. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580635
TI  - A cross-sectional study of the catheter management of neurogenic bladder after
      traumatic spinal cord injury.
AB  - AIMS: This cross-sectional study describes the catheter management of neurogenic
      bladder (NGB) in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) with emphasis
      on the motivations behind transitions between intermittent (IC) and indwelling
      catheters. METHODS: Patients at the Minneapolis VA with history of tSCI who
      utilized either intermittent catheterization (IC), urethral (UC) or suprapubic
      (SP) catheters, participated in a voluntary, anonymous survey regarding their
      bladder management strategies. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients participated, 94%
      were male and 90% Caucasian with median age of 61 years. Patients with current UC
      or SP were older than those utilizing IC (P = 0.002). The median age at injury
      and years since SCI were 32 years and 20.5 years, respectively. The median time
      with current modality was 11 years. A total of 27% of all patients reported at
      least one transition between catheter type. A total of 14 of 54 patients using IC
      had prior use of UC or SP, while 12/25 patients using SP and 10/21 patients using
      UC had prior use of IC. The most common reasons to stop IC included
      inconvenience, physician recommendation, and dislike of IC. A total of 53% of
      patients currently using UC or SP reported never using IC. Patients currently
      using SP were more content with their current catheterization method than those
      using UC or IC (P = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients using catheters for NGB,
      intermittent catheterization was the most common modality utilized and the
      transition between intermittent and indwelling catheter was most often influenced
      by patient preferences and clinician recommendations.

PMID- 28580636
TI  - Relationship between co-morbidities at diagnosis, survival and ultimate cause of
      death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL): a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - The ultimate cause of death for most patients with newly diagnosed chronic
      lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and its relationship to co-morbid health conditions
      is poorly defined. We conducted a prospective cohort study that systematically
      followed 1143 patients diagnosed with CLL between June 2002 and November 2014.
      Comorbid health conditions at the time of CLL diagnosis and their relationship to
      survival and cause of death were evaluated. Collectively, 1061 (93%) patients had
      at least one co-morbid health condition at the time of CLL diagnosis (median
      number 3). Despite this, 89% of patients had a low-intermediate Charlson
      Comorbidity Index score (CCI) at diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 6 years,
      225 patients have died. Death was due to CLL progression in 85 (46%) patients,
      infection in 14 (8%) patients, other cancer in 35 (19%) patients and comorbid
      health conditions in 50 (27%) patients. Higher CCI score and a greater number of
      major comorbid health conditions at the time of CLL diagnosis was associated with
      shorter non-CLL specific survival, but not with shorter CLL-specific survival on
      multivariate analysis. In conclusion, CLL and CLL-related complications
      (infections and second cancers) are the overwhelming cause of death in patients
      with CLL, regardless of CCI score and number of comorbid health conditions at
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28580637
TI  - Influence of plerixafor on the mobilization of CD34+ cell subpopulations and
      lymphocyte subtypes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral blood stem cells mobilized with granulocyte-colony
      stimulating factor (G-CSF) with or without chemotherapy are routinely used for
      autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation. Plerixafor, a chemokine-receptor
      inhibitor, increases the amount of circulating CD34+ cells and improves harvest
      results. However, limited information is available regarding the composition of
      apheresis products with respect to CD34+ and lymphocyte subtypes collected after
      various mobilization regimens. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We used a recently
      established single-platform multicolor flow-cytometric analysis including CD45RA
      and CD133 to define CD34+ subpopulations and lymphocyte subsets in products
      obtained either after G-CSF with or without chemotherapy alone (G, n = 40) or
      with addition of plerixafor (GP, n = 40). RESULTS: Absolute numbers of white
      blood cells and lymphocyte subtypes were significantly higher after plerixafor,
      which was not observed for absolute CD34+ counts. However, distinct differences
      in terms of CD34+ subtypes were observed. The most primitive multipotent
      progenitors (CD45RA-CD133+CD34+CD38low ) predominated significantly after G
      (median, 49.2%; range, 15.2%-63%) compared to GP (median, 34.4%; range, 12%-62%;
      p < 0.001), whereas more differentiated subsets clearly prevailed after GP.
      CONCLUSION: In contrast to the findings of other authors, our study shows a clear
      shift toward more committed CD34+ subsets after plerixafor in poor mobilizers and
      elucidates the importance of informative surface markers like CD45RA and CD133 in
      addition to CD38 to discriminate earlier from more committed CD34+ cells. Further
      studies are needed to analyze whether these findings have an impact on clinical
      outcome.

PMID- 28580638
TI  - Emotional reactivity and regulation in individuals with psychopathic traits:
      Evidence for a disconnect between neurophysiology and self-report.
AB  - Individuals with psychopathic traits often demonstrate blunted reactivity to
      negative emotional stimuli. However, it is not yet clear whether these
      individuals also have difficulty regulating their emotional responses to negative
      stimuli. To address this question, participants with varying levels of
      psychopathic traits (indexed by the Triarchic Measure of Psychopathy; Patrick,
      2010) completed a task in which they passively viewed, increased, or decreased
      their emotions to negative picture stimuli while electrocortical activity was
      recorded. During passive viewing of negative images, higher boldness, but not
      higher disinhibition or meanness, was associated with reduced amplitude of the
      late positive potential (LPP), an ERP that indexes reactivity to emotionally
      relevant stimuli. However, all participants demonstrated expected enhancement of
      the LPP when asked to increase their emotional response. Participants did not
      show expected suppression of the LPP when asked to decrease their emotional
      response. Contrary to the electrophysiological data, individuals with higher
      boldness did not self-report experiencing blunted emotional response during
      passive viewing trials, and they reported experiencing greater emotional
      reactivity relative to other participants when regulating (e.g., both increasing
      and decreasing) their emotions. Results suggest inconsistency between
      physiological and self-report indices of emotion among high-bold individuals
      during both affective processing and regulation.

PMID- 28580639
TI  - Mesenchymal Stem Cells Stabilize Axonal Transports for Autophagic Clearance of
      alpha-Synuclein in Parkinsonian Models.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies have identified two loci, SNCA and the
      microtubule (MT)-associated protein tau, as common risk factors for Parkinson's
      disease (PD). Specifically, alpha-synuclein directly destabilizes MT via tau
      phosphorylation and induces axonal transport deficits that are the primary events
      leading to an abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein that causes nigral
      dopaminergic cell loss. In this study, we demonstrated that mesenchymal stem
      cells (MSCs) could modulate cytoskeletal networks and trafficking to exert
      neuroprotective properties in wild-type or A53T alpha-synuclein overexpressing
      cells and mice. Moreover, we found that eukaryotic elongation factor 1A-2, a
      soluble factor derived from MSCs, stabilized MT assembly by decreasing
      calcium/calmodulin-dependent tau phosphorylation and induced autophagolysosome
      fusion, which was accompanied by an increase in the axonal motor proteins and
      increased neuronal survival. Our data suggest that MSCs have beneficial effects
      on axonal transports via MT stability by controlling alpha-synuclein-induced tau
      phosphorylation, indicating that MSCs may exert a protective role in the early
      stages of axonal transport defects in alpha-synucleinopathies. Stem Cells
      2017;35:1934-1947.

PMID- 28580640
TI  - Region-based association tests for sequencing data on survival traits.
AB  - Family-based designs enriched with affected subjects and disease associated
      variants can increase statistical power for identifying functional rare variants.
      However, few rare variant analysis approaches are available for time-to-event
      traits in family designs and none of them applicable to the X chromosome. We
      developed novel pedigree-based burden and kernel association tests for time-to
      event outcomes with right censoring for pedigree data, referred to FamRATS
      (family-based rare variant association tests for survival traits). Cox
      proportional hazard models were employed to relate a time-to-event trait with
      rare variants with flexibility to encompass all ranges and collapsing of multiple
      variants. In addition, the robustness of violating proportional hazard
      assumptions was investigated for the proposed and four current existing tests,
      including the conventional population-based Cox proportional model and the
      burden, kernel, and sum of squares statistic (SSQ) tests for family data. The
      proposed tests can be applied to large-scale whole-genome sequencing data. They
      are appropriate for the practical use under a wide range of misspecified Cox
      models, as well as for population-based, pedigree-based, or hybrid designs. In
      our extensive simulation study and data example, we showed that the proposed
      kernel test is the most powerful and robust choice among the proposed burden test
      and the existing four rare variant survival association tests. When applied to
      the Diabetes Heart Study, the proposed tests found exome variants of the JAK1
      gene on chromosome 1 showed the most significant association with age at onset of
      type 2 diabetes from the exome-wide analysis.

PMID- 28580642
TI  - Underreported use of palliative care and patient-reported outcome measures to
      address reduced quality of life in patients with calciphylaxis: a systematic
      review.
AB  - Calciphylaxis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Palliative
      care (PC) is a subspecialty that treats the pain and stress of serious illness.
      To assess whether the role of quality of life (QoL) indices, patient-reported
      outcome measures and PC have been studied in patients with calciphylaxis, we
      performed a systematic literature review. Several databases were searched from
      inception to October 2016 according to modified Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria. We searched for papers on
      calciphylaxis that mentioned the symptoms and supportive needs of patients, QoL
      or outcome measures to report symptom severity, and the involvement of PC. Twelve
      papers met the inclusion criteria. Reported patient symptoms included pain, skin
      lesion resolution and pruritus, with the first being the most frequently
      reported. Four papers measured pain using a previously verified patient-reported
      outcome measure, including the Visual Analogue Scale. One paper used a verified
      QoL measure, the Dermatology Quality of Life Index. No tool was used
      consistently. Eight papers reported the use of hospice care or PC in the
      treatment of calciphylaxis. No outcome measure was used to prompt PC involvement.
      Overall, QoL indices, patient-reported outcome measures and PC are underreported
      in the treatment of calciphylaxis. PC may be a resource to assist in symptom
      management and adaptive coping strategies for patients from the onset of disease.

PMID- 28580641
TI  - Melatonin reduces endoplasmic reticulum stress and corneal dystrophy-associated
      TGFBIp through activation of endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein
      degradation.
AB  - Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is emerging as a factor for the pathogenesis of
      granular corneal dystrophy type 2 (GCD2). This study was designed to investigate
      the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effects of melatonin on ER
      stress in GCD2. Our results showed that GCD2 corneal fibroblasts were more
      susceptible to ER stress-induced death than were wild-type cells. Melatonin
      significantly inhibited GCD2 corneal cell death, caspase-3 activation, and poly
      (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 cleavage caused by the ER stress inducer, tunicamycin.
      Under ER stress, melatonin significantly suppressed the induction of
      immunoglobulin heavy-chain-binding protein (BiP) and activation of inositol
      requiring enzyme 1alpha (IRE1alpha), and their downstream target, alternative
      splicing of X-box binding protein 1(XBP1). Notably, the reduction in BiP and
      IRE1alpha by melatonin was suppressed by the ubiquitin-proteasome inhibitor,
      MG132, but not by the autophagy inhibitor, bafilomycin A1, indicating involvement
      of the ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD) system. Melatonin treatment
      reduced the levels of transforming growth factor-beta-induced protein (TGFBIp)
      significantly, and this reduction was suppressed by MG132. We also found reduced
      mRNA expression of the ERAD system components HRD1 and SEL1L, and a reduced level
      of SEL1L protein in GCD2 cells. Interestingly, melatonin treatments enhanced
      SEL1L levels and suppressed the inhibition of SEL1L N-glycosylation caused by
      tunicamycin. In conclusion, this study provides new insights into the mechanisms
      by which melatonin confers its protective actions during ER stress. The results
      also indicate that melatonin might have potential as a therapeutic agent for ER
      stress-related diseases including GCD2.

PMID- 28580644
TI  - Relationships between Acute and Postacute Care Providers: Measurement and
      Estimation.

PMID- 28580643
TI  - Insights into PG-binding, conformational change, and dimerization of the OmpA C
      terminal domains from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Borrelia
      burgdorferi.
AB  - Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can induce both humoral and cell-mediated
      responses when establishing itself in the host. These responses are primarily
      stimulated against the lipopolysaccharide and major outer membrane (OM) proteins.
      OmpA is one of these major OM proteins. It comprises a N-terminal eight-stranded
      beta-barrel transmembrane domain and a C-terminal domain (OmpACTD ). The OmpACTD
      and its homologs are believed to bind to peptidoglycan (PG) within the periplasm,
      maintaining bacterial osmotic homeostasis and modulating the permeability and
      integrity of the OM. Here we present the first crystal structures of the OmpACTD
      from two pathogens: S. typhimurium (STOmpACTD ) in open and closed forms and
      causative agent of Lyme Disease Borrelia burgdorferi (BbOmpACTD ), in closed
      form. In the open form of STOmpACTD , an aspartate residue from a long beta2
      alpha3 loop points into the binding pocket, suggesting that an anion group such
      as a carboxylate group from PG is favored at the binding site. In the closed form
      of STOmpACTD and in the structure of BbOmpACTD , a sulfate group from the
      crystallization buffer is tightly bound at the binding site. The differences
      between the closed and open forms of STOmpACTD , suggest a large conformational
      change that includes an extension of alpha3 helix by ordering a part of beta2
      alpha3 loop. We propose that the sulfate anion observed in these structures
      mimics the carboxylate group of PG when bound to STOmpACTD suggesting PG
      anchoring mechanism. In addition, the binding of PG or a ligand mimic may enhance
      dimerization of STOmpACTD , or possibly that of full length STOmpA.

PMID- 28580645
TI  - A systematic review of factors influencing knowledge management and the nurse
      leaders' role.
AB  - AIM: To describe factors facilitating or inhibiting the development of registered
      nurses' competency and nurse leader's role in knowledge management. BACKGROUND:
      Nurses' competency directly influences patient safety and the quality and
      effectiveness of patient care. Challenges of nurse leaders in knowledge
      management include acquiring, assessing and utilising current knowledge and
      assessing and enhancing competency. EVALUATION: A systematic search was conducted
      in PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS and ERIC databases in April 2015. The search identified
      18 relevant research articles published between 2009 and 2015. The quality of the
      studies was appraised in accordance with study designs. KEY ISSUE: Knowledge
      management is facilitated by an organisation culture that supports learning,
      sharing of information and learning together. Leader commitment and competency
      were factors related to leadership facilitating knowledge management. CONCLUSION:
      Nurse leaders need evidence-based interventions to support shared learning and to
      create infrastructures that facilitate competence development. Future research is
      especially needed to evaluate connections between knowledge management and
      patient outcomes. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP: The results
      of this review can be utilised in enhancing factors to facilitate knowledge
      management in clinical practice and identifying nurse leaders' role in
      strengthening nurses' competency.

PMID- 28580646
TI  - Secukinumab is superior to fumaric acid esters in treating patients with moderate
      to-severe plaque psoriasis who are naive to systemic treatments: results from the
      randomized controlled PRIME trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secukinumab is a fully human antibody that neutralizes interleukin
      17A. It has significant efficacy and a favourable safety profile in moderate-to
      severe plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. OBJECTIVES: To compare
      secukinumab with fumaric acid esters (FAEs) in a randomized controlled trial.
      METHODS: In this 24-week, randomized, open-label, multicentre study with blinded
      assessment, patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, naive to systemic
      treatments, were randomized to receive secukinumab 300 mg subcutaneously or oral
      FAEs. The primary end point was >= 75% improvement from baseline Psoriasis Area
      and Severity Index score (PASI 75 response) at week 24, and missing patients were
      considered responders if they were responders at the time of dropout. RESULTS: In
      total 202 patients were randomized and 200 were treated with at least one dose.
      Outcomes at week 24 were available for 147 and imputed for 53 patients.
      Discontinuations were mostly due to adverse events, and occurred more frequently
      in the FAE group (1.9% vs. 40.0%). At week 24, significantly more patients
      receiving secukinumab compared with FAEs achieved PASI 75 response (89.5% vs.
      33.7%, P < 0.001), PASI 90 response (75.2% vs. 18.9%, P < 0.001) and Dermatology
      Life Quality Index 0 or 1 response (71.4% vs. 25.3%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Secukinumab demonstrated superior efficacy to FAEs in patients with psoriasis
      over a 24-week period.

PMID- 28580647
TI  - Diagnosis-specific self-image predicts longitudinal suicidal ideation in adult
      eating disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Eating disorders (ED) are prevalent, serious illnesses with elevated
      mortality, mainly attributable to suicide. Predictors of suicidality include
      binge/purge symptomatology, impulsivity, and psychiatric comorbidity, as well as
      personality factors. Recent research has also shown self-image (the Structural
      Analysis of Social Behavior, SASB, model) to predict manifest suicide attempts in
      ED, and the study explored suicide risk prediction to increase knowledge of
      warning signs and intervention targets. METHOD: Participants were adult ED
      patients registered in the Stepwise clinical database (N = 1537) with anorexia
      nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder (BED), or other
      specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED). The SASB self-image questionnaire
      was used in stepwise regressions to predict 12-month suicidal ideation, both self
      and clinician-rated, in models both excluding and including baseline clinical
      variables. RESULTS: Validation analyses showed fair correspondence between
      outcome variables as well as with suicide attempts. Different variables predicted
      suicidality in different diagnoses, over and above baseline clinical variables in
      all but one regression model. Low Self-protection was important in AN and BN,
      high Self-control in AN, and high Letting go of the self in BN. For BED, self
      blame explained variance, and in OSFED, lack of self-love. DISCUSSION: Findings
      are in line with research showing differential self-image-based prediction of
      important outcomes in ED, with noteworthy consistencies across diagnoses and
      suicidality variables. Strengths included the large sample, and limitations
      pertained to measures, attrition and Type II error risk. Replication is needed,
      but findings are consistent with some previous work and offers clinical and
      research implications.

PMID- 28580648
TI  - Paired Associative Stimulation Delivered by Pairing Movement-Related Cortical
      Potentials With Peripheral Electrical Stimulation: An Investigation of the
      Duration of Neuromodulatory Effects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Novel paired associative stimulation (novel-PAS), delivered by
      pairing movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) with electrical stimulation
      of somatosensory afferents, is an innovative neuromodulatory intervention. Novel
      PAS results in increased corticomotor excitability and has potential as a
      rehabilitative adjunct to improve outcomes following stroke. The duration of its
      excitatory effect has important implications for how this novel PAS intervention
      might be applied within a traditional therapy session, but previous research has
      not explored its effects beyond 30 min post-intervention. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective was to explore changes in corticomotor excitability in healthy
      participants, over a 60-min period following a single session of novel-PAS.
      MATERIALS AND METHOD: Ten healthy adults completed a single session of novel-PAS,
      delivered by pairing 50 MRCPs with peripheral electrical stimulation. TMS was
      used to elicit motor evoked potentials (MEPs) of the tibialis anterior (TA)
      muscle, immediately prior to the intervention, and at 0, 30, 45, and 60 min post
      intervention. RESULTS: When compared with pre-intervention, there was a
      statistically significant increase in the mean TA MEP amplitudes at 0 (p =
      0.006), 30 (p = 0.006), 45 (p = 0.027), and 60 min post-intervention (p = 0.020).
      CONCLUSION: Corticomotor excitability is increased for 60 min following this
      novel-PAS intervention. Future research could investigate the optimal method of
      combining this neuromodulatory technique with traditional therapy.

PMID- 28580649
TI  - Myeloperoxidase-antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody causes different renal
      diseases by immune-complex formation and pauci-immune mechanism: A case report.
AB  - Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) has been known to cause pauci-immune
      crescentic glomerulonephritis. In addition, several reports described membranous
      glomerulonephritis (MN) concurrent with ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis.
      Because the two glomerular diseases simultaneously appear in an ANCA-positive
      patient, the mechanisms whereby ANCA causes the two different glomerular diseases
      remain ambiguous. Herein, we report a case of 19-year-old man who presented with
      hematuria, pre-nephrotic proteinuria, and high titer of myeloperoxidase (MPO)
      ANCA. The first renal biopsy revealed MN with chronic glomerular scar lesions of
      unknown etiology. Predominant immunoglobulin (Ig) G1 subclass and negative
      phospholipase-A2 receptor staining, together with granular-positive glomerular
      capillary co-localization of MPO and IgG staining, suggested secondary MN due to
      MPO-MPO-ANCA immune-complex. Five years later, the patient presented with fever,
      severe renal dysfunction, and alveolar hemorrhage with high titer of MPO-ANCA
      that indicated pulmonary renal syndrome due to ANCA-associated vasculitis. The
      second renal biopsy revealed pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis without
      either apparent MN-lesion or glomerular IgG staining. This is the first reported
      case showing that MPO-ANCA caused two different glomerular diseases, MN and pauci
      immune crescentic glomerulonephritis, in the same patient at the different time
      points. Our case indicated that common MPO-ANCA might cause different glomerular
      diseases by different immune mechanisms.

PMID- 28580650
TI  - Maternal near-misses at a provincial hospital in Papua New Guinea: A prospective
      observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal near-miss indices are World Health Organisation (WHO)
      recognised indicators that may improve our understanding of factors associated
      with maternal morbidity and mortality. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) where maternal
      mortality is among the highest in the world, only one study has documented near
      miss indices in a tertiary-level hospital, but none from provincial hospitals
      where the majority of under-privileged women access healthcare services. AIMS: To
      determine the near-miss ratio, maternal mortality index (MMI), and associated
      maternal indices for Modilon Hospital in Madang Province of PNG. METHODS: All
      women attending Modilon Hospital who met the WHO maternal near-miss definition
      and/or a WHO-modified (PNG-specific) near-miss definition, were prospectively
      enrolled. RESULTS: There were 6019 live births during the audit period; 163 women
      presented with life-threatening conditions (153 near-misses and 10 maternal
      deaths). The maternal near-miss ratio was 25.4/1000 live births and the maternal
      mortality ratio (MMR) was 166/100 000 live births, with a maternal death to near
      miss ratio of 1:15.3. The severe maternal outcome ratio was 27.1/1000 live births
      and the total mortality index was 6.8%. Higher proportions of near-miss women
      were aged >=30 years, nulliparous, illiterate, from rural communities, lacked
      formal employment, referred from peripheral health facilities, unbooked, had
      history of still births and were anaemic. CONCLUSION: Sociodemographic factors
      such as women's rights, education level and status in society, in addition to
      appropriate health reforms with greater financial and political support are
      urgently needed to ensure underprivileged women in rural PNG have access to
      family planning, supervised deliveries and skilled emergency obstetric care.

PMID- 28580651
TI  - Data fabrication and other reasons for non-random sampling in 5087 randomised,
      controlled trials in anaesthetic and general medical journals.
AB  - Randomised, controlled trials have been retracted after publication because of
      data fabrication and inadequate ethical approval. Fabricated data have included
      baseline variables, for instance, age, height or weight. Statistical tests can
      determine the probability of the distribution of means, given their standard
      deviation and the number of participants in each group. Randomised, controlled
      trials have been retracted after the data distributions have been calculated as
      improbable. Most retracted trials have been written by anaesthetists and
      published by specialist anaesthetic journals. I wanted to explore whether the
      distribution of baseline data in trials was consistent with the expected
      distribution. I wanted to determine whether trials retracted after publication
      had distributions different to trials that have not been retracted. I wanted to
      determine whether data distributions in trials published in specialist
      anaesthetic journals have been different to distributions in non-specialist
      medical journals. I analysed the distribution of 72,261 means of 29,789 variables
      in 5087 randomised, controlled trials published in eight journals between January
      2000 and December 2015: Anaesthesia (399); Anesthesia and Analgesia (1288);
      Anesthesiology (541); British Journal of Anaesthesia (618); Canadian Journal of
      Anesthesia (384); European Journal of Anaesthesiology (404); Journal of the
      American Medical Association (518) and New England Journal of Medicine (935). I
      chose these journals as I had electronic access to the full text. Trial p values
      were distorted by an excess of baseline means that were similar and an excess
      that were dissimilar: 763/5015 (15.2%) trials that had not been retracted from
      publication had p values that were within 0.05 of 0 or 1 (expected 10%), that is,
      a 5.2% excess, p = 1.2 * 10-7 . The p values of 31/72 (43%) trials that had been
      retracted after publication were within 0.05 of 0 or 1, a rate different to that
      for unretracted trials, p = 1.03 * 10-10 . The difference between the
      distributions of these two subgroups was confirmed by comparison of their overall
      distributions, p = 5.3 * 10-15 . Each journal exhibited the same abnormal
      distribution of baseline means. There was no difference in distributions of
      baseline means for 1453 trials in non-anaesthetic journals and 3634 trials in
      anaesthetic journals, p = 0.30. The rate of retractions from JAMA and NEJM,
      6/1453 or 1 in 242, was one-quarter the rate from the six anaesthetic journals,
      66/3634 or 1 in 55, relative risk (99%CI) 0.23 (0.08-0.68), p = 0.00022. A
      probability threshold of 1 in 10,000 identified 8/72 (11%) retracted trials (7 by
      Fujii et al.) and 82/5015 (1.6%) unretracted trials. Some p values were so
      extreme that the baseline data could not be correct: for instance, for 43/5015
      unretracted trials the probability was less than 1 in 1015 (equivalent to one
      drop of water in 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools). A probability threshold of
      1 in 100 for two or more trials by the same author identified three authors of
      retracted trials (Boldt, Fujii and Reuben) and 21 first or corresponding authors
      of 65 unretracted trials. Fraud, unintentional error, correlation, stratified
      allocation and poor methodology might have contributed to the excess of
      randomised, controlled trials with similar or dissimilar means, a pattern that
      was common to all the surveyed journals. It is likely that this work will lead to
      the identification, correction and retraction of hitherto unretracted randomised,
      controlled trials.

PMID- 28580652
TI  - Transfer of ochratoxin A from raw black tea to tea infusions prepared according
      to the Turkish tradition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a natural contaminant of food including tea
      with multiple toxic effects, which poses a threat to human health. In terms of
      lifestyle, the Turkish population is a frequent visitor of tearooms, and the
      traditional Turkish tea preparation is one of the most popular ways of preparing
      tea infusion. RESULTS: The aim of this study was to investigate OTA transfer from
      raw black tea to the tea infusion prepared according to the Turkish tradition. A
      high-performance liquid chromatography method with a limit of quantification of
      0.35 ng g-1 was used for OTA determination. The OTA amount in raw black teas from
      Turkey ranged from <=0.35 ng g-1 up to 56.7 ng g-1 . An homogenised sample of
      black tea naturally contaminated with 55.0 ng g-1 was used to prepare infusions.
      The OTA transfer from the black tea to the infusion was found to be 41.5% +/- 7%.
      CONCLUSION: These data are important for the realisation of a 'Total Diet study'
      (TDS). The TDS can be a complementary tool to estimate the population dietary
      exposure to OTA across the entire diet by analysing main foods prepared 'as
      consumed' (tea infusions) and not 'as purchased' (raw tea). (c) 2017 Society of
      Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580653
TI  - Porokeratosis ptychotropica responding to photodynamic therapy: An alternative
      treatment for a refractory disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Porokeratosis ptychotropica (PP) is a rare variant of porokeratosis
      with a special predisposition to affect body folds, particularly the intergluteal
      cleft. This disease is resistant to most topical and systemic treatments, as
      shown in the review of the literature we provide here. Itching and discomfort are
      often a difficult problem to solve. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two patients with PP
      that had not responded to multiple topical treatments were treated with
      photodynamic therapy (PDT). Changes in plaque size, thickness and symptoms were
      assessed after treatment. RESULTS: Pruritus disappearance was observed in both
      patients after treatment with PDT. Partial clearance of the plaques was observed
      in one case. In the other case, a moderate clearance of hyperkeratosis was
      observed, although the size of the lesions persisted unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: PDT
      seems to be a good therapeutic alternative in the treatment of PP, as it can
      provide symptomatic relief and clinical improvement of the lesions. However, it
      does not appear to be a curative treatment. Moreover, long-term response is still
      unknown.

PMID- 28580654
TI  - A prospective randomized controlled trial of two-window versus solo-window
      technique by lateral sinus floor elevation in atrophic posterior maxilla: Results
      from a 1-year observational phase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implant failures are more common when multiple missing posterior
      teeth need lateral sinus floor elevation owing to inadequate tissue maturation
      after grafting. Effects of lateral window dimensions on vital bone formation have
      rarely been compared. PURPOSE: To compare endo-sinus bone formation between two-
      and solo-window techniques to rehabilitate multiple missing posterior teeth that
      need substantial augmentation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with severely
      atrophic posterior maxilla were randomized to receive lateral sinus floor
      elevation via solo or two bony windows. Bone core specimens harvested from
      lateral aspect of the augmentation sites were histomorphometrically analyzed.
      Proportions of mineralized bone (MB), bone substitute materials (BS), and
      nonmineralized tissue (NMT) were quantified. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients
      underwent 23 maxillary sinus augmentations. One patient in each group dropped out
      during the follow-up period. Lateral window dimensions were 81.65 +/- 4.59 and
      118.04 +/- 19.53 mm2 in the test and control groups, respectively.
      Histomorphometric analysis revealed mean MB of 42.32% +/- 13.07% and 26.00% +/-
      15.23%, BS of 40.34% +/- 9.52% and 60.03% +/- 10.13%, and NMT of 18.14% +/-
      14.24% and 14.75% +/- 10.38% in test and control groups, respectively, with
      significant differences. CONCLUSION: The two-window technique could facilitate
      faster maturation and consolidation of the grafted volume and is an effective
      alternative for rehabilitation of severely atrophic posterior maxilla with
      multiple missing posterior teeth.

PMID- 28580657
TI  - Widening the search for suspect data - is the flood of retractions about to
      become a tsunami?

PMID- 28580655
TI  - A quantitative assay for Amaranthus palmeri identification.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amaranthus palmeri recently has been brought into the Midwestern USA
      as a contaminant in Conservation Reserve Program seeding mixes. Rapid species
      screening is required to mitigate the risk of continued species movement.
      RESULTS: Markers were developed for A. palmeri-specific nucleotide polymorphisms
      in the internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal coding region. A quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay successfully identified A. palmeri from
      single-plant samples, simulated mixed-plant samples and seed mixtures.
      CONCLUSION: A qPCR assay for distinguishing A. palmeri from 12 other Amaranthus
      spp. was developed and validated. The assay can consistently detect a single A.
      palmeri seed when present in a pool of 100 total Amaranthus spp. seeds. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580656
TI  - Prepartum Psychosis and Neonaticide: Rare Case Study and Forensic-Psychiatric
      Synthesis of Literature.
AB  - Peripartum psychosis is a rare but serious psychiatric disorder characterized by
      the presence of a mood episode with psychotic features. Although controversy
      surrounds the nosological status of peripartum mental disorders, these conditions
      continue to be of exceptional interest to the medical and forensic mental health
      communities. The aim of this study was to report a rare case of prepartum
      psychosis which escalated to the endpoint of neonaticide and summarize literature
      on peripartum mental disorders and infanticide. A 30-year-old mother murdered her
      newborn with the spike of her serum delivery system and planned to commit suicide
      while in hospital after hallucinating due to an acute puerperal psychotic
      disorder with a prepartum onset and postpartum deterioration. Her disorder was
      not managed until neonaticide. Throughout this paper, the significance of a
      multidisciplinary approach for the optimal management of these incidents is
      highlighted and diagnostic as well as therapeutic issues are addressed.

PMID- 28580658
TI  - Improvement in perioperative care in pediatric cardiac surgery by shifting the
      primary focus of treatment from cardiac output to perfusion pressure: Are beta
      stimulants still needed?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An important aspect of perioperative care in pediatric cardiac surgery
      is maintenance of optimal hemodynamic status using vasoactive/inotropic agents.
      Conventionally, this has focused on maintenance of cardiac output rather than
      perfusion pressure. However, this approach has been abandoned in our center in
      favor of one focusing primarily on perfusion pressure, which is presented here
      and compared to the conventional approach. DESIGN: A retrospective study.
      SETTING: Regional center for congenital heart disease. University Hospital of
      Lausanne, Switzerland. PATIENTS: All patients with Aristotle risk score >=8 that
      underwent surgery from 1996 to 2012 were included. Patients operated between 1996
      and 2005 (Group 1: 206 patients) were treated according to the conventional
      approach. Patients operated between 2006 and 2012 (Group 2: 217 patients) were
      treated according to our new approach. INTERVENTIONS: All patients had undergone
      surgery for correction or palliation of congenital cardiac defects. OUTCOME
      MEASUREMENTS: Mortality, duration of ventilation and inotropic treatment, use of
      ECMO, and complications of poor peripheral perfusion (need for hemofiltration,
      laparotomy for enterocolitis, amputation). RESULTS: The two groups were similar
      in age and complexity. Mortality was lower in group 2 (7.3% in group 1 vs 1.4% in
      group 2, P < .005). Ventilation times (hours) and number of days on
      inotropic/vasoactive treatment (all agents), expressed as median and
      interquartile range [Q1-Q3] were shorter in group 2: 69 [24-163] hours in group 1
      vs 35 [22-120] hours in group 2 (P < .01) for ventilation, and 9 [3-5] days in
      group 1 vs 7 [2-5] days in group 2 (P < .05) for inotropic/vasoactive agents.
      There were no differences in ECMO usage or complications of peripheral perfusion.
      CONCLUSIONS: Results in pediatric cardiac surgery may be improved by shifting the
      primary focus of perioperative care from cardiac output to perfusion pressure.

PMID- 28580659
TI  - Ex vivo MRI evaluation of prostate cancer: Localization and margin status
      prediction of prostate cancer in fresh radical prostatectomy specimens.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the ability of high field ex vivo magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) to localize prostate cancer (PCa) and to predict the margin status
      in fresh radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens using histology as the reference
      standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved
      study had written informed consent. Patients with biopsy-proved PCa and a
      diagnostic multiparametric 3T MRI examination of the prostate prior to undergoing
      RP were prospectively included. A custom-made container provided reference
      between the 7T ex vivo MRI obtained from fresh RP specimens and histological
      slicing. On ex vivo MRI, PCa was localized and the presence of positive surgical
      margins was determined in a double-reading session. These findings were compared
      with histological findings obtained from completely cut, whole-mount embedded,
      prostate specimens. RESULTS: In 12 RP specimens, histopathology revealed 36 PCa
      lesions, of which 17 (47%) and 20 (56%) were correlated with the ex vivo MRI in
      the first and second reading session, respectively. Nine of 12 (75%) index
      lesions were localized in the first session, in the second 10 of 12 (83%). Seven
      and 8 lesions of 11 lesions with Gleason score >6 and >0.5 cc were localized in
      the first and second session, respectively. In the first session none of the four
      histologically positive surgical margins (sensitivity 0%) and 9 of 13 negative
      margins (specificity 69%) were detected. In second session the sensitivity and
      specificity were 25% and 88%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Ex vivo MRI enabled
      accurate localization of PCa in fresh RP specimens, and the technique provided
      information on the margin status with high specificity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1
      Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:439-448.

PMID- 28580660
TI  - Long-term outcomes after aortic coarctation repair in Maltese patients: A
      population-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate survival and freedom from reintervention after aortic
      coarctation repair in Maltese patients and to compare cardiovascular mortality in
      coarctation repair survivors with that in the general population. DESIGN: All 72
      aortic coarctation patients with any type of repair, born by end-1997 and logged
      in the local database were included. Trends in timing and type of repair were
      determined by comparing patients born before and after 1985. Kaplan-Meier
      analyses of survival and reintervention-free survival were performed on the 59
      repair survivors with complete follow-up data (mean follow-up 26.13 +/- 9.62
      (range 1.05-44.55 years). Cardiovascular mortality in repair survivors was
      compared with that in 438 age- and sex-matched general Maltese controls. RESULTS:
      Patients born after 1985 underwent repair at a younger age (median age 0.18 vs
      13.96 years; P < .001), with less patch aortoplasties in favor of end-to-end
      anastomosis or transcatheter stenting. Among the 59 long-term follow-up patients,
      there were 7 cardiovascular deaths and 10 patients needed reintervention.
      Estimated mean survival was 40.33 years (95% CI 37.71, 42.95) with a survival
      rate of 67.5% at 40 years from repair. Estimated mean reintervention-free
      survival was 38.13 years (95% CI 34.52, 41.75) with freedom from reintervention
      rate of 77% at 30 years. Patients repaired aged <10 years required earlier
      reintervention (estimated mean reintervention-free survival 35.12 years (95% CI
      29.54, 40.71) vs 40.80 years (95% CI 37.16, 44.37); P = .04). There was an excess
      of cardiovascular deaths among repaired coarctation subjects compared to the
      general population (11.9% vs 1.4%; P < .001) and survival in coarctation patients
      was significantly lower (67.90 years (95% CI 60.28, 75.52) vs 85.78 years (95% CI
      83.12, 88.44); P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite earlier diagnosis and repair,
      contemporary coarctation repair survivors remain at increased risk of
      cardiovascular death. An important proportion require repair site reintervention.
      Specialist follow-up and aggressive cardiovascular risk factor management are
      mandatory to improve long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28580662
TI  - Development and Assessment of Postcranial Sex Estimation Methods for a Guatemalan
      Population.
AB  - This study tests whether postcranial sex estimation methods generated from
      Hispanic, and mainly Mexican samples, can be successfully applied to other
      increasingly common migrant populations from Central America. We use a sample of
      postcranial data from a modern (1980s) Guatemalan Maya sample (n = 219). Results
      indicate a decrease in classification accuracies for previously established
      univariate methods when applied to the Guatemalan study sample, specifically for
      males whose accuracies ranged from 30 to 84%. This bias toward inaccuracies for
      Guatemalan males is associated with the smaller skeletal sizes for the Guatemalan
      sample as compared to the samples used in the tested sex estimation methods. In
      contrast, the tested multivariate discriminant function classification yielded
      less sex bias and improved classification accuracies ranging from 82 to 89%. Our
      results highlight which of the tested univariate and multivariate methods reach
      acceptable levels for accuracy for sex estimation of cases where the region of
      origin may include Guatemala.

PMID- 28580661
TI  - B lymphocytes repress hepatic tumorigenesis but not development in Hras12V
      transgenic mice.
AB  - Increasing reports show noninflammation underlying HCC, challenging our
      understanding of the roles of the immune system in hepatocarcinogenesis. By
      exploring a mouse model of hepatic tumor induced by hepatocyte-specific
      expression of the Hras12V oncogene without obvious inflammation, we found that
      the proportion of B cells, but not T cells, progressively and significantly
      decreased in 3, 5-month-old transgenic mice (Tg) compared with non-transgenic
      mice. Notably, the proportions of total and activated B and T cells all
      significantly decreased in 9-month-old Tg with multiple massive hepatic tumors.
      Together with the decreased B cell proportion, serum IgG1/2 also significantly
      decreased in 5, 9-month-old Tg. Interestingly, homozygous Tg showed significantly
      higher B cell proportion and IgG2 levels, accompanied by significantly lower
      incidences of liver nodules but not adenomas and carcinomas compared with
      heterozygous Tg. Treatment of Tg with PCI-32765, a potent Bruton's tyrosine
      kinase (BTK) inhibitor for suppressing B cell proliferation and activation,
      significantly decreased the B cell proportion and IgG2 levels, accompanied by a
      significantly higher incidence of liver nodules, but had no effects on adenoma
      and carcinoma. Treatment of Tg with insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)
      significantly increased the B cell proportion and IgG2 levels, accompanied by a
      significantly lower incidence of liver nodules and carcinoma, but had no effects
      on adenoma. Conclusively, B cells and IgG2 may play important roles in
      suppressing hepatic tumorigenesis, but not development. In addition, hepatocyte
      specific expression of the ras oncogene may play roles in suppressing B cells,
      while developed hepatic tumors suppress both B and T cells.

PMID- 28580663
TI  - Autologous blood salvage in the era of patient blood management.
AB  - Almost 150 years after the first autologous blood transfusion was reported,
      intraoperative blood salvage has become an important method of blood
      conservation. The primary goal of autologous transfusion is to reduce or avoid
      allogeneic red blood cell transfusion and the associated risks and costs.
      Autologous salvaged blood does not result in immunological challenge and its
      consequences, provides a higher quality red blood cell that has not been
      subjected to the adverse effects of blood storage, and can be more cost-effective
      than allogeneic blood when used for carefully selected surgical patients.
      Cardiac, orthopaedic and vascular surgery procedures with large anticipated blood
      loss can clearly benefit from the use of cell salvage. There are safety concerns
      in cases with gross bacterial contamination. There are theoretical safety
      concerns in obstetrical and cancer surgery; however, careful cell washing as well
      as leucoreduction filters makes for a safer autologous transfusion in these
      circumstances. Further studies are needed to determine whether oncologic outcomes
      are impacted by transfusing salvaged blood during cancer surgery. In this new era
      of patient blood management, where multimodal methods of reducing dependence on
      allogeneic blood are becoming commonplace, autologous blood salvage remains a
      valuable tool for perioperative blood conservation. Future studies will be needed
      to best determine how and when cell salvage should be utilized along with newer
      blood conservation measures.

PMID- 28580664
TI  - Improving heart failure health: is there a secret Swedish sauce?

PMID- 28580665
TI  - Versatile Self-Assembly and Biosensing Applications of DNA and Carbon Quantum
      Dots Coordinated Cerium Ions.
AB  - Self-assembly exploits noncovalent interactions to offer a facile and effective
      method for the construction of soft materials with multifunctionalities and
      diversity. In this work, fluorescence carbon quantum dots coordinated by Ce3+
      ions (CQDCe) have been synthesized and exploited as building blocks to generate a
      series of hierarchical structures through the ionic self-assembly of CQDCe and
      biomolecules, namely DNA, myoglobin (Mb), and hyaluronic acid (HA). In
      particular, vesicles can be constructed by the simple mixing of oppositely
      charged CQDCe and DNA in water. The formation of unusual vesicles can be
      explained by the self-assembly of CQDCe with a rearranged structure and the rigid
      DNA biomolecular scaffolds. This facile noncovalent self-assembly method has
      inspired the innovative use of virgin DNA as a building block to construct
      vesicles rather than resorting to a sophisticated synthesis. The self-assembly of
      CQDCe-biopolymers was accompanied by aggregation-induced photoluminescence (PL)
      quenching. The biosensing platform was designed to detect polypeptides and
      deoxyribonuclease I through competitive binding of CQDCe and enzymatic hydrolysis
      of the DNA backbone, respectively. We believe that the integrative self-assembly
      of CQDCe and DNA will enrich the theoretical study of vesicle formation by DNA
      molecules and extend the application of fluorescence carbon quantum dots in the
      biological field.

PMID- 28580667
TI  - Compressed perovskite aqueous mixtures near their phase transitions show very
      high permittivities: New prospects for high-field MRI dielectric shimming.
AB  - PURPOSE: Perovskites are greatly used nowadays in many technological applications
      because of their high permittivity, more specifically in the form of aqueous
      solutions, for MRI dielectric shimming. In this study, full dielectric
      characterizations of highly concentrated CaTiO3 /BaTiO3 water mixtures were
      carried out and new permittivity maxima was reached. METHODS: Permittivity
      measurements were done on aqueous solutions from 0%v/v to dry powder. The
      permittivity dependence with pressure was investigated. Scanning electron
      microscopy images were performed on a few representative solutions. BaTiO3
      pressed pads of different thicknesses, permittivities, and distances to the head
      were compared in a 7T MRI scanner. RESULTS: Perovskite aqueous mixtures undergo a
      pressure-dependent phase transition in terms of permittivity, with increasing
      water content. A new relative permittivity maximum of 475 was achieved.
      Microscopic images revealed structural differences between phases. A B1+
      improvement in the temporal lobe was obtained with thin, high permittivity BaTiO3
      head. CONCLUSIONS: This new preparation method allows improved pad geometry and
      placement, as a result of the high relative permittivity values achieved. This
      method has great significance for medical applications of MRI dielectric
      shimming, being easy to replicate and implement on a large scale. Magn Reson Med
      79:1753-1765, 2018. (c) 2017 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published
      by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic
      Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the
      Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits use,
      distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
      properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

PMID- 28580668
TI  - Changes in Physical Activity in the School, Afterschool, and Evening Periods
      During the Transition From Elementary to Middle School.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We examined longitudinal changes in children's physical activity
      during the school day, afterschool, and evening across fifth, sixth, and seventh
      grades. METHODS: The analytical sample included children who had valid
      accelerometer data in fifth grade and at least one other time-point, and provided
      complete sociodemographic information (N = 768, 751, and 612 for the 3 time
      periods studied). Accelerometer-derived total physical activity (TPA) and
      moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were expressed in minutes per hour
      for the school day (~7:45 am to 3:30 pm), afterschool (~2:25 to 6:00 pm), and
      evening (6:00 to 10:00 pm) periods. We used growth curve analyses to examine
      changes in TPA and MVPA. RESULTS: School day TPA and MVPA declined significantly;
      we observed a greater decrease from fifth to sixth grades than from sixth to
      seventh grades. Afterschool TPA declined significantly, but MVPA increased
      significantly among girls and remained stable for boys. Evening TPA decreased
      significantly and MVPA declined significantly in girls and remained stable among
      boys. CONCLUSIONS: To inform the development of effective intervention
      strategies, research should focus on examining factors associated with the
      decline in physical activity during the transition from elementary to middle
      school, particularly during the hours when children are in school.

PMID- 28580670
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28580666
TI  - Connexins and pannexins: At the junction of neuro-glial homeostasis & disease.
AB  - In the central nervous system (CNS), connexin (Cx)s and pannexin (Panx)s are an
      integral component of homeostatic neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity.
      Neuronal Cx gap junctions form electrical synapses across biochemically similar
      GABAergic networks, allowing rapid and extensive inhibition in response to
      principle neuron excitation. Glial Cx gap junctions link astrocytes and
      oligodendrocytes in the pan-glial network that is responsible for removing
      excitotoxic ions and metabolites. In addition, glial gap junctions help constrain
      excessive excitatory activity in neurons and facilitate astrocyte Ca2+ slow wave
      propagation. Panxs do not form gap junctions in vivo, but Panx hemichannels
      participate in autocrine and paracrine gliotransmission, alongside Cx
      hemichannels. ATP and other gliotransmitters released by Cx and Panx hemichannels
      maintain physiologic glutamatergic tone by strengthening synapses and mitigating
      aberrant high frequency bursting. Under pathological depolarizing and
      inflammatory conditions, gap junctions and hemichannels become dysregulated,
      resulting in excessive neuronal firing and seizure. In this review, we present
      known contributions of Cxs and Panxs to physiologic neuronal excitation and
      explore how the disruption of gap junctions and hemichannels lead to abnormal
      glutamatergic transmission, purinergic signaling, and seizures.

PMID- 28580669
TI  - Implementing and Evaluating Environmental and Policy Interventions for Promoting
      Physical Activity in Rural Schools.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schools are an important setting for improving behaviors associated
      with obesity, including physical activity. However, within schools there is often
      a tension between spending time on activities promoting academic achievement and
      those promoting physical activity. METHODS: A community-based intervention
      provided administrators and teachers with a training on evidence-based public
      health and then collaborated with them to identify and implement environmental
      (walking track) and local school policy interventions (brain breaks). The
      evaluation included conducting in-depth interviews and SOPLAY observations to
      assess the facilitators and barriers and impact of the dissemination of
      environmental and policy changes. RESULTS: Individual, organizational,
      intervention, and contextual factors influenced dissemination. Teachers reported
      that brain breaks increased student focus and engagement with classroom material
      and decreased student behavioral problems. Students decreased sedentary behavior
      and increased vigorous behavior. Of the 4 schools, 2 increased walking.
      CONCLUSIONS: Active dissemination of environmental and policy interventions by
      engaging school administrators and teachers in planning and implementation shows
      potential for increasing physical activity in rural school settings.

PMID- 28580671
TI  - Student Voices: Perspectives on Peer-to-Peer Sexual Health Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This process study is a companion to a randomized evaluation of a
      school-based, peer-led comprehensive sexual health education program, Teen
      Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP), in which 11th- and 12th-grade students
      are trained by school health educators to conduct informative workshops with
      ninth-grade peers in schools in North Carolina. The process study was designed to
      understand youth participants' perspectives on the program in order to gain
      insight into program effectiveness. METHODS: This is a mixed-methods study in 7
      schools, with online surveys (N = 88) and 8 focus groups with peer educators (N =
      116), end-of-program surveys (N = 1122), 8 focus groups with ninth-grade workshop
      participants (N = 89), and observations of the Teen PEP class and workshops
      during the semester of implementation in each school, 2012-2014. RESULTS: Both
      peer educators and ninth graders perceived benefits of participating in Teen PEP
      across a range of domains, including intentions, skills, and knowledge and that
      the peer education modality was important in their valuation of the experience.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the peer-led comprehensive sexual health
      education approach embodied in Teen PEP can be an important educational mechanism
      for teaching students information and skills to promote sexual health.

PMID- 28580673
TI  - Evaluation of Unintended Social and Economic Consequences of an Unplanned School
      Closure in Rural Illinois.
AB  - BACKGROUND: School closure is one of the primary measures considered during
      severe influenza pandemics and other emergencies. However, prolonged school
      closures may cause unintended adverse consequences to schools, students, and
      their families. A better understanding of these consequences will inform
      prepandemic planning, and help public health and education authorities in making
      informed decisions when considering school closures. METHODS: We conducted a
      household survey and interviewed school officials following an 8-day long closure
      of a school district in rural Illinois. We described household responses
      regarding difficulties of school closure, and summarized main themes from school
      official interviews. RESULTS: A total of 208 (27%) household surveys were
      completed and returned. This school closure caused difficulties to 36 (17%)
      households; uncertain duration of closure, childcare arrangements, and lost pay
      were the most often reported difficulties. Having 1 adult in the household losing
      pay and household income below $25,000 were significantly associated with overall
      difficulty during this school closure. Concern about student health and safety
      was the most frequent theme in school administrator interviews. CONCLUSIONS:
      Whereas the majority of responding households did not report difficulties during
      this school closure, households with 1 adult losing pay during the closure
      reported incurring additional expenses for childcare.

PMID- 28580672
TI  - Implementation of a Computerized Tablet-Survey in an Adolescent Large-Scale,
      School-Based Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Computerized surveys present many advantages over paper surveys.
      However, school-based adolescent research questionnaires still mainly rely on
      paper-and-pencil surveys as access to computers in schools is often not
      practical. Tablet-assisted self-interviews (TASI) present a possible solution,
      but their use is largely untested. This paper presents a method for and our
      experiences with implementing a TASI in a school setting. METHODS: A TASI was
      administered to 3907 middle and high school students from 79 schools. The survey
      assessed use of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco marketing. To assess in
      depth tobacco use behaviors, the TASI employed extensive skip patterns to reduce
      the number of not-applicable questions that nontobacco users received. Pictures
      were added to help respondents identify the tobacco products they were being
      queried about. RESULTS: Students were receptive to the tablets and required no
      instructions in their use. None were lost, stolen, or broken. Item nonresponse,
      unanswered questions, was a pre-administration concern; however, 92% of
      participants answered 96% or more of the questions. CONCLUSIONS: This method was
      feasible and successful among a diverse population of students and schools. It
      generated a unique dataset of in-depth tobacco use behaviors that would not have
      been possible through a paper-and-pencil survey.

PMID- 28580674
TI  - Food Availability in School Stores in Seoul, South Korea After Implementation of
      Food- and Nutrient-Based Policies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To improve school store food environments, the South Korean
      government implemented 2 policies restricting unhealthy food sales in school
      stores. A food-based policy enacted in 2007 restricts specific food sales (soft
      drinks); and a nutrient-based policy enacted in 2009 restricts energy-dense and
      nutrient-poor (EDNP) food sales. The purpose of the study was to assess how the 2
      policies have changed the school store food environment. METHODS: Foods sold in
      school stores in Seoul, South Korea were observed before (2006, 15 stores) and
      after (2013, 12 stores) implementation of the school store policies. Food
      availability in school stores in 2006 and 2013 was compared and EDNP food
      availability in 2013 was examined. RESULTS: When controlling the total number of
      foods sold in school stores and school characteristics, the mean number of soft
      drinks sold in a school store in 2013 (0.3 items) was significantly lower than in
      2006 (1.9 items, p = .032). Soft drinks were still available in 50% of school
      stores observed in 2013, with all school stores selling EDNP foods in 2013.
      CONCLUSIONS: South Korean policies have had a modest influence on availability of
      unhealthy school store foods. Alternative strategies to improve school store food
      environments are needed.

PMID- 28580675
TI  - School Nurse-Delivered Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Project Connect is a national program to build partnerships among
      public health agencies and domestic violence services to improve the health care
      sector response to partner and sexual violence. Pennsylvania piloted the first
      school nurse-delivered adolescent relationship abuse intervention in the
      certified school nurses' office setting. The purpose of this study was to assess
      the feasibility of implementing this prevention intervention. METHODS: In 5
      schools in Pennsylvania, school nurses completed a survey before and 1 year after
      receiving training on implementing the intervention as well as a phone interview.
      Students seeking care at the nurses' offices completed a brief anonymous feedback
      survey after their nurse visit. RESULTS: The school nurses adopted the
      intervention readily, finding ways to incorporate healthy relationship
      discussions into interactions with students. School nurses and students found the
      intervention to be acceptable. Students were positive in their feedback. Barriers
      included difficulty with school buy-in and finding time and private spaces to
      deliver the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: A school nurse healthy relationships
      intervention was feasible to implement and acceptable to the students as well as
      the implementing nurses. While challenges arose with the initial uptake of the
      program, school nurses identified strategies to achieve school and student
      support for this intervention.

PMID- 28580676
TI  - Educational Outcomes Associated With School Behavioral Health Interventions: A
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is an unmet need for behavioral health support and services
      among children and adolescents, which school behavioral health has the potential
      to address. Existing reviews and meta-analyses document the behavioral health
      benefits of school behavioral health programs and frameworks, but few summaries
      of the academic benefits of such programs exist. We provide exemplars of the
      academic benefits of school behavioral health programs and frameworks. METHODS: A
      literature review identified school behavioral health-related articles and
      reports. Articles for inclusion were restricted to those that were school-based
      programs and frameworks in the United States that included an empirical
      evaluation of intervention academic-related outcomes. RESULTS: Findings from 36
      primary research, review, and meta-analysis articles from the past 17 years show
      the benefits of school behavioral health clinical interventions and targeted
      interventions on a range of academic outcomes for adolescents. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings are consistent with reports documenting health benefits of school
      behavioral health frameworks and programs and can facilitate further efforts to
      support school behavioral health for a range of stakeholders interested in the
      benefits of school behavioral health programs and frameworks on academic
      outcomes.

PMID- 28580678
TI  - Performance Enhancement of a Sulfur/Carbon Cathode by Polydopamine as an
      Efficient Shell for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
AB  - Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered to be among the most promising
      next-generation high-energy batteries. It is a consensus that improving the
      conductivity of sulfur cathodes and impeding the dissolution of lithium
      polysulfides are two key accesses to high-performance LSBs. Herein we report a
      sulfur/carbon black (S/C) cathode modified by self-polymerized polydopamine (pDA)
      with the assistance of polymerization treatment. The pDA acts as a novel and
      effective shell on the S/C cathode to stop the shuttle effect of polysulfides. By
      the synergistic effect of enhanced conductivity and multiple blocking effect for
      polysulfides, the S/C@pDA electrode exhibits improved electrochemical
      performances including large specific capacity (1135 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C), high rate
      capability (533 mAh g-1 at 5 C) and long cyclic life (965 mAh g-1 after 200
      cycles). Our smart design strategy may promote the development of high
      performance LSBs.

PMID- 28580677
TI  - LGBTQ Youth's Views on Gay-Straight Alliances: Building Community, Providing
      Gateways, and Representing Safety and Support.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are school-based clubs that can
      contribute to a healthy school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
      and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. While positive associations between health
      behaviors and GSAs have been documented, less is known about how youth perceive
      GSAs. METHODS: A total of 58 LGBTQ youth (14-19 years old) mentioned GSAs during
      go-along interviews in 3 states/provinces in North America. These 446 comments
      about GSAs were thematically coded and organized using Atlas.ti software by a
      multidisciplinary research team. RESULTS: A total of 3 themes describe youth
      perceived attributes of GSAs. First, youth identified GSAs as an opportunity to
      be members of a community, evidenced by their sense of emotional connection,
      support and belonging, opportunities for leadership, and fulfillment of needs.
      Second, GSAs served as a gateway to resources outside of the GSA, such as
      supportive adults and informal social locations. Third, GSAs represented safety.
      CONCLUSIONS: GSAs positively influence the physical, social, emotional, and
      academic well-being of LGBTQ young people and their allies. School administrators
      and staff are positioned to advocate for comprehensive GSAs. Study findings offer
      insights about the mechanisms by which GSAs benefit youth health and well-being.

PMID- 28580679
TI  - DichroMatch at the protein circular dichroism data bank (DM@PCDDB): A web-based
      tool for identifying protein nearest neighbors using circular dichroism
      spectroscopy.
AB  - Circular dichroism spectroscopy is a well-used, but simple method in structural
      biology for providing information on the secondary structure and folds of
      proteins. DichroMatch (DM@PCDDB) is an online tool that is newly available in the
      Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB), which takes advantage of the wealth
      of spectral and metadata deposited therein, to enable identification of spectral
      nearest neighbors of a query protein based on four different methods of spectral
      matching. DM@PCDDB can potentially provide novel information about structural
      relationships between proteins and can be used in comparison studies of protein
      homologs and orthologs.

PMID- 28580680
TI  - Different drinking motives, different adverse consequences? Evidence among
      adolescents from 10 European countries.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIM: This study, which builds on previous research demonstrating
      that drinking motives are associated with adverse consequences, investigates the
      associations between drinking motives and non-alcohol-attributed adverse
      consequences and disentangles alcohol-related and direct effects. DESIGN AND
      METHOD: On the basis of a sample of 22 841 alcohol-using 13- to 16-year-olds
      (50.6% female) from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Portugal,
      Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Wales, structural equation models were used
      to estimate direct and indirect effects. Additionally, differences across
      countries were tested in a multigroup analysis. RESULTS: The indirect effect (via
      alcohol use) was greater for injuries and academic problems than for more general
      outcomes such as life dissatisfaction and negative body image. For social,
      enhancement and coping motives, we found positive indirect effects (via alcohol
      use) on injuries and academic problems; the association was negative for
      conformity motives. The direct effect, that is, the effect above and beyond
      alcohol use, indicated more negative consequences among those who tended to drink
      more frequently for coping motives. More negative consequences, such as injuries
      and negative body image, were also found among those who drink for conformity
      motives. The pattern of association was largely comparable across countries.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: While the actual mean level of drinking motives,
      alcohol use and adverse consequence varied across countries, the consistency of
      association patterns implies that drinking motive-inspired health promotion
      efforts are likely to be beneficial across Europe. This is particularly important
      for coping drinkers because they are especially prone to adverse consequences
      over and above their alcohol use. [Wicki M, Kuntsche E, Eichenberger Y, Aasvee K,
      Bendtsen P, Dankulincova Veselska Z, Demetrovics Z, Dzielska A, Farkas J, de
      Matos MG, Roberts C, Tynjala J, Valimaa R, Vieno A. Different drinking motives,
      different adverse consequences? Evidence among adolescents from 10 European
      countries.

PMID- 28580682
TI  - Decoding the association between herpes simplex virus and antibody-mediated
      encephalitis.

PMID- 28580681
TI  - Recently learned foreign abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct
      cortical networks similar to the native language.
AB  - In the native language, abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct
      areas of the cerebral cortex. Currently, it is unknown whether this is also the
      case for abstract and concrete nouns of a foreign language. Here, we taught adult
      native speakers of German 45 abstract and 45 concrete nouns of a foreign
      language. After learning the nouns for 5 days, participants performed a
      vocabulary translation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.
      Translating abstract nouns in contrast to concrete nouns elicited responses in
      regions that are also responsive to abstract nouns in the native language: the
      left inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle and superior temporal gyri.
      Concrete nouns elicited larger responses in the angular gyri bilaterally and the
      left parahippocampal gyrus than abstract nouns. The cluster in the left angular
      gyrus showed psychophysiological interaction (PPI) with the left lingual gyrus.
      The left parahippocampal gyrus showed PPI with the posterior cingulate cortex.
      Similar regions have been previously found for concrete nouns in the native
      language. The results reveal similarities in the cortical representation of
      foreign language nouns with the representation of native language nouns that
      already occur after 5 days of vocabulary learning. Furthermore, we showed that
      verbal and enriched learning methods were equally suitable to teach foreign
      abstract and concrete nouns. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4398-4412, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580683
TI  - Simple method to assess stability of immobilized peptide ligands against
      proteases.
AB  - Although peptides are used as affinity chromatography ligands, they could be
      digested by proteases. Usually, peptide stability is evaluated in solution, which
      differs from the resin-bounded peptide behavior. Furthermore, the study of the
      degradation products requires purification steps before analysis. Here, we
      describe an easy method to assess immobilized peptide stability. Sample peptides
      were synthesized on hydroxymethylbenzamide-ChemMatrix resin. Peptidyl-resin beads
      were then incubated with solutions containing proteases. Peptides were detached
      from the solid support with ammonia vapor and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, allowing the
      detection of the whole peptides as well as their C-terminal degradation products.
      The method allowed a fast evaluation of peptide ligand stability in solid phase
      towards proteases that may be present in the crude sample before their use as
      ligands in affinity chromatography. Copyright (c) 2017 European Peptide Society
      and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28580684
TI  - Nitrogen-Carbon Bond Formation by Reactions of a Titanium-Potassium Dinitrogen
      Complex with Carbon Dioxide, tert-Butyl Isocyanate, and Phenylallene.
AB  - Nitrogen-carbon bond-forming reactions at coordinated dinitrogen in a
      bifunctional titanium-potassium system are reported. A titanium atrane complex
      with a tris(aryloxide)methyl ligand (1) was treated with two equivalents of
      potassium naphthalenide under N2 atmosphere to generate a bifunctional complex
      (2) in which N2 binds end-on to two titanium centers and side-on to three
      potassium cations. Dinitrogen complex 2 reacted with carbon dioxide, tert-butyl
      isocyanate, and phenylallene, forming nitrogen-carbon bonds and affording diverse
      N-functionalized products. The reaction of 2 with CO2 followed by addition of Me3
      SiCl resulted in the formation of the starting complex 1 with concomitant release
      of silylated carboxyl hydrazines while the reaction with two equivalents of tert
      butyl isocyanate proceeded by insertion into the Ti-N bonds. Treatment of 2 with
      phenylallene afforded vinyl-substituted hydrazido complexes.

PMID- 28580686
TI  - Use of skin biomarker profiles to distinguish Schnitzler syndrome from chronic
      spontaneous urticaria: results of a pilot study.

PMID- 28580685
TI  - YY1 Expression Is Sufficient for the Maintenance of Cardiac Progenitor Cell
      State.
AB  - During cardiac development, DNA binding transcription factors and epigenetic
      modifiers regulate gene expression in cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs). We have
      previously shown that Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is essential for the commitment of
      mesodermal precursors into CPCs. However, the role of YY1 in the maintenance of
      CPC phenotype and their differentiation into cardiomyocytes is unknown. In this
      study, we found, by genome-wide transcriptional profiling and phenotypic assays,
      that YY1 overexpression prevents cardiomyogenic differentiation and maintains the
      proliferative capacity of CPCs. We show further that the ability of YY1 to
      regulate CPC phenotype is associated with its ability to modulate histone
      modifications specifically at a developmentally critical enhancer of Nkx2-5 and
      other key cardiac transcription factor such as Tbx5. Specifically, YY1
      overexpression helps to maintain markers of gene activation such as the
      acetylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9Ac) and lysine 27 (H3K27Ac) as well as
      trimethylation at lysine 4 (H3K4Me3) at the Nkx2-5 cardiac enhancer. Furthermore,
      transcription factors associated proteins such as PoIII, p300, and Brg1 are also
      enriched at the Nkx2-5 enhancer with YY1 overexpression. The biological
      activities of YY1 in CPCs appear to be cell autonomous, based coculture assays in
      differentiating embryonic stem cells. Altogether, these results demonstrate that
      YY1 overexpression is sufficient to maintain a CPC phenotype through its ability
      to sustain the presence of activating epigenetic/chromatin marks at key cardiac
      enhancers. Stem Cells 2017;35:1913-1923.

PMID- 28580690
TI  - The Solvent Induced Inter-Dimensional Phase Transformations of Cobalt Zeolitic
      Imidazolate Frameworks.
AB  - Studying inter-dimensional phase transitions of zeolitic-imidazolate frameworks
      (ZIFs) is essential for developing strategies in controlling morphology and
      properties. Herein, the inter-dimensional topotactic phase transformations of 3D
      ZIF-67 to 2D ZIF-L are investigated in detail by employing a simple and efficient
      solvent-induced growth method. In addition to ZIF-67 and ZIF-L, a series of novel
      core-shell composites of ZIF-67@ZIF-L, with unprecedented morphologies, are also
      obtained and well-defined. The different behaviors of the amine hydrogen of 2-MIM
      in the solvents play a pivotal role for inter-dimensional phase transformations,
      and in combination with the concentration of 2-MIM, the 2D to 3D phase
      transformations are also revealed. The findings are very beneficial for
      morphological design of the ZIFs, along with exploration of the corresponding
      properties. Impressively, Co-ZIFs exhibit interesting tunable CO2 adsorption
      behaviors with the phase evolution, which might bring broader understanding for
      designing CO2 detection and adsorption devices.

PMID- 28580688
TI  - T-cell regulation through a basic suppressive mechanism targeting low-density
      lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1.
AB  - Cell adhesion is generally considered to depend on positive regulation through
      ligation of integrins and cytokine receptors. However, here we show that T-cell
      adhesion, and notably also T-cell receptor (TCR) -induced activation, are subject
      to constant suppression through shedding of low-density lipoprotein receptor
      related protein 1 (LRP1). The broad-spectrum metalloprotease inhibitor GM6001
      abrogated shedding, so inducing prominent cell surface expression of LRP1 while
      enhancing TCR-induced activation and adhesion to beta1 and beta2 integrin
      ligands, hence arresting the cells. Integrin ligands also inhibited shedding but
      the effect was less potent than that of GM6001. Unlike GM6001, integrin ligands
      also induced cell surface expression of full-length thrombospondin-1 (TSP170) and
      TSP130, which associated with LRP1, and TSP110, which did not associate with
      LRP1. Cell surface expression of LRP1 and TSP130 were induced exclusively in
      adhering cells, expression of TSP110 preferentially in non-adhering cells and
      expression of TSP170 correlated with T-cell motility. The pro-adhesive chemokine
      CXCL12 also inhibited LRP1 shedding and induced surface expression of TSP170 and
      TSP130 while inhibiting TSP110. Exogenous TSP-1 and ligation of CD28 inhibited
      shedding although less effectively than GM6001, and the inhibition through CD28
      was independent of TSP-1. Small interfering RNA silencing experiments confirmed
      involvement of LRP1 and TSP-1 in integrin-dependent adhesion and TCR-induced
      activation. Hence, the poor LRP1 expression in T cells depends on shedding.
      Integrin ligands and CXCL12 antagonize shedding through a TSP-1-dependent pathway
      and ligation of CD28 antagonizes shedding independent of TSP-1. The disappearance
      of LRP1 from the cell surface may provide basic immunosuppression at the T-cell
      level.

PMID- 28580689
TI  - High hydrostatic pressure processing affects the phenolic profile, preserves
      sensory attributes and ensures microbial quality of jabuticaba (Myrciaria
      jaboticaba) juice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Jabuticaba (Myrciaria jaboticaba) is a Brazilian fruit rich in
      phenolic compounds and much appreciated for its sweet and slightly tangy taste.
      However, the high perishability of this fruit impairs its economic exploitation,
      creating an opportunity for the development of innovative products, such as high
      hydrostatic pressure (HHP) processed juices. We investigated the effect of HHP
      (200, 350 and 500 MPa for 5, 7.5 and 10 min) on phenolic compounds, antioxidant
      activity and microbiological quality of jabuticaba juice and the effect of the
      most effective HHP condition on its sensory acceptance. RESULTS: Pressurization
      increased total phenolic compound content (up to 38%) and antioxidant activity by
      FRAP assay (up to 46%), probably by increasing phenolic compound extractability
      due to tissue damage. Pressurization progressively decreased microbial counts,
      and colony growth was undetectable at pressures of 350 MPa or 500 MPa. With the
      exception of aroma, which was 10% lower in pressurized juice at 350 MPa for 7.5
      min in relation to unprocessed juice, HHP did not affect sensory acceptance
      scores. CONCLUSION: Our results show that HHP was effective in ensuring
      microbiological quality, increasing bioactive potential and maintaining overall
      acceptance of jabuticaba juice, reinforcing the potential application of this
      processing technology in bioactive-rich foods. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28580687
TI  - Theta- and delta-band EEG network dynamics during a novelty oddball task.
AB  - While the P3 component during target detection and novelty processing has been
      widely studied, less is known about its underlying network dynamics. A recent
      cognitive model suggests that frontal-parietal and frontal-temporal interregional
      connectivity are related to attention/action selection and target-related memory
      updating during the P3, respectively, but empirical work testing this model is
      lacking. Other work suggests the importance of theta- and delta-band connectivity
      between the medial frontal cortex and distributed cortical regions during
      attention, stimulus detection, and response selection processes, and similar
      dynamics may underlie P3-related network connectivity. The present study
      evaluated the functional connectivity elicited during a visual task, which
      combined oddball target and novelty stimuli, in a sample of 231 same-sex twins.
      It was hypothesized that both target and novel conditions would involve theta
      frontoparietal connectivity and medial frontal theta power, but that target
      stimuli would elicit the strongest frontotemporal connectivity. EEG time
      frequency analysis revealed greater theta-band frontoparietal connectivity and
      medial frontal power during both target and novel conditions compared to
      standards, which may index conflict/uncertainty resolution processes. Theta-band
      frontotemporal connectivity was maximal during the target condition, potentially
      reflecting context updating or stimulus-response activation. Delta-band
      frontocentral-parietal connectivity was also strongest following targets, which
      may be sensitive to response-related demands. These results suggest the existence
      of functional networks related to P3 that are differentially engaged by target
      oddballs and novel distractors. Compared to simple P3 amplitude, network measures
      may provide a more nuanced view of the neural dynamics during target
      detection/novelty processing in normative and pathological populations.

PMID- 28580691
TI  - Peptide microarray analysis of the cross-talk between O-GlcNAcylation and
      tyrosine phosphorylation.
AB  - O-GlcNAcylation of proteins regulates important cellular processes. A few reports
      noted that O-GlcNAcylation exhibits cross-talk with tyrosine phosphorylation.
      With an activity-based microarray analysis of 256 tyrosine kinase peptide
      substrates, we found that phosphorylation of six peptides by Jak2 inhibits their
      subsequent O-GlcNAcylation. However, O-GlcNAcylation has no detectable effect on
      their subsequent phosphorylation. A specific peptide (ZO3_357_371), derived from
      the ZO-3 protein, was studied in detail. Kinetic results show that the presence
      of a phosphate at Tyr364 of ZO3_357_371 slows the O-GlcNAcylation of nearby
      Ser369, while the presence of a GlcNAc at Ser369 has no significant effect on the
      phosphorylation of this peptide at Tyr364. These findings provide a glimpse into
      the new paradigm for cellular signaling control by cross-talk.

PMID- 28580692
TI  - Using quality improvement to decrease birth asphyxia rates after 'Helping Babies
      Breathe' training in Kenya.
AB  - AIM: The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) programme is known to decrease neonatal
      mortality in low-resource settings but gaps in care still exist. This study
      describes the use of quality improvement to sustain gains in birth asphyxia
      related mortality after HBB. METHODS: Tenwek Hospital, a rural referral hospital
      in Kenya, identified high rates of birth asphyxia (BA). They developed a goal to
      decrease the suspected hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (SHIE) rate by 50% within
      six months after HBB. Rapid cycles of change were used to test interventions
      including training, retention and engagement for staff/trainees and improved data
      collection. Run charts followed the rate over time, and chi-square analysis was
      used. RESULTS: Ninety-six providers received HBB from September to November 2014.
      Over 4000 delivery records were reviewed. Ten months of baseline data showed a
      median SHIE rate of 14.7/1000 live births (LB) with wide variability. Ten months
      post-HBB, the SHIE rate decreased by 53% to 7.1/1000 LB (p = 0.01). SHIE rates
      increased after initial decline; investigation determined that half the trained
      midwives had been transferred. Presenting data to administration resulted in
      staff retention. Rates have after remained above goal with narrowing control
      limits. CONCLUSION: Focused quality improvement can sustain and advance gains in
      neonatal outcomes post-HBB training.

PMID- 28580693
TI  - Changes in brain activity following intensive voice treatment in children with
      cerebral palsy.
AB  - Eight children (3 females; 8-16 years) with motor speech disorders secondary to
      cerebral palsy underwent 4 weeks of an intensive neuroplasticity-principled voice
      treatment protocol, LSVT LOUD(r) , followed by a structured 12-week maintenance
      program. Children were asked to overtly produce phonation (ah) at conversational
      loudness, cued-phonation at perceived twice-conversational loudness, a series of
      single words, and a prosodic imitation task while being scanned using fMRI,
      immediately pre- and post-treatment and 12 weeks following a maintenance program.
      Eight age- and sex-matched controls were scanned at each of the same three time
      points. Based on the speech and language literature, 16 bilateral regions of
      interest were selected a priori to detect potential neural changes following
      treatment. Reduced neural activity in the motor areas (decreased motor system
      effort) before and immediately after treatment, and increased activity in the
      anterior cingulate gyrus after treatment (increased contribution of decision
      making processes) were observed in the group with cerebral palsy compared to the
      control group. Using graphical models, post-treatment changes in connectivity
      were observed between the left supramarginal gyrus and the right supramarginal
      gyrus and the left precentral gyrus for the children with cerebral palsy,
      suggesting LSVT LOUD enhanced contributions of the feedback system in the speech
      production network instead of high reliance on feedforward control system and the
      somatosensory target map for regulating vocal effort. Network pruning indicates
      greater processing efficiency and the recruitment of the auditory and
      somatosensory feedback control systems following intensive treatment. Hum Brain
      Mapp 38:4413-4429, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580694
TI  - Using the cloud to enhance clinical teaching.

PMID- 28580695
TI  - Non-contrast-enhanced peripheral MR angiography using velocity-selective
      excitation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a new non-contrast-enhanced peripheral MR angiography that
      provides a high contrast angiogram without using electrocardiography triggering
      and saturation radiofrequency pulses. METHODS: A velocity-selective excitation
      technique is used in conjunction with the golden-angle radial sampling scheme.
      The signal amplitude varies according to the velocity of the flow by the velocity
      selective excitation technique. Because the arterial blood velocity varies
      depending on the cardiac phase, the acquired data can be classified into systolic
      and diastolic phase based on the signal amplitude of the artery. Two images are
      then reconstructed from the systolic and diastolic phase data, respectively, and
      an image reflecting the differences between the two images is obtained to
      eliminate background and vein signals. The performance of the proposed method was
      compared with the quiescent-interval single shot (QISS) in eight healthy subjects
      and an elderly subject. RESULTS: The proposed method generated fewer residual
      venous and background signals than the QISS. Furthermore, the maximum intensity
      projection images, the relative contrast, and the apparent contrast-to-noise
      ratio results showed that the proposed method produced a better contrast than the
      QISS. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed non-contrast-enhanced peripheral MR angiography
      technique can provide a high contrast angiogram without the use of
      electrocardiography triggering and saturation radiofrequency pulses. Magn Reson
      Med 79:779-788, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in
      Medicine.

PMID- 28580696
TI  - On low-lying excited states of extended nanographenes.
AB  - Low-lying excited states of planarly extended nanographenes are investigated
      using the long-range corrected (LC) density functional theory (DFT) and the spin
      flip (SF) time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) by exploring the long
      range exchange and double-excitation correlation effects on the excitation
      energies, band gaps, and exciton binding energies. Optimizing the geometries of
      the nanographenes indicates that the long-range exchange interaction
      significantly improves the C?C bond lengths and amplify their bond length
      alternations with overall shortening the bond lengths. The calculated TDDFT
      excitation energies show that long-range exchange interaction is crucial to
      provide accurate excitation energies of small nanographenes and dominate the
      exciton binding energies in the excited states of nanographenes. It is, however,
      also found that the present long-range correction may cause the overestimation of
      the excitation energy for the infinitely wide graphene due to the discrepancy
      between the calculated band gaps and vertical ionization potential (IP) minus
      electron affinity (EA) values. Contrasting to the long-range exchange effects,
      the SF-TDDFT calculations show that the double-excitation correlation effects are
      negligible in the low-lying excitations of nanographenes, although this effect is
      large in the lowest excitation of benzene molecule. It is, therefore, concluded
      that long-range exchange interactions should be incorporated in TDDFT
      calculations to quantitatively investigate the excited states of graphenes,
      although TDDFT using a present LC functional may provide a considerable
      excitation energy for the infinitely wide graphene mainly due to the discrepancy
      between the calculated band gaps and IP-EA values. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28580698
TI  - Spontaneous pneumomediastinum in a dermatomyositis patient with anti-melanoma
      differentiation-associated gene-5 antibody and interstitial lung disease despite
      an initial response to immunosuppressant.
AB  - We report a 24-year-old man with anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene-5
      (MDA5) antibody-positive dermatomyositis (DM) and interstitial lung disease (ILD)
      who developed spontaneous pneumomediastinum. By comparing serial thoracic high
      resolution computed tomography scans, we demonstrated the distinct time course
      showing a paradoxical occurrence of pneumomediastinum despite a radiological
      improvement of ILD. Our case shows that pneumomediastinum in DM can occur
      regardless of associated ILD and it is a serious complication that should be
      considered in DM patients presenting with pulmonary manifestations. Cutaneous
      vasculopathy may be associated with pneumomediastinum and could potentially be a
      useful indicator of future disease.

PMID- 28580699
TI  - Prognostic value of lymphovascular invasion of the primary tumor in
      hypopharyngeal carcinoma after total laryngopharyngectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to determinate the prognostic value of lymphovascular
      invasion in the specimens resected during total laryngopharyngectomy for
      hypopharyngeal carcinoma. METHODS: Patients who underwent total
      laryngopharyngectomy at our institution between 2004 and 2014 were included in
      this study and retrospectively analyzed. We then discriminated for vascular
      invasion and lymphatic invasion of the primary tumor in all cases. RESULTS: We
      reviewed 135 records (120 men and 15 women; age range, 36-84 years). Tumors with
      lymphatic invasion tended to be associated with more metastatic lymph nodes and
      extracapsular spread (ECS) of metastatic lymph nodes. Tumors with vascular
      invasion tended to be associated with nonpyriform sinus locations. In a
      multivariate analysis, nonpyriform sinus locations, >3 metastatic lymph nodes,
      and vascular invasion remained significant prognostic factors for overall
      survival (OS); in recursive partitioning analysis, ECS and vascular invasion
      remained important categorical variables for OS. CONCLUSION: Vascular invasion is
      a strong prognostic biomarker for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 1535-1543, 2017.

PMID- 28580700
TI  - Oriented Two-Dimensional Porous Organic Cage Crystals.
AB  - The formation of two-dimensional (2D) oriented porous organic cage crystals
      (consisting of imine-based tetrahedral molecules) on various substrates (such as
      silicon wafers and glass) by solution-processing is reported. Insight into the
      crystallinity, preferred orientation, and cage crystal growth was obtained by
      experimental and computational techniques. For the first time, structural defects
      in porous molecular materials were observed directly and the defect concentration
      could be correlated with crystal growth rate. These oriented crystals suggest
      potential for future applications, such as solution-processable molecular
      crystalline 2D membranes for molecular separations.

PMID- 28580697
TI  - Genetic influences on individual differences in longitudinal changes in global
      and subcortical brain volumes: Results of the ENIGMA plasticity working group.
AB  - Structural brain changes that occur during development and ageing are related to
      mental health and general cognitive functioning. Individuals differ in the extent
      to which their brain volumes change over time, but whether these differences can
      be attributed to differences in their genotypes has not been widely studied. Here
      we estimate heritability (h2 ) of changes in global and subcortical brain volumes
      in five longitudinal twin cohorts from across the world and in different stages
      of the lifespan (N = 861). Heritability estimates of brain changes were
      significant and ranged from 16% (caudate) to 42% (cerebellar gray matter) for all
      global and most subcortical volumes (with the exception of thalamus and
      pallidum). Heritability estimates of change rates were generally higher in adults
      than in children suggesting an increasing influence of genetic factors explaining
      individual differences in brain structural changes with age. In children,
      environmental influences in part explained individual differences in
      developmental changes in brain structure. Multivariate genetic modeling showed
      that genetic influences of change rates and baseline volume significantly
      overlapped for many structures. The genetic influences explaining individual
      differences in the change rate for cerebellum, cerebellar gray matter and lateral
      ventricles were independent of the genetic influences explaining differences in
      their baseline volumes. These results imply the existence of genetic variants
      that are specific for brain plasticity, rather than brain volume itself.
      Identifying these genes may increase our understanding of brain development and
      ageing and possibly have implications for diseases that are characterized by
      deviant developmental trajectories of brain structure. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4444
      4458, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580701
TI  - Identification of DJ-1 as a contributor to multidrug resistance in human small
      cell lung cancer using proteomic analysis.
AB  - Proteomic approaches have been proven to provide an important tool in identifying
      drug resistance-associated proteins. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      protein profiling of drug resistance-related proteins in small-cell lung cancer
      (SCLC) by proteomic analysis. The proteomic profiling was performed by two
      dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) coupled with
      MALDI-TOF-TOF of SCLC in the multidrug-resistant cell line H69AR and its parental
      cell line H69. A total of 11 proteins were identified to be >2-fold up-or
      downregulated between the two cell lines. DJ-1, one of the differently expressed
      proteins identified by proteomics, was further examined by immunohistochemistry
      staining in 116 cases of SCLC tissues. Immunohistochemical results demonstrated
      that DJ-1 was expressed in 51.7% (60/116) of SCLC. DJ-1 expression was correlated
      significantly with survival time of SCLC patients (P < 0.05), but not with other
      clinical parameters such as gender, age and clinical stage (P > 0.05).
      Downregulation of DJ-1 using DJ-1-siRNA in H69AR cells sensitized cancer cells to
      chemotherapeutic drugs through increasing drug-induced cell apoptosis accompanied
      with G0-G1 phase arrest. These findings suggest DJ-1 may serve as a potential
      biomarker for chemoresistance and prognostic factor for patients with SCLC.

PMID- 28580702
TI  - Evidence for an attentional component of inhibition of return in visual search.
AB  - Inhibition of return (IOR) is typically described as an inhibitory bias against
      returning attention to a recently attended location as a means of promoting
      efficient visual search. Most studies examining IOR, however, either do not use
      visual search paradigms or do not effectively isolate attentional processes,
      making it difficult to conclusively link IOR to a bias in attention. Here, we
      recorded ERPs during a simple visual search task designed to isolate the
      attentional component of IOR to examine whether an inhibitory bias of attention
      is observed and, if so, how it influences visual search behavior. Across
      successive visual search displays, we found evidence of both a broad, hemisphere
      wide inhibitory bias of attention along with a focal, target location-specific
      facilitation. When the target appeared in the same visual hemifield in successive
      searches, responses were slower and the N2pc component was reduced, reflecting a
      bias of attention away from the previously attended side of space. When the
      target occurred at the same location in successive searches, responses were
      facilitated and the P1 component was enhanced, likely reflecting spatial priming
      of the target. These two effects are combined in the response times, leading to a
      reduction in the IOR effect for repeated target locations. Using ERPs, however,
      these two opposing effects can be isolated in time, demonstrating that the
      inhibitory biasing of attention still occurs even when response-time slowing is
      ameliorated by spatial priming.

PMID- 28580703
TI  - External Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation for the Acute Treatment of Migraine: Open
      Label Trial on Safety and Efficacy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study is to assess the safety and efficacy of
      external trigeminal nerve stimulation (e-TNS) via a transcutaneous supraorbital
      stimulator as an acute treatment for migraine attacks. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This was a prospective, open-labeled clinical trial conducted at the Columbia
      University Headache Center (NY, USA). Thirty patients who were experiencing an
      acute migraine attack with or without aura were treated with a one-hour session
      of e-TNS (CEFALY Technology) at the clinic. Pain intensity was scored using a
      visual analogue scale (VAS) before the treatment, after the one-hour treatment
      session, and at two hours after treatment initiation. Rescue migraine medication
      intake was recorded at 2 and 24 hours. RESULTS: Thirty patients were included in
      the intention-to-treat analysis. Mean pain intensity was significantly reduced by
      57.1% after the one-hour e-TNS treatment (-3.22 +/- 2.40; p < 0.001) and by 52.8%
      at two hours (-2.98 +/- 2.31; p < 0.001). No patients took rescue medication
      within the two-hour observation phase. Within the 24-hour follow-up, 34.6% of
      patients used a rescue medication. No adverse events or subjective complaints
      were reported. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this open-labeled study suggest
      that transcutaneous supraorbital neurostimulation may be a safe and effective
      acute treatment for migraine attacks, and merits further study with a double
      blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.

PMID- 28580704
TI  - 3D Laser Micro- and Nanoprinting: Challenges for Chemistry.
AB  - 3D printing is a powerful emerging technology for the tailored fabrication of
      advanced functional materials. This Review summarizes the state-of-the art with
      regard to 3D laser micro- and nanoprinting and explores the chemical challenges
      limiting its full exploitation: from the development of advanced functional
      materials for applications in cell biology and electronics to the chemical
      barriers that need to be overcome to enable fast writing velocities with
      resolution below the diffraction limit. We further explore chemical means to
      enable direct laser writing of multiple materials in one resist by highly
      wavelength selective (lambda-orthogonal) photochemical processes. Finally,
      chemical processes to construct adaptive 3D written structures that are able to
      respond to external stimuli, such as light, heat, pH value, or specific
      molecules, are highlighted, and advanced concepts for degradable scaffolds are
      explored.

PMID- 28580705
TI  - The relationship among unawareness of memory impairment, depression, and dementia
      in older adults with memory impairment in Singapore.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous research has studied the relationships among unawareness of
      memory impairment, depression, and dementia in older adults with severe dementia,
      but it has not considered the associations and clinical implications at earlier
      stages of memory impairment. This study therefore sought to examine the
      relationship among unawareness of memory impairment, depression, and dementia in
      older adults with memory impairment in Singapore. METHODS: The participants were
      751 older adults with memory impairment in Singapore. They were assessed for
      objective and subjective memory loss, depression, and dementia severity.
      Participants' subjective memory loss was determined based on a self-appraisal
      question on memory, and their objective memory loss was calculated based on their
      performance on three cognitive tasks. Unawareness was assessed based on the
      contrast between subjective and objective memory loss. RESULTS: Descriptive
      statistics revealed a high prevalence of unawareness (80.4%). Logistic regression
      analysis revealed that gender and marital status were significantly associated
      with unawareness. Men (odds ratio (OR) = 2.5) and those who were divorced or
      separated (OR = 23.0) were more likely to be unaware than women and those who
      were married, respectively. After chronic conditions and demographic
      characteristics were controlled for, multivariate logistic regression analyses
      revealed that older adults with depression were less likely (OR = 0.2) to be
      unaware than those without depression. Unawareness was also related with dementia
      severity; older adults with questionable (OR = 0.3) and mild dementia (OR = 0.4)
      were less likely to be unaware than someone without dementia. CONCLUSION:
      Unawareness of memory impairment was common among older adults with memory
      impairment. However, unawareness may be the result of denial as a strategy for
      coping with memory loss of which the older adult is aware. Psychological care
      should be integrated into the overall treatment management of dementia to
      mitigate the possible risk of depression while increasing individual awareness of
      memory loss.

PMID- 28580706
TI  - MR techniques for guiding high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatments.
AB  - : To make full use of the ability of magnetic resonance (MR) to guide high
      intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment, effort has been made to improve
      techniques for thermometry, motion tracking, and sound beam visualization. For
      monitoring rapid temperature elevation with proton resonance frequency (PRF)
      shift, data acquisition and processing can be accelerated with parallel imaging
      and/or sparse sampling in conjunction with appropriate signal processing methods.
      Thermometry should be robust against tissue motion, motion-induced magnetic field
      variation, and susceptibility change. Thus, multibaseline, referenceless, or
      hybrid techniques have become important. In cases with adipose or bony tissues,
      for which PRF shift cannot be used, thermometry with relaxation times or signal
      intensity may be utilized. Motion tracking is crucial not only for thermometry
      but also for targeting the focus of an ultrasound in moving organs such as the
      liver, kidney, or heart. Various techniques for motion tracking, such as those
      based on an anatomical image atlas with optical-flow displacement detection, a
      navigator echo to seize the diaphragm position, and/or rapid imaging to track
      vessel positions, have been proposed. Techniques for avoiding the ribcage and
      near-field heating have also been examined. MR acoustic radiation force imaging
      (MR-ARFI) is an alternative to thermometry that can identify the location and
      shape of the focal spot and sound beam path. This technique could be useful for
      treating heterogeneous tissue regions or performing transcranial therapy. All of
      these developments, which will be discussed further in this review, expand the
      applicability of HIFU treatments to a variety of clinical targets while
      maintaining safety and precision. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage
      4 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:316-331.

PMID- 28580708
TI  - How the brain codes intimacy: The neurobiological substrates of romantic touch.
AB  - Humans belong to a minority of mammalian species that exhibit monogamous pair
      bonds, thereby enabling biparental care of offspring. The high reward value of
      interpersonal closeness and touch in couples is a key proximate mechanism
      facilitating the maintenance of enduring romantic bonds. However, surprisingly,
      the neurobiological underpinnings mediating the unique experience of a romantic
      partner's touch remain unknown. In this randomized placebo (PLC)-controlled,
      between-group, pharmacofunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study
      involving 192 healthy volunteers (96 heterosexual couples), we intranasally
      administered 24 IU of the hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) to either the man
      or the woman. Subsequently, we scanned the subjects while they assumed that they
      were being touched by their romantic partners or by an unfamiliar person of the
      opposite sex, although in reality an identical pattern of touch was always given
      by the same experimenter. Our results show that intranasal OXT compared to PLC
      selectively enhanced the subjective pleasantness of the partner's touch.
      Importantly, intranasal OXT selectively increased responses to partner touch in
      the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and anterior cingulate cortex. Under OXT, NAcc
      activations to partner touch positively correlated with the subjects' evaluation
      of their relationship quality. Collectively, our results suggest that OXT may
      contribute to the maintenance of monogamous relationships in humans by
      concomitantly increasing the reward value of partner touch and diminishing the
      hedonic quality of stranger touch. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4525-4534, 2017. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580707
TI  - A classifier integrating plasma biomarkers and radiological characteristics for
      distinguishing malignant from benign pulmonary nodules.
AB  - Lung cancer is primarily caused by cigarette smoking and the leading cancer
      killer in the USA and across the world. Early detection of lung cancer by low
      dose CT (LDCT) can reduce the mortality. However, LDCT dramatically increases the
      number of indeterminate pulmonary nodules (PNs), leading to overdiagnosis. Having
      a definitive preoperative diagnosis of malignant PNs is clinically important.
      Using microarray and droplet digital PCR to directly profile plasma miRNA
      expressions of 135 patients with PNs, we identified 11 plasma miRNAs that
      displayed a significant difference between patients with malignant versus benign
      PNs. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis of the molecular results and
      clinical/radiological characteristics, we developed an integrated classifier
      comprising two miRNA biomarkers and one radiological characteristic for
      distinguishing malignant from benign PNs. The classifier had 89.9% sensitivity
      and 90.9% specificity, being significantly higher compared with the biomarkers or
      clinical/radiological characteristics alone (all p < 0.05). The classifier was
      validated in two independent sets of patients. We have for the first time shown
      that the integration of plasma biomarkers and radiological characteristics could
      more accurately identify lung cancer among indeterminate PNs. Future use of the
      classifier could spare individuals with benign growths from the harmful
      diagnostic procedures, while allowing effective treatments to be immediately
      initiated for lung cancer, thereby reduces the mortality and cost. Nevertheless,
      further prospective validation of this classifier is warranted.

PMID- 28580711
TI  - Fluoxetine and Raynaud's phenomenon: friend or foe?

PMID- 28580709
TI  - Early ovariectomy reveals the germline encoding of natural anti-A- and Tn-cross
      reactive immunoglobulin M (IgM) arising from developmental O-GalNAc
      glycosylations. (Germline-encoded natural anti-A/Tn cross-reactive IgM).
AB  - While native blood group A-like glycans have not been demonstrated in prokaryotic
      microorganisms as a source of human "natural" anti-A isoagglutinin production,
      and metazoan eukaryotic N-acetylgalactosamine O-glycosylation of serine or
      threonine residues (O-GalNAc-Ser/Thr-R) does not occur in bacteria, the O-GalNAc
      glycan-bearing ovarian glycolipids, discovered in C57BL/10 mice, are
      complementary to the syngeneic anti-A-reactive immunoglobulin M (IgM), which is
      not present in animals that have undergone ovariectomy prior to the onset of
      puberty. These mammalian ovarian glycolipids are complementary also to the anti
      A/Tn cross-reactive Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA), a molluscan defense protein,
      emerging from the coat proteins of fertilized eggs and reflecting the snail
      intrinsic, reversible O-GalNAc glycosylations. The hexameric structure of this
      primitive invertebrate defense protein gives rise to speculation regarding an
      evolutionary relationship to the mammalian nonimmune, anti-A-reactive
      immunoglobulin M (IgM) molecule. Hypothetically, this molecule obtains its
      complementarity from the first step of protein glycosylations, initiated by
      GalNAc via reversible O-linkages to peptides displaying Ser/Thr motifs, whereas
      the subsequent transferase depletion completes germ cell maturation and cell
      renewal, associated with loss of glycosidic bonds and release of O-glycan
      depleted proteins, such as complementary IgM revealing the structure of the
      volatilely expressed "lost" glycan carrier through germline Ser residues.
      Consequently, the evolutionary/developmental first glycosylations of proteins
      appear metabolically related or identical to that of the mucin-type, potentially
      "aberrant" monosaccharide GalNAcalpha1-O-Ser/Thr-R, also referred to as the Tn (T
      "nouvelle") antigen, and explain the anti-Tn cross-reactivity of human innate or
      "natural" anti-A-specific isoagglutinin and the pronounced occurrence of cross
      reactive anti-Tn antibody in plasma from humans with histo-blood group O. In
      fact, A-allelic, phenotype-specific GalNAc glycosylation of plasma proteins does
      not occur in human blood group O, affecting anti-Tn antibody levels, which may
      function as a growth regulator that contributes to a potential survival advantage
      of this group in the overall risk of developing cancer when compared with non-O
      blood groups.

PMID- 28580712
TI  - Kawasaki disease: State of the art.
AB  - Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile arteritis of childhood that can result in
      coronary artery aneurysms if untreated in the first 10 and ideally 7 days of
      illness. Kawasaki disease begins as a necrotizing arteritis with neutrophilic
      infiltrate, followed by subacute/chronic changes and luminal myofibroblastic
      proliferation that can cause coronary artery stenosis. Manifestations include the
      presence of >=5 days of fever, together with clinical criteria of extremity
      changes, rash, conjunctivitis, oral changes, and unilateral cervical
      lymphadenopathy. Echocardiography should be performed at the time of diagnosis,
      then 1-2 weeks and 4-6 weeks later, with more frequent studies in individuals
      with coronary artery dilation or persistent fever. Coronary artery dimensions are
      characterized both as z-scores and absolute measurements, and coronary
      architecture evolves over time in children who have aneurysms in the first weeks
      of illness. Systematic follow-up and therapies are tailored to the degree of
      coronary disease and to coronary ischemia.

PMID- 28580710
TI  - A nomogram for predicting the risk of neck node metastasis in pathologically node
      negative oral cavity carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To generate a nomogram for predicting the risk of neck node metastasis
      in pathologically node-negative patients using a combination of variables
      comprising of protein expression, ultrastructural alterations and
      clinicopathological parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Surgically removed oral
      tumours (n = 103) were analysed for the expression of desmosomal and
      hemidesmosomal assembly proteins by immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural
      alterations by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Protein expression,
      ultrastructural alterations and clinicopathological variables were used to
      construct nomogram from the training set in 75 patients. Clinical utility of the
      nomogram was validated in a discrete set of 28 patients. RESULTS: Univariate and
      multivariate analyses were performed on the training set, and obtained
      significant variables comprising of integrin beta4 expression (p = .027), number
      of hemidesmosomes (p = .027)/desmosomes (p = .046), tumour differentiation grade
      (p = .033) and tumour thickness (p = .024) were used for construction of the
      nomogram. The area under the curve was calculated for both training 0.821 (95% CI
      0.725-0.918) and validation sets 0.880 (95% CI 0.743-1.000). The nomogram
      demonstrated a predictive accuracy of 73.3% and 78.6% with the sensitivity of
      81.4% and 83.3% in the training and validation sets, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      The nomogram constructed on postsurgical tumour samples will be a value addition
      to histopathology for the detection of neck node metastasis in pathologically
      node-negative patients.

PMID- 28580713
TI  - Mitral valve prolapse and Marfan syndrome.
AB  - Marfan syndrome is a multisystemic genetic condition affecting connective tissue.
      It carries a reduced life expectancy, largely dependent on cardiovascular
      complications. More common cardiac manifestations such as aortic dissection and
      aortic valve incompetence have been widely documented in the literature. Mitral
      valve prolapse (MVP), however, has remained poorly documented. This article aims
      at exploring the existing literature on the pathophysiology and diagnosis of MVP
      in patients with Marfan syndrome, defining its current management and outlining
      the future developments surrounding it.

PMID- 28580715
TI  - Parental guided self-help family based treatment for adolescents with anorexia
      nervosa: A feasibility study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Family-based treatment (FBT) is an evidence-based treatment for
      adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN), but many families cannot access it. This study
      evaluated feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary treatment effects of a
      parental guided self-help (GSH) version of FBT for adolescent AN. METHOD: This
      was a case-series design. Parents of medically stable adolescents (11-18 years)
      with DSM-5 AN were recruited over 12 months. Parents received online training in
      parental GSH FBT and 12 20-30 min GSH sessions by phone or online over 6 months.
      Recruitment, dropout, changes in weight, and eating-related psychopathology were
      assessed. Analyses used mixed modeling that included all data for all
      participants. RESULTS: Of the 19 families that participated, most were white
      (94%) and from intact families (88%). Baseline median BMI (mBMI) percent was
      85.01% (SD = 4.31). Participants' mBMI percent increased to 97.31% (SD +/- 7.48)
      at the end of treatment (EOT) (ES = 2.06; CI= 0.13-3.99). Eating-related
      psychopathology improved by EOT (ES = 0.58; CI=.04-1.21). Dropout rate was 21%
      during treatment and 33% during follow-up. DISCUSSION: Parental GSH-FBT is
      feasible and acceptable to families willing to undertake online treatment. Follow
      up data was only available for nine families (47%); thus further systematic
      evaluation is required before reaching conclusions about the efficacy of this
      approach.

PMID- 28580714
TI  - Marine alkaloid oroidin analogues with antiviral potential: A novel class of
      synthetic compounds targeting the cellular chaperone Hsp90.
AB  - Marine organisms and their metabolites are a diverse source of scaffolds for
      potential pharmacological molecular probes and, less frequently, for
      pharmaceutical lead compounds. In this study, 157 synthetic analogues of marine
      sponge-derived alkaloids clathrodin and oroidin were screened against replicon
      models of two RNA viruses, hepatitis C (HCV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) as
      part of a larger screening project. Four compounds were found to selectively
      inhibit the HCV replicon (IC50 1.6-4.6 MUm). These belong to the 4,5,6,7
      tetrahydrobenzo[1,2-d]thiazole class of compounds originally designed to target
      the ATP-binding site of bacterial DNA gyrase. The ATP-binding site of this
      bacterial protein has high structural similarity to the ATP-binding site of heat
      shock protein 90 (Hsp90), a host cell chaperone universally required for viral
      replication, which led us to examine inhibition of Hsp90 as the compounds'
      potential mechanism of action. Binding of the four hit compounds to Hsp90 was
      evaluated through microscale thermophoresis and molecular modeling, which
      supported our hypothesis of interaction with Hsp90 (Kd 18-79 MUm) as basis for
      the compounds' antiviral activity. The presented novel structural class of small
      molecules that target the Hsp90 ATP-binding site has excellent potential for
      further antiviral drug development because of the compounds' low toxicity and
      synthetic accessibility.

PMID- 28580716
TI  - Preparation and characterization of injectable PMMA-strontium-substituted
      bioactive glass bone cement composites.
AB  - In most minimally-invasive procedures used to address severe pain arising from
      compression fractures of the vertebral bodies, such as percutaneous
      vertebroplasty (PVP), a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement is used.
      Shortcomings of this type of cement, such as high exotherm temperature and lack
      of bioactivity, are well known. We prepared different formulations of a composite
      bone cement, whose solid constituents consisted of PMMA beads and particles of a
      bioactive glass (BG), where 0-20%(w/w) of the calcium component was substituted
      by strontium. The difference between the formulations was in the relative amounts
      of the solid phase constituents and in the Sr-content of BG. We determined the
      influence of the mixture of solid phase constituents of the cement formulation on
      a collection of properties, such as maximum exotherm temperature (Tmax ), setting
      time (tset ), and injectability (I). The selection of the PMMA beads was crucial
      to obtain cement composite formulations capable to be efficiently injected.
      Results allowed to select nine solid phase mixtures to be further tested. Then,
      we determined the influence of the composition of these composite bone cements on
      Tmax , tset , I, and cell proliferation. The results showed that the performance
      of various of the selected composite cements was better than that of PMMA cement
      reference, with lower Tmax , lower tset , and higher I. We found that
      incorporation of Sr-substituted BGs into these materials bestows bioactivity
      properties associated with the role of Sr in bone formation, leading to some
      composite cement formulations that may be suitable for use in PVP. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1245-1257,
      2018.

PMID- 28580717
TI  - The development and integrity of equine pre-antral follicles cultured in vitro
      with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) supplementation.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of different concentrations of FSH (10, 50,
      100 and 200 ng/ml) in supplemented MEM+ on the development of equine pre-antral
      follicles that were cultured in vitro for 2 or 6 days. The ovaries (n = 5) from
      mares in seasonal anoestrus were collected from a local abattoir. Ten ovarian
      tissue fragments of approximately 3 * 3 * 1 mm were obtained from each animal.
      The fragments were cultured in situ for 2 days (D2) or 6 days (D6) in MEM+ or
      MEM+ supplemented with FSH at four different concentrations, establishing the
      following 11 groups: control (D0); MEM + (D2); MEM + (D6); MEM + 10 ng/ml of FSH
      (D2); MEM + 10 ng/ml of FSH (D6); MEM + 50 ng/ml of FSH (D2); MEM + 50 ng/ml of
      FSH (D6); MEM + 100 ng/ml of FSH (D2); MEM + 100 ng/ml of FSH (D6); MEM + 200
      ng/ml of FSH (D2); and MEM + 200 ng/ml of FSH (D6). Follicles were observed in
      only 9.65% (388 of 4,018) of the histological sections. Of the 861 follicles
      evaluated, 488 were in the primordial stage, and 373 were in various
      developmental stages; 59.7% were morphologically normal. Regarding the integrity
      of the pre-antral follicles, the groups with 100 ng/ml FSH of 2-days culture as
      well as 50, 100 and 200 ng/ml FSH of 6-days culture provided the best results. In
      conclusion, the in vitro culture of abattoir-derived equine ovarian fragments
      presented better morphological integrity when supplemented with FSH for 6 days,
      in comparison with the MEM culture group. However, no clear effects were observed
      with FSH regarding the promotion of activation from a primordial to a developing
      follicle.

PMID- 28580718
TI  - Resolution of aquagenic pruritus with intermittent UVA/NBUVB combined therapy.

PMID- 28580719
TI  - Platelets stored at 4 degrees C contribute to superior clot properties compared
      to current standard-of-care through fibrin-crosslinking.
AB  - Currently, platelets for transfusion are stored at room temperature (RT) for 5-7
      days with gentle agitation, but this is less than optimal because of loss of
      function and risk of bacterial contamination. We have previously demonstrated
      that cold (4 degrees C) storage is an attractive alternative because it preserves
      platelet metabolic reserves, in vitro responses to agonists of activation,
      aggregation and physiological inhibitors, as well as adhesion to thrombogenic
      surfaces better than RT storage. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration
      clarified that apheresis platelets stored at 4 degrees C for up to 72 h may be
      used for treating active haemorrhage. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that
      cold-stored platelets contribute to generating clots with superior mechanical
      properties compared to RT-stored platelets. Rheological studies demonstrate that
      the clots formed from platelets stored at 4 degrees C for 5 days are
      significantly stiffer (higher elastic modulus) and stronger (higher critical
      stress) than those formed from RT-stored platelets. Morphological analysis shows
      that clot fibres from cold-stored platelets were denser, thinner, straighter and
      with more branch points or crosslinks than those from RT-stored platelets. Our
      results also show that the enhanced clot strength and packed structure is due to
      cold-induced plasma factor XIII binding to platelet surfaces, and the consequent
      increase in crosslinking.

PMID- 28580721
TI  - Persistent hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) associated with
      passive acquisition of anti-D in maternal breast milk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anti-D is a well-documented, significant cause of hemolytic disease
      of the fetus and newborn (HDFN), but its presence in breast milk is not routinely
      described. Theoretically, breast milk containing anti-D could have the potential
      to exacerbate HDFN if ingested by the affected infant. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
      This is a case report of a 28-week premature male neonate with hydrops fetalis
      born to a 32-year-old woman (gravidity 3/parity 3) with anti-D and anti-G. The
      male neonate experienced prolonged HDFN due to passive acquisition of anti-D in
      the mother's breast milk. RESULTS: The mother's breast milk reacted strongly (4+)
      with the D-positive cells in the antibody screen test. Discontinuation of breast
      milk feeding and addition of total parenteral nutrition led to the cessation of
      clinically significant HDFN. CONCLUSION: Although anti-D is a significant cause
      of HDFN through placental transfer of antibody, exacerbation of the condition
      through breast milk antibodies is rarely described. The current case highlights
      the possibility of this occurring. Discontinuation of maternal breast milk
      feedings should be considered in infants with HDFN who do not respond to standard
      treatment.

PMID- 28580722
TI  - Response to "Quantitative analysis of hepatocellular adenoma and focal nodular
      hyperplasia in the hepatobiliary phase: External validation of llcer method using
      gadobenate dimeglumine as contrast agent".

PMID- 28580720
TI  - Learned control of inter-hemispheric connectivity: Effects on bimanual motor
      performance.
AB  - Bimanual movements involve the interactions between both primary motor cortices.
      These interactions are assumed to involve phase-locked oscillatory brain activity
      referred to as inter-hemispheric functional coupling. So far, inter-hemispheric
      functional coupling has been investigated as a function of motor performance.
      These studies report mostly a negative correlation between the performance in
      motor tasks and the strength of functional coupling. However, correlation might
      not reflect a causal relationship. To overcome this limitation, we opted for an
      alternative approach by manipulating the strength of inter-hemispheric functional
      coupling and assessing bimanual motor performance as a dependent variable. We
      hypothesize that an increase/decrease of functional coupling
      deteriorates/facilitates motor performance in an out-of-phase bimanual finger
      tapping task. Healthy individuals were trained to volitionally regulate
      functional coupling in an operant conditioning paradigm using real-time
      magnetoencephalography neurofeedback. During operant conditioning, two
      discriminative stimuli were associated with upregulation and downregulation of
      functional coupling. Effects of training were assessed by comparing motor
      performance prior to (pre-test) and after the training (post-test). Participants
      receiving contingent feedback learned to upregulate and downregulate functional
      coupling. Comparing motor performance, as indexed by the ratio of tapping speed
      for upregulation versus downregulation trials, no change was found in the control
      group between pre- and post-test. In contrast, the group receiving contingent
      feedback evidenced a significant decrease of the ratio implicating lower tapping
      speed with stronger functional coupling. Results point toward a causal role of
      inter-hemispheric functional coupling for the performance in bimanual tasks. Hum
      Brain Mapp 38:4353-4369, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28580723
TI  - Pollen contamination in seed mixture increases the dominance of resistance to Bt
      maize in Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seed mixture, also called 'RIB', has been used to provide refuge
      populations for delaying insect resistance. Pollen contamination in RIB could
      result in refuge kernels of non-Bt maize expressing variable Bt proteins. Data
      are lacking regarding the impact of pollen contamination on evolution of
      resistance for ear-feeding insects. Here, we used Spodoptera frugiperda and Cry1F
      maize as a model to examine if pollen contamination in RIB increases the
      dominance of insect resistance. RESULTS: Pollen contamination caused >66% refuge
      kernels in 5:95% (non-Bt:Bt) and 20:80% RIBs to express Cry1F protein. Survival
      at adult stage on pure non-Bt ears was similar (54.4-63.3%) among Cry1F
      susceptible (SS), Cry1F-resistant (RR) and Cry1F-heterozygous (RS) S. frugiperda.
      On Bt ears, survival was similar between SS and RS (0.0-1.7%), but it was
      significantly less than that of RR (59.2%). On the two RIB refuge ears, survival
      at adult stage for RS (42.3% in 5:95% RIB; 50.0% in 20:80% RIB) was significantly
      higher than for SS (8.7% in 5:95% RIB; 10.0% in 20:80% RIB). CONCLUSION: The
      results suggest that pollen contamination in RIB could increase the dominance of
      resistance for ear-feeding insects by significantly reducing susceptible refuge
      populations and supporting higher survival of heterozygotes relative to
      homozygous susceptible insects. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580724
TI  - Melatonin delays photoreceptor degeneration in a mouse model of autosomal
      recessive retinitis pigmentosa.
AB  - Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) comprises a group of incurable inherited retinal
      degenerations. Targeting common processes, instead of mutation-specific
      treatment, has proven to be an innovative strategy to combat debilitating retinal
      degeneration. Growing evidence indicates that melatonin possesses a potent
      activity against neurodegenerative disorders by mitigating cell damage associated
      with apoptosis and inflammation. Given the pleiotropic role of melatonin in
      central nervous system, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether
      melatonin would afford protection against retinal degeneration in autosomal
      recessive RP (arRP). Rd10, a well-characterized murine model of human arRP,
      received daily intraperitoneal injection of melatonin (15 mg/kg) between
      postnatal day (P) 13 and P30. Retinas treated with melatonin or vehicle were
      harvested for analysis at P30 and P45, respectively. The findings showed that
      melatonin could dampen the photoreceptors death and delay consequent retinal
      degeneration. We also observed that melatonin weakened the expression of glial
      fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in Muller cells. Additionally, melatonin could
      alleviate retinal inflammatory response visualized by IBA1 staining, which was
      further corroborated by downregulation of inflammation-related genes, such as
      tumor necrosis factor alpha (Tnf-alpha), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (Ccl2),
      and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 10 (Cxcl10). These data revealed that
      melatonin could ameliorate retinal degeneration through potentially attenuating
      apoptosis, reactive gliosis, and microglial activation in rd10 mice. Moreover,
      these results suggest melatonin as a promising agent improving photoreceptors
      survival in human RP.

PMID- 28580725
TI  - Effects of Acute-Postacute Continuity on Community Discharge and 30-Day
      Rehospitalization Following Inpatient Rehabilitation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of facility-level acute-postacute continuity on
      probability of community discharge and 30-day rehospitalization following
      inpatient rehabilitation. DATA SOURCES: We used national Medicare enrollment,
      claims, and assessment data to study 541,097 patients discharged from 1,156
      inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in 2010-2011. STUDY DESIGN: We
      calculated facility-level continuity as the percentages of an IRF's patients
      admitted from each contributing acute care hospital. Patients were categorized
      into three groups: low continuity (<26 percent from same hospital that discharged
      the patient), medium continuity (26-75 percent from same hospital), or high
      continuity (>75 percent from same hospital). The multivariable models included an
      interaction term to examine the potential moderating effects of facility type
      (freestanding facility vs. hospital-based rehabilitation unit) on the
      relationships between facility-level continuity and our two outcomes: community
      discharge and 30-day rehospitalization. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Medicare
      beneficiaries in hospital-based rehabilitation units were more likely to be
      referred from a high-contributing hospital compared to those in freestanding
      facilities. However, the association between higher acute-postacute continuity
      and desirable outcomes is significantly better in freestanding rehabilitation
      facilities than in hospital-based units. CONCLUSIONS: Improving continuity is a
      key premise of health care reform. We found that both observed referral patterns
      and continuity-related benefits differed markedly by facility type. These
      findings provide a starting point for health systems establishing or
      strengthening acute-postacute relationships to improve patient outcomes in this
      new era of shared accountability and public quality reporting programs.

PMID- 28580726
TI  - The first case of domino-split-liver transplantation in maple syrup urine
      disease.
AB  - The enzymatic defect in MSUD results in accumulation of neurotoxic metabolites of
      BCAAs. LTX has shown to be a feasible strategy in patients non-responsive to
      diet. Because of sufficient enzyme activity in extrahepatic tissues in healthy
      people, the MSUD liver graft is a suitable domino organ. We present the first
      case of a technical challenging ex situ split of a MSUD domino organ transplanted
      into two pediatric recipients. The domino graft donor was a 21-year-old female
      (58 kg) suffering from MSUD with recurrent metabolic decompensation despite
      strict diet. The organ was allocated to a 14-year-old girl (55 kg) with primary
      sclerosing cholangitis. Due to excellent organ quality and suitable anatomy, a
      backward split for a girl of 3 months (5 kg) with decompensated liver cirrhosis
      due to biliary atresia was performed. The postoperative course was without
      relevant complications, and the three recipients were discharged on postoperative
      days 28, 29, and 45, respectively, with good organ function. BCAAs in plasma were
      normal in the two domino graft recipients, and the MSUD patient showed mildly
      elevated but stable BCAA concentrations despite an unrestricted diet. Split
      domino LTX enabled successful transplantation of three patients of the waiting
      list with only one deceased donor graft.

PMID- 28580728
TI  - Late graft failure in heart transplant recipients: incidence, risk factors and
      clinical outcomes.
AB  - AIM: To analyse the incidence, risk factors and clinical outcomes of late graft
      failure after heart transplantation. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted an
      observational, single-centre study based on 547 patients who underwent cardiac
      transplantation from 1991 to 2014 and who survived the in-hospital postoperative
      period. Late graft failure was defined as the first hospitalization due to this
      condition after discharge. Over a mean follow-up of 8.4 +/- 6 years, 178 (32.5%)
      patients were hospitalized due to late graft failure [incidence rate: 3.6 cases
      per 100 patient-years, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.1-4.2]. Pre-transplant
      diabetes, higher pre-transplant transpulmonary pressure gradient and lower donor
      recipient weight ratio were independently associated with higher risk of graft
      failure. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy, cellular rejection grade >=1R, and
      antibody-mediated rejection grade >=1 were detected in 50.6%, 44.9% and 19.2%
      patients, respectively, admitted due to graft failure. Left ventricular ejection
      fraction was >=50% in 60.1% of these patients. Re-transplant free survival 1, 5,
      10 and 15 years after the diagnosis of late graft failure was 72.2%, 38.4%,
      18.4%, and 7.5%, respectively; the incidence rate of re-hospitalization due to
      decompensated heart failure was 40.9 episodes per 100 patient-years (95% CI 36.6
      46.1). The need for inotropes, the presence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy,
      higher creatinine serum levels, lower ejection fraction and lower sodium serum
      levels were independent predictors of worse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Late graft
      failure is frequent after heart transplantation, as it is associated with poor
      outcomes. Rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy are the most frequent
      underlying causes.

PMID- 28580727
TI  - Integrative gene set enrichment analysis utilizing isoform-specific expression.
AB  - Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) aims at identifying essential pathways, or
      more generally, sets of biologically related genes that are involved in complex
      human diseases. In the past, many studies have shown that GSEA is a very useful
      bioinformatics tool that plays critical roles in the innovation of disease
      prevention and intervention strategies. Despite its tremendous success, it is
      striking that conclusions of GSEA drawn from isolated studies are often sparse,
      and different studies may lead to inconsistent and sometimes contradictory
      results. Further, in the wake of next generation sequencing technologies, it has
      been made possible to measure genome-wide isoform-specific expression levels,
      calling for innovations that can utilize the unprecedented resolution. Currently,
      enormous amounts of data have been created from various RNA-seq experiments. All
      these give rise to a pressing need for developing integrative methods that allow
      for explicit utilization of isoform-specific expression, to combine multiple
      enrichment studies, in order to enhance the power, reproducibility, and
      interpretability of the analysis. We develop and evaluate integrative GSEA
      methods, based on two-stage procedures, which, for the first time, allow
      statistically efficient use of isoform-specific expression from multiple RNA-seq
      experiments. Through simulation and real data analysis, we show that our methods
      can greatly improve the performance in identifying essential gene sets compared
      to existing methods that can only use gene-level expression.

PMID- 28580729
TI  - Laparoscopic harvest of the gastro-omental free flap for reconstruction after
      total pharyngolaryngectomy: Operative technique.
AB  - Circumferential defects following salvage pharyngolaryngectomy present
      significant challenges in reconstructive surgery. The gastro-omental free flap
      has been shown to reduce the incidence of major fistula and catastrophic
      complications. The current technique for harvest of the flap requires laparotomy,
      which is potentially associated with significant post-operative complications.
      Laparoscopic harvest of the gastro-omental free flap can negate some of the risks
      associated with open surgery. We describe here the operative technique for
      laparoscopic gastro-omental free flap harvest for use in reconstruction following
      total pharyngolaryngectomy. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 1696
      1698, 2017.

PMID- 28580730
TI  - Right aortic arch with situs solitus frequently heralds a vascular ring.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that a right aortic arch in situs solitus, with or
      without an associated cardiovascular malformation, is often associated with a
      vascular ring. METHODS: From those born in Southern Nevada between March 2012 and
      March 2017, we identified 50 (3.6 per 10,000 live births) with a right aortic
      arch and situs solitus. From the 50 patients, 6 did not meet inclusion criteria
      for further analysis. RESULTS: Of the 44 remaining, 33 (75%) had a vascular ring.
      Of the 33 with a vascular ring, 26 (79%) occurred with an isolated right aortic
      arch, and 7 (21%) had an associated cardiovascular malformation. Of the total 44
      patients with a right aortic arch in situs solitus, 34 (79%) were diagnosed
      prenatally. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we found a right aortic arch in situs
      solitus was often associated with a vascular ring. Further, to the best of our
      knowledge, no previous general population study has demonstrated an equal or
      higher right aortic arch, prenatal detection rate of 79%.

PMID- 28580731
TI  - Application of capability indices and control charts in the analytical method
      control strategy.
AB  - In this study, we assessed the usefulness of control charts in combination with
      the process capability indices, Cpm and Cpk , in the control strategy of an
      analytical method. The traditional X-chart and moving range chart were used to
      monitor the analytical method over a 2-year period. The results confirmed that
      the analytical method is in-control and stable. Different criteria were used to
      establish the specifications limits (i.e. analyst requirements) for fixed method
      performance (i.e. method requirements). If the specification limits and control
      limits are equal in breadth, the method can be considered "capable" (Cpm  = 1),
      but it does not satisfy the minimum method capability requirements proposed by
      Pearn and Shu (2003). Similar results were obtained using the Cpk index. The
      method capability was also assessed as a function of method performance for fixed
      analyst requirements. The results indicate that the method does not meet the
      requirements of the analytical target approach. A real-example data of a SEC with
      light-scattering detection method was used as a model whereas previously
      published data were used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed
      approach.

PMID- 28580732
TI  - Polymorphic light eruption with severe abnormal phototesting sensitivity
      (PLESAPS).

PMID- 28580733
TI  - Case report of a primary effusion lymphoma successfully treated with oral
      valganciclovir after failing chemotherapy.
AB  - Primary effusion lymphoma is a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma that presents with
      pleural effusions and lacking of tumour mass. It is universally associated with
      human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) and is more frequent among immunosuppressed patients.
      There is no standard treatment, chemotherapy and anti-HIV therapy have been used
      with poor results, but there is still no strong evidence supporting the use of
      valganciclovir. We present the case of a HIV positive man that presented with
      pleural effusion compatible with primary effusion lymphoma and positivity for
      HHV8 DNA in blood. Bortezomib-containing treatment protocol was started, but the
      disease progressed within the chemotherapy. Therefore, treatment with oral
      valganciclovir was decided and the patient achieved a sustained radiological
      complete response. HHV8 DNA turned negative 6 months after starting the treatment
      with valganciclovir.

PMID- 28580736
TI  - Professional responsibility and decision-making in the context of a disease
      focused model of nursing care: The difficulties experienced by Spanish nurses.
AB  - When, in 1977, nurse education in Spain was transferred to universities a more
      patient-centred, the Anglo-American philosophy of care was introduced into a
      context in which nurses had traditionally prioritised their technical skills.
      This paper examines the characteristics of the nurse's professional role in
      Spain, where the model of nursing practice has historically placed them in a
      position akin to that of physician assistants. The study design was qualitative
      and used the method of analytic induction. Participants were selected by means of
      theoretical sampling and then underwent in-depth interviews. The resulting
      material was analysed using an approach based on the principles of grounded
      theory. Strategies were applied to ensure the credibility, transferability,
      dependability and confirmability of the findings. The main conclusion is that
      nurses in Spain continue to work within a disease-focused model of care, making
      it difficult for them to take responsibility for decision-making.

PMID- 28580735
TI  - DDAH1 mediates gastric cancer cell invasion and metastasis via Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling pathway.
AB  - Gastric cancer (GC) represents the fourth most common malignant neoplasm and the
      second leading cause of cancer death. Despite therapeutic advances in recent
      decades, the clinical outcome remains dismal owing to the fact that most patients
      with GC show advanced disease at diagnosis and current chemotherapy only confers
      a modest survival advantage. Identification of key molecular signaling pathways
      involved in gastric carcinogenesis and progression would aid in early diagnosis
      and provide a rational design for targeted therapies in selected patients with
      advanced GC, to improve their outcome. Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1
      (DDAH1) is the main enzyme that can degrade asymmetric dimethylarginine, an
      endogenous nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor. Increased DDAH1 expression and
      NO production have been linked to multiple pathological conditions including
      cancer. However, the prognostic significance of DDAH1 in patients with GC and its
      function in GC progression remain undefined. In this study, we found that
      downregulation of DDAH1 was frequently detected in GC tissues and strongly
      correlated with more aggressive phenotypes and poor prognosis. Functional assays
      confirmed that forced expression of DDAH1 in the GC cells suppressed cell
      migration and invasion in vitro, as well as metastatic potential in vivo. DDAH1
      overexpression inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process by
      increasing beta-catenin degradation through the attenuation of Wnt/GSK-3beta
      signaling. In contrast, knockdown of DDAH1 produced the opposite effect. These
      findings suggest that DDAH1 functions as a tumor suppressor in GC and may be
      exploited as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for GC.

PMID- 28580734
TI  - SARS-unique fold in the Rousettus bat coronavirus HKU9.
AB  - The coronavirus nonstructural protein 3 (nsp3) is a multifunctional protein that
      comprises multiple structural domains. This protein assists viral polyprotein
      cleavage, host immune interference, and may play other roles in genome
      replication or transcription. Here, we report the solution NMR structure of a
      protein from the "SARS-unique region" of the bat coronavirus HKU9. The protein
      contains a frataxin fold or double-wing motif, which is an alpha + beta fold that
      is associated with protein/protein interactions, DNA binding, and metal ion
      binding. High structural similarity to the human severe acute respiratory
      syndrome (SARS) coronavirus nsp3 is present. A possible functional site that is
      conserved among some betacoronaviruses has been identified using bioinformatics
      and biochemical analyses. This structure provides strong experimental support for
      the recent proposal advanced by us and others that the "SARS-unique" region is
      not unique to the human SARS virus, but is conserved among several different
      phylogenetic groups of coronaviruses and provides essential functions.

PMID- 28580738
TI  - Ibuprofen-induced distal (type 1) renal tubular acidosis and hypokalaemia: the
      dangers of ibuprofen-codeine combination over-the-counter preparations.

PMID- 28580737
TI  - Pragmatic approach to chest pain patients discharged with undetectable high
      sensitivity troponin T and normal electrocardiogram: the STABS + CT protocol.
AB  - A strategy that discharges chest pain patients with negative high-sensitivity
      troponin and non-ischaemic electrocardiography changes may still result in 0.44%
      of patients experiencing myocardial infarction within 30 days. We observed that a
      pragmatic approach that systematically discharged 25 patients on cardio
      protective medications of aspirin, metoprolol and atorvastatin followed with
      prompt (<10 days) coronary computed tomography angiography resulted in no major
      adverse cardiac event and adverse drug reaction 30 days post-presentation. The
      strategy resulted in three patients (12%) ultimately diagnosed with likely
      unstable angina, which required planned coronary intervention in two patients and
      medical management in one patient. No unplanned readmissions for chest pains were
      noted from initial presentation through to 6-month follow up.

PMID- 28580739
TI  - Author reply.

PMID- 28580740
TI  - Euglycaemic diabetic ketoacidosis in patients using sodium-glucose co-transporter
      2 inhibitors.
AB  - Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) are an increasingly
      prescribed class of medication for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Euglycaemic diabetic
      ketoacidosis (euDKA) has been reported in association with SGLT2i use. Clinicians
      need to understand how to recognise and treat this complication. We describe
      three cases of euDKA in patients treated with SGLT2i.

PMID- 28580741
TI  - Rapid large pulmonary embolism after prothrombin complex concentrate for warfarin
      reversal during colonoscopy.

PMID- 28580742
TI  - Palliative care and best supportive care should not be an after 'transition'
      missed opportunity.

PMID- 28580743
TI  - Great big meta-analysis of everything: follow-up complete and known, the ultimate
      paean.
AB  - Historically, selected patients or populations have been at the centre of meta
      analysis, with consideration of a particular patient, or population group as
      central to defining the question addressed. More recently, meta-analysis with
      studies included based on the intervention provided have been published. This
      paper explores the implications of extending this methodology beyond selected
      interventions for limited periods of time.

PMID- 28580744
TI  - Management of severe asthma: targeting the airways, comorbidities and risk
      factors.
AB  - Severe asthma is a complex heterogeneous disease that is refractory to standard
      treatment and is complicated by multiple comorbidities and risk factors. In mild
      to moderate asthma, the burden of disease can be minimised by inhaled
      corticosteroids, bronchodilators and self-management education. In severe asthma,
      however, management is more complex. When patients with asthma continue to
      experience symptoms and exacerbations despite optimal management, severe
      refractory asthma (SRA) should be suspected and confirmed, and other aetiologies
      ruled out. Once a diagnosis of SRA is established, patients should undergo a
      systematic and multidimensional assessment to identify inflammatory endotypes,
      risk factors and comorbidities, with targeted and individualised management
      initiated. We describe a practical approach to assessment and management of
      patients with SRA.

PMID- 28580745
TI  - Red cell transfusion thresholds in myelodysplastic syndromes: a clinician survey
      to inform future clinical trials.
AB  - Optimal red cell transfusion thresholds in myelodysplastic syndrome are not
      established. In this survey of 110 Australasian haematologists' practice in
      myelodysplastic syndrome-related anaemia, 92% of respondents set transfusion
      thresholds, and would typically transfuse at a haemoglobin <80 g/L aiming for a
      post-transfusion haemoglobin 90-100 g/L, reflecting a restrictive transfusion
      strategy. Higher thresholds were typically used for patients with cardiovascular
      disease or anaemia symptoms. These results will inform the design of clinical
      trials comparing transfusion thresholds.

PMID- 28580746
TI  - Medical certificates attesting fitness to drive.
AB  - Few if any sanctions have been imposed on doctors for inappropriate certification
      of fitness to drive. This paper reviews a recent Tribunal decision on
      inappropriate certification of fitness to drive. This paper reviews the facts of
      the case of Medical Board of Australia v Andrew and discusses the legal
      implications for doctors who certify patients as fit to drive. The paper offers a
      necessary and timely warning that the Medical Board sought harsh sanctions, more
      severe than were imposed by the Tribunal, but that the Tribunal also felt
      compelled to impose 'general deterrence' to prevent inappropriate certification.
      The paper emphasises the need for scrupulous attention to detail and an absolute
      need for circumspection when assessing patients who claim to be seizure free, or
      who minimise impairment from a range of other conditions, insisting on clearance
      to be able to drive.

PMID- 28580747
TI  - Difference between presumed and perceived pain in bone marrow aspiration: pilot
      study.

PMID- 28580748
TI  - Opioid addiction and misuse in adult and adolescent patients with cancer.
AB  - In the context of a therapeutic opioid epidemic, particularly in the USA, where
      increasingly stringent screening for 'at risk' individuals and close monitoring
      of opioid prescription and use is strongly recommended, the issue of misuse
      within the cancer population must be addressed. Most patients with advanced
      cancer will have pain requiring opioid therapy at some stage during their disease
      course. In the majority, this will provide good pain relief with no short- or
      longer-term adverse sequelae. A subset will present with substance misuse issues
      that will influence management and prescribing practice. The potential ethical
      issues of limiting effective analgesia on the basis of addiction risk or history
      must be acknowledged. Both a judgemental or 'relaxed' approach to such patients
      is problematic. Ignoring the situation will not be in the patient's best
      interest, but an undue focus on this aspect may damage therapeutic relationships
      with clinicians and adversely affect a holistic approach to care. Clinical
      practitioners must be aware of the risk factors for opioid misuse and in patients
      who are not under palliative care consider screening prior to commencing opioids.
      Clinicians must be able to manage and monitor those identified as having an
      opioid misuse problem.

PMID- 28580749
TI  - Mobile health: an emerging technology with implications for global internal
      medicine.

PMID- 28580750
TI  - Raising the bar on guideline utility and trustworthiness.

PMID- 28580751
TI  - Spontaneous pneumomediastinum: a rare entity but not to be missed.

PMID- 28580752
TI  - Patient consent and genuine understanding.

PMID- 28580753
TI  - Reporting functional status in UNOS: The weakness of the Karnofsky Performance
      Status Scale.

PMID- 28580754
TI  - Regional distribution and integrity of equine ovarian pre-antral follicles.
AB  - The goal of this study was to determine the distribution of pre-antral follicles
      in the ovarian parenchyma of mares. For Experiment 1, each ovary was cut
      longitudinally at the greater curvature, performing two hemiovaries. After that,
      six fragments from each hemiovary were obtained, resulting in 12 fragments, which
      were divided into the innermost region of the parenchyma, the middle region and
      the outermost region. All the three obtained sections were cut transversally to
      obtain two fragments from each one. For Experiment 2, each ovary also submitted
      to a longitudinal cut on the greater curvature, forming two hemiovaries. Each
      hemiovary was sectioned into four symmetrical fragments, resulting in eight
      fragments per ovary. The fragments were related as being near to or far from the
      ovulatory fossa. The fragments of both experiments were immediately fixed in
      Carnoy for 12 hr and kept in 70% ethanol for 24 hr. Follicles were classified
      according to the stages of development and for morphological integrity according
      to oocyte morphology and granulosa cells. After the histological assessment, a
      total of 1,130 follicles were visualized from Experiment 1, being 1,054 (93.3%)
      primordial follicles and 76 (4.7%) follicles in development. The innermost region
      had the highest percentage of pre-antral follicles compared to the other regions
      (p < .05). The middle and outermost regions showed higher percentages of intact
      primordial and developing follicles than the innermost region (p < .05).
      Considering Experiment 2, 938 follicles were found, being 894 (95.3%) primordial
      and 44 (4.7%) follicles in development. The region near the ovulatory fossa
      presented higher (58.7%; 551 of 938) follicular concentration compared to the
      region far from the ovulatory fossa (41.3%; 387 of 938; p < .05). As a
      conclusion, distribution of pre-antral follicles in the equine ovary has a
      specific pattern through the parenchyma. Also, the follicular integrity differed
      in the studied ovarian areas.

PMID- 28580755
TI  - Crabrolin, a natural antimicrobial peptide: structural properties.
AB  - A joint application of experimental and computational approaches has revealed the
      exceptionally high attitude of crabrolin, a 13-residue peptide with sequence
      FLPLILRKIVTAL-NH2 , to adopt alpha-helix conformation not only in membrane
      mimicking solvents but also in the presence of a not negligible amount of water.
      Our study shows that this propensity essentially resides in the intrinsic
      thermodynamic stability of alpha-helix conformation whose kinetic stability is
      drastically reduced in water solvent. Our analysis suggests that this is due to
      two effects enhanced by water: a more local effect consisting of the demolition
      of intra-peptide H-bonds, essential for the alpha-helix formation, and a bulk -
      electrostatic - effect favoring conformational states more polar than alpha
      helix. Copyright (c) 2017 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28580756
TI  - High tunnels: protection for rather than from insect pests?
AB  - BACKGROUND: High tunnels are a season extension tool creating a hybrid of field
      and greenhouse growing conditions. High tunnels have recently increased in the
      USA and thus research on their management is lacking. One purported advantage of
      these structures is protection from common field pests, but evidence to support
      this claim is lacking. We compared insect pest populations in high tunnels with
      field production over two years for three crops: tomato, broccoli and cucumber.
      RESULTS: Greenhouse pests (e.g. aphids, whiteflies) were more prevalent in high
      tunnels, compared to field plots. Hornworms (tobacco (Manduca sexta L.) and
      tomato (M. quinquemaculata Haworth)), a common field pest on tomato, were also
      more abundant in high tunnels, requiring chemical control while field populations
      were low. The crucifer caterpillar complex (imported cabbageworm (Pieris rapae
      L.), diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella L.) and cabbage looper (Trichoplusia
      ni Hubner)) was also more abundant in high tunnels in 2010. Cucumber beetle
      (striped (Acalymma vittatum F.) and spotted (Diabrotica undecimpunctata
      Mannerheim)) densities were higher in high tunnels in 2010 and field plots in
      2011. CONCLUSION: The common assumption that high tunnels offer protection from
      field pests was not supported. Instead, high tunnel growing conditions may
      facilitate higher pest populations. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28580757
TI  - High-Performance Ruthenium Sensitizers Containing Imidazolium Counterions for
      Efficient Dye Sensitization in Water.
AB  - A new type of water-soluble ruthenium sensitizers incorporating imidazolium
      counterions, denoted [DMPI]2 -Ru and [DMHI]2 -Ru, has been developed, which can
      be efficiently adsorbed onto TiO2 photoanodes in aqueous solution. Owing to the
      good thermal stability of imidazolium, [DMPI]2 -Ru adsorbed on TiO2 has a higher
      decomposition temperature than N719 dye [di(tetrabutylammonium) cis
      di(thiocyanato)bis(2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'-dicarboxylato)ruthenium(II)]. When using
      organic solvent-based I- /I3- electrolytes, solars cell based on [DMPI]2 -Ru
      sensitized TiO2 in water show high power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of up to
      10.2 %, which is higher than that of N719 (9.9 %) under the common conditions for
      dye sensitization in organic solvent. [DMHI]2 -Ru, with poorer water solubility
      than [DMPI]2 -Ru, gives a smaller dye-adsorption amount on TiO2 and thus a lower
      PCE of 9.4 %. From the viewpoint of safety and environmental impact, the
      fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by using water as solvent is
      undoubtedly a preferable strategy. Although the [DMPI]2 -Ru-based device
      fabricated by using water as the solvent for both the dye-sensitization process
      and the electrolyte gives a relatively low efficiency, it provides a promising
      approach for the practical application of DSSCs.

PMID- 28580758
TI  - Nuclei-specific deposits of iron and calcium in the rat thalamus after status
      epilepticus revealed with quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate pathological changes in the rat brain after pilocarpine
      induced status epilepticus using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: 3D multiecho gradient-echo (GRE) data were acquired from
      ex vivo brains of pilocarpine-injected and age-matched control rats at 11.7T.
      Maps of R2* and quantitative susceptibility were calculated from the acquired 3D
      GRE magnitude and phase data, respectively. QSM and R2* maps were compared with
      Perls' (iron) and Alizarin-red-S (calcium) stainings in the same brains to
      investigate the pathophysiological basis of susceptibility contrast. RESULTS:
      Bilaterally symmetric lesions were detected in reproducible thalamic regions of
      pilocarpine-treated rats, characterized by hyperintensity in R2* maps. In
      comparison, quantitative susceptibility maps demonstrated heterogeneous contrast
      within the lesions, with distinct hyperintense (paramagnetic) and hypointense
      (diamagnetic) areas. Comparison with histological assessment revealed localized
      deposits of iron- and calcium-positive granules in thalamic nuclei corresponding
      to paramagnetic and diamagnetic areas delineated in the susceptibility maps,
      respectively. Pronounced differences were observed in the lesions between
      background-corrected phase images and reconstructed susceptibility maps,
      indicating unreliable differentiation of iron and calcium deposits in phase maps.
      Multiple linear regression showed a significant association between
      susceptibility values and measured optical densities (ODs) of iron and calcium in
      the lesions (R2  = 0.42, P < 0.001), with a positive dependence on OD of iron and
      negative dependence on OD of calcium. CONCLUSION: QSM can detect and
      differentiate pathological iron and calcium deposits with high sensitivity and
      improved spatial accuracy compared to R2* or GRE phase images, rendering it a
      promising technique for diagnosing thalamic lesions after status epilepticus.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging
      2018;47:554-564.

PMID- 28580760
TI  - Stress echocardiography: An overview for use in pediatric and congenital
      cardiology.
AB  - Currently, the role of stress echocardiography primarily resides in diagnosing
      acquired coronary artery disease (CAD) in adults. Besides an increasing concern
      for traditional CAD in young patients due to obesity and other chronic pediatric
      diseases, there is also a growing population of adolescents and young adults with
      "at risk" coronary arteries due to: reimplanted coronaries in congenital heart
      disease, anomalous origin of the native coronary arteries, coronary abnormalities
      in Kawasaki's disease, and posttransplant coronary vasculopathy. Stress
      echocardiography is well suited for routine screening and monitoring in these
      patients. Also, due to the ability of stress echocardiography to provide real
      time cardiac imaging, it is useful in areas beyond coronary ischemia. Utilizing
      Doppler derived velocities and pressure gradients, one is able to further
      evaluate and risk-stratify patients with valvular heart disease. In addition,
      stress echocardiography is useful in evaluating other areas including ventricular
      and coronary reserve. The benefits of stress echocardiography are it is: readily
      available, portable, and relatively cheap. It can be performed without sedation
      or radiation exposure which becomes very important in younger patients that
      require periodic monitoring. Stress echocardiography can also evaluate functional
      abnormalities instead of relative perfusion defects. Overall, stress
      echocardiography is currently an underutilized imaging modality that has a wide,
      and expanding, range of application in the practice of pediatric and congenital
      cardiology.

PMID- 28580759
TI  - A quality control circle process to improve implementation effect of prevention
      measures for high-risk patients.
AB  - The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of prevention measures on
      pressure injuries for high-risk patients and to establish the most appropriate
      methods of implementation. Nurses assessed patients using a checklist and factors
      influencing the prevention of a pressure injury determined by brain storming. A
      specific series of measures was drawn up and an estimate of risk of pressure
      injury determined using the Braden Scale, analysis of nursing documents,
      implementation of prevention measures for pressure sores and awareness of the
      system both before and after carrying out a quality control circle (QCC) process.
      The overall scores of implementation of prevention measures ranged from 74.86 +/-
      14.24 to 87.06 +/- 17.04, a result that was statistically significant (P <
      0.0025). The Braden Scale scores ranged from 8.53 +/- 3.21 to 13.48 +/- 3.57. The
      nursing document scores ranged from 7.67 +/- 3.98 to 10.12 +/- 1.63; prevention
      measure scores ranged from 11.48 +/- 4.18 to 13.96 +/- 3.92. Differences in all
      of the above results are statistically significant (P < 0.05). Implementation of
      a QCC can standardise and improve the prevention measures for patients who are
      vulnerable to pressure sores and is of practical importance to their prevention
      and control.

PMID- 28580761
TI  - Passive smoking as an independent risk factor for gestational diabetes that
      synergizes with prepregnancy obesity in urban Chinese women.
AB  - There are high-priority public health and legislative efforts around the world to
      reduce smoking and to reduce the spaces where smoking is allowable. These efforts
      are aimed at minimizing not only the adverse health effects of active smoking but
      also the adverse health effects of passive cigarette smoke exposure. While many
      cultures and societies make protection of a pregnant woman and her about-to-be
      born-newborn a priority, the importance of protecting them from passive smoking
      that is prevalent in many modern societies has not been reported. The article by
      Leng et al, "Passive smoking increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus
      independently and synergistically with prepregnancy obesity in Tianjin, China,"
      newly published in Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews, provides evidence
      that passive smoke inhalation during pregnancy makes gestational diabetes more
      likely, bringing with it negative health consequences for the mother and her
      baby. This study will hopefully add support to public health officials' efforts
      to curb cigarette use, especially in public domains.

PMID- 28580763
TI  - Knowledge-based reconstruction for measurement of right ventricular volumes on
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance images in a mixed population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Follow-up of right ventricular performance is important for patients
      with congenital heart disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is optimal for
      this purpose. However, observer-dependency of manual analysis of right
      ventricular volumes limit its use. Knowledge-based reconstruction is a new
      semiautomatic analysis tool that uses a database including knowledge of right
      ventricular shape in various congenital heart diseases. We evaluated whether
      knowledge-based reconstruction is a good alternative for conventional analysis.
      DESIGN: To assess the inter- and intra-observer variability and agreement of
      knowledge-based versus conventional analysis of magnetic resonance right
      ventricular volumes, analysis was done by two observers in a mixed group of 22
      patients with congenital heart disease affecting right ventricular loading
      conditions (dextro-transposition of the great arteries and right ventricle to
      pulmonary artery conduit) and a group of 17 healthy children. We used Bland
      Altman analysis and coefficient of variation. RESULTS: Comparison between the
      conventional method and the knowledge-based method showed a systematically higher
      volume for the latter group. We found an overestimation for end-diastolic volume
      (bias -40 +/- 24 mL, r = .956), end-systolic volume (bias -34 +/- 24 mL, r =
      .943), stroke volume (bias -6 +/- 17 mL, r = .735) and an underestimation of
      ejection fraction (bias 7 +/- 7%, r = .671) by knowledge-based reconstruction.
      The intra-observer variability of knowledge-based reconstruction varied with a
      coefficient of variation of 9% for end-diastolic volume and 22% for stroke
      volume. The same trend was noted for inter-observer variability. CONCLUSION: A
      systematic difference (overestimation) was noted for right ventricular size as
      assessed with knowledge-based reconstruction compared with conventional methods
      for analysis. Observer variability for the new method was comparable to what has
      been reported for the right ventricle in children and congenital heart disease
      with conventional analysis.

PMID- 28580762
TI  - Static beam tomotherapy as an optimisation method in whole-breast radiation
      therapy (WBRT).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: TomoTherapy (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA) has recently introduced a
      static form of tomotherapy: TomoDirectTM (TD). This study aimed to evaluate TD
      against a contemporary intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) alternative
      through comparison of target and organ at risk (OAR) doses in breast cancer
      cases. A secondary objective was to evaluate planning efficiency by measuring
      optimisation times. METHODS: Treatment plans of 27 whole-breast radiation therapy
      (WBRT) patients optimised with a tangential hybrid IMRT technique were replanned
      using TD. Parameters included a dynamic field width of 2.5 cm, a pitch of 0.251
      and a modulation factor of 2.000; 50 Gy in 25 fractions was prescribed and
      planning time recorded. The planning metrics used in analysis were ICRU based,
      with the mean PTV minimum (D99 ) used as the point of comparison. RESULTS: Both
      modalities met ICRU50 target heterogeneity objectives (TD D99 = 48.0 Gy vs. IMRT
      = 48.1 Gy, P = 0.26; TD D1 = 53.5 Gy vs. IMRT = 53.0 Gy, P = 0.02; Homogeneity
      index TD = 0.11 vs. IMRT = 0.10, P = 0.03), with TD plans generating higher
      median doses (TD D50 = 51.1 Gy vs. IMRT = 50.9 Gy, P = 0.03). No significant
      difference was found in prescription dose coverage (TD V50 = 85.5% vs. IMRT =
      82.0%, P = 0.09). TD plans produced a statistically significant reduction in V5
      ipsilateral lung doses (TD V5 = 23.2% vs. IMRT = 27.2%, P = 0.04), while other
      queried OARs remained comparable (TD ipsilateral lung V20 = 13.2% vs. IMRT =
      14.6%, P = 0.30; TD heart V5 = 2.7% vs. IMRT = 2.8%, P = 0.47; TD heart V10 =
      1.7% vs. IMRT = 1.8%, P = 0.44). TD reduced planning time considerably (TD = 9.8
      m vs. IMRT = 27.6 m, P < 0.01), saving an average planning time of 17.8 min per
      patient. CONCLUSIONS: TD represents a suitable WBRT treatment approach both in
      terms of plan quality metrics and planning efficiency.

PMID- 28580764
TI  - Resiniferatoxin modulates the Th1 immune response and protects the host during
      intestinal nematode infection.
AB  - In the early stage of the intestinal phase of Trichinella spiralis infection, the
      host triggers a Th1-type immune response with the aim of eliminating the
      parasite. However, this response damages the host which favours the survival of
      the parasite. In the search for novel pharmacological strategies that inhibit the
      Th1 immune response and assist the host against T. spiralis infection, a recent
      study showed that resiniferatoxin had anti-inflammatory activity contributed to
      the host in T. spiralis infection. In this study, we evaluated whether RTX
      modulates the host immune response through the inhibition of Th1 cytokines in the
      intestinal phase. In addition, it was determined whether the treatment with RTX
      affects the infectivity of T. spiralis-L1 and the development of the T. spiralis
      life cycle. Our results show that RTX decreased serum levels of IL-12, INF-gamma,
      IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and parasite burden on muscle tissue. It was observed that T.
      spiralis-L1 treated with RTX decreased their infectivity affecting the
      development of the T. spiralis life cycle in mouse. These results demonstrate
      that RTX is able to inhibit the production of Th1 cytokines, contributing to the
      defence against T. spiralis, which places it as a potential drug modulator of the
      immune response.

PMID- 28580766
TI  - Pharmacological stress, rest perfusion and delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic
      resonance identifies very early cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis
      patients of recent onset.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate occult cardiac involvement in asymptomatic systemic
      sclerosis (SSc) patients by pharmacological stress, rest perfusion and delayed
      enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), for a very early identification of
      patients at higher risk of cardiac-related mortality. METHODS: Sixteen
      consecutive patients with definite SSc, fulfilling the American College of
      Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism 2013 classification criteria in
      less than 1 year from the onset of Raynaud's phenomenon, underwent
      pharmacological stress, rest perfusion and delayed enhancement CMR. At
      enrollment, no patient showed signs and/or symptoms suggestive for cardiac
      involvement. No patient showed traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Both the
      12-lead electrocardiogram examination and echocardiographic evaluation did not
      show any alterations in our cohort. RESULTS: Stress perfusion defects of left
      ventricle were detected in six out of 16 (37.5%) patients and these defects did
      not match with the coronary flow distribution. The results showed the presence of
      two different patterns of stress perfusion defects: sub-endocardial and/or a
      midmyocardial. The presence of stress perfusion defects did not correlate with
      any clinical feature of enrolled patients. CONCLUSION: Myocardial stress
      perfusion defects may be detected early by pharmacological stress perfusion CMR,
      a reliable and sensitive technique for the noninvasive evaluation of SSc heart
      disease, in patients with SSc of recent onset. These defects seem to be
      independent from traditional risk factors and associated comorbidities,
      suggesting they are a specific hallmark of the disease.

PMID- 28580767
TI  - Drug-coated balloon: Long-term outcome from a real world three-center experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In-stent restenosis (ISR) and diffuse small vessel disease still
      represent challenging subsets for percutaneous coronary interventions, also in
      the new-generation DES era. We aim at reporting on the long-term clinical outcome
      of drug-coated balloons (DCB) in all-comers population. METHODS: Consecutive
      patients treated with DCB between January 2011 and December 2014 were
      retrospectively studied in three centers of northern Italy. The measured end
      points were cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), target lesion
      revascularization (TLR), and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) defined as
      combination of cardiac death, MI, and TLR. RESULTS: We included 143 patients. Of
      the 167 lesions treated, 41 (24.5%) were de novo lesions in small coronary
      vessels (<2.5 mm) and 126 (75.4%) were ISR. Among ISR lesions, 78.5% were DES
      ISR, 32.5% were focal, 15.8% multifocal, 30.1% diffuse, 18.2% proliferative, and
      3.1% were total occlusions. Procedural success was achieved in 94.6% of cases.
      Overall survival free from MACEs was 91.6% at 12 months, and 75.3% at 48 months,
      with a total of 3 cardiac deaths, 8 MI, and 27 TLR. No thrombotic event occurred
      in the treated segments. There were no differences in MACESs between the ISR and
      de novo lesions groups. At multivariate analysis, acute coronary syndromes,
      previous MI, previous surgical revascularization, peripheral arterial disease and
      diabetes were independent predictors of MACEs at long-term follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: DCB proved a valid revascularization strategy in an all-comers
      population of patients with ISR and de novo lesions in small vessels, with an
      acceptable rate of cardiac events up to 48 months follow-up.

PMID- 28580768
TI  - AHNS Series - Do you know your guidelines? Lip cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lip cancer is one of the most curable primary head and neck
      malignancies, as the prominent location typically lends to an early diagnosis.
      The incidence of lip cancer varies by sex, ethnicity, and region, but is
      estimated to be up to 2.5/100 000 in the United States (squamous cell carcinoma
      [SCC]). METHODS: This article will review the current literature and National
      Comprehensive Cancer Network practice guidelines in the treatment of lip cancer.
      RESULTS: Resection of lip cancer with negative margins remains the mainstay of
      therapy. Positive nodal disease should be treated with neck dissection and
      adjuvant radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Lip cancer remains highly curable when
      diagnosed at an early stage. A multidisciplinary approach is crucial to treating
      patients with advanced-stage lip cancer.

PMID- 28580765
TI  - In vitro evaluation of a basic fibroblast growth factor-containing hydrogel
      toward vocal fold lamina propria scar treatment.
AB  - Scarring of the vocal fold lamina propria can lead to debilitating voice
      disorders that can significantly impair quality of life. The reduced pliability
      of the scar tissue-which diminishes proper vocal fold vibratory efficiency
      results in part from abnormal extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition by vocal fold
      fibroblasts (VFF) that have taken on a fibrotic phenotype. To address this issue,
      bioactive materials containing cytokines and/or growth factors may provide a
      platform to transition fibrotic VFF within the scarred tissue toward an anti
      fibrotic phenotype, thereby improving the quality of ECM within the scar tissue.
      However, for such an approach to be most effective, the acute host response
      resulting from biomaterial insertion/injection likely also needs to be
      considered. The goal of the present work was to evaluate the anti-fibrotic and
      anti-inflammatory capacity of an injectable hydrogel containing tethered basic
      fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the dual context of scar and biomaterial
      induced acute inflammation. An in vitro co-culture system was utilized containing
      both activated, fibrotic VFF and activated, pro-inflammatory macrophages (MPhi)
      within a 3D poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel containing tethered
      bFGF. Following 72 h of culture, alterations in VFF and macrophage phenotype were
      evaluated relative to mono-culture and co-culture controls. In our co-culture
      system, bFGF reduced the production of fibrotic markers collagen type I, alpha
      smooth muscle actin, and biglycan by activated VFF and promoted wound
      healing/anti-inflammatory marker expression in activated MPhi. Cumulatively,
      these data indicate that bFGF-containing hydrogels warrant further investigation
      for the treatment of vocal fold lamina propria scar. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1258-1267, 2018.

PMID- 28580769
TI  - Factor VII and factor X deficiency in a child with a chromosome 13q duplication
      and deletion.

PMID- 28580770
TI  - Evaluating pulmonary congestion with lung ultrasound and the need to take the
      next steps in heart failure.

PMID- 28580771
TI  - In vitro oxidative degradation of a spinal posterior dynamic stabilization
      device.
AB  - This study quantified the changes of the frequency-dependant viscoelastic
      properties of the BDyn (S14 Implants, Pessac, France) spinal posterior dynamic
      stabilization (PDS) device due to in vitro oxidation. Six polycarbonate urethane
      (PCU) rings and six silicone cushions were degraded using a 20% hydrogen
      peroxide/0.1 M cobalt (II) chloride hexahydrate, at 37 degrees C, for 24 days.
      The viscoelastic properties of the individual components and the components
      assembled into the BDyn PDS device were determined using Dynamic Mechanical
      Analysis at frequencies from 0.01 to 30 Hz. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier
      Transform Infra-Red spectra demonstrated chemical structure changes, of the PCU,
      associated with oxidation while Scanning Electron Microscope images revealed
      surface pitting. No chemical structure or surface morphology changes were
      observed for the silicone cushion. The BDyn device storage and loss stiffness
      ranged between 84.46 N/mm to 99.36 N/mm and 8.13 N/mm to 21.99 N/mm,
      respectively. The storage and loss stiffness for the components and BDyn device
      increased logarithmically with respect to frequency. Viscoelastic properties,
      between normal and degraded components, were significantly different for specific
      frequencies only. This study demonstrates the importance of analyzing changes of
      viscoelastic properties of degraded biomaterials and medical devices into which
      they are incorporated, using a frequency sweep. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
      J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1237-1244, 2018.

PMID- 28580772
TI  - Exercise training increases skeletal muscle mitochondrial volume density by
      enlargement of existing mitochondria and not de novo biogenesis.
AB  - AIMS: (i) To determine whether exercise-induced increases in muscle mitochondrial
      volume density (MitoVD ) are related to enlargement of existing mitochondria or
      de novo biogenesis and (ii) to establish whether measures of mitochondrial
      specific enzymatic activities are valid biomarkers for exercise-induced increases
      in MitoVD . METHOD: Skeletal muscle samples were collected from 21 healthy males
      prior to and following 6 weeks of endurance training. Transmission electron
      microscopy was used for the estimation of mitochondrial densities and profiles.
      Biochemical assays, western blotting and high-resolution respirometry were
      applied to detect changes in specific mitochondrial functions. RESULT: MitoVD
      increased with 55 +/- 9% (P < 0.001), whereas the number of mitochondrial
      profiles per area of skeletal muscle remained unchanged following training.
      Citrate synthase activity (CS) increased (44 +/- 12%, P < 0.001); however, there
      were no functional changes in oxidative phosphorylation capacity (OXPHOS, CI+IIP
      ) or cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity. Correlations were found between MitoVD
      and CS (P = 0.01; r = 0.58), OXPHOS, CI+CIIP (P = 0.01; R = 0.58) and COX (P =
      0.02; R = 0.52) before training; after training, a correlation was found between
      MitoVD and CS activity only (P = 0.04; R = 0.49). Intrinsic respiratory
      capacities decreased (P < 0.05) with training when respiration was normalized to
      MitoVD. This was not the case when normalized to CS activity although the
      percentage change was comparable. CONCLUSIONS: MitoVD was increased by inducing
      mitochondrial enlargement rather than de novo biogenesis. CS activity may be
      appropriate to track training-induced changes in MitoVD.

PMID- 28580774
TI  - Clinical utility of biomarkers in heart failure.

PMID- 28580773
TI  - HBx-mediated decrease of AIM2 contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis.
AB  - Tumor metastasis is responsible for the high mortality rates in patients with
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) has been implicated
      in inflammation and carcinogenesis, although its role in HCC metastasis remains
      unknown. In the present study, we show that AIM2 protein expression was
      noticeably reduced in HCC cell lines and clinical samples. A reduction in AIM2
      was closely associated with higher serum AFP levels, vascular invasion, poor
      tumor differentiation, an incomplete tumor capsule and unfavorable postsurgical
      survival odds. In vitro studies demonstrated that AIM2 expression was modulated
      by hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) at transcriptional and post-translational
      levels. HBx overexpression markedly blocked the expression of AIM2 at mRNA and
      protein levels by enhancing the stability of Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2).
      Furthermore, HBx interacted with AIM2, resulting in an increase of AIM2
      degradation via ubiquitination induction. Functionally, knockdown of AIM2
      enhanced cell migration, formation of cell pseudopodium, wound healing and tumor
      metastasis, whereas reintroduction of AIM2 attenuated these functions. The loss
      of AIM2 induced the activation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
      Fibronectin 1 (FN1) was found to be a downstream effector of AIM2, with its
      expression reversely modulated by AIM2. Silencing of FN1 significantly halted
      cell migration induced by AIM2 depletion. These data demonstrate that HBx-induced
      loss of AIM2 is associated with poor outcomes and facilitates HCC metastasis by
      triggering the EMT process. The results of the present study therefore suggest
      that AIM2 is a potential prognostic biomarker in hepatitis B virus-related HCC,
      as well as a possible therapeutic target for tumor metastasis.

PMID- 28580776
TI  - Do we have enough evidence for minimally-invasive cardiac surgery? A critical
      review of scientific and non-scientific information.
AB  - Reducing surgical trauma by minimizing skin incisions has transformed abdominal
      surgery resulting in significant improvements in outcome. In cardiac surgery,
      such efforts have also been made, but similar benefits could not be demonstrated.
      In addition, any potential benefit comes at the cost of increased cardiopulmonary
      bypass and clamp times, leading to questions regarding the safety of minimally
      invasive cardiac surgery (MICS). Nevertheless, outcomes have been equivalent to
      matched sternotomy cases and there is no doubt that the number of patients
      undergoing minimally-invasive mitral or aortic procedures is slowly increasing.
      To date almost half of all isolated mitral cases in Germany and roughly one
      fourth in the USA are performed through a minimized access. These numbers were
      less than half 10 years ago. So how can this development be justified, if the
      evidence for it seems to be questionable or even missing? We will attempt to
      provide some answers to this question by critically reviewing the available
      publications and by looking at the topic from other perspectives, including from
      a competitive and a patient standpoint. We will conclude that there is enough
      evidence to support minimally-invasive access as the primary approach to a valve
      in the majority of patients. We will further suggest that modern cardiac surgery
      may have difficulties to prevail in its full width, if these novel techniques are
      not embraced. Finally, we will demonstrate that minimally invasive cardiac
      surgery is associated with substantial improvements in patient care, however, in
      areas that are unlikely to be tested with randomized controlled trials.

PMID- 28580777
TI  - Meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization, April 2017 -
      conclusions and recommendations.

PMID- 28580775
TI  - Persistent distention of colon damages interstitial cells of Cajal through Ca2+ 
      ERK-AP-1-miR-34c-SCF deregulation.
AB  - Gastrointestinal motility disorders (GMDs) are attributed to loss of interstitial
      cells of Cajal (ICC), whose survival and function are deeply dependent on the
      activation of KIT/SCF signalling. Based on the facts that gastrointestinal
      distention is common in GMD patients and SCF produced by smooth muscle cells
      (SMCs) is usually decreased before ICC loss, we considered a possible
      contribution of persistent gastrointestinal distention/stretch to SCF deficiency.
      In this study, chronic colonic distention mouse model, diabetic gastrointestinal
      paresis mouse model, cultured mouse colonic SMCs and colon specimens from
      Hirschsprung's disease patients were used. The results showed that SCF was
      clearly decreased in distent colon of mice and patients, and microRNA array and
      real-time PCR indicated a concomitant increase of miR-34c in distent colon. A
      negative regulation of miR-34c on SCF expression was confirmed by luciferase
      reporter assays together with knock-down and overexpression of miR-34c in
      cultured colonic SMCs. Using EMSA and ChIP assays, we further consolidated that
      in response to persistent stretch, the transcription factor AP-1/c-Jun was highly
      activated in colonic SMCs and significantly promoted miR-34c transcription by
      binding to miR-34c promoter. Knock-down or overexpression of AP-1/c-Jun in
      cultured colonic SMCs leads to down- or up-regulation of miR-34c, respectively.
      In addition, the activation of AP-1/c-Jun was through ERK1/2 signalling provoked
      by Ca2+ overload in colonic SMCs that were subject to persistent stretch. In
      conclusion, our data demonstrated that persistent distention/stretch on colonic
      SMCs could suppress SCF production probably through Ca2+ -ERK-AP-1-miR-34c
      deregulation, resulting in ICC loss or impairment and GMD progress.

PMID- 28580778
TI  - Full-State Controls of Terahertz Waves Using Tensor Coding Metasurfaces.
AB  - Coding metasurfaces allow us to study metamaterials from a fully digital
      perspective, enabling many exotic functionalities, such as anomalous reflections,
      broadband diffusions, and polarization conversion. Here, we propose a tensor
      coding metasurface at terahertz (THz) frequency that could take full-state
      controls of an electromagnetic wave in terms of its polarization state, phase and
      amplitude distributions, and wave-vector mode. Owing to the off-diagonal elements
      that dominant in the reflection matrix, each coding particle could reflect the
      normally incident wave to its cross-polarization with controllable phases,
      resulting in different coding digits. A 3-bit tensor coding metasurface with
      three coding sequences is taken as an example to show its full-state controls in
      reflecting a normally incident THz beam to anomalous directions with cross
      polarizations and making a spatially propagating wave (PW) to surface wave (SW)
      conversion at the THz frequency. We show that the proposed PW-SW convertor based
      on the tensor coding metasurface supports both x- and y-polarized normal
      incidences, producing cross-polarized transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric
      modes of THz SWs, respectively.

PMID- 28580780
TI  - Monolithic Mid-Infrared Integrated Photonics Using Silicon-on-Epitaxial Barium
      Titanate Thin Films.
AB  - Broadband mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonic circuits that integrate silicon
      waveguides and epitaxial barium titanate (BTO) thin films are demonstrated using
      the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. The epitaxial BTO thin films
      are grown on lanthanum aluminate (LAO) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition
      technique, wherein a broad infrared transmittance between lambda = 2.5 and 7 MUm
      is observed. The optical waveguiding direction is defined by the high-refractive
      index amorphous Si (a-Si) ridge structure developed on the BTO layer. Our
      waveguides show a sharp fundamental mode over the broad mid-IR spectrum, whereas
      its optical field distribution between the a-Si and BTO layers can be modified by
      varying the height of the a-Si ridge. With the advantages of broad mid-IR
      transparency and the intrinsic electro-optic properties, our monolithic Si on a
      ferroelectric BTO platform will enable tunable mid-IR microphotonics that are
      desired for high-speed optical logic gates and chip-scale biochemical sensors.

PMID- 28580781
TI  - Droplet-Confined Electroless Deposition of Silver Nanoparticles on Ordered
      Superhydrophobic Structures for High Uniform SERS Measurements.
AB  - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) is a nondestructive testing
      technique. To increase reproducibility of the SERS measurement is the key issue
      for improving the performance of SERS. In this article, we demonstrate an
      efficient method to improve the reproducibility, using confined silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a substrate. The AgNPs are formed uniformly on the tops
      of the prepared nanopillars by droplet-confined electroless deposition on the
      hydrophobic Si nanopillar arrays. The AgNPs present an excellent reproducibility
      in Raman measurement; the relative standard deviation is down to 3.40%. There
      exists a great linear correlation between the concentration of Rhodamine 6G (R6G)
      and the Raman intensity in the log-log plot; R2 is 0.998, indicating that this
      SERS substrate can be applied for the quantitative SERS analysis. Meanwhile, the
      minimum detection concentration is down to 10-11 M on the hydrophobic substrate,
      with R6G as a probe molecule.

PMID- 28580782
TI  - Correction to "Structure of Light-Harvesting Aggregates in Individual
      Chlorosomes".

PMID- 28580783
TI  - Cascade Synthesis of Benzimidazole-Linked Pyrroles via Copper Catalyzed Oxidative
      Cyclization and Ketonization.
AB  - A three-component cascade reaction of 2-aminobenzimidazole, aldehyde, and
      terminal alkyne has been explored for an efficient synthesis of benzimidazole
      linked tetrasubstituted pyrroles. The reaction sequence involves the formation of
      propargylamine, insertion of a terminal alkyne, and a ring opening reaction
      followed by an intramolecular carbonylative cyclization under aerobic conditions.
      It represents a novel strategy to the construction of C?N, C?C, C?O bonds and a
      new five-membered 2-ketopyrrole ring. In this process, the reaction conditions
      are crucial and an attempt to elucidate the novel reaction pathway is well
      supported by X-ray crystallography.

PMID- 28580779
TI  - Spatial Organization of Metabolic Enzyme Complexes in Cells.
AB  - The organization of metabolic multienzyme complexes has been hypothesized to
      benefit metabolic processes and provide a coordinated way for the cell to
      regulate metabolism. Historically, their existence has been supported by various
      in vitro techniques. However, it is only recently that the existence of metabolic
      complexes inside living cells has come to light to corroborate this long-standing
      hypothesis. Indeed, subcellular compartmentalization of metabolic enzymes appears
      to be widespread and highly regulated. On the other hand, it is still challenging
      to demonstrate the functional significance of these enzyme complexes in the
      context of the cellular milieu. In this review, we discuss the current
      understanding of metabolic enzyme complexes by primarily focusing on central
      carbon metabolism and closely associated metabolic pathways in a variety of
      organisms, as well as their regulation and functional contributions to cells.

PMID- 28580784
TI  - Doubly Reentrant Cavities Prevent Catastrophic Wetting Transitions on
      Intrinsically Wetting Surfaces.
AB  - Omniphobic surfaces, that is, which repel all known liquids, have proven of value
      in applications ranging from membrane distillation to underwater drag reduction.
      A limitation of currently employed omniphobic surfaces is that they rely on
      perfluorinated coatings, increasing cost and environmental impact and preventing
      applications in harsh environments. Thus, there is a keen interest in rendering
      conventional materials, such as plastics, omniphobic by micro/nanotexturing
      rather than via chemical makeup, with notable success having been achieved for
      silica surfaces with doubly reentrant micropillars. However, we found a critical
      limitation of microtextures comprising pillars that they undergo catastrophic
      wetting transitions (apparent contact angles, thetar -> 0 degrees  from thetar >
      90 degrees ) in the presence of localized physical damages/defects or on
      immersion in wetting liquids. In response, a doubly reentrant cavity microtexture
      is introduced, which can prevent catastrophic wetting transitions in the presence
      of localized structural damage/defects or on immersion in wetting liquids.
      Remarkably, our silica surfaces with doubly reentrant cavities could exhibit
      apparent contact angles, thetar ~ 135 degrees  for mineral oil, where the
      intrinsic contact angle, thetao ~ 20 degrees . Further, when immersed in mineral
      oil or water, doubly reentrant microtextures in silica (thetao ~ 40 degrees  for
      water) were not penetrated even after several days of investigation. Thus,
      microtextures comprising doubly reentrant cavities might enable applications of
      conventional materials without chemical modifications, especially in scenarios
      that are prone to localized damages or immersion in wetting liquids, for example,
      hydrodynamic drag reduction and membrane distillation.

PMID- 28580786
TI  - Quantitative Performance Evaluator for Proteomics (QPEP): Web-based Application
      for Reproducible Evaluation of Proteomics Preprocessing Methods.
AB  - Tandem mass spectrometry is one of the most popular techniques for quantitation
      of proteomes. There exists a large variety of options in each stage of data
      preprocessing that impact the bias and variance of the summarized protein-level
      values. Using a newly released data set satisfying a replicated Latin squares
      design, a diverse set of performance metrics has been developed and implemented
      in a web-based application, Quantitative Performance Evaluator for Proteomics
      (QPEP). QPEP has the flexibility to allow users to apply their own method to
      preprocess this data set and share the results, allowing direct and
      straightforward comparison of new methodologies. Application of these new metrics
      to three case studies highlights that (i) the summarization of peptides to
      proteins is robust to the choice of peptide summary used, (ii) the differences
      between iTRAQ labels are stronger than the differences between experimental runs,
      and (iii) the commercial software ProteinPilot performs equivalently well at
      between-sample normalization to more complicated methods developed by academics.
      Importantly, finding (ii) underscores the benefits of using the principles of
      randomization and blocking to avoid the experimental measurements being
      confounded by technical factors. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with
      identifier PXD003608.

PMID- 28580787
TI  - Printing Functional Protein Nanodots on Soft Elastomers: From Transfer Mechanism
      to Cell Mechanosensing.
AB  - Living cells sense the physical and chemical nature of their micro/nano
      environment with exquisite sensitivity. In this context, there is a growing need
      to functionalize soft materials with micro/nanoscale biochemical patterns for
      applications in mechanobiology. This, however, is still an engineering challenge.
      Here a new method is proposed, where submicronic protein-patterns are first
      formed on glass and are then printed on to an elastomer. The degree of transfer
      is shown to be governed mainly by hydrophobic interactions and to be influenced
      by grafting an appropriate fluorophore onto the core protein of interest. The
      transfer mechanism is probed by measuring the forces of adhesion/cohesion using
      atomic force microscopy. The transfer of functional arrays of dots with size down
      to about 400 nm, on elastomers with stiffness ranging from 3 kPa to 7 MPa, is
      demonstrated. Pilot studies on adhesion of T lymphocytes on such soft patterned
      substrates are reported.

PMID- 28580789
TI  - Associations Between Reported Dietary Sodium Intake and Osteoporosis in Korean
      Postmenopausal Women: The 2008-2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey.
AB  - Osteoporosis is prevalent among postmenopausal women, and increasing evidence has
      linked salt intake with this disease. In this article, we explored the
      association between dietary sodium intake and osteoporosis in Korean
      postmenopausal women. We analyzed data for 3635 postmenopausal women extracted
      from the 2008-2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We
      found that 1542 participants (42.4%) have osteoporosis. The adjusted prevalence
      rates of osteoporosis at the lumbar spine were significantly higher in
      participants who consumed >=4001 mg of salt than those who consumed <=2000 mg. At
      the femoral neck, rates were significantly higher for those who consumed >=5001
      mg compared with those who consumed <=4000 mg. Participants with a higher sodium
      intake showed a significantly higher odds ratio of developing lumbar and femoral
      neck osteoporosis, compared with those with a lower intake. Our results suggest
      that excessive daily sodium intake is associated with a higher osteoporosis
      prevalence in Korean postmenopausal women.

PMID- 28580788
TI  - Flexible-Robust Metal-Organic Framework for Efficient Removal of Propyne from
      Propylene.
AB  - The removal of trace amounts of propyne from propylene is critical for the
      production of polymer-grade propylene. We herein report the first example of
      metal-organic frameworks of flexible-robust nature for the efficient separation
      of propyne/propylene mixtures. The strong binding affinity and suitable pore
      confinement for propyne account for its high uptake capacity and selectivity, as
      evidenced by neutron powder diffraction studies and density functional theory
      calculations. The purity of the obtained propylene is over 99.9998%, as
      demonstrated by experimental breakthrough curves for a 1/99 propyne/propylene
      mixture.

PMID- 28580790
TI  - One-year functional outcomes following major trauma: experience of a UK level 1
      major trauma centre.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To pilot a method for routine outcome data collection one year after
      admission to a major trauma centre, to determine current outcomes, and to
      identify possible methodological improvements. DESIGN: A postal questionnaire
      audit. SETTING: A major trauma centre in the United Kingdom. SUBJECTS: In total,
      355 patients known to be alive 12 months after admission with major trauma
      (Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 9 or more). INTERVENTIONS: All patients received
      standard trauma and rehabilitation services available to them. MAIN MEASURES: The
      main measures used are as follows: ISS; EuroQol, five dimensions five levels (EQ
      5D-5L); single questions about accommodation, mobility, and self-care;
      demographic and injury data collected from hospital records; and outcome data by
      postal questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 429 patients were registered over six
      months: at one year, 64 had died and 10 had no UK address. In total, 355
      questionnaires were sent out: 179 (50%) were never returned, 154 (43%) were
      returned with complete data, 11 forms were incomplete, 7 patients were dead, and
      4 were not at the address contacted. Of the 154 with complete data, 91 had new
      mobility problems and 54 had new problems with personal activities. Of the 68
      previously employed, 19 were unemployed, 38 were fully employed in the same job,
      and 13 had altered jobs. There was no association between Injury Severity Score
      and any of the outcome scores. CONCLUSION: A short simple questionnaire sent only
      once achieved a complete data set response rate of 43%. The outcome data are
      consistent with experience in other studies. Collection of data on specific
      functional outcomes might be most sensitive.

PMID- 28580791
TI  - A study of predictive validity, responsiveness, and minimal clinically important
      difference of arm accelerometer in real-world activity of patients with chronic
      stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictive validity, responsiveness, and minimal
      clinically important difference of arm accelerometer in real-world activity of
      patients with chronic stroke. DESIGN: Validation and psychometric study. SETTING:
      Three medical centers. SUBJECTS: Patients with chronic stroke came from three
      separated randomized controlled trials. INTERVENTIONS: Patients with stroke
      received upper extremity rehabilitation programs for four weeks. MAIN MEASURES:
      Real-world arm movements were measured by an arm accelerometer and three clinical
      measurement tools-the Motor Activity Log, Stroke Impact Scale, and Nottingham
      Extended Activities of Daily Living-administered before and after treatment.
      RESULTS: A total of 82 subjects were recruited in the study (mean age: 55.32
      years; mean score of Fugl-Meyer Assessment: 39.91). Correlations between the arm
      accelerometer and three clinical measurement tools were fair to moderate
      (Pearson's r = 0.47, 0.42, and 0.34, respectively). The correlation between the
      arm accelerometer and the quality of use of Motor Activity Log subscale was
      moderate to good (Pearson's r = 0.57). The responsiveness of the arm
      accelerometer from pretreatment to posttreatment was medium (standardized
      response mean = 0.72). The minimal clinically important difference range for the
      arm accelerometer was 547-751 mean counts. CONCLUSION: The arm accelerometer
      demonstrated acceptable predictive validity and responsiveness in patients with
      chronic stroke. The affected arm activity measured by the arm accelerometer was
      sensitive to change. The change score of a patient with chronic stroke on the arm
      accelerometer should reach 574-751 mean counts to be regarded as a minimal
      clinically important difference.

PMID- 28580792
TI  - Biomechanical analysis of the Universal 2 implant in total wrist arthroplasty: a
      finite element study.
AB  - Little is known about the mechanics of in vivo loading on total wrist prostheses
      where many studies have looked at the mechanics of other types of arthroplasty
      such as for the hip and the knee which has contributed to the overall success of
      these types of procedures. Currently surgeons would prefer to carry out
      arthrodesis on the wrist rather than consider arthroplasty as clinical data have
      shown that the outcome of total wrist arthroplasty is poorer than compared to the
      hip and knee. More research is needed on the loading mechanisms of the implants
      in order to enhance the design of future generation implants. This study looks at
      the load transfer characteristics of the Universal 2 implant using a finite
      element model of a virtually implanted prosthesis during gripping. The results
      showed that the loading on the implant is higher on the dorsal and ulnar aspect
      than on the volar and radial aspect of the implant. The whole load is transmitted
      through the radius and none through the ulna.

PMID- 28580785
TI  - Applications of Nonenzymatic Catalysts to the Alteration of Natural Products.
AB  - The application of small molecules as catalysts for the diversification of
      natural product scaffolds is reviewed. Specifically, principles that relate to
      the selectivity challenges intrinsic to complex molecular scaffolds are
      summarized. The synthesis of analogues of natural products by this approach is
      then described as a quintessential "late-stage functionalization" exercise
      wherein natural products serve as the lead scaffolds. Given the historical
      application of enzymatic catalysts to the site-selective alteration of complex
      molecules, the focus of this Review is on the recent studies of nonenzymatic
      catalysts. Reactions involving hydroxyl group derivatization with a variety of
      electrophilic reagents are discussed. C-H bond functionalizations that lead to
      oxidations, aminations, and halogenations are also presented. Several examples of
      site-selective olefin functionalizations and C-C bond formations are also
      included. Numerous classes of natural products have been subjected to these
      studies of site-selective alteration including polyketides, glycopeptides,
      terpenoids, macrolides, alkaloids, carbohydrates, and others. What emerges is a
      platform for chemical remodeling of naturally occurring scaffolds that targets
      virtually all known chemical functionalities and microenvironments. However,
      challenges for the design of very broad classes of catalysts, with even broader
      selectivity demands (e.g., stereoselectivity, functional group selectivity, and
      site-selectivity) persist. Yet, a significant spectrum of powerful, catalytic
      alterations of complex natural products now exists such that expansion of scope
      seems inevitable. Several instances of biological activity assays of remodeled
      natural product derivatives are also presented. These reports may foreshadow
      further interdisciplinary impacts for catalytic remodeling of natural products,
      including contributions to SAR development, mode of action studies, and
      eventually medicinal chemistry.

PMID- 28580794
TI  - Association of objectively measured physical activity and physical fitness with
      menopause symptoms. The Flamenco Project.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary aim was to analyze the association of moderate-to-vigorous
      physical activity (MVPA) with menopause symptomatology and its overall impact. A
      secondary/exploratory aim was to assess the association of different components
      of physical fitness with menopause symptomatology. METHODS: This cross-sectional
      study comprised 191 perimenopausal women from Southern Spain (age range 45-60
      years, mean age 52.6 +/- 4.5 years). The Blatt-Kupperman Menopausal Index was
      used to evaluate menopause symptomatology. Objectively measured MVPA was
      registered with accelerometry. Physical fitness was assessed with the Senior
      Fitness Test battery plus handgrip strength and sit-and-reach tests. RESULTS:
      After adjustment for multiple confounders, MVPA was only inversely associated
      with vertigo (r = -0.185, p < 0.05) and palpitations (r = -0.148, p < 0.05).
      Upper-body flexibility was inversely associated with the Blatt-Kupperman
      Menopausal Index global score (r = -0.147, p < 0.05). This test was also
      inversely associated with vertigo (r = -0.230, p < 0.01) and arthralgia (r = 
      0.168, p < 0.05). Lower-body muscle strength was associated with lower
      nervousness (r = -0.171, p < 0.05). Cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely
      associated with paresthesia (r = -0.158, p < 0.05), vertigo (r = -0.219, p <
      0.01), fatigue (r = -0.159, p < 0.05) and arthralgia (r = -0.180, p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: The main findings of the present study indicate a weak association of
      objectively measured MVPA with menopause symptomatology. Exploratory analyses
      suggest that upper-body flexibility was associated with slightly lower overall
      menopause impact whereas neither MVPA nor any physical fitness components studied
      were associated with vasomotor symptoms.

PMID- 28580793
TI  - Rationale and protocol of MetNET-2 trial: Lanreotide Autogel plus metformin in
      advanced gastrointestinal or lung neuroendocrine tumors.
AB  - Metformin (MET) has recently emerged as a potentially active agent in cancer
      prevention and treatment. MET is thought to exert its antitumor effects either
      via modification of systemic metabolism or through cell-autonomous effects (e.g.,
      activation of AMPK and inhibition of the mTOR pathway). Preliminary findings of
      the PRIME-NET study suggest that the addition of MET to treatment with everolimus
      (EVE) and/or somatostatin analogs (SSAs) can provide clinical benefit in diabetic
      neuroendocrine tumor (NET) patients. In light of this and other retrospective
      evidence of MET's anticancer activity in NETs, prospective studies are needed. A
      pilot, single-arm, open-label, prospective study (MetNET-2 trial, NCT02823691)
      was designed to evaluate the safety of MET in combination with lanreotide in well
      differentiated gastrointestinal (WD GI) and lung NETs.

PMID- 28580795
TI  - Effects of a Self-Directed Nutrition Intervention Among Adults With Chronic
      Health Conditions.
AB  - Chronic diseases are common among adults. A healthy diet may be beneficial for
      managing the consequences of such conditions. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate the effects of a self-directed nutrition program on dietary behaviors
      among adults with chronic health conditions. As part of a larger trial examining
      the effects of a self-directed exercise program, participants with arthritis were
      randomized to a 12-week self-directed exercise or nutrition intervention. Self
      reported fruit and vegetable consumption, fat- and fiber-related behaviors were
      assessed at baseline, 12 weeks, and 9 months. Repeated measures analyses of
      covariance examined Group * Time changes in dietary behaviors. Effect sizes were
      computed. Participants ( n = 321) were, on average, 56.5 +/- 10.5 years old, had
      a mean body mass index of 32.9 +/- 8.3 kg/m2, and had 2.0 +/- 1.0 chronic health
      conditions; 88% were female, 65% White, 88% had at least some college education,
      and 62% married. There were significant Group * Time interactions favoring the
      nutrition group at 12 weeks for all dietary behaviors ( p < .05) but not at 9
      months. Between-group effect sizes were small at 12 weeks and decreased at 9
      months. Within-group effect sizes were larger for the nutrition group (small to
      medium) than the exercise group (none to small) at both time points. A self
      directed nutrition intervention can result in meaningful improvements in dietary
      behaviors among adults with chronic health conditions in the short term.

PMID- 28580797
TI  - Reliability and Validity of Measures for Investigating the Determinants of Health
      Behaviors Among Women With a History of Gestational Diabetes.
AB  - AIM: Assisting women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) to
      adopt healthy lifestyles is a priority for diabetes prevention. The aim of this
      study was to develop and evaluate measures that can be used to assess the
      efficacy of behavior change interventions in this group. METHOD: Measures of
      psychosocial influences on physical activity and diet were derived from formative
      research and examination of established instruments. Item reduction by principal
      components analysis was undertaken following telephone survey administration to
      160 women with recent GDM, and the internal reliability and construct validity of
      the derived scales were assessed. Test-retest reliability was assessed in another
      sample of 97 women. RESULTS: Scales with acceptable internal reliability were
      developed for physical activity outcome expectancies (alpha = .82), perceived
      barriers (alpha = .75), encouragement (alpha = .76) and self-efficacy (alpha =
      .82), weight control attitudes (alpha = .90), and diabetes-related fear (alpha =
      .70). Construct validity in relation to physical activity participation was found
      for the encouragement and self-efficacy scales. The weight control attitudes
      scale showed construct validity in relation to fruit and vegetable intake. The
      test-retest reliability of most scales was moderate to good (weighted kappa =
      0.55-0.69). CONCLUSION: Reliable and valid measures relevant to the psychosocial
      needs of women with GDM have been developed with a multiethnic population. These
      will assist future evidence generation, particularly in relation to the adoption
      of physical activity, which has been a challenging area of lifestyle intervention
      to date.

PMID- 28580798
TI  - Delaying of cataract through intervention of Hemidesmus indicus in STZ induced
      diabetic rats.
AB  - Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br. was extensively used as hypoglycaemic agent and
      significance of this plant on secondary complications of diabetes remained
      unknown. The present study was to investigate the anti-cataractous activity of H.
      indicus against streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic cataract in rodent model.
      Root extracts have been prepared and tested for inhibition of rat lens aldose
      reductase (AR) activity. In addition, its pharmacological potential has been
      investigated in STZ-induced diabetic cataract. Methanol extract of H. indicus
      inhibited AR activity in vitro decreased the blood glucose levels, inhibited the
      AR activity and delayed the onset and progression of cataract in a dose-dependent
      manner in in vivo and the antioxidant markers have been normalised. Our results
      demonstrate that H. indicus has decrease the osmotic stress by inhibiting the AR
      activity and prevented the loss of antioxidants and delayed the progression of
      diabetic cataract in STZ-induced diabetic rats.

PMID- 28580796
TI  - Artificial cell mimics as simplified models for the study of cell biology.
AB  - Living cells are hugely complex chemical systems composed of a milieu of distinct
      chemical species (including DNA, proteins, lipids, and metabolites)
      interconnected with one another through a vast web of interactions: this
      complexity renders the study of cell biology in a quantitative and systematic
      manner a difficult task. There has been an increasing drive towards the
      utilization of artificial cells as cell mimics to alleviate this, a development
      that has been aided by recent advances in artificial cell construction. Cell
      mimics are simplified cell-like structures, composed from the bottom-up with
      precisely defined and tunable compositions. They allow specific facets of cell
      biology to be studied in isolation, in a simplified environment where control of
      variables can be achieved without interference from a living and responsive cell.
      This mini-review outlines the core principles of this approach and surveys recent
      key investigations that use cell mimics to address a wide range of biological
      questions. It will also place the field in the context of emerging trends,
      discuss the associated limitations, and outline future directions of the field.
      Impact statement Recent years have seen an increasing drive to construct cell
      mimics and use them as simplified experimental models to replicate and understand
      biological phenomena in a well-defined and controlled system. By summarizing the
      advances in this burgeoning field, and using case studies as a basis for
      discussion on the limitations and future directions of this approach, it is hoped
      that this minireview will spur others in the experimental biology community to
      use artificial cells as simplified models with which to probe biological systems.

PMID- 28580799
TI  - Flavonoids of Alcea rosea L. and their immune stimulant, antioxidant and
      cytotoxic activities on hepatocellular carcinoma HepG-2 cell line.
AB  - Alcea rosea L. is widely cultivated in gardens of Egypt as an ornamental plant
      and it has a great history of folkloric medicinal uses. In the present work,
      phytochemical investigation of the alcoholic extract of the flowers of A. rosea
      L. led to the isolation of six flavonoids (1-6). Dihydrokaempferol-4'-O-beta-d
      glucopyranoside (1), dihydrokaempferol (2), kaempferol-3-O-[6"-(E-coumaroyl)]
      beta-d-glucopyranoside (3), kaempferol-3-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside (4), Apigenin
      (5) and kaempferol-3-O-alpha-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1'"->6")-beta-d-glucopyranoside
      (6). Four of the isolated compounds were evaluated for their antioxidant,
      immunostimulant and cytotoxic activities against HepG-2 cell line. Compound (3)
      showed potent cytotoxic activity against HepG-2 cell line with high selectivity
      towards hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro (with IC50 = 3.8 MUg/mL). Compounds 1
      and 2 exhibited significant antioxidant activity and compound 4 showed a
      significant immune stimulant activity. Compound 1 is isolated for the first time
      from genus Alcea and this is the first report for its biological investigation.

PMID- 28580800
TI  - Kaposi Sarcoma Associated With Iatrogenic Immunosuppression: A Rare Complication
      of Bullous Pemphigoid Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune bullous disease requiring
      immunosuppressive therapy. Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is an angioproliferative tumor
      associated with the opportunistic viral infection human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8).
      It is a well-known condition associated with longstanding human immunodeficiency
      virus infection, but it may also occur in the context of iatrogenic
      immunosuppression. OBJECTIVE: Although a rare complication, all dermatologists
      dealing with immunosuppressors must be aware and have a high index of suspicion
      when a patient presents with rapidly progressive violaceous papules. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We describe an Italian male patient treated for bullous pemphigoid with
      topical and systemic corticosteroids and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) who
      developed multifocal cutaneous KS after a few months of therapy. CONCLUSION: To
      our knowledge, KS onset associated with MMF and corticosteroids intake for BP
      treatment has not been reported previously. KS associated with iatrogenic
      immunosuppression can have an aggressive course, and it must be promptly
      recognised since cessation of immunosuppression therapy can lead to complete
      resolution. Immune restoration is the key to control this viral infection.

PMID- 28580801
TI  - Effectiveness and safety of wheelchair skills training program in improving the
      wheelchair skills capacity: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively assess the effectiveness and safety of wheelchair
      skills training program in improving wheelchair skills capacity. DATA SOURCES:
      PubMed, OVID, EBSCO, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane Library,
      Google Scholar, and China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database were searched up
      to March 2017. METHODS: Controlled clinical trials that compared a wheelchair
      skills training program with a control group that received other interventions
      and used the wheelchair skills test scores to evaluate wheelchair skills capacity
      were included. Two authors independently screened articles, extracted data, and
      assessed the methodological quality using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool in
      randomized controlled trial (RCT) and methodological index for non-randomized
      studies. The data results of wheelchair skills test scores were extracted.
      RESULTS: Data from 455 individuals in 10 RCTs and from 140 participants in seven
      non-randomized studies were included for meta-analysis using Stata version 12.0
      (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). In the short term (immediately to
      one week) post-intervention, relative to a control group, manual wheelchair
      skills training could increase the total wheelchair skills test scores by 13.26%
      in RCTs (95% confidence interval (CI), 6.19%-20.34%; P < 0.001) and by 23.44% in
      non-randomized studies (95% CI, 13.98%-32.90%; P < 0.001). Few adverse events
      occurred during training; however, compared with a control group, evidence was
      insufficient to support the effectiveness of powered wheelchair skills training
      and the long-term (3-12 months) advantage of manual wheelchair skills training (
      P = 0.755). CONCLUSION: The limited evidence suggests that wheelchair skills
      training program is beneficial in the short term, but its long-term effects
      remain unclear.

PMID- 28580802
TI  - Evaluation of a Web-Based Training in Smoking Cessation Counseling Targeting U.S.
      Eye-Care Professionals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Smoking causes blindness-related diseases. Eye-care providers are
      uniquely positioned to help their patients quit smoking. AIMS: Using a pre
      /postevaluation design, this study evaluated a web-based training in smoking
      cessation counseling targeting eye-care providers. METHOD: The training was
      developed based on the 3A1R protocol: "Ask about smoking, Advise to quit, Assess
      willingness to quit, and Refer to tobacco quitlines," and made available in the
      form of a web-based video presentation. Providers ( n = 654) at four academic
      centers were invited to participate. Participants completed pretraining,
      posttraining, and 3-month follow-up surveys. Main outcomes were self-reported
      improvement in their motivation, confidence, and counseling practices at 3-month
      follow-up. Generalized linear mixed models for two time-points (pretraining and 3
      month) were conducted for these outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 113 providers
      (54.0% males) participated in the study (17.7% response rate). At the 3-month
      evaluation, 9.8% of participants reported improvement in their motivation. With
      respect to the 3A1R, 8% reported improvement in their confidence for Ask, 15.5%
      for Advise, 28.6% for Assess, and 37.8% for Refer. Similarly, 25.5% reported
      improvement in their practices for Ask, 25.5% for Advise, 37.2% for Assess, and
      39.4% for Refer to tobacco quitlines ( p < .001 for all except for Refer
      confidence p = .05). DISCUSSION: Although participation rate was low, the program
      effectively improved providers' smoking cessation counseling practices.
      CONCLUSIONS: Including training in smoking cessation counseling in ophthalmology
      curriculums, and integrating the 3A1R protocol into the electronic medical
      records systems in eye-care settings, might promote smoking cessation practices
      in these settings.

PMID- 28580803
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28580804
TI  - Burden of antimicrobial resistance in an era of decreasing susceptibility.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Antimicrobial resistance has become a global problem. Many
      pathogens are becoming multidrug-resistant with the attendant increased risk of
      failure of standard therapies and the under-recognised outcomes such as increased
      morbidity, mortality, length of hospitalization and costs of treatment. Areas
      covered: We undertook a review of the literature using standard search engines
      including PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus and internet sources. Key search terms
      included antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, bacterial resistance,
      clinical outcomes, economic consequences, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus
      aureus. Expert commentary: Antimicrobial resistance among the five-species
      presented demonstrates a major, and increasing, deleterious impact seen in each
      of the key outcomes measured. These negative changes, at a personal, health
      system and Societal levels, further emphasise the growing problem of increasing
      antimicrobial resistance at a global level and the vital need for new
      antimicrobials.

PMID- 28580805
TI  - Use of Intervention Mapping to Enhance Health Care Professional Practice: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intervention Mapping is a planning protocol for developing behavior
      change interventions, the first three steps of which are intended to establish
      the foundations and rationales of such interventions. AIM: This systematic review
      aimed to identify programs that used Intervention Mapping to plan changes in
      health care professional practice. Specifically, it provides an analysis of the
      information provided by the programs in the first three steps of the protocol to
      determine their foundations and rationales of change. METHOD: A literature search
      was undertaken in PubMed, Scopus, SciELO, and DOAJ using "Intervention Mapping"
      as keyword. Key information was gathered, including theories used, determinants
      of practice, research methodologies, theory-based methods, and practical
      applications. RESULTS: Seventeen programs aimed at changing a range of health
      care practices were included. The social cognitive theory and the theory of
      planned behavior were the most frequently used frameworks in driving change
      within health care practices. Programs used a large variety of research
      methodologies to identify determinants of practice. Specific theory-based methods
      (e.g., modelling and active learning) and practical applications (e.g., health
      care professional training and facilitation) were reported to inform the
      development of practice change interventions and programs. DISCUSSION: In
      practice, Intervention Mapping delineates a three-step systematic, theory- and
      evidence-driven process for establishing the theoretical foundations and
      rationales underpinning change in health care professional practice. CONCLUSION:
      The use of Intervention Mapping can provide health care planners with useful
      guidelines for the theoretical development of practice change interventions and
      programs.

PMID- 28580806
TI  - Your Cheatin' Voice Will Tell on You: Detection of Past Infidelity from Voice.
AB  - Evidence suggests that many physical, behavioral, and trait qualities can be
      detected solely from the sound of a person's voice, irrespective of the semantic
      information conveyed through speech. This study examined whether raters could
      accurately assess the likelihood that a person has cheated on committed, romantic
      partners simply by hearing the speaker's voice. Independent raters heard voice
      samples of individuals who self-reported that they either cheated or had never
      cheated on their romantic partners. To control for aspects that may clue a
      listener to the speaker's mate value, we used voice samples that did not differ
      between these groups for voice attractiveness, age, voice pitch, and other
      acoustic measures. We found that participants indeed rated the voices of those
      who had a history of cheating as more likely to cheat. Male speakers were given
      higher ratings for cheating, while female raters were more likely to ascribe the
      likelihood to cheat to speakers. Additionally, we manipulated the pitch of the
      voice samples, and for both sexes, the lower pitched versions were consistently
      rated to be from those who were more likely to have cheated. Regardless of the
      pitch manipulation, speakers were able to assess actual history of infidelity;
      the one exception was that men's accuracy decreased when judging women whose
      voices were lowered. These findings expand upon the idea that the human voice may
      be of value as a cheater detection tool and very thin slices of vocal information
      are all that is needed to make certain assessments about others.

PMID- 28580807
TI  - Adverse Childhood Environment: Relationship With Sexual Risk Behaviors and
      Marital Status in a Large American Sample.
AB  - A substantial theoretical and empirical literature suggests that stressful events
      in childhood influence the timing and patterning of subsequent sexual and
      reproductive behaviors. Stressful childhood environments have been predicted to
      produce a life history strategy in which adults are oriented more toward short
      term mating behaviors and less toward behaviors consistent with longevity. This
      article tests the hypothesis that adverse childhood environment will predict
      adult outcomes in two areas: risky sexual behavior (engagement in sexual risk
      behavior or having taken an HIV test) and marital status (currently married vs.
      never married, divorced, or a member of an unmarried couple). Data come from the
      Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The sample contains 17,530 men and
      23,978 women aged 18-54 years living in 13 U.S. states plus the District of
      Columbia. Adverse childhood environment is assessed through 11 retrospective
      measures of childhood environment, including having grown up with someone who was
      depressed or mentally ill, who was an alcoholic, who used or abused drugs, or who
      served time in prison; whether one's parents divorced in childhood; and two
      scales measuring childhood exposure to violence and to sexual trauma. The results
      indicate that adverse childhood environment is associated with increased
      likelihood of engaging in sexual risk behaviors or taking an HIV test, and
      increased likelihood of being in an unmarried couple or divorced/separated, for
      both men and women. The predictions are supported by the data, lending further
      support to the hypothesis that childhood environments influence adult
      reproductive strategy.

PMID- 28580808
TI  - Regorafenib for the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sorafenib is the standard of care for patients with advanced
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and well preserved liver function. However, until
      recent approval of regorafenib by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), no
      effective therapeutic options were available for patients resistant to sorafenib.
      Areas covered: The present article reviews the preclinical and clinical data of
      regorafenib, putting them into the context of current and future landscape of
      treatment options for patients with HCC. Recently, the randomized, placebo
      controlled, Phase III RESORCE trial, demonstrated a statistically and clinically
      significant increase in overall survival from 7.8 months with placebo to 10.6
      months with regorafenib in patients progressing on sorafenib. Furthermore, the
      study showed a significant improvement in all the other efficacy endpoints. Main
      adverse events were hypertension, hand-foot skin reaction, fatigue and diarrhea,
      with no negative impact on quality of life. Expert commentary: Regorafenib is a
      recently approved treatment option for HCC patients who have been previously
      treated with sorafenib. The RESORCE trial demonstrates the beneficial effect of a
      sequential approach involving two multikinase inhibitors, namely sorafenib and
      regorafenib, whose antitumor activity extends beyond their antiangiogenic
      functions.

PMID- 28580809
TI  - Cardiovascular imaging environment: will the future be cloud-based?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In cardiovascular CT and MR imaging large datasets have to be
      stored, post-processed, analyzed and distributed. Beside basic assessment of
      volume and function in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging e.g., more
      sophisticated quantitative analysis is requested requiring specific software.
      Several institutions cannot afford various types of software and provide
      expertise to perform sophisticated analysis. Areas covered: Various cloud
      services exist related to data storage and analysis specifically for
      cardiovascular CT and MR imaging. Instead of on-site data storage, cloud
      providers offer flexible storage services on a pay-per-use basis. To avoid
      purchase and maintenance of specialized software for cardiovascular image
      analysis, e.g. to assess myocardial iron overload, MR 4D flow and fractional flow
      reserve, evaluation can be performed with cloud based software by the consumer or
      complete analysis is performed by the cloud provider. However, challenges to
      widespread implementation of cloud services include regulatory issues regarding
      patient privacy and data security. Expert commentary: If patient privacy and data
      security is guaranteed cloud imaging is a valuable option to cope with storage of
      large image datasets and offer sophisticated cardiovascular image analysis for
      institutions of all sizes.

PMID- 28580810
TI  - Youth Empowerment Solutions: Evaluation of an After-School Program to Engage
      Middle School Students in Community Change.
AB  - We report on an effectiveness evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES)
      program. YES applies empowerment theory to an after-school program for middle
      school students. YES is an active learning curriculum designed to help youth gain
      confidence in themselves, think critically about their community, and work with
      adults to create positive community change. We employed a modified randomized
      control group design to test the hypothesis that the curriculum would enhance
      youth empowerment, increase positive developmental outcomes, and decrease problem
      behaviors. Our sample included 367 youth from 13 urban and suburban middle
      schools. Controlling for demographic characteristics and pretest outcome
      measures, we found that youth who received more components of the curriculum
      reported more psychological empowerment and prosocial outcomes and less
      antisocial outcomes than youth who received fewer of the intervention components.
      The results support both empowerment theory and program effectiveness.

PMID- 28580812
TI  - Platelet reactivity in stable cardiovascular patients with chronic kidney
      disease.
AB  - The study aimed to evaluate antiplatelet drug responsiveness in stable
      outpatients with cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and
      examine whether impaired antiplatelet drug responsiveness is associated with
      worse clinical outcomes in this population. Stable cardiovascular patients (n =
      771) were enrolled at least one month after an acute ischemic atherothrombotic
      event. Antiplatelet drug responsiveness was assessed with specific assays (serum
      TxA2 for aspirin, the VASP assay for clopidogrel) and other aggregation-based
      assays using different agonists. All patients were followed until the first
      occurrence of a major adverse cardiovascular event. The 133 CKD patients were
      found to have higher activity of von Willebrand factor and higher fibrinogen
      levels. After a median follow-up of 33 months, 88 events occurred in patients
      without CKD and 31 events in patients with CKD (5.0 events and 8.7 events per 100
      patient years, respectively, HR = 1.75 (95% CI 1.16-2.63; p = 0.008). The
      prevalence of poor aspirin and clopidogrel responsiveness and high platelet
      reactivity as assessed with different aggregation-based assays was similar in
      patients with estimated GFR >= 60 ml/min, 45-59 ml/min, and < 45 ml/min. No
      significant interaction for CKD vs. non-CKD was observed for events occurrence in
      patients with or without high platelet reactivity on several assays, with the
      exception of collagen-induced aggregation. In stable cardiovascular patients, CKD
      is not associated with higher platelet reactivity. Decreased antiplatelet drug
      responsiveness is not associated with worse clinical outcomes in CKD patients.

PMID- 28580811
TI  - The effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on neuropathic pain via mitophagy in
      microglia.
AB  - Purpose: Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy has been suggested to palliate
      neuropathic pain, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. This study
      explored the involvement of microglial mitophagy via HBO relative to neuropathic
      pain therapy. Materials and methods: A total of 80 male Sprague Dawley rats were
      randomly divided into two groups: a normal group (n = 40) and a mitophagy
      inhibitor group (n = 40) in which the mitophagy inhibitor cyclosporin A (CsA) was
      administrated prior to chronic constriction injury (CCI). Groups (n = 10 rats per
      group) consisted of the following: control (C), sham operation (S), sciatic nerve
      with chronic constriction injury (CCI), and a CCI plus HBO treatment (CCI + HBO).
      Pain-related behaviors were evaluated using mechanical withdraw tendency and
      thermal withdraw latency analysis. Mitochondrial membrane potential was measured,
      and Western blot was employed to assess expression of NIX and BNIP3.
      Immunofluorescence changes in neuron protein (NESTIN) and mitochondria inner or
      outer layer proteins (TIM23, TOM20) were examined. Results: HBO significantly
      ameliorated pain-related behaviors, which were downregulated by mitophagy
      inhibitors (P < 0.05). Mitochondrial membrane potential indexes were decreased
      after HBO therapy, but were reversed in the mitophagy inhibitor group (P < 0.05).
      HBO upregulated NIX and BNIP3 expression, which did not occur in the CCI group (P
      < 0.05). However, expression was reduced when mitophagy inhibitors were
      administered. Immunofluorescence examination showed that mitophagy in microglia
      was induced by CCI, which was upregulated after HBO treatment. This phenomenon
      was not observed in the mitophagy inhibitor group. Conclusions: HBO therapy
      palliated CCI-induced neuropathic pain in rats by upregulating microglial
      mitophagy. These results could serve as guidelines to improve neuropathic pain
      therapy using HBO to maximize therapeutic efficiency.

PMID- 28580813
TI  - Induction chemotherapy vs post-operative adjuvant therapy for malignant pleural
      mesothelioma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive neoplasia.
      Multidisciplinary treatments, including the association of induction and/or
      adjuvant therapeutic regimens with surgery, have been reported to give
      encouraging results. Current therapeutic options are not well standardized yet,
      especially regarding the best association between surgery and medical treatments.
      The present review aims to assess safety, efficacy and outcomes of different
      therapies for MPM. Areas covered: This article focuses on the multimodality
      treatment of mesothelioma. A systematic review was performed by using electronic
      databases to identify studies that considered induction and adjuvant approaches
      in MPM therapy in a multidisciplinary setting, including surgery. Endpoints
      included overall survival, disease free survival, disease recurrence, and
      complications. Expert commentary: This systematic review offers a comprehensive
      view of current multidisciplinary therapeutic strategies for MPM, suggesting that
      multimodality therapy offers acceptable outcomes with better results reported for
      trimodality approaches. Individualization of care for each patient is fundamental
      in choosing the most appropriate treatment. The growing complexity of treatment
      protocols mandates that MPM patients be referred to specialized Centers, in which
      every component of the interdisciplinary team can provide the necessary expertise
      and quality of care.

PMID- 28580814
TI  - Evolutions in clinical reasoning assessment: The Evolving Script Concordance
      Test.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Script concordance testing (SCT) is a method of assessment of
      clinical reasoning. We developed a new type of SCT case design, the evolving SCT
      (E-SCT), whereby the patient's clinical story is "evolving" and with thoughtful
      integration of new information at each stage, decisions related to clinical
      decision-making become increasingly clear. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to: (1) determine
      whether an E-SCT could differentiate clinical reasoning ability among junior
      residents (JR), senior residents (SR), and pediatricians, (2) evaluate the
      reliability of an E-SCT, and (3) obtain qualitative feedback from participants to
      help inform the potential acceptability of the E-SCT. METHODS: A 12-case E-SCT,
      embedded within a 24-case pediatric SCT (PaedSCT), was administered to 91
      pediatric residents (JR: n = 50; SR: n = 41). A total of 21 pediatricians served
      on the panel of experts (POE). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
      conducted across the levels of experience. Participants' feedback on the E-SCT
      was obtained with a post-test survey and analyzed using two methods: percentage
      preference and thematic analysis. RESULTS: Statistical differences existed across
      levels of training: F = 19.31 (df = 2); p < 0.001. The POE scored higher than SR
      (mean difference = 10.34; p < 0.001) and JR (mean difference = 16.00; p < 0.001).
      SR scored higher than JR (mean difference = 5.66; p < 0.001). Reliability
      (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.83. Participants found the E-SCT engaging, easy to
      follow and true to the daily clinical decision-making process. CONCLUSIONS: The E
      SCT demonstrated very good reliability and was effective in distinguishing
      clinical reasoning ability across three levels of experience. Participants found
      the E-SCT engaging and representative of real-life clinical reasoning and
      decision-making processes. We suggest that further refinement and utilization of
      the evolving style case will enhance SCT as a robust, engaging, and relevant
      method for the assessment of clinical reasoning.

PMID- 28580815
TI  - GFI1B variants associated with thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28580816
TI  - Can the Enterococcus faecalis identified in the root canals of primary teeth be a
      cause of failure of endodontic treatment?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the presence of Enterococcus faecalis in
      primary teeth with primary root canal infections and related to the possible
      failure of pulpectomy outcome after 36 months. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Root canal
      samples were obtained from 25 out of 244 patients using the sterile paper cone
      method. The identification of E. faecalis was done with culture and molecular
      tests using species-specific 16S rRNA gene-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
      After 36 months, the pulpectomy outcome was evaluated. RESULTS: Enterococcus
      faecalis was found in five (20%) samples, and dental caries were the cause of
      primary infection in all of them. Pulpectomy outcome was evaluated only in teeth
      that completed the entire clinical protocol and were followed up to 36 months (n
      = 8). From these, 75% (n = 6) were successful and 25% (n = 2) failed. E. faecalis
      was present in 50% of both successful and failed cases. CONCLUSIONS: Enterococcus
      faecalis was not related to the failure of endodontic treatment of primary teeth.

PMID- 28580817
TI  - Changes in low-molecular-weight thiol-disulphide redox couples are part of bread
      wheat seed germination and early seedling growth.
AB  - The tripeptide antioxidant glutathione (gamma-l-glutamyl-l-cysteinyl-glycine;
      GSH) essentially contributes to thiol-disulphide conversions, which are involved
      in the control of seed development, germination, and seedling establishment.
      However, the relative contribution of GSH metabolism in different seed structures
      is not fully understood. We studied the GSH/glutathione disulphide (GSSG) redox
      couple and associated low-molecular-weight (LMW) thiols and disulphides related
      to GSH metabolism in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds, focussing on redox
      changes in the embryo and endosperm during germination. In dry seeds, GSH was the
      predominant LMW thiol and, 15 h after the onset of imbibition, embryos of non
      germinated seeds contained 12 times more LMW thiols than the endosperm. In
      germinated seeds, the embryo contained 17 and 11 times more LMW thiols than the
      endosperm after 15 and 48 h, respectively. This resulted in the embryo having
      significantly more reducing half-cell reduction potentials of GSH/GSSG and
      cysteine (Cys)/cystine (CySS) redox couples (EGSSG/2GSH and ECySS/2Cys,
      respectively). Upon seed germination and early seedling growth, Cys and CySS
      concentrations significantly increased in both embryo and endosperm,
      progressively contributing to the cellular LMW thiol-disulphide redox environment
      (Ethiol-disulphide). The changes in ECySS/2Cys could be related to the
      mobilisation of storage proteins in the endosperm during early seedling growth.
      We suggest that EGSSG/2GSH and ECySS/2Cys can be used as markers of the
      physiological and developmental stage of embryo and endosperm. We also present a
      model of interaction between LMW thiols and disulphides with hydrogen peroxide
      (H2O2) in redox regulation of bread wheat germination and early seedling growth.

PMID- 28580818
TI  - Xanthomatous Posttraumatic Fibro-Osseous Lesion of the Rib: A Rare and
      Underrecognized Entity. Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Posttraumatic fibro-osseous lesion (PTFOL) is a rare lesion that typically
      affects the ribs and is probably a posttraumatic reactive process. Because PTFOL
      is often misdiagnosed as fibrous dysplasia, osteoid osteoma, benign fibrous
      histiocytoma or rib metastases, chest wall resection, leading to a significant
      morbidity, is the main treatment modality. We report the case of a 30-year-old
      male patient with no history of previous trauma presenting with chest pain.
      Computed tomography scan showed an eighth left rib well-defined ovoid and
      hypodense lesion with circumferential sclerotic margin and no cortical
      breakthrough. Posterolateral thoracotomy was performed and a histological
      diagnosis of xanthomatous posttraumatic fibro-osseous lesion of the rib was made.
      PTFOL is a benign lesion that should be recognized to avoid unnecessary surgical
      treatment and complications. We provide a summary of clinical, histopathological,
      and radiological aspects of PTFOL and discuss differential diagnoses.

PMID- 28580819
TI  - Opicapone for the management of end-of-dose motor fluctuations in patients with
      Parkinson's disease treated with L-DOPA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Opicapone is a third generation, highly potent and effective
      catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor that optimizes the pharmacokinetics
      and bioavailability of L-DOPA therapy. Areas covered: In this review, the authors
      describe the preclinical and clinical development of opicapone. In PD patients
      with motor fluctuations, once daily opicapone administration was well-tolerated
      and consistently reduced OFF-time and increased ON-time without increasing the
      frequency of troublesome dyskinesia, and these benefits were maintained over at
      least a year of continued open-label therapy. Expert commentary: With its
      convenient once-daily regimen, adjunct opicapone should be considered as an
      effective option for use in L-DOPA treated PD patients experiencing motor
      fluctuations.

PMID- 28580820
TI  - Twelve tips for medical students to make the best use of ward-based learning.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With a multitude of healthcare professionals willing to teach, a
      placement on a ward is an invaluable learning opportunity; yet as students, we
      often struggle to maximize this placements' potential. AIM: This article provides
      12 tips for medical students to optimize their learning in a ward-based
      environment. METHODS: Current literature and personal experiences of the authors
      were used to develop the tips. RESULTS: The 12 tips are (1) prepare yourself, (2)
      identify knowledge, skills, and attributes, (3) engage in peer-to-peer learning,
      (4) get to know the interprofessional team, (5) talk to the patient first, (6)
      present findings and gain feedback, (7) tap into seniors' experience, (8) immerse
      yourself and be proactive, (9) check patient notes, (10) manage the clock, (11)
      enhance your CV, and (12) embrace the spirit of lifelong learning. CONCLUSION:
      These tips will enable us to effectively improve our learning and positively
      shape us into outstanding future doctors.

PMID- 28580821
TI  - Hb Southampton [beta106(G8)Leu->Pro; HBB: c.320T>C] and Codons 41/42 (-TTCT; HBB:
      c.124_127delTTCT) in a Chinese Girl.
AB  - Hb Southampton [beta106(G8)Leu->Pro; HBB: c.320T>C] is a rare, unstable
      hemoglobin (Hb), variant. The main clinical presentation of this variant is
      hemolytic anemia. We detected this mutation in a 2-year-old Chinese girl with a
      history of regular transfusions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      time that this variant has been found in the Asian population.

PMID- 28580823
TI  - Ethanol and the Developing Brain: Inhibition of Neuronal Activity and
      Neuroapoptosis.
AB  - Ethanol induces massive neuroapoptosis in the developing brain. One of the main
      hypotheses that has been put forward to explain the deleterious actions of
      ethanol in the immature brain involves an inhibition of neuronal activity. Here,
      we review recent evidence for this hypothesis obtained in the somatosensory
      cortex and hippocampus of neonatal rodents. In both structures, ethanol strongly
      inhibits brain activity. At the doses inducing massive neuroapoptosis, ethanol
      completely suppresses the early activity patterns of spindle-bursts and gamma
      oscillations in the neocortex and the early sharp-waves in the hippocampus. The
      inhibitory effects of ethanol decrease with age and in adult animals, ethanol
      only mildly depresses neuronal firing and induces delta-wave activity.
      Suppression of cortical activity in neonatal animals likely involves inhibition
      of the myoclonic twitches, an important physiological trigger for the early
      activity bursts, and inhibition of the thalamocortical and intracortical circuits
      through a potentiation of GABAergic transmission and an inhibition of N-methyl-d
      aspartate (NMDA) receptors, that is in keeping with the neuroapoptotic effects of
      other agents acting on GABA and NMDA receptors. These findings provide support
      for the hypothesis that the ethanol-induced inhibition of cortical activity is an
      important pathophysiological mechanism underlying massive neuroapoptosis induced
      by ethanol in the developing brain.

PMID- 28580822
TI  - Effects of microRNA-223 on morphine analgesic tolerance by targeting NLRP3 in a
      rat model of neuropathic pain.
AB  - Objective To investigate the effects of microRNA-223 on morphine analgesic
      tolerance by targeting NLRP3 in a rat model of neuropathic pain. Methods Our
      study selected 100 clean grade healthy Sprague-Dawley adult male rats weighing
      200 to 250 g. After establishment of a rat model of chronic constriction injury,
      these rats were divided into 10 groups (10 rats in each group): the normal
      control, sham operation, chronic constriction injury, normal saline, morphine,
      miR-223, NLRP3, miR-223 + morphine, NLRP3 + morphine, and miR-223 + NLRP3 +
      morphine groups. The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay,
      Western blotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used for detecting
      the mRNA and protein expressions of NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like
      protein, Caspase-1, Interleukin (IL)-1beta, and IL-18 in sections of lumbar
      spinal cord. Immunohistochemistry was applied for detecting the positive rates of
      NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein, Caspase-1, IL-1beta, and IL-18.
      Results The paw withdrawal threshold and percentage maximum possible effect
      (%MPE) were higher in chronic constriction injury group when compared with the
      normal control and sham operation groups. Behavioral tests showed that compared
      with the chronic constriction injury and normal saline groups, the morphine and
      miR-223 + morphine groups showed obvious analgesic effects. Expressions of miR
      223 in the miR-223, miR-223 + morphine, and miR-223 + NLRP3 + morphine were
      significantly higher than those in the chronic constriction injury, normal
      saline, and morphine groups. Compared with chronic constriction injury, normal
      saline and morphine groups, the mRNA and protein expressions of NLRP3, apoptosis
      associated speck-like protein, Caspase-1, IL-1beta, and IL-18 were significantly
      decreased in the miR-223 and miR-223 + morphine groups, while mRNA and protein
      expressions of NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein, Caspase-1, IL
      1beta, and IL-18 were significantly increased in the NLRP3 and NLRP3 + morphine
      group. Conclusion Our study provides strong evidence that miR-223 could suppress
      the activities of NLRP3 inflammasomes ( NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like
      protein, and Caspase-1) to relieve morphine analgesic tolerance in rats by down
      regulating NLRP3.

PMID- 28580825
TI  - Notable imaging features of the liver in a Chinese patient with recurrent
      immunoglobulin G4 hepatopathy.

PMID- 28580824
TI  - Addressing health workforce inequities in the Mindanao regions of the
      Philippines: Tracer study of graduates from a socially-accountable, community
      engaged medical school and graduates from a conventional medical school.
AB  - Developing and retaining a high-quality medical workforce in low-resource
      countries is a worldwide challenge. The Filipino Ateneo de Zamboanga University
      School of Medicine (ADZU-SOM) has adopted a strong focus on socially accountable
      health professional education (SAHPE) in order to address the shortage of
      physicians across rural and urban communities in the Western Mindanao region. A
      cross-sectional survey of graduates from two Philippines medical schools: ADZU
      SOM in the Mindanao region and a medical school with a more conventional
      curriculum, found ADZU-SOM graduates were more likely to have joined the medical
      profession due to a desire to help others (p = 0.002), came from lower
      socioeconomic strata (p = 0.001) and had significantly (p < 0.05) more positive
      attitudes to community service. ADZU graduates were also more likely to currently
      work in Government Rural Health Units (p < 0.001) or be generalist Medical
      Officers (p < 0.001) or Rural/Municipal Health Officers (p = 0.003). ADZU
      graduates were also less likely to work in private or specialist Government
      hospitals (p = 0.033 and p = 0.040, respectively) and be surgical or medical
      specialists (p = 0.010 and p < 0.001, respectively). The findings suggest ADZU
      SOM's SAHPE philosophy manifests in the practice choices of its graduates and
      that the ADZU-SOM can meet the rural and urban health workforce needs of the
      Western Mindanao region.

PMID- 28580826
TI  - Bone mineral density loss in clinically suspect arthralgia is associated with
      subclinical inflammation and progression to clinical arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Peripheral bone mineral density (BMD) may be decreased in early
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but it is unknown whether BMD loss emerges before
      arthritis is clinically apparent. We aimed to study whether BMD loss occurs in
      patients with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA), and whether it is associated
      with progression to clinical arthritis and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      detected subclinical inflammation. METHOD: Patients with CSA had arthralgia for
      <1 year and were at risk of progressing to RA according to their rheumatologists.
      At baseline, a 1.5 T MRI was performed of unilateral metacarpophalangeal, wrist,
      and metatarsophalangeal joints, and scored on synovitis, bone marrow oedema, and
      tenosynovitis;. summing these features yielded the total MRI inflammation score.
      Digital X-ray radiogrammetry (DXR) was used to estimate BMD on two sequential
      conventional hand radiographs (mean interval between radiographs 4.4 months). The
      change in BMD was studied; BMD loss was defined as a decrease of >=2.5
      mg/cm2/month. Patients were followed for arthritis development for a median of
      18.4 months. RESULTS: In CSA patients (n = 108), change in BMD was negatively
      associated with age (beta = -0.03, p = 0.007). BMD loss in CSA patients was
      associated with arthritis development [adjusted for age hazard ratio (HR) = 6.1,
      95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7 to 21.4] and was most frequently estimated in
      the months before clinical arthritis development. The total MRI inflammation
      scores were associated with the change in BMD (adjusted for age beta = -0.05, p =
      0.047). The total MRI inflammation score and BMD loss were both independently
      associated with arthritis development (HR = 1.1, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.2, and HR = 4.6,
      95% CI 1.2 to 17.2, respectively). CONCLUSION: In CSA patients, severe BMD loss
      is associated with MRI-detectable subclinical inflammation and with progression
      to clinical arthritis.

PMID- 28580827
TI  - Therapeutic management of acute pulmonary embolism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially fatal manifestation
      of venous thromboembolism. Prompt anticoagulant treatment is crucial for PE
      patients, which can decrease morbidity and mortality. Risk assessment is the
      cornerstone of the therapeutic management of PE. It guides physicians to the most
      appropriate treatment and selects patients for early discharge or home treatment.
      Areas covered: Here, we review the current treatments of acute PE according to
      contemporary risk stratification strategies, highlighting each step of PE
      therapeutic management. Expert commentary: Currently, direct oral anticoagulants
      (DOACs) represent the first-line therapy of patients presenting with non-high
      risk PE with a better risk-benefit ratios than vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) due
      to lower risk of major bleeding. Only high-risk patients with PE who present in
      shock should be treated with systematic thrombolysis, while surgical thrombectomy
      or catheter direct thrombolysis (CDT) should only be considered when thrombolysis
      is contraindicated because of too high bleeding risk.

PMID- 28580828
TI  - Reproducibility of a commercially available subgingival plaque sampling strategy
      with oligonucleotide probes, common mistake.

PMID- 28580830
TI  - Thrombocytopenia and GBA gene mutation in a patient with adult type 1 Gaucher
      disease.
AB  - A 38-year-old female patient was diagnosed with anemia for 3 years. Medical
      examination showed slight splenomegaly (250 * 62 mm), thrombocytopenia (platelets
      51 * 109/L), anemia (Hb levels 107 g/L), and beta-glucocerebrosidase activity
      (GBA) in leukocytes was lower than normal. Microscopic findings of bone marrow
      smear demonstrated that Gaucher cells in bone marrow and periodic acid-Schiff
      staining of them were positive. Sequencing of GBA genomic and cDNA identified one
      novel homozygous mutation, c.484A> G (p.Met162Val). This case suggests that we
      should pay attention to adult Gaucher disease as a differential diagnosis for
      cryptogenic thrombocytopenia and one novel homozygous mutation in GBA gene was
      reported for the first time. The novel mutation in homozygosity is apparently
      associated with mild, non-neuronopathic type 1 disease which is relatively
      uncommon in Asian populations.

PMID- 28580829
TI  - Molecular, cellular and behavioral changes associated with pathological pain
      signaling occur after dental pulp injury.
AB  - Abstract: Persistent pain can occur after routine dental treatments in which the
      dental pulp is injured. To better understand pain chronicity after pulp injury,
      we assessed whether dental pulp injury in mice causes changes to the sensory
      nervous system associated with pathological pain. In some experiments, we
      compared findings after dental pulp injury to a model of orofacial neuropathic
      pain, in which the mental nerve is injured. After unilateral dental pulp injury,
      we observed increased expression of activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) and
      neuropeptide Y (NPY) mRNA and decreased tachykinin precursor 1 gene expression,
      in the ipsilateral trigeminal ganglion. We also observed an ipsilateral increase
      in the number of trigeminal neurons expressing immunoreactivity for ATF3, a
      decrease in substance P (SP) immunoreactive cells, and no change in the number of
      cells labeled with IB4. Mice with dental pulp injury transiently exhibit hindpaw
      mechanical allodynia, out to 12 days, while mice with mental nerve injury have
      persistent hindpaw allodynia. Mice with dental pulp injury increased spontaneous
      consumption of a sucrose solution for 17 days while mental nerve injury mice did
      not. Finally, after dental pulp injury, an increase in expression of the glial
      markers Iba1 and glial fibrillary acidic protein occurs in the transition zone
      between nucleus caudalis and interpolaris, ipsilateral to the injury.
      Collectively these studies suggest that dental pulp injury is associated with
      significant neuroplasticity that could contribute to persistent pain after of
      dental pulp injury.

PMID- 28580831
TI  - Markers of oxidative stress in dogs with heart failure.
AB  - We tested the hypothesis that indirect measures of oxidative stress (vitamin E,
      glutathione peroxidase, and malondialdehyde) differ in dogs in heart failure
      resulting from either myxomatous mitral valve disease or dilated cardiomyopathy.
      Dogs were classified according to the International Small Animal Cardiac Health
      Council (ISACHC) classification. Additionally, the effect of cardiac therapy on
      oxidative stress parameters and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT
      proBNP) in advanced stages of congestive heart failure was investigated. There
      were no significant differences in oxidative stress parameters between healthy
      dogs and the individual groups of cardiac patients. Significantly lower
      malondialdehyde (MDA) was observed in the ISACHC II group in comparison to ISACHC
      groups III and I. A significant positive correlation in treated patients was
      observed between NT-proBNP and MDA, NT-proBNP and vitamin E, as well as between
      MDA and vitamin E (and lipid-standardized vitamin E). No significant differences
      in any of the measured parameters were found between treated and non-treated
      cardiac patients. Our results suggest an association between MDA (the extent of
      lipid peroxidation) and NT-proBNP, vitamin E and NT-proBNP, as well as between
      MDA and vitamin E in treated canine patients. Plasma vitamin E concentration was
      maintained in all stages of cardiovascular disease in these canine patients.

PMID- 28580832
TI  - Syphilis gastritis: a case report.
AB  - Awareness of the spectrum of clinical manifestations of syphilis, especially
      uncommon changes, is essential for diagnosis and effective management of
      patients. A 48-year-old Han businessman presented to the ear, nose and throat
      surgeons with an eight-week history of epigastric pain, a four-week history of a
      widespread non-itchy rash including the scrotal skin and a one-week history of
      tinnitus and dizziness. On examination, he was afebrile with widespread
      lymphadenopathy and a maculopapular rash affecting his trunk and scrotum. His
      abdomen was soft but tender in the epigastrium. The Treponema pallidum particle
      agglutination assay result was positive, and the rapid plasma reagin was 1:2.
      Gastroscopy showed ulcers in the gastric antrum and pylorus. Histopathological
      examination of gastric mucosa lesions showed a large amount of lymphoplasmacytic
      infiltrate detected in the lamina propria of the gastric mucosa. The T. pallidum
      Liferiver real time polymerase chain reaction kit assay performed on specimens
      from skin lesions and gastric mucosal tissue were positive. The patient was
      treated with intravenous sodium penicillin followed by intramuscular benzathine
      penicillin. On the fourth day of the treatment, the rash, epigastric pain and
      lymphadenopathy subsided. Two weeks after treatment, the tinnitus alleviated and
      vertigo disappeared.

PMID- 28580834
TI  - Evaluation of the epistemic state of the speaker/author.
AB  - Language users are sensitive to their language's grammatical requirements, the
      plausibility of the situation described and the information shared by speaker and
      listener. We propose that they are also sensitive to whether an author is likely
      to be in a state of knowledge that actually supports the assertion being made.
      Failure to be in such a state reduces the naturalness of the assertion.
      Consistent with this proposal, sentences with a disjoined noun phrase are judged
      to be less natural than their conjunctive counterparts, presumably because the
      author of a disjunctive sentence must know that an event took place but not know
      which of the two individuals was the agent. This unlikely state of knowledge
      reduces the naturalness of the sentence. The results of three experiments
      indicate that providing evidence that the speaker could be in an unlikely
      epistemic state reduces the disjunction penalty; a fourth extends the
      demonstration of the penalty from coordinated noun phrases to coordinated verb
      phrases. We also present one experiment that explores the possibility that
      disjunction penalty is due to the unexpectedness of a disjunction. These findings
      demonstrate that language users evaluate linguistic input in light of the
      epistemic state of its author.

PMID- 28580835
TI  - Early retinotopic responses to violations of emotion-location associations may
      depend on conscious awareness.
AB  - Reports of modulations of early visual processing suggest that retinotopic visual
      cortex may actively predict upcoming stimuli. We tested this idea by showing
      healthy human participants images of human faces at fixation, with different
      emotional expressions predicting stimuli in either the upper or the lower visual
      field. On infrequent test trials, emotional faces were followed by combined
      stimulation of upper and lower visual fields, thus violating previously
      established associations. Results showed no effects of such violations at the
      level of the retinotopic C1 of the visual evoked potential over the full sample.
      However, when separating participants who became aware of these associations from
      those who did not, we observed significant group differences during extrastriate
      processing of emotional faces, with inverse solution results indicating stronger
      activity in unaware subjects throughout the ventral visual stream. Moreover,
      within-group comparisons showed that the same peripheral stimuli elicited
      differential activity patterns during the C1 interval, depending on which
      stimulus elements were predictable. This effect was selectively observed in
      manipulation-aware subjects. Our results provide preliminary evidence for the
      notion that early visual processing stages implement predictions of upcoming
      events. They also point to conscious awareness as a moderator of predictive
      coding.

PMID- 28580833
TI  - Taurine supplementation has anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory effects before
      and after incremental exercise in heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the anti-atherogenic and
      anti-inflammatory effect of supplemental taurine prior to and following
      incremental exercise in patients with heart failure (HF). METHODS: Patients with
      HF and left ventricle ejection fraction less than 50%, and placed in functional
      class II or III according to the New York Heart Association classification, were
      randomly assigned to two groups: (1) taurine supplementation; or (2) placebo. The
      taurine group received oral taurine (500 mg) 3 times a day for 2 weeks, and
      performed exercise before and after the supplementation period. The placebo group
      followed the same protocol, but with a starch supplement (500 mg) rather than
      taurine. The incremental multilevel treadmill test was done using a modified
      Bruce protocol. RESULTS: Our results indicate that inflammatory indices [C
      reactive protein (CRP), platelets] decreased in the taurine group in pre
      exercise, post-supplementation and post-exercise, post-supplementation as
      compared with pre-exercise, pre-supplementation ( p < 0.05) whereas these indices
      increased in pre-exercise, post-supplementation and post-exercise, post
      supplementation as compared with pre-exercise, pre-supplementation in the placebo
      group ( p < 0.05). Our results also show that atherogenic indices [Castelli's
      Risk Index-I (CRI-I), Castelli's Risk Index-II (CRI-II) and Atherogenic
      Coefficient (AC)] decreased in the taurine group in pre-exercise, post
      supplementation and post-exercise, post-supplementation as compared with pre
      exercise, pre-supplementation ( p < 0.05). No such changes were noted in the
      placebo group ( p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: our results suggest that 2 weeks of oral
      taurine supplementation increases the taurine levels and has anti-atherogenic and
      anti-inflammatory effects prior to and following incremental exercise in HF
      patients.

PMID- 28580837
TI  - Representing Spatial Layout According to Intrinsic Frames of Reference.
AB  - Mou and McNamara have suggested that object locations are represented according
      to intrinsic reference frames. In three experiments, we investigated the
      limitations of intrinsic reference frames as a mean to represent object locations
      in spatial memory. Participants learned the locations of seven or eight common
      objects in a rectangular room and then made judgments of relative direction based
      on their memory of the layout. The results of all experiments showed that when
      all objects were positioned regularly, judgments of relative direction were
      faster or more accurate for novel headings that were aligned with the primary
      intrinsic structure than for other novel headings; however, when one irregularly
      positioned object was added to the layout, this advantage was eliminated. The
      experiments further indicated that with a single view at study, participants
      could represent the layout from either an egocentric orientation or a different
      orientation, according to experimental instructions. Together, these results
      suggest that environmental reference frames and intrinsic axes can influence
      performance for novel headings, but their role in spatial memory depends on
      egocentric experience, layout regularity, and instructions.

PMID- 28580838
TI  - A diagnostic pathologist's guide to carpal disease in racehorses.
AB  - As a pathologist, postmortem examination of the equine carpus can be daunting.
      The anatomy is complex and oftentimes, small or subtle lesions have significant
      impact on lameness and secondary lesions such as catastrophic musculoskeletal
      fractures and other injuries. In performance horses, particularly racehorses, the
      carpus is a common site of injury and source of lameness. Given the
      predisposition of racehorses to developing carpal disease, familiarity with
      clinically relevant anatomy and common developmental, degenerative, traumatic,
      and inflammatory processes are imperative for thorough postmortem examination.
      Our aim is (1) to provide a concise summary of clinically relevant anatomy and
      function that serves as a guide for postmortem evaluation of the equine carpus,
      and (2) to review common carpal injuries and diseases in actively training,
      racing, or retired racehorses, including developmental lesions (incomplete
      ossification, osteochondromata), infectious and inflammatory lesions (septic
      arthritis and tenosynovitis), and degenerative and traumatic lesions
      (degenerative and traumatic osteoarthritis, osteochondral fragmentation, and
      polyostotic catastrophic "breakdown" fractures). Representative gross and
      histologic images are presented along with corresponding antemortem and
      postmortem diagnostic images, and a review of current scientific literature
      pertaining to the pathogenesis of these equine carpal lesions.

PMID- 28580840
TI  - Gravimetric quantitative determination of packaging residues in feed from former
      food.
AB  - Valorisation of former foodstuff products (FFP) in feed is part of a long-term
      strategy for sustainability. An approach to valorise FFP outside the waste value
      chain is their use as an alternative source of feed materials, with a subsequent
      optimisation of the environmental impact of products. In the current practice of
      food production, food packaging is provided to ensure the maintenance of food
      quality and safety during transport and storage. One of the problems of reusing
      FFP is how to deal with packaging materials or remains that can become residues
      in the feed. The aim of this study is to propose a fast and sensitive gravimetric
      method, fit for routine official controls, for the determination of packaging
      residues in feed. The developed method can briefly be summarised as: (1) visual
      selection of the undesired ingredients which can be identified as remnants of
      packaging materials; (2) weighing of the selected materials; (3) defatting; (4)
      dehydration; (5) final weighing; and (6) reporting of weight and percentage.
      Moreover, the method has been validated through the determination of some of the
      parameters listed in Council Regulation 2004/882/EC (i.e., specificity, limit of
      quantification (LOQ), recovery, repeatability, within-laboratory reproducibility
      and measurement uncertainty).

PMID- 28580841
TI  - Safety and efficacy of Ofatumumab in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Increasing numbers of clinical studies have been carried out to
      investigate the therapeutic effect of Ofatumumab for patients with chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) but no studies have yet reported a pooled estimate of
      the treatment effect. We performed a meta-analysis of evidence from 13 clinical
      trials to assess effectiveness and safety of Ofatumumab-based therapy in patients
      with CLL. METHODS: Relevant publications from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and
      ClinicalTrials.gov were searched. The primary efficacy outcomes were progression
      free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The second endpoint was the
      adverse events. RESULTS: The pooled efficacy analysis showed that there were no
      significant difference in PFS [hazard ratios (HR) = 0.88, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) = 0.47-1.63, p = 0.677, I2 = 94.9%] and OS (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.70-1.36, p
      = 0.878, I2 = 58.7%) between Ofatumumab-based therapy and non-Ofatumumab therapy.
      The pooled toxicity analysis showed that Ofatumumab-based therapy was associated
      with an increased risk of infusion-related reaction but decreased risk of
      thrombocytopenia and anemia compared with non-Ofatumumab-based therapy. Moreover,
      infections, and infusion-related reaction occurred more frequently in
      participants with single Ofatumumab studies. DISCUSSION: Our analysis showed PFS
      was statistically significantly improved with Ofatumumab-based treatments
      (including Ofatumumab alone, Ofatumumab plus chemotherapy) for CLL compared with
      observation or chemotherapy-based regimen groups. Ofatumumab had no statistically
      significant improvement on the OS of patients with CLL. The Ofatumumab-based
      therapy could generally decrease the risk of adverse effects except infusion
      related reaction and infections.

PMID- 28580839
TI  - Epac and Nociceptor Sensitization.
AB  - Abstract: Primary sensory neurons are responsible for transmitting sensory
      information from the peripheral to the central nervous system. Their responses to
      incoming stimulation become greatly enhanced and prolonged following
      inflammation, giving rise to exaggerated nociceptive responses and chronic pain.
      The inflammatory mediator, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), released from the inflamed
      tissue surrounding the terminals of sensory neurons contributes to the abnormal
      pain responses. PGE2 acts on G protein-coupled EP receptors to activate adenylyl
      cyclase, which catalyzes the conversion of adenosine triphosphate to cyclic
      adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP). Under normal conditions, cAMP activates
      primarily protein kinase A. After inflammation, cAMP also activates the exchange
      proteins activated by cAMP (Epacs) to produce exaggerated PGE2-mediated
      hyperalgesia. The role of cAMP-Epac signaling in the generation of
      hypersensitivity is the topic of this review.

PMID- 28580843
TI  - Risk assessment of combined exposure to alkenylbenzenes through consumption of
      plant food supplements containing parsley and dill.
AB  - A risk assessment was performed of parsley- and dill-based plant food supplements
      (PFS) containing apiol and related alkenylbenzenes. First, the levels of the
      alkenylbenzenes in the PFS and the resulting estimated daily intake (EDI)
      resulting from use of the PFS were quantified. Since most PFS appeared to contain
      more than one alkenylbenzene, a combined risk assessment was performed based on
      equal potency or using a so-called toxic equivalency (TEQ) approach based on
      toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for the different alkenylbenzenes. The EDIs
      resulting from daily PFS consumption amount to 0.74-125 ug kg-1 bw for the
      individual alkenylbenzenes, 0.74-160 ug kg-1 bw for the sum of the
      alkenylbenzenes, and 0.47-64 ug kg-1 bw for the sum of alkenylbenzenes when
      expressed in safrole equivalents. The margins of exposure (MOEs) obtained were
      generally below 10,000, indicating a priority for risk management if the PFS were
      to be consumed on a daily basis. Considering short-term use of the PFS, MOEs
      would increase above 10,000, indicating low priority for risk management. It is
      concluded that alkenylbenzene intake through consumption of parsley- and dill
      based PFS is only of concern when these PFS are used for long periods of time.

PMID- 28580836
TI  - Ion channels and neuronal hyperexcitability in chemotherapy-induced peripheral
      neuropathy; cause and effect?
AB  - Abstract: Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and is a major
      global health burden. Significant improvements in survival have been achieved,
      due in part to advances in adjuvant antineoplastic chemotherapy. The most
      commonly used antineoplastics belong to the taxane, platinum, and vinca alkaloid
      families. While beneficial, these agents are frequently accompanied by severe
      side effects, including chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CPIN). While
      CPIN affects both motor and sensory systems, the majority of symptoms are
      sensory, with pain, tingling, and numbness being the predominant complaints. CPIN
      not only decreases the quality of life of cancer survivors but also can lead to
      discontinuation of treatment, thereby adversely affecting survival. Consequently,
      minimizing the incidence or severity of CPIN is highly desirable, but strategies
      to prevent and/or treat CIPN have proven elusive. One difficulty in achieving
      this goal arises from the fact that the molecular and cellular mechanisms that
      produce CPIN are not fully known; however, one common mechanism appears to be
      changes in ion channel expression in primary afferent sensory neurons. The
      processes that underlie chemotherapy-induced changes in ion channel expression
      and function are poorly understood. Not all antineoplastic agents directly affect
      ion channel function, suggesting additional pathways may contribute to the
      development of CPIN Indeed, there are indications that these drugs may mediate
      their effects through cellular signaling pathways including second messengers and
      inflammatory cytokines. Here, we focus on ion channelopathies as causal
      mechanisms for CPIN and review the data from both pre-clinical animal models and
      from human studies with the aim of facilitating the development of appropriate
      strategies to prevent and/or treat CPIN.

PMID- 28580844
TI  - Relapse of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and outcomes at a reference
      center in Latin America: organomegaly at diagnosis is a significant clinical
      predictor.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Relapse is the major cause of treatment failure in acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia (ALL) of childhood; it is more frequent among high-risk patients from
      low-middle income than from high-income countries. The frequency, sites and
      outcome of relapsed ALL in children of northeast Mexico over a decade was
      documented. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 246 children belonging to a low
      income group <16 years with de novo ALL during 2004-2015 was performed. Five-year
      overall survival (OS) and event-free survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier
      analysis. Data on time, site, response to therapy and final outcome of relapse
      were analyzed. Hazard ratios (HRs) of relapse and death were estimated by the Cox
      regression model. Very early relapse was defined as that occurring in <18 months,
      early relapse between 18 and 36 months, and late relapse >36 months from
      diagnosis, respectively. RESULTS: Eighty-seven (35.4%) children relapsed. Five
      year OS was 82.6% in children without relapse vs. 42% for relapsed patients. Bone
      marrow (BM) was the most frequent site of relapse (51.72%). Isolated central
      nervous system (CNS) relapses occurred in 29.9%. Five-year OS was 11.2% for BM
      and 15.5% for early relapse. HR of relapse for organomegaly was 3.683, 2.247 for
      an initial white blood cell count >50 000 * 109/l and 1.169 for positive minimal
      residual disease status. CONCLUSION: A high rate of very early, CNS, and BM
      relapse with a considerably low 5-year OS requiring reassessment of therapy was
      documented. Organomegaly at diagnosis was a highly significant clinical predictor
      for relapse.

PMID- 28580845
TI  - 'Nobody teases good girls': A qualitative study on perceptions of sexual
      harassment among young men in a slum of Mumbai.
AB  - Young adulthood is a key period in which gender norms are solidified. As a
      result, young women are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. In
      Delhi, over 90% of women have ever experienced sexual violence in public spaces.
      Sexual harassment of girls and women in public spaces is commonly named 'eve
      teasing' in India. Experience of sexual harassment in public spaces has been
      found to be associated with restricted mobility, interrupted education, and early
      age at marriage. Little is known about men's perspectives on eve teasing and how
      they believe it affects women and girls. This study fills that gap through
      qualitative research to explore the attitudes and perceptions of adolescent boys
      and young men on this topic. Ten focus group discussions were conducted in two
      slum communities in Mumbai. Coding and thematic analysis were performed. We
      identified themes of acceptance of harassment, weak sanctions, traditional gender
      norms supportive of harassment, and ideologies of male sexual entitlement. Many
      of the perceived risk and protective factors for sexual harassment in public
      spaces are operationalised at the community level. Community mobilisation is
      necessary in designing interventions focused on the primary and secondary
      prevention of sexual harassment.

PMID- 28580842
TI  - Understanding Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Knee Cartilage Repair: A Focus on
      Clinical Relevance.
AB  - The aims of this review article are (a) to describe the principles of morphologic
      and compositional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques relevant for the
      imaging of knee cartilage repair surgery and their application to longitudinal
      studies and (b) to illustrate the clinical relevance of pre- and postsurgical MRI
      with correlation to intraoperative images. First, MRI sequences that can be
      applied for imaging of cartilage repair tissue in the knee are described,
      focusing on comparison of 2D and 3D fast spin echo and gradient recalled echo
      sequences. Imaging features of cartilage repair tissue are then discussed,
      including conventional (morphologic) MRI and compositional MRI techniques. More
      specifically, imaging techniques for specific cartilage repair surgery techniques
      as described above, as well as MRI-based semiquantitative scoring systems for the
      knee cartilage repair tissue-MR Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue and
      Cartilage Repair OA Knee Score-are explained. Then, currently available surgical
      techniques are reviewed, including marrow stimulation, osteochondral autograft,
      osteochondral allograft, particulate cartilage allograft, autologous chondrocyte
      implantation, and others. Finally, ongoing research efforts and future direction
      of cartilage repair tissue imaging are discussed.

PMID- 28580847
TI  - The effect of facial expressions on respirators contact pressures.
AB  - This study investigated the effect of four typical facial expressions (calmness,
      happiness, sadness and surprise) on contact characteristics between an N95
      filtering facepiece respirator and a headform. The respirator model comprised two
      layers (an inner layer and an outer layer) and a nose clip. The headform model
      was comprised of a skin layer, a fatty tissue layer embedded with eight muscles,
      and a skull layer. Four typical facial expressions were generated by the
      coordinated contraction of four facial muscles. After that, the distribution of
      the contact pressure on the headform, as well as the contact area, were
      calculated. Results demonstrated that the nasal clip could help make the
      respirator move closer to the nose bridge while causing facial discomfort.
      Moreover, contact areas varied with different facial expressions, and facial
      expressions significantly altered contact pressures at different key areas, which
      may result in leakage.

PMID- 28580848
TI  - Adsorption photobioreactor as a co-treatment system for ammonium and phosphate
      removal by the response surface method.
AB  - The co-treatment system of photosynthetic microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and
      adsorption was investigated as a possible combination of symbiotic mixed culture
      for the simultaneous removal of nutrients (ammonium and phosphate) and organic
      contaminants. In this study, response surface methodology for experimental design
      and optimization was used. For experiment operation, two factorial designs
      containing five chemical oxygen demand influent (CODin) concentrations (100, 200,
      400, 600 and 700 mg l-1) and hydraulic retention times (0.63, 1, 1.75, 2.5 and
      2.88 d) were applied. The co-treatment system performed successfully in removing
      both nutrients (nitrogen and phosphate) and COD, showing around 88%, 75% and 48%
      removal for the maximum level, respectively. The adsorption-photobioreactor
      (APBR) displayed superior performance of the microalgae growth rate compared to
      the photobioreactor. Also, the adsorption capacity (the uptake of COD) has been
      analysed with the first-order equation. The results showed that the experimental
      data of the APBR fit well with the model.

PMID- 28580850
TI  - [Advances in the pathogenesis of non alcoholic fatty liver disease].
AB  - Non alcoholic fatty liver disease is the hepatic manifestation of metabolic
      syndrome, and the most common liver disease. Its more aggressive form is the non
      alcoholic steatohepatitis. Multiple genetic and environmental factors lead to the
      accumulation of triglicerides and the inflammatory cascade. High fat diet,
      obesity, adipocyte dysfunction with cytokine production, insulin resistance and
      increased lipolysis with free fatty acid flux into the liver - all are the
      drivers of liver cell injury. Activation of inflammasome by damage- or pathogen
      associated molecular patterns results in "steril inflammation" and immune
      response, while the hepatic stellate cells and progenitor cells lead to
      fibrogenesis. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and gut dysbiosis are also of
      pivotal importance in the inflammation. Among the susceptible genetic factors,
      mutations of patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 and the transmembrane
      6 superfamily 2 genes play a role in the development and progression of the
      disease, similarly as do epigenetic regulators such as microRNAs and
      extracellular vesicles. Better understanding of the pathogenesis of non alcoholic
      fatty liver disease may identify novel therapeutic agents that improve the
      outcome of the disease. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(23): 882-894.

PMID- 28580849
TI  - [New - epicutaneous - method for the causal treatment of allergic diseases].
AB  - The only causal treatment for the allergic diseases is the allergen
      immunotherapy. Besides oral and injection forms, an epicutaneous form is known as
      well. During the immunization process the use of an adjuvant material is
      advisable besides the allergen. That adjuvant material can be (besides of the
      aluminium hydroxid and tyrosine) a bacterial toxin, too. In idealistic
      circumstances we can substitute the native allergen with its recombinant variant,
      which could keep its immunogenicity but had lost the allergenicity. In the future
      the recommended therapy could be the safe, painless, epicutaneous
      hyposensitization, with recombinant allergens, with bacterial toxin as adjuvants.
      Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(23): 895-899.

PMID- 28580851
TI  - [Female child sexual abuse].
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIM: The prevalence of child sexual abuse is 12-13% worldwide
      (18% by girls, 8% by boys). The exact knowledge of sexual abuse and the spread of
      the adequate medical diagnosis is an essential medical, social and national
      requirement. In our present study we examine the medical diagnosis of female
      child sexual abuse. METHOD: Selective literature research in the available
      international and domestic databases. RESULTS: Majority of children assessed for
      suspected sexual abuse have normal genital and anal findings. Contrary to popular
      belief, the majority of child sexual abuse is a chronic multiple event, caused by
      a family member. The task of the medical staff is difficult and various, due to
      the diagnostic challenges of child sexual abuse. The difficulties of the medical
      diagnosis, evaluation and therapy, the complexity of the legal proceedings and
      prosecution, the isolation of the profession and the victim and the issue treated
      like a taboo subject often lead to failure. CONCLUSION: The physicians dealing
      with children have suboptimal knowledge of child sexual abuse, the
      characteristics of victims and perpetretors, the medical diagnosis and therapy of
      sexual abuse and the rehabilitation of victims. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(23): 910
      917.

PMID- 28580853
TI  - [Hungarian Philadelphia negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasia registry.
      Evaluation of the Polycythemia vera patients].
AB  - : Intruduction and aim: The Hungarian National Registry for Philadelphia
      chromosome negative myeloproliferative neoplasms has been developed. The aim of
      the recent study is to assess the clinical characteristics of Hungarian patients
      with polycythemia vera. METHOD: Data of 351 JAK2V617F and exon 12 mutation
      positive polycythemia vera patients were collected online from 15 haematology
      centres reporting epidemiologic, clinical characteristics, diagnostic tools,
      therapeutic interventions, thromboembolic complications, disease transformations.
      Vascular events prior to and after diagnosis were evaluated upon the Landolfi
      risk assessment scale. RESULTS: 116 thromboembolic events were reported in 106 PV
      patients prior to diagnosis and 152 occasions in 102 patients during follow-up.
      The frequency of major arterial events were significantly reduced (p<0.0001) and
      the minor venous events were significantly elevated (p<0.0001) after the
      diagnosis. Major hemorrhagic complications were found in 25 and transformation in
      26 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our registry allows to collect and evaluate the features
      of patients with polycythemia vera. The Landolfi risk stratification was proven
      to be useful. Based on evaluated data, accuracy of diagnostic criteria and
      compliance to risk-adapted therapeutic guidelines are needed. Orv Hetil. 2017;
      158(23): 901-909.

PMID- 28580855
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of providing measles vaccination to all children in Guinea
      Bissau.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Measles vaccination is associated with major reductions in child
      mortality and morbidity. In Guinea-Bissau, to limit vaccine wastage, children are
      only measles-vaccinated if at least six children aged 9-11 months are present at
      a vaccination session. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness
      of providing measles vaccine (MV) to all children regardless of age and number of
      children present. METHODS: We estimated MV coverage among children living in
      villages cluster-randomized to MV for all children and among children cluster
      randomized to the current restrictive MV policy (status quo). Prices of MV and
      injection equipment were obtained from the United Nations Children's Fund
      (UNICEF). Cost savings of hospital admissions averted were collected from a
      sample of health facilities. The non-specific mortality effects of MV were
      estimated and presented as deaths averted and life years gained (LYG) from
      providing MV-for-all. RESULTS: MV coverage at 36 months was 97% in MV-for-all
      clusters and 84% in restrictive MV policy clusters. Conservatively assuming 90%
      wastage of MV under the MV-for-all policy and 40% under the restrictive MV
      policy, cost per child vaccinated was USD 3.08 and USD 1.19, respectively. The
      incremental costs per LYG and death averted of the MV-for-all policy were USD
      5.61 and USD 148, respectively. The MV-for-all policy became cost-saving at 88%
      wastage. CONCLUSIONS: Taking the low cost of MV and the beneficial non-specific
      effects of MV into consideration, a 10-dose MV vial should be reclassified as a
      '1+ dose vial'. The vial should be opened for a single child, irrespective of
      age, but can vaccinate up to 10 children.

PMID- 28580856
TI  - Short-Term Perioperative Complications and Mortality After Total Ankle
      Arthroplasty in the United States.
AB  - : This study sought to identify patient and operative demographics associated
      with 30-day perioperative complications in patients undergoing total ankle
      arthroplasty as recorded in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project
      database. Complications were divided into local and systemic and further
      subcategorized as major and minor. A total of 404 patients underwent total ankle
      arthroplasty between 2007 and 2014 as captured in the National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Project database. The overall complication rate was 2.4% with 0.5%
      mortality and 0.2% infection rate. Length of hospital stay, both as an end point
      at >5 days and as a continuous variable, was associated with overall
      complications (odds ratio [OR] = 9.90, P = .002 and OR = 1.52, P = .006,
      respectively). Patient characteristics that predicted perioperative morbidity
      included presence of 3 or comorbidities (OR = 8.48, P = 0.038), American Society
      of Anesthesiologists class III, and history of previous cardiac surgery (OR =
      12.22, P = .033). Correct patient selection is imperative in achieving improved
      outcomes and those that are at risk for complications should be counseled as
      such. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level III: Database case control study.

PMID- 28580857
TI  - Factors Influencing Patient-Perceived Satisfaction With Community-Based Case
      Management Services.
AB  - This study aimed to identify factors that significantly affect patient-perceived
      satisfaction with community-based case management services and provide practical
      strategies for improving patient-perceived quality of care. Secondary data
      analyses were performed in 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2016, which included Pearson's
      and Spearman's correlation, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, and stepwise
      multiple regression. The response variable was measured by the Korean Patient
      Perceived Satisfaction Scale of Community-Based Case Management Services (Korean
      PSCCM; a 10-level Likert-type scale), whereas explanatory variables were derived
      from prior studies. Significant predictors of patient-perceived satisfaction with
      community-based case management services included "capacity to change," "patient
      perceived time spent with a case manager," "support/advocacy," "working period,"
      and "emotional connectedness."

PMID- 28580854
TI  - Changes in lower limb muscle function and muscle mass following exercise-based
      interventions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A review of
      the English-language literature.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients often experience lower limb
      muscle dysfunction and wasting. Exercise-based training has potential to improve
      muscle function and mass, but literature on this topic is extensive and
      heterogeneous including numerous interventions and outcome measures. This review
      uses a detailed systematic approach to investigate the effect of this wide range
      of exercise-based interventions on muscle function and mass. PUBMED and PEDro
      databases were searched. In all, 70 studies ( n = 2504 COPD patients) that
      implemented an exercise-based intervention and reported muscle strength,
      endurance, or mass in clinically stable COPD patients were critically appraised.
      Aerobic and/or resistance training, high-intensity interval training, electrical
      or magnetic muscle stimulation, whole-body vibration, and water-based training
      were investigated. Muscle strength increased in 78%, muscle endurance in 92%, and
      muscle mass in 88% of the cases where that specific outcome was measured. Despite
      large heterogeneity in exercise-based interventions and outcome measures used,
      most exercise-based trials showed improvements in muscle strength, endurance, and
      mass in COPD patients. Which intervention(s) is (are) best for which subgroup of
      patients remains currently unknown. Furthermore, this literature review
      identifies gaps in the current knowledge and generates recommendations for future
      research to enhance our knowledge on exercise-based interventions in COPD
      patients.

PMID- 28580858
TI  - Suboptimal palliative sedation in primary care: an exploration.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Palliative sedation is a therapeutic option to control refractory
      symptoms in terminal palliative patients. This study aims at describing the
      occurrence and characteristics of suboptimal palliative sedations in primary care
      and at exploring the way general practitioners (GPs) experience suboptimal
      palliative sedation in their practice. METHODS: We conducted a mixed methods
      study with a quantitative prospective survey in primary care and qualitative semi
      structured interviews with GPs. The research team defined suboptimal palliative
      sedation as a time interval until deep sleep >1.5 h and/ or >2 awakenings after
      the start of the unconsciousness. Descriptive statistics were calculated on the
      quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse interview transcripts.
      RESULTS: We registered 63 palliative sedations in 1181 home deaths, 27 forms were
      completed. Eleven palliative sedations were suboptimal: eight due to the long
      time span until deep sleep; three due the number of unintended awakenings. GPs'
      interview analysis revealed two major themes: the shifting perception of failure
      and the burden of responsibility. CONCLUSIONS: Suboptimal palliative sedation
      occurs frequently in primary palliative care. Efficient communication towards
      family members is needed to prevent them from having unrealistic expectations and
      to prevent putting pressure on the GP to hasten the procedure. Sharing the burden
      of decision-making during the procedure with other health care professionals
      might diminish the heavy responsibility as perceived by GPs.

PMID- 28580859
TI  - Isolated spinal cord compression syndrome revealing delayed extensive superficial
      siderosis of the central nervous system secondary to cervical root avulsion.
AB  - CONTEXT: Cervical root avulsion secondary to traumatic plexus injury is a rare
      etiology of superficial siderosis (SS) of the central nervous system (CNS). We
      describe the case of an isolated progressive compressive myelopathy revealing
      this complication and discuss the pathogenesis of such a presentation, its
      clinical and imaging peculiarities with a literature review. FINDINGS: We report
      on the case of a 48-year-old man with history of left brachial plexus injury at
      the age of 2 years. Since the age of 38 years, he had presented with a
      progressive paraplegia, bladder and erectile dysfunction, neuropathic pain and
      sensory level. The diagnosis was made by spinal cord and brain magnetic resonance
      follow-up imaging revealing hypointensity T2-weighted gradient echo linear dark
      rim around the entire neuraxis and cervical dural pseudomeningoceles. These MRI
      findings were suggestive of extensive hemosiderin deposition consolidating the
      diagnosis of SS of CNS. CONCLUSION/CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Our case report
      illustrates diagnosis difficulties in unusual or paucisymptomatic presentations
      of SS. A history of brachial plexus trauma with nerve root avulsion should prompt
      gradient-echo T2-weighted imaging to bring out such a complication. Superficial
      siderosis of the CNS should be included in the panel of differential diagnosis of
      the parethospastic syndromes and compressive myelopathy.

PMID- 28580860
TI  - The effects of social concern goals on the value of learning and on the
      intentions of medical students to change their majors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the process of developing a professional medical expertise, goals
      can become a psychological impetus and act as a source of retaining an
      individual's persistency. Therefore, the goals of medical students should be
      considered when designing a curriculum for health professions. PURPOSE: The
      purpose of this study was to examine relative effects of goal categories on the
      value of learning and intention to change one's major. METHOD: Data were obtained
      from the Korea Education Longitudinal Study, which included 1938 representative
      Korean college freshmen majoring in medicine, engineering, natural science and
      humanities. They answered a survey questionnaire about goal categories (i.e.,
      social concern, affiliation, self-growth, leisure, wealth, and fame), the value
      of learning, and intention to change one's major. RESULTS: For medical students,
      social concern goals were positively related to the value of learning and
      negatively related to the intention to change one's major. Social concern goals
      decreased the intention to change one's major directly, and also indirectly
      through increased value of learning. CONCLUSION: Providing context for enhancing
      medical students' social concern goals is necessary in a medical training
      curriculum, not only for the students' professional development but also for
      improving society. ABBREVIATIONS: GCT: Goal contents theory GPA: Grade point
      average KELS: Korea education longitudinal study SDLA: Self-directed learning
      abilities SDT: Self-determination theory.

PMID- 28580861
TI  - Factors associated with upper extremity contractures after cervical spinal cord
      injury: A pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of joint contractures in the upper limb and
      association with voluntary strength, innervation status, functional status, and
      demographics in a convenience sample of individuals with cervical spinal cord
      injury to inform future prospective studies. DESIGN: Cross-sectional convenience
      sampled pilot study. SETTING: Department of Veterans Affairs Research Laboratory.
      PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-eight participants with cervical level spinal cord injury.
      INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Contractures were measured
      with goniometric passive range of motion. Every joint in the upper extremity was
      evaluated bilaterally. Muscle strength was measured with manual muscle testing.
      Innervation status was determined clinically with surface electrical stimulation.
      Functional independence was measured with the Spinal Cord Independence Measure
      III (SCIM-III). RESULTS: Every participant tested had multiple joints with
      contractures and, on average, participants were unable to achieve the normative
      values of passive movement in 52% of the joints tested. Contractures were most
      common in the shoulder and hand. There was a weak negative relationship between
      percentage of contractures and time post-injury and a moderate positive
      relationship between percentage of contractures and age. There was a strong
      negative correlation between SCIM-III score and percentage of contractures.
      CONCLUSIONS: Joint contractures were noted in over half of the joints tested.
      These joint contractures were associated with decreased functional ability as
      measured by the SCIM-III. This highlights the need the need for detailed
      evaluation of the arm and hand early after injury as well as continued monitoring
      of joint characteristics throughout the life course of the individual with
      tetraplegia.

PMID- 28580862
TI  - Which will Trump: human rights and professional ethics, or torture redux?
AB  - Recent political developments in the United States raise concerns about the
      potential return of aggressive interrogation strategies, particularly in the
      event of another large-scale terror attack on the U.S. mainland. This essay
      reviews various legal, ethical and policy responses to revelations of torture
      during the Bush administration. It asks whether they improve the prospect that,
      in future, human rights will trump torture, not vice versa. The essay argues that
      physicians could help prevent further abuses - especially given their access,
      social status and expertise - but that insufficient steps have been taken to
      empower them to do so.

PMID- 28580863
TI  - Validation of a quantitative Eimeria spp. PCR for fresh droppings of broiler
      chickens.
AB  - A quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) for the seven chicken Eimeria
      spp. was modified and validated for direct use on fresh droppings. The analytical
      specificity of the qPCR on droppings was 100%. Its analytical sensitivity (non
      sporulated oocysts/g droppings) was 41 for E. acervulina, <=2900 for E. brunetti,
      710 for E. praecox, 1500 for E. necatrix, 190 for E. tenella, 640 for E. maxima,
      and 1100 for E. mitis. Field validation of the qPCR was done using droppings with
      non-sporulated oocysts from 19 broiler flocks. To reduce the number of qPCR tests
      five grams of each pooled sample (consisting of ten fresh droppings) per time
      point were blended into one mixed sample. Comparison of the oocysts per gram
      (OPG)-counting method with the qPCR using pooled samples (n = 1180) yielded a
      Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.76-0.80) and a Pearson's
      correlation coefficient of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.70-0.81) using mixed samples (n =
      236). Comparison of the average of the OPG-counts of the five pooled samples with
      the mixed sample per time point (n = 236) showed a Pearson's correlation
      coefficient (R) of 0.94 (95% CI: 0.92-0.95) for the OPG-counting method and 0.87
      (95% CI: 0.84-0.90) for the qPCR. This indicates that mixed samples are
      practically equivalent to the mean of five pooled samples. The good correlation
      between the OPG-counting method and the qPCR was further confirmed by the visual
      agreement between the total oocyst/g shedding patterns measured with both
      techniques in the 19 broiler flocks using the mixed samples.

PMID- 28580864
TI  - Increasing Social Support for Breakfast: Project BreakFAST.
AB  - : High school students in the United States are known to be frequent skippers of
      breakfast. Social support is one key element needed to encourage adolescents to
      consume school breakfast. This article presents an analysis of the influence of a
      school policy and environment change intervention on the social support of
      adolescents to eat breakfast. METHOD: The intervention included school policy
      changes in 16 schools randomized to intervention and delayed-intervention
      conditions, in order to allow quick and easy access to breakfast as well as to
      allow breakfast consumption in classrooms and hallways; a School Breakfast
      Program marketing campaign to address normative and attitudinal beliefs; and
      increasing social support and role modeling to encourage breakfast eating. The
      participants in the study completed an online survey at baseline and again
      postintervention. RESULTS: The final analysis included only students who
      completed the relevant survey (n = 904) items on both the baseline and follow-up
      surveys. The students in the intervention group showed a higher level of social
      support post intervention than the control group with a significant adjusted p of
      .02. Most of the overall social support change was explained by a change in the
      "other kids at my school" and "other school staff" categories. CONCLUSIONS: The
      BreakFAST study shows the benefits of school staff and kids other than friends
      supporting a behavior change to include breakfast consumption in adolescents.

PMID- 28580866
TI  - Complications after hand surgery in patients with a raised International
      Normalized Ratio.
AB  - : A multicentre database was used to compare complications in 231 patients with
      an elevated International Normalized Ratio with 1626 control patients with a
      normal International Normalized Ratio. Patients with International Normalized
      Ratios measured within 48 hours of hand surgery were identified. Logistic
      regression models were used to assess the association between anticoagulation and
      reoperation rates, emergency department visits and hospital readmissions for the
      first 30 days after operation. The group with a raised International Normalized
      Ratio had a significantly higher Charlson Comorbidity Score. An elevated
      International Normalized Ratio was associated with an odds ratio for a post
      operative emergency department visit of 3.3 and an odds ratio of 4.7 for
      readmission. There was no statistically significant difference in early
      reoperations between the two groups. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28580867
TI  - Impact of perioperative anticoagulation on artificial urinary sphincter device
      survival.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of perioperative
      anticoagulation on artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) device outcomes. METHODS:
      Following institutional review board approval, patients undergoing AUS surgery
      from 1983 to 2014 were evaluated to assess device survival in patients with
      warfarin use compared to individuals without warfarin use. Hazard regression
      analysis was used to determine the association between warfarin use and device
      outcomes. RESULTS: From 1983 to 2014, there were 2125 AUS procedures at Mayo
      Clinic. Of these, information regarding anticoagulation use was available in 651,
      including 43 patients who were on warfarin and 608 who were not. On univariate
      analysis, the use of warfarin was associated with an increased rate of
      infection/erosion [hazard ratio (HR) 2.58, p = 0.02]. However, there was no
      increased risk of overall AUS failure (HR 1.66, p = 0.06), malfunction of AUS (HR
      1.19, p = 0.74) or urethral atrophy (HR 1.09, p = 0.88). Kaplan-Meier assessment
      of device survival for individuals not on warfarin versus individuals on warfarin
      at 1 and 5 years was 91% versus 83% and 72% versus 57%, respectively (p = 0.058).
      On multivariate analysis, warfarin was not associated with an increased risk of
      infection/erosion (HR 1.37, p = 0.51). CONCLUSION: Perioperative management of
      AUS patients on warfarin requires expert care; however, long-term AUS device
      survival is not significantly affected by warfarin use. Recognition of these
      outcomes is important for improving preoperative patient counseling and surgical
      patient selection.

PMID- 28580865
TI  - The association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and childhood
      respiratory disease: a review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Childhood respiratory illness is a major cause of morbidity and
      mortality particularly in low and middle-income countries. Environmental tobacco
      smoke (ETS) exposure is a recognised risk factor for both acute and chronic
      respiratory illness. Areas covered: The aim of this paper was to review the
      epidemiology of ETS exposure and impact on respiratory health in children. We
      conducted a search of 3 electronic databases of publications on ETS and childhood
      respiratory illness from 1990-2015. Key findings were that up to 70% of children
      are exposed to ETS globally, but under-reporting may mask the true prevalence.
      Maternal smoking and ETS exposure influence infant lung development and are
      associated with childhood upper and lower respiratory tract infection, wheezing
      or asthma. Further, exposure to ETS is associated with more severe respiratory
      disease. ETS exposure reduces lung function early in life, establishing an
      increased lifelong risk of poor lung health. Expert commentary: Urgent and
      effective strategies are needed to decrease ETS exposure in young children to
      improve child and long-term lung health in adults especially in low and middle
      income countries where ETS exposure is increasing.

PMID- 28580868
TI  - Cell-Cycle Therapeutics Come of Age.
AB  - The ability to sustain unscheduled proliferation is a hallmark of cancer. The
      normal process of cell division occurs via the cell cycle, a series of highly
      regulated steps that are orchestrated at the molecular level by specific cyclins
      that act in association with cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). Cyclin D and CDK4/6
      play a key role in cell-cycle progression by phosphorylating and inactivating the
      retinoblastoma protein, a tumor suppressor that restrains G1- to S-phase
      progression. The first-generation CDK inhibitors demonstrated broad activity upon
      several CDKs, which likely explains their considerable toxicities and limited
      efficacy. Palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib represent a new class of
      highly specific ATP-competitive CDK4/6 inhibitors that induce reversible G1-phase
      cell-cycle arrest in retinoblastoma-positive tumor models. Both palbociclib and
      ribociclib have been approved in combination with hormone-based therapy for the
      treatment of naive hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer on the basis
      of an improvement in progression-free survival. In general, CDK4/6 inhibitors are
      cytostatic as monotherapy but demonstrate favorable tolerability, which has
      prompted interest in combination approaches. Combinations with
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors in
      breast cancer, and inhibitors of the RAS/RAF/mitogen-activated protein kinase
      pathway in RAS-mutant cancers are particularly promising approaches that are
      currently being evaluated. Although the subject of intense preclinical study,
      predictive biomarkers for response and resistance to these drugs remain largely
      undefined. CDK4/6 inhibitors have emerged as the most promising of the cell-cycle
      therapeutics and intense efforts are now underway to expand the reach of this
      paradigm.

PMID- 28580869
TI  - BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of chronic myeloid
      leukemia.
AB  - The management of chronic myeloid leukemia with BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors has evolved chronic myeloid leukemia into a chronic, manageable
      disease. A patient-centered approach is important for the appropriate management
      of chronic myeloid leukemia and optimization of long-term treatment outcomes. The
      pharmacist plays a key role in treatment selection, monitoring drug-drug
      interactions, identification and management of adverse events, and educating
      patients on adherence. The combination of tyrosine kinase inhibitors with unique
      safety profiles and individual patients with unique medical histories can make
      managing treatment difficult. This review will provide up-to-date information
      regarding tyrosine kinase inhibitor-based treatment of patients with chronic
      myeloid leukemia. Management strategies for adverse events and considerations for
      drug-drug interactions will not only vary among patients but also across tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors. Drug-drug interactions can be mild to severe. In instances
      where co-administration of concomitant medications cannot be avoided, it is
      critical to understand how drug levels are impacted and how subsequent dose
      modifications ensure therapeutic drug levels are maintained. An important
      component of patient-centered management of chronic myeloid leukemia also
      includes educating patients on the significance of early and regular monitoring
      of therapeutic milestones, emphasizing the importance of adhering to treatment in
      achieving these targets, and appropriately modifying treatment if these clinical
      goals are not being met. Overall, staying apprised of current research, utilizing
      the close pharmacist-patient relationship, and having regular interactions with
      patients, will help achieve successful long-term treatment of chronic myeloid
      leukemia in the age of BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

PMID- 28580871
TI  - Pharmacoeconomic evaluations in the treatment of actinic keratoses.
AB  - Actinic keratoses (AKs) develop as a consequence of chronic ultraviolet (UV)
      exposure and exist on a continuum with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). As one of
      the most common conditions treated by dermatologists, AK places a significant
      burden on patients and the healthcare system. A range of treatments are used,
      including topical treatments that target the visible and subclinical lesions. The
      goal of such therapies is to achieve complete clearance of AKs and eliminate the
      risk of progression to SCC. Robust meta-analyses of trial data can provide
      valuable information for the optimal management of AK and cost-effectiveness
      evaluations of topical treatments, such as ingenol mebutate gel and diclofenac.
      These outcomes can facilitate prescribing physicians' decisions and shape
      therapeutic guidelines. Peer-reviewed meta-analysis publications and treatment
      guidelines favoured ingenol mebutate efficacy over diclofenac and the relative
      cost-effectiveness of ingenol mebutate. We discuss and critique recent evidence,
      from a cost-effectiveness analysis of 3% diclofenac sodium and ingenol mebutate
      in the treatment of AK in Italy, which has challenged this view.

PMID- 28580870
TI  - Application of microfluidic devices in studies of thrombosis and hemostasis.
AB  - Due to the importance of fluid flow during thrombotic episodes, it is quite
      appropriate to study clotting and bleeding processes in devices that have well
      defined fluid shear environments. Two common devices for applying these defined
      shear stresses include the cone-and-plate viscometer and parallel-plate flow
      chamber. While such tools have many salient features, they require large amounts
      of blood or other protein components. With growth in the area of microfluidics
      over the last two decades, it has become feasible to miniaturize such flow
      devices. Such miniaturization not only enables saving of precious samples but
      also increases the throughput of fluid shear devices, thus enabling the design of
      combinatorial experiments and making the technique more accessible to the larger
      scientific community. In addition to simple flows that are common in traditional
      flow apparatus, more complex geometries that mimic stenosed arteries and the
      human microvasculature can also be generated. The composition of the
      microfluidics cell substrate can also be varied for diverse basic science
      investigations, and clinical investigations that aim to assay either individual
      patient coagulopathy or response to anti-coagulation treatment. This review
      summarizes the current state of the art for such microfluidic devices and their
      applications in the field of thrombosis and hemostasis.

PMID- 28580872
TI  - Effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus acidophilus on bacterial
      vaginal pathogens.
AB  - The human vagina is colonized by a variety of microbes. Lactobacilli are the most
      common, mainly in healthy women; however, the microbiota composition can change
      rapidly, leading to infection or to a state in which potential pathogenic
      microorganisms co-exist with other commensals. In premenopausal women, urogenital
      infections, such as bacterial vaginosis and aerobic vaginitis, remain an
      important health problem. Treatment of these infections involves different kind
      of antibiotics; however, the recurrence rate remains high, and it must be also
      underlined that antibiotics are unable to spontaneously restore normal flora
      characterized by an abundant community of Lactobacilli. The main limitation is
      the inability to offer a long-term defensive barrier, thus facilitating relapses
      and recurrences. We report here the antimicrobial activities of two commercially
      existing Lactobacillus strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus
      acidophilus GLA-14 strains and their combination (Respecta(r) probiotic blend)
      against four different pathogens responsible for both bacterial vaginosis (
      Gardenerella vaginalis and Atopobium vaginae) and aerobic vaginitis (
      Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli) by co-culturing assay. The probiotic
      combination, even if resulting in a different microbicidal activity against the
      different strains tested, demonstrated the efficacy of combined Lactobacillus
      strain treatment.

PMID- 28580873
TI  - Aquaporin-4-IgG-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder with recurrent
      short partial transverse myelitis and favorable prognosis: Two new cases.
AB  - Understanding the characteristics of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder
      (NMOSD) with recurrent short partial transverse myelitis (SPTM), which is very
      rare, contributes to the differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). We
      present two Chinese aquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G (AQP4-IgG)-seropositive NMOSD
      cases who had at least twice SPTM during 4 and 6 years of follow-up,
      respectively. Their SPTMs have been mild and responded well to corticosteroids
      just like in the case of MS. The findings highlight the need of searching for
      serum AQP4-IgG (cell-based assay strongly recommended) in patients with recurrent
      SPTM and suggest that those patients may have a mild acute attack phase and
      favorable long-term prognosis.

PMID- 28580874
TI  - Online detection and quantification of particles of ergot bodies in cereal flour
      using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging.
AB  - The objective of this study is to assess near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral
      imaging for the detection of ergot bodies at the particle level in cereal flour.
      For this study, ground ergot body samples and wheat flour samples as well as
      mixtures of both from 100 to 500,000 mg kg-1 were analysed. Partial least squares
      discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were developed and applied to spectral
      images in order to detect the ergot body particles. Ergot was detected in 100% of
      samples spiked at more than 10,000 mg kg-1 and no false-positives were obtained
      with non-contaminated samples. A correlation of 0.99 was calculated between the
      reference values and the values predicted by the PLS-DA model. For the cereal
      flours containing less than 10,000 mg kg-1 of ergot, it was possible for some
      samples spiked as low as 100 mg kg-1 to detect enough pixels of ergot to conclude
      that the sample was contaminated. However, some samples were under- or
      overestimated, which can be explained by the lack of homogeneity in relation to
      the sampling issue and the thickness of the sample. This study has demonstrated
      the potential of NIR hyperspectral imaging combined with chemometrics as an
      alternative solution for discriminating ergot body particles from cereal flour.

PMID- 28580877
TI  - Clinical commentary on 'Aquaporin-4-IgG-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum
      disorder with recurrent short partial transverse myelitis and favorable
      prognosis: Two new cases', by Wang et al.

PMID- 28580876
TI  - Multiple Sclerosis: Associations Between Physical Disability and Depression Are
      Not Mediated by Self-Reported Physical Activity.
AB  - This study investigated the interrelatedness of physical disability, physical
      activity, and depression among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We
      hypothesized that self-reported physical activity would mediate the effect of
      disability on depressive symptoms. Twenty-seven patients with MS (mean age: 49
      years; 44.5% females) completed self-rating scales covering sociodemographic
      variables, intake of antidepressants, physical activity, and symptoms of
      depression; disability was measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale. We
      found a higher level of disability to be significantly associated with more
      symptoms of depression. While higher reported physical activity was descriptively
      associated with lower depression scores and unrelated to Expanded Disability
      Status Scale, physical activity levels did not mediate the effect of disability
      on depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28580875
TI  - Matrix-Bound Nanovesicles Recapitulate Extracellular Matrix Effects on Macrophage
      Phenotype.
AB  - The early macrophage response to biomaterials has been shown to be a critical and
      predictive determinant of downstream outcomes. When properly prepared,
      bioscaffolds composed of mammalian extracellular matrix (ECM) have been shown to
      promote a transition in macrophage behavior from a proinflammatory to a
      regulatory/anti-inflammatory phenotype, which in turn has been associated with
      constructive and functional tissue repair. The mechanism by which ECM
      bioscaffolds promote this phenotypic transition, however, is poorly understood.
      The present study shows that matrix-bound nanovesicles (MBV), a component of ECM
      bioscaffolds, are capable of recapitulating the macrophage activation effects of
      the ECM bioscaffold from which they are derived. MBV isolated from two different
      source tissues, porcine urinary bladder and small intestinal submucosa, were
      found to be enriched in miRNA125b-5p, 143-3p, and 145-5p. Inhibition of these
      miRNAs within macrophages was associated with a gene and protein expression
      profile more consistent with a proinflammatory rather than an anti
      inflammatory/regulatory phenotype. MBV and their associated miRNA cargo appear to
      play a significant role in mediating the effects of ECM bioscaffolds on
      macrophage phenotype.

PMID- 28580878
TI  - Optimizing adherence to advice from antimicrobial stewardship audit and feedback
      rounds.
AB  - We examined adherence to antimicrobial stewardship prospective audit and feedback
      rounds in a rehabilitation service compared with the remainder of the acute
      hospital, and explored the reasons for this. Between October 2014 and December
      2015, we retrospectively assessed the rate of non-adherence to advice from
      antimicrobial stewardship prospective audit and feedback rounds between the
      rehabilitation service and the acute hospital, along with the source of the
      patient referral. Compared with the rehabilitation service, acute hospital
      medical staff were almost twice as likely to not adhere to advice provided on
      antimicrobial stewardship prospective audit and feedback rounds (13.8% vs. 7.6%,
      p < 0.0001, relative risk 1.8 [95% confidence interval 1.3, 2.5]). In the
      rehabilitation service, referrals were more likely to come from medical staff
      (61.9% vs. 16.3%, p < 0.0001). These findings may be explained by regular, direct
      engagement of the antimicrobial stewardship team with the rehabilitation service
      clinical team, a model potentially applicable to other settings.

PMID- 28580880
TI  - Fibromyalgia in patients with chronic CCD and CMD - A retrospective study of 555
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Craniomandibular dysfunction (CMD) and craniocervical dysfunction
      (CCD) are clearly defined musculoskeletal pain syndromes. Relationships with
      fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) have not yet been investigated. The aim of the
      present study is to establish possible relationships between FMS and CMD/ CCD.
      METHODS: In a retrospective study, 555 patients with CCD and CMD were
      investigated with respect to the diagnostic criteria of FMS. In addition to
      otolaryngologic and dental examination, an instrumental functional analysis for
      the diagnosis of CMD/CCD was performed. RESULTS: Three hundred fifty-one (63%) of
      the 555 patients evaluated met the diagnostic criteria for FMS. Seventy-two
      percent of the patients had a widespread pain index of at least 7 and a severity
      scale score of at least 5. Twenty-nine percent had a widespread pain index of 3-6
      and a severity scale score of at least 9. Using myocentric bite splint therapy
      and therapy with oral orthesis in combination with neuromuscular relaxation
      measures, a good to very good improvement of physical symptoms was seen in 84% of
      CMD-FMS patients, and an improvement of the symptoms in the jaw was achieved in
      77% of cases. DISCUSSION: The substantial proportion of CMD and CCD patients who
      meet the criteria for FMS emphasizes the complexity of the two diseases. It must
      be assumed that FMS is a crucial factor for the formation of CMD and CCD.
      Conversely, CMD/ CCD could also be responsible for diverse clinical pictures of
      the FMS. FMS patients with synchronous CCD/CMD benefit from an interdisciplinary
      CMD/CCD treatment.

PMID- 28580879
TI  - Anti-homosexual legislation and HIV-related stigma in African nations: what has
      been the role of PEPFAR?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gay men and other men who have sex with men are disproportionately
      burdened by HIV infection. Laws that penalize same-sex intercourse contribute to
      a cycle of stigma, homonegativity and discrimination. In many African nations,
      laws criminalizing homosexuality may be fueling the epidemic, as they dissuade
      key populations from seeking treatment and health care providers from offering
      it. OBJECTIVES: We analyzed the ways in which policies and practices of the US
      President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program addressed pervasively
      harsh anti-homosexuality laws across Africa. Given the aim of the US PEPFAR
      program to reduce stigma surrounding HIV, we explored how PEPFAR may have used
      its influence to reduce the criminalization of homosexuality in the countries
      where it operated. METHODS: We assessed homosexuality laws in 21 African
      countries where PEPFAR funding sought to reduce the HIV epidemic. We examined
      PEPFAR Policy Framework agreements associated with those countries, and other
      PEPFAR documents, for evidence of attempts to reduce stigma by decriminalizing
      homosexuality. RESULTS: We found 16 of Africa's 21 PEPFAR-funded countries had
      laws characterized as harsh in relation to homosexuality. Among the top eight
      PEPFAR-funded countries in Africa, seven had harsh anti-homosexuality laws. Most
      (14) of the 16 African 'Partnership Framework' (PEPFAR) policy agreements between
      African governments and the US State Department call for stigma reduction;
      however, none call for reducing penalties on individuals who engage in homosexual
      behavior. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that while PEPFAR has acknowledged the
      negative role of stigma in fueling the HIV epidemic, it has, so far, missed
      opportunities to explicitly address the role of the criminalization of
      homosexuality in feeding stigmatizing attitudes. Our analysis suggests mechanisms
      like PEPFAR Partnership Framework agreements could be ideal vehicles to call for
      removal of anti-homosexuality legislation.

PMID- 28580881
TI  - Blocking the Cycle: Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/6 Inhibitors in Metastatic, Hormone
      Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer.
AB  - The Oncology Grand Rounds series is designed to place original reports published
      in the Journal into clinical context. A case presentation is followed by a
      description of diagnostic and management challenges, a review of the relevant
      literature, and a summary of the authors' suggested management approaches. The
      goal of this series is to help readers better understand how to apply the results
      of key studies, including those published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, to
      patients seen in their own clinical practice. A 68-year-old postmenopausal woman
      was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years ago when she presented with a stage II
      (T2N1), right-sided, invasive ductal carcinoma considered grade 2 of 3 on core
      biopsy, with a positive fine-needle aspiration of a palpable, ipsilateral
      axillary lymph node. Immunohistochemical analysis was positive for estrogen and
      progesterone receptor expression and negative for human epidermal growth factor
      receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression. She received neoadjuvant dose-dense
      doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel chemotherapy, followed by breast
      conserving surgery and axillary lymph node dissection, which revealed residual
      disease in three of 11 nodes. She received adjuvant radiation therapy and
      initiated letrozole, with excellent compliance during the interval 6-year period.
      While receiving adjuvant letrozole therapy, she reported 3 months of worsening
      back pain. Skeletal scintigraphy and cross-sectional imaging confirmed widespread
      osseous metastatic disease and right supraclavicular lymph node enlargement ( Fig
      1 ). Core biopsy of the involved lymph node confirmed estrogen receptor (ER)
      positive (90%), progesterone receptor-negative, HER2-negative recurrent
      metastatic breast cancer. The patient reported mild pain that was adequately
      controlled with over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications. She has remained
      active with an excellent performance status.

PMID- 28580883
TI  - Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/6 Inhibitors in the Treatment of Breast Cancer: More
      Breakthroughs and an Embarrassment of Riches.

PMID- 28580884
TI  - Specific and common processes as mediators of the long-term effects of cognitive
      behavioral therapy integrated with motivational interviewing for generalized
      anxiety disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A trial of psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
      demonstrated that motivational interviewing (MI) integrated with cognitive
      behavioral therapy (CBT) outperformed CBT alone on clients' worry reduction
      across a 12-month follow-up. In the present study, we hypothesized and tested
      that less client resistance and greater client-perceived therapist empathy
      (specific foci of MI) would account for MI's additive effect. Exploratory
      analyses assessed whether the common processes of homework completion and
      therapeutic alliance quality mediated the treatment effect. METHOD: Clients with
      GAD were randomized to 15 sessions of MI-CBT (n = 42) or CBT alone (n = 43).
      Worry was assessed throughout treatment and follow-up. Observers rated resistance
      at midtreatment, and clients reported on perceived therapist empathy, alliance,
      and homework completion throughout treatment. Mediation was tested with
      bootstrapping methods. RESULTS: Expectedly, MI-CBT clients evidenced less
      resistance and perceived greater therapist empathy, each of which related to
      lower 12-month worry. However, when both variables were tested simultaneously,
      only resistance remained a significant mediator of treatment. No indirect effects
      through homework completion or alliance emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing client
      resistance may be a theory-consistent mechanism through which integrative MI-CBT
      promotes superior long-term improvement than traditional CBT when treating GAD.
      Clinical or methodological significance of this article: This study further
      supports the long-term clinical benefit of integrating MI into CBT when treating
      the highly prevalent and historically difficult-to-treat condition of GAD. In
      particular, it points to the theory-specific mechanism of MI (helping to
      reduce/resolve patients' in-treatment resistance) as accounting for the
      integrative treatment's additive effect on worry reduction across a follow-up
      period. Therapists using CBT to treat patients with GAD should be trained to
      incorporate MI principles (e.g., empathy, collaboration, autonomy support) in
      general and in response to explicit markers of resistance.

PMID- 28580882
TI  - MONARCH 2: Abemaciclib in Combination With Fulvestrant in Women With HR+/HER2-
      Advanced Breast Cancer Who Had Progressed While Receiving Endocrine Therapy.
AB  - Purpose MONARCH 2 ( ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02107703) compared the
      efficacy and safety of abemaciclib, a selective cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6
      inhibitor, plus fulvestrant with fulvestrant alone in patients with advanced
      breast cancer (ABC). Patients and Methods MONARCH 2 was a global, double-blind,
      phase III study of women with hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2-negative ABC who had progressed while receiving
      neoadjuvant or adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET), <= 12 months from the end of
      adjuvant ET, or while receiving first-line ET for metastatic disease. Patients
      were randomly assigned 2:1 to receive abemaciclib or placebo (150 mg twice daily)
      on a continuous schedule and fulvestrant (500 mg, per label). The primary end
      point was investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS), and key
      secondary end points included overall survival, objective response rate (ORR),
      duration of response, clinical benefit rate, quality of life, and safety. Results
      Between August 2014 and December 2015, 669 patients were randomly assigned to
      receive abemaciclib plus fulvestrant (n = 446) or placebo plus fulvestrant (n =
      223). Abemaciclib plus fulvestrant significantly extended PFS versus fulvestrant
      alone (median, 16.4 v 9.3 months; hazard ratio, 0.553; 95% CI, 0.449 to 0.681; P
      < .001). In patients with measurable disease, abemaciclib plus fulvestrant
      achieved an ORR of 48.1% (95% CI, 42.6% to 53.6%) compared with 21.3% (95% CI,
      15.1% to 27.6%) in the control arm. The most common adverse events in the
      abemaciclib versus placebo arms were diarrhea (86.4% v 24.7%), neutropenia (46.0%
      v 4.0%), nausea (45.1% v 22.9%), and fatigue (39.9% v 26.9%). Conclusions
      Abemaciclib at 150 mg twice daily plus fulvestrant was effective, significantly
      improving PFS and ORR and demonstrating a tolerable safety profile in women with
      hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative
      ABC who progressed while receiving ET.

PMID- 28580885
TI  - beta-catenin Mutations Are Not Involved in Early-stage Hepatocarcinogenesis
      Induced by Protoporphyrinogen Oxidase Inhibitors in Mice.
AB  - We previously reported the contribution of constitutive androstane receptor (CAR)
      in cytotoxicity-related hepatocarcinogenesis induced by oxadiazon (OX) or
      acifluorfen (ACI), two pesticides categorized as protoporphyrinogen oxidase
      (PROTOX) inhibitors. The molecular characteristics of preneoplastic and
      neoplastic lesions induced by OX and ACI were immunohistochemically compared to
      those by phenobarbital (PB), a typical CAR activator, in wild-type (WT) and CAR
      knockout (CARKO) mice after diethylnitrosamine initiation. We focused on changes
      in beta-catenin and its transcriptional product glutamine synthetase (GS). In PB
      promoted foci and adenomas, nuclear accumulation of mutated beta-catenin was
      increased with high frequency. PB treatment also increased the multiplicity and
      area of GS-positive foci and adenomas in WT mice. No foci and adenomas showed
      nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin and expression of GS in CARKO mice, similar
      to both genotypes of mice treated with OX and ACI. Interestingly, hepatocellular
      carcinoma induced in ACI-treated WT mice showed nuclear accumulation of beta
      catenin and was positive for GS. Our results indicated that beta-catenin
      mutations were not involved in early-stage hepatocarcinogenesis induced by PROTOX
      inhibitors in mice, although activation of beta-catenin and CAR is important in
      PB-induced tumorigenesis. The significant differences in molecular profiles
      suggested involvements of multiple mode of actions for hepatocarcinogenesis
      induced by PROTOX inhibitors.

PMID- 28580886
TI  - Normal Developmental and Estrous Cycle-dependent Histological Features of the
      Female Reproductive Organs in Microminipigs.
AB  - The microminipig has become an increasingly attractive animal model for various
      experimental practices because of its manageable size; however, studies of the
      histological features of the female reproductive organs in microminipigs are
      limited. The present study investigates the sexual development of the
      reproductive organs and the cyclical changes during the estrous cycle in female
      microminipigs. The ovaries, oviducts, uteri, and vaginal tissues from 33 animals
      aged 0 to 26 months were utilized in this study. By evaluating the large tertiary
      follicles, corpora lutea, and the regressing corpora lutea, we estimated that
      female microminipigs reached puberty at approximately 5 months of age and sexual
      maturity at 8 months of age. The appearance of the follicles and corpora lutea in
      the ovaries, as well as the epithelium in other reproductive organs, was
      synchronized with each phase of the estrous cycle and was identical to that in
      common domestic pigs. In addition, several spontaneous findings were observed,
      including mesonephric duct remnants adjacent to oviducts and mineralization in
      ovaries. Understanding the normal histology of the reproductive organs in
      microminipigs is crucial for advancing pathological evaluations for future
      toxicological studies.

PMID- 28580887
TI  - Titanium Nanoparticle Size Influences Trace Concentration Levels in Skin
      Appendages.
AB  - As a result of biotribocorrosion, the surface of a titanium (Ti) biomedical
      device can be a potential source of systemic contamination with Ti nanoparticles
      (NPs). Although NPs can be chemically similar, differences in particle size may
      lead to different biological responses. The aim of this experimental study was to
      determine Ti trace levels in skin appendages and plasma and explore the influence
      of NP size on trace levels using a murine model. Results showed the presence of
      Ti traces in the nails, hair, and plasma. The concentration of the smallest NPs
      (5 Nm) was higher than that of 10 Nm NPs in all the studied samples. Irrespective
      of NP size, Ti levels were always lower in plasma than in skin appendages. Ti
      levels were higher in nails than in hair. Ti NPs size influenced trace
      concentration levels in hair/nails, suggesting that 5 Nm Ti particles are more
      easily eliminated through these skin appendages. Given that the nails showed the
      highest levels of Ti, and that these skin appendages are not exposed to agents
      that can leach out Ti, as occurs with hair, we propose the nails as the most
      suitable and reliable bioindicator for monitoring systemic contamination with Ti.

PMID- 28580888
TI  - Kinetic modelling of [11C]PBR28 for 18 kDa translocator protein PET data: A
      validation study of vascular modelling in the brain using XBD173 and tissue
      analysis.
AB  - The 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) is a marker of microglia activation in the
      central nervous system and represents the main target of radiotracers for the in
      vivo quantification of neuroinflammation with positron emission tomography (PET).
      TSPO PET is methodologically challenging given the heterogeneous distribution of
      TSPO in blood and brain. Our previous studies with the TSPO tracers [11C]PBR28
      and [11C]PK11195 demonstrated that a model accounting for TSPO binding to the
      endothelium improves the quantification of PET data. Here, we performed a
      validation of the kinetic model with the additional endothelial compartment
      through a displacement study. Seven subjects with schizophrenia, all high
      affinity binders, underwent two [11C]PBR28 PET scans before and after oral
      administration of 90 mg of the TSPO ligand XBD173. The addition of the
      endothelial component provided a signal compartmentalization much more consistent
      with the underlying biology, as only in this model, the blocking study produced
      the expected reduction in the tracer concentration of the specific tissue
      compartment, whereas the non-displaceable compartment remained unchanged. In
      addition, we also studied TSPO expression in vessels using 3D reconstructions of
      histological data of frontal lobe and cerebellum, demonstrating that TSPO
      positive vessels account for 30% of the vascular volume in cortical and white
      matter.

PMID- 28580889
TI  - Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors and their analogues as adulterants of herbal and
      food products: analysis of the Malaysian market, 2014-16.
AB  - Adulteration of herbal health supplements with phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5)
      inhibitors and their analogues is becoming a worldwide problem. The aim of this
      study was to investigate herbal and food products sold in the Malaysian market
      for the presence of these adulterants. Sixty-two products that claim to enhance
      men's sexual health were sampled between April 2014 and April 2016. These
      products included unregistered products seized by the Pharmacy Enforcement
      Division of the Ministry of Health (n = 39), products sent to the National
      Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency for pre-registration testing (n = 9) and
      products investigated under the post-registration market surveillance programme
      (n = 14). The products were tested against an in-house spectral library
      consisting of 61 PDE-5 inhibitors and analogues using a validated liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry ion-trap-time-of-flight (LC-MS IT-TOF) method.
      Thirty-two (82%) of the unregistered products and two (14%) of the registered
      products were found to be adulterated with at least one PDE-5 inhibitor or
      analogue, while none of the pre-registration products contained adulterants. A
      total of 16 different adulterants were detected and 36% of the adulterated
      products contained a mixture of two or more adulterants. This study has
      demonstrated that the adulteration of unregistered herbal products in the
      Malaysian market is an alarming issue that needs to be urgently addressed by the
      relevant authorities.

PMID- 28580890
TI  - International Federation for Emergency Medicine Consensus Statement: Sonography
      in hypotension and cardiac arrest (SHoC): An international consensus on the use
      of point of care ultrasound for undifferentiated hypotension and during cardiac
      arrest - CORRIGENDUM.

PMID- 28580891
TI  - A Stochastic Programming Model for Decision-Making Concerning Medical Supply
      Location and Allocation in Disaster Management.
AB  - We propose a stochastic programming model as a solution for optimizing the
      problem of locating and allocating medical supplies used in disaster management.
      To prepare for natural disasters, we developed a stochastic optimization approach
      to select the storage location of medical supplies and determine their inventory
      levels and to allocate each type of medical supply. Our model also captures
      disaster elaborations and possible effects of disasters by using a new
      classification for major earthquake scenarios. We present a case study for our
      model for the preparedness phase. As a case study, we applied our model to
      earthquake planning in Adana, Turkey. The experimental evaluations showed that
      the model is robust and effective. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness.
      2017;11:747-755).

PMID- 28580892
TI  - HARMONIZING HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS: TO
      WHAT EXTENT IS THE MINI-HTA MODEL SUITABLE IN THE FRENCH CONTEXT?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number of new medical devices for individual use that are
      launched annually exceeds the assessment capacity of the French national health
      technology assessment (HTA) agency. This has resulted in hospitals, and
      particularly university hospitals (UHs), developing hospital-based HTA
      initiatives to support their decisions for purchasing innovative devices.
      However, the methodologies used in such hospitals have no common basis. The aim
      of this study was to assess a mini-HTA model as a potential solution to harmonize
      HTA methodology in French UHs. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted on
      Medline, Embase, Health Technology Assessment database, and Google Scholar to
      identify published articles reporting the use of mini-HTA tools and decision
      support-like models. A survey was also carried out in eighteen French UHs to
      identify in-house decision support tools. Finally, topics evaluated in the Danish
      mini-HTA model and in French UHs were compared using Jaccard similarity
      coefficients. RESULTS: Our findings showed differences between topics evaluated
      in French UHs and those assessed in decision support models from the literature.
      Only five topics among the thirteen most evaluated in French UHs were similar to
      those assessed in the Danish mini-HTA model. The organizational and
      ethical/social impacts were rarely explored among the surveyed models used in
      French UHs when introducing new medical devices. CONCLUSIONS: Before its
      widespread and harmonized use in French UHs, the mini-HTA model would first
      require adaptations to the French context.

PMID- 28580893
TI  - Appropriateness of Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Pediatric Patients in
      Italy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES Appropriate use of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) reduces
      intraoperative wound contamination in pediatric surgery, thus minimizing the risk
      of surgical site infection (SSIs). Conversely, inappropriate use of SAP exposes
      patients to the risk of antibiotic side effects and contributes to the emergence
      of antimicrobial resistance. Our aims were to describe SAP administration and to
      analyze factors associated with nonadherence in pediatric patients. DESIGN
      Descriptive study. SETTING Overall, 955 pediatric patients underwent 1,038
      surgical procedures. METHODS We assessed adherence to SAP international
      guidelines for surgical procedures performed on children aged <18 years in 2015
      in 4 randomly selected hospitals in Calabria (Italy). The clinical records of
      these patients were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS Appropriate SAP
      administration or nonadministration pertained to 754 surgical procedures (72.6%).
      Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis was administered in 88.5% of 358 procedures with
      an SAP indication. Adherence to guidelines for appropriate drug choice were
      followed in 5.7% of cases, for route of administration in 76.7% of cases, for
      timing in 48.6% of cases, for duration in 14.5% of cases, and for dose in 91.5%
      of cases, and for all components in only 5 cases (1.6%). Among 680 procedures
      without SAP indication, 35.7% case patients received antibiotics. Inappropriate
      administration of antibiotics in procedures without SAP indication was associated
      with surgical specialty wards (P=.008), ordinary admission (P<.001), head and
      neck surgical procedures (P=.020), clean surgery (P=.017), and surgical duration
      (P=.010). CONCLUSIONS Discrepancies between SAP guidelines and actual practice
      behavior more frequently indicate excessive use of antibiotics than underuse.
      Increased awareness of SAP guidelines is required. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
      2017;38:823-831.

PMID- 28580894
TI  - Hospital-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bloodstream
      Infections in Quebec: Impact of Guidelines.
AB  - OBJECTIVE We examined the impact of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      (MRSA) guidelines in Quebec adult hospitals from January 1, 2006, to March 31,
      2015, by examining the incidence rate reduction (IRR) in healthcare-associated
      MRSA bloodstream infections (HA-MRSA), using central-line associated bloodstream
      infections (CLABSIs) as a comparator. METHODS In this study, we utilized a quasi
      experimental design with Poisson segmented regression to model HA-MRSA and CLABSI
      incidence for successive 4-week surveillance segments, stratified by teaching
      status. We used 3 distinct periods with 2 break points (April 1, 2007, and
      January 3, 2010) corresponding to major MRSA guideline publications and updates.
      RESULTS Over the study period, HA-MRSA incidence decreased significantly in adult
      teaching facilities but not in nonteaching facilities. Prior to MRSA guideline
      publication (2006-2007), HA-MRSA incidence decrease was not significant (P=.89),
      while CLABSI incidence decreased by 4% per 4-week period (P=.05). After the
      publication of guidelines (2007-2009), HA-MRSA incidence decreased significantly
      by 1% (P=.04), while no significant decrease in CLABSI incidence was observed
      (P=.75). HA-MRSA and CLABSI decreases were both significant at 1% for 2010-2015
      (P<.001 and P=.01, respectively). These decreases were gradual rather than
      sudden; break points were not significant. Teaching facilities drove these
      decreases. CONCLUSION During the study period, HA-MRSA and CLABSI rates decreased
      significantly. In 2007-2009, the significant decrease in HA-MRSA rates with
      stable CLABSI rates suggests an impact from MRSA-specific guidelines. In 2010
      2015, significant and equal IRRs for HA-MRSA and CLABSI may be due to the
      continuing impact of MRSA guidelines, to the impact of new interventions
      targeting device-associated infections in general by the 2010-2015 Action Plan,
      or to a combination of factors. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:840-847.

PMID- 28580895
TI  - A higher Dietary Inflammatory Index score is associated with a higher risk of
      breast cancer among Chinese women: a case-control study.
AB  - Previous studies have investigated the association between dietary inflammatory
      potential and the development of cancer. For breast cancer the results have been
      equivocal. The present study aimed to investigate whether higher Dietary
      Inflammatory IndexTM (DII) scores were associated with increased risk of breast
      cancer among Chinese women. A total of 867 cases and 824 controls were recruited
      into the present case-control study from September 2011 to February 2016. DII
      scores were computed based on baseline dietary intake assessed by a validated 81
      item FFQ. The OR and 95 % CI were assessed by multivariable logistic regression
      after adjusting for various potential confounders. DII scores in this study
      ranged from -5.87 (most anti-inflammatory score) to +5.71 (most proinflammatory
      score). A higher DII score was associated with a higher breast cancer risk
      (adjusted ORquartile 4 v. 1 2.28; 95 % CI 1.71, 3.03; adjusted ORcontinuous 1.40;
      95 %CI 1.25, 1.39). In stratified analyses, positive associations also were
      observed except for underweight women or women with either oestrogen receptor+ or
      progesterone receptor+ status (but not both). Results from this study indicated
      that higher DII scores, corresponding to more proinflammatory diets, were
      positively associated with breast cancer risk among Chinese women.

PMID- 28580896
TI  - Local versus Global Perceptual Scope, Empathic Concern, and Helping Preferences
      in Multiple-Victim Situations.
AB  - Previous research on the one-among-others effect has shown that inducing empathic
      concern towards a victim presented alongside with a small number of other victims
      enhances (a) the perception of this set of victims as separate and different
      individuals (instead of as a group), and (b) the preference to help them
      individually (rather than collectively). We propose that inducing a local (vs.
      global) perceptual scope increases (vs. lessens) these two outcomes. In this
      work, participants first reported their perception of an ad that showed a victim
      depicted as one-among-others and, afterwards, were unexpectedly asked to indicate
      their preference for giving the victims either "individualized", "collective", or
      "equal" assistance. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), we manipulated the participants'
      local (vs. global) perceptual scope and allowed empathy concern to occur
      naturally. In Experiment 2 (N = 213), we manipulated both the perceptual scope
      and empathy concern. Overall, results showed that the combined presence of local
      scope and empathic concern increased the awareness of others (eta p 2 = .203 and
      .047, 95% CI = [0.05, 0.35] and [0.03, 0.13], ps < .03) and the preference for
      individualized assistance (zs = 2.08 and 2.74, ps < .02). Lastly, we discuss the
      theoretical and practical implications of perceiving a set of victims as
      individuals (rather than as a group) in need.

PMID- 28580897
TI  - The Spanish-Version of the Subjective Vitality Scale: Psychometric Properties and
      Evidence of Validity.
AB  - The Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS) assess the subjective experience of being
      full of energy and alive, a clinically relevant outcome measure of positive
      psychological well-being. The purpose of this paper was to translate the 7-item
      SVS into Spanish and examine its psychometric properties. In Study 1 (n = 790
      adolescents) and Study 2 (n = 130 athletes) reliability and exploratory factor
      analysis (EFA) were carried out. In Study 1 and Study 3 (n = 197 dancers)
      evidence of validity of inferences based on SVS scores estimating relationships
      with other variables (life satisfaction, global self-esteem and emotional and
      physical exhaustion) was obtained. In Study 2 invariance across time was tested.
      Finally in Study 3, the factorial structure was cross-validated using
      confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results of EFA showed a one-factor solution.
      CFA also supported a unidimensional factor structure for the Spanish 6-item SVS
      (RMSEA = .050 (90% CI = .00, .080); NNFI = .993; CFI = .996). Reliability
      analysis indicated a strong internal consistency in all study samples (alpha
      ranged from .82 to .89). Further, results from multi-sample analysis supported
      the replicability of SVS factor structure across time. Finally, the SVS scores
      showed the expected correlations patterns (all them significant, p < .01) with
      the measured outcomes. In conclusion, the Spanish version of the SVS demonstrated
      adequate psychometric properties, indicating that the scale can be confidently
      used to measure the experience of possessing energy and aliveness; furthermore,
      differences across time can be meaningfully carried out.

PMID- 28580898
TI  - Increased cardiovascular mortality in people with schizophrenia: a 24-year
      national register study.
AB  - : AimsPeople who have schizophrenia die earlier from somatic diseases than do
      people in the general population, but information about cardiovascular deaths in
      people who have schizophrenia is limited. We analysed mortality in all age groups
      of people with schizophrenia by specific cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), focusing
      on five CVD diagnoses: coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction,
      cerebrovascular disease, heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias. We also compared
      hospital admissions for CVDs in people who had schizophrenia with hospital
      admissions for CVDs in the general population. METHODS: This national register
      study of 10 631 817 people in Sweden included 46 911 people who were admitted to
      the hospital for schizophrenia between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 2010.
      Information from national registers was used to identify people who had
      schizophrenia and obtain data about mortality, causes of death, medical diagnoses
      and hospitalisations. RESULTS: CVDs were the leading cause of death in people who
      had schizophrenia (5245 deaths), and CVDs caused more excess deaths than suicide.
      The mean age of CVD death was 10 years lower for people who had schizophrenia
      (70.5 years) than the general population (80.7 years). The mortality rate ratio
      (MRR) for CVDs in all people who had schizophrenia was 2.80 (95% confidence
      interval (CI) 2.73-2.88). In people aged 15-59 years who had schizophrenia, the
      MRR for CVDs was 6.16 (95% CI 5.79-6.54). In all people who had schizophrenia,
      the MRR for coronary heart disease was 2.83 (95% CI 2.73-2.94); acute myocardial
      infarction, 2.62 (95% CI 2.49-2.75); cerebrovascular disease, 2.4 (95% CI 2.25
      2.55); heart failure, 3.25 (95% CI 2.94-3.6); and cardiac arrhythmias, 2.06 (95%
      CI 1.75-2.43). Hospital admissions for coronary heart disease were less frequent
      in people who had schizophrenia than in the general population (admission rate
      ratio, 0.88 (95% CI 0.83-0.94). In all age groups, survival after hospital
      admission for CVD was lower in people who had schizophrenia than in the general
      population. CONCLUSIONS: People who had schizophrenia died 10 years earlier from
      CVDs than did people in the general population. For all five CVD diagnoses,
      mortality risk was higher for those with schizophrenia than those in the general
      population. Survival after hospitalisation for CVDs in people who had
      schizophrenia was comparable with that of people in the general population who
      were several decades older.

PMID- 28580899
TI  - Human Infection with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, China.
AB  - The recent increase in zoonotic avian influenza A(H7N9) disease in China is a
      cause of public health concern. Most of the A(H7N9) viruses previously reported
      have been of low pathogenicity. We report the fatal case of a patient in China
      who was infected with an A(H7N9) virus having a polybasic amino acid sequence at
      its hemagglutinin cleavage site (PEVPKRKRTAR/GL), a sequence suggestive of high
      pathogenicity in birds. Its neuraminidase also had R292K, an amino acid change
      known to be associated with neuraminidase inhibitor resistance. Both of these
      molecular features might have contributed to the patient's adverse clinical
      outcome. The patient had a history of exposure to sick and dying poultry, and his
      close contacts had no evidence of A(H7N9) disease, suggesting human-to-human
      transmission did not occur. Enhanced surveillance is needed to determine whether
      this highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H7N9) virus will continue to spread.

PMID- 28580900
TI  - Preliminary Epidemiology of Human Infections with Highly Pathogenic Avian
      Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, China, 2017.
AB  - We compared the characteristics of cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza
      (HPAI) and low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) A(H7N9) virus infections in
      China. HPAI A(H7N9) case-patients were more likely to have had exposure to sick
      and dead poultry in rural areas and were hospitalized earlier than were LPAI
      A(H7N9) case-patients.

PMID- 28580903
TI  - Orbital electronic occupation effect on metal-insulator transition in Ti x V1-x
      O2.
AB  - A series of Ti x V1-x O2 (0%  ?  x  ?  4.48%) thin films on c-plane sapphire
      substrates have been fabricated by co-sputtering oxidation solutions, and the
      metal-insulator transition temperature (T MIT) of Ti x V1-x O2 films rises
      monotonically at the rate of 1.64 K/at.% Ti. The x-ray diffraction measurement
      results show that, after Ti4+ ion doping, the rutile structure expands along the
      c r axis while shrinking along the a r and b r axis simultaneously. It makes the
      V-O bond length shorter, which is believed to upshift the pi * orbitals. The
      rising of pi * orbitals in Ti-doped VO2 has been illustrated by ultraviolet
      infrared spectroscopy and first-principles calculation. With the Ti4+ ion doping
      concentration increasing, the energy levels of pi * orbitals are elevated and the
      electronic occupation of pi * orbitals decreases, which weakens the shielding for
      the strong electron-electron correlations in the d|| orbital and result in the T
      MIT rising. The research reveals that the T MIT of VO2 can be effected by the
      electronic occupancy of pi * orbitals in a rutile state, which is helpful for
      developing VO2-based thermal devices.

PMID- 28580902
TI  - Enhanced bone formation by strontium modified calcium sulfate hemihydrate in
      ovariectomized rat critical-size calvarial defects.
AB  - The development of a new generation of biomaterials with high osteogenic ability
      for treatment of osteoporotic fractures is being intensively investigated. The
      objective of this paper was to investigate new bone formation in an
      ovariectomized rat (OVX rat) calvarial model of critical size bone defects filled
      with Sr-containing alpha-calcium sulfate hemihydrate (SrCSH) cement compared to
      an alpha-calcium sulfate hemihydrate (alpha-CSH) cement and empty defect. X-ray
      diffraction analysis verified the partial substitution of Sr2+ for Ca2+ did not
      change the phase composition of alpha-CSH. Scanning electron microscopy showed
      that Sr-substituted alpha-CSH significantly increased the surface roughness. The
      effects of Sr substitution on the biological properties of SrCSH cement were
      evaluated by adhesion, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of
      osteoblast-like cells MC3T3-E1. The results showed that SrCSHs enhanced MC3T3-E1
      cell proliferation, differentiation, and ALP activity. Furthermore, SrCSH cement
      was used to repair critical-sized OVX rat calvarial defects. The in vivo results
      revealed that SrCSH had good osteogenic capability and stimulated new blood
      vessel formation in a critical sized OVX calvarial defect within 12 weeks,
      suggesting that SrCSH cement has more potential for application in bone tissue
      regeneration.

PMID- 28580901
TI  - Prosurvival long noncoding RNA PINCR regulates a subset of p53 targets in human
      colorectal cancer cells by binding to Matrin 3.
AB  - Thousands of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been discovered, yet the function
      of the vast majority remains unclear. Here, we show that a p53-regulated lncRNA
      which we named PINCR (p53-induced noncoding RNA), is induced ~100-fold after DNA
      damage and exerts a prosurvival function in human colorectal cancer cells (CRC)
      in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Targeted deletion of PINCR in CRC cells
      significantly impaired G1 arrest and induced hypersensitivity to chemotherapeutic
      drugs. PINCR regulates the induction of a subset of p53 targets involved in G1
      arrest and apoptosis, including BTG2, RRM2B and GPX1. Using a novel RNA pulldown
      approach that utilized endogenous S1-tagged PINCR, we show that PINCR associates
      with the enhancer region of these genes by binding to RNA-binding protein Matrin
      3 that, in turn, associates with p53. Our findings uncover a critical prosurvival
      function of a p53/PINCR/Matrin 3 axis in response to DNA damage in CRC cells.

PMID- 28580904
TI  - Fabrication of core-shell nanofibers for controlled delivery of bromelain and
      salvianolic acid B for skin regeneration in wound therapeutics.
AB  - The physiological and pathological complexity of the wound healing process makes
      it more challenging to design an ideal tissue regeneration scaffold. Precise
      scaffolding with high drug loading efficiency, efficient intracellular efficacy
      for therapeutic delivery, minimal nonspecific cellular and blood protein binding,
      and maximum biocompatibility forms the basis for an ideal delivery system. This
      paper describes a combinational multiphasic delivery system, where biomolecules
      are delivered through the fabrication of coaxial electrospinning of different
      biocompatible polymers. The ratio and specificity of polymers for specific
      biofunction are optimized and the delivery system is completely characterized
      with reference to the mechanical property and structural integrity of bromelain
      (debridement enzyme) and salvianolic acid B (pro-angiogenesis and re
      epithelialization). The in vitro release profile illustrated the sustained
      release of debriding protease and bioactive component in a timely fashion. The
      fabricated scaffold showed angiogenic potential through in vitro migration of
      endothelial cells and increased new capillaries from the existing blood vessel in
      response to an in ovo chicken chorioallantoic membrane assay. In addition, in
      vivo studies confirm the efficacy of the fabricated scaffold. Our results
      therefore open up a new avenue for designing a bioactive combinational
      multiphasic delivery system to enhance wound healing.

PMID- 28580905
TI  - Role of temperature-dependent spin model parameters in ultra-fast magnetization
      dynamics.
AB  - In the spirit of multi-scale modelling magnetization dynamics at elevated
      temperature is often simulated in terms of a spin model where the model
      parameters are derived from first principles. While these parameters are mostly
      assumed temperature-independent and thermal properties arise from spin
      fluctuations only, other scenarios are also possible. Choosing bcc Fe as an
      example, we investigate the influence of different kinds of model assumptions on
      ultra-fast spin dynamics, where following a femtosecond laser pulse, a sample is
      demagnetized due to a sudden rise of the electron temperature. While different
      model assumptions do not affect the simulational results qualitatively, their
      details do depend on the nature of the modelling.

PMID- 28580906
TI  - Modelling the evaporation of nanoparticle suspensions from heterogeneous
      surfaces.
AB  - We present a Monte Carlo (MC) grid-based model for the drying of drops of a
      nanoparticle suspension upon a heterogeneous surface. The model consists of a
      generalised lattice-gas in which the interaction parameters in the Hamiltonian
      can be varied to model different properties of the materials involved. We show
      how to correctly choose the interactions, to minimise the effects of the
      underlying grid so that hemispherical droplets form. We also include the effects
      of surface roughness to examine the effects of contact-line pinning on the
      dynamics. When there is a 'lid' above the system, which prevents evaporation,
      equilibrium drops form on the surface, which we use to determine the contact
      angle and how it varies as the parameters of the model are changed. This enables
      us to relate the interaction parameters to the materials used in applications.
      The model has also been applied to drying on heterogeneous surfaces, in
      particular to the case where the suspension is deposited on a surface consisting
      of a pair of hydrophilic conducting metal surfaces that are either side of a band
      of hydrophobic insulating polymer. This situation occurs when using inkjet
      printing to manufacture electrical connections between the metallic parts of the
      surface. The process is not always without problems, since the liquid can dewet
      from the hydrophobic part of the surface, breaking the bridge before the drying
      process is complete. The MC model reproduces the observed dewetting, allowing the
      parameters to be varied so that the conditions for the best connection can be
      established. We show that if the hydrophobic portion of the surface is located at
      a step below the height of the neighbouring metal, the chance of dewetting of the
      liquid during the drying process is significantly reduced.

PMID- 28580907
TI  - Introducing the Proceedings of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium.

PMID- 28580908
TI  - Recent developments in the CCP-EM software suite.
AB  - As part of its remit to provide computational support to the cryo-EM community,
      the Collaborative Computational Project for Electron cryo-Microscopy (CCP-EM) has
      produced a software framework which enables easy access to a range of programs
      and utilities. The resulting software suite incorporates contributions from
      different collaborators by encapsulating them in Python task wrappers, which are
      then made accessible via a user-friendly graphical user interface as well as a
      command-line interface suitable for scripting. The framework includes tools for
      project and data management. An overview of the design of the framework is given,
      together with a survey of the functionality at different levels. The current CCP
      EM suite has particular strength in the building and refinement of atomic models
      into cryo-EM reconstructions, which is described in detail.

PMID- 28580909
TI  - The Dynamo package for tomography and subtomogram averaging: components for
      MATLAB, GPU computing and EC2 Amazon Web Services.
AB  - Dynamo is a package for the processing of tomographic data. As a tool for
      subtomogram averaging, it includes different alignment and classification
      strategies. Furthermore, its data-management module allows experiments to be
      organized in groups of tomograms, while offering specialized three-dimensional
      tomographic browsers that facilitate visualization, location of regions of
      interest, modelling and particle extraction in complex geometries. Here, a
      technical description of the package is presented, focusing on its diverse
      strategies for optimizing computing performance. Dynamo is built upon mbtools
      (middle layer toolbox), a general-purpose MATLAB library for object-oriented
      scientific programming specifically developed to underpin Dynamo but usable as an
      independent tool. Its structure intertwines a flexible MATLAB codebase with
      precompiled C++ functions that carry the burden of numerically intensive
      operations. The package can be delivered as a precompiled standalone ready for
      execution without a MATLAB license. Multicore parallelization on a single node is
      directly inherited from the high-level parallelization engine provided for
      MATLAB, automatically imparting a balanced workload among the threads in
      computationally intense tasks such as alignment and classification, but also in
      logistic-oriented tasks such as tomogram binning and particle extraction. Dynamo
      supports the use of graphical processing units (GPUs), yielding considerable
      speedup factors both for native Dynamo procedures (such as the numerically
      intensive subtomogram alignment) and procedures defined by the user through its
      MATLAB-based GPU library for three-dimensional operations. Cloud-based virtual
      computing environments supplied with a pre-installed version of Dynamo can be
      publicly accessed through the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), enabling users
      to rent GPU computing time on a pay-as-you-go basis, thus avoiding upfront
      investments in hardware and longterm software maintenance.

PMID- 28580910
TI  - Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC): the UK national research facility for
      biological electron microscopy.
AB  - The recent resolution revolution in cryo-EM has led to a massive increase in
      demand for both time on high-end cryo-electron microscopes and access to cryo
      electron microscopy expertise. In anticipation of this demand, eBIC was set up at
      Diamond Light Source in collaboration with Birkbeck College London and the
      University of Oxford, and funded by the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medical Research
      Council (MRC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
      (BBSRC) to provide access to high-end equipment through peer review. eBIC is
      currently in its start-up phase and began by offering time on a single FEI Titan
      Krios microscope equipped with the latest generation of direct electron detectors
      from two manufacturers. Here, the current status and modes of access for
      potential users of eBIC are outlined. In the first year of operation, 222 d of
      microscope time were delivered to external research groups, with 95 visits in
      total, of which 53 were from unique groups. The data collected have generated
      multiple high- to intermediate-resolution structures (2.8-8 A), ten of which have
      been published. A second Krios microscope is now in operation, with two more due
      to come online in 2017. In the next phase of growth of eBIC, in addition to more
      microscope time, new data-collection strategies and sample-preparation techniques
      will be made available to external user groups. Finally, all raw data are
      archived, and a metadata catalogue and automated pipelines for data analysis are
      being developed.

PMID- 28580911
TI  - A pipeline approach to single-particle processing in RELION.
AB  - The formal concept of a workflow to single-particle analysis of cryo-electron
      microscopy (cryo-EM) images in the RELION program is described. In this approach,
      the structure-determination process is considered as a graph, where intermediate
      results in the form of images or metadata are the vertices, and different
      functionalities of the program are the edges. The new implementation
      automatically logs all user actions, facilitates file management and disk
      cleaning, and allows convenient browsing of the history of a project. Moreover,
      new functionality to iteratively execute consecutive jobs allows on-the-fly image
      processing, which will lead to more efficient data acquisition by providing
      faster feedback on data quality. The possibility of exchanging data-processing
      procedures among users will contribute to the development of standardized image
      processing procedures, and hence increase accessibility for new users in this
      rapidly expanding field.

PMID- 28580912
TI  - Trends in the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB).
AB  - Recent technological advances, such as the introduction of the direct electron
      detector, have transformed the field of cryo-EM and the landscape of molecular
      and cellular structural biology. This study analyses these trends from the
      vantage point of the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB), the public archive for
      three-dimensional EM reconstructions. Over 1000 entries were released in 2016,
      representing almost a quarter of the total number of entries (4431). Structures
      at better than 6 A resolution now represent one of the fastest-growing
      categories, while the share of annually released tomography-related structures is
      approaching 20%. The use of direct electron detectors is growing very rapidly:
      they were used for 70% of the structures released in 2016, in contrast to none
      before 2011. Microscopes from FEI have an overwhelming lead in terms of usage,
      and the use of the RELION software package continues to grow rapidly after having
      attained a leading position in the field. China is rapidly emerging as a major
      player in the field, supplementing the US, Germany and the UK as the big four.
      Similarly, Tsinghua University ranks only second to the MRC Laboratory for
      Molecular Biology in terms of involvement in publications associated with cryo-EM
      structures at better than 4 A resolution. Overall, the numbers point to a rapid
      democratization of the field, with more countries and institutes becoming
      involved.

PMID- 28580914
TI  - High-resolution cryo-EM proteasome structures in drug development.
AB  - With the recent advances in biological structural electron microscopy (EM),
      protein structures can now be obtained by cryo-EM and single-particle analysis at
      resolutions that used to be achievable only by crystallographic or NMR methods.
      We have explored their application to study protein-ligand interactions using the
      human 20S proteasome, a well established target for cancer therapy that is also
      being investigated as a target for an increasing range of other medical
      conditions. The map of a ligand-bound human 20S proteasome served as a proof of
      principle that cryo-EM is emerging as a realistic approach for more general
      structural studies of protein-ligand interactions, with the potential benefits of
      extending such studies to complexes that are unfavourable to other methods and
      allowing structure determination under conditions that are closer to
      physiological, preserving ligand specificity towards closely related binding
      sites. Subsequently, the cryo-EM structure of the Plasmodium falciparum 20S
      proteasome, with a new prototype specific inhibitor bound, revealed the molecular
      basis for the ligand specificity towards the parasite complex, which provides a
      framework to guide the development of highly needed new-generation antimalarials.
      Here, the cryo-EM analysis of the ligand-bound human and P. falciparum 20S
      proteasomes is reviewed, and a complete description of the methods used for
      structure determination is provided, including the strategy to overcome the bias
      orientation of the human 20S proteasome on electron-microscope grids and details
      of the icr3d software used for three-dimensional reconstruction.

PMID- 28580915
TI  - The potential use of single-particle electron microscopy as a tool for structure
      based inhibitor design.
AB  - Recent developments in electron microscopy (EM) have led to a step change in our
      ability to solve the structures of previously intractable systems, especially
      membrane proteins and large protein complexes. This has provided new
      opportunities in the field of structure-based drug design, with a number of high
      profile publications resolving the binding sites of small molecules and peptide
      inhibitors. There are a number of advantages of EM over the more traditional X
      ray crystallographic approach, such as resolving different conformational states
      and permitting the dynamics of a system to be better resolved when not
      constrained by a crystal lattice. There are still significant challenges to be
      overcome using an EM approach, not least the speed of structure determination,
      difficulties with low-occupancy ligands and the modest resolution that is
      available. However, with the anticipated developments in the field of EM, the
      potential of EM to become a key tool for structure-based drug design, often
      complementing X-ray and NMR studies, seems promising.

PMID- 28580913
TI  - The ribosome and its role in protein folding: looking through a magnifying glass.
AB  - Protein folding, a process that underpins cellular activity, begins co
      translationally on the ribosome. During translation, a newly synthesized
      polypeptide chain enters the ribosomal exit tunnel and actively interacts with
      the ribosome elements - the r-proteins and rRNA that line the tunnel - prior to
      emerging into the cellular milieu. While understanding of the structure and
      function of the ribosome has advanced significantly, little is known about the
      process of folding of the emerging nascent chain (NC). Advances in cryo-electron
      microscopy are enabling visualization of NCs within the exit tunnel, allowing
      early glimpses of the interplay between the NC and the ribosome. Once it has
      emerged from the exit tunnel into the cytosol, the NC (still attached to its
      parent ribosome) can acquire a range of conformations, which can be characterized
      by NMR spectroscopy. Using experimental restraints within molecular-dynamics
      simulations, the ensemble of NC structures can be described. In order to
      delineate the process of co-translational protein folding, a hybrid structural
      biology approach is foreseeable, potentially offering a complete atomic
      description of protein folding as it occurs on the ribosome.

PMID- 28580916
TI  - Cryo-electron microscopy of chromatin biology.
AB  - The basic unit of chromatin, the nucleosome core particle (NCP), controls how DNA
      in eukaryotic cells is compacted, replicated and read. Since its discovery,
      biochemists have sought to understand how this protein-DNA complex can help to
      control so many diverse tasks. Recent electron-microscopy (EM) studies on NCP
      containing assemblies have helped to describe important chromatin transactions at
      a molecular level. With the implementation of recent technical advances in single
      particle EM, our understanding of how nucleosomes are recognized and read looks
      to take a leap forward. In this review, the authors highlight recent advances in
      the architectural understanding of chromatin biology elucidated by EM.

PMID- 28580918
TI  - Crystal structure of Rv1220c, a SAM-dependent O-methyltransferase from
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - Rv1220c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis is annotated as an O-methyltransferase
      (MtbOMT). Currently, no structural information is available for this protein.
      Here, the crystal structure of MtbOMT refined to 2.0 A resolution is described.
      The structure reveals the presence of a methyltransferase fold and shows clear
      electron density for one molecule of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), which was
      apparently bound by the protein during its production in Escherichia coli.
      Although the overall structure of MtbOMT resembles the structures of O
      methyltransferases from Cornybacterium glutamicum, Coxiella burnetti and Alfa
      alfa, differences are observed in the residues that make up the active site.
      Notably, substitution of Asp by His164 seems to abrogate metal binding by MtbOMT.
      A putative catalytic His-Asp pair located in the vicinity of SAM is absolutely
      conserved in MtbOMT homologues from all species of Mycobacterium, suggesting a
      conserved function for this protein.

PMID- 28580917
TI  - Crystal structures of human Fabs targeting the Bexsero meningococcal vaccine
      antigen NHBA.
AB  - Neisserial heparin-binding antigen (NHBA) is a surface-exposed lipoprotein from
      Neisseria meningitidis and is a component of the meningococcus B vaccine Bexsero.
      As part of a study to characterize the three-dimensional structure of NHBA and
      the molecular basis of the human immune response to Bexsero, the crystal
      structures of two fragment antigen-binding domains (Fabs) isolated from human
      monoclonal antibodies targeting NHBA were determined. Through a high-resolution
      analysis of the organization and the amino-acid composition of the CDRs, these
      structures provide broad insights into the NHBA epitopes recognized by the human
      immune system. As expected, these Fabs also show remarkable structural
      conservation, as shown by a structural comparison of 15 structures of apo Fab
      10C3 which were obtained from crystals grown in different crystallization
      conditions and were solved while searching for a complex with a bound NHBA
      fragment or epitope peptide. This study also provides indirect evidence for the
      intrinsically disordered nature of two N-terminal regions of NHBA.

PMID- 28580919
TI  - Crystallization and X-ray diffraction analysis of SpaE, a basal pilus protein
      from the gut-adapted Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG.
AB  - SpaE is the predicted basal pilin subunit in the sortase-dependent SpaFED pilus
      from the gut-adapted and commensal Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Thus far,
      structural characterization of the cell-wall-anchoring basal pilins has remained
      difficult and has been limited to only a few examples from pathogenic genera and
      species. To gain a further structural understanding of the molecular mechanisms
      that are involved in the anchoring and assembly of sortase-dependent pili in less
      harmful bacteria, L. rhamnosus GG SpaE for crystallization was produced by
      recombinant expression in Escherichia coli. Although several attempts to
      crystallize the SpaE protein were unsuccessful, trigonal crystals that diffracted
      to a resolution of 3.1 A were eventually produced using PEG 3350 as a precipitant
      and high protein concentrations. Further optimization with a combination of
      additives led to the generation of SpaE crystals in an orthorhombic form that
      diffracted to a higher resolution of 1.5 A. To expedite structure determination
      by SAD phasing, selenium-substituted (orthorhombic) SpaE crystals were grown and
      X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.8 A resolution.

PMID- 28580920
TI  - Crystal structure of the Thermoplasma acidophilum protein Ta1207.
AB  - The crystal structure of the Ta1207 protein from Thermoplasma acidophilum is
      reported. Ta1207 was identified in a screen for high-molecular-weight protein
      complexes in T. acidophilum. In solution, Ta1207 forms homopentamers of 188 kDa.
      The crystal structure of recombinant Ta1207 solved by Se-MAD at 2.4 A resolution
      revealed a complex with fivefold symmetry. In the crystal lattice, calcium ions
      induce the formation of a nanocage from two pentamers. The Ta1207 protomers
      comprise two domains with the same novel alpha/beta topology. A deep pocket with
      a binding site for a negatively charged group suggests that Ta1207 functions as
      an intracellular receptor for an unknown ligand. Homologues of Ta1207 occur only
      in Thermoplasmatales and its function might be related to the extreme lifestyle
      of these archaea. The thermostable Ta1207 complex might provide a useful fivefold
      symmetric scaffold for future nanotechnological applications.

PMID- 28580921
TI  - Crystal structure of the active form of native human thymidylate synthase in the
      absence of bound substrates.
AB  - Human thymidylate synthase (hTS) provides the sole de novo intracellular source
      of thymidine 5'-monophosphate (dTMP). hTS is required for DNA replication prior
      to cell division, making it an attractive target for anticancer chemotherapy and
      drug discovery. hTS binds 2'-deoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate (dUMP) and the folate
      co-substrate N5,N10-methylenetetrahydrofolate (meTHF) in a pocket near the
      catalytic residue Cys195. The catalytic loop, which is composed of amino-acid
      residues 181-197, can adopt two distinct conformations related by a 180 degrees 
      rotation. In the active conformation Cys195 is close to the active site, while in
      the inactive conformation it is rotated and Cys195 is too distant from the active
      site for catalysis. Several hTS structures, either native or engineered, have
      been solved in the active conformation in complex with ligands or inhibitors and
      at different salt concentrations. However, apo hTS structures have been solved in
      an inactive conformation in high-salt and low-salt conditions (PDB entries 1ypv,
      4h1i, 4gyh, 3egy and 3ehi). Here, the structure of apo hTS crystallized in the
      active form with sulfate ions coordinated by the arginine residue that binds dUMP
      is reported.

PMID- 28580922
TI  - Phosphate-binding protein from Polaromonas JS666: purification, characterization,
      crystallization and sulfur SAD phasing.
AB  - Phosphate-binding proteins (PBPs) are key proteins that belong to the bacterial
      ABC-type phosphate transporters. PBPs are periplasmic (or membrane-anchored)
      proteins that capture phosphate anions from the environment and release them to
      the transmembrane transporter. Recent work has suggested that PBPs have evolved
      for high affinity as well as high selectivity. In particular, a short, unique
      hydrogen bond between the phosphate anion and an aspartate residue has been shown
      to be critical for selectivity, yet is not strictly conserved in PBPs. Here, the
      PBP from Polaromonas JS666 is focused on. Interestingly, this PBP is predicted to
      harbor different phosphate-binding residues to currently known PBPs. Here, it is
      shown that the PBP from Polaromonas JS666 is capable of binding phosphate, with a
      maximal binding activity at pH 8. Its structure is expected to reveal its binding
      cleft configuration as well as its phosphate-binding mode. Here, the expression,
      purification, characterization, crystallization and X-ray diffraction data
      collection to 1.35 A resolution of the PBP from Polaromonas JS666 are reported.

PMID- 28580923
TI  - The crystal structure of human DEAH-box RNA helicase 15 reveals a domain
      organization of the mammalian DEAH/RHA family.
AB  - DEAH-box RNA helicase 15 (DHX15) plays important roles in RNA metabolism,
      including in splicing and in ribosome biogenesis. In addition, mammalian DHX15
      also mediates the innate immune sensing of viral RNA. However, structural
      information on this protein is not available, although the structure of the
      fungal orthologue of this protein, Prp43, has been elucidated. Here, the crystal
      structure of the ADP-bound form of human DHX15 is reported at a resolution of 2.0
      A. This is the first structure to be revealed of a member of the mammalian DEAH
      box RNA helicase (DEAH/RHA) family in a nearly complete form, including the
      catalytic core consisting of the two N-terminal RecA domains and the C-terminal
      regulatory domains (CTD). The ADP-bound form of DHX15 displayed a compact
      structure, in which the RecA domains made extensive contacts with the CTD.
      Notably, a potential RNA-binding site was found on the surface of a RecA domain
      with positive electrostatic potential. Almost all structural features were
      conserved between the fungal Prp43 and the human DHX15, suggesting that they
      share a fundamentally common mechanism of action and providing a better
      understanding of the specific mammalian functions of DHX15.

PMID- 28580924
TI  - Crystal structure of N-acetylmannosamine kinase from Fusobacterium nucleatum.
AB  - Sialic acids comprise a varied group of nine-carbon amino sugars that are widely
      distributed among mammals and higher metazoans. Some human commensals and
      bacterial pathogens can scavenge sialic acids from their environment and degrade
      them for use as a carbon and nitrogen source. The enzyme N-acetylmannosamine
      kinase (NanK; EC 2.7.1.60) belongs to the transcriptional repressors,
      uncharacterized open reading frames and sugar kinases (ROK) superfamily. NanK
      catalyzes the second step of the sialic acid catabolic pathway, transferring a
      phosphate group from adenosine 5'-triphosphate to the C6 position of N
      acetylmannosamine to generate N-acetylmannosamine 6-phosphate. The structure of
      NanK from Fusobacterium nucleatum was determined to 2.23 A resolution by X-ray
      crystallography. Unlike other NanK enzymes and ROK family members, F. nucleatum
      NanK does not have a conserved zinc-binding site. In spite of the absence of the
      zinc-binding site, all of the major structural features of enzymatic activity are
      conserved.

PMID- 28580925
TI  - Crystal structure of the multiple antibiotic resistance regulator MarR from
      Clostridium difficile.
AB  - Regulators of multiple antibiotic resistance (MarRs) are key players against
      toxins in prokaryotes. MarR homologues have been identified in many bacterial and
      archaeal species which pose daunting antibiotic resistance issues that threaten
      public health. The continuous prevalence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI)
      throughout the world is associated with the abuse of antibiotics, and antibiotic
      treatments of CDI have limited effect. In the genome of C. difficile strain 630,
      the marR gene (ID 4913953) encodes a MarR protein. Here, MarR from C. difficile
      (MarRC.difficile) was subcloned and crystallized for the first time.
      MarRC.difficile was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli in a soluble form
      and was purified to near-homogeneity (>95%) by a two-step purification protocol.
      The structure of MarRC.difficile has been solved at 2.3 A resolution. The crystal
      belonged to the monoclinic space group P43212, with unit-cell parameters a = b =
      66.569, c = 83.654 A. The structure reported reveals MarRC.difficile to be a
      dimer, with each subunit consisting of six alpha-helices and three antiparallel
      beta-hairpins. MarRC.difficile shows high structural similarity to the MarR
      proteins from E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, indicating that MarRC.difficile
      might be a DNA-binding protein.

PMID- 28580926
TI  - Crystal structure of recombinant phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase 2 from
      Thermus thermophilus HB27 complexed with ADP and sulfate ions.
AB  - Phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase (PRPPS) from the thermophilic bacterial
      strain Thermus thermophilus HB27 catalyzes the synthesis of
      phosphoribosylpyrophosphate from ribose 5-phosphate and ATP, and belongs to the
      class I PRPPSs. The three-dimensional structure of the recombinant enzyme was
      solved at 2.2 A resolution using crystals grown in microgravity from protein
      solution containing ATP, magnesium and sulfate ions. An ADP molecule was located
      in the active site of each subunit of the hexameric enzyme molecule and sulfate
      ions were located in both the active and allosteric sites. It was found that the
      catalytic loop that restricts the active-site area and is usually missing from
      the electron-density map of class I PRPPSs adopts different conformations in
      three independent subunits in T. thermophilus PRPPS. A closed conformation of the
      active site was found in one of subunits where the highly ordered catalytic beta
      hairpin delivers the Lys and Arg residues that are essential for activity
      directly to the ADP molecule, which occupies the ATP-binding site. A comparison
      of the conformations of the catalytic loop in the three independent subunits
      reveals a possible mode of transition from the open to the closed state of the
      active site during the course of the catalyzed reaction.

PMID- 28580927
TI  - The ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 regulates phosphoantigen release and
      Vgamma9Vdelta2 T cell activation by dendritic cells.
AB  - Vgamma9Vdelta2 T cells are activated by phosphoantigens, such as isopentenyl
      pyrophosphate (IPP), which is generated in the mevalonate pathway of antigen
      presenting cells. IPP is released in the extracellular microenvironment via
      unknown mechanisms. Here we show that the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1
      (ABCA1) mediates extracellular IPP release from dendritic cells (DC) in
      cooperation with apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and butyrophilin-3A1. IPP
      concentrations in the supernatants are sufficient to induce Vgamma9Vdelta2 T cell
      proliferation after DC mevalonate pathway inhibition with zoledronic acid (ZA).
      ZA treatment increases ABCA1 and apoA-I expression via IPP-dependent LXRalpha
      nuclear translocation and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway inhibition. These results close
      the mechanistic gap in our understanding of extracellular IPP release from DC and
      provide a framework to fine-tune Vgamma9Vdelta2 T cell activation via mevalonate
      and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway modulation.

PMID- 28580928
TI  - Three-dimensional crossbar arrays of self-rectifying Si/SiO2/Si memristors.
AB  - Memristors are promising building blocks for the next-generation memory and
      neuromorphic computing systems. Most memristors use materials that are
      incompatible with the silicon dominant complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
      technology, and require external selectors in order for large memristor arrays to
      function properly. Here we demonstrate a fully foundry-compatible, all-silicon
      based and self-rectifying memristor that negates the need for external selectors
      in large arrays. With a p-Si/SiO2/n-Si structure, our memristor exhibits
      repeatable unipolar resistance switching behaviour (105 rectifying ratio, 104
      ON/OFF) and excellent retention at 300  degrees C. We further build three
      dimensinal crossbar arrays (up to five layers of 100 nm memristors) using fluid
      supported silicon membranes, and experimentally confirm the successful
      suppression of both intra- and inter-layer sneak path currents through the built
      in diodes. The current work opens up opportunities for low-cost mass production
      of three-dimensional memristor arrays on large silicon and flexible substrates
      without increasing circuit complexity.

PMID- 28580929
TI  - Three-dimensional Pentagon Carbon with a genesis of emergent fermions.
AB  - Carbon, the basic building block of our universe, enjoys a vast number of
      allotropic structures. Owing to its bonding characteristic, most carbon
      allotropes possess the motif of hexagonal rings. Here, with first-principles
      calculations, we discover a new metastable three-dimensional carbon allotrope
      entirely composed of pentagon rings. The unique structure of this Pentagon Carbon
      leads to extraordinary electronic properties, making it a cornucopia of emergent
      topological fermions. Under lattice strain, Pentagon Carbon exhibits topological
      phase transitions, generating a series of novel quasiparticles, from isospin-1
      triplet fermions to triply degenerate fermions and further to Hopf-link Weyl-loop
      fermions. Its Landau level spectrum also exhibits distinct features, including a
      huge number of almost degenerate chiral Landau bands, implying pronounced magneto
      transport signals. Our work not only discovers a remarkable carbon allotrope with
      highly rare structural motifs, it also reveals a fascinating hierarchical
      particle genesis with novel topological fermions beyond the Dirac and Weyl
      paradigm.

PMID- 28580930
TI  - Cascaded spintronic logic with low-dimensional carbon.
AB  - Remarkable breakthroughs have established the functionality of graphene and
      carbon nanotube transistors as replacements to silicon in conventional computing
      structures, and numerous spintronic logic gates have been presented. However, an
      efficient cascaded logic structure that exploits electron spin has not yet been
      demonstrated. In this work, we introduce and analyse a cascaded spintronic
      computing system composed solely of low-dimensional carbon materials. We propose
      a spintronic switch based on the recent discovery of negative magnetoresistance
      in graphene nanoribbons, and demonstrate its feasibility through tight-binding
      calculations of the band structure. Covalently connected carbon nanotubes create
      magnetic fields through graphene nanoribbons, cascading logic gates through
      incoherent spintronic switching. The exceptional material properties of carbon
      materials permit Terahertz operation and two orders of magnitude decrease in
      power-delay product compared to cutting-edge microprocessors. We hope to inspire
      the fabrication of these cascaded logic circuits to stimulate a transformative
      generation of energy-efficient computing.

PMID- 28580931
TI  - The PYRIN domain-only protein POP2 inhibits inflammasome priming and activation.
AB  - Inflammasomes are protein platforms linking recognition of microbe, pathogen
      associated and damage-associated molecular patterns by cytosolic sensory proteins
      to caspase-1 activation. Caspase-1 promotes pyroptotic cell death and the
      maturation and secretion of interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-18, which trigger
      inflammatory responses to clear infections and initiate wound-healing; however,
      excessive responses cause inflammatory disease. Inflammasome assembly requires
      the PYRIN domain (PYD)-containing adaptor ASC, and depends on PYD-PYD
      interactions. Here we show that the PYD-only protein POP2 inhibits inflammasome
      assembly by binding to ASC and interfering with the recruitment of ASC to
      upstream sensors, which prevents caspase-1 activation and cytokine release. POP2
      also impairs macrophage priming by inhibiting the activation of non-canonical
      IkappaB kinase E and IkappaBalpha, and consequently protects from excessive
      inflammation and acute shock in vivo. Our findings advance our understanding of
      the complex regulatory mechanisms that maintain a balanced inflammatory response
      and highlight important differences between individual POP members.

PMID- 28580933
TI  - Coupled multiferroic domain switching in the canted conical spin spiral system
      Mn2GeO4.
AB  - Despite remarkable progress in developing multifunctional materials, spin-driven
      ferroelectrics featuring both spontaneous magnetization and electric polarization
      are still rare. Among such ferromagnetic ferroelectrics are conical spin spiral
      magnets with a simultaneous reversal of magnetization and electric polarization
      that is still little understood. Such materials can feature various multiferroic
      domains that complicates their study. Here we study the multiferroic domains in
      ferromagnetic ferroelectric Mn2GeO4 using neutron diffraction, and show that it
      features a double-Q conical magnetic structure that, apart from trivial 180o
      commensurate magnetic domains, can be described by ferromagnetic and
      ferroelectric domains only. We show unconventional magnetoelectric couplings such
      as the magnetic-field-driven reversal of ferroelectric polarization with no
      change of spin-helicity, and present a phenomenological theory that successfully
      explains the magnetoelectric coupling. Our measurements establish Mn2GeO4 as a
      conceptually simple multiferroic in which the magnetic-field-driven flop of
      conical spin spirals leads to the simultaneous reversal of magnetization and
      electric polarization.

PMID- 28580932
TI  - Evidence for fungal and chemodenitrification based N2O flux from nitrogen
      impacted coastal sediments.
AB  - Although increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) has been linked to nitrogen
      loading, predicting emissions remains difficult, in part due to challenges in
      disentangling diverse N2O production pathways. As coastal ecosystems are
      especially impacted by elevated nitrogen, we investigated controls on N2O
      production mechanisms in intertidal sediments using novel isotopic approaches and
      microsensors in flow-through incubations. Here we show that during incubations
      with elevated nitrate, increased N2O fluxes are not mediated by direct bacterial
      activity, but instead are largely catalysed by fungal denitrification and/or
      abiotic reactions (e.g., chemodenitrification). Results of these incubations shed
      new light on nitrogen cycling complexity and possible factors underlying
      variability of N2O fluxes, driven in part by fungal respiration and/or iron redox
      cycling. As both processes exhibit N2O yields typically far greater than direct
      bacterial production, these results emphasize their possibly substantial, yet
      widely overlooked, role in N2O fluxes, especially in redox-dynamic sediments of
      coastal ecosystems.

PMID- 28580934
TI  - Organic narrowband near-infrared photodetectors based on intermolecular charge
      transfer absorption.
AB  - Blending organic electron donors and acceptors yields intermolecular charge
      transfer states with additional optical transitions below their optical gaps. In
      organic photovoltaic devices, such states play a crucial role and limit the
      operating voltage. Due to its extremely weak nature, direct intermolecular charge
      transfer absorption often remains undetected and unused for photocurrent
      generation. Here, we use an optical microcavity to increase the typically
      negligible external quantum efficiency in the spectral region of charge-transfer
      absorption by more than 40 times, yielding values over 20%. We demonstrate
      narrowband detection with spectral widths down to 36 nm and resonance wavelengths
      between 810 and 1,550 nm, far below the optical gap of both donor and acceptor.
      The broad spectral tunability via a simple variation of the cavity thickness
      makes this innovative, flexible and potentially visibly transparent device
      principle highly suitable for integrated low-cost spectroscopic near-infrared
      photodetection.

PMID- 28580935
TI  - Control of morphology and formation of highly geometrically confined magnetic
      skyrmions.
AB  - The ability to controllably manipulate magnetic skyrmions, small magnetic whirls
      with particle-like properties, in nanostructured elements is a prerequisite for
      incorporating them into spintronic devices. Here, we use state-of-the-art
      electron holographic imaging to directly visualize the morphology and nucleation
      of magnetic skyrmions in a wedge-shaped FeGe nanostripe that has a width in the
      range of 45-150 nm. We find that geometrically-confined skyrmions are able to
      adopt a wide range of sizes and ellipticities in a nanostripe that are absent in
      both thin films and bulk materials and can be created from a helical magnetic
      state with a distorted edge twist in a simple and efficient manner. We perform a
      theoretical analysis based on a three-dimensional general model of isotropic
      chiral magnets to confirm our experimental results. The flexibility and ease of
      formation of geometrically confined magnetic skyrmions may help to optimize the
      design of skyrmion-based memory devices.

PMID- 28580936
TI  - Quasilinear quantum magnetoresistance in pressure-induced nonsymmorphic
      superconductor chromium arsenide.
AB  - In conventional metals, modification of electron trajectories under magnetic
      field gives rise to a magnetoresistance that varies quadratically at low field,
      followed by a saturation at high field for closed orbits on the Fermi surface.
      Deviations from the conventional behaviour, for example, the observation of a
      linear magnetoresistance, or a non-saturating magnetoresistance, have been
      attributed to exotic electron scattering mechanisms. Recently, linear
      magnetoresistance has been observed in many Dirac materials, in which the
      electron-electron correlation is relatively weak. The strongly correlated
      helimagnet CrAs undergoes a quantum phase transition to a nonmagnetic
      superconductor under pressure. Here we observe, near the magnetic instability, a
      large and non-saturating quasilinear magnetoresistance from the upper critical
      field to 14 T at low temperatures. We show that the quasilinear magnetoresistance
      may arise from an intricate interplay between a nontrivial band crossing
      protected by nonsymmorphic crystal symmetry and strong magnetic fluctuations.

PMID- 28580937
TI  - Extra-embryonic tissue spreading directs early embryo morphogenesis in killifish.
AB  - The spreading of mesenchymal-like cell layers is critical for embryo
      morphogenesis and tissue repair, yet we know little of this process in vivo. Here
      we take advantage of unique developmental features of the non-conventional annual
      killifish embryo to study the principles underlying tissue spreading in a simple
      cellular environment, devoid of patterning signals and major morphogenetic cell
      movements. Using in vivo experimentation and physical modelling we reveal that
      the extra-embryonic epithelial enveloping cell layer, thought mainly to provide
      protection to the embryo, directs cell migration and the spreading of embryonic
      tissue during early development. This function relies on the ability of embryonic
      cells to couple their autonomous random motility to non-autonomous signals
      arising from the expansion of the extra-embryonic epithelium, mediated by cell
      membrane adhesion and tension. Thus, we present a mechanism of extra-embryonic
      control of embryo morphogenesis that couples the mechanical properties of
      adjacent tissues in the early killifish embryo.

PMID- 28580938
TI  - Harnessing speckle for a sub-femtometre resolved broadband wavemeter and laser
      stabilization.
AB  - The accurate determination and control of the wavelength of light is fundamental
      to many fields of science. Speckle patterns resulting from the interference of
      multiple reflections in disordered media are well-known to scramble the
      information content of light by complex but linear processes. However, these
      patterns are, in fact, exceptionally rich in information about the illuminating
      source. We use a fibre-coupled integrating sphere to generate wavelength
      dependent speckle patterns, in combination with algorithms based on the
      transmission matrix method and principal component analysis, to realize a
      broadband and sensitive wavemeter. We demonstrate sub-femtometre wavelength
      resolution at a centre wavelength of 780 nm, and a broad calibrated measurement
      range from 488 to 1,064 nm. This compares favourably to the performance of
      conventional wavemeters. Using this speckle wavemeter as part of a feedback loop,
      we stabilize a 780 nm diode laser to achieve a linewidth better than 1 MHz.

PMID- 28580939
TI  - The genetic landscape of benign thyroid nodules revealed by whole exome and
      transcriptome sequencing.
AB  - The genomic alterations for benign thyroid nodule, especially adenomatoid nodule,
      one of the most common types of hyperplasia lesion, are ill-studied. Here, we
      show whole-exome sequencing and/or transcriptome sequencing data on adenomatoid
      nodules with or without coincidental papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Somatic
      mutation of BRAF (22/32) is only detected in PTC, while mutations in SPOP (4/38),
      ZNF148 (6/38) and EZH1 (3/38) are found enriched in adenomatoid nodule. In an
      expanded cohort of adenomatoid nodule (n=259) mutually exclusive SPOPP94R,
      EZH1Q571R and ZNF148 mutations are identified in 24.3% of them. Adenomatoid
      nodules show very few overlapped mutations and distinct gene expression patterns
      with their coincidental PTC. Phylogenetic tree analysis uncovers that PTCs
      evolved independently from their matched benign nodules. Our findings reveal that
      benign nodules possess a unique molecular signature that differs from PTC and
      provide genomic evidence for the conventional belief that PTC and benign nodules
      have independent origin.

PMID- 28580941
TI  - Measuring finite-range phase coherence in an optical lattice using Talbot
      interferometry.
AB  - One of the important goals of present research is to control and manipulate
      coherence in a broad variety of systems, such as semiconductor spintronics,
      biological photosynthetic systems, superconducting qubits and complex atomic
      networks. Over the past decades, interferometry of atoms and molecules has proven
      to be a powerful tool to explore coherence. Here we demonstrate a near-field
      interferometer based on the Talbot effect, which allows us to measure finite
      range phase coherence of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We apply this
      interferometer to study the build-up of phase coherence after a quantum quench of
      a Bose-Einstein condensate residing in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our
      technique of measuring finite-range phase coherence is generic, easy to adopt and
      can be applied in practically all lattice experiments without further
      modifications.

PMID- 28580940
TI  - Accurate prediction of X-ray pulse properties from a free-electron laser using
      machine learning.
AB  - Free-electron lasers providing ultra-short high-brightness pulses of X-ray
      radiation have great potential for a wide impact on science, and are a critical
      element for unravelling the structural dynamics of matter. To fully harness this
      potential, we must accurately know the X-ray properties: intensity, spectrum and
      temporal profile. Owing to the inherent fluctuations in free-electron lasers,
      this mandates a full characterization of the properties for each and every pulse.
      While diagnostics of these properties exist, they are often invasive and many
      cannot operate at a high-repetition rate. Here, we present a technique for
      circumventing this limitation. Employing a machine learning strategy, we can
      accurately predict X-ray properties for every shot using only parameters that are
      easily recorded at high-repetition rate, by training a model on a small set of
      fully diagnosed pulses. This opens the door to fully realizing the promise of
      next-generation high-repetition rate X-ray lasers.

PMID- 28580943
TI  - New Martian valley network volume estimate consistent with ancient ocean and warm
      and wet climate.
AB  - The volume of Martian valley network (VN) cavity and the amount of water needed
      to create the cavity by erosion are of significant importance for understanding
      the early Martian climate, the style and rate of hydrologic cycling, and the
      possibility of an ancient ocean. However, previous attempts at estimating these
      two quantities were based on selected valleys or at local sites using crude
      estimates of VN length, width and depth. Here we employed an innovative
      progressive black top hat transformation method to estimate them on a global
      scale based on the depth of each valley pixel. The conservative estimate of the
      minimum global VN volume is 1.74 * 1014 m3 and minimum cumulative volume of water
      required is 6.86 * 1017 m3 (or ~5 km of global equivalent layer, GEL). Both are
      much larger than previous estimates and are consistent with an early warm and wet
      climate with active hydrologic cycling involving an ocean.

PMID- 28580942
TI  - Adenovirus prime, Env protein boost vaccine protects against neutralization
      resistant SIVsmE660 variants in rhesus monkeys.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that DNA prime, Ad5 boost vaccines protect against
      neutralization-sensitive but not neutralization-resistant virus variants within
      the SIVsmE660 swarm. Here we show that Ad prime, Env protein boost vaccines
      protect against neutralization-resistant SIVsmE660 variants. We perform two
      studies in rhesus monkeys with Ad35/Ad26 vectors expressing SIVmac239 Gag/Pol/Env
      with or without an AS01B-adjuvanted SIVmac32H gp140 protein boost. In a
      repetitive, low-dose challenge study, we observe robust protection against
      acquisition of infection by both Ad Alone and Ad/Env vaccines. In a single, high
      dose challenge study, only the Ad/Env vaccine affords significant protection
      against acquisition of infection. Analysis of transmitted/founder (T/F) viruses
      from this study demonstrates that the Ad/Env vaccine blocks both neutralization
      sensitive and neutralization-resistant SIVsmE660 variants in rhesus monkeys with
      restrictive TRIM5alpha alleles. These data demonstrate that the adjuvanted Env
      protein boost is critical for protecting against high-dose SIVsmE660 challenge
      and for blocking neutralization-resistant viruses within the SIVsmE660 swarm.

PMID- 28580945
TI  - Melting temperatures of MgO under high pressure by micro-texture analysis.
AB  - Periclase (MgO) is the second most abundant mineral after bridgmanite in the
      Earth's lower mantle, and its melting behaviour under pressure is important to
      constrain rheological properties and melting behaviours of the lower mantle
      materials. Significant discrepancies exist between the melting temperatures of
      MgO determined by laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LHDAC) and those based on
      dynamic compressions and theoretical predictions. Here we show the melting
      temperatures in earlier LHDAC experiments are underestimated due to misjudgment
      of melting, based on micro-texture observations of the quenched samples. The high
      melting temperatures of MgO suggest that the subducted cold slabs should have
      higher viscosities than previously thought, suggesting that the inter-connecting
      textural feature of MgO would not play important roles for the slab stagnation in
      the lower mantle. The present results also predict that the ultra-deep magmas
      produced in the lower mantle are peridotitic, which are stabilized near the core
      mantle boundary.

PMID- 28580944
TI  - IL-17-producing gammadelta T cells switch migratory patterns between resting and
      activated states.
AB  - Interleukin 17-producing gammadelta T (gammadeltaT17) cells have unconventional
      trafficking characteristics, residing in mucocutaneous tissues but also homing
      into inflamed tissues via circulation. Despite being fundamental to gammadeltaT17
      driven early protective immunity and exacerbation of autoimmunity and cancer,
      migratory cues controlling gammadeltaT17 cell positioning in barrier tissues and
      recruitment to inflammatory sites are still unclear. Here we show that
      gammadeltaT17 cells constitutively express chemokine receptors CCR6 and CCR2.
      While CCR6 recruits resting gammadeltaT17 cells to the dermis, CCR2 drives rapid
      gammadeltaT17 cell recruitment to inflamed tissues during autoimmunity, cancer
      and infection. Downregulation of CCR6 by IRF4 and BATF upon gammadeltaT17
      activation is required for optimal recruitment of gammadeltaT17 cells to inflamed
      tissue by preventing their sequestration into uninflamed dermis. These findings
      establish a lymphocyte trafficking model whereby a hierarchy of homing signals is
      prioritized by dynamic receptor expression to drive both tissue surveillance and
      rapid recruitment of gammadeltaT17 cells to inflammatory lesions.

PMID- 28580946
TI  - Dopamine D2 Receptor Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens Comprises a Metabolic
      Cognitive Brain Interface Regulating Metabolic Components of Glucose
      Reinforcement.
AB  - Appetitive drive is influenced by coordinated interactions between brain circuits
      that regulate reinforcement and homeostatic signals that control metabolism.
      Glucose modulates striatal dopamine (DA) and regulates appetitive drive and
      reinforcement learning. Striatal DA D2 receptors (D2Rs) also regulate
      reinforcement learning and are implicated in glucose-related metabolic disorders.
      Nevertheless, interactions between striatal D2R and peripheral glucose have not
      been previously described. Here we show that manipulations involving striatal D2R
      signaling coincide with perseverative and impulsive-like responding for sucrose,
      a disaccharide consisting of fructose and glucose. Fructose conveys orosensory
      (ie, taste) reinforcement but does not convey metabolic (ie, nutrient-derived)
      reinforcement. Glucose however conveys orosensory reinforcement but unlike
      fructose, it is a major metabolic energy source, underlies sustained
      reinforcement, and activates striatal circuitry. We found that mice with deletion
      of dopamine- and cAMP-regulated neuronal phosphoprotein (DARPP-32) exclusively in
      D2R-expressing cells exhibited preferential D2R changes in the nucleus accumbens
      (NAc), a striatal region that critically regulates sucrose reinforcement. These
      changes coincided with perseverative and impulsive-like responding for sucrose
      pellets and sustained reinforcement learning of glucose-paired flavors. These
      mice were also characterized by significant glucose intolerance (ie, impaired
      glucose utilization). Systemic glucose administration significantly attenuated
      sucrose operant responding and D2R activation or blockade in the NAc
      bidirectionally modulated blood glucose levels and glucose tolerance.
      Collectively, these results implicate NAc D2R in regulating both peripheral
      glucose levels and glucose-dependent reinforcement learning behaviors and
      highlight the notion that glucose metabolic impairments arising from disrupted
      NAc D2R signaling are involved in compulsive and perseverative feeding behaviors.

PMID- 28580948
TI  - Free-standing supramolecular hydrogel objects by reaction-diffusion.
AB  - Self-assembly provides access to a variety of molecular materials, yet spatial
      control over structure formation remains difficult to achieve. Here we show how
      reaction-diffusion (RD) can be coupled to a molecular self-assembly process to
      generate macroscopic free-standing objects with control over shape, size, and
      functionality. In RD, two or more reactants diffuse from different positions to
      give rise to spatially defined structures on reaction. We demonstrate that RD can
      be used to locally control formation and self-assembly of hydrazone molecular
      gelators from their non-assembling precursors, leading to soft, free-standing
      hydrogel objects with sizes ranging from several hundred micrometres up to
      centimeters. Different chemical functionalities and gradients can easily be
      integrated in the hydrogel objects by using different reactants. Our methodology,
      together with the vast range of organic reactions and self-assembling building
      blocks, provides a general approach towards the programmed fabrication of soft
      microscale objects with controlled functionality and shape.

PMID- 28580947
TI  - Pyrin-only protein 2 limits inflammation but improves protection against
      bacteria.
AB  - Pyrin domain-only proteins (POPs) are recently evolved, primate-specific proteins
      demonstrated in vitro as negative regulators of inflammatory responses. However,
      their in vivo function is not understood. Of the four known POPs, only POP2 is
      reported to regulate NF-kappaB-dependent transcription and multiple
      inflammasomes. Here we use a transgenic mouse-expressing POP2 controlled by its
      endogenous human promotor to study the immunological functions of POP2. Despite
      having significantly reduced inflammatory cytokine responses to LPS and bacterial
      infection, POP2 transgenic mice are more resistant to bacterial infection than
      wild-type mice. In a pulmonary tularaemia model, POP2 enhances IFN-gamma
      production, modulates neutrophil numbers, improves macrophage functions,
      increases bacterial control and diminishes lung pathology. Thus, unlike other
      POPs thought to diminish innate protection, POP2 reduces detrimental inflammation
      while preserving and enhancing protective immunity. Our findings suggest that
      POP2 acts as a high-order regulator balancing cellular function and inflammation
      with broad implications for inflammation-associated diseases and therapeutic
      intervention.

PMID- 28580949
TI  - Upregulated energy metabolism in the Drosophila mushroom body is the trigger for
      long-term memory.
AB  - Efficient energy use has constrained the evolution of nervous systems. However,
      it is unresolved whether energy metabolism may resultantly regulate major brain
      functions. Our observation that Drosophila flies double their sucrose intake at
      an early stage of long-term memory formation initiated the investigation of how
      energy metabolism intervenes in this process. Cellular-resolution imaging of
      energy metabolism reveals a concurrent elevation of energy consumption in neurons
      of the mushroom body, the fly's major memory centre. Strikingly, upregulation of
      mushroom body energy flux is both necessary and sufficient to drive long-term
      memory formation. This effect is triggered by a specific pair of dopaminergic
      neurons afferent to the mushroom bodies, via the D5-like DAMB dopamine receptor.
      Hence, dopamine signalling mediates an energy switch in the mushroom body that
      controls long-term memory encoding. Our data thus point to an instructional role
      for energy flux in the execution of demanding higher brain functions.

PMID- 28580950
TI  - Pacific plate motion change caused the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend.
AB  - A conspicuous 60 degrees  bend of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain in the north-western
      Pacific Ocean has variously been interpreted as the result of an abrupt Pacific
      plate motion change in the Eocene (~47 Ma), a rapid southward drift of the
      Hawaiian hotspot before the formation of the bend, or a combination of these two
      causes. Palaeomagnetic data from the Emperor Seamounts prove ambiguous for
      constraining the Hawaiian hotspot drift, but mantle flow modelling suggests that
      the hotspot drifted 4-9 degrees  south between 80 and 47 Ma. Here we demonstrate
      that southward hotspot drift cannot be a sole or dominant mechanism for formation
      of the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend (HEB). While southward hotspot drift has resulted in
      more northerly positions of the Emperor Seamounts as they are observed today,
      formation of the HEB cannot be explained without invoking a prominent change in
      the direction of Pacific plate motion around 47 Ma.

PMID- 28580951
TI  - Enantioselective decarboxylative chlorination of beta-ketocarboxylic acids.
AB  - Stereoselective halogenation is a highly useful organic transformation for
      multistep syntheses because the resulting chiral organohalides can serve as
      precursors for various medicinally relevant derivatives. Even though
      decarboxylative halogenation of aliphatic carboxylic acids is a useful and
      fundamental synthetic method for the preparation of a variety of organohalides,
      an enantioselective version of this reaction has not been reported. Here we
      report a highly enantioselective decarboxylative chlorination of beta
      ketocarboxylic acids to obtain alpha-chloroketones under mild organocatalytic
      conditions. The present method is also applicable for the enantioselective
      synthesis of tertiary alpha-chloroketones. The conversions of the resulting alpha
      chloroketones into alpha-aminoketones and alpha-thio-substituted ketones via SN2
      reactions at the tertiary carbon centres are also demonstrated. These results
      constitute an efficient approach for the synthesis of chiral organohalides and
      are expected to enhance the availability of enantiomerically enriched chiral
      compounds with heteroatom-substituted chiral stereogenic centres.

PMID- 28580952
TI  - Threshold in North Atlantic-Arctic Ocean circulation controlled by the subsidence
      of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge.
AB  - High latitude ocean gateway changes are thought to play a key role in Cenozoic
      climate evolution. However, the underlying ocean dynamics are poorly understood.
      Here we use a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean model to investigate the effect of
      ocean gateway formation that is associated with the subsidence of the Greenland
      Scotland Ridge. We find a threshold in sill depth (~50 m) that is linked to the
      influence of wind mixing. Sill depth changes within the wind mixed layer
      establish lagoonal and estuarine conditions with limited exchange across the sill
      resulting in brackish or even fresher Arctic conditions. Close to the threshold
      the ocean regime is highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 and the
      associated modulation in the hydrological cycle. For larger sill depths a bi
      directional flow regime across the ridge develops, providing a baseline for the
      final step towards the establishment of a modern prototype North Atlantic-Arctic
      water exchange.

PMID- 28580953
TI  - Correspondence: Reply to 'DNA shape is insufficient to explain binding'.

PMID- 28580954
TI  - Single-stage plasma-based correlated energy spread compensation for ultrahigh 6D
      brightness electron beams.
AB  - Plasma photocathode wakefield acceleration combines energy gains of tens of GeV m
      1 with generation of ultralow emittance electron bunches, and opens a path
      towards 5D-brightness orders of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art. This
      holds great promise for compact accelerator building blocks and advanced light
      sources. However, an intrinsic by-product of the enormous electric field
      gradients inherent to plasma accelerators is substantial correlated energy spread
      an obstacle for key applications such as free-electron-lasers. Here we show that
      by releasing an additional tailored escort electron beam at a later phase of the
      acceleration, when the witness bunch is relativistically stable, the plasma wave
      can be locally overloaded without compromising the witness bunch normalized
      emittance. This reverses the effective accelerating gradient, and counter-rotates
      the accumulated negative longitudinal phase space chirp of the witness bunch.
      Thereby, the energy spread is reduced by an order of magnitude, thus enabling the
      production of ultrahigh 6D-brightness beams.

PMID- 28580956
TI  - Correspondence: DNA shape is insufficient to explain binding.

PMID- 28580955
TI  - Ndfip1 restricts mTORC1 signalling and glycolysis in regulatory T cells to
      prevent autoinflammatory disease.
AB  - Foxp3+ T regulatory (Treg) cells suppress immune cell activation and establish
      normal immune homeostasis. How Treg cells maintain their identity is not
      completely understood. Here we show that Ndfip1, a coactivator of Nedd4-family E3
      ubiquitin ligases, is required for Treg cell stability and function. Ndfip1
      deletion in Treg cells results in autoinflammatory disease. Ndfip1-deficient Treg
      cells are highly proliferative and are more likely to lose Foxp3 expression to
      become IL-4-producing TH2 effector cells. Proteomic analyses indicate altered
      metabolic signature of Ndfip1-deficient Treg cells and metabolic profiling
      reveals elevated glycolysis and increased mTORC1 signalling. Ndfip1 restricts
      Treg cell metabolism and IL-4 production via distinct mechanisms, as IL-4
      deficiency does not prevent hyperproliferation or elevated mTORC1 signalling in
      Ndfip1-deficient Treg cells. Thus, Ndfip1 preserves Treg lineage stability and
      immune homeostasis by preventing the expansion of highly proliferative and
      metabolically active Treg cells and by preventing pathological secretion of IL-4
      from Treg cells.

PMID- 28580959
TI  - Hafnium-an optical hydrogen sensor spanning six orders in pressure.
AB  - Hydrogen detection is essential for its implementation as an energy vector. So
      far, palladium is considered to be the most effective hydrogen sensing material.
      Here we show that palladium-capped hafnium thin films show a highly reproducible
      change in optical transmission in response to a hydrogen exposure ranging over
      six orders of magnitude in pressure. The optical signal is hysteresis-free within
      this range, which includes a transition between two structural phases. A
      temperature change results in a uniform shift of the optical signal. This, to our
      knowledge unique, feature facilitates the sensor calibration and suggests a
      constant hydrogenation enthalpy. In addition, it suggests an anomalously steep
      increase of the entropy with the hydrogen/metal ratio that cannot be explained on
      the basis of a classical solid solution model. The optical behaviour as a
      function of its hydrogen content makes hafnium well-suited for use as a hydrogen
      detection material.

PMID- 28580960
TI  - Rapid visualization of grain boundaries in monolayer MoS2 by multiphoton
      microscopy.
AB  - Grain boundaries have a major effect on the physical properties of two
      dimensional layered materials. Therefore, it is important to develop simple, fast
      and sensitive characterization methods to visualize grain boundaries.
      Conventional Raman and photoluminescence methods have been used for detecting
      grain boundaries; however, these techniques are better suited for detection of
      grain boundaries with a large crystal axis rotation between neighbouring grains.
      Here we show rapid visualization of grain boundaries in chemical vapour deposited
      monolayer MoS2 samples with multiphoton microscopy. In contrast to Raman and
      photoluminescence imaging, third-harmonic generation microscopy provides
      excellent sensitivity and high speed for grain boundary visualization regardless
      of the degree of crystal axis rotation. We find that the contrast associated with
      grain boundaries in the third-harmonic imaging is considerably enhanced by the
      solvents commonly used in the transfer process of two-dimensional materials. Our
      results demonstrate that multiphoton imaging can be used for fast and sensitive
      characterization of two-dimensional materials.

PMID- 28580958
TI  - Transcriptional determination and functional specificity of myeloid cells: making
      sense of diversity.
AB  - Early responses to invading pathogens and to non-microbial danger signals are
      mediated by different innate immune and parenchymal tissue cells, which are able
      to respond to a variety of pathogen- and danger-associated molecular patterns. In
      most if not all instances, innate immune responses to a given molecule are not
      uniquely confined to one responding cell type, but instead involve the engagement
      of different cells with intrinsically distinct properties. In this Review, we
      discuss the molecular basis of the differentiation of myeloid cells, which is
      controlled by transcription factors, transcriptional co-regulators and post
      transcriptional mechanisms, and examine how the functional specification of the
      resulting mature immune cells of the myeloid lineage affects their response to
      danger signals.

PMID- 28580957
TI  - The non-canonical NF-kappaB pathway in immunity and inflammation.
AB  - The nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) family of transcription factors is
      activated by canonical and non-canonical signalling pathways, which differ in
      both signalling components and biological functions. Recent studies have revealed
      important roles for the non-canonical NF-kappaB pathway in regulating different
      aspects of immune functions. Defects in non-canonical NF-kappaB signalling are
      associated with severe immune deficiencies, whereas dysregulated activation of
      this pathway contributes to the pathogenesis of various autoimmune and
      inflammatory diseases. Here we review the signalling mechanisms and the
      biological function of the non-canonical NF-kappaB pathway. We also discuss
      recent progress in elucidating the molecular mechanisms regulating non-canonical
      NF-kappaB pathway activation, which may provide new opportunities for therapeutic
      strategies.

PMID- 28580961
TI  - Universal fragment descriptors for predicting properties of inorganic crystals.
AB  - Although historically materials discovery has been driven by a laborious trial
      and-error process, knowledge-driven materials design can now be enabled by the
      rational combination of Machine Learning methods and materials databases. Here,
      data from the AFLOW repository for ab initio calculations is combined with
      Quantitative Materials Structure-Property Relationship models to predict
      important properties: metal/insulator classification, band gap energy, bulk/shear
      moduli, Debye temperature and heat capacities. The prediction's accuracy compares
      well with the quality of the training data for virtually any stoichiometric
      inorganic crystalline material, reciprocating the available thermomechanical
      experimental data. The universality of the approach is attributed to the
      construction of the descriptors: Property-Labelled Materials Fragments. The
      representations require only minimal structural input allowing straightforward
      implementations of simple heuristic design rules.

PMID- 28580962
TI  - Probing intermediates of the induction period prior to nucleation and growth of
      semiconductor quantum dots.
AB  - Little is known about the induction period before the nucleation and growth of
      colloidal semiconductor quantum dots. Here, we introduce an approach that allows
      us to probe intermediates present in the induction period. We show that this
      induction period itself exhibits distinct stages with the evolution of the
      intermediates, first without and then with the formation of covalent bonds
      between metal cations and chalcogenide anions. The intermediates are optically
      invisible in toluene, while the covalent-bonded intermediates become visible as
      magic-size clusters when a primary amine is added. Such evolution of magic-size
      clusters provides indirect but compelling evidence for the presence of the
      intermediates in the induction period and supports the multi-step nucleation
      model. Our study reveals that magic-size clusters could be readily engineered in
      a single-size form, and suggests that the existence of the intermediates during
      the growth of conventional quantum dots results in low product yield.

PMID- 28580964
TI  - Corrigendum: ChEC-seq kinetics discriminates transcription factor binding sites
      by DNA sequence and shape in vivo.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15643.

PMID- 28580963
TI  - Ultrathin metal-organic framework array for efficient electrocatalytic water
      splitting.
AB  - Two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks represent a family of materials with
      attractive chemical and structural properties, which are usually prepared in the
      form of bulk powders. Here we show a generic approach to fabricate ultrathin
      nanosheet array of metal-organic frameworks on different substrates through a
      dissolution-crystallization mechanism. These materials exhibit intriguing
      properties for electrocatalysis including highly exposed active molecular metal
      sites owning to ultra-small thickness of nanosheets, improved electrical
      conductivity and a combination of hierarchical porosity. We fabricate a nickel
      iron-based metal-organic framework array, which demonstrates superior
      electrocatalytic performance towards oxygen evolution reaction with a small
      overpotential of 240 mV at 10 mA cm-2, and robust operation for 20,000 s with no
      detectable activity decay. Remarkably, the turnover frequency of the electrode is
      3.8 s-1 at an overpotential of 400 mV. We further demonstrate the promise of
      these electrodes for other important catalytic reactions including hydrogen
      evolution reaction and overall water splitting.

PMID- 28580967
TI  - VOC emission rates over London and South East England obtained by airborne eddy
      covariance.
AB  - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) originate from a variety of sources, and play
      an intrinsic role in influencing air quality. Some VOCs, including benzene, are
      carcinogens and so directly affect human health, while others, such as isoprene,
      are very reactive in the atmosphere and play an important role in the formation
      of secondary pollutants such as ozone and particles. Here we report spatially
      resolved measurements of the surface-to-atmosphere fluxes of VOCs across London
      and SE England made in 2013 and 2014. High-frequency 3-D wind velocities and VOC
      volume mixing ratios (made by proton transfer reaction - mass spectrometry) were
      obtained from a low-flying aircraft and used to calculate fluxes using the
      technique of eddy covariance. A footprint model was then used to quantify the
      flux contribution from the ground surface at spatial resolution of 100 m,
      averaged to 1 km. Measured fluxes of benzene over Greater London showed positive
      agreement with the UK's National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, with the
      highest fluxes originating from central London. Comparison of MTBE and toluene
      fluxes suggest that petroleum evaporation is an important emission source of
      toluene in central London. Outside London, increased isoprene emissions were
      observed over wooded areas, at rates greater than those predicted by a UK
      regional application of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme model
      (EMEP4UK). This work demonstrates the applicability of the airborne eddy
      covariance method to the determination of anthropogenic and biogenic VOC fluxes
      and the possibility of validating emission inventories through measurements.

PMID- 28580966
TI  - Synergistic cooperation promotes multicellular performance and unicellular free
      rider persistence.
AB  - The evolution of multicellular life requires cooperation among cells, which can
      be undermined by intra-group selection for selfishness. Theory predicts that
      selection to avoid non-cooperators limits social interactions among non
      relatives, yet previous evolution experiments suggest that intra-group conflict
      is an outcome, rather than a driver, of incipient multicellular life cycles. Here
      we report the evolution of multicellularity via two distinct mechanisms of group
      formation in the unicellular budding yeast Kluyveromyces lactis. Cells remain
      permanently attached following mitosis, giving rise to clonal clusters (staying
      together); clusters then reversibly assemble into social groups (coming
      together). Coming together amplifies the benefits of multicellularity and allows
      social clusters to collectively outperform solitary clusters. However,
      cooperation among non-relatives also permits fast-growing unicellular lineages to
      'free-ride' during selection for increased size. Cooperation and competition for
      the benefits of multicellularity promote the stable coexistence of unicellular
      and multicellular genotypes, underscoring the importance of social and ecological
      context during the transition to multicellularity.

PMID- 28580968
TI  - Collision-induced dissociation of sodiated glucose and identification of anomeric
      configuration.
AB  - Collision-induced dissociation (CID) of sodiated glucose was investigated using
      electronic structure calculations and resonance excitation in a low-pressure
      linear ion trap. The major dissociation channels in addition to desodiation are
      dehydration and C2H4O2 elimination reactions which the barrier heights are near
      to or lower than the sodiation energy of glucose. Dehydration reaction involves
      the transfer of the H atom from the O2 atom to the O1 atom, followed by the
      cleavage of the C1-O1 bond. Notably, alpha-glucose has a dehydration barrier
      lower than that of beta-glucose. This difference results in the larger branching
      ratio of dehydration reactions involving alpha-glucose, which provides a simple
      and fast method for identifying the anomeric configurations of glucose. The
      C2H4O2 elimination starts from the H atom transfer from the O1 atom to the O0
      atom, followed by the cleavage of the C1-O0 bond. These results were further
      confirmed by experimental study using 18O-isotope-labeled compounds. Both the
      experimental data and theoretical calculations suggest that the dehydration
      reaction and cross-ring dissociation of sodiated carbohydrates mainly occur at
      the reducing end during low-energy CID.

PMID- 28580965
TI  - Functional evolution of Lepidoptera olfactory receptors revealed by
      deorphanization of a moth repertoire.
AB  - Insects detect their hosts or mates primarily through olfaction, and olfactory
      receptors (ORs) are at the core of odorant detection. Each species has evolved a
      unique repertoire of ORs whose functional properties are expected to meet its
      ecological needs, though little is known about the molecular basis of olfaction
      outside Diptera. Here we report a pioneer functional analysis of a large array of
      ORs in a lepidopteran, the herbivorous pest Spodoptera littoralis. We demonstrate
      that most ORs are narrowly tuned to ubiquitous plant volatiles at low, relevant
      odorant titres. Our phylogenetic analysis highlights a basic conservation of
      function within the receptor repertoire of Lepidoptera, across the expansive
      evolutionary radiation of different major clades. Our study provides a reference
      for further studies of olfactory mechanisms in Lepidoptera, a historically
      crucial insect order in olfactory research.

PMID- 28580969
TI  - Cavity enhanced spectroscopy for measurement of nitrogen oxides in the
      Anthropocene: results from the Seoul tower during MAPS 2015.
AB  - Cavity enhanced spectroscopy, CES, is a high sensitivity direct absorption method
      that has seen increasing utility in the last decade, a period also marked by
      increasing requirements for understanding human impacts on atmospheric
      composition. This paper describes the current NOAA six channel cavity ring-down
      spectrometer (CRDS, the most common form of CES) for measurement of nitrogen
      oxides and O3. It further describes the results from measurements from a tower
      300 m above the urban area of Seoul in late spring of 2015. The campaign
      demonstrates the performance of the CRDS instrument and provides new data on both
      photochemistry and nighttime chemistry in a major Asian megacity. The instrument
      provided accurate, high time resolution data for N2O5, NO, NO2, NOy and O3, but
      suffered from large wall loss in the sampling of NO3, illustrating the
      requirement for calibration of the NO3 inlet transmission. Both the
      photochemistry and nighttime chemistry of nitrogen oxides and O3 were rapid in
      this megacity. Sustained average rates of O3 buildup of 10 ppbv h-1 during
      recurring morning and early afternoon sea breezes led to a 50 ppbv average daily
      O3 rise. Nitrate radical production rates, P(NO3), averaged 3-4 ppbv h-1 in late
      afternoon and early evening, much greater than contemporary data from Los
      Angeles, a comparable U. S. megacity. These P(NO3) were much smaller than
      historical data from Los Angeles, however. Nighttime data at 300 m above ground
      showed considerable variability in high time resolution nitrogen oxide and O3,
      likely resulting from sampling within gradients in the nighttime boundary layer
      structure. Apparent nighttime biogenic VOC oxidation rates of several ppbv h-1
      were also likely influenced by vertical gradients. Finally, daytime N2O5 mixing
      ratios of 3-35 pptv were associated with rapid daytime P(NO3) and agreed well
      with a photochemical steady state calculation.

PMID- 28580970
TI  - Evolution of the structural, energetic, and electronic properties of the 3d, 4d,
      and 5d transition-metal clusters (30 TMn systems for n = 2-15): a density
      functional theory investigation.
AB  - Subnanometric transition-metal (TM) clusters have attracted great attention due
      to their unexpected physical and chemical properties, leastwise compared to their
      bulk counterparts. An in-depth understanding of the evolution of the properties
      as a function of the number of atoms for such systems is a basic prerequisite to
      leverage countless applications, from catalysis to magnetic storage, as well as
      to answer fundamental questions related to their intrinsic stability. Here, we
      reported a systematic density functional study to investigate the structural,
      electronic properties and stability of all TMn (30 elements) unary clusters as a
      function of the number of atoms (n = 2-15). We provided the complete structural
      patterns for all TM periodic table groups, considering the growth evolution as
      well as the main trends of the structural and electronic properties. The
      combination of the occupation of the bonding/anti-bonding d-states and the s-d
      hybridization is found to be the main stabilization mechanism, helping in the
      understanding of the structural patterns. Most TMn clusters have a magic number
      of atoms, for which there are peaks in s-d hybridization and null electric dipole
      moments. Thus, our extensive and comparative study addresses size effects along
      with the evolution of d-orbital occupation for the TMn gas-phase cluster
      properties.

PMID- 28580972
TI  - m-Cresol purple functionalized surface enhanced Raman scattering paper chips for
      highly sensitive detection of pH in the neutral pH range.
AB  - Herein, a pH sensitive paper SERS chip was prepared by selecting m-cresol purple,
      a molecule with halochromic properties in the neutral pH range as a Raman
      reporter. The adsorbed m-cresol purple underwent a reversible change in its
      electronic configuration from a non-resonant species to a resonant species, which
      resulted in a significant Raman signal intensity variation due to the
      transformation of the sensing mode from SERS to surface-enhanced resonance Raman
      scattering (SERRS). The chips have a sensitive pH range of 6.0 to 8.0 and
      exhibited good performance for the detection of natural water samples with
      detection precision of approximately 0.03 pH units, suggesting great potential
      for environmental pH monitoring applications.

PMID- 28580971
TI  - A micellar cisplatin prodrug simultaneously eliminates both cancer cells and
      cancer stem cells in lung cancer.
AB  - Platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line treatment for lung cancers encounters
      insufficient selectivity, severe side effects and drug resistance in clinics. In
      this study, we developed an amphiphilic prodrug of cisplatin-poly(ethylene
      glycol)-block-polycaprolactone and demonstrated that the prodrug formed micellar
      nanoparticles, NPPt(IV), with an average diameter of ~100 nm. NPPt(IV) released
      platinum in response to the intracellular acidic and reductive environment, and
      in turn induced significant anti-proliferative activity in lung cancer cells.
      More importantly, NPPt(IV) exhibited a prominent inhibitory effect on CD133+ lung
      cancer stem cells (CSCs) and suppressed tumor growth in vivo. Unlike cisplatin
      treatment which eventually enriches CSCs, NPPt(IV) treatment prevents the
      accumulation of CD133+ lung CSCs in tumors. Therefore, NPPt(IV) simutaneously
      targeting CSCs and non-CSCs might represent a superior strategy to improve
      conventional anticancer therapy directed predominantly to tumor bulk populations.

PMID- 28580974
TI  - Stereoselective synthesis of enamino ketones through an aza-Michael/hydrolysis
      cascade reaction.
AB  - We have developed a mild, convenient and efficient synthesis of highly
      functionalized (Z)-beta-enamino ketones from readily available 3,4
      dihydroisoquinoline imines and ynones through an aza-Michael/hydrolysis cascade
      reaction. This method is also suitable for the preparation of (Z)-beta-enamino
      esters using alkynoates as starting materials. Complex fully substituted pyrroles
      can be constructed from the obtained (Z)-beta-enamino ketones. It is an
      attractive alternative approach for the preparation of highly functionalized
      enamino ketones, esters and pyrroles.

PMID- 28580975
TI  - Morphological imperfections of epitaxial graphene: from a hindrance to the
      generation of new photo-responses in the visible domain.
AB  - We report the discovery of remarkable photo-physical phenomena with
      characteristics unique to epitaxial graphene grown on 6H-SiC (000-1).
      Surprisingly, the electrical resistance of graphene increases under light
      illumination in contrast to conventional materials where it normally decreases.
      The resistance shows logarithmic temperature dependences which may be attributed
      to an Altshuler-Aronov effect. We show that the photoresistance depends on the
      frequency of the irradiating light, with three lasers (red, green, and violet)
      used to demonstrate the phenomenon. The counterintuitive rise of the positive
      photoresistance may be attributed to a creation of trapped charges upon
      irradiation. We argue that the origin of the photoresistance is related to the
      texture formed by the graphene flakes. Photovoltage also exists and increases
      with light intensity. However, its value saturates quickly with irradiation and
      does not change with time. The saturation of the photovoltage may be associated
      with the formation of a quasi-equilibrium state of the excited electrons and
      holes associated with a charge redistribution between the graphene and SiC
      substrate. The obtained physical picture is in agreement with the photoresistance
      measurements: X-ray photoelectron spectrometry "XPS", atomic force microscopy
      "AFM", Raman spectroscopy and the magnetic dependence of photoresistance decay
      measurements. We also observed non-decaying photoresistance and linear
      magnetoresistance in magnetic fields up to 1 T. We argue that this is due to
      topological phases spontaneously induced by persistent current formation within
      the graphene flake edges by magnetic fields.

PMID- 28580976
TI  - The role of group III, IV elements in Nb4AC3 MAX phases (A = Al, Si, Ga, Ge) and
      the unusual anisotropic behavior of the electronic and optical properties.
AB  - Niobium based Nb4AlC3, Nb4SiC3, Nb4GeC3 and Nb4GaC3 were investigated by means of
      density functional theory. Together with the known Nb4AlC3, the role of group
      III, IV elements in various properties of Nb4AC3 (A = Al, Si, Ga, Ge) was
      systematically investigated, and particularly the bulk moduli, shear moduli, and
      Young's moduli helped us to approach the ductility. All the studied compounds
      were found to be mechanically stable, and they also exhibit the metallic nature
      that results from the Nb-4d states being dominant at the Fermi level. The typical
      4d-2p hybridization leads to strong Nb-C covalent bonding and a relatively weaker
      4d-3p (4p) hybridization between Nb and A is identified. The latter does perturb
      the performance of materials. By varying A elements in Nb4AC3, the position and
      the width of the p states as well as hybridizations are altered, which determine
      the covalency and the ionicity of the chemical bonds. A high density of states at
      the Fermi level and the nesting effects in the Fermi surface are identified in
      Nb4SiC3 and linked to its unusual anisotropic behavior. Furthermore, Nb4GeC3 is
      predicted to be a very promising candidate solar heating barrier material.
      Overall, the present work gives insights into the role of A elements in the
      electronic structure and the physical properties of Nb4AC3 compounds. The
      tendencies and rules established here will help in the designing of functional
      ceramic materials with desirable properties.

PMID- 28580977
TI  - Concentration dependent phase behavior and collapse dynamics of PNIPAM microgel
      by dielectric relaxation.
AB  - The dielectric behavior of thermo-sensitive poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)
      microgel with three different concentrations was investigated for the frequencies
      ranging from 40 Hz to 110 MHz as a function of temperature from 10 to 60  degrees
      C. Two remarkable and temperature-dependent relaxation processes were observed.
      The slow relaxation originates from the segmental motion over the whole
      temperature range. The fast relaxation is due to the fluctuation of counterions
      below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and the interfacial
      polarization above the LCST. It was concluded from the temperature-dependent
      dielectric parameters that the microgel concentration will not influence the LCST
      but affects the phase behavior of the microgel suspension: the dense system
      experienced a colloidal crystal-to-liquid transition and volume phase transition,
      while the dilute system only underwent a volume phase transition. Based on the
      interfacial polarization theory, the electrical parameters for the constituent
      phases (permittivity, conductivity, and volume fraction of the microgel
      (epsilonp, kappap, phi) and the conductivity of water kappaa) and the water
      content in the microgel (fw) were calculated using Hanai's equation. In addition,
      the thermodynamics parameters of the two relaxations were calculated from the
      Eyring equation. The electrical and thermodynamic parameters indicate that the
      microgel concentration influences the volume, charge density, thickness of the
      electric double layer, and degrees of freedom of the segments of the microgel,
      thereby resulting in the differences in collapse dynamics.

PMID- 28580978
TI  - Unprecedented formation of 3-(tetrahydrofuran-2-yl)-4H-chromen-4-one in a
      reaction between 3,3a-dihydro-9H-furo[3,4-b]chromen-9-one and malononitrile.
AB  - Chromone skeletons are widespread among natural products as well as bioactive
      molecules. Here, we describe an unprecedented reaction of furo[3,4-b]chromen-9
      one with malononitrile to afford 3-(tetrahydrofuran-2-yl)-4H-chromen-4-ones.
      Experimental data suggest that a sequence of Michael/retro-Michael/nucleophilic
      addition is involved in this unprecedented transformation.

PMID- 28580973
TI  - The particle in the spider's web: transport through biological hydrogels.
AB  - Biological hydrogels such as mucus, extracellular matrix, biofilms, and the
      nuclear pore have diverse functions and compositions, but all act as selectively
      permeable barriers to the diffusion of particles. Each barrier has a crosslinked
      polymeric mesh that blocks penetration of large particles such as pathogens,
      nanotherapeutics, or macromolecules. These polymeric meshes also employ
      interactive filtering, in which affinity between solutes and the gel matrix
      controls permeability. Interactive filtering affects the transport of particles
      of all sizes including peptides, antibiotics, and nanoparticles and in many cases
      this filtering can be described in terms of the effects of charge and
      hydrophobicity. The concepts described in this review can guide strategies to
      exploit or overcome gel barriers, particularly for applications in diagnostics,
      pharmacology, biomaterials, and drug delivery.

PMID- 28580979
TI  - Design of TPGS-functionalized Cu3BiS3 nanocrystals with strong absorption in the
      second near-infrared window for radiation therapy enhancement.
AB  - Integrating radiation therapy with high-depth photothermal therapy in the second
      near-infrared (NIR) window is highly required for efficient treatment of deep
      seated tumor cells. Here, we constructed a multifunctional nano-theranostic with
      bimetallic chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) functionalized with amphiphilic d
      alpha-tocopherol polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS-Cu3BiS3). Benefiting
      from the strong absorbance of both X-ray and NIR light in the second NIR window,
      TPGS-Cu3BiS3 CNs can not only deposit more radiation dose to trigger enhanced
      radiation damage in vivo, but also conduct photo-induced hyperthermia for thermal
      ablation in the second NIR window and effective improvement of tumor oxygenation
      to overcome the hypoxia-associated radio-resistance of tumors. Moreover, copper
      ions on the surface of TPGS-Cu3BiS3 NCs are capable of catalyzing the Fenton-like
      and Haber-Weiss reactions to produce highly reactive hydroxyl radicals, leading
      to the increase in the level of oxygen radicals and further enhance cancer cell
      destruction. Apart from their therapeutic application, by means of X-ray computer
      tomography imaging as well as multispectral optoacoustic tomography imaging, TPGS
      Cu3BiS3 NCs also have the potential as a nano-theranostic to offer remarkable
      therapeutic outcome for deep-seated tumor cells in imaging-guided synergistically
      enhanced radiation therapy.

PMID- 28580981
TI  - Seeding layer assisted selective-area growth of As-rich InAsP nanowires on InP
      substrates.
AB  - We present the first demonstration of arsenic-rich InAs1-xPx (0 <= x <= 0.33)
      nanowire arrays grown on InP (111)B substrates by catalyst-free selective-area
      metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. It is shown that by introducing a thin
      InAs seeding layer prior to the growth of the nanowire, an extremely high
      vertical yield is achieved by eliminating rotational twins between (111)A and
      (111)B crystal orientations. InAsP nanowire arrays show strong emission of
      photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature, suggesting a significant reduction of
      surface state density compared with InAs nanowires. The phosphorus composition
      deduced from the PL peak energy is verified by energy-dispersive X-ray
      spectroscopy. The growth temperature shows a strong impact on the aspect ratio of
      InAs1-xPx nanowires with different phosphorus compositions. In addition, no PL
      emission is observed from nanowires grown with arsenic overpressure, likely due
      to an exchange of phosphorus with arsenic atoms at the surface which results in
      an increase in the surface state density. These results provide a path for the
      growth of heterojunctions based on As-rich InAs1-xPx for nanoscale short
      wavelength infrared and mid-wavelength infrared optical devices.

PMID- 28580980
TI  - Polarization-resolved mechanistic investigation of fluorescence signal
      intensification on zinc oxide nanorod ends.
AB  - The superior optical properties of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) have continued
      to promote their broad use in photonic, photoelectric, light detecting, and
      biosensing applications. One particularly important property pertinent to
      biodetection is fluorescence intensification on nanorod ends (FINE), a phenomenon
      in which a highly spatially localized and strongly intensified fluorescence
      signal with its extended photostability at the NR ends is seen from the emission
      profiles of fluorophore-coupled biomolecules on ZnO NRs. Therefore, understanding
      key parameters affecting the FINE phenomenon and the degree of FINE (DoF) is
      critical for their applications in biosensors. In this study, we describe in
      detail the outcomes of polarization-resolved measurements by systematically
      considering the polarization effects on FINE and DoF as a function of NR tilt
      angle and position along the NR. Specifically, we elucidate the exact roles of
      the different states of light polarization in FINE and quantitatively determine
      the explicit contributions arising from distinctive polarization states to the
      DoF. We confirm that the presence of the FINE phenomenon is ubiquitous from the
      fluorophore-coupled ZnO NR systems, regardless of the polarization setting. We
      subsequently show that DoF is significantly affected by the light-matter
      interaction geometry. We reveal the specific polarization conditions that
      contribute dominantly to the FINE effect. The highest DoF from a NR and the
      greatest NR end intensity can be achieved when both the excitation and collection
      polarization states are perpendicular to the NR main axis. Insights from this
      study provide valuable design principles for selecting the polarization state and
      light-matter interaction geometry to attain maximum FINE as well as DoF on ZnO
      NRs. The precise understanding of polarization-derived consequences on FINE and
      DoF manifested differently as a function of the position on individual NRs can
      also be important for warranting accurate interpretation and quantification of
      the position-dependent, fluorophore-emitted signals on single ZnO NRs. Hence, our
      findings from this study can be extremely beneficial in fluorescence-based
      sensing and detection settings utilizing polarization.

PMID- 28580983
TI  - Competitive C-C and C-H bond scission in the ethanol oxidation reaction on
      Cu(100) and the effect of an alkaline environment.
AB  - Direct ethanol fuel cell technology is impeded by inefficient, yet expensive
      anode catalysts. As such, research on effective and cheap anode catalysts towards
      complete ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) is greatly needed. Herein, we report
      the investigations of the competitive C-C and C-H bond scissions in the EOR
      involving CH3CO, CH2CO, and CHCO species on Cu(100) using density functional
      theory and transition state theory calculations. The easiest C-C bond cleavage
      was found in CH2CO while the most difficult C-H bond cleavage was also found in
      CH2CO, both with an activation energy of 1.02 eV. The feasible C-C bond scission
      may take place in CH2CO with a rate constant ratio of the C-C to the C-H bond
      scission at 100  degrees C of 0.32. Furthermore, in an alkaline environment, the
      C-H bond scission activation barrier is considerably lowered but the C-C bond
      cleavage activation barrier is slightly increased for both CH3CO and CH2CO
      species. The reaction of CH3CO species on Cu(100) under alkaline conditions
      produces mainly acetic acid with a barrier of 0.49 eV and a rate constant of 4.93
      * 105 s-1 at 100  degrees C.

PMID- 28580982
TI  - Layered rare-earth hydroxide nanocones with facile host composition modification
      and anion-exchange feature: topotactic transformation into oxide nanocones for
      upconversion.
AB  - Conical structures with hollow interiors, namely, nanocones (NCs), may exhibit
      better carrier transport properties than nanorods or nanotubes, which make them
      promising candidates for potential applications in optical/display devices,
      electronics and optoelectronics. Generally, conical structures belong to a
      metastable state between lamellar and tubular forms due to the extreme curvature
      causing the increase of internal strain energy. Therefore, it is very difficult
      to prepare NCs in high yield and purity under mild conditions. Here we firstly
      demonstrate a general strategy for the synthesis of layered rare-earth hydroxide
      (LRH) NCs intercalating dodecyl sulfate anions (C12H25SO4-, DS-) using
      hexamethylenetetramine (C6H12N4, HMT) hydrolysis. The rare-earth cations (RE3+)
      in the host layer can be conveniently modified and/or doped, resulting in a large
      family of monometallic (Y, Tb, Er), bi- (Y-Tb, Y-Er) and even tri-metallic (Y-Yb
      Er) LRH NCs with adjustable ratios. Moreover, the DS--intercalated LRH NCs can be
      readily modified with various inorganic or organic anions (e.g., NO3-, Cl-, and
      CH3COO-, etc.) through a conventional anion-exchange procedure, and the original
      conical morphology can be perfectly maintained. The anion-exchanged product, for
      example, NO3--intercalated NCs, can be more easily and topotactically transformed
      into oxide NCs than the original DS--intercalated form, exempt from the formation
      of rare-earth oxysulfates induced by the combustion of interlayer DS anions.
      Taking advantage of this protocol, tri-metallic (Y-Yb-Er) LRH NCs were anion
      exchanged into the NO3--intercalated form and subsequently calcined into
      Y2O3:Yb,Er oxide NCs, which showed efficient upconversion photoluminescence
      properties. The current strategy may become a general method for the designed
      synthesis of other related hydroxide and oxide NCs for a wide range of potential
      applications.

PMID- 28580984
TI  - Metastable state-induced consecutive step-like negative differential resistance
      behaviors in single crystalline VO2 nanobeams.
AB  - We demonstrate the current-dependent consecutive appearance of two different
      negative differential resistance (NDR) transitions in a single crystalline VO2
      nanobeam epitaxially grown on a c-cut sapphire substrate. It is revealed that the
      first NDR occurs at an approximately constant current level as a result of the
      carrier injection-induced transition, independent of a thermally induced phase
      transition. In contrast, it is observed that the second NDR exhibits a
      temperature-dependent behavior and current values triggering the metal-insulator
      transition (MIT) are strongly mediated by Joule heating effects in a phase
      coexisting temperature range. Moreover, we find that the electrically and
      thermally triggered MIT behavior can be closely related with the alternate
      occurrence of current-induced multiple insulating and metallic phase coexistence
      in the nanobeam. These findings indicate that the current density passing through
      VO2 plays a critical role in both the electrical and structural phase
      transitions.

PMID- 28580985
TI  - Edge control of graphene domains grown on hexagonal boron nitride.
AB  - The edge structure of graphene has a significant influence on its electronic
      properties. However, control over the edge structure of graphene domains on
      insulating substrates is still challenging. Here we demonstrate edge control of
      graphene domains on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) by modifying the ratio of
      working-gases. Edge directions were determined with the help of both moire
      patterns and atomic-resolution images obtained via atomic force microscopy
      measurements. It is believed that the variation of graphene edges is mainly
      attributed to different growth rates of armchair and zigzag edges. This work
      demonstrates a potential approach to fabricate smooth-edge graphene ribbons on h
      BN.

PMID- 28580986
TI  - Strategies to initiate and control the nucleation behavior of bimetallic
      nanoparticles.
AB  - In this work we report strategies to nucleate bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) made
      by gas phase synthesis of elements showing difficulty in homogeneous nucleation.
      It is shown that the nucleation assisted problem of bimetallic NP synthesis can
      be solved via the following pathways: (i) selecting an element which can itself
      nucleate and act as a nucleation center for the synthesis of bimetallic NPs; (ii)
      introducing H2 or CH4 as an impurity/trace gas to initiate nucleation during the
      synthesis of bimetallic NPs. The latter can solve the problem if none of the
      elements in a bimetallic NP can initiate nucleation. We illustrate the
      abovementioned strategies for the case of Mg based bimetallic NPs, which are
      interesting as hydrogen storage materials and exhibit both nucleation and
      oxidation issues even under ultra-high vacuum conditions. In particular, it is
      shown that adding H2 in small proportions favors the formation of a solid
      solution/alloy structure even in the case of immiscible Mg and Ti, where normally
      phase separation occurs during synthesis. In addition, we illustrate the
      possibility of improving the nucleation rate, and controlling the structure and
      size distribution of bimetallic NPs using H2/CH4 as a reactive/nucleating gas.
      This is shown to be associated with the dimer bond energies of the various formed
      species and the vapor pressures of the metals, which are key factors for NP
      nucleation.

PMID- 28580987
TI  - Surface-restrained growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays with
      excellent thermal transport performance.
AB  - A vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) array is a promising candidate for a
      high-performance thermal interface material in high-power microprocessors due to
      its excellent thermal transport property. However, its rough and entangled free
      tips always cause poor interfacial contact, which results in serious contact
      resistance dominating the total thermal resistance. Here, we employed a thin
      carbon cover to restrain the disorderly growth of the free tips of a VACNT array.
      As a result, all the free tips are seamlessly connected by this thin carbon cover
      and the top surface of the array is smoothed. This unique structure guarantees
      the participation of all the carbon nanotubes in the array in the heat transport.
      Consequently the VACNT array grown on a Cu substrate shows a record low thermal
      resistance of 0.8 mm2 K W-1 including the two-sided contact resistances, which is
      4 times lower than the best result previously reported. Remarkably, the VACNT
      array can be easily peeled away from the Cu substrate and act as a thermal pad
      with excellent flexibility, adhesive ability and heat transport capability. As a
      result the CNT array with a thin carbon cover shows great potential for use as a
      high-performance flexible thermal interface material.

PMID- 28580988
TI  - Alkynyl-protected silver nanoclusters featuring an anticuboctahedral kernel.
AB  - Two unique silver nanoclusters protected by alkynyl and diphosphine ligands have
      been synthesized. Single crystal structural determination reveals that they have
      a centered anticuboctahedral Ag13 kernel. Such a kernel is observed for the first
      time in a coinage metal nanocluster. This work offers new insights into the fact
      that the PhC[triple bond, length as m-dash]C ligand represents a new direction in
      synthesizing novel metal nanoclusters.

PMID- 28580989
TI  - First-principles prediction on bismuthylene monolayer as a promising quantum spin
      Hall insulator.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) large band-gap topological insulators (TIs) with highly
      stable structures are imperative for achieving dissipationless transport devices.
      However, to date, only very few materials have been experimentally observed to
      host the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect at low temperature, thus obstructing
      their potential application in practice. Using first-principles calculations,
      herein, we predicted a new 2D TI in the porous allotrope of a bismuth monolayer,
      i.e. bismuthylene, its geometrical stability was confirmed via phonon spectrum
      and molecular dynamics simulations. Analysis of the electronic structures reveal
      that bismuthylene is a native QSH state with a band gap as large as 0.28 eV at
      the Gamma point, which is larger than that (0.2 eV) of the buckled Bi (111) and
      suitable for room temperature applications. Note that it has a much lower energy
      than buckled Bi (111) and flattened Bi films; thus, bismuthylene is feasible for
      experimental realization. Interestingly, the topological properties can be
      retained under strains within the range of -6%-3% and electrical fields up to 0.8
      eV A-1. A heterostructure was constructed by sandwiching bismuthylene between BN
      sheets, and the non-trivial topology of bismuthylene was retained with a sizable
      band gap. These findings provide a platform to design a large-gap QSH insulator
      based on the 2D bismuthylene films, which show potential applications in
      spintronic devices.

PMID- 28580990
TI  - CdS-coated TiO2 nanotube layers: downscaling tube diameter towards efficient
      heterostructured photoelectrochemical conversion.
AB  - Herein, a novel photoelectrochemical heterostructure based on TiO2 nanotube
      layers uniformly coated by a CdS thin layer (using ALD) is presented. Downscaling
      the nanotube diameter (from 95 to 35 nm) resulted in a 2-fold enhancement of the
      UV and Vis light photocurrents. Further photocurrent improvement resulted from
      the prior annealing of the TiO2 nanotube layers from 300 to 600  degrees C.

PMID- 28580991
TI  - Spontaneous electrification of fluoropolymer-water interfaces probed by
      electrowetting.
AB  - Fluoropolymers are widely used as coatings for their robustness, water
      repellence, and chemical inertness. In contact with water, they are known to
      assume a negative surface charge, which is commonly attributed to adsorbed
      hydroxyl ions. Here, we demonstrate that a small fraction of these ions
      permanently sticks to surfaces of Teflon AF and Cytop, two of the most common
      fluoropolymer materials, upon prolonged exposure to water. Electrowetting
      measurements carried out after aging in water are used to quantify the density of
      'trapped' charge. Values up to -0.07 and -0.2 mC m-2 are found for Teflon AF and
      for Cytop, respectively, at elevated pH. A similar charge trapping process is
      also observed upon aging in various non-aqueous polar liquids and in humid air. A
      careful analysis highlights the complementary nature of electrowetting and
      streaming potential measurements in quantifying interfacial energy and charge
      density. We discuss the possible mechanism of charge trapping and highlight the
      relevance of molecular scale processes for the long term stability and
      performance of fluoropolymer materials for applications in electrowetting and
      elsewhere.

PMID- 28580992
TI  - Phosphine-functionalized NHC Ni(ii) and Ni(0) complexes: synthesis,
      characterization and catalytic properties.
AB  - Two families of nickel complexes bearing chelating diphenylphosphine
      functionalized NHC ligands [NiII(ArNHCPPh2)(allyl)]Cl 1a (Ar = Mes); 1b, (Ar =
      2,6-iPr2-C6H3) and [Ni0(ArNHCPPh2)(alkene)] 2a (Ar = 2,6-iPr2-C6H3, alkene =
      styrene); 2b (Ar = 2,6-iPr2-C6H3, alkene = diethyl fumarate) have been prepared
      and fully characterized. VT-NMR experiments in solution reveal that the allyl
      derivatives 1a-b are stereochemically nonrigid. The solid-state structure of the
      Ni0 derivative 2b is also reported. These complexes display interesting catalytic
      properties in various cross-coupling reactions. The precatalyst
      [Ni0(ArNHCPPh2)(styrene)] 2a was found to be the most active system. The
      bulkiness of the N-substituent on the imidazole ring and the low oxidation state
      of the metal center in 2a accounted for its enhanced catalytic performance. This
      system catalyzed effectively the coupling of (hetero)aryl chlorides with a range
      of nucleophiles including Grignard reagents, boronic acids, secondary amines and
      indoles.

PMID- 28580993
TI  - Energy storage mechanism in aqueous fiber-shaped Li-ion capacitors based on
      aligned hydrogenated-Li4Ti5O12 nanowires.
AB  - It is reported that Li ions can contribute a lot to the capacitance of aqueous Li
      ion capacitors (LICs), which might be due to the intercalation/de-intercalation
      processes of Li+ ions that also occur at the anodes. However the energy storage
      mechanism in the aqueous LIC system still requires further proof. In this work, a
      type of aqueous fiber-shaped LIC has been designed and developed using
      hydrogenated Li4Ti5O12 (H-LTO) anodes, active carbon (AC) cathodes, and LiCl/PVA
      gel electrolytes with a double-helical structure. The obtained single LTO wire
      electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance in volume (34.1 F cm-3) and
      superior cycling stabilities (~100% over 100 000 cycles), both of which are due
      to the formed amorphous layers at the surface of the electrodes. Moreover, it is
      found via sweep voltammetry analysis that most of the energy stored in an aqueous
      fiber-shaped capacitor electrode is attributed to the Li ions' intercalation,
      whose content exceeds 85% at a low scan rate and gradually decreases with
      increasing scan rate; while the energy stored by the double electric layers
      remains almost unchanged with different scan rates. Furthermore, the well-matched
      wearable fiber-shaped LICs show high capacitive behaviors (18.44 MUW h cm-2) and
      superior static/dynamic cycling stabilities. This research would provide some
      insight into the charge storage mechanism in electrodes in the aqueous system,
      and give more suggestions to develop high-energy-density fiber-shaped energy
      storage devices.

PMID- 28580994
TI  - Detection and identification of Criegee intermediates from the ozonolysis of
      biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs: comparison between experimental measurements and
      theoretical calculations.
AB  - Ozonolysis of alkenes is a key reaction in the atmosphere, playing an important
      role in determining the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere and acting as a
      source of compounds that can contribute to local photochemical "smog". The
      reaction products of the initial step of alkene-ozonolysis are Criegee
      intermediates (CIs), which have for many decades eluded direct experimental
      detection because of their very short lifetime. We use an innovative experimental
      technique, stabilisation of CIs with spin traps and analysis with proton transfer
      reaction mass spectrometry, to measure the gas phase concentration of a series of
      CIs formed from the ozonolysis of a range of both biogenic and anthropogenic
      alkenes in flow tube experiments. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations
      were used to assess the stability of the CI-spin trap adducts and show that the
      reaction of the investigated CIs with the spin trap occurs very rapidly except
      for the large beta-pinene CI. Our measurement method was used successfully to
      measure all the expected CIs, emphasising that this new technique is applicable
      to a wide range of CIs with different molecular structures that were previously
      unidentified experimentally. In addition, for the first time it was possible to
      study CIs simultaneously in an even more complex reaction system consisting of
      more than one olefinic precursor. Comparison between our new experimental
      measurements, calculations of stability of the CI-spin trap adducts and results
      from numerical modelling, using the master chemical mechanism (MCM), shows that
      our new method can be used for the quantification of CIs produced in situ in
      laboratory experiments.

PMID- 28580995
TI  - Simulation of intermediate transport in nanoscale scaffolds for multistep
      catalytic reactions.
AB  - Efficient catalytic cascades that involve several sequential reactions are found
      frequently in nature. The efficiency of multi-step biochemical pathways is
      enhanced by substrate channelling, wherein the product of one reaction is
      directed toward and acts as substrate to the next sequential reaction. Such
      mechanisms can partially overcome diffusion, which is often fast compared to
      reaction rates, and promotes loss of intermediates. Biochemical substrate
      channelling is achieved by the architecture and scaffolding of enzymes, and
      mimicking these natural structures could lead to innovative catalyst designs. We
      investigate the efficiency of two channelling approaches - electrostatic
      interactions and surface adsorption - through continuum modelling, to identify
      the limits of these modes and the extent to which they can interact. The model
      considers transport between two active sites where an intermediate is produced at
      the first active site and consumed at the second. The system includes mass
      transport through diffusion and migration, and reaction kinetics at the active
      sites. The effectiveness of this model is quantified by yield of the second
      reaction relative to the first. Channelling via proximity between active sites
      and via surface adsorption are found to be inefficient, requiring high values of
      the rate constant at the second active site to obtain significant yields. The
      introduction of electrostatic interactions, however, leads to yields of over 90%
      at much lower values of the rate constant.

PMID- 28580996
TI  - A cationic aluminium complex: an efficient mononuclear main-group catalyst for
      the cyanosilylation of carbonyl compounds.
AB  - A structurally characterized cationic aluminium complex [(AT)Al(DMAP)]+[OTf]- (3)
      stabilized through a relatively nonbulky aminotroponate (AT) ligand is reported
      (DMAP = 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine). This compound was found to work as an
      excellent mononuclear main-group catalyst of the cyanosilylation of a variety of
      aldehydes and ketones. Loadings of 1 to 2 mol% of this catalyst consumed these
      substrates in just 5 to 30 min at room temperature.

PMID- 28580997
TI  - A world avoided: impacts of changes in anthropogenic emissions on the burden and
      effects of air pollutants in Europe and North America.
AB  - Emissions from anthropogenic activity are known to have deleterious impacts on
      human and ecosystem health and as such a significant amount of time, effort and
      money has been spent developing legislation to minimise their effects. Here we
      use a state of the art coupled chemistry-climate model HadGEM2-ES, with extended
      tropospheric chemistry, to assess the impacts that changes in emissions from
      anthropogenic activity have had on the burden and impacts of air pollutants over
      the last three decades. We use HadGEM2-ES to assess an alternative trajectory in
      air pollutant emissions to that which we have seen, with a regional focus on the
      contiguous United States and areas of Western Europe. This alternative trajectory
      can be considered to reflect a world avoided. In this world avoided, the
      significant levels of air pollution legislation imposed over the last three
      decades are simulated to not have come into effect in the contiguous United
      States and Western Europe. Rather a business as usual emission scenario is
      followed from 1970 to the present day. By combining the results of simulations of
      the world avoided with a base case present day atmosphere our model runs
      demonstrate that as a result of air pollution legislation, over 500 000 early
      mortalities a year have been mitigated owing to extensive reduction in sulfate
      aerosol and up to 8000 early mortalities a year have been mitigated as a result
      of improvements in ozone and nitrogen dioxide pollution. These results highlight
      the important role of legislation in reducing air pollution related mortality in
      these areas of the globe and highlight a compelling case for developing regions
      to follow.

PMID- 28580998
TI  - Ambient and laboratory observations of organic ammonium salts in PM1.
AB  - Ambient measurements of PM1 aerosol chemical composition at Cabauw, the
      Netherlands, implicate higher ammonium concentrations than explained by the
      formation of inorganic ammonium salts. This additional particulate ammonium is
      called excess ammonium (eNH4). Height profiles over the Cabauw Experimental Site
      for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) tower, of combined ground based and airborne
      aerosol mass spectrometric (AMS) measurements on a Zeppelin airship show higher
      concentrations of eNH4 at higher altitudes compared to the ground. Through
      flights across the Netherlands, the Zeppelin based measurements furthermore
      substantiate eNH4 as a regional phenomenon in the planetary boundary layer. The
      excess ammonium correlates with mass spectral signatures of (di-)carboxylic
      acids, making a heterogeneous acid-base reaction the likely process of NH3
      uptake. We show that this excess ammonium was neutralized by the organic fraction
      forming particulate organic ammonium salts. We discuss the significance of such
      organic ammonium salts for atmospheric aerosols and suggest that NH3 emission
      control will have benefits for particulate matter control beyond the reduction of
      inorganic ammonium salts.

PMID- 28580999
TI  - 3D printable composite dough for stretchable, ultrasensitive and body-patchable
      strain sensors.
AB  - The recent development of strain sensor devices which can actively monitor human
      body motion has attracted tremendous attention, for application in various
      wearable electronics and human-machine interfaces. In this study, as materials
      for strain sensor devices, we exploit the low-cost, carbon-based, 3-dimensional
      (3D) printable composite dough. The dough is prepared via a chemical method based
      on the formation of electrostatic assemblies between 1-dimensional, amine
      functionalized, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and 2-dimensional graphene oxides.
      The resulting composite dough has an extremely high storage modulus, which allows
      a vertically-stackable, 3D printing process for fabricating strain sensor devices
      on various dense, porous and structured substrates. The device performance
      parameters, including gauge factor, hysteresis, linearity, and overshooting
      behavior are found to be adjustable by controlling the printing process
      parameters. The fabricated strain sensor devices demonstrate the ability to
      distinguish actual human body motions. A high gauge factor of over 70 as well as
      other excellent device performance parameters are achievable for the printed
      sensor devices, and even small strains, below 1%, are also detectable by the
      fabricated sensor devices.

PMID- 28581000
TI  - Shedding light on zwitterionic magnetic nanoparticles: limitations for in vivo
      applications.
AB  - Over the last few years several studies have dealt with the importance of the
      surface charge of nanoparticles in prolonging their blood circulation and
      minimizing their interaction with plasma proteins. These investigations claimed
      that zwitterionic nanoparticles exhibited a minimal macrophage response and long
      blood circulation times compared to nanoparticles with other surface charges.
      These differences in their in vivo behavior are mainly attributed to the
      interaction of nanoparticles with plasma proteins. Interestingly, most of these
      studies considered the total surface charge, instead of the outermost layer of
      the nanomaterial, as being mainly responsible for these undesirable interactions.
      However, the first contact with plasma proteins is most likely due to the
      outermost layer on the nanomaterials. Therefore, here we report a detailed study
      on the effect of the outermost surface charge of magnetic nanoparticles with
      regard to biodistribution, pharmacokinetics and bioavailability. Magnetic
      nanoparticles, coated with PEG chains functionalized with neutral, positive or
      zwitterionic groups, were intravenously injected into mice, followed in vivo by
      MRI and then quantified by ICP-MS in blood and the main organs. We found that
      neutral nanoparticles exhibited long blood circulation times, very good stealth
      properties and the highest bioavailability, whereas zwitterionic nanoparticles
      were readily recognized by the mononuclear phagocyte system and avidly taken up
      by the liver. Also, zwitterionic nanoparticles showed high non-specific cell
      internalization, whereas neutral nanoparticles showed the lowest cellular uptake,
      indicating that they require active transport to cross the plasma membrane, which
      is the desirable situation for therapeutic vehicles with low side effects. Thus,
      neutral nanoparticles exhibit very favorable characteristics for in vivo
      applications, whereas zwitterionic nanoparticles show important limitations.

PMID- 28581001
TI  - Structure and elasticity of composite nanoparticle/polymer nanoshells
      (hybridosomes(r)).
AB  - Our group recently introduced a new process to synthesize nanoparticle shells of
      about 100 nm, named "hybridosomes(r)". Here, the structure and mechanical
      properties of hybridosomes(r) made from iron oxide nanoparticles and poly(acrylic
      acid) are characterized using TEM, AFM and an osmotic compression technique. For
      the latter, the size distribution of the hybridosomes is monitored by
      nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol)s of
      different molecular weights. It is found that the size of the hybridosomes(r) can
      be tuned from ca. 80 nm to over 110 nm by adjusting the amount of nanoparticles
      and that their shell consists of a single layer of nanoparticles, with a porous
      structure. The size of the pores is estimated from osmotic compression
      experiments at ca. 4000 g mol-1. The mechanical properties are measured both at
      the ensemble level using size measurements under osmotic pressure and at the
      single nanoparticle level by atomic force microscopy nanoindentation. Both
      osmotic and AFM experiments are analyzed in the framework of the continuum
      elastic theory of thin shells and yield a value of Young's modulus of the order
      of MPa.

PMID- 28581002
TI  - Predicting photon cascade emission in Pr3+ doped fluorides.
AB  - We present a theoretical approach, based on a density functional theoretic
      parametrization of a model Hamiltonian, that allows for the determination of the
      complete electronic 4fn and 4fn-15d valence manifolds of a lanthanide ion
      impurity in different host lattices in an easy, fast and reliable way. The model
      accounts for the electrostatic interactions, ligand field splitting due to the
      surroundings of the impurity and spin-orbit coupling effects, which means that
      the parametrization is transferable to different ligand environments. The model
      is applied to several Pr3+ doped fluorides, which are of great interest for
      designing warm white lighting devices. We show that the model correctly predicts
      which of them presents photon-cascade emission as experimentally observed. We
      also determine the absorption (emission) spectra from the dipolar transition
      probabilities from the lowest 4f2 (4f5d) state to the states of the 4f5d (4f2)
      manifold of the Pr3+ impurity, in agreement with the available experimental data.
      The present approach can be applied to other impurity-doped systems where the
      accurate determination of the valence impurity states is crucial for
      characterizing the relevant properties of the system.

PMID- 28581003
TI  - Mathematical modeling reveals differential regulation of MAPK activity by
      phosphatase proteins in the yeast pheromone response pathway.
AB  - To prevent indefinite cellular responses to external signals, cells utilize
      various adaptation mechanisms. The yeast mating-response pathway is a model
      cellular system that exhibits adaptation to persistent external signals. This
      pathway employs a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade which is
      composed of two well-known negative feedback inhibitions that involve the yeast
      phosphatase proteins Ptp3 and Msg5. The phosphorylated form of the yeast MAPK
      protein Fus3 (pFus3) triggers the phosphorylation of both phosphatases, but
      transcriptionally upregulates only Msg5. To study the biological rationale for
      the existence of two distinct negative feedback inhibitions acting on pFus3, we
      used published experimental data to develop a mathematical model which quantifies
      the inhibitory roles of these phosphatase proteins on pFus3. Our analyses show
      that the inhibition of pFus3 due to Ptp3 is largely independent of the signal
      profile, and is most impactful at early time points after pheromone induction.
      Conversely, the feedback inhibition due to Msg5 is highly dependent on the signal
      profile, and is most influential after pFus3 attains its maximum cellular
      abundance. Similarly, Ptp3 reduces the variation in the pFus3 dynamics at early
      time points while the noise-reduction effects of Msg5 become stronger as time
      passes.

PMID- 28581004
TI  - DNA origami/gold nanorod hybrid nanostructures for the circumvention of drug
      resistance.
AB  - We herein demonstrate that DNA origami can work as a multifunctional platform
      integrating a chemotherapeutic drug (doxorubicin), gold nanorods and a tumour
      specific aptamer MUC-1, to realize the effective circumvention of drug
      resistance. Doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded efficiently onto DNA origami through
      base pair intercalation and surface-modified gold nanorods (AuNRs) were assembled
      onto the DNA origami through DNA hybridization. Due to the active targeting
      effect of the assembled aptamers, the multifunctional nanostructures achieved
      increased cellular internalization of DOX and AuNRs. Upon near-infrared (NIR)
      laser irradiation, the P-glycoprotein (multidrug resistance pump) expression of
      multidrug resistant MCF-7 (MCF-7/ADR) cells was down-regulated, achieving the
      synergistically chemotherapeutic (DOX) and photothermal (AuNRs) effects.

PMID- 28581005
TI  - Dynamics of excited-state intramolecular proton-transfer in 2-amino-3-(2'
      benzazolyl)quinoline cations.
AB  - It was found that cations formed by the protonation of 2-amino-3-(2'
      benzoxazolyl)-quinoline (ABO) and 2-amino-3-(2'-benzothiazolyl)-quinoline (ABT)
      at the nitrogen atom of the quinoline ring exhibit excited-state intramolecular
      proton transfer (ESIPT). The two-band fluorescence of these cations is due to the
      emission from two species: the initial tautomer (short-wavelength band) and the
      ESIPT product (long-wavelength band). The relative intensity of the long
      wavelength band depends on the basicity of the proton-accepting moiety and
      temperature. Quantum-chemical calculations demonstrated that ESIPT in cations
      involves overcoming a significant potential barrier, which increases with the
      decreasing basicity of the proton-accepting benzazole moiety. Using femtosecond
      absorption spectroscopy and nanosecond fluorescence spectroscopy, the effective
      ESIPT time in the studied cations was determined, which increased with decreasing
      temperature.

PMID- 28581006
TI  - Investigation of the reaction of ozone with isoprene, methacrolein and methyl
      vinyl ketone using the HELIOS chamber.
AB  - The rate constants for the ozonolysis of isoprene (ISO), methacrolein (MACR) and
      methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) have been measured using the newly built large volume
      atmospheric simulation chamber at CNRS-Orleans (France), HELIOS (Chambre de
      simulation atmospherique a irradiation naturelle d'Orleans). The OH radical
      yields from the ozonolysis of isoprene, MACR and MVK have also been determined,
      as well as the gas phase stable products and their yields. The secondary organic
      aerosol yield for the ozonolysis of isoprene has been tentatively measured in the
      presence and absence of an OH radical scavenger. The measurements were performed
      under different experimental conditions with and without adding cyclohexane (cHX)
      as an OH radical scavenger. All experiments have been conducted at 760 torr of
      purified dry air (RH < 1%) and ambient temperature (T = 281-295 K). The data
      obtained are discussed and compared with those from the literature. The use of
      the HELIOS facility and its associated analytical equipment enables the
      derivation of kinetic parameters as well as mechanistic information under near
      realistic atmospheric conditions.

PMID- 28581007
TI  - Literature-based prediction of novel drug indications considering relationships
      between entities.
AB  - There have been many attempts to identify and develop new uses for existing
      drugs, which is known as drug repositioning. Among these efforts, text mining is
      an effective means of discovering novel knowledge from a large amount of
      literature data. We identify a gene regulation by a drug and a phenotype based on
      the biomedical literature. Drugs or phenotypes can activate or inhibit gene
      regulation. We calculate the therapeutic possibility that a drug acts on a
      phenotype by means of these two types of regulation. We assume that a drug treats
      a phenotype if the genes regulated by the phenotype are inversely correlated with
      the genes regulated by the drug. Based on this hypothesis, we identify drug
      phenotype associations with therapeutic possibility. To validate the drug
      phenotype associations predicted by our method, we make an enrichment comparison
      with known drug-phenotype associations. We also identify candidate drugs for drug
      repositioning from novel associations and thus reveal that our method is a novel
      approach to drug repositioning.

PMID- 28581008
TI  - A theoretical study on the palladium-catalyzed oxidative carbocyclization
      alkoxycarbonylation of bisallenes to construct seven-membered carbocycles
      assisted by olefins.
AB  - The reaction mechanisms of the Pd(ii)-catalyzed oxidative carbocyclization
      alkoxycarbonylation of bisallenes to construct seven-membered carbocycles have
      been theoretically investigated with the aid of density functional theory (DFT)
      calculations. Our calculation results account for the experimental fact that the
      product should be the seven-membered carbocycle P1 instead of the spiro-type
      product P2. Our calculations indicate that CO coordination should occur prior to
      the ring closing step, which determines the regioselectivity. Through
      investigating the corresponding natural bond orbital (NBO) charges, we find that
      an electron withdrawing carbonyl group would decrease the electron density and
      lower the activation barrier. Therefore, the regioselectivity is dominated by the
      electronic effect.

PMID- 28581009
TI  - Decoding the anticancer activity of VO-clioquinol compound: the mechanism of
      action and cell death pathways in human osteosarcoma cells.
AB  - Vanadium compounds were studied in recent years by considering them as a
      representative of a new class of non-platinum metal anticancer drugs. However, a
      few challenges still remain in the discovery of new molecular targets of these
      new metallodrugs. Studies on cell signaling pathways related to vanadium
      compounds have scarcely been reported and so far this information is highly
      critical for identifying novel targets that play a key role in the antitumor
      actions of vanadium complexes. This research deals with the alterations in the
      intracellular signaling pathways promoted by an oxovanadium(iv) complex with the
      clioquinol (5-chloro-7-iodo-8-quinolinol), VO(CQ)2, on a human osteosarcoma cell
      line (MG-63). Herein are reported, for the first time, the antitumor properties
      of VO(CQ)2 and the relative abundance of 224 proteins (which are involved in most
      of the common intracellular pathways) to identify novel targets of the studied
      complex. Besides, full-length human recombinant AKT1 kinase was produced by using
      an IVTT system to evaluate the variation of relative tyrosin-phosphorylation
      levels caused by this compound. The results of the differential protein
      expression levels reveal several up-regulated proteins such as CASP3, CASP6,
      CASP7, CASP10, CASP11, Bcl-x, DAPK and down-regulated ones, such as PKB/AKT,
      DIABLO, among others. Moreover, cell signaling pathways involved in several
      altered pathways related to the PKC and AP2 family have been identified in both
      treatments (2.5 and 10 MUM) suggesting the crucial antitumoral role of VO(CQ)2.
      Finally, it has been demonstrated that this compound (10 MUM, 6 h) triggers a
      decrease of 2-fold in in situ AKT1 expression.

PMID- 28581015
TI  - Colloidal synthesis of silicon nanoparticles in molten salts.
AB  - Silicon nanoparticles are unique materials with applications in a variety of
      fields, from electronics to catalysis and biomedical uses. Despite technological
      advancements in nanofabrication, the development of a simple and inexpensive
      route for the synthesis of homogeneous silicon nanoparticles remains highly
      challenging. Herein, we describe a new, simple and inexpensive colloidal
      synthetic method for the preparation, under normal pressure and mild temperature
      conditions, of relatively homogeneous spherical silicon nanoparticles of either
      ca. 4 or 6 nm diameter. The key features of this method are the selection of a
      eutectic salt mixture as a solvent, the identification of appropriate silicon
      alkoxide precursors, and the unconventional use of alkali earth metals as shape
      controlling agents.

PMID- 28581010
TI  - Echinacoside ameliorates the memory impairment and cholinergic deficit induced by
      amyloid beta peptides via the inhibition of amyloid deposition and toxicology.
AB  - Echinacoside is a phenylethanoid glycoside and possesses neuroprotective activity
      in vitro and in vivo. This study investigates the role of the amyloid cascade and
      central neuronal function on the protective effects of echinacoside in amyloid
      beta peptide 1-42 (Abeta 1-42)-treated SH-SY5Y cells and an Abeta 1-42-infused
      rat. Echinacoside inhibited Abeta 1-42 oligomerization in vitro and restored the
      cell viability that was reduced by Abeta 1-42 in SH-SY5Y cells. Intracisternal
      infusion with Abeta 1-42 by an osmotic pump caused cognitive deficits, an
      increase in amyloid deposition and acetylcholinesterase activities, and a
      decrease in the brain's levels of acetylcholine and dopamine. Echinacoside
      reduced the cognitive deficits and amyloid deposition, and it reversed the
      cortical cholinergic dysfunction that was caused by Abeta 1-42 in rats.
      Echinacoside further reversed the memory impairment in the Morris water maze task
      caused by scopolamine in mice. Therefore, we suggest that echinacoside
      ameliorated cognitive dysfunction that was caused by Abeta 1-42 by blocking
      amyloid deposition via inhibiting amyloid oligomerization and reversing the
      cortical cholinergic neuronal function via decreasing amyloid neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28581016
TI  - The effect of gas-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the formation and
      properties of biogenic secondary organic aerosol particles.
AB  - When secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles are formed by ozonolysis in the
      presence of gas-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), their formation
      and properties are significantly different from SOA particles formed without
      PAHs. For all SOA precursors and all PAHs, discussed in this study, the presence
      of the gas-phase PAHs during SOA formation significantly affects particle mass
      loadings, composition, growth, evaporation kinetics, and viscosity. SOA particles
      formed in the presence of PAHs have, as part of their compositions, trapped
      unreacted PAHs and products of heterogeneous reactions between PAHs and ozone.
      Compared to 'pure' SOA particles, these particles exhibit slower evaporation
      kinetics, have higher fractions of non-volatile components, like oligomers, and
      higher viscosities, assuring their longer atmospheric lifetimes. In turn, the
      increased viscosity and decreased volatility provide a shield that protects PAHs
      from chemical degradation and evaporation, allowing for the long-range transport
      of these toxic pollutants. The magnitude of the effect of PAHs on SOA formation
      is surprisingly large. The presence of PAHs during SOA formation increases mass
      loadings by factors of two to five, and particle number concentrations, in some
      cases, by more than a factor of 100. Increases in SOA mass, particle number
      concentrations, and lifetime have important implications to many atmospheric
      processes related to climate, weather, visibility, and human health, all of which
      relate to the interactions between biogenic SOA and anthropogenic PAHs. The
      synergistic relationship between SOA and PAHs presented here are clearly complex
      and call for future research to elucidate further the underlying processes and
      their exact atmospheric implications.

PMID- 28581017
TI  - Revisiting the genus Photobacterium: taxonomy, ecology and pathogenesis.
AB  - The genus Photobacterium, one of the eight genera included in the family
      Vibrionaceae, contains 27 species with valid names and it has received attention
      because of the bioluminescence and pathogenesis mechanisms that some of its
      species exhibit. However, the taxonomy and phylogeny of this genus are not
      completely elucidated; for example, P. logei and P. fischeri are now considered
      members of the genus Aliivibrio, and previously were included in the genus
      Vibrio. In addition, P. damselae subsp. piscicida was formed as a new combination
      for former Vibrio damsela and Pasteurella piscicida. Moreover, P. damselae subsp.
      damselae is an earlier heterotypic synonym of P. histaminum. To avoid these
      incovenences draft and complete genomic sequences of members of Photobacterium
      are increasingly becoming available and their use is now routine for many
      research laboratories to address diverse goals: species delineation with overall
      genomic indexes, phylogenetic analyses, comparative genomics, and phenotypic
      inference. The habitats and isolation source of the Photobacterium species
      include seawater, sea sediments, saline lake waters, and a variety of marine
      organisms with which the photobacteria establish different relationships, from
      symbiosis to pathogenic interactions. Several species of this genus contain
      bioluminescent strains in symbiosis with marine fish and cephalopods; in
      addition, other species enhance its growth at pressures above 1 atmosphere, by
      means of several high-pressure adaptation mechanisms and for this, they may be
      considered as piezophilic (former barophilic) bacteria. Until now, only P.
      jeanii, P. rosenbergii, P. sanctipauli, and the two subspecies of P. damselae
      have been reported as responsible agents of several pathologies on animal hosts,
      such as corals, sponges, fish and homeothermic animals. In this review we have
      revised and updated the taxonomy, ecology and pathogenicity of several members of
      this genus. [Int Microbiol 20(1): 1-10 (2017)].

PMID- 28581018
TI  - Impact of pollution on the microbial diversity of a tropical river in an
      urbanized region of northeastern Brazil.
AB  - Rivers are important ecosystems that are integrated into biogeochemical cycles
      and constitute an essential resource for numerous human uses. However, the
      assessment of the biological diversity and composition of microbial communities
      found in rivers remains incomplete, partly due to methodological constraints
      which are only recently being resolved with the advent of next generation
      sequencing (NGS) techniques. Using 454-pyrosequencing of the 16S gene, the
      present study analyzed the microbial diversity of the planktonic and sediment
      populations in a tropical river in northeastern Brazil that is exposed to severe
      pollution. Six water and six sediment samples were analysed. The dominant
      bacterial phyla in both sediment and water were the Proteobacteria, followed by
      Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria in the water column and by Chloroflexi and
      Acidobacteria in the sediment. Biological diversity appeared to be greatly
      decreased by environmental pollution, whereas the microbial community structure
      was variable across the analyzed transect. Moreover, a narrow relationship
      between industrial and urban sources of contamination and the bacterial genera
      detected at these sites has been observed. A variety of potentially pathogenic
      bacteria was detected, including Klebsiella, Treponema, Faecalibacterium and
      Enterococcus, indicating that the river might pose a substantial risk to public
      health. [Int Microbiol 20(1): 11-24 (2017)].

PMID- 28581019
TI  - Identification by using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry of lactic acid bacteria
      isolated from non-commercial yogurts in southern Anatolia, Turkey.
AB  - Yogurt is a dairy product obtained by bacterial fermentation of milk. Commercial
      yogurts are produced using standard starters while, in the production of non
      commercial yogurt, the microbiota is quite different since yogurts are used as
      starter for years. To determine the final characteristics of the fermented
      product it is necessary to know the biochemical properties of the starter
      cultures, such as acidity, aroma and flavor. This can only be achieved by
      identifying and characterizing the bacteria in starter cultures. In our study,
      208 non-commercial yogurt samples were collected from 9 different locations in
      Anatolia, southern Turkey. Their pH and lactic acid bacteria profiles were
      analyzed. Isolated bacteria were identified by MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted
      laser sesorption-ionization time-of-flight, mass spectrometry), which is a fast
      and reliable method for identification of bacterial isolates compared to
      classical laboratory methods. In this study, 41% of the isolates were identified
      by using this method, which is 99.9% and 34.0% confidence. The isolates contained
      two genera (Enterococcus and Lactobacillus) and four species. Afterwards, the
      four lactic acid bacteria were characterized physiologically and biochemically
      and we found that they differed from lactic acid bacteria used in commercial
      yogurt production. [Int Microbiol 20(1): 25-30 (2017)].

PMID- 28581020
TI  - Insights into the fecal microbiota of captive Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus).
AB  - The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is an endangered species restricted to several
      areas of Spain and Portugal. Its low genetic diversity likely provokes immune
      depression and high susceptibility to infectious diseases. The intestinal
      microbiota is closely related to host health and nutrition. In order to
      contribute to the knowledge of the Iberian lynx intestinal microbiota, fecal
      microbiota of captive specimens from two breeding centers ("La Olivilla" and "El
      Acebuche"), located in Southern Spain, were studied by Denaturing Gradient Gel
      Electrophoresis (DGGE). Results grouped microbiota in two main clusters (I and
      III) which included DGGE patterns of 19 out of 36 specimens, cluster I being the
      most frequent in "La Olivilla" (50%) and cluster III in "El Acebuche" (55.55 %)
      specimens. Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla were identified.
      Segregation of clusters I and III was attributed to different microorganism
      presence (Pseudomonas koreensis, Pseudomonas migulae, Carnobacterium sp.,
      Arthrobacter, Robinsoniella peorensis and Ornithinibacillus sp.) and ability to
      use different carbon sources. Biolog EcoPlates(r) results indicate high
      functional diversity of fecal microbiota, it being higher in cluster III. The
      great impact of intestinal microbiota on host health supports the importance of
      its microbial composition understanding. This study is the first report of
      captive Iberian lynx fecal microbiota composition. [Int Microbiol 20(1): 31-41
      (2017)].

PMID- 28581021
TI  - Antimicrobial peptide from Bacillus subtilis CSB138: characterization, killing
      kinetics, and synergistic potency.
AB  - We studied the prospect of synergy between the antimicrobial peptide p138c and
      non-peptide antibiotics for increasing the potency and bacterial killing kinetics
      of these agents. The production of p138c was maximized in the late exponential
      growth phase of Bacillus subtilis CSB138. Purification of p138c resulted in a
      total of 4800 arbitrary units (AU) with 19.15-fold and 3.2% recovery. Peptide
      p138c was thermo-tolerant up to 50  degrees C and stable at pH 5.8 to 11. The
      biochemical nature of p138c was determined by a bioassay, similar to tricine-SDS
      PAGE, indicating inhibition at 3 kDa. The amino acid sequence of p138c was Gly
      Leu-Glu-Glu-Thr-Val-Tyr-Ile-Tyr-Gly-Ala-Asn-Met-X-Ser. Potency and killing
      kinetics against vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus improved considerably
      when p138c was synergized with oxacillin, ampicillin, and penicillin G. The
      minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of p138c showed a 4-, 8-, and 16-fold
      improvement when p138c was combined with oxacillin, ampicillin, and penicillin G,
      respectively. The fractional inhibitory concentration index for the combination
      of p138c and oxacillin, ampicillin, and penicillin G was 0.3125, 0.25, and 0.09,
      respectively. Synergy with non-peptide antibiotics resulted in enhanced killing
      kinetics of p138c. Hence, the synergy between antimicrobial peptide and non
      peptide antibiotics may enhance the potency and bacterial killing kinetics,
      providing more potent and rapidly acting agents for therapeutic use. [Int
      Microbiol 20(1):43-53 (2017)].

PMID- 28581022
TI  - A multi-method assessment of bone maintenance and loss in an Imperial Roman
      population: Implications for future studies of age-related bone loss in the past.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: One of the hallmarks of contemporary osteoporosis and bone loss is
      dramatically higher prevalence of loss and fragility in females post-menopause.
      In contrast, bioarchaeological studies of bone loss have found a greater
      diversity of age- and sex-related patterns of bone loss in past populations. We
      argue that the differing findings may relate to the fact that most studies use
      only a single methodology to quantify bone loss and do not account for the
      heterogeneity and complexity of bone maintenance across the skeleton and over the
      life course. METHODS: We test the hypothesis that bone mass and maintenance in
      trabecular bone sites versus cortical bone sites will show differing patterns of
      age-related bone loss, with cortical bone sites showing sex difference in bone
      loss that are similar to contemporary Western populations, and trabecular bone
      loss at earlier ages. We investigated this hypothesis in the Imperial Roman
      population of Velia using three methods: radiogrammetry of the second metacarpal
      (N = 71), bone histology of ribs (N = 70), and computerized tomography of
      trabecular bone architecture (N = 47). All three methods were used to explore sex
      and age differences in patterns of bone loss. RESULTS: The suite of methods
      utilized reveal differences in the timing of bone loss with age, but all methods
      found no statistically significant differences in age-related bone loss.
      DISCUSSION: We argue that a multi-method approach reduces the influence of
      confounding factors by building a reconstruction of bone turnover over the life
      cycle that a limited single-method project cannot provide. The implications of
      using multiple methods beyond studies of bone loss are also discussed.

PMID- 28581023
TI  - Effects of a daily three-meal pattern with different dietary protein contents on
      pig growth performance, carcass and muscle quality traits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research related to phase-feeding programmes for pig nutrition
      do not always account for the variation among individuals, and feeds are usually
      formulated to optimise the performance of the whole pig population. This study
      aimed at measuring the effects of a daily three-meal pattern with different
      dietary protein contents on pig growth performance, carcass and muscle quality
      traits. RESULTS: The results showed that compared with the 3C treatment, average
      daily gain (ADG) of pigs in the HCL treatment increased by 14.75% (P < 0.05)
      during period 1. The carcass weight (P = 0.006) and slaughter weight (P = 0.021)
      in the HCL group increased when compared with those in the 3C and LCH treatments.
      Moreover, the LCH feeding sequences contributed to reduce the drip loss in
      longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle (P < 0.05) when compared with the 3C treatment. The
      HCL or LCH feeding sequence contributed to increase the meat quality when
      compared with those receiving the 3C treatment. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our
      results indicate that feeding high protein meal in the morning and a gradual
      reduction of the protein content in meals over the day may improve muscle quality
      characteristics, maximise performance, and reduce the pig feed cost. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28581024
TI  - Blomia tropicalis allergen 5 (Blo t 5) T-cell epitopes and their ability to
      suppress the allergic immune response.
AB  - Blomia tropicalis is the major asthma allergen in the tropics comparable to
      Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. However, little is known about the B. tropicalis
      epitopes recognized by T cells. Our aim was to identify the T-cell epitopes in
      the major B. tropicalis allergen, Blo t 5, and investigate the potential of the
      corresponding peptides to inhibit the allergic inflammatory lung response.
      C57BL/6 mice were immunized with plasmid DNA encoding Blo t 5 and T-cell epitopes
      identified using the interferon-gamma ELISPOT assay with 15-mer overlapping
      peptides. C57BL/6 mice were sensitized with bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells
      (BMDC) pulsed with Blo t 5 allergen followed by intranasal Blo t 5 challenge. Two
      H-2b restricted epitopes (Bt576-90 and Bt5106-115 ) were recognized by CD4 T
      cells specific for Blo t 5, but no CD8 epitopes were identified. In mice
      sensitized with Blo t 5-pulsed BMDC and challenged with intranasal Blo t 5 Bt576
      90 and Bt5106-115 , peptide-specific CD4 T cells were found to secrete the T
      helper type 2 cytokines interleukin-5 and interleukin-13. Intradermal
      administration of synthetic peptides encoding the identified T-cell epitopes
      suppressed allergic airway inflammation to further allergen challenges. Hence, we
      have identified novel CD4 T-cell epitopes specific for Blo t 5 and demonstrated
      that these peptides could be employed therapeutically to suppress the T-cell
      response in a murine model of allergic airway inflammation.

PMID- 28581026
TI  - Cross-sectional association between testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin
      and metabolic syndrome: The Healthy Twin Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated an association between testosterone, sex hormone
      binding globulin (SHBG) and metabolic syndrome (MetS).We also evaluated the
      genetic and environmental influences on the association. DESIGN: Cross-sectional.
      SETTING: Community-based study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1098 Korean adult men
      including 139 monozygotic twin pairs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: MetS was defined
      using the National Cholesterol Education Program-Third Adult Treatment Panel
      (NCEP ATP III) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. The
      associations between MetS and sex hormones were evaluated using linear mixed
      model and generalized estimating equation model. RESULTS: After considering
      covariates such as smoking, alcohol consumption and physical exercises as well as
      SHBG or testosterone, the risk of MetS defined by NCEP ATP III criteria decreased
      by 31%, 29%, and 48%, respectively, with 1-standard deviation increase in total
      testosterone (TT), free testosterone (cFT) and SHBG. Similar findings were
      revealed with IDF criteria. Metabolic component specific analysis showed that sex
      hormones were inversely associated with several components of MetS: TT with
      abdominal obesity, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and high
      blood pressure; cFT with abdominal obesity and high blood pressure; SHBG with all
      components except high blood pressure. Cotwin control analysis found an inverse
      correlation between within-pair differences in testosterone and SHBG levels and
      within-pair differences in waist circumference only. CONCLUSION: Both
      testosterone and SHBG were inversely associated with MetS although the inverse
      associations with the sex hormones were not consistently found across individual
      metabolic components. Findings from cotwin analysis suggest a significant
      contribution of unshared unique environmental effect to the association between
      testosterone and SHBG and abdominal obesity.

PMID- 28581025
TI  - Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Patterns Among Patients Diagnosed With
      Cluster Headache in U.S. Healthcare Claims Data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize demographics, clinical characteristics, and treatment
      patterns of patients with cluster headache (CH). BACKGROUND: CH is an uncommon
      trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia with limited evidence-based treatment options.
      Patients suffer from extremely painful unilateral headache attacks and autonomic
      symptoms with episodic and chronic cycles. DESIGN/METHODS: This retrospective
      analysis used insurance claims from Truven Health Analytics MarketScan(r)
      research databases from 2009 to 2014. Two cohorts were compared: CH patients
      (with >=2 CH claims) were propensity score matched with 4 non-headache controls,
      all with continuous enrollment for 12 months before and after the date of first
      CH claim or matched period among controls. RESULTS: CH patients (N = 7589) were
      mainly male (57.4%) and 35-64 years old (73.2%), with significantly more claims
      for comorbid conditions vs controls (N = 30,341), including depressive disorders
      (19.8% vs 10.0%), sleep disturbances (19.7% vs 9.1%), anxiety disorders (19.2% vs
      8.7%), and tobacco use disorders (12.8% vs 5.3%), with 2.5 times greater odds of
      suicidal ideation (all P < .0001). Odds of drug dependence were 3-fold greater
      among CH patients (OR = 2.8 [95% CI 2.3-3.4, P < .0001]). CH patients reported
      significantly greater use of prescription medications compared with controls; 25%
      of CH patients had >12 unique prescription drug claims. Most commonly prescribed
      drug classes for CH patients included: opiate agonists (41%), corticosteroids
      (34%), 5HT-1 agonists (32%), antidepressants (31%), NSAIDs (29%), anticonvulsants
      (28%), calcium antagonists (27%), and benzodiazepines (22%). Only 30.4% of CH
      patients received recognized CH treatments without opioids during the 12-month
      post-index period. These patients were less likely to visit emergency departments
      or need hospitalizations (26.8%) as compared to CH patients with no pharmacy
      claims for recognized CH treatments or opioids (33.6%; P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS:
      The burden of CH is associated with significant co-morbidity, including substance
      use disorders and suicidal ideation, and treatment patterns indicating low use of
      recognized CH treatments.

PMID- 28581027
TI  - Evolutionary conservation and conversion of Foxg1 function in brain development.
AB  - Among the forkhead box protein family, Foxg1 is a unique transcription factor
      that plays pleiotropic and non-redundant roles in vertebrate brain development.
      The emergence of the telencephalon at the rostral end of the neural tube and its
      subsequent expansion that is mediated by Foxg1 was a key reason for the
      vertebrate brain to acquire higher order information processing, where Foxg1 is
      repetitively used in the sequential events of telencephalic development to
      control multi-steps of brain circuit formation ranging from cell cycle control to
      neuronal differentiation in a clade- and species-specific manner. The objective
      of this review is to discuss how the evolutionary changes in cis- and trans
      regulatory network that is mediated by a single transcription factor has
      contributed to determining the fundamental vertebrate brain structure and its
      divergent roles in instructing species-specific neuronal circuitry and functional
      specialization.

PMID- 28581028
TI  - Measuring the Value of Pharmacogenomics Evidence.
AB  - In recent years, there is a growing need to measure the value of pharmacogenomics
      testing so that policymakers are well informed to decide about adopting and
      reimbursing pharmacogenomics testing, prioritizing pharmacogenomics research and
      development, and encouraging the application of companion diagnostics. Presently,
      there are limited economic evaluation studies of genome-guided treatment
      modalities that would allow decision-makers to comparatively assess the value and
      clinical utility of such interventions.

PMID- 28581029
TI  - Carbohydrate metabolism in the subtending leaf cross-acclimates to waterlogging
      and elevated temperature stress and influences boll biomass in cotton (Gossypium
      hirsutum).
AB  - Short-term waterlogging and chronic elevated temperature occur concomitantly in
      the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) growing season. While previous research about co
      occurring waterlogging and elevated temperature has focused primarily on cotton
      fiber, no studies have investigated carbohydrate metabolism of the subtending
      leaf (a major source leaf for boll development) cross-acclimation to
      aforementioned stressors. To address this, plants were exposed to ambient
      (31.6/26.5 degrees C) and elevated (34.1/29.0 degrees C) temperatures during the
      whole flowering and boll formation stage, and waterlogging (0, 3, 6 days)
      beginning on the day of anthesis. Both waterlogging and high temperature limited
      boll biomass (reduced by 1.19-32.14%), but effects of different durations of
      waterlogging coupled with elevated temperature on carbohydrate metabolism in the
      subtending leaf were quite different. The 6-day waterlogging combined with
      elevated temperature had the most negative impact on net photosynthetic rate (Pn)
      and carbohydrate metabolism of any treatment, leading to upregulated GhSusA and
      GhSusC expression and enhanced sucrose synthase (SuSy, EC 2.4.1.13) activity for
      sucrose degradation. A prior exposure to waterlogging for 3 days improved
      subtending leaf performance under elevated temperature. Pn, sucrose
      concentrations, Rubisco (EC 4.1.1.39) activity, and cytosolic fructose-1,6
      bisphosphatase (cy-FBPase, EC 3.1.3.11) activity in the subtending leaf
      significantly increased, while SuSy activity decreased under 3 days waterlogging
      and elevated temperature combined relative to elevated temperature alone. Thus,
      we concluded that previous exposure to a brief (3 days) waterlogging stress
      improved sucrose composition and accumulation cross-acclimation to high
      temperature later in development not only by promoting leaf photosynthesis but
      also inhibiting sucrose degradation.

PMID- 28581031
TI  - In reference to Laboratory assessment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss: A
      case-control study.

PMID- 28581030
TI  - Postoperative anticoagulation after free flap reconstruction for head and neck
      cancer: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Postoperative use of anticoagulation after free tissue transfer in
      head and neck ablative procedures is common practice, but a clear protocol has
      not been well established. The outcome measures including total flap failure,
      thrombosis, and hematoma formation for different anticoagulation regimens in free
      tissue transfer in the head and neck were reviewed. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Ovid,
      and Cochrane databases were examined for patients who underwent free tissue
      transfer following head and neck ablative procedures. REVIEW METHODS: Preferred
      Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines were utilized
      to identify English-language studies reporting anticoagulation regimens following
      free tissue transfer in head and neck ablative procedures. Outcomes included
      total flap failure, thrombosis, and hematoma formation. Two independent reviewers
      assessed the quality of the articles by using the Methodological Index for Non
      Randomized Studies. RESULTS: A total of 368 articles were identified. An
      additional 36 articles were identified through screening of reference lists.
      Twenty-one of these studies met final inclusion criteria for qualitative
      analysis. Outcome data on total flap failure, thrombosis, and hematoma formation
      were extracted and analyzed for comparison against all anticoagulation regimens.
      Total flap failure, thrombosis, and hematoma formation rates were 4.4%, 4.5%, and
      2.2%, respectively. Individual study rates ranged from 0.0% to 10.7%, 0.0% to
      10.4%, and 0.6% to 7.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There is not adequate
      evidence to develop a standardized anticoagulation protocol for head and neck
      free flap procedures. Comparable flap complications were reported between all the
      employed anticoagulation methods studied, though significant variability in study
      design among articles existed. Prospective, randomized studies are warranted to
      determine the optimal postoperative anticoagulation regimen following free tissue
      transfer of the head and neck. Laryngoscope, 128:412-421, 2018.

PMID- 28581032
TI  - Pre-emptive rituximab for Epstein-Barr virus reactivation after haplo
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epstein-Barr virus-related post-transplantation lymphoproliferative
      disease (EBV-PTLD) is a serious complication in hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (HSCT) recipients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study to
      investigate the incidence and potential risk factors for EBV reactivation and to
      assess the efficacy of the management of EBV reactivation with pre-emptive
      rituximab in children who had T-cell-replete haploidentical HSCT (TCR-haplo-SCT)
      with low-dose anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG). EBV-DNA level in peripheral blood
      (PB) was measured when suspected EBV reactivation were observed. When the EBV-DNA
      level in PB increased to >1,000 copies/106 peripheral blood mononuclear cells
      (PBMC), patients were pre-emptively treated with rituximab (375 mg/m2 /dose).
      RESULTS: A total of 19 (50%) of 38 patients received rituximab infusion at a
      median time of 56 days after HSCT (range, 17-270 days). The median viral load at
      initiation of therapy was 2,900 copies/106 PBMC (range, 1,000-650 000). Pre
      emptive therapy was started after a median of 2 days (range, 0-7 days). The
      median number of weekly treatment cycles was 2 (range, 1-3). None of the patients
      developed PTLD or other EBV-associated diseases. CONCLUSION: Pre-emptive
      rituximab therapy could be a useful strategy for EBV-PTLD in TCR-haplo-SCT
      recipients with low-dose ATG.

PMID- 28581033
TI  - Life and death of proteins after protease cleavage: protein degradation by the N
      end rule pathway.
AB  - : Contents Summary 929 I. INTRODUCTION: conservation and diversity of N-end rule
      pathways 929 II. Defensive functions of the N-end rule pathway in plants 930 III.
      Proteases and degradation by the N-end rule pathway 930 IV. New proteomics
      approaches for the identification of N-end rule substrates 932 V. Concluding
      remarks 932 Acknowledgements 934 References 934 SUMMARY: The N-end rule relates
      the stability of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue and some of
      its modifications. Since its discovery in the 1980s, the repertoire of N-terminal
      degradation signals has expanded, leading to a diversity of N-end rule pathways.
      Although some of these newly discovered N-end rule pathways remain largely
      unexplored in plants, recent discoveries have highlighted roles of N-end rule
      mediated protein degradation in plant defense against pathogens and in cell
      proliferation during organ growth. Despite this progress, a bottleneck remains
      the proteome-wide identification of N-end rule substrates due to the prerequisite
      for endoproteolytic cleavage and technical limitations. Here, we discuss the
      recent diversification of N-end rule pathways and their newly discovered
      functions in plant defenses, stressing the role of proteases. We expect that
      novel proteomics techniques (N-terminomics) will be essential for substrate
      identification. We review these methods, their limitations and future
      developments.

PMID- 28581034
TI  - The Clinical Features, Risk Factors, and Surgical Treatment of Cervicogenic
      Headache in Patients With Cervical Spine Disorders Requiring Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To clarify the clinical features and risk factors of cervicogenic
      headache (CEH; as diagnosed according to the International Classification of
      Headache Disorders-Third Edition beta) in patients with cervical spine disorders
      requiring surgery. BACKGROUND: CEH is caused by cervical spine disorders. The
      pathogenic mechanism of CEH is hypothesized to involve a convergence of the upper
      cervical afferents from the C1, C2, and C3 spinal nerves and the trigeminal
      afferents in the trigeminocervical nucleus of the upper cervical cord. According
      to this hypothesis, functional convergence of the upper cervical and trigeminal
      sensory pathways allows the bidirectional (afferent and efferent) referral of
      pain to the occipital, frontal, temporal, and/or orbital regions. Previous
      prospective studies have reported an 86-88% prevalence of headache in patients
      with cervical myelopathy or radiculopathy requiring anterior cervical surgery;
      however, these studies did not diagnose headache according to the International
      Classification of Headache Disorders criteria. Therefore, a better understanding
      of the prevalence rate, clinical features, risk factors, and treatment
      responsiveness of CEH in patients with cervical spine disorders requiring surgery
      is necessary. METHODS: We performed a single hospital-based prospective cross
      sectional study and enrolled 70 consecutive patients with cervical spine
      disorders such as cervical spondylotic myelopathy, ossification of the posterior
      longitudinal ligament, cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, and cervical
      spondylotic myeloradiculopathy who had been scheduled to undergo anterior
      cervical fusion or dorsal cervical laminoplasty between June 2014 and December
      2015. Headache was diagnosed preoperatively according to the International
      Classification of Headache Disorders-Third Edition beta. The Japanese Orthopaedic
      Association Cervical Myelopathy Evaluation Questionnaire, Neck Disability Index,
      and a 0-100 mm visual analog scale (VAS) were used to evaluate clinical features,
      and scores were compared between baseline (ie, preoperatively) and 3, 6, and 12
      months post-surgery. RESULTS: The prevalence of CEH in our population was 15/70
      (21.4%, 95%CI: 11.8% to 31.0%). The main clinical features were dull and
      tightening/pressing headache sensations in the occipital region. Headache
      severity was mild (VAS, 32 +/- 11 mm) and only one patient reported use of an
      oral analgesic. Compared to patients without CEH, patients with CEH had higher
      frequencies of neck pain (86.7% vs. 50.9%; P = .017), cervical range of motion
      limitation (ROM) (66.7% vs. 38.2%; P = .049), and higher Neck Disability Index
      scores (14 vs. 3; P < .001). Among the different cervical spine disorders, the
      prevalence of CEH was highest in cervical spondylotic myeloradiculopathy patients
      (60%), being <= 20% for all other disorders. Surgical treatments including
      cervical laminoplasty to relieve abnormal pressure on the spinal cord via a
      posterior approach, were associated with initial improvements in headache VAS
      that slightly diminished by 12 months post-surgery (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: We
      report a lower prevalence of CEH in patients with cervical spinal disorders
      requiring surgery than that reported previously. The main clinical features of
      CEH were mild, dull, and tightening/pressing headache sensations in the occipital
      region. Potential risk factors for CEH included neck pain, limited cervical ROM,
      high Neck Disability Index score, and a diagnosis of cervical spondylotic
      myeloradiculopathy. The further accumulation of patients in a multi-institutional
      study may be required in order to discuss the diagnostic criteria and
      pathophysiology of this condition.

PMID- 28581035
TI  - Effective doses and standardised risk factors from paediatric diagnostic medical
      radiation exposures: Information for radiation risk communication.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the paediatric medical radiation setting, there is no
      consistency on the radiation risk information conveyed to the consumer
      (patient/carer). Each communicator may convey different information about the
      level of risk for the same radiation procedure, leaving the consumer confused and
      frustrated. There is a need to standardise risks resulting from medical radiation
      exposures. In this study, paediatric radiographic, fluoroscopic, CT and nuclear
      medicine examination data have been analysed to provide (i) effective doses and
      radiation induced cancer risk factors from common radiological and nuclear
      medicine diagnostic procedures in standardised formats, (ii) awareness of the
      difficulties that may be encountered in communicating risks to the layperson, and
      (iii) an overview of the deleterious effects of ionising radiation so that the
      risk communicator can convey with confidence the risks resulting from medical
      radiation exposures. METHODS: Paediatric patient dose data from general
      radiographic, computed tomography, fluoroscopic and nuclear medicine databases
      have been analysed in age groups 0 to <5 years, 5 to <10 years, 10 to <15 years
      and 15 to <18 years to determine standardised risk factors. RESULTS: Mean,
      minimum and maximum effective doses and the corresponding mean lifetime risks for
      general radiographic, fluoroscopic, CT and nuclear medicine examinations for
      different age groups have been calculated. For all examinations, the mean
      lifetime cancer induction risk is provided in three formats: statistical,
      fraction and category. CONCLUSION: Standardised risk factors for different
      radiological and nuclear medicine examinations and an overview of the deleterious
      effects of ionising radiation and the difficulties encountered in communicating
      the risks should facilitate risk communication to the patient/carer.

PMID- 28581037
TI  - Risk Perception and Risk Talk: The Case of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
      Radiation Risk.
AB  - Individuals' perceptions and their interpersonal communication about a risk
      event, or risk talk, can play a significant role in the formation of societal
      responses to the risk event. As they formulate their risk opinions and speak to
      others, risk information can circulate through their social networks and
      contribute to the construction of their risk information environment. In the
      present study, Japanese citizens' risk perception and risk talk were examined in
      the context of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear radiation risk. We hypothesized and
      found that the risk information environment and risk literacy (i.e., competencies
      to understand and use risk information) interact to influence their risk
      perception and risk talk. In particular, risk literacy tends to stabilize
      people's risk perceptions and their risk communications. Nevertheless, there were
      some subtle differences between risk perception and communication, suggesting the
      importance of further examination of interpersonal risk communication and its
      role in the societal responses to risk events.

PMID- 28581036
TI  - Opi1p translocation to the nucleus is regulated by hydrogen peroxide in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - During exposure of yeast cells to low levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ), the
      expression of several genes is regulated for cells to adapt to the surrounding
      oxidative environment. Such adaptation involves modification of plasma membrane
      lipid composition, reorganization of ergosterol-rich microdomains and altered
      gene expression of proteins involved in lipid and vesicle traffic, to decrease
      permeability to exogenous H2 O2 . Opi1p is a transcriptional repressor that is
      inactive when present at the nuclear membrane/endoplasmic reticulum, but
      represseses transcription of inositol upstream activating sequence (UASINO )
      containing genes, many of which are involved in the synthesis of phospholipids
      and fatty acids, when it is translocated to the nucleus. We investigated whether
      H2 O2 in concentrations inducing adaptation regulates Opi1p function. We found
      that, in the presence of H2 O2 , GFP-Opi1p fusion protein translocates to the
      nucleus and, concomitantly, the expression of UASINO -containing genes is
      affected. We also investigated whether cysteine residues of Opi1p were implicated
      in the H2 O2 -mediated translocation of this protein to the nucleus and
      identified cysteine residue 159 as essential for this process. Our work shows
      that Opi1p is redox-regulated and establishes a new mechanism of gene regulation
      involving Opi1p, which is important for adaptation to H2 O2 in yeast cells.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28581038
TI  - Syringe-to-syringe dispersive liquid-phase microextraction solidified floating
      organic drop combined with high-performance liquid chromatography for the
      separation and quantification of ochratoxin A in food samples.
AB  - A new, simple, and rapid syringe-to-syringe dispersive liquid-phase
      microextraction with solidified floating organic drop was used for the separation
      and preconcentration of ochratoxin A from grain and juice samples before its
      quantification using high-performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence
      detection. Factors influencing the microextraction efficiency of ochratoxin A,
      such as sample solution pH, type and volume of organic extractant, salt
      concentration, number of injections, and volume of the sample, were studied and
      optimized. Under the optimum properties, the calibration graph showed linearity
      in the range of 65.0-700.0 ng/L (coefficient of determination = 0.9991). The
      limit of detection was 20.0 ng/L. The inter-day and intra-day relative standard
      deviations were in the range of 5.0-8.5%. This method was successfully applied
      for the quantification of ochratoxin A in grain and juice samples.

PMID- 28581039
TI  - Efficacy of cytapheresis for remission induction and dermatological
      manifestations of ulcerative colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, cytapheresis depletes elevated
      and activated leucocytes, which are known to release inflammatory cytokines
      including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. Further, there are UC patients who
      develop erythema nodosum (EN) or pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) as extra-intestinal
      manifestations of UC. METHODS: Between 2008 and 2015, 181 consecutive patients
      with active UC received cytapheresis with either a granulocyte and monocyte
      apheresis (GMA) column or with a leucocyte removal filter (LCAP) as remission
      induction therapy. Each patient received weekly or intensive (2-3 sessions/week)
      cytapheresis up to 10 sessions. In 13 patients, UC was complicated by EN or PG.
      Lichtiger's clinical activity index (CAI) <=4 meant remission, while >=3 decrease
      in CAI meant response to therapy. Prednisolone sparing and the changes in the
      extra-intestinal manifestations were factored for assessing treatment efficacy.
      RESULTS: The overall remission and response rates were 52.5% and 71.8%,
      respectively, CAI fell from 9.4 +/- 3.3 to 4.9 +/- 3.5 (P < 0.001). The efficacy
      rates in subgroups on concomitant corticosteroid, anti-TNF or tacrolimus, and
      those without concomitant medications were not significantly different (P >
      0.05). However, in 84 patients on prednisolone, the average daily prednisolone
      dose was reduced from 18.15 to 12.43 mg/day (P < 0.001) with 21.7% being
      corticosteroid free. All patients with EN or PG showed favorable response to
      cytapheresis, notably 2 EN patients achieving remission after just 2 cytapheresis
      sessions without concomitant medication. CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective
      efficacy evaluation, cytapheresis was effective as remission induction therapy
      with steroid sparing effect and desirable safety profile. Further, patients with
      EN or PG responded favorably to cytapheresis.

PMID- 28581040
TI  - Coaxial flow-gating interface for capillary electrophoresis.
AB  - A coaxial flow-gating interface is described in which the separation capillary
      passes through the sampling capillary. Continuous flow of the sample solution
      flowing out of the sampling capillary is directed away from the injection end of
      the separation capillary by counter-current flow of the gating solution. During
      the injection, the flow of the gating solution is interrupted, so that a plug of
      solution is formed at the inlet into the separation capillary, from which the
      sample is hydrodynamically injected. Flow-gating interfaces are originally
      designed for on-line connection of capillary electrophoresis with analytical flow
      through methods. The basic properties of the described coaxial flow-gating
      interface were obtained in a simplified arrangement in which a syringe pump with
      sample solution has substituted analytical flow-through method. Under the
      optimized conditions, the properties of the tested interface were determined by
      separation of K+ , Ba2+ , Na+ , Mg2+ and Li+ ions in aqueous solution at
      equimolar concentrations of 50 MUM. The repeatability of the migration times and
      peak areas evaluated for K+ , Ba2+ and Li+ ions and expressed as relative
      standard deviation did not exceed 1.4%. The interface was used to determine
      lithium in mineral water and taurine in an energy drink.

PMID- 28581041
TI  - GENETIC VARIABILITY OF THE FACE FLY, MUSCA AUTUMNALIS DE GEER, IN RELATION TO A
      POPULATION BOTTLENECK.

PMID- 28581043
TI  - THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY PRIZE AWARDED.

PMID- 28581042
TI  - PARASEXUALITY AND MICROEVOLUTION IN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF BACILLUS
      SUBTILIS.

PMID- 28581044
TI  - SEX RATIO CONSTANCY IN THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.

PMID- 28581045
TI  - PREDATION PRESSURE AND GASTROPOD FORAGING: A TROPICAL-TEMPERATE COMPARISON.

PMID- 28581046
TI  - DISRUPTIVE SELECTION AND ASSORTATIVE MATING IN TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM.

PMID- 28581047
TI  - DROSOPHILA HETERONEURA AND DROSOPHILA SILVESTRIS: HEAD SHAPES, BEHAVIOR AND
      EVOLUTION.

PMID- 28581048
TI  - "GRANDFATHER EFFECTS": THE GENETICS OF INTERPOPULATION DIFFERENCES IN OFFSPRING
      SIZE IN THE MOSQUITO FISH.

PMID- 28581049
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28581050
TI  - PHENOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF MODEL AND MIMIC SALAMANDERS.

PMID- 28581051
TI  - MICROSPATIAL GENETIC HETEROGENEITY IN POCKET GOPHERS: NON-RANDOM BREEDING AND
      DRIFT.

PMID- 28581052
TI  - COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR AND CONTROL OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN DROSOPHILA
      MOJAVENSIS AND DROSOPHILA ARIZONENSIS.

PMID- 28581053
TI  - EVOLUTION OF SEX RATIO IN STRUCTURED DEMES.

PMID- 28581055
TI  - CORRELATION BETWEEN SUBCELLULAR LOCATION AND PHOSPHOGLUCOSE ISOMERASE
      VARIABILITY.

PMID- 28581054
TI  - EVIDENCE FOR THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION BETWEEN TWO SPECIES OF ANNUAL PLANTS.

PMID- 28581056
TI  - POPULATIONAL HERITABILITY.

PMID- 28581058
TI  - Society for the Study of Evolution and American Society of Naturalists 1982
      Meetings.

PMID- 28581057
TI  - POLLEN-OVULE RATIO, POLLEN SIZE, AND THE RATIO OF STIGMATIC AREA TO THE POLLEN
      BEARING AREA OF THE POLLINATOR: AN HYPOTHESIS.

PMID- 28581059
TI  - A CHROMOSOMAL CLINE IN THE GRASSHOPPER PODISMA PEDESTRIS.

PMID- 28581060
TI  - EFFECT OF INBREEDING ON THE EVOLUTION OF ALTRUISTIC BEHAVIOR BY KIN SELECTION.

PMID- 28581061
TI  - SELECTION PRESSURES AFFECTING MALE NUTRIENT INVESTMENT AT MATING IN HELICONIINE
      BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28581062
TI  - Dental evidence for wild tuber processing among Titicaca Basin foragers 7000 ybp.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this work is to characterize dental wear in a
      skeletal sample dating to the Middle/Late Archaic period transition (8,000-6,700
      cal. B.P.) from the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru to better define subsistence
      behaviors of foragers prior to incipient sedentism and food production. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: The dental sample consists of 251 teeth from 11 individuals
      recovered from the site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (SMP), the earliest securely dated
      burial assemblage in the Lake Titicaca Basin and the only burial assemblage in
      the region from an unequivocal forager context. Occlusal surface wear was
      quantified according to Smith (1984) and Scott (1979a) to characterize diversity
      within the site and to facilitate comparison with other foraging groups
      worldwide. General linear modeling was used to assess observation error and
      principal axis analysis was used to compare molar wear rates and angles. Teeth
      were also examined for caries and specialized wear. RESULTS: Occlusal surface
      attrition is generally heavy across the dental arcade and tends to be flat among
      posterior teeth. Only one carious lesion was observed. Five of the 11 individuals
      exhibit lingual surface attrition of the maxillary anterior teeth (LSAMAT).
      DISCUSSION: Tooth wear rates, molar wear plane, and caries rates are consistent
      with terrestrial foraging and a diverse diet. The presence of LSAMAT indicates
      tuber processing. The results therefore contribute critical new data toward our
      understanding of forager diet in the Altiplano prior to plant and animal
      domestication in the south-central Andes.

PMID- 28581063
TI  - Clinical grading of Reinke's edema.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Reinke's edema (RE) is a pathologically benign structural change of
      the vocal folds with a wide spectrum of clinical severity. We aim to propose and
      validate a clinical grading system based on size of the lesion to facilitate
      effective universal communication of disease severity. STUDY DESIGN:
      Retrospective review. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with RE exclusive of other
      glottic pathology between December 2010 and December 2014 were included. Sixty
      laryngoscopy photographs were extracted from recorded archived laryngeal
      videostroboscopy exams, blinded and graded by four laryngologists with experience
      diagnosing RE. RESULTS: A high degree of agreement among all four raters was
      demonstrated by high interclass correlation coefficients with a 95% confidence
      interval. Similarly, high intra-rater reliability was seen across all raters.
      Forty-nine (33%) lesions were grade 1. Thirty-five lesions (29.17%) were grade 2;
      18 (15%) lesions were grade 3; and nine (7.5%) lesions were grade 4.
      Contralateral vocal fold was not graded in cases of grade 4. CONCLUSION: This
      clinical grading for RE is a reliable tool for conveying severity of disease.
      High inter- and intra-rater reliability strongly suggest that RE similarly can be
      graded by different raters, and that a single rater is expected to grade RE
      similarly at different times. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2310-2313,
      2017.

PMID- 28581064
TI  - Effect of transglutaminase on quality and gel properties of pork and fish mince
      mixtures.
AB  - : Transglutaminase (TGase) is widely applied in the meat industry, and mixing of
      meat from various sources is an efficient way to enhance the quality of meat
      products. In this study, sensory scores, color, gel properties, water holding
      capacity and microstructure of mince mixtures, treated with 0.4% TGase, were
      determined to investigate the effect of TGase and mixing ratios (pork/fish, 10:0,
      7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 0:10) on quality and gel properties of mince mixtures composed of
      pork and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). Results indicated that the
      mixture improved the sensory quality and gel properties of meat products compared
      to control group. The addition of TGase significantly (p < .05) increased the gel
      strength, especially at 7:3 ratio of pork and silver carp, in which gel strength
      reached its maximum and was 10.26%, 64.15% greater than pork with TGase and
      without TGase respectively, and water holding capacity were greater, and
      microstructure became more compact. The results suggest the synergetic
      interaction between proteins of pork and silver carp. TGase increased the
      interaction, especially for mixing proportion of 7:3 (pork/fish). Those results
      could be useful for the development of mixed and new meat products in the food
      industry. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Pork and silver carp are two main meat in diet,
      and mince mixtures can improve the nutrition of meat product. TGase is usually
      used to enhance the texture and gel properties of meat in industry. The addition
      of TGase in pork/fish mince mixtures can not only improve the texture, but
      catalyze the synergetic interaction between proteins from different meat and
      further enhance gel properties of mice mixtures in a certain ratio. All of that
      will provide reference for meat processing and development of new meat product.

PMID- 28581065
TI  - Physical and sensory properties of gelatin from seabass (Lates calcarifer) as
      affected by agar and kappa-carrageenan.
AB  - : Physical and sensory properties of gelatin from skin and swim bladder of
      seabass (SK and SW, respectively) as affected by agar or kappa-carrageenan at 10
      and 20% substitution were investigated. Hardness of both SK and SW gels
      containing agar increased with increasing level of agar. However, the addition of
      kappa-carrageenan lowered hardness of mixed gels. Springiness and cohesiveness of
      either SK or SW gels decreased as the level of both agar or kappa-carrageenan
      increased. Gelling and melting temperatures generally increased when the level of
      hydrocolloids was increased. The highest gelling (~36C) and melting temperatures
      (~43C) were obtained for SK added with 20% agar and 20% kappa-carrageenan,
      respectively. However, the addition of both hydrocolloids at 10% affected gel
      microstructure differently. Furthermore, the addition of agar at 10% could
      increase the likeness score of sensory properties of gelatin gel. Therefore, the
      addition of hydrocolloids with appropriate level could improve the texture and
      sensory properties of gelatin from seabass. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Due to the
      poor gelling property of fish gelatin, compared to its mammalian counterpart,
      improvement of this property using the selected hydrocolloids can be a promising
      means. In this work, it was found that agar or kappa-carrageenan can be
      incorporated to fish gelatin to improve gelling, textural and sensory properties
      of gelatin from skin of seabass (Lates calcarifer). Both agar and kappa
      carrageenan could increase gelling and melting temperatures of seabass gelatin.
      The incorporation of hydrocolloids (agar and kappa-carrageenan) could also
      improve the quality of fish gelatin gel, which in turn can widen the applications
      of fish gelatin in the food and other industries.

PMID- 28581066
TI  - The pregnant urologist.
AB  - Female urologists represent an ever-increasing percentage of the work force; more
      and more of our colleagues will be working through pregnancy. There is a lack of
      clear and concise advice for pregnant urologists about occupational risks during
      pregnancy. Urology exposes expectant mothers to potential risks from radiation,
      teratogenic and cytotoxic drugs, iodine hand scrub, infections, and long working
      hours. We aim to provide a review of the current evidence and guidance to aid
      expectant mothers in their decision making. Relevant research articles and up-to
      date guidance were reviewed. The millisevert (the average accumulated background
      radiation dose to an individual for 1 year, exclusive of radon) was used as the
      main unit of radiation dose. There is no published evidence to date in pregnant
      clinicians that shows a received radiation dose of more than the recommended dose
      for a pregnant lady, and no data showing an increased risk of foetal
      abnormalities in clinicians who continue to screen during pregnancy; however, the
      data are from small studies. There is strong advice suggesting avoidance of
      contact with crushed or broken 5alpha-reductase inhibitor tablets (finasteride
      and dutasteride), mitomycin and other cytotoxic drugs during pregnancy. Pregnant
      surgeons should avoid frequent use of iodine hand wash. Good hygiene precautions
      will protect from many infections along with up-to-date immunisations and use of
      personal protective equipment for certain cases.

PMID- 28581068
TI  - MALE HYBRID STERILITY IN DROSOPHILA: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AUTOSOMES AND SEX
      CHROMOSOMES IN CROSSES OF D. MOJAVENSIS AND D. ARIZONENSIS.
AB  - By backcrossing hybrids from the cross Drosophila mojavensis female * Drosophila
      arizonensis male to both parental species we show that several interspecific
      combinations of autosomes with one or the other sex chromosome (X or Y) result in
      sperm abnormalities. Two of these incompatibilities will cause the same type of
      nonreciprocal F1 male sterility that is observed in this pair of species, but the
      possibility of an additional incompatibility that would have the same result,
      e.g., an incompatibility between the mojavensis Y and the arizonensis X
      chromosomes, cannot be excluded. The incompatibility between the arizonensis Y
      chromosome and the mojavensis fourth chromosome found to occur for all tested
      populations of mojavensis race B (Vigneault and Zouros, 1986) is shown also to
      occur for race A of this species. We further show that a dominance relationship
      exists between heterospecific homologous autosomes in their interactions with the
      sex chromosomes and that the direction of the dominance depends on whether the
      sex chromosome is the X or the Y. The present role of these incompatibilities in
      preventing gene flow between the two species may be minor, but their genetic
      basis and mode of action may provide useful insights about the genetic events
      that have played a significant role in earlier stages of speciation.

PMID- 28581069
TI  - HYBRIDIZATION AS A DISPERSAL MECHANISM.
AB  - An example from the genus Eucalyptus is used to argue that hybridization may be
      of evolutionary significance as a means of gene dispersal where seed dispersal is
      limited. A previous study of regeneration of E. risdonii and E. amygdalina
      indicated that the current selective regime was favoring E. risaonii. However,
      the dispersal of E. risdonii by seeds is shown to be limited (s, = 4.6 m). By
      comparison, the flow of E. risdonii genes into the range of E. amygdalina by
      pollen dispersal and F1 hybridization is widespread (sp = 82 m). While the actual
      level of hybridization is low, interspecific hybridization effectively doubles
      the dispersal of E. risdonii genes into the range of E. amygdalina. This pollen
      flow can have a significant genetic impact, since isolated hybrids or patches of
      abnormal phenotypes have been found 200-300 m from the species boundary. Based on
      lignotuber size, some of these patches appear to have been founded by F1 hybrids.
      The frequency of E. risdonii types in the patches appears to increase with patch
      size suggesting that there is selection for this phenotype in subsequent
      generations. E. risdonii-like individuals were recovered in the progeny from both
      intermediate and E. risdonii backcross phenotypes. These results suggest that E.
      risdonii may invade suitable habitat islands within the E. amygdalina forest,
      independently of seed migration, by long-distance pollen migration followed by
      selection for the gene combinations of the pollen parent.

PMID- 28581070
TI  - ELECTROPHORETIC VARIATION AND MATING SYSTEM OF THE CLONAL WEED PTERIDIUM
      AQUILINUM (L. KUHN) (BRACKEN).

PMID- 28581071
TI  - VARIATION IN PATHOGENICITY AMONG AND WITHIN POPULATIONS OF THE FUNGUS PHOMOPSIS
      SUBORDINARIA INFECTING PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA.
AB  - Pathogenicity of isolates of the fungus Phomopsis subordinaria, sampled in three
      scarcely or heavily infected populations of Plantago lanceolata, was investigated
      on three different host genotypes. The expression of the pathogen appeared to be
      quantitative rather than qualitative in character, which suggests polygenic
      inheritance of host susceptibility. Significant statistical interaction between
      pathogen and host pointed to some degree of physiological specialization between
      them. None of the individual host-pathogen combinations was found to contribute
      significantly to the interaction. Differences in mean pathogenicity between the
      pathogen populations could not explain the different intensities of disease
      observed in the field. As the variation in susceptibility between populations of
      the host at the same three locations also cannot account for the differences in
      intensity of disease in the field, it can be concluded that environmental factors
      (in particular weevils that spread the disease) are important for the development
      of the disease. In one of the populations, the spatial scale at which variation
      within the pathogen occurs was determined. It appeared that the pathogen varied
      in pathogenicity in the field, even among scapes within an individual host plant.
      The consequences of this scale of variation in the pathogen are discussed for the
      dynamics and evolution of the pathosystem.

PMID- 28581073
TI  - CORRECTIONS.

PMID- 28581072
TI  - ADAPTATIONS TO TEMPERATE CLIMATES AND EVOLUTION OF OVERWINTERING STRATEGIES IN
      THE DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER SPECIES GROUP.
AB  - The Drosophila melanogaster species group is considered to have originated in the
      tropics and only recently invaded temperate habitats. The temperate species of
      this group that were studied here may be subdivided into the warm-temperate
      species (D. lutescens and D. rufa) and the cool-temperate species (species of the
      auraria complex). The warm-temperate species were more cold-hardy than were their
      tropical relatives (D. takahashii or D. melanogaster) at the larval and imaginal
      stages, and the cool-temperate species were more cold-hardy than the warm
      temperate species, although only at the imaginal stage. However, these species
      showed little or no intraspecific variation in cold-hardiness, in spite of great
      variation in winter temperature within the species' ranges. It is assumed that
      cold-hardiness is one of the main factors restricting their distributions at high
      latitudes and that it is the key for evolution of the warm- and cool-temperate
      species from their subtropical or warm-temperate ancestors. Both warm- and cool
      temperate species had photoperiodically controlled reproductive diapause. In the
      cool-temperate species, the development of cold-hardiness was affected by
      diapause, but diapause had little or no effect on cold-hardiness in the warm
      temperate species. Critical daylengths and the diapause rates varied from species
      to species according to variation in their overwintering plans and also varied
      geographically in consequence of their adaptation to local climates. Species
      showed different responses to temperature in preimaginal and ovarian development.
      These differences are considered to reflect adaptation to different environmental
      temperatures.

PMID- 28581074
TI  - ANALYSIS OF THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF LIFE HISTORY OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
      USING RECOMBINANT EXTRACTED LINES.
AB  - A model for the evolution of senescence known as "antagonistic pleiotropy" makes
      the specific prediction that there should be a negative genetic correlation
      between early- and late-age traits associated with fitness. This model has
      previously been tested by classical quantitative-genetic means including sib
      analysis and artificial selection. We used the approach of chromosome extraction,
      which has both advantages and disadvantages compared to classical techniques, to
      test the model further. From four isogenic lines of Drosophila melanogaster, four
      sets of recombinant extracted lines were constructed using standard balancer
      chromosome techniques. The four parental lines and 53 recombinants were reared
      under controlled laboratory conditions and isolated as pairs for scoring daily
      fecundity and longevity. Even though the design is not optimal for estimating
      classical components of genetic variance, it afforded a uniquely direct test of
      the magnitude of environmental covariances, while giving a detailed genetic
      picture of part of the genome. There were clear differences among the recombinant
      series in the distribution of mean longevity and early fecundity. The genetic
      correlation between early fecundity (sum of egg production for the first five
      days posteclosion) and female longevity was significantly negative in only one of
      the recombinant series. When all lines were considered together, the phenotypic
      correlation between these traits was significantly negative (P < 0.02), while the
      broad-sense genetic correlation was -0.219 (P < 0.11). This result may be viewed
      as weakly consistent with the model of antagonistic pleiotropy, but other aspects
      of the data are at odds with the model.

PMID- 28581067
TI  - Recent advances in nanodisc technology for membrane protein studies (2012-2017).
AB  - Historically, the main barrier to membrane protein investigations has been the
      tendency of membrane proteins to aggregate (due to their hydrophobic nature), in
      aqueous solution as well as on surfaces. The introduction of biomembrane mimetics
      has since stimulated momentum in the field. One such mimetic, the nanodisc (ND)
      system, has proved to be an exceptional system for solubilizing membrane
      proteins. Herein, we critically evaluate the advantages and imperfections of
      employing nanodiscs in biophysical and biochemical studies. Specifically, we
      examine the techniques that have been modified to study membrane proteins in
      nanodiscs. Techniques discussed here include fluorescence microscopy, solution
      state/solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, electron microscopy, small-angle X
      ray scattering, and several mass spectroscopy methods. Newer techniques such as
      SPR, charge-sensitive optical detection, and scintillation proximity assays are
      also reviewed. Lastly, we cover how nanodiscs are advancing nanotechnology
      through nanoplasmonic biosensing, lipoprotein-nanoplatelets, and sortase-mediated
      labeling of nanodiscs.

PMID- 28581075
TI  - INBREEDING DEPRESSION DOESN'T MATTER: THE GENETIC BASIS OF MATING-SYSTEM
      EVOLUTION.
AB  - Models of mating-system evolution commonly assume that inbreeding depression is
      independent of the genotype at loci determining the mating system. Because of the
      association that develops between genotypes at different loci in inbred
      populations, an individual that is heterozygous at a mating-type locus is more
      likely to be heterozygous at a fitness locus than is a randomly chosen
      individual. A modifier model for the evolution of self-fertilization in plants
      demonstrates that inbreeding depression is not an adequate descriptor of the
      relative fitness of inbred and outbred progeny. If inbreeding depression is
      primarily a result of segregation at overdominant loci, intermediate rates of
      self-fertilization may be favored, even if the inbreeding depression is less than
      30%. Indeed, in some cases, mutants that cause some outcrossing can be introduced
      into completely selfing populations when the inbreeding depression is as little
      as 1%. If inbreeding depression is primarily a result of the expression of
      recessive lethals in inbred progeny, selfing can evolve in an initially random
      mating population, even when the inbreeding depression is over 70%.

PMID- 28581076
TI  - EFFECTS OF PARENTAL PHOTOPERIOD ON DEVELOPMENT TIME AND DENSITY SENSITIVITY OF
      PROGENY IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28581077
TI  - INTERACTION BETWEEN GENOTYPES AT THE DIAZINON-RESISTANCE LOCUS OF THE AUSTRALIAN
      SHEEP BLOWFLY, LUCILIA CUPRINA. FACILITATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF SUSCEPTIBLE
      GENOTYPES.
AB  - The survival of larvae with susceptible (+ +) genotypes at the diazinon
      resistance locus of the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina is facilitated
      by prior conditioning of diazinon-containing media by heterozygote (R+) or
      resistant (RR) larvae. The effect is not observed on media without diazinon.
      Conditioning by + + genotypes does not affect subsequent development of
      susceptible larvae and the viability of R + and RR larvae is unaffected by
      conditioning of the media. Similar results are observed when the medium is
      conditioned with crushed larvae of the three genotypes. The development of + +
      larvae is enhanced only on media containing diazinon to which R + or RR crushed
      larvae are added. The results for other comparisons are equivalent for
      conditioned or unconditioned media. The number of crushed ++, R +, or RR larvae
      added to the medium containing diazinon does not affect the proportion of + +
      eggs that develop through larval and pupal stages to emerge as adults. The rate
      of development of the + + genotype is, however, positively correlated with the
      number of crushed R + or RR larvae added.

PMID- 28581078
TI  - ADAPTIVE RADIATION AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN THE HAWAIIAN SILVERSWORD
      ALLIANCE (COMPOSITAE: MADIINAE).
AB  - The Hawaiian silversword alliance consists of the three genera Dubautia,
      Argyroxiphium, and Wilkesia, and is a classic example of adaptive radiation in an
      insular setting. Genetic variation and interspecific genetic differentiation
      based on ten enzyme loci are described for Dubautia and Wilkesia. Genetic
      identities among species span the range of values expected from interpopulation
      comparisons within a single species (I = 0.90-1.00) to those typical of
      interspecific comparisons (I->=0.67). Genetic-identity values correspond to
      biogeographic distribution and morphological distinctiveness, supporting a
      correlation of increasing genetic distance associated with the time of separation
      among lineages. It may be inferred that the high genetic identities observed
      within the Hawaiian Madiinae and other island plant groups are due to limited
      time spans available for taxa to accumulate new genetic variation through
      mutation. It appears that species may remain genetically similar (I > 0.90) even
      after time spans on the order of magnitude of 1,000,000 years.

PMID- 28581079
TI  - EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE IN SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES.
AB  - Models of the evolution of host shifts and speciation in phytophagous insects are
      often built upon the assumption that host selection is under simple genetic
      control, perhaps even a single locus. The genetic basis for differences in host
      plant preference by ovipositing insects was investigated using two closely
      related species of swallowtail butterfly, Papilio oregonius and P. zelicaon,
      which differ in the plant families on which females oviposit. Both species had
      been shown previously to vary within populations in host selection. A combination
      of analyses using reciprocal interspecific crosses and isofemale strains within
      populations indicated that oviposition preference in these species is determined
      significantly by one or more loci on the X chromosome, which female Lepidoptera
      inherit only paternally. Hence, preferences in hybrid females tended toward the
      paternal species. This is the first insect group for which partial control of
      oviposition preference has been localized onto a particular chromosome. In
      addition, one or more loci on another chromosome(s) appear to contribute to
      preference, as indicated by the partially intermediate preferences of some hybrid
      crosses. The overall differences in preference in the reciprocal interspecific
      hybrids were restricted to differences in the distribution of eggs laid among the
      local host plants of these two Papilio species; the reciprocal crosses did not
      differ in the small percentage of eggs laid on a novel potential host species.
      The variation in host selection found among the isofemale strains reinforces
      earlier results for these strains, indicating that there is genetic variation in
      host selection within these populations. Overall, the results indicate that the
      evolution of oviposition preference in these species involves genetic changes at
      two or more chromosomes with the X chromosome playing an important role in
      determining preference.

PMID- 28581080
TI  - PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION, CONSTANT COVARIANCES, AND THE MAINTENANCE OF ADDITIVE
      VARIANCE.

PMID- 28581081
TI  - KNOWN SECONDARY CONTACT AND RAPID GENE FLOW AMONG SUBSPECIES AND DIALECTS IN THE
      BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD.
AB  - We analyze geographic variation in morphology for Sierra Nevadan populations of
      Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) in relation to two levels of geographic
      structure of populations: 1) subspecies and 2) vocal dialects. Two
      morphologically distinct subspecies occupy opposite slopes of the Sierra Nevada:
      M. a artemisiae on the east slope is larger than M. a. obscurus on the west
      slope, and its juveniles have predominantly white versus yellow rictal (bill)
      flanges. Populations of obscurus moved into California from the lower Colorado
      River around 1900 and invaded the western Sierra during the 1930's. A relatively
      constant type of flight whistle occurs in obscurus populations up to 700 km
      apart, but east-slope artemisiae are divided into many distinct dialects. The
      means of seven morphological measurements and of principal component 1 (i.e.,
      body size) for 2,287 individuals show similar clinal patterns for adult males,
      yearling males, and females over a 60-km north-south transect along the eastern
      Sierra Nevada: large sizes occur at the southernmost study site at Bishop,
      decrease clinally to the north to Mammoth Lakes, and then increase clinally to
      the north from Mammoth Lakes to the northernmost site at Lee Vining. This
      reversal in cline slope is reiterated for variation in the frequency of white
      flanged juveniles. Our data do not support adaptive explanations for the clines.
      Rather, the most parsimonious explanation is that there has been flow of obscurus
      genes into artemisiae from the west slope across the crest of the Sierra Nevada
      into the Mammoth Lakes area. Concordantly, the Sierran crest at Mammoth Lakes is
      considerably lower than any other point within about 80 km to the north or 180 km
      to the south. Two other findings strongly support this interpretation. First,
      wing lengths of our longest-winged samples (at Bishop and Lee Vining) are
      significantly shorter than those of cowbirds collected in the same region between
      1912 and 1922. Second, the wing lengths of Mammoth Lakes adult males and females
      during 1978-1981 are significantly larger than those of the 1982-1985 period.
      This putative hybridization must have been rapid, as there have been fewer than
      50 years since secondary contact could have occurred. Calculation of the gene
      flow parameter Iota of Endler (1977) indicates that the gene-flow rate reported
      here is higher than for nearly all of the species he surveyed. This gene flow
      occurs between two subspecies with different flight whistles and across several
      cowbird flight-whistle dialects within artemisiae. Therefore, vocal differences
      among these dialects do not appear to be a strong deterrent to gene flow.

PMID- 28581082
TI  - DIVERGENCE AND GENETIC STRUCTURE IN ADJACENT GRASS POPULATIONS. I. QUANTITATIVE
      GENETICS.
AB  - Additive genetic variances and covariances were estimated for life history and
      morphological traits in two adjacent populations of the grass, Holcus lanatus L.
      Significant phenotypic differentiation was found between the two populations for
      four of the 15 morphological attributes measured. Significant differences in
      genetic architecture were found between the two populations for 11 of the 13
      traits for which genetic variance components could be calculated. Estimates of
      genetic correlations also showed considerable divergence between the populations.
      The genetic divergence was much larger than would have been anticipated from
      simple measures of phenotypic differentiation. These results show that, even in
      plant species with relatively large population sizes, differences in genetic
      variance-covariance patterns can occur between adjacent populations.

PMID- 28581083
TI  - SEX-RATIO MANIPULATION IN RESPONSE TO HOST SIZE BY THE PARASITOID WASP SPALANGIA
      CAMERONI: A LABORATORY STUDY.
AB  - The prediction of Charnov et al.'s (1981) host-size model that there should be a
      negative relationship between host size and wasp sex ratio (proportion sons) was
      supported for Spalangia cameroni, a solitary parasitoid wasp. The relationship
      was shown to be a result of offspring sex manipulation by females in response to
      host size rather than a result of differential mortality of the sexes. A major
      assumption of the host-size model is that host size has a greater effect on the
      ultimate reproductive success of emerging female wasps than of males. This
      assumption was not supported. Host size had a positive effect on the size of both
      male and female S. cameroni. However, neither host size nor wasp size affected
      longevity, production of offspring by females, or ability of males to compete for
      mates. Host size may differentially affect the reproductive success of female and
      male wasps through effects on other aspects of reproductive success. Tests of the
      assumptions of offspring sex-ratio manipulation hypotheses are scarce but
      critical, not only for parasitoid wasps, but also for other organisms.

PMID- 28581084
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION FOR HOMOGAMY IN THE GERRIDAE: AN EXTENSION OF RIDLEY'S
      COMPARATIVE APPROACH.
AB  - Ridley (1983) proposed that three factors are necessary and sufficient for the
      development of positive assortative mating (homogamy) in natural populations.
      These factors are 1) a correlation between male size and success in competition
      for mates (intrasexual selection), 2) a correlation between female size and
      fecundity, and 3) prolonged pairing. In the presence of these three factors,
      selection will favor males that select large (and thus more fecund) females as
      mates, thus leading to positive assortative mating. Although this simple
      hypothesis is generally supported by data across taxa (Ridley, 1983), the
      evidence for the Insecta is equivocal at best. In this paper, I test this
      hypothesis using three species of waterstriders (Gerridae; Hemiptera). The three
      factors and homogamy are measured in several samples from each species. Homogamy
      is predicted and observed in one species (Gerris remigis) and is not predicted
      and not observed in the other two (G. comatus and G. buenoi). These results
      support Ridley's hypothesis and suggest that the processes leading to homogamy in
      the insects do not, in general, differ from those dominant in other taxa. The
      possible influence of even low levels of homogamy on genetic variance within
      populations and the difficulties of assessing such levels on the basis of single
      samples are discussed.

PMID- 28581085
TI  - HETEROZYGOSITY AND GROWTH IN MARINE BIVALVES: FURTHER DATA AND POSSIBLE
      EXPLANATIONS.
AB  - In a natural population of two-year-old mussels, shell length was correlated with
      degree of heterozygosity. There was no correlation between an individual's
      glycogen level and its degree of heterozygosity, but when individuals were
      grouped in heterozygosity classes a near-significant correlation was observed
      between degree of heterozygosity and mean glycogen level corrected for the
      effects of sex and stage of gonad development. There was no correlation between
      degree of heterozygosity and index of gonad development. Such a correlation would
      have provided support for the hypothesis (Zouros and Foltz, 1984) that dependence
      of time of spawning on heterozygosity may explain the observed heterozygote
      deficiency. The causes of heterozygote-deficiency, a common phenomenon in
      populations of marine bivalves, remain obscure. The observed heterozygosity
      growth correlation is examined in the light of the controversy of whether
      allozymes act as markers in linkage association with genetic conditions that are
      responsible for the differences in growth among individuals or are themselves the
      agents of the correlation. The observations that 1) the contributions of
      individual loci to the correlation vary among populations, 2) the correlation is
      observed in samples from natural populations but not among progeny from pair
      matings, and 3) the correlation is nearly always accompanied with heterozygote
      deficiency in the population are more compatible with the first explanation and
      suggest that the growth-heterozygosity correlation results mostly from
      associative overdominance and to a lesser extent from the direct contributions of
      scored loci to growth.

PMID- 28581086
TI  - THE PROBABILITY OF PEAK SHIFTS IN A FOUNDER POPULATION. II. AN ADDITIVE POLYGENIC
      TRAIT.
AB  - Stochastic shifts between two alternative stable equilibria in an additive
      polygenic system are modelled. The effect of selection on the character is
      represented by a double-peaked function relating individual fitness to phenotypic
      value. The mean of a large population will equilibrate near one of the two peaks,
      although with weak selection there may be a substantial displacement from the
      closest peak, due to the attraction exerted by the other peak. It is assumed that
      a small population is founded as a random sample from a large population at
      equilibrium under selection, and that genetic drift and selection interact to
      determine the evolution of the mean and variance of the polygenic character
      during the phase of exponential population growth that follows the foundation of
      the population. The effects on the frequencies of peak shifts of selectively
      induced linkage disequilibrium, randomly induced linkage disequilibrium, and
      random deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are investigated by computer
      simulation. The results are compared with the probabilities of shifts calculated
      by an approximate analytic method. It is found that the approximations are
      reasonably accurate when the heights of the peaks in fitness are similar, but the
      approximations fail when one of the peaks is much higher than the other. The
      probability of a peak shift is shown to be a decreasing function of the strength
      of selection on the character. Although substantial changes in phenotypic mean
      can be induced by a founder event, the probability of a peak shift that induces a
      significant degree of reproductive isolation is low. The significance of these
      findings in relation to theories of speciation is discussed.

PMID- 28581087
TI  - POSTPOLLINATION EFFECTS ON SEED PATERNITY: MECHANISMS IN ADDITION TO
      MICROGAMETOPHYTE COMPETITION OPERATE IN WILD RADISH.
AB  - After pollen arrives on a stigma, the paternity of seeds may be influenced by
      microgametophyte competition, maternal choice, genetic complementation between
      parents, and embryo competition. While microgametophyte competition has been well
      accepted, the other mechanisms are more difficult to demonstrate, and their
      effects are often confounded. Here, wild radish plants were pollinated with
      single and mixed pollen loads, and some plants were stressed such that
      reproduction was reduced. Effects of pollen donors, maternal families, maternal *
      paternal interaction, pollen donor number, and stress on fruit abortion, seed
      number per fruit, seed weight, and total seed weight per fruit were measured.
      Maternal-plant * pollen-donor interaction effects were found for all variables,
      indicating that genetic complementation or maternal choice occurred. Values of
      the components of reproduction were generally higher for multiply sired fruits
      than for singly sired fruits, indicating that either competition among embryos
      changed under multiple paternity or maternal choice for multiply sired fruits
      occurred. Finally, when maternal plants were stressed, the components of
      reproduction were more strongly affected by seed and fruit paternity. This result
      indicates that either competitive regimes among embryos were affected by stress
      or maternal plants become more selective under stress. In both cases where embryo
      competition might have been an explanation of the results, variation in seed
      weight within fruits was unaffected, suggesting that competitive regimes were
      unchanged. Clearly, mechanisms in addition to microgametophyte competition are
      important in sorting the pollen that arrives on stigmas of wild radish. These
      data suggest that maternal choice is likely to be important. In addition, these
      processes are likely to occur in the field, since the effects are stronger in
      stressed than in control plants.

PMID- 28581088
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION: THE EVOLUTION OF CONSPICUOUS CHARACTERISTICS IN BIRDS BY MEANS
      OF IMPRINTING.

PMID- 28581089
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF SELECTION ON COLOR MORPHS OF THE POLYMORPHIC SPIDER
      ENOPLOGNATHA OVATA (ARANEAE: THERIDIIDAE).
AB  - The annual theridiid spider Enoplognatha ovata exhibits a genetically based color
      polymorphism of red and nonred phenotypes. We evaluated fitness differences
      between red and nonred spiders by manipulating morph frequencies in a population
      in which red morphs were rare (<=5%). Broods from red females were introduced to
      open experimental plots from which natural aggregations of spiders had been
      repeatedly removed. Control plots in which spiders were removed but not replaced
      were used to estimate spider immigration from surrounding vegetation into
      experimental plots. Morph frequencies observed in experimental plots one year
      following the manipulation were adjusted by immigration estimates and tested
      against frequencies predicted with the hypothesis of no selection. We found no
      evidence of selection against red morphs: female morph frequencies in
      experimental plots did not differ significantly from expected frequencies
      assuming no selection; female frequencies did not change significantly between
      subadult and adult stages; and red and nonred spiders exhibited similar
      fecundities. We conclude that 1) selection on E. ovata color morphs is not likely
      to be detected easily within a single population because of the swamping effect
      of dispersal and 2) local patterns of morph-frequency variation may arise more
      from dispersal and drift than from selection on the color phenotypes.

PMID- 28581090
TI  - PATTERNS OF PUFFING ACTIVITY AND CHROMOSOMAL POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA
      SUBOBSCURA. IV. EFFECT OF INVERSIONS ON GENE EXPRESSION.
AB  - We have observed that, contrary to a common assumption, the puffing patterns
      manifest in the salivary chromosomes of Drosophila subobscura are modified by
      chromosomal inversions as well as by genic content. An inversion effect is
      apparent in the E and A chromosomes of five strains coming from four different
      natural populations. An effect due to the geographical location of the
      populations is also detected in the J and O chromosomes. The chromosomal and
      geographic effects are distinguishable but not contradictory. Indeed, a
      statistical test using the DK2 coefficient of distance shows that, for a given
      chromosomal arrangement, strains of different geographic origin exhibit puffing
      patterns significantly different; these patterns are, however, more similar to
      each other than they are to those of strains carrying different chromosomal
      arrangements of the same chromosome.

PMID- 28581091
TI  - SEX-RATIO SELECTION IN A BIVOLTINE THRIPS. I. CONDITIONAL SEX-RATIO MANIPULATION
      AND FITNESS VARIATION.
AB  - Females of the bivoltine thrips Elaphrothrips tuberculatus (Hood) (Insecta:
      Thysanoptera) produce broods of either all males (by viviparity) or all females
      (by oviparity). Measurements of the sex-allocation ratio, ecological and
      physiological conditions affecting male and female offspring body size, and
      correlates of the relative fitnesses of adult males and females in relation to
      size indicate that female parents tend to be viviparous (produce males) if their
      offspring will become relatively large adults, and that males gain more in
      fitness from large size than do females. However, the conditions that link sex
      allocation with offspring fitness differ between the spring and summer
      generations. In spring, when breeding is synchronous, 1) oviparous and viviparous
      females do not differ in body size, 2) females tend to be viviparous where the
      fungus upon which they feed is relatively dense and where their offspring will
      become relatively large adults, and 3) fungus density is highly correlated with
      male and female offspring size. In summer, when breeding is relatively
      asynchronous, 1) viviparous females are much larger than oviparous females early
      (but not late) in the season, 2) large viviparous females begin breeding earlier
      than smaller ones, 3) offspring developing earlier in the season become larger
      adults, and 4) a higher proportion of females are viviparous earlier than later.
      Field experiments and field collections show that the covariation among sex
      allocation, conditions, and fitness is not caused by differential mortality by
      size or sex. Differences between the spring and summer generations in the cues
      used by females to adjust offspring sex ratio may be caused by seasonal variation
      in the factors that affect offspring size. However, in both generations, females
      tend to produce sons only when their offspring will become relatively large
      adults, whereas daughters are produced regardless of offspring size. These data
      suggest that females of E. tuberculatus avoid production of males (the sex with
      higher variance in expected fitness) when the size of their offspring is
      relatively uncertain.

PMID- 28581092
TI  - THE USE OF PARALLEL PATTERNS TO TEST NEUTRALITY: A REPLY TO VARVIO-AHO AND
      PAMILO.

PMID- 28581093
TI  - SPERM COMPETITION AND SPERM STORAGE AS DETERMINANTS OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN THE
      DWARF SURFPERCH, MICROMETRUS MINIMUS.

PMID- 28581094
TI  - THE DROSOPHILIDAE ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL AFRICAN FIGS.

PMID- 28581095
TI  - GENOTYPIC DIVERSITY IN OENOTHERA LACINIATA (ONAGRACEAE), A PERMANENT
      TRANSLOCATION HETEROZYGOTE.

PMID- 28581096
TI  - THE IMPACT OF PREDATION ON LIFE HISTORY EVOLUTION IN TRINIDADIAN GUPPIES
      (POECILIA RETICULATA).

PMID- 28581097
TI  - EVOLUTION SOCIETY NEW.

PMID- 28581098
TI  - SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE CHOICE.

PMID- 28581099
TI  - ELECTROPHORETIC AND FUNCTIONAL ENZYMIC EVOLUTION IN FOUR SPECIES OF EASTERN
      PACIFIC BARRACUDAS FROM DIFFERENT THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS.

PMID- 28581100
TI  - POPULATION STRUCTURE, FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION, AND THE MAINTENANCE OF
      SEXUAL REPRODUCTION.

PMID- 28581101
TI  - MORPHOMETRIC EVIDENCE FOR INCIPIENT SPECIATION IN DROSOPHILA SILVESTRIS FROM THE
      ISLAND OF HAWAII.

PMID- 28581102
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF NATURAL SELECTION FOR PUPATION SITE IN SWALLOWTAIL
      BUTTERFLIES.

PMID- 28581103
TI  - ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE AND GLYCEROL-3-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE CLINES IN DROSOPHILA
      MELANOGASTER ON DIFFERENT CONTINENTS.

PMID- 28581104
TI  - SEARCHING FOR PARALLEL ENZYME GENE VARIATION AMONG SYMPATRIC CONGENERS.

PMID- 28581105
TI  - "SEX-RATIO" TRAIT, SEX COMPOSITION, AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCE IN DROSOPHILA
      PSEUDOOBSCURA.

PMID- 28581106
TI  - GENETIC STUDIES ON SEXUAL ISOLATION AND HYBRID STERILITY IN LONG-TERM CAGE
      POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

PMID- 28581107
TI  - ERRATA.

PMID- 28581108
TI  - GAMETIC DISEQUILIBRIUM IN THE SELF-FERTILIZING SLUG DEROCERAS LAEVE.

PMID- 28581109
TI  - DIFFERENTIATION OF ADJACENT STREAM POPULATIONS OF THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS.

PMID- 28581110
TI  - MODELS OF POLYGENIC SEX DETERMINATION AND SEX RATIO CONTROL.

PMID- 28581111
TI  - CHROMOSOMAL EVIDENCE FOR PARALLEL EVOLUTION OF SHELL SCULPTURE PATTERN IN
      GONIOBASIS.

PMID- 28581112
TI  - A REPLY.

PMID- 28581113
TI  - ADAPTIVE VERSUS INCIDENTAL EXPLANATIONS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF PROTANDRY IN A
      BUTTERFLY, LEPTIDEA SINAPIS L.

PMID- 28581114
TI  - POLLINATOR FORAGING ON FOXGLOVE (DIGITALIS PURPUREA): A TEST OF A NEW MODEL.

PMID- 28581115
TI  - CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT EFFECTS OF NATURAL SELECTION ON COLOR PATTERNS IN TWO
      FISH FAUNAS.

PMID- 28581116
TI  - Publication Charge Policy-Changes.

PMID- 28581117
TI  - RELATEDNESS OF NORMAL QUEENS (MACROGYNES) IN NESTS OF THE POLYGYNOUS ANT MYRMICA
      RUBRA LATREILLE.

PMID- 28581119
TI  - Long persistence of tumour necrosis factor-alpha antagonist-induced
      autoantibodies under subsequent treatment with ustekinumab but no adverse
      effects: a case study of 14 patients with psoriasis.

PMID- 28581118
TI  - Geographic region: Does it matter in cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck?
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The head and neck are two of the most common locations for
      cutaneous melanoma. We present the first population-based analysis of geographic
      differences in anatomic subsite, clinicopathologic and demographical traits,
      histopathologic subtype, treatment modality, and disease-specific survival (DSS)
      of cutaneous head and neck melanoma (CHNM). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective database
      analysis. METHODS: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was
      queried for cases of CHNM reported between 2000 and 2013. Patients were grouped
      into East, Midwest, South, and West regions of the United States. Overall
      incidence, demographic traits, primary tumor site, clinicopathologic traits,
      histopathologic subtype, treatment modality, and DSS were compared among regions.
      RESULTS: There were 49,365 patients with CHNM identified. The West (4.60) and the
      South (4.42) had significantly higher incidence (per 100,000) than the East
      (3.84) and Midwest (3.65) (P < .05). DSS was significantly different among
      regions (P < .0066). The East (5 years: 89.4%, 10 years: 84.1%) had the highest
      DSS rate, and the South (5 years: 87.0%, 10 years: 81.8%) had the lowest DSS
      rate. The Midwest (5 years: 88.4%, 10 years: 84.3%) and West (5 years: 88.3%, 10
      years: 83.5%) had intermediate DSS. On multivariate analysis, the South had an
      elevated hazard ratio (1.17, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-1.30) when compared to
      the West. CONCLUSIONS: Geographic region may play a significant role in CHNM.
      Incidence is higher in the South and the West. Incidence, histologic subtype,
      treatment modality, and DSS vary among regions. DSS is lower in the South than
      the West, even after accounting for other major prognostic factors. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2763-2769, 2017.

PMID- 28581120
TI  - Evaluating speech perception of the MAXUM middle ear implant versus speech
      perception under inserts.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To evaluate the speech perception of the Ototronix MAXUM
      middle ear implant relative to the cochlear potential for speech perception of
      patients. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical study chart review. METHODS: We performed an
      evaluation of data from a prospective clinical study of 10 MAXUM patients.
      Primary outcome measures included comparison of word recognition (WR) scores with
      MAXUM (WRMAXUM ) versus word recognition under inserts (WRinserts ), and the
      functional gain improvement for pure-tone average (PTA) (0.5, 1, and 2 kHz) and
      high-frequency pure-tone average (2, 3, and 4 kHz). RESULTS: Ten ears in 10 adult
      patients (six female; average age 68.7 years) were included. The average speech
      perception gap (difference between WRinserts and WRMAXUM ) with MAXUM was -9.2%
      (range, -26% to 4%). A negative number indicates that WRMAXUM was higher than the
      WRinserts . The average PTA with MAXUM was 23.1 dB (range, 18.7-30 dB), a 38.0-dB
      gain over the preoperative unaided condition (range, 20-53.3 dB). The average
      high-frequency pure-tone average with MAXUM was 34.4 dB (range, 26-43.3 dB), a
      42.8-dB gain over the preoperative unaided condition (range, 32.3-58.7 dB).
      CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that a significant, very strong correlation
      was observed between WRinserts and WRMAXUM scores (r = 0.86, P = .001), and a
      patient's WRinserts score may be used to reasonably predict the word recognition
      outcomes with MAXUM. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:456-460, 2018.

PMID- 28581121
TI  - Omalizumab effectively protects against early and late allergic responses in
      asthma after 4 weeks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Omalizumab is licensed for therapy in severe allergic asthma with an
      effect demonstrated after 8 weeks or longer treatment. As new applications for
      omalizumab demand precise knowledge of the onset of effects, the objective of
      this study was to determine the time course of the early (EAR) and late allergic
      reaction (LAR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten patients (IgE>300 IU/mL and <700
      IU/mL) with a significant response to allergen challenge were treated with
      omalizumab according to the approved dosing table. Bronchial allergen
      provocations (BAP) were repeated at weeks 1, 2, 4, and 8. RESULTS: EAR was
      significantly reduced after 4 weeks (DeltaFEV1 28% vs 11%; P<.001), eNO (86 vs 53
      ppb; P<.05) and basophil activation after 2 weeks (CD63 expression 79% vs 32%,
      P<.05) and LAR already after 1 week (DeltaFEV1 26% vs 13%, P<.05). CONCLUSION:
      These results demonstrate the onset of protective effects earlier than previously
      determined, potentially improving seasonal utilization and combination with
      immunotherapy.

PMID- 28581122
TI  - The application of wireless near infrared spectroscopy on detecting peripheral
      circulation in patients with diabetes foot ulcer when doing Buerger's exercise.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The majority of patients with diabetes foot ulcer have
      peripheral arterial disease. The technique of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
      used to monitor the dorsal foot blood circulation condition is by measuring the
      absorption differences between oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin. STUDY
      DESIGNS/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) treated in
      our wound care center were divided into two sub-groups based on the Duplex
      ultrasound or angiography. Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and
      non-peripheral arterial disease were divided into group A1 and A2, respectively.
      We applied wireless NIRS on patients' dorsal foot to assess the peripheral
      circulation by continuously detect the signal penetrating the tissue while
      patients were asked to do Buerger's exercise. The same procedure was also
      repeated on 15 healthy participants as control group B. RESULTS: From January to
      August 2015, 30 patients with DFU (Group A) were enrolled in the study, 9
      patients in Group A1 and 21 patients in Group A2. Tissue concentration of
      oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) in each group varied in a similar trend among five
      stages of Buerger's exercise. HbO2 concentration increases at post-exercise
      stages in all groups (P = 0.006 in Group A1, P = 0.223 in Group A2, P = 0.03 in
      Group B), however, there were significant difference in both pre- and post
      exercise stages (P = 0.001 and P = 0.01, respectively) between Group A and B.
      Moreover, significant differences (P = 0.0009) of HbO2 were also found between
      Group A1 and A2 in pre-exercise status, but no significant difference (P = 0.294)
      was found in post-exercise status. Similar results were also found in total
      hemoglobin (Hb) concentration analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Buerger's exercise could
      increase peripheral HbO2 and total Hb circulation in patients with diabetes foot
      ulcer. The NIRS could continuously and quantitatively monitor real-time
      peripheral circulation in postural changes and is novel to rehabilitation
      program. A larger scale study to prove the accuracy of NIRS system in detecting
      peripheral circulation could be worthwhile. Lasers Surg. Med. 49:652-657, 2017.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28581123
TI  - Astrocyte-derived lipocalin-2 mediates hippocampal damage and cognitive deficits
      in experimental models of vascular dementia.
AB  - Lipocalin-2 (LCN2) has diverse functions in multiple pathophysiological
      conditions; however, its pathogenic role in vascular dementia (VaD) is unknown.
      Here, we investigated the role of LCN2 in VaD using rodent models of global
      cerebral ischemia and hypoperfusion with cognitive impairment and
      neuroinflammation. Mice subjected to transient bilateral common carotid artery
      occlusion (tBCCAo) for 50 min showed neuronal death and gliosis in the
      hippocampus at 7 days post-tBCCAo. LCN2 expression was observed predominantly in
      the hippocampal astrocytes, whereas its receptor was mainly detected in neurons,
      microglia, and astrocytes. Furthermore, Lcn2-deficient mice, compared with wild
      type animals, showed significantly weaker CA1 neuronal loss, cognitive decline,
      white matter damage, blood-brain barrier permeability, glial activation, and
      proinflammatory cytokine production in the hippocampus after tBCCAo. Lcn2
      deficiency also attenuated hippocampal neuronal death and cognitive decline at 30
      days after unilateral common carotid artery occlusion (UCCAo). Furthermore,
      intracerebroventricular (i.c.v) injection of recombinant LCN2 protein elicited
      CA1-neuronal death and a cognitive deficit. Our studies using cultured glia and
      hippocampal neurons supported the decisive role of LCN2 in hippocampal
      neurotoxicity and microglial activation, and the role of the HIF-1alpha-LCN2
      VEGFA axis of astrocytes in vascular injury. Additionally, plasma levels of LCN2
      were significantly higher in patients with VaD than in the healthy control
      subjects. These results indicate that hippocampal damage and cognitive impairment
      are mediated by LCN2 secreted from reactive astrocytes in VaD.

PMID- 28581124
TI  - ZBTB16 is a sensitive and specific marker in detection of metastatic and
      extragonadal yolk sac tumour.
AB  - AIMS: Accurate histological diagnosis and classification of germ cell tumours
      (GCTs) is key to informing successful therapeutic and surveillance strategy. The
      modern therapeutic approach for yolk sac tumour (YST) is highly curative. Because
      YST takes on a large morphological spectrum, it can be confused for other GCT
      subtypes as well as somatic carcinomas, particularly when YST presents in an
      extragonadal or a metastatic setting. Currently available immunohistochemical
      markers are limited by suboptimal sensitivity and specificity. We reported
      recently that ZBTB16 is a sensitive and specific marker for testicular YST.
      ZBTB16 is absent in other GCTs and in most common somatic carcinomas, including
      those of gastrointestinal, pancreatobillary, respiratory, genitourinary and
      gynaecological tracts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the diagnostic
      utility of ZBTB16 in the settings of metastatic and extragonadal YST. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We studied 32 archived metastatic and four extragonadal primary YSTs as
      well as 51 somatic malignancies for their immunohistochemical expression of
      ZBTB16. For comparison, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and glypican-3 were also studied
      in parallel. Our results demonstrated an overall sensitivity of 91.6% for ZBTB16
      in detecting metastatic and extragonadal YSTs. The non-YST elements (teratoma and
      embryonal carcinoma) in 15 YST-containing metastatic mixed GCTs were non
      reactive. With the exception of occasional myoepithelial cells of salivary gland
      carcinoma, all the 51 somatic malignancies were negative for ZBTB16. CONCLUSIONS:
      ZBTB16 is a sensitive and specific marker for YST and is diagnostically superior
      to AFP and glypican-3 in metastatic and extragonadal settings.

PMID- 28581125
TI  - Simultaneous versus sequential bilateral cochlear implants in adults: Cost
      analysis in a US setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: From a purely surgical efficiency point of view,
      simultaneous cochlear implantation (SimCI) is more cost-effective than sequential
      cochlear implantation (SeqCI) when total direct costs are considered (implant and
      hospital costs). However, in a setting where only SeqCI is practiced and a
      proportion of initially unilaterally implanted patients do not progress to a
      second implant, this may not be the case, especially when audiological costs are
      factored in. We present a cost analysis of such a scenario as would occur in our
      institution. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review and cost analysis. METHODS:
      Between 2005 and 2015, 370 patients fulfilled the audiological criteria for
      bilateral implantation. Of those, 267 (72.1%) underwent unilateral cochlear
      implantation only, 101 (27.3%) progressed to SeqCI, and two underwent SimCI. The
      total hospital, surgical, and implant costs, and initial implant stimulation
      series audiological costs between August 2015 and August 2016 (29 adult patients)
      were used in this analysis. RESULTS: The total hospital, surgical, and implant
      costs for this period was $2,731,360.42. Based on previous local trends, if a
      projected eight (27.3%) of these patients decide to progress to SeqCI, this will
      cost an additional $750,811.04, resulting in an overall total of $3,482,171.46
      for these 29 patients. Had all 29 undergone SimCI, the total projected cost would
      have been $3,332,991.75, representing a total potential saving of $149,179.67
      (4.3%). CONCLUSIONS: In institutions where only SeqCI is allowed in adults,
      overall patient management may cost marginally more than if SimCI were practiced.
      This will be of interest to CI programs and health insurance companies. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2615-2618, 2017.

PMID- 28581126
TI  - Systemic therapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Historical
      perspectives and recent breakthroughs.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Despite dramatic developments in drugs established for other
      malignancies, historically there have been few novel systemic agents available
      for the management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, the
      last decade has observed increased interest in targeted therapies for HNSCC. In
      2006, cetuximab became the first major drug for HNSCC to gain Food and Drug
      Administration (FDA) approval in 3 decades. Recently, both pembrolizumab and
      nivolumab gained FDA approval for treatment of recurrent or metastatic HNSCC, and
      trials for other indications in HNSCC are actively underway. As older agents
      including cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil continue to play a significant role in the
      management of advanced HNSCC, an understanding of their legacy is paramount. This
      historical review is not meant to exhaustively catalog every finding relating to
      HNSCC systemic therapy, but rather is meant to highlight important advances. DATA
      SOURCES: Case series and clinical trials available in the literature. REVIEW
      METHODS: Historically significant series and trials evaluating HNSCC systemic
      therapy were evaluated. RESULTS: Standard regimens employed today are largely
      comprised of drugs discovered over 4 decades ago, although a number of recent
      phase III clinical trials have shown great promise, leading to the adoption of
      several new chemotherapeutic agents and treatment strategies. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings reinforce the importance of supporting further HNSCC drug discovery as
      modern treatment strategies using systemic therapy have resulted in measurable
      improvements in oncologic outcomes. Laryngoscope, 127:2565-2569, 2017.

PMID- 28581127
TI  - Correlation analysis of the HLA-DPB1*05:01 and BTNL2 genes within the
      histocompatibility complex region with a clinical phenotype of psoriasis vulgaris
      in the Chinese Han population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is known to be
      highly polymorphic and has been identified to be associated with numerous
      diseases. The HLA-DPB1 and BTNL2 genes were associated with psoriasis for the
      first time. The present study aims to investigate the relevance of the HLA-DPB1
      and BTNL2 genes with respect to clinical phenotypes of psoriasis vulgaris (PV).
      METHODS: To investigate whether the HLA-DPB1 and BTNL2 polymorphisms were
      associated with clinical phenotypes of PV in Chinese Han population, we conducted
      an analysis in case-controls and case-only subjects (9906 controls and 8744
      cases) via MHC targeted sequencing stratified analysis. RESULTS: In cases and
      controls, analysis showed that the genotype of HLA-DPB1*05:01 was associated with
      type of guttate [p = 3.914 * 10-2 , odds ratio (OR = 0.9335)] and northern region
      (p = 1.182 * 10-3 , OR = 0.9108). In the case-only analysis, the genotype of HLA
      DPB1*05:01 was significantly correlated with geographical region (p = 1.36 * 10-3
      , OR = 1.134). In cases and controls, analysis showed that the genotype of BTNL2
      (rs 41355746) was associated with being male (p = 2.563 * 10-2 , OR = 0.8897),
      early-onset (p = 9.399 * 10-3 , OR = 0.8856), guttate (p = 2.469 * 10-2 , OR =
      0.8558) and family history (p = 1.51 * 10-4 , OR = 0.772). In the case-only
      analysis, the genotype of BTNL2 (rs41355746) was significantly correlated with
      family history (p = 1.768 * 10-3 , OR = 0.757) and age of onset (p = 3.818 * 10-2
      , OR = 1.195). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study indicate that the
      HLA-DPB1*05:01 gene was associated with the geographical region of PV and the
      BTNL2 gene was significantly associated with family history and age of onset of
      PV. In conclusion, the HLA-DPB1*05:01 and BTNL2 genes might be responsible for
      the complicacy of clinical features.

PMID- 28581128
TI  - Effect of dietary vitamin E and selenium supplementation on semen quality in
      Cairn Terriers with normospermia.
AB  - Among others, selenium (Se) and vitamin E (VitE) have been provided to dogs to
      improve semen quality. However, scientific evidence documenting an effect in dogs
      is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of
      supplementation of these antioxidants on various ejaculate parameters in a
      randomized, double-blinded trial using Cairn Terrier males exhibiting normal
      seminal quality parameters. Three dogs each were fed a standardized diet and
      supplemented with 0.1 mg Se, 100 mg VitE or 0.1 mg Se + 100 mg VitE/dog for 3
      months. Ejaculate analyses (volume, progressive motility, vitality, morphology,
      concentration) were performed before inclusion (D0) and after 1, 2 and 3 months
      (+1, +2, +3). At the same time, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and VitE in
      seminal plasma (SP) and GSH-PX in blood samples were determined. Vitamin E levels
      in SP were below the detection limit (1.0 mg/L) in all samples. GSH-PX in blood
      (164.0-2794.4 IU/L) and SP (18.4-4326.0 IU/L) was highly variable.
      Supplementation only significantly affected the total percentage of sperm head
      abnormalities (p = .011). Time significantly affected the percentage of
      morphologically abnormal sperm (p = .025), sperm head abnormalities (p = .007),
      proximal droplets (p = .001) and GSH-PX in SP (p = .015). Additionally, a
      significant interaction between time and group was identified for the percentage
      of membrane-intact sperm (p = .048), head abnormalities (p = .018), acrosomal
      defects (p = .043) and proximal droplets (p = .002). Although some effects could
      be identified for selected parameters, we failed to identify a clear trend about
      how a 3 months VitE and/or Se supplementation affects semen parameters in
      normospermic Cairn Terriers.

PMID- 28581130
TI  - EVOLUTION OF FOOD PREFERENCES IN FUNGUS-FEEDING DROSOPHILA: AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY.

PMID- 28581129
TI  - Paramecium caudatum as a source of nitric oxide: Chemiluminescent detection based
      on Bluestar(r) Forensic reagent connected with microdialysis.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) chemistry inside the body is the most interesting part of its
      behavior. NO is involved in controlling blood pressure, and in transmitting nerve
      signals and a variety of other signaling processes. To explain the behavior of
      NO, it is necessary to determine its immediate concentration or observe time
      dependent changes in its concentration. In Paramecium caudatum, NO is formed by
      calcium-dependent nNOS (NOS1)-like protein, which is distributed in the
      cytoplasm. NO synthesis affects the ciliary beat and consequent motility of cells
      and blocked NO synthesis reduces the ability of cells to move. The possibility of
      online coupling of microdialysis (of P. caudatum solution) with NO detection is
      demonstrated. Direct measurement of NO is carried out using dilute Bluestar(r)
      Forensic reagent (luminol-H2 O2 system; one of the NO detections is based upon
      the chemiluminescent reaction between NO and the luminol-H2 O2 system, which is
      specifically reactive to NO). The effect of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, NG
      nitro-l-arginine methyl ester was observed. NO production was inhibited and the
      movement of P. caudatum was restricted. These effects were time dependent and
      after a specific time were reversed.

PMID- 28581131
TI  - GENIC AND ORGANISMIC SELECTION.

PMID- 28581132
TI  - THE IMPACT OF FLORAL PARASITISM IN TWO NEOTROPICAL HUMMINGBIRD-POLLINATED PLANT
      SPECIES.

PMID- 28581134
TI  - SEX RATIO, BODY SIZE AND SEASONALITY IN A SOLITARY BEE, OSMIA LIGNARIA PROPINQUA
      CRESSON (HYMENOPTERA: MEGACHILIDAE).

PMID- 28581133
TI  - ENZYMATIC POLYMORPHISM IN DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA POPULATIONS FROM THE CANARY
      ISLANDS.

PMID- 28581135
TI  - BELTSVILLE SYMPOSIUM IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH VI.

PMID- 28581136
TI  - SELECTION FOR AMYLASE ALLOZYMES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: SOME QUESTIONS.

PMID- 28581137
TI  - OUTBREEDING VIA FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT MATE SELECTION IN THE PARASITOID WASP,
      NASONIA (=MORMONIELLA) VITRIPENNIS WALKER.

PMID- 28581139
TI  - POLLINATOR FORAGING BEHAVIOR AND GENE DISPERSAL IN SENECIO (COMPOSITAE).

PMID- 28581138
TI  - INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION AND THE EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF A GYNOGENETIC FISH,
      POECILIA FORMOSA.

PMID- 28581141
TI  - PARENTAL INVESTMENT AND MATING SYSTEMS IN MAMMALS.

PMID- 28581140
TI  - GROWTH RATE IN OYSTERS: AN OVERDOMINANT PHENOTYPE AND ITS POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS.

PMID- 28581142
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN A GROUP OF THIRTEEN
      SPECIES OF PENAEID PRAWNS.

PMID- 28581143
TI  - SELECTIVE PREDATION OF GRAY JAYS, PERISOREUS CANADENSIS, UPON BOREAL CHORUS
      FROGS, PSEUDACRIS TRISERIATA.

PMID- 28581144
TI  - RECOMBINATION SYSTEM AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN OENOTHERA.

PMID- 28581145
TI  - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, LIFE HISTORY PATTERNS, AND BODY SIZE IN A GUILD OF CORAL
      DWELLING MANTIS SHRIMPS.

PMID- 28581146
TI  - AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF KIN SELECTION.

PMID- 28581147
TI  - ECOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE EVOLUTION OF BREEDING SYSTEMS IN SEED PLANTS:
      DIOECY AND DISPERSAL IN GYMNOSPERMS.

PMID- 28581148
TI  - PHYLOGENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION OF THE POCKET
      MOUSE PEROGNATHUS GOLDMANI OSGOOD.

PMID- 28581149
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28581150
TI  - Objectification: Seeing and treating people as things.

PMID- 28581151
TI  - Gas-phase fragmentation of protonated piplartine and its fungal metabolites using
      tandem mass spectrometry and computational chemistry.
AB  - Piplartine, an alkaloid produced by plants in the genus Piper, displays promising
      anticancer activity. Understanding the gas-phase fragmentation of piplartine by
      electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry can be a useful tool to
      characterize biotransformed compounds produced by in vitro and in vivo metabolism
      studies. As part of our efforts to understand natural product fragmentation in
      electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry, the gas-phase fragmentation of
      piplartine and its two metabolites 3,4-dihydropiplartine and 8,9
      dihydropiplartine, produced by the endophytic fungus Penicillium crustosum VR4
      biotransformation, were systematically investigated. Proposed fragmentation
      reactions were supported by ESI-MS/MS data and computational thermochemistry.
      Cleavage of the C-7 and N-amide bond, followed by the formation of an acylium
      ion, were characteristic fragmentation reactions of piplartine and its analogs.
      The production of the acylium ion was followed by three consecutive and
      competitive reactions that involved methyl and methoxyl radical eliminations and
      neutral CO elimination, followed by the formation of a four-member ring with a
      stabilized tertiary carbocation. The absence of a double bond between carbons C-8
      and C-9 in 8,9-dihydropiplartine destabilized the acylium ion and resulted in a
      fragmentation pathway not observed for piplartine and 3,4-dihydropiplartine.
      These results contribute to the further understanding of alkaloid gas-phase
      fragmentation and the future identification of piplartine metabolites and analogs
      using tandem mass spectrometry techniques. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons,
      Ltd.

PMID- 28581154
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28581153
TI  - Self-Reported Current Practices in Child Forensic Interviewing: Training, Tools,
      and Pre-Interview Preparation.
AB  - In child sexual abuse investigations, forensic interviewers within the Child
      Advocacy Center (CAC) model serve as neutral fact-finders for a team of
      professionals tasked with investigating and intervening in cases of alleged child
      sexual abuse. Although empirical evidence has led to the development of best
      practice techniques and protocols, there is currently no universally adopted
      protocol in the field. The present research gathered detailed information from a
      national sample of real-world child forensic interviewers about their training
      and current practices, with a specific focus on assessing the information
      interviewers typically review prior to conducting child forensic interviews. Most
      notably, the survey revealed a lack of uniformity in interviewing protocols
      adopted and pre-interview preparation practices. Although rare, some interviewers
      reported using an allegation-blind interviewing approach, highlighting the need
      for future research on this and other under-studied techniques. Copyright (c)
      2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28581152
TI  - Neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone enhances activity and trafficking of
      astrocytic GLT-1 via sigma1 receptor-mediated PKC activation in the hippocampal
      dentate gyrus of rats.
AB  - Neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been reported to exert a potent
      neuroprotective effect against glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. However, the
      underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. One of the possible mechanisms may
      be an involvement of astrocytic glutamate transporter subtype-1 (GLT-1) that can
      quickly clear spilled glutamate at the synapse to prevent excitotoxicity. To
      examine the effect of DHEA on GLT-1 activity, we measured synaptically induced
      glial depolarization (SIGD) in the dentate gyrus (DG) of adult rats by applying
      an optical recording technique to the hippocampal slices stained with voltage
      sensitive dye RH155. Bath-application of DHEA for 10 min dose-dependently
      increased SIGD without changing presynaptic glutamate releases, which was
      sensitive to the GLT-1 blocker DHK. Patch-clamp recordings in astrocytes showed
      that an application of 50 MUM DHEA increased glutamate-evoked inward currents
      (Iglu) by approximately 1.5-fold, which was dependent on the GLT-1 activity. In
      addition, the level of biotinylated GLT-1 protein in the surface of astrocytes
      was significantly elevated by DHEA. The DHEA-increased SIGD, Iglu, and GLT-1
      translocation to the cell surface were blocked by the sigma1 R antagonist NE100
      and mimicked by the sigma1 R agonist PRE084. DHEA elevated the phosphorylation
      level of PKC in a sigma1 R-dependent manner. Furthermore, the PKC inhibitor
      chelerythrine could prevent the DHEA-increased SIGD, Iglu, and GLT-1
      translocation. Collectively, present results suggest that DHEA enhances the
      activity and translocation to cell surface of astrocytic GLT-1 mainly via sigma1
      R-mediated PKC cascade.

PMID- 28581156
TI  - The usability of WeChat as a mobile and interactive medium in student-centered
      medical teaching.
AB  - Biochemistry and cellular biology courses for medical students at Tongji
      University include the assessment that provides students with feedback to enhance
      their learning, which is a type of formative assessment. However, frequent
      instant feedback and guidance for students is often absent or inconsistently
      included in the teaching process. WeChat, the most popular Chinese social media,
      was introduced in biochemistry and cellular biology course. A WeChat official
      account (OA) was set up as an instant interactive platform. Over a period of two
      semesters, OA sent 73 push notifications. The components included course notices,
      preclass thought questions, after-class study materials, answer questions and
      feedback, simulation exercises, teacher-student interaction, and research
      progress relevant to the course. WeChat OA served as an active-learning teaching
      tool, provided more frequent feedback and guidance to students, and facilitated
      better student-centered communication in the teaching process. Using the WeChat
      OA in medical teaching emphasized interactive, interoperable, effective,
      engaging, adaptable, and more participatory teaching styles. As a new platform,
      WeChat OA was free, Internet-reliant, and easily managed. Using this new medium
      as a communication tool accelerated further advancement of instant feedback and
      improvement in teaching activities. Notifications and interactive feedback via
      the mobile social medium WeChat OA anytime and anywhere facilitated a student
      centered teaching mode. Use of WeChat OA significantly increased the proportion
      of students interactively participating and resulted in a high degree of student
      satisfaction. (c) 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular
      Biology, 45(5):421-425, 2017.

PMID- 28581157
TI  - Novel furan-containing peptide-based inhibitors of protein arginine deiminase
      type IV (PAD4).
AB  - Protein arginine deiminase type IV (PAD4) is responsible for the
      posttranslational conversion of peptidylarginine to peptidylcitrulline.
      Citrullinated protein is the autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis, and therefore,
      PAD4 is currently a promising therapeutic target for the disease. Recently, we
      reported the importance of the furan ring in the structure of PAD4 inhibitors. In
      this study, the furan ring was incorporated into peptides to act as the "warhead"
      of the inhibitors for PAD4. IC50 studies showed that the furan-containing peptide
      based inhibitors were able to inhibit PAD4 to a better extent than the furan
      containing small molecules that were previously reported. The best peptide-based
      inhibitor inhibited PAD4 reversibly and competitively with an IC50 value of 243.2
      +/- 2.4 MUm. NMR spectroscopy and NMR-restrained molecular dynamic simulations
      revealed that the peptide-based inhibitor had a random structure. Molecular
      docking studies showed that the peptide-based inhibitor entered the binding site
      and interacted with the essential amino acids involved in the catalytic activity.
      The peptide-based inhibitor could be further developed into a therapeutic drug
      for rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28581158
TI  - GENETIC VARIATION AND JUVENILE SURVIVAL IN RED DEER.
AB  - The survival of red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) calves to two years of age was
      examined in relation to electrophoretic variation in a population on the Scottish
      island of Rhum. Survival was analyzed using logistic analysis in which the
      "phenotypic" factors birth weight, birth date, subdivision of the study area,
      cohort, and sex, which affect the probability of a calf's survival, were taken
      into account. All three polymorphic loci examined, Mpi, Idh-2, and Trf (each with
      two detected alleles) are significantly associated with juvenile survival. At
      Mpi, there is selection against one allele, f (or an allele at a linked locus),
      and there are indications that this effect is stronger in females than males. For
      Idh-2, overall, the heterozygote class survives better than the two homozygotes,
      which survive equally well. However, again there is a difference between the
      sexes; female heterozygotes survive much better than homozygotes, whereas male
      homozygotes survive better than heterozygotes, and the difference in survival is
      smaller. Furthermore, there is an interaction involving Mpi, Idh-2, and survival
      in which Mpif carriers that are also Idh-2 homozygotes survive very badly
      compared with other Mpi-Idh-2 combinations, which all survive equally well. For
      Trf, the heterozygote class survives best, and there is also a difference in
      survival between the two homozygote classes. Genotype frequencies in the adult
      population are consistent with the results for calf survival, in that the Mpif
      frequency is lower in succeeding cohorts of surviving adults, whereas no
      significant gene frequency change is apparent for Idh-2 or Trf.

PMID- 28581155
TI  - Prevalence of hepatitis B antiviral drug resistance variants in North American
      patients with chronic hepatitis B not receiving antiviral treatment.
AB  - Antiviral drug resistance hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants (HBV-DR) occur
      spontaneously in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and after exposure to
      nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUCs). We determined the prevalence of HBV-DR variants
      among participants of the Hepatitis B Research Network (HBRN) Cohort Study
      conducted at 21 sites in the United States (US) and Canada. Samples obtained from
      1342 CHB participants aged >=18 years, and who were currently not receiving NUCs,
      were tested for HBV-DR variants by Sanger sequencing. In addition, next
      generation sequencing (NGS) was used to characterize HBV-DR variants from 66
      participants with and 66 participants with no prior NUC exposure matched for HBV
      genotype and HBV DNA level. Half the participants were men, 75% Asian, 26% HBeAg
      positive. Primary HBV-DR variants were detected by Sanger sequencing in 16 (1.2%)
      participants: 2/142 (1.4%) with and 14/1200 (1.2%) without prior NUC exposure;
      only 1 of these 16 had a secondary variant. In total, 23 (1.7%) participants had
      secondary variants, including 1 with prior NUC experience. In the subset of 132
      participants, NGS detected HBV-DR variants in a higher proportion of
      participants: primary variants in 18 (13.6%) (8 [12.1%] with, and 10 [15.2%]
      without prior NUC therapy) and secondary variants in 10 (7.6%) participants.
      Based on Sanger sequencing, prevalence of primary HBV-DR variants is low (1.2%)
      among adults with CHB in US/Canada. The similar low prevalence of HBV-DR variants
      in participants with and without NUC treatment suggests transmission of these
      variants is uncommon.

PMID- 28581159
TI  - EVOLUTION OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN THE STELLARIA LONGIPES COMPLEX: COMPARISONS
      AMONG CYTOTYPES AND HABITATS.
AB  - Variation in the amount and pattern of plasticity was studied in three cytotypes
      (4x, 6x, and 8x) of Stellaria longipes and diploids of its suspected progenitor
      S. longifolia. All 13 traits considered showed plasticity. There were significant
      differences among cytotypes and habitats in plasticity for many traits. Overall,
      the diploids, S. longifolia, were most plastic, and the three cytotypes of S.
      longipes did not differ in amount of plasticity. Stellaria longifolia showed
      divergence from S. longipes in the pattern of plasticity as well. In general,
      cytotypes with more similar chromosome numbers had the same pattern of plasticity
      for more traits. Individuals from tundra populations differed in their pattern of
      plasticity from those of montane, boreal, and prairie origin, which were more
      similar to one another. Differences in plasticity among cytotypes were due
      primarily to divergence in amount, while differences among habitats were most
      often accounted for by divergent patterns of plasticity. We conclude that both
      polyploidy and natural selection have affected the evolution of plastic responses
      in this species complex. Analysis of the correlation between pairs of traits
      provided evidence that the pattern and amount of plasticity operate independently
      of one another and may be evolving separately.

PMID- 28581160
TI  - PARASITE LOAD, BODY SIZE, AND AGE OF WILD-CAUGHT MALE FIELD CRICKETS (ORTHOPTERA:
      GRYLLIDAE): EFFECTS ON SEXUAL SELECTION.
AB  - Comparison of male field crickets (Gryllus veletis and G. pennsylvanicus)
      collected either by themselves (solitary) or with one or more females (paired)
      showed that the paired males were significantly older and significantly less
      parasitized by gregarines (protozoan gut parasites) than were solitary males.
      Body size did not differ between the two groups. These results corroborate
      earlier experimental findings that females are preferentially attracted to older
      males and suggest that the ability of less parasitized males to produce more
      spermatophores under laboratory conditions may also be important in the field.
      Calculation of sexual-selection differentials and gradients for G. pennsylvanicus
      did not reveal any indirect selection on body size and confirmed the strong
      selection on male age.

PMID- 28581161
TI  - RATE TESTS FOR SELECTION ON QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS DURING MACROEVOLUTION AND
      MICROEVOLUTION.

PMID- 28581162
TI  - EVOLUTION AND MORPHOGENETIC RULES: THE SHAPE OF THE VERTEBRATE LIMB IN ONTOGENY
      AND PHYLOGENY.
AB  - The notion of a "developmental constraint" has become a catchphrase for a
      collection of poorly defined notions about how ontogeny affects phylogeny. In
      this paper, we shall attempt to define this idea more precisely by examining the
      vertebrate limb from three viewpoints. First, theoretical models of morphogenesis
      suggest several generalizations about how limb geometry is laid down during
      development. Comparative studies and experimental manipulations of developing
      limbs independently confirm these generalizations, which amount to a set of
      "construction rules" for determining how the major features of limb architecture
      are established in ontogeny. Armed with these rules, we can inquire how limb
      morphology can be varied during evolution and suggest a more precise operational
      definition of "developmental constraints" on morphological evolution.

PMID- 28581163
TI  - HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION OF GENETIC VARIATION IN THE SAILFIN MOLLY, POECILIA
      LATIPINNA (PISCES: POECILIIDAE).
AB  - Twenty-two percent of all allozyme variation documented in the sailfin molly
      (Poecilia latipinna) was attributable to regional differences, while only 3% was
      attributable to differences among demes within regions. Of the variation
      documented in a given region, 6-12% was attributable to variation among demes.
      Cluster analyses supported these conclusions quantitatively. Spatial
      autocorrelation analyses offered more explicit support: demes separated by
      increasingly greater distances were increasingly dissimilar. Analyses using F
      statistics and rare alleles suggest "effective gene flow rates" (the product of
      effective population size and gene flow rate) of approximately 4, a level more
      than sufficient to prevent local independence of gene-frequency dynamics. These
      results, taken together, suggest that mollies do not have a population structure
      conducive to the operation of Wright's shifting-balance process and make the
      striking patterns of interdemic variation in body size and sexual behavior
      observed in this species all the more interesting.

PMID- 28581164
TI  - LIFE-HISTORY VARIATION WITHIN A POPULATION OF THE COLONIAL ASCIDIAN BOTRYLLUS
      SCHLOSSERI. I. THE GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL OF SEASONAL VARIATION.
AB  - Many empirical analyses of life-history tactics are based on the assumption that
      demographic variation ought to be greatest among populations or species living in
      different environments. However, in a single population of the sessile colonial
      sea squirt Botryllus schlosseri, there are two discrete life-history morphs.
      Semelparous colonies are characterized by a) death immediately following the
      production of a single clutch, b) early age at first reproduction, c) rapid
      growth to first reproduction, and d) high reproductive effort. In contrast,
      iteroparous colonies a) produce at least three clutches before dying, b) postpone
      sexual reproduction until they are nearly twice the age of semelparous colonies,
      c) grow at about half the rate of semelparous colonies, and d) invest roughly 75%
      less in reproductive effort than semelparous colonies. Semelparous colonies
      numerically dominate the population through midsummer; later in the summer,
      iteroparous colonies are most numerous. Field and laboratory common-garden
      experiments, along with breeding studies, indicate that the demographic
      differences between the morphs are genetically determined. Consequently, the
      seasonal switch from dominance by semelparous colonies to dominance by
      iteroparous colonies may be an evolved response to a seasonally changing
      environment. On theoretical grounds, temporal variation in selection is thought
      to play a relatively unimportant role in maintaining genetic polymorphism;
      nonetheless, the seasonally recurrent life-history polymorphism shown in this
      study indicates that temporal variation in selection can lead to the maintenance
      of genetic polymorphism for traits strongly affecting fitness.

PMID- 28581165
TI  - THE ORIGIN AND GENETIC BASIS OF OBLIGATE PARTHENOGENESIS IN DAPHNIA PULEX.
AB  - Sex in Daphnia is environmentally determined, and some obligately parthenogenetic
      clones of D. pulex have retained the ability to produce males. In the present
      study, males from 13 such clones were crossed to sexual females from closely
      related cyclical parthenogens both to determine whether the males were capable of
      producing viable hybrids and to determine the mode of reproduction of the
      hybrids. A total of 178 genetically confirmed hybrids were produced, with each of
      the 19 attempted crosses resulting in some viable hybrids. On average, only 34%
      of the hybrid eggs that initiated development survived to the reproductive stage,
      suggesting some incompatibility between the parents. The absence of any
      association between survivorship and parental or hybrid genotype indicated,
      however, that there is no specific genetic incompatibility associated with the
      marker loci used. The inability of most hybrids to produce normal resting eggs is
      further evidence of a general genomic incompatibility between the parents. Ten of
      the hybrids produced viable resting eggs, permitting tests to determine their
      mode of reproduction. Six of the 10 hybrids reproduced by cyclical
      parthenogenesis, like their maternal parent. The remaining four hybrids
      reproduced by obligate parthenogenesis, like their paternal parent, demonstrating
      that the genes suppressing meiosis can be transmitted by the male parent. These
      results support a model for the generation of new clones that involves the spread
      of genes suppressing meiosis and provide evidence that the high genotypic
      diversity observed in obligately parthenogenetic populations of D. pulex is a
      result of the multiple origin of new clones from the cyclical parthenogens.
      Evidence was also obtained suggesting that the obligately parthenogenetic clones
      carry a load of recessive deleterious genes.

PMID- 28581166
TI  - A COMPARISON OF GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC CORRELATIONS.
AB  - Genetic variances and correlations lie at the center of quantitative evolutionary
      theory. They are often difficult to estimate, however, due to the large samples
      of related individuals that are required. I investigated the relationship of
      genetic- and phenotypic-correlation magnitudes and patterns in 41 pairs of
      matrices drawn from the literature in order to determine their degree of
      similarity and whether phenotypic parameters could be used in place of their
      genetic counterparts in situations where genetic variances and correlations
      cannot be precisely estimated. The analysis indicates that squared genetic
      correlations were on average much higher than squared phenotypic correlations and
      that genetic and phenotypic correlations had only broadly similar patterns. These
      results could be due either to biological causes or to imprecision of genetic
      correlation estimates due to sampling error. When only those studies based on the
      largest sample sizes (effective sample size of 40 or more) were included, squared
      genetic-correlation estimates were only slightly greater than their phenotypic
      counterparts and the patterns of correlation were strikingly similar. Thus, much
      of the dissimilarity between phenotypic- and genetic-correlation estimates seems
      to be due to imprecise estimates of genetic correlations. Phenotypic correlations
      are likely to be fair estimates of their genetic counterparts in many situations.
      These further results also indicate that genetic and environmental causes of
      phenotypic variation tend to act on growth and development in a similar manner.

PMID- 28581167
TI  - FOUNDER EFFECTS AND THE RATE OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA EVOLUTION IN HAWAIIAN
      DROSOPHILA.
AB  - The nearly-neutral-mutation theory predicts that populations with small effective
      sizes will undergo more rapid molecular evolution than populations with very
      large effective sizes. In particular, Ohta (1976) predicted that populations of
      Hawaiian Drosophila that are known to have small population sizes and to
      experience repeated population bottlenecks due to founder events should show a
      more rapid rate of molecular evolution relative to the rate of molecular
      evolution of species with large population sizes such as the continental
      Drosophila. In this paper we test this prediction by comparing the rate of
      molecular evolution in two closely related lineages of Hawaiian Drosophila that
      have experienced very different evolutionary histories. Both lineages belong to
      the planitibia subgroup of Hawaiian Drosophila. The beta lineage (which includes
      D. silvestris, D. planitibia, D. differens, and D. hemipeza) has undergone
      repeated founder events, as evidenced by their geographic distribution and
      behavioral biology. On the other hand, evidence on geographic distribution and
      behavior indicates that the alpha lineage (which includes D. melanocephala, D.
      cyrtaloma, and D. neoperkinsi) has arisen from large ancestral populations
      without founder effects. The mitochondrial DNA data reveal that, within a
      lineage, the rate of molecular evolution is rather uniform, while all comparisons
      between the two lineages show that the rate of molecular evolution in the beta
      lineage is three times that of the alpha lineage. This analysis strongly supports
      the predictions made by Ohta.

PMID- 28581168
TI  - ESTIMATING THE FORM OF NATURAL SELECTION ON A QUANTITATIVE TRAIT.
AB  - The fitness function f relates fitness of individuals to the quantitative trait
      under natural selection. The function is useful in predicting fitness differences
      among individuals and in revealing whether an optimum is present within the range
      of phenotypes in the population. It may also be thought of as describing the
      ecological environment in terms of the trait. Quadratic regression will
      approximate the fitness function from data (e.g., Lande and Arnold, 1983), but
      the method does not reliably indicate features of f such as the presence of modes
      (stabilizing selection) or dips (disruptive selection). I employ an alternative
      procedure requiring no a priori model for the function. The method is useful in
      two ways: it provides a nonparametric estimate of f, of interest by itself, and
      it can be used to suggest an appropriate parametric model. I also discuss
      measures of selection intensity based on the fitness function. Analysis of six
      data sets yields a variety of forms of f and provides new insights for some
      familiar cases. Low amounts of variation and a low density of data points near
      the tails of many phenotype distributions emerge as limitations to gaining
      information on fitness functions. An experimental approach in which the
      distribution of a quantitative trait is broadened through manipulation would
      minimize these problems.

PMID- 28581169
TI  - EXTINCTION AND RECOLONIZATION: THEIR EFFECTS ON THE GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF
      LOCAL POPULATIONS.
AB  - In this paper, we use a model by Slatkin (1977) to investigate the genetic
      effects of extinction and recolonization for a species whose population structure
      consists of an array of local demes with some migration among them. In
      particular, we consider the conditions under which extinction and recolonization
      might enhance or diminish gene flow and increase or decrease the rate of genetic
      differentiation relative to the static case with no extinctions. We explicitly
      take into account the age-structure that is established within the array of
      populations by the extinction and colonization process. We also consider two
      different models of the colonization process, the so-called "migrant pool" and
      "propagule pool" models. Our theoretical studies indicate that the genetic
      effects of extinction and colonization depend upon the relative magnitudes of K,
      the number of individuals founding new colonies, and 2Nm, twice the number of
      migrants moving into extant populations. We find that these genetic effects are
      surprisingly insensitive to the extinction rate. We conclude that, in order to
      assess the genetic effects of the population dynamics, we must first answer an
      important empirical question that is essentially ecological: is colonization a
      behavior distinct from migration?

PMID- 28581170
TI  - INSEMINATION REACTION IN DROSOPHILA: FOUND IN SPECIES WHOSE MALES CONTRIBUTE
      MATERIAL TO OOCYTES BEFORE FERTILIZATION.

PMID- 28581171
TI  - UNISEXUAL/BISEXUAL BREEDING COMPLEXES IN POECILIIDAE: WHY DO MALES COPULATE WITH
      UNISEXUAL FEMALES?
AB  - Unisexual poeciliid fishes live as sexual parasites in breeding complexes with
      related bisexual species. Males of the host species copulate with unisexual
      females as well as with con-specifics, thus maintaining the unisexuals.
      Copulation with a unisexual offers no selective benefit for a male. A model is
      proposed that provides an explanation in terms of evolutionary ecology for why
      males copulate with unisexuals. It assumes that, before copulation, a male
      attempts to identify a female as conspecific or not but that the correctness of
      the identification depends on the length of time spent on the identification
      process. Some cost is involved in the passage of time, so an optimal time spent
      on identification must exist. Because subordinate males risk being driven away by
      dominant males, the optimal time is longer for males at the top of the dominance
      hierarchy than for males at the bottom. Such an optimal strategy gives a male the
      greatest possible average net benefit from a mating attempt, given his social
      status; this is a "best of a bad job" strategy.

PMID- 28581172
TI  - WHY MALE GARTER SNAKES HAVE SMALL HEADS: THE EVOLUTION AND ENDOCRINE CONTROL OF
      SEXUAL DIMORPHISM.

PMID- 28581173
TI  - HOW MAMMALS PRODUCE LARGE-BRAINED OFFSPRING.
AB  - Two explanations for species differences in neonatal brain size in eutherian
      mammals relate the size of the brain at birth to maternal metabolic rate. Martin
      (1981, 1983) argued that maternal basal metabolic rate puts an upper bound on the
      mother's ability to supply energy to the fetus, thereby limiting neonatal brain
      size. Hofman (1983) proposed that gestation length in mammals is constrained by
      maternal metabolic rate, implying an indirect constraint on neonatal brain size.
      Since individuals of precocial species have much larger neonatal brain sizes and
      are gestated longer for a given maternal body size than individuals of altricial
      species, Martin's and Hofman's ideas also require that mothers of precocial
      offspring have higher metabolic rates for their body sizes than mothers of
      altricial offspring. Data on 116 mammal species from 13 orders show that neither
      neonatal brain size nor gestation length is correlated with maternal metabolic
      rate when maternal body-size effects are removed. For a given maternal size,
      there is no difference in metabolic rates between precocial and altricial
      species, despite a two-fold difference between them in average neonatal brain
      size. However, neonatal brain size is strongly correlated with gestation length
      and litter size, independently of maternal size and metabolic rate. Analyses
      conducted within orders replicated the findings for gestation length and
      suggested that neonatal brain size may be at best only weakly related to
      metabolic rate. Differences in neonatal brain size appear to have evolved
      primarily with species differences in gestation length and litter size but not
      with differences in metabolic rate; large-brained offspring are typically
      produced from litters of one that have been gestated for a long time relative to
      maternal size. We conclude that species differences in relative neonatal brain
      size reflect different life-history tactics rather than constraints imposed by
      metabolic rate.

PMID- 28581174
TI  - GAMETOPHYTIC SELECTION IN RAPHANUS RAPHANISTRUM: A TEST FOR HERITABLE VARIATION
      IN POLLEN COMPETITIVE ABILITY.
AB  - Competition among many microgametophytes for a limited number of ovules can lead
      to both nonrandom fertilization by pollen genotypes and selection for greater
      sporophytic vigor. The evolutionary implications of this process depend on the
      extent of heritable genetic variation for pollen competitive ability. Using
      flower color in wild radish as a genetic marker, we demonstrate differences among
      pollen donors in competitive ability. Significant differences were found in four
      out of five pairs of donors. For three pairs of donors, competitive differences
      were observed in certain maternal plants but not others. To test for heritability
      of pollen performance, we conducted a selection experiment. We manipulated the
      intensity of pollen competition for two generations and then tested for
      differences in the performance of pollen from two selected lines. Competitive
      ability of pollen derived from each line was assessed relative to a standard
      unrelated pollen donor, using pollen mixtures on six wild maternal plants. The
      intensity of previous pollen competition had no overall effect on the proportion
      of seeds sired by each selected line. In two maternal plants, pollen from intense
      previous competition was actually inferior, contrary to expectation. Thus, we
      found no evidence for heritable variation in this trait. Other factors, such as
      male-female interactions, may influence the outcome of pollen competition.
      Prevailing theory on the genetic basis of effects of pollen competition on
      subsequent generations is not supported by our results. Improved protocols for
      future experiments are discussed.

PMID- 28581175
TI  - PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATION TO VARYING ENVIRONMENTS: A MATHEMATICAL
      MODEL.
AB  - We develop a mathematical model to explore the evolution of habitat selection and
      physiological adaptation in a heterogeneous environment. The model assumes the
      following conditions: 1) a panmictic population of infinite size; 2)
      prereproductive individuals mobile enough to move between patches; 3) alleles at
      one locus code for absence or presence of adaptation to detrimental patches; 4)
      alleles at a second locus code for absence or presence of behavior(s) that cause
      avoidance of the detrimental patches; 5) additive effects of alleles controlling
      physiology and behavior; 6) frequency-independent fitness. Results of the model
      indicate that nontrivial, polymorphic equilibria do not exist. The pattern of
      genotypic fitnesses and the initial allelic frequencies can influence whether the
      population adapts by physiological or behavioral mechanisms, or by both. Linkage
      between the two loci can alter the outcome of evolution, given specified
      genotypic fitness values and initial allelic frequencies.

PMID- 28581176
TI  - TWO CONSEQUENCES OF HOMOSEXUAL COURTSHIP PERFORMED BY DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND
      DROSOPHILA AFFINIS MALES.

PMID- 28581177
TI  - FEMALE MATE PREFERENCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE-LIMITED BATESIAN MIMICRY.

PMID- 28581178
TI  - A GENETIC AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF MATE CHOICE AND SONG NEIGHBORHOODS IN INDIGO
      BUNTINGS.
AB  - Neighboring males of indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea) share songs in southern
      Michigan. We sampled polymorphic enzymes to compare the genetic variation between
      mates and the variation among contiguous song neighborhoods. Mate choice was
      independent of the genetic and morphometric similarity of female and male, and
      these measures were independent of each other. The incidence of extrapair
      copulations and fertilizations was independent of the song of cuckolding males.
      Breeding success of the mated pairs was independent of their genetic or
      morphological similarity. Males characterized by different song dialects did not
      differ in mean lifetime reproductive success. We found no significant genetic
      differences among the neighborhoods. Most birds that bred in one song
      neighborhood were born in another, and neighborhoods were not isolated demes.
      Bunting songs may provide no information to a female about genetic quality of
      males. The results are consistent with a neutral model of no mate choice for
      genes.

PMID- 28581179
TI  - INTRAPOPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN ANNUAL PLANTS. III. THE CONTRASTING EFFECTS OF
      INTRA- AND INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION.
AB  - The roles of intraspecific and interspecific competition in producing
      differentiation within populations of Veronica peregrina were studied in two
      populations under controlled, greenhouse conditions. In nature, each population
      spans an environmental gradient across the center and sides of a temporary,
      vernal pool in California. Individuals at the center are subjected to intense
      intraspecific competition produced by high densities (to 30 seedlings/cm2 )
      generated by quasi-simultaneous germination (90% of seeds germinate in one week).
      Individuals at the periphery are subjected to interspecific competition with
      grasses, which shade out the Veronica 4-6 weeks after the onset of winter growth.
      I predicted that 1) when grown under immediate intraspecific competition in the
      greenhouse, offspring of plants from the central subpopulation (C) would perform
      better (i.e., grow larger and produce more seeds) than those from the periphery
      (P) and that 2) when grown under delayed interspecific competition provided by
      Agrostis tenuis and Lollium multiflorum, offspring of plants from the periphery
      would perform better than those from the center. Both predictions were confirmed.
      The center-periphery differences were pronounced and statistically significant in
      an undisturbed population (V-2), while in a population disturbed by yearly
      plowing (V-3), the differences tended to be consistent with those in V-2 but
      seldom significant. Distribution of variability tended to be positively skewed
      and/or leptokurtic in subpopulations grown under "foreign" competition (i.e.,
      intraspecific for P plants and interspecific for C plants) but was normally
      distributed following exposure to "familiar" competition. Timing of competition
      affected many results. There were four additional significant differences between
      the central and peripheral subpopulations. 1) Germination rate: the faster rate
      in central plants can be advantageous under immediate intraspecific competition.
      The slower rate in peripheral plants can be advantageous under conditions of
      erratic and unpredictable soil moisture. 2) Response to nutrient competition:
      central plants were more sensitive to N-deficiency and peripheral plants were
      more sensitive to P-deficiency. 3) Allocation of biomass: central plants
      allocated a greater proportion of biomass to seeds, while peripheral plants
      allocated a greater proportion of biomass to leaves under all growing conditions.
      4) Root elongation: at the seedling stage, central plants have longer roots,
      while at the adult stage, peripheral plants have longer roots (but not more root
      mass). Most components of this complex pattern of differentiation are
      interpretable in an adaptive context. Other results defy simple explanations and
      underline the importance of phenotypic plasticity, which was pronounced in the
      competition experiments.

PMID- 28581180
TI  - HERITABILITY OF OVIPOSITION PREFERENCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO OFFSPRING
      PERFORMANCE WITHIN A SINGLE INSECT POPULATION.
AB  - Within a population of the butterfly Euphydryas editha that oviposits
      predominantly on two host species, heritable variation in postalighting
      oviposition preference was found. In a separate experiment, oviposition
      preference of adult females was found to be correlated with offspring performance
      (growth). There was a significant tendency for offspring to perform better on the
      host species that their female parent preferred. Analysis of the data showed that
      no single factor, neither maternal preference nor the host species on which the
      offspring were raised, accounted for any significant variation in larval
      performance. However, the effect of the interaction between host species and
      maternal preference on offspring performance was highly significant. These
      findings imply specialization in both oviposition preference and offspring
      performance by individuals within a single population. With present evidence,
      this preference-performance correlation is likely to be genetic. However, as in
      previous studies, other interpretations cannot be excluded.

PMID- 28581182
TI  - CORRECTIONS.

PMID- 28581181
TI  - EVOLUTION OF HIGHER FEEDING RATE IN DROSOPHILA DUE TO DENSITY-DEPENDENT NATURAL
      SELECTION.

PMID- 28581183
TI  - DEVELOPMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF AN EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN EGG SIZE: AN EXPERIMENTAL
      TEST.
AB  - Larvae of two species of sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis and S.
      purpuratus) differ in initial form and in the rate of development. To determine
      whether these differences are attributable to the large interspecific difference
      in egg size, we experimentally reduced egg size by isolating blastomeres from
      embryos. The rate of development of feeding larvae derived from isolated
      blastomeres was quantified using a novel morphometric method. If the differences
      early in the life histories of these two species are due strictly to differences
      in egg size, then experimental reduction of the size of S. droebachiensis eggs
      should yield an initial larval form and rate of development similar to that of S.
      purpuratus. Our experimental manipulations of egg size produced three clear
      results: 1) smaller eggs yielded larvae that were smaller and had simpler body
      forms, 2) smaller eggs resulted in slower development through the early feeding
      larval stages, and 3) effects of egg size were restricted to early larval stages.
      Larvae from experimentally reduced eggs of the larger species had rates of
      development similar to those of the smaller species. Thus, cytoplasmic volumes of
      the eggs, not genetic differences expressed during development, account for
      differences in larval form and the rate of form change. This is the first
      definitive demonstration of the causal relationship between egg size (parental
      investment per offspring) and life-history characteristics in marine benthic
      invertebrates. Because larval form influences feeding capability, the epigenetic
      effects of egg size on larval form are likely to have important functional
      consequences. Adaptive evolution of egg size may be constrained by the
      developmental relationships between egg size and larval form: evolutionary
      changes in egg size alone can result in concerted changes in larval form and
      function; likewise evolutionary changes in larval form and function can be
      achieved through changes in egg size. These findings may have broader
      implications for other taxa in which larval morphology and, consequently,
      performance may be influenced by changes in egg size.

PMID- 28581184
TI  - A combined spectroscopic and TDDFT investigation of the solute-solvent
      interactions of two coumarin derivatives.
AB  - The UV/Vis absorption and fluorescence characteristics of 3-cyano-7
      hydroxycoumarin [CHC] and 7-amino-4-methyl-3-coumarinylacetic acid [AMCA-H] were
      studied at room temperature in several neat solvents and binary solvent mixtures
      of 1,4-dioxane/acetonitrile. The effects of solvent on the spectral properties
      are analyzed using single and multi-parameter solvent polarity scales. Both
      general solute/solvent interactions and hydrogen bond interactions are operative
      in these systems. The solvation of CHC and AMCA-H dyes in 1,4
      dioxane/acetonitrile solvent mixtures has been studied. The solutes CHC and AMCA
      H are preferentially solvated by acetonitrile and a synergistic effect is
      observed for both molecules in dioxane/acetonitrile solvent mixtures. In
      addition, using the solvatochromic method the ground- and the excited-state
      dipole moments of both the dyes were calculated. The ground- and excited-state
      dipole moments, absorption and emission maxima and HOMO-LUMO gap were also
      estimated theoretically using B3LYP/6-311+ G (d,p) level of theory in the gaseous
      phase, dioxane and acetonitrile solvents. Furthermore, changes in dipole moment
      values were also calculated using the variation of Stokes shift with the
      molecular-microscopic empirical solvent polarity parameter ( ETN). The observed
      excited-state dipole moments are larger than their ground-state counterparts,
      indicating a substantial redistribution of the electron densities in a more
      dipolar excited state for both coumarins investigated.

PMID- 28581185
TI  - Serial office-based steroid injections for treatment of idiopathic subglottic
      stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Current treatment options for idiopathic subglottic
      stenosis include endoscopic interventions, resection, and tracheotomy. Recently,
      serial office-based steroid injections were proposed as an alternative that may
      stabilize or induce regression of airway stenosis without the need for repeated
      operations. Procedure completion rate, pain, complications, effect on stenosis,
      time since the last operation, and limitations have not been described. STUDY
      DESIGN: Retrospective case series. METHODS: Retrospective series of 19 patients
      undergoing serial office-based steroid injection for idiopathic subglottic
      stenosis. Outcome measures included completion rate, procedure-related pain
      scores, complications, percentage of airway stenosis, and time since the last
      operative intervention. RESULTS: Procedure completion rate was 98.8%. Average
      pain score during the procedure was 2.3 +/- 1.7 on a 10-point scale. There were
      no immediate complications. One patient underwent awake tracheotomy 8 days after
      her second injection and was later decannulated. Average stenosis decreased from
      35% +/- 15% to 25% +/- 15% (n = 16; P = .086) over the first of three injections
      and 40% +/- 15% to 25% +/- 10% to 20% +/- 10% (n = 8; P = .002) for those
      patients completing two sets of three injections. Fourteen of 17 patients
      undergoing at least three injections have not returned to the operating room
      since the first injection. CONCLUSIONS: Office-based steroid injection represents
      a promising new treatment pathway for a disease that requires long-term
      management, offering a purely pharmacologic approach to a disorder that has
      traditionally been approached from a mechanical perspective. It is safe, well
      tolerated, and effective. Furthermore, it may help patients and physicians avoid
      repeated trips to the operating room and the associated risks. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      4. Laryngoscope, 127:2475-2481, 2017.

PMID- 28581187
TI  - Commentary 1: The Challenging Task of Addressing Power, Control, and Influence in
      Sibling Relationships After the First Two Decades of Life.
AB  - Extending the topic of power, control, and influence in the sibling relationship
      past the years covered in this issue is not an easy task because most adult
      siblings neither interact frequently nor live in geographic proximity, although
      there are considerable ethnic and social class variations. Thus, there are
      limited opportunities to observe how power is manifested, how siblings control
      each other and themselves to achieve their goals, nor how siblings influence each
      other. Comments in this commentary address the challenges presented when
      considering the trajectory of these dynamics in adult sibling relationships as
      well as the difficulties sibling dynamics present in carrying out tasks for which
      an egalitarian relationship is not ideal.

PMID- 28581186
TI  - Prevalence of chronic kidney disease in patients with chronic hepatitis B: A
      cross-sectional survey.
AB  - Renal safety is a major concern during long-term antiviral treatment for chronic
      hepatitis B (CHB). This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of chronic
      kidney disease (CKD) in patients with CHB that had been treated with antiviral
      therapy. This was a single-centre, cross-sectional study in a real-life cohort in
      which all patients received antiviral treatment. Serum creatinine-based equations
      from the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) were used to
      estimate the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). CKD was defined as an eGFR <60
      mL/min/1.73 m2 or a urinary albumin to creatinine ratio >= 3 mg/mmol (defined as
      albuminuria). Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine
      the risk factors of CKD. A total of 1985 patients were included in the analysis
      from February 2015 to December 2015. The mean age and median duration of
      antiviral treatment was 42.20 years and 17.05 months, respectively. The overall
      prevalence of CKD was 7.9% (157/1985), with 44 patients experiencing decreased
      renal function (eGFR less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) and 129 patients with
      albuminuria. Patients with cirrhosis had a higher prevalence of a decreased GFR
      (4.3% vs 1.6%, P<.001) and albuminuria (11.1% vs 5.2%, P<.001) than those without
      cirrhosis. In the multivariate analysis, hypertension (Odds Ratio [OR] 4.564,
      P<.001), diabetes mellitus (OR 2.688, P<.001) and cirrhosis (OR 1.918, P<.001)
      were independent factors associated with the presence of CKD. CKD was a
      clinically significant comorbidity in patients with CHB. Special attention should
      be paid to cirrhotic patients and patients with the metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28581188
TI  - Cross-Cultural Differences in Sibling Power Balance and Its Concomitants Across
      Three Age Periods.
AB  - We examined cross-cultural differences in (1) sibling power balance and (2) the
      associations between sibling power balance and internalizing and externalizing
      problems in three separate cross-cultural studies (early childhood, late
      childhood, and adolescence). The early childhood samples consisted of 123 Turkish
      and 128 Dutch mothers (mean age for children was 4.9 years). In the late
      childhood samples, self-report data were collected from 124 Indian and 129 Dutch
      children (mean age 10.9 years). In the adolescent samples self-report data were
      collected from 165 ethnic Moroccan and 165 ethnic Dutch adolescents (mean age
      15.2 years). In all studies, questionnaire data on sibling power imbalance and
      internalizing and externalizing problems were collected. Results showed only one
      significant cross-cultural difference in sibling power imbalance: The Indian
      sample reported more sibling power imbalance than the Dutch. Links between
      sibling power imbalance and problem behavior were highly similar between the
      different cultural samples. The only significant difference was a stronger impact
      of sibling power imbalance on externalizing problems for the Dutch compared to
      the Turkish sample. Concluding, few cross-cultural differences were found in
      sibling power imbalance. Across cultures and age groups, more sibling power
      imbalance was linked to more internalizing and externalizing problems.

PMID- 28581189
TI  - The Changing Nature of Power, Control, and Influence in Sibling Relationships.
AB  - The sibling relationship is unique in that it transforms across development from
      hierarchical in early childhood, to egalitarian by adulthood. The present article
      reviews the previous theorizing and research literature regarding how and why
      power, control, and therefore sibling influence, change over the course of the
      first couple of decades, and introduces the goals and advancements made by the
      new research presented in this issue.

PMID- 28581190
TI  - Family Perspectives on Siblings' Conflict Goals in Middle Childhood: Links to
      Hierarchical and Affective Features of Sibling Relationships.
AB  - This study examined parents' and children's descriptions of older and younger
      siblings' conflict goals in the late preschool and middle childhood years, and
      how these attributions were related to sibling relationship quality. Parents and
      4- to 10-year-old children from 62 families were interviewed separately about
      siblings' motivations in two disputes and completed assessments of sibling
      relationship quality. Goal attributions varied across respondents in ways
      reflecting their family roles and positioning within disputes. Findings also
      revealed variations in the goals ascribed to older and younger siblings in line
      with hierarchical features of sibling relationships, such as younger siblings'
      conciliation/connectedness motives and older siblings' desires for
      autonomy/respect. Goal attributions were related to differences between families
      in the affective tenor of sibling relationships. Results demonstrate how power
      dynamics in sibling relationships play out in their everyday disputes, and
      underscore the importance of considering different family members' unique
      perspectives on children's sibling conflict experiences.

PMID- 28581191
TI  - Relative Power in Sibling Relationships Across Adolescence.
AB  - During childhood, older siblings typically hold a more powerful position in their
      relationship with their younger siblings, but these relationships are thought to
      become more egalitarian during adolescence as siblings begin to prepare for their
      relationships as adults and as younger siblings become more socially and
      cognitively competent. Little is known about relationship factors that may
      explain this shift in power dynamics, however. The present study therefore
      examined longitudinal changes in adolescents' and their siblings' perceptions of
      sibling relative power from age 12 to 18 (n = 145 dyads), and examined whether
      different levels of sibling relationship positivity and negativity, as well as
      sibling structural variables, indicated different over-time changes in relative
      power. Multilevel models indicated that adolescents reported significant declines
      in their siblings' relative power across adolescence, with older siblings
      relinquishing the most power over time. However, only siblings with less
      positively involved relationships reported declines in relative power, suggesting
      that siblings who maintain highly involved relationships may not become more
      egalitarian during adolescence.

PMID- 28581192
TI  - Sibling Influences on Risky Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood:
      Vertical Socialization or Bidirectional Effects?
AB  - This study built on research on sibling influences to assess potential
      bidirectional effects of older and younger siblings' risky behaviors on one
      another's risky behaviors; our longitudinal design allowed us to test these
      effects when siblings were at about the same chronological age, at different
      points in time. We also tested whether the strength and/or direction of effects
      of siblings' risky behaviors changed from middle adolescence to young adulthood.
      Reports of risky behaviors (i.e., deviant behaviors and excessive alcohol use)
      were provided by firstborn and secondborn siblings from up to 201 families on
      five occasions spanning 10 years. In general, accounting for known covariates,
      multilevel models revealed bidirectional sibling effects and some evidence that
      secondborns' risky behaviors were stronger and more consistent predictors of
      firstborns' behaviors than the reverse. Sibling influence generally declined with
      age and sibling effects were not moderated by gender constellation. Findings
      indicate that both older and younger siblings are important socializers of risk
      behaviors across adolescence and continue to shape each other's alcohol use into
      early adulthood.

PMID- 28581193
TI  - Siblings' Power and Influence in Polyadic Family Conflict During Early Childhood.
AB  - This study examined sibling behavior during polyadic family conflicts (involving
      three or more family members) by identifying operational conflict elements (i.e.,
      roles, topic), power strategies, effective influence of power, and social domain
      argumentation. Polyadic conflict sequences (n = 210) were identified in 35/39
      families with two siblings (aged 4 and 6) and their parents observed at home. The
      dominant conflict topic, siblings' use of power and power strategy executed in
      relation to social domain argumentation, revealed unique qualities of conflict in
      the polyadic family context; effective use of power strategies to facilitate
      favorable outcomes differed by sibling birth order. Our account presents a
      nuanced view of the intricacies of polyadic family conflict, which provides
      unique opportunities for children's learning and socialization by siblings and
      parents.

PMID- 28581194
TI  - Commentary 2: Sibling Power Dynamics: The Role of Family and Sociocultural
      Context.
AB  - The balance of power and control is an understudied, yet important, aspect of the
      sibling relationship that is theorized to shift over the course of development
      from early childhood to young adulthood. The investigations in this issue offer
      support for this overall progression, but extend prior research by providing a
      nuanced understanding of sibling power dynamics using different methodologies,
      analytic approaches, and study designs. Grounded within an ecological framework,
      directions for future research are offered to expand our understanding of sibling
      power dynamics in diverse family and sociocultural contexts.

PMID- 28581195
TI  - Minimal preparation CT: A literature review of a minimally invasive imaging
      technique for colorectal cancer in a frail, aged population.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignancy with increased incidence in the
      elderly. When CRC is suspected, patients are typically evaluated with optical
      colonoscopy (OC) or CT Colonography (CTC). Unfortunately, in the frail and
      elderly patient, these investigations can be difficult to perform and are often
      not tolerated. Minimal preparation computed tomography (MPCT) is a CT technique
      to evaluate the colon. Although protocols vary, typically, no preparation is
      required apart from administration of oral contrast for faecal tagging. The
      patient is scanned in the supine position only and without colonic insufflation.
      The study is reserved for 'old-old' frail patients with clinically suspected CRC
      who cannot tolerate or have failed OC or CTC. In the context of an ageing
      population, MPCT provides a simple, minimally invasive, readily available and
      well-tolerated test that is able to demonstrate clinically relevant disease. We
      review the literature on MPCT and discuss the benefits and limitations of this
      investigation.

PMID- 28581196
TI  - Phytochemical Study of the Genus Salpichroa (Solanaceae), Chemotaxonomic
      Considerations, and Biological Evaluation in Prostate and Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - Twelve Salpichroa taxa have been phytochemically analyzed. From the aerial parts
      of S. scandens, four known salpichrolides A, C, I, S, and an unreported
      withanolide named salpichrolide V (1), were isolated. In S. dependens, S. gayi,
      S. glandulosa subsp. glandulosa, S. glandulosa subps. weddellii, S. leucantha, S.
      micrantha, S. microloba, S. proboscidea, S. ramosissima, S. tristis var. tristis,
      and S. weberbauerii, no withanolides were found. The chemical content of ca. 85%
      of the Salpichroa taxa is in agreement with molecular studies, which suggest that
      Salpichroa and Jaborosa, a genus considered morphologically close to Salpichroa,
      are distant in the systematic of the Solanoideae subfamily. Moreover, the in
      vitro cytotoxic activity of a set of natural salpichrolides and derivatives was
      examined against two prostate carcinoma cell lines (PC3 and LNCaP) and two human
      breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and T47D). Several compounds showed moderate
      activity (IC50  = 64.91 - 29.97 MUm).

PMID- 28581197
TI  - NR4A1 is an endogenous inhibitor of vocal fold fibrosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: NR4A1 was recently identified as an endogenous inhibitor
      of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta-induced fibrosis, and the role of this
      nuclear receptor has not been elucidated in tissue health or the response to
      injury in the vocal folds. Given the clinical implications of vocal fold
      fibrosis, we investigated NR4A1 expression during vocal fold wound healing in
      vivo and the regulatory roles of NR4A1 on vocal fold fibroblasts (VFFs) in vitro
      with the ultimate goal of developing targeted therapies for this challenging
      patient population. STUDY DESIGN: In vivo and in vitro. METHODS: In vivo, the
      temporal pattern of NR4A1 mRNA expression was quantified following rat vocal fold
      injury. In vitro, the role of NR4A1 on TGF-beta1-mediated transcription of genes
      underlying fibrosis as well as myofibroblast differentiation and collagen gel
      contraction was quantified in our human VFF line. Small interfering RNA was
      employed to alter NR4A1 expression to further elucidate this complex system.
      RESULTS: Nr4a1 mRNA increased 1 day after injury and peaked at 7 days. Knockdown
      of NR4A1 resulted in upregulation of COL1A1 and TGF-beta1, with TGF-beta1
      stimulation (both P < .001) in VFFs. NR4A1 knockdown also resulted in increased
      alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cells (P = .013) and contraction (P = .002) in
      response to TGF-beta1. CONCLUSIONS: NR4A1 has not been described in vocal fold
      health or disease. Upregulation of TGF-beta following vocal fold injury was
      concurrent with increased NR4A1 expression. These data provide a foundation for
      the development of therapeutic strategies given persistent TGF-beta signaling in
      vocal fold fibrosis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A Laryngoscope, 127:E317-E323, 2017.

PMID- 28581198
TI  - FBXW7 inactivation in a BrafV600E -driven mouse model leads to melanoma
      development.

PMID- 28581199
TI  - Monolithic columns: A historical overview.
AB  - This review article is an updated and extended version of the previous review
      that has been published 14 years ago . Although history does not change, its
      interpretation may. Therefore, I took the liberty to revisit the original work
      and added some of my new thoughts that could be interesting for the generation of
      scientists who are entering the intriguing arena of monoliths and may want to
      know the roots of the field. The current monolithic columns that are well
      applicable for efficient separations, were first described less than 30 years
      ago, and their advent represented the initial step to their present widespread
      appearance. At the beginning, the monolithic columns dominated the academic
      studies. However, several monolithic materials have later been materialized in
      commercial products. In order to stay within a reasonable size of this
      contribution, its focus is placed on developments achieved in the previous
      century. The very early reports are described in more detail since it might be
      difficult to find the original source.

PMID- 28581200
TI  - Natural history of 'second' biochemical failure after salvage radiation therapy
      for prostate cancer: a multi-institution study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the natural history of prostate cancer in men who
      experience a second biochemical recurrence (BCR) after salvage radiotherapy (SRT)
      after prostatectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: After undergoing SRT at one of two
      institutions between 1986 and 2013, 286 patients experienced a second BCR,
      defined as two rises in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of >=0.2 ng/mL above
      nadir. Event rates for distant metastasis (DM) or freedom from DM (FFDM),
      castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), prostate cancer-specific survival
      (PCSS), and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.
      Cox regression was used for comparative analyses. RESULTS: At a median of 6.1
      years after second BCR, DM, CRPC, PCSS and OS rates were 41%, 27%, 83% and 73%,
      respectively. On multivariable analysis, interval to second BCR <1 year (hazard
      ratio [HR] 2.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.71-4.14; P < 0.001], Gleason
      score 8-10 (HR 1.65, 95% CI 1.07-2.54; P = 0.022), and concurrent ADT during SRT
      (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.08-2.88; P = 0.024) were associated with FFDM, while PCSS was
      associated with interval to second BCR <1 year (HR 3.00, 95% CI 1.69-5.32; P <
      0.001) and concurrent ADT during SRT (HR 2.15, CI 1.13-4.08; P = 0.019). These
      risk factors were used to stratify patients into three groups, with 6-year FFDM
      rates of 71%, 59% and 33%, and PCSS rates of 89%, 79%, and 65%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Following second BCR after SRT, clinical progression is enriched in a
      subgroup of patients with prostate cancer, while others remain without DM for
      long intervals. Stratifying patients into risk groups using prognostic factors
      may aid counselling and future trial design.

PMID- 28581203
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28581202
TI  - Switch to an everolimus-facilitated cyclosporine A sparing immunosuppression
      improves glycemic control in selected kidney transplant recipients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors (mToRi) allow calcineurin
      inhibitor (CNI) sparing therapy in renal transplant recipients with possible
      beneficial effects on the long-term allograft function and cardiovascular risk.
      The influence of mToRi on glucose metabolism is still under discussion. METHODS:
      In a retrospective analysis, renal allograft recipients switched from a
      cyclosporine A (CsA) to an everolimus (EVR)-based immunosuppression in the first
      year after transplantation were compared with patients on continued CsA
      treatment. At 6-month intervals, the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG)
      and new onset of diabetes after transplantation (NODAT) were assessed. RESULTS: A
      total of 146 renal transplant recipients were included. The cumulative prevalence
      of IFG and NODAT 30-months post-transplantation was significantly lower in
      patients switched to an immunosuppression with EVR compared to patients on
      continued CsA treatment (10% vs 22%, P=.049). However, patients switched to EVR
      showed a higher incidence of acute cellular rejections in the first 12 months
      (23% vs 11%, P=.048). CONCLUSION: EVR-based immunosuppression was associated with
      a similar or even improved glycemic control and improved renal function. However,
      due to higher rejection rates, patients switched to EVR should be carefully
      selected as rejection therapy with steroids counteracts the benefit in glycemic
      control.

PMID- 28581201
TI  - Grape juice concentrate alleviates epididymis and sperm damage in cadmium
      intoxicated rats.
AB  - The possibility of long-term grape juice concentrate (GJC) consumption conferring
      a protective effect against cadmium (Cd)-induced damage to the epididymis,
      completely preserving sperm profile, was evaluated here for the first time in the
      scientific literature. Male Wistar rats (n = 6/per group) received an
      intraperitoneal Cd injection (1.2 mg/Kg) at age 80 days and GJC (2 g/Kg) by
      gavage from 50 days until 136 days old. Groups receiving either Cd or GJC were
      added. An intraperitoneal injection of saline (0.9%) and water by gavage was
      administered in the absence of treatment with Cd or GJC. Animals were
      anaesthetized and exsanguinated at 136 days; the vas deferens, left testis and
      epididymis were removed; and perfusion continued with fixative. The right
      epididymis was collected for morphological analysis. Cd had a devastating effect
      demonstrated by reduced sperm count in testes and epididymis, sperm production
      and normal sperm count, besides increased epididymis sperm transit time and
      completely disorganized morphology. These alterations were attributed to higher
      Cd levels in the testes and a lipid peroxidation (LP) process. Consumption of GJC
      plus Cd intoxication was effective, reducing metal accumulation and LP.
      Consequently, we could identify a preserved sperm profile, with improvement in
      testis and epididymis sperm count, normal sperm structure and sperm transit time.
      Moreover, GJC extends its protective effect to the epididymis, allowing complete
      re-establishment of its morphology, ensuring successful sperm maturation process.
      In conclusion, our study indicates long-term GJC as a promising therapy against
      reproductive chemical intoxication injury damage, preserving sperm prior to
      ejaculation.

PMID- 28581204
TI  - Nephrogenic adenoma does not express NKX3.1.

PMID- 28581205
TI  - Testing radical prostatectomy in men with prostate cancer and oligometastases to
      the bone: a randomized controlled feasibility trial.
AB  - This is the Protocol of the ethically-approved TRoMbone study.

PMID- 28581206
TI  - Upcoming Challenges in Multidisciplinary Heart Failure Management: Active Role of
      Future Clinical Pharmacists.
AB  - In their article "Role and Value of Clinical Pharmacy in Heart Failure
      Management" Stough and Patterson discuss the potential benefits that clinical
      pharmacists could bring to heart failure management. They mostly focused on
      chronic stable heart failure. The objective of this commentary is to provide
      future perspectives for clinical pharmacist involvement in multidisciplinary
      heart failure team in the management of patients admitted in emergency for
      decompensation of their heart condition.

PMID- 28581208
TI  - Melanocyte differentiation-beyond the master regulator.

PMID- 28581207
TI  - Improving postprandial hyperglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes already on
      basal insulin therapy: Review of current strategies.
AB  - A large number of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) on basal insulin do not
      reach their HbA1c goals and require additional therapy to address postprandial
      hyperglycemia. Guidelines from expert bodies have outlined several approaches to
      accomplish postprandial glucose (PPG) control, and recent literature suggests
      several more. This article provides strategies for primary care physicians caring
      for patients with T2D who do not achieve glycemic control with basal insulin
      alone. Current treatment guidelines and strategies for improving PPG control are
      reviewed, including the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of rapid-acting
      insulin (RAI) analogs, premixed insulin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor
      agonists (RAs), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2
      inhibitors, and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. Other approaches, such as
      combinations of newer basal insulin plus RAI and a fixed-ratio combination of
      basal insulin and a GLP-1 RA, are also described.

PMID- 28581209
TI  - Effect of continuous exenatide infusion on cardiac function and peri-operative
      glucose control in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: A single-blind,
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - We performed a randomized controlled trial with the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP
      1) receptor agonist exenatide as add-on to standard peri-operative insulin
      therapy in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. The aims of the study
      were to intensify peri-operative glucose control while minimizing the risk of
      hypoglycaemia and to evaluate the suggested cardioprotective effects of GLP-1
      based treatments. A total of 38 patients with decreased left ventricular systolic
      function (ejection fraction <=50%) scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass
      grafting (CABG) were randomized to receive either exenatide or placebo in a
      continuous 72-hour intravenous (i.v.) infusion on top of standard peri-operative
      insulin therapy. While no significant difference in postoperative
      echocardiographic variables was found between the groups, participants receiving
      exenatide showed improved peri-operative glucose control as compared with the
      placebo group (average glycaemia 6.4 +/- 0.5 vs 7.3 +/- 0.8 mmol/L; P < .001;
      percentage of time in target range of 4.5-6.5 mmol/L 54.8% +/- 14.5% vs 38.6% +/-
      14.4%; P = .001; percentage of time above target range 39.7% +/- 13.9% vs 52.8%
      +/- 15.2%; P = .009) without an increased risk of hypoglycaemia (glycaemia <3.3
      mmol/L: 0.10 +/- 0.32 vs 0.21 +/- 0.42 episodes per participant; P = .586).
      Continuous administration of i.v. exenatide in patients undergoing elective CABG
      could provide a safe option for intensifying the peri-operative glucose
      management of such patients.

PMID- 28581212
TI  - Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor promotes dental pulp stem cell migration.
AB  - Preserving the vitality of the teeth is critical in maintaining the function and
      aesthetics of teeth during dental treatment. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are
      mesenchymal cells that are demonstrated to possess stem cell properties, such as
      self-renewal, proliferation, and pluripotency. DPSCs can be obtained through non
      invasive procedure from the dental pulp and become potential resources for tissue
      regeneration. Neurotrophic factors are known to promote survival and growth of
      neurons. In the present study, we examined the expression of the glial cell
      derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family ligands and receptors and characterized
      the intracellular localization of them in DPSCs. GDNF increased the migration of
      the DPSCs. In addition, we found that the AKT and MAPK pathways were downstream
      of GDNF in regulating the DPSC wound healing and migration. Our results indicate
      that neurotrophic factors play a role in dental pulp regeneration and may be
      potential novel therapies for post pulpotomy treatment in adult teeth.

PMID- 28581210
TI  - Reduced cell surface levels of GPI-linked markers in a new case with PIGG loss of
      function.
AB  - Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) is a glycolipid that tethers more than 150
      different proteins to the cell surface. Aberrations in biosynthesis of GPI
      anchors cause congenital disorders of glycosylation with clinical features
      including intellectual disability (ID), seizures, and facial dysmorphism. Here,
      we present two siblings with ID, cerebellar hypoplasia, cerebellar ataxia, early
      onset seizures, and minor facial dysmorphology. Using exome sequencing, we
      identified a homozygous nonsense variant (NM_001127178.1:c.1640G>A, p.Trp547*) in
      the gene Phosphatidylinositol Glycan Anchor Biosynthesis, Class G (PIGG) in both
      the patients. Variants in several other GPI anchor synthesis genes lead to a
      reduced expression of GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) that can be measured by
      flow cytometry. No significant differences in GPI-APs could be detected in
      patient granulocytes, consistent with recent findings. However, fibroblasts
      showed a reduced global level of GPI anchors and of specific GPI-linked markers.
      These findings suggest that fibroblasts might be more sensitive to pathogenic
      variants in GPI synthesis pathway and are well suited to screen for GPI-anchor
      deficiencies. Based on genetic and functional evidence, we confirm that
      pathogenic variants in PIGG cause an ID syndrome, and we find that loss of
      function of PIGG is associated with GPI deficiency.

PMID- 28581211
TI  - Sickeningly Sweet: L-rhamnose stimulates Flavobacterium columnare biofilm
      formation and virulence.
AB  - Flavobacterium columnare, the causative agent of columnaris disease, causes
      substantial mortality worldwide in numerous freshwater finfish species. Due to
      its global significance and impact on the aquaculture industry continual efforts
      to better understand basic mechanisms that contribute to disease are urgently
      needed. The current work sought to evaluate the effect of L-rhamnose on the
      growth characteristics of F. columnare. While we initially did not observe any
      key changes during the total growth of F. columnare isolates tested when treated
      with L-rhamnose, it soon became apparent that the difference lies in the ability
      of this carbohydrate to facilitate the formation of biofilms. The addition of
      different concentrations of L-rhamnose consistently promoted the development of
      biofilms among different F. columnare isolates; however, it does not appear to be
      sufficient as a sole carbon source for biofilm growth. Our data also suggest that
      iron acquisition machinery is required for biofilm development. Finally, the
      addition of different concentrations of L-rhamnose to F. columnare prior to a
      laboratory challenge increased mortality rates in channel catfish (Ictalurus
      punctatus) as compared to controls. These results provide further evidence that
      biofilm formation is an integral virulence factor in the initiation of disease in
      fish.

PMID- 28581213
TI  - Comparison of enhanced liver fibrosis test with procollagen-3 N-terminal peptide
      (P3NP) as a marker for liver fibrosis.

PMID- 28581214
TI  - A new clinical diagnostic matrix for epidermolysis bullosa.

PMID- 28581215
TI  - Minocycline as an alternative to doxycycline in the treatment of rosacea.

PMID- 28581216
TI  - Image Gallery: Complex regional pain syndrome with changes in the nail unit.

PMID- 28581217
TI  - Image Gallery: Kaposiform haemangioendothelioma.

PMID- 28581218
TI  - Biomarkers in contact dermatitis.

PMID- 28581219
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28581220
TI  - Psoriasis and the interleukin-10 family: evidence for a protective genetic
      effect, but not an easy target as a drug.

PMID- 28581221
TI  - Neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis can be induced by BRAF inhibitors.

PMID- 28581222
TI  - Eccrine sweat gland regeneration: still a story of 'blood, toil, tears and
      sweat'.

PMID- 28581223
TI  - Image Gallery: Treatment of refractory alopecia universalis with oral tofacitinib
      citrate and adjunct intralesional triamcinolone injections.

PMID- 28581224
TI  - 'Whoever has will be given more' (Matthew 13:12): authorship of systematic
      reviews and clinical trials in the biological age.

PMID- 28581225
TI  - Image Gallery: Rhinosporidiosis.

PMID- 28581226
TI  - Methotrexate increases the risk of melanoma: or does it?

PMID- 28581227
TI  - Field treatment of actinic keratosis on the scalp.

PMID- 28581228
TI  - Image Gallery: Maggot on my shoulder.

PMID- 28581229
TI  - Daylight photodynamic therapy: where and when is it possible?

PMID- 28581230
TI  - Multiple sclerosis is the neurological disorder most highly associated with
      bullous pemphigoid.

PMID- 28581231
TI  - Parents managing childhood long-term conditions: longitudinal research is needed
      on online forums as sources of peer-to-peer information.

PMID- 28581233
TI  - The gathering storm: hydroxychloroquine retinopathy screening in the U.K.

PMID- 28581234
TI  - Oxidative stress and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein release in
      vitiligo.

PMID- 28581235
TI  - Palliative electrochemotherapy treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma.

PMID- 28581237
TI  - Image Gallery: Microcystic adnexal carcinoma (syringomatous carcinoma and
      sclerosing sweat duct carcinoma) as an extensive sclerotic erythematous plaque
      with telangiectasia over the face.

PMID- 28581238
TI  - Insights into the regulation of proteolytic pathways in skin differentiation.

PMID- 28581239
TI  - Development of a multidimensional assessment tool for uraemic pruritus in
      dialysis patients - laying a foundation stone for itch research.

PMID- 28581240
TI  - Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated alopecia areata.

PMID- 28581242
TI  - Treating moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis: what do dermatologists do with
      limited evidence?

PMID- 28581243
TI  - Patients' reports as indicators of quality of care.

PMID- 28581244
TI  - Mesenchymal stem cells participate to inflammatory skin process of atopic
      dermatitis.

PMID- 28581245
TI  - Autophagy - how to control your intracellular diet.

PMID- 28581246
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28581247
TI  - Image Gallery: Cutaneous lesions in the external auditory canal causing hearing
      loss.

PMID- 28581248
TI  - Non-invasive tests for liver disease severity and the hepatocellular carcinoma
      risk in chronic hepatitis B patients with low-level viremia.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: We tested whether non-invasive tests for liver disease
      severity can stratify hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk in chronic hepatitis B
      virus (HBV)-infected patients showing low-level viremia (LLV, HBV DNA <2000
      IU/mL). METHODS: A retrospective cohort of 1006 chronic hepatitis B patients
      showing persistently LLV, defined by at least two consecutive assessments in the
      year before enrolment, was assessed for HCC development. Two non-invasive serum
      biomarkers, the aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) and the
      Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4), were tested. Cirrhosis was defined with ultrasonography.
      RESULTS: During a median 5.1 years of follow-up, HCC developed in 36 patients.
      HCC incidence rate at 5 years was significantly higher for cirrhotic patients
      (19/139, 13.7%), but was not null for non-cirrhotic patients (17/867, 2.0%,
      P<.001). APRI at a cut-off of 0.5 was more specific but less sensitive for HCC
      development, and FIB-4 at a cut-off of 1.45 was more sensitive but less specific.
      When both APRI and FIB-4 were used to group patients, the 5-year cumulative HCC
      incidence rate was 13.9%, 1.4% and 1.2% for both high, any high, and both low
      APRI and FIB-4 score among all patients (n=1006, P<.001), respectively, and was
      11.4%, 1.5% and 0.4% in the same respective order among non-cirrhotic patients
      (n=867, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The combined use of two non-invasive serum
      biomarkers (APRI and FIB-4) could stratify HCC risk for chronic HBV-infected
      patients with LLV.

PMID- 28581249
TI  - The robotic ENT microsurgery system: A novel robotic platform for microvascular
      surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Assess the feasibility of a novel robotic platform for use in
      microvascular surgery. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective feasibility study. SETTING:
      Robotics laboratory. METHODS: The Robotic ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat)
      Microsurgery System (REMS) (Galen Robotics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) is a robotic arm
      that stabilizes a surgeon's instrument, allowing precise, tremor-free movement.
      Six microvascular naive medical students and one microvascular expert performed
      microvascular anastomosis of a chicken ischiatic artery, with and without the
      REMS. Trials were blindly graded by seven microvascular surgeons using a
      microvascular tremor scale (MTS) based on instrument tip movement as a function
      of vessel width. Time to completion (TTC) was measured, and an exit survey
      assessed participants' experience. The interrater reliability of the MTS was
      calculated. RESULTS: For microvascular-naive participants, the mean MTS score for
      REMS-assisted trials was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-1.07) and 2.40
      (95% CI 2.12-2.69) for freehand (P < 0.001). The mean TTC was 1,265 seconds for
      REMS-assisted trials and 1,320 seconds for freehand (P > 0.05). For the
      microvascular expert, the mean REMS-assisted MTS score was 0.71 (95% CI 0.15
      1.27) and 0.86 (95% CI 0.35-1.37) for freehand (P > 0.05). TTC was 353 seconds
      for the REMS-assisted trial and 299 seconds for freehand. All participants
      thought the REMS was more accurate and improved instrument handling and
      stability. The intraclass correlation coefficient for MTS ratings was 0.914 (95%
      CI 0.823-0.968) for consistency and 0.901 (95% CI 0.795-0.963) for absolute
      value. CONCLUSION: The REMS is a feasible adjunct for microvascular surgery and a
      potential teaching tool capable of reducing tremor in novice users. Furthermore,
      the MTS is a feasible grading system for assessing microvascular tremor. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: NA. Laryngoscope, 127:2495-2500, 2017.

PMID- 28581250
TI  - New intermediate-stage subclassification for patients with hepatocellular
      carcinoma treated with transarterial chemoembolization.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIM: The need for a subclassification of Barcelona Clinic Liver
      Cancer (BCLC) intermediate-stage (BCLC B) has arisen because of its diversity. We
      evaluated the prognostic capability of the BCLC B subclassification proposed by
      Bolondi et al. in patients treated with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE).
      Furthermore, we introduce a new subclassification for intermediate-stage
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by using a new parameter related to tumour burden
      (up-to-11 criteria). METHODS: Of 3268 patients treated with TACE as first-line
      treatment, 821 patients with intermediate-stage HCC were included in this study.
      RESULTS: According to the Bolondi subclassification, 208 (25.3%), 529 (64.5%), 43
      (5.2%) and 41 (5%) patients were in B1, B2, B3 and B4 respectively. The B1, B2
      and B3 subclasses in the Bolondi system showed significantly different survival
      between contiguous stages with median survival of 51.5, 26 and 14.8 months,
      respectively (both P<.001 for B1 vs B2 and B2 vs B3); however, survival was
      rather worse in B3 than B4 (14.8 vs 25 months, P=.025). According to the newly
      proposed subclassification, 410 (50%), 364 (44.3%) and 47 (5.7%) patients were in
      B1, B2 and B3 respectively. The median survival progressively decreased from B1
      (44.8 months) to B2 (21.5 months) and B3 (11.3 months), with a significant
      difference between contiguous stages (both P<.001 for B1 vs B2 and B2 vs B3).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our new BCLC B substaging system, with up-to-11 criteria and Child
      Pugh class as main parameters, has excellent discriminatory power to subclassify
      TACE-treated patients into three prognostic substages.

PMID- 28581251
TI  - Strategies for advancing laryngeal tissue engineering.

PMID- 28581252
TI  - NAFLD in clinical practice: Can simple blood and anthropometric markers be used
      to detect change in liver fat measured by 1 H-MRS?
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Research in NAFLD management is commonly based on quantitative
      assessment of liver fat by proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS), and
      translation of this into clinical practice is currently limited by availability
      and expense. Novel steatosis biomarkers have been proposed for the prediction of
      liver fatness; however, whether these are suitable for detecting changes in liver
      fat is unknown. We aimed to determine the accuracy of these indices, and waist
      circumference (WC), in quantifying longitudinal change in 1 H-MRS-quantified
      liver fat. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis using data from 97
      overweight/obese adults (age: 39.7+/-11.5 years, body mass index: 30.7+/-4.4
      kg/m2 , liver fat: 6.0+/-4.8%, 65% male) who completed either an 8-week exercise
      or 12-week nutraceutical intervention, with varying degrees of change in liver
      fat. Baseline and post-intervention measures were liver fat (1 H-MRS), NAFLD
      Liver Fat Score, Liver Fat Equation (LFE), Fatty Liver Index (FLI), Hepatic
      Steatosis Index (HSI), the Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) and WC. RESULTS: Only
      the change in HSI, FLI and WC was associated with change in liver fat; however,
      correlations were weak to moderate. There was no agreement between the LFE and 1
      H-MRS for detecting liver fat change. Only change in WC significantly affected
      change in liver fat (P<.001), and WC AUROC for the presence of steatosis was 0.65
      and 0.78 for men and women respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Novel indices are limited
      in their ability to detect longitudinal change in liver fat. Waist circumference
      may offer modest utility as a surrogate to infer liver fat change with lifestyle
      interventions.

PMID- 28581253
TI  - Severe hypoglycaemia among patients with type 2 diabetes requiring emergency
      hospital admission: The Hypoglycaemia In Portugal Observational Study-Emergency
      Room (HIPOS-ER).
AB  - AIMS: To analyse the prevalence of severe hypoglycaemia in patients with type 2
      diabetes (T2DM) treated with antihyperglycaemic agents (AHA) and requiring
      emergency room (ER) assistance, and to analyse the prevalence according to type
      of AHA therapy. METHODS: The present study, the Hypoglycaemia In Portugal
      Observational Study-Emergency Room (HIPOS-ER), was a cross-sectional,
      observational, multicentre, nationwide study, with specific hypoglycaemia source
      data collection. RESULTS: Within the study period, a total of 425 706 admissions
      were recorded in the ERs of participating hospitals. The prevalence of severe
      hypoglycaemic episodes in patients with T2DM was 0.074%. In all, 238 patients
      were included, more than half of whom were on insulin-based therapy (55.0%) and a
      third of whom (31.5%) were on oral secretagogue-based therapy. In 61.2% of
      patients primary care was the main diabetes care setting. The median patient age
      was 77.5 years and the mean duration of diabetes was 19 years. Missing a meal or
      low carbohydrate meal content was the most frequent cause of hypoglycaemia
      (55.9%) and the most frequent triggers for seeking emergency assistance were pre
      syncope (19.2%) and transient loss of consciousness (17.4%). A total of 44.1% of
      patients were hospitalized for a median of 5.1 days. Patients in the secretagogue
      group were admitted to hospital more often than patients in the insulin group
      (70.7% vs 29.0%; P < .001). Nine patients died. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      confirm that severe hypoglycaemia in patients with T2DM requiring ER assistance
      occurs mainly in those on insulin- and secretagogue-based therapies and is
      associated with a significant medical burden. Antidiabetic therapy should be
      individualized to minimize the risk of severe iatrogenic hypoglycaemia, and any
      intervention to this end should always involve primary care stakeholders.

PMID- 28581254
TI  - Tree spacing impacts the individual incidence of Moniliophthora roreri disease in
      cacao agroforests.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Using conventional pesticides in crop protection has raised serious
      environmental concerns and there is therefore a need for integrated pest
      management (IPM) methods. In this paper, we found that the spacing of trees can
      impact disease, which could result in a reduction in pesticide applications and
      may act as a potential IPM method. We studied Frosty Pod Rot (FPR) in 20 cacao
      agroforests in Costa Rica (Upala region). RESULTS: Using a generalized linear
      mixed model, we analyzed the impact of the neighborhood composition and distance
      from a studied cacao individual on its individual FPR incidence. We found that
      the number of cacao tree neighbors in a radius of 3.7 m and the number of fruit
      trees in a radius of 4.3 m had a significant negative influence on the incidence
      of FPR on individual cacao trees. Moreover, cacao tree neighbors had the most
      significant local influence compared to the neighborhood of other taller
      categories such as fruit or forest trees. CONCLUSION: The mechanisms involved are
      related to the barrier effect, due to the effectiveness of the cacao tree's
      architecture as an efficient barrier against FPR spore dispersal. This paper
      provides new insights into optimization of the spatial environment around each
      host as an original IPM method. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28581256
TI  - TAZ is involved in transcriptional complexes regulating smooth muscle cell
      differentiation.
AB  - TGFbeta signaling plays an important role in the differentiation of vascular
      smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), yet the mechanism remains largely unknown. The study
      by Pagiatakis et al. identifies the transcriptional coactivator TAZ as a mediator
      of TGFbeta signaling in VSMC-specific transcription. TAZ is involved in the
      formation of stable ternary complexes of SRF/Myocardin on CArG elements that are
      required for the transcription of VSMC structural genes.

PMID- 28581258
TI  - Contribution and Responsibility of Psychiatric Researchers to Establish
      Sociocultural System for Psychiatric Trauma.

PMID- 28581257
TI  - Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International
      Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

PMID- 28581259
TI  - Clinical Implication of Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Neoatherosclerosis.
AB  - Recent research has indicated neoatherosclerosis (NA), the de novo development of
      atherosclerosis within the neointimal region of the stented segment after
      coronary stent implantation, as a mechanism of late/very late stent thrombosis
      (VLST) and restenosis. This research is based on histologic and intravascular
      imaging studies. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging tool that is
      superior with regard to resolution capacity, and can be used to visualize
      detailed information about distinct morphological characteristics of the
      restenotic tissue. Thus, OCT is a valuable imaging tool for examining NA, such as
      macrophage infiltration, lipid accumulation, in-stent calcification, or
      neointimal rupture. This article discusses the prevalence, predictors, and
      clinical implications of NA that can be observed by OCT.

PMID- 28581261
TI  - Statistical Data Editing in Scientific Articles.
AB  - Scientific journals are important scholarly forums for sharing research findings.
      Editors have important roles in safeguarding standards of scientific publication
      and should be familiar with correct presentation of results, among other core
      competencies. Editors do not have access to the raw data and should thus rely on
      clues in the submitted manuscripts. To identify probable errors, they should look
      for inconsistencies in presented results. Common statistical problems that can be
      picked up by a knowledgeable manuscript editor are discussed in this article.
      Manuscripts should contain a detailed section on statistical analyses of the
      data. Numbers should be reported with appropriate precisions. Standard error of
      the mean (SEM) should not be reported as an index of data dispersion. Mean
      (standard deviation [SD]) and median (interquartile range [IQR]) should be used
      for description of normally and non-normally distributed data, respectively. If
      possible, it is better to report 95% confidence interval (CI) for statistics, at
      least for main outcome variables. And, P values should be presented, and
      interpreted with caution, if there is a hypothesis. To advance knowledge and
      skills of their members, associations of journal editors are better to develop
      training courses on basic statistics and research methodology for non-experts.
      This would in turn improve research reporting and safeguard the body of
      scientific evidence.

PMID- 28581260
TI  - Self-Expandable Metallic Stent Placement for the Palliation of Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - Esophageal stents have been used to palliate patients with dysphagia caused by
      esophageal cancer. Early rigid plastic prostheses have been associated with a
      high risk of complications. However, with the development of self-expanding
      stents, it has developed into a widely accepted method for treating malignant
      esophageal strictures and esophagorespiratory fistulas (ERFs). The present review
      covers various aspects of self-expanding metallic stent placement for palliating
      esophageal cancer, including its types, placement procedures, indications,
      contraindications, complications, and some of innovations that will become
      available in the future.

PMID- 28581262
TI  - What Factors Impact Consumer Perception of the Effectiveness of Health
      Information Sites? An Investigation of the Korean National Health Information
      Portal.
AB  - Lay public's concerns around health and health information are increasing. In
      response, governments and government agencies are establishing websites to
      address such concerns and improve health literacy by providing better access to
      validated health information. Since 2011, the Korean government has constructed
      the National Health Information Portal (NHIP) website run in collaboration with
      the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (KAMS). This study therefore aimed to 1)
      examine consumer use of NHIP, with respect to the usage patterns, evaluation on
      health information provided, and perceived effectiveness of the site; and 2)
      identify factors that may impact perceived effectiveness of the site. An online
      survey was conducted with 164 NHIP users, recruited through a popup window on the
      main screen of the portal website from October to November 2015. The significant
      predicting factors supported by the data include the relevance of health
      information on the site, the usefulness of information in making health
      decisions, and the effective visualization of information. These factors can
      inform future efforts to design more effective health information websites,
      possibly based on metadata systems, to further advance the lay public's
      information seeking and health literacy.

PMID- 28581263
TI  - Dose-Decreasing Effect of the First Reversed Laser Beam Collimator for C-Arm Type
      Angiographic Equipment.
AB  - This is a study on the dose-decreasing effect of the first reversed laser beam
      collimator (RLBC) for C-arm type angiographic equipment. A laser beam was located
      at the center of each plane at an oblique angle to the angiographic equipment
      detector. A field of view, which could be seen with the naked eye, was made by
      focusing the laser beam in the direction of the X-ray source. The height of the
      table was fixed at 75 cm and the iron balls were located within 2 mm of the top,
      bottom, left, and right edges of the output image. The time needed for location
      fixing, fluoroscopy, and measurement of dose area product (DAP) were compared by
      having 30 radiologists perform location fixing by looking at the fluoroscopic
      image while performing location fixing (no radiation) and while the RLBC was
      turned on. In the next test, the time needed for location fixing, fluoroscopy,
      and DAP were compared when varying the location of the iron balls from 2 to 10 mm
      from the edges of the output image. The results showed that the time needed for
      location fixing, the time needed for fluoroscopy, and DAP decreased, both in the
      first test and the second test. This study confirmed that the use of a RLBC for C
      arm type angiographic equipment decreases both the time needed to perform the
      procedure and the radiation dose received. It is expected that continuous
      advancement of RLBC technology will contribute greatly to decreasing the dose of
      radiation needed and improving convenience during angiography.

PMID- 28581264
TI  - Night Shift Work and Risk of Depression: Meta-analysis of Observational Studies.
AB  - This study aimed to assess whether night shift work is associated with the risk
      of depression by using a meta-analysis of observational studies. We searched
      PubMed and EMBASE in August, 2016 to locate eligible studies and investigated the
      association between night shift work and the risk of depression, reporting
      outcome measures with adjusted odds ratios (ORs) or relative risks (RRs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs). In the meta-analysis of a total of 11 observational
      studies with 9 cross-sectional study, 1 longitudinal study, and 1 cohort study,
      night shift work was significantly associated with an increased risk of
      depression (OR/RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.24-1.64; I2 = 78.0%). Also, subgroup meta
      analyses by gender, night shift work duration, type of occupation, continent, and
      type of publication showed that night shift work was consistently associated with
      the increased risk of depression. The current meta-analysis suggests that night
      shift work is associated with the increased risk of depression. However, further
      large prospective cohort studies are needed to confirm this association.

PMID- 28581265
TI  - High Maternal Blood Mercury Level Is Associated with Low Verbal IQ in Children.
AB  - The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship of IQ in
      children with maternal blood mercury concentration during late pregnancy. The
      present study is a component of the Mothers and Children's Environmental Health
      (MOCEH) study, a multi-center birth cohort project in Korea that began in 2006.
      The study cohort consisted of 553 children whose mothers underwent testing for
      blood mercury during late pregnancy. The children were given the Korean language
      version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, revised
      edition (WPPSI-R) at 60 months of age. Multivariate linear regression analysis,
      with adjustment for covariates, was used to assess the relationship between
      verbal, performance, and total IQ in children and blood mercury concentration of
      mothers during late pregnancy. The results of multivariate linear regression
      analysis indicated that a doubling of blood mercury was associated with the
      decrease in verbal and total IQ by 2.482 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.749
      4.214) and 2.402 (95% CI, 0.526-4.279), respectively, after adjustment. This
      inverse association remained after further adjustment for blood lead
      concentration. Fish intake is an effect modifier of child IQ. In conclusion, high
      maternal blood mercury level is associated with low verbal IQ in children.

PMID- 28581266
TI  - Characteristics of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Sanatoria of North Korea.
AB  - Although several reports about drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in North Korea
      have been published, a nationwide surveillance on this disease remains to be
      performed. This study aims to analyze the drug resistance patterns of
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis among the patients in the sanatoria of North Korea,
      especially during the period when second-line drugs (SLDs) had not yet been
      officially supplied to this country. The Eugene Bell Foundation (EBF) transferred
      947 sputum specimens obtained from 667 patients from 2007 to 2009 to the Clinical
      Research Center, Masan National Tuberculosis Hospital (MNTH), South Korea. Four
      hundred ninety-two patients were culture positive for TB (73.8%). Drug
      susceptibility test (DST) was performed for the bacilli isolated from 489
      patients. Over 3 quarters of the cases (76.9%) were multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB.
      Additionally, 2 patients had extremely drug-resistant (XDR)-TB. Very high
      resistance to first-line drugs and low resistance to fluoroquinolones (FQs) and
      injectable drugs (IDs) except for streptomycin (S) were detected. A small but
      significant regional variation in resistance pattern was observed. Big city
      regions had higher rate of MDR-TB, higher resistance to FQs and IDs than
      relatively isolated regions. In conclusion, significant number of drug-resistant
      TB was detected in North Korean sanatoria, and small but significant regional
      variations in resistance pattern were noticeable. However, the data in this study
      do not represent the nationwide drug resistance pattern in North Korea. Further
      large-scale evaluations are necessary to estimate the resistance pattern of TB in
      North Korea.

PMID- 28581267
TI  - Characterization of Oropharyngeal Carriage Isolates of Neisseria meningitidis in
      Healthy Korean Adolescents in 2015.
AB  - The meningococcus carriage rate is age-dependent, with a high prevalence in
      adolescents and young adults. This cross-sectional study aimed to estimate the
      oropharyngeal carriage rate of meningococcus among healthy Korean adolescents and
      its relationship with several population characteristics. The survey was
      conducted from April to May 2015 among 1,460 first-year high-school students in 9
      high schools located in Gyeonggi province, Korea. Each student answered a short
      questionnaire assessing risk factors for carriage, and posterior pharyngeal wall
      swab samples were obtained. These samples were cultured on meningococcus
      selective media, with colonies resembling meningococci identified using the
      Vitek(r) MS system (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France). All isolates were
      characterized by molecular serogrouping and multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
      Meningococci were identified from 3.4% (49/1,460) swabs. Current smokers had
      significantly higher carriage rates than non-smokers (8.2% vs. 2.9%, P = 0.002),
      and boys had significantly higher carriage rates than girls (4.4% vs. 1.6%, P =
      0.004). Serogroup B was the most common serogroup, followed by serogroup C, then
      29E and Y. Twenty-seven different sequence types (STs) were identified; the most
      common were ST-3091, ST-11278, and ST-44. These belonged to clonal complexes
      (CCs) 269, 32, and 41/44, respectively, known as the hypervirulent clones.
      Evaluating meningococcal carriage is important to understand the epidemiology of
      meningococcal disease; however, little data exist in Korea. Similar to western
      countries, meningococcal serogroup B has emerged in Korea, and hypervirulent
      clones were identified. It is necessary to monitor the genetic and serologic
      characteristics of circulating meningococci and to assess the potential strain
      coverage of meningococcal vaccines.

PMID- 28581268
TI  - Significance of Serology by Multi-Antigen ELISA for Tissue Helminthiases in
      Korea.
AB  - It is clinically important to differentiate tissue-invading helminthiasis. The
      purpose of this study was to assess the specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody
      positive rates for clonorchiasis, paragonimiasis, cysticercosis, and sparganosis
      4 helminthiases from 1996 to 2006 using multi-antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA) in Korea. Results of 6,017 samples, which were referred to our
      institute for serodiagnosis, were analyzed. The subjects with positive serum IgG
      antibodies were 1,502 (25.0%) for any of the 4 helminthiases. The overall
      positive numbers for clonorchiasis, paragonimiasis, cysticercosis, and
      sparganosis were 728 (12.1%), 166 (2.8%), 729 (12.1%), and 263 (4.4%),
      respectively. The positive serologic reaction to multi-antigens was determined in
      309 (20.6%) of the 1,502 total seropositive subjects. Those with multi-antigen
      positivity were regarded as positive for the antigen of strongest reaction but
      cross-reaction to others with weak positive reaction. Annual seropositive rates
      for those 4 tissue helminthiases ranged from 12.1% to 35.7%. The highest rate was
      observed in age from 60 to 69 years old and prevalence of men (27.4%;
      1,030/3,763) was significantly higher than of women (19.1%; 332/1,741). Hospital
      records of 165 ELISA positive patients were reviewed to confirm correlation with
      their clinical diagnosis. Paragonimiasis was highly correlated as 81.8% (9/11),
      cysticercosis 29.9% (20/67), clonorchiasis 29.0% (20/69), and sparganosis 11.1%
      (2/18). In conclusion, the multi-antigen ELISA using 4 helminth antigens is
      useful to differentiate suspected tissue-invading helminthiases, especially ELISA
      diagnosis of paragonimiasis is reliable. The seropositivity is still high among
      suspected patients in Korea.

PMID- 28581269
TI  - Subcutaneous Immunotherapy for Allergic Asthma in a Single Center of Korea:
      Efficacy, Safety, and Clinical Response Predictors.
AB  - Allergen-specific immunotherapy is the only causal treatment for allergic
      diseases. However, the efficacy of immunotherapy may vary around the world due to
      differences in climate, the nature of aero-allergens and their distribution. The
      aim of this study was to describe the effects of subcutaneous immunotherapy
      (SCIT) in Korean adults with allergic asthma (AA). As a retrospective cohort
      study, we reviewed medical records for 627 patients with AA in Korea who were
      sensitized to house dust mite (HDM) and/or pollens and who underwent SCIT with
      aluminum hydroxide adsorbed allergen extract from 2000 to 2012. Rates of
      remission, defined as no further requirement of maintenance medication, over time
      were determined by means of life tables and extension of survival analysis.
      Herein, 627 asthmatic patients achieved remission within a mean of 4.7 +/- 0.2
      years. The cumulative incidence rates of remission from AA were 86.9% upon
      treatment with SCIT. Baseline forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1)
      >= 80% (hazard ratio [HR], 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.79-5.39; P <
      0.001), and maintenance of immunotherapy for more than 3 years (HR, 1.82; 95% CI,
      1.21-2.72; P = 0.004) were significant predictors of asthma remission during
      SCIT. In 284 patients on SCIT with HDM alone, initial specific immunoglobulin E
      (IgE) levels to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae did
      not show significant difference between remission and non-remission group after
      adjusting demographic variables. In conclusion, SCIT was effective and safe
      treatment modality for patients with AA. Initial FEV1 >= 80% and immunotherapy
      more than 3 years were found to be associated with favorable clinical responses
      to SCIT.

PMID- 28581270
TI  - Potential Association of Triglyceride Glucose Index with Cardiac Autonomic
      Neuropathy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients.
AB  - Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a common and most neglected complication of
      diabetes, estimated to be roughly 8% in recently diagnosed patients and greater
      than 50% in patients with chronic disease history. The insulin resistance (IR)
      itself is bidirectionally associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM) and CAN is a predisposing factor. The primary objective of the
      present study was aimed to find a correlation of triglyceride glucose index (TyG
      index) in CAN patients along with the prevalence of CAN in T2DM patients as a
      secondary objective. This prevalence study was conducted on 202 patients visiting
      the diabetic clinic of Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Jamia
      Hamdard (HIMSR) teaching hospital in New Delhi, India who fulfilled the inclusion
      criteria. The Ewings autonomic function test was used for diagnosis of CAN. TyG
      index was calculated for patients based on fasting levels of glucose and
      triglyceride. The CAN was diagnosed in 62 participants out of 202 T2DM patients
      (overall prevalence 30.7%). The mean +/- standard deviation (SD) for TyG index
      was 10.3 +/- 0.2 and 9.5 +/- 0.2 in CAN positive, T2DM patients, respectively.
      The difference of TyG index, in CAN positive and T2DM patients, was highly
      significant (P < 0.001). Further correlation analysis was performed to find an
      association of TyG index, duration, and age with patient groups. TyG index showed
      a positive correlation with heart rate during deep breathing (HRD), heart rate
      variation during standing (HRS), blood pressure (BP) response to handgrip and BP
      response to standing. Our finding highlights the TyG index, low-cost IR index,
      might be useful as an alternative tool for the early screening of patients at a
      high risk of diabetic neuropathy.

PMID- 28581271
TI  - Helicobacter pylori Antigens Inducing Early Immune Response in Infants.
AB  - To identify the Helicobacter pylori antigens operating during early infection in
      sera from infected infants using proteomics and immunoblot analysis. Two
      dimensional (2D) large and small gel electrophoresis was performed using H.
      pylori strain 51. We performed 2D immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin A (IgA),
      and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody immunoblotting using small gels on sera
      collected at the Gyeongsang National University Hospital from 4-11-month-old
      infants confirmed with H. pylori infection by pre-embedding immunoelectron
      microscopy. Immunoblot spots appearing to represent early infection markers in
      infant sera were compared to those of the large 2D gel for H. pylori strain 51.
      Corresponding spots were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
      time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The peptide fingerprints
      obtained were searched in the National Center for Biotechnology Information
      (NCBI) database. Eight infant patients were confirmed with H. pylori infection
      based on urease tests, histopathologic examinations, and pre-embedding
      immunoelectron microscopy. One infant showed a 2D IgM immunoblot pattern that
      seemed to represent early infection. Immunoblot spots were compared with those
      from whole-cell extracts of H. pylori strain 51 and 18 spots were excised,
      digested in gel, and analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS. Of the 10 peptide fingerprints
      obtained, the H. pylori proteins flagellin A (FlaA), urease beta subunit (UreB),
      pyruvate ferredoxin oxidoreductase (POR), and translation elongation factor Ts
      (EF-Ts) were identified and appeared to be active during the early infection
      periods. These results might aid identification of serological markers for the
      serodiagnosis of early H. pylori infection in infants.

PMID- 28581272
TI  - The Usefulness of Platelet-derived Microparticle as Biomarker of Antiplatelet
      Therapy in Kawasaki Disease.
AB  - Little is known about platelet dynamics and the effect of antiplatelet therapy in
      Kawasaki disease (KD). This study sought to define platelet activation dynamics
      in KD patients by assaying platelet-derived microparticles (PDMPs). We measured
      plasma PDMPs levels in 46 patients with KD using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA). Blood samples were collected before, at 2-5 days, and 9-15 days
      after intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) infusion, 2 months and 4-5 months after
      the onset of KD. We measured PDMP levels in 23 febrile and 10 afebrile control
      patients. In the acute phase of KD patients, PDMP levels increased significantly
      after IVIG treatment (12.04 +/- 5.58 nmol before IVIG infusion vs. 19.81 +/-
      13.21 nmol at 2-5 days after IVIG infusion, P = 0.006). PDMP levels were
      negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with procalcitonin
      levels in the acute phase of KD. No significant difference was found in PDMP
      levels between KD patients with and without coronary artery lesion (CAL).
      Elevated PDMP levels after IVIG therapy significantly decreased below the pre
      IVIG level in subacute phase (19.81 +/- 13.21 nmol at 2-5 days after IVIG
      infusion vs. 8.33 +/- 2.02 nmol at 9-15 days after IVIG infusion, P < 0.001), and
      PDMP levels stayed below the pre-IVIG level in the convalescent phase, during
      which antiplatelet therapy was given. However, PDMP levels rebounded after
      discontinuing aspirin in 17 patients. In conclusion, enhanced platelet activation
      was noted before treatment of KD and peaked immediately after IVIG treatment.
      Recurrent rising of PDMP levels was observed after discontinuing aspirin,
      although there were no significant differences between the PDMP levels at 2
      months after the onset of KD and those at 4-5 months after the onset of the
      disease.

PMID- 28581273
TI  - Clinical Features of Post-Vaccination Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in Korea.
AB  - Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is the most common immune-mediated
      polyradiculoneuropathy and it is also the most commonly reported severe adverse
      event following immunization in adults. To evaluate the results of clinical and
      laboratory features of GBS after vaccination in Korea, we analyzed the claims
      based data from 2002 to 2014 using materials collected for the Advisory Committee
      Vaccination Injury Compensation (ACVIC) meeting including, clinical features,
      nerve conduction studies (NCSs), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) profiles, treatment,
      and outcomes. Forty-eight compensated GBS cases (median age, 15 years;
      interquartile range [IQR], 13-51; male:female ratio, 1:1) of 68 suspected GBS
      were found following immunization and all of them with influenza immunizations
      with either monovalent (n = 35) or trivalent (n = 13). Among them, 30 cases
      fulfilled the Brighton criteria level 1-3 (62.5%). The median duration between
      the onset of symptoms to nadir, duration of the nadir, and total admission period
      were 3 (IQR, 2-7 days), 2 (IQR, 1-5 days), and 14 (IQR, 6-33 days) days,
      respectively. The most frequently reported symptom was quadriparesis which was
      present in 36 cases (75%) at nadir. CSF examination revealed albuminocytologic
      dissociation in 25.0% and NCS was abnormal in 61.8%. After treatment, most of
      them showed improvement. Clinical features were similar to typical post
      infectious GBS and there were both demyelinating and axonal forms suggesting
      heterogeneous pathogenic mechanism. In order to improve the diagnostic certainty
      of post-vaccination GBS, careful documentation of clinical features and timely
      diagnostic work-up with follow-up studies are needed.

PMID- 28581274
TI  - Comparison of Electroencephalography (EEG) Coherence between Major Depressive
      Disorder (MDD) without Comorbidity and MDD Comorbid with Internet Gaming
      Disorder.
AB  - Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has many comorbid psychiatric problems including
      major depressive disorder (MDD). In the present study, we compared the
      neurobiological differences between MDD without comorbidity (MDD-only) and MDD
      comorbid with IGD (MDD+IGD) by analyzing the quantitative electroencephalogram
      (QEEG) findings. We recruited 14 male MDD+IGD (mean age, 20.0 +/- 5.9 years) and
      15 male MDD-only (mean age, 20.3 +/- 5.5 years) patients. The
      electroencephalography (EEG) coherences were measured using a 21-channel digital
      EEG system and computed to assess synchrony in the frequency ranges of alpha (7.5
      12.5 Hz) and beta (12.5-35.0 Hz) between the following 12 electrode site pairs:
      inter-hemispheric (Fp1-Fp2, F7-F8, T3-T4, and P3-P4) and intra-hemispheric (F7
      T3, F8-T4, C3-P3, C4-P4, T5-O1, T6-O2, P3-O1, and P4-O2) pairs. Differences in
      inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence values for the frequency bands between
      groups were analyzed using the independent t-test. Inter-hemispheric coherence
      value for the alpha band between Fp1-Fp2 electrodes was significantly lower in
      MDD+IGD than MDD-only patients. Intra-hemispheric coherence value for the alpha
      band between P3-O1 electrodes was higher in MDD+IGD than MDD-only patients. Intra
      hemispheric coherence values for the beta band between F8-T4, T6-O2, and P4-O2
      electrodes were higher in MDD+IGD than MDD-only patients. There appears to be an
      association between decreased inter-hemispheric connectivity in the frontal
      region and vulnerability to attention problems in the MDD+IGD group. Increased
      intra-hemisphere connectivity in the fronto-temporo-parieto-occipital areas may
      result from excessive online gaming.

PMID- 28581275
TI  - Relationship between Mobile Phone Addiction and the Incidence of Poor and Short
      Sleep among Korean Adolescents: a Longitudinal Study of the Korean Children &
      Youth Panel Survey.
AB  - Three of ten teenagers in Korea are addicted to mobile phones. The aim of this
      study was to examine the relationship between mobile phone addiction and the
      incidence of poor sleep quality and short sleep duration in adolescents. We used
      longitudinal data from the Korean Children & Youth Panel Survey conducted by the
      National Youth Policy Institute in Korea (2011-2013). A total of 1,125 students
      at baseline were included in this study after excluding those who already had
      poor sleep quality or short sleep duration in the previous year. A generalized
      estimating equation was used to analyze the data. High mobile phone addiction
      (mobile phone addiction score > 20) increased the risk of poor sleep quality but
      not short sleep duration. We suggest that consistent monitoring and effective
      intervention programs are required to prevent mobile phone addiction and improve
      adolescents' sleep quality.

PMID- 28581276
TI  - Effects of Mental Health Support on the Grief of Bereaved People Caused by Sewol
      Ferry Accident.
AB  - Few studies have assessed the overall effects of multi-centered, complicated
      mental health support on the grief process. This study investigated the broader
      influence of mental health support provided practically to the bereaved family on
      the severity of complicated grief. Ninety-three bereaved family members of the
      Sewol ferry accident were recruited. Severity of complicated grief, post
      traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive disorder was assessed through
      self-reporting questionnaire, inventory of complicated grief (ICG), PTSD Check
      List-5 (PCL-5) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). We also included
      demographic, socioeconomic, health-related variables, and Functional Social
      Support Questionnaire (FSSQ), which affect the ICG score. Participants were
      divided into 4 groups based on the experience of psychotherapy or psychiatry
      clinic service before the accident and mental health support after the disaster.
      In univariate analysis, these 4 groups showed a significant difference in the
      mean ICG score (P = 0.020). Participants who received mental health support only
      after the Sewol ferry accident (group 2) showed a lower mean ICG score than those
      who received neither psychotherapy or psychiatry clinic service before the
      disaster nor mental health support after the accident (group 4). There was no
      significant correlation between the ICG score and other variables except for
      subjective health status measured 1 month after the disaster (P = 0.005). There
      was no significant difference in PCL-5 (P = 0.140) and PHQ-9 scores (P = 0.603)
      among groups, respectively. In conclusion, mental health support significantly
      reduced the severity of grief only in those participants who had not received any
      psychotherapy or psychiatry clinic service before the accident.

PMID- 28581277
TI  - National Surgical Trends for Distal Radius Fractures in Korea.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate national surgical trends for
      distal radius fractures (DRFs) in Korea and analyze healthcare institution type
      specific surgical trends. We analyzed a nationwide database acquired from the
      Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) from 2011 to 2015.
      International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes and
      procedure codes were used to identify patients aged >= 20 years with newly
      diagnosed DRFs. A total of 459,388 DRFs occurred from 2011 to 2015. The
      proportion of DRF cases treated by surgery tended to increase over time, from
      32.6% in 2011 to 38.3% in 2015 (P < 0.001). Open reduction with internal fixation
      (ORIF) using a plate steadily gained in popularity each year, increasing from
      39.2% of overall surgeries in 2011 to 60.9% in 2015. The type of surgery for DRFs
      differed depending on the type of healthcare institution. ORIF (91%) was the most
      popular procedure in tertiary hospitals, whereas percutaneous pinning (58%) was
      most popular in clinics. In addition, general hospitals and hospitals with 30-100
      beds used external fixation more frequently than tertiary hospitals and clinics
      did. Overall, our findings indicate that surgical treatment of DRF, particularly
      ORIF, continues to increase, and that the component ratio of operation codes
      differed according to the healthcare institution type.

PMID- 28581278
TI  - Reduced Mortality in Severely Injured Patients Using Hospital-based Helicopter
      Emergency Medical Services in Interhospital Transport.
AB  - Recent evidence has demonstrated the survival benefits of helicopter transport
      for trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness
      of hospital-based helicopter emergency medical services (H-HEMS) in comparison
      with ground ambulance transport in improving mortality outcomes in patients with
      major trauma. Study participants were divided into 2 groups according to type of
      transport to the trauma center; that is, either via ground emergency medical
      services (GEMS) or via H-HEMS. The study was conducted from October 2013 to July
      2015. Mortality outcomes in the H-HEMS group were compared with those in the GEMS
      group by using the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) analysis. The number
      of participants finally included in the study was 312. Among these patients, 63
      were adult major trauma patients transported via H-HEMS, and 47.6% were involved
      in traffic accidents. For interhospital transport, the Z and W statistics
      revealed significantly higher scores in the H-HEMS group than in the GEMS group
      (Z statistic, 2.02 vs. 1.16; P = 0.043 vs. 0.246; W statistic, 8.87 vs. 2.85),
      and 6.02 more patients could be saved per 100 patients when H-HEMS was used for
      transportation. TRISS analysis revealed that the use of H-HEMS for transporting
      adult major trauma patients was associated with significantly improved survival
      compared to the use of GEMS.

PMID- 28581279
TI  - Improved Software to Browse the Serial Medical Images for Learning.
AB  - The thousands of serial images used for medical pedagogy cannot be included in a
      printed book; they also cannot be efficiently handled by ordinary image viewer
      software. The purpose of this study was to provide browsing software to grasp
      serial medical images efficiently. The primary function of the newly programmed
      software was to select images using 3 types of interfaces: buttons or a
      horizontal scroll bar, a vertical scroll bar, and a checkbox. The secondary
      function was to show the names of the structures that had been outlined on the
      images. To confirm the functions of the software, 3 different types of image data
      of cadavers (sectioned and outlined images, volume models of the stomach, and
      photos of the dissected knees) were inputted. The browsing software was
      downloadable for free from the homepage (anatomy.co.kr) and available off-line.
      The data sets provided could be replaced by any developers for their educational
      achievements. We anticipate that the software will contribute to medical
      education by allowing users to browse a variety of images.

PMID- 28581280
TI  - Different Age Distribution between Campylobacteriosis and Nontyphoidal
      Salmonellosis in Hospitalized Korean Children with Acute Inflammatory Diarrhea.
AB  - We investigated recent epidemiologic trends regarding campylobacteriosis vs.
      nontyphoidal salmonellosis (NTS), a previously known leading cause of bacterial
      enterocolitis in Korean children. Among 363 hospitalized children with acute
      inflammatory diarrhea, Campylobacter (18.7%) was the most frequently detected
      pathogen using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests followed by Salmonella
      (15.4%). Children with campylobacteriosis were older than children with NTS
      (112.6 months [interquartile range (IQR) 66.0-160.1] vs. 53 months [IQR 31.0
      124.0], P < 0.001) and had higher prevalences of abdominal cramping and stool
      hemoglobin. Campylobacteriosis may be suspected as a primary cause of acute
      inflammatory diarrhea in hospitalized school-aged Korean children and
      adolescents.

PMID- 28581282
TI  - Letter to the Editor: ASA Physical Status Classification in Surgical Oncology and
      the Importance of Improving Inter-Rater Reliability.

PMID- 28581281
TI  - A Case of Rheumatoid Vasculitis Involving Hepatic Artery in Early Rheumatoid
      Arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid vasculitis is a rare, but most serious extra-articular complications
      of long-standing, seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Vasculitis of hepatic
      artery is an extremely rare but severe manifestation of rheumatoid vasculitis. A
      72-year-old woman who presented with polyarthralgia for 2 months was diagnosed
      with early RA. Since she had manifestations of livedo reticularis, and liver
      dysfunction which was atypical for RA patients, a percutaneous needle liver
      biopsy was performed revealing arteritis of a medium-sized hepatic artery.
      Extensive investigations did not reveal evidences of other systemic causes such
      as malignancy or systemic vasculitis. The patient was diagnosed with rheumatoid
      vasculitis involving hepatic arteries based on Bacon and Scott criteria for
      rheumatoid vasculitis. With high dose corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide
      induction and methotrexate and tacrolimus maintenance treatment, she was
      successfully recovered. Association of rheumatoid vasculitis at very early stages
      of the disease may represent an early aggressive form of RA.

PMID- 28581283
TI  - The Author's Response: ASA Physical Status Classification in Surgical Oncology
      and the Importance of Improving Inter-Rater Reliability.

PMID- 28581284
TI  - Evaluation of Corneal Endothelial Cell Loss After Uncomplicated
      Phacoemulsification Cataract Surgery With Intracameral Phenylephrine.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the effects of intracameral phenylephrine 1.5% on corneal
      endothelial cell loss and morphological changes in patients who had uneventful
      phacoemulsification surgery. DESIGN: A double-blind randomized controlled trial.
      METHODS: This study comprised 295 patients who were randomized into the
      intracameral (ICM) mydriatic group or topical mydriatic group. Central corneal
      endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation (CV), and percentage of
      hexagonal cells were measured preoperatively and postoperatively at 1 week, 6
      weeks, and 3 months with specular microscope. RESULTS: There was no significant
      difference in endothelial cell density and endothelial cell loss between the
      topical and ICM mydriatic groups. At 3 months, the mean endothelial cell density
      in the ICM group was 2129.76 +/- 423.53 cells/mm2 and 2100.54 +/- 393.00
      cells/mm2 in the topical group (P = 0.539). The endothelial cell loss was 18.60
      +/- 12.79% in the IC M group and 19.44 +/- 11.24% in the topical group (P =
      0.550). No significant difference was seen in the percentage of hexagonal cells
      and coefficient of variation of patients between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Intracameral phenylephrine was not associated with increased risk of
      postoperative endothelial cell loss or morphological changes. It can be safely
      injected into the anterior chamber for pupil dilatation before
      phacoemulsification cataract surgery.

PMID- 28581285
TI  - Long-Term Stability of Minimally Invasive Radial Keratotomy for Mild to Moderate
      Keratoconus.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the long-term stability of minimally
      invasive radial keratotomy (mini-RK) for eyes with mild to moderate keratoconus.
      DESIGN: Retrospective observational case series. METHODS: Eleven eyes from 6
      patients with hard contact lens (HCL)-intolerant keratoconus underwent mini-RK
      and were followed up for more than 5 years. The mini-RK consisted of 8 radial
      incisions with depths of 90% of the thinnest corneal thickness, based on the
      Lindstrom nomogram. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), keratometry, and corneal
      endothelial cell density (ECD) were examined preoperatively and for 5 to 10 years
      postoperatively. Changes in keratometric astigmatism were evaluated using power
      vector analysis. Severities of keratoconus preoperatively and 1 year
      postoperatively were graded using the Amsler-Krumeich classification. RESULTS:
      The postoperative observation periods were from 6 to 10 years (mean, 7.9 years).
      There were no changes in the BCVA, ECD, and keratometric astigmatism. The mean
      keratometric refraction significantly decreased from 47.5 diopters (D)
      preoperatively to 44.0 D at 1 month after mini-RK (P = 0.037) and was stable over
      5 years, whereas keratometric astigmatism did not change from preoperatively
      through the postoperative period (P > 0.59). Keratoconus of grade 2 or higher
      improved to lower grades. CONCLUSIONS: The mini-RK treatment was safe and
      effective for HCL-intolerant eyes with mild to moderate keratoconus.

PMID- 28581286
TI  - Thermally Stable Sr2RuO4 Electrode for Oxide Heterostructures.
AB  - The use of thermally stable Sr2RuO4 electrodes in high-temperature synthesis of
      oxide heterostructures was investigated. Atomically smooth Sr2RuO4 thin films
      were grown on SrTiO3(001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition and used as a
      bottom electrode for ferroelectric BaTiO3 capacitors grown at temperatures of up
      to 1000  degrees C. The thermal stability of Sr2RuO4 electrodes was verified by
      structural and electrical measurements of the ferroelectric BaTiO3 films. The
      best growth temperature for the BaTiO3 films was found to be 900  degrees C,
      exhibiting the largest spontaneous polarization, dielectric constant, and
      pyroelectric response. We conclude that Sr2RuO4 films are suitable for use as
      thermally stable electrodes in heterostructures synthesized at temperatures up to
      at least 1000  degrees C and oxygen pressures from 10-6 to 10-1 Torr. This range
      of growth film conditions is much wider than that for other common oxide
      electrode materials such as SrRuO3, widening the available process window for
      optimizing the performance of oxide electronic devices.

PMID- 28581287
TI  - Electrochemical Detection of Ultratrace (Picomolar) Levels of Hg2+ Using a Silver
      Nanoparticle-Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode.
AB  - Ultratrace levels of Hg2+ have been quantified by undertaking linear sweep
      voltammetry with a silver nanoparticle-modified glassy carbon electrode (AgNP
      GCE) in aqueous solutions containing Hg2+. This is achieved by monitoring the
      change in the silver stripping peak with Hg2+ concentration resulting from the
      galvanic displacement of silver by mercury: Ag(np) + 1/2Hg2+(aq) -> Ag+(aq) +
      1/2Hg(l). This facile and reproducible detection method exhibits an excellent
      linear dynamic range of 100.0 pM to 10.0 nM Hg2+ concentration with R2 = 0.982.
      The limit of detection (LoD) based on 3sigma is 28 pM Hg2+, while the lowest
      detectable level for quantification purposes is 100.0 pM. This method is
      appropriate for routine environmental monitoring and drinking water quality
      assessment since the guideline value set by the US Environmental Protection
      Agency (EPA) for inorganic mercury in drinking water is 0.002 mg L-1 (10 nM).

PMID- 28581288
TI  - Microporous Lanthanide Metal-Organic Framework Constructed from Lanthanide
      Metalloligand for Selective Separation of C2H2/CO2 and C2H2/CH4 at Room
      Temperature.
AB  - A novel pillar-layer porous lanthanide metal-organic framework
      [Tb3(ODA)3(BPDC)3Na2]n.Gx (UTSA-222, G = guest molecules) was constructed from an
      organic ligand [1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-dicarboxylate (BPDC2-) and a lanthanide
      metalloligand [Tb(ODA)]+ (H2ODA = oxydiacetic acid). The UTSA-222 contains two
      dimensional intersecting channels with the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area
      and pore volume of 703 m2 g-1 and 0.344 cm3 g-1, respectively, for the activated
      sample. It shows moderately high adsorption selectivity for C2H2/CO2 and C2H2/CH4
      separations at 1 atm and room temperature.

PMID- 28581289
TI  - Alkoxyurea-Based Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Increase Cisplatin Potency in
      Chemoresistant Cancer Cell Lines.
AB  - The synthesis and biological evaluation of potent hydroxamate-based dual HDAC1/6
      inhibitors with modest HDAC6 preference and a novel alkoxyurea connecting unit
      linker region are described. The biological studies included the evaluation of
      antiproliferative effects and HDAC inhibitory activity in the human ovarian
      cancer cell line A2780, the human squamous carcinoma cell line Cal27, and their
      cisplatin resistant sublines A2780CisR and Cal27CisR. The three most potent
      compounds 1g-i showed IC50 values in the low MUM and sub-MUM range. 1g-i revealed
      low nM IC50 values for HDAC6 with up to 15-fold preference over HDAC1, >3500-fold
      selectivity over HDAC4, and >100-fold selectivity over HDAC8. Furthermore, their
      ability to enhance cisplatin sensitivity was analyzed in Cal27 and Cal27CisR
      cells. Notably, a 48 h preincubation of 1g-i significantly enhanced the
      antiproliferative effects of cisplatin in Cal27 and Cal27CisR. 1g-i interacted
      synergistically with cisplatin. These effects were more pronounced for the
      cisplatin resistant subline Cal27CisR.

PMID- 28581291
TI  - Dipoles Inside of Dipoles: Insertion Complexes of Polar versus Nonpolar Molecules
      in Ion Pairs.
AB  - Highly polar molecular systems are in demand as a means of enabling many
      important practical applications based on light-matter interactions. In the
      present work, the insertion complexes of recently synthesized polar molecules
      trapped between alkali halide counterions are studied. For specific selected
      compositions, the M-molecule-X systems are predicted to be stable to dissociation
      into molecule + alkali halide. It is found that unlike their nonpolar molecule
      based counterparts, the polar molecule complexes can be even more stable than
      their common dipole-dipole MX-molecule isomers. This makes them thermodynamically
      stable, highly polar species, with very large dipoles of about 20 D, and they
      could be used, for example, to develop efficient light sensors. Furthermore, due
      to the neutralization of the M-X charge transfer in the excited triplet state,
      such complexes represent unique spin-controlled dipole-switch molecular systems
      with the large dipole turned off and even inverted by the spin state for the
      nonpolar and polar molecule complexes, respectively. This potentially could allow
      various spintronic and optoelectronic applications. In addition, the IR intensity
      spectra are predicted to sensitively indicate the formation of both the M
      molecule-X and MX-molecule isomers, thus facilitating their reliable detection
      and differentiation in experiments.

PMID- 28581290
TI  - Neoclerodane Diterpenoids from Reehal Fatima, Teucrium yemense.
AB  - Teucrium yemense (Defl), locally known as Reehal Fatima, is a medicinal plant
      commonly grown in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Phytochemical investigation of the
      aerial parts of T. yemense yielded six new neoclerodane diterpenoids, namely
      fatimanol A-E (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) and fatimanone (4), and the known teulepicephin
      (7). As both the Teucrium genus and the related Lamiaceae family have previously
      been widely reported to possess anthelmintic and antimicrobial activities, the
      structural and biological characterization of the seven diterpenoids was pursued.
      The structures of the new compounds were elucidated from their 2D NMR and MS
      profiles and by comparison to related compounds. The structure of fatimanol D (5)
      was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The new structures contribute
      to the breadth of knowledge of secondary metabolites in this genus.

PMID- 28581292
TI  - Photoinitiated Dynamics in Amorphous Solid Water via Nanoimprint Lithography.
AB  - Laser pulses that act on fragile samples often alter them irreversibly,
      motivating single-pulse data collection. Amorphous solid water (ASW) is a good
      example. In addition, neither well-defined paths for molecules to travel through
      ASW nor sufficiently small samples to enable molecular dynamics modeling have
      been achieved. Combining nanoimprint lithography and photoinitiation overcomes
      these obstacles. An array of gold nanoparticles absorbs pulsed (10 ns) 532 nm
      radiation and converts it to heat, and doped ASW films grown at about 100 K are
      ejected from atop the irradiated nanoparticles into vacuum. The nanoparticles are
      spaced from one another by sufficient distance that each acts independently.
      Thus, a temporal profile of ejected material is the sum of about 106
      "nanoexperiments," yielding high single-pulse signal-to-noise ratios. The size of
      a single nanoparticle and its immediate surroundings is sufficiently small to
      enable modeling and simulation at the atomistic (molecular) level, which has not
      been feasible previously. An application to a chemical system is presented in
      which H/D scrambling is used to infer the presence of protons in films composed
      of D2O and H2O (each containing a small amount of HDO contaminant) upon which a
      small amount of NO2 has been deposited. The pulsed laser heating of the
      nanoparticles promotes NO2/N2O4 hydrolysis to nitric acid, whose protons enhance
      H/D scrambling dramatically.

PMID- 28581293
TI  - Stereoselective Chiral Recognition of Amino Alcohols with 2,2'-Dihydroxybenzil.
AB  - 2,2'-Dihydroxybenzil is demonstrated to be a highly diastereoselective
      stereodynamic receptor for the chiral recognition of amino alcohols. The receptor
      by forming diimine compounds with amino alcohols showed good (11:1) to excellent
      (>50:1) diastereoselectivity in chloroform. The existence of intramolecular
      hydrogen bonding with amino alcohols only in an axial conformer is demonstrated
      by 1H NMR and CD spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and DFT computations. The
      exciton chirality method can be used with diazo-attached 2,2'-dihydroxybenzil.

PMID- 28581295
TI  - MQCT. I. Inelastic Scattering of Two Asymmetric-Top Rotors with Application to
      H2O + H2O.
AB  - A mixed quantum/classical theory (MQCT) for the inelastic collision of two
      asymmetric-top rotor molecules is developed. In this method, the quantum state-to
      state transitions between the rotational states of molecules (internal) are
      treated quantum mechanically using the time-dependent Schrodinger equation,
      whereas their relative translational motion (responsible for scattering) is
      treated classically, using the average trajectory approach. Two versions of the
      formula for transition matrix elements are presented: a straightforward approach
      that uses numerical multidimensional quadrature over all the internal degrees of
      freedom and a more standard analytic approach that uses the expansion of the PES
      over the basis set of spherical harmonics. Adaptation to the case of identical
      molecules scattering is presented and is applied to the rotational excitation of
      two water molecules, H2O + H2O, using the PES from recent literature.
      Calculations of collisional excitation from the ground state of the system into a
      number of low-lying excited rotational states are carried out in a broad range of
      energies. Analysis of computed opacity functions shows a rather unusual
      scattering regime, dominated by a strong anisotropic long-range interaction
      (dipole-dipole). The coupled-states (CS) approximation is tested and found to
      agree semiquantitatively (within a factor of 2) with the fully coupled version of
      the method. Differential cross sections for the elastic scattering indicate a
      very narrow forward scattering peak.

PMID- 28581294
TI  - Contrast-Matched Isotropic Bicelles: A Versatile Tool to Specifically Probe the
      Solution Structure of Peripheral Membrane Proteins Using SANS.
AB  - Obtaining structural information on integral or peripheral membrane proteins is
      currently arduous due to the difficulty of their solubilization, purification,
      and crystallization (for X-ray crystallography (XRC) application). To overcome
      this challenge, bicelles are known to be a versatile tool for high-resolution
      structure determination, especially when using solution and/or solid state
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and, to a lesser extent, XRC. For proteins not
      compatible with these high-resolution methods, small-angle X-ray and neutron
      scattering (SAXS and SANS, respectively) are powerful alternatives to obtain
      structural information directly in solution. In particular, the SANS-based
      approach is a unique technique to obtain low-resolution structures of proteins in
      interactions with partners by contrast-matching the signal coming from the
      latter. In the present study, isotropic bicelles are used as a membrane mimic
      model for SANS-based structural studies of bound peripheral membrane proteins. We
      emphasize that the SANS signal coming from the deuterated isotropic bicelles can
      be contrast-matched in 100% D2O-based buffer, allowing us to separately and
      specifically focus on the signal coming from the protein in interaction with
      membrane lipids. We applied this method to the DYS-R11-15 protein, a fragment of
      the central domain of human dystrophin known to interact with lipids, and we were
      able to recover the signal from the protein alone. This approach gives rise to
      new perspectives to determine the solution structure of peripheral membrane
      proteins interacting with lipid membranes and might be extended to integral
      membrane proteins.

PMID- 28581296
TI  - Synthesis of Donor/Acceptor-Substituted Diazo Compounds in Flow and Their
      Application in Enantioselective Dirhodium-Catalyzed Cyclopropanation and C-H
      Functionalization.
AB  - A tandem reaction system has been developed for the preparation of donor/acceptor
      substituted diazo compounds in continuous flow coupled to dirhodium-catalyzed C-H
      functionalization or cyclopropanation. Hydrazones were oxidized in flow by solid
      supported N-iodo-p-toluenesulfonamide potassium salt (PS-SO2NIK) to generate the
      diazo compounds, which were then purified by passing through a column of
      molecular sieves/sodium thiosulfate.

PMID- 28581297
TI  - The First Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (-)-trans-Dihydronarciclasine.
AB  - A feasible and enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-trans-dihydronarciclasine
      [(-)-1], a highly biologically active alkaloid, was devised starting from
      vanillin (8). The key step of this new synthesis was an asymmetric,
      organocatalytic Michael addition, in which an optically active nitropentanone [(
      )-13] was obtained from a butenone derivative (12). Excellent enantioselectivity
      (>99% ee) was achieved using the (8S,9S)-9-amino(9-deoxy)epiquinine (16)
      organocatalyst. The target molecule can be prepared in 13 steps from compound (-)
      13. The total synthesis has provided a facile and first access to the ent-form of
      naturally occurring (+)-trans-dihydronarciclasine, a highly potent cytostatic
      alkaloid.

PMID- 28581298
TI  - Boronic Acid Mediated Coupling of Catechols and N-Hydroxylamines: A Bioorthogonal
      Reaction to Label Peptides.
AB  - An irreversible, three-component assembly with 2-formylphenylboronic acid,
      catechol, and N-hydroxylamines was achieved in aqueous media. The boronate ester
      product was formed with substituted catechols including l-DOPA. Assembly was
      found to be orthogonal to common biological functional groups and both copper(I)
      catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition and aminoether/carbonyl condensations.
      Boronate ester formation and aminoether condensation were achieved in one pot
      with a hexameric peptide.

PMID- 28581299
TI  - Rhodium-Catalyzed Direct Bis-cyanation of Arylimidazo[1,2-alpha]pyridine via
      Double C-H Activation.
AB  - An efficient Cp*Rh(III)-catalyzed selective bis-cyanation of arylimidazo[1,2
      alpha]pyridines with N-cyano-N-phenyl-p-methylbenzenesulfonamide via N-directed
      ortho double C-H activation has been developed. The reaction proceeds with broad
      functional group tolerance to furnish various cyanated imidazopyridines in high
      yields. The current methodology exhibits unique characteristics, including high
      bis-cyanation selectivity, operational convenience, and gram-scale production.

PMID- 28581300
TI  - Reverse ego-depletion: Acts of self-control can improve subsequent performance in
      Indian cultural contexts.
AB  - The strength model of self-control has been predominantly tested with people from
      Western cultures. The present research asks whether the phenomenon of ego
      depletion generalizes to a culture emphasizing the virtues of exerting mental
      self-control in everyday life. A pilot study found that whereas Americans tended
      to believe that exerting willpower on mental tasks is depleting, Indians tended
      to believe that exerting willpower is energizing. Using dual task ego-depletion
      paradigms, Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c found reverse ego-depletion among Indian
      participants, such that participants exhibited better mental self-control on a
      subsequent task after initially working on strenuous rather than nonstrenuous
      cognitive tasks. Studies 2 and 3 found that Westerners exhibited the ego
      depletion effect whereas Indians exhibited the reverse ego-depletion effect on
      the same set of tasks. Study 4 documented the causal effect of lay beliefs about
      whether exerting willpower is depleting versus energizing on reverse ego
      depletion with both Indian and Western participants. Together, these studies
      reveal the underlying basis of the ego-depletion phenomenon in culturally shaped
      lay theories about willpower. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581302
TI  - Forgetting to remember our experiences: People overestimate how much they will
      retrospect about personal events.
AB  - People value experiences in part because of the memories they create. Yet, we
      find that people systematically overestimate how much they will retrospect about
      their experiences. This overestimation results from people focusing on their
      desire to retrospect about experiences, while failing to consider the
      experience's limited enduring accessibility in memory. Consistent with this view,
      we find that desirability is a stronger predictor of forecasted retrospection
      than it is of reported retrospection, resulting in greater overestimation when
      the desirability of retrospection is higher. Importantly, the desire to
      retrospect does not change over time. Instead, past experiences become less top
      of-mind over time and, as a result, people simply forget to remember. In line
      with this account, our results show that obtaining physical reminders of an
      experience reduces the overestimation of retrospection by increasing how much
      people retrospect, bringing their realized retrospection more in line with their
      forecasts (and aspirations). We further observe that the extent to which reported
      retrospection falls short of forecasted retrospection reliably predicts declining
      satisfaction with an experience over time. Despite this potential negative
      consequence of retrospection falling short of expectations, we suggest that the
      initial overestimation itself may in fact be adaptive. This possibility and other
      potential implications of this work are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581301
TI  - Solidarity through shared disadvantage: Highlighting shared experiences of
      discrimination improves relations between stigmatized groups.
AB  - Intergroup relations research has largely focused on relations between members of
      dominant groups and members of disadvantaged groups. The small body of work
      examining intraminority intergroup relations, or relations between members of
      different disadvantaged groups, reveals that salient experiences of ingroup
      discrimination promote positive relations between groups that share a dimension
      of identity (e.g., 2 different racial minority groups) and negative relations
      between groups that do not share a dimension of identity (e.g., a racial minority
      group and a sexual minority group). In the present work, we propose that shared
      experiences of discrimination between groups that do not share an identity
      dimension can be used as a lever to facilitate positive intraminority intergroup
      relations. Five experiments examining relations among 4 different disadvantaged
      groups supported this hypothesis. Both blatant (Experiments 1 and 3) and subtle
      (Experiments 2, 3, and 4) connections to shared experiences of discrimination, or
      inducing a similarity-seeking mindset in the context of discrimination faced by
      one's ingroup (Experiment 5), increased support for policies benefiting the
      outgroup (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and reduced intergroup bias (Experiments 3, 4,
      and 5). Taken together, these experiments provide converging evidence that
      highlighting shared experiences of discrimination can improve intergroup outcomes
      between stigmatized groups across dimensions of social identity. Implications of
      these findings for intraminority intergroup relations are discussed. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28581304
TI  - The relationships between religiosity and youth internalizing symptoms in African
      American parent-adolescent dyads.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: African American (AA) adolescents face a greater risk of
      internalizing symptoms, including symptoms of both depression and anxiety,
      compared with other racial groups; yet, relatively less is known about the
      variables that contribute to internalizing symptoms. With the aim of advancing
      this work, this study examined factors that may buffer against such symptoms
      (maternal warmth, religiosity), as well as those that may confer additional risk
      (maternal psychopathology). METHOD: One hundred ninety-three AA single mothers
      and their adolescent youth reported on religiosity, maternal warmth and
      depressive symptoms, and youth internalizing symptoms. Dyadic structural equation
      modeling was used to examine the effects of mother and adolescent religiosity,
      maternal warmth, maternal depressive symptoms, and adolescent age on youth
      internalizing symptoms as reported by both the mother and the adolescent.
      RESULTS: Consistent with hypotheses, maternal depressive symptoms were
      significantly associated with youth internalizing symptoms (as reported by the
      adolescent). Further, the impact of maternal religiosity on self-reported youth
      internalizing symptoms and its subscales was moderated by adolescent age.
      Specifically, maternal religiosity was associated with fewer self-reported
      internalizing symptoms in young adolescents, whereas the effect waned in older
      youth. CONCLUSIONS: Possible predictive coprocesses such as maternal influence on
      adolescent religious choices and identity formation are explored in the context
      of adolescent internalizing symptomatology. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581303
TI  - Interplay between children's biobehavioral plasticity and interparental
      relationship in the origins of internalizing problems.
AB  - The present study demonstrates the interplay between interparental relationship
      satisfaction and child plasticity in the origins of internalizing problems in 99
      community mothers, fathers, and children. Our cumulative measure of plasticity
      integrated genetics (5-HTTLPR polymorphism), psychophysiology (skin conductance
      level), and observed behavior (inhibition, sadness, joy). The interaction between
      plasticity and interparental relationship satisfaction reflected differential
      susceptibility. Compared with low-plasticity peers, high-plasticity children had
      more internalizing problems from 5.5 to 12 years when the interparental
      relationship at 4.5 years was acrimonious, but fewer problems when it was
      harmonious. Further, almost half of the children in this sample were
      "differentially affected" by the interaction such that greater plasticity was
      associated with fewer internalizing problems when their parents had a harmonious
      relationship, a key feature of differential susceptibility. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28581305
TI  - The roles of family, culture, and social cognitive variables in the career
      interests and goals of Asian American college students.
AB  - Although family and cultural factors have been assumed to play important roles in
      the career development of Asian Americans, theory-driven research on this topic
      remains limited. We examined culturally relevant factors that may contribute to
      Asian Americans' consideration of fields in which they are overrepresented (e.g.,
      science, technology, engineering) and underrepresented (e.g., education, social
      science). Drawing from social cognitive career theory, a culture-specific, social
      cognitive model of career interests and choice was tested in Holland's (1997)
      Investigative (I) and Social (S) themes. A sample of 802 Asian American
      undergraduates completed measures of family support, self-efficacy, outcome
      expectations, interest, and career choice consideration in relation to both
      Holland themes. Two indicators of acculturation/enculturation (adherence to Asian
      values and generation status in the United States) were also obtained. The model
      accounted for a substantial amount of variance in Asian American college
      students' career consideration in both themes. Family support and acculturation
      played varying roles, depending on the Holland theme. For example, family support
      was linked to career choice consideration both directly (in the S theme) and
      indirectly, via other predictors (in both themes). Contrary to expectations, the
      acculturation variables did not moderate the relation of family support or
      interest to career consideration in either theme. We discuss the implications of
      these findings for efforts to understand and facilitate the career development of
      Asian American college students. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581307
TI  - "Familiarity-based stimulus generalization of conditioned suppression":
      Correction to Robinson, Whitt, and Jones (2017).
AB  - Reports an error in "Familiarity-based stimulus generalization of conditioned
      suppression" by Jasper Robinson, Emma J. Whitt and Peter M. Jones (Journal of
      Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 2017[Apr], Vol 43[2], 159
      170). The article was incorrectly published under American Psychological
      Association copyright. The authors should have retained copyright of this article
      under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The online version of this
      article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article
      appeared in record 2017-15338-002.) We report that stimulus novelty/familiarity
      is able to modulate stimulus generalization and discuss the theoretical
      implications of novelty/familiarity coding. Rats in Skinner boxes received
      clicker -> shock pairings before generalization testing to a tone. Before clicker
      training, different groups of rats received preexposure treatments designed to
      systematically modulate the clicker and the tone's novelty and familiarity. Rats
      whose preexposure matched novelty/familiarity (i.e., either both or neither
      clicker and tone were preexposed) showed enhanced suppression to the tone
      relative to rats whose preexposure mixed novelty/familiarity (i.e., only clicker
      or tone was preexposed). This was not the result of sensory preconditioning to
      clicker and tone. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581306
TI  - Sandor Rado, American psychoanalysis, and the question of bisexuality.
AB  - The Hungarian-born physician and psychoanalyst Sandor Rado (1890-1972), who
      practiced for most of his career in the United States, played a central role in
      shaping American psychoanalysts' views toward homosexuality. Historians have
      pointed to Rado's rejection of Freud's notion of constitutional bisexuality as
      the key theoretical maneuver that both pathologized homosexuality and inspired an
      optimistic approach to its treatment. Yet scholarly analysis of the arguments
      that Rado made for his rejection of bisexuality is lacking. This article seeks to
      provide that analysis, by carefully reviewing and evaluating Rado's arguments by
      the standards of his own day. Because one of Rado's main arguments is that
      bisexuality is an outdated concept according to modern biology, I consider what
      contemporary biologists had to say on the topic. The work of behavioral
      endocrinologist Frank Beach (1911-1988) is important in this context and receives
      significant attention here. Rado ultimately distanced himself from Beach's
      behavioral endocrinology, appealing instead to evolutionary discourse to buttress
      his claim that homosexuality is pathological. This tactic allowed him to
      refashion psychoanalysis into a moralistic discipline, one with closer ties to a
      medical school. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581308
TI  - Feeling sad makes us feel older: Effects of a sad-mood induction on subjective
      age.
AB  - A mood-induction paradigm was implemented in a sample of 144 adults covering
      midlife and old age (40-80 years) to investigate associations between mood and
      subjective age. Sad or neutral mood was induced by texts and music pieces.
      Subjective age was operationalized as felt age relative to chronological age.
      Participants receiving the sad-mood induction reported changes toward older felt
      ages from pre- to postinduction. Participants receiving the neutral-mood
      induction reported comparable levels of subjective age at pre- and postinduction.
      Effects were comparable across middle- and older aged participants. Results
      suggest that sad affective states might dampen subjective age. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28581309
TI  - Age differences in emotion recognition: A question of modality?
AB  - Previous research has suggested age deficits in unimodal emotion recognition
      tasks. In 2 studies with independent samples, we tested the idea that older
      adults' performance will be enhanced in multimodal emotion recognition tasks. In
      each study, participants were presented with newly developed film clips, each
      portraying a young or an old woman while she relived an emotional memory. As a
      first step, participants received the film clips in each of 3 unimodal conditions
      (facial, lexical, prosodic). As a second step, participants were presented with
      tasks that contained different combinations of these modalities. Consistent with
      prior research, younger adults outperformed older adults in unimodal facial and
      prosodic tasks (Study 1) or in all 3 unimodal tasks (Study 2). As predicted,
      older adults profited more from multimodal stimuli than young adults so that
      there were no age deficits in the multimodal tasks (Studies 1 and 2). The
      findings support the idea that the ecological validity of laboratory tasks
      influence age differences in emotion recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581310
TI  - Patients with Parkinson's disease display a dopamine therapy related negative
      bias and an enlarged range in emotional responses to facial emotional stimuli.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The literature on emotional processing in Parkinson's disease (PD)
      patients shows mixed results. This may be because of various methodological
      and/or patient-related differences, such as failing to adjust for cognitive
      functioning, depression, and/or mood. METHOD: In the current study, we tested PD
      patients and healthy controls (HCs) using emotional stimuli across a variety of
      tasks, including visual search, short-term memory (STM), categorical perception,
      and emotional stimulus rating. The PD and HC groups were matched on cognitive
      ability, depression, and mood. We also explored possible relationships between
      task results and antiparkinsonian treatment effects, as measured by levodopa
      equivalent dosages (LED), in the PD group. RESULTS: The results show that PD
      patients use a larger emotional range compared with HCs when reporting their
      impression of emotional faces on rated emotional valence, arousal, and potency.
      The results also show that dopaminergic therapy was correlated with stimulus
      rating results such that PD patients with higher LED scores rated negative faces
      as less arousing, less negative, and less powerful. Finally, results also show
      that PD patients display a general slowing effect in the visual search tasks
      compared with HCs, indicating overall slowed responses. There were no group
      differences observed in the STM or categorical perception tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results indicate a relationship between emotional responses, PD, and dopaminergic
      therapy, in which PD per se is associated with stronger emotional responses,
      whereas LED levels are negatively correlated with the strength of emotional
      responses. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581311
TI  - Facial movements facilitate part-based, not holistic, processing in children,
      adolescents, and adults.
AB  - Although most of the faces we encounter daily are moving ones, much of what we
      know about face processing and its development is based on studies using static
      faces that emphasize holistic processing as the hallmark of mature face
      processing. Here the authors examined the effects of facial movements on face
      processing developmentally in children (8-year-olds), adolescents (12-year-olds),
      and adults (20-year-olds). In particular, the composite face effect was used to
      measure the influence of facial movements on part-based versus holistic
      processing after participants had viewed either a moving or static face in a
      within-subject design. Experiment 1 examined elastic facial movement (i.e.,
      blinking and chewing). The results showed that children, adolescents, and adults
      exhibited a significantly smaller composite effect after viewing a moving face
      than after viewing a static face. This result indicates that elastic facial
      movement facilitates part-based face processing from at least 8 years of age
      onward. Experiment 2 examined rigid facial movement (i.e., head turning) and
      revealed that it too facilitates part-based face processing in children,
      adolescents, and adults. The results taken together suggest that contrary to the
      prevailing view, facial movements facilitate part-based, not holistic, face
      processing in children, adolescents, and adults. The findings call for revision
      in the conventional way of thinking about what constitutes the developmental
      trajectory toward mature face processing and also point to the importance of
      using more naturalistic moving face stimuli to study face processing and its
      development. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581312
TI  - Babies and math: A meta-analysis of infants' simple arithmetic competence.
AB  - Wynn's (1992) seminal research reported that infants looked longer at stimuli
      representing "incorrect" versus "correct" solutions of basic addition and
      subtraction problems and concluded that infants have innate arithmetical
      abilities. Since then, infancy researchers have attempted to replicate this
      effect, yielding mixed findings. The present meta-analysis aimed to
      systematically compile and synthesize all of the primary replications and
      extensions of Wynn (1992) that have been conducted to date. The synthesis
      included 12 studies consisting of 26 independent samples and 550 unique infants.
      The summary effect, computed using a random-effects model, was statistically
      significant, d = +0.34, p < .001, suggesting that the phenomenon Wynn originally
      reported is reliable. Five different tests of publication bias yielded mixed
      results, suggesting that while a moderate level of publication bias is probable,
      the summary effect would be positive even after accounting for this issue. Out of
      the 10 metamoderators tested, none were found to be significant, but most of the
      moderator subgroups were significantly different from a null effect. Although
      this meta-analysis provides support for Wynn's original findings, further
      research is warranted to understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for
      infants' visual preferences for "mathematically incorrect" test stimuli.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581313
TI  - Tune yourself in: Valence and arousal preferences in music-listening choices from
      adolescence to old age.
AB  - In previous studies, older as compared with younger individuals were more
      strongly motivated to regulate their momentary affect toward pleasant and calm
      states. Whether these motivational differences are also reflected in regulatory
      behavior and whether this behavior is efficient in terms of affect change,
      however, is unclear. To address these issues, we conducted 3 studies with samples
      ranging in age from adolescence to old adulthood. In Study 1, we developed a
      novel and age-fair music browsing paradigm for music of diverse musical styles,
      dates of origin, and affective characteristics. The time spent listening to self
      selected music with varying levels of valence and arousal served as an indicator
      of affect-regulatory preferences in 2 different affectively relevant situations,
      namely after mood induction in Study 2 and before an upcoming discussion with a
      stranger in Study 3. As predicted, we found a higher preference for music with
      positive valence and low arousal in older as compared with younger individuals in
      both studies. Additionally, the efficacy of music listening as an affect
      regulatory strategy was supported because individuals' current affect
      significantly changed from before to after music listening (Studies 2 and 3),
      whereas that was not the case in an active control group listening to neutral
      nonmusical sounds (Study 3). These results extend previous research on affect
      regulation by demonstrating the utility of the music browsing paradigm as a
      behavioral indicator of affect-regulatory preferences in individuals from various
      age groups. They also provide evidence for age differences in, and affect
      regulatory effects of, music-choice behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581314
TI  - Intergenerational perceptions of mass trauma's impact on physical health and well
      being.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the perceived intergenerational impact of the
      1932-1933 forced starvation-genocide of Ukrainians and reports the perceived
      impact of the mass trauma on physical health and well-being across three
      generations. METHOD: Interviews were conducted with survivors of the 1930s mass
      trauma and their adult children and grandchildren. In total, 45 interviews were
      conducted in Ukraine and a qualitative thematic method was used to analyze the
      interview texts. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged from the qualitative analysis.
      First, survivors noted adverse physical health outcomes stemming from their
      experiences with the 1930s mass trauma. Second, mainly descendants of survivors
      reported that the mass trauma set into motion biological, psychological and
      social processes, which in turn, have negatively affected physical health across
      generations. CONCLUSIONS: Participants viewed the mass trauma of the 1930s to
      have affected the physical health of not only survivors, but also their adult
      children and grandchildren born decades after the traumatic event.
      Recommendations are made for cultural awareness training for clinicians who treat
      patients with family histories of ancestral trauma. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581315
TI  - Moral injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal behavior among National
      Guard personnel.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To empirically examine similarities and differences in the signs and
      symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury and to
      determine if the combination of these 2 constructs is associated with increased
      risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in a sample of U.S. National Guard
      personnel. METHOD: 930 National Guard personnel from the states of Utah and Idaho
      completed an anonymous online survey. Exploratory structural equation modeling
      (ESEM) was used to test a measurement model of PTSD and moral injury. A
      structural model was next constructed to test the interactive effects of PTSD and
      moral injury on history of suicide ideation and attempts. RESULTS: Results of the
      ESEM confirmed that PTSD and moral injury were distinct constructs characterized
      by unique symptoms, although depressed mood loaded onto both PTSD and moral
      injury. The interaction of PTSD and moral injury was associated with
      significantly increased risk for suicide ideation and attempts. A sensitivity
      analysis indicated the interaction remained a statistically significant predictor
      of suicide attempt even among the subgroup of participants with a history of
      suicide ideation. CONCLUSION: PTSD and moral injury represent separate constructs
      with unique signs and symptoms. The combination of PTSD and moral injury confers
      increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and differentiates between
      military personnel who have attempted suicide and those who have only thought
      about suicide. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581316
TI  - The relationship between childhood abuse and violent victimization in homeless
      and marginally housed women: The role of dissociation as a potential mediator.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have established a link between childhood abuse and
      dissociation. Other work has shown childhood abuse increases the likelihood of
      violent victimization in adulthood. Although it has been posited that
      dissociation may mediate childhood abuse and adult violent victimization,
      research investigating this hypothesis is sparse, particularly for extremely
      vulnerable populations such as homeless and unstably housed individuals.
      investigated the relationship between childhood abuse and dissociation on violent
      victimization in a cohort of homeless and unstably housed women. We also assessed
      whether dissociation mediated childhood abuse and violent victimization in this
      sample. METHOD: Participants were asked at an initial assessment and a 6-month
      follow-up to report any physical or sexual violence experienced in the previous 6
      months. Questionnaires recording history of specific types of childhood abuse,
      dissociation, and other factors were also recorded at the initial assessment.
      RESULTS: Hierarchical logistic regression models revealed that childhood sexual
      abuse (Odds ratio [OR] = 3.10, p < .01) and severe dissociation (OR = 1.99, p <
      .01) were significantly associated with recent physical violence, and childhood
      sexual abuse (OR = 3.88, p < .01) and dissociation (OR = 1.87, p < .05) were also
      associated with recent sexual violence. Dissociation mediated neither childhood
      abuse on recent physical violence or recent sexual violence. CONCLUSION:
      Developing approaches that effectively identify and treat dissociation as a part
      of an overall framework of trauma-informed care in homeless and unstably housed
      women may be an effective way to decrease future physical violence in this
      vulnerable population. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581317
TI  - "Learning how to ask": Effectiveness of a training for trauma inquiry and
      response in substance use disorder healthcare professionals.
AB  - CONTEXT: Exposure to traumatic events should be systematically assessed in health
      care services so that trauma-related treatment can be offered when appropriate.
      However, professionals often lack expertise in trauma inquiry and response, and
      therefore require training in this field. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine
      whether the "Learning how to ask" training for trauma inquiry and response (Read,
      Hammersley, & Rudegeair, 2007) is effective in increasing health care
      professionals' trauma inquiry behavior. METHOD: 148 professionals working in
      outpatient substance use disorder (SUD) services were cluster-randomized into an
      intervention or a waiting control group. The intervention group received a 1-day
      training and a refresher session 3 months later, while the control group received
      no training. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the frequency of
      asking clients about traumatic events. Secondary outcomes were professionals'
      evaluation of the training, knowledge, attitudes toward and confidence in trauma
      inquiry and response. RESULTS: Change from baseline in the frequency of asking
      clients about traumatic events was significantly greater at 3-month and 6-month
      follow-up in the intervention group compared with the control group (b = 0.43,
      95% CI [0.27, 0.59], p < .001). The training was positively evaluated by the
      participants. Knowledge, positive attitudes toward and confidence in trauma
      inquiry and response all showed significantly greater increases in the
      intervention group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest
      that health care professionals can acquire skills in trauma inquiry and response
      from short trainings, which may enhance systematic assessment of traumatic
      events. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581319
TI  - Effect of the environment on participation in spinal cord injuries/disorders: The
      mediating impact of resilience, grief, and self-efficacy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that the
      influence of environmental barriers on participation will be fully mediated by
      psychosocial factors (resilience, grief or loss, and self-efficacy) among
      individuals with spinal cord injuries and disorders. METHOD: This was a cross
      sectional mailed survey with a national sample of veterans with spinal cord
      injuries and disorders (n = 565), which included measures of demographics,
      perceived environmental barriers, participation, resilience, grief or loss, and
      self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using a latent variable path analysis; the
      model fit was assessed using chi2, normed chi2, root mean square error of
      approximation (RMSEA; <0.07), Comparative Fit Index (CFI; >=0.95), and Tucker
      Lewis Index (TLI; >=0.95). RESULTS: Participants were mostly male (93.9%),
      Caucasian or White (74.2%), and, on average, 62.4 years of age (SD = 10.48).
      Almost 62% had paraplegia, and 38.3% had a motor or sensory complete injury. The
      hypothesized model showed excellent fit, chi2(42) = 153.40, normed chi2 = 3.65,
      RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95. To assess for full mediation, a direct path
      was added from environment to participation. This model showed nearly identical
      fit, chi2(41) = 153.39, normed chi2 = 3.74, RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95;
      the path from environment to participation was not significant, unstandardized
      coefficient = -0.04, p = .92. Examination of indirect effects of the hypothesized
      model demonstrated that environment significantly influences participation
      through psychosocial factors, unstandardized coefficient = -4.85, p < .001.
      Together these results support full mediation. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion the
      present study expands upon past research by suggesting that perceived
      environmental barriers play a role in internal factors, such as resilience and
      self-efficacy, which in turn influence participation. Interventions to improve
      environmental barriers may be warranted, but attention must also be paid to
      resilience, grief or loss, and self-efficacy to increase participation. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28581318
TI  - Effect of alcohol dose on deliberate self-harm in men and women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nonexperimental survey and field research support the notion that
      alcohol use may be associated with deliberate self-harm (DSH) across the spectrum
      of lethality, from nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) through suicide.
      Nonexperimental studies, however, provide limited information about potential
      causal relationships between alcohol consumption and DSH. Two previous
      experiments showed that a relatively high-dose of alcohol increases the
      likelihood of engaging in DSH in men, with DSH defined by the self-administration
      of a "painful" shock (the self-aggression paradigm [SAP]; Berman & Walley, 2003;
      McCloskey & Berman, 2003). In this study, we examined whether (a) lower doses of
      alcohol also elicit DSH, (b) this effect occurs for women as well as men, and (c)
      individual differences in past nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) moderate alcohol's
      effects on DSH. METHOD: Nonalcohol dependent men and women (N = 210) were
      assigned either to .00%, .05%, .075%, or .100% blood alcohol concentration (BAC)
      drink conditions and completed a self-rating scale of NSSI (the Deliberate Self
      Harm Inventory [DSHI]; Gratz, 2001). As in previous SAP studies, DSH was
      operationalized by shock setting behavior during a competitive reaction time (RT)
      game. RESULTS: Overall, a greater proportion of participants in the .075% and
      .100% (but not .050%) alcohol conditions self-selected a "painful" shock to
      administer compared to participants in the placebo condition. NSSI predicted self
      administration of painful shocks, but did not moderate the alcohol effect.
      CONCLUSIONS: Results provide experimental evidence to support the notion that
      interventions for self-harm should include processes to monitor and limit alcohol
      intake. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581320
TI  - Who self-identifies as disabled? An examination of impairment and contextual
      predictors.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: According to Social Identity Theory, minority group members,
      like people with disabilities, manage stigma by either "passing" as majority
      group members or identifying with their minority group. Approximately 15% of the
      world's population has a disability, but only a fraction of those individuals
      identify themselves as people with disabilities. Disability identification has
      been associated with positive outcomes including psychosocial well-being, self
      advocacy, and political engagement. The International Classification of
      Functioning (ICF) recognizes that "disability" is constructed through the
      intersection of impairment and context (i.e., personal and environmental
      factors). This is the first study to examine ICF impairment factors (duration,
      noticeability, presence congenital impairment, pain, severity, and total number
      of impairments), personal factors (age, ethnicity, gender, income, and
      psychological distress), and environmental factors (social support and stigma)
      that predict disability self-identification. Research Method/Design: Participants
      living in the United States completed an online survey measuring the factors
      listed above. To avoid selection bias, disability was not mentioned in
      recruitment materials. Those who reported at least 1 impairment (n = 710) were
      retained for analysis. RESULTS: Supporting the ICF proposition that disability
      results from a combination of impairment and contextual factors, disability
      identification was predicted by severity, age, income, and stigma. Stigma
      partially mediated the relationship between severity and identification.
      CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Stigma and severity were the strongest predictors of
      disability identification. Future work should examine ways to foster positive
      disability identity such as cross-impairment connections through support groups,
      mentoring, and collective action against stigma. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581321
TI  - Does functional motor incomplete (AIS D) spinal cord injury confer unanticipated
      challenges?
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Examine psychological challenges associated with Spinal Cord
      Injury (SCI) among a cohort of Veterans. Research Method/Design: Cross-sectional
      descriptive study. SCI Centers participating in a multisite evaluation of
      longitudinal employment, quality of life, and economic outcomes among a large
      cohort of veterans with SCI, the Predictive Outcome Model Over Time for
      Employment (PrOMOTE) project. A total of 1,047 patients from participating SCI
      Centers provided baseline interviews. Main outcome measures included the Veterans
      RAND 36-Item Health Survey (VR-36) Mental Component Score (MCS); VR-36 Mental
      Health Scale; VR-36 Vitality Scale; VR-36 Bodily Pain Scale; Quick Inventory for
      Depressive Symptomatology, Self-Report (QIDS-SR); Patient Health Questionnaire
      Depression Scale (PHQ-9); and Diener Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS).
      RESULTS: ANOVA analysis showed that persons with AIS D SCI evidenced higher self
      reported depressive symptoms, higher pain, and a lower subjective quality of
      life. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Individuals with functional motor incomplete
      spinal cord injury are more vulnerable to psychological distress and a low
      subjective quality of life than might be expected based on functional outcomes.
      Further study appears warranted to ascertain potential explanations for these
      findings. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581322
TI  - Processing genuine and nongenuine smiles as social response to personal
      performance: An event-related brain potential (ERP) study.
AB  - We investigated the processing of faces with different smile expressions
      according to a context of personal performance. Individual judgments of smile
      happiness were collected to assess the processing of different types of smile
      when these were presented as a social response in a cognitive conflict task. Two
      main factors were considered: (a) Expression characteristics of the smile were
      manipulated: that is, happy (happy-happy), neutral (neutral-happy), or sad (sad
      happy) eyes were morphed in faces with smiling mouth; (b) The performance context
      in which the smiling face appeared as social response (after fast, average, or
      slow correct response). Participants rated happy-happy faces the happiest
      followed by neutral-happy faces, then sad-happy faces (happy-happy > neutral
      happy > sad-happy). Moreover, faces were rated more happy after fast responses as
      compared with average or slow responses (fast > average > slow). In addition to
      subjective ratings, we recorded the electroencephalography (EEG) and calculated
      event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The ERPs showed modulations of early
      visual potentials according to the expression characteristics of the face. The P1
      was larger for sad-happy than neutral-happy faces. Moreover, the relationship
      between performance and face had a significant impact on the early posterior
      negativity (EPN), an ERP component associated with emotion processing. Faces
      elicited the largest EPN amplitude after average and slow responses as compared
      with fast responses. These results show that smile processing and interpretation
      are determined both by the distinctive perceptual features of the smile
      expression and by the performance context in which the smiling face occurs.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581323
TI  - Everyday prosociality in the workplace: The reinforcing benefits of giving,
      getting, and glimpsing.
AB  - A functional analysis of prosociality considers how predispositions for prosocial
      behavior prompt, reinforce, and propagate kind behaviors in the real world. To
      examine the effects of practicing, receiving, and observing everyday prosociality
      as well as the mechanisms underlying these effects-we randomly assigned employees
      in a Spanish corporate workplace (N = 111) to be Givers, Receivers, and Controls.
      Givers practiced 5 acts of kindness for a personalized list of Receivers over 4
      weeks. We found that Givers and Receivers mutually benefited in well-being in
      both the short-term (e.g., on weekly measures of competence and autonomy) and the
      long-term (e.g., Receivers became happier after 2 months, and Givers became less
      depressed and more satisfied with their lives and jobs). In addition, Givers'
      prosocial acts inspired others to act: Receivers paid their acts of kindness
      forward with 278% more prosocial behaviors than Controls. Our results reveal that
      practicing everyday prosociality is both emotionally reinforcing and contagious
      (inspiring kindness and generating hedonic rewards in others) and that receiving
      everyday prosociality is an unequivocally positive experience (which may further
      reinforce Givers' actions). Prosociality's benefits shed light on its surprising
      ubiquity in humanity compared with our closest evolutionary cousins. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28581324
TI  - Helping yourself helps others: Linking children's emotion regulation to prosocial
      behavior through sympathy and trust.
AB  - Although emotionally well-regulated children are more likely to behave
      prosocially, the psychological processes that connect their emotion regulation
      abilities and prosocial behavior are less clear. We tested if other-oriented
      sympathy and trust mediated the links between emotion regulation capacities
      (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], negative emotional intensity,
      and sadness regulation) and prosocial behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of
      4- and 8-year-olds (N = 131; 49% girls). Resting RSA was calculated from
      children's electrocardiogram data in response to a nondescript video. Sympathy
      was child and caregiver reported, whereas negative emotional intensity, sadness
      regulation, trust, and prosocial behavior were caregiver reported. Regardless of
      age, higher resting RSA was linked to higher sympathy, which was associated with
      higher prosocial behavior. The positive link between sadness regulation and
      prosocial behavior was mediated by higher sympathy and trust. Children's other
      oriented psychological processes may play important roles in translating certain
      emotion regulation capacities into prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581325
TI  - Is affect experiencing therapeutic in major depressive disorder? Examining
      associations between affect experiencing and changes to the alliance and outcome
      in intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy.
AB  - Affect experiencing (AE), defined as the facilitation of client in-session bodily
      arousal and visceral experiencing of affect, is a distinct theoretical process
      presumed to contribute to therapeutic improvement. This study examined the role
      of AE in the treatment of major depressive disorder by exploring its association
      to client distress and therapeutic alliance on a session-by-session basis. A case
      series design was used to conduct an intensive analysis of the treatment process
      of 4 clients who received time-limited intensive short-term dynamic
      psychotherapy, 2 of whom were considered "recovered" and 2 who showed "no change"
      based upon posttreatment outcomes. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that
      cross-correlations between AE and client distress discriminated between
      "recovered" and "no change" clients. In "recovered" clients, there was evidence
      that higher in-session peak affect experience was associated with reduced
      distress 7 days later. The results did not provide consistent evidence for a
      reverse effect, showing that lower distress during the preceding week predicted
      higher AE in that session. Finally, there was evidence that AE is an in-session
      activity that can promote the strengthening of the therapeutic alliance. These
      collective findings suggest that AE is an important treatment process that
      contributes to alliance formation and psychotherapeutic improvement. Clinical
      implications include further evidence that psychodynamic therapists can utilize
      AE as an active change ingredient for depression. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581326
TI  - Patients' crying experiences in psychotherapy: Relationship with the patient
      level of personality organization, clinician approach, and therapeutic alliance.
AB  - The present study sought to further understand patients' crying experiences in
      psychotherapy. We asked 64 clinicians to randomly request one patient in their
      practice to complete a survey concerning crying in psychotherapy as well as a
      measure of therapeutic alliance. All clinicians provided information regarding
      their practice and patient diagnostic information. Fifty-five (85.93%) patients
      cried at least once, and 18 (28.1%) had cried during their most recent session.
      Patients' frequency of crying episodes in therapy was negatively related with
      psychotic level of personality organization, while patients' tendency to feel
      more negative feelings after crying was positively related to lower levels of
      personality organization. Patients' feeling more in control after crying was
      positively related with an interpersonal therapeutic approach, while patients'
      perception of therapists as more supportive after crying was positively related
      to a psychodynamic approach. Patients' tendency to experience more negative
      feelings after crying was significantly related with both lower levels of
      personality organization and patients' perception of the therapeutic alliance as
      weak. In regard to their most recent crying event in treatment, therapeutic
      alliance was related to gaining a new understanding of experience not previously
      recognized by the patient. Further, patients' experiences of having never told
      anyone about their experience related to a crying episode, as well as their
      realization of new ideas and feeling of having communicated something that words
      could not express was positively related to the goal dimension of alliance.
      Patients' perception of crying as a moment of genuine vulnerability, greater
      feelings of self-confidence and self-disclosure as well as having had a therapist
      response that was compassionate and supportive, was positively related with the
      bond dimension of alliance. Clinical implications and future research directions
      regarding patient crying experiences in psychotherapy are discussed. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28581327
TI  - Countertransference when working with narcissistic personality disorder: An
      empirical investigation.
AB  - Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is one of the most challenging clinical
      syndromes to treat in psychotherapy, especially due to the difficulties of
      establishing a good enough therapist-patient relationship. Countertransference
      responses to NPD can be particularly intense, frustrating, and difficult to
      manage, as is often reported in the clinical literature though not clearly
      supported empirically. The aims of this study were to (a) investigate the
      relationship between patients' NPD and therapists' responses; (b) examine the
      associations between patient, clinician, therapy variables and clinicians'
      reactions during treatment of NPD patients; and (c) provide an empirically
      derived portrait of countertransference with NPD. A sample of psychiatrists and
      clinical psychologists (N = 67) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire to
      identify patterns of countertransference, the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure
      200, and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale to assess the personality
      pathology and psychosocial functioning of a patient in their care. The results
      showed that NPD was positively associated with hostile/angry,
      criticized/devalued, helpless/inadequate, and disengaged countertransference and
      negatively associated with therapists' positive response, regardless of patients'
      personality and psychosocial functioning. NPD patients with stronger traits of
      cluster B personality pathology tended to elicit more negative and heterogeneous
      countertransference reactions than NPD patients without these features. The
      countertransference patterns with NPD patients were not strongly influenced by
      the variables of clinicians and therapy, with the exception of clinical
      experience. Overall, the portrait of therapists' reactions to NPD provided a
      clinically nuanced and empirically founded description strongly resembling
      theoretical-clinical accounts. The therapeutic implications of these findings
      were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581328
TI  - Therapist adherence is associated with outcome in cognitive-behavioral therapy
      for bulimia nervosa.
AB  - Studies of therapist adherence in relation to treatment outcome have produced
      mixed results. The aim of the present study was to investigate change in
      therapist adherence to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for bulimia nervosa
      over time, and to investigate the relationship between adherence and client
      outcome in early, middle, and late phases of treatment. Thirty-six clients
      received the focused form of "enhanced" CBT (CBT-E) for bulimia nervosa. Trained
      observers rated audiotapes of 92 full-length therapy sessions from early (Session
      3), middle (Session 11), and late phases (Session 20) of treatment using the
      Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Treatment Protocol Adherence Scale. Change in
      adherence across the 3 treatment phases was examined using multilevel analysis.
      The relationship between early, middle, and late adherence levels and end-of
      treatment binging frequency was examined using multilevel Poisson regression
      analysis. Adherence decreased significantly over the course of treatment. Higher
      levels of therapist adherence in early and middle phases of treatment were
      associated with reduced binging frequency, whereas higher levels of adherence
      measured late in treatment was not. Results indicate that therapists' adherence
      to the CBT-E treatment protocol decreases over time and that high levels of
      protocol adherence in early and middle phases of treatment are more important for
      positive client outcomes than high levels of adherence in the end of treatment.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581329
TI  - An empirical analysis of mental state talk and affect regulation in two single
      cases of psychodynamic child therapy.
AB  - Literature has shown the importance of mentalizing techniques in symptom
      remission and emotional understanding; however, no study to date has looked at
      the dynamic relations between mental state talk and affect regulation in the
      psychotherapy process. From a psychodynamic perspective, the emergence of the
      child's capacity to regulate affect through the therapist's reflection on the
      child's mental states is a core aspect of treatment. In an empirical
      investigation of 2 single cases with separation anxiety disorder, who were
      treated in long-term psychodynamic play therapy informed with mentalization
      principles, the effect of therapists' and children's use of mental state talk on
      children's subsequent capacity to regulate affect in play was assessed. One case
      was a positive outcome case, whereas the other did not show symptomatic
      improvement at the end of treatment. Children's and therapists' utterances in the
      sessions were coded using the Coding System for Mental State Talk in Narratives,
      and children's play was coded by Children's Play Therapy Instrument, which
      generated an index of children's "affect regulation." Time-series Granger
      Causality tests showed that even though both therapists' use of mental state talk
      significantly predicted children's subsequent affect regulation, the association
      between child's mental state talk and affect regulation was only supported for
      the child who showed clinically significant symptom reduction. This study
      provided preliminary support that mental state talk in psychodynamic
      psychotherapy facilitates emotion regulation in play. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28581330
TI  - Younger and older adults' associative memory for social information: The role of
      information importance.
AB  - The ability to associate items in memory is critical for social interactions.
      Older adults show deficits in remembering associative information but can
      sometimes remember high-value information. In two experiments, younger and older
      participants studied faces, names, and occupations that were of differing social
      value. There were no age differences in the recall of important information in
      Experiment 1, but age differences were present for less important information. In
      Experiment 2, when younger adults' encoding time was reduced, age differences
      were largely absent. These findings are considered in light of value-directed
      strategies when remembering social associative information. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28581331
TI  - Exploring indications for the Use of direct oral anticoagulants and the
      associated risks of major bleeding.
AB  - Thrombosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States.
      Arterial and venous thromboses are implicated in the pathogenesis of major
      disorders, including myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and venous
      thromboembolism. Over the past decade, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) (eg,
      direct thrombin inhibitor and factor Xa [FXa] inhibitors) have been adopted as
      alternatives to warfarin due to their clinical advantages and efficacy for the
      treatment of thrombosis. As with all anticoagulants, treatment with DOACs is
      associated with a risk of major bleeding, including life-threatening
      gastrointestinal bleeds and intracranial hemorrhages (ICHs). In turn, the burden
      of bleeding associated with DOAC treatment is itself associated with substantial
      healthcare costs that are amplified by an increased risk of thromboembolic events
      and mortality following major bleeding events, especially in patients with ICHs.
      Given the rapid adoption of the DOACs and projected usage in the large patient
      population affected by thromboembolic conditions, clinicians are increasingly
      likely to encounter patients with major bleeding events due to DOAC therapy.
      Unlike warfarin, effective strategies to manage these bleeds are limited. There
      is an unmet need for reversal agents for use in the management of patients who
      receive FXa inhibitors and experience life-threatening bleeding or need emergency
      surgery. Andexanet alfa and ciraparantag are being evaluated as potential
      antidotes for both direct and indirect FXa inhibitors.

PMID- 28581333
TI  - Relations of Early Motor Skills on Age and Socialization, Communication, and
      Daily Living in Young Children With Developmental Disabilities.
AB  - Young children with developmental disabilities experience known deficits in
      salient child behaviors, such as social behaviors, communication, and aspects of
      daily living, behaviors that generally improve with chronological age. The
      purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of motor skills on
      relations of age and salient child behaviors in a group of young children with
      developmental disabilities, thus tapping into the potential influences of motor
      skills in the development of salient child behaviors. One hundred thirteen young
      children with developmental disabilities participated in this study. Independent
      mediation analysis, with gender as a moderator between the mediating and outcome
      variable, indicated that motor skills meditated relations between age and
      socialization, communication, and daily living skills in young male children with
      developmental disabilities, but not female participants. Findings suggest motor
      skill content needs to be considered in combination with other child behaviors
      commonly focused on in early intervention.

PMID- 28581334
TI  - Heat Tolerances of Salmonella, Cronobacter sakazakii, and Pediococcus
      acidilactici Inoculated into Galactooligosaccharide.
AB  - Food-grade galactooligosaccharide (GOS) with low water activity (aw of ca. 0.7)
      is used as an ingredient in various foods. We evaluated heat tolerances of
      Salmonella, Cronobacter sakazakii, and Pediococcus acidilactici at temperatures
      (70 to 85 degrees C) used during the saturation process of GOS by comparing
      decimal reduction time (D-values) and thermal resistance constants (z-values). To
      determine the D- and z-values, GOS containing Salmonella (5.1 to 5.8 log CFU/g)
      or C. sakazakii (5.3 to 5.9 log CFU/g) was heat treated at 70, 77.5, or 85
      degrees C for up to 40, 25, or 15 s, respectively, and GOS containing P.
      acidilactici (6.1 to 6.5 log CFU/g) was heat treated at 70, 77.5, or 85 degrees C
      for up to 150, 75, or 40 s, respectively. The D-values were calculated using a
      linear model for heating time versus microbial population for each bacterium.
      When the D-values for Salmonella, C. sakazakii, and P. acidilactici in GOS were
      compared, the thermal resistance of all bacteria decreased as the temperature
      increased. Among the three bacteria, P. acidilactici had higher D-values than did
      Salmonella and C. sakazakii. The z-values of Salmonella, C. sakazakii, and P.
      acidilactici were 30.10, 33.18, and 13.04 degrees C, respectively. Overall order
      of thermal resistance was P. acidilactici > Salmonella ~ C. sakazakii. These
      results will be useful for selecting appropriate heat treatment conditions for
      the decontamination of pathogenic microorganisms during GOS manufacturing.

PMID- 28581335
TI  - Writing interventions in older adults and former children of the World War II:
      impact on quality of life and depression.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current study was to analyze whether biographical
      writing interventions have an impact on depression and QoL compared to daily
      diary writing. We also wanted to investigate differential effects between
      structured and unstructured interventions. METHOD: In two Northern regions of
      Germany, 119 older adults aged 64-90 were randomly assigned to three different
      types of narrative writing interventions: written structured and unstructured
      biographical disclosure as well as daily diary writing. Depression (PHQ-9), QoL
      (SF-12, EUROHIS) and trauma-related symptoms (PCL-C) were obtained pre- and post
      interventions as well as at three-month follow-up. RESULTS: Follow-up measures
      were obtained from 85 participants (29% loss to follow-up; mean age = 73.88;
      68.2% female). Results of repeated measurement analysis demonstrated a
      significant effect on depression with the daily diary writing group showing lower
      depressive symptoms than structured biographical writing. We did not find a
      significant impact on QoL. Post-hoc analyses showed that posttraumatic symptoms
      lead to increases in depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: In a non-clinical sample of
      community-dwelling older adults, biographical writing interventions were not
      favorable to daily diary writing concerning the outcomes of the study. This might
      be related to the association of traumtic reminiscences of former children of
      World War II and outcome measures.

PMID- 28581332
TI  - PPARs: regulators of metabolism and as therapeutic targets in cardiovascular
      disease. Part I: PPAR-alpha.
AB  - This article provides a comprehensive review about the molecular and metabolic
      actions of PPAR-alpha. It describes its structural features, ligand specificity,
      gene transcription mechanisms, functional characteristics and target genes. In
      addition, recent progress with the use of loss of function and gain of function
      mouse models in the discovery of diverse biological functions of PPAR-alpha,
      particularly in the vascular system and the status of the development of new
      single, dual, pan and partial PPAR agonists (PPAR modulators) in the clinical
      management of metabolic diseases are presented. This review also summarizes the
      clinical outcomes from a large number of clinical trials aimed at evaluating the
      atheroprotective actions of current clinically used PPAR-alpha agonists, fibrates
      and statin-fibrate combination therapy.

PMID- 28581338
TI  - Psychiatric Disorders and Quality of Life in the Offspring of Parents with
      Bipolar Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine current and lifetime psychopathology and assess quality
      of life (QoL) in offspring of a parent with bipolar disorder (BD). METHODS: We
      investigated 43 offspring of bipolar parents (high-risk offspring [HRO]) (mean
      age 12.5 +/- 3.1; range 6.7-17.9 years) and 43 comparison offspring matched for
      sex, age, and IQ of healthy parents. Lifetime and current presence of Diagnostic
      and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. (DSM-5) diagnoses were
      assessed using Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present
      and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). We administered parent and self-report versions
      of General Behavior Inventory and the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional
      Disorders (SCARED). QoL was evaluated using the self-report questionnaire
      KIDSCREN-52. RESULTS: Thirty-seven HRO (86%) and 18 controls (42%) met DSM-5
      criteria for at least one lifetime psychiatric diagnosis (adjusted OR = 7.20; 95%
      CI 2.27-22.81). Compared to controls, HRO had higher lifetime frequency of any
      mood disorder (33% vs. 2%, p < 0.001), anxiety disorder (60% vs. 14%, p < 0.001),
      and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (26% vs. 5%, p = 0.01). After
      adjustment for confounders, only mood (OR = 13.05; 95% CI 1.41-120.60) and
      anxiety (OR = 9.69; 95% CI 2.75-34.31) disorders remained significantly more
      frequent in the HRO group. In comparison with controls, HRO scored lower in the
      following domains: QoL, social support and relationship with peers (p = 0.003;
      Cohen's d = 0.91), parent relationships and home life (p = 0.008; d = 0.67), as
      well as self-perception (p = 0.04; d = 0.55). CONCLUSIONS: In agreement with
      other studies, we found a higher rate of lifetime anxiety and mood disorders in
      children and adolescents at confirmed familial risk for BD. Reduction in QoL was
      already evident across a number of domains. Adult psychiatrists should
      incorporate into their assessment procedures targeted questions on the presence
      of psychopathology in offspring of their adult patients with severe mental
      disorders and child services should bridge with adult services providing
      accessible services to children of affected parents.

PMID- 28581337
TI  - Featured Article: Electroporation-mediated gene delivery of surfactant protein B
      (SP-B) restores expression and improves survival in mouse model of SP-B
      deficiency.
AB  - Surfactant Protein B Deficiency is a rare but lethal monogenetic, congenital lung
      disease of the neonate that is unresponsive to any treatment except lung
      transplantation. Based on the potential that gene therapy offers to treat such
      intractable diseases, our objective was to test whether an electroporation-based
      gene delivery approach could restore surfactant protein B expression and improve
      survival in a compound knockout mouse model of surfactant protein B deficiency.
      Surfactant protein B expression can be shut off in these mice upon withdrawl of
      doxycycline, resulting in decreased levels of surfactant protein B within four
      days and death due to lung dysfunction within four to seven days. Control or one
      of several different human surfactant protein B-expressing plasmids was delivered
      to the lung by aspiration and electroporation at the time of doxycycline removal
      or four days later. Plasmids expressing human surfactant protein B from either
      the UbC or CMV promoter expressed surfactant protein B in these transgenic mice
      at times when endogenous surfactant protein B expression was silenced. Mean
      survival was increased 2- to 5-fold following treatment with the UbC or CMV
      promoter-driven plasmids, respectively. Histology of all surfactant protein B
      treated groups exhibited fewer neutrophils and less alveolar wall thickening
      compared to the control groups, and electron microscopy revealed that gene
      transfer of surfactant protein B resulted in lamellar bodies that were similar in
      the presence of electron-dense, concentric material to those in surfactant
      protein B-expressing mice. Taken together, our results show that electroporation
      mediated gene delivery of surfactant protein B-expressing plasmids improves
      survival, lung function, and lung histology in a mouse model of surfactant
      protein B deficiency and suggest that this may be a useful approach for the
      treatment of this otherwise deadly disease. Impact statement Surfactant protein B
      (SP-B) deficiency is a rare but lethal genetic disease of neonates that results
      in severe respiratory distress with no available treatments other than lung
      transplantation. The present study describes a novel treatment for this disease
      by transferring the SP-B gene to the lungs using electric fields in a mouse
      model. The procedure is safe and results in enough expression of exogenous SP-B
      to improve lung histology, lamellar body structure, and survival. If extended to
      humans, this approach could be used to bridge the time between diagnosis and lung
      transplantation and could greatly increase the likelihood of affected neonates
      surviving to transplantation and beyond.

PMID- 28581336
TI  - Challenges and progress in interpretation of non-coding genetic variants
      associated with human disease.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies have shown that the far majority of disease
      associated variants reside in the non-coding regions of the genome, suggesting
      that gene regulatory changes contribute to disease risk. To identify truly causal
      non-coding variants and their affected target genes remains challenging but is a
      critical step to translate the genetic associations to molecular mechanisms and
      ultimately clinical applications. Here we review genomic/epigenomic resources and
      in silico tools that can be used to identify causal non-coding variants and
      experimental strategies to validate their functionalities. Impact statement Most
      signals from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) map to the non-coding
      genome, and functional interpretation of these associations remained challenging.
      We reviewed recent progress in methodologies of studying the non-coding genome
      and argued that no single approach allows one to effectively identify the causal
      regulatory variants from GWAS results. By illustrating the advantages and
      limitations of each method, our review potentially provided a guideline for
      taking a combinatorial approach to accurately predict, prioritize, and eventually
      experimentally validate the causal variants.

PMID- 28581339
TI  - A novel technique to reduce the likelihood of proximal junctional failure.

PMID- 28581340
TI  - Conservative Treatment of Distal Radius Fractures: A Prospective Descriptive
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disability of the upper limb is one of the consequences of distal
      radius fracture (DRF). The outcome of DRF treatment is based on objective
      clinical variables, as strength or range of movement (ROM); sometimes these
      variables do not correlate with the functional level of the patient. The
      principal objective of our study was to assess the repercussion of conservative
      treatment of DRF on upper limb disability. METHODS: This is a retrospective
      review of prospectively collected data. We collected data of 61 nonconsecutive
      DRFs treated conservatively from July 2007 to August 2008. RESULTS: Average
      Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score before fracture was 20.8
      points; average DASH score after the fracture was 42.6. There was a significant
      increase in the upper limb disability after 1 year of follow-up in the patients
      treated conservatively ( P < .001; size effect, 1.06). Average radial
      inclination, radial tilt, and radial length were 18.18 degrees , 3.35 degrees ,
      and 5.76 mm, respectively. Average ROM for flexion-extension was 100.6 degrees 
      and for pronation-supination 144.0 degrees . ROM for flexion-extension of the
      unaffected wrist was 128.2 degrees  and for pronation-supination 172.4 degrees .
      We did not find any significant statistical correlation between the increase in
      disability and the decrease in the ROM ( P > .05). We did not find any
      significant statistical correlation between the increase in the disability and
      the worsening in the radiological parameters ( P > .05). Our results confirm the
      hypothesis that the conservative treatment of DRF produced an increase in the
      upper limb disability after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our study does not
      show a correlation between the increase in upper limb disability and the decrease
      in wrist ROM. Our study did not find a correlation between radiological measures
      and DASH scores.

PMID- 28581341
TI  - Improving Cardiometabolic Monitoring of Children on Antipsychotics.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated changes in cardiometabolic monitoring for
      children and adolescents who were prescribed an antipsychotic medication in a
      state mental health system before and after a quality improvement intervention.
      METHODS: The intervention included education for prescribers, auditing on
      metabolic monitoring, and feedback to mental health center leaders regarding
      their monitoring. Research staff extracted yearly data on cardiometabolic
      monitoring from randomly selected community mental health center records before
      and after the intervention. Pre- and postintervention changes in monitoring were
      assessed with chi-squared tests. RESULTS: Evidence of past year monitoring
      increased: for glucose 18.9%-42.1% (chi2 = 6.75, p < 0.001), for triglycerides
      13.5%-31.0% (chi2 = 4.54, p = 0.033), for cholesterol 13.5%-33.1% (chi2 = 5.48, p
      = 0.019), and for weight 67.6%-84.1% (chi2 = 5.21, p = 0.022). Rates of
      monitoring for blood pressure and waist circumference increased but not
      significantly. In both years studied, weight was obtained most frequently and
      waist circumference was obtained least frequently. CONCLUSIONS: Monitoring rates
      significantly improved for four out of six parameters evaluated, but overall
      monitoring rates remained low at the end of the study period. Prescriber
      education with audit and feedback may improve cardiometabolic monitoring rates,
      but research is needed to evaluate barriers to monitoring in children.

PMID- 28581342
TI  - Multiple Disease Resistance Loci Affect Soilborne Disease Resistance in Tobacco
      (Nicotiana tabacum).
AB  - Phytophthora nicotianae and Ralstonia solanacearum are two of the most important
      pathogens affecting tobacco worldwide. Greater insight regarding genetic systems
      controlling resistance to these two soilborne pathogens, as well as
      identification of DNA markers associated with genomic regions controlling this
      resistance, could aid in variety development. An evaluation of 50 historical
      tobacco lines revealed a high positive correlation between resistances to the two
      pathogens, preliminarily suggesting that some genomic regions may confer
      resistance to both pathogens. A quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping experiment
      designed to investigate the genetic control of soilborne disease resistance of
      highly resistant 'K346' tobacco identified four QTL significantly associated with
      resistance to P. nicotianae (explaining 60.0% of the observed phenotypic
      variation) and three QTL to be associated with R. solanacearum resistance
      (explaining 50.3% of the observed variation). The two QTL with the largest effect
      on Phytophthora resistance were also found to be the QTL with the greatest
      effects on resistance to Ralstonia. This finding partially explains previously
      observed associations between resistances to these two pathogens among U.S.
      current cultivars and within breeding populations. Further study is needed to
      determine whether these relationships are due to the same genes (i.e.,
      pleiotropy) or favorable coupling-phase linkages that have been established over
      time.

PMID- 28581343
TI  - Postoperative acute kidney injury following intraoperative blood product
      transfusions during cardiac surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study explored the nature of the association between
      intraoperative usage of red blood cell, fresh frozen plasma, cryoprecipitate or
      platelet transfusions and acute kidney injury. METHODS: A total of 1175 patients
      who underwent cardiac surgery between 2008 and 2013 were retrospectively
      analyzed. We assessed the association between: (1) preoperative patient
      characteristics and acute kidney injury, (2) intraoperative blood product usage
      and acute kidney injury, (3) acute kidney injury and 30-day mortality or re
      hospitalization. RESULTS: In our cohort of 1175 patients, 288 patients (24.5%)
      developed acute kidney injury. This included 162 (13.8%), 69 (5.9%) and 57 (4.9%)
      developing stage 1, stage 2 or stage 3 acute kidney injury, respectively.
      Increased red blood cell, fresh frozen plasma or platelet transfusions increased
      the odds of developing acute kidney injury. Specifically, every unit of red blood
      cells, fresh frozen plasma or platelets transfused was associated with an
      increase in the covariate-adjusted odds ratio of developing ? stage 2 kidney
      injury of 1.18, 1.19 and 1.04, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative blood
      product transfusions were independently associated with an increased odds of
      developing acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery. Further randomized
      studies are needed to better define intraoperative transfusion criteria.

PMID- 28581344
TI  - Exploring the Bilingual Phonological Space: Early Bilinguals' Discrimination of
      Coronal Stop Contrasts.
AB  - It is well known that the way monolingual listeners discriminate speech sounds is
      strongly influenced by their native (L1) sound system. Moreover, such perceptual
      constraints are not limited to monolinguals: multiple studies have found evidence
      of language-specificity in bilingual speech perception. However, the question of
      whether bilinguals have simultaneous access to both of their phonologies during
      non-native contrast discrimination has not been systematically examined. Namely,
      very few studies of bilinguals have specifically examined cases where a non
      native contrast pair straddles the boundary between two sound systems, with one
      sound corresponding to a sound in the L1, and the other to a sound in the second
      language (L2), but with neither the L1 nor the L2 containing both. The current
      study aimed to do so by comparing the ability of early bilinguals to discriminate
      non-native phonetic contrasts consisting of sounds that exist in either their L1
      or L2, but not in both. A forced-choice perception task compared two listener
      groups-Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals-on their perception of
      Nepali dental-alveolar stop contrasts. Results showed that despite displaying
      some sensitivity to phonetic differences within each contrast pair, the bilingual
      group was unable to discriminate such "cross-language contrasts" significantly
      better than the monolingual English control group.

PMID- 28581345
TI  - Development and identification of a new Vero cell-based live attenuated influenza
      B vaccine by a modified classical reassortment method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It was to generate a new Vero and cold-adapted live attenuated
      influenza B vaccine with enough safety and immunogenicity. METHODS: According to
      modified classical reassortment method, the donor strain was
      B/Yunnan/2/2005Vca(B), and the parental virus strain was B/Brisbane/60/2008wt.
      After co-infection in Vero cells, the prepared antibody serum inhibited the donor
      strain growth, and screening conditions inhibited the parental virus growth,
      which induced the growth of the new reassortant virus B/Brisbane/60/2008Vca(B)
      grow. Through intraperitoneal injection (i.j.) and intranasal injection (n.j.) we
      evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine. RESULTS: A high-yield of
      the reassortant virus was produced in Vero cells at 25 degrees C, similar to the
      donor strains. After sequencing, it was found that B/Brisbane/60/2008Vca(B)
      Hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA) gene fragments were from
      B/Brisbane/60/2008wt, while the other 6 gene fragments were from
      B/Yunnan/2/2005Vca(B). The n.j. immune pathway experiments showed no significant
      differences between the treatment and the PBS control group with respect to
      weight changes (P > 0.5). Furthermore, the new strain had a sufficient geometric
      mean titter (GMT) against B/Brisbane/60/2008wt. CONCLUSION: The new reassortant
      live attenuated influenza B vaccine was safe and having enough immune stimulating
      ability.

PMID- 28581346
TI  - Therapeutic Alliance and Group Cohesion in an Online Support Program for
      Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: Lessons from "Recapture Life".
AB  - Psychological support services for adolescent and young adults (AYAs) with cancer
      are moving online and are increasingly peer based. It is unclear whether online
      service delivery impacts critical therapeutic elements such as collaborative
      patient-therapist rapport and group cohesion. AYA cancer survivors (N = 39)
      participating in a six-week online cognitive-behavioral therapy group program
      "Recapture Life"-rated their perception of therapeutic alliance and group
      cohesion. Participant-rated alliance and group cohesion were high throughout the
      program, and therapist-rated participant openness, trust, and motivation
      strengthened over time. The findings provide further support for the expansion of
      AYA cancer support services to the online domain.

PMID- 28581347
TI  - Questioning Our APHINITY for More.

PMID- 28581348
TI  - Safety and efficacy of the Tryton Side Branch StentTM for the treatment of
      coronary bifurcation lesions: an update.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) involving coronary
      bifurcation lesions are associated with adverse outcomes compared with non
      bifurcation lesions. The Tryton Side Branch Stent has been developed to improve
      clinical outcomes after bifurcation PCI. Areas covered: We will discuss
      observational data (clinical registries and intravascular imaging studies) and
      randomized data from the TRYTON trial (comparing Tryton [used in combination with
      a main branch drug-eluting stent (DES)] with side branch balloon angioplasty [in
      combination with a main branch DES; also referred to the provisional strategy]).
      Expert commentary: The published data showed that the use of Tryton was feasible
      (successful stent placement in ~95%) and safe (stent thrombosis rates ~0.5% at 9
      12 months; no cardiac deaths in the TRYTON trial). Its use resulted in excellent
      acute angiographic results. However, the TRYTON trial also showed that due to neo
      intimal tissue growth, luminal dimension at 9 months were similar between Tryton
      and the provisional strategy. Furthermore, the trial showed an increased risk of
      peri-procedural myocardial infarction when Tryton was used in small side
      branches. Based on all data available, the provisional strategy should still be
      considered as the default strategy in the majority of bifurcation cases, although
      the use of Tryton may be considered in complex bifurcation anatomies with
      extensive disease in large side branches, especially when the device will be
      further improved by a drug-coating.

PMID- 28581349
TI  - Detection of Coxiella burnetii in Urban River Water.
AB  - Previous molecular-based studies have identified microorganisms of zoonotic and
      human nature in surface waters. Contaminated water can lead to human health
      issues, and the detection of pathogenic microorganisms is a valuable tool for the
      prevention of their spread. Water samples were taken from the River Tiber in and
      out of the city of Rome. Genetic analysis of the sequences obtained showed the
      presence of Coxiella burnetii in both the analyzed sites. Blast analysis showed
      that two sequences were identical to each other. Sequences from the polluted site
      showed high homology with different strains of C. burnetii. In this article, we
      report for the first time the presence of C. burnetii in environmental waters.

PMID- 28581350
TI  - Determining the key drivers and mitigating factors that influence the role of the
      Nurse and/or Midwife Consultant: a cross-sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally, many nurses and midwives are working at an advanced
      practice level. The role of a Nurse and/or Midwife Consultant encompasses a
      diverse and complex interaction between five specified domains namely Clinical
      Service and Consultancy, Clinical Leadership, Research, Education, and Clinical
      Services Planning and Management. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this replication
      study was to identify the key drivers and mitigating factors that impact the role
      of Australian Nurse and/or Midwife Consultants. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.
      METHODS: The study was conducted in a large metropolitan health district in
      Sydney, Australia. Participants for this study consisted of all Nurse and/or
      Midwife Consultants working within a health district in New South Wales (NSW).
      Data were collected by an anonymous online survey. Key drivers and mitigating
      factors perceived to influence their role were identified using previously
      implemented instruments. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS:
      Responses were obtained from 122 Nurse and/or Midwife Consultants. The number of
      years of experience as a Nurse and/or Midwife Consultant ranged from 6 months to
      25.5 years. Personal attributes which included personal motivation and own
      communication skills were identified as key drivers to role performance with a
      mean score of 7.7+/-0.6. Other key drivers included peer support, organisational
      culture, personal attributes, professional learning, Nurse and/or Midwife
      Consultant experience, and collaborative relationships. Of the 14 mitigating
      factors to the role, the most common factors were lack of resources to set up and
      develop the role (2.6 +/- 0.9), lack of secretarial support (2.6 +/- 1.1), lack
      of managerial support (2.45 +/- 1.1), and lack of understanding of the role by
      other health professionals (2.40 +/- 0.8). CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the key
      drivers and mitigating factors that influence the role of the Nurse and/or
      Midwife Consultant is important for healthcare managers. Given the changing
      landscape of nursing and midwifery practice, organisational strategies to provide
      ongoing support to address the mitigating factors are urgently needed. It is
      pivotal that nursing management implement strategies to empower Nurse and/or
      Midwife Consultants to perform and reach their potential to deliver advanced
      nursing care.

PMID- 28581351
TI  - Refractory cardiac arrest, inferior vena cava agenesis and extracorporeal
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a demanding combination.
AB  - Inferior vena cava abnormalities or agenesis had to be suspected in front of
      technical difficulties during venous catheterization. In the setting of
      extracorporeal life support and during chest compressions, femoral vascular
      access is the easiest, most efficient and, perhaps, the first approach for a
      successful extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the case of inferior
      vena cava agenesis leading to cannulation failure and/or complications, the use
      of the right internal jugular vein for salvage venous cannulation is a potential
      life-saving strategy.

PMID- 28581352
TI  - Interferon-gamma mediates the immunosuppression of bone marrow mesenchymal stem
      cells on T-lymphocytes in vitro.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we first confirmed the suppressive function of
      MSCs in allogeneic T cell proliferation and then examined the underlying
      mechanisms for MSCs' immunomodulation and the role of the pro-inflammatory
      cytokine interferon (IFN)-gamma. METHODS: Human MSCs were cultured in the
      presence or absence of IFN-gamma. The expression level of prostaglandin E2
      (PGE2), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1
      and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) by MSCs were measured. T lymphocytes were
      isolated from peripheral blood of healthy donors and then induced to proliferate
      under the stimulation of anti-human CD3 mAb and anti-human CD28 mAb. In the
      presence of MSCs, T cell proliferation was examined by BrdU incorporation. In
      addition, PGE2, HGF, TGF-beta1, Kynurenine, recombinant human IFN-gamma and anti
      IFN-gamma mAb were added and cell proliferation was examined. RESULTS: Compared
      to the controls (MSCs alone), MSCs cocultured with IFN-gamma expressed
      significantly higher concentrations of PGE2, HGF and TGF-beta1. The mRNA level of
      IDO was remarkably increased. Human bone marrow-derived MSCs alone notably
      suppressed T lymphocytes proliferation in vitro. Addition of exogenous IFN-gamma
      did not ablate the immunosuppressive effects of MSCs. Addition of anti-IFN-gamma
      mAb partially restored suppression of T cell proliferation by MSCs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Human MSCs constitutively expressed immunosuppressive levels of PGE2, HGF and TGF
      beta1. The proinflammatory cytokine IFN-gamma exhibited synergistic effects with
      MSCs on immunosuppression, possibly by up-regulating PGE2, HGF and TGF-beta1 in
      MSCs and inducting MSCs expression of IDO, involved in tryptophan catabolism.

PMID- 28581353
TI  - Four Night Shifts Have a Degree of Performance Adaptation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this case control study, we investigated the process of adaptation
      to night shift (NS) work and recovery back to a day schedule among nurses working
      a fast-rotation three-shift schedule. BACKGROUND: There is limited knowledge of
      how specific patterns of a fast-rotation shift affect nurses' performance.
      METHOD: The cognitive performance of off-duty nurses (OD; n = 21), those working
      the first night of an NS (1NS; n = 21) and the last night of two ( n = 21), three
      ( n = 20), and four (4NS; n = 21) successive NSs were compared. Changes in sleep
      propensity, cognitive function, and anxiety were compared in the daytime after
      working four successive NSs followed by 24 hr off (4NS-off; n = 18) and in those
      off duty. RESULTS: The visual attention task (VAT) of cognitive function was
      significantly worse in the 1NS group and significantly better on the last night
      in the 4NS group than in the other NS groups. The nurses in the 4NS-off group
      were less alert and had poorer VAT performance than the OD group during the
      daytime. CONCLUSION: The nurses working on NS experienced a decrease in VAT
      performance due to acute changes in circadian rhythm but also significant
      performance adaptation after four consecutive NSs. One off-duty day was
      insufficient to recover back to a daytime shift after four consecutive NSs.
      APPLICATION: In a fast-rotation three-shift schedule, performance adaptation
      occurred in the nurses who worked four consecutive NSs, and more than one off
      duty day are needed to recover back to daytime shift after those NSs.

PMID- 28581354
TI  - Perinatal outcomes associated with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine perinatal outcomes
      associated with cholestasis of pregnancy according to bile acid level and
      antenatal testing practice. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of women
      with symptoms and bile acid testing from 2005 to 2014. Women were stratified by
      bile acid level: no cholestasis (<10 MUmol/L), mild (10-39 MUmol/L), moderate (40
      99 MUmol/L), and severe (>=100 MUmol/L). The primary outcome was composite
      neonatal morbidity (hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, severe intraventricular
      hemorrhage, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, or death).
      RESULTS: 785 women were included; 487 had cholestasis (347 mild, 108 moderate, 32
      severe) and 298 did not. After controlling for gestational age (GA), severe
      cholestasis was associated with the composite neonatal outcome (aRR 5.6, 95% CI
      1.3-23.5) and meconium-stained fluid (aRR 4.82, 95%CI 1.6-14.2). Bile acid levels
      were not correlated with the frequency of testing (p = .50). Women who underwent
      twice weekly testing were delivered earlier (p = .016) than women tested less
      frequently, but the difference in GA was <=4 d. Abnormal testing prompting
      delivery was uncommon. Among women with cholestasis, there were three
      stillbirths. One of these women was undergoing antenatal testing, which was
      normal 1 d prior to the fetal demise. CONCLUSION: Severe cholestasis is
      associated with neonatal morbidity which antenatal testing may not predict.

PMID- 28581355
TI  - Pathologizing Altitude: Does Altitude Really Increase Sleep-Disordered Breathing?

PMID- 28581357
TI  - Pituitary apoplexy presenting as a peripheral rim enhancing parasellar mass
      lesion with dural enhancement along the tentorium.
AB  - Pituitary apoplexy is a potentially life-threatening clinical condition caused by
      rapid enlargement of a pituitary adenoma because of haemorrhage or infarction.
      The clinical features are typically acute in onset. We report an interesting case
      of 25-year-old man with complaints of sudden onset of headache and
      ophthalmoplegia in the right eye one month previously. He had ptosis and complete
      ophthalmoplegia in the right eye with visual acuity 6/24 and 6/12. Imaging showed
      a peripheral rim-enhancing mass lesion in the right parasellar and cavernous
      sinus with a dural tail. He underwent craniotomy and subtotal excision of the
      lesion. Histopathology was reported as pituitary apoplexy. Hormonal analysis was
      within normal limits. At two years of follow-up he had complete resolution of
      ophthalmoplegia and improvement in his vision. It is very uncommon to see
      pituitary apoplexy evolved in right parasellar region presenting as peripheral
      rim-enhancing mass lesion.

PMID- 28581358
TI  - Effect of copper nanoparticles administered in ovo on the activity of
      proliferating cells and on the resistance of femoral bones in broiler chickens.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate bone resistance after in ovo
      administration of copper nanoparticles (NanoCu) and to determine the number of
      cells positive for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the femoral bones
      of broiler chickens (n = 12 per group). The study demonstrated that femoral bones
      from the NanoCu group were characterised by a higher weight and volume and by
      significantly greater resistance to fractures compared to the Control group.
      NanoCu promoted the proliferation of PCNA-positive cells in the long bones of
      chickens. A significantly higher number of PCNA-positive cells in the bones of
      birds in the NanoCu group compared with the Control group (137 and 122,
      respectively) indicate a stimulatory effect during embryogenesis. Considering the
      improvement in bone resistance to fractures and the effect of NanoCu on the
      number of PCNA-positive cells in femoral bones, NanoCu may be an alternative
      agent to minimise the ever-present problem of weak bones in broiler chickens.

PMID- 28581359
TI  - In Vitro Activity of Sitafloxacin and Additional Newer Generation
      Fluoroquinolones Against Ciprofloxacin-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolates.
AB  - Emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a major public
      health concern globally, and new antimicrobials for treatment of gonorrhea are
      imperative. In this study, the in vitro activity of sitafloxacin, a
      fluoroquinolone mainly used for respiratory tract or urogenital infections in
      Japan, and additional newer generation fluoroquinolones were determined against
      ciprofloxacin-resistant N. gonorrhoeae isolates. Minimum inhibitory
      concentrations (MICs) of ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, sitafloxacin,
      pazufloxacin, and tosufloxacin against 47 N. gonorrhoeae isolates cultured in
      2009 in Japan were determined by agar dilution method. The quinolone resistance
      determining region (QRDR) of gyrA and parC was sequenced. The in vitro potency of
      sitafloxacin was substantially higher compared with all other tested
      fluoroquinolones. The MICs of sitafloxacin ranged from 0.03 to 0.5 mg/L for 35
      ciprofloxacin-resistant N. gonorrhoeae isolates (ciprofloxacin MICs from 2 to 32
      mg/L). No identified mutations in GyrA and ParC QRDR resulted in higher
      sitafloxacin MIC than 0.5 mg/L. Sitafloxacin had a high activity against N.
      gonorrhoeae isolates, including strains with mutations in DNA gyrase and
      topoisomerase IV, resulting in high-level resistance to ciprofloxacin and all
      other newer generation fluoroquinolones examined. However, it was still to a
      lower extent affected by GyrA and ParC QRDR mutations resulting in sitafloxacin
      MICs of up to 0.5 mg/L. This indicates that sitafloxacin should not be considered
      for empirical first-line monotherapy of gonorrhea. However, sitafloxacin could be
      valuable in a dual antimicrobial therapy and for cases with ceftriaxone
      resistance or allergy.

PMID- 28581360
TI  - The role of biofilms in persistent infections and factors involved in ica
      independent biofilm development and gene regulation in Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus biofilms represent a unique micro-environment that directly
      contribute to the bacterial fitness within hospital settings. The accumulation of
      this structure on implanted medical devices has frequently caused the development
      of persistent and chronic S. aureus-associated infections, which represent an
      important social and economic burden worldwide. ica-independent biofilms are
      composed of an assortment of bacterial products and modulated by a multifaceted
      and overlapping regulatory network; therefore, biofilm composition can vary among
      S. aureus strains. In the microniches formed by biofilms-produced by a number of
      bacterial species and composed by different structural components-drug refractory
      cell subpopulations with distinct physiological characteristics can emerge and
      result in therapeutic failures in patients with recalcitrant bacterial
      infections. In this review, we highlight the importance of biofilms in the
      development of persistence and chronicity in some S. aureus diseases, the main
      molecules associated with ica-independent biofilm development and the regulatory
      mechanisms that modulate ica-independent biofilm production, accumulation, and
      dispersion.

PMID- 28581361
TI  - The study of H. pylori putative candidate factors for single- and multi-component
      vaccine development.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori has grown to colonize inside the stomach of nearly half of
      the world's population, turning into the most prevalent infections in the
      universe. Medical care failures noticeably confirm the need for a vaccine to
      hinder or deal with H. pylori. This review is planned to discuss the most known
      factors as a vaccine candidate, including single (AhpC, BG, CagA, KatA, Fla, Hsp,
      HWC, Lpp, LPS, NAP, OMP, OMV, SOD, Tpx, Urease, VacA) and multi-component
      vaccines. Many promising results in the field of single and multivalent vaccine
      can be seen, but there is no satisfactory outcome and neither a prophylactic nor
      a therapeutic vaccine to treat or eradicate the infection in human has been
      acquired. Hence, selecting suitable antigen is an important factor as an
      appropriate adjuvant. Taken all together, the development of efficient anti-H.
      pylori vaccines relies on the fully understanding of the interactions between H.
      pylori and its host immune system. Therefore, more work should be done on epitope
      mapping, analysis of molecular structure, and determination of the antigen
      determinant region as well due to design a vaccine, preferably a multi-component
      vaccine to elicit specific CD4 T-cell responses that are required for H. pylori
      vaccine efficacy.

PMID- 28581363
TI  - Detection of canine adenovirus 1 in red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes) and raccoons (
      Procyon lotor) in Germany with a TaqMan real-time PCR assay.
AB  - We developed a real-time (rt)PCR assay based on TaqMan probe technology for the
      specific detection of canine adenovirus 1 (CAdV-1). The assay is able to detect
      three 50% tissue culture infectious dose/mL in CAdV-1-containing cell culture
      supernatant. Viral genomes were not amplified of canine adenovirus 2 or of
      several bovine, porcine, and avian adenoviruses. In silico analysis provided no
      indication of amplification of other heterologous genomes. The sensitivity of the
      real-time assay exceeded that of a conventional gel-based CAdV-1 PCR by a factor
      of 100. Following the integration of the novel PCR into the Hessian wildlife
      monitoring program, CAdV-1 DNA was detected in none of the tested raccoons ( n =
      48) but in 11 of 97 foxes.

PMID- 28581364
TI  - Positron emission tomography computed tomography features of monomorphic
      epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To define the positron emission tomography/computed tomography
      (PET/CT) features of monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma
      (MEITL), a rare malignancy in European and North American populations and the
      most common form of primary intestinal T-cell lymphoma in Asian populations.
      METHODS: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT findings of a cohort of MEITL
      patients were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Eight men and four women with
      MEITL investigated by PET/CT at diagnosis and relapse were retrospectively
      analyzed. On presentation, the primary involved sites were the small bowel (N =
      8), large bowel (N = 2), stomach (N = 1) and small and large bowels (N = 1). The
      uninvolved small bowel did not show increased FDG-avidity to suggest enteropathy.
      On presentation, lymph nodes and other organs were involved in seven cases (58%).
      The primary lesions were hypermetabolic except in one case, where the colonic
      lesion was eumetabolic. At relapse, the stomach and large bowel might be involved
      even if the primary tumours arose from the small bowel, and multiple extra
      intestinal metastases occurred. Interestingly, thoracic structures and the brain
      were frequently involved (50% and 25% respectively). CONCLUSION: These findings
      showed that in contrast to classical enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma,
      where the small bowel is the exclusive primary site (owing to its origin from
      coeliac disease) and distant metastases even during relapse are exceptional,
      MEITL might on presentation and during relapse involve any part of the gut, and
      metastasize to multiple extra-intestinal sites.

PMID- 28581366
TI  - Flat-head positioning increases cerebral blood flow in anterior circulation acute
      ischemic stroke. A cluster randomized phase IIb trial.
AB  - Background Whether lying-flat improves blood flow in patients with acute ischemic
      stroke is unknown. Our aim was to investigate if lying-flat "changes" cerebral
      blood flow velocities assessed by transcranial Doppler in acute ischemic stroke
      patients. Methods In a multicenter cluster clinical trial, we randomly assigned
      patients within 12 h from onset of a neurological deficit due to cerebral
      ischemia of the anterior circulation to lying-flat or upright head positioning.
      The primary outcome was a change of 8 cm/s or more in mean cerebral blood flow
      velocities on transcranial Doppler to the middle cerebral artery at 1 and 24 h
      post-randomization, adjusted for imbalance in baseline variables. Secondary
      outcomes included serious adverse events and physical functioning at 90 days.
      Results Ninety-four of 304 patients screened were recruited. The primary outcome
      occurred in 11 (26%) of 43 patients in the lying-flat group and in 6 (12%) of 51
      in the upright group at 1 h (adjusted odds ratio, 3.81; 95% CI, 1.07 to 13.54),
      and in 23 (53%) and 18 (36%) patients in these respective groups at 24 h
      (adjusted odds ratio, 3.04; 95% CI, 1.08 to 8.53). There were no between-group
      differences in serious adverse events, including pneumonia, heart failure or
      mortality, nor in functional outcome at 3 months (adjusted common odds ratio,
      1.38; 95% CI 0.64 to 3.00). Conclusion The lying-flat head position was
      associated with a significant increase in cerebral blood flow velocities at one
      and 24 h within the ipsilateral hemisphere of anterior circulation acute ischemic
      stroke, without serious safety concerns. Clinical trial registration-URL:
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT01706094.

PMID- 28581365
TI  - Fine Epitope Mapping of Monoclonal Antibodies to the DNA Repair Protein, RadA.
AB  - Repair of DNA damage is vital to the health and survival of all organisms. In
      Escherichia coli, a protein known as RadA (or Sms) participates in
      recombinational repair, a process that uses an undamaged DNA strand in one DNA
      duplex to fill a gap in a homologous DNA strand in a sister DNA duplex. In a
      prior report, we described the production of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs)
      specific for RadA. Here, we investigated the epitopes recognized by two of the
      antibodies, MAbs 6F5 and 2A2. Premature stop codons (ochre mutations) were
      introduced into the radA gene at selected sites, and the truncated RadA proteins
      were probed by western blotting. Deletion of as few as four amino acids (457-460)
      from the C-terminus of RadA significantly increased the sensitivity of E. coli to
      ultraviolet (UV) radiation and abolished recognition of RadA by MAb 6F5. Single
      alanine substitutions made between positions 443-460 also adversely affected the
      ability of MAb 6F5 to bind to RadA, further supporting the idea that MAb 6F5 is
      specific for the RadA C-terminus. An ochre mutation at position 258 abolished the
      recognition of RadA by MAb 2A2, whereas an ochre mutation at position 279 did
      not, suggesting that MAb 2A2 binds to an epitope between residues 258 and 279.
      MAb 2A2 recognition of RadA was destroyed by endoproteinase glu-C cleavage of
      RadA at position 266, and by a single alanine substitution at position 265. In a
      competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a synthetic peptide
      comprising residues 263-273 of RadA blocked MAb 2A2 recognition of immobilized
      full-length RadA by more than 97%. We infer from our results that MAb 6F5 binds
      to the extreme C-terminus of RadA and that MAb 2A2 is specific for an epitope
      within positions 263-273.

PMID- 28581367
TI  - Carbohydrate mouth rinse improves morning high-intensity exercise performance.
AB  - Oral carbohydrate (CHO) rinsing has been demonstrated to provide beneficial
      effects on exercise performance of durations of up to one hour. The aim of the
      present study was to investigate the effects of CHO mouth rinsing on morning high
      intensity exercise performance. Following institutional ethical approval and
      familiarisation, 12 healthy males (mean +/- SD age: 23 +/- 3 years, height: 175.5
      +/- 7.4 cm, body mass: 75.4 +/- 7.5 kg) participated in this study.
      Countermovement jump (CMJ) height, isometric mid-thigh pull peak force, 10 m
      sprint time and bench press and back squat repetitions to failure were assessed
      following CHO and placebo (PLA) rinsing or a control condition (CON). All testing
      took place at 07:30 following an 11 hour overnight fast. Performance of CMJ
      height (CHO: 39 +/- 7 cm; PLA: 38 +/- 7 cm; CON: 36 +/- 6 cm; P = .003, [Formula:
      see text] = 0.40), 10 m sprint time (CHO: 1.78 +/- 0.07 s; PLA: 1.81 +/- 0.07 s;
      CON: 1.85 +/- 0.05 s; P = .001, [Formula: see text] = 0.47), the number of bench
      press (CHO: 25 +/- 3; PLA: 24 +/- 4; CON: 22 +/- 4; P < .001, [Formula: see text]
      = 0.55) and squat (CHO: 31 +/- 4; PLA: 29 +/- 5; CON: 26 +/- 6; P < .001,
      [Formula: see text] = 0.70) repetitions and mean felt arousal (CHO: 5 +/- 1; PLA:
      4 +/- 0; CON: 4 +/- 0; P = .009, [Formula: see text] = 0.25) improved following
      CHO rinsing. However, isometric mid-thigh pull peak force was unchanged (CHO:
      2262 +/- 288 N; PLA: 2236 +/- 354 N; CON: 2212 +/- 321 N; P = .368, [Formula: see
      text] = 0.08). These results suggest that oral CHO rinsing solution significantly
      improved the morning performance of CMJ height, 10 m sprint times, bench press
      and squat repetitions to failure and felt arousal, although peak force during an
      isometric mid-thigh pull, rating of perceived exertion and heart rate were
      unaffected.

PMID- 28581369
TI  - Fostering Cross-Sector Collaboration.

PMID- 28581370
TI  - Midwest Nursing Research Society News.

PMID- 28581362
TI  - PPARs: regulators of metabolism and as therapeutic targets in cardiovascular
      disease. Part II: PPAR-beta/delta and PPAR-gamma.
AB  - The PPARs are a subfamily of three ligand-inducible transcription factors, which
      belong to the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors. In mammals, the PPAR
      subfamily consists of three members: PPAR-alpha, PPAR-beta/delta and PPAR-gamma.
      PPARs control the expression of a large number of genes involved in metabolic
      homeostasis, lipid, glucose and energy metabolism, adipogenesis and inflammation.
      PPARs regulate a large number of metabolic pathways that are implicated in the
      pathogenesis of metabolic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes
      mellitus, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease. The aim of
      this review is to provide up-to-date information about the biochemical and
      metabolic actions of PPAR-beta/delta and PPAR-gamma, the therapeutic potential of
      their agonists currently under clinical development and the cardiovascular
      disease outcome of clinical trials of PPAR-gamma agonists, pioglitazone and
      rosiglitazone.

PMID- 28581371
TI  - Delayed presentation of cerebral schistosomiasis presenting as a tumor-like brain
      lesion.
AB  - Schistosomiasis is the second most common parasitic infection worldwide. North
      America is a nonendemic area. However, there are occasional case reports among
      travelers and immigrants from endemic regions. We describe a case of a 55-year
      old Canadian woman who presented with first episode of seizure. Her magnetic
      resonance imaging scan revealed a mass-like lesion involving the left anterior
      temporal lobe. The lesion showed T1 hypo- and T2 hyperintense with perilesional
      brain edema. On post-gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted sequence, the lesion showed
      multiple small nodular and linear enhancements, also called an "arborized"
      appearance. Initially, the lesion was thought to be a malignant tumor. She
      underwent left anterior temporal lobe resection. Histologic examination showed
      parasitic eggs with a characteristic lateral spine consistent with Schistosoma
      mansoni infection. Upon subsequent questioning, it was revealed that the patient
      lived in Ghana from the ages of 8-10 years and she visited Ghana again 10 years
      prior for two weeks. She recalled swimming in beaches and rivers. Latent disease,
      as in this case with presentation, many years or decades after presumed exposure
      is rare but has been reported. Characteristic magnetic resonance imaging findings
      may suggest the diagnosis and facilitate noninvasive work-up.

PMID- 28581372
TI  - Hospital admissions for HIV-infected prisoners in Italy.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to give a description of the clinical
      conditions and patient demographics of inpatient admissions of human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected inmates in three hospital wards that
      provide hospital care for inmates in Italy. Design/methodology/approach This is a
      retrospective review of hospital medical admissions of patients living with HIV
      from January 1 to December 31, 2014, in three Italian referral centers for
      hospitalization of inmates. Findings A total of 85 admissions for 85 different
      HIV-infected inmates occurred in 2014 in the three centers participating to the
      study. Most patients (54.1 percent) were co-infected with hepatitis C. Discharge
      diagnosis largely varied ranging from common HIV-related co-morbidities to
      completely independent diagnosis. The most commonly observed discharge diagnoses
      were chronic hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, opiate dependence and
      thrombocytopenia. Originality/value Discharge diagnosis between HIV-infected
      inmates and HIV-infected patients in freedom are strikingly and significantly
      different. A large number of hospitalized HIV-infected inmates were affected by
      chronic viral hepatitis and liver cirrhosis; this is probably a direct
      consequence of the high prevalence of HCV and/or HBV co-infections in the inmate
      population in Italy. In addition, a significantly lower proportion of cancer
      diagnosis was observed among inmates; this is possibly justified by the fact that
      in our Italian settings when HIV infection is at advanced stages or if cancer
      treatment is started those affected are released from prison and can continue
      their diagnostic and treatment follow-up in freedom.

PMID- 28581373
TI  - Prisoners perceptions of a mental health wellness workshop.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on the evaluation of a one-day
      mental health wellness workshop which was delivered to male prisoners in an urban
      prison in the Republic of Ireland. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods
      approach was used to evaluate the workshop. This paper presents the findings of
      the qualitative arm of the evaluation. Qualitative data were collected using semi
      structured telephone interviews with ten participants who had completed the
      programme. Findings The participants were overwhelmingly positive about the
      wellness workshop and the qualitative interviews articulated the ways that the
      workshop impacted on their ability to manage their own and other peoples mental
      health. Originality/value As prisons attempt to limit the negative impact of
      prison life, implementing recovery orientated approaches such as the wellness
      workshop can have a positive impact on prisoners' mental health as well as
      raising their awareness and improving their attitudes towards mental distress and
      suicide. The concepts of self-help and peer support, espoused by the workshop
      offer a real opportunity to equip interested prisoners with skills to support
      themselves and other prisoners who are in distress.

PMID- 28581374
TI  - WEPHREN: a global prison health research network.

PMID- 28581375
TI  - Teledentistry, new oral care tool for prisoners.
AB  - Purpose In France, all incarcerated prisoners are required to undergo a dental
      examination (Ministere de la sante et de la protection sociale, 2004 and
      Ministere de la justice, 2004). However, only one in two prisoners benefits from
      this oral health check-up. Oral teleconsultation could improve the quality of
      oral care in prisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
      Design/methodology/approach The focus of this study was therefore to apply oral
      teleconsultation as an experiment. Using an oral teleconsultation system, a
      dentist and a nurse were separately asked to give patients a score, according to
      how urgently their dental issue needed to be treated. This score will henceforth
      be referred to as the "dental emergency scores given". Findings The separate
      dental emergency scores given by the dentist and the nurse were compared and the
      results demonstrate the following: - 36.7 per cent (11) of the two scores were
      equal - 53.3 per cent (16) of the two scores differed by 1 point - 10 per cent
      (3) of the two scores differed by 2 points. The average score of the nurse was
      2.23 and that of the dentist was 2.13. The small disparity should not obscure the
      fact that 63 per cent of the diagnoses turned out to be incorrect. Practical
      implications Dental care could easily be improved with oral teleconsultation as a
      care plan could be developed for each patient. Social implications The condition
      of one's dental health is, of course, very important for general health, but it
      also affects social aspects. Good oral hygiene and health are very important when
      looking for a job after having been released from prison. Originality/value This
      is the first study on oral teleconsultation in prisons. Dental care is rarely
      studied on prisoners. Telemedicine in dentistry is just beginning all over the
      world. This study is the first step of an extensive project in the University
      Hospital of Montpellier and the Villeneuve-les-Maguelone prison.

PMID- 28581376
TI  - Improving collaboration between professionals supporting mentally ill offenders.
AB  - Purpose Interprofessional collaboration is necessary when supporting mentally ill
      offenders but little is understood of these interactions. The purpose of this
      paper is to explore prison officers' perceptions of current and desirable levels
      of interprofessional collaboration (relational coordination (RC)) to understand
      how collaboration between these systems can be improved.
      Design/methodology/approach Gittell's RC scale was administered to prison
      officers within the Norwegian prison system ( n=160) using an adaptation of the
      instrument in which actual and desired levels of RC are evaluated. This
      differentiates between prison officers' expectations of optimum levels of
      collaboration with other professional groups, dependent on the role function and
      codependence, vs actual levels of collaboration. Findings Prison officers
      reported different RC levels across professional groups, the lowest being with
      specialist mental health staff and prison doctors and highest with nurses, social
      workers and other prison officers. Significant differences between desired and
      actual RC levels suggest expertise of primary care staff is insufficient, as
      prison officers request much greater contact with mental health specialists when
      dealing with the mentally ill offender. Originality/value The paper contributes
      to limited literature on collaborative practice between prison and health care
      professionals. It questions the advisability of enforcing care pathways that
      promote the lowest level of effective care in the prison system and suggest ways
      in which mental health specialists might be better integrated into the prison
      system. It contributes to the continued debate on how mental health services
      should be integrated into the prison system, suggesting that the current import
      model used in Norway and other countries, may not be conducive to generating the
      close professional relationships required between mental health and prison staff.

PMID- 28581377
TI  - Fear of rape from behind prison walls.
AB  - Purpose The Prison Rape Elimination Act has brought significant attention to the
      issue of sexual victimization within correctional institutions. While the actual
      risk of sexual victimization remains low, the perception of rape among inmates is
      high. Given how one's fear can translate into behavior, understanding how
      institutions impact the culture surrounding prison rape highlights areas for
      reducing violence within prisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
      Design/methodology/approach This study includes secondary analysis of a
      quantitative database created from semi-structured interviews with 564 high
      security, general population inmates. Using fear of rape as the outcome of
      interest, bivariate and logistic regression analyses are used to comment on the
      impact of individual and facility level characteristics on this outcome. Findings
      In general, the results from this study suggest that the greatest risk factors
      for fearing rape while in prison are being male, having a mental health issue,
      and hearing about rape within the institution. From these specific findings a few
      general lessons can be learned with the hope that practitioners can translate
      these lessons into policy initiatives in order to combat fear of rape among our
      inmate population. Originality/value This paper aims to fill a gap in the
      research on how the facility contributes to the fear of rape within prison. The
      end goal is to inform policy makers so that suggestions can be made to combat
      this problem and prevent further misconduct within these facilities.

PMID- 28581378
TI  - Prison health service directors' views on research priorities and organizational
      issues in conducting research in prison: outcomes of a national deliberative
      roundtable.
AB  - Purpose Given that prisoners have significant health needs across most areas, the
      paucity of prisoner health research, and the difficulties involved in the conduct
      of research in this setting, there is a need to develop research priorities that
      align with key stakeholder groups. One such group are those responsible for
      health service provision in prisons - prison health service directors. The paper
      aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Prison health service
      directors in each Australian state and territory were invited to participate in a
      national (deliberative) roundtable where the consensus building nominal group
      technique was utilized. This involved the identification of research priorities
      and organizational issues in conducting research with prisoners, and ranking
      research priorities. A thematic analysis was conducted on organizational issues.
      Findings In total, 13 participants attended the roundtable. Participants
      identified 28 research priorities and 12 organizational issues. Top ranked
      research priorities were mental health, cognitive and intellectual disability,
      post-release health maintenance, ageing prisoners, chronic health conditions and
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Themes identified from the
      organizational issues included prisoner access to research participation, health
      and research literacy of custodial staff, and institutional protectionism in
      response to research that may discover negative information about the custodial
      setting. Research limitations/implications These findings should inform future
      efforts to improve research infrastructures to undertake research to improve the
      health of people in Australian prisons, and help to align researchers' efforts
      with those of a key organizational stakeholder. Originality/value This is the
      first paper to determine the research priorities and organizational issues in
      conducting research in prisons of prison health service directors.

PMID- 28581356
TI  - Adjuvant Pertuzumab and Trastuzumab in Early HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pertuzumab increases the rate of pathological complete response in
      the preoperative context and increases overall survival among patients with
      metastatic disease when it is added to trastuzumab and chemotherapy for the
      treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast
      cancer. In this trial, we investigated whether pertuzumab, when added to adjuvant
      trastuzumab and chemotherapy, improves outcomes among patients with HER2-positive
      early breast cancer. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with node-positive or
      high-risk node-negative HER2-positive, operable breast cancer to receive either
      pertuzumab or placebo added to standard adjuvant chemotherapy plus 1 year of
      treatment with trastuzumab. We assumed a 3-year invasive-disease-free survival
      rate of 91.8% with pertuzumab and 89.2% with placebo. RESULTS: In the trial
      population, 63% of the patients who were randomly assigned to receive pertuzumab
      (2400 patients) or placebo (2405 patients) had node-positive disease and 36% had
      hormone-receptor-negative disease. Disease recurrence occurred in 171 patients
      (7.1%) in the pertuzumab group and 210 patients (8.7%) in the placebo group
      (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 1.00; P=0.045). The
      estimates of the 3-year rates of invasive-disease-free survival were 94.1% in the
      pertuzumab group and 93.2% in the placebo group. In the cohort of patients with
      node-positive disease, the 3-year rate of invasive-disease-free survival was
      92.0% in the pertuzumab group, as compared with 90.2% in the placebo group
      (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.96; P=0.02).
      In the cohort of patients with node-negative disease, the 3-year rate of invasive
      disease-free survival was 97.5% in the pertuzumab group and 98.4% in the placebo
      group (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.68 to 1.86;
      P=0.64). Heart failure, cardiac death, and cardiac dysfunction were infrequent in
      both treatment groups. Diarrhea of grade 3 or higher occurred almost exclusively
      during chemotherapy and was more frequent with pertuzumab than with placebo (9.8%
      vs. 3.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Pertuzumab significantly improved the rates of invasive
      disease-free survival among patients with HER2-positive, operable breast cancer
      when it was added to trastuzumab and chemotherapy. Diarrhea was more common with
      pertuzumab than with placebo. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech; APHINITY
      ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01358877 .).

PMID- 28581380
TI  - ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Corticoviridae.
AB  - The Corticoviridae is a family of icosahedral, internal-membrane-containing
      viruses with double-stranded circular DNA genomes of approximately 10 kb. Only
      one species, Pseudoalteromonas virus PM2, has been recognized. Pseudoalteromonas
      virus PM2 infects Gram-negative bacteria and was isolated from seawater in 1968.
      Pseudoalteromonas virus PM2 is the first bacterial virus in which the presence of
      lipids in the virion has been demonstrated. Viral lipids are acquired selectively
      during virion assembly from the host cytoplasmic membrane. The outer protein
      capsid is an icosahedron with a pseudo T=21 symmetry. This is a summary of the
      International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of
      the Corticoviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/corticoviridae.

PMID- 28581379
TI  - Bottleneck analysis at district level to illustrate gaps within the district
      health system in Uganda.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Poor quality of care and access to effective and affordable
      interventions have been attributed to constraints and bottlenecks within and
      outside the health system. However, there is limited understanding of health
      system barriers to utilization and delivery of appropriate, high-impact, and cost
      effective interventions at the point of service delivery in districts and sub
      districts in low-income countries. In this study we illustrate the use of the
      bottleneck analysis approach, which could be used to identify bottlenecks in
      service delivery within the district health system. METHODS: A modified Tanahashi
      model with six determinants for effective coverage was used to determine
      bottlenecks in service provision for maternal and newborn care. The following
      interventions provided during antenatal care were used as tracer interventions:
      use of iron and folic acid, intermittent presumptive treatment for malaria, HIV
      counseling and testing, and syphilis testing. Data from cross-sectional household
      and health facility surveys in Mayuge and Namayingo districts in Uganda were used
      in this study. RESULTS: Effective coverage and human resource gaps were
      identified as the biggest bottlenecks in both districts, with coverage ranging
      from 0% to 66% for effective coverage and from 46% to 58% for availability of
      health facility staff. Our findings revealed a similar pattern in bottlenecks in
      both districts for particular interventions although the districts are
      functionally independent. CONCLUSION: The modified Tanahashi model is an analysis
      tool that can be used to identify bottlenecks to effective coverage within the
      district health system, for instance, the effective coverage for maternal and
      newborn care interventions. However, the analysis is highly dependent on the
      availability of data to populate all six determinants and could benefit from
      further validation analysis for the causes of bottlenecks identified.

PMID- 28581381
TI  - Erratum: The serology of Ebolavirus - a wider geographical range, a wider genus
      of viruses or a wider range of virulence?

PMID- 28581382
TI  - Erratum: Temporal expression profiling of novel Spodoptera litura
      nucleopolyhedrovirus-encoded microRNAs upon infection of Sf21 cells.

PMID- 28581383
TI  - Correction: Recruitment of the default mode network during a demanding act of
      executive control.

PMID- 28581384
TI  - Radiobiology and the Renewed Potential for Nanoparticles.

PMID- 28581385
TI  - Prostate Cancer With Isolated Bony Metastasis: Sternal Struggle.

PMID- 28581386
TI  - Treat All Known Disease.

PMID- 28581387
TI  - Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen PET Before Aggressive Local Therapy to the
      Sternum.

PMID- 28581388
TI  - Intriguing, but Not the Right Setting.

PMID- 28581389
TI  - Sternum First, Perhaps Pelvis Later.

PMID- 28581390
TI  - Advancing Our Practice Through the Advanced Practice Radiation Therapist Model:
      Catching Up With Canada.

PMID- 28581391
TI  - Radiation Therapy in Palestine: Not Only Money, But Also Real Accessibility.

PMID- 28581392
TI  - Radiation Therapy in the Middle East: Local and Regional Targets.

PMID- 28581393
TI  - Is It Time for New Target Volumes in Radiation Oncology?

PMID- 28581394
TI  - Lessons From What is Not Discussed in Reports Recommending More Intensive Peer
      Review of Radiation Therapy Plans.

PMID- 28581395
TI  - Outcomes of Routine Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy Quality Assurance in a
      Large Head and Neck Cancer Center.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary endpoint was to ascertain whether the percentage of major
      changes implemented from our routine intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
      quality assurance (QA) process was more than 10%. The secondary endpoints were to
      document the percentage of minor changes, ascertain the time taken to perform the
      IMRT QA process, evaluate potential predictors for major changes, and ascertain
      the perceived value of the program by the compliance of radiation oncologists
      (ROs) treating head and neck cancer (HNC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: This was a
      retrospective analysis of a prospective database for all radically treated HNC
      patients. Recommended changes were predefined with criteria as either "major
      changes" or "minor changes." RESULTS: Of 595 patients treated radically between
      May 21, 2012, and May 21, 2014, 548 patients were entered, giving a compliance of
      92.1%. The vast majority were treated with IMRT (470/548, 89%), 49.3% treated
      definitively and 50.7% treated adjuvantly; overall, 63% had stage IV disease.
      Eighty-one patients (14.8%) had 1 or more major changes recommended and
      implemented, and 21 patients (3.8%) had major changes recommended but not
      implemented because of a lack of consensus. Of minor recommendations, in 115
      patients (21%) they were implemented and in 13 patients (2.4%) they were not
      implemented. No changes were recommended in the remaining 324 patients (59.1%).
      The only factor correlating with the likelihood of a major change was treatment
      with IMRT (P=.001). In the vast majority of cases (85%), the time taken for IMRT
      QA was less than 20 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Our routine HNC IMRT QA program
      resulted in the implementation of a significant number of major changes. The high
      compliance with the program is indicative of the belief in its clinical value.
      This study can inform discussion on optimal RT QA processes in routine clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28581396
TI  - Interim 18F-FDG PET/CT During Chemoradiation Therapy in the Management of Head
      and Neck Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging modality widely applied in
      oncology for tumor staging, volume delineation in radiation therapy planning, and
      therapy response assessment. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET combined with
      computed tomography plays a significant role in the management of locally
      advanced head and neck cancer patients in the pretreatment setting to predict
      outcome and prognosis and after chemoradiation therapy (CRT) to assess tumor
      response. This review aims to evaluate the use of FDG PET acquired during CRT, ad
      interim FDG (FDGint), to identify tumor response at an early stage, modify the
      treatment plan if necessary, or set up alternative strategies to enhance the
      therapeutic ratio. Most of the studies confirmed the value of FDGint in
      predicting the response to CRT, whereas a few highlighted the poor predictive
      value of FDGint compared with FDG acquired 2 to 4 months after the end of CRT,
      which was well correlated with local and regional control and survival. Such
      findings deserve to be further analyzed in more homogeneous series with greater
      patient numbers according to the tumor site and CRT schedules. The best time to
      assess tumor response during radiation therapy remains a matter of debate,
      although 2 weeks seems most favorable, still providing the opportunity to adapt
      the treatment strategy.

PMID- 28581397
TI  - Thyroid V40 Predicts Primary Hypothyroidism After Intensity Modulated Radiation
      Therapy for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the various clinical and thyroid dosimetric parameters
      that could predict the risk of primary hypothyroidism (HT) after intensity
      modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to
      determine useful thyroid dose constraints to guide radiation therapy planning.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: From September 2009 to August 2012, 102 clinically
      euthyroid NPC patients were included in this study. All patients were treated
      with IMRT and randomized to induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemo
      IMRT or concurrent chemo-IMRT alone. Thyroid function was evaluated by measuring
      thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine at each annual follow-up visit.
      Various clinical and dosimetric parameters (eg, V40 [percentage of thyroid volume
      receiving >40 Gy]) were obtained. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression
      analyses were performed to identify predictors of HT. RESULTS: Median follow-up
      was 48.8 months. Among the 102 patients, 44 (43.1%) developed HT within 2 years
      after radiation therapy. The median time to HT was 36.7 months (range, 24.9-49.0
      months). The 1-year and 2-year cumulative incidence rates of HT were 33% and
      44.5%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that younger age, early T
      stage, minimum dose to the thyroid gland, V40, and V45 were associated with HT.
      On multivariate analysis, younger age (P=.017), early T stage (P=.005), and V40
      (P=.009) remained statistically significant. Patients with V40 > 85% had
      significantly higher cumulative incidence rates of HT than patients with V40 <=
      85% (P=.007). CONCLUSIONS: Thyroid V40 is predictive of primary HT after IMRT for
      NPC, and V40 <= 85% can be a useful dose constraint to adopt during IMRT planning
      without compromising tumor coverage.

PMID- 28581398
TI  - ASCENDE-RT: An Analysis of Health-Related Quality of Life for a Randomized Trial
      Comparing Low-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Boost With Dose-Escalated External Beam
      Boost for High- and Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the patient-reported health-related quality of life (HR-QoL)
      outcomes for a multicenter randomized trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of
      2 different techniques for dose escalation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 357
      men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer were stratified by risk
      group and randomized (1:1) to either a dose-escalated external beam (DE-EBRT)
      boost (n=177) or a low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB) boost (n=180) as
      part of combined modality therapy. The HR-QoL was assessed using the SF36v2
      questionnaire, with additional scales for urinary, bowel, and sexual function.
      Date of starting androgen deprivation therapy was considered time zero, the
      median follow-up of 6 years. Scales were scored from 0 to 100; a decline in a
      mean score >=10 compared with baseline was considered a clinically significant
      decline. This was an intent-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: Mean domain scores at
      baseline were well balanced between the 2 treatment arms. A clinically
      significant decline in mean scores in both the arms compared with baseline was
      noted for role physical (DE-EBRT [-11.4] and LDR-PB [-15.3]) and sexual function
      scale (DE-EBRT [-15.1] and LDR-PB [-19.2]). There was a significantly larger drop
      in mean scores in the LDR-PB group compared with the DE-EBRT group for physical
      function (-15.3 vs -6.9; P=.03), urinary function (-3.6 vs -0.5; P=.04).
      CONCLUSION: At 6 years' follow up, there were no significant differences in mean
      scores in 9 of 11 scales compared with baseline in both arms. A clinically
      significant decline in mean scores was noted in both arms for role physical and
      sexual function scales. There was a statistically significant decline in physical
      function and urinary function scales in the LDR-PB arm compared with the DE-EBRT
      arm.

PMID- 28581399
TI  - Cognitive Function in Patients With Prostate Cancer Receiving Luteinizing Hormone
      Releasing Hormone Analogues: A Prospective, Observational, Multicenter Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) on cognitive
      performance (CP) in prostate cancer (PCa) patients is not well understood. We
      evaluated changes in CP after 6 months of medical castration with luteinizing
      hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogues. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We performed a
      prospective, observational, multicenter, open-label study of PCa patients
      scheduled to receive LHRH analogues for >=6 months. We assessed 4 domains of CP
      at baseline and after 6 months of ADT: (1) working memory, assessed with the
      Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS III) Digit Span subtest; (2) visual
      memory, assessed with an ad hoc visual memory test; (3) visuospatial ability,
      assessed with the Judgment of Line Orientation test and Mental Rotation of Three
      Dimensional Objects test; and (4) nonverbal analytical reasoning, assessed with
      the WAIS III Matrix Reasoning test. Changes outside the baseline 95% confidence
      intervals were considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 308 patients completed
      the study. Of these, 245 (79.6%) experienced no statistically significant changes
      on any test whereas 63 (20.4%) experienced significant changes on >=1 test. Most
      of these patients showed a change on only 1 test, distributed evenly between
      improvement (58 patients, 18.8%) and worsening (56 patients, 18.2%). For
      individual tests, most patients (87.8%-91.8%) had no change from baseline;
      however, the significant changes (improvement vs deterioration) were as follows:
      WAIS III Digit Span subtest (6.3% vs 5.9%), visual memory (5.3% vs 5.7%),
      Judgment of Line Orientation test (5.3% vs 4.5%), Mental Rotation of Three
      Dimensional Objects test (4.1% vs 4.1%), and WAIS III Matrix Reasoning test (4.8%
      vs 5.8%). CONCLUSIONS: CP in patients with PCa does not appear to be adversely
      affected by 6 months of LHRH analogue administration.

PMID- 28581400
TI  - First Results of a Phase 2 Trial of Once-Weekly Hypofractionated Breast
      Irradiation (WHBI) for Early-Stage Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report early outcome analysis of a prospective institutional phase 2
      trial of weekly hypofractionated breast irradiation (WHBI) for patients
      undergoing breast-conserving surgery (BCS). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients who
      underwent BCS for American Joint Committee on Cancer stage 0, I, or II breast
      cancer with negative surgical margins received whole-breast radiation therapy to
      30 or 28.5 Gy in 5 weekly fractions with or without an additional boost. The
      eligibility criteria were the same as for NSABP (National Surgical Adjuvant
      Breast and Bowel Project) B39/RTOG (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group) 0413, and
      there were no restrictions on age, breast size, tumor grade, receptor status, or
      the use of cytotoxic chemotherapy for otherwise eligible patients. The primary
      endpoint was ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence. Patients were also evaluated
      for acute toxicity (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.0),
      cosmesis (Harvard Scale), development of distant metastatic disease, and overall
      survival. RESULTS: Between January 2011 and October 2015, 158 eligible patients
      underwent WHBI immediately following BCS. The median age was 60 years (range, 30
      84 years), and the median follow-up period was 3 years. Ipsilateral breast tumor
      recurrence developed in a total of 2 patients (1.3%), 1 in conjunction with
      widespread metastatic disease. Distant metastatic disease developed in 4 patients
      (2.5%), and the 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival rates were
      97.5% and 96.2%, respectively. The most common grade 1 or 2 acute toxicities were
      breast pain, radiation dermatitis, and fatigue. There were 2 grade 3 events
      (1.3%): pain requiring narcotic analgesics (1) and posttreatment infection
      requiring hospitalization (1). The rate of excellent or good cosmesis versus fair
      or poor cosmesis was 82.3% versus 17.7%. The rate of significant cosmetic change
      from baseline to last follow-up (dropping from excellent or good to fair or poor)
      was 11.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Early outcomes after WHBI are favorable and parallel
      those seen with daily hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation. With broader
      entry criteria than all previous reports of WHBI, this study will facilitate
      comparison to the results of NSABP B39/RTOG 0413. With continued follow-up,
      future reports will assess cosmetic stability and disease-specific outcomes.

PMID- 28581401
TI  - Prospective Study of Hippocampal-Sparing Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation in
      Limited-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prospectively evaluate cognitive function and intracranial failure
      patterns after hippocampal-sparing prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) for
      limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Adults with
      limited-stage SCLC, achieving a complete response to chemoradiotherapy and no
      brain metastases, were eligible. Patients received PCI 25 Gy/10 fractions, with a
      mean hippocampal dose limited to <8 Gy and >=90% of the brain receiving 90% of
      the prescription. A diverse battery of neuropsychological testing was performed
      at baseline and 6 and 12 months after PCI. Brain MRI scans were performed at
      baseline and 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. The primary endpoint was memory measured
      by the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised Delayed Recall at 6 months after PCI.
      The 25-Gy arm of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group protocol 0212 was used as a
      reference of potential efficacy. Development of intracranial metastases was
      recorded. Overall survival and progression-free survival were estimated using the
      Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Eight men and 12 women with a median age of 61
      years enrolled. Two-year overall survival was 88% (95% confidence interval 68%
      100%). There was no significant decline in performance between baseline and 6 or
      12 months for any of the tests. The association between baseline intelligence
      quotient and change in performance on testing was not significant. Magnetic
      resonance imaging revealed asymptomatic brain metastases at a cumulative rate of
      20%, with no concurrent extracranial progression. Two patients developed a
      metastasis in the under-dosed region. Neither involved the dentate gyrus, but 1
      involved the avoidance region. Both patients concurrently developed additional
      metastasis in fully treated brain regions. There were 2 neurologic deaths.
      CONCLUSIONS: This prospective study suggests a potential benefit of hippocampal
      sparing in limiting the neuropsychological sequelae of brain radiation, but with
      a risk of failures in the spared region. These data strongly support continued
      enrollment on ongoing cooperative group randomized trials. Clinical Trials
      registration number: NCT01797159.

PMID- 28581402
TI  - Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation in Resected Early-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer.

PMID- 28581404
TI  - Treatment-Related Toxicity in Patients With Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung
      Cancer and Coexisting Interstitial Lung Disease: A Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Definitive treatment for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung
      cancer (ES-NSCLC) is usually well tolerated. Patients with ES-NSCLC and
      coexisting interstitial lung disease (ILD) are at increased risk of severe
      treatment-related toxicity after definitive therapy. The main objective of this
      systematic review is to provide a pooled estimation of treatment-related
      mortality and ILD-specific toxicity in this population of patients and to
      identify trends for further study. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The MEDLINE and Embase
      databases were queried from respective dates of inception to January 2016.
      Studies that included patients who underwent definitive treatment for ES-NSCLC
      not combined with other treatments were included. Patients with oligometastases
      who were treated with aggressive palliation were included if it did not
      constitute the majority of patients in a specific study. The results were
      summarized with weighted proportions according to the sample size of individual
      studies. RESULTS: Overall, 3056 records were reviewed and 50 journal articles
      were included in the abstraction. The weighted proportion of treatment-related
      mortality (and ILD-specific toxicity) in primarily medically inoperable patients
      was as follows: stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR) 15.6% (25%),
      particle beam therapy 4.3% (18.2%) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) 8.7% (25%).
      The data for medically operable patients who underwent surgery were extracted for
      reference. Treatment-related mortality and ILD-specific toxicity were 2.2% and
      12%, respectively, in the surgical population. On analysis of reported SABR dose
      parameters, V20 <= 6.5% and mean lung dose <=4.5 Gy were found to be metrics
      associated with reduced mortality. CONCLUSION: A consistently high level of
      treatment-related mortality and ILD-specific toxicity was observed in primarily
      medically inoperable patients treated with SABR, particle beam therapy, and RFA.
      For these patients, curative treatment should be considered in the context of the
      high toxicity rates and overall poor prognosis. Stringent radiation dosimetric
      parameters may result in reduced toxicity.

PMID- 28581403
TI  - Plasma Levels of IL-8 and TGF-beta1 Predict Radiation-Induced Lung Toxicity in
      Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Validation Study.
AB  - PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES: We previously reported that the combination of mean lung
      dose (MLD) and inflammatory cytokines interleukin-8 (IL-8) and transforming
      growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) may provide a more accurate model for radiation
      induced lung toxicity (RILT) prediction in 58 patients with non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC). This study is to validate the previous findings with new patients
      and to explore new models with more cytokines. METHODS AND MATERIALS: One hundred
      forty-two patients with stage I-III NSCLC treated with definitive radiation
      therapy (RT) from prospective studies were included. Sixty-five new patients were
      used to validate previous findings, and all 142 patients were used to explore new
      models. Thirty inflammatory cytokines were measured in plasma samples before RT
      and 2 weeks and 4 weeks during RT (pre, 2w, 4w). Grade >=2 RILT was defined as
      grade 2, and higher radiation pneumonitis or symptomatic pulmonary fibrosis was
      the primary endpoint. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate the risk
      factors of RILT. The area under the curve (AUC) for the receiver operating
      characteristic curves was used for model assessment. RESULTS: Sixteen of 65
      patients (24.6%) experienced RILT2. Lower pre IL-8 and higher TGF-beta1 2w/pre
      ratio were associated with higher risk of RILT2. The AUC increased to 0.73 by
      combining MLD, pre IL-8, and TGF-beta1 2w/pre ratio compared with 0.61 by MLD
      alone to predict RILT. In all 142 patients, 29 patients (20.4%) experienced grade
      >=2 RILT. Among the 30 cytokines measured, only IL-8 and TGF-beta1 were
      significantly associated with the risk of RILT2. MLD, pre IL-8 level, and TGF
      beta1 2w/pre ratio were included in the final predictive model. The AUC increased
      to 0.76 by combining MLD, pre IL-8, and TGF-beta1 2w/pre ratio compared with 0.62
      by MLD alone. CONCLUSIONS: We validated that a combination of mean lung dose, pre
      IL-8 level, and TGF-beta1 2w/pre ratio provided a more accurate model to predict
      the risk of RILT2 compared with MLD alone.

PMID- 28581405
TI  - External Validity of a Risk Stratification Score Predicting Early Distant Brain
      Failure and Salvage Whole Brain Radiation Therapy After Stereotactic Radiosurgery
      for Brain Metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A scoring system using pretreatment factors was recently published
      for predicting the risk of early (<=6 months) distant brain failure (DBF) and
      salvage whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) after stereotactic radiosurgery
      (SRS) alone. Four risk factors were identified: (1) lack of prior WBRT; (2)
      melanoma or breast histologic features; (3) multiple brain metastases; and (4)
      total volume of brain metastases <1.3 cm3, with each factor assigned 1 point. The
      purpose of this study was to assess the validity of this scoring system and its
      appropriateness for clinical use in an independent external patient population.
      METHODS: We reviewed the records of 247 patients with 388 brain metastases
      treated with SRS between 2010 at 2013 at Levine Cancer Institute. The Press
      (Emory) risk score was calculated and applied to the validation cohort
      population, and subsequent risk groups were analyzed using cumulative incidence.
      RESULTS: The low-risk (LR) group had a significantly lower risk of early DBF than
      did the high-risk (HR) group (22.6% vs 44%, P=.004), but there was no difference
      between the HR and intermediate-risk (IR) groups (41.2% vs 44%, P=.79). Total
      lesion volume <1.3 cm3 (P=.004), malignant melanoma (P=.007), and multiple
      metastases (P<.001) were validated as predictors for early DBF. Prior WBRT and
      breast cancer histologic features did not retain prognostic significance. Risk
      stratification for risk of early salvage WBRT were similar, with a trend toward
      an increased risk for HR compared with LR (P=.09) but no difference between IR
      and HR (P=.53). CONCLUSION: The 3-level Emory risk score was shown to not be
      externally valid, but the model was able to stratify between 2 levels (LR and not
      LR [combined IR and HR]) for early (<=6 months) DBF. These results reinforce the
      importance of validating predictive models in independent cohorts. Further
      refinement of this scoring system with molecular information and in additional
      contemporary patient populations is warranted.

PMID- 28581407
TI  - Continuous Effect of Radial Resection Margin on Recurrence and Survival in Rectal
      Cancer Patients Who Receive Preoperative Chemoradiation and Curative Surgery: A
      Multicenter Retrospective Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To elucidate the proper length and prognostic value of resection margins
      in rectal cancer patients who received preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT)
      followed by curative total mesorectal excision (TME). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A
      total of 1476 rectal cancer patients staging cT3-4N0-2M0 were analyzed. All
      patients received radiation dose of 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions with concurrent 5
      fluorouracil or capecitabine. Total mesorectal excision was performed 4 to 8
      weeks after radiation therapy. RESULTS: The recurrence-free survival (RFS) at 5
      years showed a significant difference between 3 groups: patients with
      circumferential resection margin (CRM) <=1 mm, CRM 1.1 to 5 mm, and CRM >5 mm
      (46.2% vs 68.6% vs 77.5%, P<.001). Patients with CRM <=1 mm showed a
      significantly higher cumulative incidence of locoregional recurrence (P<.001) and
      distant metastasis (P<.001) at 5 years compared with the other 2 groups. Patients
      with CRM 1.1 to 5 mm showed a significantly higher cumulative incidence of
      distant metastasis (P<.001), but not locoregional recurrence (P=.192), compared
      with those with CRM >5 mm. Distal resection margin (<=5 vs >5 mm) did not show
      any significant difference in cumulative incidence of locoregional recurrence
      (P=.310) and distant metastasis (P=.926). CONCLUSION: Rectal cancer patients with
      CRM <=1 mm are a high-risk group, with the lowest RFS. Patients with CRM 1.1 to 5
      mm may be at intermediate risk, with moderately increased distant recurrence.
      Distal resection margin was not significantly associated with RFS in rectal
      cancer after neoadjuvant CRT and total mesorectal excision.

PMID- 28581406
TI  - Long-Term Survival Analysis of Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy Versus Liver
      Resection for Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the efficacy of stereotactic ablative radiation therapy
      (SABR) versus liver resection for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) <=5 cm
      with Child-Pugh A cirrhosis. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This retrospective study
      included 117 patients with small HCCs with 1 or 2 nodules. Eighty-two patients
      received SABR (SABR group), and 35 patients underwent liver resection (resection
      group). Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed.
      One-to-one matched pairs between the 2 groups were created using propensity score
      matching to reduce the potential confounding effect of treatment and selection
      bias. RESULTS: There was no between-group difference in OS and PFS. Before
      propensity score matching, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS was 96.3%, 81.8%, and 70.0%
      in the SABR group and 93.9%, 83.1%, and 64.4% in the resection group,
      respectively (P=.558). The 1-, 3- and 5-year PFS was 81.4%, 50.2%, and 40.7% in
      the SABR group and 68.0%, 58.3%, and 40.3% in the resection group, respectively
      (P=.932). After propensity score matching, 33 paired patients were selected from
      the SABR and resection groups. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS was 100%, 91.8%, and
      74.3% in the SABR group and 96.7%, 89.3%, and 69.2% in the resection group,
      respectively (P=.405). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year PFS was 84.4%, 59.2%, and 43.9% in
      the SABR group and 69.0%, 62.4%, and 35.9% in the resection group, respectively
      (P=.945). There was a similarity of hepatotoxicity between the 2 groups. The SABR
      group showed fewer complications, such as hepatic hemorrhage, hepatic pain, and
      weight loss. Acute nausea was significantly more frequent in the SABR group than
      in the resection group. CONCLUSION: For patients with small primary HCC with 1 or
      2 nodules and Child-Pugh A cirrhosis, SABR has local effects that are similar to
      those with liver resection. Stereotactic ablative radiation therapy has an
      advantage over resection in being less invasive.

PMID- 28581408
TI  - Integration Pattern of Human Papillomavirus Is a Strong Prognostic Factor for
      Disease-Free Survival After Radiation Therapy in Cervical Cancer Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The standard chemoradiation therapy currently used for locally advanced
      cervical cancer (LACC) patients does not reflect the biological heterogeneity of
      this disease, and there is an increasing need for the development of biomarkers
      that can help guide the individualized treatment regimens. The purpose of this
      study was to investigate the prognostic value of the integration pattern of human
      papillomavirus (HPV) in LACC patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The HPV integration
      pattern was determined by in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction,
      and the tumors were classified as the episomal pattern (group A), as the single
      copy integrated or multicopy tandem repetition-integrated pattern (group B), or
      as undetectable HPV (group C). Ninety-eight LACC patients were included in a
      development dataset and 106 independent patients in a validation dataset. The
      multivariate Cox model was used to examine the effect of the HPV integration
      pattern on disease-free survival (DFS). The model was validated internally by the
      leave-one-out cross-validation method and externally by an independent dataset.
      RESULTS: After adjustment for significant prognostic factors (stage, histologic
      grade, histologic type, and tumor size), the HPV integration pattern was
      significantly associated with DFS in the development (P=.032) and validation
      (P=.023) datasets. Survival was worst in group C and best in group A. The
      multivariate model with HPV integration pattern as an explanatory variable showed
      good discrimination ability and could separate patients with different risk
      profiles. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified the HPV integration pattern, as
      determined by in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction, as a strong
      prognostic biomarker for DFS in LACC patients treated by chemoradiation therapy.
      This finding may open the possibility of personalized treatment of these
      patients.

PMID- 28581409
TI  - Current Status of Targeted Radioprotection and Radiation Injury Mitigation and
      Treatment Agents: A Critical Review of the Literature.
AB  - As more cancer patients survive their disease, concerns about radiation therapy
      induced side effects have increased. The concept of radioprotection and radiation
      injury mitigation and treatment offers the possibility to enhance the therapeutic
      ratio of radiation therapy by limiting radiation therapy-induced normal tissue
      injury without compromising its antitumor effect. Advances in the understanding
      of the underlying mechanisms of radiation toxicity have stimulated radiation
      oncologists to target these pathways across different organ systems. These
      generalized radiation injury mechanisms include production of free radicals such
      as superoxides, activation of inflammatory pathways, and vascular endothelial
      dysfunction leading to tissue hypoxia. There is a significant body of literature
      evaluating the effectiveness of various treatments in preventing, mitigating, or
      treating radiation-induced normal tissue injury. Whereas some reviews have
      focused on a specific disease site or agent, this critical review focuses on a
      mechanistic classification of activity and assesses multiple agents across
      different disease sites. The classification of agents used herein further offers
      a useful framework to organize the multitude of treatments that have been
      studied. Many commonly available treatments have demonstrated benefit in
      prevention, mitigation, and/or treatment of radiation toxicity and warrant
      further investigation. These drug-based approaches to radioprotection and
      radiation injury mitigation and treatment represent an important method of making
      radiation therapy safer.

PMID- 28581411
TI  - Computerized System for Safety Verification of External Beam Radiation Therapy
      Planning.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report an assessment of in-house software, Verifier, developed to
      improve efficacy and efficiency of the radiation therapy (RT) treatment planning
      process and quality control review (QCR). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Radiation
      therapy plan parameters retrieved from our treatment planning database are used
      by automated tests to give 75 types of warnings, such as prescription and plan
      discrepancies. The software is continuously updated on the basis of new issues,
      ideas, and planning policies. Verifier was retrospectively assessed (2007-2015)
      by examining impact on treatment plan revisions, frequency of quality improvement
      incident reports of avoidable RT plan-related safety events, unaddressed issues,
      and staff efficiency. RESULTS: Plan revisions for specific issues declined
      dramatically in response to implementation of corresponding Verifier tests.
      Between 2012 and 2015 our institution's total rate of plan revisions dropped from
      18.0% to 11.2%. Between 2008 and 2015 specific tests were added to Verifier while
      the rate of corresponding avoidable safety events was reduced from 0.34% to 0.00%
      over the same period. Simulations suggest Verifier saves approximately 2 to 5
      minutes per QCR. CONCLUSIONS: The decrease in quantifiable metrics of plan
      revisions and incident reports suggests automatic RT plan-checking software
      enhances patient safety and clinical efficiency. Although only modest time
      savings may be gained using Verifier for the QCR itself, the greater impact on
      efficiency is through avoiding late-stage plan modifications and improving
      documentation via automation. We encourage other institutions to consider working
      toward adding similar technologies to enhance their RT quality assurance
      programs.

PMID- 28581410
TI  - Lung and Heart Dose Variability During Radiation Therapy of Non-Small Cell Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the hypothesis that positional and anatomic variations
      during radiation therapy induce changes in lung and heart volumes and associated
      radiation doses. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this longitudinal investigation,
      variations in lung and heart volumes and standard dose parameters of mean lung
      dose, lung V20Gy, mean heart dose, and heart V40Gy were analyzed on weekly 4
      dimensional CT scans of 15 lung cancer patients during conventionally
      fractionated radiochemotherapy. Tumor, individual lung lobes, and heart were
      delineated on the mid-ventilation phase of weekly 4-dimensional CT scans. Lung
      lobes and heart were also contoured on individual breathing phases of pre-, mid-,
      and end-of-treatment scans. Planning dose was transferred to consecutive scans
      via rigid registration. Volume and dose variations were assessed relative to the
      initial planning scan. RESULTS: Interfraction lung volume variability relative to
      week 0 was twice as large as tidal volume variability (8.0% +/- 5.3% vs 4.0% +/-
      3.3%, P=.003). Interfraction lung volume variation ranged between 0.8% and 17.1%
      for individual patient means. Lower lung lobes had larger volume variability
      compared with upper lobes (13.5% +/- 8.1% vs 7.0% +/- 5.0%, P<.00001). Average
      mean lung dose variation was 0.5 Gy (range, 0.2-1.0 Gy for individual patient
      means) and average lung V20Gy variation 0.9% (range, 0.2%-1.6%). Average heart
      volume variation was 7.2% (range, 3.4%-12.6%). Average mean heart dose variation
      was 1.2 Gy (range, 0.1-3.0 Gy) and average heart V40Gy variation 1.4% (range, 0%
      4.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Anatomic and positional variations during radiation therapy
      induce changes in radiation doses to lung and heart. Repeated lung and heart dose
      assessment will provide a better estimate of the actual delivered dose and will
      improve prediction models for normal tissue toxicity, if assessed in larger
      cohorts.

PMID- 28581412
TI  - Dosimetric Impact of Using a Virtual Couch Shift for Online Correction of Setup
      Errors for Brain Patients on an Integrated High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging
      Linear Accelerator.
AB  - PURPOSE: To quantify the dosimetric impact of using virtual couch shift (VCS) for
      correcting setup errors in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients treated on a
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-linac. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Six GBM patients
      treated with 60 Gy (30 fractions) were selected for this simulation study. For
      each case, 2 reference plans were generated in the MRL treatment planning system:
      With (WIB) and with no (NOB) MRI B field present. Subsequently, 2-mm, 4-mm, and 6
      mm translational errors were simulated and corrected for using a VCS method based
      on shift-only, warm start segment weight (SWO), and segment weight and shape
      (SSO) optimization. The resulting distributions were compared with the reference
      plan using planning target volume (PTV) homogeneity index (HI), conformity index
      (CI), organs at risk (OAR) maximum dose (D0.01cc), and OAR median dose (D50). A
      simulated 30-fraction treatment was constructed to evaluate the cumulative effect
      of daily corrections. Feasibility and workflow for correcting rotations were also
      assessed. RESULTS: All reference plans were deemed clinically acceptable with
      respect to PTV and OAR objectives. The difference in HI (DeltaHI) between
      corrected and reference was not statistically significant between WIB and NOB
      (P=.89). The average DeltaHI was +0.8%, -0.1%, and -1.0% for shift-only, SWO, and
      SSO, respectively, with a statistically significant difference (P<.001) for shift
      only versus SWO and SSO. The CI remained unchanged (mean DeltaCI = -0.01) between
      the corrected and reference plans, with no statistically significant dependence
      on magnetic field presence, correction method, or shift magnitude or orientation.
      The brainstem D50 on average decreased with SWO and SSO; however, D0.01cc
      increased by a median value of 1.2%, 1.9%, and 2.0% for shift-only, SWO, and SSO,
      respectively. For other OARs, D0.01cc decreased using SWO or SSO. For the
      simulated treatment and rotational corrections, similar trends were measured.
      CONCLUSION: For translational errors in brain MRI-linac radiation therapy, the
      VCS method is an acceptable correction strategy, but caution must be used in
      particular for serial organs where maximum doses are most relevant. The effect of
      the magnetic field on relative changes between corrected versus reference plans
      is not clinically relevant.

PMID- 28581413
TI  - In Regard to Micke et al.

PMID- 28581415
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28581414
TI  - In Reply to Penagaricano.

PMID- 28581416
TI  - Africa's increasing efforts to control cancer.

PMID- 28581417
TI  - Less toxic treatment for multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28581418
TI  - Tamoxifen better than arzoxifene in breast cancer.

PMID- 28581419
TI  - Docetaxel induction combination for HNSCC.

PMID- 28581420
TI  - Defining biochemical failure in prostate cancer.

PMID- 28581421
TI  - Aromatase expression in lung cancer.

PMID- 28581423
TI  - Trabectedin too toxic in ovarian cancer?

PMID- 28581422
TI  - Alemtuzumab shows promise for CLL.

PMID- 28581424
TI  - Chemoradiotherapy in early-stage Hodgkin's disease.

PMID- 28581425
TI  - 'Complete oestrogen blockade' revitalised.

PMID- 28581426
TI  - Aspergillosis treatment in haematological malignancy.

PMID- 28581427
TI  - 39th Annual Conference of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology; Oct
      31-Nov 3, 2007; Mumbai, India.

PMID- 28581428
TI  - 8th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Geriatric Oncology; Nov 8-10,
      2007; Madrid, Spain.

PMID- 28581430
TI  - Bryan Jennett.

PMID- 28581432
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28581431
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28581433
TI  - December 10-16, 2011.

PMID- 28581434
TI  - Darwin on display.

PMID- 28581435
TI  - George E Palade.

PMID- 28581436
TI  - From biokinematics to a robotic active vision system.
AB  - Barn owls move their heads in very particular motions, compensating for the quasi
      immovability of their eyes. These efficient predators often perform peering side
      to-side head motions when scanning their surroundings and seeking prey. In this
      work, we use the head movements of barn owls as a model to bridge between
      biological active vision and machine vision. The biomotions are measured and used
      to actuate a specially built robot equipped with a depth camera for scanning. We
      hypothesize that the biomotions improve scan accuracy of static objects. Our
      experiments show that barn owl biomotion-based trajectories consistently improve
      scan accuracy when compared to intuitive scanning motions. This constitutes proof
      of-concept evidence that the vision of robotic systems can be enhanced by bio
      inspired viewpoint manipulation. Such biomimetic scanning systems can have many
      applications, e.g. manufacturing inspection or in autonomous robots.

PMID- 28581437
TI  - Silver nanowire-graphene hybrid transparent conductive electrodes for highly
      efficient inverted organic solar cells.
AB  - Silver nanowires (AgNWs) and graphene are both promising candidates as a
      transparent conductive electrode (TCE) to replace expensive and fragile indium
      tin oxide (ITO) TCE. A synergistically optimized performance is expected when the
      advantages of AgNWs and graphene are combined. In this paper, the AgNW-graphene
      hybrid electrode is constructed by depositing a graphene layer on top of the
      network of AgNWs. Compared with the pristine AgNWs electrode, the AgNW-graphene
      TCE exhibits reduced sheet resistance, lower surface roughness, excellent long
      term stability, and corrosion resistance in corrosive liquids. The graphene layer
      covering the AgNWs provides additional conduction pathways for electron transport
      and collection by the electrode. Benefiting from these advantages of the hybrid
      electrodes, we achieve a power conversion efficiency of 8.12% of inverted organic
      solar cells using PTB7:PC71BM as the active layer, which is compared to that of
      the solar cells based on standard ITO TCE but about 10% higher than that based on
      AgNWs TCE.

PMID- 28581438
TI  - Environmental monitoring through use of silica-based TLD.
AB  - The sensitivity of a novel silica-based fibre-form thermoluminescence dosimeter
      was tested off-site of a rare-earths processing plant, investigating the
      potential for obtaining baseline measurements of naturally occurring radioactive
      materials. The dosimeter, a Ge-doped collapsed photonic crystal fibre (PCFc) co
      doped with B, was calibrated against commercially available thermoluminescent
      dosimetry (TLD) (TLD-200 and TLD-100) using a bremsstrahlung (tube-based) x-ray
      source. Eight sampling sites within 1 to 20 km of the perimeter of the rare-earth
      facility were identified, the TLDs (silica- as well as TLD-200 and TLD-100) in
      each case being buried within the soil at fixed depth, allowing measurements to
      be obtained, in this case for protracted periods of exposure of between two to
      eight months. The values of the dose were then compared against values projected
      on the basis of radioactivity measurements of the associated soils, obtained via
      high-purity germanium gamma-ray spectrometry. Accord was found in relative terms
      between the TL evaluations at each site and the associated spectroscopic results.
      Thus said, in absolute terms, the TL evaluated doses were typically less than
      those derived from gamma-ray spectroscopy, by ~50% in the case of PCFc-Ge. Gamma
      spectrometry analysis typically provided an upper limit to the projected dose,
      and the Marinelli beaker contents were formed from sieving to provide a
      homogenous well-packed medium. However, with the radioactivity per unit mass
      typically greater for smaller particles, with preferential adsorption on the
      surface and the surface area per unit volume increasing with decrease in radius,
      this made for an elevated dose estimate. Prevailing concentrations of key
      naturally occurring radionuclides in soil, 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, were also
      determined, together with radiological dose evaluation. To date, the area under
      investigation, although including a rare-earth processing facility, gives no
      cause for concern from radiological impact. The current study reveals the
      suitability of the optical fibre based micro-dosimeter for all-weather monitoring
      of low-level environmental radioactivity.

PMID- 28581439
TI  - Tegotae-based decentralised control scheme for autonomous gait transition of
      snake-like robots.
AB  - Snakes change their locomotion patterns in response to the environment. This
      ability is a motivation for developing snake-like robots with highly adaptive
      functionality. In this study, a decentralised control scheme of snake-like robots
      that exhibited autonomous gait transition (i.e. the transition between concertina
      locomotion in narrow aisles and scaffold-based locomotion on unstructured
      terrains) was developed. Additionally, the control scheme was validated via
      simulations. A key insight revealed is that these locomotion patterns were not
      preprogrammed but emerged by exploiting Tegotae, a concept that describes the
      extent to which a perceived reaction matches a generated action. Unlike local
      reflexive mechanisms proposed previously, the Tegotae-based feedback mechanism
      enabled the robot to 'selectively' exploit environments beneficial for
      propulsion, and generated reasonable locomotion patterns. It is expected that the
      results of this study can form the basis to design robots that can work under
      unpredictable and unstructured environments.

PMID- 28581440
TI  - Ubiquitin ligase RNF146 coordinates bone dynamics and energy metabolism.
AB  - Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) is an autosomal dominant human disorder
      characterized by abnormal bone development that is mainly due to defective
      intramembranous bone formation by osteoblasts. Here, we describe a mouse strain
      lacking the E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF146 that shows phenotypic similarities to CCD.
      Loss of RNF146 stabilized its substrate AXIN1, leading to impairment of WNT3a
      induced beta-catenin activation and reduced Fgf18 expression in osteoblasts. We
      show that FGF18 induces transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ)
      expression, which is required for osteoblast proliferation and differentiation
      through transcriptional enhancer associate domain (TEAD) and runt-related
      transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) transcription factors, respectively. Finally, we
      demonstrate that adipogenesis is enhanced in Rnf146-/- mouse embryonic
      fibroblasts. Moreover, mice with loss of RNF146 within the osteoblast lineage had
      increased fat stores and were glucose intolerant with severe osteopenia because
      of defective osteoblastogenesis and subsequent impaired osteocalcin production.
      These findings indicate that RNF146 is required to coordinate beta-catenin
      signaling within the osteoblast lineage during embryonic and postnatal bone
      development.

PMID- 28581441
TI  - NK cell heparanase controls tumor invasion and immune surveillance.
AB  - NK cells are highly efficient at preventing cancer metastasis but are
      infrequently found in the core of primary tumors. Here, have we demonstrated that
      freshly isolated mouse and human NK cells express low levels of the endo-beta-D
      glucuronidase heparanase that increase upon NK cell activation. Heparanase
      deficiency did not affect development, differentiation, or tissue localization of
      NK cells under steady-state conditions. However, mice lacking heparanase
      specifically in NK cells (Hpsefl/fl NKp46-iCre mice) were highly tumor prone when
      challenged with the carcinogen methylcholanthrene (MCA). Hpsefl/fl NKp46-iCre
      mice were also more susceptible to tumor growth than were their littermate
      controls when challenged with the established mouse lymphoma cell line RMA-S-RAE
      1beta, which overexpresses the NK cell group 2D (NKG2D) ligand RAE-1beta, or when
      inoculated with metastatic melanoma, prostate carcinoma, or mammary carcinoma
      cell lines. NK cell invasion of primary tumors and recruitment to the site of
      metastasis were strictly dependent on the presence of heparanase. Cytokine and
      immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapy for metastases was compromised when NK
      cells lacked heparanase. Our data suggest that heparanase plays a critical role
      in NK cell invasion into tumors and thereby tumor progression and metastases.
      This should be considered when systemically treating cancer patients with
      heparanase inhibitors, since the potential adverse effect on NK cell infiltration
      might limit the antitumor activity of the inhibitors.

PMID- 28581442
TI  - Photopharmacological control of bipolar cells restores visual function in blind
      mice.
AB  - Photopharmacological control of neuronal activity using synthetic photochromic
      ligands, or photoswitches, is a promising approach for restoring visual function
      in patients suffering from degenerative retinal diseases. Azobenzene
      photoswitches, such as AAQ and DENAQ, have been shown to restore the responses of
      retinal ganglion cells to light in mouse models of retinal degeneration but do
      not recapitulate native retinal signal processing. Here, we describe diethylamino
      azo-diethylamino (DAD), a third-generation photoswitch that is capable of
      restoring retinal ganglion cell light responses to blue or white light. In acute
      brain slices of murine layer 2/3 cortical neurons, we determined that the
      photoswitch quickly relaxes to its inactive form in the dark. DAD is not
      permanently charged, and the uncharged form enables the photoswitch to rapidly
      and effectively cross biological barriers and thereby access and photosensitize
      retinal neurons. Intravitreal injection of DAD restored retinal light responses
      and light-driven behavior to blind mice. Unlike DENAQ, DAD acts upstream of
      retinal ganglion cells, primarily conferring light sensitivity to bipolar cells.
      Moreover, DAD was capable of generating ON and OFF visual responses in the blind
      retina by utilizing intrinsic retinal circuitry, which may be advantageous for
      restoring visual function.

PMID- 28581443
TI  - Neuropeptide FF increases M2 activation and self-renewal of adipose tissue
      macrophages.
AB  - The quantity and activation state of adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) impact the
      development of obesity-induced metabolic diseases. Appetite-controlling hormones
      play key roles in obesity; however, our understanding of their effects on ATMs is
      limited. Here, we have shown that human and mouse ATMs express NPFFR2, a receptor
      for the appetite-reducing neuropeptide FF (NPFF), and that NPFFR2 expression is
      upregulated by IL-4, an M2-polarizing cytokine. Plasma levels of NPFF decreased
      in obese patients and high-fat diet-fed mice and increased following caloric
      restriction. NPFF promoted M2 activation and increased the proliferation of
      murine and human ATMs. Both M2 activation and increased ATM proliferation were
      abolished in NPFFR2-deficient ATMs. Mechanistically, the effects of NPFF involved
      the suppression of E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF128 expression, resulting in enhanced
      stability of phosphorylated STAT6 and increased transcription of the M2
      macrophage-associated genes IL-4 receptor alpha (Il4ra), arginase 1 (Arg1), IL-10
      (Il10), and alkylglycerol monooxygenase (Agmo). NPFF induced ATM proliferation
      concomitantly with the increase in N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (Ndrg2)
      expression and suppressed the transcription of Ifi200 cell-cycle inhibitor family
      members and MAF bZIP transcription factor B (Mafb), a negative regulator of
      macrophage proliferation. NPFF thus plays an important role in supporting healthy
      adipose tissue via the maintenance of metabolically beneficial ATMs.

PMID- 28581445
TI  - Glutamine supplementation suppresses herpes simplex virus reactivation.
AB  - Chronic viral infections are difficult to treat, and new approaches are needed,
      particularly those aimed at reducing reactivation by enhancing immune responses.
      Herpes simplex virus (HSV) establishes latency and reactivates frequently, and
      breakthrough reactivation can occur despite suppressive antiviral therapy. Virus
      specific T cells are important to control HSV, and proliferation of activated T
      cells requires increased metabolism of glutamine. Here, we found that
      supplementation with oral glutamine reduced virus reactivation in latently HSV-1
      infected mice and HSV-2-infected guinea pigs. Transcriptome analysis of
      trigeminal ganglia from latently HSV-1-infected, glutamine-treated WT mice showed
      upregulation of several IFN-gamma-inducible genes. In contrast to WT mice,
      supplemental glutamine was ineffective in reducing the rate of HSV-1 reactivation
      in latently HSV-1-infected IFN-gamma-KO mice. Mice treated with glutamine also
      had higher numbers of HSV-specific IFN-gamma-producing CD8 T cells in latently
      infected ganglia. Thus, glutamine may enhance the IFN-gamma-associated immune
      response and reduce the rate of reactivation of latent virus infection.

PMID- 28581447
TI  - Time Window Is Important for Adenosine Preventing Cold-induced Injury to the
      Endothelium.
AB  - Cold cardioplegia is used to induce heart arrest during cardiac surgery. However,
      endothelial function may be compromised after this procedure. Accordingly,
      interventions such as adenosine, that mimic the effects of preconditioning, may
      minimize endothelial injury. Herein, we investigated whether adenosine prevents
      cold-induced injury to the endothelium. Cultured human cardiac microvascular
      endothelial cells were treated with adenosine for different durations.
      Phosphorylation and expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS),
      p38MAPK, ERK1/2, and p70S6K6 were measured along with nitric oxide (NO)
      production using diaminofluorescein-2 diacetate (DAF-2DA) probe. Cold-induced
      injury by hypothermia to 4 degrees C for 45 minutes to mimic conditions of cold
      cardioplegia during open heart surgery was induced in human cardiac microvascular
      endothelial cells. Under basal conditions, adenosine stimulated NO production,
      eNOS phosphorylation at serine 1177 from 5 minutes to 4 hours and inhibited eNOS
      phosphorylation at threonine 495 from 5 minutes to 6 hours, but increased
      phosphorylation of ERK1/2, p38MAPK, and p70S6K only after exposure for 5 minutes.
      Cold-induced injury inhibited NO production and the phosphorylation of the
      different enzymes. Importantly, adenosine prevented these effects of hypothermic
      injury. Our data demonstrated that adenosine prevents hypothermic injury to the
      endothelium by activating ERK1/2, eNOS, p70S6K, and p38MAPK signaling pathways at
      early time points. These findings also indicated that 5 minutes after
      administration of adenosine or release of adenosine is an important time window
      for cardioprotection during cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28581444
TI  - Altered homeostatic regulation of innate and adaptive immunity in lower
      gastrointestinal tract GVHD pathogenesis.
AB  - Lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is the
      predominant cause of morbidity and mortality from GVHD after allogeneic stem cell
      transplantation. Recent data indicate that lower GI tract GVHD is a complicated
      process mediated by donor/host antigenic disparities. This process is exacerbated
      by significant changes to the microbiome, and innate and adaptive immune
      responses that are critical to the induction of disease, persistence of
      inflammation, and a lack of response to therapy. Here, we discuss new insights
      into the biology of lower GI tract GVHD and focus on intrinsic pathways and
      regulatory mechanisms crucial to normal intestinal function. We then describe
      multiple instances in which these homeostatic mechanisms are altered by donor T
      cells or conditioning therapy, resulting in exacerbation of GVHD. We also discuss
      data suggesting that some of these mechanisms produce biomarkers that could be
      informative as to the severity of GVHD and its response to therapy. Finally,
      novel therapies that might restore homeostasis in the GI tract during GVHD are
      highlighted.

PMID- 28581446
TI  - Tregs restrain dendritic cell autophagy to ameliorate autoimmunity.
AB  - Design of efficacious Treg-based therapies and establishment of clinical
      tolerance in autoimmune diseases have proven to be challenging. The clinical
      implementation of Treg immunotherapy has been hampered by various impediments
      related to the stability and isolation procedures of Tregs as well as the
      specific in vivo targets of Treg modalities. Herein, we have demonstrated that
      Foxp3+ Tregs potently suppress autoimmune responses in vivo through inhibition of
      the autophagic machinery in DCs in a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4
      dependent (CTLA4-dependent) manner. Autophagy-deficient DCs exhibited reduced
      immunogenic potential and failed to prime autoantigen-specific CD4+ T cells to
      mediate autoimmunity. Mechanistically, CTLA4 binding promoted activation of the
      PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis and FoxO1 nuclear exclusion in DCs, leading to decreased
      transcription of the autophagy component microtubule-associated protein 1 light
      chain 3beta (Lc3b). Human DCs treated with CTLA4-Ig, a fusion protein composed of
      the Fc region of IgG1 and the extracellular domain of CTLA4 (also known as
      abatacept, marketed as Orencia), demonstrated reduced levels of autophagosome
      formation, while DCs from CTLA4-Ig-treated rheumatoid arthritis patients
      displayed diminished LC3B transcripts. Collectively, our data identify the
      canonical autophagy pathway in DCs as a molecular target of Foxp3+ Treg-mediated
      suppression that leads to amelioration of autoimmune responses. These findings
      may pave the way for the development of therapeutic protocols that exploit Tregs
      for the treatment of autoimmunity as well as diseases in which disturbed
      tolerance is a common denominator.

PMID- 28581449
TI  - Urinary tract infections in diabetic women during menopause: new basis for a
      multidisciplinary approach.

PMID- 28581448
TI  - Trimetazidine Protects Cardiomyocytes Against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation Injury by
      Promoting AMP-activated Protein Kinase-dependent Autophagic Flux.
AB  - Trimetazidine (TMZ), a metabolic agent, may protect against myocardial
      ischemia/reperfusion injury. Because of the critical role of autophagy in
      cardioprotection, we aimed to evaluate whether autophagy was involved in TMZ
      induced protection during hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R). Neonatal rat
      cardiomyocytes were subjected to H/R injury, and they were divided into 7 groups:
      control, control+TMZ, control+chloroquine (Cq)/compound C (com C), H/R, H/R+TMZ,
      H/R+Cq/com C, and H/R+TMZ+Cq/com C. Autophagic flux was primarily assessed by
      Western blot and tandem fluorescent mRFP-GFP-LC3. Assays for MTS, terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling, and lactate
      dehydrogenase release were performed to assess cell injury. Our results showed
      that TMZ pretreatment had a cardioprotective effect against H/R injury. The
      H/R+TMZ group had an increased ratio of LC3-II to LC3-I and increased autophagic
      flux (degradation of p62 and increases in autophagosomes and autolysosomes). TMZ
      also reduced apoptosis and enhanced cell survival while inducing autophagy.
      Correspondingly, autophagy inhibition with Cq blocked this protective effect.
      Furthermore, TMZ-induced enhancement of autophagy could be related to increased
      AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation and decreased Mammalian
      target of rapamycin (mTOR) phosphorylation, which was abolished by an AMPK
      specific inhibitor (com C). Our data provide evidence that TMZ pretreatment
      protects against H/R injury by promoting autophagic flux through the AMPK
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28581450
TI  - Treatment and prognosis in patients with acute severe heart failure: does
      etiology matter?

PMID- 28581451
TI  - Role of molecular genetics in diabetic foot ulcer.

PMID- 28581452
TI  - Primary thyroid lymphoma: a rare but challenging diagnosis.

PMID- 28581453
TI  - Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage as an initial presentation of ANCA-associated
      vasculitis in an 80-year-old man.

PMID- 28581454
TI  - Lung adenocarcinoma metastasis to geographic skull.

PMID- 28581455
TI  - Attenuation of RNA viruses by redirecting their evolution in sequence space.
AB  - RNA viruses pose serious threats to human health. Their success relies on their
      capacity to generate genetic variability and, consequently, on their adaptive
      potential. We describe a strategy to attenuate RNA viruses by altering their
      evolutionary potential. We rationally altered the genomes of Coxsackie B3 and
      influenza A viruses to redirect their evolutionary trajectories towards
      detrimental regions in sequence space. Specifically, viral genomes were
      engineered to harbour more serine and leucine codons with nonsense mutation
      targets: codons that could generate Stop mutations after a single nucleotide
      substitution. Indeed, these viruses generated more Stop mutations both in vitro
      and in vivo, accompanied by significant losses in viral fitness. In vivo, the
      viruses were attenuated, generated high levels of neutralizing antibodies and
      protected against lethal challenge. Our study demonstrates that cornering viruses
      in 'risky' areas of sequence space may be implemented as a broad-spectrum vaccine
      strategy against RNA viruses.

PMID- 28581457
TI  - Involved/uninvolved heavy/light chain index can predict progression in
      transplanted multiple myeloma patients.

PMID- 28581456
TI  - Epigenetic silencing of IRF1 dysregulates type III interferon responses to
      respiratory virus infection in epithelial to mesenchymal transition.
AB  - Chronic oxidative injury produced by airway disease triggers a transforming
      growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)-mediated epigenetic reprogramming known as the
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We observe that EMT silences protective
      mucosal interferon (IFN)-I and III production associated with enhanced rhinovirus
      (RV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) replication. Mesenchymal transitioned
      cells are defective in inducible interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) expression
      by occluding RelA and IRF3 access to the promoter. IRF1 is necessary for the
      expression of type III IFNs (IFNLs 1 and 2/3). Induced by the EMT, zinc finger E
      box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) binds and silences IRF1. Ectopic ZEB1 is sufficient
      for IRF1 silencing, whereas ZEB1 knockdown partially restores IRF1-IFNL
      upregulation. ZEB1 silences IRF1 through the catalytic activity of the enhancer
      of zeste 2 polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit (EZH2), forming repressive
      H3K27(me3) marks. We observe that IRF1 expression is mediated by ZEB1 de
      repression, and our study demonstrates how airway remodelling/fibrosis is
      associated with a defective mucosal antiviral response through ZEB1-initiated
      epigenetic silencing.

PMID- 28581458
TI  - When should preemptive antiviral therapy for active CMV infection be withdrawn
      from allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients?

PMID- 28581459
TI  - The evolving role of chemotherapy and hematopoietic cell transplants in Ph
      positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults.
AB  - The introduction of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) into the treatment of
      patients with Ph or BCR-ABL1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia has
      revolutionized the treatment of this poor prognosis acute leukemia. The
      combination of TKI with chemotherapy has improved response rates and allowed more
      patients to proceed to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT). Older
      patients have excellent responses to TKI and corticosteroids or in combination
      with minimal chemotherapy. This raises the question as to whether patients
      require full-intensity chemotherapy with TKI to achieve molecular remissions. The
      pediatricians have proposed that cure is achievable without alloHCT in children.
      These results have suggested that many patients may not require traditional
      chemotherapy in addition to TKI to achieve remission, and that patients who
      achieve a negative minimal residual disease state may not require alloHCT. The
      data in support of these questions is presented here and a suggested future
      clinical trial design based on these data is proposed.

PMID- 28581460
TI  - MRD response in a refractory paediatric T-ALL patient through anti-programmed
      cell death 1 (PD-1) Ab treatment associated with induction of fatal GvHD.

PMID- 28581461
TI  - Long-term follow-up of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in
      relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

PMID- 28581462
TI  - Dynamics of molecular response in AML patients with NPM1 and FLT3 mutations
      undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplant.

PMID- 28581463
TI  - The burden of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in children receiving
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation conditioning: a prospective study.
AB  - This prospective study describes chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV)
      in children (4-18 years) receiving their first hematopoietic stem cell
      transplant. Emetic episodes, nausea severity (assessed using a validated, self
      report nausea severity assessment tool) and antiemetic administration were
      documented from the start of conditioning until 24 h after the last conditioning
      agent was administered (acute) and for a further 7 days (delayed). Relationships
      between CINV control and parenteral nutrition (PN) use and acute gut GvHD (aGvHD)
      were explored. Fifty-nine children (4.6-17.4 years) were evaluable. Complete
      chemotherapy-induced vomiting (CIV; acute: 24%; delayed 22%) and chemotherapy
      induced nausea (CIN; acute 7%; delayed 12%) control rates were low. Few children
      experienced complete CINV control (no vomiting/retching and no nausea) during the
      acute (5%) or delayed phases (12%). Children experiencing complete acute or
      delayed CIN control or complete delayed CIV control were more likely to have
      received: a lower proportion of their total energy requirement as PN at the end
      of the delayed phase (P<0.036) and PN for a shorter time (P<0.044). Low patient
      numbers did not permit evaluation of the association between gut aGvHD and CINV
      control. Effective and safe interventions aimed at improving CINV control in
      children are required.

PMID- 28581464
TI  - Idarubicin-intensified haploidentical HSCT with GvHD prophylaxis of ATG and
      basiliximab provides comparable results to sibling donors in high-risk acute
      leukemia.
AB  - We designed a novel haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo
      HSCT) system using idarubicin (IDA) intensified conditioning regimens and
      combination of antithymocyte globulin and basiliximab for GvHD prophylaxis. The
      outcomes of 110 high-risk acute leukemia patients undergoing haplo-HSCT were
      compared with 69 contemporaneous high-risk patients receiving HLA-matched sibling
      transplantation using uniform IDA-intensified regimens. The relapse incidence of
      haplo-HSCT was 23.4%, and 3-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival
      (DFS) achieved 62.9%, 59.1%, respectively. The cumulative incidences of II-IV and
      III-IV aGvHD were 28.6 and 14.3%, while limited and extensive cGvHD were 19.4,
      13.8%. All these results were equivalent to those of concurrent identical sibling
      transplantation. Three-year OS and DFS for patients in advance stage reached
      48.5, 47.3%. Furthermore, the relapse, 3-year OS of positive minimal residual
      disease (MRD) patients did not differ from negative MRD patients (18.9% vs 11.5%,
      63.6% vs 69.6%), indicating our intensified haplo-HSCT technique could circumvent
      the dismal prognosis of MRD. These data provide reinforcing evidence that our
      haplo-HSCT system could dramatically improve the survival of high-risk acute
      leukemia with low relapse and acceptable transplantation-related mortality, and
      might be a promising therapeutic option for high-risk patients.

PMID- 28581465
TI  - Severe acute GvHD following administration of ipilimumab for early relapse of AML
      after haploidentical stem cell transplantation.

PMID- 28581466
TI  - High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for primary
      central nervous system lymphoma: a multi-centre retrospective analysis from the
      United Kingdom.
AB  - The prognosis of patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL)
      has improved in recent years. This has partly been achieved by remission
      induction protocols incorporating high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) and rituximab.
      Given the high rates of relapse, consolidation therapy is usually considered in
      first response. Whole brain radiotherapy may prolong PFS but appears to confer no
      long-term survival advantage and is associated with significant neurocognitive
      dysfunction. Attempts to improve efficacy and reduce neurotoxicity of
      consolidation therapy have included thiotepa-based high-dose chemotherapy and
      autologous stem cell transplant (HDC-ASCT). This multi-centre, retrospective
      study reports the outcome of 70 patients undergoing HDC-ASCT for PCNSL in the
      United Kingdom. The median age at diagnosis was 56 years and all patients
      received HD-MTX-containing induction regimens. All patients underwent HDC-ASCT in
      first response. The rate of complete response increased from 50% before HDC-ASCT
      to 77% following HDC-ASCT. Treatment-related mortality was 6%. At a median follow
      up of 12 months from HDC-ASCT, the estimated 1- and 2-year PFS rates were 71.5%
      and overall survival 86.4% and 83.3%, respectively. These data are comparable to
      published studies of HDC-ASCT for PCNSL, supporting its feasibility and efficacy.

PMID- 28581467
TI  - Directionality of non-permissive HLA-DPB1 T-cell epitope group mismatches does
      not improve clinical risk stratification in 8/8 matched unrelated donor
      hematopoietic cell transplantation.
AB  - In 8/8 HLA-matched unrelated donor (UD) hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT), HLA
      DPB1 mismatches between alleles from different T-cell epitope (TCE) groups (non
      permissive mismatches) are associated with significantly higher risks of
      mortality compared with those between alleles from the same TCE group (permissive
      mismatches); however, the relevance of mismatch directionality, that is (host vs
      graft (uni-directional HvG), graft vs host (uni-directional GvH) or both (bi
      directional) in the non-permissive setting is unknown. We show here significantly
      higher in vitro relative responses (RR) to bi-directional mismatches compared
      with uni-directional HvG or GvH mismatches in a total of 420 one-way mixed
      lymphocyte reactions between 10/10 matched pairs (RR 27.5 vs 7.5 vs 15.5,
      respectively, P<0.001). However, in 3281 8/8 matched UD HCT for leukemia or
      myelodysplastic syndrome, the hazards of transplant-related mortality (TRM) were
      similar for uni-directional HvG or GvH mismatches and bi-directional mismatches
      (hazard ratio (HR) 1.32, P=0.001 vs HR 1.28, P=0.005 and HR 1.34, P=0.046),
      compared with permissive mismatches. Similar results were observed for overall
      survival. No statistical differences between the uni- and the bi-directional non
      permissive groups were detected in pairwise comparisons for any of the outcomes
      tested. We conclude that consideration of directionality does not improve risk
      stratification by non-permissive HLA-DPB1 TCE mismatches in UD searches.

PMID- 28581469
TI  - Administration of high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell support in patients 40
      years of age or older with advanced germ cell tumours: a retrospective study from
      the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation database.

PMID- 28581468
TI  - A phase I/II minor histocompatibility antigen-loaded dendritic cell vaccination
      trial to safely improve the efficacy of donor lymphocyte infusions in myeloma.
AB  - Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) with or without donor lymphocyte
      infusions (DLI) is the only curative option for several hematological
      malignancies. Unfortunately, allo-SCT is often associated with GvHD, and patients
      often relapse. We therefore aim to improve the graft-versus-tumor effect, without
      increasing the risk of GvHD, by targeting hematopoietic lineage-restricted and
      tumor-associated minor histocompatibility antigens using peptide-loaded dendritic
      cell (DC) vaccinations. In the present multicenter study, we report the
      feasibility, safety and efficacy of this concept. We treated nine multiple
      myeloma patients with persistent or relapsed disease after allo-SCT and a
      previous DLI, with donor monocyte-derived mHag-peptide-loaded DC vaccinations
      combined with a second DLI. Vaccinations were well tolerated and no occurrence of
      GvHD was observed. In five out of nine patients, we were able to show the
      induction of mHag-specific CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood. Five out of nine
      patients, of which four developed mHag-specific T cells, showed stable disease
      (SD) for 3.5-10 months. This study shows that mHag-based donor monocyte-derived
      DC vaccination combined with DLI is safe, feasible and capable of inducing
      objective mHag-specific T-cell responses. Future research should focus on further
      improvement of the vaccination strategy, toward translating the observed T-cell
      responses into robust clinical responses.

PMID- 28581470
TI  - Low EGF in myeloablative allotransplantation: association with severe acute GvHD
      in BMT CTN 0402.
AB  - Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a recently described biomarker of acute GvHD
      (aGvHD). Whether low plasma EGF prior to hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)
      predisposes to the development of aGvHD, or whether EGF levels fall because of
      severe aGvHD, is unknown. To evaluate this, we tested plasma samples collected at
      pre-HCT baseline, day +28 and day +100 during the course of the Blood and Marrow
      Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) 0402. We found that baseline EGF
      plasma concentrations were three-fold lower in HCT recipients compared to donors
      (24.3 vs 76.0 pg/mL, P<0.01). Ninety-one patients (43%) had a markedly low plasma
      EGF at pre-HCT baseline, defined as <2.7 pg/mL-an optimal cutpoint associated
      with development of grade III-IV aGvHD. Patients with these low EGF levels at pre
      HCT baseline had a 2.9-fold increased risk of grade III-IV aGvHD by day +100.
      Patients with low EGF at day +28 after HCT had an increased risk of death
      (relative risk 2.3, P=0.02) by 1 year due to transplant-related toxicities,
      especially aGvHD. Our results suggest that very low plasma EGF early in the HCT
      process may predispose patients to an increased risk of death, potentially due to
      epithelial damage and limited repair capacity.

PMID- 28581471
TI  - Complete resolution of severe ulcerative colitis after haploidentical
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation followed by post-transplant high-dose
      cyclophosphamide.

PMID- 28581472
TI  - Low incidence of severe cGvHD and late NRM in a phase II trial of thymoglobulin,
      tacrolimus and sirolimus for GvHD prevention.
AB  - Chronic GvHD (cGvHD) is the leading cause of late non-relapse mortality (NRM) and
      morbidity after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT). We
      analyzed the late effects of a phase II trial testing the efficacy of
      intermediate dose rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (Thymoglobulin Thymo) in
      combination with tacrolimus and sirolimus (TTS) in 47 patients (pts) for the
      prevention of acute and chronic GvHD after unrelated AHSCT. The median follow-up
      was 45.2 months. The cumulative incidence of NIH severe cGvHD at 48 months was
      6.4% with no new occurrences past 6 months for the entire follow-up period. The
      overall cumulative incidence of cGvHD was 44.7%. Out of 20 pts who are alive and
      disease-free at the last follow-up, only 4 pts continue to need systemic immune
      suppression. We observed low late NRM with only 3 transplant-related deaths after
      6 months post transplant. At 4 years of follow-up, the overall cumulative
      incidence of NRM and disease relapse was 27.7% and 30.0%, respectively. PFS and
      overall survival (OS) at 4 years were 42 and 47%. At long term follow-up, TTS was
      associated with low incidence of severe cGvHD and late NRM.

PMID- 28581473
TI  - Minimal residual disease assessment by next-generation sequencing. Better tools
      to gaze into the crystal ball?

PMID- 28581474
TI  - Extracorporeal life support survival in a pediatric hematopoietic cellular
      transplant recipient with presumed GvHD-related fulminant myocarditis.

PMID- 28581476
TI  - Lgr5-expressing chief cells drive epithelial regeneration and cancer in the
      oxyntic stomach.
AB  - The daily renewal of the corpus epithelium is fuelled by adult stem cells
      residing within tubular glands, but the identity of these stem cells remains
      controversial. Lgr5 marks homeostatic stem cells and 'reserve' stem cells in
      multiple tissues. Here, we report Lgr5 expression in a subpopulation of chief
      cells in mouse and human corpus glands. Using a non-variegated Lgr5-2A-CreERT2
      mouse model, we show by lineage tracing that Lgr5-expressing chief cells do not
      behave as corpus stem cells during homeostasis, but are recruited to function as
      stem cells to effect epithelial renewal following injury by activating Wnt
      signalling. Ablation of Lgr5+ cells severely impairs epithelial homeostasis in
      the corpus, indicating an essential role for these Lgr5+ cells in maintaining the
      homeostatic stem cell pool. We additionally define Lgr5+ chief cells as a major
      cell-of-origin of gastric cancer. These findings reveal clinically relevant
      insights into homeostasis, repair and cancer in the corpus.

PMID- 28581478
TI  - Reinstated episodic context guides sampling-based decisions for reward.
AB  - How does experience inform decisions? In episodic sampling, decisions are guided
      by a few episodic memories of past choices. This process can yield choice
      patterns similar to model-free reinforcement learning; however, samples can vary
      from trial to trial, causing decisions to vary. Here we show that context
      retrieved during episodic sampling can cause choice behavior to deviate sharply
      from the predictions of reinforcement learning. Specifically, we show that, when
      a given memory is sampled, choices (in the present) are influenced by the
      properties of other decisions made in the same context as the sampled event. This
      effect is mediated by fMRI measures of context retrieval on each trial,
      suggesting a mechanism whereby cues trigger retrieval of context, which then
      triggers retrieval of other decisions from that context. This result establishes
      a new avenue by which experience can guide choice and, as such, has broad
      implications for the study of decisions.

PMID- 28581475
TI  - The choice of in-hospital or home administration for plerixafor injection to poor
      mobilizers has no adverse consequence on subsequent hematopoietic stem cell
      harvest.

PMID- 28581480
TI  - Rich cell-type-specific network topology in neocortical microcircuitry.
AB  - Uncovering structural regularities and architectural topologies of cortical
      circuitry is vital for understanding neural computations. Recently, an
      experimentally constrained algorithm generated a dense network reconstruction of
      a ~0.3-mm3 volume from juvenile rat somatosensory neocortex, comprising ~31,000
      cells and ~36 million synapses. Using this reconstruction, we found a small-world
      topology with an average of 2.5 synapses separating any two cells and multiple
      cell-type-specific wiring features. Amounts of excitatory and inhibitory
      innervations varied across cells, yet pyramidal neurons maintained relatively
      constant excitation/inhibition ratios. The circuit contained highly connected hub
      neurons belonging to a small subset of cell types and forming an interconnected
      cell-type-specific rich club. Certain three-neuron motifs were overrepresented,
      matching recent experimental results. Cell-type-specific network properties were
      even more striking when synaptic strength and sign were considered in generating
      a functional topology. Our systematic approach enables interpretation of
      microconnectomics 'big data' and provides several experimentally testable
      predictions.

PMID- 28581481
TI  - Charge-transfer dynamics and nonlocal dielectric permittivity tuned with
      metamaterial structures as solvent analogues.
AB  - Charge transfer (CT) is a fundamental and ubiquitous mechanism in biology,
      physics and chemistry. Here, we evidence that CT dynamics can be altered by multi
      layered hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) substrates. Taking triphenylene:perylene
      diimide dyad supramolecular self-assemblies as a model system, we reveal longer
      lived CT states in the presence of HMM structures, with both charge separation
      and recombination characteristic times increased by factors of 2.4 and 1.7-that
      is, relative variations of 140 and 73%, respectively. To rationalize these
      experimental results in terms of driving force, we successfully introduce image
      dipole interactions in Marcus theory. The non-local effect herein demonstrated is
      directly linked to the number of metal-dielectric pairs, can be formalized in the
      dielectric permittivity, and is presented as a solid analogue to local solvent
      polarity effects. This model and extra PH3T:PC60BM results show the generality of
      this non-local phenomenon and that a wide range of kinetic tailoring
      opportunities can arise from substrate engineering. This work paves the way
      toward the design of artificial substrates to control CT dynamics of interest for
      applications in optoelectronics and chemistry.

PMID- 28581479
TI  - Cancer-induced anorexia and malaise are mediated by CGRP neurons in the
      parabrachial nucleus.
AB  - Anorexia is a common manifestation of chronic diseases, including cancer. Here we
      investigate the contribution to cancer anorexia made by calcitonin gene-related
      peptide (CGRP) neurons in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) that transmit anorexic
      signals. We show that CGRPPBN neurons are activated in mice implanted with Lewis
      lung carcinoma cells. Inactivation of CGRPPBN neurons before tumor implantation
      prevents anorexia and loss of lean mass, and their inhibition after symptom onset
      reverses anorexia. CGRPPBN neurons are also activated in Apcmin/+ mice, which
      develop intestinal cancer and lose weight despite the absence of reduced food
      intake. Inactivation of CGRPPBN neurons in Apcmin/+ mice permits hyperphagia that
      counteracts weight loss, revealing a role for these neurons in a 'nonanorexic'
      cancer model. We also demonstrate that inactivation of CGRPPBN neurons prevents
      lethargy, anxiety and malaise associated with cancer. These findings establish
      CGRPPBN neurons as key mediators of cancer-induced appetite suppression and
      associated behavioral changes.

PMID- 28581484
TI  - Autocatalytic backbone N-methylation in a family of ribosomal peptide natural
      products.
AB  - Peptide backbone N-methylation, as seen in cyclosporin A, has been considered to
      be exclusive to nonribosomal peptides. We have identified the first post
      translationally modified peptide or protein harboring internal alpha-N
      methylations through discovery of the genetic locus for the omphalotins, cyclic N
      methylated peptides produced by the fungus Omphalotus olearius. We show that
      iterative autocatalytic activity of an N-methyltransferase fused to its peptide
      substrate is the signature of a new family of ribosomally encoded metabolites.

PMID- 28581483
TI  - Blocking an N-terminal acetylation-dependent protein interaction inhibits an E3
      ligase.
AB  - N-terminal acetylation is an abundant modification influencing protein functions.
      Because ~80% of mammalian cytosolic proteins are N-terminally acetylated, this
      modification is potentially an untapped target for chemical control of their
      functions. Structural studies have revealed that, like lysine acetylation, N
      terminal acetylation converts a positively charged amine into a hydrophobic
      handle that mediates protein interactions; hence, this modification may be a
      druggable target. We report the development of chemical probes targeting the N
      terminal acetylation-dependent interaction between an E2 conjugating enzyme
      (UBE2M or UBC12) and DCN1 (DCUN1D1), a subunit of a multiprotein E3 ligase for
      the ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8. The inhibitors are highly selective with
      respect to other protein acetyl-amide-binding sites, inhibit NEDD8 ligation in
      vitro and in cells, and suppress anchorage-independent growth of a cell line with
      DCN1 amplification. Overall, our data demonstrate that N-terminal acetyl
      dependent protein interactions are druggable targets and provide insights into
      targeting multiprotein E2-E3 ligases.

PMID- 28581477
TI  - Inter-organ signalling by HRG-7 promotes systemic haem homeostasis.
AB  - Growing evidence in vertebrates predicts that cellular haem levels in animals are
      maintained not only by a cell's internal capacity for haem synthesis in a cell
      autonomous manner, but also by an inter-organ haem trafficking network through
      cell-non-autonomous regulation. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, a genetically and
      optically amenable animal model for visualizing haem-dependent signalling, we
      show that HRG-7, a protein with homology to aspartic proteases, mediates inter
      organ signalling between the intestine and extra-intestinal tissues. Intestinal
      HRG-7 functions as a secreted signalling factor during haem starvation in extra
      intestinal tissues and is regulated through a DBL-1, homologous to BMP5,
      dependent signal from neurons. Given the evidence that vertebrate homologues
      exist for each of the components of the HRG-7-mediated signalling pathway, it is
      conceivable that the cell-non-autonomous signalling framework that we uncovered
      in C. elegans may have functional relevance for inter-organ regulation of iron
      and haem metabolism in humans.

PMID- 28581482
TI  - Parallel evolution of non-homologous isofunctional enzymes in methionine
      biosynthesis.
AB  - Experimental validation of enzyme function is crucial for genome interpretation,
      but it remains challenging because it cannot be scaled up to accommodate the
      constant accumulation of genome sequences. We tackled this issue for the MetA and
      MetX enzyme families, phylogenetically unrelated families of acyl-L-homoserine
      transferases involved in L-methionine biosynthesis. Members of these families are
      prone to incorrect annotation because MetX and MetA enzymes are assumed to always
      use acetyl-CoA and succinyl-CoA, respectively. We determined the enzymatic
      activities of 100 enzymes from diverse species, and interpreted the results by
      structural classification of active sites based on protein structure modeling. We
      predict that >60% of the 10,000 sequences from these families currently present
      in databases are incorrectly annotated, and suggest that acetyl-CoA was
      originally the sole substrate of these isofunctional enzymes, which evolved to
      use exclusively succinyl-CoA in the most recent bacteria. We also uncovered a
      divergent subgroup of MetX enzymes in fungi that participate only in L-cysteine
      biosynthesis as O-succinyl-L-serine transferases.

PMID- 28581485
TI  - Activity-based probes for functional interrogation of retaining beta
      glucuronidases.
AB  - Humans express at least two distinct beta-glucuronidase enzymes that are involved
      in disease: exo-acting beta-glucuronidase (GUSB), whose deficiency gives rise to
      mucopolysaccharidosis type VII, and endo-acting heparanase (HPSE), whose
      overexpression is implicated in inflammation and cancers. The medical importance
      of these enzymes necessitates reliable methods to assay their activities in
      tissues. Herein, we present a set of beta-glucuronidase-specific activity-based
      probes (ABPs) that allow rapid and quantitative visualization of GUSB and HPSE in
      biological samples, providing a powerful tool for dissecting their activities in
      normal and disease states. Unexpectedly, we find that the supposedly inactive
      HPSE proenzyme proHPSE is also labeled by our ABPs, leading to surprising
      insights regarding structural relationships between proHPSE, mature HPSE, and
      their bacterial homologs. Our results demonstrate the application of beta
      glucuronidase ABPs in tracking pathologically relevant enzymes and provide a case
      study of how ABP-driven approaches can lead to discovery of unanticipated
      structural and biochemical functionality.

PMID- 28581486
TI  - The Hippo signaling functions through the Notch signaling to regulate
      intrahepatic bile duct development in mammals.
AB  - The Hippo signaling pathway and the Notch signaling pathway are evolutionary
      conserved signaling cascades that have important roles in embryonic development
      of many organs. In murine liver, disruption of either pathway impairs
      intrahepatic bile duct development. Recent studies suggested that the Notch
      signaling receptor Notch2 is a direct transcriptional target of the Hippo
      signaling pathway effector YAP, and the Notch signaling is a major mediator of
      the Hippo signaling in maintaining biliary cell characteristics in adult mice.
      However, it remains to be determined whether the Hippo signaling pathway
      functions through the Notch signaling in intrahepatic bile duct development. We
      found that loss of the Hippo signaling pathway tumor suppressor Nf2 resulted in
      increased expression levels of the Notch signaling pathway receptor Notch2 in
      cholangiocytes but not in hepatocytes. When knocking down Notch2 on the
      background of Nf2 deficiency in mouse livers, the excessive bile duct development
      induced by Nf2 deficiency was suppressed by heterozygous and homozygous deletion
      of Notch2 in a dose-dependent manner. These results implicated that Notch
      signaling is one of the downstream effectors of the Hippo signaling pathway in
      regulating intrahepatic bile duct development.

PMID- 28581488
TI  - Osteoblast-derived Laminin-332 is a novel negative regulator of
      osteoclastogenesis in bone microenvironments.
AB  - Laminin-332 (Lm-332), a major basement membrane protein, has been shown to
      provide a niche for some stem cells. Here, we found that Lm-332 was expressed in
      osteoblasts, and is implicated in the regulation of osteoclast differentiation.
      Immunofluorescence analysis of laminin-beta3, a unique component of Lm-332,
      indicated specific expression of laminin-beta3 in osteoblast-like cells localized
      on bone surface. RT-PCR analysis confirmed that alpha3, beta3, and gamma2 chains
      of Lm-332 were all expressed in primary osteoblasts prepared from mouse calvaria.
      Lm-332 markedly inhibited osteoclastogenesis induced by receptor activator of
      nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) ligand (RANKL) when bone marrow-derived
      macrophages (BMMs) were cultured on Lm-332-coated plates. Lm-332 also blocked
      RANKL-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) (ERK, JNK,
      and p38) and expression of NFATc1, c-Fos, and c-Jun. Lm-332 suppressed osteoclast
      differentiation while retaining macrophage phenotypes, including nonspecific
      esterase activity and gene expression of lysozyme and EGF-like module-containing
      mucin-like hormone receptor-like 1 (Emr1). Furthermore, the treatment of primary
      osteoblasts with osteoclastogenic factors dramatically suppressed expression of
      Lm-332. These findings suggest that Lm-332 produced by osteoblasts in bone
      tissues has a pivotal role in controlling normal bone remodeling through
      suppressing osteoclastogenesis.

PMID- 28581487
TI  - EMMPRIN (CD147) is induced by C/EBPbeta and is differentially expressed in ALK+
      and ALK- anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.
AB  - Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL)
      is characterized by expression of oncogenic ALK fusion proteins due to the
      translocation t(2;5)(p23;q35) or variants. Although genotypically a T-cell
      lymphoma, ALK+ ALCL cells frequently show loss of T-cell-specific surface
      antigens and expression of monocytic markers. C/EBPbeta, a transcription factor
      constitutively overexpressed in ALK+ ALCL cells, has been shown to play an
      important role in the activation and differentiation of macrophages and is
      furthermore capable of transdifferentiating B-cell and T-cell progenitors to
      macrophages in vitro. To analyze the role of C/EBPbeta for the unusual phenotype
      of ALK+ ALCL cells, C/EBPbeta was knocked down by RNA interference in two ALK+
      ALCL cell lines, and surface antigen expression profiles of these cell lines were
      generated using a Human Cell Surface Marker Screening Panel (BD Biosciences).
      Interesting candidate antigens were further analyzed by immunohistochemistry in
      primary ALCL ALK+ and ALK- cases. Antigen expression profiling revealed marked
      changes in the expression of the activation markers CD25, CD30, CD98, CD147, and
      CD227 after C/EBPbeta knockdown. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed a strong,
      membranous CD147 (EMMPRIN) expression in ALK+ ALCL cases. In contrast, ALK- ALCL
      cases showed a weaker CD147 expression. CD274 or PD-L1, an immune inhibitory
      receptor ligand, was downregulated after C/EBPbeta knockdown. PD-L1 also showed
      stronger expression in ALK+ ALCL compared with ALK- ALCL, suggesting an
      additional role of C/EBPbeta in ALK+ ALCL in generating an immunosuppressive
      environment. Finally, no expression changes of T-cell or monocytic markers were
      detected. In conclusion, surface antigen expression profiling demonstrates that
      C/EBPbeta plays a critical role in the activation state of ALK+ ALCL cells and
      reveals CD147 and PD-L1 as important downstream targets. The multiple roles of
      CD147 in migration, adhesion, and invasion, as well as T-cell activation and
      proliferation suggest its involvement in the pathogenesis of ALCL.

PMID- 28581489
TI  - alpha-Actinin-4 promotes metastasis in gastric cancer.
AB  - Metastasis increases the mortality rate of gastric cancer, which is the third
      leading cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide. This study aims to identify
      the genes promoting metastasis of gastric cancer (GC). A human cell motility PCR
      array was used to analyze a pair of tumor and non-tumor tissue samples from a
      patient with stage IV GC (T3N3M1). Expression of the dysregulated genes was then
      evaluated in GC tissue samples (n=10) and cell lines (n=6) via qPCR. Expression
      of alpha-actinin-4 (ACTN4) was validated in a larger sample size (n=47) by qPCR,
      western blot and immunohistochemistry. Knockdown of ACTN4 with specific siRNAs
      was performed in GC cells, and adhesion assays, transwell invasion assays and
      migration assays were used to evaluate the function of these cells. Expression of
      potential targets of ACTN4 were then evaluated by qPCR. Thirty upregulated genes
      (greater than twofold) were revealed by the PCR array. We focused on ACTN4
      because it was upregulated in 6 out of 10 pairs of tissue samples and 5 out of 6
      GC cell lines. Further study indicated that ACTN4 was upregulated in 22/32 pairs
      of tissue samples at stage III &IV (P=0.0069). Knockdown of ACTN4 in GC cells
      showed no significant effect on cell proliferation, but significantly increased
      cell-matrix adhesion, as well as reduced migration and invasion of AGS, MKN7 and
      NCI-N87 cells. We found that NF-kappaB was downregulated in GC with the knockdown
      of ACTN4. In conclusion, this is the first study to indicate that ACTN4 is
      significantly upregulated in patients with metastatic GC. ACTN4 reduces cell
      adhesion and enhances migration and invasion of GC cells and may therefore be a
      novel therapeutic target for GC.

PMID- 28581490
TI  - Assessment of tumor characteristics based on glycoform analysis of membrane
      tethered MUC1.
AB  - Clinical tissue specimens are useful for pathological diagnosis, which is, in
      some cases, supported by visualization of biomolecule localization. In general,
      diagnostic specificity in molecular pathology is increased by the acquisition of
      a probe to distinguish the modification of isomers. Although glycosylation is one
      of the candidate modifications in a protein, comparative glycan analysis of
      disease-associated proteins derived from a single tissue section is still
      challenging because of the lack of analytical sensitivity. Here we demonstrate a
      possible method for differential glycoform analysis of an endogenous tumor
      associated glycoprotein MUC1 by an antibody-overlay lectin microarray. Tissue
      sections (5 MUm thick) of patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA; n=21) and
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC; n=50) were stained with an anti-MUC1
      antibody MY.1E12 that was established as a monoclonal antibody recognizing an
      MUC1 glycosylation isoform with a sialyl-core 1 structure (NeuAcalpha2
      3galactosyl beta1-3-N-acetylgalactosamine). MY.1E12-positive tissue areas (2.5
      mm2) were selectively dissected with a laser capture microdissection procedure.
      The membrane MUC1 was enriched by immunoprecipitation with MY.1E12 and subjected
      to lectin microarray analysis. Even though the reactivities of MY.1E12 between
      CCA and PDAC were similar, the lectin-binding patterns varied. We found Maackia
      amurensis leukoagglutinin and pokeweed lectin distinguished MY.1E12-reactive MUC1
      of CCA from that of PDAC. Moreover, MUC1 with M. amurensis hemagglutinin (MAH)
      reactivity potentially reflected the degree of malignancy. These results were
      confirmed with MAH-MY.1E12 double fluorescent immunostaining. These glycan
      changes on MUC1 were detected with high sensitivity owing to the cluster effect
      of immobilized lectins on a tandem repeat peptide antigen covered with highly
      dense glycosylation such as mucin. Our approach provides the information to
      investigate novel glycodynamics in biology, for example, glycoalteration, as well
      as diseases related to not only MUC1 but also other membrane proteins.

PMID- 28581491
TI  - Making individualized drugs a reality.

PMID- 28581492
TI  - Engineered Cpf1 variants with altered PAM specificities.
AB  - The RNA-guided endonuclease Cpf1 is a promising tool for genome editing in
      eukaryotic cells. However, the utility of the commonly used Acidaminococcus sp.
      BV3L6 Cpf1 (AsCpf1) and Lachnospiraceae bacterium ND2006 Cpf1 (LbCpf1) is limited
      by their requirement of a TTTV protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) in the DNA
      substrate. To address this limitation, we performed a structure-guided
      mutagenesis screen to increase the targeting range of Cpf1. We engineered two
      AsCpf1 variants carrying the mutations S542R/K607R and S542R/K548V/N552R, which
      recognize TYCV and TATV PAMs, respectively, with enhanced activities in vitro and
      in human cells. Genome-wide assessment of off-target activity using BLISS
      indicated that these variants retain high DNA-targeting specificity, which we
      further improved by introducing an additional non-PAM-interacting mutation.
      Introducing the identified PAM-interacting mutations at their corresponding
      positions in LbCpf1 similarly altered its PAM specificity. Together, these
      variants increase the targeting range of Cpf1 by approximately threefold in human
      coding sequences to one cleavage site per ~11 bp.

PMID- 28581493
TI  - CRISPR-STOP: gene silencing through base-editing-induced nonsense mutations.
AB  - CRISPR-Cas9-induced DNA damage may have deleterious effects at high-copy-number
      genomic regions. Here, we use CRISPR base editors to knock out genes by changing
      single nucleotides to create stop codons. We show that the CRISPR-STOP method is
      an efficient and less deleterious alternative to wild-type Cas9 for gene-knockout
      studies. Early stop codons can be introduced in ~17,000 human genes. CRISPR-STOP
      mediated targeted screening demonstrates comparable efficiency to WT Cas9, which
      indicates the suitability of our approach for genome-wide functional screenings.

PMID- 28581495
TI  - Quantitative mRNA imaging throughout the entire Drosophila brain.
AB  - We describe a fluorescence in situ hybridization method that permits detection of
      the localization and abundance of single mRNAs (smFISH) in cleared whole-mount
      adult Drosophila brains. The approach is rapid and multiplexable and does not
      require molecular amplification; it allows facile quantification of mRNA
      expression with subcellular resolution on a standard confocal microscope. We
      further demonstrate single-mRNA detection across the entire brain using a custom
      Bessel beam structured illumination microscope (BB-SIM).

PMID- 28581494
TI  - Genetically encoded fluorescent sensors reveal dynamic regulation of NADPH
      metabolism.
AB  - Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is essential for
      biosynthetic reactions and antioxidant functions; however, detection of NADPH
      metabolism in living cells remains technically challenging. We develop and
      characterize ratiometric, pH-resistant, genetically encoded fluorescent
      indicators for NADPH (iNap sensors) with various affinities and wide dynamic
      range. iNap sensors enabled quantification of cytosolic and mitochondrial NADPH
      pools that are controlled by cytosolic NAD+ kinase levels and revealed cellular
      NADPH dynamics under oxidative stress depending on glucose availability. We found
      that mammalian cells have a strong tendency to maintain physiological NADPH
      homeostasis, which is regulated by glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and AMP
      kinase. Moreover, using the iNap sensors we monitor NADPH fluctuations during the
      activation of macrophage cells or wound response in vivo. These data demonstrate
      that the iNap sensors will be valuable tools for monitoring NADPH dynamics in
      live cells and gaining new insights into cell metabolism.

PMID- 28581496
TI  - Differential analysis of RNA-seq incorporating quantification uncertainty.
AB  - We describe sleuth (http://pachterlab.github.io/sleuth), a method for the
      differential analysis of gene expression data that utilizes bootstrapping in
      conjunction with response error linear modeling to decouple biological variance
      from inferential variance. sleuth is implemented in an interactive shiny app that
      utilizes kallisto quantifications and bootstraps for fast and accurate analysis
      of data from RNA-seq experiments.

PMID- 28581497
TI  - The extracellular matrix protein agrin promotes heart regeneration in mice.
AB  - The adult mammalian heart is non-regenerative owing to the post-mitotic nature of
      cardiomyocytes. The neonatal mouse heart can regenerate, but only during the
      first week of life. Here we show that changes in the composition of the
      extracellular matrix during this week can affect cardiomyocyte growth and
      differentiation in mice. We identify agrin, a component of neonatal extracellular
      matrix, as required for the full regenerative capacity of neonatal mouse hearts.
      In vitro, recombinant agrin promotes the division of cardiomyocytes that are
      derived from mouse and human induced pluripotent stem cells through a mechanism
      that involves the disassembly of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex, and Yap-
      and ERK-mediated signalling. In vivo, a single administration of agrin promotes
      cardiac regeneration in adult mice after myocardial infarction, although the
      degree of cardiomyocyte proliferation observed in this model suggests that there
      are additional therapeutic mechanisms. Together, our results uncover a new
      inducer of mammalian heart regeneration and highlight fundamental roles of the
      extracellular matrix in cardiac repair.

PMID- 28581498
TI  - Dystrophin-glycoprotein complex sequesters Yap to inhibit cardiomyocyte
      proliferation.
AB  - The regenerative capacity of the adult mammalian heart is limited, because of the
      reduced ability of cardiomyocytes to progress through mitosis. Endogenous
      cardiomyocytes have regenerative capacity at birth but this capacity is lost
      postnatally, with subsequent organ growth occurring through cardiomyocyte
      hypertrophy. The Hippo pathway, a conserved kinase cascade, inhibits
      cardiomyocyte proliferation in the developing heart to control heart size and
      prevents regeneration in the adult heart. The dystrophin-glycoprotein complex
      (DGC), a multicomponent transmembrane complex linking the actin cytoskeleton to
      extracellular matrix, is essential for cardiomyocyte homeostasis. DGC deficiency
      in humans results in muscular dystrophy, including the lethal Duchenne muscular
      dystrophy. Here we show that the DGC component dystroglycan 1 (Dag1) directly
      binds to the Hippo pathway effector Yap to inhibit cardiomyocyte proliferation in
      mice. The Yap-Dag1 interaction was enhanced by Hippo-induced Yap phosphorylation,
      revealing a connection between Hippo pathway function and the DGC. After injury,
      Hippo-deficient postnatal mouse hearts maintained organ size control by repairing
      the defect with correct dimensions, whereas postnatal hearts deficient in both
      Hippo and the DGC showed cardiomyocyte overproliferation at the injury site. In
      the hearts of mature Mdx mice (which have a point mutation in Dmd)-a model of
      Duchenne muscular dystrophy-Hippo deficiency protected against overload-induced
      heart failure.

PMID- 28581500
TI  - Hyperactivation of HUSH complex function by Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease mutation
      in MORC2.
AB  - Dominant mutations in the MORC2 gene have recently been shown to cause axonal
      Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, but the cellular function of MORC2 is poorly
      understood. Here, through a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9-mediated forward genetic
      screen, we identified MORC2 as an essential gene required for epigenetic
      silencing by the HUSH complex. HUSH recruits MORC2 to target sites in
      heterochromatin. We exploited a new method, differential viral accessibility
      (DIVA), to show that loss of MORC2 results in chromatin decompaction at these
      target loci, which is concomitant with a loss of H3K9me3 deposition and
      transcriptional derepression. The ATPase activity of MORC2 is critical for HUSH
      mediated silencing, and the most common alteration affecting the ATPase domain in
      CMT patients (p.Arg252Trp) hyperactivates HUSH-mediated repression in neuronal
      cells. These data define a critical role for MORC2 in epigenetic silencing by the
      HUSH complex and provide a mechanistic basis underpinning the role of MORC2
      mutations in CMT disease.

PMID- 28581502
TI  - Genome-wide characterization of mammalian promoters with distal enhancer
      functions.
AB  - Gene expression in mammals is precisely regulated by the combination of promoters
      and gene-distal regulatory regions, known as enhancers. Several studies have
      suggested that some promoters might have enhancer functions. However, the extent
      of this type of promoters and whether they actually function to regulate the
      expression of distal genes have remained elusive. Here, by exploiting a high
      throughput enhancer reporter assay, we unravel a set of mammalian promoters
      displaying enhancer activity. These promoters have distinct genomic and
      epigenomic features and frequently interact with other gene promoters. Extensive
      CRISPR-Cas9 genomic manipulation demonstrated the involvement of these promoters
      in the cis regulation of expression of distal genes in their natural loci. Our
      results have important implications for the understanding of complex gene
      regulation in normal development and disease.

PMID- 28581499
TI  - High-quality de novo assembly of the apple genome and methylome dynamics of early
      fruit development.
AB  - Using the latest sequencing and optical mapping technologies, we have produced a
      high-quality de novo assembly of the apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) genome.
      Repeat sequences, which represented over half of the assembly, provided an
      unprecedented opportunity to investigate the uncharacterized regions of a tree
      genome; we identified a new hyper-repetitive retrotransposon sequence that was
      over-represented in heterochromatic regions and estimated that a major burst of
      different transposable elements (TEs) occurred 21 million years ago. Notably, the
      timing of this TE burst coincided with the uplift of the Tian Shan mountains,
      which is thought to be the center of the location where the apple originated,
      suggesting that TEs and associated processes may have contributed to the
      diversification of the apple ancestor and possibly to its divergence from pear.
      Finally, genome-wide DNA methylation data suggest that epigenetic marks may
      contribute to agronomically relevant aspects, such as apple fruit development.

PMID- 28581501
TI  - Genomic analyses in cotton identify signatures of selection and loci associated
      with fiber quality and yield traits.
AB  - Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is the most important natural fiber crop in
      the world. The overall genetic diversity among cultivated species of cotton and
      the genetic changes that occurred during their improvement are poorly understood.
      Here we report a comprehensive genomic assessment of modern improved upland
      cotton based on the genome-wide resequencing of 318 landraces and modern improved
      cultivars or lines. We detected more associated loci for lint yield than for
      fiber quality, which suggests that lint yield has stronger selection signatures
      than other traits. We found that two ethylene-pathway-related genes were
      associated with increased lint yield in improved cultivars. We evaluated the
      population frequency of each elite allele in historically released cultivar
      groups and found that 54.8% of the elite genome-wide association study (GWAS)
      alleles detected were transferred from three founder landraces: Deltapine 15,
      Stoneville 2B and Uganda Mian. Our results provide a genomic basis for improving
      cotton cultivars and for further evolutionary analysis of polyploid crops.

PMID- 28581503
TI  - Between-region genetic divergence reflects the mode and tempo of tumor evolution.
AB  - Given the implications of tumor dynamics for precision medicine, there is a need
      to systematically characterize the mode of evolution across diverse solid tumor
      types. In particular, methods to infer the role of natural selection within
      established human tumors are lacking. By simulating spatial tumor growth under
      different evolutionary modes and examining patterns of between-region subclonal
      genetic divergence from multiregion sequencing (MRS) data, we demonstrate that it
      is feasible to distinguish tumors driven by strong positive subclonal selection
      from those evolving neutrally or under weak selection, as the latter fail to
      dramatically alter subclonal composition. We developed a classifier based on
      measures of between-region subclonal genetic divergence and projected patient
      data into model space, finding different modes of evolution both within and
      between solid tumor types. Our findings have broad implications for how human
      tumors progress, how they accumulate intratumoral heterogeneity, and ultimately
      how they may be more effectively treated.

PMID- 28581504
TI  - Overweight and obesity in Mexican children and adolescents during the last 25
      years.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/nutd.2016.52.

PMID- 28581505
TI  - A decade of discovery: CRISPR functions and applications.
AB  - This year marks the tenth anniversary of the identification of the biological
      function of CRISPR-Cas as adaptive immune systems in bacteria. In just a decade,
      the characterization of CRISPR-Cas systems has established a novel means of
      adaptive immunity in bacteria and archaea and deepened our understanding of the
      interplay between prokaryotes and their environment, and CRISPR-based molecular
      machines have been repurposed to enable a genome editing revolution. Here, we
      look back on the historical milestones that have paved the way for the discovery
      of CRISPR and its function, and discuss the related technological applications
      that have emerged, with a focus on microbiology. Lastly, we provide a perspective
      on the impacts the field has had on science and beyond.

PMID- 28581506
TI  - Arabidopsis evolution: Roots in Africa.

PMID- 28581507
TI  - Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world's first
      cities were fed.
AB  - This study sheds light on the agricultural economy that underpinned the emergence
      of the first urban centres in northern Mesopotamia. Using delta13C and delta15N
      values of crop remains from the sites of Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Zeidan, Hamoukar,
      Tell Brak and Tell Leilan (6500-2000 cal bc), we reveal that labour-intensive
      practices such as manuring/middening and water management formed an integral part
      of the agricultural strategy from the seventh millennium bc. Increased
      agricultural production to support growing urban populations was achieved by
      cultivation of larger areas of land, entailing lower manure/midden inputs per
      unit area-extensification. Our findings paint a nuanced picture of the role of
      agricultural production in new forms of political centralization. The shift
      towards lower-input farming most plausibly developed gradually at a household
      level, but the increased importance of land-based wealth constituted a key
      potential source of political power, providing the possibility for greater
      bureaucratic control and contributing to the wider societal changes that
      accompanied urbanization.

PMID- 28581508
TI  - Regulation of cargo transfer between ESCRT-0 and ESCRT-I complexes by flotillin-1
      during endosomal sorting of ubiquitinated cargo.
AB  - Ubiquitin-dependent sorting of membrane proteins in endosomes directs them to
      lysosomal degradation. In the case of receptors such as the epidermal growth
      factor receptor (EGFR), lysosomal degradation is important for the regulation of
      downstream signalling. Ubiquitinated proteins are recognised in endosomes by the
      endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) complexes, which
      sequentially interact with the ubiquitinated cargo. Although the role of each
      ESCRT complex in sorting is well established, it is not clear how the cargo is
      passed on from one ESCRT to the next. We here show that flotillin-1 is required
      for EGFR degradation, and that it interacts with the subunits of ESCRT-0 and -I
      complexes (hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate (Hrs) and
      Tsg101). Flotillin-1 is required for cargo recognition and sorting by ESCRT-0/Hrs
      and for its interaction with Tsg101. In addition, flotillin-1 is also required
      for the sorting of human immunodeficiency virus 1 Gag polyprotein, which mimics
      ESCRT-0 complex during viral assembly. We propose that flotillin-1 functions in
      cargo transfer between ESCRT-0 and -I complexes.

PMID- 28581509
TI  - Ultrafast lithium diffusion in bilayer graphene.
AB  - Solids that simultaneously conduct electrons and ions are key elements for the
      mass transfer and storage required in battery electrodes. Single-phase materials
      with a high electronic and high ionic conductivity at room temperature are hard
      to come by, and therefore multiphase systems with separate ion and electron
      channels have been put forward instead. Here we report on bilayer graphene as a
      single-phase mixed conductor that demonstrates Li diffusion faster than in
      graphite and even surpassing the diffusion of sodium chloride in liquid water. To
      measure Li diffusion, we have developed an on-chip electrochemical cell
      architecture in which the redox reaction that forces Li intercalation is
      localized only at a protrusion of the device so that the graphene bilayer remains
      unperturbed from the electrolyte during operation. We performed time-dependent
      Hall measurements across spatially displaced Hall probes to monitor the in-plane
      Li diffusion kinetics within the graphene bilayer and measured a diffusion
      coefficient as high as 7 * 10-5 cm2 s-1.

PMID- 28581510
TI  - Nanoscale manipulation of membrane curvature for probing endocytosis in live
      cells.
AB  - Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) involves nanoscale bending and inward budding
      of the plasma membrane, by which cells regulate both the distribution of membrane
      proteins and the entry of extracellular species. Extensive studies have shown
      that CME proteins actively modulate the plasma membrane curvature. However, the
      reciprocal regulation of how the plasma membrane curvature affects the activities
      of endocytic proteins is much less explored, despite studies suggesting that
      membrane curvature itself can trigger biochemical reactions. This gap in our
      understanding is largely due to technical challenges in precisely controlling the
      membrane curvature in live cells. In this work, we use patterned nanostructures
      to generate well-defined membrane curvatures ranging from +50 nm to -500 nm
      radius of curvature. We find that the positively curved membranes are CME
      hotspots, and that key CME proteins, clathrin and dynamin, show a strong
      preference towards positive membrane curvatures with a radius <200 nm. Of ten CME
      related proteins we examined, all show preferences for positively curved
      membrane. In contrast, other membrane-associated proteins and non-CME endocytic
      protein caveolin1 show no such curvature preference. Therefore, nanostructured
      substrates constitute a novel tool for investigating curvature-dependent
      processes in live cells.

PMID- 28581513
TI  - KIF26B, a novel oncogene, promotes proliferation and metastasis by activating the
      VEGF pathway in gastric cancer.
AB  - Tumor metastasis is the main reason of cancer-related death for gastric cancer
      (GC) patients and gene expression microarray data indicate that kinesin family
      member 26B (KIF26B) is one of the most upregulated genes in metastatic GC
      samples. Specifically, KIF26B expression was upregulated in a stepwise manner
      from non-tumorous gastric mucosa, primary GC tissues without metastasis, via
      primary GC tissues with metastasis, to secondary lymph node metastatic (LNM)
      foci. Increased expression of KIF26B was correlated with tumor size, positive LNM
      or distant metastases and poor prognosis. KIF26B, negatively regulated by miR
      372, promoted GC cell proliferation and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.
      Mechanistic investigations confirmed that the main target of KIF26B was the
      vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway, particularly by
      inhibition or overexpression of VEGFA, PXN, FAK, PIK3CA, BCL2 and CREB1. Thus,
      KIF26B, a novel oncogene regulated by miR-372, promotes proliferation and
      metastasis through the VEGF pathway in GC.

PMID- 28581511
TI  - RNA fate determination through cotranscriptional adenosine methylation and
      microprocessor binding.
AB  - Eukaryotic gene expression is heavily regulated at the transcriptional and post
      transcriptional levels. An additional layer of regulation occurs co
      transcriptionally through processing and decay of nascent transcripts physically
      associated with chromatin. This process involves RNA interference (RNAi)
      machinery and is well documented in yeast, but little is known about its
      conservation in mammals. Here we show that Dgcr8 and Drosha physically associate
      with chromatin in murine embryonic stem cells (mES), specifically with a subset
      of transcribed coding and noncoding genes. Dgcr8 recruitment to chromatin is
      dependent on transcription as well as methyltransferase-like 3 (Mettl3), which
      catalyzes RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A). Intriguingly, we found that acute
      temperature stress causes radical relocalization of Dgcr8 and Mettl3 to heat
      shock genes, where they act to co-transcriptionally mark mRNAs for subsequent RNA
      degradation. Together, our findings elucidate a novel mode of co-transcriptional
      gene regulation, in which m6A serves as a chemical mark that instigates
      subsequent post-transcriptional RNA-processing events.

PMID- 28581512
TI  - Structural basis for the cooperative allosteric activation of the free fatty acid
      receptor GPR40.
AB  - Clinical studies indicate that partial agonists of the G-protein-coupled, free
      fatty acid receptor 1 GPR40 enhance glucose-dependent insulin secretion and
      represent a potential mechanism for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
      Full allosteric agonists (AgoPAMs) of GPR40 bind to a site distinct from partial
      agonists and can provide additional efficacy. We report the 3.2-A crystal
      structure of human GPR40 (hGPR40) in complex with both the partial agonist MK
      8666 and an AgoPAM, which exposes a novel lipid-facing AgoPAM-binding pocket
      outside the transmembrane helical bundle. Comparison with an additional 2.2-A
      structure of the hGPR40-MK-8666 binary complex reveals an induced-fit
      conformational coupling between the partial agonist and AgoPAM binding sites,
      involving rearrangements of the transmembrane helices 4 and 5 (TM4 and TM5) and
      transition of the intracellular loop 2 (ICL2) into a short helix. These
      conformational changes likely prime GPR40 to a more active-like state and explain
      the binding cooperativity between these ligands.

PMID- 28581516
TI  - Pancreatic cancer heterogeneity and response to Mek inhibition.
AB  - Our increasing knowledge of the mechanisms behind the progression of pancreatic
      cancer (PC) has not yet translated into effective treatments. Many promising
      drugs have failed in the clinic, highlighting the need for better preclinical
      models to assess drug efficacy and characterize mechanisms of resistance. Using
      different experimental models, including patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), we
      gauged the efficacy of therapies aimed at two hallmark lesions of PCs: activation
      of signaling pathways by oncogenic KRAS and inactivation of tumor-suppressor
      genes. Although the drug targeting inactivation of tumor suppressors by DNA
      methylation had little effect, the inhibition of Mek, a K-Ras effector, in
      combination with the standard of care (chemotherapy consisting of gemcitabine/Nab
      paclitaxel), reduced the growth of three out of five PC-PDXs and impaired
      metastasis. The two least responding PC-PDXs were composed of genetically diverse
      cells, which displayed sensitivities to the Mek inhibitor differing by >10-fold.
      Unexpectedly, our analysis of this genetic diversity unveiled different KRAS
      mutations. As mutation in KRAS occurs early during progression, this
      heterogeneity may reflect the simultaneous appearance of different malignant
      cellular clones or, alternatively, that cells containing two mutations of KRAS
      are selected during tumor evolution. In vitro and in vivo analyses indicated that
      the intratumoral heterogeneity, along with the selective pressure imposed by the
      Mek inhibitor, resulted in rapid selection of resistant cells. Together with the
      gemcitabine/Nab-paclitaxel backbone, Mek inhibition could be effective in
      treatment of PC. However, resistance because of intratumoral heterogeneity is
      likely to develop frequently, pointing to the necessity of identifying the
      factors and mechanisms of resistance to further develop this therapy.

PMID- 28581514
TI  - ALDH1A3 is epigenetically regulated during melanocyte transformation and is a
      target for melanoma treatment.
AB  - Despite the promising targeted and immune-based interventions in melanoma
      treatment, long-lasting responses are limited. Melanoma cells present an aberrant
      redox state that leads to the production of toxic aldehydes that must be
      converted into less reactive molecules. Targeting the detoxification machinery
      constitutes a novel therapeutic avenue for melanoma. Here, using 56 cell lines
      representing nine different tumor types, we demonstrate that melanoma cells
      exhibit a strong correlation between reactive oxygen species amounts and aldehyde
      dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) activity. We found that ALDH1A3 is upregulated by
      epigenetic mechanisms in melanoma cells compared with normal melanocytes.
      Furthermore, it is highly expressed in a large percentage of human nevi and
      melanomas during melanocyte transformation, which is consistent with the data
      from the TCGA, CCLE and protein atlas databases. Melanoma treatment with the
      novel irreversible isoform-specific ALDH1 inhibitor [4-dimethylamino-4-methyl
      pent-2-ynthioic acid-S methylester] di-methyl-ampal-thio-ester (DIMATE) or
      depletion of ALDH1A1 and/or ALDH1A3, promoted the accumulation of apoptogenic
      aldehydes leading to apoptosis and tumor growth inhibition in immunocompetent,
      immunosuppressed and patient-derived xenograft mouse models. Interestingly,
      DIMATE also targeted the slow cycling label-retaining tumor cell population
      containing the tumorigenic and chemoresistant cells. Our findings suggest that
      aldehyde detoxification is relevant metabolic mechanism in melanoma cells, which
      can be used as a novel approach for melanoma treatment.

PMID- 28581515
TI  - GATA3 targets semaphorin 3B in mammary epithelial cells to suppress breast cancer
      progression and metastasis.
AB  - Semaphorin 3B (SEMA3B) is a secreted axonal guidance molecule that is expressed
      during development and throughout adulthood. Recently, SEMA3B has emerged as a
      tumor suppressor in non-neuronal cells. Here, we show that SEMA3B is a direct
      target of GATA3 transcriptional activity. GATA3 is a key transcription factor
      that regulates genes involved in mammary luminal cell differentiation and tumor
      suppression. We show that GATA3 relies on SEMA3B for suppression of tumor growth.
      Loss of SEMA3B renders GATA3 inactive and promotes aggressive breast cancer
      development. Overexpression of SEMA3B in cells lacking GATA3 induces a GATA3-like
      phenotype and higher levels of SEMA3B are associated with better cancer patient
      prognosis. Moreover, SEMA3B interferes with activation of LIM kinases (LIMK1 and
      LIMK2) to abrogate breast cancer progression. Our data provide new insights into
      the role of SEMA3B in mammary gland and provides a new branch of GATA3 signaling
      that is pivotal for inhibition of breast cancer progression and metastasis.

PMID- 28581517
TI  - Functional antagonism of beta-arrestin isoforms balance IGF-1R expression and
      signalling with distinct cancer-related biological outcomes.
AB  - With very similar 3D structures, the widely expressed beta-arrestin isoforms 1
      and 2 play at times identical, distinct or even opposing roles in regulating
      various aspects of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) expression and signalling.
      Recent evidence recognizes the beta-arrestin system as a key regulator of not
      only GPCRs, but also receptor tyrosine kinases, including the highly cancer
      relevant insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R). Binding of beta
      arrestin1 to IGF-1R leads to ligand-dependent degradation of the receptor and
      generates additional MAPK/ERK signalling, protecting cancer cells against anti
      IGF-1R therapy. Because the interplay between beta-arrestin isoforms governs the
      biological effects for most GPCRs, as yet unexplored for the IGF-1R, we sought to
      investigate specifically the regulatory roles of the beta-arrestin2 isoform on
      expression and function of the IGF-1R. Results from controlled expression of
      either beta-arrestin isoform demonstrate that beta-arrestin2 acts in an opposite
      manner to beta-arrestin1 by promoting degradation of an unstimulated IGF-1R, but
      protecting the receptor against agonist-induced degradation. Although both
      isoforms co-immunoprecipitate with IGF-1R, the ligand-occupied receptor has
      greater affinity for beta-arrestin1; this association lasts longer, sustains
      MAPK/ERK signalling and mitigates p53 activation. Conversely, beta-arrestin2 has
      greater affinity for the ligand-unoccupied receptor; this interaction is
      transient, triggers receptor ubiquitination and degradation without signalling
      activation, and leads to a lack of responsiveness to IGF-1, cell cycle arrest and
      decreased viability of cancer cells. This study reveals contrasting abilities of
      IGF-1R to interact with each beta-arrestin isoform, depending on the presence of
      the ligand and demonstrates the antagonism between the two beta-arrestin isoforms
      in controlling IGF-1R expression and function, which could be developed into a
      practical anti-IGF-1R strategy for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28581518
TI  - Activation of tumor suppressor LKB1 by honokiol abrogates cancer stem-like
      phenotype in breast cancer via inhibition of oncogenic Stat3.
AB  - Tumor suppressor and upstream master kinase Liver kinase B1 (LKB1) plays a
      significant role in suppressing cancer growth and metastatic progression. We show
      that low-LKB1 expression significantly correlates with poor survival outcome in
      breast cancer. In line with this observation, loss-of-LKB1 rendered breast cancer
      cells highly migratory and invasive, attaining cancer stem cell-like phenotype.
      Accordingly, LKB1-null breast cancer cells exhibited an increased ability to form
      mammospheres and elevated expression of pluripotency-factors (Oct4, Nanog and
      Sox2), properties also observed in spontaneous tumors in Lkb1-/- mice.
      Conversely, LKB1-overexpression in LKB1-null cells abrogated invasion, migration
      and mammosphere-formation. Honokiol (HNK), a bioactive molecule from Magnolia
      grandiflora increased LKB1 expression, inhibited individual cell-motility and
      abrogated the stem-like phenotype of breast cancer cells by reducing the
      formation of mammosphere, expression of pluripotency-factors and aldehyde
      dehydrogenase activity. LKB1, and its substrate, AMP-dependent protein kinase
      (AMPK) are important for HNK-mediated inhibition of pluripotency factors since
      LKB1-silencing and AMPK-inhibition abrogated, while LKB1-overexpression and AMPK
      activation potentiated HNK's effects. Mechanistic studies showed that HNK
      inhibited Stat3-phosphorylation/activation in an LKB1-dependent manner,
      preventing its recruitment to canonical binding-sites in the promoters of Nanog,
      Oct4 and Sox2. Thus, inhibition of the coactivation-function of Stat3 resulted in
      suppression of expression of pluripotency factors. Further, we showed that HNK
      inhibited breast tumorigenesis in mice in an LKB1-dependent manner. Molecular
      analyses of HNK-treated xenografts corroborated our in vitro mechanistic
      findings. Collectively, these results present the first in vitro and in vivo
      evidence to support crosstalk between LKB1, Stat3 and pluripotency factors in
      breast cancer and effective anticancer modulation of this axis with HNK
      treatment.

PMID- 28581519
TI  - Autophagy suppresses Ras-driven epithelial tumourigenesis by limiting the
      accumulation of reactive oxygen species.
AB  - Activation of Ras signalling occurs in ~30% of human cancers; however, activated
      Ras alone is not sufficient for tumourigenesis. In a screen for tumour
      suppressors that cooperate with oncogenic Ras (RasV12) in Drosophila, we
      identified genes involved in the autophagy pathway. Bioinformatic analysis of
      human tumours revealed that several core autophagy genes, including GABARAP,
      correlate with oncogenic KRAS mutations and poor prognosis in human pancreatic
      cancer, supporting a potential tumour-suppressive effect of the pathway in Ras
      driven human cancers. In Drosophila, we demonstrate that blocking autophagy at
      any step of the pathway enhances RasV12-driven epithelial tissue overgrowth via
      the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and activation of the Jun kinase
      stress response pathway. Blocking autophagy in RasV12 clones also results in non
      cell-autonomous effects with autophagy, cell proliferation and caspase activation
      induced in adjacent wild-type cells. Our study has implications for understanding
      the interplay between perturbations in Ras signalling and autophagy in
      tumourigenesis, which might inform the development of novel therapeutics
      targeting Ras-driven cancers.

PMID- 28581521
TI  - Caspase-2: an orphan enzyme out of the shadows.
AB  - Caspase-2 has been embodied as an initiator or executioner protease in diverse
      apoptotic scenarios. However, accumulating evidence is challenging this view,
      pertaining to its true role. The enzyme's catalytic activity is currently
      implicated in various functions required for correct cell proliferation, such as
      counteracting genomic instability, as well as suppressing tumorigenesis. Here,
      apart from summarizing the latest observations in caspase-2-related research, we
      make an attempt to reconcile these findings and discuss their implications for
      future directions.

PMID- 28581520
TI  - KLF10 loss in the pancreas provokes activation of SDF-1 and induces distant
      metastases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in the KrasG12D p53flox/flox
      model.
AB  - Kruppel-like transcription factor 10 (KLF10), also named as TIEG1, plays
      essential roles in mediating transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) signaling
      and has been shown to function as a tumor suppressor in multiple cancer types.
      However, its roles in mediating cancer progression in vivo have yet to be fully
      characterized. Here, we have employed two well-characterized Pdx-1CreLSL-KrasG12D
      and Pdx-1CreLSL-KrasG12Dp53L/L pancreatic cancer models to ablate KLF10
      expression and determine the impact of KLF10 deletion on tumor development and
      progression. We show that loss of KLF10 cooperates with KrasG12D leading to an
      invasive and widely metastatic phenotype of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
      (PDAC). Mechanistically, loss of KLF10 in PDAC is shown to increase distant
      metastases and cancer stemness through activation of SDF-1/CXCR4 and AP-1
      pathways. Furthermore, we demonstrate that targeting the SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway in
      the context of KLF10 deletion substantially suppresses PDAC progression
      suggesting that inhibition of this pathway represents a novel therapeutic
      strategy for PDAC treatment.

PMID- 28581522
TI  - Blockade of deubiquitylating enzyme Rpn11 triggers apoptosis in multiple myeloma
      cells and overcomes bortezomib resistance.
AB  - Proteasome inhibition is an effective therapy for multiple myeloma (MM) patients;
      however, the emergence of drug resistance is common. Novel therapeutic strategies
      to overcome proteasome inhibitor resistance are needed. In this study, we
      examined whether targeting deubiquitylating (DUB) enzymes upstream of 20S
      proteasome overcomes proteasome inhibitor resistance. Gene expression analysis,
      immunohistochemical studies of MM patient bone marrow, reverse transcription-PCR
      and protein analysis show that Rpn11/POH1, a DUB enzyme upstream of 20S
      proteasome, is more highly expressed in patient MM cells than in normal plasma
      cells. Importantly, Rpn11 expression directly correlates with poor patient
      survival. Loss-of-function studies show that Rpn11-siRNA knockdown decreases MM
      cell viability. Pharmacological inhibition of Rpn11 with O-phenanthroline (OPA)
      blocks cellular proteasome function, induces apoptosis in MM cells and overcomes
      resistance to proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. Mechanistically, Rpn11 inhibition
      in MM cells activates caspase cascade and endoplasmic stress response signaling.
      Human MM xenograft model studies demonstrate that OPA treatment reduces
      progression of tumor growth and prolongs survival in mice. Finally, blockade of
      Rpn11 increases the cytotoxic activity of anti-MM agents lenalidomide,
      pomalidomide or dexamethasone. Overall, our preclinical data provide the
      rationale for targeting DUB enzyme Rpn11 upstream of 20S proteasome to enhance
      cytotoxicity and overcome proteasome inhibitor resistance in MM.

PMID- 28581523
TI  - A DNA methylation map of human cancer at single base-pair resolution.
AB  - Although single base-pair resolution DNA methylation landscapes for embryonic and
      different somatic cell types provided important insights into epigenetic dynamics
      and cell-type specificity, such comprehensive profiling is incomplete across
      human cancer types. This prompted us to perform genome-wide DNA methylation
      profiling of 22 samples derived from normal tissues and associated neoplasms,
      including primary tumors and cancer cell lines. Unlike their invariant normal
      counterparts, cancer samples exhibited highly variable CpG methylation levels in
      a large proportion of the genome, involving progressive changes during tumor
      evolution. The whole-genome sequencing results from selected samples were
      replicated in a large cohort of 1112 primary tumors of various cancer types using
      genome-scale DNA methylation analysis. Specifically, we determined DNA
      hypermethylation of promoters and enhancers regulating tumor-suppressor genes,
      with potential cancer-driving effects. DNA hypermethylation events showed
      evidence of positive selection, mutual exclusivity and tissue specificity,
      suggesting their active participation in neoplastic transformation. Our data
      highlight the extensive changes in DNA methylation that occur in cancer onset,
      progression and dissemination.

PMID- 28581524
TI  - Smurf1 regulates lung cancer cell growth and migration through interaction with
      and ubiquitination of PIPKIgamma.
AB  - Type Igamma phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinase (PIPKIgamma), a phospholipid
      kinase generating PIP2, is positively expressed in breast cancer tissues, which
      correlates intimately with the progression of patients. However, little is known
      about the expression level of PIPKIgamma in patients with other cancer types as
      well as their underlying regulation mechanisms. Here, we report that PIPKIgamma
      is highly expressed in lung cancer tissues and its expression level is critical
      for lung cancer cell proliferation, which may serve as a prognostic marker for
      lung cancer patients. Meanwhile, we show that E3 ubiquitin ligase Smurf1 directly
      interacts with PIPKIgamma and targets PIPKIgamma for ubiquitination and
      degradation in lung cancer cells. Also, we discover that Smurf1 directly binds to
      the kinase domain of PIPKIgamma via its C2 domain while Lysine 255 in PIPKIgamma
      acts as the major ubiquitin acceptor site for Smurf1. In addition, we demonstrate
      that the phosphorylation mimicking mutant of Smurf1, Smurf1 T306D, prevents
      PIPKIgammai2 from ubiquitination and subsequent degradation similar to the effect
      of forskolin-potentiated cAMP formation, suggesting that Thr306 in Smurf1 is
      critical for its phosphorylation by PKA. Moreover, PKA-Smurf1-PIPKIgamma signal
      transduction takes a significant part in lung cancer cell growth and in vivo
      tumorigenesis. Thus, we propose that the PKA-Smurf1-PIPKIgamma pathway has an
      important role in pulmonary tumorigenesis and imposes substantial clinical impact
      on development of novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for lung
      cancer treatment.

PMID- 28581525
TI  - CK1delta/GSK3beta/FBXW7alpha axis promotes degradation of the ZNF322A oncoprotein
      to suppress lung cancer progression.
AB  - Overexpression of Cys2His2 zinc-finger 322A (ZNF322A) oncogenic transcription
      factor is associated with lung tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism of ZNF322A
      overexpression remains poorly understood. Here, we discover that protein
      stability of ZNF322A is regulated by coordinated phosphorylation and
      ubiquitination through the CK1delta/GSK3beta/FBXW7alpha axis. CK1delta and
      GSK3beta kinases sequentially phosphorylate ZNF322A at serine-396 and then serine
      391. Moreover, the doubly phosphorylated ZNF322A protein creates a destruction
      motif for the ubiquitin ligase FBXW7alpha leading to ZNF322A protein destruction.
      Overexpression of FBXW7alpha induces ZNF322A protein degradation, thereby blocks
      ZNF322A transcription activity and suppresses ZNF322A-induced tumor growth and
      metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Clinically, overexpression of ZNF322A correlates
      with low FBXW7alpha or defective CK1delta/GSK3beta-mediated phosphorylation in
      lung cancer patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicates that
      patients with ZNF322A high/FBXW7 low expression profile can be used as an
      independent factor to predict the clinical outcome in lung cancer patients. Our
      results reveal a new mechanism of ZNF322A oncoprotein destruction regulated by
      the CK1delta/GSK3beta/FBXW7alpha axis. Deregulation of this signaling axis
      results in ZNF322A overexpression and promotes cancer progression.

PMID- 28581529
TI  - Editorial.
AB  - no summary.

PMID- 28581531
TI  - Genetics and pharmacogenetics of mood disorders.
AB  - Genetic research in Psychiatry is viewed by clinicians with both hope and
      curiosity sometimes mixed with disillusionment. Indeed, in the last 30 years many
      results have not been confirmed and clinical applications are still missing.
      However recent findings suggest that we are at the beginning of a new era. A set
      of variants within neuroplasticity and inflammation genes have been identified as
      a valid basis for both bipolar disorder and major depression. Similarly, a set of
      genes has been identified as a liability factor for response and tolerability to
      antidepressants and the first clinical applications are already in the market.
      However, some caution should be applied until definite findings are available.

PMID- 28581530
TI  - Mental and behavioural disorders in the ICD-11: concepts, methodologies, and
      current status.
AB  - This review provides an overview of the concepts, methods and current status of
      the development of the Eleventh Revision of the Mental and Behavioural Disorders
      chapter of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health
      Problems (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Given the global use of
      the current version (ICD-10) for a wide range of applications in clinical
      practice and health statistics, a major aim of the development process for ICD-11
      has been to increase the utility of the classification system. Expert working
      groups with responsibility for specific disorder groupings first suggested a set
      of revised diagnostic guidelines. Then surveys were performed to obtain
      suggestions for revisions from practicing health professionals. A completely
      revised structure for the classification of mental and behavioural disorders was
      developed and major revisions were suggested, for example, for schizophrenia and
      other primary psychotic disorders, substance use disorders, affective disorders
      and personality disorders. A new category of "gaming disorder" has been proposed
      and conditions related to sexual health and gender identity will be classified
      separately from mental disorders. An ICD-11 beta draft is freely available on the
      internet and public comments are invited. Field studies of the revised diagnostic
      guidelines are in process to obtain additional information about necessary
      improvements. A tabulated crosswalk from previous ICD-10 to then ICD-11 criteria
      will be necessary to ascertain the continuity of diagnoses for epidemiological
      and other statistical purposes. The final version of ICD-11 is currently
      scheduled for release by the World Health Assembly in 2018.

PMID- 28581533
TI  - Gastrointestinal complications and refeeding guidelines in patients with anorexia
      nervosa.
AB  - Anorexia nervosa (AN) is the third most common disorder, after obesity and
      asthma, in the population of adolescents between 13-18 years of age. Food intake
      reduction is associated with whole body dysfunction, affecting its physical,
      psychological and social spheres. As a result of starvation, dysfunction develops
      in virtually all systems and organs. However, most frequently patients with AN
      complain of digestive symptoms, such as a feeling of fullness after meals, pain
      in the upper abdomen, dysphagia, nausea, bloating and constipation. They can have
      mild functional character, but may also reflect serious complications, including
      diseases requiring urgent surgical intervention. In addition, gastric complaints
      may hinder nutritional management of AN. Care of AN patients requires cooperation
      of many specialists in the field of psychiatry, psychology, paediatrics, internal
      medicine and nutrition. However, it is often difficult to organize such a team.
      Therefore, we decided to approach the issues of gastrointestinal symptoms and
      complications in the course of AN, and the rules of nutritional therapy.

PMID- 28581532
TI  - Outcome, comorbidity and prognosis in anorexia nervosa.
AB  - Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a relatively common disorder, especially in adolescent
      and young adult women. The lifetime prevalence of AN in females ranges from 1.2
      to 2.2%. The prevalence in males is 10-times lower. The condition is associated
      with a high risk of chronic course and poor prognosis in terms of treatment and
      the risk of death. Longer follow-up periods seemed to correspond with increased
      improvement rates and increased mortality. Onset of the disorder during
      adolescence is associated with better prognosis. It is reported that as much as
      70% to over 80% of patients in this age group achieve remission. Worse outcomes
      are observed in patients who required hospitalization and in adults. Recent
      studies indicate improved prognosis for cure and lower mortality rates than
      previously reported. However, the recovery can take several years and AN is
      associated with high risk of developing other psychiatric disorders during the
      patients' lifetime, even after recovery from AN (mainly: affective disorders,
      anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, substance abuse disorders).
      Studies indicate that bulimic symptoms often occur in the course of anorexia
      nervosa (especially within 2-3 years from the onset of AN). The authors present a
      review of literature on the course, comorbidity, mortality, and prognostic
      factors in AN. Better knowledge of the course of anorexia can contribute to more
      realistic expectations of the pace of symptomatic improvement, as well as to a
      creation of therapeutic programs which are better adapted to the needs of the
      patients.

PMID- 28581534
TI  - Bone mineralization and densitometric evaluation of vertebral fractures in women
      6-21 years after the onset of anorexia nervosa symptoms.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We attempted to assess bone mineralization and the frequency of
      fractures occurrence in women with a history of treatment of anorexia nervosa
      (AN) in adolescence. METHODS: 47 women (age 20-36.8 years) were re-examined 6.33
      21,2 years after the onset of AN symptoms. Bone mineral density (BMD) of total
      body, lumbar spine, femoral neck, total hip (DXA) and densitometric Vertebral
      Fracture Assessment (VFA) were performed on 46 of women and BAP, P1NP, CTX,
      estradiol, testosterone, cortisol, IGF-1, leptin, DHEA-S on 45 of women entered
      for the current study. Current BMD results were compared with available baseline
      results from the time of hospitalization. RESULTS: Currently BMD Z-score <-1
      examined at any location occurred in 28 from 46 women (including Z-score <-2 in 5
      women). In 11 from 12 women with reduced BMD at the time of hospitalization
      current total body BMD was within the normal range. Lumbar spine BMD was
      normalized or improved respectively in 5 and 6 from 15 women. Currently increased
      levels/activity of bone formation markers: P1NP in 27 (60%) and BAP in 28 women
      (62.2%) were observed. In 7 women (15.6%) increased values of bone formation
      markers with increased marker of bone resorption (CTX) occurred. Osteoporotic
      fractures and fractures in the spine in VFA were not observed during the
      observation period. CONCLUSIONS: Despite early treatment of adolescent-onset AN
      and good outcomes of the treatment, decreased BMD was currently present in 60.9%
      of women. During follow-up normalization or significant improvement in BMD
      results (total body, lumbar spine) were observed in majority of cases.

PMID- 28581536
TI  - Schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa - reciprocal relationships. A literature
      review.
AB  - Although schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa are seemingly very distinct
      psychiatric disorders, their symptoms are connected by various types of
      relationships. The present article reviews the literature and recapitulates the
      views of various authors on the links between these two disorders. Symptoms of
      anorexia may 1) precede the onset of psychosis; 2) evolve in its active phase or
      more rarely manifest in remission; and, conversely, 3) psychotic symptoms may
      occur transiently in the course of anorexia nervosa. When anorexia precedes the
      manifestation of psychosis, symptoms of anorexia can be treated as a component of
      the prodromal phase of schizophrenia. Another possibility of co-existence of a
      psychosis (e.g., schizophrenia) with anorexia is when the eating disorder
      syndrome manifests at the same time as the full-blown psychotic syndrome. In such
      cases, when the symptoms of the two disorders occur simultaneously, it is often
      difficult to say whether the patient is suffering from schizophrenia, in the
      course of which anorexia has arisen secondary to psychotic symptoms or whether
      he/she is suffering from anorexia during which he/she has developed psychotic
      symptoms, usually thematically associated with eating. Studies published so far,
      mainly case reports, point to the complex nature of the interrelationships
      between schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. Further research is needed to
      conclusively explain the relationships between psychotic disorders and anorexia
      nervosa, which would allow physicians to use more effective methods of treatment
      in this group of patients.

PMID- 28581527
TI  - Targeting EphA2 impairs cell cycle progression and growth of basal-like/triple
      negative breast cancers.
AB  - Basal-like/triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are among the most aggressive
      forms of breast cancer, and disproportionally affects young premenopausal women
      and women of African descent. Patients with TNBC suffer a poor prognosis due in
      part to a lack of molecularly targeted therapies, which represents a critical
      barrier for effective treatment. Here, we identify EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase
      as a clinically relevant target for TNBC. EphA2 expression is enriched in the
      basal-like molecular subtype in human breast cancers. Loss of EphA2 function in
      both human and genetically engineered mouse models of TNBC reduced tumor growth
      in culture and in vivo. Mechanistically, targeting EphA2 impaired cell cycle
      progression through S-phase via downregulation of c-Myc and stabilization of the
      cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27/KIP1. A small molecule kinase inhibitor of
      EphA2 effectively suppressed tumor cell growth in vivo, including TNBC patient
      derived xenografts. Thus, our data identify EphA2 as a novel molecular target for
      TNBC.

PMID- 28581526
TI  - The role of canonical and non-canonical Hedgehog signaling in tumor progression
      in a mouse model of small cell lung cancer.
AB  - Hedgehog (Hh) signaling regulates cell fate and self-renewal in development and
      cancer. Canonical Hh signaling is mediated by Hh ligand binding to the receptor
      Patched (Ptch), which in turn activates Gli-mediated transcription through
      Smoothened (Smo), the molecular target of the Hh pathway inhibitors used as
      cancer therapeutics. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a common, aggressive
      malignancy with universally poor prognosis. Although preclinical studies have
      shown that Hh inhibitors block the self-renewal capacity of SCLC cells, the lack
      of activating pathway mutations have cast doubt over the significance of these
      observations. In particular, the existence of autocrine, ligand-dependent Hh
      signaling in SCLC has been disputed. In a conditional Tp53;Rb1 mutant mouse model
      of SCLC, we now demonstrate a requirement for the Hh ligand Sonic Hedgehog (Shh)
      for the progression of SCLC. Conversely, we show that conditional Shh
      overexpression activates canonical Hh signaling in SCLC cells, and markedly
      accelerates tumor progression. When compared to mouse SCLC tumors expressing an
      activating, ligand-independent Smo mutant, tumors overexpressing Shh exhibited
      marked chromosomal instability and Smoothened-independent upregulation of Cyclin
      B1, a putative non-canonical arm of the Hh pathway. In turn, we show that
      overexpression of Cyclin B1 induces chromosomal instability in mouse embryonic
      fibroblasts lacking both Tp53 and Rb1. These results provide strong support for
      an autocrine, ligand-dependent model of Hh signaling in SCLC pathogenesis, and
      reveal a novel role for non-canonical Hh signaling through the induction of
      chromosomal instability.

PMID- 28581538
TI  - From traumatic events and dissociation to body image and depression symptoms - in
      search of self-destruction syndrome in adolescents who engage in nonsuicidal self
      injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to analyze relationships between the
      variables: severity of depression symptoms, feelings towards one's own body,
      dissociation, the number and type of traumatic life events experienced by
      adolescents who engage in deliberate self-injury and are psychiatrically
      hospitalized. METHODS: We examined 60 patients aged 13-17 (M = 15.48, SD = 1.19).
      More than a half (55%) were diagnosed with a mixed disturbance of emotions and
      conduct, 23.5% with depressive behavior disorders, 10% were diagnosed a
      depressive episode. The research tools: a socio-demographic survey; original
      Feelings Towards the Body Questionnaire created on the basis of Tomkiewicz's
      description; Kovacs's CDI; Scharfetter's Ego-Psychopathology questionnaire.
      RESULTS: The examined individuals have negative feelings toward their bodies,
      more than half of them experience severe depression symptoms. There are links
      between traumatic events, dissociation, body image and the severity of depression
      symptoms. The strongest links were found: between dissociation vis-a-vis the
      severity of depression symptoms and the feelings towards one's body; and between
      the severity of depression symptoms and the feelings towards one's body.
      CONCLUSIONS: Two thirds of the examined individuals attempted suicide. Various
      forms of direct self-destructive behaviors very often occur simultaneously. It
      also provokes reflection about the conditions under which self-inflicted injury
      does (or does not) prevent suicide attempts. Self-mutilation along with the
      interaction between clinical variables may form a self-destruction syndrome in
      various mental disorders and contribute to clinical pictures of these disorders,
      this should be taken into account in diagnosing and treatment of adolescents.

PMID- 28581535
TI  - Differential criteria for binge eating disorder and food addiction in the context
      of causes and treatment of obesity.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To establish the differential criteria for Binge Eating Disorder
      (BED) and Food Addiction (FA). METHODS: We performed a detailed analysis of
      comparative diagnostic criteria for BED and Substance use disorder contained in
      the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-V. We applied the
      diagnostic criteria for both disorders to scientific publications on the issue of
      excessive eating in obese people, during the years 2005-2016, available on
      PubMed. We isolated specific similarities and differences between Binge Eating
      Disorder and Food Addiction. We formulated differential criteria for BED and FA.
      RESULTS: In BED as well as FA the following characteristics are apparent:
      preoccupation with food, excessive eating, loss of control over the amount of
      food and manner of eating, inability to change behavior, continuing behavior
      despite negative consequences, increased impulsiveness and emotional imbalance.
      Differences between BED and FA relate to the function of food, reaction to
      omitted food, psychological mechanisms of coping with excessive eating and body
      image, the issue of tolerance, withdrawal syndrome and the correlation between
      excessive eating and other areas of life. CONCLUSIONS: The criteria of
      differentiation between BED and FA concern the following: function of food,
      eating circumstances, reaction to the unavailability of food, awareness of the
      problem. Appropriate diagnosis of these disorders and their differentiation
      increases the chances of adequate treatment of obese patients.

PMID- 28581537
TI  - Clinical significance of psychotic-like experiences in children and adolescents.
AB  - Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are subtle, subclinical hallucinations and
      delusions which are quite common in general population. In children and youth
      prevalence rate is probably age-dependent with higher rate in younger population.
      PLEs are suggested to be a form of extended psychosis phenotype. Similar
      demographic, genetic and environmental risk factors observed for PLEs and
      schizophrenia support this hypothesis. Other mental health problems associated
      with PLEs include depression, suicidality, low functioning and psychiatric
      comorbidity. PLEs may be a risk factor for psychosis, but probably only for a
      minor subgroup of population. It is possible however, that PLEs are a risk factor
      for different psychiatric disorders. In the majority of children and adolescents
      PLEs disappear over time. PLEs are supposed to be a heterogenic phenomenon with
      different subtypes: associated with psychosis risk, associated with other
      psychiatric disorders and being within the normal range of experiences. Due to
      lack of widely acknowledged PLEs definition and because of substantial diversity
      of research methodology interpretation of the previous research should be made
      with caution.

PMID- 28581539
TI  - Deliberate self-injury functions and their clinical correlates among adolescent
      psychiatric inpatients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to analyze the relationships between
      clinical variables (the severity of depression symptoms, feelings towards the
      body, dissociation, number and type of traumatic events) and deliberate self
      injury functions. Moreover, we investigated whether the of group self-mutilating
      adolescents is internally diverse in terms of how important individual functions
      of self-mutilation are, and whether the subgroups singled out by these functions
      differ between each other in terms of clinical variables. METHODS: The Inventory
      of Statements about Self-Injury was used. Characterizations of examined
      individuals and other research tools are included in our previous article (year,
      issue, pages). RESULTS: Associated with negative feelings towards the body are
      the functions of self-injuries (anti-dissociation, self-punishment) that can be
      described as interpersonal. High levels of depression symptoms (self-depreciation
      included) are mainly associated with the self-injury functions: self-punishment,
      anti-dissociation, establishing interpersonal boundaries. Affect regulation
      becomes more important as a function of self-inflicted injuries in cases of
      biological dysregulation and intense dissociative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The
      adolescents psychiatric inpatients are internally diverse in terms of dominant
      functions of self-injuries, which can be categorized into intra- and
      interpersonal. Intrapersonal functions dominate when an individual experiences
      severe depression, dissociative symptoms, and negative feelings towards the body.
      In cases of moderate intensity of depression, dissociative symptoms and negative
      feelings towards the body, both intrapersonal and interpersonal functions of self
      mutilation are similarly important. Further research is required to explain the
      lowest severity of depression symptoms, dissociative symptoms and negative
      feelings towards the body co-occurs with no awareness of self-injuries functions.

PMID- 28581540
TI  - Self-injury - placement in mental disorders classifications, risk factors and
      primary mechanisms. Review of the literature.
AB  - Self-injury is a common phenomenon among adolescents and young adults, however
      its prevalence in clinical population is estimated at 40-80%, especially in
      regard to patients during puberty. Symptoms usually appear between 12th and 14th
      year of age, and their average duration is approx. 2 years. According to accepted
      sociocultural norms self-injury can be regarded as a normal behavior.
      Nevertheless, the prevalence of body art phenomenon in Western culture including
      professional tattooing, piercing, scarification, burning tattoos and other body
      modification typical for tribal cultures, has forced the need to redefine the
      boundaries for normative behavior. Introduction of a separate nosological unit of
      Non-Suicidal Self Injury in the fifth edition of DSM classification proves the
      validity of discussion, being hold for many years, regarding classification and
      understanding of the underlying mechanisms of self-harm. The aim of our study was
      to present the current state of knowledge regarding self-harm, with an emphasis
      on issues devoted to their placement in newest mental disorders classifications
      and mechanisms responsible for their development and maintenance. Databases such
      as: PubMed, EBSCO (medical and psychological resources) and WEB OF SCIENCE (years
      1990-2016) have been screened for the following key words: self-injury, self
      harm, self-mutilation, suicide, deliberate self-harm, affect regulation, NSSI,
      DSH, personality disorders, suicide attempt, neurobiology self-harm, DSM-5,
      adolescent, adults, stress coping styles, self-mutilation - children, adolescents
      and adults-prevalence. The analysis indicated 110 articles and 3 textbooks. We
      have used the following criteria: (1) for the articles presenting the latest
      research on risk factors for self-harm we have used the criterion of the study
      group number (>30 people) and meta-analyses have been included, (2) for theories
      explaining the mechanisms of self-harm criterion of empirical review of the
      assumptions and the number of the published studies that verify the theory has
      been applied.

PMID- 28581547
TI  - Initial hydration processes of magnesium chloride: size-selected anion
      photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations.
AB  - To understand the initial hydration processes of MgCl2, we measured photoelectron
      spectra of MgCl2(H2O)n- (n = 0-6) and conducted ab initio calculations on
      MgCl2(H2O)n- and their neutral counterparts up to n = 7. A dramatic drop in the
      vertical detachment energy (VDE) was observed upon addition of the first water
      molecule to bare MgCl2-. This large variation in VDE can be associated with the
      charge-transfer-to-solvent (CTTS) effect occurring in the MgCl2(H2O)n- clusters,
      as hydration induces transfer of the excess electron of MgCl2- to the water
      molecules. Investigation of the separation of Cl--Mg2+ ion pair shows that, in
      MgCl2(H2O)n- anions, breaking of the first Mg-Cl bond occurs at n = 4, while
      breaking of the second Mg-Cl bond takes place at n = 6. For neutral MgCl2(H2O)n
      clusters, breaking of the first Mg-Cl bond starts at n = 7.

PMID- 28581541
TI  - Validation of the Polish Version of the Washington 4-Digit Diagnostic Code for
      the Assessment of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper is a quantitative assessment of FASD facial
      phenotype in the Polish population using the Polish version of the 4-Digit
      Diagnostic Code. METHODS: The study covered 2 groups of children: 30 children
      aged 4-7 and 30 children aged 8-11 with a facial phenotype characteristic for the
      Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). The control group consisted of 60 children (4-11
      years old) developing normally. We compared 3 facial features (small palpebral
      fissure lengths, smooth philtrum and thin upper lip). The repeatability,
      conformity and diagnostic accuracy of particular dysmorphic features of the study
      were assessed. RESULTS: Obtained values for palpebral fissure were "poor", "good"
      and "very good", for philtrum "good" and "very good" and for upper lip "good" and
      "very good". As for conformity, values for palpebral fissure were "moderate" and
      'good", for philtrum - "good" and for upper lip also "good". In the experimental
      group, the FAS diagnostic criteria were met by 13 subjects, partial FAS criteria
      were met by 37 subjects and the criteria of static encephalopathy with no FAS
      phenotype were met by 2 subjects. None of the subjects in the control group met
      these criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The pictorial scale for the assessment of the facial
      dysmorphic features proved to be a useful tool in the clinical diagnostics of FAS
      in the Polish conditions. Due to the problems associated with the measurement of
      the palpebral fissure, it is necessary to verify the normal growth charts for the
      Polish population.

PMID- 28581545
TI  - Letter to Editor. In search of definition of the term "psychotic process" -
      thoughts and doubts.
AB  - no summary.

PMID- 28581546
TI  - A carbon nanopore model to quantify structure and kinetics of ion electrosorption
      with in situ small-angle X-ray scattering.
AB  - A new carbon model derived from in situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)
      enables a quantitative description of the voltage-dependent arrangement and
      transport of ions within the nanopores of carbon-based electric double-layer
      capacitors. In the first step, ex situ SAXS data for nanoporous carbon-based
      electrodes are used to generate a three-dimensional real-space model of the
      nanopore structure using the concept of Gaussian random fields. This pore model
      is used to derive important pore size characteristics, which are cross-validated
      against the corresponding values from gas sorption analysis. In the second step,
      simulated in situ SAXS patterns are generated after filling the model pore
      structure with an aqueous electrolyte and rearranging the ions via a Monte Carlo
      simulation for different applied electrical potentials. These simulated SAXS
      patterns are compared with in situ SAXS patterns recorded during voltage cycling.
      Experiments with different cyclic voltammetry scan rates revealed a systematic
      time lag between ion transport processes and the applied voltage signal. Global
      transport into and out of nanopores was found to be faster than the accommodation
      of the local equilibrium arrangement in favor of sites with a high degree of
      confinement.

PMID- 28581542
TI  - Visual impairment and traits of autism in children.
AB  - Visual impairment present from birth or from an early childhood may lead to
      psychosocial and emotional disorders. 11-40% of children in the group with visual
      impairment show traits of autism. The aim of this paper was to present the
      selected examples of how visual impairment in children is related to the
      occurrence of autism and to describe the available tools for diagnosing autism in
      children with visual impairment. So far the relation between visual impairment in
      children and autism has not been sufficiently confirmed. Psychiatric and
      psychological diagnosis of children with visual impairment has some difficulties
      in differentiating between "blindism" and traits typical for autism resulting
      from a lack of standardized diagnostic tools used to diagnosing children with
      visual impairment. Another difficulty in diagnosing autism in children with
      visual impairment is the coexistence of other disabilities in case of most
      children with vision impairment. Additionally, apart from difficulties in
      diagnosing autistic disorders in children with eye dysfunctions there is also a
      question of what tools should be used in therapy and rehabilitation of patients.

PMID- 28581548
TI  - Metal-oxide assisted surface treatment of polyimide gate insulators for high
      performance organic thin-film transistors.
AB  - We developed a facile method for treating polyimide-based organic gate insulator
      (OGI) surfaces with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) by introducing metal-oxide
      interlayers, called the metal-oxide assisted SAM treatment (MAST). To create
      sites for surface modification with SAM materials on polyimide-based OGI (KPI)
      surfaces, the metal-oxide interlayer, here amorphous alumina (alpha-Al2O3), was
      deposited on the KPI gate insulator using spin-coating via a rapid sol-gel
      reaction, providing an excellent template for the formation of a high-quality SAM
      with phosphonic acid anchor groups. The SAM of octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA)
      was successfully treated by spin-coating onto the alpha-Al2O3-deposited KPI film.
      After the surface treatment by ODPA/alpha-Al2O3, the surface energy of the KPI
      thin film was remarkably decreased and the molecular compatibility of the film
      with an organic semiconductor (OSC), 2-decyl-7-phenyl-[1]benzothieno[3,2
      b][1]benzothiophene (Ph-BTBT-C10), was increased. Ph-BTBT-C10 molecules were
      uniformly deposited on the treated gate insulator surface and grown with high
      crystallinity, as confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) analysis. The mobility of Ph-BTBT-C10 thin-film transistors
      (TFTs) was approximately doubled, from 0.56 +/- 0.05 cm2 V-1 s-1 to 1.26 +/- 0.06
      cm2 V-1 s-1, after the surface treatment. The surface treatment of alpha-Al2O3
      and ODPA significantly decreased the threshold voltage from -21.2 V to -8.3 V by
      reducing the trap sites in the OGI and improving the interfacial properties with
      the OSC. We suggest that the MAST method for OGIs can be applied to various OGI
      materials lacking reactive sites using SAMs. It may provide a new platform for
      the surface treatment of OGIs, similar to that of conventional SiO2 gate
      insulators.

PMID- 28581550
TI  - Superionic conduction in beta-eucryptite: inelastic neutron scattering and
      computational studies.
AB  - beta-Eucryptite (LiAlSiO4) is known to show super-ionic conductivity above 700 K.
      We performed inelastic neutron scattering measurements in beta-eucryptite over
      300-900 K and calculated the phonon spectrum using classical molecular dynamics
      (MD) simulations. The MD simulations were used to interpret the inelastic neutron
      spectra at high temperatures. The calculated diffusion coefficient for Li showed
      superionic conduction above 1200 K in the perfect crystal. The presence of
      defects was found to enhance diffusion and lower the temperature for Li
      diffusion. The calculated trajectory of Li atoms at higher temperatures shows
      that preferential movement of the Li atom is along the hexagonal c-axis, which is
      further confirmed by the ab initio calculated activation energy profile for
      cooperative lithium ion displacements. The inter- and intra-channel correlated
      motion of Li along the hexagonal c-axis gives the minimum energy pathway for Li
      ion conduction in LiAlSiO4.

PMID- 28581549
TI  - Low oxidation state aluminum-containing cluster anions: LAlH- and LAln- (n = 2-4,
      L = N[Si(Me)3]2).
AB  - Several low oxidation state aluminum-containing cluster anions, LAlH- and LAln-
      (n = 2-4, L = N[Si(Me)3]2), were produced via reactions between aluminum hydride
      cluster anions, AlxHy-, and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). These clusters were
      characterized by mass spectrometry, anion photoelectron spectroscopy, and density
      functional theory (DFT) based calculations. Agreement between the experimental
      and theoretical vertical detachment energies (VDEs) and adiabatic detachment
      energies (ADEs) validated the computed geometrical structures. Reactions between
      aluminum hydride cluster anions and ligands promise to be a new synthetic scheme
      for low oxidation state, ligated aluminum clusters.

PMID- 28581551
TI  - Luminescence of tartrate bridged dinuclear 2,2'-bipyridine platinum(ii)
      complexes: emission color controlled by intra- and inter-molecular interactions
      in the solid state.
AB  - Novel dinuclear PtII complexes with a chiral (l-) and an achiral (meso-) tartrate
      [{PtII(bpy)}2(MU-x-tart)] (bpy: 2,2'-bipyridine; tartH22-: tartrate; x = l (1),
      meso (2)) and with a racemic (dl-) tartrate [{PtII(bpy)}2(MU-d
      tart)][{PtII(bpy)}2(MU-l-tart)] (3) were synthesized, and the influence of their
      stereochemistry on their molecular and crystal structures affecting their
      luminescence was discussed. Effects of the dinuclearity on the structures and
      luminescence were revealed by comparison with those of a novel racemic
      mononuclear complex [PtII(bpy)(d-tartH2)][PtII(bpy)(l-tartH2)] (4). The X-ray
      crystallography showed the crystallization of 1 in two polymorphs, namely
      monoclinic 3[1.6H2O] (1alpha) and triclinic 2[1.6H2O] (1beta), and those of other
      complexes in monoclinic hydrate crystals 2.12.5H2O, 3.4H2O, and 4.H2O. The chiral
      complexes in 1alpha, 1beta, and 3.4H2O showed clamshell-like structures with Pt
      Pt and pi-pi interactions, while the achiral complex in 2.12.5H2O displayed a
      twisted form without intramolecular interactions. The complexes in 1alpha were
      assembled in a right-handed helical arrangement through significant Pt-Pt
      interactions, and those in 1beta and 3.4H2O were stacked in one-dimensional
      columns through significant and slight pi-pi interactions, respectively. The
      complex in 2.12.5H2O constructed an intermolecular dimer through Pt-Pt
      interactions with its adjacent complex. The crystal structure of 4.H2O displayed
      a three-dimensional network architecture through pi-pi interactions and hydrogen
      bonding. These crystals exhibited luminescence depending on their molecular and
      crystal structures (lambdamax nm = 535 (4.H2O), 569 (3.4H2O), 621 (2.12.5H2O),
      649 (1beta), and 656 (1alpha)). The formations of intermolecular dimers and
      clamshell-like structures through Pt-Pt interactions in 2.12.5H2O and in 3.4H2O,
      respectively, lead to red-shifts in emissions compared to 4.H2O, and further low
      energy emissions of 1alpha and 1beta were derived from the intermolecular Pt-Pt
      and pi-pi interactions, respectively.

PMID- 28581544
TI  - Polish Adaptation of the Psychache Scale by Ronald Holden and Co-workers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The conducted study was aimed at making a Polish adaptation of the
      Scale of Psychache by Ronald Holden and co-workers. The scale is a self
      assessment method which comprises 13 statements and is designed to assess
      subjectively experienced psychological pain. METHODS: 300 persons were examined -
      undergraduates and postgraduates of the University of Lodz and the Technical
      University of Lodz. The group of the study participants consisted of 185 women
      and 115 men. Moreover, there were examined 150 alcohol addicted men, 50 co
      addicted women and 50 major depressive episode (MDE) patients. RESULTS: The
      Polish version of the Scale is a reliable and valid tool. The exploratory and
      confirmatory factor analysis has proved the existence of one factor. The internal
      consistency, assessed on the basis of Cronbach's alpha, equalled 0.93. The method
      displays positive and statistically significant relationships to levels of
      depression, hopelessness, anxiety, anhedonia and negative relations to levels of
      optimism, life satisfaction, and positive orientation. Alcohol addicted men with
      presently diagnosed suicidal thoughts were characterised by a significantly
      higher level of psychological pain as compared to alcoholics without such
      thoughts. A higher level of psychache was also reported in people with depression
      who have a history of attempted suicide compared with those who have not
      attempted suicide. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of the conducted adaptation works on
      the Psychache Scale speaks for recommending the method for scientific research
      and use in therapeutic practice.

PMID- 28581543
TI  - The amino acid profile in blood plasma of young boys with autism.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: It has been suggested that some amino acids are involved in the
      pathogenesis of autistic disorders. The aim of the study was to evaluate the
      plasma amino acids profile in young males with autism. METHODS: Total of 27
      autistic boys (aged 2-10 years, the study group) without any metabolic disorders
      and 13 healthy boys (aged 2-9 years, control group) were included in the study.
      In all subjects fasting blood plasma free amino acids (both exogenous and
      endogenous) were quantitatively measured by high performance liquid
      chromatography with UV-VIS detection. RESULTS: The mean plasma concentration
      values of citrulline, .-aminobutyric acid, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine,
      tryptophan and ornithine were significantly lower in boys with autism as compared
      to the control group (p < 0.03, p < 0.04, p < 0.02, p < 0.02, p < 0.05, p < 0.02,
      p < 0.05, respectively). The areas under the Receiver Operating Characteristic
      curves for these amino acids ranged from 0.637 to 0.726. None of the amino acids
      measured differentiate autistic children from healthy children. The sum of
      exogenous amino acids was lower in the study group than in the control group but
      this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Lower levels of
      exogenous amino acids confirm the possible role of these amino acids in autism.
      Determination of exogenous amino acids in plasma, however, cannot be used as a
      diagnostic test but it can still support autistic patients care.

PMID- 28581528
TI  - DNA methylation variations are required for epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
      induced by cancer-associated fibroblasts in prostate cancer cells.
AB  - Widespread genome hypo-methylation and promoter hyper-methylation of epithelium
      specific genes are hallmarks of stable epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
      (EMT), which in prostate cancer (PCa) correlates with castration resistance,
      cancer stem cells generation, chemoresistance and worst prognosis. Exploiting our
      consolidated 'ex-vivo' system, we show that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs)
      released factors have pivotal roles in inducing genome methylation changes
      required for EMT and stemness in EMT-prone PCa cells. By global DNA methylation
      analysis and RNA-Seq, we provide compelling evidence that conditioned media from
      CAFs explanted from two unrelated patients with advanced PCa, stimulates
      concurrent DNA hypo- and hyper-methylation required for EMT and stemness in PC3
      and DU145, but not in LN-CaP and its derivative C4-2B, PCa cells. CpG island
      (CGI) hyper-methylation associates with repression of genes required for
      epithelial maintenance and invasion antagonism, whereas activation of EMT markers
      and stemness genes correlate with CGI hypo-methylation. Remarkably, methylation
      variations and EMT-regulated transcripts almost completely reverse qualitatively
      and quantitatively during MET. Unsupervised clustering analysis of the PRAD TCGA
      data set with the differentially expressed (DE) and methylated EMT signature,
      identified a gene cluster of DE genes defined by a CAF+ and AR- phenotype and
      worst diagnosis. This gene cluster includes the relevant factors for EMT and
      stemness, which display DNA methylation variations in regulatory regions
      inversely correlated to their expression changes, thus strongly sustaining the ex
      vivo data. DNMT3A-dependent methylation is essential for silencing epithelial
      maintenance and EMT counteracting genes, such as CDH1 and GRHL2, that is, the
      direct repressor of ZEB1, the key transcriptional factor for EMT and stemness.
      Accordingly, DNMT3A knock-down prevents EMT entry. These results shed light on
      the mechanisms of establishment and maintenance of coexisting DNA hypo- and hyper
      methylation patterns during cancer progression, the generation of EMT and cell
      stemness in advanced PCa, and may pave the way to new therapeutic implications.

PMID- 28581552
TI  - Membranes prepared by self-assembly and chelation assisted phase inversion.
AB  - We combine self-assembly in solution, complexation with metallic salts and phase
      separation induced by solvent-non-solvent exchange to prepare nanostructured
      membranes for separation in the nanofiltration range. This method was applied to
      prepare membranes from newly synthesized poly(acrylic acid)-b-polysulfone-b
      poly(acrylic acid) copolymers dissolved in a selective solvent mixture and
      immersed in aqueous Cu2+ or Ag+ solutions.

PMID- 28581553
TI  - Sigma-hole carbon-bonding interactions in carbon-carbon double bonds: an
      unnoticed contact.
AB  - In this manuscript, we combine high-level ab initio calculations on some small
      complexes and a CSD survey to analyze the existence of unprecedented noncovalent
      carbon bonds in X2C[double bond, length as m-dash]CH2Y systems (Y = electron-rich
      atom or group). The methylene group is usually seen as a weak hydrogen bond donor
      when interacting with an electron-rich atom. However, we demonstrate that when
      the electron-rich atom is located equidistant from the two H atoms and along the
      C[double bond, length as m-dash]C bond a sigma-hole noncovalent carbon-bonding
      interaction is established, instead of a bifurcated hydrogen bond, as derived
      from Atoms-in-Molecules (AIM) and Natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses. The
      physical nature of the interaction has been analyzed using the Symmetry Adapted
      Perturbation Theory (SAPT) method. The results indicate that electrostatics is
      very important followed by either the induction or dispersion terms in anionic
      and neutral complexes, respectively. In addition the CSD analysis reveals the
      existence of such interactions, giving reliability to our calculations, which are
      much more numerous for neutral than for anionic Y systems.

PMID- 28581557
TI  - A porous two-dimensional Zn(ii)-coordination polymer exhibiting SC-SC
      transmetalation with Cu(ii): efficient heterogeneous catalysis for the Henry
      reaction and detection of nitro explosives.
AB  - The linker 5-(benzylamino)isophthalic acid (H2L) forms a robust 2D Zn(ii)
      coordination polymer, {[Zn8(L)6(MU3-OH)4(H2O)6].(DMF).(H2O)2.5}n(1Zn) consisting
      of [Zn4(MU3-OH)2]6+ SBUs. It further shows strong pipi interactions between the
      layers to form an overall 3D structure with well-defined channels. Metal bound
      water molecules are directed towards these channels. Upon heating, these metal
      bound water molecules are lost along with lattice solvent molecules to afford
      coordinatively unsaturated metal centers that can be utilized as an efficient
      heterogeneous catalyst for the C-C bond forming nitroaldol or Henry reaction. The
      solid catalyst can be recycled at least three times without losing its catalytic
      activity. The easily accessible channels in 1Zn are found suitable for the SC-SC
      transmetalation reaction with Cu(ii) producing 1Cu. The catalytic activity of 1Cu
      is found to be comparable to that of 1Zn. Furthermore, the framework 1Zn gives
      high emission in DMSO, which can be efficiently quenched by trace amounts of
      nitro explosives. All the complexes have been characterized by single crystal X
      ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, IR, thermogravimetry and elemental
      analysis.

PMID- 28581561
TI  - 2-Phenylbenzoxazole derivatives: a family of robust emitters of solid-state
      fluorescence.
AB  - The derivatives of 2-phenylbenzoxazole (PBO) are popular fluorescent organic dyes
      for use in solution or after dispersion in an appropriate matrix. Their
      spectroscopic behavior in the solid state is, unjustly, not so well known. Many
      of them are strongly emissive as pure solid dyes, due to a favorable crystal
      packing mode. The PBO fragment lends itself well to relatively simple
      modifications of its chemical structure, aimed at enlarging the conjugated pi
      electron system. Many molecules thus designed show aggregation-induced emission
      (AIE). Furthermore, the derivatives of 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzoxazole (HBO) are
      familiar excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) dyes. They are
      particularly well suited for solid-state sensing. Mechanofluorochromism is also
      observed in complexes and closely-related compounds. Regarding their self
      association properties, the general tendency of many PBO derivatives is to give
      elongated nano and microparticles. Very small chemical changes are enough to tune
      the shape and size of these particles. Nanofibers may be obtained by simple
      preparation methods and are of great value for wave-guiding. For all these
      reasons, as well as for its robustness and high photo- and thermal stability, the
      PBO fragment is an attractive building block to access new molecules that will be
      particularly well adapted for developments in the field of photoluminescent
      materials.

PMID- 28581554
TI  - [Ag59(2,5-DCBT)32]3-: a new cluster and a precursor for three well-known
      clusters.
AB  - We report the synthesis of a new silver cluster, [Ag59(2,5-DCBT)32]3- (I) (2,5
      DCBT: 2,5-dichlorobenzenethiol), which acts as a precursor for the synthesis of
      three well-known silver clusters, [Ag44(2,4-DCBT/4-FTP)30]4- (II) (4-FTP: 4
      fluorothiophenol and 2,4-DCBT: 2,4-dichlorobenzenethiol), [Ag25(2,4-DMBT)18]-
      (III) (2,4-DMBT: 2,4-dimethylbenzenethiol) and [Ag29(1,3-BDT)12(PPh3)4]3- (IV)
      (1,3-BDT: 1,3-benzenedithiol and PPh3: triphenylphosphine). This newly
      synthesized silver cluster, I, is characterized using UV-vis absorption studies,
      high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) and other
      analytical tools. The optical absorption spectrum shows distinct features which
      are completely different from the previously reported silver clusters. We perform
      the rapid transformations of I to other well-known clusters II, III and IV by
      reaction with different thiols. The time-dependent UV-vis and ESI MS measurements
      reveal that I dissociates into distinct thiolate entities in the presence of
      thiols and the thiolates recombine to produce different clusters. The conversion
      mechanism is found to be quite different from the previous reports where it
      occurs through the initial formation of ligand exchanged products. Here, we also
      show the synthesis of a different cluster core, [Ag44(2,4-DCBT)30]4- (IIa) using
      2,4-DCBT, a structural isomer of 2,5-DCBT under the same synthetic conditions
      used for I. This observation demonstrates the effect of isomeric thiols on
      controlling the size of silver clusters. The conversion of one cluster to several
      other clusters under ambient conditions and the effect of ligand structure in
      silver cluster synthesis give new insights into the cluster chemistry.

PMID- 28581556
TI  - A co-culture microtunnel technique demonstrating a significant contribution of
      unmyelinated Schwann cells to the acceleration of axonal conduction in Schwann
      cell-regulated peripheral nerve development.
AB  - Schwann cells (SCs) contribute to the regulation of axonal conduction in a myelin
      dependent and -independent manner. However, due to the lack of investigative
      techniques that are able to record axonal conduction under conditions that
      control the proliferation of specific SC types, little is known about the extent
      to which myelinated SCs (mSCs) and unmyelinated SCs (umSCs) modulate axonal
      conduction. In this study, a microtunnel-electrode approach was applied to a
      neuron/SC co-culture technique. Rat dorsal root ganglion neurons and SCs were co
      cultured in a microtunnel-electrode device, which enabled recording of the
      conduction delay in multiple axons passing through microtunnels. Despite the
      absence of nuclei in the microtunnel when SCs were eliminated, cultured cells
      were densely packed and expressed S100 beta (an SC marker) at a rate of 96% in
      neuron/SC co-culture, indicating that SCs migrated into the microtunnel. In
      addition, supplementation with ascorbic acid after 6 days in vitro (DIV)
      successfully induced myelination from 22 DIV. Activity recording experiments
      indicated that the conduction delay decreased with culture length from 17 DIV in
      the neuron/SC co-culture but not in neuron monoculture. Interestingly, the SC
      modulated shortening of conduction delay was attenuated at 17 DIV and 22 DIV by
      supplementing the culture medium with ascorbic acid and, at the same time,
      suppressing SC proliferation, suggesting that immature umSCs increased axonal
      conduction velocity in a cell density-dependent manner before the onset of
      myelination. These results suggest that this method is an effective tool for
      investigating the contributions of mSCs or umSCs to the regulation of axonal
      conduction.

PMID- 28581559
TI  - The social cost of methane: theory and applications.
AB  - Methane emissions contribute to global warming, damage public health and reduce
      the yield of agricultural and forest ecosystems. Quantifying these damages to the
      planetary commons by calculating the social cost of methane (SCM) facilitates
      more comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of methane emissions control measures
      and is the first step to potentially incorporating them into the marketplace. Use
      of a broad measure of social welfare is also an attractive alternative or
      supplement to emission metrics focused on a temperature target in a given year as
      it incentivizes action to provide benefits over a broader range of impacts and
      timescales. Calculating the SCM using consistent temporal treatment of physical
      and economic processes and incorporating climate- and air quality-related
      impacts, we find large SCM values, e.g. ~$2400 per ton and ~$3600 per ton with 5%
      and 3% discount rates respectively. These values are ~100 and 50 times greater
      than corresponding social costs for carbon dioxide. Our results suggest that ~110
      of 140 Mt of identified methane abatement via scaling up existing technology and
      policy options provide societal benefits that outweigh implementation costs.
      Within the energy sector, renewables compare far better against use of natural
      gas in electricity generation when incorporating these social costs for methane.
      In the agricultural sector, changes in livestock management practices, promoting
      healthy diets including reduced beef and dairy consumption, and reductions in
      food waste have been promoted as ways to mitigate emissions, and these are shown
      here to indeed have the potential to provide large societal benefits (~$50-150
      billion per year). Examining recent trends in methane and carbon dioxide, we find
      that increases in methane emissions may have offset much of the societal benefits
      from a slowdown in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. The results
      indicate that efforts to reduce methane emissions via policies spanning a wide
      range of technical, regulatory and behavioural options provide benefits at little
      or negative net cost. Recognition of the full SCM, which has typically been
      undervalued, may help catalyze actions to reduce emissions and thereby provide a
      broad set of societal benefits.

PMID- 28581562
TI  - Parallel and antiparallel cyclic d/l peptide nanotubes.
AB  - Nanotubes made from H-bonded cyclic d/l peptide (CP) subunits have great
      potential for the construction of nanomaterials of wide chemical and structural
      diversity but, to date, difficulties in structural characterisation have
      restricted development of these materials. We present the first crystal
      structures of continuous CP nanotubes with antiparallel and parallel stacking
      arrangements, assembled separately from two peptides; cyclo[(Asp-d-Leu-Lys-d
      Leu)2] and cyclo[(Asp-d-Ala-Lys-d-Ala)2].

PMID- 28581564
TI  - Aesthetic Plastic Surgery of the Upper Face.
AB  - The decade of the 1990s will witness even greater public enthusiasm for aesthetic
      surgery of the face than previously seen. Several reasons contribute to this
      increase in number of procedures, among them longevity, better health, nutrition,
      increased competitiveness in the job market and improvements in general
      anaesthesia.

PMID- 28581560
TI  - Dewetting acrylic polymer films with water/propylene carbonate/surfactant
      mixtures - implications for cultural heritage conservation.
AB  - The removal of hydrophobic polymer films from surfaces is one of the top
      priorities of modern conservation science. Nanostructured fluids containing
      water, good solvents for polymers, either immiscible or partially miscible with
      water, and surfactants have been used in the last decade to achieve controlled
      removal. The dewetting of the polymer film is often an essential step to achieve
      efficient removal; however, the role of the surfactant throughout the process is
      yet to be fully understood. We report on the dewetting of a methacrylate/acrylate
      copolymer film induced by a ternary mixture of water, propylene carbonate (PC)
      and C9-11E6, a nonionic alcohol ethoxylate surfactant. The fluid microstructure
      was characterised through small angle X-ray scattering and the interactions
      between the film and water, water/PC and water/PC/C9-11E6, were monitored through
      confocal laser-scanning microscopy (CLSM) and analised both from a thermodynamic
      and a kinetic point of view. The presence of a surfactant is a prerequisite to
      induce dewetting of MUm-thick films at room temperature, but it is not a
      thermodynamic driver. The amphiphile lowers the interfacial energy between the
      phases and favors the loss of adhesion of the polymer on glass, decreasing, in
      turn, the activation energy barrier, which can be overcome by the thermal
      fluctuations of polymer film stability, initiating the dewetting process.

PMID- 28581565
TI  - Application of the Threedimensional CT Scan to the Reconstruction of Craniofacial
      Deformities.
AB  - New developments in computerised tomography (CT) imaging technology have
      paralleled advances in craniofacial surgical techniques. The ability to
      reconstruct congenital, neoplastic, and traumatic deformities is dependent upon
      good pre-operative assessment. Understanding the spatial relationship of a given
      deformity is limited with conventional two-dimensional CT scans. A more precise,
      reproducible portrayal of the craniofacial problem has been' made possible with
      the development of three-dimensional CT scan capabilities.

PMID- 28581555
TI  - Investigation of mechanisms involved in postprandial glycemia and insulinemia
      attenuation with dietary fibre consumption.
AB  - This work examines the mechanisms involved in the attenuation of postprandial
      glycemic and insulinemic responses associated with soluble dietary fibre (SDF)
      consumption. The effect of SDF, including yellow mustard mucilage, soluble
      flaxseed gum and fenugreek gum on in vitro amylolysis and maltose transport was
      studied. Furthermore, a human clinical trial was conducted to investigate the
      effect of SDF consumption on postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses and
      gastric emptying, as estimated based on the absorption of paracetamol.
      Participants (n = 15) at risk for type II diabetes consumed maltose syrup- and
      starch-based pudding treatments supplemented with each SDF, each at a
      concentration to match three times the apparent viscosity (18.54 mPa s at 60 s-1)
      equivalent to the European Food Safety Authority (2011) glycemia control health
      claim for cereal beta-glucan, measured under simulated small intestinal
      conditions. The presence of each SDF delayed in vitro amylolysis to a similar
      extent, but had no effect on maltose transport. Generally, all SDF-containing
      treatments attenuated blood glucose and plasma insulin peak concentrations and
      plasma paracetamol 1 h incremental area under the curve values to a similar
      extent, relative to the controls, despite differences in the amounts at which
      each SDF was used (from 5.9 to 15.5 g). The postprandial attenuations were
      related to the ability of each SDF to modify digesta viscosity, perhaps through
      the delay of gastric emptying, as a delay of amylolysis and sugar transport under
      simulated upper intestinal conditions did not seem to have a substantial effect.

PMID- 28581558
TI  - Effects of halogens on European air-quality.
AB  - Halogens (Cl, Br) have a profound influence on stratospheric ozone (O3). They
      (Cl, Br and I) have recently also been shown to impact the troposphere, notably
      by reducing the mixing ratios of O3 and OH. Their potential for impacting
      regional air-quality is less well understood. We explore the impact of halogens
      on regional pollutants (focussing on O3) with the European grid of the GEOS-Chem
      model (0.25 degrees  * 0.3125 degrees ). It has recently been updated to include
      a representation of halogen chemistry. We focus on the summer of 2015 during the
      ICOZA campaign at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory on the North Sea coast of
      the UK. Comparisons between these observations together with those from the UK
      air-quality network show that the model has some skill in representing the mixing
      ratios/concentration of pollutants during this period. Although the model has
      some success in simulating the Weybourne ClNO2 observations, it significantly
      underestimates ClNO2 observations reported at inland locations. It also
      underestimates mixing ratios of IO, OIO, I2 and BrO, but this may reflect the
      coastal nature of these observations. Model simulations, with and without
      halogens, highlight the processes by which halogens can impact O3. Throughout the
      domain O3 mixing ratios are reduced by halogens. In northern Europe this is due
      to a change in the background O3 advected into the region, whereas in southern
      Europe this is due to local chemistry driven by Mediterranean emissions. The
      proportion of hourly O3 above 50 nmol mol-1 in Europe is reduced from 46% to 18%
      by halogens. ClNO2 from N2O5 uptake onto sea-salt leads to increases in O3 mixing
      ratio, but these are smaller than the decreases caused by the bromine and iodine.
      12% of ethane and 16% of acetone within the boundary layer is oxidised by Cl.
      Aerosol response to halogens is complex with small (~10%) reductions in PM2.5 in
      most locations. A lack of observational constraints coupled to large
      uncertainties in emissions and chemical processing of halogens make these
      conclusions tentative at best. However, the results here point to the potential
      for halogen chemistry to influence air quality policy in Europe and other parts
      of the world.

PMID- 28581563
TI  - A specific environment-sensitive near-infrared fluorescent turn-on probe for
      synergistic enhancement of anticancer activity of a chemo-drug.
AB  - Chemotherapy is one of the main categories of clinical cancer treatment. One of
      the hindrances of a popularly used chemo-drug doxorubicin (DOX) is that some
      types of cancer cells are or become insensitive/resistant to DOX. In this work,
      we report a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent turn-on probe DBT-2EEGYLFFVFER by
      conjugation of an environment-sensitive fluorophore DBT with human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) specific binding peptides. Besides the NIR
      fluorescence turn-on signature, DBT-2EEGYLFFVFER also has activatable capability
      of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. DBT-2EEGYLFFVFER is weakly
      fluorescent in aqueous solution and hardly produces ROS under white light
      irradiation. However, both the NIR fluorescence and ROS production ability can be
      switched on when DBT-2EEGYLFFVFER binds to HER2 proteins overexpressed in cancer
      cells. Besides specific visualization of HER2-expressed cancer cells, DBT
      2EEGYLFFVFER upon exposure to light is able to effectively increase the
      intracellular ROS level and offer an intracellular oxidative microenvironment,
      which does not cause the death of cancer cells, but greatly and synergistically
      boosts the cytotoxicity of DOX against HER2-expressed cancer cells with a supra
      additive effect of "0 + 1 > 1".

PMID- 28581571
TI  - Endoscopic, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures of the Biliary and Pancreatic
      Tract.
AB  - Endoscopic cannulation of the biliary tree and the pancreatic duct (ERCP) was
      first described in 1968. Six years later the technique of endoscopic
      sphincterotomy (ES) opened the door to endoscopic treatment procedures of
      pancreatic and biliary diseases. Techniques have been developed to remove bile
      duct stones, to break large stones and to drain bile duct or pancreatic duct
      strictures.

PMID- 28581566
TI  - Recent Advances in Breast Reconstruction.
AB  - The incidence of breast cancer in the United States is high and appears to be
      increasing. The American cancer Society has estimated that one in nine American
      women (11 percent) will eventually develop breast carcinoma. Recently there has
      been a dramatic shift away from mastectomy and toward breast-conserving therapy
      (Iumpectomy, axillary node dissection and whole breast irradiation). In some
      centres the majority of breast cancer patients are now treated with conservation
      therapy. Some patients, however, are not candidates for radiation, because of the
      size, location or histology of their tumour and are still best treated by
      mastectomy and reconstruction. Women who develop local recurrence following
      radiation therapy are likewise candidates for mastectomy with reconstruction.
      Additionally, there is a large group of women who had mastectomies in years past
      who have not had reconstruction. Thus many patients may potentially benefit from
      breast reconstruction.

PMID- 28581567
TI  - Present Status of Microsurgical Replantation.
AB  - The replantation of amputated parts has stimulated the imagination of writers
      since antiquity. It was not until the successful replantation of an arm by Malt
      and a hand by Chen Chung Wei in 1953 that these fables became reality. The
      simultaneous development of the field of microsurgery permitting the repair of
      one millimetre vessels made possible the replantation of structures fed by these
      small vessels such as fingers, ears, noses, lips, scalps and penises.

PMID- 28581568
TI  - Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy after the Learning Curve.
AB  - Management of gallbladder disease has changed dramatically since the introduction
      of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in 1988. Removal of the gallbladder has
      always been the 'gold standard'. However, the morbidity associated with the large
      transrectus incision has caused patients and referring physicians alike to
      refrain from surgical treatment whenever possible. LC offers the same excellent
      end results of a standard cholecystectomy, but without the pain and ileus seen
      with the operation.

PMID- 28581573
TI  - The Quadrantectomy Technique for Small Breast Carcinomas.
AB  - Quadrantectomy describes removal of the quadrant in which a breast neoplasm is
      located, by excision of skin overlying the tumour en bloc with the sub-cutaneous
      fatty tissue and a relatively large area of the mammary gland, including the
      corresponding parts of the fasciae of the major pectoralis muscle.

PMID- 28581570
TI  - Endoscopic Methods for Control of Non-variceal Gastrointestinal Bleeding.
AB  - Flexible upper gastrointestinal endoscopy has a well established place in the
      diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Increasing experience with a
      variety of modalities has made endoscopic therapy appropriate for many
      significant bleeding lesions of the upper GI tract. In many instances endoscopic
      therapy will eliminate the need for surgical control of the bleeding lesion. In
      other patients the temporary endoscopic control of bleeding may allow appropriate
      surgical intervention to be postponed until optimal stabilisation can be
      accomplished.

PMID- 28581569
TI  - The Future of Laparoscopic General Surgery.
AB  - Video controlled laparoscopy has dramatically changed general surgery. Further
      striking alteration is sure to occur in the immediate future. Not only are the
      surgeons who are concentrating on this area making great strides, but innovative
      equipment and technological innovation are certain to make more complex
      procedures feasible. Thus the future of laparoscopic surgery is very bright.

PMID- 28581574
TI  - Hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - Approximately 100,000 new cases of primary hyperparathyroidism are diagnosed in
      the United States each year. Thus a disorder that was once considered to be rare
      is now known to be relatively common. Many patients with primary
      hyperparathyroidism are diagnosed today with only minimal hypercalcemia (serum
      calcium less than 1mg/dl above the upper limit of normal) and many have few or no
      classic symptoms or clinical manifestations of hyperparathyroidism, such as
      kidney stones or osteitis fibrosa cystica. Many patients with hyperparathyroidism
      today have fatigue or increased lethargy, muscular weakness, bone or joint pain
      and depression. It is difficult preoperatively to know whether these clinical
      manifestations are related to the primary hyperparathyroidism or not. Our own
      studies suggest that in about 80 per cent of patients with hyperparathyroidism
      the preoperative symptoms either improve or disappear after parathyroidectomy.

PMID- 28581572
TI  - New Challenges in Trauma Surgery Care of the paediatric, geriatric and pregnant
      patient.
AB  - Trauma surgery originated with military surgeons who cared for otherwise healthy
      young males injured in combat. During the past two decades, many areas of the
      United States have established trauma systems, organised to sift seriously
      injured patients of all ages to trauma centres that have the medical personnel
      and equipment needed to provide immediate trauma care. The organisation of trauma
      care has greatly increased the experience of civilian surgeons based at
      designated trauma centres, and has lead to a recognition of three 'special care'
      areas of trauma surgery: paediatric trauma, geriatric trauma, and trauma during
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28581575
TI  - Using Lasers in Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery.
AB  - Few technologic advances in medicine have captured the imagination of the general
      public, and physicians, to the extent that the laser has. The laser clearly
      evokes images of space-age technology, and is frequently regarded as a panacea by
      patients. The reality is, of course, that the laser has no inherent special
      ability to cure diseases, and is simply another tool available to contemporary
      surgeons. We will review the current application of lasers in head and neck
      oncologic surgery. The basic mechanism of lasers will be discussed, with emphasis
      on the carbon dioxide (C02) laser. This discussion will include analysis of
      photodynamic therapy for cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract, which is
      rapidly evolving as a means of incorporating lasers in the treatment of head and
      neck cancer.

PMID- 28581576
TI  - Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystenlic Shunts: TIPS.
AB  - The emergency management of patients with acute variceal bleeding has evolved
      dramatically over the past 20 years. Initially, bleeding was controlled by
      supportive medical measures in conjunction with surgical portal decompression
      procedures. However, the high operative mortality and the significant incidence
      of post-operative encephalopathy associated with emergency portal decompression
      led to the development of alternative therapeutic techniques. Injection
      sclerotherapy has been used in large numbers of patients for the past 10 years
      with considerable success and is now advocated by many authors as the treatment
      of choice for acute variceal hemorrhage. While sclerotherapy controls bleeding in
      approximately 70 per cent of patients, repeat sessions are necessary in 20 per
      cent and sclerotherapy may be unsuccessful in 10 per cent. When sclerotherapy
      fails, most authors recommend surgical shunting. While the side-side portacaval
      shunt is still the most popular operation in this setting, other types of shunts
      have been advocated by some authors. A small mesocaval or portacaval H-graft, or
      a distal splenorenal shunt may he performed in an attempt to reduce the incidence
      of post-operative encephalopathy and liver failure.

PMID- 28581578
TI  - Lung Transplantation in the 1990s.
AB  - Over the past 10 years there has been a rapid increase in the application of
      single lung, double lung and heart/lung transplantation to patients with a
      variety of end-stage cardiopulmonary diseases. As a result there has been a
      significant expansion in our knowledge of these procedures and their potential
      therapeutic role, limitations and complications.

PMID- 28581577
TI  - Regional Hyperthermic Perfusion for Cancer.
AB  - Regional perfusion of cancer resulted from studies that infused nitrogen mustard
      into arteries supplying tumours while at the same time blocking the venous return
      to maximise exposure of the tumour to the chemotherapeutic agent.

PMID- 28581579
TI  - Liver Transplantation Modern techniques in donor and recipient operations.
AB  - Pacific Transplant Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
      Orthotopic hepatic transplantation provides hope for patients with irreversible
      liver disease, and the operation is becoming more accepted by the medical
      community and the public in general. Still, the operation is difficult and the
      postoperative and long-term management can be rather complex. Unlike pancreas,
      kidney and heart transplantation, liver transplantation lacks a back-up system,
      such as Insulin, dialysis or a ventricular support device, if graft failure
      occurs. Therefore, the Slightest error in the management of the patient after
      hepatic transplantation may prove fatal. Complications during the post-operative
      period often originate from the time of the procurement and/or transplantation
      operations. Thus, good techniques are crucial for a satisfactory outcome.

PMID- 28581580
TI  - The Current and Future Status of Lasers in Surgery.
AB  - Almost from the moment of its invention, the laser was destined to play a
      significant role in surgery. This intense new source of coherent, radiant energy
      inevitably attracted the attention of imaginative physicians and surgeons, who
      immediately recognised its potential for precise removal of diseased tissue.

PMID- 28581581
TI  - The Surgical Biology of Cancer.
AB  - The surgical principles in the treatment of cancer were first clearly enunciated
      in 1906 by Halsted in the treatment of carcinoma of the breast, namely wide
      surgical removal of the breast together with the regional lymph nodes to which it
      spreads. The hope was that the regional nodes would serve as filters and prevent
      the spread of malignant cells into the blood stream, enabling the surgeon to
      excise every last cancer cell from the patient, thereby curing the cancer.

PMID- 28581582
TI  - The Impact of Biotechnology on Surgery in the 1990s.
AB  - Medical practice is generally divided into medical and surgical sub-groups based
      on therapeutic approaches. Physicians in medically oriented specialities, such as
      internal medicine and paediatrics, traditionally rely largely on drugs to
      influence the course of disease while general and speciality surgeons usually
      have some type of surgical procedure at the core of their discipline. (Obviously,
      these are gross generalisations; surgeons have long been at the forefront of the
      use of antibiotics and nutritional support.) But these distinctions are becoming
      increasingly blurred as cardiologists guide catheters into ever smaller vessels
      and gastroenterologists send fibreoptic scopes into yet other ducts and snare
      would-be cancers from ever more remote parts of the gut. The recent explosion in
      scientific knowledge will continue to fuel this trend. Greater understanding of
      the fundamental mechanisms of disease inevitably leads to a simpler approach to
      diagnosis and therapy.

PMID- 28581584
TI  - Advances in Anaesthetic Monitoring for the 1990s.
AB  - Given the anaesthesiologists 'credo 'vigilance' it should come as no surprise
      that monitoring is accorded high priority in anaesthetic practice. Although the
      critical basics of monitoring have changed little since the earliest days of the
      specialty, namely visual observation (i.e. skin colour, rate and depth of
      respiration, position and location of patient and endotracheal tube etc.) and
      physical contact with the patient (i.e. finger on the pulse for heart rate and
      estimation of blood pressure, temperature, peripheral perfusion etc.) there is no
      question that technological advances have greatly enhanced these basic
      observations. The 1980s were especially pivotal. In this decade major advances
      have been made in respiratory and cardiovascular monitoring. Many of these
      advances have been credited with facilitating a major reduction in perioperative
      anaesthetic morbidity and mortality. For instance, with the routine use of pulse
      oximetry and capnography, the chance of an unrecognized esophageal intubation of
      sufficient duration to result in anoxic brain damage have been almost eliminated.

PMID- 28581583
TI  - Functional Organ Replacement, The New Technology of Tissue Engineering.
AB  - Functional failure of one vital organ results in death. The surgical implantation
      of tissue with the capacity to replace lost organ function, from one individual
      into another, is termed transplantation. In Boston, in 1954, Joseph E Murray
      performed the first successful human organ transplant, that of a kidney from an
      identical twin into his brother.

PMID- 28581591
TI  - Endoscopic Instrumentation and Equipment for Surgery.
AB  - The popularity of Endoscopy for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures is a
      result of advanced development of new technologies, such as industrial video and
      fibre optics. Surgeons have 'new sets of eyes' and therefore it becomes necessary
      to familiarise ourselves with articulating instruments while looking at a
      television monitor not at the surgical sight. With the field of endoscopy
      evolving so quickly, it is imperative for the surgeon to adapt his or her
      technology to optimise patient gain and minimise procedure risk. If new
      technology is ignored, the.disservice is done both to the physician and the
      patient. 'If you do not become part of steam roller, you become part of the road.

PMID- 28581585
TI  - Intrathecal lnfusional Therapies for Intractable Pain.
AB  - There has recently been an increased interest in the safety, efficacy and
      relative ease in the delivery of intraspinal analgesics for the control of
      intractable pain. Recent technological advances have provided clinicians with
      precise and accurate delivery systems for long term infusion of spinally
      administered drugs. Because of these advances, there has been a rapidly growing
      interest in long term intraspinal infusional therapy for the control of chronic
      pain.

PMID- 28581588
TI  - Uses of Ultrasound in a Surgical Practice.
AB  - The applications of sonography multiply year by year. The technology initially
      progressed from a simple A-mode signal, to contact scanners which produced B-mode
      images. These, in turn, were supplanted by real-time instruments capable of
      defining motion. The next development was the duplex Doppler machines which
      characterised flow from an image in a specific area. Now, colour coding of
      vascularity and high resolution imagery have become the standards of excellence.

PMID- 28581595
TI  - Fixed Combination of Fibrin Glue with a Sheet of Collagen A 'ready-to-use' local
      haemostyptic agent.
AB  - There are still situations in surgery when diffuse bleeding becomes a severe
      problem. This may occur especially during operations involving parenchymal tissue
      and, or in cases of impaired haemostasis. Several methods are available to
      control diffuse bleeding, and in addition to classical methods like sutures or
      tamponade, there are essentially two approaches: -Application of physical methods
      (e.g. electro-coagulation and infra-red-coagulation) -Application of local
      haemostyptic materials.

PMID- 28581586
TI  - Antibiotic Update for the Surgeon.
AB  - The number of antimicrobial agents that have been introduced into clinical
      practice continues to increase. This development, however, is not unique to the
      antibiotic field. All one has to do is to look at the burgeoning number of
      compounds for antiinflammatory or cardiovascular indications to recognise that
      the pharmaceutical industry continues to provide us with new compounds of
      increased potency and broadened therapeutic applicability. On the other hand, not
      all new drug introductions represent clinical breakthroughs. Some agents can be,
      quite frankly, classified as 'me too' drugs. Nonetheless, even a fairly simple
      congener could be a welcome addition to the therapeutic armamentarian if it is
      safer, less toxic, cheaper, and more convenient to use than previously available
      therapy.

PMID- 28581587
TI  - Treatment of Infections Associated with Implanted Medical Devices.
AB  - The development of an infection in the vicinity of an implanted medical device is
      a dramatic event in many fields of surgery, especially cardiovascular, orthopedic
      and neurosurgery. The diagnosis of these infections is usually difficult and
      their treatment is always complex and represents a challenge for both surgeons
      and infectious diseases specialists. As foreign materials are used with increased
      frequency in modern medicine, this problem will probably remain a major one in
      the future despite the improvement of techniques and the use of new antibiotics.
      For patients, infection of a prosthetic device often means the loss of its
      function and. is sometimes associated with a high mortality.

PMID- 28581590
TI  - Blood Substitutes.
AB  - Although the need for an alternative to red cells for transfusion has been
      recognised since the initial description of the circulation of the blood by
      William Harvey in 1628, there is still no approved product available to
      clinicians. Recent concern over the safety of human blood has stimulated a
      renewed interest in finding alternatives to transfusion of red cells. Two types
      of solutions, those based on perfluorocarbons and those based on haemoglobin are
      currently being aggressively developed.

PMID- 28581593
TI  - The Rapid Infusion System.
AB  - Haemorrhage often leads to shock with complications of acidosis, hypothermia and
      coagulopathy. Despite massive transfusions and supposedly adequate volume
      replacement, patients that are acidotic and hypothermic still develop clinically
      significant bleeding and clotting problems attended by a high mortality.

PMID- 28581589
TI  - Hepatic Resection Using Ultrasonic Fragmentation.
AB  - The frequency with which hepatic resection is undertaken has rapidly expanded.
      This is due to a better understanding of hepatic anatomy and physiology, and a
      better appreciation of the indications for resection. As a result of Foster's
      liver tumour survey of 1974, and Adson's early publications hepatic resection has
      become almost commonplace. However, though the mortality of the procedure has
      decreased to five to 10 per cent, the morbidity continues to range from 20 to 27
      per cent, Ultrasonic dissection has the unique potential to decrease the
      morbidity and mortality of this procedure by minimizing blood loss and creating a
      controlled operative event.

PMID- 28581594
TI  - Chronic Wounds Yesterday's Challenges Healing Today.
AB  - Chronic, non-healing wounds have been a challenge to surgeons for years.
      Physicians get frustrated trying multiple modalities to heal the wounds with
      varying degrees of success. Patients and their families get impatient and
      depressed because the wounds will not heal. Hospitals in the US lose money on
      these patients because so many of them are in the Medicare population and require
      lengthy hospitalisations. Third party payors spend inordinate amounts of money on
      these patients since they require on-going care even though they are not healing.
      This scenario is a major challenge in health care today as we face caring for an
      aging population more prone to chronic wounds.

PMID- 28581592
TI  - Autotransfusion Cell-Saver and Plasma Saver.
AB  - Early attempts at blood salvage during surgery shared many of the complications
      associated with the development of cardiopulmonary (heart-lung) bypass machines;
      especially, coagulopathy and air embolism. By the late 1970s, the technology had
      developed to the point where not only were the red blood cells salvaged, but
      washed and processed in a manner that prevented auto-immunisation, transfusion
      reactions, and transmission of diseases. Blood conservation became practical.

PMID- 28581598
TI  - The Vascular Laboratory in the 1990s What's in and what's out.
AB  - The vascular laboratory as a recognised entity is, at best, only 15 years old.
      Many growing technologies were applied prior to this time, but it was not until
      the addition of Doppler ultrasound to the vascular surgeon's armamentarium that
      non-invasive diagnosis began to take hold. The vascular laboratory was necessary
      because angiography, which was felt to be the gold standard by many, was
      expensive, had the risk of potentially serious complications, and did not have
      the characteristics of a test which made it easily repeatable at frequent
      intervals. Most importantly, angiography was an anatomic evaluator and provided
      minimal information regarding function. Although pathologic anatomy and function
      are often related, the relationship is sufficiently weak to dictate the need for
      an accurate method of functional evaluation. This was the role of the early
      vascular laboratories. Today's vascular laboratory provides both functional and
      anatomic information. In some cases, the anatomic information is superior to that
      which can be obtained from angiography.

PMID- 28581596
TI  - Haemostasis by Computerised Bipolar Diathermy.
AB  - Modern bipolar diathermy has certain limitations, especially regarding the
      regulation of the short coagulation course: it is somewhat awkward to use, is
      prone to mechanical malfunction and time consuming. The computerised bipolar
      diathermy system was originally developed for solving these problems in
      neurosurgery. It has now gained wide acceptance by all the surgical sub
      specialities. Electronic feedback of the tissue impedance automatically starts
      and shuts off coagulation when a blood vessel is picked up by the forceps. The
      shut-off is related to a point in the impedance course that correlates to a
      temperature of 60 to 90 degrees C, i.e. after coagulation has occurred and before
      complete desiccation, fulguration and sticking of the forceps has taken place.

PMID- 28581601
TI  - Endovascular Techniques and Peripheral Vascular Surgery.
AB  - Endovascular is an increasingly popular term that describes the use of catheter
      based instruments to diagnose and treat vascular disease. Implicit in this
      terminology is its association with techniques that are less invasive to the
      patient than traditional surgical techniques. Endovascular techniques began in
      1963 with the advent of the Fogarty arterial embolectomy catheter for removal of
      clotted blood from the peripheral arterial circulation. Shortly thereafter,
      radiologist Charles Dotter introduced the concept of arterial dilatation which
      was popularised a decade later by cardiologist Andreas Gruntzig with the use of a
      non-dispensible plastic balloon catheter. During the next two decades,
      endovascular techniques proliferated in the growing fields of interventional
      cardiology and interventional radiology, yet were embraced more slowly by the
      surgical community.

PMID- 28581597
TI  - Impact of Technological Advances on Vascular Surgery in the 1990s.
AB  - 'All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking
      place every instant.' Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854. Progress in vascular
      surgery is fuelled by technology. Every advance in modern vascular surgery has
      been preceded by a technological development which, though apparently amazing,
      soon became a commonplace. Those who do not believe in change in vascular surgery
      or that technological advances described in this volume will have any place in
      the treatment of vascular disease, reflect an attitude described best by Lord
      Moynihan, then President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He said,
      'surgery ... has now almost reached its limit...we can surely never hope to see
      the craft of surgery made much more perfect than it is today.' Changes which have
      occurred since that statement are a cascade of advances including antibiotics,
      anticoagulants, prostheses, sutures, needles, and a variety of scopes which have
      become as common as aseptic technique.

PMID- 28581599
TI  - Prosthetic Vascular Grafts The state of the art in the 1990s.
AB  - During the early years of vascular prosthetic development (1940-1960), the
      characteristics of the ideal graft were gradually defined. In order to be
      clinically useful, a vascular graft must be readily available in a variety of
      sizes and lengths and be suitable for use throughout the body.

PMID- 28581600
TI  - The Future of Lasers in Endovascular Surgery.
AB  - The potential for precise tissue ablation via a miniaturised delivery system
      (i.e. fibre optics) makes laser angioplasty a promising alternative for treatment
      of atherosclerotic occlusions which are not amenable to current forms of therapy.
      This is a particularly relevant consideration since the majority of developing
      angioplasty devices aside from balloons are difficult to miniaturise in a cost
      effective manner. The utility of contemporary devices is restricted to stenotic
      or short occlusive lesions, with a high rate of early recurrence of lesions being
      a significant limiting factor in most locations. In order to address and resolve
      the current deficiencies and define the potential of lasers as an angioplasty
      device, it is first appropriate to overview the current status and define
      unresolved issues.

PMID- 28581602
TI  - Will Angiosocopy Replace Operative Arteriography in the 1990s?
AB  - Vascular surgeons have always been concerned with the intra-operative assessment
      of their reconstructions. Failure of vascular reconstructions in the early post
      operative period is most commonly a result of a technical error at the time of
      surgery. Hence, any technique which aids the vascular surgeon in evaluating his
      reconstruction and in preventing technical errors will be beneficial to both the
      surgeon and their patient. Traditionally, intra-operative arteriography has been
      the 'gold standard' for evaluating vascular surgical procedures.

PMID- 28581603
TI  - Reperfusion Syndrome.
AB  - The interruption of blood flow causing ischemia is usually the result of an
      intrinsic obstruction of major arteries by clots. Emboli that originate in the
      heart are the main cause of such obstructions, and patients who have had
      myocardial infarcts or have stenosis of the mitral valve or arrhythmias such as
      atrial fibrillation are susceptible to the development of clots within the heart
      which can lead to distal thromboembolism. Another common cause of arterial
      obstruction is the formation of clots in an area of narrowing caused by
      arteriosclerosis.

PMID- 28581604
TI  - Steps to Technical Expertise in Carotid Endarterectomy.
AB  - Carotid endarterectomy is a prophylactic operation that is designed to prevent
      strokes related to atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid bifurcation. Once a
      plaque is safely removed, a major potential cause for stroke in that patient is
      eliminated. However, the operation itself carries two major risks: death and
      stroke. These risks are related to patient selection and technical expertise in
      the performance of the operation. This chapter will focus upon those aspects of
      surgical technique, when properly applied, that can minimise the risks of
      surgical complication and thus permit the operation to achieve its highest
      potential of stroke prevention.

PMID- 28581606
TI  - Refinements in the Techniques of Venous Surgery.
AB  - The surgery of venous disease falls into two distinct categories, the removal of
      malfunctioning unsightly superficial veins and the restoration of the function of
      the deep veins by repairing or replacing valves or bypassing obstructions. During
      the past decade surgical advances have mainly been concerned with the refinement
      of techniques to reduce the cost of surgery and its outward and visible
      manifestation - the scars, rather than the introduction of new principles or
      objectives.

PMID- 28581608
TI  - Venous Valvuloplasty.
AB  - The technical feasibility of surgical correction of abnormal venous valves is now
      established. In times past, it was generally thought that surgery inside the
      veins would be fraught with a virtual certainty of failure due to thrombosis of
      the vein. This has turned out to be not true. In 1968 the first venous
      valvuloplasty was done and since then hundreds more have been reported from
      surgeons in America and Europe with a very rare incidence of post-operative
      thrombosis. The operation is done today by any vascular surgeon who has taken the
      time to study the details of technique that are necessary to achieve a successful
      repair.

PMID- 28581605
TI  - A Technique of Carotid Endarterectomy and Carotid Shunting.
AB  - With the advent of carotid arterial operations, concerns of interruption of
      cerebral perfusion and ischemic injury loomed as the major deterrent. The
      physiologic basis for cerebral protection is to diminish its oxygen requirement
      by chemical or hypothermic means or to continue its adequate arterial perfusion.
      The first successful carotid reconstruction resecting an internal carotid
      stenosis with anastomosis of the patent external carotid to the distal internal
      carotid artery was performed by Carrea of Argentina in 1951. Preoperatively,
      ascorbic acid and phenobarbital was given but its rationale was not explained.

PMID- 28581607
TI  - Popliteal Vein Valve Transplantation for Deep Venous Valvular Incompetence.
AB  - Interest in deep venous reconstruction for severe chronic venous insufficiency
      (CVI) is burgeoning. Vein valve transplantation for deep venous valvular
      incompetence, an indirect method for correcting deep venous valvular incompetence
      achieves its physiologic benefits by placing a normal functioning valve harvested
      from the upper extremity into the deep system. By contrast, other authors in this
      volume have presented alternative forms of deep venous valvular reconstruction
      where the valve mechanism itself is directly repaired or a local segment of vein
      containing a functioning valve from the same anatomic area, such as the saphenous
      or profunda, is transposed into the deep venous circuit. Several factors
      influence the role of deep venous valvular surgery and its frequency. For
      example, the incidence of deep venous involvement in patients with advanced stage
      II or frank ulceration (stage III) is variable and depends upon patient selection
      process.

PMID- 28581609
TI  - New Devices and Techniques for Thrombectomy of Arteries and Grafts.
AB  - An arterial embolus is an obstructive segment of material which travels along the
      bloodstream until lodging in an artery which is too small in diameter to permit
      its passage. The embolus will halt flow of oxygenating blood to all tissue beyond
      the point of obstruction. Blood distal to the obstruction will stagnate and
      thrombose - or clot in place, effectively propagating the obstructive material
      along the artery. Arterial embolism poses a threat to both life and limb and
      prior to the mid-1960s was difficult for surgeons to treat because there was no
      simple and effective means to remove the embolus and associated distal thrombus.

PMID- 28581611
TI  - The Selection of Cardiac Pacing Systems.
AB  - Once the decision has been made to implant a permanent pacing system for the
      management of symptomatic bradycardias, a clinical assessment of the patient's
      physiological needs must be made together with a systematic determination of the
      pacemaker features that can best meet those needs. The primary clinical
      objectives should be the restoration and maintenance of optimal cardiac function,
      so as to enable the patient to be as active as possible. Unless the clinical
      goals are clearly defined and the physiological consequences of various pacemaker
      features understood, the implanted system may not fully benefit the patient, or
      may even exacerbate the patient's symptoms. Clinical assessment usually includes
      an ambulatory electrocardiogram to document the occurrence, frequency, and type
      of tachycardia, and an exercise test to assess the presence of 'chronotropic
      incompetence,' defined as inability to increase heart rate in response to
      increased metabolic need.

PMID- 28581613
TI  - Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators The state of the art.
AB  - Implantable devices are now being routinely used for the treatment of patients
      with malignant ventricular tachyarrhythmias. This technology became an approved
      clinical therapy in the United States in 1985. The prototype implantable
      cardioverterdefibrillator ICD was developed in the 1970s and investigated in the
      1980s. Since its approval in 1985 for general clinical application, ICDs are
      being increasingly used in patients with life-threatening ventricular
      tachyarrhythmias based upon a number of clinical trials undertaken in North
      America and western Europe.

PMID- 28581612
TI  - Current Pacemaker Therapy Surgical consideration involving leads and lead
      placement.
AB  - The implantable pacemaker, like the telephone, has evolved from a rather
      straightforward device, which offered virtually no choice to its early users, to
      a highly complex system embodying a number of choices, many of which must be made
      at the outset because they affect the performance of the system throughout its
      lifetime. The most important of these choices, is, of course, selection of the
      mode of pacing and its relationship to the underlying arrythmia. These
      considerations are discussed in considerable detail in Dr Nora Goldschlager's
      article on electrophysiology, and will not be repeated. The focus of this
      discussion will be on surgical techniques of implantation, particularly as
      related to the evolution of the modern lead system.

PMID- 28581618
TI  - Dynamic Cardiomyoplasty.
AB  - On January 8, 1985, Carpentier and his cardiovascular surgery group at the
      Broussais Hospital were the first to replace diseased human myocardium with a
      stimulated latissimus dorsi muscle flap. A few months later, Magovern and co
      workers at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh were the first to repair a
      large left ventricular aneurysm with a latissimus dorsi cardiomyoplasty. Over the
      past six years, approximately 120 patients have undergone the operation
      throughout the world.

PMID- 28581610
TI  - Angioplasty of the Completely Occluded Coronary Vessel.
AB  - Over the past 12 years, the development and widespread use of new interventional
      techniques has widened the indications for the use of percutaneous transluminal
      coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in the treatment of totally occluded coronary
      arteries. In the early reports of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
      (NHLBI) Registry investigators recommended that angioplasty should not be
      attempted in coronary total occlusions. However, with improvements in operator
      skills, advanced catheter technology, and most notably, with the development of
      steerable guidewire systems, angioplasty is now being used to treat totally
      occluded arteries in an increasing number of patients.

PMID- 28581615
TI  - Advances in Paedriatric Cardiac Surgery.
AB  - Treatment of congenital cardiac disease has been marked in the recent decade by a
      movement towards treatment in early infancy, the development of techniques of
      radical palliation for conditions previously inoperable and the emergence of
      transplantation as a viable alternative.

PMID- 28581619
TI  - Transmyocardial Revascularisation by CO2 Laser.
AB  - Anatomical channels connecting the left ventricular chamber to the myocardial
      sinusoids supplying the left ventricle with oxygenated blood in the human heart
      were described by Dr Wearn in 1933. He microscopically confirmed these
      communicating vessels or tiny clusters of arteries by gelatin filling. The second
      type of these channels was located at the end of the vessels almost as though
      woven into the fabric of the muscular fibres. These irregular shaped blood
      vessels were called myocardial sinusoids. Three other early investigators
      described connecting channels. The first was Adrian Christian Thebesius, a Dutch
      physician in 1708 who described connections from the atrium the coronary veins
      which were called Thebesian veins. The second was the American physiologist F H
      Pratt who, in 1898, perfused blood though the ventricle alone in a cat, keeping
      it alive for more than an hour. Finally, the historical work of R T Grant who in
      1926 reported that a congenitally deformed heart in a child had connecting
      cavities with the surrounding veins and arteries.

PMID- 28581616
TI  - Left Ventricular Assist Device.
AB  - Left ventricular assist device (LVADs) have been used with increasing frequency
      since the late 1980s. Technology has improved these devices to make them less
      thrombogenic and has decreased their size to allow greater application. By
      definition, the LVAD only assists or supports the pumping function of the left
      ventricle, unlike cardiopulmonary bypass which provides total circulatory and
      pulmonary function. LVADs support the circulation for hours to days and
      occasionally for weeks when the left and/or right ventricle has failed and is
      therefore unable to sustain the circulation. The hope is that by temporarily
      supporting the circulation, ventricular function will return. In other instances,
      LVAD type devices (also known as prosthetic ventricles) are used to 'bridge' the
      time until a suitable heart donor can be located for transplantation.

PMID- 28581617
TI  - Intervention in the Late Stages of Congestive Heart Failure Prospects in the
      1990s.
AB  - The human heart is a brilliant example of biological engineering. Its four
      engineering components, when properly integrated, is a marvel of a rugged, high
      performance, self regulating biological pump. The components of the heart are
      conduction system (rate control), coronary circulation (fuel supply), valves
      (directional flow) and muscle (power and force). The breakdown of any component
      part and failure of proper system integration leads to reduced pumping
      performance and appearance of clinical symptoms. Effective treatment exits for
      the failure of three of these components - valve repair and/or replacement;
      coronary artery bypass, angioplasty or pharmacologic intervention; and pacemakers
      and drugs for conduction problems.

PMID- 28581622
TI  - Antibiotic Impregnated Beads, Indications in musculoskeletal infection.
AB  - The management of musculoskeletal infection as a result of acute extremity injury
      remains a challenge to the experienced surgeon. The current treatment of acute
      debridement and wound irrigation remain the most important factors in the
      prevention of acute or chronic infection. Skeletal stabilisation and appropriate
      soft tissue coverage are also imperative in the standard care of these
      complicated traumatic wounds. Once stabilised, severe open fractures remain at
      risk as a result of the compromised vascularity of the bone and soft tissue.
      Parenteral broad-spectrum antibiotics are recommended as a prophylaxis to the
      open wound contamination. In such injuries the therapeutic levels of the
      antibiotics are frequently diminished by the impaired tissue perfusion,
      vasospasm, edema and vascular damage.

PMID- 28581624
TI  - Advances in Sports Medicine.
AB  - The tremendous surge of interest in sports participation and body conditioning in
      this country has necessitated technical advances in the field of sports medicine
      to diagnose and treat a variety of related injuries that are increasingly
      confronting orthopaedic surgeons. Perhaps the two areas of the body that deserve
      discussion are the advances in surgery of the knee and the shoulder. In both
      joints, the development of arthroscopic techniques and treatment has been perhaps
      the greatest advancement in the past 25 years.

PMID- 28581620
TI  - Technological Advances in Spine Care.
AB  - Spinal medicine is one of the most rapidly evolving specialities of surgery and
      of medicine. The more critical and life saving specialties seem to have evolved
      first. General surgery, of course, existed for decades before the vascular and
      cardiac surgeon evolved in the 1950s and 1960s. Hand surgery and total joint
      surgery was in its heyday by the early 1970s. Spine surgery did not become a
      recognised specialty by the Academy of Orthopedic Surgery until almost 1990.

PMID- 28581621
TI  - Technology in the Management of Spinal Cord Injuries.
AB  - Injury to the spinal cord is catastrophic and usually permanent. Whereas other
      injured tissues, such as bone, skin, blood vessels and peripheral nerves, are
      capable of being repaired and resuming near normal function, such is not the case
      with the spinal cord. Thus far, all attempts to repair the cord using every
      conceivable technique has ended in failure. The physician and other members of
      the treatment team involved with a patient with spinal cord injury, must deal
      with permanent, long-term consequences of the injury.

PMID- 28581623
TI  - Orthopaedic Trends in the 1990s An introduction.
AB  - Recent advances in orthopaedic technology have been among the most exciting
      medical developments of the past decade. More than 90 percent of the procedures
      and implants in use today did not exist a decade ago. The development of new
      prostheses and implants, the modifications of existing ones, and the development
      of new surgical techniques have allowed orthopaedic surgeons to treat and
      rehabilitate patients with diseases and deformities that were previously
      unmanageable. Furthermore, the newer and less invasive procedures have decreased
      the cost of treatment and recovery time for many patients. Prosthetic joint
      replacement is now capable of relieving arthritic pain in a predictable fashion,
      and spinal deformities of any magnitude can be treated in patients of any age
      with a high probability of success. The reattachment of amputated parts has
      become commonplace, and techniques of tissue transfer have enabled the salvage
      and reconstruction of cancerous or traumatised limbs that previously would have
      been lost to amputation.

PMID- 28581625
TI  - Advances in Spine Surgery.
AB  - Technological advances in the field of spine surgery have most often involved
      instrumentation. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on
      variable hookscrew-rod systems, the prototype of which is the Cotrel-Dubousset
      instrumentation (CDI). This French-designed system and similar ones such as the
      Texas-Scottish Rite (TSRH), or the Isola, provide significantly better fixation
      and rigidity than has ever been possible, and they allow many patients to be
      spared the discomfort and inconvenience of post-operative brace or cast support.
      These features are particularly important for older and chronically ill patients,
      whose often difficult problems can also be addressed more safely and effectively
      with this new technology.

PMID- 28581614
TI  - Intra-operative Coronary Angioscopy.
AB  - A goal of this article is to demonstrate how easily angioscopy can be
      incorporated into coronary artery bypass grafting. Intra-operative angioscopy has
      been used in a number of applications including prebypass arterial evaluation,
      inspection of the interior of the vein graft, examination of graft to coronary
      anastomoses and outflow. And adjunctive guidance during adjunctive
      revascularisation procedures. Despite promising initial trials of the use of
      intraoperative angioscopy, this technology has not been widely adopted because of
      perceived demanding technique, excessive effort required, and potential
      complications. Moreover, the possible benefits of the additional information
      gained during cardiac surgery operations have thus far only been partially
      demonstrated.

PMID- 28581627
TI  - Advances in Adult Reconstructive Orthopaedics Total joint arthroplasty.
AB  - The greying of America has produced a strong demand for improving total joint
      arthroplasty. The primary application of joint replacement technology is at the
      hip and knee, but arthroplasty of the shoulder and elbow has also made
      significant advances. Increasing numbers of people are reaching retirement age
      and require a level of function that will enable their enjoyment of leisure
      activities such as golf and bicycling. The increased popularity of sports in
      general also has produced a population of younger adults who need arthroplasty to
      restore function after a disabling trauma. In addition to patients with traumatic
      arthritis, patients with crippling arthritis - for example, those affected by
      rheumatoid arthritis - need more normal function. Thus, there is a great need for
      total joint replacements that will perform better and last longer.

PMID- 28581628
TI  - Advances in Paediatric Orthopaedics.
AB  - As a direct result of the technological advances of the past decade, complex
      skeletal deformities in children are being treated with increasingly greater
      efficiency, and the pathologic mechanisms of heritable disorders are understood
      in greater depth. This chapter will briefly describe the recent innovations that
      have stimulated new areas of research and enhanced our ability to manage
      orthopaedic problems in children.

PMID- 28581629
TI  - Advances in Microsurgery.
AB  - The beginnings of microsurgery date back to the early part of the century. In
      1906, the first description of small vessel anastomosis was presented to the
      Johns Hopkins Medical Society by Alexis Carrel, who eventually won the Nobel
      Prize for his work in 1912. The next major advance, reported by Jacobson and
      Suarez in 1960, was the anastomosis of 1mm vessels. This feat was a pivotal
      accomplishment and soon became clinically feasible with the manufacture of fine
      needles (50MU to 100MU) and sutures measuring between 15MU and 20MU, or
      approximately three times the size of a human red blood cell. Two years later,
      Malt performed a landmark operation the first replantation of an upper extremity
      above the elbow and soon after, Susumi Tamai of Japan successfully reattached a
      completely amputated thumb. The first toe-to-thumb transplant was performed in
      the early 1970s, and, within a few years, free microvascular muscle and bone
      transplantation had been described. By the early 1980s, microsurgical procedures
      had undergone a dramatic evolution, seeing the development of an expansive array
      of microvascular alternatives to address a wide variety of clinical problems.

PMID- 28581626
TI  - Advances in Orthopaedic Oncology.
AB  - Advances in MR imaging, allograft tissue use, and the design of prosthetic
      implants have dramatically improved survival rates and clinical results in
      patients with tumours. In younger patients with high-grade sarcomas, adjuvant
      chemotherapy has increased the chance of survival from 25 per cent to 75 per
      cent, and tumorous limbs now have a 90 per cent chance of being salvaged.

PMID- 28581630
TI  - Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of phenolic compounds from vegetable
      oils using a magnetic ionic liquid.
AB  - A novel method was developed for the determination of two endocrine-disrupting
      chemicals, bisphenol A and 4-nonylphenol, in vegetable oil by dispersive liquid
      liquid microextraction followed by ultra high performance liquid chromatography
      with tandem mass spectrometry. Using a magnetic liquid as the microextraction
      solvent, several key parameters were optimized, including the type and volume of
      the magnetic liquid, extraction time, amount of dispersant, and the type of
      reverse extractant. The detection limits for bisphenol A and 4-nonylphenol were
      0.1 and 0.06 MUg/kg, respectively. The recoveries were 70.4-112.3%, and the
      relative standard deviations were less than 4.2%. The method is simple for the
      extraction of bisphenol A and 4-nonylphenol from vegetable oil and suitable for
      routine analysis.

PMID- 28581633
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Zolmitriptan and Its Metabolite in Adults
      and Adolescents to Support Dose Selection in Children With Migraine.
AB  - Zolmitriptan is a serotonin (5-HT) 1B/1D receptor agonist effective for the
      treatment of migraine. This analysis aimed to develop a population
      pharmacokinetic (PK) model for zolmitriptan and its active metabolite in adults
      and adolescents and provide appropriate dosing regimens to be used in clinical
      trials for children 6-11 years old. The data from a single-dose clinical study of
      5.0-mg zolmitriptan nasal spray (ZNS) conducted in adult and adolescent patients
      with migraine between migraine attacks was applied. Similar plasma concentration
      profiles of zolmitriptan and its metabolite, 183C91, were observed in adults and
      adolescents. A 1-compartment model with first-order absorption and first-order
      elimination reasonably described the zolmitriptan PK. With a portion of
      elimination of zolmitriptan being treated as the conversion from zolmitriptan to
      183C91, the disposition of 183C91 was described by a 1-compartment model with
      first-order elimination. The estimated typical apparent volume of distribution
      and clearance of zolmitriptan were 136 L and 121 L/h, respectively, with 56.5%
      and 42.6% between-subject variability, respectively. Based on the simulation
      results with the final population PK model, a body weight-based dosing scheme of
      5.0 and 2.5 mg ZNS in children greater than and less than 50 kg is recommended to
      achieve exposures similar to those of the adult and adolescent population
      administered 5.0 mg ZNS. The recommended doses for children to achieve exposure
      similar to that observed in adults given 2.5 mg ZNS are 2.5 mg (>=50 kg) and 1.0
      mg (15-50 kg). These dosing regimens could be used in future clinical trials.

PMID- 28581632
TI  - Aqueous Synthesis of Protein-Encapsulated ZnSe Quantum Dots and Physical
      Significance of Semiconductor-Induced CuII Ion Sensing.
AB  - In view of their promising bio-applicability, we have synthesized water-soluble
      bovine serum albumin (BSA)-encapsulated ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) with visible
      emission with longer average luminescence lifetimes of approximately 125 ns at
      ambient conditions. BSA-ZnSe QDs are shown to be efficient selective copper ion
      probes in the presence of physiologically important metal ions through
      luminescence quenching with a high Stern-Volmer constant (3.3*105  m-1 ). The
      mechanism of sensing has been explained in terms of electron transfer processes
      and the apparent rate of electron transfer (Ket ) from ZnSe QDs to Cu2+ has been
      calculated to be 2.8*108  s-1 . It is demonstrated that the negative conduction
      band potential plays a major role in the feasibility of the electron transfer
      process, which is reflected in the higher efficacy of ZnSe QDs in sensing
      copper(II) ions over other group II-VI quantum dots, namely, CdSe, ZnS, or CdS.
      The results observed with cysteine-capped QDs are almost identical to those with
      BSA-encapsulated QDs and this presumably negates the possible reason of CuII ion
      induced quenching ascribed to its binding with surface groups or replacement of
      metal sites as proposed by several groups previously.

PMID- 28581634
TI  - No one size fits all-Shortening duration of therapy with direct-acting antivirals
      for hepatitis C genotype 1 infection.
AB  - The advent of shorter duration, highly effective and well-tolerated interferon
      free therapy now provides an opportunity for virtually all HCV-infected
      individuals to be cured. However, there continues to be a need to simplify and
      shorten treatment duration. Shortening therapy to 8 weeks with sofosbuvir and
      ledipasvir can be considered in treatment patients with HCV genotype 1 infection
      and low baseline viral load. A number of other 8-week dual and triple therapy
      direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens are in advanced clinical development.
      Several small studies have further demonstrated the feasibility of 6 weeks of
      sofosbuvir therapy in combination with an NS5A inhibitor and a protease inhibitor
      for HCV genotype 1. Four weeks of therapy with various combinations of the
      currently available DAAs appears to be suboptimal with poor response rates
      observed in phase 2 trials. Response-guided therapy is another promising tool
      that may allow for shorter therapy but require further research. Shortening
      therapy and retreating relapsers may be a viable cost-saving measure, but
      requires further cost-benefit analysis and more data on the impact of resistance
      on retreatment options.

PMID- 28581631
TI  - Public Participation: Moving Beyond the Four Walls of Therapy.
AB  - Family therapists have an ethical responsibility for public participation, to
      work toward creating a better society. Serving the public interest and developing
      laws to promote the profession and the public good can be achieved through policy
      advocacy and political participation. Political and policy work are important but
      overlooked aspects of family therapy, which is significant given the consequences
      differing policies have for clients and the profession. This paper reports on
      results from a random, national survey of licensed family therapists' (N = 174)
      advocacy actions. Findings indicate family therapists have overarching policy
      concerns yet lack proactive legislative and activist engagement. The exploration
      of therapists' actions and beliefs presented in this paper, serves as a
      springboard for therapists' movement into the public arena. Video abstract
      accessible by clicking here.

PMID- 28581637
TI  - Switchable-hydrophilicity solvent-based microextraction combined with gas
      chromatography for the determination of nitroaromatic compounds in water samples.
AB  - A simple, fast, sensitive, and low-cost method was developed for the
      quantification of nitroaromatic compounds in water samples based on CO2 -assisted
      liquid-phase microextraction using a switchable-hydrophilicity solvent followed
      by gas chromatography detection. Dipropylamine was used as extraction solvent
      with switchable hydrophilicity that can be miscible or immiscible upon the
      addition or removal of CO2 as a reagent. Experimental parameters affecting the
      extraction efficiency such as the volume of acceptor phase, the volume of donor
      phase, pH of donor phase, ionic strength, and extraction time were investigated.
      Under the optimal conditions, detection limits and preconcentration factors were
      obtained in the ranges of 0.9-1.8 MUg/L and 132-138, respectively. Also, the
      extraction recoveries of water samples were above 88%. Finally, the developed
      method was successfully applied to the determination of nitroaromatic compounds
      in real water samples.

PMID- 28581642
TI  - Improving visual observation skills through the arts to aid radiographic
      interpretation in veterinary practice: A pilot study.
AB  - Radiographic interpretation is a perceptual and cognitive skill. Recently core
      veterinary radiology textbooks have focused on the cognitive (i.e., the clinical
      aspects of radiographic interpretation) rather than the features of visual
      observation that improve identification of abnormalities. As a result, the skill
      of visual observation is underemphasized and thus often underdeveloped by
      trainees. The study of the arts in medical education has been used to train and
      improve visual observation and empathy. The use of the arts to improve visual
      observation skills in Veterinary Science has not been previously described.
      Objectives of this pilot study were to adapt the existing Visual Arts in Health
      Education Program for medical and dental students at the University of Melbourne,
      Australia to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students and evaluate their
      perceptions regarding the program's effects on visual observation skills and
      confidence with respect to radiographic interpretation. This adaptation took the
      form of a single seminar given to third year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
      students. Following the seminar, students reported an improved approach to
      radiographic interpretation and felt they had gained skills which would assist
      them throughout their career. In the year following the seminar, written reports
      of the students who attended the seminar were compared with reports from a
      matched cohort of students who did not attend the seminar. This demonstrated
      increased identification of abnormalities and greater description of the
      abnormalities identified. Findings indicated that explicit training in visual
      observation may be a valuable adjunct to the radiology training of Doctor of
      Veterinary Medicine students.

PMID- 28581635
TI  - Targeted unlabeled multiple reaction monitoring analysis of cell markers for the
      study of sample heterogeneity in isolated rat brain cortical microvessels.
AB  - Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry-based targeted absolute
      protein quantification (in fmol of the analyte protein per MUg of total protein)
      is employed for the molecular characterization of the blood-brain barrier using
      isolated brain microvessels. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of the sample
      regarding the levels of different cells co-isolated within the microvessels and
      bovine serum albumin (BSA) contamination (from buffers) are not always evaluated.
      We developed an unlabeled targeted liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass
      spectrometry method to survey the levels of endothelial cells (ECs), astrocytes,
      and pericytes, as well as BSA contaminant in rat cortical microvessels. Peptide
      peak identities were evaluated using a spectral library and chromatographic
      parameters. Sprague-Dawley rat microvessels obtained on three different days were
      analyzed with this method complemented by an absolute quantification multiple
      reaction monitoring method for transporter proteins P-gp, Bcrp, and Na+ /K+
      ATPase pump using stable isotope labeled peptides as internal standard. Inter-day
      differences in the cell markers and BSA contamination were observed. Levels of
      cell markers correlated positively between each other. Then, the correlation
      between cell marker proteins and transporter proteins was evaluated to choose the
      best EC marker protein for protein quantification normalization. The membrane
      protein Pecam-1 showed a very high correlation with the EC-specific transporter P
      gp (Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) > 0.89) and moderate to
      high with Bcrp (r >= 0.77), that can be found also in pericytes and astrocytes.
      Therefore, Pecam-1 was selected as a marker for the normalization of the
      quantification of the proteins of endothelial cells.

PMID- 28581646
TI  - Triangulation and Parent-Adolescent Relationships: Implications for Adolescent
      Dating Competence and Abuse.
AB  - This study focuses on family predictors of conflict behavior in adolescent dating
      relationships, drawing on family systems and socialization perspectives. Mother
      adolescent, father-adolescent, and triadic relationships each was examined as
      predictors of adolescent dating outcomes that hold importance for developmental
      and prevention science (positive conflict resolution, verbal abuse, and physical
      abuse). We conducted a longitudinal analysis using a 6-month longitudinal design
      with 236 ethnically diverse high school students. Findings indicate that
      triangulation into parental conflicts was related to increases in positive
      conflict resolution and with increases in verbally abusive behavior with dating
      partners over time. Parent-adolescent closeness and conflict each was related to
      positive conflict resolution and verbal abuse, but these associations were only
      found for boys.

PMID- 28581645
TI  - Effects of a Nutritional Protein-Rich Drink on the Pharmacokinetics of
      Elvitegravir, Cobicistat, Emtricitabine, Tenofovir Alafenamide, and Tenofovir
      Compared With a Standard Meal in Healthy Japanese Male Subjects.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of ingested meal types on the
      pharmacokinetics of elvitegravir (EVG), cobicistat (COBI), emtricitabine (FTC),
      tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), and tenofovir (TFV) following a single
      administration of the single-tablet regimen (STR) of EVG/COBI/FTC/TAF
      (150/150/200/10 mg) in Japanese HIV-negative healthy subjects (n = 12). In this
      open-label, randomized, 3-way crossover study, the bioequivalence of the
      EVG/COBI/FTC/TAF STR following ingestion of a nutritional protein-rich drink with
      a reference treatment of taking a standard breakfast was evaluated.
      Administration under fasted conditions, no food intake, resulted in decreases in
      the mean AUCinf and Cmax of EVG by 50% and 57%, respectively, relative to the
      administration with a standard breakfast, whereas the systemic exposure of EVG
      with a nutritional protein-rich drink was comparable to that with a standard
      breakfast. The mean AUCinf and Cmax of COBI, FTC, TAF, and TFV were comparable
      regardless of meal intake or meal types. Although the package insert of the
      EVG/COBI/FTC/TAF STR states that the medication is recommended to be taken with
      food, this study provides an additional insight into HIV-1-infected patients that
      a light meal like a nutritional protein-rich drink can be an alternative to a
      standard meal.

PMID- 28581638
TI  - Racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of Hepatitis B virus
      infection and immunity in the United States.
AB  - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the United States is the most common among
      Asians followed by non-Hispanic blacks. However, there have been few studies that
      describe HBV infection and immunity by racial group. Our study aimed to assess
      racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of HBV infection and
      immunity using nationally representative data. In the National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014, 14 722 persons had HBV serology testing.
      We estimated the prevalence of HBV infection, past exposure, and immunity by
      selected characteristics and calculated adjusted odds ratios using survey
      weighted generalized logistic regression. Awareness of infection and vaccination
      history was also investigated. The overall prevalence of chronic HBV infection,
      past exposure and vaccine-induced immunity was 0.34% [95%CI 0.24-0.43], 4.30%
      [95%CI 3.80-4.81], and 24.4% [95%CI 23.4-25.4], respectively. The prevalence of
      chronic infection was 2.74% [95% CI 1.72-3.76] in Asians, 0.64% [95% CI 0.35
      0.92] in non-Hispanic blacks, and 0.15% [95% CI 0.06-0.24] in non-Asian, non
      blacks. Only 26.2% of those with chronic infection were aware of their infection.
      The prevalence of the past exposure was 21.5% [95%CI 19.3-23.7] in Asians, 8.92%
      [95%CI 7.84-9.99] in non-Hispanic blacks, 2.05% [95%CI 1.49-2.63] in non-Hispanic
      whites and 4.47% [95%CI 3.25-5.70] in Hispanics. Prevalence of vaccine-induced
      immunity by each race was 34.1% [95%CI: 32.0-36.2] in Asians, 25.5% [95%CI: 24.0
      27.0] in non-Hispanic blacks, 24.0% [95%CI: 22.6-25.4] in non-Hispanic whites and
      22.2% [95%CI: 21.3-23.3] in Hispanics. There are considerable racial/ethnic
      disparities in HBV infection, exposure and immunity. More active and
      sophisticated healthcare policies on HBV management may be warranted.

PMID- 28581644
TI  - Hepatitis B surface antigen loss and sustained viral suppression in Asian chronic
      hepatitis B patients: A community-based real-world study.
AB  - Community-based real-world outcomes on effectiveness of antiviral therapies for
      chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) in Asians are limited. Whether hepatitis B
      surface antigen (HBsAg) loss correlates with undetectable virus and alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT) normalization on treatment or what predicts risk of
      seroreversion or detectable virus after stopping therapy is unclear. We aim to
      evaluate rates and predictors of HBsAg loss, seroconversion, ALT normalization
      and undetectable HBV DNA, including HBsAg seroreversion or re-emergence of HBV
      DNA among Asian CHB patients. We retrospectively evaluated 1072 CHB adults on
      antiviral therapy at two community gastroenterology clinics from 1997 to 2015.
      Rates of HBsAg loss, ALT normalization, achieving undetectable HBV DNA and
      developing surface antibody (anti-HBs) were stratified by HBeAg status. Following
      HBsAg loss, HBsAg seroreversion or re-emergence of detectable HBV DNA was
      analysed. With median treatment of 76.7 months, the overall rate of HBsAg loss
      was 4.58%, with similar HBsAg loss rates between HBeAg-positive and HBeAg
      negative patients (4.44% vs 4.71%, P=.85) in a predominantly Asian population
      (98.1%). Among HBsAg loss patients, 33.3% developed anti-HBs, 95.8% achieved
      undetectable virus and 66.0% normalized ALT. No significant baseline or on
      treatment predictors of HBsAg loss were observed. While six patients who achieved
      HBsAg loss had seroreversion with re-emergence of HBsAg positivity, viral load
      remained undetectable, demonstrating the sustainability of viral suppression.
      Among a large community-based real-world cohort of Asian CHB patients treated
      with antiviral therapy, rate of HBsAg loss was 4.58%. Despite only 33.3% of HBsAg
      loss patients achieving anti-HBs, nearly all patients achieved sustained
      undetectable virus.

PMID- 28581647
TI  - The Socioeconomic Pathways Leading to Romantic Relationship Outcomes: A
      Genetically Informed Early Life Course Investigation.
AB  - The present study tests a multilevel comprehensive model incorporating both life
      course processes and genetic influences leading to young adults' romantic
      relationship quality using data from 1,560 adolescents over 13 years in the
      nationally representative Add Health sample. Results provided evidence of a
      socioeconomic mediating pathway linking early family and community contexts to
      young adults' romantic relationship quality, and novel evidence for both direct
      and interactive genetic associations that relate to these mediating pathways. A
      cumulative genetic index showed (a) direct associations with young adults'
      socioeconomic attainment and (b) interactions with community adversity and
      mothers' marital stability on young adults' achieved socioeconomic context and
      relationship quality.

PMID- 28581639
TI  - Traceless Cleavage of Protein-Biotin Conjugates under Biologically Compatible
      Conditions.
AB  - Biotinylation of amines is widely used to conjugate biomolecules, but either the
      resulting label is non-removable or its removal leaves a tag on the molecule of
      interest, thus affecting downstream processes. We present here a set of reagents
      (RevAmines) that allow traceless, reversible biotinylation under biologically
      compatible, mild conditions. Release following avidin-based capture is achieved
      through the cleavage of a (2-(alkylsulfonyl)ethyl) carbamate linker under mild
      conditions (200 mm ammonium bicarbonate, pH 8, 16-24 h, room temperature) that
      regenerates the unmodified amine. The capture and release of biotinylated
      proteins and peptides from neutravidin, fluorescent labelling through reversible
      biotinylation at the cell surface and the selective enrichment of proteins from
      bacterial periplasm are demonstrated. The tags are easily prepared, stable and
      offer the potential for future application in proteomics, activity-based protein
      profiling, affinity chromatography and bio-molecule tagging and purification.

PMID- 28581649
TI  - Beyond Collective Supervision: Informal Social Control, Prosocial Investment, and
      Juvenile Offending in Urban Neighborhoods.
AB  - This article examines prosocial investment and supervision of youth as separate
      indicators of informal social control. Data from 599 survey respondents in 90
      Indianapolis, IN, block groups indicate that, at the neighborhood level, the
      relationship between these two variables and delinquency during early and middle
      adolescence varies by severity of offense. Specifically, negative binomial models
      reveal an inverse relationship between supervision and both status offenses and
      misdemeanors, but the relationship with misdemeanors is stronger in areas with
      higher levels of prosocial investment. In contrast, prosocial investment has an
      inverse association with felony charges. Overall, these results call for future
      quantitative scholarship that contextualizes neighborhood-level supervision and
      that is attentive to neighborhood support and empowerment assets in models of
      urban adolescent delinquency.

PMID- 28581641
TI  - Clk1-regulated aerobic glycolysis is involved in glioma chemoresistance.
AB  - Chemoresistance remains a major challenge for the treatment of glioma. In this
      study, we investigated the role of Clock 1 (Clk1), which encodes an enzyme that
      is necessary for ubiquinone biosynthesis in glioma chemoresistance in vitro. The
      results showed that Clk1 was highly expressed in GL261 mouse glioma cells which
      were most sensitive to 1,3Bis (2-chloroethyl) 1 nitrosourea (BCNU) while was low
      expressed in BCNU resistant cells such as glioma cancer stem cells, T98G, U87MG
      and U251 glioma cells. Knockdown of Clk1 in GL261 glioma cells significantly
      reduced BCNU- or cisplatin-induced cell apoptosis, whereas the proliferative
      activity and the expression of multidrug resistance-related genes including MDR1,
      O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase, and GSTP1 were not changed. When Clk1 was
      re-expressed in Clk1 knockdown GL261 glioma cells, the BCNU sensitivity was
      restored. The mechanistic study revealed that knockdown of Clk1 in GL261 glioma
      cells increased aerobic glycolysis including high glucose consumption, lactate
      production, and up-regulation of glycolysis-associated genes. Inhibition of
      glycolysis can reverse the chemoresistance elicited by Clk1 knockdown in GL261
      cells. Moreover, knockdown of Clk1 induced HIF-1alpha expression in GL261 glioma
      cells which was found to be mediated by AMP-activated protein kinase
      (AMPK)/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Both metformin
      and rapamycin reversed the chemoresistance of Clk1 knockdown GL261 glioma cells.
      Over-expression of Clk1 significantly increased the sensitivity of T98G or U251
      human glioblastoma cells to BCNU which was accompanied by decreased lactate
      secretion, decreased expression of HIF-1alpha, AMPK activation, and inhibition of
      mTOR pathway. Inhibition of glycolysis or activation of AMPK did not alter Clk1
      expression in variant glioma cell lines suggesting that aerobic glycolysis is not
      an upstream event of Clk1 expression in glioma cells. Taken together, our results
      revealed, for the first time, that mitochondrial Clk1 regulated chemoresistance
      in glioma cells through AMPK/mTOR/HIF-1alpha mediated glycolysis pathway.

PMID- 28581648
TI  - Suicide Ideation and Attempts Among Adolescents Engaged in Risk Behaviors: A
      Latent Class Analysis.
AB  - This study addressed gaps in the literature regarding how different profiles of
      adolescent risk behavior relate to suicide. Data came from the 2010 Minnesota
      Student Survey of 9th and 12th grade students. Latent class analysis derived a
      set of four classes reflecting unique patterns of eight behaviors: maladaptive
      dieting, prescription drug misuse, illegal drug use, marijuana use, problem
      drinking, risky sexual behavior, perpetration of interpersonal violence, and self
      injury. A class demonstrating high engagement in all risk behaviors, and a class
      highest on self-injury and maladaptive dieting but low on several other risk
      behaviors, showed high risk for suicide. Practitioners should carefully monitor
      adolescents engaging in multiple risk behaviors for suicide, especially if self
      injury and maladaptive dieting are present.

PMID- 28581651
TI  - Configurations of Adolescents' Peer Experiences: Associations With Parent-Child
      Relationship Quality and Parental Problem Behavior.
AB  - Adolescents' peer experiences embrace behavior, relationship quality, status, and
      victimization, but studies that account for multiple dimensions are rare. Using
      latent profile modeling and measures of peer behavior, relationship quality, peer
      status, and victimization assessed from 1,677 adolescents, four profiles were
      identified: High Quality, Low Quality, Low Quality Victimized, and Deviant Peers.
      Multinomial logistic regressions showed that negative parent-child relationships
      in preadolescence reduced the likelihood of High Quality peer relations in mid
      adolescence but only partly differentiated between the other three profiles.
      Moderation by gender was partly found with girls showing greater sensitivity to
      parent-child relationship quality with respect to peer experiences. Results
      underline the multifaceted nature of peer experiences, and practical and
      theoretical implications are discussed.

PMID- 28581653
TI  - Early Childhood Maltreatment and Pubertal Development: Replication in a
      Population-Based Sample.
AB  - Early experiences are critically important for female reproductive development.
      Although a number of early childhood hardships predict earlier physical
      development in girls, research on specific populations suggests a distinct effect
      of childhood sexual abuse compared to other adversities. This study leverages the
      National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 6,273 girls) to test the
      generalizability of these findings, examining associations of early physical
      abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect with pubertal timing. Child sexual
      abuse predicted earlier menarche and development of secondary sexual
      characteristics, whereas other types of maltreatment did not. In addition to
      replicating results from smaller, more specialized samples, these findings
      reinforce the value of considering puberty within a broader "life span" continuum
      of birth to adolescence.

PMID- 28581643
TI  - Regioselective synthesis, biological evaluation, and molecular docking of
      dihydropyrimidin-4-ols as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
AB  - A new series of 3,6-disubstituted 2-(methylthio)-4-(trifluoromethyl)-3,4
      dihydropyrimidin-4-ols displaying methyl, phenyl, aryl, and heteroaryl groups at
      the 6-position; and methyl, ethyl, allyl, and phenyl groups at the 3-position of
      the dihydropyrimidine ring, were synthesized and evaluated in vitro for
      acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity. Seven compounds showed activity with
      IC50 values in the lower micromolar range. The compound 4-trifluoromethyl-6-(4
      fluorophenyl)-3-methyl-2-methylthio-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-4-ol (6e) had the best
      inhibitory activity (IC50 2.2 +/- 0.9 MUm) and this inhibition was characterized
      as competitive. The molecular docking study showed that the acetylcholinesterase
      enzyme accommodates compound 6e in its catalytic site. The enantiomers of
      compound 6e, present similar interactions: pi-pi stacking interactions between
      the aromatic ring of the ligand's 4-fluorophenyl moiety and the aromatic rings of
      the electron-rich Trp84; and H-bonds between the hydroxyl group of Tyr121 and the
      hydroxyl moiety from 6e. The antioxidant effect of the dihydropyrimidin-4-ols was
      also investigated.

PMID- 28581636
TI  - Influence of endophytic root bacteria on the growth, cadmium tolerance and uptake
      of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.).
AB  - AIMS: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of five cadmium-tolerant endophytic
      plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) strains on the biomass and cadmium
      tolerance, and accumulation of the bioenergy plant switchgrass (Panicum virgatum
      L.) under cadmium (Cd)-contaminated conditions. METHODS AND RESULTS: Five
      bacterial strains (Bj05, Le14, Ps14, So02 and Bo03) that could tolerate up to
      2000 MUmol l-1 CdCl2 with a high Cd-binding capacity were isolated from plants
      grown in Cd-contaminated soil. These strains could promote the growth of
      switchgrass in the presence of 20 MUmol l-1 CdCl2 . Under Cd stress, both the
      root and shoot length and biomass in two switchgrass cultivars, Alamo and Cave-in
      Rock (CIR), increased significantly after treatment with PGPB (P ? 0.05). Of the
      five PGPB strains, Bj05 and Le14 most effectively alleviated the Cd-induced
      growth inhibition of Alamo plants. Interestingly, the five PGPB strains increased
      Cd tolerance and decreased the accumulation and translocation factor (TF) of Cd
      in switchgrass when grown in the presence of 20 MUmol l-1 CdCl2 . The Cd
      concentrations in roots and shoots of Alamo and CIR plants were significantly
      reduced (P ? 0.05) compared with noninoculated plants. By 16S rRNA sequencing,
      these PGPB strains were classified as Pseudomonas putida Bj05, Pseudomonas
      fluorescens Ps14, and Enterobacter spp. Le14, So02 and Bo03. CONCLUSION:
      Inoculation with PGPB protects plants from the inhibitory effects of Cd, improves
      plant growth and decreases Cd concentration. These observations suggest that
      these strains could be used to promote growth and lower the bioavailability of Cd
      in switchgrass. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: These strains are potential
      candidates for the development of low Cd-accumulating switchgrass, particularly
      in areas of Cd contamination and pollution, and could be used efficiently for the
      bioremediation of contaminated soil.

PMID- 28581652
TI  - Adolescent Personality as Risk and Resiliency in the Testosterone-Externalizing
      Association.
AB  - Previous investigations of testosterone and externalizing behavior have provided
      mixed findings. We tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory personality
      moderates the testosterone-externalizing behavior association in adolescence.
      Parents reported on their 13- to 18-year-old (N = 106, Mage = 16.01, SD = 1.29)
      children's personalities and psychopathology. Testosterone was measured via drool
      samples. As hypothesized, personality moderated the testosterone-externalizing
      behavior association. High testosterone predicted higher levels of externalizing
      behaviors, but only for adolescents low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.
      Also, personality acted as a resiliency factor: high levels of Conscientiousness,
      in the presence of high testosterone, predicted lower levels of rule breaking.
      Results highlight how endogenous factors, such as personality, may interact with
      testosterone, and emphasize the relevance of including personality moderators in
      future research.

PMID- 28581654
TI  - Daily Dynamics of Adolescent Mood and Identity.
AB  - Important linkages between daily mood and identity formation have been theorized,
      but have not been empirically tested as of yet. This study provided a first
      examination of these linkages within individuals (N = 392; 55.1% boys; Mage at T1
      = 13.24, SD = 0.44) across 15 series of 5 days distributed over 5 years. Results
      revealed negative within-time associations of educational and relational
      commitment with negative mood. Negative mood was positively associated with
      educational in-depth exploration and educational and interpersonal
      reconsideration. Additionally, there were some cross-lagged effects suggesting
      that identity and mood mutually affect one another across days. These results
      contribute to the growing knowledge on how identity unfolds in everyday life by
      revealing important associations with daily mood.

PMID- 28581658
TI  - Maternal Regulation of Daughters' Emotion During Conflicts From Early to Mid
      Adolescence.
AB  - Primary caregivers play an important role in emotion socialization. Real-time
      mother-daughter emotion socialization was examined in 45 mother-daughter dyads
      with early-adolescent daughters (age M = 11.80, SD = .27) at the first
      observation point. Maternal supportive emotion regulation and daughters' emotions
      were coded during two conflict discussions, 2 years apart. With multilevel
      survival analysis, the likelihood of maternal supportiveness was predicted both
      over time, between early and mid-adolescence, and by daughters' pubertal status.
      Mothers were more likely to respond to daughters' negative and positive emotions
      with supportiveness for daughters whose pubertal maturation occurred relatively
      early. Results suggest that mothers adjust their socialization of daughters'
      emotions according to their daughters' pubertal development.

PMID- 28581659
TI  - "Snooping" as a Distinct Parental Monitoring Strategy: Comparisons With Overt
      Solicitation and Control.
AB  - Parents can use solicitation (asking questions) and control (disclosure rules) to
      obtain information about adolescents, but only if youths comply. Snooping might
      uncover additional information, but also strongly violates privacy expectations.
      Three studies of parents and adolescents examined distinctions between snooping,
      solicitation, and control. Differences existed in terms of factor structure and
      frequency (Studies 1-2), links to perceived invasion (Study 1), correlations with
      problematic communication, behavior, and relationships (Study 2), and parent
      adolescent (dis)agreement about acceptability (Study 3). Snooping is a relatively
      infrequent monitoring behavior, compared to solicitation and control, but appears
      to be a stronger indicator of problems in adolescent and family functioning. We
      discuss implications regarding the necessity and appropriateness of particular
      parental monitoring behaviors.

PMID- 28581657
TI  - When Parents and Adolescents Disagree About Disagreeing: Observed Parent
      Adolescent Communication Predicts Informant Discrepancies About Conflict.
AB  - Adolescence is accompanied by increased stress in the parent-adolescent
      relationship, which frequently results in conflict. Researchers often rely on
      self-reports to measure conflict, but these reports are frequently discrepant
      from one another. In two studies, we examined the extent to which communication
      observed during parent-adolescent discussions of conflict were associated with
      discrepancies in reports about conflict. We also examined links between informant
      depressive symptoms and discrepancies. Across studies, observed parent-adolescent
      conflict behaviors consistently predicted absolute discrepancies in reports of
      conflict. Informant depressive symptoms sometimes predicted directional
      discrepancies in reports. Results suggest that informant discrepancies about
      conflict may stem, in part, from a lack of open communication in the
      relationship.

PMID- 28581656
TI  - Sexual Behaviors in Mexico: The Role of Values and Gender Across Adolescence.
AB  - Adolescent sexuality research has expanded to include noncoital behaviors, but
      there is limited knowledge about individual factors such as cultural values
      associated with these sexual behaviors outside of industrialized nations. Thus,
      we examined associations between Latino values (familism, sexual guilt, and
      importance of female virginity) and three sexual behaviors (making out, oral sex,
      and vaginal sex), among adolescents ages 12-19 (53% female) in Mexico. Findings
      indicate that sexual guilt and importance of female virginity were consistently
      associated with all sexual behaviors. Some associations differed by gender and
      school level. For instance, sexual guilt was a better predictor of high school
      girls' oral and vaginal sex. This study expands our understanding of adolescent
      sexuality in Mexico.

PMID- 28581655
TI  - Retracted: Multilevel Predictors of Math Classroom Climate: A Comparison Study of
      Student and Teacher Perceptions.
AB  - The above article, published online on June 23, 2014 in Wiley Online Library
      (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors,
      the journal Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Guerra, and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The
      retraction has been agreed upon following the discovery that this article
      contained inaccurate data. It came to the author's attention that the names of
      some of the items reported in the Measures section of the paper could not be
      correct because such items did not exist in the surveys. The authors tried to
      identify exactly which items had been used in the data analyses but they could
      not establish without some doubt exactly which items had actually been used.
      Reference Wang, M.-T. and Eccles, J. S. (2014), Multilevel Predictors of Math
      Classroom Climate: A Comparison Study of Student and Teacher Perceptions. Journal
      of Research on Adolescence. doi: 10.1111/jora.12153.

PMID- 28581661
TI  - Sources and Implications of Maternal Accuracy About Young Adolescents'
      Vulnerability to Friendship Jealousy.
AB  - To assist effectively with social difficulties, parents must accurately
      understand the peer situations that are difficult for their child. Mothers'
      insight into their young adolescent's vulnerability to friendship jealousy was
      assessed by posing identical vignettes to 72 young adolescents and their mothers
      and matching their responses. Mothers and children also completed questionnaires
      on their relationship and the child's adjustment. Mothers as a group were poor
      judges of their child's jealousy, but considerable variability existed. Accuracy
      was greater when mother-child pairs were closer. Polynomial regression and
      response surface analyses indicated that maternal accuracy could dampen the
      friendship and aggression risks otherwise associated with being vulnerable to
      jealousy.

PMID- 28581660
TI  - Measurement of Dating Aggression During Middle School: Structure, Measurement
      Invariance, and Distinction From General Aggression.
AB  - Two studies examined the factor structure of a modified version of the Safe Dates
      dating aggression scale and evaluated whether dating aggression is distinct from
      general aggression during early adolescence. Analyses were conducted on a
      derivation sample of 3,894 adolescents from 37 schools (Study 1) and an
      independent cross-validation sample of 938 middle school youth (Study 2).
      Categorical confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor model
      (perpetration and victimization) over models differentiating psychological and
      physical forms of aggression. The model was invariant across time, sex, grade,
      and season. Study 2 also supported dating aggression as distinct from general
      aggression. Results supported measuring dating aggression perpetration and
      victimization as latent constructs represented by ordered categorical indicators
      that capture item severity and frequency.

PMID- 28581670
TI  - Interactive effects of predator and prey harvest on ecological resilience of
      rocky reefs.
AB  - A major goal of ecosystem-based fisheries management is to prevent fishery
      induced shifts in community states. This requires an understanding of ecological
      resilience: the ability of an ecosystem to return to the same state following a
      perturbation, which can strongly depend on species interactions across trophic
      levels. We use a structured model of a temperate rocky reef to explore how multi
      trophic level fisheries impact ecological resilience. Increasing fishing
      mortality of prey (urchins) has a minor effect on equilibrium biomass of kelp,
      urchins, and spiny lobster predators, but increases resilience by reducing the
      range of predator harvest rates at which alternative stable states are possible.
      Size-structured predation on urchins acts as the feedback maintaining each state.
      Our results demonstrate that the resilience of ecosystems strongly depends on the
      interactive effects of predator and prey harvest in multi-trophic level
      fisheries, which are common in marine ecosystems but are unaccounted for by
      traditional management.

PMID- 28581672
TI  - Preliminary investigations into developing all-D Omiganan for treating Mupirocin
      resistant MRSA skin infections.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is the primary pathogen responsible for the majority of
      human skin infections, and meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) currently
      presents a major clinical concern. The overuse of Mupirocin, the first-line
      topical antibacterial drug over 30 years, has led to the emergence of Mupirocin
      resistant MRSA, creating a clinical concern. The antimicrobial peptide Omiganan
      was touted to be a promising antibacterial drug candidate due to its rapid
      membrane-disrupting bactericidal mode of action, entering clinical trials in 2005
      as a topical gel to prevent catheter site infections. However, drug development
      ceased in 2009 due to a lack of efficacy. We postulate this to be due to
      proteolytic degradation caused by endogenous human skin proteases. Herein, we
      tested our hypothesis using Omiganan and its all-D enantiomer in a human skin
      protease stability assay, followed by anti-MRSA activity assay against of a panel
      of clinical MRSA isolates, a bactericidal/static determination and a time-kill
      assay to gauge all-D Omiganan's potential for further topical antibacterial drug
      development.

PMID- 28581671
TI  - Digital image analysis supports a nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio cutoff value of
      0.5 for atypical urothelial cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An elevated nuclear-to-cytoplasmic (N:C) ratio of >=0.5 is a required
      criterion for the diagnosis of atypical urothelial cells (AUC) in The Paris
      System for Reporting Urinary Cytology. METHODS: To validate the N:C ratio cutoff
      value and its predictive power for high-grade urothelial carcinoma (HGUC), the
      authors retrospectively reviewed the urinary tract cytology specimens of 15 cases
      of AUC with HGUC on follow-up (AUC-HGUC) and 33 cases of AUC without HGUC on
      follow-up (AUC-N-HGUC). The number of atypical cells in each case was recorded,
      and each atypical cell was photographed and digitally examined to calculate the
      nuclear size and N:C ratio. RESULTS: On average, the maximum N:C ratios of
      atypical cells were significantly different between the AUC-HGUC and AUC-N-HGUC
      cohorts (0.53 vs 0.43; P =.00009), whereas the maximum nuclear sizes of atypical
      cells (153.43 MUM2 vs 201.47 MUM2 ; P = .69) and the number of atypical cells per
      case (10.13 vs 7.88; P = .12) were not found to be significantly different.
      Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that the maximum N:C
      ratio alone had high discriminatory capacity (area under the curve, 79.19%; 95%
      confidence interval, 64.19%-94.19%). The optimal maximum N:C ratio threshold was
      0.486, giving a sensitivity of 73.3% and a specificity of 84.8% for predicting
      HGUC on follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of AUC with an N:C ratio
      >0.486 has a high predictive power for HGUC on follow-up in AUC specimens. This
      justifies using the N:C ratio as a required criterion for the AUC category.
      Individual laboratories using different cytopreparation methods may require
      independent validation of the N:C ratio cutoff value. Cancer Cytopathol
      2017;125:710-6. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28581673
TI  - The role of thyroid FNA cytology in pediatric malignant lesions: An overview of
      the literature.
AB  - When one is dealing with pediatric thyroid lesions, fine-needle aspiration is the
      first diagnostic tool for the correct characterization of these nodules. Despite
      the apparent infrequency of thyroid cancers in children, recent data from the
      National Cancer Institute prove that the incidence has been increasing,
      especially in adolescents. With the same data, a higher prevalence of well
      differentiated cancers can be estimated, with 90% diagnosed as papillary thyroid
      cancer. Nonetheless, some publications have demonstrated that some specific
      malignant variants are more frequent in children and have a more aggressive
      behavior that justifies the increased number of surgical procedures. For this
      reason, the American Thyroid Association recommends the performance of neck
      ultrasonography and fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for the evaluation of
      pediatric thyroid nodules. Accordingly, as reported in adult thyroid series,
      several authors have documented the high sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy of
      FNAC in pediatric series; they have also shared the same problematic issues
      encountered in adult populations, mostly in the diagnosis of indeterminate
      lesions. To provide precise clinical and/or surgical management, the correct
      cytological identification of specific malignant histotypes/entities should be
      mandatory because lymph nodes, distant metastases, and extrathyroidal
      infiltration are more frequent within specific histotypes. A perusal of the
      literature shows that their identification has not been extensively studied and
      investigated in cytological samples. This review focuses on the analysis of data
      from the literature on the evaluation of malignancies and specific morphological
      features in pediatric thyroid lesions. Cancer Cytopathol 2017;125:594-603. (c)
      2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28581674
TI  - Radial oxygen loss by the cushion plant Eriocaulon schimperi prevents methane
      emissions from an East-African mountain mire.
AB  - Groundwater-fed fens are known sources of methane (CH4 ) emissions to the
      atmosphere, and these are known to be mediated by the vegetation. In a fen
      located in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, we assessed the effects of a cushion
      plant (Eriocaulon schimperi) and a sedge (Carex monostachya) on rhizosphere
      biogeochemistry. Methane and CO2 concentrations and pH were measured in pore
      water at different depths in the profile. Redox potentials and NaCl-extractable
      element concentrations were analysed in soil samples from sites dominated by
      either E. schimperii or C. monostachya. Nutrient and element concentration were
      analysed in plant tissues. At Carex-dominated sites, CH4 concentrations increased
      from 70 MUmol.l-1 at a depth of 10 cm to 130 MUmol.l-1 at a depth of 100 cm. CH4
      concentrations at Eriocaulon-dominated sites were almost zero (<1 MUmol.l-1 ) to
      a depth of 100 cm. Simultaneously, soil redox potentials and CO2 concentrations
      were higher at Eriocaulon-dominated sites, indicating a low potential for CH4
      production and a high potential for CH4 oxidation. Eriocaulon schimperi displayed
      a root investment strategy to cope with the harsh environment, similar to the
      cushion plant Astelia pumila in Patagonian bogs. This strategy is characterised
      by high root/shoot ratios, high root porosity and density under high redox
      conditions. Both cushion plant species create an aerobic rhizosphere through
      radial oxygen loss from deep roots, which strongly reduce CH4 fluxes to the
      atmosphere.

PMID- 28581675
TI  - Concurrent chemotherapy is associated with improved survival in elderly patients
      with bladder cancer undergoing radiotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current study was conducted to compare the overall survival (OS)
      of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) versus radiotherapy (RT) alone in elderly
      patients (those aged >=80 years) with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).
      METHODS: Patients aged >=80 years with cT2-4, N0-3, M0 transitional cell MIBC who
      were treated with curative RT (60-70 Gray) or CCRT were identified in the
      National Cancer Data Base. Univariable and multivariable frailty survival
      analyses, as well as 1-to-1 propensity score matching, were used to isolate the
      association between CCRT and OS. RESULTS: A total of 1369 patients who were
      treated with RT from 2004 through 2013 met eligibility criteria: 739 patients
      (54%) received RT alone and 630 patients (46%) received CCRT. The median age of
      the patients was 84 years (range, 80-90 years). The median follow-up was 21
      months. The 2-year OS rate was 48%. When comparing CCRT with RT alone, the 2-year
      OS rate was 56% versus 42% (P<.0001), respectively. Multivariable analysis
      demonstrated that CCRT (hazard ratio [HR], 0.74; 95% confidence interval [95%
      CI], 0.65-0.84 [P<.0001]) and a higher RT dose (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.90
      [P<.001]) were associated with improved OS. T4 disease was associated with worse
      OS (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.15-1.76 [P = .001]). After using 1-to-1 propensity score
      matching, there remained an OS benefit for the use of CCRT (HR, 0.77; 95% CI,
      0.67-0.90 [P<.001]). CONCLUSIONS: CCRT is associated with improved OS compared
      with the use of RT alone in elderly patients with MIBC, independent of Charlson
      Deyo comorbidity score, suggesting that CCRT should be used in this population.
      Cancer 2017;123:3524-31. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28581677
TI  - Interplay of volume, blood pressure, organ ischemia, residual renal function, and
      diet: certainties and uncertainties with dialytic management.
AB  - Extracellular fluid volume overload and its inevitable consequence, hypertension,
      increases cardiovascular mortality in the long term by leading to left
      ventricular hypertrophy, heart failure, and ischemic heart disease in dialysis
      patients. Unlike antihypertensive medications, a strict volume control strategy
      provides optimal blood pressure control without need for antihypertensive drugs.
      However, utilization of this strategy has remained limited because of several
      factors, including the absence of a gold standard method to assess volume status,
      difficulties in reducing extracellular fluid volume, and safety concerns
      associated with reduction of extracellular volume. These include intradialytic
      hypotension; ischemia of heart, brain, and gut; loss of residual renal function;
      and vascular access thrombosis. Comprehensibly, physicians are hesitant to follow
      strict volume control policy because of these safety concerns. Current data,
      however, suggest that a high ultrafiltration rate rather than the reduction in
      excess volume is related to these complications. Restriction of dietary salt
      intake, increased frequency, and/or duration of hemodialysis sessions or addition
      of temporary extra sessions during the process of gradually reducing postdialysis
      body weight in conventional hemodialysis and discontinuation of antihypertensive
      medications may prevent these complications. We believe that even if an unwanted
      effect occurs while gradually reaching euvolemia, this is likely to be
      counterbalanced by favorable cardiovascular outcomes such as regression of left
      ventricular hypertrophy, prevention of heart failure, and, ultimately,
      cardiovascular mortality as a result of the eventual achievement of normal
      extracellular fluid volume and blood pressure over the long term.

PMID- 28581676
TI  - Comprehensive genomic profiling of different subtypes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma
      reveals similarities and differences to guide targeted therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To date, no targeted therapy has been approved for nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma (NPC), and this underscores the need for an in-depth understanding of
      clinically relevant genomic alterations (CRGAs). METHODS: Comprehensive genomic
      profiling was performed for 190 NPC patients, including 20 patients with
      nasopharyngeal adenocarcinoma (NPAC), 62 patients with nasopharyngeal squamous
      cell carcinoma (NPSCC), and 108 patients with nasopharyngeal undifferentiated
      carcinoma (NPUC). The associations of genes and pathways with subtypes, Epstein
      Barr virus (EBV) infections, and the tumor mutation burden (TMB) were
      statistically evaluated. RESULTS: Although the overall rates of genomic
      alterations were similar, the 3 NPC subtypes exhibited different mutational
      landscapes. Notably, mutations in a proven-treatable target gene, isocitrate
      dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2), were significantly associated with NPUC but not with NPAC
      or NPSCC. The top 5 ranked CRGAs included CDKN2A (29%), IDH2 (16%), SMARCB1 (7%),
      PIK3CA (6%), and NF1 (5%) in NPUC; CDKN2A (27%), PIK3CA (23%), FBXW7 (11%), PTEN
      (11%), and EGFR (8%) in NPSCC; and CDKN2A (20%), KRAS (15%), CCND1 (10%), MAP3K1
      (10%), and NOTCH1 (10%) in NPAC. The incidence of EBV infections significantly
      correlated with the subtypes and with TP53, CDKN2A, and CDKN2B. The TMB status
      correlated with the subtypes and with LRP1B, FBXW7, and PIK3CA mutations as well
      as DNA repair, phosphoinositide 3-kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin, and
      mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate
      that different NPC subtypes harbor different CRGAs. Both EBV infections and the
      TMB are associated with the NPC subtypes as well as the alterations of individual
      genes and pathways. The high frequency of IDH2 mutations in NPUC may facilitate
      potential targeted therapy and will ultimately point to new therapeutic
      strategies. Cancer 2017;123:3628-37. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28581678
TI  - TTN genotype is associated with fascicle length and marathon running performance.
AB  - Titin provides a molecular blueprint for muscle sarcomere assembly, and sarcomere
      length can vary according to titin isoform expression. If variations in sarcomere
      length influence muscle fascicle length, this may provide an advantage for
      running performance. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether the
      titin (TTN) rs10497520 polymorphism was associated with muscle fascicle length in
      recreationally active men (RA; n=137) and marathon personal best time in male
      marathon runners (MR; n=141). Fascicle length of the vastus lateralis was
      assessed in vivo using B-mode ultrasonography at 50% of muscle length in RA. All
      participants provided either a whole blood, saliva or buccal cell sample, from
      which DNA was isolated and genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction.
      Vastus lateralis fascicle length was 10.4% longer in CC homozygotes, those
      carrying two copies of the C-allele, than CT heterozygotes (P=.003) in RA. In the
      absence of any TT homozygotes, reflective of the low T-allele frequency within
      Caucasian populations, it is unclear whether fascicle length for this group would
      have been smaller still. No differences in genotype frequency between the RA and
      MR groups were observed (P=.500), although within the MR group, the T-allele
      carriers demonstrated marathon personal best times 2 minutes 25 seconds faster
      than CC homozygotes (P=.020). These results suggest that the T-allele at
      rs10497520 in the TTN gene is associated with shorter skeletal muscle fascicle
      length and conveys an advantage for marathon running performance in habitually
      trained men.

PMID- 28581679
TI  - A simple, selective, and sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method
      for the analysis of five process-related impurities in atenolol bulk drug and
      capsule formulations.
AB  - An extremely sensitive and simple gas chromatography with mass spectrometry
      method was developed and completely validated for the analysis of five process
      related impurities, viz., 4-hydroxy-l-phenylglycine, 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile,
      4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, methyl-4-hydroxyphenylacetate, and 2-[4-{(2RS)-2
      hydroxy-3-[(1-methylethyl)amino]propoxy}phenyl]acetonitrile, in atenolol. The
      separation of impurities was accomplished on a BPX-5 column with dimensions of 50
      m * 0.25 mm i.d. and 0.25 MUm film thickness. The method validation was performed
      following International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines in which the
      method was capable to quantitate 4-hydroxy-l-phenylglycine, 4
      hydroxyphenylacetonitrile, and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid at 0.3 ppm, and methyl
      4-hydroxyphenylacetate and 2-[4-{(2RS)-2-hydroxy-3-[(1
      methylethyl)amino]propoxy}phenyl]acetonitrile at 0.35 ppm with respect to 10
      mg/mL of atenolol. The method was linear over the concentration range of 0.3-10
      ppm for 4-hydroxy-l-phenylglycine, 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile, and 4
      hydroxyphenylacetic acid, and 0.35-10 ppm for methyl-4-hydroxyphenylacetate and 2
      [4-{(2RS)-2-hydroxy-3-[(1-methylethyl)amino]propoxy}phenyl]acetonitrile. The
      correlation coefficient in each case was found >=0.998. The repeatability and
      recovery values were acceptable, and found between 89.38% and 105.60% for all
      five impurities under optimized operating conditions. The method developed here
      is simple, selective, and sensitive with apparently better resolution than the
      reported methods. Hence, the method is a straightforward and good quality control
      tool for the quantitation of selected impurities at trace concentrations in
      atenolol.

PMID- 28581680
TI  - Photoluminescence properties of Ca2 Al2 O5 :RE3+ (RE = Eu, Dy and Tb) phosphors
      for solid state lighting.
AB  - Ca2 Al2 O5 :Eu3+ , Ca2 Al2 O5 :Dy3+ and Ca2 Al2 O5 :Tb3+ phosphors were
      synthesized using a combustion synthesis method. The prepared phosphors were
      characterized by X-ray powder diffraction for phase purity, by scanning electron
      microscopy for morphology, and by photoluminescence for emission and excitation
      measurements. The Ca2 Al2 O5 :Eu3+ phosphors could be efficiently excited at 396
      nm and showed red emission at 594 nm and 616 nm due to 5 D0  -> 7 F1 and 5 D0  ->
      7 F2 transitions. Dy3+ -doped phosphors showed blue emission at 482 nm and yellow
      emission at 573 nm. Ca2 Al2 O5 :Tb3+ phosphors showed emission at 545 nm when
      excited at 352 nm. Concentration quenching occurred in both Eu3+ and Dy3+
      phosphors at 0.5 mol%. Photoluminescence results suggested that the aluminate
      based phosphor could be a potential candidate for application in environmentally
      friendly based lighting technologies.

PMID- 28581681
TI  - Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment decreases bladder pain in
      cyclophosphamide cystitis: a Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic
      Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network animal model study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF)-neutralizing antibodies can reduce pain and voiding dysfunction in
      the cyclophosphamide (CYP) cystitis model of bladder pain in mice. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Adult female mice received anti-VEGF-neutralizing antibodies (10 mg/kg
      i.p. B20-4.1.1 VEGF mAb) or saline (control) pre-treatment, followed by CYP (150
      mg/kg i.p.) to induce acute cystitis. Pelvic nociceptive responses were assessed
      by applying von Frey filaments to the pelvic area. Spontaneous micturition was
      assessed using the void spot assay. RESULTS: Systemic anti-VEGF-neutralizing
      antibody treatment significantly reduced the pelvic nociceptive response to CYP
      cystitis compared with control (saline). In the anti-VEGF pre-treatment group,
      there was a significant increase in pelvic hypersensitivity, measured by the area
      under the curve (AUC) using von Frey filaments at 5 h post-CYP administration (P
      = 0.004); however, by 48 h and 96 h post-CYP administration, pelvic
      hypersensitivity had reduced by 54% and 47%, respectively, compared with the 5 h
      post-CYP administration time point, and were no longer significantly different
      from baseline (P = 0.22 and 0.17, respectively). There was no difference in
      urinary frequency and mean voided volume between the two pre-treatment groups.
      CONCLUSION: Systemic blockade of VEGF signalling with anti-VEGF-neutralizing
      antibodies was effective in reducing pelvic/bladder pain in the CYP cystitis
      model of bladder pain. Our data support the further investigation of the use of
      anti-VEGF antibodies to manage bladder pain or visceral pain.

PMID- 28581682
TI  - Effect of cooling rate on the microstructure and luminescence properties of Sr2
      MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Dy3+ materials.
AB  - Sr2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Dy3+ long afterglow materials were prepared by a high
      temperature solid-state reaction method with different cooling rates. The cooling
      rate had a slight effect on X-ray diffraction patterns and photoluminescence
      performance, but significantly modified the grain boundaries and long afterglow
      properties of the Sr2 MgSi2 O7 :Eu2+ ,Dy3+ materials. When the cooling rate was 1
      degrees C/min, grains remained intact with clear grain boundaries. As the cooling
      rate increased from 1 degrees C/min to 5 degrees C/min, some grain boundaries
      became indistinguishable. The afterglow properties were optimized, presenting
      best performance at the cooling rate of 3 degrees C/min. The trap state was
      investigated and illustrated through thermoluminescence curves. The depths of the
      traps of all the samples were unchanged, whereas densities changed to a large
      extent, leading to different afterglow properties. The retrapping process is
      discussed based on the afterglow curves.

PMID- 28581684
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28581683
TI  - The effect of early pregnancy on the formation of obstetric fistula.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of early pregnancy on obstetric fistula. METHODS:
      A prospective observational study was conducted among patients with obstetric
      fistula caused by a long obstructed labor who presented at Selian Lutheran
      Hospital, Tanzania, or Kitovu Hospital, Uganda, between January 1, 2015, and
      January 31, 2016. Demographic and clinical variables were evaluated. RESULTS:
      Among 270 patients, 162 (60.0%) experienced their first pregnancy up to 2 years
      after menarche (early group) and 108 (40.0%) experienced their first pregnancy
      more than 2 years after menarche (late group). No significant differences between
      the early and late groups were found for median age at presentation (30.0 vs 28.0
      years), median parity (both 2.0), stillbirth (n=145 [89.5%] vs n=95 [88.0%]),
      median duration of labor (both 2.0 days), home delivery (n=31 [19.1%] vs n=17
      [15.7%]), cesarean delivery (n=79 [48.8%] vs 58 [53.7%]), median time from
      obstetric fistula formation to presentation (48.0 vs 24.0 months), and obstetric
      fistula classifications. Obstetric fistula occurred during the first pregnancy in
      99 (61.1%) women in the early group and 71 (65.7%) in the late group (P=0.440).
      CONCLUSION: Frequency of obstetric fistula during the first pregnancy is not
      increased among women who experience their first pregnancy within 2 years of
      menarche.

PMID- 28581685
TI  - Voices of children and adolescents on phase 1 or phase 2 cancer trials: A new
      trial endpoint?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric participants on phase 1 or phase 2 clinical trials for
      incurable cancer are at risk of experiencing toxicities (adverse events [AEs])
      related to trial participation. Multiple AEs are subjective; thus, the real
      impact of trial treatment cannot be known unless patient subjective reports are
      solicited. METHODS: The authors assessed the feasibility and acceptability of
      soliciting symptom, function, and quality of life (QOL) reports from participants
      aged 8 to 18 years who were enrolled on phase 1/2 clinical trials at 4 cancer
      centers during the first course of chemotherapy. The authors also assessed the
      reliability and validity of 6 self-report Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement
      Information System (PROMIS) pediatric measures and 4 open-ended interview
      questions at 2 time points (at the time of trial enrollment [T1] and 3 to 4 weeks
      later [T2]). RESULTS: The enrollment rate of 75.9% (20 participants) exceeded the
      feasibility criterion, and missingness of measures by person, measure, and items
      at T1 and T2 were lower than the acceptability criteria. New QOL themes were
      limited to the impact of treatment on families and being away from home, family,
      and friends for treatment. All but one measure at T1 met the reliability
      criterion and all measures did so at T2. Validity support was limited however
      because as theorized, mobility decreased and fatigue increased as AEs increased.
      CONCLUSIONS: Soliciting and documenting symptom, function, and QOL reports from
      patients aged 8 to 18 years who are enrolled on a phase 1/2 clinical trial is
      feasible and acceptable to participants, particularly when embedded in trials.
      Reliable and valid findings can result, making patient self-reported outcomes a
      possible new trial endpoint. Cancer 2017;123:3799-3806. (c) 2017 American Cancer
      Society.

PMID- 28581687
TI  - Adverse life events, cardiovascular responses, and sports performance under
      pressure.
AB  - Research suggests that experiencing a moderate number of adverse life events can
      benefit future stress responses. This study explored the relationship between
      adverse life (ie, non-sport) events and cardiovascular responses to, and
      performance during, a pressurized sporting task. One hundred participants (64
      men, 36 women; Mage =21.94 years, SDage =4.98) reported the number of adverse
      life events (eg, serious accident or injury) they had encountered before
      completing a pressurized dart-throwing task during which performance was
      recorded. Before the task, participants' demand and resource evaluations and
      cardiovascular reactivity were assessed. Adverse life events did not impact
      demand and resource evaluations. However, participants who reported 4-7 adverse
      life events displayed cardiovascular responses more reflective of a challenge
      state (relatively lower total peripheral resistance and/or higher cardiac output)
      compared to those who reported a lower (<4) or higher (>7) number of events.
      Furthermore, participants who reported 3-13 adverse life events outperformed
      those who reported a lower (<3) or higher (>13) number of events. Supplementary
      analyses suggested that this relationship might be due to a small number of
      extreme values. However, after outlier analyses, a significant linear
      relationship remained suggesting that a higher number of adverse life events
      facilitated performance. The results suggest that experiencing a moderate to high
      number of adverse life events might have beneficial effects on subsequent
      cardiovascular responses and performance under pressure. Practitioners should
      therefore consider prior brushes with adversity when identifying athletes who are
      likely to excel during stressful competition.

PMID- 28581686
TI  - Tongue-palatal contact changes in patients with skeletal mandibular prognathism
      after sagittal split ramus osteotomy: an electropalatography study.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in tongue-palatal
      contact patterns using electropalatography (EPG) before and after sagittal split
      ramus osteotomy (SSRO) in patients with mandibular prognathism. Nine clients who
      underwent SSRO for mandibular setback and seven control subjects were
      participated in this study. Tongue-palatal contact patterns for /t/, /s/ and /k/
      production were investigated using EPG before surgery and 3 months after surgery.
      The mean value of whole total of palate contact (WT) in the maximum contact frame
      was examined before and after SSRO. The correlation quantity between the change
      of center of gravity (COG) value and the amount of mandibular setback was also
      evaluated. The mean value of WT for /t/ and /s/ significantly increased after
      SSRO, and the EPG pattern became normal. However, a remarkable change in WT for
      /k/ was not observed, and the mean value was significantly larger in the SSRO
      group before and after surgery than in the control group. A negative correlation
      between COG variation and the amount of mandibular setback for /t/ and positive
      correlation for /s/ was observed. This study demonstrated that tongue-palatal
      contact patterns for /t/ and /s/ articulation improved clearly after SSRO. There
      was a significant correlation between COG variation and the amount of mandibular
      setback. However, no significant change was detected through perceptual
      assessment before and after SSRO. Further investigation is needed to determine
      whether these results will change over time.

PMID- 28581688
TI  - When You're Happy and I Know It: Four-Year-Olds' Emotional Perspective Taking
      During Online Language Comprehension.
AB  - Using a novel emotional perspective-taking task, this study investigated 4-year
      olds' (n = 97) use of a speaker's emotional prosody to make inferences about the
      speaker's emotional state and, correspondingly, their communicative intent. Eye
      gaze measures indicated preschoolers used emotional perspective inferences to
      guide their real-time interpretation of ambiguous statements. However, these
      sensitivities were less apparent in overt responses, suggesting preschoolers'
      ability to integrate emotional perspective cues is at an emergent state.
      Perspective taking during online language processing was positively correlated
      with receptive vocabulary and an offline measure of emotional perspective taking,
      but not with cognitive perspective taking, conflict or delay inhibitory control,
      or working memory. Together, the results underscore how children's emerging
      communicative competence involves different kinds of perspective inferences with
      distinct cognitive underpinnings.

PMID- 28581689
TI  - The physical deterioration of dialysis patients-Ignored, ill-reported, and ill
      treated.
AB  - The progressive physical deterioration of dialysis patients is apparent to all
      who are involved in their care. Exercise can help stem this decline, yet exercise
      uptake in chronic and end-stage kidney disease is low. The involvement of
      exercise professionals has been shown to significantly increase patients'
      physical function and improve their quality of life. However, exercise
      professionals are scarce in renal programs, far less than dietetic and social
      work services. A review of 10 years of renal exercise publications in the
      physical therapy and rehabilitation literature found that only 0.4% (7 out of a
      total of 1763) of all published articles were focused on people with kidney
      disease. This compared with stroke (44%, n=883), arthritis/bone (29%, n=458),
      cancer (9%, n=168), respiratory (8%, n=106), cardiac (5%, n=82), and diabetes
      (3%, n=45). These results reflect the low emphasis placed on renal rehabilitation
      by the physical therapy professions and the low renal content in physical therapy
      tertiary education programs. This is likely to have an impact on the level of
      involvement of physical therapists in renal programs leading to lower physical
      function and poorer quality of life for renal patients.

PMID- 28581690
TI  - Possible mechanism underlying the association between higher hemoglobin level and
      hypertension in older Japanese men.
AB  - AIM: Hemoglobin is reported to be positively associated with hypertension.
      However, the underlying mechanism of this association is unknown. Recently, bone
      marrow-derived CD34-positive cells have been reported to play an important role
      in endothelial repair in conjunction with platelets. As the association between
      hypertension and endothelial dysfunction is bidirectional, the influence of
      endothelial repair also might strongly influence the association between
      hemoglobin and hypertension. METHODS: To clarify the clinical importance of the
      hematological parameter on endothelial maintenance in older men, we carried out a
      cross-sectional study of 222 Japanese men aged 60-69 years undergoing a general
      health checkup. RESULTS: For participants with a lower platelet count
      (<=21.0/MUL), hemoglobin was significantly positively associated with
      hypertension, but not for participants with a higher platelet count (>21.0/MUL).
      The classical cardiovascular risk factor adjusted odds ratio of hypertension for
      1-standard deviation increment of hemoglobin (1.0 g/dL) was 2.09 (95% CI: 1.26,
      3.48) for participants with a lower platelet count, and 1.07 (95% CI: 0.68, 1.67)
      for participants with a higher platelet count. We also found that although there
      was no significant correlation between hemoglobin and circulating CD34-positive
      cells for participants with a lower platelet count (beta = -0.06, P = 0.603), a
      significant positive correlation was seen for participants with a higher platelet
      count (beta = 0.29, P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The positive association between
      hemoglobin and hypertension was limited to participants with a lower platelet
      count as a result of insufficient endothelial repair. These results represent an
      efficient tool for clarifying the mechanism of endothelial maintenance that
      correlates with hypertension. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 2586-2592.

PMID- 28581691
TI  - Recombinant factor XIII prophylaxis is safe and effective in young children with
      congenital factor XIII-A deficiency: international phase 3b trial results.
AB  - : Essentials Prophylaxis is the standard of care for congenital factor XIII-A
      (FXIII-A) deficiency. Six children with FXIII-A deficiency received once-monthly
      prophylaxis with recombinant FXIII-A. Prophylaxis was well tolerated and no anti
      FXIII antibodies were detected. Prophylaxis was effective with an annualized
      bleeding rate of zero. SUMMARY: Background Factor XIII deficiency is a rare,
      severe congenital bleeding disorder. Monthly prophylaxis with recombinant FXIII A
      Subunit (rFXIII) has demonstrated favorable safety and efficacy in patients aged
      >= 6 years, and may similarly benefit younger children. Objective To evaluate the
      long-term safety and efficacy of rFXIII in children aged < 6 years with
      congenital FXIII A-subunit deficiency. Patients/methods Six children, who had
      previously completed a single-dose pharmacokinetic trial of rFXIII, received 35
      IU kg-1 rFXIII every 28 days (+/- 2 days) for a minimum of 52 weeks, and were
      evaluated for bleeding and adverse events. The Berichrom FXIII activity assay was
      used to monitor FXIII activity. Results The children, three girls and three boys,
      had an average age of 3.0 years (range: 1-4 years) at enrollment. The total
      treatment duration was 1.8-3.5 years, giving a total of 16.6 patient-years. No
      antibody development, thromboembolic events or allergic reactions occurred. There
      were 93 mild and seven moderate adverse events. Two adverse events (lymphopenia
      and gastroenteritis) were reported as probably or possibly related to rFXIII in
      two children. Two serious adverse events, unrelated to rFXIII, were reported in a
      single child, each related to head injury, and neither resulting in intracranial
      hemorrhage. The geometric mean FXIII activity trough was 0.19 IU mL-1 . No
      bleeding episodes requiring treatment with an FXIII-containing hemostatic agent
      occurred during the trial; thus, the annualized bleeding rate was 0. Conclusions
      Consistent with data from older age groups, prophylaxis with rFXIII appears to be
      safe and effective in young children with congenital FXIII A-subunit deficiency.

PMID- 28581692
TI  - Examining the effects of rational emotive behavior therapy on performance
      outcomes in elite paralympic athletes.
AB  - Traditionally a psychotherapeutic intervention, rational emotive behavior therapy
      (REBT) is receiving increasing attention within the extant literature as an
      intervention to enhance the athletic performance and psychological well-being of
      competitive athletes. Whilst the benefits of REBT on psychological health are
      established, less is understood about the effects on athletic performance. This
      study aimed to examine the immediate and maintained effects of REBT on
      physiological, psychological, and performance outcomes with elite Paralympic
      athletes. Using a single-case research design, eight athletes recruited from the
      same Paralympic sport (M=40.12, SD=12.99) received five, one-to-one REBT
      sessions. Measures of irrational beliefs were collected weekly, whereas the
      remaining psychological and physiological measures were collected at a pre-, post
      , and at a 9-month follow-up time point. Visual and statistical analyzes of the
      data indicates reductions in irrational beliefs were coupled with reductions in
      systolic blood pressure indicative of an adaptive physiological response,
      improved athletic performance during competition simulations, and reductions in
      avoidance goals. Furthermore, social validation data indicated greater self
      awareness, emotional control, and enhanced focus during competition as a result
      of the REBT intervention. This study contributes to growing literature supporting
      the efficacy of REBT as an intervention that not only facilitates psychological
      health but also enhances athletic performance. Results are discussed with
      reference to theory, limitations, and future recommendations.

PMID- 28581693
TI  - A prospective clinical trial to assess the optical efficacy of pink neck implants
      and pink abutments on soft tissue esthetics.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter
      clinical study was to analyze the optical effects of an anodized pink colored
      implant shoulder/abutment system in the peri-implant mucosa of immediately placed
      dental implants. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Forty subjects with a restoratively
      hopeless tooth in the maxillary esthetic zone, were recruited and randomized to
      receive either a pink-neck implant, or a conventional gray implant. All patients
      received an immediate implant and immediate provisional and two identical CAD/CAM
      titanium abutments with different surface colors: pink and gray, and one zirconia
      all-ceramic crown. The color of the peri-implant mucosa was measured using a
      dental spectrophotometer and analyzed using CIELAB color system. RESULTS: The
      overall color difference between the peri-implant mucosa with a pink abutment and
      a gray abutment was DeltaE = 4.22. Patients with gray implants presented a color
      change of DeltaE = 3.86-4.17 with this abutment change, while patients with pink
      implants had a color change of DeltaE = 3.84-4.69. The peri-implant mucosa with a
      pink abutment was significantly more red when compared with a gray abutment (P <=
      .01). CONCLUSIONS: When a pink abutment was used, there is a significant color
      change of the peri-implant mucosa that is above the detectable color threshold.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Esthetic outcomes are important for the success of implant
      treatment of maxillary anterior implants. The phenomenon of the gray color of a
      dental implant and abutment shining through the peri-implant mucosa has been
      documented in the literature. The objective of this study was to assess the
      optical effect of an anodized pink-neck implant and a pink abutment on the color
      of peri-implant mucosa. This study demonstrates that using pink-neck implant and
      a pink abutment would contribute positively to the overall esthetic outcome for
      an anterior implant.

PMID- 28581694
TI  - Abnormal von Willebrand factor secretion, factor VIII stabilization and thrombus
      dynamics in type 2N von Willebrand disease mice.
AB  - : Essentials Type 2N von Willebrand disease involves impaired von Willebrand
      factor to factor VIII binding. Type 2N von Willebrand disease mutations exhibit
      qualitative and mild quantitative deficiencies. Type 2N von Willebrand disease
      mice exhibit unstable venous hemostatic thrombi. The factor VIII-binding ability
      of von Willebrand factor regulates arteriole thrombosis dynamics. SUMMARY:
      Background von Willebrand factor (VWF) and factor VIII (FVIII) circulate as a non
      covalent complex, with VWF serving as the carrier for FVIII. VWF indirectly
      influences secondary hemostasis by stabilizing FVIII and transporting it to the
      site of primary hemostasis. Type 2N von Willebrand disease involves impaired
      binding of VWF to FVIII, resulting in decreased plasma levels of FVIII.
      Objectives In these studies, we characterize the impact of three type 2N VWD
      variants (R763A, R854Q, R816W) on VWF secretion, FVIII stabilization and thrombus
      formation in a murine model. Methods Type 2N VWD mice were generated by
      hydrodynamic injections of mutant murine VWF cDNAs and the influence of these
      variants on VWF secretion and FVIII binding was evaluated. In vivo hemostasis and
      the dynamics of thrombus formation and embolization were assessed using a murine
      tail vein transection hemostasis model and an intravital thrombosis model in the
      cremaster arterioles. Results Type 2N VWD variants were associated with decreased
      VWF secretion using cell and animal-based models. FVIII-binding to type 2N
      variants was impaired in vitro and was variably stabilized in vivo by expressed
      or infused 2N variant VWF protein. Both transgenic type 2N VWD and FVIII knockout
      (KO) mice demonstrated impaired thrombus formation associated with decreased
      thrombus stability. Conclusions The type 2N VWD phenotype can be recapitulated in
      a murine model and is associated with both quantitative and qualitative VWF
      deficiencies and impaired thrombus formation. Patients with type 2N VWD may have
      normal primary hemostasis formation but decreased thrombus stability related to
      ineffective secondary hemostasis.

PMID- 28581695
TI  - A new Schiff base as a turn-off fluorescent sensor for Cu2+ and its photophysical
      properties.
AB  - A new Schiff base receptor 1 was synthesized and its photophysical properties
      were investigated by absorption, emission and excitation techniques. Furthermore,
      its chromogenic and fluorogenic sensing abilities towards various metal ions were
      examined. Receptor 1 selectively detects Cu2+ ion through fluorescence quenching
      and detection was not inhibited in the presence of other metal ions. From
      fluorescence titration, the limit of detection of receptor 1 as a fluorescent
      'turn-off' sensor for the analysis of Cu2+ was estimated to be 0.35 MUM.

PMID- 28581696
TI  - Lung cancer screening rates remain very low among current and former smokers.

PMID- 28581697
TI  - Researchers call teen vaping "one-way bridge" to smoking.

PMID- 28581698
TI  - First person: Jimmie Holland, MD.

PMID- 28581699
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28581700
TI  - The Longitudinal Association of Being Bullied and Gender with Suicide Ideations,
      Self-Harm, and Suicide Attempts from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Cohort
      Study.
AB  - Longitudinal associations between being bullied during adolescence and suicide
      ideations, self-harm, and suicide attempts into young adulthood were examined. A
      large representative sample was examined in 1998 (N = 2,464, MA 13.7), 1999/2000,
      and 2012 to reassess the outcome measures. At all ages, bullied participants
      showed more suicide ideation, self-harm, and suicide attempts, regardless of
      gender. Bullied females showed a decrease in suicide ideation from adolescence to
      adulthood, while bullied males showed an increase in suicide attempts in the same
      time period. Being bullied in adolescence strongly predicts suicidal behavior and
      self-harm. Preventive efforts might reduce the risk of later suicidality.

PMID- 28581702
TI  - Universal Coating from Electrostatic Self-Assembly to Prevent Multidrug-Resistant
      Bacterial Colonization on Medical Devices and Solid Surfaces.
AB  - We provide a facile and scalable strategy for preparing gold nanoparticles
      (AuNPs)-based antibacterial coating on a variety of surfaces through
      electrostatic self-assembly. AuNPs conjugated with 4,6-diamino-2-pyrimidinethiol
      (DAPT, not antibacterial by itself), AuDAPT, can form stable coating on different
      substrates made from polyethylene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene
      (PP), polyethylene (PE), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and SiO2 in one step. Such
      a coating can efficiently eradicate pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria and even
      multidrug-resistant (MDR) mutants without causing any side-effect such as
      cytotoxicity, hemolysis, coagulation, and inflammation. We show that immobilized
      AuDAPT, instead of AuDAPT released from the substrate, is responsible for killing
      the bacteria and that the antimicrobial components do not enter into the
      environment to cause secondary contamination to breed drug resistance. Advantages
      for such coating include applicability on a broad range of surfaces, low cost,
      stability, high antibacterial efficiency, good biocompatibility, and low risk in
      antibiotics pollution; these advantages may be particularly helpful in preventing
      infections that involve medical devices.

PMID- 28581701
TI  - Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short-Form as a useful method of predicting poor 1
      year outcome in elderly patients undergoing orthopedic surgery.
AB  - AIM: The present study aimed to determine whether the Mini-Nutritional Assessment
      Short-Form (MNA-SF) can predict the 1-year outcome of orthopedic fracture surgery
      in elderly patients. METHODS: This 1-year prospective study assessed nutrition
      using the MNA-SF at baseline, and postoperatively at 6 and 12 months. Repeated
      measures analysis of covariance was used to examine functional change over time
      for two MNA-SF categories. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with
      forward stepwise modeling was carried out to identify risk factors of functional
      decline, emergency department visit, hospital readmission and mortality at follow
      up. RESULTS: There were 312 participants, 11 of whom died (3.53%) during 1-year
      follow up. The mean age was 74.04 +/- 7.65 years. A total of 88.1% and 11.9% of
      the participants were well nourished (MNA-SF 12-14 points) or at risk of
      undernutrition (0-11 points), respectively. For MNA-SF as a continuous variable,
      lower MNA-SF scores were associated with a significantly higher risk of emergency
      department visit at 6-month follow up, and mortality at 12-month follow up
      (emergency room visit, adjusted odds ratio 0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.96, P < 0.05;
      mortality, adjusted odds ratio 0.73, 95% CI 0.57-0.94, P < 0.05). No association
      was found between functional decline and hospital readmission, and MNA-SF scores.
      For MNA-SF categories, functional decline was more profound in patients at risk
      of undernutrition than in well-nourished patients, especially 6-12 months
      postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: The MNA-SF could be an effective and non-invasive
      preoperative screening tool to predict functional decline, emergency department
      visit and mortality during the year after surgery. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17:
      2361-2368.

PMID- 28581704
TI  - Self-Propelled Metal-Polymer Hybrid Micromachines with Bending and Rotational
      Motions.
AB  - Two self-propelled micromachines were fabricated with gold/platinum micromotors
      that exhibit simple translational motion in a fuel solution. In each one, two
      micromotors were connected with a joint of polymer tube formed by stacking
      cationic poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and anionic poly(acrylic acid)
      (PAA) using a layer-by-layer technique. A bent structure was created by making
      one longitudinal side of the joint more swellable with alkaline treatment. The
      joint containing fewer PAA/PAH bilayers was flexible and allowed a larger range
      of Brownian angular fluctuation. In the fuel solution, bending and stable
      rotation were observed for the micromotors tethered with soft and rigid angled
      joints, respectively. The radius and angular velocity of the rotation depended on
      the angle of the joint. Such tethered micromotors can be used to realize
      sophisticated micro/nanomachines for microscale surgery and drug delivery.

PMID- 28581703
TI  - Anion-Exchange Chromatography Coupled to High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry: A
      Powerful Tool for Merging Targeted and Non-targeted Metabolomics.
AB  - In this work, simultaneous targeted metabolic profiling by isotope dilution and
      non-targeted fingerprinting is proposed for cancer cell studies. The novel
      streamlined metabolomics workflow was established using anion-exchange
      chromatography (IC) coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS). The
      separation time of strong anion-exchange (2 mm column, flow rate 380 MUL min-1,
      injection volume 5 MUL) could be decreased to 25 min for a target list comprising
      organic acids, sugars, sugar phosphates, and nucleotides. Internal
      standardization by fully 13C labeled Pichia pastoris extracts enabled absolute
      quantification of the primary metabolites in adherent cancer cell models. Limits
      of detection (LODs) in the low nanomolar range and excellent intermediate
      precisions of the isotopologue ratios (on average <5%, N = 5, over 40 h) were
      observed. As a result of internal standardization, linear dynamic ranges over 4
      orders of magnitude (5 nM-50 MUM, R2 > 0.99) were obtained. Experiments on drug
      sensitive versus resistant SW480 cancer cells showed the feasibility of merging
      analytical tasks into one analytical run. Comparing fingerprinting with and
      without internal standard proved that the presence of the 13C labeled yeast
      extract required for absolute quantification was not detrimental to non-targeted
      data evaluation. Several interesting metabolites were discovered by accurate mass
      and comparing MS2 spectra (acquired in ddMS2 mode) with spectral libraries.
      Significant differences revealed distinct metabolic phenotypes of drug-sensitive
      and resistant SW480 cells.

PMID- 28581705
TI  - Characteristics of NaNO3-Promoted CdO as a Midtemperature CO2 Absorbent.
AB  - In this study, we explored the reaction system CdO(s) + CO2(g) ? CdCO3(s) as a
      model system for CO2 capture agent in the intermediate temperature range of 300
      400  degrees C. While pure CdO does not react with CO2 at all up to 500  degrees
      C, CdO mixed with an appropriate amount of NaNO3 (optimal molar ratio NaNO3/CdO =
      0.14) greatly enhances the conversion of CdO into CdCO3 up to ~80% (5.68 mmol/g).
      These NaNO3-promoted CdO absorbents can undergo many cycles of absorption and
      desorption by temperature swing between 300 and 370  degrees C under a 100% CO2
      condition. Details of how NaNO3 promotes the CO2 absorption of CdO have been
      delineated through various techniques using thermogravimetry, coupled with X-ray
      diffraction and electron microscopy. On the basis of the observed data, we
      propose a mechanism of CO2 absorption and desorption of NaNO3-promoted CdO. The
      absorption proceeds through a sequence of events of CO2 adsorption on the CdO
      surface covered by NaNO3, dissolution of so-formed CdCO3, and precipitation of
      CdCO3 particles in the NaNO3 medium. The desorption occurs through the
      decomposition of CdCO3 in the dissolved state in the NaNO3 medium where CdO
      nanoparticles are formed dispersed in the NaNO3 medium. The CdO nanoparticles are
      aggregated into micrometer-large particles with smooth surfaces and regular
      shapes.

PMID- 28581706
TI  - "On-Water" Facile Synthesis of Novel Pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridinones Possessing Anti
      influenza Virus Activity.
AB  - A facile and versatile "on-water" protocol for the synthesis of pyrazolo[3,4
      b]pyridinones was developed by the unprecedented construction of two rings and
      five new bonds in one-pot. It was proved that water was an important promoter of
      the reaction and PEG2000 was found to improve the reaction in terms of yield. 32
      Derivatives were newly synthesized and most of them were prepared in an hour. The
      scope and limitation indicated that electron withdrawing groups substituted on
      synthons, substituted benzoyl acetonitriles or aryl aldehydes, were helpful to
      construct the pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridinones. The reaction media PEG2000/H2O was
      successfully recycled and reused at least 5 times without any obvious decrease in
      yield. The anti-influenza activities of the derivatives were evaluated and the
      screening results highlighted two derivatives, which exhibited strong inhibitory
      activity against H5N1 pseudovirus. These positive bioassay results implied that
      the library of potential anti-influenza virus agent candidates could be rapidly
      prepared in an eco-friendly manner, and provided a new insight into drug
      discovery for medicinal chemists.

PMID- 28581707
TI  - Unprecedented Activity of Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for High Power Density
      Aqueous Zinc-Air Batteries.
AB  - The development of nonprecious metal catalysts with desirable bifunctional
      activities to supersede noble metal catalysts is of vital importance for high
      performance aqueous zinc-air batteries. Here, an unprecedented activity of
      bifunctional electrocatalyst is reported by in situ growth of nitrogen-enriched
      carbon nanotubes with transition metal composite. The resultant catalyst delivers
      surprisingly high OER (potential@10 mA cm-2 of 1.58 V) and ORR (onset potential
      of 0.97 V, half-wave potential of 0.86 V) performance. The overall oxygen
      electrode activity (overvoltage between ORR and OER) of the catalyst is as low as
      0.72 V. In aqueous Zn-air battery tests, primary batteries demonstrate high
      maximum power density and two-electrode rechargeable batteries also exhibit good
      cycle performance. The unprecedented electrocatalyst opens up new avenues for
      developing highly active nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube-supported
      electrocatalysts and offers prospects for the next generation of fuel cells,
      metal-air batteries, and photocatalysis applications.

PMID- 28581709
TI  - Manipulation of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence of Blue Exciplex
      Emission: Fully Utilizing Exciton Energy for Highly Efficient Organic Light
      Emitting Diodes with Low Roll-Off.
AB  - The application of exciplex energy has become a unique way to achieve organic
      light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with high efficiencies, low turn-on voltage, and
      low roll-off. Novel delta-carboline derivatives with high triplet energy (T1 ~
      2.92 eV) and high glass transition temperature (Tg ~ 153  degrees C) were
      employed to manipulate exciplex emissions in this paper. Deep blue (peak at 436
      nm) and pure blue (peak at 468 nm) thermally activated delayed fluorescence
      (TADF) of exciplex OLEDs were demonstrated by utilizing them as emitters with the
      maximum current efficiency (CE) of 4.64 cd A-1, power efficiency (PE) of 2.91 lm
      W-1, and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 2.36%. Highly efficient blue
      phosphorescent OLEDs doped with FIrpic showed a maximum CE of 55.6 cd A-1, PE of
      52.9 lm W-1, and EQE of 24.6% respectively with very low turn on voltage at 2.7
      V. The devices still remain high CE of 46.5 cd A-1 at 100 cd m-2, 45.4 cd A-1 at
      1000 cd m-2 and 42.3 cd A-1 at 5000 cd m-2 with EQE close to 20% indicating low
      roll-off. Manipulating blue exciplex emissions by chemical structure gives an
      ideal strategy to fully utilize all exciton energies for lighting of OLEDs.

PMID- 28581710
TI  - Biotransformation of Silver Released from Nanoparticle Coated Titanium Implants
      Revealed in Regenerating Bone.
AB  - Antimicrobial silver nanoparticle coatings have attracted interest for reducing
      prosthetic joint infection. However, few studies report in vivo investigations of
      the biotransformation of silver nanoparticles within the regenerating tissue and
      its impact on bone formation. We present a longitudinal investigation of the
      osseointegration of silver nanoparticle-coated additive manufactured titanium
      implants in rat tibial defects. Correlative imaging at different time points
      using nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy
      (TEM), histomorphometry, and 3D X-ray microcomputed tomography provided
      quantitative insight from the nano- to macroscales. The quality and quantity of
      newly formed bone is comparable between the uncoated and silver coated implants.
      The newly formed bone demonstrates a trabecular morphology with bone being
      located at the implant surface, and at a distance, at two weeks. Nanoscale
      elemental mapping of the bone-implant interface showed that silver was present
      primarily in the osseous tissue and colocalized with sulfur. TEM revealed silver
      sulfide nanoparticles in the newly regenerated bone, presenting strong evidence
      that the previously in vitro observed biotransformation of silver to silver
      sulfide occurs in vivo.

PMID- 28581711
TI  - alpha-Amino Acid Rich Photophytonic Nanoparticles of Algal Origin Serendipitously
      Reveal Antimigratory Property against Cancer.
AB  - Spheroidal nanoparticles of algal ("phytonic") origin were synthesized and
      composed of carbonaceous architectures and surface-rich oxygenated functional
      groups. Nanoparticles were negatively charged and efficiently luminescent after
      ultraviolet-range excitation and called as "photophytonic" nanoparticles. A
      multitude of analytical techniques confirmed the rich profusion of hydroxyl,
      carboxylate, and amines at the nanoscale, while spectroscopic investigation
      indicated the presence of alpha-amines, a signature functionality present in
      amino acids. Confirmed via a series of biological assays, i.e., growth
      regression, antimigration, and protein-regression studies, photophytonic
      nanoparticles serendipitously revealed remarkable anticancer activity against
      various stages of breast cancer cells, barring the need for an encapsulated drug.
      We report that nanoparticles derived from algal biomass exhibit intrinsic
      antimigratory properties against cancer, likely due to the rich abundance of
      alpha-amino acids.

PMID- 28581708
TI  - Optimization of d-Peptides for Abeta Monomer Binding Specificity Enhances Their
      Potential to Eliminate Toxic Abeta Oligomers.
AB  - Amyloid-beta (Abeta) oligomers are thought to be causative for the development
      and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Starting from the Abeta oligomer
      eliminating d-enantiomeric peptide D3, we developed and applied a two-step
      procedure based on peptide microarrays to identify D3 derivatives with increased
      binding affinity and specificity for monomeric Abeta(1-42) to further enhance the
      Abeta oligomer elimination efficacy. Out of more than 1000 D3 derivatives, we
      selected seven novel d-peptides, named ANK1 to ANK7, and characterized them in
      more detail in vitro. All ANK peptides bound to monomeric Abeta(1-42), eliminated
      Abeta(1-42) oligomers, inhibited Abeta(1-42) fibril formation, and reduced
      Abeta(1-42)-induced cytotoxicity more efficiently than D3. Additionally, ANK6
      completely inhibited the prion-like propagation of preformed Abeta(1-42) seeds
      and showed a nonsignificant tendency for improving memory performance of tg
      APPSwDI mice after i.p. application for 4 weeks. This supports the hypothesis
      that stabilization of Abeta monomers and thereby induced elimination of Abeta
      oligomers is a suitable therapeutic strategy.

PMID- 28581712
TI  - Ionic-Liquid-Based Heterogeneous Covalent Triazine Framework Cobalt Catalyst for
      the Direct Synthesis of Methyl 3-Hydroxybutyrate from Propylene Oxide.
AB  - beta-Hydroxy esters are considered as potential building blocks for the
      production of fine chemicals and potential drug molecules in various industries.
      Developing an efficient and recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of beta-hydroxy
      esters is challenging. Here we report the first ionic-liquid-based heterogenized
      cobalt catalyst, [imidazolium-CTF][Co(CO)4], for the direct ring-opening
      carbonylation of propylene oxide to methyl 3-hydroxybutyrate (MHB) with 86%
      selectivity (>99% conversion).

PMID- 28581713
TI  - Regioselective Arylboration of Isoprene and Its Derivatives by Pd/Cu Cooperative
      Catalysis.
AB  - A method for the regioselective arylboration of isoprene and its derivatives is
      presented. These reactions allow for the synthesis of useful building blocks from
      simple components. Through these studies, an unusual additive effect with DMAP
      has been uncovered that allows for altered reactivity and the formation of
      quaternary carbon centers. The utility of this method is demonstrated toward the
      formal synthesis of mesembrine.

PMID- 28581714
TI  - Magnetic Properties as a Proxy for Predicting Fine-Particle-Bound Heavy Metals in
      a Support Vector Machine Approach.
AB  - The development of a reasonable statistical method of predicting the
      concentrations of fine-particle-bound heavy metals remains challenging. In this
      study, daily PM2.5 samples were collected within four different seasons from a
      Chinese mega-city. The annual average PM2.5 concentrations determined in
      industrial, city center, and suburban areas were 90, 81, and 85 MUg m-3,
      respectively. Environmental magnetic measurements, including magnetic
      susceptibility, anhysteretic remanent magnetization, isothermal remanent
      magnetization, hysteresis loops, and thermomagnetism, indicated that the main
      magnetic mineral of PM2.5 is low-coercivity pseudosingle domain (PSD) magnetite.
      Using a support vector machine (SVM), both the volume- and mass-related
      concentrations of heavy metals were predicted by the PM2.5 mass concentrations
      and meteorological factors, with or without magnetic properties as input
      variables. The inclusion of magnetic variables significantly improved the
      prediction results for most heavy metals. Predictions based on models that
      included the magnetic properties of the metals Al, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Ti were
      promising, with R values of >0.8 in both the training and the test stages as well
      as relatively low errors. Our results demonstrate that the inclusion of
      environmental magnetism in a SVM approach aids in the effective monitoring and
      assessment of airborne heavy-metal contamination in cities.

PMID- 28581715
TI  - HULIS Enhancement of Hydroxyl Radical Formation from Fe(II): Kinetics of Fulvic
      Acid-Fe(II) Complexes in the Presence of Lung Antioxidants.
AB  - Oxidative stress mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a hypothesized
      mechanism for particulate-matter related health effects. Fe(II) is a key player
      in ROS formation in surrogate lung fluid (SLF) containing antioxidants. Humic
      like substances (HULIS) in particulate matter such as biomass burning aerosol
      chelate Fe(II), but the effect on ROS formation in the presence of lung
      antioxidants is not known. We use Suwanee River Fulvic Acid (SRFA) as a surrogate
      for HULIS and investigate its effect on OH formation from Fe(II). For the first
      time, a chemical kinetics model was developed to explain behavior of Fe(II) and
      SRFA in SLF. Model and experimental results are used to find best-fit rate
      coefficients for key reactions. Modeling results indicate SRFA enhances Fe
      mediated reduction of O2 to O2- and destruction of H2O2 to OH to 5.1 +/- 1.5 and
      (4.3 +/- 1.4) * 103 M-1 s-1 respectively. Best-fit rates for Citrate-Fe(II)
      mediated O2 to O2- and H2O2 to OH were 3.0 +/- 0.7 and (4.2 +/- 1.7) * 103 M-1 s
      1 respectively. The kinetics model agrees with both the experimental results and
      thermodynamic model calculations of chemical speciation for 0 and 5 MUg/mL SRFA,
      but both models are less successful at predicting further enhancements to OH
      formation at higher SRFA Concentrations.

PMID- 28581716
TI  - Transfer of Biomatrix/Wood Cell Interactions to Hemicellulose-Based Materials to
      Control Water Interaction.
AB  - The family of hemicelluloses stands out as a very promising natural resource that
      can be utilized as a biobased materials feedstock. An in-depth understanding of
      the hemicellulose inherent structural and property features as well as the
      structure-property relationships induced by the specific supramolecular
      hierarchical organization of lignocellulosic biopolymers will be a key enabling
      technology in the emerging biorefinery sector. This Review aims to give a
      perspective on these issues and demonstrate how the transfer of molecular wood
      cell interactions into hemicellulose-based materials may offer new design
      principles for material formulations.

PMID- 28581717
TI  - Determination of PAHs in Solution with a Single Reference Standard by a
      Combination of 1H Quantitative NMR Spectroscopy and Chromatography.
AB  - We have applied a combination of 1H quantitative NMR spectroscopy (1H-qNMR) and
      chromatography (GC or LC) to establish reliable analytical methods (qNMR/GC and
      qNMR/LC) for organic compounds. In this method, a reference standard is used as
      an internal standard for both 1H-qNMR and chromatography to estimate relative
      molar sensitivity (RMS) for analytes. The RMS values are calculated from the
      molar ratios between analytes and the reference standard obtained by 1H-qNMR; and
      the response ratio between them obtained by chromatography. Concentrations of
      analytes in the organic solution can be simultaneously determined from the RMS
      and amount of the reference standard added in the sample solution. This
      analytical method is an innovative one because only one reference standard with
      International System of Units (SI)-traceable property value, purity, or
      concentration, is necessary to determine accurate concentrations of multiple
      organic components in organic solutions, without the respective certified
      reference standards for various analytes. To verify this method, a certified
      reference material, NIST SRM 1647f, was used. Among the 16 polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAHs) included in NIST SRM 1647f, naphthalene and benzo[a]pyrene
      were selected as analytes for this method, using 1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene
      d4 as the reference standard. Each quantitative value obtained by qNMR/GC and
      qNMR/LC agreed with each certified value within its expanded uncertainty.

PMID- 28581718
TI  - Ruthenium Promoted On-DNA Ring-Closing Metathesis and Cross-Metathesis.
AB  - DNA-encoded library technology (ELT) is now widely used in pharmaceutical,
      biotechnological, and academic research for hit identification and target
      validation. New on-DNA reactions are keys to exploring greater chemical space and
      accessing challenging chemotypes such as configurationally constrained
      macrocycles. Herein, we describe the first on-DNA ring-closing metathesis (RCM)
      and cross-metathesis (CM) reactions promoted by fast initiating Grubbs Ru
      reagents. Under the optimized conditions, MgCl2 was used to protect the DNA from
      Ru-induced decomposition. The substrate scope for on-DNA RCM was established and
      the same conditions were applied to a CM reaction with good conversion.

PMID- 28581719
TI  - R3Au9Pn (R = Y, Gd-Tm; Pn = Sb, Bi): A Link between Cu10Sn3 and Gd14Ag51.
AB  - A new series of intermetallic compounds R3Au9Pn (R = Y, Gd-Tm; Pn = Sb, Bi) has
      been discovered during the explorations of the Au-rich parts of rare-earth
      containing ternary systems with p-block elements. The existence of the series is
      strongly restricted by both geometric and electronic factors. R3Au9Pn compounds
      crystallize in the hexagonal crystal system with space group P63/m (a = 8.08-8.24
      A, c = 8.98-9.08 A). All compounds feature Au-Pn, formally anionic, networks
      built up by layers of alternating edge-sharing Au@Au6 and Sb@Au6 trigonal
      antiprisms of overall composition Au6/2Pn connected through additional Au atoms
      and separated by a triangular cationic substructure formed by R atoms. From a
      first look, the series appears to be isostructural with recently reported
      R3Au7Sn3 (a ternary ordered derivative of the Cu10Sn3-structure type), but no
      example of R3Au9M is known when M is a triel or tetrel element. R3Au9Pn also
      contains Au@Au6Au2R3 fully capped trigonal prisms, which are found to be
      isostructural with those found in the well-researched R14Au51 series. This
      structural motif, not present in R3Au7Sn3, represents a previously unrecognized
      link between Cu10Sn3 and Gd14Ag51 parent structure types. Magnetic property
      measurements carried out for Ho3Au9Sb reveal a complex magnetic structure
      characterized by antiferromagnetic interactions at low temperature (TN = 10 K).
      Two metamagnetic transitions occur at high field with a change from
      antiferromagnetic toward ferromagnetic ordering. Density functional theory based
      computations were performed to understand the materials' properties and to shed
      some light on the stability ranges. This allowed a better understanding of the
      bonding pattern, especially of the Au-containing substructure, and elucidation of
      the role of the third element in the stability of the structure type.

PMID- 28581720
TI  - Halogen Bonding: A Powerful Tool for Modulation of Peptide Conformation.
AB  - Halogen bonding is a weak chemical force that has so far mostly found
      applications in crystal engineering. Despite its potential for use in drug
      discovery, as a new molecular tool in the direction of molecular recognition
      events, it has rarely been assessed in biopolymers. Motivated by this fact, we
      have developed a peptide model system that permits the quantitative evaluation of
      weak forces in a biologically relevant proteinlike environment and have applied
      it for the assessment of a halogen bond formed between two amino acid side
      chains. The influence of a single weak force is measured by detection of the
      extent to which it modulates the conformation of a cooperatively folding system.
      We have optimized the amino acid sequence of the model peptide on analogues with
      a hydrogen bond-forming site as a model for the intramolecular halogen bond to be
      studied, demonstrating the ability of the technique to provide information about
      any type of weak secondary interaction. A combined solution nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectroscopic and computational investigation demonstrates that an
      interstrand halogen bond is capable of conformational stabilization of a beta
      hairpin foldamer comparable to an analogous hydrogen bond. This is the first
      report of incorporation of a conformation-stabilizing halogen bond into a
      peptide/protein system, and the first quantification of a chlorine-centered
      halogen bond in a biologically relevant system in solution.

PMID- 28581721
TI  - A Fusion Protein of the p53 Transaction Domain and the p53-Binding Domain of the
      Oncoprotein MdmX as an Efficient System for High-Throughput Screening of MdmX
      Inhibitors.
AB  - In nearly half of cancers, the anticancer activity of p53 protein is often
      impaired by the overexpressed oncoprotein Mdm2 and its homologue, MdmX, demanding
      efficient therapeutics to disrupt the aberrant p53-MdmX/Mdm2 interactions to
      restore the p53 activity. While many potent Mdm2-specific inhibitors have already
      undergone clinical investigations, searching for MdmX-specific inhibitors has
      become very attractive, requiring a more efficient screening strategy for
      evaluating potential scaffolds or leads. In this work, considering that the
      intrinsic fluorescence residue Trp23 in the p53 transaction domain (p53p) plays
      an important role in determining the p53-MdmX/Mdm2 interactions, we constructed a
      fusion protein to utilize this intrinsic fluorescence signal to monitor high
      throughput screening of a compound library. The fusion protein was composed of
      the p53p followed by the N-terminal domain of MdmX (N-MdmX) through a flexible
      amino acid linker, while the whole fusion protein contained a sole intrinsic
      fluorescence probe. The fusion protein was then evaluated using fluorescence
      spectroscopy against model compounds. Our results revealed that the variation of
      the fluorescence signal was highly correlated with the concentration of the
      ligand within 65 MUM. The fusion protein was further evaluated with respect to
      its feasibility for use in high-throughput screening using a model compound
      library, including controls. We found that the imidazo-indole scaffold was a bona
      fide scaffold for template-based design of MdmX inhibitors. Thus, the p53p-N-MdmX
      fusion protein we designed provides a convenient and efficient tool for high
      throughput screening of new MdmX inhibitors. The strategy described in this work
      should be applicable for other protein targets to accelerate drug discovery.

PMID- 28581722
TI  - The PipX Protein, When Not Bound to Its Targets, Has Its Signaling C-Terminal
      Helix in a Flexed Conformation.
AB  - PipX, an 89-residue protein, acts as a coactivator of the global nitrogen
      regulator NtcA in cyanobacteria. NtcA-PipX interactions are regulated by 2
      oxoglutarate (2-OG), an inverse indicator of the ammonia abundance, and by PII, a
      protein that binds to PipX at low 2-OG concentrations. The structure of PipX,
      when bound to NtcA or PII, consists of an N-terminal, five-stranded beta-sheet
      (conforming a Tudor-like domain), and two long alpha-helices. These helices adopt
      either a flexed conformation, where they are in close contact and in an
      antiparallel mutual orientation, also packing against the beta-sheet, or an open
      conformation (observed only in the PII-PipX complex) where the last alpha-helix
      moves apart from the rest of the protein. The aim of this work was to study the
      structure and dynamics of isolated PipX in solution by NMR. The backbone chemical
      shifts, the hydrogen-exchange, and the NOE patterns indicated that the isolated,
      monomeric PipX structure was formed by an N-terminal five-stranded beta-sheet and
      two C-terminal alpha-helices. Furthermore, the observed NOEs between the two
      helices, and of alpha-helix2 with beta-strand2 suggested that PipX adopted a
      flexed conformation. The beta-strands 1 and 5 were highly flexible, as shown by
      the lack of interstrand backbone-backbone NOEs; in addition, the 15N-dynamics
      indicated that the C terminus of beta-strand4 and the following beta-turn (Phe42
      Thr47), and the C-cap of alpha-helix1 (Arg70-Asn71) were particularly mobile.
      These two regions could act as hinges, allowing PipX to interact with its
      partners, including PlmA in the newly recognized PII-PipX-PlmA ternary complex.

PMID- 28581723
TI  - Photochemical Formation of Nitrite and Nitrous Acid (HONO) upon Irradiation of
      Nitrophenols in Aqueous Solution and in Viscous Secondary Organic Aerosol Proxy.
AB  - Irradiated nitrophenols can produce nitrite and nitrous acid (HONO) in bulk
      aqueous solutions and in viscous aqueous films, simulating the conditions of a
      high-solute-strength aqueous aerosol, with comparable quantum yields in solution
      and viscous films (10-5-10-4 in the case of 4-nitrophenol) and overall reaction
      yields up to 0.3 in solution. The process is particularly important for the para
      nitrophenols, possibly because their less sterically hindered nitro groups can be
      released more easily as nitrite and HONO. The nitrophenols giving the highest
      photoproduction rates of nitrite and HONO (most notably, 4-nitrophenol and 2
      methyl-4-nitrophenol) could significantly contribute to the occurrence of nitrite
      in aqueous phases in contact with the atmosphere. Interestingly, dew-water
      evaporation has shown potential to contribute to the gas-phase HONO levels during
      the morning, which accounts for the possible importance of the studied process.

PMID- 28581724
TI  - Targeting Tumor Associated Phosphatidylserine with New Zinc Dipicolylamine-Based
      Drug Conjugates.
AB  - A series of zinc(II) dipicolylamine (ZnDPA)-based drug conjugates have been
      synthesized to probe the potential of phosphatidylserine (PS) as a new antigen
      for small molecule drug conjugate (SMDC) development. Using in vitro cytotoxicity
      and plasma stability studies, PS-binding assay, in vivo pharmacokinetic studies,
      and maximum tolerated dose profiles, we provided a roadmap and the key parameters
      required for the development of the ZnDPA based drug conjugate. In particular,
      conjugate 24 induced tumor regression in the COLO 205 xenograft model and
      exhibited a more potent antitumor effect with a 70% reduction of cytotoxic
      payload compared to that of the marketed irinotecan when dosed at the same
      regimen. In addition to the validation of PS as an effective pharmacodelivery
      target for SMDC, our work also provided the foundation that, if applicable, a
      variety of therapeutic agents could be conjugated in the same manner to treat
      other PS-associated diseases.

PMID- 28581725
TI  - Engineered Control of Genetic Variability Reveals Interplay among Quorum Sensing,
      Feedback Regulation, and Biochemical Noise.
AB  - Stochastic fluctuations in gene expression trigger both beneficial and harmful
      consequences for cell behavior. Therefore, achieving a desired mean protein
      expression level while minimizing noise is of interest in many applications,
      including robust protein production systems in industrial biotechnology. Here, we
      consider a synthetic gene circuit combining intracellular negative feedback and
      cell-to-cell communication based on quorum sensing. Accounting for both intrinsic
      and extrinsic noise, stochastic simulations allow us to analyze the capability of
      the circuit to reduce noise strength as a function of its parameters. We obtain
      mean expression levels and noise strengths for all species under different
      scenarios, showing good agreement with system-wide available experimental data of
      protein abundance and noise in Escherichia coli. Our in silico experiments,
      validated by preliminary in vivo results, reveal significant noise attenuation in
      gene expression through the interplay between quorum sensing and negative
      feedback and highlight the differential role that they play in regard to
      intrinsic and extrinsic noise.

PMID- 28581726
TI  - Ultrahigh-Resolution NMR Spectroscopy for Rapid Chemical and Biological
      Applications in Inhomogeneous Magnetic Fields.
AB  - NMR spectroscopy is a commonly used analytical technique in practical
      applications, and its applicability is further promoted by pure chemical shift
      techniques based on spectral simplification for analyses. Unfortunately, magnetic
      field inhomogeneity caused by adverse experimental conditions remains an obstacle
      restricting NMR applications. In this study, we introduce a new NMR method for
      high-resolution pure shift proton (1H) NMR measurements in inhomogeneous magnetic
      fields. We demonstrate that the method allows one to perform chemical analyses on
      complex solutions in deshimmed magnetic fields, to obtain metabolite information
      on intact biological tissues with intrinsic field inhomogeneities and to achieve
      in situ electrochemical detection under externally adverse field conditions. This
      approach is readily implemented on common commercial NMR instruments without
      field shimming and locking procedures, specialized hardware requirements as well
      as complicated sample pretreatments. It provides an effective tool for NMR
      applications to high-resolution chemical and biological measurements under
      inhomogeneous magnetic field conditions.

PMID- 28581727
TI  - Density Functional Theory Study of the Reaction between d0 Tungsten Alkylidyne
      Complexes and H2O: Addition versus Hydrolysis.
AB  - The reactions of early-transition-metal complexes with H2O have been
      investigated. An understanding of these elementary steps promotes the design of
      precursors for the preparation of metal oxide materials or supported
      heterogeneous catalysts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been
      conducted to investigate two elementary steps of the reactions between tungsten
      alkylidyne complexes and H2O, i.e., the addition of H2O to the W=C bond and
      ligand hydrolysis. Four tungsten alkylidyne complexes, W(=CSiMe3)(CH2SiMe3)3 (A
      1), W(=CSiMe3)(CH2tBu)3 (B-1), W(=CtBu)(CH2tBu)3 (C-1), and W(=CtBu)(OtBu)3 (D
      1), have been compared. The DFT studies provide an energy profile of the two
      competing pathways. An additional H2O molecule can serve as a proton shuttle,
      accelerating the H2O addition reaction. The effect of atoms at the alpha and beta
      positions has also been examined. Because the lone-pair electrons of an O atom at
      the alpha position can interact with the orbital of the proton, the barrier of
      the ligand-hydrolysis reaction for D-1 is dramatically reduced. Both the
      electronic and steric effects of the silyl group at the beta position lower the
      barriers of both the H2O addition and ligand-hydrolysis reactions. These new
      mechanistic findings may lead to the further development of metal complex
      precursors.

PMID- 28581728
TI  - A Microporous Aluminosilicate with 12-, 12-, and 8-Ring Pores and Isolated 8-Ring
      Channels.
AB  - Synthesis of new zeolites with controlled pore architectures is important in the
      field of catalysis and separation related to chemical transformation,
      environmental protection, and energy-saving. Zeolites containing channels of
      different sizes in the same framework have been desirable. We report here the
      synthesis and structure of a novel aluminosilicate zeolite (designated as YNU-5),
      the first zeolite containing interconnected 12-, 12-, and 8-ring pores, as well
      as independent straight 8-ring channels. The synthesis procedure is quite simple
      and consists of conventional hydrothermal conditions as well as readily available
      starting materials. The framework structure is stable enough and Si/Al ratio is
      controllable between 9 and 350. Determination of the crystal structure is
      performed by utilizing X-ray diffraction-based techniques, revealing 9
      independent tetrahedrally coordinated atoms. This robust structure is expected to
      be industrially valuable and several unusual combinations of composite building
      units are of considerable interest in an academic sense. The new zeolite YNU-5 is
      promising catalyst for the production of useful light olefins such as propylene
      and butylenes in the dimethyl ether-to-olefin reaction, when the Si/Al ratio is
      properly tuned by dealumination through simple acid treatments.

PMID- 28581730
TI  - Tellurotungstate-Based Organotin-Rare-Earth Heterometallic Hybrids with Four
      Organic Components.
AB  - A family of unprecedented tellurotungstate-based organotin-rare-earth (RE)
      heterometallic hybrids [H2N(CH3)2]6H12Na2 {[Sn(CH3)W2O4(IN)][(B-alpha
      TeW8O31)RE(H2O) (Ac)]2}2.25H2O [RE = CeIII (1), PrIII (2), NdIII (3), SmIII (4),
      EuIII (5), GdIII (6), TbIII (7); HIN = isonicotinic acid, HAc = acetic acid] were
      synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra, UV spectra,
      thermogravimetric analyses, powder X-ray diffraction, and single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction. The polyoxoanionic skeletons {[Sn(CH3)W2O4(IN)][(B-alpha
      TeW8O31)RE(H2O) (Ac)]2}220- of 1-7 are constructed from two symmetrical units
      {[Sn(CH3)W2O4(IN)][(B-alpha-TeW8O31)RE(H2O) (Ac)]2}10- linked by two acetate
      connectors, which not only represent the first inorganic-organic hybrid RE
      substituted tellurotungstates involving three different organic ligands, but also
      stand for the first samples of organotin-RE heterometallic polyoxometalate
      derivatives. The solid-state luminescent emission properties of 2-5 mainly
      display the characteristic emission bands of REIII cations, whereas during the
      emission procedure of 7, [B-alpha-TeW8O31]10- segments make a nonignorable
      contribution to the PL behavior of 7 accompanying by the occurrence of the
      intramolecular energy transfer from O->W LMCT energy to Tb3+ centers.
      Furthermore, 4@CTAB composites with peanutlike and honeycombed morphologies were
      prepared by a surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The time-resolved
      emission spectra of the 4@CTAB composite with CTAB/4 = 0.033/0.05 consolidate the
      energy transfer from CTAB to REIII centers. Variable-temperature magnetic
      susceptibility measurements for 2, 3, and 4 were performed.

PMID- 28581729
TI  - Conformational Heterogeneity and the Affinity of Substrate Molecular Recognition
      by Cytochrome P450cam.
AB  - The broad and variable substrate specificity of cytochrome P450 enzymes makes
      them a model system for studying the determinants of protein molecular
      recognition. The archetypal cytochrome P450cam (P450cam) is a relatively specific
      P450, a feature once attributed to the high rigidity of its active site. However,
      increasingly studies have provided evidence of the importance of conformational
      changes to P450cam activity. Here we used infrared (IR) spectroscopy to
      investigate the molecular recognition of P450cam. Toward this goal, and to assess
      the influence of a hydrogen bond (H-bond) between active site residue Y96 and
      substrates, two variants in which Y96 is replaced by a cyanophenyl (Y96CNF) or
      phenyl (Y96F) group were characterized in complexes with the substrates camphor,
      isoborneol, and camphane. These combinations allow for a comparison of complexes
      in which the moieties on both the protein and substrate can serve as a H-bond
      donor, acceptor, or neither. The IR spectra of heme-bound CO and the site
      specifically incorporated CN of Y96CNF were analyzed to characterize the number
      and nature of environments in each protein, both in the free and bound states.
      Although the IR spectra do not support the idea that protein-substrate H-bonding
      is central to P450cam recognition, the data altogether suggest that the differing
      conformational heterogeneity in the active site of the P450cam variants and
      changes in heterogeneity upon binding of different substrates likely contribute
      to their variable affinities via a conformational selection mechanism. This study
      further extends our understanding of the molecular recognition of archetypal
      P450cam and demonstrates the application of IR spectroscopy combined with
      selective protein modification to delineate protein-ligand interactions.

PMID- 28581732
TI  - Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Perovskite SrSnO3 Nanocrystals in Ionic Liquids
      for Photocatalytic Applications.
AB  - Nanosized SrSnO3 photocatalysts have been successfully synthesized by microwave
      synthesis in various ionic liquids (ILs) followed by a heat treatment process to
      optimize the materials' crystallinity. The influence of the ILs with various
      cations such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium ([C4mim]+), 6-bis(3-methylimidazolium
      1-yl)hexane ([C6(mim)2]2+), butylpyridinium ([C4Py]+), and
      tetradecyltrihexylphosphonium ([P66614]+) and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide
      ([Tf2N]-) as the anion on the structure, crystallization, and morphology of the
      products was investigated. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction
      (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface area
      analysis by gas adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffuse
      reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, and Raman and IR spectroscopy. According to
      structure characterization by XRD and Raman spectroscopy all samples crystallized
      phase-pure in the orthorhombic GdFeO3 perovskite structure type. SEM reveals
      that, on the basis of the IL, the obtained SrSnO3 nanoparticles exhibit different
      morphologies and sizes. Rod-shaped particles are formed in [C4mim][Tf2N],
      [C6(mim)2][Tf2N]2, and [P66614][Tf2N]. However, the particle dimensions and size
      distribution vary depending on the IL and range from quite thin and long
      needlelike particles with a narrow size distribution obtained in [P66614][Tf2N]
      to relatively larger particles with a broader size distribution obtained in
      [C6(mim)2][Tf2N]2. In contrast, in [C4Py][Tf2N] nanospheres with a diameter of
      about 50 nm form. For these particles the highest photocatalytic activity was
      observed. Our investigations indicate that the improved photocatalytic activity
      of this material results from the synergistic effect of the relatively large
      surface area associated with nanosize and an appropriate energy band structure.

PMID- 28581731
TI  - Synthesis of a Bifunctional Peptide Inhibitor-IgG1 Fc Fusion That Suppresses
      Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.
AB  - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease that is estimated to
      affect over 2.3 million people worldwide. The exact cause for this disease is
      unknown but involves immune system attack and destruction of the myelin protein
      surrounding the neurons in the central nervous system. One promising class of
      compounds that selectively prevent the activation of immune cells involved in the
      pathway leading to myelin destruction are bifunctional peptide inhibitors (BPIs).
      Treatment with BPIs reduces neurodegenerative symptoms in experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of MS. In this work, as an effort to
      further improve the bioactivity of BPIs, BPI peptides were conjugated to the N-
      and C-termini of the fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of the human IgG1
      antibody. Initially, the two peptides were conjugated to IgG1 Fc using
      recombinant DNA technology. However, expression in yeast resulted in low yields
      and one of the peptides being heavily proteolyzed. To circumvent this problem,
      the poorly expressed peptide was instead produced by solid phase peptide
      synthesis and conjugated enzymatically using a sortase-mediated ligation. The
      sortase-mediated method showed near-complete conjugation yield as observed by SDS
      PAGE and mass spectrometry in small-scale reactions. This method was scaled up to
      obtain sufficient quantities for testing the BPI-Fc fusion in mice induced with
      EAE. Compared to the PBS-treated control, mice treated with the BPI-Fc fusion
      showed significantly reduced disease symptoms, did not experience weight loss,
      and showed reduced de-myelination. These results demonstrate that the BPI
      peptides were highly active at suppressing EAE when conjugated to the large Fc
      scaffold in this manner.

PMID- 28581733
TI  - Evaluation of Novel Routes for NOx Formation in Remote Regions.
AB  - Photochemical cycling of nitrogen oxides (NOx) produces tropospheric ozone (O3),
      and NOx is traditionally considered to be directly emitted. The inability of
      current global models to accurately calculate NOx levels, and concurrently,
      difficulties in performing direct NOx measurements in low-NOx regimes (several
      pptv or several tens of pptv) globally introduce a large uncertainty in the
      modeling of O3 formation. Here, we use the near-explicit Master Chemical
      Mechanism (MCM v3.2) within a 0D box-model framework, to describe the chemistry
      of NOx and O3 in the remote marine boundary layer at Cape Verde. We explore the
      impact of a recently discovered NOx recycling route, namely photolysis of
      particulate nitrate, on the modeling of NOx abundance and O3 formation. The model
      is constrained to observations of long-lived species, meteorological parameters,
      and photolysis frequencies. Only a model with this novel NOx recycling route
      reproduces levels of gaseous nitrous acid, NO, and NO2 within the model and
      measurement uncertainty. O3 formation from NO oxidation is several times more
      efficient than previously considered. This study highlights the need for the
      inclusion of particulate nitrate photolysis in future models for O3 and for the
      photolysis rate of particulate nitrate to be quantified under variable
      atmospheric conditions.

PMID- 28581734
TI  - Nitrosamine Formation in Amine-Based CO2 Capture in the Absence of NO2: Molecular
      Modeling and Experimental Validation.
AB  - A computational chemistry approach was used to elucidate and verify the different
      nitrosamine formation mechanisms and pathways. These included nitrosamine
      formation under acid or basic environments in the presence of NO, O2, SO2 and CO2
      without NO2. The results clearly showed that nitrosamine could be formed without
      NO2 via 2 different types of mechanisms, namely, addition and elimination forming
      N-N bond before proton transfer and proton transfer before N-N bond formation,
      respectively. The essence of these mechanisms identified in this work was that
      two reaction steps were required to complete both reaction mechanisms with
      different nitrosating agents. Two steps were both necessary neither of which
      could be neglected, if the nitrosamine formation reaction was to be completed.
      Computational simulation performed on the reactant, intermediate, transition
      state, and product for each set of reactions also validated the proposed
      mechanisms. Experiment also detected nitrosamine from the reaction of
      diethylamine and NO, SO2, O2, and CO2 in both liquid and gas phase. Thus, NO2 is
      not necessary for nitrosamine formation to occur in the CO2 capture system.

PMID- 28581736
TI  - Highly Efficient Malolactic Fermentation of Red Wine Using Encapsulated Bacteria
      in a Robust Biocomposite of Silica-Alginate.
AB  - Bacteria encapsulation to develop malolactic fermentation emerges as a
      biotechnological strategy that provides significant advantages over the use of
      free cells. Two encapsulation methods have been proposed embedding Oenococcus
      oeni, (i) interpenetrated polymer networks of silica and Ca-alginate and (ii) Ca
      alginate capsules coated with hydrolyzed 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (hAPTES).
      On the basis of our results, only the first method was suitable for bacteria
      encapsulation. The optimized silica-alginate capsules exhibited a negligible
      bacteria release and an increase of 328% and 65% in L-malic acid consumption and
      mechanical robustness, respectively, compared to untreated alginate capsules.
      Moreover, studies of capsule stability at different pH and ethanol concentrations
      in water solutions and in wine indicated a better behavior of silica-alginate
      capsules than untreated ones. The inclusion of silicates and colloidal silica in
      alginate capsules containing O. oeni improved markedly their capacity to deplete
      the levels of L-malic acid in red wines and their mechanical robustness and
      stability.

PMID- 28581735
TI  - Covalent Capture of Aligned Self-Assembling Nanofibers.
AB  - A great deal of effort has been invested in the design and characterization of
      systems which spontaneously assemble into nanofibers. These systems are
      interesting for their fundamental supramolecular chemistry and have also been
      shown to be promising materials, particularly for biomedical applications.
      Multidomain peptides are one such assembler, and in previous work we have
      demonstrated the reversibility of their assembly under mild and easily controlled
      conditions, along with their utility for time-controlled drug delivery, protein
      delivery, cell encapsulation, and cell delivery applications. Additionally, their
      highly compliant criteria for sequence selection allows them to be modified to
      incorporate protease susceptibility and biological-recognition motifs for cell
      adhesion and angiogenesis. However, control of their assembly has been limited to
      the formation of disorganized nanofibers. In this work, we expand our ability to
      manipulate multidomain-peptide assembly into parallel-aligned fiber bundles.
      Albeit this alignment is achieved by the shearing forces of syringe delivery, it
      is also dependent on the amino acid sequence of the multidomain peptide. The
      incorporation of the amino acid DOPA (3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) allows the self
      assembled nanofibers to form an anisotropic hydrogel string under modest shear
      stress. The hydrogel string shows remarkable birefringence, and highly aligned
      nanofibers are visible in scanning electronic microscopy. Furthermore, the
      covalent linkage induced by DOPA oxidation allows covalent capture of the aligned
      nanofiber bundles, enhancing their birefringence and structural integrity.

PMID- 28581737
TI  - Enzymatic Profile of 'Willamette' Raspberry Leaf and Fruit Affected by
      Prohexadione-Ca and Young Canes Removal Treatments.
AB  - The influence of growth regulator prohexadione-Ca (ProCa) concurrently with young
      canes removal on the modification of photosynthetic pigments content and
      antioxidant enzymes (peroxidase, POD; catalase, CAT; polyphenol oxidase, PPO;
      superoxide dismutase, SOD) activities in leaves and fruits of raspberry (Rubus
      idaeus L.) cultivar 'Willamette' was studied. ProCa increased while canes removal
      decreased chlorophylls and carotenoids content compared to control. POD, CAT, and
      PPO activities in leaves after removal of young canes were higher compared to
      control (2-4 times) which was visually confirmed for POD by isoelectrofocusing.
      Removal of young canes slithly increased, while ProCa significantly enhanced SOD
      activity in leaves compared to control (475.10 and 218.38 nkat mg-1 prot,
      respectively). Pattern of SOD activity in fruit was similar as in leaf with
      substantial increase compared to control (about 15 times). Combination of
      implemented measures increased activity of all enzymes in the leaves and fruits.
      Our study could provide a better knowledge of the ProCa and canes removal
      influences on the action of enzymes in order to regulate their activities in
      fruit products.

PMID- 28581738
TI  - Identification and Quantitation of Furocoumarins in Popularly Consumed Foods in
      the U.S. Using QuEChERS Extraction Coupled with UPLC-MS/MS Analysis.
AB  - Furocoumarins are a class of photoactive compounds found in several plant species
      and may be responsible for the observed association between consumption of citrus
      products and the risk of skin cancer. Furocoumarin contents of several foods have
      been reported previously, but no comprehensive database of furocoumarin content
      of foods is currently available. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the
      distribution of furocoumarins in popularly consumed foods in the U.S. Samples of
      three varieties of each of 29 foods known or suspected to contain furocoumarins
      were purchased, prepared for analysis using a solid phase extraction method, and
      analyzed using UPLC-MS/MS for the presence of seven major furocoumarins. Most
      foods measured contained more than one furocoumarin, and some contained all seven
      of the furocoumarins examined. Total furocoumarin concentration was greatest in
      fresh parsley (23215 ng/g), grapefruits (21858 ng/g), lime juice (14580 ng/g),
      grapefruit juice (95341 ng/g), and limes (9151 ng/g). Bergamottin was found in
      the greatest proportion of foods sampled (23 of 29), followed by bergapten (19 of
      29) and 6'7'-dihydroxybergamottin (16 of 29). These measurements will enable more
      accurate estimation of dietary furocoumarin exposure and will strengthen future
      epidemiological work investigating the relationships between furocoumarin intake
      and health outcomes.

PMID- 28581739
TI  - Total Syntheses of Malabaricones B and C via a Cross-Metathesis Strategy.
AB  - The malabaricones A-D belong to the class of diarylnonanoids isolated from the
      Myristicaceae family of plants. Although malabaricone C displayed various
      interesting biological activities, its isolation remains tedious due to its close
      chemical similarity to malabaricones A, B, and D. Therefore, development of an
      efficient synthesis route has become essential to cater to the need of large
      amounts of malabaricone C for its pharmacological profiling. So far there is only
      one report of the synthesis of malabaricone C through a lengthy sequence of
      reactions. We have developed an efficient and short route for the syntheses of
      malabaricones B and C, which will also provide a convenient access to all other
      members of the malabaricone family. Synthesis of an important building block,
      omega-aryl heptyl bromide, employed in the synthesis was realized by adopting a
      cross-metathesis reaction as the key step.

PMID- 28581740
TI  - Conformational Selection as the Mechanism of Guest Binding in a Flexible
      Supramolecular Host.
AB  - This study offers a detailed mechanistic investigation of host-guest
      encapsulation behavior in a new enzyme-mimetic metal-ligand host and provides the
      first observation of a conformational selection mechanism (as opposed to induced
      fit) in a supramolecular system. The Ga4L4 host described features a C3-symmetric
      ligand motif with meta-substituted phenyl spacers, which enables the host to
      initially self-assemble into an S4-symmetric structure and then subsequently
      isomerize to a T-symmetric tetrahedron for better accommodation of a sufficiently
      large guest. Selective inversion recovery 1H NMR studies provide structural
      insights into the self-exchange behaviors of the host and the guest individually
      in this dynamic system. Kinetic analysis of the encapsulation-isomerization event
      revealed that increasing the concentration of guest inhibits the rate of host
      guest relaxation, a key distinguishing feature of conformational selection. A
      comprehensive study of this simple enzyme mimic provides insight into analogous
      behavior in biophysics and enzymology and aims to inform the design of efficient
      self-assembled microenvironment catalysts.

PMID- 28581741
TI  - Overexpression of HvHGGT Enhances Tocotrienol Levels and Antioxidant Activity in
      Barley.
AB  - Vitamin E is a potent lipid-soluble antioxidant and essential nutrient for human
      health. Tocotrienols are the major form of vitamin E in seeds of most monocots.
      It has been known that homogentisate geranylgeranyl transferase (HGGT) catalyzes
      the committed step of tocotrienol biosynthesis. In the present study, we
      generated transgenic barley overexpressing HvHGGT under endogenous D-Hordein
      promoter (proHor). Overexpression of HvHGGT increased seed size and seed weight
      in transgenic barley. Notably, total tocotrienol content increased by 10-15% in
      seeds of transgenic lines, due to the increased levels of delta-, beta-, and
      gamma-tocotrienol, but not alpha-tocotrienol. Total tocopherol content decreased
      by 14-18% in transgenic lines, compared to wild type. The antioxidant activity of
      seeds was determined by using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'
      azinobis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and lipid peroxidation
      assays. Compared to wild type, radical scavenging activity of seed extracts was
      enhanced by 17-18% in transgenic lines. Meanwhile, the lipid peroxidation level
      was decreased by about 20% in transgenic barley seeds. Taken together,
      overexpression of HvHGGT enhanced the tocotrienol levels and antioxidant capacity
      in barley seeds.

PMID- 28581742
TI  - A Simple and Fast Extraction Method for the Determination of Multiclass
      Antibiotics in Eggs Using LC-MS/MS.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a simple, fast, and
      specific extraction method for the analysis of 64 antibiotics from nine classes
      (including sulfonamides, quinolones, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamide,
      nitrofurans, beta-lactams, nitromidazoles, and cloramphenicols) in chicken eggs.
      Briefly, egg samples were simply extracted with a mixture of acetonitrile-water
      (90:10, v/v) and 0.1 mol.L-1 Na2EDTA solution assisted with ultrasonic. The
      extract was centrifuged, condensed, and directly analyzed on a liquid
      chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Compared with conventional
      cleanup methods (passing through solid phase extract cartridges), the established
      method demonstrated comparable efficiencies in eliminating matrix effects and
      higher or equivalent recoveries for most of the target compounds. Typical
      validation parameters including specificity, linearity, matrix effect, limits of
      detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs), the decision limit, detection
      capability, trueness, and precision were evaluated. The recoveries of target
      compounds ranged from 70.8% to 116.1% at three spiking levels (5, 20, and 50
      MUg.kg-1), with relative standard deviations less than 14%. LODs and LOQs were in
      the ranges of 0.005-2.00 MUg.kg-1 and 0.015-6.00 MUg.kg-1 for all of the
      antibiotics, respectively. A total of five antibiotics were successfully detected
      in 22 commercial eggs from local markets. This work suggests that the method is
      suitable for the analysis of multiclass antibiotics in eggs.

PMID- 28581743
TI  - Tethered 1,2-Si-Group Migrations in Radical-Mediated Ring Enlargements of Cyclic
      Alkoxysilanes: An EPR Spectroscopic and Computational Investigation.
AB  - 5- to 6-member ring enlargements of 3-oxa-2-silacyclopentylmethyl to 4-oxa-3
      silacyclohexyl radicals were investigated by EPR spectroscopy and QM computations
      of model indano-oxasilacyclopentane and oxasilinanyl compounds. Both experimental
      and computational evidence favored a mechanism via a concerted 1,2-migration of
      the "tethered" Si-group. Thus, the "forbidden" 1,2-Si-group migration from carbon
      to carbon becomes allowed when the Si-group is "tethered". The EPR data from 3
      oxa-2-silacyclopentylmethyl radicals disclosed ground state conformations having
      semioccupied p-orbitals close to antiperiplanar with respect to their beta-Si-C
      bonds, but indicated Si-hyperconjugation (beta-silicon effect) was insignificant
      in radicals. Kinetic data was obtained by the steady state EPR method for ring
      enlargement of indano-3-oxa-2-silacyclopentylmethyl radicals. The scope of the
      novel rearrangement in terms of other ring types and sizes, as well as the
      analogous 1,2-migration of "tethered" C-centered groups, was explored
      computationally.

PMID- 28581744
TI  - Lignans from the Roots of Taxus wallichiana and Their alpha-Glucosidase
      Inhibitory Activities.
AB  - From an EtOAc-soluble extract of the roots of Taxus wallichiana, six new (1-6)
      and 11 known lignans were isolated. The structures of the new compounds were
      elucidated based on interpretation of spectroscopic data. (+)-7'-epi-Tsugacetal
      (1) is a rare aryltetralin-type lignan having a cis-orientation of H-7' and H-8'.
      Compounds 3-6 were identified as the first naturally occurring tetrahydrofuranoid
      lignans having a cis-orientation of H-7 and H-8. All tested compounds were found
      to possess alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity, with formosanol (9) showing the
      most potent effect with an IC50 value of 35.3 MUM.

PMID- 28581746
TI  - Reliable Estimation of Prediction Uncertainty for Physicochemical Property
      Models.
AB  - One of the major challenges in computational science is to determine the
      uncertainty of a virtual measurement, that is the prediction of an observable
      based on calculations. As highly accurate first-principles calculations are in
      general unfeasible for most physical systems, one usually resorts to parameteric
      property models of observables, which require calibration by incorporating
      reference data. The resulting predictions and their uncertainties are sensitive
      to systematic errors such as inconsistent reference data, parametric model
      assumptions, or inadequate computational methods. Here, we discuss the
      calibration of property models in the light of bootstrapping, a sampling method
      that can be employed for identifying systematic errors and for reliable
      estimation of the prediction uncertainty. We apply bootstrapping to assess a
      linear property model linking the 57Fe Mossbauer isomer shift to the contact
      electron density at the iron nucleus for a diverse set of 44 molecular iron
      compounds. The contact electron density is calculated with 12 density functionals
      across Jacob's ladder (PWLDA, BP86, BLYP, PW91, PBE, M06-L, TPSS, B3LYP, B3PW91,
      PBE0, M06, TPSSh). We provide systematic-error diagnostics and reliable, locally
      resolved uncertainties for isomer-shift predictions. Pure and hybrid density
      functionals yield average prediction uncertainties of 0.06-0.08 mm s-1 and 0.04
      0.05 mm s-1, respectively, the latter being close to the average experimental
      uncertainty of 0.02 mm s-1. Furthermore, we show that both model parameters and
      prediction uncertainty depend significantly on the composition and number of
      reference data points. Accordingly, we suggest that rankings of density
      functionals based on performance measures (e.g., the squared coefficient of
      correlation, r2, or the root-mean-square error, RMSE) should not be inferred from
      a single data set. This study presents the first statistically rigorous
      calibration analysis for theoretical Mossbauer spectroscopy, which is of general
      applicability for physicochemical property models and not restricted to isomer
      shift predictions. We provide the statistically meaningful reference data set
      MIS39 and a new calibration of the isomer shift based on the PBE0 functional.

PMID- 28581745
TI  - Transient Formation and Reactivity of a High-Valent Nickel(IV) Oxido Complex.
AB  - A reactive high-valent dinuclear nickel(IV) oxido bridged complex is reported
      that can be formed at room temperature by reaction of [(L)2Ni(II)2(MU-X)3]X (X =
      Cl or Br) with NaOCl in methanol or acetonitrile (where L = 1,4,7-trimethyl-1,4,7
      triazacyclononane). The unusual Ni(IV) oxido species is stabilized within a
      dinuclear tris-MU-oxido-bridged structure as [(L)2Ni(IV)2(MU-O)3]2+. Its
      structure and its reactivity with organic substrates are demonstrated through a
      combination of UV-vis absorption, resonance Raman, 1H NMR, EPR, and X-ray
      absorption (near-edge) spectroscopy, ESI mass spectrometry, and DFT methods. The
      identification of a Ni(IV)-O species opens opportunities to control the
      reactivity of NaOCl for selective oxidations.

PMID- 28581748
TI  - High-Pressure Effects on Hofmann-Type Clathrates: Promoted Release and Restricted
      Insertion of Guest Molecules.
AB  - The search for effective methods to accurately control host-guest relationship is
      the central theme of host-guest chemistry. In this work, high pressure
      successfully promotes guest release in the Hofmann-type clathrate of
      [Ni(NH3)2Ni(CN)4].2C6H6 (Ni-Bz) and restricts guest insertion into
      Ni(NH3)2Ni(CN)4 (Ni-Ni). Because of the weak host-guest interactions of Ni-Bz,
      external force gradually removes guest benzene from the host framework, leading
      to puckered layers. Further theoretical calculations reveal the positive pressure
      contribution to breaking the energy barrier between Ni-Bz and Ni-Ni, explaining
      guest release from an energy standpoint. Inversely, guest insertion is restricted
      in the synthesized host of Ni-Ni because of the steric hindrance effect at high
      pressure. This study not only reveals structural effects on host-guest behaviors
      but also proves the role of pressure in controlling host-guest interactions. This
      unique observation is also crucial for the further application of host-guest
      materials in sustained and intelligent drug release, molecular separation, and
      transportation.

PMID- 28581747
TI  - Catalytic Enantioselective [3 + 2] Cycloaddition of alpha-Keto Ester Enolates and
      Nitrile Oxides.
AB  - An enantioselective [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction between nitrile oxides and
      transiently generated enolates of alpha-keto esters has been developed. The
      catalyst system was found to be compatible with in situ nitrile oxide-generation
      conditions. A versatile array of nitrile oxides and alpha-keto esters could
      participate in the cycloaddition, providing novel 5-hydroxy-2-isoxazolines in
      high chemical yield with high levels of diastereo- and enantioselectivity.
      Notably, the optimal reaction conditions circumvented concurrent reactions via O
      imidoylation and hetero-[3 + 2] pathways.

PMID- 28581750
TI  - J-Type Heteroexciton Coupling Effect on an Asymmetric Donor-Acceptor-Donor-Type
      Fluorophore.
AB  - The novel donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D)-type fluorophore with an asymmetric
      structure is reported. The twisted-induced charge transfer (TICT) luminescence
      was observed. The degree of charge transfer and radiative rate constant in the
      luminescence increased simultaneously with increase in orientational
      polarizability of solvents. In contrast to the numerous CT fluorophore
      researches, this behavior has never been previously observed. This characteristic
      behavior reveals the existence of an effective exciton coupling between the CT
      states in the donor-acceptor-donor-type fluorophore for the first time.

PMID- 28581749
TI  - A Novel Series of Highly Potent Small Molecule Inhibitors of Rhinovirus
      Replication.
AB  - Human rhinoviruses (hRVs) are the main causative pathogen for common colds and
      are associated with the exacerbation of asthma. The wide variety in hRV serotypes
      has complicated the development of rhinovirus replication inhibitors. In the
      current investigation, we developed a novel series of benzothiophene derivatives
      and their analogues (6-8) that potently inhibit the replication of both hRV-A and
      hRV-B strains. Compound 6g inhibited the replication of hRV-B14, A21, and A71,
      with respective EC50 values of 0.083, 0.078, and 0.015 MUM. The results of a time
      of-addition study against hRV-B14 and hRV-A16 and resistant mutation analysis on
      hRV-B14 implied that 6g acts at the early stage of the viral replication process,
      interacting with viral capsid protein. A molecular docking study suggested that
      6g has a capsid-binding mode similar to that of pleconaril. Finally, derivatives
      of 6 also displayed significant inhibition against poliovirus 3 (PV3)
      replication, implying their potential inhibitory activities against other
      enterovirus species.

PMID- 28581751
TI  - Simple Fully Nonlocal Density Functionals for Electronic Repulsion Energy.
AB  - From a simplified version of the mathematical structure of the strong coupling
      limit of the exact exchange-correlation functional, we construct an approximation
      for the electronic repulsion energy at physical coupling strength, which is fully
      nonlocal. This functional is self-interaction free and yields energy densities
      within the definition of the electrostatic potential of the exchange-correlation
      hole that are locally accurate and have the correct asymptotic behavior. The
      model is able to capture strong correlation effects that arise from chemical bond
      dissociation, without relying on error cancellation. These features, which are
      usually missed by standard density functional theory (DFT) functionals, are
      captured by the highly nonlocal structure, which goes beyond the "Jacob's ladder"
      framework for functional construction, by using integrals of the density as the
      key ingredient. Possible routes for obtaining the full exchange-correlation
      functional by recovering the missing kinetic component of the correlation energy
      are also implemented and discussed.

PMID- 28581752
TI  - Semilocal Exchange Energy Functional for Two-Dimensional Quantum Systems: A Step
      Beyond Generalized Gradient Approximations.
AB  - Semilocal density functionals for the exchange-correlation energy of electrons
      are extensively used as they produce realistic and accurate results for finite
      and extended systems. The choice of techniques plays a crucial role in
      constructing such functionals of improved accuracy and efficiency. An accurate
      and efficient semilocal exchange energy functional in two dimensions is
      constructed by making use of the corresponding hole which is derived based on the
      density matrix expansion. The exchange hole involved is localized under the
      generalized coordinate transformation and satisfies all the relevant constraints.
      Comprehensive testing and excellent performance of the functional is demonstrated
      versus exact exchange results. The accuracy of results obtained by using the
      newly constructed functional is quite remarkable as it substantially reduces the
      errors present in the local and nonempirical exchange functionals proposed so far
      for two-dimensional quantum systems. The underlying principles involved in the
      functional construction are physically appealing and hold promise for developing
      range separated and nonlocal exchange functionals in two dimensions.

PMID- 28581753
TI  - Observation of Rhenium Anion and Electron Affinity of Re.
AB  - It was believed that the rhenium anion Re- was not stable, just like Mn-. We
      report the observation of Re- in the laser ablation ion source and the further
      confirmation via the high-resolution photoelectron spectra of Re-. The ground
      state of Re- ions is 5d66s2 5D4. The electron affinity of rhenium is determined
      to be 487.13(51) cm-1 or 60.396(63) meV.

PMID- 28581754
TI  - Phase-Engineering-Induced Generation and Control of Highly Anisotropic and Robust
      Excitons in Few-Layer ReS2.
AB  - The anisotropic exciton behavior in two-dimensional materials induced by spin
      orbit coupling or anisotropic spatial confinement has been exploited in imaging
      applications. Herein, we propose a new strategy to generate high-energy and
      robust anisotropic excitons in few-layer ReS2 nanosheets by phase engineering.
      This approach overcomes the limitation imposed by the layer thickness, enabling
      production of visible polarized photoluminescence at room temperature. Ultrasonic
      chemical exfoliation is implemented to introduce the metallic T phase of ReS2
      into the few-layer semiconducting Td nanosheets. In this configuration, light
      excitation can readily produce "hot" electrons to tunnel to the Td phase via the
      metal-semiconductor interface to enhance the overlap between the wave functions
      and screened Coulomb interactions. Owing to the strong electron-hole interaction,
      significant increase in the optical band gap is observed. Highly anisotropic and
      tightly bound excitons with visible light emission (1.5-2.25 eV) are produced and
      can be controlled by tailoring the T phase concentration. This novel strategy
      allows manipulation of polarized optical information and has great potential in
      optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28581755
TI  - Reversible Concentration-Dependent Photoluminescence Quenching and Change of
      Emission Color in CsPbBr3 Nanowires and Nanoplatelets.
AB  - We discuss the photoluminescence (PL) of quantum-confined CsPbBr3 colloidal
      nanocrystals of two different shapes (nanowires and nanoplatelets) at different
      concentrations in solution and in solid-state films. Upon increasing the
      nanocrystal concentration in solution, a constant drop in photoluminescence
      quantum yield is observed, accompanied by a significant PL red shift. This effect
      is reversible, and the original PL can be restored by diluting to the original
      concentration. We show that this effect can be in part attributed to self
      absorption and partly to aggregation. In particular, for nanoplatelets, where the
      aggregation is mostly irreversible, while the self-absorption effect is
      reversible, the two contributions can be well separated. Finally, when dry solid
      state films are prepared, the emission band is shifted into the green spectral
      region, close to the bulk CsPbBr3 band gap, thus preventing blue emission from
      such films.

PMID- 28581756
TI  - Cl-Loss Dynamics of Vinyl Chloride Cations in the B2A" State: Role of the C2A'
      State.
AB  - The dissociative photoionization of vinyl chloride (C2H3Cl) in the 11.0-14.2 eV
      photon energy range was investigated using threshold photoelectron photoion
      coincidence (TPEPICO) velocity map imaging. Three electronic states, namely,
      A2A', B2A", and C2A', of the C2H3Cl+ cation were prepared, and their dissociation
      dynamics were investigated. A unique fragment ion, C2H3+, was observed within the
      excitation energy range. TPEPICO three-dimensional time-sliced velocity map
      images of C2H3+ provided the kinetic energy release distributions (KERD) and
      anisotropy parameters in dissociation of internal-energy-selected C2H3Cl+
      cations. At 13.14 eV, the total KERD showed a bimodal distribution consisting of
      Boltzmann- and Gaussian-type components, indicating a competition between
      statistical and non-statistical dissociation mechanisms. An additional Gaussian
      type component was found in the KERD at 13.65 eV, a center of which was located
      at a lower kinetic energy. The overall dissociative photoionization mechanisms of
      C2H3Cl+ in the B2A" and C2A' states are proposed based on time-dependent density
      functional theory calculations of the Cl-loss potential energy curves. Our
      results highlight the inconsistency of previous conclusions on the dissociation
      mechanism of C2H3Cl+.

PMID- 28581757
TI  - Impact of Hydrogen Bonding in the Binding Site between Capsid Protein and MS2
      Bacteriophage ssRNA.
AB  - MS2 presents a well-studied example of a single-stranded RNA virus for which the
      genomic RNA plays a pivotal role in the virus assembly process based on the
      packaging signal-mediated mechanism. Packaging signals (PSs) are multiple
      dispersed RNA sequence/structure motifs varying around a central recognition
      motif that interact in a specific way with the capsid protein in the assembly
      process. Although the discovery and identification of these PSs was based on
      bioinformatics and geometric approaches, in tandem with sophisticated
      experimental protocols, we approach this problem using large-scale ab initio
      computation centered on critical aspects of the consensus protein-RNA
      interactions recognition motif. DFT calculations are carried out on two
      nucleoprotein complexes: wild-type and mutated (PDB IDs: 1ZDH and 5MSF ). The
      calculated partial charge distribution of residues and the strength of hydrogen
      bonding (HB) between them enabled us to locate the exact binding sites with the
      strongest HBs, identified to be LYS43-A-4, ARG49-C-13, TYR85-C-5, and LYS61-C-5,
      due to the change in the sequence of the mutated RNA.

PMID- 28581758
TI  - Molecular Gibbs Surface Excess and CO2-Hydrate Density Determine the Strong
      Temperature- and Pressure-Dependent Supercritical CO2-Brine Interfacial Tension.
AB  - In CO2 geological storage, the interfacial tension (IFT) between supercritical
      CO2 and brine is critical for the storage capacitance design to prevent CO2
      leakage. IFT relies not only on the interfacial molecule properties but also on
      the environmental conditions at different storage sites. In this paper,
      supercritical CO2-NaCl solution systems are modeled at 343-373 K and 6-35 MPa
      under the salinity of 1.89 mol/L using molecular dynamics simulations. After
      computing and comparing the molecular density profile across the interface, the
      atomic radial distribution function, the molecular orientation distribution, the
      molecular Gibbs surface excess (derived from the molecular density profile), and
      the CO2-hydrate number density under the above environmental conditions, we
      confirm that only the molecular Gibbs surface excess of CO2 molecules and the CO2
      hydrate number density correlate strongly with the temperature- and pressure
      dependent IFTs. We also compute the populations of two distinct CO2-hydrate
      structures (T-type and H-type) and attribute the observed dependence of IFTs to
      the dominance of the more stable, surfactant-like T-type CO2-hydrates at the
      interface. On the basis of these new molecular mechanisms behind IFT variations,
      this study could guide the rational design of suitable injecting environmental
      pressure and temperature conditions. We believe that the above two molecular
      level metrics (Gibbs surface excess and hydrate number density) are of great
      fundamental importance for understanding the supercritical CO2-water interface
      and engineering applications in geological CO2 storage.

PMID- 28581759
TI  - Simple Model for the Benzene Hexafluorobenzene Interaction.
AB  - While the experimental intermolecular distance distribution functions of pure
      benzene and pure hexafluorobenzene are well described by transferable all-atom
      force fields, the interaction between the two molecules (in a 1:1 mixture) is not
      well simulated. We demonstrate that the parameters of the transferable force
      fields are adequate to describe the intermolecular distance distribution if the
      charges are replaced by a set of charges that are not located at the atoms. The
      simplest model that well describes the experimental distance distribution,
      between benzene and hexafluorobenzene, is that of a single ellipsoid for each
      molecule, representing the van der Waals interactions, and a set of three point
      charges (on the axis perpendicular to the arene plane) which give the same
      quadrupole moment as do the all atom charges from the transferable force fields.

PMID- 28581760
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of Functionalized 4-Aryl Hydrocoumarins and 4-Aryl
      Hydroquinolin-2-ones via Intramolecular Vinylogous Rauhut-Currier Reaction of
      para-Quinone Methides.
AB  - A novel strategy for the asymmetric construction of functionalized 4-aryl-3,4
      dihydrocoumarins and 4-aryl-3,4-dihydroquinolin-2-ones via an intramolecular
      vinylogous Rauhut-Currier reaction of para-quinone methides (p-QMs) under the
      bifunctional catalysis of chiral amine-phosphine is described. This
      intramolecular mode for the catalytic enantioselective 1,6-conjugate addition of
      p-QMs has been explored for the first time, delivering two types of synthetically
      important heterocycles in high yields and enantioselectivites.

PMID- 28581761
TI  - Amide to Alkyne Interconversion via a Nickel/Copper-Catalyzed Deamidative Cross
      Coupling of Aryl and Alkenyl Amides.
AB  - A nickel-catalyzed deamidative cross-coupling reaction of amides with terminal
      alkynes as coupling partners was disclosed. This newly developed methodology
      allows the direct interconversion of amides to alkynes and enables a facile route
      for C(sp2)-C(sp) bond formation in a straightforward and mild fashion.

PMID- 28581762
TI  - Cu-Catalyzed Stereoselective Borylation of gem-Difluoroalkenes with B2pin2.
AB  - A novel and efficient method for the synthesis of (Z)-fluorinated alkenylboronic
      acid pinacol esters via Cu-catalyzed stereoselective borylation of gem
      difluoroalkenes using bis(pinacolato)diboron (B2pin2) as the boron source with
      the assistance of NaOtBu and Xantphos at room temperature was developed.

PMID- 28581764
TI  - Tumor-Targeted and Clearable Human Protein-Based MRI Nanoprobes.
AB  - Biocompatibility, targeting, and clearance are key challenges in the design of
      new MRI contrast agents. Herein, we report on a tumor-targeting, gadolinium
      biomineralized human transferrin (Tf) protein-based nanoparticle (Gd@Tf NP) for
      MRI use. As compared to the conventionally used gadolinium chelates, the
      resultant Gd@Tf NPs possess outstanding chemical stability and exhibited superior
      longitudinal relaxation. More importantly, our MR images show that Gd@Tf indeed
      retained the natural tumor targeting ability and the subsequent tumor retrieval
      biofunctions of Tf. Thus, such Tf protein-based MR NPs integrate T1 signal
      amplification, precise tumor targeting, and systematic clearance capabilities.
      They offer a new approach to design biocompatible multifunctional MRI contrast
      agents for a wide range of clinical imaging and treatment applications.

PMID- 28581763
TI  - Sulfur-Switch Ugi Reaction for Macrocyclic Disulfide-Bridged Peptidomimetics.
AB  - A general strategy is introduced for the efficient synthetic access of disulfide
      linked artificial macrocycles via a Ugi four-component reaction (U4CR) followed
      by oxidative cyclization. The double-mercapto input is proposed for use in the
      Ugi reaction, thereby yielding all six topologically possible combinations. The
      protocol is convergent and short and enables the production of novel disulfide
      peptidomimetics in a highly general fashion.

PMID- 28581766
TI  - Dual Activation of Nucleophiles and Electrophiles by N-Heterocyclic Carbene
      Organocatalysis: Chemoselective N-Imination of Indoles with Isocyanides.
AB  - The first chemoselective N-imination of indoles with isocyanides by using an N
      heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as an organocatalyst was achieved. A concurrent
      activation of nucleophile (indole) and electrophile (isocyanide) took place
      facilitated by the novel NHC organocatalysis via initial activation of
      isocyanide. The in situ generated indole anion and imine-azolium species
      performed a coupling reaction, producing several new indole-based formamidines in
      high yields under mild conditions, which was not feasible via previously reported
      strategies.

PMID- 28581765
TI  - Denitrogenative Imidoyl Radical Cyclization: Synthesis of 2-Substituted
      Benzoimidazoles from 1-Azido-2-isocyanoarenes.
AB  - A novel access to 2-substituted benzoimidazoles, through unprecedented
      denitrogenative imidoyl radical cyclization of 1-azido-2-isocyanoarenes, has been
      developed. This tandem radical process was initiated by adding a C- or P-centered
      radical to isocyanide, followed by cycloaddition of the imidoyl radical to the
      azido group. Then, nitrogen loss and hydrogen abstraction of the resulting aminyl
      radical from surroundings delivered 2-substituted benzoimidazoles. Carbon
      radicals generated from another annulation process could also be applied,
      furnishing various heterocycle linked benzoimidazole derivatives.

PMID- 28581767
TI  - Phosphorus Pentachloride Initiated Functionalization of Silicon Nanocrystals.
AB  - Phosphorus pentachloride (PCl5) has long been used to chlorinate hydrocarbons. It
      has also been applied in silicon surface chemistry to facilitate alkylation via a
      two-step halogenation/Grignard route. Here we report a study of the reaction of
      PCl5 with hydride-terminated silicon nanocrystals (H-SiNCs). An examination of
      the reaction mechanism has allowed us to establish a functionalization protocol
      that uses PCl5 as a surface radical initiator to introduce alkyl and alkenyl
      moieties to the surface of H-SiNCs. The reaction proceeds quickly in a single
      step, at room temperature and the functionalized silicon nanocrystals retained
      their morphology and crystallinity. The resulting materials exhibited size
      dependent photoluminescence that was approximately 3* as bright as that observed
      for thermally hydrosilylated SiNCs. Furthermore, the absolute PL quantum yield
      (AQY) was more than double. The high AQY is expected to enable SiNCs to compete
      with chalcogenide-based quantum dots in various applications.

PMID- 28581768
TI  - Spin ice Thin Film: Surface Ordering, Emergent Square ice, and Strain Effects.
AB  - Motivated by recent realizations of Dy_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} and Ho_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} spin
      ice thin films, and more generally by the physics of confined gauge fields, we
      study a model spin ice thin film with surfaces perpendicular to the [001] cubic
      axis. The resulting open boundaries make half of the bonds on the interfaces
      inequivalent. By tuning the strength of these inequivalent "orphan" bonds,
      dipolar interactions induce a surface ordering equivalent to a two-dimensional
      crystallization of magnetic surface charges. This surface ordering may also be
      expected on the surfaces of bulk crystals. For ultrathin films made of one cubic
      unit cell, once the surfaces have ordered, a square ice phase is stabilized over
      a finite temperature window. The square ice degeneracy is lifted at lower
      temperature and the system orders in analogy with the well-known F transition of
      the 6-vertex model. To conclude, we consider the addition of strain effects, a
      possible consequence of interface mismatches at the film-substrate interface. Our
      simulations qualitatively confirm that strain can lead to a smooth loss of
      Pauling entropy upon cooling, as observed in recent experiments on
      Dy_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} films.

PMID- 28581769
TI  - Shape and Dynamics of Adhesive Cells: Mechanical Response of Open Systems.
AB  - Cell adhesion is an essential biological process. However, previous theoretical
      and experimental studies ignore a key variable, the changes of cellular volume
      and pressure, during the dynamic adhesion process. Here, we treat cells as open
      systems and propose a theoretical framework to investigate how the exchange of
      water and ions with the environment affects the shape and dynamics of cells
      adhered between two adhesive surfaces. We show that adherent cells can be either
      stable (convex or concave) or unstable (spontaneous rupture or collapse)
      depending on the adhesion energy density, the cell size, the separation of two
      adhesive surfaces, and the stiffness of the flexible surface. Strikingly, we find
      that the unstable states vanish when cellular volume and pressure are constant.
      We further show that the detachments of convex and concave cells are very
      different. The mechanical response of adherent cells is mainly determined by the
      competition between the loading rate and the regulation of the cellular volume
      and pressure. Finally, we show that as an open system the detachment of adherent
      cells is also significantly influenced by the loading history. Thus, our findings
      reveal a major difference between living cells and nonliving materials.

PMID- 28581770
TI  - Collimated Propagation of Fast Electron Beams Accelerated by High-Contrast Laser
      Pulses in Highly Resistive Shocked Carbon.
AB  - Collimated transport of ultrahigh intensity electron current was observed in cold
      and in laser-shocked vitreous carbon, in agreement with simulation predictions.
      The fast electron beams were created by coupling high-intensity and high-contrast
      laser pulses onto copper-coated cones drilled into the carbon samples. The
      guiding mechanism-observed only for times before the shock breakout at the inner
      cone tip-is due to self-generated resistive magnetic fields of ~0.5-1  kT arising
      from the intense currents of fast electrons in vitreous carbon, by virtue of its
      specific high resistivity over the range of explored background temperatures. The
      spatial distribution of the electron beams, injected through the samples at
      different stages of compression, was characterized by side-on imaging of hard x
      ray fluorescence.

PMID- 28581771
TI  - Surface States in Holographic Weyl Semimetals.
AB  - We study the surface states of a strongly coupled Weyl semimetal within
      holography. By explicit numerical computation of an inhomogeneous holographic
      Weyl semimetal, we observe the appearance of an electric current restricted to
      the surface in the presence of an electric chemical potential. The integrated
      current is universal in the sense that it only depends on the topology of the
      phases showing that the bulk-boundary correspondence holds even at strong
      coupling. The implications of this result are subtle and may shed some light on
      anomalous transport at weak coupling.

PMID- 28581772
TI  - Dynamical Defects in Rotating Magnetic Skyrmion Lattices.
AB  - The chiral magnet Cu_{2}OSeO_{3} hosts a Skyrmion lattice that may be
      equivalently described as a superposition of plane waves or a lattice of
      particlelike topological objects. A thermal gradient may break up the Skyrmion
      lattice and induce rotating domains, raising the question of which of these
      scenarios better describes the violent dynamics at the domain boundaries. Here,
      we show that in an inhomogeneous temperature gradient caused by illumination in a
      Lorentz transmission electron microscope different parts of the Skyrmion lattice
      can be set into motion with different angular velocities. Tracking the time
      dependence, we show that the constant rearrangement of domain walls is governed
      by dynamic 5-7 defects arranging into lines. An analysis of the associated defect
      density is described by Frank's equation and agrees well with classical 2D Monte
      Carlo simulations. Fluctuations of boundaries show a surgelike rearrangement of
      Skyrmion clusters driven by defect rearrangement consistent with simulations
      treating Skyrmions as point particles. Our findings underline the particle
      character of the Skyrmion.

PMID- 28581773
TI  - Transmodal Fabry-Perot Resonance: Theory and Realization with Elastic
      Metamaterials.
AB  - We discovered a new transmodal Fabry-Perot resonance where one elastic-wave mode
      is maximally transmitted to another. It occurs when the phase difference of two
      dissimilar modes through an anisotropic layer becomes odd multiples of pi under
      the reflection-free and weak mode-coupling assumptions. Unlike the well
      established Fabry-Perot resonance, the transmodal resonance must involve two
      coupled elastic waves between longitudinal and shear modes. The investigation
      into the origin of wiggly transmodal transmission spectra suggests that efficient
      broadband mode conversion can be achieved if the media satisfy the structural
      stability condition to some degree. The new resonance mechanism, also
      experimentally characterized, opens up new possibilities for manipulating elastic
      wave modes as an effective alternative to generating shear-mode ultrasound.

PMID- 28581774
TI  - High-Harmonic Generation Enhanced by Dynamical Electron Correlation.
AB  - We theoretically study multielectron effects in high-harmonic generation (HHG),
      using all-electron first-principles simulations for a one-dimensional model atom.
      In addition to the usual plateau and cutoff (from a cation in the present case,
      since the neutral is immediately ionized), we find a prominent resonance peak far
      above the plateau and a second plateau extended beyond the first cutoff. These
      features originate from the dication response enhanced by orders of magnitude due
      to the action of the Coulomb force from the rescattering electron, and, hence,
      are a clear manifestation of electron correlation. Although the present
      simulations are done in 1D, the physical mechanism underlying the dramatic
      enhancement is expected to hold also for three-dimensional real systems. This
      will provide new possibilities to explore dynamical electron correlation in
      intense laser fields using HHG, which is usually considered to be of single
      electron nature in most cases.

PMID- 28581775
TI  - Elastic Vector Solitons in Soft Architected Materials.
AB  - We demonstrate experimentally, numerically, and analytically that soft
      architected materials can support the propagation of elastic vector solitons.
      More specifically, we focus on structures comprising a network of squares
      connected by thin and highly deformable ligaments and investigate the propagation
      of planar nonlinear elastic waves. We find that for sufficiently large amplitudes
      two components-one translational and one rotational-are coupled together and
      copropagate without dispersion. Our results not only show that soft architected
      materials offer a new and rich platform to study the propagation of nonlinear
      waves, but also open avenues for the design of a new generation of smart systems
      that take advantage of nonlinearities to control and manipulate the propagation
      of large amplitude vibrations.

PMID- 28581776
TI  - Achieving Stable Radiation Pressure Acceleration of Heavy Ions via Successive
      Electron Replenishment from Ionization of a High-Z Material Coating.
AB  - A method to achieve stable radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) of heavy ions
      from laser-irradiated ultrathin foils is proposed, where a high-Z material
      coating in front is used. The coated high-Z material, acting as a moving electron
      repository, continuously replenishes the accelerating heavy ion foil with
      comoving electrons in the light-sail acceleration stage due to its successive
      ionization under laser fields with Gaussian temporal profile. As a result, the
      detrimental effects such as foil deformation and electron loss induced by the
      Rayleigh-Taylor-like and other instabilities in RPA are significantly offset and
      suppressed so that stable acceleration of heavy ions are maintained. Particle-in
      cell simulations show that a monoenergetic Al^{13+} beam with peak energy 3.8 GeV
      and particle number 10^{10} (charge >20  nC) can be obtained at intensity 10^{22}
      W/cm^{2}.

PMID- 28581777
TI  - Power Spectrum of Long Eigenlevel Sequences in Quantum Chaotic Systems.
AB  - We present a nonperturbative analysis of the power spectrum of energy level
      fluctuations in fully chaotic quantum structures. Focusing on systems with broken
      time-reversal symmetry, we employ a finite-N random matrix theory to derive an
      exact multidimensional integral representation of the power spectrum. The N
      >infinity limit of the exact solution furnishes the main result of this study-a
      universal, parameter-free prediction for the power spectrum expressed in terms of
      a fifth Painleve transcendent. Extensive numerics lends further support to our
      theory which, as discussed at length, invalidates a traditional assumption that
      the power spectrum is merely determined by the spectral form factor of a quantum
      system.

PMID- 28581779
TI  - Security of Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution via a Gaussian de
      Finetti Reduction.
AB  - Establishing the security of continuous-variable quantum key distribution against
      general attacks in a realistic finite-size regime is an outstanding open problem
      in the field of theoretical quantum cryptography if we restrict our attention to
      protocols that rely on the exchange of coherent states. Indeed, techniques based
      on the uncertainty principle are not known to work for such protocols, and the
      usual tools based on de Finetti reductions only provide security for
      unrealistically large block lengths. We address this problem here by considering
      a new type of Gaussian de Finetti reduction, that exploits the invariance of some
      continuous-variable protocols under the action of the unitary group U(n) (instead
      of the symmetric group S_{n} as in usual de Finetti theorems), and by introducing
      generalized SU(2,2) coherent states. Crucially, combined with an energy test,
      this allows us to truncate the Hilbert space globally instead as at the single
      mode level as in previous approaches that failed to provide security in realistic
      conditions. Our reduction shows that it is sufficient to prove the security of
      these protocols against Gaussian collective attacks in order to obtain security
      against general attacks, thereby confirming rigorously the widely held belief
      that Gaussian attacks are indeed optimal against such protocols.

PMID- 28581778
TI  - Gamma Decay of Unbound Neutron-Hole States in ^{133}Sn.
AB  - Excited states in the nucleus ^{133}Sn, with one neutron outside the double magic
      ^{132}Sn core, were populated following one-neutron knockout from a ^{134}Sn beam
      on a carbon target at relativistic energies at the Radioactive Isotope Beam
      Factory at RIKEN. Besides the gamma rays emitted in the decay of the known
      neutron single-particle states in ^{133}Sn additional gamma strength in the
      energy range 3.5-5.5 MeV was observed for the first time. Since the neutron
      separation energy of ^{133}Sn is low, S_{n}=2.402(4)  MeV, this observation
      provides direct evidence for the radiative decay of neutron-unbound states in
      this nucleus. The ability of electromagnetic decay to compete successfully with
      neutron emission at energies as high as 3 MeV above threshold is attributed to a
      mismatch between the wave functions of the initial and final states in the latter
      case. These findings suggest that in the region southeast of ^{132}Sn nuclear
      structure effects may play a significant role in the neutron versus gamma
      competition in the decay of unbound states. As a consequence, the common neglect
      of such effects in the evaluation of the neutron-emission probabilities in
      calculations of global beta-decay properties for astrophysical simulations may
      have to be reconsidered.

PMID- 28581780
TI  - Majorana Quasiparticles Protected by Z_{2} Angular Momentum Conservation.
AB  - We show how angular momentum conservation can stabilize a symmetry-protected
      quasitopological phase of matter supporting Majorana quasiparticles as edge modes
      in one-dimensional cold atom gases. We investigate a number-conserving four
      species Hubbard model in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. The latter reduces
      the global spin symmetry to an angular momentum parity symmetry, which provides
      an extremely robust protection mechanism that does not rely on any coupling to
      additional reservoirs. The emergence of Majorana edge modes is elucidated using
      field theory techniques, and corroborated by density-matrix-renormalization-group
      simulations. Our results pave the way toward the observation of Majorana edge
      modes with alkaline-earth-like fermions in optical lattices, where all basic
      ingredients for our recipe-spin-orbit coupling and strong interorbital
      interactions-have been experimentally realized over the last two years.

PMID- 28581781
TI  - Laser-Induced Rotation of Iodine Molecules in Helium Nanodroplets: Revivals and
      Breaking Free.
AB  - Rotation of molecules embedded in helium nanodroplets is explored by a
      combination of fs laser-induced alignment experiments and angulon quasiparticle
      theory. We demonstrate that at low fluence of the fs alignment pulse, the
      molecule and its solvation shell can be set into coherent collective rotation
      lasting long enough to form revivals. With increasing fluence, however, the
      revivals disappear-instead, rotational dynamics as rapid as for an isolated
      molecule is observed during the first few picoseconds. Classical calculations
      trace this phenomenon to transient decoupling of the molecule from its helium
      shell. Our results open novel opportunities for studying nonequilibrium solute
      solvent dynamics and quantum thermalization.

PMID- 28581782
TI  - Conformational Asymmetry and Quasicrystal Approximants in Linear Diblock
      Copolymers.
AB  - Small angle x-ray scattering experiments on three model low molar mass diblock
      copolymer systems containing minority polylactide and majority hydrocarbon blocks
      demonstrate that conformational asymmetry stabilizes the Frank-Kasper sigma
      phase. Differences in block flexibility compete with space filling at constant
      density inducing the formation of polyhedral shaped particles that assemble into
      this low symmetry ordered state with local tetrahedral coordination. These
      results confirm predictions from self-consistent field theory that establish the
      origins of symmetry breaking in the ordering of block polymer melts subjected to
      compositional and conformational asymmetry.

PMID- 28581783
TI  - Particle-Hole Duality in the Lowest Landau Level.
AB  - We derive a number of exact relations between response functions of holomorphic,
      chiral fractional quantum Hall states and their particle-hole (PH) conjugates.
      These exact relations allow one to calculate the Hall conductivity, Hall
      viscosity, various Berry phases, and the static structure factor of PH conjugate
      states from the corresponding properties of the original states. These relations
      establish a precise duality between chiral quantum Hall states and their PH
      conjugates. The key ingredient in the proof of the relations is a generalization
      of Girvin's construction of PH-conjugate states to inhomogeneous magnetic field
      and curvature. Finally, we make several nontrivial checks of the relations,
      including for the Jain states and their PH conjugates.

PMID- 28581784
TI  - Comment on "Linear Scaling of the Exciton Binding Energy versus the Band Gap of
      Two-Dimensional Materials".

PMID- 28581785
TI  - Zeno Hall Effect.
AB  - We show that the quantum Zeno effect gives rise to the Hall effect by tailoring
      the Hilbert space of a two-dimensional lattice system into a single Bloch band
      with a nontrivial Berry curvature. Consequently, a wave packet undergoes
      transverse motion in response to a potential gradient-a phenomenon we call the
      Zeno Hall effect to highlight its quantum Zeno origin. The Zeno Hall effect leads
      to retroreflection at the edge of the system due to an interplay between the band
      flatness and the nontrivial Berry curvature. We propose an experimental
      implementation of this effect with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice.

PMID- 28581787
TI  - Possible Precise Measurement of Delbruck Scattering Using Polarized Photon Beams.
AB  - The advent of high-flux-polarized gamma-ray sources makes possible the nearly
      isolated precise measurement of the vacuum contribution, Delbruck scattering, to
      the elastic scattering of these photons off nuclei. Because of the fact that the
      elastic scattering of the photons is a coherent summation of four processes and
      that up to now unpolarized sources have been used, the isolated measurement of
      Delbruck scattering has not been performed. We show that for the appropriate
      choice of scattering angles, photon polarization, and energies this scattering
      can be measured nearly independently of other scattering processes. This makes
      possible the precise measurement of the vacuum contribution to scattering and the
      possibility of the detection of new physics.

PMID- 28581786
TI  - Singlet Orbital Ordering in Bilayer Sr_{3}Cr_{2}O_{7}.
AB  - We perform an extensive study of Sr_{3}Cr_{2}O_{7}, the n=2 member of the
      Ruddlesden-Popper Sr_{n+1}Cr_{n}O_{3n+1} system. An antiferromagnetic ordering is
      clearly visible in the magnetization and the specific heat, which yields a huge
      transition entropy, Rln(6). By neutron diffraction as a function of temperature
      we have determined the antiferromagnetic structure that coincides with the one
      obtained from density functional theory calculations. It is accompanied by
      anomalous asymmetric distortions of the CrO_{6} octahedra. Strong coupling and
      Lanczos calculations on a derived Kugel-Khomskii Hamiltonian yield a simultaneous
      orbital and moment ordering. Our results favor an exotic ordered phase of orbital
      singlets not originated by frustration.

PMID- 28581788
TI  - Lateral p-n Junction in an Inverted InAs/GaSb Double Quantum Well.
AB  - We present transport measurements on a lateral p-n junction in an inverted
      InAs/GaSb double quantum well at zero and nonzero perpendicular magnetic fields.
      At a zero magnetic field, the junction exhibits diodelike behavior in accordance
      with the presence of a hybridization gap. With an increasing magnetic field, we
      explore the quantum Hall regime where spin-polarized edge states with the same
      chirality are either reflected or transmitted at the junction, whereas those of
      opposite chirality undergo a mixing process, leading to full equilibration along
      the width of the junction independent of spin. These results lay the foundations
      for using p-n junctions in InAs/GaSb double quantum wells to probe the transition
      between the topological quantum spin Hall and quantum Hall states.

PMID- 28581789
TI  - Spin-Orbit Coupling Controlled J=3/2 Electronic Ground State in 5d^{3} Oxides.
AB  - Entanglement of spin and orbital degrees of freedom drives the formation of novel
      quantum and topological physical states. Here we report resonant inelastic x-ray
      scattering measurements of the transition metal oxides Ca_{3}LiOsO_{6} and
      Ba_{2}YOsO_{6}, which reveals a dramatic spitting of the t_{2g} manifold. We
      invoke an intermediate coupling approach that incorporates both spin-orbit
      coupling and electron-electron interactions on an even footing and reveal that
      the ground state of 5d^{3}-based compounds, which has remained elusive in
      previously applied models, is a novel spin-orbit entangled J=3/2 electronic
      ground state. This work reveals the hidden diversity of spin-orbit controlled
      ground states in 5d systems and introduces a new arena in the search for spin
      orbit controlled phases of matter.

PMID- 28581790
TI  - Absolutely Maximally Entangled States of Seven Qubits Do Not Exist.
AB  - Pure multiparticle quantum states are called absolutely maximally entangled if
      all reduced states obtained by tracing out at least half of the particles are
      maximally mixed. We provide a method to characterize these states for a general
      multiparticle system. With that, we prove that a seven-qubit state whose three
      body marginals are all maximally mixed, or equivalently, a pure ((7,1,4))_{2}
      quantum error correcting code, does not exist. Furthermore, we obtain an upper
      limit on the possible number of maximally mixed three-body marginals and identify
      the state saturating the bound. This solves the seven-particle problem as the
      last open case concerning maximally entangled states of qubits.

PMID- 28581791
TI  - Dimensional Crossover in a Charge Density Wave Material Probed by Angle-Resolved
      Photoemission Spectroscopy.
AB  - High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data reveal evidence of
      a crossover from one-dimensional (1D) to three-dimensional (3D) behavior in the
      prototypical charge density wave (CDW) material NbSe_{3}. In the low-temperature
      3D regime, gaps in the electronic structure are observed due to two
      incommensurate CDWs, in agreement with x-ray diffraction and electronic-structure
      calculations. At higher temperatures we observe a spectral weight depletion that
      approaches the power-law behavior expected in one dimension. From the warping of
      the quasi-1D Fermi surface at low temperatures, we extract the energy scale of
      the dimensional crossover. This is corroborated by a detailed analysis of the
      density of states, which reveals a change in dimensional behavior dependent on
      binding energy. Our results offer an important insight into the dimensionality of
      excitations in quasi-1D materials.

PMID- 28581792
TI  - Superconductivity Provides Access to the Chiral Magnetic Effect of an Unpaired
      Weyl Cone.
AB  - The massless fermions of a Weyl semimetal come in two species of opposite
      chirality, in two cones of the band structure. As a consequence, the current j
      induced in one Weyl cone by a magnetic field B [the chiral magnetic effect (CME)]
      is canceled in equilibrium by an opposite current in the other cone. Here, we
      show that superconductivity offers a way to avoid this cancellation, by means of
      a flux bias that gaps out a Weyl cone jointly with its particle-hole conjugate.
      The remaining gapless Weyl cone and its particle-hole conjugate represent a
      single fermionic species, with renormalized charge e^{*} and a single chirality
      +/- set by the sign of the flux bias. As a consequence, the CME is no longer
      canceled in equilibrium but appears as a supercurrent response ?j/?B=+/
      (e^{*}e/h^{2})MU along the magnetic field at chemical potential MU.

PMID- 28581793
TI  - Non-Abelian Majorana Modes Protected by an Emergent Second Chern Number.
AB  - The search for topological superconductors and non-Abelian Majorana modes ranks
      among the most fascinating topics in condensed matter physics. There now exist
      several fundamental superconducting phases which host symmetry protected or
      chiral Majorana modes, of which the chiral modes are protected by Chern numbers
      in even dimensions. Here we propose to observe novel chiral Majorana modes by
      realizing a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state, i.e., the pair density wave
      (PDW) phase in a Weyl semimetal which breaks time-reversal symmetry. Without
      symmetry protection, the 3D gapped PDW phase is topologically trivial. However, a
      vortex line generated in such a phase can host chiral Majorana modes, which are
      shown to be protected by an emergent second Chern number of a synthetic 4D space
      generalized from the PDW phase. We further show that these chiral modes in the
      vortex rings obey 3D non-Abelian loop-braiding statistics, which can be applied
      to topological quantum computation.

PMID- 28581794
TI  - Disruption of the Accidental Dirac Semimetal State in ZrTe_{5} under Hydrostatic
      Pressure.
AB  - We study the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the magnetotransport properties of
      zirconium pentatelluride. The magnitude of resistivity anomaly gets enhanced with
      increasing pressure, but the transition temperature T^{*} is insensitive to it up
      to 2.5 GPa. In the case of H?b, the quasilinear magnetoresistance decreases
      drastically from 3300% (9 T) at ambient pressure to 230% (9 T) at 2.5 GPa.
      Besides, the change of the quantum oscillation phase from topological nontrivial
      to trivial is revealed around 2 GPa. Both demonstrate that the pressure breaks
      the accidental Dirac node in ZrTe_{5}. For H?c, in contrast, subtle changes can
      be seen in the magnetoresistance and quantum oscillations. In the presence of
      pressure, ZrTe_{5} evolves from a highly anisotropic to a nearly isotropic
      electronic system, which accompanies the disruption of the accidental Dirac
      semimetal state. It supports the assumption that ZrTe_{5} is a semi-3D Dirac
      system with linear dispersion along two directions and a quadratic one along the
      third.

PMID- 28581796
TI  - Accretion Dynamics on Wet Granular Materials.
AB  - Wet granular aggregates are common precursors of construction materials, food,
      and health care products. The physical mechanisms involved in the mixing of dry
      grains with a wet substrate are not well understood and difficult to control.
      Here, we study experimentally the accretion of dry grains on a wet granular
      substrate by measuring the growth dynamics of the wet aggregate. We show that
      this aggregate is fully saturated and its cohesion is ensured by the capillary
      depression at the air-liquid interface. The growth dynamics is controlled by the
      liquid fraction at the surface of the aggregate and exhibits two regimes. In the
      viscous regime, the growth dynamics is limited by the capillary-driven flow of
      liquid through the granular packing to the surface of the aggregate. In the
      capture regime, the capture probability depends on the availability of the liquid
      at the saturated interface, which is controlled by the hydrostatic depression in
      the material. We propose a model that rationalizes our observations and captures
      both dynamics based on the evolution of the capture probability with the
      hydrostatic depression.

PMID- 28581795
TI  - Phase Transitions in Definite Total Spin States of Two-Component Fermi Gases.
AB  - Second-order phase transitions have no latent heat and are characterized by a
      change in symmetry. In addition to the conventional symmetric and antisymmetric
      states under permutations of bosons and fermions, mathematical group
      representation theory allows for non-Abelian permutation symmetry. Such symmetry
      can be hidden in states with defined total spins of spinor gases, which can be
      formed in optical cavities. The present work shows that the symmetry reveals
      itself in spin-independent or coordinate-independent properties of these gases,
      namely as non-Abelian entropy in thermodynamic properties. In weakly interacting
      Fermi gases, two phases appear associated with fermionic and non-Abelian symmetry
      under permutations of particle states, respectively. The second-order transitions
      between the phases are characterized by discontinuities in specific heat. Unlike
      other phase transitions, the present ones are not caused by interactions and can
      appear even in ideal gases. Similar effects in Bose gases and strong interactions
      are discussed.

PMID- 28581797
TI  - Enhancing Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer with Si-based Metasurfaces.
AB  - We demonstrate in this work that the use of metasurfaces provides a viable
      strategy to largely tune and enhance near-field radiative heat transfer between
      extended structures. In particular, using a rigorous coupled wave analysis, we
      predict that Si-based metasurfaces featuring two-dimensional periodic arrays of
      holes can exhibit a room-temperature near-field radiative heat conductance much
      larger than any unstructured material to date. We show that this enhancement,
      which takes place in a broad range of separations, relies on the possibility to
      largely tune the properties of the surface plasmon polaritons that dominate the
      radiative heat transfer in the near-field regime.

PMID- 28581798
TI  - Nuclear Physics Around the Unitarity Limit.
AB  - We argue that many features of the structure of nuclei emerge from a strictly
      perturbative expansion around the unitarity limit, where the two-nucleon S waves
      have bound states at zero energy. In this limit, the gross features of states in
      the nuclear chart are correlated to only one dimensionful parameter, which is
      related to the breaking of scale invariance to a discrete scaling symmetry and
      set by the triton binding energy. Observables are moved to their physical values
      by small perturbative corrections, much like in descriptions of the fine
      structure of atomic spectra. We provide evidence in favor of the conjecture that
      light, and possibly heavier, nuclei are bound weakly enough to be insensitive to
      the details of the interactions but strongly enough to be insensitive to the
      exact size of the two-nucleon system.

PMID- 28581799
TI  - Social Cooperation and Disharmony in Communities Mediated through Common Pool
      Resource Exploitation.
AB  - It was theorized that when a society exploits a shared resource, the system can
      undergo extreme phase transition from full cooperation in abiding by a social
      agreement, to full defection from it. This was shown to happen in an integrated
      society with complex social relationships. However, real-world agents tend to
      segregate into communities whose interactions contain features of the associated
      community structure. We found that such social segregation softens the abrupt
      extreme transition through the emergence of multiple intermediate phases composed
      of communities of cooperators and defectors. Phase transitions thus now occur
      through these intermediate phases which avert the instantaneous collapse of
      social cooperation within a society. While this is beneficial to society, it
      nonetheless costs society in two ways. First, the return to full cooperation from
      full defection at the phase transition is no longer immediate. Community linkages
      have rendered greater societal inertia such that the switch back is now typically
      stepwise rather than a single change. Second, there is a drastic increase in
      social disharmony within the society due to the greater tension in the
      relationship between segregated communities of defectors and cooperators.
      Intriguingly, these results on multiple phases with its associated phenomenon of
      social disharmony are found to characterize the level of cooperation within a
      society of Balinese farmers who exploit water for rice production.

PMID- 28581800
TI  - X-ray Phase-Contrast Imaging and Metrology through Unified Modulated Pattern
      Analysis.
AB  - We present a method for x-ray phase-contrast imaging and metrology applications
      based on the sample-induced modulation and subsequent computational demodulation
      of a random or periodic reference interference pattern. The proposed unified
      modulated pattern analysis (UMPA) technique is a versatile approach and allows
      tuning of signal sensitivity, spatial resolution, and scan time. We characterize
      the method and demonstrate its potential for high-sensitivity, quantitative phase
      imaging, and metrology to overcome the limitations of existing methods.

PMID- 28581801
TI  - Synchronization Dynamics in a Designed Open System.
AB  - We theoretically propose a unifying expression for synchronization dynamics
      between two-level constituents. Although synchronization phenomena require some
      substantial mediators, the distinct repercussions of their propagation delays
      remain obscure, especially in open systems. Our scheme directly incorporates the
      details of the constituents and mediators in an arbitrary environment. As one
      example, we demonstrate the synchronization dynamics of optical emitters on a
      dielectric microsphere. We reveal that the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) bridge
      the well-separated emitters and accelerate the synchronized fluorescence, known
      as superfluorescence. The emitters are found to overcome the significant and
      nonuniform retardation, and to build up their pronounced coherence by the WGMs,
      striking a balance between the roles of resonator and intermediary. Our work
      directly illustrates the dynamical aspects of many-body synchronizations and
      contributes to the exploration of research paradigms that consider designed open
      systems.

PMID- 28581802
TI  - Choi et al. Reply.

PMID- 28581803
TI  - Electrothermal Transistor Effect and Cyclic Electronic Currents in Multithermal
      Charge Transfer Networks.
AB  - A theory is developed to describe the coupled transport of energy and charge in
      networks of electron donor-acceptor sites which are seated in a thermally
      heterogeneous environment, where the transfer kinetics are dominated by Marcus
      type hopping rates. It is found that the coupling of heat and charge transfer in
      such systems gives rise to exotic transport phenomena which are absent in
      thermally homogeneous systems and cannot be described by standard thermoelectric
      relations. Specifically, the directionality and extent of thermal transistor
      amplification and cyclical electronic currents in a given network can be
      controlled by tuning the underlying temperature gradient in the system. The
      application of these findings toward the optimal control of multithermal currents
      is illustrated on a paradigmatic nanostructure.

PMID- 28581804
TI  - Electron and Ion Dynamics of the Solar Wind Interaction with a Weakly Outgassing
      Comet.
AB  - Using a 3D fully kinetic approach, we disentangle and explain the ion and
      electron dynamics of the solar wind interaction with a weakly outgassing comet.
      We show that, to first order, the dynamical interaction is representative of a
      four-fluid coupled system. We self-consistently simulate and identify the origin
      of the warm and suprathermal electron distributions observed by ESA's Rosetta
      mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and conclude that a detailed kinetic
      treatment of the electron dynamics is critical to fully capture the complex
      physics of mass-loading plasmas.

PMID- 28581805
TI  - Multiple-Star System Adaptive Vortex Coronagraphy Using a Liquid Crystal Light
      Valve.
AB  - We propose the development of a high-contrast imaging technique enabling the
      simultaneous and selective nulling of several light sources. This is done by
      realizing a reconfigurable multiple-vortex phase mask made of a liquid crystal
      thin film on which local topological features can be addressed electro-optically.
      The method is illustrated by reporting on a triple-star optical vortex
      coronagraphy laboratory demonstration, which can be easily extended to higher
      multiplicity. These results allow considering the direct observation and analysis
      of worlds with multiple suns and more complex extrasolar planetary systems.

PMID- 28581806
TI  - Transfer of Magnetic Order and Anisotropy through Epitaxial Integration of 3d and
      4f Spin Systems.
AB  - Resonant x-ray scattering at the Dy M_{5} and Ni L_{3} absorption edges was used
      to probe the temperature and magnetic field dependence of magnetic order in
      epitaxial LaNiO_{3}-DyScO_{3} superlattices. For superlattices with 2 unit cell
      thick LaNiO_{3} layers, a commensurate spiral state develops in the Ni spin
      system below 100 K. Upon cooling below T_{ind}=18  K, Dy-Ni exchange interactions
      across the LaNiO_{3}-DyScO_{3} interfaces induce collinear magnetic order of
      interfacial Dy moments as well as a reorientation of the Ni spins to a direction
      dictated by the strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Dy. This transition is
      reversible by an external magnetic field of 3 T. Tailored exchange interactions
      between rare-earth and transition-metal ions thus open up new perspectives for
      the manipulation of spin structures in metal-oxide heterostructures and devices.

PMID- 28581807
TI  - Laser-Controlled Torsions: Four-Dimensional Theory and the Validity of Reduced
      Dimensionality Models.
AB  - A multitude of possible applications along with unique coherence, chirality, and
      symmetry properties makes the control of molecular torsion with moderately
      strong, nonresonant laser pulses a fascinating subject. A description of combined
      rotation and torsion requires at least four angular degrees of freedom, which is
      challenging for the majority of systems. Lower-dimensional models have been
      proposed but also questioned. Here, we develop a four-dimensional model for the
      coupled rotational-torsional motions of molecules consisting of two identical
      moieties. By comparing four-dimensional calculations with a two-dimensional
      model, we define conditions under which the lower-dimensional model is valid. In
      particular, we point to the crucial role of coordinate dependence of the
      polarizability tensor. Our results do not agree with those of previous four
      dimensional calculations but support the conclusions of recent experiments.

PMID- 28581808
TI  - Local Structure and Short-Range Order in a NiCoCr Solid Solution Alloy.
AB  - Multielement solid solution alloys are intrinsically disordered on the atomic
      scale, and many of their advanced properties originate from the local structural
      characteristics. The local structure of a NiCoCr solid solution alloy is measured
      with x-ray or neutron total scattering and extended x-ray absorption fine
      structure (EXAFS) techniques. The atomic pair distribution function analysis does
      not exhibit an observable structural distortion. However, an EXAFS analysis
      suggests that the Cr atoms are favorably bonded with Ni and Co in the solid
      solution alloys. This short-range order (SRO) may make an important contribution
      to the low values of the electrical and thermal conductivities of the Cr-alloyed
      solid solutions. In addition, an EXAFS analysis of Ni ion irradiated samples
      reveals that the degree of SRO in NiCoCr alloys is enhanced after irradiation.

PMID- 28581809
TI  - Scheme for Detection of Single-Molecule Radical Pair Reaction Using Spin in
      Diamond.
AB  - The radical pair reaction underlies the magnetic field sensitivity of chemical
      reactions and is suggested to play an important role in both chemistry and
      biology. Current experimental evidence is based on ensemble measurements;
      however, the ability to probe the radical pair reaction at the single-molecule
      level would provide valuable information concerning its role in important
      biological processes. Here, we propose a scheme to detect the charge
      recombination rate in a radical pair reaction under ambient conditions by using
      single nitrogen-vacancy center spin in diamond. We demonstrate theoretically that
      it is possible to detect the effect of the geomagnetic field on the radical pair
      reaction and propose the present scheme as a possible hybrid model chemical
      compass.

PMID- 28581810
TI  - Coherent Two-Dimensional Terahertz Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Collective
      Spin Waves.
AB  - We report a demonstration of two-dimensional (2D) terahertz (THz) magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy using the magnetic fields of two time-delayed THz pulses.
      We apply the methodology to directly reveal the nonlinear responses of collective
      spin waves (magnons) in a canted antiferromagnetic crystal. The 2D THz spectra
      show all of the third-order nonlinear magnon signals including magnon spin
      echoes, and 2-quantum signals that reveal pairwise correlations between magnons
      at the Brillouin zone center. We also observe second-order nonlinear magnon
      signals showing resonance-enhanced second-harmonic and difference-frequency
      generation. Numerical simulations of the spin dynamics reproduce all of the
      spectral features in excellent agreement with the experimental 2D THz spectra.

PMID- 28581811
TI  - Symmetry-Enforced Line Nodes in Unconventional Superconductors.
AB  - We classify line nodes in superconductors with strong spin-orbit interactions and
      time-reversal symmetry, where the latter may include nonprimitive translations in
      the magnetic Brillouin zone to account for coexistence with antiferromagnetic
      order. We find four possible combinations of irreducible representations of the
      order parameter on high-symmetry planes, two of which allow for line nodes in
      pseudospin-triplet pairs and two that exclude conventional fully gapped
      pseudospin-singlet pairs. We show that the former can only be realized in the
      presence of band-sticking degeneracies, and we verify their topological stability
      using arguments based on Clifford algebra extensions. Our classification exhausts
      all possible symmetry protected line nodes in the presence of spin-orbit coupling
      and a (generalized) time-reversal symmetry. Implications for existing
      nonsymmorphic and antiferromagnetic superconductors are discussed.

PMID- 28581812
TI  - Additive Classical Capacity of Quantum Channels Assisted by Noisy Entanglement.
AB  - We give a capacity formula for the classical information transmission over a
      noisy quantum channel, with separable encoding by the sender and limited
      resources provided by the receiver's preshared ancilla. Instead of a pure state,
      we consider the signal-ancilla pair in a mixed state, purified by a "witness."
      Thus, the signal-witness correlation limits the resource available from the
      signal-ancilla correlation. Our formula characterizes the utility of different
      forms of resources, including noisy or limited entanglement assistance, for
      classical communication. With separable encoding, the sender's signals across
      multiple channel uses are still allowed to be entangled, yet our capacity formula
      is additive. In particular, for generalized covariant channels, our capacity
      formula has a simple closed form. Moreover, our additive capacity formula upper
      bounds the general coherent attack's information gain in various two-way quantum
      key distribution protocols. For Gaussian protocols, the additivity of the formula
      indicates that the collective Gaussian attack is the most powerful.

PMID- 28581813
TI  - Dominance of Metric Correlations in Two-Dimensional Neuronal Cultures Described
      through a Random Field Ising Model.
AB  - We introduce a novel random field Ising model, grounded on experimental
      observations, to assess the importance of metric correlations in cortical
      circuits in vitro. Metric correlations arise from both the finite axonal length
      and the heterogeneity in the spatial arrangement of neurons. The experiments
      consider the response of neuronal cultures to an external electric stimulation
      for a gradually weaker connectivity strength between neurons, and in cultures
      with different spatial configurations. The model can be analytically solved in
      the metric-free, mean-field scenario. The presence of metric correlations
      precipitates a strong deviation from the mean field. Null models of the same
      networks that preserve the distribution of connections recover the mean field.
      Our results show that metric-inherited correlations in spatial networks dominate
      the connectivity blueprint, mask the actual distribution of connections, and may
      emerge as the asset that shapes network dynamics.

PMID- 28581814
TI  - Hybrid Statistical and Mechanistic Mathematical Model Guides Mobile Health
      Intervention for Chronic Pain.
AB  - Nearly a quarter of visits to the emergency department are for conditions that
      could have been managed via outpatient treatment; improvements that allow
      patients to quickly recognize and receive appropriate treatment are crucial. The
      growing popularity of mobile technology creates new opportunities for real-time
      adaptive medical intervention, and the simultaneous growth of "big data" sources
      allows for preparation of personalized recommendations. Here we focus on the
      reduction of chronic suffering in the sickle cell disease (SCD) community. SCD is
      a chronic blood disorder in which pain is the most frequent complication. There
      currently is no standard algorithm or analytical method for real-time adaptive
      treatment recommendations for pain. Furthermore, current state-of-the-art methods
      have difficulty in handling continuous-time decision optimization using big data.
      Facing these challenges, in this study, we aim to develop new mathematical tools
      for incorporating mobile technology into personalized treatment plans for pain.
      We present a new hybrid model for the dynamics of subjective pain that consists
      of a dynamical systems approach using differential equations to predict future
      pain levels, as well as a statistical approach tying system parameters to patient
      data (both personal characteristics and medication response history). Pilot
      testing of our approach suggests that it has significant potential to well
      predict pain dynamics, given patients reported pain levels and medication usages.
      With more abundant data, our hybrid approach should allow physicians to make
      personalized, data-driven recommendations for treating chronic pain.

PMID- 28581815
TI  - Biomechanical Factors Associated With Achilles Tendinopathy and Medial Tibial
      Stress Syndrome in Runners.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is disagreement in the literature regarding whether the
      excessive excursion or velocity of rearfoot eversion is related to the
      development of 2 common running injuries: Achilles tendinopathy (AT) and medial
      tibial stress syndrome (MTSS). An alternative hypothesis suggests that the
      duration of rearfoot eversion may be an important factor. However, the duration
      of eversion has received relatively little attention in the biomechanics
      literature. HYPOTHESIS: Runners with AT or MTSS will demonstrate a longer
      duration of eversion but not greater excursion or velocity of eversion compared
      with healthy controls. STUDY DESIGN: Controlled laboratory study. METHODS: Forty
      two runners participated in this study (13 with AT, 8 with MTSS, and 21 matched
      controls). Participants were evaluated for lower extremity alignment and
      flexibility, after which a 3-dimensional kinematic and kinetic running gait
      analysis was performed. Differences between the 2 injuries and between injured
      and control participants were evaluated for flexibility and alignment, rearfoot
      kinematics, and 3 ground-reaction force metrics. Binary logistic regression was
      used to evaluate which variables best predicted membership in the injured group.
      RESULTS: Injured participants, compared with controls, demonstrated higher
      standing tibia varus angles (8.67 degrees  +/- 1.79 degrees  vs 6.76 degrees  +/-
      1.75 degrees , respectively; P = .002), reduced static dorsiflexion range of
      motion (6.14 degrees  +/- 5.04 degrees  vs 11.19 degrees  +/- 5.10 degrees ,
      respectively; P = .002), more rearfoot eversion at heel-off (-6.47 degrees  +/-
      5.58 degrees  vs 1.07 degrees  +/- 2.26 degrees , respectively; P < .001), and a
      longer duration of eversion (86.02% +/- 15.65% stance vs 59.12% +/- 16.50%
      stance, respectively; P < .001). There were no differences in the excursion or
      velocity of eversion. The logistic regression (chi2 = 20.84, P < .001) revealed
      that every 1% increase in the duration of eversion during the stance phase
      increased the odds of being in the injured group by 1.08 (95% CI, 1.023-1.141; P
      = .006). CONCLUSION: Compared with healthy controls, runners currently
      symptomatic with AT or MTSS have a longer duration of eversion but not greater
      excursion or velocity of eversion. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Static measures of the
      tibia varus angle and dorsiflexion range of motion, along with dynamic measures
      of the duration of eversion, may be useful for identifying runners at risk of
      sustaining AT or MTSS.

PMID- 28581816
TI  - Serial Changes in 3-Dimensional Supraspinatus Muscle Volume After Rotator Cuff
      Repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is considerable debate on the recovery of rotator cuff muscle
      atrophy after rotator cuff repair. PURPOSE: To evaluate the serial changes in
      supraspinatus muscle volume after rotator cuff repair by using semiautomatic
      segmentation software and to determine the relationship with functional outcomes.
      STUDY DESIGN: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. METHODS: Seventy-four patients
      (mean age, 62.8 +/- 8.8 years) who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and
      obtained 3 consecutive (preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and later
      postoperatively [>=1 year postoperatively]) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      scans having complete Y-views were included. We generated a 3-dimensional (3D)
      reconstructed model of the supraspinatus muscle by using in-house semiautomatic
      segmentation software (ITK-SNAP) and calculated both the 2-dimensional (2D) cross
      sectional area and 3D volume of the muscle in 3 different views (Y-view, 1 cm
      medial to the Y-view [Y+1 view], and 2 cm medial to the Y-view [Y+2 view]) at the
      3 time points. The area and volume changes at each time point were evaluated
      according to repair integrity. Later postoperative volumes were compared with
      immediately postoperative volumes, and their relationship with various clinical
      factors and the effect of higher volume increases on range of motion, muscle
      power, and visual analog scale pain and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons
      scores were evaluated. RESULTS: The interrater reliabilities were excellent for
      all measurements. Areas and volumes increased immediately postoperatively as
      compared with preoperatively; however, only volumes on the Y+1 view and Y+2 view
      significantly increased later postoperatively as compared with immediately
      postoperatively ( P < .05). There were 9 patients with healing failure, and area
      and volume changes were significantly less later postoperatively compared with
      immediately postoperatively at all measurement points in these patients ( P <
      .05). After omitting the patients with healing failure, volume increases later
      postoperatively became more prominent ( P < .05) in the order of the Y+2 view,
      Y+1 view, and Y-view. Volume increases were higher in patients who healed
      successfully with larger tears ( P = .040). Higher volume increases were
      associated only with an increase in abduction power ( P = .029) and not with
      other outcomes. CONCLUSION: The supraspinatus muscle volume increased immediately
      postoperatively and continuously for at least 1 year after surgery. The increase
      was evident in patients who had larger tears and healed successfully and when
      measured toward the more medial portion of the supraspinatus muscle. The volume
      increases were associated with an increase in shoulder abduction power.

PMID- 28581817
TI  - Insulin Pump Use in Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes: Sociodemographic Factors
      and Parent-Reported Barriers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Managing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in young children presents challenges
      to families and caregivers. Pump therapy may reduce challenges and benefit
      glycemic control. However, pump use is not universal; parent-reported reasons for
      lack of uptake are not well described. METHODS: Parents of children <7, with T1D
      for >=1 year, in the T1D Exchange registry completed surveys capturing
      demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as barriers to pump use. Data
      from pump users were compared to nonusers, and barriers were analyzed among
      parents who received pump recommendations, but decided against uptake. RESULTS:
      Young children (N = 515) from 41 sites were identified (mean age 5.2 +/- 1.2
      years, diabetes duration 2.4 +/- 1.0 years, 46% female, and 78% Non-Hispanic
      White). Overall glycemic control was suboptimal (HbA1c 8.1% +/- 1.0%). The
      majority were pump users (64%, n = 331; nonusers 36%, n = 184). Pump users had
      longer T1D duration (2.5 +/- 1.1 years vs. 2.2 +/- 1.0 years, P = 0.001), were
      more likely to have annual household incomes >=$75,000 (62% vs. 36%, P < 0.001),
      have a parent with college education or higher (70% vs. 45%, P < 0.001), perform
      more frequent blood glucose monitoring (7.5 +/- 2.5 times/day vs. 6.5 +/- 2.3
      times/day, P < 0.001), and use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) (45% vs. 13%,
      P < 0.001). Only income, education, frequency of blood glucose monitoring, and
      CGM use remained significant in a multivariate model including age, sex,
      ethnicity, and duration of diabetes. Barriers to pump uptake included concerns
      with physical interference, therapeutic effectiveness, and to a lesser extent,
      financial burden. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide an opportunity to address
      potentially modifiable parent-reported barriers to pump uptake through education
      and behavioral intervention.

PMID- 28581819
TI  - Co-existence of GM, conventional and organic crops in developing countries: Main
      debates and concerns.
AB  - The co-existence approach of GM crops with conventional agriculture and organic
      farming as a feasible agricultural farming system has recently been placed in the
      center of hot debates at the EU-level and become a source of anxiety in
      developing countries. The main promises of this approach is to ensure "food
      security" and "food safety" on the one hand, and to avoid the adventitious
      presence of GM crops in conventional and organic farming on the other, as well as
      to present concerns in many debates on implementing the approach in developing
      countries. Here, we discuss the main debates on ("what," "why," "who," "where,"
      "which," and "how") applying this approach in developing countries and review the
      main considerations and tradeoffs in this regard. The paper concludes that a
      peaceful co-existence between GM, conventional, and organic farming is not easy
      but is still possible. The goal should be to implement rules that are well
      established proportionately, efficiently and cost-effectively, using crop-case,
      farming system-based and should be biodiversity-focused ending up with "codes of
      good agricultural practice" for co-existence.

PMID- 28581818
TI  - Effect of Linagliptin Versus Metformin on Glycemic Variability in Patients with
      Impaired Glucose Tolerance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and glycemic variability may be
      associated with increased risk of micro- and macrovascular complications. The aim
      of this study was to assess the effect of linagliptin versus metformin on
      glycemic variability in patients with IGT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A randomized,
      double-blind clinical trial with parallel groups was carried out in 16 adult
      patients with IGT, overweight or obesity. All patients signed an informed
      consent. The therapies were randomly assigned: (a) metformin 500 mg bid (n = 8)
      or (b) linagliptin 5 mg a.m. and placebo p.m. (n = 8), both for 90 days. At the
      beginning of the trial and 3 months later, fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin
      A1c, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and glycemic variability [area under the
      curve (AUC) of glucose, mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE), standard
      deviation (SD) of glucose, coefficient of variation (CV) of glucose, and mean
      blood glucose (MBG)] were measured. Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon, and Fisher exact
      tests were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Both groups were similar in
      basal characteristics. After linagliptin administration, a significant decrease
      in glucose levels at 120 min of OGTT (9.0 +/- 0.9 vs. 6.9 +/- 2.2 mmol/L, P =
      0.012) was observed. Glycemic variability showed a similar behavior and there
      were no significant differences in the AUC, MAGE, SD of glucose, CV of glucose,
      and MBG between groups. CONCLUSION: Linagliptin administration resulted in better
      glycemic control according to the decrease of glucose levels by the OGTT at 120
      min in patients with IGT. Meanwhile, glycemic variability was not modified in any
      of the study groups.

PMID- 28581820
TI  - Barriers and Facilitators to HIV Testing Among Zambian Female Sex Workers in
      Three Transit Hubs.
AB  - Zambia has a generalized HIV epidemic, and HIV is concentrated along transit
      routes. Female sex workers (FSWs) are disproportionately affected by the
      epidemic. HIV testing is the crucial first step for engagement in HIV care and
      HIV prevention activities. However, to date little work has been done with FSWs
      in Zambia, and little is known about barriers and facilitators to HIV testing in
      this population. FSW peer educators were recruited through existing sex worker
      organizations for participation in a trial related to HIV testing among FSWs. We
      conducted five focus groups with FSW peer educators (N = 40) in three transit
      towns in Zambia (Livingstone, Chirundu, and Kapiri Mposhi) to elicit community
      norms related to HIV testing. Emerging themes demonstrated barriers and
      facilitators to HIV testing occurring at multiple levels, including individual,
      social network, and structural. Stigma and discrimination, including healthcare
      provider stigma, were a particularly salient barrier. Improving knowledge, social
      support, and acknowledgment of FSWs and women's role in society emerged as
      facilitators to testing. Interventions to improve HIV testing among FSWs in
      Zambia will need to address barriers and facilitators at multiple levels to be
      maximally effective.

PMID- 28581821
TI  - Randomized Controlled Trial of Technology-Assisted Case Management in Low Income
      Adults with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of technology-assisted case management (TACM)
      with medication titration by nurses using guideline-based algorithms, under
      physician supervision in improving glycemic control in low-income rural adults
      with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Adults (aged
      >=18 years) from the southeastern United States with hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c] >=8%
      were randomized to TACM or usual care. Evidence-based guidelines were used to
      develop medication titration algorithms in conjunction with clinic physicians.
      Participants were given a telehealth device that uploaded blood glucose and blood
      pressure readings daily to a central server. A nurse case manager was trained on
      the algorithms and authorized to titrate medications every 2 weeks based on the
      algorithm under the supervision of an internist and an endocrinologist.
      Participants were assessed at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. The primary
      outcome was HbA1c at 6-months postrandomization in the intent-to-treat (ITT)
      population. RESULTS: One hundred thirteen participants were randomized to either
      TACM intervention or usual care. Based on ITT population after multiple
      imputation, the analysis of covariance with baseline HbA1c as covariate showed
      that HbA1c at 6 months for TACM was significantly lower compared to the usual
      care group (-0. 99, P = 0.024). Moreover, longitudinal mixed effects analysis
      suggested that the rate of decline in HbA1c over time for TACM was significantly
      faster compared to the usual care group (-0.16, P = 0.038). Results based on per
      protocol population were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Technology-assisted case
      management by a nurse with medication titration under physician supervision is
      efficacious in improving glycemic control in low-income rural adults with poorly
      controlled type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28581823
TI  - Importance of light in the treatment of vitiligo with JAK-inhibitors.

PMID- 28581822
TI  - Three new sesquiterpenes from Pterocarpus santalinus.
AB  - Three new sesquiterpenes of canusesnol K (1), canusesnol L (2) and 12, 15
      dihydroxycurcumene (3), along with five known ones (4-8), were isolated from the
      heartwood extract of Pterocarpus santalinus. Their structures were established by
      extensive analyses of 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, including 1H NMR, 13C NMR,
      HSQC, HMBC and NOESY, and HRESI-MS. The absolute configurations of the new
      compounds were established with Modified Mosher's method. The cytotoxic
      activities of all these compounds against HepG2 (human liver cancer), MCF-7
      (human breast cancer), MDA-MB-231 (human breast cancer), and Hela (human cervical
      carcinoma) cancer cell lines were evaluated. Compound 1 exhibited moderate
      cytotoxic activity toward MDA-MB-231 cell lines.

PMID- 28581824
TI  - Three xanthone dimers from the Thai mangrove endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp.
      xy21.
AB  - Three new xanthone dimers, named phomoxanthones C-E (1-3), were obtained from the
      Thai mangrove fungus Phomopsis sp. xy21, together with four known ones. The
      structures of these compounds were elucidated by the analysis of HRESIMS and
      extensive NMR spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration of 1 was established
      by the analysis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction with Cu Kalpha radiation.
      Phomoxanthones C (1) and D (2) possess a highly oxidized hexahydroxanthone
      skeleton.

PMID- 28581825
TI  - Targeted-mitochondria antioxidants therapeutic implications in inflammatory bowel
      disease.
AB  - The role of the mitochondria, particularly its implications in cellular redox and
      oxidative balance is important for cell survival, and is involved in a variety of
      human diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this review we
      address mitochondria physiology and reactive oxygen species as cognate to IBD.
      Several studies have reported altered mitochondria function in intestinal
      epithelium in IBD. However, mitochondrion significance in this disease has not
      been much investigated. Finally, we suggest potential for antioxidants targeted
      to mitochondria in IBD therapy as a treatment strategy.

PMID- 28581827
TI  - Therapeutic efficacy of folate receptor-targeted amphiphilic cyclodextrin
      nanoparticles as a novel vehicle for paclitaxel delivery in breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to test folate-conjugated cyclodextrin
      nanoparticles (FCD-1 and FCD-2) as a vehicle for reducing toxicity and increasing
      the antitumor efficacy of paclitaxel especially for metastatic breast cancer.
      METHODS: For the evaluation of PCX-loaded FCD nanoparticles, animal studies were
      realised in terms of survival rate, tumour size, weight change, metastazis and
      histopathological examination. RESULTS: FCD-1 displayed significant advantages
      such as efficient targeting of folate receptor positive breast cancer cells and
      having considerably lower toxicity compared to that of Cremophor(r). When loaded
      with paclitaxel, FCD-1 nanoparticles, which have smaller particle size, neutral
      zeta potential, high encapsulation efficiency and better loading capacity for
      controlled release, emerged as an effective formulation in terms of cytotoxicity
      and high cellular uptake. In an experimental breast cancer model, anticancer
      activity of these nanoparticles were compatible with that of paclitaxel in
      Cremophor(r) however repeated administrations of FCD-1 nanoparticles were better
      tolerated by the animals. These nanoparticles were able to localise in tumour
      site. Both paclitaxel-loaded FCD-1 and FCD-2 significantly reduced tumour burden
      while FCD-1 significantly improved the survival. CONCLUSIONS: Folate-conjugated
      amphiphilic cyclodextrin nanoparticles can be considered as promising
      Cremophor(r)-free, low-toxicity and efficient active drug delivery systems for
      paclitaxel.

PMID- 28581826
TI  - Gold nanoparticles capped with benzalkonium chloride and poly (ethylene imine)
      for enhanced loading and skin permeability of 5-fluorouracil.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To enhance 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) permeability through the skin by
      loading onto gold nanoparticles (GNPs) capped with two cationic ligands,
      benzalkonium chloride (BC) or poly (ethylene imine) (PEI). Whereas 5-FU has
      excellent efficacy against many cancers, its poor permeability through biological
      membranes and several adverse effects limit its clinical benefits. BC and PEI
      were selected to stabilize GNPs and to load 5-FU through ionic interactions.
      METHODS: 5-FU/BC-GNPs and 5-FU/PEI-GNPs were prepared at different 5-FU/ligand
      molar ratios and different pH values and were evaluated using different
      techniques. GNPs stability was tested as a function of salt concentration and
      storage time. 5-FU release from BC- and PEI-GNPs was evaluated as a function of
      solution pH. Ex vivo permeability studies of different 5-FU preparations were
      carried out using mice skin. RESULTS: 5-FU-loaded GNPs size and surface charge
      were dependent on the 5-FU/ligand molar ratios. 5-FU entrapment efficiency and
      loading capacity were dependent on the used ligand, 5-FU/ligand molar ratio and
      solution pH. Maximum drug entrapment efficiency of 59.0 +/- 1.7% and 46.0 +/-
      1.1% were obtained for 5-FU/BC-GNPs and 5-FU/PEI-GNPs, respectively. 5-FU-loaded
      GNPs had good stability against salinity and after storage for 4 months at room
      temperature and at 4  degrees C. In vitro 5-FU release was pH- and ligand
      dependent where slower release was observed at higher pH and for 5-FU/BC-GNPs. 5
      FU permeability through mice skin was significantly higher for drug-loaded GNPs
      compared with drug-ligand complex or drug aqueous solution. CONCLUSION: Based on
      these results, BC- and PEI-GNPs might find applications as effective topical
      delivery systems of 5-FU.

PMID- 28581828
TI  - Biomarkers used in studying air pollution exposure during pregnancy and perinatal
      outcomes: a review.
AB  - PURPOSE: This review focuses on studies among pregnant women that used biomarkers
      to assess air pollution exposure, or to understand the mechanisms by which it
      affects perinatal outcomes. METHODS: We searched PubMed and Google scholar
      databases to find articles. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We found 29 articles, mostly
      consisting of cohort studies. Interpolation models were most frequently used to
      assess exposure. The most consistent positive association was between polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure during entire pregnancy and cord blood PAH
      DNA adducts. Exposure to particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
      showed consistent inverse associations with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content,
      particularly in the third trimester of pregnancy. No single pollutant showed
      strong associations with all the biomarkers included in this review. C-reactive
      proteins (CRPs) and oxidative stress markers increased, whereas telomere length
      decreased with increasing air pollution exposure. Placental global DNA
      methylation and mtDNA methylation showed contrasting results with air pollution
      exposure, the mechanism behind which is unclear. Most studies except those on PAH
      DNA adducts and mtDNA content provided insufficient evidence for characterizing a
      critical exposure window. Further research using biomarkers is warranted to
      understand the relationship between air pollution and perinatal outcomes.

PMID- 28581829
TI  - Features of fatal injuries in older cyclists in vehicle-bicycle accidents in
      Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify and better understand the
      features of fatal injuries in cyclists aged 75 years and over involved in
      collisions with either hood- or van-type vehicles. METHODS: This study
      investigated the fatal injuries of cyclists aged 75 years old and over by
      analyzing accident data. We focused on the body regions to which the fatal injury
      occurred using vehicle-bicycle accident data from the Institute for Traffic
      Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) in Japan. Using data from 2009 to
      2013, we examined the frequency of fatally injured body region by gender, age,
      and actual vehicle travel speed. We investigated any significant differences in
      distributions of fatal injuries by body region for cyclists aged 75 years and
      over using chi-square tests to compare with cyclists in other age groups. We also
      investigated the cause of fatal head injuries, such as impact with a road surface
      or vehicle. RESULTS: The results indicated that head injuries were the most
      common cause of fatalities among the study group. At low vehicle travel speeds
      for both hood- and van-type vehicles, fatalities were most likely to be the
      result of head impacts against the road surface. The percentage of fatalities
      following hip injuries was significantly higher for cyclists aged 75 years and
      over than for those aged 65-74 or 13-59 in impacts with hood-type vehicles. It
      was also higher for women than men in the over-75 age group in impacts with these
      vehicles. CONCLUSIONS: For cyclists aged 75 years and over, wearing a helmet may
      be helpful to prevent head injuries in vehicle-to-cyclist accidents. It may also
      be helpful to introduce some safety measures to prevent hip injuries, given the
      higher level of fatalities following hip injury among all cyclists aged 75 and
      over, particularly women.

PMID- 28581830
TI  - Development of a topical mupirocin spray for antibacterial and wound-healing
      applications.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop mupirocin topical spray using
      Eudragit E100 as a film-forming agent for the treatment of bacterial skin
      infections as well as to promote wound healing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty
      seven of mupirocin formulations were formulated containing Eudragit E100 and
      other excipients. Mupirocin spray was prepared by aerosol crimping and filling
      machine using HFA-134a as a propellant. The formulations were evaluated for their
      stability and physicochemical properties. The factorial study was applied to
      evaluate the effects of glycerol and PEG400 on mupirocin-loaded Eudragit E100
      films. The optimized formulation was assessed of drug release, antibacterial
      activities and in vitro cell line studies in comparison to the ointment
      formulation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Mupirocin sprays were formulated and
      optimized to obtain the formulation with excellent physicochemical and mechanical
      properties of the dressing film. The formulation had an excellent stability up to
      a year with more than 80% of mupirocin content. Mupirocin was released from the
      film up to 90% within 2 h. The formulation had a potent antibacterial effect
      against S. aureus and S. epidermidis. The formulation was safe to use as a
      topical formulation that had no toxicity to keratinocytes, fibroblasts and
      monocytes. The formulation also had an antiendotoxin effect without stimulating
      the production of NO and inflammatory cytokines (IL-1beta and TNF-alpha).
      CONCLUSIONS: Mupirocin topical spray was successful developed as a topical
      formulation and can be used instead of the ointment formulation. Animal
      experiments are warranted to further emphasize the safe use in the human skin.

PMID- 28581831
TI  - Development and characterization of new and scalable topical formulations
      containing N-acetyl-d-glucosamine-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles.
AB  - N-Acetyl-d-glucosamine (NAG) has been recently considered for topical treatment
      of hyperpigmentation disorders due to its inhibitory effect on thyrosinase
      enzymes in melanocytes. NAG is a precursor of hyaluronic acid, increasing its
      amount in skin, and consequently, preserving the skin hydration and elasticity.
      It may also act as an emulsion stabilizer. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) are
      advanced delivery systems successfully used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic
      formulations for the improvement of active molecules penetration into the skin.
      Therefore, this work aimed to develop and characterize stable and scalable
      topical formulations containing NAG-loaded SLN. NAG was incorporated in SLN which
      were prepared by two high shear homogenizers and characterized regarding its
      morphology and particle size by transmission electron microscopy and photon
      correlation spectroscopy, respectively. Oil emulgel and hydrogel were used as
      carriers of NAG-loaded SLN. Several parameters were evaluated, including the
      droplet size distribution, rheology, pH and topical delivery by different
      techniques. It was observed that SLN size was significantly dependent on NAG
      incorporation and homogenization process. Most tested SLN parameters appeared to
      be quite suitable, that is, spherical and well-defined SLN with approximately 258
      nm and -30 mV. Hereafter, both gels containing SLN presented a pseudoplastic
      flow. Emulgel formulation containing NAG-loaded SLN allowed a higher NAG
      permeation through the SC compared to the respective control (about 0.8 MUgcm-2 h
      1). According to the results obtained, it can be suggested that NAG acts as an
      emulsion stabilizer. This stabilization was also particularly dependent on the
      homogenizer type which is quite important for scale-up process. This study
      demonstrated the potential of scalable SLN formulations to improve NAG topical
      delivery contributing to the improvement of skin properties on several skin
      disorders.

PMID- 28581832
TI  - Evaluation of disintegrants functionality for orodispersible mini tablets.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This work evaluates the functionalities of different
      superdisintegrants (SD) for manufacturing orodispersible mini tablets (ODMT) by
      direct compression. METHODS: Twenty-three formulations varying in SD type,
      concentration, and lubricant were used to manufacture ODMT. The ODMT were then
      characterized for the following properties: friability, porosity, tensile
      strength, in vivo and in vitro disintegration time (DT). RESULTS: The results
      show that the presence, type, and concentration of SD did not influence
      friability, porosity, or tablet tensile strength. With regards to in vivo DT,
      only cross-linked poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) improved DT in all the tested
      formulations. Results also showed that when using microcrystalline cellulose
      (MCC) above 20% in the formulation, DT is longer. Cross-linked carboxymethyl
      cellulose accelerates DT when the MCC content is less than 20%. As for cross
      linked carboxymethyl starch and calcium alginate showed no improvement on DT.
      Results for in vitro DT were all shorter than in vivo results and there was no
      correlation with the in vivo evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that there
      is a need to develop better in vitro testing that precisely simulates in vivo
      conditions and that are adapted to ODMT. This standardization of the test methods
      for ODMTs must be accompanied by an improvement in the comprehension of SD
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28581834
TI  - Updates on smart polymeric carrier systems for protein delivery.
AB  - Smart materials are those materials that are responsive to chemical (organic
      molecules, chemical agents or specific agents), biochemical (protein, enzymes,
      growth factors, substrates or ligands), physical (electric field, magnetic field,
      temperature, pH, ionic strength or radiation) or mechanical (pressure or
      mechanical stress) signals. These responsive materials interact with the stimuli
      by changing their properties or conformational structures in a predictable
      manner. Recently, smart polymers have been utilized in various biomedical
      applications. Particularly, they have been used as a platform to synthesize
      stimuli-responsive systems that could deliver therapeutics to a specific site for
      a specific period with minimal adverse effects. For instance, stimuli-responsive
      polymers-based systems have been recently reported to deliver different bioactive
      molecules such as carbohydrates (heparin), chemotherapeutic agents (doxorubicin),
      small organic molecules (anti-coagulants), nucleic acids (siRNA), and proteins
      (growth factors and hormones). Protein therapeutics played a fundamental role in
      treatment of various chronic and some autoimmune diseases. For instance insulin
      has been used in treatment of diabetes. However, being a protein in nature,
      insulin delivery is limited by its instability, short half-life, and easy
      denaturation when administered orally. To overcome these challenges, and as
      highlighted in this review article, much research efforts have been recently
      devoted to design and develop convenient smart controlled nanosystems for protein
      therapeutics delivery.

PMID- 28581833
TI  - Novel nano-cellulose excipient for generating non-Newtonian droplets for targeted
      nasal drug delivery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Thickening polymers have been used as excipients in nasal formulations
      to avoid nasal run-off (nasal drip) post-administration. However, increasing the
      viscosity of the formulation can have a negative impact on the quality of the
      aerosols generated. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the use of a novel
      smart nano-cellulose excipient to generate suitable droplets for nasal drug
      delivery that simultaneously has only marginally increased viscosity while still
      reducing nasal drips. METHODS: Nasal sprays containing nano-cellulose at
      different concentrations were investigated for the additive's potential as an
      excipient. The formulations were characterized for their rheological and aerosol
      properties. This was then compared to conventional nasal spray formulation
      containing the single-component hydroxyl-propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) viscosity
      enhancing excipient. RESULTS: The HPMC-containing nasal formulations behave in a
      Newtonian manner while the nano-cellulose formulations have a yield stress and
      shear-thinning properties. At higher excipient concentrations and shear rates,
      the nano-cellulose solutions have significantly lower viscosities compared to the
      HPMC solution, resulting in improved droplet formation when actuated through
      conventional nasal spray. CONCLUSIONS: Nano-cellulose materials could potentially
      be used as a suitable excipient for nasal drug delivery, producing consistent
      aerosol droplet size, and enhanced residence time within the nasal cavity with
      reduced run-offs compared to conventional polymer thickeners.

PMID- 28581835
TI  - Development and gamma scintigraphy evaluation of gastro retentive calcium ion
      based oral formulation: an innovative approach for the management of gastro
      esophageal reflux disease (GERD).
AB  - Calcium chloride is an essential calcium channel agonist which plays an important
      role in the contraction of muscles by triggering calcium channel. First time
      hypothesized about its role in the treatment of GER (gastro-esophageal reflux)
      and vomiting disorder due to its local action. There are two objectives covered
      in this study as first, the development and optimization of floating formulation
      of calcium chloride and another objective was to evaluate optimized formulation
      through gamma scintigraphy in human subjects. Gastro retentive formulation of
      calcium chloride was prepared by direct compression method. Thirteen tablet
      formulations were designed with the help of sodium chloride, HPMC-K4M, and
      carbopol-934 along with effervescing agent sodium bicarbonate and citric acid.
      Formulation (F8) fitted best for Korsmeyer-Peppas equation with an R2 value of
      0.993. The optimized formulation was radiolabelled with 99mTc-99 m pertechnetate
      for its evaluation by gamma scintigraphy. Gastric retention (6 h) was evaluated
      by gamma scintigraphy in healthy human subjects and efficacy of present
      formulation confirmed in GER positive human subjects. Gamma scintigraphy results
      indicated its usefulness in order to manage GERD. Stability studies of the
      developed formulation were carried out as per ICH guidelines for region IV and
      found out to be stable for 24 months.

PMID- 28581836
TI  - Enhanced antitumor activity in A431 cells via encapsulation of 20(R)-ginsenoside
      Rg3 in PLGA nanoparticles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate the encapsulation of
      20(R)-ginsenoside Rg3 (20(R)-Rg3) using polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and
      promotion for its antitumor activity. SIGNIFICANCE: Preparation and evaluation of
      the antitumor efficacy of 20(R)-Rg3-loaded PLGA nanoparticles were the first
      reported. The data will be helpful to apply 20(R)-Rg3 efficiently and broadly in
      new drug form development and clinical cancer treatment. METHODS: The
      nanoparticles were prepared using emulsion and solvent evaporation methods. The
      uniform particle size and good dispersion were further confirmed by scanning
      electron microscopy. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide
      assay was applied to detect cell proliferation after 20(R)-Rg3-loaded PLGA
      nanoparticles treatment. Western blotting and immunofluorescent staining were
      used for observation of key proteins related with proliferation and apoptosis.
      Cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometer technology. RESULTS AND
      DISCUSSION: The results showed that the size of 20(R)-Rg3-loaded PLGA was 97.5 nm
      in diameter, and zeta potential was -28 mV detected by Malvern particle size
      analyzer. The encapsulation efficiency was 97.5%, and drug loading was 70.2%
      measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The in vitro study showed
      that the encapsulated 20(R)-Rg3 was consecutively released and the release ratio
      reached to the highest value (19.36%) at the time point of 96 h. The encapsulated
      20(R)-Rg3 significantly inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis in A431
      cancer cells compared with the unencapsulated 20(R)-Rg3, control and PLGA alone.
      CONCLUSION: 20(R)-Rg3-loaded PLGA nanoparticles was well prepared and
      characterized. The antitumor activity was increased after PLGA encapsulation. The
      data will be beneficial to the development of new dosage forms of 20(R)-Rg3 and
      extensive application.

PMID- 28581837
TI  - Role of Chemical Signals in the Orientation Behavior of the Sea Star Asterias
      forbesi.
AB  - The importance of chemical signals as foraging and orientation cues has been
      demonstrated for many marine organisms. It is still unclear whether sea stars use
      chemical signals during orientation and whether chemoreception occurs in the
      absence of macroscale flow. To determine whether the sea star Asterias forbesi
      can perceive chemical signals in the absence of flow and what role such signals
      play in orientation and foraging behavior, we tested the orientation behavior of
      sea stars to prey and nonprey items under conditions of nondirectional flow. Prey
      items were whole and broken clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) and mussels (Mytilus
      edulis); the nonprey item was squid flesh. Asterias forbesi showed the ability to
      successfully locate odor sources irrespective of the type of odor. Only in trials
      with the broken clam did the animals reveal an initial directional choice towards
      the odor source. There were significant changes in the movement rates and heading
      angles during orientation for all three stimuli. In addition, orientation paths
      were different for each of the chemical stimuli tested. From these results, we
      conclude that sea stars can detect and respond to chemicals in the absence of
      macroscale flow. Orientation paths appear to be more of a taxis, in which heading
      is directly guided by the stimulus field.

PMID- 28581838
TI  - Oxidative Stress in the Symbiotic Sea Anemone Aiptasia pulchella (Carlgren,
      1943): Contribution of the Animal to Superoxide Ion Production at Elevated
      Temperature.
AB  - Production of superoxide ions within tissues of the symbiotic sea anemone
      Aiptasia pulchella was detected using SOD-inhibitable cytochrome c reduction and
      quantified by SOD-inhibitable reduction of nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT). Intact
      aposymbiotic and symbiotic specimens of A. pulchella produced superoxide in
      response to acute, sublethal thermal stress. Neither light nor inhibition of
      symbiont photosynthesis by (3,4-di-chlorophenyl) -1, 1-dimethylurea (DCMU)
      affected superoxide production. The time course of superoxide ion production
      strongly resembled the time course of increased dark respiration by intact
      anemones, suggesting that the effect of elevated temperature on host mitochondria
      may account for increased superoxide production. Interestingly, freshly isolated
      algae (FIZ) did not release superoxide ions in response to elevated temperature,
      and net oxygen production decreased greatly in both intact symbiotic anemones and
      in FIZ within 20 minutes after temperature elevation. These results show that
      oxidative stress in A. pulchella is primarily an animal response, and suggest
      that the presence of symbiotic algae, although sufficient to cause hyperoxia, is
      not necessary for the appearance of oxidative stress in these anemones at
      elevated temperature.

PMID- 28581839
TI  - Physiological Variation Among Clonal Genotypes in the Sea Anemone Haliplanella
      lineata: Growth and Biochemical Content.
AB  - We have explored physiological variability among clonal genotypes from a single
      population of the sea anemone Haliplanella lineata located at Indian Field Creek,
      Virginia. Information about the correlation between physiological variability and
      genetic differences may provide a foundation for a mechanistic understanding of
      the breadth of adaptation of individual genotypes (i.e., the nature of "general
      purpose genotypes") and of the concept of localized adaptation in clonal
      anemones. Anemones from three clones (A, B, C) were fed measured rations of adult
      Artemia, after which growth, absorption efficiency, and net growth efficiency
      were determined. Biochemical constituents were measured in the tissue of this
      group of anemones as well as in the tissue of anemones from the same clones that
      had fed ad libitum on Artemia nauplii. Anemones from the different clones did not
      differ significantly in growth, or gravimetric absorption or growth efficiencies,
      but significant differences were found in biochemical composition. Regardless of
      feeding regime and diet composition, clone B anemones consistently had lower
      tissue averages of triacylglycerols, fatty acids, sterol and wax esters, glycerol
      ethers, and carbohydrates than did clone A and clone C anemones. As a result of
      differences in the carbohydrate and lipid constituents, the energetic content of
      tissues from clone B anemones that had been fed rations was significantly lower
      than the energetic content of tissues of anemones from clone C. This clonal
      pattern in biochemical composition and energetic content may be due to
      differences in substrate absorption among anemones from the different clones, to
      differences in metabolic rate, or to a combination of both. Because anemones from
      this population may encyst in mucus and stop feeding when water temperatures are
      less than 10{deg}C, the genotypic differences in storage lipids and carbohydrate
      may have implications for the winter survivorship of clone B anemones in this
      population.

PMID- 28581840
TI  - Scallop Shells Exhibit Optimization of Riblet Dimensions for Drag Reduction.
AB  - Drag reduction by streamwise surface grooves, or riblets, has been observed by
      engineers and has been suggested to apply to certain biological systems. Drag
      reductions as high as 8% have been observed (1), leading to practical nautical
      and aeronautical applications (2, 3, 4). The shells of several species of
      scallop, including Placopecten magellanicus, display riblets arranged radially,
      and therefore roughly parallel to the flow during swimming (Fig. 1a). The
      dimensions of these riblets on particular scallops fall within the region
      necessary for drag reduction at experimentally measured swimming speeds.
      Moreover, the actual spacing of the riblets gradually migrates into the
      theoretically optimal spacing region as shell length increases beyond 40 mm
      (Figs. 2, 3). Specimens of P. magellanicus 40 to 80 mm in length demonstrate the
      greatest swimming ability (5); our data strongly suggest that streamwise riblets
      may be a contributing factor to the swimming success in scallops of this size
      range.

PMID- 28581841
TI  - Laboratory Culture of the Sepiolid Squid Euprymna scolopes: A Model System for
      Bacteria-Animal Symbiosis.
AB  - The small Hawaiian sepiolid Euprymna scolopes, with its symbiotic luminous
      bacterium Vibrio fischeri, was cultured through one complete life cycle in 4
      months. Paralarval squid hatchlings were actively planktonic for the first 20-30
      days, after which they settled and assumed the typical adult mode of nocturnal
      activity and diurnal quiescence. Squids were aggressive predators that preferred
      actively swimming prey up to 2-4 times their size; the only diet that yielded
      good survival and rapid growth for paralarvae was large adult mysids. Survival to
      settlement was 73% on this diet, whereas it was 0%-17% on controls and three
      other diets. Paralarvae initially lacked both detectable luminescence and V.
      fischeri cells in their incipient light organs; all remaining stages produced
      luminescence, and their light organs were colonized by apparently pure cultures
      of > 105 V. fischeri typical of E. scolopes symbiont strains. Survival from
      settlement to sexual maturity was 76%. Mating and egg laying commenced at 2
      months, yet attempts to culture the next laboratory generation of hatchlings were
      not as successful. The results indicate that the host organism of this symbiosis
      can soon be cultured with consistency through its brief life cycle, thus opening
      new avenues of research into developmental aspects of this symbiosis.

PMID- 28581842
TI  - Serotonin and Dopamine Have Opposite Effects on Phototaxis in Larvae of the
      Bryozoan Bugula neritina.
AB  - Adult colonies of the bryozoan Bugula neritina release short-term anenteric
      larvae that initially are strongly photopositive. Over the course of several
      hours larvae lose their initial photopositivity and either become photonegative
      or alternate between positive and negative phototaxis. We report that newly
      released photopositive larvae rapidly become photonegative upon exposure to 10-6
      10-5 M serotonin or its metabolic precursor, 5-hydroxytryptophan. This behavior
      was not observed in two congeners of B. neritina, nor in larvae of three other
      species of bryozoans and seven species from four additional phyla. Antibodies to
      serotonin label cells in the region of the equatorial nerve-muscle ring and in
      two tracts extending from the apical disc to this ring. In a separate series of
      experiments, larvae treated with dopamine (10-7-10-5 M) significantly prolonged
      their photopositive period. This effect was also obtained with the D2 dopamine
      receptor agonist, quinpirole (10-6-10-5 M). HPLC analysis determined that newly
      released photopositive larvae contained 0.120 pmol dopamine/ {mu}g protein. These
      findings implicate serotonin and dopamine as important neurochemical regulators
      of phototaxis in larvae of B. neritina.

PMID- 28581843
TI  - Chrysaora achlyos, a Remarkable New Species of Scyphozoan from the Eastern
      Pacific.
AB  - An enormous new species of scyphozoan jellyfish, Chrysaora achlyos, is described
      from the eastern Pacific. The description is based primarily on color photographs
      and video footage of living animals and the morphology of four specimens
      collected in 1989. The natural history, life cycle, and sporadic appearance of
      the species all are unknown. The species appeared most recently in large numbers
      in 1989 but has appeared at least twice previously in this century; published
      photographs (unlabeled or incorrectly identified) appeared in 1926 and 1965. The
      species is easily distinguished by its size and coloration from other known
      species in the genus, all of which are considerably smaller. Morphological
      characters are described, and limited data on nematocyst types are presented.
      Because of the size of the new species and the known potency of the sting of
      congeners, we mention briefly the possible consequences of human contact.

PMID- 28581844
TI  - Mucociliary Transport in Living Tissue: The Two-Layer Model Confirmed in The
      Mussel Mytilus edulis L.
AB  - The present study combined video confocal laser microscopy (1) and tissue
      reflectance and autofluorescence to visualize mucus position and mucociliary
      transport in excised living gill tissue from the blue mussel Mytilus edulis.
      Rafts of mucus and embedded particles were transported atop a periciliary space
      traversed by frontal cilia, which engaged the mucus layer and moved it during the
      effective stroke, disengaging and completing the cycle during the recovery
      stroke. These results confirm the two-layer model for mucociliary transport in
      the mussel gill. Given the conservative nature of ciliated epithelial structure
      and function (2, 3), and the structural similarity of mucociliary surfaces as
      diverse as terrestrial vertebrate respiratory epithelium and molluscan gill, the
      two-layer mechanism of mucociliary transport may be a general feature of Metazoan
      biology.

PMID- 28581845
TI  - Effects of Spatial Distribution and Reproductive Biology on in situ Fertilization
      Rates of a Broadcast-Spawning Invertebrate.
AB  - In situ fertilization was examined in the gorgonian Pseudoplexaura porosa during
      1994 and 1995 spawning events in the San Blas Islands, Panama, to assess spatial
      and temporal variation in fertilization success and to determine whether in situ
      fertilization was sperm limited. Fertilization rates did not differ significantly
      between years (60% vs. 55%), but monthly means were significantly different,
      ranging from 22% to 66%. Fertilization rate varied among days, ranging from 0 to
      85%; 80% of this variability was explained by daily variation in the number of
      colonies that spawned. A weighted average of in situ fertilization rates suggests
      that 67% or more of spawned eggs are fertilized in nature. Sperm limitation did
      not occur on the nights when most of the colonies synchronously spawned and when
      most of the eggs were released. Eggs collected downstream of the population often
      had higher fertilization rates than eggs collected either adjacent to their
      source colony or eggs collected in the middle of the population, which indicates
      that in dense populations, eggs may have multiple opportunities to be fertilized.
      Traits such as highly synchronous spawning, high fecundity, large egg size, large
      polyps, and large colonies directly and indirectly enhance P. porosa gamete
      production and fertilization. These life-history traits reduce the effects of
      gamete dilution during spawning events and thus decrease the importance of sperm
      limitation in the population dynamics of P. porosa.

PMID- 28581846
TI  - Chromosome Segregation in Fertilized Eggs From Triploid Pacific Oysters,
      Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg), Following Inhibition of Polar Body 1.
AB  - Chromosome segregation in fertilized eggs from triploid Pacific oysters,
      following inhibition of the first polar body (PB1), was studied with acetic
      orcein staining techniques. To block the release of PB1, fertilized eggs were
      treated with 0.5 mg/l of cytochalasin B (CB). Four types of segregation were
      observed, namely, "tripolar segregation" (54.5%), "united bipolar segregation"
      (12%), "separated bipolar segregation" (2.5%), and "incomplete united bipolar
      segregation" (4%). The remaining 23% could not be classified because of
      chromosome disorganization, but appeared to be variants of the above. It seemed
      clear that the predominant pattern that gave rise to tetraploids was united
      bipolar segregation, although certain separated bipolar segregations might also
      lead to the formation of tetraploids. The sequential events of meioses observed
      in CB-treated eggs are described. The asynchrony of meiotic events and possible
      mechanisms for the various types of chromosome segregation are discussed.

PMID- 28581847
TI  - Dose-Response Relationships for Experimental Heterochrony in a Colonial Hydroid.
AB  - Hydractiniid hydroids display a range of morphological variation. At one end of
      the spectrum, the colonies grow in a sheet-like configuration with their polyps
      close together and short stolons. At the other extreme, the colonies have a
      runner-like form in which the polyps are farther apart and connected by long
      stolons. These patterns exemplify the heterochronic variation found in many
      colonial animals and correspond to changes in the timing of the production of
      polyps and stolon tips relative to rates of stolon growth and colony maturation.
      Experimental studies of clonal replicates of a Podocoryne carnea colony
      demonstrated a dose-response relationship between these heterochronic traits and
      within-colony gastrovascular flow to peripheral stolons. A dose-response
      relationship was found whether flow was perturbed by manipulating the amount of
      food consumed by the colonies or by treating the colonies with 2, 4
      dinitrophenol, an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation. In colonies in which
      flow was highly perturbed by either treatment, a similar rate of flow produced a
      similar morphological response. These data support the hypothesis of a causal
      relationship between flow rate and heterochronic variation. Nevertheless, flow
      was diminished by two clearly different mechanisms. Feeding manipulation altered
      flow relative to the size of the stolon by altering stolon thickness, without
      affecting the absolute quantity of flow. Uncoupling with dinitrophenol diminished
      the absolute quantity of flow, but did not affect the size of the stolon. A
      plausible assumption is that feeding manipulation affects the resistance of the
      stolon tissue to flow, or the fluid absorption of this tissue, or both; whereas
      uncoupling affects the amount of energy available to drive the flow. At the level
      of cellular metabolism, on the other hand, feeding manipulation and uncoupling
      again have similar effects, triggering metabolic activation (e.g., an increase in
      oxygen uptake and a shift in the mitochondrial redox state in the direction of
      oxidation). In the context of theories suggesting the metabolic control of
      development, a direct effect of feeding and uncoupling on colony development thus
      cannot be ruled out. Further, there may be an interaction between flow rate and
      metabolism, since gastrovascular flow distributes food throughout the colony, and
      since such substrate affects metabolic state. Both within-colony flow rate and
      metabolism may affect heterochronic variation in these hydroids, and methods
      appropriate to distinguish these two effects are discussed.

PMID- 28581848
TI  - Larval Shell Muscles in the Abalone Haliotis kamtschatkana.
AB  - I used light and electron microscopy to investigate shell-attached muscles in
      larvae of Haliotis kamtschatkana Jonas, 1845, because an early description of
      these muscles in H. tuberculata by Crofts (1937, 1955) has featured prominently
      in theories about gastropod evolution. Larval shell muscles in H. kamtschatkana
      can be grouped into two categories. The first category consists of the larval
      retractor muscle (LRM) and the accessory larval retractor muscle (ACC); these are
      striated muscles in which myofilaments begin differentiating before the head and
      foot rotate relative to the protoconch (this rotation is known as ontogenetic
      torsion). Collectively, these muscles ultimately insert on tissues within the
      larval head and mantle, but the ACC and mantle fibers of the LRM degenerate as
      metamorphic competence is achieved. The second category consists of two
      nonstriated pedal muscles that differentiate after cephalopodial rotation. The
      left pedal muscle is anchored on the back of the protoconch, to the left of the
      shell-attachment plaque for the LRM. It projects into the foot primarily, but
      also gives rise to muscle slips extending into the mantle fold. The right pedal
      muscle is anchored on a calcareous septum secreted along the visceral rim of the
      protoconch. The new data force a reconsideration of the ancestral homologues of
      larval shell muscles in abalone, because Crofts may have misidentified the
      accessory larval retractor muscle as a precursor of one of the later pedal
      muscles.

PMID- 28581849
TI  - An in vivo Comparative Study of Intersegmental Flexibility in the Ophiuroid Arm.
AB  - We present the first in vivo measurements of intersegmental rotation in the
      ophiuroid arm, comparing lateral bending performance in seven epifaunal species
      from Discovery Bay, Jamaica. The species studied include suspension-feeders,
      deposit-feeders, and scavengers, and also represent two major types of vertebral
      ossicle morphology. Animals were photographed with strobe illumination, and the
      angular deflections between arm segments were recorded. Despite considerable
      variation in vertebral morphology, ecology, and behavior, Discovery Bay
      ophiuroids show similar, overlapping distributions of maximal intersegmental
      rotations. Although interspecific differences in mean lateral flexibility can be
      statistically significant, absolute differences among species are small and of
      unknown functional significance. These quantitative data challenge long-standing
      assumptions about how the ophiuroid vertebral skeleton affects intersegmental
      flexibility, and how intersegmental flexibility per se affects an ophiuroid's
      ecological style or success.

PMID- 28581850
TI  - Reduction of Growth Rate as the Major Process in the Miniaturization of the Sand
      Dollar Sinaechinocyamus mai.
AB  - Sinaechinocyamus mai is an extremely small sand dollar, the maximum size being
      10.9 mm. It has been suggested that Sinaechinocyamus is a miniaturized progenetic
      sand dollar that closely resembles the juveniles of Scaphechinus. In this study,
      we investigated the mechanisms responsible for the miniaturization. Our analysis
      of population dynamics, maturity, and annual reproductive cycles suggests that
      the growth rates of S. mai are about 19% the growth rates of Scaphechinus
      mirabilis, which reaches a maximum size of 88 mm. The developmental stages of
      oral and aboral surfaces were defined on the basis of the number of discontinuous
      interambulacral plates and the number of tube-foot porepairs, pairs,
      respectively. The patterns of the oral and aboral surfaces of the two species
      were compared, both at original size and after the Scaphechinus mirabilis pattern
      had been reduced to a size proportional to that of S. mai (i.e., to 19%
      original). On the oral surface, the patterns were different at the original
      sizes, but similar when the proportional sizes were compared; this indicates that
      the development of the oral plates is age-dependent in S. mai. On the aboral
      surface, the patterns were similar at the original sizes, but different in the
      proportional comparison, indicating that the development of the aboral plates is
      size-dependent in S. mai. S. mai becomes sexually mature at the age of 2 years,
      and Scaphechinus mirabilis matures probably at about the same age. Our data
      suggest that the reduction of growth rate (neoteny) is a more important mechanism
      of miniaturization in S. mai than is precocious cessation (progenesis).

PMID- 28581851
TI  - Mechanosensitive Channels: Introduction.

PMID- 28581852
TI  - Subcuticular Rejection: an Advanced Mode of the Allogeneic Rejection in the
      Compound Ascidians Botrylloides simodensis and B. fuscus.
AB  - Allogeneic rejection between colonies (colony specificity) was described by
      electron microscopy in two compound ascidians, Botrylloides simodensis and B.
      fuscus. When two incompatible colonies are brought into contact at their growing
      edges, the tunic cuticle dissolves and the tunics of the colonies partially fuse.
      Alloreactive, humoral factors may diffuse to the opposite colony through the
      partially fusing tunic, and the tunic cells (free cells distributed in the tunic)
      possibly recognize these factors and induce a rejection reaction. Then, blood
      cells--mainly morula cells--infiltrate into the tunic, while tunic cells are
      disintegrating near where the partial fusion of the tunic is occurring. The
      infiltrating blood cells aggregate, disintegrate, and discharge electron-dense
      materials in the tunic at the subcuticular regions where the tunics have
      partially fused. Since the rejection lesion is restricted to the subcuticular
      area, some regulatory systems may be involved in this restriction. At the end,
      new walls are formed in the tunic matrix to separate the rejection lesion from
      the contacting colonies. The new wall is a continuous layer composed of electron
      dense fibers and is structurally identical to the regenerating tunic cuticle. The
      mode of occurrence of colony specificity (Hirose et al., 1994) and the present
      results indicate that tunic cells are the only allorecognition sites in B.
      fuscus.

PMID- 28581853
TI  - Stages of Larval Development and Stem Cell Population Changes During
      Metamorphosis of a Hydrozoan Planula.
AB  - Scanning electron microscopy and light histology were used to reveal the changes
      in overall morphology and in stem cell differentiation and distribution that
      occur as a free-swimming, solid hydrozoan planula larva is transformed into a
      sessile, hollow adult polyp. Eight stages of development are described: young 10
      hour planula, mature 48-hour planula, attaching planula, disc, pawn, crown,
      immature polyp, and primary adult polyp. The larval interstitial stem cell
      population (interstitial cells, nematocytes, ganglion cells) undergoes dramatic
      changes during metamorphosis: (1) distribution patterns change, (2) certain
      larval derivatives disappear, (3) new types of derivatives differentiate, and (4)
      migration patterns become more complex. This study is the first to examine how a
      stem cell system develops in an organism that goes from embryo to larva to adult.

PMID- 28581854
TI  - Prey Capture by the Sea Anemone Metridium senile (L.): Effects of Body Size, Flow
      Regime, and Upstream Neighbors.
AB  - The sea anemone Metridium senile is a quantitatively important passive suspension
      feeder in hard-bottom communities on the west coast of Sweden and occurs in
      aggregations with different size distributions. This study tests the hypothesis
      that different polyp sizes have different optimal flow regimes maximizing prey
      capture. Results showed that prey capture by M. senile is a function of both flow
      regime and polyp size, and different optimal flow regimes exist for different
      size classes. Large anemones had a maximum feeding efficiency at the slowest
      flow, medium-sized anemones at moderate flow, and small anemones at moderate- to
      high-flow regimes. Small anemones showed consistently higher feeding rates (per
      unit of biomass and area of tentacle crown) at all velocities above 10 cm s-1 and
      exhibited less flow-induced deformation of the tentacle crown, suggesting that
      small anemones are better at feeding in moderate- to high-flow habitats.
      Different vertical projections of large and small anemones in the boundary layer
      could only partly account for differences in feeding success among size classes.
      Feeding rate was also a function of upstream conspecifics, declining
      asymptotically to 30% of the maximum rate. The negative effects of neighbors on
      feeding in aggregations with clonal rather than polyp growth appear to be
      compensated for by the generally higher feeding efficiency of small polyps.

PMID- 28581855
TI  - Effects of Common Estuarine Pollutants on the Immune Reactions of Tunicates.
AB  - Tunicates are filter-feeding estuarine and marine animals that are frequently
      exposed to chronic environmental pollution. This study demonstrates that exposure
      to low-level (i.e., below the threshold of acute lethality) contamination with
      tributyltin, creosote, and copper can have substantial effects on natural immune
      reactions in tunicates. Sublethal doses of toxicants administered either in vitro
      or in vivo profoundly affected phagocytosis, cellular cytotoxicity, and
      hematopoietic cell proliferation. Effects were not always inhibitory, and
      responses often varied depending on the route of toxicant administration. The
      data suggest that pollutants can activate cascades of cellular processes and
      compensatory mechanisms, as well as directly inhibiting some of the responses
      tested. Some evidence indicates that toxicants exert their effects by altering
      the relative frequencies of circulatory hemocytes.

PMID- 28581856
TI  - Conflicting Morphological and Reproductive Species Boundaries in the Coral Genus
      Platygyra.
AB  - In mass-spawning corals, potential exists for gametes of a number of species to
      mix in the water column. The existence of morphologically distinct sympatric
      coral populations despite such an event implies the presence of isolating
      mechanisms to prevent hybridization and maintain species boundaries. Over 380
      fertilization trials were conducted to determine the extent of reproductive
      isolation among the seven morphologically defined species (morphospecies) of the
      scleractinian coral genus Platygyra, on the Great Barrier Reef. Results from
      these experiments demonstrate that fertilization between-morphospecies can occur
      at rates equivalent to within-morphospecies fertilizations, indicating that no
      gametic-level barriers to fertilization exist among these morphological species.
      Observations of spawning times both in the field and in the laboratory have shown
      that all seven morphospecies spawn on the same night and that there is
      considerable overlap in the hour of spawning among them. These data indicate that
      few, if any, temporal barriers to fertilization exist among morphospecies of
      Platygyra on the Great Barrier Reef. In addition, larvae resulting from between
      morphospecies crosses are capable of settlement and subsequent growth equivalent
      to that of within-morphospecies larvae. Our results reveal a discontinuity
      between reproductive and morphological species boundaries within the
      scleractinian genus Platygyra and challenge species definitions within the
      Scleractinia. It is not yet clear what mechanisms might maintain morphological
      boundaries in Platygyra in the face of the clear potential for gamete mixing. The
      disjunct distributions of certain morphospecies along latitudinal and habitat
      boundaries, and the small levels of variation in reproduction may be two such
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28581857
TI  - Patterns and Consequences of Whole Colony Growth in the Compound Ascidian
      Polyclinum planum.
AB  - The size and shape of colony-forming modular animals can convey ecological
      advantages, but many patterns and consequences of colony-level growth are not
      well understood. I carried out a longitudinal study on an intertidal population
      of the pedunculate ascidian Polyclinum planum to determine the patterns and
      consequences of its colony growth. I found that each P. planum colony is a
      nonfragmenting genet, and that colony size is limited by water-flow forces and
      reproductive state. P. planum mitigates the effects of water-flow forces by
      having an attenuating pattern of growth and by producing a laterally flattened,
      zooid-bearing lobe atop its tough flexible peduncle. Growth slows as the colony
      nears a size limit set by the environment and as it becomes reproductively
      active. The laterally flattened lobe allows colonies to increase their surface-to
      volume ratio, to house increased numbers of zooids (thereby increasing
      reproductive potential), and to minimize the effects of the acceleration reaction
      of water. P. planum's growth pattern fits predictions for colonies living in wave
      or surge-impacted environments. The growth of P. planum provides insight into
      how indeterminate modular growth conveys ecological and reproductive advantage,
      even amidst a physically stressful environment.

PMID- 28581858
TI  - Coelenterate Cnidae Capsules: Disulfide Linkages Revealed by Silver Cytochemistry
      and Their Differential Responses to Thiol Reagents.
AB  - The sulfur cytochemistry of cnidae from the Portuguese man-of-war Physalia
      physalis, the scyphozoan Cassiopeia xamachana, and the black coral Cirrhipathes
      luetkeni was evaluated on the basis of electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis,
      amino acid analysis, and response to disulfide reducing agents. The cnidae
      examined included large and small holotrichous isorhizas in P. physalis, another
      small isorhiza in C. xamachana, and both spirocysts and microbasic mastigophore
      nematocysts in C. leutkeni. A strong reaction with methenamine-silver reagent was
      characteristic of all cnidae capsules, but the pattern and extent of that
      argentophilia was dependent upon the type of cnida and its state of maturity. The
      large isorhizas of P. physalis reacted primarily in the outermost capsule layers,
      but in C. xamachana isorhizas, silver stained the entire capsule with the
      exception of the outermost region. The small isorhizas of P. physalis and the
      mastigophore capsules of C. leutkeni stained throughout, whereas the spirocyst
      capsules were outlined by silver, clearly delineating the inner and outer layers.
      All of these reactions were abolished with alkylation, but only after treatment
      with disulfide reducing agents; alkylation alone diminished silver staining only
      slightly, indicating that the argentophilic response was due primarily to
      disulfide linkages. The cystine content of these cnidae varied from 4.1 to 4.7
      mole percent for a given species, but amino acid analyses did not separate
      components of the cnidom. Cnidae, both within and among species, exhibited
      differential responses to the disulfide reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT).
      Isolated, unfixed, large isorhizas of P. physalis discharged and appeared to
      dissolve rapidly in the presence of this reagent, whereas small isorhizas from
      both P. physalis and C. xamachana discharged, but dissolved slowly if at all. The
      discharge and solution responses of the capsule coincided with the complete
      development of the tubule. Cnidae containing an undeveloped or partially
      developed tubule were resistant to DTT, displayed a weak capsular argentophilia,
      and contained background levels of sulfur; these results suggest that formation
      of disulfide linkages is one of the final steps in capsular maturation. In
      contrast, mature nematocyst and spirocyst capsules in C. leutkeni tentacles were
      resistant to DTT among other reagents, despite the presence of disulfides. This
      suggests that other types of covalent, intermolecular linkages could play a
      prominent role in the development of capsular stability in this species.

PMID- 28581859
TI  - Complex Signal Processing by Weakly Electric Fishes.

PMID- 28581860
TI  - Energy Use During the Development of a Lecithotrophic and a Planktotrophic
      Echinoid.
AB  - The energy required for development was measured in two closely related echinoids
      with differing modes of development. Heliocidaris tuberculata hatches from a 95
      {mu}m egg (~0.1 {mu}g dry organic mass) and develops via a planktotrophic larva
      over 21-30 days into a juvenile (5.3-7.5 {mu}g). H. erythrogramma hatches from a
      ~400 {mu}m egg (11.6-19.0 {mu}g) and develops over 3.5-4 days via a
      lecithotrophic larva into a juvenile with a mass not detectably different from
      that of the egg. Oxygen consumption increased exponentially in H. tuberculata and
      peaked at about 200-500 pmol indiv-1 h-1, whereas the oxygen consumption of H.
      erythrogramma increased rapidly, reaching a plateau at about 800 pmol indiv-1 h-1
      on the second day. Metabolic energy expenditure for development to metamorphosis
      was twofold higher for H. tuberculata (52-60 mJ indiv-1) than for H.
      erythrogramma (26-35 mJ indiv-1). The interspecific comparison suggests that
      about half the metabolic expenditure for planktotrophic development goes toward
      building and operating the larval feeding apparatus and that the return on this
      investment is 400%-600% over the larval period. When the energy equivalents of
      the organic masses of the juveniles are included, the energy for constructing a
      juvenile on a per mass basis is essentially the same for both species (cf. H.
      tuberculata: 37-42 mJ {mu}g-1; H. erythrogramma: 34-36 mJ {mu}g-1) and implies
      the absence of developmentally based energetic barriers or benefits to changes in
      modes of development. Substantial amounts of metabolically inactive material may
      be present in embryos with nonfeeding development and should be considered in
      physiological measurements and comparisons.

PMID- 28581861
TI  - Ovarian Development in the Class Holothuroidea: a Reassessment of the "Tubule
      Recruitment Model".
AB  - The "tubule recruitment model" for the development of the holothurian gonad was
      proposed (a) to connect the stages of oogenesis with ovarian morphology in
      holothurians throughout the reproductive season and (b) to emphasize the
      potential for the holothurian ovary as a model system for cytological and
      biochemical study of echinoderm oogenesis. To reassess the evidence for this
      model, we have examined published accounts and unpublished observations on gonad
      development in holothurians from both temperate and tropical habitats, in shallow
      water and in the deep sea. A very limited number of species were found to conform
      to the predictions of the tubule recruitment model. The patterns of gonad
      development vary substantially in holothurians, even at the individual level, and
      with taxonomic position, geographical location, and habitat. The tubule
      recruitment model can be applied to only a small subset of holothurians,
      specifically those in the families Stichopodidae and Holothuriidae that have
      gonad morphology similar to that of Parastichopus californicus. However, the
      tubule recruitment model is invalid for many other aspidochirotes, and does not
      have wider applicability within the class Holothuroidea.

PMID- 28581862
TI  - Uptake and Persistence of Homologous and Heterologous Zooxanthellae in the
      Temperate Sea Anemone Cereus pedunculatus (Pennant).
AB  - The uptake and persistence of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) were
      measured in the temperate sea anemone Cereus pedunculatus (Pennant). Aposymbiotic
      specimens of C. pedunculatus were inoculated with zooxanthellae freshly isolated
      from a range of temperate and subtropical Anthozoa. Each inoculate consisted of
      zooxanthellae from a single host species and was either homologous (zooxanthellae
      from a host of the same species as the one being inoculated) or heterologous
      (from a host of a different species than the one being inoculated). The densities
      of zooxanthellae in host tissues were determined at regular intervals. C.
      pedunculatus took up homologous and heterologous zooxanthellae to similar
      degrees, except for zooxanthellae from the temperate Anthopleura ballii, which
      were taken up to a lesser extent. The densities of all zooxanthellae declined
      between 4 hours and 4 days after uptake, indicating that zooxanthellae were
      expelled, digested, or both during this period. The densities of all
      zooxanthellae increased between 2 and 8 weeks after inoculation, indicating
      zooxanthella growth. Over the entire 8-week period after uptake, densities of
      homologous zooxanthellae were always greater than those of heterologous
      zooxanthellae. Between 8 and 36 weeks after infection, densities of homologous
      zooxanthellae declined markedly and densities of some heterologous zooxanthellae
      increased further, resulting in homologous and heterologous zooxanthella
      densities being the same at 36 weeks. These densities were the same as those in
      naturally infected C. pedunculatus of similar size. The results suggest that
      zooxanthellae from a range of host species and environments can establish
      symbioses with C. pedunculatus and that, over long periods under laboratory
      conditions, heterologous zooxanthellae may populate C. pedunculatus to the same
      extent as homologous zooxanthellae.

PMID- 28581863
TI  - Effect of Salinity on Ionic Shifts in Mesohaline Scyphomedusae, Chrysaora
      quinquecirrha.
AB  - Mesohaline populations of the scyphomedusae Chrysaora quinquecirrha are found in
      salinities ranging from 5{permill} to 25{permill}. Osmotic and ionic adjustments
      within this salinity range were investigated using C. quinquecirrha ephyrae
      budded from polyps in the laboratory and young medusae collected from the mid
      salinity region of the Patuxent River, Maryland. When medusae were transferred
      from 20{permill} salinity to lower salinities (8{permill}, 12{permill}),
      concentrations of sodium and magnesium in tissue and mesogleal fluid fell rapidly
      and approached those of dilute seawater within 6 hours. There was some recovery
      of these levels relative to the 8{permill} medium, and they were significantly
      higher than the dilute seawater concentration after 1 week. Tissue concentrations
      of calcium showed no evidence of being regulated, whereas potassium was strongly
      regulated such that levels did not fall significantly following transfer of
      medusae to lower salinities. However, after 1 week, the concentration of
      potassium in mesogleal fluid approached that of the dilute medium. Extracellular
      space measured by direct blotting and weighing or using 35S was about 40%. As a
      result, estimates for intracellular potassium were revised to 17 mM1-1. The
      concentration of potassium in tissue remained stable following transfer to lower
      salinity, despite a substantial osmotic influx of water. This influx was measured
      as a >20% gain in body weight over 24 h following transfer of medusae from
      16{permill} to 8{permill}. Mesogleal fluid was slightly hypo-osmolar to the
      medium at 15% and 20{permill} and slightly hyperosmolar to the medium at
      5{permill} and 12{permill}. Sulfate concentrations in mesogleal fluid were 66%
      70% those of the external medium. Medusae died or were unable to achieve positive
      buoyancy at 5%{permill}, which is probably very close to a lower salinity limit
      for C. quinquecirrha in the mesohaline Chesapeake Bay.

PMID- 28581864
TI  - The Route of Ion and Water Movements Across the Gill Epithelium of the Freshwater
      Shrimp Macrobrachium olfersii (Decapoda, Palaemonidae): Evidence From
      Ultrastructural Changes Induced by Acclimation to Saline Media.
AB  - The ultrastructure of the pillar cells in the gill lamellae of the freshwater
      shrimp Macrobrachium olfersii was examined to evaluate the routes of salt and
      water movement across the gill epithelium and into the hemolymph. Alterations
      were morphometrically quantified in shrimp maintained in fresh water (FW,
      <0.5{permill} salinity) and after acclimation to saline media (21{permill} or
      28{permill} salinity). The tissue interface between the hemolymph and the
      external medium consists exclusively of the thin apical flange regions of the
      pillar cells, the upper membrane of which is highly amplified by dense microvilli
      and overlain by a thin cuticle. The lower flange membrane, bathed by the
      hemolymph, is smooth and not invaginated. Contiguous flanges are strongly bound
      by junctional structures including desmosomes and septate junctions. The basal
      surface of the pillar cell perikaryon is linked to the adjacent septal cells
      through many basolateral junctions. The septal cell plasmalemma is abundantly and
      deeply invaginated, each infolding enclosing numerous mitochondria; these
      characteristics are typical of salt-transporting machinery. After shrimps were
      acclimated to saline media for 10 days, the thickness of the pillar cell flanges
      was significantly reduced (from 1.3 to {approx}0.4 {mu}m), as was the height
      (from 0.8 to 0.3 {mu}m) and density (from 4.0 to {approx} 1.8 microvilli/{mu}m)
      of the apical microvilli. This reduction in the apical surface area of the pillar
      cells appears to lead to decreased ionic permeability, concomitant with a
      reduction in Na+/K+-ATPase activity, thus limiting Na+ uptake. In contrast to the
      brachyurans, in which the respiratory and ion-transporting mechanisms are
      differentially located in the anterior and posterior gills, in palaemonid shrimps
      the pillar cells apparently play a dual role: ions move preferentially through
      ion transporters in the microvilli above the pillar cell perikaryon, while
      respiratory gases are exchanged through the fine flange regions in contact with
      the hemolymph.

PMID- 28581865
TI  - Embryonic Coat of the Grass Shrimp Palaemonetes pugio.
AB  - The embryo of the grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, is surrounded during
      development by a protective extracellular coat designated as the embryonic coat
      (EC). At hatching, this EC is composed of four embryonic envelopes (EE), each of
      which is composed of multiple layers. The outermost layer of the EC, the outer
      investment coat (OIC), is derived primarily, if not completely, from pleopods of
      the female. The first envelope (EE1) forms as a bilayered envelope, EE1a and
      EE1b, immediately after oviposition. The OIC becomes closely associated with EE1
      and remains in close contact with EE1 until hatching occurs. An additional layer,
      EE1c, is added to the inner side of EE1 between 3 and 5 d after oviposition.
      Three more embryonic envelopes, EE2, EE3, and EE4, are formed between the embryo
      and EE1 by 7 d after oviposition. Formation of embryonic envelopes continues
      until 10 d after oviposition; by this time each envelope is morphologically
      distinct in composition, with "outer" and "inner" sides clearly identifiable. All
      but the innermost embryonic envelope (EE4) are shed by the embryo about 6 h
      before hatching. Permeability of the EC during the 12-d incubation period is
      found to decrease between 0 and 5 d after oviposition, and then increase until
      hatching. Fluorescently labeled lectins react positively with the OIC, indicating
      the presence of glucose and N-acetylglucosamine residues. Thus, the palaemonid EC
      is a dynamic structure throughout embryonic development.

PMID- 28581866
TI  - p58, a Cytoskeletal Protein, Is Associated With Muscle Cell Determinants in
      Ascidian Eggs.
AB  - The theory that p58, a cytoskeletal protein, has an important role in ascidian
      muscle cell development was tested by altering normal distributions of orange
      pigmented myoplasm in Boltenia villosa embryos and determining if muscle
      development is correlated with the presence of p58. Removal of the animal region
      of fertilized Boltenia eggs resulted in the redistribution of myoplasm into the
      anterior endoderm cells of the embryo. Despite alterations in the normal
      distribution of myoplasm, these embryos developed into larvae. However, when four
      celled embryos that exhibited altered distributions of pigmented myoplasm were
      stained with NN18, an antibody that stains p58, a maximum of two blastomeres were
      stained, as in control embryos. Compression of Boltenia embryos at the four
      celled stage caused the myoplasm to be partitioned into four blastomeres of an
      eight-celled embryo, instead of into two blastomeres. Compressed and cleavage
      arrested eight-celled embryos developed myosin and muscle actin RNA in a maximum
      of four blastomeres, compared to a maximum of two blastomeres in control embryos.
      When compressed eight-celled embryos were stained with NN18, p58 was present in a
      maximum of four blastomeres. These results support the idea that the cytoskeletal
      protein p58 is associated with muscle cell determinants in ascidian eggs.

PMID- 28581867
TI  - Morphology and Development of Odostomia columbiana Dall and Bartsch
      (Pyramidellidae): Implications for the Evolution of Gastropod Development.
AB  - Although pyramidellid gastropods are a phylogenetically important group of
      diverse and abundant ectoparasites, little is known about their life histories.
      Herein, we describe the adult morphology and development of the pyramidellid
      Odostomia columbiana, which parasitizes the scallops Chlamys hastata and C.
      rubida in the Northeast Pacific. Anatomically, adult O. columbiana resemble other
      known pyramidellids although they lack the tentacular pads typical of other
      Odostomia species. Embryonic development is similar to that described for other
      pyramidellids: cleavage is unequal, gastrulation is partially by invagination,
      and considerable growth occurs before hatching. However, embryonic and larval
      development are much slower than for other described species. The planktotrophic
      larvae hatch after 19 days of intracapsular development and metamorphose about 2
      months later. O. columbiana veligers have a large black pigmented mantle organ to
      the right of the midline, a distinct metapodial tentacle, and three or four long
      bristles that project over the operculum from behind the foot. Observations of
      newly metamorphosed juveniles suggest that previous disagreements regarding the
      development of heterostrophy are due to variation in the degree of heterostrophy
      among species. Our observations also generally corroborate certain scenarios
      explaining the evolution of gastropod cleavage type and larval heterochrony.
      Unequal cleavage and larvae that hatch without well-developed eyes and tentacles
      may be characteristic of the common ancestor of pyramidellids and opisthobranchs;
      however, late development of the larval heart is probably a derived condition of
      opisthobranchs.

PMID- 28581868
TI  - Decline in Pelagic Cephalopod Metabolism With Habitat Depth Reflects Differences
      in Locomotory Efficiency.
AB  - The metabolic rates of 33 species of pelagic cephalopods from California and
      Hawaii were measured and correlated with minimum depth of occurrence. Mean
      metabolic rates ranged from 0.07 {mu}mol O2g-1 h-1 for the deep-living vampire
      squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, to 8.79 {mu}mol O2 g-1 h-1 for Gonatus onyx, a
      vertically migrating squid. An individual of V. infernalis, which lives within
      the oxygen minimum layer off California, had the lowest mass-specific metabolic
      rate ever measured for a cephalopod (0.02 {mu}mol O2g-1 h-1, 1050 g wet weight).
      For species collected in sufficient quantity and size range, metabolism was
      related to body size. Critical partial pressures of oxygen (Pc) were determined
      for Hawaiian and Californian cephalopods. Pc values for Hawaiian animals were
      considerably higher than for those taken off California, a trend that corresponds
      to the higher levels of environmental oxygen in the Hawaiian waters. Buffering
      capacity ({beta}) of mantle muscle, assayed in eight cephalopod species, was used
      to estimate the capacity for glycolytic energy production. Mean {beta} ranged
      from 1.43 slykes for a bathypelagic octopod, Japetella heathi, to 77.08 slykes
      for an epipelagic squid. Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis. Significant declines with
      increasing depth of occurrence were observed for both metabolism and {beta}. The
      decline in metabolic parameters with depth is interpreted as a decreased reliance
      on locomotory abilities for predator/prey interactions in the light-limited deep
      sea. The decline in metabolism with depth observed for pelagic cephalopods was
      significantly steeper than that previously observed for either pelagic fishes or
      crustaceans. We suggest that since strong locomotory abilities are not a priority
      in the deep sea, deeper-living cephalopods may rely more heavily on means of
      locomotion that are more efficient than jet propulsion via mantle contractions-
      means such as fin swimming or medusoid swimming utilizing the arms and extensive
      webbing present in many deep-living species. The greater efficiency of deeper
      living cephalopods may be responsible for the observation that the decline in
      metabolic rates with depth is more pronounced for pelagic cephalopods than for
      fishes or crustaceans.

PMID- 28581869
TI  - Life-History Variation in a Colonial Ascidian: Broad-Sence Heritabilities and
      Tradeoffs in Allocation to Asexual Growth and Male and Female Reproduction.
AB  - Intraspecific variation in life-history strategy provides a valuable opportunity
      for examining how natural selection acts on life-history variants to mold
      reproductive strategies. Evaluating the consequences of selection requires
      knowledge of the range of phenotypic variation in life histories, the extent to
      which variation is genetically based, and possible correlations among different
      traits that might constrain or promote the effect of selection on individual
      traits. We explored life-history variation in the colonial ascidian Botryllus
      schlosseri (a cyclical hermaphrodite) by growing clonal replicates of 18
      genotypes in a common-garden experiment. Colonies of this species have previously
      been shown to vary in egg production and growth rate. We demonstrate that
      genotypes also vary in sperm production, which is manifested as variation in
      testis size. We then calculate broad-sense heritabilities for a suite of life
      history traits and demonstrate correlations among traits that suggest a three-way
      tradeoff in resource allocation to asexual growth and sexual reproduction via
      male and female function. This correlation structure suggests that selection
      cannot act independently on individual life-history traits.

PMID- 28581870
TI  - Plasticity in the Sclerites of a Gorgonian Coral: Tests of Water Motion, Light
      Level, and Damage Cues.
AB  - The gorgonian coral Briareum asbestinum contains skeletal elements (sclerites)
      that vary in length and density within and among local populations. Data from
      previous work suggested that the sclerite compositions of colonies may be altered
      in response to environmental cues such as predator damage, water motion, and
      light level. To test these hypotheses, colonies from shallow reefs were
      transplanted to racks at a single location where the three environmental factors
      of interest were artificially manipulated. After 9-14 weeks of growth, sclerite
      morphologies and densities had not changed in response to shading or to water
      motion reductions that mimicked deep-water conditions. However, colonies did
      respond significantly to two types of simulated predator damage. Following tip
      amputation, sclerites in the regenerated tips of damaged colonies were shorter
      and more dense than in the controls. In contrast, mid-branch scarring caused
      colonies to produce longer sclerites at lower densities. Since long sclerites
      deter feeding by predatory snails, the increase in sclerite length in response to
      scarring of mid-branch regions may function as an inducible defense.

PMID- 28581871
TI  - Heat-Shock Protein Expression in Mytilus californianus: Acclimatization (Seasonal
      and Tidal-Height Comparisons) and Acclimation Effects.
AB  - Heat-shock protein (hsp) expression was examined in gill of field-acclimatized
      and laboratory-acclimated mussels (Mytilus californianus) from the Oregon coast.
      Endogenous levels of heat-shock proteins in the 70-kDa class (hsp70 isoforms) and
      profiles of induction temperature for newly synthesized hsp 70 were measured in
      freshly field-collected specimens as functions of location height in the
      intertidal and season, and in mussels after 7 weeks of laboratory thermal
      acclimation. There were significant differences in endogenous levels of hsp70 as
      functions of season and collection height. Strong induction of new hsp70
      synthesis occurred at body temperatures within the range measured in field
      specimens. Profiles of hsp70 thermal induction varied significantly with season,
      but not with height of collection. In contrast to the large differences in hsp70
      expression between winter- and summer-acclimatized mussels, no differences
      related to temperature occurred in the differently acclimated mussels. The
      differences found between the effects of field acclimatization and laboratory
      thermal acclimation suggest that the stress response is modulated by
      environmental factors in addition to body temperature. Thus, caution is required
      in extrapolating from laboratory acclimation studies to acclimatization effects
      in field populations. The seasonal and tidal-height variations in the heat-shock
      response are discussed in the context of energy costs of protein turnover.

PMID- 28581872
TI  - Compound Eye Fine Structure in Paralomis multispina Benedict, an Anomuran Half
      Crab From 1200 m Depth (Crustacea; Decapoda; Anomura).
AB  - Fully grown, unsexed specimens of the anomuran half-crab Paralomis multispina
      Benedict were obtained from a depth of 1200 m, and the eyes of three individuals
      were prepared for light and electron microscopy. In their outer appearance the
      compound eyes of Paralomis resemble those of common shallow-water half-crabs
      (e.g., Petrolisthes), but facets in Paralomis were about 3 times larger in
      diameter (i.e., 60 {mu}m) and at least twice as long. Interommatidial angles
      ranged from 3{deg} to 5{deg}. The proximal width of the crystalline cone in
      Paralomis was 10 times that of its equivalent in the Petrolisthes eye, and the
      rhabdom--although only twice as long--had a radius that was 7 times greater
      distally and 4 times greater proximally. A clear-zone between cones and rhabdom
      was not developed, and cross sections of crystalline cones revealed rounded
      rather than square profiles. A distal retinula cell (R8) was absent, and all
      regular retinula cells (R1-R7) protruded microvilli of about 0.11 {mu}m diameter
      in many (and not only two) directions. A maximum rhabdom occupation ratio of 85%
      was found in the Paralomis retinula, whereas in the shallow-water half-crabs the
      comparable figure was 35%. Paralomis featured a wide, rhabdomless space between
      basement membrane and proximal rhabdom ends; the space was occupied by reflecting
      cells. Primary screening pigment cells and their dark granules were present;
      secondary screening pigment cells, however, were replaced by reflecting cells.
      The anatomical modifications in the Paralomis eye are consistent with habitat
      related adaptations seen in the eyes of other benthic and slow-moving deep-water
      crustaceans, but not with those of euphausiids. We conclude that the eye of
      Paralomis functions as an apposition eye, designed to maximize photon capture,
      especially from point sources (i.e., bioluminescence) rather than extended
      sources. We estimate that the Paralomis eye is at least 150 times more sensitive
      to light than the eye of shallow-water Petrolisthes.

PMID- 28581873
TI  - Budget impact model in moderate-to-severe psoriasis vulgaris assessing effects of
      calcipotriene and betamethasone dipropionate foam on per-patient standard of care
      costs.
AB  - AIMS: To develop a budget impact model (BIM) for estimating the financial impact
      of formulary adoption and uptake of calcipotriene and betamethasone dipropionate
      (C/BD) foam (0.005%/0.064%) on the costs of biologics for treating moderate-to
      severe psoriasis vulgaris in a hypothetical US healthcare plan with 1 million
      members. METHODS: This BIM incorporated epidemiologic data, market uptake
      assumptions, and drug utilization costs, simulating the treatment mix for
      patients who are candidates for biologics before (Scenario #1) and after
      (Scenario #2) the introduction of C/BD foam. Predicted outcomes were expressed in
      terms of the annual cost of treatment (COT) and the COT per member per month
      (PMPM). RESULTS: At year 1, C/BD foam had the lowest per-patient cost ($9,913)
      necessary to achieve a Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI)-75 response
      compared with etanercept ($73,773), adalimumab ($92,871), infliximab ($34,048),
      ustekinumab ($83,975), secukinumab ($113,858), apremilast ($47,960), and
      ixekizumab ($62,707). Following addition of C/BD foam to the formulary, the
      annual COT for moderate-to-severe psoriasis would decrease by $36,112,572
      (17.91%, from $201,621,219 to $165,508,647). The COT PMPM is expected to decrease
      by $3.00 (17.86%, from $16.80 to $13.80). LIMITATIONS: Drug costs were based on
      Medi-Span reference pricing (January 21, 2016); differences in treatment costs
      for drug administration, laboratory monitoring, or adverse events were not
      accounted for. Potentially confounding were the definition of "moderate-to
      severe" and the heterogeneous efficacy data. The per-patient cost for PASI-75
      response at year 1 was estimated from short-term efficacy data for C/BD foam and
      apremilast only. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of C/BD foam is expected to
      decrease the annual COT for moderate-to-severe psoriasis treatable with biologics
      by $36,112,572 for a hypothetical US healthcare plan with 1 million plan members,
      and to lower the COT PMPM by $3.00.

PMID- 28581874
TI  - Cost drivers for breast, lung, and colorectal cancer care in a commercially
      insured population over a 6-month episode: an economic analysis from a health
      plan perspective.
AB  - AIMS: In the absence of clinical data, accurate identification of cost drivers is
      needed for economic comparison in an alternate payment model. From a health plan
      perspective using claims data in a commercial population, the objective was to
      identify and quantify the effects of cost drivers in economic models of breast,
      lung, and colorectal cancer costs over a 6-month episode following initial
      chemotherapy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This study analyzed claims data from
      9,748 Cigna beneficiaries with diagnosis of breast, lung, and colorectal cancer
      following initial chemotherapy from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015. We used
      multivariable regression models to quantify the impact of key factors on cost
      during the initial 6-month cancer care episode. RESULTS: Metastasis, facility
      provider affiliation, episode risk group (ERG) risk score, and radiation were
      cost drivers for all three types of cancer (breast, lung, and colorectal). In
      addition, younger age (p < .0001) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2
      oncogene overexpression (HER2+)-directed therapy (p < .0001) were associated with
      higher costs in breast cancer. Younger age (p < .0001) and female gender (p <
      .0001) were also associated with higher costs in colorectal cancer. Metastasis
      was also associated with 50% more hospital admissions and increased hospital
      length of stay (p < .001) in all three cancers over the 6-month episode duration.
      Chemotherapy and supportive drug therapies accounted for the highest proportion
      (48%) of total medical costs among beneficiaries observed. CONCLUSIONS: Value
      based reimbursement models in oncology should appropriately account for key cost
      drivers. Although claims-based methodologies may be further augmented with
      clinical data, this study recommends adjusting for the factors identified in
      these models to predict costs in breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.

PMID- 28581875
TI  - Microencapsulation by spray drying of lemon essential oil: Evaluation of mixtures
      of mesquite gum-nopal mucilage as new wall materials.
AB  - Mesquite gum (MG) and nopal mucilage (NM) mixtures were used for
      microencapsulation of lemon essential oil (LEO) by spray drying. Emulsions of MG,
      NM and MG-NM mixtures (25-75, 50-50, 75-25) were evaluated according to the
      droplet size (1.49-9.16 MUm), viscosity and zeta potential (-16.07 to -20.13 mV),
      and microcapsules were characterised in particle size (11.9-44.4 MUm),
      morphology, volatile oil retention (VOR) (45.9-74.4%), encapsulation efficiency
      (EE) (70.9-90.6%), oxidative stability and thermal analysis. The higher
      concentration of MG led to smaller droplet sizes and lower viscosity in the
      emulsions, and smaller particle sizes with the highest VOR in microcapsules. The
      higher concentration of NM induced to higher viscosity in the emulsions, and
      larger particle sizes with the highest values of EE and oxidative stability in
      microcapsules. This work shows evidence that MG-NM mixtures can have synergic
      effect in desirable characteristics such as retention and shelf life extension of
      LEO in microcapsules.

PMID- 28581876
TI  - Hypolipidemic Activity of Quercus acutissima Fruit Ethanol Extract is Mediated by
      Inhibition of Acetylation.
AB  - The acetylation of histone and nonhistone proteins is associated with
      adipogenesis. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether an
      ethanol extract of Quercus acutissima fruit (QF) exhibits antiobesity effects
      through inhibition of acetylation in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and high fat diet (HFD)
      fed obese mice. We observed that QF acts as a histone acetyltransferase (HAT)
      inhibitor and that QF (400 MUg/mL) markedly inhibits the activity of p300 and
      CREB-binding protein. QF (200 MUg/mL) significantly attenuated lipid accumulation
      without apparent toxicity, which is likely attributable to a decrease in the
      expressions of lipogenic proteins, including fatty acid synthase, peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma, sterol regulatory element-binding protein
      1, and CCAAT-enhancer-binding proteins alpha that were otherwise increased by MDI
      (a hormonal cocktail containing methyl isobutylmethylxanthine, dexamethasone, and
      insulin). MDI increased the acetylation of total lysine residues in whole 3T3-L1
      cell lysate, an effect that was reversed by QF treatment (200 MUg/mL). To further
      confirm the antiobesity activity of QF, mice were fed with HFD supplemented with
      QF at 50 and 200 mg/kg body weight. Mice fed with HFD exhibited increased masses
      of body, liver, and retroperitoneal fat, an effect that was suppressed in the
      presence of QF supplementation. QF-mediated decreases in body weight were
      attributable to a decrease in the average size of lipid droplets, as well as
      lipid accumulation in retroperitoneal fat and the liver, respectively. QF
      mediated reductions in the size of the lipid droplets in the retroperitoneal fat
      tissue were likely associated with decreased expression of DGAT2. Taken together,
      our observations suggest that QF acts as an HAT inhibitor and attenuates
      adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, resulting in the mitigation of HFD-induced
      obesity.

PMID- 28581877
TI  - Cellular Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Coffee Extracts with
      Different Roasting Levels.
AB  - During roasting, major changes occur in the composition and physiological effects
      of coffee beans. In this study, in vitro antioxidant effects and anti
      inflammatory effects of Coffea arabica green coffee extracts were investigated at
      different roasting levels corresponding to Light, Medium, City, and French roast.
      Total caffeine did not show huge difference according to roasting level, but
      total chlorogenic acid contents were higher in light roasted coffee extract than
      other roasted groups. In addition, light roasted coffee extract had the highest
      antioxidant activity in the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. To
      determine the in vitro antioxidant property, coffee extracts were used to treat
      AML-12 cells. Intracellular glutathione (GSH) concentration and mRNA expression
      levels of genes related to GSH synthesis were negatively related to roasting
      levels. The anti-inflammatory effects of coffee extracts were investigated in
      lipopolysaccharide-treated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. The cellular antioxidant
      activity of coffee extracts exhibited similar patterns as the AML-12 cells. The
      expression of mRNA for tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 was
      decreased in cells treated with the coffee extracts and the expression decreased
      with increasing roasting levels. These data suggest that coffee has physiological
      antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and these effects are negatively
      correlated with roasting levels in the cell models.

PMID- 28581879
TI  - Familiar Stranger.

PMID- 28581878
TI  - What happens when the doctor denies a patient's request? A qualitative interview
      study among general practitioners in Norway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore general practitioners (GPs') experiences from consultations
      when a patient's request is denied, and outcomes of such incidents. DESIGN AND
      PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a qualitative study with semi-structured individual
      interviews with six GPs in Norway. We asked them to tell about experiences from
      specific encounters where they had refused a patient's request. The texts were
      analysed with Systematic Text Condensation, a method for thematic cross-case
      analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Accounts of experiences from consultations when
      GPs refused their patients' requests. RESULTS: Subjects of dispute included
      clinical topics like investigation and treatment, certification regarding welfare
      benefits and medico-legal issues, and administrative matters. The arguments took
      different paths, sometimes settled by reaching common ground but more often as
      unresolved disagreement with anger or irritation from the patient, sometimes with
      open hostility and violence. The aftermath and outcomes of these disputes lead to
      strong emotional impact where the doctors reflected upon the incidents and
      sometimes regretted their handling of the consultation. Some long-standing and
      close patient-doctor relationships were injured or came to an end. CONCLUSIONS:
      The price for denying a patient's request may be high, and GPs find themselves
      uncomfortable in such encounters. Skills pertaining to this particular challenge
      could be improved though education and training, drawing attention to negotiation
      of potential conflicts. Also, the notion that doctors have a professional
      commitment to his or her own autonomy and to society should be restored, through
      increased emphasis on core professional ethics in medical education at all
      levels.

PMID- 28581880
TI  - Does familial Mediterranean fever affect cognitive function in children?
      Electrophysiological preliminary study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a periodic autoinflammatory
      disease with subclinical inflammation occurring between attacks. The aim of the
      study was to prospectively evaluate the cognitive function of children diagnosed
      with FMF that were under colchicine therapy and compare them with healthy
      controls through electrophysiologically event-related potentials (ERPs) study.
      METHODS: Twelve children with FMF and 12 healthy controls were included in the
      study. During the electroencephalography recordings, all participants were
      instructed to discriminate rare stimuli (target stimuli) from frequent stimuli
      (standard stimuli) by pressing a botton on a mouse immediately following the
      target stimulus. P300, the cognitive component of ERP, was obtained in response
      to target stimuli and its amplitude and latency were measured. RESULTS: The
      amplitude of the P300 of the FMF patients was higher and the latencies of the
      P300 of the FMF patients were shorter than the amplitudes and latencies of
      control patients, respectively. The difference between the groups was
      statistically significant for amplitude but not for latency. CONCLUSIONS:
      Cognitive processing reflecting allocation of attention and visual processing
      speed seems not to be negatively affected in FMF patients with homozygous M694V
      mutations undergoing colchicine treatment. As this study is unique in its
      evaluation of the cognitive function of children with FMF, these findings may be
      helpful for counseling families and patients affected by the condition.

PMID- 28581881
TI  - Prevalence and Clinical Intentions of Antithrombotic Therapy on Discharge to
      Hospice Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are no guidelines for antithrombotic therapy on admission to
      hospice care. Antithrombotic therapy may offer some benefit in these patients,
      but is also associated with well-described risks. OBJECTIVE: We quantified the
      frequency and characteristics of patients prescribed antithrombotic therapy on
      discharge from acute care to hospice care. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.
      Settings/Subjects: Adult (age> = 21 years) patients discharged from acute care to
      hospice care between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2014. MEASURES: Our primary
      outcome of interest was receiving an outpatient prescription for antithrombotic
      therapy on discharge to hospice care. RESULTS: Among 1141 eligible patients, 77
      (6.7%) patients received a prescription for antithrombotic therapy on discharge
      to hospice care, most frequently, aspirin (57.1%), enoxaparin (26.0%), and
      warfarin (20.8%). Patients actively treated for deep vein thromboembolism or
      pulmonary embolism, or with a history of atrial fibrillation or aortic/mitral
      valve replacement were significantly more likely to receive antithrombotic
      therapy. Patients with a history of cancer, cerebrovascular disease, or liver
      disease were significantly less likely to receive antithrombotic therapy (p <
      0.05 for all). Among patients who received antithrombotic therapy, 22% were not
      receiving antithrombotic therapy before the index admission. Among patients
      previously receiving antithrombotic therapy, 55% continued on the same
      medication, of which 54.5% did not have any documented rationale for
      continuation. CONCLUSIONS: Prescriptions for antithrombotic therapy were
      infrequent and often lacked a documented rationale. Further research is needed on
      the safety and effectiveness of antithrombotic therapy in hospice care and what
      drives current medication decisions in the absence of these data.

PMID- 28581882
TI  - Nutriproteomic Analysis of Hwangmaemok-Induced Antiangiogenic Effect Using
      Antibody-Arrayed Protein Chip Assay.
AB  - We investigated the antiangiogenic effects of Lindera obtusiloba Blume
      (Hwangmaemok, HMM), which is a plant in the Lauraceae family that is commonly
      used to treat colds and gastritis. Moreover, given that a recent study reported
      the inhibitory effects of HMM extract on cancer metastasis, we hypothesized that
      HMM extract might possess and antiangiogenic function. Thus, this study was
      conducted to investigate the effects of HMM extract on endothelial cell
      proliferation, migration, and neovascularization in chick chorioallantoic
      membrane (CAM), and investigated the molecular mechanism of antiangiogenesis
      using a ProteoChip-based proteomics technology. To examine the effects of HMM
      extracts on endothelial cell proliferation and migration, we conducted basic
      fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-induced human umbilical vein endothelial cell
      (HUVEC) proliferation and migration. To assess the molecular mechanism of the
      antiangiogenic effects of HMM extract, a ProteoChip-based forwarded phase
      antibody array was employed to identify the differential expression of cell cycle
      proteins in HMM-treated HUVECs. HMM extract inhibited bFGF-induced HUVEC
      proliferation and migration in a dose-dependent manner and CAM angiogenesis. The
      ProteoChip-based antibody microarray data showed upregulation of Nibrin/NBS1 and
      downregulation of Plk-1 and Cyclin E, which are involved in cell division and
      controlling the cell cycle in bFGF-induced HUVECs. These data suggest that HMM
      may be a potent antitumor medicinal herb. The present study demonstrates that the
      antiangiogenic effect of HMM may be due to suppression of endothelial cell
      proliferation and migration. Taken together, these results emphasize the
      potential to use HMM extract as a potent angiogenesis inhibitor to treat cancer.

PMID- 28581884
TI  - Avoidance of Negative Results in Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy Trials for Estrogen
      Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer.

PMID- 28581885
TI  - Reply to R. Goncalves et al.

PMID- 28581883
TI  - Discovery and characterization of a novel humanized anti-IL-15 antibody and its
      relevance for the treatment of refractory celiac disease and eosinophilic
      esophagitis.
AB  - Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a critical regulator of immune responses, especially at
      mucosal interfaces within the gastro-intestinal tract. Here, we describe the
      discovery and characterization of a humanized antibody to IL-15. Data from its
      epitope and mode of action, cell biology and primate pharmacology, as well as
      translational studies in human samples and in vivo proof-of-concept experiments
      in mouse models demonstrate the therapeutic potential of this new antibody
      targeting IL-15 for refractory celiac disease and eosinophilic esophagitis.

PMID- 28581886
TI  - Enhanced immunization techniques to obtain highly specific monoclonal antibodies.
AB  - Despite fast advances in genomics and proteomics, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)
      are still a valuable tool for areas such as the evolution of basic research in
      stem cells and cancer, for immunophenotyping cell populations, diagnosing and
      prognosis of diseases, and for immunotherapy. To summarize different subtractive
      immunization approaches successfully used for the production of highly specific
      antibodies, we identified scientific articles in NCBI PubMed using the following
      search terms: subtractive immunization, monoclonal antibody, tolerization,
      neonatal, high-zone tolerance, masking immunization. Patent records were also
      consulted. From the list of results, we included all available reports, from 1985
      to present, that used any enhanced immunization technique to produce either
      polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies. Our examination yielded direct evidence that
      these enhanced immunization techniques are efficient in obtaining specific
      antibodies to rare epitopes, with different applications, such as to identify
      food contaminants or tumor cells.

PMID- 28581887
TI  - Impact of S-sulfocysteine on fragments and trisulfide bond linkages in monoclonal
      antibodies.
AB  - The quality of recombinant proteins such as monoclonal antibodies produced using
      Chinese hamster ovary cell-based mammalian systems is dependent on many factors,
      including cell line, process and cell culture media. Due to these factors, the
      generated product is heterogeneous and may have chemically-induced modifications
      or post-translational modifications that affect antibody stability, functionality
      and, in some cases, patient safety. This study demonstrates that S-sulfocysteine,
      a cysteine derivative, can increase the antibody specific productivity in
      different cell lines cultivated with different processes while minimizing
      trisulfide linkages in generated mAbs, mainly between heavy and light chain. The
      supplementation of a cell culture feed with S-sulfocysteine also proved to be
      useful to reduce the percentage of antibody fragments generated from the
      monoclonal antibody. Overall, this new component used in the upstream process
      allows a reduction of product heterogeneity.

PMID- 28581889
TI  - The role of ZKSCAN3 in the transcriptional regulation of autophagy.

PMID- 28581888
TI  - IL17A augments autophagy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected monocytes from
      patients with active tuberculosis in association with the severity of the
      disease.
AB  - During mycobacterial infection, macroautophagy/autophagy, a process modulated by
      cytokines, is essential for mounting successful host responses. Autophagy
      collaborates with human immune responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt)
      in association with specific IFNG secreted against the pathogen. However, IFNG
      alone is not sufficient to the complete bacterial eradication, and other
      cytokines might be required. Actually, induction of Th1 and Th17 immune responses
      are required for protection against Mt. Accordingly, we showed that IL17A and
      IFNG expression in lymphocytes from tuberculosis patients correlates with disease
      severity. Here we investigate the role of IFNG and IL17A during autophagy in
      monocytes infected with Mt H37Rv or the mutant MtDeltaRD1. Patients with active
      disease were classified as high responder (HR) or low responder (LR) according to
      their T cell responses against Mt. IL17A augmented autophagy in infected
      monocytes from HR patients through a mechanism that activated MAPK1/ERK2
      MAPK3/ERK1 but, during infection of monocytes from LR patients, IL17A had no
      effect on the autophagic response. In contrast, addition of IFNG to infected
      monocytes, increased autophagy by activating MAPK14/p38 alpha both in HR and LR
      patients. Interestingly, proteins codified in the RD1 region did not interfere
      with IFNG and IL17A autophagy induction. Therefore, in severe tuberculosis
      patients' monocytes, IL17A was unable to augment autophagy because of a defect in
      the MAPK1/3 signaling pathway. In contrast, both IFNG and IL17A increased
      autophagy levels in patients with strong immunity to Mt, promoting mycobacterial
      killing. Our findings might contribute to recognize new targets for the
      development of novel therapeutic tools to fight the pathogen.

PMID- 28581890
TI  - Strategies parents use to give children oral medicine: a qualitative study of
      online discussion forums.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to describe strategies parents use to give oral
      medicine to children. METHODS: We conducted an Internet-based qualitative study
      of posts from online forums where parents discussed how to give children oral
      medicine. The posts were analyzed using systematic text condensation. The
      investigators coded and developed groups iteratively, ending up with a consensus
      on final themes. RESULTS: We included 4581 posts. Parents utilized three main
      strategies to give oral medicine to children: (1) Open administration give
      medicine to the child knowingly by changing the palatability, actively involve
      the child in play or use persuasion; (2) Hidden administration give medicine to
      the child unknowingly by camouflaging it in food, while sleeping or distracted by
      another activity; (3) Forced administration force children to take medicine with
      the use of restraint. Parents expressed three perspectives towards using force:
      Finding it unproblematic, using force despite not liking it or refusing to use
      force. No single strategy was described as the obvious first choice, and the
      strategies were not used in any particular order. Parents who gave up getting
      their child to ingest the medicine reported to contact the prescriber for a
      different medication, or stopped the treatment completely. CONCLUSIONS: The three
      strategies are a robust and precise way to categorize techniques used by parents
      to give children oral medicine. We suggest that health professionals use the
      strategies to talk to parents and children about administration of oral
      medicines.

PMID- 28581891
TI  - Oral Conditions and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Systematic Review.
AB  - The objective of this study was to verify whether oral conditions (tooth loss,
      periodontal disease, dental caries) are negatively associated with health-related
      quality of life (HRQoL) in adults. A search was carried out on PubMed, EMBASE,
      Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO, and LILACS databases until the end of July 2016
      with no date restrictions. Quantitative observational studies written in English
      were included and data extraction was performed independently by 2 reviewers.
      HRQoL was investigated as the outcome, and tooth loss, periodontal diseases, and
      dental caries were exposures. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
      Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used and the quality of the
      selected studies was assessed by using the Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis
      of Statistics assessment and review instrument (JBI-MAStARI). Twenty-one studies
      were included. The sample sizes ranged from 88 to 15,501 subjects; 20 studies
      were cross-sectional designs, while 1 was a case-control study. Case definitions
      of the exposures were different across the studies, mainly for tooth loss, which
      was defined according to 11 different criteria. Fifteen studies were of "high"
      and 6 of "medium" quality. Eight HRQoL instruments were identified, and the most
      frequent was the EuroQol ( n = 8). Ten of 16 studies reported a negative impact
      of tooth loss on HRQoL. Four of 7 studies reported that periodontal disease
      impairs HRQoL, and 1 study showed that periodontal disease is positively
      associated with HRQoL. All studies that assessed dental caries reported a
      negative association between this condition and HRQoL. Despite the different
      definitions and measures of tooth loss and dental caries, the majority of the
      available evidence reported a negative impact of these conditions on HRQoL. Mixed
      and inconclusive findings were observed for the association between periodontal
      disease and HRQoL. Longitudinal prospective studies are suggested to improve the
      strength of the findings.

PMID- 28581892
TI  - Radiation Exposure Enhances Hepatocyte Proliferation in Neonatal Mice but not in
      Adult Mice.
AB  - There is a natural tendency to expect that irradiation of an infant organ prior
      to development-related expansion will result in a higher risk of developing
      cancer than that of fully-developed adult tissue, and this has generally been
      observed. However, if tissues also vary in their initial responses to radiation
      depending on age, the interplay between tissue- and age-dependent risk would
      potentially be quite complex. We have previously shown opposing age-dependent
      induction of apoptosis for the intestinal epithelium and hematopoietic cells in
      mice, but such data are not yet available for the liver. Here, we have examined
      markers of DNA damage, initiation of DNA damage responses, cell cycle arrest,
      apoptosis and proliferation, as well as gene expression, in the B6C3F1 mouse
      liver over the hours and days after irradiation of mice at 1 or 7 weeks of age.
      We found that induction and resolution of radiation-induced DNA damage is not
      accompanied by significant changes in these cellular end points in the adult
      liver, while in infant hepatocytes modest induction of p53 accumulation and p21
      mediated cell cycle arrest in a small fraction of damaged cells was overshadowed
      by a further stimulation of proliferation over the relatively high levels already
      found in the neonatal liver. We observed distinct expression of genes that
      regulate cell division between the ages, which may contribute to the differential
      responses. These data suggest that the growth factor signaling environment of the
      infant liver may mediate radiation-induced proliferation and increased liver
      cancer risk after irradiation during early life.

PMID- 28581894
TI  - Identification of Small-Molecule Noncovalent Binders Utilizing SAMDI Technology.
AB  - In recent years, the ability to unambiguously identify complex mixtures of
      analytes with high accuracy and resolving power in a label-free format continues
      to expand the application of mass spectrometry (MS) in the drug discovery
      process. This advantage combined with improved instrumentation makes MS suitable
      for targets with limited alternative assays for high-throughput screening (HTS).
      We describe a novel screening format using Self-Assembled Monolayers and matrix
      assisted laser Desorption Ionization (SAMDI) technology. SAMDI enables affinity
      capture of a target protein for use in a small-molecule-binding assay format.
      Subsequent ionization enables the inferred identification of noncovalent compound
      interactions. SAMDI technology overcomes shot-to-shot variability by uniformly
      saturating the surface with captured protein, thereby minimizing matrix
      crystallization "hot spots." Furthermore, the combination with high-resolution
      matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight significantly reduces
      interference of small-molecule detection from salt, detergent, and matrix. By
      using a pooled library format, the SAMDI assay can significantly improve the
      throughput of MS-based screening irrespective of enzyme activity. Finally, we
      demonstrate binding affinity rank ordering from a pool of compounds that
      correlates with potency data from a biochemical assay.

PMID- 28581893
TI  - Roles of transient receptor potential channels in regulation of vascular and
      epithelial barriers.
AB  - Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a ubiquitously expressed multi
      family group of cation channels that are critical to signaling events in many
      tissues. Their roles have been documented in many physiologic and pathologic
      conditions. Nevertheless, direct studies of their roles in maintain barrier
      function in endothelial and epithelia are relatively infrequent. This seems
      somewhat surprising considering that calcium ion concentrations are known to
      regulate barrier function. This short review provides an introduction to TRP
      channels and reviews some of the work in which investigators directly studied the
      role of TRP channels in endothelial permeability to electric current, solute, or
      leukocytes during the inflammatory response.

PMID- 28581896
TI  - The Relationship of Patient-Provider Communication on Quality of Life among
      African-American and White Cancer Survivors.
AB  - Prior research has demonstrated poorer patient-provider communication ratings
      among African American compared to White patients. The quality of patient
      provider communication has been shown to impact treatment outcomes among cancer
      patients. A secondary data analysis design was used to determine the relationship
      of six patient-provider communication variables on the physical health quality of
      life (PHQOL) and mental health quality of life (MHQOL) of African American and
      White cancer patients (N = 479). We also examined whether the relationship
      between communication patterns and QOL differed based on race/ethnicity. Mean
      physical and mental health QOL scores for the sample were 69.8 and 77.6,
      respectively. After controlling for significant sociodemographic, clinical, and
      hospital variables, results showed that patients who experienced fewer
      interpersonal communication barriers who were more satisfied with the information
      given by providers had higher PHQOL and MHQOL scores. Additionally, patients who
      felt more comfort in asking questions or had fewer unmet information needs had
      higher MHQOL. A stratified analysis showed that the relationship of overall
      satisfaction with information on MHQOL was stronger among African American
      patients than White patients. Future research should focus on the development of
      interventions to improve patient-provider communication as a means for enhancing
      QOL outcomes among cancer survivors.

PMID- 28581895
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Alginate Adhesion Barrier Gel in Compromised Intestinal
      Anastomosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For any anti-adhesive barrier developed for abdominal surgery, the
      use under conditions in which anastomotic healing is compromised needs to be
      investigated. The current study evaluates the effect of a new ultrapure alginate
      gel on early healing of high-risk anastomoses in the ileum and compares this with
      the gold standard used in clinical practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 75 adult
      male Wistar rats, a 5 mm ileal segment was resected and continuity was restored
      by construction of an inverted anastomosis. Rats were divided randomly into a
      control group and groups receiving either alginate gel or a sodium hyaluronate
      carboxymethylcellulose (HA/CMC) film around the anastomosis (n = 25 each).
      Carprofen, given in a daily dose of 1.25 mg/kg, was used to compromise
      anastomotic healing. At day three, animals were killed and scored for signs of
      anastomotic leakage and the presence of adhesions. RESULTS: The incidence of
      adhesion formation was 95% in the HA/CMC film group, which was significantly
      higher than in the controls (64%, p = 0.010) and the alginate gel group (52%, p =
      0.004). The adhesion score was nearly 40% lower in the alginate gel group
      compared with the HA/CMC film group. The incidence of ileal leakage in the HA/CMC
      film group (92%) was significantly higher than in the controls (68%, p = 0.016).
      Leakage rate did not differ between the alginate gel and control groups. There
      was no significant difference between groups in either incision bursting pressure
      or incision breaking strength. CONCLUSION: Ultrapure alginate gel does not
      interfere with repair of ileal anastomoses constructed under conditions in which
      chances of anastomotic dehiscence are high. The alginate gel performs better than
      the HA/CMC film.

PMID- 28581897
TI  - Mutations to Cysteine Residues in the Trypanosoma cruzi B-Cell Superantigen Tc24
      Diminish Susceptibility to IgM-Mediated Hydrolysis.
AB  - B-cell superantigens (BC-SAgs) are immunoevasins that have evolved in response to
      innate catalytic IgM antibodies; germ-line encoded immunoglobulins present in the
      preimmune repertoire independent of prior antigen exposure. Catalysis is the
      result of a 2-step process that involves first the formation of a non-covalent
      bond between the BC-SAg and the immunoglobulin followed by covalent bond
      formation at the catalytic site resulting in target hydrolysis. Tc24 is a
      recently described Trypanosoma cruzi BC-SAg hypothesized to play a role in
      evading the humoral response early in the infection period. We previously
      demonstrated that exposure to Tc24 following immunization or infection resulted
      in the depletion of the catalytic IgM response, leaving a gap in the catalytic
      IgM repertoire. The present report compares the BC-SAg properties of wild-type
      Tc24 (Tc24-WT) to that of 2 recombinant Tc24 isoforms: Tc24-C2 (Cys to Ser
      mutations in the 2 most-proximal Cys residues) and Tc24-C4 (Cys to Ser mutations
      in all 4 Cys residues present). BC-SAg activity was assessed by immunizing mice
      with the respective isoforms and examining the ability of IgM purified from the
      respective groups to hydrolyze the 3 Tc24 isoforms. In addition, the ability of
      IgM purified from naive mice to hydrolyze the Tc24 isoforms was also assessed.
      Immunization with Tc24-WT, Tc24-C2, or Tc24-C4 resulted in loss of IgM-mediated
      hydrolysis of Tc24-WT. However, the ability of IgM purified from naive mice
      (previously shown to hydrolyze Tc24-WT) was less effective in hydrolyzing the 2
      Tc24 isoforms. These data demonstrate that although the BC-SAg site in the
      mutants remained intact, their reduced susceptibility to IgM-mediated hydrolysis
      suggested that structural changes resulting from the Cys to Ser mutations altered
      accessibility to the catalytic site in the 2 isoforms.

PMID- 28581898
TI  - Assistive technology reasoning in rural school-based occupational therapy.
AB  - This study explores broad issues associated with assistive technology (AT)
      service provision in rural school settings. The study was designed to explore the
      beliefs of practitioners working in rural schools about their role in AT service
      provision. This article includes an extensive review of the literature and
      findings from a naturalistic study of AT service provision experience in rural
      school settings. The study portion of this article involved completion of an open
      ended questionnaire followed by semi-structured ethnographic interviews. The
      participants completing the questionnaires were 22 occupational therapy
      practitioners and seven individuals from a variety of professional backgrounds
      recognized as leaders in AT in the state of West Virginia. Data were collected
      over a 3-year period. Themes identified in the data emphasized concerns about the
      unclear role of potential AT providers resulting in the use of AT as a last
      resort, the lack of inclusion of AT in the core curriculum, and the limited
      collaboration and in-service education opportunities recognized by practitioners.
      This qualitative study is not generalizable. Findings can be viewed within the
      context of other research to help enrich the reader's understanding of AT service
      delivery.

PMID- 28581899
TI  - Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?
AB  - Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing
      individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of "nudge"
      interventions that governments are now adopting alter people's decisions without
      coercion or significant changes to economic incentives. We calculated ratios of
      impact to cost for nudge interventions and for traditional policy tools, such as
      tax incentives and other financial inducements, and we found that nudge
      interventions often compare favorably with traditional interventions. We conclude
      that nudging is a valuable approach that should be used more often in conjunction
      with traditional policies, but more calculations are needed to determine the
      relative effectiveness of nudging.

PMID- 28581901
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - Cavalli, E., Cole, P., Leloup, G., Poracchia-George, F., Sprenger-Charolles, L.,
      & El Ahmadi, A. (2017). Screening for dyslexia in French-speaking university
      students: An evaluation of the detection accuracy of the Alouette test. Journal
      of Learning Disabilites. Advance online publication. (Original doi:
      10.1177/0022219417704637 ) In the version of this article originally published
      OnlineFirst, the funding statement was incorrect. The correct funding statement
      is as follows: Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
      support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This
      work was supported by the Labex BLRI (ANR-11-LABX-0036), managed by the French
      National Agency for Research (ANR), under the project title Investments of the
      Future A*MIDEX (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02). Subsequent versions of the article will be
      corrected.

PMID- 28581902
TI  - Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials - A Requirement of the International
      Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

PMID- 28581903
TI  - A decision tree approach to screen drinking water contaminants for multiroute
      exposure potential in developing guideline values.
AB  - The consideration of inhalation and dermal routes of exposures in developing
      guideline values for drinking water contaminants is important. However, there is
      no guidance for determining the eligibility of a drinking water contaminant for
      its multiroute exposure potential. The objective of the present study was to
      develop a 4-step framework to screen chemicals for their dermal and inhalation
      exposure potential in the process of developing guideline values. The proposed
      framework emphasizes the importance of considering basic physicochemical
      properties prior to detailed assessment of dermal and inhalation routes of
      exposure to drinking water contaminants in setting guideline values.

PMID- 28581904
TI  - Thyroid storm: does this syndrome really exist in cats?

PMID- 28581905
TI  - Spot the difference?

PMID- 28581906
TI  - Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists abstracts 2016.

PMID- 28581907
TI  - News & Views.

PMID- 28581908
TI  - Urinalysis in the cat: measurement of urine protein:creatinine ratio.

PMID- 28581909
TI  - Development of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated virus resistance in agriculturally important
      crops.
AB  - Clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR
      associated nuclease 9 (Cas9) system of targeted genome editing has already
      revolutionized the plant science research. This is a RNA guided programmable
      endonuclease based system composed of 2 components, the Cas9 nuclease and an
      engineered guide RNA targeting any DNA sequence of the form N20-NGG for novel
      genome editing applications. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology of targeted genome
      editing has been recently applied for imparting virus resistance in plants. The
      robustness, wide adaptability, and easy engineering of this system has proved its
      potential as an antiviral tool for plants. Novel DNA free genome editing by using
      the preassembled Cas9/gRNA ribonucleoprotein complex for development of virus
      resistance in any plant species have been prospected for the future. Also, in
      this review we have discussed the reports of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated virus
      resistance strategy against geminiviruses by targeting the viral genome and
      transgene free strategy against RNA viruses by targeting the host plant factors.
      In conclusion, CRISPR/Cas9 technology will provide a more durable and broad
      spectrum viral resistance in agriculturally important crops which will eventually
      lead to public acceptance and commercialization in the near future.

PMID- 28581911
TI  - Evaluation of a CAT Database and Expert Appraisal of CATs Developed by Students.
AB  - Five steps have been recommended to provide evidence-based patient care:
      formulating a clinical question, searching for literature, evaluating the
      validity and applicability of results, implementing results into practice, and
      assessing if the new evidence has led to improved health care. Students can be
      trained in these steps by the development of knowledge summaries such as
      critically appraised topics (CATs). The aim of the present project was the
      development, use, and evaluation of a German-language CAT database and an
      appraisal of the quality of CATs developed by students. A total of 153 fifth-year
      veterinary medical students (in 21 groups) were enrolled in the project. Each
      group developed a CAT and most students participated in a survey. To learn more
      about the quality of the CATs, we asked experts to appraise the texts written by
      the students. The CATs were indexed with key words and assigned to specific
      fields corresponding to the European Colleges of Veterinary Specialisation.
      Currently, 57 CATs have been developed. The majority of students stated that
      writing CATs is a good exercise and that "it is important to teach the assessment
      of scientific information." In total, 13 experts completed the questionnaires,
      out of which 9 graded the CAT they appraised as good. In addition to English
      language CAT databases, German tools should also be available for students and
      practitioners.

PMID- 28581912
TI  - Use of a Garment as an Alternative to Body Painting in Equine Musculoskeletal
      Anatomy Teaching.
AB  - Living anatomy is gaining increasing popularity as an alternative to the use of
      preserved cadaver specimens in musculoskeletal anatomy teaching. This article
      describes the development of a garment painted with musculoskeletal structures as
      an alternative to body painting. Garments offer some advantages over traditional
      body painting in anatomy teaching. The technique can be used across different
      disciplines, enhances students' ability to identify anatomic structures in living
      bodies, and provides insights into the topography of one or more body systems at
      the same time. The fact that garments are amenable to palpation by large groups
      of students with no damage to the painting favors repeated use in hands-on wet
      labs. Garments such as the one described in this article introduce a novel
      approach to interdisciplinary teaching and learning, which can be combined with
      traditional anatomy teaching methods. The first garment produced depicts part of
      the equine musculoskeletal system. Steps in garment construction are highlighted
      and indications, advantages, and limitations of the method discussed.

PMID- 28581913
TI  - Evaluation of an Immersive Farm Experience to Teach and Attract Veterinary
      Students to Food-Animal Medicine.
AB  - The Bovine Educational Symposium (BES) is a unique opportunity for North Carolina
      State University (NCSU) veterinary students to visit dairy farms, feedlots, cow
      calf operations, and processing facilities, and to meet local bovine
      veterinarians. We hypothesized that this active learning opportunity would
      increase knowledge, change perceptions of animal agriculture and food-animal
      medicine, and provide skills that persist beyond graduation. Pre- and post-trip
      surveys were administered to 124 first-, second-, and third-year veterinary
      students attending BES over 3 years. The surveys assessed students' perceived
      competence with regard to 12 key areas of bovine practice, attitudes toward
      segments of the cattle industry, attitudes to veterinarians' role in these
      segments, and interest in a career in bovine practice. Content knowledge was
      assessed using a multiple-choice test for comparison to self-assessments. A
      control group of 10 fourth-year students was administered the same tests before
      and after a 2-week food-animal clinical rotation. A convenience sample of nine
      BES alumni were interviewed to assess their opinion on the educational impact of
      BES. BES participants exhibited significant gains in perceived competence and
      actual knowledge in all 12 areas, and they also had improved perceptions of
      animal agriculture and increased interest in food-animal careers. Benefits noted
      by alumni ranged from improved knowledge of basic concepts of biosecurity and
      population medicine to greater appreciation for professional skills, including
      client communication. Immersing pre-clinical veterinary students in an active
      learning environment can have a significant impact on their knowledge and
      perception of food-animal medicine, irrespective of students' ultimate career
      goals.

PMID- 28581914
TI  - Technical Skills Training for Veterinary Students: A Comparison of Simulators and
      Video for Teaching Standardized Cardiac Dissection.
AB  - The goal of the study was to evaluate alternative student-centered approaches
      that could replace autopsy sessions and live demonstration and to explore
      refinements in assessment procedures for standardized cardiac dissection.
      Simulators and videos were identified as feasible, economical, student-centered
      teaching methods for technical skills training in medical contexts, and a direct
      comparison was undertaken. A low-fidelity anatomically correct simulator
      approximately the size of a horse's heart with embedded dissection pathways was
      constructed and used with a series of laminated photographs of standardized
      cardiac dissection. A video of a standardized cardiac dissection of a normal
      horse's heart was recorded and presented with audio commentary. Students were
      allowed to nominate a preference for learning method, and students who indicated
      no preference were randomly allocated to keep group numbers even. Objective
      performance data from an objective structure assessment criterion and student
      perception data on confidence and competency from surveys showed both innovations
      were similarly effective. Evaluator reflections as well as usage logs to track
      patterns of student use were both recorded. A strong selection preference was
      identified for kinesthetic learners choosing the simulator and visual learners
      choosing the video. Students in the video cohort were better at articulating the
      reasons for dissection procedures and sequence due to the audio commentary, and
      student satisfaction was higher with the video. The major conclusion of this
      study was that both methods are effective tools for technical skills training,
      but consideration should be given to the preferred learning style of adult
      learners to maximize educational outcomes.

PMID- 28581915
TI  - Adaptive Comparative Judgment: A Tool to Support Students' Assessment Literacy.
AB  - Comparative judgment in assessment is a process whereby repeated comparison of
      two items (e.g., assessment answers) can allow an accurate ranking of all the
      submissions to be achieved. In adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), technology is
      used to automate the process and present pairs of pieces of work over iterative
      cycles. An online ACJ system was used to present students with work prepared by a
      previous cohort at the same stage of their studies. Objective marks given to the
      work by experienced faculty were compared to the rankings given to the work by a
      cohort of veterinary students (n=154). Each student was required to review and
      judge 20 answers provided by the previous cohort to a free-text short answer
      question. The time that students spent on the judgment tasks was recorded, and
      students were asked to reflect on their experiences after engaging with the task.
      There was a strong positive correlation between student ranking and faculty
      marking. A weak positive correlation was found between the time students spent on
      the judgments and their performance on the part of their own examination that
      contained questions in the same format. Slightly less than half of the students
      agreed that the exercise was a good use of their time, but 78% agreed that they
      had learned from the process. Qualitative data highlighted different levels of
      benefit from the simplest aspect of learning more about the topic to an
      appreciation of the more generic lessons to be learned.

PMID- 28581916
TI  - Robust (and Ethical) Educational Research Designs.
AB  - Educational research can be quite confusing to individuals without formal
      training in educational research methods. Many educators trained in "high
      consensus" fields such as the health and medical sciences often expect to utilize
      the same esteemed experimental and quasi-experimental designs in their
      educational research efforts, but are surprised to learn that this is often
      impossible for ethical reasons. This article presents five robust research
      designs that generally are compatible with education studies, and discusses how
      each design may be used in a variety of educational research scenarios.

PMID- 28581917
TI  - Influence of Emission Spectrum and Irradiance on Light Curing of Resin-Based
      Composites.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study examined the influence of different emission spectra (single
      peak and broad-spectrum) light-curing units (LCUs) delivering the same radiant
      exposures at irradiance values of 1200 or 3600 mW/cm2 on the polymerization and
      light transmission of four resin-based composites (RBCs). METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Two prototype LCUs that used the same light tip, but were either a single-peak
      blue or a broad-spectrum LED, were used to deliver the same radiant exposures to
      the top surfaces of the RBCs using either standard (1200 mW/cm2) or high
      irradiance (3600 mW/cm2) settings. The emission spectrum and radiant power from
      the LCUs were measured with a laboratory-grade integrating sphere coupled to a
      spectrometer, and the light beam was assessed with a beam profiler camera. Four
      RBCs (Filtek Supreme Ultra A2, Tetric EvoCeram A2, Tetric EvoCeram T, and TPH
      Spectra High Viscosity A2) were photoactivated using four different light
      conditions: single-peak blue/standard irradiance, single-peak blue/high
      irradiance, broad-spectrum/standard irradiance, and broad-spectrum/high
      irradiance. The degree of conversion (N=5) and microhardness at the top and
      bottom of 2.3-mm-diameter by 2.5-mm-thick specimens (N=5) were analyzed with
      analysis of variance and Tukey tests. The real-time light transmission through
      the RBCs was also measured. RESULTS: For all light conditions, the 2.3-mm
      diameter specimens received a homogeneous irradiance and spectral distribution.
      Although similar radiant exposures were delivered to the top surfaces of the
      RBCs, the amount of light energy emitted from the bottom surfaces was different
      among the four RBCs, and was also greater for the single-peak lights. Very little
      violet light (wavelengths below 420 nm) reached the bottom of the 2.5-mm-thick
      specimens. The degree of conversion and microhardness results varied according to
      the RBC (p<0.05). The RBCs that included alternative photoinitiators had greater
      microhardness values at the top when cured with broad-spectrum lights, while at
      the bottom, where little violet light was observed, the results were equal or
      higher when they were photoactivated with single-peak blue lights. With the
      exception of the microhardness at the top of TPH, equivalent or higher
      microhardness and degree-of-conversion values were achieved at the bottom surface
      when the standard (1200 mW/cm2) irradiance levels were used compared to when high
      irradiance levels were used. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the different behaviors of
      the tested RBCs, the emission spectrum and irradiance level influenced the
      polymerization of some RBCs. The RBCs that included alternative photoinitiators
      produced greater values at the top when cured with broad-spectrum lights, while
      at the bottom, results were equal or higher for the RBCs photoactivated with
      single-peak blue lights.

PMID- 28581918
TI  - Battery Charge Affects the Stability of Light Intensity from Light-emitting Diode
      Light-curing Units.
AB  - This study investigated the influence of battery charge levels on the stability
      of light-emitting diode (LED) curing-light intensity by measuring the intensity
      from fully charged through fully discharged batteries. The microhardness of resin
      composites polymerized by the light-curing units at various battery charge levels
      was measured. The light intensities of seven fully charged battery LED light
      curing units-1) LY-A180, 2) Bluephase, 3) Woodpecker, 4) Demi Plus, 5) Saab II,
      6) Elipar S10, and 7) MiniLED-were measured with a radiometer (Kerr) after every
      10 uses (20 seconds per use) until the battery was discharged. Ten 2-mm-thick
      cylindrical specimens of A3 shade nanofilled resin composite (PREMISE, Kerr) were
      prepared per LED light-curing unit group. Each specimen was irradiated by the
      fully charged light-curing unit for 20 seconds. The LED light-curing units were
      then used until the battery charge fell to 50%. Specimens were prepared again as
      described above. This was repeated again when the light-curing units' battery
      charge fell to 25% and when the light intensity had decreased to 400 mW/cm2. The
      top/bottom surface Knoop hardness ratios of the specimens were determined. The
      microhardness data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance with Tukey test
      at a significance level of 0.05. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to
      determine significant correlations between surface hardness and light intensity.
      We found that the light intensities of the Bluephase, Demi Plus, and Elipar S10
      units were stable. The intensity of the MiniLED unit decreased slightly; however,
      it remained above 400 mW/cm2. In contrast, the intensities of the LY-A180,
      Woodpecker, and Saab II units decreased below 400 mW/cm2. There was also a
      significant decrease in the surface microhardnesses of the resin composite
      specimens treated with MiniLED, LY-A180, Woodpecker, and Saab II. In conclusion,
      the light intensity of several LED light-curing units decreased as the battery
      was discharged, with a coincident reduction in the units' ability to polymerize
      resin composite. Therefore, the intensity of an LED light-curing unit should be
      evaluated during the life of its battery charge to ensure that sufficient light
      intensity is being generated.

PMID- 28581919
TI  - Thirty-Six-Month Clinical Comparison of Bulk Fill and Nanofill Composite
      Restorations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance of a
      nanofill and a bulk fill resin composite in class II restorations. METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: In accordance with a split-mouth design, 50 patients received at least
      one pair of restorations, restored with a nanofill resin composite (Filtek
      Ultimate [FU]) and with a bulk fill resin composite (Tetric EvoCeram Bulk Fill
      [TB]). Each restorative resin was used with its respective adhesive system
      according to the manufacturers' instructions. A total of 104 class II
      restorations were placed by two operators. The restorations were blindly
      evaluated by two examiners at baseline and at six, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months
      using modified US Public Health Service Ryge criteria. The comparison of the two
      restorative materials for each category was performed with the chi-square test
      (alpha=0.05). The baseline scores were compared with those at the recall visits
      using the Cochran Q-test. RESULTS: At six, 12, 18, and 24 months, the recall rate
      was 100%, 98%, 94%, and 82%, respectively, with a retention rate of 100%. At 36
      months, 81 restorations were evaluated in 39 patients with a recall rate of 78%.
      For marginal adaptation, four restorations from the TB group and 10 from the FU
      group rated as Bravo. Two restorations from the TB and eight restorations from
      the FU group showed marginal discoloration. There were statistically significant
      differences between the two restorative resins in terms of marginal adaptation
      and marginal discoloration (p<0.05). No differences were observed between the
      restorative resins in terms of retention (p>0.05). One restored tooth from the FU
      group was crowned. The retention rates for the TB and the FU groups were 100%. In
      the FU group, two restorations showed slightly rough surfaces, and two showed a
      slight mismatch in color. None of the restorations showed postoperative
      sensitivity, secondary caries, or loss of anatomic form. CONCLUSIONS: The tested
      bulk fill restorative resin demonstrated better clinical performance in terms of
      marginal discoloration and marginal adaptation.

PMID- 28581920
TI  - Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate MTA Indirect Pulp Capping in Deep Caries
      Lesions After 24-Months.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This clinical study aimed to assess the efficacies of mineral trioxide
      aggregate (MTA) and calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] in the treatment of deep carious
      lesions by the direct complete caries removal technique. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A
      total of 100 permanent molar/premolar teeth were capped with either Ca(OH)2
      (n=49) or MTA (n=51) and restored with composite resin in 73 patients. Periapical
      radiographs were acquired prior to the treatment as well as at six, 12, and 24
      months posttreatment. Two calibrated examiners performed the clinical and
      radiographic assessment of the periapical pathology and pulpal symptoms.
      Intergroup comparisons of the observed values were performed using the Fisher
      exact test. Significance was predetermined at alpha = 0.05. RESULTS: The recall
      rates were 100% at six and 12 months posttreatment and 98.6% at 24 months
      posttreatment. Four teeth capped with Ca(OH)2 (two each at six and 12 months
      posttreatment) and two capped with MTA (one each at 12 and 24 months
      posttreatment) received endodontic emergency treatment because of symptoms of
      irreversible pulpitis, which were clinically and/or radiographically established.
      There were no significant differences in pulp vitality between the two pulp
      capping agents at six, 12, or 24 months posttreatment (p=0.238, p=0.606, and
      p=0.427, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Both pulp-capping materials were found to be
      clinically acceptable at 24 months posttreatment.

PMID- 28581921
TI  - List of new names and new combinations previously effectively, but not validly,
      published.

PMID- 28581922
TI  - Corrigendum: Kocuria indica sp. nov., isolated from a sediment sample.

PMID- 28581923
TI  - Reclassification of Thiobacillus aquaesulis (Wood & Kelly, 1995) as Annwoodia
      aquaesulis gen. nov., comb. nov., transfer of Thiobacillus (Beijerinck, 1904)
      from the Hydrogenophilales to the Nitrosomonadales, proposal of Hydrogenophilalia
      class. nov. within the 'Proteobacteria', and four new families within the orders
      Nitrosomonadales and Rhodocyclales.
AB  - The genus Thiobacillus comprises four species with validly published names, of
      which Thiobacillus aquaesulis DSM 4255T (=ATCC 43788T) is the only species that
      can grow heterotrophically or mixotrophically - the rest being obligate
      autotrophs - and has a significant metabolic difference in not producing
      tetrathionate during the oxidation of thiosulfate during autotrophic growth. On
      the basis of this and differential chemotaxonomic properties and a 16S rRNA gene
      sequence similarity of 93.4 % to the type species Thiobacillus thioparus DSM
      505T, we propose that it is moved to a novel genus, Annwoodia gen. nov., for
      which the type species is Annwoodia aquaesulis gen. nov., comb. nov. We confirm
      that the position of the genus Thiobacillus in the Betaproteobacteria falls
      within the Nitrosomonadales rather than the Hydrogenophilales as previously
      proposed. Within the Nitrosomonadales we propose the circumscription of genera to
      form the Thiobacilliaceae fam. nov. and the Sterolibacteriaceae fam. nov. We
      propose the merging of the family Methylophilaceae into the Nitrosomonadales, and
      that the Sulfuricellaceae be merged into the Gallionellaceae, leaving the orders
      Methylophilales and Sulfuricellales defunct. In the Rhodocyclales we propose the
      Azonexaceae fam. nov. and the Zoogloeaceae fam. nov. We also reject the
      Hydrogenophilales from the Betaproteobacteria on the basis of a very low 16S rRNA
      gene sequence similarity with the class-proper as well as physiological
      properties, forming the Hydrogenophilalia class. nov. in the 'Proteobacteria'. We
      provide emended descriptions of Thiobacillus, Hydrogenophilales,
      Hydrogenophilaceae, Nitrosomonadales, Gallionellaceae, Rhodocyclaceae and the
      Betaproteobacteria.

PMID- 28581924
TI  - Dyella lipolytica sp. nov., a lipolytic bacterium isolated from lower subtropical
      forest soil.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, yellow-pigmented, non-spore-forming, non-motile,
      rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain DHOB07T, was isolated from a soil sample
      collected from the lower subtropical forest of the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve,
      Guangdong Province, PR China (23 degrees  10' N 112 degrees  31' E). Strain
      DHOB07T grew at 10-37  degrees C, pH 4-7 and 0-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl, with an optimum
      at 28  degrees C, pH 5-5.5 and 0% (w/v) NaCl on R2A medium. Phylogenetic analyses
      based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain formed a clade with
      Dyella jejuensis JP1T, Dyella nitratireducens DHG59T, Dyella koreensis BB4T,
      Dyella marensis CS5-B2Tand Dyellasoli JS12-10T, with sequence similarities of
      98.9, 98.0, 97.9, 97.9 and 97.8 %, respectively. Multilocus sequence analysis
      based on the concatenated sequences of partial housekeeping genes gyrB, lepA and
      recA confirmed that strain DHOB07T belongs to thegenus Dyella but is distinct
      from all currently known species of the genus Dyella. The G+C content of the
      genomic DNA was 58.2 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness value between strain DHOB07T
      and D. jejuensis JP1T was 41.8 %. Iso-C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 1omega9c
      were the major fatty acids, and ubiquinone-8 was the only respiratory quinone
      detected, all of which supported the affiliation of strain DHOB07T to the genus
      Dyella. On the basis of the polyphasic characterization results presented above,
      strain DHOB07T represents a novel species of the genus Dyella, for which the name
      Dyella lipolytica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DHOB07T (=NBRC
      111473T=KCTC 52132T).

PMID- 28581925
TI  - An evaluation of Thiomicrospira, Hydrogenovibrio and Thioalkalimicrobium:
      reclassification of four species of Thiomicrospira to each Thiomicrorhabdus gen.
      nov. and Hydrogenovibrio, and reclassification of all four species of
      Thioalkalimicrobium to Thiomicrospira.
AB  - Thiomicrospira(Tms) species are small sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic
      members of the Gammaproteobacteria. Whilst the type species Tms. pelophila and
      closely related Tms. thyasirae exhibit canonical spiral morphology under sub
      optimal growth conditions, most species are vibrios or rods. The 16S rRNA gene
      diversity is vast, with identities as low as 91.6 % for Tms. pelophila versus
      Tms. frisia, for example. Thiomicrospira was examined with closely related genera
      Hydrogenovibrio and Thioalkalimicrobium and, to rationalize organisms on the
      basis of the 16S rRNA gene phylogeny, physiology and morphology, we reclassify
      Tms. kuenenii, Tms. crunogena, Tms. thermophila and Tms. halophila to
      Hydrogenovibrio kuenenii comb. nov., H. crunogenus corrig. comb. nov., H.
      thermophilus corrig. comb. nov. and H. halophilus corrig. comb. nov. We
      reclassify Tms. frisia, Tms. arctica, Tms. psychrophila and Tms. chilensis to
      Thiomicrorhabdus (Tmr) gen. nov., as Tmr. frisia comb. nov., Tmr. arctica comb.
      nov., Tmr. psychrophila comb. nov. and Tmr. chilensis comb. nov. - the type
      species of Thiomicrorhabdus is Tmr. frisia. We demonstrate that
      Thioalkalimicrobium species fall within the genus Thiomicrospira sensu stricto,
      thus reclassifying them as Tms. aerophila corrig. comb. nov., Tms. microaerophila
      corrig. comb. nov., Tms. cyclica corrig. comb. nov. and Tms. sibirica corrig.
      comb. nov. We provide emended descriptions of the genera Thiomicrospira and
      Hydrogenovibrio and of Tms. thyasirae.

PMID- 28581926
TI  - Notification that new names of prokaryotes, new combinations and new taxonomic
      opinions have appeared in volume 67, part 2, of the IJSEM.

PMID- 28581927
TI  - History and Development of Coronary Flow Reserve and Fractional Flow Reserve for
      Clinical Applications.
AB  - We discuss the historical development of clinical coronary physiology,
      emphasizing coronary flow reserve (CFR) and fractional flow reserve (FFR). Our
      analysis focuses on the clinical motivations and technologic advances that
      prompted and enabled the application of physiology for patient diagnosis. CFR
      grew from the general concepts of physiologic and coronary reserve, linking the
      anatomic severity of a lesion to its impact on hyperemic flow. FFR developed from
      existing models relating pressure measurements to the potential for flow to
      increase after removing a stenosis. Because pressure measurements have proved
      easier and more robust than flow measurements, FFR has become the dominant
      metric.

PMID- 28581928
TI  - The Concept of Functional Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Why Physiologic
      Lesion Assessment Is Integral to Coronary Angiography.
AB  - The gold standard for assessing the severity of coronary stenoses has been
      coronary angiography. However, multicenter randomized clinical trials have
      demonstrated that treatment decisions based on angiography alone do not guarantee
      benefit to patients. Fractional flow reserve provides physiologic lesion
      assessment of coronary stenoses. The use of physiology improves clinical outcomes
      when used for decision making for coronary revascularization. In the era of
      increased scrutiny of appropriateness of cardiac catheterization and percutaneous
      coronary intervention, the use of physiologic assessment of the severity of
      coronary stenoses should be considered an integral adjunct to the anatomic
      evaluation provided by the coronary angiogram.

PMID- 28581929
TI  - Limitations and Pitfalls of Fractional Flow Reserve Measurements and Adenosine
      Induced Hyperemia.
AB  - Coronary hemodynamic measurements provide a critical tool to assess the ischemic
      potential of coronary stenoses. Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a reliable
      method to relate translesional coronary pressures to hyperemic myocardial blood
      flow. Although a basic understanding in FFR can be quickly achieved, many of the
      nuances and potential pitfalls require special attention. The authors discuss the
      practical setup of coronary pressure measurement, the most common pitfalls in
      technique and ways to avoid them, and the limitations of available pharmacologic
      hyperemic methods.

PMID- 28581930
TI  - Landmark Fractional Flow Reserve Trials.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve (FFR) has become widely used for physiologic assessment
      of intermediate coronary lesions. The Fractional Flow Reserve to Determine
      Appropriateness of Angioplasty in Moderate Coronary Stenoses (DEFER) trial
      established the safety of deferring angioplasty for moderate lesions that are not
      functionally significant. DEFER and Fractional Flow Reserve versus Angiography
      for Multivessel Evaluation 1 trials established the feasibility of FFR-guided
      intervention in stable and unstable patients with moderate coronary lesions,
      translating to improved clinical outcome and reduced number of unnecessary
      stents. This article reviews the trials establishing FFR as an important tool for
      on-the-table functional assessment of coronary lesions.

PMID- 28581932
TI  - Can Resting Indices Obviate the Need for Hyperemia and Promote the Routine Use of
      Physiologically Guided Revascularization?
AB  - This article assesses the data from contemporary human studies to address some of
      the common assumptions regarding hyperemic and baseline physiology in the context
      of the baseline pressure-derived index of instant wave-free ratio and the
      hyperemic index of fractional flow reserve. The article aims to determine if the
      available evidence supports the continued investigation, development, and use of
      baseline indices.

PMID- 28581931
TI  - Evaluation of Microvascular Disease and Clinical Outcomes.
AB  - Although coronary microcirculatory dysfunction occurs in numerous cardiac
      conditions and influences prognosis, it has been largely ignored in clinical
      practice due to the lack of adequate methods for its assessment. Microcirculatory
      dysfuntion may result from a variety of causes, including structural remodelling
      (arterioles or capillaries), dysregulation (paradoxical arteriolar
      vasoconstriction), hypersensitivity to vasoactive factors or adrenergic drive,
      and extravascular compression of collapsable elements. Thus, the selection of a
      method to interrogate coronary microcirculation should be based on the suspected
      cause of dysfunction. This article reviews such assessment tools and their
      prognostic information.

PMID- 28581933
TI  - Fractional Flow Reserve for the Evaluation of Tandem and Bifurcation Lesions,
      Left Main, and Acute Coronary Syndromes.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a well-established invasive tool to assess the
      physiologic significance of a coronary stenosis. Several randomized trials proved
      the safety of deferring revascularization based on FFR in subjects with stable
      coronary artery disease with single or multivessel disease. Subjects with tandem
      or bifurcations lesions, left main disease, and acute coronary syndromes were not
      included in these trials. Unique hemodynamic changes occur in each of these
      situations, making the measurement and interpretation of FFR challenging. This
      article reviews the technical aspects of assessing FFR and literature supporting
      FFR-guided revascularization in each of these situations.

PMID- 28581934
TI  - Noninvasive Fractional Flow Reserve Derived from Coronary Computed Tomography
      Angiography for the Diagnosis of Lesion-specific Ischemia.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve derived from coronary computed tomography angiography
      (FFRCT) has emerged as a powerful tool for the assessment of flow-limiting
      coronary stenoses. To date, FFRCT is the only noninvasive imaging modality for
      the depiction of lesion-specific ischemia and large prospective multicenter
      studies have established its high diagnostic value. The nature of FFRCT allows
      the prediction of functional outcome of coronary stenting, which will expand the
      role of cardiac computed tomography in the evaluation and management of coronary
      artery disease.

PMID- 28581935
TI  - Association of Wall Shear Stress with Coronary Plaque Progression and
      Transformation.
AB  - Coronary endothelial function regulation by wall shear stress (WSS), the
      frictional force of blood exerted against the vessel wall, can help explain the
      focal propensity of plaque development in an environment of systemic
      atherosclerosis risk factors. Sustained abnormal pathologic WSS leads to a
      proatherogenic endothelial cell phenotype, plaque progression and transformation,
      and adaptive vascular remodeling in site-specific areas. Assessing dynamic
      coronary plaque compositional changes in vivo remains challenging; however,
      recent advances in intravascular image acquisition and processing may provide
      swifter WSS calculations and make possible larger prospective investigations on
      the prognostic value of WSS in patients with coronary atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28581939
TI  - Coronary Physiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical Applications.

PMID- 28581942
TI  - Fundamentals of Optical Coherence Tomography: Image Acquisition and
      Interpretation.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an intravascular imaging modality that
      enables high-resolution cross-sectional imaging of coronary arteries in vivo.
      With resolution that is a 10-fold improvement compared with intravascular
      ultrasonography, OCT can facilitate detailed plaque characterization. This
      article introduces the basic principles of OCT image acquisition and
      interpretation. Qualitative analysis entails the evaluation of plaque morphology,
      including features associated with plaque vulnerability to rupture. Quantitative
      analysis and recognition of OCT image artifacts are also discussed.

PMID- 28581943
TI  - Technical Considerations and Practical Guidance for Intracoronary Optical
      Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an intravascular imaging technology
      analogous to intravascular ultrasound, using near-infrared light rather than
      ultrasound, thereby providing higher-resolution images. This review provides a
      practical guide to OCT imaging, with a particular emphasis on the techniques and
      approaches to optimize image acquisition, improve the evaluation of coronary
      lesions, and guide the strategies for percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28581944
TI  - Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Planning and Optimization with Optical
      Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Coronary angiography confirms or excludes coronary artery disease, assesses
      lesions severity, and helps to decide percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
      Coronary angiography has clear limitations. Intravascular imaging guides PCI.
      Frequency domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) gained attention for accurate
      planning and guidance of complex PCI. High-speed OCT image acquisition enables
      prompt vessel assessment in stable and unstable patients. The high-resolution
      images provide precise tissue characterization and a reliable quantitative
      assessment of the coronary pathology. Immediately after stent implantation, OCT
      allows accurate evaluation of stent expansion and symmetry. Real-time angio-OCT
      co-registration integrates OCT into the PCI workflow for accurate decision
      making.

PMID- 28581945
TI  - Assessment and Quantitation of Stent Results by Intracoronary Optical Coherence
      Tomography.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography evaluation of poststent results includes stent
      expansion as the absolute minimum stent area ratio by comparing the minimum stent
      area with the proximal and distal reference lumen areas or mean stent area
      defined as the total stent volume divided by the analyzed stent length; stent
      strut malapposition defined when the distance from the center of the blooming
      artifact and the surface of plaque is greater than the sum of stent thickness and
      polymer thickness; tissue protrusion through the stent struts; semiquantitative
      residual thrombus evaluation; and stent edge dissection.

PMID- 28581946
TI  - Diagnosis and Evaluation of Stent Thrombosis with Optical Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Stent thrombosis (ST) is a rare complication of percutaneous coronary
      interventions (PCI), especially with drug-eluting stents. ST presents as acute
      myocardial infarction requiring emergent repeat PCI; optimal reperfusion occurs
      in two-thirds of patients. As a result, ST has been associated with a high
      mortality rate and a high rate of recurrent thrombosis. We discuss the use of
      optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the diagnosis and evaluation of ST. OCT
      guided ST management seems a feasible, safe, and appropriate approach.
      Intracoronary assesses the efficacy of coronary thrombus removal procedures and
      detects the prevalent stent-related factor that caused ST.

PMID- 28581948
TI  - Neointimal Coverage After Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation: Insights from Optical
      Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT), which provides high-resolution imaging of the
      coronary vasculature, has provided novel insights into the pathophysiology of
      neointimal growth after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. The natural
      history, time course, and characteristics of strut coverage with neointima have
      been well defined by OCT. Pathology studies have identified strut coverage as a
      risk factor for stent thrombosis, and OCT studies have shown that next-generation
      DES have better strut coverage than first-generation DES. By reducing the
      incidence of stent thrombosis, improved strut coverage should lead to favorable
      clinical safety and the feasibility of shorter-duration dual antiplatelet therapy
      after DES implantation.

PMID- 28581947
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomography in the Diagnosis and Management of Spontaneous
      Coronary Artery Dissection.
AB  - Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an infrequent condition that has
      been underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed. The use of intracoronary imaging with
      intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography enables the accurate
      diagnosis of this challenging condition. Diagnostic and management algorithms
      have been proposed to improve the diagnosis and therapeutic stratification of
      SCAD. Optical coherence tomography has superior spatial resolution than
      intravascular ultrasound, and is instrumental in the diagnosis of SCAD cases
      where angiographic findings are ambiguous for confirming SCAD. Understanding the
      role and appropriate and careful use of this technology is expected to improve
      the diagnosis of SCAD, and also improve outcomes with percutaneous coronary
      intervention, when clinically indicated.

PMID- 28581949
TI  - Short- and Long-term Evaluation of Bioresorbable Scaffolds by Optical Coherence
      Tomography.
AB  - The analysis of bioresorbable scaffolds (BRSs) by optical coherence tomography
      (OCT) requires a dedicated methodology, as the polymeric scaffold has a distinct
      appearance and undergoes dynamic structural changes with time. The high
      resolution of OCT allows for the detailed assessment of scaffold implantation,
      rupture, discontinuity, and strut integration. OCT does not provide reliable
      information on the extent of scaffold degradation, as it cannot differentiate
      between polylactide polymer and the provisional matrix of proteoglycan formed by
      connective tissue. Three-dimensional OCT reconstruction can aid in the evaluation
      of BRS in special scenarios such as overlapping scaffold segments and
      bifurcations.

PMID- 28581950
TI  - Advances in Automated Assessment of Intracoronary Optical Coherence Tomography
      and Their Clinical Application.
AB  - Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) is capable of acquiring 3
      dimensional (3D) data of coronary arteries allowing for the assessment of
      plaques, stents, thrombus, side branches, and other relevant structures in a 3D
      fashion. Given that state-of-the-art OCT systems acquire images at a very high
      frame rate (up to 200 frames per second), typically a very large number of images
      per pullback (ie, 500 or more) need to be analyzed. The manual assessment of
      stents, plaques, and other structures is time-consuming, cumbersome, and
      inefficient and thus not suitable for on-line analysis during percutaneous
      coronary intervention procedures.

PMID- 28581951
TI  - Intravascular Ultrasound for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Left Main Coronary
      Artery Disease.
AB  - Limitations of angiography for assessment of coronary artery disease are well
      known, but are more evident and relevant in the left main coronary artery (LMCA)
      segment given the amount of myocardium this vessel subtends and the risks
      associated with the presence of atherosclerosis and subsequent intervention.
      Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) characterizes the severity of luminal narrowing,
      plaque morphology, and plaque extension into the distal bifurcation. Once the
      indication for percutaneous intervention (PCI) is established, information
      provided by IVUS is crucial to plan treatment and optimize results. IVUS-guided
      PCI with drug-eluting stents improves clinical outcomes, particularly in patients
      with distal left main disease.

PMID- 28581952
TI  - Intravascular Ultrasound for the Assessment of Coronary Lesion Severity and
      Optimization of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions.
AB  - Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has provided valuable information on cross
      sectional coronary vascular structure and has played a key role in contemporary
      stent-based percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). It accurately assesses
      coronary anatomy, assists in the selection of treatment strategy, and helps to
      optimize stenting outcomes. IVUS-guided PCI for drug-eluting stent implantation
      seems to be associated with a significantly reduced risk of death, myocardial
      infarction, target lesion revascularization, and stent thrombosis.

PMID- 28581957
TI  - Intravascular Imaging: OCT and IVUS.

PMID- 28581959
TI  - Pharmacoinvasive Management.
AB  - The goal of treatment of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) is timely restoration of myocardial blood flow. Primary percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI) remains the treatment of choice for STEMI patients,
      as shown in multiple clinical trials. However, because of logistic constraints,
      timely primary PCI may not be possible for many STEMI patients, most of whom are
      treated with fibrinolysis. Debate continues as to whether, and when, patients
      treated with fibrinolysis should undergo subsequent PCI. Current data support the
      strategy of early routine PCI after fibrinolysis rather than the conservative
      standard-care approach or rescue PCI for failed lysis.

PMID- 28581958
TI  - Lessons Learned from STEMI Clinical Trials.
AB  - Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of the death in the United States.
      From 2009 to 2010, however, the rate of heart disease causing death decreased by
      2.5% in part due to evolving techniques used to treat and prevent heart disease.
      Management of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has
      evolved accordingly and the studies investigating treatment strategies that have
      led to an evidence-based approach are reviewed in this article.

PMID- 28581960
TI  - Optimal Anticoagulant Therapy in ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction
      Interventions.
AB  - Bivalirudin is a direct thrombin inhibitor. It is a new recommendation for the
      treatment of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing
      percutaneous coronary intervention. Bivalirudin combined with aspirin and P2Y12
      inhibitors has proved to be an effective and safe choice for the management of
      thrombus in coronary artery disease. The use of bivalirudin compared with the
      combination of heparin plus glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors as anticoagulant
      therapy is associated with reduced severe bleeding and inpatient mortality, as
      well as diminished costs. There is only a slight increase of late stent
      thrombosis, which may be controlled with the use of thienopyridines.

PMID- 28581961
TI  - Newer Pharmaceutical Agents for STEMI Interventions.
AB  - ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) causes 12.6% of deaths worldwide.
      Treatment strategies involve early revascularization by percutaneous coronary
      intervention and/or fibrinolytics, with adjunctive pharmacologic therapy. While
      antiplatelet therapy remains the cornerstone of pharmacologic management, newer
      antithrombotic therapies are showing benefit in the reduction of long-term
      thrombotic events following acute vessel occlusion. Future directions in
      adjunctive STEMI management include the use of hematopoietic stem cell therapy or
      growth factors to induce proliferation and differentiation of cardiac myocytes.

PMID- 28581962
TI  - The Use of Bivalirudin in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Advantages
      and Limitations.
AB  - The incidence of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a common,
      albeit declining, manifestation of coronary heart disease. Significant
      improvements in cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in STEMI patients have
      occurred in recent years, reflecting evolution in the understanding of the
      pathophysiological mechanisms and therapeutic targets of this disease.
      Nonetheless, the risks of recurrent ischemia and bleeding complications in this
      population remain substantial. This review focuses on the adjunctive
      anticoagulant agents used in the management of STEMI. Major insights from the
      HORIZONS-AMI trial regarding the impact of bivalirudin on both hemorrhagic and
      ischemic outcomes in STEMI patients are discussed.

PMID- 28581963
TI  - Interventions for ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction in Women.
AB  - The management of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has
      significantly advanced from supportive care to reperfusion therapies with
      thrombolytics and percutaneous coronary revascularization techniques. These
      advances have improved the outcomes of patients with STEMI. Although
      cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, the
      minority of patients in trials studying the impact of these therapies on outcomes
      are women. Multiple studies have shown that men and women do not have equivalent
      outcomes after STEMI. This article reviews the treatment options for STEMI and
      the outcomes of women after treatment with reperfusion therapies.

PMID- 28581964
TI  - STEMI Interventions via the Radial Route.
AB  - ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) management has gone through a long
      journey from conservative medical management, to thrombolysis, to advanced
      interventional treatment. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention has now been
      accepted as the preferred therapy for STEMI. The femoral route remains the route
      of choice for most cardiologists. This article highlights the relatively new
      radial access for STEMI interventions. We discuss the available evidence,
      differences in technique compared with the transfemoral approach, and advantages
      and limitations of transradial access.

PMID- 28581965
TI  - Global Acute Myocardial Infarction Perspectives: Beyond Door-to-Balloon
      Interventions.
AB  - The goal in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) intervention is achieving
      a door-to-balloon time of less than 90 minutes. Challenges in North America and
      Europe include patient education and implementing legislative mandates for STEMI
      guidelines. Globally, hurdles for primary percutaneous coronary intervention
      include limitations of access and financial constraints to providing STEMI care
      to vast populations. Adherence to North American and European guidelines globally
      remains an unrealistic goal given the unique cultural, demographic, and fiscal
      dynamics in poorer countries. The authors propose a four-phased population-based
      strategy for global acute myocardial infarction development and a
      pharmacoinvasive approach to STEMI care based on socioeconomic characteristics.

PMID- 28581966
TI  - Compulsive Thrombus Management in STEMI Interventions.
AB  - Thrombus is a fundamental concept in the pathophysiology of ST-elevated
      myocardial infarction (STEMI). Distal embolization and no reflow are associated
      with less angiographic success, reduced myocardial blush, less ST resolution
      after primary percutaneous coronary intervention, larger enzymatic infarct size,
      lower left ventricular ejection fraction at discharge, and higher long-term
      mortality. We believe that with the use of thrombectomy devices, these
      shortcomings can be minimized. Based on our experience from the Single Individual
      Community Experience Registry (SINCERE) database, we formulated a selective
      thrombus burden management strategy (the Mehta classification) for thrombus
      management.

PMID- 28581967
TI  - Stenting in Acute STEMI Intervention.
AB  - Stenting in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has the benefits of achieving acute
      optimal angiographic results and correcting residual dissection to decrease the
      incidence of restenosis and reocclusion. Studies have shown that percutaneous
      transluminal coronary angioplasty for primary treatment after AMI is superior to
      thrombolytic therapy regarding the restoration of normal coronary blood flow.
      Coronary stenting improves initial success rates, decreases the incidence of
      abrupt closure, and is associated with a reduced rate of restenosis. In the
      presence of thrombus-containing lesions, coronary stenting constitutes an
      effective therapeutic strategy, either after failure of initial angioplasty or
      electively as the primary procedure.

PMID- 28581968
TI  - Door-to-Balloon ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Interventions: Illustrated
      Cases.
AB  - ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) intervention comprises 2 components,
      the STEMI procedure and the STEMI process, which have unique aspects that can be
      modified and improved, ultimately affecting patient outcome. The 15 illustrated
      cases in this article highlight suggested improvements mainly in the STEMI
      procedure, with some references as to how the authors practically improved the
      STEMI process for the described procedure. The illustrated procedures have been
      meticulously selected from more than 1000 short door-to-balloon STEMI
      interventions recorded in the Single Individual Community Experience Registry
      (SINCERE) database, and are aimed at educating the reader about unique STEMI
      skills.

PMID- 28581969
TI  - STEMI Interventions: The European Perspective and Stent for Life Initiative.
AB  - The Stent for Life Initiative was launched by the European Association of
      Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (a registered branch of the ESC) and
      EuroPCR. The purpose of the initiative is to support the implementation of
      European Society of Cardiology guidelines on management of acute myocardial
      infarction, help identify barriers to implementation of guidelines, and define
      actions to ensure that the majority of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) patients in Europe have access to primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention. The key objectives are to define the countries with an unmet
      medical need in the optimal treatment of STEMI and implement an action program to
      increase patient access to primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28581970
TI  - Lessons Learned from the Ottawa Regional STEMI Program.
AB  - Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become the dominant strategy for the
      treatment of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) when rapid access
      to a catheterization facility is available. In communities where primary PCI is
      not feasible, a pharmacoinvasive strategy has become a recommended option. At the
      University of Ottawa Heart Institute, a care delivery model has been developed in
      which primary PCI and pharmacoinvasive strategies are applied for an entire
      region. This article reviews the lessons learned in setting up and maintaining a
      regional STEMI program.

PMID- 28581971
TI  - Setting Up a Population-Based Program to Optimize ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction Care.
AB  - The development of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) systems of
      care at the city, region, or nation levels has not only improved the speed of
      reperfusion but also enhanced the reach of primary angioplasty to areas far from
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centers. Setting up a STEMI system of
      care is a sophisticated process that requires a solid PCI hospital and emergency
      medical services infrastructure, disciplined collaboration, and a focus on
      outcomes measurement and continuous quality improvement. This article reviews the
      accumulated evidence supporting the development of STEMI systems of care and
      offers practical insights into this process.

PMID- 28581973
TI  - Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Devices.
AB  - Percutaneous left ventricular assist devices (P-LVADs) can be life saving and may
      permit the stabilization of a patient in cardiovascular collapse who would
      otherwise face imminent demise. For specific patients and clinical indications,
      or where a greater degree of hemodynamic support is required, numerous studies
      have demonstrated the feasibility and safety of the newer generation P-LVADs. The
      potential applications for P-LVADs have continued to expand, now including
      diverse uses such as support for cardiogenic shock, bridge to and following
      cardiac surgery, and more novel applications such as complex electrophysiologic
      mapping and ablation studies of unstable ventricular rhythms.

PMID- 28581972
TI  - The Critical Imperative: Prehospital Management of the Patient with ST-Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Prehospital care is critical to achieve the goal of timely reperfusion in
      patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Prehospital care is delivered
      by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, which include emergency medical
      dispatchers, first responders, and ambulance response. There is considerable
      variation in the training and capabilities of the EMS providers in the United
      States depending on the location (ie, rural vs urban) and local jurisdictions. In
      this article, the key components of prehospital care of the patient with ST
      elevation myocardial infarction and the various levels of training and
      capabilities of EMS providers are discussed.

PMID- 28581974
TI  - Telemedicine: The Future of Global STEMI Care.
AB  - Telemedicine is an innovative tool in the setting of ST-elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI), because it addresses the greatest challenge-delivering
      optimal reperfusion therapies in a timely manner. Telemedicine targets delays
      related to geography, distance, and stated prehospital systems of care.
      Integration of telemedicine into prehospital STEMI management has been shown to
      yield cost-effective improvements in patient care. Despite socioeconomic
      constraints, a standard prehospital network based on telemedicine is globally
      feasible. This article proposes 2 models that enable the use of telemedicine in
      the STEMI management protocol.

PMID- 28581975
TI  - STEMI Interventions.

PMID- 28581976
TI  - Future Directions of Fetal Interventions in Congenital Heart Disease.
AB  - Fetal interventions for congenital heart disease have become important treatment
      modalities in the past 10 to 15 years. The basic hypothesis has been that a
      prenatal intervention may remodel cardiac morphology and function to such an
      extent that it may favorably alter the in utero natural history, resulting in
      improved prenatal and postnatal outcomes, including an increased likelihood of
      achieving biventricular circulation. This review discusses the current
      indications, techniques, and outcomes of fetal cardiac interventions and provides
      a glimpse into the future with regard to technical improvements and newer
      treatment modalities, such as maternal oxygenation and in utero pacemaker
      implantation.

PMID- 28581977
TI  - Neonatal Interventions for Left-Sided Obstructive Lesions: Alternatives to
      Surgery.
AB  - Percutaneous neonatal cardiac interventions are effective in management
      strategies. Aortic valve dilation has become a first line therapy with excellent
      outcomes and low morbidity equivalent to surgery. Percutaneous intervention for
      coarctation of the aorta can safely postpone surgical intervention in small
      unwell neonates, allowing stabilization and growth. Stent implantation can
      provide a stable and predictable relief of obstruction; however, care should be
      taken to implant stents so that they can be removed subsequently. As experience
      increases, the role of percutaneous techniques in the management of high-risk
      neonates with coarctation of the aorta will become better defined and improve the
      outcomes.

PMID- 28581978
TI  - Stenting Options for Coarctation of the Aorta.
AB  - The narrowing of the lumen in coarctation of the aorta can be relieved with a
      high degree of immediate success by transcatheter methods. All methods are
      associated with immediate and longer-term complications, including dissection,
      aneurysm formation, and recoarctation. The introduction of the use of covered
      stents in aortic coarctation is encouraging because the material cover provides
      additional protection to the acutely disrupted aortic wall and can provide long
      term protection of the dilated segment and the downstream area of poststenotic
      dilation. This review discusses the currently available options for stenting
      aortic coarctation.

PMID- 28581979
TI  - Catheter Interventions for Pulmonary Artery Stenosis: Matching the Intervention
      with the Pathology.
AB  - Pulmonary artery (PA) stenosis represents a heterogeneous defect with a wide
      morphology and etiology. Interventions to treat PA stenosis should be based on
      the location, severity, and cause of stenosis as well as the size of the patient
      at presentation. Specialized dilation balloons, stents, and delivery techniques
      have been developed to treat a variety of PA stenoses in small infants through
      adulthood. Early and intermediate results of angioplasty and stenting are
      superior to surgical results, while long-term data on angioplasty and stenting
      are becoming available for these proven safe and effective techniques.

PMID- 28581980
TI  - Complex Interventions in the Adult with Congenital Heart Disease: Percutaneous
      Solutions for Venous Baffles, Coronary Artery Fistulas, and Ruptured Sinus of
      Valsalva Aneurysms.
AB  - We describe 3 distinct ACHD lesions amenable to percutaneous repair: (1) venous
      baffle obstruction in transposition of the great arteries, (2) coronary artery
      fistulas, and (3) ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysms. For each entity, we
      chronicle the typical clinical scenario and indications for intervention to
      supplement the technical approach and potential pitfalls with treatment.

PMID- 28581981
TI  - Percutaneous Closure of Post-Myocardial Infarction Ventricular Septal Defect:
      Patient Selection and Management.
AB  - Percutaneous transcatheter device closure for post-myocardial infarction
      ventricular septal defect is a feasible alternative to open surgical patch
      repair. Patient selection, imaging, timing of intervention, technique, and
      results are discussed.

PMID- 28581982
TI  - Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement: Current Status and Future Potentials.
AB  - Although established, transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement is in its infancy
      compared with surgical pulmonary valve replacement. Extended clinical experience
      and follow-up have identified new challenges; however, careful evaluation of data
      through clinical trials has facilitated effective evolution of responses to these
      challenges. The limited patient population has resulted in less interest in new
      valve design, but having been the older sibling to transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement, transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement is likely to benefit in
      the future from design modifications to the more popular and commercially viable
      transcatheter aortic valve revolution. Improving valve longevity and applying the
      technology to native outflow tracts remain the short-to-medium term goals.

PMID- 28581983
TI  - Pulmonary Vein Stenting for Atrial Fibrillation Ablation-Induced Pulmonary Vein
      Stenosis.
AB  - Pulmonary vein stenosis (PVS) is a known complication of pulmonary vein isolation
      in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Patients with PVS can present with a
      great variety of symptoms. Clinicians should have a low threshold to evaluate for
      this potentially morbid and treatable condition. PVS can be treated by stenting
      affected pulmonary veins via transseptal access to the left atrium and use of
      bare metal biliary stents.

PMID- 28581984
TI  - Percutaneous Mitral Valve Interventions.
AB  - Percutaneous interventions for mitral valve disease represent both the oldest and
      the newest of catheter interventions. Balloon mitral valvuloplasty was among the
      first effective catheter therapies for valvular heart disease. The technique and
      device approach was initially reported by Inoue in 1982 and, remarkably, is
      virtually unchanged between then and now. Conversely, novel catheter therapies to
      repair mitral regurgitation are now in their infancy, with only the earliest
      human experience. This article details the spectrum of these therapies.

PMID- 28581985
TI  - Transcatheter Occlusion of the Left Atrial Appendage.
AB  - The left atrial appendage is a primary source of thrombi in patients with
      nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Transcatheter left atrial appendage
      occlusion/exclusion is a novel technology with the potential as an alternative
      approach for lifelong anticoagulation to prevent potential catastrophic embolic
      stroke. This article discusses important evaluation, procedural steps, and the
      clinical data for left atrial appendage closure.

PMID- 28581986
TI  - Hybrid Procedures in Congenital Heart Disease: Hypoplastic Left Heart
      Syndrome/Muscular Ventricular Septal Defect/Stenting of Pulmonary Arteries.
AB  - Hybrid therapies have increased and offer a valuable alternative to standard
      catheter or surgical therapies in selected patient. These hybrid therapies often
      combine the best of both techniques, in particular for ventricular septal defect
      closure and intraoperative pulmonary artery stent placement. For patients with
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the hybrid approach is an important alternative
      therapeutic strategy, providing similar results to conventional Norwood-type
      palliation. Further studies are needed and are underway to evaluate the
      neurodevelopmental outcome in these patients.

PMID- 28581987
TI  - Outcomes After Transcatheter ASD Closure.
AB  - Ostium secundum-type atrial septal defect closure has evolved from a surgical
      procedure requiring cardiopulmonary bypass to a percutaneous, catheter-based
      procedure usually requiring only an overnight hospital stay. The overall safety
      and effectiveness has compared favorably with surgical repair. Although rare,
      complications have been described, including erosion, device embolization, or
      malfunction and arrhythmias. The overall long-term clinical outcomes have been
      excellent: good quality of life, functional class improvement, and ventricular
      remodeling have been the rule after the procedure. It is mandatory to recommend
      indefinite follow-up of patients undergoing this procedure for potential long
      term complications.

PMID- 28581988
TI  - Influence of PFO Anatomy on Successful Transcatheter Closure.
AB  - Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is considered a risk factor for serious clinical
      syndromes, the most important of which is cryptogenic stroke in the setting of
      paradoxic embolism. The safety and feasibility of transcatheter PFO closure have
      been addressed in several studies; this procedure is performed worldwide with
      excellent results. Variations in the atrial septal configuration and PFO are
      frequent and have an impact on the technical aspects and success in transcatheter
      PFO closure. To minimize the rate of complications of percutaneous closure of
      PFO, patients must be carefully selected on the basis of morphology and location
      of the interatrial defect.

PMID- 28581989
TI  - Transcatheter Closure of Membranous Ventricular Septal Defects-Old Problems and
      New Solutions.
AB  - Isolated perimembranous ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common
      congenital heart defect (after bicuspid aortic valve). Surgery is considered the
      gold standard for the treatment of these VSDs. However, it is associated with
      morbidity and mortality. Less invasive techniques have been developed, and
      percutaneous closure of perimembranous VSDs is now considered a possible
      alternative to the standard surgical approach. The main problem associated with
      transcatheter closure of VSD is the occurrence of complete atrioventricular block
      and need for pacemaker implantation. Improvements in technology and design will
      help to reduce the occurrence of this problem in the near future.

PMID- 28581990
TI  - Stenting of Lesions in Patent Ductus Arteriosus with Duct-Dependent Pulmonary
      Blood Flow: Focus on Case Selection, Techniques and Outcome.
AB  - Stenting of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is an attractive alternative to the
      surgical aortopulmonary shunt in the palliation of cyanotic congenital heart
      disease. However, the diverse morphology of PDA in this setting limits its role,
      as stenting an overly tortuous duct may not be feasible, and in a significant
      number of patients, ductus-related pulmonary artery stenosis contraindicates this
      procedure. The major acute complications are stent migration, thrombosis, and
      cardiac failure. Early failure of palliation caused by in-stent stenosis is
      another limitation of this procedure.

PMID- 28581991
TI  - Congenital and Structural Heart Disease.

PMID- 28581992
TI  - Implementation of Regional ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Systems of
      Care: Successes and Challenges.
AB  - Current guidelines recommend that communities create and maintain a regional
      system of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) care that includes
      assessment and continuous quality improvement of emergency medical services and
      hospital-based activities. Availability and timely access is a challenge in many
      areas of the United States. This article reviews clinical trial data supporting
      the use of primary percutaneous coronary intervention as the optimal reperfusion
      strategy, and fibrinolysis as an option when this is not possible. It then
      describes the outcomes and benefits of implementing regional systems of STEMI
      care, and discusses ongoing challenges for STEMI system implementation, including
      inadequate data collection and feedback, and hospital and physician competition.

PMID- 28581993
TI  - Time to Treatment: Focus on Transfer in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - In the modern ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) system, the use of
      electrocardiogram by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and the option to
      bypass emergency departments on route to a PCI-capable hospital is of particular
      importance. Through training and a standardized referral process, EMS personnel
      can now accurately diagnose and refer STEMI patients directly to the
      catheterization laboratory of a percutaneous coronary intervention-capable
      hospital. Regional STEMI models have been implemented successfully across North
      America, resulting in palpable reductions in door-to-balloon time, morbidity, and
      mortality.

PMID- 28581994
TI  - Reperfusion Options for ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients with Expected
      Delays to Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the preferred reperfusion
      strategy for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, only one-third
      of hospitals in the US have PCI availability 24/7. For non-PCI hospitals,
      transfer remains the optimal strategy. For expected delays of greater than 120
      minutes, a pharmacoinvasive strategy is recommended. In patients with evidence of
      failed reperfusion or hemodynamic instability, immediate rescue PCI should be
      performed. All other patients should undergo routine cardiac catheterization and
      PCI within 24 hours after fibrinolysis. A pharmacoinvasive strategy is best
      implemented within an organized regional STEMI system with prospective
      standardized transfer protocols.

PMID- 28581995
TI  - False Activations for ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - First-medical-contact-to-device (FMC2D) times have improved over the past decade,
      as have clinical outcomes for patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI). However, with improvements in FMC2D times, false activation
      of the cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) has become a challenging problem.
      The authors define false activation as any patient who does not warrant emergent
      coronary angiography for STEMI. In addition to clinical outcome measures for
      these patients, STEMI systems should collect data regarding the total number of
      CCL activations, the total number of emergency coronary angiograms, and the
      number revascularization procedures performed.

PMID- 28581996
TI  - In-Hospital ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Clinical Characteristics,
      Management Challenges, and Outcome.
AB  - Timely reperfusion therapy reduces complications and improves survival in ST
      elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). An effective chain of survival has been
      established for STEMIs occur in the community (outpatient STEMI). Recent studies
      have identified a subgroup of patients who develop STEMI while hospitalized for
      primary conditions, often not directly related to coronary artery disease (in
      hospital STEMI or inpatient STEMI). This article summarizes current understanding
      of patient demographics, clinical characteristics, care delivery system and
      outcomes of in-hospital STEMI, comparing with outpatient STEMI. We also
      identified opportunities for quality improvement and proposed strategies and
      future directions to improve care for these patients.

PMID- 28581998
TI  - Controversies in the Management of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Thrombin
      Inhibition.
AB  - Anticoagulation is essential in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) to prevent further thrombosis and to maintain patency of the infarct
      related artery after reperfusion. The various anticoagulant medications available
      for use in patients with STEMI include unfractionated heparin (UFH), low
      molecular-weight heparin, fondaparinux, and bivalirudin, a direct thrombin
      inhibitor. The authors review the current anticoagulation strategies for patients
      with STEMI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI),
      fibrinolysis, or no reperfusion. The authors present the latest evidence and
      controversies on this topic, with a focus on bivalirudin versus UFH in the
      setting of primary PCI for STEMI.

PMID- 28581997
TI  - Optimal Antiplatelet Therapy in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Case-fatality
      rates for myocardial infarction (MI) in the United States have decreased over the
      past decades, in large part due to advances in the treatment of acute MI and
      secondary preventive therapy after MI. Antiplatelet therapy remains the
      cornerstone of treatment of MI. This article reviews the current state of
      antiplatelet therapy in ST-segment elevation MI.

PMID- 28581999
TI  - Controversies in the Management of ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction:
      Transradial Versus Transfemoral Approach.
AB  - This article discusses the controversies surrounding the use of transradial
      versus transfemoral approaches in the management of patients with ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction, beginning with a review of the benefits of
      transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in this population. The
      unanswered questions about the mechanism underlying the mortality benefit of
      transradial PCI are discussed, concluding with recommendations for safe and
      effective strategies for adoption of the transradial approach to optimize
      outcomes in these high-risk patients.

PMID- 28582000
TI  - Controversies in the Treatment of Women with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction.
AB  - Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in women. Women with ST
      segment elevation myocardial infarctions continue to have worse outcomes compared
      with men despite advancements in therapies. Furthermore, these differences are
      particularly pronounced among young men and women with myocardial infarctions.
      Differences in the pathophysiology of coronary artery plaque development, disease
      presentation, and recognition likely contribute to these outcome disparities.
      Despite having worse outcomes compared with men, women clearly benefit from
      aggressive treatment and the latest therapies. This article reviews the treatment
      options for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions and the outcomes of women
      after treatment with reperfusion therapies.

PMID- 28582001
TI  - Management of Multivessel Disease and Cardiogenic Shock.
AB  - Cardiogenic shock represents a state of low cardiac output and systemic
      hypoperfusion resulting in insufficient end-organ perfusion and consequent
      multiorgan failure. The main cause of this complication in the context of acute
      ST-elevation myocardial infarction is left ventricular dysfunction secondary to
      poor myocardial perfusion. In over 50% of cardiogenic shock cases, there is
      evidence of significant coronary stenosis within noninfarct-related arteries.
      Persistent ischemia in the noninfarct territory may contribute to ongoing
      hypotension. Currently, ESC and ACC/AHA/SCAI guidelines advocate complete
      revascularization in the context of multivessel coronary artery disease in the
      context of cardiogenic shock, although the evidence is weak.

PMID- 28582003
TI  - Controversies in Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest?
AB  - Cardiac arrest is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and accounts for
      nearly 500,000 deaths annually in the United States. In patients suffering out-of
      hospital cardiac arrest, survival is less than 15%, with considerable regional
      variation. Although most deaths occur during the initial resuscitation, an
      increasing proportion occur in patients hospitalized after initially successful
      resuscitation. In these patients, the significant subsequent morbidity and
      mortality is due to "post cardiac arrest syndrome." Until recently, most single
      interventions have yielded little improvement in rates of survival; however,
      there is growing recognition that optimal treatment strategies during the
      postresuscitation phase may improve outcomes.

PMID- 28582002
TI  - Controversies and Challenges in the Management of ST-Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction Complicated by Cardiogenic Shock.
AB  - The prognosis in ST-elevation myocardial infarction has improved with coronary
      care units, revascularization, and anticoagulant strategies; however, cardiogenic
      shock (CS) remains a highly fatal condition. Controversies remain about optimal
      pharmacologic therapies, revascularization strategies, the role of mechanical
      circulatory support (MCS), and evidence-based patient selection. The current
      informed consent paradigm for clinical trials creates challenges testing
      treatments in CS patients, who are too ill to consent and require immediate
      treatment. Several trials are underway comparing revascularization strategies and
      MCS options. Although the prognosis is grim, careful, new and existing treatments
      could change the course of this condition in the coming years.

PMID- 28582004
TI  - Public Reporting in ST Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Public reporting provides transparency and improved quality of care. However,
      methods in estimating risk adjusted mortality in ST-segment myocardial
      infarction, particularly in cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest are contentious.
      There are concerns that this has resulted in risk-averse behavior in publicly
      reporting states, resulting in suboptimal care in these patients.

PMID- 28582011
TI  - Despite Dramatic Progress, Significant Controversy and Critical Challenges for
      Patients with ST-Segment Elevation MI.

PMID- 28582005
TI  - Global Challenges and Solutions: Role of Telemedicine in ST-Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction Interventions.
AB  - Major disparities exist between developed and developing countries in the
      management of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). These pronounced differences
      result in significantly increased morbidity and mortality from AMI in different
      regions of the world. Lack of infrastructure, insurance, facilities, and skilled
      personnel are the major constraints. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention
      has revolutionized the treatment of AMI; however, its global use is limited by
      the listed constraints. Telemedicine provides an efficient methodology that can
      hugely increase access and accuracy of AMI management.

PMID- 28582012
TI  - Rationale for Percutaneous Intervention of CTO.
AB  - Chronic total occlusion accounts for 15% of cases during diagnostic angiography
      with higher referral rate to surgical revascularization. With contemporary
      strategies and techniques, the success rate with experienced operators can exceed
      90%. Currently available observational studies in carefully selected patient
      populations show evidence of a trend toward symptom relief; improvement in
      quality of life, left ventricular function, and mortality; and improved tolerance
      toward future ischemic events. Lack of randomized controlled trials comparing
      current optimal medical management with percutaneous coronary intervention for
      chronic total occlusion is a major barrier to widespread adaptation of this
      advanced complex interventional technique.

PMID- 28582013
TI  - Toolbox and Inventory Requirements for Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous
      Coronary Interventions.
AB  - More interventional cardiologists are adopting chronic total occlusion (CTO)
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in their practice. This article follows
      the steps of the PCI procedure to describe the toolbox and inventory requirements
      for successful program development. Recent innovations have allowed adoption of
      controlled dissection and reentry techniques as a primary revascularization
      strategy for CTO. Other devices have special rules in CTO PCI. Equipment and
      techniques to enhance guide catheter support are frequently needed during CTO
      PCI. Tools for complication management are important components. The necessary
      tools are listed at the end of the article.

PMID- 28582014
TI  - CTO PCI Procedural Planning.
AB  - Chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention (CTO PCI) procedural
      planning involves much thought and deliberation before one actually attempts to
      cross the CTO lesion in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Careful
      preprocedural angiographic assessment is a key to successful CTO PCI. CTO PCI
      represents the most complex PCI one can perform, and thus operator and staff
      training as well as the concept of CTO days are all essential for a successful
      CTO PCI program.

PMID- 28582015
TI  - Wire Strategy as a First Option: Properties of the Tools.
AB  - This article discusses interventional guidewires in general and how they are best
      used in chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in
      particular. The components that make a guidewire and the various design options
      are described. The specific characteristics of these options and how they relate
      to various aspects of PCI are discussed. Guidewire design as it applies
      specifically to the tasks particular to CTO PCI is discussed.

PMID- 28582016
TI  - Antegrade Dissection and Reentry: Tools and Techniques.
AB  - The hybrid approach to chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention
      requires facility with antegrade and retrograde strategies to achieve high
      success rates in a time-efficient and safe manner. Antegrade dissection and
      reentry is an integral component of this approach but historically has been
      limited by low success rates and an inability to control the site of reentry. The
      advent of the BridgePoint device, and multiple iterations of technique in
      conjunction with its use, have markedly improved success rates and procedure
      efficiency.

PMID- 28582017
TI  - Retrograde Procedural Planning, Skills Development, and How to Set Up a Base of
      Operations.
AB  - This article addresses the practical steps required when adopting retrograde
      access as part of the treatment of chronic total occlusions (CTOs). The article
      focuses on procedure rationale, equipment required, the practical steps, and
      considerations involved in collateral-channel crossing and setting up a "base of
      operations" at the proximal cap of the CTO. It also describes simple methods of
      wire escalation.

PMID- 28582018
TI  - Retrograde Dissection Reentry for Coronary Chronic Total Occlusions.
AB  - The retrograde technique is an important aspect to overall success in
      percutaneous coronary intervention of chronic total occlusions. The reverse
      controlled antegrade and retrograde subintimal tracking technique is the most
      commonly used retrograde approach for recanalization as either a primary approach
      or after unsuccessful antegrade dissection reentry. A stepwise approach to this
      technique is the key to success.

PMID- 28582019
TI  - The Final Steps of the Retrograde Technique: Wire Externalization, Stenting, and
      Wire Removal.
AB  - A guidewire can be externalized after retrograde lesion crossing. Wire
      externalization provides excellent support for ballooning and stenting and for
      the treatment of chronic total occlusion lesions that are long calcified,
      tortuous, and difficult to treat. This review discusses the final steps of the
      retrograde technique via wire externalization, stenting, and wire removal.

PMID- 28582020
TI  - The Hybrid Approach for Percutaneous Revascularization of Coronary Chronic Total
      Occlusions.
AB  - Percutaneous recanalization of coronary chronic total occlusions (CTOs) has been
      limited by inability to consistently achieve wire position in the distal true
      lumen across the CTO segment, preventing many patients from having percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI). Furthermore, low success rates, prolonged case
      times, and wide variability in approaches has resulted in lower adoption of CTO
      PCI as a routine procedure and has limited educational initiatives. The hybrid
      approach for CTO PCI is predicated on an algorithm that allows trained operators
      to react to angiograms and craft strategies in a similar manner, enabling
      technical success and efficiency.

PMID- 28582022
TI  - Informed Consent of the Chronic Total Occlusion Patient.
AB  - This article focuses on the general principles of informed consent, then
      highlights the particular risks associated with chronic total occlusion
      interventions. The goal is to provide a basic framework for the interventional
      cardiologist to use when having consent discussions with his or her patients.

PMID- 28582021
TI  - Transradial Approach for Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary
      Intervention.
AB  - Over the last two decades, the transradial approach has gained an important role
      in interventional cardiology. A large body of evidence exists supporting the
      safety and feasibility of the transradial approach in a broad spectrum of
      patients and settings. In addition, the transradial approach has been applied
      with good results for chronic total occlusion (CTO) recanalization. This article
      provides an overview of basic principles and techniques required to perform
      successful transradial CTO percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28582023
TI  - Complications of Chronic Total Occlusion Angioplasty.
AB  - Every percutaneous coronary intervention carries risk for acute and long-term
      complications. This is also true of chronic total occlusion (CTO) interventions,
      which can also have complications specific to specialized techniques, such as
      retrograde crossing and dissection/reentry techniques. Acute CTO intervention
      complications can be coronary artery-related, cardiac noncoronary, or noncardiac.
      In the long term, CTO interventions can be complicated by in-stent restenosis,
      stent thrombosis, or coronary aneurysm formation. Understanding of the
      pathogenesis of possible CTO intervention complications can facilitate
      prevention, early recognition, and prompt treatment.

PMID- 28582025
TI  - The Final Frontier of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention-Coronary Chronic Total
      Occlusions.

PMID- 28582024
TI  - Percutaneous Chronic Total Occlusion Revascularization: Program Development,
      Resource Utilization, and Economic Outcomes.
AB  - Against the background of current data supporting indications for chronic total
      occlusion (CTO) revascularization and strategies that promote incrementally
      higher procedural success rates, this article introduces a multidisciplinary
      approach to CTO program development, establishes guidelines for the performance
      of safe and efficient CTO percutaneous coronary intervention, and reviews
      considerations related to resource utilization and economic outcomes with complex
      percutaneous coronary revascularization.

PMID- 28582026
TI  - The History of Coronary Stenting.
AB  - The history of coronary angioplasty began with the groundbreaking work of Andreas
      Gruntzig, who was the first to use balloon-expandable catheters for the treatment
      of flow-limiting atherosclerotic coronary artery lesions. Thereafter, early
      investigators tested self-expanding springs as a solution to abrupt closure and
      restenosis seen with balloon angioplasty but these devices suffered from
      difficult delivery and a high complication rate. Julio Palmaz and Richard Schatz
      introduced the first balloon-expandable stent as a mechanical support to improve
      vessel patency. Their pioneering work launched a new era in the treatment of
      coronary artery disease.

PMID- 28582027
TI  - Restenosis of the Coronary Arteries: Past, Present, Future Directions.
AB  - Restenosis is a pathologic response to vascular injury, characterized by
      neointimal hyperplasia and progressive narrowing of a stented vessel segment.
      Although advances in stent design have led to a dramatic reduction in the
      incidence of restenosis, it continues to represent the most common cause of
      target lesion failure following percutaneous coronary intervention. Efforts to
      maximize restenosis prevention, through careful consideration of modifiable risk
      factors and an individualized approach, are critical, as restenosis, once
      established, can be particularly difficult to treat. Novel approaches are on the
      horizon that have the potential to alter the natural history of this stubborn
      disease.

PMID- 28582028
TI  - The Systems Biocompatibility of Coronary Stenting.
AB  - The coronary stent has propelled our understanding of the term
      "biocompatibility." Stents are expanded at sites of arterial blockage and
      mechanically reestablish blood flow. This simplicity belies the complex reactions
      that occur when a stent contacts living substrates. Biocompatible seek to elicit
      the intended response; stents should perform rather than merely exist. Because
      performance is assessed in the patient, stent biocompatibility is the multiscale
      examination of material and cell, and of material, structure, and device in the
      context of cell, tissue, and organism. This review tracks major biomaterial
      advances in coronary stent design and discusses biocompatibility clinical
      performance.

PMID- 28582029
TI  - Endovascular Drug Delivery and Drug Elution Systems: First Principles.
AB  - Endovascular drug delivery continues to revolutionize the treatment of
      atherosclerosis in coronary and peripheral vasculature. The key has been to
      identify biologic agents that can counter the hyperplastic tissue responses to
      device expansion/implantation and to develop effective local delivery strategies
      that can maintain efficacious drug levels across the artery wall over the course
      of device effects. This article reviews the evolution of endovascular drug
      delivery technology, explains the mechanisms they use for drug release, and
      provides a quantitative mechanistic framework for relating drug release mode to
      arterial drug distribution and effect.

PMID- 28582030
TI  - Antiproliferative Drugs for Restenosis Prevention.
AB  - Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide.
      Current treatment strategies aimed at treating the symptoms and consequences of
      obstructive vascular disease have embraced both optimal medical therapy and
      catheter-based percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents. Drug
      eluting stents elute antiproliferative drugs inhibiting vascular smooth muscle
      cell proliferation, which occurs in response to injury and thus prevents
      restenosis. However, all drugs currently approved for use in drug-eluting stents
      do not discriminate between proliferating vascular smooth muscle cells and
      endothelial cells, thus delaying re-endothelialization and subsequent vascular
      healing.

PMID- 28582031
TI  - Contemporary Drug-Eluting Stent Platforms: Design, Safety, and Clinical Efficacy.
AB  - First-generation drug-eluting stents significantly improved treatment of coronary
      disease, decreasing rates of revascularization. This was offset by high rates of
      late adverse events, driven primarily by stent thrombosis. Research and design
      improvements of individual DES platform components led to next-generation devices
      with superior clinical safety and efficacy profiles compared with bare-metal
      stents and first-generation drug-eluting stents. These design improvements and
      features are explored, and their resulting clinical safety and efficacy reviewed,
      focusing on platforms approved by the Food and Drug Administration currently
      widely used in the United States.

PMID- 28582032
TI  - Design Principles of Bioresorbable Polymeric Scaffolds.
AB  - The concept for a bioresorbable vascular scaffold combines the best features of
      the first 3 generations of percutaneous coronary intervention (namely), balloon
      angioplasty, bare metallic stents, and drug-eluting stents, into a single device.
      The principles of operation of a BRS follow 3 phases of functionality that
      reflect the different physiologic requirements over time; revascularization,
      restoration, and resorption. Most BRS designs make use of the continuum of
      hydrolytic degradation in aliphatic polyesters, such as poly(l-lactide), in which
      molecular weight, strength, and mass decrease progressively in 3 distinct stages,
      consistent with the in vivo requirements of each performance phase.

PMID- 28582033
TI  - Bioresorbable Scaffolds: Clinical Outcomes and Considerations.
AB  - Bioresorbable scaffolds (BRS) have been engineered to eliminate the theoretic
      stimulus to late coronary events, a caveat of conventional metallic drug-eluting
      stents (DESs). Outcome benefits of BRSs over current-generation DESs are expected
      to accrue after complete bioresorption. Before this timeframe, BRSs need to prove
      at least similarly safe and effective compared with DESs. Several randomized
      studies of the Absorb BRS have been made available. Several manufacturers are at
      the beginning of their line of clinical development of competing BRSs. This
      article reviews the contemporary clinical outcomes of the Absorb scaffold, and
      provides an updated state of the art on the other players in the BRS arena.

PMID- 28582034
TI  - Design and Comparison of Large Vessel Stents: Balloon Expandable and Self
      Expanding Peripheral Arterial Stents.
AB  - Endovascular stenting has evolved over the last 50 years since its inception into
      the framework of management of vascular atherosclerotic disease. Stent design has
      evolved as lesion complexity has increased. Nevertheless, certain first
      principles regarding stent design have been recapitulated time and again with
      every iteration of endovascular stents. This article reviews principles of
      endovascular stent design and compares and contrasts key aspects of balloon
      expandable and self-expanding stents.

PMID- 28582035
TI  - Design and Clinical Considerations for Endovascular Stent Grafts.
AB  - Endovascular treatment for aortic abnormality is an excellent alternative option
      for patients who are not good candidates for conventional open surgery. Although
      the technique of placing endovascular stent grafts has evolved since the first
      grafts, the basic principles remain the same. Use of endografts is limited by
      anatomic criteria, and advances in graft design have allowed for more widespread
      use for a broader patient range. The most important limitations to overcome are
      achieving high-quality aortic neck "healthy" landing zone, smaller-diameter
      delivery systems, and endografts that allow for more angled aortic necks.

PMID- 28582036
TI  - Pathology of Endovascular Stents.
AB  - Contemporary endovascular stents are the product of an iterative design and
      development process that leverages evolving concepts in vascular biology and
      engineering. This article reviews how insights into vascular pathophysiology,
      materials science, and design mechanics drive stent design and explain modes of
      stent failure. Current knowledge of pathologic processes is providing a more
      complete picture of the factors mediating stent failure. Further evolution of
      endovascular stents includes bioresorbable platforms tailored to treat plaques
      acutely and to then disappear after lesion pacification. Ongoing refinement of
      stent technology will continue to require insights from pathology to understand
      adverse events, refine clinical protocols, and drive innovation.

PMID- 28582037
TI  - Coronary Stent Failure: Fracture, Compression, Recoil, and Prolapse.
AB  - Current-generation coronary drug-eluting stents are associated with low rates of
      restenosis and target lesion revascularization. However, several mechanisms of
      stent failure remain clinically important. Stent fracture may occur in areas of
      excessive torsion or angulation. Longitudinal stent deformation is related to
      axial stent compression owing to extrinsic forces or secondary devices that
      disrupt stent architecture. Stent recoil occurs when a stent does not deploy at
      its optimal cross-sectional area. Tissue prolapse between stent struts may also
      predispose patients to adverse outcomes. Prevention, recognition, and treatment
      of these stent failures are necessary to optimize patient outcomes after
      percutaneous coronary interventions.

PMID- 28582043
TI  - Stent Design: Past, Present, and Future.

PMID- 28582044
TI  - Radial Artery Access, Hemostasis, and Radial Artery Occlusion.
AB  - Radial artery access is usually achieved using a micropuncture system.
      Hydrophilic introducers are used to improve comfort, probably by reducing spasm.
      A vasodilator cocktail should be administered to prevent severe spasm and
      anticoagulation; usually, unfractionated heparin is administered to prevent
      subsequent radial artery occlusion (RAO). Hemostasis at the radial artery
      puncture site is easily achievable by local compression. Application of local
      compression frequently leads to interruption of radial artery flow and subsequent
      occlusion. Careful attention to maintenance of radial artery patency during
      hemostatic compression has been shown to decrease the risk of RAO without
      increasing access-related bleeding complications.

PMID- 28582045
TI  - Strategies to Traverse the Arm and Chest Vasculature.
AB  - This article discusses different methods of working through arm and chest
      vasculature to increase the success rate of the transradial approach (TRA).
      Despite lower rates of bleeding and vascular complications as compared with the
      transfemoral approach, adoption of the TRA has been slow, particularly because of
      higher failure rates. Anatomic complexities of arm and chest vasculature play an
      important role in cases of TRA failure. Using a simple framework to classify the
      anatomic or functional problem and approaching these challenges in a logical
      sequence should facilitate management and increase the success rate for TRA.

PMID- 28582047
TI  - Slender Approach and Sheathless Techniques.
AB  - Most radial arteries cannot accommodate 7- and 8-French introducer sheaths for
      large-bore percutaneous coronary intervention without overstretch. In addition to
      being uncomfortable, radial artery overstretch is associated with spasm and
      higher rates of procedure-related radial artery occlusion. Methods for the
      transradial interventionist to overcome the limitation of radial artery-sheath
      size mismatch include both sheath-based and sheathless approaches. In this
      article we discuss a variety of techniques that can be used to minimize radial
      artery stretch for straightforward and complex coronary procedures.

PMID- 28582046
TI  - Diagnostic and Guide Catheter Selection and Manipulation for Radial Approach.
AB  - Transradial catheterization and percutaneous coronary interventions have multiple
      advantages, including reduced bleeding risk, reduced length of stay and costs,
      and increased patient comfort. Transradial catheterization and interventions
      requires the acquisition of various additional skill sets including radial
      arterial puncture, the ability to navigate the upper extremity vasculature, and
      understanding catheter selection and coronary engagement technique. Although
      standard femoral catheter shapes perform adequately from the left or right radial
      approach for coronary angiography, for percutaneous coronary intervention guide
      catheter support is critical. This article summarizes some practical learning
      points pertaining to navigating the upper extremity vasculature, and
      understanding catheter selection and coronary engagement technique.

PMID- 28582048
TI  - Transradial Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Despite advances in antithrombotic and antiplatelet therapy, bleeding
      complications remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients
      with acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). Many bleeding events are related to
      the access site. Transradial access (TRA) PPCI is associated with significant
      reduction in bleeding and vascular complications and reduced cardiac mortality
      compared with the transfemoral approach (TFA). High-risk patients might
      particularly benefit from TRA. Radial skills providing procedural times and
      success rates comparable with those of the TFA are strongly recommended before
      using this technique in the STEMI PPCI setting.

PMID- 28582049
TI  - Transradial Peripheral Arterial Procedures.
AB  - Increased understanding and increased adoption of transradial catheterization
      across the world have led to further exploring of radial artery access for
      transradial endovascular interventions in peripheral artery disease (PAD). This
      article discusses the advantages and limitations of the transradial approach for
      endovascular medicine by using case examples, illustrations, and videos. The
      details about how to use a radial approach for PAD intervention, including and
      tips tricks, are discussed.

PMID- 28582050
TI  - Complications of Transradial Cardiac Catheterization and Management.
AB  - The transradial approach for coronary angiography has become an increasingly used
      alternative to the conventional transfemoral approach. Decreased access site
      complications and bleeding, reduced hospital stays and health care costs, and
      increased patient satisfaction contribute to the attractiveness of this approach.
      However, operators must be familiar with the distinct complications associated
      with the transradial approach. In this article, we discuss the common and less
      common complications of transradial catheterization, prevention strategies, and
      management options.

PMID- 28582051
TI  - The Transradial Learning Curve and Volume-Outcome Relationship.
AB  - This article discusses how learning curves correlate with learning in transradial
      catheterization. Although learning curves exist in the conversion to transradial
      approaches, current percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures are so
      safe that only surrogate end points such as contrast usage and x-ray exposure
      show learning effects. Using these surrogates, a learning curve of 30 to 50
      patients seems typical to transition cardiologists from transfemoral to
      transradial PCI. This transition occurs with the immediate benefit of reduced
      vascular complications and bleeding and without loss of overall procedural
      success. These measures of safety during learning exist despite difference of
      procedural volumes.

PMID- 28582052
TI  - The Transradial Approach and Antithrombotic Therapy: Rationale and Outcomes.
AB  - This article reviews antithrombotic strategies for percutaneous coronary
      interventions according to the access site and the current evidence with the aim
      of limiting ischemic complications and preventing radial artery occlusion (RAO).
      Prevention of RAO should be part of the quality control of any radial program.
      The incidence of RAO postcatheterization and interventions should be determined
      initially using the echo-duplex and then frequently assessed using the more cost
      effective pulse oximetry technique. Any evidence of higher risk of RAO should
      prompt internal analysis and multidisciplinary mechanisms to be put in place.

PMID- 28582056
TI  - Radial Approach: Fundamental Techniques and Evidence.

PMID- 28582058
TI  - TRANSRADIAL ANGIOGRAPHY AND INTERVENTION.

PMID- 28582059
TI  - Calcific Aortic Stenosis: Pathology and Role of Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty.
AB  - Calcific aortic stenosis (AS) is a common expression of aortic valve disease and
      increases in prevalence with advancing age. Recent studies have shown that
      calcific deposition in aortic valve leaflets is an actively regulated process
      with many pathophysiologic similarities to atherosclerosis. Surgical valve
      replacement is the definitive treatment of calcific AS, but many patients do not
      undergo surgery because of prohibitive comorbidities or other high-risk features.
      Balloon aortic valvuloplasty remains an option for temporary palliation and
      symptomatic relief, and continues to serve as a bridge to aortic valve
      replacement in certain patients with AS requiring temporary hemodynamic
      stabilization.

PMID- 28582060
TI  - Percutaneous Therapies in the Treatment of Valvular Pulmonary Stenosis.
AB  - Transcatheter balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty (BPV) is the standard of care in
      managing symptomatic patients with moderate-to-severe pulmonary valvular
      stenosis, or asymptomatic patients with severe pulmonary valvular stenosis or
      with moderate pulmonary stenosis and evidence of objective exercise intolerance
      or right ventricular dysfunction. This article discusses the incidence, causes,
      and pathophysiology of valvular pulmonary stenosis in adolescents and adults; its
      natural history and noninvasive evaluation; the current guideline-recommended
      indications for BPV; the technical aspects of performing BPV; the immediate and
      long-term outcomes after valvuloplasty; and the complications and safety of the
      procedure. Also discussed is the role of this procedure in neonatal critical
      pulmonary stenosis and in percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement for patients
      with prior pulmonic valve interventions or degenerated right ventricular
      pulmonary artery conduits.

PMID- 28582061
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Experience with the Edwards SAPIEN
      Device.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with the Edwards SAPIEN valve has
      been shown to be highly beneficial to patients at high risk or with
      contraindications to surgical aortic valve replacement. The availability of both
      transfemoral and transapical approaches allows the technique to be applied in
      most patients. Optimal screening and technical proficiency are crucial for a
      successful and safe procedure. The technique poses many technical challenges in
      sick and fragile elderly patients. Thus, TAVI should remain confined to formally
      trained and proctored experienced physicians, in centers of expertise offering an
      optimal multidisciplinary collaboration.

PMID- 28582062
TI  - Percutaneous Balloon Valvuloplasty for Aortic Stenosis in Newborns and Children.
AB  - In all cases of congenital valvar aortic stenosis (AS), reduced effective orifice
      area leads to obstruction to flow, usually resulting from thickening and reduced
      motion of the valve leaflets. The most severe cases of valvar AS present soon
      after birth, with low cardiac output secondary to left ventricular dysfunction.
      Interventional treatment options consist of open surgical valvotomy or balloon
      valvuloplasty, with both therapies providing excellent but usually only temporary
      relief of stenosis. This article focuses on balloon aortic valvuloplasty as a
      therapy for congenital valvar AS in infants and children, focusing on established
      techniques, outcomes, and future challenges.

PMID- 28582063
TI  - Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty in the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Era.
AB  - Initial enthusiasm for balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) as an alternative to
      surgical aortic valve replacement waned because of the perceived failure of the
      procedure to alter the natural history of calcific severe aortic valve stenosis
      (AS) and significant initial procedural morbidity. Despite technical and
      procedural advances, BAV has been reserved as a palliative procedure for patients
      who cannot undergo valve replacement or as a bridge to surgery in hemodynamically
      unstable patients. This article reviews the indications, technical aspects, and
      outcomes of BAV for calcific AS and discusses the current role of BAV in the era
      of transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

PMID- 28582064
TI  - Looking to the Future of Percutaneous Treatment of Patients with Valvular Heart
      Disease.
AB  - The development of transcatheter valvular therapeutics has revolutionized
      interventional cardiology over the past decade. Nonetheless, despite these
      prominent advances in percutaneous valve technology, numerous obstacles regarding
      safety and efficacy must be overcome before the precise clinical role of these
      devices becomes clear. This article discusses the current status of transcatheter
      valve replacement and repair as it pertains to the aortic and mitral valve and
      deliberates on the bright future of a promising tool that will drastically affect
      clinical interventional practice.

PMID- 28582065
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Experience with the CoreValve Device.
AB  - The field of transcatheter aortic valve implantation has been rapidly evolving.
      The Medtronic CoreValve first emerged on the landscape in 2004 with initial first
      human studies, and it is currently being studied in the Pivotal US trial. This
      article details the current experience with the self-expanding aortic valve with
      a focus on clinical results and ongoing challenges.

PMID- 28582066
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Upcoming New Devices.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an alternative to surgical
      aortic valve replacement in high-risk patients with symptomatic severe aortic
      stenosis. Several upcoming devices will optimize and facilitate the procedure:
      periprosthetic aortic regurgitation will be reduced by larger prosthesis sizes
      and repositionable next-generation transcatheter heart valves. Alternative access
      routes and smaller sheaths will reduce the rate of vascular complications.
      Cerebral protection devices might reduce the rate of strokes and silent cerebral
      embolism. Abandonment of balloon valvuloplasty and rapid ventricular pacing might
      facilitate the procedure and improve outcome. Thus, younger and healthier
      patients could benefit from TAVI in the near future.

PMID- 28582067
TI  - Percutaneous Mitral Balloon Valvuloplasty for Patients with Rheumatic Mitral
      Stenosis.
AB  - Percutaneous balloon dilatation of stenotic cardiac valves is used for the
      treatment of pulmonic, mitral, aortic, and tricuspid stenosis. Percutaneous
      mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMV) has been used successfully as an alternative
      to open or closed surgical mitral commissurotomy in the treatment of symptomatic
      rheumatic mitral stenosis. PMV produces good immediate hemodynamic outcome, low
      complication rates, and clinical improvement in the majority of patients. PMV is
      safe and effective and provides clinical and hemodynamic improvement in rheumatic
      mitral stenosis. PMV is the preferred form of therapy for relief of mitral
      stenosis for a selected group of patients with symptomatic mitral stenosis.

PMID- 28582068
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Mitral Regurgitation: The MitraClip Experience.
AB  - The MitraClip device is a percutaneous catheter-delivered, implantable clip that
      reduces mitral regurgitation by approximating the edges of the mitral leaflets,
      creating an "edge-to-edge" repair. The MitraClip is the first percutaneous
      technology developed to provide a minimally invasive option for patients at high
      risk for traditional mitral valve surgery. Although percutaneous repair was less
      effective at reducing mitral regurgitation than conventional surgery in the
      EVEREST randomized trial, the procedure was associated with superior safety and
      similar improvements in clinical outcomes. Older, high-risk or inoperable
      patients with functional or degenerative mitral regurgitation seem to benefit
      most from this therapy.

PMID- 28582069
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Primary and Secondary Mitral Regurgitation: Overall
      Scope of the Problem.
AB  - Mitral regurgitation is a heterogeneous disorder requiring the understanding of
      complex mitral anatomy and pathophysiology. Advanced imaging has furthered our
      knowledge and ability to treat patients with this disorder. As the demand for
      less invasive treatment increases, a multitude of percutaneous options have
      emerged. This review is written for interventionalists to fully appreciate the
      overall scope of the problem of mitral regurgitation. Understanding and
      integrating mitral anatomy with pathophysiology, multimodality imaging, and
      current transcatheter mitral therapies are paramount for treating this disorder.

PMID- 28582070
TI  - Percutaneous Techniques for the Treatment of Patients with Functional Mitral
      Valve Regurgitation.
AB  - Percutaneous approaches to mitral regurgitation remain largely investigational.
      In the last decade, novel percutaneous strategies have opened new options in the
      treatment of valvular heart disease. Several studies are currently underway to
      determine the benefits of transcatheter mitral valve repair therapy.
      Transcatheter chordal procedures are being developed, including chordal cutting
      and chordal implantation. Transcatheter valve implantation in the mitral position
      might offer a desirable alternative in selected patients and has been
      accomplished in a compassionate fashion on rare occasions in patients who are not
      candidates for surgical valve repair or replacement.

PMID- 28582071
TI  - A New Review Periodical, Interventional Cardiology Clinics.

PMID- 28582072
TI  - History and Physical Examination in Diagnosis of Peripheral Artery Disease.
AB  - Peripheral artery disease (PAD) may be silent or present with an assortment of
      symptoms and signs suggesting peripheral artery ischemia. Peripheral vascular
      disease includes PAD and disorders of the peripheral venous system and lymphatic
      system. Generally, PAD is synonymous with arteries of the limbs and pelvis, but
      it can be expanded to include the renal arteries, carotid arteries, mesenteric
      arteries, and the aorta. It is imperative to recognize and treat PAD early, as
      appropriate management of PAD can help avoid devastating complications such as
      limb amputation and death.

PMID- 28582073
TI  - Noninvasive Testing in Peripheral Arterial Disease.
AB  - Most patients suspected of having peripheral arterial disease should undergo
      noninvasive vascular testing to confirm the diagnosis, and to determine the
      severity and extent of the disease. This article reviews practical aspects of
      commonly used noninvasive tests for lower extremity peripheral arterial disease,
      including the ankle-brachial index, segmental limb pressures, pulse volume
      recordings, duplex ultrasonography, computed tomography angiography, and magnetic
      resonance angiography.

PMID- 28582074
TI  - Endovascular Management of Brachiocephalic Disease.
AB  - Brachiocephalic disease can pose important clinical risks and manifestations.
      Most of these lesions are amenable to endovascular treatment. However, these
      treatments have significant risks and require modified procedural techniques. All
      interventions require a careful preprocedural evaluation and consultation. These
      endovascular interventions should be performed by experienced operators with
      extensive previous carotid and endovascular experience in appropriate adequately
      equipped venues. Most brachiocephalic disease also has surgical options for
      treatment. This article presents guidelines to assist experienced operators to
      perform these procedures with proper technique after using good clinical
      judgment.

PMID- 28582075
TI  - Management of Mesenteric Ischemia.
AB  - Acute mesenteric ischemia is associated with a high mortality rate and requires
      emergent evaluation and surgical management. However, patients with chronic
      mesenteric ischemia can undergo either surgical or endovascular
      revascularization. Review of recent medical literature suggests lower rates of
      mortality and complications after endovascular revascularization, but higher
      rates of primary patency after surgical revascularization. The decision regarding
      method of revascularization in patients with chronic mesenteric ischemia should
      be based on the patient's vascular anatomy, comorbidities, and life expectancy.

PMID- 28582076
TI  - Management of Renal Arterial Disease.
AB  - Severe atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis can manifest as treatment-resistant
      hypertension, ischemic nephropathy and/or cardiac disturbance syndromes of
      recurrent flash pulmonary edema and refractory angina. Renal artery
      revascularization can dramatically impact patient outcome. However, patient
      selection for revascularization can be challenging. Renal artery stenting is most
      commonly used for renal revascularization and is a safe procedure when performed
      in carefully selected patients. This review addresses the pathophysiology of
      renal artery stenosis and the data supporting revascularization in such patients.

PMID- 28582077
TI  - Contemporary Management of Femoral Popliteal Revascularization.
AB  - Symptomatic peripheral artery disease of the femoral popliteal segment can be
      treated by surgical and endovascular revascularization, but controversy exists
      about the best approach. Conventional approaches to revascularization have
      focused on lesion anatomy to decide on bypass versus endovascular treatment, but
      advances in endovascular therapy make an endovascular-first approach increasingly
      feasible-either as a single approach or as an adjunct to short-segment bypass
      (ie, hybrid procedure). In this review, we discuss the medical, endovascular, and
      surgical treatment of femoral popliteal revascularization with a special emphasis
      on advances in percutaneous therapy.

PMID- 28582078
TI  - Management of Atherosclerotic Aortoiliac Occlusive Disease.
AB  - Development of aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD) is associated with classic
      risk factors for atherosclerotic disease such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension,
      diabetes, or smoking. Risk factor modification, smoking cessation, and prevention
      of cardiovascular events remain the cornerstones of AIOD management. Symptom
      improvement and limb loss prevention are considered secondary goals of therapy.
      Continuous technological advances, new devices, as well as new revascularization
      techniques are constantly changing the landscape of AIOD management. Surgical
      interventions, which were considered a gold standard therapy for nearly 50 years,
      currently give way to newer and less invasive endovascular techniques.

PMID- 28582079
TI  - Management of Aneurysmal Disease of the Aorta.
AB  - Aneurysm of the aorta is largely a disease of the elderly. The
      incidence/prevalence of the disease has steadily increased in recent times,
      mainly because of the increase in awareness among patients/physicians and better
      imaging modalities. Early diagnosis and treatment of this disease holds the key
      to success and plays a part in prevention of catastrophic complications. With
      advancements in endovascular and surgical innovations, repair of aneurysmal
      disease has made significant progress, translating into better survival and long
      term benefits. However, with significant morbidity and mortality associated with
      this disease, there is still a need for further research.

PMID- 28582080
TI  - Acute Limb Ischemia.
AB  - Acute limb ischemia is a vascular event presenting with sudden decrease in limb
      perfusion (of <14 days' duration) that threatens limb viability. Acute thrombosis
      of the native artery or graft makes up the bulk of etiopathogenesis. Prompt
      revascularization is the cornerstone of management of acute limb ischemia in
      limbs that have not undergone irreversible tissue and nerve damage. Amputation is
      performed in patients with irreversible tissue and nerve damage.

PMID- 28582081
TI  - Management of Infrapopliteal Arterial Disease: Critical Limb Ischemia.
AB  - According to the TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus Document on Management of
      Peripheral Arterial Disease, "there is increasing evidence to support a
      recommendation for angioplasty in patients with critical limb ischemia and
      infrapopliteal artery occlusion." Management of infrapopliteal artery disease
      starts with diagnosis using modern preprocedural noninvasive and invasive
      imaging. Interventionalists need to learn the role of chronic total occlusion cap
      analysis and collateral zone recognition in angiosome-directed interventions for
      management of critical limb ischemia and be familiar with equipment and device
      selection and a stepwise approach for endovascular interventions.
      Interventionalists need to know which crossing tools to use to successfully cross
      complex chronic total occlusion caps.

PMID- 28582082
TI  - Chronic Venous Insufficiency.
AB  - Varicose veins are a common manifestation of chronic venous disease and affect
      approximately 25% of adults in the western hemisphere. The historical standard
      treatment has been surgery, with high ligation and stripping, combined with
      phlebectomies. In the past decade, alternative treatments such as endovenous
      ablation of the great saphenous vein (GSV) with laser, radiofrequency ablation,
      and ultrasonography-guided foam sclerotherapy have gained popularity. Performed
      as office-based procedures using tumescent local anesthesia, the new minimally
      invasive techniques have been shown in numerous studies to obliterate the GSV,
      eliminate reflux, and improve symptoms safely and effectively.

PMID- 28582083
TI  - Endovascular Treatment of Deep Vein Thrombosis.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with substantial morbidity and
      mortality. Conventional treatment with anticoagulation therapy may undertreat the
      condition. Patients with VTE are at risk for recurrence with increasing time
      passage. Endovascular approaches exist for treating VTE, including deep vein
      thrombosis, but it is unclear which patients are appropriate candidates for
      endovascular versus medical approaches. Many new endovascular technologies are in
      development, and new oral anticoagulants are also on the market. Clinicians must
      be mindful of these new products and use them appropriately to better manage VTE.

PMID- 28582086
TI  - Peripheral Artery Disease.

PMID- 28582089
TI  - An Approach to Asymptomatic and Atypically or Typically Symptomatic Women with
      Cardiac Disease.
AB  - The evaluation of women who are asymptomatic or presenting for evaluation of
      stable cardiac disease symptoms has been the focus of much research in the past
      decade. The rationale for this research has been that fatality rates for coronary
      heart disease remain higher for women than men. Detection of high-risk
      populations is a core component of targeted therapeutic risk reduction and is a
      valuable way to identify women who may benefit from early intervention that could
      result in improved clinical outcomes. This article discusses the evidence on
      assessment of women with and without suspected cardiac symptoms.

PMID- 28582090
TI  - Revascularization Strategies in Women with Stable Cardiovascular Disease: What do
      the Trials Reveal?
AB  - Cardiovascular disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide in both
      women and men. Although the prevalence of CAD is less in women, those women
      affected by CAD die more often than men. Women are underrepresented in
      cardiovascular studies, making it difficult to determine the outcomes of
      different revascularization strategies. This review summarizes the current data
      on gender outcomes for percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary bypass
      grafting.

PMID- 28582091
TI  - Interventional Management of ACS in Women: STEMI and NSTEMI.
AB  - Acute coronary syndromes and ST elevation myocardial infarction are a major cause
      of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in women. However, emerging data now
      suggest that the poorer outcomes of women undergoing percutaneous intervention
      may have less to do with differing vascular biology between males and females or
      the technical challenges of their coronary anatomy, but more with risk factors,
      such as age and comorbidities. Nevertheless, females have clearly been
      underrepresented in clinical trials, and further efforts are now required to
      properly define effective ways to tackle the risk-factor burden and clinical
      outcomes in women presenting to the catheterization laboratory.

PMID- 28582092
TI  - The Generations of Drug-Eluting Stents and Outcomes in Women.
AB  - Drug-eluting stents have become one of the mainstays of percutaneous coronary
      artery revascularization. Since their introduction, there have been many
      developments in this technology including the optimization of the stent platform,
      novel polymer coatings, and antiproliferative drugs. Although cardiovascular
      disease is the leading cause of death in women, the prevalence of obstructive
      coronary artery disease is lower, and women comprise a minority of patients
      included in clinical trials assessing the performance of drug-eluting stents.
      This article reviews the advances in drug-eluting stent technology and the
      studies reporting outcomes in women after implantation of these stents.

PMID- 28582093
TI  - PCI Outcomes in High-Risk Groups (Diabetes Mellitus, Smoker, Chronic Kidney
      Disease and the Elderly).
AB  - Ischemic heart disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in
      both genders in developed countries. Many women underestimate the effect of
      coronary artery disease on their health and as a result, the female population
      tends to be under-investigated for symptoms, with less-aggressive treatment
      approaches, leading to perceived worse outcomes in this group. Many assumptions
      about women are from studies where the female population is under-represented and
      in trials that do not account for gender differences. This article discusses
      percutaneous coronary intervention in high-risk groups and whether such a gender
      difference exists.

PMID- 28582094
TI  - Vascular Complications in Women and the Radial Approach.
AB  - Compared with medical therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is
      associated with higher bleeding rates and more vascular complications. Although
      the rate of complications is decreasing, female sex continues to be an
      independent risk factor. Radial access for PCI is as effective as femoral access
      but is associated with significantly fewer bleeding and vascular complications.
      Although women are at higher risk for bleeding and vascular complications than
      their male counterparts, the use of radial access has decreased the complications
      to a level in the which the difference becomes minimal. More quality improvement
      studies are needed to identify strategies for reducing complications in this high
      risk population.

PMID- 28582095
TI  - Is Stenting an Appropriate Therapy in Women Presenting with Acute Coronary
      Syndrome? A Pathologist's Perspective.
AB  - It has been more than 3 decades since the introduction of percutaneous
      transluminal coronary angioplasty for the treatment of coronary artery disease,
      and the introduction of bare metal stents and drug-eluting stents (DES) has
      significantly improved clinical outcomes by decreasing rates of acute vessel
      closure and restenosis. This article reviews pathologic findings from male and
      female patients who had received coronary stents for acute coronary syndrome and
      died suddenly with or without complications of stent implantation, at early (<30
      days) and late (>30 days) time points after DES implantation.

PMID- 28582096
TI  - Does Gender have an Influence on Platelet Function and the Efficacy of Oral
      Antiplatelet Therapy?
AB  - The underlying pathophysiology of ischemic complications during acute coronary
      syndrome involves thrombus generation at sites of plaque rupture and endothelial
      erosion, in which platelet activation and aggregation play major roles. This
      review discusses whether there are intrinsic differences in thrombogenicity
      between genders. In trials of acute coronary syndromes with dual antiplatelet
      therapy strategies, women tend to experience more ischemic events. Controversy
      exists surrounding the protective role of estrogens in the premenopausal woman.
      In vitro studies support the attenuation of platelet function by estrogen.
      Sufficient data support the presence of gender differences in thrombogenicity to
      promote further investigation in this area.

PMID- 28582097
TI  - Cardiogenic Shock in Women.
AB  - Cardiogenic shock (CS) describes the physiologic state in which reduced cardiac
      output and resultant tissue hypoxia occur in the presence of adequate
      intravascular volume. Among patients hospitalized with myocardial infarction
      (MI), CS is the foremost cause of death. Women are more susceptible to CS than
      men in the setting of ST segment increase MI. Introduction of early
      revascularization strategies and mechanical ventricular support have seen a
      decrease in short-term mortality from CS. However, the prognosis following CS
      remains poor. This article examines the prevalence, causes, pathophysiology, and
      therapeutic options for CS among women.

PMID- 28582098
TI  - Percutaneous Valve Therapy: Choosing the Appropriate Patients and Outcomes.
AB  - Surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) is the current gold standard for the
      treatment of severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS), but transcatheter aortic
      valve implantation (TAVI) currently represents a viable alternative to
      conventional SAVR for patients with AS at high risk of operative mortality. On
      multivariate analysis it has been shown that female gender is independently
      associated with better recovery of the left ventricular systolic function after
      TAVI and that left ventricular hypertrophy reverses more frequently in female
      patients after SAVR. During follow-up, however, women remain significantly more
      symptomatic compared with men, mainly because they present with more advanced
      valve disease at a significantly older age.

PMID- 28582099
TI  - Future Perspectives on Percutaneous Coronary Interventions in Women.
AB  - In the United States alone, more than 1 million cardiac catheterizations are
      performed each year, with approximately 600,000 patients undergoing percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI). A meaningful perspective on the future of PCI in
      women requires not only reflection on some of the major developments in
      interventional cardiology but also a look back more generally at the changing
      patterns in the burden of coronary disease in the population and at the gains
      accrued in understanding and combating cardiovascular disease in women.

PMID- 28582100
TI  - Coronary Artery Disease in Women: Shyly Bold?

PMID- 28582101
TI  - Cardiogenic Shock: Background, Shock Trial/Registry, Evolving Data, Changing
      Survival, Best Medical Therapy.
AB  - Cardiogenic shock remains associated with unacceptably high mortality, but recent
      improvements with early revascularization, continued support with pharmacologic
      agents, and use of an intra-aortic balloon pump have led to improvements in the
      rate of mortality. Timely intervention with cardiac surgery in patients with
      mechanical complications, 3-vessel disease, and left main disease is beneficial.
      Continued research and ever-improving understanding of this once deadly condition
      have helped further in improving prognosis. Cutting-edge technologies, such as
      myocyte cell implantation and the use of a cooling system, will help in pushing
      the boundaries farther.

PMID- 28582102
TI  - Hemodynamic Support: Science and Evaluation of the Assisted Circulation with
      Percutaneous Assist Devices.
AB  - Pathophysiologic mechanisms that lead to hemodynamic abnormalities in cardiogenic
      shock (including hypotension, hypoperfusion, and elevated venous pressures) are
      reviewed within the framework of pressure-volume analysis. This approach provides
      the foundation for understanding how different modes of circulatory support
      impact key these cardiovascular parameters in various clinical settings. Four
      fundamentally different modes of circulatory support are reviewed, including
      aortic counterpulsation, left atrial-to-arterial pumping, right atrial-to
      arterial pumping, and left ventricular-to-aortic pumping. Each approach has a
      distinct hemodynamic fingerprint with regard to effects on the ventricular
      pressure-volume loop and key hemodynamic and metabolic parameters.

PMID- 28582103
TI  - Usage of Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Devices in Clinical Practice and
      High-risk Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Patients who require coronary revascularization and present with poor left
      ventricular function and complex coronary anatomy are at high risk for
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting
      surgery. Some of these patients are poor surgical candidates because of previous
      cardiac surgery or significant comorbidities. The recent approval and
      availability of percutaneous left ventricular assist devices has created an
      opportunity for the highest risk patients. This article reviews currently
      available mechanical circulatory support systems and portable extracorporeal
      oxygenation, describing hemodynamic and physiologic rationales, indications,
      strategies, and available evidence for their use in high risk PCI.

PMID- 28582104
TI  - Percutaneous Assist Device for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
AB  - Persistent cardiac arrest is often caused by coronary ischemia. Urgent
      revascularization during on-going resuscitation with the support of percutaneous
      left ventricular assist devices (PVAD) may be feasible and can have the potential
      to improve the prognosis. Transport during resuscitation is a challenge that may
      be overcome with the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation devices. In the
      catheterization laboratory, rapid deployment of PVAD may reduce ischemia,
      contribute to electrical stabilization of the heart, and facilitate definite
      treatment with percutaneous coronary intervention. After revascularization, PVAD
      therapy may promote myocardial recovery and improve vital organ perfusion in a
      critical phase.

PMID- 28582105
TI  - Percutaneous Circulatory Assist Devices for Right Ventricular Failure.
AB  - Heart failure is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality affecting nearly
      24 million individuals worldwide. Although the importance of right ventricular
      (RV) function has become more apparent over the past few decades, few therapies
      specifically target RV failure. Over the past 3 decades, significant advances in
      percutaneously delivered circulatory support devices has led to the recent
      development of devices specifically designed for RV failure. In this review, RV
      pathophysiology, device options, and clinical data exploring the utility of
      percutaneous RV support devices are discussed.

PMID- 28582106
TI  - Percutaneous Assist Devices for Left Ventricular Shock.
AB  - Percutaneous ventricular assist devices (PVADs) are increasingly being used for
      hemodynamic support in patients with cardiogenic shock as well as for patients
      undergoing high-risk cardiovascular procedures. The currently available PVADs for
      left ventricular shock are reviewed; the evidence for supporting PVAD use is
      discussed, and the authors' perspective on their unique clinical applications is
      offered.

PMID- 28582107
TI  - Percutaneous Assist Devices for Infarct Size Reduction.
AB  - Improving myocyte salvage during acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has proved
      elusive; the keys to success seem to be the ability to lower oxygen demand of
      ischemic myocardium and also activate salvage enzyme pathways to take advantage
      of endogenous cardioprotective mechanisms. Pharmacologic approaches have been
      largely unsuccessful. A percutaneous left ventricular (LV) assist device could
      improve myocyte salvage during AMI therapy if it were able to reduce myocardial
      oxygen demand, wall tension, and LV stroke work substantially.

PMID- 28582108
TI  - Future Directions for Percutaneous Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices.
AB  - Outcomes of patients in cardiogenic shock remain high, but the development of
      novel percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices offers additional
      therapeutic options. Hand in hand with innovations in device technology, however,
      must also come development of integrated circulatory support networks focusing on
      rapid assessment of patients, multidisciplinary discussion, and timely
      therapeutic intervention. This article summarizes some of the recent developments
      in device technology; potential procedures for patient risk stratification,
      device selection, and response to therapy; management of vascular access to
      reduce insertion point complications; and some of the expanding potential roles
      of percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices.

PMID- 28582111
TI  - Percutaneous Mechanical Support.

PMID- 28582117
TI  - Risk Assessment in Patient Selection for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - Risk assessment models for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) versus
      surgical aortic valve replacement in high-risk patients and TAVR versus
      palliation in inoperable patients are based on surgical data and have limited
      discrimination and calibration in the setting of TAVR. Several novel risk models
      specifically designed for TAVR have improved discrimination over existing models
      but require further validation. Several clinical and echocardiographic variables,
      such as chronic lung disease, mitral regurgitation, and stroke volume index,
      influence outcomes. This article reviews current and novel risk models and
      important predictors of TAVR outcomes and proposes a framework to integrate them
      into clinical decision-making for patients with severe, symptomatic aortic
      stenosis.

PMID- 28582118
TI  - Valve-in-Valve Therapy for Failed Surgical Bioprosthetic Valves: Clinical Results
      and Procedural Guidance.
AB  - With improved life expectancy and increased use of bioprosthetic heart valves,
      more elderly and frail patients present with degenerative surgical heart valve
      disease. The valve-in-valve procedure is an attractive alternative to a
      conventional open redo procedure. Although it is a novel extension of established
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation for severe aortic stenosis in a high-risk
      population, it is gaining momentum worldwide, particularly for aortic and mitral
      positions. Success depends on the operator being familiar with emerging
      transcatheter heart valve technology and morphology as well as that of the
      existing surgical heart valve, patient selection, accurate sizing, an ideal
      implantation position.

PMID- 28582119
TI  - Management of Coronary Disease in the Era of Transcatheter Aortic Valve
      Replacement: Comprehensive Review of the Literature.
AB  - Among the cohort of complex and multifaceted patients undergoing transcatheter
      aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD)
      ranges from 48% to 75%. However, optimal management of CAD in this setting has
      not been established. This article provides a comprehensive review of the
      literature to depict the actual knowledge on the subject of aortic stenosis and
      concomitant CAD. This article also aids heart teams in their decision-making
      process to appropriately manage these challenging patients with aortic stenosis
      and CAD. Upcoming randomized studies will clarify the influence of CAD, the best
      timing for percutaneous coronary intervention, and its impact on TAVR results.

PMID- 28582120
TI  - Imaging the Aortic Annulus with Multi-Detector Computed Tomography and 3
      Dimensional Transesophageal Echocardiography.
AB  - Degenerative aortic stenosis is the most common cause of valvular heart disease
      in Western nations. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an
      alternative therapy for inoperable or high-risk patients with symptomatic severe
      aortic stenosis. Three-dimensional imaging techniques provide multiplanar
      imaging, allowing precise measurements of the noncircular aortic annulus and
      complex anatomy of the aortic root. These measurements influence patient
      eligibility, allow adequate prosthesis sizing, and determine the success of
      implantation and likelihood of complications. This review compares imaging
      modalities and addresses their strengths and weaknesses to assess the aortic
      annulus and other aortic root structures.

PMID- 28582121
TI  - The Role of Preoperative and Intraoperative Imaging in Guiding Transcatheter
      Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - Optimal intraprocedural imaging is central to transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement (TAVR). Familiarity with commonly used modalities is necessary. Real
      time, intraprocedural imaging is provided by fluoroscopy and echocardiography to
      ensure proper valve position and deployment, and to assess for postdeployment
      complications. By providing anatomic information to real-time fluoroscopy, fusion
      imaging has the potential to positively affect TAVR. As newer generation valves
      are introduced and as TAVR is potentially offered to lower risk patient
      populations, it will be important to ensure that improvements in intraprocedural
      imaging lead to better outcomes.

PMID- 28582122
TI  - Assessment of Paravalvular Regurgitation Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve
      Replacement.
AB  - Paravalvular regurgitation (PVR) following transcatheter aortic valve replacement
      is a known complication associated with poorer outcomes. This article discusses
      the current techniques for assessing the severity of PVR, including angiography,
      hemodynamics, MRI, and echocardiography. The strengths and pitfalls of each
      modality are reviewed.

PMID- 28582123
TI  - Impact and Management of Paravalvular Regurgitation After Transcatheter Aortic
      Valve Replacement.
AB  - Paravalvular regurgitation (PVR) is a frequent complication of transcatheter
      aortic valve replacement that has been shown to be associated with increased
      mortality. The objective of this article was to review the most up-to-date
      information about the impact and management of PVR. A multimodality,
      multiparametric, integrative approach including angiography, Doppler
      echocardiography, and/or cardiac MR is essential to accurately assess the
      severity of PVR and the underlying etiology. Corrective procedures such as
      balloon postdilation, valve-in-valve, or leak closure may be considered,
      depending on the severity, location, and etiology of PVR.

PMID- 28582124
TI  - Neurologic Events After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - Early trials involving transcatheter aortic valve replacement raised concerns for
      an elevated risk of neurologic events compared to surgical AVR. Contemporary
      studies suggest declining rates with better patient selection, improved operator
      experience, and newer generation devices. Events are usually embolic in nature,
      occur in the periprocedural period, and can lead to increased morbidity and
      mortality. Current investigations are focused on developing embolic protection
      devices for intraprocedural use and optimizing antiplatelet and anticoagulant
      regimens. These efforts aim to further reduce the incidence of stroke, which is
      particularly important as the technology expands to include intermediate and
      possibly low surgical risk populations.

PMID- 28582125
TI  - Nontransfemoral Approaches to Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is noninferior to surgical aortic
      valve replacement in patients with high operative risk and superior to medical
      treatment in patients deemed unsuitable for surgical intervention. However, up to
      30% to 50% of patients screened for this intervention are not candidates for TAVR
      via the preferred transfemoral route because of severe peripheral arterial
      disease. Alternative access routes must be considered and include the
      transapical, transaortic, transsubclavian, and transcarotid approaches. The use
      of alternative access is predicated on appropriate patient selection as
      determined by a dedicated multispecialty heart valve team and can lead to
      excellent outcomes.

PMID- 28582129
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

PMID- 28582132
TI  - Pathology of Saphenous Vein Grafts.
AB  - Saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) are the most used conduits in coronary artery bypass
      graft (CABG) surgery; however, they are susceptible to accelerated
      atherosclerosis. Clinical studies have shown 10-year patency rates of SVG can be
      as low as 50% to 60%. This article highlights changes that are observed following
      CABG surgery using SVG, including intimal thickening to the development of
      atherosclerotic changes, and how these changes in vein graft are different from
      those observed in native atherosclerosis. It also discusses the role of risk
      factors that contribute to acceleration of SVG atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28582133
TI  - Natural History of Saphenous Vein Grafts.
AB  - Aortocoronary saphenous vein graft is an effective treatment of coronary artery
      disease and a means of markedly improving long-term prognosis in certain patient
      subgroups. However, there is a significant failure rate with these conduits.
      Early failure occurs within the first 1-2 months, most likely from primary
      thrombosis. Intermediate failure is usually caused by the development of
      neointimal hyperplasia. Late failure occurs after 3-5 years and results from
      accelerated atherosclerosis. The impact of saphenous vein graft failure on
      cardiovascular outcomes is significant, and it is important to implement
      appropriate therapeutic strategies to prevent or minimize failure rates.

PMID- 28582134
TI  - Embolic Protection Devices for Saphenous Vein Graft Percutaneous Coronary
      Interventions.
AB  - Saphenous vein graft (SVG) percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) are
      associated with adverse clinical events caused by distal embolization in 10% to
      20% of cases. Various embolic protection devices (EPDs) have been developed to
      lower the risk of distal embolization during SVG PCI: distal balloon occlusive
      devices, distal embolic filters, and proximal balloon occlusive devices. Despite
      evidence for improved outcomes and cost-effectiveness, rates of national EPD use
      remain low, the main cause of underutilization being operator preference. With
      increasing familiarity of operators with EPDs, their use should continue to
      increase in SVG PCI and lead to better outcomes.

PMID- 28582135
TI  - Pharmacotherapy During Saphenous Vein Graft Intervention.
AB  - Coronary revascularization using saphenous vein grafts is an important treatment
      modality for patients with severe coronary artery disease. Percutaneous
      intervention of these grafts is often the best option for patients who develop
      severe stenosis of the vein grafts. Use of adjunctive glycoprotein IIb/IIIa
      inhibitors does not confer added benefit with ischemic endpoints as compared with
      heparin alone, but it increases the risk of bleeding. Bivalirudin used as the
      primary anticoagulant lowers the risk of bleeding. No-reflow frequently
      complicates vein graft interventions but can be treated with vasoactive agents
      such as calcium channel blockers, adenosine, and nitroprusside.

PMID- 28582136
TI  - Drug-Eluting Stents Versus Bare Metal Stents in Saphenous Vein Graft
      Intervention.
AB  - Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of saphenous vein graft (SVG) is
      associated with higher adverse event rates, lower procedural success, and
      inferior longterm patency rates compared with native vessel PCI. The ability to
      comply with dual antiplatelet therapy, and whether the patient will need an
      interruption in dual antiplatelet therapy, should be considered when deciding
      whether to implant a drug-eluting stent (DES) or bare metal stent (BMS) in an
      SVG. DES should be used for SVG PCI because they seem to reduce target vessel
      revascularization. This article reviews the evolution and contemporary evidence
      regarding use of DES versus BMS in SVG PCI.

PMID- 28582137
TI  - Optimal Stenting in Saphenous Vein Graft Intervention.
AB  - Percutaneous interventions of (usually degenerated) saphenous vein grafts (SVG)
      are associated with higher risk of distal embolization and worse clinical
      outcomes, including target vessel revascularization, myocardial infarction, and
      death, as compared with percutaneous coronary intervention of native coronary
      arteries. Embolic protection devices have demonstrated value in reducing the risk
      of embolization and postprocedural enzyme elevation after SVG interventions.
      Frequently, however, such devices are not used or cannot be used. As a result,
      novel stenting strategies intended to decrease the risk of periprocedural
      myocardial infarction seem to play a major role in enhancing the results
      following SVG interventions.

PMID- 28582138
TI  - Intervention of Saphenous Vein Graft Chronic Total Occlusion.
AB  - Interventions on vein graft occlusions are technically feasible procedures but
      carry significant risk for periprocedural complications and demonstrate
      questionable long-term patency. For those circumstances in which recanalization
      of a graft occlusion is warranted, the authors have highlighted some of the
      procedural considerations and available techniques that may help maximize chances
      for success. This should not be mistaken for a wholesale endorsement of vein
      graft chronic total occlusion interventions. Before undertaking a procedure of
      this complexity, the operator must put strong consideration into the risks,
      benefits, and alternatives for a given patient.

PMID- 28582140
TI  - Management of Complications During Saphenous Vein Graft Interventions.
AB  - Because of greater patient comorbidities, more diffusely diseased vessels, and
      the greater possibility of mechanical complications, saphenous vein graft
      interventions are fraught with complications. The greatest risk is a higher risk
      of periprocedural myocardial infarction due to distal embolization of
      microemboli. The risk for noreflow in a patient with concomitant native critical
      vessel disease can have grave consequences. Minimizing the risk of periprocedural
      myocardial infarction with the use of distal embolic protection, understanding
      the role of adjunctive pharmacotherapy, and learning how to manage less common
      but serious mechanical complications during saphenous vein graft interventions
      are important to ensure optimal patient outcomes.

PMID- 28582139
TI  - Degenerated Saphenous Vein Graft Intervention: Should We Target the Native Vessel
      instead?
AB  - Coronary interventions of degenerated saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) continue to
      present a management challenge. Although repeat coronary artery bypass grafting
      (CABG) remains a significant risk factor for operative mortality, percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI) is still associated with a high risk for
      periprocedural events. There is a lack of consensus on the optimal treatment
      strategy for patients with severe stenosis of SVGs. It is imperative to review
      the characteristics of native versus SVG disease, risk factors for complications
      after SVG intervention, procedural treatment strategies important to the decision
      on which therapeutic strategy to follow, and measures to mitigate the risks of
      periprocedural complications.

PMID- 28582141
TI  - Thrombectomy Devices in Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Primary percutaneous coronary intervention is the favored mode of reperfusion
      therapy for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) when able to be performed
      in a timely fashion in appropriately selected patients. However, controversy
      about the role of coronary thrombectomy in the management of STEMI persists
      because of a paucity of favorable historical data. After the TAPAS trial
      thrombectomy has gained favor in recent years. The results of the TOTAL, TASTE,
      and SMART percutaneous coronary intervention trials will provide further insight
      into the use of thrombectomy in STEMI. This article examines the relevant trial
      evidence regarding how to best manage and apply thrombectomy in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28582142
TI  - Utility of Thrombectomy in Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Thrombectomy in the setting of primary percutaneous coronary intervention allows
      for improved macrovascular and microvascular perfusion, possible limitation of
      infarct size, and the preservation of left ventricular function and myocardial
      viability. The beneficial tissue level effects of thrombectomy have translated
      into an improvement in cardiovascular mortality. A variety of thrombectomy
      devices are currently available, including aspiration thrombectomy catheters and
      rheolytic catheters. A review of the various types of thrombectomy devices
      available, clinical evidence for their use, clinical pearls for use, and device
      troubleshooting are presented.

PMID- 28582143
TI  - Adjunctive Pharmacotherapy for Thrombotic Coronary Lesions.
AB  - Patients with unstable coronary syndromes are often found to have intracoronary
      thrombus on angiography. Despite advancements in catheter-based treatments for
      coronary disease, these lesions remain challenging, as percutaneous coronary
      intervention of thrombus-containing lesions may be associated with worse
      outcomes. This article reviews the literature on adjunctive pharmacotherapy in
      the treatment of thrombotic coronary lesions with special focus on ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction, lesions with high thrombus burden, and saphenous
      vein graft intervention.

PMID- 28582144
TI  - Saphenous Vein Graft Stenosis and Thrombotic Lesions in Acute Myocardial
      Infarction.

PMID- 28582145
TI  - Primary Stroke Prevention: Medical Therapy Versus Revascularization.
AB  - Asymptomatic carotid-artery atherosclerotic vascular disease identifies patients
      at heightened risk of major adverse cardiovascular events including ischemic
      stroke. Observational and registry analyses demonstrate that this risk extends
      beyond that attributable to carotid atherosclerosis itself and includes events
      manifesting in other vascular territories, such as myocardial infarction.
      However, randomized trials aimed specifically at treating carotid stenosis have
      shown benefit in terms of reducing ischemic stroke in appropriately selected
      patients. Therefore, the approach to primary prevention in patients with stable
      carotid disease must include a comprehensive strategy to reduce cerebrovascular
      specific and overall cardiovascular risk through lifestyle changes and intensive
      medical therapies.

PMID- 28582146
TI  - Complications and Solutions with Carotid Stenting.
AB  - Complications of carotid stenting can be classified as neurologic,
      cardiovascular, death, carotid, access site, device malfunctions, and general and
      late complications. The risk of most complications is related to readily
      identifiable patient and anatomic factors. Management and outcome of
      complications require immediate recognition and a team-based approach to patient
      care.

PMID- 28582147
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Vertebral Artery Stenosis.
AB  - Endovascular treatment of the ostial and proximal portions of the vertebral
      artery is a safe and effective technique for alleviating symptoms and improving
      cerebral blood flow to the posterior circulation. Vertebral artery angioplasty
      can be performed with high technical and clinical success rates, low complication
      rates, and durable long-term results. Although restenosis rates range from 0% to
      48%, the durability of vertebral artery angioplasty is evidenced by low
      restenosis rates in multiple large series reported in the literature using
      multiple treatment options, including balloon angioplasty alone, bare metal
      stents, and drug-coated stents.

PMID- 28582148
TI  - Common Cervical and Cerebral Vascular Variants.
AB  - Successful open and endovascular carotid artery intervention depends on a
      thorough foundational knowledge of cervical and intracranial vascular anatomy. It
      is essential for the carotid interventionist to be familiar with the common and
      rare variants of the cervical and intracranial vasculature, and to understand the
      implications of these variants for the performance of carotid intervention with
      protection of the distal circulation. This article provides interventionists with
      a basic description of the normal and relevant variant vascular anatomy from the
      aortic arch to the circle of Willis, and outlines the potential difficulties that
      specific variants may present for endovascular therapy.

PMID- 28582149
TI  - Non-Invasive Carotid Imaging: A Comparative Assessment and Practical Approach.
AB  - Stroke originating from carotid artery disease remains a significant source of
      morbidity and mortality, and both medical and invasive therapies targeting the
      carotid artery can improve patient outcomes. Multiple noninvasive imaging
      methods, including duplex ultrasonography, computerized tomographic angiography,
      and magnetic resonance angiography, are available to assess the extracranial
      carotid artery and guide clinical decision making. This article discusses the
      advantages and limitations of these imaging modalities and provides a practical
      framework by which clinicians may use imaging to evaluate patients with carotid
      artery disease.

PMID- 28582150
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Severe Intracranial Carotid and Middle Cerebral Artery
      Stenosis.
AB  - Due to the lack of efficacy and durability data from prospective, randomized,
      multicenter trials, intracranial stenting remains investigational and should be
      used only in carefully selected patients after thorough evaluation of their
      clinical and anatomic factors. Stenting should not be performed in chronic total
      occlusions and asymptomatic lesions and generally should be avoided in very old
      patients, especially those with underlying dementia and severe calcification of
      their vessels. Symptomatic patients with angiographically documented greater than
      70% stenosis and who have failed medical therapy are appropriate candidates for
      intracranial angioplasty and stenting and should be enrolled in clinical trials
      when possible.

PMID- 28582151
TI  - Current Reperfusion Strategies for Acute Stroke.
AB  - Stroke is the most common cause of permanent disability, the second most common
      cause of dementia, and the third most common cause of death in the Western world.
      The treatment of affected patients is a challenge because intravenous (IV)
      thrombolysis is often ineffective. IV thrombolysis on its own leads to a
      favorable clinical outcome in only 15% to 25% in patients with large-artery
      occlusion. Current reperfusion therapies enable high recanalization rates, high
      rate of favorable clinical outcome, and low complication rates. However, to
      achieve good clinical results, appropriate patient selection and the use of
      optimized stroke management system are obligate.

PMID- 28582153
TI  - Skin to Skin: Transradial Carotid Angiography and Stenting.
AB  - Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is a proven alternative to carotid endarterectomy
      in patients with significant carotid disease. The femoral artery is the
      conventional access site for CAS procedures. However, this approach may be
      problematic because of peripheral vascular disease and anatomic variations.
      Access site complications are the most common adverse event after CAS from the
      transfemoral approach (TFA) and most technical failures are related to a complex
      aortic arch. The transradial approach has been evaluated to address the
      shortcomings of TFA. In cases involving a complex arch, transradial access may be
      a viable alternative strategy.

PMID- 28582154
TI  - Skin to Skin: Transfemoral Carotid Angiography and Stenting.
AB  - Carotid artery stenting (CAS) has emerged as an attractive alternative to carotid
      endarterectomy (CEA) for the treatment of carotid artery disease. Several recent
      trials demonstrate excellent and improving results, even at high risk in CEA
      patients. Randomized North American trials suggest equivalence of CAS to CEA in
      high-risk and standard-risk patients. However, these improved CAS results apply
      only to CAS procedures performed by experienced operators at experienced centers.
      Furthermore, these improved results are due largely to operators' lessons
      learned, helping with appropriate case selection.

PMID- 28582155
TI  - Patient, Anatomic, and Procedural Characteristics That Increase the Risk of
      Carotid Interventions.
AB  - Subjective characteristics for increased risk of carotid artery stenting (CAS)
      have included thrombus-containing lesions, heavily calcified lesions, very
      tortuous vessels, and near occlusions. More objective high-risk features include
      contraindications to dual antiplatelet therapy, a history of bleeding
      complications, and lack of femoral artery vascular access. Variables that
      increase the risk of CAS complications are attributed to patient characteristics,
      anatomic features, or procedural factors. Operator and hospital volume affect the
      risk of complications occurring with CAS. As the complexity and difficulty of CAS
      patients increases, the need for more highly skilled operators and teams becomes
      even more necessary to minimize complications.

PMID- 28582156
TI  - Carotid Artery Stenting Versus Carotid Endarterectomy for Treatment of
      Asymptomatic Carotid Disease.
AB  - In patients with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis the optimal strategy to
      reduce the risk for stroke remains controversial. Although carotid endarterectomy
      was traditionally considered the gold standard for revascularization, emerging
      data suggest that carotid artery stenting is an appropriate alternative in many
      asymptomatic patients. This article summarizes the evidence base and related
      controversies regarding carotid endarterectomy versus carotid artery stenting for
      the revascularization of carotid disease in asymptomatic patients.

PMID- 28582157
TI  - Surgery Versus Stenting in Symptomatic Patients.
AB  - Symptomatic carotid artery stenosis is an important cause of stroke with
      significant morbidity and mortality. Revascularization with carotid
      endarterectomy reduces the recurrence of stroke and until recently was considered
      the gold standard of therapy. Carotid artery stenting has emerged as an
      alternative method of revascularization in both high-risk and standard-risk
      patients. This review appraises the role of surgery versus stenting for patients
      with symptomatic carotid stenosis.

PMID- 28582158
TI  - Carotid Artery Stenting: Operator and Institutional Learning Curves.
AB  - Despite rapid growth in the frequency that carotid artery stenting (CAS) is
      performed, there remain concerns regarding the steep learning curve associated
      with this procedure. This article reviews the evidence base supporting operator
      and institutional CAS learning curves and discusses their implications for the
      establishment and maintenance of competencies. Attempts are made to delineate
      minimum volume thresholds to attain these goals and means to enhance procedural
      safety without compromising patient access.

PMID- 28582162
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28582163
TI  - Stroke and Bleeding Risks in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is associated
      with a substantial risk of stroke and mortality. Strokes in patients with AF are
      associated with a greater disability and poorer outcomes than strokes in patients
      in sinus rhythm. Patients with AF are at increased risk of bleeding, especially
      if they use anticoagulant therapy. Recent research in the field of
      anticoagulation has led to development of new anticoagulants for stroke
      prevention in addition to antiplatelet agents and warfarin. This review discusses
      the role of AF as a risk factor for stroke and evaluates the role of various
      schemes for predicting the risk of stroke and bleeding in patients with AF.

PMID- 28582164
TI  - Embryology and Anatomy of the Left Atrial Appendage: Why Does Thrombus Form?
AB  - The left atrial appendage (LAA) is a long tubular structure that opens into the
      left atrium. In patients with atrial fibrillation, the LAA develops mechanical
      dysfunction and fibroelastotic changes on the endocardial surface. The complex
      anatomy of the LAA makes it a good site for relative blood stasis. In addition,
      systemic factors exacerbate the hypercoagulable state, eventually resulting in
      endothelial dysfunction, release of tissue factor, and production of inflammatory
      cytokines and oxidative free radicals, and eventually initiating the coagulation
      cascade. Thus, the LAA is susceptible to thrombus formation and is the most
      common source of systemic thromboembolism.

PMID- 28582165
TI  - Rationale for Left Atrial Appendage Exclusion.
AB  - Left atrial appendage (LAA) is the source of most systemic emboli in patients
      with atrial fibrillation. Oral anticoagulant therapy reduces stroke risk by two
      thirds. New oral agents have advantages over warfarin but are associated with
      bleeding and drug intolerance. Device therapy for atrial appendage ligation or
      occlusion is an alternative to drug therapy, without the cumulative incidence of
      bleeding or the need for anticoagulation. In the more than half century since the
      early reports of surgical LAA excision, the author has added considerable detail
      to our understanding of the rationale for LAA exclusion, which constitutes the
      subject of this article.

PMID- 28582166
TI  - Left Atrial Appendage Closure with Transcatheter-Delivered Devices.
AB  - Left atrial appendage (LAA) closure with transcatheter-delivered devices is an
      evolving story of compelling randomized data and the potential to dramatically
      reduce the incidence of stroke and improve the quality of life among patients
      with atrial fibrillation. Oral anticoagulation is the standard of care for stroke
      prevention in atrial fibrillation but falls short of providing an adequate
      solution to this common threat when considered from efficacy and safety
      perspectives. The robust series of Watchman device trials has demonstrated the
      Watchman device to provide stroke prevention efficacy similar to that of warfarin
      and by extension provides proof of concept of LAA closure.

PMID- 28582168
TI  - Managing the Left Atrial Appendage in the Era of Minimally Invasive Surgery.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrhythmia encountered in clinical
      practice with greater than 2.2 million people in the United States being
      affected. Oral anticoagulant therapy has been used to reduce risk of stroke in
      patients with nonvalvular AF who are at a high risk of thromboembolism.
      Alternative treatment strategies to prevent thromboembolism have been tested in
      patients with AF. This article examines the history of left atrial appendage
      occlusion and the efficacy of the various surgical techniques and provides a
      brief overview of the minimally invasive surgical strategy adopted to manage the
      left atrial appendage.

PMID- 28582167
TI  - Catheter-based Epicardial Closure of the Left Atrial Appendage.
AB  - This article reviews novel techniques in stroke prevention based on epicardial
      closure of the left atrial appendage, illustrating the features of the first endo
      epicardial device currently available and those of devices still in development.
      It also provides further information about early clinical experience with the
      endo-epicardial device.

PMID- 28582169
TI  - Device- and LAA-Specific Characteristics for Successful LAA Closure: Tips and
      Tricks.
AB  - Transcatheter left atrial appendage closure for stroke prevention with
      nonvalvular atrial fibrillation is an emerging alternative to oral
      anticoagulation. Several devices and approaches have been developed to achieve
      optimal closure. This article describes in detail the key procedural steps and
      the tips and tricks required to succeed in this transcatheter technique. The 4
      devices covered are the WATCHMAN, AMPLATZER Cardiac Plug, Coherex WaveCrest
      generation 1.3, and the LARIAT suture delivery device.

PMID- 28582170
TI  - Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Left Atrial Appendage Device Closure.
AB  - Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion or ligation by percutaneously implanted
      devices is increasingly an alternative management option for atrial fibrillation,
      particularly for patients who are intolerant or have contraindications for
      anticoagulation. Echocardiography plays an important part in screening, guidance
      of implantation, and after-device assessment. Assessment of LAA anatomy suitable
      for device implantation, thrombus exclusion, guidance of transseptal puncture,
      localization of catheter, guidance of device deployment, and after-device
      assessment are all important functions of echocardiography. This article reviews
      the role of echocardiography in device-based LAA occlusion or ligation.

PMID- 28582171
TI  - Pericardial Access for LARIAT Left Atrial Appendage Closure.
AB  - Anterior pericardial puncture requires intimate knowledge of the mediastinal
      anatomy and careful review of the individual anatomic characteristics of each
      patient. Familiarity with the procedure's anatomic foundations and with the basic
      principles of each procedural step are critical, but once this is achieved, the
      procedure is safe and, in most cases, preferable to a standard inferior puncture.
      An uncomplicated and properly placed pericardial puncture is the basis of a
      successful of LARIAT suture delivery device procedure. Operators must master the
      intricacies of the anterior pericardial puncture before embarking on LARIAT left
      atrial appendage ligation.

PMID- 28582172
TI  - Clinical Results with Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion.
AB  - Closure of the left atrial appendage (LAA) in patients with non-valvular atrial
      fibrillation is associated with reduction in embolic events. There is an initial
      hazard associated with closure methodologies; once successful closure is
      achieved, the results appear to be superior to those of anticoagulation. The
      evidence base is largely limited to the safety and efficacy of LAA occlusion in
      patients who are candidates for anticoagulation as well, and the risk/benefit
      ratio of competing closure technologies has not been determined. LAA occlusion
      plus antiplatelet therapy seems to have an acceptable therapeutic and safety
      profile.

PMID- 28582178
TI  - Approaches to Left Atrial Appendage Exclusion.

PMID- 28582173
TI  - Prevention and Management of Complications of Left Atrial Appendage Closure
      Devices.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation is associated with an ongoing risk of thromboembolic stroke
      and systemic embolism due to stasis and thrombus formation within the left atrial
      appendage (LAA). Transcatheter occlusion or ligation of the LAA represents a
      potential paradigm shift in the management of stroke prevention in at-risk
      patients with atrial fibrillation. This review summarizes the types and rates of
      procedural complications that have been observed with LAA occlusion and ligation;
      describes strategies that can be implemented to minimize these complications; and
      discusses management approaches that may limit the impact of these complications
      on long-term morbidity.

PMID- 28582179
TI  - Basics of Antithrombotic Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease: Pharmacologic
      Targets of Platelet Inhibitors and Anticoagulants.
AB  - Arterial thrombus formation is the common pathophysiologic process of
      cardiovascular disease manifestations, requiring interplay between platelets and
      coagulation factors. Current platelet inhibitors block the formation of
      thromboxane A2 and interfer with adenosine diphosphate stimulation mediated by
      the P2Y12 receptor. Novel antiplatelet agents blocking these and other pathways
      are under clinical development. Thrombin represents a bridge between platelets
      and coagulation. Indirect and direct thrombin inhibitors are pivotal in clinical
      settings. Other key coagulation factors include factors IX and X which are
      therapeutic targets of current and novel anticoagulants. This article reviews the
      pathophysiology of arterial thrombosis and current and novel antiplatelet and
      anticoagulant agents.

PMID- 28582180
TI  - Balance of Ischemia and Bleeding in Selecting an Antithrombotic Regimen.
AB  - Complications after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are of 2 types:
      ischemic and bleeding. This article provides strategies to individualize
      pharmacologic regimens after PCI based on periprocedural risk assessment. A
      practical method to assess whether a patient is at risk for ischemic or bleeding
      complications is the use of risk scores. Patients at a low risk of bleeding
      benefit from aggressive antithrombotic therapy. Patients at a high risk of
      bleeding benefit from selective use of antithrombotic agents. As a large number
      of antithrombotic agents are currently available, individualization of the
      antithrombotic drug regimes should be considered in every patient.

PMID- 28582181
TI  - Aspirin, Platelet P2Y12 Receptor Inhibitors, and Other Oral Antiplatelets:
      Comparative Pharmacology and Role in Elective PCI.
AB  - Angina pectoris accounts for a large burden of disease worldwide. Antiplatelet
      agents play a crucial role in inhibiting the platelet response to vascular injury
      after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the management of coronary
      artery disease. Antiplatelet agents are also essential in the longer term,
      because the metallic structure of stents is inherently thrombogenic. This article
      examines the use of aspirin, P2Y12 inhibitors, and other oral antiplatelets in
      the setting of elective PCI. Dual antiplatelet therapy in elective PCI is now
      standard therapy. The clinical use of novel antiplatelet therapy in the setting
      requires further evaluation.

PMID- 28582182
TI  - Role of Parenteral Agents in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Stable
      Patients.
AB  - Numerous agents are available for anticoagulation during percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI), and various antiplatelet agents are also used. With all of
      the medications available, an assessment must be made regarding the ischemic risk
      and risk of bleeding for an individual patient during elective PCI when selecting
      the optimal medical strategy to support PCI. Whether new antiplatelet medications
      will enhance or reduce complications when paired with various newer anticoagulant
      agents requires further investigation. This article summarizes existing data
      examining the benefits and limitations of the various anticoagulant and
      antiplatelet medications, and summarizes guidelines for their use.

PMID- 28582183
TI  - Combination Antithrombotic Management for Non-ST Segment Elevation Acute Coronary
      Syndromes.
AB  - Patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTEACS) are at
      high risk for subsequent thrombotic events. Combination antithrombotic management
      with anticoagulant and antiplatelet medications can improve outcomes in these
      high-risk patients. If an early invasive strategy is planned, unfractionated
      heparin or bivalirudin are the anticoagulants of choice, whereas in those in whom
      an early conservative strategy is planned enoxaparin or fondaparinux may be
      preferred. All patients with NSTEACS should receive aspirin and continue it
      indefinitely unless they cannot tolerate it. A second antiplatelet agent should
      be administered both for an early invasive or early conservative strategy.

PMID- 28582184
TI  - Combination Antithrombotic Management of STEMI with Pharmacoinvasive Strategy,
      Primary PCI, or Rescue PCI.
AB  - The mainstay of acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) emergent
      management consists of reperfusion therapy combined with antithrombotic
      treatment. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the preferred
      reperfusion strategy for STEMI. Rescue PCI consists of urgent transfer for PCI of
      patients with failed fibrinolysis. The pharmacoinvasive strategy consists of
      administration of fibrinolysis followed by immediate transfer to a PCI-capable
      hospital for routine early catheterization. This article provides an overview of
      data and recommendations on primary PCI, rescue PCI, and pharmacoinvasive
      strategy as well as of the antithrombotic regimens used to support STEMI
      reperfusion approaches.

PMID- 28582185
TI  - The Optimal Duration of Dual Combination Antiplatelet Therapy After Stent
      Implantation and Perioperative Management Issues.
AB  - Impending risk of stent Thrombosis (ST) after percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI) has mandated post-PCI use of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin
      and a P2Y12 inhibitor. As the optimal duration of DAPT remains controversial,
      premature discontinuation of it potentiates the risk of ST, myocardial infarction
      or death; while use of DAPT itself increases the risk of bleed. Similarly,
      perioperative DAPT management is still ill defined, where there is higher
      operative risk of bleed on antiplatelet therapy and higher ST risk during this
      thrombogenic period if off antiplatelet therapy. Additional clinical
      investigation is warranted in these fields.

PMID- 28582187
TI  - The Role of Platelet Function Testing in Risk Stratification and Clinical
      Decision-Making.
AB  - Clopidogrel (a widely used second-generation thienopyridine) therapy is
      associated with an unpredictable pharmacodynamic response whereby approximately 1
      in 3 patients will have a high on-treatment platelet reactivity to adenosine
      diphosphate. High on-treatment platelet reactivity is an established risk factor
      for ischemic event occurrence in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary
      intervention. Platelet function testing may have a role in monitoring therapeutic
      efficacy when clopidogrel is the chosen agent and in safety when more potent
      drugs are used, especially in patients with high bleeding risk. At this time, it
      seems most reasonable to assess platelet function in high-risk clopidogrel
      treated patients.

PMID- 28582186
TI  - Triple Antiplatelet Therapy and Combinations with Oral Anticoagulants After Stent
      Implantation.
AB  - Triple oral anticoagulation or triple antiplatelet therapies may be administered
      for various reasons. They reduce cardiac complications following percutaneous
      coronary intervention and stroke or other thromboembolic phenomenon in conditions
      such as atrial fibrillation. There is an elevated risk of severe bleeding, so it
      is necessary to balance risk and benefits. Newer oral anticoagulants and
      antiplatelet drugs may be considered; the number of options is increasing. This
      article examines triple therapies and the efficacy and safety of combinations of
      traditional anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs, and reviews clinical trial data
      on novel agents. Guidelines to inform clinical decision-making are presented.

PMID- 28582188
TI  - Pharmacogenomics in Interventional Pharmacology: Present Status and Future
      Directions.
AB  - Pharmacogenomics offers the possibility of tailoring a drug to a patient's unique
      genetic signature, improving the likelihood of clinical efficacy while minimizing
      risks. Clopidogrel, a platelet P2Y12 receptor inhibitor that forms the
      cornerstone of dual antiplatelet therapy in patients with unstable coronary
      artery disease and those undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, is the
      first broadly used drug in cardiovascular medicine in which genotyping may help
      optimize outcomes. This article describes techniques to identify the genetic
      determinants of drug response, their application (ie, clopidogrel), and the
      challenges to integration of pharmacogenomics into the practice of interventional
      cardiology.

PMID- 28582189
TI  - Antithrombotic Strategies in Endovascular Interventions: Current Status and
      Future Directions.
AB  - Despite increasing numbers of endovascular interventions to treat arterial and
      venous disease, scant level 1 evidence is available regarding the role of
      antithrombotic and antiplatelet therapy in patients undergoing these procedures.
      The current practice in this regard is heterogeneous and has mainly been driven
      by data from coronary artery disease and percutaneous coronary intervention. This
      article discusses the role of antithrombotic and antiplatelet agents for
      endovascular intervention.

PMID- 28582191
TI  - Monitoring and Reversal of Anticoagulation and Antiplatelets.
AB  - Since percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was first described and the
      breakthrough studies of the role of stents were reported, the evolution in
      anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy used during percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) has reduced periprocedural ischemic events and stent
      thrombosis. Although greater combinations and doses of anticoagulation with
      antiplatelets seem to provide the best protection against thrombogenic and
      embolic events, there is a significant trade-off with a higher risk of major and
      minor bleeding episodes. This review article expands on each of the commonly used
      antiplatelet and anticoagulants used at time of PCI, focusing on drug monitoring
      and reversal.

PMID- 28582190
TI  - Antithrombotic Strategies in Valvular and Structural Heart Disease Interventions:
      Current Status and Future Directions.
AB  - Antithrombotic prophylaxis is the cornerstone of adjunctive pharmacologic therapy
      in patients undergoing transcatheter intervention for valvular and structural
      heart disease. However, drugs and doses of antiplatelet and anticoagulant agents
      are mostly empiric for these indications and typically administered at the
      operator's discretion. This article describes the rationale for antithrombotic
      management of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation,
      percutaneous mitral valve repair with the Mitraclip system, patent foramen ovale,
      and atrial septal defect closure, as well as common strategies for managing
      antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy in patients with valvular and structural
      heart disease undergoing transcatheter procedures.

PMID- 28582192
TI  - Vasoactive and Antiarrhythmic Drugs During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - The objective in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is to treat flow
      limiting atherothrombotic coronary plaques mechanically. Many types of
      antithrombotic drugs are used to prevent ischemic complications during
      manipulation of catheters, guidewires, balloons, and stents in coronary arteries
      while minimizing the risk of bleeding. However, many other types of pharmacologic
      agents are also used to facilitate PCI. This review focuses on the most commonly
      used adjunct drugs during PCI. In addition, a recommendation of which drugs
      should be stopped or interrupted in patients undergoing PCI is provided.

PMID- 28582197
TI  - Interventional Pharmacology.

PMID- 28582198
TI  - Left Main Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Significant unprotected left main stem (ULMS) disease is in approximately 5% to
      7% of patients undergoing coronary angiography. Historically, coronary artery
      bypass grafting has been the gold standard treatment of these patients. With
      recent advances in stent technology, adjunctive pharmacotherapy, and operator
      experience, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasingly regarded as
      a viable alternative treatment option, especially in patients with favorable
      coronary anatomy (low and intermediate SYNTAX (Synergy Between Percutaneous
      Coronary Intervention with TAXUS and Cardiac Surgery) scores). This article aims
      to discuss the evidence supporting PCI for ULMS disease, current guidelines, and
      technical aspects.

PMID- 28582199
TI  - Saphenous Vein Graft Interventions.
AB  - Saphenous vein graft interventions compose a small but important subset of
      percutaneous coronary revascularization. Because of their unique biology,
      percutaneous angioplasty and stenting require tailored patient and lesion
      selection and modification of intervention technique to optimize outcomes. The
      use of embolic protection and appropriate adjunctive pharmacology can help
      minimize periprocedural complications, such as the no-reflow phenomenon.
      Recommendations for best practice in saphenous vein graft interventions continue
      to evolve with emerging research and therapy.

PMID- 28582200
TI  - Atherectomy Devices for the Treatment of Calcified Coronary Lesions.
AB  - The presence of moderate and severe coronary artery calcification (CAC) is
      associated with higher rates of angiographic complications during percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI), as well as higher major adverse cardiac events
      compared with noncalcified lesions. Diabetes mellitus, a risk factor for CAC, is
      increasing in the United States. Vessel preparation before PCI with atherectomy
      can facilitate successful stent delivery and expansion that may otherwise not be
      possible. We review here CAC prevalence, risk factors, and impact on PCI, as well
      as the currently available coronary atherectomy devices including rotational
      atherectomy, orbital atherectomy, and laser atherectomy.

PMID- 28582201
TI  - Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Bifurcation Lesions.
AB  - This article summarizes treatment alternatives for coronary bifurcation lesions.
      It also reviews current definitions and classifications pertaining to bifurcation
      lesions and provides an overview of the impact of bifurcation lesions on clinical
      outcomes.

PMID- 28582202
TI  - Update on Coronary Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has
      significantly evolved during recent years. High success rates are being achieved
      by experienced centers and operators, but not at less-experienced centers. Use of
      CTO crossing algorithms can help improve the success and efficiency of these
      potentially lengthy procedures. There is a paucity of clinical trial data
      examining clinical outcomes of CTO PCI, which is critical for further adoption
      and refinement of the procedure. We provide a detailed overview of the clinical
      evidence and current available crossing strategies, with emphasis on recent
      developments and techniques.

PMID- 28582203
TI  - Hemodynamic Support Devices for Complex Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - High-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) encompasses a growing portion
      of total PCIs performed and typically includes patients with high-risk clinical
      and anatomic characteristics. Such patients may represent not only a high-risk
      group for complications but also a group who may derive the most benefit from
      complete revascularization. Several hemodynamic support devices are available.
      Trial data, consensus documents, and guidelines currently recommend high-risk PCI
      aided by hemodynamic support devices, and this article discusses the patient
      populations who would benefit from such an approach, the available devices and
      strategies, and expected outcomes.

PMID- 28582204
TI  - Management of Complications.
AB  - Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has matured rapidly to tackle
      increasingly complex coronary disease. Operators must be aware of the incidence
      of the basic risks involved with coronary angiography and PCI to appropriately
      inform patients and obtain procedural consent. Even before a wire enters a
      coronary artery, specific risks, including vascular access complications, renal
      injury, allergic reaction, and radiation injury, are constantly present. With
      initiation of PCI, new risks to the coronary circulation arise. A fundamental
      knowledge of the presentation of these complications and expert ability to
      emergently manage them are of the utmost importance to the successful completion
      of PCI.

PMID- 28582205
TI  - In-stent Restenosis.
AB  - In-stent restenosis (ISR) is the narrowing of a stented coronary artery lesion.
      The mean time from percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to ISR was 12 months
      with drug-eluting stents (DES) and 6 months with bare metal stents (BMS). ISR
      typically presents as recurrent angina. The use of DES has significantly reduced
      the rate of ISR compared with BMS. Predictors of ISR include patient, lesion, and
      procedural characteristics. Intravascular ultrasound, optical coherence
      tomography, and fractional flow reserve are important tools for the anatomic and
      hemodynamic assessment of ISR. Treatment options for ISR include percutaneous
      coronary intervention with DES.

PMID- 28582207
TI  - Antithrombotic Therapy in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Numerous agents are available for anticoagulation during percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI). These agents have been evaluated in a variety of clinical
      settings, including elective, urgent, and emergent PCI. Although unfractionated
      heparin remains a frequent choice, accumulating data support the use of newer
      agents to mitigate bleeding risk, especially in the setting of femoral access and
      concomitant use of glycoprotein IIb/IIa receptor inhibition. With several
      antithrombotic agents available, an assessment must be made regarding the
      ischemic and bleeding risks. This article summarizes existing data examining the
      benefits and limitations of the various anticoagulants and guidelines for their
      use.

PMID- 28582208
TI  - Risk Stratification for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - The Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with Taxus and Cardiac
      Surgery (SYNTAX) score is a semiquantitative angiographic score developed to
      prospectively characterize the disease complexity of the coronary vasculature.
      With more than 50 validation studies, the SYNTAX score is the most-studied risk
      model in the setting of percutaneous coronary intervention. In this article, the
      evolutionary journey of the SYNTAX score is reviewed, with emphasis on its
      sequential modifications and adaptations, now culminating in the development and
      validation of the SYNTAX score II.

PMID- 28582206
TI  - Antiplatelet Therapy in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Platelets play a key role in mediating stent thrombosis, which is the major cause
      of ischemic events immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
      Antiplatelet therapy is therefore the cornerstone of antithrombotic therapy after
      PCI. However, the use of antiplatelet agents increases bleeding risk, with more
      potent antiplatelet agents further increasing bleeding risk. In the past 5 years,
      potent and fast-acting P2Y12 inhibitors have augmented the antiplatelet
      armamentarium available to interventional cardiologists. This article reviews the
      preclinical and clinical data surrounding these new agents, and discusses the
      significant questions and controversies that still exist regarding the optimal
      antiplatelet strategy.

PMID- 28582209
TI  - Acute Myocardial Infarction/Thrombectomy.
AB  - This article focuses on specialized techniques and devices used in the most
      challenging cases of acute myocardial infarction. Areas where high-quality
      evidence is either clear or absent are avoided. Controversies in the use of
      support or thrombectomy devices, the addition of adjunct pharmacology, and the
      decision to treat nonculprit lesions are discussed. Recent years have seen a
      shift in guidelines to downgrading the use of assist devices in cardiogenic shock
      and aspiration thrombectomy, whereas consideration of nonculprit coronary
      intervention has been revived. These changes come in the wake of a series of
      large, practice-changing clinical trials.

PMID- 28582215
TI  - The New Era of Interventional Cardiology: Tackling Complex Coronary Intervention.

PMID- 28582216
TI  - Implications of Kidney Disease in the Cardiac Patient.
AB  - Traditional cardiovascular risk factors, particularly hypertension and diabetes,
      are common in the disease processes of both renal and cardiac pathology.
      Unfortunately the coexistence of renal impairment is not an innocent bystander in
      cardiovascular disease; it disorder not only increases the prevalence and
      severity of cardiovascular disease, but also negatively affects prognostic
      outcomes and the safety and efficacy of cardiac interventions. This article
      discusses the role and impact of kidney disease in the cardiac patient in 3 key
      common cardiovascular processes: coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, and heart
      failure.

PMID- 28582217
TI  - Contrast Media: History and Chemical Properties.
AB  - Contrast media are essential for cardiac catheterization, and the evolution of
      these agents has had a significant role in cardiology. Contrast agents are
      classified as ionic or nonionic based on water solubility and as monomers or
      dimers based on their chemical structures. Furthermore, these agents are
      classified on osmolality as high osmolar, low osmolar, or iso-osmolar. The last
      century has seen a rapid evolution of these agents from their discovery during
      the search for syphilis treatments to advancements in their chemical properties,
      making them safer for patients and improving tissue visualization.

PMID- 28582218
TI  - Nonrenal Complications of Contrast Media.
AB  - Nonrenal complications of contrast media are caused by chemotoxic or
      anaphylactoid reactions related to the contrast agent used. Chemotoxicity is
      mainly attributed to ionic concentration and osmolality. Anaphylactoid reactions
      are typically caused by direct activation of basophils, mast cells, and
      complement rather than an observable antigen-antibody interaction, and may be
      acute or delayed. History of an adverse reaction following prior exposure is the
      strongest predictor of a subsequent adverse reaction to contrast. Premedication
      regimens of corticosteroids or antihistamines can lower the risk of repeat
      adverse reactions. Treatment of anaphylactoid reactions depends on the severity
      of symptoms.

PMID- 28582219
TI  - Relative Nephrotoxicity of Different Contrast Media.
AB  - Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a common cause of acute kidney injury among
      hospitalized patients. High-osmolar contrast agents are associated with increased
      risk of CIN. Low-osmolar (LOCM) and iso-osmolar (IOCM) agents show no difference
      in the incidence of CIN, even among high-risk patients. This finding suggests
      that factors other than osmolality may play a role in the pathogenesis of CIN.
      The use of either LOCM or IOCM agents is recommended in high-risk patients.

PMID- 28582220
TI  - Contrast-Induced Nephropathy: Definitions, Epidemiology, and Implications.
AB  - Contrast-induced nephropathy, now termed contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI
      AKI), has been a long-recognized complication of administering intravascular
      iodinated contrast. This article reviews the newest literature on subclinical CI
      AKI detected by novel biomarkers, and clinical CI-AKI recognized by an increase
      in serum creatinine and a reduction in urine output. Both components of CI-AKI
      are associated with adverse outcomes, including in-hospital complications,
      increased length of stay, need for renal replacement therapy, rehospitalization,
      permanent loss in renal filtration function, and death.

PMID- 28582221
TI  - Pathophysiology of Contrast-Induced Acute Kidney Injury.
AB  - Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) refers to acute kidney injury (AKI)
      after intravenous or intra-arterial administration of contrast media (CM). The 2
      key mechanisms related to AKI are acute tubular necrosis and prerenal azotemia.
      Although the pathophysiology of AKI is complex, modern frameworks show that AKI
      has 3 major pathways: hemodynamic injury, systemic inflammation, and toxic
      injury. In the pathophysiology of CI-AKI, 3 major distinct, but potentially
      interacting pathways are recognized: hemodynamic effects, increase in oxygen free
      radicals, and direct CM molecule tubular cell toxicity. This article reviews the
      pathophysiology of CI-AKI by describing and explaining these pathways.

PMID- 28582222
TI  - Predicting Contrast-induced Renal Complications in the Catheterization
      Laboratory.
AB  - Risk scores should undergo 3 analytical phases before they are suitable for
      adoption in clinical practice, namely, derivation, external validation, and
      assessment of effect on clinical outcomes of use of the risk score in a so-called
      impact study. Major risk factors for renal complications after percutaneous
      coronary intervention are pre-existing chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus,
      use of a high contrast dose, and hemodynamic instability. Unfortunately, only 3
      of these 10 risk scores have undergone external validation. As a result, there is
      a great need for further research on the already designed risk scores.

PMID- 28582223
TI  - Biomarkers of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy: Which Ones and What Is Their Clinical
      Relevance?
AB  - Contrast-induced nephropathy, or contrast-induced acute kidney injury (AKI), is
      an acute impairment of renal function as manifested by an increase in serum
      creatinine. Different urinary and serum proteins have been intensively
      investigated as possible biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AKI. Promising
      candidate biomarkers have the ability to detect an early and graded increase in
      tubular epithelial cell injury and to distinguish prerenal causes of AKI from
      acute tubular necrosis. In this article new, emerging biomarkers of contrast
      induced AKI are presented and described, of which serum neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin appears to be the most promising.

PMID- 28582224
TI  - Intravenous and Oral Hydration: Approaches, Principles, and Differing Regimens.
AB  - Prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy is founded on minimizing the
      pathophysiologic consequences of contrast media (CM) interacting with a
      vulnerable kidney. In this article, the rationale for administering fluid (oral
      or intravenous) is discussed, and the clinical trials exploring different
      protocols are reviewed. A benefit from administration of fluids before CM
      exposure, which corrects volume depletion and increases urine output, can be
      expected. Forced diuresis without adequate volume replacement is deleterious.

PMID- 28582225
TI  - Pharmacologic Prophylaxis for Contrast-Induced Acute Kidney Injury.
AB  - In the effort to prevent contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI), several
      pharmacologic agents have been tested for their single or combined
      nephroprotective properties. To date, however, no drug has been officially
      approved for this aim. This article focuses on the three agents that have been
      most extensively studied: statins, N-acetylcysteine, and ascorbic acid.
      Particular attention is paid to the impact of these drugs on the CI-AKI
      prevention and improved prognosis.

PMID- 28582226
TI  - Device-Based Therapy in the Prevention of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy.
AB  - Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a common condition that is associated with
      short- and, likely, long-term adverse outcomes. Although periprocedural
      intravenous hydration is the simplest and most widely used technique to prevent
      CIN, the limited ability of this approach to mitigate the CIN risk in high-risk
      populations has provided an impetus to develop new preventive strategies. A range
      of potentially useful device-based approaches offers new preventive techniques.
      Well-designed and adequately powered randomized studies of these device-based
      therapies are urgently needed to determine the expanding role they will play in
      future clinical practice.

PMID- 28582228
TI  - Renal Complications in Patients Undergoing Peripheral Artery Interventions.
AB  - Surgical or endovascular revascularization procedures for severe peripheral
      artery disease (PAD) are typically performed in patients with lifestyle-limiting
      symptoms or evidence of end-organ ischemia secondary to PAD. The role of
      endovascular therapy in the treatment of PAD is expanding. Contrast-induced
      nephropathy is the most important and most frequent renal complication of
      endovascular interventional procedures. Knowledge about complications and their
      prevention and management is essential for successful outcomes. This article
      focuses on renal complications during peripheral artery interventions.

PMID- 28582227
TI  - A Practical Approach to Preventing Renal Complications in the Catheterization
      Laboratory.
AB  - Kidney injury following cardiac catheterization is an infrequent, though
      persistent, complication, which in some cases may be preventable. Patients at
      increased risk for renal complications following catheterization can be
      identified through individual and procedural risk factors, and several risk
      prediction models are readily available. The authors advocate for the development
      of an easily implemented and standardized protocol, readily accessible to
      catheterization laboratory staff, for the identification and treatment of those
      patients who may be at increased risk for renal complications following cardiac
      catheterization.

PMID- 28582229
TI  - Renal Complications in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve
      Replacement.
AB  - Acute kidney injury in hospitalized patients is associated with significantly
      increased mortality across a broad spectrum of conditions. According to the
      Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, patients with chronic kidney disease
      undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement with or without coronary artery
      bypass grafting had a more than 50% reduction in observed 8-year survival
      compared with those without chronic kidney disease. Transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement is an exciting new approach for the treatment of aortic stenosis in
      high-risk or inoperable patients with severe aortic stenosis. This article
      discusses the incidence, predictors, impact, and potential avoidance and
      management strategies of renal dysfunction associated with transcatheter aortic
      valve replacement.

PMID- 28582234
TI  - Renal Complications in the Catheterization Laboratory.

PMID- 28582235
TI  - Measurement and Data Transmission Validity of a Multi-Biosensor System for Real
      Time Remote Exercise Monitoring Among Cardiac Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Remote telemonitoring holds great potential to augment management of
      patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) by
      enabling regular physiological monitoring during physical activity. Remote
      physiological monitoring may improve home and community exercise-based cardiac
      rehabilitation (exCR) programs and could improve assessment of the impact and
      management of pharmacological interventions for heart rate control in individuals
      with AF. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to evaluate the measurement validity and data
      transmission reliability of a remote telemonitoring system comprising a wireless
      multi-parameter physiological sensor, custom mobile app, and middleware platform,
      among individuals in sinus rhythm and AF. METHODS: Participants in sinus rhythm
      and with AF undertook simulated daily activities, low, moderate, and/or high
      intensity exercise. Remote monitoring system heart rate and respiratory rate were
      compared to reference measures (12-lead ECG and indirect calorimeter). Wireless
      data transmission loss was calculated between the sensor, mobile app, and remote
      Internet server. RESULTS: Median heart rate (-0.30 to 1.10 b?min-1) and
      respiratory rate (-1.25 to 0.39 br?min-1) measurement biases were small, yet
      statistically significant (all P<=.003) due to the large number of observations.
      Measurement reliability was generally excellent (rho=.87-.97, all P<.001;
      intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.94-.98, all P<.001; coefficient of
      variation [CV]=2.24-7.94%), although respiratory rate measurement reliability was
      poor among AF participants (rho=.43, P<.001; ICC=.55, P<.001; CV=16.61%). Data
      loss was minimal (<5%) when all system components were active; however,
      instability of the network hosting the remote data capture server resulted in
      data loss at the remote Internet server during some trials. CONCLUSIONS: System
      validity was sufficient for remote monitoring of heart and respiratory rates
      across a range of exercise intensities. Remote exercise monitoring has potential
      to augment current exCR and heart rate control management approaches by enabling
      the provision of individually tailored care to individuals outside traditional
      clinical environments.

PMID- 28582236
TI  - Perceptions of Technology and Its Use for Therapeutic Application for Individuals
      With Hemiparesis: Findings From Adult and Pediatric Focus Groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Digital technology is becoming an increasingly popular means of
      delivering meaningful therapy to individuals with neurological impairments. An
      understanding of clients' technology use and their perspectives on incorporating
      technology into rehabilitation can provide researchers and designers with
      valuable information to inform development of technologies and technology-based
      rehabilitation programs. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to establish the
      current use and perceptions of gaming, social media, and robotics technologies
      for rehabilitative purposes from the perspective of adults and children with
      upper limb impairments to identify barriers and enablers to their adoption and
      use. METHODS: We conducted three focus groups consisting of pediatric (n=7, mean
      age 11.0 years) and adult (n=8, mean age 60.8 years) participants with
      hemiparesis affecting their upper limb. We applied thematic analysis methods to
      the resulting data. RESULTS: We identified three key themes: (1) clients' use of
      technology in everyday life and rehabilitation, (2) barriers to use, and (3)
      enablers to therapy. Participants had limited exposure to technology for
      therapeutic purposes, but all acknowledged the potential benefits in providing
      motivation and interest for the performance of repetitive task practice. Adult
      participants requested efficacious, simple, and easy-to-use technology for
      rehabilitation with programs that could be individualized for them and expressed
      that they wanted these programs to provide a motivating means of repeated
      practice of therapeutic movements. In contrast, pediatric participants emphasized
      a desire for technology for rehabilitation that offered opportunities for social
      interaction and interactive games involving their whole body and not only their
      affected limb. Perceived safety and privacy were concerns for both groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight that all participants were open to the
      integration of technology into rehabilitation. Adult participants were more
      pragmatically motivated by potential recovery gains, whereas pediatric
      participants were more intrinsically motivated by access to games.

PMID- 28582237
TI  - Interchangeability of the Wii Balance Board for Bipedal Balance Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2010, an increasing interest in more portable and flexible
      hardware for balance and posture assessment led to previously published studies
      determining whether or not the Wii Balance Board could be used to assess balance
      and posture, both scientifically and clinically. However, no previous studies
      aimed at comparing results from different Wii Balance Boards for clinical balance
      evaluation exist. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this crossover study is to assess
      the interchangeability of the Wii Balance Board. METHODS: A total of 6 subjects
      participated in the study and their balance was assessed using 4 different Wii
      Balance Boards. Trials were recorded simultaneously with Wii Balance Boards and
      with a laboratory force plate. Nine relevant clinical parameters were derived
      from center of pressure displacement data obtained from Wii Balance Board and
      force plate systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), F tests, and
      Friedman tests were computed to assess the agreement between trials and to
      compare the Wii Balance Board and force plate results. RESULTS: Excellent
      correlations were found between the Wii Balance Board and force plate (mean rho
      =.83). With the exception of 2 parameters, strong to excellent agreements were
      found for the 7 remaining parameters (ICC=.96). No significant differences were
      found between trials recorded with different Wii Balance Boards. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results indicate that for most of the parameters analyzed, balance and posture
      assessed with one Wii Balance Board were statistically similar to results
      obtained from another. Furthermore, the good correlation between the Wii Balance
      Board and force plate results shows that Wii Balance Boards can be reliably used
      for scientific assessment using most of the parameters analyzed in this study.
      These results also suggest that the Wii Balance Board could be used in
      multicenter studies and therefore, would allow for the creation of larger
      populations for clinical studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Ethical Committee of the
      Erasme Hospital (CCB B406201215142).

PMID- 28582238
TI  - A Smart Insole to Promote Healthy Aging for Frail Elderly Individuals:
      Specifications, Design, and Preliminary Results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Older individuals frequently experience reversible "frailty
      syndrome,", increasing incidence of disability. Although physical exercise
      interventions may delay functional decline, there are difficulties in
      implementing them and performing seamless follow-up at home. Very few
      technological solutions attempt to address this challenge and improve individual
      participation. OBJECTIVE: Our objectives are to (1) develop a technological
      solution designed to support active aging of frail older persons, (2) conduct a
      first laboratory evaluation of the device, and (3) design a multidimensional
      clinical trial to validate our solution. METHODS: We conducted a first phase of
      multidisciplinary meetings to identify real end users and health professional's
      unmet needs, and to produce specifications for the architecture of the solution.
      In a second phase, we performed laboratory tests of the first proposed prototype
      (a smart insole) with 3 healthy volunteers. We then designed an ongoing clinical
      trial to finalize the multidimensional evaluation and improvement of the
      solution. RESULTS: To respond to the needs expressed by the stakeholders (frailty
      monitoring and adherence improvement), we developed a prototype of smart shoe
      insole to monitor key parameters of frailty during daily life and promote
      walking. It is a noninvasive wireless insole, which automatically measures gait
      parameters and transmits information to a remote terminal via a secure Internet
      connection. To ensure the solution's autonomy and transparency, we developed an
      original energy harvesting system, which transforms mechanical energy produced by
      the user's walking movement into electrical energy. The first laboratory tests of
      this technological solution showed good reliability measures and also a good
      acceptability for the users. We have planned an original iterative medical
      research protocol to validate our solution in real life. CONCLUSIONS: Our smart
      insole could support preventive strategies against disability in primary care by
      empowering the older patients without increasing the busy health professional's
      workload. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02316600;
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=NCT02316600&Search=Search. Accessed:
      2015-05-13 . (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6YUTkObrQ).

PMID- 28582239
TI  - Mobile Functional Reach Test in People Who Suffer Stroke: A Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postural instability is one of the major complications found in
      people who survive a stroke. Parameterizing the Functional Reach Test (FRT) could
      be useful in clinical practice and basic research, as this test is a clinically
      accepted tool (for its simplicity, reliability, economy, and portability) to
      measure the semistatic balance of a subject. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is
      to analyze the reliability in the FRT parameterization using inertial sensor
      within mobile phones (mobile sensors) for recording kinematic variables in
      patients who have suffered a stroke. Our hypothesis is that the sensors in mobile
      phones will be reliable instruments for kinematic study of the FRT. METHODS: This
      is a cross-sectional study of 7 subjects over 65 years of age who suffered a
      stroke. During the execution of FRT, the subjects carried two mobile phones: one
      placed in the lumbar region and the other one on the trunk. After analyzing the
      data obtained in the kinematic registration by the mobile sensors, a number of
      direct and indirect variables were obtained. The variables extracted directly
      from FRT through the mobile sensors were distance, maximum angular
      lumbosacral/thoracic displacement, time for maximum angular lumbosacral/thoracic
      displacement, time of return to the initial position, and total time. Using these
      data, we calculated speed and acceleration of each. A descriptive analysis of all
      kinematic outcomes recorded by the two mobile sensors (trunk and lumbar) was
      developed and the average range achieved in the FRT. Reliability measures were
      calculated by analyzing the internal consistency of the measures with 95%
      confidence interval of each outcome variable. We calculated the reliability of
      mobile sensors in the measurement of the kinematic variables during the execution
      of the FRT. RESULTS: The values in the FRT obtained in this study (2.49 cm, SD
      13.15) are similar to those found in other studies with this population and with
      the same age range. Intrasubject reliability values observed in the use of mobile
      phones are all located above 0.831, ranging from 0.831 (time B_C trunk area) and
      0.894 (displacement A_B trunk area). Likewise, the observed intersubject values
      range from 0.835 (time B_C trunk area) and 0.882 (displacement A_C trunk area).
      On the other hand, the reliability of the FRT was 0.989 (0.981-0.996) and 0.978
      (0.970-0.985), intrasubject and intersubject respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We found
      that mobile sensors in mobile phones could be reliable tools in the
      parameterization of the Functional Reach Test in people who have had a stroke.

PMID- 28582240
TI  - Rehab on Wheels: A Pilot Study of Tablet-Based Wheelchair Training for Older
      Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alternative and innovative strategies such as mHealth and eLearning
      are becoming a necessity for delivery of rehabilitation services. For example,
      older adults who require a wheelchair receive little, if any, training for
      proficiency with mobility skills. This substantive service gap is due in part to
      restricted availability of clinicians and challenges for consumers to attend
      appointments. A research team of occupational therapists and computer scientists
      engaged clinicians, consumers, and care providers using a participatory action
      design approach. A tablet-based application, Enhancing Participation In the
      Community by improving Wheelchair Skills (EPIC Wheels), was developed to enable
      in-chair home training, online expert trainer monitoring, and trainee-trainer
      communication via secure voice messaging. OBJECTIVE: Prior to undertaking a
      randomized controlled trial (RCT), a pilot study was conducted to determine the
      acceptability and feasibility of administering an mHealth wheelchair skills
      training program safely and effectively with two participants of different skill
      levels. The findings were used to determine whether further enhancements to the
      program were indicated. METHODS: The program included two in-person sessions with
      an expert trainer and four weeks of independent home training. The EPIC Wheels
      application included video instruction and demonstration, self-paced training
      activities, and interactive training games. Participants were provided with a 10
      inch Android tablet, mounting apparatus, and mobile Wi-Fi device. Frequency and
      duration of tablet interactions were monitored and uploaded daily to an online
      trainer interface. Participants completed a structured evaluation survey and
      provided feedback post-study. The trainer provided feedback on the training
      protocol and trainer interface. RESULTS: Both participants perceived the program
      to be comprehensive, useful, and easily navigated. The trainer indicated usage
      data was comprehensive and informative for monitoring participant progress and
      adherence. The application performed equally well with multiple devices. Some
      initial issues with log-in requests were resolved via tablet-specific settings.
      Inconsistent Internet connectivity, resulting in delayed data upload and voice
      messaging, was specific to individual Wi-Fi devices and resolved by standardizing
      configuration. Based on the pilot results, the software was updated to make
      content download more robust. Additional features were also incorporated such as
      check marks for completed content, a more consumer-friendly aesthetic, and
      achievement awards. The trainer web interface was updated to improve usability
      and provides both a numerical and visual summary of participant data.
      CONCLUSIONS: The EPIC Wheels pilot study provided useful feedback on the
      feasibility of a tablet-based home program for wheelchair skills training among
      older adults, justifying advancement to evaluation in an RCT. The program may be
      expanded for use with other rehabilitation interventions and populations,
      particularly for those living in rural or remote locations. Future development
      will consider integration of built-in tablet sensors to provide performance
      feedback and enable interactive training activities. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01644292; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01644292
      (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6XyvYyTUf).

PMID- 28582241
TI  - Studying Upper-Limb Kinematics Using Inertial Sensors Embedded in Mobile Phones.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been a great interest in analyzing upper
      limb kinematics. Inertial measurement with mobile phones is a convenient and
      portable analysis method for studying humerus kinematics in terms of angular
      mobility and linear acceleration. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this analysis was to
      study upper-limb kinematics via mobile phones through six physical properties
      that correspond to angular mobility and acceleration in the three axes of space.
      METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited healthy young adult subjects.
      Humerus kinematics was studied in 10 young adults with the iPhone4. They
      performed flexion and abduction analytical tasks. Mobility angle and lineal
      acceleration in each of its axes (yaw, pitch, and roll) were obtained with the
      iPhone4. This device was placed on the right half of the body of each subject, in
      the middle third of the humerus, slightly posterior. Descriptive statistics were
      calculated. RESULTS: Descriptive graphics of analytical tasks performed were
      obtained. The biggest range of motion was found in pitch angle, and the biggest
      acceleration was found in the y-axis in both analytical tasks. Focusing on
      tridimensional kinematics, bigger range of motion and acceleration was found in
      abduction (209.69 degrees and 23.31 degrees per second respectively). Also, very
      strong correlation was found between angular mobility and linear acceleration in
      abduction (r=.845) and flexion (r=.860). CONCLUSIONS: The use of an iPhone for
      humerus tridimensional kinematics is feasible. This supports use of the mobile
      phone as a device to analyze upper-limb kinematics and to facilitate the
      evaluation of the patient.

PMID- 28582242
TI  - THERAPIST: Towards an Autonomous Socially Interactive Robot for Motor and
      Neurorehabilitation Therapies for Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurorehabilitation therapies exploiting the use-dependent plasticity
      of our neuromuscular system are devised to help patients who suffer from injuries
      or diseases of this system. These therapies take advantage of the fact that the
      motor activity alters the properties of our neurons and muscles, including the
      pattern of their connectivity, and thus their functionality. Hence, a sensor
      motor treatment where patients makes certain movements will help them (re)learn
      how to move the affected body parts. But these traditional rehabilitation
      processes are usually repetitive and lengthy, reducing motivation and adherence
      to the treatment, and thus limiting the benefits for the patients. OBJECTIVE: Our
      goal was to create innovative neurorehabilitation therapies based on THERAPIST, a
      socially assistive robot. THERAPIST is an autonomous robot that is able to find
      and execute plans and adapt them to new situations in real-time. The software
      architecture of THERAPIST monitors and determines the course of action, learns
      from previous experiences, and interacts with people using verbal and non-verbal
      channels. THERAPIST can increase the adherence of the patient to the sessions
      using serious games. Data are recorded and can be used to tailor patient
      sessions. METHODS: We hypothesized that pediatric patients would engage better in
      a therapeutic non-physical interaction with a robot, facilitating the design of
      new therapies to improve patient motivation. We propose RoboCog, a novel
      cognitive architecture. This architecture will enhance the effectiveness and time
      of-response of complex multi-degree-of-freedom robots designed to collaborate
      with humans, combining two core elements: a deep and hybrid representation of the
      current state, own, and observed; and a set of task-dependent planners, working
      at different levels of abstraction but connected to this central representation
      through a common interface. Using RoboCog, THERAPIST engages the human partner in
      an active interactive process. But RoboCog also endows the robot with abilities
      for high-level planning, monitoring, and learning. Thus, THERAPIST engages the
      patient through different games or activities, and adapts the session to each
      individual. RESULTS: RoboCog successfully integrates a deliberative planner with
      a set of modules working at situational or sensorimotor levels. This architecture
      also allows THERAPIST to deliver responses at a human rate. The synchronization
      of the multiple interaction modalities results from a unique scene representation
      or model. THERAPIST is now a socially interactive robot that, instead of
      reproducing the phrases or gestures that the developers decide, maintains a
      dialogue and autonomously generate gestures or expressions. THERAPIST is able to
      play simple games with human partners, which requires humans to perform certain
      movements, and also to capture the human motion, for later analysis by clinic
      specialists. CONCLUSIONS: The initial hypothesis was validated by our
      experimental studies showing that interaction with the robot results in highly
      attentive and collaborative attitudes in pediatric patients. We also verified
      that RoboCog allows the robot to interact with patients at human rates. However,
      there remain many issues to overcome. The development of novel hands-off
      rehabilitation therapies will require the intersection of multiple challenging
      directions of research that we are currently exploring.

PMID- 28582243
TI  - Automated Management of Exercise Intervention at the Point of Care: Application
      of a Web-Based Leg Training System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent advances in information and communication technology have
      prompted development of Web-based health tools to promote physical activity, the
      key component of cardiac rehabilitation and chronic disease management. Mobile
      apps can facilitate behavioral changes and help in exercise monitoring, although
      actual training usually takes place away from the point of care in specialized
      gyms or outdoors. Daily participation in conventional physical activities is
      expensive, time consuming, and mostly relies on self-management abilities of
      patients who are typically aged, overweight, and unfit. Facilitation of sustained
      exercise training at the point of care might improve patient engagement in
      cardiac rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: In this study we aimed to test the feasibility
      of execution and automatic monitoring of several exercise regimens on-site using
      a Web-enabled leg training system. METHODS: The MedExercise leg rehabilitation
      machine was equipped with wireless temperature sensors in order to monitor its
      usage by the rise of temperature in the resistance unit (Deltat degrees ).
      Personal electronic devices such as laptop computers were fitted with wireless
      gateways and relevant software was installed to monitor the usage of training
      machines. Cloud-based software allowed monitoring of participant training over
      the Internet. Seven healthy participants applied the system at various locations
      with training protocols typically used in cardiac rehabilitation. The heart rates
      were measured by fingertip pulse oximeters. RESULTS: Exercising in home chairs,
      in bed, and under an office desk was made feasible and resulted in an intensity
      dependent increase of participants' heart rates and Deltat degrees  in training
      machine temperatures. Participants self-controlled their activities on smart
      devices, while a supervisor monitored them over the Internet. Individual Deltat
      degrees  reached during 30 minutes of moderate-intensity continuous training
      averaged 7.8 degrees C (SD 1.6). These Deltat degrees  were used as personalized
      daily doses of exercise with automatic email alerts sent upon achieving them.
      During 1-week training at home, automatic notifications were received on 4.4 days
      (SD 1.8). Although the high intensity interval training regimen was feasible on
      site, it was difficult for self- and remote management. Opportunistic leg
      exercise under the desk, while working with a computer, and training in bed while
      viewing television were less intensive than dosed exercise bouts, but allowed
      prolonged leg mobilization of 73.7 minutes/day (SD 29.7). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrated the feasibility of self-control exercise training on-site, which was
      accompanied by online monitoring, electronic recording, personalization of
      exercise doses, and automatic reporting of adherence. The results suggest that
      this technology and its applications are useful for the delivery of Web-based
      exercise rehabilitation and cardiac training programs at the point of care.

PMID- 28582244
TI  - Are Virtual Rehabilitation Technologies Feasible Models to Scale an Evidence
      Based Fall Prevention Program? A Pilot Study Using the Kinect Camera.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Falls in older adults are a significant public health issue.
      Interventions have been developed and proven effective to reduce falls in older
      adults, but these programs typically last several months and can be resource
      intensive. Virtual rehabilitation technologies may offer a solution to bring
      these programs to scale. Off-the-shelf and custom exergames have demonstrated to
      be a feasible adjunct to rehabilitation with older adults. However, it is not
      known if older adults will be able or willing to use a virtual rehabilitation
      technology to participate in an evidence-based fall prevention program. To have
      the greatest impact, virtual rehabilitation technologies need to be acceptable to
      older adults from different backgrounds and level of fall risk. If these
      technologies prove to be a feasible option, they offer a new distribution channel
      to disseminate fall prevention programs. OBJECTIVE: Stand Tall (ST) is a virtual
      translation of the Otago Exercise Program (OEP), an evidence-based fall
      prevention program. Stand Tall was developed using the Virtual Exercise
      Rehabilitation Assistant (VERA) software, which uses a Kinect camera and a laptop
      to deliver physical therapy exercise programs. Our purpose in this pilot study
      was to explore if ST could be a feasible platform to deliver the OEP to older
      adults from a variety of fall risk levels, education backgrounds, and self
      described level of computer expertise. METHODS: Adults age 60 and over were
      recruited to participate in a one-time usability study. The study included
      orientation to the program, navigation to exercises, and completion of a series
      of strength and balance exercises. Quantitative analysis described participants
      and the user experience. RESULTS: A diverse group of individuals participated in
      the study. Twenty-one potential participants (14 women, 7 men) met the inclusion
      criteria. The mean age was 69.2 (+/- 5.8) years, 38% had a high school education,
      24% had a graduate degree, and 66% classified as "at risk for falls". Eighteen
      participants agreed they would like to use ST to help improve their balance, and
      17 agreed or strongly agreed they would feel confident using the system in either
      the senior center or the home. Thirteen participants felt confident they could
      actually set up the system in their home. The mean System Usability Scale (SUS)
      score was 65.5 +/- 21.2 with a range of 32.5 to 97.5. Ten participants scored ST
      as an above average usability experience compared to other technologies and 5
      participants scored a less than optimal experience. Exploratory analysis revealed
      no significant relationships between user experience, education background, self
      described computer experience, and fall risk. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the
      virtual delivery of the OEP by a Kinect camera and an avatar may be acceptable to
      older adults from a variety of backgrounds. Virtual technologies, like Stand
      Tall, could offer an efficient and effective approach to bring evidence-based
      fall prevention programs to scale to address the problem of falls and fall
      related injuries. Next steps include determining if similar or better outcomes
      are achieved by older adults using the virtual OEP, Stand Tall, compared to the
      standard of care.

PMID- 28582245
TI  - Designing a Mobile Health App for Patients With Dysphagia Following Head and Neck
      Cancer: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adherence to swallowing rehabilitation exercises is important to
      develop and maintain functional improvement, yet more than half of head and neck
      cancer (HNC) patients report having difficulty adhering to prescribed regimens.
      Health apps with game elements have been used in other health domains to motivate
      and engage patients. Understanding the factors that impact adherence may allow
      for more effective gamified solutions. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to (1)
      identify self-reported factors that influence adherence to conventional home
      therapy without a mobile device in HNC patients and (2) identify appealing
      biofeedback designs that could be used in a health app. METHODS: A total of 10 (4
      females) HNC patients (mean=60.1 years) with experience completing home-based
      rehabilitation programs were recruited. Thematic analysis of semi-structured
      interviews was used to answer the first objective. Convergent interviews were
      used to obtain reactions to biofeedback designs. RESULTS: Facilitators and
      barriers of adherence to home therapy were described through 6 themes: patient
      perceptions on outcomes and progress, clinical appointments, cancer treatment,
      rehabilitation program, personal factors, and connection. App visuals that
      provide feedback on performance during swallowing exercises should offer an
      immediate representation of effort relative to a goal. Simple, intuitive graphics
      were preferred over complex, abstract ones. Continued engagement with the app
      could be facilitated by tracking progress and by using visuals that build
      structures with each use. CONCLUSIONS: This is a detailed documentation of the
      initial steps in designing a health app for a specific patient group. Results
      revealed the importance of patient engagement in early stages of app development.

PMID- 28582246
TI  - Systemic Lisbon Battery: Normative Data for Memory and Attention Assessments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Memory and attention are two cognitive domains pivotal for the
      performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The assessment of
      these functions is still widely carried out with pencil-and-paper tests, which
      lack ecological validity. The evaluation of cognitive and memory functions while
      the patients are performing IADLs should contribute to the ecological validity of
      the evaluation process. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to establish
      normative data from virtual reality (VR) IADLs designed to activate memory and
      attention functions. METHODS: A total of 243 non-clinical participants carried
      out a paper-and-pencil Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and performed 3 VR
      activities: art gallery visual matching task, supermarket shopping task, and
      memory fruit matching game. The data (execution time and errors, and money spent
      in the case of the supermarket activity) was automatically generated from the
      app. RESULTS: Outcomes were computed using non-parametric statistics, due to non
      normality of distributions. Age, academic qualifications, and computer experience
      all had significant effects on most measures. Normative values for different
      levels of these measures were defined. CONCLUSIONS: Age, academic qualifications,
      and computer experience should be taken into account while using our VR-based
      platform for cognitive assessment purposes.

PMID- 28582247
TI  - Novel Use of a Smartphone to Measure Standing Balance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Balance assessment and training is utilized by clinicians and their
      patients to measure and improve balance. There is, however, little consistency in
      terms of how clinicians, researchers, and patients measure standing balance.
      Utilizing the inherent sensors in every smartphone, a mobile application was
      developed to provide a method of objectively measuring standing balance.
      OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine if a mobile phone application, which utilizes
      the phone's accelerometer, can quantify standing balance. METHODS: Three
      smartphones were positioned simultaneously above the participants' malleolus and
      patella and at the level of the umbilicus. Once secured, the myAnkle application
      was initiated to measure acceleration. Forty-eight participants completed 8
      different balance exercises separately for the right and left legs. Accelerometer
      readings were obtained from each mobile phone and mean acceleration was
      calculated for each exercise at each ankle and knee and the torso. RESULTS: Mean
      acceleration vector magnitude was reciprocally transformed to address skewness in
      the data distribution. Repeated measures ANOVAs were completed using the
      transformed data. A significant 2-way interaction was revealed between exercise
      condition and the body position of the phone (P<.001). Post-hoc tests indicated
      higher acceleration vector magnitude for exercises of greater difficulty. ANOVAs
      at each body position were conducted to examine the effect of exercise. The
      results revealed the knee as the location most sensitive for the detection of
      differences in acceleration between exercises. The accelerometer ranking of
      exercise difficulty showed high agreement with expert clinical rater rankings
      (kappa statistic>0.9). CONCLUSIONS: The myAnkle application revealed
      significantly greater acceleration magnitude for exercises of greater difficulty.
      Positioning of the mobile phone at the knee proved to be the most sensitive to
      changes in accelerometer values due to exercise difficulty. Application validity
      was shown through comparison with clinical raters. As such, the myAnkle app has
      utility as a measurement tool for standing balance.

PMID- 28582248
TI  - Disease Profiling for Computerized Peer Support of Meniere's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peer support is an emerging form of person-driven active health care.
      Chronic conditions such as Meniere's disease (a disorder of the inner ear) need
      continuing rehabilitation and support that is beyond the scope of routine
      clinical medical practice. Hence, peer-support programs can be helpful in
      supplementing some of the rehabilitation aspects. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      study was to design a computerized data collection system for the peer support of
      Meniere's disease that is capable in profiling the subject for diagnosis and in
      assisting with problem solving. METHODS: The expert program comprises several
      data entries focusing on symptoms, activity limitations, participation
      restrictions, quality of life, attitude and personality trait, and an evaluation
      of disease-specific impact. Data was collected from 740 members of the Finnish
      Meniere's Federation and utilized in the construction and evaluation of the
      program. RESULTS: The program verifies the diagnosis of a person by using an
      expert system, and the inference engine selects 50 cases with matched symptom
      severity by using a nearest neighbor algorithm. These cases are then used as a
      reference group to compare with the person's attitude, sense of coherence, and
      anxiety. The program provides feedback for the person and uses this information
      to guide the person through the problem-solving process. CONCLUSIONS: This
      computer-based peer-support program is the first example of an advanced computer
      oriented approach using artificial intelligence, both in the profiling of the
      disease and in profiling the person's complaints for hearing loss, tinnitus, and
      vertigo.

PMID- 28582249
TI  - Design and Development of a Telerehabilitation Platform for Patients With Phantom
      Limb Pain: A User-Centered Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phantom limb pain is a frequent and persistent problem following
      amputation. Achieving sustainable favorable effects on phantom limb pain requires
      therapeutic interventions such as mirror therapy that target maladaptive
      neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system. Unfortunately, patients'
      adherence to unsupervised exercises is generally poor and there is a need for
      effective strategies such as telerehabilitation to support long-term self
      management of patients with phantom limb pain. OBJECTIVE: The main aim of this
      study was to describe the user-centered approach that guided the design and
      development of a telerehabilitation platform for patients with phantom limb pain.
      We addressed 3 research questions: (1) Which requirements are defined by patients
      and therapists for the content and functions of a telerehabilitation platform and
      how can these requirements be prioritized to develop a first prototype of the
      platform? (2) How can the user interface of the telerehabilitation platform be
      designed so as to match the predefined critical user requirements and how can
      this interface be translated into a medium-fidelity prototype of the platform?
      (3) How do patients with phantom limb pain and their treating therapists judge
      the usability of the medium-fidelity prototype of the telerehabilitation platform
      in routine care and how can the platform be redesigned based on their feedback to
      achieve a high-fidelity prototype? METHODS: The telerehabilitation platform was
      developed using an iterative user-centered design process. In the first phase, a
      questionnaire followed by a semistructured interview was used to identify the
      user requirements of both the patients and their physical and occupational
      therapists, which were then prioritized using a decision matrix. The second phase
      involved designing the interface of the telerehabilitation platform using design
      sketches, wireframes, and interface mock-ups to develop a low-fidelity prototype.
      Heuristic evaluation resulted in a medium-fidelity prototype whose usability was
      tested in routine care in the final phase, leading to the development of a high
      fidelity prototype. RESULTS: A total of 7 categories of patient requirements were
      identified: monitoring, exercise programs, communication, settings, background
      information, log-in, and general requirements. One additional category emerged
      for therapists: patient management. Based on these requirements, patient and
      therapist interfaces for the telerehabilitation platform were developed and
      redesigned by the software development team in an iterative process, addressing
      the usability problems that were reported by the users during 4 weeks of field
      testing in routine care. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underline the importance of
      involving the users and other stakeholders early and continuously in an iterative
      design process, as well as the need for clear criteria to identify critical user
      requirements. A decision matrix is presented that incorporates the views of
      various stakeholders in systematically rating and prioritizing user requirements.
      The findings and lessons learned might help health care providers, researchers,
      software designers, and other stakeholders in designing and evaluating new
      teletreatments, and hopefully increase the likelihood of user acceptance.

PMID- 28582250
TI  - A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System with an Intelligent Shoe for
      Stroke Survivors: A Realist Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the United Kingdom, stroke is the most significant cause of adult
      disability. Stroke survivors are frequently left with physical and psychological
      changes that can profoundly affect their functional ability, independence, and
      social participation. Research suggests that long-term, intense, task- and
      context-specific rehabilitation that is goal-oriented and environmentally
      enriched improves function, independence, and quality of life after a stroke. It
      is recommended that rehabilitation should continue until maximum recovery has
      been achieved. However, the increasing demand on services and financial
      constraints means that needs cannot be met through traditional face-to-face
      delivery of rehabilitation. Using a participatory design methodology, we
      developed an information communication technology-enhanced Personalized Self
      Managed rehabilitation System (PSMrS) for stroke survivors with integrated insole
      sensor technology within an "intelligent shoe.". The intervention model was based
      around a rehabilitation paradigm underpinned by theories of motor relearning and
      neuroplastic adaptation, motivational feedback, self-efficacy, and knowledge
      transfer. OBJECTIVE: To understand the conditions under which this technology
      based rehabilitation solution would most likely have an impact on the motor
      behavior of the user, what would work for whom, in what context, and how. We were
      interested in what aspects of the system would work best to facilitate the motor
      behavior change associated with self-managed rehabilitation and which user
      characteristics and circumstances of use could promote improved functional
      outcomes. METHODS: We used a Realist Evaluation (RE) framework to evaluate the
      final prototype PSMrS with the assumption that the intervention consists of a
      series of configurations that include the Context of use, the underlying
      Mechanisms of change and the potential Outcomes or impacts (CMOs). We developed
      the CMOs from literature reviews and engagement with clinicians, users, and
      caregivers during a series of focus groups and home visits. These CMOs were then
      tested in five in-depth case studies with stroke survivors and their caregivers.
      RESULTS: While two new propositions emerged, the second importantly related to
      the self-management aspects of the system. The study revealed that the system
      should also encourage independent use and the setting of personalized goals or
      activities. CONCLUSIONS: Information communication technology that purports to
      support the self-management of stroke rehabilitation should give significant
      consideration to the need for motivational feedback that provides quantitative,
      reliable, accurate, context-specific, and culturally sensitive information about
      the achievement of personalized goal-based activities.

PMID- 28582252
TI  - Teleexercise for Persons With Spinal Cord Injury: A Mixed-Methods Feasibility
      Case Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in significant loss of function
      below the level of injury, often leading to restricted participation in community
      exercise programs. To overcome commonly experienced barriers to these programs,
      innovations in technology hold promise for remotely delivering safe and effective
      bouts of exercise in the home. OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of a remotely
      delivered home exercise program for individuals with SCI as determined by (1)
      implementation of the intervention in the home; (2) exploration of the potential
      intervention effects on aerobic fitness, physical activity behavior, and
      subjective well-being; and (3) acceptability of the program through participant
      self-report. METHODS: Four adults with SCI (mean age 43.5 [SD 5.3] years; 3
      males, 1 female; postinjury 25.8 [SD 4.3] years) completed a mixed-methods
      sequential design with two phases: an 8-week intervention followed by a 3-week
      nonintervention period. The intervention was a remotely delivered aerobic
      exercise training program (30-45 minutes, 3 times per week). Instrumentation
      included an upper body ergometer, tablet, physiological monitor, and custom
      application that delivered video feed to a remote trainer and monitored and
      recorded exercise data in real time. Implementation outcomes included adherence,
      rescheduled sessions, minutes of moderate exercise, and successful recording of
      exercise data. Pre/post-outcomes included aerobic capacity (VO2 peak), the
      Physical Activity Scale for Individuals with Physical Disabilities (PASIPD), the
      Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Quality of Life Index modified for
      spinal cord injury (QLI-SCI). Acceptability was determined by participant
      perceptions of the program features and impact, assessed via qualitative
      interview at the end of the nonintervention phase. RESULTS: Participants
      completed all 24 intervention sessions with 100% adherence. Out of 96 scheduled
      training sessions for the four participants, only 8 (8%) were makeup sessions.
      The teleexercise system successfully recorded 85% of all exercise data. The
      exercise program was well tolerated by all participants. All participants
      described positive outcomes as a result of the intervention and stated that
      teleexercise circumvented commonly reported barriers to exercise participation.
      There were no reported adverse events and no dropouts. CONCLUSION: A teleexercise
      system can be a safe and feasible option to deliver home-based exercise for
      persons with SCI. Participants responded favorably to the intervention and valued
      teleexercise for its ability to overcome common barriers to exercise. Study
      results are promising but warrant further investigation in a larger sample.

PMID- 28582251
TI  - Communications Technology and Motor Neuron Disease: An Australian Survey of
      People With Motor Neuron Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with Motor Neuron Disease (MND), of which amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis (ALS) is the most common form in adults, typically experience
      difficulties with communication and disabilities associated with movement.
      Assistive technology is essential to facilitate everyday activities, promote
      social support and enhance quality of life. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to
      explore the types of mainstream and commonly available communication technology
      used by people with MND including software and hardware, to identify the levels
      of confidence and skill that people with MND reported in using technology, to
      determine perceived barriers to the use of technology for communication, and to
      investigate the willingness of people with MND to adopt alternative modes of
      communication. METHODS: An on-line survey was distributed to members of the New
      South Wales Motor Neuron Disease Association (MND NSW). Descriptive techniques
      were used to summarize frequencies of responses and cross tabulate data. Free
      text responses to survey items and verbal comments from participants who chose to
      undertake the survey by telephone were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS:
      Responses from 79 MND NSW members indicated that 15-21% had difficulty with
      speaking, writing and/or using a keyboard. Commonly used devices were desktop
      computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Most participants (84%) were
      connected to the Internet and used it for email (91%), to find out more about MND
      (59%), to follow the news (50%) or for on-line shopping (46%). A third of
      respondents used Skype or its equivalent, but few used this to interact with
      health professionals. CONCLUSIONS: People with MND need greater awareness of
      technology options to access the most appropriate solutions. The timing for
      people with MND to make decisions about technology is critical. Health
      professionals need skills and knowledge about the application of technology to be
      able to work with people with MND to select the best communication technology
      options as early as possible after diagnosis. If people with MND are willing to
      trial telehealth technology, there is potential for tele-consultations via Skype
      or its equivalent, with health professionals. People with MND can benefit from
      health professional involvement to match technology to their functional
      limitations and personal preferences. However, health professionals need a
      comprehensive understanding of the application of available technology to achieve
      this.

PMID- 28582253
TI  - Translating Comprehensive Conservative Care for Chronic Knee Pain Into a Digital
      Care Pathway: 12-Week and 6-Month Outcomes for the Hinge Health Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic knee pain (CKP) affects a large number of adults, many of
      whom do not receive best-practice care and are at high risk for unnecessary
      surgery. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the
      Hinge Health 12-week digital care program (DCP) for CKP on knee pain and
      function, with secondary outcomes of surgery interest and satisfaction, at 12
      weeks and 6 months after starting the program. METHODS: Individuals with CKP were
      recruited onto the 12-week program, comprising sensor-guided physical exercises,
      weekly education, activity tracking, and psychosocial support such as personal
      coaching and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We used a single-arm design with
      assessment of outcomes at baseline, 12 weeks, and 6 months after starting the
      program. We used a linear mixed effects model with Tukey contrasts to compare
      timepoints and report intention-to-treat statistics with last observation carried
      forward. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 41 individuals (32 female, mean age 52
      years, SD 9 years). Between baseline and week 12, participants reported
      clinically significant improvements in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome
      Score (KOOS) pain and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score-Physical
      Function Short Form (KOOS-PS) function scales of 16 points (95% CI 12-21, P<.001)
      and 10 points (95% CI 6-14, P<.001), respectively. Significant reductions of 57%
      (mean difference 30, 95% CI 21-38, P<.001) and 51% (mean difference 25, 95% CI 16
      33, P<.001) in visual analog scale (VAS) knee pain and stiffness, respectively,
      were observed at 12 weeks, as well as a 67% reduction in surgery interest (mean
      reduction 2.3 out of 10, 95% CI 1.5-3.1, P<.001). Average satisfaction at week 12
      was 9.2 out of 10. Critically, all improvements were maintained at 6 months at
      similar or greater magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: Participants on the Hinge Health DCP
      for CKP showed substantial clinical improvements that were maintained 6 months
      after enrolling in the program. This shows that DCPs carry strong potential to
      deliver evidence-based, cost-effective care to those suffering from CKP.

PMID- 28582254
TI  - Studies Involving People With Dementia and Touchscreen Technology: A Literature
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Devices using touchscreen interfaces such as tablets and smartphones
      have been highlighted as potentially suitable for people with dementia due to
      their intuitive and simple control method. This population experience a lack of
      meaningful, engaging activities, yet the potential use of the touchscreen format
      to address this issue has not been fully realized. OBJECTIVE: To identify and
      synthesize the existing body of literature involving the use of touchscreen
      technology and people with dementia in order to guide future research in this
      area. METHODS: A systematized review of studies in the English language was
      conducted, where a touchscreen interface was used with human participants with
      dementia. RESULTS: A total of 45 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four
      questions were addressed concerning (1) the context of use, (2) reasons behind
      the selection of the technology, (3) details of the hardware and software, and
      (4) whether independent use by people with dementia was evidenced. CONCLUSIONS:
      This review presents an emerging body of evidence demonstrating that people with
      dementia are able to independently use touchscreen technology. The intuitive
      control method and adaptability of modern devices has driven the selection of
      this technology in studies. However, its primary use to date has been as a method
      to deliver assessments and screening tests or to provide an assistive function or
      cognitive rehabilitation. Building on the finding that people with dementia are
      able to use touchscreen technology and which design features facilitate this,
      more use could be made to deliver independent activities for meaningful
      occupation, entertainment, and fun.

PMID- 28582255
TI  - Community-Based Hip Fracture Rehabilitation Interventions for Older Adults With
      Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A hip fracture in older adulthood can result in function and mobility
      decline. The consequences are debilitating and place a great burden on patients,
      caregivers, and the health care system. Although inpatient rehabilitation
      programs have proven effective, the best practices for community-based
      rehabilitation required to maintain the gains in function and mobility post
      hospital discharge are currently unknown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic
      review is to identify and evaluate the evidence on the effectiveness of community
      based rehabilitation post hospital discharge interventions for older adults with
      cognitive impairment (CI) following a hip fracture, and to identify the physical
      recovery outcomes and measures used in previous studies. METHODS: The methods
      outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Intervention were
      followed and findings were reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The search strategy included a
      combination of text words and subject headings relating to the concepts of CI,
      dementia, delirium, cognitive reserve, and hip fractures. For a study to be
      included in the review, it had to involve participants with CI who underwent hip
      fracture surgery, and consisted of an outpatient intervention that occurred in
      the participant's home or community. Peer-reviewed journal articles were
      identified by searching various databases. Two independent reviewers screened the
      titles and abstracts to determine which articles comprising of a rehabilitation
      intervention within a community setting prior to being included for a full
      article review. A data extraction form and an evidence and quality checklist were
      used during the full article data analysis and synthesis. A meta-analysis was not
      conducted due to heterogeneity of measures and outcomes. RESULTS: The original
      search resulted in over 3000 articles. Of those, three studies satisfied the
      necessary criteria to be included in the systematic review. All studies included
      inpatient and outpatient physiotherapy, with some including a cognitive
      component, family education, and a discharge assessment. CONCLUSIONS: The
      findings from this review suggest that community-based rehabilitation post
      hospital discharge interventions show promising results towards improving various
      physical function outcomes, mobility, and activities of daily living for older
      adults with CI following a hip fracture. This review also demonstrates and
      discusses the current lack of outpatient rehabilitation interventions targeted
      towards older adults with CI post-hip fracture. Additionally, several substantive
      gaps that require attention to move this field forward are highlighted.

PMID- 28582256
TI  - Internet-Based Exercise Therapy Using Algorithms for Conservative Treatment of
      Anterior Knee Pain: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conservative treatment remains the first-line option, and there is
      significant medical evidence showing that home-based exercise therapy for the
      treatment of common causes of knee pain is effective. SimpleTherapy created an
      online platform that delivers Internet-based exercise therapy for common causes
      of knee pain. The system is driven by an algorithm that can process the user's
      feedback to provide an adaptive exercise regimen. This triple-armed, pragmatic
      randomized pilot was designed to evaluate if this telerehabilitation platform is
      safe and effective. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that a home-based, algorithm
      driven exercise therapy program can be safe for use and even improve compliance
      over the standard of care, the paper handout. METHODS: After an independent
      internal review board review and approval, the website trial.simpletherapy.com
      was opened. Once the trial was open for enrollment, no changes to the
      functionality or user interaction features were performed until the trial had
      closed. User accrual to the website was done using website optimization and
      social media postings tied to existence of knee pain. Consent was obtained online
      through checkboxes with third-party signature confirmation. No fees were charged
      to any patient. Patients were recruited online from an open access website.
      Outcomes were self-assessed through questionnaires with no face-to-face clinician
      interaction. A triple-arm randomized controlled trial was used with arm 1 being a
      static handout of exercises, arm 2 being a video version of arm 1, and arm 3
      being a video-based, algorithm-driven system that took patient feedback and
      changed the exercises based on the feedback. Patients used household items and
      were not supervised by a physical therapist or clinician. Patients were reminded
      at 48-hour intervals to complete an exercise session. RESULTS: A total of 860
      users found the trial and initiated the registration process. These 860 were
      randomized, and the demographic distribution shows the randomization was
      successful. In all, 70 users completed the 6-week regimen (8.1%): 20 users were
      in arm 1, 33 users in arm 2, and 17 users in arm 3. There were no adverse events
      reported in any of the 3 arms. All outcomes were self-assessed. No adverse events
      were reported during or after the trial. CONCLUSIONS: Because only 8.1% of those
      who enrolled completed the trial, an intent-to-treat analysis did not reach
      statistical significance in this pilot trial. However, the completion rates are
      comparable to those of previous online-only trials. Given an early phase trial,
      no adverse events were reported. Ongoing data collection continues and will form
      the basis for further data on the efficacy of this intervention. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01696162;
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01696162 (Archived by WebCite at
      http://www.webcitation.org/6lM8jC7Gu).

PMID- 28582257
TI  - How Therapists Use Visualizations of Upper Limb Movement Information From Stroke
      Patients: A Qualitative Study With Simulated Information.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with upper limb
      deficits affecting an estimated 30% to 60% of survivors. The effectiveness of
      upper limb rehabilitation relies on numerous factors, particularly patient
      compliance to home programs and exercises set by therapists. However, therapists
      lack objective information about their patients' adherence to rehabilitation
      exercises as well as other uses of the affected arm and hand in everyday life
      outside the clinic. We developed a system that consists of wearable sensor
      technology to monitor a patient's arm movement and a Web-based dashboard to
      visualize this information for therapists. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to
      evaluate how therapists use upper limb movement information visualized on a
      dashboard to support the rehabilitation process. METHODS: An interactive
      dashboard prototype with simulated movement information was created and evaluated
      through a user-centered design process with therapists (N=8) at a rehabilitation
      clinic. Data were collected through observations of therapists interacting with
      an interactive dashboard prototype, think-aloud data, and interviews. Data were
      analyzed qualitatively through thematic analysis. RESULTS: Therapists use
      visualizations of upper limb information in the following ways: (1) to obtain
      objective data of patients' activity levels, exercise, and neglect outside the
      clinic, (2) to engage patients in the rehabilitation process through education,
      motivation, and discussion of experiences with activities of daily living, and
      (3) to engage with other clinicians and researchers based on objective data. A
      major limitation is the lack of contextual data, which is needed by therapists to
      discern how movement data visualized on the dashboard relate to activities of
      daily living. CONCLUSIONS: Upper limb information captured through wearable
      devices provides novel insights for therapists and helps to engage patients and
      other clinicians in therapy. Consideration needs to be given to the collection
      and visualization of contextual information to provide meaningful insights into
      patient engagement in activities of daily living. These findings open the door
      for further work to develop a fully functioning system and to trial it with
      patients and clinicians during therapy.

PMID- 28582259
TI  - Mobile Jump Assessment (mJump): A Descriptive and Inferential Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vertical jump tests are used in athletics and rehabilitation to
      measure physical performance in people of different age ranges and fitness.
      Jumping ability can be analyzed through different variables, and the most
      commonly used are fly time and jump height. They can be obtained by a variety of
      measuring devices, but most are limited to laboratory use only. The current
      generation of smartphones contains inertial sensors that are able to record
      kinematic variables for human motion analysis, since they are tools for easy
      access and portability for clinical use. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      describe and analyze the kinematics characteristics using the inertial sensor
      incorporated in the iPhone 4S, the lower limbs strength through a manual
      dynamometer, and the jump variables obtained with a contact mat in the squat jump
      and countermovement jump tests (fly time and jump height) from a cohort of
      healthy people. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted on a population of
      healthy young adults. Twenty-seven participants performed three trials (n=81
      jumps) of squat jump and countermovement jump tests. Acceleration variables were
      measured through a smartphone's inertial sensor. Additionally, jump variables
      from a contact mat and lower limbs dynamometry were collected. RESULTS: In the
      present study, the kinematic variables derived from acceleration through the
      inertial sensor of a smartphone iPhone 4S, dynamometry of lower limbs with a
      handheld dynamometer, and the height and flight time with a contact mat have been
      described in vertical jump tests from a cohort of young healthy subjects. The
      development of the execution has been described, examined and identified in a
      squat jump test and countermovement jump test under acceleration variables that
      were obtained with the smartphone. CONCLUSIONS: The built-in iPhone 4S inertial
      sensor is able to measure acceleration variables while performing vertical jump
      tests for the squat jump and countermovement jump in healthy young adults. The
      acceleration kinematics variables derived from the smartphone's inertial sensor
      are higher in the countermovement jump test than the squat jump test.

PMID- 28582258
TI  - Information and Communication Technologies in the Care of the Elderly: Systematic
      Review of Applications Aimed at Patients With Dementia and Caregivers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The interest in applying information and communications technology
      (ICT) in older adult health care is frequently promoted by the increasing and
      unsustainable costs of health care services. In turn, the unprecedented growth of
      the elderly population around the globe has urged institutions, companies,
      industries, and governments to respond to older adults' medical needs. OBJECTIVE:
      The aim of this review is to systematically identify the opportunities that ICT
      offers to health services, specifically for patients with dementia and their
      families. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature about ICT applications
      that have been developed to assist patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and
      their primary caregivers was conducted. The bibliographic search included works
      published between January 2005 and July 2015 in the databases Springer Link,
      Scopus, and Google Scholar. Of the published papers, 902 were obtained in the
      initial search, of which 214 were potentially relevant. Included studies
      fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: (1) studies carried out between the
      years of 2005 and 2015, (2) studies were published in English or Spanish, (3)
      studies with titles containing the keywords, (4) studies with abstracts
      containing information on ICT applications and AD, and (5) studies published in
      indexed journals, proceedings, and book chapters. RESULTS: A total of 26 studies
      satisfied the inclusion criteria for the current review. Among them, 16 were
      aimed at the patient with AD and 10 at the primary caregivers and/or family
      members. The studies targeted applications that included assistive technology
      (44%, 7/16), telecare (37%, 6/16), and telemedicine (31%, 5/16). The information
      systems (56%, 9/16) and Internet (44%, 7/16) were the most commonly used enabling
      technologies for the studies. Finally, areas of attention more covered by the
      studies were care (56%, 9/16), treatment (56%, 9/16), and management (50%, 8/16).
      Furthermore, it was found that 20 studies (77%, 8/26) evaluated their ICT
      applications through carrying out tests with patients with dementia and
      caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: The key finding of this systematic review revealed that
      the use of ICT tools can be strongly recommended to be used as a lifestyle in the
      elderly in order to improve the quality of life for the elderly and their primary
      caregivers. Since patients with AD are completely dependent in most activities,
      it is necessary to give attention to their primary caregivers to avoid stress and
      depression. In addition, the use of ICT in the daily life of caregivers can help
      them understand the disease process and manage situations in a way that is
      beneficial for both parties. It is expected that future developments concerning
      technological projects can support this group of people.

PMID- 28582260
TI  - A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System for Stroke Survivors: A
      Quantitative Gait Analysis Using a Smart Insole.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the United Kingdom, stroke is the single largest cause of adult
      disability and results in a cost to the economy of L8.9 billion per annum.
      Service needs are currently not being met; therefore, initiatives that focus on
      patient-centered care that promote long-term self-management for chronic
      conditions should be at the forefront of service redesign. The use of innovative
      technologies and the ability to apply these effectively to promote behavior
      change are paramount in meeting the current challenges. OBJECTIVE: Our objective
      was to gain a deeper insight into the impact of innovative technologies in
      support of home-based, self-managed rehabilitation for stroke survivors. An
      intervention of daily walks can assist with improving lower limb motor function,
      and this can be measured by using technology. This paper focuses on assessing the
      usage of self-management technologies on poststroke survivors while undergoing
      rehabilitation at home. METHODS: A realist evaluation of a personalized self
      management rehabilitation system was undertaken in the homes of stroke survivors
      (N=5) over a period of approximately two months. Context, mechanisms, and
      outcomes were developed and explored using theories relating to motor recovery.
      Participants were encouraged to self-manage their daily walking activity; this
      was achieved through goal setting and motivational feedback. Gait data were
      collected and analyzed to produce metrics such as speed, heel strikes, and
      symmetry. This was achieved using a "smart insole" to facilitate measurement of
      walking activities in a free-living, nonrestrictive environment. RESULTS: Initial
      findings indicated that 4 out of 5 participants performed better during the
      second half of the evaluation. Performance increase was evident through improved
      heel strikes on participants' affected limb. Additionally, increase in
      performance in relation to speed was also evident for all 5 participants. A
      common strategy emerged across all but one participant as symmetry performance
      was sacrificed in favor of improved heel strikes. This paper evaluates compliance
      and intensity of use. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that 4 out of the 5
      participants improved their ability to heel strike on their affected limb. All
      participants showed improvements in their speed of gait measured in steps per
      minute with an average increase of 9.8% during the rehabilitation program.
      Performance in relation to symmetry showed an 8.5% average decline across
      participants, although 1 participant improved by 4%. Context, mechanism, and
      outcomes indicated that dual motor learning and compensatory strategies were
      deployed by the participants.

PMID- 28582261
TI  - Validated Smartphone-Based Apps for Ear and Hearing Assessments: A Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An estimated 360 million people have a disabling hearing impairment
      globally, the vast majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries
      (LMICs). Early identification through screening is important to negate the
      negative effects of untreated hearing impairment. Substantial barriers exist in
      screening for hearing impairment in LMICs, such as the requirement for skilled
      hearing health care professionals and prohibitively expensive specialist
      equipment to measure hearing. These challenges may be overcome through
      utilization of increasingly available smartphone app technologies for ear and
      hearing assessments that are easy to use by unskilled professionals. OBJECTIVE:
      Our objective was to identify and compare available apps for ear and hearing
      assessments and consider the incorporation of such apps into hearing screening
      programs. METHODS: In July 2015, the commercial app stores Google Play and Apple
      App Store were searched to identify apps for ear and hearing assessments.
      Thereafter, six databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, Global Health, Web of Science,
      CINAHL, and mHealth Evidence) were searched to assess which of the apps
      identified in the commercial review had been validated against gold standard
      measures. A comparison was made between validated apps. RESULTS: App store search
      queries returned 30 apps that could be used for ear and hearing assessments, the
      majority of which are for performing audiometry. The literature search identified
      11 eligible validity studies that examined 6 different apps. uHear, an app for
      self-administered audiometry, was validated in the highest number of peer
      reviewed studies against gold standard pure tone audiometry (n=5). However, the
      accuracy of uHear varied across these studies. CONCLUSIONS: Very few of the
      available apps have been validated in peer-reviewed studies. Of the apps that
      have been validated, further independent research is required to fully understand
      their accuracy at detecting ear and hearing conditions.

PMID- 28582263
TI  - Counting Grasping Action Using Force Myography: An Exploratory Study With Healthy
      Individuals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional arm movements generally require grasping an object. The
      possibility of detecting and counting the action of grasping is believed to be of
      importance for individual with motor function deficits of the arm, as it could be
      an indication of the number of the functional arm movements performed by the
      individuals during rehabilitation. In this exploratory work, the feasibility of
      using armbands recording radial displacements of forearm muscles and tendons (ie,
      force myography, FMG) to estimate hand grasping with healthy individuals was
      investigated. In contrast to previous studies, this exploratory study
      investigates the feasibility of (1) detecting grasping when the participants move
      their arms, which could introduce large artifacts to the point of potentially
      preventing the practical use of the proposed technology, and (2) counting
      grasping during arm-reaching tasks. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      determine the usefulness of FMG in the detection of functional arm movements. The
      use of FMG straps placed on the forearm is proposed for counting the number of
      grasping actions in the presence of arm movements. METHODS: Ten healthy
      volunteers participated in this study to perform a pick-and-place exercise after
      providing informed consent. FMG signals were simultaneously collected using 2 FMG
      straps worn on their wrist and at the midposition of their forearm, respectively.
      Raw FMG signals and 3 additional FMG features (ie, root mean square, wavelength,
      and window symmetry) were extracted and fed into a linear discriminant analysis
      classifier to predict grasping states. The transition from nongrasping to
      grasping states was detected during the process of counting the number of
      grasping actions. RESULTS: The median accuracy for detecting grasping events
      using FMG recorded from the wrist was 95%, and the corresponding interquartile
      range (IQR) was 5%. For forearm FMG classification, the median accuracy was 92%,
      and the corresponding IQR was 3%. The difference between the 2 median accuracies
      was statistically significant (P<.001) when using a paired 2-tailed sign test.
      The median percentage error for counting grasping events when FMG was recorded
      from the wrist was 1%, and the corresponding IQR was 2%. The median percentage
      error for FMG recorded from the forearm was 2%, and the corresponding IQR was
      also 2%. While the median percentage error for the wrist was lower than that of
      the forearm, the difference between the 2 was not statistically significant based
      on a paired 2-tailed sign test (P=.29). CONCLUSIONS: This study reports that
      grasping can reliably be counted using an unobtrusive and simple FMG strap even
      in the presence of arm movements. Such a result supports the foundation for
      future research evaluating the feasibility of monitoring hand grasping during
      unsupervised ADL, leading to further investigations with individuals with motor
      function deficits of the arm.

PMID- 28582262
TI  - Technologies to Support Community-Dwelling Persons With Dementia: A Position
      Paper on Issues Regarding Development, Usability, Effectiveness and Cost
      Effectiveness, Deployment, and Ethics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the expected increase in the numbers of persons with dementia,
      providing timely, adequate, and affordable care and support is challenging.
      Assistive and health technologies may be a valuable contribution in dementia
      care, but new challenges may emerge. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to
      review the state of the art of technologies for persons with dementia regarding
      issues on development, usability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness,
      deployment, and ethics in 3 fields of application of technologies: (1) support
      with managing everyday life, (2) support with participating in pleasurable and
      meaningful activities, and (3) support with dementia health and social care
      provision. The study also aimed to identify gaps in the evidence and challenges
      for future research. METHODS: Reviews of literature and expert opinions were used
      in our study. Literature searches were conducted on usability, effectiveness and
      cost-effectiveness, and ethics using PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO
      databases with no time limit. Selection criteria in our selected technology
      fields were reviews in English for community-dwelling persons with dementia.
      Regarding deployment issues, searches were done in Health Technology Assessment
      databases. RESULTS: According to our results, persons with dementia want to be
      included in the development of technologies; there is little research on the
      usability of assistive technologies; various benefits are reported but are mainly
      based on low-quality studies; barriers to deployment of technologies in dementia
      care were identified, and ethical issues were raised by researchers but often not
      studied. Many challenges remain such as including the target group more often in
      development, performing more high-quality studies on usability and effectiveness
      and cost-effectiveness, creating and having access to high-quality datasets on
      existing technologies to enable adequate deployment of technologies in dementia
      care, and ensuring that ethical issues are considered an important topic for
      researchers to include in their evaluation of assistive technologies.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, various actions are recommended for
      development, usability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, deployment, and
      ethics of assistive and health technologies across Europe. These include avoiding
      replication of technology development that is unhelpful or ineffective and
      focusing on how technologies succeed in addressing individual needs of persons
      with dementia. Furthermore, it is suggested to include these recommendations in
      national and international calls for funding and assistive technology research
      programs. Finally, practitioners, policy makers, care insurers, and care
      providers should work together with technology enterprises and researchers to
      prepare strategies for the implementation of assistive technologies in different
      care settings. This may help future generations of persons with dementia to
      utilize available and affordable technologies and, ultimately, to benefit from
      them.

PMID- 28582264
TI  - Machine Learning to Improve Energy Expenditure Estimation in Children With
      Disabilities: A Pilot Study in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children with physical impairments are at a greater risk for obesity
      and decreased physical activity. A better understanding of physical activity
      pattern and energy expenditure (EE) would lead to a more targeted approach to
      intervention. OBJECTIVE: This study focuses on studying the use of machine
      learning algorithms for EE estimation in children with disabilities. A pilot
      study was conducted on children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) to
      identify important factors for determining EE and develop a novel algorithm to
      accurately estimate EE from wearable sensor-collected data. METHODS: There were 7
      boys with DMD, 6 healthy control boys, and 22 control adults recruited. Data were
      collected using smartphone accelerometer and chest-worn heart rate sensors. The
      gold standard EE values were obtained from the COSMED K4b2 portable
      cardiopulmonary metabolic unit worn by boys (aged 6-10 years) with DMD and
      controls. Data from this sensor setup were collected simultaneously during a
      series of concurrent activities. Linear regression and nonlinear machine-learning
      based approaches were used to analyze the relationship between accelerometer and
      heart rate readings and COSMED values. RESULTS: Existing calorimetry equations
      using linear regression and nonlinear machine-learning-based models, developed
      for healthy adults and young children, give low correlation to actual EE values
      in children with disabilities (14%-40%). The proposed model for boys with DMD
      uses ensemble machine learning techniques and gives a 91% correlation with actual
      measured EE values (root mean square error of 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      confirm that the methods developed to determine EE using accelerometer and heart
      rate sensor values in normal adults are not appropriate for children with
      disabilities and should not be used. A much more accurate model is obtained using
      machine-learning-based nonlinear regression specifically developed for this
      target population.

PMID- 28582265
TI  - Application of fluence field modulation to proton computed tomography for proton
      therapy imaging.
AB  - This simulation study presents the application of fluence field modulated
      computed tomography, initially developed for x-ray CT, to proton computed
      tomography (pCT). By using pencil beam (PB) scanning, fluence modulated pCT
      (FMpCT) may achieve variable image quality in a pCT image and imaging dose
      reduction. Three virtual phantoms, a uniform cylinder and two patients, were
      studied using Monte Carlo simulations of an ideal list-mode pCT scanner. Regions
      of interest (ROI) were selected for high image quality and only PBs intercepting
      them preserved full fluence (FF). Image quality was investigated in terms of
      accuracy (mean) and noise (standard deviation) of the reconstructed proton
      relative stopping power compared to reference values. Dose calculation accuracy
      on FMpCT images was evaluated in terms of dose volume histograms (DVH), range
      difference (RD) for beam-eye-view (BEV) dose profiles and gamma evaluation.
      Pseudo FMpCT scans were created from broad beam experimental data acquired with a
      list-mode pCT prototype. FMpCT noise in ROIs was equivalent to FF images and
      accuracy better than  -1.3%(-0.7%) by using 1% of FF for the cylinder (patients).
      Integral imaging dose reduction of 37% and 56% was achieved for the two patients
      for that level of modulation. Corresponding DVHs from proton dose calculation on
      FMpCT images agreed to those from reference images and 96% of BEV profiles had RD
      below 2 mm, compared to only 1% for uniform 1% of FF. Gamma pass rates (2%, 2 mm)
      were 98% for FMpCT while for uniform 1% of FF they were as low as 59%. Applying
      FMpCT to preliminary experimental data showed that low noise levels and accuracy
      could be preserved in a ROI, down to 30% modulation. We have shown, using both
      virtual and experimental pCT scans, that FMpCT is potentially feasible and may
      allow a means of imaging dose reduction for a pCT scanner operating in PB
      scanning mode. This may be of particular importance to proton therapy given the
      low integral dose found outside the target.

PMID- 28582266
TI  - A beam monitoring and validation system for continuous line scanning in proton
      therapy.
AB  - Line scanning represents a faster and potentially more flexible form of pencil
      beam scanning than conventional step-and-shoot irradiations. It seeks to minimize
      dead times in beam delivery whilst preserving the possibility of modulating the
      dose at any point in the target volume. Our second generation proton gantry
      features irradiations in line scanning mode, but it still lacks a dedicated
      monitoring and validation system that guarantees patient safety throughout the
      irradiation. We report on its design and implementation in this paper. In line
      scanning, we steer the proton beam continuously along straight lines while
      adapting the speed and/or current frequently to modulate the delivered dose. We
      intend to prevent delivery errors that could be clinically relevant through a two
      stage system: safety level 1 monitors the beam current and position every 10 MUs.
      We demonstrate that direct readings from ionization chambers in the gantry nozzle
      and Hall probes in the scanner magnets provide required information on current
      and position, respectively. Interlocks will be raised when measured signals
      exceed their predefined tolerance bands. Even in case of an erroneous delivery,
      safety level 1 restricts hot and cold spots of the physically delivered fraction
      dose to  +/-[Formula: see text] (+/-[Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]
      biologically). In safety level 2-an additional, partly redundant validation step
      we compare the integral line profile measured with a strip monitor in the nozzle
      to a forward-calculated prediction. The comparison is performed between two line
      applications to detect amplifying inaccuracies in speed and current modulation.
      This level can be regarded as an online quality assurance of the machine. Both
      safety levels use devices and functionalities already installed along the
      beamline. Hence, the presented monitoring and validation system preserves full
      compatibility of discrete and continuous delivery mode on a single gantry, with
      the possibility of switching between modes during the application of a single
      field.

PMID- 28582267
TI  - Detection of anatomical changes in lung cancer patients with 2D time-integrated,
      2D time-resolved and 3D time-integrated portal dosimetry: a simulation study.
AB  - The aim of this work is to assess the performance of 2D time-integrated (2D-TI),
      2D time-resolved (2D-TR) and 3D time-integrated (3D-TI) portal dosimetry in
      detecting dose discrepancies between the planned and (simulated) delivered dose
      caused by simulated changes in the anatomy of lung cancer patients. For six lung
      cancer patients, tumor shift, tumor regression and pleural effusion are simulated
      by modifying their CT images. Based on the modified CT images, time-integrated
      (TI) and time-resolved (TR) portal dose images (PDIs) are simulated and 3D-TI
      doses are calculated. The modified and original PDIs and 3D doses are compared by
      a gamma analysis with various gamma criteria. Furthermore, the difference in the
      D 95% (DeltaD 95%) of the GTV is calculated and used as a gold standard. The
      correlation between the gamma fail rate and the DeltaD 95% is investigated, as
      well the sensitivity and specificity of all combinations of portal dosimetry
      method, gamma criteria and gamma fail rate threshold. On the individual patient
      level, there is a correlation between the gamma fail rate and the DeltaD 95%,
      which cannot be found at the group level. The sensitivity and specificity
      analysis showed that there is not one combination of portal dosimetry method,
      gamma criteria and gamma fail rate threshold that can detect all simulated
      anatomical changes. This work shows that it will be more beneficial to relate
      portal dosimetry and DVH analysis on the patient level, rather than trying to
      quantify a relationship for a group of patients. With regards to optimizing
      sensitivity and specificity, different combinations of portal dosimetry method,
      gamma criteria and gamma fail rate should be used to optimally detect certain
      types of anatomical changes.

PMID- 28582268
TI  - The influence of anisotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling on current-induced spin
      polarization in graphene.
AB  - We consider a disordered graphene layer with anisotropic Rashba spin-orbit
      coupling subjected to a longitudinal electric field. Using the linear response
      theory we calculate current-induced spin polarization including in-plane normal
      and parallel components with respect to the electric field direction. Unlike the
      case of isotropic Rashba spin-orbit where the normal component of spin
      polarization is linear in terms of Fermi energy around the Dirac point,
      anisotropic Rashba spin-orbit can result in non-linear dependence of this
      component at such energies within the Lifshitz points. Furthermore, we show that
      anisotropic Rashba interaction allows for tuning the direction of spin
      polarization from perpendicular direction to the parallel one such that for
      certain values of Rashba parameters the magnitudes of both components can also be
      quenched. The effect of carriers scattering on randomly distributed non-magnetic
      disorders is also taken into account by calculating vertex correction. This
      results in modification of spin polarization components depending on the relative
      strength of Rashba parameters.

PMID- 28582269
TI  - Automated diagnosis of prostate cancer in multi-parametric MRI based on
      multimodal convolutional neural networks.
AB  - Automated methods for prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis in multi-parametric
      magnetic resonance imaging (MP-MRIs) are critical for alleviating requirements
      for interpretation of radiographs while helping to improve diagnostic accuracy
      (Artan et al 2010 IEEE Trans. Image Process. 19 2444-55, Litjens et al 2014 IEEE
      Trans. Med. Imaging 33 1083-92, Liu et al 2013 SPIE Medical Imaging
      (International Society for Optics and Photonics) p 86701G, Moradi et al 2012 J.
      Magn. Reson. Imaging 35 1403-13, Niaf et al 2014 IEEE Trans. Image Process. 23
      979-91, Niaf et al 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 3833, Peng et al 2013a SPIE Medical
      Imaging (International Society for Optics and Photonics) p 86701H, Peng et al
      2013b Radiology 267 787-96, Wang et al 2014 BioMed. Res. Int. 2014). This paper
      presents an automated method based on multimodal convolutional neural networks
      (CNNs) for two PCa diagnostic tasks: (1) distinguishing between cancerous and
      noncancerous tissues and (2) distinguishing between clinically significant (CS)
      and indolent PCa. Specifically, our multimodal CNNs effectively fuse apparent
      diffusion coefficients (ADCs) and T2-weighted MP-MRI images (T2WIs). To
      effectively fuse ADCs and T2WIs we design a new similarity loss function to
      enforce consistent features being extracted from both ADCs and T2WIs. The
      similarity loss is combined with the conventional classification loss functions
      and integrated into the back-propagation procedure of CNN training. The
      similarity loss enables better fusion results than existing methods as the
      feature learning processes of both modalities are mutually guided, jointly
      facilitating CNN to 'see' the true visual patterns of PCa. The classification
      results of multimodal CNNs are further combined with the results based on
      handcrafted features using a support vector machine classifier. To achieve a
      satisfactory accuracy for clinical use, we comprehensively investigate three
      critical factors which could greatly affect the performance of our multimodal
      CNNs but have not been carefully studied previously. (1) Given limited training
      data, how can these be augmented in sufficient numbers and variety for fine
      tuning deep CNN networks for PCa diagnosis? (2) How can multimodal MP-MRI
      information be effectively combined in CNNs? (3) What is the impact of different
      CNN architectures on the accuracy of PCa diagnosis? Experimental results on
      extensive clinical data from 364 patients with a total of 463 PCa lesions and 450
      identified noncancerous image patches demonstrate that our system can achieve a
      sensitivity of 89.85% and a specificity of 95.83% for distinguishing cancer from
      noncancerous tissues and a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 76.92% for
      distinguishing indolent PCa from CS PCa. This result is significantly superior to
      the state-of-the-art method relying on handcrafted features.

PMID- 28582270
TI  - Conversion for Unfavorable Intraoperative Events Results in Significantly Worse
      Outcomes During Laparoscopic Liver Resection: Lessons Learned From a Multicenter
      Review of 2861 Cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors for conversion during laparoscopic
      liver resection and its effect on patient outcome in a large cohort of patients.
      Additional analysis of outcomes in patients who required conversion for
      unfavorable intraoperative findings and conversion for unfavorable intraoperative
      events will be performed to establish if the cause of conversion effects outcome.
      SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Multiple previous studies demonstrate that laparoscopic
      liver surgery reduces intraoperative blood loss, hospital stay, and morbidity
      while maintaining comparable oncological and survival outcomes when compared with
      open liver resections. However, limited information is available regarding the
      possible sequelae of conversion to open surgery, especially with regards to cause
      of conversion. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 2861 cases from prospectively
      maintained databases of 7 tertiary liver centers across Europe was performed.
      RESULTS: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, previous liver resection(s), resections for
      malignant lesions, postero-superior location, and the extent of the resection are
      associated with an increased risk of conversion. Patients who require conversion
      have longer operations with higher blood loss; a longer HDU and total hospital
      stay, increased frequency and severity of complications and higher 30- and 90-day
      mortality. Patients who had an elective conversion for an unfavorable
      intraoperative finding had better outcomes than patients who had an emergency
      conversion secondary to an unfavorable intraoperative event in terms of HDU and
      total hospital stay, severity of complication, and 90-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our study highlights the risk factors for conversion and suggests that conversion
      for unfavorable intraoperative events is associated with worse outcomes.

PMID- 28582271
TI  - Preoperative Oral Carbohydrate Load Versus Placebo in Major Elective Abdominal
      Surgery (PROCY): A Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Multicenter, Phase III Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore whether preoperative oral carbohydrate (CHO) loading could
      achieve a reduction in the occurrence of postoperative infections. BACKGROUND:
      Hyperglycemia may increase the risk of infection. Preoperative CHO loading can
      achieve postoperative glycemic control. METHODS: This was a randomized,
      controlled, multicenter, open-label trial. Nondiabetic adult patients who were
      candidates for elective major abdominal operation were randomized (1:1) to a CHO
      (preoperative oral intake of 800 mL of water containing 100 g of CHO) or placebo
      group (intake of 800 mL of water). The blood glucose level was measured every 4
      hours for 4 days. Insulin was administered when the blood glucose level was >180
      mg/dL. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of postoperative infection. The
      secondary endpoint was the number of patients needing insulin. RESULTS: From
      January 2011 through December 2015, 880 patients were randomly allocated to the
      CHO (n = 438) or placebo (n = 442) group. From each group, 331 patients were
      available for the analysis. Postoperative infection occurred in 16.3% (54/331) of
      CHO group patients and 16.0% (53/331) of placebo group patients (relative risk
      1.019, 95% confidence interval 0.720-1.442, P = 1.00). Insulin was needed in 8
      (2.4%) CHO group patients and 53 (16.0%) placebo group patients (relative risk
      0.15, 95% confidence interval 0.07-0.31, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Oral
      preoperative CHO load is effective for avoiding a blood glucose level >180 mg/dL,
      but without affecting the risk of postoperative infectious complication.

PMID- 28582273
TI  - Which Knife Was Used?: Using a Porcine Model to Assess Stab Wound Size.
AB  - Forensic pathologists who autopsy stab wound victims may be called upon to
      determine whether a specific weapon recovered as evidence caused the decedent's
      wounds. Some forensic training programs instruct pathologists to excise wounds
      and place them in formalin. There is little published information about the
      reliability of these assessments. To address these deficiencies, a porcine model
      was used to establish the limits of in situ knife wound measurements of wounds
      caused by 3 knives of different widths stabbed at 90 degrees to the skin surface.
      The results indicate that within the 95% confidence interval, most stab wounds
      when measured on the surface of the skin will be within 1 to 3 mm of the size of
      the knife blade. Four wounds from different anatomical areas of the pig were
      excised from the body, and after excision, their measurements differed from their
      in situ length. After fixation in a 10% buffered formalin solution, one wound
      stayed the same, one wound lengthened, one shrunk minimally, and the one from the
      thinner abdominal skin shrunk by 6 mm (11%). This study presents a porcine model
      that can be used to define parameters for testimony.

PMID- 28582274
TI  - Synchronous Ductal Carcinoma In Situ and Intravascular Large B-cell Lymphoma of
      the Breast.

PMID- 28582272
TI  - Ultrasound-Guided Steroid Injection of the Pisotriquetral Joint: A
      Multidisciplinary Effort.
AB  - From the perspective of a multidisciplinary team, the authors describe the first
      reported use of ultrasound guidance for steroid injection into the pisotriquetral
      joint to relieve wrist pain of a person with spinal cord injury undergoing acute
      inpatient rehabilitation. Musculoskeletal ultrasound guidance was used to improve
      the accuracy of a corticosteroid injection of the pisotriquetral joint and the
      basal thumb in a 70-year-old man with paraplegia experiencing multifocal
      degenerative wrist pain. There was no bleeding or bruising after the injections,
      and the patient reported complete pain resolution 1 wk after the injections,
      which continued for over 1 yr. A multidisciplinary team was key in diagnosis,
      selection of treatment, and evaluation of treatment effect. Corticosteroid
      injection of the pisotriquetral joint under ultrasound guidance can be used as a
      treatment modality for managing wrist pain stemming from that joint. Further
      investigation and studies evaluating the use of ultrasound versus other imaging
      modalities for injection of the wrist are indicated.

PMID- 28582275
TI  - Acute Isolated Paraplegia Revealing an Ewing Sarcoma of the Thoracic Spine.
AB  - Ewing sarcoma (ES) infrequently affects the spine. Diagnosis is usually made
      several weeks following growing symptoms. In this report, we present the case of
      a child with ES localized at the upper thoracic level. ES was revealed by
      isolated acute complete paraplegia mimicking medullary stroke. The girl was
      operated for decompressive laminectomy and tumor removal. Afterwards, she
      received adjuvant therapy. Subsequently, the child showed a slow improvement of
      her leg sensitivity associated with a partial motor recovery. ES can affect the
      mobile spine. Acute symptomatology due to intratumoral hemorrhage and sudden
      spinal cord compression may suggest the diagnosis. Neurological outcomes
      following ES are generally poor.

PMID- 28582277
TI  - Simulation-Based Assessment Identifies Longitudinal Changes in Cognitive Skills
      in an Anesthesiology Residency Training Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We describe observed improvements in nontechnical or "higher-order"
      deficiencies and cognitive performance skills in an anesthesia residency cohort
      for a 1-year time interval. Our main objectives were to evaluate higher-order,
      cognitive performance and to demonstrate that simulation can effectively serve as
      an assessment of cognitive skills and can help detect "higher-order"
      deficiencies, which are not as well identified through more traditional
      assessment tools. We hypothesized that simulation can identify longitudinal
      changes in cognitive skills and that cognitive performance deficiencies can then
      be remediated over time. METHODS: We used 50 scenarios evaluating 35 residents
      during 2 subsequent years, and 18 of those 35 residents were evaluated in both
      years (post graduate years 3 then 4) in the same or similar scenarios. Individual
      basic knowledge and cognitive performance during simulation-based scenarios were
      assessed using a 20- to 27-item scenario-specific checklist. Items were labeled
      as basic knowledge/technical (lower-order cognition) or advanced
      cognitive/nontechnical (higher-order cognition). Identical or similar scenarios
      were repeated annually by a subset of 18 residents during 2 successive academic
      years. For every scenario and item, we calculated group error scenario rate
      (frequency) and individual (resident) item success. Grouped individuals' success
      rates are calculated as mean (SD), and item success grade and group error rates
      are calculated and presented as proportions. For all analyses, alpha level is
      0.05. RESULTS: Overall PGY4 residents' error rates were lower and success rates
      higher for the cognitive items compared with technical item performance in the
      operating room and resuscitation domains. In all 3 clinical domains, the
      cognitive error rate by PGY4 residents was fairly low (0.00-0.22) and the
      cognitive success rate by PGY4 residents was high (0.83-1.00) and significantly
      better compared with previous annual assessments (P < 0.05). Overall, there was
      an annual decrease in error rates for 2 years, primarily driven by decreases in
      cognitive errors. The most commonly observed cognitive error types remained
      anchoring, availability bias, premature closure, and confirmation bias.
      CONCLUSIONS: Simulation-based assessments can highlight cognitive performance
      areas of relative strength, weakness, and progress in a resident or resident
      cohort. We believe that they can therefore be used to inform curriculum
      development including activities that require higher-level cognitive processing.

PMID- 28582276
TI  - BIOMARKERS OF NEOVASCULAR ACTIVITY IN AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION USING
      OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the qualitative and quantitative features of choroidal
      neovascular (NV) membranes in age-related macular degeneration using optical
      coherence tomography angiography in patients with active and quiescent NV lesions
      before and after treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor. METHODS:
      Macular optical coherence tomography angiography images were obtained using RTVue
      XR Avanti with AngioVue. Morphologic features and quantitative measurements of
      the NV lesion were analyzed using en face projection images. The NV lesion was
      subdivided into inner segment and outer fringe for further fractal dimension
      analysis. RESULTS: In a series of 31 eyes, 11 eyes with active NV lesions at
      baseline and after consecutive follow-up after treatment with anti-vascular
      endothelial growth factor therapy and 20 eyes with quiescent NV lesions were
      included in this study. Morphologically, all the quiescent NV lesions versus
      63.6% of the active NV lesions demonstrated a prominent central vessel and active
      leasions demonstrated a greater rate of small vessels branching (82%) and
      peripheral arcades (82%) than quiescent lesions (30% and 40% respectively) and
      this was statistically significant. The lesion area and vessel density was not
      statistically significantly different after treatment or versus quiescent lesions
      although the latter lesions were reduced in area. Lesion pattern complexity
      measured by the fractal dimension was statistically significantly lower in the
      inner part of the lesion after treatment and statistically significantly lower in
      the total lesion of the quiescent NV compared with the active NV. CONCLUSION:
      Optical coherence tomography angiography is a new, noninvasive imaging modality
      that can be used to perform qualitative and quantitative analyses of NV lesions.
      In the future, OCT angiography may provide biomarkers of activity and guide the
      evaluation and treatment and monitoring of neovascularization in age-related
      macular degeneration.

PMID- 28582278
TI  - Exosomes From Adipose-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Protect the Myocardium
      Against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury Through Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling Pathway.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their secreted exosomes exert a
      cardioprotective role in jeopardized myocardium. However, the specific effects
      and underlying mechanisms of exosomes derived from adipose-derived MSCs (ADMSCs)
      on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remain largely unclear. In this
      study, ADMSC-derived exosomes (ADMSCs-ex) were administrated into the rats
      subjected to I/R injury and H9c2 cells exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R).
      Consequently, administration of ADMSCs-ex significantly reduced I/R-induced
      myocardial infarction, accompanied with a decrease in serum levels of creatine
      kinase-myocardial band, lactate dehydrogenase, and cardiac troponin I (cTnI).
      Simultaneously, ADMSCs-ex dramatically antagonized I/R-induced myocardial
      apoptosis, along with the upregulation of Bcl-2 and downregulation of Bax, and
      inhibition of Caspase 3 activity in rat myocardium. Similarly, ADMSCs-ex
      significantly reduced cell apoptosis and the expression of Bax, but markedly
      increased cell viability and the expression of Bcl-2 and Cyclin D1 under H/R.
      Furthermore, ADMSCs-ex observably induced the activation of Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling by attenuating I/R- and H/R-induced inhibition of Wnt3a, p-GSK-3beta
      (Ser9), and beta-catenin expression. Importantly, treatment with Wnt/beta-catenin
      inhibitor XAV939 partly neutralized ADMSC-ex-induced antiapoptotic and
      prosurvival effects in H9c2 cells. In conclusion, we confirmed that ADMSCs-ex
      protect ischemic myocardium from I/R injury through the activation of Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28582279
TI  - Prevalence and influence on outcome of HER2/neu, HER3 and NRG1 expression in
      patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
AB  - Our aim was to explore the impact of the HER2/neu, HER3 receptor as well as their
      ligands' neuregulin (NRG1) expression on the outcome of patients with metastatic
      colorectal cancer (mCRC). NRG1, HER2/neu and HER3 expression was evaluated in 208
      patients with mCRC receiving 5-FU/LV plus irinotecan or irinotecan plus
      oxaliplatin as the first-line treatment. Biomarker expression was correlated with
      the outcome of patients. NRG1 (low: 192 vs. high: 16), HER2/neu (low: 201 vs.
      high: 7) and HER3 (low: 69 vs. high: 139) expressions were assessed in 208
      patients. High versus low NRG1 expression significantly affected progression-free
      survival (PFS) [4.7 vs. 8.2 months, hazard ratio (HR): 2.45; 95% confidence
      interval (CI): 1.45-4.13; P=0.001], but not overall survival (OS) (15.5 vs. 20.7
      months, HR: 1.33; 95% CI: 0.76-2.35; P=0.32). High versus low HER3 expression
      (PFS: 7.1 vs. 8.8 months, HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.82-1.50; P=0.50; OS: 19.8 vs. 21.1
      months, HR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.70-1.30; P=0.75) and high compared with low HER2/neu
      expression (PFS: 7.7 vs. 8.0 months, HR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.71-1.60; P=0.75; OS:
      16.6 vs. 21.1 months, HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.75-1.71; P=0.57) did not influence
      outcome. High NRG1 expression was associated with inferior PFS in the FIRE-1
      trial. We did not detect a prognostic impact of HER2/neu and HER3 overexpression
      in mCRC. The frequency of overexpression was comparable with other studies.

PMID- 28582280
TI  - Lorazepam Challenge for Individuals at Varying Genetic Risk for Alzheimer
      Disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study set out to clarify the differential acute cognitive
      impact of lorazepam based on varying genetic risk for Alzheimer disease. METHODS:
      Fifty-seven cognitively unimpaired individuals aged 51 to 88, genotyped according
      to apolipoprotein E (APOE) and translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane (40
      homolog) poly-T lengths, completed cognitive testing before, 2.5 and 5 hours
      after receiving a 1 mg dose of lorazepam. RESULTS: Post-lorazepam, there were
      significant (P<0.05) declines from baseline in memory, psychomotor processing
      speed, and executive function. At 2.5 hours, the magnitude of this lorazepam
      induced cognitive change was significantly greater in the APOE3/4 group than in
      the APOE3/3 group for tests of working memory and visuospatial memory/executive
      function. At 5 hours postchallenge, verbal memory and working memory deficits
      persisted in the APOE3/4 group compared with the APOE3/3 group. At 5 hours after
      lorazepam challenge, as compared with the very long/very long group, the
      short/short group performed slightly worse on a test of working memory (P<0.05),
      but no other differences were observed among translocase of the outer
      mitochondrial membrane 40 homolog poly-T variant groups. DISCUSSION: The
      lorazepam challenge may be unmasking presymptomatic cognitive dysfunction
      associated with APOE4 carriage.

PMID- 28582281
TI  - Relation between secondhand smoke exposure and cardiovascular risk factors in
      never smokers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Secondhand smoke exposure (SHSE) in nonsmokers has been associated
      with premature cardiovascular mortality and ischemic heart disease. We conducted
      a cross-sectional, population-based study evaluating the relationship between
      SHSE, measured by subjective and objective methods, and conventional
      cardiovascular risks such as blood pressure, lipid profiles, and fasting glucose.
      METHODS: We extracted information on 7376 healthy adults who had never smoked,
      for whom there were available urine cotinine levels, from the Korea National
      Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008-2011. SHSE was defined using self
      report questionnaires and urine cotinine levels. The main outcomes included SBP
      and DBP, serum lipid profiles, and fasting glucose. RESULTS: The mean age of the
      study population was 45.4 +/- 0.4 years and 75.2% were women. Self-reported SHSE
      had no significant association with study outcomes except for DBP, which had
      marginally positive relationships (P = 0.060). Unadjusted analysis showed higher
      cotinine levels were associated with lower SBP, total cholesterol, LDL
      cholesterol, and triglyceride. All associations lost statistical significance
      after multivariable adjustment. Fasting glucose had a positive relationship with
      urine cotinine in quartiles but not with logarithm-transformed cotinine.
      CONCLUSION: Although SHSE is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular
      mortality and morbidity, we did not find any consistent relationship among SHSE
      and blood pressure, lipid, or fasting glucose levels in this cross-sectional
      study. Using objective measurements of urine cotinine did not alter this
      relationship. Further long-term prospective studies are needed to evaluate the
      effect of SHSE as a cardiovascular risk factor.

PMID- 28582282
TI  - Improved treatment and control of hypertension in Swedish primary care: results
      from the Swedish primary care cardiovascular database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study temporal trends in hypertension treatment and control in
      Swedish primary care, in relation to clinical characteristics, comorbidity, and
      drug treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Repeated cross-sectional analysis of 43
      239 hypertensive patients attending primary care in 2001-2002 and of 62 407
      patients in 2007-2008. RESULTS: Mean blood pressure (BP) 2007-2008 was 143/79
      mmHg in women and 142/81 mmHg in men. Cardiovascular comorbidity and diabetes
      were present in 13 and 15% of women, and in 18 and 20% of men. Overall BP
      reductions from 2001-2002 to 2007-2008 were 9.0/3.1 mmHg; greater in women than
      men, with advancing age, and in patients with comorbidity (all P < 0.001).
      Attainment of target BP (<140/90 mmHg) increased from 24 and 26% in women and men
      (2001-2002) to 37 and 37% (2007-2008; all P < 0.001). Most common drug classes in
      2001-2002 were, in descending frequency, beta blockers, diuretics, and calcium
      channel blockers (both sexes), and in 2007-2008 beta blockers, diuretics, and
      angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in women, and beta blockers, angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors, and diuretics in men. The number of drug
      classes/patient increased from 1.5 (2001-2002) to 1.8 (2007-2008; P < 0.001) but
      remained low (1.7) in those above target BP. CONCLUSION: BP control in
      hypertensive patients attending Swedish primary care has improved over 5-7 years,
      and more so in high-risk groups. There is, however, room for improvement. In
      uncontrolled hypertension the combination of several drug classes remain low.

PMID- 28582283
TI  - Reservoir pressure analysis of aortic blood pressure: an in-vivo study at five
      locations in humans.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The development and propagation of the aortic blood pressure wave
      remains poorly understood, despite its clear relevance to major organ blood flow
      and potential association with cardiovascular outcomes. The reservoir pressure
      model provides a unified description of the dual conduit and reservoir functions
      of the aorta. Reservoir waveform analysis resolves the aortic pressure waveform
      into an excess (wave related) and reservoir (compliance related) pressure. The
      applicability of this model to the pressure waveform as it propagates along the
      aorta has not been investigated in humans. METHODS: We analysed invasively
      acquired high-fidelity aortic pressure waveforms from 40 patients undergoing
      clinically indicated coronary catheterization. Aortic waveforms were measured
      using a solid-state pressure catheter at five anatomical sites: the ascending
      aorta, the transverse aortic arch, the diaphragm, the level of the renal
      arteries, and at the aortic bifurcation. Ensemble average pressure waveforms were
      obtained for these sites for each patient and analysed to obtain the reservoir
      pressure [Pr(t)] and the excess pressure [Px(t)] at each aortic position.
      RESULTS: Systolic blood pressure increased at a rate of 2.1 mmHg per site along
      the aorta, whereas diastolic blood pressure was effectively constant. Maximum Pr
      decreased only slightly along the aorta (changing by -0.7 mmHg per site), whereas
      the maximum of Px increased from the proximal to distal aorta (+4.1 mmHg per
      site; P < 0.001). The time, relative to the start of systolic upstroke, of the
      occurrence of the maximum excess pressure did not vary along the aorta. Of the
      parameters used to derive the reservoir pressure waveform the systolic and
      diastolic rate constants showed divergent changes with the systolic rate constant
      (ks) decreasing and the diastolic rate constant (kd) increasing along the aorta.
      CONCLUSIONS: This analysis confirms the proposition that the magnitude of the
      calculated reservoir pressure waveform, despite known changes in aortic
      structure, is effectively constant throughout the aorta. A progressive increase
      of excess pressure accounts for the increase in pulse pressure from the proximal
      to distal aorta. The reservoir pressure rate constants seem to behave as arterial
      functional parameters. The accompanying decrease in ks and increase in kd are
      consistent with a progressive decrease in aortic compliance and increase in
      impedance. The reservoir pressure waveform therefore provides a model that might
      have utility in understanding the generation of central blood pressure and in
      specific cases might have clinical utility.

PMID- 28582285
TI  - Guidelines, position studies, and blood vessel research.

PMID- 28582284
TI  - Favourable impact of statin use on diastolic blood pressure levels: analysis of a
      large database of 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Assumption of lipid-lowering drugs, mostly statins, is recommended
      at bed-time and evidence demonstrated a strong and independent correlation
      between night-time blood pressure (BP) and increased risk of cardiovascular
      events. AIM: To evaluate the effects of statins on night-time BP levels. METHODS:
      We analysed data derived from a large cohort of adult individuals, who
      consecutively underwent home, clinic and ambulatory BP monitoring at our Unit.
      All BP measurements were performed and BP thresholds were set according to
      recommendations from European guidelines. Study population was stratified
      according to statin use. RESULTS: We included an overall sample of 5634 adult
      individuals (women 48.9%, age 60.5 +/- 11.6 years, BMI 27.0 +/- 4.6 kg/m, clinic
      BP 144.3 +/- 18.4/90.9 +/- 12.4 mmHg, 24-h BP 130.7 +/- 13.4/79.0 +/- 9.7 mmHg),
      among whom 17.3% received and 82.7% did not received statins. Treated outpatients
      were older, had higher BMI and prevalence of risk factors and comorbidities than
      those who were untreated (P < 0.001 for all). Patients treated with statins
      showed lower DBP levels at all BP measurements, including night-time (67.3 +/-
      9.4 vs. 70.9 +/- 9.7 mmHg; P < 0.001) periods, than those observed in untreated
      patients. Also, statin use resulted an independent factor associated with 24-h
      [odds ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.513(1.295-1.767); P < 0.001] and night
      time [odds ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.357(1.161-1.587); P < 0.001] BP
      control, even after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, diabetes, number of
      antihypertensive drugs (model 1) or presence/absence of antihypertensive
      treatment (model 2). CONCLUSION: Statin use was associated with significantly
      lower DBP levels. These effects were independently observed, even after
      correction for cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities, as well as number
      of antihypertensive drugs.

PMID- 28582286
TI  - Rapidly Progressive Maxillary Atelectasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Report of a patient with rapidly progressive maxillary atelectasis
      documented by sequential imaging. CLINICAL REPORT: A 51-year-old man, presented
      with left periorbital and retro-orbital pain associated with left nasal
      obstruction. An initial computed tomographic (CT) scan of the paranasal sinuses
      failed to reveal any significant abnormality. A subsequent CT scan, indicated for
      recurrence of symptoms 11 months later, showed significant maxillary atelectasis.
      An uncinectomy, maxillary antrostomy, and anterior ethmoidectomy resulted in a
      complete resolution of the symptoms. CONCLUSION: Chronic maxillary atelectasis is
      most commonly a consequence of chronic rhinosinusitis. All previous reports have
      indicated a chronic process but lacked documentation of the course of the
      disease. This report documents a patient of rapidly progressive chronic maxillary
      atelectasis with CT scans that demonstrate changes in the maxillary sinus (from
      normal to atelectatic) within 11 months.

PMID- 28582287
TI  - Does Cleft Palate Width Correlate With Veau Classification and Outcome?
AB  - PURPOSE: Wider cleft palates are thought to be associated with increased
      complications and poorer outcomes following cleft palate repair. Objective cleft
      palate photographic measurement and assessment of complications have not been
      previously performed. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively characterize
      a series of cleft palate dimensions and to investigate possible correlations with
      Veau classification and intra-, peri-, and postoperative outcomes. METHODS: The
      analytic sample included primary cleft palate repairs performed by the senior
      author over a 2-year period. Standard photographs of clefts taken at the time of
      repair were analyzed using Image-J software. Demographic, intraoperative,
      perioperative, and postoperative information were collected. Width measurements
      were correlated with Veau classification, intraoperative variables, perioperative
      variables, and adverse outcomes. Statistical tests performed included simple
      regression analyses and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Out of 70
      patients, 50 had adequate photographic documentation for inclusion in the study;
      44% of patients were classified as Veau I with an average cleft width of 5.4 mm,
      28% Veau II with an average of 8.9 mm, 16% Veau III with an average of 11.3 mm,
      and 12% Veau IV with an average of 10.0 mm. No patients exhibited postoperative
      bleeding, dehiscence, airway problems, infection, fistula formation, or return to
      the operating room. The authors found that increasing cleft width significantly
      predicts increasing Veau classification (P < 0.01), increasing operating time (P
      < 0.05), increased hypernasality (P < 0.05), and speech delay (P < 0.001).
      Additionally, the presence of an intentional alveolar fistula (Veau III or Veau
      IV clefts) significantly predicts fluid emission (P < 0.001) but cleft width did
      not predict fluid emission. Increased cleft width did not significantly predict
      length of stay. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that wider preoperative cleft
      palates correlate with Veau classification, increased operating time, and
      slightly worsened postoperative sequela. There were no perioperative instances of
      bleeding, dehiscence, respiratory complications, infection, fistula formation,
      and return to operating room. Hypernasality and speech delay were associated with
      increased cleft palate width. Length of stay did not correlate with cleft palate
      width.

PMID- 28582288
TI  - Survey of Ocular Prosthetics Rehabilitation in the United Kingdom, Part 2:
      Anophthalmic Patients' Satisfaction and Acceptance.
AB  - AIM: Ocular prostheses are integral for anophthalmic patients. Part 1 of this
      study reported that patients' aetiology, opinions, and attitudes significantly
      affected their prosthetic eyes experience. Part 2 investigates the patient
      satisfaction and acceptance in light of some of the aetiological demographics
      reported in Part 1. METHODOLOGY: One hundred sixty questionnaires were delivered
      to anophthalmic patients attending oculoplastic clinic. Etiological aspects
      presented in the questionnaire were disseminated in part 1. Patient satisfaction
      was assessed through 8 closed-end statements reflecting aspects concerning
      patient's views on prosthesis comfort and appearance; patient's expectations,
      self-esteem, and perception; and cooperation with ocularist. Each statement had 3
      categories as agree, moderately agree, and disagree. A total of 126
      questionnaires were returned (response rate was 78.8%). Data was analyzed using
      SPSS software. Association coefficients and correlations between variables were
      also analyzed. RESULTS: Total number of responses for the 8 statements was 888,
      averaging of 111 (expected 126) respondent per statement. Overall, 95.4% of our
      patients agreed with all satisfaction statements presented echoing very high
      satisfaction rate with their ocular prosthetics. Having an eye replacement that
      covers the defect is associated with high satisfaction among patients regardless
      of ocular prosthetic type. Patient acceptance of prosthesis in relation to
      employment status was high but not the same among the different categories (P >
      0.05). High satisfaction with ocular prosthetics was prevalent among both
      genders, but there were no statistically significant differences in percentages
      of agreement in all statements (P > 0.05). Satisfaction and acceptance with
      ocular prosthetics was the same among all age groups of 12 to 85 years old (P >
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The patient satisfaction is associated with the interplay of
      different variables that is related to ocular prosthesis design and its ability
      to disguise disfigurement (ie, prosthesis shape, resemblance to existing contra
      lateral eye, etc.); patients themselves (ie, gender, age, occupation, marital
      status, etc); and psychological well-being and social support provided.
      Anophthalmic patients of the north west of England are significantly happy with
      their ocular prosthetic rehabilitation and support they receive from their
      regional hospital. Ocular prosthetics enhances their psychological well-being and
      social interaction and factors like patients' sex, age, employment status, and
      type of ocular prosthesis have no effect on their acceptance and satisfaction.

PMID- 28582290
TI  - Atypical Growing Pattern of Superficial Temporal Artery Pseudoaneurysm.
AB  - Superficial temporal artery pseudoaneurysm is rare and usually caused by trauma.
      Pseudoaneurysms have been reported to occur most frequently from 2 to 6 weeks
      after trauma and they range from 1 to 3 cm in diameter. The authors present a
      case of a patient with an atypical delayed rapid growing pseudoaneurysm, who had
      undergone neurosurgery after head trauma 20 years ago.A 72-year-old woman
      underwent craniotomy and extradural hemorrhage removal through a left
      temporoparietal incision caused by head trauma after a traffic accident 20 years
      prior. The mass of less than 1 cm in diameter was incidentally found by magnetic
      resonance imaging 8 years ago. However, the patient had no symptoms and the
      pseudoaneurysm was not considered a significant finding. Several weeks ago, the
      patient recognized a palpable mass by chance. She observed it without any medical
      evaluation and treatment. However, the size of the mass suddenly increased
      without the patient undergoing trauma. It presented as a soft, pulsating round
      mass of about 3 cm in diameter. Under general anesthesia, the mass was removed
      without problems. It was a round-shaped mass of 2.2 cm * 2.4 cm in diameter. The
      transverse cross-section evidenced it was filled with blood clots. The biopsy
      revealed a dilated vascular wall with an organized thrombus and
      neovascularization, which are characteristic for a thrombosed
      pseudoaneurysm.Thus, given that a pseudoaneurysm can grow at any time, medical
      doctors should strongly consider surgical removal as opposed to simple
      observation.

PMID- 28582289
TI  - Chondroid Syringoma of a Cheek.
AB  - Chondroid syringoma is an unusual, benign skin appendageal tumor originating from
      the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands resembling mixed tumors of the salivary
      glands. It develops as a slow-enlarging, small, cutaneous nodule or mass. The
      lesions are usually seen in older men on head and neck. This is a clinical report
      of a 46-year-old lady who presented with a slowly growing nodular protruding mass
      in a cheek. The clinical and histologic findings of the tumor are demonstrated.
      The clinician and the pathologist should take into account the tumor among
      differential diagnosis not to overlook the lesion. Total surgical excision is
      needed with a long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28582291
TI  - Craniofacial Surgery Fellowship Selection Criteria: A National Program Director
      Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Candidate characteristics for craniofacial fellowship training still
      remain unknown, as no data are available in the literature. This study aims to
      provide information on the criteria that are used to select and rank applicants
      for the craniofacial surgery fellowship match. METHOD: A 38-question survey was
      sent in April 2015 to all craniofacial surgery fellowship program directors (n =
      29) involved in the US match using QuestionPro Survey Software. The survey
      investigated factors used for selection of applicants, including medical school,
      residency training, research experience, fellowship interview, and candidate
      characteristics. A 5-point Likert scale was used to grade 33 factors from "not at
      all important" (1) to "essential in making my decision" (5); or for 5
      controversial factors from "very negative impact" (1) to "very positive impact in
      making my decision" (5). RESULTS: A total of 62% (18 out of 29) of responses were
      received from craniofacial surgery program directors. The most important factors
      were professionalism and ethics (4.7 +/- 0.5), perceived commitment to
      craniofacial surgery (4.6 +/- 0.8), interactions with faculty and staff (4.5 +/-
      0.5), interpersonal skills (4.5 +/- 0.5), and overall interview performance (4.4
      +/- 0.6). Factors that have a negative impact on the selection process include
      graduation from a nonplastic surgery residency program (1.9 +/- 0.7) or a non-US
      plastic surgery residency program (2.2 +/- 0.6), and visa requirement (2.2 +/-
      0.5). CONCLUSION: This study provides data on craniofacial surgery program
      directors' perception on the criteria important for fellowship applicant
      selection. It is our hope that program directors, residency programs, and
      applicants find this data useful as they prepare for the craniofacial fellowship
      match.

PMID- 28582293
TI  - Alveolar Bone Grafting Changes the Inclination of Teeth and Affects Malocclusion
      in Patients With Unilateral Alveolar Cleft.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Alveolar bone grafting not only stabilizes the alveolar arch, but
      also provides positive aesthetic outcomes. However, there have been no reports
      about the inclinations of the incisor and canine or the change in occlusion after
      alveolar bone grafting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the
      effects of alveolar bone grafting on tooth angles and changes in occlusion in
      patients with a unilateral alveolar cleft, using three-dimensional computed
      tomography. METHODS: The authors retrospectively studied alveolar bone grafts
      performed in Konkuk University Medical Center between January 2008 and January
      2013. A total of 40 patients with unilateral alveolar cleft were included in this
      study; the authors measured the changes in tooth angles and changes in anterior
      and molar occlusion before and after bone grafting. RESULTS: Of the 40 patients
      enrolled, 21 completed follow-up and had adequate computed tomography imaging
      studies. Ten patients who were lost during the follow-up period, and 9 with
      inadequate images, were excluded. The anterior occlusion increased from -2.21 to
      0.19 mm (P < 0.0001) and the molar occlusion increased from 0.75 to 2.10 (P <
      0.0001). The dental angle decreased from 25.23 degrees  to 15.32 degrees  (P =
      0.001). DISCUSSION: Alveolar bone grafting provides support to the tooth root and
      changes the inclination of the tooth, resulting in changes in occlusion and
      positive aesthetic outcomes.

PMID- 28582294
TI  - Autologous Fat Injection for Treatment of Velopharyngeal Insufficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Management of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) has traditionally
      involved surgical repair to improve speech. Posterior pharyngeal augmentation
      using injectable synthetic materials has been advocated. However, outcomes have
      been equivocal. More recently, autologous fat injection (AFI) has been advocated
      for correction of mild to moderate VPI. However, long-term efficacy and safety of
      this procedure remain unsettled. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature
      was performed. Available studies that reported outcomes of autologous fat
      velopharyngeal injection for treatment of documented VPI were included.
      Preclinical animal studies were excluded. Study characteristics, patient
      demographics, treatment details including fat harvest site, volume injected, and
      outcome measures were evaluated. RESULTS: Fifteen studies met inclusion criteria,
      yielding 251 patients who underwent AFI. There was high variability in terms of
      indications for procedure and reporting of outcomes. Majority of studies required
      velopharyngeal gap closure of at least 50% in order to undergo AFI. Most common
      etiology of VPI was secondary to cleft palate. Some studies included patients
      with velocardiofacial syndromes. Improvements in speech and nasalance were
      reported in a majority of patients. Major complications were rare. Only 1 patient
      with graft hypertrophy resulting in obstructive sleep apnea was reported.
      CONCLUSION: Autologous fat injection offers a minimally invasive approach to the
      treatment of VPI. Current literature is limited to small noncomparative studies.
      These appear to suggest efficacy and safety in mild to moderate patients with
      VPI. Future prospective studies with standardized technique and objective
      outcomes are required to definitively establish its safety and efficacy, as well
      as define patient selection criteria.

PMID- 28582295
TI  - Cephalometric Improvement of Severe Microretrognathia With an Anterior Open Bite
      Using Curvilinear Mandibular Distraction Osteogenesis.
AB  - Curvilinear mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO) provides for
      multidimensional augmentation and rotation in mandibles with complex, abnormal
      morphology. This study aims to demonstrate cephalometric changes after
      curvilinear MDO.A prospectively maintained craniofacial database was queried for
      patients undergoing curvilinear MDO from 2009 to 2015. Demographic and operative
      data were collected. Cephalometric measurements were obtained from preoperative
      and postdistraction imaging, including sella-nasion-B point angle (SNB),
      mandibular plane angle (MPA), occlusal plane angle (OPA), and gonial angle (GA).
      Measurements were compared using a paired t test.Nine patients exhibiting
      microretrognathia and an anterior open-bite deformity had a mean age of 8.4 +/-
      6.0 years and a mean follow-up of 23.2 +/- 25.3 months. Mean distance distracted
      was 32.6 +/- 7.2 mm, with augmentation in length and height, and rotatory closure
      of anterior open bites. Preoperative SNB versus postdistraction was 66.9 +/- 4.2
      versus 78 +/- 9.1 degrees  (P = 0.0029). MPA, OPA, and GA all decreased (61.0 +/-
      10.7 vs. 45.7 +/- 11.1 degrees , P = 0.0066, 37.3 +/- 8.9 vs. 25.7 +/- 6.0
      degrees , P = 0.0025, 140.3 +/- 16.1 vs. 127.3 +/- 13.2 degrees , P = 0.0019,
      MPA, OPA, and GA, respectively), trending toward normalization. Airway diameter
      increased by 7.1 +/- 2.8 mm. Anterior bite improved by 7.2 +/- 1.9 mm.
      Complications arose in 2 subjects including device malfunction and wound
      infection.Curvilinear MDO results in dramatic cephalometric improvement in
      patients with severe microretrognathia and anterior open-bite. The procedure is
      associated with a high rate of complications, and long-term stability of movement
      has yet to be documented.

PMID- 28582296
TI  - Free Vastus Intermedius Muscle Flap: A Successful Alternative for Complex
      Reconstruction of the Neurocranium in Preoperated Patients.
AB  - The reconstruction of large cranial and scalp defects is a surgical and esthetic
      challenge. Single autologous tissue transfer can be insufficient due to the
      defect size and the anatomic complexity of the recipient site. Alloplastic
      patient-specific preformed implants can be used to recover hard tissue defects of
      the neurocranium. Nevertheless, for long-term success adequate soft tissue
      support is required. In this brief clinical study, the authors describe calvarian
      reconstruction in a 33-year-old patient with wound healing disorder after an
      initial resection of ependymoma. The patient suffered from osteonecrosis and
      wound breakdown in the fronto-parietal region. An alloplastic
      polymethylmethacrylate implant for hard tissue support was manufactured based on
      3-dimensional visualization of a computed tomography scan. After the resection of
      remaining pathologic bone from earlier surgical procedures, the alloplastic
      implant was inserted to achieve functional coverage of the brain. Due to anatomic
      variation of donor site vessels during anterolateral thigh flap preparation, the
      authors performed a vastus intermedius free flap as a new muscular flap for
      craniofacial reconstruction. The authors achieved excellent functional and
      esthetic results. The muscular vastus intermedius free flap in combination with a
      split skin graft proves to be a new alternative to the anterolateral thigh flap
      for soft tissue reconstruction of the neurocranium.

PMID- 28582297
TI  - Loco-Regional Control With Complete Resection and Tongue Reconstruction on the
      Malignant Melanoma in the Tongue.
AB  - Primary malignant melanoma in the tongue is very uncommon disease that is
      considered low in comparison to cutaneous melanoma. In this report, the authors
      described a case of the hemitongue reconstruction with fasciocutaneous free flap
      on the patient who suffered from the malignant melanoma primarily originating
      from the base of the tongue that was treated with surgery and radiotherapy but
      developed a lung metastasis. A 76-year-old man was referred to the
      otorhinolaryngology clinic after complaining of a painful mass present for 3
      months on the right side of the tongue. A punch biopsy was revealed atypical
      cells with pigmentation that is consistent with malignant melanoma. After wide
      excision and bilateral neck dissection performed, hemipartial tongue
      reconstruction was done using a radial forearm free flap. The patient had an
      uneventful recovery and received a course of radiotherapy along with follow-up
      examinations for 3 years. The authors report this rare patient for providing the
      other surgeons with the useful information regarding the management of the
      malignant melanoma on the tongue with free flap reconstruction which turned out
      to be successful in loco-regional control.

PMID- 28582298
TI  - Flail Mandible and Immediate Airway Management: Traumatic Detachment of
      Mandibular Lingual Cortex Results in Obstructive Dyspnea and Severe Odynophagia.
AB  - Isolated mandibular fractures usually represent themselves as non-life
      threatening injuries and are not treated in emergency setting. However, some rare
      patterns of them may result in airway obstruction as a result of displacement of
      bony fragments. The authors report a patient of an open comminuted fracture of
      mandibular symphysis which exhibited an uncommon split pattern with retrogression
      of lingual cortical plate, and thereby induced glossoptosis, painful deglutition,
      and obstruction of the upper airway within a few hours. The patient underwent
      immediate intubation for establishing a definitive airway, followed by open
      reduction and internal fixation of fracture. Surgical airway management was not
      needed. Anatomic reduction of the fracture was achieved, by reestablishing the
      patency of upper airway and resolving the painful deglutition. Patient's
      occlusion and mouth opening returned to the preinjury status. Timely
      osteosynthesis surgery offered early relief of patient's signs and symptoms,
      prevented airway complications and development of traumatic mandibular
      osteomyelitis, as well as obviated the potential need for surgical airway
      management. The appropriate management of mandibular fractures placing the airway
      at risk requires immediate diagnosis based on knowledge of specific clinical and
      radiographic findings. This case emphasizes that emergency clinicians should be
      able to distinguish those patients who will need airway securing techniques in
      emergent or prophylactic context, due to an uncommon fracture pattern of facial
      skeleton. Moreover, emergency clinicians should be conversant with wiring
      techniques to achieve stabilization of the mandibular framework and to control
      the pain, hemorrhage, and airway patency.

PMID- 28582299
TI  - Face of Noma and Extreme Poverty: Development of an Economic Index Derivable From
      Health Data.
AB  - Health is wealth. Economics is creation of wealth. There is a direct relationship
      between health and economics. Noma, associated with extreme poverty, can be used
      as an economic index.

PMID- 28582300
TI  - Analyzing the Cost of Autogenous Cranioplasty Versus Custom-Made Patient-Specific
      Alloplastic Cranioplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: Comparing expenses related to autogenous cranial vault reconstruction
      versus custom-made patient-specific alloplastic cranioplasty. METHODS: The
      authors retrospectively reviewed charts of a group of patients who underwent
      autogenous cranioplasty and poly-ether-ether ketone (PEEK) cranioplasty. The data
      collected from the patient files included demographic information, details of the
      surgery, postoperative recovery data, and also duration of surgery. The authors
      also added costs related to the length of surgery, utilization of intensive care
      unit, length of hospital stay, amount and seriousness of complications, and
      hardware cost. The outcomes were studied in terms of skull form maintenance and
      complications.Eleven of our patients had PEEK cranioplasty at Sunnybrook
      Hospital, Toronto, ON, in the period from July 2009 to June 2011. The authors
      identified 11 patients who had split skull autogenous bone graft cranioplasty.
      They were matched for age and skull defect size.Comparable information was
      collected for both patient groups. The information was examined to compare costs
      of custom-made patient-specific alloplastic implants and costs of autogenous
      cranioplasty. RESULTS: Conclusions made from this paper will hopefully serve as
      guidance for allocation of hospital funding and resources at the Ministry of
      Health level.

PMID- 28582301
TI  - Reducing Postoperative Bleeding After Craniosynostosis Repair Utilizing a Low
      Dose Transexamic Acid Infusion Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Craniosynostosis surgery is associated with large volume blood loss
      and the need for blood transfusion. Recently, the use of tranexamic acid (TXA)
      has been demonstrated to be helpful in reducing perioperative blood loss in many
      pediatric procedures. This study used a low-dose pharmacokinetic TXA dosing
      protocol and assessed its ability to limit perioperative blood loss for
      craniosynostosis repairs. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted of
      pediatric craniosynostosis surgeries performed at our institution between
      September 2011 and December 2014. Outcome measures included comparisons of
      perioperative blood loss and transfusion rates in patients who had surgery with
      or without TXA. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients met inclusion criteria. Nine
      patients had craniosynostosis surgery without TXA (no-TXA group) and 16 patients
      received TXA (TXA group). The TXA group had significantly higher postoperative
      hemoglobin levels than the no-TXA group (P = 0.009). This finding was supported
      by significantly higher postoperative estimated red cell volume in the TXA group
      (P = 0.017). Postoperative 24-hour drain output was significantly lower in the
      TXA group (P = 0.042). The volume of packed red blood cells transfused
      perioperatively was not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients who received TXA during craniosynostosis surgery at our institution had
      higher postoperative hemoglobin levels and lower 24-hour drain output. However,
      TXA was not associated with lower perioperative blood transfusion rates.

PMID- 28582302
TI  - Effect of Erythropoietin on Transfusion Requirements for Craniosynostosis Surgery
      in Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric craniosynostosis surgery is associated with significant
      blood loss often requiring allogenic blood transfusion (ABT). This study explores
      the clinical effectiveness of preoperative erythropoietin (EPO) administration in
      pediatric craniosynostosis surgery in reducing transfusion requirements. METHODS:
      A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature was performed for studies
      published in English language between 1946 and 2015. Inclusion criteria included
      original studies in the pediatric population (0-8 years of age) involving
      preoperative use of EPO in craniofacial procedures with quantitative reporting of
      perioperative blood transfusion. Extracted data included demographics,
      hematocrit, hemoglobin, estimated blood loss, number of patients transfused, and
      amount of ABT. RESULTS: Four studies met the inclusion criteria with a total of
      117 patients. Patients were divided into 2 groups: EPO versus control. No
      statistical differences were found in the demographics between the 2 groups. Mean
      preoperative hematocrit level was higher in the EPO group compared with control
      (43% vs 35%). The percentage of patients who required ABT and the volume of
      transfused blood were less in the EPO group (54% vs 98% and 84 vs 283 mL,
      respectively). Meta-analysis of 3 comparable studies showed a lower proportion of
      patients who needed blood transfusion in the EPO group. CONCLUSIONS: The present
      meta-analysis demonstrated that preoperative administration of EPO in pediatric
      craniosynostosis surgery decreased the proportion of patients requiring ABT. In
      addition, the volume of transfusion was reduced in patients who received EPO.
      Future randomized studies are needed to establish the cost-effectiveness of
      routine preoperative EPO administration in craniosynostosis surgery.

PMID- 28582303
TI  - Tranexamic Acid Reduces Blood Loss in Craniosynostosis Surgery.
AB  - METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed 79 patients with craniosynostosis
      who underwent either bifrontal or biparietal-occipital calvarial vault remodeling
      before institution of tranexamic acid (TXA) administration (non-TXA group) and 35
      patients after institution of TXA administration (TXA group). The patients were
      analyzed in 2 groups: all open calvarial vault remodeling patients (anterior and
      posterior) as a whole, and anterior vaults only as a subset analysis. Primary
      outcomes accessed were: total intraoperative blood transfused, postoperative
      blood transfused, and estimated blood loss (EBL). Secondary outcomes evaluated
      were length of stay in the pediatric intensive care unit and hospital length of
      stay. RESULTS: When comparing all open calvarial vault remodeling patients,
      patients who received TXA required significantly less total blood transfusion
      during their operation (264 cc TXA group versus 428 cc non-TXA, P < 0.0001).
      Patients who received TXA required no blood transfusions postoperatively,
      compared with the non-TXA group, in which 45% of patients required postoperative
      blood transfusion. Weight-based EBL was also significantly lower in those
      patients receiving TXA (25 cc/kg in the TXA group versus 34 cc/kg in the non-TXA
      group [P = 0.0143]). All patients required transfusion intraoperatively.
      Pediatric intensive care unit length of stay was shorter in the TXA group, but
      there was no significant difference in total hospital length of stay. These
      findings also reached statistical significance when comparing only the anterior
      vault patients. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative TXA administration has a correlation
      with reduced blood transfusion requirements, as well as EBL, in patients
      undergoing open calvarial vault remodeling. There were no adverse events related
      to TXA administration.

PMID- 28582305
TI  - Effects of Primary Alveolar Grafting on Alveolar Bone Thickness in Patients With
      Cleft Lip and Palate.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to compare alveolar bone thickness around the teeth
      adjacent to the cleft using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in patients with
      cleft lip and palate (CLP) who underwent primary alveolar grafting (PAG) as
      compared with CLP waiting for secondary alveolar grafting (SAG) and to determine
      the associations with other factors such as the patient's age, sex, and type of
      cleft. CBCTs of 39 CLP patients were divided into either group 1 (PAG, N = 11) or
      group 2 (SAG, N = 28). Measurements of bone thickness around the closest tooth to
      the cleft were performed on the axial sections on each subject's CBCT at 3, 6,
      and 9 mm apical to the cementoenamel junction along the root length. Intraclass
      correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate intrarater
      reliability. Bone measurements with 95% confidence intervals for the mean were
      estimated using analysis of variance models with a random patient effect to
      account for correlation among multiple measurements within a patient. Similar
      models were used to test the associations of age, sex, and type of the graft with
      the bone measurements. No statistically significant associations of the factors
      were found with mesial or distal bone measurements. Buccal bone thickness was
      significantly greater only at 9 mm in the primary bone graft subjects compared
      with secondary bone graft subjects (P = 0.009). Unilateral cleft subjects showed
      significantly greater buccal bone thickness at the level of 9 mm compared with
      bilateral cleft subjects (P = 0.046) and lingual bone thickness at the level of 6
      mm (P = 0.0026) and 9 mm (P = 0.0096). In conclusion, PAG does not add benefits
      to the bone width on the cleft sides of the closest teeth to the cleft as
      compared with children with CLP who have not undergone alveolar grafts yet.

PMID- 28582304
TI  - Surgical Outcomes for Speech Surgery in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: The Dilemma of
      Persistent Velopharyngeal Insufficiency After Pharyngeal Flap Operation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The majority of patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome suffer from
      velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). Patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
      (22qDS) commonly present with a large central velopharyngeal gap in the setting
      of poor velar and pharyngeal wall motion. The posterior pharyngeal flap is
      considered the most effective technique to treat VPI in this complex patient
      group. This study aims to critically evaluate success rates of surgical
      management of VPI in 22qDS patients and discuss options for management of a
      failed posterior pharyngeal flap (PPF) with persistent VPI. METHODS: A systematic
      review was performed through MEDLINE and Scopus to examine the outcomes of PPF
      surgery to treat VPI in patients with 22qDS. Complications were defined as
      persistent VPI, hyponasal speech, and obstructive sleep apnea. To demonstrate an
      approach to management, the authors outline a recent patient with a failed PPF in
      this patient population at the authors' institution. RESULTS: The authors
      comprehensively reviewed 58 articles, 13 of which contained relevant information
      with extractable data. Of the 159 patients with 22qDS who underwent PPF to treat
      VPI, successful outcomes were reported in 135 patients (80%; range: 0%-100%).
      Complications were reported in 14% of patients, with need for revision operations
      in 3%. DISCUSSION: Surgical management of VPI in patients with 22qDS is
      challenging, with variable success rates reported in the literature. If
      unsuccessful, the surgeon faces additional challenges with the revision surgery
      including a scarred PPF donor site, distorted palatal recipient site, and further
      medialization of internal carotid arteries. Surgical revision of a failed PPF
      requires meticulous preoperative planning and technical execution.

PMID- 28582306
TI  - Delayed Presentation of Isolated Sagittal Synostosis With Raised Intracranial
      Pressure and Secondary Chiari Malformation With Cervical Syringomyelia.
AB  - Sagittal craniosynostosis (SC) is the most common type of premature suture fusion
      presenting in approximately 1 in every 5000 births with a 3:1 male:female ratio.
      The most common indication for surgery is the improvement of the cosmetic
      appearance of the skull, since a cranial deformation may have a significant
      psychosocial impact on affected patients. Relief from raised intracranial
      pressure is a further indication for surgery, although an increased intracranial
      pressure (ICP) can be demonstrated only in a minority of affected children at
      diagnosis. It is even more rare to have Chiari malformations (CMs) secondary to
      ICP in an isolated SC, as shown in a study by Strahle et al (Neurosurg Focus
      2011;31:E2), demonstrating only 5 (3%) of the 183 with isolated sagittal
      synostosis having a CM. The authors present the rare case of a 4-year-old boy
      presenting late with raised intracranial pressure (40 mm Hg) and his management
      with 1 stage vault expansion and decompression of CM.

PMID- 28582307
TI  - Surgery First Orthognathic Approach Without Presurgical Orthodontic Treatment:
      Questions and Answers.
AB  - "Surgery-First" for patients with malocclusion and skeletal disharmony is a new
      process of employing bony corrective surgery (first) without removal of dental
      compensations followed by orthodontic finishing (second). This process breaks
      with the time-tested principles of traditional orthognathic surgery. Not
      unexpectedly, there is slow adoption of this new process, particularly in the
      West. Ten frequently asked questions regarding Surgery First are asked and
      answered in this report in an attempt to provide an increased level of comfort
      for Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgeons in instituting this process in their
      practice.

PMID- 28582309
TI  - Syndrome of the Trephined: Functional Improvement After Reconstruction of Large
      Cranial Vault Defects.

PMID- 28582308
TI  - Modified Genioglossal Advancement for Isolated Treatment of Obstructive Sleep
      Apnea.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Genioglossal advancement is a surgical procedure for obstructive
      sleep apnea (OSA) that has lost favor as a primary treatment strategy. The
      authors describe utilization of a modified genioglossal advancement (MGA),
      combining a geniotubercle advancement via sliding genioplasty and a glossopexy.
      METHODS: A retrospective review was performed. Preoperative and postoperative
      apnea-hypopnea indices (AHIs) were compared to determine OSA treatment success.
      RESULTS: Five patients underwent MGA. Three subjects had preoperative and
      postoperative AHI scores which improved from 61, 28, and 19 (mean = 36) to 4.5,
      2, and 6.3 (mean = 4.3), respectively. Two subjects had incomplete data for
      comparison. All subjects had an acceptable esthetic outcome. DISCUSSION: In
      properly selected subjects, MGA can alleviate OSA and provide improved esthetic
      outcomes.

PMID- 28582310
TI  - Clinical Outcome and Patients' Satisfaction Study After Otoplasty Using Hybrid
      Techniques in Adult Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There are limited data on the effect of otoplasty on health-related
      quality of life (HRQoL) in prominent ears. There are no data on the effect of
      otoplasty on Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) of otoplasty using hybrid techniques
      in adult patients. METHODS: This study involved 28 patients who underwent
      otoplasty using combined procedures. We chose the GBI because it is a sensitive
      tool for detecting changes in health status following an intervention. Patients
      older than 13 years received the GBI, being retrospective well-validated
      questionnaires for measuring the effect of otorhinolaryngologic interventions,
      and particularly plastic surgery procedures, on HRQoL. An individual
      questionnaire was created by the standard GBI. We combined posterior auricular
      skin excision, Mustarde suture technique, and conchomastoid suture techniques for
      maximizing the cosmetic improvements. RESULTS: According to the results of this
      study, good outcomes with patient satisfaction were achieved with this hybrid
      procedure. We found a conspicuous improvement in GBI total score as well as in
      the general health subscale after otoplasty. This indicates the beneficial impact
      on the healthy self-perception of this surgical procedure with prominent ears.
      CONCLUSIONS: In our retrospective assessment, GBI turned out to be a very useful
      and valuable tool in the evaluation of otoplasty. We demonstrated a long-lasting
      improvement in HRQoL after otoplasty for the prominent ears. Hybrid techniques
      are effective and satisfying treatment methods with high success rates for
      patients with prominent ears.

PMID- 28582311
TI  - The Second-Generation Craniofacial Surgeon: Progress Through Personal
      Responsibility and Personal Relationships.

PMID- 28582312
TI  - Development of Nerve Fibre Diameter in Young Infants With Hirschsprung Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Finding thickened nerve fibres is one of the key elements in the
      diagnosis of Hirschsprung disease (HD); however, its value at different ages
      remains uncertain. Nerve fibre diameters <40 MUm can be observed in infants
      younger than 8 weeks, despite the presence of HD. The aim of this study was to
      identify a change in maximum nerve fibre diameter in HD patients, measured before
      and after 8 weeks of age. METHODS: Nerve fibre diameter was retrospectively
      evaluated in tissue of 20 infants treated for definite HD. Rectal suction
      biopsies (RSBs) obtained within the first 8 weeks of life (T1) and resected bowel
      obtained during primary surgery at an average of 24.7 weeks (T2), were assessed.
      The 2 thickest nerve fibre diameter recordings at T1 and T2 were compared in each
      subject, to examine changes in nerve trunk diameter with increasing age. RESULTS:
      In 13 cases (65%), nerve fibre diameters were >=40 MUm at T1 and T2. Six subjects
      (30%) had nerve trunk diameters <40 MUm at T1; however, they experienced diameter
      increases to >=40 MUm by T2. Thus, at T2, 19 subjects (95%) had diameter
      recordings >=40 MUm. Nerve fibre diameter in the remaining case (5%) stayed
      consistent at <40 MUm at T1 and T2, despite the presence of HD. CONCLUSIONS:
      After the first 8 weeks of life, nerve fibre measurements appear to be associated
      with HD. Measuring the 2 thickest nerve fibres can support typical HD diagnosis
      criteria beyond 8 weeks of age, but is not superior to histopathological
      confirmation of aganglionosis.

PMID- 28582313
TI  - Outbreaks in the neonatal ICU: a review of the literature.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Neonates in the neonatal ICU (NICU) are uniquely vulnerable to
      colonization and infection with pathogens such as multidrug resistant Gram
      negative bacteria, which in turn are associated with increased infection-related
      morbidities and higher case-fatality rates. We reviewed the English, French, and
      German language literature published between 2015 and 2017, for reports of NICU
      outbreaks. RECENT FINDINGS: A total of 39 outbreaks in NICUs were reported with
      Gram-negative bacteria (n = 21; 54%) causing most, and extended spectrum beta
      lactamase-producing organisms being the most frequent resistance mechanism
      reported (n = 5). Five viral outbreaks were reported (respiratory syncytial virus
      = 3). A significant proportion of outbreaks (33%) did not identify a source.
      Whole genome sequencing was used more (n = 6 reports). The most common described
      infection prevention and control interventions included staff and parent
      education on hand hygiene, patient isolation, additional contact precautions,
      including discontinuation of 'kangaroo care', and cohorting. Reporting and
      publication bias are likely common. SUMMARY: NICUs must be vigilant in
      identifying outbreaks, conduct comprehensive investigations, and implement
      targeted infection prevention and control strategies. Molecular epidemiology
      capacities are an essential element in outbreak investigation. More studies are
      needed to determine the added value of active colonization screening and their
      impact on outbreak development.

PMID- 28582315
TI  - Application of Clinical Intelligence to Streamline Care in Aortic Emergencies.
AB  - This article discusses the lessons learned by an interdisciplinary team in a
      large metropolitan specialty hospital during the implementation of the Code Aorta
      protocol for aortic emergencies and the subsequent application of technological
      enhancements to improve data transfer. Aortic dissections require rapid diagnosis
      and surgical treatment; thus, in order to optimize patient outcomes, clinicians
      must be accessible, data must be readily available, and proper prompts and
      notifications must be made to alert and ready teams. An interdisciplinary team
      reviewed our hospital's processes and architecture of systems to define how we
      provide care during aortic emergencies. Based on this insight into patient flow,
      we ultimately developed a Code Aorta protocol to streamline provision of care
      during aortic emergencies. This process focused on protocol development, human
      technology interfaces, and outcome-oriented metrics. The team also aimed to
      heighten awareness of the emergent process and to understand relevant outcomes
      data. After introduction of the Code Aorta protocol, a 78% reduction was achieved
      in time-to-treatment from the previous year's average time. In addition, the
      average length of stay was reduced by 2.4 days (18%). The team's efforts focused
      on clinical communication, aiming to link technology to maximize clinical
      efficiency. The initial results of our Code Aorta protocol show promise that
      continual refinement of patient care processes during aortic emergencies will
      improve outcomes for patients suffering aortic dissection.

PMID- 28582316
TI  - New targets for pulmonary arterial hypertension: going beyond the currently
      targeted three pathways.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a hemodynamic state
      defined by a resting mean pulmonary arterial pressure at or above 25 mmHg with a
      normal pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, ultimately leading to right heart
      failure and premature death. Although considerable progress has been made in the
      development of drug therapies for PAH targeting abnormalities found in the three
      main pathobiologic pathways (nitric oxide, prostacyclin, and endothelin-1), there
      is no drug available to specifically stop the progressive cellular accumulation
      into the pulmonary artery vessel wall. Indeed, this pulmonary vascular remodeling
      is a key pathological feature in PAH, contributing to the progressive narrowing
      of the lumen responsible to the functional decline and to the right ventricle
      hypertrophy and dysfunction. RECENT FINDINGS: Because numerous important
      discoveries in the PAH pathogenesis have been recently made, our improved
      understanding of additional pathways in this condition will presumably lead to
      the development of novel and more powerful therapeutic strategies in the near
      future. SUMMARY: In this review, we highlight some recent biological findings and
      discuss the opportunities that could lead to the identification of new promising
      targets in PAH paving the way for future therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28582314
TI  - Angiopoietins and Tie2 in vascular inflammation.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As a subset of the organism-wide reaction to severe infection,
      the host vascular response has received increasing attention in recent years. The
      transformation that small blood vessels undergo to facilitate the clearance of
      pathogens may become harmful to the host if it occurs too broadly or if it is
      sustained too long. Adverse clinical manifestations of leaky and inflamed blood
      vessels include edema impairing the function of critical organs and circulatory
      shock. RECENT FINDINGS: The study suggests that this host vascular response may
      be both measurable and potentially targetable. Tie2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase
      (RTK) heavily enriched in the vascular endothelium whose tonic signaling actively
      maintains vascular quiescence. When Tie2 becomes inactivated, important molecular
      brakes are released in the endothelium, which in turn potentiate inflammation and
      vascular leakage. The ligands of Tie2, Angiopoietin-1 and Angiopoietin-2,
      regulate its activation status. Genetic and molecular studies spanning thousands
      of humans link Tie2 and imbalance of the Angiopoietins to major adverse clinical
      events arising from bacterial sepsis, other severe infections, and even acute
      sterile inflammation. SUMMARY: The Tie2 signaling axis may constitute a molecular
      switch in systemic inflammation that can be measured and manipulated to target
      the host vascular response therapeutically.

PMID- 28582317
TI  - Acute exacerbations of interstitial lung disease: lessons from idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to provide an update on acute
      exacerbation of interstitial lung disease (ILD), with a focus on idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), in the light of the recently revised definition of
      acute exacerbation-IPF. Strengths and limitations of the current definition of
      acute exacerbation-IPF are also discussed. RECENT FINDINGS: Clinically, acute
      exacerbation-IPFs are highly relevant events with a mortality rate of
      approximately 50%. A 2016 working group on acute exacerbation-IPF has suggested
      the definition be widened to include any acute respiratory worsening with new
      widespread alveolar abnormality on high-resolution computed tomography of the
      chest not fully explained by cardiac failure or fluid overload. Management of
      acute exacerbation-IPF typically includes supportive care, high-dose
      corticosteroids and broad-spectrum antibiotics, despite the scarcity of data
      supporting the usefulness of these therapies. The effect of a number of novel
      therapeutic approaches is currently under investigation. SUMMARY: Acute
      exacerbation-IPF has recently been redefined. A standardized definition, similar
      to that of other chronic respiratory diseases, will likely facilitate the
      performance of highly needed studies in acute exacerbation of both IPF and other
      ILDs.

PMID- 28582318
TI  - Recent advances in childhood vasculitis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The review aims to summarize the recent findings in vasculitis
      that may have an impact in our understanding or management of these diseases.
      RECENT FINDINGS: We are learning more about monogenic diseases that closely mimic
      the pediatric vasculitides. Deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 can present with
      a polyarteritis nodosa (PAN)-like picture and should be included in the
      differential of all pediatric cases of PAN with a family history or in cases with
      early stroke, or in cases resistant to conventional therapy. Mutations in tumor
      necrosis factor alpha-induced protein 3 results in a disease that can present as
      Behcet disease called haploinsufficiency of A20. In fact, these patients would
      also fulfill the existing criteria for PAN and Behcet disease, respectively.
      Additional advances in Behcet disease pathogenesis come from a large genetic
      study of Turkish Behcet disease using data obtained from genotyping using the
      Immunochip. This confirmed the HLA-B-51 locus as the most significant association
      and identified new risk loci. Large Iranian and Japanese cohorts were used as
      replication cohorts. Best treatment of pediatric vasculitis remains a challenge
      as we continue to lack controlled studies. There are new reports in treatment on
      Henoch-Schonlein purpura/Immunoglobulin A vasculitis which is one of our most
      frequent childhood vasculitides. Small series of new treatments for central
      nervous system vasculitis and Takayasu disease will also be summarized.
      Diagnostic criteria have been reassessed in pediatric Behcet disease as well as
      adult and childhood forms of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-positive
      vasculitis. SUMMARY: The new pathways defined in monogenic diseases may help us
      better understand the pathogenesis and may help us design more targeted therapy.
      Although pediatric cases are being increasingly recognized, the relative rarity
      of the diseases presents an obstacle for studies. Thus, we can reach conclusive
      results for their management through multicenter studies only.

PMID- 28582319
TI  - Osteoporosis in childhood.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this review is to highlight recent findings in
      prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric osteoporosis. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Several genes are involved in bone mass acquisition, and various monogenic bone
      disorders characterized by reduced bone mineral density and increased bone
      fragility have been recently described. Moreover, many chronic diseases and/or
      their treatment have been associated with impaired bone mass acquisition.
      Pediatric osteoporosis should be adequately suspected and properly diagnosed in
      children at risk of fractures. Particularly, detection of vertebral fracture
      allows the diagnosis regardless of densitometric evaluation. Dual X-ray
      absorptiometry remains the most widely used densitometric technique in childhood,
      but interpretation of results should be made with caution because of different
      confounding factors. Bisphosphonates represent one of the main medical treatments
      of pediatric osteoporosis, and many different protocols have been proposed.
      Bisphosphonates administration should be characterized by a first phase, followed
      by a period of maintenance. Optimal route of administration, duration of therapy,
      and long-term safety of bisphosphonates treatment require further investigation.
      SUMMARY: Careful monitoring of children at risk of fractures is essential to pose
      early diagnosis of osteoporosis. In children with persistent risk factors and
      reduced probability of spontaneous recovery, medical treatment with
      bisphosphonates should be considered.

PMID- 28582320
TI  - Hepatitis E viral infection in solid organ transplant patients.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature
      published in the past 10 years with focus to the best literatures published since
      2015 regarding chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in patients who received
      solid organ transplantation. RECENT FINDINGS: Diagnosis of this disease relies
      primarily on identification of HEV RNA in serum and more recently in stool as way
      of predicting relapse and guide therapy duration. Current management focuses
      primarily on primary prevention and supportive care, because additional research
      is needed to identify efficacious pharmacologic therapy, though use of ribavirin
      has shown promise in case series in treatment of some genotypes. SUMMARY:
      Infection with HEV is a rare but significant infection in organ transplant
      recipients. Though initially thought to be a primarily self-limiting infection,
      cases of chronic and persistent infection are increasing, being recognized both
      in developing and developed nations as a cause of cirrhosis, and, in some cases,
      of fulminant hepatic failure. Clinical manifestations of this infection,
      including evidence of hepatocellular liver injury, are mostly indistinguishable
      from alternative diagnoses.

PMID- 28582321
TI  - Cytomegalovirus in liver transplant recipients.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common opportunistic
      infection following solid-organ transplant and remains a cause of life
      threatening disease and allograft rejection in liver transplant recipients. The
      purpose of this review is to highlight the current strategies in diagnosis and
      management of this disease in this vulnerable population. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Identification of high-risk individuals and aggressive treatment with antiviral
      agents, either via prophylaxis or by early initiation during active disease, has
      become the standard of care. Despite this, CMV continues to exert a significant
      effect, remaining a major cause of morbidity and mortality. SUMMARY: Given these
      findings, continuing efforts are underway to determine whether further therapy,
      vaccination, or alternative management strategies may improve outcomes in solid
      organ transplant recipients. Until that time, however, aggressive monitoring of
      post-transplant patients for signs and symptoms of CMV infection is the best
      strategy to prevent solid-organ loss and death.

PMID- 28582323
TI  - Bolstering your armamentarium with SGLT2 inhibitors.
AB  - Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors have a unique mechanism of action in
      the kidneys that causes glucosuria, which lowers plasma glucose. They are also
      associated with reduced body weight, BP, and a low incidence of hypoglycemia. The
      pharmacologic profiles/clinical implications of canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, and
      empagliflozin are discussed in this article.

PMID- 28582322
TI  - Atopic dermatitis phenotypes and the need for personalized medicine.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To describe recent developments in therapies which target the
      molecular mechanisms in atopic dermatitis. RECENT FINDINGS: Current advances in
      the understanding of the molecular basis of atopic dermatitis are leading to the
      stratification of different atopic dermatitis phenotypes. New therapies offer the
      option to target-specific molecules involved in the pathophysiology of atopic
      dermatitis. Current new therapies under investigation aim to modulate specific
      inflammatory pathways associated with distinctive atopic dermatitis phenotypes,
      which would potentially translate into the development of personalized, targeted
      specific treatments of atopic dermatitis. SUMMARY: Despite the unmet need for
      well tolerated, effective, and personalized treatment of atopic dermatitis, the
      current standard treatments of atopic dermatitis do not focus on the individual
      pathogenesis of the disease. The development of targeted, phenotype-specific
      therapies has the potential to open a new promising era of individualized
      treatment of atopic dermatitis.

PMID- 28582324
TI  - Sleep-related movement disorders and disturbances of motor control.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Review of the literature pertaining to clinical presentation,
      classification, epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of sleep
      related movement disorders and disturbances of motor control. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Sleep-related movement disorders and disturbances of motor control are typically
      characterized by positive motor symptoms and are often associated with sleep
      disturbances and consequent daytime symptoms (e.g. fatigue, sleepiness). They
      often represent the first or main manifestation of underlying disorders of the
      central nervous system, which require specific work-up and treatment. Diverse and
      often combined cause factors have been identified. Although recent data provide
      some evidence regarding abnormal activation and/or disinhibition of motor
      circuits during sleep, for the majority of these disorders the pathogenetic
      mechanisms remain speculative. The differential diagnosis is sometimes difficult
      and misdiagnoses are not infrequent. The diagnosis is based on clinical and video
      polysomnographic findings. Treatment of sleep-related motor disturbances with few
      exceptions (e.g. restless legs/limbs syndrome) are based mainly on anecdotal
      reports or small series. SUMMARY: More state-of-the-art studies on the cause,
      pathophysiology, and treatment of sleep-related movement disorders and
      disturbances of motor control are needed.

PMID- 28582326
TI  - The sticky business of adhesion prevention in minimally invasive gynecologic
      surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The negative impact of postoperative adhesions has long been
      recognized, but available options for prevention remain limited. Minimally
      invasive surgery is associated with decreased adhesion formation due to
      meticulous dissection with gentile tissue handling, improved hemostasis, and
      limiting exposure to reactive foreign material; however, there is conflicting
      evidence on the clinical significance of adhesion-related disease when compared
      to open surgery. Laparoscopic surgery does not guarantee the prevention of
      adhesions because longer operative times and high insufflation pressure can
      promote adhesion formation. Adhesion barriers have been available since the
      1980s, but uptake among surgeons remains low and there is no clear evidence that
      they reduce clinically significant outcomes such as chronic pain or infertility.
      In this article, we review the ongoing magnitude of adhesion-related
      complications in gynecologic surgery, currently available interventions and new
      research toward more effective adhesion prevention. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent
      literature provides updated epidemiologic data and estimates of healthcare costs
      associated with adhesion-related complications. There have been important
      advances in our understanding of normal peritoneal healing and the
      pathophysiology of adhesions. Adhesion barriers continue to be tested for safety
      and effectiveness and new agents have shown promise in clinical studies. Finally,
      there are many experimental studies of new materials and pharmacologic and
      biologic prevention agents. SUMMARY: There is great interest in new adhesion
      prevention technologies, but new agents are unlikely to be available for clinical
      use for many years. High-quality effectiveness and outcomes-related research is
      still needed.

PMID- 28582325
TI  - Astroglial MicroRNA-219-5p in the Ventral Tegmental Area Regulates Nociception in
      Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors previously reported that noncoding microRNA miR-219-5p is
      down-regulated in the spinal cord in a nociceptive state. The ventral tegmental
      area also plays critical roles in modulating nociception, although the underlying
      mechanism remains unknown. The authors hypothesized that miR-219-5p in the
      ventral tegmental area also may modulate nociception. METHODS: The authors
      studied the bidirectional regulatory role of ventral tegmental area miR-219-5p in
      a rat complete Freund's adjuvant model of inflammatory nociception by measuring
      paw withdrawal latencies. Using molecular biology technologies, the authors
      measured the effects of astroglial coiled-coil and C2 domain containing
      1A/nuclear factor kappaB cascade and dopamine neuron activity on the down
      regulation of ventral tegmental area miR-219-5p-induced nociceptive responses.
      RESULTS: MiR-219-5p expression in the ventral tegmental area was reduced in rats
      with thermal hyperalgesia. Viral overexpression of ventral tegmental area miR-219
      5p attenuated complete Freund's adjuvant-induced nociception from 7 days after
      complete Freund's adjuvant injection (paw withdrawal latencies: 6.09 +/- 0.83 s
      vs. 3.96 +/- 0.76 s; n = 6/group). Down-regulation of ventral tegmental area miR
      219-5p in naive rats was sufficient to induce thermal hyperalgesia from 7 days
      after lentivirus injection (paw withdrawal latencies: 7.09 +/- 1.54 s vs. 11.75
      +/- 2.15 s; n = 8/group), which was accompanied by increased glial fibrillary
      acidic protein (fold change: 2.81 +/- 0.38; n = 3/group) and reversed by
      intraventral tegmental area injection of the astroglial inhibitor fluorocitrate.
      The nociceptive responses induced by astroglial miR-219-5p down-regulation were
      inhibited by interfering with astroglial coiled-coil and C2 domain containing
      1A/nuclear factor-kappaB signaling. Finally, pharmacologic inhibition of ventral
      tegmental area dopamine neurons alleviated this hyperalgesia. CONCLUSIONS: Down
      regulation of astroglial miR-219-5p in ventral tegmental area induced nociceptive
      responses are mediated by astroglial coiled-coil and C2 domain containing
      1A/nuclear factor-kappaB signaling and elevated dopamine neuron activity.

PMID- 28582327
TI  - A comprehensive review of Asherman's syndrome: causes, symptoms and treatment
      options.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Intrauterine adhesions, also known as Asherman's syndrome, can
      have an impact on both reproductive outcomes and gynaecologic symptoms.
      Understanding the cause of intrauterine adhesions and the common clinical
      presentation will increase awareness of the condition and guide the patient to
      appropriate therapy. Surgical management offers favourable fertility outcomes and
      is often successful in restoring menstruation. RECENT FINDINGS: Surgical
      management with hysteroscopic lysis of adhesions is the gold standard for
      treatment and adopting an office-based approach offers several advantages.
      Prevention of reformation of adhesions remains challenging and no single method
      for preventing recurrence has shown superiority. Cell-based therapies using
      endometrial stem/progenitor cells hold promise for future use in regenerating
      inadequate endometrium. SUMMARY: Increased awareness of the symptoms suggestive
      of intrauterine adhesive disease, as well as recognition of common causes and
      preceding events, is crucial for early diagnosis, patient counselling and
      treatment. VIDEO ABSTRACT: http://links.lww.com/COOG/A36.

PMID- 28582328
TI  - EuroSCORE Performance in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery: Discrimination
      Ability and External Calibration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prediction of operative risk in adults undergoing cardiac surgery
      remains a challenge. The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation
      (EuroSCORE) is one of the most commonly used in clinical settings. Recently, the
      new EuroSCORE II was published attempting to improve the accuracy of risk
      prediction. We sought to assess the predictive value of EuroSCORE or EuroSCORE II
      in selected field of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. METHODS: Patients who
      underwent cardiac surgery operation with minimally invasive approach from 2007 to
      2013 identified from prospective cardiac surgical database. Additional variables
      included in EuroSCORE II, but not in original EuroSCORE, were retrospectively
      collected via electronic health records reviewing. The C-statistic was calculated
      for the EuroSCORE (additive and logistic) and EuroSCORE II. The Hosmer-Lemeshow
      test was used to assess model calibration by comparing observed and expected
      morality in number of risk strata. RESULTS: There were 39 hospitals deaths
      (1.6%). A total of 2472 patients were identified from the main database. The mean
      +/- SD logistic EuroSCORE was 7.6 +/- 8.3, mean +/- SD additive EuroSCORE was 6.1
      +/- 2.7, and mean +/- SD EuroSCORE II was 2.9 +/- 4.2. EuroSCORE logistic model
      performed with substantial accuracy of 0.78, EuroSCORE additive performed with
      accuracy of 0.78, and EuroSCORE II performed as almost perfect 0.82. Model
      calibration was poor in EuroSCORE II (chi = 17.57, P = 0.02), calibration for
      logistic EuroSCORE was also poor (chi = 140.58, P < 0.01), and additive model
      also (chi = 94.95, P < 0.01). The area under the curve was high in all
      algorithms; logistic EuroSCORE was 0.78 (95% confidence interval = 0.71-0.85),
      additive EuroSCORE was 0.79 (95% confidence interval = 0.71-0.86), and EuroSCORE
      II was 0.82 (95% confidence interval = 0.75-0.89). CONCLUSIONS: In overall
      settings, original EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II perform poorly in minimally
      invasive operation conditions. Data suggest that EuroSCORE could not be used for
      estimating operative risks correctly. New risk score should be explored,
      developed, and implemented for selective minimally invasive cohorts.

PMID- 28582329
TI  - Update in the management of pediatric psoriasis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Psoriasis is a multifactorial, chronic, inflammatory skin
      disease that may represent a therapeutic challenge in children. This review aims
      to provide a framework for the management of pediatric psoriasis, emphasizing in
      new insights and considerations for management. It will focus on new disease
      associations and innovative treatment modalities that challenge current approach
      of psoriasis in children. RECENT FINDINGS: There is an increasing body of
      literature both in adults and in children linking psoriasis with different
      comorbidities. This new evidence points to the need of addressing psoriasis as a
      systemic disease and suggests the need for screening and creating awareness of
      possible associations. In a similar manner, newer medications are also being
      investigated in children. Recent publications report on the efficacy and safety
      of biologics for psoriasis in pediatric patients. SUMMARY: The review provides
      better understanding of present and future risks of untreated and uncontrolled
      psoriasis in children and at the same time the benefits and risks of new
      treatments available.

PMID- 28582330
TI  - High-altitude illness in the pediatric population: a review of the literature on
      prevention and treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Increasing numbers of children are now traveling to high
      altitude destinations, and pediatricians often see these children prior to and
      immediately following their travels. Thus, pediatricians have the opportunity to
      provide guidance for the prevention of altitude illness and must treat high
      altitude illness (HAI) in some circumstances. This review will examine guidelines
      for prevention and management of HAI in the pediatric population. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Recent research has examined children's short-term cardiorespiratory
      adaptation to high altitude, incidence of acute mountain sickness, hypoxic
      ventilator response, and maximal exercise capacity. Overall, studies indicate
      that children and adults are largely similar in these variables. Furthermore,
      studies suggest that heritability seems to be a component of response to altitude
      and development of altitude illness - a finding that may have implications for
      family vacation planning. SUMMARY: Increasing numbers of children are visiting
      high altitude destinations. Whereas most of these child travelers will only
      experience mild to moderate symptoms of HAI, a small percentage, particularly
      those with predisposing health conditions, may experience severe disease.
      Pediatricians should encourage preventive measures with an emphasis on gradual
      ascent and vigilance for onset of symptoms that should prompt immediate transport
      to medical care.

PMID- 28582331
TI  - Short Segment Spinal Instrumentation in Early-onset Scoliosis Patients Treated
      With Magnetically Controlled Growing Rods: Surgical Technique and Mid - Short
      term Outcomes.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, a single-institution, nonrandomized study.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and effectivity of
      short-segment instrumentation in early-onset scoliosis (EOS) patients treated by
      magnetic-controlled growing rods (MCGRs). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Despite the
      common use of conventional growing rods and the recent popularity of MCGR in the
      treatment of progressive EOS, distal instrumented vertebra and number of the
      spanned levels are not standardized. METHODS: Patients with progressive EOS,
      characterized by the major thoracic curve and nonstructural compensatory curve,
      were a candidate to be treated by dual MCGR short segment spinal instrumentation
      spanning the major thoracic curve; such patients are followed up for a minimum
      period of 30 months. Radiological data were collected and analyzed in terms of
      Cobb angle of both primary and secondary curve, kyphosis angle, T1-T12, and T1-S1
      distances, and T1-T12/T1-S1 ratio in preoperative, postoperative, and last follow
      up. RESULTS: Sixteen patients with different diagnoses of EOS, mean age at the
      operation was 7 years and 10 months (5 years and 6 months-9 years and 10 months),
      and mean period of follow-up was 37 (30-54) months. The Cobb angle of both major
      and compensatory curve are corrected by the mean value of 62 degrees  (44-85), 35
      degrees  (22-45) preoperatively to 29 degrees  (12-49), 14 degrees  (9-24)
      postoperatively, and maintained at 28 degrees  (10-47), 10 degrees  (2-20) in the
      last follow-up, respectively. The T1-T12/T1-S1 ratio was 0.58 preoperatively, 0.6
      postoperatively, and 0.62 at the last follow-up. The average yearly T1-T12 and T1
      S1 length increase were calculated as 7 and 9 mm/year, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Selective fusion principals are applicable to EOS, in that short segment
      instrumentation with MGCR in thoracic curve EOS patients is an effective
      technique in correction of both structural and compensatory curve, and in
      maintaining the correction during subsequent nonsurgical spinal distraction.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28582332
TI  - Reply: The Effect of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Compared to Adjuvant Chemotherapy
      in Healing after Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy.

PMID- 28582333
TI  - Current Clinical Applications of Fat Grafting.
AB  - LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, the participant should be able
      to: 1. Understand the theory and principles behind successful avascular fat
      transfer; 2. Apply these principles into techniques that yield safe and
      successful fat grafting operations; 3. Identify the well-established indications
      and limitations of the various fat grafting operations as well as the indications
      that require additional clinical and translational research. SUMMARY: In this
      article, the authors summarize the established principles and techniques of fat
      grafting, discuss debated topics, and present both the well-established and the
      novel clinical applications of fat grafting.

PMID- 28582334
TI  - Introducing the International Confederation of Plastic Surgery Societies:
      ICOPLAST.
AB  - This article describes the formation of the International Confederation of
      Plastic Surgery Societies (ICOPLAST) as a novel, transparent, dynamic, and
      proactive confederation of national plastic surgery societies. ICOPLAST aspires
      to provide a voice for the entire international community of plastic surgeons.
      ICOPLAST has been designed to benefit the patient, plastic surgery as a
      profession, and each individual plastic surgeon. Its principal objective is to
      enhance international communication, education, and advocacy processes to
      ultimately improve patient outcomes for plastic surgery patients globally. The
      new ICOPLAST's focus is to add true value for patients. ICOPLAST's evolution,
      philosophy, governance, and bylaws are explained and all societies worldwide are
      encouraged and cordially invited to join. An open and warm invitation is
      provided. Additional information is found at www.ICOPLAST.org.

PMID- 28582335
TI  - A Prospective Clinical Trial Comparing Visible Light Spectroscopy to Handheld
      Doppler for Postoperative Free Tissue Transfer Monitoring.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early detection of compromised free flap perfusion is critical. A
      common modality of thrombosis detection, physical examination augmented with hand
      held Doppler, provides only intermittent data and is insensitive to venous
      compromise. Visible light spectroscopy provides continuous, noninvasive
      evaluation of tissue perfusion. The authors hypothesized that visible light
      spectroscopy is a more sensitive and specific monitoring method for early
      detection of postoperative flap compromise than intermittent hand-held Doppler
      and clinical examination. METHODS: The authors prospectively conducted a
      controlled study evaluating the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the T
      Stat Model 303 VLS oximeter versus that of intermittent Doppler and clinical
      examination. The authors prospectively collected and analyzed patient data,
      complications, reoperations, flap failures, and tissue oxygen saturation.
      RESULTS: Sixty-eight patients with 81 flaps completed the study. The majority of
      flaps (86.4 percent) were either transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous or
      deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flaps. The mean tissue oxygen
      saturation for all flaps in the study was 56.7 +/- 7.1 percent (range, 39.4 to
      72.1 percent) and did not differ significantly with patient comorbidity or flap
      type. During the course of the study, three flaps were returned to the operating
      room for exploration because of a perfusion abnormality, and the resulting
      salvage rate was 100 percent. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of
      visible light spectroscopy were found to be greater than both intermittent
      Doppler and clinical examination. CONCLUSION: Visible light spectroscopy is a
      reliable, continuous adjunct to free tissue transfer monitoring with advantages
      over intermittent hand-held Doppler and clinical examination. CLINICAL
      QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic, II.

PMID- 28582336
TI  - Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Chemotherapy Schedules Used in Neoadjuvant
      or Adjuvant Setting May Show Different Effects in Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy.

PMID- 28582337
TI  - AAOS Appropriate Use Criteria: Management of Patients with Orthopaedic Implants
      Undergoing Dental Procedures.

PMID- 28582339
TI  - Biophysics Rules the Cell Culture but Has Yet to Reach the Clinic: Why Is That?

PMID- 28582338
TI  - Management of Patients with Orthopaedic Implants Undergoing Dental Procedures.
AB  - The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, in collaboration with the American
      Dental Association, has developed Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for the
      Management of Patients with Orthopaedic Implants Undergoing Dental Procedures.
      Evidence-based information, in conjunction with the clinical expertise of
      physicians, was used to develop the criteria to improve patient care and obtain
      best outcomes while considering the subtleties and distinctions necessary in
      making clinical decisions. The Management of Patients with Orthopaedic Implants
      Undergoing Dental Procedures AUC clinical patient scenarios were derived from
      indications of patients with orthopaedic implants presenting for dental
      procedures, as well as from current evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
      and supporting literature to identify the appropriateness of the use of
      prophylactic antibiotics. The 64 patient scenarios and 1 treatment were developed
      by the writing panel, a group of clinicians who are specialists in this AUC
      topic. Next, a separate, multidisciplinary, voting panel (made up of specialists
      and nonspecialists) rated the appropriateness of treatment of each patient
      scenario using a 9-point scale to designate a treatment as Appropriate (median
      rating, 7 to 9), May Be Appropriate (median rating, 4 to 6), or Rarely
      Appropriate (median rating, 1 to 3).

PMID- 28582340
TI  - A Report of Ovarian Sertoli-Leydig Cell Tumors With Heterologous Intestinal-type
      Glands and Alpha Fetoprotein Elevation and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors (SLCTs) are uncommon neoplasms that are
      occasionally associated with an elevated level of serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP),
      a marker of germ cell neoplasms, particularly yolk sac tumor (YST). We report 7
      cases of ovarian SLCT (3 moderately differentiated, 2 poorly differentiated, 2
      retiform) with heterologous intestinal-type glands, 6 of which were associated
      with elevated serum AFP. The intestinal-type mucinous glands were immunoreactive
      for SALL4 (4 cases), AFP (4 cases), glypican 3 (1 case), CDX2 (6 cases), and
      villin (7 cases), markers that are commonly expressed in YSTs, although the
      latter 2 markers would be expected to be positive in intestinal-type glands. We
      show that heterologous intestinal-type glands in ovarian SLCTs often have an
      endodermal sinus-like (YST-like) immunophenotype and stress that these should not
      be misinterpreted as microscopic foci of endodermal-type YST. Cases of ovarian
      SLCT with elevated serum AFP should be sampled extensively to look for foci of
      intestinal-type glands, the likely source of the AFP elevation in some of these
      neoplasms.

PMID- 28582341
TI  - Invasive Extramammary Paget Disease of the Vulva With Signet Ring Cell Morphology
      in a Patient With Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma of the Stomach: Report of a Case.
AB  - This report describes a rare case of invasive extramammary Paget disease of the
      vulva with signet ring cell morphology in a 58-yr-old woman with a history of
      signet ring cell carcinoma of the stomach. This case was initially misinterpreted
      as a metastatic gastric carcinoma to the vulva because an initial small,
      superficial biopsy specimen showed infiltration of signet ring cells in the
      dermis without intraepidermal Paget cells. However, a surgically resected
      specimen showed concordant immunophenotypes in both intraepidermal Paget cells
      and intradermal signet ring cell components with immunoreactivity to cytokeratin
      (CK) 7, CEA, and gross cystic disease fluid protein-15, and immunonegativity for
      CK20, MUC5AC, and MUC6. Gastric signet ring cell carcinoma showed
      immunoreactivity to CK7, CEA, MUC5AC, and MUC6, and immunonegativity for gross
      cystic disease fluid protein-15 and CK20. The diagnosis of primary invasive
      extramammary Paget disease of the vulva was also supported by a long interval
      after gastrectomy (7.5 yr), the solitary involvement of the vulva, and the
      absence of lymphovascular invasion. This case demonstrates that invasive
      extramammary Paget disease may have a signet ring cell morphology and
      immunohistochemical profile similar to those of gastric signet ring cell
      carcinoma, but the addition of gross cystic disease fluid protein-15 immunostain
      in the panel of markers is helpful in the differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28582342
TI  - Expression of GATA-3 in Testicular and Gynecologic Mesothelial Neoplastic and Non
      neoplastic Tissues.
AB  - GATA-3 expression in testicular/gynecologic mesothelial neoplasms and benign
      mesothelia have not been completely investigated. We graded GATA-3, calretinin,
      and WT1 staining in 20 adenomatoid tumors [9/20 (para)testicular and 11/20
      tubal/uterine] and 38 normal mesothelia (20/38 tunica vaginalis and 18/38
      fallopian tubes) as either 0 (<=5%), +1 (>5% and <25%), +2 (>=25% and <=50%), and
      +3 (>50%). Adenomatoid tumor GATA-3 staining: 2 urologic cases were positive
      (2/9, +3 and +1), no gynecologic cases were positive (0/11), and all were
      positive for WT1/calretinin (20/20,+2 to +3). The normal tunica vaginalis
      mesothelia: 3 of 20 were GATA-3 positive (+2) while 20 of 20 were WT1/calretinin
      (+2 to +3) positive. The gynecologic cases with walthard nests: are positive for
      GATA-3 (18/18,+3), WT1 (11/18, +2 to +3), and calretinin (1/18,+2). The
      nonmetaplastic gynecologic mesothelia were GATA-3 negative (18/18) and
      WT1/calretinin postive (18/18,+2 to +3). All 18 epididymi were GATA-3 positive
      (+3) and negative for WT1/calretinin. All 11 efferent ductules examined were
      negative for GATA-3, WT1/calretinin (0/11). Although GATA-3 rarely stains
      adenomatoid tumors, gynecologic walthard nests are consistently positive with
      GATA-3 staining but lose mesothelial markers reflecting a metaplastic change.
      Excluding the walthard nests, GATA-3 is rarely positive in normal urologic and
      gynecologic mesothelia. GATA-3 is uniformally positive in epididymi and negative
      in efferent ductules, which may be due to their embryological evolvement.
      Awareness of the GATA-3 staining patterns in the genitourinary and gynecologic
      mesothelial tissues and their respective neoplasms is important to prevent
      misdiagnosis and possible unnecessary interventions.

PMID- 28582343
TI  - Intravascular Lymphocytic Accumulation in the Uterine Cervix: A Frequent Finding.
AB  - Intravascular accumulation of lymphocytes in any body site can raise concerns for
      a lymphoproliferative disorder, mainly intravascular lymphoma, leukemia, or a
      form of angiocentric lymphoma. We recently found an intravascular lymphocytic
      accumulation of non-neoplastic nature in a uterine cervix. The aim of the study
      was to define the frequency and the nature of this observation in the uterine
      cervix. Thirty cervical excision specimens including 23 cone biopsies and 7
      hysterectomies were examined for the presence of intravascular accumulation of
      lymphocytes. Intravascular accumulation of lymphocytes was observed in 9 of the
      30 specimens (30%). These were small-sized or medium-sized lymphocytes
      accumulating in lymphatic channels. The lymphocytes showed no atypia or mitotic
      activity. Intravascular lymphocytic accumulation was more common in cases with
      severe cervicitis (P<0.0001). Immunohistochemically, there was a mixed population
      of lymphocytes that were CD20 and CD3 positive; they were negative for CD30.
      Similar but larger lymph-node-like structures were noted inside the paracervical
      tissue in cases of wide excision. Intralymphatic accumulation of small
      nonatypical lymphocytes sometimes forming small corpuscles is a frequent and
      benign finding of the uterine cervix.

PMID- 28582345
TI  - Microscopic Extraovarian Sex Cord Proliferations: Report of the Seventh Case With
      2 Year Follow-up.

PMID- 28582344
TI  - Androgen Receptor Expression in Endometrial Carcinoma.
AB  - Endometrial carcinoma (ECA) is frequently hormonally driven and can be treated
      with endocrine-based therapy, yet hormone receptor status is not routinely
      assessed. In particular, little is known about the significance of androgen
      receptor (AR) in ECA. Androgen has antiproliferative effects in the healthy
      endometrium and could serve a similar role to progesterone in curbing the
      progression of estrogen-dependent neoplasia. There may also be a subset of ECA
      that benefits from androgen antagonistic therapy. We herein investigate AR
      expression across ECA subtypes and compare its expression to estrogen receptor
      (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR). Immunohistochemical staining for AR, ER, and
      PR was performed on an endometrial tissue microarray containing 50 ECA with a
      variety of morphologic subtypes as well as 20 benign and 9 atypical hyperplastic
      endometria. AR was expressed by 54% (27/50) of ECA including 60% of low grade
      endometrioid carcinomas, 70% high grade endometrioid carcinomas, 70% serous
      carcinomas, 50% carcinosarcomas, and 20% clear cell carcinomas. High AR
      expression was chiefly restricted to a subset of serous carcinomas (50%). AR
      expression occurred most often in concert with ER staining, although 5 high grade
      cancers (1 serous carcinoma, 4 carcinosarcomas) showed AR expression in the
      absence of ER. In summary, AR positivity is seen in over half of ECA in our
      study, including the majority of low grade endometrioid carcinomas, high grade
      endometrioid carcinomas, and serous carcinomas. High level expression is seen in
      half of serous carcinomas and a subset of serous carcinomas and carcinosarcomas
      show some degree of AR staining in the absence of ER, suggesting a possible role
      for androgen inhibition in treatment of these cases.

PMID- 28582347
TI  - Tissue-based Immunohistochemical Biomarker Expression in Malignant Glandular
      Lesions of the Uterine Cervix: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Literature published between 1975 and 2015 was systematically reviewed to conduct
      a case-comparator study of tissue based, immunohistochemical biomarker expression
      among malignant glandular histotypes of the uterine cervix so as to identify
      differences that could have diagnostic utility. Of the 902 abstracts, 154
      articles had a full review, and 52 were included. Biomarker positivity in cases
      of adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) were compared with atypical lobular endocervical
      glandular hyperplasia and invasive histotypes grouped as mucinous, endometrioid,
      adenosquamous, serous clear cell, minimal deviation-gastric type, and mesonephric
      carcinomas (7 AIS case-comparators). The invasive histotypes were compared with
      each other (30 adenocarcinoma case-comparators). Biomarker positivity in all 37
      case-comparators was calculated as weighted averages of histotype-specific
      estimates. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering examined differences in
      expression and were visualized via heatmaps and dendrograms. Of the 56 biomarkers
      tested, 1 or more of 15 showed a 50% or more difference in positive expression in
      6 (86%) of the AIS and 21 (70%) of the adenocarcinoma case-comparators. There was
      no data on the comparison of serous clear cell to mesonephric carcinoma. AIS case
      comparator biomarkers were HIK1083, alpha SMA, PAX8, VIL1, CEA, p53, p16, and
      CD10, and only alpha SMA had a difference of 100%. The adenocarcinoma case
      comparator biomarkers were CEA, p53, Claudin18, HIK1083, p16, Calretinin, CD10,
      PR, Chromogranin, MUC6, Vimentin and p63, and none had a difference of 100%.
      Biomarker expression in the discrimination of AIS from invasive adenocarcinoma,
      and the invasive histotypes from each other is understudied. One or more of 15
      biomarkers could have diagnostic utility.

PMID- 28582346
TI  - Endometrial Carcinoma With Trophoblastic Components: Clinicopathologic Analysis
      of a Rare Entity.
AB  - Somatic endometrial carcinomas with trophoblastic components have only rarely
      been described. To better characterize this distinctive combination of
      histotypes, we report herein 4 new cases, representing the largest cohort
      reported thus far, and review previously reported cases. The 4 new patients
      ranged in age from 61 to 77 yr (mean, 68 yr). The first patient had a grade 2
      endometrioid carcinoma, surgical International Federation of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics stage IA, that recurred 5 months later at the vaginal apex with purely
      choriocarcinoma elements, suggestive of unsampled trophoblastic areas in the
      uterus. The 3 other patients were all International Federation of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics stage III, and included 2 cases of dedifferentiated endometrial
      carcinoma with 40% and 20% choriocarcinoma components, and 1 case of grade 1
      endometrioid carcinoma with a 40% choriocarcinoma component. Postoperative serum
      beta-human chorionic gonadotropin was elevated in all patients. All received
      adjuvant combination chemotherapy, but all were dead of disease with distant
      metastases at an average of 11.75 mo (range, 7-16 mo) after primary staging. Data
      from our cases were combined with those from 24 cases that had previously been
      reported in the literature between 1972 and 2016. Analysis of this combined data
      indicates that endometrial carcinoma with trophoblastic component is a rare
      neoplasm that occurs primarily in postmenopausal patients. The trophoblastic
      component is most commonly a choriocarcinoma and the somatic component is most
      commonly an endometrioid carcinoma or an adenocarcinoma/carcinoma reported
      without further specification; the somatic component may be a diverse array of
      histotypes or histotype admixtures. Serum and/or urine beta-human chorionic
      gonadotropin is elevated in almost all patients, and fluctuations of beta-human
      chorionic gonadotropin generally correlated with tumor relapses or recurrences.
      The stage distribution and patient outcomes in the current and previously
      reported patients suggests that trophoblastic differentiation usually, but not
      invariably denotes clinical aggressiveness.

PMID- 28582348
TI  - Phenotypic Intratumoral Heterogeneity of Endometrial Carcinomas.
AB  - Intratumoral heterogeneity has been shown to play an important role in diagnostic
      accuracy, development of treatment resistance, and prognosis of cancer patients.
      Recent studies have proposed quantitative measurement of phenotypic intratumoral
      heterogeneity, but no study is yet available in endometrial carcinomas. In our
      study we evaluated the phenotypic intratumoral heterogeneity of a consecutive
      series of 10 endometrial carcinomas using measures of dispersion and diversity.
      Morphometric architectural (%tumor cells, %solid tumor, %differentiated tumor,
      and %lumens) and nuclear [volume-weighted mean nuclear volume ((Equation is
      included in full-text article.))] parameters, as well as estrogen receptor,
      progesterone receptor, p53, vimentin, and beta-catenin immunoexpression (H-score)
      were digitally analyzed in 20 microscopic fields per carcinoma. Quantitative
      measures of intratumoral heterogeneity included coefficient of variation (CV) and
      relative quadratic entropy (rQE). In each endometrial carcinoma there was slight
      variation of architecture from field to field, resulting in globally low levels
      of heterogeneity measures (mean CV %tumor cells: 0.10, %solid tumor: 0.73,
      %differentiated tumor: 0.19, %lumens: 0.61 and mean rQE %tumor cells: 18.5,
      %solid tumor: 20.3, %differentiated tumor: 25.6, %lumens: 21.8). Nuclear
      intratumoral heterogeneity was also globally low (mean (Equation is included in
      full-text article.)CV: 0.23 and rQE: 27.3), but significantly higher than the
      heterogeneity of architectural parameters within most carcinomas. In general,
      there was low to moderate variability of immunoexpression markers within each
      carcinoma, but estrogen receptor (mean CV: 0.56 and rQE: 46.2) and progesterone
      receptor (mean CV: 0.60 and rQE: 39.3) displayed the highest values of
      heterogeneity measures. Intratumoral heterogeneity of immunoexpression was
      significantly higher than that observed for morphometric parameters. In
      conclusion, our study indicates that endometrial carcinomas present a variable
      but predominantly low degree of phenotypic intratumoral heterogeneity.

PMID- 28582349
TI  - Perioperative Factors Associated With Chronic Central Pain After the Resection of
      Intramedullary Spinal Cord Tumor.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Some patients experience severe chronic pain after intramedullary
      spinal cord tumor (IMSCT) resection, but the underlying mechanisms have yet to be
      fully elucidated. We aimed to investigate perioperative factors associated with
      chronic pain after IMSCT resection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed data from
      a postal survey and the medical records of patients who had undergone IMSCT
      resection in our institution between 2000 and 2008. Chronic pain was assessed
      using the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory score, and its associations with
      factors related to tumor pathology, patient demographics, neurological findings,
      surgery, anesthesia, and perioperative management were determined. RESULTS:
      Seventy-eight consecutive patients (55 men and 23 women; age 17 to 79 y) were
      included in the statistical analysis of the present study. In univariate
      analyses, sex, body mass index, preoperative tumor-related pain, preoperative
      nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, intraoperative hypotension, postoperative
      corticosteroids, and decrease in Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores
      were found to be associated with postsurgical chronic central pain. Logistic
      regression analysis identified 3 significant factors: a decline in JOA scores
      compared with preoperative values (odds ratio [OR], 3.33; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 1.18-9.42; P=0.023), intraoperative hypotension (OR, 3.01; 95% CI, 1.02
      8.97; P=0.047), and postoperative corticosteroids (OR, 3.21; 95% CI, 1.02-10.09;
      P=0.046). DISCUSSION: Decline in JOA score, intraoperative hypotension, and
      postoperative corticosteroids are independently associated with postsurgical
      chronic central pain. Intraoperative hypotension and the use of postoperative
      corticosteroids can be avoided or modified during perioperative management. As
      results from animal studies have indicated that the administration of
      corticosteroids may intensify chronic pain, further studies in larger cohorts are
      required to definitively determine the effect of corticosteroids on postsurgical
      central pain.

PMID- 28582350
TI  - Educational Opportunities for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Prevention.

PMID- 28582351
TI  - Teenagers' Awareness of Peers' Substance and Drug Use in Kuwait.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Teenage substance use is a global challenge, and youths residing in
      Kuwait are not immune from it. Tobacco products are licit; however, alcohol and
      other mood-altering illicit substance are prohibited with severe penalties
      including imprisonment. Youths residing in Kuwait are being initiated into the
      use of mood-altering substances like tobacco at an early age, and it is
      postulated that, as they grow older, they may progress into using alcohol and
      other prohibited illicit drugs. AIMS: The aim of this study was to determine
      licit and illicit substance use by teenagers residing in Kuwait. The study will
      also explore their awareness of substance use among their peers. DESIGN: A cross
      sectional survey using a snowball sampling technique was used to recruit 190
      teenagers aged 15-18 years residing in Kuwait. Data were collected using the 130
      item questionnaire adapted from 1998 New Jersey Triennial Public High School
      Survey of Drug and Alcohol Use. Data collection was from September 2012 to June
      2013. DATA ANALYSIS: The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 22 for
      Windows was used. Pearson's chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U tests
      were used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: Tobacco was the most commonly used
      substance by these teenagers; 8.4% were current smokers, and 50% had
      experimented. Age of initiation for 21% was before 14 years old. Hashish
      (marijuana) was the most commonly used illicit drug, with 3.7% current users and
      5.3% claiming to have used it. More male than female teenagers in Grade 9 were
      using tobacco products (chi = 27.428, df = 5, p < .001). CONCLUSION: The use and
      abuse of mood/mind-altering licit and illicit substances appear to be increasing
      among older teenagers. Intensifying campaigns about the hazards of substance use
      and drug testing should start from the primary school level.

PMID- 28582352
TI  - Health Behaviors Survey: An Examination of Undergraduate Students' Substance Use.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study determined the prevalence of alcohol, drug, and nonmedical
      prescription drugs at a small private university. In addition, risk and
      protective factors are examined. METHOD: The Core Institute (Southern Illinois
      University) was contracted to administer an anonymous, Web-based 49-item survey
      to matriculated undergraduate students, aged 18-23 years. Data were obtained on
      student behaviors, perceptions, consequences of substance use, risk factors, and
      coping strategies. Statistical analysis included descriptive measures, cross
      tabs, t test, and chi-square. RESULTS: The response rate was 14%, which is
      consistent with other CORE Institute surveys. Almost half of the total
      respondents were from the college of nursing (46%), and most participants were
      female (82%). There was a significant association between heavy drinking and
      grades; the B students engaged in more binge drinking. Living on campus and being
      involved in Greek life confer a higher level of risk for sexual assault when
      alcohol was consumed. Most participants (57%) were unaware of campus resources
      for assistance with alcohol or drug problems. CONCLUSION: Campus administrators
      now have a better awareness related to the extent of drug and alcohol use among
      the student body. A faculty engagement workshop was developed to provide tools to
      assess and communicate with students. Improvements are anticipated to enhance
      student relationships and decrease incidents of drug- and alcohol-related sexual
      assault or misconduct.

PMID- 28582353
TI  - Effectiveness of the Sexual Health/Reproductive Health Education Given to Turkey
      Adolescents Who Use Alcohol or Substance.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The research was conducted experimentally to evaluate the
      effectiveness of the sexual health/reproductive health (SH/RH) education given to
      Turkish adolescents who use alcohol or illicit substances. METHODS: The
      population was adolescents who use alcohol and substances and were inpatients at
      the Child and Adolescent Substance Addiction Research, Treatment and Education
      Center. The adolescents were grouped into the following three groups: Group 1
      (control group), Group 2 (those who have received training once), and Group 3
      (those who have received training twice). Data were collected between September
      2011 and December 2012 using the forms Self-Introduction and Information on
      Sexual Health-Reproductive Health and Information on Sexual Health-Reproductive
      Health Education Modules. RESULTS: Upon studying the total SH/RH test scores of
      the groups individually, a statistically significant difference was observed in
      the scores of Groups 2 and 3 (p < .01). Upon studying the change in the posttest
      scores from the pretest ones for each group individually, the increase in the
      scores of Group 3 (34.57 +/- 16.33) was observed to have a statistically highly
      significant difference from those of Groups 1 (2.73 +/- 10.65) and 2 (20.23 +/-
      12.09; p < .01). CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Adolescents who abuse
      alcohol or substances should be given SH/RH education in a repetitive manner for
      prevention of risky sexual behavior.

PMID- 28582354
TI  - Withdrawal Phenomena: A Concept Analysis for the Development of a Nursing
      Diagnosis.
AB  - This study explored the concept of withdrawal phenomena from the perspective of
      nurses, with the aim of developing a nursing diagnosis. Concept analysis was used
      as the framework of the study, a systematized review was conducted to identify
      relevant studies, and interpretation was based on qualitative content analysis.
      Specifying aspects, defining characteristics, related factors, and risk factors
      were extracted and classified into categories. Thirteen studies were identified
      as a basis for the construction of two nursing diagnoses: "withdrawal phenomena"
      and "risk of withdrawal complications." The proposed nursing diagnoses require
      further discussion. The NANDA International Diagnosis Development Committee was
      asked to examine the proposed diagnoses. However, it was too early to determine
      implications for nursing practice based on the results of this study.

PMID- 28582355
TI  - The Effect of Positive Group Psychotherapy and Motivational Interviewing on
      Smoking Cessation: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the process and evaluate the
      effect of positive group psychotherapy and motivational interviewing as an
      intervention for smoking cessation. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive study was
      conducted at a university in South Korea. Positive group psychotherapy and
      motivational interviewing were attended by 36 smokers for 1 hour once a week, for
      6 hours. A recorded exit interview was conducted after the intervention. The
      resulting transcripts were analyzed with content analysis and thematic analysis.
      RESULTS: Among the 36 study participants, the importance of stopping smoking was
      rated higher in the successful cessation (defined as those who ceased smoking for
      at least 3 months; hereafter, success group) group (8.6 +/- 0.4, n = 10) than in
      the failed cessation (defined as those who did not cease smoking for at least 3
      months; hereafter, failure group) group (7.75 +/- 0.3, n = 26; p < .01). The
      confidence to stop smoking was rated higher by the successes (8.4 +/- 0.3) than
      by the failures (5.5 +/- 0.4; p < .01). More successes wanted to stop smoking for
      the sake of their loved ones (60%) and health (50%), whereas more failures wanted
      to stop smoking for saving money (45.5%). Failures had more cross-addiction than
      successes (three to four addictions: 31.5% vs. 20%). When participants were asked
      to find 10 personality merits, 78% of the successes and 47% of the failures found
      their 10 merits. The therapeutic process was described as "sharing the smoking
      cessation process with others," "detailed guidance for stress management and
      smoking cessation," and "compliments about efforts for smoking cessation."
      CONCLUSION: The importance of and confidence in smoking cessation were predictors
      for successful cessation for 3-6 months. Motivational interviewing increased
      motivations, whereas positive group psychotherapy increased positive thoughts and
      confidence.

PMID- 28582356
TI  - Pharmacology Update: Benzodiazepines.

PMID- 28582357
TI  - Stories From the Field.

PMID- 28582358
TI  - An Interview With Carmel Clancy, PhD, RGN, RMN, BSc(Hons), PGCertHE, FPH, Head of
      the Department for Mental Health, Social Work and Integrative Medicine, Middlesex
      University, London, UK.

PMID- 28582360
TI  - Predicting the past.

PMID- 28582361
TI  - Anaemic parturient and the anaesthesiologist: Are we asleep at the wheel?

PMID- 28582362
TI  - Publication and innovation in airway management: quality not quantity!

PMID- 28582363
TI  - Positive pressure ventilation through small cricothyroidotomy tubes in a model
      lung.

PMID- 28582364
TI  - Cricoid pressure impedes mask ventilation: A randomised crossover trial.

PMID- 28582365
TI  - Burnout compared between anaesthesiology and psychiatry residents in France: An
      observational study.

PMID- 28582366
TI  - Better safe than sorry: An observational study of #ESALondon tweets.

PMID- 28582367
TI  - Do effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors in patients with diabetes
      give insight into potential use in non-diabetic kidney disease?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Our aim was to review the rationale for the role of sodium
      glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) as renoprotective therapy in
      patients with and without diabetes. RECENT FINDINGS: SGLT-2i are
      antihyperglycemic agents, approved for treating type 2 diabetes to reduce
      glycosylated hemoglobin, type A1c. Primary glucoregulatory effects occur through
      selective inhibition of SGLT-2 at the renal proximal tubule promoting glucosuria
      leading to blood glucose lowering. From a hemodynamic perspective, SGLT-2
      inhibition is also associated with decreased glomerular hyperfiltration, an
      effect that is mediated through natriuresis and tubuloglomerular feedback. With
      renal injury and progressive nephron loss, diabetic kidney disease, and
      nondiabetic chronic kidney diseases share overlapping phenotypes exhibiting
      single nephron hyperfiltration, along with increased proteinuria. Importantly,
      the impact of SGLT-2 inhibition on renal and systemic hemodynamic function,
      including effects on lowering blood pressure, hyperfiltration, and plasma volume,
      are independent of blood glucose lowering and instead are because of natriuresis.
      Accordingly, large clinical trials with SGLT-2i investigating the potential use
      of SGLT-2i in patients without diabetes are now underway. SUMMARY: Based on
      prominent nonglycemic effects, the clinical use of SGLT-2i as renoprotective
      therapy may extend to nondiabetic chronic kidney diseases subtypes, which could
      help to address a large, unmet clinical need.

PMID- 28582368
TI  - Spontaneous Resolution of Optic Neuropathy in Sphenoid Wing Meningioma.
AB  - The authors describe herein a case of optic neuropathy in progesterone receptor
      positive sphenoid wing meningioma of the greater wing which demonstrated
      spontaneous recovery with conservative management.

PMID- 28582369
TI  - Comparison of Revision Rates of Anterior- and Posterior-Approach Ptosis Surgery:
      A Retrospective Review of 1519 Cases.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare revision rates for ptosis surgery between posterior-approach
      and anterior-approach ptosis repair techniques. METHODS: This is the
      retrospective, consecutive cohort study. All patients undergoing ptosis surgery
      at a high-volume oculofacial plastic surgery practice over a 4-year period. A
      retrospective chart review was conducted of all patients undergoing posterior
      approach and anterior-approach ptosis surgery for all etiologies of ptosis
      between 2011 and 2014. Etiology of ptosis, concurrent oculofacial surgeries,
      revision, and complications were analyzed. The main outcome measure is the ptosis
      revision rate. RESULTS: A total of 1519 patients were included in this study. The
      mean age was 63 +/- 15.4 years. A total of 1056 (70%) of patients were female,
      1451 (95%) had involutional ptosis, and 1129 (74.3%) had concurrent upper
      blepharoplasty. Five hundred thirteen (33.8%) underwent posterior-approach ptosis
      repair, and 1006 (66.2%) underwent anterior-approach ptosis repair. The degree of
      ptosis was greater in the anterior-approach ptosis repair group. The overall
      revision rate for all patients was 8.7%. Of the posterior group, 6.8% required
      ptosis revision; of the anterior group, 9.5% required revision surgery. The main
      reason for ptosis revision surgery was undercorrection of one or both eyelids.
      Concurrent brow lifting was associated with a decreased, but not statistically
      significant, rate of revision surgery. Patients who underwent unilateral ptosis
      surgery had a 5.1% rate of Hering's phenomenon requiring ptosis repair in the
      contralateral eyelid. Multivariable logistic regression for predictive factors
      show that, when adjusted for gender and concurrent blepharoplasty, the revision
      rate in anterior-approach ptosis surgery is higher than posterior-approach ptosis
      surgery (odds ratio = 2.08; p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The overall revision rate in
      patients undergoing ptosis repair via posterior-approach or anterior-approach
      techniques is 8.7%. There is a statistically higher rate of revision with
      anterior-approach ptosis repair.

PMID- 28582370
TI  - Isolated Neurofibroma of the Orbit: Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To summarize the clinical, radiographic, and intraoperative
      characteristics of isolated neurofibromas of the orbit (INFO) in the literature
      and report a case of INFO. METHODS: Case report and a systematic review of the
      literature. RESULTS: A total of 45 patients were identified from 18 previous
      studies. There was no sex predilection and mean ages were between 32.3 and 40.0
      years with a standard deviation of 9.8 to 19.5 years, median age was 32 to 38
      years with a range of 1.5 to 82 years. On CT imaging, INFO reveals homogeneous
      precontrast radiodensity similar to that of extraocular muscles. On MR imaging,
      INFO appears hypointense to orbital fat and isointense to brain on precontrast T1
      weighted images. On T2-weighted images, they have been described as being
      predominantly hyperintense with possible hypointense intralesional islands. To
      the best of our knowledge, our case identifies the youngest patient with the
      myxoid histologic variant of INFO. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with orbital
      neurofibromas should be evaluated for the presence of systemic neurofibromatosis,
      and the plexiform variant is a commonly associated subtype. The myxoid variant
      can be part of a lesser known condition called NAME syndrome (nevi, atrial
      myxoma, myxoid neurofibroma, and ephelides) which may warrant echocardiography in
      patients to evaluate for associated cardiac tumors.

PMID- 28582371
TI  - Clinical Presentation and Anatomical Location of Orbital Plasmacytomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical and anatomical location of orbital
      plasmacytomas and assess local control following therapy. METHODS: The American
      Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Oncology Database was
      queried to identify patients diagnosed with orbital plasmacytoma. These patients'
      records were reviewed for demographic characteristics, clinical and radiologic
      findings, treatments, and outcomes. RESULTS: Thirty patients from 4 institutions
      (24 from MD Anderson Cancer Center, 3 from SUNY Downstate Medical Center, 2 from
      University of California, Los Angeles, and 1 from Oregon Health and Science
      University) were identified. Eighteen patients (60%) were diagnosed with multiple
      myeloma (MM) before and 11 (37%) were diagnosed with MM immediately after orbital
      plasmacytoma. Based on imaging, 4 distinct anatomical patterns were identified:
      1) bony plasmacytoma affecting the superotemporal orbit, epidural space, and
      temporal fossa (15 patients; 50%); 2) discrete orbital plasmacytoma (7 patients;
      23%); 3) infiltrative plasmacytoma either originating from a sinus (4 patients;
      13%); or 4) originating from the orbital floor and infiltrating facial soft
      tissue (4 patients; 13%). Of the 29 patients with available treatment data, 2 had
      radiation only, 3 had chemotherapy only, 6 had chemoradiation, and 18 had stem
      cell transplant following chemoradiation (n = 17) or only chemotherapy (n = 1).
      Following treatment, 10 patients achieved complete and 11 achieved partial
      responses. CONCLUSION: Orbital plasmacytomas were found exclusively in patients
      with MM diagnosed before or immediately after orbital plasmacytoma. Plasmacytomas
      can have 4 distinct anatomical patterns of origin. Following treatment, all
      patients had good to excellent local control of their orbital lesions.

PMID- 28582372
TI  - Transitional Cell Carcinoma of Lacrimal Sac.

PMID- 28582373
TI  - Ocular Surface Changes After Sulfur Mustard Exposure in Rabbits, Monitored by
      Impression Cytology.
AB  - PURPOSE: Ocular injuries after exposure to sulfur mustard (SM) are characterized
      by acute corneal erosion and inflammation of the anterior segment that may be
      followed by delayed corneal neovascularization and epithelial defects, associated
      with limbal stem cell deficiency in part of the exposed eyes. This study aimed to
      further clarify the mechanism of the late injury by monitoring SM-induced
      cytological alterations in the ocular surface, in relation to the clinical
      symptoms, using impression cytology (IC). METHODS: Rabbit eyes were exposed to SM
      vapor (n = 20) and were clinically observed up to 4 weeks. Samples for IC were
      collected simultaneously from the upper bulbar conjunctiva, limbus, and cornea
      and then fixed and stained with periodic acid-Schiff and hematoxylin. At 1 month,
      animals were killed and eyes dissected and processed for histology. RESULTS:
      Concomitant with clinical symptoms of SM ocular toxicity, IC showed significant
      long-term loss of conjunctival goblet cells shortly after exposure, followed by
      abnormal differentiation toward squamous metaplasia. Simultaneously with corneal
      erosion, apoptotic bodies and cellular debris were seen in the corneal
      epithelium, followed by regeneration at 1 week. Migration of conjunctival goblet
      cells toward the cornea was noted in neovascularized eyes, as early as 1 week,
      indicating limbal stem cell deficiency. The IC findings were supported by
      histological evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous monitoring of the ocular surface
      after SM exposure by IC enables earlier detection of pathology and therapeutic
      intervention, therefore, is recommended for routine follow-up of casualties.
      Prolonged loss of goblet cells may point toward the role of mucin in the
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28582374
TI  - Management of Corneal Scarring Secondary to Herpes Zoster Keratitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To review the management of visually significant corneal scarring
      secondary to herpes zoster keratitis (HZK). METHODS: Literature review. RESULTS:
      Management options for visually significant corneal scarring secondary to HZK
      include scleral contact lenses, photorefractive or phototherapeutic keratectomy,
      lamellar keratoplasty, penetrating keratoplasty, and keratoprosthesis. Many
      authors recommend tarsorrhaphy in at-risk patients at the time of corneal
      transplantation. Most published studies either did not mention or did not use
      systemic antivirals at the time of surgery. Longer quiescent periods before
      surgical intervention may be associated with increased rates of graft survival.
      Reports of HZK recurrence after live-attenuated vaccine administration suggest
      that risks and benefits of the vaccine should be carefully considered. Overall,
      the prognosis of surgical intervention for corneal scarring due to HZK relies on
      appropriate patient selection and measures to ensure ocular surface stability.
      There remains a serious risk of ocular surface instability and corneal melt in
      these patients. Unfortunately, there is a lack of prospective studies in this
      area to guide clinical management. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with visually
      significant corneal scarring secondary to HZK may have good outcomes with the
      appropriate medical and surgical considerations, particularly in the absence of
      active ocular surface disease and inflammation. Those with active disease may
      benefit from delaying surgical intervention until a satisfactory quiescent period
      has been achieved. Prospective studies, such as the proposed Zoster Eye Disease
      Study, are imperative for validating these principles and determining evidence
      based management guidelines.

PMID- 28582375
TI  - Pythium Insidiosum Keratitis: Histopathology and Rapid Novel Diagnostic Staining
      Technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: To elucidate the histopathology of Pythium insidiosum keratitis and to
      describe a novel, simple, and rapid staining technique for identification of
      oomycete Pythium insidiosum and to differentiate it from fungi. METHODS: This is
      a laboratory investigation study of 38 nonconsecutive cases (37 ocular samples
      and 1 colonic biopsy); 14 microbiologically diagnosed as Pythium insidiosum
      keratitis and 24 as fungal keratitis. Review of clinical, demographic details,
      microbiological results, and identification of cases that necessitated
      evisceration was performed. Reevaluation of histopathology slides was done using
      stains such as hematoxylin-eosin, Gomori methenamine silver (GMS), periodic acid
      Schiff (PAS), potassium iodide-sulfuric acid (IKI-H2SO4). Morphology, degree, and
      nature of inflammation and load, distribution, and staining results of Pythium
      insidiosum and its comparison with fungi were studied. RESULTS: Delay in zoospore
      formation, failure of growth, and delay in identification of Pythium were the
      main cause of evisceration. Corneal pythiosis showed epithelial ulceration,
      stromal destruction, and varying inflammation; load and distribution of Pythium
      were inversely proportional to inflammation. The filaments were commonly wide,
      with admixed narrower structures and uncommonly involved Descemet membrane. The
      oomycete was not discretely discerned with PAS stain and stained distinctly with
      GMS stain and IKI-H2SO4 stain (100% sensitive). In comparison, fungal organisms
      stained well with PAS and GMS stain, but not with IKI-H2SO4 stain (100%
      specific). CONCLUSIONS: Pythium insidiosum keratitis is perhaps not more
      devastating than fungal keratitis but late diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and treatment
      as fungal infection are major heralds. Early diagnosis may markedly improve the
      patient outcome. IKI-H2SO4 is a cost-effective, simple, sensitive, and specific
      stain for the diagnosis of oomycete Pythium.

PMID- 28582376
TI  - Spontaneous Canalicular Plug Erosion After Punctal Plug Placement.

PMID- 28582377
TI  - Is it the End for Urologic Pelvic Laparoscopic Surgery?
AB  - AIM: To scrutinize the rapid development of robotic versus traditional
      laparoscopic technique in pelvic urologic surgery. INTRODUCTION: In the last few
      decades, advances in research and development have led to tremendous progress in
      medical diagnostics and treatment of disease. Minimally invasive surgery has
      moved from experimental to becoming the dominant form of surgical management
      across the surgical specialties. Laparoscopy is nowadays used widely in abdominal
      surgery, from simple diagnostic laparoscopy to complex colorectal and gynecologic
      cancer procedures. METHODS: A literature search of electronic databases (PubMed,
      Medscape, Embase) using the key words: "pelvic laparoscopy, urologic oncology,
      robotic surgery, minimally invasive access" was performed for all relevant
      articles in the English language. Data were extrapolated from the abstracts alone
      to avoid subjective bias in drawing conclusions. RESULTS: Telemedicine and
      telesurgery, the diagnostic and operative process is conducted from a distance.
      The surgeon uses computer-assisted surgery away from the bedside via a robotic
      system and performs the surgical task at hand. In pelvic urological cancer
      surgery the use of robotic technique expands to female and reconstructive
      procedures as well. The leap forward is so massive, that traditional laparoscopic
      surgery is starting to be considered less, with a growing number of organizations
      being now more interested in developing a robotic service. Minimally invasive
      surgical techniques aim to improve surgical outcome in conjunction with delivery
      of high-quality patient care. Quality studies demonstrating superiority and cost
      effectiveness are lacking, however. CONCLUSIONS: Although tremendous
      accomplishments took place over a few years, there is still a lot of ground to be
      covered in standardizing the learning process and evaluating the outcome from the
      application of new technologies in the field of robotic pelvic surgery.

PMID- 28582378
TI  - Robotic Verse Laparoscopic Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of
      11 Individual Studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Robotic surgery is a new technique with the benefits of a 3
      dimensional view, the ability to use multidegree-of-freedom forceps, the
      elimination of physiological tremors, and a stable camera view. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the feasibility and short-term outcomes of robotic surgery
      for gastric cancer, compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery. METHODS: A
      literature search was performed for comparative studies reporting perioperative
      outcomes of robotic gastrectomy (RG) and laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG). The
      methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed. The data were
      analyzed using Stata (Version 13.0) software. RESULTS: Eleven studies of 3503
      patients totally were included for meta-analysis. Compared with LG, RG indicated
      potentially favorable outcomes in terms of blood loss [weighted mean difference
      (WMD)=-36.50; 95% confidence interval (CI), -61.39 to -11.61], and time to oral
      intake (WMD=-0.28; 95% CI, -0.46 to -0.09). But RG suggested longer operative
      time (WMD=53.48; 95% CI, 38.84-68.12). There were no differences in terms of
      postoperative flatus, length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, and
      lymph nodes harvested (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: RG for the treatment of gastric
      cancer is a feasible and safe procedure in the hand of experienced laparoscopic
      surgeons. But the long-term outcomes between the 2 techniques need to be further
      examined.

PMID- 28582379
TI  - Laparoscopic Gastroepiploic Lymphovascular Pedicle Harvesting for the Treatment
      of Extremity Lymphedema: A Novel Technique.
AB  - Vascularized lymph node transfers have multiple donor sites with risk of
      iatrogenic lymphedema. We sought to describe in detail a surgical technique that
      is safe, reproducible, and efficient in harvesting gastroepiploic vascularized
      lymph nodes using real-time indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescent imaging.
      Photographs and video were acquired from a case to depict a step-by-step
      approach. ICG was endoscopically injected into the submucosa of the greater
      curvature of the stomach at the outset of the procedure. A laparoscopic harvest
      of the gastroepiploic vascular pedicle and lymph nodes ensued with the assistance
      of fluorescent imaging. Laparoscopic gastroepiploic lymph node harvesting aided
      by real-time ICG fluorescent mapping technique is safe, feasible, and effective
      at gathering vascularized lymphatic tissue for successful lymph node transfer in
      patients with severe lymphedema.

PMID- 28582381
TI  - High Expression of Retinoblastoma-Binding Protein 2 (RBP2) in Patients with
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Its Prognostic Significance.
AB  - BACKGROUND Recently, some studies have found that retinoblastoma-binding protein
      2 (RBP2) is involved in the development and progression of many kinds of
      malignant tumors. This study aimed to explore the expression level of RBP2 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its prognostic significance. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS Immunohistochemical analysis was used to evaluate the RBP2 expression
      level in 130 HCC patients and adjacent normal tissues. Tumor angiogenesis was
      marked by CD31 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) staining. Kaplan
      Meier and Cox regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship
      between RBP2 expression and prognosis of HCC patients. RESULTS RBP2 expression
      was significantly higher in HCC tissues (positive expression rate: 72.3%,
      94/130). Increased RBP2 expression was dramatically associated with AFP level
      (P=0.016), degree of differentiation (P=0.000), and TNM stage (P=0.035).
      Moreover, tumors with RBP2-positive expression showed significantly higher
      intratumoral MVD than those with RBP2-negative expression (P=0.000). Kaplan-Meier
      analysis revealed RBP2-positive expression was related to decreased disease-free
      survival (DFS) (P=0.000) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.000). Furthermore, RBP2
      was an independent poor prognostic factor of DFS and OS (P=0.029 and 0.010,
      respectively) as demonstrated by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS Increased
      RBP2 expression, as an independent poor prognostic factor for DFS and OS of HCC
      patients, is closely related to tumor angiogenesis. RBP2 is expected to become a
      new potential therapeutic target for HCC.

PMID- 28582383
TI  - The role of scientific student societies in Paraguay.

PMID- 28582382
TI  - Predictive model for the development of hypertensive cardiopathy: A prospective
      cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Predictive models of cardiovascular conditions are useful tools for
      risk stratification. The high morbidity and mortality resulting from hypertensive
      cardiopathy creates a need for the use of tools to predict the risk of
      cardiovascular disease. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the capacity of a model based on
      risk factors to predict the development of hypertensive cardiopathy after ten
      years in patients with a diagnosis of essential arterial hypertension. METHODS: A
      prospective cohort study was carried out in hypertensive patients cared for at
      the specialized arterial hypertension physician?s office of the Specialty
      Policlinic attached to ?Carlos Manuel de Cespedes? Hospital, Bayamo Municipality,
      Granma Province, Cuba, from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009. A predictive
      model was constructed and validated through a process that included the random
      split of the whole sample in two parts: one for development (parameters
      estimation) and the other for validation. RESULTS: The binary regression model
      adjusted by the ?step-by-step backward method,? showed that in step six, 13
      variables sufficed to estimate the risk of developing hypertensive cardiopathy.
      In the estimation sample, the area under the receiver operating characteristic
      curve obtained for the prediction of hypertensive heart disease was 0.985
      (confidence interval: 0.980-0.990; p = <0.0005). In the validation sample the
      area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.963 (confidence
      interval: 0.953-0, 0.973, p<0.0005). The calibration of the model was also
      adequate (p = 0.863). CONCLUSIONS: The model obtained proved is a clinical and
      epidemiological surveillance instrument, useful to identify subjects with greater
      likelihood to acquire hypertensive heart disease, and to stratify their risk in
      the following ten-year period.

PMID- 28582384
TI  - The sum of us: considerations on physician-industry relationships.
AB  - This essay describes critically the physician-industry relationships and how the
      latter influences economically in the realization of continuing medical education
      (CME), industry expenses in sponsoring the academic events of medical societies,
      travel costs and enrollment, payment for consultants and speakers. It also refers
      to the movements that have been created in the academic world to counteract this
      influence, such as No Free Lunch (Spanish version ?NoGracias?) and PharmFree. And
      the struggles between major scientific medical journals, with editorials and
      among editorialists on the concept of conflicts of interest. All this seen
      through the existence of an academic institution in Mexico and the exemplary life
      of one of its members.

PMID- 28582385
TI  - Corrigendum: Apoptotic effect of novel Schiff Based CdCl2(C14H21N3O2) complex is
      mediated via activation of the mitochondrial pathway in colon cancer cells.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep09097.

PMID- 28582386
TI  - Cognitive functioning at the age of 10 years among children born extremely
      preterm: a latent profile approach.
AB  - BackgroundSchool-age children born extremely preterm (EP) are more likely than
      their term peers to have multiple neurocognitive limitations. We identify
      subgroups of EP children who share similar profiles on measures of intelligence
      quotient (IQ) and executive function (EF), and describe the nature and prevalence
      of cognitive impairment in EP children.MethodsOn the basis of measures of IQ and
      EF, subgroups of EP children with common neurocognitive function are identified
      using latent profile analysis (LPA). On the basis of these subgroups, we describe
      the nature and prevalence of impairment in EP children, and examine associations
      between cognitive function, gestational age, and academic achievement.
      Classification of neurocognitive function using IQ and EF is compared with a
      standard classification based on IQ Z-scores.ResultsLPA identified four
      neurocognitive profiles in EP children, with 34% of EP children classified as
      normal, 41% low-normal, 17% moderately impaired, and 8% severely impaired.
      Impaired children exhibited global impairment across cognitive domains, whereas
      children in the low-normal group tended to have impaired inhibition relative to
      their reasoning and working memory skills.ConclusionWithin categories of EP
      children defined in terms of IQ, there is substantial variation in EF; thus, both
      IQ and EF assessments are needed when describing school-age outcome of EP
      children.

PMID- 28582387
TI  - Spanish version of the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire for sport:
      Cultural adaptation and initial validation.
AB  - This study aimed to translate the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire
      into Spanish and provide an initial validation. A recommended methodology for
      translation and cultural adaptation of questionnaires was applied. Once this had
      been completed, three hundred and thirty-two young athletes completed the Talent
      Development Environment Questionnaire. The results revealed that the five factor
      solution Talent Development Environment Questionnaire was confirmed. With the
      exclusion of one item due to low factor loading, the Talent Development
      Environment Questionnaire-5 had robust statistical support for its factor
      structure (chi2 (df = 305) = 499.64, p<0.01, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.045, SRMR =
      0.055). It also demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity. While
      the internal reliability was lower than in previous studies, it revealed
      acceptable levels. Specifically the overall 27 item Talent Development
      Environment Questionnaire-5 had a Cronbach alpha score of .877, and the
      reliability scores for individual factors 1-5 were .622; .761; .658; .605; .602
      respectively. As such, it is recommended that the Spanish Talent Development
      Environment Questionnaire-5 can be used with confidence in Spain in both applied
      and research settings.

PMID- 28582389
TI  - Evaluation of the Intel Xeon Phi 7120 and NVIDIA K80 as accelerators for two
      dimensional panel codes.
AB  - To optimize the geometry of airfoils for a specific application is an important
      engineering problem. In this context genetic algorithms have enjoyed some success
      as they are able to explore the search space without getting stuck in local
      optima. However, these algorithms require the computation of aerodynamic
      properties for a significant number of airfoil geometries. Consequently, for low
      speed aerodynamics, panel methods are most often used as the inner solver. In
      this paper we evaluate the performance of such an optimization algorithm on
      modern accelerators (more specifically, the Intel Xeon Phi 7120 and the NVIDIA
      K80). For that purpose, we have implemented an optimized version of the algorithm
      on the CPU and Xeon Phi (based on OpenMP, vectorization, and the Intel MKL
      library) and on the GPU (based on CUDA and the MAGMA library). We present timing
      results for all codes and discuss the similarities and differences between the
      three implementations. Overall, we observe a speedup of approximately 2.5 for
      adding an Intel Xeon Phi 7120 to a dual socket workstation and a speedup between
      3.4 and 3.8 for adding a NVIDIA K80 to a dual socket workstation.

PMID- 28582388
TI  - Natural antibody responses to the capsid protein in sera of Dengue infected
      patients from Sri Lanka.
AB  - This study aims to characterize the antigenicity of the Capsid (C) protein and
      the human antibody responses to C protein from the four dengue virus (DENV)
      serotypes. Parker hydrophilicity prediction, Emini surface accessibility
      prediction and Karplus & Schulz flexibility predictions were used to
      bioinformatically characterize antigenicity. The human antibody response to C
      protein was assessed by ELISA using immune sera and an array of overlapping DENV2
      C peptides. DENV2 C protein peptides P1 (located on C protein at 2-18 a.a), P11
      (79-95 a.a) and P12 (86-101 a.a) were recognized by most individuals exposed to
      infections with only one of the 4 DENV serotypes as well as people exposed to
      infections with two serotypes. These conserved peptide epitopes are located on
      the amino (1-40 a.a) and carboxy (70-100 a.a) terminal regions of C protein,
      which were predicted to be antigenic using different bioinformatic tools. DENV2 C
      peptide P6 (39-56 a.a) was recognized by all individuals exposed to DENV2
      infections, some individuals exposed to DENV4 infections and none of the
      individuals exposed to DENV1 or 3 infections. Thus, unlike C peptides P1, P11 and
      P12, which contain epitopes, recognized by DENV serotype cross-reactive
      antibodies, DENV2 peptide P6 contains an epitope that is preferentially
      recognized by antibodies in people exposed to this serotype compared to other
      serotypes. We discuss our results in the context of the known structure of C
      protein and recent work on the human B-cell response to DENV infection.

PMID- 28582390
TI  - Polymorphisms in dopaminergic system genes; association with criminal behavior
      and self-reported aggression in violent prison inmates from Pakistan.
AB  - Genetic factors contribute to antisocial and criminal behavior. Dopamine
      transporter DAT-1 (SLC6A3) and DRD2 gene for the dopamine-2 receptor are
      dopaminergic system genes that regulate dopamine reuptake and signaling, and may
      be part of the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders including antisocial
      behaviors and traits. No previous studies have analyzed DAT-1 and DRD2
      polymorphisms in convicted murderers, particularly from Indian subcontinent. In
      this study we investigated the association of 40 bp VNTR polymorphism of DAT-1
      and Taq1 variant of DRD2 gene (rs1800479) with criminal behavior and self
      reported aggression in 729 subjects, including 370 men in Pakistani prisons
      convicted of first degree murder(s) and 359 control men without any history of
      violence or criminal tendency. The 9R allele of DAT-1 VNTR polymorphism was more
      prevalent in convicted murderers compared with control samples, for either one or
      two risk alleles (OR = 1.49 and 3.99 respectively, P = 0.003). This potential
      association of DAT-1 9R allele polymorphism with murderer phenotype was confirmed
      assuming different genetic models of inheritance. However, no genetic association
      was found for DRD2 Taq1 polymorphism. In addition, a combined haplotype (9R-A2)
      of DAT-1 and DRD2 genes was associated with this murderer phenotype. Further, 9R
      allele of DAT-1 was also associated with response to verbal abuse and parental
      marital complications, but not with other measures pertinent to self-reported
      aggression. These results suggest that 9R allele, which may influence levels of
      intra-synaptic dopamine in the brain, may contribute to criminal tendency in this
      sample of violent murderers of Pakistani origin. Future studies are needed to
      replicate this finding in other populations of murderers and see if this finding
      extends to other forms of violence and lesser degrees of aggression.

PMID- 28582391
TI  - All atom NMDA receptor transmembrane domain model development and simulations in
      lipid bilayers and water.
AB  - N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are members of the ionotropic glutamate
      receptor family that mediate excitatory synaptic transmission in the central
      nervous system. The channels of NMDARs are permeable to Ca2+ but blocked by Mg2+,
      distinctive properties that underlie essential brain processes such as induction
      of synaptic plasticity. However, due to limited structural information about the
      NMDAR transmembrane ion channel forming domain, the mechanism of divalent cation
      permeation and block is understood poorly. In this paper we developed an
      atomistic model of the transmembrane domain (TMD) of NMDARs composed of GluN1 and
      GluN2A subunits (GluN1/2A receptors). The model was generated using (a) a
      homology model based on the structure of the NaK channel and a partially resolved
      structure of an AMPA receptor (AMPAR), and (b) a partially resolved X-ray
      structure of GluN1/2B NMDARs. Refinement and extensive Molecular Dynamics (MD)
      simulations of the NMDAR TMD model were performed in explicit lipid bilayer
      membrane and water. Targeted MD with simulated annealing was introduced to
      promote structure refinement. Putative positions of the Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions in the
      ion channel divalent cation binding site are proposed. Differences in the
      structural and dynamic behavior of the channel protein in the presence of Mg2+ or
      Ca2+ are analyzed. NMDAR protein conformational flexibility was similar with no
      ion bound to the divalent cation binding site and with Ca2+ bound, whereas Mg2+
      binding reduced protein fluctuations. While bound at the binding site both ions
      retained their preferred ligand coordination numbers: 6 for Mg2+, and 7-8 for
      Ca2+. Four asparagine side chain oxygens, a back-bone oxygen, and a water
      molecule participated in binding a Mg2+ ion. The Ca2+ ion first coordination
      shell ligands typically included four to five side-chain oxygen atoms of the
      binding site asparagine residues, two water molecules and zero to two backbone
      oxygens of the GluN2B subunits. These results demonstrate the importance of high
      resolution channel structures for elucidation of mechanisms of NMDAR permeation
      and block.

PMID- 28582392
TI  - Mechanical characterization of human brain tumors from patients and comparison to
      potential surgical phantoms.
AB  - While mechanical properties of the brain have been investigated thoroughly, the
      mechanical properties of human brain tumors rarely have been directly quantified
      due to the complexities of acquiring human tissue. Quantifying the mechanical
      properties of brain tumors is a necessary prerequisite, though, to identify
      appropriate materials for surgical tool testing and to define target parameters
      for cell biology and tissue engineering applications. Since characterization
      methods vary widely for soft biological and synthetic materials, here, we have
      developed a characterization method compatible with abnormally shaped human brain
      tumors, mouse tumors, animal tissue and common hydrogels, which enables direct
      comparison among samples. Samples were tested using a custom-built millimeter
      scale indenter, and resulting force-displacement data is analyzed to quantify the
      steady-state modulus of each sample. We have directly quantified the quasi-static
      mechanical properties of human brain tumors with effective moduli ranging from
      0.17-16.06 kPa for various pathologies. Of the readily available and inexpensive
      animal tissues tested, chicken liver (steady-state modulus 0.44 +/- 0.13 kPa) has
      similar mechanical properties to normal human brain tissue while chicken crassus
      gizzard muscle (steady-state modulus 3.00 +/- 0.65 kPa) has similar mechanical
      properties to human brain tumors. Other materials frequently used to mimic brain
      tissue in mechanical tests, like ballistic gel and chicken breast, were found to
      be significantly stiffer than both normal and diseased brain tissue. We have
      directly compared quasi-static properties of brain tissue, brain tumors, and
      common mechanical surrogates, though additional tests would be required to
      determine more complex constitutive models.

PMID- 28582393
TI  - High correlation between Framingham equations with BMI and with lipids to
      estimate cardiovascular risks score at baseline in HIV-infected adults in the
      Temprano trial, ANRS 12136 in Cote d'Ivoire.
AB  - CONTEXT: Data on cardiovascular risk (CVR) score among HIV-infected patients in
      sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. Our first objective was to compare the CVR score
      of Framingham utilizing BMI and lipids at baseline, and secondary to assess
      evolution of CVR score over time at Month 30 in the Temprano trial. METHODS: HIV
      infected adults with CD4 <800/mm3 without criteria for initiating ART were
      included and followed for 30 months in the Temprano trial, which assessed the
      benefits and risks of early antiretroviral treatment (ART) vs deferred ART. CVR
      score was estimated at baseline and Month-30 using Framingham equations with
      either BMI or lipids and classified as high (>20%), moderate (10-20%), and low
      risk (<10%). At baseline, we compare these two estimations utilizing the Pearson
      correlation test and analyze the increasing CV risk score over time by
      Proportional odds cumulative logit models for people attending the Month-30 (M30)
      visit. RESULTS: Among the 2056 patients, 78% were women, median age was 35 years,
      and median CD4 count was 464/mm3, 6.8% were obese, 6.3% had hypertension, 7.8%
      were smokers (1.8% women, 26.8% men), 19% had Total Cholesterol (TC) >5mmol/L,
      and 1% diabetes at baseline. At baseline the concordance between the two
      Framingham equations was excellent (r = 0.95; p<0.0001). Among the 1700 patients
      who attended M30 visit and with available data, 1.3% had a high CV risk score at
      baseline and 3.1% at M30 visit using Framingham equation with BMI. Adjusted odds
      ratio (aOR) of being at a higher CV risk score at M30 visit compared to a higher
      CV risk score at M0 visit was 1.35 (CI 95% 1.17-1.57). Stratified by sex, the
      increasing CV risk score was OR 1.73 (CI 95%: 1.30-2.29) for women and OR 1.24
      (CI 95%: 1.02-1.50) for men. Early ART was not associated with an increasing CV
      risk score (p = 0.88). Results for the 1422 patients with Framingham equation
      using lipids were similar. CONCLUSION: In a large trial evaluating early ART for
      HIV infection in Cote d'Ivoire, Framingham equation with BMI and lipids were
      highly correlated and CV risk score increases over time. Early ART was not
      significantly associated with this increasing CV risk score.

PMID- 28582394
TI  - New insight into hybridization and unidirectional introgression between Ammodytes
      japonicus and Ammodytes heian (Trachiniformes, Ammodytidae).
AB  - Based on northern (NOL) and southern (SOL) mitochondrial lineages, recently, it
      proposed the new species Ammodytes heian and revived the species name Ammodytes
      japonicus to describe sand lances from the northwestern Pacific Ocean. This study
      used molecular methods to investigate genetic relationships between the two sand
      lance species in Korea and Japan. In total, 154 specimens were collected from
      four locations in Korea (Baengnyeongdo in the Yellow Sea, Tongyeong in the Korean
      Strait, and Jumunjin and Gijang in the East Sea), and 50 specimens were collected
      from a single location in Japan (Wakkanai in the Okhotsk Sea). Mitochondrial DNA
      analysis demonstrated that the individuals from Baengnyeongdo and Tongyeong all
      belonged to the SOL, whereas those from Gijang, Jumunjin, and Wakkanai included
      individuals from both the NOL and SOL (over 75% NOL). Population structure
      analyses were performed on the same individuals using seven microsatellite DNA
      markers. The population structure analysis based on 201 specimens identified two
      clusters (named as northern group and southern group), with the admixture
      proportion (q) of < 0.1 for the northern group in the Backyeongdo and Tongyeong
      sand lances and < 0.1 for the southern group in the Wakkanai sand lances. The
      high heterogeneity indicated that the former was probably A. japonicus and the
      latter probably A. heian. However, the admixture proportion in the Jumunjin and
      Gijang sand lances was 0.71-0.75 for the southern group, indicating that
      hybridization and unidirectional introgression from SOL to NOL occurs in
      southwestern margin of the East Sea. Our findings illustrate the speciation
      process based on different patterns of gene flow between Korean and Japanese sand
      lance, which is strongly influenced by both the paleo-climatic change and the
      contemporary local oceanic current pattern.

PMID- 28582395
TI  - Mechanisms of generation of membrane potential resonance in a neuron with
      multiple resonant ionic currents.
AB  - Neuronal membrane potential resonance (MPR) is associated with subthreshold and
      network oscillations. A number of voltage-gated ionic currents can contribute to
      the generation or amplification of MPR, but how the interaction of these currents
      with linear currents contributes to MPR is not well understood. We explored this
      in the pacemaker PD neurons of the crab pyloric network. The PD neuron MPR is
      sensitive to blockers of H- (IH) and calcium-currents (ICa). We used the
      impedance profile of the biological PD neuron, measured in voltage clamp, to
      constrain parameter values of a conductance-based model using a genetic algorithm
      and obtained many optimal parameter combinations. Unlike most cases of MPR, in
      these optimal models, the values of resonant- (fres) and phasonant- (fphi = 0)
      frequencies were almost identical. Taking advantage of this fact, we linked the
      peak phase of ionic currents to their amplitude, in order to provide a
      mechanistic explanation the dependence of MPR on the ICa gating variable time
      constants. Additionally, we found that distinct pairwise correlations between ICa
      parameters contributed to the maintenance of fres and resonance power (QZ).
      Measurements of the PD neuron MPR at more hyperpolarized voltages resulted in a
      reduction of fres but no change in QZ. Constraining the optimal models using
      these data unmasked a positive correlation between the maximal conductances of IH
      and ICa. Thus, although IH is not necessary for MPR in this neuron type, it
      contributes indirectly by constraining the parameters of ICa.

PMID- 28582396
TI  - Participation of androgen and its receptor in sex determination of an amphibian
      species.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the Japanese frog Rana (R.) rugosa the androgen receptor (AR)
      gene on the W chromosome (W-AR) is barely expressed. Previously we showed that
      incomplete female-to-male sex-reversal occurred in Z-AR transgenic female frogs.
      To date, however, there is no report showing that AR with androgens can determine
      genetically programed male sex fate in any vertebrate species. Here, we examined
      whether AR together with androgens functions as a sex determinant in an amphibian
      species. METHODS: To examine whether complete female-to-male sex-reversal occurs
      in R. rugosa frogs, we produced AR-transgenic (Tg) and -knockdown (KD) female R.
      rugosa frogs by the I-SceI meganuclease-mediated gene trap and CRISPR/Cas9
      system, respectively. AR-Tg and -KD tadpoles were reared in water containing
      testosterone (T) at 0 to 7.1 ng/ml. Frozen sections were prepared from the gonads
      of metamorphosed frogs and immunostained for laminin, Vasa, Pat1a, CYP17 and AR.
      We also employed PCR analysis to examine Dmrt1, Pat1a and CYP17 expression in the
      gonads of KD and placebo-KD female frogs. RESULTS: Complete female-to-male sex
      reversal occurred in the AR-Tg ZW female frogs when a low dosage of T was
      supplied in the rearing water of tadpoles. However, no sex-reversal was observed
      in AR-KD ZW female frogs when the gonads were treated with dosages of T high
      enough to induce complete female-to-male sex-reversal even in wild type frogs.
      DISCUSSION: These results suggest that AR with its androgen ligand functions as a
      male sex-determinant in the ZW type R. rugosa frogs.

PMID- 28582397
TI  - Reduction of multiscale stochastic biochemical reaction networks using exact
      moment derivation.
AB  - Biochemical reaction networks (BRNs) in a cell frequently consist of reactions
      with disparate timescales. The stochastic simulations of such multiscale BRNs are
      prohibitively slow due to high computational cost for the simulations of fast
      reactions. One way to resolve this problem uses the fact that fast species
      regulated by fast reactions quickly equilibrate to their stationary distribution
      while slow species are unlikely to be changed. Thus, on a slow timescale, fast
      species can be replaced by their quasi-steady state (QSS): their stationary
      conditional expectation values for given slow species. As the QSS are determined
      solely by the state of slow species, such replacement leads to a reduced model,
      where fast species are eliminated. However, it is challenging to derive the QSS
      in the presence of nonlinear reactions. While various approximation schemes for
      the QSS have been developed, they often lead to considerable errors. Here, we
      propose two classes of multiscale BRNs which can be reduced by deriving an exact
      QSS rather than approximations. Specifically, if fast species constitute either a
      feedforward network or a complex balanced network, the reduced model based on the
      exact QSS can be derived. Such BRNs are frequently observed in a cell as the
      feedforward network is one of fundamental motifs of gene or protein regulatory
      networks. Furthermore, complex balanced networks also include various types of
      fast reversible bindings such as bindings between transcriptional factors and
      gene regulatory sites. The reduced models based on exact QSS, which can be
      calculated by the computational packages provided in this work, accurately
      approximate the slow scale dynamics of the original full model with much lower
      computational cost.

PMID- 28582398
TI  - Effects of low-powered RF sweep between 0.01-20 GHz on female Aedes Aegypti
      mosquitoes: A collective behaviour analysis.
AB  - There are many products claiming to be an electronic solution towards repelling
      mosquitoes. Several reviews were published in debunking these claims. However,
      there is a lack of a systematic study on effects of electromagnetic (EM) or more
      specifically, radio frequency (RF) waves against mosquitoes due to the
      conclusions made in those years. Therefore, we attempt to establish a fundamental
      study on female Aedes Aegypti (Linnaeus) mosquitoes by quantifying the collective
      behavior of the mosquitoes against a continuous stream of low-powered RF signals
      via a broadband horn antenna using image processing methods. By examining the
      average lateral and vertical positions of the mosquitoes versus frequency and
      time, the data shows negligible consistency in the reactions of the mosquitoes
      toward the different frequencies ranging from 10 to 20,000.00 MHz, with a step of
      10 MHz. This was done by examining 33 hours of spatiotemporal data, which was
      divided into three sessions. All three sessions showed totally different
      convolutions in the positions in arbitrary units based on the raster scan of the
      image processing output. Several frequencies apparently showed up to 0.2-70%
      shift in both lateral and vertical components along the spectrum, without
      repeatability for all three sessions. This study contributes to the following: A
      pilot study for establishing the collective effects of RF against mosquitoes,
      open-source use, and finally a low-cost and easily adaptable platform for the
      study of EM effects against any insects.

PMID- 28582399
TI  - Effect of verbal task complexity in a working memory paradigm in patients with
      type 1 diabetes. A fMRI study.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is commonly diagnosed in childhood and adolescence, and the
      developing brain has to cope with its deleterious effects. Although brain
      adaptation to the disease may not result in evident cognitive dysfunction, the
      effects of T1D on neurodevelopment could alter the pattern of BOLD fMRI
      activation. The aim of this study was to explore the neural BOLD activation
      pattern in patients with T1D versus that of healthy matched controls while
      performing two visuospatial working memory tasks, which included a pair of
      assignments administered through a block design. In the first task (condition A),
      the subjects were shown a trial sequence of 3 or 4 white squares positioned
      pseudorandomly around a fixation point on a black background. After a fixed
      delay, a second corresponding sequence of 3 or 4 red squares was shown that
      either resembled (direct, 50%) or differed from (50%) the previous stimulation
      order. The subjects were required to press one button if the two spatial
      sequences were identical or a second button if they were not. In condition B, the
      participants had to determine whether the second sequence of red squares appeared
      in inverse order (inverse, 50%) or not (50%) and respond by pressing a button. If
      the latter sequence followed an order distinct from the inverse sequence, the
      subjects were instructed to press a different button. Sixteen patients with
      normal IQ and without diabetes complications and 16 healthy control subjects
      participated in the study. In the behavioral analysis, there were no significant
      differences between the groups in the pure visuo-spatial task, but the patients
      with diabetes exhibited poorer performance in the task with verbal stimuli (p <
      .001). However, fMRI analyses revealed that the patients with T1D showed
      significantly increased activation in the prefrontal inferior cortex, subcortical
      regions and the cerebellum (in general p < .001). These different activation
      patterns could be due to adaptive compensation mechanisms that are devoted to
      improving efficiency while solving more complex cognitive tasks.

PMID- 28582400
TI  - Variations in survival after cardiac arrest among academic medical center
      affiliated hospitals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Variation exists in cardiac arrest (CA) survival among institutions.
      We sought to determine institutional-level characteristics of academic medical
      centers (AMCs) associated with CA survival. METHODS: We examined discharge data
      from AMCs participating with Vizient clinical database-resource manager. We
      identified cases using ICD-9 diagnosis code 427.5 (CA) or procedure code 99.60
      (CPR). We estimated hospital-specific risk-standardized survival rates (RSSRs)
      using mixed effects logistic regression, adjusting for individual mortality risk.
      Institutional and community characteristics of AMCs with higher than average
      survival were compared with those with lower survival. RESULTS: We analyzed data
      on 3,686,296 discharges in 2012, of which 33,700 (0.91%) included a CA diagnosis.
      Overall survival was 42.3% (95% CI 41.8-42.9) with median institutional RSSR of
      42.6% (IQR 35.7-51.0; Min-Max 19.4-101.6). We identified 28 AMCs with above
      average survival (median RSSR 61.8%) and 20 AMCs with below average survival
      (median RSSR 26.8%). Compared to AMCs with below average survival, those with
      high CA survival had higher CA volume (median 262 vs.119 discharges, p = 0.002),
      total beds (722 vs. 452, p = 0.02), and annual surgical volume (24,939 vs.
      13,109, p<0.001), more likely to offer cardiac catheterization (100% vs. 72%, p =
      0.007) or cardiac surgery (93% vs. 61%, p = 0.02) and cared for catchment areas
      with higher household income ($61,922 vs. $49,104, p = 0.004) and lower poverty
      rates (14.6% vs. 17.3%, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Using discharge data from Vizient,
      we showed AMCs with higher CA and surgical case volume, cardiac catheterization
      and cardiac surgery facilities, and catchment areas with higher socioeconomic
      status had higher risk-standardized CA survival.

PMID- 28582401
TI  - DeepNano: Deep recurrent neural networks for base calling in MinION nanopore
      reads.
AB  - The MinION device by Oxford Nanopore produces very long reads (reads over 100 kBp
      were reported); however it suffers from high sequencing error rate. We present an
      open-source DNA base caller based on deep recurrent neural networks and show that
      the accuracy of base calling is much dependent on the underlying software and can
      be improved by considering modern machine learning methods. By employing
      carefully crafted recurrent neural networks, our tool significantly improves base
      calling accuracy on data from R7.3 version of the platform compared to the
      default base caller supplied by the manufacturer. On R9 version, we achieve
      results comparable to Nanonet base caller provided by Oxford Nanopore.
      Availability of an open source tool with high base calling accuracy will be
      useful for development of new applications of the MinION device, including
      infectious disease detection and custom target enrichment during sequencing.

PMID- 28582402
TI  - A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female.
AB  - Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their
      childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics
      and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of
      strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old "Skrydstrup Woman"
      from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her
      migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this
      timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential
      location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope
      analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological
      investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman
      lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and
      great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections;
      consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European
      prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical,
      biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that
      the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17-18 years old when she died, and that she
      moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup
      area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14
      years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the
      rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way
      movement of an elite female during the possible "age of marriageability" might
      suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between
      chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a
      novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with
      the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction
      in prehistory.

PMID- 28582403
TI  - Vitamin D and immunomodulation in early rheumatoid arthritis: A randomized double
      blind placebo-controlled study.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in T helper cell sub-types and
      osteoclast (OCs) precursors in peripheral blood between patients affected by
      early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA) and healthy controls. The effect of
      administration of cholecalcipherol on clinical and laboratory parameters was
      subsequently evaluated, by a parallel, randomized double blind, placebo
      controlled trial. Thirty nine eRA patients and 31 age-matched controls were
      enrolled and compared for levels of 25OH vitamin D, T helper cell sub-types, OCs
      precursors including both classical and non-classical and pro-inflammatory
      cytokines at baseline. Eligible patients were female >=18 years of age with a
      diagnosis of RA, as defined by the American College of Rheumatology 2010 criteria
      for <6 months prior to inclusion in the study. Patients with auto-immune or
      inflammatory diseases other than RA were excluded. Patients treated with
      glucocorticoids (GCs), disease modifying activity drugs and biologic agents
      within the past 6 months were also excluded. In the second phase of the study,
      eRA patients were randomly assigned to standard treatment with methotrexate (MTX)
      and GCs with (21) or without (18) cholecalcipherol (300,000 IU) and followed for
      3 months; the randomization was done by computer generated tables to allocate
      treatments. Three patients didn't come back to the follow up visit for personal
      reasons. None of the patients experienced adverse events. The main outcome
      measures were T cells phenotypes, OCs precursors and inflammatory cytokines.
      Secondary outcome measure were clinical parameters. In eRA, 25OH vitamin D levels
      were significantly lower. CD4+/IFNgamma+,CD4+/IL4+, CD4+/IL17A+ and
      CD4+IL17A+IFNgamma+, cells were increased in eRA as well as non-classical OCs
      precursors, whereas T regulatory cells were not altered. TNFalpha, TGFbeta1,
      RANKL, IL-23 and IL-6 were increased in eRA. Non-classical OCs, IL-23 and IL-6
      correlated with disease severity and activity. Standard treatment with MTX and GC
      ameliorated clinical symptoms and reduced IL-23, whereas it did not affect CD4+
      cells sub-sets nor OCs precursors. After 3 months, the combined use of
      cholecalcipherol significantly ameliorated the effect of treatment on global
      health. In eRA, a significant imbalance in T CD4+ sub-types accompanied by
      increased levels of non-classical OCs precursors and pro-inflammatory cytokines
      was observed. A single dose of cholecalcipherol (300,000 IU) combined with
      standard treatment significantly ameliorates patients general health.

PMID- 28582404
TI  - Drug-class-specific changes in the volume and cost of antidiabetic medications in
      Poland between 2012 and 2015.
AB  - AIM: to investigate the drug-class-specific changes in the volume and cost of
      antidiabetic medications in Poland in 2012-2015. METHODS: This retrospective
      analysis was conducted based on the National Health Fund database covering an
      entire Polish population. The volume of antidiabetic medications is reported
      according to ATC/DDD methodology, costs-in current international dollars, based
      on purchasing power parity. RESULTS: During a 4-year observational period the
      number of patients, consumption of antidiabetic drugs and costs increased by 17%,
      21% and 20%, respectively. Biguanides are the basic diabetes medication with a
      39% market share. The insulin market is still dominated by human insulins, new
      antidiabetics (incretins, thiazolidinediones) are practically absent. Insulins
      had the largest share in diabetes medications expenditures (67% in 2015). The
      increase in antidiabetic medications costs over the analysed period of time was
      mainly caused by the increased use of insulin analogues. CONCLUSIONS: The
      observed tendencies correspond to the evidence-based HTA recommendations. The
      reimbursement status, the ratio of cost to clinical outcomes and data on the long
      term safety have a deciding impact on how a drug is used.

PMID- 28582405
TI  - Laboratory evaluation of transgenic Populus davidiana*Populus bolleana expressing
      Cry1Ac + SCK, Cry1Ah3, and Cry9Aa3 genes against gypsy moth and fall webworm.
AB  - Transgenic poplar lines 'Shanxin' (Populus davidiana*Populus bolleana) were
      generated via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The transgenic lines carried
      the expression cassettes of Cry1Ac + SCK, Cry1Ah3, and Cry9Aa3, respectively. The
      expression levels of the exogenous insect resistance genes in the transgenic
      lines were determined by Q-PCR and Western blot. Leaves of the transgenic lines
      were used for insect feeding bioassays on first instar larvae of the gypsy moth
      (Lymantria dispar) and fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea). At 5 d of feeding, the
      mean mortalities of larvae feeding on Cry1Ac + SCK and Cry1Ah3 transgenic poplars
      leaves were 97% and 91%, while mortality on Cry9Aa3 transgenic lines was about
      49%. All gypsy moth and fall webworm larvae were killed in 7-9 days after feeding
      on leaves from Cry1Ac + SCK or Cry1Ah3 transgenic poplars, while all the fall
      webworm larvae were killed in 11 days and about 80% of gypsy moth larvae were
      dead in 14 days after feeding on those from Cry9Aa3 transgenic lines. It was
      concluded that the transgenic lines of Cry1Ac + SCK and Cry1Ah3 were highly toxic
      to larvae of both insect species while lines with Cry9Aa3 had lower toxicity,and
      H. cunea larvae are more sensitive to the insecticidal proteins compared to L.
      dispar. Transgenic poplar lines toxic to L. dispar and H. cunea could be used to
      provide Lepidoptera pest resistance to selected strains of poplar trees.

PMID- 28582406
TI  - Intimate partner violence adversely impacts health over 16 years and across
      generations: A longitudinal cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the impact of intimate partner violence on women's
      mental and physical health over a 16 year period and across three generations.
      PARTICIPANTS: Participants were from the Australian Longitudinal study on Women's
      Health, a broadly representative national sample of women comprised of three
      birth cohorts 1973-78, 1946-51 and 1921-26 who were randomly selected from the
      Australian Medicare (i.e. national health insurer) database in 1996 to
      participate in the longitudinal health and wellbeing survey. Since baseline, six
      waves of survey data have been collected. Women from each cohort who had returned
      all six surveys and had a baseline measure (Survey 1) for intimate partner
      violence were eligible for the current study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main
      outcome of interest was women's physical and mental health, measured using the
      Medical Outcome Study Short-Form (SF-36). The experience of intimate partner
      violence was measured using the survey item 'Have you ever been in a violent
      relationship with a partner/spouse?' Sociodemographic information was also
      collected. RESULTS: For all cohorts, women who had lived with intimate partner
      violence were more likely to report poorer mental health, physical function and
      general health, and higher levels of bodily pain. Some generational differences
      existed. Younger women showed a reduction in health associated with the onset of
      intimate partner violence, which was not apparent for women in the older two
      groups. In addition, the physical health differences between women born 1921-26
      who had and had not experienced intimate partner violence tapered off overtime,
      whereas these differences remained constant for women born 1973-78 and 1946-51.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite generational differences, intimate partner violence
      adversely impacted on mental and physical health over the 16 year study period
      and across generations.

PMID- 28582408
TI  - Proteome-wide profiling of protein lysine acetylation in Aspergillus flavus.
AB  - Protein lysine acetylation is a prevalent post-translational modification that
      plays pivotal roles in various biological processes in both prokaryotes and
      eukaryotes. Aspergillus flavus, as an aflatoxin-producing fungus, has attracted
      tremendous attention due to its health impact on agricultural commodities. Here,
      we performed the first lysine-acetylome mapping in this filamentous fungus using
      immune-affinity-based purification integrated with high-resolution mass
      spectrometry. Overall, we identified 1383 lysine-acetylation sites in 652
      acetylated proteins, which account for 5.18% of the total proteins in A. flavus.
      According to bioinformatics analysis, the acetylated proteins are involved in
      various cellular processes involving the ribosome, carbon metabolism, antibiotic
      biosynthesis, secondary metabolites, and the citrate cycle and are distributed in
      diverse subcellular locations. Additionally, we demonstrated for the first time
      the acetylation of fatty acid synthase alpha and beta encoded by aflA and aflB
      involved in the aflatoxin-biosynthesis pathway (cluster 54), as well as backbone
      enzymes from secondary metabolite clusters 20 and 21 encoded by AFLA_062860 and
      AFLA_064240, suggesting important roles for acetylation associated with these
      processes. Our findings illustrating abundant lysine acetylation in A. flavus
      expand our understanding of the fungal acetylome and provided insight into the
      regulatory roles of acetylation in secondary metabolism.

PMID- 28582407
TI  - Enhanced expression and phosphorylation of Sirt7 activates smad2 and ERK
      signaling and promotes the cardiac fibrosis differentiation upon angiotensin-II
      stimulation.
AB  - Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) phenotypic conversion to myofibroblasts (MFs)
      represents a crucial event in cardiac fibrosis that leads to impaired cardiac
      function. However, regulation of this phenotypic transformation remains unclear.
      Here, we showed that sirtuin-7 (Sirt7) plays an important role in the regulation
      of MFs differentiation. Sirt7 expression and phosphorylation were upregulated in
      CFs upon angiotensin-II (Ang-II) stimulation. Sirt7 depletion by siRNA in CFs
      resulted in decreased cell proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM)
      deposition. Further, examination of Sirt7-depleted CFs demonstrated significantly
      lower expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), the classical marker
      of MFs differentiation, and decreased formation of focal adhesions. Moreover,
      overexpression of Sirt7 increased alpha-SMA expression in Ang-II treated CFs and
      exacerbated Ang-II-induced MFs differentiation. Moreover, Sirt7 depletion could
      largely reverse Ang-II induced increase of nuclear translocalization and activity
      of smad2 and extracellular regulated kinases (ERK) in CFs. Importantly, the
      increased differentiation of CFs to MFs was also abolished by smad2 siRNA or
      U0126. Our findings reveal a novel role of Sirt7 and its phosphorylation in the
      phenotypic conversion of CFs to MFs and might lead to the development of new
      therapeutic and prognostic tools for cardiac fibrosis.

PMID- 28582409
TI  - Medicine shortages in Fiji: A qualitative exploration of stakeholders' views.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Medicine access is a human right; yet, concerningly, there are
      international instances of shortages. Quantitative data has allowed WHO to
      propose global solutions; however, individualised understanding of specific
      regions is still required to work towards national solutions. Fiji has an
      established issue with medication supply and the aim of this study was to use
      qualitative methods to gain a fuller understanding of this context. METHODS: Semi
      structured interviews were used to gain the perspective of key stakeholders
      involved in the Fijian medicine supply chain in regards to causes, impacts and
      possible solutions of medicine shortages. Thematic analysis was used to analyse
      the interview data. RESULTS: In total, 48 stakeholders participated and the
      information was synthesised into three main themes, causes, impacts and solutions
      and the sub-themes including; political, system and patient causes, adverse
      health effects on patients, professional dissatisfaction, monetary loss and loss
      of faith in the health system, workarounds, operation improvements, government
      intervention and education and training. CONCLUSIONS: The situation in Fiji is
      not dissimilar to other instances of shortages around the world and hence
      international solutions like that proposed by WHO are feasible; however, they
      must be modified to be uniquely Fijian to work in this context.

PMID- 28582410
TI  - A phase I study of single-agent perifosine for recurrent or refractory pediatric
      CNS and solid tumors.
AB  - The PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway is aberrantly activated in various pediatric
      tumors. We conducted a phase I study of the Akt inhibitor perifosine in patients
      with recurrent/refractory pediatric CNS and solid tumors. This was a standard 3+3
      open-label dose-escalation study to assess pharmacokinetics, describe toxicities,
      and identify the MTD for single-agent perifosine. Five dose levels were
      investigated, ranging from 25 to 125 mg/m2/day for 28 days per cycle. Twenty
      three patients (median age 10 years, range 4-18 years) with CNS tumors (DIPG [n =
      3], high-grade glioma [n = 5], medulloblastoma [n = 2], ependymoma [n = 3]),
      neuroblastoma (n = 8), Wilms tumor (n = 1), and Ewing sarcoma (n = 1) were
      treated. Only one DLT occurred (grade 4 hyperuricemia at dose level 4). The most
      common grade 3 or 4 toxicity at least possibly related to perifosine was
      neutropenia (8.7%), with the remaining grade 3 or 4 toxicities (fatigue,
      hyperglycemia, fever, hyperuricemia, and catheter-related infection) occurring in
      one patient each. Pharmacokinetics was dose-saturable at doses above 50 mg/m2/day
      with significant inter-patient variability, consistent with findings reported in
      adult studies. One patient with DIPG (dose level 5) and 4 of 5 patients with high
      grade glioma (dose levels 2 and 3) experienced stable disease for two months.
      Five subjects with neuroblastoma (dose levels 1 through 4) achieved stable
      disease which was prolonged (>=11 months) in three. No objective responses were
      noted. In conclusion, the use of perifosine was safe and feasible in patients
      with recurrent/refractory pediatric CNS and solid tumors. An MTD was not defined
      by the 5 dose levels investigated. Our RP2D is 50 mg/m2/day.

PMID- 28582411
TI  - Ionotropic receptors signal host recognition in the salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus
      salmonis, Copepoda).
AB  - A remarkable feature of many parasites is a high degree of host specificity but
      the mechanisms behind are poorly understood. A major challenge for parasites is
      to identify and infect a suitable host. Many species show a high degree of host
      specificity, being able to survive only on one or a few related host species. To
      facilitate transmission, parasite's behavior and reproduction has been fine tuned
      to maximize the likelihood of infection of a suitable host. For some species
      chemical cues that trigger or attract the parasite in question have been
      identified but how metazoan parasites themselves receive these signals remains
      unknown. In the present study we show that ionotropic receptors (IRs) in the
      salmon louse are likely responsible for identification of a specific host. By
      using RNAi to knock down the expression level of different co-receptors, a
      significant change of infectivity and settlement of lice larvae was achieved on
      Atlantic salmon. More remarkably, knock down of the IRs changed the host
      specificity of the salmon louse and lice larvae settled at a significant rate on
      host that the wild type lice rejected within minutes. To our knowledge, this has
      never before been demonstrated for any metazoan parasite. Our results show that
      the parasites are able to identify the host quickly upon settlement, settle and
      initiate the parasitic life style if they are on the right host. This novel
      discovery opens up for utilizing the host recognition system for future parasite
      control.

PMID- 28582413
TI  - History matching through dynamic decision-making.
AB  - History matching is the process of modifying the uncertain attributes of a
      reservoir model to reproduce the real reservoir performance. It is a classical
      reservoir engineering problem and plays an important role in reservoir management
      since the resulting models are used to support decisions in other tasks such as
      economic analysis and production strategy. This work introduces a dynamic
      decision-making optimization framework for history matching problems in which new
      models are generated based on, and guided by, the dynamic analysis of the data of
      available solutions. The optimization framework follows a 'learning-from-data'
      approach, and includes two optimizer components that use machine learning
      techniques, such as unsupervised learning and statistical analysis, to uncover
      patterns of input attributes that lead to good output responses. These patterns
      are used to support the decision-making process while generating new, and better,
      history matched solutions. The proposed framework is applied to a benchmark model
      (UNISIM-I-H) based on the Namorado field in Brazil. Results show the potential
      the dynamic decision-making optimization framework has for improving the quality
      of history matching solutions using a substantial smaller number of simulations
      when compared with a previous work on the same benchmark.

PMID- 28582412
TI  - Accuracy of parasitological and immunological tests for the screening of human
      schistosomiasis in immigrants and refugees from African countries: An approach
      with Latent Class Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis is a neglected infection affecting millions of
      people, mostly living in sub-Saharan Africa. Morbidity and mortality due to
      chronic infection are relevant, although schistosomiasis is often clinically
      silent. Different diagnostic tests have been implemented in order to improve
      screening and diagnosis, that traditionally rely on parasitological tests with
      low sensitivity. Aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of different
      tests for the screening of schistosomiasis in African migrants, in a non endemic
      setting. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A retrospective study was conducted on
      373 patients screened at the Centre for Tropical Diseases (CTD) in Negrar,
      Verona, Italy. Biological samples were tested with: stool/urine microscopy,
      Circulating Cathodic Antigen (CCA) dipstick test, ELISA, Western blot, immune
      chromatographic test (ICT). Test accuracy and predictive values of the
      immunological tests were assessed primarily on the basis of the results of
      microscopy (primary reference standard): ICT and WB resulted the test with
      highest sensitivity (94% and 92%, respectively), with a high NPV (98%). CCA
      showed the highest specificity (93%), but low sensitivity (48%). The analysis was
      conducted also using a composite reference standard, CRS (patients classified as
      infected in case of positive microscopy and/or at least 2 concordant positive
      immunological tests) and Latent Class Analysis (LCA). The latter two models
      demonstrated excellent agreement (Cohen's kappa: 0.92) for the classification of
      the results. In fact, they both confirmed ICT as the test with the highest
      sensitivity (96%) and NPV (97%), moreover PPV was reasonably good (78% and 72%
      according to CRS and LCA, respectively). ELISA resulted the most specific
      immunological test (over 99%). The ICT appears to be a suitable screening test,
      even when used alone. CONCLUSIONS: The rapid test ICT was the most sensitive
      test, with the potential of being used as a single screening test for African
      migrants.

PMID- 28582414
TI  - Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International
      Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
AB  - The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors announces requirements
      that a data sharing plan be prospectively registered, and a data sharing
      statement be included in submitted manuscripts, for clinical trials to be
      published in ICMJE journals.

PMID- 28582415
TI  - Defense related decadienal elicits membrane lipid remodeling in the diatom
      Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
AB  - Diatoms rapidly release extracellular oxylipins (oxygenated lipids) including
      polyunsaturated aldehydes in response to herbivory and other stresses. Oxylipins
      have several defense-related activities including inhibition of reproduction in
      herbivores and signaling to distant diatoms. Physiological changes in diatoms
      exposed to varying levels of oxylipins are only beginning to be understood. In
      this study, Phaeodactylum tricornutum cultures were treated with sublethal
      concentrations of the polyunsaturated aldehyde trans,trans-2,4-decadienal (DD) to
      assess effects on lipid composition and membrane permeability. In cells treated
      with DD for 3 hr, all measured saturated and unsaturated fatty acids
      significantly decreased (0.46-0.69 fold of levels in solvent control cells)
      except for 18:2 (decreased but not significantly). The decrease was greater in
      the polyunsaturated fatty acid pool than the saturated and monounsaturated fatty
      acid pool. Analysis of lipid classes revealed increased abundances of
      phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine at 3 and 6 hr. Concomitantly,
      these and other membrane lipids exhibited increased saturated and monounsaturated
      acyl chains content relative to polyunsaturated acyl chains compared to control
      cells. Evidence of decreased plasma membrane permeability in DD treated cells was
      obtained, based on reduced uptake of two of three dyes relative to control cells.
      Additionally, cells pre-conditioned with a sublethal DD dose for 3 hr then
      treated with a lethal DD dose for 2 hr exhibited greater membrane integrity than
      solvent pre-conditioned control cells that were similarly treated. Taken
      together, the data are supportive of the hypothesis that membrane remodeling
      induced by sublethal DD is a key element in the development of cellular
      resistance in diatoms to varying and potentially toxic levels of polyunsaturated
      aldehydes in environments impacted by herbivory or other stresses.

PMID- 28582416
TI  - JNSViewer-A JavaScript-based Nucleotide Sequence Viewer for DNA/RNA secondary
      structures.
AB  - Many tools are available for visualizing RNA or DNA secondary structures, but
      there is scarce implementation in JavaScript that provides seamless integration
      with the increasingly popular web computational platforms. We have developed
      JNSViewer, a highly interactive web service, which is bundled with several
      popular tools for DNA/RNA secondary structure prediction and can provide precise
      and interactive correspondence among nucleotides, dot-bracket data, secondary
      structure graphs, and genic annotations. In JNSViewer, users can perform RNA
      secondary structure predictions with different programs and settings, add
      customized genic annotations in GFF format to structure graphs, search for
      specific linear motifs, and extract relevant structure graphs of sub-sequences.
      JNSViewer also allows users to choose a transcript or specific segment of
      Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequences and predict the corresponding secondary
      structure. Popular genome browsers (i.e., JBrowse and BrowserGenome) were
      integrated into JNSViewer to provide powerful visualizations of chromosomal
      locations, genic annotations, and secondary structures. In addition, we used
      StructureFold with default settings to predict some RNA structures for
      Arabidopsis by incorporating in vivo high-throughput RNA structure profiling data
      and stored the results in our web server, which might be a useful resource for
      RNA secondary structure studies in plants. JNSViewer is available at
      http://bioinfolab.miamioh.edu/jnsviewer/index.html.

PMID- 28582417
TI  - Genome-wide alteration in DNA hydroxymethylation in the sperm from bisphenol A
      exposed men.
AB  - Environmental BPA exposure has been shown to impact human sperm concentration and
      motility, as well as rodent spermatogenesis. However, it is unclear whether BPA
      exposure is associated with alteration in DNA hydroxymethylation, a marker for
      epigenetic modification, in human sperm. A genome-wide DNA hydroxymethylation
      study was performed using sperm samples of men who were occupationally exposed to
      BPA. Compared with controls who had no occupational BPA exposure, the total
      levels of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmc) increased significantly (19.37%
      increase) in BPA-exposed men, with 72.69% of genome regions harboring 5hmc. A
      total of 9,610 differential 5hmc regions (DhMRs) were revealed in BPA-exposed men
      relative to controls, which were mainly located in intergenic and intron regions.
      These DhMRs were composed of 8,670 hyper-hMRs and 940 hypo-hMRs, affecting 2,008
      genes and the repetitive elements. The hyper-hMRs affected genes were enriched in
      pathways associated with nervous system, development, cardiovascular diseases and
      signal transduction. Additionally, enrichment of 5hmc was observed in the
      promoters of eight maternally expressed imprinted genes in BPA-exposed sperm.
      Some of the BPA-affected genes, for example, MLH1, CHD2, SPATA12 and SPATA20
      might participate in the response to DNA damage in germ cells caused by BPA. Our
      analysis showed that enrichment of 5hmc both in promoters and gene bodies is
      higher in the genes whose expression has been detected in human sperm than those
      whose expression is absent. Importantly, we observed that BPA exposure affected
      the 5hmc level in 11.4% of these genes expressed in sperm, and in 6.85% of the
      sperm genome. Finally, we also observed that BPA exposure tends to change the
      5hmc enrichment in the genes which was previously reported to be distributed with
      the trimethylated Histone 3 (H3K27me3, H3K4me2 or H3K4me3) in sperm. Thus, these
      results suggest that BPA exposure likely interferes with gene expression via
      affecting DNA hydroxymethylation in a way partially dependent on trimethylation
      of H3 in human spermatogenesis. Our current study reveals a new mechanism by
      which BPA exposure reduces human sperm quality.

PMID- 28582420
TI  - Novel preparation of highly photocatalytically active copper chromite
      nanostructured material via a simple hydrothermal route.
AB  - Highly photocatalytically active copper chromite nanostructured material were
      prepared via a novel simple hydrothermal reaction between [Cu(en)2(H2O)2]Cl2 and
      [Cr(en)3]Cl3.3H2O at low temperature, without adding any pH regulator or external
      capping agent. The as-synthesized nanostructured copper chromite was analyzed by
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy,
      energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
      Results of the morphological investigation of the as-synthesized products
      illustrate that the shape and size of the copper chromite depended on the
      surfactant sort, reaction duration and temperature. Moreover, the photocatalytic
      behavior of as-obtained copper chromite was evaluated by photodegradation of acid
      blue 92 (anionic dye) as water pollutant.

PMID- 28582419
TI  - The use of Gompertz models in growth analyses, and new Gompertz-model approach:
      An addition to the Unified-Richards family.
AB  - The Gompertz model is well known and widely used in many aspects of biology. It
      has been frequently used to describe the growth of animals and plants, as well as
      the number or volume of bacteria and cancer cells. Numerous parametrisations and
      re-parametrisations of varying usefulness are found in the literature, whereof
      the Gompertz-Laird is one of the more commonly used. Here, we review, present,
      and discuss the many re-parametrisations and some parameterisations of the
      Gompertz model, which we divide into Ti (type I)- and W0 (type II)-forms. In the
      W0-form a starting-point parameter, meaning birth or hatching value (W0),
      replaces the inflection-time parameter (Ti). We also propose new "unified"
      versions (U-versions) of both the traditional Ti -form and a simplified W0-form.
      In these, the growth-rate constant represents the relative growth rate instead of
      merely an unspecified growth coefficient. We also present U-versions where the
      growth-rate parameters return absolute growth rate (instead of relative). The new
      U-Gompertz models are special cases of the Unified-Richards (U-Richards) model
      and thus belong to the Richards family of U-models. As U-models, they have a set
      of parameters, which are comparable across models in the family, without
      conversion equations. The improvements are simple, and may seem trivial, but are
      of great importance to those who study organismal growth, as the two new U
      Gompertz forms give easy and fast access to all shape parameters needed for
      describing most types of growth following the shape of the Gompertz model.

PMID- 28582418
TI  - An in vivo comparison study in goats for a novel motion-preserving cervical joint
      system.
AB  - Cervical degenerative disease is one of the most common spinal disorders
      worldwide, especially in older people. Anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion
      (ACCF) is a useful method for the surgical treatment of multi-level cervical
      degenerative disease. Anterior cervical disc replacement (ACDR) is considered as
      an alternative surgical method. However, both methods have drawbacks,
      particularly the neck motion decrease observed after arthrodesis, and
      arthroplasty should only be performed on patients presenting with cervical disc
      disease but without any vertebral body disease. Therefore, we designed a non
      fusion cervical joint system, namely an artificial cervical vertebra and
      intervertebral complex (ACVC), to provide a novel treatment for multi-level
      cervical degenerative disease. To enhance the long-term stability of ACVC, we
      applied a hydroxyapatite (HA) biocoating on the surface of the artificial joint.
      Thirty-two goats were randomly divided into four groups: a sham control group, an
      ACVC group, an ACVC-HA group, and an ACCF group (titanium and plate fixation
      group). We performed the prosthesis implantation in our previously established
      goat model. We compared the clinical, radiological, biomechanical, and
      histological outcomes among these four different groups for 24 weeks post
      surgery. The goats successfully tolerated the entire experimental procedure. The
      kinematics data for the ACVC and ACVC-HA groups were similar. The range of motion
      (ROM) in adjacent level increased after ACCF but was not altered after ACVC or
      ACVC-HA implantation. Compared with the control group, no significant difference
      was found in ROM and neutral zone (NZ) in flexion-extension or lateral bending
      for the ACVC and ACVC-HA groups, whereas the ROM and NZ in rotation were
      significantly greater. Compared with the ACCF group, the ROM and NZ significantly
      increased in all directions. Overall, stiffness was significantly decreased in
      the ACVC and ACVC-HA groups compared with the control group and the ACCF group.
      Similar results were found after a fatigue test of 5,000 repetitions of axial
      rotation. The histological results showed more new bone formation and better bone
      implant contact in the ACVC-HA group than the ACVC group. Goat is an excellent
      animal model for cervical spine biomechanical study. Compared with the intact
      state and the ACCF group, ACVC could provide immediate stability and preserve
      segmental movement after discectomy and corpectomy. Besides, HA biocoating
      provide a better bone ingrowth, which is essential for long-term stability. In
      conclusion, ACVC-HA brings new insight to treat cervical degenerative disease.

PMID- 28582421
TI  - Circulating fibroblast activation protein activity and antigen levels correlate
      strongly when measured in liver disease and coronary heart disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Circulating fibroblast activation protein (cFAP) is a
      constitutively active enzyme expressed by activated fibroblasts that has both
      dipeptidyl peptidase and endopeptidase activities. We aimed to assess the
      correlation between cFAP activity and antigen levels and to compare variations in
      levels. METHODS: In plasma of 465 control individuals, 368 patients with coronary
      heart disease (CHD) and 102 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with severe
      liver disease before and after liver transplant, cFAP activity levels were
      measured with a newly developed cFAP activity assay. In the same samples, cFAP
      antigen levels were measured using a commercially available cFAP ELISA.
      Correlation analyses between activity and antigen levels were performed by
      calculating Pearson's correlation coefficient (rho). Additionally, normal ranges,
      determinants and differences between cohorts and between anticoagulants were
      investigated. RESULTS: cFAP activity and antigen levels significantly correlated
      in controls (rho: 0.660, p<0.001) and in CHD patients (rho: 0.709, p<0.001). cFAP
      activity and antigen levels in the HCV cohort were significantly lower in the
      samples taken after liver transplantation (p<0.001) and normalized toward levels
      of healthy individuals. Furthermore, cFAP activity and antigen levels were higher
      in men and significantly associated with body mass index. Also, cFAP activity and
      antigen levels were higher in EDTA plasma as compared to the levels in citrated
      plasma from the same healthy individuals. CONCLUSIONS: For analyzing cFAP levels,
      either activity levels or antigen levels can be measured to investigate
      differences between individuals. However, it is of importance that blood samples
      are collected in the same anticoagulant.

PMID- 28582423
TI  - Correction: The impact of anti-drug antibodies on drug concentrations and
      clinical outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with adalimumab,
      etanercept, or infliximab: Results from a multinational, real-world clinical
      practice, non-interventional study.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175207.].

PMID- 28582422
TI  - Role of LRRK2 in the regulation of dopamine receptor trafficking.
AB  - Mutations in LRRK2 play a critical role in both familial and sporadic Parkinson's
      disease (PD). Up to date, the role of LRRK2 in PD onset and progression remains
      largely unknown. However, experimental evidence highlights a critical role of
      LRRK2 in the control of vesicle trafficking that in turn may regulate different
      aspects of neuronal physiology. We have analyzed the role of LRRK2 in regulating
      dopamine receptor D1 (DRD1) and D2 (DRD2) trafficking. DRD1 and DRD2 are the most
      abundant dopamine receptors in the brain. They differ in structural,
      pharmacological and biochemical properties, as well as in localization and
      internalization mechanisms. Our results indicate that disease-associated mutant
      G2019S LRRK2 impairs DRD1 internalization, leading to an alteration in signal
      transduction. Moreover, the mutant forms of LRRK2 affect receptor turnover by
      decreasing the rate of DRD2 trafficking from the Golgi complex to the cell
      membrane. Collectively, our findings are consistent with the conclusion that
      LRRK2 influences the motility of neuronal vesicles and the neuronal receptor
      trafficking. These findings have important implications for the complex role that
      LRRK2 plays in neuronal physiology and the possible pathological mechanisms that
      may lead to neuronal death in PD.

PMID- 28582425
TI  - Determining baselines for human-elephant conflict: A matter of time.
AB  - Elephant crop raiding is one of the most relevant forms of human-elephant
      conflict (HEC) in Africa. Northern Botswana holds the largest population of
      African elephants in the world, and in the eastern Okavango Panhandle, 16,000
      people share and compete for resources with more than 11,000 elephants. Hence, it
      is not surprising this area represents a HEC 'hotspot' in the region. Crop
      raiding impacts lead to negative perceptions of elephants by local communities,
      which can strongly undermine conservation efforts. Therefore, assessing trends in
      conflict levels is essential to developing successful management strategies. In
      this context, we investigated the trend in the number of reported raiding
      incidents as one of the indicators of the level of HEC, and assessed its
      relationship to trends in human and elephant population size, as well as land-use
      in the study area. For each of these factors, we considered data spanning
      historical (since the 1970s) and contemporary (2008-2015) time frames, with the
      aim of comparing subsequent inferences on the drivers of crop raiding and
      predictions for the future. We find that the level of reported crop raiding by
      elephants in the eastern Panhandle appears to have decreased since 2008, which
      seems to be related to the reduction in agricultural land allocated to people in
      recent years, more than with human and elephant population size. We show that
      inferences regarding the drivers of HEC and predictions for the future are
      dependent on the time span of the data used. Although our study represents a
      first step in developing a HEC baseline in the eastern Panhandle, it highlights
      the need for additional multi-scale analyses that consider progress in
      conservation conflict to better understand and predict drivers of HEC in the
      region.

PMID- 28582424
TI  - Allelic variants of OsHKT1;1 underlie the divergence between indica and japonica
      subspecies of rice (Oryza sativa) for root sodium content.
AB  - Salinity is a major factor limiting crop productivity. Rice (Oryza sativa), a
      staple crop for the majority of the world, is highly sensitive to salinity
      stress. To discover novel sources of genetic variation for salt tolerance-related
      traits in rice, we screened 390 diverse accessions under 14 days of moderate (9
      dS.m-1) salinity. In this study, shoot growth responses to moderate levels of
      salinity were independent of tissue Na+ content. A significant difference in root
      Na+ content was observed between the major subpopulations of rice, with indica
      accessions displaying higher root Na+ and japonica accessions exhibiting lower
      root Na+ content. The genetic basis of the observed variation in phenotypes was
      elucidated through genome-wide association (GWA). The strongest associations were
      identified for root Na+:K+ ratio and root Na+ content in a region spanning ~575
      Kb on chromosome 4, named Root Na+ Content 4 (RNC4). Two Na+ transporters, HKT1;1
      and HKT1;4 were identified as candidates for RNC4. Reduced expression of both
      HKT1;1 and HKT1;4 through RNA interference indicated that HKT1;1 regulates shoot
      and root Na+ content, and is likely the causal gene underlying RNC4. Three non
      synonymous mutations within HKT1;1 were present at higher frequency in the indica
      subpopulation. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes the indica-predominant isoform
      exhibited higher inward (negative) currents and a less negative voltage threshold
      of inward rectifying current activation compared to the japonica-predominant
      isoform. The introduction of a 4.5kb fragment containing the HKT1;1 promoter and
      CDS from an indica variety into a japonica background, resulted in a phenotype
      similar to the indica subpopulation, with higher root Na+ and Na+:K+. This study
      provides evidence that HKT1;1 regulates root Na+ content, and underlies the
      divergence in root Na+ content between the two major subspecies in rice.

PMID- 28582427
TI  - Imaging of Jurassic fossils from the Talbragar Fish Bed using fluorescence,
      photoluminescence, and elemental and mineralogical mapping.
AB  - The Talbragar Fish Bed is one of Australia's most important Jurassic deposits for
      freshwater fishes, land plants and aquatic and terrestrial insects. The site has
      yielded many well preserved fossils, which has led to the formal description of
      numerous new species and higher taxa. The excellent preservation of many fossils
      has allowed detailed anatomical studies, e.g. of the early teleost fish
      Cavenderichthys talbragarensis (Woodward, 1895). Here we report on the
      fluorescent characteristics and mineral composition of a range of Talbragar
      fossils. Most specimens fluoresce under ultraviolet, blue and green light.
      Elemental and mineralogical analyses revealed that the Talbragar fossils consist
      predominantly of quartz (SiO2), a mineral that is likely to account for the
      observed fluorescence, with trace kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) in some of the fish
      fossils. Rock matrices are predominantly composed of quartz and goethite
      (FeO(OH)). Closer inspection of a plant leaf (Pentoxylon australicum White, 1981)
      establishes fluorescence as a useful tool for the visualisation of anatomical
      details that are difficult to see under normal light conditions.

PMID- 28582426
TI  - Synthesis of a novel glucose capped gold nanoparticle as a better theranostic
      candidate.
AB  - Gold nanoparticles are predominantly used in diagnostics, therapeutics and
      biomedical applications. The present study has been designed to synthesize
      differently capped gold nanoparticles (AuNps) by a simple, one-step, room
      temperature procedure and to evaluate the potential of these AuNps for biomedical
      applications. The AuNps are capped with glucose, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) and
      citrate using different reducing agents. This is the first report of synthesis of
      2DG-AuNp by the simple room temperature method. The synthesized gold
      nanoparticles are characterized with UV-Visible Spectroscopy, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected
      area electron diffraction (SAED), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Energy
      dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
      study of the synthesized AuNps shows increase in Raman signals up to 50 times
      using 2DG. 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiozol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT)
      assay has been performed using all the three differently capped AuNps in
      different cell lines to assess cytotoxcity if any, of the nanoparticles. The
      study shows that 2DG-AuNps is a better candidate for theranostic application.

PMID- 28582428
TI  - Sex in the shadow of HIV: A systematic review of prevalence, risk factors, and
      interventions to reduce sexual risk-taking among HIV-positive adolescents and
      youth in sub-Saharan Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence on sexual risk-taking among HIV-positive adolescents and
      youth in sub-Saharan Africa is urgently needed. This systematic review
      synthesizes the extant research on prevalence, factors associated with, and
      interventions to reduce sexual risk-taking among HIV-positive adolescents and
      youth in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: Studies were located through electronic
      databases, grey literature, reference harvesting, and contact with researchers.
      Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines
      were followed. Quantitative studies that reported on HIV-positive participants
      (10-24 year olds), included data on at least one of eight outcomes (early sexual
      debut, inconsistent condom use, older partner, transactional sex, multiple sexual
      partners, sex while intoxicated, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy),
      and were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa were included. Two authors piloted all
      processes, screened studies, extracted data independently, and resolved any
      discrepancies. Due to variance in reported rates and factors associated with
      sexual risk-taking, meta-analyses were not conducted. RESULTS: 610 potentially
      relevant titles/abstracts resulted in the full text review of 251 records. Forty
      two records (n = 35 studies) reported one or multiple sexual practices for 13,536
      HIV-positive adolescents/youth from 13 sub-Saharan African countries. Seventeen
      cross-sectional studies reported on individual, relationship, family, structural,
      and HIV-related factors associated with sexual risk-taking. However, the majority
      of the findings were inconsistent across studies, and most studies scored <50% in
      the quality checklist. Living with a partner, living alone, gender-based
      violence, food insecurity, and employment were correlated with increased sexual
      risk-taking, while knowledge of own HIV-positive status and accessing HIV support
      groups were associated with reduced sexual risk-taking. Of the four intervention
      studies (three RCTs), three evaluated group-based interventions, and one
      evaluated an individual-focused combination intervention. Three of the
      interventions were effective at reducing sexual risk-taking, with one reporting
      no difference between the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSION: Sexual
      risk-taking among HIV-positive adolescents and youth is high, with inconclusive
      evidence on potential determinants. Few known studies test secondary HIV
      prevention interventions for HIV-positive youth. Effective and feasible low-cost
      interventions to reduce risk are urgently needed for this group.

PMID- 28582429
TI  - Transmission dynamics and control of Rickettsia rickettsii in populations of
      Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris and Amblyomma sculptum.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Brazilian Spotted Fever (BSF), caused by the bacterium Rickettsia
      rickettsii, is the tick-borne disease that generates the largest number of human
      deaths in the world. In Brazil, the current increase of BSF human cases has been
      associated with the presence and expansion of capybaras Hydrochoerus
      hydrochaeris, which act as primary hosts for the tick Amblyomma sculptum, vector
      of the R. rickettsii in this area. METHODS: We proposed a semi-discrete-time
      stochastic model to evaluate the role of capybaras in the transmission dynamics
      of R. rickettsii. Through a sensitivity analysis, we identified the parameters
      with significant influence on the R. rickettsii establishment. Afterward, we
      implemented the Gillespie's algorithm to simulate the impact of potential public
      health interventions to prevent BSF human cases. RESULTS: The introduction of a
      single infected capybara with at least one infected attached tick is enough to
      trigger the disease in a non-endemic area. We found that to avoid the formation
      of new BSF-endemic areas, it is crucial to impede the emigration of capybaras
      from endemic areas by reducing their birth rate by more than 58%. Model results
      were corroborated by ex-situ data generated from field studies, and this supports
      our proposal to prevent BSF human cases by implementing control strategies
      focused on capybaras. CONCLUSION: The proposed stochastic model illustrates how
      strategies for the control and prevention of vector-borne infectious diseases can
      be focused on amplifier hosts management practices. This work provides a basis
      for future prevention strategies for other neglected vector-borne diseases.

PMID- 28582430
TI  - A multi-objective decision-making approach to the journal submission problem.
AB  - When researchers complete a manuscript, they need to choose a journal to which
      they will submit the study. This decision requires to navigate trade-offs between
      multiple objectives. One objective is to share the new knowledge as widely as
      possible. Citation counts can serve as a proxy to quantify this objective. A
      second objective is to minimize the time commitment put into sharing the
      research, which may be estimated by the total time from initial submission to
      final decision. A third objective is to minimize the number of rejections and
      resubmissions. Thus, researchers often consider the trade-offs between the
      objectives of (i) maximizing citations, (ii) minimizing time-to-decision, and
      (iii) minimizing the number of resubmissions. To complicate matters further, this
      is a decision with multiple, potentially conflicting, decision-maker
      rationalities. Co-authors might have different preferences, for example about
      publishing fast versus maximizing citations. These diverging preferences can lead
      to conflicting trade-offs between objectives. Here, we apply a multi-objective
      decision analytical framework to identify the Pareto-front between these
      objectives and determine the set of journal submission pathways that balance
      these objectives for three stages of a researcher's career. We find multiple
      strategies that researchers might pursue, depending on how they value minimizing
      risk and effort relative to maximizing citations. The sequences that maximize
      expected citations within each strategy are generally similar, regardless of time
      horizon. We find that the "conditional impact factor"-impact factor times
      acceptance rate-is a suitable heuristic method for ranking journals, to strike a
      balance between minimizing effort objectives and maximizing citation count.
      Finally, we examine potential co-author tension resulting from differing
      rationalities by mapping out each researcher's preferred Pareto front and
      identifying compromise submission strategies. The explicit representation of
      trade-offs, especially when multiple decision-makers (co-authors) have different
      preferences, facilitates negotiations and can support the decision process.

PMID- 28582431
TI  - Hepatitis B genotypes and surface antigen mutants present in Pakistani blood
      donors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection is 2-4%
      in the Pakistani population, defining Pakistan as an intermediate prevalence
      country. In this study, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) reactive blood
      donations were screened using a combination of serological and molecular methods
      to identify immune escape HBV mutant strains and to determine the HBV genotypes
      and subtypes present in Pakistan. METHODS: Blood donations were collected at the
      Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion (AFIT) located in northern Pakistan and the
      Hussaini Blood Bank (HBB) located in the south. From 2009 to 2013 a total of
      706,575 donations were screened with 2.04% (14,409) HBsAg reactive. A total of
      2055 HBsAg reactive specimens, were collected and screened using a monoclonal
      antibody based research assay to identify immune escape mutants followed by PCR
      amplification and DNA sequencing to identify the mutation present. DNA sequences
      obtained from 192 specimens, including mutant candidates and wild type strains,
      were analyzed for escape mutations, genotype, and HBsAg subtype. RESULTS:
      Mutations were identified in approximately 14% of HBsAg reactive donations.
      Mutations at HBsAg amino acid positions 143-145 are the most common (46%) with
      the mutation serine 143 to leucine the most frequently occurring change (28%).
      While regional differences were observed, the most prevalent HBV strains are
      subgenotypes of D with subgenotype D1/subtype ayw2 accounting for the majority of
      infections; 90.2% at AFIT and 52.5% at HBB. CONCLUSIONS: The high frequency of
      immune escape HBV mutants in HBV infected Pakistani blood donors highlights the
      need for more studies into the prevalence of escape mutants. Differences between
      vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, the correlation of escape mutant
      frequency with genotype, and impact of escape mutations in different genotype
      backgrounds on the performance of commercially available HBsAg assays represent
      avenues for further investigation.

PMID- 28582432
TI  - In vivo efficacy of the AKT inhibitor ARQ 092 in Noonan Syndrome with multiple
      lentigines-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Noonan Syndrome with Multiple Lentigines (NSML, formerly LEOPARD syndrome) is an
      autosomal dominant "RASopathy" disorder manifesting in congenital heart disease.
      Most cases of NSML are caused by catalytically inactivating mutations in the
      protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP), non-receptor type 11 (PTPN11), encoding the
      SH2 domain-containing PTP-2 (SHP2) protein. We previously generated knock-in mice
      harboring the PTPN11 mutation Y279C, one of the most common NSML alleles; these
      now-termed SHP2Y279C/+ mice recapitulate the human disorder and develop
      hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by 12 weeks of age. Functionally, heart and/or
      cardiomyocyte lysates from SHP2Y279C/+ mice exhibit increased basal and agonist
      induced AKT and mTOR activities. Here, we sought to determine whether we could
      reverse the hypertrophy in SHP2Y279C/+ mice using ARQ 092, an oral and selective
      allosteric AKT inhibitor currently in clinical trials for patients with PI3K/AKT
      driven tumors or Proteus syndrome. We obtained echocardiographs of SHP2Y279C/+
      and wildtype (SHP2+/+) littermates, either in the presence or absence of ARQ 092
      at 12, 14, and 16 weeks of age. While SHP2Y279C/+ mice developed significant left
      ventricular hypertrophy by 12 weeks, as indicated by decreased chamber dimension
      and increased posterior wall thickness, treatment of SHP2Y279C/+ mice with ARQ
      092 normalized the hypertrophy in as early as 2 weeks following treatment, with
      hearts comparable in size to those in wildtype (SHP2+/+) mice. In addition, we
      observed an increase in fractional shortening (FS%) in SHP2Y279C/+ mice, an
      effect of increased compensatory hypertrophy, which was not apparent in
      SHP2Y279C/+ mice treated with ARQ 092, suggesting functional improvement of HCM
      upon treatment with the AKT inhibitor. Finally, we found that ARQ 092
      specifically inhibited AKT activity, as well as its downstream effectors, PRAS
      and S6RP in NSML mice. Taken together, these data suggest ARQ 092 may be a
      promising novel therapy for treatment of hypertrophy in NSML patients.

PMID- 28582434
TI  - Asymptomatic aortic stenosis: An assessment of patients' and of their general
      practitioners' knowledge, after an indexed specialized assessment in community
      practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical and echocardiography follow-up is recommended in patients
      with aortic stenosis to detect symptom onset, thus a watchful waiting approach
      has to be safe and effective. For both AS patients and their general
      practitioners, evaluation of valvular heart disease (VHD) knowledge, after the
      indexed specialized assessment has never been measured. AIMS: To evaluate the
      knowledge of clinical symptoms of aortic stenosis by both patients and their
      general practitioner. METHODS: Sixty-four patients, with moderate to severe and
      initially asymptomatic AS (median AVA (interquartile range) 1.01(0.80-1.15) cm2)
      previously referred to a tertiary center and medically managed for at least 6
      months after the index echocardiogram, and their primary care doctors were
      interviewed on the phone and asked to answer specific questions related to
      knowledge of aortic stenosis symptoms. RESULTS: Fifty-six percent of patients
      quoted shortness of breath as one of the aortic stenosis symptoms, and only 16%
      knew the 3 aortic stenosis symptoms. Fifty percent of patients reported having
      received sufficient information regarding aortic stenosis; only 48% remembered
      receiving information regarding specific symptoms. Only 14% general practitioners
      quoted the 3 specific symptoms. According to the initial recommendation, only 41
      patients (64%) benefitted from a 6-to-12 month clinical and echocardiography
      follow up. CONCLUSION: GPs are not sufficiently trained to safely manage AS
      patients in the community and to ensure adequate follow-up and monitoring. AS
      patients were not properly informed about their diagnosis and symptomatology.
      Hence, therapeutic education should be improved for patients with asymptomatic AS
      and continuous medical education on VHD should be reinforced, for GPs.

PMID- 28582433
TI  - Travelling to the south: Phylogeographic spatial diffusion model in Monttea
      aphylla (Plantaginaceae), an endemic plant of the Monte Desert.
AB  - Effects of Pleistocene climatic oscillations on plant phylogeographic patterns
      are relatively well studied in forest, savanna and grassland biomes, but such
      impacts remain less explored on desert regions of the world, especially in South
      America. Here, we performed a phylogeographical study of Monttea aphylla, an
      endemic species of the Monte Desert, to understand the evolutionary history of
      vegetation communities inhabiting the South American Arid Diagonal. We obtained
      sequences of three chloroplast (trnS-trnfM, trnH-psbA and trnQ-rps16) and one
      nuclear (ITS) intergenic spacers from 272 individuals of 34 localities throughout
      the range of the species. Population genetic and Bayesian coalescent analyses
      were performed to infer genealogical relationships among haplotypes, population
      genetic structure, and demographic history of the study species. Timing of
      demographic events was inferred using Bayesian Skyline Plot and the spatio
      temporal patterns of lineage diversification was reconstructed using Bayesian
      relaxed diffusion models. Palaeo-distribution models (PDM) were performed through
      three different timescales to validate phylogeographical patterns. Twenty-five
      and 22 haplotypes were identified in the cpDNA and nDNA data, respectively. that
      clustered into two main genealogical lineages following a latitudinal pattern,
      the northern and the southern Monte (south of 35 degrees  S). The northern Monte
      showed two lineages of high genetic structure, and more relative stable
      demography than the southern Monte that retrieved three groups with little
      phylogenetic structure and a strong signal of demographic expansion that would
      have started during the Last Interglacial period (ca. 120 Ka). The PDM and
      diffusion models analyses agreed in the southeast direction of the range
      expansion. Differential effect of climatic oscillations across the Monte
      phytogeographic province was observed in Monttea aphylla lineages. In northern
      Monte, greater genetic structure and more relative stable demography resulted
      from a more stable climate than in the southern Monte. Pleistocene glaciations
      drastically decreased the species area in the southern Monte, which expanded in a
      southeastern direction to the new available areas during the interglacial
      periods.

PMID- 28582435
TI  - School and household tuberculosis contact investigations in Swaziland: Active TB
      case finding in a high HIV/TB burden setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Investigation of household contacts exposed to infectious
      tuberculosis (TB) is widely recommended by international guidelines to identify
      secondary cases of TB and limit spread. There is little data to guide the use of
      contact investigations outside of the household, despite strong evidence that
      most TB infections occur outside of the home in TB high burden settings. In older
      adolescents, the majority of infections are estimated to occur in school.
      Therefore, as part of a project to increase active case finding in Swaziland, we
      performed school contact investigations following the identification of a student
      with infectious TB. METHODS: The Butimba Project identified 7 adolescent TB index
      cases (age 10-20) with microbiologically confirmed disease attending 6 different
      schools between June 2014 and March 2015. In addition to household contact
      investigations, Butimba Project staff worked with the Swaziland School Health
      Programme (SHP) to perform school contact investigations. At 6 school TB
      screening events, between May and October 2015, selected students underwent
      voluntary TB screening and those with positive symptom screens provided sputum
      for TB testing. RESULTS: Among 2015 student contacts tested, 177 (9%) screened
      positive for TB symptoms, 132 (75%) produced a sputum sample, of which zero
      tested positive for TB. Household contact investigations of the same index cases
      yielded 40 contacts; 24 (60%) screened positive for symptoms; 19 produced a
      sputum sample, of which one case was confirmed positive for TB. The odds ratio of
      developing TB following household vs. school contact exposure was significantly
      lower (OR 0.0, 95% CI 0.0 to 0.18, P = 0.02) after exposure in school.
      CONCLUSION: School-based contact investigations require further research to
      establish best practices in TB high burden settings. In this case, a symptom
      based screening approach did not identify additional cases of tuberculosis. In
      comparison, household contact investigations yielded a higher percentage of
      contacts with positive TB screens and an additional tuberculosis case.

PMID- 28582436
TI  - Is hyaluronan deposition in the stroma of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma of
      prognostic significance?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dismal prognosis and
      the number of PDAC-related deaths is rising. Recently the tumour stroma and in
      particular one of its main components, hyaluronan (HA), have attracted
      considerable attention as intravenous hyaluronidase treatment together with
      conventional chemotherapy considerably prolonged survival in HA-rich PDA
      patients. We therefore wanted to investigate the prognostic significance of HA
      deposition in PDA using both antibodies to HA and hyaluronan binding protein
      (HABP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Tissue microarrays of PDAs of 184 patients and
      pancreatic xenografts tumours were immunohistochemically (IHC) stained for HA
      using either biotinylated hyaluronic acid binding protein (HABP) or anti-HA
      antibody. RESULTS: The pattern of staining with HABP differed significantly from
      that with antibody IHC. Antibody staining was found both within cancer cells and
      in the extracellular matrix and staining could not be eliminated by hyaluronidase
      predigestion of the tissue sections. In contrast, HABP staining was generally
      confined to the extracellular matrix and was completely abolished by
      hyaluronidase pretreatment. HA positivity as determined by HABP was associated
      with larger primary tumours (p = 0.046). There were no correlations between
      overall survival, disease-free survival and HA expression. CONCLUSION: Presence
      of HA alone is not of prognostic importance in PDAC, and IHC with utilization of
      antibody detection shows no reliable staining pattern and should not be applied
      for HA IHC.

PMID- 28582437
TI  - Genomic ancestry and education level independently influence abdominal fat
      distributions in a Brazilian admixed population.
AB  - We aimed to identify the independent associations of genomic ancestry and
      education level with abdominal fat distributions in the 1982 Pelotas birth cohort
      study, Brazil. In 2,890 participants (1,409 men and 1,481 women), genomic
      ancestry was assessed using genotype data on 370,539 genome-wide variants to
      quantify ancestral proportions in each individual. Years of completed education
      was used to indicate socio-economic position. Visceral fat depth and subcutaneous
      abdominal fat thickness were measured by ultrasound at age 29-31y; these measures
      were adjusted for BMI to indicate abdominal fat distributions. Linear regression
      models were performed, separately by sex. Admixture was observed between European
      (median proportion 85.3), African (6.6), and Native American (6.3) ancestries,
      with a strong inverse correlation between the African and European ancestry
      scores (rho = -0.93; p<0.001). Independent of education level, African ancestry
      was inversely associated with both visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat
      distributions in men (both P = 0.001), and inversely associated with subcutaneous
      abdominal fat distribution in women (p = 0.009). Independent of genomic ancestry,
      higher education level was associated with lower visceral fat, but higher
      subcutaneous fat, in both men and women (all p<0.001). Our findings, from an
      admixed population, indicate that both genomic ancestry and education level were
      independently associated with abdominal fat distribution in adults. African
      ancestry appeared to lower abdominal fat distributions, particularly in men.

PMID- 28582439
TI  - Familiarity facilitates feature-based face processing.
AB  - Recognition of personally familiar faces is remarkably efficient, effortless and
      robust. We asked if feature-based face processing facilitates detection of
      familiar faces by testing the effect of face inversion on a visual search task
      for familiar and unfamiliar faces. Because face inversion disrupts configural and
      holistic face processing, we hypothesized that inversion would diminish the
      familiarity advantage to the extent that it is mediated by such processing.
      Subjects detected personally familiar and stranger target faces in arrays of two,
      four, or six face images. Subjects showed significant facilitation of personally
      familiar face detection for both upright and inverted faces. The effect of
      familiarity on target absent trials, which involved only rejection of unfamiliar
      face distractors, suggests that familiarity facilitates rejection of unfamiliar
      distractors as well as detection of familiar targets. The preserved familiarity
      effect for inverted faces suggests that facilitation of face detection afforded
      by familiarity reflects mostly feature-based processes.

PMID- 28582438
TI  - In silico discovery of substituted pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines and pentamidine-like
      compounds with biological activity in myotonic dystrophy models.
AB  - Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a rare multisystemic disorder associated with
      an expansion of CUG repeats in mutant DMPK (dystrophia myotonica protein kinase)
      transcripts; the main effect of these expansions is the induction of pre-mRNA
      splicing defects by sequestering muscleblind-like family proteins (e.g. MBNL1).
      Disruption of the CUG repeats and the MBNL1 protein complex has been established
      as the best therapeutic approach for DM1, hence two main strategies have been
      proposed: targeted degradation of mutant DMPK transcripts and the development of
      CUG-binding molecules that prevent MBNL1 sequestration. Herein, suitable CUG
      binding small molecules were selected using in silico approaches such as scaffold
      analysis, similarity searching, and druggability analysis. We used polarization
      assays to confirm the CUG repeat binding in vitro for a number of candidate
      compounds, and went on to evaluate the biological activity of the two with the
      strongest affinity for CUG repeats (which we refer to as compounds 1-2 and 2-5)
      in DM1 mutant cells and Drosophila DM1 models with an impaired locomotion
      phenotype. In particular, 1-2 and 2-5 enhanced the levels of free MBNL1 in
      patient-derived myoblasts in vitro and greatly improved DM1 fly locomotion in
      climbing assays. This work provides new computational approaches for rational
      large-scale virtual screens of molecules that selectively recognize CUG
      structures. Moreover, it contributes valuable knowledge regarding two compounds
      with desirable biological activity in DM1 models.

PMID- 28582441
TI  - In vivo MR-angiography for the assessment of aortic aneurysms in an experimental
      mouse model on a clinical MRI scanner: Comparison with high-frequency ultrasound
      and histology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MR-angiography currently represents one of the clinical reference
      standards for the assessment of aortic-dimensions. For experimental research in
      mice, dedicated preclinical high-field MRI scanners are used in most studies.
      This type of MRI scanner is not available in most institutions. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the potential of MR-angiography performed on a clinical MR
      scanner for the assessment of aortic aneurysms in an experimental mouse model,
      compared to a preclinical high-resolution ultrasound imaging system and
      histopathology. METHODS: All in vivo MR imaging was performed with a clinical 3T
      MRI system (Philips Achieva) equipped with a clinical gradient system in
      combination with a single-loop surface-coil (47 mm). All MR sequences were based
      on clinically used sequences. For ultrasound, a dedicated preclinical high
      resolution system (30 MHz linear transducer, Vevo770, VisualSonics) was used. All
      imaging was performed with an ApoE knockout mouse-model for aortic aneurysms.
      Histopathology was performed as reference-standard at all stages of aneurysm
      development. RESULTS: MR-angiography on a clinical 3T system enabled the clear
      visualization of the aortic lumen and aneurysmal dilation at different stages of
      aneurysm development. A close correlation (R2 = 0.98; p < 0.001) with
      histological area measurements was found. Additionally, a good agreement between
      MR and ultrasound area measurements in systole (R2 = 0.91; p < 0.001) and
      diastole (R2 = 0.94; p < 0.001) were measured. Regarding interobserver
      reproducibility, MRI measurements yielded a smaller 95% confidence interval and a
      closer interreader correlation compared to ultrasound measurements (-0.37-0.46;
      R2 = 0.97 vs. -0.78-0.88; R2 = 0.87). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that MR
      angiography, performed on a clinical 3T MR scanner, enables the reliable
      detection and quantification of the aortic dilatation at different stages of
      aneurysm development in an experimental mouse model.

PMID- 28582440
TI  - Development and external validation of a clinical prognostic score for death in
      visceral leishmaniasis patients in a high HIV co-infection burden area in
      Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Ethiopia, case fatality rates among subgroups of visceral
      leishmaniasis (VL) patients are high. A clinical prognostic score for death in VL
      patients could contribute to optimal management and reduction of these case
      fatality rates. We aimed to identify predictors of death from VL, and to develop
      and externally validate a clinical prognostic score for death in VL patients, in
      a high HIV co-infection burden area in Ethiopia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:
      We conducted a retrospective cohort study in north west Ethiopia. Predictors with
      an adjusted likelihood ratio >=1.5 or <=0.67 were retained to calculate the
      predictor score. The derivation cohort consisted of 1686 VL patients treated at
      an upgraded health center and the external validation cohort consisted of 404 VL
      patients treated in hospital. There were 99 deaths in the derivation cohort and
      53 deaths in the external validation cohort. The predictors of death were: age
      >40 years (score +1); HIV seropositive (score +1); HIV seronegative (score -1);
      hemoglobin <=6.5 g/dl (score +1); bleeding (score +1); jaundice (score +1); edema
      (score +1); ascites (score +2) and tuberculosis (score +1). The total predictor
      score per patient ranged from -1 to +5. A score of -1, indicated a low risk of
      death (1.0%), a score of 0 an intermediate risk of death (3.8%) and a score of +1
      to +5, a high risk of death (10.4-85.7%). The area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.79-0.87) in derivation,
      and 0.78 (95% confidence interval: 0.72-0.83) in external validation.
      CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The overall performance of the score was good. The
      score can enable the early detection of VL cases at high risk of death, which can
      inform operational, clinical management guidelines, and VL program management.
      Implementation of focused strategies could contribute to optimal management and
      reduction of the case fatality rates.

PMID- 28582443
TI  - When does activating diversity alleviate, when does it increase intergroup bias?
      An ingroup projection perspective.
AB  - The question how intergroup bias can be alleviated is of much theoretical and
      practical interest. Whereas diversity training and the multiculturalism ideology
      are two approaches prominent in practice, most theoretical models on reducing
      intergroup bias are based on social-identity theory and self-categorization
      theory. This social-identity perspective assumes that similar processes lead to
      intergroup bias in very different intergroup contexts if people identify with the
      respective social groups. A recent prominent model based on these theories is the
      ingroup-projection model. As this model assumes, an ingroup's norms and standards
      are applied to outgroups included in a common superordinate category (this is
      called ingroup projection). Intergroup bias results because the outgroup fulfils
      these norms and standards less than the ingroup. Importantly, if the diversity of
      the superordinate category is induced as the norm, ingroup projection and thus
      intergroup bias should be reduced. The present research delineates and tests how
      general this process is. We propose that ingroup prototypicality is not only an
      outcome variable, as the ingroup-projection model originally assumes, but can
      also be an important moderator. We hypothesize that for members considering their
      ingroup highly prototypical ("pars pro toto", large majorities), the
      superordinate group's diversity may question their ingroup's position and thus
      elicit threat and intergroup bias. In contrast, for members who consider their
      group as less prototypical (one among several, or "una inter pares" groups),
      activating diversity should, as originally assumed in the ingroup-projection
      model, reduce intergroup bias. Three experiments (total N = 345) supported these
      predictions in the contexts of groups defined by gender or nationality. Taken
      together, the ingroup-projection model can explain under which conditions
      activating superordinate-category diversity induces tolerance, and when it may
      backfire. We discuss in how far the ingroup-projection model can integrate
      conflicting findings on the multiculturalism ideology.

PMID- 28582442
TI  - The role of neuropeptide-Y in nandrolone decanoate-induced attenuation of
      antidepressant effect of exercise.
AB  - Since the increased prevalence of anabolic androgenic steroids abuse in last few
      decades is usually accompanied by various exercise protocols, the scope of our
      study was to evaluate the effects of chronic nandrolone decanoate administration
      in supraphysiological dose and a prolonged swimming protocol (alone and
      simultaneously with nandrolone decanoate) on depressive state in male rats.
      Simultaneously, we investigated the possible alterations in neuropeptide Y (NPY)
      content in blood and the hippocampus, in order to determine the role of NPY in
      the modulation of depressive-like behavior.Exercise induced antidepressant
      effects in tail suspension test (decrease of the total duration of immobility),
      as well as significant increase in the number of hippocampal NPY-interneurons in
      CA1 region. Chronic nandrolone decanoate treatment attenuated the beneficial
      antidepressant effects of exercise as measured by the tail suspension test
      parameters. Simultaneously, nandrolone decanoate treatment resulted in diminution
      of NPY content both in blood (decreased serum levels) and in hippocampus (the
      significant decrease in NPY expression in all three investigated hippocampal
      regions-CA1, CA2/3 and DG). Our findings indicate that alterations in serum and
      hippocampal NPY contents may underlie the changes in depressive state in rats.
      The exercise was beneficial as it exerted antidepressant effect, while chronic
      nandrolone decanoate treatment resulted in depressive-like behavior. Furthermore,
      the behavioral indicators of depression showed strong correlations with the serum
      levels and the hippocampal content of NPY.

PMID- 28582444
TI  - Selection and characterization of specific nanobody against bovine virus diarrhea
      virus (BVDV) E2 protein.
AB  - Bovine viral diarrhea-mucosal disease (BVD-MD) is caused by bovine viral diarrhea
      virus (BVDV), and results in abortion, stillbirth, and fetal malformation in
      cows. Here, we constructed the phage display vector pCANTAB 5E-VHH and then
      transformed it into Escherichia coli TG1-competent cells, to construct an initial
      anti-BVDV nanobody gene library. We obtained a BVDV-E2 antigen epitope bait
      protein by prokaryotic expression using the nucleotide sequence of the E2 gene of
      the BVDV-NADL strain published in GenBank. Phage display was used to screen the
      anti-BVDV nanobody gene library. We successfully constructed a high quality phage
      display nanobody library, with an initial library capacity of 4.32*105. After the
      rescue of helper phage, the titer of the phage display nanobody library was
      1.3*1011. The BVDV-E2 protein was then expressed in Escherichia coli (DE3), and a
      49.5 kDa band was observed with SDS-PAGE analysis that was consistent with the
      expected nanobody size. Thus, we were able to isolate one nanobody that exhibits
      high affinity and specificity against BVDV using phage display techniques. This
      isolated nanobody was then used in Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay and qRT-PCR,
      and ELISA analyses of BVDV infection of MDBK cells indicated that the nanobodies
      exhibited good antiviral effect.

PMID- 28582445
TI  - Human resources and models of mental healthcare integration into primary and
      community care in India: Case studies of 72 programmes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the scarcity of specialist mental healthcare in India, diverse
      community mental healthcare models have evolved. This study explores and compares
      Indian models of mental healthcare delivered by primary-level workers (PHW), and
      health workers' roles within these. We aim to describe current service delivery
      to identify feasible and acceptable models with potential for scaling up.
      METHODS: Seventy two programmes (governmental and non-governmental) across 12
      states were visited. 246 PHWs, coordinators, leaders, specialists and other staff
      were interviewed to understand the programme structure, the model of mental
      health delivery and health workers' roles. Data were analysed using framework
      analysis. RESULTS: Programmes were categorised using an existing framework of
      collaborative and non-collaborative models of primary mental healthcare. A new
      model was identified: the specialist community model, whereby PHWs are trained
      within specialist programmes to provide community support and treatment for those
      with severe mental disorders. Most collaborative and specialist community models
      used lay health workers rather than doctors. Both these models used care
      managers. PHWs and care managers received support often through multiple
      specialist and non-specialist organisations from voluntary and government
      sectors. Many projects still use a simple yet ineffective model of training
      without supervision (training and identification/referral models). DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSION: Indian models differ significantly to those in high-income countries
      there are less professional PHWs used across all models. There is also intensive
      specialist involvement particularly in the community outreach and collaborative
      care models. Excessive reliance on specialists inhibits their scalability, though
      they may be useful in targeted interventions for severe mental disorders. We
      propose a revised framework of models based on our findings. The current
      priorities are to evaluate the comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and
      scalability of these models in resource-limited settings both in India and in
      other low- and middle- income countries.

PMID- 28582446
TI  - Generation of an immortalized mouse embryonic palatal mesenchyme cell line.
AB  - Palatogenesis is a complex morphogenetic process, disruptions in which result in
      highly prevalent birth defects in humans. In recent decades, the use of model
      systems such as genetically-modified mice, mouse palatal organ cultures and
      primary mouse embryonic palatal mesenchyme (MEPM) cultures has provided
      significant insight into the molecular and cellular defects underlying cleft
      palate. However, drawbacks in each of these systems have prevented high
      throughput, large-scale studies of palatogenesis in vitro. Here, we report the
      generation of an immortalized MEPM cell line that maintains the morphology,
      migration ability, transcript expression and responsiveness to exogenous growth
      factors of primary MEPM cells, with increased proliferative potential over
      primary cultures. The immortalization method described in this study will
      facilitate the generation of palatal mesenchyme cells with an unlimited capacity
      for expansion from a single genetically-modified mouse embryo and enable
      mechanistic studies of palatogenesis that have not been possible using primary
      culture.

PMID- 28582447
TI  - Action of YM155 on clear cell renal cell carcinoma does not depend on survivin
      expression levels.
AB  - The dioxonapthoimidazolium YM155 is a survivin suppressant which has been
      investigated as an anticancer agent in clinical trials. Here, we investigated its
      growth inhibitory properties on a panel of immortalized and patient derived renal
      cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines which were either deficient in the tumour
      suppressor von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein or possessed a functional copy.
      Neither the VHL status nor the survivin expression levels of these cell lines
      influenced their susceptibility to growth inhibition by YM155. Of the various RCC
      lines, the papillary subtype was more resistant to YM155, suggesting that the
      therapeutic efficacy of YM155 may be restricted to clear cell subtypes. YM155 was
      equally potent in cells (RCC786.0) in which survivin expression had been stably
      silenced or overexpressed, implicating a limited reliance on survivin in the mode
      of action of YM155. A follow-up in-vitro high throughput RNA microarray
      identified possible targets of YM155 apart from survivin. Selected genes (ID1,
      FOXO1, CYLD) that were differentially expressed in YM155-sensitive RCC cells and
      relevant to RCC pathology were validated with real-time PCR and western
      immunoblotting analyses. Thus, there is corroboratory evidence that the growth
      inhibitory activity of YM155 in RCC cell lines is not exclusively mediated by its
      suppression of survivin. In view of the growing importance of combination therapy
      in oncology, we showed that a combination of YM155 and sorafenib at 1/2 x IC50
      concentrations was synergistic on RCC786.0 cells. However, when tested
      intraperitoneally on a murine xenograft model derived from a nephrectomised
      patient with clear cell RCC, a combination of suboptimal doses of both drugs
      failed to arrest tumour progression. The absence of synergy in vivo highlighted
      the need to further optimize the dosing schedules of YM155 and sorafenib, as well
      as their routes of administration. It also implied that the expression of other
      oncogenic proteins which YM155 may target is either low or absent in this clear
      cell RCC.

PMID- 28582449
TI  - HIV-1 adaptation to NK cell-mediated immune pressure.
AB  - The observation, by Alter et al., of the enrichment of NK cell "escape" variants
      in individuals carrying certain Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR)
      genes is compelling evidence that natural killer (NK) cells exert selection
      pressure on HIV-1. Alter et al hypothesise that variant peptide, in complex with
      HLA class I molecules binds KIR receptors and either increases NK cell inhibition
      or decreases NK cell activation compared to wild type peptide thus leading to
      virus escape from the NK cell response. According to this hypothesis, in order
      for NK cells to select for an escape variant, an individual must carry both the
      KIR and an HLA ligand that binds the variant peptide. In this study we estimate
      the proportion of the population that is capable of selecting for escape variants
      and use both epidemiological modelling and a model-free approach to investigate
      whether this proportion explains the observed variant enrichment. We found that
      the fraction of individuals within whom the variant would have a selective
      advantage was low and was unable to explain the high degree of enrichment
      observed. We conclude that whilst Alter et al's data is consistent with selection
      pressure, the mechanism that they postulate is unlikely. The importance of this
      work is two-fold. Firstly, it forces a re-evaluation of some of the clearest
      evidence that NK cells exert a protective effect in HIV-1 infection. Secondly, it
      implies that there is a significant aspect of immunology that is not understood:
      it is possible that KIRs bind much more widely than was previously appreciated;
      that a gene in linkage with the KIR genes is responsible for considerable peptide
      dependent selection or that variant peptides are indirectly impacting KIR
      ligation.

PMID- 28582448
TI  - Acid sphingomyelinase deficiency enhances myelin repair after acute and chronic
      demyelination.
AB  - The cuprizone animal model, also known as the toxic demyelination model, is a
      well-reproducible model of demyelination- and remyelination in mice, and has been
      useful in studying important aspect of human demyelinating diseases, including
      multiple sclerosis. In this study, we investigated the role of acid
      sphingomyelinase in demyelination and myelin repair by inducing acute and chronic
      demyelination with 5- or 12-week cuprizone treatment, followed by a 2-week
      cuprizone withdrawal phase to allow myelin repair. Sphingolipids, in particular
      ceramide and the enzyme acid sphingomyelinase, which generates ceramide from
      sphingomyelin, seem to be involved in astrocyte activation and neuronal damage in
      multiple sclerosis. We used immunohistochemistry to study glial reaction and
      oligodendrocyte distribution in acid sphingomyelinase deficient mice and wild
      type C57BL/6J littermates at various time intervals after demyelination and
      remyelination. Axonal injury was quantified using amyloid precursor protein and
      synaptophysin, and gene expression and protein levels were measured using gene
      analysis and Western blotting, respectively. Our results show that mice lacking
      acid sphingomyelinase had a significant increase in myelin recovery and a
      significantly higher oligodendrocyte cell count after 2 weeks remyelination
      compared to wild-type littermates. Detrimental astroglial distribution was also
      significantly reduced in acid sphingomyelinase deficient animals. We obtained
      similar results in experiments using amitriptyline to inhibit acid
      sphingomyelinase. These findings suggest that acid sphingomyelinase plays a
      significant role in myelin repair, and its inhibition by amitriptyline may
      constitute a novel therapeutic approach for multiple sclerosis patients.

PMID- 28582451
TI  - Culture, social networks and HIV vulnerability among men who have sex with men in
      Indonesia.
AB  - The current study aimed to explore cultural and social network influence on HIV
      vulnerability among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) population in Yogyakarta,
      Indonesia. A qualitative inquiry employing in-depth one-on-one interviews was
      carried out with 24 MSM participants in July 2015. Data were analysed using a
      framework analysis and guided by the Social Networks Theory (SNT) as a conceptual
      framework. Findings indicated that prohibitive cultural perspectives and norms
      against same-sex marriage made them to conceal their sexual orientation and thus
      secretively engaging in unprotected sex that increased their predisposition to
      HIV transmission. The prohibitive cultures were also instrumental in the
      formation of MSM sexual networks that provided supportive environment for HIV
      risky sexual practices among network partners. These findings provide information
      that can be used to improve HIV/AIDS service practices and policies. However,
      further studies with large numbers of MSM would be needed to improve the
      understanding of other HIV vulnerability determinants, the unique needs of MSM,
      and what and how programs could be conducted to reduce HIV vulnerability among
      MSM population.

PMID- 28582450
TI  - Spontaneous low frequency BOLD signal variations from resting-state fMRI are
      decreased in Alzheimer disease.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated altered brain activity in Alzheimer's disease
      using task based functional MRI (fMRI), network based resting-state fMRI, and
      glucose metabolism from 18F fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET). Our goal was to
      define a novel indicator of neuronal activity based on a first-order textural
      feature of the resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) signal. Furthermore, we
      examined the association between this neuronal activity metric and glucose
      metabolism from 18F FDG-PET. We studied 15 normal elderly controls (NEC) and 15
      probable Alzheimer disease (AD) subjects from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative. An
      independent component analysis was applied to the RS-fMRI, followed by template
      matching to identify neuronal components (NC). A regional brain activity
      measurement was constructed based on the variation of the RS-fMRI signal of these
      NC. The standardized glucose uptake values of several brain regions relative to
      the cerebellum (SUVR) were measured from partial volume corrected FDG-PET images.
      Comparing the AD and NEC groups, the mean brain activity metric was significantly
      lower in the accumbens, while the glucose SUVR was significantly lower in the
      amygdala and hippocampus. The RS-fMRI brain activity metric was positively
      correlated with cognitive measures and amyloid beta1-42 cerebral spinal fluid
      levels; however, these did not remain significant following Bonferroni
      correction. There was a significant linear correlation between the brain activity
      metric and the glucose SUVR measurements. This proof of concept study
      demonstrates that this novel and easy to implement RS-fMRI brain activity metric
      can differentiate a group of healthy elderly controls from a group of people with
      AD.

PMID- 28582452
TI  - Heritability and genetic correlation between GERD symptoms severity, metabolic
      syndrome, and inflammation markers in families living in Mexico City.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to estimate the heritability (h2) and
      genetic correlation (rhoG) between GERD symptoms severity, metabolic syndrome
      components, and inflammation markers in Mexican families. METHODS: Cross
      sectional study which included 32 extended families resident in Mexico City. GERD
      symptoms severity was assessed by the ReQuest in Practice questionnaire.
      Heritability and genetic correlation were determined using the Sequential
      Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines software. RESULTS: 585 subjects were
      included, the mean age was 42 (+/-16.7) years, 57% were women. The heritability
      of the severity of some GERD symptoms was h2 = 0.27, 0.27, 0.37, and 0.34 (p
      value <1.0x10-5) for acidity complaints, lower abdominal complaints, sleep
      disturbances, and total ReQuest score, respectively. Heritability of metabolic
      syndrome components ranged from 0.40 for fasting plasma glucose to 0.61 for body
      mass index and diabetes mellitus. The heritability for fibrinogen and C-reactive
      protein was 0.64 and 0.38, respectively. Statistically significant genetic
      correlations were found between acidity complaints and fasting plasma glucose
      (rhoG = 0.40); sleep disturbances and fasting plasma glucose (rhoG = 0.36);
      acidity complaints and diabetes mellitus (rhoG = 0.49) and between total ReQuest
      score and fasting plasma glucose (rhoG = 0.43). The rest of metabolic syndrome
      components did not correlate with GERD symptoms. CONCLUSION: Genetic factors
      substantially explain the phenotypic variance of the severity of some GERD
      symptoms, metabolic syndrome components and inflammation markers. Observed
      genetic correlations suggest that these phenotypes share common genes. These
      findings suggest conducting further investigation, as the determination of a
      linkage analysis in order to identify regions of susceptibility for developing of
      GERD and metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28582453
TI  - Preparation, characterization, and performance evaluation of UiO-66 analogues as
      stationary phase in HPLC for the separation of substituted benzenes and
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
AB  - UiO-66 analogues are good candidates as stationary phase in HPLC because of their
      chemical/thermal stability, large surface area, and two cage structures. Here,
      two UiO-66 analogues, UiO-66-NH2 and UiO-67, were synthesized and used as
      stationary phase in HPLC to evaluate their performance in the separation of
      substituted benzenes (SBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The
      results showed that SBs could be well separated on UiO-66-NH2 column but not on
      UiO-67 column. Nonetheless, PAHs could be well separated on UiO-67 column. The
      separation mechanisms of SBs and PAHs on UiO-66 analogues may be involved in the
      pore size and functional group in the frameworks of UiO-66 analogues.
      Introduction of the-NH2 into UiO-66 significantly reduced its adsorption capacity
      for SB congeners, which resulted in less separation of SBs on UiO-66-NH2. As for
      the separation of PAHs on UiO-67 column, the pi-pi stacking effect was supposed
      to play a vital role.

PMID- 28582455
TI  - Correction: Myosin phosphatase and RhoA-activated kinase modulate
      neurotransmitter release by regulating SNAP-25 of SNARE complex.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177046.].

PMID- 28582454
TI  - Insights on the mechanism of action of immunostimulants in relation to their
      pharmacological potency. The effects of imidazoquinolines on TLR8.
AB  - Imidazoquinolines are powerful immunostimulants (IMMS) that function through Toll
      like receptors, particularly TLR7 and TLR8. In addition to enhancing the immune
      response, IMMS also function as antineoplastic drugs and vaccine adjuvants. These
      small compounds display almost the same molecular structure, except in some cases
      in which atom in position 1 varies and changes the imidazole characteristics. A
      variable acyclic side chain is also always attached at atom in position 2, while
      another chain may be attached at atom in position 1. These structural differences
      alter immune responses, such as the production of interferon regulatory factor
      and nuclear factor-kappaB (IRF-NFkappaB). In this work, quantum mechanics theory
      and computational chemistry methods were applied to study the physicochemical
      properties of the crystal binding site of TLR8 complexed with the following six
      IMMS molecules: Hybrid-2, XG1-236, DS802, CL075, CL097 and R848 (resiquimod). The
      PDB IDs of the crystals were: 4R6A, 4QC0, 4QBZ, 3W3K, 3W3J, and 3W3N
      respectively. Thus, were calculated, the total energy, solvation energy,
      interaction energy (instead of free energy) of the system and interaction energy
      of the polar region of the IMMS. Additionally, the dipole moment, electrostatic
      potential, polar surface, atomic charges, hydrogen bonds, and polar and
      hydrophobic interactions, among others, were assessed. Together, these properties
      revealed important differences among the six TLR8-immunostimulant complexes,
      reflected as different interaction energies and therefore different electrostatic
      environments and binding energies. Remarkably, the interaction energy of a
      defined polar region composed of the highly polarized N3, N5 atoms and the N11
      amino group, acted as a polar pharmacophore that correlates directly with the
      reported immunopharmacological potency of the six complexed molecules. Based on
      these results, it was concluded that accurate physicochemical analysis of the
      crystal binding site could reveal the binding energy (measured as interaction
      energy) and associated molecular mechanism of action between IMMS and TLR8. These
      findings may facilitate the development and design of improved small molecules
      with IMMS properties that are targeted to the TLR system and have enhanced
      pharmacological effectiveness and reduced toxicity.

PMID- 28582456
TI  - Detailed spatial characterization of superficial hip muscle activation during
      walking: A multi-electrode surface EMG investigation of the gluteal region in
      healthy older adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: A multi-electrode array was used to generate spatially resolved Surface
      electromyography (SEMG) data of the hip muscles in healthy older adults. The
      cohort was meant to serve as an age-matched, normal control population for future
      surgical and rehabilitative studies in patients undergoing total hip
      arthroplasty, in view of the large, continuously increasing number of hip joint
      replacements. METHODS: Bilateral hip muscle SEMG activity, including tensor
      fasciae latae (TFL), gluteus medius (Gmed), and gluteus maximus (Gmax), was
      measured during locomotion on a walkway at self-selected slow, normal, and fast
      walking speeds (age-matched cohort of 29 females and 25 males). Eight equally
      spaced, vertically oriented bipolar channels were applied on a horizontal line at
      mid-distance between iliac crest and greater trochanter (length 17.5 cm; named P1
      to P8). Time-independent parameters (e.g., mean amplitude) were derived from the
      amplitude curves expressed as root mean square. RESULTS: The acquired SEMG data
      were not significantly influenced by gender (p = 0.202) or side (p = 0.313) and
      were therefore pooled. The most ventral to central electrode positions P1 to P5,
      representing TFL and ventral to central Gmed, showed the highest mean amplitude
      levels (averaged over the whole stride; 0.001 < p < 0.027 against P6 to P8;
      Bonferroni-adjusted paired t-test) at all walking speeds. Also, the respective
      curves showed two distinct amplitude peaks (representing load acceptance and hip
      stabilization during mid-stance), with a continuous increase of the first peak
      from P1 to P4 (most pronounced at fast speed) and the second peak from P1 to P3.
      Independently of the underlying individual muscles, both peaks displayed a
      continuous time shift from the most dorsal P8 to the most ventral P1 position,
      with the peaks for the ventral positions occurring at later time points during
      the normalized stride. CONCLUSIONS: The continuously changing activation patterns
      of the superficial muscles in the gluteal region during walking may reflect
      function-driven, finely tuned coordination patterns of neighboring muscles and
      muscle segments, rather than independent activation of anatomically defined
      muscles. This may be important for the definition of specific target parameters
      for the improvement and/or normalization of muscle function during training and
      post-injury rehabilitation.

PMID- 28582457
TI  - OGUMI-A new mobile application to conduct common-pool resource experiments in
      continuous time.
AB  - OGUMI is an Android-based open source mobile application for conducting Common
      Pool Resource Experiments, Choice Experiments, and Questionnaires in the field,
      in the laboratory, and online. A main feature of OGUMI is its capacity to capture
      real-time changes in human behaviour in response to a dynamically varying
      resource. OGUMI is simple (for example, likewise other existing software, it does
      not require expertise in behavioural game theory), stable, and extremely flexible
      with respect to the user-resource model running in the background. Here we
      present the motivation for the development of OGUMI and we discuss its main
      features with an example application.

PMID- 28582458
TI  - Reproducibility of up-flow column percolation tests for contaminated soils.
AB  - Up-flow column percolation tests are used at laboratory scale to assess the
      leaching behavior of hazardous substance from contaminated soils in a specific
      condition as a function of time. Monitoring the quality of these test results
      inter or within laboratory is crucial, especially if used for Environment-related
      legal policy or for routine testing purposes. We tested three different sandy
      loam type soils (Soils I, II and III) to determine the reproducibility
      (variability inter laboratory) of test results and to evaluate the difference in
      the test results within laboratory. Up-flow column percolation tests were
      performed following the procedure described in the ISO/TS 21268-3. This procedure
      consists of percolating solution (calcium chloride 1 mM) from bottom to top at a
      flow rate of 12 mL/h through softly compacted soil contained in a column of 5 cm
      diameter and 30 +/- 5 cm height. Eluate samples were collected at liquid-to-solid
      ratio of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 L/kg and analyzed for quantification of
      the target elements (Cu, As, Se, Cl, Ca, F, Mg, DOC and B in this research). For
      Soil I, 17 institutions in Japan joined this validation test. The up-flow column
      experiments were conducted in duplicate, after 48 h of equilibration time and at
      a flow rate of 12 mL/h. Column percolation test results from Soils II and III
      were used to evaluate the difference in test results from the experiments
      conducted in duplicate in a single laboratory, after 16 h of equilibration time
      and at a flow rate of 36 mL/h. Overall results showed good reproducibility
      (expressed in terms of the coefficient of variation, CV, calculated by dividing
      the standard deviation by the mean), as the CV was lower than 30% in more than
      90% of the test results associated with Soil I. Moreover, low variability
      (expressed in terms of difference between the two test results divided by the
      mean) was observed in the test results related to Soils II and III, with a
      variability lower than 30% in more than 88% of the cases for Soil II and in more
      than 96% of the cases for Soil III. We also discussed the possible factors that
      affect the reproducibility and variability in the test results from the up-flow
      column percolation tests. The low variability inter and within laboratory
      obtained in this research indicates that the ISO/TS 21268-3 can be successfully
      upgraded to a fully validated ISO standard.

PMID- 28582460
TI  - Admixture mapping of pelvic organ prolapse in African Americans from the Women's
      Health Initiative Hormone Therapy trial.
AB  - Evidence suggests European American (EA) women have two- to five-fold increased
      odds of having pelvic organ prolapse (POP) when compared with African American
      (AA) women. However, the role of genetic ancestry in relation to POP risk is not
      clear. Here we evaluate the association between genetic ancestry and POP in AA
      women from the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Therapy trial. Women with grade
      1 or higher classification, and grade 2 or higher classification for uterine
      prolapse, cystocele or rectocele at baseline or during follow-up were considered
      to have any POP (N = 805) and moderate/severe POP (N = 156), respectively. Women
      with at least two pelvic exams with no indication for POP served as controls (N =
      344). We performed case-only, and case-control admixture-mapping analyses using
      multiple logistic regression while adjusting for age, BMI, parity and global
      ancestry. We evaluated the association between global ancestry and POP using
      multiple logistic regression. European ancestry at the individual level was not
      associated with POP risk. Case-only and case-control local ancestry analyses
      identified two ancestry-specific loci that may be associated with POP. One locus
      (Chromosome 15q26.2) achieved empirically-estimated statistical significance and
      was associated with decreased POP odds (considering grade >=2 POP) with each unit
      increase in European ancestry (OR: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.30, 0.57; p-value = 1.48x10
      5). This region includes RGMA, a potent regulator of the BMP family of genes. The
      second locus (Chromosome 1q42.1-q42.3) was associated with increased POP odds
      with each unit increase in European ancestry (Odds ratio [OR]: 1.69; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 1.28, 2.22; p-value = 1.93x10-4). Although this region
      did not reach statistical significance after considering multiple comparisons, it
      includes potentially relevant genes including TBCE, and ACTA1. Unique non
      overlapping European and African ancestry-specific susceptibility loci may be
      associated with increased POP risk.

PMID- 28582459
TI  - Traumatic injury and perceived injustice: Fault attributions matter in a "no
      fault" compensation state.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traumatic injury can lead to loss, suffering and feelings of
      injustice. Previous research has shown that perceived injustice is associated
      with poorer physical and mental wellbeing in persons with chronic pain. This
      study aimed to identify the relative association between injury, compensation and
      pain-related characteristics and perceived injustice 12-months after traumatic
      injury. METHODS: 433 participants were recruited from the Victorian Orthopedic
      Trauma Outcomes Registry and Victorian State Trauma Registry, and completed
      questionnaires at 12-14 months after injury as part of an observational cohort
      study. Using hierarchical linear regression we examined the relationships between
      baseline demographics (sex, age, education, comorbidities), injury (injury
      severity, hospital length of stay), compensation (compensation status, fault,
      lawyer involvement), and health outcomes (SF-12) and perceived injustice. We then
      examined how much additional variance in perceived injustice was related to worse
      pain severity, interference, self-efficacy, catastrophizing, kinesiophobia or
      disability. RESULTS: Only a small portion of variance in perceived injustice was
      related to baseline demographics (especially education level), and injury
      severity. Attribution of fault to another, consulting a lawyer, health-related
      quality of life, disability and the severity of pain-related cognitions explained
      the majority of variance in perceived injustice. While univariate analyses showed
      that compensable injury led to higher perceptions of injustice, this did not
      remain significant when adjusting for all other factors, including fault
      attribution and consulting a lawyer. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the "justice"
      aspects of traumatic injury, the health impacts of injury, emotional distress
      related to pain (catastrophizing), and the perceived impact of pain on activity
      (pain self-efficacy), had stronger associations with perceptions of injustice
      than either injury or pain severity. To attenuate the likelihood of poor recovery
      from injury, clinical interventions that support restoration of health-related
      quality of life, and adjustment to the impacts of trauma are needed.

PMID- 28582461
TI  - Effects of acute physical exercise on oxidative stress and inflammatory status in
      young, sedentary obese subjects.
AB  - Circulating oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory markers change after regular
      physical exercise; however, how a short session of acute physical activity
      affects the inflammatory status and redox balance in sedentary individuals is
      still unclear. Aim of this study is to assess antioxidant and inflammatory
      parameters, both at rest and after acute exercise, in sedentary young men with or
      without obesity. Thirty sedentary male volunteers, aged 20-45 (mean age 32 +/- 7
      years), were recruited, divided into 3 groups (normal weight: BMI < 25 kg/m2;
      overweight to moderate obesity: 25-35 kg/m2; severe obesity: 35-40 kg/m2), and
      their blood samples collected before and after a 20-min run at ~ 70% of their
      VO2max for the measurement of Glutathione Reductase, Glutathione Peroxidase,
      Superoxide Dismutase, Total Antioxidant Status (TAS) and cytokines (IL-2, IL-4,
      IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, TNFalpha, MCP-1, VEGF, IFNgamma, EGF).
      Inter-group comparisons demonstrated significantly higher Glutathione Reductase
      activity in severely obese subjects in the post-exercise period (P = 0.036), and
      higher EGF levels in normal weight individuals, either before (P = 0.003) and
      after exercise (P = 0.05). Intra-group comparisons showed that the acute exercise
      stress induced a significant increase in Glutathione Reductase activity in
      severely obese subjects only (P = 0.007), a significant decrease in MCP-1 in the
      normal weight group (P = 0.02), and a decrease in EGF levels in all groups
      (normal weight: P = 0.025, overweight/moderate obesity: P = 0.04, severe obesity:
      P = 0.018). Altogether, these findings suggest that in sedentary individuals with
      different ranges of BMI, Glutathione Reductase and distinct cytokines are
      differentially involved into the adaptive metabolic changes and redox responses
      induced by physical exercise. Therefore, these biomarkers may have the potential
      to identify individuals at higher risk for developing diseases
      pathophysiologically linked to oxidative stress.

PMID- 28582462
TI  - Association between circulating fibroblast growth factor 21 and mortality in end
      stage renal disease.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is an endocrine factor that regulates glucose
      and lipid metabolism. Circulating FGF21 predicts cardiovascular events and
      mortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus, including early-stage chronic kidney
      disease, but its impact on clinical outcomes in end-stage renal disease (ESRD)
      patients remains unclear. This study enrolled 90 ESRD patients receiving chronic
      hemodialysis who were categorized into low- and high-FGF21 groups by the median
      value. We investigated the association between circulating FGF21 levels and the
      cardiovascular event and mortality during a median follow-up period of 64 months.
      A Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the mortality rate was significantly higher
      in the high-FGF21 group than in the low-FGF21 group (28.3% vs. 9.1%, log-rank, P
      = 0.034), while the rate of cardiovascular events did not significantly differ
      between the two groups (30.4% vs. 22.7%, log-rank, P = 0.312). In multivariable
      Cox models adjusted a high FGF21 level was an independent predictor of all-cause
      mortality (hazard ratio: 3.98; 95% confidence interval: 1.39-14.27, P = 0.009).
      Higher circulating FGF21 levels were associated with a high mortality rate, but
      not cardiovascular events in patient with ESRD, suggesting that circulating FGF21
      levels serve as a predictive marker for mortality in these subjects.

PMID- 28582463
TI  - Drug resistance testing through remote genotyping and predicted treatment options
      in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infected Tanzanian subjects failing first
      or second line antiretroviral therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been successfully introduced in
      low-middle income countries. However an increasing rate of ART failure with
      resistant virus is reported. We therefore described the pattern of drug
      resistance mutations at antiretroviral treatment (ART) failure in a real-life
      Tanzanian setting using the remote genotyping procedure and thereafter predicted
      future treatment options using rule-based algorithm and the EuResist
      bioinformatics predictive engine. According to national guidelines, the default
      first-line regimen is tenofovir + lamivudine + efavirenz, but variations
      including nevirapine, stavudine or emtricitabine can be considered. If failure on
      first-line ART occurs, a combination of two nucleoside reverse transcriptase
      inhibitors (NRTIs) and boosted lopinavir or atazanavir is recommended. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Plasma was obtained from subjects with first (n = 174) or second
      line (n = 99) treatment failure, as defined by clinical or immunological
      criteria, as well as from a control group of ART naive subjects (n = 17) in Dar
      es Salaam, Tanzania. Amplification of the pol region was performed locally and
      the amplified DNA fragment was sent to Sweden for sequencing (split genotyping
      procedure). The therapeutic options after failure were assessed by the genotypic
      sensitivity score and the EuResist predictive engine. Viral load was quantified
      in a subset of subjects with second-line failure (n = 52). RESULTS: The HIV-1 pol
      region was successfully amplified from 55/174 (32%) and 28/99 (28%) subjects with
      first- or second-line failure, respectively, and 14/17 (82%) ART-naive
      individuals. HIV-1 pol sequence was obtained in 82 of these 97 cases (84.5%).
      Undetectable or very low (<2.6 log10 copies/10-3 L) viral load explained 19 out
      of 25 (76%) amplification failures in subjects at second-line ART failure. At
      first and second line failure, extensive accumulation of NRTI (88% and 73%,
      respectively) and NNRTI (93% and 73%, respectively) DRMs but a limited number of
      PI DRMs (11% at second line failure) was observed. First line failure subjects
      displayed a high degree of cross-resistance to second-generation NNRTIs
      etravirine (ETR; 51% intermediate and 9% resistant) and rilpivirine (RPV; 12%
      intermediate and 58% resistant), and to abacavir (ABC; 49% resistant) which is
      reserved for second line therapy in Tanzania. The predicted probability of
      success with the best salvage regimen at second-line failure decreased from 93.9%
      to 78.7% when restricting access to the NRTIs, NNRTIs and PIs currently available
      in Tanzania compared to when including all approved drugs. DISCUSSION: The split
      genotyping procedure is potential tool to analyse drug resistance in Tanzania but
      the sensitivity should be evaluated further. The lack of viral load monitoring
      likely results in a high false positive rate of treatment failures, unnecessary
      therapy switches and massive accumulation of NRTI and NNRTI mutations. The
      introduction of regular virological monitoring should be prioritized and
      integrated with drug resistance studies in resource limited settings.

PMID- 28582464
TI  - Total control of fat cells from adipogenesis to apoptosis using a xanthene
      analog.
AB  - Overcrowded adipocytes secrete excess adipokines and cytokines under stress,
      which results in a deregulated metabolism. This negative response to stress
      increases the possibility of obesity and several of its associated diseases, such
      as cancer and atherosclerosis. Therefore, a reduction in the number of adipocytes
      may be a rational strategy to relieve the undesired expansion of adipose tissue.
      A newly synthesized xanthene analog, MI-401, was found to have two distinct
      effects on the regulation of the adipocyte's life cycle. MI-401 efficiently down
      regulated the expression of transcription factors, PPARgamma and C/EBPalpha, and
      lipogenesis proteins, FAS and FABP4. This down regulation resulted in the
      inhibition of adipogenesis. Without newly differentiated adipocytes, the total
      number of adipocytes will not increase. In addition to this inhibitory effect, MI
      401 was able to actively kill mature adipocytes. It specifically triggered
      apoptosis in adipocytes at low micro molar concentration and spared preadipocytes
      and fibroblasts. These dual functionalities make MI-401 an effective agent in the
      regulation of the birth and death of adipocytes.

PMID- 28582468
TI  - Correction: Plasma 1-deoxysphingolipids are early predictors of incident type 2
      diabetes mellitus.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175776.].

PMID- 28582465
TI  - Differential regulation of cell death pathways by the microenvironment correlates
      with chemoresistance and survival in leukaemia.
AB  - Glucocorticoids (GCs) and topoisomerase II inhibitors are used to treat acute
      lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) as they induce death in lymphoid cells through the
      glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and p53 respectively. Mechanisms underlying ALL cell
      death and the contribution of the bone marrow microenvironment to drug
      response/resistance remain unclear. The role of the microenvironment and the
      identification of chemoresistance determinants were studied by transcriptomic
      analysis in ALL cells treated with Dexamethasone (Dex), and Etoposide (Etop)
      grown in the presence or absence of bone marrow conditioned media (CM). The
      necroptotic (RIPK1) and the apoptotic (caspase-8/3) markers were downregulated by
      CM, whereas the inhibitory effects of chemotherapy on the autophagy marker Beclin
      1 (BECN1) were reduced suggesting CM exerts cytoprotective effects. GCs
      upregulated the RIPK1 ubiquitinating factor BIRC3 (cIAP2), in GC-sensitive (CEM
      C7-14) but not in resistant (CEM-C1-15) cells. In addition, CM selectively
      affected GR phosphorylation in a site and cell-specific manner. GR is recruited
      to RIPK1, BECN1 and BIRC3 promoters in the sensitive but not in the resistant
      cells with phosphorylated GR forms being generally less recruited in the presence
      of hormone. FACS analysis and caspase-8 assays demonstrated that CM promoted a
      pro-survival trend. High molecular weight proteins reacting with the RIPK1
      antibody were modified upon incubation with the BIRC3 inhibitor AT406 in CEM-C7
      14 cells suggesting that they represent ubiquitinated forms of RIPK1. Our data
      suggest that there is a correlation between microenvironment-induced ALL
      proliferation and altered response to chemotherapy.

PMID- 28582469
TI  - Dynamic metabolic modeling of heterotrophic and mixotrophic microalgal growth on
      fermentative wastes.
AB  - Microalgae are promising microorganisms for the production of numerous molecules
      of interest, such as pigments, proteins or triglycerides that can be turned into
      biofuels. Heterotrophic or mixotrophic growth on fermentative wastes represents
      an interesting approach to achieving higher biomass concentrations, while
      reducing cost and improving the environmental footprint. Fermentative wastes
      generally consist of a blend of diverse molecules and it is thus crucial to
      understand microalgal metabolism in such conditions, where switching between
      substrates might occur. Metabolic modeling has proven to be an efficient tool for
      understanding metabolism and guiding the optimization of biomass or target
      molecule production. Here, we focused on the metabolism of Chlorella sorokiniana
      growing heterotrophically and mixotrophically on acetate and butyrate. The
      metabolism was represented by 172 metabolic reactions. The DRUM modeling
      framework with a mildly relaxed quasi-steady-state assumption was used to account
      for the switching between substrates and the presence of light. Nine experiments
      were used to calibrate the model and nine experiments for the validation. The
      model efficiently predicted the experimental data, including the transient
      behavior during heterotrophic, autotrophic, mixotrophic and diauxic growth. It
      shows that an accurate model of metabolism can now be constructed, even in
      dynamic conditions, with the presence of several carbon substrates. It also opens
      new perspectives for the heterotrophic and mixotrophic use of microalgae,
      especially for biofuel production from wastes.

PMID- 28582467
TI  - Measuring aesthetic emotions: A review of the literature and a new assessment
      tool.
AB  - Aesthetic perception and judgement are not merely cognitive processes, but also
      involve feelings. Therefore, the empirical study of these experiences requires
      conceptualization and measurement of aesthetic emotions. Despite the long
      standing interest in such emotions, we still lack an assessment tool to capture
      the broad range of emotions that occur in response to the perceived aesthetic
      appeal of stimuli. Elicitors of aesthetic emotions are not limited to the arts in
      the strict sense, but extend to design, built environments, and nature. In this
      article, we describe the development of a questionnaire that is applicable across
      many of these domains: the Aesthetic Emotions Scale (Aesthemos). Drawing on
      theoretical accounts of aesthetic emotions and an extensive review of extant
      measures of aesthetic emotions within specific domains such as music, literature,
      film, painting, advertisements, design, and architecture, we propose a framework
      for studying aesthetic emotions. The Aesthemos, which is based on this framework,
      contains 21 subscales with two items each, that are designed to assess the
      emotional signature of responses to stimuli's perceived aesthetic appeal in a
      highly differentiated manner. These scales cover prototypical aesthetic emotions
      (e.g., the feeling of beauty, being moved, fascination, and awe), epistemic
      emotions (e.g., interest and insight), and emotions indicative of amusement
      (humor and joy). In addition, the Aesthemos subscales capture both the activating
      (energy and vitality) and the calming (relaxation) effects of aesthetic
      experiences, as well as negative emotions that may contribute to aesthetic
      displeasure (e.g., the feeling of ugliness, boredom, and confusion).

PMID- 28582466
TI  - Aberrant plasma IL-7 and soluble IL-7 receptor levels indicate impaired T-cell
      response to IL-7 in human tuberculosis.
AB  - T-cell proliferation and generation of protective memory during chronic
      infections depend on Interleukin-7 (IL-7) availability and receptivity.
      Regulation of IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) expression and signalling are key for IL-7
      modulated T-cell functions. Aberrant expression of soluble (s) and membrane
      associated (m) IL-7R molecules is associated with development of autoimmunity and
      immune failure in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. Here we
      investigated the role of IL-7/IL-7R on T-cell immunity in human tuberculosis. We
      performed two independent case-control studies comparing tuberculosis patients
      and healthy contacts. This was combined with follow-up examinations for a
      subgroup of tuberculosis patients under therapy and recovery. Blood plasma and T
      cells were characterised for IL-7/sIL-7R and mIL-7R expression, respectively. IL
      7-dependent T-cell functions were determined by analysing STAT5 phosphorylation,
      antigen-specific cytokine release and by analysing markers of T-cell exhaustion
      and inflammation. Tuberculosis patients had lower soluble IL-7R (p < 0.001) and
      higher IL-7 (p < 0.001) plasma concentrations as compared to healthy contacts.
      Both markers were largely independent and aberrant expression normalised during
      therapy and recovery. Furthermore, tuberculosis patients had lower levels of mIL
      7R in T cells caused by post-transcriptional mechanisms. Functional in vitro
      tests indicated diminished IL-7-induced STAT5 phosphorylation and impaired IL-7
      promoted cytokine release of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific CD4+ T cells
      from tuberculosis patients. Finally, we determined T-cell exhaustion markers PD-1
      and SOCS3 and detected increased SOCS3 expression during therapy. Only moderate
      correlation of PD-1 and SOCS3 with IL-7 expression was observed. We conclude that
      diminished soluble IL-7R and increased IL-7 plasma concentrations, as well as
      decreased membrane-associated IL-7R expression in T cells, reflect impaired T
      cell sensitivity to IL-7 in tuberculosis patients. These findings show
      similarities to pathognomonic features of impaired T-cell functions and immune
      failure described in AIDS patients.

PMID- 28582470
TI  - Estradiol upregulates voltage-gated sodium channel 1.7 in trigeminal ganglion
      contributing to hyperalgesia of inflamed TMJ.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) have the highest prevalence in
      women of reproductive age. The role of estrogen in TMDs and especially in TMDs
      related pain is not fully elucidated. Voltage-gated sodium channel 1.7 (Nav1.7)
      plays a prominent role in pain perception and Nav1.7 in trigeminal ganglion (TG)
      is involved in the hyperalgesia of inflamed Temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
      Whether estrogen could upregulate trigeminal ganglionic Nav1.7 expression to
      enhance hyperalgesia of inflamed TMJ remains to be explored. METHODS: Estrous
      cycle and plasma levels of 17beta-estradiol in female rats were evaluated with
      vaginal smear and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Female rats
      were ovariectomized and treated with 17beta-estradiol at 0 MUg, 20 MUg and 80
      MUg, respectively, for 10 days. TMJ inflammation was induced using complete
      Freund's adjuvant. Head withdrawal thresholds and food intake were measured to
      evaluate the TMJ nociceptive responses. The expression of Nav1.7 in TG was
      examined using real-time PCR and western blot. The activity of Nav1.7 promoter
      was examined using luciferase reporter assay. The locations of estrogen receptors
      (ERalpha and ERbeta), the G protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPR30), and Nav1.7
      in TG were examined using immunohistofluorescence. RESULTS: Upregulation of
      Nav1.7 in TG and decrease in head withdrawal threshold were observed with the
      highest plasma 17beta-estradiol in the proestrus of female rats. Ovariectomized
      rats treated with 80 MUg 17beta-estradiol showed upregulation of Nav1.7 in TG and
      decrease in head withdrawal threshold as compared with that of the control or
      ovariectomized rats treated with 0 MUg or 20 MUg. Moreover, 17beta-estradiol dose
      dependently potentiated TMJ inflammation-induced upregulation of Nav1.7 in TG and
      also enhanced TMJ inflammation-induced decrease of head withdrawal threshold in
      ovariectomized rats. In addition, the estrogen receptor antagonist, ICI 182,780,
      partially blocked the 17beta-estradiol effect on Nav1.7 expression and head
      withdrawal threshold in ovariectomized rats. ERalpha and ERbeta, but not GPR30,
      were mostly co-localized with Nav1.7 in neurons in TG. In the nerve growth factor
      induced and ERalpha-transfected PC12 cells, 17beta-estradiol dose-dependently
      enhanced Nav1.7 promoter activity, whereas mutations of the estrogen response
      element at -1269/-1282 and -1214/-1227 in the promoter completely abolished its
      effect on the promoter activity. CONCLUSION: Estradiol could upregulate
      trigeminal ganglionic Nav1.7 expression to contribute to hyperalgesia of inflamed
      TMJ.

PMID- 28582474
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28582472
TI  - 18F-FDG silicon photomultiplier PET/CT: A pilot study comparing semi-quantitative
      measurements with standard PET/CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate if the new Discovery Molecular Insights (DMI) PET/CT scanner
      provides equivalent results compared to the standard of care PET/CT scanners (GE
      Discovery 600 or GE Discovery 690) used in our clinic and to explore any possible
      differences in semi-quantitative measurements. METHODS: The local Institutional
      Review Board approved the protocol and written informed consent was obtained from
      each patient. Between September and November 2016, 50 patients underwent a single
      18F-FDG injection and two scans: the clinical standard PET/CT followed
      immediately by the DMI PET/CT scan. We measured SUVmax and SUVmean of different
      background organs and up to four lesions per patient from data acquired using
      both scanners. RESULTS: DMI PET/CT identified all the 107 lesions detected by
      standard PET/CT scanners, as well as additional 37 areas of focal increased 18F
      FDG uptake. The SUVmax values for all 107 lesions ranged 1.2 to 14.6 (mean +/-
      SD: 2.8 +/- 2.8), higher on DMI PET/CT compared with standard of care PET/CT. The
      mean lesion:aortic arch SUVmax ratio and mean lesion:liver SUVmax ratio were 0.2
      15.2 (mean +/- SD: 3.2 +/- 2.6) and 0.2-8.5 (mean +/- SD: 1.9 +/- 1.4)
      respectively, higher on DMI PET/CT than standard PET/CT. These differences were
      statistically significant (P value < 0.0001) and not correlated to the delay in
      acquisition of DMI PET data (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows high
      performance of the new DMI PET/CT scanner. This may have a significant role in
      diagnosing and staging disease, as well as for assessing and monitoring responses
      to therapies.

PMID- 28582471
TI  - SUMO regulates p21Cip1 intracellular distribution and with p21Cip1 facilitates
      multiprotein complex formation in the nucleolus upon DNA damage.
AB  - We previously showed that p21Cip1 transits through the nucleolus on its way from
      the nucleus to the cytoplasm and that DNA damage inhibits this transit and
      induces the formation of p21Cip1-containing intranucleolar bodies (INoBs). Here,
      we demonstrate that these INoBs also contain SUMO-1 and UBC9, the E2 SUMO
      conjugating enzyme. Furthermore, whereas wild type SUMO-1 localized in INoBs, a
      SUMO-1 mutant, which is unable to conjugate with proteins, does not, suggesting
      the presence of SUMOylated proteins at INoBs. Moreover, depletion of the SUMO
      conjugating enzyme UBC9 or the sumo hydrolase SENP2 changed p21Cip1 intracellular
      distribution. In addition to SUMO-1 and p21Cip1, cell cycle regulators and DNA
      damage checkpoint proteins, including Cdk2, Cyclin E, PCNA, p53 and Mdm2, and PML
      were also detected in INoBs. Importantly, depletion of UBC9 or p21Cip1 impacted
      INoB biogenesis and the nucleolar accumulation of the cell cycle regulators and
      DNA damage checkpoint proteins following DNA damage. The impact of p21Cip1 and
      SUMO-1 on the accumulation of proteins in INoBs extends also to CRM1, a nuclear
      exportin that is also important for protein translocation from the cytoplasm to
      the nucleolus. Thus, SUMO and p21Cip1 regulate the transit of proteins through
      the nucleolus, and that disruption of nucleolar export by DNA damage induces SUMO
      and p21Cip1 to act as hub proteins to form a multiprotein complex in the
      nucleolus.

PMID- 28582473
TI  - Connectivity in ictal single photon emission computed tomography perfusion: a
      cortico-cortical evoked potential study.
AB  - Subtraction ictal and interictal single photon emission computed tomography can
      demonstrate complex ictal perfusion patterns. Regions with ictal hyperperfusion
      are suggested to reflect seizure onset and propagation pathways. The significance
      of ictal hypoperfusion is not well understood. The aim of this study was to
      verify whether ictal perfusion changes, both hyper- and hypoperfusion, correspond
      to electrically connected brain networks. A total of 36 subtraction ictal and
      interictal perfusion studies were analysed in 31 consecutive medically refractory
      focal epilepsy patients, evaluated by stereo-electroencephalography that
      demonstrated a single focal onset. Cortico-cortical evoked potential studies were
      performed after repetitive electrical stimulation of the ictal onset zone. Evoked
      responses at electrode contacts outside the stimulation site were used as a
      measure of connectivity. The evoked responses at these electrodes were compared
      to ictal perfusion values noted at these locations. In 67% of studies, evoked
      responses were significantly larger in hyperperfused compared to baseline
      perfused areas. The majority of hyperperfused contacts also had significantly
      increased evoked responses relative to pre-stimulus electroencephalogram. In
      contrast, baseline-perfused and hypoperfused contacts mainly demonstrated non
      significant evoked responses. Finally, positive significant correlations (P <
      0.05) were found between perfusion scores and evoked responses in 61% of studies.
      When the stimulated ictal onset area was hyperperfused, 82% of studies
      demonstrated positive significant correlations. Following stimulation of
      hyperperfused areas outside seizure onset, positive significant correlations
      between perfusion changes and evoked responses could be seen, suggesting
      bidirectional connectivity. We conclude that strong connectivity was demonstrated
      between the ictal onset zone and hyperperfused regions, while connectivity was
      weaker in the direction of baseline-perfused or hypoperfused areas. In trying to
      understand a patient's epilepsy, one should consider the contribution of all
      hyperperfused regions, as these are likely not random, but represent an
      electrically connected epileptic network.

PMID- 28582475
TI  - Combined Plasma Elevation of CRP, Intestinal-Type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein (I
      FABP), and sCD14 Identify Older Patients at High Risk for Health Care-Associated
      Infections.
AB  - Background: We hypothesized that low-grade inflammation was driven by microbial
      translocation and associated with an increased risk of health care-associated
      infections (HAIs). Methods: We included 121 patients aged 75 years or over in
      this prospective cohort study. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), I
      FABP, and sCD14-as markers for low-grade inflammation, intestinal epithelial
      barrier integrity, and monocyte activation, respectively-were measured at
      admission. Results: HAIs occurred during hospitalization in 62 (51%) patients.
      Elevated hs-CRP (>=6.02 mg/L, ie, the median) was associated with a significantly
      higher HAI risk when I-FABP was in the highest quartile (odds ratio [OR], 4; 95%
      confidence interval [95% CI], 1.39-11.49; p = .010). In patients with hs-CRP
      elevation and highest-quartile I-FABP, sCD14 elevation (>=0.65 ug/mL, ie, the
      median) was associated with an 11-fold higher HAI risk (OR, 10.8; 95% CI, 2.28
      51.1; p = .003). Multivariate analyses adjusted for invasive procedures and
      comorbidities did not change the associations linking the three markers to the
      HAI risk. Conclusion: Increased levels of hs-CRP, I-FABP, and sCD14 may reflect
      loss of intestinal epithelial barrier integrity with microbial translocation
      leading to monocyte activation and low-grade inflammation. In our cohort, these
      markers identified patients at high risk for HAIs.

PMID- 28582476
TI  - Capgras syndrome: neuroanatomical assessment of brain MRI findings in an
      adolescent patient.

PMID- 28582477
TI  - Gingival fibroblasts protect against experimental abdominal aortic aneurysm
      development and rupture through tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1
      production.
AB  - Aims: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), frequently diagnosed in old patients, is
      characterized by chronic inflammation, vascular cell apoptosis and
      metalloproteinase-mediated extracellular matrix destruction. Despite improvement
      in the understanding of the pathophysiology of aortic aneurysm, no
      pharmacological treatment is yet available to limit dilatation and/or rupture. We
      previously reported that human gingival fibroblasts (GFs) can reduce carotid
      artery dilatation in a rabbit model of elastase-induced aneurysm. Here, we sought
      to investigate the mechanisms of GF-mediated vascular protection in two different
      models of aortic aneurysm growth and rupture in mice. Methods and results: In
      vitro, mouse GFs proliferated and produced large amounts of anti-inflammatory
      cytokines and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (Timp-1). GFs deposited on
      the adventitia of abdominal aorta survived, proliferated, and organized as a
      layer structure. Furthermore, GFs locally produced Il-10, TGF-beta, and Timp-1.
      In a mouse elastase-induced AAA model, GFs prevented both macrophage and
      lymphocyte accumulations, matrix degradation, and aneurysm growth. In an
      Angiotensin II/anti-TGF-beta model of aneurysm rupture, GF cell-based treatment
      limited the extent of aortic dissection, prevented abdominal aortic rupture, and
      increased survival. Specific deletion of Timp-1 in GFs abolished the beneficial
      effect of cell therapy in both AAA mouse models. Conclusions: GF cell-based
      therapy is a promising approach to inhibit aneurysm progression and rupture
      through local production of Timp-1.

PMID- 28582478
TI  - Model-based branching point detection in single-cell data by K-branches
      clustering.
AB  - Motivation: The identification of heterogeneities in cell populations by
      utilizing single-cell technologies such as single-cell RNA-Seq, enables inference
      of cellular development and lineage trees. Several methods have been proposed for
      such inference from high-dimensional single-cell data. They typically assign each
      cell to a branch in a differentiation trajectory. However, they commonly assume
      specific geometries such as tree-like developmental hierarchies and lack
      statistically sound methods to decide on the number of branching events. Results:
      We present K-Branches, a solution to the above problem by locally fitting half
      lines to single-cell data, introducing a clustering algorithm similar to K-Means.
      These halflines are proxies for branches in the differentiation trajectory of
      cells. We propose a modified version of the GAP statistic for model selection, in
      order to decide on the number of lines that best describe the data locally. In
      this manner, we identify the location and number of subgroups of cells that are
      associated with branching events and full differentiation, respectively. We
      evaluate the performance of our method on single-cell RNA-Seq data describing the
      differentiation of myeloid progenitors during hematopoiesis, single-cell qPCR
      data of mouse blastocyst development, single-cell qPCR data of human myeloid
      monocytic leukemia and artificial data. Availability and implementation: An R
      implementation of K-Branches is freely available at
      https://github.com/theislab/kbranches. Contact: fabian.theis@helmholtz
      muenchen.de. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at
      Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582480
TI  - PASTASpark: multiple sequence alignment meets Big Data.
AB  - Motivation: One basic step in many bioinformatics analyses is the multiple
      sequence alignment. One of the state-of-the-art tools to perform multiple
      sequence alignment is PASTA (Practical Alignments using SATe and TrAnsitivity).
      PASTA supports multithreading but it is limited to process datasets on shared
      memory systems. In this work we introduce PASTASpark, a tool that uses the Big
      Data engine Apache Spark to boost the performance of the alignment phase of
      PASTA, which is the most expensive task in terms of time consumption. Results:
      Speedups up to 10*  with respect to single-threaded PASTA were observed, which
      allows to process an ultra-large dataset of 200 000 sequences within the 24-h
      limit. Availability and implementation: PASTASpark is an Open Source tool
      available at https://github.com/citiususc/pastaspark. Contact:
      josemanuel.abuin@usc.es. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582479
TI  - Restless 'rest': intrinsic sensory hyperactivity and disinhibition in post
      traumatic stress disorder.
AB  - Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by exaggerated threat response,
      and theoretical accounts to date have focused on impaired threat processing and
      dysregulated prefrontal-cortex-amygdala circuitry. Nevertheless, evidence is
      accruing for broad, threat-neutral sensory hyperactivity in post-traumatic stress
      disorder. As low-level, sensory processing impacts higher-order operations, such
      sensory anomalies can contribute to widespread dysfunctions, presenting an
      additional aetiological mechanism for post-traumatic stress disorder. To
      elucidate a sensory pathology of post-traumatic stress disorder, we examined
      intrinsic visual cortical activity (based on posterior alpha oscillations) and
      bottom-up sensory-driven causal connectivity (Granger causality in the alpha
      band) during a resting state (eyes open) and a passive, serial picture viewing
      state. Compared to patients with generalized anxiety disorder (n = 24) and
      healthy control subjects (n = 20), patients with post-traumatic stress disorder
      (n = 25) demonstrated intrinsic sensory hyperactivity (suppressed posterior alpha
      power, source-localized to the visual cortex-cuneus and precuneus) and bottom-up
      inhibition deficits (reduced posterior->frontal Granger causality). As sensory
      input increased from resting to passive picture viewing, patients with post
      traumatic stress disorder failed to demonstrate alpha adaptation, highlighting a
      rigid, set mode of sensory hyperactivity. Interestingly, patients with post
      traumatic stress disorder also showed heightened frontal processing (augmented
      frontal gamma power, source-localized to the superior frontal gyrus and dorsal
      cingulate cortex), accompanied by attenuated top-down inhibition (reduced frontal
      >posterior causality). Importantly, not only did suppressed alpha power and
      bottom-up causality correlate with heightened frontal gamma power, they also
      correlated with increased severity of sensory and executive dysfunctions (i.e.
      hypervigilance and impulse control deficits, respectively). Therefore, sensory
      aberrations help construct a vicious cycle in post-traumatic stress disorder that
      is in action even at rest, implicating dysregulated triangular sensory-prefrontal
      cortex-amygdala circuitry: intrinsic sensory hyperactivity and disinhibition give
      rise to frontal overload and disrupt executive control, fuelling and perpetuating
      post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Absent in generalized anxiety disorder,
      these aberrations highlight a unique sensory pathology of post-traumatic stress
      disorder (ruling out effects merely reflecting anxious hyperarousal), motivating
      new interventions targeting sensory processing and the sensory brain in these
      patients.

PMID- 28582481
TI  - FunGAP: Fungal Genome Annotation Pipeline using evidence-based gene model
      evaluation.
AB  - Motivation: Successful genome analysis depends on the quality of gene prediction.
      Although fungal genome sequencing and assembly have become trivial, its
      annotation procedure has not been standardized yet. Results: FunGAP predicts
      protein-coding genes in a fungal genome assembly. To attain high-quality gene
      models, this program runs multiple gene predictors, evaluates all predicted
      genes, and assembles gene models that are highly supported by homology to known
      sequences. To do this, we built a scoring function to estimate the congruency of
      each gene model based on known protein or domain homology. Availability and
      implementation: FunGAP is written in Python script and is available in GitHub (
      https://github.com/CompSynBioLab-KoreaUniv/FunGAP ). This software is freely
      available only for noncommercial users. Contact: igchoi@korea.ac.kr.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28582482
TI  - Fusobacterium and colorectal cancer: causal factor or passenger? Results from a
      large colorectal cancer screening study.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide in both
      men and women. The gut microbiome is increasingly recognized as having an
      important role in human health and disease. Fusobacterium has been identified in
      former studies as a leading gut bacterium associated with colorectal cancer, but
      it is still not clear if it plays an oncogenic role. In the current study, fecal
      samples were collected prior to bowel preparation from participants of screening
      colonoscopy in the German BliTz study. Using 16S rRNA gene analysis, we examined
      the presence and relative abundance of Fusobacterium in fecal samples from 500
      participants, including 46, 113, 110 and 231 individuals with colorectal cancer,
      advanced adenomas, non-advanced adenomas and without any neoplasms, respectively.
      We found that the abundance of Fusobacterium in feces was strongly associated
      with the presence of colorectal cancer (P-value < 0.0001). This was confirmed by
      PCR at the species level for Fusobacterium nucleatum. However, no association was
      seen with the presence of advanced adenomas (P-value = 0.80) or non-advanced
      adenomas (P-value = 0.80), nor were there any associations observed with dietary
      or lifestyle habits. Although a causal role cannot be ruled out, our
      observations, based on fecal microbiome, support the hypothesis that
      Fusobacterium is a passenger that multiplies in the more favorable conditions
      caused by the malignant tumor rather than a causal factor in colorectal cancer
      development.

PMID- 28582483
TI  - Rare GCH1 heterozygous variants contributing to Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28582484
TI  - Comparison of Three Methods for Measuring Workload in Surgical Pathology and
      Cytopathology.
AB  - Objectives: Pathologist workload in the United States has traditionally been
      measured by relative value units (RVUs), which is often criticized for providing
      an inaccurate estimate of actual work. This study compares three methods for
      measuring workload. Methods: Surgical pathology and cytopathology workload for 1
      representative month at Stanford Health Care was assessed using three different
      methods: RVUs, Royal College of Pathologists (RCP) point system, and University
      of Washington-Seattle (UW) slide count method. Results: Pearson linear regression
      analysis showed a strong positive correlation of RVUs with the RCP (0.93, P  <
      .01) and UW (0.86, P  < .01) systems. The correlation between the RCP and UW
      systems was weaker (0.70, P  = .05). The RCP system rated gastrointestinal,
      genitourinary, and breast workload lower than the RVU system while medical
      liver/renal and cytology were valued higher. The UW system overvalued breast
      workload. Conclusions: RCP is the most advanced and well-developed system for
      evaluating workload. It provides more weight for higher complexity specimens,
      while RVUs favor specialties with higher volume of small specimens, and slide
      counts favor specialties with extensively sampled large specimens.

PMID- 28582485
TI  - COMPASS: the COMPletely Arbitrary Sequence Simulator.
AB  - Summary: Simulated sequence alignments are frequently used to test bioinformatics
      tools, but current sequence simulators are limited to defined state spaces. Here,
      we present the COMPletely Arbitrary Sequence Simulator (COMPASS), which is able
      to simulate the evolution of absolutely any discrete state space along a tree,
      for any form of time-reversible model. Availability and implementation: COMPASS
      is implemented in Python 2.7, and is freely available for all platforms with the
      Supplementary Information, as well as at http://labs.carleton.ca/eme/software-and
      data. Contact: alex_wong@carleton.ca. Supplementary information: Supplementary
      data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582487
TI  - Reply: Capgras syndrome: neuroanatomical assessment of brain MRI findings in an
      adolescent patient.

PMID- 28582486
TI  - JDINAC: joint density-based non-parametric differential interaction network
      analysis and classification using high-dimensional sparse omics data.
AB  - Motivation: A complex disease is usually driven by a number of genes interwoven
      into networks, rather than a single gene product. Network comparison or
      differential network analysis has become an important means of revealing the
      underlying mechanism of pathogenesis and identifying clinical biomarkers for
      disease classification. Most studies, however, are limited to network
      correlations that mainly capture the linear relationship among genes, or rely on
      the assumption of a parametric probability distribution of gene measurements.
      They are restrictive in real application. Results: We propose a new Joint density
      based non-parametric Differential Interaction Network Analysis and Classification
      (JDINAC) method to identify differential interaction patterns of network
      activation between two groups. At the same time, JDINAC uses the network
      biomarkers to build a classification model. The novelty of JDINAC lies in its
      potential to capture non-linear relations between molecular interactions using
      high-dimensional sparse data as well as to adjust confounding factors, without
      the need of the assumption of a parametric probability distribution of gene
      measurements. Simulation studies demonstrate that JDINAC provides more accurate
      differential network estimation and lower classification error than that achieved
      by other state-of-the-art methods. We apply JDINAC to a Breast Invasive Carcinoma
      dataset, which includes 114 patients who have both tumor and matched normal
      samples. The hub genes and differential interaction patterns identified were
      consistent with existing experimental studies. Furthermore, JDINAC discriminated
      the tumor and normal sample with high accuracy by virtue of the identified
      biomarkers. JDINAC provides a general framework for feature selection and
      classification using high-dimensional sparse omics data. Availability and
      implementation: R scripts available at https://github.com/jijiadong/JDINAC.
      Contact: lxie@iscb.org. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582488
TI  - Treatment Outcomes of Mycobacterium avium Complex Lung Disease: A Systematic
      Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Background: The advent of macrolides has led to therapeutic advances in the
      treatment of Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease (MAC-LD). The aim of this
      study was to elucidate the treatment outcomes of macrolide-containing regimens.
      Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies
      reporting treatment outcomes of macrolide-containing regimens for MAC-LD using
      the Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases through 31 July 2016. The
      rates of treatment success, default from treatment, and adverse events of
      macrolide-containing regimens were assessed. Treatment success was defined as
      either 12 months of sustained culture negativity while on therapy or achievement
      of culture conversion and completion of the planned treatment without relapse.
      Results: In total, 16 studies involving 1462 patients were included. The rate of
      treatment success was 60.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 55.1%-64.8%). The
      proportion of patients who defaulted from the treatment was 16.0% (95% CI, 12.3%
      19.7%). When a thrice-weekly dosing schedule was available, the default rate was
      12.0% (95% CI, 8.9%-15.0%). Adverse events necessitating treatment
      discontinuation or dosage modification of macrolides were observed in 6.4% of
      patients (95% CI, 3.2%-9.5%), and decreased auditory acuity was the most common
      adverse event. Conclusions: Treatment outcomes of macrolide-containing regimens
      are relatively poor in terms of both the treatment success and default rates. The
      default rate could be reduced if a thrice-weekly dosing schedule is available.
      Clinicians should be aware of decreased auditory function as the most common
      adverse event associated with macrolide-containing regimens.

PMID- 28582489
TI  - Pathway engineering for the production of heterologous aromatic chemicals and
      their derivatives in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: bioconversion from glucose.
AB  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been extensively engineered for optimising its
      performance as a microbial cell factory to produce valuable aromatic compounds
      and their derivatives as bulk and fine chemicals. The production of heterologous
      aromatic molecules in yeast is achieved via engineering of the aromatic amino
      acid biosynthetic pathway. This pathway is connected to two pathways of the
      central carbon metabolism, and is highly regulated at the gene and protein level.
      These characteristics impose several challenges for tailoring it, and various
      modifications need to be applied in order to redirect the carbon flux towards the
      production of the desired compounds. This minireview addresses the metabolic
      engineering approaches targeting the central carbon metabolism, the shikimate
      pathway and the tyrosine and phenylalanine biosynthetic pathway of S. cerevisiae
      for biosynthesis of aromatic chemicals and their derivatives from glucose.

PMID- 28582490
TI  - Impact of minimally invasive extracorporeal circuits on octogenarians undergoing
      coronary artery bypass grafting. Have we been looking in the wrong direction?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Minimally invasive extracorporeal circuits (MiECCs) aim at the
      preservation of physiologic reserves, the impact of which is expected to be most
      evident in patients in whom these are depleted. In this context, octogenarians
      present a subpopulation of specific interest. METHODS: Based on the type of the
      utilized ECC, we performed a retrospective comparison between all octogenarians
      (n = 324) who received a primary coronary artery bypass in our institution from
      2003 until 2010. RESULTS: An MiECC was used in 52% of patients. Preoperative
      variables showed that the MiECC patients were older (83 +/- 2 vs 82 +/- 2 years;
      P = 0.001), had higher incidence of renal dysfunction (8% vs 3%; P = 0.04),
      moderately reduced left ventricular function (43 vs 33%; P = 0.07) and lower
      incidence of unstable angina (20% vs 28%; P = 0.06). To overcome these
      differences, a propensity score matching was performed and yielded 126 matched
      pairs of patients. The overall transfusion of packed red blood cells (2.3 +/- 2.3
      vs 3.4 +/- 3.2 units per patint; P = <0.001), the rate of low cardiac output (0%
      vs 6%; P = 0.01) and the 30-day postoperative mortality (2.4% vs 9.5%; P = 0.02)
      were all in favour of the MiECC group in the matched patient population.
      CONCLUSIONS: The MiECC concept has shown its benefits regarding both morbidity
      and mortality in this high-risk patient population. We believe that this
      beneficial effect finds its reason in a better preservation of physiologic
      reserves that are essential for a positive outcome in this patient group.

PMID- 28582491
TI  - Role of Cell-Intrinsic and Environmental Age-Related Changes in Altered
      Maintenance of Murine T Cells in Lymphoid Organs.
AB  - Age-related changes in primary lymphoid organs are well described. Less is known
      about age-related changes affecting peripheral lymphoid organs, although defects
      in old peripheral lymph nodes (pLNs) were recently described in both steady state
      and during viral infection. To address whether such pLN defects were intrinsic to
      old T cells or extrinsic (due to aging microenvironment), we employed
      heterochronic parabiosis. We found no age-related intrinsic or extrinsic barriers
      to T cell circulation and seeding of pLN, spleen, and bone marrow. However,
      heterochronic parabiosis failed to improve cellularity of old pLN, suggesting an
      environment-based limit on pLN cellularity. Furthermore, upon parabiosis, pLN of
      the adult partner exhibited reduced, old-like stromal and T cell cellularity,
      which was restored following separation of parabionts. Decay measurement of adult
      and old T cell subsets following separation of heterochronic parabionts
      delineated both T cell-intrinsic and environmental changes in T cell maintenance.
      Moreover, parabiotic separation revealed differences between CD4 and CD8 T cell
      subset maintenance with aging, the basis of which will require further
      investigation. Reasons for this asymmetric and subset-specific pattern of
      differential maintenance are discussed in light of possible age-related changes
      in lymph nodes as the key sites for peripheral T cell maintenance.

PMID- 28582493
TI  - New yeasts-new brews: modern approaches to brewing yeast design and development.
AB  - The brewing industry is experiencing a period of change and experimentation
      largely driven by customer demand for product diversity. This has coincided with
      a greater appreciation of the role of yeast in determining the character of beer
      and the widespread availability of powerful tools for yeast research. Genome
      analysis in particular has helped clarify the processes leading to domestication
      of brewing yeast and has identified domestication signatures that may be
      exploited for further yeast development. The functional properties of non
      conventional yeast (both Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces) are being assessed
      with a view to creating beers with new flavours as well as producing flavoursome
      non-alcoholic beers. The discovery of the psychrotolerant S. eubayanus has
      stimulated research on de novo S. cerevisiae * S. eubayanus hybrids for low
      temperature lager brewing and has led to renewed interest in the functional
      importance of hybrid organisms and the mechanisms that determine hybrid genome
      function and stability. The greater diversity of yeast that can be applied in
      brewing, along with an improved understanding of yeasts' evolutionary history and
      biology, is expected to have a significant and direct impact on the brewing
      industry, with potential for improved brewing efficiency, product diversity and,
      above all, customer satisfaction.

PMID- 28582494
TI  - Engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the efficient co-utilization of
      glucose and xylose.
AB  - The rapid co-fermentation of both glucose and xylose is important for the
      efficient conversion of lignocellulose biomass into fuels and chemicals.
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae is considered to be a potential cell factory and has
      been used to produce various fuels and chemicals, but it cannot metabolize
      xylose, which has greatly limited the utilization of lignocellulose materials.
      Therefore, numerous studies have attempted to develop xylose fermenting strains
      in past decades. The simple introduction of the xylose metabolic pathway does not
      enable yeast to rapidly utilize xylose, and several limitations still need to be
      addressed, including glucose repression and slow xylose transport, cofactor
      imbalance in the xylose reductase/xylitol dehydrogenase pathway, functional
      expression of a heterologous xylose isomerase, the low efficiency of downstream
      pathways and low ethanol production. In this review, we will discuss strategies
      to overcome these limitations and the recent progress in engineering xylose
      fermenting S. cerevisiae strains.

PMID- 28582492
TI  - Genome-scale identification of microRNA-related SNPs associated with risk of head
      and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Polymorphisms in microRNAs and their target sites can disrupt microRNA-dependent
      gene regulation, and have been associated with cancer susceptibility. However,
      genome-scale analyses of microRNA-related genetic variation in cancer are
      lacking. We tested the associations of ~40 000 common [minor allele frequency
      (MAF) >=5%], microRNA-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (miR-SNPs), with
      risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in a discovery population,
      and validated selected loci in an independent population among a total of 2198
      cases and 2180 controls. Joint analyses across the discovery and validation
      populations revealed six novel miR-SNP associations with risk of HNSCC. An
      upstream variant of MIR548H4 (rs7834169), replicated its association with overall
      HNSCC risk as well as risk of oral cavity cancer. Four other variants were
      specifically associated with oral cavity cancer risk (rs16914640, rs1134367,
      rs7306991 and rs1373756). 3'UTR variant of HADH, rs221347 and rs4975616, located
      within known cancer risk locus 5p15.33, were specific to risk of laryngeal
      cancer. High confidence predicted microRNA binding sites were identified for
      CLEC2D, LOC37443, KDM8 and HADH overlapping rs16914640, rs7306991, rs1134367 and
      rs221347, respectively. Furthermore, we identified several microRNA interactions
      with KDM8 and HADH predicted to be disrupted by genetic variation at rs1134367
      and rs221347. These results suggest microRNA-related genetic variation may
      contribute to the genetic susceptibility of HNSCC, and that more powerful
      evaluation of this class of genetic variation and their relationship with cancer
      risk is warranted.

PMID- 28582495
TI  - Burden of Chlamydia trachomatis in India: a systematic literature review.
AB  - Chlamydia trachomatis (hereafter CT) is Gram-negative, obligate intracellular
      pathogen. It causes the world's most common non-viral sexually transmitted
      disease. India is home to the world's greatest burden of infectious diseases, yet
      information on prevalence rates of CT is scarce. This article systematically
      reviews the literature for the prevalence rates and testing methods in India. A
      total of 27 studies were included. Four main patients groups (symptomatic women,
      infertile women, pregnant women and asymptomatic population groups) could be
      identified with varying rates of CT (0.1%-32% using PCR, 2.4%-75% using ELISA
      serology). Most of the studies originated from urban settings, 11 of them from
      New Delhi. In-house PCR was the most common diagnostic technique used generating
      the following ranges in prevalence for the four group studies: symptomatic women
      10%-50%, pregnant women 0.1%-2.5% and asymptomatic populations 0.9%-24.5%. The
      rates among infertile women were 9%-68% based on serology results. The prevalence
      rates featured in this paper are in line with other locations across the Indian
      subcontinent. This review highlights the extreme heterogeneity in the limited
      studies available in India on CT and the need for standardized guidelines for
      diagnosis and management of CT in India. The availability of resources should be
      considered in the formulation of recommendations.

PMID- 28582496
TI  - Vaginal Candida spp. genomes from women with vulvovaginal candidiasis.
AB  - Candida albicans is the predominant cause of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC).
      Little is known regarding the genetic diversity of Candida spp. in the vagina or
      the microvariations in strains over time that may contribute to the development
      of VVC. This study reports the draft genome sequences of four C. albicans and one
      C. glabrata strains isolated from women with VVC. An SNP-based whole-genome
      phylogeny indicates that these isolates are closely related; however,
      phylogenetic distances between them suggest that there may be genetic adaptations
      driven by unique host environments. These sequences will facilitate further
      comparative analyses and ultimately improve our understanding of genetic
      variation in isolates of Candida spp. that are associated with VVC.

PMID- 28582497
TI  - Protective Role of Complement C3 Against Cytokine-Mediated beta-Cell Apoptosis.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by pancreatic islet
      inflammation and beta-cell destruction by proinflammatory cytokines and other
      mediators. Based on RNA sequencing and protein-protein interaction analyses of
      human islets exposed to proinflammatory cytokines, we identified complement C3 as
      a hub for some of the effects of cytokines. The proinflammatory cytokines
      interleukin-1beta plus interferon-gamma increase C3 expression in rodent and
      human pancreatic beta-cells, and C3 is detected by histology in and around the
      islets of diabetic patients. Surprisingly, C3 silencing exacerbates apoptosis
      under both basal condition and following exposure to cytokines, and it increases
      chemokine expression upon cytokine treatment. C3 exerts its prosurvival effects
      via AKT activation and c-Jun N-terminal kinase inhibition. Exogenously added C3
      also protects against cytokine-induced beta-cell death and partially rescues the
      deleterious effects of inhibition of endogenous C3. These data suggest that
      locally produced C3 is an important prosurvival mechanism in pancreatic beta
      cells under a proinflammatory assault.

PMID- 28582500
TI  - Comparison of epicardial vs. endocardial reimplantation in pacemaker-dependent
      patients with device infection.
AB  - Aims: Reimplantation of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) after
      extraction due to device infection is a major issue in pacemaker-dependent
      patients. We compared in-hospital and long-term outcomes with two techniques:
      epicardial reimplantation (EPI) before CIED extraction and temporary pacing (TP)
      with a view to delayed endocardial reimplantation. Methods and results: Two
      cohorts of consecutive pacemaker-dependent patients who underwent transvenous
      lead extraction at our tertiary centre were included in this retrospective cohort
      study. According to successive policies, either the EPI or the TP approach was
      used. In-hospital complications occurred at similar rates in the EPI (n = 59) and
      TP (n = 52) cohorts (37.3% vs. 32.7%, respectively; P = 0.61). Thirteen (25.0%)
      patients in the TP cohort eventually were reimplanted epicardially, mainly
      because of infection of the temporary lead. Finally, 65 patients were discharged
      with an epicardial device and 37 with an endocardial device. Median follow-up was
      41.7 (interquartile range 34.1-51.5) months. No difference was observed in long
      term mortality according to the reimplantation strategy, but use of TP was
      associated with a reduced risk of late endocarditis and device reintervention
      (hazard ratio (HR) 0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.09-0.069, P = 0.01),
      whereas epicardial device reimplantation was associated with an increased risk
      (HR 3.62, 95% CI 1.07-12.21, P = 0.04). Conclusion: We observed similar in
      hospital outcomes in our EPI and TP cohorts. Twenty-five percent of the patients
      initially paced by a TP strategy finally needed an epicardial device, mainly
      because of infection of their TP lead. Use of TP resulted in lower rates of late
      endocarditis and device reintervention.

PMID- 28582499
TI  - Dental pulp stem cells for the study of neurogenetic disorders.
AB  - Dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) are a relatively new alternative stem cell source
      for the study of neurogenetic disorders. DPSC can be obtained non-invasively and
      collected from long-distances remaining viable during transportation. These
      highly proliferative cells express stem cell markers and retain the ability to
      differentiate down multiple cell lineages including chondrocytes, adipocytes,
      osteoblasts, and multiple neuronal cell types. The neural crest origin of DPSC
      makes them a useful source of primary cells for modeling neurological disorders
      at the molecular level. In this brief review, we will discuss recent developments
      in DPSC research that highlight the molecular etiology of DPSC derived neurons
      and how they may contribute to our understanding of neurogenetic disorders.

PMID- 28582498
TI  - Designing microorganisms for heterologous biosynthesis of cannabinoids.
AB  - During the last decade, the use of medical Cannabis has expanded globally and
      legislation is getting more liberal in many countries, facilitating the research
      on cannabinoids. The unique interaction of cannabinoids with the human
      endocannabinoid system makes these compounds an interesting target to be studied
      as therapeutic agents for the treatment of several medical conditions. However,
      currently there are important limitations in the study, production and use of
      cannabinoids as pharmaceutical drugs. Besides the main constituent
      tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the structurally related compound cannabidiol is of
      high interest as drug candidate. From the more than 100 known cannabinoids
      reported, most can only be extracted in very low amounts and their
      pharmacological profile has not been determined. Today, cannabinoids are isolated
      from the strictly regulated Cannabis plant, and the supply of compounds with
      sufficient quality is a major problem. Biotechnological production could be an
      attractive alternative mode of production. Herein, we explore the potential use
      of synthetic biology as an alternative strategy for synthesis of cannabinoids in
      heterologous hosts. We summarize the current knowledge surrounding cannabinoids
      biosynthesis and present a comprehensive description of the key steps of the
      genuine and artificial pathway, systems biotechnology needs and platform
      optimization.

PMID- 28582501
TI  - What do the pictures say-snapshots of a career.
AB  - What follows are snapshots of my career in chicken eyes, yeast and Rhodospirillum
      rubrum, castor beans, Escherichia coli and finally yeast again. In contrast, only
      a few of the failures that realistically make up a career are included. It is a
      tale of the generosity and influences of those who shaped what I am and what I
      learned in a wonderful profession. The science described is only that which I was
      lucky enough to do or was performed in my laboratory by those who really deserve
      the credit for any success that I've enjoyed. Not mentioned for lack of space are
      the critical contributions of many impressive investigators in the field of
      nitrogen-responsive regulation for no scientific investigation occurs in
      isolation.

PMID- 28582502
TI  - A case of removal of a "dancing" Micra.

PMID- 28582503
TI  - HUGIn: Hi-C Unifying Genomic Interrogator.
AB  - Motivation: High throughput chromatin conformation capture (3C) technologies,
      such as Hi-C and ChIA-PET, have the potential to elucidate the functional roles
      of non-coding variants. However, most of published genome-wide unbiased chromatin
      organization studies have used cultured cell lines, limiting their
      generalizability. Results: We developed a web browser, HUGIn, to visualize Hi-C
      data generated from 21 human primary tissues and cell lines. HUGIn enables
      assessment of chromatin contacts both constitutive across and specific to
      tissue(s) and/or cell line(s) at any genomic loci, including GWAS SNPs, eQTLs and
      cis-regulatory elements, facilitating the understanding of both GWAS and eQTL
      results and functional genomics data. Availability and implementation: HUGIn is
      available at http://yunliweb.its.unc.edu/HUGIn. Contact: yunli@med.unc.edu or
      hum@ccf.org. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at
      Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582504
TI  - Cytochrome P450 enzyme RosC catalyzes a multistep oxidation reaction to form the
      non-active compound 20-carboxyrosamicin.
AB  - The cytochrome P450 enzyme RosC catalyzes a two-step, hydroxylation and alcohol
      oxidation, oxidation reaction to form the C-20 formyl group in the biosynthesis
      of a 16-membered macrolide antibiotic rosamicin produced by Micromonospora
      rosaria IFO13697. RosC is presumed to be involved in the formation of 20
      carboxyrosamicin because it has been isolated from the culture broth of M.
      rosaria. Here, we confirmed that RosC has catalytic activity, with E. coli
      expressing RosC converting rosamicin into 20-carboxyrosamicin. Therefore, it was
      revealed that RosC is a multifunctional P450 that catalyzes a three-step
      oxidation reaction that leads to the formation of the hydroxyl group, formyl
      group and carboxyl group at C-20 on the macrolactone ring in the rosamicin
      biosynthetic pathway. Moreover, the cytochrome P450 enzyme TylI, which is
      involved in formation of the formyl group of a 16-membered macrolide antibiotic
      tylosin produced by Streptomyces fradiae ATCC 19609, also converted rosamicin
      into 20-carboxyrosamicin.

PMID- 28582505
TI  - Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Changes in Self-Reported Mobility: Multi
      Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
AB  - Background: We examined associations of three markers of subclinical
      cardiovascular disease (intimal-medial thickening, coronary artery calcification
      , and ankle-brachial index) with changes in self-reported walking over time.
      Methods: Data were from 6,490 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants
      (aged 45-84 years), free of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline.
      Outcomes, assessed four times over 11 years, included self-reported walking pace
      (none to striding pace; score, 0-4) and total walking time (minutes/week). Linear
      generalized estimating equation models estimated associations of baseline intimal
      medial thickening (z-scored), coronary artery calcification (Agatston units), and
      ankle-brachial index (ratio of ankle-to-arm systolic blood pressure) with walking
      pace and walking time modeled continuously in separate analyses. Results: Median
      follow-up was 9.2 years (maximum, 11.4). Walking pace (estimate, -0.042 points
      [95% CI; -0.048, -0.036], p < 0.0001) and walking time (estimate, -4.71 minutes
      [95% CI: -8.54, -0.88], p = 0.016) decreased yearly. Greater baseline intimal
      medial thickening related to faster decline in walking pace in multivariable
      analyses: walking pace score decreased 0.004 points (95% CI: -0.008, -0.001) more
      per year for each 1-SD higher intimal-medial thickening z-score, equivalent to an
      additional 10% slower yearly walking. Greater coronary artery calcification was
      associated with slower walking but inconsistently related to decline in walking
      pace. Higher ankle-brachial index was associated with faster baseline walking
      pace (estimate, 0.043 points [95% CI: 0.027, 0.059] per 1-SD) but unrelated to
      changes in walking pace. Cardiovascular disease measures were unrelated to total
      walking time. Conclusions: Greater subclinical cardiovascular disease is
      associated with prevalent slower self-reported walking pace in middle-aged and
      older adults but has limited impact on changes in walking over time.

PMID- 28582507
TI  - Variation in the reproductive strategy of a lichenized fungus along a climatic
      gradient.
AB  - Background and aims: Onset of reproduction and reproductive allocation patterns
      are key components of plant reproductive strategies. Life history theory predicts
      that plants in adverse environments for juvenile performance start reproduction
      at smaller sizes and exhibit higher reproductive allocation compared to their
      counterparts in favourable environments. Life history theory will gain in
      generality if its predictions are shown to apply to a broad range of organisms
      and modes of reproduction. This study tested whether the asexual reproductive
      strategy of a lichenized fungus changed along a climatic gradient. Methods: The
      variation in threshold size for asexual reproduction and asexual reproductive
      allocation of the lichen Lobarina scrobiculata was assessed in 18 populations
      (9665 individuals) along a climatic gradient spanning 800 km in latitude in
      Southern Europe. Using generalized linear models and standardized major axis
      regressions, the allometric relationships and the associated variation in
      climatic factors according to the changes in the threshold size for reproduction
      and reproductive allocation patterns were assessed. Key Results: The onset of
      reproduction was size-dependent and the reproductive allocation increased with
      individual size. Both the threshold size for reproduction and the reproductive
      allocation varied along the rainfall gradient. A lower threshold size for
      reproduction and higher reproductive allocation in drier, adverse locations were
      found. Therefore, populations in drier locations fitted the predictions of life
      history theory for sexually reproducing organisms in adverse environments for
      juvenile performance. Conclusions: This study highlights the applicability of the
      life history theory to fungi and to modes of reproduction other than sexual
      reproduction. Based on the intraspecific variation in the asexual reproductive
      strategy of a fungal organism with climatic factors, these findings expand the
      scope of life history theory predictions and increase our understanding of life
      history diversity and reproductive strategies across environments.

PMID- 28582506
TI  - Glycan Reader is improved to recognize most sugar types and chemical
      modifications in the Protein Data Bank.
AB  - Motivation: Glycans play a central role in many essential biological processes.
      Glycan Reader was originally developed to simplify the reading of Protein Data
      Bank (PDB) files containing glycans through the automatic detection and
      annotation of sugars and glycosidic linkages between sugar units and to proteins,
      all based on atomic coordinates and connectivity information. Carbohydrates can
      have various chemical modifications at different positions, making their chemical
      space much diverse. Unfortunately, current PDB files do not provide exact
      annotations for most carbohydrate derivatives and more than 50% of PDB glycan
      chains have at least one carbohydrate derivative that could not be correctly
      recognized by the original Glycan Reader. Results: Glycan Reader has been
      improved and now identifies most sugar types and chemical modifications
      (including various glycolipids) in the PDB, and both PDB and PDBx/mmCIF formats
      are supported. CHARMM-GUI Glycan Reader is updated to generate the simulation
      system and input of various glycoconjugates with most sugar types and chemical
      modifications. It also offers a new functionality to edit the glycan structures
      through addition/deletion/modification of glycosylation types, sugar types,
      chemical modifications, glycosidic linkages, and anomeric states. The simulation
      system and input files can be used for CHARMM, NAMD, GROMACS, AMBER, GENESIS,
      LAMMPS, Desmond, OpenMM, and CHARMM/OpenMM. Glycan Fragment Database in
      GlycanStructure.Org is also updated to provide an intuitive glycan sequence
      search tool for complex glycan structures with various chemical modifications in
      the PDB. Availability and implementation: http://www.charmm-gui.org/input/glycan
      and http://www.glycanstructure.org. Contact: wonpil@lehigh.edu. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582509
TI  - High decay of blood HIV reservoir when
      tenofovir/emtricitabine/elvitegravir/cobicistat is initiated during the acute
      primary HIV infection.

PMID- 28582508
TI  - Association of breast cancer risk and the mTOR pathway in women of African
      ancestry in 'The Root' Consortium.
AB  - Functional studies have elucidated the role of the mammalian target of rapamycin
      (mTOR) pathway in breast carcinogenesis, but to date, there is a paucity of data
      on its contribution to breast cancer risk in women of African ancestry. We
      examined 47628 SNPs in 61 mTOR pathway genes in the genome wide association study
      of breast cancer in the African Diaspora study (The Root consortium), which
      included 3686 participants (1657 cases). Pathway- and gene-level analyses were
      conducted using the adaptive rank truncated product (ARTP) test for 10994 SNPs
      that were not highly correlated (r2 < 0.8). Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence
      interval (CI) were estimated with logistic regression for each single-nucleotide
      polymorphism. The mTOR pathway was significantly associated with overall and
      estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast cancer risk (P = 0.003 and 0.03,
      respectively). PRKAG3 (Padj = 0.0018) and RPS6KA3 (Padj = 0.061) were the leading
      genes for the associations with overall breast cancer risk and ER- breast cancer
      risk, respectively. rs190843378 in PRKAG3 was statistically significant after
      gene-level adjustment for multiple comparisons (OR = 0.50 for each T allele, 95%
      CI = 0.38-0.66, Padj = 3.6E-05), with a statistical power of 0.914. These results
      provide new insights on the biological relevance of the mTOR pathway in breast
      cancer progression and underscore the need for more genetic epidemiology studies
      of breast cancer in the African Diaspora.

PMID- 28582511
TI  - A Note on the Statistical Power of Regression Analysis.

PMID- 28582510
TI  - A Phase 1 study evaluating AMG 337 in Asian patients with advanced solid tumors.
AB  - AMG 337, a selective small-molecule MET inhibitor, was evaluated in Asian
      patients with advanced solid tumors. Eligible patients orally self-administered
      AMG 337; the initial dose of 150 mg once daily (QD) was escalated to 300 mg QD
      (modified 3+3+3 design). Treatment continued until disease progression,
      intolerability, or death. The primary endpoint was adverse events (AEs) and
      clinical abnormalities defined as dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs). Secondary
      endpoints included other AEs, pharmacokinetics and tumor response. Eleven
      patients were enrolled. No DLTs occurred. The most common treatment-emergent AEs
      were headache (73%) and nausea (45%). Cmax and AUC0-24 exposures increased
      proportionally with dose; t1/2 was comparable between groups; plasma accumulation
      was minimal over 28 days. One patient (150 mg) had partial response; one patient
      (300 mg) had stable disease. Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy
      of AMG 337 in Asian patients were consistent with those observed in Western
      patient populations. The study was terminated early.

PMID- 28582512
TI  - Minimally invasive mitral valve repair in osteogenesis imperfecta.
AB  - Osteogenesis imperfecta is a disorder of the connective tissue that affects
      several structures including heart valves. However, cardiac surgery is associated
      with high mortality and morbidity rates. In a 48-year-old man with osteogenesis
      imperfecta and mitral valve prolapse, we performed the first successful mitral
      valve repair by right anterior mini-thoracotomy. At the 1-year follow-up, he was
      asymptomatic and echocardiography confirmed the initial success.

PMID- 28582514
TI  - Conformation and dynamics of single polymer chain studied by optical microscopy
      techniques beyond the diffraction limit.
AB  - The origin of the unique properties of a polymer material is the large entropic
      term of a single molecule, which has a chain-like structure with a large
      molecular weight. From the viewpoint of understanding the fundamental polymer
      physics, conformation of the single polymer chain is one of the most important
      matters; however, it has been difficult to examine the behavior of a single chain
      because of the limitation of conventional experimental methods. Recent
      developments in optical microscopy allow the fluorescence imaging beyond the
      diffraction limit of light, and the author's group showed that the conformation
      and the dynamics of a single polymer chain can be examined by the high-resolution
      fluorescence imaging. This review presents the application of optical microscopy
      with nanometric spatial resolution to study the polymer materials at the single
      chain level.

PMID- 28582513
TI  - Evidence of Ebola Virus Replication and High Concentration in Semen of a Patient
      During Recovery.
AB  - In one patient over time, we found that concentration of Ebola virus RNA in semen
      during recovery is remarkably higher than blood at peak illness. Virus in semen
      is replication-competent with no change in viral genome over time. Presence of
      sense RNA suggests replication in cells present in semen.

PMID- 28582516
TI  - Interplay between stochastic and deterministic processes in the maintenance of
      alternative community states in Verrucomicrobia-dominated shallow lakes.
AB  - We analyzed the interplay between neutral and deterministic processes in
      maintaining contrasting alternative bacterioplankton communities through time in
      highly productive shallow lakes and evaluated the relevance of these processes
      when a regime shift from a clear to a turbid state occurred. We observed that
      local assembly is ruled primary deterministically, via local habitat filtering,
      with a secondary role of stochastic processes. We also found a hierarchy in the
      environmental sorting: while an unusual Verrucomicrobia dominance characterizes
      the three systems, local conditions limit within-bacterial community membership
      to closely phylogenetically related and ecologically similar taxa. These results
      indicate that bacterial abilities to establish in these lakes are strongly
      determined by their traits, and point toward special physiological adaptations to
      persist when these systems undergo a regime shift. Altogether, these results hint
      to a divergence in function among these alternative communities, mediated by
      major shifts in bacterial community trait structure, particularly regarding
      carbon use.

PMID- 28582517
TI  - Stress-responsively modulated ymdAB-clsC operon plays a role in biofilm formation
      and apramycin susceptibility in Escherichia coli.
AB  - The YmdB protein, an inhibitor of biofilm formation and an inducer of apramycin
      susceptibility in Escherichia coli (E. coli), is part of a putative operon.
      However, transcription of this operon and its subsequent effects on biological
      pathways has not been fully studied. Here, we characterized the operon in terms
      of promoter activity, transcription and function. Promoter activity assays
      identified two new growth- and cold-shock-responsive upstream (PymdA) and inner
      (PclsC) promoters, respectively. Moreover, investigation of the operon-derived
      transcripts identified different polycistronic transcripts harboring multiple
      heterogeneous 3? ends. Overexpression of YmdA or ClsC proteins inhibited biofilm
      formation and affected apramycin susceptibility, a process dependent on the sucA
      gene, suggesting that the operon genes or their encoded proteins are functionally
      linked. Additional investigation of the effects of polycistronic transcripts on
      the response of E. coli cells to apramycin revealed that transcripts containing
      ymdA (-213 to +27) are required for apramycin susceptibility. Thus, ymdAB-clsC is
      a new stress-responsive operon that plays a role in inhibiting undesired biofilm
      forming and antibiotic-resistant bacterial populations.

PMID- 28582518
TI  - Substitutions in PBP3 confer resistance to both ampicillin and extended-spectrum
      cephalosporins in Haemophilus parainfluenzae as revealed by site-directed
      mutagenesis and gene recombinants.
AB  - Objectives: To determine the association of amino acid substitutions in PBP3 with
      beta-lactam susceptibility in Haemophilus parainfluenzae. Methods: Single and
      multiple amino acid mutations at positions 385, 511 and 526 were introduced into
      PBP3 of a beta-lactam-susceptible H. parainfluenzae strain using site-directed
      mutagenesis. Recombinants were also generated using PCR-amplified ftsI from
      clinical strains encoding multiple amino acid substitutions. MICs of ampicillin,
      cefuroxime, cefotaxime and ceftriaxone were determined using Etest(r). Results:
      Transformation of a susceptible strain with ftsI from clinical strains encoding
      four substitutions in the transpeptidase region of PBP3 conferred resistance to
      ampicillin, but not to cephalosporins. Introduction of ftsI from a clinical
      strain encoding eight substitutions conferred resistance to ampicillin,
      cefotaxime and ceftriaxone. MICs for recombinants were lower than those for the
      donor strains. Using site-directed mutagenesis, no single substitution conferred
      resistance to the tested beta-lactams, although V511A increased the MIC of
      cefuroxime to the intermediate category for intravenous administration.
      Recombinants encoding N526K/H/S in combination with V511A were resistant to
      ampicillin. Substitution S385T increased the MICs of third-generation
      cephalosporins if V511A was also present. Conclusions: Substitutions in PBP3 are
      sufficient to confer resistance to both ampicillin and third-generation
      cephalosporins in H. parainfluenzae. A combination of substitutions at positions
      Val-511 and Asn-526 confers resistance to ampicillin. Resistance to third
      generation cephalosporins probably requires more than four substitutions in PBP3.

PMID- 28582515
TI  - Decreased Prostaglandin D2 Levels in Major Depressive Disorder Are Associated
      with Depression-Like Behaviors.
AB  - Background: Prostaglandin (PG) D2 is the most abundant prostaglandin in the
      mammalian brain. The physiological and pharmacological actions of PGD2 in the
      central nervous system seem to be associated with some of the symptoms exhibited
      by patients with major depressive disorder. Previous studies have found that PGD2
      synthase was decreased in the cerebrospinal fluid of major depressive disorder
      patients. We speculated that there may be a dysregulation of PGD2 levels in major
      depressive disorder. Methods: Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry coupled with a stable isotopic-labeled internal standard was used to
      determine PGD2 levels in the plasma of major depressive disorder patients and in
      the brains of depressive mice. A total of 32 drug-free major depressive disorder
      patients and 30 healthy controls were recruited. An animal model of depression
      was constructed by exposing mice to 5 weeks of chronic unpredictable mild stress.
      To explore the role of PGD2 in major depressive disorder, selenium tetrachloride
      was administered to simulate the change in PGD2 levels in mice. Results: Mice
      exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress exhibited depression-like behaviors,
      as indicated by reduced sucrose preference and increased immobility time in the
      forced swimming test. PGD2 levels in the plasma of major depressive disorder
      patients and in the brains of depressive mice were both decreased compared with
      their corresponding controls. Further inhibiting PGD2 production in mice resulted
      in an increased immobility time in the forced swimming test that could be
      reversed by imipramine. Conclusion: Decreased PGD2 levels in major depressive
      disorder are associated with depression-like behaviors.

PMID- 28582519
TI  - X chromosome inactivation in human pluripotent stem cells as a model for human
      development: back to the drawing board?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), both embryonic and induced (hESC
      and hiPSC), are regarded as a valuable in vitro model for early human
      development. In order to fulfil this promise, it is important that these cells
      mimic as closely as possible the in vivo molecular events, both at the genetic
      and epigenetic level. One of the most important epigenetic events during early
      human development is X chromosome inactivation (XCI), the transcriptional
      silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female cells. XCI is important for
      proper development and aberrant XCI has been linked to several pathologies.
      Recently, novel data obtained using high throughput single-cell technology during
      human preimplantation development have suggested that the XCI mechanism is
      substantially different from XCI in mouse. It has also been suggested that hPSC
      show higher complexity in XCI than the mouse. Here we compare the available
      recent data to understand whether XCI during human preimplantation can be
      properly recapitulated using hPSC. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE: We will summarize
      what is known on the timing and mechanisms of XCI during human preimplantation
      development. We will compare this to the XCI patterns that are observed during
      hPSC derivation, culture and differentiation, and comment on the cause of the
      aberrant XCI patterns observed in hPSC. Finally, we will discuss the implications
      of the aberrant XCI patterns on the applicability of hPSC as an in vitro model
      for human development and as cell source for regenerative medicine. SEARCH
      METHODS: Combinations of the following keywords were applied as search criteria
      in the PubMed database: X chromosome inactivation, preimplantation development,
      embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, primordial germ cells,
      differentiation. OUTCOMES: Recent single-cell RNASeq data have shed new light on
      the XCI process during human preimplantation development. These indicate a
      gradual inactivation on both XX chromosomes, starting from Day 4 of development
      and followed by a random choice to inactivate one of them, instead of the
      mechanism in mice where imprinted XCI is followed by random XCI. We have put
      these new findings in perspective using previous data obtained in human (and
      mouse) embryos. In addition, there is an ongoing discussion whether or not hPSC
      lines show X chromosome reactivation upon derivation, mimicking the earliest
      embryonic cells, and the XCI states observed during culture of hPSC are highly
      variable. Recent studies have shown that hPSC rapidly progress to highly aberrant
      XCI patterns and that this process is probably driven by suboptimal culture
      conditions. Importantly, these aberrant XCI states seem to be inherited by the
      differentiated hPSC-progeny. WIDER IMPLICATIONS: The aberrant XCI states (and
      epigenetic instability) observed in hPSC throw a shadow on their applicability as
      an in vitro model for development and disease modelling. Moreover, as the
      aberrant XCI states observed in hPSC seem to shift to a more malignant phenotype,
      this may also have important consequences for the safety aspect of using hPSC in
      the clinic.

PMID- 28582520
TI  - Rapid resolution of Ortner's syndrome with giant left atrium after double-valve
      replacement surgery.
AB  - Hoarseness of voice due to recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy is an uncommon
      manifestation of cardiothoracic disease. Ortner's syndrome is hoarseness
      attributed to mechanical compression of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in
      association with several cardiopulmonary disease states. We here describe a rare
      case of Ortner's syndrome developing in a 60-year-old woman with a giant left
      atrium in the context of rheumatic mitral valve stenosis. The remarkable
      resolution of her voice hoarseness within 1 week of valve replacement surgery has
      not been reported in similar cases to date.

PMID- 28582522
TI  - Refining success of cardiac resynchronization therapy using a simple score
      predicting the amount of reverse ventricular remodelling: results from the MARC
      study - authors reply.

PMID- 28582523
TI  - The interplay between adipose tissue and the cardiovascular system: is fat always
      bad?
AB  - Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, clinical
      research has revealed a paradoxically protective role for obesity in patients
      with chronic diseases including CVD, suggesting that the biological 'quality' of
      adipose tissue (AT) may be more important than overall AT mass or body weight.
      Importantly, AT is recognised as a dynamic organ secreting a wide range of
      biologically active adipokines, microRNAs, gaseous messengers, and other
      metabolites that affect the cardiovascular system in both endocrine and paracrine
      ways. Despite being able to mediate normal cardiovascular function under
      physiological conditions, AT undergoes a phenotypic shift characterised by
      acquisition of pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory properties in cases of CVD.
      Crucially, recent evidence suggests that AT depots such as perivascular AT and
      epicardial AT are able to modify their phenotype in response to local signals of
      vascular and myocardial origin, respectively. Utilisation of this unique property
      of certain AT depots to dynamically track cardiovascular biology may reveal novel
      diagnostic and prognostic tools against CVD. Better understanding of the
      mechanisms controlling the 'quality' of AT secretome, as well as the
      communication links between AT and the cardiovascular system, is required for the
      efficient management of CVD.

PMID- 28582524
TI  - Acute non-A non-B aortic dissection: incidence, treatment and outcome.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to report outcome of patients with acute non-A non-B
      aortic dissection involving the aortic arch but not the ascending aorta. METHODS:
      Dissection extension and entry location were analysed in patients with acute
      aortic dissection admitted between 2001 and 2016 at a tertiary centre. Non-A non
      B dissection was classified as descending-entry type with entry distal to the
      left subclavian artery and dissection extending into the aortic arch, and arch
      entry type with entry between the innominate and left subclavian arteries. We
      compared these 2 groups' clinical presentation, treatment and outcome. RESULTS:
      Among 396 acute aortic dissection patients, 43 (median age 60 +/- 12 years, 81%
      males) had non-A non-B dissection (descending-entry n = 21, arch-entry n = 22).
      The overwhelming majority of aortic segments were not dilated in all these
      patients. The 2 groups' cardiovascular risk profiles did not differ. Emergency
      open or endovascular aortic repair were necessary due to malperfusion or aortic
      rupture in 29% descending-entry and 36% arch-entry (in-hospital mortality was 1/6
      and 3/8, respectively). Aortic repair within 2 weeks due to new organ
      malperfusion, rapid aortic growth, aortic rupture or persisting pain was
      performed in 43% descending-entry and 36% arch-entry patients (0% in-hospital
      mortality). All others (except for 1 diagnosed in 2014) required aortic repair
      for aneurysm at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Acute non-A non-B aortic dissection
      frequently requires emergency aortic repair due to organ malperfusion or aortic
      rupture. Most descending-entry and arch-entry non-A non-B dissection patients
      undergo aortic repair within 2 weeks after dissection onset.

PMID- 28582521
TI  - The Prognostic Value of Tumor Multifocality in Clinical Outcomes of Papillary
      Thyroid Cancer.
AB  - Context: Multifocality is often treated as a risk factor for papillary thyroid
      cancer (PTC), prompting aggressive treatments, but its prognostic value remains
      unestablished. Objective: To investigate the role of tumor multifocality in
      clinical outcomes of PTC. Methods: Multicenter study of the relationship between
      multifocality and clinical outcomes of PTC in 2638 patients (623 men and 2015
      women) with median [interquartile range (IQR)] age of 46 (35 to 58) years and
      median (IQR) follow-up time of 58 (26 to 107) months at 11 medical centers in six
      countries. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data were used for
      validation. Results: Disease recurrence in multifocal and unifocal PTC was 198 of
      1000 (19.8%) and 221 of 1624 (13.6%) (P < 0.001), with a hazard ratio of 1.55
      [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.28 to 1.88], which became insignificant at 1.13
      (95% CI, 0.93 to 1.37) on multivariate adjustment. Similar results were obtained
      in PTC variants: conventional PTC, follicular-variant PTC, tall-cell PTC, and
      papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. There was no association between multifocality
      and mortality in any of these PTC settings, whereas there was a strong
      association between classic risk factors and cancer recurrence or mortality,
      which remained significant after multivariate adjustment. In 1423 patients with
      intrathyroidal PTC, disease recurrence was 20 of 455 (4.4%) and 41 of 967 (4.2%)
      (P = 0.892) and mortality was 0 of 455 (0.0%) and 3 of 967 (0.3%) (P = 0.556) in
      multifocal and unifocal PTC, respectively. The results were reproduced in 89,680
      patients with PTC in the SEER database. Conclusions: Tumor multifocality has no
      independent risk prognostic value in clinical outcomes of PTC; its indiscriminate
      use as an independent risk factor, prompting overtreatments of patients, should
      be avoided.

PMID- 28582525
TI  - Progressive mitral regurgitation in a patient with tropical endomyocardial
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28582526
TI  - Environmental Tobacco Exposure and Urinary Cotinine Levels in Smoking and
      Nonsmoking Adolescents.
AB  - Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association between environmental tobacco
      smoke (ETS) exposure and urinary cotinine levels in current adolescent smokers
      and nonsmokers. The secondary objective was to explore the association between
      ETS exposure and nicotine dependence in adolescent smokers. Methods: Using the
      results from a validation study for the 2012 Global Youth Tobacco Survey in
      Mexico, we quantified urinary cotinine levels in adolescent smokers and
      nonsmokers. We fitted a multivariate regression model to assess the association
      between household exposure to ETS and cotinine levels in adolescent smokers and
      nonsmokers. In addition, using the questionnaire's answers for morning cravings,
      we fitted a multivariate Poisson regression model to explore the association
      between household ETS exposure and nicotine dependence in adolescent smokers.
      Results: For each day of household ETS exposure, cotinine levels increase by 5%
      in adolescent smokers compared to a 2% increase in nonsmokers, adjusting for the
      number of cigarettes smoked per week, age and sex (exp(beta) 1.05; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] [1.00, 1.10]; p = .041). Morning cravings increase 11% for each day
      of household ETS exposure adjusting for the number of cigarettes smoked per week,
      age and sex (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.11; 95% CI [0.99, 1.25]; p = .064).
      Conclusions: There is an association between ETS exposure and cotinine levels,
      and ETS may contribute to nicotine dependence in adolescent smokers. If
      confirmed, avoiding ETS exposure could prove helpful for addiction control and
      quitting in adolescents. Implications: Evidence suggests that ETS increases
      cotinine levels in nonsmokers and adult smokers. However, no study has explored
      the association between ETS exposure and cotinine levels and addiction in
      adolescent smokers. This paper provides evidence of an association between ETS
      exposure and cotinine levels in adolescent smokers: each day of environmental
      tobacco smoke exposure at home increased cotinine levels by 5% among smokers. In
      addition, morning cravings in adolescent smokers increased 11% for every day of
      ETS exposure. ETS exposure is a significant source of nicotine for adolescent
      smokers and could play an important role in addiction.

PMID- 28582527
TI  - Transcriptional profiles of JIA patient blood with subsequent poor response to
      methotrexate.
AB  - Objective: The mechanisms that determine the efficacy or inefficacy of MTX in JIA
      are ill-defined. The objective of this study was to identify a gene expression
      transcriptional signature associated with poor response to MTX in patients with
      JIA. Methods: RNA sequencing was used to measure gene expression in peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells collected from 47 patients with JIA prior to MTX
      treatment and 14 age-matched controls. Differentially expressed baseline genes
      between responders and non-responders were evaluated. Biological differences
      between all JIA patients and controls were explored by constructing a signature
      of differentially expressed genes. Unsupervised clustering and pathway analysis
      was performed. Results: A signature of 99 differentially expressed genes
      (Bonferroni-corrected P < 0.05) capturing the biological differences between all
      JIA patients and controls was identified. Unsupervised clustering of samples
      based on this list of 99 genes produced subgroups enriched for MTX response
      status. Comparing this gene signature with reference signatures from sorted cell
      populations revealed high concordance between the expression signatures of
      monocytes and of MTX non-responders. CXCL8 (IL-8) was the most significantly
      differentially expressed gene transcript comparing all JIA patients with controls
      (Bonferroni-corrected P = 4.12 * 10-10). Conclusion: Variability in clinical
      response to MTX in JIA patients is associated with differences in gene
      transcripts modulated in monocytes. These gene expression profiles may provide a
      basis for biomarkers predictive of treatment response.

PMID- 28582528
TI  - Trends in obesity and diabetes across Africa from 1980 to 2014: an analysis of
      pooled population-based studies.
AB  - Background: The 2016 Dar Es Salaam Call to Action on Diabetes and Other non
      communicable diseases (NCDs) advocates national multi-sectoral NCD strategies and
      action plans based on available data and information from countries of sub
      Saharan Africa and beyond. We estimated trends from 1980 to 2014 in age
      standardized mean body mass index (BMI) and diabetes prevalence in these
      countries, in order to assess the co-progression and assist policy formulation.
      Methods: We pooled data from African and worldwide population-based studies which
      measured height, weight and biomarkers to assess diabetes status in adults aged
      >= 18 years. A Bayesian hierarchical model was used to estimate trends by sex for
      200 countries and territories including 53 countries across five African regions
      (central, eastern, northern, southern and western), in mean BMI and diabetes
      prevalence (defined as either fasting plasma glucose of >= 7.0 mmol/l, history of
      diabetes diagnosis, or use of insulin or oral glucose control agents). Results:
      African data came from 245 population-based surveys (1.2 million participants)
      for BMI and 76 surveys (182 000 participants) for diabetes prevalence estimates.
      Countries with the highest number of data sources for BMI were South Africa (n =
      17), Nigeria (n = 15) and Egypt (n = 13); and for diabetes estimates, Tanzania (n
      = 8), Tunisia (n = 7), and Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa (all n = 6). The age
      standardized mean BMI increased from 21.0 kg/m2 (95% credible interval: 20.3
      21.7) to 23.0 kg/m2 (22.7-23.3) in men, and from 21.9 kg/m2 (21.3-22.5) to 24.9
      kg/m2 (24.6-25.1) in women. The age-standardized prevalence of diabetes increased
      from 3.4% (1.5-6.3) to 8.5% (6.5-10.8) in men, and from 4.1% (2.0-7.5) to 8.9%
      (6.9-11.2) in women. Estimates in northern and southern regions were mostly
      higher than the global average; those in central, eastern and western regions
      were lower than global averages. A positive association (correlation coefficient
      ? 0.9) was observed between mean BMI and diabetes prevalence in both sexes in
      1980 and 2014. Conclusions: These estimates, based on limited data sources,
      confirm the rapidly increasing burden of diabetes in Africa. This rise is being
      driven, at least in part, by increasing adiposity, with regional variations in
      observed trends. African countries' efforts to prevent and control diabetes and
      obesity should integrate the setting up of reliable monitoring systems,
      consistent with the World Health Organization's Global Monitoring System
      Framework.

PMID- 28582529
TI  - Disrupted Olfactory Integration in Schizophrenia: Functional Connectivity Study.
AB  - Background: Evidence for olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia has been firmly
      established. However, in the typical understanding of schizophrenia, olfaction is
      not recognized to contribute to or interact with the illness. Despite the solid
      presence of olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia, its relation to the rest of
      the illness remains largely unclear. Here, we aimed to examine functional
      connectivity of the olfactory bulb, olfactory tract, and piriform cortices and
      isolate the network that would account for the altered olfaction in
      schizophrenia. Methods: We examined the functional connectivity of these specific
      olfactory regions in order to isolate other brain regions associated with
      olfactory processing in schizophrenia. Using the resting state functional MRI
      data from the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Brain Function and
      Mental Illness, we compared 84 patients of schizophrenia and 90 individuals
      without schizophrenia. Results: The schizophrenia group showed disconnectivity
      between the anterior piriform cortex and the nucleus accumbens, between the
      posterior piriform cortex and the middle frontal gyrus, and between the olfactory
      tract and the visual cortices. Conclusions: The current results suggest
      functional disconnectivity of olfactory regions in schizophrenia, which may
      account for olfactory dysfunction and disrupted integration with other sensory
      modalities in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28582530
TI  - An in vivo genetic screen for genes involved in spliced leader trans-splicing
      indicates a crucial role for continuous de novo spliced leader RNP assembly.
AB  - Spliced leader (SL) trans-splicing is a critical element of gene expression in a
      number of eukaryotic groups. This process is arguably best understood in
      nematodes, where biochemical and molecular studies in Caenorhabditis elegans and
      Ascaris suum have identified key steps and factors involved. Despite this, the
      precise details of SL trans-splicing have yet to be elucidated. In part, this is
      because the systematic identification of the molecules involved has not
      previously been possible due to the lack of a specific phenotype associated with
      defects in this process. We present here a novel GFP-based reporter assay that
      can monitor SL1 trans-splicing in living C. elegans. Using this assay, we have
      identified mutants in sna-1 that are defective in SL trans-splicing, and
      demonstrate that reducing function of SNA-1, SNA-2 and SUT-1, proteins that
      associate with SL1 RNA and related SmY RNAs, impairs SL trans-splicing. We
      further demonstrate that the Sm proteins and pICln, SMN and Gemin5, which are
      involved in small nuclear ribonucleoprotein assembly, have an important role in
      SL trans-splicing. Taken together these results provide the first in vivo
      evidence for proteins involved in SL trans-splicing, and indicate that continuous
      replacement of SL ribonucleoproteins consumed during trans-splicing reactions is
      essential for effective trans-splicing.

PMID- 28582531
TI  - Biomarkers of Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Waterpipe Tobacco Venue Employees in
      Istanbul, Moscow, and Cairo.
AB  - Background: Most smoke-free legislation to reduce secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure
      exempts waterpipe (hookah) smoking venues. Few studies have examined SHS exposure
      in waterpipe venues and their employees. Methods: We surveyed 276 employees of 46
      waterpipe tobacco venues in Istanbul, Moscow, and Cairo. We interviewed venue
      managers and employees and collected biological samples from employees to measure
      exhaled carbon monoxide (CO), hair nicotine, saliva cotinine, urine cotinine,
      urine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL), and urine 1
      hydroxypyrene glucuronide (1-OHPG). We estimated adjusted geometric mean ratios
      (GMR) of each SHS biomarker by employee characteristics and indoor air SHS
      measures. Results: There were 73 nonsmoking employees and 203 current smokers of
      cigarettes or waterpipe. In nonsmokers, the median (interquartile) range
      concentrations of SHS biomarkers were 1.1 (0.2, 40.9) ug/g creatinine urine
      cotinine, 5.5 (2, 15) ng/mL saliva cotinine, 0.95 (0.36, 5.02) ng/mg hair
      nicotine, 1.48 (0.98, 3.97) pg/mg creatinine urine NNAL, 0.54 (0.25, 0.97)
      pmol/mg creatinine urine 1-OHPG, and 1.67 (1.33, 2.33) ppm exhaled CO. An 8-hour
      increase in work hours was associated with higher urine cotinine (GMR: 1.68, 95%
      CI: 1.20, 2.37) and hair nicotine (GMR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.43). Lighting
      waterpipes was associated with higher saliva cotinine (GMR: 2.83, 95% CI: 1.05,
      7.62). Conclusions: Nonsmoking employees of waterpipe tobacco venues were exposed
      to high levels of SHS, including measurable levels of carcinogenic biomarkers
      (tobacco-specific nitrosamines and PAHs). Implications: Smoke-free regulation
      should be extended to waterpipe venues to protect nonsmoking employees and
      patrons from the adverse health effects of SHS.

PMID- 28582533
TI  - Handling blood cell composition in epigenetic studies on ageing.

PMID- 28582532
TI  - Generating global political priority for urban health: the role of the urban
      health epistemic community.
AB  - Over the past decade there has been much discussion of the challenges posed by
      rapid urbanization in the developing world; yet the health of the urban poor, and
      especially those residing in low- and middle-income countries, continues to
      receive little political priority in most developing countries and at the global
      level. This research applies social science scholarship and a public policy
      analytical framework to assess the factors that have challenged efforts to make
      health in urban poor settings a priority. We conducted 19 semi-structured phone
      interviews with key urban health proponents and experts representing agencies
      that shape opinions and manage resources in global health. We also conducted a
      literature review, which included published scholarly literature and reports from
      organizations involved in urban health provision and advocacy. Utilizing a
      process-tracing method, we triangulated among these sources of data to create a
      historical narrative and analyse the factors that shape the global level of
      attention to and resources for urban health. The urban health agenda continues to
      be challenged by six factors, three of which concern the political context or
      characteristics of the issue: long-standing competition with the dominant
      development agenda that is rural health oriented; limited data and measurement
      tools that can effectively gauge the extent of the problem; and lack of evidence
      on how to best to address the issue. The other three factors are directly under
      the control of the urban health community: the community's ineffective
      governance; little common understanding among its members of the problem and how
      to address it; and an unconvincing framing of the issue to the public. The study
      offers suggestions as to what advocates can do to secure greater attention and
      resources in order to help address the health needs of the urban poor.

PMID- 28582534
TI  - Development, Trait Evolution, and the Evolution of Development in Trilobites.
AB  - Trilobites offer one of the best fossil records of any arthropod group. This is
      due to a number of factors, most notably the combination of (1) having inhabited
      areas where organisms are more likely to be buried and ultimately fossilized; and
      (2) having had a highly biomineralized exoskeleton more likely to survive the
      stresses of fossilization. This biomineralized exoskeleton was also
      morphologically complex, bearing traits that had ecological significance, and was
      present throughout postembryonic development, from larval to adult stages.
      Because the morphology of the exoskeleton changed gradually across molts during
      development, it is possible to reconstruct ontogenetic series for many species.
      Over the last decade, studies have documented both variation in modularity among
      closely related species and conserved developmental patterns among modules. In
      the latter case, trait evolution could still occur through modification of rates
      of morphological change along otherwise conserved ontogenetic trajectories. At
      the clade level, the pattern of expression and release of new exoskeletal
      segments during post-embryonic development was generally conserved across most
      species, but the relative timing of different segmentation events could vary, and
      developmental traits appear to have been relatively labile across the clade's
      evolutionary history. Most recently, comparative analyses indicate that the
      association between segmentation events and the timing of shifts in the rate of
      ontogenetic shape change varies across species. Despite these advances, we still
      know relatively little about how development constrained or contributed to trait
      evolution in trilobites, and almost nothing about the origin of novel traits in
      trilobites. A major (but removable) obstacle is the current lack of well
      supported trilobite phylogenies that span higher taxonomic levels.

PMID- 28582535
TI  - Perceived Synchrony of Frog Multimodal Signal Components Is Influenced by Content
      and Order.
AB  - Multimodal signaling is common in communication systems. Depending on the
      species, individual signal components may be produced synchronously as a result
      of physiological constraint (fixed) or each component may be produced
      independently (fluid) in time. For animals that rely on fixed signals, a basic
      prediction is that asynchrony between the components should degrade the
      perception of signal salience, reducing receiver response. Male tungara frogs,
      Physalaemus pustulosus, produce a fixed multisensory courtship signal by
      vocalizing with two call components (whines and chucks) and inflating a vocal sac
      (visual component). Using a robotic frog, we tested female responses to variation
      in the temporal arrangement between acoustic and visual components. When the
      visual component lagged a complex call (whine + chuck), females largely rejected
      this asynchronous multisensory signal in favor of the complex call absent the
      visual cue. When the chuck component was removed from one call, but the robofrog
      inflation lagged the complex call, females responded strongly to the asynchronous
      multimodal signal. When the chuck component was removed from both calls, females
      reversed preference and responded positively to the asynchronous multisensory
      signal. When the visual component preceded the call, females responded as often
      to the multimodal signal as to the call alone. These data show that asynchrony of
      a normally fixed signal does reduce receiver responsiveness. The magnitude and
      overall response, however, depend on specific temporal interactions between the
      acoustic and visual components. The sensitivity of tungara frogs to lagging
      visual cues, but not leading ones, and the influence of acoustic signal content
      on the perception of visual asynchrony is similar to those reported in human
      psychophysics literature. Virtually all acoustically communicating animals must
      conduct auditory scene analyses and identify the source of signals. Our data
      suggest that some basic audiovisual neural integration processes may be at work
      in the vertebrate brain.

PMID- 28582536
TI  - Is Dihydrotestosterone a Classic Hormone?

PMID- 28582537
TI  - June Issue of Endocrine Reviews.

PMID- 28582538
TI  - BreakPoint Surveyor: a pipeline for structural variant visualization.
AB  - Summary: BreakPoint Surveyor (BPS) is a computational pipeline for the discovery,
      characterization, and visualization of complex genomic rearrangements, such as
      viral genome integration, in paired-end sequence data. BPS facilitates
      interpretation of structural variants by merging structural variant breakpoint
      predictions, gene exon structure, read depth, and RNA-sequencing expression into
      a single comprehensive figure. Availability and implementation: Source code and
      sample data freely available for download at https://github.com/ding
      lab/BreakPointSurveyor, distributed under the GNU GPLv3 license, implemented in
      R, Python and BASH scripts, and supported on Unix/Linux/OS X operating systems.
      Contact: lding@wustl.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582539
TI  - More than meets the eye: IgG4-related disease presenting as isolated interstitial
      lung disease.

PMID- 28582541
TI  - Epidemiology of Rotavirus Infection in Children from a Rural and Urban Area, in
      Maputo, Southern Mozambique, before Vaccine Introduction.
AB  - This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of rotavirus infections in
      Mozambique before vaccine introduction. Between February 2012 and September 2013,
      stool specimens, demographic and clinical data were collected from 384 children
      <5 years old hospitalized with acute diarrhea in Mavalane General Hospital and
      Manhica District Hospital, southern Mozambique. The samples were tested for
      rotavirus A using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The overall prevalence of
      rotavirus infection was 42.4% [95% confidence interval (95CI): 37.4-47.6%], and
      was similar in Manhica (44.3%; 95CI: 36.2-52.7%) and Mavalane (41.3%; 95CI: 34.9
      47.9%). The highest prevalence of rotavirus infection was observed in children
      between 6 and 11 months old. It was also observed that 162 (43.7%) of the
      children were underweight (weight-for-age z-score < -2), of which 61 were
      infected by rotavirus.

PMID- 28582540
TI  - A bioassay-guided fractionation system to identify endogenous small molecules
      that activate plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity in Arabidopsis.
AB  - Plasma membrane (PM) H+-ATPase is essential for plant growth and development.
      Various environmental stimuli regulate its activity, a process that involves many
      protein cofactors. However, whether endogenous small molecules play a role in
      this regulation remains unknown. Here, we describe a bio-guided isolation method
      to identify endogenous small molecules that regulate PM H+-ATPase activity. We
      obtained crude extracts from Arabidopsis seedlings with or without salt treatment
      and then purified them into fractions based on polarity and molecular mass by
      repeated column chromatography. By evaluating the effect of each fraction on PM
      H+-ATPase activity, we found that fractions containing the endogenous, free
      unsaturated fatty acids oleic acid (C18:1), linoleic acid (C18:2), and linolenic
      acid (C18:3) extracted from salt-treated seedlings stimulate PM H+-ATPase
      activity. These results were further confirmed by the addition of exogenous
      C18:1, C18:2, or C18:3 in the activity assay. The ssi2 mutant, with reduced
      levels of C18:1, C18:2, and C18:3, displayed reduced PM H+-ATPase activity.
      Furthermore, C18:1, C18:2, and C18:3 directly bound to the C-terminus of the PM
      H+-ATPase AHA2. Collectively, our results demonstrate that the binding of free
      unsaturated fatty acids to the C-terminus of PM H+-ATPase is required for its
      activation under salt stress. The bio-guided isolation model described in this
      study could enable the identification of new endogenous small molecules that
      modulate essential protein functions, as well as signal transduction, in plants.

PMID- 28582542
TI  - Serum Bactericidal Antibody Responses of Students Immunized With a Meningococcal
      Serogroup B Vaccine in Response to an Outbreak on a University Campus.
AB  - Background: MenB-4C is a recently licensed meningococcal serogroup B vaccine. For
      vaccine licensure, short-term efficacy was inferred from serum bactericidal
      antibody (SBA) titers against 3 antigen-specific indicator strains, which are not
      necessarily representative of US disease-causing strains. Methods: A total of
      4923 students were immunized with MenB-4C in response to an outbreak at a
      university. Serum samples were obtained at 1.5-2 months from 106 students who
      received the recommended 2 doses and 52 unvaccinated students. Follow-up serum
      samples were obtained at 7 months from 42 vaccinated and 24 unvaccinated
      participants. SBA was measured against strains from 4 university outbreaks.
      Results: At 1.5-2 months, the proportion of immunized students with protective
      titers >=1:4 against an isolate from the campus outbreak was 93% (95% confidence
      interval [CI], 87%-97%) vs 37% (95% CI, 24%-51%) in unvaccinated students. The
      proportion with protective titers against strains from 3 other university
      outbreaks was 73% (95% CI, 62%-82%) vs 26% (95% CI, 14%-41%) in unvaccinated; 71%
      (95% CI, 61%-79%) vs 19% (95% CI, 10%-33%) in unvaccinated; and 53% (95% CI, 42%
      64%) vs 9% (95% CI, 3%-22%) in unvaccinated (P < .0001 for each strain). At 7
      months, the proportion of immunized students with titers >=1:4 was 86% (95% CI,
      71%-95%) against the isolate from the campus outbreak and 57% (95% CI, 41%-72%),
      38% (95% CI, 24%-54%), and 31% (95% CI, 18%-47%), respectively, for the other 3
      outbreak strains. Conclusions: MenB-4C elicited short-term protective titers
      against 4 strains responsible for recent university campus outbreaks. By 7 months
      the prevalence of protective titers was <40% for 2 of the 4 outbreak strains. A
      booster dose of MenB-4C may be needed to maintain protective titers.

PMID- 28582544
TI  - Terbinafine resistance conferred by multiple copies of the salicylate 1
      monooxygenase gene in Trichophyton rubrum.
AB  - Resistance to antifungals is a leading concern in the treatment of human mycoses.
      We demonstrate that the salA gene, encoding salicylate 1-monooxygenase, is
      involved in resistance of the dermatophyte Trichophyton rubrum to terbinafine,
      one of the most effective antifungal drugs against dermatophytes. A strain with
      multiple copies of salA was constructed and exhibited elevated expression of salA
      and increased terbinafine resistance. This reflects a mechanism not yet reported
      in a pathogenic fungus.

PMID- 28582545
TI  - Stereotactic Catheter Ventriculocisternostomy for Clearance of Subarachnoid
      Hemorrhage in Patients with Coiled Aneurysms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral vasospasm leading to delayed cerebral infarction (DCI) is a
      central source of poor outcome in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid
      hemorrhage (aSAH). Current treatments of cerebral vasospasm are insufficient.
      Cisternal blood clearance is a promising treatment option. However, a generally
      applicable, safe, and effective method to access the cisterns of the brain is
      lacking. OBJECTIVE: To report on stereotactic catheter ventriculocisternostomy
      (STX-VCS) as a method to access the cisterns of the brain for clearance of
      subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with aSAH and coiled aneurysms. METHODS: In 9
      aSAH patients at high risk for DCI (Hunt and Hess grade >=3, modified Fisher
      grade >=3), access to the basal cisterns of the brain was created by STX-VCS.
      Fibrinolytic and/or spasmolytic lavage therapy was administered. RESULTS: STX-VCS
      was feasible and safe in all patients. Subarachnoid blood was rapidly cleared by
      irrigation with urokinase. Vasospasm occurred in 2 patients and was interrupted
      by irrigation with nimodipine. There was 1 fatality due to pneumogenic sepsis.
      Minor DCI occurred in 1 patient. Eight survived without DCI and are independent
      (modified Rankin score [mRS] <= 3) at 6 mo after aSAH. CONCLUSION: STX-VCS allows
      for rapid clearance of subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients with coiled aneurysms.

PMID- 28582543
TI  - Adherence to a healthy lifestyle and the risk of type 2 diabetes in Chinese
      adults.
AB  - Background: Simultaneously adhering to multiple healthy lifestyle factors has
      been related to up to 90% reduction in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) incidence in White
      populations; however, little is known about whether such protective effects
      persist in other non-White populations. Methods: We examined the associations of
      six lifestyle factors with T2DM in the China Kadoorie Biobank of 461 211
      participants aged 30-79 years without diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or cancer
      at baseline. We defined low-risk lifestyle factors as non-smoking or having
      stopped for reasons other than illness; alcohol consumption of <30 g/day; upper
      quarter of the physical activity level; diet rich in vegetables and fruits, low
      in red meat and with some degree of replacement of rice with wheat; body mass
      index (BMI) of 18.5-23.9 kg/m2; and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) <0.90 (men)/<0.85
      (women). Results: During a median of 7.2 years of follow-up, we identified 8784
      incident T2DM. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, two important risk factors for
      developing T2DM were higher BMI and WHR. Compared with participants without any
      low-risk factors, the hazard ratio [95% confidence interval (CI)] for those with
      at least three low-risk factors was 0.20 (0.19, 0.22). Approximately 72.6%
      (64.2%, 79.3%) of the incident diabetes were attributable to the combination of
      BMI, WHR, diet and physical activity. The population attributable risk percentage
      (PAR%) of diabetes appeared to be similar for men and women, and higher among
      urban, older and obese participants. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that
      adherence to a healthy lifestyle may substantially lower the burden of T2DM in
      the Chinese population.

PMID- 28582546
TI  - The contribution of homology arms to nuclease-assisted genome engineering.
AB  - Designer nucleases like CRISPR/Cas9 enable fluent site-directed damage or small
      mutations in many genomes. Strategies for their use to achieve more complex tasks
      like regional exchanges for gene humanization or the establishment of conditional
      alleles are still emerging. To optimize Cas9-assisted targeting, we measured the
      relationship between targeting frequency and homology length in targeting
      constructs using a hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase assay in mouse
      embryonic stem cells. Targeting frequency with supercoiled plasmids improved
      steeply up to 2 kb total homology and continued to increase with even longer
      homology arms, thereby implying that Cas9-assisted targeting efficiencies can be
      improved using homology arms of 1 kb or greater. To humanize the Kmt2d gene, we
      built a hybrid mouse/human targeting construct in a bacterial artificial
      chromosome by recombineering. To simplify the possible outcomes, we employed a
      single Cas9 cleavage strategy and best achieved the intended 42 kb regional
      exchange with a targeting construct including a very long homology arm to
      recombine ~42 kb away from the cleavage site. We recommend the use of long
      homology arm targeting constructs for accurate and efficient complex genome
      engineering, particularly when combined with the simplifying advantages of using
      just one Cas9 cleavage at the genome target site.

PMID- 28582548
TI  - Butterflies Do Not Alter Conspecific Avoidance in Response to Variation in
      Density.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: High conspecific densities are associated with increased levels of
      intraspecific competition and a variety of negative effects on performance.
      However, changes in life history strategy could compensate for some of these
      effects. For instance, females in crowded conditions often have fewer total
      offspring, but they may invest more in each one. Such investment could include
      the production of larger offspring, more time spent engaging in parental care, or
      more choosy decisions about where offspring are placed. For animals that have a
      relatively immobile juvenile stage, the costs of competition can be particularly
      high. Females may be able to avoid such costs by investing more in individual
      reproductive decisions, rearing young or laying eggs in locations away from other
      females. We tested the hypothesis that conspecific density cues during juvenile
      and adult life stages lead to changes in life history strategy, including both
      reproduction and oviposition choices. We predicted that high-density cues during
      the larval and adult stages of female Pieris rapae butterflies lead to lower
      fecundity but higher conspecific avoidance during oviposition, compared to
      similar low-density cues. We used a 2*2 factorial design to examine the effects
      of low and high conspecific density during the larval and adult stages of
      butterflies on avoidance behavior and fecundity. We found that past information
      about conspecific density did not matter; all butterflies exhibited similar
      levels of fecundity and a low level of conspecific avoidance during oviposition
      regardless of their previous experience as larvae and adults. These results
      suggest that P. rapae females use a fixed, rather than flexible, conspecific
      avoidance strategy when making oviposition decisions, and past information about
      conspecific density has no effect on life history and current reproductive
      investment. We speculate that this may be partially because past conspecific
      density per se is not a reliable cue for predicting current density and levels of
      competition, and thus it does not affect the development of life history
      strategies in this system.

PMID- 28582547
TI  - The TORC1/2 inhibitor TAK228 sensitizes atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors to
      cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity.
AB  - Background: Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RTs) are deadly pediatric brain
      tumors driven by LIN28. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is activated in many
      deadly, drug-resistant cancers and governs important cellular functions such as
      metabolism and survival. LIN28 regulates mTOR in normal cells. We therefore
      hypothesized that mTOR is activated downstream of LIN28 in AT/RT, and the brain
      penetrating mTOR complex 1 and 2 (mTORC1/2) kinase inhibitor TAK228 would reduce
      AT/RT tumorigenicity. Methods: Activation of mTOR in AT/RT was determined by
      measuring pS6 and pAKT (Ser473) by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray of
      18 primary AT/RT tumors. In vitro growth assays (BrdU and MTS), death assays
      (CC3, c-PARP by western blot), and survival curves of AT/RT orthotopic xenograft
      models were used to measure the efficacy of TAK228 alone and in combination with
      cisplatin. Results: Lentiviral short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of LIN28A led
      to decreased mTOR activation. Primary human AT/RT had high levels of pS6 and pAKT
      (Ser473) in 21% and 87% of tumors by immunohistochemistry. TAK228 slowed cell
      growth, induced apoptosis in vitro, and nearly doubled median survival of
      orthotopic xenograft models of AT/RT. TAK228 combined with cisplatin
      synergistically slowed cell growth and enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis.
      Suppression of AKT sensitized cells to cisplatin-induced apoptosis and forced
      activation of AKT protected cells. Combined treatment with TAK228 and cisplatin
      significantly extended survival of orthotopic xenograft models of AT/RT compared
      with each drug alone. Conclusions: TAK228 has efficacy in AT/RT as a single agent
      and synergizes with conventional chemotherapies by sensitizing tumors to
      cisplatin-induced apoptosis. These results suggest TAK228 may be an effective new
      treatment for AT/RT.

PMID- 28582549
TI  - Changes in bacterial community after application of three different herbicides.
AB  - The native soil microbiota is very important to maintain the quality of that
      environment, but with the intensive use of agrochemicals, changes in microbial
      biomass and formation of large quantities of toxic waste were observed in soil,
      groundwater and surface water. Thereby, the goal of this study was to evaluate if
      the selective pressure exerted by the presence of the herbicides atrazine, diuron
      and 2,4-D changes the bacterial community structure of an agricultural soil,
      using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis technique. According to PERMANOVA
      analysis, a greater effect of the herbicide persistence time in the soil, the
      effect of the herbicide class and the effect of interaction between these two
      factors (persistence time and herbicide class) were observed. In conclusion, the
      results showed that the selective pressure exerted by the presence of these
      herbicides altered the composition of the local microbiota, being atrazine and
      diuron that most significantly affected the bacterial community in soil, and the
      herbicide 2,4-D was the one that less altered the microbial community and that
      bacterial community was reestablished first.

PMID- 28582550
TI  - Fine mapping of a quantitative trait locus for spikelet number per panicle in a
      new plant type rice and evaluation of a near-isogenic line for grain
      productivity.
AB  - Total spikelet number per panicle (TSN) is one of the determinants of grain
      productivity in rice (Oryza sativa L.). In this study, we attempted to detect
      quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for TSN in the introgression lines with high TSN,
      derived from the cross of Indica Group variety IR 64 with new plant type lines.
      Two QTLs were detected on the long arm of chromosome 12: qTSN12.1 in the BC4F2
      population of YTH63/IR 64 and qTSN12.2 in the BC4F3 population of YTH83/IR 64.
      TSN of the main tiller was significantly higher in near-isogenic lines (NILs) for
      qTSN12.1 (IR 64-NIL1; 188.6) and for qTSN12.2 (IR 64-NIL12; 199.4) than in IR 64
      (141.2), owing to a significant increase in both primary and secondary branch
      numbers. These results suggest the critical function of these QTLs in the
      promotion of rachis branching at the panicle formation stage. Fine mapping of
      qTSN12.2 revealed six candidate genes in a 92-kb region of the Nipponbare
      reference genome sequence between flanking markers RM28746 and RM28753. Detailed
      phenotyping of agronomic traits of IR 64-NIL12 carrying qTSN12.2 showed drastic
      changes in plant architecture: this line had lower panicle number, longer culm,
      and longer and wider leaves compared with IR 64. Percentage of fertility and 1000
      grain weight tended to be greater, and grain yield per square meter was also
      greater in IR 64-NIL12 than in IR 64. The newly identified QTLs will be useful
      for genetic improvement of the yield potential of Indica Group varieties. The
      markers tightly linked to qTSN12.2 are available for marker-assisted breeding.

PMID- 28582551
TI  - Beating heart mitral valve surgery: results in 120 consecutive patients
      considered unsuitable for conventional mitral valve surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to test whether a beating heart mitral
      valve operation was a valuable option in a heterogeneous group of patients
      considered very high risk for conventional mitral valve surgery. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective, single-centre, observational cohort study of 120
      patients (mean age 63.7 +/- 12.1 years, range 25.3-88.8 years; mean logistic
      EuroSCORE 26.1 +/- 20.6%, range 1.5-84.3%) undergoing beating heart mitral valve
      operations using normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass without aortic cross
      clamping and without cardioplegia between September 2002 and April 2014.
      Preoperatively, 14 (11.7%) patients were in cardiogenic shock, 16 (13%) on a
      ventilator, 33 (27.5%) receiving inotropic support, 12 (10%) on dialysis and 1 on
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Sixty-five (54%) patients had had at least 1
      (range 1-6) previous heart operation. The mean follow-up period was 920 +/- 973
      days. RESULTS: A mitral valve procedure was performed alone in 75 (62.5%)
      patients and combined with additional cardiac procedures in 45 (37.5%). Fifty
      eight (49%) patients had emergency or urgent procedures and 62 (51%), elective
      procedures. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 103 +/- 39 min (median 94
      min, range 45-252, interquartile range 75-121.5 min). There were no conversions
      to conventional procedures and no intraoperative deaths. The 30-day mortality
      rate for patients without cardiogenic shock was 7.5% (8 deaths among 106
      patients). Among 14 (11.7%) patients who underwent an operation in cardiogenic
      shock, 4 died during the first 30 days (30-day mortality rate = 28.6%, Fisher's
      exact test P = 0.338 versus patients without shock). The lowest 30-day mortality
      rate was in patients operated on with the beating heart because of a porcelain
      aorta (n = 8 patients, 30-day mortality rate = 0%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      considered unsuitable for a conventional mitral valve operation had favourable
      postoperative outcomes if the operation was performed on the beating heart.

PMID- 28582552
TI  - Lower Bone Mass and Higher Bone Resorption in Pheochromocytoma: Importance of
      Sympathetic Activity on Human Bone.
AB  - Context: Despite the apparent biological importance of sympathetic activity on
      bone metabolism in rodents, its role in humans remains questionable. Objective:
      To clarify the link between the sympathetic nervous system and the skeleton in
      humans. Design, Setting, and Patients: Among 620 consecutive subjects with newly
      diagnosed adrenal incidentaloma, 31 patients with histologically confirmed
      pheochromocytoma (a catecholamine-secreting neuroendocrine tumor) and 280
      patients with nonfunctional adrenal incidentaloma were defined as cases and
      controls, respectively. Results: After adjustment for confounders, subjects with
      pheochromocytoma had 7.2% lower bone mass at the lumbar spine and 33.5% higher
      serum C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX) than those without
      pheochromocytoma (P = 0.016 and 0.001, respectively), whereas there were no
      statistical differences between groups in bone mineral density (BMD) at the femur
      neck and total hip and in serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSALP) level.
      The odds ratio (OR) for lower BMD at the lumbar spine in the presence of
      pheochromocytoma was 3.31 (95% confidence interval, 1.23 to 8.56). However, the
      ORs for lower BMD at the femur neck and total hip did not differ according to the
      presence of pheochromocytoma. Serum CTX level decreased by 35.2% after
      adrenalectomy in patients with pheochromocytoma, whereas serum BSALP level did
      not change significantly. Conclusions: This study provides clinical evidence
      showing that sympathetic overstimulation in pheochromocytoma can contribute to
      adverse effects on human bone through the increase of bone loss (especially in
      trabecular bone), as well as bone resorption.

PMID- 28582553
TI  - 'Silent' and 'noisy' areas: acute flaccid paralysis surveillance at subnational
      level, Australia, 2001-2015.
AB  - Background: Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance rates are used as an
      indicator of surveillance sensitivity to detect poliomyelitis with an expected
      rate of >=1 case per 100 000 population in children under 15 years of age.
      Methods: The Australian AFP detection rates at sub-national (statistical local
      area) level were analysed using chi2 goodness of fit tests and exact Poisson
      probabilities for the combined years 2001-2015 to detect 'silent areas', which
      may require improved AFP detection efforts, and areas with greater than expected
      rates, which may indicate unexplained clusters such as those due to enterovirus
      infection. Results: Eight (n=8/87, 9%) local areas had AFP surveillance detection
      rates that were less than expected, and eighteen local areas (n=18/87, 21%) had
      rates that were greater than expected. However, based on available evidence, it
      is unlikely that these indicated previously unidentified, enterovirus clusters.
      Conclusions: While Australia has regularly met the national AFP surveillance
      performance indicators, at the subnational level nine per cent of local areas
      demonstrated statistically significant lower AFP detection rates. All countries,
      even those with relatively small populations, should actively identify silent AFP
      areas to prompt surveillance improvements.

PMID- 28582555
TI  - Enablers of innovation in digital public health surveillance: lessons from
      Flutracking.
AB  - Opportunities for digital innovation in public health surveillance have never
      been greater. Social media data streams, Open Data initiatives, mHealth geotagged
      data, and the 'internet of things' are ripe for development. To embrace these
      opportunities we need to provide public health professionals with environments
      that support experimentation with new technology. Innovative practitioners will
      lead discovery, adaption, trialling and deployment of new technological solutions
      mostly developed outside their organisation. To enhance innovation agencies will
      need to learn from 'startup culture' and the practices of large organisations
      that ring fence innovative teams to protect them and allow them to 'break rules',
      'fail fast', and innovate.

PMID- 28582554
TI  - Novel surveillance methods for the control of Ebola virus disease.
AB  - The unprecedented scale of the 2013-2016 West African Ebola virus disease (EVD)
      outbreak was in a large part due to failings in surveillance: contacts of
      confirmed cases were not systematically identified, monitored and diagnosed
      early, and new cases appearing in previously unaffected communities were
      similarly not rapidly identified, diagnosed and isolated. Over the course of this
      epidemic, traditional surveillance methods were strengthened and novel methods
      introduced. The wealth of experience gained, and the systems introduced in West
      Africa, should be used in future EVD outbreaks, as well as for other communicable
      diseases in the region and beyond.

PMID- 28582557
TI  - Global infectious disease surveillance: getting back to basics.

PMID- 28582556
TI  - Serious bacterial infections in neonates: improving reporting and case
      definitions.
AB  - Neonatal infections affect about 7 million neonates causing over 600 000 deaths
      every year. Estimating the burden is challenging as there are multiple reporting
      criteria and definitions for serious bacterial infections in neonates. Essential
      criteria for reporting serious neonatal bacterial infections have recently been
      published as the STROBE-NI checklist and, in the context of maternal vaccination,
      definitions have been published by the Brighton Collaboration Global Alignment of
      Immunization safety Assessment in pregnancy (GAIA) project. Standardisation of
      reporting criteria is essential to allow data comparability. This an important
      step in providing a clearer picture of the burden of serious bacterial infections
      in neonates and a welcome progress for guiding new investments in interventions.

PMID- 28582559
TI  - Why transition matters as much as eradication: lessons from global polio
      surveillance.

PMID- 28582558
TI  - ProMED-mail: 22 years of digital surveillance of emerging infectious diseases.
AB  - ProMED-mail (ProMED) was launched in 1994 as an email service to identify unusual
      health events related to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and toxins
      affecting humans, animals and plants. It is used daily by public health leaders,
      government officials at all levels, physicians, veterinarians and other
      healthcare workers, researchers, private companies, journalists and the general
      public. Reports are produced and commentary provided by a global team of subject
      matter experts in a variety of fields including virology, parasitology,
      epidemiology, entomology, veterinary and plant disease specialists. ProMED
      operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has over 83 000 subscribers,
      representing every country in the world. Additionally, ProMED disseminates
      information via its website and through social media channels such as Twitter and
      Facebook as well as through RSS feeds. Over the last 22 years, it has been the
      first to report on numerous major and minor disease outbreaks including SARS,
      MERS, Ebola and the early spread of Zika. ProMED is transparent, apolitical, open
      to all and free of charge, making it an important and longstanding contributor to
      global health surveillance.

PMID- 28582560
TI  - The critical role of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in the Global Polio
      Eradication Initiative.
AB  - Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is a key strategy used by the Global
      Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to measure progress towards reaching the
      global eradication goal. Supported by a global polio laboratory network, AFP
      surveillance is conducted in 179 of 194 WHO member states. Active surveillance
      visits to priority health facilities are used to assure all children <15 years
      with AFP are detected, followed by stool specimen collection and testing for
      poliovirus in WHO-accredited polio laboratories. The quality of AFP surveillance
      is regularly monitored with standardized surveillance quality indicators. In
      highest risk countries and areas, the sensitivity of AFP surveillance is enhanced
      by environmental surveillance (testing of sewage samples). Genetic sequencing of
      detected poliovirus isolates yields programmatically important information on
      polio transmission pathways. AFP surveillance is one of the most valuable assets
      of the GPEI, with the potential to serve as a platform to build integrated
      disease surveillance systems. Continued support to maintain AFP surveillance
      systems will be essential, to reliably monitor the completion of global polio
      eradication, and to assure that a key resource for building surveillance capacity
      is transitioned post-eradication to support other health priorities.

PMID- 28582561
TI  - Global and national laboratory networks support high quality surveillance for
      measles and rubella.
AB  - Laboratory networks are an essential component of disease surveillance systems
      because they provide accurate and timely confirmation of infection. WHO
      coordinates global laboratory surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases,
      including measles and rubella. The more than 700 laboratories within the WHO
      Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network (GMRLN) supports surveillance for
      measles, rubella and congenial rubella syndrome in 191 counties. This paper
      describes the overall structure and function of the GMRLN and highlights the
      largest of the national laboratory networks, the China Measles and Rubella
      Laboratory Network.

PMID- 28582562
TI  - Adaptation of a malaria surveillance system for use in a visceral leishmaniasis
      elimination programme.
AB  - Background: Successful public practice relies on generation and use of high
      quality data. A data surveillance system (the Disease Data Management System
      [DDMS]) in use for malaria was adapted for use in the Indian visceral
      leishmaniasis elimination programme. Methods: A situational analysis identified
      the data flows in current use. Taxonomic trees for the vector of visceral
      leishmaniasis in India, Phlebotomus argentipes, were incorporated into the DDMS
      to allow entry of quality assurance and insecticide susceptibility data. A new
      quality assurance module was created to collate the concentration of DDT that was
      applied to walls during the indoor residual spraying (IRS) vector control
      programme. Results: The DDMS was implemented in Bihar State and used to collate
      and manage data from sentinel sites in eight districts. Quality assurance data
      showed that DDT was under-applied to walls during IRS; this, combined with
      insecticide susceptibility data showing widespread vector resistance to DDT
      prompted a national policy change to using compression pumps and alpha
      cypermethrin insecticide for IRS. Conclusions: The adapted DDMS centralises
      programmatic data and enhances evidence-based decision making and active policy
      change. Moving forward, further modules of the system will be implemented,
      allowing extended data capture and streamlined transmission of key information to
      decision makers.

PMID- 28582563
TI  - Participant-centred active surveillance of adverse events following immunisation:
      a narrative review.
AB  - The importance of active, participant-centred monitoring of adverse events
      following immunisation (AEFI) is increasingly recognised as a valuable adjunct to
      traditional passive AEFI surveillance. The databases OVID Medline and OVID Embase
      were searched to identify all published articles referring to AEFI. Only studies
      which sought participant response after vaccination were included. A total of
      6060 articles published since the year 2000 were identified. After the
      application of screening inclusion and exclusion criteria, 25 articles describing
      23 post-marketing AEFI systems were identified. Most countries had a single
      system: Ghana, Japan, China, Korea, Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, Cambodia, Sri
      Lanka, Turkey and Cameroon except the USA (2), Canada (4) and Australia (6). Data
      were collected from participants with and without AEFI in all studies reviewed
      with denominator data enabling AEFI rate calculations. All studies considered
      either a single vaccine or specified vaccines or were time limited except one
      Australian system, which provides continuous automated participant-centred active
      surveillance of all vaccines. Post-marketing surveillance systems using solicited
      patient feedback are emerging as a novel AEFI monitoring tool. A number of
      exploratory systems utilising e-technology have been developed and their
      potential for scaling up and application in low and middle income countries
      deserves further investigation.

PMID- 28582564
TI  - Disengagement as Withdrawal From Public Space: Rethinking the Relation Between
      Place Attachment, Place Appropriation, and Identity-Building Among Older Adults.
AB  - Background and Objectives: Empirical research indicates that engagement with
      public space decreases with age. Why do some older adults withdraw from the
      public, and which role does the (urban) environment play in spatial (dis
      )engagement? Environmental gerontology's model of person-environment (PE) fit
      suggests an interrelation between agency and belonging and their causal effects
      on identity and wellbeing in later life. However, there is little research on how
      these dimensions are actually related. This study sets out to investigate this
      relationship and how PE can be better adapted for deprived neighborhoods.
      Research Design and Methods: The study follows a qualitative case studies
      approach, focusing on a deprived neighborhood in Vienna, Austria. Nonparticipant
      observations were conducted at this site and complemented by 13 episodic
      interviews with older residents. Results: The results challenge PE's model of
      interrelation between agency and belonging and their causal effects on identity,
      wellbeing, and autonomy in later life. Spatial agency in the deprived
      neighborhood was intense but so was spatial alienation and distancing oneself
      from one's neighborhood. Drawing on notions of territorial stigma, this might be
      a coping strategy to prevent one's self-identity from being "stained". Which
      strategy is being adopted by whom depends on the position and the trajectory in
      social and physical space. Discussion and Implications: PE can be complemented
      with intersubjective measures of environmental conditions (e.g., stigma) and
      spatial engagement. Gerontology should proceed to consider not only the poor,
      disadvantaged, disengaged elderly, but also the rebellious, resisting,
      provocative new generation of older adults.

PMID- 28582565
TI  - ISAMBARD: an open-source computational environment for biomolecular analysis,
      modelling and design.
AB  - Motivation: The rational design of biomolecules is becoming a reality. However,
      further computational tools are needed to facilitate and accelerate this, and to
      make it accessible to more users. Results: Here we introduce ISAMBARD, a tool for
      structural analysis, model building and rational design of biomolecules. ISAMBARD
      is open-source, modular, computationally scalable and intuitive to use. These
      features allow non-experts to explore biomolecular design in silico. ISAMBARD
      addresses a standing issue in protein design, namely, how to introduce backbone
      variability in a controlled manner. This is achieved through the generalization
      of tools for parametric modelling, describing the overall shape of proteins
      geometrically, and without input from experimentally determined structures. This
      will allow backbone conformations for entire folds and assemblies not observed in
      nature to be generated de novo, that is, to access the 'dark matter of protein
      fold space'. We anticipate that ISAMBARD will find broad applications in
      biomolecular design, biotechnology and synthetic biology. Availability and
      implementation: A current stable build can be downloaded from the python package
      index (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/isambard/) with development builds available
      on GitHub (https://github.com/woolfson-group/) along with documentation, tutorial
      material and all the scripts used to generate the data described in this paper.
      Contact: d.n.woolfson@bristol.ac.uk or chris.wood@bristol.ac.uk. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582566
TI  - Non-classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency
      revisited: an update with a special focus on adolescent and adult women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-classic congenital hyperplasia (NCAH) due to 21-hydroxylase
      deficiency is a common autosomal recessive disorder characterized by androgen
      excess. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE: We conducted a systematic review and critical
      assessment of the available evidence pertaining to the epidemiology,
      pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of NCAH. A meta-analysis of
      epidemiological data was also performed. SEARCH METHODS: Peer-reviewed studies
      evaluating NCAH published up to October 2016 were reviewed. Multiple databases
      were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, ERIC, EBSCO, dissertation
      abstracts, and current contents. OUTCOMES: The worldwide prevalence of NCAH
      amongst women presenting with signs and symptoms of androgen excess is 4.2% (95%
      confidence interval: 3.2-5.4%). The clinical consequences of NCAH expand from
      infancy, i.e. accelerated growth, to adolescence and adulthood, i.e. premature
      pubarche, cutaneous symptoms and oligo-ovulation in a polycystic ovary syndrome
      (PCOS)-like clinical picture. The diagnosis of NCAH relies on serum 17
      hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) concentrations. A basal 17-OHP concentration >=2
      ng/ml (6 nmol/l) should be used for screening if more appropriate in-house cut
      off values are not available. Definitive diagnosis requires a 17-OHP
      concentration >=10 ng/ml (30 nmol/l), either basally or after cosyntropin
      stimulation. Molecular genetic analysis of the CYP21A2 gene, which is responsible
      for 21-hydroxylase activity, may be used for confirmation purposes and should be
      offered to all patients with NCAH along with genetic counseling because these
      patients frequently carry alleles that may result in classic CAH, the more severe
      form of the disease, in their progeny. Treatment must be individualized.
      Glucocorticoid replacement therapy may benefit pediatric patients with
      accelerated growth or advanced bone age or adult women seeking fertility, whereas
      adequate control of menstrual irregularity, hirsutism and other cutaneous
      symptoms is best served by the use of oral contraceptive pills and/or anti
      androgens. Some women may need ovulation induction or assisted reproductive
      technology to achieve pregnancy. Patients with NCAH have a higher risk of
      miscarriage and may benefit from glucocorticoid treatment during pregnancy. WIDER
      IMPLICATIONS: Evidence-based diagnostic and treatment strategies are essential
      for the proper management of women with NCAH, especially considering that these
      patients may need different therapeutic strategies at different stages during
      their follow-up and that appropriate genetic counseling may prevent the
      occurrence of CAH in their children.

PMID- 28582567
TI  - Trends in Tobacco Product Use Patterns Among U.S. Youth, 1999-2014.
AB  - Introduction: We examined trends in seven mutually exclusive tobacco product use
      patterns (T-PUPs) in nationally representative samples of U.S. youth over time
      and age. Methods: We used time varying effect modeling on National Youth Tobacco
      Surveys, 1999-2014 (N = 38662, 9-17 years, M = 15.02). Regression coefficients
      were estimated as a non-parametric function of time. T-PUPs were cigarette only,
      non-cigarette combustible only, noncombustible only, non-cigarette combustible
      and noncombustible dual, cigarette and noncombustible dual, cigarette and non
      cigarette combustible dual, and POLY (i.e. cigarettes, non-cigarette
      combustibles, and noncombustibles) use. Results: Among youth tobacco users,
      cigarette only use was the predominant T-PUP from 1999 to 2010. After 2010 and
      2013, non-cigarette combustible only (AOR 1.38, CI = 1.02-1.87) and
      noncombustible only (AOR 1.57, CI = 1.00-2.45) use became more prevalent than
      cigarette only use. In 2011, dual and POLY T-PUPs were on the rise although not
      significantly different from cigarette only use. Cigarette only use was the
      predominant T-PUP among 11- to 17-year-old tobacco users. Non-cigarette
      combustible only (AOR 0.14, CI = 0.10-0.19), noncombustible only (AOR 0.01, CI =
      0.008-0.02), non-cigarette combustible and noncombustible (AOR 0.01, CI = 0.01
      0.03), cigarette and noncombustible (AOR 0.02, CI = 0.01-0.04), cigarette and non
      cigarette combustible (AOR 0.32, CI = 0.24-0.43), and POLY (AOR 0.02, CI = 0.01
      0.04) use were less prevalent than cigarette only use at age 17. Conclusions: Non
      cigarette, dual, and POLY T-PUPs are rising among youth tobacco users. Screening
      for all tobacco use and delivering treatment during pediatrician visits should be
      standard clinical practice. Implications: Tracking trends in tobacco product use
      patterns (T-PUPs) over time and age is necessary to achieve Healthy People 2020
      goal of reducing tobacco use among youth. Trends over time show a rise of non
      cigarette T-PUPs especially noncombustible products but cigarette only use
      remains the most prevalent among 11- to 17-year-old tobacco users. The recent
      extension of FDA's regulatory jurisdiction over all tobacco products (e.g. e
      cigarettes, hookah) is a step toward comprehensive tobacco control especially
      among youth. Public health practitioners should extend prevention and cessation
      efforts among youth to T-PUPs beyond exclusive cigarette smoking.

PMID- 28582568
TI  - Bilateral Orbital Pseudotumor in a 3-Year-Old Child: A Case Report.
AB  - Orbital pseudotumor is a rare, idiopathic, inflammatory process within the orbit.
      Early diagnosis is essential to prevent corneal, retinal and extraocular muscle
      damage. This article describes the presentation and clinical course of a 3-year
      old male with bilateral orbital pseudotumor.

PMID- 28582569
TI  - GPCR-SSFE 2.0-a fragment-based molecular modeling web tool for Class A G-protein
      coupled receptors.
AB  - G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key players in signal transduction and
      therefore a large proportion of pharmaceutical drugs target these receptors.
      Structural data of GPCRs are sparse yet important for elucidating the molecular
      basis of GPCR-related diseases and for performing structure-based drug design. To
      ameliorate this problem, GPCR-SSFE 2.0 (http://www.ssfa-7tmr.de/ssfe2/), an
      intuitive web server dedicated to providing three-dimensional Class A GPCR
      homology models has been developed. The updated web server includes 27 inactive
      template structures and incorporates various new functionalities. Uniquely, it
      uses a fingerprint correlation scoring strategy for identifying the optimal
      templates, which we demonstrate captures structural features that sequence
      similarity alone is unable to do. Template selection is carried out separately
      for each helix, allowing both single-template models and fragment-based models to
      be built. Additionally, GPCR-SSFE 2.0 stores a comprehensive set of pre
      calculated and downloadable homology models and also incorporates interactive
      loop modeling using the tool SL2, allowing knowledge-based input by the user to
      guide the selection process. For visual analysis, the NGL viewer is embedded into
      the result pages. Finally, blind-testing using two recently published structures
      shows that GPCR-SSFE 2.0 performs comparably or better than other state-of-the
      art GPCR modeling web servers.

PMID- 28582572
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Mesiotemporal Lobe Epilepsy: Which Approach is Favorable?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy is one of the most frequent causes for
      pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Different surgical approaches to the mesiotemporal
      area are used. OBJECTIVE: To analyze epileptological and neuropsychological
      results as well as complications of different surgical strategies. METHODS: This
      retrospective study is based on a consecutive series of 458 patients all
      harboring pharmacoresistant mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy. Following procedures
      were performed: standard anterior temporal lobectomy, anterior temporal or key
      hole resection, extended lesionectomy, and transsylvian and subtemporal selective
      amygdalohippocampectomy. Postoperative outcome was evaluated according to
      different surgical procedures. RESULTS: Overall, 1 yr after surgery 315 of 432
      patients (72.9%) were classified Engel I; in particular, 72.8% were seizure-free
      after anterior temporal lobectomy, 76.9% after key-hole resection, 84.4% after
      extended lesionectomy, 70.3% after transylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy,
      and 59.1% after subtemporal selective amygdalohippocampectomy. No significant
      differences in seizure outcome were found between different resective procedures,
      neither in short-term nor long-term follow-up. There was no perioperative
      mortality. Permanent morbidity was encountered in 4.4%. There were no significant
      differences in complications between different resection types. In the majority
      of patients, selective attention improved following surgery. Patients after left
      sided operations performed significantly worse regarding verbal memory as
      compared to right-sided procedures. However, surgical approach had no significant
      effect on memory outcome. CONCLUSION: Different surgical approaches for
      mesiotemporal epilepsy analyzed resulted in similar epileptological,
      neuropsychological results, and complication rates. Therefore, the approach for
      the individual patient does not only depend on the specific localization of the
      epileptogenic area, but also on the experience of the surgeon.

PMID- 28582570
TI  - Phase II Proof-of-Concept Trial of the Orexin Receptor Antagonist Filorexant (MK
      6096) in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - Background: We evaluated the orexin receptor antagonist filorexant (MK-6096) for
      treatment augmentation in patients with major depressive disorder. Methods: We
      conducted a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, Phase II,
      proof-of-concept study. Patients with major depressive disorder (partial
      responders to ongoing antidepressant therapy) were randomized 1:1 to once-daily
      oral filorexant 10 mg or matching placebo. Results: Due to enrollment challenges,
      the study was terminated early, resulting in insufficient statistical power to
      detect a prespecified treatment difference; of 326 patients planned, 129 (40%)
      were randomized and 128 took treatment. There was no statistically significant
      difference in the primary endpoint of change from baseline to week 6 in
      Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale total score; the estimated treatment
      difference for filorexant-placebo was -0.7 (with negative values favoring
      filorexant) (P=.679). The most common adverse events were somnolence and suicidal
      ideation. Conclusions: The interpretation of the results is limited by the
      enrollment, which was less than originally planned, but the available data do not
      suggest efficacy of orexin receptor antagonism with filorexant for the treatment
      of depression. (Clinical Trial Registry: clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01554176).

PMID- 28582571
TI  - The role of Rubisco kinetics and pyrenoid morphology in shaping the CCM of
      haptophyte microalgae.
AB  - The haptophyte algae are a cosmopolitan group of primary producers that
      contribute significantly to the marine carbon cycle and play a major role in
      paleo-climate studies. Despite their global importance, little is known about
      carbon assimilation in haptophytes, in particular the kinetics of their Form 1D
      CO2-fixing enzyme, Rubisco. Here we examine Rubisco properties of three
      haptophytes with a range of pyrenoid morphologies (Pleurochrysis carterae,
      Tisochrysis lutea, and Pavlova lutheri) and the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum
      that exhibit contrasting sensitivities to the trade-offs between substrate
      affinity (Km) and turnover rate (kcat) for both CO2 and O2. The pyrenoid
      containing T. lutea and P. carterae showed lower Rubisco content and
      carboxylation properties (KC and kCcat) comparable with those of Form 1D
      containing non-green algae. In contrast, the pyrenoid-lacking P. lutheri produced
      Rubisco in 3-fold higher amounts, and displayed a Form 1B Rubisco kCcat-KC
      relationship and increased CO2/O2 specificity that, when modeled in the context
      of a C3 leaf, supported equivalent rates of photosynthesis to higher plant
      Rubisco. Correlation between the differing Rubisco properties and the occurrence
      and localization of pyrenoids with differing intracellular CO2:O2
      microenvironments has probably influenced the divergent evolution of Form 1B and
      1D Rubisco kinetics.

PMID- 28582573
TI  - Integrative analysis of multiple genomic variables using a hierarchical Bayesian
      model.
AB  - Motivation: Genes showing congruent differences in several genomic variables
      between two biological conditions are crucial to unravel causalities behind
      phenotypes of interest. Detecting such genes is important in biomedical research,
      e.g. when identifying genes responsible for cancer development. Small sample
      sizes common in next-generation sequencing studies are a key challenge, and there
      are still only very few statistical methods to analyze more than two genomic
      variables in an integrative, model-based way. Here, we present a novel
      bioinformatics approach to detect congruent differences between two biological
      conditions in a larger number of different measurements such as various
      epigenetic marks or mRNA transcript levels. Results: We propose a coefficient
      quantifying the degree to which genes present consistent alterations in multiple
      (more than two) genomic variables when comparing samples presenting a condition
      of interest (e.g. cancer) to a reference group. A hierarchical Bayesian model is
      employed to assess uncertainty on a gene level, incorporating information on
      functional relationships between genes. We demonstrate the approach on different
      data sets containing RNA-seq gene transcripton and up to four ChIP-seq histone
      modification measurements. Both the coefficient-based ranking and the inference
      based on the model lead to a plausible prioritizing of candidate genes when
      analyzing multiple genomic variables. Availability and implementation: BUGS code
      in the Supplement. Contact: m.schaefer@uni-duesseldorf.de. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28582574
TI  - A Genetic Model to Study Increased Hexosamine Biosynthetic Flux.
AB  - Recently, we identified harvest moon (hmn), a fully penetrant and expressive
      recessive zebrafish mutant with hepatic steatosis. Larvae showed increased
      triacylglycerol in the absence of other obvious defects. When we attempted to
      raise these otherwise normal-appearing mutants to adulthood, we observed a
      developmental arrest and death in the early juvenile period. In this study, we
      report the positional cloning of the hmn locus and characterization of the
      defects caused by the mutation. Using bulk segregant analysis and fine mapping,
      we find that hmn mutants harbor a point mutation in an invariant residue within
      the sugar isomerase 1 domain of the gene encoding the rate-limiting enzyme of the
      hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transamidase
      (Gfpt1). The mutated protein shows increased abundance. The HBP generates beta-N
      acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) as a spillover pathway from glucose. GlcNAc can be O
      linked to seryl and threonyl residues of diverse cellular proteins (O-GlcNAc
      modification). Although some of these O-GlcNAc modifications serve an essential
      structural role, many others are dynamically generated on signaling molecules,
      including several impacting insulin signaling. We find that gfpt1 mutants show
      global increase in O-GlcNAc modification, and, surprisingly, lower fasting blood
      glucose in males. Taken together with our previously reported work, the gfpt1
      mutant we isolated demonstrates that global increase in O-GlcNAc modification
      causes some severe insulin resistance phenotypes (hepatic steatosis and runting)
      but does not cause hyperglycemia. This animal model will provide a platform for
      dissecting how O-GlcNAc modification alters insulin responsiveness in multiple
      tissues.

PMID- 28582577
TI  - Postnatal Weight Gain Patterns in Preterm Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants Born in a
      Tertiary Care Center in South India.
AB  - Background: Extrauterine growth retardation is a common problem in preterm, very
      low-birth-weight (VLBW) babies, as well as paucity of growth charts that follow
      their postnatal growth. Aim: To evaluate and plot postnatal weight gain patterns
      of preterm VLBW babies of <34 weeks' gestation born at a tertiary care neonatal
      unit in South India. Methods: Weight gain patterns of all preterm (27 to < 34
      weeks' gestation) and VLBW (<1500 g) neonates were used for plotting the centile
      curves by retrospective review of electronic medical records. The growth velocity
      was calculated from birth and from the time baby regained their birth weight.
      Results: Mean growth rate (+/-SD) of these babies was 16.2 +/- 2.4 g/kg/day and
      average time to regain birth weight was 14.2 days (range 12.0-17.6). Conclusion:
      The recommended growth velocity of 10-15 g/kg/day can be achieved using
      unfortified expressed breast milk, though at higher feeding volumes of 200
      ml/kg/day. These centile curves can be useful for monitoring postnatal growth.

PMID- 28582575
TI  - The RNA workbench: best practices for RNA and high-throughput sequencing
      bioinformatics in Galaxy.
AB  - : RNA-based regulation has become a major research topic in molecular biology.
      The analysis of epigenetic and expression data is therefore incomplete if RNA
      based regulation is not taken into account. Thus, it is increasingly important
      but not yet standard to combine RNA-centric data and analysis tools with other
      types of experimental data such as RNA-seq or ChIP-seq. Here, we present the RNA
      workbench, a comprehensive set of analysis tools and consolidated workflows that
      enable the researcher to combine these two worlds. Based on the Galaxy framework
      the workbench guarantees simple access, easy extension, flexible adaption to
      personal and security needs, and sophisticated analyses that are independent of
      command-line knowledge. Currently, it includes more than 50 bioinformatics tools
      that are dedicated to different research areas of RNA biology including RNA
      structure analysis, RNA alignment, RNA annotation, RNA-protein interaction,
      ribosome profiling, RNA-seq analysis and RNA target prediction. The workbench is
      developed and maintained by experts in RNA bioinformatics and the Galaxy
      framework. Together with the growing community evolving around this workbench, we
      are committed to keep the workbench up-to-date for future standards and needs,
      providing researchers with a reliable and robust framework for RNA data analysis.
      AVAILABILITY: The RNA workbench is available at
      https://github.com/bgruening/galaxy-rna-workbench.

PMID- 28582578
TI  - Proteomics of the epicardial fat secretome and its role in post-operative atrial
      fibrillation.
AB  - Aims: Post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is a predictor of morbidity and
      mortality after cardiac surgery. Latent predisposing factors may reside in the
      epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) due to its anatomical position and high protein
      production rate. In order to explore a possible mechanistic link, we
      characterized proteins secreted by the EAT preceding the onset of POAF. Methods
      and results: Epicardial adipose tissue samples were collected from 76 consecutive
      patients with no history of AF undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery, 50
      samples for proteomic analysis and 26 for gene expression studies, further
      divided according to development of POAF. Ten vs. 10 matched samples representing
      EAT secretome were analysed by two-dimensional difference in-gel electrophoresis
      (2D-DIGE) and high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      (HPLC-MS/MS) to identify differentially expressed proteins (P < 0.05, expression
      change >1.2 fold). Findings were validated by Western blotting on EAT protein
      extracts and by gene expression studies via quantitative polymerase chain
      reaction (qPCR). Proteomics returned 35 differentially expressed proteins.
      Amongst those, gelsolin was down regulated in POAF. Western blot analysis
      confirmed a significant reduction in gelsolin in the AF group. Gene expression
      for gelsolin was significantly reduced in the AF group confirming the proteomics
      findings. Conclusion: For the first time we describe EAT secretome as a possible
      substrate for POAF. It contains various proteins differentially expressed in
      patients who later develop POAF. Amongst those gelsolin, involved in inflammation
      and ion channel regulation, was associated with maintenance of sinus rhythm.
      Understanding the role of EAT may offer novel insights into prevention and
      treatment of AF.

PMID- 28582576
TI  - Unique localization of the plastid-specific ribosomal proteins in the chloroplast
      ribosome small subunit provides mechanistic insights into the chloroplastic
      translation.
AB  - Chloroplastic translation is mediated by a bacterial-type 70S chloroplast
      ribosome. During the evolution, chloroplast ribosomes have acquired five plastid
      specific ribosomal proteins or PSRPs (cS22, cS23, bTHXc, cL37 and cL38) which
      have been suggested to play important regulatory roles in translation. However,
      their exact locations on the chloroplast ribosome remain elusive due to lack of a
      high-resolution structure, hindering our progress to understand their possible
      roles. Here we present a cryo-EM structure of the 70S chloroplast ribosome from
      spinach resolved to 3.4 A and focus our discussion mainly on the architecture of
      the 30S small subunit (SSU) which is resolved to 3.7 A. cS22 localizes at the SSU
      foot where it seems to compensate for the deletions in 16S rRNA. The mRNA exit
      site is highly remodeled due to the presence of cS23 suggesting an alternative
      mode of translation initiation. bTHXc is positioned at the SSU head and appears
      to stabilize the intersubunit bridge B1b during thermal fluctuations. The
      translation factor plastid pY binds to the SSU on the intersubunit side and
      interacts with the conserved nucleotide bases involved in decoding. Most of the
      intersubunit bridges are conserved compared to the bacteria, except for a new
      bridge involving uL2c and bS6c.

PMID- 28582579
TI  - Glowing Worms: Biological, Chemical, and Functional Diversity of Bioluminescent
      Annelids.
AB  - Bioluminescence, the ability to produce light by living organisms, has evolved
      independently in numerous lineages across the tree of life. Luminous forms are
      found in a wide range of taxonomic groups from bacteria to vertebrates, although
      the great majority of bioluminescent organisms are marine taxa. Within the phylum
      Annelida, bioluminescence is widespread, present in at least 98 terrestrial and
      marine species that represent 45 genera distributed in thirteen lineages of
      clitellates and polychaetes. The ecological diversity of luminous annelids is
      unparalleled, with species occupying a great variety of habitats including both
      terrestrial and marine ecosystems, from coastal waters to the deep-sea, in
      benthic and pelagic habitats from polar to tropical regions. This great taxonomic
      and ecological diversity is matched by the wide array of bioluminescent colors
      including yellow light, which is very rare among marine taxa-different emission
      wavelengths even between species of the same genus, and varying patterns,
      chemical reactions and kinetics. This diversity of bioluminescence colors and
      patterns suggests that light production in annelids might be involved in a
      variety of different functions, including defensive mechanisms like sacrificial
      lures or aposematic signals, and intraspecific communication systems. In this
      review, we explore the world of luminous annelids, particularly focusing on the
      current knowledge regarding their taxonomic and ecological diversity and
      discussing the putative functions and chemistries of their bioluminescent
      systems.

PMID- 28582581
TI  - Changes in blood DNA methylation and incomplete adjustment for blood cell
      composition.

PMID- 28582580
TI  - Transaortic transcatheter aortic valve implantation using SAPIEN XT or SAPIEN 3
      valves in the ROUTE registry.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Transaortic (TAo) access for transcatheter aortic valve implantation
      (TAVI) is an alternative to the conventional transfemoral or transapical routes.
      Data comparing the characteristics and outcomes of TAo-TAVI using the SAPIEN XT
      and SAPIEN 3 heart valves are scarce. The objective of the current analysis was
      to provide such information. METHODS: ROUTE is an international, prospective,
      observational registry. Patients with severe calcific aortic stenosis scheduled
      for TAo-TAVI with an Edwards SAPIEN XT or a SAPIEN 3 heart valve were
      consecutively enrolled at 22 centres across Europe between February 2013 and
      February 2015. Periprocedural, in-hospital and 30-day complication rates were
      assessed. RESULTS: Of the 301 patients included, 126 (41.9%) received a SAPIEN 3
      and 175 (58.1%) a SAPIEN XT. The SAPIEN 3 was associated with shorter procedure
      time (101 +/- 35 vs 111 +/- 40 min; P = 0.031) and a lower quantity of contrast
      agent used (87 +/- 43 vs 112 +/- 50 ml; P < 0.001). Balloon dilation was
      performed less often before (68.0% vs 78.3%; P = 0.045) and after implantation
      (13.6% vs 30.1%; P = 0.001). No statistically significant differences between the
      valve types were documented for overall (4.1% SAPIEN 3 vs 7.6% SAPIEN XT; P =
      0.21), TAVI-related (0.8% vs 4.7%; P = 0.084) and cardiovascular mortality (2.4%
      vs 5.9%; P = 0.158). Major vascular complications were less frequent (0.8% vs
      5.3%; P = 0.049), and there was a lower rate of moderate-to-severe paravalvular
      regurgitation (0.8% vs 5.1%; P = 0.050) in the SAPIEN 3 group. CONCLUSIONS: Both
      the SAPIEN XT and SAPIEN 3 were safely implanted via the TAo route, though the
      SAPIEN 3 may be associated with a higher procedural success rate and improved
      prognosis. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01991431.

PMID- 28582583
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor by Benmarhnia T, Leas E, Hendrickson E, Trinidad
      D, Strong D, Pierce J. The Potential Influence of Regulatory Environment for e
      cigarettes on the Effectiveness of e-cigarettes for Smoking Cessation: Different
      Reasons to Temper the Conclusions From Inadequate Data.

PMID- 28582582
TI  - Codon usage regulates protein structure and function by affecting translation
      elongation speed in Drosophila cells.
AB  - Codon usage biases are found in all eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes and have
      been proposed to regulate different aspects of translation process. Codon
      optimality has been shown to regulate translation elongation speed in fungal
      systems, but its effect on translation elongation speed in animal systems is not
      clear. In this study, we used a Drosophila cell-free translation system to
      directly compare the velocity of mRNA translation elongation. Our results
      demonstrate that optimal synonymous codons speed up translation elongation while
      non-optimal codons slow down translation. In addition, codon usage regulates
      ribosome movement and stalling on mRNA during translation. Finally, we show that
      codon usage affects protein structure and function in vitro and in Drosophila
      cells. Together, these results suggest that the effect of codon usage on
      translation elongation speed is a conserved mechanism from fungi to animals that
      can affect protein folding in eukaryotic organisms.

PMID- 28582584
TI  - Systematic review: hand activity and ultrasound of the median nerve.
AB  - Background: Ultrasound is an established method of viewing the median nerve in
      the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). There is some evidence to suggest that
      immediate changes may occur in the median nerve before and after hand activity.
      The evidence for the validity and reliability of ultrasound for testing acute
      changes in the median nerve has not been systematically reviewed to date. Aims:
      To evaluate the evidence for visible change in ultrasound appearance of the
      median nerve after hand activity. Methods: A literature search was designed, and
      three reviewers independently selected published research for inclusion. Two
      reviewers independently appraised papers using the Evidence Based Library and
      Information Practice (EBLIP) appraisal checklist, while the third reviewer
      resolved discrepancies between appraisals. Results: Ten studies were appraised
      and the results showed an increase in median nerve cross-sectional area following
      activity, with a return to normal size within 1 h following activity. Both
      healthy individuals and those diagnosed with CTS participated, all were small
      convenience samples. Ultrasonographic measurements of the median nerve were
      reliable in the four studies reporting this, and the studies demonstrated high
      quality. Conclusions: Good-quality evidence as identified by the EBLIP appraisal
      checklist suggests that following hand activity, the median nerve changes in size
      in the carpal tunnel. The results may not be generalizable to all people and
      activities due to the use of small convenience sampling and narrow range of
      activities studied, in all of the studies appraised.

PMID- 28582585
TI  - Early Onset of HTLV-1 Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis
      (HAM/TSP) and Adult T-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATL): Systematic Search and Review.
AB  - Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is endemic in some regions and
      its vertical transmission occurs mainly through breastfeeding. About 10% of
      carriers develop associated diseases including HTLV-1 associated
      myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma
      (ATL) and infectious dermatitis associated with HTLV-1 (IDH). We searched for
      available case reports of early-onset HAM/TSP and ATL to evaluate demographic and
      disease aspects in infantile-juvenile patients. In the reviewed literature, 27
      HAM/TSP and 31 ATL cases were found. In almost all of them, the most likely route
      of transmission was through breastfeeding. ATL is rarely reported,
      notwithstanding it may be underestimated because T-cell lymphomas are not
      investigated for HTLV-1 infection in this age group. IDH was frequently
      associated with HAM/TSP. The investigation of HTLV-1 infection in pregnant women
      is an important matter of public health and should be mandatory in endemic
      countries.

PMID- 28582587
TI  - Characteristics of inner reading voices.
AB  - This study examined the phenomenological characteristics of inner speech during
      silent reading (inner reading voices or IRVs), a type of inner speech that may be
      particularly amenable to empirical study. A survey was conducted in the general
      population to assess IRV frequency, location, number, identity, and
      controllability, and auditory qualities of IRVs. Of 570 survey respondents, 80.7%
      reported sometimes or always hearing an inner voice during silent reading, and
      the remaining 19.3% reported always understanding words being read without
      hearing an inner voice. Results indicated that IRVs are a routine experience for
      many, with 34.2% of respondents with IRVs hearing an IRV every time something was
      read, and 45% reporting an IRV often. Most respondents reported IRVs with
      specific auditory qualities such as gender, accent, pitch, loudness, and
      emotional tone. IRVs were reported in participants' own voices, as well as in the
      voices of other people. Some respondents reported being unable to control any
      aspect of their IRVs, while others could control one or several aspects. These
      results indicate that there is considerable individual variation in inner speech
      during silent reading.

PMID- 28582588
TI  - Endeavor of Iontronics: From Fundamentals to Applications of Ion-Controlled
      Electronics.
AB  - Iontronics is a newly emerging interdisciplinary concept which bridges
      electronics and ionics, covering electrochemistry, solid-state physics,
      electronic engineering, and biological sciences. The recent developments of
      electronic devices are highlighted, based on electric double layers formed at the
      interface between ionic conductors (but electronically insulators) and various
      electronic conductors including organics and inorganics (oxides, chalcogenide,
      and carbon-based materials). Particular attention is devoted to electric-double
      layer transistors (EDLTs), which are producing a significant impact, particularly
      in electrical control of phase transitions, including superconductivity, which
      has been difficult or impossible in conventional all-solid-state electronic
      devices. Besides that, the current state of the art and the future challenges of
      iontronics are also reviewed for many applications, including flexible
      electronics, healthcare-related devices, and energy harvesting.

PMID- 28582586
TI  - Tension sensors reveal how the kinetochore shares its load.
AB  - At metaphase in mitotic cells, pulling forces at the kinetochore-microtubule
      interface create tension by stretching the centromeric chromatin between
      oppositely oriented sister kinetochores. This tension is important for
      stabilizing the end-on kinetochore microtubule attachment required for proper bi
      orientation of sister chromosomes as well as for satisfaction of the Spindle
      Assembly Checkpoint and entry into anaphase. How force is coupled by proteins to
      kinetochore microtubules and resisted by centromere stretch is becoming better
      understood as many of the proteins involved have been identified. Recent
      application of genetically encoded fluorescent tension sensors within the
      mechanical linkage between the centromere and kinetochore microtubules are
      beginning to reveal - from live cell assays - protein specific contributions that
      are functionally important.

PMID- 28582589
TI  - Macrocytosis secondary to hydroxyurea therapy.
AB  - A 10-year-old, male neutered Shetland Sheepdog was presented to the University of
      Florida for evaluation of a well-granulated mast cell tumor. Hydroxyurea therapy
      was instituted and serial CBCs showed persistent mild anemia and macrocytosis
      without a corresponding increase in polychromasia. The dog's MCV increased
      progressively, reaching its highest value of 100.0 fL after 6 months of
      treatment, and a diagnosis of macrocytosis associated with hydroxyurea therapy
      was made. The dog's increase in MCV was prominent, and rapidly decreased after
      the drug was discontinued, consistent with previous observations in human and
      canine subjects treated with hydroxyurea. Hydroxyurea is a cytotoxic
      chemotherapeutic agent used in a variety of conditions in human and veterinary
      medicine, and megaloblastic changes associated with its use have been described
      in multiple species. This report shows that hydroxyurea treatment is a
      differential diagnosis for prominent macrocytosis in dogs in the absence of other
      signs of erythrocyte regeneration.

PMID- 28582590
TI  - Control of Circularly Polarized Electroluminescence in Induced Twist Structure of
      Conjugate Polymer.
AB  - An extremely high degree of circularly polarized photoluminescence (CPPL) and
      electroluminescence (CPEL) (dissymmetry factor values: |gPL | = 0.72 and |gEL | =
      1.13) are generated from twisted stacking of achiral conjugated polymer induced
      by nonemitting chiral dopant of high helical twisting power for the first time.
      Using a theoretical analysis incorporating the Stokes parameter, the twisting
      angle and birefringence of the aligned conjugated polymer, and the degree of
      linear polarization in the emitted light are found to make a roughly equal
      contribution to the degree of CPEL as to the degree of CPPL. Moreover, it is also
      found that the location of the recombination zone within the emitting layer is a
      crucial parameter for determining the difference in the dissymmetry factor
      between CPEL and CPPL. This result is applied to an organic light-emitting
      display to improve the luminous efficiency by 60%.

PMID- 28582591
TI  - A tool for integrating genetic and mass spectrometry-based peptide data:
      Proteogenomics Viewer: PV: A genome browser-like tool, which includes MS data
      visualization and peptide identification parameters.
AB  - In this manuscript we describe Proteogenomics Viewer, a web-based tool that
      collects MS peptide identification, indexes to genomic sequence and structure,
      assigns exon usage, reports the identified protein isoforms with genomic
      alignments and, most importantly, allows the inspection of MS2 information for
      proper peptide identification. It also provides all performed indexing to
      facilitate global analysis of the data. The relevance of such tool is that there
      has been an increase in the number of proteogenomic efforts to improve the
      annotation of both genomics and proteomics data, culminating with the release of
      the two human proteome drafts. It is now clear that mass spectrometry-based
      peptide identification of uncharacterized sequences, such as those resulting from
      unpredicted exon joints or non-coding regions, is still prone to a higher than
      expected false discovery rate. Therefore, proper visualization of the raw data
      and the corresponding genome alignments are fundamental for further data
      validation and interpretation. Also see the video abstract here:
      http://youtu.be/5NzyRvuk4Ac.

PMID- 28582592
TI  - Indium Phosphide-Based Quantum Dots with Shell-Enhanced Absorption for
      Luminescent Down-Conversion.
AB  - It is shown that admixing small amounts of cadmium into the shell of InP/ZnSe
      core/shell quantum dots results in an increased absorption of blue light and a
      limited redshift of the band-edge emission. These effects reflect the reduced
      bandgap of (Zn,Cd)Se alloys and their smaller conduction-band offset with InP.
      Nevertheless, adjusting the InP core size enables InP/ZnSe and InP/(Zn,Cd)Se
      quantum dots with identical emission characteristics to be made. Processing both
      materials into remote phosphor disks, it is demonstrated that the shell-enhanced
      absorbance of InP/(Zn,Cd)Se has the double benefit of suppressing self-absorption
      and reducing the amount of quantum dots by weight needed to attain a given blue
      to-red color conversion.

PMID- 28582593
TI  - Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine functions in colitis via IL17A
      regulation in mucosal CD4+ T cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a
      matricellular glycol that regulates cell proliferation, tissue repair, and
      tumorigenesis. Despite evidence linking SPARC to inflammation, the mechanisms are
      unclear. Accordingly, the role of SPARC in intestinal inflammation was
      investigated. METHODS: Colitis was induced in wild-type (WT) and SPARC knockout
      (KO) mice using trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Colons were assessed for
      damage; leukocyte infiltration; Tnf, Ifng, Il17a, and Il10 mRNA expression; and
      histology. Cytokine profiling of colonic lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMCs)
      was performed by flow cytometry. Naive CD4+ T cells were isolated from WT and
      SPARC KO mouse spleens, and the effect of SPARC on Th17 cell differentiation was
      examined. Recombination activating gene 1 knockout (RAG1 KO) mice reconstituted
      with T cells from either WT or SPARC KO mice were investigated. RESULTS:
      Trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid exposure significantly reduced bodyweight and
      increased mucosal inflammation, leukocyte infiltration, and Il17a mRNA expression
      in WT relative to SPARC KO mice. The percentage of IL17A-producing CD4+ T cells
      among LPMCs from KO mice was lower than that in WT mice when both groups were
      exposed to TNBS. Th17 cell differentiation was suppressed in cells from SPARC KO
      mice. In the T cell transfer colitis model, RAG1 KO mice receiving T cells from
      WT mice were more severely affected than those reconstituted with cells from
      SPARC KO mice. CONCLUSIONS: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine
      accelerates colonic mucosal inflammation via modulation of IL17A-producing CD4+ T
      cells. SPARC is a potential therapeutic target for conditions involving
      intestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28582594
TI  - Histologic and cytologic bone marrow findings in dogs with suspected precursor
      targeted immune-mediated anemia and associated phagocytosis of erythroid
      precursors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Precursor-targeted immune-mediated anemia (PIMA) has been suspected
      in dogs with nonregenerative anemia and bone marrow findings varying from
      erythroid hyperplasia to pure red cell aplasia. Phagocytosis of erythroid
      precursors/rubriphagocytosis (RP) reported in some affected dogs suggests a
      destructive component to the pathogenesis of PIMA. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the
      study was to characterize laboratory and clinical findings in dogs with suspected
      PIMA and RP, with emphasis on cytologic and histologic bone marrow findings.
      METHODS: Dogs with PIMA and RP were identified by review of paired bone marrow
      aspirate and core biopsy slides collected over a 4-year period. Samples were
      systematically assessed and characterized along with other pertinent laboratory
      data and clinical findings. RESULTS: Twenty-five dogs met criteria for PIMA and
      had RP that was relatively stage-selective. Erythropoiesis was expanded to the
      stage of erythroid precursors undergoing most prominent phagocytosis, yielding
      patterns characterized by a hypo-, normo-, or hypercellular erythroid lineage. A
      4th pattern involved severe collagen myelofibrosis, and there was a spectrum of
      mild to severe collagen myelofibrosis overall. Evidence of immune-mediated
      hemolysis was rare. Immunosuppressive therapy was associated with remission in
      77% of dogs treated for at least the median response time of 2 months.
      CONCLUSIONS: Bone marrow patterns in dogs fulfilling criteria for PIMA were
      aligned with stage-selective phagocytosis of erythroid precursors and the
      development of collagen myelofibrosis, common in dogs with PIMA. Recognition of
      these patterns and detection of RP facilitates diagnosis of PIMA, and slow
      response to immunosuppressive therapy warrants further investigation into its
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28582595
TI  - Why the missing heritability might not be in the DNA.
AB  - There are four major hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, and H4) as to the source of missing
      heritability. We propose that estimates obtained from GWAS underestimate
      heritability by not taking into account non-DNA (epigenetic) sources of
      heritability. Taking those factors into account (H4) should result in increased
      heritability estimates.

PMID- 28582596
TI  - A metastatic secretory gastric plasmacytoma with aberrant CD3 expression in a
      dog.
AB  - A 10-year-old crossbred dog was presented with a 6-week history of hematemesis,
      melena, anorexia, and lethargy. Clinical evaluation revealed a gastric mass with
      a regional lymphadenomegaly as well as a monoclonal gammopathy manifesting as
      hyperglobulinemia. Cytologic and histopathologic analyses were consistent with a
      round cell neoplasm; neoplastic cells showed nuclear immunoreactivity for MUM1
      and diffuse cytoplasmic reactivity for CD3. Polymerase chain reactions performed
      on fixed and fresh tissue identified a clonal rearrangement with an IgH primer
      set. An extramedullary plasmacytoma (EMP) was confirmed by cellular morphology
      and molecular diagnostics. Following an objective response to chemotherapy, the
      dog was euthanized 8 months after diagnosis, and a postmortem examination
      confirmed the clinical findings. This is the first reported case of a monoclonal
      gammopathy secondary to a gastric EMP coupled with aberrant expression of CD3 in
      an aggressive plasmacytic tumor, and highlights the utility of molecular
      diagnostics for classifying atypical hemolymphoid neoplasms.

PMID- 28582597
TI  - Iodine Vacancy Redistribution in Organic-Inorganic Halide Perovskite Films and
      Resistive Switching Effects.
AB  - Organic-inorganic halide perovskite (OHP) materials, for example, CH3 NH3 PbI3
      (MAPbI3 ), have attracted significant interest for applications such as solar
      cells, photodectors, light-emitting diodes, and lasers. Previous studies have
      shown that charged defects can migrate in perovskites under an electric field
      and/or light illumination, potentially preventing these devices from practical
      applications. Understanding and control of the defect generation and movement
      will not only lead to more stable devices but also new device concepts. Here, it
      is shown that the formation/annihilation of iodine vacancies (VI 's) in MAPbI3
      films, driven by electric fields and light illumination, can induce pronounced
      resistive switching effects. Due to a low diffusion energy barrier (~0.17 eV),
      the VI 's can readily drift under an electric field, and spontaneously diffuse
      with a concentration gradient. It is shown that the VI diffusion process can be
      suppressed by controlling the affinity of the contact electrode material to I-
      ions, or by light illumination. An electrical-write and optical-erase memory
      element is further demonstrated by coupling ion migration with electric fields
      and light illumination. These results provide guidance toward improved stability
      and performance of perovskite-based optoelectronic systems, and can lead to the
      development of solid-state devices that couple ionics, electronics, and optics.

PMID- 28582598
TI  - Peripheral neuropathy as marker of severe Parkinson's disease phenotype.

PMID- 28582600
TI  - Effect of time and temperature on anticoagulant-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia
      in Gottingen minipigs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A marked decrease in thrombocyte count was observed between
      subsequent measurements of the same EDTA blood sample in several minipigs, but
      little information was available explaining this finding. OBJECTIVES: The
      objective was to evaluate the impact of several preanalytic variables on
      thrombocyte counts in minipigs, in order to improve understanding of the in vitro
      thrombocyte decrease observed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hematology blood samples
      from male and female Gottingen minipigs were collected using EDTA or citrate as
      an anticoagulant. Samples were stored under different conditions (room
      temperature, 4 degrees C, or 37-38 degrees C) and were analyzed approximately 0.5
      to one h, 3.5-4 h, 7-7.5 h, and 28-29 h after collection. RESULTS: In EDTA blood
      samples from male minipigs stored at room temperature, there was a progressive
      thrombocyte decrease over time up to -71% after 29 h, caused by in vitro
      aggregation. In females, no consistent change was seen up to 7.5 h, but there was
      a decrease up to -47% after 29 h. Thrombocyte count was most stable during
      storage at 4 degrees C. No consistent marked decrease in thrombocyte counts was
      seen for citrated blood at room temperature, although such a decrease was present
      in a few individual animals. CONCLUSIONS: Study results provide evidence for an
      anticoagulant-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia in minipigs progressing over time
      and depending on the storage temperature of the blood sample. It is therefore
      recommended to perform thrombocyte counts as soon as possible after blood
      collection, and in case of low counts, investigate for the presence of
      artifactual platelet clumping.

PMID- 28582599
TI  - Mechanisms of suppression: The wiring of genetic resilience.
AB  - Recent analysis of genome sequences has identified individuals that are healthy
      despite carrying severe disease-associated mutations. A possible explanation is
      that these individuals carry a second genomic perturbation that can compensate
      for the detrimental effects of the disease allele, a phenomenon referred to as
      suppression. In model organisms, suppression interactions are generally divided
      into two classes: genomic suppressors which are secondary mutations in the genome
      that bypass a mutant phenotype, and dosage suppression interactions in which
      overexpression of a suppressor gene rescues a mutant phenotype. Here, we describe
      the general properties of genomic and dosage suppression, with an emphasis on the
      budding yeast. We propose that suppression interactions between genetic variants
      are likely relevant for determining the penetrance of human traits. Consequently,
      an understanding of suppression mechanisms may guide the discovery of protective
      variants in healthy individuals that carry disease alleles, which could direct
      the rational design of new therapeutics.

PMID- 28582601
TI  - Hematologic RIs for healthy water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) in southern Mexico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Baseline hematologic data are used by veterinarians and wildlife
      biologists to perform health assessments on target animal species. Hematologic
      measurements are influenced by various factors including geography. Baseline
      hematologic RIs have been established for domestic water buffaloes (Bubalus
      bubalis) from various countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, but these data are not
      readily available for the Western Hemisphere. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to determine hematologic values for domestic water buffaloes from several
      commercial farms in southern Mexico. METHODS: Blood was collected from 126
      healthy, postlactating females (3 to 10 years old) from the Murrah breed, and 10
      hematologic variables were measured. RESULTS: Means, SDs, RIs, medians (MED),
      median absolute deviations (MAD), and other statistics were calculated for each
      hematologic variable. The MED (and MAD) for each variable are as follows: RBC
      count, 7.6 (1.1) * 1012 /L; hemoglobin, 116.0 (13.3) g/L; PCV, 41.5 (7.6) %; MCV,
      56.8 (7.0) fL; MCH, 14.6 (1.6) pg; MCHC, 250.0 (35.6) g/L; RDW (SD), 29.7 (5.5)
      fL; RDW (CV), 18.2 (1.4) %; reticulocytes, 0.0 (0.0) %, and WBC count, 12.4 (1.3)
      * 109 /L. These values were compared to those previously reported for water
      buffaloes from several countries in the Eastern Hemisphere and, on most
      occasions, they differed significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Our data can be used by
      veterinarians and other personnel involved in buffalo production in Mexico during
      medical evaluations.

PMID- 28582602
TI  - Positive PCR alone should not be considered sufficient to establish Dirofilaria
      repens as the cause of subcutaneous nodular lesions in the absence of a clear
      cytologic picture.

PMID- 28582603
TI  - Stimuli-Responsive, Shape-Transforming Nanostructured Particles.
AB  - Development of particles that change shape in response to external stimuli has
      been a long-thought goal for producing bioinspired, smart materials. Herein, the
      temperature-driven transformation of the shape and morphology of polymer
      particles composed of polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) block
      copolymers (BCPs) and temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)
      surfactants is reported. PNIPAM acts as a temperature-responsive surfactant with
      two important roles. First, PNIPAM stabilizes oil-in-water droplets as a P4VP
      selective surfactant, creating a nearly neutral interface between the PS and P4VP
      domains together with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, a PS-selective surfactant,
      to form anisotropic PS-b-P4VP particles (i.e., convex lenses and ellipsoids).
      More importantly, the temperature-directed positioning of PNIPAM depending on its
      solubility determines the overall particle shape. Ellipsoidal particles are
      produced above the critical temperature, whereas convex lens-shaped particles are
      obtained below the critical temperature. Interestingly, given that the
      temperature at which particle shape change occurs depends solely on the lower
      critical solution temperature (LCST) of the polymer surfactants, facile tuning of
      the transition temperature is realized by employing other PNIPAM derivatives with
      different LCSTs. Furthermore, reversible transformations between different shapes
      of PS-b-P4VP particles are successfully demonstrated using a solvent-adsorption
      annealing with chloroform, suggesting great promise of these particles for
      sensing, smart coating, and drug delivery applications.

PMID- 28582604
TI  - Layer-by-Layer Motif Architectures: Programmed Electrochemical Syntheses of
      Multilayer Mesoporous Metallic Films with Uniformly Sized Pores.
AB  - Although multilayer films have been extensively reported, most compositions have
      been limited to non-catalytically active materials (e.g. polymers, proteins,
      lipids, or nucleic acids). Herein, we report the preparation of binder-free
      multilayer metallic mesoporous films with sufficient accessibility for high
      electrocatalytic activity by using a programmed electrochemical strategy. By
      precisely tuning the deposition potential and duration, multilayer mesoporous
      architectures consisting of alternating mesoporous Pd layers and mesoporous PdPt
      layers with controlled layer thicknesses can be synthesized within a single
      electrolyte, containing polymeric micelles as soft templates. This novel
      architecture, combining the advantages of bimetallic alloys, multilayer
      architectures, and mesoporous structures, exhibits high electrocatalytic activity
      for both the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and the ethanol oxidation reaction
      (EOR).

PMID- 28582605
TI  - An Enzyme-Coated Metal-Organic Framework Shell for Synthetically Adaptive Cell
      Survival.
AB  - A bioactive synthetic porous shell was engineered to enable cells to survive in
      an oligotrophic environment. Eukaryotic cells (yeast) were firstly coated with a
      beta-galactosidase (beta-gal), before crystallization of a metal-organic
      framework (MOF) film on the enzyme coating; thereby producing a bioactive porous
      synthetic shell. The beta-gal was an essential component of the bioactive shell
      as it generated nutrients (that is, glucose and galactose) required for cell
      viability in nutrient-deficient media (lactose-based). Additionally, the porous
      MOF coating carried out other vital functions, such as 1) shielding the cells
      from cytotoxic compounds and radiation, 2) protecting the non-native enzymes
      (beta-gal in this instance) from degradation and internalization, and 3) allowing
      for the diffusion of molecules essential for the survival of the cells. Indeed,
      this bioactive porous shell enabled the survival of cells in simulated extreme
      oligotrophic environments for more than 7 days, leading to a decrease in cell
      viability less than 30 %, versus a 99 % decrease for naked yeast. When returned
      to optimal growth conditions the bioactive porous exoskeleton could be removed
      and the cells regained full growth immediately. The construction of bioactive
      coatings represents a conceptually new and promising approach for the next
      generation of cell-based research and application, and is an alternative to
      synthetic biology or genetic modification.

PMID- 28582606
TI  - 2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperydinyl-1-oxyl (TEMPO) Functionalized Benzoxazines
      Prepared with a One-Pot Synthesis for Reactive/Crosslinkable Initiators of
      Nitroxide Mediated Polymerization.
AB  - In this work, the incorporation of a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperydinyl-1-oxyl
      (TEMPO) group to a benzoxazine ring is performed using a one-pot synthesis for
      the preparation of TEMPO-functionalized benzoxazine compounds and polymers as
      reactive and crosslinkable initiators for nitroxide-mediated polymerization
      (NMP). The TEMPO-functionalization reaction of benzoxazine, traced with 1 H NMR,
      is conducted with sequential radical transfer and coupling reactions. Moreover,
      polystyrene-grafted polybenzoxazine copolymers are prepared with the TEMPO
      benzoxazine initiator and NMP of styrene. The polymerization system exhibits the
      characteristics of controlled radical polymerization, including controlled
      molecular weights of products and ability for sequential polymerization.
      Moreover, based on the chemical reactivity and crosslinking ability of
      benzoxazine groups, the synthesis route developed in this work will widen the
      scope of the design and synthesis of functional and high-performance polymers.

PMID- 28582609
TI  - Coupling Reactions of Alkynyl Indoles and CO2 by Bicyclic Guanidine: Origin of
      Catalytic Activity?
AB  - Density functional theory calculations were used to investigate the three
      possible modes of activation for the coupling of CO2 with alkynyl indoles in the
      presence of a guanidine base. The first of these mechanisms, involving
      electrophilic activation, was originally proposed by Skrydstrup et al. (Angew.
      Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 6682). The second mechanism involves the nucleophilic
      activation of CO2 . Both of these electrophilic and nucleophilic activation
      processes involve the formation of a guanidine-CO2 zwitterion adduct. We have
      proposed a third mechanism involving the bifunctional activation of the bicyclic
      guanidine catalyst, allowing for the simultaneous activation of the indole and
      CO2 by the catalyst. We demonstrated that a second molecule of catalyst is
      required to facilitate the final cyclization step. Based on the calculated
      turnover frequencies, our newly proposed bifunctional activation mechanism is the
      most plausible pathway for this reaction under these experimental conditions.
      Furthermore, we have shown that this bifunctional mode of activation is
      consistent with the experimental results. Thus, this guanidine-catalyzed reaction
      favors a specific-base catalyzed mechanism rather than the CO2 activation
      mechanism. We therefore believe that this bifunctional mechanism for the
      activation of bicyclic guanidine is typical of most CO2 coupling reactions.

PMID- 28582610
TI  - Protein Corona: Impact of Lymph Versus Blood in a Complex In Vitro Environment.
AB  - In biological environments, the surface of nanoparticles (NPs) are modified by
      protein corona (PC) that determines their biological behavior. Unfortunately, in
      vitro tests still give different PC than in vivo tests causing in vitro-in vivo
      discrepancy; hence, in vitro studies are not indicative for the NPs' behavior in
      vivo. Here is demonstrated that PC in vitro is strongly influenced by the type of
      extracellular fluid (ECF), blood or lymph, by their high and low flow conditions
      and transitions between ECFs, and a combination of these parameters. As a result,
      this in vitro study approaches fluidic and dynamic variations to which NPs are
      exposed in vivo: different ECF that NPs encounter first in different injection
      routes, different transitions in-between ECFs during circulation, and
      simultaneous change in the exposed flow in these transitions. The most-abundant
      proteins in PCs are found to be not the most abundant in ECFs, but those having
      high affinity for binding to the surface of NPs. Moreover, some proteins are
      differently abundant in PCs at different flows, which indicate force-promoted
      binding, catch bonds. These results suggest that future in vitro studies should
      consider more complex incubation conditions to improve the in vitro-in vivo
      consistency necessary for translational research.

PMID- 28582611
TI  - Dynamic DNA Origami Device for Measuring Compressive Depletion Forces.
AB  - The ability to self-assemble nanodevices with programmed structural dynamics that
      can sense and respond to the local environment could enable transformative
      applications in fields including molecular robotics, nanomanufacturing, and
      nanomedicine. The responsive function of biomolecules is often driven by
      alterations in conformational distributions mediated by highly sensitive
      interactions with the local environment. Here, we mimic this approach by
      engineering inherent nanoscale structural dynamics (nanodynamics) into a DNA
      device that exhibits a distribution of conformations including two stable states
      separated by a transition state where the energy barrier height is on the scale
      of the thermal energy, kBT = 4.1 pN.nm, enabling spontaneous transitions between
      states. We further establish design principles to regulate the equilibrium and
      kinetic behavior by substituting a few DNA strand components. We use single
      molecule Forster resonance energy transfer measurements to show these nanodynamic
      properties are sensitive to sub-piconewton depletion forces in the presence of
      molecular crowding agents, and the device can measure depletion forces with a
      resolution of ~100 fN. We anticipate that this approach of engineering
      nanodynamic DNA devices will enable molecular-scale systems that sense and
      respond to their local environment with extremely high sensitivity.

PMID- 28582608
TI  - Prevalence and strong association of high somatic symptom severity with
      depression and anxiety in a Chinese inpatient population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of the high somatic symptom severity (HSSS) and its
      associations with sociodemographic factors, depression, and anxiety has not been
      surveyed in inpatient populations at general hospitals. METHODS: A sample
      including 1329 inpatients in a Chinese general hospital was surveyed using
      Chinese version of 15-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-15), 9-item patient
      health questionnaire, and generalized anxiety disorder 7-item scale. RESULTS: A
      total of 27.8% (n = 369) of the participants had HSSS (PHQ-15 >= 10). The
      multivariate regression showed that HSSS was significantly associated with
      depression (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 5.219), anxiety (aOR, 5.810), or
      depression or anxiety (aOR, 5.338) but neither with sex, age, marital status,
      education status, household income, nor 7 kinds of physical disease systems.
      DISCUSSION: The symptom profile and high prevalence of HSSS, and its association
      with clinically significant depression and anxiety in this inpatient population
      were mostly consistent to that documented by studies in other populations.

PMID- 28582607
TI  - Phase II study of intrabone single unit cord blood transplantation for
      hematological malignancies.
AB  - The outcomes of cord blood transplantation with non-irradiated reduced-intensity
      conditioning for hematological malignancies need to be improved because of graft
      failure and delayed engraftment. Intrabone infusion of cord blood cells has the
      potential to resolve the problems. In this phase II study, 21 adult patients with
      hematological malignancy received intrabone transplantation of serological HLA-A,
      B, and DR >=4/6 matched single cord blood with a median number of cryopreserved
      total nucleated cells of 2.7 * 107 /kg (range, 2.0-4.9 * 107 /kg) following non
      irradiated fludarabine-based reduced-intensity conditioning. Short-term
      methotrexate and tacrolimus were given as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis,
      and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was given after transplantation. No
      severe adverse events related to intrabone injection were observed. The
      cumulative incidences of neutrophils >=0.5 * 109 /L, reticulocytes >=1%, and
      platelets >=20 * 109 /L recoveries were 76.2%, 71.4%, and 76.2%, respectively,
      with median time to recoveries of 17, 28, and 32 days after transplantation,
      respectively. The probability of survival with neutrophil engraftment on day 60
      was 71.4%, and overall survival at 1 year after transplantation was 52.4%. The
      incidences of grade II-IV and III-IV acute graft-versus-host disease were 44% and
      19%, respectively, with no cases of chronic graft-versus-host disease. The
      present study showed the safety of direct intrabone infusion of cord blood.
      Further analysis is required to confirm the efficacy of intrabone single cord
      blood transplantation with non-irradiated reduced-intensity conditioning for
      adult patients with hematological malignancy. This study was registered with UMIN
      CTR, number 000000865.

PMID- 28582612
TI  - Investigation of Phenols Activity in Early Stage Oxidation of Edible Oils by
      Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and 19F NMR Spectroscopies Using Novel Lipid
      Vanadium Complexes As Radical Initiators.
AB  - A novel dynamic method for the investigation of the phenols activity in early
      stage oxidation of edible oils based on the formation of alpha-tocopheryl
      radicals initiated by oil-soluble vanadium complexes is developed. Two new
      vanadium complexes in oxidation states V and IV were synthesized by reacting 2,2'
      ((2-hydroxyoctadecyl)azanediyl)bis(ethan-1-ol) (C18DEA) with [VO(acac)2] and 1
      (bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)octadecan-2-ol (C18DPA) with VOCl2. Addition of a
      solution of either complex in edible oils resulted in the formation of alpha
      tocopheryl radical, which was monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)
      spectroscopy. The intensity of the alpha-tocopheryl signal in the EPR spectra was
      measured versus time. It was found that the profile of the intensity of the alpha
      tocopheryl signal versus time depends on the type of oil, the phenolic content,
      and the storage time of the oil. The time interval until the occurrence of
      maximum peak intensity be reached (tm), the height of the maximum intensity, and
      the rate of the quenching of the alpha-tocopheryl radical were used for the
      investigation of the mechanism of the edible oils oxidation. 19F NMR of the 19F
      labeled phenolic compounds (through trifluoroacetate esters) and radical trap
      experiments showed that the vanadium complexes in edible oil activate the one
      electron reduction of dioxygen to superperoxide radical. Superperoxide reacts
      with the lipids to form alkoperoxyl and alkoxyl lipid radicals, and all these
      radicals react with the phenols contained in oils.

PMID- 28582613
TI  - Flow-Induced Shape Reconfiguration, Phase Separation, and Rupture of Bio-Inspired
      Vesicles.
AB  - The structural integrity of red blood cells and drug delivery carriers through
      blood vessels is dependent upon their ability to adapt their shape during their
      transportation. Our goal is to examine the role of the composition of bio
      inspired multicomponent and hairy vesicles on their shape during their transport
      through in a channel. Through the dissipative particle dynamics simulation
      technique, we apply Poiseuille flow in a cylindrical channel. We investigate the
      effect of flow conditions and concentration of key molecular components on the
      shape, phase separation, and structural integrity of the bio-inspired
      multicomponent and hairy vesicles. Our results show the Reynolds number and
      molecular composition of the vesicles impact their flow-induced deformation,
      phase separation on the outer monolayer due to the Marangoni effect, and rupture.
      The findings from this study could be used to enhance the design of drug delivery
      and tissue engineering systems.

PMID- 28582614
TI  - Local Structures and Heterogeneity of Silica-Supported M(III) Sites Evidenced by
      EPR, IR, NMR, and Luminescence Spectroscopies.
AB  - Grafting molecular precursors on partially dehydroxylated silica followed by a
      thermal treatment yields silica-supported M(III) sites for a broad range of
      metals. They display unique properties such as high activity in olefin
      polymerization and alkane dehydrogenation (M = Cr) or efficient luminescence
      properties (M = Yb and Eu) essential for bioimaging. Here, we interrogate the
      local structure of the M(III) surface sites obtained from two molecular
      precursors, amides M(N(SiMe3)2)3 vs siloxides (M(OSi(OtBu)3)3.L with L = (THF)2
      or HOSi(OtBu)3 for M = Cr, Yb, Eu, and Y, by a combination of advanced
      spectroscopic techniques (EPR, IR, XAS, UV-vis, NMR, luminescence
      spectroscopies). For paramagnetic Cr(III), EPR (HYSCORE) spectroscopy shows
      hyperfine coupling to nitrogen only when the amide precursor is used, consistent
      with the presence of nitrogen neighbors. This changes their specific reactivity
      compared to Cr(III) sites in oxygen environments obtained from siloxide
      precursors: no coordination of CO and oligomer formation during the
      polymerization of ethylene due to the presence of a N-donor ligand. The presence
      of the N-ligand also affects the photophysical properties of Yb and Eu by
      decreasing their lifetime, probably due to nonradiative deactivation of excited
      states by N-H bonds. Both types of precursors lead to a distribution of surface
      sites according to reactivity for Cr, luminescence spectroscopy for Yb and Eu,
      and dynamic nuclear polarization surface-enhanced 89Y NMR spectroscopy (DNP
      SENS). In particular, DNP SENS provides molecular-level information about the
      structure of surface sites by evidencing the presence of tri-, tetra-, and
      pentacoordinated Y-surface sites. This study provides unprecedented evidence and
      tools to assess the local structure of metal surface sites in relation to their
      chemical and physical properties.

PMID- 28582615
TI  - Iron-Induced Activation of Ordered Mesoporous Nickel Cobalt Oxide Electrocatalyst
      for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction.
AB  - Herein, ordered mesoporous nickel cobalt oxides prepared by the nanocasting route
      are reported as highly active oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. By using
      the ordered mesoporous structure as a model system and afterward elevating the
      optimal catalysts composition, it is shown that, with a simple electrochemical
      activation step, the performance of nickel cobalt oxide can be significantly
      enhanced. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results indicated that
      charge transfer resistance increases for Co3O4 spinel after an activation
      process, while this value drops for NiO and especially for CoNi mixed oxide
      significantly, which confirms the improvement of oxygen evolution kinetics. The
      catalyst with the optimal composition (Co/Ni 4/1) reaches a current density of 10
      mA/cm2 with an overpotential of a mere 336 mV and a Tafel slope of 36 mV/dec,
      outperforming benchmarked and other reported Ni/Co-based OER electrocatalysts.
      The catalyst also demonstrates outstanding durability for 14 h and maintained the
      ordered mesoporous structure. The cyclic voltammograms along with the
      electrochemical measurements in Fe-free KOH electrolyte suggest that the activity
      boost is attributed to the generation of surface Ni(OH)2 species that incorporate
      Fe impurities from the electrolyte. The incorporation of Fe into the structure is
      also confirmed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.

PMID- 28582616
TI  - Molecular Engineering of Robustness and Resilience in Enzymatic Reaction
      Networks.
AB  - Living systems rely on complex networks of chemical reactions to control the
      concentrations of molecules in space and time. Despite the enormous complexity in
      biological networks, it is possible to identify network motifs that lead to
      functional outputs such as bistability or oscillations. One of the greatest
      challenges in chemistry is the creation of such functionality from chemical
      reactions. A key limitation is our lack of understanding of how molecular
      structure impacts on the dynamics of chemical reaction networks, preventing the
      design of networks that are robust (i.e., function in a large parameter space)
      and resilient (i.e., reach their out-of-equilibrium function rapidly). Here we
      demonstrate that reaction rates of individual reactions in the network can
      control the dynamics by which the system reaches limit cycle oscillations,
      thereby gaining information on the key parameters that govern the dynamics of
      these networks. We envision that these principles will be incorporated into the
      design of network motifs, enabling chemists to develop "molecular software" to
      create functional behavior in chemical systems.

PMID- 28582617
TI  - Molecular Switch for Sub-Diffraction Laser Lithography by Photoenol Intermediate
      State Cis-Trans Isomerization.
AB  - Recent developments in stimulated-emission depletion (STED) microscopy have led
      to a step change in the achievable resolution and allowed breaking the
      diffraction limit by large factors. The core principle is based on a reversible
      molecular switch, allowing for light-triggered activation and deactivation in
      combination with a laser focus that incorporates a point or line of zero
      intensity. In the past years, the concept has been transferred from microscopy to
      maskless laser lithography, namely direct laser writing (DLW), in order to
      overcome the diffraction limit for optical lithography. Herein, we propose and
      experimentally introduce a system that realizes such a molecular switch for
      lithography. Specifically, the population of intermediate-state photoenol isomers
      of alpha-methyl benzaldehydes generated by two-photon absorption at 700 nm
      fundamental wavelength can be reversibly depleted by simultaneous irradiation at
      440 nm, suppressing the subsequent Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction which
      constitutes the chemical core of the writing process. We demonstrate the
      potential of the proposed mechanism for STED-inspired DLW by covalently
      functionalizing the surface of glass substrates via the photoenol-driven STED
      inspired process exploiting reversible photoenol activation with a polymerization
      initiator. Subsequently, macromolecules are grown from the functionalized areas
      and the spatially coded glass slides are characterized by atomic-force
      microscopy. Our approach allows lines with a full-width-at-half-maximum of down
      to 60 nm and line gratings with a lateral resolution of 100 nm to be written,
      both surpassing the diffraction limit.

PMID- 28582618
TI  - Estimating Infection Risks and the Global Burden of Diarrheal Disease
      Attributable to Intermittent Water Supply Using QMRA.
AB  - Intermittent water supply (IWS) is prevalent throughout low and middle-income
      countries. IWS is associated with increased microbial contamination and
      potentially elevated risk of waterborne illness. We used existing data sets to
      estimate the population exposed to IWS, assess the probability of infection using
      quantitative microbial risk assessment, and calculate the subsequent burden of
      diarrheal disease attributable to consuming fecally contaminated tap water from
      an IWS. We used reference pathogens Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, and rotavirus
      as conservative risk proxies for infections via bacteria, protozoa, and viruses,
      respectively. Results indicate that the median daily risk of infection is an
      estimated 1 in 23 500 for Campylobacter, 1 in 5 050 000 for Cryptosporidium, and
      1 in 118 000 for rotavirus. Based on these risks, IWS may account for 17.2
      million infections causing 4.52 million cases of diarrhea, 109 000 diarrheal
      DALYs, and 1560 deaths each year. The burden of diarrheal disease associated with
      IWS likely exceeds the WHO health-based normative guideline for drinking water of
      10-6 DALYs per person per year. Our results underscore the importance water
      safety management in water supplies and the potential benefits of point-of-use
      treatment to mitigate risks.

PMID- 28582619
TI  - Phytohormone Behavior in the Model Environment of Plant and Human Lipid
      Membranes.
AB  - Interactions between three auxins (indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), 2-naphthoxyacetic
      acid (BNOA), and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)) and model two
      dimensional lipid systems mimicking plant and human cell membranes were
      investigated in monolayers formed at the air/water solution interface. The
      analysis was based on the recorded pi-A isotherm characteristics complemented
      with Brewster angle microscopy. The influence of auxins on model membranes was
      discussed on the basis of condensation changes, modification of mutual lipid
      lipid interactions in the mixed films, and morphological alteration of the
      surface domains on the microscopic scale. It was demonstrated that the lipid
      composition and mutual proportion of the artificial membranes together with
      sterol to main the phospholipid ratio play a crucial role in the context of auxin
      behavior in the membrane-mimicking environment. Apart from specific molecular
      interactions between studied phytohormones represented by auxins and lipids, the
      condensation of the investigated monolayers was found to be a regulative factor
      of model systems' susceptibility toward auxin action. Two effects were
      recognized: fluidizing of monolayers being in the liquid state (model membranes)
      and initialization of the three-dimensional structure formation in ordered sterol
      films at high surface pressure. The influence of auxin molecules on lipid
      interactions in the monolayer and diminishing of the film condensation was the
      largest for BNOA, due to the presence of the most bulky nonpolar, aromatic
      fragment in the molecule. It was also demonstrated that auxins interact with
      model plant membranes more selectively, stronger, and at markedly lower
      concentration than with the human membrane models.

PMID- 28582621
TI  - Self-Rotation-Induced Propulsion of a Leidenfrost Drop on a Ratchet.
AB  - A Leidenfrost drop is capable of self-propelling on a ratchet, which consists of
      asymmetric teeth. In this work, the corresponding movements were first
      experimentally investigated. Because the detected motion could not be interpreted
      using existing propulsive mechanisms, a new propulsive mechanism was then
      developed, followed by force analysis using a scaling law.

PMID- 28582620
TI  - Observation of Enhanced Chiral Asymmetries in the Inner-Shell Photoionization of
      Uniaxially Oriented Methyloxirane Enantiomers.
AB  - Most large molecules are chiral in their structure: they exist as two
      enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. Whereas the rovibronic
      sublevels of two enantiomers are almost identical (neglecting a minuscular effect
      of the weak interaction), it turns out that the photoelectric effect is sensitive
      to the absolute configuration of the ionized enantiomer. Indeed, photoionization
      of randomly oriented enantiomers by left or right circularly polarized light
      results in a slightly different electron flux parallel or antiparallel with
      respect to the photon propagation direction-an effect termed photoelectron
      circular dichroism (PECD). Our comprehensive study demonstrates that the origin
      of PECD can be found in the molecular frame electron emission pattern connecting
      PECD to other fundamental photophysical effects such as the circular dichroism in
      angular distributions (CDAD). Accordingly, distinct spatial orientations of a
      chiral molecule enhance the PECD by a factor of about 10.

PMID- 28582622
TI  - Self-Organized Freestanding One-Dimensional Au Nanoparticle Arrays.
AB  - One-dimensional Au nanoparticle arrays encapsulated within freestanding SiO2
      nanowires are fabricated by thermal oxidation of Au-coated Si nanowires with
      controlled diameter and surface modulation. The nanoparticle diameter is
      determined by the Si nanowire diameter and Au film thickness, while the
      interparticle spacing is independently controlled by the Si nanowire modulation.
      The optical absorption of randomly oriented Au nanoparticle arrays exhibits a
      strong plasmonic response at 550 nm. Scanning transmission electron microscopy
      (STEM)-electron energy loss spectrum (EELS) of nanoparticle arrays confirmed the
      same plasmonic response and demonstrated uniform optical properties of the Au
      nanoparticles. The plasmonic response in the STEM-EELS maps is primarily confined
      around the vicinity of the nanoparticles. On the other hand, examination of the
      same nanowires by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy also revealed
      significant enhancement in the plasmonic excitation in the regions in between the
      nanoparticles. This versatile route to synthesize one-dimensional Au nanoparticle
      arrays with independently tailorable nanoparticle diameter and interparticle
      spacing opens up opportunities to exploit enhanced design flexibility and cost
      effectiveness for future plasmonic devices.

PMID- 28582623
TI  - Excitonic Circular Dichroism of Chiral Quantum Rods.
AB  - As an emerging type of optically active materials, chiral molecules-stabilized
      semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have achieved extensive attention.
      Unfortunately, understanding of the optical characteristics of chiral QDs
      observed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy remains a great challenge due to
      their rather weak signals. Herein, we successfully achieve much enhanced CD
      responses from l- or d-cysteine-stabilized wurtzite CdSe quantum rods (QRs)
      thanks to their unique optical anisotropy. Furthermore, the optical activity of
      CdSe QRs is explored to be improved and subsequently become stable with the
      geometrical aspect ratio (AR) increasing, and such change matches well with
      alternation of the polarization factor of CdSe QRs. A non-degenerate coupled
      oscillator (NDCO) model is established to elucidate the optical activity of
      chiral QRs, and the positive and negative natures of the CD peaks appearing at
      the first exciton band are clearly assigned to different transition polarization
      along 4pz,Se -> 5sCd and 4p(x,y),Se -> 5sCd, respectively. This work opens the
      door toward comprehension and design of optically active semiconductor
      nanomaterials.

PMID- 28582624
TI  - Edge Epitaxy of Two-Dimensional MoSe2 and MoS2 Nanosheets on One-Dimensional
      Nanowires.
AB  - Rational design and synthesis of heterostructures based on transition metal
      dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted increasing interests because of their
      promising applications in electronics, catalysis, etc. However, the construction
      of epitaxial heterostructures with an interface at the edges of TMD nanosheets
      (NSs) still remains a great challenge. Here, we report a strategy for controlled
      synthesis of a new type of heterostructure in which TMD NSs, including MoS2 and
      MoSe2, vertically grow along the longitudinal direction of one-dimensional (1D)
      Cu2-xS nanowires (NWs) in an epitaxial manner. The obtained Cu2-xS-TMD
      heterostructures with tunable loading amount and lateral size of TMD NSs are
      achieved by the consecutive growth of TMD NSs on Cu2-xS NWs through gradual
      injection of chalcogen precursors. After cation exchange of Cu in Cu2-xS-TMD
      heterostructures with Cd, the obtained CdS-MoS2 heterostructures retained their
      original architectures. Compared to the pure CdS NWs, the CdS-MoS2
      heterostructures with 7.7 wt % loading of MoS2 NSs exhibit the best performance
      in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction with a H2 production rate up to
      4647 MUmol.h-1.g-1, about 58 times that catalyzed with pure CdS NWs. Our
      synthetic strategy opens up a new way for the controlled synthesis of TMD-based
      heterostructures, which could have various promising applications.

PMID- 28582625
TI  - Quantitative Characterization of the Binding and Unbinding of Millimolar Drug
      Fragments with Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - A quantitative characterization of the binding properties of drug fragments to a
      target protein is an important component of a fragment-based drug discovery
      program. Fragments typically have a weak binding affinity, however, making it
      challenging to experimentally characterize key binding properties, including
      binding sites, poses, and affinities. Direct simulation of the binding
      equilibrium by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide a computational
      route to characterize fragment binding, but this approach is so computationally
      intensive that it has thus far remained relatively unexplored. Here, we perform
      MD simulations of sufficient length to observe several different fragments
      spontaneously and repeatedly bind to and unbind from the protein FKBP, allowing
      the binding affinities, on- and off-rates, and relative occupancies of
      alternative binding sites and alternative poses within each binding site to be
      estimated, thereby illustrating the potential of long time scale MD as a
      quantitative tool for fragment-based drug discovery. The data from the long time
      scale fragment binding simulations reported here also provide a useful benchmark
      for testing alternative computational methods aimed at characterizing fragment
      binding properties. As an example, we calculated binding affinities for the same
      fragments using a standard free energy perturbation approach and found that the
      values agreed with those obtained from the fragment binding simulations within
      statistical error.

PMID- 28582626
TI  - Molecular Recognition in Asymmetric Counteranion Catalysis: Understanding Chiral
      Phosphate-Mediated Desymmetrization.
AB  - We describe the first theoretical study of a landmark example of chiral anion
      phase-transfer catalysis: the enantioselective ring-opening of meso-aziridinium
      and episulfonium cations promoted by asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis
      (ACDC). The mechanism of ion-pairing, ring-opening, and catalyst deactivation
      have been studied in the condensed phase with both classical and quantum methods
      using explicitly and implicitly solvated models. We find that the stability of
      chiral ion-pairs, a prerequisite for asymmetric catalysis, is dominated by
      electrostatic interactions at long range and by CH...O interactions at short
      range. The decisive role of solvent upon ion-pair formation and of nonbonding
      interactions upon enantioselectivity are quantified by complementary
      computational approaches. The major enantiomer is favored by a smaller distortion
      of the substrate, demonstrated by a distortion/interaction analysis. Our
      computational results rationalize the stereoselectivity for several experimental
      results and demonstrate a combined classical/quantum approach to perform
      realistic modeling of chiral counterion catalysis in solution.

PMID- 28582627
TI  - Gyrification-Inspired Highly Convoluted Graphene Oxide Patterns for Ultralarge
      Deforming Actuators.
AB  - Gyrification in the human brain is driven by the compressive stress induced by
      the tangential expansion of the cortical layer, while similar topographies can
      also be induced by the tangential shrinkage of the spherical substrate. Herein we
      introduce a simple three-dimensional (3D) shrinking method to generate the cortex
      like patterns using two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) as the building
      blocks. By rotation-dip-coating a GO film on an air-charged latex balloon and
      then releasing the air slowly, a highly folded hydrophobic GO surface can be
      induced. Wrinkling-to-folding transition was observed and the folding state can
      be easily regulated by varying the prestrain of the substrate and the thickness
      of the GO film. Driven by the residue stresses stored in the system, sheet-to
      tube actuating occurs rapidly once the bilayer system is cut into slices. In
      response to some organic solvents, however, the square bilayer actuator exhibits
      excellent reversible, bidirectional, large-deformational curling properties on
      wetting and drying. An ultralarge curvature of 2.75 mm-1 was observed within 18 s
      from the original negative bending to the final positive bending in response to
      tetrahydrofuran (THF). In addition to a mechanical hand, a swimming worm, a smart
      package, a bionic mimosa, and two bionic flowers, a crude oil collector has been
      designed and demonstrated, aided by the superhydrophobic and superoleophilic
      modified GO surface and the solvent-responsive bilayer system.

PMID- 28582628
TI  - Energetic demand and physical conditioning of table tennis players. A study
      review.
AB  - Table tennis is a racket sport characterised by an intermittent movement profile,
      including short rallies interspersed with short breaks. In contrast to other
      racket sports, information is lacking regarding the: (i) physiological responses
      during table tennis matches and training; and (ii) practical recommendations for
      enhancing aerobic and anaerobic performance in table tennis by improving cardio
      metabolic and neuro-muscular fitness, anthropometry and nutritional strategies.
      Therefore, this review article attempts to narratively provide an overview of the
      physiology of table tennis by describing the metabolic mechanisms underlying
      match play and outlining a framework for practical recommendations for improving
      cardio-metabolic and neuro-muscular fitness, anthropometry as well as nutritional
      strategies. A second aim was to stimulate future research on table tennis and to
      point out study limitations in this context. In general, the most important
      finding is that the rally duration is short at around 3.5s, with a longer rest
      time of around 8-20s, resulting in an effort-rest ratio ranging from 0.15 to 0.22
      in official matches and energetic demands during match relatively low. Future
      studies should focus on the relationship between energetic demand and table
      tennis performance with a view to predicting performance in table tennis using
      physiological parameters.

PMID- 28582630
TI  - Attitudes and Expectations in the Intergenerational Transmission of
      Breastfeeding: A Phenomenological Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The socially constructed meanings of breastfeeding that have been
      passed from generation to generation by grandmothers produce continuities and
      discontinuities in the practices of breastfeeding. Research aim: The aim of this
      study is to explore the objectives and positioning of women today with respect to
      their role as future grandmothers, based on their experiences with breastfeeding.
      That is, what role do future grandmothers wish to have in the lives of their
      breastfeeding daughters and grandchildren? METHODS: A qualitative study with
      interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted based on the philosophy of
      Martin Heidegger, using a sample of unstructured interviews from 20 women in
      Madrid. The data were analyzed using the steps of interpretative phenomenological
      analysis. RESULTS: Among the women who desired to have a supportive role for
      their future breastfeeding daughters and daughters-in-law, three emergent themes
      were identified that aimed at being supportive but remaining flexible and
      respecting their autonomy: "I'll give you what I didn't have," "the well-being of
      my daughter/daughter-in-law," and "seeking professional help." Two additional
      themes were identified that show the desire of these women to be present during
      this stage of family development and the lifecycle: "my role in the family" and
      "continuing to share." CONCLUSION: Future grandmothers desire to be involved in
      their daughters and daughters-in-law breastfeeding experience through flexibility
      and support and with the use of specialized and personalized professional help.
      In addition, future grandmothers desire to be valued and included in the vital
      process of breastfeeding.

PMID- 28582629
TI  - Molecular diagnostics for Chagas disease: up to date and novel methodologies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It
      affects 7 million people, mainly in Latin America. Diagnosis is usually made
      serologically, but at some clinical scenarios serology cannot be used. Then,
      molecular detection is required for early detection of congenital transmission,
      treatment response follow up, and diagnosis of immune-suppression reactivation.
      However, present tests are technically demanding and require well-equipped
      laboratories which make them unfeasible in low-resources endemic regions. Areas
      covered: Available molecular tools for detection of T. cruzi DNA, paying
      particular attention to quantitative PCR protocols, and to the latest
      developments of user-friendly molecular diagnostic methodologies. Expert
      commentary: In the absence of appropriate biomarkers, molecular diagnosis is the
      only option for the assessment of treatment response. Besides, it is very useful
      for the early detection of acute infections, like congenital cases. Since current
      Chagas disease molecular tests are restricted to referential labs, research
      efforts must focus in the implementation of easy-to-use diagnostic tools in order
      to overcome the access to diagnosis gap.

PMID- 28582631
TI  - Chronic kidney disease as a risk factor for vestibular dysfunction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether chronic kidney disease
      (CKD) is associated with vestibular dysfunction in a general population. METHODS:
      Of the total participants, 7,799 of participants were included in this study. The
      data collected from the participants during the health examination included an
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and balancing test results. Mild CKD
      was defined as an eGFR of 60-90 mL/min/1.73 m2 or an eGFR >= 90 mL/min/1.73 m2
      with dipstick proteinuria (>= 1+). Moderate CKD was defined as an eGFR of 45-59
      mL/min/1.73 m2. Severe CKD was defined as an eGFR of 30-44 mL/min/1.73 m2. Very
      severe CKD was defined as an eGFR < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2. RESULTS: The number of
      participants with vestibular dysfunction was 268. Univariate and multivariate
      linear regression analyses showed that eGFR levels were inversely associated with
      the presence of vestibular dysfunction. Multivariate analysis revealed that those
      with moderate, severe, and very severe CKD had a 1.830-, 4.496-, and 6.055-fold
      increased risk of vestibular dysfunction, respectively, compared to the
      participants without CKD. CONCLUSION: CKD was found to be associated with
      vestibular dysfunction in the general population. Therefore, the participants
      with CKD may be closely monitored for vestibular dysfunction.

PMID- 28582632
TI  - Prostate Cancer: A Correlative Study of Multiparametric MR Imaging and Digital
      Histopathology.
AB  - Purpose To correlate multiparametric magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and
      quantitative digital histopathologic analysis (DHA) of the prostate. Materials
      and Methods This retrospective study was approved by the local institutional
      review board and was HIPAA compliant. Forty patients (median age, 60 years; age
      range, 44-71 years) who underwent prostate MR imaging consisting of T2-weighted
      and diffusion-weighted (DW) MR imaging along with subsequent robot-assisted
      radical prostatectomy gave informed consent to be included. Whole-mount tissue
      specimens were obtained with a patient-specific mold, and DHA was performed to
      assess the lumen, epithelium, stroma, and epithelial nucleus. These DHA images
      were registered with MR images and were correlated on a per-voxel basis. The
      relationship between MR imaging and DHA was assessed by using a linear mixed
      effects model and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results T2-weighted MR
      imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of DW imaging, and high-b-value DW
      imaging were significantly related to specific DHA parameters (P < .01). For
      instance, lumen density (ie, the percentage area of tissue components) was
      associated with T2-weighted MR imaging (slope = 0.36 +/- 0.05 [standard error],
      gamma = 0.35), ADC (slope = 0.47 +/- 0.05, gamma = 0.50), and high-b-value DW
      imaging (slope = -0.44 +/- 0.05, gamma = -0.44). Differences between regions
      harboring benign tissue and those harboring malignant tissue were observed at MR
      imaging and DHA (P < .01). Gleason score was significantly associated with MR
      imaging and DHA parameters (P < .05). For example, it was positively related to
      high-b-value DW imaging (slope = 0.21 +/- 0.16, gamma = 0.18) and negatively
      related to lumen density (slope = -0.19 +/- 0.18, gamma = -0.35). Conclusion
      Overall, significant associations were observed between MR imaging and DHA,
      regardless of prostate anatomy. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is
      available for this article.

PMID- 28582633
TI  - Performance Benchmarks for Screening Breast MR Imaging in Community Practice.
AB  - Purpose To compare screening magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performance in the
      Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) with Breast Imaging Reporting and
      Data System (BI-RADS) benchmarks. Materials and Methods This study was approved
      by the institutional review board and compliant with HIPAA and included BCSC
      screening MR examinations collected between 2005 and 2013 from 5343 women (8387
      MR examinations) linked to regional Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results
      program registries, state tumor registries, and pathologic information databases
      that identified breast cancer cases and tumor characteristics. Clinical,
      demographic, and imaging characteristics were assessed. Performance measures were
      calculated according to BI-RADS fifth edition and included cancer detection rate
      (CDR), positive predictive value of biopsy recommendation (PPV2), sensitivity,
      and specificity. Results The median patient age was 52 years; 52% of MR
      examinations were performed in women with a first-degree family history of breast
      cancer, 46% in women with a personal history of breast cancer, and 15% in women
      with both risk factors. Screening MR imaging depicted 146 cancers, and 35
      interval cancers were identified (181 total-54 in situ, 125 invasive, and two
      status unknown). The CDR was 17 per 1000 screening examinations (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 15, 20 per 1000 screening examinations; BI-RADS benchmark, 20-30
      per 1000 screening examinations). PPV2 was 19% (95% CI: 16%, 22%; benchmark,
      15%). Sensitivity was 81% (95% CI: 75%, 86%; benchmark, >80%), and specificity
      was 83% (95% CI: 82%, 84%; benchmark, 85%-90%). The median tumor size of invasive
      cancers was 10 mm; 88% were node negative. Conclusion The interpretative
      performance of screening MR imaging in the BCSC meets most BI-RADS benchmarks and
      approaches benchmark levels for remaining measures. Clinical practice performance
      data can inform ongoing benchmark development and help identify areas for quality
      improvement. (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28582634
TI  - Spectral Doppler Waveforms for Diagnosis of Appendicitis: Potential Utility of
      Point Peak Systolic Velocity and Resistive Index Values.
AB  - Purpose To test the hypothesis that appendiceal spectral Doppler waveforms can
      distinguish patients with and patients without appendicitis. Materials and
      Methods In this retrospective study, Doppler waveforms were obtained from
      intramural appendiceal arteries identified with color Doppler imaging in 60% (93
      of 155) of consecutive patients whose appendices were visualized at graded
      compression ultrasonography (US) performed for suspected appendicitis (53 male
      and 40 female; age, 1-56 years; mean, 14.5 years) over the 5-month period from
      November 2015 through March 2016. Point, non-angle-corrected peak systolic
      velocity (PSV) and resistive index (RI) values were compared between patients
      with and patients without appendicitis by utilizing histopathologically proven
      appendicitis and 6-week clinical follow-up as diagnostic reference standards.
      Data were assessed by using the Student t test, exact binomial distribution, two
      sample test of proportions, and receiver operating characteristic analysis.
      Results Among the 93 patients, 36 (38.7%) had proven appendicitis (mean PSV, 19.7
      cm/sec; mean RI, 0.69) and 57 patients (61.2%) did not (mean PSV, 7.1 cm/sec, P <
      .0001; mean RI, 0.50, P < .0001). The area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve for the diagnosis of appendicitis was 0.97 (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.95, 1.00) for PSV and 0.86 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.95; P = .011) for
      RI. Chosen discriminatory criteria of PSV greater than 10 cm/sec and RI greater
      than 0.65 yielded specificity for appendicitis of 94.7% and 96.5% with
      sensitivity of 88.9% and 63.9% (P = .013) and negative predictive value of 93.1%
      and 80.9% (P = .045), respectively. Original clinical graded compression US
      interpretations based on established US findings demonstrated specificity of
      96.2% and sensitivity of 100.0%. Considering the subset of 20 patients whose
      maximum outer diameter measured 6-8 mm, the discriminatory criteria of PSV
      greater than 10 cm/sec and RI greater than 0.65 yielded specificity for
      appendicitis of 88.9% each, with sensitivity of 100.0% and 63.6% and negative
      predictive value of 100.0% and 66.6%, respectively. Conclusion In patients with
      visualized appendices at US, those with appendicitis exhibit significantly higher
      point PSV and point RI values than do patients without appendicitis and are
      distinguishable with high specificity by using a PSV greater than 10 cm/sec and
      an RI greater than 0.65 as diagnostic criteria. (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28582635
TI  - Prenylated flavonoids from Commiphora opobalsamum stem bark.
AB  - A phytochemical study on the stem bark of Commiphora opobalsamum looking for
      cytotoxic compounds afforded eleven flavonoids, including six previously
      undescribed prenylated congeners, comophorin A-E, and comophoroside A. The
      structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated on the basis of
      spectroscopic evidences and correlated with known compounds. Isolated compounds
      were biologically evaluated using in vitro cytotoxicity MTT-based assay against
      two cancer cell lines; namely human hepato-cellular carcinoma (HepG-2) and human
      breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7). Comophoroside A revealed to retain the strongest
      cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and HepG-2 cell lines with IC50 values of 8 and
      12 MUg/mL, respectively.

PMID- 28582636
TI  - Living with the burden of relapse in multiple myeloma from the patient and
      physician perspective.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) is a progressive plasma cell malignancy, with a range of
      clinical features including bone lesions, renal insufficiency, anaemia, and
      hypercalcaemia. Novel agents have significantly improved patient survival,
      however most patients will suffer multiple relapses. Although clinical challenges
      and economic costs of relapse are recognised, the psychological impact of relapse
      is not fully appreciated. Additionally, there is little information on how
      physicians perceive the impact of relapse on their patients' emotional state and
      how this might affect patient management. Through face-to-face interviews with 50
      relapsed and/or refractory MM patients and 30 haematologists across ten
      countries, we have used real-world evidence to explore and characterise the
      burden of living with MM, particularly the impact of relapsed disease. This
      exploratory study illustrates the impact of the disease on friends and family,
      and the physical and emotional burden experienced by the patient resulting from
      both MM and its treatment. Haematologists feel poorly equipped to deal with the
      emotional aspects of patient relapse, lacking the time and resources to
      adequately deal with these issues. Focused educational and support
      tools/resources targeted at both physicians and patients are required to
      facilitate physician-patient communication to help reduce the emotional burden of
      living with MM.

PMID- 28582637
TI  - Different time course of plasma lactate, troponin I and Nt-proBNP concentrations
      in patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

PMID- 28582638
TI  - Association of CD147 genetic polymorphisms with carotid atherosclerotic plaques
      in a Han Chinese population with cerebral infarction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Given the important role of CD147 in the development of
      atherosclerosis, we speculated that CD147 genetic polymorphisms might influence
      the formation of carotid atherosclerotic plaques. The study was to investigate
      the association between CD147 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to carotid
      atherosclerotic plaques in individuals with cerebral infarction (CI). METHODS:
      Eight SNPs in the regulatory and coding regions of the CD147 gene were examined
      using polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction (PCR-LDR) in DNA
      samples from 732 Chinese patients with CI, divided into a carotid plaque group
      (n=475) and a non-carotid plaque group (n=257). RESULTS: Significant differences
      were found in the genotypes and allele frequencies of the rs4919862 SNP between
      the carotid plaque and non-carotid plaque groups of CI patients (P<0.05), while
      the frequencies of the C allele and the CC genotype in the non-carotid plaque
      group were significantly lower than those in the carotid plaque group, and the
      frequencies of the T allele in the non-carotid plaque group were significantly
      higher than those in the carotid plaque group (P<0.05). In addition, there was
      strong linkage disequilibrium among the rs4919862, rs8637 and rs8259 sites. In a
      haplotype analysis, the occurrence rate of the haplotype GATGCAGC was 2.095 times
      higher in the carotid plaque group than in the non-carotid plaque group (P<0.05).
      CONCLUSION: These results showed that the rs4919862 SNP of CD147 was closely
      associated with carotid atherosclerotic plaques formation. Thus, polymorphisms of
      the CD147 gene may be related to the tendency for carotid atherosclerotic
      plaques.

PMID- 28582639
TI  - Heparin-calibrated chromogenic anti-Xa assays are not suitable to assess the
      presence of significant direct factor Xa inhibitors levels.

PMID- 28582641
TI  - ABO blood groups: A risk factor for left atrial and left atrial appendage
      thrombogenic milieu in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified ABO blood groups as predictors of
      thromboembolic diseases. In patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), however,
      potential association between ABO blood groups and the risk of left atrial (LA)
      and/or left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombogenic milieu (TM) has not been
      established. METHODS: This is a retrospective case-control study that included
      125 consecutive patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) plus TM, as
      evidenced by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during a period from1 January
      2010 to 31 December 2016. The controls were selected randomly from 1072 NVAF
      without TM at a 1:2 ratio. Potential association between ABO blood groups and TM
      was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The risk
      of TM was higher in patients with blood group A (33.6% vs. 20.2% in non-A blood
      groups, P=0.005). After adjusting for age, sex, oral anticoagulant use, AF type
      and duration, and relevant functional measures (e.g., NT-pro BNP level, left
      atrium diameter, and left ventricular ejection fraction), blood group A remained
      associated with an increased risk of TM (OR=2.99, 95% CI 1.4-6.388, P=0.005).
      CONCLUSION: Blood group A is an independent risk factor for TM in NVAF patients.

PMID- 28582640
TI  - The causes of thrombocytopenia after transcatheter aortic valve implantation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Even though thrombocytopenia following transcatheter aortic valve
      implantation (TAVI) has been described, further investigation of this phenomenon
      is needed. AIMS: To determine which factors may explain the fall in platelet
      count that occurs after implantation of a TAVI device, including markers of
      platelet and blood coagulation activation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 32 patients
      without previous indications for dual antiplatelet therapy (mean age 78.5+/-7.9
      years, 62% females) with severe aortic valve stenosis (mean gradient 54.6+/
      16.9mmHg) who qualified for TAVI procedure (Edwards Sapien XT) were prospectively
      analyzed. Platelet counts were analyzed before the surgery, on the day of the
      procedure and for the three following postoperative days (POD 1 to 3). To assess
      platelet activation P-selectin (PS, serum) and platelet factor 4 (PF-4, CTAD
      plasma) were measured, whereas for the evaluation of coagulation activation
      prothrombin fragments 1+2 (F1+2, plasma) were assessed before the procedure, on
      POD-1 and POD-3 (ELISA). RESULTS: During the postoperative period a significant
      platelet count drop, the most evident on POD-2, was observed followed by a
      platelet count raise. The platelet count drop correlated directly with the amount
      of iodinated contrast agent (r=0.42, p=0.016) and inversely with baseline mean
      platelet volume (r=-0.37, p=0.046). Neither clinical nor perioperative
      parameters, except contrast medium, influenced platelet count decrease. No
      significant differences regarding the concentration of the evaluated markers in
      patients with and without thrombocytopenia were found. PF-4 and F1+2
      significantly changed during the study (p<0.05). Greater acute PF-4 decrease
      correlated with greater acute platelet count drop (r=0.48, p=0.043), and during
      the study slower PF-4 increase correlated with higher platelet count increase on
      POD-3 (r=-0.505, p=0.032). Lower baseline PS correlated with lower baseline
      platelet count and higher platelet count increase on POD-3 (r=0.45, p=0.04 and =
      0.55, p=0.02, respectively). No significant correlations between F1+2
      concentrations and platelet count changes have been found. CONCLUSIONS: Platelet
      reduction shortly after TAVI procedure is related to the amount of contrast agent
      applied during the procedure. Platelet activation and blood coagulation along
      with impaired baseline platelet renewal might be the mechanisms of
      thrombocytopenia following TAVI procedure.

PMID- 28582642
TI  - Movement of the sacroiliac joint during the Active Straight Leg Raise test in
      patients with long-lasting severe sacroiliac joint pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Active Straight Leg Raise is a functional test used in the
      assessment of pelvic girdle pain, and has shown to have good validity,
      reliability and responsiveness. The Active Straight Leg Raise is considered to
      examine the patients' ability to transfer load through the pelvis. It has been
      hypothesized that patients with pelvic girdle pain lack the ability to stabilize
      the pelvic girdle, probably due to instability or increased movement of the
      sacroiliac joint. This study examines the movement of the sacroiliac joints
      during the Active Straight Leg Raise in patients with pelvic girdle pain.
      METHODS: Tantalum markers were inserted in the dorsal sacrum and ilium of 12
      patients with long-lasting pelvic girdle pain scheduled for sacroiliac joint
      fusion surgery. Two to three weeks later movement of the sacroiliac joints during
      the Active Straight Leg Raise was measured with radiostereometric analysis.
      FINDINGS: Small movements were detected. There was larger movement of the
      sacroiliac joint of the rested leg's sacroiliac joint compared to the lifted
      leg's side. A mean backward rotation of 0.8 degrees  and inward tilt of 0.3
      degrees  were seen in the rested leg's sacroiliac joint. INTERPRETATION: The
      movements of the sacroiliac joints during the Active Straight Leg Raise are
      small. There was a small backward rotation of the innominate bone relative to
      sacrum on the rested leg's side. Our findings contradict an earlier understanding
      that a forward rotation of the lifted leg's innominate occur while performing the
      Active Straight Leg Raise.

PMID- 28582643
TI  - Identification of double four-ring units in germanosilicate ITQ-13 zeolite by
      solid-state NMR spectroscopy.
AB  - Well-crystallized Ge-free and Ge-ITQ-13 were successfully obtained by solid state
      synthesis method. The Ge/Si ratio and the water content that are the two
      important factors in the synthesis of germanosilicate zeolites were explored for
      the formation of ITQ-13. The effect of the mineralizing agents (NH4F and NH4Cl)
      on the ITQ-13 synthesis was investigated as well. The obtained pure silica ITQ-13
      and Ge-ITQ-13 were characterized by one- and two-dimensional solid- state NMR
      techniques. One-dimensional (1D) 19F MAS, 1H->29Si CP/MAS and 19F->29Si CP/MAS
      NMR spectroscopy evidenced the formation of pure Si-D4R (double four ring) and Ge
      D4R units, with the latter being generated by substitution of Si atom from the
      former units. The detailed configurations of the Ge-D4R units in ITQ-13 was
      revealed by two-dimensional (2D) 29Si{19F} HETCOR NMR spectroscopy. With the help
      of theoretical calculations on the 19F and 29Si NMR chemical shifts, six types of
      D4R units were determined. The formation of the specific D4R unit confirms the
      structural directing roles of Ge atom and F ions in the formation of the D4R
      units in zeolite framework. The identification of the SiOSi bonds in the D4R
      units that connects the layers of ITQ-13 framework provided rationale for the
      high stability of the ITQ-13 in the degermanation treatment.

PMID- 28582644
TI  - No prolongation of skin allograft survival by immunoproteasome inhibition in
      mice.
AB  - The immunoproteasome, a distinct class of proteasomes, which is inducible under
      inflammatory conditions and constitutively expressed in monocytes and
      lymphocytes, is known to shape the antigenic repertoire presented on major
      histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. Moreover, inhibition of the
      immunoproteasome subunit LMP7 ameliorates clinical symptoms of autoimmune
      diseases in vivo and was shown to suppress the development of T helper cell (Th)
      1 and Th17 cells and to promote regulatory T-cell (Treg) generation independently
      of its function in antigen processing. Since Th1 and Th17 cells are detrimental
      and Treg cells are critical for transplant acceptance, we investigated the
      influence of the LMP7-selective inhibitor ONX 0914 in a mixed lymphocyte reaction
      (MLR) in vitro as well as on allograft rejection in a MHC-disparate (C57BL/6 to
      BALB/c) and a multiple minor histocompatibility antigen (miHA)-disparate (B10.Br
      to C3H) model of skin transplantation in vivo. Although we observed reduced allo
      specific IL-17 production of T cells in vitro, we found that selective inhibition
      of LMP7 had neither an influence on allograft survival in an MHC-mismatch model
      nor in a multiple minor mismatch skin transplantation model. We conclude that
      inhibition of the immunoproteasome is not effective in prolonging skin allograft
      survival in skin allotransplantation.

PMID- 28582645
TI  - Staphylococcus aureus VraX specifically inhibits the classical pathway of
      complement by binding to C1q.
AB  - VraX is a protein secreted by Staphylococcus aureus, an important human pathogen.
      A dramatic over expression of VraX is observed when S. aureus is exposed to
      several antimicrobial agents; however, its function remains unclear. Here, we
      aimed to reveal the function of this protein and the mechanism by which it
      affects the immune system to enhance the pathogenesis of the bacterium. Our
      results showed that VraX specifically inhibited the classical pathway of the
      complement system. In particular, VraX could bind to the C1q protein and block
      the formation of the C1 complex. Deletion of VraX decreased the pathogenesis of
      S. aureus. Our findings indicate that over expression of VraX might be a
      protective response for S. aureus survival.

PMID- 28582646
TI  - Increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with bipolar
      disorder: A population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We conducted this nationwide study to examine the prevalence and
      incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among patients with
      bipolar disorder in Taiwan. METHODS: We used a random sample of 766,427 subjects
      who were aged >=18 years in 2005. Patients with at least one primary diagnosis of
      bipolar disorder were identified. Study participants with one primary or
      secondary diagnosis of COPD for either ambulatory or inpatient care were also
      identified. We compared the prevalence of COPD in patients with bipolar disorder
      and the general population in 2005. In addition, we further investigated this
      cohort from 2006 to 2010 to detect incident cases of COPD in patients with
      bipolar disorder compared with the general population. The factors associated
      with COPD among patients with bipolar disorder were also analyzed. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of COPD in patients with bipolar disorder was higher than in the
      general population in 2005 (5.68% vs. 2.88%, odds ratio 2.03; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.53-2.67). The average annual incidence of COPD in patients with
      bipolar disorder was also higher than in the general population (2.03% vs. 1.03%,
      risk ratio 1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.65-2.29) from 2006 to 2010.
      LIMITATIONS: Some risk factors for COPD such as substance use, obesity, or
      lifestyle pattern were not available in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with
      bipolar disorder had a higher prevalence and incidence of COPD compared with the
      general population. Higher prevalence of COPD among bipolar patients was
      associated with increased age, males, hypertension, and second-generation
      antidepressant use.

PMID- 28582647
TI  - Inflammatory serum cytokines and chemokines increase associated with the disease
      extent in pediatric Langerhans cell histiocytosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is characterized by immature
      dendritic cell proliferation, infiltration of LCH lesions by various inflammatory
      cells, and a lesional cytokine storm. It is classified into three groups on the
      basis of disease extent, namely, multisystem with risk-organ involvement (MS+),
      multisystem without risk-organ involvement (MS-), and single-system (SS) disease.
      We comprehensively analyzed whether serum levels of cytokines/chemokines reflect
      the disease extent. METHODS: Serum samples from 52 children with LCH (eight, 25,
      and 19 with MS+, MS-, and SS, respectively) and 34 control children were analyzed
      quantitatively for 48 humoral factors. DNA samples extracted from biopsied LCH
      lesions from 12 patients were tested for BRAF V600E status. RESULTS: The LCH
      patients had significantly higher serum levels of IL-1Ra, IL-3, IL-6, IL-8, IL-9,
      IL-10, IL12, IL-13, IL-15, IL-17, IL-18, TNF-alpha, G-CSF, M-CSF, MIF, HGF, VEGF,
      CCL2, CCL3, CCL7, CXCL1, and CXCL9 than the controls by univariate analysis. Of
      these IL-9, IL-15 and MIF were significant by multivariate analysis; but not
      differed between MS and SS diseases. MS disease associated with significantly
      higher IL-2R, IL-3, IL-8, IL-18, M-CSF, HGF, CCL2, CXCL1, and CXCL9 levels than
      SS disease by univariate analysis. Of these, CCL2 and M-CSF were significant by
      multivariate analysis. IL-18 levels were significantly higher in MS+ disease than
      MS- disease. The LCH patients with BRAF V600E mutation had higher serum levels of
      CCL7. CONCLUSION: Numerous inflammatory cytokines and chemokines play a role in
      LCH. Of those, more specific ones reflect the disease extent (MS vs. SS and MS+
      vs. MS-) or the BRAF V600E mutation status. It is thought that the most
      responsible cytokines and chemokines involved in the poor outcome may become
      future candidate therapeutic targets in LCH.

PMID- 28582648
TI  - Prognostic factors of early death in children with hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis.
AB  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a rapidly progressing and fatal disease.
      Early identification of early death for HLH patients based on the laboratory
      findings at the time of diagnosis could improve the overall survival. A
      retrospective study was performed on 95 Chinese pediatric patients with HLH.
      Patients' data including clinical features and laboratory findings at diagnosis
      were collected. In a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model
      analysis, albumin<=27.75g/L (hazard ratio (HR)=11.82, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) 2.58-54.23; P=0.001), LDH>=3707.5 U/L (HR=4.15, 95%CI 1.43-12.01; P=0.009),
      and IL-10>=456pg/ml (HR=12.39, 95%CI 1.59-96.79; P=0.016) at diagnosis were
      independent prognostic factors of early death. The risk of early death was 33
      fold increase in patients with three risk factors (HR=33.33; 95%CI 8.40-125.00;
      P<0.001), and 12-fold increase in patients with two risk factors (HR=12.80; 95%CI
      2.34-69.80; P=0.002) when compared to it in patients with zero to one risk
      factor. Our results reveal that HLH patients with the risk of early death can be
      identified by laboratory findings at diagnosis, which may help guide the
      treatment decision making for this disease.

PMID- 28582650
TI  - Magical thinking and decision-making strategies among late adolescent regular
      gamblers: A mediation model.
AB  - In the present study, the relation between the tendency to seek supernatural
      connections between external events and one's own thoughts, words, and actions
      and gambling among late adolescents has been studied. Psychologists have called
      this tendency magical thinking. The principal aim of the present study was to
      test the fit of an explanatory model of risk that starts from magical thinking
      and passes through maladaptive decision-making strategies, culminating with
      pathological gambling. Two hundred twenty-two Italian late adolescents, regularly
      attending bingo halls, aged between 19 and 21 years, completed measures on
      magical thinking, decision-making strategies, and gambling. Results highlight
      that young adults adopting dysfunctional modes of thought (i.e. magical thinking)
      tend to engage with maladaptive styles of decision-making that predispose them to
      gamble.

PMID- 28582649
TI  - Synthesis, molecular docking and anti-diabetic evaluation of 2,4
      thiazolidinedione based amide derivatives.
AB  - A series of thiazolidinedione based amide derivatives were designed, synthesized
      and docked against the PPARgamma receptor target. 11 compounds from the series
      with good glide scores were selected for in vivo antidiabetic study based on
      streptozotocin induced diabetic rat model. It was observed that 4 compounds (6c,
      6e, 6m &6n) showed significantly good antidiabetic activity in comparison to
      rosiglitazone and pioglitazone as reference drugs. Compound 6c appeared as the
      most potent derivative in lowering blood glucose level and showed excellent
      interaction with SER 342, ILE 281, pi-pi interaction with ARG 288 and halogen
      bond interaction with LYS 367. Further, PPARgamma transactivation and gene
      expression studies of compound 6c were carried out to investigate the possible
      mechanism of action through PPARgamma modulation. Compound 6c exhibited 53.65%
      transactivation and elevated PPARgamma gene expression by 2.1 folds. The
      biochemical parameters (AST, ALT and ALP levels) were found within the range with
      no noteworthy damage to liver.

PMID- 28582651
TI  - Do family environment factors play a role in adolescents' involvement in
      organized activities?
AB  - The study assessed the association of family environment factors with
      adolescents' participation in organized leisure-time activities (OLTA). We used
      data on 10,472 Czech adolescents aged 11-15 years (49.2% boys) from the 2013/2014
      Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. The associations of family
      support, the presence of parental screen-time rules and joint family activities
      with participation in at least one OLTA were assessed using logistic regression.
      High family support and the presence of parental screen-time rules were
      associated with higher odds of OLTA participation. Moreover, adolescents playing
      sports, indoor games and going for walks with their families at least weekly were
      more likely to participate in OLTA. Conversely, those spending time in joint
      family TV/video watching on most days were less likely to do so. A supportive
      family environment and direct parental involvement in their adolescent children's
      leisure are associated with OLTA participation in early to middle adolescence.

PMID- 28582652
TI  - Revisiting the immigrant paradox: Suicidal ideations and suicide attempts among
      immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents.
AB  - The current study examined the immigrant paradox in suicidal ideations and
      attempts, whether rates and correlates varied across immigrant/non-immigrant
      youth in a nationally representative sample of 7,287 Swiss adolescents (10.2% 1st
      generation immigrants, 10.3% 2nd generation, and 16.1% mixed parentage; Mage =
      17.45, SD = 1.85, 46.6% females). Known risk and protective factors for suicidal
      ideations and attempts (depressive symptoms, family and peer connectedness, and
      demographics) were used as correlates, and their effects were compared across
      groups. About 27% of youth thought about suicide in past 12 months, while 5.5%
      reported attempting suicide once in their lifetime. After controlling for known
      predictors and nationality, being an immigrant adolescent (1st, 2nd generation,
      or mixed parentage) lowered the risk for suicidal ideations as compared to native
      Swiss youth; immigrant status was unrelated to attempts. Findings provide mixed
      support for the immigrant paradox; both immigrant and native youth would benefit
      from effective intervention strategies.

PMID- 28582653
TI  - Gender matters: Experiences and consequences of digital dating abuse
      victimization in adolescent dating relationships.
AB  - Digital dating abuse (DDA) behaviors include the use of digital media to monitor,
      control, threaten, harass, pressure, or coerce a dating partner. In this study,
      703 high school students reported on the frequency of DDA victimization, whether
      they were upset by these incidents, and how they responded. Results suggest that
      although both girls and boys experienced DDA at similar rates of frequency (with
      the exception of sexual coercion), girls reported that they were more upset by
      these behaviors. Girls also expressed more negative emotional responses to DDA
      victimization than boys. Although DDA is potentially harmful for all youth,
      gender matters. These findings suggest that the experience and consequences of
      DDA may be particularly detrimental for girls.

PMID- 28582654
TI  - Can present biasedness explain early onset of diabetes and subsequent disease
      progression? Exploring causal inference by linking survey and register data.
AB  - Diabetes is a major cause of morbidity, disability, mortality and health care
      resource use. The increasing prevalence of diabetes may therefore have dramatic
      future consequences for western societies. Diabetes entails a significant self
      management component and it has previously been estimated that people with
      diabetes provide about 95% of their own care. Despite increased focus, self
      management skills including basic knowledge acquisition, problem solving and
      setting realistic goals are often not mastered. The main contribution of this
      paper is to provide evidence that the heterogeneity in self-management and health
      outcomes amongst diabetes patients is partly attributable to individual
      differences in time-inconsistent preferences in terms of present biased
      behaviour. Using a unique data set consisting of survey data from 2014 merged
      with registry data on a sample of 79 chronically ill patients, we present
      empirical evidence that present biased individuals are more prone to onset of
      diabetes at an early age, and have a poorer prognosis after diagnosis.
      Furthermore, we conclude that present biasedness has a casual effect on the onset
      and management of diabetes.

PMID- 28582655
TI  - Coopetition in health care: A multi-level analysis of its individual and
      organizational determinants.
AB  - Cooperative inter-organizational relations are salient to healthcare delivery.
      However, they do not match with the pro-competitive healthcare reforms
      implemented in several countries. Healthcare organizations thus need to balance
      competition and cooperation in a situation of 'coopetition'. In this paper we
      study the individual and organizational determinants of coopetition versus those
      of cooperation in the price-competitive specialized care sector of the
      Netherlands. We use shared medical specialists as a proxy of collaboration
      between healthcare organizations. Based on a sample of 15,431 medical specialists
      and 371 specialized care organizations from March 2016, one logistic multi-level
      model is used to predict medical specialists' likelihood to be shared and another
      to predict their likelihood to be shared to a competitor. We find that different
      organizations share different specialists to competitors and non-competitors.
      Cooperation and coopetition are hence distinct organizational strategies in
      health care. Cooperation manifests through spin-off formation. Coopetition occurs
      most among organizations in the price-competitive market segment but in
      alternative geographical markets. Hence, coopetition in health care does not
      appear to be particularly anti-competitive. However, healthcare organizations
      seem reluctant to share their most specialized human resources, limiting the
      knowledge-sharing effects of this type of relation. Therefore, it remains unclear
      whether coopetition in health care is beneficial to patients.

PMID- 28582656
TI  - Non-linear relationship between maternal work hours and child body weight:
      Evidence from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study.
AB  - Using longitudinal data from the Western Australia Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study
      and both random-effects and fixed-effects models, this study examined the
      connection between maternal work hours and child overweight or obesity. Following
      children in two-parent families from early childhood to early adolescence,
      multivariate analyses revealed a non-linear and developmentally dynamic
      relationship. Among preschool children (ages 2 to 5), we found lower likelihood
      of child overweight and obesity when mothers worked 24 h or less per week,
      compared to when mothers worked 35 or more hours. This effect was stronger in low
      to-medium income families. For older children (ages 8 to 14), compared to working
      35-40 h a week, working shorter hours (1-24, 25-34) or longer hours (41 or more)
      was both associated with increases in child overweight and obesity. These non
      linear effects were more pronounced in low-to-medium income families,
      particularly when fathers also worked long hours.

PMID- 28582657
TI  - Extended kin and children's behavioral functioning: Family structure and parental
      immigrant status.
AB  - Using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS), this paper
      examines the association between the presence of co-resident extended kin and
      children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The paper demonstrates the
      differential role of extended kin by family structure, as well as across parental
      immigrant status - specifically, nativity and documentation status. Children in
      the sample were found to be disadvantaged in extended family households,
      especially with regard to internalizing behaviors. This disadvantageous
      association was found mostly among married-parent extended family households,
      whereas there was no association between the presence of extended kin and
      behavior problems in children from single-parent families. This pattern emerged
      more clearly among children of documented immigrants, compared to those with
      native-born parents and those whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. These
      findings suggest a need to modify previous theories on extended family living
      arrangements; they also provide policy implications for immigrant families.

PMID- 28582658
TI  - A method to improve the quality of 2.5 dimensional micro-and nano-structures
      produced by focused ion beam machining.
AB  - The present work deals with a new technique to produce complex micro- and nano
      scale patterns with high accuracy by FIB micro machining. The proposed method is
      related to the production of stream file, which is optimized through a software
      interface. A unique sampling approach is used to optimize the conversion from a
      3D meshed CAD object to the focused ion beam (FIB) digital to analogue converter
      (DAC). The method uses a novel scan strategy, sensitive to the pattern local
      geometry and size, to define the optimal ion beam path, dwell time and the
      scanning pitch. This not only allows to minimize the redeposition but also to
      obtain accurate and scalable milling routines. In order to show the applicability
      of the method, a hemisphere and a pyramid shape are milled and compared to the
      shapes obtained using the conventional techniques. Results show that the method
      is very effective in producing complex shapes while overcoming the detrimental
      effect of conventional raster/serpentine FIB strategies, such as redeposition.
      Lastly, a fish-net structure with a pitch of ~200nm as well as a series of
      truncated cones with sub-micrometrical details are realized to show the potential
      impact of this new method. Results show that a spatial resolution of less than
      100nm is achievable with the help of this method.

PMID- 28582659
TI  - Increased use of heroin as an initiating opioid of abuse.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Given the relatively recent growth in access to heroin and a more
      permissive atmosphere surrounding its use, we hypothesized that an increasing
      number of persons with limited experience and tolerance to opioids would
      experiment with heroin as their first opioid rather than more common prescription
      opioid analgesics. METHODS: Individuals entering substance abuse treatment for an
      opioid use disorder in the period 2010-2016 (N=5885) were asked about the
      specific opioid they first regularly used to get high. To limit long-term recall
      and survival bias, analyses was restricted to opioid initiation that occurred in
      the past ten years (2005-2015). RESULTS: In 2005, only 8.7% of opioid initiators
      started with heroin, but this sharply increased to 33.3% (p<0.001) in 2015, with
      no evidence of stabilization. The use of commonly prescribed opioids, oxycodone
      and hydrocodone, dropped from 42.4% and 42.3% of opioid initiators, respectively,
      to 24.1% and 27.8% in 2015, such that heroin as an initiating opioid was now more
      frequently endorsed than prescription opioid analgesics. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      document that, as the most commonly prescribed opioids - hydrocodone and
      oxycodone - became less accessible due to supply-side interventions, the use of
      heroin as an initiating opioid has grown at an alarming rate. Given that opioid
      novices have limited tolerance to opioids, a slight imprecision in dosing
      inherent in heroin use is likely to be an important factor contributing to the
      growth in heroin-related over dose fatalities in recent years.

PMID- 28582661
TI  - Preparative separation of TL1-1 from Daldinia eschscholzii extract by macroporous
      resin and evaluation of its antimicrobial activities.
AB  - 2,3-Dihydro-5-hydroxy-2-methylchromen-4-one (TL1-1) has already been reported to
      exhibit significant activities such as cytotoxicity, antifungal activity and
      growth inhibitory activity. In order to simply and efficiently separate TL1-1
      from crude extracts of Daldinia eschscholzii on a large-preparative scale, XAD-16
      resin was selected from ten types of resin based on its superior adsorption and
      desorption performance. Adsorption equilibrium data for this resin fitted well
      with pseudo-first order kinetics and the Freundlich model, which were elucidated
      from kinetic experiments and adsorption isotherms. Under optimized conditions,
      the purity of TL1-1 increased from 19.21% (w/w) in the crude extract, to 84.64%
      (w/w) in the final product, with a recovery yield of 75.06% (w/w) by a one-step
      treatment. Moreover, in a large-scale separation, the purity and recovery of TL1
      1 was 80.33% and 72.02% (w/w), respectively. These results demonstrated that a
      simple adsorption-desorption strategy, using XAD-16 resin, was efficient, which
      also highlighted its potential for the future large-scale purification and
      preparation of TL1-1. In addition, studies showed that the purified TL1-1
      exhibited moderate antibacterial activity against Ralstonia solanacearum.

PMID- 28582660
TI  - The phytochemical 3,3'-diindolylmethane decreases expression of AR-controlled DNA
      damage repair genes through repressive chromatin modifications and is associated
      with DNA damage in prostate cancer cells.
AB  - Androgen receptor (AR) is a transcription factor involved in normal prostate
      physiology and prostate cancer (PCa) development. 3,3'-Diindolylmethane (DIM) is
      a promising phytochemical agent against PCa that affects AR activity and
      epigenetic regulators in PCa cells. However, whether DIM suppresses PCa via
      epigenetic regulation of AR target genes is unknown. We assessed epigenetic
      regulation of AR target genes in LNCaP PCa cells and showed that DIM treatment
      led to epigenetic suppression of AR target genes involved in DNA repair (PARP1,
      MRE11, DNA-PK). Decreased expression of these genes was accompanied by an
      increase in repressive chromatin marks, loss of AR occupancy and EZH2 recruitment
      to their regulatory regions. Decreased DNA repair gene expression was associated
      with an increase in DNA damage (gammaH2Ax) and up-regulation of genomic repeat
      elements LINE1 and alpha-satellite. Our results suggest that DIM suppresses AR
      dependent gene transcription through epigenetic modulation, leading to DNA damage
      and genome instability in PCa cells.

PMID- 28582662
TI  - Development and validation of HPLC-MS/MS procedure for determination of 3,4,4',5
      tetra-methoxystilbene (DMU-212) and its metabolites in ovarian cancer cells and
      culture medium.
AB  - The synthetic resveratrol analogue DMU-212 (3,4,4',5-tetramethoxystilbene) has
      been shown to possess stronger anticancer activity than resveratrol in a variety
      of tumour cells. To date, there has been no appropriate procedure that would
      ensure a reliable data about levels of metabolic products of DMU-212 in cancer
      cell lines. The purpose of this study was to develop a new procedure for
      determination of DMU-212 and its three metabolites (DMU-214, DMU-281, DMU-291) in
      cell lines. Analyses were performed using an HPLC system coupled with a triple
      quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in multiple reaction monitoring mode.
      Separation was conducted using a C18 column at a flow rate 800MUL/min with a
      mobile phase consisting of 5mM ammonium acetate with 0.1% formic acid (solvent A)
      and acetonitrile (solvent B). The new methodology is fast, simple and has
      excellent specificity. Moreover, it showed good linearity in two matrices - cell
      lysates and culture media. Accuracy values for analytes evaluated at different
      concentration levels ranged from 0.43 to 18% (%bias). The intra-day and inter-day
      precision, expressed as CV, was in a range 0.49-5.5% and 0.83-13%, respectively.
      The validated procedure was successfully applied to quantify the resveratrol
      analogues in the human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3.

PMID- 28582663
TI  - Molecular and epidemiological characterization of staphylococcal foodborne
      outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus harboring seg, sei, sem, sen, seo, and selu
      genes without production of classical enterotoxins.
AB  - Staphylococcal food poisoning is the result of consumption of food contaminated
      with staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) produced by Staphylococcus aureus. To
      date, 23 SEs and SE-like enterotoxins (SEls) have been described in the
      literature. They are divided into classical SEs (SEA-SEE) and new SE/SEls (SEG
      SElX). Some have proved to be foodborne-inducible, but others remain
      unidentified. In May 2016, at an elderly group home in Osaka city, Japan, an
      outbreak from foodborne pathogens occurred among lunch party participants. Within
      2h 30min to 4h 40min, 15 of 53 participants presented gastrointestinal symptoms
      of vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea. A subsequent laboratory investigation detected
      S. aureus from most stool samples from patients, several left-over food items, a
      kitchen swab, and hand swabs from two food handlers. Classical SEs was not
      detected from S. aureus isolates or left-over food items. From examination for
      the presence of SE/SEl genes of 20 kinds by PCR, seg, sei, sem, sen, seo, and
      selu genes were detected in almost all isolates. These isolates exhibited
      identical or closely related types by coagulase type (type VII), Sma I digested
      pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST
      CC45 lineage). These results suggest that the foodborne outbreak was caused by S.
      aureus harboring seg, sei, sem, sen, seo, and selu genes without production of
      classical SEs. Additionally, some S. aureus isolates from human nasal swabs and
      healthy human feces harboring seg, sei, sem, sen, seo, and selu genes without
      production of classical SEs were classified into CC45 lineage using MLST. These
      findings suggest new SE/SEls as a potential cause of foodborne outbreaks.

PMID- 28582664
TI  - Interactions between water activity and temperature on the Aspergillus flavus
      transcriptome and aflatoxin B1 production.
AB  - Effects of Aspergillus flavus colonization of maize kernels under different water
      activities (aw; 0.99 and 0.91) and temperatures (30, 37 degrees C) on (a)
      aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production and (b) the transcriptome using RNAseq were
      examined. There was no significant difference (p=0.05) in AFB1 production at 30
      and 37 degrees C and 0.99 aw. However, there was a significant (p=0.05) increase
      in AFB1 at 0.91 aw at 37 degrees C when compared with 30 degrees C/0.99 aw.
      Environmental stress effects using gene ontology enrichment analysis of the RNA
      seq results for increasing temperature at 0.99 and 0.91 aw showed differential
      expression of 2224 and 481 genes, respectively. With decreasing water
      availability, 4307 were affected at 30 degrees C and 702 genes at 37 degrees C.
      Increasing temperature from 30 to 37 degrees C at both aw levels resulted in 12
      biological processes being upregulated and 9 significantly downregulated.
      Decreasing aw at both temperatures resulted in 22 biological processes
      significantly upregulated and 25 downregulated. The interacting environmental
      factors influenced functioning of the secondary metabolite gene clusters for
      aflatoxins and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA). An elevated number of genes were co
      regulated by both aw and temperature. An interaction effect for 4 of the 25 AFB1
      genes, including regulatory and transcription activators occurred. For CPA, all 5
      biosynthetic genes were affected by aw stress, regardless of temperature. The
      molecular regulation of A. flavus in maize is discussed.

PMID- 28582665
TI  - The influence of CHRNA4, COMT, and maternal sensitivity on orienting and
      executive attention in 6-month-old infants.
AB  - Despite claims concerning biological mechanisms sub-serving infant attention,
      little experimental work examines its underpinnings. This study examines how
      candidate polymorphisms from the cholinergic (CHRNA4 rs1044396) and dopaminergic
      (COMT rs4680) systems, respectively indicative of parietal and
      prefrontal/anterior cingulate involvement, are related to 6-month-olds' (n=217)
      performance during a visual expectation eye-tracking paradigm. As previous
      studies suggest that both cholinergic and dopaminergic genes may influence
      susceptibility to the influence of other genetic and environmental factors, we
      further examined whether these candidate genes interact with one another and/or
      with early caregiving experience in predicting infants' visual attention. We
      detected an interaction between CHRNA4 genotype and observed maternal sensitivity
      upon infants' orienting to random stimuli and a CHRNA4-COMT interaction effect
      upon infants' orienting to patterned stimuli. Consistent with adult research, we
      observed a direct effect of COMT genotype on anticipatory looking to patterned
      stimuli. Findings suggest that CHRNA4 genotype may influence susceptibility to
      other attention-related factors in infancy. These interactions may account for
      the inability to establish a link between CHRNA4 and orienting in infant research
      to date, despite developmental theorizing suggesting otherwise. Moreover,
      findings suggest that by 6months, dopamine, and relatedly, the prefrontal
      cortex/anterior cingulate, may be important to infant attention.

PMID- 28582666
TI  - Quantum dot-linked immunosorbent assay (QLISA) using orientation-directed
      antibodies.
AB  - An approach similar to the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), with the
      advantage of saving time and effort but exhibiting high performance, was
      developed using orientation-directed half-part antibodies immobilized on CdSe/ZnS
      quantum dots. ELISA is a widely accepted assay used to detect the presence of a
      target substance. However, it takes time to quantify the target with specificity
      and sensitivity owing to signal amplification. In this study, CdSe/ZnS quantum
      dots are introduced as bright and photobleaching-tolerant fluorescent materials.
      Since hydrophilic surface coating of quantum dots rendered biocompatibility and
      functional groups for chemical reactions, the quantum dots were modified with
      half-sized antibodies after partial reduction. The half-sized antibody could be
      bound to a quantum dot through a unique thiol site to properly display the
      recognition domain for the core process of ELISA, which is an antigen-antibody
      interaction. The reducing conditions were investigated to generate efficient
      conjugates of quantum dots and half-sized antibodies. This was applied to IL-6
      detection, as the quantification of IL-6 is significant owing to its close
      relationships with various biomedical phenomena that cause different diseases. An
      ELISA-like assay with CdSe/ZnS quantum dot institution (QLISA; Quantum dot-linked
      immunosorbent assay) was developed to detect 0.05ng/mL IL-6, which makes it
      sufficiently sensitive as an immunosorbent assay.

PMID- 28582667
TI  - How preferences for volume-based promotions differ between at-risk and non
      problem female drinkers.

PMID- 28582668
TI  - The utility of drug checking services as monitoring tools and more: A response to
      Pirona et al.

PMID- 28582671
TI  - Pinning synchronization of memristor-based neural networks with time-varying
      delays.
AB  - In this paper, the synchronization of memristor-based neural networks with time
      varying delays via pinning control is investigated. A novel pinning method is
      introduced to synchronize two memristor-based neural networks which denote drive
      system and response system, respectively. The dynamics are studied by theories of
      differential inclusions and nonsmooth analysis. In addition, some sufficient
      conditions are derived to guarantee asymptotic synchronization and exponential
      synchronization of memristor-based neural networks via the presented pinning
      control. Furthermore, some improvements about the proposed control method are
      also discussed in this paper. Finally, the effectiveness of the obtained results
      is demonstrated by numerical simulations.

PMID- 28582669
TI  - QSAR-driven design, synthesis and discovery of potent chalcone derivatives with
      antitubercular activity.
AB  - New anti-tuberculosis (anti-TB) drugs are urgently needed to battle drug
      resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains and to shorten the current 6-12
      month treatment regimen. In this work, we have continued the efforts to develop
      chalcone-based anti-TB compounds by using an in silico design and QSAR-driven
      approach. Initially, we developed SAR rules and binary QSAR models using
      literature data for targeted design of new heteroaryl chalcone compounds with
      anti-TB activity. Using these models, we prioritized 33 compounds for synthesis
      and biological evaluation. As a result, 10 heteroaryl chalcone compounds (4, 8,
      9, 11, 13, 17-20, and 23) were found to exhibit nanomolar activity against
      replicating mycobacteria, low micromolar activity against nonreplicating
      bacteria, and nanomolar and micromolar against rifampin (RMP) and isoniazid (INH)
      monoresistant strains (rRMP and rINH) (<1 MUM and <10 MUM, respectively). The
      series also show low activity against commensal bacteria and generally show good
      selectivity toward M. tuberculosis, with very low cytotoxicity against Vero cells
      (SI = 11-545). Our results suggest that our designed heteroaryl chalcone
      compounds, due to their high potency and selectivity, are promising anti-TB
      agents.

PMID- 28582672
TI  - Work zone sign design for increased driver compliance and worker safety.
AB  - Many studies have investigated the effect of dynamic message signs (DMS) on
      drivers' speed reduction and compliance in work zones, yet only a few studies
      have examined the design of sign content of DMS. The purpose of this study was to
      develop design standards for DMS to improve driver compliance and worker safety.
      This study investigated the impact of sign content, frame refresh rate, and sign
      placement on driver speed reduction, compliance, and eye movements. A total of 44
      participants were recruited for this study. Each participant completed 12
      simulated driving tasks in a high-fidelity driving simulator. A small-scale field
      study was also conducted to test the effect of DMS on vehicle speed in a highway
      work zone. Results showed sign content and placement had no impact on speed
      reduction and compliance. However, sign frame refresh rate was found to have a
      significant effect on drivers' initial speed and speed reduction. Participants
      had longer fixation duration on DMS when worker presence was mentioned in the
      sign content. Results of the field study suggested that the DMS is most effective
      at night.

PMID- 28582670
TI  - Substituted arylsulphonamides as inhibitors of perforin-mediated lysis.
AB  - The structure-activity relationships for a series of arylsulphonamide-based
      inhibitors of the pore-forming protein perforin have been explored. Perforin is a
      key component of the human immune response, however inappropriate activity has
      also been implicated in certain auto-immune and therapy-induced conditions such
      as allograft rejection and graft versus host disease. Since perforin is expressed
      exclusively by cells of the immune system, inhibition of this protein would be a
      highly selective strategy for the immunosuppressive treatment of these disorders.
      Compounds from this series were demonstrated to be potent inhibitors of the lytic
      action of both isolated recombinant perforin and perforin secreted by natural
      killer cells in vitro. Several potent and soluble examples were assessed for in
      vivo pharmacokinetic properties and found to be suitable for progression to an in
      vivo model of transplant rejection.

PMID- 28582673
TI  - Characterization and quantification of antibiotic resistance genes in manure of
      piglets and adult pigs fed on different diets.
AB  - Studies have shown that pig manure is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes
      (ARGs). However, little is known about the characteristics of ARGs in the manure
      of piglets and adult pigs fed on different diets. In the present study, the ARG
      characteristics of the manure of piglets and adult pigs fed on different diets
      (feed, grain) were analyzed using high-throughput fluorescence quantitative PCR.
      Correlations between heavy metals, antibiotics, and ARGs in pig manure were
      analyzed. The results showed that the heavy metal and antibiotic contents in the
      manure of pigs receiving feed significantly exceeded those in the manure of pigs
      receiving grain. The heavy metal and antibiotic contents were higher in manure of
      piglets than in that of adult pigs. Feed significantly increased the ARG
      diversity in the pig manure. The ARG diversity was higher in manure of piglets
      than in that of adult pigs. In the manure of pigs receiving feed, 25 (from
      piglets), 12 (from adult pigs) ARGs were enriched significantly compared with pig
      fed with grain. In particular, sat4 (in piglets) and vatE-01 (in adult pigs)
      showed the highest enrichment, being increased by 59 and 19-fold, respectively.
      The ARG diversity correlated positively with the concentrations of antibiotics
      and heavy metals in the manure.

PMID- 28582674
TI  - Spatial distributions and enantiomeric signatures of DDT and its metabolites in
      tree bark from agricultural regions across China.
AB  - Tree bark is considered as an effective passive sampler for estimating the
      atmospheric status of pollutants. In this study, we conducted a national scale
      tree bark sampling campaign across China. Concentration profiles revealed that
      Eastern China, especially the Jing-Jin-Ji region (including Hebei Province,
      Beijing and Tianjin) was a hot spot of bark DDT pollution. The enantioselective
      accumulation of o,p'-DDT was observed in most of the samples and 68% of them
      showed a preferential depletion of (+)-o,p'-DDT. These results suggest that DDTs
      in rural bark are likely from combined sources including historical technical
      DDTs and fresh dicofol usage. The tree bulk DDT levels were found to correlate
      with soil DDT concentrations, socioeconomy and PM2.5 of the sampling sites. It
      thus becomes evident that the reemission from soils and subsequent atmospheric
      deposition were the major pathways leading to the accumulation of DDTs in bark.
      Based on a previously established bark-air partitioning model, the concentrations
      of DDTs in the air were estimated from measured concentrations in tree bark, and
      the results were comparable to those obtained by the use of passive sampling with
      polyurethane foam (PUF) disks. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of
      delineating the spatial variations in atmospheric concentration and tracing
      sources of DDTs by integrating the use of tree bark with enantiomeric analysis.

PMID- 28582675
TI  - Impacts of climate and management on water balance and nitrogen leaching from
      montane grassland soils of S-Germany.
AB  - In this study water balance components as well as nitrogen and dissolved organic
      carbon leaching were quantified by means of large weighable grassland lysimeters
      at three sites (860, 770 and 600 m a.s.l.) for both intensive and extensive
      management. Our results show that at E600, the site with highest air temperature
      (8.6  degrees C) and lowest precipitation (981.9 mm), evapotranspiration losses
      were 100.7 mm higher as at the site (E860) with lowest mean annual air
      temperature (6.5  degrees C) and highest precipitation (1359.3 mm). Seepage water
      formation was substantially lower at E600 (-440.9 mm) as compared to E860.
      Compared to climate, impacts of management on water balance components were
      negligible. However, intensive management significantly increased total nitrogen
      leaching rates across sites as compared to extensive management from 2.6 kg N ha
      1 year-1 (range: 0.5-6.0 kg N ha-1 year-1) to 4.8 kg N ha-1 year-1 (range: 0.9
      12.9 kg N ha-1 year-1). N leaching losses were dominated by nitrate (64.7%) and
      less by ammonium (14.6%) and DON (20.7%). The low rates of N leaching (0.8-6.9%
      of total applied N) suggest a highly efficient nitrogen uptake by plants as
      measured by plant total N content at harvest. Moreover, plant uptake was often
      exceeding slurry application rates, suggesting further supply of N due to soil
      organic matter decomposition. The low risk of nitrate losses via leaching and
      surface runoff of cut grassland on non-sandy soils with vigorous grass growth may
      call for a careful site and region specific re-evaluation of fixed limits of N
      fertilization rates as defined by e.g. the German Fertilizer Ordinance following
      requirements set by the European Water Framework and Nitrates Directive.

PMID- 28582676
TI  - Cerium oxide nanoparticles alter the salt stress tolerance of Brassica napus L.
      by modifying the formation of root apoplastic barriers.
AB  - Rapidly growing global population adds significant strains on the fresh water
      resources. Consequently, saline water is increasingly tapped for crop irrigation.
      Meanwhile, rapid advancement of nanotechnology is introducing more and more
      engineered nanoparticles into the environment and in agricultural soils. While
      some negative effects of ENPs on plant health at very high concentrations have
      been reported, more beneficial effects of ENPs at relatively low concentrations
      are increasingly noticed, opening doors for potential applications of
      nanotechnology in agriculture. In particular, we found that cerium oxide
      nanoparticles (CeO2NPs) improved plant photosynthesis in salt stressed plants.
      Due to the close connections between salt stress tolerance and the root
      anatomical structures, we postulated that CeO2NPs could modify plant root anatomy
      and improve plant salt stress tolerance. This study aimed at testing the
      hypothesis with Brassica napus in the presence of CeO2NPs (0, 500 mg kg-1 dry
      sand) and/or NaCl (0, 50 mM) in a growth chamber. Free hand sections of fresh
      roots were taken every seven days for three weeks and the suberin lamellae
      development was examined under a fluorescence microscope. The results confirmed
      the hypothesis that CeO2NPs modified the formation of the apoplastic barriers in
      Brassica roots. In salt stressed plants, CeO2NPs shortened the root apoplastic
      barriers which allowed more Na+ transport to shoots and less accumulation of Na+
      in plant roots. The altered Na+ fluxes and transport led to better physiological
      performance of Brassica and may lead to new applications of nanotechnology in
      agriculture.

PMID- 28582677
TI  - Fast and safe gas detection from underground coal fire by drone fly over.
AB  - Underground coal fires start naturally or as a result of human activities.
      Besides burning away the important non-renewable energy resource and causing
      financial losses, burning coal seams emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur
      oxide and methane, and is a leading cause of smog, acid rain, global warming, and
      air toxins. In the U.S. alone, the combined cost of coal-fire remediation
      projects that have been completed, budgeted, or projected by the U.S. Department
      of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining Remediation and Enforcement (OSM),
      exceeds $1 billion. It is estimated that these fires generate as much as 3% of
      the world's annual carbon dioxide emissions and consume as much as 5% of its
      minable coal. Considering the magnitude of environmental impact and economic loss
      caused by burning underground coal seams, we have developed a new, safe, reliable
      surface measurement of coal fire gases to assess the nature of underground coal
      fires. We use a drone mounted with gas sensors. Drone collected gas concentration
      data provides a safe alternative for evaluating the rank of a burning coal seam.
      In this study, a new method of determining coal rank by gas ratios is developed.
      Coal rank is valuable for defining parameters of a coal seam such as burn
      temperature, burn rate, and volume of burning seam.

PMID- 28582678
TI  - Using expansive grasses for monitoring heavy metal pollution in the vicinity of
      roads.
AB  - We propose a method for monitoring heavy metal deposition in the vicinity of
      roads using the leaf surfaces of two expansive grass species which are greatly
      abundant. A principle of the proposed procedure is to minimize the number of
      operations in collecting and preparing samples for analysis. The monitored
      elements are extracted from the leaf surfaces using dilute nitric acid directly
      in the sample-collection bottle. The ensuing steps, then, are only to filter the
      extraction solution and the elemental analysis itself. The verification results
      indicate that the selected grasses Calamagrostis epigejos and Arrhenatherum
      elatius are well suited to the proposed procedure. Selected heavy metals (Zn, Cu,
      Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd) in concentrations appropriate for direct determination using
      methods of elemental analysis can be extracted from the surface of leaves of
      these species collected in the vicinity of roads with medium traffic loads.
      Comparing the two species showed that each had a different relationship between
      the amounts of deposited heavy metals and distance from the road. This disparity
      can be explained by specific morphological properties of the two species' leaf
      surfaces. Due to the abundant occurrence of the two species and the method's
      general simplicity and ready availability, we regard the proposed approach to
      constitute a broadly usable and repeatable one for producing reproducible
      results.

PMID- 28582679
TI  - Small peptide signaling pathways modulating macronutrient utilization in plants.
AB  - Root system architecture (RSA) and physiological functions define macronutrient
      uptake efficiency. Small signaling peptides (SSPs), that act in manners similar
      to hormones, and their cognate receptors transmit signals both locally and
      systemically. Several SSPs controlling morphological and physiological traits of
      roots have been identified to be associated with macronutrient uptake. Recent
      development in plant genome research has provided an avenue toward systems-based
      identification and prediction of additional SSPs. This review highlights recent
      studies on SSP pathways important for optimization of macronutrient uptake and
      provides new insights into the diversity of SSPs regulated in response to changes
      in macronutrient availabilities.

PMID- 28582680
TI  - Evolutionary Relationship of the Scale-Bearing Kraken (incertae sedis,
      Monadofilosa, Cercozoa, Rhizaria): Combining Ultrastructure Data and a Two-Gene
      Phylogeny.
AB  - The genus Kraken represents a distinct lineage of filose amoebae within the
      Cercozoa. Currently a single species, Kraken carinae, has been described. SSU
      rDNA phylogeny showed an affiliation to the Cercomonadida, branching with weak
      support at its base, close to Paracercomonas, Metabolomonas, and
      Brevimastigomonas. Light microscopical analyses showed several unique features of
      the genus Kraken, but ultrastructure data were lacking. In this study, K. carinae
      has been studied by electron microscopy, these data conjoined with a two-gene
      phylogeny were used to give more insight into the evolutionary relationship of
      the genus Kraken within Cercozoa. The data confirmed the absence of flagella, but
      also showed novel characteristics, such as the presence of extrusomes,
      osmiophilic bodies, and mitochondria with flat cristae. Surprising was the
      presence of single-tier scales which are carried by cell outgrowths, much of what
      is expected of the last common ancestor of the class Imbricatea. The phylogenetic
      analyses however confirmed previous results, indicating Kraken as a sister group
      to Paracercomonas in Sarcomonadea with an increased but still low support of 0.98
      PP/63 BP. Based on the unique features of Kraken we establish the Krakenidae fam.
      nov. that we, due to contradictory results in morphology and phylogeny, assign
      incertae sedis, Monadofilosa.

PMID- 28582681
TI  - Translational control and the cancer cell response to stress.
AB  - The evidence for the importance of aberrant translation in cancer cells is
      overwhelming. Reflecting the wealth of data, there are excellent reviews
      delineating how ribosomes and initiation factors are linked to cancer [1-3], and
      the therapeutic strategies being devised to target them [4]. Changes in
      translational efficiency can engender a malignant phenotype without the need for
      chromatin reorganization, transcription, splicing and mRNA export [5,6]. Thus,
      cancer-related modulations of the translational machinery are ideally suited to
      allow cancer cells to respond to the various stresses encountered along the path
      of tumorigenesis and organism-wide dissemination [7*,8,9,10*]. Emerging findings
      supporting this notion are the focus of this review.

PMID- 28582682
TI  - Rotator cuff-related pain: Patients' understanding and experiences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Persistent musculoskeletal pain is a multi-factorial entity,
      influenced by biological, genetic and psychosocial factors. Psychosocial factors,
      such as individuals' beliefs and experiences, need to be considered in the
      management of such pain. While extensive research has explored beliefs of
      individuals with spinal pain, less is known about individuals' beliefs regarding
      shoulder pain. OBJECTIVES: To explore beliefs about the cause of pain in
      individuals with persistent rotator cuff-related pain, as well as the experiences
      of the effect of pain on their daily lives. DESIGN: A mixed methods design, using
      semi-structured interviews and validated outcome questionnaires. METHOD: Five men
      and five women, aged 47-68 years, with shoulder pain for at least three months
      were recruited. Individual semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded,
      transcribed verbatim and analysed using the general inductive approach.
      RESULTS/FINDINGS: Four key themes emerged. The cause of pain, 'Understanding the
      pain', was described in terms of anatomical factors within the context of the
      participants' lives. The pain impacted all areas of life, creating another theme,
      'It affects everything'. Participants responded to their pain by adopting
      certain, 'Pain-associated behaviours' and sought information for diagnosis,
      general management and exercise prescription, 'Emotional responses and the
      future'. CONCLUSIONS: The participants with rotator cuff-related pain believed
      the cause of their pain to be local to the shoulder region. However, they also
      described various stressors in their work-, sports- and family-related lives.
      Rehabilitation may need to include educating the individual, expanding their
      understanding regarding pain mechanisms and appropriate interventions, based on
      individual goal-setting.

PMID- 28582683
TI  - Action recognition is sensitive to the identity of the actor.
AB  - Recognizing who is carrying out an action is essential for successful human
      interaction. The cognitive mechanisms underlying this ability are little
      understood and have been subject of discussions in embodied approaches to action
      recognition. Here we examine one solution, that visual action recognition
      processes are at least partly sensitive to the actor's identity. We investigated
      the dependency between identity information and action related processes by
      testing the sensitivity of neural action recognition processes to clothing and
      facial identity information with a behavioral adaptation paradigm. Our results
      show that action adaptation effects are in fact modulated by both clothing
      information and the actor's facial identity. The finding demonstrates that neural
      processes underlying action recognition are sensitive to identity information
      (including facial identity) and thereby not exclusively tuned to actions. We
      suggest that such response properties are useful to help humans in knowing who
      carried out an action.

PMID- 28582685
TI  - Meaningful questions: The acquisition of auxiliary inversion in a connectionist
      model of sentence production.
AB  - Nativist theories have argued that language involves syntactic principles which
      are unlearnable from the input children receive. A paradigm case of these innate
      principles is the structure dependence of auxiliary inversion in complex polar
      questions (Chomsky, 1968, 1975, 1980). Computational approaches have focused on
      the properties of the input in explaining how children acquire these questions.
      In contrast, we argue that messages are structured in a way that supports
      structure dependence in syntax. We demonstrate this approach within a
      connectionist model of sentence production (Chang, 2009) which learned to
      generate a range of complex polar questions from a structured message without
      positive exemplars in the input. The model also generated different types of
      error in development that were similar in magnitude to those in children (e.g.,
      auxiliary doubling, Ambridge, Rowland, & Pine, 2008; Crain & Nakayama, 1987).
      Through model comparisons we trace how meaning constraints and linguistic
      experience interact during the acquisition of auxiliary inversion. Our results
      suggest that auxiliary inversion rules in English can be acquired without innate
      syntactic principles, as long as it is assumed that speakers who ask complex
      questions express messages that are structured into multiple propositions.

PMID- 28582684
TI  - Compounding as Abstract Operation in Semantic Space: Investigating relational
      effects through a large-scale, data-driven computational model.
AB  - In many languages, compounding is a fundamental process for the generation of
      novel words. When this process is productive (as, e.g., in English), native
      speakers can juxtapose two words to create novel compounds that can be readily
      understood by other speakers. The present paper proposes a large-scale, data
      driven computational system for compound semantic processing based on
      distributional semantics, the CAOSS model (Compounding as Abstract Operation in
      Semantic Space). In CAOSS, word meanings are represented as vectors encoding
      their lexical co-occurrences in a reference corpus. Given two constituent words,
      their composed representation (the compound) is computed by using matrices
      representing the abstract properties of constituent roles (modifier vs. head).
      The matrices are also induced through examples of language usage. The model is
      then validated against behavioral results concerning the processing of novel
      compounds, and in particular relational effects on response latencies. The
      effects of relational priming and relational dominance are considered. CAOSS
      predictions are shown to pattern with previous results, in terms of both the
      impact of relational information and the dissociations related to the different
      constituent roles. The simulations indicate that relational information is
      implicitly reflected in language usage, suggesting that human speakers can learn
      these aspects from language experience and automatically apply them to the
      processing of new word combinations. The present model is flexible enough to
      emulate this procedure, suggesting that relational effects might emerge as a by
      product of nuanced operations across distributional patterns.

PMID- 28582686
TI  - Incidental orthographic learning during a color detection task.
AB  - Orthographic learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge about specific
      spelling patterns forming words and about general biases and constraints on
      letter sequences. It is thought to occur by strengthening simultaneously
      activated visual and phonological representations during reading. Here we
      demonstrate that a visual perceptual learning procedure that leaves no time for
      articulation can result in orthographic learning evidenced in improved reading
      and spelling performance. We employed task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL),
      in which the stimuli to be learned are paired with an easy task target. Assorted
      line drawings and difficult-to-spell words were presented in red color among
      sequences of other black-colored words and images presented in rapid succession,
      constituting a fast-TIPL procedure with color detection being the explicit task.
      In five experiments, Greek children in Grades 4-5 showed increased recognition of
      words and images that had appeared in red, both during and after the training
      procedure, regardless of within-training testing, and also when targets appeared
      in blue instead of red. Significant transfer to reading and spelling emerged only
      after increased training intensity. In a sixth experiment, children in Grades 2-3
      showed generalization to words not presented during training that carried the
      same derivational affixes as in the training set. We suggest that reinforcement
      signals related to detection of the target stimuli contribute to the
      strengthening of orthography-phonology connections beyond earlier levels of
      visually-based orthographic representation learning. These results highlight the
      potential of perceptual learning procedures for the reinforcement of higher-level
      orthographic representations.

PMID- 28582687
TI  - Evaluating relationships among clinical working memory assessment and inattentive
      and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors in a community sample of children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examined relationships between inattentive and
      hyperactive/impulsive behaviors and working memory (WM) functioning, and the
      utility of WM in categorical diagnosis of ADHD versus considering ADHD symptoms
      on a continuum. METHOD: The study included 50 male children (6-12 years).
      Inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors were measured by the Conners-3P
      parent report, and WM was assessed by the WISC-IV WM subtests and Working Memory
      Index (WMI). RESULTS: WISC-IV Arithmetic and Digit Span Backward were most
      consistently related to inattentive behaviors, and no WM measure was consistently
      related to ADHD hyperactive/impulsive behaviors. Arithmetic and Digit Span
      Backward also accounted for significant variance in inattentive behaviors and
      ADHD inattention symptoms, respectively. Neither the WMI nor the Arithmetic
      subtest correctly classified individuals diagnosed with ADHD. CONCLUSION:
      Measurement of inattentive behaviors on a continuum best characterized
      relationships between symptoms of ADHD and WM functioning; WM functioning did not
      have utility in categorical understanding of ADHD.

PMID- 28582688
TI  - A simplified pressure adjustment clinical pathway for programmable valves in NPH
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to provide a clinical pathway for shunt
      valve adjustment in the treatment of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH)
      patients. PATIENT AND METHODS: The authors conducted a single-center
      retrospective study of 102 patients (mean age 74 years, 66 men, 36 women)
      diagnosed with NPH. In all cases, a Medtronic Strata Adjustable Pressure valve
      set initially at 1.5 was implanted. Outcome was based on the clinical status of
      the patient at the last contact point with the senior author. Patients were
      adjusted with reductions or increases of 0.5 per follow-up visit to achieve the
      best clinical outcome and avoid complications. Complications were categorized as
      infection, shunt malfunction, subdural hygroma/hematoma, or any adverse event
      able to be attributed to a change in shunt setting or surgical procedure.
      RESULTS: Of the 102 patients, 60% had the triad of clinical symptoms, 5% had gait
      dysfunction only, 2% had dementia only, 4% had urine incontinence and gait
      dysfunction, 1% had urine incontinence and dementia, and 28% had gait dysfunction
      and dementia. Over a mean clinical follow-up of 19 months, 71 patients had
      improvement or resolution of NPH symptoms at the last point of contact with the
      senior author. Of the 71 patients, 24% improved in all 3 symptoms, 8% improved in
      urine incontinence only, 17% improved in gait dysfunction only, 15% improved in
      dementia only, 15% improved in urine incontinence and gait dysfunction only, 4%
      improved in urine incontinence and dementia only, and 15% improved in gait
      dysfunction and dementia only. Valve pressure adjustment was required at least
      once in 85 patients (mean number of 1.68 adjustments, 7 maximum); 10% had 0.5 as
      the final setting, 47% had 1.0 as the final setting, 36% had 1.5 as the final
      setting, 7% had 2.0 as the final setting, and 0% had 2.5 as the final setting.
      There were 41 (40%) complications overall: 28 subdural hygromas/hematomas, of
      which 5 required surgical evacuation; 9 distal obstructions requiring surgical
      revision; 4 seizures; 2 infections; 1 exposed shunt tubing; 1 intraparenchymal
      hematoma of unknown etiology. CONCLUSION: Standardization of post-operative care
      for patients with NPH is possible. The present manuscript offers a safe and
      effective pathway for treatment of NPH patients with the Strata Adjustable
      Pressure Valve.

PMID- 28582689
TI  - The impact of white matter lesions on the cognitive outcome of subthalamic
      nucleus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: White Matter lesions (WML) are a risk factor for cognitive impairment
      in Parkinson's disease. There is no clear evidence of reduced general cognitive
      function after DBS. However, a subgroup of patients develops dementia rapidly
      after DBS despite careful patient selection processes. The aim of this study was
      to evaluate the load of WML as a possible risk factor for cognitive decline
      following STN DBS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 40 PD-patients receiving bilateral STN
      DBS were followed at least three years after surgery to detect dementia. All
      patients underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and MRI before
      surgery. The extent of WML was assessed using an automated approach. WML volume
      was correlated to the onset of dementia and the decline of a cognitive composite
      score retrospectively. RESULTS: Patients with a rapid onset of dementia within
      one, respective three following DBS showed significant higher WML volumes
      compared to cognitive normal and MCI patients (55.8cm3+/-18.836 vs. 9.3cm3+/
      12.2; p=0.002). The same significant association was found in a multivariable
      model, including the covariables age, gender and PD disease duration (p=0.01).
      WML volume was associated to the rate of decline in cognitive composite score
      within three years after DBS surgery (p=0.006; R2=0.40) after correction for age.
      CONCLUSIONS: Damaged white matter may lead to a reduced compensation of
      disconnections in cognitive circuits caused by the implantation of the DBS
      electrodes or by chronic stimulation. The role of WML as a prognostic factor for
      the cognitive outcome after DBS may be underestimated. The WML burden should be
      taken seriously in preoperative risk stratification.

PMID- 28582690
TI  - Use of alcohol and drugs in the view of people living with HIV/AIDS: a
      qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the meaning of the experiences of patients infected by
      HIV using antiretroviral therapy, regarding the use of alcohol and drugs. STUDY
      DESIGN: A qualitative phenomenological study. METHOD: A total of 25 patients
      receiving antiretroviral treatment participated in the investigation, of which 14
      were male and 11 were females, who expressed their feelings and perceptions
      through participation in focus groups and the interpretation of costumes. The
      empirical material was transcribed in full and later organized and analyzed using
      the phenomenological method. RESULTS: Based on this amusing experience we
      realized that participants were unaware of the effects of the use of alcohol and
      drugs in the AIDS progression. Since they have kept with their smoking and
      alcoholism habits to be accepted in a social group and consequently prevent
      prejudice. We believe that our health education strategy was adequate to improve
      antiretroviral therapy, since it helped in subject comprehension and patients
      self-care body expression. CONCLUSION: This phenomenological study made it
      possible to understand the experience of patients living with HIV regarding the
      use of alcohol and drugs, and contributes to the planning and implementation of
      intervention programs based on a participative model of care, with a view to
      prioritizing the holistic aspects involved in the treatment of people living with
      HIV/AIDS.

PMID- 28582691
TI  - Biological functions and role of mitogen-activated protein kinase activated
      protein kinase 2 (MK2) in inflammatory diseases.
AB  - The p38/MK2 pathway regulates a wide range of biological functions, and thus has
      most been explored as a therapeutic target for inhibition of severe and chronic
      inflammatory diseases. Till date, several p38 inhibitors with potent anti
      inflammatory effects in pre-clinical models have been discovered, but most of
      them have failed in clinics due to serious systemic toxicity issues. MK2 is a
      serine-threonine kinase downstream to p38 and is activated directly through
      phosphorylation of p38 under stress and inflammatory stimulus. MK2 has been shown
      to be a direct and essential component in regulating the biosynthesis of pro
      inflammatory cytokines. Disruption of MK2 signaling leads to a significant
      reduction in the level of several pro-inflammatory cytokine production. For these
      reasons, MK2 has been identified as an alternate molecular target in order to
      block the pathway with an assumption that this approach would show similar
      efficacy as that of p38 inhibitors with lesser toxicity concerns. This review
      briefly summarizes the molecular structure of MK2 and major biological functions
      in context with its pharmacological modulation to address various inflammatory
      diseases. It also discusses the points of advantages over p38 inhibition along
      with recent update in the development of small molecule MK2 inhibitors.

PMID- 28582692
TI  - Exploring the interaction of silver nanoparticles with lysozyme: Binding
      behaviors and kinetics.
AB  - The role of nanoparticle interaction with biomolecules to form a biocorona is the
      key to nanoparticle behavior and its consequences in the physiological
      environment. Since the adsorbed biocorona decides the fate of a nanomaterials in
      vivo, and thus a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic interactions of the
      proteins with the nanoparticle is imperative. Herein we investigate the
      interaction of a model protein, lysozyme with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using
      fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, UV-vis absorption spectrum and circular
      dichroism (CD) techniques under the physiological conditions. The results
      indicated that the binding of AgNPs to lysozyme may be a static quenching
      mechanism. With the analysis of the fluorescence spectral data, the binding
      constants and the thermodynamic parameters were determined, which suggests that
      the binding of AgNPs to lysozyme is a spontaneous process. Moreover, it was
      demonstrated that the main acting forces between AgNPs and lysozyme may be
      hydrophobic interactions. At the same time, the conformational change of lysozyme
      induced by AgNPs was investigated with synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy and
      CD techniques. The results of kinetic studies reveal that the adsorption of
      lysozyme on AgNPs surface tends to follow pseudo-second-order kinetic
      characteristic with obvious hysteresis effect.

PMID- 28582693
TI  - Analysis of the pen pressure and grip force signal during basic drawing tasks:
      The timing and speed changes impact drawing characteristics.
AB  - Writing is a complex fine and trained motor skill, involving complex
      biomechanical and cognitive processes. In this paper, we propose the study of
      writing kinetics using three angles: the pen-tip normal force, the total grip
      force signal and eventually writing quality assessment. In order to collect
      writing kinetics data, we designed a sensor collecting these characteristics
      simultaneously. Ten healthy right-handed adults were recruited and were asked to
      perform four tasks: first, they were instructed to draw circles at a speed they
      considered comfortable; they then were instructed to draw circles at a speed they
      regarded as fast; afterwards, they repeated the comfortable task compelled to
      follow the rhythm of a metronome; and eventually they performed the fast task
      under the same timing constraints. Statistical differences between the tasks were
      computed, and while pen-tip normal force and total grip force signal were not
      impacted by the changes introduced in each task, writing quality features were
      affected by both the speed changes and timing constraint changes. This verifies
      the already-studied speed-accuracy trade-off and suggest the existence of a
      timing constraints-accuracy trade-off.

PMID- 28582694
TI  - SlCOR413IM1: A novel cold-regulation gene from tomato, enhances drought stress
      tolerance in tobacco.
AB  - Drought stress adversely affects plant growth, development, and productivity.
      Genes functioning in plant response to drought stress are essential for drought
      tolerance. In this study, SlCOR413IM1, a cold-regulated gene isolated from
      Solanum lycopersium, was transferred to Nicotiana tabacum to investigate its
      function under drought stress. The subcellular localisation of SlCOR413IM1-GFP
      fusion protein in Arabidopsis protoplasts suggested that SlCOR413IM1 is a
      chloroplast protein. Expression analyses revealed that SlCOR413IM1 responded to
      drought and cold stresses. Under drought stress, transgenic plants maintained the
      high maximum photochemical efficiency, net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and D1
      protein content of photosystem II (PSII). Compared with wild-type (WT) plants,
      transgenic plants showed higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate
      peroxidase (APX) activities and proline and soluble sugar content, which reduced
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. However, the high SOD and APX
      activities in transgenic plants were independent of their transcription levels.
      Moreover, the transgenic plants exhibited better seed germination, water status
      and survival, as well as lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content and relative
      electrical conductivity (REC) than WT plants under drought stress. Taken
      together, these data demonstrated that overexpression of SlCOR413IM1 enhanced
      drought stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco.

PMID- 28582695
TI  - Identification of potent inhibitors of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) through a
      pharmacophore-based virtual screening approach.
AB  - DNA methylation is an epigenetic change that results in the addition of a methyl
      group at the carbon-5 position of cytosine residues. DNA methyltransferase (DNMT)
      inhibitors can suppress tumour growth and have significant therapeutic value.
      However, the established inhibitors are limited in their application due to their
      substantial cytotoxicity. Additionally, the standard drugs for DNMT inhibition
      are non-selective cytosine analogues with considerable cytotoxic side-effects. In
      the present study, we have designed a workflow by integrating various ligand
      based and structure-based approaches to discover new agents active against DNMT1.
      We have derived a pharmacophore model with the help of available DNMT1
      inhibitors. Utilising this model, we performed the virtual screening of Maybridge
      chemical library and the identified hits were then subsequently filtered based on
      the Naive Bayesian classification model. The molecules that have returned from
      this classification model were subjected to ensemble based docking. We have
      selected 10 molecules for the biological assay by inspecting the interactions
      portrayed by these molecules. Three out of the ten tested compounds have shown
      DNMT1 inhibitory activity. These compounds were also found to demonstrate
      potential inhibition of cellular proliferation in human breast cancer MDA-MB-231
      cells. In the present study, we have utilized a multi-step virtual screening
      protocol to identify inhibitors of DNMT1, which offers a starting point to
      develop more potent DNMT1 inhibitors as anti-cancer agents.

PMID- 28582696
TI  - Structural basis for the potent inhibition of the HIV integrase-LEDGF/p75 protein
      protein interaction.
AB  - Integrase (IN) constitutes one of the key enzymes involved in the lifecycle of
      the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the etiological agent of AIDS. The
      biological role of IN strongly depends on the recognition and binding of cellular
      cofactors belonging to the infected host cell. Thus, the inhibition of the
      protein-protein interaction (PPI) between IN and cellular cofactors has been
      envisioned as a promising therapeutic target. In the present work we explore a
      structure-activity relationship for a set of 14 compounds reported as inhibitors
      of the PPI between IN and the lens epithelium-derived growth factor (LEDGF/p75).
      Our results demonstrate that the possibility to adopt the bioactive conformation
      capable of interacting with the hotspots IN-LEDGF/p75 hotspots residues
      constitutes a critical feature to obtain a potent inhibition. A ligand efficiency
      (|Lig-Eff|) quantitative descriptor combining both interaction energetics and
      conformational requirements was developed and correlated with the reported
      biological activity. Our results contribute to the rational development of IN
      LEDGF/p75 interaction inhibitors providing a solid quantitative structure
      activity relationship aimed for the screening of new IN-LEDGF/p75 interaction
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28582697
TI  - Increases in self-reported fentanyl use among a population entering drug
      treatment: The need for systematic surveillance of illicitly manufactured
      opioids.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Recent reports indicate a sharp increase in fentanyl-related
      overdose deaths across the United States, much of which is likely related to the
      introduction of cheap, illicitly manufactured fentanyl derivatives. In this
      study, we sought to estimate the magnitude of illicit fentanyl use from 2012 to
      2016 using a national opioid abuse surveillance system. METHODS: The study
      program surveyed 10,900 individuals entering substance abuse treatment for opioid
      use disorder, with participants asked to endorse past month 'use to get high' of
      fentanyl drugs, stratified by identifiable (i.e., branded) fentanyl formulations
      or a 'type unknown' drug alleged to contain fentanyl. MAIN FINDINGS: Total past
      month fentanyl-use rose modestly from 2012 to 2016. While use of known fentanyl
      products remained relatively stable (mean=10.9%; P=0.25), endorsements of
      'unknown' fentanyl products nearly doubled from 9% in 2013 to 15.1% by 2016
      (P<0.001). Data show no discernable indication that this increase is diminishing
      or stabilizing. CONCLUSIONS: This first attempt to assess the prevalence of
      illicit fentanyl use shows that recent increases in fentanyl use seem to be due
      almost entirely to 'unknown' fentanyl presumed to be illicitly manufactured.
      Given that it is difficult to assess the extent to which fentanyl may have been
      substituted for another drug (i.e., oxycodone, alprazolam, etc.) or was used as a
      heroin admixture, our data likely represent an underestimation of the full
      magnitude of illicit fentanyl abuse. As such, this growing public health problem
      requires immediate attention and more systematic efforts to identify and track
      its abuse.

PMID- 28582698
TI  - Co-occurrence of tobacco product use, substance use, and mental health problems
      among adults: Findings from Wave 1 (2013-2014) of the Population Assessment of
      Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although non-cigarette tobacco product use is increasing among U.S.
      adults, their associations with substance use and mental health problems are
      unclear. This study examined co-occurrence of tobacco use, substance use, and
      mental health problems, and its moderation by gender, among 32,202U.S. adults
      from Wave 1 (2013-2014) of the nationally representative longitudinal Population
      Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. METHODS: Participants self
      reported current cigarette, e-cigarette, traditional cigar, cigarillo, filtered
      cigar, hookah, smokeless tobacco and other tobacco product use; past year
      alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use; and past year substance use,
      internalizing and externalizing problems. RESULTS: Compared to non-current
      tobacco users, current users were more likely to report alcohol or drug use
      (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=2.6; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.3, 2.9), with the
      strongest associations observed for cigarillo and hookah users. Across all
      tobacco product groups, users were more likely to report internalizing (AOR=1.9;
      95% CI: 1.7, 2.1), externalizing (AOR=1.6; 95% CI: 1.5, 1.8), and substance use
      (AOR=3.4; 95% CI: 2.9, 4.1) problems than non-users. Gender moderated many of
      these associations and, of these, all non-cigarette tobacco product associations
      were stronger among females. CONCLUSIONS: This nationally representative study of
      U.S. adults is the first to comprehensively document tobacco use, substance use,
      and mental health comorbidities across the range of currently available tobacco
      products, while also demonstrating that female tobacco users are at increased
      risk for substance use and mental health problems. These findings may point to
      gender differences in vulnerability and suggest that interventions incorporate
      gender-specific approaches.

PMID- 28582700
TI  - Effects of road salt on larval amphibian susceptibility to parasitism through
      behavior and immunocompetence.
AB  - Large quantities of road salts are used for de-icing in temperate climates but
      often leach into aquatic ecosystems where they can cause harm to inhabitants,
      including reduced growth and survival. However, the implications of road salt
      exposure for aquatic animal susceptibility to pathogens and parasites have not
      yet been examined even though infectious diseases can significantly contribute to
      wildlife population declines. Through a field survey, we found a range of NaCl
      concentrations (50-560mg/L) in ponds known to contain larval amphibians, with
      lower levels found in sites close to gravel- rather than hard-surfaced roads. We
      then investigated how chronic exposure to environmentally-realistic levels of
      road salt (up to 1140mg/L) affected susceptibility to infection by trematode
      parasites (helminths) in larval stages of two amphibian species (Lithobates
      sylvaticus - wood frogs, and L. pipiens - northern leopard frogs) by considering
      effects on host anti-parasite behavior and white blood cell profiles. Wood frogs
      exposed to road salt had higher parasite loads, and also exhibited reduced anti
      parasite behavior in these conditions. In contrast, infection intensity in
      northern leopard frogs had a non-monotonic response to road salts even though
      lymphocytes were only elevated at the highest concentration. Our results indicate
      the potential for chronic road salt exposure to affect larval amphibian
      susceptibility to pathogenic parasites through alterations of behavior and
      immunocompetence, with further studies needed at higher concentrations, as well
      as that of road salts on free-living parasite infectious stages.

PMID- 28582699
TI  - Association of prenatal cocaine exposure, childhood maltreatment, and responses
      to stress in adolescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) may alter responses to stress.
      Children with PCE tend to grow up in suboptimal caregiving environments,
      conducive to child maltreatment (CM). Guided by the diathesis-stress model, the
      present study examined differences in self-reported responses to stress and
      coping in adolescents with and without PCE and explored whether childhood
      maltreatment (CM) moderated the effects of PCE. METHODS: Adolescents (N=363; 184
      PCE, 179 non-cocaine exposed (NCE)), primarily African-American and of low
      socioeconomic status, were prospectively enrolled in a longitudinal study at
      birth. The Responses to Stress Questionnaire was used to assess volitional coping
      (primary control, secondary control, disengagement) and involuntary responses
      (involuntary engagement, involuntary disengagement) to stress at the 15- and 17
      year follow-up visits. CM was assessed retrospectively at age 17 using the
      Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire. RESULTS: Findings from longitudinal mixed
      model analyses indicated that PCE was associated with poorer coping strategies
      only among adolescents with a history of CM. Adolescents with PCE who experienced
      CM reported less dominant use of primary (e.g., problem solving, emotional
      regulation) and secondary control (e.g., cognitive restructuring) and more
      dominant use of disengagement (e.g., denial, avoidance) and involuntary
      disengagement (e.g., inaction) than adolescents with PCE who did not experience
      CM or NCE adolescents regardless of CM. CM was associated with more dominant use
      of involuntary engagement (e.g., intrusive thoughts). CONCLUSIONS: PCE may
      increase sensitivity to CM, predisposing increased vulnerability to environmental
      risk. Continued studies into adulthood will elucidate how coping and involuntary
      stress responses affect social, vocational, and behavioral adjustment.

PMID- 28582701
TI  - Oxidative stress in the algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exposed to biocides.
AB  - The toxicity of biocides can be associated with the formation of reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) and subsequent oxidative damage, interfering with the normal
      function of photosynthetic organisms. This study investigated the formation and
      effects of ROS in the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exposed
      to three environmentally relevant biocides, aclonifen, dichlofluanid and
      triclosan. After a first screening to identify which biocides induced ROS, a 24h
      multi-endpoint analysis was used to verify the possible consequences. A battery
      of high-throughput methods was applied in algae for measuring ROS formation,
      reduced glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation (LPO), photosystem (PS) II
      performance and pigments (chlorophylls a, b and carotenoids). Results show that
      only aclonifen induced ROS after the first 6h exposure, with the other two
      biocides not showing any ROS formation. Aclonifen, a Protox and carotenoid
      inhibitor, induced a concentration-dependent ROS formation, LPO and interfered
      with algae pigments content, while no alterations were detected in GSH content. A
      significant effect was also seen in the photosynthetic process, especially a
      reduction in the maximum and effective quantum yields, accompanied by alterations
      in energy dissipation in PSII reaction centers and the impairment of the electron
      transport rate. This study demonstrated the successful use of a battery of high
      throughput methods for quickly screening biocides capacity to induce the
      formation of ROS and the subsequent effects in C. reinhardtii, thus revealing
      their mode of action (MoA) at concentrations before an impact on growth can
      become effective.

PMID- 28582702
TI  - ShapeCut: Bayesian surface estimation using shape-driven graph.
AB  - A variety of medical image segmentation problems present significant technical
      challenges, including heterogeneous pixel intensities, noisy/ill-defined
      boundaries and irregular shapes with high variability. The strategy of estimating
      optimal segmentations within a statistical framework that combines image data
      with priors on anatomical structures promises to address some of these technical
      challenges. However, methods that rely on local optimization techniques and/or
      local shape penalties (e.g., smoothness) have been proven to be inadequate for
      many difficult segmentation problems. These challenging segmentation problems can
      benefit from the inclusion of global shape priors within a maximum-a-posteriori
      estimation framework, which biases solutions toward an object class of interest.
      In this paper, we propose a maximum-a-posteriori formulation that relies on a
      generative image model by incorporating both local and global shape priors. The
      proposed method relies on graph cuts as well as a new shape parameters estimation
      that provides a global updates-based optimization strategy. We demonstrate our
      approach on synthetic datasets as well as on the left atrial wall segmentation
      from late-gadolinium enhancement MRI, which has been shown to be effective for
      identifying myocardial fibrosis in the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.
      Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of
      the average surface distance between extracted surfaces and the corresponding
      ground-truth, as well as the clinical efficacy of the method in the
      identification of fibrosis and scars in the atrial wall.

PMID- 28582703
TI  - The Cell Cycle Inhibitors p21Cip1 and p27Kip1 Control Proliferation but Enhance
      DNA Damage Resistance of Glioma Stem Cells.
AB  - High-grade gliomas are the most prevalent and lethal primary brain tumors. They
      display a hierarchical arrangement with a population of self-renewing and highly
      tumorigenic cells called cancer stem cells. These cells are thought to be
      responsible for tumor recurrence, which make them main candidates for targeted
      therapies. Unbridled cell cycle progression may explain the selective sensitivity
      of some cancer cells to treatments. The members of the Cip/Kip family p21Cip1 and
      p27Kip1 were initially considered as tumor suppressors based on their ability to
      block proliferation. However, they are currently looked at as proteins with dual
      roles in cancer: one as tumor suppressor and the other as oncogene. Therefore,
      the aim of this study was to determine the functions of these cell cycle
      inhibitors in five patient-derived glioma stem cell-enriched cell lines. We found
      that these proteins are functional in glioma stem cells. They negatively regulate
      cell cycle progression both in unstressed conditions and in response to genotoxic
      stress. In addition, p27Kip1 is upregulated in nutrient-restricted and
      differentiating cells, suggesting that this Cip/Kip is a mediator of
      antimitogenic signals in glioma cells. Importantly, the lack of these proteins
      impairs cell cycle halt in response to genotoxic agents, rendering cells more
      vulnerable to DNA damage. For these reasons, these proteins may operate both as
      tumor suppressors, limiting cell proliferation, and as oncogenes, conferring cell
      resistance to DNA damage. Thus, deepening our knowledge on the biological
      functions of these Cip/Kips may shed light on how some cancer cells develop drug
      resistance.

PMID- 28582705
TI  - Highly sensitive photoelectrochemical biosensor for kinase activity detection and
      inhibition based on the surface defect recognition and multiple signal
      amplification of metal-organic frameworks.
AB  - A turn-on photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor based on the surface defect
      recognition and multiple signal amplification of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)
      was proposed for highly sensitive protein kinase activity analysis and inhibitor
      evaluation. In this strategy, based on the phosphorylation reaction in the
      presence of protein kinase A (PKA), the Zr-based metal-organic frameworks (UiO
      66) accommodated with [Ru(bpy)3]2+ photoactive dyes in the pores were linked to
      the phosphorylated kemptide modified TiO2/ITO electrode through the chelation
      between the Zr4+ defects on the surface of UiO-66 and the phosphate groups in
      kemptide. Under visible light irradiation, the excited electrons from
      [Ru(bpy)3]2+ adsorbed in the pores of UiO-66 injected into the TiO2 conduction
      band to generate photocurrent, which could be utilized for protein kinase
      activities detection. The large surface area and high porosities of UiO-66
      facilitated a large number of [Ru(bpy)3]2+ that increased the photocurrent
      significantly, and afforded a highly sensitive PEC analysis of kinase activity.
      The detection limit of the as-proposed PEC biosensor was 0.0049UmL-1 (S/N!=!3).
      The biosensor was also applied for quantitative kinase inhibitor evaluation and
      PKA activities detection in MCF-7 cell lysates. The developed visible-light PEC
      biosensor provides a simple detection procedure and a cost-effective manner for
      PKA activity assays, and shows great potential in clinical diagnosis and drug
      discoveries.

PMID- 28582704
TI  - A Novel Antagonist of the Immune Checkpoint Protein Adenosine A2a Receptor
      Restores Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Activity in the Context of the Tumor
      Microenvironment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Therapeutic strategies targeting immune checkpoint proteins have led
      to significant responses in patients with various tumor types. The success of
      these studies has led to the development of various antibodies/inhibitors for the
      different checkpoint proteins involved in immune evasion of the tumor. Adenosine
      present in high concentrations in the tumor microenvironment activates the immune
      checkpoint adenosine A2a receptor (A2aR), leading to the suppression of antitumor
      responses. Inhibition of this checkpoint has the potential to enhance antitumor T
      cell responsiveness. METHODS: We developed a novel A2aR antagonist (PBF-509) and
      tested its antitumor response in vitro, in a mouse model, and in non-small cell
      lung cancer patient samples. RESULTS: Our studies showed that PBF-509 is highly
      specific to the A2aR as well as inhibitory of A2aR function in an in vitro model.
      In a mouse model, we found that lung metastasis was decreased after treatment
      with PBF-509 compared with its control. Furthermore, freshly resected tumor
      infiltrating lymphocytes from lung cancer patients showed increased A2aR
      expression in CD4+ cells and variable expression in CD8+ cells. Ex vivo studies
      showed an increased responsiveness of human tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes when
      PBF-509 was combined with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies
      demonstrate that inhibition of the A2aR using the novel inhibitor PBF-509 could
      lead to novel immunotherapeutic strategies in non-small cell lung cancer.

PMID- 28582706
TI  - Zinc-doping enhanced cadmium sulfide electrochemiluminescence behavior based on
      Au-Cu alloy nanocrystals quenching for insulin detection.
AB  - Novel and sensitive sandwich-type electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was
      fabricated for insulin detection. Au-ZnCd14S combined nitrogen doping mesoporous
      carbons (Au-ZnCd14S/NH2-NMCs) acted as sensing platform and Au-Cu alloy
      nanocrystals were employed as labels to quench the ECL of Au-ZnCd14S/NH2-NMCs.
      Zinc-doping promoted the ECL behavior of CdS nanocrystals, with the best ECL
      emission obtained when the molar ratio of Zn/Cd was 1:14. Simultaneously, the
      modification of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and combination with NH2-NMC further
      enhanced the ECL emission of ZnCd14S due to its excellent conductivity and large
      specific surface area, which is desirable for the immunosensor construction. Au
      Cu alloy nanocrystals were employed in the ECL system of ZnCd14S/K2S2O8
      triggering ECL quenching effects. The ECL spectra of ZnCd14S, acting as the
      energy donor, exhibited well overlaps with the absorption band of Au-Cu alloy
      nanocrystals which acted as the energy acceptor, leading to an effective ECL
      resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET). On the basis of the ECL quenching effects, a
      sensitive ECL immunosensor for insulin detection was successfully constructed
      with a linear response range of insulin concentration from 0.1pg/mL to 30ng/mL
      and the limit of detection was calculated to be 0.03pg/mL (S/N = 3).

PMID- 28582708
TI  - New immobilisation method for oligonucleotides on electrodes enables highly
      sensitive, electrochemical label-free gene sensing.
AB  - We present a versatile and facile procedure for the immobilisation of bioprobe
      molecules to an electrochemical sensing element. We eliminate lengthy preparation
      procedures for direct functionalisation of electrode surfaces by pre-attaching
      probe molecules to carboxylic acid bearing termonomers of pyrrole phenylenes or
      thiophene phenylenes. We demonstrate that these conjugates can be
      electrodeposited at low potentials to form nano-scale porous, electroactive
      conducting polymer films, exposing the bioprobe and retaining activity and
      specificity for binding, exemplified here with DNA sensors. The electrochemical
      reaction impedance for Fe(CN)63-/4- on oligonucleotide-modified electrodes showed
      remarkable (down to aM) detection sensitivity for target DNA sequences present in
      solution. Cross-sensitivity to non-complementary target sequences is small and
      multi-target arrays are easily made. There is no need for labelling of either
      probe or target oligonucleotide.

PMID- 28582707
TI  - An ultrasensitive label-free electrochemiluminescent immunosensor for measuring
      Cry1Ab level and genetically modified crops content.
AB  - The development of genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant crops has aroused
      great public concern about the risks on the eco-environment resulting from a
      release of toxic Cry proteins (such as Cry1Ab) to the soil. Therefore, it is of
      crucial importance to measure the Cry proteins level and the GM crops content.
      Here, we have tested for the first time a method that uses novel carbon
      nanospheres (CNPs) label-free electrochemiluminescent (ECL) immunosensor for the
      ultrasensitive quantification of Cry1Ab and GM crops. In this work, novel CNPs
      were prepared from printer toner with a very facile approach, and linked with
      anti-Cry1Ab antibodies to modify a golden working electrode. The immunoreaction
      between Cry1Ab and its antibody formed an immunocomplex on the bioreceptor region
      of the sensor, which inhibited electron transfer between the electrode surface
      and the ECL substance, leading to a decrease of ECL response. Under the optimal
      conditions, the fabricated label-free ECL immunosensor determined Cry1Ab down to
      3.0pgmL-1 within a linear range of 0.010-1.0ngmL-1, showing significant
      improvement of sensitivity than that of most previous reports. Meanwhile, the
      proposed method was successfully applied for GM rice BT63 and GM maize MON810
      detections down to 0.010% and 0.020%, respectively. Due to its outstanding
      advantages such as high sensitivity, ideal selectivity, simple fabrication, rapid
      detection, and low cost, the developed method can be considered as a powerful and
      pioneering tool for GM crops detection. Its use can also be extended to other
      toxin protein sensing in foods.

PMID- 28582709
TI  - Electrodepositable alginate membranes for enzymatic sensors: An amperometric
      glucose biosensor for whole blood analysis.
AB  - Simple and disposable point of care systems are usually the best solution for
      chronic patients to get a rapid diagnosis in home care context. However, their
      main drawback relies on the poor reliability derived from the low stability of
      the bio-recognition elements and low quality of the transducers. In the current
      work, we study the use of electrodeposited calcium alginate hydrogels as a
      biocompatible matrix in the development of enzymatic amperometric biosensors for
      whole blood analysis, to enhance the enzymes stability and to protect the
      transducer from biofouling. The alginate electrodeposition involves the
      controlled Ca2+ release, so the gel thickness can be modulated. In the biosensor,
      horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and glucose oxidase (GOD) were electrodeposited
      within the hydrogel and the activity of the bi-enzymatic system was analyzed
      chronoamperometrically using 3,3',5,5'-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as the
      mediator. Besides enzyme entrapment, the obtained gels protected the transducer
      from biofouling, enabling the reuse of the transducer after hydrogel removal and
      re-electrodeposition. The biosensors showed good analytical characteristics to
      glucose determination in whole blood samples, discriminating among healthy and
      hyperglycemic samples, with good sensitivity (- 0.27uAcm-2mM-1), low limit of
      detection (126uM) and long lineal range (2-12mM).

PMID- 28582710
TI  - Limitations in the use of 18F-FDG PET in the pre-operative staging of gastric
      cancer: A case series.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Positron emission tomography (PET) is a mainstay in the
      preoperative evaluation of various cancers. In gastric cancer however, its role
      in the initial staging remains contentious. Presented is a case series of three
      gastric patients wherein the use of fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT (computer
      tomography) as part of the initial staging was inconsequential to treatment,
      demonstrating its limited role in the staging of primary gastric cancer. METHODS:
      We analyzed retrospective data from 12/1/2010 to 10/31/2016 of patient with
      gastric cancer whose initial staging included a PET/CT. Only patients 18 years
      and older with gastric and gastro-oesophageal junction cancers were included. The
      data was derived from a single institution. Management of patients involved both
      an academic institution and a community practice. RESULTS: Of the three cases
      reported, an FDG-avid mass with minimal FDG uptake was reported in a single case
      and no FDG-avid lesion was reported in the other two. Neither of the patients
      underwent an endoscopic ultrasound for lack of availability. CONCLUSION: While
      various imaging studies such as endoscopic ultrasound have an established role in
      the initial staging, the role of FDG-PET is yet to be established and its routine
      use remains contentious. Based on our clinical experience and review of the
      literature, we believe FDG-PET/CT imaging is of limited clinical and cost
      effective value in the initial staging workup of gastric cancer.

PMID- 28582711
TI  - Biomedical applications of green synthesized Nobel metal nanoparticles.
AB  - Synthesis of Nobel metal nanoparticles, play a key role in the field of medicine.
      Plants contain a substantial number of organic constituents, like phenolic
      compounds and various types of glycosides that help in synthesis of metal
      nanoparticles. Synthesis of metal nanoparticles by green method is one of the
      best and environment friendly methods. The major significance of the green
      synthesis is lack of toxic by-products produced during metal nanoparticle
      synthesis. The nanoparticles, synthesized by green method show various
      significant biological activities. Most of the research articles report the
      synthesized nanoparticles to be active against gram positive and gram negative
      bacteria. Some of these bacteria include Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis,
      Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas fluorescens. The synthesized nanoparticles
      also show significant antifungal activity against Trichophyton simii,
      Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum as well as different types of
      cancer cells such as breast cancer cell line. They also exhibit significant
      antioxidant activity. The activities of these Nobel metal nano-particles mainly
      depend on the size and shape. The particles of small size with large surface area
      show good activity in the field of medicine. The synthesized nanoparticles are
      also active against leishmanial diseases. This research article explores in
      detail the green synthesis of the nanoparticles and their uses thereof.

PMID- 28582712
TI  - Trifunctional fluorescent unnatural nucleoside: Label free detection of T-T/C-C
      base mismatches, abasic site and bulge DNA.
AB  - The detection and targeting of both the mismatched and abasic DNA is highly
      important which would ultimately help in designing new diagnostics and
      chemotherapeutics. Furthermore, sensing and targeting the bulge sequence with a
      fluorescent probe would be useful to study the role of bulges in nucleic acid
      function or could have significant therapeutic potential. Thus, detection of
      specific bulges by small fluorescent molecules is an attractive research area
      since the past several years. Many attempts have been made to prepare such
      compounds. We report herein a label free strategy for the detection of pyrimidine
      base mismatches (T/T and C/C), sensing of abasic site, and pyrimidine base bulge
      DNA using an unnatural tetrazolylpyrene nucleoside (TPyBDo) as a bare fluorescent
      probe. The H-bonding/hydrophobic force mediated interactions allow the sensing of
      all three deformed DNA via an enhancement of fluorescence signal using our simple
      "Just-Mix and Read" strategy. The binding of the probe to all the three deformed
      DNA duplexes is accompanied by an increase in the thermal melting stability of
      the deformed DNAs. That the probe binds efficiently to the minor groove near the
      deformed site was evident from spectroscopic studies. All the spectral evidences
      open up a multitude of possibilities for using our probe, tetrazolylpyrene
      nucleoside, as an efficient fluorescent light-up bio-probe for label free DNA
      detection.

PMID- 28582713
TI  - Cesium-induced inhibition of bacterial growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and
      their possible potential applications for bioremediation of wastewater.
AB  - Radioactive isotopes and fission products have attracted considerable attention
      because of their long lasting serious damage to the health of humans and other
      organisms. This study examined the toxicity and accumulation behavior of cesium
      towards P. aeruginosa PAO1 and its capacity to remove cesium from waste water.
      Interestingly, the programmed bacterial growth inhibition occurred according to
      the cesium environment. The influence of cesium was analyzed using several
      optical methods for quantitative evaluation. Cesium plays vital role in the
      growth of microorganisms and functions as an anti-microbial agent. The toxicity
      of Cs to P. aeruginosa PAO1 increases as the concentration of cesium is increased
      in concentration-dependent manner. P. aeruginosa PAO1 shows excellent Cs removal
      efficiency of 76.1% from the contaminated water. The toxicity of cesium on the
      cell wall and in the cytoplasm were studied by transmission electron microscopy
      and electron dispersive X-ray analysis. Finally, the removal of cesium from
      wastewater using P. aeruginosa PAO1 as a potential biosorbent and the blocking of
      competitive interactions of other monovalent cation, such as potassium, were
      assessed. Overall, P. aeruginosa PAO1 can be used as a high efficient biomaterial
      in the field of radioactive waste disposal and management.

PMID- 28582714
TI  - Impact of suspended coal dusts on methane deflagration properties in a large
      scale straight duct.
AB  - Knowledge about flame deflagrations in mixtures of methane and diluted coal dust
      assists in the prediction of fires and explosions, and in the design of adequate
      protective systems. This vital lack of information on the role of hybrid mixtures
      (methane/coal dust) is covered in this work by employing a novel Large-Scale
      Straight Duct (LSSD) designed specifically for this purpose. The hybrid fuel was
      injected along the first 8m of the 30m long LSSD. The results revealed that a
      30gm-3 coal dust concentration boosted the flame travel distance, from 6.5m to
      28.5m, and increased the over pressure rise profile to 0.135bar. The over
      pressure rise (OPR), pressure wave velocity, flame intensity and the flame
      velocity were significantly boosted along the LSSD in the presence of 10gm-3 or
      30gm-3 coal dust concentrations in the methane flame deflagrations. Finally, the
      high speed camera showed that the presence of the coal dust enhanced the
      turbulence in the front flame. Consequently, the pressure wave and flame
      velocities were both increased when a 10gm-3 coal dust concentration coexisted
      with a 9.5% methane concentration in the deflagration.

PMID- 28582715
TI  - In vivo stem cell tracking with imageable nanoparticles that bind bioorthogonal
      chemical receptors on the stem cell surface.
AB  - It is urgently necessary to develop reliable non-invasive stem cell imaging
      technology for tracking the in vivo fate of transplanted stem cells in living
      subjects. Herein, we developed a simple and well controlled stem cell imaging
      method through a combination of metabolic glycoengineering and bioorthogonal
      copper-free click chemistry. Firstly, the exogenous chemical receptors containing
      azide (-N3) groups were generated on the surfaces of stem cells through metabolic
      glycoengineering using metabolic precursor, tetra-acetylated N-azidoacetyl-d
      mannosamine(Ac4ManNAz). Next, bicyclo[6.1.0]nonyne-modified glycol chitosan
      nanoparticles (BCN-CNPs) were prepared as imageable nanoparticles to deliver
      different imaging agents. Cy5.5, iron oxide nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles
      were conjugated or encapsulated to BCN-CNPs for optical, MR and CT imaging,
      respectively. These imageable nanoparticles bound chemical receptors on the
      Ac4ManNAz-treated stem cell surface specifically via bioorthogonal copper-free
      click chemistry. Then they were rapidly taken up by the cell membrane turn-over
      mechanism resulting in higher endocytic capacity compared non-specific uptake of
      nanoparticles. During in vivo animal test, BCN-CNP-Cy5.5-labeled stem cells could
      be continuously tracked by non-invasive optical imaging over 15 days.
      Furthermore, BCN-CNP-IRON- and BCN-CNP-GOLD-labeled stem cells could be
      efficiently visualized using in vivo MR and CT imaging demonstrating utility of
      our stem cell labeling method using chemical receptors. These results conclude
      that our method based on metabolic glycoengineering and bioorthogonal copper-free
      click chemistry can stably label stem cells with diverse imageable nanoparticles
      representing great potential as new stem cell imaging technology.

PMID- 28582716
TI  - Combination of active targeting, enzyme-triggered release and fluorescent dye
      into gold nanoclusters for endomicroscopy-guided photothermal/photodynamic
      therapy to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most devastating
      malignancies in patients, and there is an urgent need for an effective treatment
      method. Herein, we report a novel gold nanocluster-based platform for confocal
      laser endomicroscopy-guided photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT)
      for PDAC, which consists of four components: the PTT-carrier gold nanocluster, an
      active targeting ligand U11 peptide, a Cathepsin E (CTSE)-sensitive PDT therapy
      prodrug, and a CTSE-sensitive imaging agent (cyanine dye Cy5.5). Due to the
      strong coupling among cross-linked gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), the surface
      plasmon resonance peak of nanoclusters shifts to the near-infrared (NIR) region,
      thus making the nanoclusters useful in the effective PTT therapy. In the system,
      the labeling of nanoclusters with U11 peptide can distinctly increase their
      affinity and accelerate their uptake by pancreatic cancer cells. Cell apoptosis
      staining demonstrates that, upon incorporation of the uPAR-targeted unit, the
      antitumor efficacy of CTSE-sensitive nanocluster AuS-U11 is significantly
      enhanced with respect to that of the non-targeted nanocluster AuS-PEG and the
      insensitive nanocluster AuC-PEG. In vivo and ex vivo optical imaging confirms the
      high accumulation of AuS-U11 in the in situ pancreatic tumor model. Therapeutic
      studies further show that the combination of active targeting for tumor tissue,
      enzyme-triggered drug release of 5-ALA and fluorescent dye Cy5.5 in nanoclusters
      AuS-U11 could achieve optimal therapeutic efficacy with endomicroscopy-guided
      photothermal/photodynamic therapy with minimal side effects. As a consequence,
      the delicate gold nanocluster concept provides a promising strategy to enhance
      the therapy efficiency in the most challenging PDAC treatment.

PMID- 28582717
TI  - Modulating the phenotype of host macrophages to enhance osteogenesis in MSC-laden
      hydrogels: Design of a glucomannan coating material.
AB  - The biomaterials-host interaction is a dynamic process in which macrophages play
      a vital role of regulation. Depending on the biochemical signals they sense,
      these highly plastic cells can mediate the immune response against the implanted
      scaffolds and/or exert regenerative potency to varying extent. Designing
      appropriate 'exterior signals' for scaffolds may exploit the power of endogenous
      macrophages to aid the regeneration of engineered tissues. To realise this goal,
      this study devised an injectable, instantaneously-solidifying coating material
      (acBSP) based on a unique, macrophage-affinitive glucomannan polysaccharide.
      Coating of three-dimensional hydrogel constructs with acBSP was rapid, neat and
      complete, requiring neither chemical reactions nor harsh conditions.
      Comprehensive in vitro analyses indicated that acBSP efficiently facilitated the
      adhesion and activation of macrophages and notably induced the macrophages to
      express pro-osteogenic/-angiogenic genes. Further in vivo assessment of acBSP
      coated, mesenchymal stem cells-laden hydrogels in a murine dorsal subcutaneous
      pocket model demonstrated efficient macrophage activation, desirable scaffold
      tissue integration and improved osteogenic differentiation in the delivered
      cells. In summary, by activating macrophages into a pro-osteogenic phenotype, the
      acBSP coating has demonstrated its competency as an innovative, open and
      efficacious platform to harness the power of host immunity for enhancing the
      regenerative performance of engineered tissue constructs.

PMID- 28582718
TI  - Stigma and discrimination experienced by people with schizophrenia living in the
      community in Guangzhou, China.
AB  - The aims of this study were to investigate experienced stigma and discrimination
      and their associated factors in people with schizophrenia who live in the
      community in Guangzhou, China. A total of 384 people with schizophrenia were
      randomly recruited from four districts of Guangzhou and completed the scales and
      questionnaires: Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale (ISMI), Self-Esteem
      Scale (SES), Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC-12), Brief Psychiatric Rating
      Scale (BPRS), PANSS negative scale (PANSS-N), Global Assessment of Functioning
      (GAF) and Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS). Insight and medication
      compliance were evaluated by psychiatrists. Data were analyzed by using
      descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multivariable linear regression.
      We found a significant positive correlation between BPRS score and PANSS-N score,
      GAF score was significantly negative correlated with SQLS score, Insight score
      was significantly negative correlated with medication compliance score, ISMI
      score was significantly positive correlated with SES score and experienced
      discrimination score. Multivariable linear regression found SQLS, SES and
      experienced discrimination were the main independent variables of ISMI and
      experienced discrimination was the most important factor of ISMI. Our findings
      suggest that people with schizophrenia often experienced stigma and
      discrimination in this Chinese population, and more anti-stigma interventions
      should be provided.

PMID- 28582719
TI  - Is adolescent alcohol use associated with self-reported hypomanic symptoms in
      adulthood? - Findings from a prospective birth cohort.
AB  - High rates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) are reported in people with major
      depression (MD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Substance abuse problems in
      adolescence may also indicate risk for future onset of mood disorders, especially
      BD. Data collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
      (ALSPAC), a large UK birth cohort, allowed information to be collected over
      several different time points and to test whether problematic alcohol use at age
      16 was predictive of vulnerability to hypomanic symptoms at age 23. Controlling
      for a participant's gender, SES, marital status of the mother, a likely history
      of maternal depression, and adolescents' level of depressive symptoms at age 16,
      a hierarchical linear regression revealed that self-reported alcohol use in
      adolescence predicted the future onset of hypomanic/manic symptoms. Limitations
      include attrition and relying solely on self-ratings. Despite these limitations,
      the results suggest problematic alcohol use in adolescence predicts a
      vulnerability to hypomanic or manic symptoms.

PMID- 28582720
TI  - A little trouble getting started: Initial slowness in Parkinson's disease step
      negotiation.
AB  - Bradykinesia is a prominent problem for persons with Parkinson's disease (PD) and
      has been studied extensively with upper extremity tasks; however there is a lack
      of research examining bradykinesia in targeted lower extremity tasks related to
      mobility. Navigating steps and curbs are challenging tasks for older adults and
      neurologically impaired and thus utilizing these behaviors provides ecological
      validity to the study of bradykinesia. Herein we assess differences in step
      negotiation performance between individuals with PD and aged matched older
      adults. Three-dimensional kinematics and ground reaction forces were collected
      while 12 participants with PD and 12 older adults performed a single step up onto
      a platform. Persons with PD spent a significantly greater amount of time in the
      heel lift phase (P=0.0003, d=1.80). Peak vertical foot velocity of the lead foot
      was also significantly less in PD (P=0.02, d=1.05). Lastly, persons with PD
      displayed reduced sagittal hip and knee range of motion during the trail step
      (P=0.01, d=1.20 and P=0.02, d=1.05, respectively). Parkinson's participants
      exhibited slight decrement in step negotiation execution. Increased step time and
      decreased foot velocity and range of motion were attributes associated with
      Parkinson's step negotiation performance. Contrary to our hypothesis, in many
      comparisons, persons with PD during their best medicated state performed
      comparable to older adults, indicative of successful pharmacotherapy.
      Rehabilitation efforts can seek to improve performance in motor control tasks
      such as step negotiation, by restoring the relationship between perceived and
      actual motor output and enhancing muscle coordination and output as well as
      ranges of motion.

PMID- 28582721
TI  - Sequential enhanced cleaning eliminates multidrug-resistant organisms in general
      intensive care unit of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital.
AB  - PURPOSE: Effective cleaning of surfaces within hospital wards is necessary to
      reduce pathogen transmission. We investigated the roles of sequential enhanced
      cleaning by culturing pathogens from high-touch surfaces in a general intensive
      care unit. METHODS: A before-after controlled study was conducted during a 17
      month period in the 25-bed general intensive care unit. The study comprised a
      baseline period (period 1) and 4 sequential tiered interventions: each patient
      zone was wiped with a single clean microfiber cloth daily (period 2), fluorescent
      markers and adenosine triphosphate assay were used to monitor and provide
      feedback on the effectiveness of cleaning (period 3), wiping a single patient
      zone with 3 clean microfiber cloths daily (period 4), and withdrawal of the
      feedback (period 5). RESULTS: Compared with period 1, the cultures of multidrug
      resistant organisms from high-touch surfaces were reduced by 41.0% (prevalence
      ratio [OR] = 0.59, P < .001), 70.8% (OR = 0.29, P < .001), 82.6% (OR = 0.17, P <
      .001), and 70.8% (OR = 0.29, P < .0001) in the subsequent sequential
      interventions, respectively. CONCLUSION: Adoption of fluorescent markers and
      adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence reduced environmental contamination. Use
      of 3 cleaning cloths for 1 patient zone was more effective compared with a single
      cloth.

PMID- 28582722
TI  - Adsorption of mercury ions from wastewater by a hyperbranched and multi
      functionalized dendrimer modified mixed-oxides nanoparticles.
AB  - In this paper, a novel heterogeneous nanodendrimer with generation of G2.0 was
      prepared by individual grafting of diethylenetriamine, triazine and l-cysteine
      methyl ester on the modified aluminum-silicate mixed oxides as a potent adsorbent
      of Hg(II) ions from aqueous media. The prepared nanodendrimer was characterized
      by nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum (1H NMR and 13C NMR), Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy (DR UV
      Vis), zeta potential (zeta), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission
      spectroscopy (ICP-AES), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption experiments at -196 degrees C and elemental
      analysis. Equilibrium and kinetic models for Hg(II) ions removal were used by
      investigating the effect of the contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial Hg(II)
      ions concentrations, effect of solution's temperature, interfering ions, and
      initial pH. The contact time to approach equilibrium for higher removal was 6min
      (3232mgg-1). The removal of Hg(II) ions has been assessed in terms of pseudo
      first- and -second-order kinetics, and the Freundlich, Langmuir and Sips
      isotherms models have also been applied to the equilibrium removal data. The
      removal kinetics followed the mechanism of the pseudo-second order equation,
      where the chemical sorption is the rate-limiting step of removal process and not
      involving mass transfer in solution, which was further proved by several
      techniques such as zeta potential, FT-IR and DS UV-vis. The thermodynamic
      parameters (DeltaG, DeltaH and DeltaS) implied that the removal of mercury ions
      was feasible, spontaneous and chemically exothermic in nature between 15 and 80
      degrees C. The nanodendrimer indicated high reusability due to its high removal
      ability after 15 adsorption-desorption runs. The adsorption mechanisms of Hg(II)
      ions onto the nanodendrimer was further studied by diverse techniques such as
      FTIR, EDS, zeta potential, DR UV-Vis spectroscopy and SEM. The possible mechanism
      of the Hg(II) ions adsorption onto the nanodendrimer could be carried out through
      the various paths such as electrostatic interaction, complexation, toxic metal
      chelation and ionic exchange, which eventually resulted in the hydrolysis and
      precipitation of the adsorbed Hg(II). The l-cysteine methyl ester nanodendrimer
      could also remove the mercury ions from the Persian Gulf water even after five
      times of recycling.

PMID- 28582723
TI  - Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy
      in type 2 diabetes patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) had been demonstrated as a
      chronic inflammation state and one of the most common complications of type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a novel marker
      to reflect many kinds of chronic inflammation disease including diabetes. We aim
      to evaluate the association between NLR and DPN and to determine whether NLR
      could be a new indicator of DPN in type 2 diabetes patients. METHODS: We
      retrospect the consecutive medical files of T2DM patients. Nerve conduction
      velocity (NCV), vibration perception threshold (VPT) and the data for complete
      blood count were recorded. Patients were divided into tertiles based on admission
      NLR values. Clinical parameters were firstly compared among groups. Then,
      logistic regression and ROC analysis were performed. RESULTS: Percentages of DPN
      were 42.60%, 54.97% and 65.50%, in the low, middle and high tertile, respectively
      (n=72, 94 and 112, p<0.05). VPT values were 13.75+/-7.97, 15.01+/-9.60 and
      16.78+/-10.92, respectively, (p<0.05). NCV in different nerves decreased with the
      increase of NLR (p<0.05). After adjusting potential related factors, NLR was
      still related to status of DPN in the logistic regression (r=1.743, p=0.001).
      Area under ROC was 0.619 (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The present study showed that
      T2DM patients with higher NLR levels might be more likely to develop peripheral
      neuropathy complication. NLR levels grow with the increase of NCV and VPT
      results. As a predictor of DPN, NLR could be used in clinical practice to help
      doctors understand the level of DPN progression.

PMID- 28582724
TI  - A rhodol-based fluorescent chemosensor for hydrazine and its application in live
      cell bioimaging.
AB  - A rhodol cinnamate fluorescent chemosensor (RC) has been developed for selective
      detection of hydrazine (N2H4). In aqueous medium, the rhodol-based probe
      exhibited high selectivity for hydrazine among other molecules. The addition of
      hydrazine triggered a fluorescence emission with 48-fold enhancement based on
      hydrazinolysis and a subsequent ring-opening process. The chemical probe also
      displayed a selective colorimetric response toward N2H4 from colorless solution
      to pink, readily observed by the naked eye. The detection limit of RC for
      hydrazine was calculated to be 300nM (9.6ppb). RC is membrane permeable and was
      successfully demonstrated to detect hydrazine in live HepG2 cells by confocal
      fluorescence microscopy.

PMID- 28582725
TI  - Investigations of vibrational spectra and bioactivity of novel anticancer drug N
      (6-ferrocenyl-2-naphthoyl)-gamma-amino butyric acid ethyl ester.
AB  - The bioactivity of compounds is mainly dependent on molecular structure and the
      present work aims to explore the bonding features responsible for biological
      activity of novel anticancer drug N-(6-ferrocenyl-2-naphthoyl)-gamma-amino
      butyric acid ethyl ester (FNGABEE). In the present study, we investigate the
      molecular structural properties of newly synthesized title compound through
      experimental and quantum chemical studies. The detailed vibrational analysis has
      been performed using FT IR and FT Raman spectrum, aided by DFT computed geometry,
      vibrational spectrum, Eigen vector distribution and PED, at B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)
      level. The resonance structure of naphthalene, different from that of benzene,
      revealed by molecular structure has been investigated using CC and CC stretching
      modes. The proton transfer in amide has been analyzed to obtain spectral
      distinction between different carbonyl and CN groups which point to the reactive
      sites responsible for binding with DNA and bovine serum albumin (BSA). The
      spectral distinction between eclipsed and staggered form of ferrocene has been
      analyzed. The molecular docking of FNGABEE with BSA and DNA has been performed to
      find the strength of binding and the moieties responsible for the interactions.
      The experimental binding studies of FNGABEE with BSA and DNA has been performed
      using UV absorption spectroscopy and fluorometric assay, to find the nature and
      strength of binding.

PMID- 28582726
TI  - The vibrational properties of the bee-killer imidacloprid insecticide: A
      molecular description.
AB  - The chemical imidacloprid belongs to the neonicotinoids insecticide class, widely
      used for insect pest control mainly for crop protection. However, imidacloprid is
      a non-selective agrochemical to the insects and it is able to kill the most
      important pollinators, the bees. The high toxicity of imidacloprid requires
      controlled release and continuous monitoring. For this purpose, high performance
      liquid chromatography (HPLC) is usually employed; infrared and Raman
      spectroscopy, however, are simple and viable techniques that can be adapted to
      portable devices for field application. In this communication, state-of-the-art
      quantum level simulations were used to predict the infrared and Raman spectra of
      the most stable conformer of imidacloprid. Four molecular geometries were
      investigated in vacuum and solvated within the Density Functional Theory (DFT)
      approach employing the hybrid meta functional M06-2X and the hybrid functional
      B3LYP. The M062X/PCM model proved to be the best to predict structural features,
      while the values of harmonic vibrational frequencies were predicted more
      accurately using the B3LYP functional.

PMID- 28582727
TI  - Validation of the Chinese version of public attitudes toward epilepsy scale in
      Mainland China.
AB  - PURPOSE: Epilepsy is a significant yet seriously underappreciated public health
      issue in Mainland China. The stigma and discrimination toward people with
      epilepsy (PWE) and their families are especially severe in China based on
      cultural misconceptions which cause tremendous psychological, economic and social
      burdens. It is imperative to formulate a targeted public intervention to
      eliminate knowledge gaps and correct these misconceptions of epilepsy. However,
      to date, the essential tools that may drive such an intervention by measuring the
      public perspective on PWEs is lacking in China. The goal of this study is to test
      the reliability and validity of a Simplified Chinese version of the "Public
      Attitude Toward Epilepsy" scale (PATE) in Mainland China which can be used to
      understand the content and identify the possible sources of stigma to better
      inform the design and focus of future stigma reduction interventions. METHODS:
      The standard procedure of cross-cultural adaptation was used in the translation
      process. Subjects from different economic and social backgrounds were enrolled by
      convenience sampling in central China. Exploratory factor analysis and
      confirmatory factor analysis were used to check the underlying factor structure
      of the items. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha was utilized to assess internal
      consistency. RESULTS: 199 respondents were included in the final analysis.
      Content validity of this Chinese PATE was assessed to be adequate for assessing
      public attitudes toward epilepsy among the mainland Chinese. Two factors were
      extracted from the data by exploratory factor analysis; confirmatory factor
      analysis further confirmed good consistency of theoretical constructs between the
      original Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy scale and our Chinese PATE. Our Chinese
      PATE presented excellent internal consistency (alpha=0.853-0.909). CONCLUSION:
      This version of the Chinese PATE showed acceptable psychometric properties,
      indicating that it can be implemented in surveying public attitudes toward
      epilepsy in Mainland China.

PMID- 28582728
TI  - Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 deficiency compromises therapeutic effect
      of ALDH bright cell on peripheral ischemia.
AB  - The autologous ALDH bright (ALDHbr) cell therapy for ischemic injury is
      clinically safe and effective, while the underlying mechanism remains elusive.
      Here, we demonstrated that the glycolysis dominant metabolism of ALDHbr cells is
      permissive to restore blood flow in an ischemic hind limb model compared with
      bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMNCs). PCR array analysis showed overtly elevated
      Aldh2 expression of ALDHbr cells following hypoxic challenge. Notably, ALDHbr
      cells therapy induced blood flow recovery in this model was reduced in case of
      ALDH2 deficiency. Moreover, significantly reduced glycolysis flux and increased
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were detected in ALDHbr cell from Aldh2-/-
      mice. Compromised effect on blood flow recovery was also noticed post
      transplanting the human ALDHbr cell from ALDH2 deficient patients (GA or AA
      genotypes) in this ischemic hindlimb mice model. Taken together, our findings
      illustrate the indispensable role of ALDH2 in maintaining glycolysis dominant
      metabolism of ALDHbr cell and advocate that patient's Aldh2 genotype is a
      prerequisite for the efficacy of ALDHbr cell therapy for peripheral ischemia.

PMID- 28582729
TI  - The role of Nrf1 and Nrf2 in the regulation of glutathione and redox dynamics in
      the developing zebrafish embryo.
AB  - Redox signaling is important for embryogenesis, guiding pathways that govern
      processes crucial for embryo patterning, including cell polarization,
      proliferation, and apoptosis. Exposure to pro-oxidants during this period can be
      deleterious, resulting in altered physiology, teratogenesis, later-life diseases,
      or lethality. We previously reported that the glutathione antioxidant defense
      system becomes increasingly robust, including a doubling of total glutathione and
      dynamic shifts in the glutathione redox potential at specific stages during
      embryonic development in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. However, the mechanisms
      underlying these changes are unclear, as is the effectiveness of the glutathione
      system in ameliorating oxidative insults to the embryo at different stages. Here,
      we examine how the glutathione system responds to the model pro-oxidants tert
      butylhydroperoxide and tert-butylhydroquinone at different developmental stages,
      and the role of Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf) proteins in
      regulating developmental glutathione redox status. Embryos became increasingly
      sensitive to pro-oxidants after 72h post-fertilization (hpf), after which the
      duration of the recovery period for the glutathione redox potential was
      increased. To determine whether the doubling of glutathione or the dynamic
      changes in glutathione redox potential are mediated by zebrafish paralogs of Nrf
      transcription factors, morpholino oligonucleotides were used to knock down
      translation of Nrf1 and Nrf2 (nrf1a, nrf1b, nrf2a, nrf2b). Knockdown of Nrf1a or
      Nrf1b perturbed glutathione redox state until 72 hpf. Knockdown of Nrf2 paralogs
      also perturbed glutathione redox state but did not significantly affect the
      response of glutathione to pro-oxidants. Nrf1b morphants had decreased gene
      expression of glutathione synthesis enzymes, while hsp70 increased in Nrf2b
      morphants. This work demonstrates that despite having a more robust glutathione
      system, embryos become more sensitive to oxidative stress later in development,
      and that neither Nrf1 nor Nrf2 alone appear to be essential for the response and
      recovery of glutathione to oxidative insults.

PMID- 28582731
TI  - FRET-based glucose imaging identifies glucose signalling in response to biotic
      and abiotic stresses in rice roots.
AB  - Glucose is the primary energy provider and the most important sugar-signalling
      molecule, regulating metabolites and modulating gene expression from unicellular
      yeast to multicellular plants and animals. Therefore, monitoring intracellular
      glucose levels temporally and spatially in living cells is an essential step for
      decoding the glucose signalling in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. In
      this study, the genetically encoded FRET (Forster resonance energy transfer)
      nanosensors, FLIPglu-2MU?13 and FLIPglu-600MUDelta13, were used to measure
      cytosolic glucose dynamics in rice plants. First, we found that the FRET signal
      decreased in response to external glucose in a concentration-dependent manner.
      The glucose concentration at which the cytosolic level corresponded to the K0.5
      value for FLIPglu-2MUDelta13 was approximately 10.05MUM, and that for FLIPglu
      600MUDelta13 was 0.9mM, respectively. The substrate selectivity of nanosensors
      for glucose and its analogues is D-Glucose>2-deoxyglucose>3-O-methylglucose>L
      Glucose. We further showed that the biotic elicitors (flg22 and chitin) and the
      abiotic elicitors (osmotic stress, salinity and extreme temperature) induce the
      intracellular glucose increases in the detached root segments of transgenic rice
      containing FLIPglu-2MUDelta13 in a stimulus-specific manner, but not in FLIPglu
      600MUDelta13 transgenic lines. These results demonstrated that FRET nanosensors
      can be used to detect increases in intracellular glucose within the physiological
      range of 0.2-20MUM in response to various stimuli in transgenic rice root cells,
      which indicated that intracellular glucose may act as a potential secondary
      messenger to connect extracellular stimuli with cellular physiological responses
      in plants.

PMID- 28582730
TI  - RITA plus 3-MA overcomes chemoresistance of head and neck cancer cells via dual
      inhibition of autophagy and antioxidant systems.
AB  - : Reactivation of p53 and induction of tumor cell apoptosis (RITA) is a small
      molecule that blocks p53-MDM2 interaction, thereby reactivating p53 in tumors.
      RITA can induce exclusive apoptosis in cancer cells independently of the p53
      pathway; however, the resistance of cancer cells remains a major drawback. Here,
      we found a novel resistance mechanism of RITA treatment and an effective combined
      treatment to overcome RITA resistance in head and neck cancer (HNC) cells. The
      effects of RITA and 3-methyladenine (3-MA) were tested in different HNC cell
      lines, including cisplatin-resistant and acquired RITA-resistant HNC cells. The
      effects of each drug alone and in combination were assessed by measuring cell
      viability, apoptosis, cell cycle, glutathione, reactive oxygen species, protein
      expression, genetic inhibition of p62 and Nrf2, and a mouse xenograft model of
      cisplatin-resistant HNC. RITA induced apoptosis of HNC cells at different levels
      without significantly inhibiting normal cell viability. Following RITA treatment,
      RITA-resistant HNC cells exhibited a sustained expression of other autophagy
      related proteins, overexpressed p62, and displayed activation of the Keap1-Nrf2
      antioxidant pathway. The autophagy inhibitor 3-MA sensitized resistant HNC cells
      to RITA treatment via the dual inhibition of molecules related to the autophagy
      and antioxidant systems. Silencing of the p62 gene augmented the combined
      effects. The effective antitumor activity of RITA plus 3-MA was also confirmed in
      vivo in mouse xenograft models transplanted with resistant HNC cells, showing
      increased oxidative stress and DNA damage. The results indicate that RITA plus 3
      MA can help overcome RITA resistance in HNC cells. CONDENSED ABSTRACT: This study
      revealed a novel RITA resistant mechanism associated with the sustained induction
      of autophagy, p62 overexpression, and Keap1-Nrf2 antioxidant system activation.
      The combined treatment of RITA with the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine
      overcomes RITA resistance via dual inhibition of autophagy and antioxidant
      systems in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28582733
TI  - Predicting the fate of micropollutants during wastewater treatment: Calibration
      and sensitivity analysis.
AB  - The presence of micropollutants in the environment and their toxic impacts on the
      aquatic environment have raised concern about their inefficient removal in
      wastewater treatment plants. In this study, the fate of micropollutants of four
      different classes was simulated in a conventional activated sludge plant using a
      bioreactor micropollutant fate model coupled to a settler model. The latter was
      based on the Burger-Diehl model extended for the first time to include
      micropollutant fate processes. Calibration of model parameters was completed by
      matching modelling results with full-scale measurements (i.e. including aqueous
      and particulate phase concentrations of micropollutants) obtained from a 4-day
      sampling campaign. Modelling results showed that further biodegradation takes
      place in the sludge blanket of the settler for the highly biodegradable caffeine,
      underlining the need for a reactive settler model. The adopted Monte Carlo based
      calibration approach also provided an overview of the model's global sensitivity
      to the parameters. This analysis showed that for each micropollutant and
      according to the dominant fate process, a different set of one or more parameters
      had a significant impact on the model fit, justifying the selection of parameter
      subsets for model calibration. A dynamic local sensitivity analysis was also
      performed with the calibrated parameters. This analysis supported the conclusions
      from the global sensitivity and provided guidance for future sampling campaigns.
      This study expands the understanding of micropollutant fate models when applied
      to different micropollutants, in terms of global and local sensitivity to model
      parameters, as well as the identifiability of the parameters.

PMID- 28582732
TI  - The dynamics and endocytosis of Flot1 protein in response to flg22 in
      Arabidopsis.
AB  - Membrane microdomains play vital roles in the process of bacterial infection. The
      membrane microdomain-associated protein Flot1 acts in an endocytic pathway and is
      required for seedling development, however, whether Flot1 is a part of host
      defense mechanisms remains unknown. During an analysis of callose deposition, we
      found that Flot1 amiRNAi mutants exhibited defects in response to flg22. Using
      variable-angle total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (VA-TIRFM),
      structured illumination microscopy (SIM) and fluorescence cross spectroscopy
      (FCS), we determined that the dynamic behavior of GFP-Flot1 in Arabidopsis
      thaliana cotyledon epidermal cells changed significantly in plants treated with
      the elicitor flg22. Moreover, we found that Flot1 was constitutively recycled via
      an endocytic pathway and that flg22 could promote endocytosis. Importantly,
      targeting of Flot1 to the late endosome/vacuole for degradation increased in
      response to flg22 treatment; immunoblot analysis showed that when triggered by
      flg22, GFP-Flot1 was gradually degraded in a time-dependent manner. Taken
      together, these findings support the hypothesis that the changing of dynamics and
      oligomeric states can promote the endocytosis and degradation of Flot1 under
      flg22 treatment in plant cells.

PMID- 28582734
TI  - Characterization of titanium dioxide nanoparticle removal in simulated drinking
      water treatment processes.
AB  - This study characterized the fate of nano-TiO2 in both powder (TiO2(P)) and
      suspension (TiO2(S)) forms in simulated drinking water treatments. Nano-TiO2
      solutions of 0.1, 1.0, and 10mg/L were prepared with deionized water and raw
      waters from the Changxing and Fengshan Water Treatment Plants in Taiwan to assess
      the effects of water matrices on nano-TiO2 behavior during water treatment. After
      the laboratory simulated water treatment, including pre-chlorination,
      coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and post-chlorination, the residual Ti
      concentration ranged from 2.7 to 47.4% in different treatment units and overall
      removal efficiency was between 52.6% and 97.3% in all cases except for nano-TiO2
      at concentration of 0.1mg/L. Overall removal efficiency for the TiO2 at 10mg/L
      concentration ranged from 9.3 to 53.5%. Sedimentation (after coagulation) and
      filtration were the most important processes for removing nano-TiO2 due in part
      to particle agglomeration, which was confirmed by size distribution and zeta
      potential measurements. The size of nano-TiO2 increased from 21-36nm to 4490nm in
      the supernatant after sedimentation, and subsequent filtration treatment further
      removed all agglomerates at size >1MUm. Zeta potential revealed interactions
      between nano-TiO2 particles and anionic functional groups or negatively-charged
      natural organic matters, leading to a decrease in surface charge. After
      sedimentation and filtration, the zeta potential of supernatants and filtrates
      were close to zero, meaning the absence of nanoparticles. The highest Ti removal
      after sedimentation occurred in Fengshan raw water due to higher ionic strength
      and coagulant dosage applied. On the other hand, the surfactant additives in
      TiO2(S) promoted dispersion of nano-TiO2 particles, which in turn led to lower
      particle removal. SEM images of nanoparticles after chlorination or coagulation
      revealed the coverage of nano-TiO2 particles by viscous substances and formation
      of colloidal structures.

PMID- 28582735
TI  - Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide fluxes from a fire chronosequence in
      subarctic boreal forests of Canada.
AB  - Forest fires are one of the most important natural disturbances in boreal
      forests, and their occurrence and severity are expected to increase as a result
      of climate warming. A combination of factors induced by fire leads to a thawing
      of the near-surface permafrost layer in subarctic boreal forest. Earlier studies
      reported that an increase in the active layer thickness results in higher carbon
      dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions. We studied changes in CO2, CH4 and
      nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes in this study, and the significance of several
      environmental factors that influence the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes at three
      forest sites that last had fires in 2012, 1990 and 1969, and we compared these to
      a control area that had no fire for at least 100years. The soils in our study
      acted as sources of CO2 and N2O and sinks for CH4. The elapsed time since the
      last forest fire was the only factor that significantly influenced all studied
      GHG fluxes. Soil temperature affected the uptake of CH4, and the N2O fluxes were
      significantly influenced by nitrogen and carbon content of the soil, and by the
      active layer depth. Results of our study confirm that the impacts of a forest
      fire on GHGs last for a rather long period of time in boreal forests, and are
      influenced by the fire induced changes in the ecosystem.

PMID- 28582736
TI  - Source apportionment of PM10 and PM2.5 in major urban Greek agglomerations using
      a hybrid source-receptor modeling process.
AB  - A hybrid source-receptor modeling process was assembled, to apportion and infer
      source locations of PM10 and PM2.5 in three heavily-impacted urban areas of
      Greece, during the warm period of 2011, and the cold period of 2012. The
      assembled process involved application of an advanced computational procedure,
      the so-called Robotic Chemical Mass Balance (RCMB) model. Source locations were
      inferred using two well-established probability functions: (a) the Conditional
      Probability Function (CPF), to correlate the output of RCMB with local wind
      directional data, and (b) the Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF), to
      correlate the output of RCMB with 72h air-mass back-trajectories, arriving at the
      receptor sites, during sampling. Regarding CPF, a higher-level conditional
      probability function was defined as well, from the common locus of CPF sectors
      derived for neighboring receptor sites. With respect to PSCF, a non-parametric
      bootstrapping method was applied to discriminate the statistically significant
      values. RCMB modeling showed that resuspended dust is actually one of the main
      barriers for attaining the European Union (EU) limit values in Mediterranean
      urban agglomerations, where the drier climate favors build-up. The shift in the
      energy mix of Greece (caused by the economic recession) was also evidenced, since
      biomass burning was found to contribute more significantly to the sampling sites
      belonging to the coldest climatic zone, particularly during the cold period. The
      CPF analysis showed that short-range transport of anthropogenic emissions from
      urban traffic to urban background sites was very likely to have occurred, within
      all the examined urban agglomerations. The PSCF analysis confirmed that long
      range transport of primary and/or secondary aerosols may indeed be possible, even
      from distances over 1000km away from study areas.

PMID- 28582737
TI  - Oxidative stress response in the seagrass Posidonia oceanica and the seaweed
      Dasycladus vermicularis associated to the invasive tropical green seaweed
      Halimeda incrassata.
AB  - The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most affected areas by the presence of
      invasive species. Halimeda incrassata (J Ellis) JV Lamoroux is newly arrived
      tropical seaweed in waters of the Mallorca Island (Balearic Islands, Western
      Mediterranean). The aim was to evaluate the effect of a potential competition
      between the invasive Halimeda incrassata, the native Posidonia oceanica and
      Dasycladus vermicularis, by means of antioxidant-related biomarkers in waters of
      Mallorca. The activities of the antioxidant enzymes-catalase, superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GRd)-,
      the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde as indicator of lipid
      peroxidation were evaluated. The concentration of 3,6,7-trihydroxycoumarin (THC)
      was measured in D. vermicularis. P. oceanica biomarkers were not altered while D.
      vermicularis coexisting with the invader showed higher GSH levels (46%) and
      antioxidant enzyme activities (catalase 74%, SOD 65%, GPx 86% and GRd 98%),
      although without lipid damage. H. incrassata showed higher malondialdehyde and
      GSH levels (30% and 31%, respectively), and catalase, superoxide dismutase and
      glutathione reductase activities (51%, 35% and 84%, respectively) in presence of
      P. oceanica respect to being alone; and higher superoxide dismutase and
      glutathione reductase in the presence of D. vermicularis (22% and 42%,
      respectively). THC concentration in D. vermicularis was significantly higher
      (53%) in samples competing with H. incrassata. Altogether, native P. oceanica
      meadows seem unaffected by the alien H. incrassata-which suffered oxidative
      stress competing with the other species-; whereas increased antioxidant
      capacities were evidenced in D. vermicularis, possibly as an adaptation mechanism
      to the new stressful situation that reflect differences in the physiological
      activities of the three species. In conclusion, the presence of the invasive H.
      incrassata may be a competitor to be considered for D. vermicularis, while it
      does not seem to be a major problem for P. oceanica.

PMID- 28582738
TI  - Effects of ship-induced waves on aquatic ecosystems.
AB  - Most larger water bodies worldwide are used for navigation, and the intensity of
      commercial and recreational navigation is expected to further increase.
      Navigation profoundly affects aquatic ecosystems. To facilitate navigation,
      rivers are trained and developed, and the direct effects of navigation include
      chemical and biological impacts (e.g., inputs of toxic substances and dispersal
      of non-native species, respectively). Furthermore, propagating ships create
      hydrodynamic alterations, often simply summarized as waves. Although ship-induced
      waves are recognized as influential stressors, knowledge on their effects is
      poorly synthesized. We present here a review on the effects of ship-induced waves
      on the structure, function and services of aquatic ecosystems based on more than
      200 peer reviewed publications and technical reports. Ship-induced waves act at
      multiple organizational levels and different spatial and temporal scales. All the
      abiotic and biotic components of aquatic ecosystems are affected, from the
      sediment and nutrient budget to the planktonic, benthic and fish communities. We
      highlight how the effects of ship-induced waves cascade through ecosystems and
      how different effects interact and feed back into the ecosystem finally leading
      to altered ecosystem services and human health effects. Based on this synthesis
      of wave effects, we discuss strategies for mitigation. This may help to develop
      scientifically based and target-oriented management plans for navigational waters
      that optimize abiotic and biotic integrity and their ecosystem services and uses.

PMID- 28582739
TI  - Floor dust bacteria and fungi and their coexistence with PAHs in Jordanian indoor
      environments.
AB  - Floor dust samples were collected from Jordanian indoor environments (eight
      dwellings and an educational building) in Amman. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses
      of selected fungal and bacterial groups were performed. The bacterial and fungal
      concentrations were also correlated with PAHs concentrations, which were
      previously measured in the same samples by using GC-MS. The bacterial and fungal
      concentrations varied significantly among and within the tested indoor
      environments. Based on the collected samples in the entrance area of the
      dwellings, the largest variation was found in Gram-negative bacteria and total
      fungi concentration. The lowest bacterial and fungal concentrations were found in
      the dwelling that was least occupied and the most recently built. At the
      educational building, the Gram-positive bacteria concentrations were lower than
      those observed in the dwellings. Unlike for bacteria, we observed significant
      negative correlation with some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This
      calls for further studies investigating biodegradation of PAHs in house dust and
      presence of potentially health hazardous PAH metabolites. Since biocontamination
      in floor dust has been given relatively little to no attention in the MENA region
      we recommend that more extensive measurements be conducted in the future with
      chemical and biological analysis of floor dust contaminants and their exposure
      indoors.

PMID- 28582740
TI  - Runoff changes have a land cover specific effect on the seasonal fluxes of
      terminal electron acceptors in the boreal catchments.
AB  - Climate change influences the volume and seasonal distribution of runoff in the
      northern regions. Here, we study how the seasonal variation in the runoff affects
      the concentrations and export of terminal electron acceptors (i.e. TEAs: NO3, Mn,
      Fe and SO4) in different boreal land-cover classes. Also, we make a prediction
      how the anticipated climate change induced increase in runoff will alter the
      export of TEAs in boreal catchments. Our results show that there is a strong
      positive relationship between runoff and the concentration of NO3-N, Mn and Fe in
      agricultural catchments. In peaty catchments, the relationship is poorer and the
      concentrations of TEAs tend to decrease with increasing runoff. In forested
      catchments, the correlation between runoff and TEA concentrations was weak. In
      most catchments, the concentrations of SO4 decrease with an increase in runoff
      regardless of the land cover or season. The wet years export much higher amounts
      of TEAs than the dry years. In southern agricultural catchments, the wet years
      increased the TEA export for both spring (January-May) and autumn (September
      December) periods, while in the peaty and forested catchments in eastern and
      northern Finland the export only increased in the autumn. Our predictions for the
      year 2099 indicate that the export of TEAs will increase especially from
      agricultural but also from forested catchments. Additionally, the predictions
      show an increase in the export of Fe and SO4 for all the catchments for the
      autumn. Thus, the climate induced change in the runoff regime is likely to alter
      the exported amount of TEAs and the timing of the export downstream. The changes
      in the amounts and timing in the export of TEAs have a potential to modify the
      mineralization pathways in the receiving water bodies, with feedbacks in the
      cycling of C, nutrients and metals in aquatic ecosystems.

PMID- 28582741
TI  - Testing of two different strains of green microalgae for Cu and Ni removal from
      aqueous media.
AB  - The concentration of metal ions in aqueous media is a major environmental problem
      due to their persistence and non-biodegradability that poses hazards to the
      ecosystem and human health. In this study, the effect of Cu and Ni on the growth
      of two green microalgal strains, Chlorella vulgaris and Desmodesmus sp., was
      evaluated along with the removal capacity from single metal solutions (12days
      exposure; metal concentration range: 1.9-11.9mgL-1). Microalgal growth showed to
      decrease at increasing metal concentrations, but promising metal removal
      efficiencies were recorded: up to 43% and 39% for Cu by Desmodesmus sp. and C.
      vulgaris, respectively, with a sorption capacity of 33.4mggDW-1 for Desmodesmus
      sp. As for Ni, at the concentration of 5.7mgL-1, the removal efficiency reached
      32% for C. vulgaris and 39% for Desmodesmus sp. In addition, Desmodesmus sp.
      growth and metal removal were evaluated employing bimetallic solutions. In these
      tests, the removal efficiency for Cu was higher than that of Ni for all the mix
      solutions tested with a maximum of 95%, while Ni-removal reached 90% only for the
      lowest concentrations tested. Results revealed that the biosorption of both
      metals reached maximum removal levels within the fourth day of incubation (with
      metal uptakes of 67mgCugDW-1 and 37mgNigDW-1). Intracellular bioaccumulation of
      metals in Desmodesmus sp. was evaluated by confocal laser scanning microscopy
      after DAPI staining of cells exposed or not to Cu during their growth. Imaging
      suggested that Cu is sequestered in polyphosphate bodies within the cells, as
      observable also in phosphorus deprived cultures. Our results indicate the
      potential of employing green microalgae for bioremediation of metal-polluted
      waters, due to their ability to grow in the presence of high metal concentrations
      and to remove them efficiently.

PMID- 28582742
TI  - Bioaccessibility of PAHs in contaminated soils: Comparison of five in vitro
      methods with Tenax as a sorption sink.
AB  - For hydrophobic organic contaminants, physiologically based in vitro methods may
      need to include a sorption sink to simulate in vivo intestinal uptake. We
      compared PAH bioaccessibility in contaminated soils using five in vitro methods
      including physiologically based extraction test (PBET), in vitro digestion assay
      (IVD), method from Deutsches Institut fur Normung (DIN), unified bioaccessibility
      method (UBM), and fed organic estimation human simulation test (FOREhST) in the
      absence and presence of Tenax as a sorption sink. The PAH bioaccessibility
      without Tenax were pretty low with values ranging from below detection limit to
      13.4%, indicating the limited capacity of these in vitro models to accommodate
      PAHs. With addition of Tenax, bioaccessibility increased to 0.59-75.5% for all
      PAH congeners. Even with the dominant effect of sorption sink, bioaccessibility
      values significantly varied among all the five methods with DIN result being the
      highest at 7.0-34.8%. Based on multiple linear regression, Tenax, incubation
      time, and bile contents are identified to be the most important factors in
      controlling bioaccessibility. The understanding of these key factors for
      bioaccessibility is highly necessary to standardize in vitro methods, which helps
      to refine the assessment of health risk through exposure to ingested
      contaminants.

PMID- 28582743
TI  - UV filters and benzotriazoles in urban aquatic ecosystems: The footprint of daily
      use products.
AB  - The increased use of beauty and other daily use products, in particular those
      containing UV filters (UV-Fs) and benzotriazoles, results in their introduction
      in significant amounts into the aquatic environment. In this study, we aim to
      assess the occurrence and impact of UV-Fs and benzotriazoles in aquatic
      ecosystems in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. River water samples from
      the Llobregat and Besos Rivers were analysed together with sediment, suspended
      particulate matter, and wastewater samples from 6 wastewater treatment plants
      (WWTPs) along their basins. The analysis of 6 UV-Fs and 2 benzotriazoles in water
      samples was performed using an automatized on-line solid phase extraction coupled
      to liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-HPLC-MS/MS) method. The
      analysis of the target compounds in the suspended solids and in the sediments was
      performed by HPLC-MS/MS. The analysis of the water samples showed the ubiquitous
      presence of UV-Fs. Benzotriazole (BZT; partition coefficient octanol-water Log
      Kow=1.23) and methylbenzotriazole (MeBZT; Log Kow=1.89) had the highest levels in
      both river water and wastewater. Removal rates in the selected WWTPs were highly
      variable (4-100%). Concentrations of lipophilic UV-Fs (Log Kow 4.95-7.53) in
      suspended particulate matter from wastewaters were high (up to 1,031,868.2ngg
      1dry weight (dw)), whereas in sediment the concentrations were always below 300ng
      g-1 dw. The risk assessment expressed in terms of hazard quotients (HQs) revealed
      that most UV-Fs were not likely to produce adverse ecotoxicological effects
      against the living organisms assayed in river waters and influent wastewaters at
      the concentrations observed. However, HQs above 1 were obtained for BZT and MeBZT
      in effluent wastewaters discharged to the river.

PMID- 28582744
TI  - Active layer monitoring at CALM-S site near J.G.Mendel Station, James Ross
      Island, eastern Antarctic Peninsula.
AB  - The Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring - South (CALM-S) site was established in
      February 2014 on James Ross Island as the first CALM-S site in the eastern
      Antarctic Peninsula region. The site, located near Johann Gregor Mendel Station,
      is labelled CALM-S JGM. The grid area is gently sloped (<3 degrees ) and has an
      elevation of between 8 and 11ma.s.l. The lithology of the site consists of the
      muddy sediments of Holocene marine terrace and clayey-sandy Cretaceous
      sedimentary rocks, which significantly affect the texture, moisture content, and
      physical parameters of the ground within the grid. Our objective was to study
      seasonal and interannual variability of the active layer depth and thermal regime
      at the CALM-S site, and at two ground temperature measurement profiles, AWS-JGM
      and AWS-CALM, located in the grid. The mean air temperature in the period March
      2013 to February 2016 reached -7.2 degrees C. The mean ground temperature
      decreased with depth from -5.3 degrees C to -5.4 degrees C at 5cm, to -5.5
      degrees C to -5.9 degrees C at 200cm. Active layer thickness was significantly
      higher at AWS-CALM and ranged between 86cm (2014/15) and 87cm (2015/16), while at
      AWS-JGM it reached only 51cm (2013/14) to 65cm (2015/16). The mean probed active
      layer depth increased from 66.4cm in 2013/14 to 78.0cm in 2014/15. Large
      differences were observed when comparing the minimum (51cm to 59cm) and maximum
      (100cm to 113cm) probed depths. The distribution of the active layer depth and
      differences in the thermal regime of the uppermost layer of permafrost at CALM-S
      JGM clearly show the effect of different lithological properties on the two
      lithologically distinct parts of the grid.

PMID- 28582745
TI  - Changing perceptions of protected area benefits and problems around Kibale
      National Park, Uganda.
AB  - Local residents' changing perceptions of benefits and problems from living next
      to a protected area in western Uganda are assessed by comparing household survey
      data from 2006, 2009, and 2012. Findings are contextualized and supported by long
      term data sources for tourism, protected area-based employment, tourism revenue
      sharing, resource access agreements, and problem animal abundance. We found
      decreasing perceived benefit and increasing perceived problems associated with
      the protected area over time, with both trends dominated by increased human
      wildlife conflict due to recovering elephant numbers. Proportions of households
      claiming benefit from specific conservation strategies were increasing, but not
      enough to offset crop raiding. Ecosystem services mitigated perceptions of
      problems. As human and animal populations rise, wildlife authorities in Sub
      Saharan Africa will be challenged to balance perceptions and adapt policies to
      ensure the continued existence of protected areas. Understanding the dynamic
      nature of local people's perceptions provides a tool to adapt protected area
      management plans, prioritize conservation resources, and engage local communities
      to support protected areas.

PMID- 28582746
TI  - Development of lightweight aggregates from stone cutting sludge, plastic wastes
      and sepiolite rejections for agricultural and environmental purposes.
AB  - Three different wastes have been assessed for lightweight aggregate (LWA)
      manufacturing: granite and marble sludge (COR), sepiolite rejections (SEP) and
      polyethylene-hexene thermoplastics (P). A preliminary study of the physical and
      chemical properties of the raw materials was carried out to design proper
      batches. It was mixed 10% SEP with 90% COR to confer plasticity, and in turn, 0,
      2.5, 5 and 10% (w/w) of P was added to check its suitability as a bloating agent.
      The mixtures were milled, kneaded with water, extruded, shaped into pellets, oven
      dried and finally fired at 1100, 1125 and 1150  degrees C for 4, 8 and 16 min.
      The main technological properties of the aggregates related to bloating, density,
      porosity, loss on ignition, water absorption and compressive strength were
      measured. Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to study the microstructure of
      some LWAs. 23 out of 29 types of aggregate were lightweight, although neither
      bloating effect was observed, nor the typical cellular structure comprised of
      shell and core with relatively large pores was obtained, but a structure
      consisting of micropores and microchannels. The increase of temperature and time
      of firing involved a greater sintering, which in turn was translated into higher
      shrinkage, density and compressive strength values, but less porosity and water
      absorption. The addition of P did not involve any improvement, indeed it caused a
      significant decrease in compressive strength. The LWA sintered without P at the
      minimum time (4 min) and temperature of firing (1100  degrees C) was selected to
      assess its water suction capability. The results pointed out that this LWA could
      be suitable in hydroponics and/or water filtration systems, even better than the
      commercial LWA Arlita G3. A new and most environment-friendly perspective in LWA
      industry arises from here, promoting LWA production at relative low temperatures
      (prior to significant sintering occurs) and using non-plastic silty wastes
      instead of clays as major components.

PMID- 28582747
TI  - Application of drum compost and vermicompost to improve soil health, growth, and
      yield parameters for tomato and cabbage plants.
AB  - Utilization of different types of solid wastes through composting is important
      for environmental sustainability and restoring soil quality. Although drum
      composting is an efficient technology, the possibility of heavy metal
      contamination restricts its large-scale use. In this research, a field experiment
      was conducted to evaluate the impact of water hyacinth drum compost (DC) and
      traditional vermicompost (VC) on soil quality and crop growth in an agro
      ecosystem cultivated intensively with tomato and cabbage as test crops. A
      substantial improvement in soil health was observed with respect to nutrient
      availability, physical stability, and microbial diversity due to the application
      of drum compost and traditional vermicompost. Moreover, soil organic carbon was
      enriched through increased humic and fulvic acid carbon. Interestingly, heavy
      metal contamination was less significant in vermicompost-treated soils than in
      those receiving the other treatments. The use of VC and DC in combination with
      recommended chemical fertilization effectively stimulated crop growth, yield,
      product quality, and storage longevity for both tomato and cabbage.

PMID- 28582748
TI  - Mediational influence of spent mushroom compost on phytoremediation of black-oil
      hydrocarbon polluted soil and response of Megathyrsus maximus Jacq.
AB  - Ability of a plant to develop different adaptive strategies can also determine
      its capability for effective soil remediation. In this study, influence of spent
      mushroom compost (SMC) was tested on the phytoremediation of black oil
      hydrocarbon polluted soil and the response of Megathyrsus maximus (guinea grass).
      Studies were carried out in microcosm conditions by mixing different
      concentration of SMC viz., 10, 20, 30 and 40% in a 5 kg of contaminated soil
      along with control. Seeds of M. maximus was sown in tray for two weeks and
      allowed to grow for height of 10 cm and transplanted in to the different
      experimental pots. Soil nutrient, heavy metal and PAH contents were analyzed
      before and after the experiment. Ecophysiological and anatomical responses due to
      the contaminants in the soil by M. Maximus were analyzed after 120 days.
      Phytomass efficiency, potential photosynthesis (Amax) and contents of
      chlorophylls (a and b) as well as the total chlorophyll along with anatomical
      evaluations were recorded. Plant alone (control) reduced the soil heavy metal and
      PAH contents but further improvements were observed in SMC treatments, similar
      results were also observed as regards to the plant's phytoremediation efficiency
      (PE), phytomass and potential photosynthetic rates (m mol O2 M-2S-1). The plant's
      root and shoot anatomical responses were enhanced in treatments compared to
      control, study infers that the treatment enhances the biostimulation and
      development of adaptive characteristics for M. maximus survival in contaminated
      soils and promotes its co-degradation of hydrocarbon. SMC supports remediation
      and as well enhances the anatomical evaluations, we therefore recommend the use
      of SMC on response of Megathyrsus maximus Jacq for remediation of petrochemical
      based phytoremediation.

PMID- 28582749
TI  - Modeling washoff of total suspended solids in the tropics.
AB  - Washoff behavior in the tropics is expected to behave differently from temperate
      areas due to differences in rainfall characteristics. In this study, rainfall,
      runoff and total suspended solids (TSS) were monitored from 9 catchments
      distinguished by different types of land use, in Singapore. The catchments ranged
      in size from 5.7ha to 85.2ha. Over 120 rain events were studied and more than
      1000 storm samples were collected and analyzed. Monte Carlo analysis was applied
      to obtain the best fit values of the washoff model parameters consisting the
      washoff coefficient c3, washoff exponent c4 and initial mass on surface Bini. The
      exponent c4 was found to be approximately unity for all the events monitored, in
      agreement with other studies. The values of c3 and Bini were found to vary
      between events. Among all the rainfall and runoff characteristics studied,
      rainfall depth of the current event (d) was found to be the single parameter that
      significantly influenced the values of c3 and Bini. Contrary to expectations,
      Bini did not correlate well with antecedent dry period or with rainfall depth of
      the prior storm event. The results show that the common modeling practice where
      Bini is assumed to vary with antecedent dry period and previous rainfall depth
      should be reassessed when applied to catchments in the tropics. ANCOVA analysis
      showed that land use was not significant, but rather the variation of c3 and Bini
      with d was found to correlate well with the catchment area.

PMID- 28582750
TI  - Flocculation of thermomechanical pulping spent liquor with
      polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride.
AB  - Currently, the dissolved lignocelluloses in the spent liquor (SL) of a
      thermomechanical pulping process are treated in wastewater treatment systems and
      thus they are wasted. In this work, polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride
      (PDADMAC), with different molecular weights, was used for flocculating
      lignocelluloses of SL and thus isolating them from SL. Results showed that the
      maximum removals were 38% via treating SL with 100 mg/L of PDADMAC (with 1045
      kg/mol molecular weight) at 25  degrees C for 30 min. The focused beam
      reflectance measurement of the flocculation process revealed that the chord
      length of the flocs with the maximum square weighted counts was increased from 70
      to 100 MUm and also their maximum square weighted counts was increased from 5 to
      25 MUm2/s. The flocs contained 60.71-74.41 wt% PDADMAC, the balance of
      lignocelluloses and the heating value of 24-25 MJ/kg. The high molecular PDADMAC
      generated flocs with more organics and a higher heating value.

PMID- 28582751
TI  - Removal of bovine serum albumin from wastewater using fouling resistant
      ultrafiltration membranes based on the blends of cellulose acetate, and PVP-TiO2
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Fouling resistant ultrafiltration membranes based on the blends of
      polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), TiO2 nanoparticles and cellulose acetate, CA-PVP-TiO2
      (CATP), for removal of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were prepared by using phase
      inversion process. The influences of PVP and TiO2 on the preparation of phase
      inverted cellulose acetate (CA) ultrafiltration membrane were explored in terms
      of morphology study, equilibrium water content (EWC), hydraulic resistance,
      permeability performance, hydrophilicity, and thermal stability. After the
      introduction of PVP and TiO2 to the ternary (polymer-solvent-non-solvent) system,
      the formations of finger-like structures and macro-voids were reduced
      significantly. An improvement in porosity, average pore size, and hydrophilic
      nature of the CA membranes were detected after the introduction of PVP and TiO2
      into the polymer matrix. The interaction between TiO2 and CA was confirmed and
      the degradation temperature of the CA membrane was significantly improved. BSA
      protein removal efficiency, anti-fouling performance, and recycling potential of
      the UF membranes were investigated. The CATP membrane (10.5 wt % CA: 4 wt % PVP:
      2 wt % TiO2) has displayed high BSA removal efficiency and flux recovery ratios
      (NFR) with enhanced anti-fouling performances for the three fouling/rinsing
      cycles.

PMID- 28582752
TI  - Pore geometry effect on the synthesis of silica supported perovskite oxides.
AB  - The formation of perovskite oxide nanoparticles supported on ordered mesoporous
      silica with different pore geometry is here presented. Systematic study was
      performed varying both pore shape (gyroidal, cylindrical, spherical) and size
      (7.5, 12, 17nm) of the hosts. LaFeO3, PrFeO3 and LaCoO3 were chosen as target
      guest structures. The distribution of the oxide nanoparticles on silica was
      comprehensively assessed using a multi-technique approach. It could be shown that
      the pore geometry plays a determining role in the conversion of the infiltrated
      metal nitrates to metal oxide. In particular, slow degradation kinetic was
      observed in highly curved pores, which fostered nucleation and crystallization of
      the guest species. In spherical pore systems the enhancement of pore size caused
      a remarkable delay of the decomposition of the metal salts, but at the same time
      improved the homogeneous distribution of the oxide particles in the matrix.

PMID- 28582753
TI  - Changes within the stabilizing layer of ZnO nanoparticles upon washing.
AB  - ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are highly relevant for various industrial applications,
      however, after synthesis of the NPs residual chemicals need to be removed from
      the colloidal raw product by washing, as they may influence the performance of
      the final device. In the present study we focus on the effect of washing by
      antisolvent flocculation with subsequent redispersion of the NPs on the
      stabilizing acetate shell. Purification of the ZnO nanoparticles is reported to
      be optimal with respect to zeta potential that has a maximum after one washing
      cycle. In this work, we will shed light on this observation using small angle X
      ray and neutron scattering (SAXS, SANS) by demonstrating that after the first
      washing cycle the content of acetate in the ligand shell around the ZnO NPs
      increases. In detail, it was observed that the diffuse acetate shell shrinks to
      the size of a monolayer upon washing but the acetate content of this monolayer is
      higher than within the diffuse shell of the particles of the native dispersion. A
      second washing cycle reduces the acetate concentration within the stabilizing
      shell and the stability of the dispersion drops accordingly. After another
      (third) washing cycle strong agglomeration was observed for all investigated
      samples.

PMID- 28582754
TI  - l-Glutamic acid assisted eco-friendly one-pot synthesis of sheet-assembled
      platinum-palladium alloy networks for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction
      reactions.
AB  - In this work, bimetallic platinum-palladium sheet-assembled alloy networks (PtPd
      SAANs) were facilely synthesized by an eco-friendly one-pot aqueous approach
      under the guidance of l-glutamic acid at room temperature, without any additive,
      seed, toxic or organic solvent involved. l-Glutamic acid was served as the green
      shape-director and weak-stabilizing agent. A series of characterization
      techniques were employed to examine the morphology, structure and formation
      mechanism of the product. The architectures exhibited improved electrocatalytic
      activity and durable ability toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and oxygen
      reduction reaction (ORR) in contrast with commercial Pt black and Pd black
      catalysts. This is ascribed to the unique structures of the obtained PtPd SAANs
      and the synergistic effects of the bimetals. These results demonstrate the
      potential application of the prepared catalyst in fuel cells.

PMID- 28582755
TI  - Ultra-sensitive and selective NH3 room temperature gas sensing induced by
      manganese-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
AB  - The study of the fabrication of ultra-high sensitive and selective room
      temperature ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas sensors remains an
      important scientific challenge in the gas sensing field. This is motivated by
      their harmful impact on the human health and environment. Therefore, herein, we
      report for the first time on the gas sensing properties of TiO2 nanoparticles
      doped with various concentrations of manganese (Mn) (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and
      3.0mol.% presented as S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5, respectively), synthesized using
      hydrothermal method. Structural analyses showed that both undoped and Mn-doped
      TiO2 crystallized in tetragonal phases. Optical studies revealed that the Mn
      doped TiO2 nanoparticles have enhanced UV->Vis emission with a broad shoulder at
      540nm, signifying induced defects by substituting Ti4+ ions with Mn2+. The X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy and the electron paramagnetic resonance studies
      revealed the presence of Ti3+ and singly ionized oxygen vacancies in both pure
      and Mn doped TiO2 nanoparticles. Additionally, a hyperfine split due to Mn2+
      ferromagnetic ordering was observed, confirming incorporation of Mn ions into the
      lattice sites. The sensitivity, selectivity, operating temperature, and response
      recovery times were thoroughly evaluated according to the alteration in the
      materials electrical resistance in the presence of the target gases. Gas sensing
      studies showed that Mn2+ doped on the TiO2 surface improved the NH3 sensing
      performance in terms of response, sensitivity and selectivity. The S1 sensing
      material revealed higher sensitivity of 127.39 at 20 ppm NH3 gas. The sensing
      mechanism towards NH3 gas is also proposed.

PMID- 28582756
TI  - Therapeutic applications of synthetic nucleic acid aptamers.
AB  - It is possible to generate oligonucleotide aptamers for a wide variety of target
      molecules using a process known as Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential
      Enrichment. Researchers have successfully generated aptamers which recognize
      specific metal ions, small chemical compounds, peptides, proteins, saccharides,
      and even whole cells. Aptamers show much promise as future therapeutics and as
      drug targeting agents. A particularly active area of aptamer research in the past
      two years was development of aptamer based cancer therapeutics and development of
      aptamer based cancer drug delivery systems. Aptamers were also used to address
      inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and eye
      diseases.

PMID- 28582758
TI  - Rheumatoid arthritis: Recent advances on its etiology, role of cytokines and
      pharmacotherapy.
AB  - An autoimmune disease is defined as a clinical syndrome resulted from an
      instigation of both T cell and B cell or individually, in the absence of any
      present infection or any sort of distinguishable cause. Clonal deletion of auto
      reactive cells remains the central canon of immunology for decades, keeping the
      role of T cell and B cell aside, which are actually the guards to recognize the
      entry of foreign body. According to NIH, 23.5 million Americans are all together
      affected by these diseases. They are rare, but with the exception of RA.
      Rheumatoid arthritis is chronic and systemic autoimmune response to the multiple
      joints with unknown ethology, progressive disability, systemic complications,
      early death and high socioeconomic costs. Its ancient disease with an old history
      found in North American tribes since 1500 BCE, but its etiology is yet to be
      explored. Current conventional and biological therapies used for RA are not
      fulfilling the need of the patients but give only partial responses. There is a
      lack of consistent and liable biomarkers of prognosis therapeutic response, and
      toxicity. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by hyperplasic synovium,
      production of cytokines, chemokines, autoantibodies like rheumatoid factor (RF)
      and anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA), osteoclastogensis, angiogenesis
      and systemic consequences like cardiovascular, pulmonary, psychological, and
      skeletal disorders. Cytokines, a diverse group of polypeptides, play critical
      role in the pathogenesis of RA. Their involvement in autoimmune diseases is a
      rapidly growing area of biological and clinical research. Among the
      proinflammatory cytokines, IL-1alpha/beta and TNF-alpha trigger the intracellular
      molecular signalling pathway responsible for the pathogenesis of RA that leads to
      the activation of mesenchymal cell, recruitment of innate and adaptive immune
      system cells, activation of synoviocytes which in term activates various
      mediators including tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1 (IL
      1), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8), resulting in inflamed
      synovium, increase angiogenesis and decrease lymphangiogensis. Their current
      pharmacotherapy should focus on their three phases of progression i.e.
      prearthritis phase, transition phase and clinical phase. In this way we will be
      able to find a way to keep the balance between the pro and anti-inflammatory
      cytokines that is believe to be the dogma of pathogenesis of RA. For this we need
      to explore new agents, whether from synthetic or natural source to find the
      answers for unresolved etiology of autoimmune diseases and to provide a quality
      of life to the patients suffering from these diseases specifically RA.

PMID- 28582757
TI  - Comparative analysis of muscle phosphoproteome induced by salt curing.
AB  - Phosphorylated proteins in ovine muscle induced by salt curing were well
      investigated. Ten topside muscles of crossbred sheep were ground, mixed and
      divided into two groups, which were cured for 16h with 0% and 3% NaCl,
      respectively. Muscle proteins of two cured groups were analyzed by two
      dimensional electrophoresis coupled with Pro-Q Diamond and SYPRO Ruby staining.
      The differential phosphorylated proteins were determined using LC-MS/MS and the
      UniProt database. Ten different phosphoproteins (>1.5 fold) induced by salting
      were identified, including triosephosphate isomerase, glycogen phosphorylase,
      creatine kinase M-type, myoglobin, troponin T fast skeletal muscle type, actin,
      myosin light chain 1/3, tropomyosin beta chain, etc. Most of the different
      phosphoproteins were involved in glycometabolism, protein function and protein
      degradation. It is conclusively that salting may influence meat quality through
      protein phosphorylation, which regulates glycolysis metabolism, protein function
      and degradation.

PMID- 28582759
TI  - alpha-Mangostin inhibits DMBA/TPA-induced skin cancer through inhibiting
      inflammation and promoting autophagy and apoptosis by regulating PI3K/Akt/mTOR
      signaling pathway in mice.
AB  - Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer responsible for considerable
      morbidity and mortality, the treatment progress of which remains slow though.
      Therefore, studies identifying anti-skin cancer agents that are innocuous are
      urgently needed. alpha-Mangostin, a natural product isolated from the pericarp of
      mangosteen fruit, has potent anti-cancer activity. However, its role in skin
      cancer remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment
      effect of alpha-mangostin on skin tumorigenesis induced by 9,10
      dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)/TPA in mice and the potential mechanism.
      Treatment with alpha-mangostin significantly suppressed tumor formation and
      growth, and markedly reduced the incidence rate. alpha-Mangostin not only
      inhibited the expressions of pro-inflammatory factors, but also promoted the
      production of anti-inflammatory factors in tumor and blood. It induced autophagy
      of skin tumor and regulated the expressions of autophagy-related proteins. The
      protein expressions of LC3, LC3-II and Beclin1 increased whereas those of LC3-I
      and p62 decreased after treatment with alpha-mangostin. Moreover, alpha-mangostin
      promoted the apoptosis of skin tumor dose-dependently by up-regulating of Bax,
      cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP and Bad, and down-regulating of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl.
      Furthermore, showed alpha-mangostin inhibited the PI3K/AKT/mTOR (mammalian target
      of rapamycin) signaling pathway, as evidenced by decreased expressions of phospho
      PI3K (p-PI3K), p-Akt and p-mTOR, but did not affect the expressions of t-PI3K, t
      Akt or t-mTOR. Collectively, alpha-mangostin suppressed murine skin tumorigenesis
      induced by DMBA/TPA through inhibiting inflammation and promoting autophagy and
      apoptosis by regulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, as a potential
      candidate for future clinical therapy.

PMID- 28582760
TI  - Current status and future therapeutic perspectives of glioblastoma multiforme
      (GBM) therapy: A review.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the deadliest form of heterogeneous brain
      cancer. It affects an enormous number of patients every year and the survival is
      approximately 8 to 15 months. GBM has driven by complex signaling pathways and
      considered as a most challenging to treat. Standard treatment of GBM includes
      surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and also the combined treatment. This
      review article described inter and intra- tumor heterogeneity of GMB. In
      addition, recent chemotherapeutic agents, with their mechanism of action have
      been defined. FDA-approved drugs also been focused over here and most importantly
      highlighting some natural and synthetic and novel anti- glioma agents, that are
      the main focus of researchers nowadays.

PMID- 28582761
TI  - Facile synthesis of magnetic sludge-based carbons by using Electro-Fenton
      activation and its performance in dye degradation.
AB  - Highly stable iron based magnetic carbon were prepared by sequential Electro
      Fenton (EF) activation and pyrolysis of sewage sludge. The applied voltage exerts
      great influence on EF treated sludge flocs and thus poses significant effect on
      physiochemical properties of the as-prepared carbons. High insertion rate of iron
      into sludge from EF activation resulted in carbons with highly dispersed iron
      oxides, which had average size of iron nanoparticles being 4.77nm. The carbon
      also presented well developed porosity which had Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)
      surface area attaining 341m2/g. Carbons prepared by traditional Iron Impregnation
      (IM) were used as comparison to gain further insight into their catalytic role as
      Fenton-like catalyst. Results showed that EF-activated sludge carbon could yield
      96.1% of Methyl Orange (MO) removal in 60min together with only 1.4% of iron
      leaching. After three cycles, the MO removal can still reach 80% with EF
      activated carbons.

PMID- 28582762
TI  - Enhancing thermophilic co-digestion of nitrogen-rich substrates by air side
      stream stripping.
AB  - High ammonia concentrations can inhibit thermophilic anaerobic digestion, thus
      limiting the advantageous treatment of wastes rich both in carbon and nitrogen.
      In the present paper, an air side-stream stripping column was coupled to two
      thermophilic digesters to control ammonia content. The effects of exposing an
      increasing biomass fraction to the harsh conditions inside the column (pH above
      9, O2 at saturation and high T) on digester performance were tested by treating
      and recirculating 21% of reactor volume 3 or 5 times per week. Neither
      biomass/liquid separation before stripping nor addition of chemicals to control
      pH were required. Ammonium nitrogen concentration was lowered from 2.4 to 1.1+/
      0.1gN-TANL-1 and from 4.5 to 2.0+/-0.1gN-TANL-1 without compromising process
      stability. The air side-stream stripping process was successfully implemented to
      maintain ammonia concentration below 0.6+/-0.1gN-NH3L-1 while boosting methane
      production by doubling organic (and therefore nitrogen) loading rate.

PMID- 28582763
TI  - Membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor: New method and its
      applications in interfacial interaction quantification.
AB  - Quantification of interfacial interactions between two rough surfaces represents
      one of the most pressing requirements for membrane fouling prediction and control
      in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). This study firstly constructed regularly rough
      membrane and particle surfaces by using rigorous mathematical equations.
      Thereafter, a new method involving surface element integration (SEI) method,
      differential geometry and composite Simpson's rule was proposed to quantify the
      interfacial interactions between the two constructed rough surfaces. This new
      method were then applied to investigate interfacial interactions in a MBR with
      the data of surface properties of membrane and foulants experimentally measured.
      The feasibility of the new method was verified. It was found that asperity
      amplitude and period of the membrane surface exerted profound effects on the
      total interaction. The new method had broad potential application fields
      especially including guiding membrane surface design for membrane fouling
      mitigation.

PMID- 28582764
TI  - Lignocellulose degradation patterns, structural changes, and enzyme secretion by
      Inonotus obliquus on straw biomass under submerged fermentation.
AB  - This study examined the white rot fungus I. obliquus on the degradation of three
      types of straw biomass and the production of extracellular lignocellulolytic
      enzymes under submerged fermentation. The fungus process resulted in a highest
      lignin loss of 72%, 39%, and 47% in wheat straw, rice straw, and corn stover
      within 12days, respectively. In merely two days, the fungus selectively degraded
      wheat straw lignin by 37%, with only limited cellulose degradation (13%). Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that the fungus most effectively
      degraded the wheat straw lignin and rice straw crystalline cellulose. Scanning
      electronic microscopy showed the most pronounced structural changes in wheat
      straw. High activities of manganese peroxidase (159.0U/mL) and lignin peroxidase
      (123.4U/mL) were observed in wheat straw culture on Day 2 and 4, respectively.
      Rice straw was the best substrate to induce the production of cellulase and
      xylanase.

PMID- 28582765
TI  - New applications of genetically modified Pseudomonas aeruginosa for toxicity
      detection in water.
AB  - A novel mediator-free method based on genetically modified bacteria was developed
      for detecting water toxicity, where genetically modified Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      (GM P. aeruginosa) was selected as the biosensor strain and pyocyanin (PYO)
      produced by this strain was used as the indicator. The toxicity response of GM P.
      aeruginosa to 3, 5-dichlorophenol (3, 5-DCP) was measured electrochemically and
      spectroscopically, and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 3, 5
      DCP was determined to be 15.1 mg/L. Strikingly, the toxicity of sample solution
      with 3, 5-DCP could also be estimated visually by naked eyes at a concentration
      as low as 10 mg/L. The present study provided a convenient, sensitive and cost
      effective method for water toxicity detection, and extended biosensing
      application of the genetically modified bacterium.

PMID- 28582766
TI  - Enrichment and geochemical mobility of heavy metals in bottom sediment of the
      Hoedong reservoir, Korea and their source apportionment.
AB  - Physicochemical characteristics of bottom sediment in the Hoedong reservoir were
      studied to evaluate the effectiveness of the reservoir as traps for trace metals.
      Roadside soil, stream sediment and background soil were also studied for
      comparison. Sequential extractions were carried out, and lead isotopic
      compositions of each extraction were determined to apportion Pb sources. Besides,
      particle size distribution of roadside soil, and metal concentrations and Pb
      isotopes of each size group were determined to characterize metal contamination.
      In result, Zn and Cu were enriched in sediment through roadside soil. The data on
      metal partitioning implied that Zn posed potential hazards for water quality.
      Meanwhile, the noticeable reduction of the 206Pb/207Pb isotopic ratio in the acid
      soluble fraction in the size group 200 MUm - 2 mm of national roadside soil
      indicated that this size group was highly contaminated by automotive emission
      with precipitation of acid-soluble secondary minerals during evaporation. Based
      on the Pb isotopic ratios, the dry deposition of Asian dust (AD) and non-Asian
      dust (NAD) affected roadside soil, while the effects of AD and NAD on bottom
      sediment appeared to be low given the low metal concentrations in sediment. Metal
      concentrations and Pb isotopic compositions indicated that sediments were a
      mixture of background and roadside soil. Source apportionment calculations showed
      that the average proportion of traffic Pb in bottom and stream sediments was
      respectively 34 and 31% in non-residual fractions, and 26 and 28% in residual
      fraction. The residual fraction of sediments appeared to be as contaminated as
      the non-residual fractions.

PMID- 28582767
TI  - Effects of soil water saturation on sampling equilibrium and kinetics of selected
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
AB  - Passive sampling can be applied for measuring the freely dissolved concentration
      of hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) in soil pore water. When using passive
      samplers under field conditions, however, there are factors that might affect
      passive sampling equilibrium and kinetics, such as soil water saturation. To
      determine the effects of soil water saturation on passive sampling, the
      equilibrium and kinetics of passive sampling were evaluated by observing changes
      in the distribution coefficient between sampler and soil (Ksampler/soil) and the
      uptake rate constant (ku) at various soil water saturations. Polydimethylsiloxane
      (PDMS) passive samplers were deployed into artificial soils spiked with seven
      selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In dry soil (0% water
      saturation), both Ksampler/soil and ku values were much lower than those in wet
      soils likely due to the contribution of adsorption of PAHs onto soil mineral
      surfaces and the conformational changes in soil organic matter. For high
      molecular weight PAHs (chrysene, benzo[a]pyrene, and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene),
      both Ksampler/soil and ku values increased with increasing soil water saturation,
      whereas they decreased with increasing soil water saturation for low molecular
      weight PAHs (phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, and pyrene). Changes in the
      sorption capacity of soil organic matter with soil water content would be the
      main cause of the changes in passive sampling equilibrium. Henry's law constant
      could explain the different behaviors in uptake kinetics of the selected PAHs.
      The results of this study would be helpful when passive samplers are deployed
      under various soil water saturations.

PMID- 28582768
TI  - Investigation on the influence of time-of-day on benzene metabolic
      pharmacokinetics by direct breath analysis in mice.
AB  - Benzene, well known as a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, can lead to
      increasing risk of cancer, bone marrow failure as well as other serious diseases.
      Benzene has been classified as carcinogenic to humans with no recommended safe
      level of exposure. In this study, the influence of time-of-day on benzene
      metabolism has been tentatively explored in a mouse model based on direct real
      time breath analysis by using membrane inlet single photon ionization time of
      flight mass spectrometry (MI-SPI-TOFMS). The exhaled breath of eight mice was
      monitored at a time resolution of less than 20 s after intraperitoneal (I.P.)
      injection of benzene in the morning, afternoon and evening on different days, and
      two rounds of experiments were carried out in total. The pharmacokinetic
      parameters such as total exposure AUC0-infinity (h ng/mL), peak level Cmax
      (ng/mL), time of peak level tmax (h), and terminal half-life t1/2z (h) were
      calculated and discussed. The values of individual parameter varied greatly among
      the eight mice, e.g., AUC0-infinity in the morning of the first round of
      experiment ranged from 10.66 to 162.17 h ng/mL and the mean +/- SD was 103.72 +/-
      99.72 h ng/mL (n = 8). Significant difference has also been observed between two
      rounds of experiments, implying the damage in the liver caused by the benzene
      exposure. However, there is no significant difference among the results from the
      morning, afternoon and evening for each round of the experiment. In our follow-up
      study, the influence of time-of-day will be further investigated, in which the
      metabolites of benzene as well as endogenous metabolites will be considered.

PMID- 28582769
TI  - Inhibition of phosphorus sorption on calcite by dairy manure-sourced DOC.
AB  - In confined animal feeding operations, such as dairies, manure is amended to
      soils at high rates leading to increases in P and organic matter in the soils.
      Phosphorus reacts with soil-Ca to form Ca-P minerals, which controls P
      availability for leaching and transport through the watershed. In this research,
      the effects of manure sourced dissolved organic matter (DOM) on P sorption on
      calcite were measured at different reaction times and concentrations. Reactions
      were monitored in 1% and 10% manure-to-water extract solutions spiked with P.
      When manure-DOM was present, a significant reduction in P sorption occurred (2
      90% absolute decrease) compared to samples without manure-DOM. The greatest
      decrease occurred in the samples reacted in the 10% manure solution. XANES
      spectroscopic analysis showed that at 1% manure solution, a Ca-P phase similar to
      hydroxyapatite formed. In the calcite samples reacted in the 10% manure solution,
      K-edge XANES spectroscopy revealed that P occurred as a Ca-Mg-P phase instead of
      the less soluble hydroxyapatite-like phase. Results from this study suggest that
      in manure-amended calcareous soils, increased DOM from manure will decrease P
      sorption capacity and increase the overall P concentration in solution, which
      will increase the mobility of P and subsequently pose greater risks for
      impairment of surface water quality.

PMID- 28582770
TI  - The protective effect of Epimedii Folium and Curculiginis Rhizoma on Alzheimer's
      disease by the inhibitions of NF-kappaB/MAPK pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome.
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of the water extracts
      of Epimedii Folium and Curculiginis Rhizoma (EX) on Abeta-induced Alzheimer's
      disease. Abeta1-42 was stereotaxically injected bilaterally into the dorsal
      hippocampus, and then the rats were orally received EX at the doses of 2 g/kg and
      6 g/kg for 30 days. Behavior was monitored through Morris water maze test. The
      neuroprotective effect of EX were examined with methods of histochemistry and
      biochemistry. EX reduced the contents of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) and interleukin
      6 (IL-6) in hippocampus and cortex. EX also reduced the levels of malondialdehyde
      (MDA) and increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH)
      and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the serum. Immunohistochemical analysis
      demonstrated that EX inhibited the expressions of NLRP3. In addition, we further
      confirmed that EX suppressed the expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome. EX
      inhibited the phosphorylations MAPKs, nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB), myeloid
      differentiation factor 88(MyD88), cathepsin B. In conclusion, these results
      suggest that EX may be a potential agent for treating Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28582771
TI  - Error-prone DNA polymerase and oxidative stress increase the incidences of A to G
      mutations in tumors.
AB  - Mutational processes for A->G mutations in tumors are not well understood. To
      uncover the mutational mechanisms, we analyzed molecular profiles of more than
      9,000 tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The present study found
      that error-prone DNA polymerases were involved in stomach tumors with high
      fraction of A->G mutations. High levels of apoptosis in kidney cancers and high
      levels of energy metabolism in thyroid cancers increased A->G mutation rate,
      which was associated with high oxidative stress. We also found that the
      frequencies of RAS gene mutations were increased in thyroid cancers with high
      level of energy metabolism because of high-frequency A->G mutations.

PMID- 28582772
TI  - Correction: Patterns of brain atrophy associated with episodic memory and
      semantic fluency decline in aging.

PMID- 28582783
TI  - Contribution of Simultaneous Breast Reconstruction by Deep Inferior Epigastric
      Artery Perforator Flap to the Efficacy of Vascularized Lymph Node Transfer in
      Patients with Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema.

PMID- 28582784
TI  - Tibial Onlay Posterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Surgical Technique and
      Results.
AB  - The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is a fundamental structure in knee
      kinematics. PCL tears may lead to adverse consequences, such as impaired
      functional performance and an increased risk of osteoarthritis. Although surgical
      treatment is a well-established option for the patients of PCL rupture, many
      surgeons opt for conservative treatment because of the lack of consensus in the
      orthopedic literature concerning the best surgical method with less risk of
      iatrogenic lesions to the neurovascular structures in the popliteal region. Here,
      we describe an onlay technique for PCL reconstruction, which has some advantages
      over the traditional transtibial and over inlay techniques. The technique
      described in this study avoids the "killer angle"-frequently considered the cause
      of laxity of the reconstructed ligament-while simultaneously permitting safe
      retraction of the neurovascular structures without the need for a change in the
      patient's position. This technique has been used at our institution for
      approximately 10 years with very satisfactory results. The aim of this study is
      to describe the technique and perform a retrospective evaluation of the results
      of a case series.

PMID- 28582785
TI  - Sagittal Plane Corrections around the Knee.

PMID- 28582774
TI  - A giant planet undergoing extreme-ultraviolet irradiation by its hot massive-star
      host.
AB  - The amount of ultraviolet irradiation and ablation experienced by a planet
      depends strongly on the temperature of its host star. Of the thousands of
      extrasolar planets now known, only six have been found that transit hot, A-type
      stars (with temperatures of 7,300-10,000 kelvin), and no planets are known to
      transit the even hotter B-type stars. For example, WASP-33 is an A-type star with
      a temperature of about 7,430 kelvin, which hosts the hottest known transiting
      planet, WASP-33b (ref. 1); the planet is itself as hot as a red dwarf star of
      type M (ref. 2). WASP-33b displays a large heat differential between its dayside
      and nightside, and is highly inflated-traits that have been linked to high
      insolation. However, even at the temperature of its dayside, its atmosphere
      probably resembles the molecule-dominated atmospheres of other planets and, given
      the level of ultraviolet irradiation it experiences, its atmosphere is unlikely
      to be substantially ablated over the lifetime of its star. Here we report
      observations of the bright star HD 195689 (also known as KELT-9), which reveal a
      close-in (orbital period of about 1.48 days) transiting giant planet, KELT-9b. At
      approximately 10,170 kelvin, the host star is at the dividing line between stars
      of type A and B, and we measure the dayside temperature of KELT-9b to be about
      4,600 kelvin. This is as hot as stars of stellar type K4 (ref. 5). The molecules
      in K stars are entirely dissociated, and so the primary sources of opacity in the
      dayside atmosphere of KELT-9b are probably atomic metals. Furthermore, KELT-9b
      receives 700 times more extreme-ultraviolet radiation (that is, with wavelengths
      shorter than 91.2 nanometres) than WASP-33b, leading to a predicted range of mass
      loss rates that could leave the planet largely stripped of its envelope during
      the main-sequence lifetime of the host star.

PMID- 28582786
TI  - Management of Persistent Air Leaks with Intrabronchial Valves.
AB  - Persistent air leaks (PALs) are regarded as a frequent complication after
      thoracic surgery resulting in prolonged hospitalization and increased morbidity.
      Several more or less invasive therapeutic approaches are available for treatment
      of PAL with varying degrees of success. The endoscopic placement of one-way
      intrabronchial valves in the segment(s) in which the air leak has been located
      offers a highly effective and well-tolerated minimal invasive option for patients
      with PAL.

PMID- 28582787
TI  - The Prognostic Role of SYNTAX Score in Moderate Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation
      Puzzle.

PMID- 28582788
TI  - Midterm Results of a Minimally Invasive Approach in David Procedure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The David procedure is a well-known technique in selected patients
      with aortic root pathology. A minimally invasive approach in heart surgery
      increases open interest. METHODS: From 1991 to 2015, the David technique was
      performed in 296 patients in our unit. In 90 cases, operations were performed
      through partial upper sternotomy. The patient mean age was 57 +/- 14 years in the
      minimally invasive group (n = 90) and 58 +/- 14 years in the complete sternotomy
      group (n = 206; p = 0.2). The neosinus modification was performed in 80 patients
      (89%) in the minimally invasive group and in 79 patients (38%) in the complete
      sternotomy group (p < 0.01). Mean follow-up was 3 +/- 2 years in the minimally
      invasive group and 8 +/- 4 years in the complete sternotomy group. RESULTS:
      Thirty-day mortality was zero in the minimally invasive group and was 3% (n = 6)
      in the complete sternotomy group (p = 0.1). The need for packed red blood cells
      was significantly lower in the minimally invasive group (1.6 +/- 3 U) than in the
      complete sternotomy group (3.7 +/- 6 U; p < 0.01). Thirty late deaths (2% per
      patient-year) were observed in the complete sternotomy group versus zero in the
      minimally invasive group (p < 0.01). One patient (0.5% per patient-year) in the
      minimally invasive group and 12 patients (0.8% per patient-year) in the complete
      sternotomy group required reoperation in the follow-up period (p = 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Minimally invasive David technique for patients with ascending
      aortic aneurysm and aortic valve insufficiency offers a good solution with low
      perioperative blood transfusion rate. Our midterm results show low valve-related
      complications and reoperation rate. However, long-term follow-up of the minimally
      invasive group is necessary.

PMID- 28582789
TI  - Reply by the Authors of the Original Article: SYNTAX Score and Left Ventricular
      Reverse Remodeling after Bypass.

PMID- 28582790
TI  - Surgical Repair of Pleuroperitoneal Communication with Continuous Ambulatory
      Peritoneal Dialysis.

PMID- 28582791
TI  - Association of Resident Duty Hour Reform and Neonatal Outcomes of Very Preterm
      Infants.

PMID- 28582792
TI  - Ultrasonographic Change in Uterocervical Angle is not a Risk Factor for Preterm
      Birth in Women with a Short Cervix.

PMID- 28582793
TI  - Anemia in Glucose Transporter Type 1 Deficiency Syndrome: Often Expected, Rarely
      Encountered, and with a Fascinating Explanation.

PMID- 28582794
TI  - Epileptiform Activity in Electroencephalogram of Normal Children.

PMID- 28582795
TI  - Another Case of Glucose Transporter 1 Deficiency Syndrome with Periventricular
      Calcification, Cataracts, Hemolysis, and Pseudohyperkalemia.

PMID- 28582796
TI  - Relative molar response of lipophilic marine algal toxins in liquid
      chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.
AB  - RATIONALE: Accurate quantitative analysis of lipophilic toxins by liquid
      chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) requires calibration solution reference
      materials (RMs) for individual toxin analogs. Untargeted analysis is aimed at
      identifying a vast number of compounds and thus validation of fully quantitative
      untargeted methods is not feasible. However, a semi-quantitative approach
      allowing for profiling is still required and will be strengthened by knowledge of
      the relative molar response (RMR) of analogs in LC/MS with electrospray
      ionization (ESI). METHODS: RMR factors were evaluated for toxins from the okadaic
      acid (OA/DTXs), yessotoxin (YTX), pectenotoxin (PTX), azaspiracid (AZA) and
      cyclic imine (CI) toxin groups, in both solvent standards and environmental
      sample extracts. Since compound ionization and fragmentation influences the MS
      response of toxins, RMRs were assessed under different chromatographic conditions
      (gradient, isocratic) and MS acquisition modes (SIM, SRM, All-ion, target MS/MS)
      on low- and high-resolution mass spectrometers. RESULTS: In general, RMRs were
      not significantly impacted by chromatographic conditions (isocratic vs gradient),
      with the exception of DTX1. MS acquisition modes had a more significant impact,
      with PnTX-G and SPX differing notably. For a given toxin group, response factors
      were generally in the range of 0.5 to 2. The cyclic imines were an exception.
      CONCLUSIONS: Differences in RMRs between toxins of a same chemical base structure
      were not significant enough to indicate major issues for non-targeted semi
      quantitative analysis, where there is limited or no availability of standards for
      many compounds, and where high degrees of accuracy are not required. Differences
      in RMRs should be considered when developing methods that use a standard of a
      single analogue to quantitate other toxins from the same group.

PMID- 28582797
TI  - The detrimental impact of persistent vs an isolated occurrence of de novo donor
      specific antibodies on intermediate-term renal transplant outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: De novo donor-specific antibodies (dnDSA) after renal transplant are
      associated with acute rejection (AR) and graft loss, yet most recipients with
      dnDSA have stable function and no AR. We assessed whether the persistence of
      dnDSA increased the risk of a detrimental outcome. METHODS: A single-center
      review of renal transplant recipients monitored for dnDSA at multiple time points
      post-transplant. An Isolated dnDSA was defined as one positive dnDSA and no
      additional positive tests, whereas >=2 positive dnDSA was defined as persistent
      dnDSA. RESULTS: Of 708 recipients, 22% developed dnDSA, of whom 64% had
      persistent dnDSA. At median follow-up of 35 (range 12-74) months, there were
      fewer episodes of AR in the isolated dnDSA vs the persistent dnDSA group (2% vs
      22%; P<.001,) and fewer graft losses with isolated dnDSA vs persistent dnDSA (0%
      vs 10%; P=.03). Within the persistent dnDSA group, recipients with dnDSA >=60% of
      time points, had more AR (32% vs 16%, P=.10) and more graft losses (21% vs 2%;
      P=.003) than those with dnDSA<60%. CONCLUSIONS: Persistence of dnDSA resulted in
      more AR and graft failure than a single positive value. Recipients with longer
      duration of dnDSA persistence had an additional increased risk of AR and graft
      failure.

PMID- 28582798
TI  - Editorial Comment to Surgical procedures for benign prostatic hyperplasia: A
      nationwide survey in Japan, 2014 update.

PMID- 28582801
TI  - Emergency airway management in Australian and New Zealand emergency departments:
      A multicentre descriptive study of 3710 emergency intubations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the practice of endotracheal
      intubation across a range of Australasian EDs. METHODS: We established a
      multicentre airway registry (The Australian and New Zealand Emergency Department
      Airway Registry [ANZEDAR]) prospectively capturing intubations from 43 Australian
      and New Zealand EDs over 24 months using the ANZEDAR form. Information recorded
      included patient demographics, intubation indications, predicted difficulty,
      rapid sequence induction and endotracheal intubation preparation technique,
      induction drugs, airway adjuncts and complications. Factors associated with first
      attempt success were explored. RESULTS: Of the 3710 intubations captured, 3533
      were in adults (95.2%), 2835 (76.4%) for medical and 810 (21.8%) for trauma
      indications. Overall, 3127 (84.3%) patients were successfully intubated at the
      first attempt; the majority by ED doctors (2654 [72.1%]). A total of 10 surgical
      airways were performed, all of which were successful cricothyroidotomies.
      Propofol, thiopentone or ketamine were used with similar frequency for induction,
      and suxamethonium was the most often used muscle relaxant. Adverse events were
      reported in 964 (26%), the majority involving desaturation or hypotension.
      CONCLUSION: Australasian ED doctors, predominantly specialist emergency
      physicians or trainees, perform the majority of ED intubations using rapid
      sequence induction as their preferred technique mainly for medical indications.
      First attempt success rate was not different between different types of EDs, and
      is comparable published international data. Complications are not infrequent, and
      are comparable to other published series. Monitoring and reporting of ED
      intubation practice will enable continued improvements in the safety of this high
      risk procedure.

PMID- 28582802
TI  - Altered serum levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-18 in depressive disorder
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Depressive disorder is associated with abnormal changes in cytokines
      levels. This study aimed to assess serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor
      (TNF) alpha, interleukin (IL) 6, and IL-18 in depressive patients. The
      correlations between these three cytokine concentrations and the patients'
      clinical characteristics were also assessed. METHODS: Serum TNF-alpha, IL-6, and
      IL-18 concentrations were assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay from
      64 depressive patients and 80 healthy control subjects. Depressive symptoms of
      patients were assessed using Hamilton Depression Scale-17. RESULTS: Depressive
      patients had increased serum TNF-alpha and IL-6 concentrations but decreased IL
      18 concentrations than controls. TNF-alpha and IL-6 concentrations were
      significantly positively associated with Hamilton Depression Scale-17 scores in
      depressive patients. CONCLUSION: These findings provided additional evidence that
      altered TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-18 activities may contribute to the
      pathophysiology of depressive disorder.

PMID- 28582804
TI  - Food components and ocular pathophysiology: a critical appraisal of the role of
      oxidative mechanisms.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Three of the major ocular diseases, namely cataracts,
      age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma are associated with oxidative
      damage. Disease risk and progression may be reduced through consumption of
      dietary components. To critically examine the literature on dietary and
      supplemental intakes of fruit and vegetables, meat, antioxidants (vitamins C, E
      and A), calcium, folate, iron, and their association with ocular disease. METHODS
      AND STUDY DESIGN: Google Scholar and key references from texts and publications
      were searched using search terms (eye disease, antioxidants), (vision,
      nutrition), no date restriction, only articles in English were included. RESULTS:
      We found probable evidence that dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, and
      vitamin C lowered incidence of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. In
      high supplemental doses, vitamin C increases macular degeneration risk. Vitamin A
      from food was protective for cataracts and glaucoma, but not in supplemental
      form. Vitamin A was associated with lower incidence of macular degeneration. We
      also found probable evidence that higher intakes of meat increased the risk of
      cataracts and macular degeneration. Dietary calcium and iron appeared protective
      against glaucoma, but not in supplemental form. CONCLUSIONS: While a nutrient
      rich diet high in fruit and vegetables, and associated antioxidants appeared to
      be protective, we would caution intake of supplementary antioxidants for those
      with ocular disease.

PMID- 28582800
TI  - Regulation of CD4 T cells and their effects on immunopathological inflammation
      following viral infection.
AB  - CD4 T cells help immune responses, but knowledge of how memory CD4 T cells are
      regulated and how they regulate adaptive immune responses and induce
      immunopathology is limited. Using adoptive transfer of virus-specific CD4 T
      cells, we show that naive CD4 T cells undergo substantial expansion following
      infection, but can induce lethal T helper type 1-driven inflammation. In
      contrast, memory CD4 T cells exhibit a biased proliferation of T follicular
      helper cell subsets and were able to improve adaptive immune responses in the
      context of minimal tissue damage. Our analyses revealed that type I interferon
      regulates the expansion of primary CD4 T cells, but does not seem to play a
      critical role in regulating the expansion of secondary CD4 T cells. Strikingly,
      blockade of type I interferon abrogated lethal inflammation by primary CD4 T
      cells following viral infection, despite that this treatment increased the
      numbers of primary CD4 T-cell responses. Altogether, these data demonstrate
      important aspects of how primary and secondary CD4 T cells are regulated in vivo,
      and how they contribute to immune protection and immunopathology. These findings
      are important for rational vaccine design and for improving adoptive T-cell
      therapies against persistent antigens.

PMID- 28582805
TI  - Enteral nutritional support in non-ICU hospitalized patients: current practice in
      Mexico.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients receiving >=80% of their energy requirements
      by enteral nutrition (EN) have better clinical outcomes; unfortunately, there are
      discrepancies between the amount prescribed and amount received. The aim of this
      study was to explore the nutritional clinical practice, determine the adequacy
      and identify reasons for underfeeding. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective
      study was conducted in hospitalized, non-intensive care unit, adult patients
      receiving EN for >=72 h. The following data were recorded: the prescribed target
      of energy and protein per day, daily energy intake, and the percentage of
      adequacy of the energy and protein requirement up to hospital day seven.
      Complications during administration or reasons for interruption and the
      proportion of patients who received >=80% of the energy goals on days four and
      seven were also recorded. RESULTS: In total, 52 patients were included (61.5%
      women), with a median age of 57.5 years; 20.4% and 6.1% of the patients received
      >=80% of their energy and protein goals, respectively, on day four, which
      improved to 28% (p<0.005) and 19% (p<0.001), respectively, on day seven. During
      the first seven days, a statistically significant (p<0.001) difference was
      observed between the amount of prescribed and administered energy over 24 h. The
      patients who received <80% of their total energy requirement remained
      hospitalized for 29 days (IQR 16.5-45.5), while those who received >=80% were
      hospitalized for 18 days (IQR 13.3-28.8) (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Significant
      energy and protein deficits were documented. Furthermore, it is necessary to use
      strategies such as the implementation of an algorithm to optimize EN.

PMID- 28582803
TI  - A random walk-based segmentation framework for 3D ultrasound images of the
      prostate.
AB  - PURPOSE: Accurate segmentation of the prostate on ultrasound images has many
      applications in prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy. Transrectal ultrasound
      (TRUS) has been routinely used to guide prostate biopsy. This manuscript proposes
      a semiautomatic segmentation method for the prostate on three-dimensional (3D)
      TRUS images. METHODS: The proposed segmentation method uses a context
      classification-based random walk algorithm. Because context information reflects
      patient-specific characteristics and prostate changes in the adjacent slices, and
      classification information reflects population-based prior knowledge, we combine
      the context and classification information at the same time in order to define
      the applicable population and patient-specific knowledge so as to more accurately
      determine the seed points for the random walk algorithm. The method is
      initialized with the user drawing the prostate and non-prostate circles on the
      mid-gland slice and then automatically segments the prostate on other slices. To
      achieve reliable classification, we use a new adaptive k-means algorithm to
      cluster the training data and train multiple decision-tree classifiers. According
      to the patient-specific characteristics, the most suitable classifier is selected
      and combined with the context information in order to locate the seed points. By
      providing accuracy locations of the seed points, the random walk algorithm
      improves segmentation performance. RESULTS: We evaluate the proposed segmentation
      approach on a set of 3D TRUS volumes of prostate patients. The experimental
      results show that our method achieved a Dice similarity coefficient of 91.0% +/-
      1.6% as compared to manual segmentation by clinically experienced radiologist.
      CONCLUSIONS: The random walk-based segmentation framework, which combines patient
      specific characteristics and population information, is effective for segmenting
      the prostate on ultrasound images. The segmentation method can have various
      applications in ultrasound-guided prostate procedures.

PMID- 28582806
TI  - Prevalence and risk factors for complications in adult patients with short bowel
      syndrome receiving long-term home parenteral nutrition.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is a complicated and
      challenging disease where home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is widely used. The
      complications of long-term HPN-dependent in adult patients with SBS are poorly
      documented. This study was mainly aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors
      of HPNassociated complications in adult patients with SBS, especially the
      catheter-related sepsis and HPN-associated liver/biliary disorders. METHODS AND
      STUDY DESIGN: 47 non-malignant adult patients with SBS who received HPN for more
      than 2 years in our clinical nutrition center were included. Patients were
      divided into two groups according to whether HPN-associated complications were
      present or not. Student's t-test and chi2 test were applied to compare the
      differences between the two groups. RESULTS: The mean frequency of catheter
      related sepsis was 0.31+/-0.05 per catheter year of HPN. An higher incidence of
      catheter-related infections (p<0.001) and shorter delay between HPN onset and
      first infection (p<0.001) were identified as risk factors for catheter-related
      sepsis. A total of 25 patients (53.2%) developed HPN-associated liver/biliary
      diseases. The identified risk factors for HPNassociated liver/biliary disorders
      were higher rate of catheter-related infections (p=0.009), shorter delay between
      HPN onset and first infection (p=0.017), higher energy content of HPN (p=0.014),
      higher glucose rate of HPN (p=0.009), and lower lipid rate of HPN (p=0.022).
      CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that adult patients with SBS receiving long-term
      HPN treatment developed a low prevalence of catheter-related sepsis but a rather
      high prevalence of HPN-associated liver/biliary disorders. We also identified
      several risk factors for HPN-associated complications which should be taken
      notice of in clinical practice.

PMID- 28582807
TI  - Dietary fiber intake is associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression
      and cardiovascular risk, but not protein nutritional status, in adults with CKD.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Evidence suggests that dietary fiber benefits patients
      with chronic kidney disease (CKD); however, this conclusion requires further
      validation. In this study, we examined the effects of dietary fiber on kidney
      function, inflammation, indoxyl sulfate, nutritional status, and cardiovascular
      risk in patients with advanced CKD. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We performed linear
      regressions to assess the association between dietary fiber intake and CKD
      parameters. The aforementioned parameters were compared over an 18-month follow-
      up period. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to investigate the association between
      fiber intake and Cardiac vascular disease (CVD). RESULTS: In total, 157 patients
      were included in this study. Dietary fiber and inflammatory indices were
      associated (interleukin [IL]-6: beta=-0.024, p=0.035). The differential estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (DeltaeGFR) as well as levels of C-reactive protein,
      IL-6, indoxyl sulfate, and serum cholesterol in the higher fiber intake (>=25
      g/day) group were lower than those in the lower fiber intake (<25 g/day) group
      (p<0.05). Differences in IL-6 and indoxyl sulfate levels were more significant in
      patients in the higher protein intake group (p<0.05). Dietary fiber intake may be
      a protective factor associated with CVD (hazard ratio=0.537 and 0.305- 0.947).
      The protein nutritional status was not different between the two groups (p>0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing fiber intake can retard the
      decrease in the eGFR; can reduce the levels of proinflammatory factors, indoxyl
      sulfate, and serum cholesterol; and is negatively associated with cardiovascular
      risk, but does not disrupt the nutritional status of patients with CKD.

PMID- 28582808
TI  - The effect of an Annona muricata leaf extract on nutritional status and
      cytotoxicity in colorectal cancer: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Annona muricata leaf infusion has traditionally been
      consumed to maintain health, but is now considered for use in treating cancer
      patients. The objective of this study was to elucidate the effects of A. muricata
      leaf extract in humans and human cell lines. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Thirty
      outpatients with colorectal cancer who had undergone primary tumor resection were
      enrolled in a randomized double-blind placebo- controlled pre-post-trial. They
      were divided into two groups: those who ingested A. muricata leaf extract (n=14)
      and those who ingested a placebo (n=14) daily for 8 weeks. Twenty-eight subjects
      completed the trial; they were equally distributed between the two groups. Serum
      from patients of both groups was compared for cytotoxicity against colorectal
      cancer cell lines. The nutritional status of patients was monitored throughout
      the study. RESULTS: Ex vivo and clinical studies showed higher cytotoxicity in
      the supplemented group compared with the placebo group. Further research is
      required to investigate the long-term effect of A.muricata leaf extract,
      particularly on parameters directly related to cytotoxic activity toward
      colorectal cancer cells and nutrition status.

PMID- 28582809
TI  - Dietary galacto-oligosaccharides improve skin health: a randomized double blind
      clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)
      on the skin, we investigated skin-related parameters in healthy adults who
      received GOS for 12 weeks. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: This double-blind,
      randomized, placebo-controlled study included subjects divided into two groups
      (control and GOS) by stratified block randomization. The GOS group received 1.0 g
      of GOS twice a day, whereas the control group received only vehicle. RESULTS: The
      results showed that the increase in corneometer values from baseline to week 12
      was significantly greater in the GOS group than in the control group (6.91 vs
      2.88 arbitrary units, p<0.05). The transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in the GOS
      group was reduced significantly after 12 weeks of GOS treatment (20.1 g/h/m2 at
      baseline vs 17.5 g/h/m2 at week 12, p<0.05). The differences in total and
      percentage of wrinkle areas between the two groups were statistically significant
      after 12 weeks of GOS treatment (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings support that
      oral treatment with GOS is beneficial to the skin and present the possibility of
      new nutritional strategies for skin care.

PMID- 28582810
TI  - Lactobacillus intake for 60 days favors antioxidant status of human breast milk:
      an RCT.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of
      lactobacillus supplementation on trends of breast milk antioxidant parameters.
      METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: In an interventional study, 50 lactating women were
      randomly allocated to receive a daily supplement of lactobacillus (n=25) or a
      placebo (n=25) for 60 days. Daily dietary intake, anthropometric measures and
      breast milk antioxidant parameters were determined at the onset, and days 30 and
      60 of the study. Repeated-measures ANOVA were performed to assess the change over
      time in the anthropometric and biochemical parameters between the two groups. The
      main effect of treatment was compared by using Bonferroni's procedure for CI
      adjustment. The significance level was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: There was a
      significant increase in breast milk total antioxidant capacity (TAC) between
      onset of study and day 30 (p=0.01) and day 60 (p=0.001) after lactobacillus
      supplementation; however, breast milk TAC level did not change significantly
      between days 30 and 60 (p=0.7). In the placebo group, breast milk TAC levels
      decreased significantly after 60 days (p=0.001). Breast milk malondialdehyde
      (MDA) levels decreased progressively during the study in the lactobacillus group
      (p=0.001); however, there was a significant increase in MDA with time in breast
      milk samples in the placebo group (p=0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the findings,
      lactobacillus supplementation for 60 days could significantly increase breast
      milk TAC and decrease breast milk MDA levels, compared with baseline; however,
      further studies are needed to confirm these results.

PMID- 28582811
TI  - Snack bar compositions and their acute glycaemic and satiety effects.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Maintaining blood glucose within homeostatic limits
      and eating foods that sup-press hunger and promote satiety have beneficial
      impacts for health. This study investigated the glycaemic re-sponse and satiety
      effects of a serving size of a healthier snack bar, branded Nothing Else, that
      met the required nutrient profiling score criteria for a health claim, in
      comparison to two top-selling commercial snack bars. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: In
      an experimental study, 24 participants aged >=50 years were recruited. On three
      different days blood glucose concentration was measured twice at baseline and 15,
      30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after consumption of a serving size of each bar.
      Satiety effects were self-reported hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and amount
      could eat ratings on visual analogue scales. RESULTS: The incremental area under
      the blood glucose response curve (iAUC) over two hours for the Nothing Else bar
      was 30% lower than commercial Bar 2 (p<0.001). At 45 minutes after eating, the
      Nothing Else bar induced the highest fullness rating and lowest hunger rating
      among the three snack bars. At two hours, fullness induced by the Nothing Else
      bar was twice that of Bar 2 (p=0.019), but not different to Bar 1 (p=0.212).
      CONCLUSIONS: The Nothing Else snack bar developed using the nutrient profiling
      scheme as a guideline, with its high protein and dietary fibre contents, had a
      lower glycaemic impact and induced a higher subjective satiety than the two
      commercial snack bars of equal weight.

PMID- 28582812
TI  - Symptomatic efficacy of buckwheat products in Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity
      (NCGS).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a gluten-free
      grain with acclaimed benefi-cial effects on human health. Our aim was to assess
      the effect of buckwheat products on intestinal/extra-intestinal symptoms and
      biochemical parameters in patients with Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS).
      METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A randomized, crossover trial with two intervention
      phases was conducted on 19 NCGS patients over a 12 week-period. The participants
      were assigned to consume products made from buckwheat or to maintain their normal
      gluten-free diet for 6 weeks in a random order. Symptoms due to NCGS were
      evaluated using two questionnaires. RESULTS: During the intervention period with
      buckwheat products, patients experienced a signifi-cant decrease in the severity
      of abdominal pain and bloating (p=0.03). In contrast, the control group showed a
      significant worsening trend for the majority of NCGS symptoms such as nausea,
      headache, joint/muscle pain, and attention disorders. The replacement diet with
      buckwheat products also resulted in a significant increase of serum magnesium
      (+4.7%) and a significant reduction in the circulating levels of some pro
      inflammatory cytokines such as interferon gamma (-33.3%) and monocyte chemotactic
      protein-1 (-46.5%). CONCLUSION: The study supports the positive effects of
      buckwheat for NCGS patients, showing that this alternative cereal can contribute
      to the re-duction of both negative gastro-intestinal and related symptoms, and
      nutritional deficiencies, and lead to an im-provement in inflammatory profile.

PMID- 28582813
TI  - Body mass index above 24 is beneficial for the 6-month survival rate in
      hepatocellular carcinoma patients with extrahepatic metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of overweight status on the
      6-month survival rate in patients with extrahepatic hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC). METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 51
      patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and extrahepatic metastases between 2007
      and 2010 before treatment. The associations among overweight status (body mass
      index [BMI] >24 kg/m2), demographic variables, and survival outcome were analyzed
      by univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: BMI>24 kg/m2 was significantly
      associated with the 6-month survival rate (p=0.042). Gender (p=0.149), Child Pugh
      classification (p=0.149), Okuda staging (p=0.093), and albumin concentration >3.5
      mg/dL (p=0.082) showed marginal survival benefits in univariate analysis.
      Multivariate analysis confirmed that BMI >24 kg/m2 was an independent prognostic
      factor for the 6-month survival rate (p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: BMI >24 kg/m2 was
      associated with an improved 6-month survival rate in patients with extrahepatic
      metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28582814
TI  - Dietary choline and folate relationships with serum hepatic inflammatory injury
      markers in Taiwanese adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The relationships of dietary choline and folate intake
      with hepatic function have yet to be established in the Taiwanese population. We
      investigated the associations of choline and folate intake with hepatic
      inflammatory injury in Taiwanese adults. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Blood samples
      and data on dietary choline components and folate intake from 548 Taiwanese
      adults without pathological liver disease were collected. Dietary intake was
      derived using a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Serum liver injury
      markers of alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and hepatitis viral
      infection were measured. RESULTS: Elevated serum hepatic injury markers (>40 U/L)
      were associated with low folate and free choline intake (p<0.05). Folate intake
      was the most significant dietary determinant of serum aspartate transaminase
      concentration (beta=-0.05, p=0.04), followed by free choline intake (beta=-0.249,
      p=0.055). Folate intake exceeding the median level (268 MUg/d) was correlated
      with a reduced rate of hepatitis viral infection (p=0.032) and with normalized
      serum aspartate transaminase (odds ratio [OR]=0.998, 95% confidence interval
      [CI]=0.996-1, p=0.042) and alanine transaminase (OR=0.998, 95% CI=0.007-1,
      p=0.019). Total choline intake exceeding the median level (233 mg/d) was
      associated with normalized serum aspartate transaminase (OR=0.518, 95% CI=0.360
      0.745, p=0.018). CONCLUSIONS: The newly established relationships of dietary
      intake of total choline and folate with normalized hepatic inflammatory markers
      can guide the development of dietary choline and folate intake recommendations
      for Taiwanese adults.

PMID- 28582816
TI  - Dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and change in waist circumference: 15
      year longitudinal study in Australian adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Dietary behaviours are suitable as clearly
      identifiable targets of dietary counselling to prevent weight gain. We therefore
      investigated associations between dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and
      waist circumference change. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Participants were a
      community-based sample population residing in Nambour, Australia, including 1,317
      adults, aged 25-75 years at baseline. Waist circumference was measured in 1992
      and 2007, and dietary behaviours data were derived concurrently from repeated
      self-completed short dietary questions. Multivariable models, stratified by sex,
      were adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: In men, consumption of visible
      fat on meat and in women, weight loss attempts in the last 10 years were the most
      important predictors of waist circumference gain independent of socio-demographic
      and lifestyle characteristics and energy intake. Men who consumed most visible
      fat on meat had a 2.6 times larger yearly increase in waist circumference than
      men who tended to cut the fat off meat: 0.47 (95% CI 0.23, 0.72) vs 0.18 (95% CI
      0.01, 0.34) cm/year, p=0.01. Women who reported that they were always trying to
      lose weight had a 2.7 times larger yearly increase in waist circumference than
      women who never tried to lose weight: 0.78 (0.54, 1.02) vs 0.29 (0.06, 0.52)
      cm/year, p=0.0001. Other dietary behaviours were not associated with change in
      waist circumference. CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of visible fat on meat by men and
      more frequent attempts to lose weight by women were main dietary behaviours
      associated with gain in abdominal adiposity in Australian adults.

PMID- 28582815
TI  - Determination of new anthropometric cut-off values for obesity screening in
      Indonesian adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist
      to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-stature ratio (WSR) have increasingly been used
      as screening tools for obesity. However, optimal cut-off values may be different
      between populations. The current study determined the optimum cut-off values for
      BMI, WC, WHR, and WSR for obesity screening in Indonesian adults using receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Stature, body
      weight, waist and hip circumferences were measured on 600 Indonesians aged 18-65
      years (males, n=292; females, n=308) and BMI, WHR, and WSR calculated. Percentage
      of body fat (%BF) was determined using the deuterium isotope (D2O) dilution
      technique. Some existing cut-off points for obesity determination were evaluated
      for sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: The existing cutoff values showed low
      sensitivity in our sample (between 18.4 and 71.1%) and new proposed cut-offs
      increased the sensitivity to reach 66.7 to 88.5%. The new cut-offs for BMI, WC,
      WHR, and WSR for determination of obesity were 21.9 (kg/m2), 76.8 (cm), 0.86, and
      0.48, respectively, for males and 23.6 (kg/m2), 71.7 (cm), 0.77, and 0.47,
      respectively, for females. CONCLUSIONS: WC and WSR are the most predictive both
      for males and females, and therefore are considered as better screening tools for
      obesity in this population.

PMID- 28582817
TI  - Nutritional status and dietary diversity of Kamea in Gulf Province, Papua New
      Guineas.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the nutritional status of infants, children
      and non-pregnant women and underlying factors, dietary diversity and community
      food security, in the Kamea community in Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. METHODS
      AND STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cross sectional study. Study population 69 infants
      (0-59 months), 151 children (6-12 years) and 79 non-pregnant women from 10
      villages in Kotidanga Local Level Government, Kerema District, Gulf Province,
      Papua New Guinea. RESULTS: Among infants prevalence of moderate stunting, wasting
      and underweight were 38.9%, 8.3% and 44.4%, respectively; after adjusting Hb
      concentration for altitude, the anaemia prevalence was 53.8%. Among children
      prevalence of severe stunting was 21.2%; moderate stunting, wasting and
      underweight were 57.6%, 12.2% and 48.5%, respectively; anaemia was 30.3%; median
      urinary iodine concentration was 32.0 MUg/L and iodine deficiency was prevalent
      among 88.1%. Among women, mean height, weight and BMI were 1.46+/-0.04 m, 43.9+/
      5.91 kg and 20.4+/-2.32 kg/m2, respectively; low BMI (<18.5 kg/m2) and anaemia
      were prevalent among 22.8% and 35.4%, respectively; median urinary iodine
      concentration was 36.0 MUg/L and iodine deficiency was prevalent among 80.3%.
      Exclusive breastfeeding was universal for young infants; complementary foods were
      limited in variety and frequency. Dietary diversity was limited, implementation
      of the universal salt iodisation strategy restricted and community food security
      was inadequate. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of malnutrition and anaemia
      among the three age groups, including moderate status of iodine deficiency among
      women and children, are significant public health concerns. Improvements in
      dietary diversity, adequate use of iodised salt and community food security are
      needed.

PMID- 28582818
TI  - Goitre and urinary iodine in coastal and inland areas with low and high iodized
      salt coverage in Zhejiang province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: WHO recommended that iodized salt are more than 90% of
      households in USI programs, which may not be suitable for all regions, especially
      in coastal areas. This study intended to find out levels of iodine nutrition and
      give advice from the USI programs for areas with different iodized salt coverage.
      METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Coastal and inland areas were selected according to
      geographical regions in Zhejiang Province, China. The water iodine concentration
      (spectrophotometer analysis), salt iodine concentration (the colorimetric
      titration method), salt intake, urinary iodine concentration (spectrophotometer
      analysis), and thyroid volume examination (ultrasonography), as well as
      questionnaire, were measured in the two areas. RESULTS: Mean Urinary Iodine
      concentration (MUIs) of children in coastal areas was 149 MUg/L, which was
      significantly lower than that in inland areas (191 MUg/L). MUIs of pregnant women
      in coastal and inland areas were111 and 138 MUg/L, respectively. Pregnant women
      who consumed iodine-containing supplements had higher MUIs (207 MUg/L) than those
      did not (134 MUg/L) in inland areas. Prevalence of goitre in children reached
      7.0% and 6.6% in coastal and inland areas, respectively. The lowest prevalence of
      goitre was reached when the urinary iodine concentration was approximately 120
      160 MUg/L in coastal areas. CONCLUSION: Iodine levels of coastal and inland areas
      were in the adequate range. Advice from the USI program should be specialized for
      different areas to appropriately reduce the salt iodine concentrations in inland
      areas and to determine an appropriate proportion of households using iodized salt
      in coastal areas. Moreover, iodine supplement intake during pregnancy should
      officially be recommended.

PMID- 28582820
TI  - Body mass index is associated with fat mass in normal, overweight/obese, and
      stunted preschool children in central Thailand.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Body mass index (BMI) is widely used as a surrogate
      measure of adiposity. The relationship between BMI and body fatness varies by
      race, sex, and age and more variations have been found among children. This study
      investigated the relationship between BMI and fat mass among 3-5 year old
      children having different nutritional status. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A cross
      sectional study was conducted in 15 daycare centers in central Thailand. 137
      healthy preschool children were recruited according to their nutritional status:
      thin [BMI for age Z scores, (BAZ) <-2 SD], normal BMI (-2 SD<= BAZ <=+2 SD),
      overweight/obese (BAZ >+2 SD), and stunted [height for age Z scores < -2 SD]. Fat
      free mass was determined by deuterium dilution technique. Fat mass (FM) in
      kilograms (TFM) and in percentage (FM%), and fat mass index (FMI, FM/height2)
      were calculated. RESULTS: FM and FMI were the highest in the overweight/obese
      groups. In the thin group, girls had higher FMI compared to boys (3.2 vs 2.8
      kg/m2, p<0.05). The relationship between BMI with FMI and FM differed by
      nutritional status. BMI was more strongly associated with FMI, TFM, and FM% in
      the overweight/ obese (r=0.97, 0.95, 0.80, p<0.05) and the normal (r=0.88, 0.84,
      0.68, p<0.05) groups but not in the stunted group, and inconsistent in the thin
      group. CONCLUSIONS: The inconsistency in the relationship between BMI and body
      fatness suggests that BMI is appropriate for reflecting adiposity in normal and
      overweight/obese children, but not undernourished preschool children.

PMID- 28582819
TI  - The influence of mandatory iodine fortification on the iodine status of
      Australian school children residing in an iodine sufficient region.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To counter emerging iodine deficiency mandatory iodine
      fortification of bread was introduced throughout Australia in 2009. This study
      investigated the impact of iodine fortification on the iodine status of school
      aged children living in the iodine replete state of Queensland, and investigated
      which foods had greatest influence on overall iodine status. METHODS AND STUDY
      DESIGN: A convenience sample of 30 children aged 8.0-10.9 years living in south
      east Queensland, Australia, provided spot morning and afternoon urine samples on
      two consecutive days. Iodine status was categorised by the World Health
      Organization criterion. Semiquantitative food questionnaires (FFQ) completed by
      carers were used to investigate which foods were having the greatest influence on
      UIC. Analysis of variance was used to reduce the within person variation observed
      in urinary iodine concentrations (UIC) and the data were log transformed before
      statistical analysis. RESULTS: Adjusted median UIC was 144 ug/L (IQR 120-210
      ug/L) indicating iodine sufficient status. No samples were above the cut off for
      excessive UIC. Bread was the only statistically significant contributor to UIC
      (standardized beta=0.37, p=0.04) with 14% of variation in UIC explained by bread
      consumption. UIC increased by 8.7% for each additional serve of bread.
      CONCLUSIONS: Iodine fortification of bread has increased the iodine status of
      school aged children in this Queensland cohort. Despite the small sample size in
      this study, improvements in methodology allowed its findings to be comparable to
      other, larger surveys.

PMID- 28582821
TI  - Normal-weight central obesity is associated with metabolic disorders in Chinese
      postmenopausal women.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional study examined whether normal
      weight central obesity, defined as a high waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), is
      associated with metabolic disorders in Chinese postmenopausal women. METHODS AND
      STUDY DESIGN: We recruited 634 community-dwelling postmenopausal women with a
      normal body mass index (BMI) who participated in an annual health checkup. Normal
      weight obesity (NWO) was defined as a normal BMI and WHtR in the highest tertile
      of the study population. The updated National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult
      Treatment Panel III criteria were used to assess metabolic abnormalities, and
      binary logistic regression models were employed to estimate the associations
      between NWO and metabolic disorders. RESULTS: The prevalence of each metabolic
      disorder showed a graded increase (p<0.05) across the WHtR tertiles in the study
      population. NWO was significantly associated with some non-adipose components of
      metabolic syndrome (MetS) (p<0.05) after adjusting for age, smoking status,
      drinking status, inflammatory markers, total cholesterol (TC), low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), body fat percentage (BF%), and the remaining non
      adipose MetS components. Participants in the highest WHtR tertile had a higher
      odds ratio [2.00 (1.19- 3.33), p<0.01] for the presence of at least two non
      adipose MetS components than those in the lowest tertile after adjusting for age,
      lifestyle factors, inflammatory markers, TC, LDL-c, and BF%. CONCLUSIONS: NWO is
      significantly associated with metabolic disorders, suggesting that a clinical
      assessment of abdominal obesity indices should be conducted in postmenopausal
      women, even in those with a normal BMI.

PMID- 28582822
TI  - High consumption of salt-fermented vegetables and hypertension risk in adults: a
      12-year follow-up study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the causal
      relationship between high consumption of salt-fermented vegetables and
      hypertension risk in adults. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Data came from the Korean
      Genome and Epidemiology Study, an ongoing community-based cohort study that began
      in 2001. In the final analysis, a total of 5,932 participants (men=2,822,
      women=3,110) was included. Daily energy, nutrient, and major salt-fermented
      vegetables for Korean (kimchi) intakes were assessed using a semi-quantitative
      food frequency questionnaire. Relative risks and 95% CIs associated with kimchi
      intake by gender and body mass index (BMI) were estimated using the multivariate
      Cox proportional hazards regression model. RESULTS: Out of the 5,932
      participants, 1,798 (905 men, 893 women) developed hypertension during the 12
      year follow-up period. A significant difference in baseline BMI was shown between
      the non-hypertension and hypertension groups. There was no significant difference
      with regard to the risk of developing hypertension across quintiles for total
      kimchi intake and quartile or quartiles for specific kimchi intake in
      multivariate models by gender and baseline BMI. The trend for increased risk of
      hypertension according to increasing quartile of watery kimchi intake was
      significant for obese men in the multivariate model (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: High
      consumption of salt-fermented vegetables was not shown to be associated with
      increased risk of hypertension. The trend for increased risk of hypertension
      according to increasing quartile of watery kimchi intake was significant only in
      obese men.

PMID- 28582823
TI  - Bimodal distribution of fasting plasma glucose in the Uyghur and Han populations
      of Xinjiang, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Bimodality in fasting plasma glucose (FPG)
      distribution has been detected in several populations. However, information
      regarding this phenomenon among Chinese ethnic groups is minimal. This study
      aimed to describe and update the distribution of FPG in the Uyghur and Han
      populations of Xinjiang, China, as well as to estimate the cut points of FPG on
      the basis of bimodal distribution. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional
      study was performed among the Uyghur and Han populations of Xinjiang, China in
      2013. Questionnaire survey and FPG tests were conducted among 5,923 participants
      aged 20-80 years. We fitted the unimodal and bimodal distributions into the FPG
      data by ethnicity, age, gender, and location to test whether the FPG values were
      consistent with a bimodal distribution. RESULTS: The FPG distribution could be
      described as bimodal, except for the age group of 50 years old and below among
      the Uyghur and Han populations and the age group of 70-80 years old among the
      Uyghur population (p<0.01). However, most of the cut points estimated using this
      method did not fall between the corresponding means of the first and second
      modes. CONCLUSIONS: Although a bimodal distribution of FPG was observed in the
      Uyghur and Han populations of Xinjiang, China, the cut points estimated using
      this method were not biologically meaningful, and thus, a bimodal distribution of
      FPG was not useful for defining cut points to diagnose diabetes in Xinjiang.

PMID- 28582824
TI  - Metabolic syndrome in Korean adolescents and young adult offspring and their
      parents.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Studies have investigated the associations between
      parental metabolic syndrome (MetS) and offspring MetS. This study aimed to
      uncover parental-offspring associations for MetS and its components according to
      offspring sex and age. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study in 1,403
      fathers, 1,451 mothers, and 1,532 offspring (340 male and 404 female offspring
      aged 10-18 years; 283 male and 505 female offspring aged 19-25 years) using the
      Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data between 2010 and
      2013. RESULTS: All categorized MetS components in fathers and mothers were
      significantly associated with the same components in male offspring, while high
      waist circumference, high triglycerides, and low high-density lipoprotein in
      fathers and mothers were associated with the same components in female offspring.
      The number of categorized MetS components which were significantly associated
      between parent-offspring pairs was greater in offspring aged 19-25 years than in
      those aged 10-18 years. All categorized MetS components were significantly
      associated between father-male offspring aged 19-25 years pairs, but not in other
      parent-offspring pairs. The MetS per se in fathers and mothers was significantly
      associated with that in male offspring aged 10-18 years. CONCLUSIONS: There were
      differential associations according to offspring sex and age group and parent's
      sex with respect to parental-offspring associations for MetS and its individual
      components. The associations for MetS and its components were stronger in young
      adult versus adolescent offspring, in male offspring versus female offspring.

PMID- 28582825
TI  - Awareness of coeliac disease among chefs and cooks depends on the level and place
      of training.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Coeliac disease is triggered by gluten. The only
      treatment is lifelong avoidance of dietary gluten. Dining out and travelling are
      particular challenges with a huge impact on quality of life. We examined the
      knowledge about coeliac disease and gluten-free food preparation among chefs and
      cooks, and culinary students in Dunedin, New Zealand. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN:
      Outlets serving gluten-free food were identified. The head chefs or cooks were
      invited to complete a questionnaire regarding demographics, education,
      qualification, experience and knowledge of coeliac disease and gluten-free food
      preparation. Ninety restaurant chefs and cooks, and 35 first-year culinary
      students participated. RESULTS: Half of participating chefs and cooks had
      received no formal training, but all were aware of the term gluten-free diet.
      Twelve (13%) were unaware of coeliac disease, all of whom were non-European and
      worked at an ethnic restaurant which did not have gluten-free policies in place.
      There was no significant difference in awareness of coeliac disease between chefs
      and students (p=0.36). However, students were significantly more aware of
      necessary gluten-free food preparation (p=0.007) and scored better in the gluten
      free quiz (p=0.01) than chefs and cooks. CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of coeliac
      disease did not necessarily mean that policies were in place to prepare
      contamination-free gluten-free meals. Chefs and cooks from countries with a low
      incidence of coeliac disease lacked knowledge about gluten-free food preparation
      and had difficulties recognising gluten containing foods. Patients with coeliac
      disease wanting to dine out should be advised to choose a restaurant with care.

PMID- 28582826
TI  - Associations of self-efficacy, social support, and knowledge with fruit and
      vegetable consumption in Japanese workers.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have suggested that self-efficacy,
      social support, and knowledge are primary psychosocial predictors of dietary
      behavior in adults. The present study aimed to investigate the associations of
      self-efficacy, social support, and knowledge with fruit and vegetable consumption
      in Japanese workers. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: From September to November 2014, a
      self-administered questionnaire was completed by Japanese workers at 8 workplaces
      in Niigata, Japan. Self-efficacy and social support for fruit and vegetable
      consumption were measured using a 3-item Likert scale across particular
      situations. Knowledge was measured using a single item about the recommended
      guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption in Japan. Fruit and vegetable
      consumption was assessed using a validated, brief-type self-administered diet
      history questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the 457 respondents, 395 participants' data
      were analyzed. Scores in self-efficacy and social support showed a significant
      and positive association with fruit (p<0.001, p=0.002) and vegetable consumption
      (p=0.001, p=0.015). Knowledge was significantly and positively associated with
      vegetable consumption (p=0.015) but did not statistically differ in fruit
      consumption (p=0.645). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that
      selfefficacy and social support are positively associated with fruit and
      vegetable consumption in Japanese workers.

PMID- 28582827
TI  - Differences in health-related behaviors between middle school, high school, and
      college students in Jiangsu province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Increasing rates of obesity among Chinese adolescents
      has become a major public health concern in recent years. Studies have shown that
      factors such as food choices, physical activity, and screen time play important
      roles in fostering obesity. We examined a number of biological and social
      determinants that influence these factors. To determine whether dietary behavior,
      physical activity, and screen time varied among students in different stages of
      their education. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Students in 13 cities across Jiangsu
      Province completed an anonymous survey assessing demographics and various health
      related behaviors in a controlled setting. The survey population ranged from
      middle school students to undergraduates. 55,361 surveys were returned, and
      46,611 (84.2%) were usable for the analysis. Multiple linear regression models
      were used to investigate the relationship between four behavioral factors
      (dietary behavior, screen time, physical activity, and moderate exercise) and
      seven predictors (gender, age, BMI, mother's education, nearsightedness,
      allowance, and geographic region). RESULTS: Baseline characteristics of the
      survey population analyzed by education level (middle school, high school,
      college and beyond) showed moderate differences in demographics among the three
      groups. Physical activity, moderate exercise, and dietary behavior decreased with
      educational level, while screen time increased. All predictors in the four
      considered regression models were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This
      unique, large-scale survey of Chinese students in a region of contrasting
      economic development revealed numerous relationships between health-related diet
      and physical-activity, region, and education level. These findings can inform the
      development of measures to counteract the rise of obesity in China.

PMID- 28582828
TI  - Rising food accessibility contributed to the increasing dietary diversity in
      rural and urban China.
AB  - China has undergone a dramatic transition in food consumption in the past few
      decades. Diet composition has changed significantly because of an increase in
      food accessibility and lifestyle changes. To investigate dietary changes in China
      from the perspective of dietary diversity, we assessed the trend of dietary
      diversity in China by using the following 4 indicators: count index, dietary
      diversity score, entropy, and Simpson index. Data of 24,542 adults (age >=18 y)
      were obtained from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) conducted in
      2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011. Furthermore, the association between dietary
      diversity and the number of food facilities was investigated using multivariable
      regression and local polynomial regression. Results indicate that dietary
      diversity increased over time and was unequally distributed among regions and
      families. Urban residents had a significantly more diverse diet compared with
      their rural counterparts (p<0.01). Moreover, dietary diversity was positively
      associated with food accessibility (p<0.01), and it was affected by socioeconomic
      factors such as the family income, household size, gender, age, education, and
      region. Taken together, these data suggest that the increase in dietary diversity
      in China in the past decade can be partially attributed to the increase in food
      accessibility.

PMID- 28582829
TI  - What Could be the Mechanism of the Delayed Normalization of the Electrocardiogram
      in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage-Triggered Takotsubo Syndrome?

PMID- 28582830
TI  - In Reply to "What Could be the Mechanism of the Delayed Normalization of the
      Electrocardiogram in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage-Triggered
      Takotsubo Syndrome?"

PMID- 28582831
TI  - Moyamoya Disease: Impact of Evolving Different Management Approaches to Improve
      Overall Neurologic Outcome.

PMID- 28582832
TI  - In Reply to "Moyamoya Disease: Impact of Evolving Different Management Approaches
      to Improve Overall Neurologic Outcome".

PMID- 28582833
TI  - A Letter to the Editor regarding "The Impact of Hospital Teaching Status on
      Timing of Intervention, Inpatient Morbidity, and Mortality After Surgery for
      Vertebral Column Fractures with Spinal Cord Injury".

PMID- 28582834
TI  - In Reply to A Letter to the Editor regarding "The Impact of Hospital Teaching
      Status on Timing of Intervention, Inpatient Morbidity, and Mortality After
      Surgery for Vertebral Column Fractures with Spinal Cord Injury."

PMID- 28582835
TI  - Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Utility and Perioperative Complications.

PMID- 28582836
TI  - In Reply to "Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Utility and Perioperative
      Complications".

PMID- 28582837
TI  - Impact Factor.

PMID- 28582838
TI  - The effect of gigantomasty on vertebral degeneration: A computed tomography
      study.
AB  - The main reason for waist and back pain in patients with gigantomasty is
      increased thoracic kyphosis and lumber lordosis. These symptoms and abnormal
      spinal angulations regress after reduction mammoplasty operations. However, the
      effect of chronic mechanical stress caused by gigantomasty on the spinal
      degenerative process is not clear yet. In this study with computed tomography it
      is shown that degenerative spondylosis is more widespread and severe in patients
      with large breasts.

PMID- 28582839
TI  - Beneficial effect of faradic stimulation treatment on the rehabilitation of
      hysterical paraplegia.
AB  - Hysterical paralysis, a type of conversion disorder, presents with the loss of
      motor or sensory function. Although this disorder is nonorganic, it resembles the
      symptoms of a structural disease of the nervous system. It is generally
      associated with a traumatic or social event. The patients often require excessive
      testing and comprehensive assessment in exposing this psychogenic ailment. We
      reported the most dramatic type of conversion disorder, hysterical paralysis, in
      which full recovery was obtained with early recognition and rehabilitation
      approach including faradic stimulation.

PMID- 28582840
TI  - Bim may be a poor prognostic biomarker in breast cancer patients especially in
      those with luminal A tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bcl-2 interacting mediator of cell death (Bim) appears to have
      contradictory roles in cancer. It is uncertain whether Bim show prognostic
      significance in patients with breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the
      correlation between Bim expression and clinicopathological characteristics of
      breast cancer and to evaluate Bim's effect on overall survival (OS). METHODS: We
      used immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique to detect the expression of Bim via
      tissue microarray in 275 breast cancer samples, Kaplan-Meier analysis to perform
      survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazards regression model to explore the
      risk factors of breast cancer. RESULTS: The results revealed that Bim expression
      was significantly correlated with age, estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone
      receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) and Ki67 expression
      (P< 0.05). Bim expression was significantly different in the four molecular
      subtypes (P= 0.000). Survival analysis showed that Bim positive expression
      contributed to a shorter OS (P= 0.034), especially in patients with luminal A
      tumors (P= 0.039). Univariate and multivariate regression analysis showed that
      Bim was an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Bim may serve as an effective predictive factor for lower OS in breast cancer
      patients, especially in those with luminal A tumors.

PMID- 28582841
TI  - Higher expression of SALL4 predicts poor cancer prognosis: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) is recognized as a potential biomarker for
      assessing cancer prognosis. Many experiments have been done to explore the
      aberrant expression of SALL4 in cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: To explore the
      association between SALL4 expression and cancer prognosis. METHODS: A
      systematically comprehensive search was performed through PubMed, Web of Science,
      and CNKI. The prognostic value of SALL4 expression in cancer patients was
      evaluated by pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
      RESULTS: The overexpression of SALL4 was identified to be significantly
      associated with a poor prognosis in cancer patients (pooled HR: 2.02, 95% CI:
      1.67-2.46). This association was also detected in digestive system neoplasms
      subgroup (pooled HR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.52-2.39) and reproductive system neoplasms
      subgroup (pooled HR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.17-3.26). In the geography subgroup
      analysis, a statistical association was confirmed in the Chinese subgroup (pooled
      HR: 1.982, 95% CI: 1.526-2.576). In the respect of disease progression, there was
      a certain degree of relationship between higher expression of SALL4 and
      recurrence-free survival (RFS) (pooled HR: 1.617, 95% CI: 1.190-2.196).
      CONCLUSION: SALL4 is a promising prognostic biomarker for cancer, and is
      appropriate for the assessment of cancer prognosis in the Chinese people.

PMID- 28582842
TI  - Chitotriosidase, a marker of innate immunity, is elevated in patients with
      primary breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer progression has been associated with altered immune cell
      function and activation. Neopterin, which is secreted by interferon-gamma
      stimulated macrophages, exhibits an association with multiple cancer types and
      metastatic disease. Chitotriosidase, which is secreted by chronically activated
      macrophages and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor stimulated
      neutrophils has not been studied in the setting of cancer. OBJECTIVE: The goal of
      this discovery study was to screen chitotriosidase for diagnostic capacity in
      detecting cancer and compare its operating characteristics with those of
      neopterin. METHODS: Serum from subjects with breast (n= 66) or prostate (n= 70)
      cancer, and from 204 subjects free of malignant disease were studied.
      Chitotriosidase was measured by enzyme activity assay, while neopterin was
      measured by a competitive enzyme immunoassay. Statistical analyses included group
      comparisons by Mann Whitney U test, diagnostic capacity by receiver operating
      characteristics (ROC) curve analysis and biomarker associations with physiologic
      and clinical measures by Spearman correlation. RESULTS: Chitotriosidase activity
      was significantly higher in both cancer types compared with gender matched
      controls, though only in breast cancer was the diagnostic capacity significant
      (area under the ROC curve of 0.97 +/- 0.01). In contrast, neopterin was
      significantly elevated in prostate cancer and exhibited discriminatory capacity
      (area under the ROC curve of 0.76 +/- 0.05). Age, BMI, % body fat and metastasis
      were variables that correlated with neopterin, but not chitotriosidase levels.
      CONCLUSIONS: The operating characteristics of serum chitotriosidase were
      different from neopterin and further analysis of chitotriosidase as a biomarker
      for breast cancer is warranted.

PMID- 28582844
TI  - Postoperative recurrence analysis of breast cancer patients based on clinical
      serum markers using discriminant methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a common gynecological malignant tumor and currently
      its clinical diagnosis mainly depends on methods of iconography and measurement
      of serum level. OBJECTIVE: To analyze correlation between serum index levels and
      prognosis of patients with breast cancer in one week and six months after
      operation, and to establish support vector machine (SVM) model to evaluate its
      effectiveness. METHODS: One hundred sixty eight patients diagnosed with breast
      cancer at Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University were collected, 46
      of which did palindromia while other 122 didn't six months after operation. Serum
      CA153, CA125 and CEA levels of different periods in two groups were analyzed from
      their differences. Through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
      analysis, their diagnostic threshold values were calculated, at the same time,
      SVM model was built. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between serum
      index levels of recurrence group and non-recurrence group in one week and six
      months after operation (P< 0.05); SVM model was established with an accuracy of
      96.67% (29/30), a sensitivity of 90% (9/10) and a specificity of 100% (20/20).
      CONCLUSIONS: Serum CAl53, CEA and CA125 levels after operation have certain
      instructional significance for prognosis of breast cancer patients, and the
      established SVM model has high clinical application value.

PMID- 28582843
TI  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia and genetic variations in BHMT gene: Case-control
      study and computational characterization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Remethylation of homocysteine is catalyzed by B12 dependent
      methionine synthase (MTR) in all types of cells and by B12 non-dependent betaine
      homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT) in liver and kidney cells. Of many
      etiologies of cancer, an unexplored area is the variations of genes implicated in
      methylation reaction. OBJECTIVE: The study evaluated the association of BHMT
      (rs3733890) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), followed by in-silico
      characterization of variations in BHMT gene. METHODS: BHMT [rs3733890; c.742G >
      A, which substitutes an arginine by a glutamine at codon 239 (R239Q)] was
      screened by Tetra-primer Amplification Refractory Mutation System PCR (T-ARMS
      PCR) and confirmed using DNA sequencing. In-silico analysis was conducted using
      bioinformatics tools. RESULTS: BHMT (rs3733890) showed an insignificant
      association with both childhood and adult ALL. Bioinformatics analysis showed
      that 18 nsSNPs are deleterious, 3 SNPs in 3'-UTR (rs59109725, rs116634518 and
      rs138578732) alter the miRNA-binding site, and 11 CNVs are present in the BHMT
      gene. As consequence of BHMT (rs3733890) polymorphism the free energy changes
      from -101210.1 kJ/mol to -200021.8 kJ/mol. CONCLUSIONS: BHMT (rs3733890)
      polymorphism showed no association with ALL. Hence this investigation needs
      further evaluation in larger sample size and effect of other SNPs, CNVs and
      miRNA's is required to elucidate the role of BHMT gene in ALL development.

PMID- 28582845
TI  - Elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) can be a marker of immune suppression in
      cancer: Interplay between hematologic and solid neoplastic clones and their
      microenvironments.
AB  - Metabolism of neoplastic cells is shifted toward high glucose uptake and enhanced
      lactate production. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which is comprised of two major
      subunits, LDH-A and LDH-B, reversibly catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to
      lactate or lactate to pyruvate. LDH-A has a higher affinity for pyruvate and is a
      key enzyme in the glycolytic pathway. Elevated LDH is a negative prognostic
      biomarker not only because it is a key enzyme involved in cancer metabolism, but
      also because it allows neoplastic cells to suppress and evade the immune system
      by altering the tumor microenvironment. LDH-A alters the tumor microenvironment
      via increased production of lactate. This leads to enhancement of immune
      suppressive cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), tumor
      associated macrophages (TAMs), and dendritic cells (DCs); and inhibition of
      cytolytic cells, such as natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T-lymphocytes
      (CTLs). By promoting immune-suppression in the tumor microenvironment, LDH-A is
      able to promote resistance to chemo/radio/targeted therapy. Here we discuss the
      evidence that LDH is both a metabolic and an immune surveillance prognostic
      biomarker and its elevation is harbinger of negative outcome in both solid and
      hematologic neoplasms.

PMID- 28582847
TI  - MiR-133b inhibits proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer cells by up
      regulating FBN1 expression.
AB  - We aimed to investigate the influence of miR-133b/fibrillin 1 (FBN1) on
      proliferation and invasion of human gastric cancer (GC) cells. Carcinomatous and
      adjacent tissues of 43 GC patients, normal gastric mucosa cell line GES-1 and GC
      cell lines including AGS, HGC-27, KATO III, NCI-N87, SGC-7901, MKN-45 and MGC-803
      were collected. Then, the expressions of miR-133b and FBN1 were detected by qRT
      PCR. The dual luciferase reporter gene assay was conducted to determine the
      targeting relationship between miR-133b and FBN1.The protein expression levels of
      FBN1, beta-catenin, Cyclin D1, C-myc and MMP-7 were detected by Western Blot.
      Furthermore, the cell viability, proliferation, migration and invasion ability
      were measured by CCK-8, colony formation assay, wound healing assay and Transwell
      assay, respectively. MiR-133b was down-regulated in GC tissues and cells compared
      with adjacent tissues and normal cells. Conversely, FBN1 was up-regulated in GC
      tissues and cells in contrast with adjacent tissues and normal cells. MGC-803 and
      MKN-45 cell lines were chosen to conduct the following assays. The luciferase
      reporter assay proved that miR-133b directly targeted FBN1. The overexpression of
      miR-133b and silence of FBN1 could inhibit the cell proliferative, migratory and
      invasive abilities of GC cells, while the influence of down-regulated miR-133b
      expression and up-regulated FBN1 expression were quite the contrary. Compared
      with NC group, in the miR-133b mimics group, the expression of beta-catenin, N
      cadherin and Wnt1 of Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway increased, while the
      expressions of E-cadherin decreased. MiR-133b inhibits the proliferative,
      migratory and invasive abilities of GC cells by increasing FBN1 expression.

PMID- 28582846
TI  - Decreased SIRT4 protein levels in endometrioid adenocarcinoma tissues are
      associated with advanced AJCC stage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Members of the SIRT family are a highly conserved family of NAD+
      dependent enzymes, many of which (SIRT1-7) play an important role in tumor
      formation. Recently, several studies have suggested that SIRT4 not only regulates
      glutamine metabolism, but also serves as a tumor suppressor. There are no studies
      have assessed its clinical significance in endometrioid adenocarcinoma. METHODS:
      We investigated SIRT4 protein levels in endometrioid adenocarcinoma and its
      possible association with selected clinico-pathological parameters by
      immunohistochemical staining of a tissue microarray that included 65 endometrioid
      adenocarcinoma patients. RESULTS: SIRT4 protein levels in endometrioid
      adenocarcinoma were markedly lower than its non-neoplastic tissue counterpart (P<
      0.001). Moreover, lower SIRT4 expression levels were observed in advanced AJCC
      stages of development (P= 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that SIRT4
      may be involved in the development of endometrioid adenocarcinoma and is a
      promising target for both the diagnosis and potential therapy of endometrioid
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28582848
TI  - Curative effect of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization combined with
      radiofrequency ablation in treating hepatic cell carcinoma and its effect on
      serum markers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC) is more common in clinical practice, and
      has high malignant degree. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze the curative
      effect of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with
      radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in treating hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC) and its
      effect on serum markers. METHODS: A total of 106 cases of patients with hepatic
      cell carcinoma treated in our hospital were randomly divided into two groups:
      observation group and control group. Patients in the observation group (53 cases)
      received transcatheter arterial chemoembolization combined with radiofrequency
      ablation therapy, while subjects in the control group (53 cases) received
      transcatheter arterial chemoembolization therapy. Differences in the overall
      effect, indicators of inflammation and oxidative stress, tumor activity-related
      indicators and tumor recurrence-related indicators between these two groups were
      compared. RESULTS: At one and two weeks after treatment, the number of cases of
      CR and PR in the observation group was higher than that in the control group, the
      number of cases of SD was not different from that in the control group, and the
      number of cases of PD was lower than that in the control group. At two weeks
      after treatment, differences in serum MDA, SOD, GSH, CRP, TNF-alpha and ESR
      between the two groups were significant. However, serum EC, VEGF, MMP, AFP, CA199
      and GGT content was significantly lower in the observation group than that in the
      control group. CONCLUTIONS: Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization combined
      with radiofrequency ablation therapy can effectively control the growth of liver
      cancer lesions, reduce the levels of tumor-related serum markers, and inhibit the
      activity of tumor cells.

PMID- 28582849
TI  - MicroRNA-451 as a prognostic marker for diagnosis and lymph node metastasis of
      papillary thyroid carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To investigate the diagnostic potentials of microRNA
      451(miR-451) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) diagnosis and lymph node (LN)
      metastasis, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens
      corresponding to PTC tumors (n= 60) and their normal counterparts (Normal tissues
      Adjacent to Tumor, NAT, n= 60), along with sera from PTC patients with malignant
      tumors (n= 70) and benign lesions (n= 70) were analyzed for the expression of miR
      451 by real-time PCR. METHODS: The usefulness of miR-451 expression as a
      prognostic marker for diagnosis of PTC malignancies was evaluated by Receiver
      Operating Curve (ROC). We reported that when compared to those in NAT, the levels
      of miR-451 in FFPE tissues from various stages of PTC patients (n= 60) were
      significantly lower (Mean +/- SEM; 12.62 +/- 1.73 vs 38.8 +/- 3.51, p< 0.0001).
      Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis revealed that the area under curve (AUC)
      was 0.808; suggesting miR-451 expression was a reliable tissue biomarker for PTC
      malignancies. Further in depth analyses of these specimens revealed that miR-451
      levels were significantly lower in PTC patients with lymph node (LN) metastasis
      than those without LN metastasis (3.96 +/- 1.67 vs. 14.15 +/- 1.95, p= 0.006)
      with calculated AUC of 0.792, supporting the notion that miR-451 expression was
      also a good indicator for PTC lymph node involvements. Analyses sera from the
      cohorts of PTC patients indicated that miR-451 levels in patients with malignant
      lesions (n= 70) were significantly lower (10.72 +/- 1.52 vs. 19.28 +/- 2.73, p=
      0.010) than those with benign ones (n= 70). Parallel analyses of serum miR-451
      levels in patients with LN metastasis also showed that they were significantly
      lower when compared to those without LN metastasis (6.79 +/- 2.29 vs. 12.08 +/-
      1.86, p= 0.017). RESULTS: ROC analyses revealed that AUC was 0.626 for
      malignancies and was 0.690 for lymph node involvement, respectively, suggesting
      that miR-451was a modest blood based biomarker for PTC malignancies and lymph
      node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that miR-451 expression is a reliable
      FFPE tissue biomarker for PTC malignancies and it may have potentials to become a
      noninvasive, blood-based biomarker for PTC diagnosis and evaluation of LN status.

PMID- 28582850
TI  - FOXF2 deficiency promotes hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis by inducing
      mesenchymal-epithelial transition.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The transcription factor FOXF2 is reported to be down-regulated in
      HCC. Its deficiency is correlated with shorter disease-free survival and overall
      survival of HCC patients; however, the mechanism remains to be elucidated.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we performed qRT-PCR and western blotting
      to confirm the down-regulated FOXF2 in HCC tissue and cell lines. Then the HCC
      cell line Huh7 transduced with FOXF2 shRNA was adopted in a series of in vitro
      and in vivo assays to evaluate the cell phenotype change, migration, invasion,
      proliferation, colonization of circulating cell and the formation of metastatic
      nodules. RESULTS: We found that FOXF2 was down-regulated in HCC tissues and cell
      lines. FOXF2 deficiency in Huh7 cells increased E-cadherin and decreased
      Vimentin. The down-regulation of FOXF2 impeded HCC cell migration and invasion
      capacity, but promoted the proliferation of HCC cells and the growth of
      subcutaneous tumors in nude mice, which indicated a mesenchymal-to-epithelial
      phenotypic change in Huh7 cells. FOXF2 deficiency enhanced the colonization of
      circulating HCC cell, thus promoted the formation of metastatic nodules.
      CONCLUSIONS: FOXF2 deficiency induced mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) in
      Huh7 cell which might facilitate the colonization of circulating tumor cells and
      the formation of metastasis.

PMID- 28582851
TI  - Fenofibrate protects against acute myocardial I/R injury in rat by suppressing
      mitochondrial apoptosis as decreasing cleaved caspase-9 activation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPAR
      alpha) activation has been reported to reduce myocardial ischemia-reperfusion
      (I/R) injury by inhibiting cell apoptosis. However, the antiapoptotic mechanism
      of PPAR-alpha is still unknown. Fenofibrate is a PPAR-alpha agonist In the
      present study, we investigate the effects and relevant mechanism of fenofibrate
      on experimental myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. METHODS:
      Adult male Wistar rats were pretreated with fenofibrate (80 mg/kg) daily for a
      period of 7 days. After the treatment period, myocardial I/R injury model was
      made by left anterior descending coronary artery ligation for 45 min and
      reperfusion for 120 min. Myocardial infarct size, malondialdehyde (MDA) cleaved
      caspase-9 protein expression, PPARalpha and uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) mRNA
      levels in myocardial tissue were detected Cell apoptosis was detected by Terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL). Serum
      lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase activities were measured in rats
      pretreated with fenofibrate The ultrastructure of myocardial tissues was
      observed. RESULTS: Significant increases in myocardial cell apoptosis,
      malondialdehyde (MDA) level and cleaved-caspase-9 protein expression level in
      myocardial tissue were observed, along with reductions of PPARalpha and
      uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) mRNA levels in myocardial tissue of the experimental
      myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. Impaired mitochondria were
      also observed under electron microscopic. However, pretreatment of
      ischemia/reperfusion rats with fenofibrate brought the biochemical parameters and
      related genes expression levels to near normalcy, indicating the protective
      effect of fenofibrate against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats.
      CONCLUSIONS: The PPAR-alpha activator fenofibrate conferred cytoprotective effect
      against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. Associated
      mechanisms involved decreased cleaved-caspase-9 expression and decreased cell
      apoptosis.

PMID- 28582852
TI  - Human Anti-Lipopolysaccharid (LPS) antibodies against Legionella with high
      species specificity.
AB  - Legionella are Gram-negative bacteria that are ubiquitously present in natural
      and man-made water reservoirs. When humans inhale aerosolized water contaminated
      with Legionella, alveolar macrophages can be infected, which may lead to a life
      threatening pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease. Due to the universal
      distribution of Legionella in water and their potential threat to human health,
      the Legionella concentration in water for human use must be strictly monitored,
      which is difficult since the standard detection still relies on lengthy
      cultivation and analysis of bacterial morphology. In this study, an antibody
      against L. pneumophila has been generated from the naive human HAL antibody
      libraries by phage-display for the first time. The panning was performed on whole
      bacterial cells in order to select antibodies that bind specifically to the cell
      surface of untreated Legionella. The bacterial cell wall component
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was identified as the target structure. Specific binding
      to the important pathogenic L. pneumophila strains Corby, Philadelphia-1 and
      Knoxville was observed, while no binding was detected to seven members of the
      families Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae or Clostridiaceae. Production of
      this antibody in the recombinant scFv-Fc format using either a murine or a human
      Fc part allowed the set-up of a sandwich-ELISA for detection of Legionella cells.
      The scFv-Fc construct proved to be very stable, even when stored for several
      weeks at elevated temperatures. A sensitivity limit of 4,000 cells was achieved.
      The scFv-Fc antibody pair was integrated on a biosensor, demonstrating the
      specific and fast detection of L. pneumophila on a portable device. With this
      system, 10,000 Legionella cells were detected within 35 min. Combined with a
      water filtration/concentration system, this antibody may be developed into a
      promising reagent for rapid on-site Legionella monitoring.

PMID- 28582853
TI  - Investigating the exon 6 sequence changes of interleukin 7 receptor A (IL7RA)
      gene in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interleukin 7 receptor alpha (IL7RA) gene that encodes a subunit of
      IL7 receptor has been reported to be associated with different immunologic
      disease. OBJECTIVE: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients have shown an aberrant blood
      level of soluble form of IL7R protein. The genomic changes in the sequence of
      this gene have been suggested to be correlated with its altered splicing
      specially, variants in the exon 6 of the gene have been reported to influence the
      maintenance or skipping of this exon and control the soluble or insoluble form of
      the final product. In order to evaluate this changes in the IL7RA gene and to
      determine a possible correlation between these changes and the MS susceptibility
      the whole sequence of the exon 6 and 7 and their flanking sequences were
      analyzed. METHODS: In this regard, we investigate the sequence changes of the
      exon 6 and 7 of the IL7RA gene in 75 relapsing-remitting MS patients and compare
      the results with 75 healthy control using sequence analyzing. RESULTS: The
      results of the sequence analysis were used in two aspects. The allelic and
      genotypic estimated frequencies of a reported risk variant rs6897932 in patients
      and controls in our population confirmed its association with the disease (P=
      0.009, OR = 6.273, for TT genotype). Also, we report a possible hazardous cutoff
      for changes in a potential exon splicing silencer element (ESS (nt. 20-24)) and
      its correlation with rs6897932 to confer the risk of developing MS. CONCLUSION:
      In conclusion our results confirm the association between IL7RA exon 6 sequence
      changes and increased susceptibility for multiple sclerosis.

PMID- 28582854
TI  - Activation of Macrophages and Microglia by Interferon-gamma and
      Lipopolysaccharide Increases Methylglyoxal Production: A New Mechanism in the
      Development of Vascular Complications and Cognitive Decline in Type 2 Diabetes
      Mellitus?
AB  - Methylglyoxal (MGO), a dicarbonyl compound derived from glucose, is elevated in
      diabetes mellitus and contributes to vascular complications by crosslinking
      collagen and increasing arterial stiffness. It is known that MGO contributes to
      inflammation as it forms advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which activate
      macrophages via the receptor RAGE. The aim of study was to investigate whether
      inflammatory activation can increase MGO levels, thereby completing a vicious
      cycle. In order to validate this, macrophage (RAW264.7, J774A.1) and microglial
      (N11) cells were stimulated with IFN-gamma and LPS (5 + 5 and 10 + 10 IFN-gamma
      U/ml or MUg/ml LPS), and extracellular MGO concentration was determined after
      derivatization with 5,6-Diamino-2,4-dihydroxypyrimidine sulfate by HPLC. MGO
      levels in activated macrophage cells (RAW264.7) peaked at 48 h, increasing 2.86
      fold (3.14+/-0.4 MUM) at 5 U/ml IFN-gamma+5 MUg/ml LPS, and 4.74-fold (5.46+/
      0.30 MUM) at 10 U/ml IFN-gamma+10 MUg/ml LPS compared to the non-activated
      controls (1.15+/-0.02 MUM). The other two cell lines, J774A.1 macrophages and N11
      microglia, showed a similar response. We suggest that inflammation increases MGO
      production, possibly exacerbating arterial stiffness, cardiovascular
      complications, and diabetes-related cognitive decline.

PMID- 28582855
TI  - Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease: Can Tea Phytochemicals Play a Role in
      Prevention?
AB  - Dementia and diabetes mellitus are prevalent disorders in the elderly population.
      While recognized as two distinct diseases, diabetes has more recently recognized
      as a significant contributor to risk for developing dementia, and some studies
      make reference to type 3 diabetes, a condition resulting from insulin resistance
      in the brain. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, and
      diabetes, interestingly, share underlying pathological processes, commonality in
      risk factors, and, importantly, pathways for intervention. Tea has been suggested
      to possess potent antioxidant properties. It is rich in phytochemicals including,
      flavonoids, tannins, caffeine, polyphenols, boheic acid, theophylline,
      theobromine, anthocyanins, gallic acid, and finally epigallocatechin-3-gallate,
      which is considered to be the most potent active ingredient. Flavonoid
      phytochemicals, known as catechins, within tea offer potential benefits for
      reducing the risk of diabetes and Alzheimer's disease by targeting common risk
      factors, including obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease,
      and stroke. Studies also show that catechins may prevent the formation of amyloid
      beta plaques and enhance cognitive functions, and thus may be useful in treating
      patients who have Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Furthermore, other
      phytochemicals found within tea offer important antioxidant properties along with
      innate properties capable of modulating intracellular neuronal signal
      transduction pathways and mitochondrial function.

PMID- 28582856
TI  - Lipidomic Profiles in Diabetes and Dementia.
AB  - Lipids are a diverse class of hydrophobic and amphiphilic molecules which make up
      the bulk of most biological systems and are essential for human life. The role of
      lipids in health and disease has been recognized for many decades, as evidenced
      by the early identification of cholesterol as an important risk factor of heart
      disease and the development and introduction of statins as a one of the most
      successful therapeutic interventions to date. While several studies have
      demonstrated an increased risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease (AD),
      in those with diabetes mellitus, the nature of this risk is not well understood.
      Recent developments in the field of lipidomics, driven primarily by technological
      advances in high pressure liquid chromatography and particularly mass
      spectrometry, have enabled the detailed characterization of the many hundreds of
      individual lipid species in mammalian systems and their association with disease
      states. Diabetes mellitus and AD have received particular attention due to their
      prominence in Western societies as a result of the ongoing obesity epidemic and
      the aging populations. In this review, we examine how these lipidomic studies are
      informing on the relationship between lipid metabolism with diabetes and AD and
      how this may inform on the common pathological pathways that link diabetes risk
      with dementia.

PMID- 28582858
TI  - Alterations in the Peripheral Immune System in Dementia.
AB  - Alterations in the immune response that result in inflammation might play a role
      in the pathology of dementias. In order to analyze changes of the peripheral
      immune system associated with different types of dementias, we determined several
      innate and adaptive cell populations in whole blood using flow cytometry. We
      included patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 60), vascular dementia (VaD;
      n = 20), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD; n = 12) at the time point of diagnosis
      and 24 age-matched neuropsychiatric healthy persons. Monocytes and NK cells were
      diminished in VaD, but not in AD and FTD. B cell and T cell numbers were
      decreased in all investigated forms of dementia. Changes in the contribution of
      naive/memory T cells were only present in AD. Correlation and regression analyses
      revealed associations between altered immune cell populations and Q Albumin as
      marker for the integrity of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid-barrier, Mini-Mental
      State Examination values, and age. The peripheral immune system is altered in AD,
      VaD, and FTD. However, each disorder presents unique changes in the investigated
      cell types indicating different mechanisms underlying the pathology.

PMID- 28582857
TI  - Identification of Successful Cognitive Aging in the Alzheimer's Disease
      Neuroimaging Initiative Study.
AB  - The present prospective observational study aimed to identify the existence of
      successful cognitive agers among a group of well-defined cognitively healthy
      older adults (n = 354, mean age = 75 years), and to examine baseline individual
      level predictors and associated health outcomes over time. Episodic memory (EM)
      and executive function (EF) composite scores and multiple health outcomes were
      obtained annually over 5 years. Potential individual-level predictors that were
      related to Alzheimer's disease pathology or genetic risk, neurodegeneration, and
      vascular risks were collected at baseline. Three latent classes with matched age
      and education were identified using growth mixture modeling: a group of
      participants who exhibited high, stable EM and EF (40.7% of the sample,
      "successful agers"); a group who had initial high cognitive performance that
      declined over time (21.2%, "declining agers"); and a group who had normal (EM) or
      poor (EF) but stable cognitive performance over time (38.1%, "low stable agers").
      The group classification predicted significant differences in the incidence of
      global cognitive impairment, the development of at least one depressive symptom,
      and everyday functional impairment. Sex, apolipoprotein E allele 4, amyloid-beta1
      42, and t-tau significantly contributed to the difference in cognitive
      trajectories between the successful agers and the other two groups.
      Characterizing successful cognitive agers who are relatively resistant to both
      tau and amyloid pathology provides potential pathways for promoting successful
      cognitive aging and preventing cognitive decline.

PMID- 28582861
TI  - Post-Translational Oxidative Modifications of Mitochondrial Complex I (NADH:
      Ubiquinone Oxidoreductase): Implications for Pathogenesis and Therapeutics in
      Human Diseases.
AB  - Mitochondrial complex I (NADH: ubiquinone oxidoreductase; CI) is central to the
      electron transport chain (ETC), oxidative phosphorylation, and ATP production in
      eukaryotes. CI is a multi-subunit complex with a complicated yet organized
      structure that optimally connects electron transfer with proton translocation and
      forms higher-order supercomplexes with other ETC complexes. Efforts to understand
      the molecular genetics, expression profile of subunits, and structure-function
      relationship of CI have increased over the years due to the direct role of the
      complex in human diseases. Although mutations in the nuclear and mitochondrial
      genes of CI and altered expression of subunits could potentially lower CI
      activity leading to mitochondrial dysfunction in many diseases, oxidative post
      translational modifications (PTMs) have emerged as an important mechanism
      contributing to altered CI activity. These mainly include reversible and
      irreversible cysteine modifications, tyrosine nitration, carbonylation, and
      tryptophan oxidation that are generated following exposure to reactive oxygen
      species/reactive nitrogen species. Interestingly, oxidative PTMs could contribute
      either to CI damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and ensuing cell death or a
      response mechanism with potential cytoprotective effects. This has also emerged
      as a promising field for structural biologists since analysis of PTMs could
      assist in understanding the structure-function relationship of the complex and
      correlate electron transfer mechanism with energy production. However, analysis
      of PTMs of CI and their contribution to CI function are incomplete in many
      physiological and pathological conditions. This review aims to highlight the role
      of oxidative PTMs in modulating CI activity with implications toward pathobiology
      of CNS diseases and novel therapeutics.

PMID- 28582860
TI  - No Genetic Overlap Between Circulating Iron Levels and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Iron deposition in the brain is a prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Recently, peripheral iron measures have also been shown to be associated with AD
      status. However, it is not known whether these associations are causal: do
      elevated or depleted iron levels throughout life have an effect on AD risk? We
      evaluate the effects of peripheral iron on AD risk using a genetic profile score
      approach by testing whether variants affecting iron, transferrin, or ferritin
      levels selected from GWAS meta-analysis of approximately 24,000 individuals are
      also associated with AD risk in an independent case-control cohort (n~10,000).
      Conversely, we test whether AD risk variants from a GWAS meta-analysis of
      approximately 54,000 account for any variance in iron measures (n~9,000). We do
      not identify a genetic relationship, suggesting that peripheral iron is not
      causal in the initiation of AD pathology.

PMID- 28582859
TI  - Blood Pressure and Hispanic/Latino Cognitive Function: Hispanic Community Health
      Study/Study of Latinos Results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hispanics/Latinos are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease
      and cognitive decline and dementias. High blood pressure (BP) has been implicated
      in both stroke and dementias. Associations between BP and cognition among diverse
      Latinos are still unpublished. OBJECTIVE: We examined associations between
      cognition and four BP based measures among diverse Hispanics/Latinos. We
      hypothesized that higher BP, particularly systolic pressure, and increased
      arterial stiffness (i.e., pulse pressure), would be associated with lower
      cognitive function. METHODS: We used baseline (2008-2011) Hispanic Community
      Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL; n = 9,019; ages 45-74 years) data to
      examine cognition in relation to BP measures. RESULTS: In age, sex, and education
      adjusted models, systolic, pulse, and mean arterial pressure were consistently
      negatively associated with executive function, psychomotor speed and sustained
      attention, verbal episodic learning and memory, speech fluency, and mental status
      measures. These associations were attenuated but remained statistically
      significant in fully adjusted models. CONCLUSION: Among middle-aged and older
      diverse Hispanics/Latinos, we found modest but consistent associations between
      indicators of arterial stiffness, and compromised blood flow and lower cognitive
      function. Clinical management and public health interventions to raise awareness
      and enhance BP management beginning in midlife could reduce disparities and
      improve population health by reducing cognitive decline burdens.

PMID- 28582862
TI  - Midlife Metabolic Profile and the Risk of Late-Life Cognitive Decline.
AB  - Among metabolic syndrome components, the effects of higher plasma glucose levels
      on cognitive decline (CD) have been considered in few studies. We evaluated the
      associations among midlife glycemia, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol, triglycerides, midlife insulin resistance [homeostasis model
      assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-index)], and CD in the older subjects of
      the population-based MICOL Study (Castellana Grotte, Italy) at baseline (M1) and
      at follow-ups seven (M2) and twenty years later (M3). At M1, a dementia risk
      score and a composite cardiovascular risk score for dementia were calculated. For
      797 subjects out of 833, we obtained a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score
      at M3, subdividing these subjects in three cognitive functioning subgroups:
      normal cognition, mild CD, and moderate-severe CD. Mean fasting glycemia at
      baseline was significantly higher in moderate-severe CD subgroup (114.6+/-71.4
      mg/dl) than in the normal cognition subgroup (101.2+/-20.6). Adjusting for
      gender, age, and other metabolic components, higher fasting glycemia values both
      at M1 [odds ratio (OR) = 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08-1.59] and M2
      (OR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.01-1.57) were associated with an increased risk of moderate
      severe CD. Mean HOMA index value was significantly higher in the moderate-severe
      CD subgroup (5.7+/-9.4) compared to the normal cognition subgroup (2.9+/-1.4) at
      M1. The dementia risk probability (MMSE < 24) increased moving through higher
      categories of the dementia risk score and decreased as long as the cardiovascular
      score increased. The present findings highlighted the indication to control blood
      glucose levels, regardless of a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, as early as
      midlife for prevention of late-life dementia.

PMID- 28582863
TI  - Framingham Risk Score and the Risk of Progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment
      to Dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) often represents the clinical
      manifestation of cognitive deterioration preceding Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Currently, there are no reliable approaches for an objective evaluation of the
      risk of developing AD in MCI patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      verify whether the Framingham cardiovascular risk profile (FCRP) could be useful
      to identify patients at the highest risk of conversion from MCI to AD. METHODS:
      Patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) were carefully investigated to assess their
      vascular risk profile. They were also submitted to a comprehensive
      neuropsychological evaluation. The FCRP was calculated for each patient and the
      apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype was determined from peripheral blood cells. The
      main outcome was defined as a conversion to AD within 24 months after inclusion.
      RESULTS: 385 consecutive aMCI subjects were included. Age, FCRP, and vascular age
      showed a fairly predictive value on conversion to AD. Selecting the subpopulation
      of ApoE E4 carriers, we observed that FCRP had an increased performance in
      predicting the conversion. The rate of conversion increased from 12.5% in the
      FCRP low-risk group to 43.2% in the high-risk group (p < 0.0001). ApoE E4
      carriers had a 3.7-times increased probability of conversion with respect to the
      other subjects (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: FCRP assessment could be considered a
      reliable approach to predict conversion to AD in aMCI subjects. The presence of
      ApoE E4 increases significantly the risk of conversion. These data confirm the
      narrow relationship between genetic and vascular risk factors in influencing the
      evolution of cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28582865
TI  - Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome: Association with Incident Dementia and
      Disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is important to examine the etiology of motoric cognitive risk
      syndrome (MCR) and its association with dementia and disability to obtain
      biological insights and to develop preventive strategies. OBJECTIVE: This study
      aimed to examine the association of MCR with incidence of dementia and disability
      in a Japanese community-dwelling sample of older adults. METHODS: Participants
      were 4,235 older adults (50% women, mean age: 72.0 years). MCR was diagnosed at
      baseline using established criteria in non-demented seniors with self-reported
      cognitive complaints and slow gait. Incident cases of dementia were identified
      from insurance data monthly. Disability was regarded as certification by long
      term care insurance. RESULTS: At baseline, 265 participants (6.3%) met criteria
      for MCR. During follow-up (mean duration: 29 months), there were 138 incident
      cases of dementia (3.3%) and 207 incident cases of disability (4.9%). Cox
      proportional hazards models, adjusted for demographical data, lifestyle, and
      medical conditions, showed that presence of MCR at baseline was a major risk
      factor for developing dementia (HR 2.49, 95% CI 1.52-4.10, p < 0.001). MCR also
      predicted risk for disability (HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.08-2.02, p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: MCR is helpful in the short-term prediction of risk for dementia and
      disability in the elderly Japanese population. Identification of seniors with MCR
      is recommended for early detection and instituting preventive measures for
      reducing the risk of dementia and disability.

PMID- 28582864
TI  - Transactive DNA Binding Protein 43 Rather Than Other Misfolded Proteins in the
      Brain is Associated with Islet Amyloid Polypeptide in Pancreas in Aged Subjects
      with Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - A link between diabetes mellitus (DM) related islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP)
      and Alzheimer's disease (AD) related amyloid-beta (Abeta) has been suggested in
      epidemiological and clinical studies. In 2017, proof for existing interaction
      between type 2 DM and AD on a molecular level was provided based on research
      carried out in experimental animal models. We assessed aging-related
      neurodegenerative lesions, i.e., misfolded proteins, associated with dementia
      such as hyperphosphorylated tau (HPtau), Abeta, alpha-synuclein (alphaS), and
      phosphorylated transactive DNA binding protein 43 (pTDP43) seen in the brain and
      IAPP seen in the pancreas in subjects with and without DM applying
      immunohistochemical techniques. HPtau in the brain and IAPP in the pancreas were
      observed in most subjects. The prevalence and the extent of all misfolded
      proteins increased with age but this increase was not influenced by DM.
      Interestingly the extent of misfolded proteins in the brain was higher in non
      diabetics when compared with diabetics in demented. A significant correlation was
      observed between HPtau, Abeta, alphaS, and pTDP43, whereas IAPP showed no
      association with HPtau, Abeta, and alphaS. In subjects with DM, the extent of
      pTDP43 in brain correlated with the extent of IAPP in pancreas. Thus, there is no
      evidence of a link between AD-related pathology and DM in humans, whereas an
      association was found between pTDP43 and IAPP in DM. TDP43 is ubiquitously
      expressed in all organs but whether TDP43 is phosphorylated in other organs in DM
      or whether the phosphorylation of TDP43 is influenced by glucose metabolism is
      yet unknown.

PMID- 28582866
TI  - Neurodegenerative Markers are Increased in Postmortem BA21 Tissue from African
      Americans with Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) presents with an earlier onset age and
      increased symptom severity in African Americans and Hispanics. OBJECTIVE:
      Although the prevalence of plaques and tangles may not exhibit ethnicity-related
      differences, levels of neurodegenerative proteins have not been described.
      METHODS: Here, levels of five proteins (i.e., S100B, sRAGE, GDNF, Abeta40, and
      Abeta42) and the Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio were measured in postmortem samples of the
      middle temporal gyrus (BA21) from age-matched African Americans and Caucasians
      with AD (n = 6/gender/ethnicity). RESULTS: S100B levels were increased 17% in
      African Americans (p < 0.003) while sRAGE was mildly decreased (p < 0.09).
      Abeta42 levels were increased 121% in African Americans (p < 0.02), leading to a
      493% increase in the Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio (p < 0.002). Analysis of GDNF levels
      did not indicate any significant effects. There were no significant effects of
      gender and no significant ethnicity with gender interactions on any analyte.
      Effect size calculations indicated "medium" to "very large" effects. CONCLUSION:
      S100B is typically elevated in AD cases; however, the increased levels in African
      Americans here may be indicative of increased severity in specific populations.
      Increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratios in the current study are compatible with
      increased disease severity and might indicate increased AD pathogenesis in
      African Americans. Overall, these results are compatible with a hypothesis of
      increased neuroinflammation in African Americans with AD.

PMID- 28582867
TI  - Understanding the Link between Dementia and Diabetes.

PMID- 28582868
TI  - Dynamic Prediction of Motor Diagnosis in Huntington's Disease Using a Joint
      Modeling Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prediction of motor diagnosis in Huntington's disease (HD) can be
      improved by incorporating other phenotypic and biological clinical measures in
      addition to cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeat length and age. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective was to compare various clinical and biomarker trajectories for tracking
      HD progression and predicting motor conversion. METHODS: Participants were from
      the PREDICT-HD study. We constructed a mixed-effect model to describe the change
      of measures while jointly modeling the process with time to HD diagnosis. The
      model was then used for subject-specific prediction. We employed the time
      dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method to assess the
      discriminating capability of the measures to identify high and low risk patients.
      The strongest predictor was used to illustrate the dynamic prediction of the
      disease risk and future trajectories of biomarkers for three hypothetical
      patients. RESULTS: 1078 individuals were included in this analysis. Five
      longitudinal clinical and imaging measures were compared. The putamen volume had
      the best discrimination performance with area under the curve (AUC) ranging from
      0.74 to 0.82 over time. The total motor score showed a comparable discriminative
      ability with AUC ranging from 0.69 to 0.78 over time. The model showed that
      decreasing putamen volume was a significant predictor of motor conversion. A web
      based calculator was developed for implementing the methods. CONCLUSIONS: By
      jointly modeling longitudinal data with time-to-event outcomes, it is possible to
      construct an individualized dynamic event prediction model that renews over time
      with accumulating evidence. If validated, this could be a valuable tool to guide
      the clinician in predicting age of onset and potentially rate of progression.

PMID- 28582869
TI  - Postnatal Development of Spasticity Following Transgene Insertion in the Mouse
      betaIV Spectrin Gene (SPTBN4).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The L25 mouse line was generated by random genomic insertion of a
      lens-specific transgene. Inbreeding of L25 hemizygotes revealed an unanticipated
      spastic phenotype in the hind limbs. OBJECTIVE: The goals were to characterize
      the motor phenotype in the L25 mice and to map the transgene insert site within
      the mouse genome. METHODS: Six pairs of L25+/- mice were repeatedly mated.
      Beginning at weaning, all progeny were inspected for body weight and motor signs
      twice weekly until they displayed predefined ethical criteria for termination.
      The transgene insert site was determined by whole genome sequencing. Western
      blotting was used to compare the expression levels of beta-IV spectrin protein in
      the brain. RESULTS: Matings of hemizygous L25+/- * L25+/- mice yielded 20%
      (29/148) affected weanlings, identified by an abnormal retraction of the hind
      limbs when lifted by the tail, and a fine tremor. Affected mice were less mobile
      and grew more slowly than wild-type littermates. All affected mice required
      termination due to >15% loss of body weight (50% survival age 92 days). At the
      endpoint, mice showed varying degrees of spastic paresis or spastic paralysis
      localised to the hind limbs. Motor endplates remained fully innervated. Genome
      sequencing confirmed that the transgene was inserted in the locus of betaIV
      spectrin of L25 mice. Western blotting indicated that this random insertion had
      greatly reduced the expression of betaIV spectrin protein in the affected L25
      mice. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the importance of betaIV spectrin for
      maintaining central motor pathway control of the hind limbs, and provide a
      developmental time course for the phenotype.

PMID- 28582870
TI  - Cutaneous Alpha-Synuclein From Paraffin Embedded Autopsy Specimens in Parkinson's
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson disease (PD) is neurodegenerative disorder characterized by
      tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia and pathologically by the deposition of alpha
      synuclein within different tissues. We, and others, have reported the detection
      of cutaneous alpha-synuclein in individuals with PD. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the
      present study was to detect alpha-synuclein deposition by immunohistochemical
      staining of skin samples in pathologically confirmed cases of PD. METHODS: Post
      mortem skin biopsy samples from 11 individuals with PD, and 5 non-synucleinopathy
      control subjects were paraffin embedded and stained for total alpha-synuclein and
      protein gene product 9.5. RESULTS: Alpha-synuclein deposition was greater in both
      scalp and abdominal skin biopsy PD samples compared to control samples in
      pilomotor nerves (P < 0.05), sudomotor nerves (P < 0.05) and vasomotor nerves (P
      < 0.05). Deposition of alpha-synuclein in scalp and abdominal tissue did not
      correlate with age, duration of PD, or severity of PD. CONCLUSIONS: There is
      greater deposition of alpha-synuclein within pilomotor, sudomotor and vasomotor
      nerve fibers of paraffin embedded samples from autopsy confirmed cases of PD
      compared to control samples. However, assessment of alpha-synuclein deposition in
      post-mortem paraffin embedded tissue has many limitations and the utility of this
      technique in clinical and research studies is uncertain.

PMID- 28582874
TI  - The first ever Cochrane event in Russia and Russian speaking countries - Cochrane
      Russia Launch - Evidence-based medicine: Achievements and barriers (QiQUM 2015)
      International Conference, Kazan, December 7-8, 2015.
AB  - Kazan hosted Russia's second International Conference QiQUM 2015 on Cochrane
      evidence for health policy, which was entirely independent of the pharmaceutical
      or other health industry, bringing together 259 participants from 11 countries
      and 13 regions of the Russian Federation. The Conference was greeted and endorsed
      by world leaders in Evidence-based medicine, health and pharmaceutical
      information, policy and regulation, and the World Health Organization.
      Participants discussed the professional and social problems arising from biased
      health information, unethical pharmaceutical promotion, misleading reporting of
      clinical trials with consequent flaws in health care delivery and the role of
      Cochrane evidence for informed decisions and better health. The first in history
      Cochrane workshop, facilitated jointly by experts from Cochrane and the WHO, with
      40 participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia introduced the
      concept of Cochrane systematic review and the Use of Cochrane evidence in WHO
      policy setting. Websites document conference materials and provide interface for
      future collaboration: http://kpfu.ru/biology-medicine/struktura
      instituta/kafedry/kfikf/konferenciya/mezhdunarodnaya-konferenciya
      39dokazatelnaya.html and http://russia.cochrane.org/news/international
      conference.

PMID- 28582871
TI  - Global, Yet Incomplete Overview of Cohort Studies in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by heterogeneity and
      multifactorial longitudinal changes. To identify PD subtypes and factors
      influencing the disease course, multiple cohort studies have been designed
      globally. Knowledge about existing cohorts is pivotal to foster collaboration,
      which may help to advance the understanding of PD. OBJECTIVE: To raise the
      awareness about PD cohorts and potential global collaboration opportunities.
      METHODS: Observational cohort studies in clinical PD were identified by a
      European working group (JPND BioLoC-PD) and through literature search. Using a
      structured survey investigators of 44 cohorts provided basic information on
      cohorts and assessments performed. RESULTS: For the 44 cohorts (32% on early/de
      novo PD), 14.666 participants (cohorts' median: 138; range: 23-3.090), a median
      1.5-year follow-up interval (0.5-4 years) and a median (planned) observational
      period of 5 years (1-20 years) were indicated. All studies have assessed motor
      functions often using rating scales (UPDRS-III; 93% of studies) and less
      frequently quantitative gait/balance (25%) or fine motor assessments (27%).
      Cognitive (100%), neuropsychiatric (91%), daily living (78%), sleep (70%),
      sensory (63%), and gastrointestinal/autonomic (55%) assessments were common and
      often comparable. Neuroimaging data (82%) and biomaterial (69%) have been
      collected in many studies. Surprisingly, possible disease modifiers, such as
      sport/physical activity (11%), have rarely been assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Existing
      data of PD cohorts provide vast collaboration opportunities. We propose to
      establish a comprehensive, up-to-date, open-access internet platform with easy-to
      use search tools of PD cohort descriptions and potentially available data.
      Bringing researchers together to enable collaborative joint, meta- and
      replication analyses is timely and necessary to advance PD research ultimately
      required for an understanding of PD that can be translated into more effective
      therapies.

PMID- 28582875
TI  - Defensive medicine: No wonder policymakers are confused.
AB  - Discussions regarding defensive medical practice often result in proposals for
      public policy actions. Such proposals generally are premised on assumptions about
      defensive medicine, namely, that it (a) is driven by physicians' legal anxieties,
      (b) constitutes bad medical practice, (c) drives up health care costs, (d) varies
      depending on a jurisdiction's particular tort law climate, (e) depends on medical
      specialty and a physician's own prior experience as a malpractice defendant, and
      (f) is a rational response to actual legal risks confronting physicians. This
      article examines a sample of recent literature focusing on defensive medicine and
      finds that the messages conveyed vary widely, helping to explain the confusion
      experienced by many policymakers trying to improve the quality and affordability
      of health care.

PMID- 28582876
TI  - FDA safety actions for antidiabetic drugs marketed in the US, 1980-2015.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Concerns about safety and complexity of diabetes treatments have
      increased overtime. We assessed secular trends in the FDA approvals, market
      discontinuations, and safety actions of all antidiabetic drugs marketed in the US
      in the period 1980-2015. METHODS: Regulatory and safety related information about
      FDA-approved pharmaceuticals for diabetes treatment was collected from the FDA
      databases, the Orange Book, and Drugs@FDA. Descriptive statistics were performed
      to describe trends in approvals, discontinuations, and safety actions. RESULTS:
      The number of insulins and analogue approvals declined after the 1980s; whereas,
      the approvals of non-insulin antidiabetic drugs increased after 1995. The number
      of antidiabetic drugs with FDA safety actions significantly increased overtime.
      Overall, 59.0% of insulins and analogues and 5.7% of non-insulin antidiabetic
      drugs were discontinued from the market. The FDA released at least one safety
      action for 7.7% of insulins and analogues and 88.7% of non-insulin antidiabetic
      drugs. CONCLUSION: Newly approved antidiabetic drugs have raised safety concerns
      and led to FDA safety regulatory actions including boxed warnings, risk
      evaluation and mitigation strategies, medication guides, and safety
      communications to health care providers. There is a need for systematic post
      marketing studies assessing the long-term safety of antidiabetic drugs to improve
      patient safety and health outcomes.

PMID- 28582877
TI  - Common analgesic agents and their role in analgesic nephropathy: A commentary of
      the evidence.
AB  - An association between non-opioid analgesic agents and chronic kidney disease has
      long been suspected. The presumed development of chronic renal impairment
      following protracted excessive use of non-opioid analgesia is known as analgesic
      nephropathy. Many accept analgesic nephropathy as a real entity despite a paucity
      of robust scientific evidence. The weight of available observational literature
      suggests that long-term ingestion of paracetamol and combination mixtures of
      aspirin and paracetamol probably contribute to chronic renal impairment, however
      there is no convincing data to implicate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or
      aspirin monotherapy. While controversy persists most physicians consider all non
      narcotic analgesics nephrotoxic and discourage heavy use where possible.

PMID- 28582878
TI  - In-hospital use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in patients with heart
      failure in academic centers in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are considered potentially
      harmful for patients with heart failure. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence
      of in-hospital NSAID use, their type, associated diagnosis and impact in clinical
      outcomes among patients with a diagnosis of heart failure. METHODS: The
      University Health System Consortium Database was used to identify all first
      hospitalizations with an International Classification of Diseases-9 discharge
      diagnosis code of systolic heart failure as the primary diagnosis between January
      1, 2011, and December 31st 2014. RESULTS: Among 65,902 patients admitted for a
      primary diagnosis of SHF, 2675 (4.1%) were exposed to NSAID. The most frequent
      NSAID used was ibuprofen (51.63%), followed by ketorolac (29.38%) naproxen
      (8.07%) celecoxib (5.61%), and others. On multivariable analyses, the length of
      stay of patients exposed to NSAID was longer compared to non-exposed (OR: 4.67, p
      < 0.001, 95% CI 4.10-5.25), but differences in mortality were not statistically
      different (OR: 0.90, p = 0.476, 95% CI 0.69-1.19). CONCLUSION: The use of NSAID
      in patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of systolic heart failure was low
      but was associated with longer length of stay. Further studies are needed to
      understand the impact of NSAID use in this patient population.

PMID- 28582879
TI  - Measuring patient safety culture in pediatric long-term care.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability, feasibility and
      utility of a modified patient safety survey for use in pediatric long term care
      (pLTC) settings and describe patient safety culture in a sample of providers from
      pLTC facilities. METHODS: A survey was adapted from the Agency for Healthcare
      Research and Quality Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSC-pLTC) and
      administered to a convenience sample of providers who work in pLTC during an
      educational workshop in November 2015. RESULTS: Forty-nine respondents from 32
      facilities across all 4 U.S. census regions completed the survey. The adapted
      survey demonstrated excellent face validity, usability, feasibility and internal
      consistency reliability (Cronbach alpha = 0.94). Highest ratings were given to
      overall perceptions of safety, feedback and incident communication, supervisors'
      expectations and actions and management support. Lower ratings were given to
      dimensions of teamwork, communication, handoffs and transitions, with the lowest
      ratings given to staffing and organizational learning. Ratings were associated
      with population and geographic region served. CONCLUSION: This survey to measure
      patient safety culture adapted for pLTC demonstrated components of reliability
      and validity, was useable and group discussants were eager for such a measure.

PMID- 28582880
TI  - The effect of botulinum toxin A (Botox) injections used to treat limb spasticity
      on speech patterns in children with dysarthria and cerebral palsy: A report of
      two cases.
AB  - Botulinum toxin A (Btx-A) injections are used to treat limb spasticity in
      children with cerebral palsy (CP) resulting in improved gross and fine motor
      control. This treatment has also been reported to have additional functional
      effects, but the effect of treatment on speech has not been reported. This report
      presents results of longitudinal speech evaluation of two children with CP given
      injections of Btx-A for treatment of limb spasticity. Speech evaluations were
      accomplished at baseline (date of injections) and 4- and 10-weeks post
      injections. Improvements in production of consonants, loudness control, and
      syllables produced per breath were found. Parental survey also suggested
      improvements in subjects' speech production and willingness to speak outside the
      testing situation. Future larger studies are warranted to assess the nature of
      the changes observed related to Btx-A.

PMID- 28582881
TI  - Participation and community-based walking activity after neuroprosthesis use in
      children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: A pilot study1.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore the effects of neuroprosthesis use on participation, level of
      community-based walking activity, safety and satisfaction in children with
      hemiplegic CP. METHODS: Eleven children (mean 9 years 11 months) with hemiplegic
      CP Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) Level I and II participated
      in a 16-week intervention using the Ness L300 neuroprosthesis. Outcome measures
      included satisfaction and performance with self-selected participation goals
      (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM)), level of community-based
      walking activity (Step Watch Activity Monitor (SAM)), trip and fall frequency
      (caregiver report) and a satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS: Significant (p<
      0.001) improvements in performance and satisfaction with self-selected
      participation goals (COPM) were demonstrated. No significant changes were noted
      in SAM values. A significant (p= 0.01) decrease in trips was demonstrated from
      baseline to post. Satisfaction with the device was high. CONCLUSION: Results
      indicate that daily neuroprosthesis use may improve performance and satisfaction
      with participation goals and reduce trips. No changes in community-based walking
      activity were noted. Further study is needed to examine response based on GMFCS
      levels, across geographical regions and between FES neuroprosthesis and a control
      group.

PMID- 28582882
TI  - Pediatric feeding and swallowing rehabilitation: An overview.
AB  - Children with neurological disabilities frequently have problems with feeding and
      swallowing. Such problems have a significant impact on the health and well-being
      of these children and their families. The primary aims in the rehabilitation of
      pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders are focused on supporting growth,
      nutrition and hydration, the development of feeding activities, and ensuring safe
      swallowing with the aim of preventing choking and aspiration pneumonia. Pediatric
      feeding and swallowing disorders can be divided into four groups: transient,
      developmental, chronic or progressive.This article provides an overview of the
      available literature about the rehabilitation of feeding and swallowing disorders
      in infants and children. Principles of motor control, motor learning and
      neuroplasticity are discussed for the four groups of children with feeding and
      swallowing disorders.

PMID- 28582883
TI  - Evidence to support treatment options for children with swallowing and feeding
      disorders: A systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: A rise in pediatric patients with swallowing and feeding problems has
      resulted in increased interest in multidisciplinary treatments to address these
      issues. This evidence based systematic review (EBSR) examined the published
      evidence for the use of common strategies used by clinicians across disciplines
      to treat pediatric swallowing and feeding problems. METHODS: A systematic search
      of 10 electronic databases was completed to identify relevant, peer reviewed
      literature published in English prior to December 2015 reporting original data
      that addressed at least one of the five identified clinical questions. RESULTS:
      Sixty-one studies of varying methodological quality were included. The majority
      of the included studies (60/61) focused on the use of behavioral therapies to
      remediate swallowing and feeding disorders in children and reported mixed
      findings across all of the targeted outcomes. CONCLUSION: There is insufficient
      quantity of evidence to determine the effects of oral motor, sensory, and
      pharmaceutical therapies on functional feeding outcomes in pediatric populations.
      A larger body of phase 1 evidence is available that establishes the efficacy of
      behavioral strategies to treat some swallowing and feeding difficulties in small
      cohort and single subject studies. This analysis identified limited high quality
      (phase 4) research articles that establish the efficacy and benefit of joint
      nutrition and behavior intervention programs and systematic desensitization and
      operant conditioning behavioral therapy approaches to improve functional feeding
      and swallowing outcomes in children.

PMID- 28582884
TI  - Impact of functional status and medical comorbidities on tracheostomy
      decannulation in pediatric patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine if medical or functional factors influence the ability of a
      pediatric patient with a tracheostomy to tolerate decannulation. Retrospective
      evaluation of patients at a tertiary Children's Hospital undergoing evaluation
      with capped tracheostomy polysomnogram (cPSG) for possible tracheostomy
      decannulation. Charts were reviewed for demographic information, functional
      status, cPSG characteristics, and success or failure of decannulation.
      Statistical analysis was performed to determine which patient factors were
      predictive of successful decannulation. A total of 139 sleep studies were
      analyzed in 104 unique children followed for at least 1 year after a cPSG was
      performed to determine readiness for decannulation. At 1 year after most recent
      PSG, 79.8% of children were decannulated. There was no significant association
      between any single comorbid condition and the ability to decannulate. There was
      no association between individual or total functional status score and successful
      decannulation. Patients with at least 3 comorbid conditions investigated and a
      total functional score less than 7 were less likely to be decannulated
      successfully than other patients (71% vs. 93%, p= 0.04). Functional status and
      comorbid conditions do not independently predict successful decannulation.
      Regular multi-disciplinary team reevaluation is indicated in patients with lower
      functional status, as removal of tracheostomy tube may be successfully
      accomplished.

PMID- 28582885
TI  - Home-based Nintendo Wii training to improve upper-limb function in children ages
      7 to 12 with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
AB  - This pilot study compared a Nintendo Wii intervention to single-joint resistance
      training for the upper limb in children ages 7 to 12 with spastic hemiplegic
      cerebral palsy (CP). Children were randomized to Wii training (n= 3), or
      resistance training (n= 3) and trained at home for 6 weeks. Pre, post and 4-week
      follow-up measures were collected. Outcome measures were the Melbourne Assessment
      (MA2), and ABILHAND-Kids, and grip strength. Compliance, motivation and
      feasibility of each intervention was explored using daily logbook responses and
      questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used. Three children improved in the
      MA2, two of which were in the Wii training group. Improvements in the ABILHAND
      Kids were minimal for all participants. Grip strength improvements were observed
      in 3 participants, two of which were in the resistance training group. The Wii
      training group reported higher compliance and more consistently positive
      responses to motivation and feasibility questions. Therefore, Wii training may be
      an effective home-based rehabilitation strategy, and is worth exploring in a
      larger trial. Implications of Wii training in the context of motivation theory
      are discussed.

PMID- 28582886
TI  - Design of a wearable cable-driven upper limb exoskeleton based on epicyclic gear
      trains structure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many countries, including Japan, Italy, and China are experiencing
      demographic shifts as their populations age. Some basic activities of daily
      living (ADLs) are difficult for elderly people to complete independently due to
      declines in motor function. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, a 6-DOF wearable cable
      driven upper limb exoskeleton (CABexo) based on epicyclic gear trains structure
      is proposed. METHODS: The main structure of the exoskeleton system is composed of
      three epicyclic gear train sections. This new exoskeleton has a parallel
      mechanical structure to the traditional serial structure, but is stiffer and has
      a stronger carrying capacity. The traditional gear transmission structure is
      replaced with a cable transmission system, which is quieter, and has higher
      accuracy and smoother transmission. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The static workspace
      of the exoskeleton is large enough to meet the demand of assisting aged and
      disabled individuals in completing most of their activities of daily living
      (ADLs).

PMID- 28582888
TI  - Effect of different expansion strategies on coronary stent deployment in a
      tapered artery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vascular stenting has been widely used to treat vessel stenosis.
      However, long-term successes of the procedure are often compromised by late stent
      thrombosis (ST) and in-stent restenosis (ISR), especially in tapered arteries.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to choose a reasonable expansion strategy
      for tapered arteries. METHODS: A balloon-expandable coronary stent deployment in
      a tapered vessel was numerically studied fol-lowing three strategies: (i)
      selecting the proximal diameter of the tapered vessel as the reference diameter
      to expand the stent, (ii) selecting the middle diameter of the tapered vessel as
      the reference diameter to expand the stent, and (iii) selecting the distal
      diameter of the tapered vessel as the reference diameter to expand the stent.
      RESULTS: Computational results showed that the first expansion strategy resulted
      in the maximum vessel stress and the best stent apposition, while the third
      strategy resulted in the minimal vessel stress and the worst stent appo-sition.
      Meanwhile, the second expansion strategy achieved a trade-off between the first
      and third strategies, leading to acceptable vessel stress and stent apposition.
      CONCLUSIONS: The second expansion strategy is the most reasonable choice for
      tapered vessels, and it should be considered when implanting a stent.

PMID- 28582887
TI  - Effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields on histomorphometry and osteocalcin in
      disuse osteoporosis rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Bone histomorphometry and the concentration of the serum osteocalcin
      expression were observed in disuse osteoporosis (DOP) rats in order to explore
      the mechanism of pulsed electromagnetic fields in treating DOP. METHODS: Female
      SD rats, weighing 250 ~ 280 g, were randomly divided into 4 groups: a control
      group and three experimental groups. The right hindlimbs of all the rats were
      immobilized by tibia-tail fixation, except for those in the INT group. The ALN
      group rats were given an alendronate sodium (1 mg kg-1 d-1) treatment, and the
      rats in the PEMF group received PEMF irradiation. Bone histomorphometry and the
      concentration of serum osteocalcin expression were detected in 2, 4, 8, and 12
      weeks. RESULTS: Four weeks after modeling, as compared with the DOP group, the
      %Tb-Ar and Tb-N in the ALN group were increased, and the difference was
      significant (P< 0.05 or P< 0.01). At 8 weeks, as compared with the DOP group, the
      %Tb-Ar and Tb-N in the ALN group and the PEMF group both increased, and there was
      a significant difference (P< 0.05 or P< 0.01). At 12 weeks, as compared with the
      DOP group, the BGP serum concentration of the ALN group was reduced, and there
      was a statistical difference (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: Pulse electromagnetic field
      with drug can prevent disuse osteoporosis by changing the bone microstructure. In
      the long run, PEMF improves the mechanical performance of biological structures
      better than alendronate sodium does. PEMF may influence the process of bone
      remodeling by promoting the level of osteocalcin.

PMID- 28582889
TI  - Mastication noise reduction method for fully implantable hearing aid using piezo
      electric sensor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fully implantable hearing devices (FIHDs) can be affected by
      generated biomechanical noise such as mastication noise. OBJECTIVE: To reduce the
      mastication noise using a piezo-electric sensor, the mastication noise is
      measured with the piezo-electric sensor, and noise reduction is practiced by the
      energy difference. METHODS: For the experiment on mastication noise, a skull
      model was designed using artificial skull model and a piezo-electric sensor that
      can measure the vibration signals better than other sensors. A 1 kHz pure-tone
      sound through a standard speaker was applied to the model while the lower jawbone
      of the model was moved in a masticatory fashion. RESULTS: The correlation
      coefficients and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) before and after application of the
      proposed method were compared. It was found that the signal-to-noise ratio and
      correlation coefficients increased by 4.48 dB and 0.45, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      The mastication noise is measured by piezo-electric sensor as the mastication
      noise that occurred during vibration. In addition, the noise was reduced by using
      the proposed method in conjunction with MATLAB. In order to confirm the
      performance of the proposed method, the correlation coefficients and signal-to
      noise ratio before and after signal processing were calculated. In the future, an
      implantable microphone for real-time processing will be developed.

PMID- 28582890
TI  - Mechanical and physiological effect of partial pressure suit: Experiment and
      numerical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During high-altitude flight, the protection of the pilot is vital. A
      partial pressure suit may affect human physiology, especially circulatory
      physiology. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate how a partial
      pressure suit works. METHOD: Ten subjects took part in the flight simulation
      experiments. Counter pressure at the chest, abdomen, thigh and shank were
      detected, together with physiological parameters such as heart rate (HR), mean
      arterial pressure (MAP), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO) and total
      peripheral resistance (TPR). A numerical model was also established to simulate
      hemo-physiological effects of the partial pressure suit. RESULTS: The
      experiment's results show the non-uniform counter pressure distribution in
      different parts of the body. There is a linear, proportional relation between TPR
      and the pressurizing level. HR and MAP increase along with that of the pressure
      level. SV and CO decrease with the increase of the pressure level. The numerical
      model simulated the physiological effect of a partial pressure suit. The results
      were verified by experiment data. The simulation estimated the change of blood
      flow with the pressure level. CONCLUSIONS: The numerical model provides a
      potential way to improve the protection of pilots.

PMID- 28582891
TI  - Study on the control of variable resistance for isokinetic muscle training
      system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isokinetic muscle strength training is presently the most advanced
      method of muscle strength training. However, the existing control schemes of the
      training equipment are usually limited to the structure of the brake. OBJECTIVE:
      In order to solve this problem, this paper presents a solution to an isokinetic
      system based on the force control of a DC servomotor. METHODS: A new fuzzy
      impedance nonlinear controller is designed by analyzing the relevant requirements
      of isokinetic motion. A series of force tracking comparison experiments between a
      fuzzy PI controller and a classical PI controller are studied. In addition, some
      strength training experiments employing different driving forces and target
      speeds are also conducted. RESULTS: The results demonstrate the effectiveness of
      this fuzzy impedance force tracking control strategy. CONCLUSION: Using the
      aforementioned methods, a comprehensive motion algorithm was designed.

PMID- 28582892
TI  - Comparative analysis of the stress distribution in five anatomical types of
      maxillary central incisor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The maxillary central incisor is one of the most important anatomical
      indicators in esthetics, and stress distribution may vary among its five
      anatomical views (labial, palatal, mesial, distal, and incisal). OBJECTIVE: To
      compare stress distribution among the five anatomical views of the maxillary
      central incisor under loading force at five angles and to observe and analyze the
      stress distribution in the dentin and periodontal ligament. METHODS: We
      established three-dimensional finite element models of the five different views,
      which simulated the bite force with a static load force at 0?, 30?, 45?, 60?, and
      90?. The stress and displacement values for the cementoenamel junction (CEJ)
      apical labial, palatal, mesial, and distal and the equivalent stress values on
      the periodontal ligament of the maxillary central incisor were calculated.
      RESULTS: As the angle increased, the equivalent stress on the periodontal
      ligament, overall tooth displacement, equivalent stress, and displacement over
      the four views increased. The peaks of equivalent stress over the four views
      appeared within 0.8-17 mm below the CEJ, although all equivalent stress values
      decreased while approaching the peak. Within 1-19 mm below the CEJ, the
      equivalent stress over the M1 and P1 views of the maxillary central incisor
      decreased substantially. CONCLUSION: The peaks of the equivalent stress over the
      M1 and P1 views of the maxillary central incisor and their stress distribution
      were lower than those of the other three types. Our findings provided theoretical
      data on the biomechanics of this esthetically important tooth, which may be
      useful during implantation of missing maxillary central incisors.

PMID- 28582893
TI  - Numerical analysis of urine flow through the side holes of a double J stent in a
      ureteral stenosis.
AB  - Ureteral stenosis presents with a narrowing in the ureter, due to an intrinsic or
      extrinsic ureteral disease, such as ureter cancer or retroperitoneal fibrosis.
      The placement of a double J stent in the upper urinary system is one of the most
      common treatments of ureteral stenosis, along with the insertion of a
      percutaneous nephrostomy tube into the renal pelvis. The effect that the side
      holes in a double J stent have on urine flow has been evaluated in a few studies
      using straight ureter models. In this study, urine flow through a double J
      stent's side holes was analyzed in curved ureter models, which were based on
      human anatomy. In ureteral stenosis, especially in severe ureteral stenosis, a
      stent with side holes had a positive effect on the luminal and total flow rates,
      compared with the rates for a stent without side holes. The more side holes a
      stent has, the greater the luminal and total flow rates. However, the angular
      positions of the side holes did not affect flow rate. In conclusion, the side
      holes in a double J stent had a positive effect on ureteral stenosis, and the
      effect became greater as the ureteral stenosis became more severe.

PMID- 28582894
TI  - A study on trunk muscle activation patterns according to tilt angle during whole
      body tilts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lower back pain has a lifetime prevalence of 80% for people in a
      modern society, and in recent years, spinal stabilization movement has been
      highlighted as a method to treat lower back pain and an unbalanced position.
      OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to assess the trunk muscle
      activities in accordance with the tilt angles (10?, 20?, 30?, 40?) during trunk
      tilt exercises with a 3D dynamic exercise device. METHODS: Active tilt mode (a
      self-generated active movement in the angle and direction steered by the user)
      was used in this study. The rotation capability enabled the investigation of the
      anterior (A), anterior right (AR), right (R), posterior right (PR), posterior
      (P), posterior left (PL), left (L), and anterior left (AL) tilt directions. EMG
      signals of the trunk (3 global muscles: rectus abdominis, RA, external obliques,
      EO, latissimus dorsi, LD, and 1 local muscle: multifidus, MF) muscles were
      obtained. RESULTS: The MF muscle activity was higher while the anterior tilt was
      maintained, and the abdominal muscle activity was higher while the posterior tilt
      was maintained. Also, as the tilt angle increased, the activity of the muscles
      opposite the tilt direction increased. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that to
      maintain equilibrium through posture stabilization during whole body tilting, the
      human body maintains a proper interaction among the body segments as well as
      between the body and the execution environment. Moreover, stability is maintained
      through the co-contraction of antagonistic and agonistic muscles. In future
      studies, it will be important to conduct research on improving imbalance in the
      trunk muscles.

PMID- 28582895
TI  - Implementation of integrated circuit and design of SAR ADC for fully implantable
      hearing aids.
AB  - BACKGOUND: The hearing impaired population has been increasing; many people
      suffer from hearing problems. To deal with this difficulty, various types of
      hearing aids are being rapidly developed. In particular, fully implantable
      hearing aids are being actively studied to improve the performance of existing
      hearing aids and to reduce the stigma of hearing loss patients. It has to be of
      small size and low-power consumption for easy implantation and long-term use.
      OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to implement a small size and low-power
      consumption successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR
      ADC) for fully implantable hearing aids. METHODS: The ADC was selected as the SAR
      ADC because its analog circuit components are less required by the feedback
      circuit of the SAR ADC than the sigma-delta ADC which is conventionally used in
      hearing aids, and it has advantages in the area and power consumption. So, the
      circuit of SAR ADC is designed considering the speech region of humans because
      the objective is to deliver the speech signals of humans to hearing loss
      patients. If the switch of sample and hold works in the on/off positions, the
      charge injection and clock feedthrough are produced by a parasitic capacitor.
      These problems affect the linearity of the hold voltage, and as a result, an
      error of the bit conversion is generated. In order to solve the problem, a CMOS
      switch that consists of NMOS and PMOS was used, and it reduces the charge
      injection because the charge carriers in the NMOS and PMOS have inversed
      polarity. So, 16 bit conversion is performed before the occurrence of the Least
      Significant Bit (LSB) error. In order to minimize the offset voltage and power
      consumption of the designed comparator, we designed a preamplifier with current
      mirror. Therefore, the power consumption was reduced by the power control switch
      used in the comparator. RESULTS: The layout of the designed SAR ADC was performed
      by Virtuoso Layout Editor (Cadence, USA). In the layout result, the size of the
      designed SAR ADC occupied 124.9 MUm * 152.1 MUm. The circuit verification was
      performed by layout versus schematic (LVS) and design rule check (DRC) which are
      provided by Calibre (Mentor Graphics, USA), and it was confirmed that there was
      no error. The designed SAR ADC was implemented in SMIC 180 nm CMOS technology.
      The operation of the manufactured SAR ADC was confirmed by using an oscilloscope.
      The SAR ADC output was measured using a distortion meter (HM 8027), when applying
      pure tone sounds of 94 dB SPL at 500, 800, and 1600 Hz regions. As a result, the
      THD performance of the proposed chip was satisfied with the ANSI. s3. 22. 2003
      standard. CONCLUSIONS: We proposed a low-power 16-bit 32 kHz SAR ADC for fully
      implantable hearing aids. The manufactured SAR ADC based on this design was
      confirmed to have advantages in power consumption and size through the comparison
      with the conventional ADC. Therefore, the manufactured SAR ADC is expected to be
      used in the implantable medical device field and speech signal processing field,
      which require small size and low power consumption.

PMID- 28582896
TI  - Adaptive locomotor network activation during randomized walking speeds using
      functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying locomotor
      networks has the potential to benefit the neurorehabilitation of patients with
      neurological locomotor deficits. However, the specific locomotor networks that
      mediate adaptive locomotor performance and changes in gait speed remain unknown.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine patterns of cortical
      activation associated with the walking speeds of 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 km/h on a
      treadmill. METHODS: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was performed
      on a 30-year-old right-handed healthy female subject, and cerebral hemodynamic
      changes were observed in cortical locomotor network areas including the primary
      sensorimotor cortex (SMC), premotor cortex (PMC), supplementary motor area (SMA),
      prefrontal cortex (PFC), and sensory association cortex (SAC). The software
      package NIRS-statistical parametric mapping (NIRS-SPM) was utilized to analyze
      fNIRS data in the MATLAB environment. SPM t-statistic maps were computed at an
      uncorrected threshold of p< 0.00001. RESULTS: At faster walking speeds,
      oxygenated hemoglobin (OxyHb) was concentrated in the PFC and indicated
      globalized locomotor network activation of the SMC, PMC, SMA, and PMC;
      additionally, the site with the highest cortical activation ratio shifted from
      the SMC to the SMA. CONCLUSIONS: Global locomotor network recruitment, in
      particular PFC activation indicated by OxyHb in our study, may indicate a
      response to increased cognitive-locomotor demand due to simultaneous postural
      maintenance and leg movement coordination.

PMID- 28582897
TI  - Reflex-mediated dynamic neuromuscular stabilization in stroke patients: EMG
      processing and ultrasound imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postural core instability is associated with poor dynamic balance and
      a high risk of serious falls. Both neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT) and dynamic
      neuromuscular stabilization (DNS) core stabilization exercises have been used to
      improve core stability, but the outcomes of these treatments remain unclear.
      OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to examine the therapeutic effects of NDT
      and DNS core stabilization exercises on muscular activity, core stability, and
      core muscle thickness. METHODS: Ten participants (5 healthy adults; 5 hemiparetic
      stroke patients) were recruited. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to
      determine core muscle activity of the transversus abdominis/internal oblique
      (TrA/IO), external oblique (EO), and rectus abdominis (RA) muscles. Ultrasound
      imaging was used to measure transversus abdominals/internal oblique (TrA/IO)
      thickness, and a pressure biofeedback unit (PBU) was used to measure core
      stability during the DNS and NDT core exercise conditions. Data are reported as
      median and range and were compared using nonparametric Mann - Whitney U test and
      Wilcoxon signed rank test at p< 0.05. RESULTS: Both healthy and hemiparetic
      stroke groups showed greater median EMG amplitude in the TrA/IO muscles, core
      stability, and muscle thickness values during the DNS exercise condition than
      during the NDT core exercise condition, respectively (p< 0.05). However, the
      relative changes in the EMG amplitude, core stability, and muscle thickness
      values were greater during the DNS exercise condition than during the NDT core
      exercise condition in the hemiparetic stroke patient group (p< 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our novel results provide the first clinical evidence that DNS is
      more effective than NDT in both healthy and hemiparetic stroke subjects to
      provide superior deep core muscle activation, core stabilization, and muscle
      thickness. Moreover, such advantageous therapeutic benefits of the DNS core
      stabilization exercise over the NDT exercise were more apparent in the
      hemiparetis stroke patients than normal controls.

PMID- 28582898
TI  - Dosimetric comparisons of IMRT planning using MCO and DMPO techniques.
AB  - The goal of this study was to evaluate the use of multi-criteria optimization
      (MCO) in the planning and optimization of intensity-modulated radiotherapy
      (IMRT). Twenty (20) IMRT patients (ten (10) with prostate cancer and ten (10)
      with lung cancer) were randomly selected. The treatment plans for these patients
      were designed using direct machine parameter optimization (DMPO). Based on these
      plans, new plans were designed using multi-criteria optimization (MCO), keeping
      the optimization objectives and constraints unchanged. Comparisons were made
      between the new plans, which were based on MCO and DMPO, including the dose
      distribution, dose volume histogram (DVH), the optimization time and the number
      of monitor units (MUs). The plan designed using both optimization approaches
      satisfied all clinical requirements. For similar or better target coverage, the
      rectum, bladder and small bowel were better protected using MCO than when using
      DMPO. Additionally, MCO reduced the time for optimization by 58% on average,
      whereas the MUs increased the time for optimization by 32% on average for
      prostate cancer. For lung cancer cases, the entire lung, heart and spinal cord
      were better protected using MCO compared to DMPO. Similarly, MCO reduced the time
      for optimization by 59% on average, whereas the MUs increased the time for
      optimization by 11% on average. Compared to DMPO, MCO reduces the dose of the
      organs at risk (OAR) and shortens the time required for optimization.

PMID- 28582899
TI  - Effect of whole body vibration on lactate level recovery and heart rate recovery
      in rest after intense exercise.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we investigated the recovery of the lactate level,
      muscular fatigue, and heart rate recovery (HRR) with respect to whole body
      vibration (WBV) during the rest stage after a gait exercise. METHODS: A total of
      24 healthy subjects with no medical history of exercise injury participated. The
      participants were divided into a training group with vibration during rest and a
      control group with the same conditions but without vibration. The subjects
      performed a gait exercise with a slope of 15% and velocity of 4 km/h to consume
      450 kcal in 30 min. Then, they rested on a vibrating chair or on a chair without
      vibrations for 30 min. The vibration protocol consists of a frequency of 10 Hz
      and amplitude of 5 mm. To estimate the recovery effect, we measured the lactate
      levels in blood, spectral edge frequency (SEF) of MVIC, and HRR before,
      immediately after exercise, and after rest. RESULTS: The results showed that the
      lactate level in the training group decreased more (93.8%) than in the control
      group (32.8%). Also, HRR showed a similar trend with a recovery of 88.39% in the
      training group but 64.72% in the control group. We considered that whole-body
      vibrations during rest would help remove lactic acid by improving the level of
      lactic acid oxidation with stimulated blood vessels in the muscles and by helping
      to maintain blood flow. Also, WBV would lead to compensation to actively decrease
      the fast excess post-exercise oxygen consumption from blood circulation.
      CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that whole-body vibrations during rest can provide fast,
      efficient fatigue recovery as a cool down exercise for women, the elderly, and
      patients without other activity after intense exercise.

PMID- 28582900
TI  - Computer-aided detection for the automated evaluation of pulmonary embolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are few quantitative studies that directly evaluate methods of
      determining pulmonary embolism (PE). New computer-aided detection (CAD) methods
      for measuring PE may help in defining the relationship of PE to right heart
      failure (RHF). OBJECTIVES: We used CAD to investigate the severity of PE and
      explored whether the severity of PE was associated with RHF. METHODS: A fully
      automatic calculation conducted by CAD was made of the embolism area/lumen area,
      which was used to evaluate the severity of the PE. The vascular obstruction index
      (VOI) was also used to evaluate PE, using the Mastora and Qanadli scores. Paired
      t tests were used to compare the severity of PE evaluated by Mastora or Qanadli
      score, to the severity determined by CAD. Correlation between the severity of the
      PE and RHF was also evaluated by Spearman's rank correlation analysis. RESULTS:
      There was no significant difference between the PE evaluated by Mastora compared
      with the measurement by CAD (P= 0.720), and also no difference between evaluation
      by Qanadli and automatic measurement by CAD (P= 0.617). The severity of PE
      evaluated by Mastora, Qanadli, and CAD had significant positive correlation with
      RHF (R= 0.75 P= 0.01, R= 0.69 P= 0.02, R= 0.80 P= 0.00). CONCLUSION: We found
      strong correlation between RHF and the severity of PE evaluated by CAD, and the
      method was found to be simple and reliable.

PMID- 28582902
TI  - Research on highly sensitive optomagnetic sensor for rapid detection of
      inflammation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is used to evaluate the evolution of
      infections and sepsis in critically ill patients. For POCT testing, biosensor
      based detection techniques offer quick and convenient application. OBJECTIVE: A
      prototype three dimensional chip was fabricated based on a new optomagnetic
      method to achieve the rapid detection of CRP. METHODS: This work investigates a
      new technology for the quick quantitative detection of the C-reactive protein
      (CRP) by total internal reflection magnetic imaging (TIRMI) on a three
      dimensional optomagnetic sensor. Transparent glass and hydrophilic plastic film
      with channels were used to construct the three dimensional sensor. The magnetic
      nanoparticles and immunological reagent were immobilized on the reaction area of
      the sensor. Samples were detected using total internal reflection magnetic spot
      imaging (TIRMI) based on a sandwich magnetic immunoassay by one-step assay.
      RESULTS: The developed 3D biosensor-TIRMI method showed a wide dynamic linear
      range (0.2-200 ng/ml) and quick detection (5 min) with low-sample volume (10
      MUL). CONCLUSIONS: We have presented a three dimensional optical protein chip
      that fulfills the demanding for point-of-care diagnostics in terms of ease-of-use
      (one step assay), miniaturization, assay time. This approach shows great promise
      for application in clinical investigations of biological samples.

PMID- 28582901
TI  - Objective research on tongue manifestation of patients with eczema.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tongue observation often depends on subjective judgment, it is
      necessary to establish an objective and quantifiable standard for tongue
      observation. OBJECTIVE: To discuss the features of tongue manifestation of
      patients who suffered from eczema with different types and to reveal the clinical
      significance of the tongue images. METHODS: Two hundred patients with eczema were
      recruited and divided into three groups according to the diagnostic criteria.
      Acute group had 47 patients, subacute group had 82 patients, and chronic group
      had 71 patients. The computerized tongue image digital analysis device was used
      to detect tongue parameters. The L*a*b* color model was applied to classify
      tongue parameters quantitatively. RESULTS: For parameters such as tongue color,
      tongue shape, color of tongue coating, and thickness or thinness of tongue
      coating, there was a significant difference among acute group, subacute group and
      chronic group (P< 0.05). For Lab values of both tongue and tongue coating, there
      was statistical significance among the above types of eczema (P< 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Tongue images can reflect some features of eczema, and different
      types of eczema may be related to the changes of tongue images. The computerized
      tongue image digital analysis device can reflect the tongue characteristics of
      patients with eczema objectively.

PMID- 28582903
TI  - Magnetic stimulation at acupoints relieves mental fatigue: An Event Related
      Potential (P300) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mental fatigue caused by continuous cognitive tasks represents one of
      the most worrying modern health problems. Event Related Potential (ERP) P300 is
      thought to be associated with cognitive function. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at
      characterizing the neural activity correlated with the attentional processes and
      exploring a novelty method which combine the magnetic stimulation and acupoint to
      relieve mental fatigue caused by continuous cognitive tasks. METHODS: P300 (P3a
      and P3b) were extracted at three points: when subjects felt relaxed, at the point
      of mental fatigue, and after the subjects were stimulated at acupoints. The
      amplitudes and latencies of P3a and P3b were analyzed statistically. RESULTS:
      Among the four features (P3a amplitude, P3a latency, P3b amplitude, and P3b
      latency), only P3b amplitude was found to have a significant difference between
      the resting state and the mental fatigue state. And P3b amplitude significantly
      increased after magnetic stimulation at the acupoints. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects
      experiencing mental fatigue demonstrated a significant decrease in P3b amplitude
      in the parietal region, suggesting attenuation of resource allocation for
      selective attention. P3b amplitude significantly increased after magnetic
      stimulation at acupoints indicating that this strategy can be used to improve
      selective attention and relieve mental fatigue.

PMID- 28582904
TI  - A method and system to simulate human electrophysiological activity.
AB  - Accurate electrophysiological diagnosis relies on high precision and well
      calibrated instruments. A method to simulate the human electrophysiological
      activity is proposed and a simulation system is developed, as a calibration tool
      for electrophysiological inspectors. The system performance is tested by
      calibrating the amplitude and the latency of a commercial visual
      electrophysiological instrument. Several typical simulating signals are tested.
      The minimum amplitude of the simulating signal can be lower than 1 MUV.
      Measurement errors and uncertainties are calculated. The traceability of the
      measurement results to metrological standards is also demonstrated. It is proved
      by experimental results that the system can generate simulating signals with
      different waveforms and variable parameters and it can be used to simulate the
      human visual electrophysiological activities. With simple modifications to the
      simulation system, it can also be used to calibrate other electrophysiological
      inspectors.

PMID- 28582905
TI  - A comparative study on the mechanical behavior of intervertebral disc using
      hyperelastic finite element model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lumbar disc herniation may result in excruciating pain due to it
      being one of the most common diseases related to changes of intervertebral disc
      (IVD). In order to find a better clinical treatment and prevention scheme for
      relieving the pain caused by spine degeneration, the mechanical behavior analysis
      of IVD must be studied. OBJECTIVE: A finite element method (FEM) is used in this
      study to analyze the mechanical behaviors of healthy and herniated IVD. METHOD:
      In order to compare the responses of IVD under different loading conditions for
      the annulus fibrosus of IVD, the hyperelastic and elastic constitutive FE models
      were used in the FEM. RESULTS: The comparison shows that hyperelastic FE models
      have a much better capability to describe the mechanical behaviors of the IVD
      than elastic FE models. It can be found from FE simulation that there was a
      higher stress concentration at the annulus fibrosus of the herniated disc than
      the healthy disc. CONCLUSIONS: Higher stress concentration resulted in more
      damage and ease of bringing out lumbar disc herniation. Numerical examples of FE
      simulation indicate that the FEM with hyperelastic constitutive model has very
      good capability for analyzing the mechanical behaviors of IVD.

PMID- 28582906
TI  - Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation recognition based on multi-scale Renyi entropy of
      ECG.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common type of arrhythmia disease,
      which has a high morbidity and can lead to some serious complications. The
      ability to detect and in turn prevent AF is extremely significant to the patient
      and clinician. OBJECTIVE: Using ECG to detect AF and develop a robust and
      effective algorithm is the primary objective of this study. METHODS: Some studies
      show that after AF occurs, the regulatory mechanism of vagus nerve and
      sympathetic nerve will change. Each R-R interval will be absolutely unequal.
      After studying the physiological mechanism of AF, we will calculate the Renyi
      entropy of the wavelet coefficients of heart rate variability (HRV) in order to
      measure the complexity of PAF signals, as well as extract the multi-scale
      features of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). RESULTS: The data used in this
      study is obtained from MIT-BIH PAF Prediction Challenge Database and the correct
      rate in classifying PAF patients from normal persons is 92.48%. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results of this experiment proved that AF could be detected by using this method
      and, in turn, provide opinions for clinical diagnosis.

PMID- 28582907
TI  - Mining association rules between stroke risk factors based on the Apriori
      algorithm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a frequently-occurring disease and is a severe threat to
      human health. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the associations between stroke risk
      factors. METHODS: Subjects who were aged 40 or above were requested to do surveys
      with a unified questionnaire as well as laboratory examinations. The Apriori
      algorithm was applied to find out the meaningful association rules. Selected
      association rules were divided into 8 groups by the number of former items. The
      rules with higher confidence degree in every group were viewed as the meaningful
      rules. RESULTS: The training set used in association analysis consists of a total
      of 985,325 samples, with 15,835 stroke patients (1.65%) and 941,490 without
      stroke (98.35%). Based on the threshold we set for the Apriori algorithm, eight
      meaningful association rules were obtained between stroke and its high risk
      factors. While between high risk factors, there are 25 meaningful association
      rules. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the Apriori algorithm, meaningful association rules
      between the high risk factors of stroke were found, proving a feasible way to
      reduce the risk of stroke with early intervention.

PMID- 28582908
TI  - The collagen microstructural changes of rat menisci and tibiofemoral cartilages
      under the influence of mechanical loading: An in vitro wear test of whole joints.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is suggested to be induced by multi-factors,
      and mechanical environment is regarded as a risky factor. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the effect of isolated mechanical factor on cartilage. METHODS: An
      active wear test system was designed to perform parameters-controlled in vitro
      wear tests on rat knee joints with specific load magnitude, flexion-extension
      angle, and movement frequency. Six hind limbs of 9-month-old male Sprague-Dawley
      rats, with an additional spring on the medial side, were worn by using the custom
      designed apparatus. Researchers observed both the menisci and tibial cartilages
      of these hind limbs using multiphoton laser scanning microscopy to analyze the
      change of the collagen microstructure caused by wear. RESULTS: Collagen
      microstructure of both the medial and lateral meniscus became disordered under
      cyclic load. Some tissues on the surface of the medial tibial cartilage were
      removed and the middle layer of the medial compartment displayed cracks. On the
      contrary, the lateral tibial cartilage was intact. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      implied that cyclic load caused menisci microstructure disarrangement prior to
      tibial cartilage damage and the collagen structure of mid-layer tibial cartilage
      failed before that of the superficial layer under the kinematics adopted in the
      study.

PMID- 28582909
TI  - Measuring the 3D motion space of the human ankle.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 3D motion space of the human ankle is an important area of study
      in medicine. The 3D motion space can provide significant information for
      establishing more reasonable rehabilitation procedures and standards of ankle
      injury care. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure the 3D motion space of the
      human ankle and to use mathematical methods to quantify it. METHODS: A motion
      capturing system was used to simultaneously capture the 3D coordinates of points
      marked on the foot, and convert these coordinate values into rotation angles
      through trigonometric functions and vectors. The mathematical expression of the
      ankle's motion space was obtained by screening, arranging, and fitting the
      converted data. RESULTS: The mathematical expression of the 3D motion space of
      the participants was obtained. We statistically analyzed the data and learned
      that, in terms of 3D motion space, the right foot is more flexible than the left
      foot and the female foot is more flexible than the male foot. CONCLUSIONS: The
      adduction and abduction rotation ranges are affected by the plantar flexion or
      dorsal flexure rotation angles. This relationship can be expressed
      mathematically, which is significant in the study of the ankle joint.

PMID- 28582910
TI  - ChainMail based neural dynamics modeling of soft tissue deformation for surgical
      simulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Realistic and real-time modeling and simulation of soft tissue
      deformation is a fundamental research issue in the field of surgical simulation.
      OBJECTIVE: In this paper, a novel cellular neural network approach is presented
      for modeling and simulation of soft tissue deformation by combining neural
      dynamics of cellular neural network with ChainMail mechanism. METHOD: The
      proposed method formulates the problem of elastic deformation into cellular
      neural network activities to avoid the complex computation of elasticity. The
      local position adjustments of ChainMail are incorporated into the cellular neural
      network as the local connectivity of cells, through which the dynamic behaviors
      of soft tissue deformation are transformed into the neural dynamics of cellular
      neural network. RESULTS: Experiments demonstrate that the proposed neural network
      approach is capable of modeling the soft tissues' nonlinear deformation and
      typical mechanical behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method not only improves
      ChainMail's linear deformation with the nonlinear characteristics of neural
      dynamics but also enables the cellular neural network to follow the principle of
      continuum mechanics to simulate soft tissue deformation.

PMID- 28582911
TI  - The curvature calculation mechanism based on simple cell model.
AB  - A conclusion has not yet been reached on how exactly the human visual system
      detects curvature. This paper demonstrates how orientation-selective simple cells
      can be used to construct curvature-detecting neural units. Through fixed
      arrangements, multiple plurality cells were constructed to simulate curvature
      cells with a proportional output to their curvature. In addition, this paper
      offers a solution to the problem of narrow detection range under fixed resolution
      by selecting an output value under multiple resolution. Curvature cells can be
      treated as concrete models of an end-stopped mechanism, and they can be used to
      further understand "curvature-selective" characteristics and to explain basic
      psychophysical findings and perceptual phenomena in current studies.

PMID- 28582912
TI  - Time course of EEG activities in continuous tracking task: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Motor learning is important in daily activities and rehabilitation,
      but its neural mechanism has been only investigated using some simple tasks with
      limited motor involvement. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to gain better
      understanding of the neural dynamics during motor learning by investigating the
      time course of electroencephalogram (EEG) activities in the continuous tracking
      task with more motor components. METHODS: One participant performed 16 trials of
      the continuous tracking task on Day1 and Day2 respectively. The 16-channel EEG
      signals were recorded and analyzed in both the resting and active states.
      RESULTS: The tracking performance improved from Day1 to Day2. Regarding the EEG,
      it was found that the relative amplitude in the individual alpha band (IAB)
      decreased locally over primary motor cortex from the resting state to the active
      state on both days, and this reduction was more focused on the left primary motor
      cortex on Day2 compared to Day1. Moreover, in the active state the alpha
      coherence between central and frontal areas also significantly increased from
      Day1 to Day2. CONCLUSION: Time course of alpha activities may explain the
      tracking performance enhancement from Day1 to Day2. Future work will include more
      participants to extend the validity of current results.

PMID- 28582913
TI  - The improved differential demon algorithm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Differential demon is a fast and efficient registration algorithm. It
      drives the floating image to deform using the force based on the gradient between
      the reference and floating image. But it will cause abnormal deformation when the
      driving force approaches zero,which limits its practical applications. OBJECTIVE:
      This paper proposed an improved differential demon algorithm, which aimed to
      enhance the registration performance of the existing demon algorithm. METHODS:
      Firstly, we review the original differential demon algorithm. Then, we propose an
      improved differential demon algorithm and the process of mathematical deduction.
      Finally, we use experiment to prove that the improved differential demon
      algorithm is effective and it can improve the accuracy of registration. RESULTS:
      We tested our method on data sets provided by Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical
      University. The registration performance proved to be better than the original
      demon algorithm in terms of mutual information, normalized correlation
      coefficient, mean square error and iteration number. CONCLUSIONS: Experiment
      results demonstrate the superiority of method proposed in this paper to the
      original demon algorithm.

PMID- 28582914
TI  - The incidence and distribution characteristics of MLL rearrangements in Chinese
      acute myeloid leukemia patients by multiplex nested RT-PCR.
AB  - Occurrence of MLL (Mixed Lineage Leukemia) gene rearrangements indicates poor
      prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. This is the first study to
      report the positive rate and distribution characteristics of MLL rearrangements
      in AML patients in north China. We used multiplex nested real time PCR (RT-PCR)
      to screen for incidence of 11 MLL rearrangements in 433 AML patients. Eleven MLL
      rearrangements included (MLL-PTD, MLL-AF9, MLL-ELL, MLL-AF10, MLL-AF17, MLL-AF6,
      MLL-ENL, MLL-AF1Q, MLL-CBP, MLL-AF1P, MLL-AFX1). There were 68 AML patients with
      MLL rearrangements, and the positive rate was 15.7%. MLL-PTD (4.84%) was detected
      in 21 patients, MLL-AF9 in 15, (3.46%), MLL-ELL in 10 (2.31%), MLL-AF10 in 8
      (1.85%), MLL-AF1Q in 2 (0.46%), 3 cases each of MLL-AF17, MLL-AF6, MLL-ENL (0.69%
      each), a and single case each of MLL-CBP, MLL-AF1P, and MLL-AFX1 (0.23% each).
      The highest rate of MLL rearrangements was found in 24 patients with M5 subtype
      AML, occurring in 24 cases (35.3%). MLL rearrangements occurred in 21 patients
      with M2 subtype AML (30.9%), and in 10 patients with M4 subtype AML (14.7%).
      Screening fusion genes by multiplex nested RT-PCR is a convenient, fast,
      economical, and accurate method for diagnosis and predicting prognosis of AML.

PMID- 28582915
TI  - Biomechanical design of escalading lower limb exoskeleton with novel linkage
      joints.
AB  - In this paper, an obstacle-surmounting-enabled lower limb exoskeleton with novel
      linkage joints that perfectly mimicked human motions was proposed. Currently,
      most lower exoskeletons that use linear actuators have a direct connection
      between the wearer and the controlled part. Compared to the existing joints, the
      novel linkage joint not only fitted better into compact chasis, but also provided
      greater torque when the joint was at a large bend angle. As a result, it extended
      the angle range of joint peak torque output. With any given power, torque was
      prioritized over rotational speed, because instead of rotational speed,
      sufficiency of torque is the premise for most joint actions. With insufficient
      torque, the exoskeleton will be a burden instead of enhancement to its wearer.
      With optimized distribution of torque among the joints, the novel linkage method
      may contribute to easier exoskeleton movements.

PMID- 28582916
TI  - The force control and path planning of electromagnetic induction-based massage
      robot.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Massage robot is considered as an effective physiological treatment
      to relieve fatigue, improve blood circulation, relax muscle tone, etc. The simple
      massage equipment quickly spread into market due to low cost, but they are not
      widely accepted due to restricted massage function. Complicated structure and
      high cost caused difficulties for developing multi-function massage equipment.
      OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a novel massage robot which can achieve tapping,
      rolling, kneading and other massage operations, and proposes an improved
      reciprocating path planning algorithm to improve massage effect. METHODS: The
      number of coil turns, the coil current and the distance between massage head and
      yoke were chosen to investigate the influence on massage force by finite element
      method. The control system model of the wheeled massage robot was established,
      including control subsystem of the motor, path algorithm control subsystem,
      parameter module of the massage robot and virtual reality interface module. The
      improved reciprocating path planning algorithm was proposed to improve regional
      coverage rate and massage effect. RESULTS: The influence caused by coil current,
      the number of coil turns and the distance between massage head and yoke were
      simulated in Maxwell. It indicated that coil current has more important influence
      compared to the other two factors. The path planning simulation of the massage
      robot was completed in Matlab, and the results show that the improved
      reciprocating path planning algorithm achieved higher coverage rate than the
      traditional algorithm. CONCLUSIONS: With the analysis of simulation results, it
      can be concluded that the number of coil turns and the distance between the
      moving iron core and the yoke could be determined prior to coil current, and the
      force can be controllable by optimizing structure parameters of massage head and
      adjusting coil current. Meanwhile, it demonstrates that the proposed algorithm
      could effectively improve path coverage rate during massage operations, therefore
      the massage effect can be improved.

PMID- 28582917
TI  - Potential for false positive results from multi-voxel pattern analysis on
      functional imaging data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) provides a powerful tool to
      investigate neural mechanisms for various cognitive processes under functional
      brain imaging. However, the high sensitivity of the MVPA method could bring about
      false positive results, which has been overlooked by previous research.
      OBJECTIVE: We investigated the potential for obtaining false positives from the
      MVPA method. METHODS: We conducted MVPA on a public functional MRI dataset on the
      neural encoding of various object categories. Different scenarios for pattern
      classification were involved by varying the number of voxels for each region of
      interest (ROI) and the number of object categories. RESULTS: The classification
      accuracy became higher with more voxels involved, and false positive results
      emerged for the primary auditory cortex and even a white matter ROI, where object
      related neural processing was not supposed to occur. CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      imply that the classification accuracy obtained from MVPA may be inflated due to
      the high sensitivity of the method. Therefore, we suggest involving control ROIs
      in future MVPA studies and comparing the classification accuracy for a target ROI
      with that for a control ROI, instead of comparing the obtained accuracy with the
      chance-level accuracy.

PMID- 28582918
TI  - Differential barometric-based positioning technique for indoor elevation
      measurement in IoT medical applications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical applications have begun to benefit from Internet of Things
      (IoT) technology through the introduction of wearable devices. Several medical
      applications require accurate patient location as various changes affect pressure
      parameters inside the body. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a system to
      measure indoor altitude for IoT medical applications. METHODS: We propose a
      differential barometric-based positioning system to estimate the altitude between
      a reference sensor and a localizing sensor connected to the human body. The
      differential barometric altimetry model is introduced to estimate indoor
      elevations and eliminate environmental artifacts. In addition, a Gaussian filter
      processing is adopted to remove noise from the elevation measurements. The
      proposed system is then investigated through extensive experiments, using various
      evaluation criteria. RESULTS: The results indicate that the proposed system
      yielded good accuracy with reduced implementation complexity and fewer costs.
      CONCLUSIONS: The proposed system is resilient compared to other indoor
      localization approaches, even when numerous environmental artifacts in indoor
      environments are present.

PMID- 28582919
TI  - Design of an ultrasonic physiotherapy system with pulse wave feedback control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to different physical and biological mechanisms behind ultrasound
      hyperthermia and phonophoresis, the requirement for ultrasound power, frequency
      and control modes varies. OBJECTIVE: This paper introduces an adaptive ultrasonic
      physiotherapy system based on real-time surveillance over physiological
      characteristics of the patients, which in turn assists the individual treatment
      and dose limitation in auxiliary rehabilitation. METHODS: The method essentially
      takes advantage of distinctive characteristics of two different phases (systole
      and diastole) of the human cardiac cycle as a medium for modulation. The
      abundance of blood flow during systole enables energy exchange for hyperthermia
      while blood flow insufficiency caused by diastole assists in drug penetration.
      Said method could improve the adjuvant therapy as it provides partial drug
      penetration and therapeutic dosage control. RESULTS: By adjusting time window and
      intensity of multi-frequency ultrasound, it is possible to reduce the irradiation
      dosage to around 22% of that during continuous irradiation at 1 MHz. The method
      shows high potential in clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Frequency-tuning
      ultrasound therapy would be more efficient regarding drug penetration and improve
      the therapeutic efficacy of hyperthermia.

PMID- 28582920
TI  - Optimization of a passively suspended injection impeller for Left ventricular
      assist device.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A rotary blood pump with a passively levitated impeller and a large
      bearing gap between housing and impeller in the range of 0.6 mm has been
      developed for Left ventricular assist device (LVAD). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of
      the present study is to determine the optimal injection angle of the impeller to
      improve its radial stability by increasing the radial suspension force. MTEHODS:
      Since the radial and axial suspension forces generated by an injection channel
      were equal, the axial suspension force obtained from numerical simulation was
      chosen as the evaluation parameter. First, the impellers with different injection
      angles were calculated with numerical simulation to obtain the maximum axial
      suspension force. Second, the radial motion of the impeller was experimentally
      measured for the evaluation of the radial stability. RESULTS: The numerical
      analysis revealed that the axial suspension force acting on the impeller reached
      the maximum value at the injection angle of 60 degrees. In the measurement test,
      the impeller with injection angle of 60 degrees achieved the most stable radial
      movement. Therefore, the effectiveness of the numerical analysis was validated.
      CONCLUSIONS: The injection angle of impeller could be optimized to improve its
      radial stability, and the optimal injection angle was 60 degrees.

PMID- 28582921
TI  - Grouped fuzzy SVM with EM-based partition of sample space for clustered
      microcalcification detection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Detection of clustered microcalcification (MC) from mammograms plays
      essential roles in computer-aided diagnosis for early stage breast cancer.
      OBJECTIVE: To tackle problems associated with the diversity of data structures of
      MC lesions and the variability of normal breast tissues, multi-pattern sample
      space learning is required. METHODS: In this paper, a novel grouped fuzzy Support
      Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm with sample space partition based on Expectation
      Maximization (EM) (called G-FSVM) is proposed for clustered MC detection. The
      diversified pattern of training data is partitioned into several groups based on
      EM algorithm. Then a series of fuzzy SVM are integrated for classification with
      each group of samples from the MC lesions and normal breast tissues. RESULTS:
      From DDSM database, a total of 1,064 suspicious regions are selected from 239
      mammography, and the measurement of Accuracy, True Positive Rate (TPR), False
      Positive Rate (FPR) and EVL = TPR* 1-FPR are 0.82, 0.78, 0.14 and 0.72,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed method incorporates the merits of fuzzy
      SVM and multi-pattern sample space learning, decomposing the MC detection problem
      into serial simple two-class classification. Experimental results from synthetic
      data and DDSM database demonstrate that our integrated classification framework
      reduces the false positive rate significantly while maintaining the true positive
      rate.

PMID- 28582922
TI  - Cellular neural network modelling of soft tissue dynamics for surgical
      simulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, the mechanical dynamics of soft tissue deformation is
      achieved by numerical time integrations such as the explicit or implicit
      integration; however, the explicit integration is stable only under a small time
      step, whereas the implicit integration is computationally expensive in spite of
      the accommodation of a large time step. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a cellular
      neural network method for stable simulation of soft tissue deformation dynamics.
      METHOD: The non-rigid motion equation is formulated as a cellular neural network
      with local connectivity of cells, and thus the dynamics of soft tissue
      deformation is transformed into the neural dynamics of the cellular neural
      network. RESULTS: Results show that the proposed method can achieve good accuracy
      at a small time step. It still remains stable at a large time step, while
      maintaining the computational efficiency of the explicit integration. CONCLUSION:
      The proposed method can achieve stable soft tissue deformation with efficiency of
      explicit integration for surgical simulation.

PMID- 28582923
TI  - A novel lung cancer detection algorithm for CADs based on SSP and Level Set.
AB  - The fuzzy degree of lung nodule boundary is the most important cue to judge the
      lung cancer in CT images. Based on this feature, the paper proposes a novel lung
      cancer detection method for CT images based on the super-pixels and the level set
      segmentation methods. In the proposed methods, the super-pixels method is used to
      segment the lung region and the suspected lung cancer lesion region in the CT
      image. The super-pixels method and a level set method are used to segment the
      suspected lung cancer lesion region simultaneously. Finally, the cancer is
      determined by the difference between results of the two segmentation methods.
      Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a high accuracy for
      lung cancer detection in CT images. For gross glass nodule, pleural nodule, the
      vascular nodules and solitary nodules, the sensitivity of the detection algorithm
      are respectively 91.3%, 96.3%, 80.9% and 82.3%.

PMID- 28582924
TI  - GPU-based interactive near-regular texture synthesis for digital human models.
AB  - Near-regular texture is a common feature for both nature scene and 3D human
      models. However, traditional texture synthesis has only been able to produce a
      single result. This study proposes a parallel, and interactive, method for the
      texture synthesis of irregular appearance in 3D human models. The new method
      includes two major procedures: (1) iterative edge extraction and processing, and
      (2) parallel texture synthesis, which generates a texture with higher quality. In
      this paper, the effectiveness of near-regular texture synthesis algorithm is
      demonstrated experimentally.

PMID- 28582925
TI  - Medical image watermarking using bit threshold map based on just noticeable
      distortion in discrete cosine transform.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical images stored in a hospital system are generally confidential
      and integrated and require strict security. However, medical information stored
      on digital medical imaging systems, as well as picture archiving and
      communication systems (PACS), are vulnerable to attack when the data are
      transferred over wireless or wired communication networks. OBJECTIVE: To solve
      this problem, a watermarking algorithm for medical images is proposed using a bit
      threshold map based on just noticeable distortion (JND) in the discrete cosine
      transform (DCT) method. METHODS: The low-frequency component comprises a
      considerable amount of the signal energy for most images. As a result, it has a
      crucial effect on the image quality. Therefore, in this paper, the proposed
      algorithm embeds watermarks based on the low-frequency components of the image,
      such as the DC coefficient of the DCT. RESULTS: When watermarks are embedded in a
      low frequency area, the subjective image quality is often degraded. To compensate
      for the degradation of the imperceptibility of the watermarking system, which
      results from embedding watermarks in the low-frequency component, this research
      considers the human visual system. In addition, the embedding strength of the JND
      value is used to improve the watermarking imperceptibility. CONCLUSIONS: We
      applied the proposed watermarking algorithm to a variety of medical images using
      a computer simulation. The algorithm's performance was verified using a variety
      of attacks for eliminating watermarks. The simulation results show that the
      proposed algorithm robustly provides protection against a variety of possible
      attacks.

PMID- 28582926
TI  - An automatic glioma grading method based on multi-feature extraction and fusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An accurate assessment of tumor malignancy grade in the preoperative
      situation is important for clinical management. However, the manual grading of
      gliomas from MRIs is both a tiresome and time consuming task for radiologists.
      Thus, it is a priority to design an automatic and effective computer-aided
      diagnosis (CAD) tool to assist radiologists in grading gliomas. OBJECTIVE: To
      design an automatic computer-aided diagnosis for grading gliomas using multi
      sequence magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS: The proposed method consists of two
      steps: (1) the features of high and low grade gliomas are extracted from multi
      sequence magnetic resonance images, and (2) then, a KNN classifier is trained to
      grade the gliomas. In the feature extraction step, the intensity, volume, and
      local binary patterns (LBP) of the gliomas are extracted, and PCA is used to
      reduce the data dimension. RESULTS: The proposed "Intensity-Volume-LBP-PCA-KNN"
      method is validated on the MICCAI 2015 BraTS challenge dataset, and an average
      grade accuracy of 87.59% is obtained. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method is an
      effective method for automatically grading gliomas and can be applied to real
      situations.

PMID- 28582927
TI  - Analysis of SAR distribution in human head of antenna used in wireless power
      transform based on magnetic resonance.
AB  - In this paper, a novel wireless power transfer antenna system was designed for
      human head implantable devices. The antenna system used the structure of three
      plates and four coils and operated at low frequencies to transfer power via near
      field. In order to verify the electromagnetic radiation safety on the human head,
      the electromagnetic intensity and specific absorption rate (SAR) were studied by
      finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method. A three-layer model of human head
      including skin, bone and brain tissues was constructed. The transmitting and
      receiving antenna were set outside and inside the model. The local and average
      SAR were simulated at the resonance frequency of 18.67 MHz in two situations, in
      one scenario both transmitting and receiving coil worked, while in the other
      scenario only the transmitting coil worked. The results showed that the maximum
      of 10 g SAR average value of human thoracic were 0.142 W/kg and 0.148 W/kg,
      respectively, both were lower than the international safety standards for human
      body of the ICNIRP and FCC, which verified the safety of the human body in
      wireless power transmission based on magnetic coupling resonance.

PMID- 28582928
TI  - Epileptic seizure detection based on the kernel extreme learning machine.
AB  - This paper presents a pattern recognition model using multiple features and the
      kernel extreme learning machine (ELM), improving the accuracy of automatic
      epilepsy diagnosis. After simple preprocessing, temporal- and wavelet-based
      features are extracted from epileptic EEG signals. A combined kernel-function
      based ELM approach is then proposed for feature classification. To further reduce
      the computation, Cholesky decomposition is introduced during the process of
      calculating the output weights. The experimental results show that the proposed
      method can achieve satisfactory accuracy with less computation time.

PMID- 28582929
TI  - Relationships between lung cancer incidences and air pollutants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Statistics on lung cancer incidences and air pollutants show a strong
      correlation between air pollutant concentrations and pulmonary diseases. And
      environmental effects on lung cancer incidences remain highly unknown and
      uncertain in China. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure the relationships
      between different air pollutants and lung cancer incidences in Tianjin. METHODS:
      One thusand five hundred patients across 27 districts in Tianjin were studied for
      lung cancer incidences. The patients had come into contact with various air
      pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3. These pollutants were
      measured daily and were published via a Geographic Information System across the
      27 districts of Tianjin. The air pollutant compositions of environments the
      patients lived in were determined using the nearest air monitoring station to the
      patient. And we used rough set theory to measure the relationships between
      different air pollutants and lung cancer incidences. RESULTS: Different air
      pollutants and combinations of pollutants impacted lung cancer incidences
      differently across different districts, sexes, and lung cancer types in Tianjin.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on data analysis and interpretation, rough set theory provided
      data relationships that were objective and interpretable. The method is simple,
      general, and efficient, and lays the foundation for further applications in other
      cities.

PMID- 28582930
TI  - Optimal three-dimensional reconstruction for lung cancer tissues.
AB  - The existing three-dimensional (3D) x-ray reconstruction methods for lung cancer
      tissue reconstruct the investigated objects based on a series of two-dimensional
      (2D) image sections and a chosen 3D reconstruction algorithm. However, because
      these procedures apply the same segmentation method for all 2D image sections,
      they may not achieve the optimal segmentation for each section. As a result, the
      reconstructed 3D images have limited spatial resolution. Furthermore, the
      existing 3D reconstruction method is time-consuming and results in a limited time
      resolution. This research presents an innovation of 3D reconstruction by
      reformulating two main components of the method. First, a validity index for
      fuzzy clustering is used to obtain the optimal segmentations of any 2D x-ray
      image. The process is realized by automatically determining the optimal number of
      clusters for the image. Second, unlike the existing 3D reconstruction methods, a
      fast-FCM algorithm is used to speed up the 2D image segmenting process, thereby
      raising the time resolution of the 3D reconstruction process. With the aid of
      commonly used VTK software, the proposed method has been used to visualize four
      classes of typical lung cancer tissues: adenocarcinoma, large cell carcinoma,
      small cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. Experimental results validate
      the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Thus, the method
      contributes a useful tool for x-ray-based 3D image reconstruction.

PMID- 28582931
TI  - A surface acoustic wave ICP sensor with good temperature stability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is very important for
      assessing and monitoring hydrocephalus, head trauma and hypertension patients,
      which could lead to elevated ICP or even devastating neurological damage. The
      mortality rate due to these diseases could be reduced through ICP monitoring,
      because precautions can be taken against the brain damage. OBJECTIVE: This paper
      presents a surface acoustic wave (SAW) pressure sensor to realize ICP monitoring,
      which is capable of wireless and passive transmission with antenna attached.
      METHODS: In order to improve the temperature stability of the sensor, two methods
      were adopted. First, the ST cut quartz was chosen as the sensor substrate due to
      its good temperature stability. Then, a differential temperature compensation
      method was proposed to reduce the effects of temperature. Two resonators were
      designed based on coupling of mode (COM) theory and the prototype was fabricated
      and verified using a system established for testing pressure and temperature.
      RESULTS: The experiment result shows that the sensor has a linearity of 2.63% and
      hysteresis of 1.77%. CONCLUSIONS: The temperature stability of the sensor has
      been greatly improved by using the differential compensation method, which
      validates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

PMID- 28582932
TI  - A study of the application of Brain Atlas with and without +Gz acceleration
      conditions.
AB  - The purposes of this study were to utilize Brain Atlas to investigate the
      fluctuations in the characteristics of human EEG, with and without +Gz
      acceleration produced by human centrifuge, and also to examine the G load
      endurance of human body. The Brain Atlas of the EEG signal with and without +Gz
      acceleration in a static state were compared in order to reveal the correlation
      and differences. When compared with those in a static state, it was found that
      for the EEG readings of the subjects undergoing +Gz acceleration conditions, the
      energy and gray scale values of the low-frequency component-delta rhythm showed
      significant increases, while the energy and gray scale values of the high
      frequency component-beta rhythm showed significant decreases. Among these, the
      beta2 rhythm was determined to be significantly inhibited. These fluctuations
      suggested that the ischemia conditions of brain had been improved. Also, the
      recoveries in the energy and gray-scale values were determined to be faster,
      which suggested that the G load endurance of human body had been enhanced. The
      Brain Atlas was found to show observable changes in color. The experimental
      results indicated that the Brain Atlas was able to provide assistance during the
      exploration of the fluctuations in the characteristics of EEG, and provided a
      criterion to assist in the observations of the function state fluctuations of
      human brain with +Gz acceleration. It also assisted in the evaluations of the G
      load endurance of human body.

PMID- 28582933
TI  - The diagnostic value of susceptibility-weighted imaging for ischemic penumbra in
      patients with acute ischemic stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ischemia penumbra area is not easy to be detected accurately
      using noninvasive imaging methods. OBJECTIVE: We aim to assess the diagnostic
      value of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) for ischemic penumbra in patients
      with acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was carried out in
      47 patients with ischemic stroke involving the middle cerebral artery. Mean
      transit time (MTT), time to peak, relative cerebral blood flow, and relative
      cerebral blood volume maps were created after image processing. RESULTS: No
      significant difference was found in the mismatch between the SWI and diffusion
      weighted imaging (SWI-DWI) or in the MTT-DWI mismatch scores (P= 0.056, Kappa =
      0.864). CONCLUSIONS: SWI provides information comparable to PWI and, thus, could
      serve as a reliable magnetic resonance technique for assessing ischemic
      penumbrae.

PMID- 28582934
TI  - A new idea for visualization of lesions distribution in mammogram based on CPD
      registration method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mammography is currently the most effective technique for breast
      cancer. Lesions distribution can provide support for clinical diagnosis and
      epidemiological studies. OBJECTIVE: We presented a new idea to help radiologists
      study breast lesions distribution conveniently. We also developed an automatic
      tool based on this idea which could show visualization of lesions distribution in
      a standard mammogram. METHODS: Firstly, establishing a lesion database to study;
      then, extracting breast contours and match different women's mammograms to a
      standard mammogram; finally, showing the lesion distribution in the standard
      mammogram, and providing the distribution statistics. The crucial process of
      developing this tool was matching different women's mammograms correctly. We used
      a hybrid breast contour extraction method combined with coherent point drift
      method to match different women's mammograms. RESULTS: We tested our automatic
      tool by four mass datasets of 641 images. The distribution results shown by the
      tool were consistent with the results counted according to their reports and
      mammograms by manual. We also discussed the registration error that was less than
      3.3 mm in average distance. CONCLUSIONS: The new idea is effective and the
      automatic tool can provide lesions distribution results which are consistent with
      radiologists simply and conveniently.

PMID- 28582936
TI  - The comparison of stepping responses following perturbations applied to pelvis
      during overground and treadmill walking.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treadmills are used frequently in rehabilitation enabling
      neurologically impaired subjects to train walking while being assisted by
      therapists. Numerous studies compared walking on treadmill and overground for
      unperturbed but not also perturbed conditions. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study was to compare stepping responses (step length, step width and step time)
      during overground and treadmill walking in a group of healthy subjects where
      balance assessment robots applied perturbing pushes to the subject's pelvis in
      sagittal and frontal planes. METHODS: During walking in both balance assessment
      robots (overground and treadmill-based) with applied perturbations the stepping
      responses of a group of seven healthy subjects were assessed with a motion
      tracking camera. RESULTS: The results show high degree of similarity of stepping
      responses between overground and treadmill walking for all perturbation
      directions. Both devices reproduced similar experimental conditions with
      relatively small standard deviations in the unperturbed walking as well as in
      perturbed walking. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results we may conclude that
      stepping responses following perturbations can be studied on an instrumented
      treadmill where ground reaction forces can be readily assessed which is not the
      case during perturbed overground walking.

PMID- 28582937
TI  - The impact of breathing pattern and rate on inspiratory muscles activity.
AB  - Different rehabilitation programs are used to relieve dyspnea for hyper-inflated
      lung patients. In this study, a new approach, based on integrated changes in
      respiratory rate and pattern, for inspiratory muscles rehabilitation and training
      was examined utilizing noninvasive measurements of the two inspiratory muscles
      (rib cage inspiratory and neck inspiratory muscles) activity during controlled
      breathing in healthy subjects. Muscles activity was measured using
      electromyography, while subjects, breathed at different combinations of
      respiratory rate (6, 10, 16 breath per minutes) and inspiratory duty cycles
      (TI/Ttot). The results clearly show that both muscles were most active at the
      lowest evaluated respiratory rate, and that alteration of the duty cycle at the
      lowest rate significantly (p< 0.05) changes their electrical activity. Breathing
      at low respiratory rate RR is recommended for hyper-inflated lung patients in
      order to improve their gas exchange, therefore, it is recommended for these
      patients to find their most effective combination of RR and TI/Ttot and to use
      control breathing to practice their breath at optimum combination.

PMID- 28582938
TI  - Effective mammogram classification based on center symmetric-LBP features in
      wavelet domain using random forests.
AB  - Mammogram classification is a crucial and challenging problem, because it helps
      in early diagnosis of breast cancer and supports radiologists in their decision
      to analyze similar mammograms out of a database by recognizing the classes of
      current mammograms. This paper proposes an effective method for classifying
      mammograms using random forests with wavelet based center-symmetric local binary
      pattern (WCS-LBP). To classify mammograms, multi-resolution CS-LBP texture
      characteristics from non-overlapping regions of the mammograms are captured.
      Further, we examine most relevant features using support vector machine-recursive
      feature elimination (SVM-RFE). Finally, we feed the selected features to decision
      trees and construct random forests which are an ensemble of random decision
      trees. Using wavelet based local CS-LBP features with random forest, we classify
      the test images into different categories having the maximum posterior
      probability. The proposed method shows the improved performance as compared with
      other variant features and state-of-art methods. The obtained performance
      measures are 97.3% accuracy, 97.3% precision, 97.2% recall, 97.2% F-measure and
      94.1% Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC).

PMID- 28582939
TI  - Elaboration of the contextual factors of the ICF for Occupational Health Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many work-related items are not included in the current
      classification of environmental factors from the International Classification of
      Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Furthermore, personal factors are not
      classified and the ICF only provides a very limited list of examples. These facts
      make the ICF less useful for occupational health care and for research in the
      field of occupation and health. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this discussion paper
      is to introduce an elaboration of contextual factors, focussing on factors that
      influence work participation. METHODS: During the last 12 years, we developed two
      concept lists from the bottom up. These lists are based on our experiences in
      teaching and research, suggestions from students and other researchers, and
      factors found in the literature. In the fall of 2015 a scoping literature review
      was done to check for missing factors in these two concept lists. RESULTS: An
      elaboration of contextual factors, consisting of a list of work-related
      environmental factors and a list of personal factors. CONCLUSIONS: Important
      contextual factors that influence work participation are identified. Researchers,
      teachers, students, occupational and insurance physicians, allied health care
      professionals, employers, employees, and policy makers are invited to use the
      elaboration and to make suggestions for improvement. The elaboration and the
      suggestions received can be used in the ICF revision process. The development of
      an ICF ontology must be given priority, to give room to this elaboration, which
      will increase the applicability of the ICF and enable mapping with other
      terminologies and classifications.

PMID- 28582940
TI  - Experiences of occupational physicians with the implementation of indicated
      prevention for long term sickness absence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functioning including work participation, is an emerging challenge in
      occupational health. The prevention of long term sickness absence (LTSA) through
      a strategy involving screening and structured early consultation (preventive
      strategy) was proven effective and can address participation issues.
      Implementation of this strategy has proven difficult. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      study is to investigate the experiences of occupational physicians (OPs)
      delivering a structured early consultation to office workers, in order to enhance
      implementation of the strategy. METHODS: In this case study, a mixed method
      design was used. Interviews and surveys were conducted to obtain an in-depth
      picture of OPs experiences. RESULTS: Factors hindering implementation in relation
      to the OPs were difficulties in communicating the risk of future sick leave,
      prioritization of other tasks, maintaining a reactive approach due to work
      pressure, preference for prevention on the level of the work environment, privacy
      issues related to labeling workers to have mental or psychosocial issues, and the
      biomedical model being the mental model in use. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of
      the preventive strategy seems to require a more profound focus on the
      biopsychosocial approach. Training of relevant skills is important to achieve a
      focus on prevention and fostering health over the lifespan.

PMID- 28582941
TI  - Fostering functioning of workers: A new challenge for prevention in occupational
      health.
AB  - Given large changes in working conditions and society, occupational health care
      has to prioritize its efforts towards fostering health and functioning of workers
      and as such promote work participation. This requires that more emphasis is given
      on the application of biopsychological models in the care of workers. Although a
      biopsychological approach is often mentioned as essential part of occupational
      health care, it's application is often hampered in practice, by practical
      barriers and lack of practical knowledge. This is illustrated by a study that
      uncovered facilitating and hindering factors in the implementation process of a
      preventive strategy, proven effective in reducing the risk of long term sickness
      absence. To facilitate the use of biopsychological models in occupational health
      care, it is shown that setting up a training curriculum is possible, based on the
      International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) grafted
      on available training in evidence based practice skills is possible. Furthermore,
      there is a need for elaboration of the personal factors relevant for workers and
      the relevant work-related environmental factors to support practical application
      of ICF in occupational health care. A paradigm shift in occupational health care
      can facilitate widespread implementation of the biopsychosocial approach in
      occupational health and may stimulate occupational health professionals to
      further integrate this approach in their daily practice.

PMID- 28582942
TI  - Applying a biopsychosocial perspective in occupational health: Easier said than
      done!

PMID- 28582943
TI  - "I've never been able to stay in a job": A qualitative study of Veterans'
      experiences of maintaining employment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ensuring Veteran employment needs are met is a top priority for the
      Department of Veteran Affairs and the United States government. However,
      Veterans, especially those with mental health disorders, continue to encounter
      difficulties when employed. While many employment related programs offer numerous
      services aimed at helping Veterans gain employment, their ability to maintain
      long-term employment remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was
      to understand factors that affect the ability of Veterans with mental health
      disorders to maintain long-term employment. METHODS: An exploratory, qualitative
      study design consisting of semi-structured interviews with 10 Veterans was
      performed. Inductive thematic analysis was performed to identify salient themes.
      RESULTS: We found that participants' symptoms manifested themselves within the
      workplace affecting their ability to maintain employment, participants felt as if
      they had been demoted from what they did in the military, and they felt unable to
      relate to civilian co-workers. Strategies that helped some transition into the
      civilian workforce were also identified. CONCLUSIONS: A better understanding of
      the difficulties some Veterans face when trying to maintain employment is needed.
      Our findings suggest that increasing awareness of existing programs and ensuring
      that services provide resources and skills that help Veterans maintain long-term
      employment is critical.

PMID- 28582945
TI  - Stress monitoring through non-invasive instrumental analysis of skin
      conductivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This paper envelops the notion of yogic breathing and its
      applications as one of the techniques for stress management through regulation of
      skin conductivity among Indian engineering students. Stress perturbs the normal
      physiological or psychological functioning of an individual. Thus, it is
      extremely vital to manage stress. OBJECTIVE: To explore the consequence of yogic
      breathing on skin conductivity using galvanic skin response sensor meter (GSRSM)
      on engineering students, of different universities. METHODS: The study uses
      stratified random sampling technique for the experimental study undertaken to
      measure skin conductivity. 471 Engineering students, in the age group of 18-22
      years who gave informed written consent were screened, of which 71 (15%) dropped
      out and 400 students (84.9%) completed the study. The GSRSM was used to record
      skin conductivity (pre and post) among experimental (n = 200) and Control group
      (n = 200) each comprising of 52 females (26%) and 148 males (74%). The
      Experimental group underwent yogic breathing whereas the Control group did not do
      so. RESULTS: The experimental group reported reduction in mean value in skin
      conductivity after deep breathing for the time period (t = 300 sec) as compared
      to the control group, and this was significant (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: It is recommended that, this uncomplicated and yet extremely
      effectual ancient technique of yogic breathing could be included in core
      curriculum to reduce and manage stress among engineering students. The paper thus
      highlights the use of yogic technique as an effective mode for Stress Management
      amongst Indian Engineering students.

PMID- 28582944
TI  - Good job, bad job: The employment experiences of women in recovery from substance
      abuse.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women in metropolitan areas have lower employment participation and
      employment rates than men. Although women face multiple challenges in the labor
      market, those who have a history of substance use and are abstinent may have a
      greater disadvantage in obtaining viable employment opportunities due to factors
      associated with substance use. No research to date has examined employment
      experiences among women in recovery from substance use. OBJECTIVE: This study
      examined employment characteristics and experiences of women who had a history of
      substance use and lived in sober-living environments in urban areas. METHOD: Data
      were collected through telephone interviews to sober living homes that were
      located in 20 urban areas. RESULTS: Themes identified through thematic analysis
      included employment challenges, the importance of work to substance abuse
      recovery, job satisfaction, employment aspirations, and employment support in the
      sober living home. CONCLUSION: Employment is important to women in substance
      abuse recovery, not only as a means for financial support, but also as a life
      priority. The results highlight how employer scheduling practices, low-level
      positions, and lack of employment supports impact recovery. Findings provide
      insight into the need for employment support services, including employer
      education and flexible policies for women in recovery.

PMID- 28582946
TI  - Suicide among emergency and protective service workers: A retrospective mortality
      study in Australia, 2001 to 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emergency and protective services personnel (e.g., police, ambulance,
      fire-fighters, defence, prison and security officers) report elevated levels of
      job stress and health problems. While population-level research is lacking, there
      has been some research suggesting suicide rates may be elevated in emergency and
      protective services. OBJECTIVES: This paper compares suicide rates between
      emergency and protective services occupational groups over a 12-year period (2001
      2012) in Australia. METHOD: Labour force data was obtained from the 2006
      Australian Census. Suicide data was obtained from the National Coroners
      Information System (NCIS). Negative binomial regression was used to estimate the
      association between suicide and employment as an emergency or protective service
      worker (including prison and security officers) over the period 2001-2012, as
      compared to all other occupations. Information on suicide method was extracted
      from the NCIS. RESULTS: The age-adjusted suicide rate across all emergency and
      protective service workers was 22.4 (95% CI 19.5 to 25.2) per 100,000 in males
      and 7.8 in females (95% CI 4.6 to 11.00), compared to 15.5 per 100,000 (95% CI
      15.2 to 15.9) for males and 3.4 (95% CI 3.2 to 3.6) for females in other
      occupations. The highest risk by subgroup was observed among those employed in
      the defence force, prison officers, and ambulance personnel. The major method of
      death for all occupational groups was hanging. CONCLUSIONS: Our results clearly
      highlight the need for suicide prevention among emergency and protective service
      occupations.

PMID- 28582947
TI  - Age-related associations between work over-commitment and zest for work among
      Swedish employees from a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In aging societies, zest for work may be pivotal when deciding to
      stay occupationally active longer. Psychosocial work stress is a prevalent public
      health problem and may have an impact on zest for work. Work over-commitment
      (WOC) is a personal coping strategy for work stress with excessive striving and a
      health risk. However, the long-term effect of WOC on zest for work is poorly
      understood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the age-related associations of work over
      commitment with zest for work. METHODS: During 1996-1998 and 2000-2003,
      predominantly industrial workers (n = 2940) participated in the WOLF-Norrland
      study and responded to a questionnaire referring to socio-demographics, WOC, zest
      for work, effort-reward imbalance proxies, and mental health. Age-adjusted
      multiple logistic regressions were performed with original and imputed datasets.
      RESULTS: Cross-sectionally, work overcommitted middle-aged employees had an
      increased prevalence of poor zest for work compared to their contemporaries
      without WOC (OR: 3.74 [95%-CI 2.19; 6.40]). However, in a longitudinal analysis
      associations between onset of 'poor zest for work' and the WOC subscales 'need
      for approval' (OR: 3.29 [95%-CI 1.04; 10.37]) and 'inability to withdraw from
      work' (OR: 5.14 [95%-CI 1.32; 20.03]) were observed. CONCLUSION: The longitudinal
      findings among older employees could be relevant regarding the expected need to
      remain occupationally active longer.

PMID- 28582948
TI  - The big sell: Managing stigma and workplace discrimination following moderate to
      severe brain injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Misperceptions regarding persons with brain injuries (PWBI) can lead
      to stigmatization, workplace discrimination and, in turn, influence PWBIs full
      vocational integration. OBJECTIVE: In this study we explored how stigma may
      influence return-to-work processes, experiences of stigma and discrimination at
      the workplace for persons with (moderate to severe) brain injuries, and
      strategies that can be employed to manage disclosure. METHODS: Exploratory
      qualitative study; used in-depth interviews and an inductive thematic analytical
      approach in data analysis. Ten PWBI and five employment service providers
      participated. PWBI discussed their work experiences, relationships with
      supervisors and co-workers and experiences of stigma and/or discrimination at
      work. Employment service providers discussed their perceptions regarding PWBI's
      rights and abilities to work, reported incidents of workplace discrimination, and
      how issues related to stigma, discrimination and disclosure are managed. RESULTS:
      Three themes were identified: i) public, employer and provider knowledge about
      brain injury and beliefs about PWBI; ii) incidents of workplace discrimination;
      iii) disclosure. Misperceptions regarding PWBI persist amongst the public and
      employers. Incidents of workplace discrimination included social exclusion at the
      workplace, hiring discrimination, denial of promotion/demotion, harassment, and
      failure to provide reasonable accommodations. Disclosure decisions required
      careful consideration of PWBI needs, the type of information that should be
      shared, and the context in which that information is shared. CONCLUSIONS: Public
      understanding about PWBI remains limited. PWBI require further assistance to
      manage disclosure and incidents of workplace discrimination.

PMID- 28582949
TI  - Exploring service delivery in occupational therapy: The use of convergent
      interviewing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Occupational therapy clinicians working in South Africa's public
      healthcare had views on what patients thought about their vocational
      rehabilitation services that were based on anecdotal evidence. However evidence
      based practice requires more than that. Reliable information is important in
      patient-centred practice and in the assessment of service quality. OBJECTIVE:
      Clinical occupational therapists used the convergent interviewing technique to
      explore patients' views of the vocational rehabilitation services on offer in
      public hospitals. METHOD: An Action Learning Action Research (ALAR) approach was
      used to explore the vocational rehabilitation services occupational therapy
      clinicians provided over a two week period in three settings. RESULTS: The
      majority (96%) of patients interviewed were not aware that occupational
      therapists offered vocational rehabilitation services. The convergent interview
      technique allowed continued unrestricted discussion of their vocational
      rehabilitation concerns and provided evidence that patients had significant
      concerns about work. Critical reflection on the interview experience and
      technique indicated that therapists were in favour of using convergent
      interviewing to obtain their patients views about the services offered.
      Therapists found the convergent interview technique easy to apply in clinical
      practice. CONCLUSION: Establishing patients' views of a clinical service have
      multiple values. However it is meaningless unless clinicians use the knowledge to
      improve service delivery to the patients who provided the views. Convergent
      interviewing was a valuable technique for occupational therapy clinicians to
      incorporate patients' views of their services into service development.

PMID- 28582950
TI  - The prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among sonographers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) have a significant
      effect on the psychological and physical function of the sonographer. OBJECTIVE:
      This study is concerned about finding the prevalence of WRMSDs among sonographers
      in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and assessing how to improve future practices and
      develop guidelines for safe, pain-free ultrasound departments. METHODS: A survey
      was distributed to sonographers working in major hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi
      Arabia (n = 100, 83% response rate). The questionnaire focused on workload and
      ergonomics, pain existence and history, and the level of the sonographers'
      awareness of prevention measures and best practices. Ethical approval was
      obtained from a local Institutional Review Board. RESULTS: Eighty-four percent of
      respondents suffer from pain they associated with their ultrasound practice. The
      shoulder, back, neck and right hand were the main symptomatic body areas. Low
      levels of awareness about best practices and safety measures were revealed. There
      was a strong correlation between the degree of pain suffered and the years of
      practice, the number of patients scanned per day, and movements during the exam.
      CONCLUSION: Implementing standards and guidelines for best ultrasound practices
      is needed to develop better and safer ultrasound departments in Saudi hospitals
      for every practitioner.

PMID- 28582951
TI  - The effects of physical and psychosocial factors and ergonomic conditions on the
      prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among dentists in Malaysia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) have been recognized as one of the
      main occupational health problems for dentists. Many studies have suggested that
      dentists experience work-related pain or discomfort in the neck, shoulder, and
      back, as well as in other parts of the body. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to
      examine the relationship between specific physical and psychosocial factors
      and/or ergonomic conditions on MSD symptoms among dentists in Malaysia. METHODS:
      A group of 85 dentists was asked to complete a questionnaire to determine whether
      their complaints were related to physical and psychosocial factors and/or
      ergonomic conditions in their practices. RESULTS: Among the nine reviewed body
      areas, the shoulders were most often affected by symptoms of MSDs (92.7%).
      Moreover, MSDs of the neck and upper back were most likely to prevent these
      practitioners from engaging in normal activities (32.9%). In general, no
      significant differences were found in the prevalence of MSD symptoms in relation
      to gender, age, body mass index, years in practice, number of patients, and
      frequency of breaks. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were consistent with those reported
      in other studies that focused on MSD problems among dentists in other countries.
      To reduce the prevalence of MSDs, more attention should be paid to instituting
      ergonomically sensible approaches in the dental practice setting.

PMID- 28582952
TI  - Improving work conditions through strike: Examination of nurses' attitudes
      through perceptions of two physician strikes in Israel.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strikes are means to influence policies related to working
      conditions, yet raise ethical dilemmas for healthcare workers. Nurse strikes have
      become more prominent around the world. OBJECTIVE: To assess the change in
      Israeli nurses' attitudes towards strikes in light of two physician strikes that
      have preceded a nursing strike. METHODS: An anonymous survey was administered
      once in 2000 (N = 106) and again in 2011 (n = 175) following 110 days of a
      physician strike, to assess nurses' attitudes towards the strike and resulting
      ethical issues. RESULTS: A statistically significant change (p < 0.05) between
      administrations revealed that in 2011 more nurses identified striking as a
      legitimate mechanism, would strike under the same circumstances, and felt that
      collaboration with physicians persisted despite the strike. Additionally, an
      increasing number of nurses said that the suffering of patients due to the strike
      is somewhat or entirely justified, although they were faced with a difficult
      dilemma of loyalty to physician colleagues vs. PATIENTS: Nurses reported finding
      ways to mitigate the suffering of patients resulting from the strike.
      CONCLUSIONS: While patient-centered care remains nurses' first and foremost
      priority, findings indicate an increasing support of collective bargaining and
      strike to promote working conditions related to professional and public health
      agendas.

PMID- 28582955
TI  - Craniofacial Endoscopic Surgery: Trend of the Past Moving Into Reality of the
      Future.

PMID- 28582954
TI  - Virtual scatter modulation for X-ray CT scatter correction using primary
      modulator.
AB  - A new scatter estimation algorithm with a concept of virtual scatter modulation
      for X-ray scatter correction using primary modulator is proposed to reduce the
      aliasing errors in the estimated scatter. Virtual scatter modulation can be
      realized through dividing the measured primary-modulated image by the measured
      modulation function. After the division, the aggravation of the aliasing of
      primary due to the non-uniformity of the modulation function is largely
      transferred to that of scatter. Since scatter in general has less high
      frequencies than primary does, the aggravation of its aliasing is expected to be
      weaker, and therefore the overall aliasing can be reduced. A CatPhan(c)600
      phantom and an anthropomorphic thorax phantom are scanned on a tabletop X-ray
      cone-beam computed tomography system to validate our proposed algorithm. On the
      Catphan phantom, the oscillations that are clearly observed in the central region
      of the Catphan scatter profile estimated using the original primary-modulation
      algorithm, are mostly eliminated with the proposed scatter modulation algorithm,
      leading to less residual artifacts and better CT number uniformity in the
      reconstructed image. Compared with 38.9 HU of CT nonuniformity in a selected
      uniform region when the primary-modulation algorithm is used, the new algorithm
      significantly reduces it to 4.5 HU, reaching the same level of uniformity as the
      ground truth reference. On the thorax phantom, overall better CT number
      uniformity is also achieved.

PMID- 28582957
TI  - A Case of Organizing Hematoma in a Maxillary Sinus After Reconstruction of a Blow
      Out Fracture.
AB  - A 36-year-old man presented because of nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, and
      postnasal drip. The patient had undergone reconstruction of a blow-out fracture
      of the orbital floor 12 years before and had sinusitis that likely had resulted
      from implant migration into the maxillary sinus. The inflammation was
      successfully resolved, and the implant was removed through a minimally invasive
      endoscopic sinus surgery technique. On pathologic examination, an organizing
      hematoma was identified as the cause of the lesion. Pre- and postoperational
      paranasal sinus computed tomography images were taken to compare the anatomy of
      the sinus before and following surgery.

PMID- 28582956
TI  - Endoscopic Endonasal Transsphenoidal Approach From the Surgeon Point of View.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In February 2009, the authors' center formed a team of neurosurgeons,
      otolaryngologists, endocrinologists, and radiologists to perform pituitary
      surgery using the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach (EETSA). This
      paper reviews the authors' experience with the technique, pathological outcomes,
      hormone profiles, and postoperative complications. METHODS: Between February 2009
      and December 2015, 535 patients underwent the EETSA with 2-nostrils/4-hands
      surgery. All of the patients had preoperative neurophthalmological and
      endocrinological assessments and neuroimaging. Patients were followed for at
      least 6 months with otolaryngological evaluations. RESULTS: The most common
      pathology treated was pituitary adenomas, with 390 (72.9%) patients. Of these,
      287 (73.6%) were nonfunctioning adenomas. As the surgical method, the
      conventional 2-nostrils/4-hands technique was performed in 77 patients (14.4%), a
      right conventional nasoseptal flap and left modified nasoseptal rescue flap
      technique was used in 135 patients (25.2%), and bilateral modified nasoseptal
      rescue flaps were used in 323 patients (60.4%). Postoperative complications
      occurred in 46 patients (8.6%). The most common complications were vascular
      injury or hematoma (10 patients, 1.9%), and the most common postoperative
      sinonasal complaints were hyposmia or anosmia. Olfactory function was
      significantly decreased according to the Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical
      Research Center test (P <0.001) and Cross-Cultural Smell Identification Test
      scores (P <0.001) evaluated 6 months postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: Skull-base
      tumor surgery via an EETSA with a team approach was performed for various
      extended tumors. It is important to consider postoperative sinonasal dysfunction,
      such as hyposmia or anosmia, and to have this followed by an otolaryngologist.

PMID- 28582958
TI  - Using Osseointegrated Implants Concomitant With Onlay Bone Grafting for Auricular
      Reconstruction.
AB  - Conventional dental implants have been reported for nasal and orbital regions but
      due to limited thickness of calvarium they are not used in mastoid region. Onlay
      bone grafting in skull concomitant with implants is a predictable method and
      experimental animal studies confirm it. Parietal bone and lateral mandibular
      ramus are suggested source of bone grafts and dental implants with 7 mm length
      can be used safely. Increased fixture length may lead to increase survival in
      long term.

PMID- 28582959
TI  - Supernumerary Nostril: Two Years Follow-Up.
AB  - Supernumerary nostril is a very rare congenital anomaly of the nose. Since the
      first patient reported by Lindsay in 1906, few number of patients were reported
      in the literature. Various types had been described with different surgical
      modalities for correction. It can be isolated or associated with other
      malformations such as facial cleft, esophageal atresia, and imperforate anus.
      Most of the patients are unilateral, but it may be bilateral. It may have a
      communication with a normal nasal cavity or not.In this study, the authors
      present a case of a 1-year-old male with a positive perinatal history of
      teratogen exposure had isolated supernumerary left nostril with communication to
      the nasal cavity.The authors will discuss different theories related to
      supernumerary nostril development, differences between published reports, the
      proposed surgical techniques, and the outcome of their treatment approach.

PMID- 28582960
TI  - Activated Carbon Fibers with Hierarchical Nanostructure Derived from Waste Cotton
      Gloves as High-Performance Electrodes for Supercapacitors.
AB  - One of the most challenging issues that restrict the biomass/waste-based
      nanocarbons in supercapacitor application is the poor structural inheritability
      during the activating process. Herein, we prepare a class of activated carbon
      fibers by carefully selecting waste cotton glove (CG) as the precursor, which
      mainly consists of cellulose fibers that can be transformed to carbon along with
      good inheritability of their fiber morphology upon activation. As prepared, the
      CG-based activated carbon fiber (CGACF) demonstrates a surface area of 1435 m2 g
      1 contributed by micropores of 1.3 nm and small mesopores of 2.7 nm, while the
      fiber morphology can be well inherited from the CG with 3D interconnected
      frameworks created on the fiber surface. This hierarchically porous structure and
      well-retained fiber-like skeleton can simultaneously minimize the
      diffusion/transfer resistance of the electrolyte and electron, respectively, and
      maximize the surface area utilization for charge accumulation. Consequently,
      CGACF presents a higher specific capacitance of 218 F g-1 and an excellent high
      rate performance as compared to commercial activated carbon.

PMID- 28582961
TI  - Synthesis of Reabsorption-Suppressed Type-II/Type-I ZnSe/CdS/ZnS Core/Shell
      Quantum Dots and Their Application for Immunosorbent Assay.
AB  - We report a phosphine-free one-pot method to synthesize ZnSe/CdS/ZnS core-shell
      quantum dots (QDs) with composite type-II/type-I structures and consequent
      reabsorption suppression properties. The as-synthesized QDs possess high
      efficient red emission (with quantum yield of 82%) and high optical stability.
      Compared to type-I QDs, the ZnSe/CdS/ZnS QDs show larger Stokes shift and lower
      reabsorption which can reduce the emission loss and improve the level of
      fluorescence output. The ZnSe/CdS/ZnS QDs are used as fluorescent labels to
      exploit their application in fluorescence-linked immunosorbent assay (FLISA) for
      the first time in the detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) with a limit of
      detection (LOD) of 0.85 ng/mL, which is more sensitive than that of CdSe/ZnS type
      I QDs based FLISA (1.00 ng/mL). The results indicate that the ZnSe/CdS/ZnS type
      II/type-I QDs may be good candidates for applications in biomedical information
      detection.

PMID- 28582962
TI  - Nanostructured Silica/Gold-Cellulose-Bonded Amino-POSS Hybrid Composite via Sol
      Gel Process and Its Properties.
AB  - It is demonstrated in this paper that silica nanoparticles coated with core/shell
      gold provide efficient thermal, optical, and morphological properties with
      respect to the cellulose-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) hybrid
      system. The one-step synthesis of a silica/gold nanocomposite is achieved with a
      simultaneous hydrolysis and reduction of gold chloride in the presence of formic
      acid, and the trimethoxysilane group acts as a silica precursor. The focus here
      comprises the synthesis of cellulose-POSS and silica/gold hybrid nanocomposites
      using the following two methods: (1) an in situ sol-gel process and (2) a
      polyvinyl alcohol/tetrakis (hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride process.
      Accordingly, the silica/gold core/shell nanoparticles are synthesized. The growth
      and attachment of the gold nanoparticles onto the functionalized surface of the
      silica at the nanometer scale is achieved via both the sol-gel and the tetrakis
      (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium chloride processes. The cellulose-POSS-silica/gold
      nanocomposites are characterized according to Fourier transformed infrared
      spectroscopy, Raman, X-ray diffraction, UV, photoluminescence, SEM, energy
      dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, TEM, thermogravimetric, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller
      analyses.

PMID- 28582963
TI  - Percolation Magnetism in Ferroelectric Nanoparticles.
AB  - Nanoparticles of potassium tantalate (KTaO3) and potassium niobate (KNbO3) were
      synthesized by oxidation of metallic tantalum in molten potassium nitrate with
      the addition of potassium hydroxide. Magnetization curves obtained on these
      ferroelectric nanoparticles exhibit a weak ferromagnetism, while these compounds
      are nonmagnetic in a bulk. The experimental data are used as a start point for
      theoretical calculations. We consider a microscopic mechanism that leads to the
      emerging of a ferromagnetic ordering in ferroelectric nanoparticles. Our approach
      is based on the percolation of magnetic polarons assuming the dominant role of
      the oxygen vacancies. It describes the formation of surface magnetic polarons, in
      which an exchange interaction between electrons trapped in oxygen vacancies is
      mediated by magnetic impurity Fe3+ ions. The dependences of percolation radius on
      concentration of the oxygen vacancies and magnetic defects are determined in the
      framework of percolation theory.

PMID- 28582964
TI  - Graphene and Polymer Composites for Supercapacitor Applications: a Review.
AB  - Supercapacitors, as one of the energy storage devices, exhibit ultrahigh
      capacitance, high power density, and long cycle. High specific surface area,
      mechanical and chemical stability, and low cost are often required for
      supercapacitor materials. Graphene, as a new emerging carbon material, has
      attracted a lot of attention in energy storage field due to its intrinsic
      properties. Polymers are often incorporated into graphene for a number of
      enhanced or new properties as supercapacitors. In this paper, different polymers
      which are used to form composite materials for supercapacitor applications are
      reviewed. The functions, strategies, and the enhanced properties of graphene and
      polymer composites are discussed. Finally, the recent development of graphene and
      polymers for flexible supercapacitors are also discussed.

PMID- 28582966
TI  - Polarization-Dependent Quasi-Far-Field Superfocusing Strategy of Nanoring-Based
      Plasmonic Lenses.
AB  - The two-dimensional superfocusing of nanoring-based plasmonic lenses (NRPLs)
      beyond the diffraction limit in the far-field region remains a great challenge at
      optical wavelengths. In this paper, in addition to the modulation of structural
      parameters, we investigated the polarization-dependent focusing performance of a
      NRPL employing the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. By utilizing the
      state of polarization (SOP) of incident light, we successfully realize the
      elliptical-, donut-, and circular-shape foci. The minimum full widths at half
      maximum (FWHMs) of these foci are ~0.32, ~0.34, and ~0.42 lambda 0 in the total
      electric field, respectively, and the depth of focus (DOF) lies in 1.41~1.77
      lambda 0. These sub-diffraction-limit foci are well controlled in the quasi-far
      field region. The underlying physical mechanism on the focal shift and an
      effective way to control the focusing position are proposed. Furthermore, in the
      case of a high numerical aperture, the longitudinal component, which occupies
      over 80% of the electric-field energy, decides the focusing patterns of the foci.
      The achieved sub-diffraction-limit focusing can be widely used for many
      engineering applications, including the super-resolution imaging, particle
      acceleration, quantum optical information processing, and optical data storage.

PMID- 28582965
TI  - Compliance-Free ZrO2/ZrO2 - x /ZrO2 Resistive Memory with Controllable
      Interfacial Multistate Switching Behaviour.
AB  - A controllable transformation from interfacial to filamentary switching mode is
      presented on a ZrO2/ZrO2 - x /ZrO2 tri-layer resistive memory. The two switching
      modes are investigated with possible switching and transformation mechanisms
      proposed. Resistivity modulation of the ZrO2 - x layer is proposed to be
      responsible for the switching in the interfacial switching mode through
      injecting/retracting of oxygen ions. The switching is compliance-free due to the
      intrinsic series resistor by the filaments formed in the ZrO2 layers. By tuning
      the RESET voltages, controllable and stable multistate memory can be achieved
      which clearly points towards the capability of developing the next-generation
      multistate high-performance memory.

PMID- 28582967
TI  - Unraveling the Morphological Evolution and Etching Kinetics of Porous Silicon
      Nanowires During Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching.
AB  - Many potential applications of porous silicon nanowires (SiNWs) fabricated with
      metal-assisted chemical etching are highly dependent on the precise control of
      morphology for device optimization. However, the effects of key etching
      parameters, such as the amount of deposited metal catalyst, HF-oxidant molar
      ratio (chi), and solvent concentration, on the morphology and etching kinetics of
      the SiNWs still have not been fully explored. Here, the changes in the
      nanostructure and etch rate of degenerately doped p-type silicon in a HF-H2O2-H2O
      etching system with electrolessly deposited silver catalyst are systematically
      investigated. The surface morphology is found to evolve from a microporous and
      cratered structure to a uniform array of SiNWs at sufficiently high chi values.
      The etch rates at the nanostructure base and tip are correlated with the primary
      etching induced by Ag and the secondary etching induced by metal ions and
      diffused holes, respectively. The H2O concentration also affects the chi window
      where SiNWs form and the etch rates, mainly by modulating the reactant dilution
      and diffusion rate. By controlling the secondary etching and reactant diffusion
      via chi and H2O concentration, respectively, the fabrication of highly doped
      SiNWs with independent control of porosity from length is successfully
      demonstrated, which can be potentially utilized to improve the performance of
      SiNW-based devices.

PMID- 28582968
TI  - Influence of Conditions of Pd/SnO2 Nanomaterial Formation on Properties of
      Hydrogen Sensors.
AB  - Metal oxide sensors were created using nanosized tin dioxide obtained by a sol
      gel method. Gas-sensitive layers of the sensors were impregnated with PdCl2
      solutions of different concentrations to increase sensitivities of the proposed
      sensors. Influence of different temperature conditions of the sensor formation on
      the sensor properties was studied. It was found that decreasing duration of high
      temperature sensor treatment prevents enlargement of particles of the gas
      sensitive materials. It was shown that the sensors based on materials with
      smaller particle sizes showed higher sensor responses to 40 ppm H2. Obtained
      results were explained in terms of substantial influence of length of the common
      boundaries between the material particles of tin dioxide and palladium on the gas
      sensitive properties of the sensors. The obtained sensors had possessed a fast
      response and recovery time and demonstrated stable characteristics during their
      long-term operation.

PMID- 28582969
TI  - Batch Fabrication of Broadband Metallic Planar Microlenses and Their Arrays
      Combining Nanosphere Self-Assembly with Conventional Photolithography.
AB  - A novel low-cost, batch-fabrication method combining the spin-coating nanosphere
      lithography (NSL) with the conventional photolithographic technique is
      demonstrated to efficiently produce the metallic planar microlenses and their
      arrays. The developed microlenses are composed of subwavelength nanoholes and can
      focus light effectively in the entire visible spectrum, with the foci sizes close
      to the Rayleigh diffraction limit. By changing the spacing and diameter of
      nanoholes, the focusing efficiency can be tuned. Although the random defects
      commonly exist during the self-assembly of nanospheres, the main focusing
      performance, e.g., focal length, depth of focus (DOF), and full-width at half
      maximum (FWHM), keeps almost invariable. This research provides a cheap way to
      realize the integrated nanophotonic devices on the wafer level.

PMID- 28582970
TI  - A novel constructed SPT15 mutagenesis library of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by
      using gTME technique for enhanced ethanol production.
AB  - During the last few years, the global transcription machinery engineering (gTME)
      technique has gained more attention as an effective approach for the construction
      of novel mutants. Genetic strategies (molecular biology methods) were utilized to
      get mutational for both genes (SPT15 and TAF23) basically existed in the
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome via screening the gTME approach in order to
      obtain a new mutant S. cerevisiae diploid strain. The vector pYX212 was utilized
      to transform these genes into the control diploid strain S. cerevisiae through
      the process of mating between haploids control strains S. cerevisiae (MAT-a [CICC
      1374]) and (MAT-alpha [CICC 31144]), by using the oligonucleotide primers SPT15
      EcoRI-FW/SPT15-SalI-RV and TAF23-SalI-FW/TAF23-NheI-RV, respectively. The
      resultant mutants were examined for a series of stability tests. This study
      showed how strong the effect of using strategic gTME with the importance of the
      modification we conducted in Error Prone PCR protocol by increasing MnCl2
      concentration instead of MgCl2. More than ninety mutants we obtained in this
      study were distinguished by a high level production of bio-ethanol as compared to
      the diploid control strain.

PMID- 28582971
TI  - Degradation of aflatoxin B1 from naturally contaminated maize using the edible
      fungus Pleurotus ostreatus.
AB  - Aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic secondary metabolites that can contaminate
      approximately 25% of crops and that cause or exacerbate multiple adverse health
      conditions, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia.
      Regulation and decontamination of aflatoxins in high exposure areas is lacking.
      Biological detoxification methods are promising because they are assumed to be
      cheaper and more environmentally friendly compared to chemical alternatives.
      White-rot fungi produce non-specific enzymes that are known to degrade aflatoxin
      in in situ and ex situ experiments. The aims of this study were to (1)
      decontaminate aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in naturally contaminated maize with the
      edible, white-rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) using a solid
      state fermentation system that followed standard cultivation techniques, and to
      (2) and to assess the risk of mutagenicity in the resulting breakdown products
      and mushrooms. Vegetative growth and yield characteristics of P. ostreatus were
      not inhibited by the presence of AFB1. AFB1 was degraded by up to 94% by the Blue
      strain. No aflatoxin could be detected in P. ostreatus mushrooms produced from
      AFB1-contaminated maize. Moreover, the mutagenicity of breakdown products from
      the maize substrate, and reversion of breakdown products to the parent compound,
      were minimal. These results suggest that P. ostreatus significantly degrades AFB1
      in naturally contaminated maize under standard cultivation techniques to levels
      that are acceptable for some livestock fodder, and that using P. ostreatus to
      bioconvert crops into mushrooms can reduce AFB1-related losses.

PMID- 28582972
TI  - The impact of DO and salinity on microbial community in poly(butylene succinate)
      denitrification reactors for recirculating aquaculture system wastewater
      treatment.
AB  - The interactions between environmental factors and bacterial community shift in
      solid-phase denitrification are crucial for optimum operation of a reactor and to
      achieve maximum treatment efficiency. In this study, Illumina high-throughput
      sequencing was applied to reveal the effects of different operational conditions
      on bacterial community distribution of three continuous operated poly(butylene
      succinate) biological denitrification reactors used for recirculating aquaculture
      system (RAS) wastewater treatment. The results indicated that salinity decreased
      OTU numbers and diversity while dissolved oxygen (DO) had no obvious influence on
      OTU numbers. Significant microbial community composition differences were
      observed among and between three denitrification reactors under varied operation
      conditions. This result was also demonstrated by cluster analysis (CA) and
      detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Hierarchical clustering and redundancy
      analysis (RDA) was performed to test the relationship between environmental
      factors and bacterial community compositions and result indicated that salinity,
      DO and hydraulic retention time (HRT) were the three key factors in microbial
      community formation. Besides, Simplicispira was detected under all operational
      conditions, which worth drawing more attention for nitrate removal. Moreover, the
      abundance of nosZ gene and 16S rRNA were analyzed by real-time PCR, which
      suggested that salinity decreased the proportion of denitrifiers among whole
      bacterial community while DO had little influence on marine reactors. This study
      provides an overview of microbial community shift dynamics in solid-phase
      denitrification reactors when operation parameters changed and proved the
      feasibility to apply interval aeration for denitrification process based on
      microbial level, which may shed light on improving the performance of RAS
      treatment units.

PMID- 28582975
TI  - Crystalline Supramolecular Gyroscope with a Water Molecule as an Ultrasmall Polar
      Rotator Modulated by Charge-Assisted Hydrogen Bonds.
AB  - A new strategy for the construction of crystalline molecular rotors is presented.
      The combination of a conformation-modifiable macrocyclic host and two cooperative
      guests affords one supramolecular gyroscope-like compound, (t-BuNH3)(18-crown
      6)[ZnCl3(H2O)], in which the coordinated water molecule functions as an
      ultrasmall polar rotator, revealed by its significant dielectric relaxation and
      the molecular dynamics simulations. In addition, such a compound can reversibly
      undergo a polar-to-polar phase transition triggered by the changed conformation
      of the 18-crown-6 host, leading to a switchable on/off rotation of water
      molecule, well controlled by strength and direction of charge-assisted hydrogen
      bonds.

PMID- 28582976
TI  - Our Stainfree Future? A Virtual Issue on Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances.

PMID- 28582974
TI  - Breathable Vapor Toxicant Barriers Based on Multilayer Graphene Oxide.
AB  - There is tremendous interest in graphene-based membranes as protective molecular
      barriers or molecular sieves for separation technologies. Graphene oxide (GO)
      films in the dry state are known to be effective barriers for molecular transport
      and to expand in the presence of moisture to create enlarged intersheet gallery
      spaces that allow rapid water permeation. Here we explore an application for GO
      membranes as water-breathable barrier layers for personal protective equipment,
      which are designed to allow outward perspiration while protecting the wearer from
      chemical toxicants or biochemical agents in the local environment. A device was
      developed to measure permeation rates of small-molecular toxicants in the
      presence of counter-current water flow simulating active perspiration. The
      technique was applied to trichloroethylene (TCE) and benzene, which are important
      environmental toxicants, and ethanol as a limiting case to model very small,
      highly water-soluble organic molecules. Submicron GO membranes are shown to be
      effective TCE barriers, both in the presence and absence of simulated
      perspiration flux, and to outperform current barrier technologies. A molecular
      transport model is developed, which suggests the limited toxicant back-permeation
      observed occurs not by diffusion against the convective perspiration flow in
      hydrophobic channels, but rather through oxidized domains where hydrogen-bonding
      produces a near-stagnant water phase. Benzene and ethanol permeation fluxes are
      higher than those for TCE, likely reflecting the effects of higher water
      solubility and smaller minimum molecular dimension. Overall, GO films have high
      water breathability relative to competing technologies and are known to exclude
      most classes of target toxicants, including particles, bacteria, viruses, and
      macromolecules. The present results show good barrier performance for some very
      small-molecule species, but not others, with permeation being favored by high
      water solubility and small minimum molecular dimension.

PMID- 28582973
TI  - A novel anti-CD22 scFv-apoptin fusion protein induces apoptosis in malignant B
      cells.
AB  - CD22 marker is a highly internalizing antigen which is located on the surface of
      B-cells and is being used as a promising target for treatment of B cell
      malignancies. Monoclonal antibodies targeting CD22 have been introduced and some
      are currently under investigation in clinical trials. Building on the success of
      antibody drug conjugates, we developed a fusion protein consisting of a novel
      anti-CD22 scFv and apoptin and tested binding and therapeutic effects in lymphoma
      cells. The recombinant protein was expressed in E. coli and successfully purified
      and refolded. In vitro binding analysis by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry
      demonstrated that the recombinant protein specifically binds to CD22 positive
      Raji cells but not to CD22 negative Jurkat cells. The cytotoxic properties of
      scFv-apoptin were assessed by an MTT assay and Annexin V/PI flow cytometry
      analysis and showed that the recombinant protein induced apoptosis preferentially
      in Raji cells with no detectable effects in Jurkat cells. Our findings indicated
      that the recombinant anti-CD22 scFv-apoptin fusion protein could successfully
      cross the cell membrane and induce apoptosis with high specificity, make it as a
      promising molecule for immunotherapy of B-cell malignancies.

PMID- 28582977
TI  - Sorption of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) Relevant to Aqueous Film
      Forming Foam (AFFF)-Impacted Groundwater by Biochars and Activated Carbon.
AB  - Despite growing concerns about human exposure to perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and
      perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), other poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances
      (PFASs) derived from aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) have garnered little
      attention. While these other PFASs may also be present in AFFF-impacted drinking
      water, their removal by conventional drinking-water treatment is poorly
      understood. This study compared the removal of 30 PFASs, including 13 recently
      discovered PFASs, from an AFFF-impacted drinking water using carbonaceous
      sorbents (i.e., granular activated carbon, GAC). The approach combined laboratory
      batch experiments and modeling: batch sorption data were used to determine
      partition coefficients (Kd) and calibrate a transport model based on
      intraparticle diffusion-limited sorption kinetics, which was used to make forward
      predictions of PFAS breakthrough during GAC adsorption. While strong retention
      was predicted for PFOS and PFOA, nearly all of the recently discovered
      polyfluorinated chemicals and PFOS-like PFASs detected in the AFFF-impacted
      drinking water were predicted to break through GAC systems before both PFOS and
      PFOA. These model breakthrough results were used to evaluate a simplified
      approach to predicting PFAS removal by GAC using compound-specific retention
      times on a C18 column (RTC18). Overall, this study reveals that GAC systems for
      the treatment of AFFF-impacted sources of water for PFOA and PFOS likely achieve
      poor removal, when operated only for the treatment of PFOS and PFOA, of many
      unmonitored PFASs of unknown toxicity.

PMID- 28582978
TI  - Detection and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance genes in
      <i>Campylobacter</i> spp. isolated from chickens and humans.
AB  - Campylobacter spp. are common pathogenic bacteria in both veterinary and human
      medicine. Infections caused by Campylobacter spp. are usually treated using
      antibiotics. However, the injudicious use of antibiotics has been proven to
      spearhead the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was
      to detect the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in Campylobacter spp.
      isolated from chickens and human clinical cases in South Africa. One hundred and
      sixty one isolates of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were collected
      from chickens and human clinical cases and then screened for the presence of
      antimicrobial resistance genes. We observed a wide distribution of the tetO gene,
      which confers resistance to tetracycline. The gyrA genes that are responsible
      quinolone resistance were also detected. Finally, our study also detected the
      presence of the blaOXA-61, which is associated with ampicillin resistance. There
      was a higher (p < 0.05) prevalence of the studied antimicrobial resistance genes
      in chicken faeces compared with human clinical isolates. The tetO gene was the
      most prevalent gene detected, which was isolated at 64% and 68% from human and
      chicken isolates, respectively. The presence of gyrA genes was significantly (p <
      0.05) associated with quinolone resistance. In conclusion, this study
      demonstrated the presence of gyrA (235 bp), gyrA (270 bp), blaOXA-61 and tetO
      antimicrobial resistance genes in C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from chickens
      and human clinical cases. This indicates that Campylobacter spp. have the
      potential of resistance to a number of antibiotic classes.

PMID- 28582979
TI  - The sero-prevalence and sero-incidence of African horse sickness and equine
      encephalosis in selected horse and donkey populations in Zimbabwe.
AB  - Sentinel herds and samples submitted by private equine practitioners were used to
      determine the sero-prevalence and sero-incidence of African horse sickness virus
      (AHSV) and equine encephalosis virus (EEV) in horse and donkey populations in the
      Highveld region of Zimbabwe. The sero-prevalence and sero-incidence of antibodies
      against these viruses were determined using the competitive enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of serum antibodies. In donkeys,
      the median sero-prevalence of AHSV antibodies, across the three rainy seasons
      under study, was 75% (inter quartile range [IQR] 67-83), with a seasonal median
      sero-incidence of 45% (IQR 40-63). In horses, the median sero-prevalence of EEV
      antibodies was 63% (IQR 21-73), with a median seasonal sero-incidence of 10.5%
      (IQR 10-14), while in donkeys the median sero-prevalence of EEV antibodies was
      80% (IQR 67-90), with a median seasonal sero-incidence of 50% (IQR 40-60). This
      study highlighted the significant levels of exposure of donkeys to AHSV and
      horses and donkeys to EEV in Zimbabwe despite equine encephalosis remaining
      unreported by Zimbabwean veterinarians to date. Most seroconversions in sentinel
      herd animals to AHSV and EEV occurred towards the end of the rainy season in
      March, April and May corresponding to the time of the year when the Culicoides
      vectors are in high abundance. In order to determine the clinical significance of
      these infections, blood and spleen samples, submitted by private equine
      veterinary practitioners over a 5-year period, from horses showing characteristic
      clinical signs of African horse sickness were tested for the presence of viral
      antigen using the antigen capture ELISA. The median sero-prevalence of AHSV
      antigen in horses recorded from these samples was 38% (IQR 33-88). The
      predominant AHSV antigen from these samples was serotype 7 (33%) followed by
      serotype 2 (26%) and serotypes 4 and 8 (16% each). African horse sickness virus
      serotypes 3 and 9, identified in this study, had not been previously reported in
      Zimbabwe.

PMID- 28582980
TI  - Prevalence of adolescent obesity at a high school in the City of Tshwane.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity has been reported to be on the rise in the world and South
      Africa is no exception. In recent years obesity has been reported to contribute
      to the increasing number of people with hypertension and diabetes mellitus.
      Africa has the fastest growing number of overweight and obese adolescents, with
      indications that in 2010, it had more than doubled since 1990. Some people might
      perceive being overweight as being round and healthy which might contribute to
      the increased rate of obesity in South Africa. Physical and psychological changes
      that occur during adolescence can also be observed earlier during the preteen
      years (ages 9-12 years). During this time, peer groups and external appearance
      are of importance. Physical changes, such as obesity, might be perceived
      negatively by adolescents, affecting their self-esteem. OBJECTIVES: The purpose
      of the study was to determine the prevalence of adolescent obesity at a high
      school in the City of Tshwane. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted.
      Stratified random sampling was used and data were collected from 30% of the total
      population as recommended by the statistician. Data analysis was performed using
      descriptive analysis. Validity and reliability were ensured through calibrating
      the weight-monitoring scale and the measuring tape, which are collection tools.
      RESULTS: The results identified the prevalence of adolescent obesity at 8.57%.
      There is evidence of abdominal obesity and waist-hip ratio >= 1. The results show
      that there is a steady increase in obesity levels among adolescents. The poor
      response of parents was observed and could demonstrate the need to form stronger
      partnerships for weight reduction interventions. CONCLUSION: Evidence-based
      prevalence allowed for conceptualisation of the scope of the obesity epidemic and
      how children and young people are also affected. To enable proper planning for
      adolescent obesity interventions, the depth of consequences of obesity for the
      adolescent cohort should be well defined and clarified.

PMID- 28582981
TI  - Professional nurses' perceptions and experiences with the implementation of an
      integrated chronic care model at primary healthcare clinics in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An integrated chronic disease management model has been implemented
      across primary healthcare clinics in order to transform the delivery of services
      for patients with chronic diseases. The sustainability and rapid scale-up of the
      model is dependent on positive staff perceptions and experiences. OBJECTIVES: The
      aim of the study was to determine the perceptions and experiences of professional
      nurses with the integrated chronic care model that has been implemented. METHOD:
      A cross-sectional descriptive survey utilising a self-administered questionnaire
      was conducted amongst all professional nurses who were involved in delivering
      primary healthcare services at the 42 implementing facilities in September 2014.
      Each facility has between four and eight professional nurses providing a service
      daily at the facilitiesResults: A total of 264 professional nurses participated
      in the survey. Prior to the implementation, 34% (91) of the staff perceived the
      model to be an added programme, whilst 36% (96) of the staff experienced an
      increased workload. Staff noted an improved process of care, better level of
      interaction with patients, improved level of knowledge and better teamwork
      coupled with an improved level of satisfaction with the work environment at the
      clinic after implementation of the integrated chronic disease model. CONCLUSION:
      Professional nurses have a positive experience with the implementation of the
      integrated chronic disease management model.

PMID- 28582982
TI  - The role of emotional intelligence and organisational support on work stress of
      nurses in Ibadan, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Universally, nurses have been reported to be a group at high risk of
      workplace stress. However, nurses' responses to stressful situations at work
      could be the outcomes of individual differences and organisational factors.
      OBJECTIVES: We examined the independent and joint contributions of four
      dimensions of emotional intelligence and perceived organisational support in work
      stress of nurses in a teaching hospital in Nigeria. METHODS: The study was a
      cross-sectional survey research design, which selected 228 (41 male and 187
      female nurses) nurses through the use of convenience sampling. Questionnaires
      comprising demographics with work stress, organisational support and emotional
      intelligence scales were administered to the sampled 228 nurses in the study.
      Data were analysed with the use of correlational matrix and hierarchical multiple
      regression. RESULTS: Self-emotion appraisal, others' emotion appraisal, use of
      emotion, regulation of emotion and perceived organisational support were found to
      have joint contributions to explaining work stress among nurses. Others' emotion
      appraisal, use of emotion and perceived organisational support were found to have
      independent relationships with work stress. CONCLUSION: Our findings stress that
      judgement of others' emotions, accurate use of emotion by nurses and support from
      management of the hospital are most important in explaining their reactions
      towards work-related stress.

PMID- 28582983
TI  - Occurrence of <i>Coxiella burnetii</i>, <i>Ehrlichia canis</i>, <i>Rickettsia</i>
      species and <i>Anaplasma phagocytophilum</i>-like bacterium in ticks collected
      from dogs and cats in South Africa.
AB  - Ticks are major vectors of arthropod-borne infections and transmit a wide variety
      of zoonotic pathogens. This study was conducted mainly to determine the
      occurrence of canine tick-borne bacterial and rickettsial pathogens especially
      those with zoonotic potential. We examined 276 Rhipicephalus sanguineus, 38
      Haemaphysalis elliptica and 4 Amblyomma hebraeum ticks from 90 dogs and 4 cats
      from the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Mpumalanga provinces. DNA of
      Coxiella burnetii (41%), Ehrlichia or Anaplasma (18%), Rickettsia spp. (37%),
      Anaplasma phagocytophilum-like bacterium (18%) and Ehrlichia canis (19%) was
      detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from a total of 147 pooled DNA
      samples. All samples were negative for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA.
      Ehrlichia canis was detected in samples from all the provinces except the North
      West; A. phagocytophilum was absent in KwaZulu-Natal samples, whereas Rickettsia
      species and C. burnetii were detected in all sampled provinces. The PCRpositive
      samples were confirmed by direct sequencing of the product. Data from this study
      calls for a joint effort by both veterinary and medical sectors to conduct
      epidemiological studies of the zoonotic pathogens in both animals and humans.

PMID- 28582984
TI  - Ileal hypertrophy and associated true diverticulum as a cause of colic in a
      horse.
AB  - A 4-year-old Thoroughbred gelding underwent an explorative celiotomy for a
      suspected small intestinal obstruction. During surgery, an impacted diverticulum
      of the ileum was suspected, necessitating a jejunocaecostomy. The owner opted for
      euthanasia. On post-mortem examination and histopathology, a true diverticulum on
      the mesenteric side of the ileum, with ileal hypertrophy, was diagnosed.

PMID- 28582985
TI  - Septic pericarditis and pneumopericardium in a dog with an oesophageal foreign
      body.
AB  - A 5-year-old, intact, male Yorkshire Terrier presented with a 6-day history of
      lethargy and anorexia. Clinical examination revealed dental plaque accumulation,
      abdominal effort during respiration and muffled heart sounds. Thoracic
      radiographs revealed an enlarged globoid cardiac silhouette and mild
      pneumopericardium, transthoracic ultrasonography revealed a pericardial effusion
      after which pericardiocentesis, cytology and culture diagnosed septic
      pericarditis. Three multidrug-resistant bacteria were isolated, two of which have
      been implicated in gas-producing infections before. Medical management failed to
      resolve the pericarditis and euthanasia was opted for. A chronic
      osseocartilaginous oesophageal foreign body cranial to the heart base was found
      on necropsy. Septic pericarditis and pneumopericardium are rare conditions in
      dogs. This is the first case to describe a multidrug-resistant polybacterial
      aetiology causing mild pneumopericardium and only the second case to describe
      septic pericarditis associated with an oesophageal foreign body.

PMID- 28582986
TI  - Reaching national consensus on the core clinical skill outcomes for family
      medicine postgraduate training programmes in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Family physicians play a significant role in the district health
      system and need to be equipped with a broad range of clinical skills in order to
      meet the needs and expectations of the communities they serve. A previous study
      in 2007 reached national consensus on the clinical skills that should be taught
      in postgraduate family medicine training prior to the introduction of the new
      speciality. Since then, family physicians have been trained, employed and have
      gained experience of working in the district health services. The national
      Education and Training Committee of the South African Academy of Family
      Physicians, therefore, requested a review of the national consensus on clinical
      skills for family medicine training. METHODS: A Delphi technique was used to
      reach national consensus in a panel of 17 experts: family physicians responsible
      for training, experienced family physicians in practice and managers responsible
      for employing family physicians. RESULTS: Consensus was reached on 242 skills
      from which the panel decided on 211 core skills, 28 elective skills and 3 skills
      to be deleted from the previous list. The panel was unable to reach consensus on
      11 skills. CONCLUSION: The findings will guide training programmes on the skills
      to be addressed and ensure consistency across training programmes nationally. The
      consensus will also guide formative assessment as documented in the national
      portfolio of learning and summative assessment in the national exit examination.
      The consensus will be of interest to other countries in the region where training
      programmes in family medicine are developing.

PMID- 28582987
TI  - A review of patients presenting to accident and emergency department with
      deliberate self-harm, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has described deliberate self-harm
      (DSH) as a major global health challenge. Little is known about the profile of
      patients admitted following DSH at district and regional combo hospitals in
      KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the
      profiles of patients and reasons for admission following DSH. SETTING: The study
      was conducted on data from a busy Accident and Emergency (A&E) department in a
      combination district and regional hospital situated in Empangeni in northern
      KwaZulu-Natal. METHOD: This was a retrospective descriptive study. Data were
      collected from charts of all patients admitted to the A&E department from April
      2012 to March 2013 following DSH. Variables assessed included age, gender, race,
      occupation, religion, education level, coexisting medical and mental health
      conditions, and reasons for DSH. Data were entered into SPSS and analysed
      descriptively. RESULTS: A total of 262 charts were identified and 215 (82%) were
      selected for inclusion. Most patients admitted following DSH were young, single
      African women with at least secondary-level education. Most (169/215;78%)
      admissions were for parasuicide, with relational issues contributing in more than
      50% of cases and circumstance challenges contributing in just under 30%.
      CONCLUSION: Although an underestimation, DSH is not an uncommon reason for
      patients to present in the A&E at this district and regional combo hospital.
      Findings from this study are consistent with those of other studies on DSH and
      highlight the need for a validated screening tool for the identification of
      patients at risk of DSH. There is a need to explore community-based intervention,
      which could address reasons for DSH and prevent future admissions.

PMID- 28582988
TI  - Trust of community health workers influences the acceptance of community-based
      maternal and child health services.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community health workers (CHWs) are a component of the health system
      in many countries, providing effective community-based services to mothers and
      infants. However, implementation of CHW programmes at scale has been challenging
      in many settings. AIM: To explore the acceptability of CHWs conducting household
      visits to mothers and infants during pregnancy and after delivery, from the
      perspective of community members, professional nurses and CHWs themselves.
      SETTING: Primary health care clinics in five rural districts in KwaZulu-Natal,
      South Africa. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted where
      participants were purposively selected to participate in 19 focus group
      discussions based on their experience with CHWs or child rearing. RESULTS: Poor
      confidentiality and trust emerged as key barriers to CHW acceptability in
      delivering maternal and child health services in the home. Most community members
      felt that CHWs could not be trusted because of their lack of professionalism and
      inability to maintain confidentiality. Familiarity and the complex relationships
      between household members and CHWs caused difficulties in developing and
      maintaining a relationship of trust, particularly in high HIV prevalence
      settings. Professional staff at the clinic were crucial in supporting the CHW's
      role; if they appeared to question the CHW's competency or trustworthiness, this
      seriously undermined CHW credibility in the eyes of the community. CONCLUSION:
      Understanding the complex contextual challenges faced by CHWs and community
      members can strengthen community-based interventions. CHWs require training,
      support and supervision to develop competencies navigating complex relationships
      within the community and the health system to provide effective care in
      communities.

PMID- 28582989
TI  - A situation analysis of psychiatrists in South Africa's rural primary healthcare
      settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Africa (SA) has been facing serious challenges in providing
      human resources for the delivery of essential mental health (MH) services. The
      majority of its prescribing MH specialists, psychiatrists, practise in private,
      urban and peri-urban areas. The findings of a situation analysis audit of
      psychiatrist human resources in the public rural primary healthcare (PRPHC)
      sector are presented in this paper. METHOD: This audit was based on both primary
      and secondary data. The primary data were obtained from key informant interviews
      with the clinical heads of 160 PRPHC facilities, while the secondary data
      comprised a literature review. RESULTS: The results indicate that psychiatrists
      are severely underrepresented, employed at a rate of 0.03 per 100 000 population
      in SA's PRPHC settings. CONCLUSIONS: Because of a lack of MH nurses and medical
      officers dedicated to MH in PRPHC facilities, recommendations are made that the
      current task shifting strategy be revisited to include more cadres of MH
      professionals with specialised psychopharmacological training, as non-medical
      prescribers at PRPHC level. It is advised that visiting psychiatrists and family
      physicians be involved in the construction of training and supervision programmes
      for non-medical prescribers at the primary healthcare level.

PMID- 28582990
TI  - To what extent does access to improved sanitation explain the observed
      differences in infant mortality in Africa?
AB  - BACKGROUND: To my knowledge, there was no systematic study so far that analysed
      the extent of the impact of improved sanitation on infant mortality in the
      African context with long years of full-fledged longitudinal data. AIM: The aim
      of this study was to empirically examine the extent to which improved sanitation
      explains the observed differences in infant mortality under 5 years of age across
      African countries. SETTING: The study covered a panel of 33 countries from north,
      south, east, west and central Africa for the years 1994-2013. METHODS: The study
      first conducted Durbin-Wu-Hausman specification test and then used fixed effect
      model. In addition, Praison-Winsten regression with corrected heteroscedasticity
      was employed to verify the consistency of the results that were revealed in using
      fixed effect estimation method. RESULTS: The study revealed that a 1% increase in
      access to improved sanitation would reduce infant mortality by a rate of about
      two infant deaths per 1000 live births. Also, the study confirmed that a
      significant decline in infant mortality rate was highly linked to improvements in
      education, health and sustainable economic growth. CONCLUSION: The findings have
      wide implications especially for African countries for which decreasing infant
      mortality is one of the most crucial priorities in the continent to reverse the
      current deep-rooted challenges related to human capital formation.

PMID- 28582991
TI  - Insights into health care seeking behaviour for children in communities in
      KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South African infant and child mortality remains high, with many
      deaths occurring outside the formal health services. Delayed health care seeking
      represents a large proportion of these deaths. AIM: To generate knowledge about
      the role of, and influences on, caregivers with regard to decision-making about
      when and where to seek care for sick children. SETTING: Two communities in
      KwaZulu-Natal. METHODS: A qualitative, exploratory design employing participatory
      research techniques was used to undertake focus group discussions with community
      members. RESULTS: Health care seeking for a sick child was described as a complex
      process influenced by multiple carers using multiple providers. Decision-making
      about seeking health care for a sick child was not an individual effort, but was
      shared with others in the household and guided by how the symptoms were
      perceived, either a Western illness or African illness. A sick child could either
      be treated at home or be taken to a variety of places including clinics, private
      doctors, traditional healers, faith healers and hospitals. Traditional healers
      were associated with the treatment of illnesses perceived to be traditional. Few
      participants said that they would take their child back to the original health
      provider if the child remained ill, but would move from one provider to another
      until the child's health improved. CONCLUSION: The formal health system needs to
      ensure that sick children are identified and managed appropriately to reduce
      child deaths. Knowledge and understanding of health care seeking behaviour for
      sick children by carers is an important aspect. Interventions need to be designed
      with these contextual issues in mind.

PMID- 28582992
TI  - The perceived role of ward-based primary healthcare outreach teams in rural
      KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of ward-based outreach teams (WBOTs) is to improve access to
      primary healthcare (PHC) services including health promotion and disease
      prevention in South Africa. Limited information is available in South Africa on
      user perceptions of services provided by WBOTs in rural households. AIM: The
      study aimed to explore community awareness and perception of WBOTs, as well
      people's motivation to engage and use WBOT services. SETTING: The study was
      conducted between July and September 2015 in iLembe district, KwaZulu-Natal.
      METHODS: This was exploratory-descriptive qualitative research. Purposive
      sampling technique was used in this study. A total of 16 key informant interviews
      and 4 focus group discussions were conducted. The voice recordings were
      transcribed in isiZulu and translated into English. RESULTS: Four themes emerged
      from the data analysis, namely bringing services closer, organising services,
      expanding services and forming bridges. Respondents demonstrated insightful
      knowledge and understanding of services provided by WBOTs. They expressed an
      appreciation of the way WBOT services brought healthcare closer to people and
      serve to bridge the gap between the community and local healthcare facilities.
      Respondents identified unclear WBOT work schedules and the failure to carry
      medication other than vitamin A as the main challenges. However, WBOTs did
      deliver medication for controlled chronic patients in their households.
      CONCLUSION: The study suggests that WBOTs provide a commendable service, but need
      to expand their service package to further increase access to PHC services and
      cater for community health needs.

PMID- 28582993
TI  - Mapping evidence of interventions and strategies to bridge the gap in the
      implementation of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme
      policy in sub-Saharan countries: A scoping review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV is a life
      saving public health intervention. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have made
      significant progress in the programme, but little is known about the strategies
      used by them to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. AIM: To map
      evidence of strategies and interventions employed by SSA in bridging the
      implementation gap in the rapidly changing PMTCT of HIV programme policy.
      METHODS: Electronic search of the databases MEDLINE, PubMed and SABINET for
      articles published in English between 2001 and August 2016. Key words included
      'Sub-Saharan African countries', 'implementation strategies', 'interventions to
      bridge implementation gap', 'prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV'
      and 'closing implementation gap'. RESULTS: Of a total of 743 articles, 25
      articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Manual
      content analysis resulted in the identification of three categories of
      strategies: (1) health system (referral systems, integration of services,
      supportive leadership, systematic quality-improvement approaches that vigorously
      monitors programme performance); (2) health service delivery (task shifting,
      networking, shared platform for learning, local capacity building, supportive
      supervision); as well as (3) community-level strategies (community health
      workers, technology use - mHealth, family-centred approaches, male involvement,
      culturally appropriate interventions). CONCLUSION: There are strategies that
      exist in SSA countries. Future research should examine multifaceted scientific
      models to prioritise the highest impact and be evaluated for effectiveness and
      efficiency.

PMID- 28582994
TI  - Which primary care model? A qualitative analysis of ward-based outreach teams in
      South Africa.
AB  - : Globally, models of extending universal health coverage through primary care
      are influenced by country-specific systems of health care and disease management.
      In 2015 a rapid assessment of the ward-based outreach component of primary care
      reengineering was commissioned to understand implementation and rollout
      challenges. AIM: This article aims to describe middle- and lower-level managers'
      understanding of ward-based outreach teams (WBOTs) and the problems of authority,
      jurisdiction and practical functioning that arise from the way the model is
      constructed and has been operationalised. SETTING: Data are drawn from a rapid
      assessment of National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot sites in seven provinces.
      METHODS: The study used a modified version of CASCADE. Peer-review teams of
      public health researchers and district/sub-district managers collected data in
      two sites per province between March and July 2015. RESULTS: Respondents
      unequivocally support the strategy to extend primary health care services to
      people in their homes and communities both because it is responsive to the family
      context of individual health and because it reaches marginal people. They,
      however, identify critical issues that arise from basing WBOTs in facilities,
      including unspecific team leadership, inadequate supervision, poorly constituted
      teams, limited community reach and serious infrastructural and material under
      provision. CONCLUSION: Many of the shortcomings of a facility-based extension
      model can be addressed by an independently resourced, geographic, community-based
      model of fully constituted teams that are clinically and organisationally
      supported in an integrated district health system. However, a community-oriented
      primary care approach will still have to grapple with overarching framework
      problems.

PMID- 28582995
TI  - Palliative care needs of patients living with end-stage kidney disease not
      treated with renal replacement therapy: An exploratory qualitative study from
      Blantyre, Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The burden of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in sub-Saharan Africa
      is increasing rapidly but the palliative care needs of patients living with ESKD
      are not well described. Resource limitations at both health system and patient
      level act as major barriers to patients receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT)
      in the form of dialysis. We undertook an exploratory qualitative study to
      describe the palliative care needs of patients with ESKD who were not receiving
      RRT, at a government teaching hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. METHODS: A
      qualitative, explorative and descriptive design was used. Study participants were
      adults aged > 18 years with an estimated glomerular filtration rate < 15 ml/min
      on two separate occasions, three months apart, who either chose not to have or
      were not deemed suitable for RRT. Data were collected by means of semi-structured
      interviews. RESULTS: In October and November 2013, interviews were conducted with
      10 adults (7 women with median age of 60.5 years). All were hypertensive and four
      were on treatment for HIV. Four themes emerged from the data: changes in
      functional status because of physical symptoms, financial challenges impacting
      hospital care, loss of role within the family and the importance of spiritual and
      cultural beliefs. CONCLUSION: This study reports on four thematic areas which
      warrant further quantitative and qualitative studies both in Malawi and other low
      resource settings, where a growing number of patients with ESKD unable to access
      RRT will require palliative care in the coming years.

PMID- 28582998
TI  - Comparison of Levetiracetam Dosing Regimens in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients
      Undergoing Intermittent Hemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Levetiracetam (LEV) is primarily renally eliminated. In end-stage
      renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis (HD), pharmacokinetic studies
      recommend daily dosing with 50% supplemental doses after 4-hour HD sessions.
      However, poor medication adherence after HD could result in fluctuating plasma
      drug levels. OBJECTIVE: To compare two LEV dosing regimens, daily versus twice
      daily (BID), in ESRD patients undergoing HD. METHODS: Consecutive ESRD patients
      (April 2013 to May 2014) receiving maintenance inpatient HD and prescribed LEV
      prior to admission to our academic tertiary hospital were prospectively analyzed.
      Demographics, initial lab values, adverse reactions, seizures, and LEV regimens
      were recorded. LEV levels were obtained pre-HD and post-HD along with levels
      after receiving post-HD doses. Recovery of plasma levels after HD was assessed by
      comparison of levels predialysis versus postdialysis and post-HD doses. RESULTS:
      We identified 22 patients who met inclusion criteria; 14 BID and 8 daily dosing.
      Mean predialysis, postdialysis, and post-HD dose plasma levels were higher in
      patients receiving LEV BID compared with daily (43.1 +/- 6.3, 19.4 +/- 5.2, 34.9
      +/- 4.3 vs 21.1 +/- 3.9, 6.9 +/- 1.5, 11.9 +/- 1.7 ug/mL; P < 0.05). BID post-HD
      levels were 41.9 +/- 4.6% of predialysis levels versus 36.9 +/- 7.3% with daily
      dosing ( P = 0.275). Post-HD dose levels were 81.4+/-4.3% of predialysis on LEV
      BID versus 65.7 +/- 8.8% on LEV daily ( P = 0.045). No seizures were reported
      during hospital admission in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to LEV daily,
      BID dosing achieved significantly higher levels and a better recovery to
      predialysis levels. Although limited by small numbers, a similar relationship
      between postdialysis levels was not detected.

PMID- 28582996
TI  - Barriers and opportunities to implementation of sustainable e-Health programmes
      in Uganda: A literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most developing countries, including Uganda, have embraced the use of
      e-Health and m-Health applications as a means to improve primary healthcare
      delivery and public health for their populace. In Uganda, the growth in the
      information and communications technology industry has benefited the rural
      communities and also created opportunities for new innovations, and their
      application into healthcare has reported positive results, especially in the
      areas of disease control and prevention through disease surveillance. However,
      most are mere proof-of-concepts, only demonstrated in use within a small context
      and lack sustainability. This study reviews the literature to understand e
      Health's current implementation status within Uganda and documents the barriers
      and opportunities to sustainable e-Health intervention programmes in Uganda.
      METHODS: A structured literature review of e-Health in Uganda was undertaken
      between May and December 2015 and was complemented with hand searching and a
      document review of grey literature in the form of policy documents and reports
      obtained online or from the Ministry of Health's Resource Centre. RESULTS: The
      searches identified a total of 293 resources of which 48 articles met the
      inclusion criteria of being in English and describing e-Health implementation in
      Uganda. These were included in the study and were examined in detail. CONCLUSION:
      Uganda has trialled several e-Health and m-Health solutions to address healthcare
      challenges. Most were donor funded, operated in silos and lacked sustainability.
      Various barriers have been identified. Evidence has shown that e-Health
      implementations in Uganda have lacked prior planning stages that the literature
      notes as essential, for example strategy and need readiness assessment. Future
      research should address these shortcomings prior to introduction of e-Health
      innovations.

PMID- 28582997
TI  - Breastfeeding and swallowing in a neonate with mild hypoxic-ischaemic
      encephalopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Specific breastfeeding and swallowing characteristics in neonates
      with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) have not yet been well described in
      the literature. Considering the relatively high incidence of HIE in resource-poor
      settings, speech-language therapists should be cognisant of the feeding
      difficulties in this population during breastfeeding. OBJECTIVE: To
      systematically describe the breastfeeding and swallowing of a single case of a
      neonate diagnosed with mild HIE from admission to discharge. METHOD: A case study
      of a 2-day old neonate with mild HIE in a neonatal intensive care unit at an
      urban teaching hospital, is presented. Data were prospectively collected during
      four sessions in a 12-day period until the participant's discharge. Feeding and
      swallowing were assessed clinically, as well as instrumentally using a video
      fluoroscopic swallow study. RESULTS: After parenteral feeding, nasogastric tube
      feeding commenced. Breastfeeding was introduced on Day 6, as it was considered a
      safe option, and revealed problematic rooting, shallow latching, short sucking
      bursts, infrequent swallowing, and a drowsy state of arousal, with coughing and
      choking. No penetration or aspiration was identified instrumentally. After 13
      days, the neonate was breastfeeding safely. CONCLUSION: Although the pharyngeal
      stage of swallowing was intact, symptoms of oral stage dysphagia were revealed
      using a combination of clinical and instrumental measures. Breastfeeding
      difficulties were identified, exacerbated by poor state regulation, which lead to
      prolonged hospitalisation. The case study highlights the unexpected long duration
      of feeding difficulties in an infant with mild HIE and indicates further
      research.

PMID- 28582999
TI  - Addressing College Drinking as a Statewide Public Health Problem: Key Findings
      From the Maryland Collaborative.
AB  - Excessive drinking among college students is a serious and pervasive public
      health problem. Although much research attention has focused on developing and
      evaluating evidence-based practices to address college drinking, adoption has
      been slow. The Maryland Collaborative to Reduce College Drinking and Related
      Problems was established in 2012 to bring together a network of institutions of
      higher education in Maryland to collectively address college drinking by using
      both individual-level and environmental-level evidence-based approaches. In this
      article, the authors describe the findings of this multilevel, multicomponent
      statewide initiative. To date, the Maryland Collaborative has succeeded in
      providing a forum for colleges to share knowledge and experiences, strengthen
      existing strategies, and engage in a variety of new activities. Administration of
      an annual student survey has been useful for guiding interventions as well as
      evaluating progress toward the Maryland Collaborative's goal to measurably reduce
      high-risk drinking and its radiating consequences on student health, safety, and
      academic performance and on the communities surrounding college campuses. The
      experiences of the Maryland Collaborative exemplify real-world implementation of
      evidence-based approaches to reduce this serious public health problem.

PMID- 28583000
TI  - Suicide in primary headaches in 48 countries: A physician-survey based study.
AB  - Aim To investigate the relationship between primary headache types and
      accomplished or attempted suicide in countries from all world regions. Methods
      Data were obtained using a questionnaire about suicide due to headache in a face
      to-face interview with 203 physicians with expertise in headaches. They came from
      48 countries, and from all continents. Results Primary headaches cause one
      suicide per 1,000,000 population each year (1% of the suicide rate due to all
      causes). Cluster headache and migraines account for 70-80% of them. Suicide
      attempts are 10 times more frequent than accomplished suicides. Cluster headache
      poses more risk than migraine. This risk is not often acknowledged, and is
      increased if there is previous psychiatric history. More than half of the
      physicians interviewed think it could be reduced with a more aggressive treatment
      of headaches. Conclusions Cluster headache and migraine are not always benign,
      and are the cause of the majority of suicides due to headache.

PMID- 28583001
TI  - Redox-triggered mitoxantrone prodrug micelles for overcoming multidrug-resistant
      breast cancer.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) severely hinders the efficient chemotherapeutic
      treatments of cancer. d-alpha-Tocopherol polyethylene 1000 succinate (TPGS) based
      drug delivery system holds the potential of re-sensitizing resistant cancer
      cells. In this study, a TPGS prodrug containing both TPGS and mitoxantrone (MTO)
      via a disulphide bond was synthesised and assembled into micelle (TSMm) with a
      monodispersed diameter of 46.50 +/- 1.12 nm. The disulphide bonds within the
      micelles could be cleaved in response to a high concentration of intracellular
      glutathione (GSH) after entering the tumour cells, leading a rapid release of
      MTO. In vitro cytotoxicity study showed TSMm significantly inhibited the growth
      of resistant breast tumour cells MDA-MB-231/MDR comparing to either free MTO or
      disulphide-free prodrug micelle (TCMm). In addition, TSMm could sustain
      favourable intracellular retention and cause the depletion of ATP activity,
      leading to the preferential transportation of MTO into the nucleus and the
      reversal of MDR. In vivo imaging also verified that TSMm was specifically
      targeted to the tumour regions at 24 h post injection. Finally, TSMm has
      significantly stronger antitumor activity in xenograft nude mice with negligible
      side effects. Hence, TSMm can serve as promising prodrug candidates to strengthen
      the reversal of MDR in tumours with less side effects.

PMID- 28583002
TI  - Telomere Length Is Associated With Cardiometabolic Factors in US Adults.
AB  - Telomere length (TL) has been associated with age-related health outcomes. We
      investigated the relationship of TL with cardiometabolic risk profile in adult
      Americans. We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for 1999
      to 2002, accounting for complex sampling and survey design. Of the 8892 eligible
      participants, 47.8% (n = 4123) were men. Mean serum high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol concentrations significantly increased across increasing TL quarters
      ( P = .013), and mean fat mass, fat-free mass, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and C
      reactive protein significantly decreased across increasing TL quarters (all P <
      .001) in men. Only HbA1c levels significantly decreased across increasing TL
      quarters ( P = .041) in women. Males in the upper quarter of TL had lower (38%)
      odds of prevalent metabolic syndrome compared with those in the lower quarter ( P
      < .001). These results support the hypotheses that cardiometabolic factors are
      related to TL, especially in men.

PMID- 28583003
TI  - Transcranial Doppler to Detect Right to Left Communication: Evaluation Versus
      Transesophageal Echocardiography in Real Life.
AB  - We compared transcranial Doppler (TCD) with transesophageal echocardiography
      (TEE) and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for the detection of right to left
      communication (RLC) in the heart. All patients explored from 2013 to 2016 in a
      vascular medicine unit to detect RLC by TCD were included. Right to left
      communication was detected by TCD monitoring for microembolic signals after
      intravenous injection of agitated 5% glucose and air. One hundred one patients
      were explored for RLC by TCD, 64 by TEE (not possible in 10, bubble injection in
      51), and 93 by TTE because of unexplained stroke or arterial thrombosis (51
      males, 50 females, age 51.0 +/- 15.8 years) (bubble injection in 35). Fifty-three
      patients were positive after TCD (TEE: 4 negative, TTE: 7 negative). Of the
      negative patients after TCD, none was positive for TEE and 1 was positive for TTE
      with no evidence of patent foramen ovale. Transcranial Doppler was sensitive to
      detect RLC, even in patients with negative TTE or TTE. A negative TEE did not
      exclude RLC demonstrated by TCD. Transcranial Doppler might be proposed as first
      line to detect RLC.

PMID- 28583004
TI  - Optimizing health system response to patient's needs: an argument for the
      importance of functioning information.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current health systems are increasingly challenged to meet the needs
      of a growing number of patients living with chronic and often multiple health
      conditions. The primary outcome of care, it is argued, is not merely curing
      disease but also optimizing functioning over a person's life span. According to
      the World Health Organization, functioning can serve as foundation for a
      comprehensive picture of health and augment the biomedical perspective with a
      broader and more comprehensive picture of health as it plays out in people's
      lives. The crucial importance of information about patient's functioning for a
      well-performing health system, however, has yet to be sufficiently appreciated.
      METHODS: This paper argues that functioning information is fundamental in all
      components of health systems and enhances the capacity of health systems to
      optimize patients' health and health-related needs. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:
      Beyond making sense of biomedical disease patterns, health systems can profit
      from using functioning information to improve interprofessional collaboration and
      achieve cross-cutting disease treatment outcomes. Implications for rehabilitation
      Functioning is a key health outcome for rehabilitation within health systems.
      Information on restoring, maintaining, and optimizing human functioning can
      strengthen health system response to patients' health and rehabilitative needs.
      Functioning information guides health systems to achieve cross-cutting health
      outcomes that respond to the needs of the growing number of individuals living
      with chronic and multiple health conditions. Accounting for individuals
      functioning helps to overcome fragmentation of care and to improve
      interprofessional collaboration across settings.

PMID- 28583005
TI  - Development and Validation of the Faceted Inventory of the Five-Factor Model (FI
      FFM).
AB  - The Faceted Inventory of the Five-Factor Model (FI-FFM) is a comprehensive
      hierarchical measure of personality. The FI-FFM was created across five phases of
      scale development. It includes five facets apiece for neuroticism, extraversion,
      and conscientiousness; four facets within agreeableness; and three facets for
      openness. We present reliability and validity data obtained from three samples.
      The FI-FFM scales are internally consistent and highly stable over 2 weeks
      (retest rs ranged from .64 to .82, median r = .77). They show strong convergent
      and discriminant validity vis-a-vis the NEO, the Big Five Inventory, and the
      Personality Inventory for DSM-5. Moreover, self-ratings on the scales show
      moderate to strong agreement with corresponding ratings made by informants ( rs
      ranged from .26 to .66, median r = .42). Finally, in joint analyses with the NEO
      Personality Inventory-3, the FI-FFM neuroticism facet scales display significant
      incremental validity in predicting indicators of internalizing psychopathology.

PMID- 28583006
TI  - Perceived effects of home renovation on independence of physically disabled
      Koreans living at home.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to identify the potential effects of home renovation on
      independence promotion of physically disabled Koreans living at home. METHOD: The
      method of the study is a survey with a questionnaire; subjects are physically
      disabled people living at home in rural and urban areas in Korea. The Functional
      Independence Measure was used to measure changes in subjects' levels of
      independence. RESULTS: It was expected that if homes were renovated according to
      individual needs, disabled people's independence level would be increased by one
      or more level compared to their current daily independence level in their
      existing homes. In particular, independence levels concerning bathing and
      locomotion, which are low in existing conditions, were expected to increase
      significantly with renovation. Such effects on independence level were
      conspicuous for disabled people in rural area. CONCLUSION: The results prove the
      positive effects of home renovations of disabled people's independence, thus
      providing meaningful academic evidence on home renovations for disabled people.
      Implication for rehabilitation Korea had a culture where support measures to aid
      the life independence of disabled persons relied heavily on human services,
      leading to a lack of diversity in support measures. By closing the gap between
      the resident's disability and the inadequacy in their prevailing environment,
      house remodeling can be a crucial intervention for improving the independence of
      disabled persons in their daily lives. Depending on the nature of their
      disabilities and their residential arrangements, disabled persons have diverse
      needs regarding home remodeling. Implementing home remodeling in such a manner
      that suits the resident's needs is crucial to boosting their independence.
      Because of this, remodeling personnel must interact with residents prior to the
      renovation while also strengthening their expertise.

PMID- 28583007
TI  - Biosynthesized gold and silver nanoparticles by aqueous fruit extract of
      Chaenomeles sinensis and screening of their biomedical activities.
AB  - The design of mild and non-toxic synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is a topical
      subject in the nanotechnology field. The objective of this present study is to
      screen the bioactivity of biosynthesized nanoparticles by aqueous fruit extract
      of Chaenomeles sinensis. The reducing and stabilizing ability of C. sinensis to
      fabricate gold (Cs-AuNps) and silver (Cs-AgNps) nanoparticles was confirmed by UV
      visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy at 562 nm and 477 nm, respectively. The field
      emission transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis
      (XRD) verify the nano-scale morphology and crystallinity of Cs-AuNps (20-40 nm)
      and Cs-AgNps (5-20 nm). Furthermore, we evaluated the 2,2-diphenyl-1
      picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging capacity, antimicrobial activity against
      Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and cytotoxicity against breast cancer
      cells. The results showed that Cs-AuNps (IC50: 725.93 MUg/mL) displayed superior
      inhibitory activities on DPPH than Cs-AuNps. The biosynthesized Cs-AuNps
      successfully inhibited the growth of pathogenic bacteria S. aureus (ATCC 6538)
      and E. coli (BL21). The cytotoxic effect of Cs-AuNps and Cs-AgNps was evaluated
      in murine macrophage (RAW264.7) and human breast cancer cell lines (MCF7) by MTT
      assay. Thus, the present study explores the biomedical applications of gold and
      silver nanoparticles synthesized by C. sinensis.

PMID- 28583008
TI  - Effect of exposure time, particle size and uptake pathways in immune cell
      lysosomal cytotoxicity of mussels exposed to silver nanoparticles.
AB  - Cytotoxicity evaluation of hemocytes (lysosomal membrane stability [LMS] assay)
      from Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, exposed to a sublethal dose (100 MUg/L)
      of two size of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs: <50 nm and <100 nm) - prior to and
      after inhibition of potential uptake pathways (i.e., clathrin- and caveolae
      mediated endocytosis) within different times of exposure (3, 6, 12 h) - showed
      that there was a significant cytotoxic effect on immune cells of mussels exposed
      for different times to either AgNP size (p < 0.01); the greater effect was with
      the smaller size. However, hemocytes seemed more sensitive to the larger AgNP
      after clathrin-mediated endocytosis was blocked (p < 0.01); this was not so with
      inhibition of caveolae-mediated endocytosis. Dimethyl-sulfoxide (DMSO) did not
      impart a carrier-mediated effect despite an enhanced cytotoxicity when DMSO was
      present with AgNP. From these results, it is concluded that the immunotoxicity of
      AgNP in mussels was size-dependent as well as length of exposure-dependent. It
      was also clear that nanoparticles (NP) internalization mechanisms were a major
      factor underlying any toxicity.

PMID- 28583009
TI  - Inhibition of alpha-Synuclein contributes to the ameliorative effects of dietary
      flavonoids luteolin on arsenite-induced apoptotic cell death in the dopaminergic
      PC12 cells.
AB  - Arsenite is a toxic metalloid that may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease
      by inducing dopaminergic neuronal apoptosis. Luteolin, a common dietary
      flavonoid, possesses variety of biological functions, but potential effects of
      luteolin on arsenite toxicity remain elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that
      luteolin prevented arsenite-induced apoptosis in the dopaminergic PC12 cells.
      Administration of luteolin to cells attenuated arsenite-induced ROS production,
      enhanced caspase-3 activity and gamma-H2AX expression. Our results further showed
      the expression of alpha-Synuclein (alpha-Syn) was significantly increased in
      arsenite-treated cells, but co-treatment with luteolin reversed the expression of
      alpha-Syn back toward normal level. Inhibition of alpha-Syn by siRNA remarkably
      enhanced the beneficial effect of luteolin against arsenite-induced apoptotic
      cell death. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the ameliorative
      effects of luteolin against arsenite in the dopaminergic cell may be modulated by
      alpha-Syn, and indicating that luteolin may be developed as a chemopreventive
      supplementary agent to ameliorate dopaminergic cell apoptosis resulting from
      arsenite exposure.

PMID- 28583010
TI  - Occurrence and incidence of 18 per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds in edible oils
      commonly consumed in Guiyang, China.
AB  - A systematic examination was conducted for the first time of a wide carbon-chain
      range of per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFASs) in 83 samples of edible
      vegetable and animal oils from Guiyang, China. The occurrence and levels of 18
      PFASs in seven types of edible oil were analysed. Analytes were determined based
      on a simplified, sensitive and reliable solvent extraction and liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method. Ten target PFASs were found and
      the most frequently detected compounds with maximum concentration were PFOS (88%,
      1.93 ng g-1), PFNA (55.4%; 6.76 ng g-1), PFHxS (39.8%; 0.36 ng g-1), and PFOA
      (16.9%; 0.15 ng g-1), respectively. The total PFASs concentrations ranged from
      0.02 to 6.76 ng g-1, with a mean of 0.94 ng g-1. Significant differences of
      occurrence between vegetable oils and animal oils were demonstrated based on
      comparative analysis of the existing data. The investigation results showed that
      the effect of production reductions of PFOS and PFOA by regulatory was also
      reflected in edible oils. The dietary intakes of PFOS and PFOA for adults were
      estimated, which were lower than the available tolerable daily intake (TDI).
      Because of the global lack of food regulatory thresholds for most per- or
      polyfluoroalkyl compounds, it was difficult to draw any conclusion at this stage
      as to how human health is affected through exposure to these compounds. The
      baseline information of this study will assist in guiding the direction for
      future investigations and monitoring studies on occurrence, fate and human health
      effect research of PFASs.

PMID- 28583011
TI  - Cognitive Training and Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Cognition in Parkinson's
      Disease: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many people with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience cognitive
      decline. It is not known whether cognitive training or noninvasive brain
      stimulation are effective at alleviating cognitive deficits in PD. OBJECTIVE: To
      examine cognitive training and non-invasive brain stimulation interventions for
      cognition in PD. METHODS: An extensive search was conducted of published and
      unpublished studies in online databases. Studies were selected if they were
      controlled trials examining standard (not individualized) or tailored
      (individualized) cognitive training, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
      (rTMS), or transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in PD, with outcomes
      measured by standardized neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: Fourteen controlled
      trials met inclusion criteria. For executive function, the pooled effect size
      (Hedges' g) for cognitive training (standard and tailored combined) was small ( g
      = 0.42) but statistically significant (95% CI 0.15-0.68). The pooled effect for
      standard cognitive training (alone) was medium ( g = 0.51) and significant (95%
      CI 0.16-0.85). For attention/working memory, small pooled effect sizes were found
      when combining standard and tailored cognitive training ( g = 0.23; 95% CI 0.02
      0.44) and for standard cognitive training alone ( g = 0.29; 95% CI 0.04-0.53),
      both significant. For memory, small but significant pooled effect sizes were also
      found when combining standard and tailored cognitive training and for standard
      cognitive training alone. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that standard and
      tailored cognitive training may improve executive function, attention/working
      memory, and memory in PD. Future studies must adopt randomized controlled trial
      designs to explore the therapeutic potential of these interventions.

PMID- 28583012
TI  - Exhaled breath analysis in obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Breath analysis is a novel application that can be used for non
      invasive metabolic phenotyping and identification of disease specific breath
      patterns. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is highly prevalent and has diverse
      metabolic and cardiovascular consequences, many of them incompletely understood.
      Areas covered: This review systematically summarizes the current evidence from
      breath metabolomics using immunoassays of breath condensate, off-line mass
      spectrometry as well as real-time analysis by electronic sensors and by
      untargeted mass spectrometry, and discusses the challenges and perspectives of
      breath analysis in OSA. Expert commentary: Analysis of exhaled breath is an
      innovative approach that is likely to provide profound insights into the
      metabolomics of OSA and its consequences and might facilitate diagnosis and
      therapy monitoring.

PMID- 28583013
TI  - Probabilistic migration modelling focused on functional barrier efficiency and
      low migration concepts in support of risk assessment.
AB  - Migration modelling provides reliable migration estimates from food-contact
      materials (FCM) to food or food simulants based on mass-transfer parameters like
      diffusion and partition coefficients related to individual materials. In most
      cases, mass-transfer parameters are not readily available from the literature and
      for this reason are estimated with a given uncertainty. Historically, uncertainty
      was accounted for by introducing upper limit concepts first, turning out to be of
      limited applicability due to highly overestimated migration results.
      Probabilistic migration modelling gives the possibility to consider uncertainty
      of the mass-transfer parameters as well as other model inputs. With respect to a
      functional barrier, the most important parameters among others are the diffusion
      properties of the functional barrier and its thickness. A software tool that
      accepts distribution as inputs and is capable of applying Monte Carlo methods,
      i.e., random sampling from the input distributions of the relevant parameters
      (i.e., diffusion coefficient and layer thickness), predicts migration results
      with related uncertainty and confidence intervals. The capabilities of
      probabilistic migration modelling are presented in the view of three case studies
      (1) sensitivity analysis, (2) functional barrier efficiency and (3) validation by
      experimental testing. Based on the predicted migration by probabilistic migration
      modelling and related exposure estimates, safety evaluation of new materials in
      the context of existing or new packaging concepts is possible. Identifying
      associated migration risk and potential safety concerns in the early stage of
      packaging development is possible. Furthermore, dedicated material selection
      exhibiting required functional barrier efficiency under application conditions
      becomes feasible. Validation of the migration risk assessment by probabilistic
      migration modelling through a minimum of dedicated experimental testing is
      strongly recommended.

PMID- 28583014
TI  - Evaluation of the Effects of Quetiapine on QTc Prolongation in Critically Ill
      Patients.
AB  - Quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic used in the intensive care unit (ICU) to
      manage delirium, has a possible adverse effect of corrected QT (QTc) interval
      prolongation. The objective of this analysis was to describe the impact of
      quetiapine on QTc interval prolongation in critically ill patients. This was a
      single-center, prospective cohort analysis of ICU patients who received
      quetiapine between October 2015 and February 2016. The major end point was the
      incidence of QTc prolongation greater than 60 milliseconds above baseline during
      therapy. Minor end points included median change in QTc interval and incidence of
      Torsades de Pointes (TdP). Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed
      to determine variables associated with higher risk of QTc prolongation. During
      the study period, 103 patients were enrolled in the analysis. QTc interval
      prolongation greater than 60 milliseconds occurred in 14 (13.6%) patients. The
      median change in QTc interval was 20 milliseconds. There were no cases of TdP. On
      multivariable analysis, the only variable associated with higher incidence of QTc
      prolongation was administration of a concomitant medication known to prolong the
      QTc interval ( P = .046). QTc prolongation was relatively uncommon among
      critically ill patients utilizing quetiapine. Patients receiving concomitant
      medications known to prolong the QTc interval may be at an increased risk.

PMID- 28583015
TI  - Chlamydia trachomatis infection positivity rates determined by nucleic acid
      amplification test in patients of hospitals in the northeastern region of
      Ukraine.
AB  - There are no accurate data regarding the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis
      infection in Ukraine. This study aims to estimate the prevalence in the
      northeastern region of the country through reviewing nucleic acid amplification
      test results in patients of medical institutions in the Kharkov region during
      2014-2016. Samples from 6920 patients (5028 women and 1892 men) aged 12-76 years
      were tested. The overall positivity rate was 4.5% (95% CI 4.0-5.0): 3.9% (95% CI
      3.4-4.5) in women and 6.1% (95% CI 5.1-7.3) in men. The highest prevalence was
      found in the 16-20 (8.5%, CI 6.3-11.4) and 21-25 (8.0%, CI 6.7-9.4) year age
      groups. The prevalence in men was higher than in women in all investigated
      groups. The results show the need for more attention to the prevention,
      diagnosis, and treatment of chlamydial infection in these age groups of women and
      men in this region.

PMID- 28583016
TI  - A comparison of enriched culture and Xpert polymerase chain reaction assay of
      Group B streptococcus carrier status at 35-37-week gestation to labor onset: a
      prospective controlled study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: (1) To compare the accuracy of vagino-rectal enriched culture (EC)
      and a rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the detection of Group B
      streptococcus (GBS) carrier status at 35-37-week gestation and at onset of labor.
      (2) To assess the conversion rate of GBS carrier status between 35-37 weeks to
      the onset of labor according to the EC/PCR tests. A prospective study was
      performed at a women's health clinic, referred to give birth at one medical
      center. STUDY POPULATION: Low risk pregnant women at 35-37-week gestation who did
      not know their GBS carrier status. METHODS: Participants were evaluated for GBS
      status both at 35-37 weeks and at labor onset. Correlation between tests was
      calculated by Spearman correlation. RESULTS: One hundred and ten specimens were
      analyzed. Correlations: EC-PCR: 35-37 weeks - very high (r = 0.8), at labor -
      high (r = 0.5). EC-EC: 35-37 weeks and at labor - high (r = 0.39); PCR-PCR: 35-37
      weeks and at labor- high (r = 0.7). CONCLUSIONS: Both the EC and Xpert PCR tests
      are accurate for detecting GBS carrier, both at 35-37 weeks and at labor onset.
      We did not detect a significant conversion of the GBS status from negative at 35
      37 weeks to positive at onset of labor.

PMID- 28583017
TI  - Three-dimensional prostate tumor model based on a hyaluronic acid-alginate
      hydrogel for evaluation of anti-cancer drug efficacy.
AB  - In vitro cell-based assays are widely applied to evaluate anti-cancer drug
      efficacy. However, the conventional approaches are mostly based on two
      dimensional (2D) culture systems, making it difficult to recapitulate the in vivo
      tumor scenario because of spatial limitations. Here, we develop an in vitro three
      dimensional (3D) prostate tumor model based on a hyaluronic acid (HA)-alginate
      hybrid hydrogel to bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivo anticancer drug
      evaluations. In situ encapsulation of PCa cells was achieved by mixing HA and
      alginate aqueous solutions in the presence of cells and then crosslinking with
      calcium ions. Unlike in 2D culture, cells were found to aggregate into spheroids
      in a 3D matrix. The expression of epithelial to mesenchyme transition (EMT)
      biomarkers was found to be largely enhanced, indicating an increased invasion and
      metastasis potential in the hydrogel matrix. A significant up-regulation of
      proangiogenic growth factors (IL-8, VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)
      was observed in 3D-cultured PCa cells. The results of anti-cancer drug evaluation
      suggested a higher drug tolerance within the 3D tumor model compared to
      conventional 2D-cultured cells. Finally, we found that the drug effect within the
      in vitro 3D cancer model based on HA-alginate matrix exhibited better
      predictability for in vivo drug efficacy.

PMID- 28583018
TI  - A review of CD19-targeted immunotherapies for relapsed or refractory acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - Aim Novel immunotherapies have generated high response rates and unique adverse
      effects among patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
      Therapies engaging endogenous T-cells against acute lymphoblastic leukemia are
      emerging for children and adults with various poor prognostic factors, thus
      accurate knowledge of immunotherapies is necessary for their effective
      implementation in the future. In this review, we evaluate clinical trial data
      regarding chimeric antigen receptor T-cells and blinatumomab, for the treatment
      of relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Summary In the relapsed
      or refractory setting, response rates rapidly diminish after subsequent lines of
      chemotherapy and cumulative toxicities may cause significant patient harm.
      Immunotherapies provide an approach to improve response rates and minimize
      traditional toxicities via novel mechanisms of action. Two therapies targeting
      CD19 antigens expressed on B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia lineages, chimeric
      antigen receptor T-cells, and blinatumomab have induced complete remissions among
      high-risk patient populations, especially those refractory to multiple therapies.
      Adverse effects such as cytokine release syndrome and neurologic sequelae remain
      serious precautions of each therapy. Conclusion Knowledge of immunotherapy
      mechanisms and clinical outcomes associated with immunotherapies is critical for
      the optimization of treating patients with relapsed or refractory acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia. Future use of chimeric antigen receptor T-cells and
      blinatumomab demands proper assessment of a patient's disease and treatment
      history in addition to unique monitoring and supportive care interventions.

PMID- 28583019
TI  - Promoting the legitimacy and agency of new graduate nurses' participation in
      nursing research.
AB  - AIM: This paper explores the legitimacy and agency of new graduate mental health
      nurses to participate in research activities as a regular part of their
      professional nursing role. BACKGROUND: There is a wealth of literature describing
      personal and organisational factors that act as barriers to nurses' engagement in
      research and overcoming these barriers remains a challenge for health
      organisations. Some new graduate nurses are well positioned to contribute to
      research and yet the literature has given little attention to this specific
      cohort. RESULTS: This paper will show how facilitating new graduates'
      participation in research benefits the new graduate and the health service.
      CONCLUSION: New graduates learn research skills from experienced researchers and
      this ensures a sustainable future workforce of researchers. Employers who support
      staff to pursue professional challenges such as research are more likely to
      generate organisational commitment and loyalty amongst staff.

PMID- 28583020
TI  - Resilient health care, volume 3: reconciling Work-as-Imagined and Work-as-Done.

PMID- 28583021
TI  - Relationships matter: contraceptive choices among HIV-positive women in Tanzania.
AB  - Efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Tanzania are guided
      by a four-prong strategy advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Prong
      2, prevention of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV, has,
      however, received the least attention and contraceptive use to prevent unintended
      pregnancies remains low. This study explored the perceived barriers to the use of
      modern methods of contraception, and factors influencing contraceptive choice
      among HIV-positive women in urban Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. A qualitative multi
      site study was conducted, utilising in-depth interviews and focus group
      discussions with 37 sexually active HIV-positive women aged between 20 and 44
      years, attending three health facilities within Dar-es-Salaam. The theoretical
      framework was a patient centred model. Four barriers were identified: the
      influence of the women's spousal relationships; personal beliefs and the
      relationship of these in understanding her disease; the influence of the social
      demands on the woman and her relationships; and the importance of a woman's
      relationship with her healthcare provider/healthcare system. Being the bearers of
      bad news (HIV-positive status) the pregnant women experienced conflicts,
      violence, abandonment and rejection. The loss in negotiating power for the women
      was in relation to their intimate partners, but also in the patient-healthcare
      provider relationship. The role of the male partner as a barrier to contraceptive
      use cannot be understated. Therefore, the results suggest that healthcare
      providers should ensure patient-focused education and provide support that
      encompasses the importance of their relationships. Additional research is
      required to elucidate the functional association between contraceptive choices
      and personal and social relationships.

PMID- 28583022
TI  - Implementation of the new VIRTUO blood culture system: evaluation and comparison
      to the 3D system using simulated blood cultures.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the performances of the newly approved BacT/ALERT VIRTUO
      blood culture system for the recovery of bloodstream pathogens and compare it to
      the BacT/ALERT 3D system. METHODS: Simulated blood cultures of eight clinically
      relevant microorganisms were used: Bacteroides fragilis (ATCC 25285), Escherichia
      coli (ATCC 25922), Haemophilus influenzae (ATCC 49247), Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      (ATCC 27853), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC
      29213), Streptococcus pneumoniae (ATCC 49619) and Candida krusei (ATCC 6258).
      Criteria for comparison were culture positivity and time to detection (TTD). The
      effects of delayed entry on recovery and TTD were also evaluated. RESULTS: The
      VIRTUO exhibited around 3 h faster detection time compared to the 3D system. (p <
      0.01) for aerobic and facultative microorganisms. The difference in TTD was
      greatest for the B. fragilis, with a median difference of 46.67 h. The anaerobic
      bottle of the VIRTUO (FN Plus) did not support the growth of obligate aerobes,
      whereas the 3D did so. Delayed entry (studied with an E. Coli isolate) had no
      effect on the recovery rate but proportionally reduced TTD. CONCLUSIONS: The
      VIRTUO performed better than the 3D in terms of TTD and hands-on-time. FN Plus
      vial appears to be more efficient than the SN bottle in the recovery of
      anaerobes.

PMID- 28583023
TI  - Safety of Outpatient Total Ankle Arthroplasty vs Traditional Inpatient Admission
      or Overnight Observation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total joint surgeons have successfully performed hip, knee, and
      shoulder arthroplasty procedures in the outpatient setting without compromising
      safety, satisfaction, or results. The purpose of this study was to evaluate
      outpatient total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) as compared with overnight or extended
      inpatient stay, with regard to 90-day medical and operative complications,
      reoperations, readmissions or emergency room visits, and pain control. METHODS:
      The medical records of patients who underwent TAA with 1 fellowship-trained
      orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon were reviewed. Outcome measures included
      operative complications, adverse medical events, readmission or emergency room
      visit for any reason, or reoperation within 90 days following surgery; surgeon's
      office contact before first postoperative visit regarding pain or other issues;
      visual analog scale pain score at the first postoperative visit; and need for
      narcotic refill. Outcomes were assessed by admission status: outpatient,
      overnight observation, or inpatient admission. Standard statistical analysis was
      used, and P < .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Eighty-one patients
      underwent TAA who met inclusion criteria, and 8 had a complication (10%). A
      significant difference in complication rate was seen among groups ( P = .01) but
      not rate of readmission or reoperation. Of 16 patients, 5 (31%) who were admitted
      for 2 or more nights following surgery had a complication, as opposed to 3 of 65
      (5%) who were outpatient or admitted overnight ( P = .01). There were no
      differences in frequency of postoperative phone calls, narcotic refills, or
      visual analog scale pain scores at the first postoperative visit. There were no
      adverse medical events. CONCLUSION: With proper instruction, TAA was performed
      safely in the outpatient setting. As health care policy continues to evolve in
      the United States, safe and efficient practices will remain a priority. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective comparative study.

PMID- 28583024
TI  - Reach Out Churches: A Community-Based Participatory Research Pilot Trial to
      Assess the Feasibility of a Mobile Health Technology Intervention to Reduce Blood
      Pressure Among African Americans.
AB  - Innovative strategies are needed to reduce the hypertension epidemic among
      African Americans. Reach Out was a faith-collaborative, mobile health,
      randomized, pilot intervention trial of four mobile health components to reduce
      high blood pressure (BP) compared to usual care. It was designed and tested
      within a community-based participatory research framework among African Americans
      recruited and randomized from churches in Flint, Michigan. The purpose of this
      pilot study was to assess the feasibility of the Reach Out processes. Feasibility
      was assessed by willingness to consent (acceptance of randomization), proportion
      of weeks participants texted their BP readings (intervention use), number lost to
      follow-up (retention), and responses to postintervention surveys and focus groups
      (acceptance of intervention). Of the 425 church members who underwent BP
      screening, 94 enrolled in the study and 73 (78%) completed the 6-month outcome
      assessment. Median age was 58 years, and 79% were women. Participants responded
      with their BPs on an average of 13.7 (SD = 10.7) weeks out of 26 weeks that the
      BP prompts were sent. All participants reported satisfaction with the
      intervention. Reach Out, a faith-collaborative, mobile health intervention was
      feasible. Further study of the efficacy of the intervention and additional mobile
      health strategies should be considered.

PMID- 28583025
TI  - Freshman Flu Vaccination Behavior and Intention During a Nonpandemic Season.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine predictors of flu vaccination and vaccination intention
      among college freshmen during a nonpandemic influenza season using the health
      belief model (HBM). PARTICIPANTS: A total of 184 college freshmen at a single
      institution participated in a mixed-mode (paper or online) survey in October
      November 2015. METHOD: Flu vaccination and intention to vaccinate were predicted
      using binomial logistic regression on HBM constructs (perceived susceptibility,
      severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and availability), prior flu
      vaccination history, family and peer reference behaviors, and demographics.
      RESULTS: Overall, 31.5% of participants received the seasonal flu vaccine by mid
      November, and 25% intended to receive it. In full models, history of past flu
      vaccination (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 7.90; 95% confidence interval [CI] =
      2.55-24.49) was significant for vaccination while availability (aOR = 2.00; 95%
      CI = 1.32-3.01) and family intention (aOR = 250.59; 95% CI = 3.77 to >999) were
      positively associated with intent to vaccinate. Significant confounding by past
      behavior and family intentions existed for both outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Past flu
      vaccination behavior and family member intentions to vaccinate were better
      predictors of annual flu vaccination behavior and intention than HBM constructs
      among college freshmen. College campuses may enhance flu vaccine coverage by
      highlighting benefits and availability to students and families.

PMID- 28583026
TI  - A prolonged antibiotic protocol to treat persistent Chlamydophila pneumoniae
      infection improves the extracranial venous circulation in multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Objective Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is a condition
      associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). One mechanism that has been proposed is
      that the venous obstructions found in MS are due to a chronic persistent
      venulitis caused by the intra-cellular bacterial parasite, Chlamydophila
      pneumoniae (Cpn). The objective of the current study is to determine the effect
      of a combined antibiotic protocol (CAP) on the venous flow in MS patients as
      measured by a quantitative duplex ultrasound examination (QDUS). Method A non
      randomised before-after cohort study was conducted to investigate differences in
      blood flow volumes pre and 6-months post antibiotic treatment for Cpn infection.
      Flow volume data were measured by QDUS across affected and unaffected sides from
      multiple veins segments, including internal jugular vein (IJV) segments J2 and
      J3, and vertebral vein (VV), as well as global arterial blood flow (GABF).
      Results 91 patients were included in the study. 64 (70%) were found to have
      positive Cpn serology. There was a statistically significant post-treatment
      difference seen for the affected side of Cpn infected patients (mean difference =
      56 mL/min, p = 0.02). There was a non-significant increase seen for the affected
      side of uninfected patients (mean difference = 23 mL/min, p = 0.2). The
      difference in these effects (34 mL/min) was not statistically significant ( p =
      0.3). The mean flow rate decreased in the unaffected side for both infected (-27
      mL/min, p = 0.5) and uninfected patients (-69 mL/min, p = 0.01). There was a
      statistically significant post-treatment increase in GABF for the infected
      patients (mean difference = 90 mL/min, p = 0.02) and a difference of 76 mL/min
      for non-infected patients ( p = 0.01). Conclusion A CAP appears to improve the
      extra-cranial circulation in patients diagnosed with MS. This effect is
      statistically significant in patients with positive Cpn serology, although
      patients with negative Cpn serology also show some benefit, betraying a lack of
      specificity of this effect.

PMID- 28583027
TI  - Brentuximab vedotin consolidation post-autologous stem cell transplant in Hodgkin
      lymphoma patients at risk of residual disease: number needed to treat.
AB  - The number needed to treat (NNT) with brentuximab vedotin consolidation therapy
      post-autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) versus placebo in the phase 3 AETHERA
      trial to avoid one additional event of disease progression/death was evaluated.
      AETHERA included 329 Hodgkin lymphoma patients at increased risk of progression
      post-ASCT who received brentuximab vedotin 1.8 mg/kg (n = 165) or placebo (n =
      164) on day 1 of each 21-d cycle (up to 16 cycles). Over 60 months, the NNT with
      brentuximab vedotin ranged from 4.08 to 7.79 for the intent-to-treat population,
      3.18-6.07 for patients with >=2 risk factors, and 2.98-5.65 for patients with >=3
      risk factors. At various time points, and dependent on the risk group, 3-8
      patients would need to be treated with brentuximab vedotin consolidation therapy
      to prevent a disease progression/death, compared with placebo. Patients with
      increased risk of relapse may benefit most from brentuximab vedotin.

PMID- 28583028
TI  - A Novel Method for Isolation of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Umbilical Cord
      Blood.
AB  - Very small embryonic-like cells (VSELs) are a population of very rare pluripotent
      stem cells isolated in adult murine bone marrow and many other tissues and
      organs, including umbilical cord blood (UCB). VSEL existence is still not
      universally accepted by the scientific community, so for this purpose, we sought
      to investigate whether presumptive VSELs (pVSELs) could be isolated from human
      UCB with an improved protocol based on the isolation of enriched progenitor cells
      by depletion of nonprogenitor cells with magnetic separation. Progenitor cells,
      likely including VSELs, cultured with retinoic acid were able to form dense
      colonies and cystic embryoid bodies and to differentiate toward the ecto-meso
      endoderm lineages as shown by the positivity to specific markers. VSEL
      differentiative potential toward mesodermal lineage was further demonstrated in
      vitro upon exposure to an established inductive protocol, which induced the
      acquisition of renal progenitor cell phenotype. VSEL-derived renal progenitors
      showed regenerative potential in a cisplatin model of acute kidney injury by
      restoring renal function and tubular structure through induction of proliferation
      of endogenous renal cells. The data presented here foster the great debate that
      surrounds VSELs and, more in general, the existence of cells endowed with
      pluripotent features in adult tissues. In fact, the possibility to find and
      isolate subpopulations of cells that fully fit all the criteria utilized to
      define pluripotency remains, nowadays, almost unproven. Thus, efforts to better
      characterize the phenotype of these intriguing cells are crucial to understand
      their possible applications for regenerative and precision medicine purposes.

PMID- 28583030
TI  - Sexual Murderers: Sex Offender, Murderer, or Both?
AB  - Sexual murderers perpetrate homicide and rape/sexual abuse, but it is unclear
      whether they should primarily be considered homicide offenders, sexual offenders,
      or both. Most studies have merged together different types of non-homicidal sex
      offenders (NHSOs), neglecting to consider the potential differences between the
      nonviolent and violent sex offenders. Here, we suggest it is important to isolate
      those violent sex offenders who inflict severe physical injuries that could
      potentially lead to a lethal outcome. Therefore, the aim of the current study is
      to compare different measures of the criminal career on three groups of sex
      offenders: NHSOs, violent NHSOs, and sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) using data
      from 616 incarcerated male sex offenders in a Federal penitentiary in Canada.
      Interestingly, the group of sex offenders with the worst criminal career profile
      was not the SHOs, but the violent NHSOs. Violent NHSOs had the greatest number of
      prior convictions and the most varied and versatile criminal career. Therefore,
      we suggest that based on their criminal career, SHOs should be considered more as
      murderers than sex offenders. However, to fully answer this question, future
      studies should include a group of non-sexual homicide offenders.

PMID- 28583029
TI  - P-gp expression levels in the erythrocytes of brown trout: a new tool for aquatic
      sentinel biomarker development.
AB  - CONTEXT: P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a ubiquitous membrane detoxification pump
      involved in cellular defence against xenobiotics. Blood is a hub for the trade
      and transport of physiological molecules and xenobiotics. Our recent studies have
      highlighted the expression of a 140-kDa P-gp in brown trout erythrocytes in
      primary cell culture and its dose-dependent response to Benzo[a]pyrene pollutant.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was focused on using P-gp expression in
      brown trout erythrocytes as a biomarker for detecting the degree of river
      pollution. METHODS: abcb1 gene and P-gp expression level were analysed by reverse
      transcriptase-PCR and Western blot, in the erythrocytes of brown trouts. The
      latter were collected in upstream and downstream of four rivers in which 17
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 348 varieties of pesticides micro-residues
      were analysed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The abcb1
      gene and the 140-kDa P-gp were not expressed in trout erythrocytes from
      uncontaminated river. In contrast, they are clearly expressed in contaminated
      rivers, in correlation with the river pollution degree and the nature of the
      pollutants. CONCLUSIONS: This biological tool may offer considerable advantages
      since it provides an effective response to the increasing need for an early
      biomarker.

PMID- 28583031
TI  - Association between bortezomib dose intensity and overall survival in mantle cell
      lymphoma patients on frontline VR-CAP in the phase 3 LYM-3002 study.
AB  - The pivotal LYM-3002 study compared frontline rituximab plus cyclophosphamide,
      doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (R-CHOP) with bortezomib, rituximab,
      cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and prednisone (VR-CAP) in newly diagnosed mantle
      cell lymphoma (MCL) patients for whom stem cell transplantation was not an
      option. This post hoc subanalysis of the VR-CAP data from LYM-3002 evaluated the
      effect of bortezomib dose intensity on OS in patients who completed >=6 cycles of
      treatment. From the end of cycle 6, patients receiving >=4.6 mg/m2/cycle of
      bortezomib had significantly longer OS (but not PFS) compared with those
      receiving <4.6 mg/m2/cycle by univariate analysis (HR 0.43 [95% CI: 0.23-0.80]; p
      = .0059). This association remained significant in multivariate analysis
      adjusting for baseline patient and disease characteristics (HR 0.40 [95% CI: 0.20
      0.79]; p = .008]. Higher bortezomib dose intensity was the strongest predictor of
      OS in newly diagnosed MCL patients receiving VR-CAP. Clinicaltrials.gov
      identifier: NCT00722137.

PMID- 28583032
TI  - Patient and practitioner perspectives on reducing sedentary behavior at an
      exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.
AB  - PURPOSE: To understand the awareness of sedentary behavior, as well as the
      perceived facilitators and barriers to reducing sedentary behaviors from the
      perspectives of patients undertaking an exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation
      program, and from staff involved in supporting patient self-management. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted at a large cardiac rehabilitation
      program in a metropolitan city in Canada. Guided by an ecological framework, semi
      structured interviews were conducted individually with 15 patients, and in two
      focus groups with six staff. Transcribed interviews were analyzed by thematic
      analysis. RESULTS: Patients placed little importance on reducing sedentary
      behavior as they were unconvinced of the health benefits, did not perceive
      themselves to be sedentary, or associated such behaviors with enjoyment and
      relaxation. While staff were aware of the risks, they saw them as less critical
      than other health behaviors. Intrapersonal factors (physical and psychosocial
      health) and environment factors (the information environment, socio-cultural
      factors) within leisure time, the home, and work, influenced sedentary behavior.
      CONCLUSIONS: While these findings require further testing, future interventions
      may be effective if aimed at increasing awareness of the health benefits of
      reducing sedentary behavior, utilizing existing behavior change strategies, and
      using a participatory approach to tailor strategies to patients. Implications for
      rehabilitation Cardiac rehabilitation programs effectively use exercise promotion
      to improve the health of people with established cardiovascular disease. As
      sedentary lifestyles become more prevalent, recommendations to reduce the health
      risks of prolonged sedentary behavior that are specific to the characteristics
      and prognostic profiles of cardiac rehabilitation patients are needed. Cardiac
      rehabilitation programs must consider extending existing behavior change
      strategies utilized for exercise promotion towards addressing sedentary behaviors
      in order to be effective at reducing the sedentary time of patients. A
      participatory approach involving both patients and health professionals can
      support patients in reducing their sedentary behavior by providing a supportive
      environment for behavior change, increasing awareness and understanding of risks,
      discussing the feasibility of potential strategies, and setting achievable and
      actionable goals.

PMID- 28583033
TI  - Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a unique case of a composite
      lymphoma of different clonal origin.

PMID- 28583034
TI  - Aging-Related Microstructural Alterations Along the Length of the Cingulum
      Bundle.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the aging-related structural changes of
      the cingulum, one of the major components of the limbic network, which has a
      critical role in emotion, attention, and memory. Thirty-five healthy young adults
      (22.3 +/- 2.7 years) and 33 healthy older adults (69.5 +/- 3.5 years) were
      recruited. Diffusion weighted imaging data were acquired with a b-value = 2000
      sec/mm2 and 61 diffusion directions and 4 non-weighted images. The fiber
      directions in each voxel were based on the constrained spherical deconvolution
      model. The cingulum was segmented into three branches using deterministic
      tractography (subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal), using a region-of
      interest-based approach. Atlas-based tractography was the method used to obtain
      the output tracts of each branch of the cingulum. Along-tract analysis was
      performed on each branch. We found a statistically significant change with aging
      in the left subgenual branch of the cingulum with a decrease in fractional
      anisotropy and axial diffusivity, as well as an increase in radial diffusivity.
      No statistically significant differences were found between young and older
      groups in the other two branches. This study adds to knowledge about how the
      cingulum changes structurally along its entire length during aging in a more
      detailed way, thanks to an advanced methodological approach.

PMID- 28583036
TI  - Interaction of a flavone loaded on surface-modified dextran-spooled
      superparamagnetic nanoparticles with beta-cyclodextrin and DNA.
AB  - Flavones are biologically active compounds obtained mainly from plant sources.
      Pharmaceutically important compounds can be delivered to the physiological target
      by loading them in carriers like cyclodextrins and magnetic nanoparticles.
      Herein, the binding of 6-methoxyflavone to beta-cyclodextrin and DNA is studied
      using UV-visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The loading of 6
      methoxyflavone onto a magnetic nanoparticles is employed. beta-cyclodextrin
      encapsulates the 6-methoxyflavone to form an inclusion complex. beta-cyclodextrin
      also used to draw forth 6-methoxyflavone loaded onto a magnetic nanoparticles.
      The morphology, magnetic property and the crystallite size of the nanoparticles
      are studied using scanning electron microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry and
      X-ray diffraction techniques, respectively. The binding of the drug-loaded
      magnetic nanoparticles to DNA shows that the compound is accessible to DNA and
      available mostly on the surface of the nanoparticles despite a modified dextan
      polymer supposedly encapsulates the flavone.

PMID- 28583035
TI  - Intraorganizational Communication and Job Satisfaction Among Flemish Hospital
      Nurses: An Exploratory Multicenter Study.
AB  - Intraorganizational communication affects job satisfaction and turnover. The goal
      of this study was to explore relationships between communication and job
      satisfaction, intention to leave, and burnout among Flemish hospital nurses. A
      multicenter questionnaire study was conducted in three hospitals using the
      Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Turnover Intention subscale of the
      Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work, and the Maslach Burnout
      Inventory. A visual analog scale measured job satisfaction. The mean job
      satisfaction score was 7.49/10 (+/-1.43). Almost 7% of nurse participants
      (93/1,355) reported a high intent to leave, and 2.9% of the respondents
      (41/1,454) had a score indicative of burnout. All dimensions of communication
      were associated with job satisfaction. A low score on any dimension of
      communication satisfaction, except "Relationship With Employees," was associated
      with higher intent to leave and burnout. Study findings support the need for
      management interventions to enhance efficient communication and ensure high
      quality care and patient safety.

PMID- 28583037
TI  - Addressing a multidisciplinary challenge from animal nutrition to analytical
      science.

PMID- 28583038
TI  - Carfilzomib as salvage therapy in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia: a case series.

PMID- 28583041
TI  - IMSCOGS 2017 Abstracts.

PMID- 28583039
TI  - Experimental Models of Autoimmune Demyelinating Diseases in Nonhuman Primates.
AB  - Human idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating diseases (IIDD) are a heterogeneous
      group of autoimmune inflammatory and demyelinating disorders of the central
      nervous system (CNS). These include multiple sclerosis (MS), the most common
      chronic IIDD, but also rarer disorders such as acute disseminated
      encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO). Great efforts have been
      made to understand the pathophysiology of MS, leading to the development of a few
      effective treatments. Nonetheless, IIDD still require a better understanding of
      the causes and underlying mechanisms to implement more effective therapies and
      diagnostic methods. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a commonly
      used animal model to study the pathophysiology of IIDD. EAE is principally
      induced through immunization with myelin antigens combined with immune-activating
      adjuvants. Nonhuman primates (NHP), the phylogenetically closest relatives of
      humans, challenged by similar microorganisms as other primates may recapitulate
      comparable immune responses to that of humans. In this review, the authors
      describe EAE models in 3 NHP species: rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta),
      cynomolgus macaques ( Macaca fascicularis), and common marmosets ( Callithrix
      jacchus), evaluating their respective contribution to the understanding of human
      IIDD. EAE in NHP is a heterogeneous disease, including acute monophasic and
      chronic polyphasic forms. This diversity makes it a versatile model to use in
      translational research. This clinical variability also creates an opportunity to
      explore multiple facets of immune-mediated mechanisms of neuro-inflammation and
      demyelination as well as intrinsic protective mechanisms. Here, the authors
      review current insights into the pathogenesis and immunopathological mechanisms
      implicated in the development of EAE in NHP.

PMID- 28583040
TI  - Basal Autophagy Is Altered in Lagotto Romagnolo Dogs with an ATG4D Mutation.
AB  - A missense variant in the autophagy-related ATG4D-gene has been associated with a
      progressive degenerative neurological disease in Lagotto Romagnolo (LR) dogs. In
      addition to neural lesions, affected dogs show an extraneural histopathological
      phenotype characterized by severe cytoplasmic vacuolization, a finding not
      previously linked with disturbed autophagy in animals. Here we aimed at testing
      the hypothesis that autophagy is altered in the affected dogs, at reporting the
      histopathology of extraneural tissues and at excluding lysosomal storage
      diseases. Basal and starvation-induced autophagy were monitored by Western
      blotting and immunofluorescence of microtubule associated protein 1A/B light
      chain3 (LC3) in fibroblasts from 2 affected dogs. The extraneural findings of 9
      euthanized LRs and skin biopsies from 4 living affected LRs were examined by
      light microscopy, electron microscopy, and immunohistochemistry (IHC), using
      antibodies against autophagosomal membranes (LC3), autophagic cargo (p62), and
      lysosomal membranes (LAMP2). Biochemical screening of urine and fibroblasts of 2
      affected dogs was performed. Under basal conditions, the affected fibroblasts
      contained significantly more LC3-II and LC3-positive vesicles than did the
      controls. Morphologically, several cells, including serous secretory epithelium,
      endothelial cells, pericytes, plasma cells, and macrophages, contained
      cytoplasmic vacuoles with an ultrastructure resembling enlarged amphisomes,
      endosomes, or multivesicular bodies. IHC showed strong membranous LAMP2
      positivity only in sweat glands. The results show that basal but not induced
      autophagy is altered in affected fibroblasts. The ultrastructure of affected
      cells is compatible with altered autophagic and endo-lysosomal vesicular traffic.
      The findings in this spontaneous disease provide insight into possible tissue
      specific roles of basal autophagy.

PMID- 28583042
TI  - Cervical cord decompression following embolisation of a giant cervical vertebro
      vertebral arteriovenous fistula.
AB  - Arteriovenous fistulation between the vertebral arteries to extradural (epidural)
      veins, termed vertebro-vertebral arteriovenous fistulae, are uncommon diagnoses
      without established diagnostic algorithms or treatment options. Minimal evidence
      exists describing the management of this pathology. Endovascular treatment was
      performed under general anaesthesia by coil occlusion of the vertebral artery
      from the point of the fistula to the mid-vertebral artery. Repeat magnetic
      resonance angiographic imaging one week following the procedure confirmed an 80%
      reduction in the size of the epidural vein and decompression of the cervical
      spinal cord. At four-week follow-up there was significant qualitative improvement
      in the myelopathic symptoms including walking distance and pain. Normal
      physiological filling of the collapsed extradural vein was observed on follow-up
      digital subtraction angiography at five months. Catheter angiography by an
      experienced interventional neuro-radiologist is critical in defining the anatomy
      and providing minimally invasive treatment.

PMID- 28583043
TI  - Intracranial stenting for nilotinib treatment-associated cerebrovascular stenosis
      in chronic myeloid leukemia.
AB  - One of the second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), nilotinib, is
      increasingly used for imatinib-resistant or intolerant chronic myeloid leukemia
      (CML). Nilotinib is considered well tolerated with few side effects including
      hyperglycemia, hyperbilirubinemia and elevated levels of pancreatic enzymes.
      However, there is growing evidence that nilotinib accelerates atherosclerosis and
      causes peripheral arterial occlusive disease such as stroke, transient ischemic
      attack (TIA) and cardiovascular diseases. Herein, we report a case of a 74-year
      old male CML patient with intracranial stenosis of the internal carotid artery
      developed during treatment with nilotinib successfully cured by the intracranial
      stent, Wingspan.

PMID- 28583044
TI  - Acquired intracranial arterial aneurysm and stroke after vessel dissection in a
      child with coarctation of the aorta.
AB  - Vascular events in patients with coarctation of the aorta have been extensively
      reported and account for the majority of morbidity and mortality in untreated
      patients. The exact mechanism for this association is not completely understood
      and may include acquired anomalies or congenital abnormalities of intracranial
      vessel. Here we report a case of intracranial internal carotid artery dissection
      with subsequent formation of acquired large carotid aneurysm in a child with
      severe systemic hypertension and coarctation of the aorta. Endovascular aneurysm
      exclusion was pursued and it was able to control this potentially lethal
      complication. This case supports the notion of acquired nature of intracranial
      vessel abnormalities and underscores the clinical role of interventional
      neuroradiology in a subset of patients with congenital heart disease.

PMID- 28583045
TI  - Recommendations for Clinical Pathology Data Generation, Interpretation, and
      Reporting in Target Animal Safety Studies for Veterinary Drug Development.
AB  - Clinical pathology testing is routinely performed in target animal safety studies
      in order to identify potential toxicity associated with administration of an
      investigational veterinary pharmaceutical product. Regulatory and other testing
      guidelines that address such studies provide recommendations for clinical
      pathology testing but occasionally contain outdated analytes and do not take into
      account interspecies physiologic differences that affect the practical selection
      of appropriate clinical pathology tests. Additionally, strong emphasis is often
      placed on statistical analysis and use of reference intervals for interpretation
      of test article-related clinical pathology changes, with limited attention given
      to the critical scientific review of clinically, toxicologically, or biologically
      relevant changes. The purpose of this communication from the Regulatory Affairs
      Committee of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology is to provide
      current recommendations for clinical pathology testing and data interpretation in
      target animal safety studies and thereby enhance the value of clinical pathology
      testing in these studies.

PMID- 28583046
TI  - Influence of roasting on the chemopreventive potential of in vitro fermented
      almonds in LT97 colon adenoma cells.
AB  - The consumption of almonds may contribute to the prevention of colon cancer due
      to their unique composition of health promoting compounds. Since almonds are
      often consumed roasted, the impact of different roasting (R) conditions (R1 =
      139.2  degrees C/25 min, R2 = 161.5  degrees C/20 min and R3 = 170.8  degrees
      C/15 min) on chemopreventive effects of in vitro-fermented almonds was analysed
      in LT97 colon adenoma cells. Fermentation supernatants (FS) of raw and roasted
      almonds had no genotoxic effects. FS obtained from raw or mildly roasted almonds
      (R1) significantly increased mRNA levels of CAT (4.6-fold), SOD2 (5.6-fold) and
      GSTP1 (3.9-fold) but not of GPx1. FS of almonds significantly reduced the growth
      of LT97 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Treatment with 5% almonds FS
      increased the number of early apoptotic cells (17.4%, on average) and caspase-3
      activity (4.9-fold, on average). The results indicate a chemopreventive potential
      of in vitro-fermented almonds which is largely independent of the roasting
      process.

PMID- 28583047
TI  - Surgery in overweight patients with insulinoma: effects on weight loss.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Weight loss induced by the complete resection of insulinoma is
      controversial in overweight patients. The study sought to explore postoperative
      weight loss and metabolic changes in overweight insulinoma patients. METHODS: A
      retrospective study was conducted to review the follow-up data of insulinoma
      patients with a BMI >=25kg/m2 who underwent complete lesion resection between May
      2010 and May 2015. Body mass index (BMI), weight loss (WL) and percentage weight
      loss (%WL) were main outcomes. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were included with a
      median follow-up of 28 months. The BMI at 3 months, 1 year, 2 years and 3 years
      postoperatively were significantly lower than the preoperative BMI values (p <
      .01). The WL% was 12.9% at 3 months postoperatively without significant changes
      throughout the 3-year follow-up. WL and the %WL were significantly higher in the
      high BMI group (BMI>= 27.5 kg/m2). Multivariate analysis indicated that higher
      initial BMI was associated with increased weight loss (p = .001). 63.8% of
      patients with hypertension recovered and improved sleep quality was evident in
      all patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome within 1 year postoperatively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Weight significantly decreased postoperatively in overweight
      insulinoma patients, which was more evident in patients with higher BMI and
      metabolic comorbidities were largely improved.

PMID- 28583048
TI  - Confusing preclinical (predictive) drug screens with animal 'models' of
      psychiatric disorders, or 'disorder-like' behaviour, is undermining confidence in
      behavioural neuroscience.
AB  - Preclinical (predictive) screens for psychotropic drugs are often used,
      incorrectly, as animal 'models' of psychiatric disorders, or to study 'disorder
      like' behaviours. This misunderstanding is contributing to poor translation and
      is undermining confidence in behavioural neuroscience. In this editorial, I
      discuss some of the reasons why the interpretation of results from many of these
      procedures is dubious because the criteria for validity of the test, as a model
      of the disorder, have been ignored. Arising from this, I propose that the
      description of any abnormal behaviour of rodents as a 'model' of a psychiatric
      disorder, or even 'disorder-like', without evidence-based justification, should
      be regarded as unacceptable in this journal.

PMID- 28583050
TI  - MU-Opioid and 5-HT1A receptors in the dorsomedial hypothalamus interact for the
      regulation of panic-related defensive responses.
AB  - The dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) and the dorsal periaqueductal gray (DPAG) have
      been implicated in the genesis and regulation of panic-related defensive
      behaviors, such as escape. Previous results point to an interaction between
      serotonergic and opioidergic systems within the DPAG to inhibit escape, involving
      u-opioid and 5-HT1A receptors (5-HT1AR). In the present study we explore this
      interaction in the DMH, using escape elicited by electrical stimulation of this
      area as a panic attack index. The obtained results show that intra-DMH
      administration of the non-selective opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (0.5
      nmol) prevented the panicolytic-like effect of a local injection of serotonin (20
      nmol). Pretreatment with the selective MU-opioid receptor (MOR) antagonist CTOP
      (1 nmol) blocked the panicolytic-like effect of the 5-HT1AR agonist 8-OHDPAT (8
      nmol). Intra-DMH injection of the selective MOR agonist DAMGO (0.3 nmol) also
      inhibited escape behavior, and a previous injection of the 5-HT1AR antagonist WAY
      100635 (0.37 nmol) counteracted this panicolytic-like effect. These results offer
      the first evidence that serotonergic and opioidergic systems work together within
      the DMH to inhibit panic-like behavior through an interaction between u-opioid
      and 5-HT1A receptors, as previously described in the DPAG.

PMID- 28583051
TI  - Monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis in blood donors in Turkey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBL) is a precursor state of chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with peripheral lymphocytosis below 5 * 109/l. The
      diagnostic criteria exclude the presence of lymphadenopathy, organomegaly,
      infections, autoimmune diseases or any sign of a lymphoproliferative disorder.
      This prospective study was designed in order to evaluate the frequency of MBL in
      blood donors in Turkey. METHODS: The diagnosis of MBL was identified by flow
      cytometry method based on the International Familial CLL Consortium Report. A
      total of 999 volunteers [median age 34 (18-78) years; male/female: 705/294] were
      included in the study. RESULTS: Monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis was demonstrated
      in 18 cases (1.8%). A total of 16 cases (1.6%) was evaluated as CLL-like MBL,
      while 2 (0.2%) had a non-CLL-like phenotype. The subjects were divided into three
      groups according to age, as <40 years, 40-60 years and >60 years. The prevalence
      of MBL was 1.1% below 40 years, 0.6% between 40 and 60 years and 0.1% in cases
      over 60 years, without statistical significance (p > 0.05). DISCUSSION: The
      sensitivity of the flow cytometry method is essential and may be responsible for
      the variations in the prevalence of MBL in different populations which can also
      be attributed to study design, higher detection rates in the elderly and families
      with genetic predisposition to CLL. CONCLUSION: Large population-based studies
      and standardized laboratory methods are needed to determine the potential risk
      factors of progression to CLL, including molecular markers and genetic profile.

PMID- 28583052
TI  - Two Postmodernisms in Rheumatology.
AB  - While randomization is an essential tool of data collection and interpretation,
      it can be misused. One such misuse is using a subgroup of a data set for
      validation purposes after randomizing the whole data set into two groups after
      which we attempt to validate the outcome data from one group with the outcome in
      the other. This surely validates only the randomization process. Two examples are
      given from disease criteria reports from Behcet's syndrome and gout. P-values are
      misunderstood and misused, and this is usually in the direction of investigators
      trying to show significant differences in their studies. Another, less
      criticized, misuse of the p-value is when the investigators try to use an
      insignificant and close to unity p-value as evidence for no difference. This
      author calls this a postmodern p-value.

PMID- 28583049
TI  - N-arachidonoyl-serotonin, a dual FAAH and TRPV1 blocker, inhibits the retrieval
      of contextual fear memory: Role of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor in the dorsal
      hippocampus.
AB  - Anandamide, an endocannabinoid, inhibits aversive responses by activating the CB1
      cannabinoid receptor. At high concentrations, however, anandamide may exert pro
      aversive activities mediated by the transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1
      channel (TRPV1). Accordingly, N-arachidonoyl-serotonin (AA-5-HT), a dual blocker
      of the anandamide-hydrolysing enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and the
      TRPV1 channel, induces anxiolytic-like effects. Here we tested the hypothesis
      that AA-5-HT inhibits the expression of contextual fear conditioning by
      facilitating CB1 receptor signalling in the dorsal hippocampus of mice.
      Intraperitoneal injection of AA-5-HT (0.1, 0.3, 1 mg/kg) inhibited the retrieval
      of contextual fear memory (freezing response). The effect of AA-5-HT (0.3 mg/kg)
      was prevented by systemic injection of the CB1 receptor antagonist, AM251 (1.0
      mg/kg), and mimicked by simultaneous FAAH inhibition (URB597, 0.3 mg/kg) and
      TRPV1 blockage (SB366791, 1 mg/kg). Injection of AA-5-HT (0.125, 0.25, 0.5 nmol)
      into the dorsal hippocampus also reduced freezing. Finally, the effect of
      systemic AA-5-HT (0.3 mg/kg) was prevented by intra-hippocampal injection of
      AM251 (1 nmol). In conclusion, dual FAAH and TRPV1 blockage inhibits contextual
      fear memory by facilitating anandamide-induced CB1 receptor activation in the
      dorsal hippocampus. This approach may lead to new pharmacological treatments for
      traumatic memories and related psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28583053
TI  - The Use of MDHAQ/RAPID3 in Different Rheumatic Diseases A Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - Composite indices are frequently used for most rheumatic diseases because of the
      absence of a single "gold standard" measure applicable to all individual patients
      with a specific diagnosis. Some of the most commonly used composite indices in
      rheumatology are too complex and time-consuming for usual clinical care.
      Nowadays, there is an increasing focus on patient-centered care, and the use of
      patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) might offer a patient-friendly, time
      and cost efficient strategy to monitor chronic diseases. Although initially
      developed for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a multidimensional health assessment
      questionnaire (MDHAQ), which only includes PROMs, has been found informative in
      many rheumatic diseases. Assessment of a patient with any rheumatic disease
      requires information beyond what is found on a patient questionnaire, including a
      careful history and physical examination, as well as relevant laboratory tests
      and imaging studies, to formulate an optimal treatment plan for each individual
      patient. Nonetheless, documentation of patient clinical status and change in
      status may be best accomplished through patient questionnaires. This review
      summarizes all the evidence relevant to the use of MDHAQ in other rheumatic
      diseases apart from RA.

PMID- 28583054
TI  - Finger and Wrist Pain in Children Using Game Consoles and Laptops Younger
      Children and Longer Time Are Associated with Increased Pain.
AB  - Game consoles, handheld units, and laptops are commonly used by children.
      Students at schools in St. Louis, Missouri, were asked to complete questionnaires
      asking about type, duration, and pain levels in their wrists and fingers related
      to the devices they used. Roughly, 75% of students were found to be using one of
      the devices. Younger age, female gender, and longer playing duration were
      associated with increase wrist and finger pain. Use of gaming and laptops,
      especially in younger children and with longer duration of use, is associated
      with increased pain in fingers and wrists.

PMID- 28583055
TI  - Fracture of the Distal Ulna Metaphysis in the Setting of Distal Radius Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fracture of the metaphyseal region of the distal ulna is an uncommon
      injury that has been reported to occur concomitantly with distal radius fracture.
      We aimed to report the incidence and types of distal ulnar head and neck
      fractures associated with distal radius fractures and compare outcomes in
      operatively versus non-operatively treated patients. METHODS: Over a 5-year
      period a distal radius fracture registry was maintained at our institution.
      Eleven of 512 consecutive patients had metaphyseal distal ulna fractures in
      association with distal radius fractures and at least 1-year follow-up. Baseline
      radiographs and functional data were obtained, and patients were followed at 1
      week, 2-week, 3-week, 6-week, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year intervals.
      Patients were split into two treatment groups: Group 1 consisted of five non
      operatively treated patients, and Group 2 consisted of six operatively treated
      patients. RESULTS: Four separate fracture patterns were observed: simple
      transverse or oblique fracture of the ulnar neck just proximal to the ulnar head,
      fracture of the neck region with concomitant fracture of the tip of the ulnar
      styloid, simple fracture of the ulnar head, and comminuted fracture of the ulnar
      head. There were no statistical differences between the two groups with regard to
      flexion, extension, supination, pronation, and functional outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:
      Ulnar fracture patterns observed did not easily fall into previously described
      categories, and we have proposed a new classification system. Simple fractures of
      the ulnar neck or head often do not require operative fixation.

PMID- 28583056
TI  - The Impact of Body Mass Index on Outcomes Following Open Sub-Pectoralis Major
      Biceps Tenodesis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Traditionally, biceps tenotomy has been recommended for obese, older,
      and less active patient populations, while tenodesis is preferred in younger,
      thinner, and more active individuals. In an effort to better understand the
      impact obesity has on the surgical management of long head of the biceps
      tendinopathy, the current study analyzed the effect body mass index had on
      surgical outcomes following open subpectoralis major biceps tenodesis. METHODS:
      Patients who underwent biceps tenodesis between June 2006 and December 2013 were
      identified from our institution's surgical database. They were then contacted to
      assess their functional outcomes using validated outcome measures. Comparisons
      were made between the outcomes seen in obese patients (BMI >= 30) and non-obese
      patients (BMI < 30) with subgroup analyses looking at gender, age, and length of
      follow-up. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-two patients completed a follow-up
      assessment with a mean follow-up of 29.3 months. The non-obese cohort was
      composed of 84 patients with a mean BMI of 25.8. The obese cohort was composed of
      38 patients with a mean BMI of 33.4. No significant difference was noted to be
      present with respect to postoperative outcome measures. Regression analysis with
      BMI as an independent variable demonstrated poor correlation with outcome
      measures. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study support open
      subpectoralis biceps tenodesis as an acceptable option for the treatment of LHB
      pathology irrespective of the treated patient's body mass index. Both obese and
      non-obese patients demonstrated low postoperative DASH scores and high Oxford
      Shoulder scores.

PMID- 28583057
TI  - Auricular Acupressure in the Prevention of Postoperative Nausea and Emesis A
      Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Successful antiemesis contributes significantly to quality, safety,
      and patient satisfaction. Patients undergoing general anesthesia often experience
      postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Acupressure offers a side effect-free
      alternative to common first-line antiemetics. Because the patient may perceive
      needle acupuncture as uncomfortable, acupressure is a desirable alternative for
      the prevention of PONV. METHODS: This study was a randomized, prospective, double
      blinded clinical trial investigating the effect of acupressure in patients with a
      history of PONV and motion sickness. The three auricular acupressure points
      chosen were shen men, point zero, and the subcortex point. Rescue treatment for
      PONV with 4 mg intravenous ondansetron was used if the patient reported
      persistent nausea. A blinded observer recorded antiemetic rescue data, and
      postoperative analgesic use was recorded over 24 hours. Nausea, vomiting, and
      retching were assessed in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU). RESULTS: Using
      univariate analysis, we ruled out the null hypothesis of equal means as a
      function of intervention group (p = 0.001). Pair-wise comparisons revealed a
      difference between placebo and test groups (p = 0.000) and also sham and test
      groups (p = 0.033) where age (p = 0.048) and gender (p = 0.003) were significant
      covariates. DISCUSSION: Our data reveal that auricular acupressure significantly
      decreases nausea during the PACU stay and within the 24 hours postoperatively. It
      is not clear whether the intervention decreases nausea as a primary effect or as
      a secondary result by decreasing narcotic requirements. Also, perception of
      nausea may be in part subjective. This is evidenced by our results in which
      subjects who received sham points fared better than the placebo subjects.

PMID- 28583058
TI  - Bone Grafts, Substitutes, and Augments in Benign Orthopaedic Conditions Current
      Concepts.
AB  - Musculoskeletal tumors are relatively rare diagnoses made by orthopaedic
      surgeons. While approximately 2,500 primary bone sarcomas are diagnosed annually
      in the USA, the number of benign orthopaedic tumors encountered annually is far
      more difficult to quantify. Some studies have documented between 3% and 10% of
      the general population having benign bony lesions. Many of these conditions can
      be simply observed, while others will require surgical intervention. Surgical
      treatments for benign conditions range from a one-step curettage to extensive
      resection and reconstruction. With treatment of larger lesions, significant bony
      defects may need to be addressed surgically. Treatment options have evolved over
      time with the use of various bone graft and bone void fillers, including methyl
      methacrylate cement, autograft, allograft bone chips, struts and osteoarticular
      segments, synthetic bone graft substitutes, and metal augments. This review
      provides an overview of the present status of bone graft, substitutes, and
      augment options for the orthopaedic surgeon treating benign musculoskeletal
      conditions.

PMID- 28583059
TI  - Mid-Term Results of the SL-PLUS Femoral Prosthesis The Influence of Femoral Bone
      Type.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cementless fixation of the femoral stem has been shown to be durable
      and predictable in total hip arthroplasty (THA), primarily as a result ofrecent
      improvements in prosthesis geometry and porous surface. Although patients with
      osteoporotic bone have been considered poor candidates for the use of a
      cementless femoral component, some recent studies have indicated satisfactory
      results. However, the indications and selection criteria of cementless stems
      based on the morphology of the femoral canal have not been established. PURPOSE:
      We aimed to assess and compare the mid-term results of cementless THA with an SL
      PLUS(r) femoral component in patients classified as Dorr types A, B, and C.
      METHODS: We evaluated the clinical and radiographic results of primary THA with
      the cementless SL-PLUS(r) stem for 34 hips (25 patients). The preoperative
      femoral bones were classified as Dorr types A, B, and C in 12, 15, and 7 hips,
      respectively. Implant survival rates were calculated, hip function was evaluated
      using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip score, and radiographic signs were
      determined from anteroposterior radiographs. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period
      was 9.4 years (range: 7 to 13 years), and the mean Japanese Orthopaedic
      Association hip score improved from 43.8 points preoperatively to 85.3 points at
      the latest follow-up. The overall implant survival rate was 100% at 10 years;
      radiographic loosening or revision for any reason was used as the endpoint. Third
      and fourth degrees of stress shielding were observed in 29.4% of cases and were
      found to be significantly associated with a low cortical index, a Dorr type C
      femur, and a larger stem size. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the SL-PLUS(r) stem
      provided satisfactory mid-term clinical and radiographic results in patients with
      any type of femoral canal morphology.

PMID- 28583060
TI  - Impact of Social Support and Pain Coping Abilityon Length of Stay and Discharge
      Disposition following Hip and Knee Arthroplasty A Prospective Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: While there are many factors known to predict the outcomes of hip
      and knee arthroplasty procedures, there is a growing interest in predictors that
      take into consideration the social and psychological preparedness of patients
      prior to surgery. This study's aim was to determine whether patients'
      preoperative social support and pain catastrophizing characteristics are
      independently associated with the outcomes of postoperative length of stay or
      discharge disposition following primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total
      knee arthroplasty (TKA). METHODS: Data on a prospective sample of 189 THA and TKA
      adult patients using the pain catastrophizing scale and the medical outcomes
      study social support expectation score were analyzed. Demographic
      characteristics, such as age, gender, and race (Caucasian versus non-Caucasian),
      which served as covariates, were also collected. Bivariate associations between
      our outcome variables and covariates using Pearson's and Spearman's rank
      correlation coefficients and Mann Whitney U test for continuous variables (age,
      MOS-SSS) and Chi-squared tests for categorical variables (gender, race,
      ethnicity, procedure, catastrophizing) were employed. Statistical significance
      was set at p <= 0.05. Data are presented as median with range values, frequencies
      with percentages, or adjusted odds ratios (OR) and betas (beta) with 95%
      confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: There were 73 (38.6%) patients categorized as
      catastrophizers. Median score for social support was 90.8 (range: 3.9 to 100). No
      statistically significant associations between pain catastrophizing or social
      support were observed for length of stay (beta: 0.03, 95% CI: - 0.24-0.31, p =
      0.81; beta: - 0.002, 95% CI: - 0.010-- 0.006, p = 0.58) and discharge disposition
      (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.51-2.55, p = 0.74; OR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.97-1.01, p = 0.37).
      Significant associations with discharge to a rehabilitation facility included non
      Caucasian (OR: 5.4, 95% CI: 2.4-11.8, p < 0.001) and longer length of stay (OR:
      1.6, 95% CI: 1.01-2.4, p = 0.04). Female gender and non-Caucasian were associated
      with longer length of stay (beta: 0.3, 95% CI: 0.03-0.6, p = 0.03; and beta: 0.4,
      95% CI: 0.1-0.6, p=0.008, respectively). CONCLUSION: We did not find a
      significant association between pain catastrophizing behavior and level of social
      support with length of stay or discharge disposition.

PMID- 28583061
TI  - Infection after Total Knee Arthroplasty by M. Catarrhalis Associated with
      Rheumatoid Arthritis and DMARDs Therapy.
AB  - Moraxella catarrhalis is not commonly associated with prosthetic joint infection
      (PJI). We present the first case of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis on
      certolizumab, an antitumor necrosis factor therapy, who developed PJI following a
      total knee replacement.

PMID- 28583062
TI  - Multiple Ligament Reconstruction for Absent Cruciate and a Congenital Short Femur
      Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Congenital short femur syndrome is a rare condition affecting about 0.017 of
      every 1,000 births. Patients frequently have ligamentous abnormalities, most
      frequently aplastic or hypoplastic cruciate ligaments. Advances in limb
      lengthening procedures have increased movement expectations for these patients,
      thus necessitating surgical treatment for their ligamentous abnormalities. An
      individual case is presented, including history, physical exam, and imaging
      demonstrating both the short femur and absent cruciate ligaments. A surgical
      reconstruction technique of the anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate
      ligament, and posterolateral corner is described. At 1-year follow-up, the
      patient had 0 degrees  to 135 degrees  of ROM. He reported no pain but mild
      swelling experienced during squatting. His knee continues to be stable in all
      planes with a grade 1A Lachman exam and a grade 1 posterior drawer with no
      posterolateral corner laxity.

PMID- 28583063
TI  - Characterization of the Development of Acute-on-Chronic Exertional Compartment
      Syndrome A Case Report of Symmetric Compartment Syndromes and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - Acute-on-chronic exertional compartment syndrome is a rare and severe progression
      of the likely common and more benign chronic exertional compartment syndrome.
      This is a report of one 17-year-old male on a pediatric inpatient service with
      bilateral anterior leg pain of unknown origin. Because of the nonspecific nature
      of pain, a high level of suspicion is required for timely diagnosis to avoid
      compartment ischemia and irreversible soft tissue and nerve damage. While high
      energy orthopaedic trauma, orthopaedic surgery, or closed reduction and casting
      are common preceding events for compartment syndrome, this patient presented with
      acute-on-chronic exertional compartment syndrome. A dearth of literature of this
      condition hampered its morbiditysparing diagnosis. While there is a spectrum of
      clinical findings for the acute decompensation of chronic exertional compartment
      syndrome, like any compartment syndrome, pain disproportionate to physical exam
      is the most sensitive sign. Understanding the exertional compartment syndrome
      spectrum is tantamount to avoid the devastating complications of a missed
      diagnosis of acute compartment syndrome.

PMID- 28583065
TI  - Application of nonsense-mediated primer exclusion (NOPE) for preparation of
      unique molecular barcoded libraries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently we proposed efficient method to exclude undesirable primers
      at any stage of amplification reaction, here termed NOPE (NOnsense-mediated
      Primer Exclusion). According to this method, added oligonucleotide overlapping
      with the 3'-end of unwanted amplification primer (NOPE oligo) simultaneously
      provides a template for its elongation. This elongation disrupts specificity of
      unwanted primer, preventing its further participation in PCR. The suggested
      approach allows to rationally manage the course of PCR reactions in order to
      facilitate analysis of complex DNA mixtures as well as to perform multistage PCR
      bypassing intermediate purification steps. RESULTS: Here we apply NOPE method to
      DNA library preparation for the high-throughput sequencing (HTS) with the PCR
      based introduction of unique molecular identifiers (UMI). We show that NOPE oligo
      efficiently neutralizes UMI-containing oligonucleotides after introduction of UMI
      into sample DNA molecules, thus allowing to proceed with further amplification
      steps without purification and associated loss of starting material. At the same
      time, NOPE oligo does not affect the efficiency of target PCR amplification.
      CONCLUSION: We describe a simple, robust and cheap modification of UMI-labeled
      HTS libraries preparation procedure, that allows to bypass purification step and
      thus to preserve starting material which may be limited, e.g. circulating tumor
      DNA, circulating fetal DNA, or small amounts of isolated cells of interest.
      Furthermore, demonstrated simplicity and robustness of NOPE method should make it
      popular in various PCR protocols.

PMID- 28583064
TI  - Genomic and transcriptomic analyses reveal distinct biological functions for cold
      shock proteins (VpaCspA and VpaCspD) in Vibrio parahaemolyticus CHN25 during low
      temperature survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vibrio parahaemolyticus causes serious seafood-borne gastroenteritis
      and death in humans. Raw seafood is often subjected to post-harvest processing
      and low-temperature storage. To date, very little information is available
      regarding the biological functions of cold shock proteins (CSPs) in the low
      temperature survival of the bacterium. In this study, we determined the complete
      genome sequence of V. parahaemolyticus CHN25 (serotype: O5:KUT). The two main CSP
      encoding genes (VpacspA and VpacspD) were deleted from the bacterial genome, and
      comparative transcriptomic analysis between the mutant and wild-type strains was
      performed to dissect the possible molecular mechanisms that underlie low
      temperature adaptation by V. parahaemolyticus. RESULTS: The 5,443,401-bp V.
      parahaemolyticus CHN25 genome (45.2% G + C) consisted of two circular chromosomes
      and three plasmids with 4,724 predicted protein-encoding genes. One dual-gene and
      two single-gene deletion mutants were generated for VpacspA and VpacspD by
      homologous recombination. The growth of the DeltaVpacspA mutant was strongly
      inhibited at 10  degrees C, whereas the VpacspD gene deletion strongly stimulated
      bacterial growth at this low temperature compared with the wild-type strain. The
      complementary phenotypes were observed in the reverse mutants (DeltaVpacspA-com,
      and DeltaVpacspD-com). The transcriptome data revealed that 12.4% of the
      expressed genes in V. parahaemolyticus CHN25 were significantly altered in the
      DeltaVpacspA mutant when it was grown at 10  degrees C. These included genes that
      were involved in amino acid degradation, secretion systems, sulphur metabolism
      and glycerophospholipid metabolism along with ATP-binding cassette transporters.
      However, a low temperature elicited significant expression changes for 10.0% of
      the genes in the DeltaVpacspD mutant, including those involved in the
      phosphotransferase system and in the metabolism of nitrogen and amino acids. The
      major metabolic pathways that were altered by the dual-gene deletion mutant
      (DeltaVpacspAD) radically differed from those that were altered by single-gene
      mutants. Comparison of the transcriptome profiles further revealed numerous
      differentially expressed genes that were shared among the three mutants and
      regulators that were specifically, coordinately or antagonistically modulated by
      VpaCspA and VpaCspD. Our data also revealed several possible molecular coping
      strategies for low-temperature adaptation by the bacterium. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study is the first to describe the complete genome sequence of V.
      parahaemolyticus (serotype: O5:KUT). The gene deletions, complementary
      insertions, and comparative transcriptomics demonstrate that VpaCspA is a primary
      CSP in the bacterium, while VpaCspD functions as a growth inhibitor at 10 
      degrees C. These results have improved our understanding of the genetic basis for
      low-temperature survival by the most common seafood-borne pathogen worldwide.

PMID- 28583066
TI  - Identification of genetic loci associated with crude protein and mineral
      concentrations in alfalfa (Medicago sativa) using association mapping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is one of the most important legume forage
      species in China and many other countries of the world. It provides a quality
      source of proteins and minerals to animals. Genetic underpinnings for these
      important traits, however, are elusive. An alfalfa (M. sativa) association
      mapping study for six traits, namely crude protein (CP), rumen undegraded protein
      (RUP), and four mineral elements (Ca, K, Mg and P), was conducted in three
      consecutive years using a large collection encompassing 336 genotypes genotyped
      with 85 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. RESULTS: All the traits were
      significantly influenced by genotype, environment, and genotype * environment
      interaction. Eight-five significant associations (P < 0.005) were identified.
      Among these, five associations with Ca were repeatedly observed and six co
      localized associations were identified. CONCLUSIONS: The identified marker
      alleles significantly associated with the traits provided important information
      for understanding genetic controls of alfalfa quality. The markers could be used
      in assisting selection for the individual traits in breeding populations for
      developing new alfalfa cultivars.

PMID- 28583068
TI  - lncRNA-screen: an interactive platform for computationally screening long non
      coding RNAs in large genomics datasets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as a class of factors
      that are important for regulating development and cancer. Computational
      prediction of lncRNAs from ultra-deep RNA sequencing has been successful in
      identifying candidate lncRNAs. However, the complexity of handling and
      integrating different types of genomics data poses significant challenges to
      experimental laboratories that lack extensive genomics expertise. RESULT: To
      address this issue, we have developed lncRNA-screen, a comprehensive pipeline for
      computationally screening putative lncRNA transcripts over large multimodal
      datasets. The main objective of this work is to facilitate the computational
      discovery of lncRNA candidates to be further examined by functional experiments.
      lncRNA-screen provides a fully automated easy-to-run pipeline which performs data
      download, RNA-seq alignment, assembly, quality assessment, transcript filtration,
      novel lncRNA identification, coding potential estimation, expression level
      quantification, histone mark enrichment profile integration, differential
      expression analysis, annotation with other type of segmented data (CNVs, SNPs, Hi
      C, etc.) and visualization. Importantly, lncRNA-screen generates an interactive
      report summarizing all interesting lncRNA features including genome browser
      snapshots and lncRNA-mRNA interactions based on Hi-C data. CONCLUSION: lncRNA
      screen provides a comprehensive solution for lncRNA discovery and an intuitive
      interactive report for identifying promising lncRNA candidates. lncRNA-screen is
      available as open-source software on GitHub.

PMID- 28583067
TI  - PFASUM: a substitution matrix from Pfam structural alignments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Detecting homologous protein sequences and computing multiple
      sequence alignments (MSA) are fundamental tasks in molecular bioinformatics.
      These tasks usually require a substitution matrix for modeling evolutionary
      substitution events derived from a set of aligned sequences. Over the last years,
      the known sequence space increased drastically and several publications
      demonstrated that this can lead to significantly better performing matrices.
      Interestingly, matrices based on dated sequence datasets are still the de facto
      standard for both tasks even though their data basis may limit their
      capabilities. We address these aspects by presenting a new substitution matrix
      series called PFASUM. These matrices are derived from Pfam seed MSAs using a
      novel algorithm and thus build upon expert ground truth data covering a large and
      diverse sequence space. RESULTS: We show results for two use cases: First, we
      tested the homology search performance of PFASUM matrices on up-to-date ASTRAL
      databases with varying sequence similarity. Our study shows that the usage of
      PFASUM matrices can lead to significantly better homology search results when
      compared to conventional matrices. PFASUM matrices with comparable relative
      entropies to the commonly used substitution matrices BLOSUM50, BLOSUM62, PAM250,
      VTML160 and VTML200 outperformed their corresponding counterparts in 93% of all
      test cases. A general assessment also comparing matrices with different relative
      entropies showed that PFASUM matrices delivered the best homology search
      performance in the test set. Second, our results demonstrate that the usage of
      PFASUM matrices for MSA construction improves their quality when compared to
      conventional matrices. On up-to-date MSA benchmarks, at least 60% of all MSAs
      were reconstructed in an equal or higher quality when using MUSCLE with PFASUM31,
      PFASUM43 and PFASUM60 matrices instead of conventional matrices. This rate even
      increases to at least 76% for MSAs containing similar sequences. CONCLUSIONS: We
      present the novel PFASUM substitution matrices derived from manually curated MSA
      ground truth data covering the currently known sequence space. Our results imply
      that PFASUM matrices improve homology search performance as well as MSA quality
      in many cases when compared to conventional substitution matrices. Hence, we
      encourage the usage of PFASUM matrices and especially PFASUM60 for these specific
      tasks.

PMID- 28583071
TI  - Volume-time curve of cardiac magnetic resonance assessed left ventricular
      dysfunction in coronary artery disease patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) may induce epicardial coronary artery
      diseases and left ventricular myocardial damaging as well. Left ventricular
      dysfunction was found in DM2. In this research, we compared the left ventricular
      dysfunction of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with and without type 2
      diabetes mellitus as well as normal controls using the volume-time curve of
      cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). METHODS: Sixty-one CAD patients (28 with DM2
      and 33 without DM2) and 18 normal individuals were enrolled in this study. Left
      ventricular function parameters, including the end-diastolic and end-systolic
      volumes (EDV, ESV), stroke volume (SV) and ejection fraction (EF), and
      morphologic dimension parameters (end diastolic and systolic diameter (EDD and
      ESD), were measured and compared. Volume-time curve parameters, including the
      peak ejection rate (PER), peak ejection time (PET), peak filling rate (PFR), peak
      filling time from ES (PFT), peak ejection rate normalized to EDV (PER/EDV), and
      peak filling rate normalized to EDV (PFR/EDV), were derived automatically and
      compared. RESULTS: LVEF in the diabetic CAD group was markedly reduced when
      compared to the normal and CAD without DM2 groups (all p < 0.05). LVEDD of the
      diabetic CAD group was significantly enlarged compared to the normal and non
      diabetic CAD groups (all p < 0.05). More importantly, the lowest parameters of
      the left ventricle volume time curve (i.e., PER, PFR, PER/EDV and PFR/EDV) were
      obtained in diabetic CAD patients (all p < 0.05). In diabetic CAD patients,
      logistic regression analysis indicated that PET, PFT and PFR/EDV were independent
      predictors of left ventricular dysfunction (odds ratio [OR]: 1.1208, 1.0161, and
      0.0139, respectively). The sensitivity and specificity of PET were 81.2 and 90%,
      respectively, when the threshold value was greater than 164.4 msec; for PFT, the
      sensitivity and specificity were 87.5 and 95.0%, respectively (criterion >166.0
      msec). Higher sensitivity (87.5%) and specificity (100.0%) were obtained for
      PFR/EDV (criterion <=3.7EDV/s). CONCLUSIONS: Parameters that are derived from the
      volume-time curve on CMR, including PET, PFT and PFR/EDV, allow clinicians to
      predict left ventricular dysfunction in diabetic CAD subjects with a high degree
      of sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28583069
TI  - Trajectories of the relationships of physical activity with body composition
      changes in older men: the MrOS study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excess adiposity gains and significant lean mass loss may be risk
      factors for chronic disease in old age. Long-term patterns of change in physical
      activity (PA) and their influence on body composition decline during aging has
      not been characterized. We evaluated the interrelationships of PA and body
      composition at the outset and over longitudinal follow-up to changes in older
      men. METHODS: Self-reported PA by the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly
      (PASE), clinic body weight, and whole-body lean mass (LM) and fat mass, by dual
      energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), were assessed in 5964 community-dwelling men
      aged >=65 years at baseline (2000-2002) and at two subsequent clinic visits up
      until March 2009 (an average 4.6 and 6.9 years later). Group-based trajectory
      modeling (GBTM) identified patterns of change in PA and body composition
      variables. Relationships of PA and body composition changes were then assessed.
      RESULTS: GBTM identified three discrete trajectory patterns, all with declining
      PA, associated primarily with initial PA levelshigh-activity (7.2% of men),
      moderate-activity (50.0%), and low-activity (42.8%). In separate models, GBTM
      identified eight discrete total weight change groups, five fat mass change
      groups, and six LM change groups. Joint trajectory modeling by PA and body
      composition group illustrated significant declines in total weight and LM,
      whereas fat mass levels were relatively unchanged among high-activity and low
      activity-declining groups, and significantly increased in the moderate-activity
      declining group. CONCLUSION: Although patterns of change in PA and body
      composition were identified, groups were primarily differentiated by initial PA
      or body composition rather than by distinct trajectories of change in these
      variables.

PMID- 28583070
TI  - High risk of malnutrition is associated with low muscle mass in older
      hospitalized patients - a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malnutrition, low muscle strength and muscle mass are highly
      prevalent in older hospitalized patients and associated with adverse outcomes.
      Malnutrition may be a risk factor for developing low muscle mass. We aimed to
      investigate the association between the risk of malnutrition and 1) muscle
      strength and muscle mass at admission and 2) the change of muscle strength and
      muscle mass during hospitalization in older patients. METHODS: The EMPOWER study
      included 378 patients aged seventy years or older who were acutely or electively
      admitted to four different wards of an academic teaching hospital in Amsterdam.
      Patients were grouped into low risk of malnutrition and high risk of malnutrition
      based on the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ) score and were
      assessed for hand grip strength and muscle mass using hand held dynamometry
      respectively bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) within 48 h after admission
      and at day seven, or earlier at the day of discharge. Muscle mass was expressed
      as skeletal muscle mass, appendicular lean mass, fat free mass and the skeletal
      muscle index. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 79.7 years (SD 6.39),
      48.9% were female. At admission, being at high risk of malnutrition was
      significantly associated with lower muscle mass (Odds Ratio, 95% CI, 0.90, 0.85
      0.96), but not with muscle strength. Muscle strength and muscle mass did not
      change significantly during hospitalization in both groups. CONCLUSION: In older
      hospitalized patients, a high risk of malnutrition is associated with lower
      muscle mass at admission, but not with muscle strength nor with change of either
      muscle strength or muscle mass during hospitalization.

PMID- 28583073
TI  - Does the presence of cardiovascular disease risk factors or established disease
      influence the dietary intake of affected adults and their children residing in
      the same household? A secondary analysis of the Australian Health Survey (2011
      2013).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diet is an important contributor to risk of cardiovascular disease
      (CVD) and integral in management and delaying progression. Little is known
      however about whether increased CVD risk or established CVD has any influence on
      dietary intakes of Australian adults or children residing in the same household.
      This study aimed to determine whether the presence of CVD or CVD risk factors
      influences dietary intake of Australian adults and if the presence of an adult
      with increased CVD risk influences the dietary intake of a child living in the
      same household. METHODS: Data were sourced from the 2011-2013 Australian Health
      Survey for: (1) adults >=18 years with risk factors or established CVD and (2)
      children 2-17 years residing in the same household as adults with CVD risk
      factors or established CVD. Selected nutrient intakes (total fat, saturated fat
      plus trans fat, alpha-linolenic acid, total long chain omega 3 fatty acids, fibre
      and sodium) collected by repeated 24 h recalls were compared to national dietary
      recommendations and to the intakes of all other adults and children surveyed.
      Standard errors of the estimates were calculated using the replicate weights
      method, and an alpha value of <0.05 considered statistically significant.
      RESULTS: Six thousand two hundred sixty five of 9435 adults surveyed were
      identified as having CVD risk factors or established disease and of these 1609
      had a child in the same household that also contributed data in this survey. No
      differences were observed in adjusted mean dietary intakes between those without
      risk factors or established CVD and those with, except for total energy and
      sodium which were significantly lower in the adults with CVD risk factors and/or
      established disease. However sodium intakes across both groups were higher than
      recommended targets. There were no differences for selected nutrients between
      children residing with affected adults and other children surveyed. CONCLUSIONS:
      While intakes of Australian adults with CVD risk factors or established disease
      were favourable for sodium, compared to unaffected adults, there is still scope
      for improvement as many Australian adults, despite CVD risk, are unable to
      achieve targets for selected nutrients. Effective dietary behaviour change
      strategies and resources are urgently needed.

PMID- 28583072
TI  - Identification of candidate transmission-blocking antigen genes in Theileria
      annulata and related vector-borne apicomplexan parasites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vector-borne apicomplexan parasites are a major cause of mortality
      and morbidity to humans and livestock globally. The most important disease
      syndromes caused by these parasites are malaria, babesiosis and theileriosis.
      Strategies for control often target parasite stages in the mammalian host that
      cause disease, but this can result in reservoir infections that promote pathogen
      transmission and generate economic loss. Optimal control strategies should
      protect against clinical disease, block transmission and be applicable across
      related genera of parasites. We have used bioinformatics and transcriptomics to
      screen for transmission-blocking candidate antigens in the tick-borne
      apicomplexan parasite, Theileria annulata. RESULTS: A number of candidate antigen
      genes were identified which encoded amino acid domains that are conserved across
      vector-borne Apicomplexa (Babesia, Plasmodium and Theileria), including the
      Pfs48/45 6-cys domain and a novel cysteine-rich domain. Expression profiling
      confirmed that selected candidate genes are expressed by life cycle stages within
      infected ticks. Additionally, putative B cell epitopes were identified in the T.
      annulata gene sequences encoding the 6-cys and cysteine rich domains, in a gene
      encoding a putative papain-family cysteine peptidase, with similarity to the
      Plasmodium SERA family, and the gene encoding the T. annulata major
      merozoite/piroplasm surface antigen, Tams1. CONCLUSIONS: Candidate genes were
      identified that encode proteins with similarity to known transmission blocking
      candidates in related parasites, while one is a novel candidate conserved across
      vector-borne apicomplexans and has a potential role in the sexual phase of the
      life cycle. The results indicate that a 'One Health' approach could be utilised
      to develop a transmission-blocking strategy effective against vector-borne
      apicomplexan parasites of animals and humans.

PMID- 28583074
TI  - A comprehensive assessment of RNA-seq protocols for degraded and low-quantity
      samples.
AB  - BACKGROUND: RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) has emerged as one of the most sensitive
      tool for gene expression analysis. Among the library preparation methods
      available, the standard poly(A) + enrichment provides a comprehensive, detailed,
      and accurate view of polyadenylated RNAs. However, on samples of suboptimal
      quality ribosomal RNA depletion and exon capture methods have recently been
      reported as better alternatives. METHODS: We compared for the first time three
      commercial Illumina library preparation kits (TruSeq Stranded mRNA, TruSeq Ribo
      Zero rRNA Removal, and TruSeq RNA Access) as representatives of these three
      different approaches using well-established human reference RNA samples from the
      MAQC/SEQC consortium on a wide range of input amounts (from 100 ng down to 1 ng)
      and degradation levels (intact, degraded, and highly degraded). RESULTS: We
      assessed the accuracy of the generated expression values by comparison to gold
      standard TaqMan qPCR measurements and gained unprecedented insight into the
      limits of applicability in terms of input quantity and sample quality of each
      protocol. We found that each protocol generates highly reproducible results (R 2
      > 0.92) on intact RNA samples down to input amounts of 10 ng. For degraded RNA
      samples, Ribo-Zero showed clear performance advantages over the other two
      protocols as it generated more accurate and better reproducible gene expression
      results even at very low input amounts such as 1 ng and 2 ng. For highly degraded
      RNA samples, RNA Access performed best generating reliable data down to 5 ng
      input. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the ribosomal RNA depletion protocol from
      Illumina works very well at amounts far below recommendation and over a good
      range of intact and degraded material. We also infer that the exome-capture
      protocol (RNA Access, Illumina) performs better than other methods on highly
      degraded and low amount samples.

PMID- 28583076
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) in urine for
      genitourinary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genitourinary tuberculosis is the third most common form of
      extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Diagnosis is difficult because of unspecific
      clinical manifestations and low accuracy of conventional tests. Unfortunately,
      the delayed diagnosis impacts the urinary tract severely. Nucleic acid
      amplification tests yield fast results, and among these, new technologies can
      also detect drug resistance. There is lack of consensus regarding the use of
      these tests in genitourinary tuberculosis; we therefore aimed to assess the
      accuracy of nucleic acid amplification tests in the diagnosis of genitourinary
      tuberculosis and to evaluate the heterogeneity between studies. METHODS: We did a
      systematic review and meta-analysis of research articles comparing the accuracy
      of a reference standard and a nucleic acid amplification test for diagnosis of
      urinary tract tuberculosis. We searched Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, LILACS,
      Cochrane Library, and Scopus for articles published between Jan 1, 1990, and Apr
      14, 2016. Two investigators identified eligible articles and extracted data for
      individual study sites. We analyzed data in groups with the same index test.
      Then, we generated pooled summary estimates (95% CIs) for sensitivity and
      specificity by use of random-effects meta-analysis when studies were not
      heterogeneous. RESULTS: We identified eleven relevant studies from ten articles,
      giving information on PCR, LCR and Xpert MTB/RIF tests. All PCR studies were "in
      house" tests, with different gene targets and had several quality concerns
      therefore we did not proceed with a pooled analysis. Only one study used LCR.
      Xpert studies were of good quality and not heterogeneous, pooled sensitivity was
      0.87 (0.66-0.96) and specificity was 0.91 (0.84-0.95). CONCLUSION: PCR studies
      were highly heterogeneous. Among Xpert MTB/RIF studies, specificity was favorable
      with an acceptable confidence interval, however new studies can update meta
      analysis and get more precise estimates. Further high-quality studies are
      urgently needed to improve diagnosis of genitourinary tuberculosis. PROTOCOL
      REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016039020.

PMID- 28583075
TI  - Gene expression and adaptive noncoding changes during human evolution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite evidence for adaptive changes in both gene expression and non
      protein-coding, putatively regulatory regions of the genome during human
      evolution, the relationship between gene expression and adaptive changes in cis
      regulatory regions remains unclear. RESULTS: Here we present new measurements of
      gene expression in five tissues of humans and chimpanzees, and use them to assess
      this relationship. We then compare our results with previous studies of adaptive
      noncoding changes, analyzing correlations at the level of gene ontology groups,
      in order to gain statistical power to detect correlations. CONCLUSIONS:
      Consistent with previous studies, we find little correlation between gene
      expression and adaptive noncoding changes at the level of individual genes;
      however, we do find significant correlations at the level of biological function
      ontology groups. The types of function include processes regulated by specific
      transcription factors, responses to genetic or chemical perturbations, and
      differentiation of cell types within the immune system. Among functional
      categories co-enriched with both differential expression and noncoding
      adaptation, prominent themes include cancer, particularly epithelial cancers, and
      neural development and function.

PMID- 28583078
TI  - The conquering of North America: dated phylogenetic and biogeographic inference
      of migratory behavior in bee hummingbirds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Geographical and temporal patterns of diversification in bee
      hummingbirds (Mellisugini) were assessed with respect to the evolution of
      migration, critical for colonization of North America. We generated a dated
      multilocus phylogeny of the Mellisugini based on a dense sampling using Bayesian
      inference, maximum-likelihood and maximum parsimony methods, and reconstructed
      the ancestral states of distributional areas in a Bayesian framework and
      migratory behavior using maximum parsimony, maximum-likelihood and re-rooting
      methods. RESULTS: All phylogenetic analyses confirmed monophyly of the
      Mellisugini and the inclusion of Atthis, Calothorax, Doricha, Eulidia, Mellisuga,
      Microstilbon, Myrmia, Tilmatura, and Thaumastura. Mellisugini consists of two
      clades: (1) South American species (including Tilmatura dupontii), and (2)
      species distributed in North and Central America and the Caribbean islands. The
      second clade consists of four subclades: Mexican (Calothorax, Doricha) and
      Caribbean (Archilochus, Calliphlox, Mellisuga) sheartails, Calypte, and
      Selasphorus (incl. Atthis). Coalescent-based dating places the origin of the
      Mellisugini in the mid-to-late Miocene, with crown ages of most subclades in the
      early Pliocene, and subsequent species splits in the Pleistocene. Bee
      hummingbirds reached western North America by the end of the Miocene and the
      ancestral mellisuginid (bee hummingbirds) was reconstructed as sedentary, with
      four independent gains of migratory behavior during the evolution of the
      Mellisugini. CONCLUSIONS: Early colonization of North America and subsequent
      evolution of migration best explained biogeographic and diversification patterns
      within the Mellisugini. The repeated evolution of long-distance migration by
      different lineages was critical for the colonization of North America,
      contributing to the radiation of bee hummingbirds. Comparative phylogeography is
      needed to test whether the repeated evolution of migration resulted from
      northward expansion of southern sedentary populations.

PMID- 28583079
TI  - Lateral cortical Cdca7 expression levels are regulated by Pax6 and influence the
      production of intermediate progenitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We studied whether regulation of Cdca7 (Cell division cycle
      associated 7) expression by transcription factor Pax6 contributes to Pax6's
      cellular actions during corticogenesis. The function of Cdca7 in mediating Pax6's
      effects during corticogenesis has not been explored. Pax6 is expressed by radial
      glial progenitors in the ventricular zone of the embryonic cortical
      neuroepithelium, where it is required for the development of a normal complement
      of Tbr2-expressing intermediate progenitor cells in the subventricular zone.
      Pax6's expression levels are graded across the ventricular zone, with highest
      levels laterally where Tbr2-expressing progenitors are generated in greatest
      numbers at early stages of corticogenesis. METHODS: We used in situ hybridization
      and immunohistochemistry to analyse patterns of Cdca7 and Pax6 expression in
      cortical tissue from wild-type and Pax6 -/- embryos. In each genotype we compared
      the graded expression of the two genes quantitatively at several ages. To test
      whether defects in Cdca7 expression in lateral cortical cells might contribute to
      the cellular defects in this region caused by Pax6 loss, we electroporated a
      Cdca7 expression vector into wild-type lateral cortex and examined the effect on
      the production of Tbr2-expressing cells. RESULTS: We found that Cdca7 is co
      expressed with Pax6 in cortical progenitors, at levels opposite to those of Pax6.
      Lowest levels of Cdca7 are found in the radial glial progenitors of lateral
      cortex, where Pax6 levels are highest. Higher levels of Cdca7 are found in
      ventral telencephalon, where Pax6 levels are low. Loss of Pax6 causes Cdca7
      expression to increase in the lateral cortex. Elevating Cdca7 in normal lateral
      cortical progenitors to levels close to those normally found in ventral
      telencephalon reduces their production of Tbr2-expressing cells early in lateral
      cortical formation. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that Pax6 normally represses
      Cdca7 expression in the lateral cortex and that repression of Cdca7 in cells of
      this region is required for their production of a normal complement of Tbr2
      expressing intermediate progenitors.

PMID- 28583077
TI  - Identification of conserved genes triggering puberty in European sea bass males
      (Dicentrarchus labrax) by microarray expression profiling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spermatogenesis is a complex process characterized by the activation
      and/or repression of a number of genes in a spatio-temporal manner. Pubertal
      development in males starts with the onset of the first spermatogenesis and
      implies the division of primary spermatogonia and their subsequent entry into
      meiosis. This study is aimed at the characterization of genes involved in the
      onset of puberty in European sea bass, and constitutes the first transcriptomic
      approach focused on meiosis in this species. RESULTS: European sea bass testes
      collected at the onset of puberty (first successful reproduction) were grouped in
      stage I (resting stage), and stage II (proliferative stage). Transition from
      stage I to stage II was marked by an increase of 11ketotestosterone (11KT), the
      main fish androgen, whereas the transcriptomic study resulted in 315 genes
      differentially expressed between the two stages. The onset of puberty induced 1)
      an up-regulation of genes involved in cell proliferation, cell cycle and meiosis
      progression, 2) changes in genes related with reproduction and growth, and 3) a
      down-regulation of genes included in the retinoic acid (RA) signalling pathway.
      The analysis of GO-terms and biological pathways showed that cell cycle, cell
      division, cellular metabolic processes, and reproduction were affected,
      consistent with the early events that occur during the onset of puberty.
      Furthermore, changes in the expression of three RA nuclear receptors point at the
      importance of the RA-signalling pathway during this period, in agreement with its
      role in meiosis. CONCLUSION: The results contribute to boost our knowledge of the
      early molecular and endocrine events that trigger pubertal development and the
      onset of spermatogenesis in fish. These include an increase in 11KT plasma levels
      and changes in the expression of several genes involved in cell proliferation,
      cell cycle progression, meiosis or RA-signalling pathway. Moreover, the results
      can be applied to study meiosis in this economically important fish species for
      Mediterranean countries, and may help to develop tools for its sustainable
      aquaculture.

PMID- 28583080
TI  - The effect of body size evolution and ecology on encephalization in cave bears
      and extant relatives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The evolution of larger brain volumes relative to body size in
      Mammalia is the subject of an extensive amount of research. Early on
      palaeontologists were interested in the brain of cave bears, Ursus spelaeus, and
      described its morphology and size. However, until now, it was not possible to
      compare the absolute or relative brain size in a phylogenetic context due to the
      lack of an established phylogeny, comparative material, and phylogenetic
      comparative methods. In recent years, many tools for comparing traits within
      phylogenies were developed and the phylogenetic position of cave bears was
      resolved based on nuclear as well as mtDNA. RESULTS: Cave bears exhibit
      significantly lower encephalization compared to their contemporary relatives and
      intraspecific brain mass variation remained rather small. Encephalization was
      correlated with the combined dormancy-diet score. Body size evolution was a main
      driver in the degree of encephalization in cave bears as it increased in a much
      higher pace than brain size. In Ursus spelaeus, brain and body size increase over
      time albeit differently paced. This rate pattern is different in the highest
      encephalized bear species within the dataset, Ursus malayanus. The brain size in
      this species increased while body size heavily decreased compared to its
      ancestral stage. CONCLUSIONS: Early on in the evolution of cave bears
      encephalization decreased making it one of the least encephalized bear species
      compared to extant and extinct members of Ursidae. The results give reason to
      suspect that as herbivorous animals, cave bears might have exhibited a
      physiological buffer strategy to survive the strong seasonality of their
      environment. Thus, brain size was probably affected by the negative trade-off
      with adipose tissue as well as diet. The decrease of relative brain size in the
      herbivorous Ursus spelaeus is the result of a considerable increase in body size
      possibly in combination with environmental conditions forcing them to rest during
      winters.

PMID- 28583081
TI  - Addition of plant-growth-promoting Bacillus subtilis PTS-394 on tomato
      rhizosphere has no durable impact on composition of root microbiome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Representatives of the genus Bacillus are increasingly used in
      agriculture to promote plant growth and to protect against plant pathogens.
      Unfortunately, hitherto the impact of Bacillus inoculants on the indigenous plant
      microbiota has been investigated exclusively for the species Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens and was limited to prokaryotes, whilst eukaryotic member of
      this community, e.g. fungi, were not considered. RESULTS: The root-colonizing
      Bacillus subtilis PTS-394 supported growth of tomato plants and suppressed soil
      borne diseases. Roche 454 pyrosequencing revealed that PTS-394 has only a
      transient impact on the microbiota community of the tomato rhizosphere. The
      impact on eukaryota could last up to 14 days, while that on bacterial communities
      lasted for 3 days only. CONCLUSIONS: Ecological adaptation and microbial
      community-preserving capacity are important criteria when assessing suitability
      of bio-inoculants for commercial development. As shown here, B. subtilis PTS-394
      is acting as an environmentally compatible plant protective agent without
      permanent effects on rhizosphere microbial community.

PMID- 28583082
TI  - Integrated QTL detection for key breeding traits in multiple peach progenies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is a major temperate fruit crop
      with an intense breeding activity. Breeding is facilitated by knowledge of the
      inheritance of the key traits that are often of a quantitative nature. QTLs have
      traditionally been studied using the phenotype of a single progeny (usually a
      full-sib progeny) and the correlation with a set of markers covering its genome.
      This approach has allowed the identification of various genes and QTLs but is
      limited by the small numbers of individuals used and by the narrow transect of
      the variability analyzed. In this article we propose the use of a multi-progeny
      mapping strategy that used pedigree information and Bayesian approaches that
      supports a more precise and complete survey of the available genetic variability.
      RESULTS: Seven key agronomic characters (data from 1 to 3 years) were analyzed in
      18 progenies from crosses between occidental commercial genotypes and various
      exotic lines including accessions of other Prunus species. A total of 1467 plants
      from these progenies were genotyped with a 9 k SNP array. Forty-seven QTLs were
      identified, 22 coinciding with major genes and QTLs that have been consistently
      found in the same populations when studied individually and 25 were new. A
      substantial part of the QTLs observed (47%) would not have been detected in
      crosses between only commercial materials, showing the high value of exotic lines
      as a source of novel alleles for the commercial gene pool. Our strategy also
      provided estimations on the narrow sense heritability of each character, and the
      estimation of the QTL genotypes of each parent for the different QTLs and their
      breeding value. CONCLUSIONS: The integrated strategy used provides a broader and
      more accurate picture of the variability available for peach breeding with the
      identification of many new QTLs, information on the sources of the alleles of
      interest and the breeding values of the potential donors of such valuable
      alleles. These results are first-hand information for breeders and a step forward
      towards the implementation of DNA-informed strategies to facilitate selection of
      new cultivars with improved productivity and quality.

PMID- 28583083
TI  - The skeletal proteome of the sea star Patiria miniata and evolution of
      biomineralization in echinoderms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Proteomic studies of skeletal proteins have revealed large, complex
      mixtures of proteins occluded within the mineral. Many skeletal proteomes contain
      rapidly evolving proteins with repetitive domains, further complicating our
      understanding. In echinoderms, proteomic analysis of the skeletal proteomes of
      mineralized tissues of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus prominently
      featured spicule matrix proteins with repetitive sequences linked to a C-type
      lectin domain. A comparative study of the brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii skeletal
      proteome revealed an order of magnitude fewer proteins containing C-type lectin
      domains. A number of other proteins conserved in the skeletons of the two groups
      were identified. Here we report the complete skeletal proteome of the sea star
      Patiria miniata and compare it to that of the other echinoderm groups. RESULTS:
      We have identified eighty-five proteins in the P. miniata skeletal proteome.
      Forty-two percent of the proteins were determined to be homologous to proteins
      found in the S. purpuratus skeletal proteomes. An additional 34 % were from
      similar functional classes as proteins in the urchin proteomes. Thirteen percent
      of the P. miniata proteins had homologues in the O. wendtii skeletal proteome
      with an additional 29% showing similarity to brittle star skeletal proteins. The
      P. miniata skeletal proteome did not contain any proteins with C-lectin domains
      or with acidic repetitive regions similar to the sea urchin or brittle star
      spicule matrix proteins. MSP130 proteins were also not found. We did identify a
      number of proteins homologous between the three groups. Some of the highly
      conserved proteins found in echinoderm skeletons have also been identified in
      vertebrate skeletons. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of proteins conserved in the
      skeleton in three different echinoderm groups indicates these proteins are
      important in skeleton formation. That a number of these proteins are involved in
      skeleton formation in vertebrates suggests a common origin for some of the
      fundamental processes co-opted for skeleton formation in deuterostomes. The
      proteins we identify suggest transport of proteins and calcium via endosomes was
      co-opted to this function in a convergent fashion. Our data also indicate that
      modifications to the process of skeleton formation can occur through independent
      co-option of proteins following species divergence as well as through domain
      shuffling.

PMID- 28583084
TI  - Expression and functional analysis of the transcription factor-encoding Gene
      CsERF004 in cucumber during Pseudoperonospora cubensis and Corynespora cassiicola
      infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cucumber downy mildew, caused by P. cubensis, is an important leaf
      disease that can severely affect cucumber production. In recent years, cucumber
      target spot, caused by C. cassiicola, has been reported in both Asia and Europe
      and is now considered as a major disease disrupting cucumber production. Single
      disease-resistant cucumber varieties have been unable to satisfy production
      needs. To explore the molecular mechanisms of cucumber resistance to these two
      diseases, cucumber cultivars D9320 (resistant to downy mildew and target spot)
      and D0401 (susceptible to downy mildew and target spot) were used as experimental
      materials in this study. We used transcriptome sequencing technology to identify
      genes related to disease resistance and verified using transgenic technology.
      RESULTS: We screened out the cucumber resistance-related gene CsERF004 using
      transcriptome sequencing technology. Induction by pathogens, salicylic acid (SA),
      and ethylene (ET) resulted in the up-regulation of CsERF004. Three treatments,
      namely, inoculation with C. cassiicola alone, inoculation with P. cubensis alone,
      and simultaneous inoculation with both pathogens, all resulted in the significant
      and sustained up-regulation of CsERF004 in the resistant cultivar D9320, during
      the early stage of infection. In the susceptible cultivar D0401, CsERF004
      expression was also significantly up-regulated at the later stage of infection
      but to a lesser extent and for a shorter duration than in the resistant cultivar
      D9320. The CsERF004 gene encodes a protein localizes to the nucleus. The over
      expression of CsERF004 in the susceptible cultivar D0401 resulted in the
      significant up-regulation of the CsPR1 and CsPR4 genes and increased the levels
      of SA and ET, which enhanced the resistance of cucumber to downy mildew and
      target spot. CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of the CsERF004 expression pattern in disease
      resistant and susceptible cucumber cultivars and transgenic validation indicate
      that CsERF004 confers resistance to P. cubensis and C. cassiicola. The findings
      of this study can help to better understanding of mechanisms of response to
      pathogens and in establishment the genetic basis for the development of cucumber
      broad-spectrum resistant cultivars.

PMID- 28583085
TI  - Intricacies in arrangement of SNP haplotypes suggest "Great Admixture" that
      created modern humans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inferring history from genomic sequences is challenging and
      problematic because chromosomes are mosaics of thousands of small Identicalby
      descent (IBD) fragments, each of them having their own unique story. However, the
      main events in recent evolution might be deciphered from comparative analysis of
      numerous loci. A paradox of why humans, whose effective population size is only
      104, have nearly three million frequent SNPs is formulated and examined. RESULTS:
      We studied 5398 loci evenly covering all human autosomes. Common haplotypes built
      from frequent SNPs that are present in people from various populations have been
      examined. We demonstrated highly non-random arrangement of alleles in common
      haplotypes. Abundance of mutually exclusive pairs of common haplotypes that have
      different alleles at every polymorphic position (so-called Yin/Yang haplotypes)
      was found in 56% of loci. A novel widely spread category of common haplotypes
      named Mosaic has been described. Mosaic consists of numerous pieces of Yin/Yang
      haplotypes and represents an ancestral stage of one of them. Scenarios of
      possible appearance of large number of frequent human SNPs and their habitual
      arrangement in Yin/Yang common haplotypes have been evaluated with an advanced
      genomic simulation algorithm. CONCLUSIONS: Computer modeling demonstrated that
      the observed arrangement of 2.9 million frequent SNPs could not originate from a
      sole stand-alone population. A "Great Admixture" event has been proposed that can
      explain peculiarities with frequent SNP distributions. This Great Admixture
      presumably occurred 100-300 thousand years ago between two ancestral populations
      that had been separated from each other about a million years ago. Our programs
      and algorithms can be applied to other species to perform evolutionary and
      comparative genomics.

PMID- 28583086
TI  - Independent prognostic role of human papillomavirus genotype in cervical cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the correlation of HPV genotype with cervical precursor
      lesions and invasive cancer has been confirmed, the role of HPV genotype in
      cervical cancer prognosis is less conclusive. This study aims to systematically
      investigate the independent prognostic role of HPV genotype in cervical cancer.
      METHODS: A total of 306 eligible patients provided cervical cell specimens for
      HPV genotyping before therapy and had a median follow-up time of 54 months after
      diagnosis. Survival times were measured from the date of diagnosis to the date of
      cervical cancer-related death (overall survival, OS) and from the date of
      diagnosis to the date of recurrence or metastasis (disease free survival, DFS).
      Log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models were performed to evaluate the
      association between HPV genotype and survival times. RESULTS: A total of 12 types
      of high-risk HPV were detected and the leading ten types belong to two species:
      alpha-9 and alpha-7. HPV16 and 18 were the two most common types, with the
      prevalence of 60.8% and 8.8%, respectively. In the univariate analysis, HPV16
      positive cases were associated with better OS (P = 0.037) and HPV16-related
      species alpha-9 predicted better OS and DFS (both P < 0.01). After adjusting for
      age, FIGO stage, and therapy, HPV16 showed a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.36 (95% CI:
      0.18, 0.74; P = 0.005) for OS, and alpha-9 resulted in a HR of 0.17 (95% CI:
      0.08, 0.37; P < 0.001) for OS and 0.32 (95% CI: 0.17, 0.59; P < 0.001) for DFS.
      CONCLUSIONS: HPV genotype poses differential prognoses for cervical cancer
      patients. The presence of HPV16 and its related species alpha-9 indicates an
      improved survival.

PMID- 28583087
TI  - Incomplete ileus and hemafecia as the presenting features of multi-organ involved
      primary systemic AL amyloidosis: a rare case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: AL Amyloidosis is known to be a systemic disease affecting multiple
      organs and tissue while it's rare that patients present with gastrointestinal
      symptoms at first and later develop multiple-organ dysfuction. Clinical signs are
      not specific and the diagnosis is rarely given before performing immunofixation
      and endoscopy with multiple biopsies. We would like to emphasize the value of
      precise diagnostic process of AL amyloidosis. CASE PRESENTATION: In this case
      report, we describe a 56-year-old man who presented with recurrent periumbilical
      pain for 4 months and gradually worsened over a month. After a series of tests,
      he was finally diagnosed with primary systemic AL amyloidosis. He was treated
      with a chemotherapy regimen (Melphalan, dexamethasone and thalidomide) achieving
      a good clinical response. CONCLUSION: On account of the high misdiagnosis rate,
      establishing the most precise diagnosis in first time with typing amyloidogenic
      protein becomes increasingly vital. Although the presenting feature is usually
      nonspecific, AL amyloidosis ought to be considered when multiple organs are
      involved in a short period.

PMID- 28583089
TI  - Genome-enabled predictions for fruit weight and quality from repeated records in
      European peach progenies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Highly polygenic traits such as fruit weight, sugar content and
      acidity strongly influence the agroeconomic value of peach varieties. Genomic
      Selection (GS) can accelerate peach yield and quality gain if predictions show
      higher levels of accuracy compared to phenotypic selection. The available IPSC 9K
      SNP array V1 allows standardized and highly reliable genotyping, preparing the
      ground for GS in peach. RESULTS: A repeatability model (multiple records per
      individual plant) for genome-enabled predictions in eleven European peach
      populations is presented. The analysis included 1147 individuals derived from
      both commercial and non-commercial peach or peach-related accessions. Considered
      traits were average fruit weight (FW), sugar content (SC) and titratable acidity
      (TA). Plants were genotyped with the 9K IPSC array, grown in three countries
      (France, Italy, Spain) and phenotyped for 3-5 years. An analysis of imputation
      accuracy of missing genotypic data was conducted using the software Beagle,
      showing that two of the eleven populations were highly sensitive to increasing
      levels of missing data. The regression model produced, for each trait and each
      population, estimates of heritability (FW:0.35, SC:0.48, TA:0.53, on average) and
      repeatability (FW:0.56, SC:0.63, TA:0.62, on average). Predictive ability was
      estimated in a five-fold cross validation scheme within population as the
      correlation of true and predicted phenotypes. Results differed by populations and
      traits, but predictive abilities were in general high (FW:0.60, SC:0.72, TA:0.65,
      on average). CONCLUSIONS: This study assessed the feasibility of Genomic
      Selection in peach for highly polygenic traits linked to yield and fruit quality.
      The accuracy of imputing missing genotypes was as high as 96%, and the genomic
      predictive ability was on average 0.65, but could be as high as 0.84 for fruit
      weight or 0.83 for titratable acidity. The estimated repeatability may prove very
      useful in the management of the typical long cycles involved in peach
      productions. All together, these results are very promising for the application
      of genomic selection to peach breeding programmes.

PMID- 28583090
TI  - Prediction of bioluminescent proteins by using sequence-derived features and
      lineage-specific scheme.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bioluminescent proteins (BLPs) widely exist in many living organisms.
      As BLPs are featured by the capability of emitting lights, they can be served as
      biomarkers and easily detected in biomedical research, such as gene expression
      analysis and signal transduction pathways. Therefore, accurate identification of
      BLPs is important for disease diagnosis and biomedical engineering. In this
      paper, we propose a novel accurate sequence-based method named PredBLP
      (Prediction of BioLuminescent Proteins) to predict BLPs. RESULTS: We collect a
      series of sequence-derived features, which have been proved to be involved in the
      structure and function of BLPs. These features include amino acid composition,
      dipeptide composition, sequence motifs and physicochemical properties. We further
      prove that the combination of four types of features outperforms any other
      combinations or individual features. To remove potential irrelevant or redundant
      features, we also introduce Fisher Markov Selector together with Sequential
      Backward Selection strategy to select the optimal feature subsets. Additionally,
      we design a lineage-specific scheme, which is proved to be more effective than
      traditional universal approaches. CONCLUSION: Experiment on benchmark datasets
      proves the robustness of PredBLP. We demonstrate that lineage-specific models
      significantly outperform universal ones. We also test the generalization
      capability of PredBLP based on independent testing datasets as well as newly
      deposited BLPs in UniProt. PredBLP is proved to be able to exceed many state-of
      art methods. A web server named PredBLP, which implements the proposed method, is
      free available for academic use.

PMID- 28583088
TI  - Uncovering the transcriptomic and epigenomic landscape of nicotinic receptor
      genes in non-neuronal tissues.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play an important role in
      cellular physiology and human nicotine dependence, and are closely associated
      with many human diseases including cancer. For example, previous studies suggest
      that nAChRs can re-wire gene regulatory networks in lung cancer cell lines.
      However, the tissue specificity of nAChRs genes and their regulation remain
      unexplored. RESULT: In this study, we integrated data from multiple large genomic
      consortiums, including ENCODE, Roadmap Epigenomics, GTEx, and FANTOM, to define
      the transcriptomic and epigenomic landscape of all nicotinic receptor genes
      across many different human tissues and cell types. We found that many important
      nAChRs, including CHRNA3, CHRNA4, CHRNA5, and CHRNB4, exhibited strong non
      neuronal tissue-specific expression patterns. CHRNA3, CHRNA5, and CHRNB4 were
      highly expressed in human colon and small intestine, and CHRNA4 was highly
      expressed in human liver. By comparing the epigenetic marks of CHRNA4 in human
      liver and hippocampus, we identified a novel liver-specific transcription start
      site (TSS) of CHRNA4. We further demonstrated that CHRNA4 was specifically
      transcribed in hepatocytes but not transcribed in hepatic sinusoids and stellate
      cells, and that transcription factors HNF4A and RXRA were likely upstream
      regulators of CHRNA4. Our findings suggest that CHRNA4 has distinct
      transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in human liver and brain, and that this
      tissue-specific expression pattern is evolutionarily conserved in mouse. Finally,
      we found that liver-specific CHRNA4 transcription was highly correlated with
      genes involved in the nicotine metabolism, including CYP2A6, UGT2B7, and FMO3.
      These genes were significantly down-regulated in liver cancer patients, whereas
      CHRNA4 is also significantly down-regulated in cancer-matched normal livers.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest important non-neuronally expressed nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptors in the human body. These non-neuronal expression patterns
      are highly tissue-specific, and are epigenetically conserved during evolution in
      the context of non-conserved DNA sequence.

PMID- 28583091
TI  - Reconciliation feasibility in the presence of gene duplication, loss, and
      coalescence with multiple individuals per species.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In phylogenetics, we often seek to reconcile gene trees with species
      trees within the framework of an evolutionary model. While the most popular
      models for eukaryotic species allow for only gene duplication and gene loss or
      only multispecies coalescence, recent work has combined these phenomena through a
      reconciliation structure, the labeled coalescent tree (LCT), that simultaneously
      describes the duplication-loss and coalescent history of a gene family. However,
      the LCT makes the simplifying assumption that only one individual is sampled per
      species whereas, with advances in gene sequencing, we now have access to multiple
      samples per species. RESULTS: We demonstrate that with these additional samples,
      there exist gene tree topologies that are impossible to reconcile with any
      species tree. In particular, the multiple samples enforce new constraints on the
      placement of duplications within a valid reconciliation. To model these
      constraints, we extend the LCT to a new structure, the partially labeled
      coalescent tree (PLCT) and demonstrate how to use the PLCT to evaluate the
      feasibility of a gene tree topology. We apply our algorithm to two clades of apes
      and flies to characterize possible sources of infeasibility. CONCLUSION: Going
      forward, we believe that this model represents a first step towards understanding
      reconciliations in duplication-loss-coalescence models with multiple samples per
      species.

PMID- 28583092
TI  - Postpartum hemorrhage prevention in Nepal: a program assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2009, the Nepal Ministry of Health and Population launched a
      national program for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) during home births
      that features advance distribution of misoprostol to pregnant women. In the years
      since, the government has scaled-up the program throughout much of the country.
      This paper presents findings from the first large-scale assessment of the
      effectiveness of the advance distribution program. METHODS: Data collection was
      carried out in nine districts and all three ecological zones. To assess
      knowledge, receipt and use of misoprostol, household interviews were conducted
      with 2070 women who had given birth within the past 12 months. To assess supply
      and provision of misoprostol, interviews were conducted with 270 Female Community
      Health Volunteers (FCHVs) and staff at 99 health facilities. RESULTS: Among
      recently delivered women, only 15% received information about misoprostol and 13%
      received misoprostol tablets in advance of delivery. Yet 87% who received advance
      misoprostol and delivered at home used it for PPH prevention. Among FCHVs, 96%
      were providing advance misoprostol for PPH prevention; however 81% had
      experienced at least one misoprostol stock out within the past year. About one
      half of FCHVs were providing incomplete information about the use of misoprostol;
      in addition, many did not discuss side effects, how to recognize PPH or where to
      go if PPH occurs. Among health facilities, just one-half had sufficient
      misoprostol stock, while 95% had sufficient oxytocin stock, at the time of this
      assessment. CONCLUSIONS: In Nepal, women who receive advance misoprostol are both
      willing and able to use the medication for PPH prevention during home births.
      However the supply and personnel challenges identified raise questions about
      scalability and impact of the program over the long-term. Further assessment is
      needed.

PMID- 28583093
TI  - Physical working conditions as covered in European monitoring questionnaires.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of workers with demanding physical working conditions
      in the European work force remains high, and occupational physical exposures are
      considered important risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), a major
      burden for both workers and society. Exposures to physical workloads are
      therefore part of the European nationwide surveys to monitor working conditions
      and health. An interesting question is to what extent the same domains,
      dimensions and items referring to the physical workloads are covered in the
      surveys. The purpose of this paper is to determine 1) which domains and
      dimensions of the physical workloads are monitored in surveys at the national
      level and the EU level and 2) the degree of European consensus among these
      surveys regarding coverage of individual domains and dimensions. METHOD: Items on
      physical workloads used in one European wide/Spanish and five other European
      nationwide work environment surveys were classified into the domains and
      dimensions they cover, using a taxonomy agreed upon among all participating
      partners. RESULTS: The taxonomy reveals that there is a modest overlap between
      the domains covered in the surveys, but when considering dimensions, the results
      indicate a lower agreement. The phrasing of items and answering categories
      differs between the surveys. Among the domains, the three domains covered by all
      surveys are "lifting, holding & carrying of loads/pushing & pulling of loads",
      "awkward body postures" and "vibrations". The three domains covered less well,
      that is only by three surveys or less, are "physical work effort", "working
      sitting", and "mixed exposure". CONCLUSIONS: This is the first thorough overview
      to evaluate the coverage of domains and dimensions of self-reported physical
      workloads in a selection of European nationwide surveys. We hope the overview
      will provide input to the revisions and updates of the individual countries'
      surveys in order to enhance coverage of relevant domains and dimensions in all
      surveys and to increase the informational value of the surveys.

PMID- 28583094
TI  - Most children with cancer are not enrolled on a clinical trial in Canada: a
      population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary objective was to describe the proportion of children newly
      diagnosed with cancer enrolled on a therapeutic clinical trial. Secondary
      objectives were to describe reasons for non-enrollment and factors associated
      with enrollment on trials. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we
      included children newly diagnosed with cancer between 0 and 14 years of age and
      diagnosed from 2001 to 2012. We used data from the Cancer in Young People in
      Canada (CYP-C) national pediatric cancer population-based database. CYP-C
      captures all cases of pediatric cancer (0-14 years) diagnosed and treated at one
      of the 17 tertiary pediatric oncology centers in Canada. Non-enrollment was
      evaluated using univariate and multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS:
      There were 9204 children with cancer included, of whom 2533 (27.5%) were enrolled
      on a clinical trial. The most common reasons cited for non-enrollment were lack
      of an available trial (52.2%) and physician choice (11.2%). In multiple
      regression, Asian and Arab/west Asian race were associated with lower enrollment
      (P = 0.006 and P = 0.032 respectively). All cancer diagnoses were more likely to
      be enrolled compared to astrocytoma and children with acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia had an almost 18-fold increased odds of enrollment compared to
      astrocytoma (P < 0.0001). Greater distance from the tertiary care center was
      independently associated with non-enrollment (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In
      Canada, 27.5% of children with cancer are enrolled onto therapeutic clinical
      trials and lack of an available trial is the most common reason contributing to
      non-enrollment. Future research should better understand reasons for lack of
      trial availability and physician preferences to not offer trials.

PMID- 28583095
TI  - The prognostic significance of KRAS and BRAF mutation status in Korean colorectal
      cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: BRAF and KRAS mutations are well-established biomarkers in anti-EGFR
      therapy. However, the prognostic significance of these mutations is still being
      examined. We determined the prognostic value of BRAF and KRAS mutations in Korean
      colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. METHODS: From July 2010 to September 2013, 1096
      patients who underwent surgery for CRC at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital were included
      in the analysis. Resected specimens were examined for BRAF, KRAS, and
      microsatellite instability (MSI) status. All data were reviewed retrospectively.
      RESULTS: Among 1096 patients, 401 (36.7%) had KRAS mutations and 44 (4.0%) had
      BRAF mutations. Of 83 patients, 77 (92.8%) had microsatellite stable (MSS) or MSI
      low (MSI-L) status while 6 (7.2%) patients had MSI high (MSI-H) status. Patients
      with BRAF mutation demonstrated a worse disease-free survival (DFS, HR 1.990, CI
      1.080-3.660, P = 0.02) and overall survival (OS, HR 3.470, CI 1.900-6.330, P <
      0.0001). Regarding KRAS status, no significant difference was noted in DFS (P =
      0.0548) or OS (P = 0.107). Comparing the MSS/MSI-L and MSI-H groups there were no
      significant differences in either DFS (P = 0.294) or OS (P = 0.557). CONCLUSIONS:
      BRAF mutation, rather than KRAS, was a significant prognostic factor in Korean
      CRC patients at both early and advanced stages. The subgroup analysis for MSI did
      not show significant differences in clinical outcome. BRAF should be included in
      future larger prospective biomarker studies on CRC.

PMID- 28583096
TI  - The impact of hip fracture on mortality in Estonia: a retrospective population
      based cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Estimates of hip fracture mortality in Eastern Europe are scarce. We
      aimed to estimate the magnitude and duration of excess mortality after hip
      fracture in Estonia. METHODS: Retrospective, population-based 10-year study of
      persons aged >=50 in two cohorts: with hip fracture and an age- and sex-matched
      (in a 1:4 ratio) random sample from the national health insurance fund database
      for comparison. Cumulative risks, excess risks and relative risks of death were
      estimated using Poisson regression with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals (CI).
      Risks were adjusted for age and Charlson comorbidity index. RESULTS: We
      identified 8298 (2383 men, 5915 women) incident hip fracture patients from 2005
      to 2013 and 33,191 (9531 men, 23,660 women) individuals for the reference group.
      5552 (1564 men, 3988 women) cases and 14,037 (3514 men, 10,523 women) reference
      individuals died during the 10-year follow-up period. Among hip fracture patients
      we observed a pronounced and durable excess risk of death that was highest within
      3-6 months after fracture and persisted for the full 10-year follow-up period.
      After adjustment for age and Charlson index, hip fracture was associated with a
      21.1% (95% CI 20.0-22.5%) 10-year cumulative excess risk of death (RR 1.37, 95%
      CI 1.35-1.40). We found a high immediate excess risk of death in older age groups
      (>=80 years) and gradually accumulating excess risk in younger age groups (50-79
      years). The excess risk was more pronounced among men than women. CONCLUSIONS: By
      the end of the 10-year follow-up, 1 in 4 deaths in the hip fracture group was
      attributable to the hip fracture. The results indicate a high attributable impact
      of hip fracture as an independent risk factor for death.

PMID- 28583097
TI  - NRAMP1 and VDR gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis
      among Andhra Pradesh population in India: a case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of
      NRAMP1 -3'UTR, 274-CT,VDR- Fok1 VDR-Taq1 Polymorphisms with the risk of pulmonary
      tuberculosis. METHOD: A case -control study was conducted on Andhra Pradesh
      Population of India. Analysis of gene polymorphisms of NRAMP1 gene (3'UTR, 274CT)
      and VDR gene (Fok1 and Taq1) was done by using Polymerase chain reaction
      restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in Tuberculosis (TB) patients
      and healthy controls. The obtained results were observed using 2% Agarose Gel
      electrophoresis and analysed statistically using Chi-square test and Odds Ratio.
      RESULTS: Statistical significance was observed between the patients and the
      controls in the NRAMP1-3'UTR (P = 0.005; OR = 2.997; 95% CI = 1.019-8.813) and
      VDR-Taq1 (P < 0.001; OR = 0.140;95% C.I = 0.050-0.386) polymorphisms in Andhra
      Pradesh population. No statistical significance was observed between patients and
      controls of the same population in NRAMP1-274CT and VDR-Fok1 polymorphisms (p >
      0.05). CONCLUSION: 3'UTR-NRAMP1 gene and VDR-Taq1 gene Polymorphisms are
      statistically associated with the susceptibility of TB in Andhra Pradesh
      Population in India.

PMID- 28583098
TI  - Contours of a causal feedback mechanism between adaptive personality and
      psychosocial function in patients with personality disorders: a secondary
      analysis from a randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with personality disorders commonly exhibit impairment in
      psychosocial function that persists over time even with diagnostic remission.
      Further causal knowledge may help to identify and assess factors with a potential
      to alleviate this impairment. Psychosocial function is associated with
      personality functioning which describes personality disorder severity in DSM-5
      (section III) and which can reportedly be improved by therapy. METHODS: The
      reciprocal association between personality functioning and psychosocial function
      was assessed, in 113 patients with different personality disorders, in a
      secondary longitudinal analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial, over
      six years. Personality functioning was represented by three domains of the
      Severity Indices of Personality Problems: Relational Capacity, Identity
      Integration, and Self-control. Psychosocial function was measured by Global
      Assessment of Functioning. The marginal structural model was used for estimation
      of causal effects of the three personality functioning domains on psychosocial
      function, and vice versa. The attractiveness of this model lies in the ability to
      assess an effect of a time - varying exposure on an outcome, while adjusting for
      time - varying confounding. RESULTS: Strong causal effects were found. A
      hypothetical intervention to increase Relational Capacity by one standard
      deviation, both at one and two time-points prior to assessment of psychosocial
      function, would increase psychosocial function by 3.5 standard deviations (95%
      CI: 2.0, 4.96). Significant effects of Identity Integration and Self-control on
      psychosocial function, and from psychosocial function on all three domains of
      personality functioning, although weaker, were also found. CONCLUSION: This study
      indicates that persistent impairment in psychosocial function can be addressed
      through a causal pathway of personality functioning, with interventions of at
      least 18 months duration.

PMID- 28583099
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging of bacterial and tuberculous spondylodiscitis with
      associated complications and non-infectious spinal pathology mimicking
      infections: a pictorial review.
AB  - Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays an important role in the evaluation of
      bacterial and tuberculous spondylodiscitis and associated complications. Owing to
      its high sensitivity and specificity, it is a powerful diagnostic tool in the
      early diagnosis of ongoing infections, and thus provides help in prompt
      initiation of appropriate, therapy which may be medical or surgical, by defining
      the extent of involvement and detection of complications such as epidural and
      paraspinal abscesses. More specifically, MR imaging helps in differentiating
      bacterial from tuberculous infections and enables follow up of progression or
      resolution after appropriate treatment. However, other non-infectious pathology
      can demonstrate similar MR imaging appearances and one should be aware of these
      potential mimickers when interpreting MR images. Radiologists and other
      clinicians need to be aware of these potential mimics, which include such
      pathologies as Modic type I degenerative changes, trauma, metastatic disease and
      amyloidosis. In this pictorial review, we will describe and illustrate imaging
      findings of bacterial and tuberculous spondylodiscitis, their complications and
      non-infectious pathologies that mimic these spinal infections.

PMID- 28583101
TI  - Healthcare interventions for the prevention and control of gestational diabetes
      mellitus in China: a scoping review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a type of diabetes which
      occurs during pregnancy. Women with GDM are at greater risk of complications
      during pregnancy and delivery, while babies born from mothers with GDM are at
      greater risk of post-natal complications. Using the most updated diagnosis
      criteria, the GDM prevalence is estimated at 9.3-25.5% worldwide and 9.3-18.9% in
      China. Our objective was to identify healthcare interventions aimed at GDM
      prevention and control in China. METHODS: A best-evidence synthesis was performed
      based on a systematic search of literature published between 1997 and October
      2015 in PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),
      and Wan-fang databases using keywords "Gestational Diabetes Mellitus", "GDM",
      "Intervention" "Medical Intervention" "Early Medical Intervention", "Dietary
      Intervention", "Exercise Intervention", "Lifestyle Intervention", "Therapy",
      "Treatment" and "China". Inclusion criteria were studies conducted in China,
      reporting GDM healthcare interventions, and published in either Chinese or
      English. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility and quality of the
      studies and extracted the data. Treatment efficacy was examined with weighted
      pooled odds ratio (OR) meta-analyses. RESULTS: The search resulted in 5961
      articles (published in 276 different Chinese language journals and 6 English
      language journals), of which 802 were included in this synthesis. While 39.4% (n
      = 316) failed to report the GDM diagnostic criteria used, the remaining studies
      classified GDM with various international (n = 5) or Chinese (n = 7) diagnostic
      standards. Treatment interventions were categorized into 6 types: dietary
      (18.6%), exercise (1.6%), medication (20.7%), health education (9.0%),
      psychological (2.6%) and combination (47.4%). No interventions aimed at GDM
      prevention were identified. Meta-analyses demonstrated a statistically
      significant overall benefit of GDM treatment strategies in reducing the odds of
      maternal and infant adverse outcomes (ORs range 0.20-0.34, 95% CI 0.17-0.49, P <
      0.05 for all). Dietary, western medication, and combined interventions were the
      most effective inteventions. CONCLUSIONS: An increasing number of healthcare
      interventions were found in China aimed at controlling GDM while no interventions
      were intended for GDM prevention. Well-designed clinical trials are needed to
      determine the comparative and cost effectiveness of GDM prevention and treatment
      strategies.

PMID- 28583100
TI  - Insomnia, psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation in a National
      Representative Sample of active Canadian Forces members.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Past research on the association between insomnia and suicidal
      ideation (SI) has produced mixed findings. The current study explored the
      relationship between insomnia, SI, and past-year mental health status among a
      large Canadian Forces (CF) sample. METHOD: Data was obtained from the 2013
      Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey (CFMHS), and included a large representative
      sample of Canadian Regular Forces personnel (N = 6700). A series of univariate
      logistic regressions were conducted to test individual associations between past
      year mental health status, insomnia, and potential confounds and SI. Mental
      health status included three groups: 0, 1, or two or more probable diagnoses of
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD),
      generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD) and alcohol
      abuse/dependence. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression was used to assess
      the relationship between insomnia and SI with mental health status as a
      moderator. RESULTS: 40.8% of respondents reported experiencing insomnia. Both
      insomnia and number of mental health conditions incrementally increased the risk
      of SI. However, past-year mental health status was a significant moderator of
      this relationship, such that for CF personnel with either no (AOR = 1.61, 1.37
      1.89) or only one past-year mental health condition (AOR = 1.39, 1.12-1.73), an
      incremental increase in insomnia was associated with an increased likelihood of
      SI. However, in personnel with two or more past-year mental health disorders,
      insomnia was no longer significantly associated with SI (AOR = 1.04, 0.81-1.33).
      CONCLUSIONS: Insomnia significantly increased the odds of SI, but only among
      individuals with no or one mental health condition. Findings highlight the
      importance of assessing insomnia among CF members in order to further suicide
      prevention efforts.

PMID- 28583104
TI  - Development and validation of a claims-based measure as an indicator for disease
      status in patients with multiple sclerosis treated with disease-modifying drugs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Administrative healthcare claims data provide a mechanism for
      assessing and monitoring multiple sclerosis (MS) disease status across large,
      clinically representative "real-world" populations. The estimation of MS disease
      status using administrative claims can be a challenge, however, due to a lack of
      detailed clinical information. Retrospective claims analyses in MS have
      traditionally used rates of MS relapses to approximate disease status. Healthcare
      costs may be alternate, broader claims-based indicators of disease activity
      because costs reflect multiple facets of care of patients with MS, and there is a
      strong correlation between quality of life of patients with MS and costs of the
      disease. This study developed, tested, and validated a healthcare cost-based
      measure to serve as an indicator of overall disease status in patients with MS
      treated with disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) utilizing administrative claims.
      METHODS: Using IMS Health Real World Data Adjudicated Claims - US data (January
      2006-June 2013), a negative binomial regression predicted annual all-cause
      medical costs. Coefficients reaching statistical significance (p < 0.05) and
      increasing costs by >=5% were selected for inclusion into an MS-specific severity
      score (scale of 0 to 100). Components of the score included rehabilitation
      services, altered mental state, pain, disability, stiffness, balance disorder,
      urinary incontinence, numbness, malaise/fatigue, and infections. Coefficient
      weights represented each predictor's contribution. The predictive model was
      derived using 50% of a random sample and tested/validated using the remaining
      50%. RESULTS: Average overall predicted annual total medical cost was $11,134
      (development sample, n = 11,384, vs. $10,528 actual) and $11,303 (validation
      sample, n = 11,385, vs. $10,620 actual). The model had consistent bias
      (approximately +$600 or +6% of actual costs) for both samples. In the validation
      sample, mean MS disease status scores were 0.24, 8.95, and 21.77 for low, medium,
      and high tertiles, respectively. Mean costs were most accurately predicted among
      less severe patients ($5243 predicted vs. $5233 actual cost for lowest tertile).
      CONCLUSION: The algorithm developed in this study provides an initial step to
      helping understand and potentially predict cost changes for a commercially
      insured MS population.

PMID- 28583102
TI  - Analysis of epidemiological trends in human papillomavirus infection among
      gynaecological outpatients in Hangzhou, China, 2011-2015.
AB  - :  BACKGROUND: HPV infection is the major pathogenic factor underlying cervical
      cancer and precancerous lesions. The cervical HPV infection rates in
      gynaecological outpatients from Hangzhou, China, were studied in the period from
      January 2011 to December 2015.   METHODS: Exfoliated cervical cells were
      harvested from gynaecological outpatients in Hangzhou from January 2011 to
      December 2015. Twenty-one HPV subtypes were detected using flow-through
      hybridization. The HPV infection rates in various disease groups were compared
      using the Chi-square test. The infection rates of different HPV subtypes in
      different calendar years and in different age groups were analysed using the
      linear-by-linear association test and gamma value. RESULTS: A total of 43,804
      patients were recruited, of whom 9752 (22.3%) were infected with HPV. The top
      five among the 21 HPV subtypes detected in terms of infection rates were HPV-16, 
      52, -58, -53 and -18. No significant differences (linear-by-linear association
      test) were found in the HPV infection rates when compared over the studied years
      (P > 0.05). However, the 15-24-year-old age group showed the highest HPV
      infection rate, and significant differences (linear-by-linear association test)
      were detected among the different age groups (P < 0.05). The HPV infection rates
      exhibited an upward trend in the 15-24-year-old and >24-34-year-old groups over
      the past five years. There were significant differences in the HPV infection
      rates among the disease groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HPV-16, -52 and -58 were
      the major HPV infection subtypes in Hangzhou, China. The 15-24-year-old age group
      had a relatively high HPV infection rate with an upward trend over the past five
      years and thus represented a population susceptible to HPV infection.

PMID- 28583103
TI  - In-patient costs of agitation and containment in a mental health catchment area.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a scarce number of studies on the cost of agitation and
      containment interventions and their results are still inconclusive. We aimed to
      calculate the economic consequences of agitation events in an in-patient
      psychiatric facility providing care for an urban catchment area. METHODS: A mixed
      approach combining secondary analysis of clinical databases, surveys and expert
      knowledge was used to model the 2013 direct costs of agitation and containment
      events for adult inpatients with mental disorders in an area of 640,572 adult
      inhabitants in South Barcelona (Spain). To calculate costs, a seven-step
      methodology with novel definition of agitation was used along with a staff
      survey, a database of containment events, and data on aggressive incidents. A
      micro-costing analysis of specific containment interventions was used to estimate
      both prevalence and direct costs from the healthcare provider perspective, by
      means of a mixed approach with a probabilistic model evaluated on real data. Due
      to the complex interaction of the multivariate covariances, a sensitivity
      analysis was conducted to have empirical bounds of variability. RESULTS: During
      2013, 918 patients were admitted to the Acute Inpatient Unit. Of these, 52.8%
      were men, with a mean age of 44.6 years (SD = 15.5), 74.4% were compulsory
      admissions, 40.1% were diagnosed with schizophrenia or non-affective psychosis,
      with a mean length of stay of 24.6 days (SD = 16.9). The annual estimate of total
      agitation events was 508. The cost of containment interventions ranges from 282?
      at the lowest level of agitation to 822? when verbal containment plus seclusion
      and restraint have to be used. The annual total cost of agitation was 280,535?,
      representing 6.87% of the total costs of acute hospitalisation in the local area.
      CONCLUSIONS: Agitation events are frequent and costly. Strategies to reduce their
      number and severity should be implemented to reduce costs to the Health System
      and alleviate patient suffering.

PMID- 28583106
TI  - Prescription drug use during pregnancy in Southern Tigray region, North Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Judicious utilization of drugs rescues the fetus from the harmful
      effects while treating the health problems of the pregnant women. This study
      aimed at evaluating drug utilization pattern and its associated factors among
      pregnant women in Southern Tigray, Ethiopia. METHOD: Institution based cross
      sectional study was conducted among 647 pregnant women who had been attending
      obstetrics-gynecology and antenatal care units in different health facilities of
      Southern Tigray region. The study participants were selected using multistage
      sampling technique. Data collection was done using pre-tested semi-structured
      questionnaires and by reviewing antenatal follow-up cards. Descriptive and
      inferential statistics were analyzed, to assess drug utilization pattern and its
      associated factors among pregnant women, using SPSS version 20 software. RESULTS:
      Of 647 pregnant women, 87.5% were prescribed with at least one medication. As per
      the United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) risk classification
      system, 87.7, 7.9, 3.9, and 0.5% of the prescribed drug were from category A, B,
      C and D, respectively. Prescription drug use was more likely among gynecology
      ward visitors [AOR = 8.97, 95% Cl (2.69-29.88)] and among those who visited
      health facilities for the first time during their first [AOR =2.65, 95% Cl (1.44
      4.84)] and second [AOR = 2.50, 95% Cl (1.36-4.61)] trimesters. CONCLUSION:
      Majority of the study population used safe and appropriate medications according
      to US-FDA risk classification system, with the exception of low proportion (0.5%)
      of medication with potential risk for the fetus. The average number of drug
      prescribed per pregnant women was in the recommended range of WHO drug use
      indicators guideline.

PMID- 28583105
TI  - Characteristics and potentials of stem cells derived from human degenerated
      nucleus pulposus: potential for regeneration of the intervertebral disc.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eliminating the symptoms during treatment of intervertebral disc
      degeneration (IVDD) is only a temporary solution that does not cure the
      underlying cause. A biological method to treat this disorder may be possible by
      the newly discovered nucleus pulposus derived stem cells (NPDCs). However, the
      uncertain characteristics and potential of NPDCs calls for a comprehensive study.
      METHODS: In the present study, nucleus pulposus samples were obtained from 5
      patients with IVDD undergoing discectomy procedure and NPDCs were harvested using
      fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) by the co-expression of GD2+ and
      Tie2+. After in vitro expansion, the properties of NPDCs were compared with those
      of bone marrow mesenchyme stem cells (BMSCs) from the same subjects. RESULTS:
      NPDCs performed similar properties in cell colony-forming ability, cell
      proliferation rate, cell cycle and stem cell gene expression similar to those of
      BMSCs. In addition, NPDCs could be differentiated into osteoblasts, adipocytes,
      and chondrocytes, and are found to be superior in chondrogenesis but inferior in
      adipocyte differentiation. CONCLUSIONS: NPDCs derived from the degenerated
      intervertebral disc still keep the regeneration ability similar to BMSCs.
      Besides, the superior capacity in chondrogenesis may provide a promising cell
      candidate for cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in IVDD.

PMID- 28583107
TI  - The impact of peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis on mortality in peritoneal
      dialysis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Results concerning the association between peritoneal dialysis
      related peritonitis and mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients are
      inconclusive, with one potential reason being that the time-dependent effect of
      peritonitis has rarely been considered in previous studies. This study aimed to
      evaluate whether peritonitis has a negative impact on mortality in a large cohort
      of peritoneal dialysis patients. We also assessed the changing impact of
      peritonitis on patient mortality with respect to duration of follow-up. METHODS:
      This retrospective cohort study included incident patients who started peritoneal
      dialysis from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2011. Episodes of peritonitis were
      recorded at the time of onset, and peritonitis was parameterized as a time
      dependent variable for analysis. We used the Cox regression model to assess
      whether peritonitis has a negative impact on mortality. RESULTS: A total of 1321
      patients were included. The mean age was 48.1 +/- 15.3 years, 41.3% were female,
      and 23.5% with diabetes mellitus. The median (interquartile) follow-up time was
      34 (21-48) months. After adjusting for confounders, peritonitis was independently
      associated with 95% increased risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.95;
      95% confidence interval: 1.46-2.60), 90% increased risk of cardiovascular
      mortality (hazard ratio, 1.90; 95% confidence interval: 1.28-2.81) and near 4
      fold increased risk of infection-related mortality (hazard ratio, 4.94; 95%
      confidence interval: 2.47-9.86). Further analyses showed that peritonitis was not
      significantly associated with mortality within 2 years of peritoneal dialysis
      initiation, but strongly influenced mortality in patients dialysed longer than 2
      years. CONCLUSIONS: Peritonitis was independently associated with higher risk of
      all-cause, cardiovascular and infection-related mortality in peritoneal dialysis
      patients, and its impact on mortality was more significant in patients with
      longer peritoneal dialysis duration.

PMID- 28583108
TI  - A novel SYNE1 gene mutation in a Chinese family of Emery-Dreifuss muscular
      dystrophy-like.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the present study, a novel mutation in exon 46 at codon 2304
      (G2304R) of the SYNE1 gene is described in a Chinese family (proband, mother, and
      sister) with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy-like, which clinically manifests
      as muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, joint contracture, and without significant
      cardiac abnormalities. METHODS: Clinical examination and neuroimaging of the
      captured target region and high-throughput sequencing were performed in a family
      of four generations. Muscle changes were evaluated using magnetic resonance
      imaging and muscle biopsies. RESULTS: Target region capture sequencing yielded a
      novel missense mutation in codon 2304 (G2304R), which is a heterozygous A to G
      point mutation at position 6910 (c.6910A > G) in exon 46 of SYNE1 leading to a
      glycine-to-arginine substitution (p.Gly2304Arg). The results were also identified
      by Sanger sequencing in three family members but not in the other three
      unaffected family members and 100 control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: This mutation is
      probably pathogenic and is the first of its kind reported in a familial Emery
      Dreifuss muscular dystrophy-like.

PMID- 28583110
TI  - Jack stone in the bladder: case report of a rare entity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Jackstone is a bladder stone that has a similar appearance to toy
      jacks. However review of the English language medical literature revealed only a
      few previous reports of jackstone calculus. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case
      in which a large jackstone calculus was incidentally detected during the
      evaluation of 67 year old male presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms. X
      Ray kidney, ureter, bladder showed a large irregular shaped radio-opaque shadow
      in the pelvic region. He underwent cystolitholapaxy and transurethral resection
      of the prostate. CONCLUSION: It is important to recognize the characteristic
      shape of the urinary bladder calculi in the diagnosis of the jack stones and to
      treat the primary cause of calculi formation.

PMID- 28583111
TI  - Promoting early presentation of breast cancer in older women: sustained effect of
      an intervention to promote breast cancer awareness in routine clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Older women have poorer survival from breast cancer, which may be at
      least partly due to poor breast cancer awareness leading to delayed presentation
      and more advanced stage at diagnosis. In a randomised trial, an intervention to
      promote early presentation of breast cancer in older women increased breast
      cancer awareness at 1 year compared with usual care (24 versus 4%). We examined
      its effectiveness in routine clinical practice. METHODS: We piloted the
      intervention delivered by practising health professionals to women aged about 70
      in four breast screening services. We measured the effect on breast cancer
      awareness at 1 year compared with comparison services, where women did not
      receive the intervention. RESULTS: At 1 year, 25% of women in pilot services were
      breast cancer aware compared with 4% in comparison services (p = 0.001). The
      components of breast cancer awareness were knowledge of breast cancer non-lump
      symptoms (pilot: 63% vs comparison: 82% at 1 year; OR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.92-3.42),
      knowledge of age related risk (pilot: 8% vs comparison: 36% at 1 year; OR = 5.56,
      95% CI 4.0-7.74) and reported breast checking (pilot: 70% vs comparison: 78% at 1
      year; OR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.13-1.96). CONCLUSION: The intervention may be as
      effective in routine clinical practice as in a randomised controlled trial. This
      intervention has the potential to reduce patient delay in the diagnosis of breast
      cancer in older women. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The PEP trial was registered with the
      International Standard Registered Clinical/soCial sTudy Number (ISRCTN) as a
      clinical trial ( ISRCTN31994827 ) on 3rd October 2007.

PMID- 28583109
TI  - Prevalence and distribution of Gardnerella vaginalis subgroups in women with and
      without bacterial vaginosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is one of the leading causes of vaginal
      complaints among women of childbearing age. The role of Gardnerella vaginalis
      remains controversial due to its presence in healthy and BV-type vaginal
      microflora. The phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity of G. vaginalis suggested
      the existence of strain variants linked with different health conditions. We
      sought to analyze prevalence and distribution of G. vaginalis subgroups (clades)
      in BV-positive (n = 29), partial BV (n = 27), and BV-negative (n = 53) vaginal
      samples from Lithuanian women. METHODS: Vaginal samples were characterized by
      Amsel criteria and the Nugent method. Bacterial signatures characteristic of BV
      and concomitant infections were identified by culture and PCR. Using singleplex
      PCR assays, G. vaginalis subgroups were identified in 109 noncultured vaginal
      specimens by targeting clade-specific genes. Isolated G. vaginalis clinical
      strains were subtyped and the presence of the sialidase coding gene was detected
      by PCR. Data analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism statistical software.
      RESULTS: G. vaginalis was found in 87% of women without BV. Clade 4 was most
      frequently detected (79.4%), followed by clade 1 (63.7%), clade 2 (42.2%), and
      clade 3 (15.7%). Multi-clade G. vaginalis communities showed a positive
      association with Nugent score (NS) >= 4 (OR 3.64; 95% CI 1.48-8.91; p = 0.005).
      Clade 1 and clade 2 were statistically significantly more common in samples with
      NS 7-10 (OR 4.69; 95% CI 1.38-15.88; p = 0.01 and OR 6.26; 95% CI 2.20-17.81; p
      <= 0.001, respectively). Clade 3 and clade 4 showed no association with high NS
      (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.26-3.04; p = 1.00 and OR 1.31; 95% CI 0.39-4.41; p = 0.767,
      respectively). The gene coding for sialidase was detected in all isolates of
      clade 1 and clade 2, but not in clade 4 isolates. CONCLUSIONS: We showed an
      association between the microbial state of vaginal microflora and specific
      subgroups of G. vaginalis, the distribution of which may determine the clinical
      manifestation of BV. The frequent detection of clade 4 in the BV-negative samples
      might be due its lack of the gene coding for sialidase.

PMID- 28583112
TI  - Clinical and genetic factors associated with kidney tubular dysfunction in a real
      life single centre cohort of HIV-positive patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tenofovir (TDF) is one of the most widely used antiretroviral drug.
      Despite the high degree of tolerability a small percentage of patients
      experienced alteration in tubular function during TDF use. Intracellular TDF
      disposition is regulated by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) drug efflux transporters
      and, a reduced transport activity may be implicated in accumulation of TDF into
      the cells. The aim of our study was to assess the major determinants of TDF
      associated tubular dysfunction (KTD) in a real-life setting including the
      usefulness of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mapping into ABCC2, ABCC4
      and ABCC10 genes. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed all HIV positive patients
      who were followed at the Infectious Diseases Unit, DIBIC Luigi Sacco, University
      of Milan from April 2013 to June 2016. All patients treated with TDF who
      underwent a genotypization for the functional variants mapping in ABCC2 rs717620
      (-24 C > T), ABCC4 rs1751034 (3463 A > G) and ABCC10 rs2125739 (T > C) were
      evaluated. KTD was defined as the presence of urine phosphate wasting and/or
      proteinuria at 24 h urine analysis. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-eight patients
      were genotyped, of which 42 (26.6%) experienced signs of KTD. No statistical
      significant differences were observed among patients with or without KTD
      regarding age, gender, ethnicity and comorbidities (hypertension and diabetes).
      The percentage of patients with KTD was higher among those with "GG" genotype at
      rs1751034 of ABCC4 compared to patients without KTD [6 (14.3%) vs 4 (3.5%), p =
      0.01]. No statistical significant differences were observed regarding the
      distribution of ABCC2 and ABCC10 SNPs. Carriers of "G" allele in homozygous
      status at rs1751034 of ABCC4 showed a significant association with KTD (Odds
      Ratio 4.67, 95% CI 1.25-17.46, p = 0.02) in bivariate analysis, but this
      association was lost in multivariable analysis. A significant association between
      bone diseases and KTD was observed (Odds Ratio 3.178, 95%CI 1.529-6.603, p =
      0.002). CONCLUSIONS: According to our results ABCC4 rs1751034 could be a genetic
      determinant of KTD; however validation studies are needed for therapy
      personalization. Noteworthy, a strong association between bone disease and KTD
      was also observed.

PMID- 28583113
TI  - Patterns, control and complications of diabetes from a hospital based registry
      established in a low income country.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes registry enables practitioners to measure the
      characteristics and patterns of diabetes across their patient population. They
      also provide insight into practice patterns which can be very effective in
      improving care and preventing complications. The aim of this study was to assess
      the patterns, control levels and complications at the baseline of the patients
      attending clinic at the large tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan with
      the help of the registry. This can be used as a reference to monitor the control
      and also for a comparison between peer groups. METHODS: This was a cross
      sectional study with the data obtained from diabetes registry collected with the
      help of pre-designed questionnaire. HbA1c was used as a central diabetes measure
      and other related factors and complications were assessed with it. RESULTS: Only
      16.6% of the participants had optimal HbA1c <= 7.0%. 52.9% of the patients were
      classified as having poor control defined by HbA1c of >8%. Three fourth of the
      study population were obese according to Asian specific BMI cutoffs and majority
      had type 2 diabetes with duration of diabetes ranging from less than one to about
      35 years, mean(SD) duration being 7.6 years (7.1). Overall only 4% of the
      patients were on combine target of HbA1c, LDL and BP. Results of multivariable
      logistic regression showed that the odds of having optimal glycemic control
      increased by 3% with every one year increase in age. In addition, having longer
      duration of diabetes was associated with 56% lower odds of having good glycemic
      control. Moreover, having higher triglyceride levels was associated with 1% lower
      odds of having good glycemic control. CONCLUSION: This highlights the large
      burden of sub optimally controlled people with diabetes in Pakistani population,
      a low income country with huge diabetes prevalence and ineffective primary health
      care system creating enormous health and economic burden.

PMID- 28583114
TI  - The peripheral monocyte count is associated with the density of tumor-associated
      macrophages in the tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancer: a retrospective
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammation is widely recognized to play an important role in cancer
      progression, and the peripheral monocyte count has been reported to correlate
      with the prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer. This is based on the
      hypothesis that the peripheral monocyte level and the density of tumor-associated
      macrophages (TAMs) in the cancer microenvironment correlate with each other.
      However, the influence of TAMs on the prognosis and the correlation between the
      peripheral monocyte count and the density of TAMs have not yet been elucidated.
      METHODS: A total of 168 patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer were
      enrolled in this study. Preoperative blood samples were obtained at the time of
      the diagnosis before surgery. The expression of TAMs in the cancer
      microenvironment was assessed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The progression
      free and overall survival rate were significantly worse in the high-TAMs group
      than in the low-TAMs group (p = 0.0012 and p = 0.0207, respectively). The
      peripheral monocyte count was significantly associated with the number of TAMs
      (correlation coefficients: 0.202, p = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: The peripheral
      monocyte count was associated with the density of the TAMs, which created a
      microenvironment favorable for cancer development and were correlated with a poor
      prognosis. Therefore, the peripheral monocyte count is a useful prognostic marker
      reflecting the status of the tumor microenvironment.

PMID- 28583115
TI  - Tuberculosis arthritis of the sternoclavicular joint after uncomplicated
      falciparum malaria: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malaria and tuberculosis are co-endemic in many developing countries.
      However their associations are rarely reported. Yet, it has been suggested that a
      pathological process may link the two diseases. CASE PRESENTATION: A 20-year-old
      female patient was admitted in the internal medicine service of Aristide Le
      Dantec Hospital for uncomplicated malaria. She was previously treated for
      autoimmune hemolytic anaemia using prednisone at 5 mg per day. Clinical
      examination showed swelling in front of the sternoclavicular joint. She presented
      with fever and headache. Thick smear from blood revealed trophozoites of P.
      falciparum at parasite density of 52,300 parasites/MUl. The Ziehl-Neelsen stained
      smear showed the presence of acid-fast bacilli from the fluid puncture of the
      swelling. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was further isolated in culture. The
      diagnosis of falciparum malaria co-infection with sternoclavicular tuberculosis
      was posed. The patient was treated successfully using antimalarial drugs
      subsequently followed by multidrug antitubercular therapy. CONCLUSION:
      Interactions between malaria and tuberculosis need to be largely and
      prospectively investigated and appropriate treatment should be undertaken.

PMID- 28583116
TI  - Association between total-Tau and brain atrophy one year after first-ever stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the most serious consequence of neuronal ischemia is acute
      neuronal death, mounting evidence suggests similarities between stroke and
      neurodegenerative disease. Brain atrophy visualized on structural MRI and
      pathological cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of microtubule-associated
      protein tau (T-tau) and phosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau
      indicate neurofibrillary degeneration. We aimed to explore the association
      between CSF T-tau and brain atrophy 1 year post-stroke. METHODS: We included 210
      patients with first-ever ischemic stroke or transitory ischemic attack without
      pre-existing cognitive impairment. After 12 months, subjects underwent MRI, and
      CSF biomarkers were assessed. Using SIENAX (part of FSL), ventricular CSF volume
      and total brain volume were estimated and normalized for subject head size. The
      association between T-tau as explanatory variable and ventricular and total brain
      volume as outcome variables were studied using linear regression. RESULTS: One
      hundred eighty-two patients completed the follow-up. Forty-four had a lumbar
      puncture. Of these, 31 had their MRI with identical scan parameters. Mean age was
      70.2 years (SD 11.7). Ventricular volume on MRI was significantly associated with
      age, but not with gender. In the multiple regression model, there was a
      significant association between T-tau and both ventricular (beta 0.44, 95% CI
      376.3, 394.9, p = 0.021) and global brain volume (beta -0.50, 95% CI -565.9, 
      78.3, p = 0.011). There was no significant association between CSF T-tau 1 year
      post-stroke and baseline volumes. CONCLUSION: T-tau measured 1 year post-stroke
      is associated with measures of brain atrophy. The findings indicate that acute
      stroke may enhance or trigger tau-linked neurodegeneration with loss of neurons.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00506818 , July 23, 2007. Inclusion
      from February 2007, randomization and intervention from May 2007 and trial
      registration in July 2007.

PMID- 28583118
TI  - Single-cell study links metabolism with nutrient signaling and reveals sources of
      variability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The yeast AMPK/SNF1 pathway is best known for its role in glucose
      de/repression. When glucose becomes limited, the Snf1 kinase is activated and
      phosphorylates the transcriptional repressor Mig1, which is then exported from
      the nucleus. The exact mechanism how the Snf1-Mig1 pathway is regulated is not
      entirely elucidated. RESULTS: Glucose uptake through the low affinity transporter
      Hxt1 results in nuclear accumulation of Mig1 in response to all glucose
      concentrations upshift, however with increasing glucose concentration the nuclear
      localization of Mig1 is more intense. Strains expressing Hxt7 display a constant
      response to all glucose concentration upshifts. We show that differences in
      amount of hexose transporter molecules in the cell could cause cell-to-cell
      variability in the Mig1-Snf1 system. We further apply mathematical modelling to
      our data, both general deterministic and a nonlinear mixed effect model. Our
      model suggests a presently unrecognized regulatory step of the Snf1-Mig1 pathway
      at the level of Mig1 dephosphorylation. Model predictions point to parameters
      involved in the transport of Mig1 in and out of the nucleus as a majorsource of
      cell to cell variability. CONCLUSIONS: With this modelling approach we have been
      able to suggest steps that contribute to the cell-to-cell variability. Our data
      indicate a close link between the glucose uptake rate, which determines the
      glycolytic rate, and the activity of the Snf1/Mig1 system. This study hence
      establishes a close relation between metabolism and signalling.

PMID- 28583117
TI  - Population awareness of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in Buea,
      Cameroon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adequate awareness of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and their risk
      factors may help reduce the population's exposure to modifiable risk factors and
      thereby contribute to prevention and control strategies. There is limited data on
      knowledge among the general population in sub-Saharan Africa regarding CVD and
      risk factors. We aimed to assess the population awareness (and associated
      factors) of CVD types and risk factors in Buea, Cameroon. METHODS: This was a
      community-based cross-sectional study conducted in 2016 among randomly selected
      adults (>18 years). Data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about
      CVD types, their risk factors and warning signs for CVD events (stroke and heart
      attack) were acquired using a self-administered questionnaire. Logistic
      regression analysis was used to investigate factors associated with moderate-to
      good knowledge. RESULTS: Of the 1162 participants (61.7% women, mean age 32
      years), 52.5% had overall poor knowledge (mean score 12.1 on total of 25) on CVD
      with only about a quarter correctly identifying types of CVD. Overall, 36, 63 and
      45% were unaware of CVD risk factors, warning signs of heart attack and stroke
      respectively. In multivariable analysis; high level of education (aOR = 2.26
      (1.69-3.02), p < 0.0001), high monthly income (aOR = 1.64 (1.07-2.51), p =
      0.023), having a family history of CVD (aOR = 1.59 (1.21-2.09), p = 0.001) and
      being a former smoker (aOR = 1.11 (1.02-1.95), p = 0.043) were associated with
      moderate-to-good knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: There exists a significant gap in
      population awareness about CVDs in Cameroon and this is similar to previous
      reports. Cost-effective community health education interventions taking into
      account socioeconomic status may be beneficial in this setting.

PMID- 28583119
TI  - Surveillance for sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistant malaria parasites in the
      Lake and Southern Zones, Tanzania, using pooling and next-generation sequencing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malaria in pregnancy (MiP) remains a major public health challenge in
      areas of high malaria transmission. Intermittent preventive treatment in
      pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is recommended to prevent
      the adverse consequences of MiP. The effectiveness of SP for IPTp may be reduced
      in areas where the dhps581 mutation (a key marker of high level SP resistance) is
      found; this mutation was previously reported to be common in the Tanga Region of
      northern Tanzania, but there are limited data from other areas. The frequency of
      molecular markers of SP resistance was investigated in malaria parasites from
      febrile patients at health centres (HC) in seven regions comprising the Lake and
      Southern Zones of mainland Tanzania as part of the ongoing efforts to generate
      national-wide data of SP resistance. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was
      conducted in the outpatient departments of 14 HCs in seven regions from April to
      June, 2015. 1750 dried blood spot (DBS) samples were collected (117 to 160 per
      facility) from consenting patients with positive rapid diagnostic tests for
      malaria, and no recent (within past 2 months) exposure to SP or related drugs.
      DNA was extracted from the DBS, pooled by HC, and underwent pooled targeted
      amplicon deep sequencing to yield estimates of mutated parasite allele frequency
      at each locus of interest. RESULTS: The dhps540 mutation was common across all 14
      sites, ranging from 55 to 98.4% of sequences obtained. Frequency of the dhps581
      mutation ranged from 0 to 2.4%, except at Kayanga HC (Kagera Region, Lake Zone)
      where 24.9% of sequences obtained were mutated. The dhfr164 mutation was detected
      only at Kanyanga HC (0.06%). CONCLUSION: By pooling DNA extracts, the allele
      frequency of mutations in 14 sites could be directly determined on a single deep
      sequencing run. The dhps540 mutant was very common at all locations.
      Surprisingly, the dhps581 was common at one health center, but rare in all the
      others, suggesting that there is geographic micro-heterogeneity in mutant
      distribution and that accurate surveillance requires inclusion of multiple sites.
      A better understanding of the effect of the dhps581 mutant on the efficacy of
      IPTp-SP is needed.

PMID- 28583120
TI  - "Until people start dying in droves, no actions will be taken": perception and
      experience of HIV-preventive measures among people who inject drugs in
      northwestern Russia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Russia
      continues to spread. This exploratory study examines how HIV-prevention measures
      are perceived and experienced by PWID in the northwestern region of Russia.
      METHODS: Purposive sampling was used to obtain a variety of cases that could
      reflect possible differences in perception and experience of HIV-prevention
      efforts. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with PWID residing in the
      Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg regions. RESULTS: The main sources of prevention
      information on HIV for PWID were media campaigns directed to the general
      population. These campaigns were effective with regard to communicating general
      knowledge on HIV but were ineffective in terms of risk behavior change. The
      subjects generally had trust in medical professionals and their advice but did
      not follow prevention recommendations. Most informants had no or very little
      prior contact with harm reduction services. On the level of attitudes towards HIV
      prevention efforts, we discovered three types of fatalism among PWID: "personal
      fatalism" - uselessness of HIV prevention efforts, if one uses drugs; "prevention
      related fatalism" - prevention programs are low effective, because people do not
      pay attention to them before they get infected; "state-related fatalism" - the
      lack of belief that the state is concerned with HIV prevention issues. Despite
      this fatalism the participants opined that NGOs would do a better job than the
      state as they are "really working" with risk groups. CONCLUSIONS: As HIV
      prevention campaigns targeted at the general population and prevention advice
      received from medical professionals are not sufficiently effective for PWID in
      terms of risk behavior change, prevention programs, such as community-based and
      peer-based interventions specifically tailored to the needs of PWID are needed,
      which can be achieved by a large expansion of harm reduction services in the
      region. Personal communication should be a crucial element in such interventions
      in addition to harm reduction materials provision. Training programs, peer
      outreach, and culture-change interventions which try to alter widespread
      fatalistic norms or attitudes towards their health are especially needed, since
      this study indicates that fatalism is a major barrier for behavior change.

PMID- 28583121
TI  - Harm reduction in hospitals.

PMID- 28583122
TI  - Decision-making experiences of family members of older adults with moderate
      dementia towards community and residential care home services: a grounded theory
      study protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Caring and supporting older people with dementia have become a major
      public health priority. Recent reports have also revealed a diminishing number of
      family carers to provide dementia care in the future. Carers who are engaged in
      the caring role are known to bear significant psychological, practical and
      economic challenges as the disease advances over time. Seemingly, evidence
      indicates that the burden of care can be relieved by formal services. This study
      aims to explore decision-making experiences of family members of older adults
      with moderate dementia towards the use of community support (CS) and residential
      care home (RCH) services. METHOD: A large multi-site constructivist grounded
      theory in a range of non-government organizations and a private aged home will
      frame this Hong Kong study. Purposive sampling will begin the recruitment of
      family members, followed by theoretical sampling. It is estimated that more than
      100 family members using CS and RCH services will participate in an interview.
      The process of successive constant comparative analysis will be undertaken.
      DISCUSSION: The final product, a theory, will generate an integrated and
      comprehensive conceptual understanding which will explain the processes
      associated with decision-making of family members for dementia sufferers. Deeper
      understanding of issues including, but not exclusive to, service needs,
      expectations and hopes among family carers for improving service support to serve
      dementia sufferers in CS and RCH services will also be revealed. Importantly,
      this study seeks to illustrate the practical and strategic aspects of the theory
      and how it may be useful to transfer its applicability to various service
      settings to better support those who deliver formal and informal care to the
      dementia population.

PMID- 28583123
TI  - Arsenic affects inflammatory cytokine expression in Gallus gallus brain tissues.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The heavy metal arsenic is widely distributed in nature and posses a
      serious threat to organism's health. However, little is known about the arsenic
      induced inflammatory response in the brain tissues of birds and the relationship
      and mechanism of the inflammatory response. The purpose of this study was to
      explore the effects of dietary arsenic on the expression of inflammatory
      cytokines in the brains of Gallus gallus. RESULTS: Seventy-two 1-day-old male Hy
      line chickens were divided into a control group, a low arsenic trioxide (As2O3)
      treated (7.5 mg/kg) group, a middle As2O3-treated (15 mg/kg) group, and a high
      As2O3-treated (30 mg/kg) group. Arsenic exposure caused obvious ultrastructural
      changes. The mRNA levels of the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF
      kappaB) and of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including inducible NO synthase
      (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and prostaglandin E synthase (PTGEs), in
      chicken brain tissues (cerebrum, cerebellum, thalamus, brainstem and
      myelencephalon) on days 30, 60 and 90, respectively, were measured by real-time
      PCR. The protein expression of iNOS was detected by western blot. The results
      showed that after being treated with As2O3, the levels of inflammatory-related
      factor NF-kappaB and pro-inflammatory cytokines in chicken brain tissues
      increased (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Arsenic exposure in the chickens triggered
      host defence and induced an inflammatory response by regulating the expression of
      inflammatory-related genes in the cerebrum, cerebellum, thalamus, brainstem and
      myelencephalon. These data form a foundation for further research on arsenic
      induced neurotoxicity in Gallus gallus.

PMID- 28583124
TI  - Newborn sex-specific transcriptome signatures and gestational exposure to fine
      particles: findings from the ENVIRONAGE birth cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy has been associated with
      adverse birth outcomes and health problems later in life. We investigated sex
      specific transcriptomic responses to gestational long- and short-term exposure to
      particulate matter with a diameter < 2.5 MUm (PM2.5) in order to elucidate
      potential underlying mechanisms of action. METHODS: Whole genome gene expression
      was investigated in cord blood of 142 mother-newborn pairs that were enrolled in
      the ENVIRONAGE birth cohort. Daily PM2.5 exposure levels were calculated for each
      mother's home address using a spatial-temporal interpolation model in combination
      with a dispersion model to estimate both long- (annual average before delivery)
      and short- (last month of pregnancy) term exposure. We explored the association
      between gene expression levels and PM2.5 exposure, and identified modulated
      pathways by overrepresentation analysis and gene set enrichment analysis.
      RESULTS: Some processes were altered in both sexes for long- (e.g. DNA damage) or
      short-term exposure (e.g. olfactory signaling). For long-term exposure in boys
      neurodevelopment and RhoA pathways were modulated, while in girls defensin
      expression was down-regulated. For short-term exposure we identified pathways
      related to synaptic transmission and mitochondrial function (boys) and immune
      response (girls). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first whole genome gene expression
      study in cord blood to identify sex-specific pathways altered by PM2.5. The
      identified transcriptome pathways could provide new molecular insights as to the
      interaction pattern of early life PM2.5 exposure with the biological development
      of the fetus.

PMID- 28583125
TI  - Considerations and guidance in designing equity-relevant clinical trials.
AB  - Health research has documented disparities in health and health outcomes within
      and between populations. When these disparities are unfair and avoidable they may
      be referred to as health inequities. Few trials attend to factors related to
      health inequities, and there is limited understanding about how to build
      consideration of health inequities into trials. Due consideration of health
      inequities is important to inform the design, conduct and reporting of trials so
      that research can build evidence to more effectively address health inequities
      and importantly, ensure that inequities are not aggravated. In this paper, we
      discuss approaches to integrating health equity-considerations in randomized
      trials by using the PROGRESS Plus framework (Place of residence,
      Race/ethnicity/culture/language, Occupation, Gender, Religion, Education, Socio
      economic status, Social capital and "Plus" that includes other context specific
      factors) and cover: (i) formulation of research questions, (ii) two specific
      scenarios relevant to trials about health equity and (iii) describe how the
      PROGRESS Plus characteristics may influence trial design, conduct and analyses.
      This guidance is intended to support trialists designing equity-relevant trials
      and lead to better design, conduct, analyses and reporting, by addressing two
      main issues: how to avoid aggravating inequity among research participants and
      how to produce information that is useful to decision-makers who are concerned
      with health inequities.

PMID- 28583126
TI  - Blood pressure in young adulthood and residential greenness in the early-life
      environment of twins.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous research shows that, besides risk factors in adult life, the
      early-life environment can influence blood pressure and hypertension in adults.
      However, the effects of residential traffic exposure and residential greenness in
      the early-life on blood pressure in young adulthood are currently unknown.
      METHODS: Ambulatory (24-h) blood pressures of 278 twins (132 pairs) of the East
      Flanders Prospective Twins Study were obtained at the age of 18 to 25 years.
      Prenatal and adulthood residential addresses were geocoded and used to assign
      prenatal and postnatal traffic and greenness indicators. Mixed modelling was
      performed to investigate blood pressure in association with greenness while
      adjusting for potential confounding factors. RESULTS: Night-time systolic blood
      pressure was inversely associated with greenness at the residential address in
      twins living at the same address their entire life (non-movers, n = 97, 34.9%).
      An interquartile increase in residential greenness exposure (1000 m radius) was
      associated with a 3.59 mmHg (95% CI: -6.0 to -1.23; p = 0.005) lower adult night
      systolic blood pressure. Among twins who were living at a different address than
      their birth address at time of the measurement (n = 181, 65.1%), night-time blood
      pressure was inversely associated with residential surrounding greenness at adult
      age as well as with residential greenness in early-life. However after additional
      adjustment for residential greenness exposure in adulthood, only residential
      greenness exposure in early-life was significantly associated with night systolic
      blood pressure. While no significant effect of adult residential greenness with
      adult blood pressure was observed, while accounting for the early-life greenness
      exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Lower residential greenness in the early-life environment
      was independently associated with a higher adult blood pressure. This indicates
      that residential greenness has persistent effects on blood pressure.

PMID- 28583127
TI  - CMOST: an open-source framework for the microsimulation of colorectal cancer
      screening strategies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related
      mortality. CRC incidence and mortality can be reduced by several screening
      strategies, including colonoscopy, but randomized CRC prevention trials face
      significant obstacles such as the need for large study populations with long
      follow-up. Therefore, CRC screening strategies will likely be designed and
      optimized based on computer simulations. Several computational microsimulation
      tools have been reported for estimating efficiency and cost-effectiveness of CRC
      prevention. However, none of these tools is publicly available. There is a need
      for an open source framework to answer practical questions including testing of
      new screening interventions and adapting findings to local conditions. METHODS:
      We developed and implemented a new microsimulation model, Colon Modeling Open
      Source Tool (CMOST), for modeling the natural history of CRC, simulating the
      effects of CRC screening interventions, and calculating the resulting costs.
      CMOST facilitates automated parameter calibration against epidemiological adenoma
      prevalence and CRC incidence data. RESULTS: Predictions of CMOST were highly
      similar compared to a large endoscopic CRC prevention study as well as
      predictions of existing microsimulation models. We applied CMOST to calculate the
      optimal timing of a screening colonoscopy. CRC incidence and mortality are
      reduced most efficiently by a colonoscopy between the ages of 56 and 59; while
      discounted life years gained (LYG) is maximal at 49-50 years. With a dwell time
      of 13 years, the most cost-effective screening is at 59 years, at $17,211
      discounted USD per LYG. While cost-efficiency varied according to dwell time it
      did not influence the optimal time point of screening interventions within the
      tested range. CONCLUSIONS: Predictions of CMOST are highly similar compared to a
      randomized CRC prevention trial as well as those of other microsimulation tools.
      This open source tool will enable health-economics analyses in for various
      countries, health-care scenarios and CRC prevention strategies. CMOST is freely
      available under the GNU General Public License at
      https://gitlab.com/misselwb/CMOST.

PMID- 28583128
TI  - Terpene constituents of the aerial parts, phenolic content, antibacterial
      potential, free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity of Callistemon
      citrinus (Curtis) Skeels (Myrtaceae) from Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Volatile oil from aromatic plants has been used by ancient Egyptians
      in embalming for the inhibition of bacterial growth and prevention of decay,
      Callistemon citrinus is used in traditional therapies for the treatment of
      bronchitis, cough, inflammation and as an antimicrobial herbs. This study
      examines the essential constituents of the volatile oils obtained from the aerial
      parts of the plant as well as its antioxidant activity, free radical scavenging,
      phenolic content and the antibacterial potential of the oils. METHODS: A portion
      of 500 g, 250 g and 150 g of the leaves, flowers and stems of this plant
      respectively were subjected to hydro-distillation process for three hours. The
      oils collected from the various plant parts were immediately subjected to GC-MS
      analysis. The overall phenolic content of the leaves oil, radical scavenging,
      antibacterial action and antioxidant activities of the essential oils of both the
      leaves and flowers of Callistemon citrinus were determined using standard
      methods, with free radical DPPH and ABTS as a reference antioxidant. RESULTS:
      Analyses of the three oils revealed a total of twenty-six components for the
      leaves oil representing 96.84% of the total oil composition, forty-one components
      for the flowers oil accounting for 98.92% of the whole composition and ten
      components for the stem oil amounting to 99.98% of the entire oil constituents.
      The dominant compounds in the leaves oil were eucalyptol (48.98%) and alpha
      terpineol (8.01%), while alpha-eudesmol (12.93%), caryophyllene (11.89%), (-)
      bornyl-acetate (10.02%) and eucalyptol (8.11%) were the main constituents of the
      flowers oil. In the same vein, the leading constituents in the stems oil were
      eucalyptol (56.00%) and alpha-pinene (31.03%). The antioxidant capacities of both
      the leaves and flowers oils of the plant were evaluated and their IC50 were (1.49
      and 1.13) for DPPH and (0.14 and 0.03) for ABTS assay respectively. The
      antibacterial activities of the oils from the (leaves and flowers) were also
      examined and were found to have wide range of activities against the bacterial
      strains used in this study. CONCLUSION: Observations drawn from this experiment
      shows clearly that the leaves and flowers of Callistemon citrinus possess
      phenolic compounds and cyclic ether of several pharmacological behaviors.

PMID- 28583129
TI  - Co-expressed Pathways DataBase for Tomato: a database to predict pathways
      relevant to a query gene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gene co-expression, the similarity of gene expression profiles under
      various experimental conditions, has been used as an indicator of functional
      relationships between genes, and many co-expression databases have been developed
      for predicting gene functions. These databases usually provide users with a co
      expression network and a list of strongly co-expressed genes for a query gene.
      Several of these databases also provide functional information on a set of
      strongly co-expressed genes (i.e., provide biological processes and pathways that
      are enriched in these strongly co-expressed genes), which is generally analyzed
      via over-representation analysis (ORA). A limitation of this approach may be that
      users can predict gene functions only based on the strongly co-expressed genes.
      RESULTS: In this study, we developed a new co-expression database that enables
      users to predict the function of tomato genes from the results of functional
      enrichment analyses of co-expressed genes while considering the genes that are
      not strongly co-expressed. To achieve this, we used the ORA approach with several
      thresholds to select co-expressed genes, and performed gene set enrichment
      analysis (GSEA) applied to a ranked list of genes ordered by the co-expression
      degree. We found that internal correlation in pathways affected the significance
      levels of the enrichment analyses. Therefore, we introduced a new measure for
      evaluating the relationship between the gene and pathway, termed the percentile
      (p)-score, which enables users to predict functionally relevant pathways without
      being affected by the internal correlation in pathways. In addition, we evaluated
      our approaches using receiver operating characteristic curves, which concluded
      that the p-score could improve the performance of the ORA. CONCLUSIONS: We
      developed a new database, named Co-expressed Pathways DataBase for Tomato, which
      is available at http://cox-path-db.kazusa.or.jp/tomato . The database allows
      users to predict pathways that are relevant to a query gene, which would help to
      infer gene functions.

PMID- 28583130
TI  - High prevalence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi zoonotic genotype D in captive golden
      snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellanae) in zoos in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the dominant specie of microsporidia which
      can infect both anthroponotic and zoonotic species. The golden snub-nosed monkey
      is an endangered primate which can also infect by E. bieneusi. To date, few
      genetic data on E. bieneusi from golden snub-nosed monkeys has been published.
      Therefore, to clarify the prevalence and genotypes of E. bieneusi in captive
      golden snub-nosed monkeys is necessary to assess the potential for zoonotic
      transmission. RESULT: We examined 160 golden snub-nosed monkeys from six zoos in
      four cities in China, using PCR and comparative sequence analysis of the
      ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS). The overall prevalence of E.
      bieneusi was 46.2% (74/160); while the prevalence was 26.7%, 69.1%, 69.4% and
      33.3% in Shanghai Zoo, Shanghai Wild Animal Park, Tongling Zoo, and Taiyuan Zoo
      respectively (P = 0.006). A total of seven E. bieneusi genotypes were found that
      included four known (D, J, CHG1, and CHG14) and three new (CM19-CM 21) genotypes.
      The most common genotype was D (54/74, 73.0%), followed by J (14/74, 18.9%);
      other genotypes were restricted to one or two samples. Phylogenetic analysis
      revealed that genotype D belonged to the previously-characterized Group 1, with
      zoonotic potential; whereas genotypes J, CHG1, CHG14 and CM19-CM 21 clustered in
      the previously-characterized Group 2, the so-called cattle host specificity
      group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of high prevalence of zoonotic E. bieneusi
      genotypes D and J in golden snub-nosed monkeys suggest that golden snub-nosed
      monkeys may be the reservoir hosts for human microsporidiosis, and vice versa.

PMID- 28583133
TI  - Comparative physical genome mapping of malaria vectors Anopheles sinensis and
      Anopheles gambiae.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anopheles sinensis is a dominant natural vector of Plasmodium vivax
      in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Recent genome sequencing of An. sinensis
      provides important insights into the genomic basis of vectorial capacity.
      However, the lack of a physical genome map with chromosome assignment and
      orientation of sequencing scaffolds hinders comparative analyses with other
      genomes to infer evolutionary changes relevant to the vector capacity. RESULTS:
      Here, a physical genome map for An. sinensis was constructed by assigning 52
      scaffolds onto the chromosomes using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).
      This chromosome-based genome assembly composes approximately 36% of the total An.
      sinensis genome. Comparisons of 3955 orthologous genes between An. sinensis and
      Anopheles gambiae identified 361 conserved synteny blocks and 267 inversions
      fixed between these two lineages. The rate of gene order reshuffling on the X
      chromosome is approximately 3.2 times higher than that on the autosomes.
      CONCLUSIONS: The physical map will facilitate detailed genomic analysis of An.
      sinensis and contribute to understanding of the patterns and mechanisms of large
      scale genome rearrangements in anopheline mosquitoes.

PMID- 28583131
TI  - Association between store food environment and customer purchases in small
      grocery stores, gas-marts, pharmacies and dollar stores.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Purchases at small/non-traditional food stores tend to have poor
      nutritional quality, and have been associated with poor health outcomes,
      including increased obesity risk The purpose of this study was to examine whether
      customers who shop at small/non-traditional food stores with more health
      promoting features make healthier purchases. METHODS: In a cross-sectional
      design, data collectors assessed store features in a sample of 99 small and non
      traditional food stores not participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition
      Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN in
      2014. Customer intercept interviews (n = 594) collected purchase data from a bag
      check and demographics from a survey. Store measures included fruit/vegetable and
      whole grain availability, an overall Healthy Food Supply Score (HFSS), healthy
      food advertisements and in-store placement, and shelf space of key items.
      Customer nutritional measures were analyzed using Nutrient Databases System for
      Research (NDSR), and included the purchase of >=1 serving of fruits/vegetables;
      >=1 serving of whole grains; and overall Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010)
      score for foods/beverages purchased. Associations between store and customer
      measures were estimated in multilevel linear and logistic regression models,
      controlling for customer characteristics and store type. RESULTS: Few customers
      purchased fruits and vegetables (8%) or whole grains (8%). In fully adjusted
      models, purchase HEI-2010 scores were associated with fruit/vegetable shelf space
      (p = 0.002) and the ratio of shelf space devoted to healthy vs. less healthy
      items (p = 0.0002). Offering >=14 varieties of fruit/vegetables was associated
      with produce purchases (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.2-12.3), as was having produce visible
      from the store entrance (OR 2.3 95% CI 1.0 to 5.8), but whole grain availability
      measures were not associated with whole grain purchases. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies
      addressing both customer demand and the availability of healthy food may be
      necessary to improve customer purchases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinialTrials.gov:
      NCT02774330 . Registered May 4, 2016 (retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28583134
TI  - Sphingosine kinase 1 expression enhances colon tumor growth.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence suggests that sphingosine kinase 1
      (SphK1)/sphingosine 1-phosphate pathway plays a pivotal role in colon
      carcinogenesis. METHODS: To further support the evidence, we investigated the
      effects of SphK1 using three separate animal models: SphK1 knockout mice, SphK1
      overexpressing transgenic mice, and SphK1 overexpression in human colon cancer
      xenografts. Using azoxymethane (AOM, colon carcinogen), we analyzed colon tumor
      development in SphK1 KO and SphK1 overexpression in intestinal epithelial cells
      regulated by a tet-on system. Then, we analyzed subcutaneous tumor growth using
      xenografts of HT-29 human colon cancer cell. Finally, immunohistochemical
      analyses for SphK1 and COX-2 were performed on human colon cancer tissue
      microarray. RESULTS: SphK1 KO mice, compared to wild-type mice, demonstrated a
      significant inhibition in colon cancer development induced by AOM (58.6% vs.
      96.4%, respectively, P < 0.005). Tumor multiplicity (1.00 vs. 1.64 per colon,
      respectively, P < 0.05) and tumor volume (14.82 mm3 vs. 29.10 mm3, P < 0.05) were
      both significantly reduced in SphK1 KO mice compared to wild-type mice. Next,
      SphK1 overexpression in HT-29 enhanced tumor growth as compared to GFP control in
      nude mice (229.5 mm3 vs. 90.9 mm3, respectively, P < 0.05). Furthermore,
      overexpression of SphK1 in intestinal epithelial cells significantly enhances AOM
      induced colon tumor formation (P < 0.05). Lastly, SphK1 and COX-2 intensity
      tended to reduce overall survival of late stage colon cancer patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: SphK1 expression regulates the early stage of colon carcinogenesis
      and tumor growth, thus inhibition of SphK1 may be an effective strategy for colon
      cancer chemoprevention.

PMID- 28583132
TI  - A bacosides containing Bacopa monnieri extract alleviates allodynia and
      hyperalgesia in the chronic constriction injury model of neuropathic pain in
      rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current therapy of neuropathic pain is inadequate and is limited
      by the extent of pain relief and the occurrence of dose dependant side effects.
      Insufficient control of pain with conventional medications prompts the use of
      complementary and alternative medicine therapies by patients with neuropathic
      pain. This study therefore investigated a standardized methanolic extract of
      Bacopa monnieri, a widely reputed nootropic plant, for prospective
      antinociceptive effect in the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model of
      neuropathic pain. METHODS: Placement of four loose ligatures around the sciatic
      nerve produced partial denervation of the hindpaw in rats. Bacopa monnieri (40
      and 80 mg/kg, p.o) and the positive control, gabapentin (75 mg/kg, i.p), were
      administered daily after CCI or sham surgery and the behavioral paradigms of
      static- and dynamic-allodynia (paw withdrawal threshold to von Frey filament
      stimulation [PWT] and paw withdrawal latency to light-brushing [PWL]), cold
      allodynia (paw withdrawal duration [PWD] to acetone), heat- (PWL to heat
      stimulus) and punctate-hyperalgesia (PWD to pin-prick) were assessed on days 3,
      7, 14 and 21. RESULTS: CCI consistently generated static- (days 3-21), dynamic-
      (days 14-21) and cold-allodynia (days 3-21) plus heat- and mechano-hyperalgesia
      (days 3-21). The tested doses of Bacopa monnieri significantly attenuated the CCI
      induced allodynia and hyperalgesia, exemplified by increased PWT (days 7-21), PWL
      to light brushing (days 14-21) and heat (days 7-21) as well as decreased PWD to
      pin prick and cold stimuli (days 3-21). The extract also counterbalanced the CCI
      induced aberrations in the nociceptive behaviors by increasing the pain threshold
      to that of pre-surgery baseline. Gabapentin also afforded analogous beneficial
      behavioral profile but of higher magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest
      that Bacopa monnieri can be used as adjuvant therapy for neuropathic pain
      conditions afflicted with allodynia and hyperalgesia.

PMID- 28583135
TI  - Outcomes and prognostic factors of non-HIV patients with pneumocystis jirovecii
      pneumonia and pulmonary CMV co-infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) and pulmonary cytomegalovirus
      (CMV) infection are common opportunistic infections among immunocompromised
      patients. However, few studies have evaluated their co-infection, especially
      among non-HIV patients. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the outcomes and
      prognostic factors among non-HIV patients with PJP according to their CMV
      infection status. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated non-HIV patients
      who were diagnosed with PJP between January 2009 and January2016.The patients
      were classified and compared according to their pulmonary CMV infection status
      (positive infection: bronchoalveolar lavage fluid [BALF] CMV DNA loads of
      >500copies/mL). RESULTS: Among 70 non-HIV patients with PJP, we identified 38
      patients (54.3%) with pulmonary CMV infection. There was no significant
      difference in the mortality rates for the two groups (p = 0.15). Pulmonary CMV
      infection was significantly more common among patients who were receiving
      glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants, compared to corticosteroids only (p =
      0.02). Pulmonary CMV infection was also significantly associated with severe
      dyspnea, a lower PaO2/FiO2, and the presence of centrilobular nodules (p =
      0.008). Higher CMV DNA loads in the BALF were positively associated with
      mortality (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Combined therapy using corticosteroids and
      other immunosuppressants may be a risk factor for pulmonary CMV co-infection
      among patients with PJP. In addition, CMV pneumonia should be considered when
      centrilobular nodules and/or severe hypoxemia are observed in non-HIV patients
      with PJP. Furthermore, antiviral treatment should be promptly initiated for
      patients with a high CMV DNA load in BALF, based on their poor prognosis.

PMID- 28583137
TI  - Protective effects of synbiotic diets of Bacillus coagulans, Lactobacillus
      plantarum and inulin against acute cadmium toxicity in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cadmium is a heavy metal that causes oxidative stress and has toxic
      effects in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of two
      probiotics along with a prebiotic in preventing the toxic effects of cadmium in
      rats. METHODS: Twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four
      groups namely control, cadmium only, cadmium along with Lactobacillus plantarum
      (1 * 109 CFU/day) and inulin (5% of feedstuff) and cadmium along with Bacillus
      coagulans (1 * 109 spore/day) and inulin (5% of feedstuff). Cadmium treated
      groups received 200 MUg/rat/day CdCl2 administered by gavage. During the 42-day
      experimental period, they were weighed weekly. For evaluation of changes in
      oxidative stress, the levels of some biochemicals and enzymes of serum including
      SOD, GPX, MDA, AST, ALT, total bilirubin, BUN and creatinine, and also SOD level
      of livers were measured at day 21 and 42 of treatment. The cadmium content of
      kidney and liver was determined by using atomic absorption mass
      spectrophotometry. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed
      by Duncan's post hoc test. RESULTS: Treatment of cadmium induced rats with
      synbiotic diets significantly improved the liver enzymes and biochemical
      parameters that decreased AST, ALT, total bilirubin, BUN and metal accumulation
      in the liver and kidney and increased body weight, serum and liver SOD values in
      comparison with the cadmium-treated group. No significant differences were
      observed with MDA and GPX values between all groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This
      study showed that synbiotic diets containing probiotics (L. plantarum and B.
      coagulans) in combination with the prebiotic (inulin) can reduce the level of
      cadmium in the liver and kidney, preventing their damage and recover antioxidant
      enzymes in acute cadmium poisoning in rat.

PMID- 28583136
TI  - Social-structural factors influencing periods of injection cessation among
      marginalized youth who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada: an ethno
      epidemiological study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Injection drug use is associated with HIV and hepatitis C
      transmission, overdose, and other preventable harms. These harms are heightened
      for structurally vulnerable injection drug-using populations, as their social
      conditions pose barriers to safer injecting. Previous research on injection
      cessation has largely focused on adult drug-using populations. Little qualitative
      work has examined the social, structural, and environmental factors that shape
      periods of injection cessation among youth and young adults. Such research is
      essential to understanding how we can best reduce harms among this vulnerable
      population as they move in and out of periods of injection cessation. METHODS: We
      conducted 22 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with street-involved young
      people who use drugs (SY), focused on characterizing their transitions into
      periods of injection cessation and perceived barriers to injection cessation.
      Adopting an ethno-epidemiological approach, participants who had experienced at
      least 6 months of injection cessation were purposively recruited from an ongoing
      prospective cohort study of SY in Vancouver, Canada to participate in qualitative
      interviews. Qualitative interview findings were triangulated with the findings of
      a longitudinal program of ethnographic research with SY in this setting. This
      ethno-epidemiological approach allowed for a more robust exploration of
      contextual factors surrounding drug use patterns than would be possible through
      traditional epidemiological methods alone. RESULTS: Findings indicate that
      periods of injection cessation were influenced by access to harm reduction
      informed youth-focused services, transitions in route of administration (e.g.,
      from injecting methamphetamine to the smoking of methamphetamine), and the
      provision of housing and social supports (e.g., from friends, family, and care
      providers). Conversely, participants indicated that inadequate social supports
      and, for some, abstinence-focused treatment methods (e.g., 12-step programs),
      impeded efforts to cease injecting. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce harms, it is
      imperative to reorient attention toward the social, structural, and spatial
      contexts that surround injection drug use and shape periods of injection
      cessation for SY. There is an urgent need for more comprehensive youth-focused
      services for those engaged in injection drug use, and further study of innovative
      means of engaging youth.

PMID- 28583139
TI  - Cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction by methanolic leaves extracts of four
      Annonaceae plants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uvaria longipes (Craib) L.L.Zhou, Y.C.F.Su & R.M.K.Saunders,
      Artabotrys burmanicus A.DC, Marsypopetalum modestum (Pierre) B.Xue &
      R.M.K.Saunders and Dasymaschalon sp. have been used for traditional medicine to
      treat cancer-like symptoms in some ethnic groups of Thailand and Laos. METHODS:
      We evaluated the anti-cancer activity of these Annonaceae plants against several
      human cancer cell lines. The apoptosis induction was detected by
      Annexin/propidium iodide (PI) staining. Phytochemical screening was tested by
      standard protocols and bioactive compounds were determined by HPLC. RESULTS: The
      crude extracts from leaves of U. longipes, Dasymaschalon sp., A. burmanicus, and
      M. modestum showed particular effects that were found to vary depending on the
      cancer cell line, suggesting that the effect was in a cell-type specific manner.
      Interestingly, the induction of apoptotic cell death was prominent by the leaves
      derived crude extract of M. modestum. This crude was, therefore, subjected to
      cell cycle analysis by PI staining. Results showed that this crude extract
      arrested cell cycle and increased the percentage of cells in the SubG1 phase in
      some cancer cell lines. The phytochemical screening tests indicated that all
      crude extracts contained tannins and flavonoids. HPLC of flavonoids using
      standards identified rutin as an active compound in U. longipes and Dasymaschalon
      sp., whereas quercetin was found in U. longipes and M. modestum. CONCLUSIONS:
      These crude extracts provide a new source for rutin and quercetin, which might be
      capable of inducing cancer cell apoptotic death in a cell-type specific manner.
      This suggests, by analyzing the major bioactive compounds, the potential use of
      these crudes for chemotherapy in the future.

PMID- 28583140
TI  - Live birth after fresh versus frozen single blastocyst transfer (Frefro
      blastocyst): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple pregnancies are one of the major safety concerns of in vitro
      fertilization (IVF) due to the increased risk of maternal and neonatal
      complications. Single embryo transfer is the most effective way to reduce the
      risk of multiple pregnancies. Selection of the embryo and optimization of the
      implantation environment are crucial to retain the success rate when the number
      of transferred embryos is diminished. Fresh embryo transfer with supra
      physiological levels of hormones has been suggested to have an adverse effect on
      implantation. Elective frozen embryo transfer has been suggested to result in a
      higher rate of live birth than fresh embryo transfer. However, there is still a
      lack of evidence from randomized clinical trials comparing the efficacy and
      safety between frozen and fresh single blastocyst transfers. METHODS/DESIGN: We
      are conducting a randomized controlled trial in women aged 20-35 undergoing their
      first cycle of IVF with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection. After
      ovarian stimulation with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist protocol,
      women who obtain four or more embryos on day 3 of the embryo culture are
      randomized into two parallel groups: a single fresh blastocyst transfer group and
      a single frozen blastocyst transfer group (all blastocysts vitrified and a
      deferred frozen blastocyst transfer). The primary outcome is singleton live
      birth. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will provide evidence for the
      efficacy and safety of the strategy of elective frozen single blastocyst transfer
      in women with a good prognosis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial
      Registry, ChiCTR-IOR-14005405 . Registered on 30 Oct 2014.

PMID- 28583138
TI  - Molecular characterization of breast cancer cell lines through multiple omic
      approaches.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer cell lines are frequently used as model systems to
      study the cellular properties and biology of breast cancer. Our objective was to
      characterize a large, commonly employed panel of breast cancer cell lines
      obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC 30-4500 K) to enable
      researchers to make more informed decisions in selecting cell lines for specific
      studies. Information about these cell lines was obtained from a wide variety of
      sources. In addition, new information about cellular pathways that are activated
      within each cell line was generated. METHODS: We determined key protein
      expression data using immunoblot analyses. In addition, two analyses on serum
      starved cells were carried out to identify cellular proteins and pathways that
      are activated in these cells. These analyses were performed using a commercial
      PathScan array and a novel and more extensive phosphopeptide-based kinome
      analysis that queries 1290 phosphorylation events in major signaling pathways.
      Data about this panel of breast cancer cell lines was also accessed from several
      online sources, compiled and summarized for the following areas: molecular
      classification, mRNA expression, mutational status of key proteins and other
      possible cancer-associated mutations, and the tumorigenic and metastatic capacity
      in mouse xenograft models of breast cancer. RESULTS: The cell lines that were
      characterized included 10 estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, 12 human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-amplified and 18 triple negative breast cancer
      cell lines, in addition to 4 non-tumorigenic breast cell lines. Within each
      subtype, there was significant genetic heterogeneity that could impact both the
      selection of model cell lines and the interpretation of the results obtained. To
      capture the net activation of key signaling pathways as a result of these
      mutational combinations, profiled pathway activation status was examined. This
      provided further clarity for which cell lines were particularly deregulated in
      common or unique ways. CONCLUSIONS: These two new kinase or "Kin-OMIC" analyses
      add another dimension of important data about these frequently used breast cancer
      cell lines. This will assist researchers in selecting the most appropriate cell
      lines to use for breast cancer studies and provide context for the interpretation
      of the emerging results.

PMID- 28583141
TI  - Characterization and effectiveness of pay-for-performance in ophthalmology: a
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To identify, characterize and compare existing pay-for-performance
      approaches and their impact on the quality of care and efficiency in
      ophthalmology. METHODS: A systematic evidence-based review was conducted.
      English, French and German written literature published between 2000 and 2015
      were searched in the following databases: Medline (via PubMed), NCBI web site,
      Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Econlit and the Cochrane Library. Empirical as well as
      descriptive articles were included. Controlled clinical trials, meta-analyses,
      randomized controlled studies as well as observational studies were included as
      empirical articles. Systematic characterization of identified pay-for-performance
      approaches (P4P approaches) was conducted according to the "Model for
      Implementing and Monitoring Incentives for Quality" (MIMIQ). Methodological
      quality of empirical articles was assessed according to the Critical Appraisal
      Skills Programme (CASP) checklists. RESULTS: Overall, 13 relevant articles were
      included. Eleven articles were descriptive and two articles included empirical
      analyses. Based on these articles, four different pay-for-performance approaches
      implemented in the United States were identified. With regard to quality and
      incentive elements, systematic comparison showed numerous differences between P4P
      approaches. Empirical studies showed isolated cost or quality effects, while a
      simultaneous examination of these effects was missing. CONCLUSION: Research
      results show that experiences with pay-for-performance approaches in
      ophthalmology are limited. Identified approaches differ with regard to quality
      and incentive elements restricting comparability. Two empirical studies are
      insufficient to draw strong conclusions about the effectiveness and efficiency of
      these approaches.

PMID- 28583142
TI  - Radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy versus standard procedure in the
      treatment of left-sided pancreatic cancer: A systemic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy (RAMPS), first
      reported by Strasberg in 2003, has attracted increasing attention in the
      treatment of left-sided pancreatic cancer. The limited number of cases eligible
      for RAMPS makes it difficult to perform any prospective randomized trial of RAMPS
      versus the standard procedure. Therefore, we performed this systemic review and
      meta-analysis of the current data to clarify the role of the RAMPS procedure.
      METHODS: A literature search was performed in electronic databases, including
      PubMed, Medline, Embase, CNKI and the Cochrane Library. Studies comparing RAMPS
      with the standard procedure were included in this meta-analysis. R0 resection
      rate, recurrence rate at the end of the follow-up, overall survival (OS) and
      disease-free survival (DFS) were measured as primary outcomes. Revman 5.3 was
      used to perform the analysis. RESULTS: Six retrospective cohort studies with a
      total number of 378 patients were included in our analysis. Meta-analysis
      revealed that RAMPS was correlated with higher R0 resection rates [Odds Ratio
      (OR) 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.19 (1.16 ~ 4.13); P = 0.02] and successful
      harvest of more lymph nodes [weighted mean difference (WMD) 95% CI, 7.06 (4.52 ~
      9.60); P < 0.01] compared with the standard procedure. However, no statistically
      significant difference was found between the procedures with respect to
      recurrence rates [OR 95% CI, 0.66 (0.40 ~ 1.09); P = 0.10], OS [Hazard ratio (HR)
      95% CI, 0.65 (0.42 ~ 1.00); P = 0.05] or DFS [HR 95% CI, 1.02 (0.62 ~ 1.68); P =
      0.93]. CONCLUSIONS: RAMPS is safe and oncologically superior to the standard
      procedure for the treatment of left-sided pancreatic cancer. However, high-grade
      evidence will be necessary to confirm the potential survival benefits of RAMPS.

PMID- 28583144
TI  - Extramedullary versus intramedullary femoral alignment technique in total knee
      arthroplasty: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is no consensus whether the use of the extramedullary femoral
      cutting guide takes advantage over the intramedullary one in total knee
      arthroplasty. The aim of this study was to compare the extramedullary femoral
      alignment guide system with the conventional intramedullary alignment guide
      system for lower limb alignment, blood loss, and operative time during total knee
      arthroplasty. METHODS: The Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National
      Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang Chinese Periodical, Google, and
      reference lists of all the included studies were searched for randomized
      controlled trials. The following parameters were compared between the
      extramedullary technique and the intramedullary technique: (1) lower limb coronal
      alignment, (2) coronal alignment of femoral component, (3) sagittal alignment of
      femoral component, (4) blood loss, (5) and operation time. RESULTS: Four
      randomized controlled trials consisting of 358 knees were included in our study.
      There was no significant difference between the extramedullary and intramedullary
      groups for the lower limb coronal alignment (RR = 1.20, 95%CI 0.28~5.21, n.s.),
      coronal alignment of femoral component (RR = 0.65, 95%CI 0.19~2.22, n.s.), and
      sagittal alignment of femoral component (RR = 0.73, 95%CI 0.38~1.41, n.s.). A
      reduced blood loss was associated with the use of the extramedullary guide (MD = 
      120.34, 95%CI -210.08~-30.59, P = 0.009). No significant difference in operation
      time was noted between the two groups (MD = 1.41, 95%CI -1.82~4.64, n.s.).
      CONCLUSIONS: Neither extramedullary nor intramedullary femoral alignment is more
      accurate than the other in facilitating the femoral cut in total knee
      arthroplasty. Use of the extramedullary guide results in less blood loss and
      exhibits a similar operation time as compared with the intramedullary guide.

PMID- 28583143
TI  - Fatigue mitigation with SleepTrackTXT2 in air medical emergency care systems:
      study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most air medical Emergency Medical Services (EMS) clinicians work
      extended duration shifts, and more than 50% report inadequate sleep, poor sleep
      quality, and/or poor recovery between shifts. The SleepTrackTXT pilot trial
      (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02063737) showed that use of mobile phone text messages
      could impact EMS clinician self-reported fatigue and sleepiness during long
      duration shifts. The purpose of the SleepTrackTXT2 trial is to leverage lessons
      learned from the first SleepTrackTXT study and test an enhanced intervention
      targeting air medical EMS clinicians. METHODS/DESIGN: We will conduct a multi
      site randomized trial with a sample of adult EMS clinicians recruited from four
      air medical EMS systems located in the midwest, northeastern, and southern USA.
      Participants will be allocated to one of two possible arms for a 4-month (120
      day) study period. The intervention arm will involve text-message assessments of
      sleepiness, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating at the beginning, every 4 hours
      during, and at the end of scheduled shifts. Participants reporting high levels of
      sleepiness, fatigue, or difficulty with concentration will receive one of nine
      randomly selected intervention messages to promote behavior change during shift
      work to improve alertness. Intervention participants will receive a text-message
      report on Friday of each week that shows their sleep debt over the previous 7
      days followed by a text message to promote paying back sleep debt recovery when
      feasible. Participants in the control group receive text messages that only
      include assessments. Both arms will receive text-message assessments of perceived
      recovery since last shift, sleepiness, fatigue, or difficulty with concentration
      at noon (1200 hours) on days between scheduled shifts (off-duty days). We have
      two aims for this study: (1) to determine the short-term impact of the enhanced
      SleepTrackTXT2 intervention on air medical clinician fatigue reported in real
      time during and at the end of shift work, and (2) to determine the long-term
      impact of the SleepTrackTXT2 intervention on sleep quality and sleep health
      indicators including hours of sleep and recovery between shift work. DISCUSSION:
      The SleepTrackTXT2 trial may provide evidence of real-world effectiveness that
      would support widespread expansion of fatigue mitigation interventions in
      emergency care clinician shift workers. The trial may specifically support use of
      real-time assessments and interventions delivered via mobile technology such as
      text messaging. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02783027 . Registered
      on 23 May 2016.

PMID- 28583145
TI  - Influences of De Qi induced by acupuncture on immediate and accumulated analgesic
      effects in patients with knee osteoarthritis: study protocol for a randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: De Qi is a special sensational response upon acupuncture needling.
      According to traditional acupuncture theory, the treatment is "effective only
      after Qi arrival"; that is, De Qi is an important indicator of therapeutic
      efficacy and good prognosis. However, it is still disputable whether De Qi
      improves the efficacy of acupuncture therapy. This prospective, randomized
      controlled trial aims to explore the influence of De Qi induced by acupuncture on
      immediate and accumulated analgesic effects in patients with knee osteoarthritis
      (KOA). METHODS/DESIGN: Eighty-eight patients with KOA will be recruited and
      randomly assigned to the De Qi group (enhanced stimulation to evoke De Qi) and
      the control group (weak stimulation to avoid De Qi) in the Department of
      Acupuncture and Physical Therapy, Beijing Luhe Hospital Affiliated to Capital
      Medical University. Each patient will receive three 30-minute sessions per week
      for 4 consecutive weeks and undergo a 1 month follow-up. The severity of knee
      pain, as measured on a 100-mm visual analog scale (where 0 indicates no pain and
      100 indicates intolerable pain) will be used as the primary outcome, and the Knee
      injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score will be used as the secondary outcome.
      Both indexes will be measured before and after the 1st (for evaluating the
      immediate analgesic effects), 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th (for evaluating the
      accumulated analgesic effects) treatments and at the end of the follow-up. The
      intensity of the De Qi sensation will be assessed by the Chinese-Modified
      Massachusetts General Hospital Acupuncture Sensation Scale at the end of each
      treatment. Side effects during the treatments will be recorded and analyzed as
      well. The comparisons between the De Qi group and the control group will be done
      by using both an intention-to-treat analysis and a per-protocol analysis.
      DISCUSSION: This prospective randomized controlled study will be helpful in
      enhancing our understanding of the analgesic effect of De Qi on patients with KOA
      and may provide a clinical basis for further investigation of the relationship
      between De Qi and the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture, thereby offering some
      evidence for the role of De Qi in an efficacious acupuncture therapy. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-IIR-16008972 . Registered
      on 4 August 2016 Additional file 2.

PMID- 28583147
TI  - Resting energy expenditure and optimal nutrition in critical care: how to guide
      our calorie prescriptions.

PMID- 28583146
TI  - The effect of volumetric breast density on the risk of screen-detected and
      interval breast cancers: a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the light of the breast density legislation in the USA, it is
      important to know a woman's breast cancer risk, but particularly her risk of a
      tumor that is not detected through mammographic screening (interval cancer).
      Therefore, we examined the associations of automatically measured volumetric
      breast density with screen-detected and interval cancer risk, separately.
      METHODS: Volumetric breast measures were assessed automatically using Volpara
      version 1.5.0 (Matakina, New Zealand) for the first available digital mammography
      (DM) examination of 52,814 women (age 50 - 75 years) participating in the Dutch
      biennial breast cancer screening program between 2003 and 2011. Breast cancer
      information was obtained from the screening registration system and through
      linkage with the Netherlands Cancer Registry. We excluded all screen-detected
      breast cancers diagnosed as a result of the first digital screening examination.
      During a median follow-up period of 4.2 (IQR 2.0-6.2) years, 523 women were
      diagnosed with breast cancer of which 299 were screen-detected and 224 were
      interval breast cancers. The associations between volumetric breast measures and
      breast cancer risk were determined using Cox proportional hazards analyses.
      RESULTS: Percentage dense volume was found to be positively associated with both
      interval and screen-detected breast cancers (hazard ratio (HR) 8.37 (95% CI 4.34
      16.17) and HR 1.39 (95% CI 0.82-2.36), respectively, for Volpara density grade
      category (VDG) 4 compared to VDG1 (p for heterogeneity < 0.001)). Dense volume
      (DV) was also found to be positively associated with both interval and screen
      detected breast cancers (HR 4.92 (95% CI 2.98-8.12) and HR 2.30 (95% CI 1.39
      3.80), respectively, for VDG-like category (C)4 compared to C1 (p for
      heterogeneity = 0.041)). The association between percentage dense volume
      categories and interval breast cancer risk (HR 8.37) was not significantly
      stronger than the association between absolute dense volume categories and
      interval breast cancer risk (HR 4.92). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that both
      absolute dense volume and percentage dense volume are strong markers of breast
      cancer risk, but that they are even stronger markers for predicting the
      occurrence of tumors that are not detected during mammography breast cancer
      screening.

PMID- 28583148
TI  - Daily cost of delay to adequate antibiotic treatment among patients surviving a
      hospitalization with community-onset Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia or sepsis.

PMID- 28583149
TI  - Effect sizes in ongoing randomized controlled critical care trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An important limitation of many critical care trial designs is that
      they hypothesize large, and potentially implausible, reductions in mortality.
      Interpretation of trial results could be improved by systematic assessment of the
      plausibility of trial hypotheses; however, such assessment has not been attempted
      in the field of critical care medicine. The purpose of this study was to
      determine clinicians' views about prior probabilities and plausible effect sizes
      for ongoing critical care trials where the primary endpoint is landmark
      mortality. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of clinical trial registries
      in September 2015 to identify ongoing critical care medicine trials where
      landmark mortality was the primary outcome, followed by a clinician survey to
      obtain opinions about ten large trials. Clinicians were asked to estimate the
      probability that each trial would demonstrate a mortality effect equal to or
      larger than that used in its sample size calculations. RESULTS: Estimates
      provided by individual clinicians varied from 0% to 100% for most trials, with a
      median estimate of 15% (IQR 10-20%). The median largest absolute mortality
      reduction considered plausible was 4.5% (IQR 3.5-5%), compared with a median
      absolute mortality reduction used in sample size calculations of 5% (IQR 3.6-10%)
      (P = 0.27). CONCLUSIONS: For some of the largest ongoing critical care trials,
      many clinicians regard prior probabilities as low and consider that plausible
      effects on absolute mortality are less than 5%. Further work is needed to
      determine whether pooled estimates obtained by surveying clinicians are
      replicable and accurate or whether other methods of estimating prior probability
      are preferred.

PMID- 28583151
TI  - Identification and validation of a Schistosoma japonicum U6 promoter.
AB  - BACKGROUND: RNA polymerase III promoters have been widely used to express short
      hairpin-RNA (shRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and small guide RNA (sgRNA) in gene
      functional analysis in a variety of organisms including Schistosoma mansoni.
      However, no endogenous RNA polymerase III promoters have been identified in
      Schistosoma japonicum. The lack of appropriate promoters in S. japonicum has
      hindered its gene functional analysis. Identification of functional promoters in
      S. japonicum is therefore in urgent need. RESULTS: Via sequence alignment, a 347
      bp sequence upstream from the coding region of S. japonicum U6 small nuclear RNA
      (snRNA) was identified, cloned, and named as S. japonicum U6 (sjU6) promoter. A
      sgRNA sequence named as sgRNA970 was designed, and its Cas9 nuclease guiding
      activity was confirmed by in vitro cleavage assay. The sjU6 promoter was ligated
      with sgRNA970 coding sequence by overlap PCR to generate a sjU6-sgRNA970
      expression cassette. The expression cassette was inserted into a lentiviral
      plasmid to construct the pHBLV-sgRNA970 plasmid. First, we tested the sjU6
      promoter activity in HEK293 cells by transfecting HEK293 cells with the pHBLV
      sgRNA970 plasmid. RT-PCR amplification of the total RNA from the transfected
      HEK293 cells confirmed the presence of sgRNA970 transcript and indicated sjU6
      promoter was functional to initiate transcription in HEK293 cells. Then we
      transduced the lentivirus expressing Cas9-ZsGreen fusion protein into 14 dpi
      schistosomula to test whether lentivirus was capable to induce exogenous gene
      expression in S. japonicum. Fluorescence microscopy and western blot results
      confirmed the expression of Cas9-ZsGreen fusion protein in S. japonicum.
      Therefore, this lentiviral system was adapted to test promoter activity in S.
      japonicum. Finally, we transduced 14 dpi S. japonicum with lentivirus produced
      from the pHBLV-sgRNA970 plasmid. RT-PCR amplification of the total RNA from
      transduced schistosomula confirmed the presence of sgRNA970 transcript and
      therefore indicated sjU6 promoter was functional to initiate transcription in S.
      japonicum. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, sjU6 promoter would be the first
      identified and validated endogenous RNA polymerase III promoter in S. japonicum,
      which could be used for future CRISPR/Cas9 studies in S. japonicum.

PMID- 28583150
TI  - Prevalence of pregnancy-relevant infections in a rural setting of Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although infectious diseases still account for a high burden of
      morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, simultaneous investigations on
      multiple infections affecting maternal and child health are missing. METHODS: We
      conducted a cross-sectional, single-centre pilot study in a rural area of Ghana
      to assess the infectiological profile during pregnancy. Screening of 180
      expectant mothers was done by vaginal swabs and serology to detect the most
      common pregnancy-relevant infections. They were also interviewed for potential
      risk factors, outcome of previous pregnancies, and socio-economic aspects.
      RESULTS: We found a high prevalence of infections caused by hepatitis B virus
      (16.7% HBs antigen positive). In contrast, infections caused by hepatitis C virus
      (1.1% anti-HCV) and HIV (0.6%) were rare. Maternal malaria was frequent (10.6%),
      despite increasing acceptance of intermittent preventive treatment during
      pregnancy (IPTp). Group B streptococci were present in 10.6% of all pregnant
      women. Absence of antibodies against varicella zoster virus in 43.2%, Toxoplasma
      gondii in 26.8%, parvovirus B19 in 20.0%, and rubella virus in 15.7% makes a
      significant proportion of pregnant women susceptible for acquiring primary
      infections. Whereas all study participants had specific IgG antibodies against
      human cytomegalovirus, infections with Listeria, Brucella, or Neisseria
      gonorrhoeae as well as active syphilis were absent. CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study
      in a rural community in Ghana indicates an urgent need for action in dealing at
      least with high-prevalent pregnancy-relevant infections, such as hepatitis B,
      malaria and those caused by group B streptococci. In addition, the resulting
      prevalence rates of various other infections may offer guidance for health
      officials to prioritize possible future intervention schemes.

PMID- 28583152
TI  - Utilization of ultrasonography to detect developmental dysplasia of the hip: when
      reality turns selective screening into universal use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) occurs in 3-5 of 1000 live
      births and is associated with known risk factors. In most countries, formal
      practice for early detection of DDH entails the combination of risk factor
      identification and physical examination of the hip, while the golden standard
      diagnostic instrument is hip ultrasonography (US). This practice is commonly
      referred to as selective screening. Infants with positive US findings are treated
      with a Pavlik harness, a dynamic abduction splint. The objective of our study was
      to evaluate hip US utilization patterns in Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), a
      large health plan. METHODS: Study population: All MHS members, born between June
      2011 and October 2014, who underwent at least one US before the age of 15 months.
      STUDY VARIABLES: Practice specialty and number of enrolled infants. Positive US
      result was defined as referral to an abduction splint. Cost was based on Ministry
      of Health price list. Chi square and correlation coefficients were employed in
      the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of the 115,918 infants born during the study
      period, 67,491 underwent at least one hip US. Of these, 60.6% were female, mean
      age at performance: 2.2 months. Of those who underwent US, 625 (0.93%) were
      treated with a Pavlik harness: 0.24% of the male infants and 1.60% of the female
      infants (p < 0.001). Analysis of physician practice characteristics revealed that
      referral to US was significantly higher among pediatricians as compared with
      general practitioners (60% and 35%, respectively). Practice volume had no
      influence on referral rate. Direct medical costs of the 107 hip US examinations
      performed that led to detection of one positive case (treated by Pavlik):
      US$10,000. CONCLUSIONS: Current pattern of hip US utilization for early detection
      of DDH resembles universal screening more closely than selective screening. This
      can inform policy decisions as to whether a stricter selective screening or a
      formal move to universal screening is appropriate in Israel.

PMID- 28583153
TI  - In vitro antibacterial activity of poly (amidoamine)-G7 dendrimer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nano-scale dendrimers are synthetic macromolecules that frequently
      used in medical and health field. Traditional anibiotics are induce bacterial
      resistence so there is an urgent need for novel antibacterial drug invention. In
      the present study seventh generation poly (amidoamine) (PAMAM-G7) dendrimer was
      synthesized and its antibacterial activities were evaluated against
      representative Gram- negative and Gram-positive bacteria. METHODS: PAMAM-G7 was
      synthesized with divergent growth method. The structural and surface of PAMAM-G7
      were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron
      microscope and fourier transform infrared. Pseudomonas. aeruginosa (n = 15), E.
      coli (n = 15), Acinetobacter baumanni (n = 15), Shigella dysenteriae (n = 15),
      Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 10), Proteus mirabilis (n = 15), Staphylococcus aureus
      (n = 15) and Bacillus subtilis (n = 10) have been used for antibacterial activity
      assay. Additionally, representative standard strains for each bacterium were
      included. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) was determined using
      microdilution method. Subsequently, Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) was
      determined by sub-culturing each of the no growth wells onto Mueller Hinton agar
      medium. The cytotoxicity of PAMAM-G7 dendrimer were evaluated in HCT116 and NIH 3
      T3 cells by MTT assay. RESULTS: The average size of each particle was
      approximately 20 nm. PAMAM-G7 was potentially to inhibit both Gram positive and
      gram negative growth. The MIC50 and MIC90 values were determined to be 2-4 MUg/ml
      and 4-8 MUg/ml, respectively. The MBC50 and MBC90 values were found to be 64-256
      MUg/ml and 128-256 MUg/ml, respectively. The cytotoxity effect of dendrimer on
      HCT116 and NIH 3 T3 cells is dependent upon exposure time to and concentration of
      dendrimers. The most reduction (44.63 and 43%) in cell viability for HCT116 and
      NIH 3 T3 cells was observed at the highest concentration, 0.85 MUM after 72 h
      treatmentm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study we conclude that PAMAM-G7
      dendrimer could be a potential candidate as a novel antibacterial agent.

PMID- 28583154
TI  - A cohort analysis of neonatal hospital mortality rate and predictors of neonatal
      mortality in a sub-urban hospital of Cameroon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Cameroon, sustainable effort needs to be done to reduce the
      current neonatal mortality rate from 21 deaths per 1000 live births to the global
      target of fewer than ten deaths per 1000 live births by 2035. We aimed to
      determine the neonatal hospital mortality rate and predictors of neonatal
      hospital mortality (NHM) in a major referral sub-urban hospital of Cameroon in a
      bit to formulate interventions to curb this burden. METHODS: This was a
      prospective cohort study consecutively enrolling all neonates admitted into the
      neonatology unit of the Bamenda Regional Hospital (BRH) from November 2015 to
      February 2016. Through interviewed questionnaires to parents and physical
      examination of neonates, we studied socio-demographic characteristics, antenatal
      history, intrapartum history and clinical findings of neonates. Neonates further
      underwent relevant laboratory investigations for diagnosis. All neonates were
      followed up till 28 days after the post-menstrual term for the neonatal outcomes.
      Multiple logistic regression was used to determine predictors of NHM. RESULTS: We
      enrolled 332 out of 337 neonates admitted to the neonatology unit of BRH during
      the study period. Fifty-three percent (53%) were males. Their mean gestational
      age and birth weight were 36.9 +/- 3.9 weeks and 2677.2 +/- 923 g, respectively.
      The main causes of neonatal admissions were complications of preterm birth
      (32.2%), neonatal infections (31.3%), and birth asphyxia (14.5%). The neonatal
      hospital mortality rate was 15.7%. NHM was related to complications of preterm
      birth (69%), birth asphyxia (23%) and neonatal infections (6%). A five-minute
      Apgar score less than seven was the only predictor of NHM (aOR: 16.41; CI 95%:
      6.35-42.47; p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Neonatal mortality still remains a significant
      health problem in sub-urban Cameroon, mainly as a result of three pathologies;
      complications of preterm birth, birth asphyxia, and infections. There is an
      urgent need to revamp the current health policies through the improvement of
      antenatal care, skilled birth attendants, neonatal resuscitation, timely
      detection and treatment of complications of preterm births, birth asphyxia, and
      infections.

PMID- 28583155
TI  - Molecular diagnosis of Pseudoterranova decipiens s.s in human, France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anisakis and Pseudoterranova are the main genera involved in human
      infections caused by nematodes of the Anisakidae family. Species identification
      is complicated due to the lack of differential morphological characteristics at
      the larval stage, thus requiring molecular differentiation. Pseudoterranova
      larvae ingested through raw fish are spontaneously eliminated in most cases, but
      mechanical removal by means of endoscopy might be required. To date, only very
      few cases of Pseudoterranova infection have been reported in France. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 19-year-old woman from Northeastern France detected, while
      brushing her teeth, a larva exiting through her mouth. The patient who presented
      with headache, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps reported having eaten baked cod.
      The worm was a fourth-stage larva with a size of 22 * 0.9 mm, and molecular
      biology identified it as Pseudoterranova decipiens sensu stricto (s. s.). In a
      second P. decipiens infection case, occurring a few months later, a worm exited
      through the patient's nose after she had eaten raw sea bream. CONCLUSION: These
      two cases demonstrate that Pseudoterranova infection is not uncommon among French
      patients. Therefore, molecular techniques should be more widely applied for a
      better characterization of anisakidosis epidemiology in France.

PMID- 28583156
TI  - Patient-reported negative experiences related to caries and its treatment among
      Swedish adult patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that dental caries should be regarded as a
      chronic disease as many individuals repeatedly develop new caries lesions. How
      this is perceived by caries active patients is unclear. The aim of this study was
      to measure patient-reported attitudes and negative experiences related to caries
      and dental treatment. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to 134 caries active
      (CA) and 40 caries inactive (CI) adult patients treated at a Swedish public
      dental service clinic. The questionnaire included items regarding patient
      reported oral health; attitudes towards caries and efforts to prevent them; and
      negative experiences related to caries and dental treatment. Questionnaire data
      were supplemented with data on caries and caries prophylaxis from patients'
      dental records. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on items related to
      patients' perceptions of problems to see whether scales could be created.
      Experiences, perceptions and dental records of CA and CI patients were compared.
      RESULTS: The overall response rate was 69%. Dental records confirmed that CA
      patients had significantly more decayed teeth per year and a longer period of
      caries-active time than CI patients. Factor analysis resulted in 3 distinct
      scales measuring problems related to caries; 1) caries-related information; 2)
      negative experiences; and 3) negative treatment/staff attitudes. A fourth scale
      measuring perceived problems related to caries was also created. The CA group
      reported significantly more problems related to caries and dental treatment,
      received significantly more caries-related information, and reported
      significantly more negative treatment experiences compared to CI patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Caries prophylaxis methods need to be improved in order to better
      meet the needs of caries active patients and to create a more positive experience
      with dental care.

PMID- 28583158
TI  - Gastrointestinal parasites of canids, a latent risk to human health in Tunisia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although data on the parasite environmental contamination are crucial
      to implement strategies for control and treatment, information about zoonotic
      helminths is very limited in Tunisia. Contamination of areas with canid faeces
      harboring infective parasite elements represents a relevant health-risk impact
      for humans. The aim of this study was to assess the environmental contamination
      with eggs and oocysts of gastrointestinal parasites of dogs and wild canids in
      Tunisia with special attention to those that can be transmitted to humans.
      RESULTS: One thousand two hundred and seventy faecal samples from stray dogs and
      104 from wild canids (red foxes and golden jackals) were collected from different
      geographical regions throughout Tunisia. The helminth eggs and protozoan oocysts
      were concentrated by sucrose flotation and identified by microscopic examination.
      The most frequently observed parasites in dog samples were Toxocara spp. (27.2%),
      E. granulosus (25.8%), and Coccidia (13.1%). For wild canid faeces, the most
      commonly encountered parasites were Toxocara spp. (16.3%) followed by Capillaria
      spp. (9.6%). The parasite contamination of dog faeces varied significantly from
      one region to another in function of the climate. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge,
      the study highlights for the first time in Tunisia a serious environmental
      contamination by numerous parasitic stages infective to humans. Efforts should be
      made to increase the awareness of the contamination risk of such parasites in the
      environment and implement a targeted educational program.

PMID- 28583157
TI  - Role of nutrition support in adult cardiac surgery: a consensus statement from an
      International Multidisciplinary Expert Group on Nutrition in Cardiac Surgery.
AB  - Nutrition support is a necessary therapy for critically ill cardiac surgery
      patients. However, conclusive evidence for this population, consisting of well
      conducted clinical trials is lacking. To clarify optimal strategies to improve
      outcomes, an international multidisciplinary group of 25 experts from different
      clinical specialties from Germany, Canada, Greece, USA and Russia discussed
      potential approaches to identify patients who may benefit from nutrition support,
      when best to initiate nutrition support, and the potential use of pharmaco
      nutrition to modulate the inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass.
      Despite conspicuous knowledge and evidence gaps, a rational nutritional support
      therapy is presented to benefit patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28583159
TI  - Exploring the strategies that midwives in British Columbia use to promote normal
      birth.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rates of normal birth have been declining steadily over the past 20
      years, despite the evidence of the benefits to mother and baby. This is most
      obvious in steadily increasing caesarean section rates across countries and
      studies of the factors involved suggest it may be more to do with the
      organization of maternity care and the preferences of healthcare providers than
      changes in maternal or demographic conditions. The proportion of women in British
      Columbia (BC) receiving care from a midwife continues to grow and there is a
      particular focus on promoting and supporting normal pregnancy and birth in the
      midwifery philosophy of care. In BC, women receiving care from a midwife are less
      likely to have a caesarean section and other birth interventions. METHODS: An
      interpretive approach, based on interpretive phenomenology was used to explore
      the experiences of midwives in BC of normal birth and the strategies that they
      use to keep birth normal. Fourteen experienced midwives were purposively selected
      from across the range of practice, geographical, and rural/urban contexts to
      participate in depth interviews. Data were analyzed using Thematic Network
      Analysis. RESULTS: Seven key themes were identified in the data: working with
      women from the early pregnancy, informing choice, the birth environment, careful
      watching and waiting, managing early labour, helping the woman to cope with
      labour, and tools in the tool kit. CONCLUSIONS: Midwives in BC work closely with
      women from early pregnancy to prepare them for a normal birth, and as
      "instruments of care" they adopt a range of approaches to support women to
      achieve this. The emphasis on continuity of care in the BC model of midwifery
      care plays a vital role in this.

PMID- 28583160
TI  - Differential expression of Cathepsin E in transthyretin amyloidosis: from
      neuropathology to the immune system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence supports a key role for inflammation in the
      neurodegenerative process of familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP). While
      there seems to be an overactivation of the neuronal interleukin-1 signaling
      pathway, the immune response is apparently compromised in FAP. Accordingly,
      little immune cell infiltration is observed around pre-fibrillar or fibrillar
      amyloid deposits, with the underlying mechanism for this phenomenon remaining
      poorly understood. Cathepsin E (CtsE) is an important intermediate for antigen
      presentation and chemotaxis, but its role in the pathogenesis of FAP disease
      remains unknown. METHODS: In this study, we used both mouse primary macrophages
      and in vivo studies based on transgenic models of FAP and human samples to
      characterize CtsE expression in different physiological systems. RESULTS: We show
      that CtsE is critically decreased in bone marrow-derived macrophages from a FAP
      mouse model, possibly contributing for cell function impairment. Compromised
      levels of CtsE were also found in injured nerves of transgenic mice and, most
      importantly, in naive peripheral nerves, sensory ganglia, murine stomach, and
      sural nerve biopsies derived from FAP patients. Expression of CtsE in tissues was
      associated with transthyretin (TTR) deposition and differentially regulated
      accordingly with the physiological system under study. Preventing deposition with
      a TTR small interfering RNA rescued CtsE in the peripheral nervous system (PNS).
      In contrast, the expression of CtsE increased in splenic cells (mainly monocytes)
      or peritoneal macrophages, indicating a differential macrophage phenotype.
      CONCLUSION: Altogether, our data highlights the potential of CtsE as a novel FAP
      biomarker and a possible modulator for innate immune cell chemotaxis to the
      disease most affected tissues-the peripheral nerve and the gastrointestinal
      tract.

PMID- 28583161
TI  - A case-control study on egg consumption and risk of stroke among Iranian
      population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most available data that linked intake of egg to risk of stroke came
      from western countries, with conflicting findings. We aimed to examine the
      association between egg consumption and risk of stroke among Iranian adults.
      METHODS: In a hospital-based case-control study, 195 stroke patients,
      hospitalized in Alzahra University Hospital, were selected as cases and 195
      control subjects, from patients hospitalized in other wards with no history of
      cerebrovascular diseases or neurologic disorders, were recruited. A validated 168
      item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess participants' usual
      dietary intake, including egg consumption, over the previous year. Other required
      information was gathered by the use of questionnaires. RESULTS: Consumption of
      eggs was associated with lower odds of stroke, such that after adjustment for
      potential confounders, those in the highest category of egg intake (>2 eggs/week)
      were 77% lower odds to have stroke, compared with those with the lowest category
      of egg intake (<1 egg/week) (OR 0.23; 95% CI 0.11-0.45). Further controlling for
      body mass index strengthened the association (OR 0.20; 95% CI 0.09-0.41).
      CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence indicating that high intake of eggs (>2 eggs/week)
      during the past 1 year was associated with a lower risk of stroke. Further
      prospective studies are required to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28583162
TI  - Steroids in chronic subdural hematomas (SUCRE trial): study protocol for a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a common neurological pathology,
      especially in older patients. The actual "gold standard" of treatment is surgical
      evacuation, with various techniques used across neurosurgical teams. Over the
      years, there has been growing evidence that inflammatory processes play a major
      role in the pathogenesis of CSDH. In that context, the use of corticosteroids has
      been proposed alone or as an adjuvant treatment to surgery. However, this
      practice remains very empirical and there is a need for high-quality-of-evidence
      studies to clarify the role of corticosteroids in the management of CSDH.
      METHODS/DESIGN: We propose a double-blind, randomized controlled trial comparing
      methylprednisolone versus placebo in the treatment of CSDH without clinical
      and/or radiological signs of severity. The treatment will be administered daily
      for a duration of 3 weeks, at a dose of 1 mg/kg. The primary endpoint will be the
      delay of occurrence of surgical treatment at 1 month following the introduction
      of the treatment. Secondary endpoints will include the rate of recourse to
      surgery, survival rate, quality of life and functional assessments, occurrence of
      systemic secondary effects and radiological assessment of the response to
      treatment. This multimodal assessment will be done at 1, 3 and 6 months. Two
      hundred and two patients (101 per arm) are expected to be included considering
      our primary hypotheses. DISCUSSION: This trial started in June 2016; its results
      may open interesting alternatives to surgery in the management of patients
      harboring a CSDH, and may provide insights into the natural history of this
      common pathology. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02650609 .
      Registered on 4 January 2016. Graphical output of the OBF boundaries.

PMID- 28583163
TI  - Erratum to: Physical human-robot interaction of an active pelvis orthosis: toward
      ergonomic assessment of wearable robots.

PMID- 28583165
TI  - Validity and reliability of the Sri Lankan version of the kidney disease quality
      of life questionnaire (KDQOL-SFTM).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The disabling symptoms, various food and fluid restrictions,
      restrictions to social life and stigma and taboos attached to Chronic Kidney
      Disease (CKD), have shown to pose a significant bearing on a patient's Quality of
      Life (QOL). In the present study the Kidney Disease QOL-Short Form (KDQOL-SFTM)
      was culturally adapted, modified and translated into Sinhala and validity and
      reliability were assessed. METHOD: The process to culturally adapt the Kidney
      Disease Specific Component (KDSC) of KDQOL-SFTM was carried out by the modified
      Delphi process with a group of experts. The construct validity of the KDSC was
      assessed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Appraising construct validity
      of SF-36 component of KDQOL-SFTM was done by assessing the convergent and
      discriminant validity using the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix technique (MTMM).
      Randomly selected 250 CKD patients attending the five renal clinics in Polonnauwa
      were used to assess the construct validity. To assess the test-retest reliability
      of the instrument, within a period of one week, 30 randomly selected study
      participants were visited at their households. RESULTS: Two hundred and fifty
      adults with documented evidence of CKD participated. The EFA carried out using
      principal component factoring method and rotated by Varimax orthogonal method
      resulted in 14 factors with Eigen values ranging from 1.062-8.746. This 14 factor
      model explained 84.1% of total variance of the initial system. The communalities
      extracted for domains were all close to one. All the items were loaded to one or
      more domains with factor coefficients of more than 0.4, not requiring any of the
      items to be dropped. Few items which showed similarly high factor coefficients in
      more than one factor were assigned to a factor ensuring the pattern in the
      theoretical framework of the questionnaire based on expert opinion and vigorous
      analysis of literature. Convergent and divergent validity assessed using MTMM,
      revealed satisfactory construct validity. Cronbach's alpha of all domains of
      KDQOL-SFTM except for cognitive function and Social function, exceeded Nunnally's
      criteria of 0.7. The Intra class Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were more than
      0.8 for all the domains, which indicated good test re-test reliability.
      CONCLUSIONS: KDQOL-SFTM is a valid and reliable instrument which can be used to
      assess QOL of CKD patients in Sri Lanka.

PMID- 28583164
TI  - Health professionals' views on the barriers and enablers to evidence-based
      practice for acute stroke care: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adoption of contemporary evidence-based guidelines for acute stroke
      management is often delayed due to a range of key enablers and barriers. Recent
      reviews on such barriers focus mainly on specific acute stroke therapies or
      generalised stroke care guidelines. This review examined the overall barriers and
      enablers, as perceived by health professionals which affect how evidence-based
      practice guidelines (stroke unit care, thrombolysis administration, aspirin usage
      and decompressive surgery) for acute stroke care are adopted in hospital
      settings. METHODOLOGY: A systematic search of databases was conducted using
      MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL),
      Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine
      Database from 1990 to 2016. The population of interest included health
      professionals working clinically or in roles responsible for acute stroke care.
      There were no restrictions to the study designs. A quality appraisal tool for
      qualitative studies by the Joanna Briggs Institute and another for quantitative
      studies by the Centre for Evidence-Based Management were used in the present
      study. A recent checklist to classify barriers and enablers to health
      professionals' adherence to evidence-based practice was also used. RESULTS: Ten
      studies met the inclusion criteria out of a total of 9832 search results. The
      main barriers or enablers identified included poor organisational or
      institutional level support, health professionals' limited skills or competence
      to use a particular therapy, low level of awareness, familiarity or confidence in
      the effectiveness of a particular evidence-based therapy, limited medical
      facilities to support evidence uptake, inadequate peer support among health
      professionals', complex nature of some stroke care therapies or guidelines and
      patient level barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Despite considerable evidence supporting
      various specific therapies for stroke care, uptake of these therapies is
      compromised by barriers across organisational, patients, guideline interventions
      and health professionals' domains. As a result, we recommend that future
      interventions and health policy directions should be informed by these findings
      in order to optimise uptake of best practice acute stroke care. Further studies
      from low- to middle-income countries are needed to understand the barriers and
      enablers in such settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The review protocol was registered
      in the international prospective register of systematic reviews, PROSPERO 2015
      (Registration Number: CRD42015023481 ).

PMID- 28583166
TI  - Tardive akathisia related to the anti-hypertensive agent Sevikar-a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tardive akathisia (TA) is a subtype of tardive syndrome, and its
      etiology is still uncertain. Sevikar is an anti-hypertensive agent containing
      both amlodipine and olmesartan, and has never been reported to have an adverse
      reaction in patients with tardive syndrome. CASE PRESENTATION: A 57-year-old
      woman who took Sevikar for hypertension for 10 years developed TA one and a half
      years before receiving any psychiatric treatment. After switching from Sevikar to
      bisoprolol, she reported obvious improvement in her akathisia. CONCLUSIONS: It is
      noteworthy that her TA developed before receiving any antidepressant medication,
      and that her TA improved after discontinuation of Sevikar. In light of these
      pharmacodynamic properties, it is therefore concluded that use of amlodipine and
      olmesartan might have caused TA in this patient. We reported this rare case to
      remind clinicians to be aware of possible akathisia when using amlodipine and
      olmesartan in combination as anti-hypertensive agents.

PMID- 28583167
TI  - Engineering biomimetic periosteum with beta-TCP scaffolds to promote bone
      formation in calvarial defects of rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a critical need for the management of large bone defects.
      The purpose of this study was to engineer a biomimetic periosteum and to combine
      this with a macroporous beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) scaffold for bone
      tissue regeneration. METHODS: Rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells
      (rBMSCs) were harvested and cultured in different culture media to form
      undifferentiated rBMSC sheets (undifferentiated medium (UM)) and osteogenic cell
      sheets (osteogenic medium (OM)). Simultaneously, rBMSCs were differentiated to
      induced endothelial-like cells (iECs), and the iECs were further cultured on a UM
      to form a vascularized cell sheet. At the same time, flow cytometry was used to
      detect the conversion rates of rBMSCs to iECs. The pre-vascularized cell sheet
      (iECs/UM) and the osteogenic cell sheet (OM) were stacked together to form a
      biomimetic periosteum with two distinct layers, which mimicked the fibrous layer
      and cambium layer of native periosteum. The biomimetic periostea were wrapped
      onto porous beta-TCP scaffolds (BP/beta-TCP) and implanted in the calvarial bone
      defects of rats. As controls, autologous periostea with beta-TCP (AP/beta-TCP)
      and beta-TCP alone were implanted in the calvarial defects of rats, with a no
      implantation group as another control. At 2, 4, and 8 weeks post-surgery,
      implants were retrieved and X-ray, microcomputed tomography (micro-CT),
      histology, and immunohistochemistry staining analyses were performed. RESULTS:
      Flow cytometry results showed that rBMSCs were partially differentiated into iECs
      with a 35.1% conversion rate in terms of CD31. There were still 20.97% rBMSCs
      expressing CD90. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results indicated that cells
      from the wrapped cell sheet on the beta-TCP scaffold apparently migrated into the
      pores of the beta-TCP scaffold. The histology and immunohistochemistry staining
      results from in vivo implantation indicated that the BP/beta-TCP and AP/beta-TCP
      groups promoted the formation of blood vessels and new bone tissues in the bone
      defects more than the other two control groups. In addition, micro-CT showed that
      more new bone tissue formed in the BP/beta-TCP and AP/beta-TCP groups than the
      other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Inducing rBMSCs to iECs could be a good strategy to
      obtain an endothelial cell source for prevascularization. Our findings indicate
      that the biomimetic periosteum with porous beta-TCP scaffold has a similar
      ability to promote osteogenesis and angiogenesis in vivo compared to the
      autologous periosteum. This function could result from the double layers of
      biomimetic periosteum. The prevascularized cell sheet served a mimetic fibrous
      layer and the osteogenic cell sheet served a cambium layer of native periosteum.
      The biomimetic periosteum with a porous ceramic scaffold provides a new promising
      method for bone healing.

PMID- 28583168
TI  - Mesenchymal stem cells for treating autoimmune dacryoadenitis.
AB  - Autoimmune dacryoadenitis, such as Sjogren syndrome, comprises multifactorial and
      complex diseases. Inflammation of the lacrimal gland plays a key role in the
      pathogenesis of diseases. Unfortunately, current treatment strategies, including
      artificial tears, anti-inflammatory drugs, punctual occlusion, and
      immunosuppressive drugs, are only palliative, and long-term administration of
      these strategies is associated with adverse effects that limit their utility.
      Hence, an effective and safe treatment for autoimmune dacryoadenitis is urgently
      needed. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as a promising tool for
      treating autoimmune dacryoadenitis, owing to their immunosuppressive properties,
      tissue repair functions, and powerful differentiation capabilities. A large
      number of studies have focused on the effect of MSCs on autoimmune diseases, such
      as autoimmune uveitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and collagen-induced
      arthritis, but few studies have, to date, unequivocally established the efficacy
      of MSCs for treating autoimmune dacryoadenitis. In this review, we discuss recent
      advances in MSC treatment for autoimmune dacryoadenitis.

PMID- 28583169
TI  - Letter to the Editor on "Mesenchymal stem cells enhance the oncolytic effect of
      Newcastle disease virus in glioma cells and glioma stem cells via the secretion
      of TRAIL".

PMID- 28583170
TI  - Community dialogues for child health: results from a qualitative process
      evaluation in three countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Across the developing world, countries are increasingly adopting the
      integrated community case management of childhood illnesses (iCCM) strategy in
      efforts to reduce child mortality. This intervention's effectiveness is dependent
      on community adoption and changes in care-seeking practices. We assessed the
      implementation process of a theory-driven community dialogue (CD) intervention
      specifically designed to strengthen the support and uptake of the newly
      introduced iCCM services and related behaviours in three African countries.
      METHODS: A qualitative process evaluation methodology was chosen and used
      secondary project data and primary data collected in two districts of each of the
      three countries, in purposefully sampled communities. The final data set included
      67 focus group discussions and 57 key informant interviews, totalling 642
      respondents, including caregivers, CD facilitators community leaders, and
      trainers. Thematic analysis of the data followed the 'Framework Approach'
      utilising both a deduction and induction process. RESULTS: Results show that CDs
      contribute to triggering community uptake of and support for iCCM services
      through filling health information gaps and building cooperation within
      communities. We found it to be an effective approach for addressing social norms
      around child care practices. This approach was embraced by communities for its
      flexibility and value in planning individual and collective change. CONCLUSIONS:
      Regular CDs can contribute to the formation of new habits, particularly in
      relation to seeking timely care in case of child sickness. This study also
      confirms the value of process evaluation to unwrap the mechanisms of community
      mobilisation approaches in context and provides key insights for improving the CD
      approach.

PMID- 28583171
TI  - Comparison of neurons derived from mouse P19, rat PC12 and human SH-SY5Y cells in
      the assessment of chemical- and toxin-induced neurotoxicity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to chemicals might be toxic to the developing brain. There
      is a need for simple and robust in vitro cellular models for evaluation of
      chemical-induced neurotoxicity as a complement to traditional studies on animals.
      In this study, neuronally differentiated mouse embryonal carcinoma P19 cells (P19
      neurons) were compared with human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells and rat adrenal
      pheochromocytoma PC12 cells for their ability to detect toxicity of methylmercury
      (MeHg), okadaic acid and acrylamide. METHODS: Retinoic acid-treated P19 and SH
      SY5Y cells and nerve growth factor-stimulated PC12 cells, allowed to
      differentiate for 6 days, were exposed to MeHg, okadaic acid and acrylamide for
      48 h. Cell survival and neurite outgrowth were assessed with the calcein-AM assay
      and fluorescence detection of antibodies against the cytoskeletal neuron-specific
      protein betaIII-tubulin, respectively. The effects of glutathione (GSH) and the
      potent inhibitor of GSH synthesis buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) on the MeHg
      induced-toxicity were assessed using the PrestoBlueTM cell viability assay and
      the TMRE mitochondrial membrane potential assay. RESULTS: Differentiated P19
      cells developed the most extensive neuronal network among the three cell models
      and were the most sensitive neuronal model to detect neurotoxic effects of the
      test compounds. MeHg produced a concentration-dependent toxicity in
      differentiated P19 cells and SH-SY5Y cells, with statistically significant
      effects at concentrations from 0.1 MUM in the P19 neurons and 1 MUM in the SH
      SY5Y cells. MeHg induced a decrease in the cellular metabolic activity and
      mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsim) in the differentiated P19 cells and
      SH-SY5Y cells, that were attenuated by GSH. Okadaic acid and acrylamide also
      showed statistically significant toxicity in the P19 neurons, but not in the SH
      SY5Y cells or the P12 cells. CONCLUSIONS: P19 neurons are more sensitive to
      detect cytotoxicity of MeHg, okadaic acid and acrylamide than retinoic acid
      differentiated SH-SY5Y cells and nerve growth factor-treated PC12 cells. P19
      neurons are at least as sensitive as differentiated SH-SY5Y cells to detect the
      loss of mitochondrial membrane potential produced by MeHg and the protective
      effects of extracellular GSH on MeHg toxicity. P19 neurons may be a useful model
      to study neurotoxic effects of chemicals.

PMID- 28583172
TI  - Fluorescent tagged episomals for stoichiometric induced pluripotent stem cell
      reprogramming.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-integrating episomal vectors have become an important tool for
      induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming. The episomal vectors carrying the
      "Yamanaka reprogramming factors" (Oct4, Klf, Sox2, and L-Myc + Lin28) are
      critical tools for non-integrating reprogramming of cells to a pluripotent state.
      However, the reprogramming process remains highly stochastic, and is hampered by
      an inability to easily identify clones that carry the episomal vectors. METHODS:
      We modified the original set of vectors to express spectrally separable
      fluorescent proteins to allow for enrichment of transfected cells. The vectors
      were then tested against the standard original vectors for reprogramming
      efficiency and for the ability to enrich for stoichiometric ratios of factors.
      RESULTS: The reengineered vectors allow for cell sorting based on reprogramming
      factor expression. We show that these vectors can assist in tracking episomal
      expression in individual cells and can select the reprogramming factor dosage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Together, these modified vectors are a useful tool for understanding
      the reprogramming process and improving induced pluripotent stem cell isolation
      efficiency.

PMID- 28583173
TI  - HIV and syphilis in the context of community vulnerability among indigenous
      people in the Brazilian Amazon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contextual factors shape the risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency
      virus (HIV) and syphilis. We estimated the prevalence of both infections among
      indigenous people in nine indigenous health districts of the Brazilian Amazon and
      examined the context of community vulnerability to acquiring these infections.
      METHODS: We trained 509 health care workers to screen sexually active populations
      in the community for syphilis and HIV using rapid testing (RT). We then assessed
      the prevalence of HIV and syphilis using RT. A multivariable analysis was used to
      identify factors associated with syphilis infection (sociodemographic, condom
      use, intrusion, population mobility, and violence). RESULTS: Of the 45,967
      indigenous people tested, the mean age was 22.5 years (standard deviation: 9.2),
      and 56.5% were female. Overall, for HIV, the prevalence was 0.13% (57/43,221),
      and for syphilis, the prevalence was 1.82% (745/40,934). The prevalence in men,
      women, and pregnant women for HIV was 0.16%, 0.11%, and 0.07%, respectively, and
      for syphilis, it was 2.23%, 1.51%, and 1.52%, respectively. The district Vale do
      Javari had the highest prevalence of both infections (HIV: 3.38%, syphilis:
      1.39%). This district also had the highest population mobility and intrusion and
      the lowest availability of prenatal services. Syphilis infection was
      independently associated with age (odds ratio [OR] 1.04, 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 1.03-1.05), male sex (OR 1.32, 95% CI: 1.14-1.52), and mobility (moderate:
      OR: 7.46, 95% CI: 2.69-20.67; high: OR 7.09, 95% CI: 3.79-13.26). CONCLUSIONS:
      The large-scale integration of RT in remote areas increased case detection among
      pregnant women, especially for syphilis, in districts with higher vulnerability.
      Mobility is an important risk factor, especially in districts with higher
      vulnerability. Contextually appropriate approaches that address this factor could
      contribute to the long-term success of HIV and syphilis control programs.

PMID- 28583175
TI  - Are advance directives helpful for good end of life decision making: a cross
      sectional survey of health professionals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This paper joins the debate over changes in the role of health
      professionals when applying advance directives to manage the decision-making
      process at the end of life care. Issues in relation to advance directives occur
      in clinical units in Lithuania; however, it remains one of the few countries in
      the European Union (EU) where the discussion on advance directives is not
      included in the health-care policy-making agenda. To encourage the discussion of
      advance directives, a study was designed to examine health professionals'
      understanding and preferences related to advance directives. In addition, the
      study sought to explore the views of health care professionals of the application
      of Advance Directives (AD) in clinical practice in Lithuania. METHODS: A cross
      sectional survey was conducted by interviewing 478 health professionals based at
      major health care centers in Kaunas district, Lithuania. The design of the study
      included the use of a questionnaire developed for this study and validated by a
      pilot study. The collected data were analyzed using standard descriptive
      statistical methods. RESULTS: The analysis of knowledge about AD revealed some
      statistically significant differences when comparing the respondents' profession
      and gender. The analysis also indicated key emerging themes among respondents
      including tranquility of mind, the longest possible life expectancy and freedom
      of choice. Further, the study findings revealed that more than half of the study
      participants preferred to express their will while alive by using advance
      directives. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings revealed a low level of knowledge on
      advance directives among health professionals. Most health professionals agreed
      that AD's improved end-of-life decision making while the majority of physicians
      appreciated AD as the best tool for sharing responsibilities in clinical practice
      in Lithuania. More physicians than nurses preferred the presence of advance
      directives to support their decision making in end-of-life situations.

PMID- 28583174
TI  - Follistatin is a metastasis suppressor in a mouse model of HER2-positive breast
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Follistatin (FST) is an intrinsic inhibitor of activin, a member of
      the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily of ligands. The prognostic value
      of FST and its family members, the follistatin-like (FSTL) proteins, have been
      studied in various cancers. However, these studies, as well as limited functional
      analyses of the FSTL proteins, have yielded conflicting results on the role of
      these proteins in disease progression. Furthermore, very few have been focused on
      FST itself. We assessed whether FST may be a suppressor of tumorigenesis and/or
      metastatic progression in breast cancer. METHODS: Using publicly available gene
      expression data, we examined the expression patterns of FST and INHBA, a subunit
      of activin, in normal and cancerous breast tissue and the prognostic value of FST
      in breast cancer metastases, recurrence-free survival, and overall survival. The
      functional effects of activin and FST on in vitro proliferation, migration, and
      invasion of breast cancer cells were also examined. FST overexpression in an
      autochthonous mouse model of breast cancer was then used to assess the in vivo
      impact of FST on metastatic progression. RESULTS: Examination of multiple breast
      cancer datasets revealed that FST expression is reduced in breast cancers
      compared with normal tissue and that low FST expression predicts increased
      metastasis and reduced overall survival. FST expression was also reduced in a
      mouse model of HER2/Neu-induced metastatic breast cancer. We found that FST
      blocks activin-induced breast epithelial cell migration in vitro, suggesting that
      its loss may promote breast cancer aggressiveness. To directly determine if FST
      restoration could inhibit metastatic progression, we transgenically expressed FST
      in the HER2/Neu model. Although FST had no impact on tumor initiation or growth,
      it completely blocked the formation of lung metastases. CONCLUSIONS: These data
      indicate that FST is a bona fide metastasis suppressor in this mouse model and
      support future efforts to develop an FST mimetic to suppress metastatic
      progression.

PMID- 28583177
TI  - Dead simple OWL design patterns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bio-ontologies typically require multiple axes of classification to
      support the needs of their users. Development of such ontologies can only be made
      scalable and sustainable by the use of inference to automate classification via
      consistent patterns of axiomatization. Many bio-ontologies originating in OBO or
      OWL follow this approach. These patterns need to be documented in a form that
      requires minimal expertise to understand and edit and that can be validated and
      applied using any of the various programmatic approaches to working with OWL
      ontologies. RESULTS: Here we describe a system, Dead Simple OWL Design Patterns
      (DOS-DPs), which fulfills these requirements, illustrating the system with
      examples from the Gene Ontology. CONCLUSIONS: The rapid adoption of DOS-DPs by
      multiple ontology development projects illustrates both the ease-of use and the
      pressing need for the simple design pattern system we have developed.

PMID- 28583176
TI  - Nurse-led navigation to provide early palliative care in rural areas: a pilot
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few services are available to support rural older adults living at
      home with advancing chronic illness. The objective of this project was to pilot a
      nurse-led navigation service to provide early palliative support for rural older
      adults and their families living at home with advancing chronic illness. METHODS:
      Twenty-five older adults and 11 family members living with advancing chronic
      illness received bi-weekly home visits by a nurse navigator over a 2-year period.
      Navigation services included symptom management, education, advance care
      planning, advocacy, mobilization of resources, and psychosocial support. The
      nurse navigator collected longitudinal data on older adult and family needs, and
      older adult quality of life and healthcare utilization. RESULTS: Satisfaction
      with the service was high. There was no attrition over the 2-year period except
      through death, and few cancelled visits, indicating a high degree of
      acceptability of the intervention. The navigator addressed complex, multi-faceted
      needs through connecting health, social, and informal community resources.
      Participants who indicated a preferred place of death were able to die in that
      preferred place (n = 7). Emergency room use by participants was minimal and
      largely unpreventable by the nurse navigator. Longitudinal health-related quality
      of life scores for many participants were poor, lending further support to the
      need for more focused attention to this upstream palliative population.
      CONCLUSIONS: Using a nurse navigator to facilitate early palliative care for
      rural older adults living with advanced chronic illness is a promising innovation
      for meeting the needs of this population. Further research is required to
      evaluate outcomes on a larger scale.

PMID- 28583178
TI  - Therapeutic angiogenesis of adipose-derived stem cells for ischemic diseases.
AB  - Ischemic diseases, the leading cause of disability and death, are caused by the
      stenosis or obstruction of arterioles/capillaries that is not compensated for by
      vessel dilatation or collateral circulation. Angiogenesis is a complex process
      leading to new blood vessel formation and is triggered by ischemic conditions.
      Adequate angiogenesis, as a compensatory mechanism in response to ischemia, may
      increase oxygen and nutrient supplies to tissues and protect their function.
      Therapeutic angiogenesis has been the most promising therapy for treating
      ischemic diseases. In recent years, stem cell transplantation has been recognized
      as a new technique with therapeutic angiogenic effects on ischemic diseases.
      Adipose-derived stem cells, characterized by their ease of acquisition, high
      yields, proliferative growth, and low immunogenicity, are an ideal cell source.
      In this review, the characterization of adipose-derived stem cells and the role
      of angiogenesis in ischemic attack are summarized. The angiogenic effects of
      adipose-derived stem cells are discussed from the perspectives of in-vitro, in
      vivo, and clinical trial studies for the treatment of ischemic diseases,
      including ischemic cardiac, cerebral, and peripheral vascular diseases and wound
      healing. The microvesicles/exosomes released from adipose-derived stem cells are
      also presented as a novel therapeutic prospect for treating ischemic diseases.

PMID- 28583180
TI  - Improving Hospital at Home for frail older people: insights from a quality
      improvement project to achieve change across regional health and social care
      sectors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Against a background of rising numbers of frail older people, there
      is a need to improve quality and safety of services whilst containing costs.
      Improving patient outcomes requires change across hospital and community systems.
      Our objective was to change practice in order to deliver a Hospital at Home
      programme (admission avoidance and early supported discharge) for frail older
      people across a regional commissioning area. The programme, undertaken within the
      Northern, Eastern & Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) sub
      localities of Exeter (population 120,000) and Woodbury, Exmouth and Budleigh
      Salterton (towns with populations of around 10,000), involved reconfiguration of
      existing services rather than being a stand-alone intervention. METHODS: Quality
      Improvement methodology, with hospital and community staff using Plan-Do-Study
      Act (PDSA) cycles to implement and test service changes. OUTCOME MEASURES: 1)
      Discharge destination; 2) Length of stay; 3) Acute Community Team referrals.
      RESULTS: Against a backdrop of intense financial pressures, significant community
      bed closures, and difficult relations between hospital and community services,
      outcomes remained stable (discharge destination, length of hospital stay, and
      number of referrals to the community team). CONCLUSION: PDSA cycles enabled
      stakeholders across acute and community services to be involved, promoted a
      process of collaborative inquiry and ownership of findings, and improved
      motivation to act on results and produce change. Practitioners and managers
      seeking to improve the delivery of complex, cross-cutting services in other areas
      can learn from the experience of applying Quality Improvement methods reported
      here.

PMID- 28583179
TI  - Comparison between the effects of potassium phosphite and chitosan on changes in
      the concentration of Cucurbitacin E and on antibacterial property of Cucumis
      sativus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cucurbitacins are mostly found in the members of the family
      Cucurbitaceae and are responsible for the bitter taste of cucumber.
      Pharmacological activities such as anti-bacterial and anti-tumor effects have
      been attributed to these structurally divers triterpens. The aim of this study
      was to investigate the effect of potassium phosphite (KPhi) and chitosan on
      Cucurbitacin E (CuE) concentration in different tissues of Cucumis sativus. The
      antibacterial effect of plant ethanolic extracts was also examined against E.coli
      PTCC 1399 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTCC 1430 bacterial strains. METHODS: After
      emergence of secondary leaves, cucumber plants were divided into 4 groups (each
      group consisted of 6 pots and each pot contained one plant) and different
      treatments performed as follows: group1. Leaves were sprayed with distilled water
      (Control), group 2. The leaves were solely treated with potassium phosphite
      (KPhi), group 3. Leaves were solely sprayed with chitosan (Chitosan), group 4.
      Leaves were treated with KPhi and chitosan (KPhi + chitosan). The KPhi (2 g L-1)
      and chitosan (0.2 g L-1) were applied twice every 12 h for one day. Fruits, roots
      and leaves were harvested 24 h later. The ethanolic extract of plant organs was
      used for determination of CuE concentration using HPLC approach. The
      antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the agar well diffusion method. The
      experiments were arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) and performed
      in six biological replications for each treatment. Analysis of variance was
      performed by one-way ANOVA and Dunnette multiple comparison using SPSS. RESULTS:
      The highest level of CuE was recorded in fruit (2.2 g L-1) of plants under
      concomitant applications of KPhi and chitosan. Result of antibacterial activity
      evaluation showed that under concomitant treatments of KPhi and chitosan, fruit
      extract exhibited the highest potential for activity against E. coli PTCC 1399
      (with mean zone of inhibition equal to 36 mm) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTCC
      1430 (with mean zone of inhibition equal to 33 mm). CONCLUSIONS: KPhi and
      chitosan can induce production of CuE compound and increase antibacterial
      potential of cucumber plant extract. The application of KPhi and chitosan may be
      considered as promising prospect in the biotechnological production of CuE.

PMID- 28583181
TI  - Bringing the age-related macular degeneration high-risk allele age-related
      maculopathy susceptibility 2 into focus with stem cell technology.
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness in older
      adults in developed countries. It is a multifactorial disease triggered by both
      environmental and genetic factors. High-temperature requirement A serine
      peptidase 1 (HTRA1) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) are two
      genes that are strongly associated with AMD. Because ARMS2 is an evolutionarily
      recent primate-specific gene and because the ARMS2/HTRA1 genes are positioned at
      a locus on chromosome 10q26 in a region with strong linkage disequilibrium, it is
      difficult to distinguish the functions of the individual genes. Therefore, it is
      necessary to bring these genes into focus. Patient-specific induced pluripotent
      stem cell (iPSC)-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) provides direct access
      to a patient's genetics and allows for the possibility of identifying the
      initiating events of RPE-associated degenerative diseases. In this paper, a
      review of recent epidemiological studies of AMD is offered. An argument for a
      definite correlation between the ARMS2 gene and AMD is presented. A summary of
      the use of ARMS2 genotyping for medical treatment is provided. Several ARMS2
      related genetic models based on such stem cells as iPSCs are introduced. The
      possibility of applying gene-editing techniques and stem-cell techniques to
      better explore the mechanisms of the ARMS2 high-risk allele, which will lead to
      important guidance for treatment, is also discussed.

PMID- 28583183
TI  - Design and implementation of a decision aid for juvenile idiopathic arthritis
      medication choices.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Randomized trials have demonstrated the efficacy of patient decision
      aids to facilitate shared decision making in clinical situations with multiple
      medically reasonable options for treatment. However, little is known about how
      best to implement these tools into routine clinical practice. In addition,
      reliable implementation of decision aids has been elusive and spread within
      pediatrics has been slow. We sought to develop and reliably implement a decision
      aid for treatment of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. METHODS: To
      design our decision aid, we partnered with patient, parent, and clinician
      stakeholders from the Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Improvement
      Network. Six sites volunteered to use quality improvement methods to implement
      the decision aid. Four of these sites collected parent surveys following visits
      to assess outcomes. Parents reported on clinician use of the decision aid and the
      amount of shared decision making and uncertainty they experienced. We used chi
      square tests to compare eligible visits with and without use of the decision aid
      on the experience of shared decision making and uncertainty. RESULTS: After 18
      rounds of testing and revision, stakeholders approved the decision aid design for
      regular use. Qualitative feedback from end-users was positive. During the
      implementation project, the decision aid was used in 35% of visits where starting
      or switching medication was discussed. Clinicians used the decision aid as
      intended in 68% of these visits. The vast majority of parents reported high
      levels of shared decision making following visits with (64/76 = 84%) and without
      (80/95 = 84%) use of the decision aid (p = 1). Similarly, the vast majority of
      parents reported no uncertainty following visits with (74/76 = 97%) and without
      (91/95 = 96%) use of the decision aid (p = 0.58). CONCLUSIONS: Although user
      acceptability of the decision aid was high, reliable implementation in routine
      clinical care proved challenging. Our parsimonious approach to outcome assessment
      failed to detect a difference between visits with and without use of our aid.
      Innovative approaches are needed to facilitate use of decision aids and the
      assessment of outcomes.

PMID- 28583182
TI  - Tissue-specific bioactivity of soluble tendon-derived and cartilage-derived
      extracellular matrices on adult mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biological scaffolds composed of tissue-derived extracellular matrix
      (ECM) can promote homologous (i.e., tissue-specific) cell differentiation through
      preservation of biophysical and biochemical motifs found in native tissues.
      Solubilized ECMs derived from decellularized tendon and cartilage have recently
      been promoted as tissue-specific biomaterials, but whether tissue-specific
      bioactivity is preserved following solubilization is unknown. This study explored
      the tissue-specific bioactivity of soluble decellularized tendon and cartilage
      ECMs on human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) presented across
      different culture microenvironments, including two-dimensional (2D) tissue
      culture plastic, aligned electrospun nanofibers, cell pellets, and cell-seeded
      photocrosslinkable hydrogels. METHODS: Tendon and cartilage ECMs were
      decellularized using established methods and solubilized either via pepsin
      digestion or urea extraction. The effect of soluble ECMs on cell proliferation
      and differentiation was initially explored by supplementing basal medium of human
      MSCs cultured on 2D tissue culture plastic. In subsequent experiments, MSCs were
      cultured on aligned electrospun nanofibers, ascell pellets, or encapsulated
      within photocrosslinkable methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) hydrogels. Urea-extracted
      tendon and cartilage ECMs were added as supplements. RESULTS: Pepsin-digested
      ECMs did not promote homologous differentiation in human MSCs, whether provided
      as a medium supplement or three-dimensional (3D) hydrogels. In contrast, urea
      extracted ECMs tended to promote tissue-specific differentiation of MSCs cultured
      in 2D and 3D microenvironments. The application of the small molecule TGF-beta
      signaling inhibitor SB-431542 largely negated the tissue-specific gene expression
      patterns mediated by tendon and cartilage ECMs. This suggests that the action of
      endogenous TGF-beta was required, but was not sufficient, to impart tissue
      specific bioactivity of urea-extracted ECMs. When urea-extracted cartilage ECM
      was incorporated within a photocurable GelMA hydrogel it independently enhanced
      chondrogenesis in encapsulated MSCs, and showed additive prochondrogenesis upon
      TGF-beta supplementation in the medium. CONCLUSIONS: Urea-extracted ECM fractions
      of decellularized tendon and cartilage are soluble supplements capable of
      enhancing tissue-specific differentiation of adult stem cells.

PMID- 28583185
TI  - Temporal changes and determinants of childhood nutritional status in Kenya and
      Zambia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of undernutrition is decreasing in many parts of the
      developing world, but challenges remain in many countries. The objective of this
      study was to determine factors influencing childhood nutrition status in Kenya
      and Zambia. The objective of this study is to determine factors associated with
      temporal changes in childhood nutritional status in two countries in sub-Saharan
      Africa. METHODS: Data from national demographic and health surveys from the World
      Bank for Kenya (1998-2009) and Zambia (1996-2014) were used to select the
      youngest child of each household with complete data for all variables studied.
      Multiple linear regression analyses were used for data from 2902 and 11,335
      children from Kenya and Zambia, respectively, in each year to determine the
      relationship between social and economic factors and measures of nutritional
      status, including wasting, stunting, and overweight. RESULTS: There was a
      decreased prevalence of stunting (35% in Kenya and 40% in Zambia), while the
      prevalence of wasting was unchanged (6-8% in both countries). From 1998 to 2009,
      there was a protective effect against stunting for wealthier families and
      households with electricity, for both countries. Finally, better educated mothers
      were less likely to have stunted children and girls were less likely to be
      stunted than boys. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the data analyzed, there was a higher
      risk of stunting in both Kenya and Zambia, for those with lower literacy, less
      education, no electricity, living in rural areas, no formal toilet, no car
      ownership, and those with an overall lower wealth index. Improving the education
      of mothers was also a significant determinant in improving the nutritional status
      of children in Kenya and Zambia. More broad-based efforts to reduce the
      prevalence of undernutrition need to focus on reducing the prevalence of
      undernutrition without promoting excess weight gain. Future economic advances
      need to consider integrated approaches to improving economic standings of
      households without increasing the risk for overnutrition.

PMID- 28583186
TI  - Assessment of dog owner adherence to veterinarians' flea and tick prevention
      recommendations in the United States using a cross-sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adherence to a prescribed therapeutic regimen is a critical factor
      for achieving medication effectiveness and therefore treatment success. In the
      case of companion animal ectoparasite control, suboptimal owner adherence to
      medication recommendations is thought to be a common cause of treatment failure,
      and previous reports have found pet owners applying an average of 4.0-4.6 monthly
      flea and tick treatments per year to their dogs. This study investigated: US
      veterinary hospital self-reported flea and tick prevention recommendations; dog
      owner recollection of these recommendations; dog owner opinion on flea/tick
      recommendations and estimated owner flea and tick medication adherence based on
      veterinary hospital purchase records. RESULTS: Veterinarians at 24 veterinary
      hospitals in 4 United States regions provided their flea and tick prevention
      recommendations. Five hundred fifty-nine dog owners, clients of the 24 hospitals,
      completed a survey evaluating their recollection of the hospitals'
      recommendations and their opinions regarding required treatment frequency. Almost
      all veterinary hospitals in this study recommended 12 months of flea and tick
      prevention but only 62% of participating dog owners recalled this recommendation.
      The average owner response was that their dogs require 10.5 months of flea and
      tick prevention annually. Owner opinions were significantly different among U.S.
      regions with pet owners in the northeast U.S. believing that they needed
      significantly less canine flea and tick protection than pet owners in other parts
      of the United States. The estimated actual flea and tick prevention coverage was
      6.1 months based on owner medication purchases over a 12-month period.
      CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, dog owner opinions and actions show that their
      flea and tick treatment adherence falls short of veterinarians' recommendations.

PMID- 28583187
TI  - Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Shigella spp. isolated from children
      under 5 years of age attending tertiary care hospitals, Nepal along with first
      finding of ESBL-production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Shigella is an important cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in
      resource-poor countries. The treatment of shigellosis mostly requires
      antibiotics. However, the increase of multidrug resistance along with emergence
      of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase and ciprofloxacin resistance among Shigella
      spp. has challenged the situation. This study was conducted to determine the
      distribution of species and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Shigella species
      isolated from stool specimen among children less than 5 years of age in Nepal.
      RESULTS: Out of total 717 stool samples collected, 15 cases of Shigella spp. was
      isolated which includes 12 S. flexneri and 3 S. sonnei. Multidrug resistance was
      found among 13(86%) of the isolates. One of the isolates of S. flexneri was found
      to be ESBL-producer with MIC >256 mg/L for cefixime. CONCLUSION: The high
      occurrence of multidrug resistance among Shigella spp. along with a case of ESBL
      production for the first time in Nepal alarms the concerns about dissemination of
      the resistant isolates. So, systemic monitoring of the antimicrobial
      susceptibility pattern of Shigella spp. is becoming crucial to guide therapy.

PMID- 28583184
TI  - Effect of single intralesional treatment of surgically induced equine superficial
      digital flexor tendon core lesions with adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal
      cells: a controlled experimental trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adipose tissue is a promising source of mesenchymal stromal cells
      (MSCs) for the treatment of tendon disease. The goal of this study was to assess
      the effect of a single intralesional implantation of adipose tissue-derived
      mesenchymal stromal cells (AT-MSCs) on artificial lesions in equine superficial
      digital flexor tendons (SDFTs). METHODS: During this randomized, controlled,
      blinded experimental study, either autologous cultured AT-MSCs suspended in
      autologous inactivated serum (AT-MSC-serum) or autologous inactivated serum
      (serum) were injected intralesionally 2 weeks after surgical creation of
      centrally located SDFT lesions in both forelimbs of nine horses. Healing was
      assessed clinically and with ultrasound (standard B-mode and ultrasound tissue
      characterization) at regular intervals over 24 weeks. After euthanasia of the
      horses the SDFTs were examined histologically, biochemically and by means of
      biomechanical testing. RESULTS: AT-MSC implantation did not substantially
      influence clinical and ultrasonographic parameters. Histology, biochemical and
      biomechanical characteristics of the repair tissue did not differ significantly
      between treatment modalities after 24 weeks. Compared with macroscopically normal
      tendon tissue, the content of the mature collagen crosslink
      hydroxylysylpyridinoline did not differ after AT-MSC-serum treatment (p = 0.074)
      while it was significantly lower (p = 0.027) in lesions treated with serum alone.
      Stress at failure (p = 0.048) and the modulus of elasticity (p = 0.001) were
      significantly lower after AT-MSC-serum treatment than in normal tendon tissue.
      CONCLUSIONS: The effect of a single intralesional injection of cultured AT-MSCs
      suspended in autologous inactivated serum was not superior to treatment of
      surgically created SDFT lesions with autologous inactivated serum alone in a
      surgical model of tendinopathy over an observation period of 22 weeks. AT-MSC
      treatment might have a positive influence on collagen crosslinking of remodelling
      scar tissue. Controlled long-term studies including naturally occurring
      tendinopathies are necessary to verify the effects of AT-MSCs on tendon disease.

PMID- 28583188
TI  - HNF4A expression as a potential diagnostic tool to discriminate primary gastric
      cancer from breast cancer metastasis in a Brazilian cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among the many challenges in cancer diagnosis is the early
      distinction between metastatic cancer and a secondary tumor. This difficulty
      stems from the lack of markers that offer high sensitivity and specificity and
      can be easily applied in routine laboratory work. An example of this challenge is
      distinguishing gastric metastases originating from breast cancer from a gastric
      primary tumor. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4A) has been suggested as a
      potential marker in these cases. The aim of this study was to analyze the
      expression of HNF4A, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and gross
      cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15) in a Brazilian cohort. METHODS: We
      performed immunohistochemistry analysis of HNF4A, ER, PR and GCDFP-15 in 126
      patients divided into three cohorts: primary breast cancer, primary gastric
      cancer and both types of tumors. RESULTS: Our data confirmed the sensitivity and
      specificity of the HNF4A marker compared to other currently used clinical
      markers. CONCLUSION: HNF4A alone could be a gold standard marker for
      distinguishing primary gastric cancer from breast metastasis, thus validating its
      potential clinical use, especially in populations with high genetic diversity.

PMID- 28583189
TI  - Use of bacteriophages in the treatment of colistin-only-sensitive Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa septicaemia in a patient with acute kidney injury-a case report.

PMID- 28583190
TI  - ERbeta1 inhibits metastasis of androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast
      cancer by suppressing ZEB1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence has indicated an important role for estrogen
      receptor beta 1 (ERbeta1) in breast cancer. However, the role of ERbeta1 in the
      metastasis of androgen receptor (AR)-positive triple-negative breast cancer
      (TNBC) and the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. METHODS: Stable ERbeta1
      expressing TNBC cell lines were generated for this study. We detected the
      abilities of cell migration and invasion by wound-healing and transwell assays
      and the expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR)
      and western blotting assays in TNBC cell lines. Chromatin immunoprecipitation
      (ChIP) analysis was performed to assess the effect of AR on ERbeta1 promoter.
      Tumor metastasis was evaluated in vivo using a lung metastasis mouse model.
      Lastly, immunohistochemical expression of ERbeta1 in TNBC tissues was analyzed
      and correlated with clinicopathological features. RESULTS: ERbeta1 suppressed the
      invasion and migration abilities of AR-positive TNBC cells and induced the
      downregulation of ZEB1. ZEB1 overexpression abrogated the increase in E-cadherin
      expression and the decrease in N-cadherin expression modulated by ERbeta1. A lung
      metastasis mouse model showed that the incidence of metastasis was lower in
      ERbeta1-expressing TNBC cells. Further, AR activation increased the anti
      metastatic effect of ERbeta1 in AR-positive TNBC cells, which accelerated ERbeta1
      transcription by functioning as a transcription factor that bound to the promoter
      of ERbeta1. No significant change was observed in AR expression induced by
      ERbeta1. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of TNBC clinical samples showed that
      ERbeta1 and AR were positive in 31.7% and 23.2% of samples, respectively. ERbeta1
      expression was negatively correlated with ZEB1 expression and lymph node
      metastasis, and positively correlated with the expression of AR and E-cadherin.
      CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested a potential role of ERbeta1 in metastasis of
      AR-positive TNBC and provided novel insights into the mechanism of action of
      ERbeta1 and the possible relationship between ERbeta1 and AR.

PMID- 28583192
TI  - Isolated talonavicular arthrodesis and talonavicular-cuneiform arthrodesis for
      the Muller-Weiss disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study aimed to introduce the isolated talonavicular and
      talonavicular-cuneiform arthrodesis for the stage III and IV Muller-Weiss disease
      and analyze their clinical outcomes. METHODS: Thirty patients of stage III and IV
      Muller-Weiss disease were divided into the talonavicular (TN) arthrodesis group
      and the talonavicular-cuneiform (TNC) arthrodesis group according to the
      perinavicular osteoarthritis by MRI scans. For the isolated talonavicular
      arthrodesis group, 16 patients underwent talonavicular arthrodesis with two 4.0
      mm hollow headless compression screws. For the TNC arthrodesis group, 14 patients
      were received the TNC arthrodesis with reverse "V" shape osteotomy and
      autoallergic iliac bone graft. All patients were followed up at 3, 6, 9, and 12
      months, and per 6 months after 1 year, by the AOFAS ankle-midfoot scores, and
      evaluated by radiographic measurements. RESULTS: All of them were followed up in
      two groups and all patients were satisfied with their clinical results. At the TN
      arthrodesis group, the patients' mean was 39.8 months (range, 11-66 months)
      follow-up. The mean AOFAS ankle and hindfoot scores had improved from 38.3 +/-
      5.1 preoperatively to 88.9 +/- 1.9 at the last postoperative assessment. At the
      TNC arthrodesis group, the mean follow-up was 51.7 months (range, 12-90 months).
      The mean AOFAS ankle and hindfoot scores were 40.1 +/- 7.9 preoperatively to 90.1
      +/- 2.0 at the last postoperative. All of the cases were solid fusion on the
      radiograph. CONCLUSIONS: According to MRI evaluation, either TN or TNC
      arthrodesis for stage III or IV Muller-Weiss disease have the good clinical
      outcomes with solid fusion rate and obvious improvement of the quality of life of
      patients.

PMID- 28583193
TI  - A modified multiple branched graft for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To reduce some problems of traditional graft, we devise a modified
      multiple branched graft for repair of Crawford extent II and III thoracoabdominal
      aortic aneurysm (TAAA). CASE PRESENTATION: We described a modified multiple
      branched graft for Crawford extent II and III thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm
      (TAAA) repair in 8 patients, Which comprised a main graft and three branches, and
      the third branch was bifurcated into two limbs. CONCLUSIONS: Our initial
      experience demonstrated that this modified multiple branched graft may make the
      thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm(TAAA) repair easier and safer.

PMID- 28583191
TI  - HIV drug resistance against strand transfer integrase inhibitors.
AB  - Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are the newest class of
      antiretroviral drugs to be approved for treatment and act by inhibiting the
      essential HIV protein integrase from inserting the viral DNA genome into the host
      cell's chromatin. Three drugs of this class are currently approved for use in HIV
      positive individuals: raltegravir (RAL), elvitegravir (EVG), and dolutegravir
      (DTG), while cabotegravir (CAB) and bictegravir (BIC) are currently in clinical
      trials. RAL and EVG have been successful in clinical settings but have relatively
      low genetic barriers to resistance. Furthermore, they share a high degree of
      cross-resistance, which necessitated the development of so-called second
      generation drugs of this class (DTG, CAB, and BIC) that could retain activity
      against these resistant variants. In vitro selection experiments have been
      instrumental to the clinical development of INSTIs, however they cannot
      completely recapitulate the situation in an HIV-positive individual. This review
      summarizes and compares all the currently available information as it pertains to
      both in vitro and in vivo selections with all five INSTIs, and the measured fold
      changes in resistance of resistant variants in in vitro assays. While the
      selection of resistance substitutions in response to RAL and EVG bears high
      similarity in patients as compared to laboratory studies, there is less
      concurrence regarding the "second-generation" drugs of this class. This
      highlights the unpredictability of HIV resistance to these inhibitors, which is
      of concern as CAB and BIC proceed in their clinical development.

PMID- 28583194
TI  - Differences in reported linguistic thermal sensation between Bangla and Japanese
      speakers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thermal sensation is a fundamental variable used to determine thermal
      comfort and is most frequently evaluated through the use of subjective reports in
      the field of environmental physiology. However, there has been little study of
      the relationship between the semantics of the words used to describe thermal
      sensation and the climatic background. The present study investigates the
      linguistic differences in thermal reports from native speakers of Bangla and
      Japanese. METHODS: A total of 1141 university students (932 in Bangladesh and 209
      in Japan) responded to a questionnaire survey consisting of 20 questions. Group
      differences between Bangladeshi and Japanese respondents were then tested with a
      chi-square test in a crosstab analysis using SPSS (version 21). RESULTS: For the
      Bangla-speaking respondents, the closest feeling of thermal comfort was "neutral"
      (66.6%) followed by "slightly cool" (10.2%), "slightly cold" (6.0%), "slightly
      hot" (4.1%), and "cold" (3.8%). For the Japanese respondents, the closest feeling
      of thermal comfort was "cool" (38.3%) followed by "slightly cool" (20.4%),
      "neutral" (14.6%), "slightly warm" (13.1%), and "warm" (10.7%). Of the
      Bangladeshi respondents, 37.7% reported that they were sensitive to cold weather
      and 18.1% reported that they were sensitive to hot weather. Of the Japanese
      respondents, 20.6% reported that they were sensitive to cold weather and 29.2%
      reported that they were sensitive to hot weather. Of the Bangladeshi respondents,
      51.4% chose "higher than 29  degrees C" as hot weather and 38.7% of the Japanese
      respondents chose "higher than 32  degrees C" as hot weather. In the case of cold
      weather, 43.1% of the Bangladeshi respondents selected "lower than 15  degrees C"
      as cold weather and 53.4% of the Japanese respondents selected "lower than 10 
      degrees C" as cold weather. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the Bangla-speaking respondents
      chose "neutral" as the most comfortable temperature, and most of the Japanese
      respondents chose "cool." Most of the Bangladeshi respondents reported that they
      were sensitive to "cold temperatures," but most of the Japanese respondents
      reported that they were sensitive to "hot temperatures."

PMID- 28583195
TI  - Effects of phosphodiesterase 3A modulation on murine cerebral microhemorrhages.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral microbleeds (CMB) are MRI-demonstrable cerebral
      microhemorrhages (CMH) which commonly coexist with ischemic stroke. This creates
      a challenging therapeutic milieu, and a strategy that simultaneously protects the
      vessel wall and provides anti-thrombotic activity is an attractive potential
      approach. Phosphodiesterase 3A (PDE3A) inhibition is known to provide cerebral
      vessel wall protection combined with anti-thrombotic effects. As an initial step
      in the development of a therapy that simultaneously treats CMB and ischemic
      stroke, we hypothesized that inhibition of the PDE3A pathway is protective
      against CMH development. METHODS: The effect of PDE3A pathway inhibition was
      studied in the inflammation-induced and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)
      associated mouse models of CMH. The PDE3A pathway was modulated using two
      approaches: genetic deletion of PDE3A and pharmacological inhibition of PDE3A by
      cilostazol. The effects of PDE3A pathway modulation on H&E- and Prussian blue
      (PB)-positive CMH development, BBB function (IgG, claudin-5, and fibrinogen), and
      neuroinflammation (ICAM-1, Iba-1, and GFAP) were investigated. RESULTS: Robust
      development of CMH in the inflammation-induced and CAA-associated spontaneous
      mouse models was observed. Inflammation-induced CMH were associated with markers
      of BBB dysfunction and inflammation, and CAA-associated spontaneous CMH were
      associated primarily with markers of neuroinflammation. Genetic deletion of the
      PDE3A gene did not alter BBB function, microglial activation, or CMH development,
      but significantly reduced endothelial and astrocyte activation in the
      inflammation-induced CMH mouse model. In the CAA-associated CMH mouse model,
      PDE3A modulation via pharmacological inhibition by cilostazol did not alter BBB
      function, neuroinflammation, or CMH development. CONCLUSIONS: Modulation of the
      PDE3A pathway, either by genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition, does not
      alter CMH development in an inflammation-induced or in a CAA-associated mouse
      model of CMH. The role of microglial activation and BBB injury in CMH development
      warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28583196
TI  - Effects of unilateral real-time biofeedback on propulsive forces during gait.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis, reduced push-off force
      generation in the paretic leg negatively impacts walking function. Gait training
      interventions that increase paretic push-off can improve walking function in
      individuals with neurologic impairment. During normal locomotion, push-off forces
      are modulated with variations in gait speed and slope. However, it is unknown
      whether able-bodied individuals can selectively modulate push-off forces from one
      leg in response to biofeedback. Here, in a group of young, neurologically
      unimpaired individuals, we determined the effects of a real-time visual and
      auditory biofeedback gait training paradigm aimed at unilaterally increasing
      anteriorly-directed ground reaction force (AGRF) in the targeted leg. METHODS:
      Ground reaction force data during were collected from 7 able-bodied individuals
      as they walked at a self-selected pace on a dual-belt treadmill instrumented with
      force platforms. During 11-min of gait training, study participants were provided
      real-time AGRF biofeedback encouraging a 20-30% increase in peak AGRF generated
      by their right (targeted) leg compared to their baseline (pre-training) AGRF.
      AGRF data were collected before, during, and after the biofeedback training
      period, as well as during two retention tests performed without biofeedback and
      after standing breaks. RESULTS: Compared to AGRFs generated during the pre
      training gait trials, participants demonstrated a significantly greater AGRF in
      the targeted leg during and immediately after training, indicating that
      biofeedback training was successful at inducing increased AGRF production in the
      targeted leg. Additionally, participants continued to demonstrate greater AGRF
      production in the targeted leg after two standing breaks, showing short-term
      recall of the gait pattern learned during the biofeedback training. No
      significant effects of training were observed on the AGRF in the non-targeted
      limb, showing the specificity of the effects of biofeedback toward the targeted
      limb. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the short-term effects of using
      unilateral AGRF biofeedback to target propulsion in a specific leg, which may
      have utility as a training tool for individuals with gait deficits such as post
      stroke hemiparesis. Future studies are needed to investigate the effects of real
      time AGRF biofeedback as a gait training tool in neurologically-impaired
      individuals.

PMID- 28583197
TI  - No evidence of Borrelia mayonii in an endemic area for Lyme borreliosis in
      France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Borrelia mayonii is currently the latest species belonging to the
      Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) complex to be discovered. Interestingly it is
      involved in human pathology causing a high fever. We looked for its presence in
      post- tick bite febrile patients as well as in Ixodes ricinus ticks in an endemic
      area of France. RESULTS: After ensuring that our molecular technics correctly
      detected B. mayonii, 575 patients and 3,122 Ixodes ricinus nymphs were tested.
      Neither B. mayonii nor another species of the B. burgdorferi (s.l.) complex
      previously not reported in Europe has been identified. CONCLUSIONS: For now, B.
      mayonii seems to be an epiphenomenon. However, its discovery broadens the
      etiology of post-Ixodes bite febrile syndromes.

PMID- 28583198
TI  - A brief review: adipose-derived stem cells and their therapeutic potential in
      cardiovascular diseases.
AB  - Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are easily obtained and expanded, and have
      emerged as a novel source of adult stem cells for the treatment of cardiovascular
      diseases. These cells have been shown to have the capability of differentiating
      into cardiomyocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells.
      Furthermore, ADSCs secrete a series of paracrine factors to promote
      neovascularization, reduce apoptosis, and inhibit fibrosis, which contributes to
      cardiac regeneration. As a novel therapy in the regenerative field, ADSCs still
      face various limitations, such as low survival and engraftment. Thus, engineering
      and pharmacological studies have been conducted to solve these problems.
      Investigations have moved into phase I and II clinical trials examining the
      safety and efficacy of ADSCs in the setting of myocardial infarction. In this
      review, we discuss the differentiation and paracrine functions of ADSCs, the
      strategies promoting their therapeutic efficacy, and their clinical usage.

PMID- 28583199
TI  - Role of mesenchymal stem cells, their derived factors, and extracellular vesicles
      in liver failure.
AB  - Liver failure is a severe clinical syndrome with a poor prognosis. Mesenchymal
      stem cell (MSC) transplantation has emerged as a new intervention in treating
      liver failure. It is conventionally recognized that MSCs exert their therapeutic
      effect mainly through transdifferentiation. Recently, published articles have
      shown that MSCs work in liver failure by secreting trophic and immunomodulatory
      factors as well as extracellular vesicles (EVs) before transdifferentiation. In
      particular,MSC-derived EVs have shown similar curative effects as MSCs. Here we
      review the role of MSCs as well as their derived factors and EVs in liver failure
      and discuss the use of MSC-derived EVs instead of intact MSCs in treating liver
      failure.

PMID- 28583201
TI  - Molecular signatures of neutrophil extracellular traps in human visceral
      leishmaniasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infections with parasites of the Leishmania donovani complex result
      in clinical outcomes that range from asymptomatic infection to severe and fatal
      visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Neutrophils are major players of the immune response
      against Leishmania, but their contribution to distinct states of infection is
      unknown. Gene expression data suggest the activation of the NETosis pathway
      during human visceral leishmaniasis. Thus, we conducted an exploratory study to
      evaluate NET-related molecules in retrospective sera from VL patients,
      asymptomatic individuals and uninfected endemic controls. RESULTS: We demonstrate
      that VL patients and asymptomatic individuals exhibit differential regulation of
      molecules associated with neutrophil extracellular traps (NET). These differences
      were observed at the transcriptional level of genes encoding NET-associated
      proteins; in quantifications of cell free DNA and metalloproteinase 9; and in
      enzymatic activity of DNAse and elastase. Moreover, multivariate analysis
      resulted in class-specific signatures, and ROC curves demonstrate the ability of
      these molecules in discriminating asymptomatic infection from uninfected
      controls. CONCLUSION: Molecules that are associated with NETs are differentially
      regulated between distinct states of infection with L. infantum, suggesting that
      NETs might have distinct roles depending on the clinical status of infection.
      Although unlikely to be exclusive for VL, these signatures can be useful to
      better characterize asymptomatic infections in endemic regions of this disease.

PMID- 28583200
TI  - High quality clinical grade human embryonic stem cell lines derived from fresh
      discarded embryos.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold tremendous promise for cell
      replacement therapies for a range of degenerative diseases. In order to provide
      cost-effective treatments affordable by public health systems, HLA-matched
      allogeneic tissue banks of the highest quality clinical-grade hESCs will be
      required. However only a small number of existing hESC lines are suitable for
      clinical use; they are limited by moral and ethical concerns and none of them
      apply Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards to the earliest and critical
      stages of gamete and embryo procurement. We thus aimed to derive new clinical
      grade hESC lines of highest quality from fresh surplus GMP grade human embryos.
      METHODS: A comprehensive screen was performed for suitable combinations of
      culture media with supporting feeder cells or feeder-free matrix, at different
      stages, to support expansion of the inner cell mass and to establish new hESC
      lines. RESULTS: We developed a novel two-step and sequential media system of
      clinical-grade hESC derivation and successfully generated seven new hESC lines of
      widely varying HLA type, carefully screened for genetic health, from human
      embryos donated under the highest ethical and moral standards under an integrated
      GMP system which extends from hESC banking all the way back to gamete and embryo
      procurement. CONCLUSIONS: The present study, for the first time, reports the
      successful derivation of highest-quality clinical-grade hESC lines from fresh
      poor-quality surplus human embryos generated in a GMP-grade IVF laboratory. The
      availability of hESC lines of this status represents an important step towards
      more widespread application of regenerative medicine therapies.

PMID- 28583202
TI  - Systematic review with meta-analysis: the efficacy and safety of stem cell
      therapy for Crohn's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Stem cell therapy (SCT) for the treatment of Crohn's disease
      (CD) is still in its infancy, and whether SCT is associated with improved
      outcomes is unclear. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of patients receiving SCT. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched for
      studies that reported the use of stem cells for the treatment of patients with
      CD. Raw data from included studies were pooled for effect estimates. Subgroup
      analyses were performed for exploration of heterogeneity regarding all outcomes.
      RESULTS: We analyzed 21 studies comprising 514 patients with active CD. A random
      effects meta-analysis of studies of SCT as systemic infusion showed 56% (95%
      confidence interval (CI) 33-76, n = 150) of patients achieved clinical response.
      Similarly, random-effects pooled rates of clinical or endoscopic remission were
      46% (95% CI 25-69, n = 116) and 15% (95% CI 0-50, n = 48), respectively. A random
      effects meta-analysis of all perianal CD studies showed that 57% (95% CI 44-69%,
      n = 251) of patients had healed fistula with SCT, with an odds ratio of 3.83 (95%
      CI 1.06-13.86, n = 121, P = 0.04) versus control. The pooled rate of clinical
      recurrence was high at 16% (95% CI 4-34, n = 101) with follow-up >12 months. The
      pooled rates of severe adverse events (SAEs) and SAEs related to SCT were 12%
      (95% CI 6-23, n = 378) and 8% (95% CI 3-18, n = 378), respectively. The Egger
      test suggests no publication bias existed for fistula healing (P = 0.36), but did
      for clinical response (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: SCT seems potentially effective
      and may serve as an alternative treatment for refractory active CD. Toxicity will
      remain the most significant barrier to systemic SCT in patients with CD.

PMID- 28583203
TI  - Factors associated with mothers' knowledge on infant and young child feeding
      recommendation in slum areas of Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia: cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is a public health concern in Ethiopia. This might be
      correlated with inappropriate infant and young child feeding practice. This in
      turn is affected by Mothers' knowledge on feeding practice. However, information
      on mothers' knowledge on infant and young child feeding recommendation was scarce
      in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was designed to assess mothers' knowledge on
      infant and young child feeding recommendation and associated factors in slum
      areas of Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional
      study was conducted from May 1-26/2015. Systematic sampling technique was used to
      select respondents. Data were collected by pretested, structured, interviewer
      administered questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed by SPSS version 20
      software. Knowledge score was computed. Binary and multivariable logistic
      regression analysis were used to identify factors associated with maternal
      knowledge. RESULTS: Only 28.7% of mothers had sufficient knowledge on infant and
      young child feeding recommendation. Factors associated with mothers, knowledge
      were above primary education [AOR 2.5, 95% CI (1.5, 3.9)], possession of radio
      [AOR 1.7, 95% CI (1.1, 2.7)], attending antenatal care [AOR 2.4, 95% CI (1.5,
      4.0)], and having employed husband [AOR 2.3, 95% CI (1.2, 4.4)]. CONCLUSION:
      Mothers' knowledge on infant and young child feeding recommendation was very low.
      Hence, education on infant and young child feeding recommendation should be
      strengthened during antenatal care visit and using mass media especially for
      mothers with lower educational status to fill up of this gap.

PMID- 28583204
TI  - Building a semantic web-based metadata repository for facilitating detailed
      clinical modeling in cancer genome studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Detailed Clinical Models (DCMs) have been regarded as the basis for
      retaining computable meaning when data are exchanged between heterogeneous
      computer systems. To better support clinical cancer data capturing and reporting,
      there is an emerging need to develop informatics solutions for standards-based
      clinical models in cancer study domains. The objective of the study is to develop
      and evaluate a cancer genome study metadata management system that serves as a
      key infrastructure in supporting clinical information modeling in cancer genome
      study domains. METHODS: We leveraged a Semantic Web-based metadata repository
      enhanced with both ISO11179 metadata standard and Clinical Information Modeling
      Initiative (CIMI) Reference Model. We used the common data elements (CDEs)
      defined in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data dictionary, and extracted the
      metadata of the CDEs using the NCI Cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR) CDE
      dataset rendered in the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The ITEM/ITEM_GROUP
      pattern defined in the latest CIMI Reference Model is used to represent reusable
      model elements (mini-Archetypes). RESULTS: We produced a metadata repository with
      38 clinical cancer genome study domains, comprising a rich collection of mini
      Archetype pattern instances. We performed a case study of the domain "clinical
      pharmaceutical" in the TCGA data dictionary and demonstrated enriched data
      elements in the metadata repository are very useful in support of building
      detailed clinical models. CONCLUSION: Our informatics approach leveraging
      Semantic Web technologies provides an effective way to build a CIMI-compliant
      metadata repository that would facilitate the detailed clinical modeling to
      support use cases beyond TCGA in clinical cancer study domains.

PMID- 28583205
TI  - Human liver mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells inhibit hepatic stellate cell
      activation: in vitro and in vivo evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Progressive liver fibrosis leads to cirrhosis and end-stage liver
      disease. This disease is a consequence of strong interactions between matrix
      producing hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and resident and infiltrating immune cell
      populations. Accumulated experimental evidence supports the involvement of adult
      derived human liver mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells (ADHLSCs) in liver
      regeneration. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of
      ADHLSCs on HSCs, both in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Activated human HSCs were co
      cultured with ADHLSCs or ADHLSC-conditioned culture medium. The characteristics
      of the activated human HSCs were assessed by microscopy and biochemical assays,
      whereas proliferation was analyzed using flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry.
      The secretion profile of activated HSCs was evaluated by ELISA and Luminex.
      ADHLSCs were transplanted into a juvenile rat model of fibrosis established after
      co-administration of phenobarbital and CCl4. RESULTS: When co-cultured with
      ADHLSCs or conditioned medium, the proliferation of HSCs was inhibited, beginning
      at 24 h and for up to 7 days. The HSCs were blocked in G0/G1 phase, and showed
      decreased Ki-67 positivity. Pro-collagen I production was reduced, while
      secretion of HGF, IL-6, MMP1, and MMP2 was enhanced. Neutralization of HGF
      partially blocked the inhibitory effect of ADHLSCs on the proliferation and
      secretion profile of HSCs. Repeated intrahepatic transplantation of
      cryopreserved/thawed ADHLSCs without immunosuppression inhibited the expression
      of markers of liver fibrosis in 6 out of 11 rats, as compared to their expression
      in the vehicle-transplanted group. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide evidence for a
      direct inhibitory effect of ADHLSCs on activated HSCs, which supports their
      development for the treatment of liver fibrosis.

PMID- 28583206
TI  - Iron availability affects West Nile virus infection in its mosquito vector.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mosquitoes are responsible for transmission of viruses, including
      dengue, West Nile and chikungunya viruses. Female mosquitoes are infected when
      they blood-feed on vertebrates, a required step for oogenesis. During this
      process, mosquitoes encounter high iron loads. Since iron is an essential
      nutrient for most organisms, including pathogens, one of the defense mechanisms
      for the host includes sequestration of iron away from the invading pathogen.
      Here, we determine whether iron availability affects viral replication in
      mosquitoes. METHODS: To elucidate effect of iron availability on mosquito cells
      during infection, Culex cells were treated with either ferric ammonium citrate
      (FAC) or the iron chelator, deferoxamine (DFX). Real time RT-PCR was performed
      using ferritin (heavy chain) and NRAMP as a measure of iron homeostasis in cells.
      To determine iron requirement for viral replication, Culex cells were knocked
      down for NRAMP using dsRNA. Finally, the results were validated in Culex mosquito
      infection model, by treating infected mosquitoes with DFX to reduce iron levels.
      RESULTS: Our results show that infection of Culex cells led to induction in
      levels of ferritin (heavy chain) and NRAMP mRNAs in time-dependent manner.
      Results also showed that treatment of cells with FAC, reduced expression of NRAMP
      (iron transporter) and increase levels of ferritin (heavy chain). Interestingly,
      increasing iron levels increased viral titers; while reducing intracellular iron
      levels, either by NRAMP knock-down or using DFX, reduced viral titers. The
      results from Culex mosquito infection showed that mosquitoes treated with DFX had
      reduced viral titers compared with untreated controls in midgut as well as
      carcass 8 days pi. Saliva from mosquitoes treated with DFX also showed reduced
      viral titers compared with untreated controls, indicating low viral transmission
      capacity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that iron is required for viral
      replication in mosquito cells. Mosquitoes respond to viral infection, by inducing
      expression of heavy chain ferritin, which sequesters available iron, reducing its
      availability to virus infected cells. The data indicates that heavy chain
      ferritin may be part of an immune mechanism of mosquitoes in response to viral
      infections.

PMID- 28583207
TI  - Knockdown resistance (kdr) of the voltage-gated sodium channel gene of Aedes
      aegypti population in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aedes aegypti is the main vector of several arthropod-borne viral
      infections in the tropics profoundly affecting humans, such as dengue fever (DF),
      West Nile (WN), chikungunya and more recently Zika. Eradication of Aedes still
      largely depends on insecticides, which is the most cost-effective strategy, and
      often inefficient due to resistance development in exposed Aedes populations. We
      here conducted a study of Ae. aegypti resistance towards several insecticides
      regularly used in the city of Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. METHODS: Aedes aegypti
      egg samples were collected with ovitraps and thereafter hatched in the insectary
      of the Gadjah Mada University. The F0 generation was used for all bioassay
      related experiments and knockdown resistance (kdr) assays. RESULTS: Results
      clearly showed resistance development of Ae. aegypti against tested insecticides.
      Mortalities of Ae. aegypti were less than 90% with highest resistance observed
      against 0.75% permethrin. Mosquitoes from the southern parts of Denpasar
      presented high level of resistance pattern in comparison to those from the
      western and northern parts of Denpasar. Kdr analysis of voltage-gated sodium
      channel (Vgsc) gene showed significant association to S989P and V1016G mutations
      linked to resistance phenotypes against 0.75% permethrin. Conversely, Ae. aegypti
      F1534C gene mutation did not result in any significant correlation to resistance
      development. CONCLUSIONS: Periodically surveillance of insecticide resistances in
      Ae. aegypti mosquitoes will help local public health authorities to set better
      goals and allow proper evaluation of on-going mosquito control strategies.
      Initial detection of insecticide resistance will contribute to conduct proper
      actions in delaying mosquito resistance development such as insecticide rotation
      or combination of compounds in order to prolong chemical efficacy in combating
      Ae. aegypti vectors in Indonesia.

PMID- 28583210
TI  - Long-read sequencing improves assembly of Trichinella genomes 10-fold, revealing
      substantial synteny between lineages diverged over 7 million years.
AB  - Genome assemblies can form the basis of comparative analyses fostering insight
      into the evolutionary genetics of a parasite's pathogenicity, host-pathogen
      interactions, environmental constraints and invasion biology; however, the length
      and complexity of many parasite genomes has hampered the development of well
      resolved assemblies. In order to improve Trichinella genome assemblies, the
      genome of the sylvatic encapsulated species Trichinella murrelli was sequenced
      using third-generation, long-read technology and, using syntenic comparisons,
      scaffolded to a reference genome assembly of Trichinella spiralis, markedly
      improving both. A high-quality draft assembly for T. murrelli was achieved that
      totalled 63.2 Mbp, half of which was condensed into 26 contigs each longer than
      571 000 bp. When compared with previous assemblies for parasites in the genus,
      ours required 10-fold fewer contigs, which were five times longer, on average.
      Better assembly across repetitive regions also enabled resolution of 8 Mbp of
      previously indeterminate sequence. Furthermore, syntenic comparisons identified
      widespread scaffold misassemblies in the T. spiralis reference genome. The two
      new assemblies, organized for the first time into three chromosomal scaffolds,
      will be valuable resources for future studies linking phenotypic traits within
      each species to their underlying genetic bases.

PMID- 28583209
TI  - Fine mapping by composite genome-wide association analysis.
AB  - Genome-wide association (GWA) studies play a key role in current genetics
      research, unravelling genomic regions linked to phenotypic traits of interest in
      multiple species. Nevertheless, the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) may
      provide confounding results when significant genetic markers span along several
      contiguous cM. In this study, we have adapted the composite interval mapping
      approach to the GWA framework (composite GWA), in order to evaluate the impact of
      including competing (possibly linked) genetic markers when testing for the
      additive allelic effect inherent to a given genetic marker. We tested model
      performance on simulated data sets under different scenarios (i.e., qualitative
      trait loci effects, LD between genetic markers and width of the genomic region
      involved in the analysis). Our results showed that the genomic region had a small
      impact on the number of competing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as well
      as on the precision of the composite GWA analysis. A similar conclusion was
      derived from the preferable range of LD between the tested SNP and competing
      SNPs, although moderate-to-high LD seemed to attenuate the loss of statistical
      power. The composite GWA improved specificity and reduced the number of
      significant genetic markers. The composite GWA model contributes a novel point of
      view for GWA analyses where testing circumscribed to the genomic region flanking
      each SNP (delimited by the nearest competing SNPs) and conditioning on linked
      markers increases the precision to locate causal mutations, but possibly at the
      expense of power.

PMID- 28583208
TI  - miR199a-3p regulates P53 by targeting CABLES1 in mouse cardiac c-kit+ cells to
      promote proliferation and inhibit apoptosis through a negative feedback loop.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as crucial factors that regulate
      proliferation and apoptosis of cardiac c-kit+ cells. Although much is known about
      their role in maintaining cardiac c-kit+ cell pluripotency, the mechanisms by
      which they affect cell fate decisions that are an essential part of the repair of
      heart failure remain poorly understood. METHODS: Cardiac c-kit+ cells were
      obtained from Balb/c mice and cultured in vitro. Lentiviral vectors of miR199a
      3p, its corresponding anti-miRNA, or short hairpin RNA against Cables1 were
      transfected into cells. The proliferation of cardiac c-kit+ cells was evaluated
      using EdU and flow cytometry. Furthermore, we examined cell apoptosis by flow
      cytometry under treatment with 200nM angiotensin II for 48 h. The levels of
      miR199a-3p and Cables1 mRNA were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase
      chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Western blot was performed to examine the expression of
      Cables1 and P53 proteins. RESULTS: We demonstrated a significantly decreased
      expression of miR199a-3p in heart failure samples compared with healthy donors.
      Meanwhile, we identified miR199a-3p as a proliferation- and apoptosis-associated
      regulator impacted through Cdk5 and Abl enzyme substrate 1 (CABLES1) targeting,
      and also attributed their repression to P53 protein expression. We further
      demonstrated that P53 induced miR199a-3p expression and, in turn, miR199-3p
      decreased P53 activity. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our findings uncover one new
      mechanism by which P53 induced miR199a-3p expression and, in turn, miR199-3p
      decreased P53 activity. Therefore, miR199a-3p and P53 are coupled through CABLES1
      and comprise a novel negative feedback loop that likely contributes to cardiac c
      kit+ cell proliferation and apoptosis.

PMID- 28583211
TI  - Parenting a child at home with hypoplastic left heart syndrome: experiences of
      commitment, of stress, and of love.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the experiences of parenting a child with hypoplastic left
      heart syndrome after the child has been discharged home from hospital. DESIGN: A
      study of the parents' experiences using face-to-face interviews and psychometric
      measures with parents whose child had survived stage surgery. SETTING: Parents
      were interviewed within the home environment or within the hospital if that was
      their choice. SUBJECTS: A total of 29 parents (16 mothers and 13 fathers) of
      surviving children. Intervention A semi-structured face-to-face interview plus
      psychometric tests (parent demographics, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Impact on
      Family Scale, and the Psychological Check List - Civilian). Measurements and main
      results The parents' experience in supporting a child with hypoplastic left heart
      syndrome is one of stress, of commitment, and of love. Although parents
      experienced joy in their child, they were also subjected to anxiety with four
      parents test positive to post-traumatic stress disorder and hypervigilance while
      monitoring their child's condition. Parents lived with many difficulties, and
      demands.

PMID- 28583212
TI  - Lineage-specific expansion and loss of tyrosinase genes across platyhelminths and
      their induction profiles in the carcinogenic oriental liver fluke, Clonorchis
      sinensis.
AB  - Tyrosinase provides an essential activity during egg production in diverse
      platyhelminths by mediating sclerotization of eggshells. In this study, we
      investigated the genomic and evolutionary features of tyrosinases in parasitic
      platyhelminths whose genomic information is available. A pair of paralogous
      tyrosinases was detected in most trematodes, whereas they were lost in
      cyclophyllidean cestodes. A pseudophyllidean cestode displaying egg biology
      similar to that of trematodes possessed an orthologous gene. Interestingly, one
      of the paralogous tyrosinases appeared to have been multiplied into three copies
      in Clonorchis sinensis and Opisthorchis viverrini. In addition, a fifth
      tyrosinase gene that was minimally transcribed through all developmental stages
      was further detected in these opisthorchiid genomes. Phylogenetic analyses
      demonstrated that the tyrosinase gene has undergone duplication at least three
      times in platyhelminths. The additional opisthorchiid gene arose from the first
      duplication. A paralogous copy generated from these gene duplications, except for
      the last one, seemed to be lost in the major neodermatans lineages. In C.
      sinensis, tyrosinase gene expressions were initiated following sexual maturation
      and the levels were significantly enhanced by the presence of O2 and bile. Taken
      together, our data suggest that tyrosinase has evolved lineage-specifically
      across platyhelminths related to its copy number and induction mechanism.

PMID- 28583213
TI  - Childhood abuse and neglect and insecure attachment states of mind in adulthood:
      Prospective, longitudinal evidence from a high-risk sample-CORRIGENDUM.

PMID- 28583214
TI  - Trichomonas tenax and periodontal diseases: a concise review.
AB  - Periodontal diseases (gingivitis and periodontitis), result from a disruption of
      the host-oral microbiome homoeostasis. Whereas the pathological role of some
      specific bacterial strains during periodontal diseases is well documented, the
      impact of parasites in periodontium pathophysiology is still under debate. This
      review aims to collect data about the prevalence and the potential role of
      Trichomonas tenax during periodontal diseases. Data from 47 studies revealed that
      T. tenax prevalence in diseased periodontium ranged from 0 to 94.1%. The
      prevalence of oral protozoan infections was found to be largely greater in
      patients with periodontal diseases than with healthy periodontium. The parasite
      detection was mainly performed by direct microscopy. Trichomonas tenax presence
      was clearly correlated with periodontal disease. The high heterogeneity of its
      periodontal prevalence may be correlated with the diversity of the population
      screened (age, sex, systemic diseases), and the methods used for diagnosis. This
      protozoan seems to have the capacity to be involved in the inflammatory process
      of gum disease. Animal experimentation, using relevant physiopathological models
      of periodontitis, needs to be performed to investigate the ability of T. tenax to
      cause and/or worsen the disease. Further investigations using standardized
      experimental designs of epidemiologic studies are also needed.

PMID- 28583215
TI  - Waist circumference as a predictor of mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients:
      a follow-up study of 48 months.
AB  - Body-fat gain is a common finding among peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, and
      the accumulation of adipose tissue occurs predominantly in the abdominal area.
      Waist circumference (WC) is a reliable marker of abdominal obesity and its
      association with worse outcomes has been demonstrated in non-dialysis and
      haemodialysis patients. We aimed at investigating whether WC measurements as well
      as the changes over time in WC were able to predict mortality in PD patients.
      This prospective study included 109 patients undergoing PD (57 % male, age 52 (sd
      16) years, 32 % diabetics, 48 % BMI>=25 kg/m2). WC was measured at the umbilicus
      level (empty abdominal cavity), and values >88 cm for women and >102 cm for men
      were considered high. Nutritional status and laboratory parameters were also
      evaluated. WC was measured at baseline and after 6 months, and mortality was
      registered during a period of 48 months. High WC was observed in 55 % of women
      and in 23 % of men at baseline. After 6 months, 61 % of the patients showed an
      increased WC. At the end of the study, twenty-seven deaths were registered. A
      significant increase in WC was observed only in the non-survivor group. In the
      Cox regression analysis adjusting for sex, age, duration on dialysis, diabetes,
      BMI, serum albumin and C-reactive protein, high WC at baseline as well as the 6
      month increase in WC were independently associated with mortality. This study
      demonstrated that a high WC and the increase over time in WC were both predictors
      of mortality in PD patients.

PMID- 28583217
TI  - Denis Burkitt and the origins of the dietary fibre hypothesis.
AB  - For more than 200 years the fibre in plant foods has been known by animal
      nutritionists to have significant effects on digestion. Its role in human
      nutrition began to be investigated towards the end of the 19th century. However,
      between 1966 and 1972, Denis Burkitt, a surgeon who had recently returned from
      Africa, brought together ideas from a range of disciplines together with
      observations from his own experience to propose a radical view of the role of
      fibre in human health. Burkitt came late to the fibre story but built on the work
      of three physicians (Peter Cleave, G. D. Campbell and Hugh Trowell), a surgeon
      (Neil Painter) and a biochemist (Alec Walker) to propose that diets low in fibre
      increase the risk of CHD, obesity, diabetes, dental caries, various vascular
      disorders and large bowel conditions such as cancer, appendicitis and
      diverticulosis. Simply grouping these diseases together as having a common cause
      was groundbreaking. Proposing fibre as the key stimulated much research but also
      controversy. Credit for the dietary fibre hypothesis is given largely to Burkitt
      who became known as the 'Fibre Man'. This paper sets out the story of the
      development of the fibre hypothesis, and the contribution to it of these
      individuals.

PMID- 28583218
TI  - Demodex canis regulates cholinergic system mediated immunosuppressive pathways in
      canine demodicosis.
AB  - Demodex canis infestation in dogs remains one of the main challenges in
      veterinary dermatology. The exact pathogenesis of canine demodicosis is unknown
      but an aberration in immune status is considered very significant. No studies
      have underpinned the nexus between induction of demodicosis and neural
      immunosuppressive pathways so far. We have evaluated the involvement of
      cholinergic pathways in association with cytokines regulation as an insight into
      the immuno-pathogenesis of canine demodicosis in the present study. Remarkable
      elevations in circulatory immunosuppressive cytokine interleukin-10 and
      cholinesterase activity were observed in dogs with demodicosis. Simultaneously,
      remarkable reduction in circulatory pro-inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis
      factor-alpha level was observed in dogs with demodicosis. Findings of the present
      study evidently suggest that Demodex mites might be affecting the cholinergic
      pathways to induce immunosuppression in their host and then proliferate
      incessantly in skin microenvironment to cause demodicosis.

PMID- 28583219
TI  - Amblyomma birmitum a new species of hard tick in Burmese amber.
AB  - Amblyomma birmitum sp. nov. is formally described as a new record from 99 Ma old
      Burmese amber from Myanmar. This confirms the presence of the extant hard tick
      genus Amblyomma C.L. Koch, 1844 (Ixodida: Ixodidae) in the Late Cretaceous. This
      discovery is placed in its wider context and some reports of fossil hard ticks,
      such as a Hyalomma C.L. Koch, 1844 in Eocene Baltic amber, are
      misidentifications. The genus Amblyomma belongs to the clade Metastriata, a group
      which probably also accommodates two extinct genera, Cornupalpatum Poinar and
      Brown, 2003 and Compluriscutata Poinar and Buckley, 2008, also found in Burmese
      amber. All three fossils are thus only a little younger than published molecular
      divergence time estimates (ca. 124 +/- 17 Ma) for the Metastriata lineage.
      Amblyomma has a largely Gondwanan distribution today. However, in some
      biogeographical scenarios, e.g. the Samafrica model, its predicted radiation time
      postdates the dissolution of the original Gondwana supercontinent raising
      questions about how its current distribution pattern was achieved.

PMID- 28583216
TI  - The role of rare innate immune cells in Type 2 immune activation against
      parasitic helminths.
AB  - The complexity of helminth macroparasites is reflected in the intricate network
      of host cell types that participate in the Type 2 immune response needed to
      battle these organisms. In this context, adaptive T helper 2 cells and the Type 2
      cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 have been the focus of
      research for years, but recent work has demonstrated that the innate immune
      system plays an essential role. Some innate immune cells that promote Type 2
      immunity are relatively abundant, such as macrophages and eosinophils. However,
      we now appreciate that more rare cell types including group 2 innate lymphoid
      cells, basophils, mast cells and dendritic cells make significant contributions
      to these responses. These cells are found at low frequency but they are
      specialized to their roles - located at sites such as the skin, lung and gut,
      where the host combats helminth parasites. These cells respond rapidly and
      robustly to worm antigens and worm-induced damage to produce essential cytokines,
      chemokines, eicosanoids and histamine to activate damaged epithelium and to
      recruit other effectors. Thus, a greater understanding of how these cells operate
      is essential to understand how the host protects itself during helminth
      infection.

PMID- 28583220
TI  - Expression and localization of tubulin cofactors TBCD and TBCE in human gametes.
AB  - The tubulin cofactors TBCD and TBCE play an essential role in regulation of the
      microtubule dynamics in a wide variety of somatic cells, but little information
      is known about the expression of these cofactors in human sperm and oocytes. In
      this study, we focused on the investigation of the presence of, and the
      differential distribution of, the tubulin cofactors TBCD and TBCE in human sperm
      and during human oocyte maturation. We performed expression assays for TBCD and
      TBCE by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), western blot
      and immunofluorescence and verified the presence of both cofactors in human
      gametes. TBCD and TBCE were located mainly in the middle region and in the tail
      of the sperm while in the oocyte the localization was cytosolic. The mRNA of both
      tubulin cofactors were present in the human oocytes but not in sperm cells. This
      finding gives a first insight into where TBCD and TBCE could carry out their
      function in the continuous changes that the cytoskeleton experiences during
      gametogenesis and also prior to fertilization.

PMID- 28583221
TI  - Impact of dysfunctional maternal personality traits on risk of offspring
      depression, anxiety and self-harm at age 18 years: a population-based
      longitudinal study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of underlying parental psychological vulnerability on the
      future mental health of offspring is not fully understood. Using a prospective
      cohort design, we investigated the association between dysfunctional parental
      personality traits and risks of offspring self-harm, depression and anxiety.
      METHODS: The association between dysfunctional parental personality traits
      (monotony avoidance, impulsivity, anger, suspicion, and detachment), measured in
      both mothers and fathers when offspring were age 9 years, and risk of offspring
      depression, anxiety and self-harm at age 18 years, was investigated in a
      population-based cohort (ALSPAC) from over 8000 parents and children. RESULTS:
      Higher levels of dysfunctional maternal, but not paternal, personality traits
      were associated with an increased risk of self-harm, depression, and anxiety in
      offspring. Maternal associations were best explained by the accumulation of
      dysfunctional traits. Associations were strongest for offspring depression:
      Offspring of mothers with three or more dysfunctional personality traits were
      2.27 (1.45-3.54, p < 0.001) times as likely to be depressed, compared with
      offspring of mothers with no dysfunctional personality traits, independently of
      maternal depression and other variables. CONCLUSIONS: The accumulation of
      dysfunctional maternal personality traits is associated with the risk of self
      harm, depression, anxiety in offspring independently of maternal depression and
      other confounding variables. The absence of associations for equivalent paternal
      traits makes a genetic explanation for the findings unlikely. Further research is
      required to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Mothers with high levels of
      dysfunctional personality traits may benefit from additional support to reduce
      the risk of adverse psychological outcomes occurring in their offspring.

PMID- 28583222
TI  - Maternal perception of child overweight status and its association with weight
      related parenting practices, their children's health behaviours and weight change
      in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Childhood obesity has increased rapidly in China, but understanding is
      limited on how parents perceive their child's weight status and how this
      perception affects weight-related parenting practices. We examined maternal
      perception of her child's weight status and its association with demographics,
      subsequent weight-related parenting practices, the child's health behaviours and
      weight change. Design/Setting/Subjects Maternal perception of child's weight
      status and health behaviours from the China Health and Nutrition Surveys were
      assessed at baseline and in follow-up surveys for 816 children aged 6-18 years
      during 2004-2011. Associations were tested using mixed models. RESULTS: Overall,
      maternal and child perceptions of the child's weight status were fairly
      consistent (kappa w=0.56), 63.8 % of mothers had correct perception. While 9.6 %
      of mothers perceived their child as overweight, 10.9 % of children did so, and
      13.6 % of children were indeed overweight. Compared with mothers who viewed their
      children as normal weight, mothers who thought their children were overweight
      were more likely to encourage their children to increase their physical activity
      (OR; 95 % CI: 1.8; 1.0, 3.3) and to diet (4.3; 2.3, 7.8). Children perceived as
      overweight by their mothers were more likely to have insufficient physical
      activity (2.8; 1.6, 4.7) and gain more weight during follow-up (BMI Z-score, beta
      (se): 1.0 (0.1); P<0.01) than children perceived by their mothers as normal
      weight. CONCLUSIONS: In China, mothers who perceive their child as overweight are
      more likely to encourage their child to exercise and modify their diet for weight
      management, but this encouragement does not seem to improve the child's health
      behaviours and weight status.

PMID- 28583223
TI  - ASSESSMENT OF UNIVERSAL NEWBORN HEARING SCREENING AND INTERVENTION IN SHANGHAI,
      CHINA.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the universal newborn hearing
      screening (UNHS) and intervention program in Shanghai, China. METHODS: This study
      included the quantitative analyses of the UNHS-Shanghai database in 2002-12 and
      qualitative assessment of the program. The Otoacoustic Emissions and the
      Automated Auditory Brainstem Evoked Responses tests were conducted in screening.
      The costs and benefits were calculated based on the number of participants in
      each stage. The short-term and long-term periods were defined as from birth to 15
      years of age or to death (82-year-olds), respectively. Sensitivity analyses were
      conducted. RESULTS: A total 1,574,380 newborns were included, representing 93.6
      percent of all eligible babies in Shanghai during the study period. The
      prevalence of newborn hearing loss was 1.660/00. The short-term/long-term program
      costs were Y488.5 million (US$75.52 million)/Y1.08 billion (US$167.12 million),
      and the short-term/long-term program benefit was Y980.1 million (US$151.53
      million)/Y8.13 billion (US$1.26 billion). The program benefit was greater than
      its cost if the proportion of hearing-loss children enrolled in regular schools
      was no less than 41.4 percent of all hearing impaired children, as well as if the
      wage growth rate ranged from 3 percent to 8 percent. Qualitative results also
      suggested that stakeholders strongly supported this program. CONCLUSIONS: The
      universal newborn hearing screening and intervention program in Shanghai is
      justified in terms of the resource input in the long run, although there is still
      room for further improvement with respect to educational rehabilitation and a
      better infrastructure system.

PMID- 28583225
TI  - The two-hit hypothesis and paraganglioma of the head and neck.

PMID- 28583224
TI  - Anti-parasitic effect of the diuretic and Na+-ATPAse inhibitor furosemide in
      cutaneous leishmaniasis.
AB  - Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes are known to express furosemide (Lasix(r))
      sensitive P-type membrane Na+-ATPase. In the present study, furosemide activity
      was studied in intracellular amastigotes and infected BALB/c mice to investigate
      its efficacy in cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Intracellular parasites, but not
      macrophages, were found to be sensitive to killing by furosemide (IC50 = 87 u m
      vs CC50 ? 1000 u m, respectively). Although furosemide did not induce nitric
      oxide production or intracellular pH changes in infected macrophages, it led to a
      significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst. Freshly isolated tissue
      parasites expressed a high degree of Na+-ATPase activity that decreased with
      culture, indicative of a higher enzyme expression in amastigotes than in
      promastigotes. Both intraperitoneal and oral treatment of L. amazonensis-infected
      mice with furosemide dosages equivalent to that prescribed as a diuretic
      significantly reduced the parasite's growth compared with the situation in
      untreated mice. Combination with oral furosemide increased the efficacy and
      safety of intraperitoneal treatment with sodium stibogluconate (SSG). To
      summarize, furosemide control of intracellular leishmanial growth by means of
      parasite Na+-ATPase inhibition, and macrophage ROS activation may help explain
      its sole and SSG-combined therapeutic effect against murine CL.

PMID- 28583227
TI  - Differential diagnosis and proper treatment of acute rhinosinusitis: Guidance
      based on historical data analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The time course of rhinovirus positive and negative rhinosinusitis
      has not been quantified yet, which aggravates proper selection and justification
      of the optimum treatment for this illness. Such quantitative information would
      facilitate an early and proper identification of the disease and its
      differentiation from acute bacterial rhinosinusitis, and could diminish harmful
      overuse of antibiotics, arguably driven by patients' want for attention and the
      treating physicians' inability to offer an adequate verbal comfort in its stead.
      OBJECTIVE: Extraction of the quantitative information needed to identify
      rhinovirus positive or negative rhinosinusitis and to allow selection of the most
      appropriate treatment from the published time dependence of individual clinical
      symptoms of the disease. METHODS: Scrutiny (and modeling) of temporal evolution
      of all noteworthy symptoms of rhinosinusitis with a simple mathematical
      expression that relies on two adjustable parameters per symptom (and potentially
      a general time offset as an extra adjustable parameter). RESULTS: Adverse effects
      of rhinosinusitis can be grouped according to the sequence of their exponential
      appearance and ~2.6 times slower exponential disappearance, rhinovirus negative
      rhinosinusitis generally improving ~25% faster and being ~40% less severe. The
      major early local symptoms (throat soreness and scratchiness, headache) vanish
      with a half-life of ~1.8 days, whereas further local symptoms take ~1.6 times
      longer to disappear. At least 50-60% improvement of two prominent early symptoms,
      sore throat and sneezing (but not of nasal discharge, cough, and hoarseness) by
      day 5 of the disease implies a nonbacterial origin of rhinitis and should exclude
      use of antibiotics. CONCLUSION: Temporal evolution of all rhinosinusitis symptoms
      is qualitatively similar, which makes the early symptom decay a good proxy for,
      and predictor of, the disease perspective. Knowing a symptom intensity at just
      three to four time points suffices for reconstructing its entire time course and
      total intensity or gravity. This permits an easy and early identification of
      rhinosinusitis, and its plausible differentiation from acute bacterial
      rhinosinusitis, disease treatment optimization, and corresponding clinical trials
      simplification and/or shortening.

PMID- 28583226
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging findings in Meniere's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify and evaluate cranial magnetic resonance imaging findings
      associated with Meniere's disease. METHODS: Seventy-eight patients with a
      documented diagnosis of Meniere's disease and 35 controls underwent 1.5 T or 3 T
      magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. Patients also underwent otological,
      vestibular and audiometric examinations. RESULTS: Lack of visualisation of the
      left and right vestibular aqueducts was identified as statistically significant
      amongst Meniere's disease patients (left, p = 0.0001, odds ratio = 0.02; right, p
      = 0.0004, odds ratio = 0.03). Both vestibular aqueducts were of abnormal size in
      the Meniere's disease group, albeit with left-sided significance (left, p =
      0.008, odds ratio = 10.91; right, p = 0.49, odds ratio = 2.47). CONCLUSION: Lack
      of vestibular aqueduct visualisation on magnetic resonance imaging was
      statistically significant in Meniere's disease patients compared to the general
      population. The study findings suggest that magnetic resonance imaging can be
      useful to rule out retrocochlear pathology and provide radiological data to
      support the clinical diagnosis of Meniere's disease.

PMID- 28583228
TI  - Diagnosing environmental allergies: Comparison of skin-prick, intradermal, and
      serum specific immunoglobulin E testing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergists commonly perform intradermal skin testing (IDST) after
      negative skin-prick testing (SPT) to comprehensively diagnose environmental
      allergic sensitization. However, with the availability of modern methods to
      detect serum-specific immunoglobulin E (ssIgE), it is unclear if ssIgE testing
      could substitute for IDST. OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of ssIgE testing
      and IDST when added to SPT in diagnosing environmental allergic sensitizations.
      METHODS: SPT, IDST, and ssIgE testing to nine common environmental allergens were
      analyzed in 75 patients with oculonasal symptoms who presented to our allergy
      clinics in the Bronx, New York, between January 2014 and May 2015. RESULTS: A
      total of 651 SPT and 499 ssIgE tests were independently performed and revealed
      162 (25%) and 127 (25%) sensitizations, respectively. When SPT results were
      negative, IDST results revealed 108 of 452 additional sensitizations (24%). In
      contrast, when SPT results were negative, ssIgE test results only revealed 9%
      additional sensitizations. When both SPT and IDST results were negative, ssIgE
      testing only detected 3% of additional sensitizations, and ssIgE levels were
      typically low in these cases (median, 1.25 kU/L; range, 0.357-4.47 kU/L). When
      both SPT and ssIgE test results were negative, IDST results detected 15%
      additional sensitizations. CONCLUSION: IDST detected more additional
      environmental sensitizations compared with ssIgE testing. IDST, therefore, may be
      useful when the SPT and/or ssIgE testing results were negative, but the exposure
      history indicated relevant allergic sensitization. Serology added only a little
      more information if both SPT and IDST results were negative but may be useful in
      combination with SPT if IDST cannot be performed.

PMID- 28583230
TI  - Differential expression of microRNAs and their possible roles in patients with
      chronic idiopathic urticaria and active hives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is a complicated skin disease with
      unknown pathophysiology. MicroRNAs (miRNA) have been shown to be active in
      cellular regulation. The goal of this pilot study was to examine whether miRNAs
      may be involved in the regulation of CIU or as biomarkers for CIU. METHODS: Four
      groups of three patients each were selected: patients with either active hives or
      no hives and with positive or negative chronic urticaria (CU) index results.
      MiRNAs were isolated from patient plasma and analyzed by using miRNA microarray
      technology to determine the amount of each of the 2567 known human miRNAs.
      RESULTS: A total of 16 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in
      patients with active hives. Among them, five (2355-3p, 4264, 2355-5p, 29c-5p, and
      361-3p) were significantly increased in samples with positive CU index results,
      which could be useful biomarkers for patients with chronic autoimmune urticaria.
      The miRNA data bases were used to find the targets of these selected miRNA
      sequences. These potential targets were then compared against a list of 154
      urticaria-related genes. Twenty-five genes were found to match. These included
      eight that were significantly downregulated and eight that were significantly
      upregulated; however, seven of the eight downregulated genes (FBXL20, OPHN1,
      YPEL2, STARD9, EZH1, KLHL24, ING4) and five of the eight upregulated genes (BYSL,
      PNO1, ADAMTS9, STEAP4, SRGN) have no reported roles in signaling. For the 13
      genes with reported roles in signaling, the following pathways were found:
      transforming growth factor beta signaling pathway (NRC31, KITLG, THBS1, CCL2),
      glucocorticoid receptor signaling pathway (NR3C1, SELE, CCL2), p53 signaling
      pathway (CCNG2, THBS1, CCL2), p21-activated kinase pathway (PAK1IP1, KITLG,
      CCL2), phosphoinositide-3 kinase protein kinase B signaling pathway (KITLG, CHRM,
      THBS1), and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction (NRC31, HRH1, CHRM), which
      could play important roles in CIU. CONCLUSION: A better understanding of those
      genes with undefined function and simultaneous quantitation of both miRNAs and
      messenger RNAs are needed to fully understand CIU disease.

PMID- 28583229
TI  - Landmarks for rapid localization of the sphenopalatine foramen: A radiographic
      morphometric analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transnasal endoscopic sphenopalatine artery ligation is becoming the
      procedure of choice for surgical management of intractable posterior epistaxis.
      Landmarks for localization of the sphenopalatine foramen can assist in rapid
      surgical exposure of the sphenopalatine artery. OBJECTIVE: This study examined
      distances from easily identified endoscopic surgical landmarks to the
      sphenopalatine foramen. METHODS: By using computed tomography of the sinus to
      study radiologic anatomy in 50 adults, distances were measured between five
      simple endoscopic landmarks and the sphenopalatine foramen. The two-tailed t-test
      was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Right- and left-sided measurements
      were similar. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) anteroposterior distances to the
      sphenopalatine foramen were the following: from the maxillary line (36.7 +/- 5.5
      mm), anterior head of the middle turbinate (33.8 +/- 6.7 mm), basal lamella (11.8
      +/- 1.9 mm), and choanal arch (-9.2 +/- 1.4 mm). The mean (SD) distance in the
      vertical dimension from the nasal floor was 26.6 +/- 2.6 mm. Female patients had
      statistically shorter distances to the sphenopalatine foramen from the maxillary
      line, anterior head of the middle turbinate, choanal arch, and nasal floor.
      CONCLUSION: Reliable endoscopic landmarks exist in relation to consistent
      anatomic structures and can be used to help quickly estimate the location of the
      sphenopalatine foramen at the onset of the procedure.

PMID- 28583231
TI  - Utility of intraoperative flexible endoscopy in frontal sinus surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical management of the frontal sinus can be challenging.
      Extensive frontal sinus pneumatization may form a far lateral or supraorbital
      recess that can be difficult to reach by conventional endoscopic surgical
      techniques, requiring extended approaches such as the Draf III (or endoscopic
      modified Lothrop) procedure. Rigid endoscopes may not allow visualization of
      these lateral limits to ensure full evacuation of the disease process. METHODS:
      Here we describe the utility of intraoperative flexible endoscopy in two patients
      with far lateral frontal sinus disease. RESULTS: In both cases, flexible
      endoscopy allowed confirmation of complete evacuation of pathologic material,
      thereby obviating more extensive surgical dissection. CONCLUSION: In cases where
      visualization of the far lateral frontal sinus is inadequate with rigid
      endoscopes, flexible endoscopy can be used to determine the need for more
      extensive dissection.

PMID- 28583233
TI  - Myxofibrosarcoma of the maxillary sinus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myxofibrosarcoma (MFS) is a common sarcoma in the extremities of
      older individuals but is extremely uncommon in the head and neck region.
      Diagnosis may be challenging but is critical to the management of the patient. We
      discuss the radiographic and histopathologic characteristics of this destructive
      tumor. The distinguishing features of MFS and its differential diagnosis are
      reviewed to familiarize the managing otolaryngologist with this rare entity.
      METHODS: A 61-year-old woman presents with a 6-week history of severe left facial
      pain and left eye pain. Imaging demonstrates significant right and left-sided
      maxillary sinus opacification with destruction of the left maxillary sinus as
      well as the left medial and inferior orbital walls. RESULTS: Histopathologic
      examination revealed spindle and stellate tumor cells of variable cellularity in
      myxoid stroma with cellular pleomorphism consistent with MFS of intermediate-to
      high grade. The patient underwent resection of the left-sided lesion with orbital
      exenteration and repair of the defect with microvascular free flap followed by
      postoperative radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: MFS must be differentiated from other
      lesions with myxoid qualities. Histopathologic examination is required for
      definitive diagnosis. Management includes complete tumor excision with adequate
      tumor margins. Adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy should be considered for
      larger tumors with positive resection margins or lesions of intermediate-to-high
      grade.

PMID- 28583234
TI  - Bilateral silent sinus syndrome: A rare case and review of literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this report, we presented a rare case of bilateral silent sinus
      syndrome (SSS) in an otherwise healthy 57-year-old man treated with functional
      endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). A systematic review of the literature regarding
      bilateral SSS was performed. CASE REPORT: A 57-year-old man with well-controlled
      allergic rhinitis in the absence of previous surgery or trauma presented with
      bilateral SSS, which was successfully managed with bilateral FESS. METHODS: A
      medical literature data base search of the terms "silent sinus syndrome"
      "maxillary atelectasis," "imploding antrum syndrome," and "bilateral silent sinus
      syndrome" was performed. The results were then narrowed to include only relevant
      articles. RESULTS: Relevant articles included three case reports and two articles
      that describe or mention bilateral SSS. Of the three case reports found, two
      patients presented with bilateral SSS, whereas the third patient presented
      metachronously, with the contralateral SSS manifesting 4 months after
      presentation of the initial ipsilateral SSS. CONCLUSION: The present literature
      regarding bilateral SSS is likely incomplete, and further investigation is
      required to provide greater insight into the prevalence of this disease. In this
      report, bilateral FESS was successful in resolving symptoms and preventing
      disease progression.

PMID- 28583232
TI  - Effect of topical beclomethasone on inflammatory markers in adults with
      eosinophilic esophagitis: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Topical corticosteroids have proven efficacy in the treatment of
      eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and are considered the cornerstone of therapy.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of topical beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP)
      therapy on clinical outcomes, esophageal eosinophilia, and other markers of
      inflammation in patients with EoE. METHODS: Nine subjects with a biopsy-proven
      diagnosis of EoE were enrolled. In a cross-over design, the subjects were
      randomly assigned to a sequence of BDP and placebo. Treatment periods were 8
      weeks, with a 4-week washout period. The subjects had endoscopic biopsies and
      blood tests at baseline and after each treatment period. They were instructed to
      maintain a diary of symptoms. Immuno-histochemical studies were performed for
      interleukins IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor
      (GM-CSF), and transforming growth factor (TGF) beta. Reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction was performed for IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, IL
      17F, IL-25, IL-33, chemokine ligands (CCL)2, CCL5, CCL11, GM-CSF, and TGF-beta
      levels. The mast cell tryptase (MCT) level was measured in esophageal tissues.
      RESULTS: BDP led to a significantly larger decrease in esophageal eosinophilia
      compared with placebo, but there was no significant change in peripheral
      eosinophilia and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein between the two groups. The
      study was not powered enough for us to report a significant improvement in
      clinical symptoms. There was a significant decrease in tissue IL-13 and MCT
      levels from baseline to the end of treatment between the treatment and placebo
      groups. Mean fold decreases in cytokine expression between the baseline and
      treatment groups were observed for IL-17F, IL-25, CCL2, and CCL5. CONCLUSION:
      Treatment with topical BDP was associated with significant decrease in esophageal
      eosinophilia, MCT and IL-13. BDP is a potential alternative to fluticasone
      propionate and budesonide for treatment of EoE. Larger studies are needed to
      validate these findings.

PMID- 28583235
TI  - Type 1 Kounis syndrome in a patient with idiopathic anaphylaxis.
AB  - Anaphylactic insults that cause cardiovascular signs and symptoms have been
      defined as Kounis syndrome, which has been associated with specific triggered
      anaphylactic reactions. Kounis syndrome has not been described in patients with
      no evidence of coronary artery disease (type I Kounis) in a scenario of
      idiopathic anaphylaxis. We reported a case of a 65-year-old white woman with no
      evidence of coronary artery disease who experienced two myocardial infarctions on
      separate occasions attributable to idiopathic anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28583236
TI  - Complete response of skull base inverted papilloma to chemotherapy: Case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inverted papilloma (IP) is the most common benign sinonasal neoplasm.
      Endoscopic techniques, improved understanding of pathophysiology, and novel
      surgical approaches have allowed rhinologists to treat IPs more effectively, with
      surgery being the mainstay of therapy. Frontal sinus IP poses a challenge for
      surgical therapy due to complex anatomy and potentially difficult surgical
      access. OBJECTIVES: We reported a unique case of a massive frontal sinus IP that
      presented with intracranial and orbital extension, with near resolution after
      chemotherapy. METHODS: A retrospective case review of a patient with a frontal
      sinus IP treated at a tertiary academic medical center. RESULTS: A 75-year-old
      male patient presented with nasal obstruction, purulent nasal discharge, and a
      growing left supraorbital mass. Endoscopy demonstrated a mass that filled both
      frontal and ethmoid sinuses, with orbital invasion. There also was substantial
      erosion of the posterior table, which measured 1.73 * 1.40 cm. A biopsy specimen
      demonstrated IP with carcinoma in situ. The patient was deemed unresectable on
      initial evaluation and, subsequently, underwent chemotherapy (carboplatin and
      paclitaxel). The tumor had a dramatic response to chemotherapy, and the patient
      elected for definitive surgery to remove any residual disease. During surgery,
      only a small focus of IP was found along the superior wall of the frontal sinus.
      No tumor was found elsewhere, including at the site of skull base erosion. The
      final pathology was IP without carcinoma in situ or dysplasia. CONCLUSION: This
      was the first reported case of chemotherapeutic "debulking" of IP, which
      facilitated surgical resection, despite substantial intracranial and orbital
      involvement. Although nearly all IPs can be treated surgically, rare cases, such
      as unresectable tumors, may benefit from systemic chemotherapy.

PMID- 28583237
TI  - Intrapulpal Temperature Rise During Light Activation of Restorative Composites in
      a Primary Molar.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate intrapulpal temperature rise in a primary molar during
      light activation of a composite restoration to determine if clinically
      significant pulpal temperatures (greater than 5.5 degrees Celsius) were reached.
      METHODS: Restorative composites (EsthetX HD, Filtek Supreme Ultra, Filtek Bulk
      Fill) were placed into a primary molar with occlusal preparation (1.5 mm depth;
      remaining pulpal floor thickness one mm). The pulp was extirpated through a root
      access to place a thermocouple against the pulpal roof. Temperature changes were
      recorded during composite restoration light polymerization with three curing
      lights (one quartz-tungsten-halogen, two LEDs). Sample size was 10. Samples
      received additional irradiation to assure complete polymerization, followed by a
      third irradiation for calculating the exothermic heat contribution (subtracting
      third irradiation temperatures from first irradiation temperatures). Cured
      restorations were removed after each test, and the tooth was reused. Results were
      analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis (alpha =0.05). RESULTS: Type of curing light and
      composite material affected the intrapulpal temperature rise, which was up to
      five degrees Celsius for one combination of LED-composite. CONCLUSIONS:
      Clinicians should be aware of the potential for clinically significant
      intrapulpal temperature rises when light-activating composite restorations in a
      primary molar with a moderately deep cavity.

PMID- 28583238
TI  - Regenerative Endodontic Treatment of Necrotic Primary Molars with Missing
      Premolars: A Case Series.
AB  - The endodontic treatment of necrotic primary teeth with missing successors
      presents a unique clinical challenge. The purpose of this report was to describe
      the clinical and radiological outcomes of regenerative endodontic treatment
      (revascularization) of necrotic primary molars. Four infected necrotic primary
      second molars with missing premolars were treated with a two-visit
      revascularization protocol. The crowns were restored with amalgam or acid-etch
      composite resin. The teeth were followed-up clinically and radiographically for
      18 months. At six months, all teeth demonstrated radiographic evidence of
      complete periradicular healing and positive response to cold test, and remained
      symptomless thereafter.

PMID- 28583239
TI  - Back to the Future.

PMID- 28583240
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28583241
TI  - Abstract of the Scientific Literature.

PMID- 28583242
TI  - Postoperative Pain After Root Canal Preparation with Hand and Rotary Files in
      Primary Molar Teeth.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intensity and duration of
      postoperative pain after root canal preparation of primary maxillary molar teeth
      using two preparation techniques. METHODS: A total of 110 patients requiring
      pulpectomy for asymptomatic primary molar teeth with non-vital pulps were
      included in the study. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 55
      patients each, according to the canal preparation method used. In Group one,
      teeth were prepared up to size 35 with hand files. In Group two, teeth were
      prepared up to size 35 with Revo-S rotary instruments. Following canal
      preparation, teeth were obturated with zinc-oxide eugenol paste and then
      permanently restored. The presence of postoperative pain was assessed after six,
      12, 24, 48, and 72 hours and after one week, using a four-point pain-intensity
      scale. RESULTS: Except for those assessed after 72 hours and one week, patients
      who had their teeth prepared with hand files reported more intense postoperative
      pain than those who had their teeth prepared with Revo-S rotary files (P<0.05).
      In both groups, postoperative pain decreased over time. CONCLUSIONS: Hand files
      caused more postoperative pain after pulpectomy in primary maxillary molar teeth
      compared to the rotary system.

PMID- 28583243
TI  - Significant Factors Related to Failed Pediatric Dental General Anesthesia
      Appointments at a Hospital-based Residency Program.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to: (1) evaluate the relationship
      between appointment failure and the factors of age, gender, race, insurance type,
      day of week, scheduled time of surgery, distance traveled, and weather; (2)
      investigate reasons for failure; and (3) explore the relationships between the
      factors and reasons for failure. METHODS: Electronic medical records were
      accessed to obtain data for patients scheduled for dental care under general
      anesthesia from May 2012 to May 2015. Factors were analyzed for relation to
      appointment failure. RESULTS: Data from 3,513 appointments for 2,874 children
      were analyzed. Bivariate associations showed statistically significant (P<0.05)
      relationships between failed appointment and race, insurance type, scheduled time
      of surgery, distance traveled, snowfall, and temperature. Multinomial regression
      analysis showed the following associations between factors and the reason for
      failure (P<0.05): (1) decreased temperature and increased snowfall were
      associated with weather as reason for failure; (2) the African American
      population showed an association with family barriers; (3) Hispanic families were
      less likely to give advanced notice; and (4) the "additional races" category
      showed an association with fasting violation. CONCLUSION: Patients who have
      treatment under general anesthesia face specific barriers to care.

PMID- 28583244
TI  - Association Between Childhood Traumatic Stress and Behavior in the Pediatric
      Dental Clinic.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between a
      history of potentially traumatic events (PTE) and a child's behavior during
      dental treatment. METHODS: Parents of healthy children, age four years and older
      and attending their initial dental appointment at a university pediatric dental
      clinic, were asked to complete the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory-Parent
      Report Revised and a demographic survey. Following the dental appointment, a
      pediatric dental resident reported the child's behavior using the Frankl scale.
      RESULTS: A total of 170 parent-child pairs participated; 53 percent of parents
      indicated their child had experienced at least one PTE; 44 percent reported their
      child had a prior negative experience at the dentist. Adjusted multivariable
      logistic regression analysis showed no significant association between PTE
      history and poor dental behavior (P=0.994), but a significant association was
      observed between a previous negative dental experience and poor dental behavior
      (P=0.000) as well as between age (younger than five years old) and poor behavior
      (P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Children with a history of potentially traumatic events
      did not exhibit uncooperative behavior more often than those who did not. A
      previous negative dental experience and the child's young age were significantly
      associated with uncooperative behavior.

PMID- 28583245
TI  - "They Told Me to Take Him Somewhere Else": Caregivers' Experiences Seeking
      Emergency Dental Care for Their Children.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine pediatric
      emergency dental trends in two safety net clinics and care-seeking experiences of
      young children's caregivers. METHODS: Administrative data were used to describe
      and compare emergency first visits of children ages zero to six years in a
      community-based (CC) and a University-based (UC) safety net clinic from 2010 to
      2014. In-person interviews were conducted with 11 caregivers of children ages
      zero to six presenting for nontrauma-related emergency visits at the UC from
      January to August 2016. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed
      inductively using Atlas. ti.7.5.9. RESULTS: The UC experienced significantly more
      emergency first visits (33 percent) than the CC (five percent, P<0.001), and the
      majority of these UC visits were referrals. Caregivers were dissatisfied with the
      experienced barriers of access to care and lack of child-centeredness,
      specifically the referral out of the dental home for emergency dental care.
      CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of children's first visits at dental
      safety net clinics was emergency related. Children's caregivers voiced issues
      related to access to care and lack of child-centered care. Discordance was
      apparent between how professional organizations define the dental home and how
      caregivers experience it in the context of emergency care.

PMID- 28583246
TI  - Ectopic Eruption of the Permanent Maxillary First Molar: Predictive Factors for
      Irreversible Outcome.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of self-correction
      and predictive factors for irreversible outcome of mesial ectopic eruption of
      permanent maxillary first molars (EE), in a sample population where no
      interceptive treatment was initiated. METHODS: Charts of patients diagnosed with
      EE were reviewed, and radiographs were analyzed for predictive factors reported
      in the literature. RESULTS: Sixty-five EE were included in the study; 46 (71
      percent) self-corrected, of which one-third occurred after age nine years. Space
      loss, with an average of approximately three mm, occurred in 18 EE (28 percent).
      Increased magnitude of impaction, degree of resorption of the primary second
      molar, severe lock, and bilateral occurrence were positively correlated with
      irreversible EE. Multiple regression analysis was positive for increased
      magnitude of impaction when adjusted for gender and bilateral occurrence.
      CONCLUSION: Spontaneous self-correction occurred in 71 percent of permanent
      maxillary first molars with ectopic eruption; one third of self-corrections
      occurred after nine years of age. Delaying treatment of ectopic eruption of
      permanent maxillary first molars may be a viable option when the outcome is
      uncertain. Increased magnitude of impaction was the most reliable predictor
      associated with irreversible outcome.

PMID- 28583248
TI  - Pediatric Phantom Dosimetry of Kodak 9000 Cone-beam Computed Tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the radiation dose of the Kodak
      9000 cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) device for different anatomical areas
      using a pediatric phantom. METHODS: Absorbed doses resulting from maxillary and
      mandibular region three by five cm CBCT volumes of an anthropomorphic 10-year-old
      child phantom were acquired using optical stimulated dosimetry. Equivalent doses
      were calculated for radiosensitive tissues in the head and neck area, and
      effective dose for maxillary and mandibular examinations were calculated
      following the 2007 recommendations of the International Commission on
      Radiological Protection (ICRP). RESULTS: Of the mandibular scans, the salivary
      glands had the highest equivalent dose (1,598 microsieverts [MUSv]), followed by
      oral mucosa (1,263 MUSv), extrathoracic airway (pharynx, larynx, and trachea; 859
      MUSv), and thyroid gland (578 MUSv). For the maxilla, the salivary glands had the
      highest equivalent dose (1,847 MUSv), followed closely by oral mucosa (1,673
      MUSv), followed by the extrathoracic airway (pharynx, larynx, and trachea; 1,011
      MUSv) and lens of the eye (202 MUSv). CONCLUSION: Compared to previous research
      of the Kodak 9000, completed with the adult phantom, a child receives one to
      three times more radiation for mandibular scans and two to 10 times more
      radiation for maxillary scans.

PMID- 28583249
TI  - Efficacy of Four Remineralizing Agents on Primary Teeth: In Vitro Evaluation
      Using Microhardness Testing and Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study's purpose was to evaluate the remineralization of primary
      enamel using GC Tooth Mousse, Clinpro Tooth Creme, SHY-NM, and Pronamel by
      employing microhardness testing and quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF)
      values. METHODS: An in vitro study was performed with 100 intact primary anterior
      teeth. After specimen preparation, they were subjected to baseline microhardness
      and QLF testing. The specimens were immersed in demineralizing solution,
      subjected again to microhardness and QLF testing, and divided randomly into five
      groups of 20 teeth: group one-control group (artificial saliva); group two-GC
      Tooth Mousse; group three-ClinPro tooth creme; group four-SHY-NM; and group five
      Pronamel. The pastes were respectively applied for the specific group specimens
      for 15 consecutive days. The samples were subjected to microhardness and QLF
      testing. RESULTS: The results were analyzed using analysis of variance testing. A
      post-hoc comparison was done using a paired t test. There were mean increases in
      microhardness and QLF values with all remineralizing agents. Group two showed a
      statistically significant increase (P<0.05) in microhardness and QLF values.
      Group four showed a significant increase only in microhardness values. (P<0.05).
      CONCLUSION: GC Tooth Mousse and SHY-NM are promising materials for remineralizing
      incipient lesions in primary teeth.

PMID- 28583250
TI  - Oral Juvenile Xanthogranuloma: Report of Two Cases.
AB  - Juvenile xanthogranuloma is a rare non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis that usually
      occurs in the skin of children. Extracutaneous involvement is rare, and few cases
      affecting the oral cavity have been reported. The purpose of the present study
      was to report two cases of oral juvenile xanthogranuloma affecting the lower lip
      of a 14-year-old girl and the soft palate of a second 14-month-old girl, both
      present as yellowish papules. The lesions were surgically excised, and
      histological and immunohistochemical analysis showed a proliferation of non
      Langerhans cells histiocytes and foamy cells, fulfilling the morphologic features
      of juvenile xanthogranuloma. The patients have been followed up, respectively,
      for 36 and 49 months with no signs of recurrence. Based on these results,
      juvenile xanthogranuloma should be included in the differential diagnosis of oral
      yellowish soft-tissue swellings in children and adolescents and should be managed
      through conservative surgical excision.

PMID- 28583247
TI  - Pediatric Caries Risk Assessment as a Predictor of Caries Outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine cumulative dental treatment experience in a retrospective
      clinical cohort, according to baseline caries risk assessment (CRA) information.
      METHODS: Evaluated were electronic records from a university pediatric dental
      clinic (2009 to 2014) of new, six- to 72- month-old patients who were not treated
      under sedation or general anesthesia (<small>N</small> equals 750). The mean
      number of teeth restored or extracted (two-year total and omitting the first 190
      days post-baseline to discount initial treatment needs) was compared by baseline
      CRA category and CRA items (caries risk indicators, protective items, and
      clinical disease indicators). RESULTS: The CRA category was associated with mean
      treated teeth over two years (low equals 0.53, moderate equals 1.02, high/extreme
      equals 4.47) and post 190 days (low equals 0.51, moderate equals 0.89,
      high/extreme equals 2.11). Any treatment probability was greatest for
      high/extreme-risk children but not statistically significantly different between
      low- and moderate-risk. Age-standardized means were greater for all individual
      baseline clinical indicators and most risk indicators, but lower for most
      protective items (not statistically significantly for all items). Clinical
      indicators were the strongest outcome correlates. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      population, baseline risk information was associated with clinical outcomes. CRA
      can help identify patients needing more intensive caries prevention.

PMID- 28583251
TI  - Are changes in Australian national primary healthcare policy likely to promote or
      impede equity of access? A narrative review.
AB  - Significant changes have occurred in Australia's national primary healthcare
      (PHC) policy over the last decade, but little assessment has been made of
      implications for equity. This research aimed to identify key recent changes in
      national PHC policy and assess implications for equity of access to PHC. Academic
      literature was reviewed to identify issues affecting equity of access in national
      PHC policy, and grey literature was also reviewed to identify significant policy
      changes during 2005-16 with implications for equitable access. Equity
      implications of four areas of policy change, set against the existing Medicare
      system, were assessed. It was found that Medicare supports equitable access to
      general practice, but there is a risk of reduced equity under current policy
      settings. Four changes in PHC policy were selected as having particular
      implications for equity of access and these were assessed as follows: increased
      involvement of private health insurance presents risks for equity; equity
      implications of new models of coordinated care are unclear; and regional primary
      health organisations and current policy on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      health have potential equity benefits, but these will depend on further
      implementation.

PMID- 28583254
TI  - Foreword.

PMID- 28583252
TI  - Mice deficient of Myc super-enhancer region reveal differential control mechanism
      between normal and pathological growth.
AB  - The gene desert upstream of the MYC oncogene on chromosome 8q24 contains
      susceptibility loci for several major forms of human cancer. The region shows
      high conservation between human and mouse and contains multiple MYC enhancers
      that are activated in tumor cells. However, the role of this region in normal
      development has not been addressed. Here we show that a 538 kb deletion of the
      entire MYC upstream super-enhancer region in mice results in 50% to 80% decrease
      in Myc expression in multiple tissues. The mice are viable and show no overt
      phenotype. However, they are resistant to tumorigenesis, and most normal cells
      isolated from them grow slowly in culture. These results reveal that only cells
      whose MYC activity is increased by serum or oncogenic driver mutations depend on
      the 8q24 super-enhancer region, and indicate that targeting the activity of this
      element is a promising strategy of cancer chemoprevention and therapy.

PMID- 28583253
TI  - Loss of adult skeletal muscle stem cells drives age-related neuromuscular
      junction degeneration.
AB  - Neuromuscular junction degeneration is a prominent aspect of sarcopenia, the age
      associated loss of skeletal muscle integrity. Previously, we showed that muscle
      stem cells activate and contribute to mouse neuromuscular junction regeneration
      in response to denervation (Liu et al., 2015). Here, we examined gene expression
      profiles and neuromuscular junction integrity in aged mouse muscles, and
      unexpectedly found limited denervation despite a high level of degenerated
      neuromuscular junctions. Instead, degenerated neuromuscular junctions were
      associated with reduced contribution from muscle stem cells. Indeed, muscle stem
      cell depletion was sufficient to induce neuromuscular junction degeneration at a
      younger age. Conversely, prevention of muscle stem cell and derived myonuclei
      loss was associated with attenuation of age-related neuromuscular junction
      degeneration, muscle atrophy, and the promotion of aged muscle force generation.
      Our observations demonstrate that deficiencies in muscle stem cell fate and post
      synaptic myogenesis provide a cellular basis for age-related neuromuscular
      junction degeneration and associated skeletal muscle decline.

PMID- 28583256
TI  - Current management of perianal Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28583257
TI  - In Vitro and In Vivo Comparison of Two Nebulizers Used for Inhaled Pentamidine
      Delivery.

PMID- 28583259
TI  - Advanced clinical testing of the adaptive immune system.

PMID- 28583258
TI  - Hymenoptera venoms used to produce allergen extracts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the methods and materials used for collection, purification,
      commercial production, and clinical application of Hymenoptera venoms. DATA
      SOURCES: Most of the sources for this review are the experience and expertise of
      the authors. Published reports and review articles on Hymenoptera venom
      collection and production were identified through database searches (PubMed).
      STUDY SELECTIONS: Studies describing the methods for Hymenoptera venom collection
      and production were selected for review. RESULTS: Meticulous methods for
      identification and collection of the insects are required. Collection and
      purification of the venoms from the insects are based on validated methods and
      result in a commercial extract that is standardized for the major allergenic
      proteins required for accurate diagnosis and safe and effective treatment of
      patients allergic to insect sting. The steps required for mixing, purifying,
      testing, and standardizing the products are described. CONCLUSION: Hymenoptera
      venom extracts were developed using many new methods for the collection,
      purification, and commercial production of the unique materials required for this
      product. Clinical applications for diagnosis and treatment are affected by the
      integrity and stability of the allergens after processing and purification.

PMID- 28583261
TI  - Cellular and noncellular bloodborne biomarkers in asthma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of studied cellular and noncellular blood
      derived asthma biomarkers. DATA SOURCES: PubMed literature review. STUDY
      SELECTIONS: Articles discussing cellular and noncellular bloodborne asthma
      biomarkers. RESULTS: Discussed asthma biomarkers include peripheral blood cell
      counts of T cells, fibrocytes, or granulocytes, as well as levels of cytokines,
      periostin, IgE, and lipid mediators with or without stimulation. Moreover, this
      article summarizes the association of various blood biomarkers with the type of
      airway inflammation, presence of atopy, and dominance of specific T-cell subsets
      and associated pathways in asthma. Furthermore, biomarkers are here listed
      according to their proposed clinical use, such as diagnosis, disease phenotyping,
      classification of severity, assessment of disease control, and monitoring of and
      predicting treatment response. CONCLUSION: Further research on asthma biomarkers
      may improve asthma endotyping and ultimately lead to personalized treatment.

PMID- 28583262
TI  - Different prevalence and clinical characteristics of asthma-chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease overlap syndrome according to accepted criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A unified definition of asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      overlap syndrome (ACOS) is not available, which makes it difficult to evaluate
      the prevalence and clinical features of patients with ACOS. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of ACOS according to the
      updated widely accepted diagnostic criteria. METHODS: Participants were enrolled
      from a prospective cohort study conducted between April 2013 and November 2016 in
      South Korea. We adopted 4 criteria of ACOS: modified Spanish, American Thoracic
      Society (ATS) Roundtable criteria, the Latin American Project for the
      Investigation of Obstructive Lung Disease (PLATINO), and the Global Initiative
      for Asthma/Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GINA/GOLD)
      criteria. The prevalence, clinical characteristics, and exacerbations of ACOS
      were investigated. RESULTS: Among 301 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease, 31.3%, 11.9%, 48.3%, and 46.15% were diagnosed with ACOS according to
      the modified Spanish, ATS Roundtable criteria, PLATINO, and GINA/GOLD criteria,
      respectively. Compared with other criteria, patients with ACOS diagnosed
      according to the modified Spanish criteria had better exercise capacity and lung
      function at baseline but higher risk of moderate to severe (adjusted hazard
      ratio, 1.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-3.41; P = .01) and total (adjusted
      odds ratio, 2.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.33-3.31; P < .01) exacerbations
      during at least a 1-year follow-up period than patients without ACOS. CONCLUSION:
      The prevalence of ACOS varied according to the diagnostic criteria. Among the
      different criteria, the modified Spanish criteria could identify patients with
      more asthmatic features and higher risk of exacerbation. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02527486.

PMID- 28583260
TI  - The case for impulse oscillometry in the management of asthma in children and
      adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To provide a clinical rationale for including impulse oscillometry
      (IOS) as a part of standard office-based asthma assessment. DATA SOURCES: PubMed
      and Google search, limited to English language and human disease, with the
      keywords IOS and asthma. STUDY SELECTIONS: Articles included in this review were
      based on the expert opinion and previous publications by the authors. RESULTS: In
      children, IOS was more useful than spirometry in identifying asthma and
      uncontrolled asthma and predicting loss of control and exacerbations. IOS
      predicts young children at risk for loss of lung function with age and the
      potential for early intervention to prevent further sequelae. In adults,
      peripheral airway impairment detected by IOS or spirometry (ie, forced expiratory
      flow between 25% and 75%) commonly occurs across severity, and each measure may
      be complementary in predicting loss of control even with normal forced expiratory
      volume in 1 second. Extrafine inhaled corticosteroids with or without long-acting
      beta-agonists proved superior to standard particle aerosols in improving IOS
      detected peripheral airway obstruction. Our data also suggest that currently
      available commercial reference values for lung resistance at 5 Hz and lung
      reactance at 5 Hz are applicable across diverse populations, but further studies
      are needed. CONCLUSION: The findings of this review suggest that IOS can add
      value to traditional clinical and spirometric assessment and thus improve
      management of asthma in children and adults, as well as have the potential to
      detect early dysfunction of the peripheral airways, which may result in better
      outcomes.

PMID- 28583263
TI  - Increased serum soluble vascular endothelial cadherin levels in patients with
      chronic spontaneous urticaria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a common skin disease
      characterized by recurrent itchy wheals with or without angioedema that lasts
      longer than 6 weeks. Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin is an endothelial cell
      specific adhesion molecule that plays critical roles in angiogenesis and
      endothelial permeability. OBJECTIVE: To investigate serum levels of soluble VE
      (sVE)-cadherin in patients with CSU. METHODS: Serum levels of sVE-cadherin in
      patients with CSU, patients with atopic dermatitis, and healthy controls were
      determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In addition, changes in sVE
      cadherin serum levels were compared in patients with CSU before and after H1
      antihistamine treatment. Furthermore, the effects of histamine on sVE-cadherin
      release by HMEC-1 cells were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The
      inhibition effects of H1 antihistamine and H2 antihistamine on sVE-cadherin
      release, VE-cadherin phosphorylation, and VE-cadherin disruption were evaluated
      in histamine-treated HMEC-1 cells by western blot and immunofluorescence.
      RESULTS: Serum levels of sVE-cadherin in patients with CSU were significantly
      higher than those in patients with atopic dermatitis and healthy controls. Serum
      sVE-cadherin levels in patients with CSU were correlated with the severity of CSU
      according to Urticaria Activity Scores. Furthermore, serum sVE-cadherin levels in
      patients with CSU at pretreatment decreased after H1 antihistamine treatment. In
      addition, histamine markedly induced sVE-cadherin release in HMEC-1 cells.
      Moreover, H1 antihistamine, but not H2 antihistamine, significantly inhibited sVE
      cadherin release in histamine-treated HMEC-1 cells. Western blot data showed that
      histamine induced phosphorylation of VE-cadherin in HMEC-1 cells, which was
      blocked by H1 antihistamine. CONCLUSION: The present data showed serum levels of
      sVE-cadherin are increased in patients with CSU. Histamine-induced sVE-cadherin
      release from endothelial cells could play a role in the pathogenesis of CSU.

PMID- 28583265
TI  - Use of the basophil activation test in monitoring clinical tolerance after
      desensitization to brentuximab vedotin.

PMID- 28583264
TI  - Atopic dermatitis and food sensitization in South African toddlers: Role of fiber
      and gut microbiota.

PMID- 28583266
TI  - A case of green tea (Camellia sinensis) imbibement causing possible anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28583267
TI  - Insights into the global effect of nickel dermatitis on polysensitization.

PMID- 28583268
TI  - Voice disorders in residual paracoccidioidomycosis in upper airways and digestive
      tract.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a systemic mycosis of acute and
      chronic evolution, caused by species belonging to the genus Paracoccidioides. It
      is considered the most prevalent systemic endemic mycosis in Latin America, with
      cases in the tropical and subtropical regions. Residual PCM refers to the
      fibrotic scar sequelae resulting from the disease treatment which, when
      associated with collagen accumulation, leads to functional and anatomic
      alterations in the organs. AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the vocal
      function of patients with residual PCM in upper airways and digestive tract.
      METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study in 2010 in a cohort of 21 patients
      with residual PCM in upper airways and digestive tract. RESULTS: The average age
      was 49.48+/-9.1 years, and only two (9.5%) patients were female. The study was
      performed in the 1-113 month-period (median 27) after the end of drug treatment.
      Five (23.8%) patients had alterations in the larynx as a sequela of the disease.
      However, all patients had vocal changes in vocal auditory perceptual analysis by
      GRBASI scale. The computerized acoustic analysis using the software Vox Metria,
      showed that 11 patients (52.4%) presented alterations in jitter, 15 (71.4%) in
      shimmer, 8 (38.1%) in F0, 4 (19%) in glottal to noise excitation (GNE), 7 (33.3%)
      in the presence of noise and 12 (57.1%) in the presence of vibratory
      irregularity. CONCLUSIONS: The great frequency of alterations in residual PCM
      suggests that the patients in such phase could benefit from a multidisciplinary
      treatment, offering them integral monitoring of the disease, including speech
      rehabilitation after the PCM is healed.

PMID- 28583269
TI  - The METOP Study: Further Evidence for the Use of Subcutaneous Methotrexate in
      Psoriasis.

PMID- 28583271
TI  - Unruptured intracranial aneurysms: An updated review of current concepts for risk
      factors, detection and management.
AB  - The management of patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) is a
      complex clinical challenge and constitutes an immense field of research. While a
      preponderant proportion of these aneurysms never rupture, the consequences of
      such an event are severe and represent an important healthcare problem. To date,
      however, the natural history of UIAs is not completely understood and there is no
      accurate means to discriminate the UIAs that will rupture from those that will
      not. Yet, a good understanding of the recent evidence and future perspectives is
      needed when advising a patient with IA to tailor any information to the given
      patient's level of risk and psychoaffective status. Thus, this review addresses
      the current concepts of epidemiology, risk factors, detection and management of
      UIAs.

PMID- 28583272
TI  - Letter from the Editors.

PMID- 28583270
TI  - Central pontine myelinolysis in a type 1 diabetes patient with chronic hepatitis.

PMID- 28583273
TI  - Guest Editorial on PET of Benign Musculoskeletal Conditions.

PMID- 28583274
TI  - Benign Bone Conditions That May Be FDG-avid and Mimic Malignancy.
AB  - Positron emission tomography with the radiotracer 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose
      (FDG) plays an important role in the evaluation of bone pathology. However, FDG
      is not a cancer-specific agent, and knowledge of the differential diagnosis of
      benign FDG-avid bone alterations that may resemble malignancy is important for
      correct patient management, including the avoidance of unnecessary additional
      invasive tests such as bone biopsy. This review summarizes and illustrates the
      spectrum of benign bone conditions that may be FDG-avid and mimic malignancy,
      including osteomyelitis, bone lesions due to benign systemic diseases (Brown
      tumor, Erdheim-Chester disease, Gaucher disease, gout and other types of
      arthritis, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and sarcoidosis), benign primary bone
      lesions (bone cysts, chondroblastoma, chondromyxoid fibroma, desmoplastic
      fibroma, enchondroma, giant cell tumor and granuloma, hemangioma, nonossifying
      fibroma, and osteoid osteoma and osteoblastoma), and a group of miscellaneous
      benign bone conditions (post bone marrow biopsy or harvest status, bone marrow
      hyperplasia, fibrous dysplasia, fractures, osteonecrosis, Paget disease of bone,
      particle disease, and Schmorl nodes). Several ancillary clinical and imaging
      findings may be helpful in discriminating benign from malignant FDG-avid bone
      lesions. However, this distinction is sometimes difficult or even impossible, and
      tissue acquisition will be required to establish the final diagnosis.

PMID- 28583275
TI  - Benign Cutaneous and Subcutaneous Lesions on FDG-PET/CT.
AB  - 18F-FDG, the most commonly used PET radiopharmaceutical in clinical practice, can
      also accumulate in inflammatory and infectious conditions. This may account for
      false-positive PET findings when staging or restaging a patient with malignancy.
      As clinical use of FDG-PET-CT is increasing, nuclear medicine physicians are
      encountering a myriad of cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions, many of which are
      incidental and benign. The most common cause for the FDG avidity of these lesions
      is inflammation. Although a specific diagnosis may not always be possible,
      background clinical history and morphologic features of the lesion on CT may help
      narrow the differential diagnosis. This article aims to familiarize nuclear
      medicine physicians and radiologists with various benign cutaneous and
      subcutaneous conditions encountered in routine clinical practice.

PMID- 28583276
TI  - FDG-PET/CT in Skeletal Muscle: Pitfalls and Pathologies.
AB  - FDG-PET/CT is an integral part of modern-day practice of medicine. By detecting
      increased cellular metabolism, FDG-PET/CT can help us detect infection,
      inflammatory disorders, or tumors, and also help us in prognostication of
      patients. However, one of the most important challenges is to correctly
      differentiate the abnormal uptake that is potentially pathologic from the
      physiological uptake. So while interpreting a PET/CT, one must be aware of normal
      biodistribution and different physiological variants of FDG uptake. Skeletal
      muscles constitute a large part of our body mass and one of the major users of
      glucose. Naturally, they are often the site of increased FDG uptake in a PET
      study. We as a nuclear medicine physician must be aware of all the pitfalls of
      increased skeletal muscle uptake to differentiate between physiological and
      pathologic causes. In this review, we have discussed the different causes and
      patterns of physiological FDG uptake in skeletal muscles. This knowledge of
      normal physiological variants of FDG uptake in the skeletal muscles is essential
      for differentiating pathologic uptake from the physiological ones. Also, we
      reviewed the role of FDG-PET/CT in various benign and malignant diseases
      involving skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28583277
TI  - Dual-time point 18F-FDG-PET and PET/CT for Differentiating Benign From Malignant
      Musculoskeletal Lesions: Opportunities and Limitations.
AB  - In this review, we summarize the false-positive and false-negative results of
      standard 18F-FDG-PET/CT in characterizing musculoskeletal lesions and discussed
      the added value and limitations of dual-time point imaging (DTPI) and delayed
      imaging in differentiating malignant from benign musculoskeletal lesions, based
      on review of the peer-reviewed literature. The quantitative and semiquantitative
      parameters adopted for DTPI are standardized uptake value (mainly maximum
      standardized uptake value [SUVmax]) and retention index (RI), calculated as RI
      (%) = 100% * (SUV [maxD-Delayed] - SUV [maxE-Early])/SUV [maxE-Early], although
      the criteria and cutoff for diagnosing malignancy in studies have varied
      considerably. Also, there has been considerable heterogeneity in protocol (time
      point of delayed imaging), interpretation, and results in dual-time point (DTP)
      18F-FDG-PET for differentiating malignant from benign musculoskeletal lesions in
      various research studies. The specificity of DTPI is a function of many factors
      such as the nature of the musculoskeletal lesion or malignancy in question, the
      prevalence of false-positive etiologies in the patient population, and the cutoff
      values (either SUVmax or RI) employed to define a malignancy. Despite the
      apparent conflicting reports on the performance, there have been certain common
      points of agreement regarding DTPI: (1) DTP PET increases the sensitivity of 18F
      FDG-PET/CT due to continued clearance of background activity and increasing 18F
      FDG accumulation in malignant lesions, when the same diagnostic criteria (as in
      the initial standard single-time point imaging) are used. Increased sensitivity
      for lesion detection can be viewed as a strong point of DTP and delayed-time
      point imaging. (2) The causes for false positives (such as active infectious or
      inflammatory lesions and locally aggressive benign tumors) and false negatives
      (eg, low-grade sarcomas) are the major hurdles accounting for reduced diagnostic
      value of the technique, with overlap of 18F-FDG uptake patterns between benign
      and malignant musculoskeletal lesions on DTPI. (3) DTPI, however, could still be
      potentially useful in increasing the confidence of interpretation such as
      differentiating malignancy from sites of inactive or chronic inflammation, post
      treatment viable residue vs necrosis, and certain other benign lesions. (4)
      Consideration of diagnostic CT component of PET/CT and the patient's clinical
      picture can lead to increase in specificity of interpretation in a given case
      scenario. Further systematic research, adoption of uniform protocol, and
      interpretation criterion could evolve the specific indications and interpretation
      criteria of DTPI for improved diagnostic accuracy in musculoskeletal lesions and
      its clinical applications.

PMID- 28583278
TI  - Spectrum of Benign Bone Conditions on NaF-PET.
AB  - Fluoride imaging with 18F (NaF-PET), although not a new technique, is becoming
      increasingly utilized for evaluation of skeletal metastatic disease using PET/CT.
      As its use becomes more widespread, a variety of nonmalignant bone disorders will
      be encountered by the interpreting physician. It is important, therefore, to
      recognize these nonmalignant conditions to avoid errors in interpretation. Beyond
      this, there is increasing evidence in the literature that NaF-PET/CT imaging may
      provide valuable information for the primary diagnosis of these nonmalignant
      conditions, and furthermore may provide insight into the underlying biology
      leading to management decisions. In this article, we review a spectrum of benign
      bone conditions that can be visualized on NaF-PET.

PMID- 28583279
TI  - PET in Benign Bone Marrow Disorders.
AB  - This review aims to describe the current status of benign bone marrow (BM)
      imaging using PET. BM imaging is important as the BM is not only involved in
      poiesis of different vital cell lines and can be affected by primary BM
      disorders, but it is also frequently affected by several extramedullary diseases.
      Indications for the use of PET in benign BM disorders are the detection of
      extramedullary hematopoiesis, evaluation of patients with a discrepancy between
      BM histology and clinical status, visualizing BM infarctions, location of the
      optimal site for BM biopsy, diagnosing and staging of other hematological BM
      disorders, evaluation of radiotherapy effect on BM, and evaluation of BM
      transplantation. The 3'-18F-fluoro-3'-deoxy-L-thymidine (FLT) and 2-18F-2-deoxy-D
      glucose (FDG) are the current main PET tracers to image BM physiology and
      pathology. FLT is a DNA synthesis-related tracer that can be used effectively in
      primary BM disorders in both diagnosis and monitoring treatment response, for
      example, in aplastic anemia. In secondary benign BM disorders, FDG-PET reveals
      that the prevalence of BM involvement in several benign diseases is more common
      than thought before. Novel PET tracers, such as the proliferation marker 4DST and
      hypoxia markers FAZA, MISO, and ATSM, are promising to visualize (benign) BM
      pathology more specifically. PET/MRI using innovative MRI sequences is promising
      to improve BM imaging in the near future. Additional trials are recommended to
      evaluate possible clinical applications of these newer tracers and new
      applications of PET/MRI in daily practice. This should be followed by updated
      guidelines on the use of PET in benign BM diseases.

PMID- 28583280
TI  - Clinical Value of FDG-PET/CT for the Evaluation of Rheumatic Diseases: Rheumatoid
      Arthritis, Polymyalgia Rheumatica, and Relapsing Polychondritis.
AB  - FDG is a tracer for visualizing glucose metabolism. PET/CT using FDG is widely
      used for the diagnosis of cancer, because glycolysis is elevated in cancer cells.
      Similarly, active inflammatory tissue also exhibits elevated glucose metabolism
      because of glycolysis in activated macrophages and proliferating fibroblasts.
      Elevated FDG uptake by active inflammatory tissues, such as those affected by
      arthritis, vasculitis, lymphadenitis, and chondritis, has enabled the diagnosis
      of inflammatory diseases using FDG-PET/CT. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a
      systemic, chronic inflammation of the joints resulting in synovitis. Several
      clinical studies of RA have demonstrated that FDG uptake in affected joints
      reflects the disease activity of RA, with strong correlations between FDG uptake
      and various clinical parameters having been noted. Furthermore, the use of FDG
      PET for the sensitive detection and early monitoring of the response to RA
      therapy has been reported. RA is sometimes associated with subclinical
      vasculitis, which is related to systemic inflammation. FDG-PET/CT can be used to
      evaluate subclinical vasculitis in the aorta or carotid artery. Polymyalgia
      rheumatica (PMR) is an autoimmune musculoskeletal disease of unknown etiology
      characterized by pain and stiffness in the shoulder, neck, and pelvic girdle, but
      not in the small finger joints in the hands, together with fever, fatigue, and
      weight loss. There is no specific test for PMR, and its diagnosis is based on
      clinical diagnostic criteria and the exclusion of other diseases with similar
      symptoms. However, FDG-PET/CT reveals a characteristic FDG uptake by the bursitis
      in ischial tuberosity, greater trochanter, lumbar or cervical spinous process,
      and scapulohumeral joint. A combination of FDG-PET/CT findings showed a high
      diagnostic value for PMR in a differential diagnosis from RA. FDG-PET/CT is also
      very useful for evaluating large vessel vasculitis, which is often associated
      with PMR. Relapsing polychondritis is a rare multisystem disease of unknown
      etiology involving cartilaginous and proteoglycan-rich structures. Its rarity and
      diversity of symptoms often result in a delayed diagnosis. FDG-PET/CT reveals
      unique FDG uptake findings for chondritis in the auricular, nasal, trachea,
      bronchial tree, and costal cartilage and in the cartilage of joints. Thus, the
      spread of knowledge regarding these very specific FDG-PET/CT findings could
      promote the early diagnosis and improved disease control of relapsing
      polychondritis.

PMID- 28583281
TI  - A fundamental experimental approach for optimal design of speed bumps.
AB  - Speed bumps and humps are utilized as means of calming traffic and controlling
      vehicular speed. Needless to say, bumps and humps of large dimensions in length
      and width force drivers to significantly reduce their driving speeds so as to
      avoid significant vehicle vertical acceleration. It is thus that this
      experimental study was conducted with the aim of determining a speed bump design
      that performs optimally when leading drivers to reduce the speed of their
      vehicles to safe levels. The first step of the investigation starts off by
      considering the following question: "What is the optimal design of a speed bump
      that will - at the same time - reduce the velocity of an incoming vehicle
      significantly and to a speed that resulting vertical acceleration does not
      jeopardize road safety? The experiment has been designed to study the dependent
      variables and collect data in order to propose an optimal design for a speed
      bump. To achieve this, a scaled model of 1:6 to real life was created to simulate
      the interaction between a car wheel and a speed bump. During the course of the
      experiment, a wheel was accelerated down an inclined plane onto a horizontal
      plane of motion where it was allowed to collide with a speed bump. The speed of
      the wheel and the vertical acceleration at the speed bump were captured by means
      of a Vernier Motion Detector.

PMID- 28583282
TI  - Putting a stop to exsanguination.

PMID- 28583283
TI  - Subcutaneous rituximab-a meaningful advance in care.

PMID- 28583284
TI  - Unrelated donor haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation: ATG or not?

PMID- 28583285
TI  - Evaluation of direct oral anticoagulants in superficial-vein thrombosis.

PMID- 28583287
TI  - Correction to Lancet Haematol 2017; 4: e258-71.

PMID- 28583286
TI  - Evaluation of direct oral anticoagulants in superficial-vein thrombosis -
      Authors' reply.

PMID- 28583288
TI  - Correction to Lancet Haematol 2017; 4: e165-75.

PMID- 28583289
TI  - Long-term outcomes after standard graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis with or
      without anti-human-T-lymphocyte immunoglobulin in haemopoietic cell
      transplantation from matched unrelated donors: final results of a randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previously, we demonstrated that the addition of anti-human-T
      lymphocyte immunoglobulin (ATLG) to standard ciclosporin and methotrexate
      prophylaxis reduced graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in adult patients treated
      with allogeneic haemopoietic cell transplantation from matched unrelated donors
      without negatively affecting relapse and survival. Since reports on long-term
      results from randomised trials testing anti-thymocyte globulin are scarce, we
      performed an extended follow-up of the trial. METHODS: Between May 26, 2003, and
      Feb 8, 2007, 202 patients with haematological malignancies were centrally
      randomly assigned using computer-generated centre-stratified block randomisation
      to receive ciclosporin and methotrexate with or without ATLG. 201 patients who
      underwent transplantation with peripheral blood (n=164; 82%) or bone marrow
      (n=37; 18%) grafts after myeloablative conditioning were included in the full
      analysis set, and were analysed according to their randomly assigned treatment
      (ATLG n=103, non-ATLG n=98). We assessced chronic GvHD, non-relapse mortality,
      relapse, relapse mortality, disease-free survival, overall survival, severe GvHD
      free (acute GvHD III-IV, and extensive chronic GvHD) and relapse-free survival,
      and time under immunosuppressive therapy after long-term follow-up. The trial is
      registered with the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00000002),
      ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00655343), and EudraCT (2004-000232-91). FINDINGS: Median
      follow-up was 8.6 years (IQR 8.0-9.3). Only patients at risk for chronic GvHD
      (ie, patients who were alive and without a second transplant at 100 days) were
      included in the analyses of chronic GvHD (90 patients in the ATLG group, 80
      patients in the non-ATLG group). At 8 years, the incidence of extensive chronic
      GvHD was 14% (95% CI 8-29) in the ATLG group versus 52% (42-64) in the non-ATLG
      group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.18, 95% CI 0.09-0.34; p<0.0001). Non-relapse
      mortality was 21% (95% CI 14-30) versus 34% (26-45; adjusted HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.38
      1.16; p=0.15), incidence of relapse was 35% (95% CI 27-46) versus 30% (22-41;
      adjusted HR 1.17, 95% CI 0.71-1.93; p=0.54), relapse mortality was 31% (95% CI 23
      41) versus 29% (21-40; adjusted HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.61-1.76; p=0.90), disease-free
      survival was 44% (95% CI 35-54) versus 36% (27-46) (adjusted HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.63
      1.31; p=0.60), overall survival was 49% (95% CI 39-59) versus 37% (27-47;
      adjusted HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.56-1.20; p=0.31), and severe GvHD-free and relapse
      free survival was 34% (25-43) versus 13% (7-21) (adjusted HR 0.55, 95% CI 0.39
      0.76; p=0.0003). The probability of being alive and free of immunosuppressive
      therapy was 47% (95% 37-57) in the ATLG group and 11% (5-18) in the non-ATLG
      group at 8 years. INTERPRETATION: ATLG in addition to standard ciclosporin and
      methotrexate as GvHD prophylaxis improves severe GvHD-free and relapse-free
      survival in the long term. The use of ATLG in unrelated donor transplantation
      after myeloablative conditioning substantially increases the probability of
      surviving free of immunosuppressive therapy, and thus reduces the risk associated
      with long-term immunosuppression. FUNDING: Neovii Biotech.

PMID- 28583290
TI  - NMR investigations unveil phase composition-property correlations in
      Sr0.55Na0.45SiO2.775 fast ion conductor.
AB  - This paper reports results of 23Na and 29Si solid-state NMR investigations
      carried out on sodium strontium silicate ion conductor, Sr0.55Na0.45SiO2.775 and
      presents the first experimental evidence to show that different synthesis
      conditions induce multiple devitrified phases. Along with 1-dimensional NMR, 23Na
      MQMAS spectra have been used to identify the phases corresponding to polymorphs
      of Na2Si2O5, in addition to the crystalline SrSiO3 and the glass/amorphous
      Na2Si2O5 phases. The surprising observation of about an order of magnitude higher
      ionic conductivity achieved in devitrified samples is attributed to the growth of
      the crystalline delta-Na2Si2O5 phase within the amorphous Na2Si2O5 phase domains,
      identified using NMR. Together with XRD and conductivity measurement data, the
      study leads to the identification of the chemical phase composition and an
      understanding of the composition-property-structure correlation in this material.
      Present findings, while do not show any evidence of Na doping in the SrSiO3 phase
      confirming earlier reports, explain the large discrepancy in the conductivity
      reported in the literature.

PMID- 28583291
TI  - Evaluation of a commercial Model Based Iterative reconstruction algorithm in
      computed tomography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Iterative reconstruction algorithms have been introduced in
      clinical practice to obtain dose reduction without compromising the diagnostic
      performance. PURPOSE: To investigate the commercial Model Based IMR algorithm by
      means of patient dose and image quality, with standard Fourier and alternative
      metrics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Catphan phantom, a commercial density phantom
      and a cylindrical water filled phantom were scanned both varying CTDIvol and
      reconstruction thickness. Images were then reconstructed with Filtered Back
      Projection and both statistical (iDose) and Model Based (IMR) Iterative
      reconstruction algorithms. Spatial resolution was evaluated with Modulation
      Transfer Function and Target Transfer Function. Noise reduction was investigated
      with Standard Deviation. Furthermore, its behaviour was analysed with 3D and 2D
      Noise Power Spectrum. Blur and Low Contrast Detectability were investigated.
      Patient dose indexes were collected and analysed. RESULTS: All results, related
      to image quality, have been compared to FBP standard reconstructions. Model Based
      IMR significantly improves Modulation Transfer Function with an increase between
      12% and 64%. Target Transfer Function curves confirm this trend for high density
      objects, while Blur presents a sharpness reduction for low density details. Model
      Based IMR underlines a noise reduction between 44% and 66% and a variation in
      noise power spectrum behaviour. Low Contrast Detectability curves underline an
      averaged improvement of 35-45%; these results are compatible with an achievable
      reduction of 50% of CTDIvol. A dose reduction between 25% and 35% is confirmed by
      median values of CTDIvol. CONCLUSION: IMR produces an improvement in image
      quality and dose reduction.

PMID- 28583292
TI  - Design of experiments in medical physics: Application to the AAA beam model
      validation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the design of
      experiments in the analysis of multiparametric problems related to the quality
      assurance in radiotherapy. The main motivation is to use this statistical method
      to optimize the quality assurance processes in the validation of beam models.
      METHOD: Considering the Varian Eclipse system, eight parameters with several
      levels were selected: energy, MLC, depth, X, Y1 and Y2 jaw dimensions, wedge and
      wedge jaw. A Taguchi table was used to define 72 validation tests. Measurements
      were conducted in water using a CC04 on a TrueBeam STx, a TrueBeam Tx, a Trilogy
      and a 2300IX accelerator matched by the vendor. Dose was computed using the AAA
      algorithm. The same raw data was used for all accelerators during the beam
      modelling. RESULTS: The mean difference between computed and measured doses was
      0.1+/-0.5% for all beams and all accelerators with a maximum difference of 2.4%
      (under the 3% tolerance level). For all beams, the measured doses were within
      0.6% for all accelerators. The energy was found to be an influencing parameter
      but the deviations observed were smaller than 1% and not considered clinically
      significant. CONCLUSION: Designs of experiment can help define the optimal
      measurement set to validate a beam model. The proposed method can be used to
      identify the prognostic factors of dose accuracy. The beam models were validated
      for the 4 accelerators which were found dosimetrically equivalent even though the
      accelerator characteristics differ.

PMID- 28583294
TI  - Hataedock treatment has preventive therapeutic effects for atopic dermatitis
      through skin barrier protection in Dermatophagoides farinae-induced NC/Nga mice.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Hataedock treatment is traditionally used for the
      purpose of preventing the future skin disease by feeding herbal extracts to the
      newborn in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study
      investigated the preventive therapeutic effects of Hataedock (HTD) treatment for
      atopic dermatitis (AD) through skin barrier protection in Dermatophagoides
      farinae-induced NC/Nga mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To the HTD treatment group,
      the extract of Coptis japonica Makino and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer, which
      analyzed with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-fingerprint for
      quality consistency, was administered orally to the 3-week-old mice before
      inducing AD. After that, Dermatophagoides farinae was applied except the control
      group to induce AD-like skin lesions. We confirmed the effects of HTD on
      morphological changes, protection of skin barrier, regulation of Th2
      differentiation, inflammation regulation and induction of apoptosis through
      histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase
      dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. RESULTS: HTD effectively reduced edema,
      angiogenesis and skin lesion. HTD also increased the levels of liver X receptor
      (LXR) and filaggrin but decreased the level of protein kinase C (PKC) (p<0.01).
      The levels of interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-13, signal transducer and activator of
      transcription-6 (STAT-6) and Cluster of differentiation 40 (CD40) were
      significantly reduced in the HTD treated group (p<0.01). HTD also suppressed the
      mast cell degranulation and the level of the high-affinity IgE receptor (FcERI),
      substance P, Matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)
      (p<0.01). The levels of inflammatory factors such as nuclear factor-kappaB (NF
      kappaB) p65, phosphorylated IkappaB (p-IkappaB) and inducible nitric oxide
      synthase (iNOS) were also decreased (p<0.01). Apoptosis of inflammatory cells was
      also found to increase (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that HTD
      effectively regulate the Th2 differentiation, mast cell activation and various
      inflammatory responses on AD-induced mice through protection of skin barrier.
      Therefore, HTD may have potential applications for alternative and preventive
      treatment in the management of AD.

PMID- 28583295
TI  - Chlorin e6 conjugated silica nanoparticles for targeted and effective
      photodynamic therapy.
AB  - Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using photosensitizer drug has become an important
      therapeutic modality. However, the stability and targeted delivery of
      photosensitizer remain a critical challenge for efficient PDT treatment. In the
      present study, we developed chlorin e6 (Ce6)-conjugated and folic acid (FA)
      decorated silica nanoparticles (silica-Ce6-FA) for targeted delivery of
      photosensitizer to the cancer cells. The synthesized NPs exhibited excellent
      stability and biocompatibility with MDA-MB-231 cells. The formulated particles
      were efficiently taken up by folate receptor-positive MDA-MB-231 cells, which
      were confirmed by comparative analysis with folate receptor-negative HepG2 cells.
      The folate receptor-targeted silica-Ce6-FA was highly accumulated inside the MDA
      MB-231 cells than free Ce6. The obtained NPs produced singlet oxygen efficiently
      under 670-nm laser exposure. The cell-killing effect of silica-Ce6-FA was higher
      when compared with free Ce6 under PDT treatment. The PDT-induced mitochondrial
      damage and apoptotic cell death were detected in silica-Ce6-FA-treated cells.

PMID- 28583296
TI  - Giant paraesophageal hiatal hernia: A complex clinical entity.

PMID- 28583293
TI  - Cell-cell communication in diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - In diabetic retinopathy, high glucose (HG)-mediated breakdown in cell-cell
      communication promotes disruption of retinal homeostasis. Several studies
      indicate that HG condition alters expression of connexin genes and subsequent gap
      junction intercellular communication (GJIC) in retinal vascular cells and non
      vascular cells. A serious consequence of disrupted cell-cell communication is
      apoptosis and breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB). More recently,
      studies suggest adverse effects from HG on retinal Muller cells. This article
      focuses on HG-mediated changes in connexin expression and GJIC and their
      subsequent effects on the breakdown of retinal homeostasis, cell death,
      compromised vascular permeability, and interactions between endothelial cells,
      pericytes and retinal Muller cells in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy.
      Additionally, options for rectifying disrupted homeostasis under HG condition
      associated with diabetic retinopathy are reviewed.

PMID- 28583298
TI  - Discussion.

PMID- 28583297
TI  - The Cox-Maze IV procedure for atrial fibrillation is equally efficacious in
      patients with rheumatic and degenerative mitral valve disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the etiology of mitral valve disease (MVD), due
      to either rheumatic or degenerative pathology, influences long-term outcomes
      after the Cox-Maze IV procedure (CMPIV). METHODS: Between February 2001 and July
      2015, 245 patients received a CMIV and concomitant mitral valve procedure.
      Patients were separated into 2 cohorts based on their etiology of MVD,
      degenerative (n = 153) and rheumatic (n = 92). Patients were followed
      prospectively (mean follow-up: 41 +/- 37 months) for recurrent atrial
      tachyarrhythmias (ATAs). Perioperative variables and long-term freedom from ATAs
      on and off antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS:
      The 2 groups differed in that patients with rheumatic MVD were younger, more
      likely female, had a larger preoperative left atrial diameter, a longer duration
      of atrial fibrillation (AF), a greater percentage of longstanding persistent AF,
      and worse New York Heart Association functional class (P <= .001). Although there
      was no difference in operative mortality or overall major complications between
      the groups, the median length of stay in the intensive care unit was longer in
      the rheumatic cohort. Freedom from recurrent ATAs through 5 years was similar
      between the 2 cohorts. Predictors of recurrence included failure to use a box
      lesion (P = .012), the duration of preoperative AF (P = .001), and early
      occurrence of ATAs (P = .015). CONCLUSIONS: The long-term efficacy of the CMPIV
      in restoring sinus rhythm was similar in patients with either rheumatic or
      degenerative mitral valve disease. Despite representing a sicker patient
      population with a longer duration of preoperative AF, patients with rheumatic MVD
      equally benefit from the CMPIV.

PMID- 28583299
TI  - Arresting pulmonary atresia intact ventricular septum...only if you have to.

PMID- 28583300
TI  - Testing evidence routine practice: Using an implementation framework to embed a
      clinically proven asthma service in Australian community pharmacy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Community pharmacists are well placed and evidence clearly
      demonstrates that they can be suitably trained to deliver professional services
      that improve the management of asthma patients in clinical, economic and
      humanistic terms. However the gap between this evidence and practice reality
      remains wide. In this study we measure the implementation process as well as the
      service benefits of an asthma service model. METHODS: Using an effectiveness
      implementation hybrid design, a defined implementation process (progression from
      Exploration through Preparation and Testing to Operation stages) supporting an
      asthma service (promoting asthma control and inhaler technique) was tested in 17
      community pharmacies across metropolitan Sydney. RESULTS: Seven pharmacies
      reached the Operation stage of implementation. Eight pharmacies reached the
      Testing stage of implementation and two pharmacies did not progress beyond the
      Preparation stage of implementation. A total of 128 patients were enrolled in the
      asthma service with 110 patients remaining enrolled at the close of the study.
      Asthma control showed a positive trend throughout the service with the overall
      proportion of patients with 'poor' asthma control at baseline decreasing from 72%
      to 57% at study close. There was a statistically significant increase in the
      proportion of patients with correct inhaler technique from 12% at Baseline (Visit
      1) to 33% at Visit 2 and 57% at study close. CONCLUSION: Implementation of the
      asthma service varied across pharmacies. Different strategies specific to
      practice sites at different stages of the implementation model may result in
      greater uptake of professional services. The asthma service led to improved
      patient outcomes overall with a positive trend in asthma control and significant
      change in inhaler technique.

PMID- 28583302
TI  - Implementation of a mental health medication management intervention in
      Australian community pharmacies: Facilitators and challenges.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community pharmacists are in an ideal position to promote and provide
      mental health medication management services. However, formalised or structured
      pharmacy services to support consumers with mental health conditions are scarce.
      Australian mental health consumers indicated a need for targeted community
      pharmacy mental health services which presented an opportunity to develop an
      intervention that were integrated with remunerated professional services.
      OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to pilot a mental health medication management
      intervention in Australian community pharmacies. Pharmacists worked in
      partnership with consumers, carers and mental health workers over three to six
      months to set and support achievement of individual goals related to medicines
      use, physical health and mental wellbeing. This paper provides a comparison of
      community pharmacies that successfully delivered the intervention with those that
      did not and identifies facilitators and challenges to service implementation.
      METHODS: One hundred pharmacies opted to pilot the delivery of the intervention
      in three Australian states (Queensland, Western Australia and northern New South
      Wales). Of those, 55 successfully delivered the intervention (completers) whilst
      45 were unsuccessful (non-completers). A mixed methods approach, including
      quantitative pharmacy surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews, was
      used to gather data from participating pharmacies. Following intervention
      development, 142 pharmacists and 21 pharmacy support staff attended training
      workshops, received resource kits and ongoing support from consumer and
      pharmacist mentors throughout intervention implementation. Baseline quantitative
      data was collected from each pharmacy on staff profile, volume of medicines
      dispensed, the range of professional services delivered and relationships with
      health professionals. At the completion of the study participants were invited to
      complete an online exit survey and take part in a semi-structured interview that
      explored their experiences of intervention implementation and delivery. Twenty
      nine staff members from completer pharmacies returned exit surveys and interviews
      were conducted with 30 staff from completer and non-completer pharmacies.
      RESULTS: Descriptive analyses of quantitative data and thematic analyses of
      qualitative data were used to compare completers and non-completers. Baseline
      similarities included numbers of general and mental health prescriptions
      dispensed and established professional services. However, there was greater
      prevalence of diabetes management, opioid substitution services, and
      relationships with mental health services in completer pharmacies. Key
      facilitators for completers included pharmacy owner/manager support, staff buy-in
      and involvement, intervention flexibility, recruitment immediately following
      training, integration of intervention with existing services, changes to
      workflow, and regular consumer contact. Key barriers for both groups included
      lack of pharmacy owner/manager support or staff buy-in, time constraints, privacy
      limitations and pilot project associated paperwork. CONCLUSIONS: Insights into
      factors that underpinned successful intervention implementation and delivery
      should inform effective strategies for similar future studies and allocation of
      pharmacy mental health service delivery resources.

PMID- 28583301
TI  - The TOronto ThromboProphylaxis Patient Safety Initiative (TOPPS): A cluster
      randomised trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although venous thromboembolism (VTE) is one of the most common and
      most preventable complications of hospital stay, review of the literature
      demonstrates large evidence-care gaps for VTE prevention. OBJECTIVES: This study
      aimed to determine if a multi-component quality improvement (QI) strategy,
      including the support of hospital leadership, use of order sets, audit and
      feedback, and active pharmacy involvement, could increase the use of appropriate
      thromboprophylaxis in patients hospitalized for hip fracture surgery (HFS), major
      general surgery (MGS) and acute medical illness (MED). METHODS: TOPPS was a
      cluster randomized trial involving eight hospitals. After a baseline data
      collection phase, one of the three patient groups at each site was randomized to
      the targeted QI intervention while the other two groups served as controls. In
      the next phase, an additional patient group at each site was randomized to the
      intervention while the third group remained controls. Standardized chart audits
      were conducted to assess the rates of appropriate thromboprophylaxis use.
      RESULTS: At baseline, the rates of appropriate thromboprophylaxis were 79% in
      HFS, 43% in MGS and 31% in MED. By the end of phase 3, 89% of HFS, 65% of MGS and
      70% of MED patients were receiving appropriate prophylaxis. Improvement was
      greater in the intervention groups compared to controls (85% vs. 76% in HFS; 67%
      vs. 54% in MGS; 64% vs. 62% in MED) and this difference reached significance in
      the MGS group (p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: Use of a multi-component intervention can
      be effective in improving the appropriate use of thromboprophylaxis.

PMID- 28583303
TI  - Keap1 knockdown in melanocytes induces cell proliferation and survival via HO-1
      associated beta-catenin signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway protects cells against photo-oxidative
      stress. Yet in recent works, its role in melanogenesis together with cell
      protection functions against oxidative stress has been gaining interest. However,
      its effect on melanogenesis still has contradictory results from different
      studies. OBJECTIVE: The aims of our study were to investigate the effect of Keap1
      silencing in melanocyte on melanogenesis and its associated mechanism. METHODS:
      Primary human epidermal melanocytes and melan-a cell line were used for this
      experiment. RNA sequencing was done to identify genes involved in melanocyte
      biology using Keap1 knockdown through siRNA techniques. And melanogenesis and the
      expression of melanogenesis-associated molecules were evaluated in Keap1 silenced
      melanocyte to examine the effects of Keap1 on melanogenesis, melanocyte growth,
      and related pathways. RESULTS: RNA-sequencing data revealed that Keap1 knockdown
      in primary human epidermal melanocytes (PHEMs) induced cell survival-related gene
      expression. Additionally, siRNA-mediated inhibition of Keap1 led to upregulation
      of MITF and melanogenesis-associated molecules along with Nrf2 activation in
      PHEMs. HO-1, a major gene that is upregulated in RNA-sequencing using Keap1
      silenced PHEMs, protected melanocytes against H2O2-induced cell death and
      upregulated MITF and beta-catenin expression. Further, increased expression of
      melanogenesis-associated molecules after Keap1 silencing was validated to occur
      through HO-1-associated beta-catenin activation in a Keap1 and HO-1 double
      knockdown experiment. CONCLUSION: This work suggests that Keap1 silencing in
      melanocytes induced melanogenesis and the expression of melanogenesis-associated
      molecules through HO-1-associated beta-catenin activation. Keap1 downregulation
      in melanocytes is important for cell proliferation and survival.

PMID- 28583305
TI  - Immunogenicity and safety of a new hexavalent vaccine (DTaP5-IPV-HB-Hib)
      administered in a mixed primary series schedule with a pentavalent vaccine (DTaP5
      IPV-Hib).
AB  - DTaP5-IPV-HB-Hib vaccine is a fully-liquid, combination hexavalent vaccine. This
      phase III, open-label, multicentre study conducted in Spain, evaluated the immune
      response to all DTaP5-IPV-HB-Hib antigens when the vaccine was used in a mixed
      hexa/penta/hexa primary series. Infants (who had received one dose of hepatitis B
      vaccine at birth) received a mixed schedule including DTaP5-IPV-HB-Hib (PRP-OMP
      conjugate) at 2 and 6months of age, DTaP5-IPV-Hib at 4months, meningococcal
      serogroup C conjugate (MCC) vaccine at 2 and 4months, and routine rotavirus and
      pneumococcal vaccination. One month post-dose 3 of the mixed schedule, response
      rates were considered acceptable if the lower bound of the two-sided 95%
      confidence interval around the post-vaccination response rate was >90% for
      hepatitis B and >80% for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). Secondary
      immunogenicity objectives included description of the antibody response to all
      hexavalent antigens one month after completion of the mixed schedule, and to MCC
      antigen one month after the second MCC dose. The safety profile after each dose
      of study vaccine was described. Of 385 healthy infants enrolled, 384 completed
      the study. The primary objective was achieved for both hepatitis B and Hib; the
      lower bound of the 2-sided 95% CI of the response rates (97.2% and 99.0%,
      respectively) were greater than the pre-specified acceptability thresholds. One
      month post-dose 3 of the mixed schedule, all participants were seroprotected
      against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. The mixed schedule induced a robust immune
      response to all hexavalent antigens. The co-administration of the hexavalent
      vaccine in a mixed schedule with MCC vaccine did not reduce the immune response
      to vaccine antigens. Vaccines were well tolerated. In conclusion, the
      acceptability of response rates against Hib and hepatitis B were demonstrated one
      month post-dose 3 of the mixed schedule; robust immune responses against all
      other hexavalent antigens were observed. clinicaltrial.gov: NCT01839188; EudraCT:
      2012-004221-25.

PMID- 28583306
TI  - Developing and utilizing controlled human models of infection.
AB  - The controlled human infection model (CHIM) to assess the efficacy of vaccines
      against Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) has several unique
      features that could significantly enhance the ability to test candidate vaccines.
      Despite increasing interest in these models, questions remain as to how to best
      incorporate them into vaccine development and how to maximize results. We
      designed a workshop focused on CHIM as part of the Vaccines Against Shigella and
      ETEC (VASE) Conference. The workshop, using the World Cafe method, focused on;
      clinical outcomes, nonclinical outcomes and model standardization. Researchers
      with a variety of expertise and experience rotated through each focus area and
      discussed relevant sub-topics. The results of these discussions were presented
      and questions posed to guide future workshops. Clinical endpoint discussions
      focused on the need for harmonized definitions; optimized attack rates;
      difficulties of sample collection and a need for non-stool based endpoints.
      Nonclinical discussions centered on evolving omics-based opportunities, host
      predictors of susceptibility and novel characterizations of the immune response.
      Model standardization focused on the value of shared procedures across
      institutions for clinical and non-clinical endpoints as well as for strain
      preparation and administration and subject selection. Participants agreed CHIMs
      for Shigella and ETEC vaccine development could accelerate vaccine development of
      a promising candidate; however, it was also appreciated that variability in the
      model and our limited understand of the host-pathogen interaction may yield
      results that could negatively impact a suitable candidate. Future workshops on
      CHIM are needed to ensure the optimal application of these models moving forward.

PMID- 28583304
TI  - Transgenerational inheritance of neurobehavioral and physiological deficits from
      developmental exposure to benzo[a]pyrene in zebrafish.
AB  - Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a well-known genotoxic polycylic aromatic compound
      whose toxicity is dependent on signaling via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR).
      It is unclear to what extent detrimental effects of B[a]P exposures might impact
      future generations and whether transgenerational effects might be AHR-dependent.
      This study examined the effects of developmental B[a]P exposure on 3 generations
      of zebrafish. Zebrafish embryos were exposed from 6 to 120h post fertilization
      (hpf) to 5 and 10MUM B[a]P and raised in chemical-free water until adulthood
      (F0). Two generations were raised from F0 fish to evaluate transgenerational
      inheritance. Morphological, physiological and neurobehavioral parameters were
      measured at two life stages. Juveniles of the F0 and F2 exhibited hyper locomotor
      activity, decreased heartbeat and mitochondrial function. B[a]P exposure during
      development resulted in decreased global DNA methylation levels and generally
      reduced expression of DNA methyltransferases in wild type zebrafish, with the
      latter effect largely reversed in an AHR2-null background. Adults from the F0
      B[a]P exposed lineage displayed social anxiety-like behavior. Adults in the F2
      transgeneration manifested gender-specific increased body mass index (BMI),
      increased oxygen consumption and hyper-avoidance behavior. Exposure to
      benzo[a]pyrene during development resulted in transgenerational inheritance of
      neurobehavioral and physiological deficiencies. Indirect evidence suggested the
      potential for an AHR2-dependent epigenetic route.

PMID- 28583307
TI  - The effect of timing of influenza vaccination and sample collection on antibody
      titers and responses in the aged.
AB  - Antibody responses, B cell subset distribution in blood and the blood
      transcriptome were analyzed in younger and aged human subjects before and after
      vaccination with the inactivated influenza vaccine. In the aged, but not the
      younger, individuals we saw a clear difference in antibody titers including those
      at baseline depending on the time of vaccination and sample collection.
      Differences in baseline titers in aged individuals treated in the morning or
      afternoon in turn affected responsiveness to the vaccine. In both younger and
      aged individuals, the time of sample collection also affected relative numbers of
      some of the B cell subsets in blood. A global gene expression analysis with whole
      blood samples from the aged showed small but statistically significant
      differences depending on the time of sample collection. Our data do not indicate
      that timing of vaccination affects immune responsiveness of the aged, but rather
      shows that in clinical influenza vaccine trials timing of collection of samples
      can have a major and potentially misleading influence on study outcome. In future
      vaccine trials, timing of vaccination and sample collection should be recorded
      carefully to allow for its use as a study covariant.

PMID- 28583309
TI  - Reply to Rodolfo Montironi, Silvia Gasparrini, Antonio Lopez-Beltran, et al's
      Letter to the Editor re: Umberto Leone Roberti Maggiore, Simone Ferrero, Massimo
      Candiani, et al. Bladder Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of Pathogenesis,
      Diagnosis, Treatment, Impact on Fertility, and Risk of Malignant Transformation.
      Eur Urol 2017;71:790-807. Benign Mullerian Lesions in the Urinary Bladder:
      Endometriosis, Endocervicosis, Endosalpingiosis, and Mullerianosis.

PMID- 28583308
TI  - An epitope-specific DerG-PG70 LEAPS vaccine modulates T cell responses and
      suppresses arthritis progression in two related murine models of rheumatoid
      arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune joint disease maintained by aberrant
      immune responses involving CD4+ T helper (Th)1 and Th17 cells. In this study, we
      tested the therapeutic efficacy of Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System
      (LEAPSTM) vaccines in two Th1 cell-driven mouse models of RA, cartilage
      proteoglycan (PG)-induced arthritis (PGIA) and PG G1-domain-induced arthritis
      (GIA). The immunodominant PG peptide PG70 was attached to a DerG or J immune cell
      binding peptide, and the DerG-PG70 and J-PG70 LEAPS vaccines were administered to
      the mice after the onset of PGIA or GIA symptoms. As indicated by significant
      decreases in visual and histopathological scores of arthritis, the DerG-PG70
      vaccine inhibited disease progression in both PGIA and GIA, while the J-PG70
      vaccine was ineffective. Splenic CD4+ cells from DerG-PG70-treated mice were
      diminished in Th1 and Th17 populations but enriched in Th2 and regulatory T
      (Treg) cells. In vitro spleen cell-secreted and serum cytokines from DerG-PG70
      treated mice demonstrated a shift from a pro-inflammatory to an anti
      inflammatory/regulatory profile. DerG-PG70 peptide tetramers preferentially bound
      to CD4+ T-cells of GIA spleen cells. We conclude that the DerG-PG70 vaccine (now
      designated CEL-4000) exerts its therapeutic effect by interacting with CD4+
      cells, which results in an antigen-specific down-modulation of pathogenic T-cell
      responses in both the PGIA and GIA models of RA. Future studies will need to
      determine the potential of LEAPS vaccination to provide disease suppression in
      patients with RA.

PMID- 28583310
TI  - Robotic-assisted Radical Prostatectomy for High-risk Cancer: Time for "Sexta
      fecta".

PMID- 28583313
TI  - Re: Clonal Evolution of Chemotherapy-resistant Urothelial Carcinoma.

PMID- 28583314
TI  - Characterization of high-intensity plaques on noncontrast T1-weighted magnetic
      resonance imaging by coronary angioscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A recent study showed that coronary high-intensity plaques (HIPs)
      visualized by noncontrast T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) in cardiac magnetic
      resonance were associated with coronary events. We used coronary angioscopy to
      analyze HIP plaque morphology. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total 17 lesions from 17
      patients with stable or unstable angina pectoris were evaluated at the culprit
      lesion by noncontrast T1WI using 1.5-T magnetic resonance; of them, nine (53%)
      were HIPs and eight (47%) were non-HIPs, and all were analyzed by coronary
      angioscopy. We assessed the existence of thrombus and plaque yellow color grade
      (YG). YG was assessed visually according to a four-grade scale: 0, white; 1,
      light yellow; 2, yellow; 3, intense yellow. The frequency of thrombus was
      significantly higher in HIPs than in non-HIPs (89% vs. 25%, respectively;
      p=0.007). YG was significantly more frequent in HIPs than in non-HIPs (2.2+/-0.4
      vs. 0.7+/-0.7, respectively; p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These data indicated that HIPs
      on noncontrast T1WI were associated with the presence of high-grade yellow plaque
      with thrombus.

PMID- 28583311
TI  - Next-generation Sequencing of Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Reveals Potential
      Biomarkers and Rational Therapeutic Targets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Molecular characterization of nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer
      (NMIBC) may provide a biologic rationale for treatment response and novel
      therapeutic strategies. OBJECTIVE: To identify genetic alterations with potential
      clinical implications in NMIBC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Pretreatment
      index tumors and matched germline DNA from 105 patients with NMIBC on a
      prospective Institutional Review Board-approved protocol underwent targeted exon
      sequencing analysis in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments-certified
      clinical laboratory. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Comutation
      patterns and copy number alterations were compared across stage and grade.
      Associations between genomic alterations and recurrence after intravesical
      bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier and Cox
      regression analyses. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: TERT promoter mutations (73%) and
      chromatin-modifying gene alterations (69%) were highly prevalent across grade and
      stage, suggesting these events occur early in tumorigenesis. ERBB2 or FGFR3
      alterations were present in 57% of high-grade NMIBC tumors in a mutually
      exclusive pattern. DNA damage repair (DDR) gene alterations were seen in 30%
      (25/82) of high-grade NMIBC tumors, a rate similar to MIBC, and were associated
      with a higher mutational burden compared with tumors with intact DDR genes
      (p<0.001). ARID1A mutations were associated with an increased risk of recurrence
      after BCG (hazard ratio=3.14, 95% confidence interval: 1.51-6.51, p=0.002).
      CONCLUSIONS: Next-generation sequencing of treatment-naive index NMIBC tumors
      demonstrated that the majority of NMIBC tumors had at least one potentially
      actionable alteration that could serve as a target in rationally designed trials
      of intravesical or systemic therapy. DDR gene alterations were frequent in high
      grade NMIBC and were associated with increased mutational load, which may have
      therapeutic implications for BCG immunotherapy and ongoing trials of systemic
      checkpoint inhibitors. ARID1A mutations were associated with an increased risk of
      recurrence after BCG therapy. Whether ARID1A mutations represent a predictive
      biomarker of BCG response or are prognostic in NMIBC patients warrants further
      investigation. PATIENT SUMMARY: Analysis of frequently mutated genes in
      superficial bladder cancer suggests potential targets for personalized treatment
      and predictors of treatment response, and also may help develop noninvasive tumor
      detection tests.

PMID- 28583312
TI  - Prognostic Impact of a 12-gene Progression Score in Non-muscle-invasive Bladder
      Cancer: A Prospective Multicentre Validation Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Progression of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) to muscle
      invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is life-threatening and cannot be accurately
      predicted using clinical and pathological risk factors. Biomarkers for
      stratifying patients to treatment and surveillance are greatly needed. OBJECTIVE:
      To validate a previously developed 12-gene progression score to predict
      progression to MIBC in a large, multicentre, prospective study. DESIGN, SETTING,
      AND PARTICIPANTS: We enrolled 1224 patients in ten European centres between 2008
      and 2012. A total of 750 patients (851 tumours) fulfilled the inclusion and
      sample quality criteria for testing. Patients were followed for an average of 28
      mo (range 0-76). A 12-gene real-time qualitative polymerase chain reaction assay
      was performed for all tumours and progression scores were calculated using a
      predefined formula and cut-off values. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL
      ANALYSIS: We measured progression to MIBC using Cox regression analysis and log
      rank tests for comparing survival distributions. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The
      progression score was significantly (p<0.001) associated with age, stage, grade,
      carcinoma in situ, bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment, European Organisation for
      Research and Treatment of Cancer risk score, and disease progression. Univariate
      Cox regression analysis showed that patients molecularly classified as high risk
      experienced more frequent disease progression (hazard ratio 5.08, 95% confidence
      interval 2.2-11.6; p<0.001). Multivariable Cox regression models showed that the
      progression score added independent prognostic information beyond clinical and
      histopathological risk factors (p<0.001), with an increase in concordance
      statistic from 0.82 to 0.86. The progression score showed high correlation
      (R2=0.85) between paired fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumour
      specimens, supporting translation potential in the standard clinical setting. A
      limitation was the relatively low progression rate (5%, 37/750 patients).
      CONCLUSIONS: The 12-gene progression score had independent prognostic power
      beyond clinical and histopathological risk factors, and may help in stratifying
      NMIBC patients to optimise treatment and follow-up regimens. PATIENT SUMMARY:
      Clinical use of a 12-gene molecular test for disease aggressiveness may help in
      stratifying patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer to optimal treatment
      regimens.

PMID- 28583315
TI  - A case of eel collagen allergy.

PMID- 28583316
TI  - Formulation development and evaluation of antimicrobial polyherbal gel.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In the recent years, there has been a gradual revival of interest in
      the use of medicinal plants in developing countries because herbal medicines have
      been reported safe with minimal adverse side effect especially when compared with
      synthetic drugs. METHOD: In the present study we prepared gel formulations
      (formulations A and B) which comprised of ethanolic extract of Azadirachta
      indica, Curcuma longa, Allium sativum, Ocimum sactum, Cinnamomum zeylanicum nees
      and Tamarindus indica in a concentration of 0.1 and 0.5%, respectively in a base.
      The base was prepared by using carbapol 940, propylene glycol-400, ethanol,
      methyl paraben, propylparaben, EDTA, triethanolamine and required amount of water
      in a quantity sufficient to prepare 50g. The prepared formulations were screened
      for their antimicrobial activity by agar well diffusion technique against S.
      aureus, B. subtilis, A. niger and E. coli which are representative types of Gram
      positive and Gram negative organisms. The formulations were also evaluated for
      appearance and homogeneity, pH, viscosity and rheological studies, spreadability,
      drug content uniformity, skin irritation test (Patch test) and washability.
      RESULT: The results of the studies revealed that both formulation under study viz
      A and B showed better zone of inhibition as compared with the base. However,
      formulation B exhibited maximum activity against the selected strains which may
      be attributed to its greater amount of herbal extracts as compared to formulation
      A. CONCLUSION: Based on our research, it could be concluded that these
      formulations possess antimicrobial activity and can be used safely on human skin.

PMID- 28583317
TI  - [The French medecine pricing committee].
AB  - The French medicine pricing committee (CEPS) has to reconcile several major
      constraints, including optimal patient access to medicines and a good control of
      expenditures on reimbursable medicines. From 2013 to 2015, drug price decreases
      and discounts obtained by CEPS contributed more than ? 5 billion to the balance
      of the health insurance accounts. As for price setting, there is a significant
      drop in the prices of medicines in France once they are registered for
      reimbursement. France is affected by a limited, but costly, flow of innovative
      medicines, whose prices are higher than those of previous generations, a
      reflection of an international gradient to which France is obviously subject,
      despite prices that remain at the low end of the range in Western Europe. The
      provision of innovative medicines for all patients who need them has been ensured
      in France over the last fifteen years at a controlled cost. But with the arrival
      of new expensive products, a resolute policy of control of expenditures must take
      over from the fall in prices, and original financing channels will have to be
      explored.

PMID- 28583318
TI  - [Pharmacist's interview with type 2 diabetes: Development of a follow-up form].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Type 2 diabetes is a major public health concern because of its
      prevalence, the severity of complications and the financial implications.
      Compliance and patient's autonomy in medications intake play key roles in the
      success of treatment. Pharmacists' interviews ensure an optimized and individual
      follow-up. Type 2 diabetes is not one of the targeted diseases to perform
      pharmacists' interviews on under Health Insurance. We thus judged useful to
      contribute to their development. METHODS: We applied a cross-disciplinary
      methodological process in order to define the specifications of the follow-up
      form useful to conduct the pharmacist's interview 1 by focusing on the
      identification of a non-compliance and its origins. A feasibility study was
      carried out in order to check its workability to the pharmacy practice. RESULTS:
      The follow-up form, associated with a pharmacist practical guide, includes 3
      parts: (1) General informations, (2) Survey establishing patient's knowledge, (3)
      Summary including a level of knowledge assessment grid. Outcomes provide a long
      but appropriate-felt duration, few difficulties to conduct the interview and a
      proven usefulness in 90% of all cases that make the follow-up form suitable to
      the pharmacy practice. CONCLUSIONS: This tool could serve as a model for the
      pharmacist to conduct his future interviews for the type 2 diabetes patients,
      thus improving patient care, together with other health professionals.

PMID- 28583319
TI  - "Spot diagnosis" or "spot the diagnosis"?

PMID- 28583320
TI  - KAI1 overexpression promotes apoptosis and inhibits proliferation, cell cycle,
      migration, and invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to characterize the effect of KAI1
      overexpression on the biological behavior of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)
      cells. BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a highly malignant tumor with a
      high rate of incidence in China. Currently, there are no ideal therapeutic
      options for patients with NPC, but a targeted therapy would have great potential
      for treating it. Therefore, there is an urgent need for novel therapeutic targets
      to provide new options for treating NPC. The KAI1 gene was originally identified
      as a metastasis suppressor gene for advanced human cancer. In NPC cell lines and
      tissues, the expression of KAI1 decreased as the metastatic potential of cells
      increased, but its potential as a therapeutic target has not been elucidated.
      METHODS: Non-transformed nasopharyngeal epithelium cell NP69 and NPC cell line
      C666-1 were cultured and KAI1 expression in these cells was detected by qRT-PCR
      and Western blot. After the transfection of KAI1-pCDNA3.1 to NP69 and C666-1, the
      KAI1 expression in these cells was detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot, the
      proliferation was performed by MTS, the cell cycle and apoptosis were performed
      by flow cytometry, the migration and invasion were examined by transwell.
      RESULTS: Our results showed that KAI1 was significantly upregulated in C666-1
      cells compared to that in NP69 cells. In addition, KAI1 overexpression
      significantly inhibited the proliferation, cell cycle, migration, and invasion,
      and promoted apoptosis of C666-1 cells, but had no significant effect on NP69
      cells. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that KAI1 overexpression promotes
      apoptosis and inhibits proliferation, cell cycle, migration, and invasion in NPC
      cells. We hypothesize that KAI1 overexpression could be a potential therapeutic
      target for NPC.

PMID- 28583321
TI  - Text Message Reminders Reduce Outpatient Radiology No-Shows But Do Not Improve
      Arrival Punctuality.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess whether text-based appointment reminders are a cost-effective
      strategy to decrease patient no-shows and improve arrival punctuality in the
      setting of outpatient radiology imaging. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From July 2016
      through October 2016, all patients scheduled for MRI imaging at two outpatient
      locations were randomly assigned to a texting or nontexting arm based on the day.
      On texting days, patients scheduled for MRI received both the traditional phone
      call reminder as well as a text-based reminder of their MRI examination. On
      nontexting days, patients scheduled for MRI received only the traditional phone
      call reminder. All patients were evaluated based on whether they attended the MRI
      appointment and, if attended, whether they arrived 30 minutes before the MRI
      appointment as requested in the text message. Potential associations between the
      text reminder and examination attendance and punctuality were assessed by chi2
      test with associations considered significant at P <= .05. RESULTS: A total of
      6,989 patients were eligible for analysis, 3,086 in the texting group and 3,903
      in the nontexting group. In the texting group, 67.5% (2,083/3,086) of patients
      were successfully texted with an appointment reminder, with the other 32.5% not
      having text accessibility. The percent of no-shows was significantly decreased
      for the texting group compared with the nontexting group (3.8% versus 5.1%, P =
      .02, odds ratio 0.75, 95% confidence interval 0.59 to 0.94). There was no
      significant difference between the percent of patients arriving the requested 30
      minutes before the MRI appointment between the texting and nontexting groups
      (60.0% versus 58.5%, P = .25). CONCLUSION: Text message appointment reminders are
      an effective strategy for decreasing radiology no-shows, even in the presence of
      traditional phone reminders, but do not improve patient arrival punctuality.

PMID- 28583322
TI  - Ocular findings in patients with cholestatic disorders of infancy: A single
      centre experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Neonatal cholestasis can be associated with ocular
      findings that might aid in its diagnosis, e.g., Alagille syndrome (AGS) and
      Niemann Pick disease (NPD). We aimed to investigate the frequency of ocular
      manifestations in infants with cholestasis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross
      sectional study included cholestatic infants presenting to the Paediatric
      Hepatology Unit, Cairo University Paediatric Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. All infants
      underwent examination of lid, ocular motility, anterior and posterior segments
      and measurement of intraocular pressure, cycloplegic refraction, ocular
      ultrasonography and vision. RESULTS: The study included 112 infants with various
      cholestasis; 73 (65.2%) were males. The median age was 2months. Diagnosis was
      reached in 39 cases: 14 had AGS, 14 had biliary atresia (BA), 4 had NPD, 4 had
      post-haemolytic cholestasis, 2 had cytomegalovirus neonatal hepatitis, and one
      case had hepatorenal tyrosinaemia. Thirteen cases were probably having
      progressive familiar intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) type 1 or 2 considering
      their persistent cholestasis in the presence of normal gamma-glutamyl
      transpeptidase; 28 were left with a diagnosis of "idiopathic neonatal hepatitis"
      (INH), and 32 (28.6%) had no definite diagnosis. Ophthalmologic abnormalities
      were found in 39 cases (34.8%). The commonest finding was unilateral/bilateral
      optic nerve drusen in 12 (10.7%), followed by posterior embryotoxon in 11 (9.8%).
      Ocular findings were observed in 64.3% patients with AGS, 50% patients with NPD,
      30.8% cases with suspected PFIC type 1or 2, 28.6% infants with INH, and 14.3%
      patients with BA. CONCLUSION: Ophthalmologic findings are not uncommon among
      cholestatic infants. Ophthalmologic examination should be routinely performed,
      including assessment of anterior segment, fundus examination, and ocular
      ultrasound.

PMID- 28583323
TI  - Evaluation of the efficacy and toxicity profile associated with intraperitoneal
      chemotherapy use in older women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy (CT) for treatment of epithelial
      ovarian cancer (EOC) has been shown to provide a substantial OS advantage. This
      study aims to compare the toxicity and benefits of IP CT in patients >=70 with
      those <70. METHODS: We performed a single institution retrospective review of
      patients diagnosed with Stage IIA-IIIC EOC from 2000 to 2013 who received IP CT.
      Clinicopathologic characteristics were extracted, and survival was calculated.
      RESULTS: 133 patients were included with 100 pts. <70years old and 33 pts.
      >=70years old. Clinical trial enrollment was similar despite age. In trial
      enrolled patients, older patients received statistically fewer cycles of therapy
      (6.4 vs 5.8, p=0.002) but had similar dose delays (0.9 vs 0.7, p=0.72), and
      modifications (0.9 vs 0.36, p=0.11). Median PFS (27 vs 31months) and OS (71 and
      62months) were not statistically different. Grade 3/4 neutropenia was
      significantly worse in the older patients (82% vs 100%, p=0.04). Neuropathy grade
      >=2 and other non-hematologic toxicities were not different between age groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite completing fewer cycles of IP CT, older EOC patients had
      comparable survival to younger patients. The population of older patients
      receiving IP CT in this study were on clinical trial and likely to be heartier
      than the general older population. IP CT appears well tolerated and effective
      among select older patients and is likely under-utilized outside of clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28583324
TI  - Association of general and central obesity with hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIM: Hypertension as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease has
      growing prevalence. An increase in body weight is typically followed by an
      increase in blood pressure. This study aimed to investigate the association of
      general and central obesity with hypertension in Indonesian women using WHO and
      Indonesian classification systems. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of Indonesian
      women aged 18 years or and more (313,714 participants), using national level
      Indonesia National Basic Health Research (2013). RESULTS: The prevalence of
      hypertension in Indonesian women in this study was 32.8%. Based on logistic
      regression analysis, hypertension was significantly associated with residential
      area, educational attainment, self-reported smoking status, cardiovascular
      disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, body mass index and waist
      circumference. Furthermore, the odds of having hypertension for general and
      central obesity according to WHO classification were adjusted odds ration (aOR)
      2.61, 95% CI 2.52-2.70 and aOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.46-1.53. By Indonesian
      classification were aOR 2.21, 95% CI 2.16-2.26 and aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.45-1.51.
      CONCLUSION: By using International WHO and standard Indonesia classification
      systems, general and central obesity were associated with hypertension in
      Indonesia women. Thus, not only general obesity but also central obesity should
      be used to assess obesity in Indonesian women.

PMID- 28583325
TI  - Neuroprotective Effect of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Against MPP+-Induced
      Neurotoxicity in PC12 Cells: Involvement of K2P Channels and Stretch-Activated
      Ion Channels.
AB  - Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. It is
      characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars
      compacta. 1-Methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) is a dopaminergic neuronal toxin
      that is widely used in constructing Parkinson's disease models in vitro. Low
      intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) is a non-invasive therapeutic approach that
      has neuromodulation and neuroprotective effects in the central neural system;
      however, whether LIPUS can provide protection for dopaminergic neurons against
      MPP+-induced neurocytotoxicity remains unknown. In this study, we found that pre
      treatment with LIPUS (1 MHz, 50 mW/cm2, 20% duty cycle and 100-Hz pulse
      repetition frequency, 10 min) inhibited MPP+-induced neurotoxicity and
      mitochondrial dysfunction in PC12 cells. LIPUS decreased MPP+-induced oxidative
      stress by modulating antioxidant proteins, including thioredoxin-1 and heme
      oxygenase-1, and prevented neurocytotoxicity via the phosphoinositide 3-kinase
      (PI3K)-Akt and ERK1/2 pathways. Furthermore, these beneficial effects were
      attributed to the activation of K2P channels and stretch-activated ion channels
      by LIPUS. These data indicate that LIPUS protects neuronal cells from MPP+
      induced cell death through the K2P channel- and stretch-activated ion channel
      mediated downstream pathways. The data also suggest that LIPUS could be a
      promising therapeutic method in halting or retarding the degeneration of
      dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease in a non-invasive manner.

PMID- 28583326
TI  - Cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency: Of mice and men.
AB  - Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) deficiency (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
      [OMIM] 236,200) is an autosomal recessive disorder that is caused by mutations in
      the CBS gene. It is the most common inborn error of sulfur metabolism and is the
      cause of classical homocystinuria, a condition characterized by very high levels
      of plasma total homocysteine and methionine. Although recognized as an inborn
      error of metabolism over 60years ago, these is still much we do not understand
      related to how this specific metabolic defect gives rise to its distinct
      phenotypes. To try and answer these questions, several groups have developed
      mouse models on CBS deficiency. In this article, we will review various mouse
      models of CBS deficiency and discuss how these mouse models compare to human CBS
      deficient patients.

PMID- 28583327
TI  - 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A lyase deficiency: Clinical presentation and
      outcome in a series of 37 patients.
AB  - 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A lyase deficiency (HMGCLD) is a rare inborn
      error of ketone body synthesis and leucine degradation, caused by mutations in
      the HMGCL gene. In order to obtain a comprehensive view on this disease, we have
      collected clinical and biochemical data as well as information on HMGCL mutations
      of 37 patients (35 families) from metabolic centers in Belgium, Germany, The
      Netherlands, Switzerland, and Turkey. All patients were symptomatic at some stage
      with 94% presenting with an acute metabolic decompensation. In 50% of the
      patients, the disorder manifested neonatally, mostly within the first days of
      life. Only 8% of patients presented after one year of age. Six patients died
      prior to data collection. Long-term neurological complications were common. Half
      of the patients had a normal cognitive development while the remainder showed
      psychomotor deficits. We identified seven novel HMGCL mutations. In agreement
      with previous reports, no clear genotype-phenotype correlation could be found.
      This is the largest cohort of HMGCLD patients reported so far, demonstrating that
      HMGCLD is a potentially life-threatening disease with variable clinical outcome.
      Our findings suggest that the clinical course of HMGCLD cannot be predicted
      accurately from HMGCL genotype. The overall outcome in HMGCLD appears limited,
      thus rendering early diagnosis and strict avoidance of metabolic crises
      important.

PMID- 28583328
TI  - 3D printed tablets loaded with polymeric nanocapsules: An innovative approach to
      produce customized drug delivery systems.
AB  - The generation of multi-functional drug delivery systems, namely solid dosage
      forms loaded with nano-sized carriers, remains little explored and is still a
      challenge for formulators. For the first time, the coupling of two important
      technologies, 3D printing and nanotechnology, to produce innovative solid dosage
      forms containing drug-loaded nanocapsules was evaluated here. Drug delivery
      devices were prepared by fused deposition modelling (FDM) from poly(epsilon
      caprolactone) (PCL) and Eudragit(r) RL100 (ERL) filaments with or without a
      channelling agent (mannitol). They were soaked in deflazacort-loaded nanocapsules
      (particle size: 138nm) to produce 3D printed tablets (printlets) loaded with
      them, as observed by SEM. Drug loading was improved by the presence of the
      channelling agent and a linear correlation was obtained between the soaking time
      and the drug loading (r2=0.9739). Moreover, drug release profiles were dependent
      on the polymeric material of tablets and the presence of the channelling agent.
      In particular, tablets prepared with a partially hollow core (50% infill) had a
      higher drug loading (0.27% w/w) and faster drug release rate. This study
      represents an original approach to convert nanocapsules suspensions into solid
      dosage forms as well as an efficient 3D printing method to produce novel drug
      delivery systems, as personalised nanomedicines.

PMID- 28583329
TI  - RTD modeling of a continuous dry granulation process for process control and
      materials diversion.
AB  - Disturbance propagation during continuous manufacturing processes can be
      predicted by evaluating the residence time distribution (RTD) of the specific
      unit operations. In this work, a dry granulation process was modelled and four
      scenarios of feeding events were simulated. We performed characterization of the
      feeders and developed RTD models for the blender and the roller compactor based
      on impulse-response measurements via color tracers. Out-of-specification material
      was defined based on the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) concentration. We
      calculated the amount of waste material at various diversion points, considering
      four feeder-related process-upset scenarios and formulated considerations for the
      development of a control concept. The developed RTD models allow material
      tracking of materials that may be used for following the spread contaminants
      within the process and for batch definition. The results show that RTD modeling
      is a valuable tool for process development and design, as well as for process
      monitoring and material tracking.

PMID- 28583330
TI  - Liposomal andrographolide dry powder inhalers for treatment of bacterial
      pneumonia via anti-inflammatory pathway.
AB  - Andrographolide (AG) is a chemical entity from traditional Chinese herbs and its
      oral pills have been applied to the treatment of respiratory inflammation. Here
      we report pulmonary delivery of liposomal AG dry powder inhalers (LADPIs) for
      treatment of Staphylococcus aureus-induced pneumonia. AG liposomes were prepared
      with the injection method and then freeze-dried for preparation of LADPIs. AG
      liposomes were small and stable with a mean size of 77.91nm and a zeta potential
      of -56.13mV. Liposomes were well recovered after re-hydration of LADPIs that were
      suitable for pulmonary delivery with a mass mean aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) of
      4.87MUm and a fine particle fraction (FPF) of 23.03%. However, the MMAD and FPF
      of AG powders were 10.14MUm and 8.37%, respectively. The in vitro anti-S. aureus
      effects of AG powders and LADPIs were investigated, but were not found. They were
      intratracheally sprayed into the rat lungs for treatment of S. aureus pneumonia.
      Surprisingly, LADPIs showed a stronger anti-S. aureus pneumonic effect in vivo,
      than AG at a ten-fold dose or than an antibiotic, penicillin. LADPIs
      significantly decreased many pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-alpha, IL
      1. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of IkappaB-alpha in the nuclear factor-kappaB
      (NF-kappaB) pathway was also remarkably inhibited. AG regulated the immune
      reaction to maintain the antibacterial effect while downregulating inflammatory
      response so that AG showed a strong effect on bacterial pneumonia. LADPIs are a
      promising pulmonary delivery medicine for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

PMID- 28583332
TI  - Determination of the release mechanism of Theophylline from pellets coated with
      Surelease(r)-A water dispersion of ethyl cellulose.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the water transport over free standing
      films based on the aqueous ethyl cellulose (EC) coating Surelease(r) and the drug
      (Theophylline) release mechanism from coated pellets. It was found that the main
      drug release rate from pellets was controlled by a diffusion mechanism. However,
      the drug release rate was altered by addition of sodium chloride to the external
      release medium. A decrease in the drug release rate when sodium chloride is added
      to the release medium has traditionally been used to indicate an osmotic drug
      release mechanism. However, our findings that the release rate decreased by
      sodium chloride addition could be explained by sodium chloride diffusing through
      the coating layer into the inner parts of the pellets, decreasing the solubility
      of Theophylline. This gave a reduced drug concentration gradient over the coating
      layer and thus a slower release rate. Furthermore, this study shows, as expected,
      that the transport of water through Surelease(r) films into the pellets was
      faster than the transport out of Theophylline (approx. seven times), which was
      the reason why the pellets were swelling during the release. It was also shown
      that the drug release rate, determined for both whole dose release and for single
      pellets, decreased with increasing thickness (from 16 to 51MUm) of the coating
      layer controlling the drug release rate.

PMID- 28583331
TI  - A novel immunoliposome mediated by CD123 antibody targeting to acute myeloid
      leukemia cells.
AB  - The application of the tumor targeting antibody-mediated immunoliposomes (ILP)
      provides us a potential effective strategy for treating malignancies, such as
      acute myeloid leukemia (AML). CD123, which is specifically overexpressed on AML
      cells, plays an important role in cell cycling and enhances the cell resistance
      to the apoptotic stimuli. Given such a unique role of CD123 in AML cells, we aim
      to develop a novel drug targeting delivery system using CD123 monoclonal antibody
      (mAb) in this study. On the basis of the daunorubicin (DNR) loaded PEGylated
      liposomes (DNR-LP), a post-insertion method was applied to covalently attach the
      anti-CD123 mAb onto the surface of the liposomes to obtain the anti-CD123 mAb
      modified immunoliposomes (CD123-ILP). Immunoliposomes with different anti-CD123
      mAb density (mAb/liposomal S100PC, molar ratio, 0.06%, L-CD123-ILP and 0.14%, H
      CD123-ILP) were prepared, respectively. The expressions of CD123 in KG-1a, Kasumi
      1, HL-60, NB4 and THP-1 cells were determined by flow cytometry. The cell binding
      and uptake assays revealed that CD123-ILP was internalized into the CD123+ AML
      cells, while the MTT assay indicated that CD123-ILP had stronger inhibitory
      effect on the growth of THP-1 and KG-1a cells, in which CD123 were highly
      expressed. Furthermore, in vitro drug release studies of DNR-LP and CD123-ILP
      showed a sustained release profile for both systems, which were further confirmed
      by in vivo pharmacokinetics study of liposomal DNR in rats. In this study, we
      reported the development of CD123-ILP for the first time by our best knowledge,
      which offered a promising drug targeting delivery system against CD123+ AML
      cells.

PMID- 28583333
TI  - Dry powder formulation of kanamycin with enhanced aerosolization efficiency for
      drug-resistant tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kanamycin, an injectable agent, is currently used to treat drug
      resistant tuberculosis (TB). Parenteral kanamycin causes high systemic toxicity
      which could be avoided by direct delivery to the lungs. This study focused on
      producing a highly aerosolizable dry-powder of hygroscopic kanamycin by spray
      drying with l-leucine. METHODS: Kanamycin powders were prepared with different
      concentrations (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% w/w) of l-leucine using the Buchi B-290 Mini
      Spray-Dryer. In vitro aerosolization efficiency, particle size, morphology,
      crystallinity, surface composition, drug-excipient interaction and moisture
      content of the powders were characterized by a Next Generation Impactor (NGI),
      laser diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, XPS, ATR
      FTIR and thermogravimetric analysis. The physicochemical and aerosolization
      stability of the powders were investigated after one-month storage at 25+/-2
      degrees C/15% RH and 25+/-2 degrees C/75% RH. The cytotoxicity on Calu-3 and A549
      cells of the kanamycin powders was evaluated by MTT assay. RESULTS: The spray
      dried powder particles were in the inhalable size range (<6.1MUm). The powders
      with l-leucine were wrinkled in shape, amorphous in nature and had low moisture
      content (<5.0%). Kanamycin with 5% (w/w) of l-leucine showed the best
      aerosolization efficiency of 73.0+/-2.5%. The powders remained stable during
      storage at 25+/-2 degrees C/15% RH and tolerated by respiratory cell lines.
      CONCLUSION: l-leucine improved the aerosolization of kanamycin by surface
      modification, which may be helpful for the effective treatment of drug-resistant
      tuberculosis.

PMID- 28583334
TI  - Multivariate statistical process control of a continuous pharmaceutical twin
      screw granulation and fluid bed drying process.
AB  - A multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) strategy was developed for the
      monitoring of the ConsiGmaTM-25 continuous tablet manufacturing line. Thirty-five
      logged variables encompassing three major units, being a twin screw high shear
      granulator, a fluid bed dryer and a product control unit, were used to monitor
      the process. The MSPC strategy was based on principal component analysis of data
      acquired under normal operating conditions using a series of four process runs.
      Runs with imposed disturbances in the dryer air flow and temperature, in the
      granulator barrel temperature, speed and liquid mass flow and in the powder
      dosing unit mass flow were utilized to evaluate the model's monitoring
      performance. The impact of the imposed deviations to the process continuity was
      also evaluated using Hotelling's T2 and Q residuals statistics control charts.
      The influence of the individual process variables was assessed by analyzing
      contribution plots at specific time points. Results show that the imposed
      disturbances were all detected in both control charts. Overall, the MSPC strategy
      was successfully developed and applied. Additionally, deviations not associated
      with the imposed changes were detected, mainly in the granulator barrel
      temperature control.

PMID- 28583335
TI  - Improved respirable fraction of budesonide powder for dry powder inhaler
      formulations produced by advanced supercritical CO2 processing and use of a novel
      additive.
AB  - A budesonide (BDS) suspension was obtained via advanced supercritical carbon
      dioxide (scCO2) processing. Thereafter, the suspension was freeze-dried (FD) to
      produce BDS particles for dry powder inhaler formulations (scCO2/FD processing).
      The scCO2/FD processed BDS powder showed low crystallinity by powder X-ray
      diffraction and a rough surface by scanning electron microscopy. The respirable
      fraction of BDS was assessed using a twin impinger and revealed that the amount
      of the scCO2/FD processed sample that reached stage 2 was 4-fold higher than that
      of the supplied powder. To extend the utility of scCO2 processing, BDS particles
      for dry powder inhalers were fabricated by combining the scCO2 system with
      various additives. When BDS was processed via scCO2/FD in the presence of the
      novel additive, namely, monoglyceride stearate (MGS), the residual BDS/MGS
      particles remaining in the capsule and devices decreased, followed by an increase
      in the respirable fraction of BDS 6-fold higher than with the supplied powder.
      The scCO2/FD processed BDS/MGS particles had a smooth surface, in contrast to the
      scCO2/FD processed BDS particles. A combination of BDS and an appropriate
      additive in scCO2 treatment may induce changes in particle surface morphology,
      leading to an improvement in the inhalation properties of BDS.

PMID- 28583336
TI  - Assessing Competence in Surgical Training and Becoming a Better Educator.

PMID- 28583337
TI  - Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction-Fact or Fallacy?

PMID- 28583338
TI  - Distal Corporal Anchoring Stitch: A Technique to Address Distal Corporal
      Crossovers and Impending Lateral Extrusions of a Penile Prosthesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unidentified distal crossovers, delayed distal crossovers, and
      impending lateral extrusion are complications of penile prosthesis implant
      insertion but are not as common as prosthesis infection or mechanical failure.
      AIM: To evaluate results of a surgical technique, the distal corporal anchoring
      stitch, that addresses fixation of the penile prosthesis in patients with these
      complications. METHODS: A lateral sub-coronal incision is used on the side where
      the crossover or laterally extruding cylinder should be positioned. Dissection is
      carried through the Buck fascia, followed by a transverse incision of the tunica
      albuginea, where the distal aspect of the affected cylinder is delivered. A 4-0
      PDS suture is threaded through the distal cylinder ring of the implant. A new,
      properly positioned intracorporal channel is created and the suture is passed
      through the distal end of the channel. Once the suture is through the glans and
      the cylinder is in the correct position, a small cruciate incision is made on the
      glans at the location of the anchor stitch. The suture is tied with the knot
      buried in the glans tissue. OUTCOMES: Fifty-three patients underwent treatment of
      their distal penile implant crossover with a distal corporoplasty using this
      method and their anatomic and functional outcomes and overall satisfaction were
      evaluated. RESULTS: This technique ensured that the cylinder remained in the
      newly created, appropriately positioned channel. No patients developed
      infections, wound-healing defect, glandular hypoesthesia, anesthesia, or altered
      sensation or pain in the glans related to the suture and only two reported
      recurrence of a lateral herniation that did not require further treatment.
      CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Distal fixation of the penile prosthesis is a useful
      surgical adjunct to treating patients with prosthetic lateral extrusions or
      crossovers that can be applied in almost all cases. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS:
      Considering these rare complications, our experience is based on a relatively
      large number of patients and showed a low incidence of complications and a high
      satisfaction rate. The main limitation of this study is the retrospective nature
      of the data and the series included patients from two high-volume surgeons that
      might not be generalizable to all practices. CONCLUSION: The distal corporal
      anchoring stitch is safe and effective in securing distal fixation of the
      extruding inflatable penile prosthesis. Antonini G, Busetto GM, Del Giudice F, et
      al. Distal Corporal Anchoring Stitch: A Technique to Address Distal Corporal
      Crossovers and Impending Lateral Extrusions of a Penile Prosthesis. J Sex Med
      2017;14:767-773.

PMID- 28583339
TI  - Off-Label Use of Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitor Erectile Dysfunction
      Medication to Enhance Sex Among Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia: Results From
      the FLUX Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gay and bisexual men (GBM) use oral erectile dysfunction medications
      (EDMs) often with little evidence of medical indication necessitating their use.
      AIM: To investigate the prevalence, contexts, and motivations for oral EDM use
      and its relation to sexual risk behavior. METHODS: A total of 2,250 Australian
      GBM completed an online survey of licit and illicit drug use and their associated
      behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified factors
      associated with use of EDMs in the previous 6 months and, for those who had used
      EDMs, factors associated with use on a weekly basis. OUTCOMES: Any EDM use and at
      least weekly use in the previous 6 months. RESULTS: The median age of the sample
      was 33.0 years (range = 16-81). Two thirds (67.7%) reported no lifetime history
      of EDM use. Approximately 1 in 10 participants (11.1%) had last used an EDM more
      than 6 months previously. In the previous 6 months, 11.5% reported using EDMs
      less than monthly, 5.3% reported using EDMs approximately monthly, and 4.5%
      reported using EDMs at least weekly. Of men who had used EDMs in the previous 6
      months, common reasons cited for its use were to maintain an erection for longer
      (73.3%), to make it easier to "get hard" (67.3%), and difficulty in attaining or
      maintain an erection (53.5%). Use of EDMs in the previous 6 months was associated
      with illicit drug use and higher rates of sexual risk behavior. Weekly users were
      more likely to have severe anxiety than less frequent users. CLINICAL
      TRANSLATION: The use of EDMs in the context of intensive sex partying, with the
      associated potential for increased risk of HIV transmission and illicit drug use,
      indicates a need to consider the use of EDMs among GBM in HIV prevention and
      minimizing harm. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: This large-scale study of drug use
      among GBMs includes comprehensive detailed data on their history of use and
      rationales for use. Our online methodology potentially decreases social
      desirability bias in reporting illegal or stigmatized behaviors. This volunteer
      online convenience sample might not be representative of all GBMs in Australia.
      CONCLUSION: GBMs who used an oral EDM in the previous 6 months often used it for
      recreational purposes, but many of those who used it on a weekly basis also might
      have used it for therapeutic reasons. GBMs often use EDMs to enhance their sexual
      experiences often in the context of intensive sex partying (which can include
      risky sexual behavior). Hammoud MA, Jin F, Lea T, et al. Off-Label Use of
      Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitor Erectile Dysfunction Medication to Enhance Sex
      Among Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia: Results From the FLUX Study. J Sex Med
      2017;14:774-784.

PMID- 28583340
TI  - Perceived Sexual Difficulties and Sexual Counseling in Men and Women Across Heart
      Diagnoses: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ischemic heart disease and heart failure often lead to sexual
      difficulties in men, but little is known about the sexual difficulties in women
      and patients with other heart diagnoses or the level of information patients
      receive about the risk of sexual difficulties. AIM: To investigate perceived
      sexual difficulties and associated factors in a mixed population of men and women
      newly diagnosed with heart disease and provide insight into sexual counseling and
      information given by health care professionals. METHODS: This article reports on
      a cross-sectional, questionnaire study sent to a randomly selected sample of men
      and women newly diagnosed with heart failure, ischemic heart disease, atrial
      fibrillation, or heart valve surgery. Eligible patients were identified by
      diagnosis using the Danish National Patient Register, which contains all
      diagnoses. OUTCOMES: Sexual difficulties were self-reported using single-item
      questions, and factors associated with sexual difficulties were collected from
      the survey and national registers. RESULTS: The study population consisted of
      1,549 men and 807 women (35-98 years old) with heart failure (n = 243), ischemic
      heart disease (n = 1,036), heart valve surgery (n = 375), and atrial fibrillation
      (n = 702). Sexual difficulties were reported by 55% of men and 29% of women. In a
      multiple regression analysis, difficulties in men were associated with being
      older (>=75 years old; odds ratio [OR] = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.13-3.43), having heart
      failure (OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.16-3.71), diabetes (OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.15
      2.82), hypertension (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.06-1.93), receiving beta-blockers (OR
      = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.02-1.86), or having anxiety (OR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.34-3.80) or
      depression (OR = 2.74, 95% CI = 1.38-5.43). In women, difficulties were
      significantly associated with anxiety (OR = 3.00, 95% CI = 1.51-5.95). A total of
      48.6% of men and 58.8% of women did not feel informed about sexuality, and 18.1%
      of men and 10.3% of women were offered sexual counseling. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS:
      Heart disease increases the risk of sexual difficulties and there is a need for
      improved information and counseling about sex and relationships for patients.
      STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: This large nationwide survey of men and women combined
      a survey with administrative data from national registries. However, this study
      used non-validated single-item questions to assess sexual difficulties without
      addressing sexual distress. CONCLUSION: More than half the men and one fourth the
      women across common heart diagnoses had sexual difficulties. No difference was
      found among diagnoses, except heart failure in men. Despite guidelines
      recommending sexual counseling, sexual difficulties were not met by sufficient
      information and counseling. Rundblad L, Zwisler AD, Johansen PP, et al. Perceived
      Sexual Difficulties and Sexual Counseling in Men and Women Across Heart
      Diagnoses: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study. J Sex Med 2017;14:785-796.

PMID- 28583341
TI  - Exploring the Optimal Erectile Function Domain Score Cutoff That Defines Sexual
      Satisfaction After Radical Prostatectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) is the gold
      standard validated instrument for defining erectile function (EF) and its
      response to treatment. The EF domain (EFD) contains six questions and is a
      sensitive and specific measurement of treatment-related changes in EF. The EFD
      score has been widely used as a primary assessment end point for clinical trials
      of EF recovery after radical prostatectomy (RP). Various EFD scores have been
      used to define functional erections. Recently, an EFD score of at least 22 has
      been used as a threshold in major post-RP penile rehabilitation studies. AIM: To
      define the EFD score that optimally defines "functional" erections after RP.
      METHODS: We assessed men 24 months after RP using the IIEF and specifically
      analyzed the scores of the EFD and intercourse satisfaction domain (ISD). MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: We used two questions on satisfaction (score = 0-5) and
      enjoyment (score = 0-5) from the ISD to classify IS (score = 0-10). We tested the
      following intercourse satisfaction classifications: ISD score equal to 10, ISD
      score of at least 8, and a score of at least 4 for the ISD questions on
      satisfaction and enjoyment. We used the classification that produced the largest
      area under the curve (AUC) using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
      Then, we used a three-step process to determine the optimal EFD score cutoff
      using sensitivity and specificity analysis. RESULTS: One hundred seventy-eight
      men had an average age at RP of 58 +/- 7 years and a 24-month EFD score of 20 +/-
      9. Sixty-four percent had complete nerve-sparing surgery, 35% had partial nerve
      sparing surgery, and 1% had the nerves fully resected. Thirty-three percent had
      laparoscopic RP and 67% had open RP. The ROC curves produced AUCs of 0.80 (ISD
      score = 10), 0.85 (ISD score >= 8), and 0.86 (ISD scores for satisfaction and
      enjoyment >= 4; P < .001 for all comparisons). Using the IS criterion of ISD
      scores for satisfaction and enjoyment of at least 4 (largest AUC), the
      sensitivity and specificity values were 0.89 and 0.66 for an ESD score equal to
      22, 0.78 and 0.71 for a score equal to 23, 0.78 and 0.80 for a score equal to 24,
      0.77 and 0.82 for a score equal to 25, and 0.73 and 0.85 for a score equal to 26.
      The scores of 24 and 25 met the criteria outlined in the first two steps of
      analysis. The score of 24 was selected as the cutoff using face valid judgment
      and the previous literature. CONCLUSION: These data support an EFD score of 24 as
      a valid cutoff defining "functional" erection in men with erectile dysfunction
      after RP. These data are important for clinicians in counseling patients and to
      researchers to define inclusion criteria and treatment end points for trials of
      erectile dysfunction after RP. Terrier JE, Muhall JP, Nelson CJ. Exploring the
      Optimal Erectile Function Domain Score Cutoff That Defines Sexual Satisfaction
      After Radical Prostatectomy. J Sex Med 2017;14:804-809.

PMID- 28583343
TI  - Relational Intimacy Mediates Sexual Outcomes Associated With Impaired Sexual
      Function: Examination in a Clinical Sample.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relational intimacy is hypothesized to underlie the association
      between female sexual functioning and various sexual outcomes, and married women
      and women with sexual dysfunction have been generally absent from prior studies
      investigating these associations, thus restricting generalizability. AIM: To
      investigate whether relational intimacy mediates sexual outcomes (sexual
      satisfaction, coital frequency, and sexual distress) in a sample of married women
      with and without impaired sexual functioning presenting in clinical settings.
      METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 64 heterosexual married women with (n =
      44) and without (n = 20) impaired sexual functioning completed a battery of
      validated measurements assessing relational intimacy, sexual dysfunction, sexual
      frequency, satisfaction, and distress. Intimacy measurements were combined using
      latent factor scores before analysis. Bias-corrected mediation models of the
      indirect effect were used to test mediation effects. Moderated mediation models
      examined whether indirect effects were influenced by age and marital duration.
      OUTCOMES: Patients completed the Female Sexual Function Index, the Couple's
      Satisfaction Index, the Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women, the Inclusion of the
      Other in the Self Scale, and the Miller Social Intimacy Test. RESULTS: Mediation
      models showed that impaired sexual functioning is associated with all sexual
      outcomes directly and indirectly through relational intimacy. Results were
      predominantly independent of age and marital duration. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS:
      Findings have important treatment implications for modifying interventions to
      focus on enhancing relational intimacy to improve the sexual functioning of women
      with impaired sexual functioning. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: The importance of
      the role relational intimacy plays in broad sexual outcomes of women with
      impaired sexual functioning is supported in clinically referred and married
      women. Latent factor scores to improve estimation of study constructs and the use
      of contemporary mediation analysis also are strengths. The cross-sectional design
      precludes any causal conclusions and it is unknown whether the results generalize
      to male partners, partners within other relationship structures, and non
      heterosexual couples. CONCLUSION: Greater relational intimacy mitigates the
      adverse impact of impaired sexual functioning on sexual behavior and satisfaction
      in women. Witherow MP, Chandraiah S, Seals SR, et al. Relational Intimacy
      Mediates Sexual Outcomes Associated With Impaired Sexual Function: Examination in
      a Clinical Sample. J Sex Med 2017;14:843-851.

PMID- 28583342
TI  - Flibanserin in Postmenopausal Women With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder:
      Results of the PLUMERIA Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is a common sexual disorder
      in younger and older women. Flibanserin is approved for the treatment of acquired
      generalized HSDD in premenopausal women only. The efficacy of flibanserin for
      postmenopausal women with HSDD was demonstrated in the first of two North
      American randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials (SNOWDROP). AIM:
      To evaluate the safety and efficacy of flibanserin in postmenopausal women with
      HSDD in a second randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial (PLUMERIA).
      METHODS: Naturally postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to receive
      flibanserin (100 mg/d) or placebo. Efficacy outcomes were assessed using the last
      observation-carried-forward imputation method. OUTCOMES: Safety assessment
      included incidence of adverse events. Primary efficacy outcomes were the number
      of satisfying sexual events and the Female Sexual Function Index desire domain
      (FSFI-d) score. RESULTS: The study population (flibanserin, n = 376; placebo, n =
      369) included primarily white women (84.7%), with a mean age of 56.1 years and a
      mean HSDD duration of 5.0 years. When the study was discontinued early by the
      sponsor, 45.3% of randomly assigned patients had completed week 16 (which served
      as the primary analysis time point). The most common adverse events in
      flibanserin-treated patients were insomnia (7.7%), somnolence (6.9%), and
      dizziness (6.4%). Improvement from baseline to week 16 (last-observation-carried
      forward) in FSFI-d score was significantly greater for flibanserin compared with
      placebo (P = .011); however, the between-group comparison for satisfying sexual
      events did not reach statistical significance. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Considered
      with the findings of the previous randomized controlled trial (SNOWDROP), the
      results of this study support the safety and efficacy of flibanserin in
      postmenopausal women. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: This was a well-designed
      randomized, placebo-controlled trial. A key limitation was early discontinuation
      by the study sponsor, which decreased the sample size. In addition, the validity
      of satisfying sexual events as a primary outcome measurement in HSDD studies has
      been called into question (but was required by the US Food and Drug
      Administration as a primary end point in studies of female sexual dysfunction at
      the time this study was conducted). CONCLUSION: Flibanserin was generally well
      tolerated in this population of naturally postmenopausal women. Despite the
      greatly decreased power to detect improvement compared with placebo on the
      efficacy measurements used, results suggest that flibanserin could be efficacious
      in postmenopausal women with HSDD. Portman DJ, Brown L, Yuan J, et al.
      Flibanserin in Postmenopausal Women With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder:
      Results of the PLUMERIA Study. J Sex Med 2017;14:834-842.

PMID- 28583344
TI  - Re: Botox for Erectile Dysfunction.